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NUCLEAR
Turkish Police Seize Weapons - Grade Uranium
Turkish Police Seize Uranium, Nab 2
Agencies Say Crisis Plan at A-Plant Is Adequate
Nuclear Escape Route
Go Slow on Iraq
Liberals Object to Bush Policy on Iraq
MILITARY
Beijing holds out autonomy for Taiwan
U.S. Goal Is Wider Access to Iraq Sites
Rumsfeld Says U.S. Has 'Bulletproof' Evidence of Iraq's Links to Al Qaeda
Bush Sent Message Urging Sharon to End Arafat Siege
Kuwait Says Prepared for Iraqi Chemical Attack
N. Korea Abducted Japanese for Spies
A Draft U.S. Plan on Iraq Inspections Authorizes Force
Germany Gets a 2-Year Term on U.N. Security Council
Coast Guard's Mission Questioned
POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS
Justice Dept. Denounces Secret Court on Wiretaps
ENERGY AND OTHER
Bright Idea: Solar 'Village' Lights Up Mall
Cheney Argues Against Giving Congress Records
ACTIVISTS
Rome, London Marchers Oppose Iraq Attack
Rome protesters blow against the winds of war
50,000 in London Protest Iraq Action
Mass Protest in UK Against 'Bombers' Blair and Bush
Cops handle protesters
D.C. Organizers Pledge Peaceful March
DC Indy Media's Breaking News
FEC OKs campaign finance exemption for non-profits
Protests in D.C. Oppose Global Trade Policies
-------- NUCLEAR
-------- terrorism
Turkish Police Seize Weapons - Grade Uranium
September 28, 2002
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-turkey-uranium.html
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish paramilitary police have seized more than 33 pounds of weapons-grade uranium and detained two men accused of smuggling the material, the state-run Anatolian news agency said on Saturday.
Officers in the southern province of Sanliurfa, which borders Syria and is about 155 miles from the Iraqi border, were acting on a tip-off when they stopped a taxi cab and discovered the uranium in a lead container hidden beneath the vehicle's seat, the agency said.
The incident happens at a time of mounting speculation the United States could launch a military attack on neighboring Iraq for its alleged program of weapons of mass destruction.
U.S. President George Bush has accused Baghdad of clandestine efforts to develop a nuclear bomb as his administration works to build international support for an operation to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Officials at Ankara's Atomic Energy Institute would not confirm they had been notified about the material, which Anatolia had reported.
``Our investigation on whether the uranium was destined for a neighboring country is continuing,'' a Sanliurfa police official was quoted as saying by Anatolian.
Police officials in Sanliurfa and Ankara declined to comment on the case.
Authorities believe the uranium came from an east European country and has a value of about $5 million, Anatolian said.
It was not immediately clear when the operation was carried out. Anatolian only gave the first names of the suspects, which appeared to be Turkish.
Smugglers use Turkey's porous eastern border to import drugs, and hundreds of thousands of migrants each year illegally cross the rugged frontier on their way to more affluent European Union nations.
Police in Istanbul seized more than 2.2 pounds of weapons-grade uranium last November that had been smuggled into Turkey from an east European nation. The smugglers were detained after attempting to sell the material to undercover police officers.
--------
Turkish Police Seize Uranium, Nab 2
September 28, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Turkey-Uranium.html
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Paramilitary police have seized about 35 pounds of uranium and arrested two Turks who they said planned to sell the weapons-grade substance, the Anatolia news agency reported Saturday.
Police, acting on a tip, stopped a taxi on a highway near the southeastern city of Sanliurfa, Anatolia said. They found the uranium in a secret compartment under one of the car seats.
Police in Sanliurfa confirmed the arrests but refused to give further information.
Anatolia said the uranium was enriched for use in weapons. Police believe it was smuggled from an eastern European country.
The agency did not say when the arrests were made. Sanliurfa, some 480 miles from Ankara, is close to the Syrian border.
-------- u.s. nuc facilities
-------- new york
Agencies Say Crisis Plan at A-Plant Is Adequate
New York Times
September 28, 2002
By WINNIE HU
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/28/nyregion/28NUKE.html
HARRISON, N.Y., Sept. 27 - Two federal agencies identified weaknesses today in the emergency plan for the Indian Point 2 nuclear plant, but concluded that the plan was more than adequate for protecting the public from a nuclear accident.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission outlined their preliminary findings during a crowded public meeting at the Westchester County Airport here, three days after observing an elaborate drill in which scores of Indian Point workers, state and county agencies, police officers and radiation technicians in four counties responded to a mock leak of radioactivity.
Officials of the two agencies criticized a breakdown in communications among the drill participants that resulted in inaccurate and outdated information being released about the make-believe accident. At the Joint News Center, which was set up at the airport for press briefings, emergency officials mistakenly announced at one point during the drill that no radioactivity had been released when, according to the script, it had been. The officials corrected themselves later.
The federal officials also noted mistakes in some of the messages broadcast through the emergency public alert system, and raised questions about a variety of procedures and evacuation issues, including whether rail-freight service and toll collection would be suspended in an emergency.
But on the whole, the federal officials emphasized that state and county emergency workers were able to successfully order a simulated evacuation of residents within a 10-mile radius of the plant. "We are confident that all of the issues and problems identified at the Joint News Center can be fixed through planning, procedural changes and additional training," said Joe Picciano, FEMA's acting regional director in New York.
Today's findings are bound to fuel the opposition to the Indian Point plant, in Buchanan, about 40 miles north of Midtown Manhattan. Since the World Trade Center attack, many local officials and residents have called for the closing of the plant, saying that its emergency plan does not address the possibility of a terrorist attack and rapid dispersal of radioactive material, among other things.
The intense public scrutiny turned a routine drill, held every two years, into a larger test of whether Indian Point could operate safely. In August, Gov. George E. Pataki hired James Lee Witt, a former FEMA director, to review the safety of communities near Indian Point and other nuclear plants.
State Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky, a frequent critic of Indian Point, accused the federal agencies today of bowing to political pressure and playing down the problems revealed by the drill. "There is a sort of genteel cover-up going on," he said. "They spoke with great clarity about the things that went well. On the things that went wrong, they shrugged, they winked, they grinned."
But Michael Beeman, a FEMA spokesman, said that federal officials were still in the process of evaluating the drill and would release a detailed report within 90 days with notes on areas needing improvement.
Larry Gottlieb, a spokesman for the Entergy Corporation, which owns Indian Point, said that the plant's emergency plan was constantly being improved through such practice drills. "We're all working together," he said. "We'll take the information from this exercise, digest it and see where there are gaps."
Federal officials have evaluated emergency drills at Indian Point and other nuclear plants since the 1979 partial meltdown at Three Mile Island. Besides the daylong drill, FEMA officials also conducted 40 interviews with bus drivers, hospital workers, school officials and others with roles in the Indian Point emergency plan.
Communication problems are hardly new for Indian Point. The first emergency drill for the site, in March 1982, was marred by a failure of several warning sirens and a telephone hot line. The nuclear commission even threatened to shut down the reactors unless emergency preparations were improved, but later dropped the threat.
The most recent emergency drill at Indian Point, in November 2000, involved the Indian Point 3 reactor. At the time, FEMA officials identified 26 minor weaknesses, among them not releasing information in a timely manner. Nearly all of those were later corrected, Mr. Beeman said.
--------
Nuclear Escape Route
New York Times
September 28, 2002
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/28/opinion/L28INDI.html
To the Editor:
In "A Mock Emergency at Indian Point Follows the Script" (news article, Sept. 25), Susan Tolchin, a spokeswoman for Andrew J. Spano, the Westchester County executive, says that in a full-scale evacuation, life in the county would "come to a halt."
Doesn't that tell us all that we need to know about the evacuation plan? If a full-scale drill would mean, as Ms. Tolchin says, that "roads would be blocked," isn't it delusional to think that people would escape in a real emergency?
Our public officials should do the only thing that truly protects public safety and call for the immediate decommissioning of Indian Point 2 and 3.
CHRISTINE PUENTE
Crugers, N.Y.,
-------- us politics
Go Slow on Iraq
By Senator Mark Dayton
Saturday, September 28, 2002
Washington Post; Page A23
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A13224-2002Sep27?language=printer
What a difference an administration makes.
Congressional leaders who are hurrying votes on Iraq had very different views when the president was a Democrat named Bill Clinton. They made more sense back then. After Saddam Hussein bounced U.N. inspectors in January 1998, then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott said on Feb. 12: "I had hoped that we could get to the point where we could pass a resolution this week on Iraq. But we really developed some physical problems, if nothing else. . . . So we have decided that the most important thing is not to move so quickly but to make sure that we have had all the right questions asked and answered and that we have available to us the latest information about what is . . . happening with our allies in the world.
"The Senate is known for its deliberate actions. And the longer I stay in the Senate, the more I have learned to appreciate it. It does help to give us time to think about the potential problems and the risks and the ramifications and to, frankly, press the administration."
The Republican-controlled Senate took five more months to pass a resolution that year, and it did not authorize President Clinton to use military force. After Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, the Senate also deliberated five months before authorizing what became the Persian Gulf War.
Yet now Congress is being rushed to pre-approve whatever President Bush decides to do, which includes something no president has done before: start a war. According to researchers at the Library of Congress, the United States has never in its 213-year history launched a preemptive attack against another country.
Never.
During the past 50 years, our leaders have confronted dangerous dictators who possessed weapons of mass destruction. Yet they protected our country and the planet by preventing war, not by starting one. Some members of Congress and the administration are now demanding that we rush to vote so that we can rush to war. Such haste is unnecessary, reckless and foolish.
For some of my colleagues, it seems a quick and easy decision to wave the flag, denounce an evil dictator and launch our military might. But war seldom is quick or easy. We know that the United States would defeat Iraq and depose Saddam Hussein. But we don't know the cost in bloodshed, destruction and subsequent occupation. And we don't know the consequences of violating our national principle of not starting wars.
That principle, which has earned us enormous respect throughout the world, is the cornerstone of international stability. As the world's superpower, we set the standards for international conduct. We lead by our deeds. When we lead the world by our diplomacy and peaceful resolution of conflicts, we make it more secure.
But if we attacked another country because it might threaten our national security, how could we dissuade others from doing the same? If nations that have nuclear weapons or that are developing them fear a preemptive strike, what might their responses be? Would the world be more or less secure?
The profound consequences of these decisions are compelling reasons to make them as carefully as possible. I believe that the president is right about the need to disarm Saddam Hussein before he obtains nuclear weapons and the ability to use them against us. But that threat does not appear to exist today or within the next few months. For now, the president is withholding his decision about U.S. military action. Congress should do the same, but instead it's "Vote quick, pass the buck, head for home and wish 'em luck."
This rush to vote is being driven more by political expediency than by military necessity. Gaining political advantage in a midterm election is a shameful reason to hurry decisions of this magnitude. If the president needs Congress to support his resolve never to let Saddam Hussein threaten our nation with weapons of mass destruction, we can pass such a resolution tomorrow. If the United Nations fails to exact Iraq's compliance with its previous restrictions, this Congress or its successor can convene at any time to authorize the appropriate U.S. military response.
That is what the Constitution intends when it authorizes Congress, and only Congress, to declare war. This would be an especially good time for Congress to do it right.
The writer is a Democratic senator from Minnesota.
----
Liberals Object to Bush Policy on Iraq
New York Times
September 28, 2002
By DAVID FIRESTONE
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/28/national/28CONG.html
WASHINGTON, Sept. 27 - Liberal Democrats, led by Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, voiced reservations today about giving President Bush a free hand to attack Iraq before a new, tougher set of United Nations inspections is put into effect.
While their objections could influence the wording, scope and timing of a Congressional resolution, those reservations are not likely to affect the outcome of any Congressional vote. It still appears likely that there will be at least 75 or 80 votes in the Senate to give the president the authority to attack Iraq.
At least one high-ranking Democrat, Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, said he planned to offer an amendment to the administration's proposed resolution on Iraq that would support military action only in conjunction with a United Nations force. But Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi, the minority leader, said such a provision would never be acceptable to the Republicans.
The four highest-ranking leaders of Congress plan to meet by Monday afternoon to map out the resolution's course through the House and Senate over the next two weeks. A spokesman for Tom Daschle of South Dakota, the Senate Democratic leader, said the Senate would probably put aside the stalled legislation on a domestic security department - which is now essentially under a Republican filibuster - until the resolution on Iraq is settled.
In a speech at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, Senator Kennedy, still his party's most prominent liberal standard-bearer, said the White House had not made the case for a pre-emptive war.
"I do not accept the idea that trying other alternatives is either futile or perilous, that the risks of waiting are greater than the risk of war," Mr. Kennedy said, invoking his brother's restraint during the Cuban missile crisis. "Indeed, in launching a war against Iraq now, the United States may precipitate the very threat that we are intent on preventing - weapons of mass destruction in the hands of terrorists."
Mr. Kennedy's position, in which he is joined by colleagues like Mr. Levin, Dianne Feinstein of California and Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, complicates the task of Mr. Daschle. He and other Democratic leaders had hoped to move the resolution quickly through the Senate to focus on his party's core message highlighting economic distress before the November midterm elections. But now Mr. Daschle's office expects more than 50 speeches on the resolution after it is formally introduced early next week, meaning that a vote may not take place until late in the week of Oct. 7. Many of those speeches will probably come from dissenting Democrats, and several of the most vocal opponents may introduce amendments to change or narrow the wording that the White House wants in the resolution.
The ultimate outcome of a resolution in the Senate is not in doubt, and the White House's language will be easily approved in the Republican-controlled House. But Mr. Daschle's stated desire to include as many Democrats as possible in the final vote means continued tinkering with the draft resolution issued by the White House late on Thursday, which itself has been changed to limit action to Iraq after complaints that an earlier draft was too broad.
During political appearances today, President Bush said he hoped the United Nations would force Saddam Hussein to comply with its resolutions, but he used tough language condemning him. "I'm willing to give peace a chance to work," Mr. Bush said at a political fund-raiser today in downtown Denver. "I want the United Nations to work. I want him to do what he said he would do.
"But for the sake of our future," Mr. Bush continued, "now's the time, now's the time. For the sake of your children's future, we must make sure this madman never has the capacity to hurt us with a nuclear weapon, or to use the stockpiles of anthrax that we know he has, or VX, the biological weapons which he possesses."
Republicans, meanwhile, warned that there was a limit to their patience if Democrats dragged out the resolution process.
"The Senate would look very bad if we wind up with a long amendment process that maybe leads to no conclusion and once again the Senate collapses in a pool of inability to produce anything," Mr. Lott said. "That is a danger. And there are those right now - from what I hear from some of the Democrats, that would be fine with them. You know, they're willing to do anything to try to prevent the president of the United States having the basic authority he needs to deal with a dangerous threat to the American people."
Mr. Lott has said he was not willing to change the resolution much beyond the new language issued by the White House this week. But several senators said they were still unhappy with the draft, particularly because it would authorize unilateral action if the United Nations does not join an attack. Such an approach gives the United Nations an incentive not to join, Mr. Levin said, because other nations know the United States will do the job if they stand back.
"It's still a go-it-alone approach that lets the U.N. off the hook," said Mr. Levin, chairman of the Armed Services Committee. "We want the U.N. to be credible, so we should tell the world why it is so important that we act in concert." Having done so, he said, the United States could then come back and authorize unilateral action if the United Nations still fails to act.
Mr. Levin is planning to introduce language in the Senate that would authorize military action as part of a broader United Nations force. Mr. Kennedy's aides say he is not planning to write an amendment, but his speech today shored up the left wing of a party that has been reluctant to challenge Mr. Bush on national security policy.
Senate officials say there are probably 8 to 10 other Democratic senators who feel as Mr. Levin and Mr. Kennedy do, and who would probably vote against a resolution unless it is substantially changed. Another group of Democrats will probably vote for the resolution after some minor changes, and a third group, including many Southern Democrats, would be willing to support the president's language. Almost all Republicans are considered likely to support the president's draft, although a handful of moderates may want some wording changes.
Republicans made it clear today that they would strongly oppose the kinds of changes being asked by the liberals, in either the Senate or the House.
"Senator Kennedy offered the most thorough and cohesive argument for complacency so far," said Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, the Republican whip. "The U.S. seeks broad support in the war on terror, but subcontracting our national security to the United Nations, as Senator Kennedy recommends, would be a foolish blunder."
-------- MILITARY
-------- china
Beijing holds out autonomy for Taiwan
By David R. Sands
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
September 28, 2002
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20020928-76006000.htm
A delegation of Chinese specialists on Taiwan said the mainland is prepared to give Taiwan broad freedom to follow its own economic and political path after reunification and suggested that the island could stage baseball and other events for the 2008 Olympic Games awarded to Beijing.
But Xu Shiquan, president of the Beijing-based Institute of Taiwan Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, also said in an interview that the communist government had "no room to retreat" on the fundamental question of China's sovereignty over Taiwan, which the communist mainland considers a renegade province.
"Don't put us in a corner," said Mr. Xu, who headed the delegation, which met this week with editors and reporters at The Washington Times.
Chinese officials floated the idea of sharing some of the Summer Olympic events even before Beijing was awarded the 2008 Games in July 2001.
Baseball was high on the list because of the many stadiums in Taiwan, the quality of the professional leagues there and Taiwan's bronze-medal performance in the Seoul Games of 1988.
But the offer has divided officials in Taiwan, where senior members of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of President Chen Shui-bian rejected the idea almost immediately. Vice President Annette Lu said Taiwan should not try to bask in Beijing's Olympic glory.
But Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou of the opposition Nationalist Party came out immediately in favor of the idea.
Mr. Xu said the baseball offer underscored Beijing's willingness to try to accommodate Taiwanese concerns, large and small, as it works toward eventual reunification with the mainland.
The idea of sharing the baseball competition with Taiwan "is a very popular one in Beijing," he said, "although it would still have to be approved by the International Olympic Committee."
Accompanying Mr. Xu were Su Ge, senior research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies in Beijing, and Yang Jiemian, senior fellow at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies.
The researchers' visit comes at a particularly delicate time in Sino-U.S. relations.
Chinese President Jiang Zemin will make a much-anticipated visit to President Bush's Crawford, Texas, ranch next month for high-level talks, just days before the 16th Communist Party Congress is expected to begin a transition to a new generation of leaders under Hu Jintao. A recent Pentagon study concluded that Beijing is building up its military arsenal with the intent of intimidating Taiwan.
For his part, Mr. Chen, who was elected president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) in 2000, has infuriated the mainland with public statements broadly hinting that he sees Taiwan as a separate state equal in status to China.
Mr. Chen's wife, Wen Shu-chen, earlier this week made the first visit by a Taiwanese first lady to Washington in a half-century, repeatedly stressing Taiwan's vigorous, even unruly democracy and its right to a place in the "community of nations."
The Chinese Taiwan experts said they believed Beijing was prepared to go a long way toward meeting Taiwanese concerns about reunification, if only the island's leaders definitively dropped any talks of independence.
Mr. Su noted that several issues were finessed in China's takeover of Hong Kong and Macao. China, for example, does not permit its citizens to hold dual citizenship, which many in Macao held before the transfer of power from Portugal. Beijing decreed that Macao residents would hold only Chinese passports, but could keep any "international travel documents" they had held previously.
The "One China/Two Systems" formula used for hypercapitalist Hong Kong could be adapted for Taiwan, Mr. Xu contended, despite what would appear to be incompatible political systems and a strong popular sentiment in Taiwan that opposes any reunification.
"Taiwan could keep the government system it has and the economy it now enjoys," he said. "The mainland would be sending no government officials, no army, no tax collectors to oversee the island."
Only on foreign policy would Beijing insist on a single voice, he said. Taiwan's representation in hundreds of nongovernmental organizations could also continue after reunification.
But Taiwan skeptics say the island's new democratic reality - encapsulated in Mr. Chen's March 2000 electoral victory and the peaceful transfer of power from the long-ruling Nationalists - makes a further alienation between the mainland and Taiwan inevitable, raising the odds for conflict.
-------- iraq
U.S. Goal Is Wider Access to Iraq Sites
Armed Support for Inspections Sought
By Colum Lynch
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 28, 2002; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A13652-2002Sep27?language=printer
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 27 -- The Bush administration is proposing a fundamental redrawing of the rules that govern U.N. weapons inspections in Iraq, seeking guarantees that inspectors be protected by armed U.N. security forces and granted immediate access to all Iraqi territory.
The demands, in a draft Security Council resolution the administration is circulating among key council members, implicitly threaten military action if Baghdad fails to comply.
The U.S. resolution reflects a consensus in the administration that the Iraqis have exploited previous agreements to deny arms experts access to a broad category of locations where President Saddam Hussein may have concealed evidence of banned weapons, U.S. officials said.
But the proposal, which spells out the broad objectives set forward by President Bush in his U.N. address on Sept. 12, continued to encounter stiff resistance from France, Russia and China, three of five permanent members of the Security Council with veto power. Britain is backing the U.S. position.
Administration officials said the draft, which is expected to be formally introduced to the Security Council next week, represents a starting point for what they envision will be tough bargaining over the next couple of weeks. Bush discussed the matter by telephone today with French President Jacques Chirac, while a State Department envoy held talks with French officials in Paris before flying to Moscow for meetings there on Saturday.
One U.S. official said the draft, the product of intense discussions within the administration and with the British government, would for the first time require Hussein to open political, national security and religious buildings to no-notice challenge inspections.
"All presidential palaces and mosques are fair game for inspections," the official said. "We will put down new requirements that force the Iraqi regime to comply with the spirit of their obligations to the weapons inspectors."
If Iraq fails to accept the council's terms within seven days of being notified by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, officials said, the resolution would authorize "all means necessary" to force Iraqi compliance -- effectively granting the administration permission to use force. The resolution would require Iraq to provide a "full, final and complete declaration" on the status of its banned-weapons program within 30 days of the measure's adoption. U.S. officials said the provision would enable them to determine if Iraq is lying.
"Teams shall have unrestricted rights of entry into and out of Iraq, the right to free, unrestricted and immediate movement to and from inspection sites and buildings, including unrestricted access to presidential sites," the resolution states.
Any "false statements or omissions in the declaration submitted by Iraq to the council and failure by Iraq at any time to comply and cooperate fully in accordance with the provisions laid out in this resolution shall constitute further breach of Iraq's obligations," it says.
The U.S. proposal to conduct inspections backed by armed force was first offered in a report by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and was endorsed by Rolf Ekeus, the former executive chairman of the U.N. Special Commission, which was charged with ridding Iraq of its deadliest weapons. It provoked alarm among U.N. diplomats who fear it is not feasible and would never be accepted by Iraq. One council member said the U.S. draft was "designed to be rejected."
"This is only a starting position aimed at appeasing the hard-liners" in the administration, the diplomat said, "so it's not clear that it will be accepted by the council."
Bush told an audience in Denver today that the United Nations should be given the chance to force Hussein to give up his weapons of mass destruction. Otherwise, he said, the United States and its allies will force him to do so.
"He can either get rid of his weapons and the United Nations can act, or the United States will lead a coalition to disarm this man," Bush said. "I want to give peace a chance to work. I want the United Nations to work. I want him to do what he's said he would do. But, for the sake of our future, now's the time."
In New York, Security Council diplomats voiced concern that the United States is setting such harsh terms that Iraq would be unwilling, or possibly unable, to comply, setting the stage for certain military action. French, Chinese and Russian officials said they want to avoid setting an automatic course toward war.
Chirac spokeswoman Catherine Colonna said the French president told Bush in their phone conversation today that Iraq's disarmament "must be done within a U.N. framework." France favors a two-stage approach, starting with the passage of a resolution that would demand that Iraq cooperate with U.N. inspectors. If Iraq continued its defiance, the council would have to meet again to consider some unspecified responses.
Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji, after a meeting with French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, warned that a U.S.-led military campaign against Iraq would have "incalculable consequences."
"If the weapons inspections do not take place, if we do not have clear proof and if we do not have the authorization of the Security Council, we cannot launch a military attack on Iraq," Zhu said.
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov told reporters in Moscow that an intelligence report released by Britain on Tuesday had failed to convince his government that Iraq has sought to reconstitute its banned nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs since inspectors were withdrawn in December 1998.
"It is inspectors, working in conjunction with Security Council resolutions, who can provide answers to all these questions," Ivanov said. "We believe it would be an unforgivable error to delay the dispatch of international monitors."
U.S. officials said their demand for tougher inspection terms reflects the exasperation with Iraqi obstruction and defiance that began in the first weeks after U.N. inspectors arrived in Baghdad in 1991 for what was expected to be a six-month disarmament mission. It culminated in their departure in 1998 after repeated standoffs over access to weapons sites.
The Bush administration is particularly determined to override two accords, including a February 1998 agreement between U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and Iraq that governed the inspections of eight "presidential sites" containing more than 1,000 buildings, palaces and man-made lakes. The agreement requires that Iraq be alerted about planned inspections and that the inspectors be accompanied by at least two foreign diplomats appointed by Annan.
The United States also wants to shelve a 1996 deal between Baghdad and Ekeus that limits the number of U.N. inspectors that can have access to sensitive political and national security sites.
Baghdad has insisted that those procedures are crucial to safeguarding the country's national security from American-backed U.N. spies searching for potential targets for U.S. warplanes. Iraq has vowed to oppose any resolution that would alter the agreements it has reached with the United Nations, calling it an affront to Iraq's sovereignty and dignity.
U.S. officials and former U.N. inspectors have cited the procedures as an obstacle to the full, unfettered access Iraq pledged to grant as part of a 1991 cease-fire agreement ending the Persian Gulf War.
In the first test of the accord on presidential sites in March 1998, dozens of U.N. inspectors and diplomats who fanned out across the country over an eight-day period to survey the sites discovered that Iraqi authorities had already removed documents, computers and other evidence. Hussein's own presidential palace in Baghdad had been swept clean, ostensibly in anticipation of a possible U.S. military strike.
----
Rumsfeld Says U.S. Has 'Bulletproof' Evidence of Iraq's Links to Al Qaeda
New York Times
September 28, 2002
By ERIC SCHMITT
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/28/international/middleeast/28QAED.html
ATLANTA, Sept. 27 - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said today that American intelligence had "bulletproof" evidence of links between Al Qaeda and the government of President Saddam Hussein of Iraq.
Mr. Rumsfeld said that recently declassified intelligence reports about suspected ties between Al Qaeda and the Iraqi government, including the presence of senior members of Al Qaeda in Baghdad in "recent periods," were "factual" and "exactly accurate."
His comments today were but the latest in a string of statements this week by senior administration officials - including Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's national security adviser, and Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman - that seemed to raise the prospects of new proof linking Al Qaeda and Iraq.
But in each case, the officials have offered no details to back up the assertions. Mr. Rumsfeld said today that doing so would jeopardize the lives of spies and dry up sources of other information. He also acknowledged that the information he described was probably not strong enough to hold up in an American court.
"If our quest is for proof positive, we probably will be left somewhat unfulfilled," Mr. Rumsfeld said at a Chamber of Commerce luncheon here. "We're not going to have everything beyond a reasonable doubt."
The statements this week by senior administration officials have reopened a debate over the extent to which Iraq has ties to Al Qaeda. The administration had set aside serious efforts to prove this link in favor of a strategy that focused on what it contends is the threat from Iraq posed by weapons of mass destruction.
Administration officials say there is still no evidence to link Mr. Hussein directly to the attacks on Sept. 11 in the United States. Some intelligence and law enforcement officials said today, in addition, that there was little new in what Mr. Rumsfeld and others were describing.
But the new statements of suspected links between Al Qaeda and Iraq happen to come at a time when the administration is trying to muster support both on Capitol Hill and at the United Nations for a resolution backing military action against Iraq, should Mr. Bush chose that path.
Mr. Bush on Wednesday talked about the danger "that Al Qaeda becomes an extension of Saddam's madness."
On Wednesday night, Ms. Rice said that "there are some Al Qaeda personnel who found refuge in Baghdad" after the American air campaign in Afghanistan began last October. She also said high-ranking prisoners at the United States Naval Station in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, had told investigators that Iraq had provided some training to Al Qaeda in developing chemical weapons.
On Thursday, Mr. Rumsfeld said that contacts between Al Qaeda and Iraq had increased since 1998. "We do have solid evidence of the presence in Iraq of Al Qaeda members, including some that have been in Baghdad," he said. "We have what we consider to be very reliable reporting of senior-level contacts going back a decade, and of possible chemical- and biological-agent training."
But Mr. Rumsfeld added that the report of training in chemical and biological agents came from only one source. Other intelligence supports that report, but comes from less-reliable sources, officials said.
Even as Mr. Rumsfeld appeared to be offering new proof, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell met significant skepticism on Thursday from members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
"To say, `Yes, I know there is evidence there, but I don't want to tell you any more about it,' that does not encourage any of us," said Senator Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican. "Nor does it give the American public a heck of a lot of faith that, in fact, what anyone is saying is true."
Secretary Powell said that there were confirmed "linkages" between Al Qaeda and Iraq, but that "perhaps part of the confusion is that we're learning more over time as we get access to more and more" Al Qaeda prisoners and Iraqi defectors.
Mr. Rumsfeld explained today that he had met with his deputy, Paul D. Wolfowitz, and other top aides about a week ago, to figure out a way to declassify some of the information about Iraq-Al Qaeda links. He said intelligence analysts came back with "five or six sentences" that were "bulletproof" and could be cited in briefings with allies, lawmakers and the public.
"But they're not photographs," Mr. Rumsfeld said today. "They're not beyond a reasonable doubt. They, in some cases, are assessments from limited number of sources."
In a day here that included interviews with four Atlanta television stations, a meeting with a newspaper editorial board (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) and the luncheon address, Mr. Rumsfeld also said that the United States did not have to capture Mr. Hussein to carry out its goal to change regimes in Iraq.
Asked by reporters how American officials could be sure of ousting Mr. Hussein, given intelligence reports that he uses several doubles to confuse possible assassins, Mr. Rumsfeld said the administration's goal was to ensure that the Iraqi leader was no longer was in power.
"If he's on the run, he's not governing Iraq," Mr. Rumsfeld said.
He compared such a scenario to that in Afghanistan, where the ousted Taliban leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, remains at large, but no longer controls the country.
-------- israel / palestine
Bush Sent Message Urging Sharon to End Arafat Siege
September 28, 2002
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-mideast-usa-sharon.html
CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - President Bush has sent a personal message to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon urging him to end Israel's siege of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, a U.S. official said on Saturday.
The official, who asked not to be named, was commenting on a Washington Post report that first disclosed the message. He strongly disputed any suggestion that Bush had argued that Israel's siege of Arafat was undermining the U.S. efforts to build a coalition against Iraq.
Using bulldozers and explosives, Israel began razing much of Arafat's complex in the West Bank city of Ramallah, on Sept. 19 after two Palestinian suicide bombings in Israel killed several people and ended a six-week lull in such attacks.
While Israel has since made Arafat a virtual prisoner at the single remaining building in his compound, the siege has shored up his eroded popularity as Palestinians on Saturday marked the second anniversary of their uprising against Israel.
``The president believes that recent events in and around Ramallah are not helpful toward bringing peace to the region,'' said the U.S. official, who declined to discuss the specific contents of the Bush message to Sharon.
In a report from Jerusalem citing a Western diplomat, The Washington Post reported on Saturday that Bush had sent Sharon a personal message urging him to quickly end the Israeli army siege of Arafat.
The newspaper, citing diplomats and other sources, said the Bush administration has told Sharon the continued blockading of Arafat behind barbed wire in Ramallah was directly affecting U.S. Iraq policy. The newspaper did not, however, explicitly say Bush had conveyed this in his personal message to Sharon.
Bush is seeking to build support in the United Nations Security Council for a resolution to authorize the use of force against Iraq if it fails to live up to its commitments to end its efforts to build chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.
The U.S. official denied a link between Bush's efforts to promote peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians and his push to build a coalition against Iraq.
``The president has said repeatedly that he seeks peace in the Middle East for its own sake, not for any other diplomatic effort or policy,'' the U.S. official said.
-------- mideast
Kuwait Says Prepared for Iraqi Chemical Attack
September 28, 2002
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-iraq-kuwait.html
KUWAIT (Reuters) - Kuwait announced on Saturday it had taken precautions against a chemical weapons attack, saying it would not put anything past neighboring Iraq, which invaded the oil-rich emirate in 1990.
The region is bracing for a possible U.S.-led military strike to topple Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, allegedly for seeking weapons of mass destruction.
Kuwait is a U.S. ally but says it will not allow Washington to use its territory to launch an attack on Iraq without the sanction of the United Nations.
``I do not exclude anything at all from Iraq,'' Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammad al-Salem al-Sabah told reporters before flying to Egypt for three-days of talks.
``Do we trust Saddam Hussein? No. Do we know that he has weapons of mass destruction? Yes... This is enough for us to be concerned over Iraq's ability to harm Kuwait,'' he said.
Iraq denies it is developing weapons of mass destruction, but concerns over a chemical attack have hit Kuwait's stock market, which declined 2.4 percent on Saturday at the start of the trading week.
But Sheikh Mohammad said the emirate was well protected by a large U.S. military presence as well as by German and Czech anti-chemical warfare units.
Kuwait is ``probably the safest place in the world as there are many systems to combat any aggression,'' he said.
PATRIOT BATTERIES
A U.S.-led coalition ended Iraq's seven-month occupation of Kuwait in the 1991 Gulf War. For several months, Washington has been sending military hardware to Kuwait for what is officially described as an intensified training program.
Earlier this week, it deployed additional Patriot anti-missile batteries to protect American and British warplanes at two Kuwaiti bases. Military sources say the number of U.S. troops in Kuwait has remained at around 8,000 in recent months.
Sheikh Mohammad said Washington had not asked for permission to deploy additional forces in Kuwait for action against Iraq.
``As I can recall it, other times over the past 10 years the number of American troops were much higher than what we currently have in Kuwait...,'' he said.
``What we see now is just routine training and mutual exercise between our two fighting forces.''
He did not say if Kuwait was paying for the increased U.S. military activity. Defense sources told Reuters that under existing accords, the emirate covers all in-country costs of U.S. forces.
Iraq is expected to dominate Kuwaiti Defense Minister Sheikh Jaber al-Hamad al-Sabah's visit to Iran which begins on Sunday.
Iran fought an eight-year war with Iraq that ended in 1988. Kuwait, like most Arab states, backed Iraq in that war, but has now drawn closer to Tehran over its common enmity with Baghdad.
Sheikh Jaber will also visit Russia.
-------- spy agencies
N. Korea Abducted Japanese for Spies
September 28, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Kims-Confession.html
KASHIWAZAKI, Japan (AP) -- Hatsui Hasuike has gone over the night a million times in her head.
Kaoru, her youngest son, was home on summer break from a university in Tokyo. In the early evening of July 31, 1978, he said he was going to the library. He did not bother to take his wallet and said he would not be out late since they had to get up early the next morning to watch his sister compete in a tennis tournament.
``It was still hot and muggy outside, so he was wearing just a T-shirt, shorts and sandals,'' she said.
Kaoru never came back.
This month, the Hasuikes and a dozen other families around Japan finally learned what happened to their vanished sons and daughters, brothers and sisters.
In a bizarre story of Cold War espionage, North Korea's reclusive leader admitted that spies from his country carried out repeated clandestine abductions in Japan and Europe in the 1970s and 1980s, snatching Japanese to teach their language and culture to North Korean agents.
The abductees included a 13-year-old girl on her way home from badminton practice at school, a 52-year-old security guard, couples watching the sunset at the beach and a young woman staying in Denmark.
Kim Jong Il's confession of state-sanctioned kidnapping came at an unprecedented Sept. 17 summit with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. The admission was welcomed around the world as a sign one of the last remaining hardline communist nations, on the verge of economic collapse, may be willing to change.
For the families, however, the news was harsh.
North Korea said eight of the 13 abductees -- 11 named by Japan's police over the past decade and two named by North Korea -- were dead. Two died on the same day, the North said without explaining.
Four, including Kaoru Hasuike, were alive. The status of the 13th person wasn't clear.
``We can't wait to see him,'' Hatsui said at her home on the northern Japan coast. ``But we've been lied to for so long, it's hard to believe our son is really alive.''
Earlier this year, President Bush labeled North Korea part of an ``axis of evil'' -- with Iran and Iraq -- supporting global terrorism.
Washington is particularly concerned the country has nuclear weapons and has sold long-range missiles to Iran and Syria. In 1998, North Korea demonstrated its missile capabilities by launching one over the Japanese archipelago and almost to the shores of Alaska.
But North Korea's links to terror go back much further.
Alarm over North Korean terrorism peaked in the 1980s, when the country was accused of two grisly attacks -- a 1983 bombing in Myanmar that killed 17 visiting South Korean officials and the 1987 midair bombing of a Korean Air jet that killed all 115 people on board.
Two North Korean agents were seized in connection with the airliner bombing, but one committed suicide by swallowing a cyanide capsule concealed in a cigarette filter.
The other, Kim Hyun Hui, who posed as a Japanese citizen and carried a Japanese passport, acknowledged what Japanese authorities had long suspected -- that Japanese were being stolen away to teach North Korean spies.
Japanese police were able to identify Kim's own teacher as Yaeko Taguchi, who vanished in June 1978 after leaving her two children at a child care center in Tokyo.
At the summit, North Korea confirmed Taguchi was abducted, and is now dead.
``When the news of Kim's role in the bombing broke, we really thought there was going to be a breakthrough,'' said Toru Hasuike, Kaoru's older brother. ``There had been rumors of abductions, and this was confirmation that they really were taking place.''
The North denied Kim's story, however. And the media moved on to other topics.
For the Hasuikes, that was just another of many frustrations.
A few days after 20-year-old Kaoru disappeared, they asked the local police to help find him. Kaoru's bicycle was found at the library, just a short walk from the beach, along with a bicycle belonging to his 22-year-old girlfriend, Yumiko Okudo. Okudo also vanished that night after telling friends she was going to the library.
The police said there was little they could do because Kaoru was an adult.
``They told us he may have run away, or committed suicide with his girlfriend,'' Hatsui said. ``We didn't even know he had a girlfriend.''
When rumors of North Korean involvement grew stronger, the Hasuikes appealed to Japan's Foreign Ministry.
But without diplomatic ties, the Hasuikes were told, there was little Tokyo could do to press the issue. Officials raised it when the two countries met two years ago to discuss normalizing relations, but the North's delegation denied the allegations and angrily ended the talks.
Few expected Kim to admit to the abductions this time. Seemingly caught off-guard, Japanese officials have been criticized for not demanding more information and for not immediately telling the families, who gathered in Tokyo to await updates, what little information they had.
``We were called in one family at a time and simply told whether our missing person was alive or dead,'' Hatsui said. ``It's just not that simple.''
Tokyo now is seeking DNA evidence to confirm that the dead are indeed who the North claims they are, and is pushing Pyongyang to provide details of how they died.
Police, meanwhile, are re-examining missing persons cases, and support groups say dozens more could lead back to North Korea. Hundreds of similar abductions may have occurred in South Korea, too.
In the days since being told their son was alive, the Hasuikes have learned a few other tidbits about him.
He was said to have married the woman he was abducted with and fathered two children, a son and daughter, aged 20 and 18. He was working as a translator and, North Korea said, was free to return home if he wanted to. As a first step, Tokyo is considering arranging for families to travel to Pyongyang for brief reunions.
But the Hasuikes have mixed feelings about that prospect. Instead, they are seeking the return of their son to Japan as soon as possible.
``They are asking if we want to go to North Korea to see Kaoru,'' Toru said. ``Of course we want to see him. But they should allow him to come here. How can he talk to us freely if he is still with his captors?''
-------- un
A Draft U.S. Plan on Iraq Inspections Authorizes Force
New York Times
September 28, 2002
By MICHAEL R. GORDON
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/28/international/middleeast/28IRAQ.html
LONDON, Sept. 27 - The Bush administration has drafted a stringent plan for arms inspections that provides for unrestricted access to all sites in Iraq, including Saddam Hussein's presidential compounds and palaces, and authorizes the use of military force if Baghdad interferes, according to European and American officials.
The essence of the plan, which American and British officials are presenting to France, Russia and China, the other veto-bearing members of the United Nations Security Council, is to declare that Iraq is already violating its obligations to the United Nations and to put the onus on Saddam Hussein to comply.
Under the terms of the draft resolution, Iraq would be required to provide a full account of its programs to develop weapons of mass destruction before the inspectors returned.
Mr. Hussein has a seven-day deadline to accept the resolution and declare all of his programs of weapons of mass destruction, and a further 23 days to open up the sites concerned and provide all documents to support the declaration, an American official said.
Inspections would be intrusive, possibly with military guards, and could occur at any site in Iraq. Limitations that the United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, agreed to in 1998 on inspections of Iraq's eight presidential sites would be repealed.
If Baghdad failed to comply with the inspection demands - by failing to provide a full or accurate list, for example - the draft resolution calls for "all necessary means to restore international peace and security," a diplomatic euphemism for American and British military action to remove Mr. Hussein from power.
But the Bush administration's resolution ran into stiff resistance today from France, which has balked at Washington's insistence that the resolution pave the way for an American military campaign if Mr. Hussein refuses to cooperate. China and Russia also signaled strong objections.
President Bush called President Jacques Chirac of France today to lobby for the American measure. Marc Grossman, the under secretary of state for political affairs, and Britain's Foreign Office political director, Peter Ricketts, flew to Paris to seek French support.
But Mr. Chirac stuck to his position that the initial Security Council resolution should deal with inspections and that the issue of military action should be deferred.
Indeed, the French appeared to be mounting a lobbying effort of their own to counter the Americans. Mr. Chirac met Thursday with the Chinese premier, Zhu Rongji, who is visiting Europe to speak with business leaders. Later Thursday, Mr. Chirac called President Vladimir V. Putin to lobby for Russian support.
Mr. Zhu was shown on French television saying that "if the weapons inspections did not take place, if we do not have clear proof and if we do not have the authorization of the Security Council, we cannot launch a military attack on Iraq - otherwise, there would be incalculable consequences."
Mr. Grossman and Mr. Ricketts are due in Moscow on Saturday to try to secure Russia's backing. But Russia's foreign minister, Igor S. Ivanov, today sharply reiterated Russian opposition to the use of force in Iraq. His words echoed those of Mr. Putin, who on Thursday called for a diplomatic solution on the basis of existing Security Council resolutions.
The resolution drafted by the United States in conjunction with Britain has not been made public. But allied and American officials said the draft resolution outlined a detailed and stringent inspection plan in three and a half single-space typed pages.
According to the officials familiar with the document, the draft resolution asserts in its initial paragraph that Iraq is already guilty of a "material breach" of past United Nations resolutions because of its work on weapons of mass destruction and its effort to frustrate the work of inspectors, among other issues. Inspectors were last in Iraq in late 1998, when they were withdrawn prior to an American and British bombing campaign to punish Iraq for past violations.
Echoing President Bush's speech to the United Nations on Sept. 12, the draft resolution says that Iraq has been violating a range of United Nations resolutions for years.
The officials familiar with the draft document said that as a first step toward disarmament, Iraq would be obliged to present a full report on its programs to develop weapons of mass destruction before the inspectors returned. The report would have to include work on the L-29 drone aircraft. Iraq has refurbished the jet trainer, which it acquired from Eastern Europe, and American officials suspect it has been modified to deliver biological and chemical weapons.
"If we find anything in what they give us that is not true, that is the trigger," an American official said. "If they delay, obstruct or lie about anything they disclosed, then this will trigger action."
Assuming that Iraq met the timetable outlined in the draft, United Nations inspectors would begin their work with completely unrestricted access.
The draft resolution defines this as "free, unrestricted and immediate movement to and from inspection sites and the right to inspect any sites and buildings," according to an official familiar with the draft.
The draft also stipulates that the United States and the four other permanent members of the Security Council would have the right to send representatives along with the inspection teams. An allied official said that those five nations could also pick sites to be inspected and ask for reports on inspections of those sites.
Significantly, the resolution specifically overrides provisions of Resolution 1154, which Mr. Annan worked out in 1998 to resolve a dispute with Iraq over access to presidential sites. Resolution 1154 required the inspectors to notify Iraq before inspecting presidential sites and to conduct the inspections in the company of diplomats. There are eight such sites in Iraq, covering about 11.5 square miles of territory.
In contrast, the draft American resolution insists on "unrestricted access to presidential sites notwithstanding 1154," said an official who had read the draft.
Military guards provided by the United Nations or allied forces would be allowed to protect the inspectors' base camp in Iraq and transit routes. The draft resolution also outlines procedures for taking scientists and other witnesses out of Iraq so that they can provide information about Mr. Hussein's weapons programs.
Some proliferation experts welcomed the tough American resolution.
"The requirement for a full declaration is very good," said Gary Samore, a senior fellow at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies and a senior aide on President Bill Clinton's National Security Council. "It really puts the Iraqis on the spot. If Iraq denies having any weapons of mass destruction capability at all, it means that anything the inspectors find demonstrates that they are not complying. If they are forced to declare some part of their arsenal, it is an important step toward disarmament."
But the American and British resolution is only a draft and it remains to be seen what will emerge from the diplomatic wrangling with Paris, Moscow and Beijing. One American official estimated that it would be several more weeks before a Security Council resolution was finally worked out.
One European diplomat, who is critical of the American approach, asserted that it had been designed to fail. "The Americans are not really interested in having the inspectors go back in. This is not a resolution for inspections. It is a declaration of war."
But an American official insisted that an entirely new approach was needed. "We are asking him to come clean," the American official said of Mr. Hussein.
Iraq has said that it is willing to allow weapons inspectors to return without conditions. But it is far from clear that it is prepared to allow the wide-ranging inspections envisioned by the draft American and British resolution. Iraq, for example, may be calculating that the resumption of inspections will be based on the 1998 understanding with Mr. Annan putting limits on inspections at presidential sites.
An American official said that Washington hoped that the new resolution would essentially replace all prior resolutions on Iraq since 1991.
"Don't think in terms of other resolutions," the official said. "This one will stand alone and have everything Iraq has to give us."
--------
Germany Gets a 2-Year Term on U.N. Security Council
New York Times
September 28, 2002
By JULIA PRESTON
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/28/international/europe/28NATI.html
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 27 - Germany was among five new nonpermanent members elected today to the 15-nation Security Council to serve a two-year term starting in 2003.
In voting, the General Assembly formally endorsed an agreement negotiated ahead of time on the rotating nonpermanent seats.
The presence of Germany on the council could further complicate the Bush administration's efforts to mobilize an international coalition for a military attack on Iraq. Relations have soured between President Bush and Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of Germany, who narrowly won re-election this week after a campaign in which he pledged not to support any military action in Iraq even if it was backed by the United Nations. Members of the Bush administration recently described relations with Germany as "poisoned."
Although Germany will not have a veto, it is likely to side with France and Russia, two permanent, veto-bearing council members that have been skeptical about the administration's war plans for Iraq.
No nation has a veto in the General Assembly, which includes every country in the United Nations, so Washington was not in a position to scotch today's vote. But Germany is also seeking to become a permanent member of the council - an effort that has been many years in the making. Both German and American officials said that the United States had cooled toward that candidacy after the rift between the leaders.
The other nations elected today were Angola, Chile, Pakistan and Spain. Pakistan is a close ally of the United States in its global campaign against terrorism. Its president, Pervez Musharraf, has said his country "does not want to get involved" in a war in Iraq.
Elections for the other five nonpermanent seats will be held next year.
-------- us
Coast Guard's Mission Questioned
By Melissa B. Robinson
Associated Press Writer
Saturday, September 28, 2002; 12:22 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A15638-2002Sep28?language=printer
WILMINGTON, N.C. -- The Coast Guard's most visible counterterrorism forces are designed to move to potential trouble spots within 12 hours to help stop attacks at major U.S. ports.
But critics say the units, created after the Sept. 11 attacks, cannot be expected to prevent terrorism, especially in unfamiliar territory. The teams get just a month of training and are partly comprised of officers with no previous security or law enforcement experience.
"Unless someone's coming over the horizon with an invading force, the effectiveness of these teams is going to be limited," said Doug Dillon, a retired Coast Guard lieutenant who provided domestic military security during the 1991 Persian Gulf War and now heads the nonprofit Tri-State Maritime Safety Association in Newport, Del.
The teams' challenges are part of the difficulties facing the Coast Guard as it increases security efforts while continuing its traditional mission of search-and-rescue, drug and migrant interdiction, and fisheries enforcement.
To cover its new duties, the Coast Guard is adding 2,200 active-duty personnel this year, and its budget is to grow to just over $7 billion from a current $5.7 billion, plus $460 million in supplemental security funds.
Those increases may not be enough, so the Coast Guard is trying to bridge the gap in other ways, such as by training crews to check for both security breaches and fisheries violators on a single patrol.
But security challenges go beyond money and personnel.
The four mobile teams - stationed in Seattle, Chesapeake, Va., Los Angeles and Houston - are supposed to prevent terrorism in 361 river and sea ports and along 95,000 miles of U.S. coast. The first three teams were commissioned over the summer; the Texas team's commissioning is next month.
There are other agencies working in port law enforcement, including local police, the Customs Service, Immigration and Naturalization Service and Border Patrol. But the Coast Guard is the lead port security agency, and the teams are their dedicated, domestic counterterrorism forces, designed for use when local security is not enough.
Few doubt the wisdom of having the teams available for extra patrols in their home ports, or for events such as the Olympics or military maneuvers.
"To say we can dump them into a place and they can suddenly provide counterterrorism support - it is less workable," said Stephen E. Flynn, a retired Coast Guard commander and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Because about half the team members have not worked previously in security or law enforcement, their early training, run by the Coast Guard at the Marine Corps base at Camp Lejeune, N.C., and in the nearby port of Wilmington, must include basics such as how to quickly turn a boat in pursuit of a suspect.
Even more important is teaching how to judge when a suspicious boat intends harm. A delayed reaction could risk an attack. But overreacting could mean shooting fishermen who did not realize they had drifted too close to a nuclear power plant.
"It's a heavy decision to make to open fire," said Petty Officer 3rd Class Craig Paulson, 29, of the Los Angeles unit, which finished training last month.
The aggressive mindset required in security work may also be foreign - and difficult to assume - for those who have worked previously in jobs such as rescuing stranded boaters.
Coast Guard Cmdr. Fred White, a counterterrorism instructor, said he has had trouble convincing trainees to throw flares to illuminate suspicious boats, because they are so grounded in thinking that flares must only be used to signal distress.
"Getting them to pop a flare was like pulling teeth," White said.
Still, as pressures mount to increase security in the nation's ports, the Coast Guard teams are considered the most responsive, cost-effective option.
The Coast Guard is planning to eventually have 12 in all, with each team costing $6 million to create and $3 million annually to run. As more teams are added, training advances and more is learned about port vulnerabilities, experts say the teams will be more effective.
Next year, two teams are to be added in New York and Jacksonville, Fla.
"Sept. 11th opened a lot of people's eyes," said Lt. Cmdr. Keith Smith, the Los Angeles commander. "If you fail here, what are the consequences? We think about it a lot."
On The Net:
Coast Guard: http://www.uscg.mil/uscg.shtm
-------- POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS
Justice Dept. Denounces Secret Court on Wiretaps
New York Times
September 28, 2002
By PHILIP SHENON
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/28/national/28WIRE.html
WASHINGTON, Sept. 27 - The Justice Department has accused the nation's super-secret wiretap court of improperly trying to "micromanage" the workings of the executive branch, possibly in violation of the Constitution.
In new court papers, the department also said it was entitled to expanded powers to conduct wiretaps and other surveillance of people suspected of terrorism or espionage.
Attorney General John Ashcroft made the arguments earlier this week in seeking to overturn a ruling last May by the secret tribunal, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which is responsible for reviewing wiretap requests in terrorism and espionage cases.
In that ruling, the court unanimously rejected a request from the Bush administration to break down many of the procedural barriers between criminal prosecutors at the Justice Department and counterintelligence agents at the F.B.I. The department argued that it was entitled to the new authority under the sweeping antiterrorism bill passed by Congress as a result of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The department has appealed the court's ruling to an equally secret appeals panel, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review. The case is now before the appeals court and is being described by legal scholars and civil liberties groups as a potentially historic clash over the government's police powers in the aftermath of Sept. 11.
In papers filed on Wednesday with the court of review and made public late Thursday, the Justice Department said that the ruling last May raised "significant constitutional questions" and that the wiretap court was "attempting to impose rules for the operation of the executive branch and structure the functions of different units within the executive branch."
"Even if federal courts had some power to micromanage the executive branch, separation of powers prohibits the use of that power to the extent it interferes with core functions of the executive," the department said.
The department's new 80-page filing responded to questions raised by the three judges on the court of review, who appear to have expressed some skepticism about elements of the Justice Department's argument when they held a secret hearing on the issue earlier this month.
The Bush administration has argued that the legislation passed by Congress was intended to break down the wall that had limited cooperation between criminal prosecutors and F.B.I. counterintelligence agents.
The barriers were established years ago in an effort to prevent criminal investigators from sidestepping the Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches by using the foreign-surveillance laws as the basis for conducting wiretaps of criminal suspects. The standard of evidence required to open a foreign-surveillance wiretap is generally much lower than it is in common criminal cases.
The Bush administration has argued that the new legislation calls for full cooperation between criminal prosecutors at the Justice Department and counterintelligence agents at the F.B.I., and that the prosecutors should be able to direct the use of foreign-surveillance wiretaps.
But in its May ruling, the foreign surveillance court rejected the administration's interpretation, finding that the Justice Department was going too far in eliminating the "bright line" that was needed to prevent abuses of the system by criminal prosecutors.
The foreign surveillance court and the court of review were established under a 1978 law that was intended to impose a formal court process on the approval of wiretaps in national-security investigations. The law was in part a response to abuses of national-security wiretaps by the Nixon administration, which had used electronic surveillance against its domestic opponents in the guise of counterintelligence investigations.
A Justice Department official said the Bush administration was not alarmed by the questions raised by the court of review in oral arguments this month. "To the extent that they asked a lot of questions, it shows that they are engaged and doing a thorough job," he said.
But the American Civil Liberties Union, which has joined with other civil liberties and privacy groups in opposing the administration's proposal, said today that it welcomed evidence that the three judges were skeptical about the department's case. "The court of review has asked some very specific and searching questions of the government," said Ann Beeson of the American Civil Liberties Union. "We're pleased that the court of review is treating the case very seriously."
-------- ENERGY AND OTHER
-------- alternative energy
Bright Idea: Solar 'Village' Lights Up Mall
By Benjamin Forgey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 28, 2002; Page C01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A13902-2002Sep27?language=printer
Take the energy of several hundred college students, mix well with donations from companies big and small, add generous dashes of inspiration and a bucketful of opportunity, and you get . . . a solar subdivision on the Mall.
It is an odd, invigorating sight. Fourteen diminutive houses, each meeting all of its own energy needs by harnessing the power of the sun, are lined up on either side of a walkway right down the middle of the Mall's central greensward.
Called the Solar Decathlon, the temporary village (it will stay in place until Oct. 6) is the brainchild of a dedicated bureaucrat at the Department of Energy. With the Capitol dome and the Washington Monument as background decoration, it's probably the best advertisement solar housing has ever had in this country.
"There are two myths about solar energy for homes," says Richard J. King, the 16-year Energy Department veteran who conceived the decathlon. "One is that it doesn't work, the other is that it doesn't look good. We're here to prove the opposite."
Most of us know at some level that solar power works, that we cannot live without the sun and that, somehow, we ought to live better with it. And we know, or ought to, that solar power is a potent, clean alternative to dirty -- if so far cheap -- fossil fuels. Even the most flagrantly outsized and egregiously sited McMansion utilizes sunlight for some heat and comfort, albeit in a half-baked fashion.
But in the competitive market to furnish our homes with energy -- or, for that matter, most of our work- and play places -- solar power has been a dud because it does not deliver the amounts we demand at prices most of us would be willing to pay.
And for decades solar design suffered outcast status because in reality (not myth) most of the solar homes produced since the energy crises of the 1970s look like outcasts. They're bunkers and earth mounds for true believers only, rather than regular folks.
This is changing, though seemingly at a snail's pace -- renewable energy sources such as the sun account for only 4 percent of the nation's energy consumption. Still, the technology for transforming sunlight into electrical energy gradually has improved, and prices are coming down. Awareness is spreading (gradually) about the advantages of "passive" solar design -- situating a house to take proper advantage of prevailing sunlight and winds, for example.
The Solar Decathlon is intended, then, to speed up the pace of change, and it may well succeed. It is guaranteed to sharpen the awareness of anyone who visits the section of the Mall between Fourth and Seventh streets during the event's two-week run, for it is a spirited outpouring of mental and physical energy.
Beyond this immediate impact, the event is sure to stimulate more research and development, for the results-oriented format emphasizes both innovation and performance.
Each of the houses was designed and built by a collegiate team, mainly architecture and engineering students. The teams, each drawn from different institutions, had to follow a few basic rules concerning size (of necessity, very small), height (18 feet tops) and internal uses and fixtures (kitchen, bedroom, living-dining area, bathroom, laundry facilities, home office).
In all other respects, the teams were free to follow their own inclinations, though costs were a big factor for everyone. The figures I heard most often during visits to the site were $240,000 and $250,000, and these did not include major equipment donations from local and national companies or thousands of hours of student labor. Clearly, fundraising was a big deal for the past two years in 14 college towns.
The proof of all this work will come in the testing. There are 32 monitors in each house, measuring things such as the efficiency of appliances; interior comfort (a constant temperature of 72 degrees is required); hot water for bathing (daily showers are a must), laundry and dishwashing; lighting quality; home business operation; power generation for an electric car; and overall energy efficiency.
Information from these monitors will be wirelessly fed to a databank every 15 minutes (and can be checked up-to-the-minute, organizers say, at www.solardecathlon.org). At the end of the houses' stay on the Mall, the one with the highest point total (100 points max per test) will win the monitored part of the competition. Three other tests, however, will be human-judged: graphics and communication, presentation and simulation, and design quality.
The design test, deservedly, gets a little more weight than the others -- 200 points. "Architecture is just so important," explains King. "We need the architects of the world to learn about solar energy and start using it."
Actually, architects worldwide have been paying some attention to sustainable design of late, but most of the focus has been turned to very big buildings -- "green" skyscrapers in Frankfurt and New York, for instance, and other high-density projects where economies of scale help to defray higher initial investments in renewable energy.
House design, by contrast, is in dire need of a push, particularly in the United States. And it gets a nice boost from the students down on the Mall.
Basically, there are two strategic approaches on view. One emphasizes marketability -- designing a solar house that looks like any conventional one. The other stresses a more integrated, innovative approach -- designing a solar house that looks more like the future than the past.
Both approaches are defensible. Emphasizing conventional images is the better short-term sales pitch. The white clapboard cottage from the University of Maryland team, for instance, is as comforting as can be, from green-gabled roof to kitchen bay window to cozy front porch. Except for the array of photovoltaic cells on its back roof, you would never guess that it is 100 percent solar powered -- and that's exactly the point.
"We wanted something that showed there is nothing odd or weird or strange about a solar house, that it can be a place everybody can walk in and pretty much feel at home," says team member Alexander Yasbea, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering. "We wanted to show that every house can and should be equipped with solar power."
The time may come when totally orthodox subdivisions are solar. Yet the greatest usefulness of the traditional approach may in fact be to owners of existing homes. The University of Maryland's cottage, along with Auburn's and Tuskegee's Southern "dog trot" house variations and other more or less conventional designs, go a long way to prove that adding photovoltaics to the roof won't spoil the architecture, or the neighborhood.
Thank goodness, however, that not every team took the traditional tack. Stylistic variety imbues the temporary village with unusual vigor -- and that, in itself, is a useful lesson. More importantly, it is the fresh architectural voices, those that took a more innovative, design-from-within tack, who give presence here to the art of architecture.
The team from the University of Texas at Austin, for instance, created a strong, inventive, witty design by starting with the module of an Airstream RV trailer -- it houses the kitchen, laundry room and bathroom -- and going from there.
The University of Virginia team handcrafted its long box as if it were a jewel, reshaping recycled materials as ordinary as wooden shipping pallets and as unusual as slate panels discarded from the terraces of Thomas Jefferson's Rotunda.
The Carnegie Mellon team had the conviction to break the height barrier by a couple of feet in order to fit in a little loft bedroom. Urban densities are important in the energy battle, team members believed, so they conceived their house as the corner unit of an urban row. They'll automatically lose points in the judging, but they made their point -- and also a succinct, almost poetic design.
There are other houses here that make design statements going beyond the ordinary. The Solar Decathlon as a whole is a splendid group statement, but it is these teams that give it architectural distinction.
Energy-wise, the world will look very different at the end of the 21st century, and so will its architecture. The student houses on the Mall are looking optimistically to that future. The Solar Decathlon continues through Oct. 6 on the Mall between Fourth and Seventh streets. It is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tours of house interiors will be conducted during those hours today, tomorrow and Oct. 5 and 6.
-------- energy
Cheney Argues Against Giving Congress Records
New York Times
September 28, 2002
By DON VAN NATTA Jr.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/28/politics/28CHEN.html
WASHINGTON, Sept. 27 - Lawyers for the General Accounting Office and Vice President Dick Cheney clashed today before a federal judge here over which branch of government's claim is paramount: the executive power to keep records confidential or the legislative right to investigate how public money is spent.
For the first time in the 81-year history of the agency, the auditing arm of Congress, the comptroller general of the United States went to federal court to ask a judge to order a member of the executive branch to turn over records to Congress.
Lawyers for David M. Walker, the comptroller general and head of the General Accounting Office, and for the vice president argued over whether a judge could require the White House to reveal the identities of industry executives who helped the administration develop its energy policy last year.
Judge John D. Bates of Federal District Court, who was appointed in December by President Bush, did not decide the case today. "I will consider this as quickly as I can," Judge Bates said before returning to his chamber.
The lawsuit, Walker v. Cheney, raises important constitutional questions, including whether the vice president can ignore a request for information from the accounting office without the president's exercising executive privilege.
It also carries potential political consequences for the White House since the dispute has made it difficult for the administration to distance itself from the collapse of the Enron Corporation, whose executives met with Mr. Cheney and other task force members six times last year.
Carter G. Phillips, a lawyer representing the accounting office, argued that if Judge Bates sided with the administration, the decision would have a devastating effect on "the G.A.O.'s ability to do its job."
"It would have an extraordinarily sweeping effect and would significantly halt the Congress's use of the General Accounting Office to conduct nonpartisan investigations," said Mr. Phillips, a partner in the Washington law firm of Sidley, Austin, Brown & Wood.
Mr. Phillips argued that a 22-year-old law allowed the comptroller general to "investigate all matters related to the receipt, disbursement and use of public money."
He also contended that the law gives the comptroller general the right to obtain all "information the comptroller requires about the duties, powers, activities, organization and financial transactions" of the agency under investigation.
Paul D. Clement, the principal deputy solicitor general, representing Mr. Cheney, told the judge that the agency lacked the legal standing to bring the case against the vice president. Mr. Clement also argued that the law cited by Mr. Phillips did not give the accounting office the authority to demand records from the vice president.
"No court that I'm aware of has ever ordered the executive branch to turn over a document to a Congressional agent," Mr. Clement argued. "This is unprecedented."
Mr. Clement said that if the judge ordered the records to be released, there would be no end to similar lawsuits filed by the G.A.O. against the executive branch.
Mr. Clement was joined at the defense table by the solicitor general, Theodore B. Olson, who does not often attend arguments at the district court level. Mr. Olson's presence demonstrated the importance of the case to both Mr. Cheney and Mr. Bush, who have said that disclosure of the information would hamper the executive branch's ability to solicit the advice of outside experts.
Both sides told the judge that an important constitutional principle was at stake in the dispute. Mr. Phillips said if Mr. Cheney was forced to release the information, it was not "going to bring the republic to its knees." But the information was essential, he said, for the agency to do its job to "look over the shoulder" of the executive branch as it spent taxpayers' money.
"How do you engage in a meaningful oversight function of the way public funds are spent if you cannot look at the highest level of the executive branch?" Mr. Phillips said.
In a series of questions to lawyers on both sides, Judge Bates seemed to grapple with the question of whether the agency could sue the vice president.
Lawyers for Mr. Cheney argued that the comptroller general lacked standing because he had not suffered any personal injury and has no genuine stake in the outcome of the litigation.
From February to May last year, Mr. Cheney and the task force held a series of meetings with as many as 400 people from 150 corporations, trade associations, environmental groups and labor unions, to devise a new energy policy for the nation. The task force report recommended more drilling for oil and gas, and promoted the need to build 1,300 to 1,900 electric plants to meet the nation's projected energy demand over the next two decades.
Since May 2001, the administration has repeatedly refused to turn over the documents the General Accounting Office seeks: lists of people present at each meeting of the national energy task force, and lists of the people who met with each member of the task force, including the date, subject and location of each meeting.
In February, the office sued Mr. Cheney for the documents.
Last summer, the administration turned over 77 pages of documents to the accounting office related to the costs of the task force. But Mr. Walter said those documents did not provide the identities of the industry executives who had advised the task force.
The documents were first sought in April 2001 by Representatives John D. Dingell, Democrat of Michigan, and Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California.
Mr. Clement argued that there were other means that Congress could have used to obtain the documents, including a subpoena sent by the committee on which both men serve, the House Governmental Affairs Committee. But it is unlikely that the full committee, which is controlled by Republicans, would have approved the subpoena of the White House.
-------- ACTIVISTS
Rome, London Marchers Oppose Iraq Attack
Wire Reports
Saturday, September 28, 2002
Associated Pres; 11:51 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A15399-2002Sep28?language=printer
LONDON -- Thousands of protesters marched through central London on Saturday to urge Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Bush not to go to war with Iraq.
In Rome, thousands of flag-waving, whistle-blowing demonstrators took to the streets on Saturday, calling for peace with Iraq.
Accusing U.S. President George W. Bush of war-mongering, the crowd snaked its way through the heart of ancient Rome before holding a rally in a city-centre square.
Italy's hard left Communist Refoundation party, which organised the event, said more than 100,000 people joined the march. Police did not immediately give any estimates, but reporters said the number of protesters was nearer 50,000.
Legislators from Blair's Labor Party are among the leaders of the Stop the War Coalition that organized the march with the Muslim Association of Britain. They wanted to rally those who believe war would cause political and economic instability on a global scale.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said last week Rome had a duty to support U.S. diplomatic and military efforts to disarm Iraq, and compared Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.
However, latest opinion polls suggest that almost 70 percent of Italians are against the idea of going to war with Iraq.
Blair has been Bush's staunchest ally on Iraq and last week released a dossier claiming Saddam has stockpiled chemical and biological weapons, and is trying to develop nuclear arms.
Britain and the United States are working together on a draft resolution on Iraq which they plan to propose to the United Nations.
Among those scheduled to speak at the rally were London Mayor Ken Livingstone and former United Nations weapons inspector Scott Ritter.
Large sections of the British public appear doubtful about the government's Iraq policy.
A Guardian newspaper/ICM poll published Sept. 16 found opposition to removing Saddam through military action was at 40 percent, down from 50 percent three weeks earlier. The "don't knows" had increased from 17 percent to 24 percent. Support for an attack rose from 33 percent to 36 percent.
A MORI poll for ITV News on Wednesday said 70 percent of Britons oppose their country joining U.S.-led military action, but that 71 percent would support it if it were backed by the United Nations.
Blair has been Bush's staunchest ally on Iraq and last week released a dossier claiming Saddam has stockpiled chemical and biological weapons, and is trying to develop nuclear arms.
The Bush Administration says Saddam must be removed from power, militarily if necessary, for refusing to live up to United Nations demands after the Gulf War that he disarm and that U.N. weapons inspectors verify Iraq has destroyed weapons of mass destruction.
----
Rome protesters blow against the winds of war
ROME, Sept. 28, 2002
MSNBC
http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters09-28-085127.asp?reg=MIDEAST
Thousands of flag-waving, whistle-blowing demonstrators took to the streets of Rome on Saturday calling for peace with Iraq. Accusing U.S. President George W. Bush of war-mongering, the crowd snaked its way through the heart of ancient Rome before holding a rally in a city-centre square.
The hard left Communist Refoundation party, which organised the event, said more than 100,000 people joined the march. Police did not immediately give any estimates, but reporters said the number of protesters was nearer 50,000.
''Bush is isolated, but sadly that isolation might lead to a war,'' said Refoundation leader Fausto Bertinotti. ''War would push the world into turmoil,'' he added.
A truck blasting out rock music and peace songs led the procession in bright autumn sunshine as protesters, many carrying red flags, chanted anti-war slogans.
''An eye for an eye will leave the world blind,'' sang one group of activists. ''No Sir - I won't give you my son!'' read the slogan on one woman's T-shirt.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said last week Rome had a duty to support U.S. diplomatic and military efforts to disarm Iraq, and compared Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.
However, latest opinion polls suggest that almost 70 percent of Italians are against the idea of going to war with Iraq.
Washington and London are trying to get the U.N. Security Council to adopt a tough resolution which would give Iraq less than six weeks to disclose any weapons of mass destruction, with the threat of military action lurking if Baghdad refuses.
----
50,000 in London Protest Iraq Action
By Audrey Woods
Associated Press Writer
Saturday, September 28, 2002; 2:38 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A16033-2002Sep28?language=printer
LONDON -- More than 50,000 Britons from all regions, ages and social backgrounds, marched in central London Saturday, urging Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Bush not to invade Iraq.
As they wound their way from Embankment on the River Thames to Hyde Park, many of the demonstrators stopped to shout through the gates of Blair's 10 Downing St. residence.
"Tony Blair, shame, shame, no more killing in my name," went one chant.
"We believe it would be wholly immoral and wrong and criminal for the United States and Britain to attack Iraq and inflict casualties upon innocent people," Tony Benn, a former Labor Party legislator and veteran left-winger, told the crowd. "We must see it is not allowed to happen."
Tam Dalyell, who holds the title father of the House of Commons, said the Iraq dilemma was the most dangerous standoff since the Cuban missile crisis.
"We are sleepwalking to disaster," he said.
Streams of people poured out of subway stations near the march's starting point and demonstrators at the back of the march were still setting off after those at the front had reached Hyde Park, more than a mile away.
Scotland Yard said it was still working on a crowd estimate but that there were more than 50,000 demonstrators.
Andrew Burgin, of the Stop the War Coalition, which helped organize the march, said there were 250,000 people and added that the crowd was still growing.
"Iraq is not our enemy, stop Bush," said a homemade banner carried by Irial Eno, 12, who attended the rally with her sister, mother and grandmother. She said it was not right to kill innocent Iraqis in order to topple their leader.
Irial's mother, Anthea Eno, said she would support an attack on Iraq if it had United Nations backing, but added that she did not expect that to happen.
The march came as Britain and the United States worked together on a draft resolution on Iraq which they plan to propose to the United Nations.
Blair has been Bush's staunchest ally on Iraq and last week released a dossier claiming Saddam Hussein has stockpiled chemical and biological weapons, and is trying to develop nuclear arms.
Legislators from the prime minister's own Labor Party are among the leaders of the Stop the War Coalition, which organized the march with the Muslim Association of Britain.
The march was also meant as a protest of Israel's policies in the West Bank and Gaza, and many protesters expressed sympathy for the Palestinian cause. "Stop Israeli war crimes," said one sign.
London Mayor Ken Livingstone said the wrong motivations were driving the confrontation with Iraq.
"It's not about defense of British people or British interests, it's so that corrupt American politicians can get their hands on Iraqi oil," he told reporters.
On the Net:
Stop the War Coalition, http://www.stopwar.org.uk
-------
Mass Protest in UK Against 'Bombers' Blair and Bush
September 28, 2002
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-iraq-britain-protest.html
LONDON (Reuters) - Waving anti-war banners and chanting slogans against ``Bomber Bush and Bomber Blair,'' tens of thousands of Britons flocked to a vast peace rally in London on Saturday to oppose a possible military strike on Iraq.
Joint organizers Stop the War Coalition and the Muslim Association of Britain estimated more than 350,000 people took part in the rally at Hyde Park and a preceding march from the River Thames near the British parliament.
Police put numbers lower, at 150,000. But that would still make it probably the biggest peace rally in Britain since a huge anti-nuclear demonstration in 1981 drew a quarter of a million.
Myriad groups and personalities backed the march -- from ``rebel'' members of the ruling Labour Party and the mayor of London, to trade unions, religious leaders, artists, pop stars, rights activists and Gulf War veterans.
``Our message to the U.S. and British governments is that they would be very foolish to defy a coalition of this breadth and diversity. Just sticking a U.N. fig leaf on this does not make it any more humane,'' Stop the War spokesman Mike Marqusee told Reuters as the march began soon after midday.
``It's the biggest peace protest in Europe for years.''
Not surprisingly, protesters directed their wrath at President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, America's closest ally in the build-up of pressure on Iraq.
Washington and London are trying to get through the U.N. Security Council a tough resolution which would give Iraq one week to accept demands to disarm and 30 days to declare all its weapons of mass destruction programs.
``Bomber Bush, Bomber Blair, we'll resist you everywhere!'' chanted students. Effigies parodied the pair as war-mongers. Protesters shouted ``shame'' as they passed Blair's residence.
``Hopefully our leaders will see the huge feeling against the war,'' said Anne Gleeson, a school catering assistant marching with her husband and two children. All wore Palestinian scarves.
MUSLIMS JOIN MARCH
The demonstrators were rallying under two main slogans -- ``Don't Attack Iraq'' and ``Freedom for Palestine.''
Ismail Adam Patel, head of the Muslim group Friends Of Al'Aqsa, said the two issues were inextricable. ``Until we solve the Palestine issue, we are not going to get any peace in the Middle East. Why are we going after Iraq when Israel has far more weapons of mass destruction?'' he told Reuters at the march.
Thousands of Muslims, from Britain's 2.5 million-strong Islamic community, joined Saturday's march. Many protesters, from all strata of society, brought children. Some Church of England ministers were also dotted among the demonstrators.
Polls show most of Britain's 60 million people oppose their nation joining a purely U.S.-led attempt to topple President Saddam Hussein. But the picture changes if the United Nations approves such action, with about two-thirds then in favor.
Most of Blair's critics dislike Saddam as much as the prime minister does, but they say a war on Iraq would be an unjustified aggression that would destabilize the Middle East, cement U.S. hegemony and snub international public opinion.
Opponents also say Washington and London are behaving hypocritically given their previous support of Iraq under Saddam in the years before the 1991 Gulf War, and are refusing to admit their real economic motives for wanting to control Iraqi oil.
``Clearly it's about oil and U.S. dominance,'' film-director Ken Loach said on the march.
``If we go to war with Iraq, it represents the beginning of the era of American imperialism, which is not what my founding fathers' vision was for the United States of America,'' former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter told Reuters at the rally.
The event was London's second mass protest in a week after a pro-fox hunting march drew an astonishing 400,000 last weekend. Both marches passed off peacefully, with just two arrests for public disorder on Saturday.
----
[In the U.S....]
Cops handle protesters
By Matthew Cella, Guy Taylor and Jim Keary
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
September 28, 2002
http://www.washtimes.com/metro/20020928-71655484.htm
Demonstrators who vowed to "shut down the city" were thwarted yesterday by D.C. police, who arrived earlier, in larger numbers and with greater resolve to do the shutting down.
Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey said 649 of the estimated 1,750 demonstrators who took to the streets yesterday were arrested. He said he expects between 10,000 and 20,000 to rally today against the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
But Chief Ramsey predicted less trouble for today's protests. The Mobilization for Global Justice is sponsoring a permitted rally at the Sylvan Theater on the National Mall and a march to World Bank/IMF headquarters on 18th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW.
Yesterday, Chief Ramsey's focus was clearly on containing anarchist groups who took to the streets. Police showed little tolerance for the demonstrators' unpermitted marches, which ended in several mass arrests, including one of more than 200 protesters who had been herded into Pershing Park at 14th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW.
A visibly agitated Chief Ramsey defended the arrests and shot back at protesters who said they weren't given enough warning of police intentions.
"We gave warning for people to get out of the street, but remember, they had no business in the street. There was no parade," the chief said. "For the last four months, these folks have been talking about shutting down the city. And that happens to be illegal."
Five demonstrators were charged with misdemeanor destruction of property, Chief Ramsey said. The rest were charged either with failure to obey a police officer or parading without a permit. Police said those with identification would be released on $100 bond last night.
Meanwhile, protected by steel fences, closed streets and lines of police, world finance leaders meeting at the Blair House near the White House pledged last night a joint effort to strengthen corporate-disclosure requirements.
Meeting in advance of the IMF-World Bank conference, they also predicted that the pace of global growth would quicken in the months ahead. The Group of Eight finance chiefs sought to project confidence in the face of a slumping global economy and a worsening economic crisis in Latin America.
In a joint statement, the finance ministers and central bank presidents said that while "risks remain," they believed that coordinated action would keep the current fledgling economic recovery from faltering.
"We are committed to sound economic policies and structural reforms and to working together to improve corporate disclosure, enhance corporate accountability and strengthen the independence of auditing," they said in the one-page communique.
Although yesterday's protests - sponsored by the Anti-Capitalist Convergence - were said to be aimed at major oil companies and military action against Iraq, the activity devolved into little more than a series of hot confrontations between police and demonstrators.
Threats to disrupt the morning rush hour resulted in few major problems. The city was quiet until 7 a.m., when there was a report of a bomb at 14th Street and Independence Avenue SW. Moments later, about 20 demonstrators ran into the street and chained seven of their own to a "Sleeping Dragon."
The "Sleeping Dragon" was made up of 5-gallon buckets with holes cut in the sides, through which protesters put their arms to prevent officers from quickly cutting the chain underneath.
But the Metropolitan Police Department's Emergency Response Unit had the group unchained within 10 minutes. Dozen of arrests were made, and the intersection, which is connected to the 14th Street Bridge from Virginia, reopened by 7:15 a.m.
About 200 protesters assembled at Franklin Park and splintered into smaller groups of marchers. About 100 of them were halted by a line of officers on motorcycles at K Street and Vermont Avenue.
One protester sprayed the words "class war" in black paint on the window of a downtown Bank of America branch, and another protester tossed a smoke bomb toward the police line. In the panic that followed, two objects were thrown through the windows of the Vermont Avenue Citibank branch.
Officers, having kicked the smoke bomb down a street drain, made a tight circle around the protesters, backing them against the smashed window, which cracked further under the pressure. Several dozen in the crowd were arrested and loaded onto four Metrobuses.
Another large group of marchers passed the headquarters of Verizon at 12th and H streets NW just before 8:30 a.m., and about 30 demonstrators threw newspaper boxes from the sidewalks into the street and darted in and out of traffic. Police arrested about 20 protesters.
Meanwhile, about 60 protesters on bicycles rode without incident from Union Station to Dupont Circle before turning back to join up with other splinter groups at Pershing Park at 9:15 a.m. Inside the park, the demonstrators chanted, beat drums and sang.
Within minutes, police had the park surrounded by a line of officers, some in helmets carrying batons and others using bikes as barriers. Police shouted orders not to let the demonstrators leave the park.
One frustrated protester urged the group to get together against one spot on the police line because they appeared to be marching in a circle around the park.
Police then began shrinking the perimeter, and rounding Metrobuses to the southwest corner of the park, where one-by-one the protesters were wrestled into plastic handcuffs and loaded onto the buses.
As a smaller group of demonstrators shouted "let them go" from across Pennsylvania Avenue, the buses were filled and the detainees were carted to the police department training academy at Blue Plains in Southeast.
Later in the day, a protest of the Gap store on Wisconsin Avenue NW was peaceful. While a dozen D.C. police officers in full riot gear lined the front of the store, about 40 anti-sweatshop protesters were heavily outnumbered by reporters, photographers and street-corner gawkers.
After a half-hour of speeches, followed by a dozen men and women disrobing to their undergarments and chanting that they would rather wear nothing than wear Gap clothes, the protesters dispersed.
Fire and EMS department spokesman Alan Etter said one woman suffered a cut across her nose during the incident in front of the Citibank building. Three more protesters were transported from the police detainment facility at Blue Plains to local hospitals, two because of nausea and vomiting and one with chest pains, Mr. Etter said.
At a news conference, protest organizers hailed yesterday's action as a "success." Asked about two demonstrators who broke the Citibank window, ACC organizer Zein El Amin responded, "At the Boston Tea Party, do you talk about the damage to the tea?"
• Patrick Badgley contributed to this report.
----
D.C. Organizers Pledge Peaceful March
By JONATHAN D. SALANT
Associated Press Writer
SEPTEMBER 28, 10:30 ET
http://wire.ap.org/?SLUG=CAPITAL%2dPROTESTS
WASHINGTON (AP) - Protest organizers pledged peaceful demonstrations Saturday against trade and economic policies they say hurt the poor and burden Third World countries.
District of Columbia Police Chief Charles Ramsey predicted that the protests would be more orderly than those on Friday, when 649 demonstrators were arrested.
Ramsey said Saturday's protesters were ``more mainstream'' and focused on the policies of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
``They're not talking about shutting down the city,'' Ramsey said. ``They're not talking about giving points out for breaking windows or any of that kind of nonsense.''
His officers were braced for as many as 20,000 protesters to gather near the Washington Monument for a midday march to the headquarters of the global financial institutions, which were holding their annual meeting this weekend.
Patrick Reinsborough, an organizer with the Mobilization for Global Justice, said the group has called for ``peaceful, dignified, nonviolent, creative actions.''
Protest groups on Friday had urged a shutdown of the capital during the final day of the work week, but they caused only minimal disruptions as they snaked through the city on foot and on bicycles.
Most of those arrested Friday were charged with failing to obey a police officer or parading without a permit.
Organizers for the Saturday demonstrations wanted protesters to station themselves outside temporary metal fences surrounding the World Bank and IMF. They have suggested setting up a quarantine of the financial institutions, blocking entrances to the cordoned-off area.
To prevent a repeat of Friday's mass arrests, public interest lawyers were seeking a court order to prevent police from rounding up demonstrators.
``They have the right to express their First Amendment-protected point of view,'' said Mara Verheyden-Hilliard of the Partnership for Civil Justice. ``If we saw this in another country, we would condemn it as totalitarian conduct.''
Ramsey said the arrests were justified.
``They had no business in the street,'' he said. ``There was no parade. You can't just take over Pennsylvania Avenue. You can't just take over 15th Street.''
The largest number of arrests occurred after police on motorcycles, horses and on foot corralled hundreds of protesters in a grassy area a few blocks from the White House. Demonstrators and legal observers said police made no effort to disperse the crowd and refused to let people leave before beginning the arrests.
``It's just sad that we can't come out and say what we want to say without being persecuted, without being corralled,'' said protester Jane Smith of Virginia Beach, Va.
On the Net:
Mobilization for Global Justice: http://www.globalizethis.org
District of Columbia police: http://www.mpdc.dc.gov
Partnership for Civil Justice: http://www.justiceonline.org
----
DC Indy Media's Breaking News 9/28/02
Independent Media Center,
PO Box 21372,
Washington, DC 20009 -
phone (202)452-5936 - mailto:dc@indymedia.org
http://dc.indymedia.org/
Comments: http://dc.indymedia.org/comment.php3?publishtype=webcast&top_id=31648
3:12AM According to a caller with those recently released, a bus-load of arrestees recently returned to the Metropolitan Police Academy, 4665 Blueplains Drive, from where they sat at Superior Court with three other busses. Some people were lead out of the bus and into the Police Academy. Approximately 60 people were lead to sit on a nearby curb. The other arrestees of this bus remained in the bus.
People who have recently been released from the Police Academy say they had to pay $50 and show an ID to get out. Some people who supplied $50 and ID were denied release. They said the FBI is inside the Police Academy photographing, video-taping, and asking questions of some of the arrested. Word is: Bus of pagans were sent to Superior Court, 500 Indiana Ave., after having sat with other busses at the Police Academy. Earlier, there was 12 busses at the police Academy. Four of those busses went to sit outside of Superior Court. One of those busses returned to the Police Academy and is the bus mentioned above. Those inside the bus said, they were told by the police they had to pay $100 dollars in cash to be freed.
From 9/26 8:50pm from Legal: people choosing jail solidarity are being brought to Judiciary Square where they will be put through the court system tomorrow morning. They will be at 500 Indiana Ave. Room C10 downstairs (arraignment court) and possibly traffic court upstairs.
SUMMARY of PEOPLE'S STRIKE
Sep 27 2002
Finance's Capitol 'Saved' by Agents of PreCrime
"there can be no peace in the world until the policies defining the global situation, especially capitalism, shifts." Steven Clapp, Silver Spring, MD
Police instigated fear of property damage and disruption kept many DC workers out of downtown, leaving the streets empty for protestors and Metro Police operations. The day started out with a variety of autonomus actions by affinity groups during morning rush hour. These were mostly traffic disruptions, using different tactics such as a Critical Mass bike ride, a snake march, sit-downs, and chalking sidewalks.
The only violence was perpetrated by law enforcement officers. There was some minor property destruction and vandalism, most of which was unintentional. Someone damaged the locks to the gates at Union Station, but we are unsure that this was done by demonstrators. The corporate media reports that some tires were set on fire on the George Washington Parkway. Most notably, a window was cracked at a Citibank branch. The window was impacted by a protestor's body when he/she was shoved into it by a police officer.
Preemptive Arrests Mark Unprecedented Attack on Civil Liberties by DC Police
The day was marked by mass arrests. Photo 2 Audio Video Most of the demos were obstructed by police quickly after they began. The police slowly closed off groups of demonstrators, eventually walling them in a space, and arresting everyone present. At least one non-demonstrator was caught in the wrong place at the wrong time - she was assaulted, then arrested by police while taking her morning bike ride.
649 protesters were rounded up, handcuffed with plastic strips, and loaded onto busses. The busses were bound for a temporary detention center at the Police Academy in extreme southern DC. Several busses took more than 12 hours to reach the detention center, spending many hours in handcuffs on the busses. Some protestors are still being processed at 3AM.
One demonstrator who was dressed as a queer was taken off his bus, transfered to a police van, and beaten by police. Queer groups are mobilizing in opposition to this discriminatory act of abuse.
Despite threats of prison terms and federal charges, many arrestees have already been released, some with fines. Common charges were "failure to obey a lawful order," "participating in a riot," and "parading without a permit" A religious group was arrested for "obstructing a sidewalk."
The messages of the demonstrators were not adequately heard today. The corporate media focussed mainly on actions, street closures, and arrests, and a satire piece, while ignoring the messages. For example, the Critical Mass bike ride was intended to bring attention to environmentally friendly transportation, and the snake march was a critique of capitalist greed. The most severe police repression was at a rally entitled "beat the anti-war drums."
Tomorrow promises to be a day of issues. The marches, rallies, and demonstrations will be accompanied by clear messages on a variety of issues.
Special report from an IMC reporter who was just released from Blue Plains
6:44pm: Once arrested, people were photographed by: US Marshalls, Secret Service, DC Undercover Officer "Nick Farrey," and MPD.
6:40pm: Reporters arrested today by MPD: Washington Post, photographer for US News and World Report; freelancer for Time Magazine; photographer for Magnum; 2 DC IMC reporters with MPD Press Credentials; 4 IMC reporters from out of town.
EARTH TO BANK
Sep 27 2002
September 26 Highlights
"The reason we are here is because we are living under a central command economy that has made our nation the poorest nation in Africa, and that economy is being controlled at 1818 H Street in Washington D.C." Demba Dembele, Forum for African Alternatives of Senegal
These opening words were a powerful lead in to an informative day of workshops at the Teach In "Global Struggles Against the World Bank and International Monetary Fund" held in DC on day two, attended by about 400 people. Activists came from Chad, Cameroon, Senegal, South Africa, Columbia, Venezuela, Chiapas, Argentina, et al.
A Tanzanian woman shared a story of devastation she has witnessed. "In my lifetime I have seen rates of literacy go from 85% before structural adjustment took effect, to 40% within only one generation." More
Also, 11AM A trojan horse representing the corporate invasion into developing nations in the guise of financial aid, accompanies speakers and an environmental-flag waving audience. Rally by Amazon Watch, Friends of the Earth International, Greenpeace USA, Project Underground, Rainforest Action Network, Sierra Student Coalition, and Sustainable Energy and Economy Network in front of the World Bank.
The Peoples Strike & IMF/WB
Sep 26 2002
Police Prepare with Preemptive Threats
As the most intense portion of a week of teach-ins, demonstrations and rallies approaches, many signs indicating the police are preparing to use force , possibly preemptively, have been observed. One IMC reporter saw a policewoman checking her large-barrelled gun, most likely either a tear-gas rifle or beanbag gun, outside the 18th street entrance to the World Bank at approximately 10:30 am, indicating that MPD officers have already been issued anti-personnel munitions, at least in the areas immediately surrounding 18th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.
More general police operations seem to be oriented around surveiling and observing assemblies of people - such as welcome centers and spokes councils. At least two police officers are confirmed to have lurked at the entrance to last night's ACC spokes council and police were seen unloading heavy gear, including large weapons, at 18th street, not too far from the Indymedia Convergence Center. Reports of several arrests for minor offenses and random street questioning have begun to crop up.
If one report is true, the planning behind these tactics is centralized. Possibly at levels of command of the various Police Chiefs collaborating together. These same authorities who may have a political interest in having events proceed in a certain manner to justify their budgetary and authority requests in the previous months. One eyewitness reported "I talked to a cop this morning. He said that one of the tactics they'll probably use is shutting down random streets near hot spots to all traffic, including pedestrians, to contain protests. He also said, not surprisingly, that they're not being told where they'll be stationed or any kind of real information until they get there tonight."
TOBACCO AND GLOBALIZATION
Sep 25 2002
IMF Pack of Lies Robert Weissman and Anna White of Essential Action, a Washington D.C.-based corporate accountability organization, held a press conference the afternoon of Monday, September 23, 2002, outside the headquarters of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In a report Weissman and White presented their case against trade-liberalization in tobacco, which via the IMF is pushed upon developing nations such as Bulgaria, Mali, Djibouti, Peru, and Uganda, among others. The press conference was held in front of a giant cigarette pack, bearing the phrase "IMF Pack of Lies."
EARTH TO BANK
Sep 20 2002
Annual IMF/WB Meeting to be Met With Grassroots Opposition
The World Bank and IMF will be faced with demonstrators from around the country, continent and world again - despite crack-downs on civil rights after 9/11 and mainstream media parroting national interest.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank are holding their annual meetings in Washington, DC on the weekend of September 28th and 29th. They will be discussing their development plans and global investment strategy, for the coming year, in shaky geopolitical conditions. The World Bank's own report warns, "environmental problems and social unrest threaten international poverty reduction goals."
Protestors blame the financial institutions' support of unregulated transnational industrial development for compounding the environmental problems, and say the social unrest is in direct response to "structural adjustment programs" imposed by the institutions. (See Argentina and the IMF.) These groups are largely controlled by private elite trade interests. (see Z Magazine's World Bank/IMF Primer & Global Trade Watch area).
Diverse Groups Unite and Converge
The meetings will be met with a local, national, and international response, co-ordinated very loosely through affinity groups. General awareness of the issues and the protest plans, grows through the internet, uniting a broad range of politics against Bank policies. The Anti-Capitalist Convergence, Jubilee USA, 50 Years Is Enough, the World Bank Bonds Boycott group, and the Mobilization for Global Justice are among the groups that have made calls, to show opposition, and to educate re the effect bank policies have on earth's populations and resources. (MGJ demands | ACC demands | Jubilee Proclaims | 50 Years Is Enough platform)
Demonstrators are demanding that Third World debt be dropped, that groups and agreements such as the World Bank, IMF, and the WTO be abolished, that international trade policy be democratized and made transparent, and that local, native, indigenous peoples regain sovereignty over their resources. A common theme is the desire for sustainable economies and social structures with genuinely democratic qualities that operate at a scale that the environment can handle. A variety of events, direct actions, vigils, teach-ins and lectures, have been planned throughout the city.
Trade and War Are the Same Problem
The Independent Media Center has coordinated a film festival. The featured videos include The New Patriots, about the War on Drugs and the School of the Americas, a video on the Housing Rights movement, and a documentary on the Prague convergence, with speakers.
In a "post-9/11 environment," many minorities and activist groups see their freedom of speech, freedom to associate and other rights are threatened by the very government created to protect and promote such freedoms. Some make it clear that they see a connection between authoritarian economic policy and the so-called wars on terrorism and drugs and the aid they brings to paramilitary groups and occupying military forces throughout the world from the United States.
Local Network Affiliates Play Down Message, Play Up Violence
Meanwhile, local media treats the expected insurgence of grassroots opposition to global corporatism and U.S. foreign policy as a seasonal event. While showing clips of past demos and with emphasis on points of violence cited by the police, they fail to report on many of the specific grievances that demonstrators, NGO workers, and organizers present, peacefully, during the major convergences. Rarely is it reported that the movement of dissent against these institutions, had its origins in the so-called "Third World", decades ago.
Internationally, there has been widespread media coverage on Bank policies and global protest, which has forced big summit type meetings into isolated fortresses. (Already there is speculation that this will be the last IMF/WB meeting in the US.)
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FEC OKs campaign finance exemption for non-profits
ASSOCIATED PRESS
September 28, 2002
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020928-73760936.htm
The Federal Election Commission has freed tax-exempt charitable, educational and religious groups from political-ad restrictions imposed by the new campaign-finance law.
FEC lawyers advised against the move, calling the exemption too broad.
The commission voted 4-2 Thursday to exempt the organizations from provisions that ban interest group TV and radio ads the month before a primary and two months before a general election if they name a federal candidate, are financed with unlimited corporate or union contributions and are targeted at the candidate's district.
Sponsors of the law, including Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, and Rep. Christopher Shays, Connecticut Republican, contend the tax-exempt groups have used phony issue ads to evade the prohibition on the use of union or corporate money to influence federal elections.
Issue ads may mention federal candidates, but cannot directly call for their election or defeat.
The exemption was sought by the Sierra Club Foundation and the Alliance for Justice, an association of about 60 liberal consumer, civil rights, environmental and other groups. They argued the law would make it impossible for them to air effective lobbying ads.
"It just avoids all sorts of pointless overregulation," John Pomeranz, the Alliance's nonprofit advocacy director, said after learning of the FEC's decision.
Already, charitable organizations are absolutely forbidden under tax law from doing anything that might smack of partisan electoral politics.
Commissioner Michael Toner, a Republican, said organizations that misuse the exemption to engage in campaign activity will lose their tax-exempt status.
FEC lawyers advised against granting the exemption.
"Such a blanket exemption is too broad for the limited exemption authority" the law provides the commission, they wrote.
Larry Noble, head of the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics and a former FEC lawyer, said the commission has the power to draw some exemptions, but Thursday's decision went too far.
"It clearly is pushing the limits, exempting a broad class of organizations regardless of what they say," Mr. Noble said. He said the decision likely will give such groups an incentive "to push the line and perhaps be more political" because they now can do something many organizations cannot under the new law.
The law's sponsors have said they intend to challenge the FEC in court and in Congress over its earlier interpretation of the law's ban on unlimited contributions by corporations, labor unions and others to national political parties. Such donations are known as "soft money."
The soft-money rules drawing the criticism were approved by the same 4-2 vote as the political-ad exemption, with Democratic Commissioner Karl Sandstrom joining the three Republicans on the panel.
On Thursday, the commission approved the exemption for religious, educational and charitable organizations after refusing to grant a similar one for ads by special-interest groups that urge voters to contact their congressman or senator for or against a political issue. That measure failed on a party-line vote, with the three Democrats backing it and three Republicans opposing it.
The law's prohibition does not apply to pre-election ads by campaigns, political parties and political action committees. Those ads are paid for by contributions that the new law limits and requires to be disclosed.
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Protests in D.C. Oppose Global Trade Policies
September 28, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Capital-Protests.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Thousands of demonstrators angered by AIDS, war and the plight of the poor flooded the streets of downtown Washington on Saturday, banging drums, waving giant puppets and burning American flags. The target of their discontent: the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
After a festive rally on the grounds of the Washington Monument, the protesters set out to surround the headquarters of the two financial institutions, where officials from around the globe were meeting.
``We want them to immediately cancel the debt to all African nations that are suffering from AIDS and allow that money to be spent in those countries to buy drugs to keep people alive,'' said Paul Zeitz, 40, director of the Washington-based Global AIDS Alliance.
The Saturday protests began without incident.
A day earlier, police arrested 649 demonstrators after sporadic clashes around the city.
The Saturday rally had a carnival atmosphere, as the crowd cheered speakers addressing a variety of causes, from Third World debt to AIDS to possible war against Iraq. By early afternoon, the crowd numbered about 2,000, according to reports to D.C. police.
``We need this movement more than ever before,'' said Michelle Shocked, who played blues with her electric guitar on stage.
Scattered among the crowd was an inflatable menagerie -- a 20-foot-tall pig adorned with the words ``Hog-tied corporate glutton'' and a shark balloon with a globe in its mouth and a sign, ``Stop IMF Loan Sharking.'' A large rolling Trojan horse had a sign that said: ``World Bank Aid.''
Protest organizers handed out yellow police tape and biohazard suits.
``We're just trying to quarantine the World Bank because their policies are infectious to the rest of the world,'' said Melanie Grumman of Burlington, Vt.
Speaking under a bright blue sky, Njoki Njehu, director of the 50 Years is Enough Network, called for a cancellation of Third World debt. Her organization opposes IMF and World Bank policies.
``The debts must be canceled to make sure that there is money for children to go to school. The debt must be canceled to make sure that those children don't go to bed hungry,'' Njehu said.
En route to the World Bank and IMF headquarters, protesters stopped for another rally at a local park. There, they burned American flags and a doll representing the IMF and World Bank.
Jason Nordsell, 21, a junior at George Washington University from Euless, Texas, ran in to stamp out the flames, retrieving the tattered and scorched flags. Nordsell said he had come to take pictures, not protest.
``It's a sign of our freedom,'' said Nordsell. ``It's a sign of everything we have, and I just can't stand by and watch people set fire to something that summarizes our ideals, everything we live for.''
Police ensured that the protesters would not get too close to the financial institutions, which have become a magnet for demonstrations.
The security perimeter was extended for several blocks from the buildings. Chain link fences and security officers in full riot gear protected the grounds and the finance ministers meeting inside.
At the District of Columbia Courthouse, a much smaller group of demonstrators challenged the treatment of the people arrested Friday. Most of those detained were charged with failing to obey a police officer or parading without a permit; five were charged with destruction of property.
Organizers and legal observers said police did not give protesters a chance to disperse Friday before arresting them.
``They got all the notice they needed to get,'' Police Chief Charles Ramsey said Saturday. ``They knew they had no permit, they knew they had no right to be in the street.''
Mark L. Goldstone, an attorney with the National Lawyers Guild, said some of those arrested have complained about the food, water and bathroom facilities while in custody.
At midday, D.C. Superior Court Judge Stephanie Duncan-Peters made arrangements for five people to be inside the courtroom to observe the proceedings.
On the Net:
Mobilization for Global Justice: http://www.globalizethis.org
District of Columbia police: http://www.mpdc.dc.gov
Partnership for Civil Justice: http://www.justiceonline.org
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