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NUCLEAR
Businesses Draw Line On Security
IN BRIEF
Hungary Paks nuclear plant plans to extend lifespan
Sources: No new evidence of Iraq nuclear threat
Uncertain Ability to Deliver a Blow
Paris wants dossier on Iraq arms sealed
Russia Plans 4 New Nuclear Reactors
U.N. Worried About Nuclear 'Dirty Bomb' Material
Martin Kamen, 89, a Discoverer of Radioactive Carbon-14, Is Dead
Activists call for state inquiry
Exelon considers TMI sale
The Troubling New Face of America
Inaction on Iraq 'not an option'
The real goal is the seizure of Saudi oil
MILITARY
Afghan President Survives an Assassination Attempt
Major Violent Acts in Afghanistan
U.S. Air Force Official Voices Northrop-TRW Qualms
Kidnapping Ring Broken in Colombia
U.S. Plans to Fumigate in Colombia
Critics protest anti-drug tactics
Agents Raid Medical Marijuana Farm
Survey: Nation's Drug Use Increases
German Leader's Warning: War Plan Is a Huge Mistake
Arab League: Iraq Strike Would 'Open Gates of Hell'
Pre-Emptive Strike on Iraq: Count NATO Out
Seven eyed for NATO status
Israeli spies accused of posing as Canadians
Army Moved Weapons to Kuwait Base Near Border With Iraq
U.S. launches integrated comms network offensive
Study: Most Support Gov't Web Action
POLICE / PRISONERS
Group Says Web Freedom Eroded
A coming assault on rights of citizens
Amnesty Blasts Guantanamo Prison
Fears of Isolated Copycat Attacks, Hard to Detect or Stop
What Happens if Terror Hits Again?
ENERGY AND OTHER
German wind generation to rise 25pct in 2002 - firms
Diesel fuel exhaust likely to cause cancer - US EPA
ACTIVISTS
Protesters Interrupt Powell Speech as U.N. Talks End
Navy Clashes With Vieques Protesters
S.C. to Drop Suit Over Rest-Stop Demonstrations
Russians Jailed over Black Sea Ammonia Terminal
Greens decry Earth Summit outcome, jeer Powell
-------- NUCLEAR
-------- business
Businesses Draw Line On Security
Firms Resist New Rules For Warding Off Terror
By Eric Pianin and Bill Miller
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, September 5, 2002; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A38213-2002Sep4?language=printer
While the Bush administration has waged its campaign to strengthen homeland security since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, many of the nation's largest and most influential businesses have quietly but persistently resisted new rules that would require them to make long-term security improvements.
Most major companies and industries swiftly upgraded their security systems in the wake of the attacks, just as the federal government increased security at borders, airports, tunnels and bridges. But corporate chiefs and lobbyists from industries -- including banking, retail sales, chemical manufacturing and nuclear power -- are bridling at government efforts to impose even tougher safeguards. For example:
• Lobbyists for retailers and manufacturers are balking at a requirement that their ocean carriers give 24-hour notice before loading products bound for U.S. ports. Customs officials want more time to check whether terrorists have stashed explosives in big cargo containers, but the companies view it as an unnecessary obstacle that will slow business and increase costs.
• Banks are fighting proposed Treasury Department requirements for new steps to guard against money laundering by foreign financial institutions setting up U.S. accounts.
• Representatives of Dow Chemical Co., Dupont Co., ExxonMobil Chemical Co. and other major chemical manufacturers are lobbying against proposed rules and laws that would force them to enhance security well beyond the steps they have already taken.
Many corporate officials contend they already are doing everything feasible to protect against renewed terrorist attacks. In some cases, industry lobbyists have been able to kill outright or water down proposed security measures, while others are battling proposals by Congress or the administration.
The private sector's resistance is no small matter. By taking a business-as-usual approach, some industries remain riddled with security problems and are highly vulnerable to terrorism, according to some lawmakers, terrorism experts and industry watchdogs.
Nearly 90 percent of the nation's critical infrastructure -- from shipping and banking to nuclear power production, food processing and chemical manufacturing -- is privately owned. Corporate leaders' decisions will largely determine how the nation, as a whole, responds to calls for greater protections against further terrorist strikes.
"In the end, the business of business is not to make the country secure," said Ivo H. Daalder, a Brookings Institution scholar who has analyzed terrorist risks. "The business of business is to make the shareholders rich. That's the dilemma we face."
Business leaders often cite the high costs associated with new government initiatives, including the anti-bioterrorism and airport security legislation approved by Congress last year and the new restrictions on border crossings and international shipments of goods. Still reeling from the economic downturn, corporate America is unwilling to spend the billions of dollars required to meet many of the new standards being proposed by lawmakers and bureaucrats.
Private business spent an estimated $55 billion a year on private security before Sept. 11, according to the Council of Economic Advisers. In the post-9/11 era of heightened security concerns, corporate America may have to increase that spending by 50 percent to 100 percent, according to some experts.
"We are the industry driving the U.S. economy," said Jonathan Gold, director of international trade policy for the International Mass Retail Association, a trade alliance whose members generate more than $1 trillion in annual sales. "Any increased delays or costs would really impact not only our industry but hurt the U.S. economy and consumers."
Food Rules
Food processors, for one, have lobbied aggressively to kill or dilute government proposals to expand the federal role in protecting against the possible sabotage of the nation's food industry. Counterterrorism experts have warned that agricultural and food processing operations -- regulated by a hodgepodge of federal agencies -- are vulnerable to biological attacks that could kill Americans and severely damage the industry.
However, industry groups including the National Food Processors Association and the National Grocers Association say that they could accomplish far more through voluntary information-sharing and planning arrangements with the FBI and other agencies.
"Frankly, I think we're a model for the rest of the economy," said Kelly Johnston, executive vice president of the food processors group. Carol Tucker Foreman of the Consumer Federation of America said that while lawmakers have provided agencies with additional manpower and funding for food inspection, neither Congress nor the administration has addressed the underlying problems of a decentralized and chaotic food inspection system.
"Nothing has been done to address this lack of focus, so I think we remain more vulnerable than we need to be," she said. "Some parts of the industry have worked very hard to make sure the threat of terrorism does not result in any additional regulatory authority for the federal government."
Nuclear, Chemical Security
Nuclear power and chemical industry executives have also fended off scores of proposals that would have saddled them with potentially costly security requirements.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and industry officials blocked efforts this year to federalize the security forces at 103 commercial nuclear power plants. The chemical industry, meantime, has vigorously fought legislative and regulatory efforts to tighten security at its facilities. In both cases, industry officials said federal intervention would complicate voluntary programs and improvements already underway.
"It's our belief that the nuclear power plants are probably the best-defended civilian facilities in the United States," said William Beecher, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. "We've taken security seriously for more than 25 years."
But some lawmakers and independent experts say that "gaping holes" remain in the defenses of the nuclear and chemical industries, and that a more comprehensive approach is essential to guard against potentially catastrophic attacks on plants near populated areas.
"The state of security before 9/11 was pitiful," said Edwin Lyman, scientific director of the Nuclear Control Institute, a watchdog group. "Now it is a little better [because of] additional ad hoc measures. But there is no way to know how effective they are because the NRC isn't running tests to challenge the effectiveness of them."
For nearly a year, nuclear power plants have operated at the highest state of readiness in response to a series of chilling government warnings that international terrorists planned to seize a nuclear power plant or crash a hijacked aircraft into a reactor. Yet as public concern about the safety of these plants mounted, the NRC and the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), the main industry lobbyist, argued that Congress should play only a minor role in addressing security issues.
The industry's biggest concern was a proposal by Senate Majority Whip Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) calling for profound changes in security. Reid's original bill would have required fundamental changes in nuclear industry contingency planning and training for dealing with worst-case scenarios, as well as federalizing all security personnel under the control of the NRC.
Scott Peterson, vice president of the NEI, dismissed Reid's proposal as a "non-starter" that would throw the industry's security program into disarray. Industry officials intensely lobbied -- and won over -- many members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee during meetings and tours of nuclear power plants.
Reid abandoned his proposal this summer and instead worked out a bipartisan compromise approved by the committee that includes several provisions long sought by industry -- such as authorizing guards at all nuclear plants to carry automatic weapons and to arrest suspected terrorists.
The chemical industry has been even more adamant in opposing mandatory federal regulations. The Environmental Protection Agency and the White House's Office of Homeland Security for months have tried to craft new security standards for chemical plants that produce and store hazardous materials. But industry lobbyists and their congressional allies have exploited rifts in the administration to keep the proposals bottled up.
The American Chemistry Council, which represents the nation's largest manufacturers, including Dow Chemical and Dupont, says companies are already doing all that is necessary, including building fences, hiring more guards and eliminating stockpiles of deadly liquid chlorine. But the industry group represents a small fraction of the chemical, water and waste treatment plants that handle large quantities of hazardous chemicals, and some lawmakers say an industry-wide approach is needed to close security gaps.
The Senate environment committee in late July approved a bipartisan bill crafted by Sen. Jon S. Corzine (D-N.J.) that would give plant operators 18 months to certify their compliance with new prevention-and-response plans developed under the aegis of the EPA. The chemical industry, the American Petroleum Institute, the National Association of Manufacturers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and others have joined forces to try to kill the bill if it reaches the Senate floor this fall.
Shipments by Sea
Retailers and manufacturers are also fighting new screening procedures for U.S.-bound cargo, despite repeated warnings from Customs Commissioner Robert C. Bonner that terrorists could stash nuclear, chemical or other weapons in one of the 5.7 million containers that arrive at U.S. ports each year.
Ocean carriers are not required to provide copies of their cargo manifests until they arrive. Most carriers voluntarily provide the information electronically two days or more before arrival. But Customs officials want it 24 hours before goods are even loaded overseas.
"To us, 24 hours just doesn't make sense," said Gold, the official from the International Mass Retail Association, whose members operate more than 100,000 stores, manufacturing facilities and distribution centers nationwide. International retailers say the new regulations would disrupt companies that rely on "just-in-time" shipments, and would add unnecessary time and costs to retailers dependent on steady overseas shipments.
The retail association also contends that providing information so far in advance to the ocean carriers could increase the risk of theft. They say that the information could wind up in the hands of competitors. Gold said his members believe that they -- not the carriers -- should provide information about the shipments directly to Customs in secure communications.
Objection From Banks
There is also tension between the Treasury and U.S. banking and trade officials over how far to go in verifying customers' identities and uncovering suspicious activities, to comply with the USA Patriot Act, the anti-terrorism legislation that Congress passed after Sept. 11.
In July, the American Bankers Association, the Securities Industry Association and nine other financial trade associations formally objected to a proposed regulation that would force them to gather more information on foreign institutions that open "correspondent accounts" in U.S. banks.
David D. Aufhauser, general counsel for the Treasury Department, said the banks should comply for the sake of public safety. "The financial institutions are the gateway to America for capital that could be intended to injure people," he said. "I recognize they say this is an added burden. But the return is exponentially more than the cost."
---
IN BRIEF
Thursday, September 5, 2002
Washington Post; Page E05
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A38494-2002Sep4?language=printer
PEC Solutions of Fairfax, a professional services firm, won a $3 million contract from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for data-management services for use during upcoming congressional hearings on the storage of nuclear waste.
-------- europe
Hungary Paks nuclear plant plans to extend lifespan
REUTERS HUNGARY:
September 5, 2002
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17602/story.htm
BUDAPEST - Hungary's only nuclear power station, the state-owned Paks plant, said this week it planned to expand the lifespan of the plant by some 20 years and boost its capacity by eight percent.
The 1,500 megawatt plant, currently providing around 40 percent of Hungary's electricity demand, produced 14,126 gigawatt hours of electricity and made a pre-tax profits of 1.44 billion forints ($5.82 million) in 2001.
The nearly five billion forint capacity enhancement project can be started as soon as the plant's owner, the state-owned Hungarian Electricity Works (MVM), approves the plan later in the year, Deputy-CEO Gabor Vamos told a press conference.
Increasing the lifespan of the plant's four blocks would cost nearly 100 billion forints, otherwise the plant will have to be gradually shut down between 2012 and 2017 when its original lifespan expires, Vamos added.
The Paks plant, located 100 kilometres (62 miles) south of Budapest by the Danube river, uses up nearly 400 fuel rods a year. As its own temporary nuclear disposal facility will be full by 2008, the plant is to expand this storage facility and will also create a permanent disposal site at Bataapati, southern Hungary.
The construction of the permanent disposal site will cost a total of 35-40 billion forints, said Laszlo Marothy, managing director of the radioactive waste handling firm RHK.
If parliament and the surrounding villages give the green light to the project, it will be completed by 2008, he added.
-------- iraq
Sources: No new evidence of Iraq nuclear threat
Sources say Baghdad may be years from making a device
September 5, 2002
Barbara Starr
CNN Washington Bureau
http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/09/05/iraq.nuclear/index.html
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. sources with knowledge of Iraq's military capabilities said they are unaware of new information about the Baghdad government's efforts to develop nuclear weapons but added that United States intelligence may be reassessing that threat.
President Bush hinted Wednesday that the urgency behind recent calls for a "regime change" in Iraq are based on signs that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has not made good on promises to disarm and disavow weapons of mass destruction -- assurances dating back to the end of the Persian Gulf War.
Bush summoned top lawmakers to the White House on Wednesday and told them that he would "seek approval" from Congress "at the appropriate time" on what to do about Saddam.
The Bush administration has accused the Iraqi leader of amassing weapons of mass destruction in violation of U.N. resolutions ending the Gulf War.
Sources said they would not rule out the possibility that the White House may ask for a new assessment of any Iraqi nuclear threat.
The Bush administration has suggested that Iraq may soon develop a nuclear bomb. But multiple sources in the U.S. government said they believe Iraq is years away from having a nuclear device unless the country receives outside help. Most of these sources also said they know of no specific intelligence that would lead to a new timetable assessment.
Sources said the intelligence community is struggling with the question of whether Iraq has hidden fissile material that could be used in a weapon, or hidden uranium enrichment technology that could be used to make weapons-grade nuclear fuel.
There also is concern that Iraq's nuclear weapons design team may have made progress in refining its weapons design. But again, sources said substantial progress would have required outside help.
Report refers to pilotless planes
The latest published assessment from the CIA is believed to be the freshest analysis of Iraq's military resources. Initially distributed to the White House and members of Congress and released publicly in January, the report refers to several weapons systems and equipment considered a threat -- including Iraqi drones, or pilotless planes, that could be used to deliver biological or chemical agents.
The CIA described them as "refurbished trainer aircraft [that] are believed to have been modified for delivery of chemical or, more likely, biological warfare agents."
But U.S. officials in January said that the drones would not be particularly effective because of problems delivering such agents. One source suggested Saddam is "kidding himself" if he expects to kill large numbers of people using the planes for chemical or biological warfare.
Nonetheless, officials acknowledged that Iraq is likely to have such planes, and that it is serious that they should even try to deploy them in such a manner.
----
Uncertain Ability to Deliver a Blow
Iraq Cobbles Together Weapons Systems With Mixed Results, Analysts Say
By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 5, 2002; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A38183-2002Sep4?language=printer
In the waning hours of Operation Desert Fox in 1998, a British missile sheared off the top of a military hangar in southern Iraq and exposed a closely guarded secret. Plainly visible in the rubble was a new breed of Iraqi drone aircraft -- one that defense analysts now believe was specially modified to spread deadly chemicals and germs.
Up to a dozen of the unmanned airplanes were spotted inside the hangar, each fitted with spray nozzles and wing-mounted tanks that could carry up to 80 gallons of liquid anthrax. If flown at low altitudes under the right conditions, a single drone could unleash a toxic cloud engulfing several city blocks, a top British defense official concluded. He dubbed them "drones of death."
Today, Iraq's drones loom even larger as the Bush administration weighs a possible new strike against Saddam Hussein. The United States and Britain have charged that the Iraqi president is working to obtain chemical, biological and possibly nuclear weapons. A key unanswered question is whether Iraq has the means to deliver such weapons.
According to U.S. and allied intelligence officials and U.N. documents, Iraq has worked with apparently mixed success to diversify a patchwork collection of delivery vehicles that now includes not only Scud missiles, which it launched during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, but also a variety of novel machines for spraying pathogens and poisons from aircraft. Iraq deployed but never used chemical and biological weapons in the 1991 war.
The military significance of the threat posed by such an arsenal remains less clear. Drones are easy to shoot down, and it is far from certain that an aircraft-mounted chemical or biological attack would work -- especially against troops, experts familiar with the weapons systems note. Meanwhile, Iraq's missile industry, which struggled to tame the unreliable Scud before the 1991 war, is hobbled by U.N. trade sanctions, which are now in their 12th year.
But at a minimum, the analysts agree, Iraq's expanded capabilities appear to offer new ways to terrorize civilian populations, including the cities of Israel, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, among others that could bear the brunt of Iraqi retaliation.
"These aircraft are intended to fly below radar so the Israelis can't detect them -- the Iraqis themselves have said so," said a British biowarfare expert who investigated Iraq's experiments with aircraft-mounted biological weapons. "From that altitude, you can do a lot of damage over a very large area."
The delivery systems believed to be available for such an attack include at least some of the dozen drones targeted in the British raid four years ago. The L-29 aircraft, as the drones are known, are one of at least three types of pilotless planes Iraq has tested for use in biological and chemical attacks, according to U.S. intelligence officials and U.N. documents.
In addition, Iraq is known to have converted crop-dusting gear into a germ-spaying device mounted on helicopters, U.N. files show. It also has developed biowarfare "drop tanks" that can be mounted on Iraq's fastest fighter aircraft.
These little-noticed innovations -- many of them discovered by U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq -- supplement an established Iraqi ballistic missile program that Pentagon officials say is slowly being rebuilt after being nearly destroyed in previous U.S.-led attacks.
Both the CIA and the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency believe that Iraq's missile arsenal now includes two types of short-range missiles and a small number of medium-range Scuds that Iraq's military managed to hide from U.N. inspectors after the Gulf War. In addition, they say, Iraq probably retains dozens of missile warheads and possibly many more rockets and artillery shells that were filled with biological or chemical weapons years ago.
But large gaps exist in the West's knowledge of each of these programs.
The unknowns are critical, because they bear directly on the central question in the Iraq debate: whether Iraq's weapons of mass destruction pose a significant threat to the United States and its allies.
The precise nature of Iraq's arsenal of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons is also unclear. The CIA maintains that Iraq has residual stocks of biological and chemical weapons it manufactured before the 1991 war. U.S. intelligence officials also believe Iraq is secretly seeking to acquire new weapons, citing accounts by Iraqi defectors and satellite photos showing old weapons factories being rebuilt. Iraq's progress in acquiring nuclear weapons is uncertain. Former U.N. inspectors say Iraq was only months away from making a crude nuclear device when Operation Desert Storm began.
Airborne Threats
Before inspections abruptly ended in 1998, U.N. officials crisscrossed Iraq searching for a rumored new drone that could carry biological and chemical munitions. But not a shred of evidence turned up until Dec. 17 of that year, when British Tornado jets swooped over Iraq's Talil air base southeast of Baghdad and reaped an intelligence bonanza.
Photos of the ruined base revealed rows of the new drones, which Iraq had hidden inside a hangar at the remote base. The aircraft were identified as Czech-made L-29s, a light trainer jet Iraq had purchased years ago and converted to unmanned flight. The tanks for spraying biological and chemical agents appeared to be a unique Iraqi adaptation.
Small and maneuverable, the drones in theory could fly low over troop concentrations or cities and release a deadly mist of toxins. After reviewing the data, then-British Defense Minister George Robertson concluded that the aircraft were intended to inflict massive casualties on civilian populations.
U.S. intelligence officials are more skeptical of the L-29's capability, but they acknowledge that the drones and similar devices have given Iraq a number of options for using whatever biological and chemical resources it still has.
"Their [missile] warheads were not very good," said Charles Duelfer, the former deputy executive chairman of the U.N. Special Commission on Iraq, known as UNSCOM. "Most of the [biological and chemical] agent would incinerate on impact. That's why they became interested in other delivery methods, like remotely piloted vehicles."
UNSCOM discovered that Iraq had experimented with at least two unmanned aircraft before the 1991 war, including a modified version of the Russian-made MiG-21. In interviews with inspectors, Iraqi scientists revealed that Hussein became interested again in drones around 1995 and ordered a crash program to manufacture new ones.
Tests were apparently still underway in 1998 when the Talil hangar was struck. But at least some of the drones survived. Two years later, in 2000, U.S. surveillance aircraft documented what appeared to be a new series of aerial tests involving L-29s, the CIA revealed in a report to Congress released earlier this year.
"These refurbished trainer aircraft are believed to have been modified for delivery of chemical or, more likely, biological warfare agents," the CIA report said.
Besides the drones, two other kinds of airborne delivery systems were developed by Iraq and observed by U.N. officials during the final months of inspections, according to documents and interviews with former inspectors. Both devices appeared to be in the development stage, and U.N. officials were never able to determine how many of them Iraq possessed and what happened to them.
One of the machines, dubbed the "Zubaidy" device after its Iraqi inventor, was an adaptation of an industrial aerosol sprayer used for crop-dusting. The nozzles were modified for spraying bacteria, and the device was prepared for mounting on helicopters for close-range attacks, former inspectors said.
The other device, judged by former UNSCOM inspectors to be the most troubling of all, was a simple aircraft "drop tank," a torpedo-shaped container mounted on the wings of fighter jets as a reserve fuel tank. Iraqi engineers added a British-made electric valve and aerosol sprayer adapted for biological and chemical warfare, U.N. documents show.
UNSCOM found and destroyed four such tanks that had been designed for mounting on Iraq's top-of-the-line fighter, the French-made Mirage F-1. But at least eight other tanks the Iraqis acknowledged making were never found.
"The drop-tank project appears to have been pursued with utmost vigor," UNSCOM concluded in a 2000 report. While internal documents revealed that Iraq had tested the tanks using an anthrax-like bacterial simulant, Iraq's government "flatly refused to acknowledge the plan for this project," the report said.
Former inspectors found the drop tanks worrisome because they can carry greater payloads -- more than 500 gallons per tank. And, unlike drones and helicopters, the supersonic F-1 would pose a tougher target for antiaircraft batteries.
Still, the potential killing power of the device could be limited by many factors, including wind, sunlight and even the size of the aerosol droplets.
"Droplets that are too large may not be inhalable," said a British biological weapons expert familiar with the tanks. "But if they're too small, they may never fall to the ground."
Scuds and Other Missiles
Iraq has not attempted to hide all of its progress in weapons systems. Last year, at an annual military parade, Iraq displayed two short-range missiles, the Al-Samoud and the Ababil, and mobile launchers, the CIA told Congress.
"We believe that development . . . is maturing, and that a low-level operational capability could be achieved in the near future," the CIA concluded, citing in part images captured on videotape from the parade.
Both the liquid-fuel Al-Samoud -- which was successfully tested by Iraq two years ago -- and the solid-fuel Ababil are technically permitted under U.N. disarmament rules that allow Iraq to develop defensive missiles with a range of less than 150 kilometers, or about 100 miles. But intelligence officials believe Iraq is skirting the U.N. rules and secretly conducting research on missiles capable of reaching more distant targets.
"Baghdad also wants a long-range missile," Robert Walpole, the CIA's strategic and nuclear programs officer, said in testimony before the Senate in March. Even after devastating losses during the Gulf War and Desert Fox, Walpole said, Iraq "has been able to maintain the infrastructure and expertise necessary to develop longer-range systems."
It is relatively simple to extend the range of the Al-Samoud and Ababil by modifying payloads and fuel tanks, according to former U.N. inspectors and experts familiar with the missiles. Although there is no proof, many of the experts believe that Iraq is using its know-how to craft new medium-range missiles from the junked remains of outlawed Scud-B rockets obtained from the Soviet Union more than a decade ago. U.N. inspectors concluded that Iraq could have salvaged the equivalent of up to 25 Scuds from old engines and assemblies that escaped U.N. demolition crews.
"We assess that Iraq has a couple of handfuls" of missiles derived from the Scuds, said a senior Pentagon intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity. "The parts are probably dispersed, but on short notice you could pull them together into a working missile and shoot it."
Iraq has long known how to outfit its missiles with biological and chemical warheads, despite technical problems that persistently plagued such efforts. In a declaration to the United Nations in 1995, Iraq acknowledged filling 25 Scud warheads with biowarfare agents, including anthrax spores and deadly botulinum toxin. But despite seven years of intensive inspections, the warheads were never found or accounted for.
Timothy V. McCarthy, a former UNSCOM deputy chief inspector and one of the agency's top missile experts, scoffs at Iraq's claims that the warheads were unilaterally destroyed, arguing that unconventional weapons are far too valuable to Hussein to be lightly discarded.
"Iraq demonstrated amply its ability to deliver chemical and biological weapons before the war," McCarthy said. "If one assumes Iraq retained its missile system, then that capability is still there."
----
Paris wants dossier on Iraq arms sealed
From combined dispatches
September 5, 2002
Washington Times
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20020905-97599528.htm
PARIS - France yesterday said it does not support publishing top-secret evidence on Iraq's purported development of weapons of mass destruction, objecting to plans announced by the United States and Britain.
"We have information of a confidential nature, and you know the importance we've placed on making sure it stays that way," Agence France-Presse quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero as saying.
On Tuesday, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he would in the coming weeks release damning information about Baghdad's efforts to develop nuclear, biological and chemical weapons and demonstrate the threat posed by Iraq.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said yesterday in Johannesburg that the United States would also release evidence showing Iraq to be seeking to develop weapons of mass destruction "with even greater vigor" than in the past.
But Mr. Valero said Paris remained focused on getting U.N. weapons inspectors back into Iraq. "Since the inspectors left in 1998, it has been by definition more difficult to make any statements" about Baghdad's weapons programs, he said.
Comments by British government officials yesterday suggest the evidence promised by Mr. Blair will offer few, if any, revelations, Reuters news agency reported.
Asked to give an idea of what the evidence might be, one of Mr. Blair's Cabinet colleagues cited findings dating from the early 1990s.
"We have already indicated that the U.N. inspectors discovered vast amounts of chemical and biological weapons when they were there," Junior Foreign Office Minister Mike O'Brien told the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"We know also that Saddam Hussein was trying to develop a nuclear capability and develop a ballistic missile capacity before 1991 and we know that he continued to seek to develop that after 1991 while the U.N. inspectors were there."
-------- russia
Russia Plans 4 New Nuclear Reactors
September 5, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Russia-Nuclear-Renaissance.html
MOSCOW (AP) -- With fears of nuclear energy giving way to concerns about power shortages, Russia is carrying out an ambitious plan of putting four new nuclear reactors on line in the next several years, officials said Thursday.
Rosenergoatom, a state consortium in charge of the nation's nuclear power plants, plans to launch reactor No. 3 at the Kalinin power plant in western Russia next year and intends to complete another three reactors at the Kursk, Rostov and Balakovo plants by 2006, said its president Oleg Sarayev.
``Atomic energy has a very big potential of growth,'' Sarayev said at a news conference.
The April 1986 explosion at a nuclear reactor in Chernobyl in then Soviet Ukraine -- the world's worst nuclear catastrophe -- caused strong public distrust of atomic power and thwarted plans to build new reactors.
But increasingly acute power shortages in post-Soviet Russia have raised a renewed interest in nuclear power among regional officials and the population.
``We had Chernobyl, and its burden will stay with us,'' Sarayev said. But, he added, ``Rosenergoatom has started a new life, linked to the revival of nuclear energy.''
In March 2001, Russia launched its first new nuclear reactor since the Chernobyl catastrophe, at a plant in the southern Rostov region.
Rostov's 1,000-megawatt reactor is of the VVER-1000 type that uses pressurized water to cool its fuel rods instead of the less-stable graphite used in RBMK reactors, like the one that exploded at Chernobyl.
Sarayev said Rosenergoatom is working to modernize some of the oldest of Russia's 30 existing nuclear reactors to extend their lifetime. Rosenergoatom now accounts for 15.4 percent of Russia's energy production.
He said the consortium produces energy nearly twice as cheaply as conventional plants fire by coal or natural gas.
-------- terrorism
U.N. Worried About Nuclear 'Dirty Bomb' Material
September 5, 2002
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-crime-nuclear-un.html
VIENNA (Reuters) - The United Nations' nuclear watchdog is increasingly worried about huge amounts of discarded and unregulated radioactive material in the world that could be used to make ``dirty bombs,'' a top official said Thursday.
A year after the September 11 attacks in the United States, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) believes world leaders understand that militants could make weapons out of radioactive material left over from everyday uses.
``It's very difficult for nuclear reactors to fall out of regulatory control -- to be orphaned -- because they're usually owned by governments and are in a few places that everyone knows about,'' Abel Julio Gonzalez, Director of Radiation and Waste Safety at the IAEA, told Reuters in an interview.
``With radioactive material, the opposite is the case. It is usually owned by private people -- hospitals, small clinics, companies that do radiography (X-rays) of piping. It's much easier for this material to be orphaned,'' he said.
The IAEA's big worry is that it could fall into the hands of terrorist groups who could use them to make ``dirty bombs'' -- not involving any nuclear reaction or great physical damage, but using conventional explosives to spread radioactivity and panic.
POST-SOVIET PROBLEM
Perhaps the main worry is the former Soviet Union.
After it fell apart, much radioactive material that had been used there was simply abandoned. Nuclear fuel rods lie unattended on Arctic beaches, portable generators using radioactive sources sit in forests, dump trucks stand idle full of radioactive powder.
``We are talking here about simple radioactive material that is used for thousands of applications, used for so many things that our life would be completely different without it. This material can easily be orphaned and severely contaminate areas.''
Caesium is one of the more worrisome radioactive sources for the agency.
In 1987 a canister of caesium-137 powder, used to keep grain from rotting, was abandoned in a junkyard in Brazil. It contaminated 240 people, four of whom later died.
Gonzalez said an unknown number of trucks with a large amount of caesium appear to have disappeared in the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Moldova.
The agency is cooperating with the United States and Russia to try to recover them, though the number of trucks and their location is still unclear.
``They are as secure as they can be in a place like Georgia...or Moldova,'' he said. ``These are the kinds of sources that no one knows about and only appear when somebody gets hurt.
Last December parts from abandoned Soviet-era portable generators containing deadly strontium-90 were found in a remote Georgian forest near the breakaway Abkhazia region. Three woodsmen who discovered them were severely burned by radiation.
Fortunately the events of September 11 have helped to change Russia's attitude toward complying with international controls on radioactive and nuclear materials, Gonzalez said.
``Before, the basic attitude of Russia was non-engagement -- that this was not their problem but a problem of the former Soviet Union,'' he said. ``Now I believe things have changed and there really is engagement from Russia.''
-------- u.s. nuclear facilities
Martin Kamen, 89, a Discoverer of Radioactive Carbon-14, Is Dead
New York Times
September 5, 2002
By KENNETH CHANG
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/05/obituaries/05KAME.html
Martin D. Kamen, one of the scientists who discovered radioactive carbon-14 and in doing so helped lay a foundation for deciphering the chemical processes in plants and animals, died on Aug. 31 at his home in Santa Barbara, Calif. He was 89.
"The whole world changed," said Dr. Arthur B. Robinson of the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, who was a doctoral student of Dr. Kamen. "Before that, nobody could make any progress with biochemistry."
Carbon-14 also revolutionized archaeology, allowing precise dating of bones and artifacts.
Dr. Kamen was unable to bask in recognition for the discovery, made in 1940. Four years later, he was summarily fired by the University of California at Berkeley, because of suspicions arising from a dinner he had with two officials from the Russian consulate. Over the next decade, he fought recurring rumors and accusations that he had leaked atomic bomb secrets.
At first, he found all academic positions closed to him and worked for a while as an inspector at a shipyard. The House Un-American Activities Committee summoned him to testify in 1948. The State Department refused to issue him a passport. The Chicago Tribune in 1951 published articles naming him as a suspected spy. He attempted suicide.
In his autobiography, "Radiant Science, Dark Politics" (1985), Dr. Kamen said his wife, Beka, found him lying on the bathroom floor, bleeding from cuts to his face and throat. "Fortunately," he wrote, "the knife I had seized had been dull."
In 1955, he won a lawsuit against The Tribune for libel, and the State Department finally relented with a passport.
"They made a mistake, and it was a terrible mistake," Dr. Robinson said. "The guy, if anything, was conservative for an academic."
In 1996, Dr. Kamen shared the Enrico Fermi Award, which recognizes lifetime achievements in energy research. The award is given by the United States Department of Energy, which runs the University of California laboratory that had fired him five decades earlier.
"He was aware of the irony," said Dr. Kamen's son, David. "He was happy to receive the award. It didn't particularly improve his view of government bureaucrats."
Born in Toronto, Martin David Kamen earned his bachelor's and doctoral degrees in chemistry and physical chemistry at the University of Chicago.
He started working at the radiation laboratory of Dr. Ernest O. Lawrence at the University of California at Berkeley in 1937. Dr. Kamen and Dr. Samuel Ruben, a chemist at the university, were interested in the chemical reactions of photosynthesis, hoping to trace the carbon-based molecules. Almost all carbon atoms in nature are carbon-12, meaning they contain 12 protons and neutrons in the nucleus.
If some of the stable carbon-12 atoms could be replaced with radioactive versions, then scientists could spot the locations of the molecules by the radiation they emitted. But the only known radioactive version of carbon was carbon-11, and half of it decays in only 20 minutes, which is known as its half-life. That limitation restricted scientists to experiments lasting only a few hours.
Even so, Dr. Kamen and Dr. Ruben were able to show that the oxygen produced by photosynthesis originates from water molecules, not carbon dioxide as had been supposed by some.
To search for longer-lived carbon isotopes, the two men bombarded graphite in the 60-inch cyclotron accelerator at the laboratory. The result was carbon-14, which has a half-life of 5,730 years.
Dr. Kamen's troubles began during the Manhattan Project. While assigned to a project in Tennessee at what is now Oak Ridge National Laboratory, he asked a colleague to produce some radioactive sodium that he needed for an experiment, he said in his autobiography.
When he opened the container with the sodium, he was surprised that it was glowing purple - much more radioactive than could be produced in a cyclotron. He immediately realized that an atomic reactor must have already been built at the laboratory, he wrote. Because of security, Dr. Kamen was not among those told of the reactor.
In his excitement, he blurted out his realization to Dr. Lawrence, who was visiting the laboratory, and to Dr. Lawrence's Army escort. "Lawrence strode on, dissembling any interest in the news," Dr. Kamen wrote, "but shortly afterward I heard that an investigation had been instituted to find out the source of the leak to me."
Later, back in California, Dr. Kamen met two Russian officials at a cocktail party given by the violinist Isaac Stern, a friend. The consulate vice counsel asked Dr. Kamen for help in obtaining experimental radiation treatment for a colleague with leukemia, Dr. Kamen said. He made inquiries. In appreciation, the official invited Dr. Kamen for dinner at Bernstein's Fish Grotto.
Because of the earlier incident at Oak Ridge, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents observed the dinner. Dr. Kamen was fired almost immediately.
With help from friends, Dr. Kamen became a professor of biochemistry at Washington University in St. Louis in 1945. He moved to Brandeis University in 1957 before becoming one of the founding faculty members at the University of California at San Diego in 1961.
His later research focused on large proteins known as cytochromes, which play an important part in photosynthesis for storing energy and in metabolism for converting food into energy.
Dr. Kamen's marriage to his first wife, Esther, ended in divorce in 1943. His second wife, Beka, died in 1963. His third wife, Virginia, died in 1987.
In addition to his son, David, Dr. Kamen is survived by a sister, Lillian Smith of Chapel Hill, N.C., and a grandson.
Dr. Kamen was also often accompanied by his viola. He had considered a musical career before shifting to science and continued to play. "Pretty much everywhere he went, his idea of a social evening was to play chamber music with good friends," said David Kamen. "He played with Isaac all the time."
-------- maine
Activists call for state inquiry
BY KRIS FERRAZZA
LINCOLN COUNTY WEEKLY
Damarisctotta, Maine
September 5, 2002
From: "Raymond Shadis" shadis@prexar.com
WISCASSET - Nuclear safety activists are gunning for a top state nuclear official, claiming she is unqualified to do her job and calling for a probe into her hiring two years ago. State Nuclear Safety Advisor Paula Craighead was described as"patently unqualified" by members of Friends of the Coast, who sent a letter to the Attorney General's Office Aug. 30 seeking an investigation into the circumstances surrounding her hiring in 2000.
Ray Shadis, executive director of the group, said members knew Craighead had no nuclear background when she was hired, but they gave her two years to prove herself. They no longer are willing to do that, he said, noting "the terrorist attacks last Sept. 11 put a new emphasis on nuclear safety and security."
"How can our Governor, our lawmakers, and the public make intelligent decisions about protecting ourselves and the environment, if we don't have a State Nuclear Safety Advisor with the basic knowledge, credentials and experience?" Shadis asked.
Asked about her qualifications Sept. 3, Craighead acknowledged she has no technical background in nuclear science, but added all of the finalists for the job two years ago had legal backgrounds similar to hers. "The top candidates were all attorneys," she said, adding, "The focus has shifted."
Craighead explained that once Maine Yankee shut down, the issues surrounding the Wiscasset nuclear power facility changed. She said much of the job now entails studying and dealing with the legal issues surrounding decommissioning, as well as coordinating relationships between the various agencies overseeing the clean-up process. The movement of spent nuclear fuel from Wiscasset to a permanent storage facility outside Maine also occupies much of her time, she noted.
However, Shadis maintains that when the legislature created the post of Nuclear Safety Advisor in 1987, the statute required minimum qualifications of 10 years of experience, education, and training (or the equivalent) in nuclear power operations. He expressed concern that her appointment "violated the intention of the legislature that created the position and may have violated the law and best practices of this state."
He suggested Craighead was "a favorite" of Gov. Angus King, and that the governor may have exercised "undue influence" over the hiring process, causing more qualified candidates to be passed over in the meantime. He is asking Attorney General Steven Rowe to investigate possible wrongdoing on the part of Gov. King, and to delve into whether laws were broken by her hiring.
Greg Nadeau of the governor's office, who was on the selection committee that unanimously hired Craighead, said he "respectfully disagrees" with Shadis. He called Craighead's legal expertise "particularly relevant" to current issues involving Maine Yankee. He also noted Craighead already had "in-depth exposure" to nuclear issues years ago while serving on an internal working group in her role in the governor's office, where she was assistant legal counsel to Gov. King.
"Hindsight's 20/20, but I think it was a pretty good decision," he said of the hiring.
Nadeau acknowledged the statute was never changed to allow for what he described as an evolving role. Instead, he said he believes the law is open to interpretation.
"The statute is fairly broad and deliberately so," he said. "The legislature, in its wisdom, allows some flexibility to allow things to adapt over time."
Shadis claims Craighead has given testimony before legislative bodies that reveals she does not have the basic technical knowledge to critically assess safety issues or authoritatively advise on them.
"Parroting assurances from the nuclear industry and the failed U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission won't do," said Shadis, "We need a State Nuclear Safety Advisor who can tell neutrons from croutons."
Nadeau gave assurances that the state has a technical advisory panel of national experts in place to consult on a variety of issues, as well as number of other state employees with technical experience.
-------- pennsylvania
Exelon considers TMI sale
Thursday, September 05, 2002
BY BRETT LIEBERMAN Of Our Washington Bureau,
PennLive.com
http://www.pennlive.com/printer/printer.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/news/1031218227252700.xml
Three Mile Island operator Exelon Nuclear is exploring the sale of its share of the partnership that owns the Londonderry Twp. nuclear plant and two others, the company said yesterday.
Exelon informed workers yesterday it is in the preliminary stages of looking at the sale of AmerGen Energy, a partnership with British Energy that bought TMI in 1999 for $100 million from GPU Inc.
The purchase of TMI, as well as Oyster Creek in New Jersey for $10 million in 2000, were seen as bargain prices at a time when nuclear power remained out of favor. The third nuclear plant is in Clinton, Ill.
A sale of TMI alone could bring $340 million to $600 million based on the going rate of nuclear plants because of the industry's change of fortune, industry analysts said.
"The plants were purchased at a very, very attractive price. It would be a very positive outcome for Exelon," said utility analyst Daniele Seitz of Salomon Smith Barney Inc. in New York.
Exelon representatives said it is too early to speculate how much a sale might generate, who the potential bidders might be, and when the sale would take place.
"This is all very preliminary," said Exelon spokesman Craig Nesbitt. "It's just exploratory at this point."
Nesbitt could not say whether likely bidders include Richmond, Va.-based Dominion, Entergy of New Orleans and Florida Power & Light.
Officials for those companies, named by analysts as top contenders, could not be reached last night.
Chicago-based Exelon is the nation's largest operator of nuclear plants. Net income from its nuclear generation rose 18 percent last quarter.
But the company has faced criticism locally for cutting costs at TMI and for what some have called poor community relations.
Exelon spent about $100 million during TMI's refueling outage last fall and plans to spend millions more on a new reactor vessel head. The company, or a new owner, will also likely have to spend $100 million or so on new steam generator tubes.
Another option is that in dissolving its 50-50 partnership with British Energy, Exelon might want to buy some of the assets, analysts and industry officials said. TMI and Oyster Creek are in the company's mid-Atlantic region, which also includes the Peach Bottom plant in York County and the Limerick plant in Montgomery County. TMI would likely complement those plants, though Oyster Creek is considered less desirable, industry analysts said.
The sale may be a result of problems at British Energy, which has been suffering financially, analysts said.
The power plants will likely attract a crowd of bidders, Seitz said. TMI and Oyster Creek would be especially desirable because of the strong demand for electric production capacity in the region.
Exelon, which operates 17 reactors, may not have been able to fully take advantage of the economies of scale because of the shared ownership arrangement.
In general, companies the size of Exelon would want to be 100 percent owners of the plants they have, Seitz said.
AmerGen was formed by PECO of Philadelphia and British Energy in 1997. Exelon assumed PECO's share after the October 2000 merger of PECO and Unicom. BRETT LIEBERMAN: (202)383-7833 or blieberman@patriot-news.com
-------- us politics
The Troubling New Face of America
By Jimmy Carter
Thursday, September 5, 2002
Washington Post; Page A31
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38441-2002Sep4.html
Fundamental changes are taking place in the historical policies of the United States with regard to human rights, our role in the community of nations and the Middle East peace process -- largely without definitive debates (except, at times, within the administration). Some new approaches have understandably evolved from quick and well-advised reactions by President Bush to the tragedy of Sept. 11, but others seem to be developing from a core group of conservatives who are trying to realize long-pent-up ambitions under the cover of the proclaimed war against terrorism.
Formerly admired almost universally as the preeminent champion of human rights, our country has become the foremost target of respected international organizations concerned about these basic principles of democratic life. We have ignored or condoned abuses in nations that support our anti-terrorism effort, while detaining American citizens as "enemy combatants," incarcerating them secretly and indefinitely without their being charged with any crime or having the right to legal counsel. This policy has been condemned by the federal courts, but the Justice Department seems adamant, and the issue is still in doubt. Several hundred captured Taliban soldiers remain imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay under the same circumstances, with the defense secretary declaring that they would not be released even if they were someday tried and found to be innocent. These actions are similar to those of abusive regimes that historically have been condemned by American presidents.
While the president has reserved judgment, the American people are inundated almost daily with claims from the vice president and other top officials that we face a devastating threat from Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, and with pledges to remove Saddam Hussein from office, with or without support from any allies. As has been emphasized vigorously by foreign allies and by responsible leaders of former administrations and incumbent officeholders, there is no current danger to the United States from Baghdad. In the face of intense monitoring and overwhelming American military superiority, any belligerent move by Hussein against a neighbor, even the smallest nuclear test (necessary before weapons construction), a tangible threat to use a weapon of mass destruction, or sharing this technology with terrorist organizations would be suicidal. But it is quite possible that such weapons would be used against Israel or our forces in response to an American attack.
We cannot ignore the development of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, but a unilateral war with Iraq is not the answer. There is an urgent need for U.N. action to force unrestricted inspections in Iraq. But perhaps deliberately so, this has become less likely as we alienate our necessary allies. Apparently disagreeing with the president and secretary of state, in fact, the vice president has now discounted this goal as a desirable option.
We have thrown down counterproductive gauntlets to the rest of the world, disavowing U.S. commitments to laboriously negotiated international accords.
Peremptory rejections of nuclear arms agreements, the biological weapons convention, environmental protection, anti-torture proposals, and punishment of war criminals have sometimes been combined with economic threats against those who might disagree with us. These unilateral acts and assertions increasingly isolate the United States from the very nations needed to join in combating terrorism.
Tragically, our government is abandoning any sponsorship of substantive negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis. Our apparent policy is to support almost every Israeli action in the occupied territories and to condemn and isolate the Palestinians as blanket targets of our war on terrorism, while Israeli settlements expand and Palestinian enclaves shrink.
There still seems to be a struggle within the administration over defining a comprehensible Middle East policy. The president's clear commitments to honor key U.N. resolutions and to support the establishment of a Palestinian state have been substantially negated by statements of the defense secretary that in his lifetime "there will be some sort of an entity that will be established" and his reference to the "so-called occupation." This indicates a radical departure from policies of every administration since 1967, always based on the withdrawal of Israel from occupied territories and a genuine peace between Israelis and their neighbors.
Belligerent and divisive voices now seem to be dominant in Washington, but they do not yet reflect final decisions of the president, Congress or the courts. It is crucial that the historical and well-founded American commitments prevail: to peace, justice, human rights, the environment and international cooperation.
Former president Carter is chairman of the Carter Center in Atlanta.
----
Inaction on Iraq 'not an option'
September 5, 2002
By Joseph Curl
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020905-772626.htm
President Bush yesterday promised top lawmakers that he would seek congressional approval next month for any administration plan to topple Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, whom he called "a serious threat to the United States."
After meeting yesterday at the White House for an hour with House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and others, Mr. Bush said: "Doing nothing about that serious threat is not an option for the United States."
"I believe it's important for the world to deal with this man. The world must understand, as well, that its credibility is at stake," the president said.
As Mr. Bush stepped up the administration's offensive to convince Congress and U.S. allies of the need to oust Saddam, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell lobbied foreign leaders for support yesterday in Johannesburg, saying the United States would release evidence that Baghdad was pursuing weapons of mass destruction "with even greater vigor" than before.
In other developments, Mr. Bush:
Announced that he would begin an open dialogue with congressional leaders, provide information and send administration officials to testify before House and Senate committees and methodically lay out his administration's reasons for pursuing regime change in Iraq.
Said he plans to use a speech next Thursday at the United Nations as the first step in outlining to world leaders the case against Saddam.
Said he would meet at Camp David this weekend with British Prime Minister Tony Blair the only world leader so far to express support for the U.S. call for regime change in Iraq.
Said he would telephone Presidents Jacques Chirac of France, Jiang Zemin of China and Vladimir Putin of Russia, all of whom oppose military action against Iraq.
Considered giving Iraq a last-ditch ultimatum on letting in U.N. weapons inspectors.
The United States' crisis with Iraq began when Baghdad expelled U.N. weapons inspectors in 1998.
But Mr. Bush made it clear yesterday that the issue would not be resolved simply by Baghdad agreeing to weapons inspections. Instead, he said that in his Sept. 12 address to the United Nations he will remind the body that the Iraqi leader needs to show that he no longer poses a threat to regional and world peace.
"The issue is not inspectors, the issue is disarmament," Mr. Bush said.
"This is a man who said he would not arm up. This is a man who told the world that he would not harbor weapons of mass destruction. I will first remind the United Nations that for 11 long years, Saddam Hussein has sidestepped, crawfished, wheedled out of any agreement he had made not to develop weapons of mass destruction."
"And so I'm going to call upon the world to recognize that he is stiffing the world. And I will lay out and I will talk about ways to make sure that he fulfills his obligations."
The president's reassurance yesterday to lawmakers that he will seek congressional approval before taking action was welcomed by congressional leaders.
"The president began to make his case to us today, and we're hoping for more information and greater clarity in the days and weeks ahead," Mr. Daschle, South Dakota Democrat, told reporters after the White House meeting.
He added: "It would not be my assumption that the military course is the only action available to him today."
Mr. Hastert, Illinois Republican, said Mr. Bush still has much work to do.
"He'll make available his people to testify before the Congress, and ultimately, when the time is right, he'll come to the Congress for a resolution. In the meantime, that case has to be made to the American people as well. And it will be part of the Congress' role to do that as well," Mr. Hastert said.
Mr. Daschle also said there are many questions that must be answered before Congress will be prepared to vote on a resolution authorizing a U.S. attack on Iraq. Mr. Bush has asked for such a resolution before Congress adjourns early next month.
House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt, Missouri Democrat, said Bush officials will offer new information about Saddam when they come before congressional committees in the next few weeks.
"That's the beginning of an effort to get a strategy that's shared by a lot of our allies in the world and to build the kind of coalition that we did in 1991," he said, referring to the 1991 Gulf war, when 37 nations joined the United States in expelling Iraqi forces from neighboring Kuwait.
Mr. Bush's plans for Iraq have not been finalized, and Congress may end up voting on a resolution before the president announces what he will do. That point was clear in a letter Mr. Bush sent to congressional leaders in which he stated: "At an appropriate time, and after consultations with the leadership, I will seek congressional support for U.S. action to do whatever is necessary to deal with the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's regime."
More than two dozen options are circulating within the administration on how to deal with Saddam, including forcing Iraq to open its suspected weapons sites to U.N. inspectors by deploying thousands of U.S. troops in or near Iraq. The troops would begin an attack if inspectors were denied access, three administration officials told the Associated Press.
Vice President Richard B. Cheney has said readmitting U.N. weapons inspectors to Iraq would be pointless, although Mr. Powell and the president have said inspectors could be a first step to resolving the crisis with Baghdad.
Mr. Powell, who attended the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, said the administration is seeking to convince its allies of the threat posed to international security by Saddam's weapons of mass destruction.
"We are trying to make sure the world understands this threat," which Mr. Powell described as "an affront to the entire civilized world," he told reporters at the end of the summit.
The world could "make its own judgment" of Iraqi intentions and capabilities once the evidence was presented, he said.
Several European leaders appealed in meetings with Mr. Powell for the United States to seek a resolution at the United Nations calling for an unconditional return of U.N. weapons inspectors to Iraq before any military action.
Mr. Powell said Mr. Bush "has every intention of consulting with our friends and allies and the U.N. on how best to move forward" but that the United States "reserved the right" to protect its security even without an international green light.
In remarks aimed at clarifying confusion about the U.S. policy, Mr. Powell said the main issue was not the return of U.N. weapons inspectors to Iraq but preventing Baghdad from defying and endangering the world.
"One way is perhaps with inspectors playing a role. We see regime change as another way," he said. Mr. Powell later described the latter as a more effective and desirable outcome.
Dave Boyer from Capitol Hill and Paul Martin in Johannesburg contributed to this report.
--------
The real goal is the seizure of Saudi oil
Iraq is no threat. Bush wants war to keep US control of the region
Mo Mowlam
Thursday September 5, 2002
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,786180,00.html
I keep listening to the words coming from the Bush administration about Iraq and I become increasingly alarmed. There seems to be such confusion, but through it all a grim determination that they are, at some point, going to launch a military attack.
The response of the British government seems equally confused, but I just hope that the determination to ultimately attack Iraq does not form the bedrock of their policy. It is hard now to see how George Bush can withdraw his bellicose words and also save face, but I hope that that is possible. Otherwise I fear greatly for the Middle East, but also for the rest of the world.
What is most chilling is that the hawks in the Bush administration must know the risks involved. They must be aware of the anti-American feeling throughout the Middle East. They must be aware of the fear in Egypt and Saudi Arabia that a war against Iraq could unleash revolutions, disposing of pro-western governments, and replacing them with populist anti-American Islamist fundamentalist regimes. We should all remember the Islamist revolution in Iran. The Shah was backed by the Americans, but he couldn't stand against the will of the people. And it is because I am sure that they fully understand the consequences of their actions, that I am most afraid. I am drawn to the conclusion that they must want to create such mayhem.
The many words that are uttered about Saddam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction, which are never substantiated with any hard evidence, seem to mean very little. Even if Saddam had such weapons, why would he wish to use them? He knows that if he moves to seize the oilfields in neighbouring countries the full might of the western world will be ranged against him. He knows that if he attacks Israel the same fate awaits him. Comparisons with Hitler are silly - Hitler thought he could win; Saddam knows he cannot. Even if he has nuclear weapons he cannot win a war against America. The United States can easily contain him. They do not need to try and force him to irrationality.
But that is what Bush seems to want to do. Why is he so determined to take the risk? The key country in the Middle East, as far as the Americans are concerned, is Saudi Arabia: the country with the largest oil reserves in the world, the country that has been prepared to calm the oil markets, producing more when prices are too high and less when there is a glut. The Saudi royal family has been rewarded with best friend status by the west for its cooperation. There has been little concern that the government is undemocratic and breaches human rights, nor that it is in the grip of an extreme form of Islam. With American support it has been believed that the regime can be protected and will do what is necessary to secure a supply of oil to the west at reasonably stable prices.
Since September 11, however, it has become increasingly apparent to the US administration that the Saudi regime is vulnerable. Both on the streets and in the leading families, including the royal family, there are increasingly anti-western voices. Osama bin Laden is just one prominent example. The love affair with America is ending. Reports of the removal of billions of dollars of Saudi investment from the United States may be difficult to quantify, but they are true. The possibility of the world's largest oil reserves falling into the hands of an anti-American, militant Islamist government is becoming ever more likely - and this is unacceptable.
The Americans know they cannot stop such a revolution. They must therefore hope that they can control the Saudi oil fields, if not the government. And what better way to do that than to have a large military force in the field at the time of such disruption. In the name of saving the west, these vital assets could be seized and controlled. No longer would the US have to depend on a corrupt and unpopular royal family to keep it supplied with cheap oil. If there is chaos in the region, the US armed forces could be seen as a global saviour. Under cover of the war on terrorism, the war to secure oil supplies could be waged.
This whole affair has nothing to do with a threat from Iraq - there isn't one. It has nothing to do with the war against terrorism or with morality. Saddam Hussein is obviously an evil man, but when we were selling arms to him to keep the Iranians in check he was the same evil man he is today. He was a pawn then and is a pawn now. In the same way he served western interests then, he is now the distraction for the sleight of hand to protect the west's supply of oil. And where does this leave the British government? Are they in on the plan or just part of the smokescreen? The government speaks of morality and the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction, but can they really believe it?
· Mo Mowlam was a member of Tony Blair's cabinet from 1997-2001
-------- MILITARY
-------- afghanistan
Afghan President Survives an Assassination Attempt
September 5, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Afghan-Karzai.html
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) -- President Hamid Karzai survived an assassination attempt Thursday by an Afghan security guard who fired on his convoy, and a large explosion in the capital killed at least 10 people. Afghan officials blamed Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network for both attacks.
The Afghan president's American bodyguards opened fire in response to the shooting in Kandahar, and three people were killed, including one who was wearing an Afghan military uniform. Their bullet-riddled bodies could be seen outside the grounds of the mansion in a pool of blood.
In Washington, a Pentagon official said an American bodyguard in Karzai's security detail was wounded but that he didn't know how serious the wound was.
``Terrorists are behind both attacks, there is no doubt about it. And terrorists in this region are led by Osama and his associates,'' said Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah.
The attack in Kandahar occurred as the convoy carrying Karzai and Kandahar Gov. Gul Agha Sherzai was leaving the governor's mansion. Sherzai, who was grazed in the neck, was released after being treated at the U.S. air base here.
The violence was the most serious assault against the Afghan leadership since it took power following the collapse of the Taliban last year. It occurred less than a week before the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks and four days ahead of the anniversary of the assassination of military leader Ahmed Shah Massood, who was killed by al-Qaida.
Massood's Tajik-controlled northern alliance, which had battled the Taliban for five years, became the major power in Karzai's government. It is opposed by Pashtuns, who dominate the south, where Thursday's assassination attempt took place.
The Pashtuns, the largest ethnic community and the Taliban's former political base, have grown increasingly frustrated by the Tajiks who dominate the new administration.
Karzai was in Kandahar, the former spiritual headquarters of the Taliban, to attend a wedding celebration for his youngest brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai.
``I was just outside the gate when I heard the gunshots,'' Sherzai's security chief Dur Mohammed said. ``The Americans opened fire on three people, and they were killed.''
After the attack, Karzai returned to the governor's guesthouse, where he is staying, and said he was fine.
``He says he is safe and sound, and has come to expect these things,'' said BBC reporter Lyse Doucet, who was with the president at the time of the attack.
She said thousands of people were pressing forward toward the president and one Afghan boy approached his vehicle. As Karzai leaned out to shake hands with the boy, ``an Afghan in uniform also came forward and fired two rounds into the president's vehicle.''
Just before the assassination attempt, Karzai commented to The Associated Press about the bombing in Kabul:
``It's very sad. It's a horrible thing to happen to our people.'' Asked who was responsible: ``I'm sure terrorists.''
President Bush, informed of the attack in Kandahar by an aide as he waited on the tarmac in Louisville, Ky., expressed relief that Karzai was not hurt.
The shooting occurred shortly after a car bomb rocked a busy market area in the center of Kabul on Thursday, the bloodiest attack in the Afghan capital since the fall of the Taliban.
The blast, which police said killed 10 and reportedly injured 65, occurred in one of the most congested areas of the city on a day when many residents do their shopping before Friday's Muslim prayer day.
Kabul Police Chief Basir Salangi accused al-Qaida of orchestrating the explosion.
``This is the work of al-Qaida,'' he said.
Emergency vehicles and armored personnel carriers from the international peacekeeping force rushed to the scene in a crowded market area near the Ministry of Information.
Witnesses said a smaller explosion had drawn crowds to the area when the car bomb -- apparently a taxi -- exploded in front of a building containing shops selling televisions and satellite dishes -- all forbidden during hardline Taliban rule. The second floor of the building housed a small hotel.
Some dazed victims could be seen being led away, their clothing ripped and covered in blood.
``This bomb was inside a taxi,'' said police spokesman Dul Aqa. ``It was a very, very strong explosion.''
In addition to al-Qaida, former Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was a suspect in the bombing, he said.
Earlier this week, Hekmatyar issued a call for jihad, or holy war, to drive U.S. and foreign troops including international peacekeepers from Afghanistan. Some officials have speculated that he may have formed an alliance with remaining al-Qaida and Taliban leaders, although no clear evidence of this has surfaced.
Taliban leaders, al-Qaida fugitives and Hekmatyar have sought to rally Pashtuns to their side, taking advantage of their feelings of alienation.
In an audio cassette message released earlier this week Hekmatyar denounced the ethnic minorities and their U.S. supporters.
``The U.S. forces take the thieving soldiers of the northern alliance to the Pashtun majority areas to have them fight Pashtun Muslims. The search operations in the houses of Pashtuns have been assisted by the northern alliance forces in an attempt to sow the seeds of hatred and enmity among the various ethnic groups of Afghanistan,'' Hekmatyar said.
--------
Major Violent Acts in Afghanistan
September 5, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Afghan-Chronology-Attacks.html
A summary of major acts of violence in Afghanistan since the fall last year of the Taliban regime:
Sept. 5, 2002: A gunman fires in the direction of President Hamid Karzai in Kandahar, where he was to attend his brother's wedding. Karzai escapes injury, but Kandahar governor Gul Agha is wounded. U.S Special Forces protecting the president return fire, killing three people.
Sept. 5: A bomb explodes near the Information Ministry in a congested area of Kabul, killing at least 10 people.
Sept. 1: A small bomb explodes under a wooden pushcart near the ruined former Soviet Embassy, killing one person and wounding three, including a British peacekeeper on patrol. It is the latest in a series of small explosions in the Afghan capital in the previous two weeks.
Aug. 9: A construction warehouse holding stocks of explosives blows up in the eastern city of Jalalabad, killing at least 14 people and devastating an entire neighborhood. The cause of the blast was unclear, with some officials saying it was an accident and others saying the building may have been targeted by terrorists.
July 6: Vice President Abdul Qadir is shot and killed while leaving his office in Kabul by two men who escaped.
April 8: Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim escapes uninjured when a bomb explodes near his convoy in the eastern city of Jalalabad, killing four bystanders lining the road to greet him.
Feb. 14: Aviation and Tourism Minister Abdul Rahman is beaten to death at Kabul airport, allegedly by Muslim pilgrims unable to travel to Mecca. Karzai later blames the killing on a conspiracy within his government, but the cause of the slaying was never resolved.
Jan. 28: Afghan troops and U.S. special forces soldiers storm a hospital in Kandahar, killing six al-Qaida fighters who had been holed up in a ward for two weeks.
-------- business
U.S. Air Force Official Voices Northrop-TRW Qualms
By Jim Wolf
Reuters
Thursday, September 5, 2002; 12:22 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A40252-2002Sep5?language=printer
WASHINGTON-A top U.S. Air Force official said Thursday that Lockheed Martin Corp. held legitimate fears about the competitive impact of rival Northrop Grumman Corp.'s proposed $7.8 billion takeover of TRW Inc.
"I think they do have a legitimate concern and I think it needs to be addressed in some serious way," Peter Teets, the service's second-ranking civilian told a defense writers' breakfast.
"What we don't want is any of the prime contractors in the industrial base being foreclosed from information about sub-systems or sensors," said Teets, the Air Force under secretary who also heads the National Reconnaissance Office that designs, builds and operates U.S. spy satellites.
At issue are fears at Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed, the No. 1 U.S. defense contractor, about possible loss of access to sensors and sub-systems it currently buys from TRW, considered one of the top U.S. defense-technology innovators.
Teets stopped short of suggesting that he and his boss, Air Force Secretary James Roche, would oppose the merger which, if approved by regulators, would make Los Angeles-based Northrop into third-largest U.S. defense contractor after Lockheed and Boeing Co.
But he said he and Roche shared "strong feelings on the subject." They had asked Under Secretary of Defense Edward Aldridge, responsible for an ongoing Pentagon review, to include them in the process of evaluating the national security impact of the proposed deal, Teet said.
In a brief follow-up interview with Reuters, Teets, a former Lockheed president and chief operating officer, said he expected he and Roche to become more formally involved in the next 60 days. Roche, who is on record as voicing concern about defense industry consolidation that shrinks competition, is a former Northrop Grumman executive.
Aldridge, the Pentagon's chief weapons buyer, told reporters Aug. 8 that the Pentagon had some concerns about the deal's impact on competition but added, "We're not finding any show-stoppers ... something that says absolutely no way."
TRW's defense side specializes in secure satellite-based military communications and battle management aspects of national missile defense as well as laser and high-energy directed weapons systems among other high-end projects.
Cleveland-based TRW, which also makes auto parts, agreed July 1 to be acquired by Northrop for $7.8 billion, ending a four-month standoff between the two companies over Northrop's once-hostile pursuit.
Lockheed, based in Bethesda, Maryland, had no immediate comment on Teets' remarks.
Northrop has already told the government it is prepared to make any necessary agreements with the authorities "to ensure competition at the sub-system and sensor level" after the proposed TRW takeover, said Randy Belote, a company spokesman in Washington.
Teets said TRW had a "terrific capability" at both the systems and sub-systems level.
"We want to make certain that as we move forward that we not diminish competition-that whatever that outcome results in, nurtures competition and additional healthy participation on the industrial side in the space world," he said.
-------- colombia
Kidnapping Ring Broken in Colombia
Reuters
Thursday, September 5, 2002
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A38512-2002Sep4?language=printer
BOGOTA, Colombia -- Colombian authorities said yesterday they had smashed a kidnapping ring that abducted people in Argentina, Ecuador, Venezuela and Central American nations to fund Colombia's second-largest rebel army.
Colombian prosecutors and the army arrested 13 suspected guerrillas of the National Liberation Army, known as the ELN, in the Colombian cities of Bogota, Cali and Medellin over the weekend after a two-year investigation.
Army Gen. Reinaldo Castellanos said the group, which operated from Bogota, used the Internet to communicate with the relatives of captives and had links with other leftist groups in Chile, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru. He said the transactions ranged from $3 million to $10 million.
Last year, there were about 3,700 abductions reported in Colombia, most at the hands of leftist rebels seeking extortion money to fund a 38-year-old war.
Created in 1964, the Cuban-inspired ELN has about 5,000 fighters in Colombia. The ELN says it is fighting for socialist reforms. Colombia's war pits leftist rebels against far-right paramilitary groups and the state security forces.
----
U.S. Plans to Fumigate in Colombia
September 5, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-US-Colombia.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The State Department is planning changes in the chemical mix of a spray used to eradicate coca plants in Colombia because it contains an ingredient that causes eye irritation.
The plan was made public Thursday in a federal report sought by Congress, which asked the administration to determine the safety of the eradication program for humans and the environment.
An examination of the spraying program uncovered no unreasonable risks in either category, said a senior official who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity. The report was a collaboration by the State and Agriculture departments and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Eradication of coca plants in Colombia has been a U.S. goal for more than two years. The aim is to cut cocaine exports to the United States and deny financing to illegal armed groups that profit from the drug trade.
They include two leftist rebel groups and a rightist paramilitary organization.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of a Senate panel dealing with spending on foreign operations, has been concerned about potential hazards of the fumigation program and is the author of legislative conditions on paying for it.
On Thursday, Leahy declined to take a stand on the study but noted there are reports of health problems and food crops destroyed from the fumigation.
``Spraying a toxic chemical over large areas, including where people live and livestock graze, would not be tolerated in our country,'' Leahy said.
The study contains an Aug. 14 letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell from Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, who defended the use of glyphosate, the main herbicide in the spraying.
She wrote that glyphosate ``poses minimal health risks to humans and animals, is environmentally benign, and degrades rapidly in soil and water.''
But a memorandum in the report says an inert ingredient in the glyphosate formulation used in Colombia carries the potential for acute eye toxicity, which can cause temporary discomfort.
The report said the EPA concluded that the risks of eye damage are limited to the handlers and mixers of the concentrated formula and not the public at large. A test sponsored by the State Department determined that the spray mixture had a toxicity level of three on a scale of one to four, with one being the most toxic.
A new formulation with lower potential for toxicity was recently approved for use in Colombia. The report said the State Department expects to place an order for the product early this month.
Some people living in areas where spraying occurs have complained of health problems from the fumigation but the Colombian government says it has found no evidence to support such claims.
Colombian officials say the herbicides used by coca growers are more unsafe than glyphosate, which is widely used in the United States.
-------- drug war
Critics protest anti-drug tactics
09/04/2002
By Donna Leinwand,
USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002-09-04-wilmington_x.htm
In drug-plagued neighborhoods of Wilmington, Del., it's become a nighttime routine: Police "jump out" squads descend on a street corner, round up a few suspected dealers and cart them off to jail.
But then the cops go a step further: They detain others in the area for up to two hours, take digital photographs of them, get their names and other details, and then put the information in a database to use in future investigations.
The new database is part of an increasingly aggressive anti-crime effort in Wilmington that has drawn criticism from civil liberties groups. It also has thrust the city of 73,000 to the forefront of a national debate over whether law enforcement's use of such technology violates citizens' privacy.
Like several cities, Wilmington has embraced a range of surveillance techniques to try to make its streets safer. Video cameras monitor downtown corridors, and cameras at intersections photograph the license plates of red-light runners.
In troubled neighborhoods, police have asked residents to sign affidavits waiving their Fourth Amendment right to refuse a search of their property, so officers without search warrants can nab drug dealers who hide on front porches, in laundry rooms and in apartment buildings.
The affidavit plan did not raise many objections or much interest when it was introduced in June. Only two residents have signed such forms.
But the camera-toting squads that began that month quickly drew fire. Critics say spying on residents and keeping a database of "potential criminals" invades privacy and tramples the presumption of innocence.
"The 'jump out' squads are the tactic of rounding up the usual suspects," says Barry Steinhardt, director of the technology and liberty program for the national American Civil Liberties Union in New York City. "They are stopping, searching and putting into a database photographs of people whose only crime is being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It's bad law enforcement, and it's bad for civil liberties."
Wilmington City Councilman Theo Gregory, a public defender who opposes the tactic, says the brief detentions amount to "guilt by association."
City officials who support the database program and other surveillance techniques say they have helped to lower Wilmington's crime rate at a time when many cities are seeing crime rise. The officials also say police dragnets in high-crime areas rarely snag innocent people.
Wilmington Mayor James Baker and Police Chief Michael Szczerba, who oversees 289 officers, say the approach has contributed to an 8% drop in major crimes such as homicides, burglaries, robberies, rapes and assaults this year, compared with 2001. Shootings, however, were up 40% during the first six months of this year. Through June, there were 49 shootings, compared with 35 at the same time in 2001.
Szczerba says the people who are detained almost always are involved in the drug trade, perhaps as "touters" who stand in the street to drum up business, or as lookouts for dealers. Officers may not arrest such people if they do not catch them doing anything illegal, but the officers may detain them for up to two hours to gather intelligence.
The mayor's office says police have detained 588 people since the corner deployments began in June. Of those, 471 have been arrested.
The other 117 were not arrested but, like those who were, had their names and photos put into the police database. City officials say 84 of those who were not arrested had at least three felony convictions.
"If you come into our city to take in a ballgame or dine at a restaurant or go to a theater, you likely won't know about these corner patrols," Szczerba says. "But if you come to sell drugs or drink alcohol on the corner or just be a general nuisance, you're going to see us."
U.S. courts have held that people in public places have no reasonable expectation of privacy and may be photographed without their knowledge. Innovations such as the digital-photo databases could bring a new round of legal challenges, Steinhardt says.
Wilmington's database represents the latest turn in a national movement in which cities, after nearly a decade of historically low crime rates, are turning to advances in surveillance technology to try to curb what many officials view as inevitable increases in crime.
More than a dozen U.S. cities use surveillance cameras. Los Angeles has motion-sensitive cameras in high-crime areas to discourage dumping, graffiti and crime. When a sensor is triggered, the camera takes a picture and plays a recording: "We will use this photograph to prosecute you. Leave now."
Virginia Beach and Tampa monitor public areas with video cameras linked to sophisticated software that allows authorities to quickly compare the facial features of those who are taped. Federal police in Washington have put surveillance cameras on national monuments. Pittsburgh monitors its city pools with digital video cameras that provide live feeds that can be monitored remotely by computer.
In Wilmington, more than 100 surveillance cameras have scanned downtown streets since April 2001. Most of the cameras were installed by private businesses and corporations, but they are linked to a network of 13 cameras on public land that can send live video feeds to police dispatchers.
A private security company monitors the cameras for 16 hours a day to track suspicious activity, Szczerba says.
City officials say the cameras have had some success in tracking criminals. Officials from a merchants' group that helped to sponsor the cameras held a news conference in April 2001 to show video of two men who allegedly stole newspapers from a vending machine. The cameras tracked the suspects as they carried off the papers in a shopping cart until police drove up to arrest them, the local newspaper reported.
Earlier last year, the city put 10 cameras at intersections to catch red-light runners. By May 2002, the cameras had been responsible for 25,000 tickets.
The affidavit program took effect June 1. Homeowners who sign the agreement give police advance permission to enter their property without a search warrant.
Gregory fears such moves will lead to illegal interrogations of residents. He says he hasn't received any complaints from constituents. But he adds that he is concerned that many people might be unaware of their right not to answer questions from police, or that they could be afraid to complain.
Wilmington's police chief says his officers are operating within the law. "Any time you are progressive and assertive in the way you police," Szczerba says, "you're going to draw attention."
--------
Agents Raid Medical Marijuana Farm
September 5, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Medical-Marijuana-Bust.html
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) -- Federal agents raided a marijuana farm Thursday and arrested the owners, who helped write the state law legalizing medical use of the plants.
Officers seized more than 100 marijuana plants, three rifles and a shotgun, said Richard Meyer, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration in San Francisco.
Valerie and Michael Corral were arrested on federal charges of intent to distribute marijuana and conspiracy, he said. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney could not determine Thursday afternoon whether formal charges had been filed.
``These are incredibly compassionate people who've worked closely with law enforcement to help the sick and dying in our community,'' said Ben Rice, an attorney for the Corrals. ``This is absolutely outrageous.''
The Corrals helped write the 1996 law that allows patients and their caregivers to grow marijuana for their own medicine. They work with local authorities to dispense their pot to people with doctors' recommendations to use marijuana.
The raid surprised local medical marijuana growers and advocates, as well as the Santa Cruz County sheriff.
The farm about 15 miles north of Santa Cruz is known to local law enforcement, which have complied with state law rather than federal drug laws, said sheriff's spokesman Kim Allyn.
``The DEA didn't tell us they did this, not before, and not after,'' he said.
DEA agents have recently cracked down on high-profile medical marijuana advocates and distribution clubs and bypassed local law enforcement agencies that have condoned them.
Andrea Tischler, owner of the Compassion Flower Inn, where guests with doctors recommendations are allowed to use medical marijuana, said she was outraged.
``We're absolutely shocked that the DEA would step in like this at harvest time when so many patients would be able to benefit from this medication,'' she said. ``This is the one crop of the year they were growing.''
--------
Survey: Nation's Drug Use Increases
September 5, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Drug-Use.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- America has almost 16 million illegal drug users, including one in five young adults, according to a government survey that suggests use of marijuana and cocaine may be on the rise after leveling off in recent years.
Among ages 12 to 17, the youngest people surveyed, 10.8 percent were described as current drug users in 2001, up from about 9.7 percent the year before, according to the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse.
Young adults ages 18 to 25 were more likely to be users, increasing to 18.8 percent from 15.9 percent in 2000. The rate of drug use among adults 26 and older stayed about the same, at 4.5 percent. Current users are those who reported using a drug within the past month.
Although a few drugs, including LSD, are diminishing in popularity, others are seeing big gains. The number of people who have tried Ecstasy increased from 6.5 million in 2000 to 8.1 million last year, the survey shows.
Non-medical use of the pain reliever Oxycontin more than doubled, from 399,000 users in 2000 to 957,000 in 2001.
The survey shows moderate increases in the use of marijuana and cocaine by teenagers and young adults from 2000 to 2001. But researchers said it was too soon to say whether that marks the reversal of a trend of stable or declining drug use since the late-1990s.
``It could continue up and be the start of a long-term trend, or it could go down again,'' said Joe Gfroerer, director of the survey by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. ``We don't try to predict that.''
Other national surveys saw no statistically significant increase in drug use in 2001, and some even reported declines among young people. The National Household Survey on Drug Abuse is the largest study, interviewing almost 69,000 people age 12 or older and including every state.
Timing and different methodologies often result in different results among surveys.
``Ours is in the spring, theirs is throughout the 12 month period,'' Dr. Lloyd Johnston of the University of Michigan, who leads the Monitoring the Future study.
``By the spring of 2001, we found student drug use was either level, or had been declining since 1996,'' Johnston said. ``We did show for the young adults a little increase in 2001 in illicit drug use other than marijuana, nothing very dramatic.''
There were some changes in methodology between the 2000 and 2001 Household Surveys. Researchers said the changes may have influenced reporting, but ``the effects are relatively small and do not fully account for the observed increases in substance use between 2000 and 2001.''
The 2001 Household Survey found that marijuana users increased to 5.4 percent of the population, up from 4.8 percent in 2000. Cocaine users increased to 0.7 percent, from 0.5 percent.
Health officials noted that the number of people who perceived smoking marijuana once or twice a week as risky dropped to 53 percent, and blamed baby boomer parents for failing to take the risks of pot-smoking seriously and warn their children.
``As the perception that marijuana is dangerous goes down, its use goes up,'' observed Tommy Thompson, secretary of Health and Human Services, which oversaw the survey. ``More than a quarter of first-time marijuana users are under 15.''
The survey also found an increase in the number of people who would benefit from drug treatment.
The number of people needing drug treatment increased to 6.1 million, from 4.7 million in 2000, the government estimated. About 5 million of those drug abusers didn't get the treatment they needed last year, the survey said, and most didn't recognize that they had a problem.
On the Net:
2001 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse: http://www.DrugAbuseStatistics.samhsa.gov
-------- europe
German Leader's Warning: War Plan Is a Huge Mistake
New York Times
September 5, 2002
By STEVEN ERLANGER
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/05/international/europe/05SCHR.html
This interview is the second of a series in which national and world figures reflect on the terrorist attacks and their effect on a year of public life and policy.
HANOVER, Germany, Sept. 1 - Gerhard Schröder, the German chancellor, believes that the Bush administration is making a terrible mistake in planning a war against Iraq, and he is not afraid to say so.
A new war in the Middle East, he says bluntly, would put at risk all that has been gained so far in the unfinished battle against Al Qaeda.
The arguments against a war with Iraq are so strong, he said, that he would oppose one even if the Security Council approved.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, Germany offered "unconditional solidarity" and support to the United States as "a self-evident duty, as a friend," he said in an interview at his home here. Fighting Iraq, which he regards as entirely separate from fighting Al Qaeda, could shatter that unity.
"I think it would be a big mistake if this feeling of needing one another should be destroyed by excessively unilateral actions," he said.
Consultation is important, he said, "but consultation cannot mean that I get a phone call two hours in advance only to be told, `We're going in.' "
"Consultation among grown-up nations has to mean not just consultation about the how and the when, but also about the whether," he said.
Mr. Schröder is in the midst of a fierce election campaign that some say has influenced his stand, a suggestion he denied. "We will win in Germany, and then I will have to stick by this decision, and I know what that means," the chancellor, a Social Democrat, said.
His stand on Iraq is a departure for Germany, traditionally a staunch ally at moments of crisis. Many Germans feel indebted to the United States for helping shape modern Germany and are uneasy about charting an independent course on issues of such gravity.
Mr. Schröder made time in his garden to reflect on the events of Sept. 11, their impact on America's relations with its allies and the talk of war with Iraq.
Recalling Sept. 11, he praised President Bush and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell for their skill in quickly rallying an international coalition against terror. With the terrorist strikes, he said, the world understood it was facing "a privatized form of war, waged by terrorist organizations," that must be fought "using appropriate means, including military means."
Informal, sometimes smoking a cigar, Mr. Schröder emphasized Germany's close ties to the United States and its people. He and his wife, Doris, were greatly moved by the Sept. 11 attacks. His wife talks of living in America again, but Mr. Schröder has his eyes set first on the Sept. 22 election.
His stance on Iraq has appealed to those Germans who oppose war and are skeptical of Bush administration assertions that Iraq must be overthrown, not simply contained.
Senior officials in Washington are angry at his presumption that the American debate over Iraq is finished and his failure to give his closest ally the benefit of the doubt. They believe he is damaging the alliance for electoral advantage and is running against America.
But Mr. Schröder believes that his policy is prudent and coherent. He insists that the goal must be to pressure Saddam Hussein to allow weapons inspectors unconditional access not to go to war regardless to overthrow Mr. Hussein, as Vice President Dick Cheney has suggested.
Mr. Schröder threw up his hands. "How can you exert pressure on someone by saying to them, `Even if you accede to our demands, we will destroy you'?" he asked. "I think that was a change of strategy in the United States whatever the explanation may be a change that made things difficult for others, including ourselves."
Referring to Mr. Cheney, Mr. Schröder said: "The problem is that he has or seems to have committed himself so strongly that it is hard to imagine how he can climb down. And that is the real problem, that not only I have, but that all of us in Europe have."
Mr. Schröder emphasized that he had put his own job on the line when he pushed his Social Democratic and Green coalition to vote for German deployment of troops in the war against Al Qaeda, and said it was his duty to do so. Germany, he noted, has some 10,000 troops serving abroad, second only to the United States, in Afghanistan, the Middle East and the Balkans - so "no one can criticize us for lacking international solidarity."
But Iraq is different, he insists, and he said he resented finding out first from the media about the Cheney speech. Because he was prepared to call a vote of confidence on Afghanistan, he said, "it is just not good enough if I learn from the American press about a speech which clearly states, `We are going to do it, no matter what the world or our allies think.' That is no way to treat others."
Mr. Schröder said he had seen no new evidence indicating that the military danger from Iraq had increased, and so questions the administration's urgency. He says he believes "no one has a really clear idea of the political order that would follow in the Middle East" or of the effects of a war on the stability of moderate Arab states, or the cohesion of the antiterror coalition. There has been little discussion, he says, of the economic consequences, in particular the price of oil, for the rest of the world.
The war against Osama bin Laden is not finished, he said. "My concern," he said, "is that we have not even begun to achieve in Afghanistan anything that could be called nation-building."
Germany cares what resolutions the United Nations adopts, Mr. Schröder said. But the harm to the coalition, the lack of a concept for a new Middle East and the need to succeed in Afghanistan trump everything else for him. "These arguments," he said, "make me say, `Hands off' "especially, he added, since the evidence of an increased threat from Iraq "appears to be highly dubious."
Sept. 11 made Americans more determined on the issue of terrorism, he said, but did not change the American democracy or the ability to conduct a strong debate on issues like Iraq.
Sept. 11 had an enormous impact on the Germans, too, he said. "The large demonstration in Berlin by 200,000 or 300,000 people was in fact a spontaneous expression of sympathy and solidarity. And I also experienced it much closer to home if I may be permitted to say so since my wife had once lived not far away, on the Upper West Side."
New York also has special meaning to the world as a place of refuge for those forced to leave their own country, Mr. Schröder said, adding: "New York is thus a symbol of asylum. This was very much the case during the Nazi period in Germany, and this gives New York a very special importance."
He knows Washington is angry with him, but he thinks officials misunderstand what real friends he and Germany remain. "What is the duty of a friend in such a situation?" he asked. "The duty of friends is not just to agree with everything, but to say, `We disagree on this point.' That is what I believe to be the duty of friends in relations between individuals, just as it is in relations between nations, if one happens to disagree. And on this point" - Iraq - "we disagree, or I disagree."
He says he did what he thought was right when he put his job on the line to send troops to Afghanistan, "and now I am again doing what I think to be right," he said. "It is something that has to be done, and one has to have the strength to do it if one holds this office."
-------- mideast
Arab League: Iraq Strike Would 'Open Gates of Hell'
September 5, 2002
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-mideast-arabs-iraq.html
CAIRO (Reuters) - Arab League chief Amr Moussa said Thursday a strike against Iraq would ``open the gates of hell'' in the Middle East, and urged Baghdad to readmit weapons inspectors in coordination with the United Nations.
The White House said Thursday President Bush believed there was enough evidence to justify ousting Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
Bush has said he will ask Congress to back possible military action against Iraq and will outline the threat posed by its arms program at the United Nations this month.
Resolutions issued by the foreign ministers from 20 Arab states called for a ``complete rejection of threats of aggression against some Arab countries, in particular Iraq.''
The brief statement did not specifically refer to weapons inspectors, but Moussa said the ministers had agreed they must be allowed back as part of an overall solution to the crisis.
``We will continue to work to avoid a military confrontation or a military action because we believe that it will open the gates of hell in the Middle East,'' Moussa told reporters at the end of the two-day meeting.
``When it comes to the issue of Iraq, yes indeed, we again reiterate the importance of the full implementation of Security Council resolutions. We are for the return of the inspectors within an agreement, an understanding, between the government of Iraq and the secretary-general of the United Nations,'' he said.
The United States says it has not decided whether or not to use force to oust Saddam, whom Washington accuses of developing weapons of mass destruction. Iraq denies the charge.
Many countries insist that Iraq should be given a chance to readmit weapons inspectors before any strike is considered.
DIPLOMACY FIRST
Moussa said Arab states were seeking a diplomatic solution and had already helped bring Iraqi and U.N. officials together.
The ministerial resolutions on Iraq also called for lifting U.N. sanctions, an ``interlinked and scheduled implementation of all the requirements of the Security Council resolutions,'' and a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction.
Speaking to reporters on his way out, Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri accused Israel of possessing weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear and other weapons.
Moussa accused the world community of double standards, complaining that while it insisted Iraq obey U.N. resolutions, it failed to measure Israel by the same yardstick concerning its occupation of Palestinian territory.
``When it comes to the implementation of Security Council resolutions, we wonder why should we insist only on Iraq to implement Security Council resolutions. Although this is correct. We should call on Iraq to implement Security Council resolutions, but what about Israel?''
Asked about reports that U.S. troops might use Qatar as a staging post against Iraq, Moussa said: ``The Qatari foreign minister completely denied these reports. We have to believe the officials, though if it were true it would be disturbing.''
Qatari Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassim left the talks after Wednesday's opening session for an appointment in Geneva.
-------- nato
Pre-Emptive Strike on Iraq: Count NATO Out
September 05, 2002
Reuters
By John Chalmers
http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=worldnews&StoryID=1412525
BRUSSELS - The United States would not be able to involve NATO in a pre-emptive strike on Iraq because offensive action runs contrary to the founding principles of the North Atlantic alliance, officials said.
NATO invoked its Article V mutual defense clause for the first time the day after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, but it was sidelined from the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan that followed.
An official at the 19-nation alliance said that although Article V is still "activated," Washington would have to prove a link between the hijacked airliner attacks and Baghdad for it to be used as a mandate for NATO strikes on Iraq.
"Article V was adopted for a very specific incident," said the official, who asked not to be named. "I don't think you can automatically presume that the situation we're talking about here (an attack on Iraq) would fit in this context."
But could Article V be re-invoked for strikes on Iraq?
"There is no chance," said the official. "We're talking pre-emptive action here and that's not part of NATO's doctrine."
Article V of the Washington Treaty under which NATO was established in 1949 states that an armed attack against one ally or more in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack on all, legitimizing defensive action.
Diplomats said this left room for interpretation over what constitutes an attack, and if the United States did want to draw NATO into action against Iraq it could try to make a case.
"It's a legal and political question," said one Western European diplomat at NATO's headquarters.
"How do you define an attack? Hostile intent? A shot fired? Where does clear and present danger start? If you could prove that Saddam was going to press the button on a biological weapon in the next 20 seconds, maybe you could justify action."
DEBATE WITHIN ALLIANCE
NATO Secretary-General George Robertson has made it clear that although U.S. policy planners are carving out a new doctrine of pre-emptive action, the alliance will keep deterrence as its first option.
"We do not go out looking for problems to solve," he said in June after Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld suggested that the allies might have to take pre-emptive action in the future against unconventional threats.
Nevertheless, diplomats say there is a debate within the alliance about whether to include pre-emptive action in the new version of NATO's "military concept" which is being drawn up for a summit in Prague this November.
The military concept is essentially a guide for NATO leaders giving a range of options for a range of threat scenarios.
Tim Garden of the Center for Defense Studies at King's College London said he expected the United States to push at the Prague summit for NATO to move toward pre-emption as an option.
"But I don't think it will get very far because European governments do not want to give America a blank check to carry out the kind of wars it wants," he said.
Garden said that raising the question of whether NATO could be drawn into a strike on Iraq would inevitably spawn a "pointless wrangle" because of determined opposition to military action from several European allies, most notably Germany.
And in any case, the United States would not want to have its hands tied in Iraq by NATO allies.
"The United States would not wish to conduct a politically difficult operation in Iraq with all the constraints that NATO would bring," he said. "The Americans felt they had problems getting clearance from other members in Kosovo: they will want to do Iraq their way, just as they did in Afghanistan."
----
Seven eyed for NATO status
By Ted Hattori
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
September 5, 2002
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20020905-16540255.htm
A new Senate staff report recommends admitting seven new members to NATO, adding momentum to the drive for an ambitious enlargement round when the 19-nation alliance gathers for a summit in Prague in November.
But the report to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times, cautioned that several of the applicants posed serious military or political challenges for NATO, and that pressure should be kept on all seven Eastern European nations to meet even minimal defense-spending targets.
"Despite the pledges to meet the financial requirements, we remain skeptical of the will of each of the candidates to meet this goal once membership is granted," Patricia McNerney, the committee's Republican staff director, and David Merkel, a senior staffer for the committee, said in their report.
The seven countries are the three Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, plus Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania and Bulgaria.
Albania and Macedonia are also among the formal candidates, but few give either much chance of receiving an invitation at Prague.
The Bush administration has prodded reluctant NATO allies in Europe to agree to the largest round of expansion in the history of the 53-year-old alliance, and the first since Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic were invited to join in 1997.
The staff recommendation, which followed a tour of all the candidate countries, was sent Aug. 30 to committee Chairman Joseph R. Biden Jr., Delaware Democrat, and ranking Republican Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina.
Surveying the seven applicants, the report found that each poses problems as well as opportunities for NATO.
Corruption remains a serious problem in Romania, while a possible comeback by authoritarian Slovak politician Vladimir Meciar in this month's elections could complicate that country's NATO hopes. Slovenia, the report said, has only recently begun to rally public support for NATO after failing to secure membership in 1997.
More generally, the staffers found, there was a mismatch among the NATO hopefuls over what they could offer the alliance in security matters and in political terms.
"As a general matter, we found that those countries with strong assets to contribute militarily specifically Romania and Bulgaria, have more serious work remaining to develop and modernize their democratic institutions," the authors noted.
They said the countries "with strong democratic institutions, market economies, and the rule of law do not add significantly to the overall military posture of the alliance."
The report noted that many of the fears of those opposed to a major NATO expansion to the east have eased. Russia's opposition to the three Baltic candidates has softened markedly as relations between Washington and Moscow have improved in recent months.
The enlargement question has helped fuel a larger debate on the future of NATO, which no longer has its Cold War mission and has not been a major factor in the Bush administration's global war on terrorism.
Taking on new, militarily minor members only sharpens the question of NATO's effectiveness as a security force, according to Guillaume Parmentier, an analyst at the French Institute for International Relations, writing in the recent NATO Review.
-------- spies
Israeli spies accused of posing as Canadians
Ottawa investigating: Mossad has history of using counterfeit Canadian documents
Stewart Bell and Michael Friscolanti,
National Post Canada,
Thursday, September 05, 2002
http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?id=E572BCFD-92BF-4824-B98A-84FD9934B497
Federal officials are investigating claims that Israeli agents posed as Canadians during a spy operation in Gaza that reportedly used sexual blackmail to collect intelligence used to assassinate a Palestinian militant leader.
Canada's ambassador to Tel Aviv has asked Israel for an explanation of the incident and has been told it did not happen, but officials are concerned Israeli agents may be breaking their promise not to work undercover as Canadians.
Akram Zatmeh, 22, claims he supplied information to agents posing as Canadians that helped Israel pinpoint the whereabouts of a senior Hamas leader. The leader was later assassinated by Israeli forces in a July 23 missile attack that also killed 14 others, including nine children.
The informant claimed he was recruited by three agents who said they were Canadians and took him to the Canadian embassy in Tel Aviv before coercing him with promises of travel to Canada and threats to distribute fake photos showing him in sexual encounters.
In a similar incident in 1997, Canada recalled its ambassador to Israel after undercover Mossad agents were caught using falsified Canadian passports during an assassination attempt on a Palestinian militant leader. Israel apologized at the time and promised not to do it again.
The new reports emerging from the Gaza strip have Canadian officials worried that Israeli agents may have resumed adopting fake Canadian identities -- a tactic that could jeopardize the safety of Canadians who work or travel abroad.
Yesterday, a Foreign Affairs spokesman said the government had received assurances from Israeli officials that Mr. Zatmeh's accusations were false.
"It is unsubstantiated allegations," said Reynald Doiron. "We checked it out with Israeli authorities and they denied having used Canada, or that they would use Canada in a fashion similar to what happened last week."
Asked whether the Israelis could be hiding something in order to avoid another diplomatic firestorm, Mr. Doiron said: "They gave us their word and we take it as it is."
But in what was described as a confession published last week in the Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam, Mr. Zatmeh detailed how he was recruited by "Canadians" into becoming a spy two years ago and eventually played a role in the assassination of Hamas leader Salah Shehadeh.
"When I used to visit the British Council in Gaza, I saw one foreigner reading an English newspaper. Because of my curiosity, I introduced myself to him. He said that he is a Canadian who lectures sociology at one of the Canadian universities," Mr. Zatmeh said in Arabic.
The Canadian, who called himself Terry and said he was studying the living conditions of Palestinians, hired Mr. Zatmeh to assist with his research in exchange for $100 a month and a promise to help him travel to Canada.
One time, Terry asked for Mr. Zatmeh's photograph in order to get him an identity card from the Canadian embassy in Tel Aviv. At the embassy, Mr. Zatmeh said Terry introduce him to another "Canadian" named David.
David used the photograph of Mr. Zatmeh to create doctored pictures depicting Mr. Zatmeh in various sexual encounters. "He threatened if I tell anybody he will distribute my pictures, which may cause me a lot of troubles."
David later admitted he was actually an Israeli intelligence agent named Abu Muhammad. He told Mr. Zatmeh to monitor "confrontations" and "hot events" in Gaza and to supply the names of Palestinian militants who were firing upon the Jewish settlements and Israeli military command posts.
"After working for a while with Abu Muhammad, another intelligence officer phoned me and identified himself as Abu Ihab. When I moved to Gaza, Abu Ihab requested me to observe martyr Salah Shehadeh and his home in addition to the people who used to visit him and their cars.
"I confirmed to Abu Ihab more than once that the building in which the martyr used to live was crowded with residents. Also, the road around the building was overcrowded. However, Abu Ihab justified the assassination by saying that if Salah Shehadeh was not assassinated in such a way, many other civilians could have become his victims."
On the night of July 23 -- 20 minutes after Mr. Zatmeh said he reported Mr. Shehadeh's location to the Israeli agent -- an Israeli F-16 fighter fired a one-ton missile into a residential building in Gaza, killing Mr. Shehadeh and 14 others. Israel was widely criticized for the attack.
The informant's account could not be verified and it may be no more than Palestinian propaganda designed to put Israel in a bad light. Palestinian militants routinely execute those accused of collaborating with the Israelis.
Martin Rudner, director of the Canadian Centre of Intelligence and Security Studies at Carleton University's Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, said the tactics described by Mr. Zatmeh were common.
"It is not unusual, in intelligence collection operations, for a country's services to recruit agents under what are termed 'false flags,' " Prof. Rudner said.
"This is done in situations where the recruiting service feels that the agent may not be prepared to work for that particular country, but may be amenable to giving information to some other; or where the recruiting services seeks to cover its tracks in the event that the agent be turned or captured."
Wesley K. Wark, a University of Toronto political science professor who specializes in intelligence, said he would not be surprised if the Israelis had reneged on their 1997 promise.
"One can easily imagine that after a time of quiet that the Israelis might, in some operational circumstances, just have made a decision that this is going to benefit the security of Israel and we don't really care too much about what the Canadians think," he said.
Still, Prof. Wark said if the allegations prove true, the Canadian government will have no choice but demand the Israelis to stop.
"It does endanger Canadians overseas," he said. "It adds a layer of unnecessary suspicion to the Canadian identity abroad and it's something we shouldn't tolerate, so we have to use every means we can to encourage the Israelis not to do it."
A false Canadian identity would be a logical cover for an agent working in Gaza. Canada is heavily involved in aid work in Gaza, particularly in Mr. Zatmeh's home Rafah, a hotbed of Palestinian militancy along the Israeli-Egyptian border.
In September, 1997, two Israeli agents carrying fake Canadian passports were arrested in Jordan after a botched attempt to assassinate a high-ranking Hamas official, a Palestinian terrorist group tied to dozens of suicide bombings.
The revelation that Israeli spies were posing as Canadians during covert operations enraged the federal government, which feared the practice would prompt vigilante attacks against ordinary Canadians living in the Middle East.
Lloyd Axworthy, then-minister of foreign affairs, was so upset that he ordered David Berger, Canada's Ambassador to Israel, to leave the country until the Mossad security agency promised to stop the practice. Mr. Berger did return to work two weeks later, but only after Israeli officials sent a letter promising to "undertake measures to ensure it never happens again."
-------- us
Army Moved Weapons to Kuwait Base Near Border With Iraq
September 5, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-US-Iraq.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Army recently moved weaponry and war supplies from Qatar to a base in Kuwait near the Iraqi border to check their condition and test procedures that would be used in the event President Bush orders preparations for war, the Army's top civilian official said Thursday.
Army Secretary Thomas White said the movement to Camp Doha in Kuwait was a training exercise designed to periodically validate the condition of war materiel and practice loading and offloading it.
``We have done a lot with pre-positioned stocks in the Gulf, making sure they're accessible and that they're in the right spot to support whatever the president wants to do,'' White said in an interview with a group of reporters.
``But we've done nothing specifically against any particular scenario'' for war, he said.
President Bush, who has said he will outline his case against Saddam Hussein in a Sept. 12 speech at the United Nations, said during a rally in Louisville, Ky., that he would discuss Iraq on Friday in calls to the presidents of France and Russia and the premier of China.
``I will remind them that history has called us into action, that we love freedom, that we'll be deliberate, patient, strong in the values we adhere to. But we can't allow the world's worst leaders to blackmail, threaten, hold freedom-loving nations hostage with the world's worst weapons,'' Bush said.
As for Saddam, ``I take the threat very seriously,'' he added.
Iraq also was discussed in a meeting on weapons proliferation that top administration officials held with senators at the Pentagon Thursday.
Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and CIA Director George Tenet met with two dozen senators, including many members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
For several months, officials have been briefing members of Congress in such meetings -- and private experts and allied officials in various settings -- on the threat of weapons of mass destruction.
That is what Thursday's meeting was for, officials said, acknowledging that Iraq's weapons program was among subjects discussed. Rumsfeld had already met in closed-door session with about 50 senators Wednesday to update them on the war against terrorism, and a similar meeting is likely soon with House members.
White, meanwhile, said the stocks that were shifted to Kuwait in July were later moved back to their permanent position in Qatar, but a spokesman for Army Forces Central Command, Maj. Rich Steele, said in an interview that the materiel -- enough to equip a combat brigade of more than 3,000 soldiers -- remains in Kuwait. That amounts to a doubling of the war supplies now stationed at Camp Doha.
Steele said the extra supplies were needed because the Army had added two battalions -- roughly 2,000 soldiers -- to the existing force at Camp Doha over the past several months. The soldiers were added over a period of months starting last fall to discourage Iraq from thinking the United States was so preoccupied with the war in Afghanistan that it was not ready to defend Kuwait, Steele said.
The war materiel includes tanks and other armored vehicles, as well as fuel, ammunition and other supplies. The purpose of storing it in the Gulf region is to have it readily available to link up with additional soldiers who would be flown to Kuwait from Europe or the United States as reinforcements.
Army officials could not immediately say when was the last time that pre-positioned war stocks were moved to Kuwait for inspection and testing. Kuwait would be a natural jumping-off point for any U.S. land invasion of Iraq. More than 9,000 soldiers are at Camp Doha, training in the desert.
White stressed repeatedly that Bush has made no decision about war against Iraq and that it would be inappropriate for him to discuss possible scenarios or timelines for an Army buildup in the Gulf.
Bush, meanwhile, has eased tensions with Congress by assuring lawmakers he would seek their approval before invading Iraq.
He met Wednesday with congressional leaders at the White House, a first step as he tries to persuade lawmakers, the American people and the world that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and his weapons programs must be stopped.
``I think everyone acknowledged this is a good start, but I don't think anyone walked out of there ready to invade,'' said Senate Majority Whip Harry Reid, D-Nev.
Lawmakers from both parties have been alarmed as the administration's war talk surged in recent weeks. They said Bush hasn't explained why an invasion is necessary and that they feared they wouldn't be consulted before an invasion.
In an opinion piece Thursday in The Washington Post, former President Carter declared that ``a unilateral war with Iraq is not the answer.'' He said there is an urgent need for United Nations action to force unrestricted inspections in Iraq.
``But perhaps deliberately so, this has become less likely as we alienate our necessary allies,'' wrote Carter.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert said Congress would vote before the Nov. 5 elections on how to deal with Saddam, ensuring that Iraq is a high-profile issue in the campaign for control of the House and Senate.
Bush will meet Saturday at Camp David with Tony Blair, the staunchest U.S. ally on Iraq. Bush said he would reach out to presidents Jacques Chirac of France, Jiang Zemin of China and Vladimir Putin of Russia -- all three opposed to war.
--------
U.S. launches integrated comms network offensive
By George Leopold
EE Times
September 5, 2002
http://www.eet.com/sys/news/OEG20020905S0037
WASHINGTON - A new Pentagon office unveiled this week will try to build a communications network for military, intelligence and space agencies based on a single architecture, Department of Defense officials said.
The Defense Department's Transformational Communications Office is at the leading edge of a Pentagon effort to transform the way it conducts military operations. The Air Force-led initiative will create a new National Space Program Architecture that would attempt to tie together space-based and ground networks. It would also seek to meet the military's growing demand for bandwidth.
"The mission of this office is to assure that we have communications compatibility across the Department of Defense, the intelligence community and NASA," said Peter Teets, director of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and Air Force undersecretary. "Compatibility is critical to meeting the growing communications requirements that we face and to provide the flexibility we need to meet evolving demands on our communication systems."
Rear Adm. Rand Fisher, director of NRO's communications office, will head the new Pentagon communications agency.
Demand for bandwidth
The communications overhaul is being driven partly by growing demand for bandwidth as the military deploys new sensors, like unmanned spy drones, capable of delivering steaming video of the battlefield in near-real time. Predator and Global Hawk aircraft have been used extensively over Afghanistan in recent months.
Program officials said a joint integrated communications network tying together all U.S. space and ground assets would include both laser and RF communications capabilities. The military has used wideband laser communications for terrestrial networks but has yet to develop a satellite capability. Teets said the new office would track laser communications technology and eventually conduct technology demonstrations of satellite laser communications.
A new network architecture providing compatible communications to the far-flung national security establishment "could increase our capabilities by a factor of 10," Teets said.
The military has long faced compatibility issues because different military services and U.S. agencies have relied on separate networks, protocols and different equipment. Interoperability has been an even larger problem for the Pentagon and its NATO allies.
Some observers questioned whether the new office would be able to merge secretive cultures of the spy agencies and NRO, which builds and operates U.S. spy satellites, with the military services and NASA, which often rely on commercial networks. Teets acknowledged the current communications architecture is "a system that has a lot of pipes," noting, though, that the new office would ensure that "all those pipes connect to the war fighter and that the war fighter can get on-demand service from the communication system."
Decisions about how to implement the new network architecture must be made soon, program officials said. For example, the office must decide by the end of 2004 whether to order two additional Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellites or move to an upgraded capability.
At the same time, network architects will have to determine how to integrate billions of dollars worth of military satellite communications hardware into a new, integrated network. "All of these existing legacy systems need to be brought along in a way that they're phased into the new transformational architecture in a smooth, compatible way and that none of the war fighters are left behind in the process," Teets said.
The transformation plan calls for transitioning from the military's "channelized" communications system to using packet switching and Internet protocols, as well as specified network protocols designed to synchronize the overall network. Under the plan, the new Pentagon office would generate new specifications for network elements like protocols, and the military services and intelligence and space agencies would purchase new equipment using their own acquisition budgets, program officials said.
"What this office is going to do is take a comprehensive look at all of the pieces, which includes the legacy, and then [develop] an architecture," said Fisher. "Out of that architecture will fall out, in time, systems that will be phased out and those that aren't."
"We haven't made any decisions" yet, he added.
-------- propaganda wars
Study: Most Support Gov't Web Action
By Anick Jesdanun
AP Internet Writer
Thursday, September 5, 2002; 5:46 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42213-2002Sep5?language=printer
NEW YORK -- More than two-thirds of Americans say it's OK for government agencies to remove public information from the Internet, even though many didn't believe it would make a difference in fighting terrorism, a new study finds.
But Americans were evenly divided on whether governments should be able to monitor e-mail and Web activities, with 47 percent opposed and 45 percent in support.
"When it gets close to common, everyday things they do, their guard gets a little higher," said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project, which conducted the telephone-based survey released Thursday.
Since Sept. 11, several federal and state government agencies have removed documents, maps and other resources from the Internet out of concern the materials could aid terrorists.
The stricken items include federal environmental reports on chemical plants and their emergency response plans; mapping software showing communications infrastructure in Pennsylvania; and data on drinking water and natural gas pipelines in the United States.
Many of the removed documents remained available offline in government reading rooms or even online, housed at other, nongovernment sites. Some items have since been restored by the government.
According to the Pew survey, 67 percent of Americans believe the U.S. government should remove information that might potentially aid terrorists, even if the public has a right to know. Twenty-three percent believe the government should leave the information up, with the remainder not knowing or not answering.
Of those favoring removal, 36 percent said doing so would have no effect on terrorism. Overall, 47 percent of Americans felt that way, compared with 41 percent who thought it would help hinder terrorism.
Internet users were more likely to oppose monitoring and believe that information removal would not make a difference.
"It certainly is significant that our society which has always prided itself on open access of information is now so scared of what open access to information means," said David Greene, executive director of the nonprofit First Amendment Project in Oakland, Calif.
Greene said Americans may not believe the information is personally useful.
"People think, 'I'm not going to poison the water supply system, so what do I need to know about the water supply system?'" Greene said. "But if all of a sudden they are part of an effort to restrict development of a watershed and need that data ... all of a sudden they realize it's important."
Meanwhile, the Pew study found that the attacks continued to affect Internet behavior a year later.
Eighty-three percent of Americans who used e-mail to renew contact with family and friends soon after Sept. 11 maintained those relationships throughout the year.
Internet users have also obtained news, visited government sites and made donations online more frequently, with a large number citing the attacks as the major reason for change.
The telephone survey of 2,501 adults, including 1,527 Internet users, was conducted June 26 to July 26. The margin of sampling error was 2 percentage points for the full sample, 3 percentage points for questions asked of Internet users only.
On the Net:
http://www.pewinternet.org
-------- POLICE / PRISONERS
Group Says Web Freedom Eroded
By John Leicester
Associated Press Writer
Thursday, September 5, 2002; 7:18 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A39139-2002Sep5?language=printer
PARIS -- Several Western democracies have become "predators of digital freedoms," using the fight against terrorism to increase surveillance on the Internet, an international media-rights group said Thursday.
Reporters Without Borders criticized not only authoritarian states such as China that tightly police Internet use, but also Western governments - including the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Denmark - and the European Parliament.
"A year after the tragic events in New York and Washington, the Internet can be included on the list of 'collateral damage,'" the Paris-based group said in a report. "Cyber-liberty has been undermined and fundamental digital freedoms have been amputated."
The report accused China, Vietnam and other countries hostile to dissent of using the international counterterrorism campaign "to strengthen their police mechanisms and legal frameworks relating to the Web and to increase pressure on cyber-dissidents."
Among cases cited was that of Li Dawei, a former policeman sentenced in July to 11 years in prison on charges of using the Internet to subvert the Chinese government.
But even among Western democracies, "many countries have adopted laws, measures and actions that are poised to put the Internet under the tutelage of security services," Reporters Without Borders said.
It said measures to record information about Web sites visited and e-mails sent and received risk turning Internet providers and telecommunications firms "into potential branches of the police."
Since Sept. 11, many governments have sought to respond to concerns that terrorists can use the speed, ease of communication and relative anonymity of the Internet to plan attacks, swap information, transfer funds and publicize their ideas.
Critics fear the measures will erode users' privacy and freedom of speech, cause them to trust the Internet less and ultimately hurt the Internet's value as a new communications medium.
Two other advocacy groups, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and Privacy International, also said in a report this week that governments worldwide have made it easier for authorities to eavesdrop on telephone and online conversations in order to fight terror.
Reporters Without Borders cited dozens of measures adopted or proposed by governments to expand police powers on the Web, including:
-A Canadian anti-terrorist law adopted last December "clearly undermines the confidentiality of exchanges of electronic mail," the group said.
-"Magic Lantern" technology being developed by the FBI will allow investigators to secretly install over the Internet powerful eavesdropping software to record every keystroke on a person's computer.
-A new French law requires Internet providers to keep records of e-mail exchanges for one year and make it easier for authorities to decode messages protected by encryption software.
----
A coming assault on rights of citizens
September 5, 2002
Washington Times
Sheldon Richman
http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/20020905-24231615.htm
What do the coming war against Iraq and the pending threat to medical privacy have in common? Both give the lie to the belief that we Americans live under a system of limited, representative government. The civics textbooks are hooey, but they serve a purpose as a sedative for the next generation of voters.
We all grow up believing that ours is a government of the people, by the people and for the people. It must be. We vote for congressmen and presidents every two, four, and six years. They are supposed to be responsive to the people. There's a problem already. They are not supposed to be responsive to the people. They are supposed to uphold the Constitution, which strictly limits government power no matter what the people want. These days the Constitution is an empty symbol invoked by "leaders" to achieve legitimacy. All the limits built into the Constitution have over the years been twisted into justifications for more power. When the government has the power to define its own powers, it is not a constitutional government, whatever you may call it. The word "despotism" comes to mind.
Consider the almost-certain assault on Iraq. As brutal as its dictator is, he has not attacked the American people. On the contrary, the U.S. government has been bombing Iraq for more than 10 years and maintaining an embargo that has devastated the country. Lots of attempts have been made to tie Saddam Hussein to terrorism, but nothing has stuck. No one seriously believes he had anything to do with September 11 or the ensuing anthrax exposures. What about weapons of mass destruction? All we hear are assertions. And contrary to official mythology, Saddam did not throw out the U.N. inspectors. They left because of U.S. bombing. Saddam has said repeatedly that they can return when the illegal embargo ends.
Even if he has the weapons, what's he going to do with them?
Israel has had nuclear weapons for decades. The United States is rather well-equipped. How likely is Saddam to risk his own destiny? On the other hand, how likely is he to use nasty weapons if the United States corners him?
The war is not about thwarting a threat. It's about the U.S. government calling the shots. No U.S. president likes being crossed, especially by a foreign leader who was a thorn in the side of his father.
Yet we may go to war on the order of one man, President Bush. Caesar and Napoleon live. This violates everything the Founders of this country believed and encoded in the Constitution. Unequivocally, only Congress can constitutionally declare war. What about those words do Mr. Bush, Vice President Richard B. Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld not understand?
Lots of commentators waxed rhapsodic recently when Congress held hearings about the war. While some caution was expressed, the witnesses constituted a stacked pro-war deck. It reminded me of the alleged "historic" congressional debate a decade ago before the first Iraq war.
It was praised as democracy at its best. More hooey. The "debate" didn't occur until the troops were in place and the deadline for hostilities set. No honest debate could occur under those loaded circumstances.
When it comes, the second Iraq war will be a grave assault not only on the Iraqi people, but also on the American people and the Constitution.
The people's "representatives" have also delivered an assault on their medical privacy. Mr. Bush's revision of a Clinton proposal would permit nearly everyone involved in the delivery and payment of health care to provide patients' medical information without their consent. The administration thinks it's enough that patients will be notified that the information has been given out. They assume we won't notice the difference between their giving notification and our giving consent. But recall that in their eyes we're all idiots.
When people got word that their medical privacy was under threat, they deluged Washington with objections. Those objections were duly received and compiled - and ignored. That is the way of modern representative government.
But we don't care. We're too busy watching government agents parade handcuffed accused (but not convicted) businessmen through the streets. As writer Michael Kinsley once said, it's not the illegal stuff that government does that's so appalling. It's the legal stuff.
Sheldon Richman is senior fellow at the Future of Freedom Foundation in Fairfax.
--------
Amnesty Blasts Guantanamo Prison
September 5, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Amnesty-Guantanamo.html
LONDON (AP) -- U.S. authorities should charge and try Taliban and al-Qaida suspects held at a U.S. Navy base in Cuba or release them, the human rights group Amnesty International said Thursday.
In a new report, the London-based group said the prisoners, incarcerated at the Guantanamo Bay base for several months since being captured in Afghanistan, are in ``legal limbo,'' a serious breach of their human rights.
It said the prisoners, who include seven British nationals, are routinely denied the right to see lawyers, although they could face trial by special U.S. military courts with the power to pass death sentences. The suspects reportedly include members of Afghanistan's former hardline Taliban regime and the al-Qaida terror network believed responsible for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The Bush administration declines to categorize them as prisoners of war with attending rights, saying they're legitimate combatants as defined under international treaty and can be held until war's end.
Amnesty International said the British government should urge the United States to release all the Guantanamo prisoners ``unless they are charged with a recognizably criminal offense and tried by an independent and impartial court in proceedings which meet international standards of fairness and exclude the possibility that the death penalty may be imposed.''
Amnesty International opposes capital punishment in all cases as a matter of principle.
The report also accused criticized British anti-terrorism legislation, passed in the wake of Sept. 11.
Amnesty said the Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act, passed in November 2001, ``effectively created a shadow criminal justice system devoid of a number of crucial components and safeguards'' contained in the ordinary criminal justice system.
Amnesty called for an immediate repeal of section 4 of the law, which empowers the government to detain foreign nationals indefinitely, without charge or trial, if they are suspected of threatening Britain's national security.
Amnesty said those detained under the act suffer ``cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment,'' including incarceration in top-security prisons, where they suffer abuse and intimidation and are habitually denied access to lawyers and the right to appeal.
Amnesty also said Britain breached the European Convention on Human Rights. When Britain adopted the convention, it specifically excluded a provision which says any arrested person must ``be brought promptly before a judge or other officer authorized by law.''
A Home Office official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the government is confident that the government is complying with the European Convention on Human Rights.
-------- terrorism
Fears of Isolated Copycat Attacks, Hard to Detect or Stop
New York Times
September 5, 2002
By DOUGLAS FRANTZ and DESMOND BUTLER
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/05/international/europe/05SWED.html
STOCKHOLM, Sept. 4 - Alarmed by the arrests of nine men suspected of terrorism in Sweden and the Netherlands in recent days, European intelligence and police authorities say they fear that a next wave of attacks by Islamic extremists might involve small operations that will be difficult to detect and stop.
Some senior government officials in European countries warned that, despite successes against Al Qaeda and its leadership in Afghanistan, new dangers come from radicals tied loosely to the network and freelance extremists inspired to copycat acts.
"Radical cells still exist across Europe, and I am convinced there will be an attack, though I don't know whether it will be big or small," a senior European government official said in an interview today.
Counterterrorism experts are uncertain whether Kerim Sadok Chatty, a 29-year-old Swedish suspect arrested last week when he tried to board a commercial flight with a handgun in his carry-on luggage, fits into the troublesome new phase of the battle against terrorism.
But Mr. Chatty's ties to Islamic extremists and a stint taking lessons at two American flight schools led officials to say today that they are taking seriously the possibility that he intended to hijack the plane in an operation that bore the hallmarks of Al Qaeda.
"This guy seems to be the real deal," a second senior European official said.
A Western diplomat in Stockholm said, however, that earlier reports that Mr. Chatty planned to hijack the plane and fly it into an American embassy in Europe were inaccurate, a position also stated by the State Department on Tuesday in Washington.
So far, there is no indication that Mr. Chatty had direct links to Al Qaeda or trained at any terrorist camp, though it will take investigators time to check his name and photograph against thousands of men who passed through the camps in Afghanistan.
Mr. Chatty, a convicted criminal who took flight lessons in South Carolina and North Carolina in 1996 and 1997, has indirect ties to Islamic extremists.
One of his friends in Stockholm, Oussama Kassir, was implicated last week in an alleged conspiracy to open a terrorist training camp in Oregon. Mr. Kassir, who according to Swedish news media is under investigation in Sweden for unrelated charges of assault, said in an interview that he advocates violence against the American government and is a friend of Abu Hamza al-Masri, a radical London cleric known for supporting terrorism.
Swedish prosecutors accused Mr. Chatty of preparing to hijack the Boeing 737, which was to fly from a small airport west of Stockholm to London.
He appeared in court on Monday and denied that he had planned to hijack the aircraft.
He has provided the police with conflicting accounts of why he had the gun in his luggage.
Thomas Haggstrom, the chief prosecutor, said investigators were not looking for accomplices, though he said others who might shed light on the case will be questioned.
The investigation has been taken over by Sweden's security police, who are being assisted by the United States Central Intelligence Agency and Britain's M.I.5 intelligence agency, people close to the inquiry said.
In an unrelated case, Dutch prosecutors charged eight foreigners with helping to recruit and finance fighters for the Qaeda network headed by Osama bin Laden. Dutch security police said the group had sought combatants for the international holy war.
European police and intelligence authorities are conducting dozens of investigations into potential Islamic extremists and organizations linked by radical religious beliefs and, in many cases, training in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Bosnia.
Klaus Ulrich Kersten, the head of the German federal police, said the loose network was comprised of three distinct strands of people associated with Al Qaeda, nonaligned Arab veterans of Afghanistan and elsewhere, and militants from nationalist movements in Algeria, Egypt and other countries.
"These groups are not strictly separated from each other," he said. "There is an intertwining of personal relationships. We are confronted with a threat potential that comes from fundamentalism, based on an obligation to jihad and a readiness to use violence."
Mr. Chatty's flight training rang alarm bells when he was arrested. Officials at a flight school in Conway, S.C., said he was dismissed in 1996 for poor performance. But records from the Federal Aviation Administration showed that Mr. Chatty received a license to fly single-engine planes in 1997 and was believed to have attended a small flight school in Ocean Isle Beach, N.C.
A friend of Mr. Chatty's in Stockholm told a local newspaper that Mr. Chatty was capable of flying an airplane.
The son of a Tunisian father and Swedish mother, Mr. Chatty was born and raised near Stockholm. By his late teens, he was involved in petty crime and later had some brushes with the city's criminal underworld, according the Swedish press.
Family members said he became interested in Islam in the United States and that he grew more serious about it after returning to Sweden.
In August 1997, Mr. Chatty was sentenced to a year in prison in the beating of the son of an American diplomat. The charges grew out of an altercation in which Mr. Chatty, his brother and several other men beat the American with fists and a barbell at a fitness club in Stockholm.
In prison, Mr. Chatty met Mr. Kassir, a Lebanese-born engineer who became a naturalized Swedish citizen in 1989. Mr. Kassir, now 36, was serving time for assaulting a police officer and possessing drugs and a gun.
In the interview, Mr. Kassir said he had taught Mr. Chatty how to pray and how to wash properly before prayers. He said they had not discussed violence and did not think Mr. Chatty was a terrorist.
"He's a nice guy," said Mr. Kassir.
Mr. Kassir acknowledged that he does advocate violence against the American government and admires Mr. bin Laden.
"I love bin Laden and all Muslims that fight for Islam," he said.
Mr. Kassir said he lived at Mr. Hamza's mosque in London two years ago and helped to operate a Web site that advocated jihad.
Last week, a federal grand jury in Seattle charged an American Muslim, James Ujaama, with attempting to set up a terrorist training camp for Al Qaeda in Oregon. The indictment said he invited Mr. Hamza to use the property and that the cleric sent two emissaries to examine the site in late 1999.
Federal officials identified Mr. Kassir as one of the emissaries, but he refused to discuss the matter in the interview. Officials have also said that Mr. Hamza is still under investigation by the grand jury.
--------
What Happens if Terror Hits Again?
September 5, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Sept-11-Next-Time.html
NEW YORK (AP) -- If the vice president and the FBI director are correct, more terrorist strikes against America are inevitable. What happens then?
For a nation unaccustomed to mass carnage on its soil, Sept. 11 was more than mere shock. It was virtually inconceivable.
A future large-scale attack may not be so surprising. Indeed, with Vice President Dick Cheney and FBI Director Robert Mueller warning that not all attacks will be stopped, public agencies and private citizens are pondering worst-case questions. Next time, how will Americans react psychologically? How should families of victims be compensated? Are emergency services up to the challenge?
Many jurisdictions -- including big cities like New York -- have not issued detailed advisories to their citizens, saying there are too many variables. But New York's Police Department is considering new procedures for responding to any future attack, such as creating a ``shadow staff'' to run the department if top commanders are killed.
Authorities in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia have been working to coordinate their responses -- including evacuation plans -- in the event of a terrorist strike on Washington. At the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, scientists are developing a plan to track toxic agents in the event of a biological or chemical attack.
Fire departments and emergency workers in many communities have been practicing decontamination drills. Even the Humane Society of the United States is acknowledging the terrorist threat, urging families with pets to account for the animal when they develop evacuation plans.
The American Red Cross has overhauled both its fund-raising policies and preparedness efforts.
Training has been expanded at the Clara Barton Center for Domestic Preparedness, on the grounds of the Pine Bluff Arsenal in Arkansas. The goal is to prepare Red Cross volunteers to respond to biological, chemical or nuclear terrorism.
``These incidents tend to be very complex,'' said Armond Mascelli, the Red Cross senior director of disaster services. ``You do your best to puzzle through it, and look at the contingencies. But even with the best of planning, issues will come up that weren't anticipated.''
The Red Cross also has acted to avoid a recurrence of criticism that surfaced after Sept. 11, when many donors grumbled at revelations their gifts would be used in response to future disasters.
Under a new program implemented July 31, donors are urged to give unrestricted gifts to a relief fund that could be tapped in response to any number of different disasters.
Relief experts say the planning challenges they now face are unprecedented.
``In preparing for disasters in the past, we were always able to map vulnerabilities and risks -- we knew coastal states were more vulnerable to hurricanes, the Midwest to flooding,'' said Rick Augsburger, an emergency-response coordinator with Church World Service.
``With terrorism, the entire country is impacted and traumatized.''
Augsburger also noted that responses to past disasters focused on meeting material needs.
``Sept. 11 brought a shift -- realizing the importance of supporting people spiritually and emotionally,'' he said. His agency is studying ways to reduce burnout and ``compassion fatigue'' among clergy ministering to traumatized people after a future attack.
Psychologists and terrorism experts offer varying predictions of how Americans will react emotionally to another strike.
Gerard Jacobs, director of the Disaster Mental Health Institute at the University of South Dakota, is concerned Islamic Americans might suffer more harassment. But overall, he said, ``the American people tend to pull together more than they tend to pull apart.''
One sensitive matter almost certainly will be handled differently after future attacks -- compensation of victims' families.
The Bush administration is proposing that future terrorism compensation awards be capped at $250,000, matching the amount provided to families of public safety officers killed in the line of duty.
This would be far lower than the estimated average payment of $1.85 million expected to be awarded to Sept. 11 families from the federal Victim Compensation Fund. Families accepting awards from the fund had to waive their right to sue, but the Bush administration proposal would not impose that restriction in future cases.
Kenneth Feinberg, administrator of the Sept. 11 fund, said federal policy-makers appear to be realizing that multimillion-dollar, tax-free awards can't be guaranteed in perpetuity to all families of future terrorism victims.
Setting fixed compensation would be more efficient than the procedures used by Feinberg's staff, who exhaustively review each family's financial circumstances.
Feinberg said families of those killed in future attacks shouldn't feel entitled automatically to large federal payouts. ``If somebody saves three children, then drowns in a flood, they don't get $250,000,'' he said.
Kristin Breitweiser of Middletown, N.J., whose husband died at the World Trade Center, said future federal compensation should depend on the degree of government responsibility. She blames the Sept. 11 attacks on a systematic failure of security operations, and said similar problems in the future would obligate the government to be generous to victims' families.
As for the American people, Red Cross fund-raising executive Michael Farley believes the outpouring of support seen after Sept. 11 would be repeated in response to a future attack.
``I see a bottomless well of generosity,'' he said. ``One of the characteristics of Americans is the willingness to support one another, no matter what the frequency or gravity of the disaster.''
On the Net:
American Red Cross: http://www.redcross.org
-------- ENERGY AND OTHER
-------- alternative energy
German wind generation to rise 25pct in 2002 - firms
REUTERS GERMANY:
September 5, 2002
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17597/story.htm
FRANKFURT - German wind power capacity will rise by more than 25 percent this year to 11,750 megawatts (MW), three large wind power firms active in the country's south said yesterday.
"In August, installed capacity breached the 10,000 MW mark ...further cementing Germany's position as the worldwide wind power champion," said ABO WIND, G.A.I.A., and juwi in a press release aimed at highlighting regional growth opportunities.
Germany, which last year added 2,659 MW of new turbines to arrive at a total 8,750 MW, could now produce between 15 and 20 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of wind power per annum, equivalent to 3.75 percent of its total power consumption, they said.
Germany's 12,250 turbines have an average capacity of 800 kilowatt (KW) each, but latest models have 2.5 MW each and moves are afoot to develop new prototypes with 4.5 MW each.
Germany is ahead of Spain and the U.S. in world wind output rankings through its declared strategy to bring down greenhouse gases emissions, which many scientists say contribute to damaging global warming.
The three companies are active in the Rhineland Palatinate state and together rank among the top 20 firms in the national industry, which employs 40,000.
They said recent flood disasters in central Europe could be linked to climate changes and had highlighted the need to boost renewable energies as part of climate protection strategies.
Germany has pledged to reduce its emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 21 percent by the year 2010.
The existing wind power installations saved more than 12 million tonnes of CO2 per annum, representing five percent of the national reduction target, the press release said.
Political parties are currently rowing over the most efficient efforts to stimulate the new energy sector, which has benefited from higher revenue guarantees for its input into the general grid than those earned from conventional power.
The generous laws, introduced by the current governing coalition of the Social Democrats and Green Party, may be reviewed if conservative parties win national elections on September 22.
-------- environment
Diesel fuel exhaust likely to cause cancer - US EPA
REUTERS USA:
September 5, 2002
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17613/story.htm
WASHINGTON - U.S. environmental regulators in a new report this week formally classified for the first time diesel exhaust from trucks and buses as likely to cause cancer in humans.
Green groups are seizing on the new report from the Environmental Protection Agency as proof the Bush administration needs to crack down on polluting diesel fuel emissions.
"This will underscore that diesel exhaust is a health hazard and should be controlled," said Frank O'Donnell at the Clean Air Trust, who called the report "the most in-depth health assessment to date" on diesel fumes.
Environmental groups are worried the Bush administration will roll back clean air regulations for diesel fuel.
The EPA in early 2001 issued standards to reduce diesel emissions from trucks and buses by more than 90 percent.
The administration said it backed those rules, but later said it might permit diesel engine makers to trade emission-reduction credits instead of producing cleaner trucks and buses.
The EPA is considering similar clean diesel standards for construction and farm equipment.
In addition to concluding that diesel fumes likely cause lung cancer, the EPA found diesel exhaust triggers asthma and other respiratory problems.
The agency said its report is based on exposure from diesel engines built prior to the mid 1990s. As new diesel engines with cleaner exhaust emissions replace existing engines, the report's conclusions will have to updated, it said.
-------- ACTIVISTS
Protesters Interrupt Powell Speech as U.N. Talks End
New York Times
September 5, 2002
By JAMES DAO
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/05/international/africa/05SUMM.html
JOHANNESBURG, Sept. 4 - Demonstrators jeered Secretary of State Colin L. Powell today to protest the administration's environmental and foreign aid policies as the World Summit on Sustainable Development drew to a close.
The 10-day event, involving representatives from more than 100 nations, concluded with sharply mixed reviews from its 40,000 participants, with some warmly praising and others harshly deriding efforts to stem global pollution and relieve poverty.
The culmination of the meeting was an "action plan" that set broad timetables for improving sanitation, reducing chemical pollution and protecting endangered species through the coming two decades.
There were also numerous pledges to protect rain forests, combat AIDS, expand education and ease hunger from an array of foundations, private companies and wealthy nations, including the United States.
But many participants and observers complained that the talks failed to achieve significant results, with some contending the event was a step backward from the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.
In particular, the critics attacked the United States - along with Canada, Japan and oil-producing states - for blocking efforts to set firm timetables for reducing oil and gas consumption.
"On climate change, they took a major step back from the Rio agreements 10 years ago," said Phil Clapp, president of National Environmental Trust. The Bush administration, he added, was part of "an axis of oil."
The Johannesburg plan calls on nations to reduce by half the proportion of poor people who lack sanitation by 2015, to minimize health and environmental problems caused by chemical pollution by 2020 and to reduce significantly the number of endangered species by 2010.
Secretary Powell, during his only day at the talks, endured the brunt of the criticism, having his 10-minute speech to the delegates interrupted twice by hecklers who chanted, "Shame on Bush." Several of the two dozen protesters, many of them Americans, were escorted from the hall so that he could resume his address.
There were also murmurs of protest inside the hall when Secretary Powell attacked Zimbabwe's government for rights abuses and criticized southern African countries for refusing American genetically engineered corn to help allay famine. Some European governments have raised health concerns about genetically altered grains, but the Bush administration contends the corn is safe.
Secretary Powell used his speech to promote the administration's philosophy on foreign aid, which demands that developing nations end corruption, open their borders to trade and improve services in exchange for assistance. The program will increase foreign aid by 50 percent, to $15 billion a year, in three years, Secretary Powell said.
"Official development aid alone is not enough," he said. Then, repeating the mantra of the Bush administration, he added, "Trade is the engine of development."
The administration has also encouraged partnerships between governments and the private sector to underwrite environmental and poverty programs overseas. The secretary praised two partnerships today: one with Japan, to increase access to clean water, and another involving conservation groups and industrialized nations, to protect rain forests in the Congo River basin.
"Essential to this approach is the realization that sustainable development is too big for any government alone," Secretary Powell said at an event for the Congo Basin partnership.
The Bush administration's approach to foreign aid, and the development meeting generally, has pleased American conservatives, who had urged Mr. Bush to avoid the event. But environmental groups raised concerns about recruiting private corporations to help finance environmental programs.
"The corporate fox cannot continue to oversee the planet and people's health and the ecological sustainability of this world," said Michael Dorsey, a director of the Sierra Club. "Partnerships, especially corporate partnerships, must be subject to an international framework of binding accountability."
In a news conference today, Secretary Powell called the talks a success, asserting that those taking part had articulated a "shared vision" for improving the planet.
But even some of the organizers and most active promoters could muster only tepid praise.
"Johannesburg is less visionary and more workmanlike, reflecting perhaps a feeling among many nations that they no longer want to promise the earth and fail, that they would rather step forward than run too fast," said Klaus Toepfer, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program.
The United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, put it this way: "Obviously, this is not Rio."
--------
Navy Clashes With Vieques Protesters
September 5, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Puerto-Rico-Vieques.html
VIEQUES, Puerto Rico (AP) -- Navy security officers fired tear gas at protesters who hurled rocks over a fence during bombing exercises on the island of Vieques, authorities said Thursday.
Two servicemen were hit by rocks but were not injured in the confrontation Wednesday night, said Navy spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Kim Dixon.
The security officers, assigned to guard a fence between Navy lands and a protesters' camp, fired the tear gas at demonstrators who were using slingshots to throw rocks, Dixon said. It was unclear how many protesters were involved.
A third day of military exercises on Vieques began Thursday morning with the destroyer USS Briscoe firing inert 5-inch shells and flare tracers in ship-to-shore training, Dixon said.
The guided missile destroyer USS Mitscher also was to participate, along with a squadron of F-14s and F-18s dropping inert bombs.
Wednesday night's clash did not affect the training at the bombing range several miles away, Dixon said.
President Bush has promised the Navy will withdraw from Vieques by May 2003, but as the United States moves closer to a conflict with Iraq, some here believe the Navy departure will be delayed.
At least 27 members of Congress have urged Bush to issue an executive order guaranteeing the Navy's departure.
The latest exercises in the U.S. territory -- the third since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks -- involve 10 ships, two attack submarines and about 80 planes in the USS Harry S. Truman Battle Group.
The military has used the bombing range for more than six decades. Opposition grew when a civilian guard was killed by two bombs dropped off-target in 1999. Since then, only inert bombs have been used.
----
S.C. to Drop Suit Over Rest-Stop Demonstrations
Associated Press
Thursday, September 5, 2002; Page A02
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A37963-2002Sep4?language=printer
COLUMBIA, S.C., Sept. 4 -- Attorney General Charlie Condon said today he would drop the lawsuit filed earlier this year against the NAACP and a white-pride group over the use of state rest stops and welcome centers for competing demonstrations.
Condon said the lawsuit, filed in March, would cost the state money on litigation that no longer is necessary.
"There have been no acts of violence or disorder associated with the NAACP's border patrol, and time has proven that the boycott has been ineffective in achieving its goal of damaging our state's economy," he said.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the European-American Unity Rights Organization began staging protests in March.
The NAACP wanted to discourage motorists from spending money while traveling through the state. The demonstrations came in the third year of the group's boycott of South Carolina because of the display of the Confederate flag on Statehouse grounds.
----
Russians Jailed over Black Sea Ammonia Terminal
September 5, 2002
ENS
http://ens-news.com/ens/sep2002/2002-09-05-04.asp
VOLNA, Krasnodar, Russia, Environmental activists protesting the construction of an ammonia terminal by the world's biggest ammonia exporter were beaten and arrested by police who broke up their blockade of Togliattiazot Corporation offices in the southwest Russian town of Volna.
Another protest planned for Friday will target the police brutality as well as the planned ammonia terminal in the nearby town of Taman, a small port town on the Taman Peninsula projecting westward between the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. The environmentalists say the terminal construction is illegal.
The Taman Peninsula separates the Black Sea from the Sea of Azov. The "x" marks the approximate location of the controversial ammonia terminal. (Satellite photo courtesy NASA)
Early Tuesday morning, four activists from the Rainbow Keepers Movement and the Movement Against Violence blockaded the Togliattiazot office in Volna. Some 60 people gathered as both entrances to the office were closed by barrels. Activists were chained to each other through the barrels by handcuffs.
The demonstrators planned to reach the Togliattoazot office but instead were stopped by police. People blockaded the street until lines of Togliattiazot Corporation trucks appeared from both sides of the demonstration.
Police managed to get people away from the street without any damage, and the demonstration continued its way to Togliattiazot offices which were empty because of blockade.
Police caught one local resident trying to enter the office, but he was released on account of the demands of the demonstrators.
After four hours, company security together with police from nearby city of Temrjuk unchained the activists. Two activists suffered injuries to their arms as police dismantled the blockade. Seven activists were arrested; two of them were beaten and jailed for five days.
These same environmental groups staged a protest of the planned ammonia terminal at Togliattiazot offices on August 21 which also turned violent. Two men riveted themselves to the office door by their necks and suffered injuries when the police arrived to break up the eight hour long blockade. After a fight, which local residents intervened to stop, police and Taman militia arrested several activists. Three men were jailed for their actions in that incident.
Togliattiazot is one of the world's largest producers of ammonia, used primarily as a feedstock for the nitrogen fertilizer industry.
Togliattiazot Corporation ammonia manufacturing plant at Togliatti. (Photo courtesy European Bank for Reconstruction and Development)
In their plant at Togliatti on the Volga River, the company uses Russia's abundant natural gas to manufacture the ammonia. It is transported to world markets through a 2,300 kilometer (1,430 mile) pipeline to the Black Sea. From there, the ammonia is shipped around the world, with the United States being the largest customer.
Togliattiazot is interested in optimizing its ammonia exports by constructing a port on the Russian side of the Taman Peninsula which will reduce ammonia transportation costs and shortcut transit through Ukraine.
According to Russian federal documents obtained August 24 by the Social-ecological Union Of the Western Caucasus (SUWC), the planned ammonia terminal would include two moorages and could initally handle two million tons of ammonia, with plans for a future five million ton capacity.
The environmental group says the plan is moving forward due to the "irresponsible policy of federal government with respect to providing of ecological safety and elementary fulfillment of laws and procedures of agreement."
Despite "enormous" environmental impact from the terminal, SUWC says no public hearings have been held, and the plan was prepared without any participation of community and local associations in the cities and populated areas which will be affected by the terminal. A liquid natural gas shipping facility is also proposed for the Taman Peninsula.
Although the Russian Federation approved plans for the ammonia terminal on December 5, 2001 after input from the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Railroads, SUWC says the affected communities have only now received any information about the project.
--------
Greens decry Earth Summit outcome, jeer Powell
Thursday, September 05, 2002
By Alister Doyle and Alastair Macdonald
http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/09/09052002/reu_48343.asp
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - The marathon Earth Summit ended on Wednesday with green campaigners heckling U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and decrying the outcome as a major let-down for the poor and the planet.
South Africa's pride at successfully hosting the biggest international event in its history was a striking contrast with the mood of gloom that descended on environmentalists. At a closing session in Johannesburg, speaker after speaker attacked as too weak a plan meant to tackle global problems from AIDS to depleted fish stocks. In formally agreeing to the text, delegates of almost 200 nations applauded for just 10 seconds.
"We should never have such shameful summits again," said Ricardo Navarro, chairman of Friends of the Earth International. "We feel anger and despair because world leaders have sold out to the World Trade Organization and big business. They have done nothing for the poor."
The summit close was delayed by almost two hours of wrangling over how to refer to Palestinian territory, HIV/AIDS, and other controversial issues in a separate political document, the "Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development."
In his speech to the summit, Powell bore the brunt of widespread anger against U.S. President George W. Bush, one of the few major world leaders who did not attend.
Hecklers chanting "Shame on Bush" twice interrupted Powell as he defended U.S. policies against criticism that the world's richest country and biggest polluter did not care. "Betrayed by governments," read a banner held up by the mainly American protesters.
But the hosts, South African President Thabo Mbeki and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, both said expectations had been too high.
"It's obvious that not everybody would be happy with the outcome. The critical issue of course is what happens after this," Mbeki told a closing news conference.
South African satisfaction was palpable after hosting 45,000 delegates and participants without any major security or criminal incident.
"DIALOGUE OF THE DEAF"
Venezuela's left-wing President Hugo Chavez said the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) had turned out to be a 10-day "dialogue of the deaf."
Powell, who arrived late on Tuesday as many other leaders were leaving the summit, kept his cool during the heckling. "Thank you, I have now heard you. I ask that you hear me," Powell responded as he was booed and barracked after remarks about famine in southern Africa and when he asserted that Washington was taking firm action to combat global warming.
Bush, supported by the oil, coal, and logging industries, has been widely criticized for rejecting the Kyoto pact meant to fight climate change. Scientists say greenhouse gas emissions from burning oil and coal are raising temperatures, thereby raising sea levels and threatening to drown small island states.
At the summit, the United States unveiled dozens of projects which aim to clean up the planet, including $970 million to help provide fresh water to the Third World. But activists slammed Washington as the main cause of the summit's failure to raise aid or set firm new targets as part of an overriding drive, agreed in 2000, to halve poverty by 2015. About 1.2 billion people live on less than a dollar a day.
"The reaction to Colin Powell's speech is a very accurate reflection of the anger of non-governmental organizations at the role played by the United States at this conference," said Remi Parmentier, political director of Greenpeace.
Environmental group WWF redubbed the WSSD the "World Summit of Shameful Deals," saying governments led by the United States were trying to shirk responsibility by involving businesses. New targets the summit did set include halving by 2015 the 2.4 billion people without sanitation in the Third World, minimising harmful effects from chemicals production by 2020 and halting the decline in fish stocks by 2015.
But they include little fresh cash. Current aid from rich nations totals about US$54 billion a year - $67 from each of their citizens. The United Nations reckons goals like halving poverty by 2015 could be solved if it were doubled.
NO MIRACLES
Among U.S. allies only Australia pronounced the summit an "outstanding success." Others, wary of criticism at home, griped at the shortcomings of a 'lowest common denominator' deal. The U.S. delegation at the final session reminded delegates that the 65-page plan was not legally binding - Washington insists it cannot bind the American people to vague goals.
All delegates remember that many of the promises made at the first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, staged amid great optimism after the end of the Cold War, have been broken. The European Union said Johannesburg might be the last example of a giant summit that tries to solve global problems.
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, whose country holds the rotating E.U. presidency, said he was "satisfied" overall but added: "We cannot be happy with everything."
Among disappointments, he singled out a deal merely urging a "substantial" increase in the use of renewable energies like wind and solar power. Under pressure from Washington and the OPEC oil cartel, the drive was stripped of any firm targets.
"I don't think that mega-summits are the way to secure effective implementation," Rasmussen said.
The political declaration, a symbolic document capping the summit, was finally adopted without a vote after regional blocs haggled over sections. The agreed upon version included references to two specific obstacles to sustainable development: foreign occupation, at the request of Arab states on behalf of Palestinians, and HIV/AIDS at the urging of countries led by the United States.
But activists complained bitterly that the only mention of the words "human rights" was deleted.
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