------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
Japan politician threatens China with nuke talk
Moscow angry at US arms destruction funds freeze
Russia May Import British Nuclear Waste
U.S. slammed over disarmament cutbacks
US nuclear regulators accused of bowing to industry
Radioactive waste sent to landfills, state says
Activists: Lab tests may break nuke treaty
Nevada triggers nuclear waste battle in Congress
Nevada Has Cash Crunch in Dump Fight
Nevada Shuts Off Water to Mountain
New York to hold meetings on several NYC power plants
Hold FirstEnergy accountable (Editorial)
Ohio Utility Offers Repair Plan

MILITARY
U.S., EU, Russia, U.N. Urge Israeli Withdrawal
Germany Suspends Arms Sales to Israel
India, U.S., discuss South Asian security, including Nepal insurgency
Raytheon Gets Missile Radar Contract
Ridge May Double Ala. Emergency Workers
US Wants Backing on Chemical Treaty
U.S. to search for pilot in Iraq
Netanyahu Says Powell's Mission Doomed, Arafat Must Go
Sharon refuses to end 'war of survival'
Palestinians kill 13 Israeli troops in ambush
Mideast's strongest army makes mistake
Executive Order on Vieques
Russian troops refuse combat
Military explores space planes
USSPACECOM Long Range Plan Summary
Russian Security Police Say They Uncovered U.S. Spy Ring
Russian Agency Accuses CIA of Spying
Military turning to lasers for defense
Rumsfeld Explains Afghan Coverage
Pentagon weighs in-house troop boost

POLICE / PRISONERS
Official: Spies in FBI can't be ruled out
Why the FBI stumbled
More Than 100 Mexico Police Arrested
Terrorist's attorney, 3 cohorts indicted

ENERGY AND OTHER
Solar Cells Improved by Nanotechnology
Alaska drilling plan seen helped by Iraq embargo
Bush Backs Ban of All Human Cloning

ACTIVISTS
US nuclear regulators accused of bowing to industry
September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
Vieques Protesters Get Sentences
NUCLEAR WEAPONS OPPONENTS TO BE SENTENCED FRIDAY



-------- NUCLEAR

-------- japan

Japan politician threatens China with nuke talk

April 10, 2002
By Colin Joyce
LONDON DAILY TELEGRAPH
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20020410-17088593.htm

TOKYO - China reacted angrily yesterday after a leading Japanese politician said bullying by Beijing could prompt Japan to produce thousands of nuclear warheads at short notice.

Ichiro Ozawa, the leader of Japan's opposition Liberal Party, said in a speech: "We have plenty of plutonium in our nuclear power plants, so it's possible for us to produce 3,000 to 4,000 nuclear warheads. If we get serious, we will never be beaten in terms of military power."

A Foreign Ministry spokesman in Beijing said the remarks "contradicted hopes for peace and long-term friendship between the two countries and peoples."

The speech is a particular embarrassment to Japan because it comes just days before a visit to China by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who is expected to meet China's Prime Minister Zhu Rongji.

The remarks also coincided with a visit by China's parliamentary chief, Li Peng, who was in Japan to mark the 30th anniversary of the restoration of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Although Mr. Ozawa is not a member of the government and his party is small, he is one of Japan's best-known and most outspoken politicians. Chinese media quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman yesterday as saying, "Ozawa's words were provocative, representing an outdated Cold War mentality."

Even so, Mr. Ozawa's words were evidence of a deep-rooted fear that Japan may be falling behind China in terms of economic power and regional influence. "China is applying itself to expand its military power in the hope of becoming a superpower. If it gets too inflated, the Japanese people will get hysterical," he said during the weekend.

Mr. Ozawa is known as a hawkish politician unafraid of controversy. He was once considered a likely future prime minister, but his political fortunes have waned since he split from the powerful Liberal Democratic Party in 1993.

His speech drew a rapid response from the Japanese government. The chief Cabinet secretary, Yasuo Fukuda, said, "It is natural that our country has a policy of not maintaining nuclear weapons. We will preserve that position and appeal to the world to rid itself of nuclear weapons."

However, Mr. Ozawa's remarks are likely to stir fears in Asia about Japan's intentions at a time when the country is gradually expanding the role of its military.

Japan's postwar constitution renounces the right to wage war, but the country maintains a powerful military in the guise of the Self Defense Forces. Last year, Japan swept aside limitations in place since World War II to allow its armed forces to play a supporting role in the U.S.-led war on terror. Mr. Koizumi has said he favors revising the constitution to clarify Japan's right to defend itself and take part in peacekeeping operations overseas.

The Japanese government will be embarrassed at Mr. Ozawa's suggestion that plutonium from the country's power plants forms a ready stock of material for producing nuclear warheads.

Most Japanese are opposed to nuclear weapons and, since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, consider it their moral duty to remind the world of the horror of nuclear war.

-------- russia

Moscow angry at US arms destruction funds freeze

REUTERS RUSSIA:
April 10, 2002
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15400/newsDate/10-Apr-2002/story.htm

MOSCOW - Moscow sharply criticised yesterday U.S. moves to freeze millions of dollars for projects aimed at reducing the threat posed by Russia's Soviet-era chemical and biological weapons programmes.

U.S. President George W. Bush's administration earlier this year declined to certify Russia as compliant with treaties banning the toxic weapons, effectively blocking the disbursement of millions of dollars in funds by Congress.

News of the freeze was broken by weekend media reports in the United States.

Officials say, however, that the U.S. administration may pay out the money on grounds of U.S. national security interests.

The September 11 hijacked airliner attacks on the United States fuelled fears that poor security at Russian facilities could see militants obtain enough material for "dirty bombs" - rudimentary chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.

But in a bluntly worded statement, Russia's Foreign Ministry said: "This latest step by Washington leaves us deeply bewildered. Russia adheres very strictly to the articles of these documents (banning chemical and biological weapons).

"Such activities can have the most negative impact on efforts to reach mutual understanding, and have repercussions on bilateral cooperation to destroy weapons of mass destruction and on non-proliferation," it added.

Moscow was all the more surprised by the U.S. move, given Bush's pledge at last November's informal summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin to work more closely with Moscow to fight the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

The Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) projects were created after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 to help former Communist bloc states destroy factories making chemical and biological weapons, and help prevent the pilfering of nuclear and other sensitive material.

But the funds are conditional on the U.S. government confirming that states receiving the cash are fulfilling their obligations.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Susan Pittman said Washington's move was motivated by "serious concerns about Russian chemical and biological weapons activities".

"That creates challenges in certifying Russian eligibility for CTR assistance. Russia needs to understand the seriousness with which the United States views Russian chemical and biological activities," she said. (Additional reporting by Jonathan Wright, State Department bureau).

----

Russia May Import British Nuclear Waste

April 10, 2002
ENS
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-10-01.html

MOSCOW, Russia, Moves by Russia to import nuclear waste from the United Kingdom and United States were clarified in the first meeting of environmentalists with the chief of the Russian Ministry of Atomic Power (Minatom) Alexander Rumyantsev since he assumed the post last year.

At a meeting late Tuesday, Rumyantsev told the group of seven Russian anti-nuclear environmentalists that the British nuclear industry wants to dump its radioactive waste in Russia.

Russian Minister of Atomic Power Alexander Rumyantsev (Photo courtesy EcoDefense)

A plan sponsored by Minatom to import spent nuclear fuel to Russia was approved by both the Russian parliament and President Vladimir Putin in 2001, changing Russian law to permit such imports.

Vladimir Slivyak, co-chairman for Russian environmental group Ecodefense, who participated in the meeting with Rumyantsev, said the minister "repeatedly insisted that there is the spent fuel reprocessing market across the world where Britain and France are main competitors to Russia."

Slivyak said, "Now it appears that British industry wants to dump its nuclear waste in Russia because reprocessing is no more economically profitable."

"Import of nuclear waste is crime against the environment and future generations. Britain should not dump its radioactive garbage on Russia," said Slivyak.

Rumyantsev, a nuclear physicist, told the activists that next year a contract to import spent nuclear fuel from British research reactors will be signed, although he refused to say how much nuclear fuel would be imported and at what price.

The spent fuel will be stored at Krasnoyarsk Mining and Chemical Combine in Zheleznogorsk, Siberia and processed at the Mayak Chemical Combine near Chelyabinsk.

To make the imports feasible, the storage capacity at the Krasnoyarsk will have to be increased five-fold to 30,000 tons Rumyantsev said last July. A dry storage facility is being designed, and construction is expected to cost $300 to 450 million, which will come from the initial payments for the imports.

Commenting on the prospect of importing spent fuel from foreign civil reactors, Rumyantsev said he sees "no opportunities for any contracts to be signed in the next few years."

Spent nuclear fuel storage pool in Europe (Photo courtesy Foratom)

The minister explained that the United States controls over 80 percent of the world's spent nuclear fuel and his ministry is working to get American permission for Russia to import this waste.

Rumyantsev said after the terrorist attacks of September 11, Minatom representatives repeatedly asked U.S. officials to offer Minatom the possibility of earning enough funds to improve physical protection of nuclear facilities in Russia. Such funds could be obtained through nuclear waste import, the minister said.

On the issue of the possible import of low-level radioactive waste into Russia, and on disposal of Asian radioactive waste in Russian Far East, the minister said, "There is great economic profit Russia may get, but I can't call for this because Russian law prohibits such import."

On March 27, Ecodefense made public documents confirming that Russian nuclear industry and politicians are involved in a secret deal with Taiwan, aimed at importing radioactive waste and dumping it on Simushir island in the Russian Far East.

Several Russian media reports pointed to Rumyantsev as the main supporter of the Simushir project.

In his meeting with the activists, Rumyantsev refused to comment on whether or not his ministry would lobby to change Russian legislation in order to allow the import of low-level radioactive waste from Asia.

-------- u.s. nuc weapons

U.S. slammed over disarmament cutbacks

April 10, 2002
By Nicholas Kralev
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20020410-78643440.htm

The United States and Russia were at odds yesterday over a U.S. decision to curtail some disarmament projects because of concerns about Russian compliance with treaties banning biological and chemical weapons.

Moscow expressed "bewilderment" with Washington's decision, which it called "incomprehensible," and insisted it is observing both pacts.

It also accused the United States of undermining the disarmament efforts both sides have been waging for years.

"Such actions can have the most negative impact on achieving mutual trust and can be reflected in the two countries' cooperation in liquidating weapons of mass destruction and in the sphere of nonproliferation," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko in a statement.

But U.S. officials brushed aside the harsh words and said the Russians "seem to have received the message" that the Bush administration is serious about complying with the biological and chemical weapons conventions.

At stake are some military exchanges and U.S. help in preventing the theft of Russian nuclear warheads. Such programs are part of a $370 million effort initiated by Congress in 1991 under the Cooperative Threat Reduction Act.

Under current law, the U.S. government has to certify each year whether Russia is committed to abiding by existing arms control agreements.

A State Department official said the administration had requested that Congress adopt legislation to allow a waiver of the annual certification requirement.

The waiver option would still allow the administration to show concern over Moscow's commitment but would not block funds for disarmament projects.

Until then, however, "new funds may not be obligated, and we are not signing any new contracts with private vendors that provide hardware and services," the official said in an interview.

"Ongoing projects will continue until the contracts expire," and they will not be renewed until either the waiver comes into force or the administration is satisfied with Russian compliance, he said.

The administration informed Moscow of its decision several weeks ago, the official said, but it didn't become public until an article about it appeared in the New York Times on Monday.

The decision was prompted by a series of recent actions by Moscow, including its refusal to share a bioengineered strain of anthrax developed by Russia's scientists despite repeated promises to do so, the paper said.

Russia has also declined to provide a complete history of the decades of secret work on biological and chemical weapons during the Soviet era.

But in Moscow, Mr. Yakovenko dismissed those accusations and said any problems between the former foes should be discussed before making decisions with serious consequences.

"One gets the impression that the American references to Russia's supposed nonfulfillment of its international obligations are being used basically in order to distract attention from the United States' own actions," he said.

Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, said it is vital that Russia and other states comply with chemical and biological weapons agreements, but it is not in the U.S. security interests to "stymie efforts to safeguard nuclear stockpiles in Russia."

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

US nuclear regulators accused of bowing to industry

USA: April 10, 2002
From: "Bill Smirnow" <smirnowb@ix.netcom.com>

WASHINGTON - Anti-nuclear activists criticized the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) this week for shelving mock attack drills at plants and bowing to other requests by the utility industry after the Sept. 11 attacks raised concerns about nuclear plant safety.

Several lawmakers and watchdog groups have urged the agency to tighten security at the nation's 103 nuclear power plants to prevent sabotage or attacks that might release dangerous radioactive material.

"What's lacking throughout is the NRC acting as an independent regulator," Paul Leventhal of the Nuclear Control Institute said at a meeting held by the agency to discuss actions taken after Sept. 11.

The NRC was chastised for meeting over a dozen times with industry and only twice with activists or watchdog groups since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

The meetings were held "for industry to tell the NRC what it will allow the NRC to do," said David Lochbaum, a nuclear safety engineer at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

After ordering a top-to-bottom review of security measures last year, the NRC in February issued new measures to shore up security at nuclear power plants, which provide about 20 percent of the nation's electricity.

SECURITY EXERCISES CANCELLED

The NRC was criticized for shelving security exercises to test preparedness against attacks and for limiting public information on security.

Known as force-on-force drills, the exercises pit plant guards against law enforcement officers who pose as attackers and try to breach defenses at the plant. The NRC had slated force-on-force tests at 14 nuclear plants this year, Lochbaum said. The NRC later shelved them.

That decision was a mistake, Lochbaum said, adding: "We don't see any justification for shelving the best security tool available as America faces its greatest security challenge."

NRC officials said the agency had a good reason to cancel the exercises - with its staff working round the clock to be on alert after the Sept 11 attacks, it did not have the resources to stage mock drills.

"This was not a prudent time" to conduct exercises given other security requirements, said Glenn Tracy of the NRC's office of nuclear security. The agency's decision to upgrade its own security plans was made by "the most senior managers of the agency," he added.

Tracy, saying the NRC is "dialoguing directly with security managers" at plants, denied that the agency gave the industry too much say over security issues at the plants.

"The industry telling me what to do is not something that would sit well with me," Tracy said.

The utility industry has lobbied against any major new security requirements, saying nuclear plants are already among the most closely guarded facilities in the nation.

-------- california

Radioactive waste sent to landfills, state says
Probe will look at Rocketdyne's use of San Fernando Valley site

By Roberta Freeman,
April 10, 2002
http://www.insidevc.com/vcs/county_news/article/0,1375,VCS_226_1079145,00.html

Low-level radioactive waste from the Boeing Rocketdyne Santa Susana Field Laboratory in Simi Valley has been going to a local municipal landfill for perhaps as long as a decade, according to state waste management authorities.

David Roberti, state Integrated Waste Management Board member and a former state senator from the San Fernando Valley, said he is launching an investigation to try to find out how much radioactive material has been deposited at the Bradley Landfill in Sun Valley.

Authorities recently discovered that Rocketdyne has been sending construction debris such as concrete and metal, and soil to the Los Angeles County landfill without the knowledge of local regulating authorities.

Landfill operators said they were unaware of the potentially contaminated shipments. Rocketdyne began cleanup of the nuclear and rocket research facility in the hills above Simi Valley a decade ago.

"Municipal landfills are not set up to be repositories for radioactive waste," Roberti said.

Boeing spokesman Dan Beck said the items taken to the landfill had been cleared by the Department of Energy and the Department of Health Services before they went to the site.

"There may have been some minimal radioactivity, but it was cleared for shipment," Beck said.

He said the company sends contaminated waste to approved toxic waste sites and was uncertain what other local municipal landfills might have been used.

Frank Kiesler, manager of the Simi Valley Landfill and Recycling Center, said Rocketdyne had not deposited any items there, and he had turned down requests from contractors doing work at the site.

Roberti maintains that even low levels of radioactivity or contamination are unacceptable for public landfills in populated areas, and he is concerned about migration of toxicants through ground-water and various materials.

"There is only so much radioactivity a body can take. It's cumulative," Roberti said.

Officials from the state Department of Health Services said the current regulations cap acceptable levels of radioactive waste in municipal landfills at 25 millirems. Kevin Reilly, DHS deputy director for prevention services said that standard had been adopted by 49 states.

Critics say exposure up to 25 millirems is the equivalent of an additional 300 chest X-rays in a lifetime, which can cause fatal cancer in one out of every 1,000 people. Reilly did not dispute that comparison, but said there are many factors to be considered in the mathematical equation, such as body weight and dose of radiation.

Roberti serves on the state Senate Select Committee on Urban Landfills, chaired by State Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Rosemead. Two weeks ago, Romero introduced a bill that would ban radioactive debris from local landfills. Debris from those sites, Romero fears, would be harmful to public health if recycled into neighborhood building projects or consumer goods.

The Rocketdyne controversy is now moving south to Los Angeles. Mayor Jim Hahn announced Tuesday the city would conduct a full investigation of the materials deposited at the Bradley Landfill. Expressing concern that cleanup of the Rocketdyne site is affecting Los Angeles residents, Councilman Nate Holden will conduct an environmental committee hearing regarding the issue at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday at Los Angeles City Hall.

Officials say the high cost of disposing of contaminated waste may be an incentive for illegal dumping. Fees for dumping waste in municipal landfills is $30 to $40 per ton, while fees to dispose of toxic waste are $100 to $300 per cubic foot.

To remove radioactive waste from landfills, Roberti said, the state will "err on the side of public health."

Roberta Freeman's e-mail address is rfreeman@insidevc.com.

----

Activists: Lab tests may break nuke treaty

April 10, 2002
By Glenn Roberts Jr.
Tri-Valley Herald Online
From: Marylia Kelley <marylia@earthlink.net>

(The following article stems from the recently-released report, "Rule of Power or Rule of Law." Thought you'd like to see this piece from yesterday's Herald. Read on ... Peace, Marylia Tri-Valley CAREs (Communities Against a Radioactive Environment) 2582 Old First Street Livermore, CA USA 94550 http://www.trivalleycares.org)

The United States should heed international agreements on weapons nonproliferation and abandon policies and plans that counter those aims, say the authors of a report challenging U.S. stands on security-related treaties.

On Tuesday, members of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research and the Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy -- two national organizations that advocate the elimination of nuclear weapons -- discussed the report during a conference at the United Nations Secretariat Building in New York City.

Titled "Rule of Power or Rule of Law? An Assessment of U.S. Policies and Actions Regarding Security-Related Treaties," the April 4 report questions whether experiments planned on a massive laser facility under construction at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory will violate the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

The United States has signed this treaty, which bans nuclear explosions, but the U.S. Senate rejected ratification in 1999.

The report also contends that the United States, in some cases, has sought exemptions from international treaties while expecting other nations to adhere to treaty obligations. "It bespeaks a lack of good faith if the United States wants near-perfect knowledge of others' compliance so as to be able to detect all possible violations, while also wanting all too often to shield itself from scrutiny," the report states.

Federal officials have said that Livermore Lab's National Ignition Facility, a nuclear weapons research tool, is expected to create small-scale thermonuclear explosions by blasting radioactive fuel pellets with 192 powerful ultra-violet laser beams.

The report states that NIF will be used to generate nuclear blasts with a yield equivalent to 10 pounds of TNT, though the treaty language does not provide "exceptions allowing laboratory thermonuclear explosions." Energy Department officials have maintained that laser-fusion experiments are allowed under the treaty.

Susan Houghton, a Livermore Lab spokeswoman, said NIF is designed to comply with the treaty, not to violate it. "Why would we ever do anything that would violate the CTBT?" she said.

Marylia Kelley, executive director for the Livermore-based nuclear watchdog group Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment, said that even if NIF fails to achieve its goal of generating thermonuclear explosions, it "still is being built to carry out a nuclear explosion."

"We believe that it may well be in violation of the treaty," she added.

Report authors, too, contend that the violation of the treaty is not in conducting laser-fusion experiments, but in building NIF and a similar laser-fusion project in France for the sake of conducting nuclear explosions. They ask for all countries building the two projects or assisting the projects -- including the United States, France, Britain, Japan and Germany -- to "stop all preparations for carrying out laboratory thermonuclear explosions."

Also, all countries should maintain a nuclear test moratorium, ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and all parties to the treaty should "reaffirm the complete ban on all nuclear explosions" by reviewing treaty issues.

In addition to the test-ban treaty, the report also calls for U.S. commitment and adherence to the 1970 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, the Chemical Weapons Convention, the Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention and other efforts to define international law on security issues.

"To reject the system of treaty-based international law rather than build on its many strengths is not only unwise, it is extremely dangerous," the report contends.

-------- nevada

Nevada triggers nuclear waste battle in Congress

Story by Thomas Ferraro
REUTERS USA:
April 10, 2002
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15397/story.htm

WASHINGTON - Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn yesterday delivered to Capitol Hill his veto of the Bush administration's plan to put the first permanent U.S. nuclear waste dump in his state, starting a 90-day legislative clock during which Congress can sustain or override him.

"We have an uphill battle," said Guinn, flanked by members of Nevada's congressional delegation who have struggled to round up Democratic and Republican lawmakers to oppose President George W. Bush's adoption of a recommendation by his Energy Department.

"If the political system fails us, the court system will not," declared Guinn, whose state has already challenged the plans in federal court.

Guinn, a Republican, said he was the first governor ever to veto a decision by a president, having been granted the power to do so in a 1982 federal law on nuclear waste disposal.

In a decision two decades in the making, Bush in February formally chose Nevada's Yucca Mountain as the permanent federal site to store tens of thousands of tons of waste from nuclear power plants across the nation.

Despite the administration's claims to the contrary, Nevada and its backers contend it would be unsafe to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain and to transport such material by truck and rail to the underground site.

In his notice of disapproval, Guinn argued that selection of Yucca Mountain as a waste site was based on bad science, bad law and bad public policy.

Several states with nuclear power plants, as well as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups, support the Yucca Mountain designation. Together they have hired an army of lobbyists to make their case on Capitol Hill.

SENATE SUPPORT SEEN AS KEY

Guinn - who has enlisted lobbyists of his own - vetoed the president's action this week and delivered the notice of disapproval to Congress yesterday.

Under federal law, the Senate and House of Representatives now have 90 legislative days to override or sustain him. For Guinn's veto to be overridden, both chambers of Congress must agree to do so on majority votes.

Guinn backers are pessimistic about prevailing in the Republican-led House. They see the Democratic-led Senate as their only real shot, but stress it will be tough.

So far, opponents of the Yucca Mountain proposal say they expect to get about three dozen of the Senate's 50 Democratic senators to side with them.

The big question is how many of the 49 Republicans will do so. So far there are just two - Sen. John Ensign of Nevada and Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado.

Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont, the chamber's only independent, backs Bush's decision.

Nevada intends to spend upward of $10 million in its campaign against the dump, and plans to start airing television ads against the plan on Wednesday in selected states.

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said yesterday he will soon send to Congress a formal request that it override Guinn.

"The Energy Department has spent more than $4 billion over the past 20 years studying and studying and researching Yucca Mountain," Abraham told reporters. "I'm absolutely convinced that we can move ahead safely with this project."

Even if the Yucca Mountain proposal survives court challenges and Congress, it would still have to be licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Abraham said, "The logical step is to let the objective and neutral experts at the NRC make a final decision on whether the project should go ahead."

----

Nevada Has Cash Crunch in Dump Fight

By Ken Ritter
Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, April 10, 2002
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A23977-2002Apr10?language=printer

LAS VEGAS -- Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn, not wishing his state to become the nation's home to 77,000 tons of nuclear waste, has so far defied the Energy Department and the president of the United States.

Now he must take on Congress - and he says he's running out of money.

"This is one state fighting an uphill battle," Guinn told a cheering rally before flying to Washington to argue his state's case.

This week, Guinn rejected a plan endorsed by the Energy Department and President Bush to store the nation's nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

A 1982 federal law that began studies about hauling nuclear waste to Yucca gave Nevada the power to exercise such a veto. Congress must now decide in 90 legislative days whether to uphold the president or side with Nevada.

Strategists believe public opinion could sway senators in some key states to sustain the Republican governor's action. The strategy would include television ads in places where lawmakers' re-election chances might be determined by environmentalists.

But the state campaign - boosted by catchy slogans like "Hell no, we won't glow" - is short of money. After failing to raise the $10 million it says it needs, Nevada is now soliciting donations $1 at a time.

Last week, Nevada had to pass on buying expensive commercial time on an episode of "The West Wing" that depicted the fictional White House dealing with a nuclear transportation accident.

The ads were expected to raise the specter of a radioactive accident in one of the 43 states through which trucks and trains would carry spent nuclear fuel to Yucca Mountain.

Defenders of the project argue it is safe. Bush, in a letter to congressional leaders last week, said he approved the Yucca Mountain project because a central repository for nuclear waste "is necessary to protect public safety, health and this nation's security."

Nevada officials have argued there are still many outstanding issues not yet fully resolved when it comes to whether Yucca Mountain's geology will adequately contain the waste thousands of years from now.

Guinn initially raised $6 million from state and local governments and a handful of businesses for lobbying, advertising and legal opposition to the plan. But he said all but $2.5 million of that fund has been spent, and the rest is being reserved for anticipated legal battles.

"We have to convince everybody that this isn't just Nevada's problem," said Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, an outspoken opponent of the Yucca Mountain plan. "We have to alert, not alarm, senators' constituents about the potential of a disaster happening in their back yards so they tell their elected officials, 'Don't let this come by my house.'"

Guinn has backed off convening a special session of the Nevada Legislature to fund the campaign after it became clear he didn't have support. The state is facing a $100 million shortage, and some lawmakers worried the lobbying campaign might not help anyway.

On the day Guinn headed to Washington, full-page advertisements in the state's four largest newspapers invited residents to donate $1 or more to Nevada's "Stand Together" campaign.

By comparison, the Nuclear Energy Institute, the main pro-Yucca nuclear lobbyist, contributed $25 million to political parties and $13.8 million to candidates during the 2000 election, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a watchdog group.

Guinn isn't done fund-raising. He recommend using $3 million from a state emergency fund for the Yucca Mountain fight. A legislative committee was to consider the idea Wednesday.

As part of the $6 million already raised, gambling interests have reported contributing $750,000 toward the anti-nuclear lobbying effort.

But some grumble that the gambling industry hasn't done enough.

"I don't believe the casinos and businesses and people stepped up," Goodman last week. Las Vegas has contributed $100,000 to the effort.

Bill Bible, president of the Las Vegas-based Nevada Resort Association, defended the casino industry's efforts.

"I think it's the nuclear industry against the state of Nevada," Bible said. "We're part of the community."

Some think the monied interests are hedging their bets.

"I think the people of Nevada are increasingly prepared to say it's time to talk about benefits, what we can get in return," said consultant Robert List, a former Nevada governor. "I think citizens and businesses of Nevada feel that this is wasted money; that this is a done deal."

--------

Nevada Shuts Off Water to Mountain

April 10, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Yucca-Mountain.html

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Nevada made good Wednesday on a promise to shut off water to the site of the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump, but the federal project won't run dry.

The Energy Department is using a newly built 1 million-gallon tank and one small well for the site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Department officials said the stored water, plus 400,000 gallons stored in other tanks at the Nevada Test Site, should last several months while scientists continue experiments and design work at the site.

``We have a small window until this water issue begins to impede our ongoing scientific work,'' said Joe Davis, spokesman for Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham in Washington.

Stopping the water was Nevada's latest tactic in its efforts to prevent the federal government from storing nuclear waste at the site. The state has filed three lawsuits to block the storage.

Nevada State Engineer Hugh Ricci banned the Energy Department from drawing water from all but one well after a temporary permit expired at midnight Tuesday.

The state had also shut off water to the arid desert site in February 2000, but the federal government sued and the water kept flowing. Yucca Mountain averages less than 7 inches of precipitation a year.

The case is pending before U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt in Las Vegas. He heard last month from a Justice Department lawyer who said the Yucca Mountain project would be in ``dire need of water'' if Ricci denied the permits.

Ricci said the federal government was allowed water from one well because documents filed Monday asserted the water was being put to ``beneficial use.'' The well provides up to 750,000 gallons a year.

That amount is less than 1 percent of the 140 million gallons a year the Energy Department has requested, Ricci noted.

Also Wednesday, state lawmakers approved using up to $3 million in emergency funds to lobby against the waste dump. The funds must be matched by public or private sources before they can be used.

In pressing for the fund, Gov. Kenny Guinn said Nevadans are ``in a fight for our lives.'' He said the nuclear power industry has more than $100 million to lobby in support of the waste site.

On the Net:
Yucca Mountain Project: http://www.ymp.gov
Nevada Division of Water Resources: http://ndwr.state.nv.us/

-------- new york

New York to hold meetings on several NYC power plants

Story by Scott DiSavino
REUTERS USA:
April 10, 2002
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15396/story.htm

NEW YORK - The New York power plant siting board will hold meetings to review three proposed generating facilities and a new transmission line, the State Department of Public Service said in statements yesterday.

On April 18, the Siting Board will meet in the state capital Albany to consider air emission and other issues related to a proposed 1,100 megawatt (MW) generating facility in the town of Ramapo in Rockland County, about 30 miles north of New York City.

Ramapo is an American National Power (ANP) project. ANP is a subsidiary of energy giant International Power Plc of the UK.

Also on April 18, another Siting Board scheduled a meeting to consider air emissions and other issues associated with Consolidated Edison Co. of New York's (Con Edison) proposed 360 MW repowering of the East River station in Manhattan.

Con Edison is a unit of New York City-based energy giant Consolidated Edison Inc. .

After granting Con Edison a certificate to construct the East River facility in August 2001, the Siting Board in January approved a request for a rehearing on the emissions and other issues in January.

On April 26, the Public Service Commission scheduled a meeting to allow the public to comment on Neptune Regional Transmission System LLC's application to build two undersea transmission lines from a GPU/FirstEnergy Inc. substation in Sayreville, New Jersey to sites in New York.

GPU/FirstEnergy is a subsidiary of Ohio-based energy giant FirstEnergy Corp. .

Under the proposal, a 54-mile line would connect to the Long Island Power Authority in Hempstead, Nassau County, and another 36-mile line would connect to Con Edison's system in Manhattan.

Neptune's proposed project consists of two 600 MW high voltage direct current cables, each about seven inches in diameter, that would connect the power hungry load centers in New York City and Long Island with the generating resources of the Mid-Atlantic region.

Finally, the Department of Public Service scheduled a public forum to explain the power plant siting process for the construction of a peaking facility at the Indian Point nuclear station in the town of Buchanan in Westchester County, about 35 miles north of New York City.

New Orleans-based energy giant Entergy Corp. has proposed to build a 330 MW simple-cycle natural gas-fired peaking facility at the site.

A peaking plant is generally one that does not operate continuously but rather operates at times when demand for electricity is at a high level, like in the summer when air conditioner usage causes energy demand to peak.

NYC POWER PROJECTS

All of these projects would add to the power supplies of the transmission constrained New York City and Long Island.

Since 1999, more than 50 facilities, totaling more than 23,000 MW of electric generating capacity, have been proposed for the New York City area.

On Long Island nearly 30 facilities, totaling more than 9,000 MW of capacity, have been proposed since 1999.

To date, however, only about 600 MW have been built in New York City and just 44 MW on Long Island.

By this summer, energy companies from across the United States expect to build more than 700 MW of generating capacity on Long Island.

In New York City, however, no additional plants are expected to enter service this year.

Energy experts have long said that only about a third of the planned power plants will ever be built.

-------- ohio

Hold FirstEnergy accountable (Editorial)

The Plain Dealer,
Wednesday, April 10, 2002
From: patronikholder@safeenergy.org

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission properly criticized FirstEnergy Corp. re cently for failing to notice that boric acid had left a hole inside of the reactor head at the Davis-Besse nuclear power station near Toledo.

A stainless-steel inner liner, just three-eighths of an inch wide, was all that prevented hundreds of gallons of hot, radioactive water from spewing into the concrete containment building and severely testing the plant's safety system. The crippled plant was closed in February and will remain that way until at least July - perhaps longer if the NRC doesn't approve of the highly experimental repair job.

Now the commission needs to follow up with some stringent sanctions to emphasize the point that FirstEnergy will be expected to pay a price for its negligence. The company has clearly earned more NRC oversight and monitoring.

Davis-Besse officials were amazingly inept in the inspections and maintenance department, according to NRC's report. For starters, the company ignored the engineers' recommendation to change the insulation and service structure, which are just two inches above the reactor head, so there would be room to perform a thorough inspection.

But this is not as ho-hum as failing to clean the top of a refrigerator. On top of that reactor head were signs of corrosion that may have begun as early as 1999. The company didn't even catch on when it had to repeatedly change the filters on its radioactive monitoring equipment because boric acid crystals and brown rust dust were cascading down on them. It took an inspection in February - which the NRC had delayed at FirstEnergy's request - to reveal the hole in the reactor.

Such of these mishaps seem more worthy of Homer Simpson than of an industry that often boasts that it is safe, clean and above all - considering its radioactive core - trustworthy.

The NRC must teach FirstEnergy that the public takes that boast quite seriously - even if those at Davis-Besse sometimes don't.

----

Ohio Utility Offers Repair Plan

April 10, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Nuclear-Plant-Hole.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- An Ohio utility proposed Wednesday the most extensive repair job ever done to an operating nuclear power plant to repair two spots of acid corrosion on a reactor head.

The plan, which must be approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, would use a 300-pound, 5-inch-thick stainless steel plate, welded into a 13-inch-wide circle around the largest corroded area of FirstEnergy Corp.'s Davis-Besse plant on the shores of Lake Erie.

Two steel plugs would be welded into nozzles to blend over the second corroded area, said Jim Powers, a nuclear engineer for the company. The nozzles are steel pipes that protect control rods, which are used to control the amount of power produced or, in an emergency, shut down the reactor.

The company stressed that although the rods from the damaged nozzles will be moved, the plant will still be able to operate safely. Davis-Besse is on the lake about 25 miles east of Toledo, Ohio,

Last month, inspectors found that longtime water leaks had allowed boric acid to eat a 7-inch-wide hole almost through the 6-inch-thick steel cap that covers the plant's reactor vessel. The hole was stopped by an inner lining made of noncorrosive stainless steel.

Critics of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission questioned whether the agency would be able to monitor the plant enough to keep the corrosion from recurring.

``This utility has demonstrated a lack of responsibility, and the regulators have demonstrated a lack of oversight. Those are broader issues that this repair plan doesn't address,'' said Paul Gunter of the Washington-based Nuclear Information & Resource Service.

Davis-Besse has been shut down since discovery of the corrosion. Since then, federal inspectors have begun a review of the 68 other similarly designed pressurized reactors across the country.

Preliminary findings of the industrywide review have turned up nothing similar to the Davis-Besse damage, the NRC said this week.

The repairs, expected to cost between $15 million and $20 million, should keep the plant operating until a refueling shutdown in 2004, during which FirstEnergy plans to install a new reactor head, said company spokesman Todd Schneider.

The 24-year-old Davis-Besse plant generates enough power for 450,000 homes, 24 percent of FirstEnergy's nuclear power capacity.

On the Net: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission: http://www.nrc.gov

FirstEnergy Corp.: http://www.firstenergycorp.com


-------- MILITARY

U.S., EU, Russia, U.N. Urge Israeli Withdrawal

April 10, 2002
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-mideast-powell-statement.html

MADRID - The United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations called on Israel on Wednesday to withdraw its forces from Palestinian cities in the West Bank immediately.

They also urged Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to do everything possible to halt attacks against Israeli civilians and appealed to both sides to end a ``senseless confrontation'' and agree to a cease-fire without delay.

The calls were made in a joint statement after a meeting in Madrid between Secretary of State Colin Powell, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, representing the EU, and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov.

The statement, from the so-called ``quartet'' of countries and organizations attempting to mediate in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, represents one of the weightiest international calls yet to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to halt his military offensive in the West Bank, which began on March 29.

Its call for ``immediate'' withdrawal was stronger than President Bush's earlier plea for a pullout ``without delay.''

The EU, Russia and the U.N. gave their support to Powell's peace mission to Israel later this week and urged both Israelis and Palestinians to cooperate fully with him.

Powell flew to Spain from Egypt where he said Tuesday he intended to meet Arafat later this week.

But a fresh surge of violence in the Middle East, including the death of at least eight people in a suicide bombing on an Israeli bus Wednesday and the killing of 13 Israeli soldiers in an ambush by Palestinian militants Tuesday, have cast a pall over his much-anticipated peace mission.

``We call on Israel to halt immediately its military operations. We call for an immediate meaningful cease-fire and immediate Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian cities, including Ramallah, specifically including Chairman Arafat's headquarters,'' the statement, read at a news conference by Annan, said.

Arafat has been besieged in his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah since the Israelis began their offensive.

APPEAL TO ARAFAT

``We call on Chairman Arafat ... to undertake immediately the maximum possible effort to stop terror attacks against innocent Israelis. We call on the Palestinian Authority to act decisively and take all possible steps within its capacity to dismantle terrorist infrastructure, including terrorist financing, and to stop incitement to violence,'' the statement said.

It urged Arafat to authorize his representatives to resume immediately security coordination with Israel. ``Terrorism, including suicide bombs, is illegal and immoral,'' the statement said.

Powell told the news conference the United States was not considering sanctions against Israel, unlike the EU, whose officials have raised the possibility they could suspend EU trade privileges for Israel.

In their statement, the quartet expressed great concern about the situation in the region, including the mounting humanitarian crisis and growing risk to regional security.

``We reiterate our shared condemnation of violence and terrorism (and) express our deep distress at the loss of innocent Palestinian and Israeli lives,'' the statement said.

They also expressed grave concern about recent attacks from Lebanon and urged all parties to show restraint. ``The conflict should not be allowed to spread and threaten regional security,'' they said.

Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas have recently fired mortars and rockets into Israel, drawing a response from Israeli warplanes. Violence between the guerrillas and Israeli troops flared again Wednesday.

The quartet said there was no military solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and called on all sides to move toward a political resolution of their disputes based on U.N. Security Council resolutions.

They reaffirmed support for the objective of two states, Israel and a Palestinian state, ``living side by side within secure and recognized borders.''

They called on Israel and the Palestinian Authority to reach agreement on cease-fire proposals put forward by U.S. mediator Anthony Zinni ``without further delay.''

They said the Tenet and Mitchell plans must be fully implemented, including an end to the building of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, referring to a truce plan drawn up by CIA Director George Tenet and a blueprint for peace created under former U.S. Senator George Mitchell.

``We are firm that there must be immediate, parallel and accelerated movement toward near-term and tangible political progress and that there must be a defined series of steps leading to permanent peace involving recognition, normalization and security between the sides, an end to Israeli occupation and an end to the conflict,'' they said.

-------- arms sales

Germany Suspends Arms Sales to Israel
Decision May Foreshadow European Trade Sanctions as Criticism of West Bank Incursions Mounts

By Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, April 10, 2002
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22313-2002Apr9.html

BERLIN, April 9 -- Germany, long Israel's most steadfast supporter in Europe, has suspended arms sales to the Jewish state to protest its military action in the West Bank, officials said today. At the same time, some senior German politicians have used harsh language to publicly criticize a country that the Holocaust legacy has often put almost beyond reproach.

In interviews today, officials in the government of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder declined to use the word embargo to describe its action. But the government has refused to act on planned weapons sales to Israel, effectively suspending them, and other European countries have taken similar actions, officials said.

The move signals a growing impatience with Israel in Europe. In recent days, the 15-country European Union has issued call after call for Israel to end its military offensive, to no discernible effect. Senior EU officials who flew to Israel last week to seek a settlement were denied access to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and stayed less than a day.

Holding up weapons sales is the first known sanction that Europe has applied to try to bring muscle to its words; officials are also talking about some other kind of trade restriction.

Israeli officials played down the action, but did not deny that weapons sales were not going forward.

"I can categorically say this is not an embargo," said Shimon Stein, Israel's ambassador to Germany, in a telephone interview. "There are some problems that need to be resolved and that is subject to ongoing discussion. We hope that we can overcome the difficulty."

The German press agency DPA reported, however, that the Israeli Defense Ministry had filed a letter of protest with the German government over its refusal to allow sales.

In 2000, the last year for which figures are available, Germany sold about $170 million in military equipment to Israel, including torpedoes and parts for tanks and armored cars.

The disclosure that Germany is blocking weapons sales followed meetings in Berlin last week between German officials and Dore Gold, foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel. The Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper described the meeting as "cool" and said that German officials labeled Gold "intransigent."

The government's frustration has begun to spill out of Schroeder's cabinet, whose members are usually circumspect in their statements on Israel.

"The occupation against the resolution of the U.N. Security Council, the adherence to the occupation, and the reports about the Israeli troops' conduct are shocking," Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, Schroeder's minister of development aid, told German media.

German officials called for the early creation of a Palestinian state, followed by negotiations on key issues such as Palestinian refugees, the status of Jerusalem and the final borders of Palestine. The Germans also called for an immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces from positions they had seized in the current offensive.

In a significant change of mood in Germany, leading legislators from the center-right opposition have cast Israel as the aggressor and, in one case, employed language associated with the Nazis to describe the incursions into Palestinian territory.

In a widely publicized letter to the Israeli ambassador, Norbert Bluem, a labor minister under former chancellor Helmut Kohl, described the Israeli offensive as a "war of annihilation" -- the very term employed by Adolf Hitler to describe his 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union.

And Juergen Moellemann, deputy chairman of the right-of-center Free Democrats, a likely coalition partner in the next German government, said of Palestinian violence, "I would resist too, and use force to do so . . . not just in my country but in the aggressor's country as well."

Such language was once heard only in far-right and far-left circles here.

Some analysts view the political mainstreaming of anti-Israel sentiment as more than an immediate response to the crisis, and as a deeper expression of Germany's desire not to be shackled by history as the unified republic assumes a greater role on the world stage.

"There is no question there has been a shift," said Deidre Berger, director of the American Jewish Committee office in Berlin. "This is critical issue for Germany. They are trying to assert themselves: We are a European player and while we are mindful of history, we don't need to feel constrained by it."

"The current situation is the immediate trigger," said Stein. "But the Israeli issue is a symptom of something more fundamental. Since the end of the Cold War and unification [of East and West Germany], there has been an ongoing soul-searching, and we are the 'victims' of that. . . . There is a reexamination of the German role and, part and parcel of that, they are redefining their relations with us."

German cities have been the scene of recent demonstrations in solidarity with the Palestinians. But what is unusual is that much of the strongest language is emanating from Christian Democrats, the bulwark of the pro-Israel policy of recent decades.

After World War II, the Christian Democratic government of Konrad Adenauer staked the restoration of Germany's reputation, in part, on good relations with Israel, and his successors in his party elevated a pro-Israel stance to something of an article of faith.

But Bluem said recently that it was now time to break the "taboo" of criticizing Israel.

In an interview, Karl Lamers, foreign policy spokesman for the Christian Democrats in Parliament, said: "Not in spite of our special responsibility to Israel's security, but because of it, we should not say 'yes' to everything that happens. This policy of the present Israeli government could lead to a catastrophe, first for Israel, but then for the region and the West.

"Germany used to not look out beyond Europe," he added, "but it must now."

The opposition's candidate for chancellor in national elections this September took a more traditional line during a recent interview with American journalists.

"The sovereignty, the right of Israel to exist, is unimpeachable, and that includes the right to life without terror," said Edmund Stoiber, governor of Bavaria state and leader of the Christian Social Union, the Christian Democrats' sister party in Bavaria. "Therefore, we do not confuse, as others do, cause and effect."

-------- asia

India, U.S., discuss South Asian security, including Nepal insurgency

Wed Apr 10, 2002
By NIRMALA GEORGE,
Associated Press Writer
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020410/ap_wo_en_ge/india_us_7

NEW DELHI, India - A senior U.S. envoy on Wednesday held talks with Indian officials on South Asian security, which has been threatened by a border standoff between nuclear neighbors India and Pakistan and a Maoist insurgency in Nepal.

Christina Rocca, U.S. assistant secretary of state for South Asia, also discussed global terrorism and the situation in Afghanistan with Indian Foreign Ministry diplomats, officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

It is not clear if Rocca, who arrived Tuesday after an unpublicized visit to Pakistan, is carrying any message from Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. But the United States has been urging the two countries to set aside their rivalry of more than five decades and talk peace.

U.S. Embassy officials said Rocca was scheduled to meet Wednesday with Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh to discuss the India-Pakistan standoff.

The two countries have massed their armies along their border after a terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament on Dec. 13, which India blames on Pakistan's spy agency and two Islamic militant groups based in Pakistan.

The Indian officials said the talks with Singh would also focus on Nepal, where Maoist rebels are fighting government forces since 1996 to replace the constitutional monarchy with a communist state. More than 3,000 people have been killed.

India and the United States have offered to help the Nepalese government.

The resumption of a stalled dialogue between India and the United States on the safety of India's nuclear installations was also expected to figure in the talks, the officials said.

New Delhi and Washington had begun nuclear safety cooperation talks in the late 1990s, when India's nuclear tests in May 1998 brought the process to an abrupt halt following economic and military sanctions by the United States on India.

U.S. Embassy officials said Indian efforts in curbing terrorism were expected to come up during Rocca's scheduled meeting later Wednesday with P.C. Sharma, head of the Central Bureau of Investigation, India's equivalent of the FBI.

-------- business

Raytheon Gets Missile Radar Contract

April 10, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Raytheon-Contract.html

BEDFORD, Mass. (AP) -- Raytheon Co. (news/quote) has received a $48.7 million contract to upgrade Patriot missile radars for the Army.

Lexington-based Raytheon said it would deliver four Radar Enhancement Phase III kits, which double the average power of the radars that guide the missiles, and four of another type of kit which helps the radar distinguish between legitimate targets and debris and decoys.

The award will bring to 48 the number of upgraded Patriot radar units, said Col. Tom Newberry, project manager Lower Tier Program Office at the Army's Aviation & Missile Command in Redstone Arsenal, Ala.,

The work on the projects will be performed at Raytheon facilities in Andover, Bedford, Sudbury and Tewksbury.

Raytheon shares rose 97 cents to $39.67 in trading Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange.

-------- chemical weapons

Ridge May Double Ala. Emergency Workers

By Jay Reeves
Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, April 9, 2002
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A22572-2002Apr9?language=printer

ANNISTON, Ala. -- The government may double the number of emergency workers trained at a school in eastern Alabama to combat chemical weapons attacks, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said Tuesday.

The Center for Domestic Preparedness is the only U.S. facility where civilian emergency workers train with actual chemical weapons. About 10,000 firefighters, police and emergency management workers every year are taught how to respond to threats involving chemical weapons, nerve agents, explosives and radiation.

"You could ramp this thing up to 15,000 or 20,000 and you're never, ever going to be able to (train) everyone who's a first responder," Ridge said after touring the facility Tuesday.

He said as many as five million people nationwide could be called to respond to attacks involving weapons of mass destruction. He said the center could produce faculty to train people nationwide.

No decision will be made on expanding training until the full Homeland Security Plan is submitted to President Bush in July.

An adjoining medical facility run by the U.S. Public Health Service teaches nurses and doctors to treat victims of an attack.

--------

US Wants Backing on Chemical Treaty

April 10, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Bush-Toxic-Chemicals.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush plans to ask Congress to support a global treaty phasing out a dozen of the world's most highly toxic chemicals but won't back a provision making it easier to eliminate more toxins, administration officials said Wednesday.

An announcement was scheduled for Thursday by EPA Administrator Christie Whitman and Acting Assistant Secretary of State Anthony F. Rock, whose agencies drafted the proposed legislation.

It comes nearly a year after Bush held a Rose Garden ceremony in advance of Earth Day to announce he would sign and ask the Senate to ratify a Clinton-era treaty on persistent organic pollutants, or POPs.

Bush's originally supported a treaty provision calling for expanding the list of chemicals that would be covered.

But administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that would now be left for lawmakers to decide. ``The intention is to work with the Congress on the process of adding additional chemicals,'' said one official.

Environmental groups have been nervously awaiting the administration's official request for the Senate to ratify and for Congress to implement the treaty, which takes aim at the chemicals widely referred to as the ``dirty dozen.''

That group includes PCBs, dioxins and furans, along with DDT and other pesticides shown to contribute to developmental defects, cancer and other problems in humans and animals. But since most of the pollutants no longer are used in industrial countries such as the United States, environmentalists said dropping the provision for eliminating future chemicals and leaving it up to Congress ignores some of the most important protections under the treaty.

``It's unfortunate that the Bush administration is undermining one of the very few environmental protections that they've supported,'' said Jeremiah Baumann, environmental health specialist for U.S. PIRG, an advocacy group. ``They are omitting one of the most important pieces of this international treaty that would protect human health from dozens of harmful chemicals on the market.''

Even if the add-on provision were included, enlarging the list of chemicals to be banned would still require rigorous scientific review.

A year has gone by since Bush said at a ceremony flanked by Whitman and Secretary of State Colin Powell that the United States ``must work to eliminate or at least severely restrict the release of these toxins without delay.''

``The risks are great and the need for action is clear,'' Bush said.

Many of the dozen pollutants in the treaty remain popular in developing countries even though they break down slowly, travel long distances in the environment and have been linked to cancer and birth defects. Traces have been found in the Arctic, transported by air currents from hundreds of miles away.

Under the treaty, production and use of nine of the 12 chemicals would be banned as soon as the treaty takes effect, which would take at least several years. About 25 countries would be allowed to continue to use DDT to combat malaria in accordance with World Health Organization guidelines, pending development of safer solutions.

Releases of dioxins and furans -- toxic byproducts of waste burning and industrial production -- would be reduced and eventually eliminated where feasible, according to the treaty.

Other chemicals on the list are polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and the pesticides aldrin, chlordane, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, mirex, toxaphene and hexachlorobenzene.

The treaty also establishes an international fund of perhaps up to $150 million to help countries develop and use substitutes for the ``dirty dozen'' chemicals. And it allows for an expansion of the number of chemicals to be covered, although adding to the list would require rigorous scientific review.

The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants must be ratified by 50 countries to take effect. Whitman signed it on behalf of the United States on May 23.

-------- iraq

U.S. to search for pilot in Iraq

April 10, 2002
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20020410-79421957.htm

The Bush administration is ready to dispatch a team of experts to Iraq to investigate the fate of missing Persian Gulf war pilot Lt. Cmdr. Michael Scott Speicher, defense officials said yesterday.

The Pentagon has drafted a reply to a formal offer from Baghdad to allow a team to look for the missing pilot if details for the investigation can be worked out, officials told The Washington Times on the condition of anonymity.

Iraq on Friday sent the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva the offer, which reached the State Department on Monday, the officials said.

The Iraqi government announced on its official radio March 24 in Baghdad that it would allow inspectors to visit Iraq to "discuss" the case.

A day after the announcement, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld expressed skepticism about the offer. He told reporters that "we're not aware of any offer by the Iraqi government" on the Speicher case and said Baghdad's leaders are "masters of propaganda."

"I don't believe very much that the regime of Saddam Hussein puts out," Mr. Rumsfeld said.

Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke has said that "Iraq could be more helpful, if it wanted to, in determining the fate" of Cmdr. Speicher.

"Now we have seen the Iraqi invitation to send a team to Iraq, and we are reviewing that," Marine Corps Lt. Col. Dave Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman, said yesterday. "No decisions have been made."

Defense officials said the private Iraqi offer was dated April 5 and used language that was similar to Baghdad's public announcement.

The offer from the Foreign Ministry said Iraq would allow U.S. investigators to visit the country but added conditions for them and for media coverage, officials said.

The Iraqis said the U.S. team must include former United Nations weapons inspector Scott Ritter - a critic of U.S. policy toward Iraq - as well as American news reporters.

The Bush administration has agreed to send the investigators, officials said yesterday. But it is not likely to let Baghdad say who will be part of the team or how press coverage of the investigation will be arranged, the officials said.

"We're going to determine the composition of the investigative team, and we will coordinate with the Red Cross to do appropriate media coverage," one defense official said.

Pentagon officials have written a draft reply to the offer that is being discussed within the Pentagon and State Department. The draft was written by the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office.

Cmdr. Speicher is a U.S. Navy F-18 pilot who was lost on the first day of the 1991 Persian Gulf war, when his aircraft was shot down over Iraq.

The Pentagon initially classified him as killed in action but last year changed his status to missing in action. Contrary to the initial finding, a U.S. intelligence report last year concluded that Cmdr. Speicher probably survived the crash.

New intelligence information disclosed by The Times last month revealed that an American pilot, believed to be Cmdr. Speicher, was being held in Iraq.

Further discussions on the investigative team likely will take place in Geneva with an international group called the Tripartite Commission, made up of representatives from the United States, Iraq and several European nations.

The commission last met in Geneva on March 8, and the Iraqi representative did not participate. Its next meeting is set for July.

A State Department official said the reply message likely would be relayed through the Red Cross to Iraq before that or directly to the Iraqi government.

The United States has no diplomatic relations with Iraq and maintains an interests section at Poland's embassy in Baghdad.

In January 2001, the State Department issued a diplomatic note directly to the Iraqi government requesting information on the Speicher case, the official said.

The new intelligence gathered during the past several months revealed that Iraq was holding an American pilot captive and that only a few senior Iraqi officials, including the head of the Iraqi intelligence service, were allowed access to him.

The new intelligence added to earlier reports that an American pilot was being held prisoner based on sightings from former Iraqi officials and other people who have traveled inside Iraq.

An Iraqi defector first told U.S. officials in 1999 that he transported an injured American pilot to Baghdad six weeks after the start of the Gulf war. The defector later identified the pilot as Cmdr. Speicher from photographs.

In March 2001, the U.S. intelligence community completed a classified intelligence report on the Speicher case.

An unclassified summary made public last month said, "We assess that Iraq can account for Cmdr. Speicher but that Baghdad is concealing information about his fate."

The report was produced at the request of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and it concluded that Cmdr. Speicher "probably survived the loss of his aircraft, and if he survived, he almost certainly was captured by the Iraqis."

Cmdr. Speicher was not among the 21 U.S. military personnel released at the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

In 1995, a team of U.S. investigators visited Cmdr. Speicher's downed aircraft in Iraq and obtained a flight suit believed to have been worn by the missing pilot.

-------- israel / palestine

Netanyahu Says Powell's Mission Doomed, Arafat Must Go

April 10, 2002
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-mideast-netanyahu.html

WASHINGTON - Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in Washington to promote his hard-line approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, said on Wednesday the current U.S. diplomatic mission was doomed and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat had to be expelled.

As Secretary of State Colin Powell prepared for talks in Israel on Thursday after meetings with several Arab states and European leaders, Netanyahu told reporters: ``It won't amount to anything.''

Presenting a three-part plan for ending the bloodshed, Netanyahu said Israel must eliminate the weaponry held by Palestinians, create a physical border separating Israel from Palestinian-controlled areas and deport Arafat.

``Sooner or later (Arafat) will have to go. Not killed, but removed from there,'' said the former prime minister, who is widely seen as a prospective challenger for the Israeli premiership in elections scheduled for October 2003.

Netanyahu, who also met senior members of Congress, warned the United States that unless the practice of suicide bombing was eradicated in Israel it would eventually spread to America and other Western countries.

Speaking at the National Press Club, he said there could only be a military solution to terrorism and that there could not even be a military solution if Arafat, whom he accused of creating a ``culture of death'', remained in power.

Netanyahu said Arafat could not be relied upon to keep any cease-fire agreement he signed with Israel. ``Arafat is beyond deterrence. He is in fantasy-land. Because he cannot be deterred he has to be dismantled.''

He accused the United States of seeking what it realized would be just a temporary cease-fire in Israel only to gain Arab support for attacking Iraq to oust President Saddam Hussein.

Making a comparison with Israel's 1980 air strike on an Iraqi nuclear reactor, which was condemned at the time by the United Nations, Netanyahu said Israel must take actions to protect itself and the world without regard to international opinion.

Netanyahu said the world has three standards ``one for democracies, one for dictatorships and one for Israel'' He said Israel's military campaign in the West Bank is an act of self defense comparable to the U.S. war in Afghanistan.

While attacking Palestinian armed militants, Netanyahu said care must be taken to avoid harming civilians, adding that this was why Israel had sent in ground forces, rather than just conduct air strikes, in the current offensive.

The responsibility for all civilian deaths ``rests squarely on Arafat's shoulders'' for refusing to halt attacks on Israelis emanating from Palestinian-controlled cities, Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu was voted out in 1999 in a landslide victory for Labor Party Leader Ehud Barak but regained much popularity in 2001 after the Palestinians launched an uprising against Israel after Camp David peace talks failed under President Bill Clinton.

--------

Sharon refuses to end 'war of survival'

04/10/2002
By Matthew Kalman,
USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2002/04/10/israel.htm

JERUSALEM - Amid new bloodshed on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon brushed aside renewed U.S. and international pressure to end his military offensive in the West Bank on the eve of Thursday's visit by Secretary of State Colin Powell. "You can talk about peace, but you cannot reach peace as long as terror exists," Sharon told reporters during a visit to a military base near Jenin, site of some of the most intensive battles in Israel's 13-day campaign to hunt down terrorists. "I hope our great friend the United States understands that this is a war of survival for us. ... It's our right to defend our citizens, and there should be no pressure put on us not to do that."

Although Sharon said he could not immediately withdraw from Palestinian areas until terrorists were rooted out, some troops were pulled late Wednesday from Yatta, Qabatya and Samua, three small villages.

In a joint communiqué issued in Madrid, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations called for an immediate Israeli pullout and urged Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to do everything possible to halt attacks on Israeli civilians. Early Wednesday, a suicide bomber killed eight people on a bus near Haifa. The Hamas terror group claimed responsibility. It was the first such attack inside Israel in nine days.

In unusually blunt words on Israel, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was "frankly appalled by the humanitarian situation" in the West Bank.

In the northern West Bank, the Jenin refugee camp fell to Israeli forces after five days of heavy house-to-house fighting that killed more than 100

Palestinians. The dead included Mahmoud Tawalbeh, the Islamic Jihad terrorist leader responsible for a string of recent suicide bombings.

Palestinian Cabinet Secretary Ahmed Abdel Rahman and Cabinet Minister Ziad Abu Zayyad refused to condemn Wednesday's suicide bombing. "What do the Israelis expect from the Palestinians after the massacres they are committing in the Palestinian cities?" Abdel Rahman asked.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said 500 Palestinians had been killed so far in Israel's "Operation Defensive Shield."

Powell, in Madrid for the meeting on the Middle East conflict, deflected concern that the violence could further complicate his diplomatic efforts. "My mission is not in the least in jeopardy," said Powell, who received a broad mandate for peacekeeping from the meeting participants.

He said it was critical that he meet with Arafat, despite objections from Sharon. "He is the leader of the Palestinian people," he said. "If we are going to move forward, this meeting is important." Arafat has been under siege in his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah.

Also Wednesday, the State Department urged Americans in the Middle East to take security precautions because large anti-Israel demonstrations in the region have included anti-American rhetoric. The U.S. Embassy in Bahrain was closed to the public Wednesday because of violent demonstrations in the capital, Manama.

Contributing: Barbara Slavin in Madrid, wire reports

--------

Palestinians kill 13 Israeli troops in ambush

April 10, 2002
By Dan Ephron
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20020410-27990280.htm

JERUSALEM - Palestinian militants, surprising Israel with fierce resistance in the West Bank's Jenin refugee camp, killed 13 soldiers in a suicide ambush yesterday as Washington stepped up pressure on Israel to end its 12-day-old invasion.

The militants lured a reserve force patrolling the camp into a courtyard, witnesses and officials said.

Once inside, Palestinians detonated several bombs and shot at the soldiers from surrounding rooftops. One militant wearing a belt full of explosives also charged the squad and blew himself up, turning the courtyard into a tangle of body parts and rubble.

The ambush was the bloodiest assault on Israeli soldiers in 18 months of fighting in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the worst clash since 30,000 Israeli troops charged into the West Bank late last month to halt suicide attacks on the Jewish state.

It promised to further complicate a peace mission by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, scheduled to arrive here tomorrow night.

The United States has pressed Israel to withdraw its force before Mr. Powell arrives.

Mr. Powell kept up the pressure in a telephone call to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon yesterday, hours after Israeli troops pulled back from two West Bank towns.

But Mr. Sharon said fighting would continue until militants were subdued.

"It is a battle we will continue to pursue according to the government's decision, until we dismantle the terrorist infrastructure," Mr. Sharon said on Israeli television shortly after the attack in Jenin.

Hours after the ambush, Israeli military sources said more soldiers were wounded by Palestinians, but they did not provide details.

Israeli soldiers have killed at least 100 persons in Jenin alone since the incursion. It wasn't clear how many Palestinians died in yesterday's clashes.

While fighting raged in Jenin and the nearby town of Nablus, Islamic militants in Lebanon kept up their steady barrage on Israel's northern border, hitting army positions and civilian communities with rockets and shells.

No one was wounded in the assault from Lebanon, but it raised concerns that Israel's conflict with Palestinians could expand into a broader Israeli-Arab confrontation.

In at least five cities in the West Bank, Palestinians remained under Israeli curfew as troops scoured homes and buildings for weapons and fugitives.

Gen. Ron Kitrey, briefing reporters in Jerusalem, said Israel had uncovered thousands of explosives in 12 days of fighting and arrested more than 2,000 men but released most of them.

Gen. Kitrey, Israel's chief army spokesman, said Palestinian militants were taking cover deliberately among civilians, making it harder for Israel to strike them.

"We know there are civilians there," Gen. Kitrey said about the Jenin refugee camp. "That's why we didn't use more efficient means that would make it easier for us. That's why we paid a very dear price today," he said.

The dead Israeli soldiers were all reservists, men in their late 20s and early 30s who had been plucked from their jobs and families in a limited mobilization nearly two weeks ago.

Gen. Kitrey said a second force that came to rescue the squad also was fired on and suffered casualties, though none died.

Military censors suppressed news of the ambush for hours as officials notified families of the dead. But while Israeli media made no mention of the clash, rumors circulated of a much higher death toll.

Gen. Kitrey said it took hours for soldiers to pull all the bodies from the rubble. He said at least 20 gunmen were involved in the exchange. Soldiers wounded some, but most managed to flee.

"The degree of resistance we faced there was beyond our expectations," he said.

The refugee camp, a congested warren of dilapidated homes and narrow alleyways, is located in the heart of the city and is home to some of the most hard-core Palestinian militants.

At least 23 attacks on Israel, including suicide bombings and drive-by shootings, were perpetrated by Palestinians from Jenin since fighting erupted in September 2000, Israeli officials said.

Armed men in the camp had clashed even with Palestinian security forces that tried to arrest militants or collect illegal weapons.

Israel entered the city a week ago and took control of most of it within two days, but the fighting persisted in the refugee camp.

Gen. Yitzhak Eitan, head of Israel's central command, told reporters that at least 100 militants refused to surrender and still were battling troops.

Palestinians said Israel had turned the camp into an arena of destruction, wrecking more than 100 homes and firing missiles from helicopters into crowded neighborhoods.

"Yesterday, soldiers evicted more than 50 women and children from their homes and demolished the buildings," said Mohammed Abu Ghali, who runs Jenin hospital at the edge of the refugee camp.

He said bodies of Palestinians killed in the fighting were strewn in the streets and that the wounded were forced to stay in their homes without medical care.

"We don't have a clear picture of the extent of the damage inside because we're not allowed to leave the hospital," Mr. Abu Ghali said by phone, with gunfire rattling in the background.

Other Palestinians complained that Arab countries and international organizations were not coming to their rescue.

"Where are the Arabs? Where is the international conscience to witness what is happening?" said one fighter who identified himself as Abu Sami, speaking to Arabic Al Jazeera television from inside the camp.

Israel has sealed off Jenin and prevented journalists from entering the camp. Reporters who reached the outskirts of the city yesterday were turned back by soldiers.

In the West Bank town of Bethlehem, nearly 200 Palestinians remained holed up in the Church of the Nativity, the traditional birthplace of Jesus.

Israeli officials said negotiators were seeking a way for the men to leave. Many of them are armed militants, Israel says, and must be arrested.

--------

Mideast's strongest army makes mistake

April 10, 2002
By Nicholas Kralev
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20020410-40544104.htm

The deaths of 13 Israeli soldiers yesterday, the biggest blow to one of the world's most admired and feared armies in its latest West Bank incursions, raise serious questions about its tactics and capabilities.

The Israeli army, which has 163,500 officers on active duty and 425,000 reservists, is used to fighting asymmetrical war. The Israelis are equipped with the likes of modern tanks and F-15 and F-16 aircraft, while the Palestinians have only explosives and small arms.

Israel undoubtedly remains the superior military power in the Middle East, but the incident in the Jenin refugee camp shows that overconfidence can lead to mistakes and an inability to recognize the enemy's improving capabilities.

"The Israeli army is supercompetent and has all the advantages in the world, but they just blew it," said Edward Atkensen, senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The reservist soldiers, some of whom were just recently called up and injected into the Jenin arena, fell victim to a coordinated ambush by Palestinian fighters, including a suicide bomber, said Gen. Ron Kitrey, an army spokesman.

"They should not have exposed themselves to such trickery," he said. "They were surprised the Palestinians have been so professional and have clearly demonstrated capabilities that the Israelis would not have attributed to them. They need to redo their tactics."

"It was obviously a military failure - it was a clever ambush, and they moved right into it," said Jim Colbert of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs in Washington.

As part of its latest operations against the Palestinians, Israel is mobilizing thousands of reservists but is far from calling up its entire force.

The last time the country put all its men in uniform was in 1973, when Egypt and Syria surprised Israel in an armored blitz on its borders.

But for the first time in 20 years, the army is calling up entire units, knocking on doors at night and plucking men from their jobs and families to scour Palestinian cities for militants and weapons.

Mr. Colbert said Israel "can mobilize all its reserves" but needs to "win quickly" if it does not want its economy destroyed because all men 18 to 40 will be in uniform.

Amir Oren, a military analyst who writes for Jerusalem's Ha'aretz newspaper, said the army does not like mobilizing reserves, mainly because their high wages drain the military budget.

Under law, the army must pay each reservist the same salary he would have received from his civilian employer during the time served.

"This comes out to a great deal of money, which the army would rather spend on other items, such as military hardware," he said.

Israel's "tiny" $9 billion defense budget for 2001 is a major concern because it takes up a "high percent of the gross national product," Mr. Colbert said. But the silver lining, he said, is that the limited resources have forced Israel to produce cheap and effective military systems, which have done well on the world market.

Some analysts are upbeat about Israel's capabilities and argue that they surpass those of the United States in the region. Washington's annual military aid to Israel is more than $3 billion.

"The Israelis are not depending on us to come rescue them," Kenneth Brower, an independent military consultant, told the Newhouse News Service. "We have to be realistic. We are the world's superpower in some respects, but we don't have a big capability in the Middle East, and the Israelis know that."

In February, Palestinians renewed debate about their own capabilities when they launched two Qassam-2 rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel. These crudely built rockets have an estimated range of only five miles, but their 20-pound warheads pose a threat greater than any previous Palestinian projectile weapon.

The State Department called these rockets "deeply troubling" and urged Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to end their use.

The Islamic group Hamas says it is developing longer-range Qassam-3 and Qassam-4 rockets that will carry larger warheads.

The Israeli military has been criticized for focusing on conventional land battles and not adapting quickly enough to face new threats.

Mr. Colbert said Israel should be prepared for "every contingency" - it is believed to have about 200 nuclear warheads - but that it made sense for conventional warfare to remain a top priority.

-------- puerto rico

Executive Order on Vieques

Congressmen Rangel, Pascrell, Faleomavaega, Engel, Olver, Baca, Bishop and Blagojevich ask Bush for Executive Order on Vieques

Date: Wed, 10 Apr 2002
From: "Cumpiano, Flavio" <cumpiano@hugheshubbard.com>

Congressman Charles Rangel of New York, Congressman Bill Pascrell of New Jersey, and Congressman Eni F.H. Faleomavaega of American Samoa, have just sent individual letters to President Bush requesting that he issue an Executive Order for the immediate and permanent cessation of military activities in the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico. Similar letters asking President Bush for such an Executive Order were recently sent by Congressmen Eliot Engel of New York, John Olver of Massachusetts, Joe Baca of California, Sanford Bishop of Georgia, and Rod Blagojevich of Illinois.

The text of these letters may be accessed in the "News" archives of www.viequeslibre.org.

-------- russia / chechnya

Russian troops refuse combat

By David Filipov,
Boston Globe Staff,
4/10/2002
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/100/nation/Russian_troops_refuse_combatP.shtml

SYKTYVKAR, Russia - All the men in Major Igor Nevzorov's crack antiterrorism unit won medals for valor under fire when they led the Russian troops who stormed into Chechnya's capital, Grozny, two years ago.

But when their commanders ordered them back to the war-wrecked separatist region last month, Nevzorov and his men refused to go.

They became the latest elite Russian troops among dozens of hardened veterans of the specially trained Interior Ministry units who have refused to fight as ''cannon fodder'' in Chechnya. Crack units from the northwest Russia cities of Syktykvar, Kaliningrad, Murmansk, Cherepovets, and Vologda have either refused to fight or threatened to do so in protest of the conditions and the length of their tours.

Such open insubordination by men who pride themselves on their courage and ability no less than US special forces troops reflects a collapse of morale among the units that have played an instrumental role in Moscow's effort to rein in the breakaway region. The mutiny speaks eloquently about the way Russian society has tired of the war in Chechnya, especially given the importance that President Vladimir V. Putin has ascribed to what the Kremlin calls the campaign against ''international terrorists.''

The defection of battle-hardened veterans is straining the military, which has more than 80,000 men in Chechnya but has to struggle to come up with combat-ready troops. The commandos have explained their revolt by protesting insufficient pay, ineffective commanders, outdated equipment, and tours of duty that stretch on too long. Behind these grievances lurks a deeper sense that the campaign against Islamic separatists is failing.

The Kremlin has been slow to respond to the revolt; so far, only eight men have been forced to resign.

''It's hard to tell who's in command there and how they command,'' said Nevzorov, who spoke on condition that his unit's name and location not be identified. ''The commanders are people who have spent all their lives sitting in some chair in an office.

''It is a war and Russian soldiers are dying every day, but our leaders refuse to acknowledge that,'' Nevzorov said. ''This war will go on for a long time, and Russia will have to liberate Grozny again and again.''

More than 3,000 Russian servicemen have died since troops reentered the region in October 1999 to retake control of Chechnya after Chechen rebels were blamed for a wave of kidnappings, deadly bombings, and attacks on neighboring regions. Led by men like Nevzorov, who fought house to house in Grozny in early 2000, the Russians drove out the Islamic separatists who had ruled Chechnya since Russia withdrew its army following a disastrous 1994-1996 campaign.

Since then, the patriotic fervor and the popular support for the war have waned. Of 2,000 people surveyed by the Moscow-based ROMIR polling agency in February, only 37 percent said they supported the war, and 48 percent said they did not.

Last week, officers of a crack police paramilitary unit in the northern Russian city of Cherepovets sent an ultimatum to their commanders that was reported across the front page of Komsomolskaya Pravda, one of Russia's most-read dailies. The men, contrasting their miserable conditions with what they said was the rampant corruption of senior officers in Chechnya, gave their commanders one week to improve conditions and shorten the tour of duty to two months.

Nevzorov's men spoke of their service in Chechnya with evident pride. Other Interior Ministry troops, Nevzorov said, looked up to their unit, which is formed of family men over age 30, and made up of professional officers, rather than draftees like most of Russia's armed forces.

''We were often put among ordinary soldiers to raise morale among the troops,'' Nevzorov said. ''We didn't go there for the money.''

Money has since become an issue. At the beginning of the campaign, troops were paid a bonus for being in Chechnya of $30 per day, big money for officers whose normal monthly salary averages about $100. But now soldiers in Chechnya are paid only when they take part in battles, rare since the rebels seldom engage Russian troops in head-on firefights, preferring to lay mines and launch hit-and-run attacks, then blend back into the civilian population.

Russian casualties have continued to mount at a rate of nine men dead or wounded per day, at least according to official figures.

''You should multiply official figures by 20,'' said Andrei Maslov, an officer from Nevzorov's unit. ''How can you call it a peaceful place if they shoot at us during the day as well as in the night?''

But during the unit's last three-month tour in Chechnya last year, troops in the unit were paid a bonus for only 17 days, even though hit-and-run attacks were a daily event.

Lieutenant Colonel Dmitri Lyutoyev, Nevzorov's senior officer who also has refused to return to Chechnya, described driving out from his base in Grozny to make a phone call home and watching a Russian personnel carrier blow up on a mine that rebels had evidently placed.

Then the Interior Ministry extended the tour for its troops from three to six months, a move widely seen as an attempt by the Kremlin to improve the stability of the force in Chechnya by rotating elite troops less often.

''This was a psychological blow for our families,'' Nevzorov said.

Alexander Avdonin, a spokesman for the regional police force in northern Russia's Komi Autonomous Republic, where 20 police commandos resigned rather than fight in Chechnya, expressed bitterness that the veterans refused to go.

''They were a close-knit team. They have been there more than once together,'' Avdonin said. ''But if they refuse to go, then that means they have chickened out.''

As its best fighters abandon the battle, Russia has also come under renewed international pressure to crack down on looting, arbitrary arrests, and torture that human rights groups say has been rampant in Chechnya since late 1999. Last month, the Russian command authorized local authorities, elders, and journalists to monitor Russian Army ''sweep operations'' aimed at flushing out rebels from Chechen villages.

But Nevzorov's men saw the order as yet another measure that would handcuff Russian forces even further, depriving them of the element of surprise.

''Imagine if in Afghanistan American troops come to a village and say `Do you mind if we come back tomorrow and see if bin Laden is here,''' said Lyutoyev, the senior officer. ''Losses among the civilian population are not only necessary, they are unavoidable if we want to fight terrorism.''

-------- space

Military explores space planes
Vehicle could drop bombs, fix satellites, general says

By John Diedrich
The Colorado Springs Gazette
April 10, 2002
http://www.gazette.com/stories/0410loc1-2.php?section=1

The military is looking into building a spacecraft that could drop bombs from space, fix orbiting satellites and give better pictures of the battlefield, the top space officer said Tuesday. If a military space plane becomes a reality, it would be the first time the United States has put weapons in space.

The Pentagon has military satellites that provide navigation, communication, weather, reconnaissance and missile warning information, all considered key to how the United States fights war. But none of them has weapons. Gen. Ed Eberhart, head of U.S. Space Command, Air Force Space Command and NORAD - all based in Colorado Springs - says the military needs a space plane.

"A reusable launch vehicle will be the key to operating and conquering the space frontier," Eberhart said at the 18th annual National Space Symposium at The Broadmoor hotel, an annual exposition of commercial, military and civilian space issues. About 3,800 people attended.

NASA scrapped plans to build a spacecraft called the X-33 a year ago, in part, because of cost overruns. Eberhart said the military is interested in that spacecraft, but its version would be different. It might be designed to run without humans on board and to land in the oceans, he said.

A military space plane quickly could provide surveillance in areas of the world that become important to the Pentagon, he said. Moving satellites for better surveillance now can take days. It could fix or refuel satellites in orbit, which isn't a current option for the military. The plane also could bomb a target in a matter of hours, instead of the 17 hours it takes for a conventional bomber to travel halfway around the world.

"(A space plane) has a lot of possibilities, a lot of applications in every one of our missions," Eberhart said. The space plane is only an idea and studying it doesn't mean the United States has decided to put weapons in space, said Army Maj. Barry Venable, spokesman for U.S. Space Command.

"We aren't doing our job if we don't look at things like this and think about it," he said.

Some critics of Space Command have said a space plane that drops bombs would be in violation of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which says "space will be used for peaceful purposes." But Venable said "peaceful purposes" has been interpreted to mean nonaggressive acts.

In other words, weapons can be put in space to defend a nation and its assets, he said.

Also Tuesday, Eberhart said information from military satellites may be useful for local police and other first responders in the war on terrorism.

"Over time we can leverage our space assets to support homeland security and law enforcement," Eberhart said, noting there is no such proposal yet. "A lot of it hinges on cooperation."

The general didn't give examples, but Venable said later satellite information could help fire departments track the spread of chemical or biological agents released by terrorists, provide police with more accurate city maps or give emergency workers better communications.

"We need to look for ways to make this information available for the local guys as well," Venable said.

----

USSPACECOM Long Range Plan Summary

UNITED STATES SPACE COMMAND
Fact Sheet, April 10, 2002
http://www.spacecom.mil/LRP/LRP-FactSheet.htm

Overview

Number one priority for US Space Command over the past 11 months. The development and production process, by design, involved hundreds of people and more than 75 organizations, including DoD, civil and commercial industry.

Captures in one place a comprehensive roadmap to enable the forces envisioned in Joint Vision 2010 and to achieve our vision for 2020. Space power is key to achieving JV 2010.

The stronger the linkage between JV 2010 and the USSPACECOM Vision, the more likely our nation will organize, train and equip the right space force of the future.

Guiding Principles

Space is an enabler of military operations. Forces depend on information. Space-based sensors will provide much of this information. Virtually all other information will flow through space at some point.

On the verge of a commercial space explosion. Industry growing 20% per year, 1000+ satellites to be launched and $500 billion to be spent worldwide over the next few years.

Space is an emerging area of vital national interest. Space is critical to both military and economic instruments of power. We will be challenged. Adversaries will likely not confront US conventional forces. Space could be part of an attractive asymmetric strategy to inflict great damage on the nation.

Military must be ready. Our nation's growing dependence on space cannot become a vulnerability. Protecting our freedom to use space and having the ability to deny an enemy's use of space will grow in importance.

USSPACECOM has the lead as the single focal point for military space. The Long Range Plan is a critical step to enable us to fulfill our obligation.

Methodology

To move toward attaining the Vision, we developed four operational concepts based on the Unified Command Plan's assigned missions, the anticipated future strategic environment and Joint Vision 2010. Our Long Range Plan identifies required capabilities, Concepts of Operation, new organizations and partnerships to achieve these operational concepts.

Operational Concepts

Control of Space: assure freedom to operate, deny the enemy. By 2020, a wholly integrated suite of space and ground capabilities provides total situational understanding of the space region along with the ability to assure access to, through, and from space while defending against all hostile threats.

Global Engagement: includes worldwide situational awareness, defense against ballistic and cruise missiles and, if directed by the National Command Authorities, the capability to hold at risk from space a small number of high value targets. By 2020, a robust and fully integrated suite of space and terrestrial capabilities provides dominant battlespace awareness enabling on-demand targeting and engagement of all ballistic and cruise missiles.

Full Force Integration: the integration of space forces and information with air, land, and sea forces and information. By 2020, space forces are completely integrated with air, land, and sea forces to the point that operational commanders exploit space assets as intuitively as their more traditional assets. Warfighters take full advantage of space capabilities as an integral part of special, joint and combined warfare.

Global Partnerships: strengthening military space capabilities through the leveraging of civil, commercial, intelligence, national, and international space efforts. In 2020, Global Partnerships will create an environment that enables the US military to achieve maximum space capabilities through enduring relationships. Partnerships may also decrease pressure on existing US infrastructure and build confidence in the conduct of coalition warfare.

Joint Vision 2010, USSPACE Vision for 2020 and the Long Range Plan

The JV 2010 fighting force will be enabled through the full exploitation of the space advantage. Dominant Maneuver, Precision Engagement, Full-Dimensional Protection, Focused Logistics, Information Superiority and ultimately Full Spectrum Dominance will be dramatically leveraged with robust space operations and matured space support. Execution of the USSPACECOM Long Range Plan will ensure our future warfighters are provided the right space capabilities to protect and defend America's interests throughout the full spectrum of conflict.

Resourcing Issues

Lowering launch costs is key to affordable use of space. We must work this as a number one priority. Need to transfer investment to operating in space vice paying to get there. Other avenues to pursue with vigor:

Continue to migrate missions to space Determine space's full impact

Create better modeling and simulation systems to assess contribution of all space systems, able to test changing assumptions and developments

Leverage advances in other sectors and burdensharing Alternate funding strategies Strive for continuous improvement

Best business practices, fostering competition, tighten up margins

The Way Ahead

This plan sets the course to evolve military space

to enable the armed forces envisioned in Joint Vision 2010 to protect US national interests and investments in space

The synergy from systems, technologies, concepts of operation and partnerships is key to the success of this plan.

USSPACECOM needs support from beyond the command to fully achieve the Vision. Policy issues require attention for all four operational concepts. The broad and varied members of our space community contribute to USSPACECOM's ability to accomplish its missions. We all need clarifying policy to harness the strengths of our interdependence, improve efficiency, and ensure our nation's continued pre-eminence in space.

DIRECTORATE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS,
HEADQUARTERS, U.S. SPACE COMMAND,
250 S. PETERSON BLVD, STE 116,
PETERSON AFB, CO 80914-3190
PHONE: (719) 554-6889 DSN: 692-6889

-------- spy agencies

Russian Security Police Say They Uncovered U.S. Spy Ring

April 10, 2002
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-russia-usa-spy.html

MOSCOW - Russia's security police on Wednesday accused the United States of drugging a scientist in a cloak-and-dagger conspiracy to steal military secrets.

The allegations were a throwback to tit-for-tat spy scandals that dominated the chilly first months of the presidencies of Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush, and they sounded a sour note ahead of the two men's summit in Russia next month.

Sketchy but exotic details of the spy case were described by unidentified officers of the FSB security police, appearing on the evening television news with their faces in silhouette.

They said the Russian scientist had stumbled into one of Moscow's consulates in another former-Soviet republic with his memory apparently wiped out by drugs, recalling only that he had visited a U.S. embassy to check on family in the United States.

``He was brought to Moscow and here the FSB did some tests on him, and we established that he had known some government secrets and that he had been under psychoactive drug treatment for a long time,'' a concealed FSB officer told NTV television.

The scientist had been recruited by the CIA, which gave him instructions in letters written in invisible ink, the officer said, adding the espionage was thwarted before damage was done.

Footage of a young Asian woman was shown, and the news reports said she was a CIA agent responsible for the operation who had posed as a junior American diplomat but was no longer in Russia.

Officials at the U.S. embassy in Moscow and the CIA in Washington declined to comment. The FSB did not answer calls.

In March last year, the Bush administration expelled 50 Russian diplomats from the United States, prompting a tit-for-tat response from the Kremlin in the worst spy scandal to shake Moscow and Washington since the Cold War.

Russia and the United States have greatly improved ties since the September 11 attacks against U.S. cities, when Putin was among the first to offer his support. The Kremlin has since backed the U.S.-led war on terrorism.

But the FSB charges add to a growing list of woes likely to crop up at the May 23-25 summit in Moscow and St. Petersburg, already set to include bickering over U.S. poultry imports, a U.S.-funded radio broadcast to Russia's separatist Chechnya region and nuclear disarmament.

--------

Russian Agency Accuses CIA of Spying

April 10, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Russia-US-Espionage.html

MOSCOW (AP) -- The Russian successor to the KGB on Wednesday accused the CIA of trying to acquire military secrets, allegations that include such traditional spy tradecraft as invisible ink, secret drop points and mind-altering drugs.

Russian television showed grainy footage provided by security services.

Mark Mansfield, spokesman for the Langley, Va.-based CIA, declined to comment Wednesday. Agency officials routinely decline to discuss foreign allegations of U.S. espionage.

Despite the end of the Cold War, experts say the spy business is alive and well between Russia and the United States and that both sides have a healthy interest in trying to predict the other's next moves -- even if they're now allies.

A spokesman for the Federal Security Service, the Soviet-era KGB's chief successor, said CIA officers posing as embassy officials in Russia and another, unidentified ex-Soviet republic had tried to recruit an employee at a secret Russian Defense Ministry installation.

The security service interfered at an early stage and was able to monitor the CIA officers' activities and prevent serious damage to Russia's security, the spokesman said on condition of anonymity.

The service named two alleged participants in the operation: David Robertson, whose post at an unnamed embassy in the former Soviet Union was not described, and Yunju Kensinger, reportedly a third secretary in the consular department of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. The Interfax news agency, citing an ``informed source,'' said Kensinger had already left Moscow.

It quoted the security service's press office as saying that Kensinger, like other alleged American intelligence agents in Russia, had not met personally with her Russian contact or contacts. Instead, she used secret drop points and messages in invisible ink.

State-controlled ORT television showed grainy footage of a woman identified as Kensinger walking with other embassy employees. It also broadcast pictures of a plastic-wrapped package stashed among some bushes in what it identified as the Sokolniki region of Moscow, and an interview in a darkened room with a man identified as a Federal Security Service operative.

He explained that the Russian Defense Ministry employee, identified only by his first name, Viktor, had gone to a U.S. Embassy in another former Soviet republic last spring to try to find information about a relative who had gone missing abroad. Embassy officers allegedly slipped him psychotropic drugs to get information, because he was found a week later wandering the streets in shock and with amnesia.

The ITAR-Tass news agency reported that only after psychiatric treatment had Viktor -- whom a security service employee called a ``real patriot'' -- been able to reconstruct the details of his visit.

``As a result, the Federal Security Service took the necessary steps to stop the leak of Russian secrets through this channel and unmask the Langley employees who used the most unscrupulous methods,'' ITAR-Tass said.

The U.S. Embassy in Moscow would not comment on the espionage accusation, which followed a warm spell prompted by Russia's participation in the U.S.-led anti-terror campaign.

Analysts noted the latest spy scandal emerged just weeks ahead of a May summit between President Bush and Putin.

``It's the choice of timing that immediately raises questions,'' said Tom Sanderson of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. ``There are a number of people who are unhappy at how Putin is walking in lockstep with the Americans.''

Viktor Kremenyuk, deputy director for the USA-Canada Institute in Moscow, doubted the scandal will affect the summit. ``Of course spy scandals aren't good for bilateral relations, but they don't have any negative consequences,'' he told the Interfax news agency.

Relations haven't been too cozy, however.

In December, President Bush announced that the United States would dump the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which Moscow had vowed to preserve. The two nations also sparred over newly imposed U.S. steel tariffs, which Russia says will severely damage its metals industry, and Russia's ban on U.S. poultry.

Shortly after Putin, a former KGB agent, became acting president in December 1999, U.S. businessman Edmond Pope became the first American convicted of spying in Russia in 40 years. Putin pardoned him shortly after his conviction.

Last year, Russia ordered 50 U.S. diplomats to leave the country, mirroring the U.S. expulsion of Russian diplomats following the arrest of FBI agent Robert Hanssen on charges of spying for Moscow. The Russians' arrest of U.S. Fulbright scholar John Tobin on marijuana charges also attracted wide attention after security officials said they believed he was a spy in training. Tobin was freed from prison last August.

-------- us

Military turning to lasers for defense
Vandenberg to test new missile-targeting system

By NORA K. WALLACE
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
4 April 2002
http://www.globenet.free-online.co.uk/articles/militarylasers.htm

By 2004, the military hopes to beam a laser from a jet toward a dummy ballistic missile off the coast of Vandenberg Air Force Base and blow it out of the sky. The $13 billion Airborne Laser System program, dating to the 1970s, involves using a modified Boeing 747 with various lasers directed out of its nose cone to spot, track and destroy enemy missiles shortly after they have launched. The system will be tested at Vandenberg and elsewhere.

The lasers -- there will be four types -- will beam through an 11,500-pound turret attached to the front of the aircraft. The turret will rotate 120 degrees and fire side to side and straight up, said Col. Ellen M. Pawlikowski, director of the laser program. A small carbon dioxide laser will spot a target, a solid-state laser will track the target and a beacon laser will measure atmospheric distortion. The laser that will eventually destroy the target is a chemical oxygen-iodine laser, equivalent to more than 1 million watts of electrical power.

During some ground and flight tests, a low-power laser of about 10,000 watts will be used in place of the higher-powered beam. "Missile defense is pretty important for protecting our troops and protecting our homeland," Col. Pawlikowski said.

"Missiles are not going to go away. Too many nations see (them) as a potential way to hurt us." At a public hearing Wednesday night in Lompoc, military officials explained the concept to 20 people and sought comments to be included in an environmental impact statement. An environmental report was completed in 1997, but the military added some tests and a supplement was required.

The draft document is expected in the fall, and more hearings will occur then.

Solvang resident Fred Kovol told military representatives his primary concern is pollution associated with the tests, and San Luis Obispo resident Sheila Baker wanted the military to know of her worries about the tests' effects on the air, soil and water. Lompoc resident Justin Rughe supported the concept, and called the lasers "absolutely new revolutionary technology." Compared to pollution from other weapons, such as gunpowder, Mr. Rughe said the laser "by comparison is pure."

The Vandenberg tests would involve the launching of some kind of dummy missile from the coastal base, probably in December 2004. There could be as many as 25 missile flight tests from the base, over the Pacific Ocean, said Juventino "Rich" Garcia, spokesman for the Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, N. M. The airborne laser is part of the Pentagon's new push for a "multilayered" approach to missile defense. Another segment, the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense Program, is being tested at Vandenberg and seeks to destroy missiles during the middle portion of their flights.

The airborne laser aims to obliterate a missile during the boost phase, at about 35,000 feet. If the missile is destroyed, the debris would then fall back on the adversary. In the 2002 fiscal year, the program is budgeted to receive $476 million; $598 million in 2003.

Comments for the supplemental environmental report can be sent to ASC/TMIS, attention: Maj. Cynthia Redelsperger, 3300 Target Road, Building 760, Kirtland Air Force Base, NM 87117-6612.

-------- propaganda wars

Rumsfeld Explains Afghan Coverage

April 10, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Rumsfeld-ASNE.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- News organizations that pressed the Pentagon for early access to U.S. forces inside Afghanistan had ``unrealistic expectations,'' Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Wednesday.

In an appearance before members of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Rumsfeld denied that the Pentagon had barred reporters from the battlefield but defended his decision not to arrange for reporters to accompany the first groups of U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers into Afghanistan.

``They were in very dangerous circumstances,'' he said, referring to the Special Forces soldiers who slipped behind enemy lines to link up with the northern alliance of anti-Taliban Afghan fighters.

``As they got a little better adjusted and closer cooperation with Afghan units, we began putting press people in,'' Rumsfeld said. ``So the fact that they (reporters) wished for more does not make them bad people. It just was an unrealistic expectation.''

Rumsfeld said the Pentagon did not try to stop any reporter from going into Afghanistan on his or her own.

``No one was denied the ability to go in and be in any part of that country or any part of the battlefield,'' he said. He seemed unfamiliar with the case of a Washington Post reporter who was held at gunpoint by U.S. soldiers when he attempted to visit the scene of a U.S. missile strike in Afghanistan.

Asked about his frequent condemnation of government officials who provide classified information to reporters, Rumsfeld said the practice cannot be stopped but is a threat to national security.

``To the extent that people violate the rules with respect to classified information, they're breaking federal criminal law,'' he said. ``Now, they're also potentially putting people's lives at risk. It's a terrible thing to do.''

Rumsfeld said, however, that he sees no useful purpose in conducting ``witchhunts'' in the Pentagon to find violators.

``It chills an institution'' and damages morale if innocent people are questioned in such an investigation, he said.

``Pretty soon you're slapping a heavy case on them that, `You're only one of five people who knew this. We don't know whether to believe you or not,''' he said.

--------

Pentagon weighs in-house troop boost

April 10, 2002
By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20020410-93388952.htm

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is putting off a decision on adding as many as 51,000 troops to the active roster until he sees whether extra soldiers, sailors and airmen can be freed up from nonessential jobs.

The war on terrorism and an increase in troop deployments has prompted the service chiefs to tell Congress the 1.37 million active force should be expanded. The Navy, for example, cites a requirement of 3,000 more sailors to protect the force against terrorist attacks.

But Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz yesterday told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Mr. Rumsfeld wants to analyze the force first.

He said the defense secretary wants to ensure "there aren't some old requirements that we could shed and that we have really looked and scrubbed thoroughly to make sure that we stop doing things that we should have stopped doing a long time ago."

He added: "I think that process is under way right now, and I think each of the services is taking a very hard look at where, in fact, they might reduce some of their personnel requirements, because it's very obvious that there are new ones that have to be added."

Even before the war on terrorism, Mr. Rumsfeld was looking to trim what he considered nonessential missions. He has frequently mentioned the long-standing peacekeeping deployment in the Sinai, between Egypt and Israel. The administration would also like to eventually pull U.S. troops from Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Mr. Rumsfeld said in an interview last July with The Washington Times that, "I have been looking around the world for any number of opportunities to try to reduce the so-called 'op-tempo,' [I] found a number of places and not surprisingly in almost every case it takes a little time to do it. You don't want to do those precipitously. I'm advised it's best to do them diplomatically."

Besides the Navy's 3,000-sailor need, the Army wants 40,000 more troops; the Air Force 6,000; and the Marine Corps 2,400. It would cost $40,000 to add each enlisted person, in addition to the $10,000 to recruit that person.


-------- POLICE / PRISONERS

Official: Spies in FBI can't be ruled out

April 10, 2002
By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20020410-21258308.htm

A top FBI official told a Senate committee yesterday that despite ongoing security enhancements at the bureau since the arrest of confessed Russian spy Robert P. Hanssen, he could not guarantee that other spies are still not operating today in the FBI.

Assistant Director Kenneth H. Senser, who heads the FBI's security division, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that the bureau is "still at a substantial risk" of being compromised by FBI agents and other employees with access to key internal documents.

"Certainly a lot of things have been done since the Hanssen arrest and we have a better chance of detecting [spies] today than a year ago, but I cannot say they would be detected," he said in response to a question from senior committee member Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican.

Mr. Senser, on loan from the CIA to help the FBI correct security problems, said it would cost $78 million to begin the necessary programs to upgrade 15 internal security areas the FBI has determined in need of "critical" improvements - with additional costs being likely.

He told the committee that the FBI did not yet know the "total extent" of the costs involved. FBI Assistant Director John Collingwood, who heads the bureau's Office of Congressional and Public Affairs, called the $78 million figure a "starting point."

Mr. Senser's comments followed nearly two hours of testimony by former FBI and CIA Director William H. Webster, who headed a seven-member commission that investigated FBI security problems.

The commission said FBI senior executives paid little attention to significant deficiencies in the bureau's internal security system, that internal security concerns were given a low priority, that security training was virtually nonexistent and that management problems led to internal security breakdowns.

"The depth of Hanssen's betrayal is shocking, but equally shocking is the ease with which he was able to steal classified material," Mr. Webster said.

"Although it is impossible to eliminate intelligence efforts directed against our national security, the commission attempted to recommend changes in FBI security programs that will minimize the harm those who betray us do," he said. "The changes should also shorten the time between the defection of these individuals and their detection."

In a personal note, Mr. Webster said he was "painfully aware" that Hanssen's spying activities began in 1979 when he served as FBI director.

"While I worked hard to strengthen its counterintelligence capabilities to detect and capture spies of hostile countries in hindsight I took our own internal security procedures for granted and I share in that institutional responsibility," he said.

He also told the committee that most spies volunteer to turn over information in exchange for money and that, as a result, the FBI needed to upgrade background and financial investigations and increase the number of its own spies in other countries.

"Almost every spy that we have found, both in the CIA and the FBI, has been found with the aid of recruited sources of our own in other hostile intelligence agencies," he said.

The commission, after a 13-month investigation, was highly critical of what it described as systemic security flaws in the FBI that allowed Hanssen to operate as a spy for the Soviet Union and Russia for 22 years.

It targeted the FBI's failure to control sensitive information and to investigate financial and computer-misuse issues that enabled Hanssen to obtain secret information. It also criticized an October 2001 FBI decision to lift need-to-know restrictions on access to highly sensitive intelligence on the bureau's main computer system.

Mr. Webster made numerous recommendations for restructuring FBI security, including a new security division reporting directly to Director Robert S. Mueller III, a career security officer program, sweeping changes in computer and information security, a stronger centralized personnel security system and regular financial reporting.

He also suggested wider polygraph screening, an improved security police force and more stringent document and data controls.

The commission's report found that Hanssen mined the FBI computer system to compromise "over 50 FBI human sources and potential recruits," causing those who work with the bureau to fear that Hanssen's information "will lead to their discovery."

--------

Why the FBI stumbled

April 10, 2002
Washington Times
Dan Thomasson
http://www.washingtontimes.com/commentary/20020410-2311336.htm

Lurking somewhere in the halls of the FBI's Pennsylvania Avenue fortress, the spirit of the late Bill Sullivan must be gnashing its teeth in dismay over the continuing saga of embarrassments from the Robert Hanssen case.

Never in his wildest dreams could the rumpled old spy-catcher and counterintelligence genius have conjured up a scenario of ineptness as devastating as that which continues to unfold around the FBI agent who sold out to the Russians for nearly 20 years while his clueless cohorts looked everywhere but in their own organization for a culprit. Now it turns out that even when the Russians complained that an FBI agent was trying to sell them secrets, it took the bureau eight years to find out it was Hanssen.

Before he was killed by an errant hunter in the New Hampshire woods 25 years ago, Sullivan, who had openly defied J. Edgar Hoover even to the point of ignoring his dress requirements, confided he always had been as concerned about the possibility of the corruption of one of the bureau's own as he was about those put here by the Soviet bloc. Like his counterpart at the CIA, James Angleton, Sullivan worried about internal security a lot. But even when he was the second man in charge at the bureau, he never was able to overcome the institutional arrogance that he accurately believed would ultimately lead to just this kind of disaster.

It is now becoming clear with the release of a report by a commission named to investigate the Hanssen case just how disruptive to counterintelligence efforts has been the FBI's failure to monitor its own agents and to realize its other security weaknesses. The commission revealed that Hanssen's perfidy had been far more extensive than first thought. He actually had compromised the identities of more than 50 FBI informants in addition to the three Russians working for the FBI previously reported, forcing the bureau to halt a number of technical programs and projects. It already had been disclosed that a tunnel dug beneath the Russian Embassy here had been rendered useless from the start because of Hanssen. But what has become increasingly obvious in this debacle is that a string of Hoover successors, including Louis Freeh, who had the job until recently, have bought into the FBI myth of infallibility at a huge expense to the nation.

In a classic bit of Washington irony, one of those former bureau directors who wasn't paying a lot of attention to the agency's own security needs, it seems, was William Webster, who now heads the commission investigating the matter. Hanssen began his spying activities on Mr. Webster's watch and continued during the regimes of two other directors after Mr. Webster resigned to take over the CIA. No one seemed bothered by the fact that the man heading the investigation may have been partly responsible for the problem he is investigating.

The Webster task force report cites "pervasive inattention to security," including a failure to monitor the computer use and financial activities of its agents as having enabled Hanssen to operate undetected for so long. The computer system, the report said, was so insecure that New York field office agents refused to input intelligence information as required by regulations. Their concerns were heightened by the fact an intern was able to break into restricted files in one afternoon.

"Simply put, security is not as valued within the bureau as it is in other agencies," the report stated. "Security policies are too often viewed as a nuisance to negotiate around." There certainly is nothing terribly new about that conclusion. It is exactly what Sullivan once saw it for - the policy of arrogance, of "it can't happen here."

The danger, he said, is that the bureau refuses to understand that its screening and training and security processes never were as good as they were cracked up to be, no matter what the vaunted FBI propaganda machine would have us believe. Sullivan believed the bureau was always too quick to claim credit it didn't deserve and too slow to take the blame when it did deserve it.

The current director, Robert Mueller, seems determined not to fall into the same traps as Mr. Webster and the other predecessors. It is to be hoped he will be successful. Someone reported recently that the supreme irony in all this is that when the CIA had its problem with "mole" Aldrich Ames, an FBI "expert" was dispatched to help the agency with its security. In the Hanssen debacle, a CIA expert now has been assigned to the FBI for the same reason.

Dan K. Thomasson is former editor of the Scripps Howard News Service

--------

More Than 100 Mexico Police Arrested

April 10, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Mexico-Police-Arrested.html

TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) -- The Tijuana police chief and about 120 other state and city law enforcement officers from two Baja California border cities were arrested Wednesday, the state governor's office said.

The surprise operation appeared to be part of President Vicente Fox's crackdown on drug smuggling and police corruption. The federal attorney general's office did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Army and federal police raided the state police academy in Tecate, about 65 miles east of Tijuana, where officers were holding a meeting on their licenses to carry arms. The police were ordered to turn over their weapons and credentials and placed under arrest, Baja California Gov. Eugenio Elorduy said. It was unclear what charges the officers faced.

``The important thing here is that those with responsibility are committed to combating corruption,'' Elorduy said. ``We know that we have to fight impunity because we know that it occurs within state offices.''

After they were questioned, the detainees were taken to Tijuana and loaded onto three planes to Mexico City.

Carlos Otal, the Tijuana chief, and his two bodyguards were rounded up in the sweep, said Martin Dominguez, Tijuana's public security secretary.

The arrests came a day after the U.N. investigator into judicial independence, Param Cumaraswamy, said corruption in the Mexican legal system ``continued unabated'' despite attempts at reform.

Fox's administration has made several major arrests in the last few months, including two stunning blows to the most-feared drug gang in Mexico. Benjamin Arellano Felix was arrested March 9, and his brother, Ramon, who was on the FBI's 10 most-wanted list, was killed by police on Feb. 10.

A few days after Benjamin's detention, officials announced the arrest of Manuel Herrera Barraza, allegedly the principal smuggler of marijuana and cocaine into the western United States for the Arellano Felixes.

Wednesday's arrests took place in the Arellano Felix gang's home turf, indicating the crackdown could be a continuation of actions against the once-powerful cartel.

Last week outside Tecate, Mexican authorities dismantled a secret, 1,000-foot tunnel under the U.S.-Mexico border that was believed used by the gang to ship tons of cocaine and marijuana into California for more than a decade. The tunnel ran from a private home near Tecate to a home in the mountains east of San Diego.

Mexican police have often cooperated and even worked for drug smugglers. In September, the former police chief in Mexicali, just east of Tecate, was jailed for allegedly warning the Arellano Felix gang of police operations.

-------- terrorism

Terrorist's attorney, 3 cohorts indicted

April 10, 2002
By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20020410-57201822.htm

Four persons, including a Manhattan civil rights lawyer, were indicted yesterday on charges of illegally passing information to and from Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, the imprisoned blind leader of an Egyptian-based terrorist organization known as the "Islamic Group."

The indictment, handed up by a federal grand jury in New York, accused attorney Lynne Stewart, who represents Abdel-Rahman; Mohammed Yousry, an Arabic language interpreter; Ahmed Abdel Sattar, an active Islamic Group leader; and Yassir Al-Sirri, imprisoned former head of the London-based Islamic Observation Center.

The indictment said the four worked in concert with Abdel-Rahman - in violation of what the Justice Department said were "special administrative measures" that restrict his communications - to provide material support and resources to the Islamic Group.

"The terrorist movement at the center of the facts alleged in this indictment, the Islamic Group, has as its credo a message of hate that is now tragically familiar to Americans: to oppose by whatever means necessary the nations, governments and individuals who do not share its radical interpretation of Islamic law," Attorney General John Ashcroft said.

"The Islamic Group is a global terrorist organization that has forged alliances with other terrorist groups, including al Qaeda," he said. "It has an active membership in the United States, concentrated in the New York City metropolitan area."

Mr. Ashcroft said Abdel-Rahman directed the terrorist operations of the Islamic Group, defined its goals and recruited its membership in the United States.

The attorney general also said the Justice Department will monitor conversations between Abdel-Rahman and his lawyers, the first use of the USA Patriot Act after September 11 that allows the monitoring of the attorney-client communications of federal inmates suspected of facilitating acts of terrorism.

In announcing the indictments during a New York press conference, Mr. Ashcroft said Abdel-Rahman used communications with Miss Stewart, translated by Mr. Yousry, to pass messages to and receive messages from Sattar, Al-Sirri and other Islamic Group members.

He said Miss Stewart had signed an affirmation acknowledging that she would abide by court-ordered restrictions in Abdel-Rahman's contacts with the outside world and that she would be accompanied by translators only to communicate with him regarding legal matters.

Mr. Ashcroft said the four defendants "repeatedly and willfully violated" the restriction orders in an effort to "maintain Sheik Abdel Rahman's influence over the terrorist activities of the Islamic Group."

He noted that in one instance, Abdel-Rahman read letters from Sattar regarding whether the Islamic Group should continue to comply with a cease-fire in terrorist activities against Egyptian authorities after the shooting and stabbing of 58 tourists and four Egyptians in Luxor, Egypt, in 1997 - a terrorist attack for which the Islamic Group claimed credit.

Mr. Ashcroft also said Sattar informed Miss Stewart that prison administrators had pleaded with Abdel-Rahman's wife to tell him to take his medicine. He said the indictment charges that although they knew Abdel-Rahman was voluntarily refusing to take insulin for his diabetes, Sattar and Miss Stewart agreed to issue a public statement falsely contending that Abdel-Rahman was being denied medical treatment.

Mr. Ashcroft said the indictment charges that Miss Stewart stated that this misrepresentation was "safe" because no one on the "outside" would know the truth.

Mr. Ashcroft also said Miss Stewart took "affirmative steps to conceal" her conversations with Abdel-Rahman from prison guards, making extraneous comments in English to mask the Arabic conversation between Abdel-Rahman and Mr. Yousry.

Prosecutors said the defendants wanted to use urban terrorism to pressure the United States into curbing support for Middle East nations that opposed Abdel-Rahman's extremist brand of Islam.

Abdel-Rahman, 63, the blind founder of the Islamic Group, is serving a life sentence for conspiring to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and to blow up five New York City landmarks in the 1990s.

He was among 10 defendants convicted by a Manhattan jury in 1995 of seditious conspiracy in a plot to bomb the United Nations, FBI headquarters in Manhattan, two tunnels and a bridge connecting New Jersey and New York.

The conspiracy eventually led to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

Miss Stewart was Abdel-Rahman's attorney during his 1995 trial.

Yesterday's indictment charges that the unlawful communications with Abdel-Rahman were passed on to others and occurred during prison visits and during attorney telephone calls involving Miss Stewart and Mr. Yousry.

It also said the sheik issued an edict in October 2000 titled "Fatwah Mandating the Bloodshed of Israelis Everywhere," which called on "brother scholars everywhere in the Muslim world to do their part and issue a unanimous fatwah [edict] that urges the Muslim nation to fight the Jews and kill them wherever they are."

Miss Stewart was taken into custody at her lower Manhattan office by federal agents armed with search and arrest warrants at about 11:30 a.m. yesterday.

The office later was locked, and New York City police stood guard outside.

other
-------- ENERGY AND OTHER

-------- alternative energy

Solar Cells Improved by Nanotechnology

April 10, 2002
ENS
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-10-09.html

BLACKSBURG, Virginia, Flexible solar cells are one step closer to reality with the advent of one nanometer thick films developed by researchers at Virginia Tech.

The thin films can be changed from transparent to deep violet and back as fast as 20 times per second. By building up layers of the films, selected for their ability to self assemble and to convert light to electricity, the researchers are creating flexible photovoltaic devices, or solar cells.

The researchers are using polymers and molecules called fullerenes. The advantages of these carbon based materials over silicon, a traditional solar cell material, are flexibility and light weight.

"You can fabricate a large area all at once, limited only by the size of your vat of solution from which you grow the films," said James Heflin, associate professor of physics at Virginia Tech. "Organic solar cells can be flexible, so you could have deployable sails on a space craft, or fold your solar cell into your briefcase or backpack."

So far, the efficiency of organic solar cells is only about 20 percent of silicon. By using ultra-thin layers of fullerenes that act as electron acceptors, the Virginia Tech researchers have begun to boost the efficiency of the organic solar cells.

"Starting with a conducting polymer, which is a light emitter, we can apply a fullerene layer and produce electrical current from incident light," Heflin said. "We believe we can improve the efficiency by factors of five or 10 through nanoscale control of the composition and thickness. We expect organic solar cells will be at least as efficient as silicon within five years."

Electrochromic films, which change from transparent to dark by applying a small voltage and change back by reversing the voltage, are also being improved with nanotechnology. Possible applications include flat panel displays for computers that can be viewed from any angle.

"An electrochromic display will allow you to view the screen of your lap top computer from an angle," explained Heflin.

The researchers presented their work Tuesday at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Orlando, Florida.

-------- energy

Alaska drilling plan seen helped by Iraq embargo

Story by Tom Doggett
REUTERS USA:
April 10, 2002
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15410/story.htm

WASHINGTON - Senate Republicans, facing an uphill battle to open an Alaskan wildlife refuge to oil drilling, said Monday that Iraq's threatened oil embargo should help them win new support for the measure.

The controversial issue over whether to give oil companies access to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has taken on new importance due to a 24 percent jump in gasoline prices since early March. Iraq's unexpected decisithis week to halt crude exports for 30 days injected new volatility into the oil markets.

Republicans are pushing to drill in a small part of the 19 million acre (7.7 million hectares) refuge to cut U.S. oil imports, which account for about 60 percent of domestic supplies. Much of the oil is shipped from volatile Middle East countries like Iraq.

Green groups and many Democrats oppose drilling, saying it would destroy a unique wilderness area and harm wildlife such as caribou and migratory birds. They also contend that the nation could achieve the same ends by tightening fuel standards for sport utility vehicles and other gas-guzzlers.

Republican Frank Murkowksi of Alaska is committed to offering an amendment to a broad U.S. energy policy bill to allow drilling in the refuge.

"We do have an ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) amendment and we will present it as soon as it is finalized," said fellow Alaskan Ted Stevens.

SENATE LINGERS ON ENERGY DEBATE

Senate Democratic Majority Whip Harry Reid of Nevada accused Republicans of dragging out the Alaska drilling issue and called for the drilling amendment to be offered to the Senate for a vote.

"We need to finish this (energy) bill," Reid said.

Lawmakers have spent a total of 14 days so for debating energy legislation, a long period by Senate standards.

About 100 amendments to the energy bill are still pending, and Republicans want to wait until the non-controversial provisions have been voted on before bringing up the Alaska drilling amendment, a Republican aide said.

A Reuters survey late last month found that only 40 senators were on record in favor of opening the refuge. Fifty senators were against drilling and 10 lawmakers were undecided on the issue.

Under the Senate's rules, 60 votes are needed to end debate on controversial measures and proceed to a final vote.

JEWISH GROUPS BACK DRILLING

Republicans hope they can pick up a few votes following Iraq's decision to stop exporting oil for 30 days to protest the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"We hope all the senators are watching the (news) headlines," the Republican aide said.

Yesterday, Republican backers of the drilling plan were expected to announce new support from several major Jewish groups such as B'nai Brith and the American Jewish Congress.

Iraq is the sixth biggest supplier of foreign oil to the U.S. market, shipping about 800,000 barrels per day last year.

The Republican-led House of Representatives passed an energy bill last year that would allow drilling in the refuge.

A Republican aide said Murkowksi has left open the option of having the Senate pass an energy bill without an Alaskan drilling provision. Murkowski would then try to add drilling language in a smaller congressional conference committee that would reconcile differences in the Senate and House energy bills.

-------- genetics

Bush Backs Ban of All Human Cloning

April 10, 2002
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-science-cloning.html

WASHINGTON - In a speech evoking images of embryo farms, custom-made children and desperate women pressured into selling their eggs, President Bush urged the Senate on Wednesday to outlaw all forms of human cloning.

Saying human cloning had moved from science fiction into science, Bush pressed for a ban not only on cloning aimed at producing a baby but on techniques aimed at helping patients grow their own tissue transplants.

His opinion clashes with that of many in the scientific community, which has broadly backed research using cloning techniques, but Bush said he had moral authority on his side.

``As we seek to improve human life, we must always preserve human dignity,'' Bush said in a White House address. ``And therefore we must prevent human cloning by stopping it before it starts.''

To allow cloning would be to move toward a society ``in which human beings are grown for spare body parts and children are engineered to custom specifications -- and that's not acceptable.''

Bush praised a bill sponsored by Kansas Republican Sen. Sam Brownback and Louisiana Democrat Mary Landrieu that would ban all forms of cloning, including somatic cell nuclear transfer, the method used to make cloned sheep, mice and pigs.

It involves clearing the nucleus from an egg and replacing it with the nucleus from an adult cell, which can program the egg to start dividing as if it had been fertilized by a sperm. If implanted into a womb, the embryo can grow into a baby.

Also called therapeutic cloning, many scientists want to experiment with this method to see if it offers a source of embryonic stem cells, which have the potential to become any kind of cell in the body. They say the initial ball of cells is only technically an embryo and is in no way destined to become a human baby.

RIVAL BILL GETS BIPARTISAN SUPPORT

Senators who support therapeutic cloning said on Wednesday they were teaming up with a bill to rival Brownback's that would outlaw reproductive cloning -- meant to create a living baby -- but allow therapeutic cloning.

Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter and Democratic Sens. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, Dianne Feinstein of California and Tom Harkin of Iowa said they would combine two existing bills into one and try to drum up support for it.

``It would be unconscionable for Congress to prohibit medical research that offers hope to so many people with crippling and often incurable diseases,'' Feinstein said.

``Ideology has no place when it comes to medical science,'' Specter told reporters. ``There have been attempts by government to stifle science. Galileo was imprisoned because he followed Copernicus who said the world was not flat.''

The House of Representatives has already passed a comprehensive ban on all forms of cloning. To become law, a bill must be passed by both the House and Senate and then signed by the president. Bush says he will veto any bill that allows any kind of human cloning.

``Do we impede progress in some of the most debilitating diseases known to man or do we allow research to go forward as long as we ban human cloning?'' Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle asked, adding that he is certain of at least 51 votes to support the Specter bill.

``The president wants to ban it all and I think he's wrong and I think the American people are on our side.''

Brownback says he has 29 co-sponsors. ``This issue must be addressed by the Senate before the technology overtakes the debate,'' he told a news conference.

Forty Nobel laureate scientists, including leading genetic and cancer researchers, released a letter on Wednesday urging support of legislation that would allow therapeutic cloning.

``Senator Brownback's legislation ... would have a chilling effect on all scientific research in the United States,'' they wrote.


---- activists

US nuclear regulators accused of bowing to industry

Story by Chris Baltimore
REUTERS USA:
April 10, 2002
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15411/newsDate/10-Apr-2002/story.htm

WASHINGTON - Anti-nuclear activists criticized the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) this week for shelving mock attack drills at plants and bowing to other requests by the utility industry after the Sept. 11 attacks raised concerns about nuclear plant safety.

Several lawmakers and watchdog groups have urged the agency to tighten security at the nation's 103 nuclear power plants to prevent sabotage or attacks that might release dangerous radioactive material.

"What's lacking throughout is the NRC acting as an independent regulator," Paul Leventhal of the Nuclear Control Institute said at a meeting held by the agency to discuss actions taken after Sept. 11.

The NRC was chastised for meeting over a dozen times with industry and only twice with activists or watchdog groups since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

The meetings were held "for industry to tell the NRC what it will allow the NRC to do," said David Lochbaum, a nuclear safety engineer at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

After ordering a top-to-bottom review of security measures last year, the NRC in February issued new measures to shore up security at nuclear power plants, which provide about 20 percent of the nation's electricity.

SECURITY EXERCISES CANCELLED

The NRC was criticized for shelving security exercises to test preparedness against attacks and for limiting public information on security.

Known as force-on-force drills, the exercises pit plant guards against law enforcement officers who pose as attackers and try to breach defenses at the plant. The NRC had slated force-on-force tests at 14 nuclear plants this year, Lochbaum said. The NRC later shelved them.

That decision was a mistake, Lochbaum said, adding: "We don't see any justification for shelving the best security tool available as America faces its greatest security challenge."

NRC officials said the agency had a good reason to cancel the exercises - with its staff working round the clock to be on alert after the Sept 11 attacks, it did not have the resources to stage mock drills.

"This was not a prudent time" to conduct exercises given other security requirements, said Glenn Tracy of the NRC's office of nuclear security. The agency's decision to upgrade its own security plans was made by "the most senior managers of the agency," he added.

Tracy, saying the NRC is "dialoguing directly with security managers" at plants, denied that the agency gave the industry too much say over security issues at the plants.

"The industry telling me what to do is not something that would sit well with me," Tracy said.

The utility industry has lobbied against any major new security requirements, saying nuclear plants are already among the most closely guarded facilities in the nation.

DAVIS-BESSE, SEPT. 11 UNRELATED

Some activists also said the NRC has been cutting corners on other nuclear plant problems, such as the recent discovery of severe corrosion near the reactor of an Ohio plant.

The NRC chastised FirstEnergy Corp. last week for failing to find, as early as 1999, corrosion on the plant's reactor that was so severe that acid had nearly eaten through a vessel head 6 inches (15-cm) thick.

NRC officials denied this week that the agency's security push had distracted staff from routine maintenance.

"I believe that Davis-Besse would have occurred, 9-11 or no 9-11. It's a moot point," Tracy said.

Industry groups also rejected claims the NRC was giving undue weight to its suggestions.

The Nuclear Energy Institute said allegations that it dictated policies to the agency were "totally false." NRC officials "don't let anyone tell them what to do," said a spokesman for the industry group.

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September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows

http://peacefultomorrows.org/

Welcome Peaceful Tomorrows is an advocacy organization founded by family members of September Eleventh victims. Check the mission/goals page to find out more.

Speaking Events

Join Peaceful Tomorrows on April 20th in Washington DC for the Stop the War! mobilization. Read more. April: 6th (Austin, TX), 6th (Montpelier, VT), 6th (Philadelphia, PA), 11th (Madison, WI), 13th (San Jose, CA), (17th (Berkeley, CA), 20th (Washington, DC), 27th (Providence, RI), May: 3-5th(Philadelphia, PA), 21rst (Davis, CA), 22nd, (Palo Alto, CA) June: 8th (New Windsor, MD), 15-20th (NY,NY)

Alert Write your congress person to support the Afghan Victims Fund.

In the News Read about Peaceful Tomorrows and members in the news.

Join or Contribute Click the get involved section for a membership form and other information for family and friends of 9/11 victims, plus information for supporters and contributions.

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Vieques Protesters Get Sentences

April 10, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Puerto-Rico-Vieques.html

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- Five members of Puerto Rico's pro-independence party were sentenced to 30 days in a federal detention center Wednesday for breaking into U.S. Navy lands to protest bombing exercises on Vieques island.

The five women were detained after breaking though Navy fences on April 1, when Navy planes resumed dropping inert bombs on the island's firing range after a pause of several months.

The five did not mount defenses to their trespassing charges because they say they don't recognize the federal court's authority in the U.S. territory.

``Vieques is the most open and painful wound of our country,'' Maria de Lourdes Santiago, leader of the five and vice president of the Puerto Rican Independence Party, said before her sentencing. She said the situation illustrates ``what it means to live in a country where others rule.''

The five -- also including Irma Rodriguez, Maria Elena Negron, Mirna Rodriguez and Maribel Arroyo -- will receive credit for time already served in jail.

Handing down the sentences, Judge Salvador Casellas said he respected the defendants' ideology, but ``in my opinion the acts of civil disobedience that have occurred in Vieques at this moment aren't justified.''

He said that because the United States is at war, Puerto Ricans as U.S. citizens have ``a responsibility'' to support national defense.

The judge also denied bail on Wednesday for five members of the Socialist Movement group who were detained on Navy lands this week, ordering them held until their trials are scheduled.

Opponents of the Navy exercises say they harm the environment and the health of Vieques' 9,100 residents. The Navy denies that claim.

Although the protests have been muted since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, small bands of demonstrators have held protests during the current round of exercises, which could last up to three weeks. On Wednesday, no new arrests were reported as U.S. warplanes dropped inert bombs on the firing range.

Puerto Rico's small pro-independence party makes up only one part of the opposition to Vieques training. Gov. Sila Calderon, who supports the island's current commonwealth status, also says the Navy should halt exercises.

Since maneuvers began April 1 on the outlying island, more than a dozen people have been detained. The Navy says 13 sailors and Marines have been injured by protesters throwing rocks and other objects. The demonstrators say their protests have been peaceful.

President Bush says the Navy will leave by 2003. The Navy says it is looking for alternative training sites.

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NUCLEAR WEAPONS OPPONENTS TO BE SENTENCED FRIDAY

From: "Nukewatch" <nukewatch@lakeland.ws>
April 10, 2002
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact Nukewatch: (715) 472-4185;
Mobile phone: (715) 491-3813;
Mobile Peace Center Bus: (715) 472-8721.

MADISON -- Three anti-nuclear weapons activists will be sentenced for federal misdemeanor trespass Friday, April 12 in Federal District Court in Madison, beginning at 12:00 noon before Magistrate Stephen Crocker.

John Heid, 46, of Luck, Wisc., Roberta Thurston, 49, and Don Timmerman, 51, both of Park Falls, Wisc., face up to six months in prison and /or $5,000 for the petty misdemeanor conviction, although the prosecutor has promised not to recommend prison.

The three were ticketed during an October 7 protest at the nuclear submarine transmitter system known as Project ELF just as the government began bombing Afghanistan. The extremely low frequency transmitter sends one-way messages to submerged Trident and fast-attack submarines around the world.

Heid, Timmerman and Thurston are the first protesters to be charged in Federal Court for trespass at the Wisconsin site. (Another ELF system operates in Michigan. And protesters who shut the system down using hand saws have been charged federally.) More than 584 Ashland County trespass citations have been issued to Trident/ELF opponents at the Wisconsin site since 1991, all of which were handled by County Circuit Court in Ashland, Wisc.

Word of the Oct. 7 start of the U.S.-led bombing of Afghanistan came to the protesters just as Forest Service officers were issuing the federal citations. The Duluth News Tribune had reported just days before (Oct. 4, 2001), that, "If American submarines patrolling waters of the Middle East get ordered to action, it's likely that message, or at least part of it, will come by way of Clam Lake in northern Wisconsin."

U.S. Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) have co-sponsored and re-introduced legislation that would terminate funding for the system that Feingold calls a "relic of the Cold War."

Another six protesters, including a former Beirut, Lebanon CNN Bureau Chief, were cited for trespass at the site January 20 during a demonstration in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. They will be tried May 22 before Magistrate Crocker.

IN A RELATED EVENT:

The "Mobile Peace Center," a colorfully converted school bus operated by a coalition of anti-war groups, will travel from the sentencing hearing in Madison to Oak Ridge, Tenn. -- where the government operates its "Y-12" nuclear weapons facility -- for a nation-wide protest against the Bush Administration's proposed development of new "earth-penetrating" nuclear weapons Sunday, April 20. The Y-12 protest is being organized by the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, (865) 483-8202. At least fifteen Wisc. residents will make the trip.


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