Archive By Date | Today's Links to Search By
Activists' News | Nuclear | Depleted Uranium | Military | Police
Alternative Energy Etc. | From Subscribers
NUCLEAR
Doctors Seek Cause of Gulf War Illness
House OK U.S. - Russian Nuclear Visits
UN Nuclear Chief Sees Treaty Soon
Tough Bomb Materials Treaty Expected
Crusader Claims an Army Official
Atomic Plant Casts a Pall on Paradise
Government Reversal Adds to Rift in South Carolina
House OKs Test Sites Exchange Visits
MILITARY
Gooey, Smelly Weapons Under Study
$2 Million in U.S. Aid Is Missing From Colombian Police Fund
U.S. stops anti-drug payments to Colombia
Castro Denies Weapon Charges by U.S.
Gibraltar bases are obstacle for Spain
Arsenals Expand in India's Sectarian Fight
Indian, U.S. Armies Launch First Joint Exercise
Rumsfeld: Iraqi borders should be sealed
NATO Plans to Trim Balkan Force
Rocket reportedly misses U.S. forces
Afghanistan Maps for Pilots Were Delayed by Foul-Ups
POLICE / PRISONERS
Agent Alleges FBI Ignored Hamas Activities
Feds Warn on 'Trucking Terrorists'
OTHER
In Time for Carter's Visit, Cubans Petition Government
ACTIVISTS
Free From Terror - Government By Anthrax
Burma's beacon
Cuban activists petition for broad reforms
9/11
-------- NUCLEAR
-------- depleted uranium
Doctors Seek Cause of Gulf War Illness
May 11, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Sick-Vets-Science-War.html
To veterans it is a cruel mystery: Which of the countless pesticides, pollutants, microbes and poisons they encountered during the Persian Gulf War has left one in seven of them sick with a debilitating and persistent illness?
On Capitol Hill it is an outrage: Why, after spending more than $200 million on hundreds of studies, can't the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs determine what pollutant or microbe is causing the panoply of symptoms known as Gulf War illness?
Most scientists who have studied the chronic health problems of Gulf War veterans say they have the answers to both questions: There is no environmental toxin or infectious agent to blame. A decade of research overwhelmingly points to another cause -- stress.
Yet many veterans and their advocates don't believe it.
``I know a lot of people who are sick, and stress is not what's killing them,'' said Stephen L. Robinson, who served in special forces during the Gulf War and now heads an advocacy group for ill veterans. ``Stress is the last thing we should be looking at.''
Part of the problem, many Gulf War illness experts say, is that most people have the wrong idea about stress. Many veterans think experts are telling them their illness is all in their heads, that they are imagining their symptoms.
Actually, scientists say, stress causes real, physical problems. Hormones released into the bloodstream when a person is under stress can cause physiological changes that linger long after life returns to normal, harming both nervous and immune systems.
Researchers say even the toughest soldier is not invulnerable.
``The mind and body are inextricably linked,'' said Dr. Philip J. Landrigan, an epidemiologist who served on a presidential advisory committee that concluded stress caused Gulf War illness. Americans, he said, need to get beyond the false notion that stress-related illnesses are somehow unmanly or shameful.
Like a lot of veterans, Robinson remains unpersuaded. Before becoming executive director of the National Gulf War Resource Center, he worked for two years in the Pentagon office charged with investigating Gulf War illness and ``didn't feel good about what I had seen.''
It appeared to him, he says, that researchers studying the possibility that stress was the cause ``had a predetermined outcome in mind.''
So he has joined many veterans and their advocates, including a handful of scientists, in insisting that more studies be done.
Congress has responded by continuing to authorize millions of dollars for research into alternative causes of Gulf War illness -- money that many scientists say is wasted.
There is often a culture clash when science and politics try to work together. Scientists seek objective truth by collecting data and testing hypotheses. Politicians usually try to make decisions based on their constituents' desires.
That veterans deserve to know what is making them sick is not disputed. But what should the government do now that scientific research has produced evidence that leaves many veterans resolutely dissatisfied?
------
Data show that Gulf War veterans are no more likely to die or be hospitalized than their peers who never served in the region. Their rates of cancer and other serious diseases are no higher than expected in 700,000 people of their age and background.
The VA did announce in December that Gulf War veterans are twice as likely to suffer from Lou Gehrig's disease as their peers, but many experts question the finding because no scientific paper has been published to back it up.
Even if it is borne out, says University of Iowa epidemiologist Dr. Gregory Gray, the Lou Gehrig's disease finding does not topple stress as the most likely cause of Gulf War illness because it applies to only a few dozen people. There could always be a small subset of veterans with a single well-defined disease that was caused by an infectious or toxic exposure during the Gulf War. But that would not explain what is making thousands of other veterans sick.
Still, no one disputes that Gulf War illness is real.
Researchers have verified that veterans of the Persian Gulf war are more likely to suffer from a range of chronic symptoms including memory and thinking problems, fatigue, joint pain, depression, anxiety, insomnia, headaches and rashes.
Marine Capt. David Fournier, for example, has suffered mysterious heart problems and arthritis since serving in the Gulf. ``I served in Vietnam too, and I came out of there healthy,'' he said. ``For me to be stricken down with heart failure at 40 years old just did not make sense.''
Gray, who until recently studied Gulf War illness at the Naval Health Research Center in San Diego, says ``there's no doubt that the Gulf War veterans ... report higher levels of symptoms.''
But why? In the 11 years since the Gulf War, myriad possibilities besides stress have been advanced, investigated and found wanting.
Government, university and independent investigators have looked at pesticides, parasites, insect repellents and pills the troops took to protect themselves from chemical attack. Also examined: Contaminated vaccines, infectious bacteria, depleted uranium ammunition and smoke billowing from oil wells that were set alight by retreating Iraqi troops.
Hundreds of scientific papers have been published on potential causes of Gulf War illness. A number of expert panels have examined the evidence. The conclusion: No firm evidence has been found ascribing Gulf War illness to anything other than stress.
In 1995, the Pentagon revealed that U.S. troops who destroyed an Iraqi ammunition dump in March 1991 might have been exposed to trace amounts of sarin nerve gas. Initially, some thought this might explain Gulf War illness. However, epidemiologists found that troops who were near the ammunition dump during the weapons destruction were no more likely than other Gulf War veterans to be hospitalized or die in the years following the war.
In fact, the estimated 100,000 sufferers of Gulf War illness have no single thing in common except that they all became ill after serving in the same war. Symptoms have been reported by veterans who were stationed thousands of miles apart and who performed widely differing duties. Green Berets who sat in foxholes deep behind Iraqi lines have reported many of the same symptoms as the pilots who flew high above them.
This presents a problem for anyone trying to tie Gulf War illness to a specific toxin or microbe. Experts say it would have been virtually impossible for such a wide cross-section of troops to have been exposed to the same thing.
The multitude of symptoms veterans report also make it extremely unlikely a toxin or microbe is involved, most experts say. A microbe or toxin would produce one well-defined illness.
On the other hand, researchers say, stress is known to produce nearly all the symptoms reported by Gulf War veterans. It has been implicated in cardiovascular disease, immune system disorders, chronic headaches, memory and cognitive problems. Some researchers believe it is the cause of chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia, two so-called ``mystery diseases'' that are similar to Gulf War illness.
Stress might seem an unlikely cause of Gulf War illness because U.S. troops did not suffer high casualties and most saw little heavy combat. But U.S. forces spent six tense months in the region preparing to invade Iraq, all the while hearing rumors about Saddam Hussein's chemical and biological weapons and reports of the military prowess of his elite Republican Guard. Sirens warning of chemical attack repeatedly sent troops scrambling for gas masks. Only later were the warnings found to have been false alarms.
Dr. Jeffrey Sartin, a former Air Force physician who says he saw about 400 patients with Gulf War illness, says he always asked them the details of their war experiences.
``Many, many times they told me about how on edge they were,'' said Sartin, who is now an infectious disease specialist at the Gundersen-Lutheran Medical Center in La Crosse, Wis.
Studies show that symptoms of Gulf War illness are most frequently reported by those who had particularly stressful war experiences. For example, researchers from the Oregon Health & Science University reported in December that veterans who sought medical care during the war, who were directly involved in combat or who endured extreme heat during the Gulf War were more likely to report chronic health problems after it ended.
Soldiers who served as mortuary workers -- regarded as a particularly stressful duty -- have also reported significantly more Gulf War illness-type symptoms than other troops, according to a study performed at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md.
A study published in 2001 by researchers at the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Oregon found that those who report Gulf War illness show ``highly significant and compelling evidence of psychological distress'' based on 11 different tests designed to measure stress.
And a recent British study of war pension files going back to 1872 found evidence for ailments similar to Gulf War illness among veterans of every major conflict since the Boer War.
``I think there is enough data that stress is a logical explanation,'' said Dr. Joyce Lashof, a University of California-Berkeley psychiatrist who headed a presidential commission on Gulf War illness during the 1990s.
Stress, experts say, can affect different people in different ways. It can wear down the immune system, making the body more vulnerable to infections. Furthermore, hormones such as cortisol and adrenalin, released during stress, can overstimulate the immune system, causing long-lasting problems including headaches, fatigue, joint pain and other problems.
``Stress may tilt the balance toward inflammation,'' said Dr. Andrew H. Miller, director of the Mind-Body Institute at Emory University in Atlanta.
Treating these problems may require a combination of therapies including anti-inflammatory drugs, physical therapy, counseling and antidepressants.
Although most Gulf War illness experts say there is little evidence that large numbers of troops encountered dangerous chemicals or microbes, many veterans and politicians charge the government has willfully ignored the possibility.
``They're going to deny it tooth and nail,'' said Fournier, the retired Marine. He believes an ingredient used in the anthrax vaccine he received before the war caused his heart problems and arthritis.
He was unswayed by a National Academy of Sciences study released in March that declared the anthrax vaccine safe and effective.
In continuing to approve funds for research into that and other theories, Congress has sometimes circumvented the normal scientific peer review process through which panels of government scientists decide how to allocate federal research money.
For example, former Rep. Robert Livingston, R-La., now retired, attached $3.4 million to the 1996 defense budget to investigate the theory that Gulf War illness is caused by infectious bacteria.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, has earmarked a total of $10 million in the last two defense budgets to establish an independent research institute at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center so that the theory on toxic chemicals can continue to be studied.
Some congressional skeptics of the stress explanation repeatedly refer to a connection between toxic exposures and Gulf War illness as if there were abundant evidence to support it. At an October 2000 hearing, for example, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa. asserted that ``there's a pragmatic causal relationship between exposure to these toxic substances and all of these ailments.''
And Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., demanded during a January hearing that government scientists explain why their research had come up with so few satisfactory answers compared to the work of a few maverick scientists.
``There's a recognition that the private sector has been doing a better job than the public sector in getting a handle on this,'' he said in a recent interview.
That sentiment resonates so well in Washington that government researchers have sometimes reluctantly agreed to test treatments they doubt will work. One such study, a $12 million test to determine whether the antibiotic doxycycline can cure Gulf War illness, has just been completed.
The test was initiated in response to studies by Garth Nicolson, who runs an independent research laboratory in Huntington Beach, Calif. Nicolson believes that Gulf War illness is caused by a poorly known bacterium called Mycoplasma fermentans.
In a 1995 letter to the Journal of the American Medical Association, he said that he had cured a number of patients of their infections, and thus their Gulf War illness, by giving them doxycycline. Soon, there were anecdotal reports of several doctors at veterans hospitals successfully treating Gulf War illness patients with doxycycline. Nicolson began testifying before Congress about his work.
Dr. John R. Feussner, chief research and development officer for the Department of Veterans Affairs, often appeared at the same hearings to rebut Nicolson's approach. Congress chose to fund a definitive doxycycline trial.
The results of the study have not been released in a scientific journal, but Feussner indicated in recent congressional testimony that the treatment was ineffective. Nicolson disagrees, claiming that government scientists rigged the study.
Although the evidence for stress is strong, the search for alternate explanations is certain to continue. The Clinton administration was often criticized by veterans and their advocates for dismissing veterans' illnesses, but President George W. Bush is perceived as more sympathetic to continuing the research.
In January Bush's Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Anthony J. Principi, appointed yet another committee on Gulf War illness. Its job is to advise the government on the direction of future research, and its 12 members, several sources say, were chosen specifically because they reject stress as the cause.
``Gulf War veterans have waited too long for answers to many of their questions,'' Principi said.
Dr. Robert Haley, a researcher who thinks Gulf War illness was caused by exposure to toxic chemicals, is among the members. The committee, he said, aims ``to solve the problem instead of trying to show that this wasn't anything.''
This kind of talk exasperates Lashof, whose committee concluded more than five years ago that stress caused Gulf War illness. ``Stress has important physiologic effects,'' Lashof says. ``The mind and body are not two separate organisms.''
-------- russia
House OK U.S. - Russian Nuclear Visits
May 11, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-US-Russia-Nuclear.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House has approved legislation calling for exchange visits between the U.S. nuclear test site in Nevada and Russia's test site on an Arctic archipelago in an effort to promote openness in the face of reported signs Russia may be preparing to resume nuclear testing.
Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., who sponsored the amendment, told the House last week that a classified intelligence briefing for certain members of Congress had included information on possible ``new movement in the area of nuclear weapons and nuclear materials.''
The New York Times reported on its Web site Saturday that classified briefings for select House and Senate members included information on a new analysis by the Joint Atomic Energy Intelligence Committee indicating that Moscow is preparing to resume testing at the Novaya Zemlya testing area. The committee gathers views from different federal agencies on nuclear issues.
Weldon said in a statement his amendment was designed to promote safety, security and transparency with Russia by encouraging joint nonproliferation and threat-reduction efforts.
The amendment also reverses a ban on scientific research to develop nuclear weapons that can defeat chemical and biological weapon production and storage facilities.
``No president should have their hands tied by outdated laws that stifle research and development into new technologies that will safeguard us in the future,'' Weldon said. ``The fact is, our adversaries are developing chemical and biological weapons that pose a significant threat to America and our allies.''
The new questions about Russia's nuclear testing come just weeks before President Bush is to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin for a May 23-26 summit in Russia where arms control is on the agenda.
Russia has observed a moratorium on full-scale nuclear testing since its last test explosion in October 1990.
Moscow has said it would continue to conduct subcritical test blasts that are not prohibited by the international Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty because they are necessary to ensure the safety of the country's nuclear arsenal. In subcritical experiments, plutonium is blasted with explosives too weak to set off an atomic explosion.
Critics warn that carrying out even limited tests could encourage other countries to conduct full-scale nuclear tests.
Russia ratified the test ban treaty in May 2000. The treaty was signed by President Clinton in 1996. Bush has said he does not support the treaty and will not ask the Senate to approve it, but will not violate it.
The Weldon proposal was approved 362-53 as an amendment to legislation that passed the House on Friday authorizing $383 billion in national security spending during the 2003 budget year. A House-Senate conference committee will work out differences between differing bills approved by the two chambers.
The CIA and State Department had no comment on reports that Russia may be preparing to resume testing. Sean McCormack, spokesman for the National Security Council, said U.S. officials ``are concerned that we may not be able to know if any entity were testing in a way designed to avoid detection, and we expect Russia to abide by the testing moratorium it has declared for itself.''
McCormack said the Bush administration would ``continue to observe the nuclear testing moratorium consistent with our right to take measures to ensure stockpile safety and integrity in extraordinary circumstances.''
-------- treaties
UN Nuclear Chief Sees Treaty Soon
By Charles J. Hanley
AP Special Correspondent
Saturday, May 11, 2002
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A4121-2002May11?language=printer
VIENNA, Austria The world's nations, spurred on by fears of catastrophic terror attacks, are expected by year's end to put the final touches on a toughened treaty obligating governments to better protect nuclear material from bombmaking terrorists, the head of the U.N. nuclear agency said.
Mohamed ElBaradei also said Friday he hopes for an agreement with Washington and Moscow giving his International Atomic Energy Agency responsibility for verifying reductions in U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals. Historically, such reductions have been verified by the two nuclear powers alone.
In a third area, ElBaradei said he favors a treaty requiring regulation of radioactive materials, such as cobalt used for cancer therapy, that cannot be made into true nuclear weapons but that terrorists could blow up with explosives so-called "dirty bombs" to spread panic.
ElBaradei, in an interview, said global attitudes toward nuclear threats have changed since Sept. 11. Just last month, American officials reported that a captured leader of al-Qaida, the group blamed for those attacks, told interrogators it planned to build some kind of nuclear device.
"We have seen a new kind of risk we have not seen before, people who would sacrifice their lives in the process of committing an act of violence. We have seen a high degree of sophistication in committing an act of violence," he said. "That necessitated a complete re-evaluation of the (nuclear) security risk."
One early result, ElBaradei said, should be an expansion of the 1980 Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material. That treaty set technical standards for protecting plutonium and enriched uranium the material of nuclear bombs but only in international transportation.
Specialists have been negotiating a major amendment to the treaty that would expand its requirements to also guard such bomb-grade material when it is in civilian use or in storage at research or power plants, for example with specified protective structures and security measures.
The working group meets again next month, planning to submit a draft document to a full-scale diplomatic conference for approval. "We hope that we'll be successful and complete the exercise by the end of the year," ElBaradei said.
He was also hopeful about chances for wrapping up three-way negotiations with the United States and Russia that would allow the agency to check any nuclear bomb material declared excess under arms control agreements.
Since its founding almost a half-century ago, the Vienna-based U.N. agency has not played an active role in any kind of review of the nuclear powers' weapons inventories.
"We are making some progress," ElBaradei said. "I hope in the not very distant future, we'll have an agreement. That, I think, would be an important breakthrough."
He also said he favored "binding norms" that is, a treaty to set worldwide standards for the security of cobalt-60, cesium-137, strontium-90 and other radioactive isotopes used in medicine and industry. Such materials could contaminate large areas for long periods if blown up in a terrorist bomb.
ElBaradei said negotiating a treaty could take years, however, and for now he would like to see governments commit, less formally, to security guidelines that the agency published last December.
--------
Tough Bomb Materials Treaty Expected
May 11, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Nuclear-Treaty.html
VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- The world's nations, spurred on by fears of catastrophic terror attacks, are expected by year's end to put the final touches on a toughened treaty obligating governments to better protect nuclear material from bombmaking terrorists, the head of the U.N. nuclear agency said.
Mohamed ElBaradei also said Friday he hopes for an agreement with Washington and Moscow giving his International Atomic Energy Agency responsibility for verifying reductions in U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals. Historically, such reductions have been verified by the two nuclear powers alone.
In a third area, ElBaradei said he favors a treaty requiring regulation of radioactive materials, such as cobalt used for cancer therapy, that cannot be made into true nuclear weapons but that terrorists could blow up with explosives -- so-called ``dirty bombs'' -- to spread panic.
ElBaradei, in an interview, said global attitudes toward nuclear threats have changed since Sept. 11. Just last month, American officials reported that a captured leader of al-Qaida, the group blamed for those attacks, told interrogators it planned to build some kind of nuclear device.
``We have seen a new kind of risk we have not seen before, people who would sacrifice their lives in the process of committing an act of violence. We have seen a high degree of sophistication in committing an act of violence,'' he said. ``That necessitated a complete re-evaluation of the (nuclear) security risk.''
One early result, ElBaradei said, should be an expansion of the 1980 Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material. That treaty set technical standards for protecting plutonium and enriched uranium -- the material of nuclear bombs -- but only in international transportation.
Specialists have been negotiating a major amendment to the treaty that would expand its requirements to also guard such bomb-grade material when it is in civilian use or in storage -- at research or power plants, for example -- with specified protective structures and security measures.
The working group meets again next month, planning to submit a draft document to a full-scale diplomatic conference for approval. ``We hope that we'll be successful and complete the exercise by the end of the year,'' ElBaradei said.
He was also hopeful about chances for wrapping up three-way negotiations with the United States and Russia that would allow the agency to check any nuclear bomb material declared excess under arms control agreements.
Since its founding almost a half-century ago, the Vienna-based U.N. agency has not played an active role in any kind of review of the nuclear powers' weapons inventories.
``We are making some progress,'' ElBaradei said. ``I hope in the not very distant future, we'll have an agreement. That, I think, would be an important breakthrough.''
He also said he favored ``binding norms'' -- that is, a treaty -- to set worldwide standards for the security of cobalt-60, cesium-137, strontium-90 and other radioactive isotopes used in medicine and industry. Such materials could contaminate large areas for long periods if blown up in a terrorist bomb.
ElBaradei said negotiating a treaty could take years, however, and for now he would like to see governments commit, less formally, to security guidelines that the agency published last December.
-------- u.s. nuc weapons
Crusader Claims an Army Official
Liaison Staffer Resigns as Report Finds He Faxed Weapon's 'Talking Points' to Hill
By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 11, 2002
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A3836-2002May10?language=printer
A mid-level Army Department official resigned yesterday after he was blamed for circulating draft "talking points" that boldly lobbied to save the Crusader, an $11 billion artillery system Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld wants canceled.
The Army announced the departure of Kenneth A. Steadman, principal deputy of the Office of Legislative Liaison, along with the findings of an Army inspector general's report that said Steadman had, without authorization, faxed lawmakers "inflammatory and misleading talking points" arguing in Crusader's favor.
The talking points, sent to congressional supporters of the Crusader, said Rumsfeld's office was out for a "quick kill to demonstrate their political prowess and their commitment to transformation," a signal theme for Rumsfeld as the administration seeks to modernize the armed forces. "A decision to kill Crusader puts soldiers at risk," the two-page document said.
The IG's conclusions were released two days after Rumsfeld officially announced his intention to cancel Crusader, setting up a clash with Congress, where there is strong sentiment to proceed with the mobile, rapid-fire howitzer. Rumsfeld and transformation advocates view Crusader as a Cold War-era relic and want to use the money instead on more futuristic weapon technology, such as the Air Force's F-22 stealth fighter.
Yesterday, however, the GOP-controlled House voted 359 to 58 to authorize $383 billion in defense spending, including the Crusader. The Senate Armed Services Committee, led by Democrats, meanwhile approved a $393 billion defense blueprint that shifts nearly $1 billion from President Bush's missile defense system, blocks a "bunker-busting" nuclear weapon and delays a decision on Crusader until after Rumsfeld and Army Chief of Staff Eric K. Shinseki testify next Thursday before the panel.
Both versions contain $475 million to continue Crusader development, but the House went further and included nonbinding language instructing the Pentagon not to kill the system before drafting a study on the alternatives.
The Crusader has become a test not only of the administration's commitment to transformation, but also of Rumsfeld's primacy over the military and its service secretaries. Bush has vowed to veto any bill that counters Rumsfeld's plan.
When the existence of the talking points became known last week, Rumsfeld was outraged, and at first there was speculation that Army Secretary Thomas E. White would be forced out.
But on Tuesday, while saying that some individuals in the Army "were way in the dickens out of line" in producing the document, Rumsfeld expressed confidence in White.
White had been a staunch Crusader advocate, but Wednesday, he denounced the talking points as "offensive" and said he supported Rumsfeld. White, the highest-ranking administration official to come from Enron Corp., was already a controversial figure as both the FBI and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating his contacts with former Enron colleagues.
The IG report cleared White of responsibility for circulating the talking points. An Army press release summarized the findings of the report, which has not been released. The report found that although Steadman did not write them, he faxed them to lawmakers.
According to the release, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz advised White on April 30 of a preliminary decision to cancel Crusader. White told subordinates to respond to inquiries about Crusader by stating the Army's continued support of the program, as it was included in Bush's 2003 budget.
Steadman's boss, Maj. Gen. Joe G. Taylor, chief of legislative liaison, directed the talking points to be prepared to reflect White's guidance. A staff officer, whom the Army did not identify, drafted a document "that deviated significantly from the secretary's general direction," the release said.
The talking points contained "inappropriate, inaccurate and offensive language, and did not represent the Army's views," and were not reviewed by Taylor, according to the release. On May 1, Steadman faxed the document to certain lawmakers without White's knowledge, the release said.
"I am personally and professionally disturbed by the preparation of these so-called talking points that I find -- frankly -- offensive and insulting to the Department of the Army and the Department of Defense," White said in a statement yesterday.
Michael Vickers, strategic studies director at the Center on Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, called Steadman "the poor, hapless civilian" taking the blame. This is "of concern," he said, in the military profession, which "relies on senior leadership taking responsibility." Said Vickers: "Whether [Steadman] exceeded his brief or not, it does look like he's taking the fall."
Steadman, a political appointee, is a former executive director of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. The Army said Steadman acknowledged his responsibility and submitted his resignation, which White accepted yesterday.
Staff writers Thomas E. Ricks and Juliet Eilperin contributed to this report.
-------- u.s. nuc facilities
-------- california
Atomic Plant Casts a Pall on Paradise
May 12, 2002
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/12/national/12NUKE.html
SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. - A Sunday on San Onofre State Beach is a step into the idyllic 1960's Southern California of Gidget movies. Below a low sandstone bluff, a half-mile of cars, many of them classics, line a palm-fringed shore. Around thatched-roof huts, surfers strum ukuleles, grill burgers or prepare to ride the celebrated waves.
This vision of paradise almost obscures another vestige of the 1960's rising from the surf a few hundred yards south. There, two nuclear reactors quietly split atoms and churn out 20 percent of Southern California's electricity.
It has been like this since the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station opened in 1968. The surfers, campers and residents of San Clemente and other nearby towns have largely accepted the plant as an unobtrusive, if unwelcome, neighbor. But since Sept. 11, security concerns and a proposal for a long-term repository for spent nuclear fuel have raised alarm.
"We want to believe San O is safe, and that the palm trees, blue sky and waves are the reality," Steve Netherby said on a recent walk around the plant. "Unfortunately, the reality is a lot more dangerous."
Mr. Netherby is a former editor at Field & Stream magazine and co-founder of San Clemente's Coalition for Responsible Ethical and Environmental Decisions. He points out that San Onofre lies amid six miles of popular state beach and south of growing population centers of southern Orange County. A quarter-mile to the east runs Interstate 5 and a coastal rail route. Beyond that sprawls Camp Pendleton, a Marine base.
The plant's owner, Southern California Edison, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission say the plant is safe and secure.
At a public meeting, the regional chief of the commission, Kriss Kennedy, said of plant security: "There have been examples in the past where we've been very critical of facility operations, but in this case, San Onofre has done a good job."
Yet Mr. Netherby remains skeptical. Despite the presence of guards wielding M-16's, he walks unchallenged through an unsecured parking lot overlooking the site, past several employees. He points out the enormous turbines and transformers, and the functioning Unit 2 and 3 reactors, and what appears to be a hole in the side of the decommissioned Unit 1.
He wonders what would happen if a van drove into the lot and a terrorist launched a shoulder-fired missile. "It's a target down there. And that makes all of us here in Southern California a target," Mr. Netherby said.
Unit 1 is being demolished at a cost of $600 million. Its site is now proposed for a "dry cask" waste storage system that would hold spent nuclear fuel.
A San Onofre spokesman, Ray Golden, said the dry casks offer far greater security and earthquake protection than the system used now, adding: "The spent fuel is moving from a pool, which requires human intervention, electricity and other features, to a completely passive design with no mechanical components. If you painted that scenario, I think most people would say, `Hey, it sounds like you should put it in the passive design.' "
Project opponents agree that the dry casks are somewhat safer, but question assertions by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that these systems can withstand earthquakes. They also worry that the project would lead to a vast, long-term increase above the several hundred tons of stored waste already on site.
Mr. Netherby's group is beginning "an extensive effort" to make residents aware of the security threats at San Onofre, the dangers of stored fuel, and the risks posed by earthquakes and earthquake-spawned tsunami waves.
The group is also asking that local towns begin storing potassium iodide pills as a radiation antidote, that Camp Pendleton troops be assigned to San Onofre to augment security, and that a loudspeaker system be placed on area beaches alongside existing sirens. They also want the Federal Aviation Administration to revisit its recent lifting of a 10-mile no-fly zone around the plant.
Meanwhile, on the beach the party is in full swing. But it appears that after passing an unattended State Beach guard kiosk and driving to the south end of the beach, the only thing that would prevent an attacker from reaching the sea-wall road fronting the plant is a "no vehicles" sign.
Are beachgoers concerned?
Daniel Dowden, a San Onofre Surf Club member, points to two recent security breaches at the plant and accidents involving a fire and a construction crane.
"It's a plant run by human beings who've made a lot of mistakes already," Mr. Dowden said. "I don't say they're dumber than anybody else, but they're certainly as dumb as the rest of us, and they're going to make mistakes. I'd rather those mistakes be out in the desert somewhere where nobody's around than right here on the beach where we're completely exposed."
Paul Strau is a Hawaiian surfer who holds a mini-luau with his friends here every Sunday.
"Even with the danger, you still come down to the beach to enjoy the ocean," Mr. Strau said. "It takes your mind off the stresses of the day-to-day world.
"But looming right over the bluff is this edifice that says, `I could take all of you out real quickly.' It's scary."
-------- south carolina
Government Reversal Adds to Rift in South Carolina
New York Times
May 11, 2002
By MATTHEW L. WALD
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/11/politics/11WAST.html
COLUMBIA, S.C., May 8 - For years the Energy Department has promised to clean nearly all the radioactivity out of bomb wastes here that are to be secured in giant concrete blocks. Now, faced with a cleaning technology that it has been unable to make work properly for more than a decade, department officials have reversed themselves.
The new proposal to mix a sizable portion of the waste with cement without cleaning it is adding to tensions between the federal government and Gov. Jim Hodges of South Carolina, who has threatened to use state troopers to block new shipments of plutonium into the site, the Savannah River nuclear reservation here.
[On Friday, a federal judge in South Carolina ordered the Energy Department to wait 30 days before beginning to ship weapons-grade plutonium from Colorado to Savannah River. The order, which means that no shipping can begin until June 15, came a week after Governor Hodges filed suit to stop the shipments, which he opposes because of uncertainties about the technology that would be involved in converting the former nuclear-weapon triggers to power-plant fuel.]
Governor Hodges, a Democrat, is running campaign commercials that accuse federal officials of "breaking their promise" not to treat the state as a nuclear dumping ground. Now he says he cannot accept the Energy Department's word that its new plan to secure much of the existing waste in concrete will be safe.
"The way I feel about the Department of Energy, we have to trust but verify," Mr. Hodges said, borrowing a phrase that Ronald Reagan applied to nuclear deals with the Soviet Union.
Stored in 51 giant tanks, the mix of radioactive sludge, liquid and salts is a legacy of the factories here that produced the United States' atomic arsenal. Experts say it is the most lethal garbage in the world.
The Energy Department, which designs, builds and maintains nuclear weapons, has a powerful motive to simplify the cleanup. Any method that proves effective here will be duplicated at sites in Idaho and Washington.
A $2.4 billion factory here is processing the sludge, which has most of the radioactivity, mixing it with molten glass and pouring the mixture into stainless steel canisters. The mixture cools into glass logs, and about 1,200 of them have been made since production began in 1996. The plan is to bury them deep underground, presumably at Yucca Mountain, Nev., where they are supposed to be secure for thousands of years.
Under the original plan, the factory here would take almost 30 years to handle all the material in the tanks, Energy Department officials say. If they can skim off some of the less radioactive salts and cover that here with concrete and dirt, they said, and squeeze more waste into each log, they estimate they can save eight years and $8.6 billion in processing costs.
Under that method, they cleaned the salts by washing out radioactive cesium-137 and then mixed the salts with cement. But the washing process also produced a volatile compound, benzene, which made the waste tanks vulnerable to fire or explosion.
Now officials have decided much of the salts is clean enough to mix it with cement without washing it. Mixed with enough cement, officials say, it will no longer be defined as high-level waste and can be kept here under piles of dirt. The concrete blocks will be stored in a dozen monoliths, each 100 feet wide, 600 feet long and 25 feet high. That plan will let the tanks empty sooner and the glass factory retire sooner, reducing the risk of spillage or terrorist attack, the department officials said.
Governor Hodges, however, is not the only one with doubts. James D. Werner, who was director of strategic planning and analysis for the Environmental Management program of the Energy Department in the Clinton administration, said managers should have given up on the process for washing the cesium out of salts years earlier and looked for another way.
"The problem arises if you are in technological denial," Mr. Werner said, adding that engineers knew about benzene in 1988.
The department's record with cement is spotty. In the 1980's it tried to clean up a contaminated pond at the Rocky Flats plant, in the suburbs of Denver, by mixing radioactive material with cement to produce what officials called pondcrete. In months, the pondcrete crumbled. A solution here will be a model for Hanford, Wash., where there are more tanks, in worse condition, and where the department recently broke ground for another glass factory. Officials in the Northwest are skeptical of cement, too. Feeding the skepticism is a statement last November by Jessie Roberson, the assistant secretary for environmental management, that the amount to be turned into glass logs should be cut by three-quarters, to save time and money.
"You've got to have a real cleanup," said Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, who has long focused on the Hanford tanks.
Of the plans in South Carolina, Senator Wyden said: "They're going to do this on the cheap, and lower the bar so they can claim they're moving ahead of a cleanup schedule. I think the bottom line here is they're increasing potential of harmful effects to public health and risk of environmental damage."
Governor Hodges said the plan should not be driven by budget demands, but by "sound science." That term is borrowed from President Bush, who used it to describe the basis for selecting Yucca Mountain.
Other opponents say a failed cleanup could create a dead zone. "This is a radical and unheralded shift in our national policy for the management and disposal of defense high level wastes," said Robert Alvarez, who was a senior advisor to the energy secretary in the Clinton administration. "It reflects a drift toward the practices of the Soviet nuclear weapons program, which unabashedly wrote off, large areas and water supplies."
The Energy Department has also loosened its definition of when a tank is empty. State officials say the department is planning to leave up to 15,000 gallons in some tanks. The department argues that emptying the remainder is too difficult and that what is left is incidental.
But at the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, James Hardeman, manager of the Environmental Radiation Division, said, `They can call it mudpies, it's still high level waste."
It should be buried at Yucca Mountain, Mr. Hardeman said.
But department officials say they need to reduce risk and costs. "What's important with us is that we get on with the job of dispositioning waste, solidifying waste, while working towards separation of cesium," said Greg Rudy, the Energy Department's manager at Savannah River. "We believe it's important to make progress on many fronts at the same time."
-------- us politics
House OKs Test Sites Exchange Visits
The Associated Press
Saturday, May 11, 2002
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A5417-2002May11?language=printer
WASHINGTON The House has approved legislation calling for exchange visits between the U.S. nuclear test site in Nevada and Russia's test site on an Arctic archipelago in an effort to promote openness in the face of reported signs Russia may be preparing to resume nuclear testing.
Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., who sponsored the amendment, told the House last week that a classified intelligence briefing for certain members of Congress had included information on possible "new movement in the area of nuclear weapons and nuclear materials."
The New York Times reported on its Web site Saturday that classified briefings for select House and Senate members included information on a new analysis by the Joint Atomic Energy Intelligence Committee indicating that Moscow is preparing to resume testing at the Novaya Zemlya testing area. The committee gathers views from different federal agencies on nuclear issues.
Weldon said in a statement his amendment was designed to promote safety, security and transparency with Russia by encouraging joint nonproliferation and threat-reduction efforts.
The amendment also reverses a ban on scientific research to develop nuclear weapons that can defeat chemical and biological weapon production and storage facilities.
"No president should have their hands tied by outdated laws that stifle research and development into new technologies that will safeguard us in the future," Weldon said. "The fact is, our adversaries are developing chemical and biological weapons that pose a significant threat to America and our allies."
The new questions about Russia's nuclear testing come just weeks before President Bush is to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin for a May 23-26 summit in Russia where arms control is on the agenda.
Russia has observed a moratorium on full-scale nuclear testing since its last test explosion in October 1990.
Moscow has said it would continue to conduct subcritical test blasts that are not prohibited by the international Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty because they are necessary to ensure the safety of the country's nuclear arsenal. In subcritical experiments, plutonium is blasted with explosives too weak to set off an atomic explosion.
Critics warn that carrying out even limited tests could encourage other countries to conduct full-scale nuclear tests.
Russia ratified the test ban treaty in May 2000. The treaty was signed by President Clinton in 1996. Bush has said he does not support the treaty and will not ask the Senate to approve it, but will not violate it.
The Weldon proposal was approved 362-53 as an amendment to legislation that passed the House on Friday authorizing $383 billion in national security spending during the 2003 budget year. A House-Senate conference committee will work out differences between differing bills approved by the two chambers.
The CIA, State Department and White House had no comment on reports that Russia may be preparing to resume testing.
-------- MILITARY
Gooey, Smelly Weapons Under Study
By Randolph E. Schmid
Associated Press Writer
Saturday, May 11, 2002
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A5230-2002May11?language=printer
WASHINGTON Life could suddenly become a sticky, noisy, smelly, altogether unpleasant mess for rioters or enemies that authorities want stopped but not killed.
There are proposals for microorganisms that gobble up highways and runways, sticky sprays that make floors and stairs a gummy mess and fogs that smell really, really bad just some of the ideas researched or proposed by the government and contractors and collected by the National Academy of Sciences in a study of non-lethal weapons technology.
Such technology has drawn a lot of interest both for crowd control by police departments and for military use in situations such as Bosnia and Somalia where soldiers may need to defuse situations without killing people.
Some examples are already in use ranging from tear gas to rubber bullets to flash-bang grenades.
Others are under study or development.
Take for example a Marine Corps proposal for "situational control by olfactory stimuli."
Think rotten eggs, times 10.
The idea is to combine several bad-smelling substances, largely based on sulfur, with an odor enhancer, sprayed or fogged into an area to induce nausea and cause people to flee.
The researchers would also develop an enzyme to be taken by friendly troops that would counteract the effect.
Simply using gas masks or air filters wouldn't necessarily help, thanks to another project at Los Alamos National Labs.
That research is looking at an aerosol that would form a polymer when it collects on a surface. A polymer is a large molecule formed from many small ones and in this case it would form a solid covering over such things as the filter of a gas mask, air intake of a tank engine or carburetor of a car.
Lack of air can force an enemy to take off a gas mask, halt engines and shut down an underground bunker.
Over at the Office of Naval Research they're looking at genetically modified bacteria that could be sprayed on highways and airport runways and "eat" the asphalt.
It's the kind of thing that could get out of hand, though, and researchers are also looking into a gene that makes the bacteria die out after a period of time. The project also includes developing a way to "vaccinate" roads that need to be protected.
Sometimes you want things to be slippery, sometimes you don't.
A project at Sandia National Laboratories proposes a microencapsulated lubricant that can be spread on surfaces such as roads, but remains inert.
When something heavy, like an enemy car, drives over, the tiny capsules burst, freeing the lubricant and making the road slippery and impassable.
Inside a motor, of course, lubricants are good, reducing friction so things run smoothly and don't overheat.
The Office of Naval Research has the answer for that. It's working on ways to "poison" lubricants in enemy machinery, making them become sticky and causing breakdowns.
Speaking of sticky, Sandia Labs has a proposal to develop weapons that dispense nontoxic sticky materials in foams or sprays.
Enemy computers could be a target and the Defense Nuclear Agency is looking at an aerosol that, once sprayed into the computer center, would short out any exposed electrical connectors and corrode insulators.
While the project to block air intakes requires polymerization, another effort at the Office of Naval Research takes the opposite tack depolymerization of things like rubber.
These chemicals could be dispersed by unmanned aircraft, causing enemy tires to deteriorate and fail.
ONR also is working on a type of mine that sprays enemy vehicles with a hard-to-remove, brightly colored dye that shows up on radar, making them an easy target.
Some of the reports note that research may be restricted by international treaties. The chemical weapons treaty bans weapons for use on people but allows research on weapons for use against materiel. It also allows for use of riot control agents in certain circumstances.
In addition, while the treaties apply to military use, the United States contends they do not apply to research at the Justice Department or the Department of Energy.
Other countries also have non-lethal weapons, the studies showed, including:
France has developed acoustic weapons that emit sounds such as loud whistles.
England used dizzying lasers in its war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands and has a microwave bomb that destroys non-reinforced circuits in electronics.
Russia is active in developing electromagnetic pulse generators that can destroy computer circuits.
-------- colombia
$2 Million in U.S. Aid Is Missing From Colombian Police Fund
New York Times
May 11, 2002
By JUAN FORERO
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/11/international/americas/11COLO.html
BOGOTÁ, Colombia, May 10 - The official in charge of antinarcotics efforts for the National Police, Gen. Gustavo Socha, was removed from his job today after $2 million in United States funds was reported missing from a special police administrative account.
Six police officers - two colonels, two majors and two captains - have also been fired, top police officials announced today, in a scandal that prompted Washington to suspend a small portion of its aid for Colombia's drug-eradication efforts.
An official at the United States Embassy confirmed that as many as 20 police officers may have been pocketing money from the account, which has been frozen since the malfeasance was discovered by American officials two months ago.
Although no one has been charged, the Colombian attorney general's office opened a criminal investigation into the case today, said Alvaro Ayala, a spokesman in that office. "We are calling for all those who handled the funds to give declarations," Mr. Ayala said.
The loss of the funds, which was first reported Thursday in the Bogotá daily El Tiempo, is an embarrassment for a police agency that has been a close partner in Washington's efforts to curtail Colombia's burgeoning drug trade. The police operate aircraft that fumigate drug crops, carry out search-and-destroy operations of cocaine processing labs and arrest drug traffickers.
The scandal comes as the Bush administration is prodding Capitol Hill to widen American funding beyond operations against narcotics traffickers and help Colombia's beleaguered government fight leftist rebels. The guerrillas generate revenues to finance their war against the state from the drug trade.
Since 2000, the National Police have received $146 million as part of Plan Colombia, a huge $1.1 billion aid package. The money that was stolen, which is considered part of the Plan Colombia allocation, came from a $4 million account.
American officials expressed confidence that the Colombian government would take the appropriate action against those involved in the diversion of funds. In a statement, the embassy said that "this type of incident can happen in any organization," adding that Washington's confidence in the force remained "unshaken."
Police officials, including General Socha, also tried to cast the problem as a procedural slip-up.
An official at the American Embassy noted, however, that the United States considers the diversion of funds a criminal matter. "What we're talking about here is malfeasance and not an administrative error," the official said. "We believe that the money was taken for personal ends."
General Socha, who has been popular with American and Colombian officials for his dogged efforts to destroy drug crops, was not involved in the theft, said Gen. Ernesto Gilibert, the top commander of the National Police. Speaking at a news conference today, he said he was reassigning General Socha to a unit that provides security for public figures "to give more transparency" to the investigation.
He named Jorge Enrique Linares, who has been operations director for the National Police, to take over as chief of the antinarcotics section.
American officials today denied local press reports that the missing funds had prompted Washington to ground 33 UH-1N helicopters that the Colombian Army uses to move troops on antinarcotics missions and occasionally to escort aircraft that fumigate drug crops.
--------
U.S. stops anti-drug payments to Colombia
May 11, 2002
By David R. Sands
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20020511-76619872.htm
The U.S. government has frozen payments to a program for Colombia's anti-drug police after discovering that $2 million from the account had disappeared, the State Department said yesterday.
In Bogota, Gen. Gustavo Socha, the officer in charge of the anti-narcotics unit, was relieved of his command yesterday, a day after 12 officers in the anti-drug corps had been dismissed.
Both the Bush administration and Colombian government officials attempted to play down the significance of the diversion, which comes amid rising skepticism on Capitol Hill about U.S. involvement in Colombia's battle with narcotics traffickers and armed insurgent groups.
"This funding is a very, very small part of our overall assistance to Colombia and has not directly affected our counter-narcotics programs, including the aerial eradication program," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
U.S. Embassy officials in Bogota discovered the funding discrepancy two months ago. The account provides $4 million annually to the police unit.
Mr. Boucher said U.S. support for the Colombian counter-narcotics police "remains strong."
"We're confident of the professionalism and the dedication of the vast majority of its members," he added.
Mr. Boucher also said the United States backed Gen. Jorge Enrique Linares, named yesterday to replace Gen. Socha.
Gen. Socha at first insisted he would stay in his post, saying the missing money resulted not from graft but from procedural errors.
National Police Chief Gen. Ernesto Gilibert reassigned Gen. Socha to a unit that provides security for public officials and hinted he could be given his anti-drug post back after the investigation concludes.
Bogota press accounts said as many as 20 officers could have been involved in the scandal and that the money had apparently been paid to fake companies for goods including fuel, water, gasoline and vehicles.
Gen. Gilibert suggested that the money had not been stolen but might have been inappropriately directed to government programs not dealing with drugs.
The U.S. freeze affects only the money earmarked for the police account and does not affect hundreds of millions of dollars in aid approved by both the Clinton and Bush administrations to the government of President Andres Pastrana.
The U.S. government's "Plan Colombia" restricts U.S. aid to helping Colombia control the drug trade, by far the U.S. market's largest source of cocaine.
But much of the profits from the illicit-drug trade have gone to finance the operations of massive leftist guerrilla forces battling the government, as well as a right-wing paramilitary force. The three largest anti-government groups are on the State Department's official list of terrorist organizations.
Colombian officials have been pressing the United States to provide more direct military aid to help in the fight against the guerrillas.
The Bush administration has supported expanding U.S. aid to include training and equipment to protect Colombian infrastructure sites such as oil pipelines from saboteurs, but has been reluctant to approve direct aid in Colombia's 38-year civil war.
-------- cuba
Castro Denies Weapon Charges by U.S.
The Associated Press
Saturday, May 11, 2002
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A4419-2002May11?language=printer
HAVANA Fidel Castro vehemently denied American accusations that Cuba is trying to develop biological weapons, calling the charges "lies" in a televised speech and saying his country has nothing to hide.
Speaking live on state television, Castro called on U.S. officials to "present even the most minimum proof" of the allegation Undersecretary of State John Bolton made Monday.
"The only thing true in Bolton's lies is that Cuba is 90 miles away from United States territory," said Castro, adding that the United States would be unable to provide evidence of the claim because such evidence "does not and cannot exist."
"No one has ever presented a single shred of evidence that our homeland has conceived a program that develops nuclear, chemical or biological weapons," Castro said. "The doors of our institutions are open ... Cuba has absolutely nothing to hide."
Castro's speech Friday was Cuba's first detailed response to the charges. In a brief note on Thursday, Havana had simply described Bolton's statements as "loathsome."
The Cuban government has called out more than 100,000 people for a Saturday morning rally in a Havana suburb to denounce Washington's "fallacies."
In an address to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research group in Washington, Bolton said the Bush administration believes Cuba is trying to develop biological weapons and transferring its technical expertise to countries hostile to the United States.
The accusation marked the first time the United States raised the possibility of involvement by Cuba, the only outright U.S. foe in the Western Hemisphere, in weapons of mass destruction.
It seemed aimed at adding to the Bush administration's rationale for keeping Cuba on a list of countries accused of engaging in international terrorism.
Castro said that his country opposes terrorism and noted that Cuba publicly condemned the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States the same day they took place.
He said any Cuban scientist discovered to be working on biological weapons for the transfer to other countries would be tried for treason.
The Cuban leader described the United States as "a superpower that has thousands of nuclear weapons ... but cannot vanquish the human being."
Castro's government in the past has accused the United States of using biological means to destroy crops and livestock on the island.
Castro's comments came on the same day that Cuban activists mounted an unprecedented challenge to his 43-year-old rule, delivering a petition to the legislature demanding a referendum for broad changes in Cuba's one-party socialist system.
The referendum would ask voters if they favor civil liberties such as freedom of speech and assembly, and amnesty for political prisoners.
The petition, with more than 11,000 signatures, was handed in two days before a planned visit from former President Carter, an advocate for human rights and democracy who has been pressured by the White House and the Cuban exile community to press those themes during his trip.
-------- europe
Gibraltar bases are obstacle for Spain
By Tom Baldwin,
Deputy Political Editor,
May 11, 2002
UK Times
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-292981,00.html
SPAIN indicated yesterday that it would scupper plans to share sovereignty over Gibraltar with Britain if there was no "joint use" agreement on the Rock's military bases.
The warning follows disclosures in The Times of a Cabinet rift over negotiations designed to end a 300-year dispute between the two nations.
Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, has written to Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, expressing concern that any deal could damage Britain's military interests, as well as being contrary to the principle of self-determination.
Negotiations are understood to be entering their final phase and the issue is certain to be discussed at two key meetings between Tony Blair and José María Aznar, the Spanish Prime Minister, in the next few days. Both leaders will attend an international conference in Madrid on Friday and then hold bilateral talks in London the following Monday.
Julio Albi, a Spanish Foreign Ministry spokesman, said that Madrid would not contemplate a deal unless it was given access to the military assets. On BBC Radio 4's World at One, Seńor Albi said: "One cannot concede all of Gibraltar but not the base. The base is part of Gibraltar."
In an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live, being broadcast tomorrow, Mr Straw said the issue of the military bases was a "red line" that British negotiators would not cross. "It remains to be seen whether we reach an agreement on that part, but if we don't there is no agreement," he added.
Spain is understood to be pressing for a "joint-use" deal similar to the one that it has with the United States at its bases in Morón and Rota.
Seńor Albi said: "We have had very close co-operation with US Armed Forces in Spain for years, and there has never been any kind of problem. So I am sure that we will be able to reach a solution so that British interests in defence matters could be safeguarded, which we understand perfectly well, and at the same time there would be a solution to the sovereignty problem."
Mr Hoon is understood to fear that a compromise deal could be agreed under which Britain retained nominal control over the military assets while giving Spain access to use the bases and the right to have some say in how they are used.
The Ministry of Defence is being backed by the United States, which is concerned that any change in the status of the Gibraltar bases could constrain future military operations in the war against terrorism.
Currently there are 420 British armed forces personnel based in Gibraltar, mostly at the HMS Rooke barracks which serves two patrol ships, HMS Ranger and HMS Trumpeter.
The Foreign Office has promised that any deal with Spain on joint sovereignty will be put to the people of Gibraltar in a referendum.
However, many Gibraltarians fear their rights are being put at risk because of Mr Blair's desire to build a European alliance with Mr Aznar.
However, Mr Straw was left in little doubt over the anger his negotiations have caused when, during a visit to the colony last week, he was booed and jostled by crowds.
He believes a referendum could eventually be won if the Government can prove it is in Gibraltar's interests to remove the "frustrations and obstacles" suffered by its people because of the stand-off on sovereignty.
Currently, Gibraltarians entering Spain have to stand in long queues, while they are also refused access to telephone lines and other economic links with their neighbours across the border.
-------- india
Arsenals Expand in India's Sectarian Fight
Crude Bombs Pose Terrorism Worry
By Rama Lakshmi
Special to The Washington Post
Saturday, May 11, 2002
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A3462-2002May10?language=printer
AHMADABAD, India -- By day, Jaimin Gandhi is a young, ambitious computer student who dreams of making India the software superpower of the new century. By night, he pursues a passion more deeply rooted in the past. Gandhi and other Hindus march through the streets of this western city, protecting their religion, they say, from shadowy foes.
More than two months after an attack by Muslims on Hindus here in Gujarat state triggered India's deadliest religious violence in a decade, the killing continues. With the official death toll already exceeding 900, with the majority of victims Muslims, local authorities and other observers say Gujarat's sectarian clashes may be entering a new and possibly more deadly phase as both sides amass stockpiles of weapons.
On the streets of Ahmadabad, the state's largest city, the angry bands of Hindus and Muslims who zealously guard their neighborhoods in tense, night-long vigils now are armed not only with stones, sticks and torches but also with acid-filled light bulbs and crude bombs. Police have found homemade "mini-cannons" and pistols in Hindu and Muslim neighborhoods. Officials said the manufacture of bombs and pistols has become a cottage industry for jobless youths. Many local officials said the bombs, made of firecrackers, nails, knife blades and glass, have become their principal concern. Ten people were injured Tuesday when a bomb exploded on a bus in the town of Lunavada. In Vadodara, a police sweep unearthed bombs that contained gelatin sticks, a particularly powerful form of dynamite used in mining.
"This adds an element of terrorism, if you look at explosives and weapons that have been found," said Ashok Narayan, secretary of Gujarat's Home Ministry. "In a communal riot people try to settle old scores. But when such weapons are used in blasts it is dangerous, as you are killing people at random."
As each side hears fresh reports that bombs and explosives have been found in the other side's neighborhoods, the divide between Hindus and Muslims grows wider.
"Whenever curfew is lifted for a few hours, Muslims go looking for new explosives rather than food," Janak Thakkar, 20, a Hindu, said as he served water to thirsty policemen one night this week.
"We have not slept a single night in the past two months," said Yusuf Khan, 19, a Muslim who was parading with friends in the night, nervously watching for the shadow of approaching policemen. "They are trying to finish off Muslims in Gujarat. They will force us to take up weapons."
With the killings midway through their third month and showing no sign of ending soon, some Gujaratis say the damage to fragile Hindu-Muslim relations can never be undone, and that what happens in Gujarat will determine India's course.
"If we don't crush them now on the streets every night, Islamic fundamentalism would rear its head elsewhere and there will be many more incidents like the Godhra train massacre," said Virendra Shah, a Hindu hotelier, referring to the Feb. 27 attack that led to retaliatory riots by Hindus.
Since India gained independence in 1947, communal violence has flared periodically even as governments have grappled with how to balance the interests of the country's diverse religious, ethnic and regional groups. The constitution established secularism as one of India's guiding principles, but today 84 percent of India's 1 billion people are Hindus, the national government is led by a Hindu nationalist party, and many Indians question whether secularism is workable -- or ever was.
"Secularism in India is a bogus word," said Shah. "It only cheats us. Instead of equal rights to all religions, it has come to mean special rights for Muslims in India. The definition needs to be changed."
The train attack, Shah maintained, has embittered Hindus toward India's entire Muslim community of 130 million. "The old concepts don't apply anymore," he said.
"India's secularism is seriously damaged in Gujarat," said Qutubuddin Sheikh, 57, a Muslim taxi driver who has not been back on the road since the rioting began. "They want to establish a Hindu nation here. But I am not going anywhere. They have to deal with the fact that this is my land too."
Such passions play out every night in Ahmadabad's Kalpur neighborhood, a maze of narrow, winding alleys flanked by old, ornately carved houses where Hindus and Muslims have lived together for centuries. Streets strewn with broken glass, bombs and stones illustrate how distrust has replaced the decades of fragile peace that proximity had imposed.
Kalpur is wracked every day by rioting, which is followed by long, nervous nights. Hindu men gather on the steps of an old temple and Muslim youths huddle under a clock tower while bombs explode in the background and edgy policemen fire tear gas into dark lanes.
"This is the border," said Gandhi, the computer student, pointing to the line dividing the Hindu side of Kalpur from the Muslim side. "We have to be vigilant. We have tolerated the Muslims for too long."
Across the "border," Ikram Beg, a 38-year-old cloth merchant, told a group of Muslim teenagers to be vigilant. For Beg, this is a decisive battle.
"Gujarat has become the laboratory for Hindu nationalism," said Beg. "If we can defeat them here, India will be saved."
--------
Indian, U.S. Armies Launch First Joint Exercise
May 11, 2002
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-arms-india-exercise.html
NEW DELHI - Indian and U.S. troops on Saturday launched their biggest joint military exercise in nearly 40 years, marking another step in the growing ties between the world's two largest democracies that once sat on opposite sides in the Cold War.
The exercise is a first for the two armies, although there has been some contact between Indian and U.S. navies in the past.
``Exercises opened today and would continue for the next two weeks. It's the largest army exercise involving Indian and U.S. ground forces,'' the U.S. embassy spokesman in New Delhi told Reuters.
Exercise Balance Iroquois, in the northern Indian tourist town of Agra, comes in the midst of India's tense military stand-off with nuclear rival Pakistan which was triggered by an attack on the Indian parliament.
Close to a million troops are massed on both sides of the border raising fears of a fourth war between the neighbors.
The United States suspended military links with India and Pakistan after they carried out nuclear tests in 1998, but ties have resumed with both nations, especially after they backed U.S. forces fighting in Afghanistan.
``It is part of growing military relations between the two countries, it will make operations better,'' the spokesman said.
He said special operation forces from the Asia-Pacific Command are participating in the joint training.
Indian officials were not immediately available to give details on the number of soldiers participating in the exercise, taking place around 650 km (400 miles) from the Pakistan border.
While Pakistan has been a U.S. ally much longer than India, New Delhi has continued building up links with Washington in recent months.
Top military officials have exchanged visits and Washington agreed to resume sales of defense equipment that were banned under sanctions imposed after India's nuclear tests.
India last month bought eight long-range, weapon-locating radars from U.S.-based Raytheon Co, marking the first major weapons deal between the two countries in recent memory. Non-aligned India mostly bought Russian military hardware in the past but lately it has been shopping for hi-tech weaponry from the United States and Israel although Russia remains its main defense supplier.
Troops from both countries are also planning a joint mountain-warfare exercise in Alaska, the first time Indian troops will take part in war games in the United States.
-------- iraq
Rumsfeld: Iraqi borders should be sealed
May 11, 2002
Al-Bawaba via COMTEX
By Al-Bawaba Reporters
http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm?id=131w4413&Section=Countries&page=Iraq&channel=All%20Iraq%20News&objectid=2240355D-8F1A-11D4-867000D0B74A0D7C
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his Italian counterpart Antonio Martino talked with reporters at the Pentagon Friday, after they had met to discuss U.S.-Italian cooperation, Iraq and NATO affairs.
Rumsfeld answered questions about Iraq saying the United States is in conversations within the United Nations on the so-call "smart sanctions" being contemplated against Saddam Hussein's regime.
Iraq has porous borders, Rumsfeld said, and a lot of contraband moves across these borders. "It's common knowledge in the world that Iraq has an enormous appetite for weapons of mass destruction and military capabilities," he said.
"There's no question that if you have a determined dictator as we do with Saddam Hussein that he's going to continue to improve his military capability as he has been in recent months," the secretary said.
Iraq has taken civilian goods and converted them to military uses, he said. Iraq will continue to try to purchase these dual-use technologies, sanctions or not, he added.
"Whether or not it's likely those borders will be sealed and prevent things that will enhance Iraq's military capability (from entering the country) I think the answer is it will not," he said.
Meanwhile, the opposition Iraqi National Congress (INC) said the Iraqi government has massed troops at the border with Kurdish areas ahead of a "new aggression" against the towns of Suleimaniya and Erbil.
"The dictatorial regime in Baghdad has over the past three days dispatched large troop contingents, backed up by tanks and heavy artillery, to areas adjacent to Iraqi Kurdistan," the INC said in a statement.
Iraqi Kurdistan is a Western-protected Kurdish enclave that was established in northern Iraq in 1991.
The statement said the troops had occupied "offensive positions" in the provinces of Erbil and Kirkuk, "ahead of a new aggression against the towns Suleimaniya and Erbil".
The latter is ruled by Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the former by Massoud Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the parties who share control of the enclave.
KDP spokesman Dilshad Miran, contacted in London by AFP, played down the deployment, saying it was "a normal preventative measure due to US threats" against Iraq. (Albawaba.com)
-------- nato
NATO Plans to Trim Balkan Force
Alliance Cites Better Security, Stability in Bosnia and Kosovo
By Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, May 11, 2002
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A3486-2002May10?language=printer
BERLIN, May 10 -- NATO said today it will cut the peacekeeping forces it leads in the Balkans by about 20 percent in the next year, citing improvements in the security situation there.
The alliance will reduce forces in Bosnia by a third, from 18,500 troops to 12,000, because of better stability and the increasing irrelevance of heavy armor in a country where the major threats come from small weapons in the hands of nationalists and criminals, officials said.
"It is now appropriate to create lighter, more mobile and flexible forces," NATO said in a statement.
In Kosovo, the NATO-led force will fall from 38,000 troops to 33,200, and the five-brigade headquarters in the U.N.-administered province will be consolidated into three. But the United States will maintain sole command of its sector in eastern Kosovo, where it has built a large base, Camp Bondsteel.
The force reductions in Bosnia will begin after October elections there and will be completed by mid-2003, as will the cuts in Kosovo. Force levels in Bosnia are then likely to stabilize, officials said, but steeper reductions may follow in Kosovo in succeeding years.
Before the Bush administration entered office, some senior members had suggested that the United States would phase out its presence in the Balkans. However, the administration has since backed off from that position, taking the view that it should stay in with its European allies.
Since the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, the presence of Muslim radicals in parts of the Balkans has provided a new reason for U.S. forces to remain there.
Nearly 60,000 NATO-led peacekeepers entered Bosnia in 1995 as part of a peace accord that ended three years of war. In Kosovo, a NATO-led force of 50,000 troops entered the province in 1999 after Yugoslav troops withdrew following a 78-day bombing campaign by the alliance.
"Since we first sent forces to the Balkans much has changed and improved, and we are changing with them," said NATO Secretary General George Robertson. "What hasn't changed, though, is our determination to work with the people of the region to build peace and prosperity together."
The alliance said the planned changes would enable it to better address "regional issues such as refugee flows, border security, rule of law and extremism across all operational areas."
The cuts announced today would not affect the roughly 1,000-member NATO force in Macedonia. NATO and the 15-nation European Union are negotiating toward the goal of the EU taking over control of that operation in the fall.
Officials in Kosovo and Bosnia said the reductions would not affect security and came as no surprise. "Downsizing of the NATO troops in Bosnia is a result of a long process of consolidation of the security and political situation in the country and in its neighbors," said Amer Kapetanovic, spokesman for Bosnia's foreign ministry.
In Kosovo, the provincial prime minister, Bajram Rexhepi, said, "There is no reason for alarm -- their presence is still needed here, but I believe that this reduction will not reflect in troops' ability to secure Kosovo."
-------- pakistan
Rocket reportedly misses U.S. forces
05/11/2002
Associated Press
http://usatoday.com/news/world/2002/05/11/afghan-rocket.htm
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) - For the second time in two weeks, a rocket missed U.S. special forces hunting Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters in Pakistan's frontier tribal belt, a local official said Saturday.
The target was a vocational school in Miran Shah where about seven Americans are thought to bunk while working with Pakistani troops in the semiautonomous region along the Afghan border. U.S. officials haven't confirmed their presence at the building.
In Afghanistan, meanwhile, some 600 Afghan refugees who were thwarted in attempts to reach Australia before the U.S.-led war began returning home Saturday. At the same time, about 200 Pakistani prisoners captured while fighting alongside the Taliban were sent back to their country.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official in Miran Shah said two rocket launchers had been hooked up with timers in woods less than a half mile from the school and were aimed at the building.
The first rocket fired about 10:25 p.m. Friday and hit a sports complex 150 to 200 yards from the school, causing little damage and no injuries, he said. The second was set to fire at 2:25 a.m. Saturday, but was found and defused by authorities, he said.
The official said it was not known who was behind the attack.
A "big bang" caused people to flee their houses, fearful they were under attack, one resident, Mujdaba Khan, said by phone.
Early on May 1, a rocket was fired at the same school but struck a building about 300 yards away. No one was hurt in that attack - the first time U.S. forces came under fire since they began operating with Pakistani troops in the region several weeks ago.
The morning after that attack, people in the area found pamphlets from a previously unknown group calling on Muslims to "stand up against the army of Jews and Christians." The pamphlets also said the killing of Pakistani troops and officials assisting the Americans was "justified."
The arrival of U.S. special forces in the frontier area has provoked protests from the fiercely independent tribesmen, whose region generally has been off limits even to the Pakistani army. The area has been a stronghold of support for Osama bin Laden, and its religious schools supplied Afghanistan's ousted Taliban with recruits and some of its leaders.
Pakistan's government says the Americans are providing only communications and intelligence assistance, but tribesmen say they have seen American soldiers with Pakistani troops on raids of religious schools in the area.
In Afghanistan, about 30 U.S. commandos working with 200 Afghan soldiers raided 10 houses before dawn Friday, taking nine men into custody on suspicion of aiding Taliban and al-Qaeda members hiding in Kandahar, police and witnesses said Saturday.
Attempts to reach spokespeople at the U.S. air base at Kandahar or the main coalition base in Bagram, north of Kabul, were not successful.
Sardar Wali, 22, said he was asleep when the American commandos and Afghan soldiers entered his family's house about 3:20 a.m. after breaking through the main gate.
"All male members of the family were searched before they threw some of them in the vehicles," he said. Six members of the family were arrested, he said. One - his 75-year-old grandfather, Saleh Mohammed - was released due to his age.
Mohammed said he was questioned for hours at the police headquarters in the presence of the Americans. Wali and Mohammed denied the family supported al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
Three men from another family were also arrested, witnesses said.
The city of Kandahar was once the power base of Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban's spiritual leader, but residents say they have not seen him since he fled the city in December.
Meanwhile, the 36 Afghans who flew home from Indonesia on Saturday marked the beginning of a mass repatriation of some 600 Afghans stranded in that Southeast Asian country when they tried to get to Australia to seek political asylum.
Last August, Australian Prime Minister John Howard stopped the influx of Afghans, who reached Australia on rickety boats with the help of smugglers.
More than 500,000 Afghan refugees have come home in the past two months, most of them from camps in neighboring Pakistan and Iran.
Also Saturday, 204 Pakistani prisoners were flown home after a northern Afghan leader released them from the squalid Shibergan prison, where they had been held for nearly six months in cramped quarters and with little food.
Pakistani C-130 transport planes took them to Peshawar, near the Afghan border, and prisoners were put on police buses under tight security. They appeared to be mostly in their late teens or early 20s, tired but smiling behind beards.
-------- us
Afghanistan Maps for Pilots Were Delayed by Foul-Ups
New York Times
May 11, 2002
By JAMES RISEN
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/11/international/11SATE.html
WASHINGTON, May 10 - Thousands of new satellite photographs of Afghanistan lay idly in storage at the height of the American military campaign last fall, as technological and then bureaucratic failings kept them out of the hands of Air Force pilots desperate for more accurate maps of the remote country, industry and military officials say.
For nearly a month after the bombing campaign began, pilots had to make do with old Russian maps of Afghanistan, because the American intelligence community was slow to figure out how to process and distribute satellite photographs from a private contractor, the officials say.
Once Air Force officers discovered that thousands of the fresh, high-resolution satellite pictures were sitting on CD-ROM's in storage at a military base here, they skirted the bureaucracy and began ferrying the photographs themselves directly to a forward air base in Saudi Arabia. But the episode underscores the way American intelligence's management of spy satellite technology has encountered problems in trying to integrate information from the private sector.
The war in Afghanistan was the first in which a private company was able to provide high-resolution satellite photography, supplementing the work of the government's own spy satellites. Soon after the Sept. 11 attacks, Space Imaging Inc., the first company to sell high-resolution satellite photographs on the open market, gave the government exclusive rights to all its imagery of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The Pentagon bought all of Space Imaging's photographs of those two countries in part to keep them from being made public at a time when the United States was undertaking its military operations in the region.
In fact, the Pentagon has long feared that the growth of commercially available satellite photography could jeopardize secrecy in American military movements. So when President Bill Clinton issued an order in 1994 allowing for the limited commercial use of such technology, the Pentagon demanded - and won - the exclusive right to buy commercial images of any given region during a crisis, denying others the ability to use them.
Some officials at the Pentagon realized, however, that commercially available satellite photography had uses that not only should be denied foes but also could enhance the American military's own efforts: the technology is perfect for making maps for fighter pilots.
To be sure, the government's own spy satellites were taking thousands of new photographs of Afghanistan last fall. But, Air Force officials say, many of the extremely-high-resolution photographs taken by government-operated spy satellites are not well suited for producing maps of large swaths of a country. The exact capabilities of the government's spy satellites are classified, but they are believed to be able to pick out an object just four to six inches wide from 400 miles in space. With that level of resolution, the area photographed is relatively small, making the images impractical for map making.
By contrast, Space Imaging's satellite cameras can detect only an object with a width of at least one meter, about three feet. That means the camera takes pictures of larger areas, which can be used to make maps.
"As a pilot, there might be one day when you need a very detailed picture of a building in Kabul, and then another day when you need a large and very accurate map of a valley in the Tora Bora area," an Air Force official said. "And you want that map to be current so it shows you things like new power lines. You don't want to suddenly find out about new power lines while you are flying through a valley."
But in the initial stages of the war in Afghanistan last fall, American pilots often had to make do with old maps from the Russians and other sources, even as Space Imaging, based in Colorado, was sending thousands of new photographs to the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, a Pentagon bureau that processes and analyzes spy satellite pictures for American intelligence.
Part of the problem was that the mapping agency was not able to handle the digital river of data that Space Imaging was sending. Space Imaging tried to send all its satellite photography by high-speed modem, but the agency's outmoded systems, though compatible with the government's spy satellites, lacked the bandwidth to receive this data, agency officials acknowledge.
So Space Imaging began copying all its photographs onto CD-ROM's and shipping them to the mapping agency. Some of the photographs were then distributed at the Pentagon and other agencies. But for the first few weeks of the war, many of the CD's simply sat in an imagery library at Bolling Air Force Base here - a victim largely of a culture change entailed in dealing with privately generated data, officials of the mapping agency acknowledge.
Finally, three or four weeks into the air campaign, Air Force officials began flying the photographs to an air operations center at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. From there, new imagery was distributed to front-line air squadrons.
-------- POLICE / PRISONERS
Agent Alleges FBI Ignored Hamas Activities
Chicagoan Sues, Saying Bureau Refused to File Charges, Disrupt Pre-Sept. 11 Crimes
By James V. Grimaldi and John Mintz
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, May 11, 2002
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A3860-2002May10?language=printer
An FBI agent in Chicago has accused his superiors of ignoring the pre-Sept. 11 criminal activities of alleged U.S. associates of the Islamic Resistance Movement, the terrorist organization also known as Hamas. The agent also alleged that the bureau steered agents away from filing criminal cases that he believes could have disrupted Hamas's operations in this country.
Agent Robert G. Wright Jr. made the accusations last fall in a complaint filed with the Justice Department's inspector general -- an internal watchdog -- and the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility, the internal affairs unit that investigates the conduct of agents, said sources familiar with the matter.
On Thursday, Wright, a 12-year FBI veteran, filed a lawsuit against the bureau in U.S. District Court in Washington. He accused the FBI of violating his First Amendment rights byprohibiting him from making his complaints public. He also has written a 500-page manuscript he wants to publish as a book titled "Fatal Betrayals of the Intelligence Mission."
"FBI management failed to take seriously the threat of terrorism in the United States," Wright's lawsuit claims. "FBI management intentionally and repeatedly thwarted and obstructed Wright's attempts to launch a more comprehensive investigation that would identify terrorists, their sources and methods of funding before they attacked additional U.S. interests, killing more U.S. citizens."
FBI officials strenuously denied Wright's assertions and some of the officials, speaking anonymously, said he is disgruntled about being marginalized after intense struggles with supervisors over his investigations. They added that he had only limited understanding about superiors' reasons for rejecting some of his recommendations. Wright was taken off the Hamas investigation in August 1999.
"The collective Chicago efforts are part of a much larger, national counterterrorism effort, which is ongoing," FBI spokesman Mike Kortan said.
Wright's lawsuit was filed a day after the FBI was chastised by Congress for failing to more aggressively look into a July 2001 recommendation from its Phoenix field office that U.S. aviation schools should be canvassed for Middle Eastern men seeking flight training.
Wright is represented by David Schippers, the Chicago attorney who was the House Republicans' counsel during President Bill Clinton's impeachment, and Judicial Watch, a Washington activist group that frequently sues the government.
Schippers was unavailable for comment last week. Judicial Watch Chairman Larry Klayman and Wright both declined to comment.
Wright's complaint to the inspector general has not been made public, but elements of it appear in his lawsuit. According to sources, Wright has alleged that his immediate supervisors directed him not to open criminal investigations of people and groups allegedly affiliated with the Islamic Resistance Movement, which claims responsibility for suicide bombings against Israeli civilians. The U.S. government has declared Hamas a terrorist group.
The FBI, according to Wright's complaints, spent too much time on intelligence investigations of alleged terrorist associates. Intelligence investigations are designed primarily to gather information and rarely result in indictments.
Criminal investigations could have broken up the operations of the Hamas affiliates Wright was investigating, and could have disrupted the financing of the groups by Saudi interests that also funded Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network, the lawsuit contends.
Current and former FBI officials said Wright's denunciation of intelligence operations is ill-founded. The investigations often yield valuable leads about sensitive foreign groups, while Wright's favored tactic of filing criminal charges can shut off such streams of information, they said.
Because Wright did not investigate al Qaeda, he does not directly or indirectly allege that the FBI ignored evidence regarding the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, according to sources.
But he does contend in his lawsuit that the FBI routinely gathers evidence about terrorist operatives -- "such as the perpetrators of the Sept. 11 attacks" -- to be used to solve the crimes only after they occur, but not to prevent them.
The FBI denied the suggestion. "No information has been uncovered, either before or after Sept. 11th, that tied any of the 19 hijackers to the subjects and activities" Wright was investigating, the FBI's Kortan said.
Wright cites a positive job review in his lawsuit and notes that his work resulted in the seizure in 1998 of $1.4 million that the government said was being used by Hamas. But he has also run into trouble himself: he was investigated recently for allegedly harassing an Arab American agent and for alleged sexual harassment of a female agent. The status of the harassment complaints is not known.
In the case of the Arab American agent, sources said, Wright had asked the agent to wear a clandestine listening device to record his conversation with the president of a company suspected of having ties to Hamas. According to Wright's account, the agent allegedly refused, leading to bad blood between them.
-------- terrorism
Feds Warn on 'Trucking Terrorists'
By Jonathan D. Salant
Associated Press Writer
Saturday, May 11, 2002
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A4098-2002May11?language=printer
WASHINGTON Even after Sept. 11, there are insufficient safeguards to prevent would-be terrorists from getting licenses to haul truckloads of hazardous materials, government investigators say.
"Existing federal standards and state controls are not sufficient to defend against the alarming threat" posed by individuals who seek to fraudulently obtain commercial driver's licenses, said a report by the Transportation Department's inspector general.
Department spokesman Chet Lunner said the agency was following many of the recommendations.
The report was issued Friday amid continuing worries about terrorists using trucks loaded with gasoline, bombs or other hazardous materials in the same way that hijackers used commercial airliners to kill thousands on Sept. 11.
"U.S. territory is more likely to be attacked with (weapons of mass destruction) using non-missile means," CIA official Robert Walpole told the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee in March, citing trucks, ships or planes as likely vehicles for chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.
FBI agents investigating the terrorist attacks found that several men of Middle Eastern descent had obtained fraudulent licenses to transport hazardous materials.
Joan Claybrook, who headed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration during the Carter administration, said the shortcomings noted Friday create loopholes that can be exploited by terrorists.
"It means you can have terrorists get their hands on them and legitimately drive vehicles that have toxic chemicals and nuclear materials," said Claybrook, now president of the advocacy group Public Citizen.
The federal and state agencies that oversee the trucking industry do not carry out detailed checks to make sure that driver's licenses are properly issued, the inspector general said.
Only four of 13 states examined by the inspector general's office required applicants to prove they were citizens of the United States or legally in the country, the report said.
Many states do not require applicants to prove they live in the state, do not verify Social Security numbers and do not give tests to prove whether a driver can read and speak English, it said.
Assistant Inspector General Alexis Stefani recommended new federal rules to address the problems.
Lunner said many of those suggestions would be followed.
"We are implementing many of the recommendations of the inspector general's report," Lunner said. "We are working diligently with the states to improve their systems."
Dave Osiecki, vice president for safety and operations for the American Trucking Associations, acknowledged problems with licensing drivers. However, he said, the number of fraudulent licenses was small compared with the 10 million truck and bus drivers on the road.
"The industry has seen gaps in this program for a significant period of time," Osiecki said. "Federal oversight of state compliance has been one of those gaps. Most who follow the program know oversight could have been and can be improved."
The Transportation Department is writing regulations requiring background checks before a state can issue or renew a license that allows the driver to carry hazardous materials.
On the Net:
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration: http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov
Inspector General: http://www.oig.dot.gov
-------- ENERGY AND OTHER
-------- human rights
In Time for Carter's Visit, Cubans Petition Government
New York Times
May 11, 2002
By DAVID GONZALEZ
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/11/international/americas/11CUBA.html
HAVANA, May 10 - Two days before a historic visit to Cuba by the former President Jimmy Carter, human rights activists today delivered an extraordinary challenge to the Communist government of President Fidel Castro in the form of petitions signed by more than 11,000 people seeking greater freedom.
The petition drive, known as the Varela Project, calls for a referendum under the terms of the Cuban Constitution on whether there should be more freedom of expression, an amnesty for political prisoners and a chance for ordinary citizens to own small businesses.
The signed petitions were delivered this morning to the National Assembly, after supporters painstakingly verified each signature, in the most significant peaceful effort to bring reform to Cuba in four decades.
"All of these Cubans, who with great courage and sacrifice have signed Project Varela, are the social vanguard for peaceful change in Cuba," said Oswaldo Paya, who led the drive. He said changes in the rights of Cubans could only be achieved peacefully.
The delivery of the petitions seemed timed to coincide with the visit by Mr. Carter, who made human rights a leading issue of his presidency. Not everyone in the dissident community supported the move. Some had rejected the petitions because the proposed referendum would be carried out by a political system they consider illegitimate.
President Castro made no mention of the drive during a speech tonight addressing another issue that arose in advance of Mr. Carter's visit.
Mr. Castro denounced as "sinister lies" the State Department's accusation this week that his government was developing germ warfare capabilities and sharing them with rogue nations.
While his country has expended considerable efforts to develop vaccines and medicines, at no time was it exploring biological weapons, Mr. Castro said. He added that his country's biotechnology centers had nothing to hide.
"No one has produced a single piece of evidence that any program for developing nuclear, chemical or biological weapons has been set up in our country," Mr. Castro said. "Those who have no sense of ethics, or who fail to understand that the government of Cuba abides by truth and transparency, might at least understand that it would have been utterly stupid to behave in any other way."
On Monday, a State Department official accused Cuba of developing limited biological warfare weapons. The official, John R. Bolton, under secretary of state for arms control, said that Cuba, renowned for its biotechnology research, had also provided "dual use" technology to rogue nations.
His comments, made during a speech at the Heritage Foundation, were the first public comment by United States officials on previously classified intelligence reports.
Mr. Bolton also described Libya and Syria as working to develop biological weapons. His remarks were welcomed by conservatives who advocate a harder line against Cuba. Lawmakers in favor of reviewing Cuba policy regarding trade and travel restrictions were skeptical of his allegations.
Among the places Mr. Carter will visit is a biotechnology research center that is frequently showcased to foreign guests. The center has been a leader in developing vaccines and other medicines and has also done research on genetic engineering.
Mr. Carter was briefed last week by State Department officials, but neither they nor Mr. Carter's staff would comment on whether the biological weapons issue was raised during the briefing.
Mr. Castro said that his country had been working to develop a range of vaccines and medicines used to treat everything from meningitis and cancer, and that his country's research facilities had been visited by officials and executives interested in acquiring new products.
"The doors of our research centers are open to any international institution," he said. He added that Cuban biomedical technology and products had been acquired by other countries, including Iran and Britain.
-------- ACTIVISTS
Free From Terror - Government By Anthrax
by Richard J. Ochs,
May 9, 2002
http://www.freefromterror.net/
Coup d'etat a sudden decisive exercise of force in politics by a small group.
Cabal a number of persons secretly united to bring about an overturn or usurpation, esp. in public affairs (Websters).
Who spread the anthrax last October and why? Well, who has that strain of anthrax and who has a motive? Most commentators and the FBI agree that only a select group of Americans have easy access to the Ames strain of anthrax used in the letters mailed last October. But why would any of them want to kill and terrorize Americans? The clue is in the timing. A chronology of events suggests that the motivation was to boost passage of controversial legislation in Congress last October, called the USA Patriot Act. A number of unlikely "coincidences" associated with the anthrax attacks makes it hard to believe that they were random.
CONSIDER THESE "COINCIDENCES"
ˇ The anthrax attacks were concurrent with the debate of Bush's Patriot Act by Congress and the media.
ˇ All the senators receiving anthrax letters were trying to amend the Patriot Act to protect civil liberties and the innocent.
ˇ Two other senators received anthrax letters mailed the same day that Senator Feingold blocked an attempt to rush the bill through without discussion or amendments.
ˇ Senator Leahy received an anthrax threat after he expressed reservations about the Bill. As Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, he managed the debate on the Bill.
ˇ Senate Majority Leader Daschle received the first Senate anthrax letter as he led the opposition to the original version of the Bill.
ˇ After receiving the anthrax letter, Daschle switched from supporting a 2 year limit on the Bill, later defending a 4-year sunset clause as the "appropriate balance."
ˇ No Republican received an anthrax letter.
ˇ The House and Senate buildings were closed and not reopened until after the Patriot Act was passed.
ˇ The Supreme Court was shut down with an anthrax scare the day after the constitutionally-challenged Patriot Act was signed by President Bush.
ˇ All the contaminated letters contained the Ames strain of anthrax, the DNA of which is traced to the original batch preserved in a university lab in Ames, Iowa. This strain was "weaponized" in Utah into a potent powder with an elaborate secret technique developed at Fort Detrick, Md.[1]
ˇ The FBI failed to interview Ft. Detrick anthrax experts for two months into their investigation, doing it only after the experts complained to the press of gross incompetence on the part of the FBI.
ˇ The FBI allowed the Iowa state lab to destroy the original batch of the Ames strain, making tracing the anthrax type more difficult.
ˇ The FBI overruled local homicide detectives who think that an anthrax expert was murdered, possibly because he knew too much.
A CURIOUS FLOW OF EVENTS
The following is a merger of "A Chronology of Anthrax Events," published by the South Florida Sun-sentinel,[2] and the simultaneous proceedings of the Patriot Bill in Congress as reported in the local press.
Sept.16 -- Anti-terrorism bill proposed.[3]
Sept.18 Two letters containing Ames anthrax are postmarked in Trenton, N.J., addressed to Tom Brokaw of NBC Nightly News and the New York Post.
Sept.28 Boy visiting ABC network in New York contracts anthrax.
Oct.2 USA Patriot Act anti-terrorism bill is introduced in Congress.
Oct.3 Tabloid editor of Boca Raton Sun, Florida, hospitalized with anthrax and dies two days later.
Oct. 3 Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (Dem., S.D.) says he doubts the Senate could take up the anti-terrorist legislation before next week, as the administration had asked. Attorney General John A. Ashcroft accuses Senate Democrats of dragging their feet.[4]
Oct. 4 Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (Dem., Vt.) accuses the administration of reneging on an agreement on the anti-terrorist bill. Some warn that "lawmakers are were overlooking constitutional flaws in their rush to meet the administration's timetable."[5]
Oct. 6 Under the headline, "Glow of bipartisanship seems to dim," the Baltimore Sun reports: "...opposed by most Senate Democrats, Ashcroft complained about the rather slow pace...over his request for law enforcement powers...Hard feelings remain."[6]
Oct. 8 Under the headline, "Cracks in Bipartisanship Start to Show," The Washington Post reports, "Congress has lost some of the shock-induced unity with which it first responded to the [9/11] attacks."[7]
Oct.9 Senator Feingold blocks an attempt to rush the Patriot Act to a vote with little debate and no opportunity for amendments. Feingold criticizes the Bill as a threat to liberty.[8]
Oct.9 Identical anthraxed letters are postmarked in Trenton, N.J., with lethal doses to Senators Daschle and Leahy.
Oct. 10 & 11 The original batch of the Ames strain of anthrax is destroyed with the permission of the FBI, making tracing the anthrax type more difficult.[9]
Oct.11 First Senate version of the Bill passes.[10]
Oct.12 First House version of the Bill passes.[11]
Oct.12 House-Senate debate on Bill starts.[12]
Oct.12 Second anthrax case reported at NBC in NYC.
Oct.13 Baltimore Sun reports that the media may have been targeted for a "coordinated bioterrorism" attack.[13]
Oct.13 President Bush says: "The anthrax attacks might be tied to Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaida terrorist network."[14]
Oct.15 Tom Brokaw of NBC receives anthraxed letter containing Islamic threats and phrases.
Oct.15 Senator Daschle's office opens the letter mailed Oct.9, containing a lethal dose of anthrax. Senator Leahy's similar letter was misrouted to Virginia.
Oct.16 The Senate office buildings shut down.
Oct.17 House of Representatives shut down; 28 congressional staffers test positive for anthrax.
Oct.17 The New York and Florida letters are found to contain the Ames strain.
Oct.18 An assistant of CBS Dan Rather contracts anthrax.
Oct.21 Letters to N.Y.Post, NBC and Senator Daschle are found to have identical handwriting of "Death to America, Death to Israel, Allah is Great."
Oct. 24 House passes the final version of the Patriot Act and other previously unpopular Bush projects: Alaska oil drilling, $25 billion in tax cuts for corporations, taps into Social Security funds and cuts in education.[15]
Oct.25 Congressional mail halted. Senator Daschle switched from supporting a 2 year limit on the Patriot Act to defending a 4 year sunset clause as the "appropriate balance."[16]
Oct.26 Senate passes the final version Patriot Act.[17]
Oct.26 President Bush signs the constitutionally questionable USA Patriot Act.[18]
Oct.27 Supreme Court shut down with anthrax scare.[19]
November -- No more anthrax letters received by anyone.
November Congressional buildings reopened.
November Three top anthrax experts with knowledge of the U.S. bioweapons program died under suspicious circumstances within a ten day period.
CONGRESS TERRORIZED
The atmosphere of terror in Congress was expressed by Representative Dennis Kucinich of Ohio: ". . . a state of siege trap[s] us in a state of fear, ill equipped to deal with the patriot games, the mind games, the war games. . ." He lamented the physical and psychological disruption and disorientation of lawmakers at a time when calm objectivity was required for wise decisions.[20] No doubt, the terrorized senators accepted an anti-terrorism bill more threatening to the rights and wellbeing of citizens than they otherwise would have. They granted more power to the President than they otherwise would have.
New York Times commentator William Safire wrote under the heading, "Seizing Dictatorial Power," that "Bush admits to dismissing the principles of law and the rules of evidence that undergird America's system of justice."[21]
The anthrax letters to the media can be considered peripheral to political targets. They guaranteed publicity and heightened general hysteria. Janette Rainwater, Ph.D., wrote that anthrax threats are useful "in creating panic and, in this case, providing a climate wherein legislation curtailing civil liberties can be passed."[22]
The anthrax scare at the Supreme Court likewise put a chill on their mission to defend civil liberties. Whether the anthrax is believed to have come from foreigners or Americans, the threats resulted in the granting of more power to the Executive Branch by the Legislative and Judicial Branches, seriously damaging "checks and balances."
FBI COMPROMISED?
The FBI's performance since the anthrax attacks has indicated either gross incompetence, conspiracy or cover up. The FBI allowed the Iowa state lab to destroy the original batch of the Ames strain on Oct.10 and 11, making tracing the anthrax to its origins impossible.[23] The Bureau was criticized by Congress for not securing critical material evidence in one of the most frightening attacks on public health this country has ever seen.[24] Moreover, the Baltimore Sun reported on Dec.9: "Two months after the FBI mobilized hundreds of agents to investigate the anthrax attacks, the bureau still has not interviewed the only Americans with experience producing anthrax for use as a weapon: aging veterans of the U.S. biological warfare program based at Fort Detrick."
According to Dr. Barbara Hatch Rosenberg of the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), "The source of the mailed anthrax, or the information and materials to make it, is a U.S. government program."[25] The Baltimore Sun reported on Dec.9, 2001, that "Organisms made at a military lab in Utah are genetically identical to those mailed to members of Congress." On February 5, Rosenberg wrote in the FAS webpage: "For more than 3 months now, the FBI has known that the perpetrator of the anthrax attacks is American."[26]
BBC News reported on March 14 that "Dr. Rosenberg, an acknowledged authority on U.S. bio-defense, claimed that the FBI is dragging its feet because an arrest would be embarrassing to the U.S. authorities." The BBC asked, "Has the FBI found the whole case too hot to handle?"[27]
During a lecture at Princeton University on Feb.18, Rosenberg claimed that the FBI has a prime suspect. She called on the public and news media to keep up the pressure on the FBI., saying some of her sources, who she described as "government insiders," have confided fear that the FBI might attempt to deal with the suspect discreetly, out of the glare of public scrutiny.[28] She wrote on Feb.5: "The perpetrator is cocksure that he can get away with it. Does he know something that he believes to be sufficiently damaging to the United States to make him untouchable by the FBI?"[29]
Stanford biologist Steven Block, a leading expert on biological weapons, said revealing the identity of the culprit(s) may also reveal "that the U.S. may be violating" the international treaty outlawing the development of biological and chemical weaponry. The U.S. still refuses to ratify the international treaty for bioweapons facility inspections.[30]
A leading anthrax expert, Dr. Don C. Wiley, who may have been in a position to know of such a cover-up, died under suspicious circumstances a month after the attacks began.[31] According to Memphis police officials, the bridge which Dr. Wiley fell off on November 15, 2002, had a railing "high enough that even the 6'3" Wiley could not have accidentally fallen over without assistance." The local police suspicion of homicide was overruled by the FBI "and other U.S. agencies," who insisted it was a suicide.[32]
Would a U.S. agency kill a non-cooperator? According to former South African National Intelligence Agency deputy director Michael Kennedy, when another top bioweapons expert Dr. Wouter Basson refused a job offer, the CIA allegedly threatened to kill him.[33]
A COVER-UP?
Counterpunch wrote: "Knowledgeable U.S. and foreign intelligence sources have revealed that Wiley may have been silenced as a result of his discovery of U.S. government work on biological warfare agents long after the U.S. signed the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention.[34] President Nixon had actually ordered the Pentagon to stop producing biological weapons in 1969. It now seems likely that the U.S. military and intelligence community fail to follow Nixon's orders.[35]
In fact, since 1972, "South African bio-chemical weapons allegedly transferred to the CIA included, in addition to anthrax, cholera, smallpox, salmonella, botulinum, tularemia, thallium, E.Coli, racin, organophosphates, necrotising fasciitis, hepatitis A, HIV, paratyphoid, Sarin VX nerve gas, Ebola, Marburg, Rift Valley hemmorrhagic viruses, Dengue fever, West Nile virus, highly potent CR tear gas, hallucinogens Ecstasy, Mandrax, BZ, and cocaine, anti-coagulant drugs, the deadly lethal injection drugs Scoline and Tubarine, and cyanide."[36]
What the U.S. government would not want divulged is the fact that the U.S. has been in flagrant violation of the 1972 Convention, Article 1 of which states: "Each State party to the Convention undertakes never in any circumstance to develop, produce, stockpile or otherwise acquire or retain: 1. Microbial or other biological agents, or toxins whatever their origin or method of production, of types and in quantities that have no justification for prophylactic, protective or other peaceful purposes. 2. Weapons, equipment or means of delivery designed to use such agents or toxins for hostile purposes or in armed conflict."[37]
Dr. Wiley's was not the only suspicious death of a scientist with knowledge of biological defenses. Just three days before Wiley's death, Dr. Benito Que, a Miami Medical School cellular biologist died after "four men armed with a baseball bat attacked him at his car." A week after Wiley died, Dr. Vladimir Pasechnik, a former Soviet bioweapons scientist was found dead near Britain's biological warfare center.[38]
For those who disbelieve the possibility that the U.S. Government is the number one suspect in the anthrax attacks, they are directed to James Bamford's book on the National Security Agency, Body of Secrets. The book reveals that in 1962, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Lyman Lemnitzer was planning, along with other members of the Joint Chiefs, a virtual coup d'etat against the administration of President Kennedy using acts of terrorism carried out by the military but to be blamed on the Castro government in Cuba. The secret plan was code-named Operation Northwoods.[39]
Cuba accused the U.S. of using biological war weapons against it during the 1970s. In his book, Biological Warfare in the 21st Century, Malcolm Dando refers to the U.S. bio-attacks against Cuba. "The American covert campaign targeted the tobacco crop using blue mold, the sugar cane crop using cane smut, livestock using African swine fever, and the Cuban population using a hemmorrhagic strain of dengue fever."[40]
CONSPIRACY
The number of unlikely "coincidences" associated with the anthrax attacks on the media and Congress makes it hard to believe that they were random. The simultaneous debate of Bush's Patriot Bill in Congress points to the existence of a cabal of domestic conspirators which succeeded in terrorizing the body politic to influence legislation.
If so, this American terrorism was much more harmful to democracy than the attacks on 9-11. It is frighteningly reminiscent of how Hitler grabbed power in 1933 when arsonists destroyed the Reichstag parliament building. Bush is taking advantage of widespread fear, whether he was party to the anthrax cabal or not. He is wielding dictator-like power to push through dozens of unpopular environmental, nuclear, economic and star wars policy changes. He has no electoral mandate for these policies and they have nothing to do with fighting terrorism.[41]
Moreover, the anthrax-aided Patriot Act gave the President unprecedented police power over all citizens, not just suspected terrorists or foreigners. According to Senator Russell D. Feingold, the act would "allow police to scan computer activity without a search warrant, to execute a search warrant without informing the subject, and to review private medical records as well as business records."[42] Representative Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland, who also voted against the Act, criticized "wiretaps that could record conversations of people unconnected to the investigation targets."[43] The anthrax terror in Congress weakened the rights and wellbeing of U.S. citizens.
POSSIBLE SUSPECTS
When any crime is committed, investigators always look for a motive. Who stands to benefit from the anthrax attacks? What interests stand to benefit? Let's consider some suspects:
Suspect #1: Al-Qaida.
While they may want to sow terror in the U.S., why would they target Democrats? If they struck the World Trade Center and Pentagon because they were centers of economic and military power, wouldn't it follow that they would target Bush and the Republicans? Since it appears the anthrax letters were timed to strengthen Bush's police power in the Patriot Act, wouldn't it be counter to al-Qaida's interest to do that?
Suspect #2: Iraq:
Likewise, Iraq would not have anything to gain by attacking opponents of the original Patriot Bill.
Suspect #3: A Lone Wolf:
Recent statements by the FBI and by Barbara Hatch Rosenberg theorize that the culprit is a disgruntled scientist, formerly with Fort Detrick.[44] Suspected motives include getting the government to spend more money on bioweapons research, proving his expertise and/or blaming it on a hated co-worker. David Franz, the former bioweapons commander at Ft. Detrick, said, "I think a lot of good has come from it. He told ABC News, "...we've now five people who have died, but we put about $6 billion in our budget into defending against bioterrorism."[45] Has a lone wolf morphed into a pack of wolves?
Suspect #4: The CIA:
The CIA has cultures of the Ames strain.[46] The Agency has been conducting secret experiments with powdered germs since 1997 at Battelle Memorial Institute in Ohio.[47] Battelle received the Ames strain from Fort Detrick in May of 2001.[48] The CIA said it was trying to develop defenses against anthrax, but did not explain why it was doing what other defense labs were set up to do. As of December 16, 2001, one FBI investigator said that the CIA's anthrax project was the "best lead they have at this point."[49]
Just as Oliver North ran an illegal and secret Iran-Contra scam out of the White House, with then President Reagan and CIA denying knowledge of it, so too could conspirators operate secretly and illegally to intimidate the congressional opposition now.[50] Former President Nixon did this also with his Watergate break-in, enemies list and domestic surveillance.[51] There is evidence that George H.W.Bush, former head of the CIA, made a secret pre-election deal in 1990 with the Iranian hostage holders, delaying their release until after the election to insure the victory of Ronald Reagan.[52] After all these dirty tricks, is it too outrageous to think the President's men would stoop to intimidating Congress with anthrax?
Suspect #5: The anthrax vaccine industry:
According to Leonard G. Horowitz, D.M.D.,M.A., M.P.H., "All findings have pointed to anthrax mailings being a white collar crime, a military-industrial conspiracy involving chief biological weapons firms and the CIA." Horowitz, a Harvard trained expert in public health and social and behavioral science, bases his conclusion on "the highly weaponized nature of the silica powdered anthrax that required a weapons savvy microbiologist and expensive equipment to produce."[53]
The Baltimore Sun reported on Oct.21, 2001, "The Bush administration asked Congress for $1.5 billion to stockpile emergency medicine. The N.Y.Times reported on Nov.16, 2001, "Senators seek $3.2 billion to fight germ threats, doubling the Bush plan." Horowitz wrote: "obvious suspects among the government "insiders" with economic and/or political motives to mail anthrax are Bioport, sole maker of the anthrax vaccine, smallpox vaccine makers OraVax/Acambis, Baxter, and Aventis, Bayer, and Battelle."[54] Remember that Battelle and the CIA have collaborated with anthrax since 1997 (see CIA above).
Suspect #6: The Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA):
It is common knowledge that the military wants military tribunals, secret trails, suspension of civil liberties and impunity from civilian control. They run Fort Detrick and the Dugway Proving Ground and control the Ames anthrax. They wanted a war in Afghanistan. They want lots of oil for the military machine. They don't want Congressional, media or public opposition. They want a free hand and have the power to get it. Several authors believe that the Joint Chiefs and DIA assassinated JFK because he removed nuclear missiles from the Soviet border during the Cuba missile crisis and would not bomb Cuba during the Bay of Pigs invasion.[55]
Suspect #7: Big Oil
It's been three years since Congress discussed removing the government of Afghanistan to make way for an oil pipeline: [56] Three months before 9/11, the US Government told India there would be an invasion of Afghanistan in October.[57] One month before 9/11, the BBC heard about the planned invasion of Afghanistan.[58] Five months before 9/11, Jane's Defense News got word of the planned invasion of Afghanistan.[59] The U.S. recently installed Hamid Karzai as the new interim president of Afghanistan and Zalmay Khalizad as the U.S. Afghanistan envoy. Both are former employees of Unocal, the future builder of the oil pipeline.[60] The attacks on the World Trade Towers got the American people angered into support of the war that everybody on the planet BUT Americans had been told was on the way before September 11.
Suspect #8: Israeli agents:
In the days right after 9/11, an influx of illegal Israelis was interdicted by INS officers.. Unlike the Arabs suspects, they were not detained. Israel cited the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan to justify their increasing attacks on Palestine, saying it was part of the war on terrorism. For several weeks, the ploy seemed to be working, as Bush sided with Israel against Palestine. A strong U.S. anti-terrorism Act is seen by Israeli leaders as helpful to their military plans. The anthrax attacks helped produce it.
The fact that the U.S. is a strong ally of Israel does not deter occasional hostile acts by Israel. Israel also has "sleepers" in the U.S., like Jonathan Pollard, who was imprisoned for spying on U.S. secrets.[61] It was reported on Feb. 26 that a (...) scientist, formerly employed at Fort Detrick, Md., Dr. Philip M. Zack, may be the culprit. He allegedly tried to blame an Egyptian co-worker, Dr. Ayaad Assaad, whom he despised. Surveillance cameras allegedly recorded Zack's entrance after hours at 8:40 PM on January 23, 1992. A co-worker named Dr. Marian Rippy allegedly let him in to conduct unauthorized research. Specimens of anthrax were reported missing during the same period.[62]
Israel also deliberately fired on the U.S. spy ship Liberty off their coast in 1967, killing 34 U.S. seamen so their massacres would not be observed.[63] A ship load of U.S. uranium, which disappeared in 1967 is believed to have been highjacked by Israeli agents to advance its secret nuclear bomb production.[64] The motto of their secret police is "By Way of Deception." One of their own assassinated President Rabin. Do they have a cabal operating outside the law which is just as fanatic as the Jewish Defense League or the Palestinian Hamas?
ANALYSIS OF SUSPECTS
Suspicion of al-Qaida can be eliminated to the extent that they were NOT enabled by American handlers, intent on using "foreign assets" as a cover. Only highly-placed US personnel have access to the Ames strain of anthrax.
Iraq has no significant biological weapons capability, according to Scott Ritter, former United Nations inspector in Iraq.[65] U.S. investigators have found no Iraqi connection to terrorism in the U.S.[66]
Any Zionist who worked at Ft. Detrick or Dugway may have had access to the Ames strain. A Jew would commit this crime only at a risk of inciting anti-Jewish sentiment if caught, which a scientist should be smart enough to know.
A vaccine company by itself is an unlikely suspect. If they wanted to "scare up a market" for drugs, they could have done so without carefully coordinating the attacks with the Patriot Bill.
Dr. Rosenberg theorized that the motive of a lone bioweapons scientist was to get more research money from the government. The sophisticated timing with congressional events would be unnecessary for that purpose.
The CIA and Battelle seem capable of pulling off this conspiracy. The CIA's history of covert action makes it entirely plausible.
Big Oil would pull off this coup, but they are not able to do it alone. The President and Vice President are oil men and they run the military and intelligence agencies. Either with or without Executive collusion, it would necessitate the involvement of military or intelligence personnel. Chances are great that the Joint chiefs and DIA are involved because they control the Ames anthrax and have a motive. An oil pipeline through Afghanistan was nixed by the Taliban before 9/11. Now it's back on track.[67]
CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATION?
The glaring coincidence of the anthrax attacks with the passage of the Patriot Act can only be ignored as an elephant is ignored at a tea party. It is believable that this coincidence was overlooked in the fall of 2001 due to all the confusion, including letters to other places. In historical hindsight, the connection is obvious. It can be ignored now only as Germans ignored the death camps the brazenness of the crime was unbelievable. Moreover, to admit the crime's existence requires a courageous response. Timid souls may be tempted to stick their heads in the sand rather than do what is required to expose and root out criminals in high places, especially in time of war. The obvious response would be a Congressional investigation with no holds barred, even if it goes all the way to the top. The war for democracy must start at home.
Land of the brave? Home of the free?
May 1, 2002
REFERENCES
[1] Balt.Sun, Dec.9, 2001
[2] Chronology of Anthrax Events, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sfl-1013anthraxchronology.story and USA Patriot Act: http://thomas.loc.gov/
[3] Associated Press, Oct.25, by Jessie J. Holland
[4] Washington Post, Oct.3, John Lancaster, pg.A6
[5] Washington Post, Oct.4, John Lancaster, pg.A21
[6] Baltimore Sun, Oct.6, Karen Hosler
[7] Washington Post, Oct. 8, Helen Dewar, pg.A21
[8] Balt.Sun, Oct.10.
[9] New York Times, Nov. 9, "Experts See FBI Missteps Hampering Anthrax Inquiry," William J. Broad, et al.
[10] Balt.Sun, Oct.13.
[11] op.cit.
[12] USA Patriot Act, http://www.thomas.loc.gov
[13] Balt.Sun, Oct.13.
[14] Balt.Sun, Oct.17.
[15] Balt.Sun, Oct.25 & 27; Washington Post, Sept.27, 2001, Juliet Eilperin, pg.A4
[16] Balt.Sun, Oct.10; AP, op.cit. Jessie J. Holland.
[17] AP, op.cit.
[18] Balt.Sun, Oct.27.
[19] Chronology, Sun-Sentinel, op.cit.
[20] Speech: "How Can We Justify This?" & "A Prayer for America", Dkucinich@aol.com
[21] NYT, Nov.15, 2001.
[22] www.janrainwater.com/htddocs/AboutAnthrax.htm
[23] Could the Anthrax Mailings be Military-Industrial Espionage?" by Leonard G. Horowitz, Dec.2001, p.9,www.tetrahedron.org To order: 1-888-508-4787; voice: 1-800-336-9266
[24] Peter J. Boyer, "The Ames Strain." The New Yorker, Nov.12, 2001, P.68.
[25] Balt.Sun, Dec.9, 2001.
[26] Federation of American Scientists, http://fas.org/bwc/news/anthraxpaper.htm
[27] BBC News, March 14, 2002 http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/audiovideo /programmes/newsnight/archive/newsid
[28] Anthrax Expert Stands by her Claim, Truthout, Joseph Dee, Feb.21, 2002, http://www/truthout.com/o2.23F.Anthrax.Expert.htm
[29] Commentary: Is the FBI Dragging its Feet?, Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, Federation of American Scientists, Feb.5, 2002. http://fas.org/bwc/news/anthraxpaper.htm
[30] Dallas Morning News, April 4, 2002, Tom Seigfried
[31] Counterpunch, "Anthrax and the Agency Thinking the Unthinkable," Wayne Madsen, April 8-9, 02, Pg.5 http://www.counterpunch.org/madsenanthrax.html
[32] op. cit., pg.5-6
[33] op. cit., pg.7
[34] op. cit. pg.6
[35] op. cit. pg.3
[36] op. cit. pg.7
[37] op. cit. pg.5
[38] op. cit. pg.8
[39] ABCNews.com, May 1, 2001, Book: U.S. Military Drafted Plans to Terrorize U.S. Cities to Provoke War With Cuba by David Ruppe, http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/jointchiefs_010501.html
[40] Counterpunch, "Anthrax and the Agency Thinking the Unthinkable," Wayne Madsen, April 8-9, 02, Pg.3 http://www.counterpunch.org/madsenanthrax.html
[41] Baltimore Sun, Oct. 10, 2001: "We see this as a power grab by the administration," said Laura Murphy of the American Civil Liberties Union. "They are taking advantage of the fear and anxiety of people to get through changes in the law that couldn't pass otherwise."
[42] Balt.Sun, Oct.10 & 25, 2001.
[43] Balt.Sun, Oct.13, 2001.
[44] NYT, Dec.14, 2001, William J. Broad
[45] ABC News.com, "No suspects, Few Clues," April 4, 2002, Brian Ross
[46] Reuters News Service, Dec.16, 2001, JoAnne Allen.
[47] NYT, Dec.13, 2001
[48] The Plain Dealer, Nov.30, 2001; Washington Post, Steve Fainaru
[49] Washington Post, Rick Weiss, Dec.16, 2001
[50] Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia: Iran-Contra Affair http://gi.grolier.com/presidents/aae/side/irancont.html
[51] New York Times, Nov. 16, 1997, "Call the Plumbers "www.nytimes.com/books/97/11/16/reviews/971116.16findert.html
[52] New York Times, April 15, 1991, "The Election Story of the Decade" by Gary Sick http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/1992_cr/h920205-october-clips.htm
[53] op.cit., Horowitz, page 10.
[54] op.cit., page 7.
[55] The Joint Chiefs of Staff opposed JFK's intentions to withdraw from Vietnam, establish détente with the Soviet Union and end the arms race. Kennedy also said he would "scatter the CIA to the four winds" after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. Judge for Yourself by John Judge, Coalition of Political Assassinations (COPA), P.O.Box 7147, Wash.DC 20044, www.geocities.com/open_secrets_2000 A Heritage of Stone by Jim Garrison NY, Putnam, HB, 1970;Bloody Treason by Noel Twyman, Laurel Publishing, December 1997 Hardcover.
[56] Hearing before the Sub-Committee on Asia and the Pacific of the Committee onInternational Relations of the House of Representatives, February 12,1998.) http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/ intlrel/hfa48199.000/hfa48199_Of.htm"...western companies could increase production...an increase of more than 500%...", John J. Maresca, V.P., Unocal Corp. "...construction of the pipeline we have proposed across Afghanistan could not begin until a recognized government is in place... So one of these days this war too will end. Then I believe the pipeline will be secure."
[57] Special Report in the Public Affairs Magazine: indiareacts.com called "India in anti-Talibanmilitary plan", June 26, 2001) http://www.indiareacts.com/archivefeatures/nat2.asp?recno=10
[58] BBC News' article by George Arney quoting Niaz Naik, former Pakistani Foreign Secretary, who was told by senior American officials in mid-July that military action would go ahead by the middle October, September 18, 2001, http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/en rld.south_asia/newsid_1550000/1550366.stm
[59] Rahul Bedi, "India joins anti-Taliban coalition" March 15, 2001. http://www.janes.com/securinal_ security/news/jir/jir010315_1_n.shtml
[60] Chicago Tribune, "Pipeline Politics Taint U.S. War," Salim Muwakkil, March 18, 2002
[61] CNN.com, "Source: Clinton Agrees to Release Convicted Spy Pollard," Oct.23, 1998, Wolf Blitzer.
[62] Baltimore Sun, Jan.21, 2002, Jack Dolan & Dave Altimari;"FBI Closes in on Anthrax Terrorist," by Hector Carreon, La Voz de Aztlan, Los Angeles, Alta, California. http://aztlan.net/Zack.htm
[63] CNN.com, "Israel's 1967 attack on U.S. ship deliberate, book says," David Ensor, April 23, 2001 www.cnn.com/2001/US/04/23/liberty.attack/#top_of_page
[64] Washington Report on Middle east Affairs, "With Friends Like This...," Dec.1986, Jane Hunter, http://www.washington-report.org/ backissues/1286/8612006.html
[65] CNN.com, "Former Arms Inspector Urges US-Iraq Dialog," March 24, 1999www.cnn.com/US/9903/24/ritter.about.face Iraq's main biological weapons facilities (supplied originally by the US and Britain) "have been destroyed and rendered harmless," according to a 1999 special panel of the UN Security Council. Not in Our Name, www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.06G.JP.Name.htm
[66] New York Times, Feb.5, "The CIA has no evidence that Iraq has engaged in terrorist operations against the US in nearly a decade, and the Agency is convinced that Saddam Hussein has not provided chemical or biological weapons to al-Qaeda or related terrorist groups." Reported in: http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.06G.JP.Name.htm
[67] This Pipeline War Has Been Planned for Three Years, http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/ifiwere.html
--------
Burma's beacon
EDITORIAL
May 11, 2002
Washington Times
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20020511-4300980.htm
To the people of Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi symbolizes democracy and freedom. Her release last week from house arrest by the drug-trafficking, human-rights-violating, military government of Burma will allow the forces of liberty to gain some traction. But the military is allowing democracy to gain only so much momentum. No date for elections has even been set. Although the military junta has released about 600 political detainees in recent months, more than 1,000 are still imprisoned. And in 1995, the junta had freed Mrs. Suu Kyi from confinement, only to arrest her again, solely because she tried to leave Burma's capital, Rangoon. In 1991, Mrs. Suu Kyi wasn't even able to collect her Noble Peace Prize, awarded for her courage in confronting the thuggish regime.
The junta claims it is merely serving as the guardian of Burma's stability until the country is ready for democracy. The junta's claim is clearly self-serving, and its 14-year rule clearly exposes its duplicity. The people of Burma have demonstrated they are quite ready for democracy. In 1988, the year the junta took power, the generals crushed mass pro-democracy demonstrations. Mrs. Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, won 82 percent of the seats in parliament in a 1990 election, which the junta promptly nullified.
Since then, many nations have imposed diplomatic sanctions on the regime and restricted foreign aid. The United States cut off all bilateral assistance to Burma in 1988 and doesn't grant it the trade preferences it gives other poor countries. The Clinton administration imposed a ban on new investments in Burma. These measures don't represent traditional trade sanctions, which would ban the country's exports, but appear to have helped prod Rangoon to release Mrs. Suu Kyi. Perhaps the approach used to sanction Burma - through diplomatic censure, restriction of aid, and denial of trade preferences - could serve as a less draconian yet effective model for penalizing other countries. If Rangoon follows up with other democratically-oriented measures, these sanctions could be gradually dismantled. The Clinton-era ban on investments, for example, could be the first to be relaxed.
But perhaps more significant than the sanctions is the people's unwavering desire for democracy. Mrs. Suu Kyi's resilience and graciousness is also difficult for the junta to counter through brute force. She will surely, some day, set Burma on the path to freedom.
--------
Cuban activists petition for broad reforms
May 11, 2002
By Vivian Sequera
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20020511-5603400.htm
HAVANA - Activists delivered more than 11,020 signatures to the National Assembly yesterday, demanding a referendum for broad changes in Cuba's socialist system less than two days before a visit here by former President Jimmy Carter.
Known as Project Varela, the signature-gathering campaign is seen as the biggest native, nonviolent campaign to force reforms in the government established by Fidel Castro 43 years ago.
The petitions propose a referendum that would ask voters if they favor civil liberties like free speech, an amnesty for political prisoners and the right to start their own businesses.
It was the first time dissidents had used a provision in Cuba's constitution that says the National Assembly should schedule a national referendum if it receives the verified signatures of 10,000 legal voters. "The heroes are these Cubans, more than 20,000 who signed this demand for an opening in a written declaration," campaign coordinator Oswaldo Paya said before entering the National Assembly.
Mr. Paya said that of the 20,000 signatures activists gathered in recent months, volunteers verified 11,020 - those delivered shortly before 11 a.m. to Columbia Lugo, a National Assembly secretary who deals with the public.
"All of these Cubans, who with great courage and sacrifice have signed Project Varela, are the social vanguard for peaceful change in Cuba," Mr. Paya said. "In Cuba, change for all rights will only be achieved if the majority of Cubans decide to conquer them peacefully. We are asking that the Cuban people be given a voice."
There was no immediate response from Mr. Castro's government to the initiative. Asked by reporters in April about the campaign, Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said he doubted it would succeed and accused its organizers of being on the U.S. government payroll.
----
9/11
Editorial by Alexey L. Yakovtsev, Programme SOTHIS
From: "Alexey L. Yakovtsev" <sothis@bk.ru>
Date: Sat, 11 May 2002
Hello!
Programme SOTHIS refers to you with an international author action born in the days of the 11-th September 2001 tragedy. We call you to share this Reference not only by giving your signs under it but also by spreading it further in your activities.
Half a year has already passed since the world was shocked by the American tragedy. The dust has settled down and again, having forgotten about everything, people watch with delight how Bruce Willis once again shows solution of all power problems by a singleton - a hero, how power effects prevail passions, how all of us cook in this infernal soup. We continue "to be witnessing from the live video feeds". Nothing has changed for the people since then. On the contrary, they fell down even deeper, because before September 11-th the ticket on a review of tragedy consequence were not sold and auctions where accessories of this violence act are sold were not conducted.
Mankind had an opportunity to take a new path, but we again have chosen the old one.
America had an opportunity to suppress the pain of grieve and show all the world not a reaction of offence but a possibility for the most powerful in the planet history nation to find the other way instead of that rivals of world peace and freedom present. But still nothing new was shown to the world, though there was a possibility then.
The world became another, but people did not change! And by this they have only accelerated their further falling. They have missed their chance (though I hope that it is not late yet), and behold: India and Pakistan have already restrained, Israel and Palestine have openly started the war, the Afghani question is still far from being closed, and Iraq already looms ahead. Things usually go this way: if someone can do something, why the others should not try the same? If there is a will, there is a way. And there is enough aggressive will in the world, but there is no responsibility.
Today the world doesn't know (or doesn't want to know) a way to come out from the all-planetary crisis. Anyway, the recipe of the Roman Club presenting the necessity to reduce the population of the planet by six times is greatly adored by many. However, that it isn't a way out. It never was, and it cannot become a way out. Only the continuous, undamped wave of a united spiritual impulse of all 6 milliards may invert the world on legs.
Today there shouldn't be any separation for Americans, Russians, Palestinians, Arabs or Jews. Saving is only in considering one's brother an earth inhabitant by every living. Only after that one will understand that he is not an American, a Jew, an Arab or a Russian, but also an earth inhabitant. It is the only one way out from today's civilization lockup. Or the third world war, in which there may not be, and won't be winners, will collect its revolutions. Or all mankind will come nearer to its destruction.
For the help I ask you, the brother mine. For the help to all of us. This is the Reference to people of our planet. This text was born September, 12-th in the city of Odessa, on the international congress devoted to information and energy correlations and evolution of the planet Earth. This text is a pain of many hearths. And, at the same time, of the few ones, because only 125 signatures today lie under it. But they are signatures of people without nation. These are signatures of the earth inhabitants. And this list is open...
In ask you to place this text on all your channels. We do not have today such ample opportunities as you do. Open the doors for that power, which our planet requires, keep movement of that uniform and undamped wave which will result in Light!
And one more. This text may seem heavy to many. Many will read it with ambitions, with hatred and offence in their hearts. But a surgical operation cannot be painless! "Whom I love, that I punish", - because truth is always impartial. Would your forces suffice to charge yourself a part of this responsibility for destinies of the planet?
I love you, as well as everybody, as well as our planet, as well as Life itself. Each person should deserve the right to such love by one's own deeds. So let us pray by our deeds. Let our common work prove "that peace, democracy and human life are stronger and more enduring than the buildings that symbolize them".
And let God help us!
SOTHIS Programme,
Alexey L. Yakovtsev,
Odessa-city, Ukraine
-------
------- OneList (submissions from subscribers)
------- Depleted Uranium Keeps On Killing!
-----------
Posted
without profit or payment for research and educational
purposes only,
in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107.