------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
Spain's Aznar says EU should help Lithuania on nuke
Germany's EnBW restates opposition to nuclear exit
U.S. experts outline "Dirty Bombs" threat
Fears over missing nuclear material
Threats most foul
Nuclear Threats, Real and Imagined
Some See Panic as Main Effect of Dirty Bombs
Threats to Be Shared With City and State
China, Iran Said Balking at Test Ban Pact Cooperation
Senate Extends Nuclear Liability Law
NRC inspector falls asleep while inspecting uranium plant
Documentary to spotlight Manhattan Project by Paul Parson
Hanford clean-up schedule accelerated
Hanford Plutonium Waste Cleanup Accelerated
MORE MONEY FOR HANFORD CLEANUP
Hanford Nuclear Site on Fast Track
Bush singing praises
A War Without Congress
KNOW WHAT YOUR PRESIDENT IS DOING

MILITARY
History doesn't agree with columnist
US says 500 killed in cave battle
Missile explosion kills peacekeepers
U.S. Continues Heavy Bombing Near Afghan Caves
Ex-king says U.S. war is 'stupid and useless'
Israel OKs 60,000 more gun permits in terror fight
NAS Endorses Military Anthrax Vaccine (for high-risk people)
Commonwealth asked to stop fudging on Mugabe
Orbital Wins Defense Contract
Boeing, SAIC to wire Army's future forces
Old chemical weapons buried in 350 sites across Russia
Military spending to widen China's budget gap
Bush eyes more military aid for Bogota
Norwegian airbase to be established in Central Asia
Iranian leader faults U.S. for 'arrogance'
U.N.-Iraq Talks Called Positive
U.S. Accuses Iraq of Violating Military Ban
U.S. rebukes Israel for killings
Israeli Offensive Rolls On, Bush to Send Envoy
Israeli raid narrowly missed 3,100 schoolchildren: UN
We risk charges of war crimes, Peres tells Cabinet
Czech president calls for "big bang" NATO growth
The Western front
Kodiak missile defense work is a local, global threat
Kodiak site draws money to state, plays defense role
No wrongdoing by former U.N.drug czar
Military officers criticize rush to use ground troops
The Case of the Invisible Trial, or 'Where's the Beef?'

POLICE / PRISONERS
Russian Spies, They've Got Mail
Police Department May Hire an Expert in the Use of Force
U.S. to Curb Computer Access by Foreigners

ENERGY AND OTHER
CAFE is wrong way to energy independence
UK power bills may rise 5 pct to pay for renewables
Therapeutic Cloning Used in Lab
Science panel OKs anthrax vaccine
More on Mammograms
US HR Report-2001 on Bangladesh

ACTIVISTS
Pressure to buy U.S. jets draws protest
Jailed Anti-Dam Author Released After One Day
Amnesty tells Australia to let children out of asylum camps




-------- NUCLEAR

-------- europe

Spain's Aznar says EU should help Lithuania on nuke

REUTERS LITHUANIA:
March 7, 2002
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/14895/newsDate/7-Mar-2002/story.htm

VILNIUS - Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar said the European Union should help Lithuania close its Soviet-built Ignalina nuclear power plant, which Brussels considers unsafe, by the EU's deadline of 2009.

The issue is the country's biggest obstacle to joining the EU, whose fears over Ignalina stem from its two RBMK reactors modeled on Ukraine's disastrous Chernobyl plant, site of the world's worst civilian nuclear disaster in 1986.

Aznar, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, told a news conference while on a visit to Lithuania he agreed with the timeframe held by the EU to shut the second of Ignalina's two units by the end of 2009.

Lithuania has pledged to close the plant's first unit by 2005.

"I would invite Lithuania to really stick to these dates and I expect that the European Union would do its best to help Lithuania with the decommissioning," Aznar said.

Last week, Lithuanian President Valdas Admakus said the economic and social costs would make the shutdown of the plant by 2009 impossible and that the country should only consider closing it if Brussels picked up most of the clean-up costs.

The facility produces over 70 percent of the electrical power consumed in Lithuania, a country of 3.5 million people, and also supplies around 5,000 jobs.

International donors, largely from EU countries, have pledged more than 200 million euros ($173.8 million) to help Lithuania close the first unit.

It has also proposed 70 million euros per year in funding for the Ignalina shutdown between the years 2004 and 2006.

But Lithuanian officials say this is the tip of the iceberg and costs will continue to mount in the coming decades due to issues such as waste management, environmental consequences and social issues and could breach the one billion euro barrier before it is over.

The government is expected to discuss on Friday a parliament resolution pegging Ignalina's closure date to "long-term and substantial EU financial support", a government document said.

-------- germany

Germany's EnBW restates opposition to nuclear exit

REUTERS GERMANY:
March 7, 2002
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/14893/newsDate/7-Mar-2002/story.htm

KARLSRUHE - Germany's nuclear withdrawal programme will clash with requirements to lower carbon dioxide emissions, the country's third biggest utility EnBW said.

EnBW has previously rejected Germany's nuclear exit deal which has just passed through parliament.

Chairman Gerhard Goll told the company's annual news conference it was unrealistic to phase out nuclear energy, which is nearly emissions-free, by the early 2020s while cutting CO2 emissions under the Kyoto climate protection treaty.

EnBW, which is 34.5 percent owned by the nuclear-energy focused French state utility EdF, is committed to observe the nuclear consensus between the industry and the government, but has always argued against it.

Alternative energy sources, which would have to be developed to replace nuclear energy's coverage of annual German power demand of 500 billion kilowatt hours (kWh), were either high in emissions or posed potential safety risks, Goll said.

"The nuclear exit deal will come into force this spring, but I don't think that we can sufficiently replace nuclear energy with renewables or with fuel cell technology," he said.

"At the same time, it's highly likely that the European Union will sign Kyoto...it will then have to force members to comply," he added.

Goll's remarks were in response to media reports at the weekend that leading utilities had affirmed their support for abandoning nuclear power regardless of whether there was a change in government later this year.

The nuclear consensus was pushed forward by the ruling Social Democrat/Green party government coalition, but parts of the opposing Christian Democrats openly favour rethinking it if they win national elections in September.

"There is no sensible alternative to nuclear energy," said Goll.

EnBW produced 53.8 billion kWh of electricity last year, where its nuclear plants contributed 52.5 percent.

EdF is more than 80-percent reliant on nuclear power.

-------- terrorism

U.S. experts outline "Dirty Bombs" threat

By Sue Pleming
Thursday March 7, 1:29 PM
Reuters
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/reuters/asia-93334.html

WASHINGTON - "Dirty bombs" -- radioactive material dispersed via conventional explosives -- pose a real threat to the United States but would create mass panic rather than big death tolls, nuclear experts said on Wednesday.

Since the September 11 attacks on the United States, fears have mounted over the use of radiological material by terrorists and whether these widely used materials are adequately stored and protected from abuse.

"Today we know that radiological and nuclear attacks on the United States are not only possible, but there are enough screwballs out there willing to risk or even give their lives to use them," said Senator Joseph Biden, a Delaware Democrat who chaired a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the threat.

A broad range of radioactive materials are used in medicine, agriculture, industry and research, from sterilizing food and medical instruments to diagnostic X-rays and self-illuminating exit signs.

In testimony to the committee, experts said casualties from radiological attacks would be minimal in comparison to the hundreds of thousands of deaths that could be caused by crude nuclear weapons.

Richard Meserve, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said the biggest impact would be psychological and economic and that was why the public needed to be educated about the risks.

"The terrorist's greatest weapon is fear," said Meserve.

Federation of American Scientists President Henry Kelly referred to a small amount of the radioactive material called cesium which was recently found abandoned in North Carolina and outlined its impact if used by terrorists.

If this small medical gauge of cesium was exploded in Washington D.C., residents over a five city block area would have a one in a 1,000 chance of getting cancer while those over 40 city blocks would have a one in 10,000 chance.

If decontamination were not possible, these areas would have to be abandoned for decades because of health risks, he said.

Giving another example of a cobalt bomb in New York City, he said the contamination would be far more serious and people living for 40 years within a 300-block radius would have a one in 10 risk of death from cancer.

TIGHTER CONTROLS POSSIBLE

Anyone handling radioactive material needs a licence from the NRC and Meserve said the commission was doing a "top to bottom" analysis of licensing laws and whether they needed to be tightened.

While the misuse of radioactive material posed a threat, experts said the biggest concern was still that terrorists would get their hands on potent, weapons-grade materials such as plutonium and uranium.

Safeguarding nuclear materials, should be a priority, the experts told the panel, particularly in Russia.

Donald Cobb, associate director for threat reduction at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, said there were hundreds more tons of weapons-grade material scattered across Russia than actual materials in weapons.

"Of course we can't ignore the security of the weapons but the materials are perhaps the greatest danger," Cobb said.

He suggested better technology was needed to detect and intercept smuggled nuclear materials, including radiological sources, concealed in luggage, packages or shipping containers.

Harry Vantine, programme leader for counter-terrorism and incident response at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, said nuclear explosive devices were the ultimate terrorist weapon and would dwarf the devastation caused by the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

"Dealing with the aftermath would be horrific. Rescue efforts and cleanup would be hazardous and difficult," said Vantine, pointing out that rescue workers could work for only short periods before acquiring their "lifetime" dose.

----

Fears over missing nuclear material
A few kilos of plutonium is enough for a nuclear bomb

Thursday, 7 March, 2002
BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1859000/1859560.stm

International researchers have warned that the world may be awash in unaccounted weapons-grade uranium and plutonium, after completing a latest database of lost and stolen nuclear material.

The new database by the Institute for International Studies (IIS) at Stanford University said the protection of nuclear and radioactive material was "woefully inadequate", pointing to huge gaps of information on the exact amount of missing material.

"It truly is frightening. I think this is the tip of the iceberg," one of the researchers, Lyudmila Zaitseva, said.

The Stanford Database on Nuclear Smuggling, Theft and Orphan Radiation Sources (DSTO) was released as US senators warned that the so-called "dirty" bombs made of discarded radioactive material could have a significant psycho-social effect and cause mass panic among the population.

The database, which will only be available to carefully vetted researchers, is intended to help governments and international agencies track missing nuclear material worldwide amid concerns over the patchy nature of most of the available information.

Chilling estimates

According to the report, about 40 kilograms of weapons-usable uranium and plutonium have been stolen from poorly protected nuclear facilities in the former Soviet Union during the last decade.

It said that while most of that material had been later retrieved, two kilograms of highly enriched uranium from a reactor in Georgia was still missing.

The database, which combines information from two existing unclassified databases and also adds independently obtained figures, registered 830 incidents of illicit trafficking of radioactive material.

But Ms Zaitseva said that the real amount of missing weapons-grade material could be 10 times higher than the official figures.

"We don't know what's missing. That's the most frightening thing".

Another member of the research team, nuclear physicist Friedrich Steinhausler, said the biggest hole in the database was that no one knew where the smuggled material has gone.

"There is no proof. There is suspicion but there is no proof," he said.

'Orphan' radiation

The Stanford database also lists "orphaned" radiation sources: scientific or medical material that may have been lost or misplaced.

Mr Steinhausler said that such materials also presented a real threat because victims may not know that they have been exposed.

"Many countries don't even have a central register of radioactive materials. If they don't know what they have, they don't know what they've lost," he said, quoting two cases of relatively recent mass accidental contamination in the USA and Brazil.

Ms Zaitseva added that with the collapse of the Soviet Union, a large amount of weapons-grade material was left without adequate protection.

She said the US-sponsored programme to secure nuclear components in the former Soviet Union has locked only one-third of the more than 600 tons of weapons-usable material.

"It's just not protected. This is hot stuff. If you steal 20 kilograms of that material, you can build a nuclear weapon."

----

[To respond, mailto:letters@washingtontimes.com. et]

Threats most foul

EDITORIAL
March 6, 2002
Washington Times
http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20020306-13697064.htm

Foul foes often find a way to use the foulest weapons available. That's probably why so many individuals are so worried that terrorists - al Qaeda or otherwise - will detonate either a nuclear bomb or a "dirty" radiological device somewhere on American soil.

It's a terrifying possibility that could all too easily come to pass. The Washington Post reported on Sunday that the Bush administration has placed the Delta Force on alert to respond to warnings from hundreds of radiological sensors it has placed in strategic locations around the country and at overseas U.S. facilities.

On Monday, Time reported that the Nuclear Emergency and Search Team (NEST) forces had been placed on high alert last October, a consequence of a terrorist plot to detonate a nuclear bomb in New York City. This was first reported in Insight magazine.

The threats we face today are unprecedented, though. Dave McIntyre, deputy director of the ANSER Institute for Homeland Security, points out that even enemies usually establish a certain understanding of acceptable means to ends - as the United States and the Soviet Union did throughout the Cold War. However, that consensus can no longer be counted on, as both the indiscriminate attacks of September 11 and the brutal murder of Daniel Pearl so tragically illustrated.

Since Americans are potential targets of radiological or nuclear attack, the question for policy-makers is how to reduce the risk of such an event and how to deal with its potential consequences.

At least part of the solution is abroad. Heat and pressure must be kept on Osama bin Laden and his cohorts, since thermobaric bombs have the tendency to suck the breath out of planned terrorist operations. So does good intelligence, and while the point has been made before, the United States needs to continue to develop human intelligence resources in terrorist communities. America and her equally vulnerable allies also need to continue to share intelligence information on terrorist plots and potential targets.

Information is also important at home, it has to be said. While it is understandable that the administration did not want to create the potential for panic in New York, Mayor Rudy Giuliani should have been informed of the suspected nuclear threat to his city. Indeed, Mr. Giuliani handled the potential for panic during last fall's anthrax attacks, showing sound judgment.

The administration seems to have become more sure-foooted since then. Deploying radiological sensors was a smart idea, as was almost doubling the budget for homeland defense.

But even if every precaution is taken, terrorists might still find a way to strike at Americans with the foulest weapons imaginable. In that terrifying case, Americans should be told how to respond. As we know, September 11 may just have been the beginning.

--------

Nuclear Threats, Real and Imagined

New York Times
March 7, 2002
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/07/opinion/L07NUKE.html

To the Editor:
Re "Tip on Nuclear Attack Risk Was Kept From New Yorkers"
(news article, March 4):

The scare last October that terrorists had obtained a 10-kiloton nuclear weapon and were planning to smuggle it into New York was taken very seriously by senior Bush administration officials for several days before being discredited. Such a scenario is far more likely, and presents a far more immediate threat, than the one that a national missile defense system is supposed to address.

Every billion dollars spent pursuing the illusion of missile defense is a billion dollars that can't be spent securing nuclear materials around the world and on the intelligence and technology needed to reduce the clear and present danger of a loose nuke delivered by truck or ship. Add to this the recent General Accounting Office report that defense contractors have falsified test data to make missile defense look more feasible, and you have a recipe for unprecedented disaster. MICHAEL CHRIST Exec. Dir., International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War Cambridge, Mass., March 5, 2002

• To the Editor:
Re "Tip on Nuclear Attack Risk Was Kept From New Yorkers"
(news article, March 4):

When the federal government believes that a terrorist attack is possible but does not know where or when it will be carried out or what kind of attack it will be, it issues a warning that puts us on indefinite "high alert" status. Yet when the federal government learns of a tip that within a matter of days New York City might be hit with a 10-kiloton nuclear bomb, it will say nothing for fear of creating a panic. Hence, should we conclude that being put on "high alert" is a safer state than being on "no alert," and that panic is not needed unless there is an absence of warnings? EUGENE D. COHEN Phoenix, March 4, 2002

--------

Some See Panic as Main Effect of Dirty Bombs

New York Times
March 7, 2002
By JAMES GLANZ with ANDREW C. REVKIN
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/07/politics/07NUKE.html

WASHINGTON, March 6 - Radioactive materials in wide use in the United States could be turned into weapons of terror that would probably kill few people but would spread panic and produce severe economic damage, scientists told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today.

The materials would not produce nuclear explosions. Rather, they would be spread using conventional explosives in so-called dirty bombs. The scientists who testified at the committee's hearing today said such weapons were a potentially serious problem.

The most dangerous materials, they said, are bars of radioactive cobalt used to irradiate food, medical devices and other products to sterilize them. If turned into fine particles and dispersed under the right weather conditions, the cobalt could spread enough radiation to force the abandonment of an area the size of Manhattan, the scientists said. But federal and industry officials said such an action with radioactive cobalt was unlikely because of the intense radiation to which the person trying to use the weapon would be exposed and because the material is transported in secret and kept behind tons of lead and other shielding while on the road or in use.

Other radioactive materials in tens of thousands of medical and industrial devices could be used to make weapons that would leave wide areas with radiation levels above Environmental Protection Agency limits, possibly leading to temporary evacuation and an extremely difficult cleanup.

"Radiological terrorism is a very plausible threat," said Dr. Steven E. Koonin, a physicist and national security expert who is provost of the California Institute of Technology.

The necessary radioactive materials are relatively common, he said, and "the expertise for handling is widely known and readily acquired."

Scientists at the hearing held to understand these threats and to devise ways of protecting Americans against them also said that they remained concerned that fissionable material - the fuel for nuclear weapons - and the expertise needed to use it could be spreading from the former Soviet Union to terrorist networks, but presented no new evidence of such leakage.

Much of the testimony focused on commonplace industrial materials like radioactive cesium, widely used in devices that check the quality of welds, test the integrity of oil pipelines and even measure the thickness of asphalt on roadways. Medical probes and other devices also rely on materials of this kind.

Dr. Richard A. Meserve, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said that all such materials, as well as the much more powerful cobalt rods used in sterilizing food, are tightly controlled. He said that the weaker sources, if dispersed, would cause almost immeasurably small increases in cancer rates among people who were exposed.

Ideally, he said, evacuations from contaminated areas could be orderly. "It would not be such a crisis that if it took people 20 minutes or an hour to get out, it would be a disaster," Dr. Meserve said.

Nevertheless, that sort of attack could cause long-term problems because techniques for dealing with radioactive contamination rely largely on demolition and removal, Dr. Henry Kelly, president of the Federation of American Scientists, said. Because limits set by the Environmental Protection Agency for radiation exposure are so low, areas might have to be evacuated for the long term even when the health risks are relatively slight, he said.

Dr. Kelly offered a case study of what might happen if a dirty bomb containing a cobalt food irradiation bar exploded at the southern tip of Manhattan on a day with a light wind blowing toward the northeast. He calculated that Manhattan as far north as Central Park would be contaminated at levels similar to those in the permanently closed zone around the Chernobyl power plant. Manhattan would have to be abandoned for decades, Dr. Kelly said.

The scientists said that they believed anyone trying to transport and process the highly radioactive materials would be detected.

"I am comfortable because of the heightened awareness and security at those plants," Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., Democrat of Delaware, said. But, he said, "I'd be even more comfortable" if technology to replace the radioactive bars could be developed.

Thousands of cobalt-60 rods are used in more than 160 food sterilization centers, 40 in the United States, federal regulators said.

Federal nuclear officials and executives in the sterilization industry said yesterday that it would be extraordinarily difficult for terrorists to steal and use the 18-inch-long rods, the most common radiation source in the industry.

"An individual physically handling an unshielded single source rod would receive a lethal (death within weeks) dose in about a minute, and an incapacitating dose (immediately deadly) in about 20 minutes," said an e-mail statement from Neil A. Sheehan, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which licenses businesses using the materials.

--------

Threats to Be Shared With City and State

March 7, 2002
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/07/nyregion/07ALER.html

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Gov. George E. Pataki said yesterday that the director of homeland security, Tom Ridge, had called them to say that they would be apprised of all credible threats against New York in the future.

The mayor and the governor expressed their frustration earlier this week when they learned that the Bush administration had kept New York officials in the dark in October about an unconfirmed intelligence report of a nuclear threat to the city.

They said that Mr. Ridge called each of them on Tuesday and assured them that he would share information with them about credible threats. Mr. Pataki said that he would also like to be told about unconfirmed reports, so that local investigators could look into them.

-------- treaties

China, Iran Said Balking at Test Ban Pact Cooperation

March 7, 2002
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-arms-treaty-problems.html

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China and Iran are balking at full cooperation with a U.N. organization monitoring the international nuclear test ban treaty, raising fears that this could further undermine the embattled pact.

The two countries have stopped providing complete or timely data to the monitoring group in recent months, propelled by pique over U.S. policies and the hefty costs of the operation, U.S. officials and diplomatic sources said.

Adding to the mix, a new human resources report by an independent consultant has sharply criticized the Vienna-based monitoring organization's management and personnel practices.

One diplomatic source said he feared the test ban regime was starting to ``unravel'' from within as well as from without.

The United States, the leading nuclear power, dealt a stinging blow to the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, or CTBT, when the Senate refused to ratify it in 2000.

Since then, President Bush has reiterated his firm opposition to the treaty, although his administration has pledged to continue paying most, but not all, of the $18 million annual U.S. share of the CTBT organization costs.

The U.N. administrative office has operated in Vienna for five years, gathering data and establishing an elaborate system of 337 sensors around the world designed to measure and verify the test ban if the treaty ever enters into force.

China, Iran and several other countries have expressed dismay at being asked to commit millions of dollars to the monitoring operation when it was unclear when -- or if -- the treaty might actually take effect.

The operation is costing a total of $85 million-$90 million annually with no substantial decline in sight, officials said.

The CTBT, banning all nuclear blasts in the atmosphere, in space and underground, has been signed by 165 states. Of those 89 have ratified it.

44 STATES KEY TO APPROVAL

But it has not taken effect because it must be ratified by 44 states specifically deemed nuclear arms-capable, including the United States, China, Iran, India and Pakistan. Only 31 of those have ratified it.

China has four monitoring stations on its territory but has yet to install the communications facilities to transmit data to the international collection center in Vienna, U.S. officials said.

There are other seismic stations in China in a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Geological Survey, but Beijing has stopped transmitting data from these stations in real time directly to Vienna, instead sending the information via computer diskettes in a diplomatic pouch, they said.

A U.S. official said ``there may be political aspects to the Chinese dragging their feet,'' namely a recent U.S. decision to only pay costs associated with the monitoring system, not other functions of the Vienna-based CTBT organization.

A monitoring station in Iran became operational last year but Tehran recently stopped sending data to Vienna after a few months, a U.S. official and diplomatic source said.

This suggests Iran may be joining China in an effort to get back at Washington for withholding partial funding from the CTBT organization and also for Bush's recent description of Iran as an ``axis of evil'' with Iraq and North Korea, the sources said.

``China, Iran and others feel the United States shouldn't be getting a free ride'' by picking and choosing its degree of cooperation with the CTBT regime, a U.S. official said.

If other countries also began to withhold cooperation and funding, ``then the whole thing could unravel,'' he said.

Meanwhile, advocates of the test ban operation worry a consultant's report critical of the CTBT organization's management and personnel practices could provide further ammunition for critics, especially if changes are not made.

The report, obtained by Reuters, found a ``consistent message of fear and mistrust'' in the organization's 260-member secretariat and reported that some employees feel political concerns are more important than technical requirements.

It also warned the organization faces a severe brain drain.

A spokeswoman for the CTBT organization, Daniela Rozgonova, said the human resources report and the monitoring operations were ``two distinct matters'' and the management was addressing recommendations for change contained in the report.

She told Reuters the organization was working with China to establish a framework for providing data and was also working with Iran where a ``legal question'' seems to be holding up data transmission.

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

Senate Extends Nuclear Liability Law

March 7, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Energy-Bill.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Amid warnings that the future of the nuclear industry was at stake, the Senate agreed Thursday to continue requiring the government to assume liability for any major nuclear accident.

By a 78-21 vote, the Senate inserted into a sweeping energy bill an amendment extending a 1957 law that caps accident liability for the industry and private insurers at $9.3 billion. The provision also extended protection to the next generation of modular reactors that might be built.

A similar extension of the law already has been approved by the House. The current law expires this August.

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, meanwhile, bemoaned the slow progress being made on the 553-page energy bill. ``We've got to do better than an amendment a day,'' said Daschle, D-S.D. He said he still hopes the bill will be completed next week.

The sponsor of the nuclear liability amendment, Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, said the Price-Anderson Act, which requires the government to assume liabilities over $9.3 billion, has worked well for decades and must continued if the nuclear industry is to survive.

Critics argued the government should not have to bail out a mature industry.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., urged fellow senators ``to take away the training wheels'' and at least as far as the next generation of reactors is concerned ``require the industry to stand on its own two feet.''

Reid offered a proposal to limit liability protection to current reactors, then withdrew the amendment

Sen. Bob Smith, R-N.H., said that if the liability protection did not cover future reactors, the industry would abandon such projects as its so-called ``pebble bed'' design reactor. At least one utility has indicated it may seek a federal license for such a reactor within the next year or two.

``These modular (reactor) units are the future of nuclear power,'' said Smith.

The current law, already extended several times, requires individual nuclear power plants to have private insurance covering at least $200 million. In addition, the industry as a whole must make available $9.3 billion for an accident at any plant.

-------

NUCLEAR SAFETY:
NRC inspector falls asleep while inspecting uranium plant

Greenwire
James Carroll,
Louisville Courier-Journal,
March 7
From: "Steve Taylor" <Steve@miltoxproj.org>

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspector fell asleep on Monday while observing training exercises at Kentucky's Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant.

NRC spokesman Jan Strasma said there was no safety hazard, but the commission is reviewing the incident. The Chicago-based inspector was not identified and is still working.

"I've heard of operators falling asleep at nuclear reactors, but I've never heard of an inspector falling asleep," said Marvin Resnikoff, senior associate at Radioactive Waste Management Associates, a New York consulting firm.

Strasma said the inspector was observing training activities at the plant, which enriches uranium for nuclear power plants. Strasma: "There was no danger to himself or any of the participants." The NRC inspects the Paducah plant several times a year to examine radiation-protection procedures, training and other operations. Two outside inspectors join two NRC inspectors during each review.

-------- tennessee

Documentary to spotlight Manhattan Project by Paul Parson

March 7, 2002
ak Ridger staff
http://www.oakridger.com/stories/030702/new_0307020072.html

A documentary highlighting the significance of the Manhattan Project is expected to air on the History Channel later this year.

The Oak Ridge-related documentary will be part of the History Channel's "Modern Marvels" series. The tentative air date for the program is June 4, according to a spokeswoman for the channel.

Marilyn McLaughlin, who works at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and who helped coordinate the documentary shoot last October, said the main theme of the program is to give a chronological history of the Manhattan Project while demonstrating some of the obstacles that had to be overcome to create and complete the project.

Oak Ridge was created in the early 1940s as a major site of the Manhattan Project, a massive wartime effort that produced the world's first atomic weapons.

However, the Manhattan Project was not just about making a bomb; it was a multi-spectrum of inventions that led to the development of laboratories and technologies, according to McLaughlin.

Several people with connections to Oak Ridge's Department of Energy facilities were interviewed for the program, including Alvin Weinberg, former director of ORNL; Bill Madia, the current director of ORNL; Dick Smyser, founding editor of The Oak Ridger; Joanne Gailar, who used to work at the Oak Ridge K-25 site; and Ed Westcott, who served as the official Manhattan Project photographer. However, the History Channel could not confirm who would be in the documentary.

It is expected that the program will showcase the Graphite Reactor, the world's oldest nuclear reactor, at ORNL; the mile-long, U-shaped K-25 building at the Oak Ridge K-25 site; and the Beta 3 building at what is now known as the Y-12 National Security Complex.

K-25 was placed in operation in August 1945 for the isotopic enrichment of uranium by gaseous diffusion. The Beta 3 building at Y-12 still houses calutron machinery that was used to separate large quantities of uranium during the Manhattan Project.

Paul Parson can be contacted at (865) 220-5533 or pparson@oakridger.com.

======

Comments:

From: Magnu96196@aol.com
Date: Thu, 7 Mar 2002 22:06:37 EST

This appears one more PR piece to celebrate the Manhattan Project, while loosing the down side of things about the K-25 plants fluoride problems poisoning the work force and the communities. Also, it will avoid at all costs the principle health damage mechanism in Oak Ridge involving concentration of metal oxides and insolubel fluorides in the lymph nodes, which set up foreign body cytokine responses and melt down of the immune system leading to varied disease outcomes.

It will no doubt avoid telling the dangers of all the DUF-6 stored in Oak Ridge and how this huge pile of fluoride poses an HF risk to the region, and it won't tell how Oak Ridge suppressed the metal oxides effects of DU on human health that results in the illness like GWI.

One can most likely expect another PR piece that avoids the real truth about a project that took away the rights of the people to know and the rights of the citizens to know the principle disease mechanism that even controls aging. Oak Ridge suppressed and controlled these illness patterns that are as old as the treasured icons of old world religion.

The real truth on Oak RIdge is that it caused a world holocaust that is too difficult for most to fathom and this cover up makes Oak RIdge the axis of evil promoting keeping the US citizens dumbed down to the point that they represent the axis of stupidity on world affairs. Cover ups so large that they in effect set up Holy Wars

-------- washington

Hanford clean-up schedule accelerated

March 6, 2002
UPI
by Hil Anderson in Los Angeles
http://www.washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/06032002-075803-1221r.htm

SEATTLE, March 6 -- A new plan agreed upon by Washington state and federal officials could have the huge cleanup job at the former Hanford Site plutonium processing plant completed decades ahead of its original schedule.

The Department of Energy announced Wednesday that the agreement included plans to request $433 million in additional funding for 2003 alone and would seek to complete the task decades in 35-45 years rather than by the original target date of 2070.

"The Hanford pact provides the framework necessary to accelerate cleanup and it is a major step to more effectively reduce health risks and expedite the environmental restoration of the nation's nuclear sites," Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said in a release.

Hanford Site is located on 586-square miles in a remote corner of southeastern Washington. It was established during World War II as part of the Manhattan Project and for the next 50 years produced plutonium for nuclear weapons. As a result, Hanford is dotted with storage tanks for spent nuclear fuel and other radioactive waste.

The plant's current focus has largely been on planning and carrying out what is now one of the world's largest environmental clean-ups and the protection of the nearby Columbia River; the additional $433 million in funding would push the 2003 budget to $2 billion.

"This is the best news for Hanford since the signing of the original cleanup agreement," Washington Gov. Gary Locke said.

Washington Ecology Director Tom Fitzsimmons said the agreement was one that the state had been "hoping for and working on for several years."

"The mutual satisfaction here is that the cleanup will occur faster and cheaper without reducing the scope or the quality of the project," he said.

The agreement was also the first under the Energy Department's new Environmental Management Accelerated Cleanup Program, which is aimed at streamlining plans for cleanups at Cold War nuclear weapons production plants.

"The Hanford pact is a framework for all Department of Energy sites to follow in moving toward an accelerated plan because it provides the necessary level of detail and criteria to reach a commitment to faster, safer cleanup," Abraham said.

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Hanford Plutonium Waste Cleanup Accelerated

March 7, 2002
ENS
http://ens-news.com/ens/mar2002/2002L-03-07-02.html

OLYMPIA, Washington, The highly radioactive nuclear waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation on the Columbia River in southcentral Washington state could be cleaned up at least 35 years faster than originally estimated, due to an agreement reached between two federal agencies and the state of Washington.

The waste is the legacy of 45 years of nuclear weapons production. It amounts to about 60 percent of all the high-level nuclear waste in the United States.

Washington Governor Gary Locke (Photo courtesy Office of the Governor)

Washington Governor Gary Locke announced Wednesday an agreement reached with Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham that reverses a $300 million cut from Hanford cleanup funds that was part of the Bush administration's proposed FY 2003 budget.

A Letter of Intent was signed on Wednesday by the State of Washington, the Department of Energy (DOE) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which modifies their existing Tri-Party Agreement restoring funding and setting an accelerated schedule for Hanford cleanup.

The letter states, "This represents a transformation in Hanford Site cleanup, with the objective of accelerating completion from a 2070 timeframe to 2035, and possibly as soon as 2025. It establishes a bias for action and continuous improvement throughout cleanup." DOE managers have assured the governor and other state officials that they will create a budgetary approach that ensures full funding through fiscal year 2006.

Hanford produced plutonium for nuclear weapons from 1943 through 1989. The Tri-Party Agreement of 1989 governs the handling and cleanup of the radioactive and hazardous wastes from the plutonium production.

The Department of Energy has made a commitment to restore $300 million to fully fund Hanford's cleanup budget and provide an additional $150 million in fiscal year 2003 to pay for accelerated cleanup activities this year.

"This is the best news for Hanford since the signing of the original cleanup agreement," said Governor Locke, who met Energy Secretary Abraham in Washington, DC late in February to negotiate a reverse of the budget cut. "At the time, I could not divulge the framework of the agreement, but it is clear that the trip paid off," he said Wednesday.

There are 177 large scale underground nuclear waste tanks at Hanford containing 54 million gallons of high-level wastes. An estimated 440 billion gallons of contaminated liquids were discharged to the soil since 1944. There are over 1,500 areas of contaminated soil at Hanford.

High-level nuclear waste in a Hanford storage tank (Photo courtesy Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)

The funding cut would have jeopardized construction of a vitrification plant for immobilization of the nuclear waste in glass. The vitrification plant is also expected to serve in the cleanup of other areas of the Hanford site which may then be converted into industrial parks, brownfields or conservation sites.

As a first step, Energy Department experts will develop a set of specific goals for physical progress by 2007 and 2012 that will represent "a major acceleration from current plans," the agency said. DOE will produce a draft work plan showing how these goals can be met by May 1, and the Tri-Parties hope to produce a mutually agreed to work plan by August 1.

Washington Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat, said the agreement is really the culmination of two years of effort by the Hanford site managers and the state and federal regulators to reexamine cleanup goals and priorities.

"Funding for Hanford cleanup has always been a difficult, but necessary fight," Senator Murray said. "The Department of Energy and Office of Management and Budget are promising that the days of fighting over nuclear cleanup budgets are behind us. I sincerely hope they are. The Administration must still present a formal revised budget for Hanford, and I look forward to working with the Administration to appropriate these funds."

"If it weren't for our resolve, there would have been little commitment to clean up Hanford in accordance with the terms of the Tri-Party Agreement," Governor Locke said. "We're going to get Hanford cleaned up faster and better - and save money, too."

The largest Hanford cleanup citizens watchdog group, Heart of America Northwest, applauded the restoration of funding and a new plan for groundwater monitoring and protection. But the group warned that the letter of intent refers "closure" of tanks which the Energy Secretary's review of progress at Hanford, issued with the 2003 budget, had proposed as a condition of restoring funding.

"The proposals in that review and in accompanying DOE briefings would be to leave high-level nuclear waste forever in more than 60 single shell tanks, and declare them "closed" with cement added. Many of the remaining liquid high-level nuclear wastes would be mixed with cement, called grout, instead of being glassified under the Bush Administration plan," cautioned attorney Gerald Pollet, the group's executive director.

Construction of double shell waste storage tanks at Hanford (Photo courtesy DOE)

Pollet said, "The Bush Administration's proposals to leave waste forever would condemn the Columbia River and make the Hanford Reach National Monument into a Hanford Reach National Nuclear Waste Sacrifice Zone. Contract and management reform at U.S. DOE are what is needed to make Hanford cleanup cost efficient, as opposed to simply not leaving waste behind."

On Wednesday, Edward Aromi was appointed president and general manager of CH2M HILL Hanford Group, Inc., the Department of Energy's Office of River Protection prime contractor responsible for storing, characterizing, and retrieving the nuclear waste for treatment. He had been acting president of the Hanford tank farm prime contractor since January 7.

"I am honored to be chosen to lead this company and am eager to continue our efforts to build a team focused on safe, quality performance," Aromi said. "I look forward to working with our DOE customer and my fellow CH2M HILL Hanford Group employee-owners to provide maximum value to the American taxpayer as we accelerate Hanford cleanup."

Aromi came to CH2M HILL Hanford Group in 2001 as executive vice president and CEO from Duratek Federal Services of Hanford, Inc., where he was president and general manager. In that capacity, he also served as vice president of Fluor Hanford's Waste Management Project.

During his time with the Fluor-Duratek team, Aromi was responsible for the management of Hanford's 200 Area Liquids Facilities, 242-A Evaporator, WRAP, 222-S and WSCF Laboratories, Solid Waste Treatment, and Storage and Transuranic Waste programs, receiving excellent performance ratings from DOE every year.

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MORE MONEY FOR HANFORD CLEANUP

March 7, 2002
National Briefing: Washington
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/07/national/07BRFS1.html

The Bush administration said the federal government would spend an additional $450 million as part of a plan to speed the cleanup of the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington State. Cleaning Hanford, the nation's most contaminated nuclear site, is to be accelerated by 35 to 45 years under the plan, a result of an agreement among the state, the Energy Department and federal regulators. The target date for completing cleanup at Hanford had been 2070. The administration agreed to restore $300 million it had cut from Hanford's 2003 budget and provide an additional $150 million, bringing Hanford's total budget to more than $2 billion in 2003. (AP)

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Hanford Nuclear Site on Fast Track

March 7, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Hanford-Cleanup.html

YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) -- The Bush administration agreed to restore $300 million in cuts to the cleanup of the nation's most contaminated nuclear site and to spend an additional $150 million next year to speed the effort.

Cleanup of the Hanford nuclear reservation will be accelerated by 35 to 45 years under an agreement between the state, the Energy Department and federal regulators, officials said Wednesday.

Tuesday's agreement is the first reached under an Energy Department program aimed at streamlining cleanup of its sites around the country by working more closely with states and regulators.

The target date for completing cleanup at Hanford, in south-central Washington, had been 2070. The new target is 2025 to 2035.

The Bush administration had cut $300 million from Hanford's 2003 budget. The reversal of those cuts and the additional spending bring Hanford's total budget to more than $2 billion in 2003.

``The Department of Energy and the Office of Management and Budget are promising that the days of fighting over nuclear cleanup budgets are behind us,'' said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. ``I sincerely hope they are.''

The new agreement calls for speeding up retrieval of the more than 53 million gallons of highly radioactive waste stored in 177 underground tanks near the Columbia River. The tanks have leaked more than 1 million gallons into the soil and groundwater.

The new agreement also calls for accelerating the cleanup of the area around Hanford, looking for alternative technology to dispose of less-radioactive waste, speeding up processing of scrap plutonium and speeding up cleanup of basins where lethal, corroding rods of spent nuclear fuel are stored.

Plutonium was made at the 560-square-mile site for more than 40 years for the nation's nuclear arsenal, including the bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki during World War II.

-------- us politics

Bush singing praises

Embassy Row,
James Morrison
March 7, 2002
Washington Times
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20020307-56117903.htm

The U.S. ambassadors to Yemen and Tajikistan this week hand-delivered letters from President Bush to the leaders of those nations to thank them for cooperating in the war against terrorism.

Ambassador Franklin Huddle yesterday passed on Mr. Bush's message to Tajik President Emomali Rakhmonov, who later told reporters that his government will continue to back the United States.

"We are ready in every possible way to contribute to the success of the anti-terrorist operation in Afghanistan in order to create in that country a stable and flourishing state that lives with its neighbors in peace and harmony," he said.

The Central Asian nation has maintained close ties with the Northern Alliance, which helped U.S. forces topple Afghanistan's Taliban regime.

U.S. Ambassador Edmund J. Hull on Tuesday delivered a letter to Yemeni President Ali Adbullah Saleh, expressing Mr. Bush's appreciation to the country that was the scene of a terrorist attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 Americans in October 2000.

"The U.S. president voiced appreciation for Yemen's stances backing the United States of America and the international anti-terror efforts," the official Yemen news agency Saba reported.

"Furthermore, Bush underscored his country's keenness to present aid to Yemen in security and developmental fields, and to urge the donor states to assist Yemen in economic and developmental fields so as to help strengthen Yemen endeavor in fighting terrorism."

----

A War Without Congress

March 7, 2002
Los Angeles Times
EDITORIAL
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-000016965mar07.story

As American troops battle Al Qaeda forces near the Afghan city of Gardez, the war on terrorism is headed for trouble with Congress. The Republicans are howling about what they see as unpatriotic behavior, but Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) was right to complain this past weekend that the administration failed to honor its constitutional obligation to keep him and other officials in the loop. This war is just, but it is still the responsibility of Congress to fund it--a fact that the White House can't ignore forever.

The Bush administration's snubs of Congress have been frequent and in-your-face. On Monday, the White House said Thomas J. Ridge would not respond to a bipartisan request to testify before the Senate Appropriations Committee about a $38-billion boost in spending for his homeland defense agency. On Tuesday, House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) learned that the White House had failed to inform him of a contingency plan briefing for congressional leaders. Daschle, John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) and other senators are bridling at President Bush's vast expansion of foreign commitments, made without consulting Congress and, they argue, without a clear game plan. If Bush's popularity ratings are an indication, the public will have little patience for any politician who seems ready to tiptoe away from an aggressive offensive against the international terrorists who remain so eager to slaughter Americans. The administration may be right to send advisors everywhere from Georgia to Oman. But it does not have license to intervene anywhere, anytime, without congressional permission.

The administration has asked for $4.7 trillion over the next 10 years for the Pentagon, $600 billion more than was anticipated before Sept. 11. The 2003 budget is supposed to be $379 billion, an increase of $48 billion. Many of the administration's requests are reasonable. It wants to improve housing for military personnel and their families. It wants to up spending on aircraft for reconnaissance and on chemical and biological defense. But the administration has refused to junk such Cold War relics as the M-1 Abrams tank. It also clings to missile defense, asking for $7.8 billion, even though a new study by the Congressional Budget Office pegs the cost for a full-scale system at $68 billion or more.

Daschle has declared in a resolution that the Senate "stands united with the president." But he's unwilling to hand the administration a blank check for the war. As Congress asserts itself, the administration will start realizing that this may not be the time to put the military on a Slim-Fast diet but it's also not a time to start binging. Congressional oversight of the war is not meddling. It is a constitutional duty.

--------

KNOW WHAT YOUR PRESIDENT IS DOING
What the President has done in his first 6 months

Date: Thu, 7 Mar 2002
From: Dr. David A. Sprintzen <dsprintz@liu.edu>

The First Six Months of George W. Bush: Whatever your beliefs, know what your President is doing. Here is a list of his work in his first six months:

- Significantly eased field-testing controls of genetically engineered crops.

- Cut federal spending on libraries by $39 million.

- Cut $35 million in funding for doctors to get advanced pediatric training.

- Cut by 50% funding for research into renewable energy sources.

- Revoked rules that reduced the acceptable levels of arsenic in drinking water.

- Blocked rules that would require federal agencies to offer bilingual assistance to non-English speaking persons. This, from a candidate who would readily fire-up his Spanish-speaking skills in front of would-be Hispanic voters.

- Proposed to eliminate new marine protections for the Channel Islands and the coral reefs of northwest Hawaii (San Francisco Chronicle, April 6, 2001).

- Cut funding by 28% for research into cleaner, more efficient cars and trucks.

- Suspended rules that would have strengthened the government's ability to deny contracts to companies that violated workplace safety, environmental, and other federal laws.

- OK'd Interior Department appointee Gale Norton to send out letters to state officials soliciting suggestions for opening up national monuments for oil and gas drilling, coal mining, and foresting.

- Appointed John Negroponte--an unindicted high level Iran Contra figure--to the post of United Nations ambassador.

- Abandoned a campaign pledge to invest $100 million for rain forest conservation.

- Reduced by 86% the Community Access Program for public hospitals, clinics, and providers of care for people without insurance.

- Rescinded a proposal to increase public access to information about the potential consequences resulting from chemical plant accidents.

- Suspended rules that would require hardrock miners to clean up sites on Western public lands.

- Cut $60 million from a Boy's and Girl's Clubs of America program for public housing.

- Proposed to eliminate a federal program designed to help communities (and successfully used in Seattle) prepare for natural disasters.

- Pulled out of the 1997 Kyoto Treaty global warming agreement.

- Cut $200 million of work force training for dislocated workers.

- Eliminated funding for the Wetlands Reserve Program, which encourages farmers to maintain wetlands habitat on their property.

- Cut program to provide childcare to low-income families as they move from welfare to work.

- Cut a program that provided prescription contraceptive coverage to federal employees (though it still pays for Viagra).

- Cut $700 million in capital funds for repairs in public housing.

- Appointed Otto Reich--an unindicted high level Iran Contra figure--to Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs.

- Cut Environmental Protection Agency budget by $500 million.

- Proposed to curtail the ability of groups to sue in order to get an animal placed on the Endangered Species List.

- Rescinded rule that mandated increased energy-saving efficiency regulations for central air conditioners and heat pumps.

- Repealed work place ergonomic rules designed to improve worker health and safety.

- Abandoned campaign pledge to regulate carbon dioxide (CO2), the waste gas that contributes to global warming.

- Banned federal aid to international family planning programs that offer abortion counseling with other independent funds.

- Closed White House Office for Women's Health Initiatives and Outreach.

- Nominated David Lauriski--ex-mining company executive--to post of Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health.

- O.K.'d Interior Secretary Gale Norton to go forth with a controversial plan to auction oil and gas development tracts off the coast east of Florida.

- Announced intention to open up Montana's Lewis and Clark National Forest to oil and drilling.

- Proposes to re-draw boundaries of nation's monuments, which would technically allow oil and gas drilling "outside" of national monuments.

- Gutted White House AIDS Office.

- Renegotiating free trade agreement with Jordan to eliminate safeguards for the environment and workers' rights.

- Will no longer seek guidance from The American Bar Association in recommendations for the federal judiciary appointments.

- Appointed recycling foe Lynn Scarlett as Undersecretary of the Interior.

- Took steps to abolish the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

- Cut the Community Oriented Policing Services program.

- Allowed Interior Secretary Gale Norton to shelve citizen-led grizzly bear re-introduction plan scheduled for Idaho and Montana wilderness.

- Continues to hold up federal funding for stem cell research projects.

- Makes sure convicted misdemeanor drug users cannot get financial aid for college, though convicted murderers can.

- Refused to fund continued cleanup of uranium-slag heap in Utah.

- Refused to fund continued litigation of the government's tobacco company lawsuit.

- Proposed a $2 trillion tax cut, of which 43% will go to the wealthiest 1% of Americans.

- Signed a bill making it harder for poor and middle-class Americans to file for bankruptcy, even in the case of daunting medical bills.

- Appointed a Vice President quoted as saying, "If you want to do something about carbon dioxide emissions, then you ought to build nuclear power plants" (Vice President Dick Cheney on "Meet the Press").

- Appointed Diana "There is no gender gap in pay" Roth to the Council of Economic Advisers (Boston Globe, March 28, 2001).

- Appointed Kay Cole James--an opponent of affirmative action--to direct the Office of Personnel Management.

- Cut $15.7 million earmarked for states to investigate cases of child abuse and neglect.

- Helped kill a law designed to make it tougher for teenagers to get credit cards.

- Proposed elimination of the "Reading Is Fundamental" program that gives free books to poor children.

- Is pushing for development of small nuclear weapons to attack deeply buried targets--weapons, which would violate the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

- Proposes to nominate Jeffrey Sutton--attorney responsible for the recent case weakening the Americans with Disabilities Act--to federal appeals court judgeship.

- Proposes to reverse regulation protecting 60 million acres of national forest from logging and road building.

- Eliminated funding for the "We the People" education program which taught school children about the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and citizenship.

- Appointed John Bolton--who opposes nonproliferation treaties and the U.N.--to Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security.

- Nominated Linda Fisher--an executive with Monsanto--for the number two job at the Environmental Protection Agency.

- Nominated Michael McConnell--leading critic of the separation of church and state--to a federal judgeship.

- Nominated Terrence Boyle--- ardent opponent of civil rights--to a federal judgeship.

- Canceled 2004 deadline for automakers to develop prototype high mileage cars.

- Nominated Harvey Pitts--lawyer for teen sex video distributor--to head SEC.

- Nominated John Walters--strong opponent of prison drug treatment programs--for Drug Czar (Washington Post, May 16, 2001).

- Nominated J. Steven Giles--an oil and coal lobbyist--for Deputy Secretary of the Interior.

- Nominated Bennett Raley--who advocates repealing the Endangered Species Act-for Assistant Secretary for Water and Science.

- Is seeking the dismissal of class-action lawsuit filed in the U.S. against Japan by Asian women forced to work as sex slaves during WWII.

- Earmarked $4 million in new federal grant money for HIV and drug abuse prevention programs to go only to religious groups and not secular equivalents.

- Reduced by 40% the Low Income Home Assistance Program for low-income individuals who need assistance paying energy bills.

- Nominated Ted Olson--who has repeatedly lied about his involvement with the Scaiffe--funded "Arkansas Project" to bring down Bill Clinton-for Solicitor General.

- Nominated Terrance Boyle--foe of civil rights--to a federal judgeship.

- Proposes to ease permit process--including environmental considerations--for refinery, nuclear, and hydroelectric dam construction (Washington Post, May 18, 2001).

- Proposes to give government the authority to take private property through eminent domain for power lines.

- Proposes that $1.2 billion in funding for alternative renewable energy come from selling oil and gas lease tracts in the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve.

- Plans on serving genetically engineered foods at all official government functions.

- Forced out Forest Service chief Mike Dombeck and appointed a timber industry lobbyist

-To me, the brutal, soul-less ASSAULT on Afghanistan tops this list.

Dr. David A. Sprintzen dsprintz@liu.edu Professor of Philosophy; Co-Director, Institute for Sustainable Development C.W. Post College, Long Island University 720 Northern Boulevard Brookville, NY 11548-1300 (516)299-3051 fax: (516) 299-4140


-------- MILITARY

History doesn't agree with columnist

March 7, 2002
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Washington Times
http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20020307-81887462.htm#2

Tod Lindberg's March 5 Op-Ed column, "Standing by Afghanistan," justifies nation building in Afghanistan on the grounds that it will encourage "international 'bandwagoning,' whereby other nations are drawn to us as the world's greatest power."

But Mr. Lindberg's bandwagoning idea turns balance-of-power theory on its head. Indeed, he assumes that nations tend to align with emerging hegemonic powers instead of trying to balance against them. The history of international relations suggests otherwise.

History, moreover, is littered with the wreckage of countries that thought that displays of power would overawe opponents and draw undecided states to them. Powers as diverse as ancient Athens, 18th-century Britain and Imperial Germany all made that blunder. Their behavior energized others against them.

Regardless of the motive in the present case, we shouldn't kid ourselves: Hegemonic behavior will elicit balancing in the long run.

GARY DEMPSEY Foreign policy analyst Cato Institute Washington

-------- afghanistan

US says 500 killed in cave battle

Thursday, March 7, 2002
Sydney Morning Herald;
The New York Times, The Boston Globe;
By John Burns in Spina Takht
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0203/07/world/world2.html

Fierce combat ... First Sgt. Johnathan Blossom, of the 2nd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division running for cover during a fire fight near Sirkhankel, Afghanistan. Below, troops deploying from a CH-47 Chinook helicopter on a hill top in the same area. Photo: Warren Zinn/Army Times

A United States military official claimed yesterday that the US-led coalition had killed half the Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters holed up in caves in eastern Afghanistan in attacks on their positions that began on Saturday.

"We've killed up to 500 or more," said Lieutenant-Colonel Walter Piatt. "Initially we thought it was only about a couple of hundred but now we think it's about half [of the total enemy force]."

US-led ground troops fought their way towards Taliban and al-Qaeda strongholds and were reported in some places to have pushed to within 100 metres of bunkers and caves where enemy fighters appeared to have dug in for a final stand.

US officers described the battle as the fiercest ground combat in the five months of war in Afghanistan. They said it had thrown coalition troops including Afghans and special forces from Australia, Canada, France, Germany and Norway against soldiers seemingly ready to fight to the finish.

At nightfall on Tuesday, with temperatures at the 3300-metre battlefield falling well below zero, US helicopters continued shuttling up into the Shahi Khot valley, heart of the battle zone, with fresh troops and supplies.

"The battle was very intense at times," said Major Bryan Hilferty, a US military spokesman. "There was mortar fire, machine-gun fire. The enemy has heavy weaponry. This battle is going to go on until they surrender or die."

In neighbouring Pakistan, meanwhile, government sources and independent analysts said Pakistan's powerful military intelligence service was phasing out two elite units that for decades have stoked radical Islamic passions in South Asia.

The shakeup one of the most significant moves to date in President Pervez Musharraf's crackdown on militant elements has not been publicly acknowledged.

But officials said the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency was disbanding its Kashmir and Afghanistan units, sending more than 3000 intelligence officers in them back to infantry, armour, artillery and other mainstream military branches.

"It's a sea change in Pakistan's policy in the region," said Rifaat Hussain, the chairman of the department of defence and strategic studies at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad. "For years we've been playing with fire, encouraging radical Muslims" in Afghanistan and Kashmir.

"The massive reorganisation that appears under way at ISI is a healthy sign that Musharraf truly intends to shape Pakistan into a modern, progressive Muslim state. It signals that Pakistan is no longer interested in using [its] territory to launch jihads next door.

----

Missile explosion kills peacekeepers

By Tony Czuczka
ASSOCIATED PRESS
March 7, 2002
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20020307-72392788.htm

BERLIN - Anti-aircraft missiles that peacekeepers in the Afghan capital, Kabul, were trying to defuse exploded yesterday, killing two German and three Danish soldiers and injuring seven, the top officer in the Germany military said.

The soldiers were attempting to destroy two Russian-made SA-3 ground-to-air missiles with a controlled explosion at a munitions-collection point about three miles from the German military's base in Kabul, Gen. Harald Kujat said.

The SA-3 was part of the arsenal of Afghanistan's former Taliban rulers, but Gen. Kujat said the origin of the missiles was not clear. He did not know whether one or both exploded in the incident yesterday afternoon.

"Apparently, the explosion went off early," he told a news conference in Berlin. "The soldiers were still in the area close to the two missiles."

In addition to the five dead, seven soldiers were injured, three of them seriously, Gen. Kujat said. Three of the wounded were Danes, the Danish Defense Command said.

The casualties were the first German or Danish soldiers killed in the security force set up to protect the government of Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder expressed condolences to the families of the dead soldiers, calling it a tragic accident. He said, however, that the accident should not raise questions about Germany's deployment in the region.

"It was a task that did not have anything to do with military conflict. There is no reason to question the mission," Mr. Schroeder said.

Germany's decision in November to offer up to 3,900 soldiers for the U.S.-led war against terrorism and related tasks was preceded by a wrenching national debate over the most far-reaching deployment since World War II.

Gen. Kujat, the inspector general of the German armed forces, said it appeared soldiers were observing safety regulations and there was no evidence of sabotage.

"This was an accident," he said. More than 700 German soldiers are part of the international security force deployed in and around the Afghan capital. About 50 Danish soldiers who specialize in mine clearing were sent to Afghanistan in January.

The SA-3 has a range of 11 miles and weighs 2,100 pounds. It was designed to destroy aircraft, cruise missiles, assault helicopters and other targets at low or medium altitudes. First introduced in 1961, the missile is comparable to a MIM-23 Hawk in the U.S. arsenal.

--------

U.S. Continues Heavy Bombing Near Afghan Caves

March 7, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Afghan-Fighting.html

GARDEZ, Afghanistan (AP) -- U.S. troops scoured caves and cleared ridges of al-Qaida diehards Thursday, but sandstorms and high winds grounded helicopters and threatened to disrupt the U.S.-led air and ground offensive.

After some of the heaviest bombing in the six-day offensive, a number of supply flights were delayed or canceled because of the worsening weather. U.S. officials acknowledged pilots and troops on the ground would have a harder time routing the fighters in such bad conditions.

Maj. Bryan Hilfery, spokesman for the 10th Mountain Division, said 100 militants were killed Wednesday. Allied attacks also destroyed some of their heavy weaponry -- which includes mortars, small cannons, rocket-propelled grenades and shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles.

``We're continuing to bolster our efforts, and units are continuing to maneuver in fire today, clearing ridgelines, caves and pockets of al-Qaida resistance,'' Hilfery said at Bagram air base, north of the Afghan capital Kabul.

U.S. officials and Afghan commanders said al-Qaida sympathizers -- including some from Pakistan -- had crossed into the mountains to join the fight. Afghans said enemy forces may now number 1,000.

The commanders insisted the routes to the mountain passes had since been sealed -- even though Taliban fighters managed to bring some of their slain comrades to the foothills of Surmad for burial Tuesday.

U.S. officials have said hundreds of fugitive fighters have been killed since Operation Anaconda began and small numbers detained. Eight American and three Afghan troops have died in the offensive.

Five international peacekeepers were killed Wednesday when a Soviet-era missile they were trying to defuse exploded, the first fatalities in the force. And on Thursday in Kandahar, a fire at an ammunition depot near the coalition base killed three U.S.-allied Afghan fighters. Canadian officials said an Afghans may have tripped a booby trap, sparking a fire.

New troops were headed to the region, including about 200 soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division, equipped with 16 Apache helicopters and four CH-47 Chinook; and 107 members of a Canadian infantry unit rotating in.

Thursday dawned over eastern Paktia province with thunderous blasts from U.S. B-52 bombers shaking Gardez and the mountains southwest of here. Dozens of U.S. Army Apache attack helicopters, armed with 30 mm guns and Hellfire missiles, pounded targets in the narrow, craggy gorges.

The air bombardment, felt 30 miles away, appeared heavier than in recent days as the United States accelerated efforts to crack the al-Qaida resistance.

Residents of several mountain villages have fled the assault, which has pummeled Shah-e-Kot and the nearby hamlets of Babar Khiel, Shai Kha Khiel, Zweigi Qalai, Marzak and Mughal Qala, said Hafeezullah, a member of the Surmad town council.

U.S. and Afghan forces detained at least two people from Mughal Qala on Wednesday -- a father and his 10-year-old son who had returned to get their belongings, said resident Ali Baht.

The U.S. operations have sparked resentment among some villagers, who fear that civilians -- including wives and children of fighters -- were being killed. Resentment is also high in Surmad, because U.S.-led forces detained the police chief before the offensive began.

Storm clouds moved in low over the region in the afternoon and sandstorms whipped up, indicating snow in the mountains. Three Chinook helicopters flew into the Shah-e-Kot area on supply missions under low cloud cover, but the worsening weather could slow further air and ground action.

``There's obviously visibility concerns, but in those types of operations they're prepared to deal with it,'' said Sgt. Major Richard Czizik of the U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla.

Combat troops are trained to fight in any conditions, but ``obviously you've got discomfort issues,'' he said.

Front-line commander Abdul Matin Hasankhiel said the battle to break al-Qaida was taking longer than expected because of the difficult terrain and harsh conditions.

``These are very high mountains and former mujahedeen bases that the Russians couldn't defeat -- even with their heaviest bombing and best soldiers,'' he said, referring to the war against the Soviets in the 1980s.

Meanwhile, the Afghan Defense Ministry dispensed intelligence-gathering experts from northern Afghanistan to investigate reports that al-Qaida sympathizers had reinforced the militants' ranks in recent days, intelligence officials said in Gardez.

A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the extra forces were arriving in small groups from Gardez, Ghazni, Khost and Surmad -- as well as a few coming across the border from Pakistan.

Hasankhiel said some sympathizers had managed to cross the Pakistani border Saturday and Sunday to reach the Taliban and al-Qaida mountain hideouts. But he said the paths had since been blocked by coalition forces.

``This is the heart of al-Qaida and the Taliban and when this is finished al-Qaida will be finished in Afghanistan,'' he said.

Hafeezullah, of the Surmad town council, said men from the Surmand district may have gone to battle as well to help Saif Rahman, the Taliban commander heading the troops in the mountains.

Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of the U.S. forces, has said there was no sign of dug-in al-Qaida and Taliban fighters trying to flee the region -- which commanders say they have encircled.

However, as recently as Tuesday night, Taliban holdouts brought the bodies of at least two fighters from Shah-e-Kot to the village of Surmad for burial, said shopkeeper Abdullah Jan.

When asked how the Taliban could sneak by the allied forces blocking the mountain paths, he said: ``There are hundreds of smuggler routes,'' across the rugged terrain.

----

Ex-king says U.S. war is 'stupid and useless'
Ahead of his return to Kabul, Shah urges end to American campaign

ASSOCIATED PRESS,
March 7, 2002
http://www.msnbc.com/news/720627.asp?cp1=1

ROME, March 7 - As his hoped-for return to Kabul approaches, Afghanistan's last king has been quoted as describing the U.S.-led war on terror as "stupid and useless" and calling for its immediate end. La Stampa, a Turin daily, ran the comments by Mohammad Zaher Shah in Thursday's paper.

IT IS "a stupid and useless war and it would be better if it ended immediately," the 87-year-old monarch, who has lived in Rome since 1973 when he was ousted in a coup, was quoted as saying.

"My people have always fought for freedom and democracy," he added, saying the terrorists are "foreigners who come from other parts of Asia ... to disturb and destroy my people."

The king had said previously he wanted to be back home in time for March 21, a spring holiday that was banned by the Taliban regime which was ousted last fall during the U.S.-led military intervention in Afghanistan.

In the published comments, he declined to give the exact date, but said his return would happen "very soon."

"We cannot confirm the exact date because of security concerns," Hamid Sidig, the king's secretary, told The Associated Press on Thursday. He added that the date would be announced very soon.

A NEW AFGHANISTAN

La Stampa ran the king's comments in what it said was an interview conducted Wednesday evening at the king's villa.

Denying there was any interview, Siddig declined to comment on the assessment of the anti-terror war as being useless.

Later, La Stampa said its journalist had gone into the villa as part of an Italian delegation paying a call on the king. The king was not aware that a journalist was among his guests when he made his remarks, La Stampa said.

"I'm as happy as I'm sad. I've been so homesick during these endless years!" Zaher Shah was quoted as saying of his return, after almost 30 years in exile. "The joy is for seeing Afghanistan again, the terror is (for the conditions) in which I'll find it: destroyed, with people dead, friends gone."

The former king is widely seen as a unifying figure among the country's various ethnic groups.

-------- arms sales

Israel OKs 60,000 more gun permits in terror fight

By Abraham Rabinovich
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
March 7, 2002
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20020307-8478768.htm

JERUSALEM - Sixty thousand additional gun permits are to be distributed to Israeli civilians as authorities loosen licensing restrictions to help fight a growing wave of terrorism.

Armed civilians have played a significant role in bringing down terrorists during the Palestinian uprising, most recently during an attack this week by a Palestinian gunman at a Tel Aviv restaurant where a wedding party was under way.

A 46-year-old civilian packing a pistol fatally shot the terrorist at close range after three persons had been killed and he had been wounded. When a radio reporter asked the man whether he was a member of the security forces, he said he was a shoe salesman.

Police and Interior Ministry officials decided this week to make 60,000 more gun permits available to civilians, particularly reserve army officers and veterans of combat units. Guns also are being issued to firemen and municipal inspectors while they are on duty.

Most Israelis are army veterans and are familiar with firearms. Already, 265,000 guns are in civilian hands, particularly in border areas and the occupied territories. With terror now striking the Israeli heartland almost daily, officials decided to make more guns available there as well.

Police Inspector-General Shlomo Aharonisky cited a danger that some people would be too quick to use the weapons.

"But," he said, "there's no question that weapons in the hands of the public have prevented acts of terror or stopped them while they were in progress. Chance passers-by have killed terrorists in the midst of gun attacks."

New bylaws obliging large businesses to post armed guards outside their premises are soon to go into effect.

The laws will apply to any business with more than 5,000 square feet of floor space as well as hotels, cinemas and other locations that draw large crowds. Police patrols are being stepped up around schools, including kindergartens.

Adi Eldar, mayor of the city of Karmiel in Galilee, has asked all city officials to carry weapons during working hours. Mr. Eldar, head of the Union of Local Authorities, has called on all mayors in the country to do likewise.

One-third of the nation's 6,000 bus drivers also carry personal weapons to work.

Despite the uneasiness caused by the terror attacks, the public is not panicked. The dominant sentiment appears to be a desire to strike back at the Palestinians.

That mood was captured in an article published yesterday in the newspaper Yediot Ahronot under the headline, "What to do [when facing] an armed terrorist."

In the article, a retired police officer said civilians firing at armed terrorists might hit other civilians but argued that the risk had to be accepted.

Another retired police officer assured a radio interviewer that an easing of licensing restrictions would not put weapons in the hands of criminals. "Every criminal who wants a weapon already has one," he said.

-------- biological weapons

NAS Endorses Military Anthrax Vaccine (for high-risk people)

By Guy Gugliotta
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 7, 2002; Page A22
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A51954-2002Mar6?language=printer

The National Academy of Sciences yesterday endorsed the Pentagon's controversial anthrax vaccine as a safe and effective treatment for a disease that killed five people and infected 13 others last year in the worst outbreak of biological warfare in U.S. history.

A report by an expert panel from the academy's Institute of Medicine concluded that the vaccine was effective in protecting humans "against anthrax, including inhalational anthrax," and did not have any higher incidence of adverse reactions than other vaccines in common use.

The report also said it was "unlikely" that any strain of anthrax -- either natural or bioengineered -- could evade the immune response produced by the vaccine and still produce a toxin lethal to humans.

The panel gave a vote of confidence to BioPort Corp., the embattled Lansing, Mich., company that took more than three years to bring its manufacturing practices into compliance with federal regulations. The report said BioPort's vaccine "is expected to have greater assurance of consistency" than vaccine produced before the company renovated its facility.

"The anthrax vaccine has risks associated with it, and should not be used indiscriminately," said University of Pennsylvania epidemiologist Brian L. Strom, who chaired the 10-member NAS panel. "But it is effective and safe enough to be used by high-risk people."

-------- britain

Commonwealth asked to stop fudging on Mugabe

World Scene
March 7, 2002
Combined dispatches and staff reports
Washington Times
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20020307-88178906.htm

LONDON - British Prime Minister Tony Blair warned the Commonwealth yesterday it risked becoming an irrelevance by dodging high-profile problems such as Zimbabwe.

"The fudging will have to stop," said Mr. Blair, days after the Commonwealth agreed to a painfully-crafted compromise on Zimbabwe, with white nations pushing a tough line and African nations reluctant to confront President Robert Mugabe.

Mr. Blair, who expressed regret at the Commonwealth leaders' decision to defer possible action against Mr. Mugabe until after presidential elections during the weekend, insisted that if elections are not fair, action must be taken.

-------- business

Orbital Wins Defense Contract

Thursday, March 7, 2002
BRIEFLY; Page LZ05
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A47043-2002Mar6?language=printer

Orbital Sciences Corp., of Dulles, has won a contract with Boeing Co. to develop, test and produce ground-based boost vehicles for the United States' ballistic missile defense system. The contract is valued at $900 million or more over eight years.

Orbital's contract will include a $400 million development and test phase from 2002 to 2006 and, if plans are approved, a $535 million production, deployment and support phase, from 2003 or 2004 through 2010.

----

Boeing, SAIC to wire Army's future forces

3/7/2002
UPI
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=07032002-064752-3526r

WASHINGTON, March 7 -- The Pentagon announced Thursday it had selected Boeing and the high-tech research company Science Applications International Corp. to head up the initial development phase of a project to integrate computer and communications systems that will be the high-tech backbone of mobile Army units of the future.

The Future Combat Systems project is scheduled for testing in late 2003 and when deployed, will give the Army a streamlined package of technical hardware for use by highly-mobile units known as Objective Forces that will be rushed to trouble spots in a matter of hours.

"Future Combat Systems is a major step in the transformation of the Army," Claude M. Bolton, assistant secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology, said in a statement. "The LSI is critical to making the Objective Force a reality in this decade."

Lt. Gen. John Riggs, head of the Army's Objective Force task force, said the FCS will consist of manned and unmanned systems that will conduct a range of missions including air reconnaissance, surveillance, the seeking out of targets and air defense.

"FCS is an Army networked system of systems that serves as the core building block within all Objective Force maneuver units of action to enhance advanced joint and coalition war-fighting capabilities to provide options for decisive victory to our nation," the Pentagon general said.

Boeing and SAIC will serve as Lead Systems Integrator for the project and will receive $164 million for their 16-month effort.

-------- chemical weapons

Old chemical weapons buried in 350 sites across Russia, says scientist

Thursday, March 07, 2002
By Associated Press
http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/03/03072002/ap_46611.asp

MOSCOW - Chemical weapons produced in Russia between the ends of the first and second world wars were buried in about 350 sites and pose a grave environmental threat today, a Russian scientist and environmental advocate said Wednesday.

Lev Fedorov, the president of the Union for Chemical Safety, said that the Interfax-Military News Agency reported that most of the weapons were produced in the regions around Moscow, St. Petersburg, and the Volga River cities of Nizhny Novgorod and Saratov. The greatest environmental damage from the weapons was in the Russian Far East, near the border with China.

Russia has the world's largest arsenal of chemical weapons: some 40,000 metric tons (44,000 tons) stored at seven sites. Fedorov said that about 200,000 metric tons (220,000 tons) of old chemical weapons - which could no longer be used as weapons but are still poisonous - were also buried in Russia.

Russia ratified the convention on Chemical Weapons in 1997, committing itself to destroying the stockpile at the seven sites within a decade. But it complained that it could not afford the estimated US$7 billion program, despite pledges of aid from the United States, Europe, and Canada.

Last year, the Cabinet approved a new, cheaper program that would allow Russia to destroy its arsenal by 2012 without having to seek international funding beyond what has already been pledged. The new program cuts the originally planned seven destruction sites to three and halves the estimated cost to about $3.5 billion.

Fedorov said that the government's destruction plan made no provisions for the old chemical weapons produced between 1918 and 1946. He said that these weapons "have by now turned into environmental weapons against the residents of most Russian regions," Interfax reported.

-------- china

Military spending to widen China's budget gap

By Elaine Kurtenbach
ASSOCIATED PRESS
March 6, 2002
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20020306-73662668.htm

BEIJING - China is projecting a record budget deficit this year as it gives its military another double-digit spending increase and spends heavily to prop economic growth.

The budget to be announced today to China's legislature by Finance Minister Xiang Huaicheng totals $170 billion, according to a copy of Mr. Xiang's report viewed in advance by the Associated Press.

The $37.5 billion deficit, a 19.2 percent increase over last year, is the "price we have to pay" to keep economic growth robust at 7 percent a year, Mr. Xiang says in the report.

Military spending is to grow by 17.6 percent to $20 billion - the 13th straight year of double-digit increases for the 2.5 million-member People's Liberation Army. The increase is slightly below last year's record 17.7 percent rise in defense outlays.

Experts say China's true military spending is much higher than publicly reported - as much as five times the official figure.

According to the report, some of the military spending increase will go to raising salaries for the poorly trained and equipped army. Beijing also is spending heavily on upgrading antiquated weapons technology.

The size of China's budget deficit has nearly tripled since 1999 as it pumped money into the slowing economy by spending heavily on public building projects. The government also boosted farm subsidies and support to workers laid off in the restructuring of state industry.

-------- colombia

Bush eyes more military aid for Bogota

By Nicholas Kralev
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
March 7, 2002
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20020307-9765036.htm

The Bush administration said yesterday it would ask Congress to expand military aid for Colombia to help the South American country battle Marxist guerrillas. Current U.S. assistance is limited to drug-fighting efforts.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, in testimony on Capitol Hill, said the administration is reviewing U.S. policy, which restricts the use of aid to Colombia's campaign against the production and trafficking of narcotics.

"It may be necessary for us to give the government of Colombia additional support that is outside the counternarcotics basket, in order that they are able to deal with this threat to their survival as a nation, this threat to their economic well-being," Mr. Powell said.

"Colombia is fighting for its democracy, it's fighting for its right to have a legitimate, democratic form of government," he told the commerce, justice, state and the judiciary subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee.

Hours after the secretary's statement, the full House approved a resolution calling on President Bush to help Colombia "protect its democracy from U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations and the scourge of illicit narcotics."

Late last month, two days after Colombian President Andres Pastrana officially ended the three-year peace process on Feb. 20, the State Department said Washington would share intelligence with Bogota and speed up delivery of military spare parts for an all-out offensive against the rebels.

But Bush administration officials ruled out a combat role for U.S. forces and said it would not allow American soldiers in Colombia to provide training, or to accompany local troops on their missions.

In their attacks on the rebels, Colombian government forces have relied on U.S.-made Black Hawk helicopters, which were to be used only against drug traffickers. But both Washington and Bogota maintain that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, are deeply implicated in the cocaine trade.

Washington has spent more than $1 billion in the past year backing Mr. Pastrana's fight against drug trafficking and the rebels who profit from it. Last month, the administration said it wanted $98 million to train and equip Colombian soldiers to protect an oil pipeline that has been repeatedly hit by rebels.

Mr. Powell said yesterday that Mr. Bush had not made any decisions on what changes to seek in the current legislation, but noted that "once we have completed this review we will talk to Congress and ask for whatever we believe is necessary."

-------- europe

Norwegian airbase to be established in Central Asia

7. Mars 2002
NRK
http://www.norwaypost.no/content.asp?folder_id=1&cluster_id=19000

A permanent Norwegian base for a C-130 transport plane will shortly be established at Manas in Kyrgyzstan.

Around 75 Norwegian Air Force personnel will be stationed at the base, according to Dag Aamoth, spokesman for the Norwegian Central Military Command.

-The last formalities are expected to be agreed on on Thursday, and the personnel are expected to be in place at the end of March, Aamoth says.

The Norwegian transport plane will be part of an allied air transport unit which will operate in and around Afghanistan under US command.

Norwegian Hercules transport planes have already for some time made several trips to the region, bringing in among other things supplies for the Norwegian personnel serving in the international force (ISAF), and in the US-led operation Enduring Freedom.

-------- iran

Iranian leader faults U.S. for 'arrogance'

Briefly
March 6, 2002
Combined dispatches and staff reports
Washington Times
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20020306-865817.htm

BERLIN - The United States should change its "arrogant" attitude toward Iran if relations between the two countries are to improve, Iran's vice president, Massoumeh Ebtekar, said yesterday.

Miss Ebtekar, who in 1997 became the first female vice president of Iran, told Reuters news agency during a visit to Berlin that recent escalating tensions paint a gloomy picture for U.S.-Iranian relations.

She lived in the United States as a child and participated at age 19 in the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, in which American diplomats were held hostage for more than a year .

Meanwhile, an oil tanker chartered by Iran's petroleum ministry was intercepted and inspected for seven hours Sunday in the Persian Gulf by the U.S. Navy .

-------- iraq

U.N.-Iraq Talks Called Positive

March 7, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-UN-Iraq.html

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Iraq and the United Nations agreed Wednesday that their first high-level talks in a year got off to a ``positive and constructive'' start, but there was no indication Baghdad will allow U.N. weapons inspectors back in the country.

No major breakthrough had been expected, and Foreign Minister Naji Sabri announced that the dialogue would continue sometime in mid-April.

``I am always optimistic,'' Sabri said as he left U.N. headquarters.

The long-awaited meeting, initiated by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, began with an unusual one-on-one session between Foreign Minister Naji Sabri and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan that lasted about 20 minutes, a signal of the high stakes.

The United States has demanded the return of U.N. weapons inspectors, accused Iraq of being part of an ``axis of evil'' supporting terrorism, and hinted it might expand its war on terrorism to the oil-rich Mideast nation. On Wednesday, U.S. officials charged that Iraq is illegally trying to build up its military by converting about 1,000 trucks for military use in violation of U.N. sanctions.

Many Arab leaders have warned President Bush that attacking Iraq would damage Mideast support for the U.S. anti-terrorism campaign -- but U.S. officials haven't stopped hinting.

The secretary-general made clear Thursday that he, too, opposes any widening of the conflict in the Middle East.

``I would want to see a situation where we are able to resolve our differences diplomatically and that Iraq comes into compliance,'' Annan said.

Some diplomats believe the U.S. pressure brought the Iraqi minister to New York to try to resolve the festering dispute with the council. Iraq's U.N. Ambassador Mohammad Al-Douri vehemently denied it, saying the talks have ``nothing to do with the ... American threat.''

At issue are U.N. sanctions imposed on Iraq after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait that can't be lifted until U.N. weapons inspectors certify that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and long-range missiles have been eliminated. The inspectors left ahead of U.S. and British airstrikes in December 1998. Iraq has barred them from returning, insisting it has complied with Security Council sanctions resolutions and demanding an end to the embargoes.

Annan told reporters before the meeting he hoped the Iraqis were coming ``in a constructive spirit,'' noting that governments friendly with Baghdad ``sense some flexibility on the part of Iraq.''

At the end of the first round of talks Thursday morning, which lasted about two hours, both sides used identical language.

``We started our discussions with the secretary-general within a positive and constructive atmosphere and we shall continue in the afternoon,'' Sabri said as he left U.N. headquarters.

Annan's spokesman, Fred Eckhard, echoed that assessment, saying: ``The talks got off to a positive and constructive start. They were focused -- they discussed the key issues.''

After a second meeting in the afternoon that lasted a little less than an hour, Sabri used the same language.

``We had a constructive and positive exchange of views on various issues related to the Iraq-U.N. relationship,'' he said, explaining that each side had raised its concerns.

``Hopefully, we shall continue in the same spirit and effort,'' said Sabri, who was scheduled to leave for Baghdad late Thursday.

Thursday marked the first high-level talks between Iraq and the world body since late February 2001. No real progress was reported in those talks over the same sanctions and weapons inspections issues.

For the first time Thursday, both delegations included weapons experts -- chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix and Iraq's main liaison with U.N. inspectors, Gen. Hussam Mohammed Amin. Annan said that he hoped their presence would enable both sides to get into the subject of returning weapons inspectors.

Eckhard said Blix explained the organization of the new U.N. weapons inspection agency he heads.

----

U.S. Accuses Iraq of Violating Military Ban

WORLD In Brief
Thursday, March 7, 2002
Colum Lynch
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A51947-2002Mar6?language=printer

UNITED NATIONS -- The Bush administration yesterday showed Security Council members about a dozen U.S. satellite photos and a videotape that purportedly demonstrate that Iraq has converted hundreds of cargo and dump trucks into missile components and delivery vehicles capable of hauling heavy artillery pieces.

U.S. officials told a U.N. sanctions committee on Iraq that Baghdad purchased about 1,000 Russian and German trucks through a U.N. humanitarian program but transformed them into military vehicles at installations across the country.

They also presented the council with a video clip from Iraqi television showing a fleet of dump trucks at a military parade on Dec. 31 tugging 150mm howitzers and 130mm D-30 field guns. They also charged Baghdad with stripping the hydraulic systems from garbage trucks for use in building missile components.

The disclosure signaled a new push by the Bush administration to convince its counterparts at the United Nations that Iraq cannot be trusted to abide by Security Council resolutions that prohibit Iraq from importing military goods.

-------- israel / palestine

U.S. rebukes Israel for killings

By Nicholas Kralev
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
March 7, 2002
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20020307-79790241.htm

The United States yesterday issued its harshest criticism yet of Israel's handling of the Palestinian uprising, demanding that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon take a "hard look" and reassess his policy.

In the region yesterday, 12 Palestinians and two Israelis were killed in what has amounted to the bloodiest week since the second intifada began 18 months ago.

Early today, another Palestinian was killed and three others injured by fire from a helicopter gunship during an Israeli army incursion into the Palestinian-controlled territory of Tulkarm in the northwest of the West Bank, Palestinian security sources said.

The sources said Yusef Chahadeh, 30, was killed by a rocket in the refugee camp of Nur el Chams. The three other Palestinians were injured by the same rocket, including one seriously.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, speaking for an administration that has swung back and forth between criticism and solid support of Mr. Sharon, delivered his sharp reproach to the Israelis during testimony on Capitol Hill.

"Prime Minister Sharon has to take a hard look at his policies to see whether they will work," he said. "If you declare war against the Palestinians thinking that you can solve the problem by seeing how many Palestinians can be killed, I don't know that that leads us anywhere."

Mr. Powell repeated Washington's oft-stated appeal to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat - who is confined by Israel to the city of Ramallah - to crack down harder on Palestinian militants.

"He may be under restraints. He can't move around freely. But he has the ability to call people, to talk to people and give instructions. So I think he can do more, and he should do more," the secretary told the House Appropriations commerce, justice, state and judiciary subcommittee.

The White House declined to say whether the United States would ask Israel to let Mr. Arafat attend an Arab League summit in Beirut on March 27 and 28.

"That meeting is not scheduled for some time, and Chairman Arafat has many opportunities to communicate in the region, so I think that is something you might want to talk about a little closer to the meeting," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters.

Mr. Sharon said yesterday that before Israel can resume peace talks with the Palestinians, "they must first be hit hard, so that they understand terrorism will achieve nothing."

"Only after they are beaten will we be able to hold talks, and I want a peace deal," he said.

The prime minister, completing his first year in office with his approval ratings at new lows, spoke to Israeli troops and officials at a military checkpoint south of Jerusalem.

"This is a really tough war we are in," he said. "This will be an aggressive and continuous campaign without letup."

Israeli warplanes and helicopters pounded Palestinian security targets in waves of air strikes yesterday. Missiles hit a storage building in Mr. Arafat's headquarters, but he was unhurt in his office, Palestinian security officials told news agencies.

Seven Palestinians were killed in Gaza, Palestinian officials said, and five others died in separate incidents, including a Hamas activist killed in an explosion at his Gaza City home.

The casualties also included an Israeli soldier killed in an ambush and an officer killed near the Khan Younis refugee camp, reports from the region said.

Mr. Powell said "no issue is of a higher priority to the United States" than the Middle East. Washington is "encouraged" by new peace initiatives, he said, but "not satisfied that both sides have thought through the consequences" of their actions.

Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia last month proposed normal relations with Israel in exchange for its withdrawal to pre-1967 borders.

--------

Israeli Offensive Rolls On, Bush to Send Envoy

March 7, 2002
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-mideast.html

TULKARM, West Bank (Reuters) - Israel forged ahead with a major offensive against the Palestinian uprising on Thursday, provoking international criticism and a U.S. decision to send back its Middle East envoy to seek a truce.

Twelve Palestinians died in the latest violence, in which Israeli troops fought their way into two Palestinian refugee camps and the West Bank city of Tulkarm Thursday. Israeli aircraft renewed their assaults on Palestinian security targets across the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

President Bush announced Thursday he would send Anthony Zinni back to the region to try to quell the escalating violence.

``I am deeply concerned about the tragic loss of life and escalating violence in the Middle East,'' Bush said, adding prospects for progress were unclear.

``There are no assurances. That's not going to prevent our government from trying,'' he said. Zinni last visited the region in January but left empty-handed.

There was little sign that Israel's unremitting assault, which included a fresh round of air strikes near the West Bank city of Hebron Thursday night, was blunting a wave of Palestinian shooting and bombing attacks.

A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in the lobby of a hotel in Ariel, one of the largest Jewish settlements in the West Bank, killing himself and wounding 10 people.

Police in Jerusalem said another suicide attack was thwarted when a waiter and a security guard overpowered a Palestinian carrying a bomb who tried to enter a cafe in the popular German Colony district. The man was arrested.

Earlier Thursday, Secretary of State Colin Powell softened his strong criticism the day before of the Israeli offensive.

Making clear that U.S. support for the Jewish state had not weakened, he said on Thursday: ``I think they have to be very careful as to the means they use to defend their people because in recent months it has just produced a series of escalations.''

ARAFAT DEFIANT

There was a defiant message too from Palestinian President Yasser Arafat that no amount of Israeli military pressure would end his people's 17-month-old uprising against the occupation of territory they want for an independent state.

``If they believe there is anyone in this land who fears their tanks or planes ... they are wrong,'' Arafat told reporters.

Israeli President Moshe Katzav, who holds a mostly ceremonial post, dismissed criticism of the army operations during a visit to Ottawa: ``No one around the world has any right to condemn (us) if we use our right to defend ourselves.''

The European Union demanded that Israel lift a three-month-old siege on Arafat in his West Bank headquarters to attend an Arab League summit in Beirut later this month.

Stepping up fighting that has pushed international peace efforts to the sidelines, dozens of Israeli tanks seized positions in the city of Tulkarm in the northern West Bank in a sweep for what Israel said were ``wanted terrorists and weapons.''

Soldiers also thrust into the outskirts of the nearby Tulkarm and Nour Shams refugee camps, making house-to-house searches and enforcing a curfew.

Helicopter gunships launched two missile strikes at Nour Shams as the troops moved in. Nine Palestinians were killed in the air attacks and fighting, two of them ambulance workers, Palestinian medics said.

A member of the militant group Islamic Jihad died in a gun battle in the northern West Bank and another Palestinian was killed in an ambush on soldiers in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian security sources said.

Israeli aircraft hit security targets in Bethlehem, Hebron and nearby Halhoul in the West Bank, leaving piles of smoldering rubble but causing no deaths. About 30 people were hurt in four Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip.

Arafat was unhurt when missiles slammed into a building at his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah late on Wednesday as he met European Union envoy Miguel Angel Moratinos.

Arafat, who has been confined to Ramallah by Israeli forces since December, had been on the phone to Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres at the time of the attack.

``Shimon, I'm being bombed,'' an Israeli newspaper quoted Arafat as saying. It said Peres replied: ``I am very sorry. I will do all I can to stop the bombing immediately.''

The United States -- Israel's staunchest ally -- on Wednesday made some of its toughest criticisms yet of Sharon.

``If you declare war on the Palestinians and think you can solve the problem by seeing how many Palestinians can be killed -- I don't know that leads us anywhere,'' Powell told a congressional hearing.

International peace efforts have faded into the background, despite calls by some leftist Israelis for peace talks and a Saudi peace initiative which is gathering support abroad.

The strikes and counter-strikes have raised the toll to at least 971 Palestinians and 313 Israelis killed since the uprising began in September 2000 after peace talks stalled.

-------

Israeli raid narrowly missed 3,100 schoolchildren: UN

AFP
March 7, 2002
http://www.dawn.com/2002/03/08/int6.htm

UNITED NATIONS - An Israeli F-16 which bombed a Palestinian police compound in Gaza City on Thursday narrowly missed more than 3,000 refugee children in UN-run schools, a United Nations spokeswoman said here.

"This morning in Gaza City, an Israeli F-16 dropped a large bomb on a Palestinian police headquarters compound which exploded within 200 metres of 3,100 refugee children between the ages of six and 15," spokeswoman Marie Okabe said.

The children were attending three schools run by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA). "The sound of the explosion, and the blast wave that followed, caused widespread panic and terror, but fortunately none of the children were injured," Okabe said. "The schools have now been closed and the children sent home for day," she added.

Okabe quoted UNRWA commissioner general Peter Hansen as saying "the bombing of a crowded city centre at 9am on a weekday morning led to severe trauma among the children at the UN-run schools".

Hansen added: "It is horrifying to think what would have happened if the bomb had gone astray, as indeed one did on Feb 20, when it landed on the roof of one of the schools but, thankfully, did not explode."

Okabe said the UN had called on the Israeli army to cease bombing targets near UNRWA installations. She noted that the attack occurred one day after the UN protested at an Israeli tank attack near an UNRWA-run school for the blind.

----

We risk charges of war crimes, Peres tells Cabinet

By Paul Peachey
07 March 2002
UK Independent
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=271739

Signs of deep rifts within the Israeli Cabinet became apparent yesterday as senior figures clashed over the continuing fierce bombardment of the Palestinians.

In a sharp exchange during a Cabinet meeting, the Foreign minister Shimon Peres said excessively harsh military measures could lead to accusations of war crimes. A newspaper report of Mr Peres' bitter exchange with the infrastructure minister, Avigdor Lieberman, was confirmed yesterday by Mr Lieberman's spokesman.

According to the report in the Yediot Ahronot newspaper, Mr Lieberman urged that Palestinians be told to halt all terror activity or face wide-ranging attacks.

"At 8am we'll bomb all the commercial centres... at noon we'll bomb their gas stations... at two we'll bomb their banks," Mr Lieberman reportedly told the meeting before Peres interrupted to say: "And at 6pm you'll receive an invitation to the international tribunal in The Hague."

Mr Peres yesterday sounded the cautionary notes as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon promised that Israel would continue to strike "without let-up" unless Palestinian attacks were reined in. The escalating violence has fuelled debate inside Mr Sharon's government over whether any political resolution can be found after days of bloodshed. Mr Peres said yesterday that force alone was not the answer. "A ceasefire cannot be achieved just by using fire," he said.

Citing the "terrible, terrible" violence of recent days, Mr Peres said that Israel should demand from the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat a clear-cut declaration that he would halt terror, but also have its own army do everything possible "not to escalate the situation".

Also from the Middle East section.

More than 30 die on another day of bloodshed Israel ignores outcry to raid more refugee camps Shadow of war hangs over Iraq weapons talks UN spells out tough terms to Saddam on arms Palestinian suicide bomber hits supermarket

-------- nato

Czech president calls for "big bang" NATO growth

By Marek Petrus
Thursday March 7, 11:20 PM
Reuters
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/reuters/asia-93527.html

PRAGUE - Czech President Vaclav Havel threw his support on Thursday behind a "big bang" expansion of NATO to include seven post-Communist European countries when the Western military alliance meets in Prague later this year.

Havel, in the strongest statement to date that the Czechs will push hard for a broad enlargement of NATO, told a news conference after meeting Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer that the two agreed on the position.

"It seems to me that we have similar or identical opinions on NATO expansion and an approximate circle of countries that should be invited to become members," Havel said after holding talks with Sezer, who is visiting the Czech capital on an official three-day tour.

The Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999 along with Poland and Hungary -- the first post-Communist east European states to do so. Turkey has been a NATO member since 1952.

NATO leaders are due to meet at a Prague summit in late November to discuss the bloc's enlargement further to the East to embrace countries that were once Soviet satellites.

Nine former Communist countries -- Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Baltic republics of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia -- are aspiring to NATO membership.

"Our discussion appeared to show that we are thinking about the same seven countries, meaning Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania and the three Baltic states," Havel said.

Such a rapid expansion of NATO would outstrip current plans for similar expansion of the European Union to include ex-Soviet bloc states. EU commissioner for enlargement Guenter Verheugen said last month he favoured a "big bang" NATO expansion to include states not yet ready to join the EU.

Albania and Macedonia have been widely seen as the weakest among the nine NATO applicants and diplomats and policymakers say alliance membership is a distant prospect for the two.

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kavan said last month that he would like to see the 19-member bloc take in up to seven new members in light of the changed security situation following deadly September 11 attacks on U.S. landmarks.

Havel's statement indicated that all seven should be included in an expansion wave and that other NATO members are also beginning to support the idea.

The United States has also spoken in favour of wide expansion, with Secretary of State Colin Powell saying in December the alliance was on track for a "robust enlargement", though he did not go as far as to name any countries, nor did he say that all seven should definitely be included.

----

The Western front

Embassy Row,
James Morrison
March 7, 2002
Washington Times
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20020307-56117903.htm

Lithuanian Ambassador Vygaudas Usackas this week took his nation's campaign for NATO membership to the "Big Sky country" of Montana.

Mr. Usackas told the Billings Committee on Foreign Relations that the Atlantic alliance should be expanded as much as possible when NATO leaders meet in November in the Czech Republic, and that the European Union should also embrace new members.

"New members will not only bring new capabilities and new markets from the north and south of Europe but also new enthusiasm and dynamism into both organizations," he said.

The ambassador said his country can also offer a special understanding of Russia, which is angling for its own relationship with NATO.

"Lithuania will enrich NATO with specialized military capabilities as well as with unique regional cooperation and experiences and constructive practices with Russia."

Mr. Usackas said the larger the number of new members, "the better we can advance Europe whole and free and the stronger foundations we can cement for peace, security and prosperity."

Lithuania and its Baltic neighbors Latvia and Estonia are among nine nations seeking NATO membership. The others are Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.

-------- space

Kodiak missile defense work is a local, global threat
POINT COUNTERPOINT Rocket launches on Kodiak

Stacy Studebaker Kodiak Resident
(Published: March 7, 2002)

The Kodiak Rocket Launch Information Group and the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space are deeply concerned about the expansion of Department of Defense facilities in Interior Alaska, Kodiak and the Aleutians, to support the test program for Star Wars.

The so-called "missile defense" program is a Trojan horse. According to the U.S. Space Command's planning document, Vision for 2020, and other similar military reports, the United States intends to develop technologies that will allow the United States to "control and dominate" space and "deny" other countries access to space. This clearly indicates that the plans to expand testing are a guise to develop "offensive" space capabilities that would violate the 1958 National Aeronautics and Space Act. This act stated that it "is the policy of the United States that activities in space should be devoted to peaceful purposes for the benefit of all mankind."

In addition, the enormous cost of such research and development for Star Wars is already requiring a raid on the Social Security "lock box," as well as forcing cuts in education, health care, child care, and other needed programs in the United States. This is totally unacceptable to us.

All "missile defense" projects in Alaska will have adverse effects on the state and the local environment. Those effects include launch accidents, toxic rocket exhaust, injury to wildlife, contamination of water, and construction impacts on the land. We believe that public hearings should be held throughout the state of Alaska to give the public a real opportunity to understand and comment on the full extent of this planned program. The recent attempt by Sen. Alan Austerman of Kodiak and Sen. Gene Therriault of Fairbanks to eliminate the Legislature's oversight of Alaska Aerospace Development Corp. construction projects (SB 313) is unacceptable and undermines the democratic process.

Despite George W. Bush's talk about "rogue states," no significant need has been established to justify the tremendous cost in both taxpayer dollars and environmental impacts.

We strongly believe that this project will be destabilizing and will create an unnecessary new arms race in space, making life on Earth less secure. The American people are being misled by the Pentagon, which creates the impression that "missile defense" is intended to protect us. In fact, we understand that the real agenda is to protect the profits and power of what former President Eisenhower warned was the "military industrial complex."

Stacy Studebaker is active in the Kodiak Rocket Launch Information Group. The views in this commentary are also endorsed by the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, Bruce K. Gagnon, Coordinator, in Gainesville, Fla.

--

Kodiak site draws money to state, plays defense role
POINTCOUNTERPOINT: Rocket launches on Kodiak

Alan Austerman State Senator
(Published: March 7, 2002)

I have joined on as co-sponsor to Senate Bill 313. This legislation would repeal the requirement that the Alaska Aerospace Development Corp. get legislative approval during the regular session for any construction project exceeding $1 million.

Federal dollars can show up any time in a calendar year. The Legislature is only in session for four months. This has presented various problems for the aerospace corporation, which operates all year long. Sometimes the Legislature rushes through the process of approving these federal funds because of the time constraints of this statute. Then, as long as that money is expended within five years, no further review is necessary by the Legislature.

By repealing this section, AADC will still not be able to receive and expend any federal dollars without legislative approval. The Legislative Budget and Audit Committee, which meets all year long, will actually have even greater scrutiny over federal money intended for AADC, because the committee won't have to rush through the process. In addition, the Executive Budget Act requires the governor and Legislature to review the corporation's mission and its performance each year as part of the budget process.

The public would not lose any participation in the funding process by this legislation. By statute, all meetings (including the budget and audit committee), whether they are during session or during the interim, have to be publicly noticed. An additional oversight is the AADC Board of Directors. They assure that the aerospace corporation obtains all necessary federal and state licenses and permits.

I appreciate the involvement and intense scrutiny that several people and interest groups have given to the aerospace corporation and more specifically the Kodiak Launch Complex. I believe their participation in the planning and environmental process, the construction phases, and now the operational phase, has given us all a better-run state corporation.

On Sept. 29, 2001 the first orbital launch in Alaska lifted off from the Kodiak facility. Millions of new dollars were brought into Alaska's economy by this endeavor alone. For a modest investment and a relatively small "footprint," the aerospace corporation and the launch complex have the potential to harvest benefits to our citizens far beyond our expectations. Remembering the events of Sept. 11 of this past year, I'm proud that the Kodiak Launch Complex could also play a role in the defense of our great nation.

Sen. Alan Austerman represents Kodiak and parts of Southeast Alaska in the state Senate.

-------- un

No wrongdoing by former U.N.drug czar

March 7, 2002
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Washington Times
http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20020307-81887462.htm#2

You have no right to damage my reputation by saying in your March 4 editorial, "Jose Serrano is a drug czar," that as the last U.N. drug czar I "was widely accused of fraud and mismanagement." No one ever accused me of fraud, and the U.N. external auditors, following an extensive investigation of all accusations against me, cleared me of any wrongdoing.

After the conclusion of all probes, I have not been subject to any disciplinary measures. Accusations against me have been largely anonymous, and the underlying "facts" turned out to be invented, distorted or grossly exaggerated. Anyone who reads without prejudice the publicly available documents will come to this conclusion.

PINO ARLACCHI
Vienna, Austria

-------- us

Military officers criticize rush to use ground troops

By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
March 7, 2002
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020307-59671360.htm

Military officers are privately criticizing U.S. tactics in the battle of Gardez, saying war commanders should have used air strikes for days or weeks before sending ground forces against 800 enemy troops in Afghanistan.

"The way we lost those seven guys was a repeat of Somalia," said a senior Air Force officer, comparing Monday's clash south of the city of Gardez to the 1993 Mogadishu mission.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, however, yesterday sternly rejected any such comparison.

The Air Force officer said some Pentagon civilians also are upset with the tactics used in the assault near Gardez in Paktia province. Some informally have discussed firing commanders, but others say any dismissals would send the wrong message to U.S. allies as well as to supporters of terrorist Osama bin Laden.

Seven U.S. combatants were killed in gunbattles Monday after their MH-47 Chinook helicopters were inserted into mountanous terrain fiercely defended by al Qaeda and Taliban fighters. The Air Force source said one chopper on a rescue mission lacked adequate fire support from the air.

Military officers contended yesterday in interviews that there was no need to insert ground forces so early in Operation Anaconda, the first combined U.S. air and ground assault in the war in Afghanistan.

Instead, they said, jet aircraft with precision-guided bombs and the howitzers on AC-130 gunships for weeks should have pummeled caves and compounds where the enemy is hiding. During that period, the critics say, special-operations troops should have been used to find targets for direct aerial bombardment but not to directly attack the well-armed enemy forces.

Only after days or weeks of softening enemy positions and putting fighters on the run should significant numbers of U.S. ground troops have been inserted, they said.

Gen. Tommy Franks, running the war as head of U.S. Central Command, changed tactics for the 5-day-old battle in a mountain region called Shah-e-Kot, southeast of Gardez.

In the mid-December battle of Tora Bora, Gen. Franks employed days of air strikes to hit enemy troops while relying on local, untrained Afghans as ground forces. As a result, the enemy was routed from Tora Bora, north of Gardez. But hundreds of Taliban and al Qaeda fighters escaped because no sizable force was on the ground to stop them.

In what analysts said was a correction of the Tora Bora tactics, Gen. Franks sent in relatively large numbers of American ground troops at the outset of Operation Anaconda and was using U.S.-trained Afghans to block escape routes and do the fighting.

Critics said the blocking technique was correct - but that the rush to put in ground forces was not.

"They didn't learn the right lessons from Tora Bora," said one officer. "If you know where somebody is, why not encircle that group and then bomb ... them and then let the Special Forces and CIA use their ability to direct fire? Make it so painful they have to try to run."

The officer added: "The question is why did Franks and the military abandon what had been spectacularly successful since day one. Bomb them until they're dead or on the run. The only change should be, put up roadblocks so they don't escape."

This source said the "Army mafia" - a Pentagon term typically used to describe a branch's senior leaders - had been pressing for larger participation by conventional forces. Some in the Army were haunted by the 1999 Kosovo operation, when they attempted but failed to deploy Apache attack helicopters in the southern Yugoslav province.

The Gardez fighting for the first time in Afghanistan featured significant numbers of conventional Army forces in the form of 101st Airborne and 10th Mountain Division light infantry and Apache helicopters.

The Air Force officer said that when an MH-47 Chinook entered the battle zone to try to rescue a fallen Navy SEAL, the platoon-size unit lacked support from AC-130 gunships that would have suppressed the enemy. Six commandos from the Chinook died in a firefight. The Navy SEAL had been aboard the first Chinook to enter the area three hours earlier. The chopper was hit by enemy fire and quickly withdrew. The SEAL fell from the aircraft, was seized by al Qaeda fighters and executed.

"Franks made the same mistake Powell made in Somalia," said this officer.

It was a reference to 1993, when Secretary of State Colin L. Powell was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and former Democratic Rep. Les Aspin was defense secretary.

The local commander in Somalia wanted more armored weapons systems sent to Somalia to support Army Rangers, who were hunting a local warlord in Mogadishu. But the Pentagon denied the request.

Subsequently, 18 soldiers were killed when their Black Hawk helicopter was shot down during a raid. The pinned-down Rangers and Delta Force commandos waged a daylong battle without any air support from AC-130 gunships.

A subsequent Senate report said Mr. Powell could not persuade Mr. Aspin to send more armored weapons. He and other commanders expressed doubts about using AC-130 gunships in an urban environment, the report said.

Mr. Rumsfeld yesterday rejected any comparison between Somalia and Operation Anaconda.

"Other than very brave people being involved, this has nothing to do with Mogadishu," he told a Pentagon press conference. "And the individual who was killed, his body has been retrieved, and so too have the wounded. And I don't see any comparison."

At the same press conference, Gen. Franks said many landing zones were picked for the helicopter assaults and some enemy forces evaded detection.

"I think given the size of an area, perhaps 60 to 70 square miles, one is not going to have the precision of where those forces may be at any point in time," the general said.

Weeks ago, CIA-operated Predator drones and other intelligence assets spotted the enemy assembling in groups south of Gardez. Rather than attack quickly, Central Command let the terrorists gather, presenting a larger target, before mounting the assault on Friday. The battle is being directed by Army Maj. Gen. Buster Hagenbeck from Bagram air base, north of Gardez.

-------- propaganda wars

The Case of the Invisible Trial, or 'Where's the Beef?'

by Stella L. Jatras,
3/7/02
AntiWar.Com Editorial
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/jatras8.html

It's called the most important trial since Nuremberg; yet, of the over 100 TV channels at my disposal, not one carries it. Curious, since for the past ten years the media and the major TV channels couldn't wait to spin all the sordid details of mutilations, murders, torture and charges of genocide that the accused, former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, faces at The Hague's Stalinist show trial. However, this trial is not just about Slobodan Milosevic; it is also about the Serbian people. Why then has the media ignored it? Can it be because of the inept prosecution of the trial? Can it be that the "heinous criminal, Milosevic," with only the use of a public pay phone and acting as his own lawyer from his 9 by 15 foot jail cell, is making fools of the international tribunal? Can it be that, since his guilt is a foregone conclusion, it wouldn't do for the public to see how weak the case is against him?

Ironically, it was a report co-authored by Daniel Pearl that broke the story in a 1999 article in The Wall Street Journal titled, "Body Count," that enabled Slobodan Milosevic to discredit one of Chief Prosecutor, Carla del Ponte's star witness against Milosevic, Halit Barani, former actor turned reporter. The article was subtitled, "War in Kosovo Was Cruel, Bitter, Savage: Genocide It Wasn't," and "Tales of Mass Atrocity Arose And Were Passed Along, Often With Little Proof." One of the most gruesome charges was that the Serb paramilitary had dumped 700 [some reports were as high as 1,500] bodies into the furnace at the Trepca mine, after having been ground up into little pieces. As Pearl writes,

"By late summer, stories about a Nazi-like body-disposal facility were so wide spread that investigators sent a three-man French Gendarmerie team spelunking half a mile down the mind to search for bodies. They found none. Another team analyzed ashes in the furnace. They found no teeth or other signs of burnt bodies."

Of Mr. Barani, Pearl writes,

"Mr. Barani doesn't completely stand by his story. 'I told everybody it was supposition, it was not confirmed information, he says.'"

The Pearl article also referred to Barani's use of a KLA satellite phone to call in his stories, although Barani testified at the Milosevic trial that he had no contact with the KLA. Mrs. Pearl characterized her husband as a journalist who sought the truth. It would be interesting to know if Daniel Pearl were alive today, would he be called as a witness for the defense?

Not only did Daniel Pearl conclude that there was no genocide in Kosovo, but Agence France Presse of 5 April 1999, also headlined, "Kosovo is no genocide: Nobel Peace Prize winner," referring to Elie Wiesel. It's kind of hard to paint the Serbs as conducting a genocide against ethnic Albanians when over 100,000 fled to Belgrade to escape NATO's bombs in Kosovo.

RAPES, MURDERS AND TORTURE OF SERBS IRRELEVANT

While rapes, murders, and torture of the Serbian population were totally ignored or discounted by the media and by human rights organizations, charges of barbarity against the Serbs were constant throughout the civil war in the Balkans, for that is exactly what it was: a civil war. In civil wars, people do terrible things to each other - but with an anti-Serb U.S. foreign policy agenda along with a willing media, only one side was Satanized. Former Canadian Major General Lewis MacKenzie, Bosnia's first UNPROFOR commander stated a simple fact, that all sides were doing bad things. For that impartial statement, the Bosnian Muslim government of Alija Izetbegovic saw to the good general's early exit from Bosnia by producing "a witness [who] had seen me [MacKenzie] come by and pick up four Muslim girls, who were taken away and presumably raped and murdered." A total fabrication.

Among the dozens of examples of the media spinning their version of events in the Balkans, another example of the lies being used against the former Serbian president is the 1995 Markale marketplace massacre for which we dropped 6,000 tons of bombs for two weeks on the Bosnian Serbs. NATO dropped its defensive mantra and became the offensive arm of the New World Order, in violation of its treaty. It had to. The Soviet Union was gone and Clinton needed to justify NATO's existence. Yossef Bodansky, the author of Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America, in his book, Offensive in the Balkans, wrote the following:

"Phase Three started with a self-inflicted major terrorist provocation. On February 5, 1994, a major explosion rocked the Markale Sarajevo s main market place causing heavy casualties. What was immediately described as the ubiquitous 'Serb mortar shell' was actually a special charge designed and built with the help from Hizballah experts and then most likely dropped from a nearby rooftop onto the crowd of shoppers. Video cameras at the ready recorded this expertly-staged spectacle of gore, while dozens of corpses of Bosnian Muslim troops killed in action (exchanged the day before in a body swap with the Serbs) were paraded in front of cameras to raise the casualty counts. This callous self-killing was designed to shock the West, especially sentimental and gullible Washington, in order to raise the level of Western sympathy to the Bosnian Muslims and further demonize the Serbs so that Western government would be more supportive of Sarajevo s forthcoming aggressive move, and perhaps even finally intervene military."

European newspapers also confirmed that Bosnian Muslims had committed the Markale marketplace massacre, but Clinton needed an excuse to bomb the Serbs. Consider the following. Saudi Arabia signed a letter of intent to buy $6 billion dollars worth of Boeing aircraft. The day after we bombed the Serbs on a trumped up massacre, the Saudis signed on the dotted line. Coincidence? I don't think so. Saudi Arabia wanted the first Islamic nation in the belly of Europe, and we wanted Saudi oil and money. And that's what this war was all about.

I am not here to defend Slobodan Milosevic. I am here to defend the Serbian people who have been unjustly accused of atrocities (including cannibalism!) and who continue to suffer under our sanctions. However, you have to hand it to Slobo. He's got guts. He is brilliantly exposing these clowns for what they are, even with the disadvantage of having only one phone at his disposal, the cutting off of his mike when convenient by the chairman of the tribunal, and now faces testimonies of witnesses behind closed doors.

As columnist Don Feder writes in his West haunted by Balkans blunder, of 3 December, 2001, "Slobodan Milosevic has been charged with complicity to commit genocide and crimes against humanity. Before the travesty is over, he will doubtless be convicted of running the rail line to Auschwitz" [my emphasis].

Slobodan Milosevic has already been found guilty by those clowns at The Hague so why bother to air the trial? Why confuse the American people with the facts? Without Slobodan Milosevic's conviction, there will be no permanent International War Crimes Tribunal. It's their ticket to their New World Order.


-------- POLICE / PRISONERS

Russian Spies, They've Got Mail
Regulations Allow Security Services to Tap Into Systems of Internet Providers

By Sharon LaFraniere
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, March 7, 2002; Page A14
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A51550-2002Mar6?language=printer

MOSCOW -- Nail Murzakhanov, an Internet provider in Volgograd, knew he might lose his business license four years ago when he told the Federal Security Service, Russia's domestic intelligence agency, that he would not give it access to the e-mail traffic of his 1,500 subscribers.

When the Communications Ministry suspended his license for failure to cooperate with the intelligence agency, known as the FSB, Murzakhanov filed suit.

Surprisingly, in August 2000, he got his license back. "In the end, I was left in peace," he said in a phone call from an office filled with brightly colored computer games.

The standoff was surprising not so much because Murzakhanov won, but because it occurred at all. Typically, Internet providers in Russia say they do all they can to satisfy the state security services, even if it means turning over the password of every client.

That is one telling barometer of the security services' continuing power in Russia's 11-year-old democracy. In theory, Russians are entitled to as much privacy in their communications as Americans. Both the Russian constitution and a 1995 law prohibit law enforcement agencies from monitoring phone calls, pager messages, radio transmissions, e-mails or Internet traffic without a court order.

But in practice, critics say, court orders are little more than legal niceties in Russia. An obscure set of technical regulations issued in the late 1990s permits total access without ever approaching a judge.

The regulations are known as SORM, the Russian acronym for System for Operational-Investigative Activities. They require Internet providers to give their local FSB office whatever hardware, software and fiber-optic lines may be needed to tap into the provider's system and all its users.

While U.S. law is based on the premise that law enforcement agencies must be held in check, Russian civil rights advocates say the premise of SORM is that Russian law enforcement can be trusted to keep itself in check.

"They have all the conditions to abuse their power," said Yuri Vdovin, who heads Citizens' Watch, a St. Petersburg human rights organization funded by the Ford Foundation. "The system is on purpose constructed in such a way that there is no way anyone can control them. A Russian citizen is not protected at all."

Internet providers don't like the system, especially since they promise clients in their contracts that their e-mail will be kept confidential. But a decade after perestroika, Russia is still a country where people are not inclined to fight city hall, much less what was once the secret police.

Eugene Prygoff is the former marketing director of Kuban.net., an Internet provider in the southwestern Russia city of Krasnodar. He said the vast majority of providers are simply not willing to risk their licenses to test the principle of privacy. "They see no sense in putting up resistance. So they work out a deal with the FSB," he said.

And compared with their counterparts in the West, civil rights organizations are still scarce and often too weak to challenge the state. Citizens' Watch, for instance, is working with a group of Russian lawyers to prepare a legal complaint against SORM. At the same time, the group's 12 employees are working on issues of freedom of the press, racial discrimination, juvenile crime, military reform and state secrecy.

Not every provider ends up installing a direct line to the local FSB office, according to Mikhail Yakushev, head of the legal department at Global One, an international firm andone of Moscow's biggest Internet providers. Each one works out its own confidential agreement with the security service, he said. He stressed that his comments reflected the views of an Internet providers association, where he heads the legal working group, not Global One.

"In practice SORM is not as abusive as it could be, because the FSB doesn't have enough qualified staff or special equipment to be as active as they could," he said.

"But then again, who knows what will happen next year, or next month? The biggest problem is no one to control them. If there is a line, and equipment that allows them access, then no one can track them."

Until a Supreme Court ruling in late 2000, the FSB was not even required to tell providers that its agents were tapping the system. The complaint in that case was filed by a 26-year-old St. Petersburg journalist, who said he got tired of waiting for civil rights groups or providers to protest.

Murzakhanov, now 36 and the director of Bayard-Slavia Communications in Volgograd, 575 miles south of Moscow, is the only provider to publicly raise a fuss. Murzakhanov said that in 1998, a year after the company opened, FSB agents presented the firm with a plan to hook up the local FSB offices.

Besides $100,000 worth of hardware, software and computer lines, Murzakhanov said, the FSB wanted all the tools that he had, as the administrator of the system. "They could very easily have read all the clients' passwords. And once they learned the passwords, they could have controlled online all the e-mail traffic," he said. "They could have read or rewritten an e-mail even before the receiver got it, and the user would never know."

His refusal to sign the FSB's plan brought untold headaches. He said his business was audited or inspected at least 15 times for compliance with fire, epidemiological, sanitation, labor protection and tax codes.

The FSB also switched off his main data transmission line, he said, forcing him to rely on low-quality, dial-up channels. His business license was suspended for six months. Only after Communications Ministry officials failed to show up for four court hearings did he recover it.

Murzakhanov said the ministry deliberately punted. "They didn't want to expose the entire system of pressuring providers. They decided it was better to lose and to keep the cover on the system."

So far, no other provider is eager to follow the Volgograd example, said Anatoly Levenchuk, an Internet expert in Moscow who first revealed the SORM requirements.

"They all say his case shows all the trouble you can have if you try to oppose the authorities," he said.

----

Police Department May Hire an Expert in the Use of Force

New York Times
March 7, 2002
By KEVIN FLYNN
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/07/nyregion/07TRAI.html

Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said yesterday that he was close to naming James J. Fyfe, a nationally recognized expert in the use of force by the police, to direct and possibly revamp the way the Police Department trains its officers.

Mr. Fyfe, a former New York police lieutenant who retired in 1979, has spent the past two decades in academic posts, researching police practices and policies, particularly the use of deadly force.

New York police officials often refer to their department as the best- trained in the world, but training issues have arisen in recent years, especially after the shooting of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed civilian who was killed by four officers who mistakenly believed he had a gun.

"The training in the department rates well compared to other departments, " said Eli B. Silverman, who studied the agency for his book "NYPD Battles Crime" (Northeastern University Press, 1999). But Mr. Silverman said several departments do a better job, citing examples in Britain and the Netherlands.

Mr. Kelly said he wanted to conduct a broad review of training, including the curriculum at the Police Academy, the methods used to retrain veteran officers and the administrative courses given to high-ranking managers who serve in executive positions. "By definition, police officers will be first responders to any future terrorist event, if one does take place," Mr. Kelly said. "And I think we have to broaden our training. We have to look at issues that prior to Sept. 11th were not realistically addressed."

Mr. Fyfe said in an interview that antiterrorism training needs to be expanded. "Up until this point the local police have relied on the feds for this sort of thing," he said. But now, he said, officers are not only being asked to respond to incidents, but also to staff security checkpoints at bridges and tunnels, an assignment in which they must screen people effectively without falling into the practice of racial profiling.

"You have to do training to teach officers about objective criteria on which to make decisions on stops," said Mr. Fyfe, whose possible appointment was first reported yesterday in The Daily News.

Two years ago, Mr. Fyfe testified as a defense witness at the trial of the four officers accused of shooting Mr. Diallo, asserting that they had followed proper procedures when they sought to stop and question Mr. Diallo because they said he had been acting suspiciously.

Anthony Gair, a lawyer who is representing the Diallo family in a civil suit against the city, cited that testimony yesterday and called Mr. Fyfe's potential selection a disappointment.

"This sends a terrible message to the community," Mr. Gair said, "especially the people in the Bronx because it is almost an endorsement of the practices of the Street Crime Unit that were being utilized at the time."

But Mr. Kelly disagreed, calling Mr. Fyfe "a straight shooter who calls it as he sees it."

Mr. Fyfe said his objectivity was evident in the fact that he has often testified against officers in brutality cases, including three dozen open cases in which he has been retained as an unpaid expert witness. Mr. Fyfe said city lawyers have already said he could testify in those cases even if he takes the city post.

-------- terrorism

U.S. to Curb Computer Access by Foreigners
Government: To boost security, some Defense Department work will be done only by citizens.

By CHARLES PILLER,
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
March 7, 2002
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-030702ban.story

Sparked by heightened security concerns since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Defense Department has begun laying the groundwork to ban non-U.S. citizens from a wide range of computer projects.

The planned policy--slated for adoption within 90 days--extends restrictions on foreign nationals handling secret information to "sensitive but unclassified positions," which include the swelling numbers of contract workers who process paychecks, write software, track supplies and maintain e-mail systems.

The move comes amid a growing awareness of the vulnerability of government computer systems in an era when software espionage and malicious hacking have become commonplace.

The Defense Department's proposal, covering a work force that accounts for one-third of federal civilian employees, would represent the most sweeping implementation of the government's restrictions on foreign technology workers. The much-smaller Justice Department instituted little-noticed restrictions in July, and the Treasury Department has had a ban on noncitizens working on its communications systems since 1998.

Officials said the restrictions are needed to get a handle on the proliferation of foreign nationals who work on government computer systems, but the plan has raised concerns that the government is being xenophobic and shortsighted.

Experts said barring foreign nationals from certain computer projects opens the prospect that key jobs will go unfilled because of a shortage of qualified citizens--a situation exacerbated by the relatively small number of U.S. students who pursue advanced technology degrees. Costs may also rise sharply as higher-paid U.S. citizens replace foreign workers.

"You can easily create a critical manpower shortage," said Annalee Saxenian, a professor of city and regional planning at UC Berkeley who has studied the effect of immigrants on the technology industry. "There's probably no company in Silicon Valley that doesn't have from 10% to 40% of their work force who are foreign nationals. . . . [Defense Department officials may be] boxing themselves into a situation where they will lose the best talent."

Even Richard A. Clarke, top cyber-security advisor to President Bush, views the restrictions as a misguided priority.

"Rather than worry about what country somebody was born in, we ought to focus on the design and the architecture of our information systems," he said, adding that he supports the use of background checks, automatic recorders that log keystrokes by programmers and stricter rules on individuals changing data.

"In general, trying to restrict the [information technology] professional that we use to American citizens is not going to be an effective approach," Clarke said. "The United States does not produce enough American citizens who are IT-security-trained to operate our networks."

Computer Security Is Long-Standing Problem

Analysts long have warned about lax security in government computer systems.

"These [software] systems are wide open," said Ed Yourdon, an independent expert in technology security policy. "The vast majority of bad things done on computer systems are done by insiders--not teenage hackers in Moscow."

Two years ago, the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, studied the use of foreign contractors by federal agencies working to fix year 2000 software problems. It found foreign nationals working on 85 contracts for "mission-critical" software. Yet several of the agencies investigated lacked even rudimentary controls over contractors' work.

The Navy sent software or data associated with 36 mission-critical systems to a foreign-owned contractor yet "could not readily determine how the code and data were protected during and after transit to the contractor facility," the GAO report said.

"In many instances, the [Defense Department] was not aware when some programming changes were being done by a contractor who used foreign nationals," said David L. McClure, who led the GAO study.

The Health and Human Services Department used software engineers from Pakistan, Russia and Ukraine without performing background checks.

Similar lapses were found in the departments of Energy, Agriculture and State, as well as NASA and other federal agencies. None of those agencies is considering new restrictions in the use of foreign nationals, although some require regular employees to be citizens.

The Defense Department previously had been developing a system of security restrictions for foreign nationals working on unclassified computer operations, but Sept. 11 prompted plans for more restrictive measures.

IT Work Routinely Given to Foreigners

"The IT business has become largely contractual, with programming and data work being farmed out to areas where there is cheap labor," Pete Nelson, the Defense Department's deputy director for personnel security, wrote in an e-mail to The Times. "If this trend does not simultaneously take into consideration security requirements, there would be reason for concern. Some foreign nationals--those in the most sensitive position--may not be permitted to remain."

Nelson said no details of the policy would be made public until it becomes final.

The Defense Department had no estimate of how many noncitizens it has as employees or contractors but acknowledged that the shift could prove costly.

Some major defense technology contractors also said they could not readily estimate how many of their employees are foreign nationals. Industry experts believe that thousands of jobs could be involved.

Major technology contractors, such as Science Applications International Corp. in San Diego and Computer Sciences Corp. in El Segundo, said they can meet any new Defense Department requirements.

Smaller contractors may have more difficulty doing so.

Indus Corp., a 300-employee technology contractor in Vienna, Va., that works with the military and other government agencies, fulfills military contracts without tapping its 40 to 45 employees who are not U.S. citizens, said Chief Executive Shiv Krishnan.

"In the future, there may be opportunities we can't bid on because of the dearth of available talent," said Krishnan, who came to the U.S. from India to study and gained American citizenship 12 years ago.

Dan Kuehl, a professor of cyber-security at the National Defense University in Washington, said any move to restrict unclassified tasks to U.S. citizens could create a logistical nightmare.

Despite the high-tech recession, the country faces chronic shortages of professionals who can manage the complex computer systems, databases and networks prevalent in government agencies. The high-tech industry relies heavily on Indian, Chinese and other Asian workers--a group that long has complained about being unfairly targeted on issues of U.S. loyalty.

Those shortages prompted Congress to create a special visa program through the Immigration Act of 1990 known as H-1B, which permitted more than 163,000 highly skilled foreign workers to take jobs in this country last year. Many are employed by defense contractors.

A move away from using foreign nationals also could increase contracting costs--building pressure on managers to make do with fewer tech professionals, which would itself be a security liability, said John Pescatore, a security analyst with GartnerGroup Inc.

Relatively few U.S. students are being trained to fill the gap, while foreign student enrollment in technology programs at U.S. universities has soared. From 1991 to 2000, 46% of U.S. doctoral degrees in computer science were awarded to foreign students, the National Science Foundation said.

"The same security concerns are being expressed about the entire critical infrastructure"--both government and private, Yourdon said. "We have foreign nationals working in systems that control electrical power or move billions of dollars around the financial systems or control trades on the Nasdaq."

But banning noncitizens from sensitive jobs may offer little assurance of security, he said. Three of the most damaging espionage cases in U.S. history--those of the CIA's Aldrich Ames, the FBI's Robert Philip Hanssen and the Navy's Walker family spy ring--involved U.S. citizens who were direct employees of the government and had access to classified computer systems.


-------- ENERGY AND OTHER

-------- alternative energy

CAFE is wrong way to energy independence

March 6, 2002
Washington Times
Letters to the Editor
http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20020306-10576080.htm

We all agree that reducing foreign oil dependency is a national goal, but Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle is wrong to promote mandatory increases in the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) as the answer ("Daschle says ANWR drilling dead," March 4). This regulation has never worked.

We import more than half our oil from foreign countries, even with the CAFE standards that have been in place since the 1970s, when Congress first adopted them.

If manufacturers are required to meet proposed fuel efficiency mandates for sport utility vehicles, minivans and pickup trucks, they will be forced to significantly reduce the size and power of these popular vehicles. This presents serious safety concerns to drivers, as evidenced by thousands of deaths attributable to the current CAFE regulations.

The better way to reduce foreign oil dependency is to allow the free market to solve the problem.

The Bush administration's decision to end the government's 8-year-old failed program to drive up the fuel efficiency of gasoline engines at any cost was a step forward, influenced by innovations in the market. It was also a step forward for clean air and consumers.

Fuel cell technology is one solution that makes a lot more sense than trying to hit consumers and automakers with unrealistic demands for quick and drastic increases in the fuel efficiency of gasoline-powered vehicles.

KAREN KERRIGAN
Chairwoman Small Business Survival Committee Washington

------- energy

UK power bills may rise 5 pct to pay for renewables

REUTERS UK:
March 7, 2002
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/14896/newsDate/7-Mar-2002/story.htm

LONDON - British consumers will have to pay up to 780 million pounds a year extra for electricity by 2010 to meet the costs of supporting high-cost renewable energy schemes, the government said.

The increase is equivalent to a five percent rise in electricity prices, John Doddrell, director of the sustainable energy policy unit at the Department of Trade and Industry, told a conference.

"The cost to consumers will be quiet substantial," Doddrell told delegates.

The government plans to introduce a so-called renewables obligation in April, forcing suppliers to buy a certain amount of their electricity from renewable sources.

The rules to bring the obligation into force are being debated in parliament yesterday, Doddrell said.

From April, suppliers will have to buy three percent of their power from green sources, a figure which rises to around 10 percent in 2010.

The government hopes the obligation will kick-start the green power sector. Companies have already announced plans to invest millions of pounds in offshore wind farms.

Britain produces just less than three percent of its electricity from green sources. The government has set a target of increasing this to 10 percent by 2010.

-------- genetics

Therapeutic Cloning Used in Lab

March 7, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Cloning.html

BOSTON (AP) -- For the first time, scientists say they have used the ethically sensitive technology of therapeutic cloning to repair an inherited disease in a lab animal.

While still far from human use, experts say this demonstrates the potential power of the approach to correct many common ills that affect people.

Most of the steps in the work have already been accomplished individually in lab animals. Scientists have used so-called therapeutic cloning to make embryonic stem cells that can develop into many different kinds of tissue, such as muscle or nerves. But until now, they have not been put back into an animal to treat a disease.

The experiments involved repairing an immune system defect in mice. First, they made clones of the animals to harvest embryonic stem cells. Next, they fixed the genetic defect in these stem cells. Finally they put the repaired stem cells into the adult animals, where they partially overturned the immune defect.

``This really is a tremendous confluence of very, very challenging technology, wrapping them all together into a model therapy,'' said Dr. George Daley. ``We are the first to do this all the way.''

The experiments were conducted by Daley and Rudolf Jaenisch at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Mass. Two reports on the work were to be posted online Friday by the journal Cell.

``Putting it all together in sequence is dramatic,'' said Dr. Neil Theise, a stem cell biologist at New York University. ``The fact they are doing it in a model of a human disease is very canny, and certainly this will have a big impact on the public debate.''

Therapeutic cloning starts with cells derived from test-tube embryos that are genetic twins of the recipient. Many, including President Bush and some members of Congress, are opposed to cloning of all forms, including the therapeutic variety.

Some scientists, including Daley, have proposed calling the procedure ``nuclear transplantation therapy'' to avoid confusion with reproductive cloning, which is intended to produce a whole person.

The latest experiments were conducted on inbred mice that had severe immune deficiency because of a genetic defect that prevented them from manufacturing antibodies in response to infections.

The researchers started with skin cells from the adult mice's tails. Then they removed the nucleus from a mouse egg and replaced it with a nucleus from one of the skin cells.

In a lab dish, the egg grew into a blastocyst, an embryo containing about 100 cells, including embryonic stem cells. Unlike stem cells in adult creatures, which are generally programmed to produce just one kind of tissue, the embryonic stem cells can potentially grow into anything.

Since the embryonic stem cells were genetically identical to the immune deficient mice, they carried the same genetic defect. So the scientist used gene therapy to fix the bad gene and then put the stem cells into the animals.

The goal was to give them stem cells that would make healthy blood cells. The process worked, although not totally. Disease fighting cells known as B cells and T cells ordinarily make up about 40 percent of the animals' blood. After the experiment, they comprised about 3 percent.

``That was still enough to generate antibodies in these mice,'' Daley said. ``We would expect this level of reconstitution would provide significant immune function and have significant benefit.''

Daley said he believes the results will improve with more work. Used in humans, the procedure could potentially supply cells that would correct a variety of ills, such as muscular dystrophy and neurologic diseases.

``In theory, it should work for potentially any genetic disease that could be treated by cell therapy,'' Daley said. ``Obviously there is an enormous number of challenges that any particular disease would face.''

EDITOR'S NOTE: Medical Editor Daniel Q. Haney is a special correspondent for The Associated Press.

-------- health

Science panel OKs anthrax vaccine

Around the Nation
March 7, 2002
Combined dispatches and staff reports
Washington Times
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20020307-78188735.htm

The current anthrax vaccine, while in need of improvement, is safe and effective, a panel of the National Academy of Sciences reported yesterday.

"The anthrax vaccine should protect against even the inhalational form of the infection, but the lengthy vaccination schedule and the way the shots are physically administered make it far from optimal," said Brian L. Strom, chairman of the committee that reviewed the vaccine.

The committee urged the Defense Department to support research seeking a better vaccine.

----

More on Mammograms

Thursday, March 7, 2002
Letters to Editor,
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A51913-2002Mar6?language=printer

In regard to the Feb. 22 front-page article about mammograms:

First, a mammogram does not prevent cancer; it can only find an existing cancer.

Second, safer methods of diagnosis (without X-rays) are available, including thorough physical examinations, ultrasound, MRI and thermography. The last takes a heat picture showing the physiological function breast tissue. Thermography is available in France, Australia and some centers in the United States. Given that every mammogram, indeed every X-ray procedure, carries an increased risk of causing cancer, development of this safe, non-radiation technique should be a priority.

Finally, a comprehensive cancer prevention program must be demanded by the public. We should call for a stop to the release of known carcinogens such as pesticides and hormonally active agents into our environment and food supply. We should curtail the use of X-rays, except when absolutely necessary. And we should demand an end to the release of radioactive materials from nuclear power plants and weapons development.

This year alone, 40,000 women will die from breast cancer. It is only when the public demands change that we can prevent this epidemic of cancer.

JANETTE D. SHERMAN
Alexandria

-------- human rights

US HR Report-2001 on Bangladesh

The Nation,
March 7, 2002
http://www.nation-online.com/200203/07/n2030702.htm#BODY3

Politically promoted violence was pervasive

Bangladesh is a parliamentary democracy, with broad powers exercised by the Prime Minister. Sheikh Hasina, leader of the Awami League, was Prime Minister until Parliament's term of office expired in mid-July. A caretaker Government was installed in accordance with constitutional procedures and oversaw the national elections. Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, the leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), came to power in elections on October 1 deemed to be free and fair by international observers. Political competition is vigorous. Violence is a pervasive feature of politics, including political campaigns, and the October elections took place in a climate of sporadic violence and isolated irregularities. All of the major parties have frequently boycotted Parliament while in the opposition, claiming that they had little opportunity to engage in real debate on legislation and national issues. The higher levels of the judiciary display a significant degree of independence and often rule against the Government; however, lower judicial officers fall under the executive, and are reluctant to challenge government decisions. The Official Secrets Act of 1923 can protect corrupt government officials from public scrutiny, hindering the transparency and accountability of the Government at all levels.

The Home Affairs Ministry controls the police and paramilitary forces, which have primary responsibility for internal security. Primarily due to the police's accountability to the executive, police often are reluctant to pursue investigations against persons affiliated with the ruling party. The government frequently uses the police for political purposes. There is widespread police corruption and lack of discipline. Police officers committed numerous serious human rights abuses and were seldom disciplined, even for the most egregious actions.

Bangladesh is a very poor country, occasionally beset by natural disasters that further hamper development. Annual per capita income among the population of approximately 129.2 million is approximately $380; the economic growth rate during the last fiscal year was approximately 6 percent. Slightly more than half of all children are chronically malnourished. Approximately 65 percent of the work force is involved in agriculture, which accounts for one-fourth of the gross domestic product. The economy is market-based, but the Government owns all utilities, most transport companies, and many large manufacturing and distribution firms. A small, wealthy elite controls much of the private economy, but there is an emerging middle class. Foreign investment has increased significantly in the gas sector and in electrical power generation facilities. Both earnings from exports and remittances from workers overseas have increased, but foreign aid remains an important source of national income. Efforts to improve governance and economic growth through reform have been unsuccessful, and were blocked by bureaucratic intransigence, vested economic interests, endemic corruption, and political polarisation. The government's commitment to economic reform is weak.

The government's human rights record remained poor in many significant areas, and it continued to commit serious abuses, although it respected citizens' rights in some areas. Police committed a number of extrajudicial killings, and some persons died in police custody under suspicious circumstances. Police routinely used torture, beatings, and other forms of abuse while interrogating suspects. Police frequently beat demonstrators. The government rarely punishes persons responsible for torture or unlawful deaths. Prison conditions are extremely poor for the majority of the prison population. Rape of female detainees in prison or other official custody has been a problem; however, there were no reports of such occurrences during the year. The government continued to arrest and detain persons arbitrarily, and to use the Special Powers Act (SPA) and Section 54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which allow for arbitrary arrest and preventive detention. The Public Safety Act (PSA), enacted in early 2000, gives the police even greater opportunity to abuse their powers. A court case challenging the constitutionality of the PSA remained pending at year's end. The lower judiciary is subject to executive influence and suffers from corruption. A large judicial case backlog existed and lengthy pretrial detention was a problem. Police searched homes without warrants, and the government forcibly relocated illegal squatter settlements. Virtually all journalists practiced some self-censorship. Attacks on journalists and efforts to intimidate them by government officials, political party activists, and others increased. The Awami League as well as the BNP government limited freedom of assembly, particularly for political opponents, and both the Awami League and the BNP governments on occasion limited freedom of movement. The Government generally permitted a wide variety of human rights groups to conduct their activities, but it continued to refuse to register a local chapter of Amnesty International. Abuse of children and child prostitution are problems. Violence and discrimination against women remained serious problems. Societal discrimination against the disabled, indigenous people, and religious minorities was a problem. In the past, violence against members of the Ahmadiya religious minority was a problem. The Government continued to limit worker rights, especially in the Export Processing Zones (EPZ's), and, in general, is ineffective in enforcing workers' rights. Some domestic servants, including many children, work in conditions that resemble servitude and many suffer abuse. Child labor and abuse of child workers remained widespread and serious problems. Trafficking in women and children for the purpose of prostitution and at times for forced labor remained serious problems. Both major political parties and their activists often employed violence, causing deaths and numerous injuries; however, the number of deaths declined, likely due to fewer general strikes during the year. Vigilante justice resulted in numerous killings, according to press reports.

Respect for Human Rights: a. Arbitrary or unlawful deprivation of life: Police committed a number of extrajudicial killings. According to one human rights organisation, 44 persons died as a result of the use of lethal force by the police during the year.

The police sometimes used unwarranted lethal force. According to one human rights organization, on March 28, police in Jessore stormed the home of Mozahar, a welding mechanic, dragged him outside, beat him with rifle butts and sticks, and took him to the police station. The following morning, Mozahar's wife and daughter saw him at the police station; he was unconscious and appeared to have been beaten. Later that day, Mohazar was sent to a local hospital where he died on March 30. No action has been taken against the police officers involved. On May 16, police in Tongi arrested a 15-year-old boy under suspicion that he was "looking for someone to mug." The police tied him with ropes and beat him with sticks. Approximately 20 hours later, police sent the boy to the hospital, where he died. On the night of July 8, police in Tarakandi, Sherpur District, detained a group of gamblers. Early the following morning, the body of Julhash Uddin Khacha Miah was found on a road near a pond in Tarakandi, where he frequently went to gamble. Julhash's body showed signs of a severe beating. Persons who lived nearby reported hearing screams and groans during the night. Other gamblers, five of whom were arrested that night, reported that Julhash had been with them but left a few minutes before they were arrested. They stated that, as they were being taken to the police station, they saw Julhash lying on the road with several policemen pouring water on his head and trying to massage his body with oil, presumably in an effort to prevent his death after severely beating him. Julhash's son filed a complaint, which police recorded as an "unnatural death" case. No policemen were charged in connection with the incident.

According to one human rights organisation, 72 persons died in prison and police custody during the year.

Most police abuses go unpunished, and the resulting climate of impunity remains a serious obstacle to ending police abuse and extrajudicial killings. However, in some instances where there was evidence of police culpability for killings, the authorities took action. On May 28, the High Court confirmed the death sentence of three policemen convicted of the rape and killing of a 14-year-old girl in 1995. In March 1999, four police officers were charged with manslaughter after a body was found in the rooftop water tank of the Detective Branch in Dhaka. The case is ongoing. The case against a police sergeant for killing a rickshaw puller in July 1999 in Agargaon was settled out of court when the accused policeman reached a settlement with the victim's family. Court proceedings continued against 14 persons, including 13 police officers, arrested and charged after a college student in police custody was beaten to death in July 1998. At year's end, nine of the accused persons were in custody, and proceedings in the case were continuing.

Violence, often resulting in deaths, is a pervasive element in the country's politics. Supporters of different political parties, and often supporters of different factions within one party, frequently clash with each other and with police during rallies and demonstrations. According to human rights organisations, more than 656 persons were killed and nearly 25,770 others were injured in politically motivated violence during the year. Both Awami League and BNP supporters, often with the connivance and support of the police, violently disrupted each others' rallies and demonstrations as well as those of other parties (see Sections 2.b. and 3). Opposition parties also used armed violence and intimidation to enforce general strikes ("hartals"). During the year, 24 persons died in violence related to general strikes.

On July 15, 5 Awami League leaders were killed and more than 400 persons were injured in clashes between activists of both the Awami League and the four-party opposition alliance. Several persons were injured by bombs that were thrown at an Awami League procession.

During an opposition-called hartal in 1999, eyewitnesses saw Maqbul Hossain, an Awami League Member of Parliament (M.P.) for the Dhanmondi area of Dhaka, order the killing of two young BNP activists who had been seized by Hossain's armed followers. Members of Hossain's entourage then shot at point-blank range one of the men, BNP activist Sajal Chowdhury, who subsequently died; the other person was beaten. Approximately a dozen police officers who were standing nearby in riot gear made no effort to intervene or to apprehend the gunmen, nor did the Government later take action against those persons responsible. However, police summoned for repeated interrogations the family of Chowdhury, who had filed a murder complaint against M.P. Hossain and the armed men. One Chowdhury family member was arrested on criminal charges, then detained under the SPA after a judge granted him bail. In December 1999, police submitted their final report on the case to the court, stating that the evidence did not support the murder charge. Subsequently, the court accepted the police report and dismissed the case against Hossain. Hossain then served legal notice on the victim's family, demanding that they explain why they should not be charged with criminal defamation, although Hossain did not subsequently pursue the defamation case. In December the new BNP Government detained Hossain under the SPA and revived the murder case.

On February 3, after the High Court ruled illegal all "fatwas" (expert opinions on Islamic law, some NGO's organised a rally in Dhaka to applaud the ruling, hailing it as a victory for women and all who have suffered from fatwas. These NGO's bused women into the city from rural areas for the rally. Some Islamic groups, claiming that outlawing all fatwas was an attack on Islam, blocked the main roads into the city and tried to disrupt the rally. In the ensuing violence, a policeman was killed inside a mosque. The police arrested leaders of the Islami Oikkyo Jote (IOJ), a member of the four-party opposition alliance, some in connection with the killing. On February 6 in Brahmanbaria, some Muslim leaders called a hartal to demand the cancellation of the High Court verdict and the release of the arrested IOJ leaders. Several thousand persons marched in the streets. When demonstrators started throwing bricks at police and paramilitary forces, they opened fire, killing 6 persons and injuring 25 others. In the fighting, 15 policemen also were injured. According to police, a mob then attacked the police station and other officers. During the unrest, the police shot and killed three more persons. On February 13, the four-party opposition alliance called a hartal to demand the resignation of the Government. Dhaka Awami League M.P. Iqbal led a procession to protest the hartal. Gunmen from Iqbal's procession fired on a pro-hartal procession led by BNP leader Mirza Abbas, killing three demonstrators. An off-duty policeman also was shot and killed. The next day, front-page photos appeared in most major newspapers showing Iqbal surrounded by several young men pointing guns, as well as a number of policemen standing by.

Political killings continued during non-hartal periods as well, particularly in the period prior to the national elections. On August 10, in Pabna District, members of an outlawed Maoist party hacked two Awami League supporters to death. On August 12, 8 persons were killed and 30 others were injured in clashes between Awami League and BNP supporters in Feni.

Violence also is endemic between the student political wings of the major national parties, and between rival factions within the parties. During the first several months of the year, campus violence led to unscheduled closures of educational institutions in various locations, including Dhaka, Khulna, and Barisal. Violence caused disruption to academic activities at Rajshahi University, Shah Jalal University of Science and Technology in Sylhet, and Jahangirnagar University. A clash between factions of the Awami League student wing, the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) at Kabi Nazrul College in Dhaka left five persons injured. Authorities shut down Chittagong University after a gun battle between activists of BCL and the Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS), the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami (a member of the four-party alliance), left 20 persons injured on August 13. On August 11, the ICS began enforcing an indefinite strike on campus to pressure university authorities to return dormitories to students ousted by BCL activists during Awami League rule and to sweep the campus for illegal weapons. The BNP's student wing, Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD), made similar demands at several universities around the country. At Dhaka University, the JCD enforced a strike to demand the collection of weapons; however, police announced the schedule for the weapons sweep 1 day in advance, and the times of the sweeps appeared in all of the major newspapers on the morning of the sweep. When the authorities arrived at the dormitories for the sweep, the student activists had left. The police found only one broken revolver.

In July 2000, gunmen fired at a van in Chittagong, killing eight persons, including six members of the BCL. The Government accused the ICS of being responsible for the attack. Then-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina challenged her supporters and the police to retaliate for the killing of her student supporters, declaring that there should be 10 opposition bodies for each one from the ruling party. An anti-Jamaat campaign following the July 2000 killings resulted in the deaths of at least two Jamaat activists, the injury of many others, and the arrests of hundreds more. The Jamaat-e-Islami asserts that the attack on the van was a continuation of a shoot-out the previous day between rival factions of the BCL that left three BCL activists dead. Police have charged 22 persons in connection with the BCL killings, 3 of whom are in custody. At year's end, the trial was pending.

On June 16, an explosion during a meeting at an Awami League office in Narayanganj killed 20 persons and injured more than 100 others. Police cordoned off the area soon after the explosion, but a military investigative team did not arrive until 6 hours later. The Awami League Government accused 27 persons in connection with the bombing, all from the BNP and the Freedom Party. Of those, six persons are in custody (four of whom were charged and two of whom are being held on suspicion of involvement). All of the accused persons who were detained in this case by year's end had been released on bail.

On January 20, a bomb killed four persons during a rally held by the Communist Party of Bangladesh. The case is still under investigation.

In August 2000, S.M.A. Rab, a prominent Awami League leader in Khulna, was killed. A Maoist group claimed responsibility. On June 13, police charged 15 persons with the murder, 9 of whom were in custody. The court issued warrants for the arrest of the other six, as well as orders to seize their property. On June 17, Rab's son petitioned the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) to reject the charge sheet, terming it "baseless and concocted," and requested that the case be reinvestigated. The CMM rejected the petition. Rab's son blames the killing on his father's rivals inside the Awami League who were upset by party leader Sheikh Hasina's announcement that Rab would be the party's nominee for the Khulna mayoral post.

In July 2000, Shamsur Rahman, a well-respected journalist, was killed in Jessore after writing a series of articles about alleged criminal activities and connections between political activists, smugglers, and domestic terrorists. A prominent BNP leader, 5 journalists, and 11 others, have been charged with his murder. Of the 17, 8 are in custody. Numerous other journalists were killed or attacked throughout the year.

Former Awami League M.P. Mohammed Mohibur Rahman Manik remains free on bail while a case against him for involvement in bomb making remains ongoing; in March 1999 two persons died while making bombs at his residence.

A case remains pending against 24 individuals, including former minister and BNP leader Tariqul Islam, in connection with the March 1999 bombing of a performance of the left-affiliated cultural group Udichi Shilpi Gosthi. Ten persons were killed in the attack.

In April the High Court upheld the 1998 convictions of 12 of the 15 persons convicted and sentenced to death for the 1975 murder of then-President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (father of Awami League leader and former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina) and 21 of his family members. Three persons were acquitted. Of the 12 persons convicted, 4 are in custody and have requested permission to appeal the decision. If their sentences are upheld, they may be hanged. The 11 others, living outside of the country, were convicted in absentia.

In 1995 the Government charged former President Hossain Mohammad Ershad with ordering the 1981 murder of the alleged assassin of President Ziaur Rahman. Ershad, leader of the Jatiya party, was granted bail in 1997. This case remains pending while other cases against Ershad are ongoing.

The Awami League Government continued to imprison eight persons accused of perpetrating the November 1975 murders of four senior Awami League leaders who then were in jail. The trial began on April 12. Thirteen others living outside of the country are being tried in absentia. Four of the eight persons detained were released by the new government on bail in December. Extortion from businesses and individuals by persons with political backing was common, and businessmen on several occasions went on strikes to protest the extortion. In May 2000, several young men shot and killed Iftekhar Ahmed Shipu, owner of a cellular telephone shop in Dhaka, after Shipu refused to give them a free telephone. A parliamentarian's son and several others were charged with the killing in a case filed by Shipu's relatives.

In December 2000, police opened fire on strikers at the port of Mongla and killed four persons.

Press reports of vigilante killings by mobs are common. Newspapers on numerous occasions reported that mobs had beaten alleged muggers, sometimes to death. Press editorials and commentaries opined that the increasing mob violence reflected a breakdown of law and order and a popular perception that the criminal justice system did not function. Human rights groups and press reports indicate that vigilante violence against women who are accused of having committed moral offenses is common, particularly in rural areas, and that religious leaders sometimes lead it.

Violence along the border with India remained a problem. According to press accounts and human rights groups, border violence has claimed more than 200 lives during the last 5 years. Domestic human rights NGO's report that Indian border forces killed as many as 108 citizens during the year. Bangladeshi border security forces may have killed more than a dozen Indian personnel.

To be continued


-------- ACTIVISTS

[It would be interesting to know if the demonstrators were protesting the purchase of any arms, or only U.S. arms. et]

Pressure to buy U.S. jets draws protest

By Jong-heon Lee
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
March 7, 2002
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20020307-20013280.htm

SEOUL - South Korean activists began a three-day demonstration in front of the Defense Ministry headquarters yesterday to protest what they see as U.S. pressure on Seoul to select Boeing's F-15K fighter jets over European competition.

The demonstrators, who carried placards that read "Opposed to purchasing of U.S. F-15Ks" and "Criticize the U.S.'s pressure on the decision-making procedure," requested an all-out reappraisal of the $3.2 billion project.

The U.S.-made fighters are competing with French company Dassault's Rafale jet, the Eurofighter consortium's Typhoon 2000 and the Russian Sukhoi Su-32 for the contract.

Anger erupted after Choi Dong-jin, deputy minister for defense acquisition, recently said the ministry was under U.S. pressure to give the deal to Boeing.

Compounding the controversy, a classified report leaked to local media said the French-built Rafale won the highest marks in the air force's initial field tests last year. The report also said the supply of F-15 parts would dry up after 2030, when the U.S. Air Force begins to retire the model.

The Korean ministry plans to select the winning bidder next month and seek parliamentary approval around April.

Defense Minister Kim Dong-shin, speaking before a parliamentary committee recently, denied U.S. pressure. "The ministry never influenced the evaluation of competing fighters, either," he said.

But that is exactly what is going on, said Richard Abulafia, a senior analyst at the Virginia-based Teal Group, an aerospace think tank.

Republican Sen. Christopher S. Bond and House Democratic leader Richard A. Gephardt, both from Missouri, and President Bush are reported to have discussed the project with the South Korean government, Mr. Abulafia said.

Boeing's F-15 manufacturing plant in St. Louis lies in the congressional districts of the two lawmakers. Both have traveled to South Korea to make the case for the F-15K (K for Korea), which is based on the U.S. Air Force F-15E fighter.

Korean opposition lawmakers say Mr. Bush might have lobbied for the F-15 when he met South Korean President Kim Dae-jung last month, in a bid to bolster the troubled military-aircraft business.

A spokesman for the Korean president, however, denied any discussion about arms sales during the Feb. 21 summit.

Boeing spokeswoman Jo Anne Davis said the F-15K "is the only aircraft in the competition that, with the first airplane delivered, can meet all the requirements set out by the Koreans" in air-to-air and air-to-ground capability.

The contract would be a plum for Boeing, which recently lost out when Lockheed Martin won the contract to build the new Joint Strike Fighter.

It also would be a feather in the cap for South Korea, as only three other nations - Japan, Israel and Saudi Arabia - have been permitted to buy variants of the F-15.

UPI Pentagon correspondent Pamela Hess contributed to this article.

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Jailed Anti-Dam Author Released After One Day

By Frederick Noronha
March 7, 2002
ENS
http://ens-news.com/ens/mar2002/2002L-03-07-01.html

NEW DELHI, India, Indian author Arundhati Roy was sent to a New Delhi jail by the Indian Supreme Court Wednesday to serve a sentence of one day, after being found guilty of criminal contempt of court in a prominent environmental case.

Arundhati Roy (Photo courtesy HiIndia)

The novelist, who achieved international fame for her 1997 Booker Prize winning book "The God of Small Things," was ruled by the two-judge panel to be guilty of "scandalizing its authority with malafide intentions."

But "showing the magnanimity of the law" and "keeping in mind that the respondent is a woman," Justices G.B. Pattanaik and R.P. Sethi said they would only give her a "symbolic" one day jail sentence and a 2,000 rupee fine.

The charge of contempt was brought for Roy's "disparaging remarks" in an October 2001 affidavit filed in response to charges against her for a anti-dam protest demonstration. The protest outside the Supreme Court in December 2000 was against a court ruling which permitted raising the height of the controversial Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada River.

Today she was released from the women's cell of the high security Tihar Jail after spending a night there and paying the Rs.2,000 (US$40) fine.

Her lawyer, human rights activist Prashant Bhushan, said Roy left the jail a little before noon local time after 23 hours, becoming one of the most famous inmates of Asia's largest jail.

Roy said after leaving Tihar Jail that she intends to file a petition in the court against the sentence to raise questions about violations of "natural justice."

Bhushan said, "This is a very important setback to the freedom of the common citizen to discuss matters of enormous public significance, even as the courts are intervening in such issues day in and day out."

In a note written after the judgement Roy declared, "I stand by what I said. And I am prepared to suffer the consequences. The dignity of the court will be upheld by the quality of their judgements. The quality of this judgement will be assessed by the people of the country. The message is clear. Any citizen who dares to criticise the court does so at his or her peril. The judgement only confirms what I said in my affidavit. It is a sad realization for me, because I feel the Supreme Court of India is an important institution and the citizens of India have high expectations from it."

Hundreds of Delhi citizens who courted arrest outside the Supreme Court's main gate Wednesday were joined by several hundred slogan-shouting and placard-waving protestors from the Narmada Valley, "To support free speech, for judicial accountability, in solidarity with Arundhati Roy," they said. Each donated Rs.1 toward payment of Roy's Rs.2,000 fine.

Medha Patkar stands with dam protesters in a house at Domkhedi that is being submerged as the Sardar Sarovar Dam was raised to 88 meters in August 2000. (Photo courtesy NBA)

In a break with the previous hearings, when visitors were prevented witnessing the proceedings, Medha Patkar, leader of the Save the Narmada Movement known as Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), ecologist and author Vandana Shiva, and columnist Praful Bidwai were present when the judgement was read.

"The sentence to Ms. Roy is a slap on the face of democracy," said Patkar. "This proves that nobody has a right to voice criticism of the judiciary even if it does something wrong."

Some 100 NBA activists, who have been protesting for many years against the dam plans in Northern India, launched a hunger strike in front of the Tihar Jail. Following the strategies of Indian nationalist leader Mohandas Mahatma Gandhi, hunger strikes are often used as a form of protest in India.

Messages of support for Roy's right of free speech poured in from across India, and around the world. Over 300 members of the Italian Parliament have written to the President of India conveying their support.

In a message from the United States, a group of well known writers and film personalities wrote to Indian President, K.R. Narayanan, calling this case, "a vital test for India," and urging him to reject the charges against Roy. The group included writers Toni Morrison, William Styron, Harold Pinter, actors Susan Sarandon, Robert Redford, Liam Neeson, Natasha Richardson, and film directors Woody Allen, Bernardo Bertolucci, Jonathan Demme, Ismail Merchant and Arthur Penn.

Roy has become a high profile supporter of the anti-dam campaign in India, giving a new fillip to the tired and flagging movement that has struggled on for years.

The controversy over large dams on the River Narmada has come to symbolize the struggle for a just and equitable society in India. The government plans to build 30 large, 135 medium and 3,000 small dams to harness the waters of the Narmada and its tributaries. The proponents of the dam claim that this plan would provide large amounts of water and electricity which are desperately required for the purposes of development.

Amongst the 30 large dams planned for the Narmada, the Sardar Sarovar dam is the largest. With a proposed height of 136.5 meters (455 feet), it is the focal point of both the dam builders' plans and the Narmada Bachao Andolan's opposition.

Indian police at a dam protest in front of the Congress party headquarters in Mumbai, September 11, 2001. (Photo courtesy NBA)

The government claims that the multi-purpose Sardar Sarovar Project would irrigate more than 1.8 million hectares, mostly in the state of Gujarat, and in Rajasthan. They government says the project is needed to quench the thirst of the drought prone areas of Kutch and Saurashtra in Gujarat.

Dam opponents say these benefits are "grossly exaggerated." Instead, they say the project would displace more than 320,000 people and affect the livelihood of thousands of others. They believe that water and energy can be provided to the people of the Narmada Valley, Gujarat and other regions through "alternative technologies and planning processes which can be socially just and economically and environmentally sustainable."

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Amnesty tells Australia to let children out of asylum camps

By Paul Tait
Thursday March 7
Reuters
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/reuters/asia-93458.html

SYDNEY - Human rights watchdog Amnesty International on Thursday urged Australia to release children from remote detention camps where hunger-striking asylum seekers have sewn their lips shut.

Amnesty secretary general Irene Khan said she used a meeting with Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock to press Australia to find alternatives to its policy of keeping children with adults in the controversial camps.

"It seems to us that its impact continues to be so serious for children...that I urged him to consider urgently alternative forms of holding people while they were being processed, particularly families with children," Khan told Reuters.

"He did not say he would do so but I told him that, given the impact that this was having on children, that this was something that he really should consider," she said.

In January, around 200 mainly Afghan refugees went on hunger strike and 60 of them sewed their lips shut at the Woomera camp in the Australian outback to protest against the months, if not years, it takes to process their claims for asylum.

Fresh protests broke out at Woomera on Thursday. An Immigration Department official told Reuters 12 detainees had dug symbolic graves and another seven had started hunger strikes in protest at the time taken to process their visa applications.

The United Nations and human rights groups have complained about Australia's policy of mandatory detention of all illegal arrivals in remote camps surrounded by razor wire while their claims for asylum are assessed. Most are sent back.

The policy, which gained international attention last year, when Australia refused entry to more than 400 would-be asylum seekers rescued by a Norwegian freighter from a sinking ferry.

The hard line adopted by Australia's conservative government proved popular among voters who returned Prime Minister John Howard's coalition for a third consecutive term in an election last November in which immigration was a major issue.

NO CHANGES

The minister said no substantial changes to its mandatory detention policy were being considered.

"Detention policy is public policy in Australia which will not be unwound," Ruddock told reporters after meeting Khan.

"My concern about families is that I'm not yet satisfied that there are arrangements which would meet my principle objective, which is to have people available for processing and for removal if they're not refugees," he said.

All illegal arrivals are detained under a bipartisan policy started by the then Labor government in 1994.

The number of Afghan and Middle Eastern asylum seekers coming by boat has risen to about 5,000 a year, a trickle in comparison with other countries, but up from a few hundred several years earlier.

According to Immigration Department figures, there are currently 2,005 detainees in the camps including 259 women and 365 children. Thirteen of the children are unaccompanied.

A trial scheme allowing up to 25 women and young children at a time to live outside the Woomera camp in a nearby township was launched last August.

Ruddock said the government was examining possibilities for moving unaccompanied minors out of the camps.

Khan said: "The situation that affects unaccompanied minors also affects other children, who may be accompanied but who have no access to schools, who are in a rather unpleasant sometimes violent atmosphere inside the detention centres."

Ruddock said Amnesty officials would be allowed to visit Woomera and other camps, including those in Papua New Guinea and Nauru as part of Australia's so-called "Pacific solution" to its illegal immigrant problem, at appropriate times.


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