------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
Bush Can't Persuade China on Weapons
Bush seeks China's help with North Korea
President Bush and Chinese President Jiang Zemin
Bush Stresses Rights and Arms with China's Jiang
China, U.S. Stumble Over Weapons Proliferation Deal
New Gulf War Study Raises Questions
French power slips despite 18-pct nuclear outage
Arafat Repeats Call to End Violence
Missiles a Source of Cash for N. Korea
UN nuclear watchdog to help rid Africa of tsetse fly
Nevada Stages Raid in Bid to Be Military Training Site
Calvert Gas Project Likely to Be Delayed
Report Criticizes Indian Point Evacuation Plan
Investigators Tracking Stolen, Contaminated Tools
Clinton helped Enron finance projects abroad

MILITARY
Rumsfeld: Raid Didn't Hit al - Qaida
CIA Warns of Afghan Civil War
Afghans Flee From Hunger and Fear
Refugees flee war - again
Newspapers Urged to End Classified Gun Ads
ASEAN Ministers Pledge 'New Era' in War on Terror
Milosevic hears Kosovo victim's harrowing testimony
U.N. police stoned in Kosovo
Cheney: Bush Defense Budget Will Revive High - Tech Economy
Colombian Army Ordered Into Haven As Rebel Talks End
Colombian forces retaking rebel haven
Iran's Khamenei Blasts U.S. War on Terror
Iraq: U.S. to Target All Arab Countries
Rights group hits Israeli troops
Israel Puts Tanks and Troops in Gaza City
Israeli cabinet backs greater use of death squads
Nato plans army of 250,000 to fight 'anywhere'
US helicopter crashes in Philippines
Spy Planes Seek Out Philippine Guerrillas
The Philippines, a U.S. ally
Assault rifles for Annan guards investigated
Tribunal to target Sierra Leone atrocities
U.N. perseveres on East Timor violence
New Defense Office Won't Mislead, Officials Say
U.S. Expands Policy on Citizens Taken Hostage
Military won't lie, to use 'tactical deception'
Army helicopter crashes in Philippines
Chinook Helicopter Glance
The Perfect War

ENERGY AND OTHER
GE Buying Enron Unit
Cargill Pork fined $1 million for dumping waste
Study: Biotech Crops Need Oversight
Head, Neck Radiation Linked to Stroke Risk
Treasury Chief Accuses World Bank of Harming Poor Countries
'Reality TV' About G.I.'s on War Duty

ACTIVISTS
Lev Feoktistov Soviet Scientist
Thousands in Seoul Protest Bush's Visit
No tree-free paper in green group ad
Protesting Black Hawk Down



-------- NUCLEAR

-------- china

Bush Can't Persuade China on Weapons

Thu Feb 21
By RON FOURNIER,
AP White House Correspondent
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&u=/ap/20020221/ap_on_re_as/bush_asia_191

BEIJING (AP) - President Bush failed to persuade China on Thursday to halt sales of missile technology, an issue of rising importance as the United States fights its war on terrorism.

Bush was ending his six-day Asia tour Friday with a visit to the Great Wall and an appeal to Chinese young people to embrace human rights and religious tolerance.

"No nation is exempt from the demands of human dignity," Bush said in a joint news conference Thursday with Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

Bush was unable to win China's agreement on halting the sale of missile and nuclear technology to Iran, Pakistan, North Korea and other nations. Iran and North Korea, along with Iraq, make up the "axis of evil" that Bush has targeted for the next phase of his drive to wipe out terrorism.

The United States says China, reneging on a pledge in November 2000, helped Pakistan last year with missile expertise and provided equipment or technology to North Korea, Iran and Libya.

Regarding Iraq, Jiang said peace is "the important thing."

Bush's speech Friday to students at Tsinghua University was to be broadcast live in China. The remarks were intended to extol the virtues of American society - freedom, openness and faith. Aides said Bush aimed his appeal at China's youth, hoping they may one day prod their government to adopt Western ideals.

"All the world's people, including the people of China, should be free to choose how they live, how they worship and how they work," Bush said a day earlier.

National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said the goal of the speech was to "challenge these young people to find those best values in this society as it moves through this period of rapid change."

Bush summed up his mission this way: "I will be defending American values."

He laid down his marker hours after his second face-to-face meeting with Jiang in China's Great Hall of the People.

The leaders sealed their alliance in the war against terrorism but split on several others issues, including Bush's missile defense plans, trade, nuclear proliferation and human rights.

At one point during their joint news conference, a grim-faced Bush twisted his body and looked away from Jiang as the Chinese president shrugged off questions about his government's jailing of Catholic bishops.

"Some of the lawbreakers have been detained because of their violation of the law, not because of their religious belief," Jiang said.

The Chinese government used to say that simply conducting religious activity was destabilizing to society and against the law. More recently, religious leaders have been accused of criminal acts such as rape, fraud, assault and arson.

Human rights activists accuse the government of filing false criminal charges to avoid being accused of trampling on religious freedoms.

Bush advisers said he was not satisfied with Jiang's answer, though he understands it will take time for China to change course. Bush had privately urged the Chinese leader to open talks with the Vatican about the bishops, and to be more tolerate of all religions, aides said.

Jiang was not the only president to duck a question.

Asked whether his missile defense plans could be used to defend Taiwan, which China considers a breakaway region, Bush offered a general defense of his anti-missile shield initiative. Then he added curtly, "That's the extent of our conversation."

Bush said he asked Jiang to carry a message to fellow communist Kim Jong Ill of North Korea: The United States wants to open talks with his government.

Though Jiang did not say whether he would be a conduit, Bush noted that the Chinese leader urged Kim in October to reach out to South Korea.

"That was constructive leadership," Bush said.

Jiang's term as president expires next year. Vice President Hu Jintao, the front-runner to succeed him, was to introduce Bush to the university students and meet later in Washington with Vice President Dick Cheney. Hu and Bush were expected to meet briefly in private.

Jiang will travel to Washington in the fall, the leaders announced.

----

Bush seeks China's help with North Korea

By NICHOLAS M. HORROCK
UPI Chief White House Correspondent
2/21/2002 11:14 AM
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20022002-053742-3843r

BEIJING -- Chinese President Jiang Zemin said Thursday that China will work with the United States to "achieve peace and stability" on the Korean Peninsula, but he appeared to warn President George W. Bush away from military action in Iraq.

"We want the Korean Peninsula to have peace and stability," Jiang said. He also encouraged the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, the official name of North Korea, to resume contacts with the United States.

During their bilateral meetings Thursday, Bush said he asked Jiang to encourage the North Koreans to open a dialogue with South Korea and the U.S.

In an extraordinarily lively joint news conference with President Bush in the Great Hall, the 76-year-old Chinese leader said it had always been the Chinese position that differences between North and South Korea should be settled peacefully.

"All in all, in handling state-to-state relations, it is important to resolve the problems through peaceful means, in a spirit of equality and through consultation. And that's why I've explained our consistent and clear-cut position on the question of the Korean Peninsula. It's quite near."

China has been North Korea's major ally since 1950 when Chinese troops swept across the Yalu River and forced U.S. forces back to the 38th Parallel in the Korean War. It will be hard for North Korean strong man Kim Jong Il to resist full pressure from his Chinese benefactors.

Later, Jiang noted that Iraq is not as near as Korea. "But I think as I made clear in my discussion with President Bush, just now, the important thing is that peace is to be valued most."

National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice told reporters that President Bush reassured Jiang that he made no decision about military action on Iraq and that China would be fully informed as a member the United Nations Security Council. It is the U.S. that imposed the sanctions President Bush has asked Iraq to abide by.

Despite the agreement on Korea, the two leaders did not appear to make any progress on non-proliferation of weapons. In the past, the United States has accused China of supplying missile technology and support to Pakistan, Libya, Iran and North Korea. China has consistently denied selling any weapons that violate international law.

Rice said the sticking point is over China's unwillingness to pass effective export controls and reluctance to punish some Chinese companies that have violated weapons export agreements. The U.S. is refusing to lift sanctions against Chinese companies.

In a January report to Congress, the CIA said as of the middle of 2001, China provided missile technology and support to Pakistan, Libya, Iran and North Korea, including computers and other support. It has also sold advance conventional weapons to Pakistan, including F-7 fighter aircraft.

Meanwhile, Bush said that Jiang has agreed to visit the United States next October in conjunction with his attendance at the Asian Pacific Economic Conference and that Vice President Hu Jintao would be visiting the U.S. shortly.

Perhaps the most compelling exchange of the 37-minute news conference came when Jiang appeared to override a foreign ministry official and answer questions posed by two American reporters.

One reporter, Terry Moran, of the American Broadcasting Co. (ABC), asked Jiang to explain to Americans "why your government restricts the practice of religious faith, in particular, why your government has imprisoned more than 50 bishops of the Roman Catholic Church."

At first Jiang appeared to ignore the reporter and a foreign ministry official called on a Chinese reporter for a second question. Later Bob Deans of Cox News Service asked the Chinese president to answer the question on religion.

Laughing and saying partly in English, "President Bush has much more experience than I when it comes to meeting the press," Jiang gave the following answer on religion:

"In the first question, the correspondent mentioned that some Catholic Church people have been detained.

"I want to explain that since the founding of the People's Republic of China, all our constitutions, various versions, have provided for the freedom of religious belief. In China there are many religions that include Buddhism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam and a typical Chinese religion, Taoism. And their religious faiths are protected by our Constitution."

"I don't have religious faith. Yet this does not prevent me from having an interest in religion," Jiang said. He added that he had read the Koran and the Bible and once a year meets with different religious groups.

"What ever religion people believe in, they have to abide by the law. So some lawbreakers have been detained because of their violation of the law, not because of their religious belief. Although I am the president of this country, I have no right interfering in the judicial affairs, because of judicial independence."

Both presidents remarked on how well the relationship had flowered since

President Nixon opened relations with the world's largest communist country, 30 years ago.

Bush arrived at Beijing Capital Airport shortly after 10 a.m. local time and went almost immediately into bilateral meetings with Jiang.

Rice said Bush urged Jiang to meet with Vatican and the Tibetan leader Dali Llama about issues of religious freedom. He said he would also talk about Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, "as well as Christian faiths."

The Chinese are wary U.S. military operations in the Far East and its strong rhetoric about dissidents. The State Department last week filed a protest on behalf of 37 Americans who are having difficulties or are being detained by the Chinese.

For his part, Jiang will undoubtedly raise Bush's plan to build a missile defense system.

The president's visit to Beijing is the shortest of any of the three capitals he has traveled to on his Asian venture. He had a formal dinner with Jiang Thursday evening and on Friday visits the Great Wall as did Nixon and succeeding presidents. He returns to Washington on Friday.

In the past week of meetings and public addresses, Bush formalized the shift of U.S. attention to Asia, dubbing the 21st Century, the "Pacific Century" in address in Tokyo and turning his "axis of evil" remark into a plea to end what the South Korean president called the last vestige of the Cold War -- the military confrontation along 38th Parallel.

On Wednesday, Bush went to the Demilitarized Zone that divides the Korean Peninsula calling on North Korea to end the confrontation that has split the peninsula for 49 years.

Bush and his administration have stressed that in addition to North Korea perpetuating the standoff at the DMZ, Pyongyang has developed a major arsenal of ballistic missiles and sells this technology around the world. The Bush administration has also accused North Korea of trying to develop nuclear weapons.

----

President Bush and Chinese President Jiang Zemin Speak in Beijing

Thursday, February 21, 2002
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A44067-2002Feb21?language=printer

BUSH: I appreciate so very much your hospitality. We have just concluded some very candid and positive talks. It is true that I invited the president to the United States next fall. It's true he accepted.

Now, this is the 30th year--30th anniversary of President Nixon's first visit to China, the beginning of 30 years of growth in the U.S.-China relationship. Our ties are mature, respectful and important to both our nations and to the world.

We discussed a lot of issues starting with terrorism. We recognize that terrorism is a threat to both our countries. And I welcome China's cooperation in the war against terror. I encourage China to continue to be a force for peace among its neighbors, on the Korean Peninsula, in Southeast Asia, and South Asia.

China, as a full member of the WTO, will now be a full partner in the global trading system and will have the right and responsibility to fashion and enforce the rules of open trade.

My government hopes that China will strongly oppose the proliferation of missiles and other deadly technologies.

President Jiang and I agree that the United States and China could cooperate more closely to defeat HIV-AIDS.

Our talks were candid, and that is very positive. The United States shares interests with China, but we also have some disagreements. We believe that we can discuss our differences with mutual understanding and respect.

As the president mentioned, we talked about Taiwan. The position of my government has not changed over the years.

We believe in the peaceful settlement of this issue. We will urge there be no provocation. The United States will continue to support the Taiwan Relations Act.

China's future is for the Chinese people to decide, yet no nation is exempt from the demands of human dignity. All the world's people, including the people of China, should be free to choose how they live, how they worship and how they work.

Dramatic changes have occurred in China in the last 30 years, and I believe equally dramatic changes lie ahead. These will have a profound impact, not only on China itself but on the entire family of nations.

And the United States will be a steady partner in China's historic transition toward greater prosperity and greater freedom.

Thank you, Mr. President.

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President, for you hospitality. President Bush, on the question of strategic nuclear policy, you've said you want to develop a missile defense system in order to defend the United States and its allies from the threats and dangers of the 21st century. Do you envision a circumstance where that includes Taiwan?

And President Jiang, if I may, with respect, could you explain to Americans who may not understand your reasoning why your government restricts the practice of religious faith, in particular, why your government has imprisoned more than 50 bishops of the Roman Catholic Church?

BUSH: I did bring up the subject of missile defenses in the broad context of protecting ourselves and our friends and allies against a launch by a threatening nation.

I explained to the president that we were--had just recently gotten out from the underneath 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and are beginning to explore the full options as to whether or not a system will work. And that's the extent of our conversation.

QUESTION (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Just now, President Bush mentioned that today marks the 30th anniversary of the first visit to China by President Bush (sic). In a few days time, the 28th of this month, will mark the 30th anniversary of the release of the Shanghai communique. So my question to President Jiang is that, how would you characterize the relationship over the past 30 years?

JIANG (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): We will have, in February, the 30th anniversary of the first visit to China by President Nixon and the release of the Shanghai communique. The visit by President Bush coincides with this day, and his visit is highly meaningful. Thirty years ago, leaders of China and the United States acted together to put an end to mutual estrangement and open the gate for exchanges and cooperation between the two countries.

History has proven that it was with great vision that our leaders took this major move. The growth of bilateral ties over the years has brought tangible benefits to the two peoples and played an important role in safeguarding peace in the Asia-Pacific region and the world as a whole.

JIANG (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): At present, despite profound changes in the international situation, China and the United States have more rather than less shared interests and more rather than less common responsibility for world peace.

The importance of the relationship has increased rather than decreased, so to build a constructive and cooperative relationship serve the desire of not only the people of the two countries, but also of the people throughout the world.

The Chinese side is ready to join the U.S. side in reflecting on the past and looking to the future, increasing exchanges and cooperation and enhancing understanding and trust. I'm deeply convinced that, so long as the two sides bare in mind the larger picture, take a long-term perspective and abide by the principles in the three China-U.S. joint communiques, the relationship will make even bigger strides forward in the years ahead.

Thank you.

QUESTION: President Jiang, do you agree with President Bush that there should be a regime change in Iraq? And if so, would you support the use of all necessary means to accomplish that? And with respect, sir, we're eager to hear the response to your--the original question about the arrest of Catholic bishops in your country and attention to religious groups in general?

And President Bush, you have thanked the Chinese for their cooperation in the anti-terror campaign.

QUESTION: As that campaign evolves, can you say today what would be the single most important contribution that China could make, and did you receive any assurance today that that will happen?

BUSH: Let me start.

We discussed the Korean Peninsula. I told the president that I was deeply concerned about a regime that is not transparent and that starves its people.

I also--he reminded me that he had a conversation with Kim Jung Il last fall urging Kim Jung Il to take up Kim Dae Jung's offer for discussion. That was constructive leadership.

BUSH: I then told him that the offer I made yesterday in Seoul was a real offer and that we would be willing to meet with the North Korean regime, and I asked his help in conveying that message to Kim Jung Il. If he so chooses, if he speaks to the leader of North Korea, he can assure him that I am sincere in my desire to have our folks meet.

My point is that not every theater in the war against terror need be resolved with force. Some theaters can be resolved through diplomacy and dialogue. And the Chinese government can be very helpful.

Furthermore, in the first theater in the war against terror, part of the call for our coalition is to make sure that Afghanistan becomes a self-supporting peaceful nation. And the Chinese government is supportive of the aid efforts to make sure that we aid the new post-Taliban, Afghani government and its opportunities to develop its own army as well as its own economy, its own security. So they've been helpful there as well.

Thank you.

QUESTION (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): I've got a two-part question.

QUESTION (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): First, in recent years China has enjoyed rapid economic growth and its national strength has increased. Some people in the United States have concluded that, because of this, China has posed a potential threat to the United States, and they call for a policy of containment against China. What is your comment, President Jiang?

And secondly, in your opening remarks, President Jiang, you mentioned that the key to steady growth of a Sino-U.S. relationship is the proper handling of the question of Taiwan. President Bush, in his opening remarks also elaborated on the U.S. position on Taiwan.

President Jiang, could you comment on what President Bush has said on the question of Taiwan?

JIANG (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): As two major countries with different national conditions, China and the U.S. have indeed certain disagreements, but they also share broad and important common interests.

So the old mindset which views relationships between countries as either of alliance or confrontation ought to be abandoned and a new security concept which features security through mutual trust and cooperation through mutual benefit should be established.

It's true that since the inception of the reform and (inaudible) program, China's national strengths and people's living standards have somewhat improved in recent years, yet compared with the developed countries, our economic and cultural development remains quite backwards.

With a population of over 1.2 billion, the road ahead is still very long before we can basically complete modernization and deliver a better-off life to all our people.

To focus on economic development and the improvement of people's livelihood is our long-term central task. What China wants most is a peaceful and tranquil international environment with long-term stability: Do not do unto others what you would not like others to do unto you. Even if China becomes more developed in the future, it will not go for bullying or threatening other countries.

JIANG (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Facts have proven already and will continue to prove that China is a staunch force dedicated to the maintenance of peace in the region and the world at large.

Now, let me comment on the questions posed to me by the American correspondents as they raise the questions for President Bush.

When it comes to meeting the press, I think President Bush is much more experienced. I will do my best to answer your question.

In the first question, the correspondent mentioned that some of the Catholic Church people have been detained. I want to explain that, since the founding of the People's Republic of China, all our institutions (inaudible) have provided for the freedom of religious belief. In China, there are many religions, which includes Buddhism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam and a typical Chinese religion (inaudible) and their religious faiths are protected by our institution.

JIANG (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): I don't have religious faith. Yet this does not prevent me from having interest in religion. I have read the Bible. I have also read the Koran, as well as the scriptures of Buddhism.

I often have meetings with the religious leaders in this country. For instance, when we are about to celebrate the new year or during the holiday season, I would have meetings with them and exchange views.

Whatever religion people believe in, they have to abide by the law. So some of the law breakers have been detained because of their violation of law, not because of their religious belief. Although I'm the president of this county, I have no right interfering in the judicial affairs because of judicial independence.

You also ask about the Korean peninsula issue. President Bush has also commented on this. In our talks just now, the two of us exchanged views on the Korean peninsula. I want to make clear that we have all along pursued such a position. That is, we want Korean Peninsula to have peace and stability.

We hope that the problems between DPRK and ROK can be resolved through dialogue, and we also sincerely hope that the contacts between the United States and DPRK will be resumed.

JIANG (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): All in all, in handling state-to-state relations, it is important to resolve the problems through peaceful means, in the spirit of equality and through consultation.

And that's why I've explained our consistence and clear-cut position on the question of the Korean peninsula. It's quite near.

You ask about Iraq. is not as near, but I think, as I made clear in my discussion with President Bush just now, importantly that peace is to be valued most.

With regard to counterterrorism, our position has not changed from the position I made clear to President Bush when we last met four months ago, and that is, China is firmly opposed to international terrorism of all forms.

I'm very pleased to see that Afghanistan has now embarked on a road of peaceful reconstruction. I wish them well. I hope they will succeed in rebuilding their country and enjoy national unity and peace.

Let me conclude by quoting a Chinese proverb: ``More haste, less speed.''

JIANG (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Despite the fact that sometimes you will have problems that cry out for immediate solution, yet patience is sometimes also necessary.

Or perhaps, I could quote another Chinese old saying to describe the situation: ``One cannot expect to dig a well with one spade.'' So we need to make (inaudible) efforts to fight terrorism.

That's the end of the joint meeting with the press.

Thank you.

----

Bush Stresses Rights and Arms with China's Jiang

By REUTERS
February 21, 2002
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-bush-asia.html

BEIJING - President Bush pushed China on Thursday to curb the spread of weapons technology and let its people live and worship freely on a visit to Beijing designed to build on a new spirit of cooperation.

But despite smiles, warm handshakes and even a serenade in Italian by Chinese President Jiang Zemin, Bush failed to secure an early deal to stop military transfers to nations he has branded ``an axis of evil.''

Exactly 30 years after a bridge-building visit by former President Richard Nixon, Jiang said Beijing and Washington would step up cooperation against terrorism but urged patience in the campaign Bush launched after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

Bush, in China for the second time in four months, was on the final leg of an Asian tour also covering Japan and South Korea that has focused on his efforts to stop the ``axis'' -- Iran, Iraq and North Korea -- developing weapons of mass destruction.

``My government hopes that China will strongly oppose the proliferation of missiles and other deadly technologies,'' he said at a joint news conference after talks with Jiang on the first day of his visit.

The United States has accused China of transferring weapons technology to North Korea and Iran and U.S. officials had said they hoped for an arms proliferation deal with China on Thursday.

But Bush's national security adviser, Condoleeza Rice, said later she did not expect an agreement during Bush's current visit to China, which denies the U.S. charges.

``The talks are getting a little bit better but it's going to take a while,'' Rice said.

BUSH INVITES JIANG AND HEIR

Nevertheless, Bush invited Jiang and his heir apparent and vice president, Hu Jintao, to visit the United States -- invitations that both accepted.

The visits will boost Hu's political standing in the run-up to a leadership handover and consolidate Jiang's legacy as the leader who stabilized ties with a major trade and investment partner before he retires as Communist Party chief this autumn.

At a banquet later Thursday, Jiang serenaded his guests with the Italian classic ``O Sole Mio'' and danced with three leading U.S. ladies in a display of hospitality unthinkable last year.

``He was kicking up his heels and singing songs,'' said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer. ``It really was just a delightful touch.''

Jiang danced with Laura Bush, Condoleeza Rice and the wife of U.S. Ambassador Clark Randt as the People's Liberation Army band played such American favorites as ``The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You,'' ``Moon River,'' and other tunes.

Jiang also played down differences on human rights and Taiwan, despite U.S. plans to go ahead with arms sales to Taipei.

Bush said there had been no change in Washington's policy toward Taiwan, which China claims as a renegade province.

BUSH RAISES HUMAN RIGHTS

Bush, a devout Christian, broached the delicate issue of human rights and religious freedom at the news conference, standing on a podium next to Jiang, a self-proclaimed atheist.

``China's future is for the Chinese people to decide, yet no nation is exempt from the demands of human dignity,'' Bush said.

``All the world's people, including the people of China, should be free to choose how they live, how they worship, and how they work.''

Jiang responded that Beijing had always protected religious freedoms in its constitution, and in a rare, unscripted moment of candor noted he had read the Bible, the Koran and Buddhist scriptures despite being a non-believer.

Bush, arriving from South Korea where he expressed support for President Kim Dae-jung's ``Sunshine Policy'' of reconciliation with North Korea, also asked for Jiang's support in re-opening dialogue with Pyongyang.

He said the United States was willing to meet the government of the North's leader, Kim Jong-il, and asked Jiang to convey that message to his old Communist ally. Jiang said later he hoped contacts between Washington and Pyongyang would be resumed.

The chemistry between Bush and Jiang was noticeably warmer than when they met at an Asia-Pacific economic summit in Shanghai in October, underlining a dramatic turnaround in relations.

Sino-U.S relations got off to a rocky start under Bush, marred by the collision between a Chinese fighter and a U.S. spy plane and Bush's vow early after taking office to do ''whatever it takes'' to defend Taiwan.

But U.S. officials said ties have improved since Beijing agreed to share intelligence, investigate banks and provide diplomatic support for the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.

Bush thanked Jiang for supporting the war on terrorism, but Jiang urged patience in that campaign.

``Despite the fact that sometimes you will have problems that cry out for immediate solution, patience is sometimes also necessary,'' he said, when asked how best to deal with Iraq.

CHINA HAS DOUBTS

China harbors deep reservations about U.S. troops in its Central Asian backyard and U.S. plans to target countries with which it has close military and political ties, analysts say.

A recent CIA report accused China of providing dual-use missile-related items, raw materials and assistance to countries including Iran and North Korea.

``We're making it clear that weapons of mass destruction, the missiles that deliver them -- it's all part of an evil web,'' one U.S. official said. ``You better not be seen as contributing to the construction of that web.''

Washington wants Beijing to renew its commitment to the November 2000 deal not to help any country develop missiles that can carry nuclear weapons.

China says it has not violated any commitments on weapons proliferation and wants the United States to lift sanctions on Chinese entities accused of breaking such pacts.

Friday, Bush will also get a chance to meet Hu, the little-known figure expected to take over as leader of the world's most populous nation this autumn.

The two would meet face to face when Hu introduces Bush before a speech at his alma mater, Tsinghua University in Beijing, but it was unclear of they would have time for private conversation, a senior U.S. official said.

--------

China, U.S. Stumble Over Weapons Proliferation Deal

February 21, 2002
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/politics/politics-bush-asia-weapons.html

BEIJING - China and the United States have failed to reach a deal on curbing proliferation of weapons technology despite an appeal by President Bush, a top U.S. official said Thursday.

Bush had been hoping to secure a guarantee from China not to export missile and other weapons technology to nations hostile to the United States, especially those he had labeled ''an axis of evil'' -- North Korea, Iran and Iraq, analysts said.

``My government hopes that China will strongly oppose the proliferation of missiles and other deadly technologies,'' Bush told a news conference after talks with Chinese President Jiang Zemin on the first day of a visit to Beijing.

China denies breaking any non-proliferation agreements and wants the United States to lift sanctions on Chinese entities for violating such pacts. It also links the issue to U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, which it regards as a rebel province.

U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice said the two sides had failed to reach an agreement and were not expected to do so during Bush's current visit to China, which ends on Friday.

``The talks are getting a little bit better but it's going to take a while,'' Rice told reporters after the news conference.

Earlier, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Bush hoped to conclude a deal Thursday for China to adhere to the terms of a November 2000 agreement restricting Chinese exports of ballistic missile technology.

In return, Washington would resume issuing licenses to U.S. companies to launch satellites on Chinese rockets, U.S. officials said.

CIA FINGERS CHINA

Even before the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, U.S. officials had highlighted weapons proliferation as their number one priority in relations with China.

On September 1, Washington slapped sanctions on a Chinese firm it accused of transferring missile technology to Pakistan in violation of a November 2000 agreement with the United States.

Bush's ``axis of evil'' speech has now thrown a spotlight on China's sometimes murky military ties with Iraq, Iran and old Communist ally North Korea.

A CIA report submitted to the U.S. Congress on January 30 accused China of taking ``a very narrow interpretation of its bilateral non-proliferation commitments with the United States'' according to data gathered in the first half of last year.

``Firms in China have provided dual-use missile-related items, raw materials, and/or assistance to several other countries of proliferation concern -- such as Iran, North Korea and Libya,'' it said.

BUSH TURNS UP HEAT

U.S. officials want China to renew its commitment to the November 2000 deal not to help any country develop missiles that can carry nuclear weapons, and to abide by the Missile Technology Control Regime, a voluntary international accord that tries to limit missile exports to unstable regions.

They turned up the heat last month by imposing sanctions on two more Chinese firms and one individual accused of transferring chemical and biological weapons technology to Iran.

China has called the sanctions ``unreasonable.'' It says such firms are either exporting the know-how without government knowledge, or the technology in question is not covered by agreements with the United States.

To clear up any gray area, the United States has urged China to issue a list of materials covered by non-proliferation pacts.

Some diplomats have said the list is likely to emerge in the months after Bush's visit to save China the embarrassment of publicly giving in to U.S. demands.


-------- depleted uranium

New Gulf War Study Raises Questions

February 21, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Gulf-War-Deaths.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A new Veterans Administration analysis of death rates among Gulf War soldiers exposed to deadly gases from an Iraqi chemical weapons depot has cast doubt on the Pentagon's determination of which soldiers were exposed, veterans groups say.

The Pentagon has said about 100,000 soldiers were exposed to toxic gases when the Khamisiyah chemical weapons facility was blown up by U.S. combat engineers. It steadfastly has said the level of exposure was not hazardous, but has revised which soldiers were involved.

A group of 34,000 the Pentagon initially thought were exposed were removed from the exposure list following a new analysis of the vapor cloud and were replaced with another group the same size.

The study by the Veterans Benefits Administration, obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, found the death rate among the group that was removed was nearly 10 times higher than that among the other soldiers.

The study included data on deaths and VA benefits applications but no commentary on the numbers. It did not differentiate how the veterans died -- some could have been killed in car accidents, by natural causes or from a service-related illnesses -- or whether any deaths or claims were attributable to exposure to nerve gases.

The analysis did say 3,689 of 42,167 claims processed were for undiagnosed illnesses.

VA statisticians briefed veterans groups on the report Thursday but offered no explanations for the disparity in death rates, according to Patrick Eddington, associate director of government relations for Vietnam Veterans of America.

Eddington said more investigation is needed to determine exactly who was exposed and whether they could face health problems as a result.

``If there is a benign explanation for this discrepancy, we don't know what it would be,'' said Eddington, whose group also advocates for Gulf War veterans.

VA spokesman Jim Benson said he had not seen the analysis and had no immediate comment. Pentagon spokeswoman Barbara Goodno said, ``The report is a VA report and the numbers to us appear to be raw data. For us to draw any conclusion would be premature.''

For years, the Pentagon discounted claims that mysterious illnesses cited by Gulf War veterans could be tied to toxic exposures. But last December, a Pentagon-supported report by the Rand's National Defense Research Institute raised the possibility some undiagnosed illnesses could be explained by exposure to low levels of Iraqi nerve gas.

The report called for more research into the long-term health effects of exposure such as that experienced by American soldiers at Khamisiyah, where weapons caches were destroyed March 4 and 10, 1991. It was discovered later that the depot and a nearby pit contained hundreds of weapons filled with lethal sarin, cyclosarin and mustard gases.

The Pentagon sent letters in 1997 to the troops it believed might have been exposed to a chemical vapor cloud from the explosion. The letter said the level of exposure was not high enough to cause health problems.

Three years later, the Pentagon said a revised computer model using new weather and troop location information showed a different track for the vapor cloud that took it over other soldiers.

A new round of letters went out. Some 34,418 soldiers were told military officials no longer believed they were exposed. An additional 65,407 were told the Pentagon still believed they might have been exposed. And 34,638 others were told officials now believed they might have been exposed.

The VA's analysis found 221 deaths among the group the Pentagon consistently said might have been exposed, a rate of 3.38 per 1,000. There were 105 deaths, or 3.03 per 1,000, among the group military officials added after the revised computer model.

But there were 1,011 deaths, or 29.37 per 1,000, among the group that first was told it might have been exposed, then that it was not.

Dave Autry, spokesman for Disabled American Veterans, said it is important to find out why groups of mainly young men would have such differing death rates.

Erik Gustafson, a Gulf War veteran from Washington in the group with the highest death rate, called the numbers ``extremely alarming.''

Gustafson was with the 864th Engineer Battalion in northeast Kuwait when Khamisiyah was destroyed. He said he has not had any serious health problems, but has seen friends from his battalion experience problems.

``What's happened is any trust I might have had is gone. It's really eroded over time,'' Gustafson said. ``When I got the second letter, it was like, 'Can't they get any of this right?' Now, this just reinforces the skepticism.''

-------- france

French power slips despite 18-pct nuclear outage

REUTERS FRANCE:
February 21, 2002
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/14641/story.htm

PARIS - French electricity fell across the curve this week as ample supplies of hydropower and wind power in Europe offset latest data showing an 18-percent outage of France's nuclear production for repairs.

Day ahead baseload cash prices for Wednesday traded nearly 0.50 euros down at 23.25 euros per megawatt hour, with Thursday pegged at 24.00 euros. Peak demand was low and day ahead fell to 27.50/28.00 from 28/29 euros.

"There is a lot of Norwegian hydropower coming through to Germany and France, as well as wind energy offsetting the drop in French production," a trader said.

France usually has 10 to 15 percent of its commercial nuclear capacity offline for repairs but as of February 17, the outage volume rose 3,100 megawatts (MW) to 11,250 MW, or about 18 percent of the total 62,400 MW, according to the government's weekly report.

It said Electricite de France shut three nuclear reactors last week, raising the number of French outages to 10 out of 58.

"You would expect a price change because the outages are larger than normal, but EdF has not been buying a lot," said a trader, estimating that the state-owned utility has bought about 400 MW in the spot market.

Week ahead was traded heavily, with baseload was about 0.50 euro lower at 23.85, 23.95 euros, peak at 31.75. The weekend was not traded but bid at 18.75 but valued more at 19.00/19.25, traders said.

Prices on the forward curve slipped about 0.50 euro with the prompt, with March bid down to 23.40/23.80 euros, April at 23.40/23.80, May and June at 20.50/21.00 euros.

Year 2003 was a shade softer trading at 22.95 and 23.00 euros.

-------- israel

Arafat Repeats Call to End Violence

Thu Feb 21
By MARK LAVIE,
Associated Press Writer
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&u=/ap/20020221/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_palestinians_1537

JERUSALEM (AP) - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat repeated a call to halt violence Thursday, and his security forces arrested three suspects in the assassination of an Israeli Cabinet minister, one of Israel's conditions for releasing Arafat from a two-month siege.

Arafat's West Bank office was among the targets of Israeli air strikes Thursday, the third day of punishing Israeli reprisals for Palestinian attacks. Four Palestinian civilians, three gunmen and an Israeli Arab were killed and two Israeli soldiers were wounded in the day's bloodshed.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in a nationally televised speech and news conference that his government would set up buffer zones to separate Israel and the Palestinian ruled areas to provide security.

"In order to enhance the security of the citizens of Israel, and for the purpose of achieving a security separation, we have decided to establish buffer zones. During a discussion of the Security Cabinet, it was decided to immediately begin marking buffer zones and placing obstacles along them."

Palestinian security took a step toward easing tensions by arresting three suspects in the Oct. 17 assassination of Israeli Cabinet minister Rehavam Zeevi, fulfilling a key Israeli condition for removing the tanks besieging Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah. Sharon spokesman Ranaan Gissin said the three must be put on trial before the blockade would be ended.

Israeli air strikes against Palestinian security buildings in the West Bank and Gaza continued until midday. One helicopter-borne missile blasted a hole in the wall of a building in Arafat's Ramallah compound, the closest the Israelis have come to hitting the Palestinian leader. Afterward, Arafat walked down a darkened hallway to inspect the damage to his office. Helped by two aides to navigate through the rubble of the lounge where he receives foreign diplomats, he said, "tanks and aircraft cannot frighten the Palestinian people or their leadership."

Speaking to reporters, Arafat repeated his call to stop the fighting, referring to "the initiative that I began on Dec. 16 to make the cease-fire hold." He referred to the date of a televised speech made shortly after Israel began its siege.

Arafat said the three arrested militants would be "put on trial in our territories," rejecting calls by some Israeli officials that they be extradited.

Palestinian security agents broke into an apartment in Nablus where the three were hiding and detained them, said the Palestinian intelligence chief in Nablus, Col. Talal Dweikat. He said the arrest order came directly from Arafat.

The three are leading members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which claimed responsibility for the assassination, calling it retribution for Israel's killing of PFLP leader Abu Ali Mustafa last August.

The PFLP is the second-largest component of Arafat's PLO. PFLP leader Ahmed Saadat was detained several weeks ago and is being held at Arafat's Ramallah headquarters, Palestinians say.

Early Thursday, Israeli forces entered Gaza City for the first time, destroying a four-story building housing a broadcasting station. Residents all over the city could see the hilltop antenna tower crash to the ground.

At the same time, Israeli tanks entered the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Five Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire.

In an incident reminiscent of an assault Tuesday in which six Israeli soldiers were killed, a Palestinian gunman opened fire on a checkpoint, wounding two soldiers.

Soldiers returned the fire, killing the Palestinian and an Israeli Arab who drove him to the site. Israeli officials said the Israeli Arab was unaware that the Palestinian planned to launch an attack.

Palestinians said Israeli forces took over four apartment buildings in Nablus, near the Balata refugee camp, home of the leader of a militia, affiliated with Arafat's Fatah, that claimed responsibility for the Tuesday checkpoint assault. However, the Israelis stayed out of the camp.

Palestinians said Israeli soldiers abused and humiliated the residents of the building. The Israeli military denied the charges.

The Palestinian attacks at checkpoints and gunfire along West Bank and Gaza roads, aimed at Israeli soldiers and settlers, were evidence of a change in tactics by the Palestinians after nearly 17 months of violence.

Palestinians close to militant groups said operations in the territories the Palestinians claim as their own could win them world sympathy, while grisly suicide bombing attacks inside Israel drew withering criticism.

Israeli officials acknowledged the change in targets and tactics, saying that they were facing a guerrilla war instead of random terrorism, and would respond with small commando operations aimed at militants.

-------- korea

Missiles a Source of Cash for N. Korea

February 21, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-NKorea-Making-Missiles.html

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- For North Korea, missiles rake in hard currency and play to the home audience as a symbol of pride and power. They're also a handy bargaining chip with the United States.

After decades of secretive arms development, the totalitarian government appears to view missiles and weapons of mass destruction, or WMD, as a vital means of survival.

That makes President Bush's efforts to seek the disbandment of those weapons -- a goal of his global war on terrorism -- all the more difficult. Bush, who was in China on Thursday, reiterated his worries a day earlier in South Korea.

``I am concerned about a country that is not transparent, that allows for starvation, that develops weapons of mass destruction,'' said Bush, who repeated an offer to negotiate with North Korea. Missile talks with the North stopped with the end of the Clinton administration.

Washington says North Korea continued to do missile business after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, exporting weapons, components and expertise. Its main clients are Iran, Libya, Syria and Egypt, according to the Central Intelligence Agency.

``Profits from these sales help Pyongyang to support its missile -- and probably other WMD -- development programs, and in turn generate new products to offer to its customers,'' CIA director George Tenet said earlier this month.

U.S. officials cite North Korea as a reason for building a missile defense system, while the North defends its missiles as a means of deterring any U.S. belligerence.

The cash-starved country depends on outside food aid, much of it from the United States, and its military lacks modern equipment and even fuel for its tanks and planes.

The North has not conducted a missile test since 1998, when it alarmed the region by firing a rocket over Japan and into the Pacific.

U.S. defense analysts say the North conducted several tests of missile engines last year, possibly for its latest project: the long-range Taepodong-2.

``When other nations have done this it means that they are preparing to deploy and/or test a system which used the engines,'' said Joseph Bermudez, author of ``The Armed Forces of North Korea.''

But North Korea has previously deployed missile systems without Western-style testing, so the significance of the engine activity is unclear, he said.

If deployed, a Taepodong-2 could reach the U.S. mainland with a payload of several hundred pounds, according to the Pentagon. U.S. officials warn that North Korea has chemical and biological warfare programs, and probably enough processed plutonium to make at least one nuclear weapon.

North Korea adapted Soviet technology, allegedly importing Scud missiles from Egypt in the 1970s or early 1980s.

The Taepodong-2 ``is a completely new engine and airframe'' and could entail more ``development hurdles,'' said Daniel Pinkston, a North Korea analyst at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California.

But the very existence of long-range missiles, however accurate they are, gives North Korea some clout in any talks with Japan, South Korea and the United States.

Scott Snyder, head of the Asia Foundation office in Seoul, said North Korea seeks to ``manufacture leverage,'' or extract concessions, with its missiles.

In 2000, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il said he would maintain a moratorium on missile tests until 2003. But it was unclear whether his military was even able to conduct a test at that time.

Kim said then that a rocket test cost up to $300 million and that he would be willing to stop developing rockets if the United States agreed to launch North Korean satellites.

His negotiators also demanded that Washington compensate Pyongyang for giving up missile exports, but U.S. officials refused.

-------- medicine

UN nuclear watchdog to help rid Africa of tsetse fly

Story by Louis Charbonneau
REUTERS AUSTRIA: February 21, 2002
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/14655/story.htm

VIENNA - The U.N. nuclear watchdog said this week it would use nuclear technology to help rid Africa of the deadly tsetse fly.

Half a million people in sub-Saharan Africa are estimated to have been infected with sleeping sickness by the tsetse fly and 80 percent of them will likely die, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Annual economic losses are put at $4.5 billion.

The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a statement the tsetse fly, which carries the parasite that causes sleeping sickness in humans and nagana in animals, was killing three million livestock animals every year.

"The impact of the fly is difficult to exaggerate," said John Kabayo, regional coordinator for the Pan African Tsetse and Trypanosomosis Eradication Campaign (PATTEC), inaugurated by the Organisation of African Unity.

"It's no accident that the concentration of much of the world's most acute poverty is in regions of sub-Saharan Africa infested with it," he said.

The WHO estimates that in some parts of the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo in central Africa, sleeping sickness is killing more people than any other communicable disease, including HIV/AIDS.

But Kabayo said there was hope in combating the epidemic, which began in the mid 1970s. Recently, the IAEA helped Zanzibar to rid itself of the tsetse by using a combination of conventional pesticides and nuclear technology.

STERILE MALES

The process is simple. Tsetse flies are bred in special centres and the males are exposed to a short burst of radiation, rendering them sterile.

After pesticides have sharply reduced the population, the sterilised males are released in large numbers into the breeding population, heavily outnumbering fertile males in the fight to mate. Over time, the tsetse population falls to zero.

"You do most of the work with chemicals, which takes months to achieve, and then you hit it with the sterilised insects to bring that 95 percent eradication to 100 percent," IAEA entomologist Arnold Dyck told Reuters.

PATTEC has already begun working with governments to implement the IAEA's two-step process of wiping out the fly in Botswana, Mali and Ethiopia.

The region-by-region process has to fight constantly against the threat of re-infestation of tsetse-free areas. "We're looking at decades before we've eradicated the fly from all of Africa," said Dyck.

The economic benefits of the programme are clear. PATTEC's Kabayo said that once Zanzibar began its campaign against the tsetse fly, milk production tripled, beef production doubled and the number of farmers who fertilised crops with manure jumped five-fold.

Scientists have failed to produce a traditional vaccine for humans or cattle because once in the blood, the trypanosome parasites, which the tsetse fly passes on, can change their outer protein coat into at least 1,000 variants.

The disease first attacks the body's immune system and then the central nervous system. However, drugs designed to treat the illness are either highly toxic or so difficult to administer that they become virtually unusable.

The disease can be treated if detected early but the WHO said only a fraction of those at risk were being screened.

-------- terrorism

COMBATING TERRORISM
Nevada Stages Raid in Bid to Be Military Training Site

New York Times
February 21, 2002
By MATT RICHTEL
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/21/national/21CAMP.html

PHOENIX SITE, Nev., Feb. 20 - A sniper's bullet ripped the head from a terrorist, and the rout was on. Within four minutes, a SWAT team had secured the nuclear processing plant, saved eight hostages, dispatched the intruders from Al Qaeda and dismantled a crude atomic device.

The mock commando raid on the makeshift steel structure, with dummies used for terrorists and flour- based explosives, was far hokier and much less spectacular than the atomic tests that once scarred this desert stretch. But it seemed to make an impression on Tom Ridge, the director of homeland security, whose endorsement could help revitalize this region as a military training ground.

The site, 80 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is among many across the country Mr. Ridge is visiting, or said he hopes to explore, as potential sites for counterterrorism training.

This site has advantages, Mr. Ridge said, adding: "There is a body of expertise that has been here a long time. There is a melding of skills here that are trying to anticipate a potential terrorist threat."

The host for the military demonstration today was Senator Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who is proposing to turn the site into a National Center for Combating Terrorism, or, as he puts it, "a Top Gun school for counterterrorism."

Mr. Reid said the site had potential to serve many agencies, noting that it has been used over the years to train law enforcement officers to fight biological, chemical and radioactive threats, in addition to being used for atomic testing.

"It has a network of tunnels going miles, deep shafts, it already has a chemical spill facility," Mr. Reid said. "There are areas for putting together and taking apart nuclear weapons. You can blow things up here like you can't in other places."

Whatever the area's assets, the decision to create a training program could mean an infusion of money, perhaps $50 million to $60 million a year, Senator Reid estimated. Other sites are seeking counterterrorism training money, too, including one in Cincinnati, where Mr. Ridge spent the morning seeing a demonstration by an urban assault team.

Gordon D. Johndroe, a spokesman for Mr. Ridge, said no decision had been made about whether to endorse Mr. Reid's proposal, though Mr. Ridge sounded as if the Nevada site had made a strong impression.

The place "has unique characteristics," Mr. Ridge said. "It gives us an opportunity to deal with biological, chemical and nuclear threats."

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

-------- maryland

Calvert Gas Project Likely to Be Delayed
Williams Co. Must Secure State Permit

By Raymond McCaffrey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 21, 2002
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A36294-2002Feb19?language=printer

The Tulsa-based Williams Co. now appears likely to delay the start date for receiving liquefied natural gas shipments at its reactived Cove Point plant in Calvert County until the end of this year.

A company representative who attended a closed-door Coast Guard conference in Solomons last week on the proposed shipping operations told state, federal and local officials that the revised starting time largely had to do with completing the permit process overseen by the Maryland Department of the Environment, said Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Gordon A. Loebl.

"He has said fourth quarter this year as opposed to second quarter," Loebl said.

In December, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission voted at a meeting in Washington to reaffirm an earlier decision to allow the Williams Co. to move forward with the $120 million project. Calvert residents and Maryland lawmakers had raised concerns that allowing large foreign tankers into the Chesapeake Bay could open the door to a terrorist attack involving the nearby Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant.

Williams Co. officials originally expressed hope they could begin importing gas before the beginning of July, then shifted their projected start time to the third quarter of 2002.

"We're still very hopeful we can bring the shipments in in the third quarter," said Cindy Ivey, a company spokesman. "It may be the fourth quarter."

The Coast Guard also must sign off on the Cove Point project before shipments can begin. The Coast Guard will resolve issues such as whether to require moving buffers and escorts around the tankers when they move into the Chesapeake Bay, Loebl said.

Following its two-day conference in Solomons, which concluded Feb. 13, the Coast Guard announced it would schedule another meeting this spring -- the third since December. The first meeting was held in Portsmouth, Va., to discuss security at the Cove Point plant and other liquefied natural gas facilities along the Eastern seaboard. The Solomons meeting strictly focused on Cove Point.

In a news release, the Coast Guard reported that attendees at last week's meeting "continued to develop a range of security and safety measures based on real potential consequences rather than myths, past practices or present practices in other parts of the country."

"We're looking at everything differently," Loebl said. "Nine-eleven changed everything."

Though the Coast Guard meetings have been closed to the public, the Department of the Environment will hold an "informational meeting" for local residents before it decides whether to grant Williams a permit to construct the project, said Justin Hsu, an official with the Air Quality Permits Program.

Hsu explained that without public objections, the permit process could take about six months. As of Tuesday, Williams still had not submitted the necessary application, Hsu said.

Williams Co. purchased the plant in June 2000. The company plans to reactivate the Cove Point offshore terminal, where the liquefied natural gas would be unloaded from tankers. Williams also proposes to build a fifth onshore storage tank. Natural gas in vapor form would be transported from the plant through a pipeline that runs 87 miles from Calvert through Prince George's, Charles, Fairfax and Loudoun counties.

The pier where the product is offloaded -- roughly a mile and a quarter offshore and connected to the plant by an underwater tunnel -- would be refurbished to handle tankers that typically are about 1,000 feet long, officials said.

-------- new york

Report Criticizes Indian Point Evacuation Plan

New York Times
February 21, 2002
By WINNIE HU
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/21/nyregion/21NUKE.html

WHITE PLAINS, Feb. 20 - State Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky, a critic of the Indian Point nuclear plant complex in Westchester County, released a report today saying that its emergency evacuation plan was "inadequate to protect the public health and safety."

In his 47-page report, Mr. Brodsky cited what he called a series of flaws in the evacuation plan, from its use of outdated population and traffic data to mistaken assumptions about human nature. In particular, he wrote, the plan assumed that parents would allow their children to be evacuated separately on buses, and failed to consider that residents outside the 10-mile evacuation zone would jam the roads. Mr. Brodsky also criticized the evacuation plan for not specifically addressing the possibility of a terrorist attack, or a radioactive leak from the pools of spent-fuel rods at the plant in Buchanan.

In recent weeks, a growing number of elected officials, environmentalists and county residents have voiced similar concerns about the safety of Indian Point and the effectiveness of its evacuation plan, which was recently approved by state and county officials.

Jim Steets, a spokesman for Entergy, which owns the Indian Point complex, said that while company officials had not yet reviewed Mr. Brodsky's report, they stood by their evacuation plan. "We believe that the plan would enable an evacuation, if ever one was necessary," he said. "But we're looking forward to reviewing his report to see what improvements can be made."

The Westchester county executive, Andrew J. Spano, disputed Mr. Brodsky's findings, saying that the findings cited information that is no longer accurate. "He criticizes the plan as it was, not as it is," Mr. Spano said at a news conference here. "I have said over and over again that we are updating and improving the plan based upon a new scenario - Sept. 11."

For instance, Mr. Spano said that county officials have been working with Entergy to store the spent-fuel rods more safely and, eventually, to move them to another site. He also said that county officials were updating traffic counts, and addressing issues involving the evacuation of families and those who live outside the 10-mile zone, among other things.

But Mr. Brodsky said these improvements made no difference. "It's no defense of the current plan to say we're going to try to improve it a year from now," he said. "The fact of the matter is, this plan, as it's set forth now, cannot protect our families and communities."

-------- utah

Investigators Tracking Stolen, Contaminated Tools

Thursday, February 21, 2002
BY JUDY FAHYS
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
http://www.sltrib.com/02212002/utah/356707.htm

Tools someone purchased last year from a Tooele County pawnshop are hot -- not just stolen from the Envirocare of Utah waste facility but also contaminated with unsafe levels of radiation, environmental authorities said Wednesday.

"We have an investigation under way," said Bill Sinclair, director of the Utah Division of Radiation Control.

His agency has been working with Tooele County health and law enforcement officials to track down a former employee of Envirocare contractor Broken Arrow Inc. who allegedly stole large ratchet and socket sets, large crescent wrenches and other tools and sold them last year to the Oquirrh Trading Co. in Tooele.

The unnamed suspect has not been charged and is believed to have fled the state. Envirocare learned about the thefts in December, when a radiation monitor sounded the alarm as the man tried to leave a secure area with a contaminated tool in his pocket.

Some radiation-tainted tools were found in the suspect's rented home. Others were confiscated at the pawnshop. But some evidently were sold.

"While we do not believe these contaminated tools present any significant health threat to members of the public," said Sinclair, "it is prudent to make sure that these tools are rounded up and properly disposed."

Envirocare typically handles radioactive wastes that are not considered an immediate health threat but rather a danger to those exposed over long periods of time. The company has a 640-acre hazardous and radioactive waste landfill about 80 miles west of Salt Lake City.

By next week, the division plans to post photos of the types of tools in question on its Web page at http://www.deq.state.ut.us/EQRAD/drc_hmpg.htm. It also is offering to assess tools people are concerned about at the Tooele County Health Department, 151 N. Main St., Tooele, beginning Wednesday. The Tooele County Health Department and Envirocare did not return phone calls about the case.

The investigation was continuing. Investigators want to know exactly how many tools are missing from Envirocare and whether more than one person was involved in the thefts. They also are seeking the whereabouts of the suspect.

-------- us politics

Clinton helped Enron finance projects abroad

By Patrice Hill
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
February 21, 2002
http://www.washtimes.com/business/20020221-74571848.htm

The Clinton administration provided more than $1 billion in subsidized loans to Enron Corp. projects overseas at a time when Enron was contributing nearly $2 million to Democratic causes.

Clinton officials refused to finance only one out of 20 projects proposed by the energy company between 1993 and 2000 to build power plants, natural-gas pipelines and other big-ticket energy facilities around the world, according to the Export-Import Bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corp., the agencies that provided the subsidies.

In addition, the administration, which lauded Chairman Kenneth L. Lay as an exemplary "corporate citizen," granted about $200 million worth of insurance against political risks for nine Enron projects in such politically volatile areas as Argentina, Venezuela and the Gaza Strip, according to documents the agencies provided to the Senate Finance Committee.

"These projects obviously were a tremendous benefit to Enron's operations," said Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican and ranking minority member of the committee. He noted that the Reagan and Bush administrations approved no loans for Enron between 1985 and 1992 and provided insurance for only one Enron power project in Guatemala in 1992.

The Clinton administration provided three loans between 1994 and 1998 to the now-defunct Dabhol power project in India. Mr. Clinton's commerce secretary, Ron Brown, trumpeted the approval of the Dabhol loans on a trade mission to India in 1995, with Mr. Lay by his side.

The trip was one of 11 Clinton trade missions provided at taxpayer expense for corporate executives from Enron and other companies. The U.S. Trade and Development Agency, which sponsored the trips, also provided $1 million in funding to study Enron energy projects in Russia, Eastern Europe and former Soviet states.

As congressional committees dig for evidence to tie Enron and Mr. Lay to the Bush administration, evidence of Mr. Lay's links to the Clinton administration are ample and well-documented.

Mr. Lay at times was Mr. Clinton's golf partner and slept in the Lincoln Bedroom. Other top Enron officials attended the White House's infamous "coffee klatches" with Mr. Clinton, according to published reports.

Mr. Lay offered a seat on Enron's board of directors to Robert E. Rubin, Mr. Clinton's Treasury secretary, in 1999 just before he left government, the Associated Press reported yesterday. Mr. Rubin tried to get Treasury to intervene on behalf of Enron last fall when the company credit rating was threatened.

In May 1996, Mr. Clinton lauded Mr. Lay as a good "corporate citizen" at a White House event because of Enron's enlightened personnel policies, including profit-sharing of Enron stock and generous health and pension benefits. Enron employees now are suing because those benefits are as worthless as the bankrupt company's stock.

During the Clinton years, Enron contributed more than $1 million to the Democratic Party, including $600,000 to the Democatic National Committee, according to Federal Election Commission records. Mr. Clinton and Vice President Al Gore received contributions of $11,000 and $13,750, respectively, for their presidential campaigns.

One $100,000 contribution to the DNC was provided before India gave final approval to Enron's Dabhol project in June 1996. The largest and most expensive capital project ever undertaken in India, Dabhol was of dubious economic value and never went on line.

The World Bank, on reviewing the project, said it was not economically viable and inordinately benefited Enron, which was a 65 percent owner. Enron still owes $203 million on an Export-Import Bank loan for the project, which the bank says is covered by guarantees provided by five Indian banks.

Congressional aides said it is not clear what the taxpayers' liability will be for that and other loans now that Enron is bankrupt. The Export-Import Bank said its loans were extended to overseas subsidiaries of Enron and not the bankrupt corporation. The overseas investment agency said its exposure is limited to paying any missed premiums on Enron's political risk insurance.

Top Clinton officials lobbied personally to obtain Indian state guarantees for the Dabhol project after it encountered early problems in 1995. Thomas F. "Mack" McLarty, the White House chief of staff, made it a top administration priority to keep the project from failing. The Bush administration has continued efforts to salvage the project.

Clinton Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary led a succession of missions to India, and Mr. Clinton's ambassador to India, Frank Wisner, was charged with keeping the project afloat. After Mr. Wisner left government in 1997, he took a seat on the board of directors of a company then controlled by Enron. Mr. McLarty also performed work for Enron after leaving the administration.


-------- MILITARY

-------- afghanistan

Rumsfeld: Raid Didn't Hit al - Qaida

February 21, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Afghan-US-Military.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The 14 or more Afghans killed by U.S. Army forces in a Jan. 23 commando raid were neither al-Qaida terrorists nor their Taliban supporters as first believed, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Thursday.

Providing the initial results of a military review of the raid on two compounds at Khas Uruzgan, Rumsfeld defended the U.S. forces, arguing the Americans took aim only after being fired upon.

``Clearly, in retrospect, that's unfortunate,'' Rumsfeld said of the deaths. ``On the other hand, one cannot fault the people who fired back in self-defense.''

The commander of the U.S. war in Afghanistan, Gen. Tommy Franks, ordered an investigation into the raid after the new Afghan government said some of those killed and captured were not enemy fighters but officials loyal to interim leader Hamid Karzai.

An unclassified executive summary of that investigation's results said 16 Afghans were killed in the raid. Rumsfeld had put the number at 14.

Several weeks ago, the Pentagon acknowledged that 27 people had been wrongly captured in the raid. They were released after being held and questioned following the raid.

Asked if the raid was a mistake, Rumsfeld said: ``It is no mistake at all, if you're fired on, to fire back. We expect people to defend themselves.''

Rumsfeld said Afghans inside one of the compounds approached by U.S. forces did not fire back and were taken into custody.

The executive summary obtained by The Associated Press said some Afghans at that compound did resist.

``Only those that shot at or clearly threatened U.S. forces were engaged, resulting in only two Afghanis killed,'' the report said.

At the second compound, an Afghan saw the approaching U.S. soldiers and alerted those inside, who began firing at the American troops, the report said. The U.S. soldiers returned fire, killing 14 at the second compound, the report said.

Some local Afghans had reported finding bodies with their hands bound with the plastic handcuffs U.S. troops use. Rumsfeld and the report said no one was bound and then shot. They said U.S. troops often bind the hands of people who are wounded to make sure they do not pose a threat.

Afghan authorities, including officials of Karzai's government, have said more than a dozen of the Afghans were on a government-appointed mission to retrieve surrendered Taliban weapons. Jan Mohammed Khan, governor of the Uruzgan province, said the two leaders of the delegation were noted Afghan anti-Taliban commanders.

Rumsfeld disputed the notion that an error had been made in the intelligence provided to U.S. forces before the raid. The information was gathered over several weeks by U.S. officials and was ``persuasive and compelling,'' indicating that al-Qaida and Taliban might be inside the compounds, Rumsfeld said.

He said that to his knowledge, U.S. officials had relied on their own intelligence -- not information provided by feuding local Afghan warlords -- to determine that the compound might hold al-Qaida and Taliban.

Rumsfeld said American forces looking into the incident had determined the individuals killed and captured in the raid were Afghans associated with a local ruler.

The raid on the two compounds took place about 120 miles north of Kandahar in Khas Uruzgan.

``My impression is that they did their jobs, and it is a difficult situation that they're dealing with, and they used good judgment throughout the process,'' Rumsfeld said of those involved in the incident.

None would be disciplined, he added.

``Why would there be? I can't imagine why there would be any,'' he said, adding at another point, ``I don't think it is an error. I think it's just a fact that circumstances on the ground in Afghanistan are difficult.''

Pentagon officials have said previously that the men inside the compound ``were not wearing uniforms, were carrying weapons and they fired upon U.S. forces in uniform.'' One U.S. soldier suffered a bullet wound in the ankle during the operation.

Local Afghans say some of those killed were anti-Taliban forces loyal to Karzai, and that among those arrested were a police chief, his deputy and members of a district council.

U.S. forces said they found a large cache of weapons. Some Afghans say Taliban renegades were handing over weapons to the new government at the site.

----

CIA Warns of Afghan Civil War

February 21, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-US-Afghanistan.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Fierce competition among rival Afghan warlords raises the prospect of renewed civil war, although probably not in the near term, a CIA analysis says.

While much of Afghanistan has been fairly stable since the Taliban's fall from power, the classified report cites tensions between ethnic Uzbeks and Tajiks in northern Afghanistan -- two groups that made up much of the northern alliance -- and in regions where no clear leader took power, said a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Several U.S. officials familiar with the CIA report, produced this month by agency analysts, said it did not find that civil war was approaching.

``Civil war is not imminent but the seeds are there,'' a senior U.S. official said Thursday, confirming a New York Times report about the analysis.

At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld acknowledged that conditions in Afghanistan are troubling. He did not rule out the possibility that the United States could decide to send tens of thousands of ground troops to ``police the whole country,'' if necessary.

Rumsfeld said numerous options are being studied, including his preferred solution of using U.S. troops to help Afghanistan build its own national army, which could provide the security needed there.

``Which way is the best way, I don't know,'' Rumsfeld said. ``Which way is the fastest way, I don't know.'' He said he was awaiting a report from a U.S. team that is assessing the options.

``What I think when we finally hear back from the assessment team, I don't know,'' he said, adding that in his mind it would be wise to focus on helping Afghanistan create its own security forces.

``To the extent we can put our effort and time and money into creating something that lives there and is going to stay there rather than something that's temporary and is going to be pulled out at some point -- with the risk of injecting instability back into the equation -- my view is that would be preferable,'' he told a Pentagon news conference. ``If it turns out it can't be done as rapidly or as effectively or in a way that is cost-effective, then clearly we would do something else.''

Stable regions include the capital of Kabul and much of southern Afghanistan, which is dominated by ethnic Pashtuns, another official said.

Within the U.S. government, there is agreement that creating an Afghan army, a national police force and an effective legal system could bolster security in Afghanistan. But no consensus has been reached on whether to expand an international peacekeeping force, a senior official said.

The State Department favors the idea but the Pentagon is reluctant, the official said.

Whatever the outcome of that debate, continued U.S. support for Afghanistan's interim leader, Hamid Karzai, is critical, officials said.

``He needs all kinds of help: economic, military and security. No one is saying expanding the international force is the answer to all questions,'' one official said.

Putting an Afghan military force in place could take months, while efforts to develop a police force have made little headway.

Enlarging the 4,500-strong international security force in Kabul could mean better order in other cities. No Americans would serve in the security force.

The Pentagon's reluctance is based on the theory that expansion would take resources away from the U.S. campaign to combat terrorism around the world.

Karzai has urged President Bush to support expanding the force to other cities, and some warlords are said to be in favor of such a move.

The issue is of concern also in Britain, which has deployed 2,000 security forces in Afghanistan, straining that country's overseas force.

Bush has sent his special envoy for Afghanistan to Kabul to meet Karzai. Zalmay Khalilzad, who is scheduled to be in Afghanistan through Monday, also will consult with other senior Afghan and U.N. officials on the war ``to root out al-Qaida and remnants of the Taliban,'' White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said in a written statement released Thursday in Beijing, the last stop in Bush's visit to Asia.

----

Afghans Flee From Hunger and Fear

February 21, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Afghan-Refugee-Surge.html

SPINBOLDAK, Afghanistan (AP) -- By the truckload and jammed into minivans, uprooted Afghans trekked southward Thursday to tent camps here in the border wastelands, a new refugee tide escaping drought, hunger and the rampages of America's local allies in the war against the Taliban.

Aid officials saw a ``revolving door'' at work. Although long-term refugees from some Afghan minority groups have returned home since the conflict subsided, many from the dominant Pashtun group, associated with the defeated Taliban, are being driven from their homes.

``They are wandering -- from Kandahar to Helmand to the border and so on,'' said U.N. refugee official William Sakataka, referring to provinces of southern Afghanistan.

Their sad odysseys highlight the stubborn persistence of violence and humanitarian crisis in this devastated land, three months after the U.S. military, teaming up with the largely ethnic-minority northern alliance, brought down the Taliban's hardline Islamist rule.

Here among the dun-colored tents stretching toward the Pakistani border, 340 miles southwest of the Afghan capital Kabul, one young Pashtun father longed for his home in the north.

``If peace and stability come back to my village,'' said 35-year-old Ghulam Rasool, ``we will go home.''

Those who arrived here Thursday, down the rocky and gullied road from Kandahar, had to wrap blankets across their faces against the biting winds of a dust storm that swept in from the southern desert. They settled into endless rows of tents hemmed in by the harsh empty hills, rough camps established by Islamic aid organizations.

In one sandblown section, 50 members of Mohammad Yar's extended family were crowded into just four of the 12-by-15-foot tents. The story told by the 30-year-old merchant, from Kunduz province, was typical of what aid officials say they have heard from other Pashtuns who lived in the north, where they were outnumbered by Tajiks, Uzbeks and other groups.

``We came two months ago because the Uzbeks came into our village and they looted all our livestock and our farms,'' Yar said. ``I lost 500 sheep and my clothing shop. When I came here, all I had left was my life.''

The U.N. agency, the High Commissioner for Refugees, reported Tuesday that at least 15,000 refugees had arrived in this border area in the previous 10 days. Many are Kuchis driven by hunger -- Afghan nomads whose traditional pasturelands are vanishing in a three-year-old drought gripping the country.

Since Jan. 1, at least 50,000 uprooted people have arrived here, the agency said. During the same period, it said, many more Afghans, some 143,000, returned to their homeland after long exiles as refugees, many of them Tajiks, Uzbeks and other minority-group members who had fled Taliban rule. If this new exodus continues at its current pace, however, those north-south numbers could be reversed, agency spokesman Kris Janowski said in Geneva.

``There's food available. The problem is distribution,'' Sakataka, the U.N. agency chief for this border area, said in Quetta, Pakistan. ``The aid agencies are still organizing. But, of course, these people can't wait for that. When you're hungry, you want to eat today.''

Each day, dozens of desperate families, including those with illnesses, are allowed across the border and admitted into U.N. refugee camps on the Pakistan side, which are better supplied than the private agency camps here.

The World Food Program, another U.N. agency, says it currently supplies food to 6 million people in Afghanistan, almost one-quarter of the population. But winter snows in the uplands and the rugged terrain have made it almost impossible to reach some people with food aid. The agency has had to assemble donkey trains in some cases to transport cereal into mountain villages.

A World Food Program emergency report last week also warned it might run out of food stocks by April, during the annual ``hunger period'' before the harvest.

Into this bleak picture a little rain fell late Thursday. Here in Spinboldak it was a spray of showers, wetting the dust-coated tents. But farther north, in the grain belt, a hard rain drenched the drought-parched earth, bringing smiles to Afghan faces and hope that nature might finally lend a hand to feed their hungry land.

-------- africa

Refugees flee war - again

By Alexandra Zavis
ASSOCIATED PRESS
February 21, 2002
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20020221-5181619.htm

SINJE, Liberia - After losing everything to Sierra Leone's feared rebels, Emmanuel Kwashie was finally starting to rebuild his life in neighboring Liberia. But when the gunfire started again, he didn't hesitate.

Gathering his wife and two small sons, he took to the road - this time back to Sierra Leone, where one of West Africa's most savage conflicts was officially declared over last month.

"Every time you try to make your life, the fighting comes," he said, feeding spoonfuls of rice out of a plastic cup to his 2-year-old as the family rested in an abandoned house shot up in recent fighting. "If we are going to die, it is better to go home and die there."

Until recently, many of the estimated 100,000 Sierra Leoneans living in Liberia were nervous about returning home - especially to parts of the country still controlled by rebels whose signature atrocity was hacking off the hands, feet, noses, lips and ears of their victims.

But when a 2-year-old insurrection reached the outskirts of Liberia's capital, Monrovia, for the first time this month, thousands packed up their belongings and headed for the border - many walking days to get there.

For Mr. Kwashie's family, the nightmare began more than 10 years ago in Sierra Leone's eastern Kenema district, when rebels burst into their town, burning, looting and killing. Mr. Kwashie's mother and father died in the attack, and his two daughters were lost in the ensuing panic. He never saw them again.

Fleeing into the forest, he began a monthlong journey over the border and into Liberia, where he lived in a succession of refugee camps. War caught up with him again in Monrovia, where feuding warlords reduced almost every building to rubble during a seven-year conflict that killed more than 150,000 people and forced 2.6 million from their homes.

After a final 1996 peace accord, followed by elections in 1997, Mr. Kwashie moved to Tubmanburg, a provincial capital in the heart of Liberia's northwestern diamond-mining region. Here he found a room for his family and built a small but successful masonry business.

He left it all behind eight days ago when heavy gunfire broke out in the town 37 miles north of Monrovia.

"It was completely terrifying and horrifying," said Mr. Kwashie, a slim man in stained trousers, a fraying shirt and too-large sandals he found by the side of the road. "There was just firing, and the house was shaking."

When the shooting subsided, the family loaded what it could into two wheelbarrows and started the 25-mile trek southwest toward Sinje, where the U.N. refugee agency has started repatriating Sierra Leonean refugees from Liberia's two largest camps.

By Saturday they had reached the burned-out and deserted town of Klay Junction, where a Feb. 7 attack raised fears the fighting was nearing the capital. Here they rested among the scattered belongings of more than 10,000 people who had gathered at the crossroads 23 miles north of Monrovia after fleeing fighting further north.

More than 5,400 Sierra Leonean refugees - along with about 7,600 Liberians - have crossed into Sierra Leone since the Klay attack, according to U.N. officials there, and more are arriving every day.

Most come from the two camps at Sinje, which together accommodated about 15,000 refugees. Long lines of people form every day in Sinje to sign up for the repatriation program, but many aren't waiting for UNHCR trucks to collect them.

The better-off families crowd into shared taxis with mountains of luggage piled on top, but most make the 25-mile trip to the border by foot.

As they leave, a steady stream of new arrivals - many of them Liberians fleeing fighting further north - stagger into the camps, sweat streaming down their faces after days of walking with bundles of clothes, rolled-up mattresses and baskets of chickens balanced on their heads.

"This country is not safe," said Michael Berewa, a Sierra Leonean who had been planning to finish a three-year education course in Liberia before going home, but has now changed his mind. "I ran from war, and now war comes again."

-------- arms sales

Newspapers Urged to End Classified Gun Ads

By REUTERS
February 21, 2002
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-life-guns.html

WASHINGTON - A coalition of gun control groups urged U.S. newspapers on Thursday to stop publishing classified ads for guns, saying they were a potential source of weapons for terrorists.

The National Campaign to Close the Newspaper Classified Gun Ad Loophole, supported by 24 gun control groups from Texas to New Hampshire, said a survey of 282 newspapers in 16 states found that 77 percent of them ran classified ads for guns.

``Sales of guns through newspaper classifieds offer the anonymity and ability to avoid law enforcement checks, which make them a potential source of guns for terrorists,'' said John Johnson, head of the gun control group Iowans for the Prevention of Gun Violence, who organized the campaign.

The campaign said newspapers could help fight the war against terrorism by pulling all classified ads for guns.

``This is a patriotic contribution that newspapers can make to the war on terrorism,'' said the coalition in a statement, referring to the U.S. government's fight to stamp out terrorism following the Sept. 11 attacks.

The group, which does not oppose ads by registered gun dealers in newspapers, also sent a letter to Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge and Attorney General John Ashcroft urging them to play a role in stopping classified gun ads.

The powerful National Rifle Association, which lobbies for gun owners' rights in America, said it had no immediate comment on the call for a ban on classified ads for guns.

The Newspaper Association of America, which represents about 2,000 U.S. papers, declined to comment on the issue and said individual papers set their own policies on such matters.

LOOPHOLE 'AS BIG AS TEXAS'

Under U.S. law, licensed gun dealers must do background checks on buyers before selling them guns, but people who make ''occasional sales, exchanges or purchases of firearms for the enhancement of a personal collection or for a hobby'' are not required to make such checks.

``There is a hole in the law as big as Texas, and terrorists and criminals can walk right through it to buy their guns (via newspaper ads),'' said Jennifer Beazley, executive director of the group Texans for Gun Safety.

The campaign cited the example of a white supremacist named Ben Smith from Peoria, Illinois, who bought two handguns via a classified ad in a local newspaper after a licensed dealer refused to sell him a gun.

Smith used those guns on a shooting spree on July 4, 1999, killing two and wounding nine before committing suicide.

``Ben Smith is a chilling example of how easy it is to obtain a gun simply by taking advantage of the newspaper classified gun ad loophole and reigning terror on a community,'' said Thom Mannard, executive director of the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence.

Another loophole gun control advocates are fighting enables unlicensed people to sell firearms at gun shows without doing criminal background checks.

In its study, the campaign found all of the papers surveyed in Texas, Michigan, Virginia and Delaware accepted classified ads for guns. Maryland and New York papers had the most restrictive policies toward gun ads. Major urban papers such as The New York Times, The Miami Herald and the Chicago Tribune had a policy not to accept gun ads, and the study found nearly half of all the papers surveyed did not accept classified ads specifically for handguns.

-------- asia

ASEAN Ministers Pledge 'New Era' in War on Terror

By REUTERS
February 21, 2002
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-asean.html

PHUKET, Thailand - Southeast Asia announced plans on Thursday for tough new laws to crack down on terrorism and cooperate across borders, but a diplomatic row between Singapore and Indonesia undercut the camaraderie.

Foreign ministers from the 10 Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) emerged from talks on the Thai resort island of Phuket pledging ``a new era'' in regional cooperation in a bid to end a growing perception of the region as a haven for militancy.

``This is a new era of ASEAN foreign ministers' cooperation,'' Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai told reporters. ``It's the era of close cooperation on anti-terrorism.''

``We are very concerned there is a lot of misunderstanding of ASEAN countries, on what we have done. But perhaps we haven't done enough PR.''

The grouping's public relations was not helped by a diplomatic ruckus between Indonesia and Singapore, both founding members of ASEAN, over comments by Singapore's Senior Minister Lee Kwan Yew that terrorists remained at large in the world's most populous Muslim country.

Jakarta summoned the Singapore envoy to clarify the remarks as protesters held noisy demonstrations outside the embassy.

In comments reported in Singapore's Straits Times newspaper, Lee said at the weekend the tiny city-state remained vulnerable to terrorist attack because some extremist leaders were still at large in Indonesia.

Around 50 demonstrators unfurled banners at the Singapore embassy in Jakarta that read, ``Lee Kuan Yew, go to hell'' and ''Reject Singapore Intervention!''

Most of Indonesia's 210 million people are moderate Muslims but a few radical Islamic groups have taken on greater significance since the United States launched its war against terror after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

Washington says Saudi-born bin Laden's al Qaeda network, blamed for the September 11 suicide airliner attacks that killed more than 3,100, has links to Islamic groups in Southeast Asia.

Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines have arrested several dozen suspected members of a regional Islamic group called Jemaah Islamiah.

EXTRA-TERRITORIAL ARRESTS

Philippines Foreign Minister Teofisto Guingona said his country, Indonesia and Malaysia had drafted an agreement that allows signatory countries to arrest suspected terrorists accused of violating each other's laws.

``A terrorist leader fleeing to one of our three countries can be detained in the country where he flees,'' he said.

Surakiart said all 10 ASEAN members had acknowledged the importance of the agreement.

``We agreed in principle, so it is just a matter of looking at some of the wording so we will become the fourth country of the agreement,'' he said.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who flew into this Thai beach resort to host a closing dinner for the conference, told reporters the agreement represented a ``practical basis'' for cooperation in fighting terrorism in the region.

ASEAN and its tiger cub economies have been seen as a cornerstone of regional stability over the past two decades.

But that image crumbled during the 1997/98 economic crisis and its focus was blurred by a rush to absorb communist Vietnam and Laos, military-ruled Myanmar and autocratic Cambodia.

CRACKDOWN ON MILITANCY

Foreign investment in ASEAN has declined in recent years with investors wary of higher political risk in a region where religious and political tensions are simmering.

In the latest such blow, the $151 billion California Public Employees Retirement System (Calpers), one of the world's biggest funds, said it was selling its assets in Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia because of their record on human rights and labor practices, among other things.

The announcement sent stocks tumbling in regional markets.

Ethnic and separatist strife in Indonesia, as well as kidnappings and insurrection by Muslim rebels in the Philippines, have tarred the whole region, analysts say.

Singapore and Malaysia have recently rounded up suspected Muslim militants, while some of the hijackers who carried out the September 11 attacks on the United States are believed to have passed through Thailand and Malaysia last year.

The Phuket meeting is also the first by the regional bloc's top ministers since America opened a new front in its ``war on terror'' in the Philippines, with the arrival of U.S. special forces to help combat militants there.

-------- balkans

Milosevic hears Kosovo victim's harrowing testimony

By Paul Gallagher
Thursday February 21, 12:01 AM
Reuters
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/reuters/asia-90435.html

THE HAGUE - Slobodan Milosevic was confronted for the first time during his war crimes trial on Wednesday with harrowing testimony from a Kosovo Albanian who survived atrocities during a Serb crackdown in Kosovo in 1999.

Muslim farmer Agim Zeqiri described how Serb forces in uniforms "the colour of grass" burned down parts of his village of Celina a day after NATO launched retaliatory air strikes against Milosevic's Yugoslavia in late March 1999.

Milosevic, accused of genocide in the 1992-95 Bosnian war and crimes against humanity in Croatia in 1991-92 and in Kosovo in 1999, earlier challenged prosecutors to prove he ordered killings in the southern Serbian province of Kosovo.

Zeqiri fled with his family from the Serb assault on his village, which had a population of about 7,000, taking refuge at a nearby stream. He was later separated from them. He was one of two from a family of 18 to survive, he said.

"They started burning down a whole neighbourhood. There was infantry. There were troops. There was a school up there," the 49-year-old man said. Dressed in a jumper and open-neck shirt he spoke firmly as he was questioned by a prosecutor.

Milosevic scribbled notes on a piece of paper but did not look up as the witness described the fate of his town and family on March 25, 1999.

Hundreds of witnesses, for both the prosecution and defence, are expected to testify at Europe's biggest international war crimes trial since top Nazis were tried at Nuremberg after World War Two.

Prosecutors, who accuse Milosevic of spearheading a Serb campaign to drive 800,000 ethnic Albanians from their homes in Kosovo in 1999, earlier called on a tribunal investigator to outline evidence of mass deportations from the province.

EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT

"They surrounded the village entirely at about three o'clock in the afternoon. I had gone out with my family and a gypsy family...about eight of us. We went down to a stream," the witness told the court on the seventh day of the trial.

The men later broke away from the women and children. His uncle and a younger relative disappeared when they went to find their relatives.

"My uncle went. The son of my uncle. I have never seen them since then. Some others left. I was left alone with the gypsy man," he said.

The gypsy was later shot in front of his eyes. "We heard the firing, the shots, and I saw a bullet hit the gypsy. He came up to me… and then they fired again and he fell down in a ditch and then I left."

Milosevic earlier boldly challenged accusations he was a war criminal, defying prosecutors to present evidence he ordered Serb atrocities against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo in 1999 in a drive to create a "Greater Serbia".

"You can speak of crime sites only if you have evidence I was present at the site of the crime and that I committed those crimes," said Milosevic, who has accused the court of staging a show trial to discredit him as a peacemaker in the Balkans.

BODY OF EVIDENCE

It is a foregone conclusion that prosecutors can satisfy the United Nations-mandated court that many massacres, tortures, rapes and mass expulsions took place in the three conflicts. The trial is expected to last at least two years.

The challenge for the lawyers is to show that Milosevic himself either ordered such atrocities, knew of them yet failed to halt them or, at least, knew about them after they were committed but failed to punish the perpetrators.

Milosevic has accused NATO -- which bombed Yugoslavia for 11 weeks in 1999 to end a Serb crackdown against separatists in the majority ethnic Albanian province -- of murdering civilians in Kosovo and prosecutors of hurling "untruths" at the world.

The 60-year-old former Serb strongman hit out again at prosecutors by accusing them of using every opportunity to call on witnesses to repeat charges against him and tarnish the memory of his 13-year rule in Belgrade.

"We will probably get down to the prosecutor's driver and hairdresser," Milosevic said in a pointed reference to bleach-blonde Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte.

Presiding judge Richard May curtly stepped in to end Milosevic's speech. "Mr Milosevic be quiet please," the black and scarlet robed English judge said.

--------

U.N. police stoned in Kosovo

February 21, 2002
CNN
http://europe.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/02/21/kosovo.clash/index.html

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia -- Serbs threw stones and fired a shot at U.N. police vehicles in the latest disturbance to affect the province.

Demonstrators threw stones in protest at the arrests of two Serb suspects alleged to have killed a Kosovo Albanian two years ago.

A stone slightly injured one police officer during the protest in the Serb-dominated part of the flashpoint town of Kosovska Mitrovica, scene of several violent incidents since the Yugoslav province came under international control in 1999.

One shot was fired at a U.N. police vehicle but missed, the officials said, adding the situation later calmed down with protesters dispersing.

"About half an hour after the arrest, which went smoothly, people came out on the street and started protesting. They threw stones at two U.N. police vehicles and one was shot at," U.N. spokeswoman Susan Manuel told reporters on Thursday.

The incident was one of a series following sensitive arrests by international police in Kosovo on both sides of the ethnic divide.

Kosovo Albanians have staged several protests after police last month arrested three former members of the rebel group which fought minority Serb rule in 1999. They are suspected of war crimes against civilians.

U.N. police spokesman John Chapman said the two Serb males arrested early in the morning in Kosovska Mitrovica were suspected of involvement in a grenade attack that killed Muharrem Sokoli, 50, on February 3, 2000.

Eight other ethnic Albanians were killed and about 20, most of them Serbs, injured in night of violence, one of the worst spates of attacks in post-war Kosovo.

It erupted the day after attackers fired a rocket at a bus carrying Serbs in an area southwest of the ethnically divided town, killing two and injuring three others.

Kosovo was placed under U.N.-led administration in June 1999 after 11 weeks of NATO air strikes, launched to halt Serb repression of Albanians.

In January four U.N. police officers were attacked and their cars stoned by a rioting mob in Kosovska Mitrovica. The crowd also burned a U.N. vehicle.

That rioting began after NATO-led peacekeepers raided a bar and detained a Serb hardline militant who had been seen carrying an illegal weapon.

Kosovska Mitrovica, an industrial city 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of the provincial capital, Pristina, is divided along ethnic lines and has seen a number of ethnically motivated attacks and riots.

-------- business

Cheney: Bush Defense Budget Will Revive High - Tech Economy

February 21, 2002
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/technology/tech-politics-cheney.html

SAN JOSE, Calif. (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney on Thursday called on technology industry leaders to support an increased budget for defense and homeland security, saying it could help lead the high-tech sector out of recession.

Speaking at the Tech Museum of Innovation here, in a region where many residents are more troubled by high local unemployment levels than by the war overseas, Cheney said both issues could benefit from the economic policies President Bush is advocating, including a higher military budget and further tax cuts.

``The only safe way to proceed is to assume there will be more attacks,'' he said, explaining why Bush is seeking a $48 billion increase in the U.S. defense budget as well as a $38 billion budget for homeland security, which is double the current amount allocated to this area.

Cheney said the money would support a range of research and development programs, from better computer systems to track terrorists, to better weapons to arm soldiers. He suggested that much of the work in these areas could be conducted by the same Silicon Valley companies that are in need of a new mission, now that consumer demand for high-tech gadgets that helped turn this area into a boom town in the late 1990s, has slowed dramatically.

During a lighter moment during his final day of a tour of California, Cheney also joked about how technology had simplified his own life since Sept. 11, by providing secure communications ``that I use every day from my undisclosed location.''

But he stressed that the industry had been called to a higher mission.

He said that although the 1990 Gulf War is often considered the most high-tech war because of all the guided missile attacks that were televised on CNN, the current military effort in Afghanistan is a much higher-tech mission.

``Precision-guided munitions were actually a small part of Desert Storm. Today they account for about 60 percent of all the weapons used in Afghanistan, versus just 10 percent during Desert Storm.''

Cheney made his remarks following a brief tour of the Tech Museum here, where many of the exhibits he was shown, like a mechanical dog equipped with artificial intelligence, looked more like toys than advanced weapons.

He said that that some of the same technologies that help a toy dog respond to ``fetch'' commands could help American troops prevail in military conflicts.

``The forces that defend you five or 10 years down the road will come from the research we are conducting today,'' he said.

-------- colombia

Colombian Army Ordered Into Haven As Rebel Talks End

By Scott Wilson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, February 21, 2002
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42378-2002Feb20?language=printer

BOGOTA, Colombia, Feb. 20 -- Preparing his country for a broader war, President Andres Pastrana tonight ended peace talks with Colombia's largest guerrilla army and ordered his military into a vast rebel haven in the south. The decision came hours after rebels hijacked a commercial airliner and kidnapped a prominent senator.

In a national address tonight, Pastrana referred for the first time to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, as a "terrorist" organization and warned that the guerrillas' response to the move was likely to be acts of terrorism. The president, who was elected on a pledge to end Colombia's nearly four-decade civil war, mobilized ground troops and an elite rapid-deployment force to retake a 16,000-square-mile guerrilla haven in southern Colombia that he ceded to the FARC three years ago as a venue for peace talks.

The army was scheduled to begin retaking the area's five major urban areas at midnight, and it was unclear what kind of resistance the guerrillas would mount. According to military estimates, the FARC may have as many as 8,000 troops in the haven, which is the size of Switzerland.

"Hard times are coming, without a doubt," Pastrana said. "We must be prepared because it is possible that they will increase their terrorist acts" in the coming days.

The rupture, coming just six months before Pastrana leaves office, appears to end a troubled peace process that has yielded few results over the past three years and has deeply divided the country over how to take on a potent guerrilla force financed in large part by a thriving drug trade. But the imperfect process has been viewed as a buffer against a wider war in Colombia, now in the grips of a civil conflict in which two guerrilla groups are battling the Colombian military and a growing paramilitary force.

Pastrana assured Colombians that the armed forces, improved in recent years thanks in part to U.S. military aid, were ready to take on the guerrillas. He also urged his audience to engage in civil resistance against the guerrillas, saying that "an army of 40 million Colombians is undefeatable."

Pastrana's decision, made after meetings with his senior military commanders, was prompted by an audacious hijacking carried out this morning by members of the FARC. A Dash-8 twin-propeller plane carrying 35 passengers and crew members from the southern city of Neiva to the capital was hijacked at gunpoint by four guerrillas.

When the plane landed near the town of Hobo, about 27 miles south of Neiva, it was met by at least 50 guerrillas, passengers said. The hijackers fled south to the guerrilla haven with Sen. Jorge Eduardo Gechem Turbay -- whose cousin was killed by the FARC in December 2000 -- and perhaps two other hostages.

Camilo Gomez, the country's high commissioner for peace, announced that government peace negotiators and 10 foreign ambassadors mediating the peace talks were being withdrawn from the guerrilla zone.

The group had been scheduled to meet with FARC negotiators today to continue talks aimed at reaching a cease-fire agreement by early April. Gomez said members of the FARC's Teofilo Forero Column, a mobile unit based inside the haven, carried out the hijacking. The guerrilla leadership had no immediate response.

"This is something of such seriousness that it could not have been carried out without the knowledge of the FARC's secretariat," Gomez said, referring to the guerrilla group's ruling body.

Last month, Pastrana threatened to send in the military to retake the swath of southern pasture and jungle. He has expressed frustration at the FARC's obstinacy at the peace table as violence has continued across the country, last year claiming 3,000 lives.

The haven has been used by the guerrillas to stage military attacks, train recruits and increase coca cultivation to boost their finances. The United States, while supporting Pastrana's peace efforts, has long been skeptical about the haven, citing the strategic military value it provides the guerrillas. The FARC, an 18,000-member Marxist insurgency that began in 1964, is on the State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations.

Last month, Pastrana dropped a threat to retake the rebel haven after the guerrillas rejoined peace talks that they had abandoned in October to protest an increased military presence around the zone's perimeter. The FARC dropped its demand that the military be pulled back from the zone, and also agreed to a negotiating schedule that set an April 7 deadline for the two sides to agree to a cease-fire.

But almost immediately the guerrillas began a series of attacks on towns and military installations that left dozens of soldiers and civilians dead. Many analysts here said they believed the attacks were an attempt by the rebels to offset the embarrassment they suffered by caving into Pastrana's demands.

The attacks have hardened Colombian public opinion against the peace process, a shift that in the view of many people here will open the way for the most hard-line candidate to win the presidential election scheduled for May.

--------

Colombian forces retaking rebel haven

02/21/2002
By Sibylla Brodzinsky,
USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2002/02/21/colombia.htm

BOGOTA, Colombia - Colombian government forces, bombarding strategic targets, began retaking a rebel enclave Thursday, after President Andrés Pastrana broke off peace talks with leftist guerrillas.

The bombing of airstrips and rebel camps within the enclave, twice the size of New Jersey, began just hours after Pastrana announced Wednesday night that a peace process aimed at ending the 38-year-old civil war was formally over.

The zone was granted to the 17,000-strong Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in 1998 as a stage for peace talks. The large-scale attack against it involves the U.S.-backed army, air force and marines initially focused on 85 strategic points, according to the armed forces central command. The government had 13,000 troops ready.

The rupture of more than three years of peace talks followed a hijacking of a commercial airplane Wednesday. Four rebels forced the pilot to land on a highway and kidnapped a senator who was on the flight.

In his address to the nation announcing the end of negotiations, Pastrana said Colombians should expect more violence. "We must be prepared because it is possible that they will increase their terrorist acts," he said. The conflict has claimed 3,500 lives each year.

Many in Bogota, who had grown frustrated with the lack of progress in negotiations and the ever-increasing violence, rejoiced, honking their horns in approval. The three main candidates running in the presidential election in May said they supported the president's move. Critics of negotiations had said the FARC ran the enclave as a private fiefdom: a holding pen for kidnap victims, a drug trafficking center and as a launch pad for rebel attacks on rural towns.

The United States has been providing training, equipment and intelligence support for Colombia's war against drug trafficking, but recently it indicated a shift in policy to provide funding for counterterrorism. The State Department includes the FARC on its list of terrorist groups.

Last month, Pastrana had threatened to break off talks, but the rebels agreed to an April 7 deadline for a cease-fire. Then, the FARC stepped up attacks. The hijacking Wednesday was "the last straw," Pastrana said.

-------- iran

Iran's Khamenei Blasts U.S. War on Terror

By REUTERS
February 21, 2002
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-attack-iran-usa.html

TEHRAN - Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has said the U.S. war on terrorism is terrorizing weaker countries in a campaign to achieve world domination.

Iran has reacted strongly to U.S. charges that it is part of an ``axis of evil,'' while its leaders have led a barrage of criticism against their arch-foes Israel and the United States.

``The September 11 attacks in New York have served as a pretext for the coercive policies of the White House and emboldened the Zionists to continue their savage crimes and atrocities against the Palestinian people,'' he said in a message to Haj pilgrims faxed to Reuters Thursday.

He called on world Muslims to unite against the twin evils of U.S. ``arrogance'' and Israeli ``atrocities.''

While Iran's moderate President Mohammad Khatami was initially praised by the West for his swift condemnation of the September 11 attacks, Iran now finds itself under verbal attack from Washington.

Iran stands accused by the United States of supporting terrorism in Israel and the Palestinian-ruled territories, pursuing weapons of mass destruction and trying to destabilize the fragile peace in Afghanistan -- all charges Tehran vehemently denies.

WORLD ``TERRORISED'' BY U.S. WAR ON TERROR

But those charges have served to weaken the hand of Iranian moderates around Khatami who advocated improving ties with the West and have confirmed the worst fears of conservatives implacably opposed to repairing relations with Washington and its allies.

Iran's spiritual leader also commands the armed forces and is the final arbiter on matters of state. While mostly aloof from day-to-day political scrummages, Khamenei's many appointees are among the most powerful hard-liners in Iran.

``In the aftermath of the disastrous military operations in Afghanistan, the international environment has been increasingly terrorized by the militaristic policies and tough stance of the U.S. administration posing a serious threat to world peace and security,'' Khamenei said.

He said Washington's war on terrorism was merely a smoke screen for a campaign to take over the world.

``The rhetoric of the U.S. administration in fighting against terrorism and defending the Middle East peace process (is) only a cover for the hegemonistic plans of the United States to dominate and control the wealth and vital resources of other nations,'' he said.

While Khamenei's message appealed for Muslim unity in the face of these threats, he stopped short of calling for protests during the Haj pilgrimage currently under way in Saudi Arabia's holy cities.

Saudi Arabia has said it would stop any political demonstrations during the Haj which has often been a focal point of tension between the kingdom and the Islamic Republic.

Nevertheless Khamenei vowed that Iran and Muslims around the world would not bow to U.S. pressure.

``We will never acquiesce to the coercions of world arrogance. Iran considers terrorism the enemy of human happiness and prosperity,'' he said.

``Islamic Iran has paid a heavy price in fighting against terrorists who were inspired and trained by the United States and Israel. Our country neither succumbs to nor is frightened by the threats of the imperial-minded powers.''

-------- iraq

Iraq: U.S. to Target All Arab Countries

February 21, 2002
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/politics/politics-attack-iraq-usa.html

BAGHDAD - Iraq's Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan described Washington on Thursday as the ``evil administration,'' saying the United States would target all Arab countries in its war on international terrorism.

Ramadan urged Arabs to strengthen ties and adopt a unified stand to confront U.S. threats.

The official Iraqi news agency INA said Ramadan made his comments at a meeting with Sudan's Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail.

``The hostile American terrorist plan targets all Arab countries, without exception,'' Ramadan said.

``Those who think that the evil American administration targets this country or that and no others are mistaken.

``Arabs should adopt a joint action formula to face the Zionist-American challenges,'' Ramadan said, according to INA.

Ismail, who arrived in Baghdad on Monday, delivered a message from Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The message dealt with Arab issues and ways to boost bilateral ties.

President Bush, preparing to pursue America's war on terrorism beyond the campaign in Afghanistan, accused Iraq, Iran and North Korea of pursuing weapons of mass destruction.

Bush has warned Saddam his country will face the consequences if he does not allow U.N. weapons inspectors to return.

But U.S. senior officials said Bush had not yet decided whether to take military action against Iraq.

Iraq has barred the arms inspectors, charged with scrapping its chemical, nuclear and biological arms programs, since U.S. and British warplanes bombed Baghdad in December 1998. Iraq denies it has any weapons of mass destruction.

-------- israel / palestine

Rights group hits Israeli troops

February 21, 2002
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20020221-24379456.htm

JERUSALEM - An Israeli human rights group said in a report released yesterday that Israeli soldiers fired indiscriminately and without justification at civilians and paramedics in the Gaza Strip earlier this week, possibly with illegal anti-personnel shells in the incident.

The Israeli fire left three Palestinian civilians dead and five wounded, including three children, ages 4, 11 and 16. One of the dead was a 17-year-old girl.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the report by the Betselem group, which sent a field worker to the take statements from survivors.

Betselem said it suspected the army used "flechette" tank shells, which are packed with thousands of darts for greater deadliness.

In the current conditions of Gaza, the use of flechette shells is illegal, Betselem said. A Betselem field worker found a large number of such darts at the scene of the shooting, the report said.

The Israeli army has admitted using flechette shells in the past.

----

Israel Puts Tanks and Troops in Gaza City
Historic Incursion Follows Deadly Day

By Lee Hockstader
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, February 21, 2002
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42272-2002Feb20?language=printer

JERUSALEM -- Israeli tanks and troops pushed into Gaza City, the largest Palestinian population center, for the first time early this morning, firing heavy machine guns and destroying a broadcast facility, people in the city reported.

The incursion, a new escalation of Israel's armed pressure against the Palestinians, came after its military carried out a day of strikes in other Palestinian-governed areas as retaliation for the deaths of six Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint Tuesday. Sixteen Palestinians died in the strikes.

It was unclear how long the Israelis intended to stay in Gaza City, a city of a half-million people that was turned over to the Palestinians under the 1993 Oslo accords. Until now, the Israelis have kept their troops out of the city even as they have invaded elsewhere in Palestinian areas.

News reports said that militants were using loudspeakers to call on armed Gaza City residents to stand up to the troops, who entered from three directions. Reports also said that Israeli tanks had gone into a major refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.

Later, Israeli warplanes fired missiles at a Palestinian security building in the Khan Younis refugee camp in southern Gaza.

Israeli troops also killed four Palestinians and wounded 35 in the Rafah refugee camp near the Egyptian border in a morning raid, Palestinian doctors said. Another Palestinian was killed at daybreak near the border, witnesses said.

The Israeli army would not comment on the Gaza operation.

The Palestinians asked for an urgent U.N. Security Council meeting to deal with what they described as a "crisis situation." Diplomats said consultations could be held this morning in New York.

On Wednesday, Israel attacked a number of other sites in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with helicopters, gunboats and ground troops. The day's death toll of 16 was one of the highest in almost 17 months of fighting between the two sides.

A missile that an Israeli helicopter fired into Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah exploded close to his office, aides said. Arafat, whom Israel has pledged not to try to kill, was in the office at the time with the lights out, the aides reported.

Early today, Israeli helicopters fired at Arafat's Ramallah compound again, without injuring him.

Arafat and his bodyguards inspected the damage after the strike. The Palestinian leader described the attack as "Israeli rudeness."

He said, "This is an attempt to make the Palestinian people and its leadership kneel, but they don't know that this people and their leadership are the mighty people."

As Israeli forces enforced strict new travel limits for Palestinians in occupied areas, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon huddled with his war cabinet Wednesday to map strategy in the aftermath of the killing of the six soldiers. That attack ranks among the deadliest by Palestinians against the Israeli armed forces.

Sharon said Wednesday that he would not lead Israel into "full-scale war," but officials close to him said the military would intensify its campaign against Arafat's eight-year-old Palestinian Authority in coming days. "You have to understand, the [Israeli] public mood is very, very hawkish," said one official. "They want clear action."

At least 10 Israelis and at least 28 Palestinians, including two suicide bombers, have died since Monday. The surge in violence comes as the Israeli public is growing increasingly weary of it and reluctant to accept the mounting Israeli casualties.

In contrast, many Palestinians accept the deaths on their side as necessary to force Israel out of occupied areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and are willing for it to continue.

One new element in Wednesday's retaliation was that at least seven of the Palestinians killed were members of the National Security Service, which has previously had little involvement in the fighting. It was not clear if the Israelis had deliberately singled out the group for attack.

The security service, which regards itself as a professional army, is by far the largest of Arafat's dozen security forces. If it were to become involved in attacks on Israel, the fighting could escalate sharply, according to analysts on both sides.

In addition to the strikes, Israel on Wednesday imposed travel restrictions that closed virtually all major roads in the northern West Bank, where more than 1 million Palestinians live. The crackdown defied explicit appeals from the Bush administration, which has urged the Sharon government to improve conditions for ordinary Palestinians.

The new Israeli restrictions paralyzed commerce and froze Palestinians in their cities, towns and villages on the eve of the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha, a major holiday that most Palestinians spend with their families. The feast is Friday, so thousands of Palestinians were on the road trying to reach their home towns, only to be blocked at Israeli checkpoints.

At checkpoints around the West Bank, Israeli soldiers were on edge, ordering all Palestinians to keep their distance and firing frequent warning shots.

At the Kalandia crossing north of Jerusalem, on the line between Israeli- and Palestinian-controlled territory, reporters watched Israeli soldiers fire warning shots to halt cars driven by a Swiss development worker and European journalists. The Israeli soldiers also blocked Palestinian children who had passed through the checkpoint Wednesday morning from walking home after school.

"I asked him, 'Soldier, let me through.' But he wouldn't let me," said Ghassan Ali, an 8-year-old Palestinian boy who lives just beyond the Israeli checkpoint. He seemed to have no idea how he would get home.

The Wednesday reprisals began soon after six Israeli soldiers died at an army roadblock west of Ramallah around 9 p.m. Tuesday. The gunmen apparently approached the roadblock on foot, then opened fire at close range. Soldiers were also hit inside a trailer at the side of the road. Arafat's Fatah movement asserted responsibility for the attack, as did the Islamic Resistance Movement, known as Hamas.

Army officials said they would rethink the use of fixed roadblocks in Israeli-occupied areas, and shift to more mobile checkpoints.

Palestinian radio broadcast nationalist songs Wednesday and senior officials said the Palestinians had no choice but to respond in kind to what they called Israeli aggression.

"For every drop of Palestinian blood, the Palestinian people must take revenge on the occupation army," said Ahmed Abdel Rahman, a close aide to Arafat. "I congratulate every Palestinian who gets up now and answers the call to defend the homeland."

----

Israeli cabinet backs greater use of death squads

By Phil Reeves in Gaza City
21 February 2002
UK Independent
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=134569

Plans by Israel's Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, to use yet more military force in the occupied Palestinian territories were yesterday approved by his security cabinet as the violence in the Middle East conflict accelerated still further.

Mr Sharon won support for what he called a "new outline on the war on terror", as Israeli armed forces retaliated after the most deadly attack on its soldiers since the intifada began.

As the region grew steadily more nervous about the backwash from the worsening conflict, Mr Sharon - who is under pressure from Israel's hard right to invade the West Bank and Gaza - told his cabinet that he was opposed to dragging Israel into a fully-fledged war.

But his spokesman, Ranaan Gissin, said Israel would increase its use of "counter-terrorism" methods - a euphemism to describe the work of its death squads, which have assassinated more than 70 Palestinian suspects during the conflict despite widespread criticism. Those involved in "terrorist activity" would "always have to think about where they sleep at night", he said.

His remarks came as Israel launched missile attacks on Palestinian targets from air, land and sea after six Israeli soldiers were killed on Tuesday when Palestinian guerrillas attacked a checkpoint near Ramallah. The losses were the biggest blow of the intifada to Israel's Defence Forces, already hit by embarrassing setbacks and a reservists revolt.

The Palestinians appear to be focusing on Israel's occupation, by killing settlers and soldiers. Marwan Barghouti, a senior Fatah leader, said yesterday that the "struggle" had entered a new phase in which attacks would be mounted on Israeli checkpoints - seen by many Palestinians as one of the most punitive of the many measures levelled against them.

By last night, 18 Palestinians - mostly security personnel - had been killed in the reprisals. In all, 40 people - 10 Israelis and 30 Palestinians, including two suicide bombers - have died since Monday, making this one of the worst periods of the conflict. Israel fired a missile into Yasser Arafat's compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah, where he has been trapped for weeks by Israeli tanks. It landed a few yards from his office and shattered windows but he was not injured.

Although Mr Sharon has said he wished Israel had killed Mr Arafat during the 1982 siege of Beirut, he insists he has no intention of doing so now. His spokesman - reflecting American pressure - said Israel had no intention of physically harming Mr Arafat or of toppling his Palestinian Authority. However, though the Israelis have blown up a police post by his headquarters before, this was the closest attack on the Palestinian leader for years.

Mr Arafat was defiant, emerging to declare that "the tanks and the missiles and the planes do not terrify us ... The Israelis insist on avoiding the peace process but we will raise the Palestinian flag on the walls of Jerusalem." Most attacks were early in the day but last night Israeli helicopters fired missiles into Palestinian security bases in Gaza City and the West Bank town of Jenin.

Amid the mess, there is little sign of diplomatic solution. Unusually, Saudi Arabia this week proposed that Arab countries normalise ties with Israel if it quit Palestinian lands occupied illegally in 1967, including the West Bank and Gaza. But it is an offer the Saudis know Mr Sharon will refuse. Israel's Foreign Minister, Shimon Peres, told Saudi television that the idea was "an interesting and positive one". But he also said the basis for progress was "putting an end to terrorist activity", meaning Palestinian attacks on Israelis.

-------- nato

Nato plans army of 250,000 to fight 'anywhere'

By Kim Sengupta
21 February 2002
UK Independent
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=134573

Nato is organising three rapid-reaction corps in its effort to reinvent a role for itself after being sidelined by America in the Afghan war.

The alliance would like to be able to put more than 100,000 men into a campaign, and envisages a total force in excess of 250,000, capable of combat in three conflicts in any part of the world for up to two years.

The British-led Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC) will form the spearhead of the "new type of conflict" after the end of the Cold War. Five other corps - led by the Italians, the Spanish, the Germans, the Dutch, Turkey and a Franco-German Eurocorps - are also being formed. They are expected to be amalgamated into two, to supplement the ARRC.

The various corps will be multinational, with ARRC, for which the UK will supply 60 per cent of the personnel, as their model. Nato's plans to present a united force for use in global conflict is the result of soul-searching in response to the US making clear it is capable of mounting military operations without help from its allies.

A crucial and imminent test for Europe, Britain and Nato is likely to be Iraq. Senior British and European commanders are convinced that the US is likely to take military action there, including sending in ground troops, by the summer. Although most European countries are certain to oppose a new war in Iraq, the British Government appears to be gearing up to back Washington.

The Nato initiative faces the added complication of a proposal for an EU rapid-reaction force that would be made up of 60,000 personnel with its own command structure and headquarters. Although countries that have signed up, including Britain and France, have tried to allay American fears by stressing that the "Euroarmy' will complement Nato, rather than try to replace it, alliance commanders are unsure about how the two rapid-reaction forces would work together.

One proposal is that the EU force will form part of Nato's deployment. But this is expected to lead to objections from the French, who want far more autonomy from the American-dominated alliance.

Although ARRC, which deployed during its evolution in Bosnia and Kosovo, has been recognised as providing highly effective command and control by the Nato governments, including Washington, doubts remain about Nato being able to operate without significant help from America.

The alliance forces still depend on the US for a vital services, including air power and communications. The European members of the alliance do not have anything like enough "airlift" to transport large numbers of troops and equipment into a conflict zone, or air-strike capacity for a sustained campaign. During the Kosovo conflict, the European nations made just 20 per cent of the air raids, the rest being done by the Americans.

There are other basic problems, concerning radio and other communication between the armies of the European members of Nato. Because of disparities in the communication systems, different European forces can often "talk" to each other only with the help of the Americans.

-------- philippines

US helicopter crashes in Philippines

By Pamela Hess Pentagon correspondent
2/21/2002
UPI
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=21022002-034112-9961r

WASHINGTON -- A U.S. Army helicopter supporting counter-terrorist training crashed in the Philippines archipelago around 1:30 EST Thursday with 12 people on board, defense officials said.

There are no signs of survivors, according to the Pentagon.

The CH-47 Chinook crashed into the water about 120 miles north-northeast of Zamboanga as it ferried troops and supplies from Basilan, the home base of the Abu Sayyaf terrorist militia, to Mactan.

There are no reports of hostile fire.

A second CH-47 remained overhead to search for survivors but none have been sighted yet, according to Lt. Cdr. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman.

Rougly 600 U.S. military personnel are in the Philippines to train Filipino troops for their ongoing war against Abu Sayyaf, which holds at least two American hostages.

Between 150 and 160 are special operations soldiers; the others are providing logistical support. Fewer than 100 U.S. military personnel are stationed on Basilan.

----

Spy Planes Seek Out Philippine Guerrillas
U.S. Steps Up Role Against Terrorists Linked to Al Qaeda

By Thomas E. Ricks and Alan Sipress
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, February 21, 2002; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42212-2002Feb20?language=printer

The U.S. military has begun intelligence-gathering flights over the southern Philippines in a significant expansion of its war on terrorism in that country, a senior U.S. defense official said yesterday.

The surveillance flights, which have not previously been disclosed, are meant to complement the growing presence of U.S. soldiers on the ground, projected to peak at 660 troops in coming months.

By later this spring, the defense official predicted that the information gained from this operation, combined with better trained and equipped Filipino troops, will "jolt" the Abu Sayyaf guerrilla group that the United States is targeting as part of its war on Islamic militants. Abu Sayyaf has had links to al Qaeda and, although those ties have weakened in recent years, Pentagon officials worry that they could be renewed as al Qaeda members flee Afghanistan and seek new bases of operations.

The growing U.S. involvement illustrates the importance that the Bush administration places on the Philippines as a target in the next phase of the U.S.-led war on terrorism and underscores the ongoing nature of that campaign even as the pace of military operations slows in Afghanistan.

Though the U.S. military support for battling the Filipino insurgency is unequaled in Southeast Asia, the intelligence flights remain in the early stages. The defense official said military authorities had still not fully determined what types of surveillance aircraft to deploy. "We're looking at various sensors on various platforms," said the official, who spoke on condition he not be named. "We're still sorting it out."

The flights are being made by Navy and Air Force aircraft and do not currently land in the Philippines, the official said. Rather, the official indicated, they are being done with aircraft based in Okinawa and elsewhere in Asia. But other U.S. officials said it is possible that in the future, the government of the Philippines might permit the U.S. aircraft to land and refuel at the airports at Zamboanga, on the southern end of the Philippine archipelago, or on the island of Cebu.

"I would expect that these things work out of the Philippines," an administration official said.

If the flights require access to other bases in the region, U.S. diplomats will seek permission. But the U.S. military has yet to identify other locations, officials said.

The U.S. flights offer at least two advantages to the Philippine government. For one, they could provide quality in information that has long been lacking as Filipino forces have fought a frustrating battle against the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas. The guerrillas' campaign of kidnappings has undermined the local tourist economy in the southern Philippines while earning them a spot on the State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations.

"If we see gaps in what the Filipino government can deploy and we can help them in some way, we're going to try to do that," an administration official said.

This assistance also comes at a relatively low political cost to the Philippine government. The presence of U.S. troops stirs up nationalist feeling in some quarters of the country, which was occupied by the United States early in the last century.

There are now 80 U.S. Special Forces troops on the southern Philippine island of Basilan, where the Abu Sayyaf group is holding several hostages, including two American missionaries. Another 80 U.S. troops are scheduled to arrive soon as part of a training exercise scheduled to last six months and involve 660 Americans.

After the U.S. Embassy in Manila sent a cable to Washington last year reporting some popular discontent with proposed American involvement in the Philippines, both President Bush and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell called President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to make sure she was comfortable with the military program, according to U.S. officials.

"We have been discussing this issue at the highest level of their government and of ours to make sure we are on the same page," an administration official said.

The reconnaissance mission envisioned for the Philippines resembles the approach the United States has taken recently in Somalia, where last month it stepped up surveillance efforts, mainly by Navy P-3 aircraft based in Oman. Pentagon officials said at the time that those flights were mainly intended to establish a "baseline" of information, so that if al Qaeda members began fleeing into Somalia, their presence could be more easily detected. For example, a suspected al Qaeda camp might be photographed almost empty by the first surveillance flights, but later have large numbers of people and vehicles present.

In the Philippines, U.S. planners hope that the variety of actions getting underway will have a cumulative effect that will help them destroy the Abu Sayyaf group. Imagery and signals gained from the air will be combined with ground patrols to produce better intelligence, the senior defense official said. Also, he said, Philippine commanders for the first time will begin using secure radios, rather than the easily monitored models they have employed.

Overall, he said, the intelligence can be used "to create a predictive pattern, about where these people are likely to go, as opposed to getting a sighting report and going out and chasing them."

American officials said, for instance, that local commanders possess solid information about the locations of some Abu Sayyaf fighters but U.S. diplomats have counseled them to proceed cautiously to avoid endangering civilian hostages. "The important thing when one has actual intelligence is to go carefully and with securing the safe release of the hostages as the objective of the operation," an administration official said.

The United States wants to see Filipino commanders refrain from striking the hostage-takers until their troops are adequately trained, which should take several months, and have an effective plan for conducting the operation. "Right now, we're in the deployment phase," an official said.

----

The Philippines, a U.S. ally

Jed Babbin
February 21, 2002
Washington Times
http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20020221-11736278.htm

In peace, an ally's value is usually in its words and its diplomatic support of our goals. In wartime, words are still important, but an ally's value is measured more by deeds than by words. When we honor those who help us in this war, we should first remember the contributions of allies whose efforts have been more than simply wishing us well.

Some of our NATO allies are whining about the "unilateralist" way we are pursuing the war against terror. But he who doesn't pull a laboring oar can't demand to be consulted. The depleted state of most NATO forces results in their inability to take on major war-fighting tasks which is the real reason for their exclusion. By contrast, the Philippines is contributing significantly and isn't complaining about not being involved in President Bush's decisions or how little publicity it is getting for its efforts.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is not well known in America. She should be. Mrs. Arroyo was the first Asian leader to declare full support to the coalition we now lead, and she did this at no small risk to herself. Relations between America and the Philippines turned chilly in the early 1990s, decaying to the point that they refused to renew our leases on two strategically important bases there, the naval base at Subic Bay and Clark Air Force base. For several years, the Philippine government has been threatened by several terrorist groups, including the Abu Sayyef - which, though small, is directly linked to al Qaeda. Its deceased founder had fought with the Afghan mujahideen during the Russian invasion of the 1980s.

Right after September 11, Mrs. Arroyo reopened both Clark and Subic Bay to American forces, who used them as staging areas and for trans-shipment of supplies and ordnance to Afghanistan. Now, a Philippine initiative is about to result in a multinational agreement to share intelligence information. This agreement has already benefited us, and in fact may have saved American lives. The Philippines is about to sign it, along with Indonesia and Malaysia. Thailand and Singapore will sign it soon after the original three do. It appears to be a powerful tool against terrorism.

Under the mundane title of the "Agreement on Information Exchange and Establishment of Communication Procedures," the treaty pledges its members to coordinate and collaborate in preventing and dealing with terrorism, border security incidents and transnational crimes. The signers agree to both share and protect each others' intelligence information. It lists 20 projects the nations will use to build cooperation, including establishing "hot lines," joint diplomacy to counter terrorist propaganda and joint military training to combat terrorism. It also envisions commonality of laws against these crimes.

According to Philippine Ambassador Albert del Rosario, this agreement, though not yet signed, is already being implemented. In Manila, Philippine police recently arrested a suspected Indonesian terrorist named Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi. During questioning, he revealed information about other terrorists operating in the Philippines, gathering weapons and explosives to be used to attack American naval forces using the former British base in Singapore. The others were arrested as well, and the weapons cache seized. It's a good thing they were. Mr. del Rosario also told me that the operation planned against the Singapore naval base was confirmed in al Qaeda tapes seized in Afghanistan. The Philippine arrests may well have prevented another disaster like the attack on the USS Cole.

Mrs. Arroyo is not stopping there. At the recent World Economic Conference in New York, she conferred with Jordan's King Abdullah and agreed with him that their two countries would also share anti-terrorist intelligence information. America's stock in most predominantly Islamic nations is not as high as it should be. As a third party, the Philippines can get agreements with those nations that we cannot. We should do whatever we can to encourage other nations to sign the Philippine intelligence-sharing agreement. And we must help the Philippines in other ways.

The Philippine army and air force are in combat right now against the terrorists threatening their government. The Abu Sayyef may have only about 100 fighters left, but they have made two of the Philippines' islands - Jolo and Basilan - into a lawless front in the anti-terror war. We now have about 160 special-forces troops there, conducting regular exercises with Philippine troops, while training them in specific anti-terror tactics and operations. Other groups, such as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), had been observing cease-fire terms with the government. Now, the MILF and MNLF may be breaking the cease-fire in protest against the American presence. Together, they can field more than 5,000 troops. That puts them at only about 2,500 troops less than Philippine army forces in the area.

The Philippine leader has not retreated. Monday's Manila Times reported a political storm raised by Mrs. Arroyo's remark that certain critics of the American exercises were "terrorist lovers." Backed by 80 percent support in recent polls, she sent her spokesman out to confirm what she said. "That's the bottom line, that's what the president is actually saying," the report quoted spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao. For that kind of straight talk, it's hard to believe Mrs. Arroyo was once Bill Clinton's classmate at Georgetown University. We, and the Philippines, can be grateful she learned different lessons than he did.

To the Philippines, we have been a conqueror, colonizer, liberator and many other things. Building our future with it will have to be done with great care and respect. The Philippine people should realize that we want to see them remain free and succeed economically. Their fight against the Abu Sayyef, MILF and MNLF is our fight as well. We need to help the Philippines fight this fight, and to do so in a way that their dissidents don't have reason to raise the specter of American colonialism. We must be there when they need us, just like they now are for us.

Jed Babbin is a former undersecretary of defense in the prior Bush administration.

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Assault rifles for Annan guards investigated

By Stewart Stogel
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
February 21, 2002
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20020221-14729320.htm

NEW YORK - The U.S. government is investigating whether the United Nations illegally imported and issued paramilitary assault rifles to Secretary-General Kofi Annan's security detail.

Sources in the U.N. Security and Safety Service say that the members of Mr. Annan's personal protective detail have been using the German-made MP5 submachine guns since 1998, despite an apparent failure to obtain U.S. clearance for their use.

U.N. officials say that the use of the highly restricted firearm has been cleared with U.S. authorities.

But Mike Campbell, a spokesman for the Treasury Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, confirmed in an interview that an inquiry into the U.N. personnel's use of the weapon was initiated two weeks ago.

The dispute is made even more sensitive by the fact that Mr. Annan himself led a U.N. effort last summer to stem the production and sale of small arms around the world, an effort that drew criticism from U.S. gun-ownership groups and from the Bush administration.

"There is no single tool of conflict so widespread, so easily available and so difficult to restrict as small arms," Mr. Annan told a special meeting of the Security Council in July.

The MP5, described by its German manufacturer Heckler and Koch GmbH as a "paramilitary assault rifle" commonly used by police SWAT squads, is just one of several varieties of assault weapons currently in the possession of the United Nations, said one U.N. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

America's use of the MP5 is normally limited to law-enforcement organizations, Mr. Campbell said. Importation of the submachine gun is tightly controlled, he said.

The United States does not consider the U.N. security service a law-enforcement organization and thus deems it ineligible to possess weapons such as the MP5, according to a State Department official.

"If the United Nations had applied for permission to obtain these guns, most likely it would have been rejected" again, said the official, who requested anonymity.

The State Department official said the United Nations first approached the U.S. government for permission to purchase the MP5 in early 1998 and was refused. Just how Mr. Annan's security detail obtained the weapons is the focus of the U.S. government probe.

Michael McCann, who has directed U.N. security operations since 1994, refused to comment on the issue, but U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard denied any wrongdoing.

Mr. Eckhard said he had checked with the security service and was told that all the necessary licenses for the weapons carried by U.N. personnel had been obtained.

"I flatly reject the notion any laws have been broken," he said.

An American citizen and a veteran of the New York Police Department, Mr. McCann has been a frequent target of criticism by both U.N. diplomats and staff over security at the New York site.

On September 11, it took hours to evacuate the U.N. headquarters after the plane attacks on the World Trade Center; employees at the Twin Towers were evacuated in 45 minutes.

Several staffers described the evacuation process as "mass confusion."

Umberto Ravalico, Mr. McCann's predecessor, rejected the use of the MP5 guns. U.N. sources said that Mr. Ravalico felt they were "too dangerous" for use within New York City.

Although the United States cannot control the use of such weapons inside the U.N. compound, U.S. laws do apply if the weapons are carried outside.

Documents obtained by The Washington Times indicate that U.N. submachine guns frequently leave U.N. headquarters, accompanying Mr. Annan on trips around the New York area and for use in target-practice sessions for U.N. officers at a shooting range on Long Island.

A U.N. document on training standards for security officers appears to note the sensitivity of taking the MP5 outside the U.N. headquarters building.

For the twice-yearly proficiency tests required for security officers, the officers and the weapons are transported to the range in a vehicle provided by the U.N. security service.

If officers travel to the range on their own, they cannot bring their firearm with them.

"Under no circumstances should a United Nations weapon be transported in a private vehicle," according to a U.N. instruction sheet titled "Qualification on the Service MP5." The passage is highlighted in bold-face type.

Conventions on diplomatic immunity do not apply to weapons possession. A survey of the United Nations' five permanent Security Council members - the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia - found that only U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte was assigned an armed protective detail.

He has only a small security detachment with standard sidearms, according to a State Department spokesman.

There has never been an assault on a U.N. secretary-general in the United States. While in the United States, Mr. Annan is protected by U.N. security, the New York police force and by the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service, depending on the circumstances.

An official at the Diplomatic Security Service said the U.S. government has no way to track the movement of U.N.-issued weapons.

"It is a matter between the U.N. and local jurisdictions," he said.

The official also acknowledged there was no way the Diplomatic Security Service could independently verify that the United Nations was in compliance with local laws whenever the weapons left the compound. That is in marked contrast to the rules governing foreign embassies, which are under tight restrictions on the ownership and transportation of any firearms.

Currently, the United Nations has more than 20 officers in the MP5 qualification program. The majority of participants are foreign nationals, which has raised additional concerns at the State Department and ATF.

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Tribunal to target Sierra Leone atrocities

By Betsy Pisik
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
February 21, 2002
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20020221-52619401.htm

NEW YORK - A third U.N. war-crimes tribunal will soon be created, this one to try the rebel leaders who dragged Sierra Leone through a decade of civil war.

The new court, which will follow a composite of Sierra Leone and international law, is intended to be a bare-bones version of the courts for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, according to U.N. legal experts who have just finished hammering out the court's shape with Sierra Leone government officials.

The Freetown court, organized with relative speed by the government and the world body, stands in contrast to the recent collapse of the proposed Cambodian tribunal. The United Nations walked away from that court after more than four years of negotiations, saying Phnom Penh could not guarantee the tribunal's independence and impartiality.

Unlike the vast organizations supporting the other two courts, which have collectively issued more than 160 indictments and handed down fewer than 15 final verdicts, the Sierra Leone tribunal will be small and relatively thrifty.

Once under way, the exercise is expected to take only three years, and cost roughly $60 million - including costs for constructing a courthouse, hiring legal and support staff, and upgrading local phone and computer systems.

The Sierra Leone tribunal will hear cases only against the two dozen top leaders of the civil war, those considered responsible for some of the heaviest fighting and stomach-turning violence committed against civilians during the three-year uprising.

Guerrillas of the Revolutionary United Front stirred worldwide revulsion by chopping off hands and feet of noncombatants. Terrorized populations were raped and looted, and thousands of children abducted, drugged and turned into rebel fighters.

The new tribunal is the "first step on the path to combating impunity and addressing accountability for the serious crimes committed in Sierra Leone that have shocked the conscience of mankind," said Hans Corell, U.N. undersecretary-general for legal affairs, at a ceremony in Freetown last month.

A separate Truth and Reconciliation Commission will be set up by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights to further encourage accountability and prompt healing.

Although the charges and procedures will be similar to those at the other tribunals, key differences will set the Freetown court apart.

It will closely follow the common law of Sierra Leone, and many of the judges, prosecutors and court staff will be citizens of the country. The chief prosecutor will be a foreigner, however - a measure that observers say should bring independence to the office.

Trials should proceed much more quickly in Freetown than in Arusha or The Hague because there will be only one official language - English - with little anticipated translating. The other tribunals are conducted simultaneously in English and French, as well as the native tongue of the accused.

Also, a number of those likely to be indicted are already in custody in Freetown jails.

But unlike the other two tribunals, which are subsidiary organs of the U.N. Security Council and funded from regular budget assessments of the international organization, the Sierra Leone court's estimated $60 million budget must come from voluntary donations - an arrangement that worries both the United Nations and the Sierra Leone government.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has repeatedly warned that it would be tragic to start the court proceedings only to then run out of money. The organization originally wanted $114 million over three years, but trimmed the extras after the United States and other member countries objected.

Sierra Leone diplomats have complained that they are only getting partial justice on a shoestring budget, but U.N. officials and leading donor countries say the economizing won't compromise the most important aspects of the tribunal's work.

So far, the United Nations has met its $16.2 million goal for the first year of the tribunal. Governments have pledged less than half of the $40 million needed for the court's second and third years, but Mr. Corell has expressed confidence the money will be in hand by the time it is needed.

The Freetown tribunal is not the result of a Security Council resolution; it grows out of an agreement between the government of Sierra Leone and the United Nations. Although the council has repeatedly expressed support for the tribunal and urged all nations to cooperate with it and support its work, no government is required to do so.

Allieu Ibrahim Kanu, the deputy ambassador of Sierra Leone to the United Nations, is enthusiastic about the court. He said in a recent interview that the budget should be sufficient to gather evidence and build strong cases against the defendants.

"We have been concerned, but now we are ready," he said.

Although Freetown has publicly expressed fears that potential defendants have escaped through Liberia, he sounded optimistic.

"We know a number of them are already in custody," he said. "But it is not up to the government to chose the defendants, it is up to the prosecutor."

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U.N. perseveres on East Timor violence

By Ian Timberlake
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
February 21, 2002
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20020221-84271152.htm

JAKARTA, Indonesia - The United Nations in East Timor is taking a tougher line against Indonesia's refusal to extradite those charged in an orgy of violence as the territory moved toward independence 21/2 years ago.

For the first time, U.N. prosecutors are seeking warrants from the international police network, Interpol, for a number of militiamen and Indonesian soldiers charged with crimes against humanity.

U.N. officials based in the East Timor capital of Dili now serve as advisers to a fledgling East Timorese government in the half-island territory as it prepares to become the world's newest independent state on May 20.

In that capacity, U.N. prosecutors on Monday charged the region's most notorious militia leader, Eurico Guterres, with crimes against humanity.

In addition to Mr. Guterres, the indictment named eight other militiamen and eight Indonesian soldiers in connection with a murderous rampage on April 17, 1999, when 12 persons were beaten, stabbed and shot to death at the home of independence leader Manuel Carrascalao in Dili.

Despite the indictment, Mr. Guterres remains free to stroll the streets of Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, where he readily gives interviews to reporters. Indonesian authorities say there is no written agreement governing extraditions to East Timor.

"I won't surrender myself to them because I'm Indonesian," Mr. Guterres told The Washington Times.

Indonesia signed an agreement pledging to cooperate with East Timor in judicial matters but has refused to extradite any suspects named in earlier U.N. indictments for crimes against humanity.

Along with Mr. Guterres, all of the other accused in the latest indictment are believed to be in Indonesia.

Although it is not yet an independent state or a member of Interpol, East Timor recently obtained the right to send arrest warrants to the international police agency, meaning that Mr. Guterres and the other 16 accused will now be subject to arrest if they leave Indonesia.

Mr. Guterres, 33, is charged in his capacity as leader of the Dili-based Aitarak militia as well as deputy commander of the so-called Pro-Integration Forces, which grouped all East Timor's militias ahead of the Aug. 30, 1999, referendum in which East Timorese overwhelmingly voted to separate from Indonesia.

The U.N. indictment states that he urged his followers to capture supporters of independence and shoot them if they resisted. He reportedly said he would take full responsibility for his orders.

The indictment against Mr. Guterres includes one count referring to the 12 deaths at Mr. Carrascalao's house. Another count deals with the persecution of civilians as part of widespread attacks in an unsuccessful attempt to influence the outcome of the independence referendum.

The indictment marks the latest in a series of steps to expand U.N. oversight of human rights abuses. In The Hague, former Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic is on trial for war crimes. A separate tribunal has been established for the 1994 Rwandan massacre, and the United Nations is in the process of setting up a tribunal to prosecute crimes committed during Sierra Leone's civil war.

Recently the United Nations pulled out of a five-year attempt to set another tribunal for Cambodian genocide during the 1975-1979 rule of the Khmer Rouge.

Unlike other U.N. attempts to prosecute human rights abusers, the East Timor indictments do not involve a specially created tribunal but rather separate trials before a panel of judges specially designated to hear these cases.

Mr. Guterres was recently seen in the spectators' gallery of a Jakarta courthouse, where he was observing the trial of another militiaman, Yacobus Bere, who is charged with manslaughter in the death of New Zealand peacekeeper Pvt. Leonard Manning in July of 2000. Mr. Manning was gunned down while patrolling for militia along East Timor's border with Indonesian West Timor.

West Timor police later arrested Mr. Bere.

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New Defense Office Won't Mislead, Officials Say

By Vernon Loeb and Dana Milbank
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, February 21, 2002
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42427-2002Feb20?language=printer

A new Defense Department office created to try to influence public opinion abroad will not lie to the public or plant disinformation in the foreign or U.S. media, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday.

"The Department of Defense, this secretary and the people that work with me tell the American people and the people of the world the truth," Rumsfeld told reporters in Salt Lake City, where he was attending the Winter Olympics.

Both Rumsfeld and Vice President Cheney drew distinctions yesterday between lying to the public and engaging in tactical deception on the battlefield, which Cheney called a practice that has "historically been important" in past wars.

"During the Gulf War . . . we spent a great deal of time practicing in a very visible way for amphibious operations," Cheney said in Fresno, Calif. The Iraqis "tied up five or six divisions defending the beach in Kuwait City when obviously the main thrust of the attack was not going to be over the beach but out to the west."

Rumsfeld and Cheney commented on the new Office of Strategic Influence as critics inside and outside the Pentagon voiced concern over tentative plans to disseminate information, possibly disinformation, to more directly influence foreign public opinion and assist U.S. forces fighting the war on terrorism.

One defense official, who asked not to be quoted by name, expressed concern about the blurring of lines between intelligence operations and public affairs.

Steven Aftergood, head of the Federation of American Scientists project on government secrecy, said that a "pernicious consequence" of plans for secret information operations is that they "call into question the credibility of government officials."

"The problem with disinformation is it has the potential to corrupt the channels of public discourse," Aftergood said. "Today, as never before, there is a global media network and it is no longer possible to plant a story in a particular foreign outlet and have any assurance at all that it will not feed into the global information stream."

Douglas J. Feith, undersecretary of defense for policy and the official responsible for overseeing the office, told a meeting with reporters that its "mandate" is still being formulated. He said no plan for planting disinformation in the media would be approved.

"Defense Department officials don't lie to the public," Feith said. "We are confident that the truth serves our interests in the broadest sense of our national security and specifically in this war."

The Pentagon released a statement last night on the Office of Strategic Influence that said: "[U]nder no circumstances will the office or its contractors knowingly or deliberately disseminate false information to the American or foreign media or publics."

Feith also said the Office of Strategic Influence would not be involved in "covert action," which he defined as a "term of art" that applies only to presidentially approved activities by the CIA. "The Defense Department doesn't do covert action, period," he said.

Milbank reported from Fresno, Calif.

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U.S. Expands Policy on Citizens Taken Hostage
Government to Consider Aiding Non-Officials, With Wider Range of Responses

By Alan Sipress
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 21, 2002; Page A15
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A41774-2002Feb20?language=printer

The Bush administration announced yesterday it will consider taking action to help free any American held hostage overseas, broadening the previous policy of reviewing only those cases in which U.S. officials are detained.

State Department spokesman Richard A. Boucher said the government would evaluate a spectrum of responses, ranging from U.S. military strikes to direct contact with kidnappers, in order to win the release of hostages.

But he stressed that the administration will continue its current policy of refusing to accede to hostage takers' demands for ransom, political concessions or prisoner releases.

"It's an attempt to dissuade people who might consider taking hostages from doing so in some vain hope that they might gain a benefit thereby," Boucher said.

The announcement of the new policy comes after a lengthy review that began under the Clinton administration and involved officials from the White House, State Department, Pentagon, CIA and Justice Department.

President Bush approved the policy, replacing a 1995 version, despite Pentagon reservations that it could lead to increased U.S. military entanglements around the world, according to administration sources. Defense officials declined yesterday to comment on the new policy.

"I don't want to imply in any way that military action is in any way a first or preferred way. But I think the commitment is made here in terms of the United States government looking at every case, looking at what we can do," Boucher said.

He added, "It may be pounding on a foreign ministry door; it may be working with law enforcement authorities. But we're going to look and see what we can do to get Americans who are being held out of detention."

The announcement comes at a time when public and official attention has been focused on the fate of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, kidnapped in Pakistan last month. But Boucher said that situation was not responsible for the policy recommendation to consider official action in the case of private citizens.

In addition to Pearl, American missionaries Gracia and Martin Burnham, of Wichita, are being held hostage in the Philippines by the Abu Sayyaf guerrilla group along with Filipino nurse Ediborah Yap.

"These cases matter to us as Americans, as individuals, as we've seen with some of the present ones," he said. "Second of all, they impact our foreign policy and our relationships. And third of all . . . they encourage the groups themselves to go on from one crime to another to another if they keep getting away with it."

Like the previous position, the new policy discourages private citizens and organizations from paying ransom to kidnappers but does not bar the practice. The policy "strongly urges American companies and private citizens not to accede to hostage-taker demands."

At the same time, this new policy provides "a little more flexibility in catching the bad guys," said a senior State Department official.

It puts a premium on bringing kidnappers to justice, including using ransom payments as a means of tracking them down.

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[Word games. Bah! et]

Military won't lie, to use 'tactical deception'

ASSOCIATED PRESS
February 21, 2002
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20020221-74987408.htm

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday that a Pentagon campaign to influence global opinion will not include lies to the public, but might employ "tactical" deception to confuse an enemy for battlefield advantage.

"Government officials, the Department of Defense, this secretary and the people that work with me tell the American people and the people of the world the truth," Mr. Rumsfeld said while meeting with troops providing security at the Salt Lake City Olympics.

Responding to reports that the new Office of Strategic Influence has proposed placing news items - false if necessary - with foreign news organizations, Mr. Rumsfeld said the office will instead mostly oversee longtime Pentagon activities like dropping leaflets and broadcasting messages during wartime.

Mr. Rumsfeld said the Pentagon also might engage in strategic or tactical deception, as it has in the past. For example, if U.S. troops were about to launch an attack from the west, they might "very well do things" that would make the enemy believe an attack was instead coming from the north, Mr. Rumsfeld said.

"That would be characterized as tactical deception," the secretary said.

However, the defense secretary also made clear the new office's mandate is still under discussion. Asked if the office would do anything the Pentagon has not done in previous wars, Mr. Rumsfeld said: "We do have to think of it in a different way" because of the unique nature of the war on terrorism.

"How it will play out over time, I don't know," Mr. Rumsfeld said.

Earlier yesterday, the senior Pentagon official who oversees the new office also ruled out using the news media for deception efforts.

"Despite some of the reports about the Office of Strategic Influence that I've read over the last day or two, Defense Department officials don't lie to the public," said Douglas Feith, the undersecretary of defense for policy.

"We are confident that the truth serves our interests in the broader sense of our national security and specifically in this war" against terrorism, he said in a breakfast interview with a group of Pentagon reporters.

"We have an enormous stake in our credibility, and we're going to preserve it," he said.

Mr. Feith said the main reason for creating the new office was to provide civilian oversight of information policy in military operations. He cited as examples a need to oversee the use of leaflets dropped in Afghanistan by Air Force planes and the use of airborne broadcasts in Afghanistan that encourage people to work with anti-Taliban elements and alert them to U.S. reward money.

Critics worry that any planting of false information abroad could result in those lies getting back to Americans.

"Anything they spread overseas will come back here, because information travels so quickly," said Shibley Telhami, a Middle East specialist at the Brookings Institution. "Our own population will then hear it and believe it. It will affect our decisions."

The new office also is considering having an outside organization distribute any information so it would not be apparent it came from the Defense Department, one defense official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

At the same time, President Bush has decided to turn the administration's temporary wartime communications office into a permanent office to convey the nation's diplomacy efforts around the globe. That office would not be connected to the Strategic Influence Office.

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Army helicopter crashes in Philippines

Associated Press
02/21/2002
USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2002/02/21/philippine-crash.htm

WASHINGTON (AP) - A U.S. Army helicopter involved in anti-terrorism training exercises crashed at sea in the Philippines Thursday with 12 Americans aboard.

No survivors were found within the first few hours of the crash, lowering hopes of retrieving anyone alive from the water. Both U.S. and Philippine military forces were searching the area.

Eight crew members and four passengers were aboard the MH-47 Chinook helicopter, a statement from the U.S. Pacific Command said. There were no initial indications that the helicopter was brought down by hostile fire, said Navy Cmdr. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman.

The helicopter was one of two which had just dropped off the last of 160 U.S. special forces troops on the tiny southern Philippine island of Basilan, Philippine military officials said. The MH-47 is the special forces' version of the Army's CH-47 heavy lift helicopter.

The crash site was off the coast of the island of Mindanao, about seven nautical miles south of Zamboangaita Point, said Brig. Gen. Edilberto Adan, the Philippine military's chief spokesman. It was en route to the tiny islet of Mactan near the city of Cebu, where the United States has a supply base for the Basilan mission.

The Chinook was flying in tandem with another MH-47 at the time it went down about 30 minutes before its scheduled arrival in Mactan. The second MH-47 conducted an aerial search and was joined by a U.S. Navy P-3 and a U.S. Air Force C-130 airplane, as well as Philippine aircraft and ships.

The U.S. Army special forces troops are on Basilan to help train Filipino forces in anti-terrorism efforts. The Abu Sayyaf rebel group is holding missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham of Wichita, Kan., and Filipino nurse Deborah Yap on the tiny island.

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Chinook Helicopter Glance

February 21, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Chinook-Glance.html

The MH-47 Chinook is a twin-turbine, tandem-rotor, heavy-lift transport helicopter modified to support special operations missions. The helicopter is primarily used to move troops and supplies on special operations missions.

The Army has operated a variety of CH-47 and MH-47 Chinook models since 1962.

Manufacturer: Boeing
Engine: Two Textron Lycoming T55-L712 engines

Performance at 50,000 pounds:
--Sea level cruise: Top speed 184 mph

Crew:
--Cockpit-crew: 3
--Cabin-troop: 33

Weights:
--Maximum gross: 50,000 pounds
--Empty: 23,401 pounds

Source: Boeing and U.S. Army

On the Net:
Boeing's Chinook Web page: http://www.boeing.com/rotorcraft/military/ch47d/flash.htm

U.S. Army: http://www.army.mil/

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The Perfect War

by Brian Dunaway
mailto:transportphenomena@yahoo.com
February 21, 2001 2002
http://lewrockwell.com/dunaway/dunaway11.html

Once upon a time, The Greatest Generation fought The Good War, and it was Freedom's Finest Hour. Or something like that.

As hard as that might seem to top, it has become evident that The Therapeutic State has devised a plan for an injection of national self-esteem so magnificent that it will last us centuries.

The events of the last few months have been quite convincing that the current "crisis" will be the catalyst for what is becoming The Perfect War.

What is The Perfect War, from the perspective of The State? It is simply that which is the opposite of what a patriotic people desire. If war is necessary for their defense, The People want closure, they want a war that will minimize the loss of life, treasure, and time.

So in short, The Perfect War is perfectly indefinable, ineffective, and unresolvable. It is open-ended, perfectly consuming every resource of humanity, substance, and productivity.

How does one design The Perfect War? Let's examine the most recent evidence.

I Will Return! ... Again ... and Again and Again ...

Above all else, the definition of mission success must be sufficiently vague. For example, phrases like "make the world safe for democracy" or "defend freedom and all that is good and just in the world" or "root out evil wherever it appears" do quite nicely, especially since they properly convey the omnipresent characteristic of Empire.

But if one gets trapped into defining mission success (someone might ask, but don't hold your breath), there's no need for alarm that one was compelled to do so. If at some later time the definition of mission success becomes inconvenient, simply change the definition.

For example, the majority of American people considered "success" as the capture or death of Osama bin Laden. But, in slapstick comedy worthy of Charlie Chaplin or The Marx Brothers, Mullah Mohammed Omar escaped The Supreme Force of the Western World on a rickshaw. (Rumors are that they're getting closer.) And of course, Osama bin Laden also escaped (perhaps by canoe).

So, when it appeared they would not be found, at least in the near future, our government immediately moved the propaganda campaign away from "chasing the shadows" of bin Laden and Omar, and toward conducting the War on Terror elsewhere. This is the real reason for discussions of imminent attacks on Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Somalia, The Philippines, etc., not because of any serious perceived threat.

And since the parameters of success can be recomposed any number of times, The Perfect War is self-propagating and self-perpetuating.

American military ubiquity will not hinder the creation of future military conflicts. Since the United States has troops in around 160 nations, and al Qaeda has terrorist cells in around 60 nations, the uselessness, at best, of American military presence is manifestly seen.

And, it's obvious there's no time frame for departure, because, in fact, we never leave any place where we set foot. Have we left the Balkans? Of course not. We haven't even left Germany and Japan. Or for that matter, we never really left The Philippines - and we're returning with greater force to fight the same Moslem Filipinos (who have only the most tenuous connection to al Qaeda) we fought over a hundred years ago.

With an amorphous and atemporal definition of mission success, our government ensures an infinite regression of conflicts in space and time. What more could The State want than an everlasting international blood feud?

Martin Luther, Call Your Office

When American soldiers were captured in Vietnam, they were threatened with torture. According to the film Return with Honor, they asked their captors, in light of their rights under the Geneva Convention as prisoners of war, "How could this be?" The reply was, "What war?"

This seems to be the same line of reasoning that Bush & Co. have employed with respect to The War on Terror. In The Perfect War, it would seem that the manipulation of language is the preferred modality for razing the rule of law, and you can't run The Empire until you've done so.

In what makes Newspeak sound like Clearspeak, our government wants to conduct a thing called a "war" on "terror," and it's a "war" because it's been declared by Congress against those who support "terror" or harbor "terror" or know about "terror" or think about "terror"; but if the nation-state is sufficiently old and/or powerful, by definition the nation-state cannot commit "terror," though these activities are sometimes called "terror," e.g., "Le terreur," Dresden "terror-bombing," etc., which is not the same as a "war on terror," and is certainly not a "war" against the Afghani people or other passers-by, who are the victims of "war," except not "terror," because it's actually "collateral damage"; but to be sure, the "combatants" are "illegal," because they don't dress right and they didn't properly "declare war," but we did "declare war," even though we don't always, but we always dress right; anyway, the "illegal combatants," which are now "detainees," were not accorded rights under the Geneva Convention as "prisoners of war," because it's not really a "war," even though we declared it, but it's just called a "war"; but our government changed their minds, and now the Taliban "detainees," who didn't "declare war," would receive treatment as "prisoners of war" consistent with the Geneva Convention, but not al Qaeda "detainees," who did declare "holy war" on the decadent West, but that's not real "war," but still, neither Taliban nor al Qaeda "detainees" will be treated as "prisoners of war."

That sounds pretty clear, doesn't it?

United States citizenship does not seem to make one immune to this mercurial rule of law. One may have no special sympathy for John Walker, but he is an American citizen, and thus is presumably accorded legal rights as such.

Once wounded and captured, Walker was by all reasonable accounts denied medical treatment for serious wounds, denied adequate food and water, escaped intentional incineration and drowning (those not able to stand died), threatened with more torture and death, etc., and finally was not told that legal counsel had been arranged for him by his parents.

If anyone needed a comprehensive medical plan, it's Mr. Walker. Where's Hillary Clinton when you need her?

Under the law, this is an innocent man, and somewhere during this ordeal his identity became known.

But what's in store for more ordinary citizens? The USA PATRIOT Act gives us ample indication. The Act defines "terrorist association" as any criminal activity that may "relate" to supporting terrorists, and "terrorist activity" as any criminal activity that "participates" in "World Markets" that terrorists may use or depend on for their support.

What does this mean? The environment that this creates is evidenced by the disgusting Super Bowl commercial that equates using drugs with being a terrorist. And speaking of drugs, why would The War on Terror be any different than The War on Drugs? Perfectly innocent people are routinely jailed and all their possessions confiscated for the sin of crossing the path of a drug user. Isn't The War on Terror likely to be far worse?

Our Great Protector of The Rule of Law, Attorney General John Ashcroft, told the nation, "To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists."

This is a chilling statement from the chief law enforcement officer of the United States. This is not indicative of a nation that enjoys the rule of law.

President Bush declared that "No people on Earth yearn to be oppressed, or aspire to servitude or eagerly await the midnight knock of the secret police." Indeed.

But one doesn't have to connect too many dots to realize that aiding and abetting terrorists can be defined in virtually any way, context, time, and place - and that no one is immune from that midnight knock on the door.

War Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry

The Perfect War cannot be conducted if there is any significant resistance to it.

But the solution is simple, and The State has devised The Perfect Culture that has the same self-propagating and self-perpetuating characteristics as its war abroad.

The Therapeutic State continually informs The Culture of all the awful things The Culture has done (and is still doing), and thus fills it with self-hatred. But as The State creates the psychological pathology, it provides the psychological remedy. As partners, The State and The People set sail in The Campaign of Goodness, fighting Worldwide Evil. In the president's recent address, he provides an example:

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, Dr. Sima Samar.

Yes, there's nothing that can't be accomplished by a social worker.

In The Perfect War, our government heralds its great concern for the human rights and freedoms of all peoples; except their own, of course, because both The State and The People agree that they don't deserve it, lo, The People cannot be punished enough. Or in the case of "conservatives," because of their manliness, they don't really want it at all. One would suppose that "conservatives," who by nature of their name, would defend the rights laid down by the Founders. Nevertheless, they roll their eyes at the mention of the loss of rights and freedom, because you see, they know that, as pragmatists, they alone have the capacity to "do what must be done."

But to be certain, wherever we tread abroad, human rights abound. Human rights in Afghanistan have risen to spectacular heights.

Burkas have disappeared, though some still voluntarily wear them - they have yet to be indoctrinated in less modest Western dress. But not so Afghanistan's new leader, Hamid Karzai. Gucci's creative director Tom Ford is said to have described Karzai as the world's "most chic man." When such things are offered for public consumption, it demonstrates the absolute proof that The Campaign of Goodness is just and fruitful.

Less reported are other great strides in civil justice of which the average American would surely approve. Stonings are still the preferred method for adultery, for males and females (no hypocrisy here - NOW must have already made great inroads in Afghanistan), but Judge Ahamat Ullha Zarif has told Agence France Presse that they now will use smaller rocks. Also, "the Taliban used to hang the victim's body in public for four days. We will only hang the body for a short time, say 15 minutes."

Perhaps they need more time to come up to sacred Western standards.

It looks like the Balkans could use a little more time as well. The Kosovo Liberation Army - in case you forgot your playbook, those are our al Qaeda terrorist drug dealers - are busy ethnically cleansing Kosovo of Serbs, Gypsies, Jews, Turks, etc.

But see, that's the beauty of it all - no one is paying any attention. In the age of information saturation, attention flits to and fro at the speed of an electron. So the ephemeral Seeds of Goodness do not have to bear much fruit or for very long, because the press is never around long enough to notice. They have better things to do, like aid The State in continuing The Perfect War.

You Supply the Picture, I'll Supply the War

Yes, speaking of the press, The Perfect War could not be complete without a Fourth Estate who will submissively look the other way.

One often hears of the revolving door between the military industry and government, but it seems the lines between The State and The State Press are becoming increasingly blurred.

The Weekly Standard has elevated this haze to an art form. For example, once David Frum tired of writing for the Standard, he became a speechwriter for President Bush. After all, why write for a political journal that Bubba wouldn't even use to paper train his Retriever when one can write speeches for The President of The United States? How many ears were elucidated by Frum's "axis of evil"? Surely many orders of magnitude more than if he had written them in the pages of the Standard.

And Frum's former associate and Weekly Standard editor-in-chief Bill Kristol used to draw on the order of $50K a year for two years on an Enron advisory board assembled by CEO Kenneth Lay. I truly admire Mr. Kristol's efficient use of time, being editor of the Standard and doing all that hard work for Mr. Lay as well. But alas, that didn't work out to be a permanent gig - about as long as his stint on This Week - so maybe he'll follow Frum's lead and work for the puppet president.

So, as The State Press spends more time influence peddling and less time looking under rocks, they're not likely to discover the real axis of evil: Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, and James Woolsey, who, as suggested by former Iraq arms inspector Scott Ritter, will never waver until they have fashioned the evidence that links al Qaeda to Iraq, no matter how dubious. But leave such details to real investigative reporting, like the Christian Science Monitor - after all, how many people outside The Beltway read the Monitor?

But in fact, why wouldn't The State and The Press seem like the same thing? They both purport to work for the interests of The American People and both claim to know what is best for them, both are ontological liars, obfuscate their real agendas, and are as sincere as serpents, both are hell-bent on the destruction of The Culture, both are hopelessly self-righteous busy-body do-gooders, both love war but pretend that they don't, both take huge amounts of money for doing nothing except creating chaos, both say a great deal but communicate little, and both claim to be in a competitive environment but their members behave without phenotypical variance.

And if anyone can appreciate the entertainment value of The Perfect War, it's the press. Aside from precision bombs with video cameras and night vision, even the obsessive daily details of war can fill the vacuum of any mindless venture. The Wall Street Journal has called the Rumsfeld press conference the "best new show on television." So "Must see TV" is no longer Friends, but DOD press conferences.

During The Good War, the press was not allowed to say unpleasant things about "Uncle Joe" Stalin. Now, The State Press seems more than happy to comply with any request - "for the sake of security." So in the Perfect War, The State Press will hardly be predisposed to provide a brake on The State.

Hey! Don't You Know There's an Undeclared War On?

The War Party goes by more than one name, but make no mistake, it is of one voice and purpose. No more of that which is the dream of every free, democratic people: legislative gridlock.

Of course, our entire precious security is predicated on the federal budget.

No budget increase is too large, such as the proposed overall budget increase of nine percent, including a $48B increase in defense spending (only $10B is for Homeland Defense) - the largest increase since 1966.

And no expenditure is too pointless or absurd. Missile defense, which has consistently been shown to be highly unreliable, is opposed by every government on the planet (except ours), will only accelerate worldwide increases in missiles and technology, and is utterly useless against the most probable types of attack, will be under next-to-no oversight. Donald Rumsfeld just announced this program

... will be exempt from regulations that compel military commanders to specify requirements for new weapons. The agency also will not be subject to traditional reporting about program timelines and costs. And many of its testing efforts will be free from oversight by the Pentagon's test evaluation office.

Apparently, modern technology has overcome all hindrances to time, space, and substance, as the president proclaimed "America is no longer protected by vast oceans." Obviously, since the post-modern world worships at the alter of technology, this is an easy sell. There's no need to change behavior.

But always thinking of The Little People, our president stated that, "Our men and women in uniform deserve the best weapons, the best equipment and the best training, and they also deserve another pay raise." In that order - let's not get carried away by salary increases for the indentured servants of the military.

Of course the president linked the Warfare and Welfare State: "We have clear priorities and we must act at home with the same purpose and resolve we have shown overseas: We'll prevail in the war, and we will defeat this recession."

It is heartening to see the president and long-time Senator Ted Kennedy become such fast friends. This is the cue for all legislators that under the cover of war anything can be accomplished beyond a socialist's dream.

"Security in retirement," "new safeguards for 401(k) and pension plans," "patients' bill of rights," "sound Medicare system," "coverage for prescription drugs," "broader home ownership, especially among minorities," "every American the dignity of a job," ...

In The Perfect War, no assertion can be too audacious or condescending. Be bold! Our president provides the example: "When they got their checks in the mail, most Americans thought tax relief was just about right." And in an unparalleled moment of inspiration, he boomed, "Let's make these tax cuts permanent!" [Thunderous Applause.]

In this way, the president will surely defeat this recession. After all, everyone knows that wars are good for the economy.

Notwithstanding the "broken window fallacy" writ unimaginable, The State will self-propagate and self-perpetuate The Perfect War from the economic front as well.

Just as the dollars of the American people financed the tunneling of Tora Bora - their dollars are used to destroy it. Spend millions "protecting the borders" with one hand and converting another three million non-citizens into citizens with the other.

It's the perfect system for The Perfect War.

The End of History has been Postponed

With cooperation from The International Community, all states not powerful enough to stand alone will be subdued. Even in The West, The International Community was ready to re-enact the Anschluss when they did not approve of Austria's democratically-elected government. The International Community has even threatened the crown jewel of banking, Switzerland, with sanctions for its free-market banking system.

But alas, when all nation-states have been made submissive to The International Community, there will only be The End of History, synonymous with boredom.

Nevertheless, there is always hope for The State. Does The State even need conflict among nation-states to justify its existence?

Surely, even with one world government, The State could entertain itself with quashing subversives, intellectuals, dissidents, and undesirables of every kind that will be seen to threaten the Omnistate. Wherever passivity exists, The State will always be there to synthesize the perpetual and controlled tension required to justify its existence.

Could The War on Terror be a template for, or even a prototype of, this form of State?

"Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him?"

In the State of the Union Address, President Bush instructed us that

We have no intention of imposing our culture, but America will always stand firm for the nonnegotiable demands of human dignity: the rule of law [as long as it retains the capacity for capricious and constant change], limits on the power of the state [including, contrary to the conception of some, controlling the weather], respect for women [as long as women see themselves, and are seen by men, as helpless victims], private property [as long as you allow the government to confiscate over half of it], free speech [as long as you don't tell the truth], equal justice [as long as you have plenty of money] and religious tolerance [as long you're not a Boy Scout, or want to display a Christmas crèche, or pray at a football game, or ...].

Sounds like a great place. I'd love to live there.

Brian Dunaway is a chemical engineer and a native Texan.


-------- OTHER

-------- alternative energy

[We must watch very carefully what GE does with this property. Will they use it to expand wind power and shrink nuclear power, or will they squash it? Any bets? et]

GE Buying Enron Unit

Thursday, February 21, 2002
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42616-2002Feb20?language=printer

General Electric agreed to purchase Enron's wind-turbine manufacturing assets for $258 million. Tehachapi, Calif.-based Enron Wind is one of the world's largest wind-turbine operators and is profitable. Enron Wind was formed when Enron bought Zond Corp. in 1997 for about $100 million in cash and stock as part of an abandoned plan to develop a renewable energy unit. Separately, Enron's top in-house lawyer, who advised company employees to preserve all documents while shredding was taking place, is retiring, the company said. James Derrick Jr., 57, will retire effective March 1.

-------- environment

Cargill Pork fined $1 million for dumping waste in river; 53,000 fish dead

Thursday, February 21, 2002
By Associated Press
http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/02/02212002/ap_46455.asp

ST. LOUIS - Cargill Pork agreed to pay a $1 million fine for illegally dumping waste that prosecutors said contaminated five miles of a Missouri river and killed 53,000 fish.

Cargill will also pay $51,000 in restitution for the federal Clean Water Act violation at the 17,000-pig farm near Martinsburg, about 75 miles northwest of St. Louis.

The agreement was announced this week, along with a federal indictment that accused former farm manager Duane W. Connor, 40, of violating the Clean Water Act and making a false statement. There was no phone listing for Connor in the Martinsburg area.

Prosecutors said farm equipment wasn't operated properly in July 2000, allowing the waste to pass through valves and holding ponds into the Loutre River, a tributary of the Missouri River, the U.S. attorney's office said. The company did not report the discharges to the state.

Cargill spokesman Mark Klein said the company was pleased with the settlement terms. "The incident clearly concerned us and was not characteristic of Cargill Pork's environmental record," Klein said.

Prosecutors said Cargill has spent $500,000 to fix problems associated with the dumping.

Cargill Pork is a division of Minneapolis-based Cargill, an international agricultural, food, financial, and industrial company with 90,000 employees.

-------- genetics

Study: Biotech Crops Need Oversight

February 21, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Biotech-Crops.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government needs to study biotech crops more carefully before approving them and should monitor them for possible environmental damage afterward, the National Academy of Sciences said Thursday.

A study by a 12-member panel of scientists said there is no evidence that the genetically engineered crops now on the market have caused ecological problems. ``However, without systematic monitoring, the lack of evidence is not necessarily lack of damage,'' the study said.

Among the biggest concerns about the technology is that hardy, gene-altered crops could develop into ``superweeds'' that are difficult to eradicate.

The 320-page study also says the department needs more personnel to review newly developed crops and should seek advice from scientists outside the agency when changing regulations.

Fred Gould, a North Carolina State University scientist who led the study, said the problems it cited amounted to ``small loopholes.''

``We are offering suggestions for a system that is functioning. We're not condemning the system,'' Gould said.

Last year, U.S. farmers grew 88 million acres of biotech crops, mostly soybeans, corn and cotton. Genetic engineering involves inserts genes in plants or animals to add specific traits. For the most popular crops, bacteria genes have been added to make the plants toxic to pests or tolerant of herbicides.

The department, which requested the study after critics accused it of lax regulation, reviews new crops to ensure they will not become superweeds or pose a threat to insects and other animals the crops are not supposed to harm.

Crops that are engineered to produce their own pesticide -- such as cotton and corn that are toxic to insect pests -- are subject to ongoing scrutiny by the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA restricts how the crops are grown and requires them to be re-licensed periodically.

Other biotech crops, such as soybeans that can survive being sprayed with a powerful weed killer, are essentially free of government regulation once the Agriculture Department clears them for commercial use. They can be grown anywhere, in any amount.

In the case of crops that make their own pesticides, the department does only a superficial study and should either tighten its review or else leave the job to the EPA, the study said. The study also said USDA should review the entire genetic sequence of an engineered plant, rather than just part of it.

The department is studying options for monitoring commercialized crops, and is looking at ways to get more input from scientists and the public, said Bobby Acord, administrator of USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. The study ``will be an important tool in the future regulation of biotechnology,'' he said.

The study also says the department allows biotech companies to keep too much of their research data from the public by classifying the material as business secrets. The same data are sometimes made public in Canada and Europe, the study said.

Jane Rissler, a critic of the biotechnology industry with the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the study shows that federal oversight of gene-altered crops is inadequate.

``It is not a difficult bar to meet to get USDA approval for a genetically engineered crop,'' she said.

In a criticism echoed in the study, Rissler said interest groups have quit providing comments to the department on pending crop approvals because they do not think the department cares.

Industry officials said the study shows that the regulatory system is working. ``The report is not an indictment of the existing system; instead, it is a validation of a very good regulatory system with an excellent track record,'' said Michael Phillips, a spokesman for the Biotechnology Industry Organization.

Many of the environmental concerns about genetically engineered crops also apply to plants developed through conventional breeding, such as by crossing crops with weeds to make them more tolerant of drought or pests, the scientists.

The academy is a private organization that advises the government on scientific and technical issues.

A similar study issued two years ago said that the biotech crops now on the market are safe to eat but said better methods were needed to determine if gene-altered food ingredients could cause allergic reactions. That study focused exclusively on plants that make their own pesticides.

-------- health

Head, Neck Radiation Linked to Stroke Risk

Thu Feb 21, 2002
Reuters Health
SOURCE: Journal of Clinical Oncology 2002;20:282-288.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=594&u=/nm/20020221/hl_nm/stroke_3

NEW YORK - Radiation to treat head and neck cancer may increase the risk of stroke, according to the results of a recent study.

Based on the findings, researchers recommend that people treated with radiation for head and neck cancer take steps to reduce their risk factors for stroke.

Radiation therapy is often used to treat head and neck cancer. Despite its benefits in battling cancer, radiation can cause long-lasting damage to blood vessels.

Whether radiation to the neck increases the risk of stroke by damaging blood vessels that deliver blood to the brain is uncertain. An increased risk of stroke in radiation-treated patients has been reported, but one study failed to detect such a link.

Dr. Willem Boogerd and colleagues at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam studied 367 patients with head and neck cancer who had received radiation before age 60. Relying on medical records, the researchers determined that 14 of the patients had an ischemic stroke an average of nearly 11 years after radiation therapy.

Ischemic strokes, which occur when a clot or narrowed artery cuts off the brain's blood supply, account for about 80% of all strokes.

Patients who underwent radiation were almost six times more likely to have a stroke than people of the same age and sex in the general population, according to the findings published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. In five of six stroke patients who had a type of cancer called a parotid tumor, the stroke occurred on the side of the brain that had been treated with radiation.

Age at the time of radiation seemed to affect the risk of stroke. The risk of stroke was increased nearly 10 times in patients who were younger than 50. In contrast, the risk was less than five times greater in patients treated while in their 50s. This difference, however, was not statistically significant.

Other risk factors for stroke included high blood pressure and diabetes.

"Our study is the first to show a significant increased risk of ischemic stroke in an irradiated patient population with head and neck tumors," Boogerd and his colleagues report.

The authors point out that as treatment for head and neck cancer improves, more and more people will survive for years after radiation. So even after cancer is cured, these patients should be closely followed, the researchers note.

Besides reducing risk factors for stroke, survivors of head and neck cancer may benefit from noninvasive tests such as ultrasound that examine the arteries that deliver blood to the brain, they suggest.

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

Treasury Chief Accuses World Bank of Harming Poor Countries

The New York Times
February 21, 2002
By JOSEPH KAHN
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/21/international/21AID.html

WASHINGTON, Feb. 20 - Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill said today that the World Bank had driven poor countries "into a ditch" by lending instead of donating funds to fight poverty, and he sharply criticized allies for failing to back a plan to revamp aid policies.

None of the United States' counterparts in the Group of 7 industrialized nations has endorsed a proposal by President Bush that would convert half of all development loans to grants despite months of lobbying by Washington.

Britain, France and Germany insisted at a recent negotiating session that Mr. Bush's proposal could hobble the World Bank, the main lender to poor nations.

In a well publicized speech last July, Mr. Bush called grants like these "compassionate conservatism at the international level."

His argument was that it made more sense to donate money for health, education and sanitation projects than to burden poor countries with debt. Mr. Bush said he would like to see "up to 50 percent" of the World Bank's $6 billion in annual outlays for the poorest countries provided in grants, compared with about 1 percent now.

European countries have remained cool to the idea, arguing that making countries pay back the money, even over 40 years at low interest rates, instills discipline among borrowers and lenders. Some officials also say they fear that the Bush administration's proposal could undermine the World Bank by forcing it to give away its capital.

European leaders have said they could support converting as much as 10 percent of the bank's loans to grants. Canada and Japan have indicated that they would back converting 16 percent. Both are far from the American goal of 50 percent.

Speaking to experts at the International Institute of Economics in Washington today, Mr. O'Neill sharply questioned the logic of Europe's position. "I say the hell with it," he said.

"Somebody tell me a good reason for 10 percent."

Mr. O'Neill said the United States had indicated some flexibility in what percentage of aid should be made in the form of grants, but suggested that 10 percent was too low.

"It's hard for me when I look at primary education and I look at the stage of underdevelopment for billions of people, it's hard for me to say, well, let's do post-conflict countries and let's do a little H.I.V./AIDS and keep it under 10 percent," Mr. O'Neill said.

American officials had hoped to persuade allies to remake the World Bank's antipoverty programs before Mr. Bush attends a development meeting in Monterrey, Mexico, next month. But officials involved in the talks say any overhaul will be much more modest than Mr. Bush and Mr. O'Neill once envisioned.

Mr. O'Neill expressed frustration at the difficulty of changing the World Bank, which he suggested had failed to achieve its desired goals of alleviating poverty at least in part because it contributed to a debt crisis among poor countries.

Lending agencies have "driven them into a ditch" by extending loans that borrowing nations have trouble repaying, he said, adding that heavy debt loads frighten away global investors.

-------- propaganda wars

MEDIA
'Reality TV' About G.I.'s on War Duty

New York Times
February 21, 2002
By FELICITY BARRINGER
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/21/international/21TUBE.html

The Pentagon is giving two Hollywood producers access to troops in Afghanistan and around the world to promote its war effort through television's genre of the moment, the reality series. The result is expected to be a 13-part series shown in prime time by ABC entertainment division this year.

The producers - Jerry Bruckheimer, who produced the movies "Black Hawk Down" and "Pearl Harbor," and Bertram van Munster, whose credits include the reality series "The Amazing Race," and "Cops" - intend to tell the "compelling personal stories of the U.S. military men and women who bear the burden of this fighting," according to an ABC news release. The release was confirmed by a spokesman for the United States Central Command in Tampa, Fla.

Mr. Bruckheimer and Mr. Van Munster, along with David Hume Kennerly, who won a Pulitzer Prize for photographs he took during the Vietnam War and who is a personal friend of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, have had their general plans for the series approved by Torie Clarke, the assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, and by Rear Adm. Craig R. Quigley, the spokesman for Central Command, which directs the military mission in Afghanistan.

A senior ABC executive who declined to be identified said yesterday that the network's news division complained to top officials at its parent company, Walt Disney, several weeks ago about entertainment producers' handling a documentary series about the war for the network. These complaints, the executive said, were rebuffed.

The Pentagon's decision to embrace the entertainment division of the network comes after five months of tension between military officials and journalists over the limits on independent coverage of the military operations in and around Afghanistan. Some of those restrictions have been waived recently, most notably when six reporters, including one each from The New York Times and ABC News, accompanied Special Operations forces on a mission in Afghanistan.

"There's a lot of other ways to convey information to the American people than through news organizations," Admiral Quigley said. "That's the principal means. But if there is an opportunity to tell about the courage and professionalism of our men and women in uniform on prime time television for 13 straight weeks, we're going to do it. That's an opportunity not to be missed."

Admiral Quigley said that the show's camera crews will need to be in shape because they "will be trooping around all over the countryside - flying on planes, going on ships, going on patrol with the 101st Airborne, living a rugged life."

Both Admiral Quigley and Mr. Van Munster said that the Pentagon would review all film to ensure it did not compromise the safety of the troops or the overall military operations.

During the bombing and subsequent ground actions, news reporters have had difficulty getting first-hand access to areas under the control of American troops. Ten days ago, a Washington Post reporter, Doug Struck, wrote that troops held him at gunpoint rather than let him approach the scene of a remote missile strike on suspected members of Al Qaeda.

A military spokesman later said that Mr. Struck was detained for his protection. The spokesman said that one soldier, whom Mr. Struck believed had threatened to shoot him, was actually saying: "For your own safety, we cannot let you go forward. You could be shot in a firefight."

Television news crews, including the CNN crew currently with American troops at their base in Kandahar, have repeatedly been denied a chance to accompany patrols, according to the network's Pentagon correspondent, Jamie McIntyre. The Kandahar crew, he said, was recently assured that permission for the request would be granted.

Andrea Wong, a senior vice president in ABC's entertainment division, said in a telephone interview that the Pentagon would not have editorial control over the series, although the producers and network would make any changes the Pentagon requested for the safety of troops.

Asked if ABC's news division would have access to any film that might have immediate news value, Mr. Van Munster, the producer with a background in reality series, said: "I don't think it's going to work that way. As long as we're shooting it, it's our property."

ABC is licensing the series from Mr. Bruckheimer's production company, which would leave such decisions in Mr. Bruckheimer's hands, Ms. Wong said.


-------- activists

Lev Feoktistov Soviet Scientist

Deaths - Thursday, February 21, 2002
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42589-2002Feb20?language=printer

Lev Feoktistov, 74, a leading Soviet nuclear weapons designer who later joined a wave of scientists calling for nuclear disarmament, died Feb. 14 in Moscow after an apparent heart attack.

Dr. Feoktistov, a department chairman in the Russian Academy of Sciences' Lebedev Physical Institute, worked from 1951 until the late 1970s designing nuclear warheads in the Soviet Union's Arzamas-16 and Chelyabinsk-70 facilities.

He later moved to Moscow to work on civilian research. He became an active participant in the international Pugwash movement of scientists who have campaigned to eliminate nuclear weapons.

----

Thousands in Seoul Protest Bush's Visit

By Clay Chandler
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, February 21, 2002; Page A18
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42083-2002Feb20?language=printer

SEOUL, Feb. 20 -- As President Bush stood today at the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone dividing North and South Korea and decried "despotism" on the northern side , thousands of South Koreans -- some carrying placards depicting Bush with demonic horns and bloody fangs, others chanting "Bush Go Home! Bush Go Home!" -- flooded the parks and boulevards of downtown Seoul.

The tirades marking Bush's visit to South Korea were nowhere near as violent as demonstrations opposed to U.S. support during the harsh years of military rule here. But today's protests were the largest anti-American rallies in years and contrasted with the enthusiastic welcome Bush received in Tokyo, the first stop of his three-country Asian tour.

At Seoul's Chongmyo Park, a broad coalition of student activists, labor unions, religious groups and farmers waved U.S. flags painted over with skulls and crossbones, and danced to anti-American ditties.

Earlier, an estimated 3,000 students rallied at Hanyang University. And as Bush met this morning with President Kim Dae Jung at his official residence, the Blue House, protesters blocks away scuffled with riot police wielding shields and truncheons.

"Bush is trying to control and manipulate our nation using Kim Dae Jung's corrupt government as his puppet," shouted one, moments before police began hauling protesters off for arrest.

Interviews with dozens of demonstrators and onlookers on the streets of Seoul confirmed that Bush's declaration in his Jan. 29 State of the Union address that North Korea, along with Iran and Iraq, make up an "axis of evil" has stirred deep reservoirs of resentment and suspicion here. "Labeling North Korea as 'evil' was just wrong," said Hong Sang Su, 25, one of the participants at the Chongmyo Park rally. "Just because the U.S. was attacked by terrorists, why do they have to drag Koreans into the fight? The U.S. is trying to control the whole world with its point of view."

But the conversations also highlighted the complex and often contradictory attitudes South Koreans hold toward North Korea and the United States.

In interview after interview, South Koreans said they considered Bush's "evil" epithet needlessly provocative. But probe a little further, and even strident critics of the Bush address said they basically shared his view that the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, is a Stalinist tyrant who starves his people and menaces his neighbors with weapons of mass destruction.

Many South Koreans complained that Bush's remarks humiliated Kim Dae Jung, who has made detente with Pyongyang his life's work. But, pressed for their own assessment of Kim's achievements, many answered with a scowl.

"I used to think it would do some good, but not anymore" said Yang Bok Soo, 75, of Kim's efforts to melt a half-century of hostilities between North and South with a "sunshine policy" of friendly diplomacy and economic aid. "Now it just seems like the sunshine policy is dragging Kim around."

Beyond the barricades, many Seoul residents applauded Bush's remarks. "Maybe his words were a little too rough, but what he said was true," said Park Keum Tae, a dentist, as shouts from protesters' megaphones rattled the windows of his offices near the Blue House. "North Korea really is a threat. It's good that Bush is raising this, because otherwise we'd ignore it. Infections don't cure themselves."

Bush "got it exactly right," declared an elderly man, waving a hand contemptuously at the crowds in Chongmyo Park. "These people -- they're crazy."

Thousands of posters condemning Bush as a "warmonger" or "the sole evil on earth" bobbed above marchers today, but many demonstrators said they had come to vent about issues unrelated to North Korea.

Thousands were farmers gathered to register opposition to free trade agreements they fear will leave Korean rice growers vulnerable to competition from U.S. growers with lower costs. Kim Eun Ae, 24, said she had come to help classmates demonstrate against the government's neglect of facilities for handicapped students. Neither issue was on the agenda for today's meeting between Bush and Kim.

Thousands of North Korean missiles are pointed at Seoul, which lies 34 miles from the border. U.S. military analysts estimate that North Korea has enough plutonium for up to two nuclear weapons, but there is no evidence that its scientists could actually build a bomb. U.S. experts say they believe North Korea has a large biological weapons development program, but whether it has figured out how to use deadly toxins as weapons remains unclear.

Even South Koreans who welcomed the Bush visit said they believed the sudden U.S. concern about the threat from North Korea is part of a ploy to pressure South Korea to buy weapons from U.S. military manufacturers. Boeing Co. is in competition with three European producers to build 40 new aircraft for the South Korean military. Bidding has been delayed because no manufacturer has submitted an offer within South Korea's budget.

Boeing is offering Seoul a version of the F-15 Eagle, which the company builds at a plant in St. Louis. The Defense Department plans to stop buying the aircraft. A congressional delegation led by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R.-Ill) visited Seoul last month to discuss the contract with Kim.

Special correspondent Jane Han contributed to this report.

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No tree-free paper in green group ad

By Audrey Hudson
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
February 21, 2002
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20020221-1384615.htm

An environmental group's fund-raising letter to protect the rain forests claimed to use tree-free paper but was actually made from tree products, laboratory tests show.

The Rainforest Action Network asked recipients of the letter to dig into their pockets and "help compensate for the extra cost of using tree-free paper."

California resident John Campbell questioned the claim's validity and paid an independent laboratory $100 to conduct the fiber analysis. Yesterday, Mr. Campbell asked the U.S. Postal Inspector to investigate the group's fund-raising activities.

"As an organization that bills itself to the public as dedicated to the protection of forests, RAN has committed an especially serious breach of trust by falsely representing to potential donors that its effort to raise money from them has involved no exploitation of timber resources," Mr. Campbell said in a letter to the U.S. Postal Inspector requesting the investigation.

Sara Brown Riggs, spokeswoman for RAN, said the claims are a hoax.

"We wrote the book on tree-free paper, so we are confident that this is just a hoax," Miss Riggs said.

"We are committed to tree-free alternatives and are flattered that so much attention is being paid to our organization," she said.

Attempting to obtain money by means of false or fraudulent pretenses through the U.S. mail is a federal crime, Mr. Campbell said.

"RAN appears to have engaged in such activity by sending through the U.S. mail the attached fund-raising letter, which relies in significant part on a false claim to induce contributions to RAN," Mr. Campbell said in the letter.

"I urge you to take action to ensure that this organization which raises millions of dollars annually is deterred from making any future efforts to defraud the public," Mr. Campbell said.

A copy of the lab analysis by Integrated Paper Service Inc. was included in the complaint to the Postal Inspector.

Fiber analysis found that the three-page letter contained "virtually all" wood pulp, including maple, beech, birch, spruce, hemlock, fir and ash.

"These pulp fibers appear to be from North American tree species," said the report authored by Walter J. Rantanen, supervisor of the fiber science group.

Integrated Paper Services Inc. is an independent testing and research lab in Wisconsin that performs quality control testing for the pulp and paper industry, said Mr. Rantanen, who confirmed that his company produced the report.

Each page of RAN's fund-raising letter was labeled at the bottom: "Printed on 100 percent tree-free paper with soy-based ink."

Tree-free paper is made from a variety of fibers, including kenaf crops - a relative of the hibiscus plant - and industrial hemp, as well as agriculture-waste byproducts such as cereal, straw, corn stalks, sugar-cane pulp and cotton, according to RAN.

Mr. Rantanen said he found none of those fibers in his analysis, except for a trace of cotton.

Mr. Campbell makes his living as a fund-raiser for Republican candidates, and said he follows the fund-raising techniques of other organizations.

"This letter was so much about saving the rain forest and printed on tree-free paper, I was curious to see if it was true or not - and it turns out it's not true," Mr. Campbell said.

The Dec. 5 fund-raising letter asks for contributions to support RAN's campaign against logging in Indonesia, as well as soliciting additional money to help pay for the tree-free paper.

RAN was created in 1985, and as part of its six-point platform is dedicated to diversifying fiber supply, such as tree-free paper.

"It would be one thing if they were actually using tree-free paper, then that might actually be kind of noble, but this is hypocritical," Mr. Campbell said.

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Protesting Black Hawk Down

by ADRIAN BRUNE,
The Nation,
February 21, 2002
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=special&s=brune20020221

It's one thing to have Somali groups protesting Black Hawk Down for what they say is an inaccurate and racist portrayal of Somalis. It's quite another to have one of the actors in the Oscar-nominated movie, an account of the 1993 US military intervention in Somalia that left eighteen American soldiers dead, openly denounce the movie for the same reason.

But that's exactly what Brendan Sexton III did in front of a group of nearly 200 students at Columbia University on February 11. Sexton, who has appeared in such movies as Boys Don't Cry and Welcome to the Dollhouse, said the film oversimplifies and inaccurately portrays Somalis as "savages without any reason to oppose the US military presence in Somalia." He said he originally agreed to take the part because in the script his character openly denounces the military action. But, he said, "After September 11, they edited out the speech my character, Alphabet, made."

Sony officials said they were unaware of Sexton's comments and that they had no comment.

Black Hawk Down arrived on the film scene just as Americans are developing a renewed awareness of Somalia. The Bush Administration has named Somalia as a likely new hideout for Al Qaeda fighters, and the US military has begun naval patrols off Somalia's coast to prevent terrorists from receiving weapons.

The day before the film's January 18 premiere, Somali leaders in Minneapolis, Minnesota (a state with a Somali population of at least 25,000, according to an estimate by a Somali advocacy group), called for a boycott of the movie, saying it could create a backlash against refugees who have fled to the United States. "We don't know what Americans will think of us Somalis after they watch this movie," Omar Jamal, of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul, told the Associated Press. The group Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) has led protests in cities including New York, Baltimore, Boston and Los Angeles.

Black Hawk Down recounts what happened when a group of elite US soldiers was sent into Mogadishu in October 1993 as part of a UN peacekeeping operation. Supporters of the film, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, say that director Ridley Scott accurately portrayed a situation in which the Somali people didn't want an American presence there and that Americans were butchered for their efforts. But protesters say that Scott omitted a lot, including the fact that from 1982 to 1990 the United States viewed Somalia as a partner in defense, training officers of the country's National Armed Forces in US military schools and providing them with weapons. "We did the same thing in Somalia as we did in Afghanistan," Sexton said. "Somalia was a piece in the game of cold war chess." Protesters also say that Scott left out the fact that the United States backed a Somali regime that had looted the national treasury and that President George H. W. Bush used famine as a mask to prod the UN to go along with the United States intervention to protect its interests.

Sony Pictures and producer Jerry Bruckheimer, known for his violent action films, rushed the release of Black Hawk Down by ten weeks to take advantage of patriotic fever and the war on terrorism. "There is a lot of handshaking between Hollywood and the government," Sexton said. Black Hawk Down was No. 1 at the box office for three weeks and has grossed nearly $96 million to date.

Sexton said that he will probably visit a few more colleges before lawyers enforce the gag provision in his Black Hawk Down contract, which stipulates financial sanctions for saying anything negative about the movie. But, he added, "they've already made $90 million, so I don't think me speaking out at a few more places will really have much of an effect on their business."


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