------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
Today in History - Jan. 29
Bulgarian PM promises balanced solution on N-plant
DIE-IN AT ALLIANT TECHSYSTEMS
Activists Allege Local Lab Emits Tritium Pollution
Missing Los Alamos Disk Found
STATEMENT OF OHIO ORGANIZATIONS OPPOSING HB 414
Bush welcomes Karzai but snubs plea for peace-keepers
Text of Bush's Address

MILITARY
Thousands of guns still permeate Kabul
U.S. to help build military
Bush Says U.S. Will Help Train Afghan Army, Police
Hundreds drown in canal
Survey Finds Counties Unready for Bioterrorism
"Initiative" to Lease, Not Buy, Future Weapons of War
IRA arms did go to Colombia, says rebel
Europeans Tossing Terror Suspects Out the Door
Indian Leader Rules Out War
Syria Accused of Violating Sanctions
Pakistan Says It Regrets Indian Peace Terms
Pakistan Proposes Troop Withdrawal
Delayed launch is back on track
19 Soldiers Injured in 2 Incidents
Dust Cloud Causes Helicopter to Crash, Injuring 14 Soldiers

POLICE / PRISONERS
Bush Reconsiders Stand on Treating Captives of War
U.S. Is Requesting Tighter Security at Utah Olympics

ENERGY AND OTHER
Another Enron casualty: Wind power?
Panel to probe effects of irradiated mail
Viruses may help make microchips
Some Want Ban of PBDE Chemical
146 illegal immigrants found inside truck
Persecution of Christians in Turkey no laughing matter
IMF, World Bank Try to Help Afghans Stabilize

ACTIVISTS
Dr. Strangelove anniversary
At the heart of every just cause is the cause of justice
N.Y. to arrest masked protesters
Israeli Reservists Refuse Territories Duty
Activists: Peaceful Protests Planned
ATOMIC SAFETY JUDGES WILL HEAR NIRS CHALLENGE TO DUKE PLUTONIUM USE



-------- NUCLEAR

Today in History - Jan. 29

The Associated Press
Monday, January 28, 2002; 7:16 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A51690-2002Jan28?language=printer

... Ten years ago: Russian President Boris Yeltsin unveiled an ambitious plan to cut nuclear weapons spending and said his republic's weapons would no longer be aimed at any U.S. targets....

-------- bulgaria

Bulgarian PM promises balanced solution on N-plant

BULGARIA: January 29, 2002
Story by Anna Mudeva
REUTERS
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/14260/story.htm

KOZLODUY - Bulgaria's prime minister visited its only nuclear power plant yesterday and promised a decision on when to close its two older reactors that would suit both the European Union and the Balkan state.

"We all understand what Kozloduy means to Bulgaria, to its economy and its people," former king Simeon II, now Prime Minister Simeon Saxe Coburg, told a meeting of local officials.

"The government is trying to find a balance between the interests of the Bulgarian people and what Europe requires from us on the basis of obligations that have been taken by the previous government," he said.

A small group of local citizens opposed to an early closure who met Saxe-Coburg during his first visit to the Kozloduy plant carried placards demanding a national referendum on its fate. "We can do without the king but not without the station," read one placard.

Bulgaria bowed to the EU pressure in 2000 and agreed to shut down Kozloduy's two oldest 440-megawatt reactors, number one and two, before 2003.

But it is still not clear when it would close the other two 440 MW reactors, number three and four.

The Soviet-designed 3,760 MW Kozloduy plant, which has two other 1,000 MW recators, supplies 44 percent of Bulgaria's power a year. It produced 19 billion kWh last year, its highest output for 10 years.

Bulgaria opened the energy chapter in its pre-accession talks with the EU in November and hopes to close it in 2003.

According to a 1999 deal with the European Commission, Bulgaria should close them in 2008 and 2010, respectively, but in the last two annual reports on Bulgaria the commission insisted it should be in 2006 at the latest.

Most Bulgarian officials say the two reactors have been modernised to be safe and the country, which is the main power exporter in the Balkans cannot afford to close them so early.

But last week the local media interpreted Saxe-Coburg's remarks after meeting Prime Minister Costas Simitis of Greece, a main supporter of an earlier closure, as a surprise agreement to close them in 2006.

"We have taken firm international obligations to take reactors one and two out of exploitation by the end of this year and will make neccessary efforts to meet the dates of taking out of use reactors number three and four," he said then.

Local newspapers reported that when asked if he meant 2006, the former king answered: "Things are moving in this direction."

Yesterday, Saxe-Coburg said his remarks were misinterpreted.

"I only said that we will try to make every effort to take into consideration what Europe wants from us. This did not mean dates, compromises or pre-determined decisions," said.

He added that an energy strategy prepared by the government should be approved by the middle of March after which a decision on the fate of reactors three and four will be taken.


-------- depleted uranium

DIE-IN AT ALLIANT TECHSYSTEMS
Uranium-238 (depleted uranium) weapons on trial

http://www.nonviolence.org/nukeresister/nr120/nr120diein.html

On June 14, the 225th anniversary of the U.S. Army, four peace activists lay "dead" on the front entry way to Alliant Techsystems headquarters in Hopkins, Minnesota's largest military contractor. Three others outlined their bodies in red paint, symbolizing the blood of the victims - those who have suffered because of the products this company makes.

Their statement explained, "Every product Alliant Techsystems produces results in a victim. At this time in history we recognize weapons are hi-tech and the conflicts are more global in scope but individuals are still at the center, at the heartbeat.

"Individuals make the decisions to use violence as a solution and individuals are the ones who suffer and die as a result of those decisions.

"Whatever the reasons may be, we as a community are demonstrating here today in front of this weapons merchant, that there are victims - even though the results are very far away and impersonal."

The seven were arrested and misdemeanor charges have been filed against those portraying the victims, while felony charges of damage to property are pending against those who poured the "blood."

Alliant Action Trial Update

Judge Gary Larson agreed to hear the defense argument for a "claim of right" under international law at the April 24 trial of 63 people arrested for trespass last November 1 at Alliant Techsystems. Defendant John LaForge presented the primary defense in the opening statement, building particularly on Alliant's production of 15 million 30mm "depleted" uranium-238 bullets used by the A-10 aircraft in the Iraq and Kosovo assaults, in violation of international treaties and obligations. Other defendants buttressed the main argument in their own testimony, some of it as eye witnesses to the devastation in Iraq.

Larson listened attentively and then, scarcely pausing for a breath at the conclusion of the trial, declared the defendants guilty of trespass. A fine of $25 was imposed for all but ten people who served at least eight hours in jail on the day of the arrest.

In the morning before the afternoon trial, a mock trial was held in front of Alliant featuring the same defense testimony. Alliant workers who watched the proceedings declined to offer any defense for their accused employer when asked, and the mock judge declared Alliant guilty of crimes against humanity for their production of uranium-238 weapons.

For more information, contact Alliantaction@c..., or call (651)698-2810.

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

-------- california

Activists Allege Local Lab Emits Tritium Pollution
Isotope Can be Harmful

By YALDA AFSHAR Contributing Writer
Tuesday, January 29, 2002
http://www.dailycal.org/article.asp?id=7501

Although the tritium lab in the Berkeley Hills has been closed for nearly a month, community activists say the lab continues to endanger the city with radioactive emissions.

The 20-year-old National Tritium Labeling Facility, which used the radioactive isotope for medical research, lost funding from the National Institutes of Health last fall and is now set to be dismantled.

But nearby residents are worried that the site-the grounds of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory-will not be properly decontaminated. Toxic waste may be treated at the site, prompting neighbors to launch a campaign for the waste to be shipped to a different site for disposal.

L.A. Wood, a member of the Community Environmental Advisory Commission, and others were pleased by the lab's closure, though some fear it is part of a cover-up resulting from their increased scrutiny of the facility.

"Some see it as a tritium lab," said Wood. "I see a backyard garage kind of operation-only a double-wide trailer. I don't see that as high science."

Gene Bernardi, co-chair of the Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste, said the lab's research has been "subverted into a waste treatability study" with the lab testing possibilities for getting rid of the tritium waste.

Ron Kolb, a spokesperson for the Berkeley lab, said the tritium facility closure was unrelated to pressure from residents.

"Tritium, if under strict controls, isn't something to be afraid of as the emissions are absolutely safe and never a danger for people in the lab or the community, according to a study done at the facility," Kolb said.

Former member of the environmental commission Gordon Wozniak, also an employee at the lab, has computed the radiation from the lab in a year to be only ten times higher than the amount of radiation in a single banana.

[Note: Bananas contain significant amounts of potassium, about 440 milligrams per banana. About 1/100 of 1% of naturally occurring potassium is in the form of radioactive potassium-40. This means that you are eating approximately 0.04 milligrams of radioactive potassium-40 every time you eat a banana. This would result in an annual radiation dose of 0.5 mrem for every 100 bananas you consumed. - JH]

The tritium facility closed because it was unable to attract investigators from the health institutes and because researchers at the lab published few scholarly papers in prestigious journals, Kolb said.

Though some said the use of tritium was outdated and outmoded, Charles Shank, director of the lab, said tritium is a large contributor to the pharmaceutical industry.

The neutron-rich nucleus of tritium is unstable and gives off energy as it decays, allowing observation of otherwise-invisible chemical processes.

"In its almost two decades at the laboratory, the (facility) and its outstanding staff have served the nation well," Shank said. "It was an important tool for biological and medical research and provided immense value in our understanding of chemical processes in disease development and suppression."

Residents, however, said tritium's biomedical value is outweighed by safety risks, which include the threat of massive exposure to radiation around the lab should a fire consume the facility.

"The lab is a national treasure," but it's a huge local problem," Wood said. The radioactive effect of the tritium will be around longer than the lab, he said, because the hydrogen isotope has a 12.5 year half-life.

"Right now we just have to sit back and accept what they tell the community," said Wood. "But I want to get to a point that no more emissions are coming from that building."

Leuren Moret, an independent environmental scientist who worked at the Berkeley lab and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, said a 1996 study of tritium in the rain exposed tritium in the rain as far away as Albany.

-------- new mexico

Missing Los Alamos Disk Found

January 29, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Missing-Disk.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Authorities at the Los Alamos National Laboratory searched several days for a missing computer disk used by an engineer working in the lab's nuclear materials technology division, lab officials said.

It finally was found late Tuesday, being used by another scientist. It had never left the top-secret lab's secure areas, said John Gustafson, a spokesman for the weapons laboratory in New Mexico.

The disk contains some classified material, but ``does not contain highly sensitive classified data involving weapons design,'' the laboratory said in a statement issued shortly before the disk was found.

Less than a week before the latest incident at Los Alamos, federal authorities officially closed the investigation into the high-profile disappearance almost two years ago of two computer hard drives that contained top-secret nuclear-related material.

No charges were filed in that case. The hard drives were recovered behind a copying machine, although it has never been learned how they got there.

The latest incident involved a disk used by an individual for note taking, Los Alamos officials said. A periodic inventory review found Friday that the individual, who was not further identified, ``could not immediately locate'' the disk. A search of the secure area ensued.

``There is no evidence, nor any expectation, that the disk ... left security areas at Los Alamos,'' Tuesday's statement said.

Word of the missing disk surfaced Tuesday when a watchdog group in Washington -- the Project on Government Oversight -- said it received information that a search was under way for missing data at Los Alamos ``involving nuclear weapons design information.''

The laboratory categorically denied the missing disk contained weapons design data, although the part of the lab being searched includes areas involved in the manufacture of weapons components, said a government source, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The search was ordered after an inventory at Nuclear Materials Technology Division ``identified some minor discrepancies'' from previous inventories. An engineer ``could not immediately locate'' a disk the person had been using for note taking, the lab said.

The Los Alamos lab, one of three federal laboratories involved in the nuclear weapons program, was at the center of an espionage controversy for much of 1999 that involved the alleged theft of secrets by a computer scientist, Wen Ho Lee.

Lee, an American born on Taiwan, subsequently was arrested and indicted on 59 felony counts that alleged he transferred nuclear weapons information to unsecured computers and tape. The government's case crumbled, and Lee pleaded guilty to a felony count of improperly downloading sensitive material and was freed after nine months in jail. He has denied throughout the theft of any secrets.

No sooner did the Lee controversy die down than it was learned in 2000 that two computer hard drives, belonging to a group of nuclear weapons scientists in the top-secret X-Division, had disappeared from a vault as the lab was being evacuated amid threats from a raging wildfire.

Despite months of investigation, no one was charged in the case. Last week, an assistant U.S. attorney in Albuquerque, N.M., announced the case officially closed.

-------- ohio

STATEMENT OF OHIO ORGANIZATIONS OPPOSING HB 414,
THE NUCLEAR ENERGY STUDY COMMITTEE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACTS:
see signatory list below
Tuesday, January 29, 2002
From: "vcolley" <vcolley@earthlink.net>

Twelve of Ohio's top consumer and environmental organizations today announced their formal opposition to the passage of Ohio House Bill 414, which will study "the feasibility and desirability of an expanded role for nuclear energy to meet the future energy needs of Ohio and, if the committee determines it necessary and appropriate, to identify specific policies that this state should undertake to remove barriers to or provide incentives for such an expanded role."

As advocates for consumers and the environment, we strongly oppose the waste of both time and money the Ohio Legislature proposes to expend in examining nuclear energy.

No more study or research is needed. Research already abounds for this industry and the results are in: Nuclear Power is Not Clean, Not Cheap and Not Safe.

RESEARCH ALREADY ABOUNDS Billions of dollars have been invested in an industry disproportionately reliant on government handouts and ratepayer subsidies to meet its bottom line.

· According to the Congressional Research Service, federal spending on energy research and development for the half century from 1948 to 1998 focused primarily on nuclear power. In 1999 dollars, 59% of cumulative R&D spending went to nuclear.

· Despite this massive infusion of federal funds (and billions more for indirect subsidies, such as the Price-Anderson Act's limits on nuclear industry liability for accidents), nuclear power meets only 19% of our nation's electricity demands.

· Burdened with an aging fleet of reactors that is wearing out much faster than predicted, the U.S. Department of Energy predicts that nuclear power's share of electrical generation will fall even further to 7% by 2020.

· Extensive study and examinations of the nuclear industry already exist. There is no reason for Ohioans to invest more to study a failing industry.

NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS ARE TERRORIST TARGETS

· Following September 11th, early investigations quickly revealed that nuclear power plants rank high on the list of potential terrorist targets.

· Security evaluations by U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) demonstrate that nearly 50% of the country's nuclear plants have failed security tests when teams of privately contracted mock terrorists have

· repeatedly defeated perimeter security detection at atomic facilities, in some cases entering the control room with a fake gun and pretending to destroy key safety components of the reactor to simulate core damage.

· The NRC admits nuclear power plant containment structures were not designed to survive a commercial airline crash.

· While other states deploy the National Guard and call upon the U.S. Coast Guard to protect citizens from what are now regarded as top terrorist targets (nuclear power plants), why would Ohio's Legislature, in a state which has taken no government action to further protect its families, choose instead to "study" placing Ohioans in the crosshairs of an expanded target?

GLOBAL WARMING NOT HELPED BY NUCLEAR POWER

· CO2 is emitted at each step of the nuclear fuel chain, including uranium mining, milling, enrichment, fuel fabrication, construction of the reactor, transportation and storage of radioactive waste, and decommissioning of old reactors - at least four to five times above emissions from any renewable technology.

"CLEAN ENERGY" SHOULD NOT PRODUCE LETHAL GARBAGE

· Nuclear power plants produce the deadliest and longest living wastes ever created, with absolutely no technology to dispose of it safely.

· Every year a 1,000 MW nuclear generator (FirstEnergy's Perry plant is 1,250 MW) produces:

- 30 metric tons of spent fuel, which is one million times more radioactive than when it was loaded, and

- 500 pounds of Plutonium. The half-life of Plutonium-239 is 24,110 years, enough to make 40 atomic bombs.

· About 70 dry storage casks are in use at reactors, and there have already been numerous failures and defects in just the first decade of use.

· Lacking a means of permanent disposal, spent-fuel storage plans have emerged necessitating the transport of the lethal garbage thousands of miles to Yucca Mountain.

· 10,300,000 Ohio residents may be impacted by the transportation of high-level nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain. (It is interesting to note that three of the eight sponsors of HB 414 live in an area of the state where no lethal garbage will be transported). In all, it will take 25 years to transport the currently existing 77,000 tons of high-level radioactive waste, which will pass through 43 states within half a mile of 50 million Americans.

· If nuclear power use expands, Yucca Mountain in Nevada could end up with five to 10 times the amount of radioactive waste that has been set by law.

· There is disturbing scientific evidence of the adverse health effects on the surrounding community of routine emissions from nuclear plants, according to a recent report by Joseph J. Mangano, MD, of the Radiation & Public Health Project.

MORE THAN THE MARKET WILL BEAR, IT TAKES GOVERNMENT HAND-OUTS TO KEEP NUCLEAR INDUSTRY AFLOAT

· Once touted by the Atomic Energy Commission, forerunner of the NRC, as "too cheap to meter," nearly a half century later it is clear that nuclear power plants have failed the test of the marketplace.

· Today, nuclear power stands as one of the most expensive ways to produce electricity. Without ratepayer and government subsidies, nuclear power would fall from the weight of its own debt.

· New nuclear power plants cost about $1,800-$3,000 per kilowatt of capacity, while conventional or even alternative sources of generation like wind are less than half that amount.

· No new nuclear plants have been ordered since the 1970s for economic reasons, not as a result of government policy.

· Customers of FirstEnergy, owners of Ohio's only nuclear generators, have long been burdened by excessive electric rates 30 to 50% higher than the rest of the state, which often poses an insurmountable hurdle for the continuation or start-up of businesses

· Under Ohio's electric utility deregulation plan, FirstEnergy customers are paying nearly $9 billion to bail out bad nuclear power plant investments for the investor-owned utility.

· No new studies are needed to discover that nuclear is the most expensive power on the grid. Just ask Northern Ohio consumers to tell you how much they're paying on the line of their bill marked "transition costs" to get a clear idea what nuclear energy costs an Ohio family each month -- in some cases over 50% of monthly electricity charges.

"TOO CHEAP TO METER" HAS BECOME "TOO DANGEROUS TO INSURE"

· With no insurance company willing to risk the liabilities of nuclear disaster, U.S. taxpayers have been forced to bear yet another nuclear burden in the form of government subsidized insurance.

· The Price-Anderson Act, authorized to provide the insurance to an uninsurable industry, is an enormous subsidy unparalleled in any other American industry. Yet even this insurance provides an $ 8 billion cap, less than the amount Northern Ohio customers of FirstEnergy will contribute to the company's so-called "stranded or transition costs." · A government safety study estimated that a major nuclear accident could cause $14 billion in property damage alone, while other studies predict a figure up to $300 billion.

REAL ENERGY PLANNING FOR A REAL WORLD

· Instead of relying on dirty, dangerous mature technologies, Americans need faster, cheaper, safer options that emit little or no pollution, while minimizing the impact on global warming.

· The United States is the largest consumer of electricity in the world, representing more than 25% of the world's net electricity consumption. Clearly we have a responsibility to lower consumption. The fastest, cheapest and most effective way to do that is through the increased use of energy efficient technologies.

· Implementation of energy efficiency measures is seven times more effective at reducing greenhouse gases per dollar spent than is nuclear power (source: Rocky Mountain Institute).

· The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that increasing energy efficiency throughout the economy could cut national energy use by 10% or more in 2010 and about 20% in 2020, with net economic benefits for consumers and businesses.

· Efficiency is the only resource that can reduce CO2 emissions in this decade. Ohio abounds with opportunities to invest in energy efficiency measures that not only will save consumers money and reduce pollution, but will create new jobs, as well. According to the Ohio section of a recent report "Repowering the Midwest," energy efficiency investments, at a cost of 2.4 cent/kWh (far less than the cost of generating, transmitting and distributing electricity) will:

1. Reduce net electricity costs by $1.5 million by 2020.

2. Save 72,417 GWh of electricity - equal to about 25 large power plants - by 2020

3. Reduce electricity demand by 17 percent in 2010 and 29 percent by 2020.

· At 3.5 to 4.5 cents/kWh, wind-powered generation now stands as the one of the least expensive and fastest-to-build sources of electricity.

· Fully utilizing existing renewable energy technologies - hydrogen fuel cell technology, wind turbines, photovoltaic modules, solar thermal, low-impact hydro, soy diesel, and other biomass fuels - could increase generation by these renewable sources by 75% by 2030. This combination of demand reduction and increased usage of renewables would be enough to replace nuclear power by 2030.

· Diversification of Ohio's energy portfolio to include energy efficiency and the development of emerging technologies like wind, solar, biomass, low-impact hydro and geothermal, combined with a movement toward distributed generation and fuel cells, will improve electricity reliability and energy independence as the state moves away from a centralized power production at coal and nuclear plants.

ADVOCATES FOR CONSUMERS AND THE ENVIRONMENT OPPOSED TO HB 414 SIGNATORIES and CONTACTS

SAFE ENERGY COMMUNICATION COUNCIL
Christine Patronik-Holder, Ohio Coordinator
440-708-1755
660 Crackel Road
Aurora, Ohio 44202

OHIO CITIZEN ACTION
Shari Weir, Consumer Issues Director
216-861-5200
614 Superior NW #852
Cleveland, Ohio 44113

EARTH DAY COALITION
Chris Trepal, Co-Executive Director
216-281-6468
3606 Bridge
Cleveland, Ohio 44113

OHIO SIERRA CLUB
Ned Ford, Energy Chair
513-533-9244
3420 Stettinius Avenue
Cincinnati, Ohio 45208-1204

OHIO PUBLIC INTEREST RESEARCH GROUP
Bryan Clark, Legislative Advocate
614-460-8732
36 W. Gay Street # 315
Columbus, Ohio 43215

OHIO ENVIRONMENTAL COUNCIL
Kurt Waltzer, Clean Air Program Manager
614-487-4506
1207 Grandview Avenue #201
Columbus, Ohio 43212-3449

TOLEDO COALITION FOR SAFE ENERGY and
COALITION FOR A SAFE ENVIRONMENT
Terry Lodge, Convenor and Chair
316 N. Michigan St., Ste. 520
Toledo, OH 43624-1627

ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH WATCH
Stuart Greenberg, Executive Director
216-961-4646
4115 Bridge Ave. #104
Cleveland, OH 44113

LAKE COUNTY CONCERNED CITIZENS
Connie Kline
440-946-9012
38531 Dodd's Landing Drive
Willoughby Hills, Ohio 44094

CITIZEN POWER
David Hughes, Executive Director
412-421-6072
2424 Dock Road
Madison, Ohio 44057

PORTSMOUTH/PIKETON RESIDENTS FOR ENVIRONMENT SAFETY & SECURITY
Vina Colley
614-259-4688
3706 McDermott Pond
McDermott 45652

CITIZENS PROTECTING OHIO
Harvey Wasserman
614-231-0507
735 Euclaire Avenue
Columbus, Ohio 43209

--

Advocates for consumers and the environment
From: "vcolley" <vcolley@earthlink.net>

ADVOCATES FOR CONSUMERS AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Ohio Citizen Action
Earth Day Coalition
Environmental Health Watch
Portsmouth/Piketon Residents for Environmental Safety & Security
Ohio Sierra Club
Citizen Power
Citizens Protecting Ohio
Ohio Environmental Council
Coalition for a Safe Environment
Toledo Coalition for Safe Energy
Ohio Public Interest Research Group
Safe Energy Communication Council

-------- us politics

Bush welcomes Karzai but snubs plea for peace-keepers

By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
29 January 2002
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=116954

The Bush administration rolled out the red carpet for Afghanistan's interim leader Hamid Karzai yesterday - but brushed aside his call for US troops to play a long-term role in an international force to keep the fragile peace in his devastated country.

Mr Karzai said US participation in a peacekeeping force would be more than welcome. He is the first Afghan head of state or government to visit Washington since John Kennedy played host to King Zahir Shah in September 1963.

But even as he was presiding over a ceremony to reopen Afghanistan's embassy, Ari Fleischer, President George Bush's spokesman, was dismissing the idea of US peacekeepers.

Mr Fleischer said the US was totally committed to the security of Afghanistan, "but the use of America's combat troops is a separate matter, and the President is unequivocal: the purpose of America's military is to fight and win wars".

Mr Karzai held talks at the White House with Mr Bush, the high point of a crowded schedule which included meetings with the Vice-president Richard Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary. He will also be guest of honour in the House chamber on Capitol Hill tonight when Mr Bush delivers his State of the Union message, the greatest setpiece occasion of the US political year.

Despite complaints within Afghanistan about the continuing US bombing and unease about civilian casualties, Mr Karzai underlined his support for the campaign, telling The Washington Post that "the war will go on relentlessly".

His main worry is that with al-Qa'ida and the Taliban largely rooted out of Afghanistan, the US might turn its back on the country as it did after the Soviet withdrawal in 1989, with such disastrous consequences.

----

Text of Bush's Address

New York Times
January 29, 2002
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/29/politics/29CND-TBUSH.html?pagewanted=all

The following is President Bush's State of the Union address:

Mr. Speaker, Vice President Cheney, Members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow citizens:

As we gather tonight, our Nation is at war, our economy is in recession, and the civilized world faces unprecedented dangers. Yet the state of our Union has never been stronger.

We last met in an hour of shock and suffering. In four short months, our Nation has comforted the victims, begun to rebuild New York and the Pentagon, rallied a great coalition, captured, arrested, and rid the world of thousands of terrorists, destroyed Afghanistan's terrorist training camps, saved a people from starvation and freed a country from brutal oppression.

The American flag flies again over our embassy in Kabul. Terrorists who once occupied Afghanistan now occupy cells at Guantanamo Bay. And terrorist leaders who urged followers to sacrifice their lives are running for their own.

America and Afghanistan are now allies against terror... we will be partners in rebuilding that country... and this evening we welcome the distinguished interim leader of a liberated Afghanistan: Chairman Hamid Karzai.

The last time we met in this chamber, the mothers and daughters of Afghanistan were captives in their own homes, forbidden from working or going to school. Today women are free, and are part of Afghanistan's new government, and we welcome the new Minister of Women's Affairs, Doctor Sima Samar.

Our progress is a tribute to the spirit of the Afghan people, to the resolve of our coalition, and to the might of the United States military. When I called our troops into action, I did so with complete confidence in their courage and skill - and tonight, thanks to them, we are winning the war against terror. The men and women of our armed forces have delivered a message now clear to every enemy of the United States: Even seven thousand miles away, across oceans and continents, on mountaintops and in caves - you will not escape the justice of this Nation.

For many Americans, these four months have brought sorrow, and pain that will never completely go away. Every day a retired firefighter returns to Ground Zero, to feel closer to his two sons who died there. At a memorial in New York, a little boy left his football with a note for his lost father: "Dear Daddy, Please take this to Heaven. I don't want to play football until I can play with you again someday." Last month, at the grave of her husband, Micheal, a CIA officer and Marine who died in Mazar-e Sharif, Shannon Spann said these words of farewell: "Semper Fi, my love." Shannon is with us tonight.

Shannon, I assure you and all who have lost a loved one that our cause is just, and our country will never forget the debt we owe Micheal and all who gave their lives for freedom.

Our cause is just, and it continues. Our discoveries in Afghanistan confirmed our worst fears, and showed us the true scope of the task ahead. We have seen the depth of our enemies' hatred in videos where they laugh about the loss of innocent life. And the depth of their hatred is equaled by the madness of the destruction they design. We have found diagrams of American nuclear power plants and public water facilities, detailed instructions for making chemical weapons, surveillance maps of American cities, and thorough descriptions of landmarks in America and throughout the world.

What we have found in Afghanistan confirms that - far from ending there - our war against terror is only beginning. Most of the 19 men who hijacked planes on September 11th were trained in Afghanistan's camps - and so were tens of thousands of others. Thousands of dangerous killers, schooled in the methods of murder, often supported by outlaw regimes, are now spread throughout the world like ticking time bombs - set to go off without warning.

Thanks to the work of our law enforcement officials and coalition partners, hundreds of terrorists have been arrested. Yet tens of thousands of trained terrorists are still at large. These enemies view the entire world as a battlefield, and we must pursue them wherever they are. So long as training camps operate, so long as nations harbor terrorists, freedom is at risk and America and our allies must not, and will not, allow it.

Our Nation will continue to be steadfast, and patient, and persistent in the pursuit of two great objectives. First, we will shut down terrorist camps, disrupt terrorist plans, and bring terrorists to justice. And second, we must prevent the terrorists and regimes who seek chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons from threatening the United States and the world.

Our military has put the terror training camps of Afghanistan out of business, yet camps still exist in at least a dozen countries. A terrorist underworld - including groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, and Jaish-i-Mohammed - operates in remote jungles and deserts, and hides in the centers of large cities.

While the most visible military action is in Afghanistan, America is acting elsewhere. We now have troops in the Philippines helping to train that country's armed forces to go after terrorist cells that have executed an American, and still hold hostages. Our soldiers, working with the Bosnian government, seized terrorists who were plotting to bomb our embassy. Our navy is patrolling the coast of Africa to block the shipment of weapons and the establishment of terrorist camps in Somalia.

My hope is that all nations will heed our call, and eliminate the terrorist parasites who threaten their countries, and our own. Many nations are acting forcefully. Pakistan is now cracking down on terror, and I admire the leadership of President Musharraf. But some governments will be timid in the face of terror. And make no mistake: If they do not act, America will.

Our second goal is to prevent regimes that sponsor terror from threatening America or our friends and allies with weapons of mass destruction. Some of these regimes have been pretty quiet since September 11th. But we know their true nature. North Korea is a regime arming with missiles and weapons of mass destruction, while starving its citizens.

Iran aggressively pursues these weapons and exports terror, while an unelected few repress the Iranian people's hope for freedom.

Iraq continues to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror. The Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax, and nerve gas, and nuclear weapons for over a decade. This is a regime that has already used poison gas to murder thousands of its own citizens, leaving the bodies of mothers huddled over their dead children; this is a regime that agreed to international inspections then kicked out the inspectors; this is a regime that has something to hide from the civilized world.

States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger. They could provide these arms to terrorists, giving them the means to match their hatred. They could attack our allies or attempt to blackmail the United States. In any of these cases, the price of indifference would be catastrophic.

We will work closely with our coalition to deny terrorists and their state sponsors the materials, technology, and expertise to make and deliver weapons of mass destruction. We will develop and deploy effective missile defenses to protect America and our allies from sudden attack. And all nations should know: America will do what is necessary to ensure our nation's security.

We will be deliberate, yet time is not on our side. I will not wait on events while dangers gather. I will not stand by, as peril draws closer and closer. The United States of America will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons.

Our war on terror is well begun, but it is only begun. This campaign may not be finished on our watch yet it must be and it will be waged on our watch.

We cannot stop short. If we stopped now - leaving terror camps intact and terror states unchecked - our sense of security would be false and temporary. History has called America and our allies to action, and it is both our responsibility and our privilege to fight freedom's fight.

Our first priority must always be the security of our nation, and that will be reflected in the budget I send to Congress. My budget supports three great goals for America: We will win this war, we will protect our homeland, and we will revive our economy.

Sept. 11 brought out the best in America, and the best in this Congress, and I join the American people in applauding your unity and resolve. Now Americans deserve to have this same spirit directed toward addressing problems here at home. I am a proud member of my party - yet as we act to win the war, protect our people, and create jobs in America, we must act first and foremost not as Republicans, not as Democrats, but as Americans.

It costs a lot to fight this war. We have spent more than a billion dollars a month - over 30 million dollars a day - and we must be prepared for future operations. Afghanistan proved that expensive precision weapons defeat the enemy and spare innocent lives, and we need more of them. We need to replace aging aircraft and make our military more agile to put our troops anywhere in the world quickly and safely. Our men and women in uniform deserve the best weapons, the best equipment, and the best training, and they also deserve another pay raise. My budget includes the largest increase in defense spending in two decades... because while the price of freedom and security is high, it is never too high - whatever it costs to defend our country, we will pay it.

The next priority of my budget is to do everything possible to protect our citizens and strengthen our nation against the ongoing threat of another attack. Time and distance from the events of Sept.11 will not make us safer unless we act on its lessons. America is no longer protected by vast oceans. We are protected from attack only by vigorous action abroad, and increased vigilance at home.

My budget nearly doubles funding for a sustained strategy of homeland security, focused on four key areas: bioterrorism, emergency response, airport and border security, and improved intelligence. We will develop vaccines to fight anthrax and other deadly diseases. We will increase funding to help states and communities train and equip our heroic police and firefighters. We will improve intelligence collection and sharing, expand patrols at our borders, strengthen the security of air travel, and use technology to track the arrivals and departures of visitors to the United States.

Homeland security will make America, not only stronger, but in many ways better. Knowledge gained from bioterrorism research will improve public health ? stronger police and fire departments will mean safer neighborhoods ? stricter border enforcement will help combat illegal drugs.

And as government works to better secure our homeland, America will continue to depend on the eyes and ears of alert citizens. A few days before Christmas, an airline flight attendant spotted a passenger lighting a match. The crew and passengers quickly subdued the man, who had been trained by al-Qaida, and was armed with explosives. The people on that airplane were alert, and as a result, likely saved nearly 200 lives and tonight we welcome and thank flight attendants Hermis Moutardier and Christina Jones.

Once we have funded our national security and our homeland security, the final great priority of my budget is economic security for the American people. To achieve these great national objectives - to win the war, protect the homeland, and revitalize our economy - our budget will run a deficit that will be small and short term so long as Congress restrains spending and acts in a fiscally responsible manner. We have clear priorities and we must act at home with the same purpose and resolve we have shown overseas: We will prevail in the war, and we will defeat this recession.

Americans who have lost their jobs need our help and I support extending unemployment benefits, and direct assistance for health care coverage. Yet American workers want more than unemployment checks, they want a steady paycheck. When America works, America prospers, so my economic security plan can be summed up in one word: jobs.

Good jobs begin with good schools ? and here we've made a fine start. Republicans and Democrats worked together to achieve historic education reforms so no child in America will be left behind. I was proud to work with members of both parties: Chairman John Boehner and Congressman George Miller, Senator Judd Gregg. And I was so proud of our work I even had nice things to say about my friend Ted Kennedy. The folks at the Crawford coffee shop couldn't quite believe I would say such a thing, but our work on this bill shows what is possible if we set aside posturing and focus on results.

There is more to do. We need to prepare our children to read and succeed in school with improved Head Start and early childhood development programs. We must upgrade our teacher colleges and teacher training and launch a major recruiting drive with a great goal for America: a quality teacher in every classroom.

Good jobs also depend on reliable and affordable energy. This Congress must act to encourage conservation, promote technology, build infrastructure, and it must act to increase energy production at home so America is less dependent on foreign oil.

Good jobs depend on expanded trade. Selling into new markets creates new jobs, so I ask Congress to finally approve Trade Promotion Authority. On these two key issues, trade and energy, the House of Representatives has acted to create jobs and I urge the Senate to pass this legislation.

Good jobs depend on sound tax policy. Last year, some in this hall thought my tax relief plan was too small, and some thought it was too big. But when those checks arrived in the mail, most Americans thought tax relief was just about right. Congress listened to the people and responded by reducing tax rates, doubling the child credit, and ending the death tax. For the sake of long-term growth and to help Americans plan for the future, let's make these tax cuts permanent.

The way out of this recession, the way to create jobs, is to grow the economy by encouraging investment in factories and equipment, and by speeding up tax relief so people have more money to spend. For the sake of American workers, let's pass a stimulus package.

Good jobs must be the aim of welfare reform. As we re-authorize these important reforms, we must always remember the goal is to reduce dependency on government and offer every American the dignity of a job.

Americans know economic security can vanish in an instant without health security. I ask Congress to join me this year to enact a Patients' Bill of Rights, to give uninsured workers credits to help buy health coverage, to approve an historic increase in spending for veterans' health, and to give seniors a sound and modern Medicare system that includes coverage for prescription drugs.

A good job should lead to security in retirement. I ask Congress to enact new safeguards for 401(k) and pension plans, because employees who have worked hard and saved all their lives should not have to risk losing everything if their company fails. Through stricter accounting standards and tougher disclosure requirements, corporate America must be made more accountable to employees and shareholders and held to the highest standards of conduct.

Retirement security also depends upon keeping the commitments of Social Security and we will. We must make Social Security financially stable and allow personal retirement accounts for younger workers who choose them.

Members, you and I will work together in the months ahead on other issues: productive farm policy, a cleaner environment, broader home ownership especially among minorities, and ways to encourage the good work of charities and faith-based groups. I ask you to join me on these important domestic issues in the same spirit of cooperation we have applied to our war against terrorism.

During these last few months, I have been humbled and privileged to see the true character of this country in a time of testing. Our enemies believed America was weak and materialistic, that we would splinter in fear and selfishness. They were as wrong as they are evil.

The American people have responded magnificently, with courage and compassion, strength and resolve. As I have met the heroes, hugged the families, and looked into the tired faces of rescuers, I have stood in awe of the American people.

And I hope you will join me in expressing thanks to one American for the strength, and calm, and comfort she brings to our Nation in crisis: our first lady, Laura Bush.

None of us would ever wish the evil that was done on Sept.11, yet after America was attacked, it was as if our entire country looked into a mirror, and saw our better selves. We were reminded that we are citizens, with obligations to each other, to our country, and to history. We began to think less of the goods we can accumulate, and more about the good we can do.

For too long our culture has said, "If it feels good, do it." Now America is embracing a new ethic and a new creed: "Let's roll." In the sacrifice of soldiers, the fierce brotherhood of firefighters, and the bravery and generosity of ordinary citizens, we have glimpsed what a new culture of responsibility could look like. We want to be a Nation that serves goals larger than self. We have been offered a unique opportunity, and we must not let this moment pass.

My call tonight is for every American to commit at least two years - four thousand hours over the rest of your lifetime to the service of your neighbors and your Nation.

Many are already serving and I thank you. If you aren't sure how to help, I've got a good place to start. To sustain and extend the best that has emerged in America, I invite you to join the new USA Freedom Corps. The Freedom Corps will focus on three areas of need: responding in case of crisis at home, rebuilding our communities, and extending American compassion throughout the world.

One purpose of the USA Freedom Corps will be homeland security. America needs retired doctors and nurses who can be mobilized in major emergencies, volunteers to help police and fire departments, transportation and utility workers well-trained in spotting danger.

Our country also needs citizens working to rebuild our communities. We need mentors to love children, especially children whose parents are in prison, and we need more talented teachers in troubled schools. USA Freedom Corps will expand and improve the good efforts of AmeriCorps and Senior Corps to recruit more than 200,000 new volunteers.

And America needs citizens to extend the compassion of our country to every part of the world. So we will renew the promise of the Peace Corps, double its volunteers over the next five years, and ask it to join a new effort to encourage development, and education, and opportunity in the Islamic world.

This time of adversity offers a unique moment of opportunity, a moment we must seize to change our culture. Through the gathering momentum of millions of acts of service and decency and kindness, I know: We can overcome evil with greater good.

And we have a great opportunity during this time of war to lead the world toward the values that will bring lasting peace. All fathers and mothers, in all societies, want their children to be educated and live free from poverty and violence. No people on earth yearn to be oppressed, or aspire to servitude, or eagerly await the midnight knock of the secret police.

If anyone doubts this, let them look to Afghanistan, where the Islamic "street" greeted the fall of tyranny with song and celebration. Let the skeptics look to Islam's own rich history - with its centuries of learning, and tolerance, and progress.

America will lead by defending liberty and justice because they are right and true and unchanging for all people everywhere. No nation owns these aspirations, and no nation is exempt from them. We have no intention of imposing our culture - but America will always stand firm for the non-negotiable demands of human dignity: the rule of law, limits on the power of the state, respect for women, private property, free speech, equal justice, and religious tolerance.

America will take the side of brave men and women who advocate these values around the world - including the Islamic world - because we have a greater objective than eliminating threats and containing resentment. We seek a just and peaceful world beyond the war on terror.

In this moment of opportunity, a common danger is erasing old rivalries. America is working with Russia, China, and India in ways we never have before to achieve peace and prosperity. In every region, free markets and free trade and free societies are proving their power to lift lives. Together with friends and allies from Europe to Asia, from Africa to Latin America, we will demonstrate that the forces of terror cannot stop the momentum of freedom.

The last time I spoke here, I expressed the hope that life would return to normal. In some ways, it has. In others, it never will. Those of us who have lived through these challenging times have been changed by them. We've come to know truths that we will never question: Evil is real, and it must be opposed. Beyond all differences of race or creed, we are one country, mourning together and facing danger together. Deep in the American character, there is honor, and it is stronger than cynicism. And many have discovered again that even in tragedy - especially in tragedy - God is near.

In a single instant, we realized that this will be a decisive decade in the history of liberty - that we have been called to a unique role in human events. Rarely has the world faced a choice more clear or consequential.

Our enemies send other people's children on missions of suicide and murder. They embrace tyranny and death as a cause and a creed. We stand for a different choice - made long ago, on the day of our founding. We affirm it again today. We choose freedom and the dignity of every life.

Steadfast in our purpose, we now press on. We have known freedom's price. We have shown freedom's power. And in this great conflict, my fellow Americans, we will see freedom's victory.

Thank you all, may God bless.


-------- MILITARY

-------- afghanistan

Thousands of guns still permeate Kabul

By Malcolm Garcia
Knight Ridder Newspapers
Tuesday, January 29, 2002
http://www.krwashington.com/content/krwashington/2002/01/29/world/BC_ATTACKS_AFGHANGUNS_WA_foreign_national.htm

KABUL, Afghanistan - Mohammed Rahim sat in the back of his car near the U.S. Embassy last week offering to sell Russian-made army pistols and rifles. He buys them in Kabul for about $50 each and sells them for $300. He recently sold a gun to a policeman, he said, and he routinely sells about 10 guns a week.

"I buy from anyone who wants to sell," said Rahim, 36. "Then I sell what I buy and take my profit. I have a lot of customers."

After more than 23 years of war, there are thousands of military weapons in Kabul despite a government order earlier this month for armed men to leave the streets or risk jail. While most weapons have been driven either out of the city or underground, access to them remains relatively simple, vastly complicating the government's efforts to restore a sense of civil security.

People hang on to guns to protect themselves, police don't have the means to enforce the law and there is a ready supply of weapons from soldiers trying to raise cash to support themselves in the absence of salaries.

Khwaja Ahmadulla, an administrator at Kabul Governorship Prison, compared Afghanistan to a giant military base: "You can find a gun in each house. Even shopkeepers have a gun."

United Nations spokesman Ahmad Fawzi called the proliferation of weapons "tremendous. There's no doubt about it. It has to be brought under control."

No one knows how many guns are in Afghanistan. They include Soviet-designed firearms, mines, rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns. The United States and other Western nations contributed to the glut by supporting arms sales to Afghanistan in the 1980s to thwart Soviet expansion.

Niamatullah Jalili, chief intelligence officer in the Ministry of the Interior, said the interim government soon would issue identification cards to people who are authorized to use guns. Those found carrying weapons without the cards would be arrested. A door-to-door search for guns in all 10 districts of Kabul also was under consideration.

"If security concerns are relieved and people have faith that the weapons will be destroyed, canvassing neighborhoods is not a bad idea," said Robert Scharf, small arms program manager for the United Nations Development Program. "You'll never get them all out, but you can take a big step."

Rahim, who has been selling weapons since 1988, scoffed at the idea.

"House checks won't work," he said. "There are many, many guns. Someone may have 10, 20, 100 guns in their house. They'll give one to the policeman and get a receipt to say they have turned in their guns."

For now, the police don't have the equipment to search neighborhoods. Mohammad Haskaryar, commander of the police academy in Kabul, recently submitted a supply list to the United Nations that included uniforms, pistols, vehicles, flashlights, handcuffs, phones, gas masks, machine guns to fight criminals with military weapons and other items.

"Afghanistan is in a bad situation," Haskaryar said. "You know police officers in Iran and Pakistan are equipped. Here we have nothing. Those guys, people with guns, are not supposed to enter Kabul, but we are not in a position to stop them."

Some of "those guys" are northern alliance soldiers who haven't been paid since July. Many have resorted to taking part-time jobs and selling their weapons to make money. Others have taken to crime.

Last week, police arrested three soldiers who were accused of kidnapping suspected former Taliban for ransom.

"We caught a Taliban and the police stopped us. We said why, and he said, `You are kidnappers,'" Ghul Agha, 29, said from Kabul Governorship Prison, where he and two other soldiers shared a cell. "We are with the northern alliance. We want to capture Taliban in Kabul. Maybe we make some money too. But we only want Taliban."

Scharf was not surprised that soldiers were involved in illegal activities. He said jobs must follow the removal of weapons. Otherwise the soldiers become idle and turn back to weapons to earn a livelihood.

"The trick is not to linger between removing weapons and providing jobs and reintegrating them into the community," he said.

Northern alliance commander Mohammad Mirjan said his troops have not been paid in months They have taken part-time jobs and were unable to devote themselves full time to their duties.

"Some drive taxis," Mirjan said from his home in Kabul. "Some continue to farm. Some sell petrol. It is unfortunate."

Just 60 miles outside Kabul, northern alliance soldiers barter their weapons in a market bazaar in Tokhchy Village only minutes from Bagram airbase, where American and Afghan forces provide security.

Crowds mobbed the dusty clay street this week bartering for spices, clothes and fabric in stalls of burlap and wood poles. Three rocket-propelled grenades were strapped to a motorcycle outside Rahim Tea Shop. Northern alliance soldiers displayed their weapons inside.

"If you want, I'll sell it to you for $100," said Biader Adha, 28, who was seated on a wooden plank holding a Russian Kalashnikov assault rifle. He said he had more than 30 guns for sale. "That price is good. The going rate is $200." Adha said that when he sold one gun, his commanders issued him another.

----

U.S. to help build military

By Joseph Curl
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
January 29, 2002
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20020129-509877.htm

The United States will help Afghanistan build a military and train soldiers rather than devote U.S. forces there as part of a multinational peacekeeping force, President Bush said yesterday.

In a Rose Garden event with interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai, the president also announced a $50 million line of credit to the war-ravaged country to fund U.S. private-sector projects. In addition, the United States released $223 million in frozen assets to the Afghanistan Interim Authority.

"I have just made in my remarks here a significant change of policy, and that is that we're going to help Afghanistan develop her own military," Mr. Bush said. "Better yet than peacekeepers, which will be there for a while with our help, let's have Afghanistan have her own military."

Mr. Karzai, who is leading Afghanistan until a new government is selected in June, said his country is committed to routing Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terror forces.

"We will not allow terrorism to return. Therefore, this joint struggle against terrorism should go to the absolute end of it. We must finish them. We must bring them out of their caves and their hide-outs. And we promise we'll do that," Mr. Karzai said.

As for the whereabouts of bin Laden, he said: "We are looking for him. He is a fugitive. If we find him, we'll catch him. ... He's ruined our country."

Before his visit to the United States - the first by an Afghan leader in 39 years - Mr. Karzai had expressed hope that U.S. forces would remain in his county as part of any peacekeeping force.

But Mr. Bush has ruled out such a direct role. Yesterday, he said the United States would support a multinational security force and would stand ready to help if Afghan troops "get in trouble."

"We will help the new Afghan government provide the security that is the foundation for peace," Mr. Bush said. "Today, peacekeepers from around the world are helping provide security on the streets of Kabul. The United States will continue to work closely with these forces and provide support for their mission."

The president said Gen. Tommy Franks, head of U.S. forces in the region, "fully understands this and is fully committed to this idea."

The United States also will support programs to train Afghan police officers, he said.

"I reaffirm to you today that the United States will continue to be a friend to the Afghan people in all the challenges that lie ahead," Mr. Bush said.

In addition to money to establish a military, the United States will spend nearly $300 million already approved by Congress to "reconstruct" Afghanistan, which has been torn by war for more than 20 years. Part of the package is $122 million in food assistance, which includes $45 million to feed students, teachers and workers.

The White House also said Washington would provide $84 million for disaster assistance to rebuild agriculture, improve health care and stem the opium drug trade.

The package also includes $52.6 million for refugee assistance, $17 million for projects in the political and security sectors and $3 million for job and technical-assistance programs.

Afghanistan's reconstruction efforts also will receive aid from the World Bank, along with foreign governments and international donors who at a Tokyo summit last week pledged $4.5 billion over the next five years.

Earlier yesterday, Mr. Karzai watched as his nation's black, red and green flag was raised for the first time in five years above the Afghan Embassy in Washington, which was undergoing renovations. The interim government adopted the design of the flag on Saturday; the one raised at the embassy was stitched together during the weekend by two Afghan women living in Virginia.

"It's a thrilling moment for us to have Afghanistan recognized again as a nation-state, as a government," Mr. Karzai said. "This flag and the ceremony today is raised not without costs; without the costs of having struggled for many years, without the costs of having lost so many lives in order to have a free, sovereign and good Afghanistan.

"Let's hope that this flag will be there forever, and that the partnership between the American and Afghan people will be forever," he said.

Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage saw a message in the unseasonably warm winter day.

"The warmth of the day is a harbinger of the warmth of the relationships which are going to develop between the United States and Afghanistan," he said.

In his Rose Garden remarks, Mr. Karzai thanked "the American people for the great help that we were given to liberate our country once again, this time from terrorism from the Taliban.

"The Afghan people recognize this help. They know that without this help we would have still probably been under that rule," said Mr. Karzai, clad in a bright green cape and goatskin cap.

The interim ruler said his country desperately needed U.S. help to rebuild but vowed that Afghanistan "will stand eventually on its own feet."

"We'll be self-reliant." he said. "We'll do good in business. We'll be a strong country."

Mr. Karzai also said his people understood the agony of the September 11 terror attacks and therefore knew that the war against the Taliban must continue.

"We know that pain. We understand it. Our families know that pain," he said.

Mr. Karzai is scheduled to be a guest of honor when Mr. Bush delivers his State of the Union address tonight. The Afghan leader also is scheduled to visit the ruins of the World Trade Center in New York and address the U.N. Security Council before returning home.

----

Bush Says U.S. Will Help Train Afghan Army, Police
Karzai's Appeal for Increased Role in Peacekeeping Rejected

By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 29, 2002; Page A08
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A51534-2002Jan28?language=printer

President Bush announced yesterday that the United States would help establish and train a new Afghan army and police force, and would "bail out" the current multinational peacekeeping force helping to keep the peace there "if the troops get in trouble." But the administration deflected appeals from interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai for U.S. participation in a vastly expanded multinational force.

The administration has ruled out a direct U.S. role in Afghan peacekeeping. Current members of the British-led multinational force have said that even if they wanted to expand significantly their efforts, it would be logistically and politically impossible without U.S. participation.

American and foreign officials said that no specific plans have yet been drawn up to train an eventual national military force in Afghanistan, although Gen. Tommy Franks, head of the U.S. Central Command, "has come back and said we can help these guys," said one official.

Early discussions in Washington and European capitals, and at NATO headquarters in Brussels, have envisioned intensive army training in Afghanistan by U.S. and British Special Forces, with Germany taking charge of police-training efforts.

In a Rose Garden appearance marking Karzai's first official visit to Washington since taking office last month, Bush said, "The United States is committed to playing a leading role in the reconstruction of Afghanistan."

In addition to $297 million in food, development and refugee aid this year, he announced that the Overseas Private Investment Corporation would finance an initial $50 million line of credit to promote U.S. private-sector investment.

Standing side by side in the warm afternoon sun, the two leaders thanked and congratulated each other for the routing of Afghanistan's Taliban government, disruption of the al Qaeda terrorist network and installation of the new administration in Kabul.

"I assure you, Mr. President, that Afghanistan, with your help and the help of other countries, friends, will be strong and will stand eventually on its own feet," Karzai said as Cabinet members and senior advisers from both governments looked on. "It will be a country that will defend its borders and not allow terrorism to return to it or bother it or trouble it."

But in closed-door meetings with Bush and his top national security advisers, the Afghans focused on growing concerns that the interim government will not be able to establish the internal security necessary to allow development programs to take root, persuade foreign investors and technical experts -- including thousands of Afghan exiles -- that the country is safe, and convince its own citizens that the government is in control.

Even as U.S. air and ground forces continue efforts to apprehend Taliban and al Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden, and to wipe out remaining pockets of resistence, regional warlords have begun reasserting control and settling old scores against each other. Banditry is widespread and roads are unsafe. International aid agencies have publicly warned that lawlessness and insecurity are hampering delivery of badly needed humanitarian supplies to many parts of the country.

The Northern Alliance, a loose coalition of warlord-led armies that fought against the Taliban, has become the de facto military force in Kabul since the Taliban fled, and Northern Alliance leader Mohammed Fahim is defense minister in Karzai's interim administration. Southern Afghan leaders, including Karzai, had warned the Bush administration against allowing Northern Alliance troops to seize control of the capital.

Karzai has made no secret of his desire to expand the multinational force, currently about 3,000 British-led troops in and around Kabul, to as many as 30,000 troops distributed throughout Afghanistan, and to extend its six-month United Nations mandate. Turkey is scheduled to take over command of the force in April for its final three months.

A joint communiqué released by the White House after an Oval Office meeting between the two leaders yesterday acknowledged that "Chairman Karzai asked President Bush, on behalf of the Afghan people, to consider supporting an extension and expansion of the ISAF" -- the International Security Assistance Force.

After more appearances in Washington today, the Afghan leader will travel to New York, where U.N. diplomats expect him on Wednesday to deliver a direct appeal to the Security Council to send thousands more international troops to all corners of Afghanistan. His request has the support of a number of U.N. officials, including Lakhdar Brahimi, the Secretary General's special envoy to Afghanistan.

But Bush went out of his way yesterday to emphasize his enthusiasm for the training alternative. "We are committing help to the ISAF in the form of logistical help; in the form of a kind of bailout if the troops get in trouble . . . in the form of intelligence," he said in response to a question as Karzai stood silently at his side.

"Plus, I have just made in my remarks here a significant change of policy," Bush said in reference to the statement he had just delivered, "and that is that we're going to help Afghanistan develop her own military. That is the most important part of this visit, it seems to me, beside the fact of welcoming a man who . . . stood for freedom in the face of tyranny.

"We have made a decision -- both of us have made the decision -- that Afghanistan must, as quickly as possible, develop her own military. And we will help," Bush said. "We'll help train . . . and Tommy Franks, our general, fully understands this and is fully committed to this idea. So better yet than peacekeepers, which will be there for a while, with our help, let's have Afghanistan have her own military."

There is general agreement on the need to prevent Afghanistan from sliding back into the lawlessness among warring fiefdoms that led many Afghans initially to embrace the harsh order imposed after the 1996 Taliban takeover. But there is little certainty at the moment on how to accomplish that, and widespread recognition that time is growing short.

Karzai is due to be replaced at the end of June by a two-year representative tribal government leading to general elections. That is the same time the multinational force is due to depart.

"We don't want to create a dependency" on foreign forces to keep the peace in Afghanistan, one senior administration official said. "On the other hand, we want to make sure that this project doesn't fail."

Staff writer Peter Slevin and special correspondent Colum Lynch at the United Nations contributed to this report.

-------- africa

Hundreds drown in canal

By Glenn McKenzie
ASSOCIATED PRESS
January 29, 2002
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20020129-23117938.htm

LAGOS, Nigeria - Onlookers wept and wailed as bodies were pulled out of a canal in Nigeria's largest city yesterday after hundreds drowned while trying to flee explosions at an army weapons depot.

Many victims apparently didn't realize how deep the water was and drowned when they ran and drove vehicles into the Oke Afa drainage canal in Lagos, witnesses said. They were fleeing explosions at the city's Ikeja military base, which propelled shrapnel for miles Sunday night.

Rescue volunteer Ben Nwachukwu said more than 200 bodies were pulled from one part of the canal. Other volunteers said the death toll could be much higher, but getting an accurate count was difficult - in part because the current was carrying bodies downstream. Authorities issued no official death count.

[Reuters news agency said more than 500 bodies were retrieved from canals, quoting soldiers and rescue workers who said they had pulled between 200 and 300 bodies from the Pako canal alone.]

[Agence France-Press said state-run Radio Nigeria broke into its evening broadcasts to announce a confirmed death toll of more than 600. The agency said hospital sources and witnesses earlier had put the number at well over 580, most of them children.]

Many children were separated from their families during Sunday night's panic, said Lagos State Police Commissioner Mike Okiro. He said some children were being cared for at police stations until their families could be located.

Army spokesman Col. Felix Chukwumah said the explosions began when a fire spread to the depot, which was surrounded by crowded slums and working-class neighborhoods. He did not know how the fire started, but a police officer said Sunday it began at a nearby gas station.

State and military officials said the fire was accidental and not an indication of military unrest. Dozens of blasts sent fireballs towering over this city of 12 million and shattered windows six miles away at the international airport.

Rescue workers and volunteers in canoes used long poles to search for corpses in the canal in the northern neighborhood of Isolo, five miles from the weapons depot.

-------- biological weapons

Survey Finds Counties Unready for Bioterrorism
Official Says More Federal Aid Needed

By Bill Miller
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 29, 2002; Page A02
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50952-2002Jan28.html

Most of the nation's county public health departments are not adequately prepared to respond to a biological or chemical terrorist attack, with the biggest deficiencies found in small communities and rural areas, according to a survey released yesterday.

"Many departments are so under-funded, understaffed and under-trained that they are not ready to effectively handle a major crisis," said Javier Gonzales, president of the National Association of Counties, which commissioned the survey.

The study, which involved 300 of the nation's 3,066 counties, highlights the need for federal assistance in dealing with the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, the anthrax outbreak and the potential for additional terrorist strikes, Gonzales said.

Only 9.7 percent of the counties said they were fully prepared to deal with a biological attack and only 5 percent said they were ready to handle public health needs arising from the use of chemical weapons, Gonzales said.

Although most county health departments had taken some steps to get ready, 21 percent reported they weren't prepared at all for a bioterrorism crisis, and 43 percent said they weren't prepared at all for chemical warfare, he said.

Most counties also reported having inadequate policies to enforce quarantines.

"This is a terrible situation," Gonzales, a county commissioner from Santa Fe, N.M., told an audience at the National Press Club. "Improvements must be made immediately, and a long-term plan for rebuilding the system must be developed," he said.

Congress approved a bioterrorism funding package that includes $865 million this year for state and local health departments.

President Bush plans to include $6 billion for bioterrorism prevention overall in the budget for fiscal 2003, but officials have not said how much of that money will reach states, cities and counties.

Gonzales also called on the Bush administration to sell "homeland security bonds" and offer a $1 income tax checkoff on federal returns whose proceeds would go to state and local governments.

-------- business

Pentagon Panel Studying "Initiative" to Lease, Not Buy, Future Weapons of War

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 29, 2002
Contact: Eric Miller or Beth Daley (202) 347-1122
http://www.pogo.org/mici/c17/leasenotbuy.htm

The Pentagon is working behind-the-scenes to develop a broad proposal to lease, rather than buy, many weapons systems.

"This plan would be a new low in offering sweetheart deals for defense contractors at the expense of taxpayers," said POGO Executive Director Danielle Brian. "The Pentagon isn't even trying to pretend it's getting a good deal for the taxpayers anymore."

The proposal was first revealed publicly in a January 26 story in the National Journal, written by George Wilson. The plan is outlined in a November 1, 2001 memo written to the secretaries and commanders in chief of all branches of the service by Pentagon Acquisitions Chief Edward "Pete" Aldridge and Defense Department Comptroller Dov Zakheim.

It calls for essentially eliminating several existing legal restrictions placed on multi-year leases for weapons systems, aircraft, and ships, intended to make sure leases aren't more expensive than outright purchases. The Aldridge-Zakheim memo refers to such protections as "statutory and regulatory impediments."

The new proposal could make routine controversial deals like one recently approved by Congress that permits the U.S. Air Force to lease 100 Boeing 767s for conversion into military tanker aircraft.

The tanker lease plan, made public by POGO in December 2001, was estimated to cost $26 billion. It was opposed by Mitchell Daniels, Jr., Director, Office of Management and Budget, because he had concerns that it would circumvent federal rules designed to block leasing abuses.

The B-767 deal was also criticized by Senators John McCain, R-Arizona, and Phil Gramm, R-Texas. McCain called it the "envy of the corporate lobbyists," and said it would mean the government would pay as much or more to use the aircraft for 10 years, when they could have a life span of 30 or 40 years if they were purchased outright. Gramm, a strong supporter of the U.S. military, called the Boeing deal the worst case of Congressional pork he'd seen in his 22 years in Congress.

The Aldridge-Zakheim memo said the Pentagon is establishing a Leasing Review Panel which could recommend changes ranging from the repeal of legal limits upon the length of leases to changing budget score-keeping rules for leases.

-------- colombia

IRA arms did go to Colombia, says rebel

By Arifa Akbar 29 January 2002
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=116997

The Northern Ireland peace process was thrown into jeopardy last night, according to hardline unionists, because a guerrilla deserter claimed that IRA members had provided weapons and training with explosives to Colombian rebels.

According to the attorney general's office in the Colombian capital, Bogota, the deserter said that the three Irish men who are being held in the South American country had smuggled missiles and launchers on to two small planes more than two years ago.

The arrest of three alleged IRA men in Colombia last year on suspicion that they were providing explosives training for the Marxist group, FARC, injured efforts to cement Northern Ireland's peace process.

However, the three detained men, Niall Connolly, James Monaghan and Martin McCauley, insist they had visited the rebel sanctuary to study Colombia's peace process. The testimony of the deserter, identified only as "Alexander" for security reasons, to officials from the attorney general's office, and first reported today in the news magazine, Cambio, rejects this supposed alibi.

Peter Robinson, deputy leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, said: "This has done immense damage to the peace process."

The Colombian army's chief, Jorge Enrique Mora, said he believed Colombia's biggest rebel army had terrorism training from foreign groups and the insurgents had used the techniques in recent attacks on Colombia's infrastructure.

FARC has blown up dozens of power pylons in recent weeks, and have caused electricity rationing in some parts.

-------- europe

Europeans Tossing Terror Suspects Out the Door

By Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, January 29, 2002; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A51468-2002Jan28?language=printer

KARLSTAD, Sweden -- On the afternoon of Dec. 18, Ahmed Hussein Agaiza, 39, an Egyptian dissident living in Sweden, set out on foot for a language class, unaware that an Egyptian government airplane had landed in the Swedish capital to take him home against his will. Near the school, Swedish police grabbed Agaiza, who had been sentenced in absentia in Egypt to 25 years of hard labor on charges of taking part in an armed attack on the Egyptian Embassy in Pakistan.

A few hours later in Stockholm, Muhammad Zari, another Egyptian asylum-seeker facing years in prison in his home country on charges of belonging to an Islamic terrorist group, was on the phone with his attorney, Kjell Jonsson. The attorney heard a strange voice on the other end say "hang up," and the line suddenly went dead.

At about the same time, Agaiza's wife, Hanan Khaleq, called a local office of Amnesty International to say that a Swedish police officer had come to their home to pick up medicine for her husband's peptic ulcer. What was going on? Khaleq was frantic: Could the government be planning to send him back to Egypt? That's not possible, came the reply.

This, after all, was Sweden, a country with a long tradition of sheltering political refugees, even those accused of terrorist acts in their home countries. But in fact, Agaiza and Zari had already been put aboard the waiting plane, and by early the next morning they were back in Egypt, the country they had fled 10 years earlier. Both men deny the terrorism charges.

Even as European governments criticize the United States for its treatment of Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, they are showing new willingness to expel terror suspects to countries that were previously shunned because of records of torture and execution. Human rights groups contend that these moves, sometimes done with minimal court proceedings, can violate local law and international treaties, a claim the governments contest.

France has expelled Islamic radicals to Algeria, and an Austrian court, reversing a decision made before Sept. 11, has ordered the extradition of an Egyptian facing jail time at home for Islamic activism. Britain and Denmark are moving to tighten their asylum laws, and Germany has approved legislation that makes deportation easier and allows the state to rescind asylum previously granted to refugees.

Otto Schily, Germany's interior minister, said in an interview that he would gladly return suspects to such countries as Egypt, Algeria and Turkey if he could get guarantees, until now not forthcoming, that they would not face the death penalty.

"They have to give . . . the confirmation that the death penalty will not be executed," he said, speaking of a request by Egypt for the return of a man accused of murder who was granted asylum in Germany.

"If they do, then we send him back," said Schily, brushing one hand against the other for emphasis.

Sweden's lightning-fast expulsion of the two Egyptians followed a government decision based on secret testimony by the Swedish security police. It happened so quickly that their attorneys were unable to lodge emergency appeals at the European Court of Human Rights, which hears such cases.

"I was not informed of the government's decision until my client was already in prison in Egypt," Jonsson said at his Stockholm office. "I could never imagine that the Swedish government would do this."

It was one of the clearest signs of the changed political climate in Europe following the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States. "We had very clear indications that these individuals had leadership positions in organizations involved with terrorist acts," Gun-Britt Andersson, Swedish state secretary for development cooperation and migration policy, said in an interview. "And the seriousness of these cases was underlined by the events of the 11th of September."

The Swedish ambassador to Egypt met with Agaiza on Wednesday -- the prisoner's first meeting with an outsider since his return -- and officials in Stockholm said he appeared to speak freely and showed no signs of ill treatment. But Amnesty International in Stockholm said that before the meeting, Agaiza was held in isolation and tortured, the Swedish media reported Friday. The reports said he now has difficulty walking.

The new willingness to expel Islamic terror suspects with little attention to legal proceedings, a process known as rendition, is not limited to the European Union. In Pakistan, Azerbaijan and Bosnia, a growing number of suspects have been whisked abroad in recent months. At least three Egyptians and three Saudis have been expelled from Azerbaijan since Sept. 11.

In Bosnia in September, U.S. peacekeeping troops captured an Egyptian and a Jordanian at a hotel in the capital, Sarajevo, and handed them over to the Bosnian government, which sent them and two other Egyptians home. Upon arrival, the Jordanian and at least two of the Egyptians were jailed.

And this month, U.S. troops in Bosnia seized five Algerians and a Yemeni and flew them to Guantanamo Bay after they were ordered released from jail by a Bosnian court for lack of evidence. The men were taken away despite an injunction from Bosnia's Human Rights Chamber that four of them be allowed to remain in the country pending further proceedings. The chamber was a creation of the Western-brokered Dayton agreement that ended the 1992-95 Bosnia war and was put in place to protect human rights and due process.

Madeleine Rees, the Sarajevo representative of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the U.S. seizure was an "extrajudicial removal from sovereign territory" and the "rule of law was clearly circumvented."

In the Swedish case, the government obtained written guarantees from Egypt, delivered to Stockholm just before the expulsion, that Agaiza and Zari would not be put to death or subjected to torture and that they would receive fair retrials. "The new thing is we got these guarantees," Andersson said.

Asylum lawyers and human rights groups argue, however, that the Swedish action ignored international treaties, European law and a tradition that the threat of torture overrides any extradition request. Amnesty International called the guarantees "an insufficient safeguard."

Those arguments are carrying less and less weight among government leaders. "Political asylum should be granted to a person who faces a political injustice," Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said in a speech in October. "But to give political asylum to a killer, or leave him alone and say 'human rights' -- what human rights?"

In September, in the first clear prompt to change existing practice, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution urging that states "ensure, in conformity with international law, that refugee status is not abused by the perpetrators, organizers or facilitators of terrorist acts, and that claims of political motivation are not recognized as grounds for refusing requests for the extradition of alleged terrorists."

Andersson cited the resolution as one reason Sweden could act.

On Oct. 16, President Bush wrote to Romano Prodi, president of the European Commission, the executive arm of the 15-nation European Union, and offered 40 suggested measures to fight terrorism. Among them was a request to "explore alternatives to extradition including expulsion and deportation, where legally available and more efficient."

This was followed by the publication of an EU working document in December that said "extradition must be considered legal when it is possible to obtain legal guarantees from the state that is going to try the person."

This alarms human rights groups because in October 1996, in a case involving an extradition request from the government of India for a Sikh resident of Britain, the European Court of Human Rights said that written guarantees of proper treatment could not facilitate extradition because whatever the "good faith of the Indian government," the violation of human rights "is a recalcitrant and enduring problem" in India.

The EU working document said that after Sept. 11, the court may need to rule again on the balance "between the protection needs of the individual set off against the security interests of the state."

In the meantime, European governments continue to send suspects home. In October and November, two Islamic radicals who had served time in French prisons were sent to Algeria despite pleas from human rights groups that the expulsion amounted to "a death sentence." The fate of the men remains uncertain.

In Austria in October, Muhammad Abd Rahman Bilasi-Ashri, an Egyptian asylum-seeker sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison for supporting the radical group Egyptian Islamic Jihad, was arrested. A Vienna court quickly ordered him extradited even though the Austrian Supreme Court had rejected his extradition in 1999, accepting a political exclusion.

"This is revenge for Sept. 11," said Herbert Pochieser, Bilasi-Ashri's Austrian attorney. "Austria, for the first time, is extraditing to a state that tortures."

The Austrian government is awaiting guarantees from Egypt similar to those received by Sweden, according to prosecutor Stefan Benner. "We take this case very seriously, and the minister has approved extradition," he said.

Bilasi-Ashri's name surfaced during a British investigation of London-based Islamic radicals suspected of involvement in the bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998, according to a British police memo.

Pochieser said his client did not advocate violence. He called some of the Egyptian charges "absurd," including one that Bilasi-Ashri phoned from Austria to order the theft of a single sheep. The British inquiry of him was dropped.

"How could any Austrian court accept this?" Pochieser said at his Vienna office. "I'm ashamed."

In Egypt, Amnesty International has documented "electric shocks, beatings, suspension by the wrists or ankles, burning with cigarettes, and various forms of psychological torture, including death threats and threats of rape or sexual abuse of the detainee and/or their female relatives."

The State Department, in its 1999 human rights report on Egypt, said: "The use of military courts to try civilians continued to infringe on a defendant's right to a fair trial before an independent judiciary."

Agaiza, one of the two Egyptians expelled by Sweden, was a prominent figure in Islamic opposition circles. He fled Egypt in the early 1990s and lived in Pakistan, Syria and Iran before traveling to Stockholm on a false passport with his wife and children in 2000. He immediately asked for asylum.

While he was living in Iran, the Egyptian government staged a mass trial of 107 people, only 60 of whom were present. Agaiza was convicted of participating in a 1995 bomb attack by Egyptian Islamic Jihad on the Egyptian Embassy in Pakistan that killed 17 people; Agaiza was living in Iran at the time of the bombing, his family said.

Agaiza's wife and attorney said in interviews in Sweden that Agaiza did not take part in the attack. He was involved with an early incarnation of Egyptian Islamic Jihad but did not advocate violence and was a legitimate political dissident, they said.

Several years after Agaiza left Egypt, a faction of Egyptian Islamic Jihad under Ayman Zawahiri merged with al Qaeda, and Zawahiri emerged as a right-hand man to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. In a 1999 interview with the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, Agaiza said he knew nothing of Zawahiri's organization or ambitions. "I have been part of the Islamic movement for 25 years, and I am an opponent of the [Egyptian] regime," Agaiza said in the interview. "I am not a leader in any organization. I am a Muslim oppositionist."

Andersson, of the Swedish government, said authorities were confident of their evidence of Agaiza's involvement in terrorism. The evidence will not be released.

After Agaiza was arrested, his wife and five children briefly went into hiding because the Swedish government's expulsion order also provided for the deportation of the family, including a child born in Sweden, "as soon as possible." Most European countries do not accord citizenship to people born to foreign parents on their soil.

The deportation order was suspended, however, after the U.N. Committee Against Torture asked Sweden not to expel the family while it reviewed the case.

Khaleq said she remains in despair. "When we got here, my husband always said, 'Now we are safe,' " she said while she was still in hiding. "But I don't trust anything or anyone anymore. I no longer have any faith that Western countries believe in freedom and human rights."

Staff writer Nora Boustany in Washington contributed to this report.

-------- india

Indian Leader Rules Out War

Reuters
WORLD In Brief
Tuesday, January 29, 2002; Page A16
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A52616-2002Jan28?language=printer

NEW DELHI -- Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee yesterday eased tensions on the subcontinent by declaring that there would be no war between India and Pakistan.

In some of the most optimistic comments about relations since the two countries put 1 million troops on standby, Vajpayee also said diplomatic efforts to resolve their disputes were meeting with success.

"There will be no war between the two countries and all issues will be resolved peacefully," the Press Trust of India quoted Vajpayee as telling reporters.

India and Pakistan, locked in a dispute over the Himalayan region of Kashmir, mobilized their armies after an attack on the Indian Parliament last month that New Delhi attributed to militants based in Pakistan.

Separately, Indian police yesterday said they had killed two Pakistani men involved in an attack on a U.S. cultural center in Calcutta last week. Police said that one of the two men said they were involved in the attack and belonged to the Kashmiri separatist group Lashkar-i-Taiba.

-------- iraq

Syria Accused of Violating Sanctions

By Edith M. Lederer
Associated Press Writer
Monday, January 28, 2002; 10:43 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A52199-2002Jan28?language=printer

UNITED NATIONS -- Britain accused Syria late Monday of illegally importing and selling millions of barrels of Iraqi oil in the most serious violation of U.N. sanctions against Iraq since 1990.

It marked the first time that Syria, which joined the U.N. Security Council this month, was directly confronted with the charge of oil smuggling in the committee monitoring sanctions.

Norway's U.N. Ambassador Ole Peter Kolby, the sanctions committee chairman, said Syria was unable to respond because debate opened late Monday. He postponed further discussion until the committee next meets, but no date has been set.

"My impression is that the members of the committee are interested, and were anxious to discuss it, but there was no time now," he said.

Syria has repeatedly denied that it is importing Iraqi oil through a pipeline that had been closed for nearly 18 years.

But Britain charged that Iraq is currently shipping over 100,000 barrels of oil a day to Syria through the pipeline in violation of sanctions imposed after Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, a British official said.

The Iraqi oil is allowing Syria to increase its oil exports, without a corresponding increase in its own domestic oil production, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Even if Syria is engaged in a barter arrangement with Iraq, it needs approval from the sanctions committee and has not sought an exception, the British official stressed.

"It's the most serious violation of sanctions since 1990 because of the volume of oil," the British official said.

Running at its full capacity, the pipeline could pump 200,000 barrels per day, generating $1 billion a year in illegal revenue to the Iraqi government, the official said.

Britain and the United States have sought to stop Iraqi oil smuggling, contending that it helps finance Saddam's efforts to rebuild his military and banned weapons programs.

The economic sanctions against Iraq can't be lifted until U.N. weapons inspectors certify that the country's weapons of mass destruction have been dismantled.

But the Security Council made an exception in 1996, allowing Iraq to sell oil provided the revenue went into a U.N. escrow account to buy food and other humanitarian supplies for civilians and to pay compensation to victims of the 1991 Gulf War.

Iraq views the so-called oil-for-food program as meddling in its economic independence, and over the last two years has sought to wrest control of its oil revenue from the United Nations.

Britain submitted newspaper accounts of the Syrian oil imports from Iraq to the sanctions committee, but said the sharp increase in Syrian oil exports since late 2000 is sufficient evidence.

Jim Placke of Cambridge Energy Resources Associates, a market forecasting firm in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said in August that Iraq appeared to be illegally exporting 120,000-150,000 barrels of crude a day to Syria through the recently restored pipeline.

The Iraqi oil, sold to Syria at a discount in exchange for cash and goods, is processed into petroleum products at Syrian refineries, allowing Syria to export an equivalent amount of its own oil, officials and analysts say.

Iraq is also known to illegally export oil by truck to Turkey, and by tanker through the Persian Gulf.

But Iran's more aggressive enforcement of U.N. sanctions led to a nearly 50 percent decline in Iraqi oil smuggling last year, a U.S. admiral said in November, and exports have also been significantly reduced to Turkey in recent months.

A European Union diplomat, meanwhile, said Iraq had asked the organization for a high-level dialogue on the sanctions and other policy issues. Iraq launched the diplomatic initiative in Madrid because Spain currently holds the rotating EU presidency.

The Iraqi charge d'affaires in Madrid went to the Spanish Foreign Ministry on Friday and informed the director-general for the Middle East that Baghdad was interested in initiating a high-level dialogue with the EU, the diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The move follows several other overtures by Saddam's government in recent days. The EU diplomat called it part of Iraq's "charm offensive" ahead of an Arab summit in March in Beirut.

In contrast to the United States and Great Britain, European countries have been somewhat more sympathetic toward Iraq and several EU members including France have called for an easing of sanctions.

But the EU official stressed that the 15-nation bloc has a longstanding policy calling on Baghdad to comply with Security Council resolutions, including calls for the return of inspectors.

In recent actions, Iraq allowed international nuclear experts from the U.N. atomic energy agency to begin "limited" inspections of a nuclear research center. The inspectors arrived in Baghdad on Friday.

-------- pakistan

Pakistan Says It Regrets Indian Peace Terms

January 29, 2002
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-southasia.html

ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - One day after Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee declared there would be no war with Pakistan, the two countries Tuesday still showed no sign of ending their war of words and cross-border firing.

Pakistan expressed disappointment that Vajpayee had set strict terms for peace talks over Kashmir and said India had stepped up firing across their disputed border.

``It is unfortunate that despite goodwill shown by us, despite all steps that we have taken, the response has been negative,'' Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan told a news briefing.

Vajpayee said Monday that while diplomatic efforts were making progress, there was no chance of peace talks unless Pakistan handed India the one-third of Kashmir it controls.

The two countries have mobilized around a million troops along their border after New Delhi blamed Pakistan-based Muslim militants for a bloody December attack on its parliament.

Pakistan has called for dialogue to settle the stand-off and cracked down on groups blamed for the parliament attack.

But India says it will not de-escalate until Pakistan stops backing what it calls ``cross-border terrorism.''

Indian analysts said Vajpayee's statements on peace did not represent a significant change in India's stance.

``It is a strategy of using coercive diplomacy and force to ensure Pakistan is under pressure to end cross-border terrorism,'' C. Raja Mohan, The Hindu newspaper's strategic affairs editor, told Reuters.

India was determined Islamabad should hand over men on a list of 20 alleged terrorists it says are sheltering in Pakistan and also gives evidence that Islamic militants had stopped slipping into Indian Kashmir, he said.

India's National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra, on a visit to Paris, told reporters New Delhi was waiting for concrete signs from Pakistan that its fight against terror was genuine.

``We are waiting, assessing the situation on the ground. Is it changing after the January 12 speech of General Musharraf? Has there been any change on the ground? So far, no.''

Mishra repeated India's demand that Pakistan hand over some of 20 alleged terrorists and criminals.

He acknowledged that Pakistan had said six of that number were Pakistanis and would not be handed over.

``We can talk about it -- but what about the other 14? We are a responsible state and we will not act in an irresponsible manner,'' Mishra said.

India controls about 45 percent of Kashmir, Pakistan a third and China the rest. Pakistan says Kashmiris should be allowed to vote on their future, while the entire region is claimed by New Delhi as an integral part of India.

India says say more than 33,000 people have died in 12 years of rebellion. But separatists put the toll closer to 80,000.

``MORE INDIAN FIRING''

As the two nuclear-armed rivals exchanged fresh small arms fire across their border Tuesday, the top spokesman for Pakistan's military ruler General Pervez Musharraf told Reuters incidents of Indian firing in Kashmir had increased.

``There is a slight increase, not only in frequency but also in intensity,'' Major-General Rashid Qureshi said.

``They would initially fire small arms like rifles and machine-guns, but we have detected an increasing intensity and frequency of firing and the Indians are now using mortars, 81 mm mortars and 120 mm heavy mortars,'' he added.

At least seven Pakistani civilians, three of them children, were killed and 14 wounded Monday by Indian fire across the Line of Control in Kashmir, police said.

In fresh violence across India's Jammu and Kashmir state on Tuesday, 10 rebels and one Indian soldier were killed in clashes between security forces and militants.

Indian Officials said a paramilitary soldier and three members of the Pakistan-based Al-Badr militant group died in a 20-hour gunbattle in Srinagar, the state's summer capital.

A paramilitary spokesman said six others were wounded in the gunbattle that broke out late Monday when militants holed up in a home in a Srinagar suburb clashed with paramilitary forces.

The South Asian rivals have fought three wars over Kashmir since their independence in 1947 and the military stand-off has raised fears of a fourth war between the nuclear powers.

--------

Pakistan Proposes Troop Withdrawal

January 29, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Pakistan-India.html

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistan called for talks with India on a mutual reduction of troops along their tense border and offered on Tuesday to restore transport links cut last month because of the crisis over Kashmir.

However, India repeated its demand that Pakistan halt what the Indians call ``cross-border terrorism,'' meaning attacks by Pakistani-based militants against Indian rule in Kashmir.

India said Tuesday that six suspected Islamic militants and a paramilitary trooper were killed during gunbattles across the cease-fire line in Kashmir. There was no comment from Pakistan.

In a statement read by Foreign Ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan, Pakistan said it was willing to begin talks with India ``over a phased withdrawal of troops on both sides from their forward positions to their peacetime locations.''

``Once an agreement is reached, troops should be withdrawn within a specific time frame,'' the statement said. Once the two sides agreed on a mutual withdrawal, they could begin a ``comprehensive dialogue on the Kashmir dispute as well as all other issues.''

Khan also said Pakistan was willing to restore road, air and rail links that were severed last month by India after the Dec. 13 attack on its parliament. India blamed two Pakistani-based Islamic extremist groups for the attack, in which 14 people were killed.

The attack led to the biggest buildup of forces along the border between the two nuclear-armed rivals since 1971.

In New Delhi, the United News of India news agency quoted Indian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Nirupama Rao as saying India would agree to talks only after Islamabad took concrete action against cross-border terrorism.

``There is no question of starting any dialogue unless Pakistan translated into action its commitment on suppressing terrorism,'' Rao said.

Tensions appeared to have eased after President Pervez Musharraf on Jan. 12 banned the two Islamic groups accused of the parliament attack and declared that Pakistan would not be a base for terrorism.

Secretary of State Colin Powell visited both countries after the speech and declared that he was encouraged that a diplomatic solution to the crisis could be reached.

Since then, however, there has been little sign of progress.

On Monday, Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee demanded that Pakistan withdraw from the part of Kashmir under its control before peace talks.

``If Kashmir is the central issue, then one-third of Kashmir is occupied by Pakistan illegally,'' Vajpayee told a meeting in the central Indian city of Raipur.

Islamabad has called for a plebiscite in Kashmir to determine the territory's future. New Delhi rejects the proposal and calls Kashmir an integral part of its national territory.

On Tuesday, Musharraf visited Pakistani army positions along the border east of Lahore, urging troops to remain vigilant so that there can be ``no misconception'' about the country's defense capabilities.

``Pakistan has earned a place of distinction in the community of nations as a major strategic partner in the international coalition against terrorism,'' Musharraf told the troops. ``But our eastern neighbor is making vain attempts to discredit it.''

More than a dozen Islamic militant groups, most based in Pakistan, have been fighting since 1989 to win independence for the two-thirds of Kashmir controlled by India or to join it to Pakistan, which controls the other third.

The government says more than 32,000 people have died in the insurgency, while human rights groups say the death toll is twice that. Most of the victims are Muslim civilians in Hindu-majority India's only Muslim-majority state.

India and Pakistan have fought two wars over their competing claims to all of the Himalayan region.

-------- space

Delayed launch is back on track

By Janene Scully / Times Staff Writer
Jan. 29, 2002
http://www.santamariatimes.com/display/inn_news/news05.txt

VANDENBERG AFB -- A seemingly jinxed Pegasus rocket mission, grounded by last month's missile flop here, once again got the green light to pick up processing for a launch next week in Florida.

"Everything's been cleared and they're cleared to ferry Friday," George Diller, spokesman for NASA's Kennedy Space Center, said Monday following the flight readiness review.

Nearly two weeks ago, National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials postponed the Pegasus rocket launch saying they needed more time to review data from the Pentagon's flopped missile defense booster test Dec. 13 at Vandenberg Air Force Base.

Pegasus and that missile sport different types of motors, but both use solid propellant stages manufactured by Alliant Techsystems and feature some parts in common.

Diller said after reviewing data from the failed test, NASA officials determined the risk of a Pegasus failure connected to the booster problem is "extremely remote."

Unlike traditional ground-launched rockets, Pegasus is carried aloft under the belly of a modified L-1011 aircraft, giving the space booster flexibility in where it launches.

Technicians based at Vandenberg assemble and ready Pegasus for launch.

Diller said plans call for the aircraft and its rocket to leave Friday for the East Coast.

The High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager mission, already more than a year late due to an assortment of problems, is slated to occur Feb. 5 off Florida's coast.

The rocket and satellite have already made one trip east, but returned to Vandenberg when another NASA experimental vehicle, built by Pegasus manufacturer Orbital Sciences Corp., failed.

Staff writer Janene Scully can be reached at (805) 739-2214

-------- us

19 Soldiers Injured in 2 Incidents
14 Hurt in Helicopter's 'Hard Landing';
5 in Forklift Mishap

By Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 29, 2002; Page A12
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A51103-2002Jan28?language=printer

Nineteen Army soldiers were injured yesterday in two incidents in the war in Afghanistan, the U.S. Central Command said.

At least 14 soldiers were injured when the CH-47 Chinook helicopter carrying them made a kind of controlled crash called a "hard landing" in eastern Afghanistan yesterday, it said.

Five other soldiers were injured in a forklift accident at a location that wasn't disclosed by the Central Command, the headquarters for the U.S. military operations in Afghanistan. It said one soldier who was in critical but stable condition was evacuated to Germany.

Speaking about the helicopter incident, Army Col. Rick Thomas, a Central Command spokesman, said, "The injuries don't appear to be life-threatening." He said that four of the soldiers had leg fractures and serious injuries to their hips, and that 10 suffered other broken bones, cuts and abrasions.

The names of the injured soldiers, all from the 101st Airborne Division, were withheld pending notification of their families.

The helicopter was "extensively damaged" in the incident, which occurred near Khost. U.S. forces recently have been combing cave complexes in that area for members of the al Qaeda terrorist network and for computers, videotapes and documents about their operations.

The 101st Airborne recently took over operations at the U.S. base at the Kandahar airport in southern Afghanistan. Army Col. Frank Wiercinski said 24 soldiers had been aboard the helicopter, the Associated Press reported from Kandahar. The 101st troops were being flown to an outpost near Khost to replace Marines who had been operating there.

The helicopter injuries followed by eight days another incident in which a Marine CH-53 helicopter crashed near the Afghan capital of Kabul, killing two Marines. On Jan. 9, a Marine KC-130 refueling plane crashed in Pakistan, killing all seven Marines aboard.

--------

U.S. OPERATIONS
Dust Cloud Causes Helicopter to Crash, Injuring 14 Soldiers

New York Times
January 29, 2002
By JAMES DAO
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/29/international/asia/29MILI.html

WASHINGTON, Jan. 28 - An Army cargo helicopter carrying troops from the 101st Airborne Division crashed today while trying to land at a remote base in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan, injuring 14 soldiers, the Pentagon said.

The crash occurred in the evening, when the pilot of a CH-47 Chinook lost control during a brownout caused when the aircraft's two rotors kicked up blinding clouds of dust, dirt and sand. The helicopter was carrying 24 people at the time. Military officials said none of the 14 soldiers suffered life-threatening injuries.

The helicopter was ferrying soldiers from Kandahar to a forward operating base outside Khost, near the Pakistan border, where they were to relieve marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

The accident was at least the sixth involving an American helicopter in or around Afghanistan since the war began. All those crashes have been a result of bad weather, brownouts or mechanical failures; none were caused by hostile fire, officials said. Four servicemen have died in those crashes, while at least 29 others have been injured.

Just an hour before the helicopter crash, five American soldiers were injured, one critically, in a forklift accident at another base in the Afghanistan region, the United States Central Command said. The critically injured soldier, who was listed in stable condition tonight, was evacuated to an American military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. The other four were treated for minor injuries, the Central Command said.

The command declined to say where the forklift accident occurred, saying the host nation did not want to be identified. United States forces are using bases in Uzbekistan, Pakistan and some Persian Gulf nations.

At the Pentagon, senior military officials today defended midnight raids on two compounds in Oruzgan Province north of Kandahar last Thursday, in which they said Army Special Forces and Navy Seals killed as many as 15 Taliban fighters, captured 27 others and helped destroy a major ammunition depot.

Local Afghan residents and officials have said that the attacks killed innocent civilians and that American forces might have been misled by tribal leaders embroiled in a feud with a rival faction. Local people also said they had found the bodies of people whose hands had been bound before they were killed.

Senior Pentagon officials said they had the compounds under surveillance for days. During that time, the officials said, they saw what appeared to be groups of Taliban or Al Qaeda soldiers moving in convoys, often under cloak of night, often driving stolen United Nations vehicles, and sometimes escorting prisoners.

The officials said the bound bodies found at the compound might have been Taliban prisoners who were either shot by the Taliban soldiers or killed in the cross-fire with American troops.

"There were clear indications that this was some sort of a meeting house of people who were doing something that does not look like a traditional village, and in fact, had clear indicators of being something that was protected and guarded, much like compounds we have seen where Taliban and Al Qaeda have gathered before," said Rear Adm. John D. Stufflebeem, deputy director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Admiral Stufflebeem said the American Special Operations Forces were fired on first when they entered the compound, and would probably have tried to identify themselves before shooting. But he also said the commandos probably had tried to sneak up on the compound.


-------- POLICE / PRISONERS

Bush Reconsiders Stand on Treating Captives of War

New York Times
January 29, 2002
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE and DAVID E. SANGER
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/29/international/americas/29DETA.html

WASHINGTON, Jan. 28 - After a lengthy meeting with his national security team today, President Bush said he was reconsidering whether Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, should be protected under the Third Geneva Convention. But he quickly added that they were "killers" who would not be granted the status of prisoners of war.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell had asked the president to reconsider a decision he made on Jan. 18 that the Geneva Convention would not apply to the captives.

Secretary Powell agrees with the president's view that the captives should not be classified as prisoners of war, but he has sought to have the Bush administration affirm that the international law of war does govern the United States in its treatment of the captives.

His unusual request to reverse the decision, which was made while Secretary Powell was out of the country, exposed a clear split within the administration. Officials said that it was not resolved at this morning's meeting of the National Security Council, but that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, reflecting the concerns of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, began moving to support Secretary Powell's view.

Military officials have expressed concern that by denying the captives the protections of the Geneva Convention, the United States is setting a precedent that could put future American battlefield captives at risk.

Secretary Powell's call for a review of the policy regarding the captives came after European leaders bluntly criticized the American decision.

The administration has contended that the captives are terrorists, not conventional soldiers in a conventional war, and that they are therefore not deserving of the protections of the Geneva rules. Under those rules, prisoners can refuse to answer most questions during interrogation and must be repatriated when hostilities cease. The administration considers the captives "unlawful combatants" and wants the freedom to question and hold those it suspects of complicity in terrorist actions.

Mr. Bush said today that the United States was adhering to the "spirit of the Geneva Convention."

Secretary Powell wants the administration to adhere officially to the Convention. Under its terms, if a captive's status is in doubt, it must be determined by a screening panel. Even if the Geneva rules were applied, the captives could still be determined to be "unlawful combatants." Prisoners of war have more privileges and rights than unlawful combatants under the Convention, including the right to refuse interrogation.

The president's initial decision about the captives was apparently made on advice from Attorney General John Ashcroft who, a senior administration official said today, "didn't think about the world reaction." Mr. Ashcroft has held to his position, and appears to be supported by Vice President Dick Cheney. It is unclear what advice Mr. Bush received from Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser.

Mr. Bush attempted to dismiss the issue today as a small legal distinction. "I will listen to all the legalisms and announce my decision when I make it," he said.

But several governments are now seeking the return of their citizens who are being held at Guantánamo Bay. Mr. Bush said today that he would "consider" such requests, but administration officials made it clear that none of the captives were leaving Cuba soon.

Saudi Arabia's interior minister said today that the United States was holding "more than 100" Saudi citizens at Guantánamo Bay. American officials have not publicly confirmed the identities of the prisoners or their nationalities, on the grounds that their identities could signal to the enemy what information could be gleaned from interrogating them. But a senior administration official said tonight that the number given by the Saudis "sounds too high."

Citizens of at least 25 countries make up the population of 158 captives at the prison compound. The countries include Britain, Australia, France, Belgium, Sweden, Algeria, Yemen, Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to ministers from those countries.

The Saudi interior minister, Prince Nayef, said his government did not know the charges against its citizens, only that they had been arrested in Afghanistan.

"The issue of prisoners is important to us, and we ask that they be handed over to us so we can interrogate them, since they fall under the kingdom's regulations," he said.

At the State Department, the Pentagon and the White House, officials acknowledged that discussions about whether to apply the Geneva Convention were ongoing - a rare acknowledgment of a rare dispute within the administration over the conduct of the war. But they all agreed that the captives would not be designated as prisoners of war and that they were being treated humanely.

Answering questions in the Rose Garden this afternoon, Mr. Bush was emphatic that he had made the right decision in refusing to call the fighters "prisoners of war." But his tone suggested that he was uncertain whether the decision he made to deal with the prisoners outside the Geneva Convention was correct. Twice Mr. Bush called the fighters "prisoners," then stopped himself and used the word "detainees."

His aides say that he was annoyed by the leak of a memorandum written by the White House counsel, Alberto Gonzales, calling on several cabinet officials to respond to Secretary Powell's proposals. Mr. Gonzales, who was a longtime aide of Mr. Bush's in Texas, concluded that the captives were not covered under the Geneva Convention. But the State Department general counsel came to the opposite conclusion.

Critics contend that the United States is fudging the definition of war to suit its political purposes. "The United States government cannot choose to wage war in Afghanistan with guns, bombs and soldiers, and then assert the laws of war do not apply," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.

Mr. Bush seemed to be setting the stage today to revise his earlier decision by dwelling on the issue that his aides agree on. "We're in total agreement on how these prisoners - or detainees, excuse me - ought to be treated," Mr. Bush said. "And they'll be treated well."

-------- terrorism

THE OLYMPICS
U.S. Is Requesting Tighter Security at Utah Olympics

New York Times
January 29, 2002
By PHILIP SHENON
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/29/olympics/29SECU.html

WASHINGTON, Jan. 28 - The Justice Department has requested major last-minute changes in security arrangements at the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City out of concern that some sites had not been adequately protected from a terrorist attack, law enforcement officials said.

The department's move came after Attorney General John Ashcroft visited Salt Lake City earlier this month and came away dissatisfied with security plans for parts of the city away from the sports arenas, officials said.

They said Mr. Ashcroft was concerned that terrorists might take advantage of what he saw as inadequate security in open-air areas of shops and restaurants in Salt Lake City and surrounding communities where crowds would gather before and after major sporting events. In response, Salt Lake City organizers have promised to increase surveillance and the size of their security patrols.

Federal law enforcement agencies say they are intimately involved in security preparations for two other huge public events over the next two weeks - the World Economic Forum in New York, which will draw government and business leaders from around the world to Manhattan beginning Thursday, and the Super Bowl this Sunday in New Orleans.

Almost 4,000 police officers, backed up by hundreds of agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, have been assigned this week to surround the Waldorf-Astoria hotel, the site of the Economic Forum. [Page A21.]

The security arrangements are expected to be nearly as exhaustive at this weekend's Super Bowl, which is the first sporting event ever to be designated a National Security Special Event by the White House. [Page C17.]

But Justice Department officials said that in terms of security preparations, neither the World Economic Forum nor the Super Bowl could compare with the Olympic Games, which have been a terrorist target in past years and which will take place this winter over a 900-square-mile area of Utah - much of it mountainous and snow-covered - over a total of 17 days.

Of the three events, officials said, the Olympics were of the greatest concern to Mr. Ashcroft, which explained why he conducted an unusually detailed, venue-by-venue inspection tour in Salt Lake City over four days this month. They said that he had not been similarly involved in security planning for the World Economic Forum or the Super Bowl.

President Bush is expected to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Salt Lake City on Feb. 8.

At the time of Mr. Ashcroft's visit to Utah, he said the level of Olympics security preparations would "set a new standard." Tom Ridge, the director of homeland security, said a few days earlier that Olympic organizers and security officials were doing "everything they can to minimize the risk."

Officials said today that while Mr. Ashcroft and Mr. Ridge agreed that overall security precautions were the best ever seen for an Olympic Games, the Justice Department still believed much more needed to be done in Salt Lake City, especially to protect against the possibility of a terrorist attack at a site away from the athletic venues.

At the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, one person was killed and more than 100 people injured when a pipe bomb exploded in an entertainment area known as Centennial Park, which was away from the sports arenas where competitions were held.

A spokesman for Mr. Ridge said that the homeland security director had been pleased by coordination among federal, state and local agencies planning for the Games in Salt Lake City and that he, unlike Mr. Ashcroft, had not been asked to focus on the details of some of the security preparations. The federal government is expected to spend at least $250 million for security in Salt Lake City, a record for an Olympics held in the United States.

Robert Flowers, the head of the umbrella organization responsible for security in Salt Lake City, confirmed in a telephone interview from Utah that the Justice Department had requested a series of last-minute security changes after Mr. Ashcroft's visit.

Mr. Flowers said the Olympics committee was "really close" to satisfying most of the attorney general's requests, many of them involving the deployment of additional security officers to areas where large numbers of people would gather away from the sports arenas.

"It's about more officers, more bodies," said Mr. Flowers, who declined to discuss other, specific changes in the security plans.

Law enforcement officials said that as a result of his trip, Mr. Ashcroft had also ordered a series of drills between local and federal law enforcement agencies to be certain that the government was prepared to respond to a terrorist attack or other emergency.

They said that elsewhere in the Justice Department, officials had ordered closer monitoring of domestic extremists, including antiabortion and antigovernment groups, that are based in the Western mountain states surrounding Utah.

The authorities have accused an anti-abortion activist from North Carolina, Eric Rudolph, of the 1996 Atlanta bombing. Mr. Rudolph, who has also been tied to white-supremacist groups, remains a fugitive.

"The Justice Department is reminding everyone that our terrorist threat goes beyond Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda," a senior federal law enforcement official said. "There are domestic threats as well. I think it's fair to say we'd like more of everything, from uniformed people on the ground to sniffer dogs to surveillance cameras."

Justice Department officials said there was no surprise in Mr. Ashcroft's decision to become involved in many of the detailed security preparations for the Olympics. "Since Sept. 11, counterterrorism has dominated his agenda, and he sees the Olympics as the biggest security headache we face right now," said a department official.

Despite his public praise for the preparations while in Salt Lake City, officials said, the attorney general returned to Washington to say he had uncovered a variety of "blind spots" in the security preparations that he felt needed immediate correction.

Mr. Flowers, the security coordinator in Salt Lake City, said that in meetings with Mr. Ashcroft there and in later conversations with the Justice Department, he had obtained a pledge for additional federal resources to beef up security.

He said that as a result of Mr. Ashcroft's recommendations, he had also received verbal assurances from local Olympics planners in Salt Lake City that they would free up more money for security. He would not say how much.

"We haven't had all the resources that we've needed to cover every base," he acknowledged, citing in particular the problem of paying for tightened security patrols in neighborhoods of Salt Lake City and surrounding communities that are not directly involved in the Olympics. "We can't put a fence completely around the state of Utah."

Law enforcement officials said there would be extraordinarily close communication between local and federal law enforcement officers, and between Salt Lake City and Washington.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is planning a 24-hour-a-day direct video hookup between the Olympics security command center in Salt Lake City and the F.B.I.'s Strategic Information Operations Center, allowing bureau officials in Washington to monitor hundreds of surveillance cameras that have been stationed around the Olympic sites.


-------- OTHER

-------- alternative energy

Another Enron casualty: Wind power?

Tuesday, January 29, 2002
A perspective by Peter Asmus,
GreenBiz.com
http://enn.com/news/enn-stories/2002/01/01292002/enron_46193.asp

Enron of Houston, Texas, did not generate electricity; it became the world's seventh largest revenue-generating corporation by acting as a middleman, trading the juice that has become the lifeblood of modern society and squeezing a profit from it.

One of the few energy-related assets Enron maintained was its wind-turbine-manufacturing subsidiary, Enron Wind Corporation (EWC). Even though wind power has been the fastest-growing power supply source over the past decade, Enron had been trying to sell its wind unit for more than a year. Enron seemed oblivious to the true value of the United States' last major wind company. Or perhaps it just viewed a company whose revenues grew from $50 million in 1997 to $750 million in 2001 as a source of cash to shore up its shaky financial footing.

Enron got lost in a virtual world of online trades and Internet connections and forgot about fostering real innovations in supplying electricity from actual hardware that can offer lasting solutions. To its credit, Enron supported curbing emissions to global climate change. Yet the firm failed to recognize that the value of one of the few energy-related hard assets it owned - Enron Wind Corp. - showed tremendous profit potential due to global climate change concerns.

"We are one of the top three wind turbine manufacturers in each of the top three world wind power markets: the United States, Germany, and Spain," said Adam Umanoff, CEO and president of Enron Wind Corporation. Among those interested in Enron Wind, which is not part of the bankruptcy proceeding that has engulfed its ailing corporate parent, is UBS Warburg of Great Britain. If snatched up by a European firm, the billions of U.S. dollars in private and public sector capital invested into wind technology will have failed to sustain even one major domestic wind turbine manufacturer.

Whether Enron Wind remains in the hands of a U.S. company or is sold to a foreign interest is more a matter of pride and principle, than something that would have a direct impact on consumers.

Of greater consequence to consumers across the country is how the fall of Enron affects federal deregulation legislation, particularly the rules governing transmission investments. These rules will determine whether wind power, a technology that Enron helped become a commercial technology, can deliver on the promise of a better world.

The fall of Enron is also casting a long shadow on current debates over further deregulation of the $200 billion U.S. power industry. Umanoff of Enron Wind Corp. extols the virtues of deregulation, noting, of course, that competition in states such as Texas and Pennsylvania have helped open up new opportunities for wind and other renewable resources.

"California did not get it right, but that is no reason to abandon deregulation. Both Texas and Pennsylvania protect consumers from the wild price uncertainty that hit here. The devil is always in the details," Umanoff said. "For the first time in history, wind power can compete without subsidy with the least cost fossil fuel alternatives. This cost parity is the main driver behind today's great global expansion of wind power."

In 2001, the world saw $6.5 billion invested in new wind power facilities.

Lawmakers in February will commence hearings on federal deregulation bills, which were in trouble before Enron's nose-dive. As the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has jurisdiction over these transmission issues, the wind power industry knows the next few months of testimony and decisions are critical.

Traffic on the nation's interstate transmission system increased by more than 200 percent last year, according to the Edison Electric Institute. Clearly, policymakers have for too long neglected to retool the nation's transmission highways.

America has the best wind resources in the world. These resources just happen to be located in rural regions such as the Dakotas, Montana and the rest of the Great Plains, where transmission lines are few and far between. Anyone concerned about global warming needs to recognize that opening up the transmission grid to new players willing to bet on wind power is one of they key solutions to our long-term energy supply.

Although just a footnote in the unfolding drama surrounding Enron, both the future of wind power in the United States and the tedious details of transmission policy loom as critical components of our energy future and efforts to bring our antiquated power system into the 21st century.

Peter Asmus is author of Reaping The Wind: How Mechanical Wizards, Visionaries and Profiteers Helped Shape Our Energy Future, and Reinventing Electric Utilities: Competition, Citizen Action and Clean Power , both published by Island Press.

-------- health

Panel to probe effects of irradiated mail

By Jim Abrams
ASSOCIATED PRESS
January 29, 2002
http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20020129-2441278.htm

The Senate is looking into complaints from a half-dozen Senate offices that staffers suffered health problems after handling mail that was irradiated to kill anthrax spores.

This week, a task force is to hold its first meeting to analyze reports of reactions to irradiated mail, said Ranit Schmelzer, spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. She said the panel would be made up of the Senate sergeant-at-arms and representatives from the U.S. Postal Service, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Environmental Protection Agency and the House.

After an anthrax-contaminated letter was discovered in October in Mr. Daschle's office in the Hart Senate Office Building, all mail service to Capitol Hill offices was stopped for six weeks. All congressional mail is now irradiated at Postal Service facilities in Ohio and New Jersey before being delivered. Mail to federal office buildings in the District also is treated.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat, in a letter Friday to Mr. Daschle, said her chief of staff reported a burning sensation on his hands after going through his mail, and her office manager complained of eye, nose and throat irritation as well as headaches, a metallic taste and a burning sensation on her hands and face.

Other staff had described feeling dizzy and nauseated when working with mail, she wrote.

Mrs. Feinstein's spokesman, Howard Gantman, said the health problems were temporary but still worrisome. He said the amount of radiation being used was more intense than that used for sterilizing medical equipment, because health experts do not know the levels needed to kill anthrax spores.

David Carle, spokesman for Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, Vermont Democrat, said two persons in Mr. Leahy's office had experienced symptoms such as lightheadedness, rashes, nausea and headaches when opening mail. He said they now wear gloves and open doors and windows when going through the mail.

"Senator Daschle takes the concerns raised by Senator Feinstein and others very seriously," Miss Schmelzer said. "He wants to do everything to ensure that everyone is safe and stays healthy."

Postal Service spokesman Gerry Kreienkamp said the agency found no clinical evidence that the irradiation process caused health problems.

Earlier this month, at least 11 workers at the Commerce Department complained of nausea, breathing problems and throat irritation in an incident apparently linked to irradiated mail. A D.C. Fire Department spokesman said a package of copier paper that was tightly wrapped in plastic gave off a bad-smelling gas when opened.

----

Viruses may help make microchips

Published 1/29/2002
UPI
by Charles Choi in New York
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=29012002-052646-7431r

LA JOLLA, Calif., Jan. 29 -- Viruses with molecules of gold and antibodies studded on their surfaces may one day invade tumors in pinpoint cellular surgery and help assemble electronic wires thinner than visible light wavelengths for handheld supercomputers.

Researchers at Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., have discovered a way to attach molecules to the surface of a virus -- tacking on anything from metal to vitamins.

"We can attach anything we want to the surface of the virus," said researcher Jack Johnson.

Scientists hope to use viruses as microscopic robots with programmable chemistry, genetically modifying the germs to accept different molecule types in patterns on their surfaces.

One particularly tantalizing possibility scientists are investigating on behalf of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington is building circuits of electrically conducting molecules on viral surfaces to form molecular computers.

"You can, in principle, determine the type of assembly you get by programming the building blocks," said researcher M.G. Finn.

The scientists experimented with a plant germ known as cowpea mosaic virus, which resembles a spiky soccer ball in shape. The virus, which is completely harmless to humans, is only 30 nanometers in diameter -- more than 30,000 times thinner than a human hair. The viral shell is made of 60 identical proteins and is remarkably stable in terms of temperature and acidity.

"They're very beautiful structures to look at," Finn said. "What really takes my breath away is how much information and function is encoded into these structures. That kind of information is something we really don't know how to create ourselves yet."

The scientists are taking advantage of more than a billion years of nature's handiwork with their research. They genetically modified the virus, essentially making its interiors and exteriors chemically stickier. So far, the researchers have attached everything from fluorescent dyes and gold clusters to antibodies, sugars and vitamin B to the germ's surfaces.

Finn said up to 60 molecules can be attached to the virus outer surface. It is possible to genetically program the virus to make it differentially sticky -- for instance, the upper half can have metal particles tightly packed onto it while the bottom has antibodies widely spaced apart on it.

"It may be a lot more effective to pack 60 antibodies onto a surface and let them do their work," Finn said in an interview with United Press International.

The viral particles also show the as-yet unexplained ability to spontaneously self-assemble into lines that intersect at right angles on silicon surfaces -- a talent no doubt of interest to the computer industry. If loaded with metal, the viruses could robotically assemble molecular wires.

"The goal is to give each virus particle a function that would be useful in an electronic circuit," Finn said.

However, molecular electronics may be years away, Finn said. More immediate applications may be in using the viruses to surgically target tumors that leave surrounding cells untouched, with antibodies that latch onto cancer cells studding the outside of the virus and chemotherapy drugs lining the inside of the germ.

The scientists also look forward to using the virus to help examine biochemicals that are previously unviewable.

"I think the work elegantly demonstrates the ability to use viral protein cages as scaffolding for directed chemical reactions," said virologist Mark Young at Montana State University in Bozeman. "This work represents a milestone, since it suggests that assembled virus particles can be treated as chemically reactive surfaces that are potentially available to a broad range of organic and inorganic applications."

The researchers reported their findings in the European scientific journal Angewandte Chemie.

----

Some Want Ban of PBDE Chemical

January 29, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-New-Pollutant.html

A chemical flame retardant commonly used in foam furniture padding is accumulating so rapidly in the breast milk of nursing mothers that environmentalists and some scientists are calling for a ban on it.

Little is known about the toxic nature of polybrominated diphenyl ether, commonly known by the acronym PBDE. Early studies show it poses some of the same dangers as PCBs and DDT. Those two chemicals were banned in the United States decades ago for their myriad detrimental effects on animal and human health.

Environmentalists advocate a ban on PBDE as well. One form of the chemical will be banned next year in Europe, where the law requires proof of safety before a new agent can be used in the environment. U.S. law requires proof of harm or risk before a chemical is banned.

But the chemical industry argues that more research is needed before banning something that protects lives. Producers of PBDE say there is no evidence that it will ever reach harmful levels, while its benefits as a flame retardant are well-known.

Adding PBDE to foam furniture padding, television casings and other plastics reduces by 45 percent the risk of death and injury due to fire, the chemical manufacturers say.

``We're not talking about aesthetics. People use brominated flame retardants because they save lives,'' said Robert Campbell, a spokesman for Great Lakes Chemical Corp. in West Lafayette, Ind.

Like PCBs and DDT, PBDE is a persistent organic pollutant, or POP. POPs can remain in the environment for years without breaking down. Some of these pollutants have such an affinity for fat that they build up in the bodies of both animals and humans from before birth until death.

``It seems that PBDEs are an important -- but generally unrecognized -- persistent organic pollutant in the United States,'' Robert C. Hale, a professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences, and five colleagues wrote in the journal Nature a few months ago.

Persistent organic pollutants are so difficult to purge from the environment that 25 years after being banned, trace amounts of PCBs can still be measured in human blood. Waterways such as New York's Hudson River and Wisconsin's Fox River are being dredged at costs running into the hundreds of millions to rid them of PCB contamination. In many waters, anglers are warned not to eat the fish they catch or to limit their consumption to one or two servings a month.

``There is an enormous need to act quickly when there is a problem with a chemical that is not only toxic but is persistent and accumulates, because it will continue to get worse before it gets better,'' said physician Gina Solomon, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Industry uses several forms of PBDE to decrease the flammability of various plastics. Only one of those types -- used mostly in polyurethane foam furniture padding -- has been found in the environment and breast milk. According to Environmental Protection Agency records, Great Lakes Chemical is the only U.S. manufacturer of that form of PBDE.

``At this point all bets are open in terms of how it's getting into the environment,'' said Hale, who stops short of calling for a ban on the pollutant, which was developed in the 1960s.

He has hypothesized that discarded furniture is a major source of PBDE in the environment. Whenever anybody tosses out an old sofa, he explained, nature goes to work. Water and sunlight break the foam into crumbling pieces that eventually are ground to dust. Insects have also been observed munching away at the material. From those humble beginnings the chemical travels all the way up the food chain to humans.

Hale has found PBDEs virtually everywhere he has looked: In a small river along the North Carolina-Virginia border, he found fish with the highest levels of PBDE ever recorded in an animal. He has also collected sewage sludge samples from four states, all with high concentrations of PBDE.

Swedish scientists first documented the increase of PBDE in humans. For 30 years, Sweden has sampled the breast milk of nursing mothers to track exposure to dioxin, PCBs and other pollutants that accumulate in body fat. The United States has no similar program.

In 1998, Swedish scientists reported that levels of PBDE in breast milk had increased 40-fold since 1972.

Since the Swedish discovery, the chemical has been found in Swedish pike, Virginia catfish and North Sea cod. Seals, moose and reindeer all carry PBDE in their body fat and like humans, transmit it to their nursing young. PBDE has even been found in the blubber of sperm whales in the Arctic Ocean.

Even more alarming to environmentalists was the revelation in December by the journal Environmental Science & Technology that North American mothers have breast-milk PBDE levels at least 40 times the highest concentrations found in Sweden.

``It's humongously high,'' said Mehran Alaee, a Canadian government scientist who compiled the North American data. ``If you let it go like this, it will reach a point sooner or later that it will cause some damage to the environment.''

Where that point lies, nobody knows. Researchers simply have not collected the information they need to determine how much PBDE is harmful.

``What we have seen in our developmental neurotoxicity studies ... is that PBDEs can be as toxic as the PCBs,'' said Per Eriksson, a toxicologist at Uppsala University in Sweden.

Eriksson's experiments have shown that one large dose of PBDE delivered early in a mouse's life can cause permanent brain damage.

Similar experiments by Per Ola Darnerud of Sweden's National Food Administration have determined that in mice, the smallest dose of PBDE that can cause observable health effects is about 1 million times greater than current human exposures.

But those experiments both involve relatively large amounts of PBDE given to animals over a short time. Nobody really knows how lower doses delivered over decades will affect humans.

``I'm hoping that within two to three years we'll have an answer,'' said Kevin Crofton, a toxicologist with EPA's National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory.

Faced with similar uncertainty in May 2000, the 3M Co. chose to remove another POP, known as PFOS, from Scotchgard and several other products. Like PBDE, PFOS had been found to persist in the environment, but little is known about its toxic effects.

Users of PBDE could do the same, substituting another flame-retardant chemical in its place. But PBDE has properties other flame retardants don't, Campbell said. It does not discolor foam or decrease its durability as much as other flame retardants do. And though all flame retardants evaporate into room air in trace amounts, PBDE does so at lower levels compared to many alternatives.

For that reason, Great Lakes Chemical has chosen to continue producing its PBDE products for the time being.

``If things turn out that the levels that are going to get into the environment are problematic, we'll do the right thing,'' Campbell said.

In Europe, environmental authorities have already decided that PBDE warrants action. Beginning next year, the PBDE variety that has shown up in breast milk is banned.

-------- human rights

146 illegal immigrants found inside truck

Briefly
Washington Times
January 29, 2002
Combined dispatches and staff reports
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20020129-678323.htm

MEXICO CITY - Lawmen discovered 146 illegal immigrants from Central America hidden behind banana boxes in a truck in the northern state of Nuevo Leon, Reforma newspaper reports.

The 119 men and 27 women were crammed into a space 36 feet long and 71/2 feet wide, where they had been standing for 38 hours after paying a truck driver from the southern state of Tabasco to drive them to northern Mexico. The only air was from a small ventilation window in the top of the truck.

"I went to the bathroom in a plastic bag. Everyone else did, too. In the darkness you can't see who is doing what or what they are doing," Carlos Lopez Hernandez, a Salvadoran among the immigrants, told Reforma.

----

Persecution of Christians in Turkey no laughing matter

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Washington Times
January 29, 2002
http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/ed-letters-2002129182527.htm#4

I doubt very much that the Greek Orthodox ecumenical patriarch who resides in Istanbul would "have a belly laugh being told that it is impossible to set up a Christian church in Istanbul," as letter writer Ali Sevin contends ("Buchanan, Sowell need to brush up on Turkey" Jan. 25).

It's not easy being a Christian in Turkey. Rather than chastise Pat Buchanan and Thomas Sowell for their excellent perception of the status of Christians in Turkey today, Mr. Sevin would do well to "brush up on Turkey" himself. He fails to mention that the Greek Orthodox ecumenical patriarch must first gain permission from the Turkish government to make even the most rudimentary repairs, such as fixing a toilet or steps to church facilities. His All-Holiness' quarters have been bombed not once, but many times. I'm sure the Greek patriarch isn't having "a belly laugh" over that. The magnificent Orthodox Christian cathedral, Agia Sofia, once known as the eighth wonder of the world, is today a museum, her beautiful Byzantine icons whitewashed and covered with sayings of Mohammed. Before that, the cathedral was turned into a mosque - a desecration of the Orthodox Christian faith - under the Ottoman Empire.

Istanbul, once known as Constantinople to the Christian world, once had a population of more than 250,000 Greek Orthodox Christians. Today there are fewer than 2,000, and their number is dwindling because of persecution. Our young tour guide in Ankara hid her Greek ethnicity. She told us that if she did not take a Turkish name, she would not be able to get a job or housing. If this isn't ethnic cleansing, I don't know what is.

Perhaps it is possible to set up a Christian church in Istanbul, as the author of the letter writes, but with impossible demands by the Muslim government.

STELLA L. JATRAS
Sterling, Va.

-------- imf / world bank

IMF, World Bank Try to Help Afghans Stabilize

By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, January 29, 2002; Page A08
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A52633-2002Jan28?language=printer

KABUL, Afghanistan, Jan. 28 -- The first delegation from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to visit Afghanistan in 25 years is meeting this week with Afghan central bank officials in an effort to stabilize the country's currency and establish a financial system that will allow billions of dollars worth of reconstruction aid to enter the country.

IMF officials are particularly eager to discuss how to reorganize the printing of the Afghan currency, the afghani, so that only the central bank will be responsible for its issue.

"This is a monetary issue, and it is a political issue," said Paul Chabrier, who heads the eight-person IMF delegation. "It is essential that the question of the currency is resolved, and we are here to provide suggestions and assistance to the Afghan interim authority."

Chabrier, who is director of the fund's Middle Eastern department, said the financial "implosion" of Afghanistan under Taliban rule was unprecedented in scope. He said it was essential that a single currency, issued only by the central bank, be restored for both monetary reasons and as a sign of national reunification.

The last central government to print afghanis was the coalition that ruled from 1992 until the Taliban captured Kabul in 1996. Leaders of the ousted government formed the Northern Alliance, a coalition of anti-Taliban militias, and continued producing afghanis even though the alliance controlled only about 5 percent of Afghanistan.

In addition, a factional leader in northern Afghanistan, Gen. Abdurrashid Dostum, has issued his own currency. The afghanis printed for Dostum are circulated mainly in the north, but officials say they are also widely found around the capital, Kabul. Their color is slightly different than the standard afghanis, and they have only about half of the value.

Such aggressive printing by both the alliance and Dostum caused the value of the afghani to plummet, and now officials of the interim government -- many of whom were with the Northern Alliance -- are trying to head off the hyperinflation that could return if unauthorized printing resumes. There are also unconfirmed reports that some Northern Alliance leaders still have large supplies of recently printed money that could destabilize the currency if introduced into the markets.

Afghan and international officials will also discuss what might be done with the more than $200 million in Afghan government funds that were frozen in the United States by President Bill Clinton in 1999 and unfrozen last week by President Bush.

The deputy minister of the central bank, Mohammad Issa Tourab, said the government wants the money to be returned to Afghanistan so it can be used for reconstruction. But Chabrier said it should remain in the United States so it remains safe and can be used to support the Afghan currency.

The visiting delegation will be in Afghanistan for four days. Its members include 12 officials from the World Bank, who will help the Afghans put together a financial system to spend and monitor the more than $4.5 billion committed last week for rebuilding by donor countries at a meeting in Japan.

According to Alastair McKechnie, World Bank country director for Afghanistan, officials will be working with the Afghans to ensure that money donated to operate the government is not misused. "We will help the government to provide as much oversight as conceivably possible," he said.

McKechnie said Afghanistan's infrastructure and the institutions that manage it had been destroyed. "We're talking here about things like creating a budget and restoring a civil service," he said. "It's the absolute basics."


-------- activists

Dr. Strangelove anniversary

Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2002
From: Emily Schroeder <emily@reachingcriticalwill.org>

On January 29, 1964, 38 years ago to the day, Stanley Kubrick attempted to show that society's opinions regarding nuclear weapons and the notion of deterrence may be ill-founded or mistaken, in "Dr. Strangelove"; or "How I Stopped Worrying and Love the Bomb".

This film explores the problem of protecting against one person going crazy and turning technology against society. It shows the tremendous technology of war and the moral bankruptcy of a military theory which accepted ten to twenty million casualties as a mere cost of war.

Ultimately, Kubrick makes his point that nuclear weapons do not belong in civilized society by showing the America's widely held, and popular, beliefs about their nuclear weapons are completely unfounded and misguided. As Dr. Strangelove shows, only without the false justifications surrounding the nuclear weapons can they be exposed as the highly dangerous, illogical, and irrational objects that they are.

Emily Schroeder Project Associate, Reaching Critical Will Women's International League for Peace and Freedom United Nations Office 777 UN Plaza, New York, NY 10017, USA Ph: 1 212 682 1265 Fax: 1 212 286 8211 email: emily@reachingcriticalwill.org, wilpfun@igc.org web: www.reachingcriticalwill.org

----

From Australia - At the heart of every just cause is the cause of justice

From: "Jacob" <jgrech@vthc.org.au>
Date: January 29, 2002 (Washington DC)

The Howard Government is proposing to put new legislation through parliament when it resumes next month.

Under the guise of 'anti-terrorism' the new bill aims to:

give ASIO the right to arrest and detain people for questioning for up to 48 hours without any legal representation remove the right to silence while being questioned give the government greater rights to seize assets of organisations reduce rights to privacy restrict the right to assemble and organise create new offences dealing with terrorism increase police powers of surveillance

While there is much concern in the community about the perceived threat of terrorism in Australia and many unsubstantiated claims made about terrorist plots, it must be remembered that acts of terrorism in Australia are already illegal. It is already illegal in Australia to murder, maim, torture or coerce people - and so it should be - and appropriately severe penalties already exist for these crimes.

As globalisation strips Governments of traditional roles of policy and legislation, one of the few roles left for national governments is military and social control and this government, following in the steps of its mentors in the US and UK have taken to both with gusto.

John Howard is following in the footsteps of his hero Robert Menzies by resurrecting the 'red menace' scare of his idyllic1950's as anti-terrorist hysteria. These laws aim to increase social control by delegitamising the role of activist and pressure groups by equating them with terrorism and painting them as variously unAustralian and something less than human.

These proposed new laws come from the same mindset that considers it reasonable to keep families and children in a concentration camp in the desert for years on the suspicion that their claims are fabricated and then accuse them of blackmail (terrorism?) when in despair they mutilate their own bodies and subject their own children to humiliation in an attempt to gain media exposure to their plight.

The succesful passage of this bill would lead in time to ordinary Australians being too intimidated to speak out on issues which concern them. The implications for unionists, environmentalists, social justice and solidarity activists are immense: would the MUA pickets have been deemed 'terrorist' if these laws had been in existence four years ago? what about the Franklin River? the WEF? or AIDEX?

What about supporting activists and organisations internationally recognised as terrorist, which in the past have included Nelson Mandela and the ANC, Xanana Gusmao and Fretelin? Under these new laws it could be deemed an offence to support the legitaimate struggle of the Palestinian, Burmese, Bougainvillian or West Papuan people or whereever the next Timor uprising occurs.

Whatever we feel personally about radical forms of protest such as blockading the WEF, (and I for one disagreed strongly and publicly with some of the tactics of the so-called 'black bloc') it would be easy for the government to paint such actions and activists as 'terrorist' when clearly, they are not.

If you are someone who has ever taken a stand on any issue; and the fact that I have your email address from some list or other indicates that you probably are, I urge you to make yourself heard on this one. If not, you may not have the opportunity so easily again.

What you can do:

for more info so that you are fully briefed on the issue, come to the public briefing: 6.30 PM - 8.00PM, Thursday, January 31, 2002 Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace Lansdowne and Cathedral Rooms 383 Albert St (crn Lansdowne St) East Melbourne

I realise that it is short notice but if you can't come (or you are not in Melbourne), email me back or contact your union, church, student group, etc for more information.

email ALP politicians: they need to know that they are being watched on this one: after so much lobbying they seem to be changing their minds on concentration camps: every email helps.

to make it easier for you here are their addresses: it'll only take you fifteen minutes and seeing as how you're already online it won't even cost you a cent.

Opposition Leader Simon Crean: S.Crean.MP@aph.gov.au

Deputy Opposition Leader Jenny Macklin: Jenny.Macklin.MP@aph.gov.au

Leader of the Opposition in the Senate and Shadow Minister for Public Administration and Home Affairs Senator John Faulkner senator.faulkner@aph.gov.au

Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Senator Stephen Conroy senator.conroy@aph.gov.au

Shadow Attorney General Robert McClelland R.McClelland.MP@aph.gov.au
The ALP's website feedback form http://www.alp.org.au/action/feedback.html

Thanks for your time.
Jacob Grech

----

N.Y. to arrest masked protesters

By Betsy Pisik
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
January 29, 2002
http://www.washingtontimes.com/business/20020129-22347872.htm

NEW YORK - Police said yesterday they expect demonstrations at this week's World Economic Forum will be mostly peaceful, but they plan to strictly enforce an 1845 state law barring groups of demonstrators from wearing masks.

Chief of Patrol Joseph Esposito said the law applies to groups of three or more.

"Three or more with masks and they're marching, they're under arrest," he said.

Thousands of demonstrators are expected on the streets of New York for the four-day gathering of world political and business leaders that starts Thursday.

At a press conference at the Intercontinental Hotel here, World Economic Forum President and founder Klaus Schwab tried to downplay security concerns.

"We know we are in good hands," he said. "We've seen authorities take necessary measures, and we hope we can work together with those who want to be on the streets" in protest.

The New York Police Department has made it clear that it will close streets around the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and treat disturbances with "zero tolerance."

Protest organizers said many marchers plan to don costumes and carry giant puppets - some worn over their heads - to emphasize their anti-globalization message.

"They're going to have to arrest thousands and thousands of people," said David Graeber of the Anti-Capitalist Convergence, an anarchist group. "It's not going to be good."

The forum has hired private security personnel for inside the hotels, but officials said yesterday that they will not subsidize police overtime or other expenses.

"When we talked to [former mayor Rudolph W.] Giuliani, he said, 'We will take care of it,'" said forum spokesman Charles McLean.

Organizers said yesterday that they have amended the program and guest list for the annual meeting to better focus on the causes and aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

"We had to change the program because the world had entered a new phase," said Mr. Schwab, who was in New York on business on September 11. The theme for the 2002 meeting is "leadership in fragile times," rather than focusing on the recession.

Corporate executives, finance ministers, civic representatives and even entertainers already have begun arriving in New York for the meeting, a glittering gathering of elites that has drawn the anger of anti-globalization protesters.

Some 2,700 influential invitees are expected, including 300 political figures, 40 religious leaders, 35 labor representatives and 100 academics and as many nongovernmental organizations. The remaining guests are business leaders like Microsoft founder Bill Gates, many of whom are subsidizing the event with fees of more than $18,000, not including accommodations.

Many members of the U.S. government will be participating in all or part of the forum, including: Secretary of State Colin Powell, Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham, Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans, Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson and a dozen lawmakers.

High government officials from about 100 countries including France, Canada, Japan, Peru, Israel, Switzerland, South Korea, Poland, Brazil, South Africa and other nations will also attend the event, which has for 32 years been held in somewhat more spartan quarters in Davos, a Swiss alpine village.

A dozen leaders of developing nations are scheduled to make presentations in an effort to stimulate investment.

Forum officials said yesterday that by adding Middle East and Islamic themes to the official program of lectures, panel discussions, informal conversations and catered meals they hoped to create an environment where "root causes" of terrorism - such as poverty and inequality - can be addressed.

"The world needs to move from a necessary coalition against terrorism to a more necessary coalition for development," said Jose Maria Figueres, who heads the WEF Center for the Global Agenda. He said the global issues are so complex that they require a "systemic approach" that is the hallmark of the forum.

Organizers say the beauty of their gathering is the synergy created by strange bedfellows. By tossing labor, religious and business leaders into thought-provoking panel discussions and then encouraging them to stay in touch, the theory goes, everyone will learn something.

Ironically, the strangest and some of the most useful bedfellows may be the protesters who are distributing leaflets throughout Manhattan demanding the forum be shut down.

Officials have privately conceded that interest in the organization's worth has skyrocketed since it became a focal point for demonstrators' anger.

Indeed, more than 300 reporters are accredited to cover the New York events, more than in any previous year and a fraction of those who applied for credentials.

Organizers moved this year's conference from Davos partly to show solidarity with the city after the attacks. It will return to the Swiss village next year.

Meanwhile, anti-globalization protesters have been busy planning their own agenda. Formal demonstrations have been scheduled for Friday and Saturday, but civil disobedience is anticipated throughout the event.

The promised police crackdown on masks dates to the mid-19th century, when tenant farmers wore disguises during protests and riots against their landlords. A federal appeals court upheld the no-mask law after a 1999 court challenge by the Ku Klux Klan.

Presumably, the forum's participants will spend more money than they cost the city.

Cristyne L. Nicholas, president of NYC & Company, the city's tourism bureau, said her office estimated the 2,700 delegates alone will spend $12 million to $18 million in lodging, transportation, entertainment and food.

Throw in the spousal shopping sprees and expenses of the rest of the entourage, she said, and it could be upward of $100 million.

"Even that could be conservative," she said. "We're not counting the demonstrators, all of whom have to buy food and transportation and sleep somewhere. And don't forget, some of them are professional protesters who travel business class."

• This article is based in part on wire-service reports.

----

Israeli Reservists Refuse Territories Duty
Combat Veterans Renounce 'Humiliating' Palestinians

By Lee Hockstader
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, January 29, 2002; Page A16
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A51367-2002Jan28?language=printer

JERUSALEM, Jan. 28 -- More than 60 Israeli army reservists, half of them officers and all of them combat veterans, have publicly refused to continue serving in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on the grounds that Israel's occupation forces there are abusing and humiliating Palestinians.

"We will no longer fight beyond the Green Line for the purpose of occupying, deporting, destroying, blockading, killing, starving and humiliating an entire people," declared a petition signed by the reservists and published in Israel's best-selling daily newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth. The Green Line refers to the border between Israel and the West Bank.

Over the years, eligible Israelis have sometimes declined to serve in the army or refused to serve in certain places for reasons of conscience or politics. What makes the current case unusual is that so many combat reservists, soldiers and officers have come forward publicly at one time.

The organizers of the petition -- a pair of reserve lieutenants in their twenties who have served in the Israeli-occupied territories -- say their goal is to collect 500 signatures in the coming weeks and launch a broad social campaign.

"We all have limits," reserve Lt. David Zonshein, 28, a software engineer and one of the men who drafted the petition, told Yedioth. "You can be the best officer, always be first . . . and suddenly you are asked to do things that should not be asked of you -- to shoot people, to stop ambulances, to destroy houses in which you don't know if there are people living."

Zonshein said his petition drive has triggered furious reactions. "We knew we'd get a lot of reactions, and some of them are not just critical, they're violent," he said. "These are hard people with very extreme beliefs."

Zonshein, who drafted the petition with reserve Lt. Yaniv Itzkovich, 26, a university teaching assistant, declined to grant interviews to foreign correspondents. But along with several other signatories of the petition, the two men told Yedioth about incidents in which they said Israeli troops opened fire on Palestinian children and other civilians who posed no apparent danger to their lives.

In a statement, the Israeli army's general staff said: "To serve in the Israeli Defense Forces is obligatory under the law and there is no place for reserve soldiers to choose what jobs they want and what jobs they don't want. The writers of the petition don't represent the soldiers and officers of the reserve who understand their mission and are working days and nights toward the security of the state of Israel and peace for its citizens."

Most Israeli men are required to serve as army reservists until they are 45 years old, typically spending at least a few weeks each year away from their families and civilian jobs.

The spokesman for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Raanan Gissin, said allegations of abuse by the army should be investigated, but he dismissed the petition and refusals to serve in the army as a "marginal phenomenon." The petition "undermines the basic tenet of Israeli democracy," he said. "You can't have a government in which people can decide they'll . . . bomb this target but not that target. You abide by the rule of the majority, and the majority has decided this is the government and this is its policy."

Since the current Palestinian armed uprising erupted in September 2000, more than 500 Israelis have refused to serve in the Israeli-occupied territories, including pacifists and veterans, recruits and reservists, according to There is a Limit, an Israeli group that monitors and encourages such objectors. Of that number, about 40, including 12 reserve officers, have been sentenced to relatively brief prison terms, the group said. Others have been ignored or given army jobs in Israel.

Ram Rahat, a former Israeli combat soldier who refused to serve during Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982, said the current dissent mirrors patterns from previous conflicts.

"This says that people who have gone through [army reserve duty] a couple of times, going through the territories and seeing the reality of what's going on there, are starting to get fed up with it," said Rahat, 45, an accountant. "It's exactly what happened in the first intifada as well. As more and more people did reserve duty and came back for their second and third tours, there were more and more cases of refusal."

More than 1,000 people have been killed in the past 16 months of violence, about three-quarters of them Palestinians. American, European and Israeli human rights groups have criticized the Israeli army for using excessive force against unarmed Palestinian demonstrators, for opening fire on civilians who posed no apparent threat and for failing to investigate such cases.

--------

Activists: Peaceful Protests Planned

January 29, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-World-Forum-Protests.html

NEW YORK (AP) -- Anti-globalization activists planning to protest the World Economic Forum accused authorities of miscasting them as street thugs, charging Tuesday that police were more likely to provoke violence.

``The police have been putting up a counter-campaign trying to portray the protesters as terrorists,'' Mac Scott said at a Manhattan news conference called by protest organizers.

Another activist, Star Hawk, accused news media of focusing on a potential clash between demonstrators and the police, rather than the protesters' message of ``global justice'' for the poor and for developing nations.

``There is no secret cabal of violent thugs in the movement,'' she said.

The comments came a day after police officials announced plans to use nearly 4,000 officers to secure several blocks around the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in midtown Manhattan. About 3,000 political and business leaders will meet there Thursday-Monday for discussions on the world economy.

Citing street violence that has erupted at similar international forums in recent years, New York authorities say they will strictly enforce order. One law, dating to 1845, bars demonstrators from wearing masks.

Leaders of labor, student and environmental groups told reporters that peaceful demonstrations were planned for each day of the conference. Some will feature giant papier-mache puppets and song and dance, including a ``Radical Rockette kick line.''

``For weeks, the police have been training in riot tactics,'' said Brooke Lehman of Direct Action Network. ``We've been training in samba, puppetry and street theater.''

Partly as a show of solidarity with a city stricken by terrorism, the World Economic Forum is being held in New York instead of the Swiss ski resort of Davos, where it has been held for 31 years.

Protesters call the Forum ``the dining club for the ruling class.'' Forum organizers counter by suggesting that angry demonstrations would be inappropriate after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

-------

ATOMIC SAFETY JUDGES WILL HEAR NIRS CHALLENGE TO DUKE PLUTONIUM USE; JUDGES ALSO REFER NIRS TERRORISM AND SECURITY CASE TO FEDERAL REGULATOR

NEWS FROM NIRS
Nuclear Information and Resource Service

For Immediate Release
January 29, 2002
Contact: Paul Gunter National Office 202-328-0002
Mary Olson Southeast Office 828-251-2060
www.nirs.org; nirsnet@nirs.org, nirs.se@mindspring.com

As Duke Energy rushes towards risky, dangerous experimental use of fuel made from dismantled nuclear bombs, they will not proceed without the participation of concerned citizens who have won the opportunity for a legal hearing before a panel of judges from a federal Atomic Safety and Licensing Board. The Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) will represent its members in the Charlotte, North Carolina area who would be directly impacted by Duke's new plutonium fuel plan. A hearing will assess whether the potential use of experimental bomb plutonium fuel (MOX) must be considered in the renewal of four Duke reactor licenses.

In 2001 Duke Energy applied for 20-year reactor license renewals for Catawba 1 & 2 on Lake Wylie in SC, and McGuire 1 & 2 on Lake Norman in NC. All four reactors are within 20 miles of the Southeast banking capitol, Charlotte. In their application for renewal, Duke asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to ignore their prospective use of bomb plutonium fuel during the renewed license period. NIRS has intervened under provisions of the Atomic Energy Act guaranteeing local communities the right to be heard in atomic license proceedings. Recent revisions to the rules have narrowed the opportunity for public participation. This is the first time a hearing has been granted in a commercial nuclear power reactor license renewal case. The Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League (BREDL) also won the right to represent their members, with NIRS, on nuclear accident risks at these reactors.

NIRS charges that plutonium fuel would accelerate aging of the four reactors, and therefore must be considered in the question of extending operations at each site. Uranium fuel use causes reactors to deteriorate after only two-three decades (at least 8 US reactors have closed due to such aging), while license renewal would give the approval to operate for six decades. Plutonium would speed this aging process. NIRS also charges that weapons grade plutonium fuel use would increase health and environmental hazards above the catastrophic risks posed by uranium fission and must be evaluated, rather than allowing Duke to use old evalutions and assumptions based on uranium fuel.

The January 24 ASLB decision does not yet rule on whether these evaluations will be made, but will allow the case to be brought to a full adjudicatory hearing.

"This is a milestone in our effort to stop the commercialization of bomb plutonium as a fuel," said Mary Olson, Director of NIRS' Southeast office, based in Asheville, NC. "We say NIX to MOX since this fuel increases the chances of a catastrophic reactor accident, would greatly increase the number of cancer deaths from a reactor accident in the Charlotte area, and to cap it all off, we are paying for this with our own tax dollars!" Duke is under contract with the U.S. Department of Energy to use Catawba and McGuire nuclear power reactors to "irradiate" surplus weapons plutonium. An alternative plan that would have treated the surplus bomb plutonium as a waste rather than a fuel, was killed by the Bush Administration the day before the judge's decision was announced.

Security and the risk of terrorist attack are the basis of a second issue brought by NIRS to the Duke License renewal question. NIRS delineated numerous concerns, including the location of the McGuire reactors on the flight path to the Charlotte airport and the possibility of a repeat of the 9/11 attacks, to the spectre of an attack on the dams near these sites that could drain the water from artificial lakes that provide cooling water for the reactors and so cause a meltdown.

The decision from the ASLB judges affirmed the gravity of these concerns, but reflected that they are generic in nature, applying to all U.S. nuclear power stations. Judges Young, Rubenstein and Kelber therefore referred the NIRS case to the NRC Commissioners for action. A week after the September 11 attack, the International Atomic Energy Agency declared that no nuclear power station in the world is designed to withstand an assault by a fully-fueled jumbo jet. Even if the reactor containment were not breached, the fire from such an attack could knock out the ability to control and cool the reactor core, leading to a Chernobyl-like situation. NIRS recommends that all nuclear power stations be closed, since there is no way to ensure their security. Since the NRC is mandated to protect the public health and safety, they are the appropriate agency to act on the NIRS petition, and their security review currently proceeding is closed to the public.

In addition to the bomb plutonium fuel case, another set of issues was accepted by the judges for hearing. The four Duke Energy reactors in question are vulnerable to a complete loss of electric power on the site, known as "station blackout," which could lead very quickly (just 2 hours) to a catastrophic reactor accident. Catawba and McGuire however, have an elevated risk, compared to other reactors, of loss of power with the added loss of reactor containment. Concerns raised by NIRS and points brought by the BREDL were combined and admitted together by the judges for hearing. NIRS charged that Duke also failed to consider alternatives to mitigate this potential for disaster, including the option of providing a dedicated electric line from the hydrogenerating stations adjacent to each reactor site.

"Station blackout is frightening because of how fast a nuclear reactor can melt," said Mary Olson, NIRS Southeast Director. "Losing reactor cooling can be castrophic. Now here is Duke, planning to use our tax dollars to put experimental bomb grade plutonium fuel into four reactors that are at the highest risk in the U.S. for station blackout and have among the weakest containments in the country. This is a recipe for a disastrous meltdown."


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