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NUCLEAR
British Reopening the Debate Over Privatization
Rumsfeld called to discuss Iraq
MILITARY
Political Realities Impeding Full Inquiry Into Afghan Atrocity
Jane's Missiles and Rockets
Israeli Ship Detained
Nightmare of crack nicotine
Counting the cost of combat
White House Pledges to Consult Congress and Allies on Iraq
Worldwide opposition to strike mounts
Israeli Tanks Kill Four in Gaza Family
Georgia sees rebels as Russia's problem
Safety violations found in Russian subs
Saudi Censorship of Web Ranges Far Beyond Tenets of Islam, Study Finds
POLICE / PRISONERS
Judge asks how FBI missed e-mail clues
Training at FBI focuses on terror
6 charged with aiding terrorism conspiracy
Germany Says Hijackers Picked Trade Center as Target in 2000
4 Men Charged With Being in Terrorist Cell in Detroit Area
OTHER
Wisconsin Team Engineers Hydrogen From Biomass
Hydrogen Powered BMW Turns Heads at World Summit
Water security key issue at UN summit
U.S. and Its Allies Clash Over Issues
Industry joins Greenpeace to demand climate action
ACTIVISTS
Big business accused of derailing Earth Summit
China's Top AIDS Activist Missing; Arrest Is Suspected
Stars not coming out for Earth Summit
Protest to the Subcritical Test
Sad circus elephant to join DC's "Party Animals"
-------- NUCLEAR
-------- britain
British Reopening the Debate Over Privatization
New York Times
August 29, 2002
By SUZANNE KAPNER
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/29/business/worldbusiness/29PRIV.html
LONDON, Aug. 28 - Sizable losses by one of Britain's largest nuclear power companies have reopened debate here over the limits of privatization.
The company, British Energy, is the latest example of the problems Britain has had with its privatization program. Facing declining energy prices and tough regulations, British Energy has lost millions in the last two years.
Last October, the Railtrack Group, which owns the nation's railroad tracks, signals and stations, was declared insolvent and effectively renationalized through a public-private partnership. In addition, the former air traffic control monopoly has struggled since it was privatized last year.
In the 1980's, under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Britain started turning state-owned entities into private companies, often by selling shares to the public. Private business, the thinking went, would be more efficient than the government at running businesses and providing services, and opening industries to competition seemed like the ideal way to pass savings on to consumers.
Analysts say that for the most part, that thinking holds true. They maintain that most of Britain's privatized industries - ranging from telecommunications to coal and steel - have worked.
But they also say that the recent trouble underscores important lessons that will serve as a bellwether not just for Britain, but for other European countries in the process of privatizing their industries.
"We've learned that not everything is right for privatization," said Philip Collins, director of the Social Market Foundation, a research institute here.
For British Energy, which was privatized in 1996 and produces 20 percent of the country's electricity, the limits came largely in the form of regulation that put nuclear generating companies at a disadvantage to other energy producers. Nuclear plant owners are required to pay a share of a climate control tax intended to limit carbon dioxide emissions, even though they do not produce the gas. And they also pay higher rates on property leases than fossil-fuel plants do.
British Energy has been lobbying for exemption from the tax and for revised property rates, which if changed could result in savings of £100 million (about $154 million) a year, analysts said.
Partly as a result of these restrictions, British Energy is losing money at its eight plants in Britain. Over all, the company lost £39 million ($59.9 million) in the most recent fiscal year, after losses of £23 million the year before.
The financial situation took on fresh urgency this week, when the company shut down two reactors in Scotland after problems with gas circulators were discovered. Two other plants in England are closed for scheduled maintenance. The total cost of the shutdowns could approach £80 million, the company said, though insurance will probably pay some of it.
Such losses are unsustainable, analysts said, especially if British Energy is to put away enough money to shoulder the cost, estimated at £14 billion over the next 15 years, of taking older plants off line.
The problems at British Energy come amid a broad review of the nation's energy policy.
Although electricity prices initially fell sharply, recent results have been mixed. A report by Credit Suisse First Boston estimates that since 2000, wholesale electricity prices, the prices at which British Energy sells its power, have dropped 36 percent, yet domestic retail prices remain flat - a poor scorecard for a free-market system that is supposed to benefit consumers.
Advocates of privatization said there was typically a lag between changes in wholesale and retail prices. But even free-market advocates agreed that the government would probably have to act if British Energy was to remain solvent.
Analysts said renationalizing the company would be an embarrassment, particularly after the Railtrack debacle. But there are less direct ways the government can help. One option is to transfer some reactor contracts from another company, British Nuclear Fuels, to British Energy, bolstering its revenue. The two companies said they were discussing such a proposal. But if wholesale electricity prices remain low, additional steps may be needed.
"It's almost inconceivable that the government would let British Energy go into receivership," Roger Reynolds of Credit Suisse First Boston said.
Eamonn Butler, director of the Adam Smith Institute, said that for free-market advocates, the solution is to limit politicians' involvement. But for others, issues of free markets are inextricable from matters of social justice.
"Whose responsibility is it when a commercial company doesn't provide for things that are socially necessary in the public realm?" Mr. Collins of the Social Market Foundation asked. "Where there are public goods at stake, a private market on its own hasn't delivered."
He and others suggest that the solution lies in public-private partnerships, like the model being tested with the railway system. In such a case, the company remains private, but the money it earns is put back into the services it provides. The Railtrack model is being scrutinized, analysts said, by Germany and the Netherlands, both of which are restructuring their rail systems.
Still, there is no guarantee that joint ownership will work, Mr. Collins said, mainly because it removes a pillar of free-market efficiency - "the threat of bankruptcy."
-------- us politics
Rumsfeld called to discuss Iraq
By Stephen Dinan
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
August 29, 2002
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020829-68214958.htm
Sen. John W. Warner, the senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, wants Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to appear before the panel to lay out the military case and options for invading Iraq.
In a letter to committee Chairman Carl Levin, Michigan Democrat, Mr. Warner said there is "a 'gap' in the facts possessed by the executive branch and the facts possessed by the legislative branch" and that it's time to build a legislative record about what the military might be called upon to do.
"We do not expect, nor should the president give us detailed plans of all his operations, but I think it's time to bring into focus what are the likely scenarios, in general terms - how do they affect the men and women of the armed forces and their families, what's the readiness situation?" Mr. Warner, Virginia Republican, said in a telephone interview.
Mr. Warner is the latest Republican to join other members on Capitol Hill who are calling for a broader congressional debate over U.S. policy toward Iraq. Earlier this month, House Majority Leader Dick Armey, Texas Republican, said the United States risked losing the support of other nations if it attacked Iraq "without proper provocation."
Still, Mr. Warner and other Republicans stress that they believe President Bush has the authority to act without further congressional approval. Democrats, however, have questioned the president's authority.
Mr. Bush believes he has the authority to order an attack on Iraq - though the administration hasn't ruled out seeking a congressional resolution backing military action - citing his grant of authority as commander in chief and the 1991 resolution supporting the Persian Gulf war.
But yesterday Sen. Robert C. Byrd, West Virginia Democrat and a senior member of the Armed Services Committee, said the administration's position is "wishful thinking."
He has been conducting his own survey of academics to sound out their views on the matter, and he said in a statement that the ones he has heard from so far are unanimous in their belief that new approval for action is necessary.
"There is an emerging consensus among leading constitutional scholars that the 1991 use of force resolution ceased to be effective once Iraq capitulated to U.S. and allied forces in April 1991," Mr. Byrd said.
Even though Bush officials say no decision has been made to attack Baghdad, the past few days have seen leading members of the administration put out signals that an assault is imminent. Vice President Richard B. Cheney addressed the issue on Monday, and Mr. Rumsfeld spoke on Tuesday. Both men made the case for pre-emptive action against Iraq based on Baghdad's connections to terrorists and on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's desire to obtain nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
"As one of those who worked to assemble the Gulf war coalition, I can tell you that our job then would have been infinitely more difficult in the face of a nuclear-armed Saddam Hussein," Mr. Cheney said.
"And many of those who now argue that we should act only if he gets a nuclear weapon would then turn around and say that we cannot because he has a nuclear weapon."
The Senate is in recess until after Labor Day, and Mr. Levin said he will wait until then before making a decision.
"Holding hearings on U.S. policy toward Iraq is something I have been considering," he said in a short statement. "After Congress returns to session, I will make a decision about whether to hold such hearings and, if so, which witnesses to call."
The House of Representatives is planning hearings of its own, and a White House spokesman with the president in Texas yesterday told reporters the administration welcomes and will participate in congressional hearings.
Mr. Warner views the Armed Services Committee hearings leading up to the 1991 congressional resolution approving the use of force against Iraq as a model for what could happen now. Those hearings led to a 52-47 vote in the Senate to support the Gulf war. The House voted 250-183 in favor of military action.
Those hearings allowed Congress to accept part of the responsibility for military action in 1991, and Mr. Warner said accepting congressional accountability should be an important part of the current debate.
He said hearings should begin with Mr. Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
In 1990, Mr. Cheney, who was then defense secretary, and Colin L. Powell, who was then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, were the first to testify before the Senate committee.
But Mr. Warner also said hearings should include part of the chorus of officials from previous administrations, including many Republicans, who are arguing against a pre-emptive attack.
-------- MILITARY
-------- afghanistan
Political Realities Impeding Full Inquiry Into Afghan Atrocity
August 29, 2002
By JOHN F. BURNS
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/29/international/asia/29GRAV.html
KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 28 - A statement issued by the government of President Hamid Karzai last week dispensed with ambiguity in describing the deaths of as many as 1,000 Taliban and Qaeda prisoners last winter while being taken in airless shipping containers to a prison at Shibarghan in northern Afghanistan.
The deaths, and a mass grave near Shibarghan discovered this spring, appeared to be a ``horrible atrocity that are a continuation of the bloody events that have gripped Afghanistan for the past two decades,'' the statement said. It pledged the support of the American-backed government for any investigation into ``this and other similar atrocities.''
But if the government's announcement sounded like a breakthrough in an issue that has been simmering for months, subsequent developments have made it clear that a full investigation of what happened to the prisoners may still be a long way off. Even the United Nations, which sent forensic experts to the grave site, at Dasht-i-Leili, for a preliminary investigation in May, now says that it considers a full inquiry to be impossible under current conditions.
The obstacle is the same thing that stands in the way of Afghanistan coming together again as a unified state after 23 years of conflict: The power of regional warlords. In the case of the mass grave site near Shibarghan, this means Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum. He is the ethnic Uzbek strongman who controls much of northern Afghanistan while holding the largely nominal positions of deputy defense minister and vice president in Mr. Karzai's government.
It was General Dostum's troops who oversaw the transport of the prisoners who appear to have ended up at Dasht-i-Leili. His troops control the territory around the grave site. Although General Dostum has promised to help any investigation, he has taken no steps to begin one, and has ordered no special security at Dasht-i-Leili. For months, the only inhibition to tampering with the site has come from United Nations officials who have periodically visited it from their regional office in Mazar-i-Sharif.
``We are talking about a potentially enormous war crime,'' Leonard S. Rubenstein, the executive director of Physicians for Human Rights, said today. No one knows how many bodies are buried at the site, he said, warning that someone anxious to destroy the remains could do so easily because of the lack of security. Two forensic experts from the group helped the United Nations with preliminary exhumations at the grave sites last spring.
These circumstances have convinced the United Nations special representative for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, that any attempt to mount a full investigation, including the exhumation of the dead prisoners, would pose serious risks to investigators and to witnesses. He has also concluded that pushing for a full inquiry now could destabilize the fragile political situation that has General Dostum offering verbal support to the Karzai government while effectively ruling much of the north as a personal fief.
At a news conference here on Tuesday, Mr. Brahimi, a former Algerian foreign minister, offered a regretful defense of the United Nations' failure to take a more assertive lead on the issue after dispatching the three-member forensic team that concluded in May that the causes of death of the three male bodies it exhumed were ``consistent with death due to suffocation.'' Survivors have recounted that General Dostum's troops beat back attempts by truck drivers to pass water to the prisoners in the containers and to drive air holes through the metal walls with spikes.
``I think we have a responsibility to find out what has happened, but our responsibility to the living has to have precedence,'' Mr. Brahim told reporters. ``We cannot take the risk of putting anyone's life in danger.''
On the political issues involved, he said that countries emerging from conflict - he cited Chile after the Pinochet era, and South Africa after apartheid - had often placed the need for stability ahead of justice.
``There are always decisions to be made about what can be done, and what cannot be done,'' he said.
Questions about what happened to the prisoners after they surrendered at the northern city of Kunduz last November are an issue for the United States, too, and not only because it was American military power that toppled the Taliban and opened the way for a new government in Kabul that has committed itself to democracy and human rights. Before and after the surrenders at Kunduz, American Special Forces units played a pervasive role in advising and coordinating the Northern Alliance troops of which General Dostum's units were a major part.
In the Pentagon's fullest statement yet on the issue, Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters in Washington on Monday that an internal review conducted by the United States military had turned up no evidence that American troops were in any way involved in what happened at Shibarghan. The general said that if the Pentagon were asked by the Kabul government to help with an investigation, ``we'll make a proper determination at that time of what kind of support they're asking for and what kind of support would be given.''
``I am comfortable that we have scrubbed the U.S. side of it very carefully,'' General Pace said.
``We have gone back and reviewed all of the reports of the Special Forces teams, especially with regard to reports about Shibarghan,'' he added. ``We've gone back and reassured ourselves that in fact all our teams did get the proper training before they went. We went back and reassured ourselves that the teams were debriefed when they came out of the field. In all of that, there have been zero reported cases of human rights violations by the teams that we had on the ground.''
-------- arms sales
Jane's Missiles and Rockets
August 29, 2002
Jane's Online
http://jmr.janes.com/ UK systems house displays 'droop snoot' missile concept
http://www4.janes.com/search97cgi/s97_cgi?action=View&VdkVgwKey=/content1/janesdata/mags/jmr/jmr00384.htm&Collection=current&ViewTemplate=doc_view_jmr.hts&Prod_Name=JMR&
The UK engineering consultancy Sula Systems has completed a concept study for a small, light and affordable man-portable air-defence system (MANPADS), writes Doug Richardson. The design was developed under the UK MoD's Applied Research Programme, and capitalises on equipment being developed for the future infantry soldier and for special forces in areas such as computers, communications, controls, and helmet-mounted displays.
AIR - TO - AIR HEADLINES
AGAT studies longer-range seekers Development work at Russia's AGAT seeker design bureau is looking at ways of increasing the range of an active-radar seeker with minimal effects...August 21, 2002
First export orders for AIM-9X South Korea has become the first export customer for the Raytheon AIM-9X Sidewinder missile, having selected the weapon (along with the Raytheon AIM-120C...August 21, 2002
AMRAAM P3I missile enters production Raytheon has received two contracts from the US Air Force Air Armament Center Counterair Joint Systems Program Office (JSPO), Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, for initial production of the P3I Phase 3 version of the AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM). The first of these was worth US$165 million and covered production of 387 Lot 16 AMRAAMs, supporting missile deliveries, programme engineering, and logistic services through August 2004. These weapons were for the US Air Force and Navy, Saudi Arabia and Japan. The award also covered associated warranties, software upgrades, instrumentation units and spares.August 21, 2002
SURFACE - TO - AIR HEADLINES
Aegis guides ESSM to target For the first time at sea, a Raytheon Company Evolved SeaSparrow Missile (ESSM) was successfully launched from a shipboard Mk 41 Vertical Launch...August 21, 2002
Iraqi air-defence communications targeted by US and UK aircraft When the US and UK mount air strikes in response to Iraqi attempts to engage allied aircraft patrolling the 'no fly' zones, those...August 21, 2002
Lithuania buys Raytheon Stingers
AIR - TO - SURFACE HEADLINES
Bazalt begins tests of MPK 'smart' bomb Russian State Research and Production Enterprise Bazalt has released the first information on its equivalent of the US Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM),...August 21, 2002
Boeing to develop hypersonic HyFly missile Boeing's Phantom Works advanced research and development unit is to design, develop and test-fly a hypersonic strike missile demonstrator vehicle able to fly at Mach 6 over ranges of up to 1,100km.August 21, 2002
BRIEFS - Enhanced Sensor-Fuzed Weapon enters production Textron Systems has begun production deliveries of the enhanced Sensor Fuzed Weapon to the US Air Force. A total of 300 weapons will...August 21, 2002
ANTI-TANK HEADLINES
Anti-tank missile seekers could get built-in jammers US Army researchers have studied missile seekers incorporating built-in jamming capability as a possible counter to active protection systems (APS) fitted to enemy tanks and other armoured vehicles, writes Doug Richardson. Intended to protect AFVs against weapons such as anti-tank guided missiles and rocket-propelled grenades, APS systems typically use radars to detect and track incoming missiles.August 21, 2002
Extended-range Javelin considered The US Army is considering an enhanced-range version of its current Javelin man-portable anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) to enhance the anti-tank firepower of...August 21, 2002
Rafael offers new Spike variants Rafael's Gill, Spike and NTD family of anti-tank missiles have acquired new designations - and a new member, writes Doug Richardson. The change...July 22, 2002
--------
Israeli Ship Detained
August 29, 2002
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/29/international/middleeast/29SEIZ.html
JERUSALEM, Aug. 28 - The Israeli Defense Ministry said today that an Israeli ship had been detained in the German port of Hamburg on suspicion that its cargo of rubber treads for armored personnel carriers was bound for Iran.
A spokeswoman said that the export license had indicated Thailand as the destination, and that Israel was joining Germany in an investigation. She said officials in Hamburg had found clues that the private cargo ship was bound for Iran. Israel prohibits sales of any sort of military equipment to Iran.
-------- drug war
Nightmare of crack nicotine
August 29, 2002
Washington Times
Jack Wheeler
In my book, smoking tobacco is unfathomably stupid. About the only thing more lethally dumb are extortionate taxes on tobacco.
Egged on by anti-tobacco activists, politicians in state after state around the country are indulging in an orgy of greed. Tobacco taxes have become a golden goose for government coffers. With a city tax alone of $1.50, a pack of cigarettes now costs $7.50 in New York City. The tobacco companies' standard objection is that higher taxes will lead to more cigarette smuggling. The anti-tobacco crowd's standard response is to demand adjacent cities and states have ever-higher tobacco taxes as well.
Yet the entire argument regarding increased taxes and cigarette smuggling is irrelevant and astoundingly naive. The true threat is unimaginably worse.
Nicotine is a naturally occurring substance found in many plants, such as eggplant. Its highest concentration occurs in tobacco leaves. Its function is to protect the plant against insects, i.e., it is a natural insecticide. Black Leaf 40, an environmentally safe and biodegradable agricultural insecticide used around the world, is 40 percent nicotine sulfate. Farmers have been using nicotine sulfate insecticide since the early 1800s. To make it, all you do is boil tobacco leaves in water with a little sulfuric acid (the same acid as in a car battery).
If you mix the resultant nicotine sulfate extract with a common alkali like lime, then add a solvent such as ether, pure nicotine alkaloid - or free base "crack" nicotine - will float to the top dissolved in the solvent which is then evaporated off. A trivially simple procedure that anyone with a high school chemistry course can perform, it is the same process as making free-base cocaine from cocaine hydrochloride powder.
And just as crack or free-base cocaine is far more addictive and lethal than cocaine hydrochloride powder, so crack or free-base nicotine would be frighteningly more addictive - and lethal - than tobacco.
The faster a drug rises in the brain, and the higher its concentration, the more potentially addictive it is. Smoking tobacco leaves is a quick and concentrated, and thus addictive, way to administer nicotine - unlike the nicotine skin patch, which delivers the drug slowly. Faster still - much faster and far more concentrated - than smoking plant leaves would be smoking nicotine free-base.
Nicotine is the most addictive substance known to science. It is far more addictive than any illegal drug, including heroin. Smoking crack nicotine would be the fastest way to administer the drug, making crack nicotine many times more addictive than tobacco.
Nicotine acts by stimulating the nicotinic cholinergic receptors located throughout the brain and body. If these receptors are mildly stimulated, such as via smoking tobacco leaves, there will be a sensation of heightened alertness, an improved capacity to focus and block out extraneous stimuli. Just as the high of crack cocaine is experienced more intensely by the addict than snorting coke powder, so will the high of crack nicotine be more intensely pleasurable to the tobacco addict than smoking tobacco leaves. But if the nicotinic cholinergic receptors are stimulated too strongly, one's brain and body will go into fatal convulsions.
In its ability to quickly and massively overstimulate one's nicotinic cholinergic receptors, crack nicotine is incredibly poisonous. One drop of 40 milligrams of pure uncut crack nicotine smoked in a glass pipe has a 50 percent chance of killing an adult. Two drops will kill you for sure. It is more toxic than cyanide, one-tenth (gram per gram) as toxic as typical military nerve gas. A few drops on your skin, one or two drops on your mucous membranes, and you are dead.
Thus, purveyors of crack nicotine would have to cut or dilute it with water (as it's water-soluble) by around 20-1. (The nicotine sulfate in Black Leaf 40, on the other hand, cannot be absorbed by the skin or membranes well; it is poison only if you ingest it - like an insect is supposed to).
There is an average of 2 milligrams of nicotine in one high nicotine cigarette. Total state and city taxes in New York City are now about $3 for a pack of 20 - a tax of 7.5 cents per milligram, or $75,000 per kilo of nicotine in cigarettes.
Three drums of nicotine sulfate extract would yield one drum, or 200 kilos, of crack nicotine. This could be manufactured at an average cost (ingredients, equipment, Third World labor) of less than $500. The tax-avoidance value ($75,000 a kilo) is 30,000 times that: $15 million for one drum of crack nicotine. That is a 3 million percent profit.
Further, one eyedropper-full of uncut crack nicotine would have a nicotine content of four cartons of cigarettes, one kilo poured in a 20 oz. soda-pop bottle would equal 5,000 cartons or 50,000 packs: a value-per-volume increase of 1,000 times for cigarette smugglers. A typical fix of cut crack nicotine (diluted 20-to-1, or 2 milligrams) would be 1 percent of a crack cocaine fix (200 milligrams) by weight - making it 100 times easier, in terms of size, to smuggle than cocaine.
Given these numbers, the politicians' greedy tobacco tax crusade makes the creation of a crack nicotine market inevitable and irresistible to organized crime. And likely to develop soon.
The fantasy of anti-tobacco activists, that ever-higher tobacco taxes will result in fewer people smoking, is going to result in a hideous nightmare instead. They could infinitely improve public health by ending their tax crusade and demanding safe alternatives to cigarettes, such as Nico Water (mineral water laced with 2 milligrams of nicotine), recently banned by the FDA and ignorantly opposed by anti-tobacco groups like Tobacco Free Kids. Unless they do, such groups are about to learn a horrible lesson taught by the law of unintended consequences - and all of us will suffer for it.
Jack Wheeler is president of the Freedom Research Foundation. He can be reached at freedomresearch@hotmail.com.
-------- iraq
Counting the cost of combat
Roger D. Carstens
August 29, 2002
Washington Times Editorial
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20020829-25436408.htm
In the past few weeks, we have been treated to the start of an engrossing national debate over whether to attack Iraq. Intellectual heavyweights like former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Bush 41's National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft have weighed-in on opposing sides, setting fault lines for what promises to be a contentious exchange. Vice President Dick Cheney and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein have even traded broadsides, with both parry and thrusts covering the front pages of every major newspaper from New York to New Delhi.
The debate, however, seems to lack an air of reality, almost as if it was conducted by the gods of Greek mythology as they lounge on clouds and offer great thoughts on subjects too beautiful for us to comprehend. The time is fast approaching, however, when the debate must be embraced by those who will execute or pay for U.S. strategy. Mailmen, market analysts and car mechanics must soon ask themselves if U.S. national interests with regard to Iraq are worth dying for.
The question is entirely personal. Would you give your life to force a regime change in Iraq? Would you spend the rest of your life in a wheelchair to further U.S. national interests? If you are not of military age, are you willing to send your precious sons and daughters into battle? And are you willing to bear the financial burden necessary to ensure that U.S. war aims are consolidated in the post-war phase?
Truth be told, U.S. war aims may encompass a grand strategy that goes well beyond Iraq and stretches to crushing the center of gravity of militant Islam. Perhaps Iraq is just a campaign in what will eventually encompass diplomatic, economic, military and informational efforts to change the nature of both the Middle East and Europe. With the ante thus upped, would war with Iraq be worth economic and physical hardship?
Whether this is just war with Iraq or perhaps a defining moment in Western culture (I believe it is that latter) there are bound to be numerous calculable effects - and second and third order effects that lay well beyond our ken. Lengthy casualty lists may result from decisive battle or the release of a weapon of mass destruction (WMD). Oil prices may rise temporarily, despite the release of U.S. strategic reserves onto a jittery market and the promise of unleashed Iraqi oil. Short-term turmoil in Iraq can be expected as it undergoes the chaos that results when any country undergoes democratization. And the Middle East may experience certain forms of upheaval, as the House of Saud struggles to maintain its tenuous grip on power in Saudi Arabia.
Additionally, hard-fought campaigns may not yield immediate results. Who will manage the public's short-term perceptions while striving for long-term national objectives? Do we have leaders capable of offering incremental dividends to an impatient American citizenry? Are you willing to open your strategic eyes and look for the long-term gain? Will you stand strong months or years after a loved one has been lost during the initial phases of a war against Iraq?
I have answered these questions for myself and have come to the clear conclusion that a war with Iraq is worth my life. Further, I believe that a strategic campaign to ensure American hegemony is worth my best efforts. In short, I trust the promotion of American values and those of our European and Middle Eastern allies - and I trust a national security strategy that has for years strived to halt the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Succinctly put, what is my life when weighed against the lives that would be lost in a nuclear attack or by the release of a WMD like smallpox? Based on my rational calculus, I would gladly spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair after battle in Iraq then to place my daughter in one after a future attack on the American homeland.
In the end, the debate that matters is not the one that takes place on the national stage, but rather the one that takes place in your own mind. The ancient war philosopher Sun Tzu challenges us to "know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril." The time to accept Sun Tzu's challenge is now.
Roger D. Carstens is a member of the Council for Emerging National Security Affairs (CENSA). He can be reached at Roger.Carstens@CENSA.net.
----
White House Pledges to Consult Congress and Allies on Iraq
New York Times
August 29, 2002
By DAVID STOUT
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/29/politics/29CND-BUSH.html
WASHINGTON, Aug. 29 - The Bush administration pledged today to carefully weigh any action against Iraq, and to consult with Congress and American allies first. But the administration said again that the world will not be safe until Saddam Hussein is removed from power.
"The risks of action are far greater than the risks of action," Vice President Dick Cheney told a gathering of Korean war veterans in San Antonio, using language virtually identical to what he told the Veterans of Foreign Wars on Monday in Nashville.
Mr. Cheney said again that President Bush would respect the views of lawmakers at home and friends and allies abroad. "He welcomes the debate that has been joined at home," the Vice President said of Mr. Bush.
The president himself was also in the Southwest, on the stump for a fellow Republican. In Oklahoma City, Mr. Bush spoke of "the need for this nation to be steady and resolved and determined and honest about the difference between good and evil."
"It also is important to have leadership that understands that we must not allow the world's worst leaders to develop and harbor the world's worst weapons," Mr. Bush continued. "I got a lot of tools at my disposal, and I'm a patient man; and I'm a patient man. But I understand that history gives us an opportunity to make the world more peaceful."
Neither the president nor vice president mentioned the possibility of the administration's seeking a formal vote in support of action against Iraq.
The twin message of patience and resolve enunciated by the president and vice president followed signals by the White House that, even though it is determined to topple Saddam Hussein, it will not proceed high-handedly - even though it is confident that it has all the legal authority it needs to strike at Iraq.
Mr. Cheney told the veterans today that the Cold War doctrine of deterrence and containment "is not possible with dictators obtaining weapons of mass destruction" and willing to share them with terrorists.
Recalling how Mr. Hussein deceived and defied United Nations inspectors, Mr. Cheney said he was certain that the Iraqi leader would one day acquire nuclear weapons to augment his arsenal of biological and chemical weapons.
Repeating the pledge of consultation and deliberation, Mr. Cheney said, "What we must not do in the face of a mortal threat is to give in to wishful thinking or wishful blindness."
Mr. Bush was campaigning in Oklahoma on behalf of former Representative Steve Largent, who resigned his Oklahoma House seat to run for governor, and for Senator James M. Inhofe, who is seeking re-election.
Mr. Largent will face the winner of the Sept. 17 Democratic runoff between a millionaire businessman, Vince Orza, and State Senator Brad Henry. Mr. Inhofe, who was unopposed in Tuesday's primary, will face the winner of the Democratic runoff between former Gov. David Walters and a Tulsa lawyer, Tom Boettcher.
After the event, Mr. Bush was to fly to Little Rock, Ark., to campaign for Senator Tim Hutchinson, who is seeking re-election in a competitive race against the Democrat Mark Pryor. The race is one of the nation's most-watched campaigns in the battle for control of the Senate.
-------
Worldwide opposition to strike mounts
August 29, 2002
By David R. Sands
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20020829-11829437.htm
U.S. allies and rivals alike yesterday weighed in against a military strike on Iraq despite Bush administration assurances that international backing for a move against Saddam Hussein will be there when the bullets start to fly.
German conservative Edmond Stoiber, the favorite to win next month's election for chancellor, abruptly overruled his party's foreign policy spokes-man yesterday in demanding that any action against Iraq be handled through the United Nations.
"A country cannot go it alone, without consultation, a decision or a mandate from the international community," said Mr. Stoiber, who had previously refrained from discussing his position on U.S. policy toward Iraq.
Turkey, a front-line state and critical U.S. ally in the region, dispatched Foreign Undersecretary Ugur Ziyal to Washington this week to register Ankara's strong opposition to a new war on its border.
"We have used every opportunity to tell our friends in the U.S. administration we are opposed to military action against Iraq," Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit told reporters in Ankara yesterday.
The chorus of international remarks followed strong statements from Vice President Richard B. Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld this week outlining the danger posed by Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction and the need to act quickly to deal with the threat. Top Iraqi diplomats, who visited China and Syria yesterday, have also tried to rally international opposition to an invasion.
Mr. Stoiber said in a statement that he spoke out against unilateral American action after listening to Mr. Cheney's remarks.
Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, in a visit to Tokyo yesterday, echoed Mr. Rumsfeld's argument that, if and when the United States decides to act, it will be able to persuade a broad coalition of allies to sign up.
"I don't think I'd care to give a laundry list [of allies] because I don't think we've chosen sides yet on the question of who does what," Mr. Armitage said.
"When the U.S. lays out a public case against Iraq, we expect a fair amount of international support," he added.
Still, the diplomatic selling job appears to grow by the day.
Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan, who met with both Mr. Armitage and Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri this week, told Chinese state television yesterday that "threatening to resort to force will not solve the problem."
India, despite warming ties with Washington, said it remained opposed to a war with Iraq.
"We are very clear that there should be no armed action against any country, more particularly with the avowed purpose of changing a regime," External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha told reporters this week.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called military action against Iraq "unwise." He told reporters during a visit to Botswana on Tuesday that the United Nations "is not agitating for military action" against Iraq.
No Arab nation has officially voiced support for a military strike, despite a history of conflicts with Saddam.
A day after President Bush hosted Saudi Arabia's U.S. ambassador at his Texas ranch, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said in an interview with the BBC yesterday that any effort by outside force to oust Saddam was doomed to fail.
"Whether Saddam Hussein remains or is removed from power is up to the Iraqi people," said Prince Faisal, arguing that an invasion would only cause ordinary Iraqis to rally around the existing regime.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said on Tuesday that a U.S. invasion could produce chaos in the region and undermine other Arab governments.
"Striking Iraq is something that could have repercussions and post-strike developments," he said. "Not one Arab leader will be able to control the angry outburst of the masses."
Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Khalifa, on a visit to Syria yesterday, said Iraq should meet existing U.N. mandates on weapons inspections but said his country continued to oppose a military strike to force Baghdad to comply.
Turkey's Mr. Ziyal, who addressed a Washington think-tank luncheon yesterday, said his country has its own concerns about the fallout from a military invasion, in particular the prospect of renewed tensions with ethnic Kurds who straddle the borders between Iran, Iraq and Turkey.
"On Iraq, we would prefer long-term therapy to invasive surgery," Mr. Ziyal said.
In one measure of the administration's determination to sell its hard line on Iraq, the deputy Turkish foreign minister met with an A-list of U.S. officials during his trip here, holding talks by video hook-up with Mr. Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and Mr. Cheney, among others.
In Britain, where Prime Minister Tony Blair has been one of the few international leaders to back Mr. Bush's contention that force may be needed against Iraq, domestic opinion appears to be swinging against the strong U.S. stand.
Some 160 members of Mr. Blair's Labor Party in Parliament - out of 411 - have signed a motion opposing an attack on Iraq.
This article was based in part on wire service reports.
-------- israel / palestine
Israeli Tanks Kill Four in Gaza Family
August 29, 2002
By SERGE SCHMEMANN
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/29/international/29CND-MIDE.html
JERUSALEM, Aug. 29 - Israeli tanks fired shells at a house in the Gaza Strip early today, killing a Palestinian woman, her two sons and a cousin, drawing an expression of regret from the Israeli defense minister and a reported vow of revenge from militants of the Hamas group.
According to reports from Gaza, the tanks raided a village on the coast south of Gaza City, Sheikh Ijleen, and fired. Hospital officials said the dead were members of the al-Hajeen family, Ruwaida, 55; her two sons, Ashraf, 23, and Nihad, 17; and the cousin, Muhammad, 20. Six or seven people were reported injured.
The night before, Israeli tanks, helicopters and naval ships operated on the coast for several hours after having spotted suspicious barrels in the sea. Palestinians reported heavy fire from the ships from midnight through the early morning, apparently trying to blow up the barrels. Later Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said the barrels carried refrigerators that were presumably being smuggled into Gaza.
Today Mr. Ben-Eliezer expressed regret for the army's killing of "Palestinian innocents" in the predawn assault in Sheikh Ijleen.
The defense ministry said in a statement that Mr. Ben-Eliezer had ordered the army to "present him forthwith with its findings on the incident and conclusions for the future."
The deaths were certain to fire new passions among Palestinians. "When there are killings of Palestinian civilians, Israel can expect killings of its civilians," a senior Hamas leader, Mahmoud al-Zahar, told Reuters today in the morgue of Gaza's main hospital, where the bodies had been taken.
Under an agreement reached on Aug. 18, Israeli troops were to have pulled back in Bethlehem and Gaza, and then in other areas, if the Palestinian police managed to maintain a calm. But after pulling back in Bethlehem and allowing the Palestinian police to resume control of several checkpoints in Gaza, Israel postponed further actions until at least the end of September.
On Wednesday, Mr. Ben-Eliezer cited reported arms smuggling and a mortar shell lobbed into a Jewish settlement overnight in the Gaza Strip as reasons for indefinitely postponing a meeting that had been scheduled that day with the Palestinian interior minister, Abdel Razak Yehiyeh. That meeting was to have discussed the stalled pact for a limited Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian areas.
He cited security as a reason. Israelis and Palestinians have widely speculated that the big reason was stiff opposition in the Israeli military and lack of support from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The accord has also been criticized by radical Palestinian groups, including the militant Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades cells of the dominant Fatah movement.
At the Gaza hospital, Reuters reported, a relative of the killed Palestinians spoke angrily of the failed agreement.
"Where is Yehiyeh?" he asked, referring to the interior minister. "Let him do us a favor and keep silent."
The Israeli military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, publicly chastised senior military officers who spoke out against Mr. Ben-Eliezer's plan. But in a series of interviews since then, he has issued unusually harsh statements about the Palestinians and his Israeli critics.
On Sunday, General Yaalon declared that Israel was at war with the Palestinian Authority and that if it did not emerge from that war victorious, "we'll find ourselves facing a cancerous threat."
On Wednesday, the daily Haaretz published parts of an interview with General Yaalon, objecting to the leaking of those comments and said they had been distorted. He criticized the Israeli news media for "pathological" criticism about him, for which, he said, Israel will "pay a price."
In the first such mission in weeks, an official from the State Department in Washington arrived in the region today to meet Israeli and Palestinian officials. Part of the visit, by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State David M. Satterfield, is to press the Palestinians to make political reforms. But following Washington policy, Mr. Satterfield said he had no intention to meet the Palestinian leader, Yasir Arafat.
A poll commissioned by the Search for Common Ground, a conflict-resolution in Washington, found that 62 percent of Palestinians said a new approach was needed in their struggle. A strong majority, from 73 to 92 percent, supported using nonviolent methods like boycotts of Israeli goods or mass protests.
But the poll also found that a majority of Palestinians did not believe nonviolent action would work, and 85 percent agreed with the statement that because Palestinians suffered at the hands of Israelis, "then Israeli civilians should suffer at the hands of Palestinians."
The poll also found that 78 percent of Israelis believed that the Palestinians have a right to seek a state, and 56 percent said the Palestinians have the right to oppose the expansion of settlements provided they used nonviolent means.
-------- russia / chechnya
Georgia sees rebels as Russia's problem
By Nikolai Topouria
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
August 29, 2002
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20020829-10748152.htm
PANKISI GORGE, Georgia - A Georgian official said yesterday that troops taking part in an operation to round up Chechen fighters in the Pankisi Gorge, on Georgia's border with Russia, were under orders not to arrest any of the guerrillas.
"The fighters are Russia's problem," said a high-ranking official in Georgia's National Security Ministry who is taking part in the operation.
The official, who did not want to be identified, said Georgian commanders knew the location of a band of Chechen fighters but had no plans to engage them.
He said the Chechen group was in the village of Tsinaubani, at the southern end of the gorge. Local residents said the band was led by seasoned Chechen field commanders known as the Akhmadov brothers.
"We have deliberately avoided and are now avoiding armed conflict with them. We do not intend to start a war with them and put at risk our troops and thousands of innocent people. We are already doing enough," the official said.
A local policemen said the authorities had made contact with the Chechens and given them an ultimatum to leave or face being removed by force.
The acknowledgment came on the same day that Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed doubts that the Georgian troops would be able to track down the Chechen fighters without help from Russian forces.
"Recently, Georgia has itself begun attempting to get rid of the Chechen terrorists who are based on its territory," Mr. Putin said. "[But] without the active support of Russia we will just continue chasing the terrorists from corner to corner."
Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze sent more than 1,000 troops into the mountainous region over the weekend under pressure from Moscow, which says the area is being used as a hide-out by separatist fighters from Chechnya.
Now in its fourth day, the highly publicized operation has thus far failed to arrest or even locate a single Chechen rebel in Pankisi, which neighbors the breakaway Russian province of Chechnya.
Officially, Georgian security chiefs insist the operation is still on track.
"It was not part of our plans to start arresting people from the first day. This operation is a long process so there will be arrests," State Security Minister Valery Khaburzaniya said in an interview.
But he also said the operation's aim was only to clear out Chechen fighters from Pankisi, and not to police the border with Chechnya. "The Russian border troops and special forces can do that themselves."
The dispute between Russia and Georgia over Pankisi has threatened to balloon into all-out war between the two countries in recent weeks.
----
Safety violations found in Russian subs
08/29/2002
Associated Press
http://usatoday.com/news/world/2002-08-29-russia-kursk_x.htm
MOSCOW (AP) - Leaks of torpedo propellant similar to the one that sparked the explosion and sinking of the Kursk have been found on other Northern Fleet submarines - one of many examples of official sloppiness revealed by the investigation into the August 2000 tragedy. Prosecutors gathered frightening evidence of neglect of safety regulations in the cash-strapped navy, but concluded that none of the violations directly brought on the disaster.
Details of the prosecutor general's probe into the catastrophe that killed the Kursk's entire 118-man crew filled four pages of the government daily, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, on Thursday.
Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov closed the books on the catastrophe last month, saying no one was to blame for the accidental explosion. The blast was caused by highly volatile hydrogen peroxide seeping out of cracks in the torpedo and exploding upon contact with kerosene and metal. The weapons in the bow then exploded with the power of a mild earthquake.
The torpedo that exploded on the Kursk was built in the Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan in 1990, shortly before the Soviet collapse, and it underwent repairs in 1993-1994. Investigators have determined that some of its components had served from one to six years beyond their designated service life.
They said no malfunction had been spotted in the Kursk's torpedoes before the submarine went on its fatal mission, but pointed to an absence of data about the condition of the torpedo's rubber gaskets, which required frequent replacement.
The prosecutors said that a check of other Northern Fleet submarines in 2000-2001 revealed the use of bad gaskets, which resulted in hydrogen peroxide leaks from torpedo tanks, the newspaper said. The inspection even found signs of corrosion on the surface of some weapons.
The probe also revealed that the torpedo that exploded on the Kursk was checked and loaded on the submarine by navy staff who were not authorized for the job. And it established that the Kursk crew had never used such torpedoes and lacked the proper training to handle them.
Moreover, the order allowing the Kursk crew to use the torpedoes was issued by navy officers who didn't have the right to sign such documents.
When the Kursk sank, the navy's rescue efforts were thwarted by a similar combination of sloppiness, irresponsibility and inadequate equipment.
The Northern Fleet's flagship, the Peter the Great cruiser, was close to the disaster area and its acoustics registered the blasts. But the Northern Fleet chief, Adm. Vyacheslav Popov, who was leading the maneuvers on board the cruiser, ignored the acoustics report and led the ship away from the area.
He launched an all-out search for the Kursk nine hours after the explosions, and it took the navy 31 hours more to spot the submarine lying on the seabed.
Earlier this year, a top navy official said that 23 crew members who initially managed to survive the blasts and gathered in the stern might have stayed alive for three days. But Ustinov has rejected such speculation, saying that all the crew members died of carbon monoxide poisoning from fires and the rise in pressure within eight hours of the blasts - long before any help could arrive.
It might have been possible to locate the Kursk more quickly if its emergency buoy hadn't been incapacitated by manufacturing flaws and crew error that prevented it from rising to surface.
While Russian officials refused to accept any foreign aid, Russian submersibles spent a week in vain attempts to hook up to the Kursk's escape hatch. The official probe revealed that the navy crews who operated submersibles had never been adequately trained in rescue missions and lacked the supplies and spares to properly run their capsules, the newspaper said.
The government's bungled handling of the rescue effort shook the nation and dented President Vladimir Putin's prestige.
-------- propaganda wars
Saudi Censorship of Web Ranges Far Beyond Tenets of Islam, Study Finds
New York Times
August 29, 2002
By JENNIFER 8. LEE
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/29/technology/circuits/29SAUD.html
THE Saudi government is censoring public Internet access to a degree that goes significantly but haphazardly beyond its stated central goal of blocking sexually explicit content that violates the values of Islam, according to a recent study by Harvard Law School researchers.
The study's detailed list of blocked sites offers a glimpse into the areas that the Saudi government has deemed most troubling. Among them are sites related to pornography, women's rights, gays and lesbians, non-Islamic religions and criticism of political restrictions. Many humor and entertainment sites have also been blocked.
The report, by the law school's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, was completed with the cooperation of the Saudi government. It is the first in a series by the center on Internet filtering by governments around the world.
"When the cost of the censoring is just flipping a switch, it's a lot easier to enforce," said Jonathan Zittrain, a director of the Berkman Center and an author of the report. "That makes it more appealing to a number of regimes."
Saudi Arabia, with China, is widely considered to have one of the most restrictive Internet-access policies. Before granting the public access to the Internet in 1999, the Saudi government spent two years building a controlled infrastructure so that all Internet traffic would pass through government-controlled servers.
The Internet Service Unit, which controls Saudi Arabia's Web access, says that blocking pornography is its main focus, accounting for 95 percent of the pages it blocks. But its Web site says Web pages subject to blocking include those "related to drugs, bombs, alcohol, gambling and pages insulting the Islamic religion or the Saudi laws" - a policy that is largely an extension of the country's censorship regulations for the news media and entertainment.
The government does not provide a public list of offending sites. But the Internet Service Unit gave Harvard researchers access to the computer servers for several days in May. They requested 64,557 distinct Web pages and found 2,038 blocked.
Saudi citizens with a bit of knowledge about the Internet have found some ways to get around the government firewall. Some dial up to Internet service providers in other countries. Others get around the firewall at no extra cost by using intermediary computers on the Internet, known as proxies, to disguise the source of the traffic.
The Harvard report tries to piece together the criteria under which Web sites are censored. "Ordinarily, when censors declare something to be bad, they have to file it," said Benjamin Edelman, the other author of the report. "Here the software allows blacklists to be secret."
The Saudi government uses software called SmartFilter, created by Secure Computing in San Jose, Calif., to block most of the pornographic, gambling and drug-related sites. But the SmartFilter software is also customized with blacklists provided by Saudi security agencies, the Saudi Internet administrators said. Among the pages selected by security agencies are some that are critical of Saudi Arabia's political situation, like the Web sites of Amnesty International and the Saudi Institute, another human rights watchdog group.
The Saudi government, which does not allow women to drive, has also restricted access to information about women's advances elsewhere. The "Women in American History" section of Encyclopaedia Britannica Online (www.women.eb.com), which summarizes the women's rights movement from 1600 to the present, is blocked. IVillage (ivillage.com), a popular American advice and support site for women, is also blacklisted.
"Clearly there are sensitivities about women's rights," Professor Zittrain said.
The report also ticks off a broad range of blocked religion-oriented sites, from Christian to Jewish to Buddhist to Hindu ones. Yet even sites that are not overtly political or sexual in nature are filtered, like the magazine site rollingstone.com; Warner Brothers Records, at wbr.com; and www .ifrance.com, a French-language entertainment and information site.
The Harvard report is available at cyber .law.harvard.edu/filtering/saudiarabia.
-------- POLICE / PRISONERS
Judge asks how FBI missed e-mail clues
By Ted Bridis
ASSOCIATED PRESS
August 29, 2002
http://www.washtimes.com/metro/20020829-61997896.htm
The federal judge in the case against September 11 conspiracy defendant Zacarias Moussaoui is demanding an explanation from the FBI about how it could have missed evidence of an e-mail account that Moussaoui said he used in the weeks before the attacks.
Wading into a dispute between prosecutors and Moussaoui over evidence in the case, U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema expressed skepticism toward the government's arguments that no such e-mail account existed.
"We do not understand why an immediate and thorough investigation into the defendant's e-mail and computer activities did not lead investigators to the account, if it existed," the judge said in an order made public yesterday.
Judge Brinkema added that "a more detailed explanation from the United States is warranted." In the order, the judge demanded that the FBI explain how it examined the contents of computers that Moussaoui said he used.
Moussaoui is scheduled to go on trial in U.S. District Court in Alexandria in January in connection with federal charges that he conspired with the September 11 terrorists. Moussaoui has sought to defend himself and has turned aside court-appointed attorneys. At one point, he even demanded that the court approve a computer for his jail cell so he could use it to prepare his defense.
Moussaoui had claimed in a sealed request to Judge Brinkema that he used the e-mail account on several computers, including those of the University of Oklahoma, a Kinko's Inc. copy store in Eagan, Minn., and an acquaintance of Moussaoui's, Ali Mukaram.
The FBI had said that its specialists examined all those computers, although prosecutors said that Kinko's, each day, "scrubs" the computers it rents to the public and so "the Kinko's computers used by the defendant were cleaned by Kinko's before the FBI got to Kinko's to investigate." Moussaoui was carrying a Kinko's receipt when he was arrested in August 2001.
Prosecutors earlier this month produced a sworn statement by a Microsoft Corp. employee, Catherine Taelor, saying the company could find no records of the disputed e-mail account on its Hotmail service. But Miss Taelor noted that Hotmail accounts expire after 90 days of inactivity, and Microsoft does not keep any records of expired accounts.
But Judge Brinkema said the government's intense scrutiny of Moussaoui meant that investigators should have uncovered evidence of the Microsoft e-mail account before it was allowed to expire. She demanded that the FBI "make clear whether any efforts were made to obtain forensic expert services of any other government agencies, such as the CIA or National Security Agency, to assist in retrieving that information."
Moussaoui could face the death penalty if convicted.
----
Training at FBI focuses on terror
August 29, 2002
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020829-94666804.htm
New FBI agents are learning to read body language, understand Islamic fundamentalism and master other skills helpful in combating terrorism, part of the most significant change in training in more than half a century.
Roger Trott, head of the FBI's new-agent training program at Quantico, Va., said the amount of time new agents are trained in counterterrorism and counterintelligence will be more than doubled beginning in October - from 23 hours to 55 hours.
FBI basic training, which usually lasts 16 weeks, will be extended by a week to accommodate the change.
"Since September 11, there has been an emphasis on preparing agents to deal with terrorism cases," Mr. Trott said. "It is very rare that time is added on to new-agent training."
FBI training generally has focused on physical conditioning and crime-solving techniques. The ability to read body language is now receiving more attention.
"Training includes deciphering all the clues you can get - not just what someone tells you in an interview, but all the signals they may give off," Mr. Trott said.
Former FBI chief analyst Paul Moore said the expansion of basic training was necessary, but was skeptical about whether the FBI was doing enough.
"It is significant, but compared to what we need, it is a drop in the ocean," said Mr. Moore, an analyst for the Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies, a private research firm.
"What we need to do is focus on creating agents who have a better chance to intercept intelligence and disrupt operations. One week probably won't be enough to make a real change."
Law enforcement officials say the ability to read body language might have helped them identify some of the terrorists who were undetected in the United States before September 11.
Two days before the attacks, for example, Ziad Jarrah roared past a Maryland State Police trooper at about 90 mph. He got the usual treatment: a ticket and a quick reprimand.
That ticket was found crumpled up in the car's glove compartment at Newark Airport on Sept. 11, hours after Jarrah and three others hijacked an airliner that crashed in western Pennsylvania.
Law enforcement officials, while being careful not to suggest the officer should have done anything differently, say the story illustrates that chance encounters can be important.
David Givens, director of the Center for Nonverbal Communication in Spokane, Wash., said it's relatively easy to learn the basics about body language.
"It's like any other language - you can get a few basic words that will help you with easy situations very quickly," Mr. Givens said. "Getting a working knowledge of the more subtle points can take years."
Mr. Givens said it's likely that terrorists give off obvious signs of anxiety before they attack.
"There are certain human responses to great pressure that cannot be easily controlled, if you accept the idea that they can be controlled at all," Mr. Givens said. "It can be an effective law enforcement tool."
The FBI is also expanding training about Islamic fundamentalism.
In the hunt for al Qaeda members, the FBI has found troves of computer records, operation manuals and other documents, most of which are in Arabic. Translating the documents has been a slow process, according to Justice Department officials, but making use of the translated data is equally difficult.
It took the FBI three months to discover a picture of Saud Abdulaziz Saud al-Rasheed among pictures of the September 11 hijackers in one trove of al Qaeda documents. The agency immediately issued a public alert with al-Rasheed's picture, seeking information on his possible whereabouts.
A senior Justice Department official acknowledged the FBI is trying to expand its ability to assess information in Arabic.
Juliette Kayyem, a terrorism expert and professor at Harvard University, said the new training will only be useful if it focuses on behavior.
"The FBI gets into the most trouble when it views a certain belief as dangerous," Miss Kayyem said. "The behavior training or training that focuses on dealing with people from other cultures is good, but when agents begin to focus on belief systems you just get widespread alienation in the communities where you most need help."
-------- terrorism
6 charged with aiding terrorism conspiracy
By Steve Miller
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
August 29, 2002
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020829-80027704.htm
Five Middle Eastern men and an American Muslim were indicted yesterday and accused of being part of a terrorist cell in what prosecutors said would be the first in a string of charges against detainees held in the war on terrorism.
Karim Koubriti, Ahmed Hannan, Youssef Hmimssa, Farouk Ali-Haimoud and a man identified only by the first name Abdella were indicted in U.S. District Court in Detroit. The men are accused of conspiring to provide material support or resources to terrorists and conspiring to engage in fraud and misuse of visas and identification documents.
Also yesterday, in Seattle, American Muslim activist Earnest James Ujaama was indicted on charges of conspiring to provide materials to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network.
The Seattle indictment mentions three unindicted co-conspirators, none of whom was named. Among the six named individuals, four already were in federal custody and two remain at large.
Ujaama, arrested July 22 in Denver, was named in a two-count indictment that accused him of conspiring to provide material support and resources to terrorists and with using, carrying, possessing and discharging firearms during a crime.
Authorities believe Ujaama provided computer equipment to an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan and conspired to create a similar training camp in Bly, Ore.
According to the indictment, Ujaama was part of a conspiracy "to offer and provide facilities in the [United States] to recruit persons interested in violent jihad and jihad training; to provide actual training of such persons in firearms, military and guerrilla tactics, and related activities."
Ujaama's attorney Daniel Sears said yesterday that the charges give his client a chance to clear himself.
"If there's anything positive to come out of this, it renders some certainty to his situation," the lawyer said. "He can go about the business of defending himself against these allegations, and hopefully justice will be served."
Al Qaeda planned and carried out the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, during which more than 3,000 people died when hijackers steered airliners into the buildings.
The two-count indictment in Detroit says the suspects "operated as a covert underground support unit for terrorist attacks within and outside the United States, as well as a 'sleeper' operational combat cell."
"The object of the conspiracy was, among other things, to cause economic harm to U.S. businesses, to provide personnel, indoctrination, recruitment and training, safe houses, mail drops, intelligence target data collection, weapons, false documentation and identification, and assistance and other covert support for the purpose of engaging in violent attacks against persons and buildings within the territory of Jordan, Turkey and the United States," the indictment said.
The indictment also said several of the men were part of a movement called the World Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders, under the leadership of bin Laden.
Bin Laden's edict to that group "described the duty of every individual Muslim, in any country in which it is possible, to kill Americans and their allies," according to the indictment.
Three of the defendants in the case, an Algerian and two Moroccans, are accused of conspiring to provide services and tangible items to individuals in the United States and abroad to assist them in engaging and promoting violent attacks in Jordan, Turkey and the United States.
Koubriti, Hannan and Ali-Haimoud were arrested during a Sept. 17 raid of an apartment in a mostly Middle Eastern neighborhood in Dearborn, Mich.
Authorities found a day planner with notations in Arabic that investigators believe were plans for attacks on the Alia airport in Jordan and a plot to kill former Defense Secretary William S. Cohen during a visit to Turkey. A federal affidavit said the planner included "what appeared to be a diagram of an airport flight line, to include aircraft and runways."
The men, though, were held without bond on charges of having false immigration documents, visas and passports. Ali-Haimoud was later released when charges were dropped, while the other two have remained in custody.
Hmimssa was arrested Sept. 28 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he was living under the name Michael Saisa. Hmimssa's photo and alias were reportedly found on false documents seized from the Detroit apartment.
Abdella, the fifth suspect, remains a fugitive, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit said.
When the men were arrested, several leaders of Detroit's large Arab community accused law enforcement officials of racial profiling and said the men were innocent.
The men were taken into custody as part of a nationwide sweep ordered by Attorney General John Ashcroft of terror suspects and others who had violated federal immigration laws. Mr. Ashcroft was heavily criticized for the detentions but steadfastly maintained that they were a part of an ongoing hunt for those "who could still harm America."
U.S. officials said yesterday they expected several more such indictments in coming months as federal law enforcement agencies work to prevent financial and operational support from reaching terror groups overseas.
This article is based in part on wire service reports.
--------
Germany Says Hijackers Picked Trade Center as Target in 2000
New York Times
August 29, 2002
By DESMOND BUTLER
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/29/international/29CND-GERM.html
BERLIN, Aug. 29 - The Qaeda terror cell in Hamburg that included three of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackers had chosen the World Trade Center as the target of an attack as early April or May 2000, Germany's federal prosecutor said today.
Planning for an attack on the United States began in October 1999 at the latest, and the hijackers had decided on their target six months later, the prosecutor, Kay Nehm, said.
Mr. Nehm, detailing charges against Mounir el-Motassadeq, the only person in German custody in connection with the attacks, said one of the hijackers, Marwan al-Shehhi, had mentioned the World Trade Center as a target in a conversation with a librarian.
"There will be thousands of dead," Mr. Shehhi said, according to Mr. Nehm. "You will all think of me."
Mr. Motassadeq, a 28-year-old Moroccan arrested in Hamburg two months after the attacks, was charged on Wednesday with more than 3,000 counts of being an accessory to murder and belonging to a terrorist organization. He is expected to go to trial later this year in Hamburg.
The month before his arrest, his name appeared on a list in the United States of 370 persons and groups with suspected links to the Sept. 11 attacks.
Mr. Nehm, in outlining the charges against Mr. Motassadeq, gave a detailed account of how the Hamburg cell was formed and how the hijackers trained, including attending training camps in Afghanistan, flight schools in the United States and meetings across Europe.
The cell included Mohamed Atta, Mr. Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah. Authorities believe Mr. Atta and Mr. Shehhi piloted the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center, while Mr. Jarrah was at the controls of the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania.
"All of the members of this cell shared the same religious convictions, an Islamic lifestyle, a feeling of being out of place in unfamiliar cultural surroundings," Mr. Nehm said. "At the center of this stood the hatred of the world Jewry and the United States."
Mr. Atta, 33, was the leader of the group, Mr. Nehm said.
Mr. Motassadeq directly supported the hijackers, Mr. Nehm said, arranging for financing of their activities through Mr. Shehhi's bank account/
"The accused was just as involved in preparing the attacks up until the end as the others who remained in Hamburg," Mr. Nehm told reporters.
"He was aware of the commitment to mount a terror attack against the targets chosen by the cell and he supported the planning and preparation for these attacks through multiple activities."
--------
4 Men Charged With Being in Terrorist Cell in Detroit Area
New York Times
August 29, 2002
By DANNY HAKIM
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/29/national/29TERR.html
DETROIT, Aug. 28 - The government indicted four Arab men in federal court here today, saying they were part of a terrorist cell operating in the Detroit area and were planning attacks in the United States, Jordan and Turkey.
The men functioned as a support group for terrorist activity and a "sleeper operational combat cell," the indictment said. The cell's mission was to obtain weaponry and intelligence and establish a support network for terrorist activity, including mail drops and safe houses as well as fake driver's licenses, passports and Social Security cards.
In addition, three of those indicted worked at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. They were taken into custody shortly after Sept. 11, though one was freed for a time.
The group also was said to be trying to recruit members and help other operatives enter the country illegally.
In Seattle, the government indicted a Muslim man today on charges of conspiring to help Al Qaeda and trying to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon.
At the same time, German prosecutors brought charges against a Moroccan man accused of supporting members of the Hamburg cell suspected of helping to plan and carry out the Sept. 11 attacks.
One senior law enforcement official in Washington described the indictments in Detroit as significant in that they confirmed warnings of counterterrorism officials that there were people in the United States who were directly involved in helping global terrorists. Another official said the Detroit indictments were not coordinated with the one in Seattle.
Three of the men indicted in Detroit, all foreign nationals, lived there or in nearby Dearborn, Mich., at various times. The region is one of the nation's most concentrated population centers of Arab Americans.
A fourth man, known as Abdella, lived in Chicago and was said to have expertise in airport security and producing fake identification documents. He sent instructions to the other men in code, according to the indictment, and received money from men in Europe he referred to as "the brothers." The authorities do not know the man's full name, and he is not in custody.
The three Detroit-area men were first taken into custody days after the attacks, when federal agents raided an apartment belonging to Nabil Al-Marabh, a Kuwaiti who is in custody in Batavia, N.Y., and who federal officials contend has ties to Al Qaeda.
Among the discoveries in the apartment was videotape with surveillance footage of Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., and the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, the indictment said. Previously known to have been found in the apartment were a sketch of an air base in Incerlik, Turkey, used by American forces, notes referring to the "American foreign minister," and audio tapes preaching jihad.
A hospital in Amman, Jordan, was also said to be a target of a potential attack.
The men charged today, under an indictment issued by a federal grand jury, included the three taken into custody at Mr. Al-Marabh's apartment: Karim Koubriti, 24, and Ahmed Hannan, 34, both Moroccans, and Farouk Ali-Haimoud, 22, an Algerian.
All four men were charged with providing material support or resources to terrorists and conspiracy to engage in fraud and misuse of visas. All except Abdella were also charged with fraud and misuse of visas, permits and other documents, as well as fraud and related activity in connection with identification documents and information.
A fifth man previously involved in the case, Youssef Hmimssa, was not charged. Mr. Hmimssa is a Moroccan whose picture was found on a fraudulent identity document in Mr. Al-Marabh's apartment.
Kevin Ernst, Mr. Ali-Haimoud's lawyer, said in an interview that Mr. Hmimssa had agreed to cooperate with investigators. Mr. Ernst said his client was not part of any terrorist cell and that Mr. Hmimssa had unfairly implicated Mr. Ali-Haimoud to save himself. Charges against Mr. Ali-Haimoud, relating to possessing fraudulent identification documents, had been dropped before today.
"The only difference between October of last year, when the government dismissed the charges against my client because there was no evidence, and today, when they issued the superseding indictments, is one snitch," Mr. Ernst said, of Mr. Hmimssa.
Of his client, Mr. Ernst added, "He's 21 years old and he worked as a bus boy and then at Edy's ice cream, and he's supposed to be the mastermind of a jihad?" (Mr. Ali-Haimoud turned 22 in July.)
Jim Thomas, a lawyer for Ahmed Hannan, said he was exploring what legal steps should be taken next but declined to comment further. Neither Leroy Soles, a lawyer for Mr. Koubriti, nor Stephen Rabaut, a lawyerfor Mr. Hmimssa, could be reached for comment.
As part of the alleged conspiracy, the Detroit-area men worked at Detroit Metropolitan Airport and familiarized themselves with its security procedures, the indictment said. Mr. Hannan and Mr. Koubriti were dishwashers at LSG Sky Chefs International, a company that makes meals for airline passengers, in the summer of 2001 until they were both injured in a car accident that they said left them unable to work, according to previous federal court documents.
Neither had access to secure areas, but the indictment said all three "attempted to locate security breaches that would allow them to, among other things, directly access airliners." In addition, Mr. Ali-Haimoud worked at an ice cream parlor that was beyond the security checkpoint.
Edward Seitz of the State Department testified at an April detention hearing for Mr. Ali-Haimoud that anyone in the defendant's position could have easily passed a weapon to a boarding passenger.
"He could have obtained a weapon from the food service area and have passed it to someone else boarding a plane," Mr. Seitz said.
Charges against Mr. Ali-Haimoud were initially dismissed after he was arrested in September because the government said it did not have enough evidence to pursue a case against him. He was arrested again in April while working at the airport ice cream shop. He was working alone when he was arrested despite a requirement that he be escorted at all times.
The original charges against Mr. Koubriti and Mr. Hannan related to phony identification documents, and they have been in custody since their initial detention. The initial charges against all three were superseded by those in today's indictment.
Some of the more than 100 audiotapes found in the apartment where the three men lived espoused a fundamentalist brand of Islam called the Salafiyya, a term taken from the Arabic words for the "venerable forefathers" of Islam. Salafists believe that much of Islam today has been corrupted and they espouse a return to strict Islamic law, and more militant adherents also believe Western governments, as well as those of moderate Arab nations, should be overthrown.
A translation of a passage from one tape, disclosed in a federal court hearing, said, "Allah, take away the Jews and the Christians, and whoever helped and stood with them."
"Allah, kill them all," it continued, "don't keep any of them alive. Destroy them with total destruction. Tear them apart."
Mr. Ernst, the lawyer, said that "there were 250 tapes, hours and hours of passages from the Koran and various clerics interpretations, and they listed those three sentences." He added: "You can find similar sentences in the Bible, where they condemn infidels. I think it was taken out of context."
In the Seattle indictment, Earnest James Ujaama, a Muslim who was born James Ernest Thompson, conspired to provide training, facilities, computer services, safe houses and personnel to Al Qaeda beginning as long ago as the fall of 1999.
A second count in the indictment involved federal firearm charges.
-------- ENERGY AND OTHER
-------- alternative energy
Wisconsin Team Engineers Hydrogen From Biomass
August 29, 2002
ENS
http://ens-news.com/ens/aug2002/2002-08-29-09.asp#anchor1
MADISON, Wisconsin,Chemical engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UWM) have developed a process that produces hydrogen fuel from plants.
Hydrogen is often cited as a potential source of unlimited clean power. But hydrogen is only as clean as the process used to make it. Most hydrogen is now made from fossil fuels like natural gas using complicated, high temperature processes.
The new process developed at UWM produces hydrogen fuel in a non-toxic, non-flammable form that can be transported in the form of sugars.
Writing this week in the journal "Nature," research scientist Randy Cortright, graduate student Rupali Davda and professor James Dumesic describe a process by which glucose, the same energy source used by most plants and animals, is converted to hydrogen, carbon dioxide and gaseous alkanes, with hydrogen constituting 50 percent of the products. More refined molecules such as ethylene glycol and methanol are almost all converted to hydrogen and carbon dioxide.
"The process should be greenhouse gas neutral," Cortright said. "Carbon dioxide is produced as a byproduct, but the plant biomass grown for hydrogen production will fix and store the carbon dioxide released the previous year."
Glucose is manufactured in vast quantities - for example, in the form of corn syrup - from corn starch, but can also be made from sugar beets, or low cost biomass waste streams like paper mill sludge, cheese whey, corn stover or wood waste.
While hydrogen yields are higher for more refined molecules, Dumesic says glucose derived from waste biomass is likely to be the more practical candidate for cheap power generation.
"We believe we can make improvements to the catalyst and reactor design that will increase the amount of hydrogen we get from glucose," said Dumesic. "The alkane byproduct could be used to power an internal combustion engine or a solid oxide fuel cell. Very little additional energy would be required to drive the process."
Because the Wisconsin process occurs in a liquid phase at low reaction temperatures (227 degrees C, 440 degrees F) the hydrogen is made without the need to vaporize water. That represents a major energy savings compared to ethanol production or other conventional methods for producing hydrogen from fossil fuels.
In addition, the low reaction temperatures result in very low carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations, making it possible to generate fuel cell grade hydrogen in a single step process. The lack of CO in the hydrogen fuel clears a major obstacle to reliable fuel cell operation, as CO poisons the electrode surfaces of low temperature hydrogen fuel cells.
At current hydrogen yields, the Wisconsin team estimates the process would be a cost effective method of generating electrical power, assuming that a low cost biomass waste stream can be processed and fed into the system.
But the team says several process improvements must first be made. The platinum based catalyst that drives the reaction is expensive, and new combinations of catalysts and reactor configurations are needed to obtain higher hydrogen yields from more concentrated solutions of sugars.
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Hydrogen Powered BMW Turns Heads at World Summit
By Lauren Kansley
Global Youth Reporter from South Africa,
August 29, 2002
ENS
http://ens-news.com/ens/aug2002/2002-08-29-07.asp
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, August 29, 2002 (ENS) The rising cost of fuel must have many people wishing that getting from point A to B was as easy as throwing a couple of liters of water in the tank. That dream might not that be so distant, judging by an exhibit attracting lots of attention outside the Sandton Convention Center in Johannesburg: BMW's '0 liter car.'
Powered by liquid hydrogen, 15 of these swanky BMW 750hL test vehicles have already covered a distance of 170,000 kilometers (105,633 miles) since their introduction in Berlin, Germany in May 2000. According to BMW's Director for Environmental Protection, Manfred Heller, the test vehicles are comparable to other models of the popular 7 Series.
"However, instead of harmful carbon dioxide, water is emitted. Our objective to preserve fossil fuels and reduce carbon dioxide emissions can be achieved with clean energy if the hydrogen fuel is produced by means of renewable resources," Heller said.
Hydrogen fuel can be produced through electrolysis. In electrolysis, water comes into contact with energy and the water is split into its component parts, hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen created is stored, forming a source of pure hydrogen.
BMW's hydrogen powered sedans toured the globe last year as part of the company's CleanEnergy WorldTour 2001. (Photo courtesy BMW)
But the electrolysis process requires a power source, and BMW is hoping for a renewable source. One possible solution was right under their noses - or should I say above their heads? The sun sends as much energy to the earth in an hour as mankind uses in a year. The sun's energy could be harnessed in solar power plants, for example, to produce liquid hydrogen for the BMW 750hL.
BMW engineer Albrecht Jungk warned it was unlikely that hydrogen enabled cars would be on the road any earlier than a decade from now.
"Ten years is the earliest estimation but because there is still a long way to go with discussions between other parties like Shell and BP," Jungk said. "It shouldn't be anytime soon."
Jungk added that since hydrogen was so expensive, it was making people opt between "clean or cheap."
"At the moment hydrogen is about four times more expensive than petrol," Jungk noted. "We cannot estimate whether the price will decrease in time since no one can predict the price of fuel."
Perhaps the question we should be asking, though, is should there be a price attached to our future generations' well being? In all probability the closest the youth of today will get to sampling one of these futuristic models will be on the backseat of one of our grandchildren's cars.
-------- environment
Water security key issue at UN summit
REUTERS SOUTH AFRICA:
August 29, 2002
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17494/story.htm
JOHANNESBURG - Water security will be a key issue at the U.N.'s World Summit on Sustainable Development under way in Johannesburg until September 4. A follow-up to the Rio Earth Summit of 1992, it aims to map out a concrete set of action plans to reduce global poverty and the North/South income gap in a sustainable way without inflicting irreparable damage to the environment.
Its guide is the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) laid out in the U.N.'s 2000 Millennium Declaration. It resolved to halve, by 2015 the proportion of people who are unable to reach, or to afford, safe drinking water. Following are some facts and figures on the state of the world's water supplies and the United Nation's goals regarding water.
ACCESS TO WATER: According to the United Nations' 2002 Human Development Report, 2.4 billion people in the developing world lack access to basic sanitation and 1.1 billion have no access to clean drinking water.
By some estimates, preventable water-related diseases kill 10,000 to 20,000 children every day in the developing world.
COSTS: The World Bank says to meet the MDG's development goals, around 300,000 people per day will have to be connected to water systems over the next 10 years. The estimated price tag is $25 billion a year.
CONSUMPTION: According to the United Nations, the world's population tripled in the 20th century, leading to a six-fold increase in the use of water resources. The three largest water users in global terms are: agriculture, 67 percent; industry, 19 percent; and municipal/residential, 9 percent.
SUPPLY: Freshwater ecosystems cover less than one percent of the Earth's surface. Ice - mostly in the form of glaciers - comprises 69 percent of the world's freshwater supplies and groundwater is 30 percent. Wetlands, which include marshes and swamps, comprise 0.3 percent, lakes 0.3 percent, and rivers 0.06 percent. However, many experts argue the wells are not about to run dry. They say on a global level we have enough water but must use it more wisely and attempt to address uneven distribution around the globe which is related partly to different rainfall patterns.
PROBLEMS/ISSUES: The problems affecting the world's freshwater supplies are many, including pollution from industry, agriculture and untreated sewage. Poor infrastructure is another major issue. According to the WWF environmental group, 30 percent to 50 percent of water diverted for irrigation purposes is lost through leaking pipes and channels.
The World Bank says inefficiencies in infrastructure mean water that does not reach customers is wasted and ultimately not paid for. This can lead to infrastructure decay because of a lack of funding for maintenance and improvements. Tariffs are often kept low by politicians seeking to woo voters, leading many to advocate the privatisation of water services - 95 percent of municipal water services are publicly run - but this is controversial because of concerns that the very poor could be denied access as a result. The advocates of privatisation argue that services will improve at lower costs as a result because the contracted operators will have an incentive to improve their product.
DAMS: Dams have brought huge benefits to more than 140 countries but the social and environmental costs have often been high. Perhaps 40 million to 80 million people have been displaced globally by dam projects. Dams have damaged aquatic habitats and blocked migration routes for spawning fish species such as salmon. According to a 2000 report by the World Commission on Dams, China and India have half of the world's 45,000 dams. Dams account for 19 percent of electricity generated worldwide, and 24 countries generate more than 90 percent of their power from dams.
SPECIES AT RISK: According to the WWF, of the 10,000 species of freshwater fish that have been described, 20 percent are threatened or endangered because of pollution, habitat destruction, damming, over-fishing and the introduction or invasion of alien species.
The WWF says there have been 81 species of freshwater fish have become extinct over the past century. The major proportion of known extinctions resulted from the introduction of the huge Nile perch into Africa's Lake Victoria, which caused the loss of 50 endemic cichild species. But scientists say the state of knowledge about freshwater fish is incomplete so many species unknown to us may have become extinct already. In addition to fish, the WWF says four of the five species of river dolphin are at risk, two of the three manatee species, about 40 freshwater turtles and more than 400 types of freshwater crustacean.
FRESHWATER HOT SPOTS/CONTROVERSIES THE ARAL SEA: The land-locked Aral Sea, which straddles the former Soviet Central Asian republics of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, is actually salt, but its tragedy highlights the potentially disastrous consequences of poor freshwater use. In the 1960s, Soviet planners built a network of canals to divert the waters of the rivers that fed the sea to irrigate cotton fields in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
As a result, the sea's life source was reduced to a trickle, and it is shrinking and dying as a result. Once the world's fourth largest lake, the Aral Sea has shrunk so much that it is now split into two separate bodies of water - the northern or little Aral Sea and a larger southern body.
Aralsk, once a thriving port town, is now 95 kilometres (60 miles) from the coast.
CHINA/THREE GORGES DAM: China's Three Gorges Dam project, the largest hydroelectric project in the world, was started in 1993 and is expected to be completed by 2009. The project has faced both domestic and local criticism.
More than one million villagers along the Yangtze river are being resettled to make way for the project and numerous ancient relics will be submerged. Of China's 668 cities, 400 are short of water. Hundreds of millions of people drink contaminated water and farmers have rioted in the countryside over precious supplies.
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At Development Talks, U.S. and Its Allies Clash Over Issues of Energy and Pollution
New York Times
August 29, 2002
By RACHEL L. SWARNS
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/29/international/29SUMM.html
JOHANNESBURG, Aug. 28 - For days now, the battle between rich and poor nations has dominated the United Nations talks here on the environment and development, with marches and fiery debates over how to reduce poverty.
But one of the fiercest struggles has been raging behind the scenes as the United States and the European Union clash over strategies to preserve the planet.
The allies are battling over the question of targets and time frames for the conversion from oil and gas to windmills and solar panels, for the cleanup of garbage and hazardous pollutants and for the preservation of endangered plants and animals.
The European Union says these talks must produce a strong plan with firm deadlines so the world's leaders can be held accountable for their actions. The United States opposes targets and deadlines, saying it would rather finance specific projects than support goals that might ultimately prove meaningless.
The negotiators on both sides are still cordial. But everyone agrees that the dispute has aggravated tensions that have been simmering since President Bush angered his European colleagues last year by refusing to ratify an international treaty aimed at preventing global warming. Nowhere is that rift more visible than in the debate over renewable energy.
Scientists say the industrialized nations are endangering the earth by using fossil fuels that contribute to global warming. Renewable energy sources like wind power and solar energy produce smaller and more expensive amounts of electricity than plants using traditional fuels, but renewable energy sources generate a tiny fraction of the carbon dioxide and gases that are believed to accelerate global warming.
Under the plan favored by the European Union, nations would commit to ensuring that renewable energy sources account for 15 percent of the world's total energy production by 2010. The United States has rejected such proposals. Canada and Saudi Arabia, significant producers of fossil fuels, have also objected. With both sides digging in their heels today, the talks seemed deadlocked.
"We have a range of issues - renewable energy, sanitation, hazardous chemicals and the reversal of the decline in biodiversity," Yvon Slingenberg, a senior member of the European delegation, said in an interview. "On all of those issues, we have not managed to convince them."
American officials dismissed such criticism. In the coming days, the United States will announce programs aimed at providing clean water and reliable electricity in developing countries. Action, they insist, matters more than words.
"We have maintained consistently that targets alone will not deliver the energy services needed," said Griff Thompson, the director of the Office of Energy, Environment and Technology for the United States Agency for International Development. "It's not the words in and of themselves that will electrify classrooms."
David Garman, an assistant secretary in the Department of Energy, said the United States was focusing on trying to reduce the costs of renewable energy, which is still more costly than coal or gas. "Renewable energy is great because it's clean," he said. "It also tends to be more expensive."
But at the talks here, the United States has been repeatedly, and sharply, criticized for refusing to commit to concrete obligations.
Today Representative Dennis J. Kucinich, Democrat of Ohio, and Jerry Brown, the Democratic mayor of Oakland, assailed the Bush administration's energy policy at a news conference here. They called for a new commitment to solar power and an end to fuel subsidies.
"There are people in the administration who will say, `We don't need to talk about timetables,' " Mr. Kucinich said. "But when scientists can show that over a period of time that global warming can, in fact, impact on the increase in world temperature, we better be talking about timetables."
The debate, however, is more nuanced than some American critics suggest.
The United Nations describes the United States as a pioneer in renewable energy; it is already one of the largest producers of wind energy in the world, even though the technology is still costly. Even the European Union has rejected proposals favored by environmentalists that would demand an even larger commitment to renewable energy.
"You can't say that the Europeans are dashing around reducing emissions furiously," said Gordon Shepherd, the director of international policy at the World Wildlife Fund. "But they have acknowledged that they have to. They've sent a message that things must change."
Mr. Shepherd said he believed the two sides would come to some sort of consensus, even if it meant horse trading on certain issues. But negotiators were not predicting an easy breakthrough.
"We've not made any progress," an American official said of the negotiations today. Asked whether he thought the two sides could bridge the gap, he shook his head and said, "I'm not sure."
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Industry joins Greenpeace to demand climate action
Thursday, August 29, 2002
By Reuters
http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/08/08292002/reu_48288.asp
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - An array of big businesses joined forces with an unlikely ally Wednesday to call on governments meeting at the Earth Summit to take clear action to tackle global climate change.
A group representing 160 multinationals made a joint statement with the environmental group Greenpeace calling on world leaders for an international system for halting global warming.
The statement by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) - which counts Caterpillar, Ford Motor Co, Dow Chemical, ICI, and Sony among its members - stopped just short of fully endorsing the Kyoto pact on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
"We call for governments to tackle climate change on the basis of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol. We both agree that this is the essential first step," Greenpeace Political Director Remi Parmentier said.
WBCSD head Bjorn Stigson said companies needed a "level playing field" internationally so that firms that made efforts to curb emissions knew what they stood to gain or lose. But Stigson added later that the WBCSD, which has many members based in the United States - and which has rejected the 1997 Kyoto pact on cutting emissions - was not necessarily calling on world leaders to ratify that pact.
Despite that reservation, both sides said the fact that they were making a joint statement at all was remarkable.
"We are shelving our differences on this important issue," Parmentier said.
Kyoto was dealt a potentially fatal blow when the United States, under President Bush, pulled out last year. The rest of the world can still go ahead, but only if most other developed countries ratify.
The 10-day World Summit on Sustainable Development, which concludes next week, is due to produce an action plan for stopping environmental degradation while improving the lot of the world's poor.
-------- ACTIVISTS
Big business accused of derailing Earth Summit
Story by Alister Doyle
REUTERS SOUTH AFRICA:
August 29, 2002
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17481/story.htm
JOHANNESBURG - Activists accused big business this week of hijacking the Earth Summit from a goal of halving poverty without poisoning the planet.
"The resources of Mother Earth are being sold off," said Anuradha Mittal of Indian group Food First on the second day of the 10-day talks in Johannesburg tackling issues from promoting clean energy and preserving fish stocks to fighting AIDS.
The World Development Movement, a British-based anti-poverty group, accused rich nations of "kowtowing to the powerful corporate lobbies". Among activists' complaints this week were limited access to the summit venue, ringed by armed police.
The main business lobby, representing about 200 corporations in Johannesburg from automakers to chemicals groups and oil majors, rejected charges that businesses would get better deals than those on environmental protection.
"Business is happy to work with others to deliver and make sure we address the environment issues and we look at the social side," said Mark Moody-Stuart, former chief executive of Shell and head of Business Action for Sustainable Development (BASD).
He told Reuters, for instance, that the world should stick with the Kyoto climate change pact despite misgivings from some major firms and rejection by Washington. President George W. Bush will not join about 100 world leaders at the summit finale.
The conference is expected to bless partnerships between governments, companies and other groups to get together to solve problems including access to clean water, energy or healthcare or to improve policies on green agriculture or biodiversity.
Many environmentalists are sceptical, saying the alliances could be a backdoor way for governments to shirk responsibility and give big business opportunities to profit from expensive, privatised services ranging from water supply to electricity.
GLOBALISATION "GOD"?
Delegates from poor nations at the summit say the United States is leading resistance to their calls for more aid and new timetables to meet goals of halving poverty and hunger by 2015.
"In the United States, globalisation is a god," said Tewolde Gebre Egziabher, a senior Ethiopian delegate to the summit.
Among other problems: "The northern states still insist on maintaining subsidies on agricultural products," he said.
Poul Nielson, the European Union's Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, denied that the 15 nations were pushing rampant capitalist remedies: "The EU is not blindly accepting the market is the only way to do things," he said.
Inside, many delegates at the World Summit on Sustainable Development blasted rich countries for giving about a billion dollars a day in subsidies to their farmers - six times aid handouts to poor states totalling about $54 billion a year.
"Can we take a piece of this billion dollars a day...and put it toward ending hunger and poverty in the developing world?" University of California professor Pedro Sanchez asked to loud applause in the plenary hall for negotiations.
A World Bank official noted: "The average cow is supported by three times the level of income of a poor person in Africa".
But the United States recently increased agricultural subsidies while the European Union is bitterly divided over French-led resistance to cuts in its massive subsidy programme.
Noting World Bank figures calculating that giving them more access to Western markets could benefit developing countries to the tune of $150 billion a year - almost treble what they get in aid - British Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett told delegates that London strongly favoured reform of EU subsidies.
But helping Third World exports meet Western quality standards was also a way to improve access to markets, she said.
Organisers denied they had tightened access to the plush convention centre in Sandton, close to some of Johannesburg's slums. They said they were struggling to manage about 16,000 delegates for a building that can take only about 7,000 people.
But non-governmental delegates had to get special tags, as well as passes, to get in. Some grumbled that the neighbouring mall was dominated by a huge display for German BMW luxury cars.
Away from the wrangling, barefoot activists in tie-dyed T-shirts at a "People's Earth Summit" a few kilometres (miles) away grooved to a jazz band as they sought to mend the planet.
"People here are networking and getting things done," said Samantha Skyring, a local activist involved in a project that introduces drums to township children as a way to express themselves and to heal themselves "spiritually and mentally".
NOT HOT AIR?
Summit Secretary General Nitin Desai rejected widespread predictions that the meeting's draft 77-page conclusions will be mainly hot air. "This conference will be different," he told South African public radio. "The focus is very much on action."
Among deals already struck, officials pointed to a pact to revive fish stocks by 2015. Negotiators have so far agreed 38 of 156 paragraphs that were still in dispute before Johannesburg. agreed several of the less contentious points.
In a key section on trade, finance and globalisation, delegates agreed some of the less contentious points this week.
The latest draft marginally watered down some environmental schemes while strengthening references to deals reached at the World Trade Organisation talks in Doha last year.
One group of activists vowed to press ahead with a banned protest march from a slum to the Sandton centre on Saturday, setting them on a collision course with South African police who have warned they will crack down "very, very firmly".
----
China's Top AIDS Activist Missing; Arrest Is Suspected
New York Times
August 29, 2002
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/29/international/asia/29CHIN.html
BEIJING, Aug. 28 - China's most prominent AIDS activist has disappeared and is believed to have been detained by the police, relatives and human rights groups say.
The activist, Wan Yanhai, is a former Chinese health official who was fired after he took up the causes of gay rights and AIDS in the mid-1990's. He has been involved in various small but influential projects in the last few years, including a Web site about H.I.V. and the creation of small support groups for patients.
He has also been instrumental in exposing a devastating AIDS epidemic in central China that is centered on Henan Province, where as many as a million poor farmers were infected through unsanitary blood collection schemes.
Dr. Wan divides his time between China and the United States, where his wife is a student.
He was last seen on Saturday night, attending a gay and lesbian film screening in Beijing. Friends have gone to the Public Security Bureau there to demand his release, according to the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Hong Kong.
The bureau did not respond today to a request for information.
His disappearance and possible detention come at a crucial time, as China is contemplating plans for a more aggressive strategy to combat a growing epidemic of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. The government is about to submit a major proposal to the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, requesting millions of dollars to be used for AIDS in some of the epidemic areas that Dr. Wan first exposed.
But his treatment in recent months reflects Chinese officials' persistent ambivalence about the kind of openness about AIDS that virtually all experts agree is necessary to reverse the crisis.
Dr. Wan's wife, Su Zhaosheng, said by telephone from Los Angeles that she had not heard from him since late last week, and attempts to contact him by phone and e-mail have all been fruitless.
"I have been unable to reach him, and he never mentioned to our relatives in Beijing that he was going away on business," Ms. Su said. "We usually talk every night. This has never happened before." This summer, Dr. Wan and his small band of volunteers in China have come under increasing surveillance and harrassment as his projects have become more ambitious - for example, helping groups of people with AIDS to organize petitions pushing the government to provide treatment.
People who have had even brief contact with him have sometimes been questioned by representatives of China's State Security apparatus. This summer his group, the AIDS Action Project, was forced to vacate its small office at a Beijing academic institute.
Those familiar with his Web site (aizhi.org) speculate that he may have given State Security authorities an excuse to take further action last week by posting an internal document prepared by health authorities in Henan that included statistics about the H.I.V. epidemic there.
Although the document contained little new information, some experts who have been involved with the H.I.V. issue speculated that the authorities might contend that it was a state secret, making Dr. Wan vulnerable to arrest under Chinese law.
Through his work, Dr. Wan has earned the admiration of foreigners and the enmity of Chinese officials. Last year he accepted a prestigious health award from Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general, on behalf of Dr. Gao Yaojie, a retired Chinese doctor who works with rural AIDS patients. Chinese officials had refused Dr. Gao a passport, keeping her from going to the United States for the award.
A small, soft-spoken man who generally works behind the scenes, Dr. Wan nonetheless absorbed some of the confrontational style of American AIDS activists during a 1997 fellowship in Los Angeles.
At a regional AIDS meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malyasia, two years ago, Dr. Wan rose from the audience to confront China's vice minister of health, who was at the podium.
More recently he has been involved in creating support and counseling groups for people with AIDS in rural China.
Last week, the Health Ministry received two petitions, which Dr. Wan's group had helped prepare, from farmers suffering from AIDS.
"We demand that the government provide free medicine, or medicine we can afford, and we demand the government produce copies of Western medicines as quickly as possible," read one petition, signed by 30 patients from Sui County in Henan.
Countries like India, Thailand and Brazil all now produce or buy cheap generic copies of the powerful AIDS drugs that have been so successful in the West. The Chinese government has rejected that route, saying it might be seen as a violation of patents under World Trade Organization rules.
As a result, treatment with the recommended AIDS "cocktail" of drugs now costs about 10 times as much in China as in Thailand, making it unaffordable to almost all sufferers.
The petition says that the villagers sold blood at the behest of local medical authorities and at blood stations approved by the government, and so patients should have the right to compensation.
It also points out that China's AIDS prevention and control plan for 2001 through 2005 sets a goal of providing community and home care for at least half of the country's H.I.V. patients by the end of 2002.
The deadline for China's submission of its application to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is next month.
The fund, with $2 billion at its disposal, is a partnership among the United Nations, governments, charities and private corporations, dedicated to subsidizing the battle against AIDS in the developing world.
If Dr. Wan has been detained under state secrets charges, he could be held for a long period without explanation and would lose many of the protections stipulated under China's Criminal Procedure Code, like the right to a lawyer. Convictions on such charges almost always carry long prison terms.
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Stars not coming out for Earth Summit
Story by Toby Reynolds
REUTERS SOUTH AFRICA:
August 29, 2002
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17483/story.htm
JOHANNESBURG - The sun may have shone on the Earth Summit but the stars have definitely not come out in Johannesburg.
"Where have all the big names gone?" is the protest lament in South Africa as not only George W. Bush but also the green stars of the entertainment world who graced the event in Rio de Janeiro 10 years ago have been conspicuous by their absence.
"It's off the radar screen," was the dismissive verdict at the offices of big-selling British celebrity magazine Hello.
"Not a word has been uttered about it."
That may be bad news not just for gossip columnists but for the U.N. summit organisers anxious for coverage around the globe to raise awareness of poverty and environmental dangers.
Sting, John Denver and the Beach Boys serenaded delegates who flocked to Brazil and the delights of Copacabana beach for the first Earth Summit in 1992. It is hard to find one A-list music industry celeb in Johannesburg.
Irish rock third world warriors Bono and Bob Geldof are not here, despite a long record of raising money and publicity for Africa's debt problem and famines.
South Africa's ageing "White Zulu" Johnny Clegg is top of the bill at summit music venues. West Africans Salif Keita and Femi Kuti played at a summit concert last week.
In Rio, as politicians basking in the afterglow of Cold War peace debated ways to save the planet, Hollywood stars such as Jane Fonda and Shirley MacLaine joined soccer legend Pele and Tibet's Dalai Lama to help raise consciousness on the issues.
This time round, "Titanic" star Leonardo DiCaprio pulled out of appearing in Johannesburg in support of a project to save great apes, citing contractual obligations in the United States.
NO NOOR
And this week at the Rio follow-up Jordan's glamorous Queen Noor became the latest in a long list of celebrity cancellations and no-shows when she pulled out of an event next week to promote parks and conservation with Nelson Mandela.
"She is definitely not coming. We do not know why," a Jordanian Embassy spokeswoman said in Pretoria.
The world's most famous South African, former president Mandela has also been absent from the biggest event the country has hosted since the end of its apartheid-era isolation in 1994.
Billed to appear at an opening ceremony for campaigners gathered to lobby their governments at the summit, thousands were disappointed when the 84-year-old Mandela failed to show.
His spokeswoman said he was out of town working on his book, although he is due to make a low-key appearance yesterday.
About 100 world leaders will jet in for a day or two next week but even their numbers will be depleted, notably by the absences of Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
While some have speculated that northern hemisphere summer vacations and Johannesburg's unenviable reputation as one of the world's most crime-ridden cities may have contributed to the beautiful people staying away, some campaigners have a more worrying explanation as far as the planet is concerned.
"Rio had a much broader appeal because it was new," Achim Steiner, Director-General of environmental group IUCN, told Reuters, lamenting the "cynicism" leading up to Johannesburg.
"Ten years ago people thought the governments really wanted to change the world," Mike Childs of Friends of the Earth said.
"There has been a huge growth in cynicism since then. Now the public expectations for the summit are that it won't achieve a great amount and people don't really want to be too clearly associated with it."
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Protest to the Subcritical Test
From: Satomi Oba <dogwood@muc.biglobe.ne.jp>
Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2002
Japan
Dear friends,
This is our protest letter I sent to the US government this morning. I hope that they will listen to the voice of the conscience of the world.
Best regards,
Satomi Oba
--
Dear Mr. Darwin Morgan,
We of Plutonium Action Hiroshima express strong opposition to the subcritical nuclear test called "Mario," planned at the Nevada Test Site on Thursday, August 29, 2002.
Nuclear deterrence cannot contribute to world security. Further, the US nuclear policy revealed in the Nuclear Posture Review earlier this year will only serve to accelerate the conflicts and devastation of the world.
Please listen to the Peace Declaration of the Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9. They explicitly express our deep concern with US policy which depends on nuclear weapons.
Mayor Akiba of Hiroshima City states in his declaration, "The United States government has no right to force Pax Americana on the rest of us, or to unilaterally determine the fate of the world. On the contrary, we, the people of the world, have the right to demand no annihilation without representation."
And Mayor Ito of Nagasaki City gives concrete criticism on US policy as follows:
"In the midst of such serious international conditions, the government of the United States has unilaterally withdrawn from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty with Russia in the name of terrorist countermeasures, and is moving forward with missile defense programs. The United States has also rejected ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and has suggested the possibilities of restarting the production of plutonium triggers, developing a new generation of compact nuclear weapons, and engaging in preemptive nuclear strikes. Other concepts, such as the redeployment of many warheads subject to deactivation according to the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty with Russia, also run counter to the disarmament efforts of international society. We are appalled by this series of unilateral actions taken by the government of the United States, actions which are also being condemned by people of sound judgment throughout the world."
It is reported that these two statement on Hiroshima and Nagasaki anniversary have been widely supported by the international community.
You insist that conducting subcritical tests does not violate the CTBT. However, we strongly maintain that such testing is against international law, against the spirit of the CTBT, and against the desire of the people.
We urge you to change this illegal, dangerous and inhumane course immediately.
Sincerely yours,
Satomi Oba
Director of Plutonium Action Hiroshima Member of Global Council of Abolition 2000 Phone/Fax: 81-82-828-2603
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[On a lighter note, PETA wins a round. et]
Sad circus elephant to join DC's "Party Animals"
Story by Christina Ling
REUTERS US:
August 29, 2002
WASHINGTON - A weeping circus elephant will join a "Party Animals" public street art exhibition in the U.S. capital after a judge this week ordered organizers to honor the free speech rights of the sculpture's animal rights sponsors.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and Washington's Commission on the Arts and Humanities clashed over the anti-circus message of PETA's pachyderm, decked out in performance finery with a tear rolling down its cheek.
In a play on the age-old circus announcement, the blanket on its back reads, "The Circus Is Coming, See SHACKLES, BULLHOOKS, LONELINESS, All Under The 'Big Top'."
PETA, which alleges that circuses routinely mistreat and abuse the elephants and other animals in their care, plans to attach a shackle to the creature's leg to underscore its message once it is installed in a prominent location.
"We know that circuses do everything they can do in order to keep the suffering of animals hidden and we were certainly determined not to let the arts commission do the same thing to our elephant," said PETA legal counsel Matthew Penzer.
America's best known circus, the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey, rejects such accusations, saying their animals are well cared for as an integral and beloved part of the performing "family."
SCULPTURE MENAGERIE
The commission in May unveiled a sculpture menagerie of some 200 fantastically decorated donkeys and elephants - animals that serve as the mascots for the Democratic and Republican parties, respectively.
Despite the political allusions, the arts body says the exhibition, modeled on similar displays featuring cows, pigs and fish in other cities, was meant only to boost tourism and promote public art.
"We think the party animals display is a whimsical fun art display, not a forum for political speech," said Peter LaVallee, a spokesman for the city's legal department. "It was not intended to convey any political message."
As with most things in Washington, however, politics quickly became an issue as the Green Party filed an ultimately unsuccessful lawsuit in March against the project, which it said unfairly promoted only the two biggest political parties.
The arts body also balked at the original circus elephant design by 'New Yorker' magazine artist Harry Bliss that PETA submitted.
It showed people pointing and smiling as a man with a hammer and nails tacked a poster with the same anti-circus message onto the skin of a cowed, unhappy elephant.
But Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court in Washington earlier this month ruled that the commission had ignored its own standards in accepting other designs incorporating various messages.
One elephant on display is decorated like a Monopoly game board and called GOPoly - a play on the initials of the Grand Old Party, as the Republican Party is sometimes known.
The mosaic design of another elephant incorporates a panel inscribed "Just Say No to Ivory."
This week, Leon rejected the arts commission's requests to reconsider his earlier ruling and bar the installation of "Ella PhantzPeril" pending further appeal. He ordered the two sides to agree on an exhibition site for it by noon yesterday.
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