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NUCLEAR
British Nuclear Sub Suffers Damage
UK withdraws 'dirty' bomb warning
Guangdong plans third nuclear power plant-source
NRCommission Preparing to Dump More Radioactive Waste
Researchers Question Risks of Nuclear Fuel
Greens attack EU Commission's nuclear proposals
Inspectors Return to Iraq Nov. 18
U.S. Warns Japan of Missile Threat from N.Korea
Nuclear Dispute Discourages S. Korea
U.S. Studies N. Korea Sanctions
Denmark Says U.S. May Root Missile Defense in NATO
Denmark denies deal over US missile defence plan
Lugar to Pursue Weapons Elimination
'Bush's axis of evil is wild, hyperbolic and silly'
Former Secretary of the Navy James Webb: DON'T ATTACK IRAQ
Justice won't enforce Microsoft restrictions
MILITARY
US MASSACRE CLAIMS
Afghan War Faltering, Military Leader Says
U.N. Finds Novel Way to Keep an Eye on Afghans
US beefs up Horn anti-terror base
Rogue Merchants
U.S. says Baghdad is hiding anthrax
Experts Urge States to Agree on Germ Weapons Talks
Potential F/A-22 Cost Overrun Of $690 Million Is Announced
Jiang rejects Western-style politics
Drug Lord's Release Ordered
The EU and the Power of the People
Allied Planes Drop Leaflets on Iraq
War in Iraq and the economy
Iraq Calls UN Resolution Cover for U.S. Attack
Netanyahu blames boss for 'dire straits'
Peace Plan By U.S. Splits Netanyahu and Sharon
Israel, U.S. to Hold Joint Exercise
Palestinians Eager, Israel Reserved on U.S. Mission
Israel vaunts Arrow missile system
Canada Reports Chinese 'Apology'
Spy Scandal Ripples at Sweden's Ericsson
'Iraq Has Been and Remains in Material Breach'
UN Security Council Votes to Order Iraq to Disarm
Annex: Text of Blix/El-Baradei Letter
U.N. Panel's Vote Is Unanimous
Pentagon probes anonymous release of detainee photos
Plan set for GI smallpox vaccine
Speedy Military Ships Move Into Place
Chokehold on Knowledge
Cornell Ordered to Release Biotech Documents
CIA Disputes Censorship Claims
POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS
Council Attacks D.C. Surveillance Cameras
Limits on cop cameras cleared
Protecting Cyberspace
Pentagon Seeks Source of Photos
Who is deluded about marijuana?
Bush Presses for Homeland Security
U.S. Has Jailed 179 at Borders on Sept. 11 Rules
Immigration Service Fights Release of Detained Haitians
Signals from the Predator robot hit
Qaeda Meeting in Thailand Reportedly Plotted Attacks on Tourists
U.S. Widens Anti - Terrorism Effort
ENERGY AND OTHER
FERC judge sets Nov 14 meeting on Enron wind farms
A Russian-American pipe dream
The Blot on India's Economic Map
Organic Growers Battle Proposed Rules
U.S., Pushing for Broader Ban, Blocks U.N. Anti-Cloning Move
Drug Agency Approves a Quick Test for H.I.V.
ACTIVISTS
D.C. Council Opposes Military Action in Iraq
U.S. Defends Iranian Reformer Sentenced to Death
Dominicans nuns face federal charges
-------- NUCLEAR
-------- britain
British Nuclear Sub Suffers Damage
November 8, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Britain-Nuclear-Sub.html
LONDON (AP) -- A British nuclear submarine ran aground off Scotland's Isle of Skye, suffered considerable damage to its sonar and a ballast tank and will need several months for repairs, a navy spokeswoman said Friday.
The HMS Trafalgar limped into the Clyde naval base Thursday, one day after hitting rocks while traveling underwater during a two-week training exercise with other British and NATO vessels.
Two of the 130 crewmen aboard the submarine were injured. The submarine was not carrying nuclear weapons, and its nuclear reactor suffered no damage, the official said, on customary condition of anonymity. Damaged sections included sonar and a ballast tank.
Scotland's senior naval officer, Rear Admiral Derek Anthony, has said that a trainee commander may have been at the helm of the 5,200-ton submarine when it ran aground.
The Royal Navy has 16 submarines in its fleet, 12 of which are nuclear-powered attack subs like the HMS Trafalgar.
The accident was the second this year involving Royal Navy vessels. In July, the destroyer HMS Nottingham ran into rocks off Australia. The ship, with 253 crew members aboard, nearly sank when a large gash was cut into its hull near Lord Howe Island in the Tasman Sea. None of the crew was injured.
----
UK withdraws 'dirty' bomb warning
Friday, November 8, 2002
CNN
http://europe.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/11/08/uk.alert/index.html
LONDON, England --A 'dirty bomb' terror warning issued by the British government has been withdrawn -- just 30 minutes after it was released.
The original assessment warned of terrorists plotting "something different, perhaps as surprising as the attacks on the World Trade Center" and suggested the possibility of poison gas attacks.
But 30 minutes after journalists were given the document by the Home Office they were asked to return it so it could be replaced with a blander version omitting references to a 'dirty' bomb or poison gas.
The security assessment document, and its replacement, were issued to the media by the UK's Home Office under the name of Home Secretary David Blunkett.
Both versions urged people to remain vigilant to the continuing threat of Irish and international terrorism.
The first warned: "They may attempt to use more familiar terrorist methods, such as leaving parcel or vehicle bombs in public places, to hijacking passenger aircraft.
"However, they may try something different, perhaps as surprising as the attacks on the World Trade Centre, to the theatre siege in Moscow.
"Maybe they will try to develop a so-called dirty bomb, or some kind of poison gas; maybe they will try to use boats or trains rather then planes.
"The bottom line is that we simply cannot be sure."
The replacement toned down the rhetoric and warned of "ever more dramatic and devastating" terror attacks but avoids mention of the specific threats.
"If al Qaeda could mount an attack upon key economic targets, or upon our transport infrastructure, they would," it says.
"If they could inflict damage upon the health of our population, they would."
A Home Office spokeswoman said the first version was "an early draft" that had not been authorised by Blunkett.
"We did not want to close peoples minds to other forms of risk or threat -- we didn't want to have something where the public thought `that is what we are looking for'," she told the Press Association.
"We wanted a general reminder for a general threat."
But Simon Hughes, the UK Liberal Democrat Party's homes affairs spokesman, called for the confusion to be explained.
"Home Office mistakes are frequent enough," he told PA. "Muddles in the passport office, chaos in the immigration office and record overcrowding in prisons are all recent disaster areas for this department.
"The Home Office must now give a full explanation to address the confusion caused by this document withdrawal."
The alert was issued as Blunkett met Tom Ridge, the head of United States Homeland Security, to discuss measures being taken by London and Washington to protect the public from the threat of global terrorism.
The document, Counter Terrorist Action Since 11 September, summarises progress in the war against international terrorism.
In his foreword to the document, Blunkett wrote: "Since the September 11th attacks we have had some success in damaging al Qaeda's capability, and in thwarting attacks.
"But the terrorist threat remains real, and serious. As recent events have shown, no country is immune from attack, and it simply is not possible to guarantee against more attacks in the future."
He said there was "no such thing as 100 percent fool-proof security" and described al Qaeda as "dedicated fanatical extremists who have no regard for the loss of human life, including their own."
-------- china
Guangdong plans third nuclear power plant-source
REUTERS CHINA:
November 8, 2002
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/18504/story.htm
SHANGHAI - China's Guangdong Nuclear Power Group has applied to the central government for permission to set up the province's third nuclear power station, a source close to the company said.
The group, which already operates the Daya Bay nuclear plant and Ling Ao nuclear station in China's south, submitted a feasibility study to the State Development and Planning Commission (SDPC) for the third station, he told Reuters.
The plan is for the proposed station to be set up in the city of Yangjiang pending the SDPC's approval for the Guangdong Nuclear group to install four or more generating units, the source said. He did not say what their capacity was.
Approval was not likely to be issued until next year due to the upcoming 16th Communist Party Congress, during which top Chinese leaders are expected to step down from their party posts, another industry source said.
Guangdong is one of China's most vibrant economic hubs and energy demand has grown rapidly along with industrial growth.
The Daya Bay nuclear station, with designed generating capacity of 14 billion KWh, is Guangdong's largest nuclear generator.
-------- depleted uranium
Nuclear Regulatory Commission Preparing to Dump More Radioactive Waste on American Public
Stating Preference to Release and Recycle Nuclear Waste, Agency Betrays Public Trust to Support Nuclear Corporations
Public Citizen Press Release
Contact: David Ritter (202) 454-5176, Erica Hartman (202) 454-5174
From: "Piotr Bein" <piotr.bein@imag.net>
Date: Fri, 8 Nov 2002
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) recently stated preference to release and recycle radioactive wastes strongly indicates that it is more concerned with assisting the nuclear industry than protecting the public, Public Citizen said today.
In a news release issued Wednesday, the NRC announced that it will press ahead in a rulemaking that could dramatically increase the volume of radioactive waste material that is dumped in unlicensed landfills and recycled into consumer goods. The NRC's current policy allows all materials (metal, concrete, soil, etc.) to be released or recycled on a case-by-case basis. The agency is exploring allowing widespread recycling of contaminated solid materials into consumer products.
While the NRC's preference to allow the nuclear industry to disperse much of its waste has been made clear by its actions for many years, the agency is now stating it openly. In written comments submitted with his vote approving the rulemaking procedure, NRC Chairman Richard Meserve discouraged agency staff from trying to "mask the Commission's continuing support for the release" of the waste.
While the NRC's news release attempts to put a friendly face on the process, vowing that "NRC staff will seek broad public participation and engage diverse viewpoints," Meserve's guidance in his written comments that public "(w)orkshops are resource-intensive and expensive
Additionally, Public Citizen said, it is distressing to see how dismissive the NRC has been regarding the National Academies' March 2002 report on this issue, done at the NRC's request. This report, while not recommending that the NRC immediately halt the radioactive waste recycling program, did suggest that it take a very cautionary approach and seriously address public concerns on the issue, in part to overcome a "legacy of distrust." Instead of beginning a broad, deliberative process, as suggested by the Academies' report, the NRC is opting to proceed with a rulemaking and ignore public concerns.
"The Academies' report emphasized that the NRC not prescribe an outcome on the issue and that real consideration of public input was essential," said Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook. "But in limiting public workshops and stating their preference from the get-go, it looks like they've already made a decision. The upcoming 'process' will most likely be a public relations maneuver and sham."
The NRC claims on its Web site that its "primary mission is to protect the public health and safety, and the environment from the effects of radiation from nuclear reactors, materials, and waste facilities." The agency also agrees with the firmly established scientific tenet that "any amount of radiation may pose some risk for causing cancer and hereditary effect." With this in mind, it is particularly alarming to note NRC Commissioner Jeffrey Merrifield's observation in his written comments on the rulemaking that "(r)ecycled solid material is different in that there is a potential that the radioactive component may be concentrated in the recycling process or that the material will be recycled in a form resulting in more actual contact with the general public." Incredibly, Merrifield goes on to say that "(it) would be nice to have a separate industry devoted to the recycling of radioactive material."
"One can only assume that the NRC is not concerned about abdicating its regulatory role to protect the public and making cynical calculations of how many additional cancer deaths are 'acceptable,' " said David Ritter, policy analyst with Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program. "The agency knows that this dumping can lead to radioactive consumer products like bicycles and belt buckles. It knows that this practice is wholly unnecessary and its sole beneficiary is the nuclear industry."
Both the NRC and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) are addressing the issue of nuclear waste release and recycling. The NRC has jurisdiction over commercial nuclear reactors, while the DOE oversees waste from nuclear weapons facilities and energy research facilities. The DOE also allows case-by-case release or recycle of all materials, except metals.
"The American public has spoken loudly and clearly on this issue before, and that's why Congress banned the 'Below Regulatory Concern' policy in 1992, conceding that radiation is always a concern," Ritter said. "So now, industry and the so-called regulators are trying to come in the back door via word-play, public relations marketing and outright lies. The industry refuses to accept responsibility for proper handling and disposal of its deadly waste. The only responsible action for it to take is isolate and contain it, not try to 'dilute' it by dispersing it across the country in recycled products."
The NRC is scheduled to complete its rulemaking within three years.
----
Researchers Question Risks of Nuclear Fuel
November 8, 2002
ENS
http://ens-news.com/ens/nov2002/2002-11-08-09.asp#anchor5
ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico, Spent nuclear fuel - uranium that has been used as fuel at a nuclear power plant - is less reactive than the original fresh fuel, argue researchers at by Sandia National Laboratories.
A new reactor built at the lab could mean savings in the eventual safe transport, storage, disposal of nuclear waste, the researchers said.
"The conservative view has always been to treat spent fuel like it just came out of the factory with its full reactivity," said researcher Gary Harms, the project lead. "This results in the numbers of canisters required in the handling of spent nuclear fuel to be conservatively high, driving up shipping and storage costs."
Sandia researcher Gary Harms conducts experiments with a research reactor to determine whether spent nuclear fuel is less reactive than fresh fuel. (Photo by Randy Montoya, courtesy Sandia)
The more realistic view is that as nuclear fuel is burned, the reactivity of the fuel decreases due to the consumption of some of the uranium and to the accumulation of fission products, the ash left from burning the nuclear fuel. Accounting for this reactivity decrease, called burnup credit, would allow for the spent nuclear fuel to be safely packed in more dense arrays for transportation, storage and disposal than would be possible if the composition changes were ignored, the team argues.
"Allowing such burnup credit would result in significant cost savings in the handling of spent nuclear fuel," Harms added.
But in the ultraconservative world of nuclear criticality safety, an effect must be proven before it is accepted. Before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would agree to reduce safety requirements for spent nuclear fuel, its relative safety would have to be proven in actual experiments and compared to computer models showing the same effects.
In 1999, Harms obtained a three year grant from the Department of Energy's (DOE) Nuclear Energy Research Initiative to make benchmark measurements of the reactivity effects that fission products have on a nuclear reactor. The project was called the Burnup Credit Critical Experiment (BUCCX). Rhodium, an important fission product absorber, was chosen for the first measurements.
The BUCCX team designed and built a small reactor, called a critical assembly, which uses low enriched fuel. The control system and some of the assembly hardware for the reactor came from the 1980s era Space Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (SNTP) Critical Experiment project, designed to simulate the behavior of a nuclear rocket reactor.
The reactor, which operated during the experiments at a lower power than a household light bulb, was subjected to several layers of safety reviews. During the experiments, it performed safely as predicted.
"It took us most of the three years to build the reactor and get authorization to use it. Only in the last few months have we begun actual experiments," Harms said.
The experiments were designed to show how much the presence of fission products - in this case, rhodium, would increase the amount of uranium required to cause a critical nuclear reaction in the lab system. The results showed that the presence of rhodium indeed made it harder for the same amount of uranium to go critical.
"In essence Sandia is helping pave the way for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to address the safe and cost efficient transport and storage of nuclear waste," Harms said.
-------- europe
Greens attack EU Commission's nuclear proposals
Story by Patrick Lannin
REUTERS EU:
November 8, 2002
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/18506/story.htm
BRUSSELS - Europe's top energy official unveiled proposals this week to boost safety at nuclear plants and provide funds for decommissioning old reactors, sparking a furious response from foes of atomic power.
EU Energy Commissioner Loyola de Palacio proposed common safety standards and cross-border monitoring, timetables for European Union countries to decide on burial sites for the most radioactive waste, and talks with Russia on nuclear fuel supplies to future EU members in eastern Europe.
The Commission also said it wanted to boost the cash available to the EU nuclear authority Euratom by two billion euros ($1.99 billion) to pay for safety measures and help the decommissioning of old plants in former Soviet bloc countries, both EU candidates and others.
"It is our responsibility to ensure a common approach to nuclear safety and waste management," de Palacio said. "European citizens would never forgive us for inaction by the EU in this field," she added in a statement.
But Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and members of the European Parliament from Green parties - all hostile to nuclear power, which they regard as unsafe and a threat to the environment - strongly opposed the initiative.
"De Palacio, the pro-nuclear energy commissioner behind the nuclear package, wants to show that problems perceived by opponents of nuclear power, like safety and radioactive waste, are gone," said Claude Turmes, a Green parliament member from Luxembourg.
"But the details of the package show clearly that the only purpose is to revitalise the nuclear industry in an enlarged EU," Turmes added.
DIVERGENT POLICIES
Some EU countries, such as Sweden and Italy, bar nuclear power, while others, such as France, greatly depend on atomic energy. Finland recently decided to build the first new nuclear plant in western Europe in more than a decade.
De Palacio said she wanted an independent nuclear safety authority monitoring each EU country but opposed creating EU inspectors or conducting spot checks of nuclear plants.
The commissioner also urged EU states to decide by 2008 on a timetable for building sites to bury highly radioactive waste, which should be operational by 2018. For less radioactive waste, disposal arrangements should be ready by 2013, she said.
Because of fierce resistance by environmental groups, many EU countries lack long-term storage facilities for spent fuel and store nuclear waste at power plants or temporary sites.
De Palacio said eastern European states, many of which still run Soviet-era nuclear reactors, needed a secure supply of fissile material, which the talks with Moscow would seek.
The Commission said its proposal to raise Euratom's borrowing ceiling to six billion euros from four billion euros would cover nuclear safety and decommissioning projects.
Greens called such funding "cheap and dirty" nuclear loans.
-------- inspections
Inspectors Return to Iraq Nov. 18
November 8, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-UN-Weapons-Inspections.html
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- An advance team of weapons inspectors will be in Baghdad in two weeks, chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix announced Friday.
`` We are planning to go to Baghdad on Monday, Nov. 18th,'' Blix said shortly after an unanimous Security Council passed a tough new resolution that expands his powers.
Blix said he was pleased with the full council support for the U.S. drafted resolution. It ``strengthens our mandate very much,'' he said.
Blix has said an advance team would be involved mostly with logistics and preparations for resuming full inspections but that some surprise checks could be done.
Under the new resolution, inspectors have 45 days from Friday to begin their work.
Inspectors from the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission as well as a nuclear team from the International Atomic Energy Agency are mandated to disarm Iraq of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs.
The inspectors must report any Iraqi infraction immediately to the council for its assessment
-------- korea
U.S. Warns Japan of Missile Threat from N.Korea
November 8, 2002
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/politics/politics-arms-japan-usa.html
TOKYO (Reuters) - A senior U.S. defense official said Friday that Japan faced the ``danger'' of a North Korean missile attack but that Washington would not press Tokyo to build a missile defense shield.
Visiting U.S. Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith also said North Korea should pay a ``price'' for pursuing a nuclear arms program in violation of a 1994 agreement with Washington.
``One does not have to press Japan to recognize that Japan is facing a serious danger of a ballistic missile attack,'' he said.
He denied a newspaper report Friday that the United States would urge Japan to take the next step toward building a missile defense shield in response to any threat posed by North Korea.
The Yomiuri Shimbun, quoting U.S. defense officials in Washington, said Feith would convey Washington's view when he meets Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba in Tokyo Friday.
The Yomiuri said Feith would try to convince Tokyo to move closer to developing the system, highlighting the potential threat of North Korea, including its deployment of around 100 ballistic missiles capable of reaching major Japanese cities.
``We are not pressing Japan to do anything. It is not the way we deal with our allies,'' Feith told reporters in Tokyo.
``There is a common understanding that the missile threat facing Japan and the United States is serious and that cooperation between us to counter this threat and protect our people is very useful.''
Japan has conducted joint research with the United States on developing a missile defense system since North Korea's test firing of a missile which flew over Japan in 1998.
Tokyo has so far stopped short of moving the project to a development stage out of fear of angering China, which sees the system as a way of keeping its military capabilities in check.
Currently, Japan is only conducting research on the multi-billion-dollar project with Washington to develop the missile shield, or the theater missile defense system (TMD), designed to shoot down incoming ballistic missiles.
NO DECISION YET
North Korea made a shock admission to the United States last month that it was enriching uranium to support a nuclear weapons program -- in breach of the 1994 Agreed Framework pact that had defused an earlier North Korean nuclear crisis.
While accusing Pyongyang of violating the nuclear deal and pursuing a nuclear arms program, Feith said the issue should be resolved ``diplomatically.''
``It is a difficult challenge. It is a matter of organizing the kind of pressure that would force the North Koreans to take seriously the concerns we have and we share with our allies about their nuclear program,'' he said.
``It is important that the North Koreans understand that there is a price to be paid for violating their commitments and pursuing a capability that threatens the peace and security of the region.''
He did not elaborate on what price North Korea should pay.
In mid-November the United States, the European Union, Japan and South Korea are to meet in New York to decide on the fate of oil shipments to North Korea under the Agreed Framework.
The 1994 deal called on North Korea to freeze its nuclear weapons programs in exchange for the delivery of 500,000 tons of fuel oil annually and the construction of two light-water nuclear reactors which cannot easily be converted to produce weapons material.
Feith said the United States did not know much about North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
``North Korea is astonishingly closed and secretive. Our knowledge of what they are doing... is sketchy,'' he said. ``But what we know is very troubling.''
Senior officials from the United States, Japan and South Korea are set to meet in Tokyo Saturday to discuss issues related to North Korea.
--------
Nuclear Dispute Discourages S. Korea
November 8, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Koreas-Talks.html
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Taken aback by North Korea's nuclear weapons program, South Korea on Friday rejected a request by the communist country to expand joint economic projects, South Korean pool reports said.
Delegates of the two Koreas met in the North's capital, Pyongyang, for a second straight day Friday to discuss economic cooperation, but the discussion was overshadowed by the North's nuclear issue.
Since North Korea admitted to having a secret nuclear weapons program in early October, the United States has been trying to garner international support to pressure Pyongyang to give up its nuclear ambitions.
A five-member South Korean delegation, led by Vice Finance and Economy Minister Yoon Jin-sik, refused to expand inter-Korean economic cooperation beyond what has already been agreed on, said pool reports.
The two-day meeting in Pyongyang, the third of its kind since 2000, was supposed to review ongoing inter-Korean projects and set new goals. But South Korea made it clear that it can't proceed unless the North promptly addresses international concerns about its nuclear program, they said.
South Korea, the reports said, turned down repeated requests by North Korea to start new joint projects in the fields of fishing and electricity. North Korea suffers an acute power shortage.
North Korea, the reports said, avoided a direct answer to the South Korean demand for scrapping its nuclear weapons program, saying only that it was ``seriously contemplating'' the issue.
Key joint economic projects include a cross-border railway under construction and an industrial park to be built on the North Korean side of the border. The park is mainly for South Korean plants.
South Korean delegates reportedly turned down a North Korean invitation to visit a candidate site for the industrial park.
In an apparent show of disappointment at the lack of progress at the talks, North Korean officials imposed tight restrictions on South Korean press coverage, the reports said. Photographers were not allowed to take pictures outside officially permitted areas.
A South Korean television crew was asked to erase a panoramic view of the North Korean capital taken from a hotel where they stayed. The pool reports did not say whether the crew complied with the North's demand.
North Korea had admitted to visiting U.S. diplomats on Oct. 3-5 that it had a program to enrich uranium, a breach of the 1994 agreement under which it pledged to abandon its nuclear ambitions in return for two light-water reactors plus 500,000 metric tons of fuel oil annually.
North Korea has complained that the reactor project, being pushed by a U.S.-led international consortium, is years behind schedule.
North Korea has expressed willingness to resolve the nuclear issue if the United States agrees to a nonaggression treaty. Washington rules out any discussions unless the North first abandons its nuclear ambitions.
The Koreas were divided in 1945.
--------
U.S. Studies N. Korea Sanctions
November 8, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Japan-US-NKorea.html
TOKYO (AP) -- The United States is working with its allies on ways to punish North Korea for its development of nuclear weapons in violation of an international agreement, a senior U.S. defense official said Friday.
U.S. Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith said he and Japanese officials discussed halting shipments of fuel oil to the isolated communist state and stopping the construction of nuclear reactors to pressure Pyongyang. No decisions have been reached.
``It's important that the North Koreans understand that there is a price to be paid for violating their commitments and pursuing a capability that threatens the peace and security of the region,'' Feith said at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. ``The challenge is devising a way of imposing a price so that diplomacy can work.''
Feith met with Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi, Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and other top officials.
Feith offered few other details except to say the campaign must consider countries such as Japan, South Korea, Russia and China, as well as the European Union.
North Korea told U.S. officials last month that it has been secretly developing nuclear weapons in violation of a 1994 pact with Washington.
Under that agreement, North Korea promised to freeze a plutonium-based nuclear program in return for two light-water nuclear reactors to meet its energy needs. The United States also agreed to supply North Korea with heavy oil until the reactors were up and running.
Construction of the reactors is years behind schedule.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly was to continue reviewing these issues when he and his counterparts from Japan and South Korea hold a regular meeting Saturday on North Korea.
Feith also said he and Japanese officials discussed Japan's request that Washington pardon Charles Robert Jenkins, the former U.S. Army soldier who allegedly defected to North Korea. He said no decision has been made.
Jenkins, of Rich Square, N.C., is the subject of an intense tug-of-war between Tokyo and Pyongyang. He is the husband of a Japanese woman abducted by North Korea more than two decades ago.
Tokyo wants him to visit Japan so he can join his wife Hitomi Soga, who is visiting her hometown for the first time since her kidnapping. Japan is seeking the pardon so Jenkins won't risk extradition on desertion charges if he comes to Japan.
-------- missile defense
Denmark Says U.S. May Root Missile Defense in NATO
November 8, 2002
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/politics/politics-arms-usa-nato.html
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark said on Friday the United States was moving toward anchoring missile defense inside NATO and parliamentary sources signaled it could approve the use of a U.S. radar base in Greenland if this were agreed.
A U.S. official said talks were under way with NATO allies, but no decisions had been taken and there had been no consultations on specific issues such as missile defense bases.
``Prospects of the missile defense now being rooted in NATO...gives a considerably clearer picture of the political and strategic frames for further development of missile defense,'' the Danish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
In June the United States unilaterally withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty in order to build a missile defense system, prohibited under ABM, to protect itself against potential attacks.
Denmark, a NATO ally, said missile defense would be part of discussions at NATO's summit in Prague on November 21-22.
Washington has offered to share technology with allies but the idea of a joint NATO missile defense is new, sources say.
``The approach the United States has taken has been nuanced from National Missile Defense to a joint effort, including cooperation with Russia. But the U.S. doesn't have a master plan,'' a NATO diplomat said.
GREENLAND BASE
The Danish Foreign Ministry said Copenhagen had not received a request from the United States for the Thule military radar installation, in the northwest of the vast Arctic island of Greenland, to be used for missile defense.
Greenland, which belongs to Denmark, has enjoyed limited home rule since 1979 but the Danish government is responsible for foreign, security and defense policy on the island.
In 1987 the Danish parliament passed a resolution forbidding the use of the radar base at Thule for offensive purposes or in contradiction of the ABM treaty, which was seen as the foundation for international arms control.
But parliamentary sources said Denmark could be open to the prospect of extending the base for missile defense if the shield were extended to NATO allies.
A U.S. official, who asked not to be named, said Washington was in early talks with the Danish government and Greenland.
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has invited Greenland's premier, Jonathan Motzfeldt, to join the Danish delegation to the NATO summit in Prague.
``The reason for the invitation is that it is expected that the U.S. wants preliminary talks about a joint NATO participation in the missile defense,'' Greenland's home rule government said in a statement.
----
Denmark denies deal over US missile defence plan
Friday, 08-Nov-2002
by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet)
http://www.ptd.net/webnews/wed/ai/Qus-missile-denmark.RBKb_CN8.html
COPENHAGEN, Nov 8 (AFP) - The Danish government on Friday denied reports that it had agreed to play a key role in controversial US plans to create a missile defence shield, saying Washington had not even made such a request.
One of the major listening posts thought to be required for the shield to be operational is the Thule radar station on Danish-controlled Greenland, a Cold-War era US base that would require substantial modernisation.
"The United States has not asked us to use the Thule radar station in their missile defence project," said Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller, reacting to the report in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper.
"And if such a request were made, the government would want a thorough political debate on the issue, in Denmark and in Greenland," he added.
"The government has informed the United States that it would be ready to study and consider a request if such a request were ever made," Moeller said.
Danish participation in the project -- designed to protect the United States from missile attack launched by so-called "rogue states" -- is seen as crucial.
The line of the current and former Danish administrations has always been that Denmark will only agree a policy on the US plans in the event of a formal US request for it to play a role.
The conservative-liberal coalition government plans to approach US officials on the issue at a NATO summit in Prague later this month, the report added, quoting parliamentary sources. Moeller confirmed that the suject was on the summit agenda.
"One of the main themes at the NATO summit in Prague will be establishing how to tackle the new threat of the spread of missiles and weapons of mass destruction, and missile defence will form an essential part of the talks," he said.
The head of Greenland's local government, Jonathan Motzfeldt, had been asked to attend the talks as part of the Danish delegation, he added.
Greenland residents are known generally to oppose the US plans amid concerns it will put their island at the centre of a new Cold war. Jyllands-Posten said the Danish government would present fuller details on plans for cooperation on the shield to a foreign policy committee next week.
-------- u.s. nuc weapons
Lugar to Pursue Weapons Elimination
November 8, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Chairman-Lugar.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Long before ``weapons of mass destruction'' became a regular phrase on the nightly news, Sen. Richard Lugar worried about them, warning that deadly arms from the former Soviet Union could fall in the hands of terrorists and other enemies.
Eleven years later, the weapons have become more widespread and Lugar is still worried. As he prepares to become chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Lugar will try to ensure that the United States uses its diplomatic, economic and -- if necessary -- military might to keep those weapons from harming Americans.
The Republican takeover of the Senate, along with the retirement of Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., leaves the 70-year-old Indiana Republican poised to take over next year a committee that he last led in the mid-1980s.
Lugar is more of a centrist than Helms, the conservative who was chairman from 1995-2001. Helms was known for shooting down President Clinton's diplomatic nominees and for ridiculing international organizations including the United Nations.
``I think it's quite a change from Helms,'' said former Rep. Lee Hamilton, an Indiana Democrat, a former chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. ``Dick is an internationalist and he tries always to be constructive and supportive.''
Lugar's views are more in line with those of the current Democratic chairman, Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., and no major shifts are expected in the committee's work. The two worked closely together under Biden's leadership and both Democrats and Republicans say they expect that relationship to continue with Lugar in charge.
They took a common stand on the biggest foreign policy issue Congress faced this year: the resolution authorizing the use of force in Iraq. Biden and Lugar worked together for a resolution that would have placed a greater emphasis on diplomacy, but ultimately voted for the language the White House wanted.
Some of the biggest differences between Biden may be in style. Compared to the talkative, sometimes acerbic Biden, Lugar is soft-spoken and more apt to resolve differences quietly.
``Joe Biden tends to have a more cutting edge to how he deals with people and issues. Dick Lugar is probably more of a velvet knife,'' said Jay Farrar, a former Defense Department legislative liaison, now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
But friends and analysts say that behind the low-keyed political style, Lugar holds strong opinions and a passion for foreign affairs. He is widely considered the most knowledgeable senator on international matters. While loyal to the president, he is not afraid to disagree with him.
``Sometimes people confuse the style and don't see that behind the style are pretty firmly held set of views,'' said Jeff Berner, who served as Lugar's staff director in the 1980s when he was last committee chairman.
Among the issues he feels most strongly about is arms control. He lists among the top achievements of his 25-year political career a program, co-sponsored by then-Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., that has dismantled about 6,000 nuclear warheads from the former Soviet Union since 1991 and found work for weapons scientists, preventing them from offering their expertise to U.S. enemies.
Last year, he issued the ``Lugar Doctrine,'' calling on every nation to account for its weapons of mass destruction and safely secure them so they do not fall in the hands of other nations or groups.
When nations refuse, ``our nation must be prepared to use force, as well as all diplomatic and economic tools at our disposal,'' he wrote.
He said the United States shouldn't rule out improving cooperation with Iran, Syria or Libya to make sure they secure any weapons of mass destruction. The State Department considers all three to be state sponsors of terrorism.
Lugar has been a strong supporter of the ratification of NATO expansion and an advocate of free trade and promoting democracy.
His ascension to chairman could be a further setback for the ratification of a 22-year-old international treaty aimed at promoting equality for women. The committee voted in July to ratify the treaty, but the full Senate has not considered it.
Lugar and most other committee Republicans voted against the treaty, known as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. If the Senate does not approve it in the brief, postelection session, it would have to be considered again by the committee in the new Congress before the full Senate could vote on it.
On the Net:
Sen. Lugar: http://lugar.senate.gov/
-------- us politics
'Bush's axis of evil is wild, hyperbolic and silly'
David Fickling
Friday November 8, 2002
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,835857,00.html
"Nuclear proliferation still poses the single greatest threat to mankind," says Richard Butler, sipping mineral water in a pavement cafe near his home in Sydney. Much of Butler's adult life has been dedicated to limiting the spread of nuclear weapons, and since September 11 he has been wheeled out as a supporter of military action on Iraq. This has only added to his reputation - among left-wing critics, fellow weapons inspectors, and of course the Iraqi regime - as a stooge of US intelligence. When you meet him, though, he doesn't seem much of a hawk. "Whatever we do must be done for the right reasons," he says. "If the reasons are phoney or tendentious that will be found out, and I think there's been an inadequate answer to the question of 'Why now?'. I believe the case against Saddam Hussein is utterly proven. The man should be tried for crimes against humanity. But what I'm unconvinced by is the question of why it was inconvenient to deal with the problem two or three years ago and now, today, it's imperative. What actually is motivating that?"
When it comes to the question of a UN-sponsored war on Iraq he becomes oddly reticent. He prefers to talk about the security council making it clear that "the game is up", rather than alluding directly to the threat of war.
His view is that if diplomacy does not work with Saddam, we're going to be in big trouble. "I think that if Saddam felt that he was going down, his desperate action would be to attack Israel to try to bring it into the war and galvanise all Arabs against the west," he says. "And I have no doubt that if Israel looked like being seriously harmed, they would use their nuclear weapons. That would mean we'd crossed the nuclear line which we've striven for 50 years never to cross again, and the world would be changed intolerably. If the state of Israel uses those weapons, it will be the last thing it will ever do."
The claims that he was a stooge, he dismisses as a smokescreen. Unscom was compromised in many ways, he says - there were lots of spies. "I had meetings with my senior staff knowing that there were people in my office writing down every word I said, which later on that day would be given to their embassy. The Iraqis often knew we were coming to inspect the places we did, because we were penetrated by spies."
He says that he depended on intelligence from up to 40 countries to break through the "wall of deception" put up by the Iraqis. "I have no regrets whatsoever about our use of intelligence," he says. "Where do weapons experts come from? They come from defence and intelligence. The very idea that you could do something as hard-edged and as tough as that job without experts in weapons and intelligence is just a joke."
He is particularly impatient of claims that he is close to the current US administration. Most of Washington's hawks, he says, refuse to talk to him. A public discussion with Pentagon policy adviser Richard Perle earlier this year was "not exactly a shouting match, but certainly a very robust exhange of views".
Such disagreements become understandable when you hear his criticisms of American foreign policy. He describes Bush's "axis of evil" speech as "wild and hyperbolic and silly". At a Sydney university seminar last month, he said that US foreign policy ideas were fuelled by Hollywood storylines, and that the country's nuclear weapons were "just as much of a problem as those of Iraq".
Asked his views on national missile defence - which would provide America with a "son of Star Wars" shield against ballistic missile attacks - he twice describes the policy as a "disgrace" before correcting himself. "It's an illusion," he says. "It will not provide security, because whether the Americans say so or not, it clearly rests on a decision by them to rely on nuclear weapons in perpetuity.
"That utterly contradicts the solemn promise they gave the world to progressively eliminate nuclear weapons. Provided these weapons continue to remain in the hands of the US, Britain, Russia, China and France, it is folly to think that other states can be successfully told, 'These weapons are necessary for our security but not for yours.'
"It's fundamentally unfair. How can countries with nuclear weapons go somewhere like Tehran and say: 'You can't acquire a nuclear bomb of your own.'? It just won't wash. And the inevitable consequence of it will be more proliferation."
He is putting his faith in the international community. While Islamists and the American right routinely run down the UN, he is adamant that its endorsement would make the difference between an illegal American invasion of Iraq and a legitimate military enforcement of international resolutions.
"I could imagine Arab newspapers writing somewhat justifiably cynical articles about the sort of arm-twisting that's going on in the security council to get that resolution, and there will be some people in the Arab world who will say this has all been a concocted deal. But then there are people in America who think the government is controlled by people in black helicopters - you can't be led around by what these people think. If it isn't done, then the authority of the security council will be absolutely shredded."
----
Former Secretary of the Navy James Webb: DON'T ATTACK IRAQ
By ALEX FRIEDRICH afriedrich@montereyherald.com
Fri, Nov. 08, 2002
http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/mcherald/news/local/4473702.htm
Former Marine urges restraint
A former Cabinet member under former President Ronald Reagan told military officers Thursday in Monterey that the United States should not invade Iraq.
Former Secretary of the Navy James Webb said the country should focus instead on eliminating international terrorism. Speaking at the Naval Postgraduate School, Webb said that without a clear understanding of consequences - or a clear exit strategy - U.S. forces face a decades-long occupation that could sap American resolve and resources.
The United States also risks inflaming Arab anger even more if it invades without first finding a solution to the Palestinian problem - which would include establishment of a Palestinian state, Webb said.
"I am very concerned with the direction this country may be going with regard to Iraq," Webb told several hundred students and faculty members. "Are we going to reshape American foreign policy to put (soldiers) on the ground in the Middle East? I think it's a mistake."
Webb, a best-selling novelist who also has written nonfiction since leaving the military, cautioned against an invasion in a Sept. 4 article in the Wall Street Journal.
He has argued against toppling the regime and rebuilding the government unless the United States is in direct danger. The evidence of such danger, he said, is not in sight.
Despite the size of the U.S. armed forces, he said, a collection of 1.5 million troops "is not that many" if it's spread out over the world.
"There are a lot of recently retired officers with experience who are concerned," he said.
The failure of the United States to solve the Palestinian problem would also complicate any invasion by inflaming Arab tension.
"I don't think we have clean hands" in the Palestinian issue, he said, and have failed "to effect a Palestinian state. Without that happening, anything we do in that region can be misconstrued to our detriment."
America must also focus on aggressively pursuing trans-national terrorist organizations, he said, "even if it means (crossing) boundaries of (host) countries not doing the policing."
The American government must tell such countries: "If you can't control them, we're going to get them."
Webb also voiced suspicions over China, which has maintained ties to Muslim countries in Southeast Asia for years. A war with Iraq would allow China to isolate the United States diplomatically and further its expansionist ambitions in the region.
Despite his concern, Webb said the recent Republican congressional sweep probably wouldn't accelerate a move against Iraq. Though Bush may find it easier to implement policy in a Republican-controlled Congress, key members of his party still have strong reservations about an invasion.
Republican senators Richard Lugar and Charles Hagel - key members of the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee - share Webb's concerns of hasty action.
"I don't think the change in leadership is going to be positive for the administration on this issue," he said.
Webb was secretary of the Navy from 1987 to 1988, when he resigned over a naval reduction of forces. Before that, he was assistant secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs for three years, and counsel to the House Committee on Veterans Affairs from 1977 to 1981.
He has written six best-selling novels, one of which - "Fields of Fire" - is being made into a feature film by RKO productions. His also won an Emmy for his coverage of the U.S. Marines in Beirut for PBS.
Webb earned decorations including the Navy Cross, Silver Star and Purple Hearts while serving with the Fifth Marine Regiment in Vietnam.
Alex Friedrich can be reached at 648-1172.
----
Justice won't enforce Microsoft restrictions
ASSOCIATED PRESS
November 8, 2002
http://www.washtimes.com/business/20021108-27582577.htm
The Justice Department won't enforce on Microsoft Corp. restrictions that nine states won from a federal judge in addition to those included in a settlement of the government's antitrust case, a U.S. official said yesterday.
The nine states, led by California, Connecticut and Iowa, will police Microsoft's compliance with limitations that they persuaded U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly to impose, said the Justice Department's chief antitrust enforcer.
The judge imposed the additional restrictions on the world's biggest software maker last week, when she also approved Microsoft's settlement with the Bush administration.
"It's up to the state attorneys general to enforce that," Charles James told reporters after a speech to the American Bar Association's antitrust section.
Mr. James, who is leaving the Justice Department Nov. 22 to become general counsel of ChevronTexaco Corp., took some parting shots at critics who say the settlement won't restore competition in the industry. He said the Microsoft case revived questions about the participation of states in nationwide antitrust cases.
The states' role "is more a product of historical accident than a conscious effort to make antitrust enforcement effective in today's national and global marketplaces," Mr. James said in his speech. "This is not the system we would design today if we were starting all over again."
Much of the criticism over the settlement he negotiated in the 4-year-old case came "from Microsoft's competitors, because there wasn't enough gravy in the settlement," Mr. James said.
Microsoft shares, which have increased 5.8 percent since the settlement was approved, dropped 94 cents to close at $56.09 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
The settlement requires Microsoft to give personal-computer makers freedom to promote rival software products on personal computers powered by the Windows operating system.
Judge Kollar-Kotelly also barred Microsoft from retaliating against PC makers that opt to hide its programs, such as Internet Explorer or the Windows Media Player, and promote competing programs, such as the RealOne player made by RealNetworks Inc.
The Justice Department, which will enforce the settlement, lacks legal authority to police any of the extra provisions the judge granted the holdout states, Mr. James said. There shouldn't be much "friction" between separate federal and state enforcement efforts because "the ultimate state decree is enough like ours," he said.
"What a narrow view to take," said Eleanor Fox, who teaches antitrust at New York University law school. "If I were a state enforcer, I would be pretty mad."
Even without technical authority to enforce the restrictions won by the states, Mr. James or his successor "certainly has the authority to have that on his checklist and do surveillance and let Microsoft know when the Justice Department thinks they are falling short of that obligation." Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, a leader of the holdout states, declined to comment on Mr. James' remarks, said spokesman Bob Brammer. Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler said the company did not have an immediate comment.
Microsoft and the Justice Department negotiated their settlement last year after an appeals court held the software maker illegally protected its operating-software monopoly. The nine states that refused to sign the settlement sought tougher remedies, which were mostly rejected by the judge. Nine other states, led by New York, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, joined the settlement.
-------- MILITARY
-------- afghanistan
US MASSACRE CLAIMS
Friday November 08, 2002
Sky News (UK)
http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-12162886,00.html
A British documentary claims to have proof that American troops watched as Northern Alliance soldiers allegedly slaughtered thousands of captured Taliban fighters during the Afghan war.
The makers of Channel Five's Afghan Massacre say they have evidence that US special forces were present during the alleged atrocities - in which 3,000 are said to have died - but did nothing to stop it.
The US has denied the allegations and said no Americans were ever present.
But the documentary's producer, James Doran, believes witness statements and photographs in the documentary will leave the US authorities with no choice but to investigate.
Captured
The documentary centres on 8,000 Taliban soldiers who surrendered to the Northern Alliance following the bloody siege of Kunduz, Northern Afghanistan, in November last year.
The captured troops were to be taken to the Sheberghan Prison, about 120km away.
The programme claims soldiers loyal to the local Northern Alliance commander General Rashid Dostum loaded many of the captives into sealed containers for the journey, in which many suffocated.
One soldier admits in the documentary that when the prisoners called for air he and others fired in to the containers to ventilate them, killing more.
Witness
Another witness claims the Americans at the prison told the Afghans to take the dead outside the city.
It is claimed that among the dead taken to a part of the desert called Dasht Leili were injured and unconscious captives.
Human remains and clothing have since been discovered at the location, and the Afghanistan authorities announced in August that they would investigate.
Chris Shaw, senior programme controller for news and current affairs at Five, said: "We are not the first to report the allegations but we are the first to collate proper evidence from witnesses and information which, I think, points to a serious war crime."
Attacked
The main researcher for the documentary, Afghan journalist Najibullah Quraishi, has since had to flee to Britain after being viciously attacked during the making of the programme.
Mr Doran said he believed troops loyal to General Dostum are now targeting potential witnesses.
Afghan Massacre will be broadcast on Channel Five from Monday, November 11.
----
Afghan War Faltering, Military Leader Says
Myers Cites Al Qaeda's Ability to Adapt
By Thomas E. Ricks and Vernon Loeb
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, November 8, 2002; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A25588-2002Nov7?language=printer
The U.S. military is losing momentum in the war on terrorism in Afghanistan because the remnants of al Qaeda and the Taliban have proven more successful in adapting to U.S. tactics than the U.S. military has to theirs, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said this week.
Gen. Richard B. Myers also said there is a debate taking place within the Pentagon about whether the United States needs to change its priorities in Afghanistan and de-emphasize military operations in favor of more support for reconstruction efforts.
"I think in a sense we've lost a little momentum there, to be frank," Myers said in after-dinner comments Monday night at the Brookings Institution. "They've made lots of adaptations to our tactics, and we've got to continue to think and try to out-think them and to be faster at it."
Myers, the nation's top military officer, suggested it may be time for the military to "flip" its priorities from combat operations aimed at hunting down al Qaeda and Taliban fighters to "the reconstruction piece in Afghanistan," a notable shift in priorities for an a Pentagon that has eschewed nation-building exercises.
The CIA, in a recently released assessment, called security "most precarious in smaller cities and some rural locations" and said: "Reconstruction may be the single most important factor in increasing security throughout Afghanistan and preventing it from again becoming a haven for terrorists."
Afghan President Hamid Karzai recently launched an anti-corruption campaign aimed at cracking down on provincial leaders who continue to challenge the authority of the country's central government.
Myers issued his call for faster and more flexible approaches in the counterterrorism war a day after the United States conducted its first-ever airstrike in Yemen, using an unmanned aircraft to do it. A CIA-operated Predator drone on Sunday attacked a vehicle believed to be carrying six al Qaeda members with Hellfire missiles, obliterating the vehicle and its passengers. Yemeni authorities said among the passengers was Abu Ali al-Harithi, a senior al Qaeda leader and one of the terrorist network's top figures in Yemen.
Andrew F. Krepinevich Jr., a retired Army colonel and Pentagon consultant who directs the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said Monday's attack in Yemen cannot mask the continuing instability in Afghanistan and the lack of strong counterterrorism relationships between the United States and countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia.
Wayne A. Downing, a retired Army general who until June served as the White House special adviser on combating terrorism, disagreed, saying that the United States has matched al Qaeda in adjusting its operations. "Getting this guy in Yemen was huge -- and a significant escalation in a different place," he said.
Downing said he expects the military to play a smaller role in the war on terrorism, with diplomacy and intelligence cooperation becoming more important. He also predicted that actions like the one in Yemen will be more characteristic of the campaign.
Ivo H. Daalder, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, called a shift in priorities by the military in Afghanistan away from pursuing al Qaeda and toward reconstruction "noteworthy and extremely important." But Daalder said he doubted whether Myers or Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld would commit U.S. forces to "tackling the fundamental security problem in Afghanistan, which is not al Qaeda, but a byproduct of the way we fought -- arming the warlords."
"What needs to be done is to take away the power of the warlords and give it to the central government, and that requires real military force," Daalder said. "Are we prepared to take on the very guys we empowered? I don't see any evidence that is the case."
In his remarks at Brookings, Myers said al Qaeda has proven to be an agile adversary, adapting its electronic communications to prevent intercepts and securing the way it passes money. His comments, released by Brookings on Wednesday, reflect a concern that many senior U.S. officials have expressed privately in recent months that the military establishment has been too slow to adapt in its response to the al Qaeda threat, both in its special operations tactics and its weapons procurement.
One official close to Rumsfeld said this week that, in his view, the military still is largely geared to changing at the glacial pace of the Cold War, during which shifts in military doctrine and weaponry in the Soviet Union occurred generationally. Al Qaeda and its allies have shown "an ability to change by the month," the official said.
A detailed analysis just released by the U.S. Army War College reported that al Qaeda fighters have been quick to adapt to the high-tech weaponry the United States used in its attack on the network. When the United States first began bombing in Afghanistan last October, the report said, Taliban and al Qaeda fighters made easy targets, even standing on ridges where they were visible to Special Operations spotters miles away.
Stephen Biddle, the report's author, wrote that by March, during the last major U.S.-led offensive against al Qaeda in southeastern Afghanistan, "Al Qaeda forces were practicing systematic communications security, dispersal, camouflage discipline, use of cover and concealment, and exploitation of dummy fighting positions to draw fire and attention from their real positions."
Added one senior officer: "It's the general consensus within the [special operations] community that al Qaeda is extremely adaptive and very cagey. These guys are not weekend terrorists."
--------
U.N. Finds Novel Way to Keep an Eye on Afghans
November 8, 2002
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-afghan-un-eyes.html
LONDON (Reuters) - United Nations officials grappling with a flood of refugees returning to Afghanistan have found a new way of keeping tabs on them -- by taking photographs of their eyes.
They are using the snapshots to build a database which enables them to prevent refugees from fraudulently claiming more than one U.N. aid package per person as they cross the border from Pakistan into Afghanistan.
Iris recognition, as the technique is known, may sound like the stuff of science fiction -- it featured prominently in the futuristic film ``Minority Report'' starring Tom Cruise.
But organizers say it is more effective than traditional methods like finger-printing and has been well received -- even by Afghan women, some of whom still wear the traditional veil and seldom show their faces in public. ``Cultural acceptance has been very high,'' said Machiel van der Harst, chief operating officer of BioID Technologies, a Swiss-based company which has pioneered the technique and is working alongside the United Nations on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
``We did everything we could to make people feel comfortable, even in difficult circumstances,'' he told Reuters at a technology conference in London.
``We used female staff and we tried to give the families privacy by dividing the enrolment centers, so a man from one family could not see a woman from another just at the moment she lifted her veil.''
The U.N. High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) is using the technique at its Voluntary Repatriation Center at the Peshawar border crossing, the main gateway for Afghan refugees trudging home from Pakistan.
Every refugee who crosses the border is entitled to an aid package which includes money and tools. The U.N. wants to stop refugees from coming back to make a second claim.
The method has been used on about 12,500 people since it was launched on October 1 and, if deemed successful, may be employed elsewhere in the world.
TWELVE BILLION IRISES
Iris recognition relies on the fact that no two irises are identical -- even when they belong to the same person.
``There are six billion people in this world and therefore 12 billion different irises,'' Van der Harst said. ``For consistency, we always use the right eye for testing.''
UNHCR officials shine a special red light into the refugee's eye and take photos with a narrow-angle lens.
The image is fed into a computer which processes the information in the iris and converts it into a randomly generated number, which is assigned to that refugee.
``The computer measures the specific structure of nerves and muscles, all the things you can see in the eye,'' Van der Harst said. ``The iris is very rich in texture and very stable over time, so it's an ideal means of identification.''
The project inevitably ran into problems like cataracts and eye diseases, which prevented officials taking clear pictures.
But Van der Harst said it worked on about 99 percent of applicants and, when they ran a test by asking people to come back and try to claim a second time, the success rate was again about 99 percent.
In a region as politically sensitive as the Afghan border, refugees are often more willing to have their eyes photographed than their entire face, he said.
``The face constitutes an identity in the way that a close-up of an eye does not,'' Van der Harst said.
Nevertheless, many refugees found the experience bewildering.
``About a third of the people thought it was a medical at first,'' he said. ``We even had a couple who thought we were going to give them free spectacles.''
-------- africa
US beefs up Horn anti-terror base
Friday, 8 November, 2002
BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2420443.stm
The marines will initially be based on a warship US defence officials have announced that they will be sending an extra 400 elite troops to the US base in the Horn of Africa to help in the hunt for suspected terrorists.
The Horn of Africa turns out to be a fairly busy place in terms of the flow of people and other instruments of war
US Gen. Richard Meyers
They will join 800 troops, including special operations forces, who have already been stationed at a military headquarters in Djibouti for several months.
The military HQ could also free up other military commanders to concentrate on planning for possible military action against Iraq.
The 400 marines will set up the command centre in Djibouti.
Amphibious
It will initially operate from a Navy ship in the Red Sea, the amphibious USS Mount Whitney, for the 60 to 90 days which will probably be necessary to build a command post ashore.
The ship will leave its homeport of Norfolk, Virginia, on 12 November, with a crew of 560, but it is unclear whether all the Marines will be on board next week.
More marines could be added later, according to the Associated Press news agency.
USS Princeton and helicopter The base will start off at sea
The 800 troops already in Djibouti will be folded into the new Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa, along with forces expected to be contributed by coalition partners, Marine Major Steve Cox, the new unit's spokesman, was quoted as saying by Reuters.
"The Horn of Africa turns out to be a fairly busy place in terms of the flow of people and other instruments of war - weapons, explosives, perhaps weapons of mass destruction," General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
The top US commander, General Tommy Franks, pointed out last week that the US had "security relationships and engagement opportunities" in countries such as Kenya, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Yemen.
Yemen is of particular interest for US defence officials.
On Sunday, six alleged members of al-Qaeda, including the organisation's top operative, Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi, were killed in Yemen, reportedly by an unmanned CIA-operated aircraft.
Regional command
There has also been much speculation that al-Qaeda operatives could regroup in Somalia.
The transitional government in Somalis has promised to cooperate with the US war on terror.
Pentagon officials have said the headquarters could free up other commanders to spend more time on planning and preparation for a possible military showdown with Iraq.
The Americans could eventually have three regional headquarters, each with its own responsibilities.
As well as the new command centre in the Horn of Africa, there is one at Bagram air base in Afghanistan, and there could be a third in the Gulf.
A major command post exercise begins in Qatar in the next few weeks, and the Pentagon has left open the possibility that equipment and military staff could stay on there after the exercise is over.
Djibouti, because of its geographical location, is a strategic point in the region.
The small, mostly-deserted country of 600,000, has long been used as a military base by the former colonial power, France.
France has more than 2,000 troops based there, there are about 1,000 Germans, and a number of British forces.
Other US troops are stationed aboard navy ships in the Red Sea.
-------- arms sales
Rogue Merchants
Friday, November 8, 2002
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A25768-2002Nov7?language=printer
NATO IS SOON to offer membership to seven more countries in Central and Eastern Europe, and the European Union to 10, and yet the continent continues to pose security challenges to the United States. This has been underscored by revelations that three European countries still outside the Western clubs -- Yugoslavia, Ukraine and Belarus -- have been supplying weapons and military training to Iraq, in violation of a U.N. embargo. Though the full extent of the shipments has not been disclosed, Belarus is accused of training Iraqis in the operation of air defense missiles, while a Yugoslav arms company acknowledged reconditioning engines for Iraq's fighter jets and may have been helping Baghdad develop cruise missiles. Most disturbing is the evidence that Ukraine, a country that has announced its aspiration to join NATO and is the fourth-largest U.S. aid recipient, may have accepted $100 million in cash from Saddam Hussein in exchange for four sophisticated radar systems that could help Iraq shoot down American aircraft. The Bush administration has already condemned and isolated Belarus's dictator, Alexander Lukashenko; but that still leaves it with the difficult challenge of managing relationships with Yugoslav and Ukrainian governments that are worthy neither of trust nor of rogue-state treatment.
So far the administration has suspended $54 million in aid to Ukraine and canceled a planned summit meeting next month between NATO leaders and Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma; Ukraine's foreign minister will instead be invited. Under heavy pressure from Washington, Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica has been induced to fire four senior officials involved with the Iraq deals. But these are cosmetic measures; the real question is how to respond to Mr. Kostunica and Mr. Kuchma, two politicians who say they want to lead their countries into the West yet refuse to respect its most basic norms.
There's no evidence Mr. Kostunica had anything to do with the Yugoslav-Iraq deals; yet since ousting Slobodan Milosevic as Serbian leader two years ago, he has consistently refused to purge hard-core nationalists and war criminals from the military. Mr. Kostunica attempts a remarkable straddle: He appeals to the lingering Serbian nationalism stoked by Mr. Milosevic -- thereby winning elections over his more moderate opposition -- while simultaneously demanding that his country be treated as a respectable member of the European democratic community. He cannot be allowed to succeed. Until there is a decisive break with the past, discussions of European Union concessions or of including Yugoslavia in NATO's partnership for peace should be stopped.
The heart of the Ukraine problem is not its military but Mr. Kuchma himself, who was secretly taped while plotting the radar sale to Iraq. A U.S.-British commission sent to investigate the deal was stonewalled, and the head of the arms export agency was killed in a suspicious car crash. Previously leaked tapes captured Mr. Kuchma plotting the murder of an opposition journalist. For the Bush administration and other NATO governments, Mr. Kuchma has become untouchable. Yet his struggling country of 50 million probably cannot preserve its fragile independence from Russia unless it is nourished by the West. Aid to Ukraine should not be stopped. Instead it must be carefully channeled into building the moderate political movements seeking to peacefully remove Mr. Kuchma and his cronies from power.
-------- biological weapons
U.S. says Baghdad is hiding anthrax
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
November 8, 2002
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20021108-712686.htm
U.S. intelligence agencies have told U.N. weapons inspectors that Iraq has hidden 7,000 liters of anthrax, but chief inspector Hans Blix never reported the information to the U.N. Security Council, The Washington Times has learned.
The failure to inform the council has raised questions about whether Mr. Blix will report accurately on anticipated Iraqi obstruction of weapons inspections, which could begin again later this month, said administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The recent intelligence assessment of the anthrax - about 1,800 gallons - is based on sensitive information, including data provided by Iraqi defectors and other U.S. intelligence-gathering means, the officials said.
U.S. intelligence officials said the anthrax stockpile is believed to be part of the 8,500 liters of anthrax that Iraq's government, after initial denials, admitted in 1995 to producing but told U.N. inspectors that it destroyed.
The intelligence was reported to the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, known as Unmovic, within the past several months. However, Mr. Blix, the executive chairman of Unmovic, has not reported the information to the members of the Security Council, the officials said.
Ewen Buchanan, a spokesman for Mr. Blix, would not address the issue of reporting the intelligence directly.
"Anthrax production in Iraq is clearly an open question," Mr. Buchanan said. "We don't know how much they've produced and whether they've destroyed all that they claimed."
Mr. Buchanan said previous assessments by the U.N. Special Commission said the Iraqis could have produced three times the 8,500 liters they admitted to having made.
"This is just the sort of question we would pursue," Mr. Buchanan said of the Iraqi anthrax cache.
Mr. Blix could not be reached for comment, but he said in a recent television interview that although he respects U.S. and British intelligence agency reports on Iraq's weapons, Unmovic cannot report the intelligence to the Security Council because spy agencies will not disclose their sources.
Mr. Blix said in an interview with talk-show host Charlie Rose that "the problem is that they will not give you evidence."
"They will say, 'We are convinced for various reasons that they have one thing or another,' but they will not say where it is," he said on the Oct. 31 broadcast.
"They will say that, 'Well, we have to protect our sources, so we will not give you evidence,'" he said. "And if some people ask me am I sure that they have weapons of mass destruction, I say, 'If I had that, I would take it to the Security Council straight away.'"
U.S. intelligence agencies also reported unusual activity at a suspected biological-weapons facility in Iraq, the officials said.
A CIA report made public last month stated that "Iraq admitted producing thousands of liters of the [biological-warfare] agents anthrax, botulinum toxin and aflatoxin" and had prepared missile warheads and bombs to deliver the weapons.
"Baghdad did not provide persuasive evidence to support its claims that it unilaterally destroyed its [biological-warfare] agents and munitions," the report said.
U.N. weapons inspectors said Baghdad's production figures for biological-warfare agents "vastly understated" its actual production and that it could have made two to four times the amount it said it produced, the report said.
The report said that about 8,000 anthrax spores, or less than one-millionth of a gram, is enough to cause a person to become infected and that inhaled anthrax is "100 percent fatal within five to seven days, although in recent cases, aggressive medical treatment has reduced the fatality rate."
The disclosure that Unmovic has not reported the intelligence to the Security Council follows the recent approval by the United Nations of Iraq's purchase of a specialty chemical that could be used to enhance Iraq's chemical and biological arms.
The sale of a shipment of a fine powder known as colloidal silicon dioxide was approved by the U.N. oil-for-food program for Iraq despite objections from the U.S. government amid concerns that the chemical could be used for weapons.
According to intelligence officials, reports about Iraq's hidden anthrax were bolstered by a former Iraqi government official who defected two years ago but only recently came forward with new information, U.S. officials said.
The former Iraqi official, who is part of an opposition group of ex-military officers, provided new details about storage sites where Iraq is keeping chemical and biological weapons, the U.S. officials said.
The defector's accounts have been verified by other intelligence, the officials said.
The failure to alert the Security Council to the anthrax stockpile has upset some Bush administration officials, who said the information might have helped persuade some members of the council to support tougher U.S. action.
"If Blix won't report this, what will he do when Iraq obstructs weapons inspectors?" one official asked.
Representatives of Russia, China and France have opposed U.S. efforts to win council approval of military action against Iraq and the ouster of dictator Saddam Hussein.
The issue of Iraq's hidden anthrax is likely to emerge in the next month as the United Nations begins a new round of inspections inside Iraq.
Weapons inspections were halted in 1998 after the Clinton administration began military strikes on Iraq aimed at knocking out suspected chemical-, biological- and nuclear-weapons development sites.
Army Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of the U.S. forces that would lead any attack on Iraq, said the issue of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction is a key area of concern.
"The linkages between the government of Iraq and other transnational terrorist organizations like al Qaeda is not the issue with me," Gen. Franks told reporters Oct. 29. "The issue is the potential of a state with weapons of mass destruction passing those weapons of mass destruction to proven terrorist capability. And I believe that that risk exists."
--------
Experts Urge States to Agree on Germ Weapons Talks
November 8, 2002
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-arms-biological.html
GENEVA (Reuters) - Arms experts on Friday urged member states of a troubled international pact banning germ weapons to back a compromise plan on continued talks or risk another angry row at next week's meeting.
Experts warned the dangers posed by biological weapons had increased since last year when the United States rejected moves to tighten the pact with new legal obligations, including onsite inspections.
They pointed to the still unsolved anthrax attacks in the United States and fears that extremist religious or political groups could be trying to develop germ weapons for attacks.
``In view of all that has gone on, it would be paradoxical if the international community decided that it could find nothing to talk about,'' said Christophe Carle, deputy head of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR).
Members of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) gather on Monday to pick up the pieces of the treaty's fifth review conference, suspended last December after the U.S. revolt.
Washington says it wants no further talks now on strengthening the BWC and would prefer to wrap up the conference quickly with a decision to meet in 2006 for the next five-yearly review.
But in a bid to keep states talking, conference chairman Tibor Toth has put forward a plan for annual meetings for the next three years.
These would tackle two specific topics a year such as strengthening national laws to reinforce the outlawing of biological weapons and how to react in cases of accidental release of toxins.
``It is nowhere near enough, but if the alternative is no discussion at all, what is the choice,'' UNIDIR head Patricia Lewis told a news conference.
SPYING FEARS
Washington said it continued to support the BWC, but rejected as unworkable plans for an additional protocol to the treaty, which would have included verification measures.
It said such checks would expose its facilities to spying without any guarantee that real cheats would be discovered.
Under the Toth plan, there would be no more negotiations on the protocol.
Members had spent years negotiating the protocol which was due to be approved at the review conference. Unlike other arms accords, the BWC has no mechanism for checking whether any of the 146 states to have ratified the 1972 treaty are cheating.
U.S. Under-Secretary of State for Arms Control John Bolton last year accused four signatory states -- Iraq, Iran, North Korea and Libya -- of violating or probably violating the ban on producing, using or stockpiling biological or toxic weapons.U.N. Security Council could have approved a U.S.-sponsored resolution demanding Iraq give unfettered access to arms inspectors searching for signs it has been developing weapons of mass destruction, including biological weapons.
With the exception of the United States, countries belonging to the Western Group have given backing to Toth's proposal.
Diplomats said China and Russia, which had backed the protocol, also indicated they could accept the plan. But it was not clear how other protocol supporters such as Iran and Pakistan would react.
Apart from instituting checks, the protocol covered technological exchange and scientific cooperation which developing countries had been seeking.
-------- business
Potential F/A-22 Cost Overrun Of $690 Million Is Announced
By Vernon Loeb
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 8, 2002; Page A14
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A26405-2002Nov8?language=printer
The Air Force announced last night that its F/A-22 stealth fighter program has experienced a "potential cost overrun" of up to $690 million related to the aircraft's engineering, manufacturing and development phase.
While the Air Force said the overrun is unrelated to the Raptor's "superb" flight test performance, the latest financial setback is almost certain to trigger further criticism on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers have been angered by the aircraft's escalating cost.
With the program already capped by Congress at $45 billion for 295 planes, the radar-evading fighter made by Lockheed Martin Corp. of Bethesda is the most expensive jet fighter ever built.
Gen. John P. Jumper, the Air Force chief of staff, said that the first delivery of aircraft remains on schedule for 2004, with initial operational capability to come in 2005 as planned. But a $690 million cost overrun could reduce the number of aircraft the service is able to buy within the spending cap.
"The F/A-22 is essential to America's security in the 21st century, and we will get to the bottom of this issue," Jumper said.
Additional cost escalations have already reduced the total from 295 to 284 planes. Stephen Cambone, director of defense program analysis and evaluation, recently raised the possibility of reducing the F/A-22 program further, to 239 aircraft, in order to save billions for other weapons programs, but Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has yet to act on it.
Marvin Sambur, assistant Air Force secretary for acquisition, has appointed a team of technical and financial experts from the Air Force and the defense industry to investigate how the $690 million cost overrun occurred and to report back later this month.
Loren B. Thompson, a Lexington Institute defense analyst, said the cost overrun, while not trivial, should not be a major setback.
-------- china
Jiang rejects Western-style politics
From combined dispatches
November 8, 2002
Washington Times
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20021108-29425868.htm
BEIJING - China's Communist Party chief Jiang Zemin today ruled out following Western-style multiparty democracy in a speech at the opening of the 16th National Party Congress, which is expected to focus on limited political reform within the party.
But the leader of China echoed Chairman Mao Tse-tung's refrain of "let 100 flowers bloom and 100 schools of thought contend" in an appeal for academic and political openness.
"We must keep to the orientation of serving the people, and socialism, and the principle of letting 100 flowers bloom and 100 schools of thought contend and highlight the themes of the times while encouraging diversity," Mr. Jiang said in the text of the speech prepared for delivery.
Mr. Jiang said China would push ahead with grass-roots changes that have fostered village elections.
Meanwhile, Chinese army troops moved into a Tibetan-inhabited region of western China and arrested five men after a months-long investigation into prayer ceremonies held in honor of the Dalai Lama, an overseas Tibet support group said.
The report casts doubt on what had appeared to be signs of a thaw in relations between China and the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual and temporal leader who lives in exile in India. He fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese.
The Dalai Lama denied that yesterday during his first visit in seven years to Mongolia, whose people share centuries-old religious and cultural ties with Tibet.
"I am not seeking independence. I am seeking self-rule. I think that benefits both Chinese and Tibetan people," he said in a speech yesterday at Mongolian National University. He did not elaborate, but has previously appealed for greater Tibetan cultural and political autonomy.
The five men were arrested Oct. 18 in the Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan province, according to the New York-based International Campaign for Tibet. Authorities have not told relatives what charges the five might face, saying only that the crimes were serious, the group said in a news release.
Others from the area fled to India after being summoned for questioning by police, the group said.
Ganzi, known in Tibetan as Kandze, was traditionally regarded as part of Tibet, but was placed under a neighboring province after Chinese troops occupied the Himalayan region in 1951.
The group said the arrests appeared to be related to a series of traditional Buddhist rituals held in Ganzi in February to pray for long life for the Dalai Lama. At the party congress in Beijing, Mr. Jiang also declared hat the ruling Communist Party wanted to fight "terrorism in all its forms" and urged international cooperation in the effort.
Addressing the party congress' opening session, held under saturation security next to Beijing's central Tiananmen Square, Mr. Jiang called for focus on both the symptoms and causes of terrorism.
"It is imperative to strengthen international cooperation in this regard, address both the symptoms and root causes of terrorism, prevent and combat terrorist activities and work hard to eliminated terrorism at root," he said.
-------- colombia
Drug Lord's Release Ordered
Colombian Authorities Seek to Hold or Extradite Cali Figure
Associated Press
Friday, November 8, 2002
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A25581-2002Nov7?language=printer
TUNJA, Colombia, Nov. 7 -- A Colombian court ordered one of the country's former top drug lords released from prison today as government investigators scrambled to find evidence to support further charges and possibly his extradition to the United States.
Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela and his brother, Miguel, once controlled the Cali drug cartel, an empire that moved multi-ton shipments of cocaine across the globe, including to the United States.
Judge Luz Amanda Moncada ruled today that the government must release Gilberto Rodriguez in line with an order issued last week by Judge Pedro Jose Suarez. Suarez had also ordered Miguel Rodriguez freed, but Moncada ruled that he must stay in prison to serve an additional four-year sentence for bribery. That sentence reportedly stemmed from a 1996 attempt to buy his way out of prison.
The nation was stunned last week by Suarez's ruling that both Rodriguez brothers should be released after having served just seven years, about half their sentences, for drug trafficking. Justice Minister Fernando Londono immediately accused Suarez of falling prey to the brothers' "gigantic economic power" and began a bribery investigation.
Suarez defended his decision, saying the brothers deserved early release because they had participated in a work-study program in prison.
President Alvaro Uribe halted the release on Saturday as officials attempted to keep the brothers behind bars. After Moncada's ruling, however, Londono said the government would respect the judge's decision, even though it was "a terrible blow."
"This is a moment of mourning and pain for the country's image and for the administration of justice in Colombia," Londono told RCN Radio.
Unless U.S. and Colombian investigators file additional charges against Gilberto Rodriguez, he could leave prison soon. Dozens of police and soldiers surrounded the Combita prison, outside the town of Tunja, 60 miles northeast of Bogota, to guarantee his safety when he came out.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration was trying to link the brothers to international crimes committed after 1997, when Colombia's constitution was revised to allow the extradition of its citizens. The men were captured in 1995, so authorities would have to prove that any new crimes were committed from their cells. In the past, drug lords have been accused of continuing to run their operations from prison.
-------- europe
The EU and the Power of the People
Czech and Other Leaders Are Eager to Join, but Their Citizens Aren't So Sure
By Keith B. Richburg
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, November 8, 2002; Page A27
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A25582-2002Nov7?language=printer
PRAGUE -- The European Union is preparing for a historic expansion east and south, with itsleaders scheduled to issue invitations at a December summit to as many as 10 countries that the group says meet its requirements for democracy, free markets, human rights and rule of law.
But while governments trumpet the benefits of EU membership and eagerly await formal invitations, most are finding their populations only lukewarm to the idea. For now, public opinion polls show that only four of the 10 countries have a clear majority of citizens in favor of joining.
The opponents include people such as Ivo Kubicek, 49, a commercial farmer in the village of Olsany, in the eastern Czech Republic. He worries that the new members would get short shrift on European farm aid and fears over-regulation from EU headquarters in Brussels. "It's bad the European Union is already imposing various quotas and regulations on us," he said. "Bureaucratic procedures, name restriction -- it's nonsense!"
Then there's Vaclav Novotny, 62, a retiree who spends most afternoons swilling pints of Pilsner Urquell at a long wooden table at the Hippopotamus Bar in Prague's historic center. He is worried about the price of his beer going up when the Czech Republic joins the union. And he, too, hates the idea of being ordered around by Brussels. "If I wanted to join anything in the West, I would have defected," he said.
And there's Barbara Bulanova, 20, a fresh-faced college student studying library science. She sees advantages in joining the EU, such as the right to move to other EU countries to work. But she has doubts as well. "Something small inside of me . . . wants to be independent," she said. "Maybe we will lose something by joining other countries. Not our generation, but the next generation, will lose some of our identity."
That kind of ambivalence underscores how the construction of a wider, unified Europe, a dream of European leaders for four decades, has been driven by the ruling class, with the public sometimes pulled along reluctantly. The skepticism comes out not only in random interviews, but in data from opinion polls.
In March, the Eurobarometer poll devised by the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, showed that in the 10 countries likely to get invitations in December -- Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Malta, Cyprus, Slovenia and Slovakia -- a bare majority of 52 percent of the people thought joining was a good idea, compared with 16 percent who thought it was a bad idea. The rest were undecided or gave no opinion.
The poll results are even more striking when viewed country by country. Hungary emerges as by far the most pro-EU of the 10 aspirants, with 65 percent of those polled saying EU membership is a good thing. But the number is 52 percent in Poland, 43 percent in the Czech Republic, 41 percent in Slovenia, 38 percent in Malta, 35 percent in Estonia and 32 percent in Latvia.
This is not just of academic concern, because of the 10 countries, all but Cyprus say they will put EU membership to their citizens in referendums.
Ironically, public support for membership is higher in three countries that have no chance of joining this time around -- Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey.
The new members will get aid from Brussels and international prestige. But they will also have to open their markets to competition from other EU states and abide by the group's voluminous regulations, covering things as diverse as food safety and human rights.
The reasons for ambivalence vary. Some people fear rising prices, others fear waves of foreign goods and still others fear an erosion of national sovereignty so soon after the end of Soviet domination. And 57 years the defeat of Nazi Germany, many people worry that EU membership will open the doors to Germans to dominate their countries economically.
"These are young democracies," said Daniel Keohane, a researcher with the Center for European Reform in London. "It's not that long that they've had their independence, so it's natural that some people would be fearful."
There is also a general concern that new members will have second-class status. As Kubicek, the Czech farmer, put it: "In the European Union, some countries will get more financing and some will get less. It's like a father with 15 sons, and 10 of them get a dowry and the others don't."
Kubicek runs a 400-acre farm divided among three people. His three modern tractors were purchased from Germany, and his records are kept on a computer in his office. He argues that under conditions of fairness, he can compete with any farmer in Western Europe. "But how can I compete when I don't get the financial support that they are getting?" he asked.
For now, the EU is offering new members just one-quarter of the agricultural support that current members get, with the entire farm subsidy program set to be reviewed for a possible phasing out in 2006.
"I believe all 10 candidate countries will get in 2004, but I'm not sure whether they can all stand the pressure, and whether the European Union can survive it," Kubicek said. "There could be a danger in Europe if the money is not released to the new members." Otherwise, he predicted, "the European Union will not work, it will breed bad blood, and some countries will want to get out of it."
Novotny, the retiree, also doubts the union can survive, which is why he opposes joining. "I don't see any practical advantages," he said. There have been so many unions. Other than the United States, they all fell apart and there was bloodshed. Look at the Soviet Union. It's my personal opinion -- maybe for young people, it's different."
Novotny recalled that 20 Czech korunas used to buy five beers and now won't buy even one. And he's worried that if the Czech Republic adopts the euro, the currency that 12 EU countries use, prices will soar again.
For younger people, the answers do seem different, suggesting a strong generational divide. College students in particular see EU membership as opening a continent-wide job market.
"My opinion is that Czechs are very xenophobic and very proud of their nation, and 70 percent would not want to enter the EU," said Eva Trundova, an architecture student in her twenties. "I think the accession to the EU has both pros and cons. But there are more positive things. We were told at school that with the EU, in the future it will be easier to find jobs."
Officials here say it will be difficult, but not impossible, to counter enough of the skepticism to win a referendum on membership next year.
So far, much of the Czech government's focus has been on meeting the criteria for membership -- restructuring the farm system, bringing the budget deficit into line and trying to clean up corruption that officials concede is still rampant.
Before the referendum -- planned for May or June, Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda said -- the government will launch a campaign to win over public sympathies. "We will have to be especially concentrated on the young people," he said.
With Euro-skepticism running high, EU officials have asked Hungary, the most pro-Europe of the group, to hold its referendum first, in hopes of building momentum for acceptance. "We said 'all right' because public support is very high," said Hungarian Foreign Minister Laszlo Kovacs in an interview in Budapest. "It's certainly around a two-thirds majority, so we are prepared to go first." The referendum is tentatively scheduled for March.
But if many Eastern countries are facing public hostility, Hungary's government faces the opposite concern: sky-high expectations. Many Hungarians seem to believe that joining the EU will cure all ills.
Robert Pap, 31, is a member of the minority Roma, or Gypsy, group. He is unemployed and lives in one of Budapest's poorest neighborhoods. "I heard there will be more jobs," he said, sitting on a stoop, "and a better life for the poor people, not just the rich. And also the housing problems for the poor will be solved." He said he was hopeful but added, "We don't believe in fairy tales."
Kovacs, the foreign minister, said the government has a selling job to do while keeping expectations in check. "People are thinking in black and white categories," he said. " . . . We want to have a campaign, to let people know what the EU is all about."
-------- iraq
Allied Planes Drop Leaflets on Iraq
November 8, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-US-Iraq-Warning.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- For the third time in six weeks, allied planes dropped hundreds of thousands of leaflets over southern Iraq urging Saddam Hussein's military not to fire on American and British warplanes.
U.S. Central Command, whose forces carried out the leaflet mission Friday, did not release the text of the message.
Besides urging the Iraqis not to fire on the fighter jets that patrol southern Iraq nearly daily, the leaflet ``emphasizes the consequences that Iraqi military actions are having on the local civilian populace,'' a brief Central Command statement said.
Lt. Col. David Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman, said the message contained in Friday's drop was the same as in earlier drops over two other southern Iraqi cities on Oct. 27. That time it said, ``Before you engage coalition aircraft, think about the consequences.'' The targeted cities were Basra and As Samawah, on the Euphrates River.
Another picture on the earlier leaflet depicted an Iraqi woman and children. ``Think about your family,'' said an English translation of the earlier leaflet. ``Do what you must to survive.''
In Friday's operation, 240,000 leaflets were dropped around the town of Al Amarah, which has been a frequent target of U.S. and British retaliatory strikes in recent weeks. Al Amarah is about 120 miles southeast of Baghdad.
The first in a series of leaflet drops was Oct. 3. Before that the most recent leaflet drop had been in October 2001.
U.S. and British aircraft have been patrolling two zones over Iraq for a decade in an effort to protect minority Shiites in the south and Kurds in the north from government repression. Baghdad considers the patrol flights violations of its sovereignty, and Iraqi forces regularly try to shoot the planes down. In response, coalition pilots try to bomb Iraqi air-defense systems.
The last coalition bombing reported over Iraq was Wednesday, when allied planes fired on two surface-to-air missile systems near the city of Al Kut, about 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, and a command and control communications facility near Tallil, about 160 miles southeast of the Iraqi capital.
On the Net:
Central Command: http://www.centcom.mil/
European Command: http://www.eucom.mil/
----
War in Iraq and the economy
Friday, 8 November, 2002
Analysis By Steve Schifferes
BBC News Online economics reporter
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2420059.stm
Will a war against Iraq cause major damage to the world economy?
Unlikely, say some economists, provided the war lasts only a short time and does not seriously disrupt oil supplies.
That is the conclusion of a study by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), and back up similar studies compiled by the US Congressional Budget Office.
However, other economists are warning that the economic effects could be vast and negative, including lower growth, higher inflation and higher unemployment in Western countries.
Indeed, the US central bank, the Federal Reserve, warned on Wednesday that "geopolitical uncertainty" was the main factor in its decision to cut US interest rates by a half-point to 1.25%.
The Fed said that uncertainty over the course of any war was already reducing business investment and consumer spending, and spooking financial markets.
Indeed, the fact that global stock markets remained nervous despite the big Fed rate cut, can partly be attributed to worries about the war.
It should not be forgotten, though, that back in 1991, during the first Gulf War, markets and investor confidence quickly recovered once the military ground campaign began.
And US consumer confidence, which has also been fragile, may be more related to the weak unemployment situation than rumours of war.
Rumours of war
Most economists agree with the EIU forecast that the world economy will recover somewhat in 2002, growing by 2.7% compared to 2.0% in 2001, and accelerating to a projected 3.6% in 2003.
The big uncertainty is what will happen to the price of oil
Oil prices are hovering around five month lows, following reports that the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will not impose limits on overproduction.
The price of Brent crude oil has fallen by 25% since its September peak of $31 a barrel, because of overproduction and a belief that Saudi Arabia will make up any shortfall caused by the war.
According to the EIU, the oil market has already factored in a temporary rise in prices to around $35-$40 per barrel for a few weeks, should war break out.
But it believes that once the war starts, and it becomes clear that supplies will be maintained, prices will fall back sharply.
The think tank estimates that higher oil prices caused by the fear of war have led to a reduction of about 0.2% in the growth rate of the OECD group of industrial countries so far.
But it points out that in the long-run, the reconstruction of Iraq's oil fields - the world's second largest after Saudi Arabia - should boost world oil production and lead to lower prices.
Regional effects
However, the effect of oil prices will be felt differently around the world.
Least affected will be the United States, where the government has a huge strategic oil reserve and has been busy developing alternative supplies of oil from Africa and Latin America.
Europe, and especially Japan, are much more dependent on Middle East oil, and could suffer more.
However, all the big industrial countries have taken steps since the oil crises of the 1970s to dramatically reduce their dependence on oil.
Most developing countries, though, are not so lucky, and they would be the biggest losers if the oil prices stayed high for several months.
UK at risk?
The UK is self-sufficient in oil because of the North Sea.
But some economists argue that this will not be enough to spare the UK economy from feeling the effect of a war.
Neil Blake of Experian Business Strategies says a rise in oil prices to $40 a barrel could cost 250,000 jobs in the UK and delay economic recovery by six months.
"Consumers would cut back on spending and firms would scale back their investment plans," he said.
Experian says that it projects UK economic growth of just 1.5% this year, below the government's forecast of 2% to 2.5%, before recovering to 2.5%.
But speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today Programme, economist Doug McWilliams of the Centre for Economic Research disagreed with these projections.
He said only a few tens of thousands of jobs would be at risk, and that the UK economy could easily withstand the shock of higher oil prices.
However, the EIU points out that there will be real costs for companies, especially multinationals, who will have to increase security in the light of any attack on Iraq.
----
Iraq Calls UN Resolution Cover for U.S. Attack
November 8, 2002
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-iraq-un-resolution-minister.html
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An Iraqi minister said on Friday that a new U.N. resolution was not meant to verify Baghdad's possession of weapons of mass destruction but to provide a cover for the United States to carry out military action against Iraq.
But Trade Minister Mohammad Mehdi Saleh refused to say whether Baghdad would accept the new resolution, which gives Iraq one last chance to disarm or face war and is expected to be adopted by the Security Council later on Friday.
``The objective of any draft resolution will not be to verify the situation about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction but to provide some causes for the United States to attack Iraq,'' Saleh told reporters asking about Iraq's position on the resolution.
``It is unfortunate that America and Britain have obstructed the return of U.N. weapons inspectors except with a new U.N. resolution that leads to a military aggression on Iraq under international cover,'' said Saleh, who spoke in English.
``This resolution is not meant to verify that Iraq is clear of weapons of mass destruction because Iraq has no such weapons,'' he added.
The resolution, put forward by Washington with British backing, threatens ``serious consequences'' if Iraq does not take a ``final opportunity'' to cooperate with U.N. inspectors looking for suspected chemical, biological and nuclear arms programs.
Iraq had repeatedly said in the past that the U.S. draft, which has been amended over recent weeks in negotiations with other Security Council members who have sought to water it down, amounts to a declaration of war.
Once the resolution is adopted, Iraq has seven days to accept its terms.
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Netanyahu blames boss for 'dire straits'
By Ramit Plushnick-Masti
ASSOCIATED PRESS
November 8, 2002
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20021108-3407880.htm
JERUSALEM - Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized his new boss on his first full day on the job, saying Israel had fallen into "dire straits" under the leadership of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Sharon are engaged in a complex political battle - they are working together in a caretaker government, yet they are also rivals, with each man seeking to lead the Likud party into national elections in January.
In an interview yesterday in the Jerusalem Post, Mr. Netanyahu attacked Mr. Sharon's 20-month tenure as prime minister, saying he had been unable to bring an end to Palestinian attacks.
"I think one of the things we see is the tremendous escalation of terror," Mr. Netanyahu was quoted as saying. "The country is in dire straits and we have to get it out," he added.
Mr. Sharon and Mr. Netanyahu met Wednesday, shortly after Mr. Netanyahu was sworn in. They reportedly sparred over a U.S.-backed peace plan that Mr. Sharon tentatively had embraced. Mr. Netanyahu said the plan was "not relevant" as long as U.S. military action in Iraq was pending.
Mr. Netanyahu also spoke to U.S. Ambassador Dan Kurtzer, but they did not discuss the American "road map" for peace, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Ron Prosor.
He said the peace plan was clearly on hold until Israeli elections, tentatively scheduled for Jan. 28.
Nonetheless, U.S. envoy David Satterfield will visit the region next week to promote the plan, which also has the backing of the United Nations, Russia and the European Union.
A walkout by the Labor Party last week led to the collapse of Mr. Sharon's coalition government. Left without a majority, Mr. Sharon was forced to call early elections.
Yesterday, Mr. Sharon told business leaders he would not let anyone threaten Israel's relationship with the United States. Mr. Sharon has been to the White House seven times and received strong backing from President Bush.
"I would not hurt the deep strategic understandings with the United States and the special relationship that has been woven with the American government," he said.
Mr. Netanyahu said he had "semantic" differences with Mr. Bush's outline for a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state by 2005, an idea Mr. Netanyahu repeatedly has said he opposes.
"The ability to have certain sovereign powers that have nothing to do with self-determination must be withheld" from the Palestinians, Mr. Netanyahu said.
Also yesterday, a suspected Palestinian suicide bomber and an apparent accomplice were killed in an explosion at a military checkpoint near the Jewish settlement of Kedumim, near the West Bank city of Nablus, the army said.
The suspected bomber, one of three Palestinians in a taxi stopped at the checkpoint, was wearing an explosive belt and yelled "Allahu akbar" (God is great) as he ran toward the troops, who fired at the man, the army said. The belt exploded, killing the second man and injuring the third.
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Peace Plan By U.S. Splits Netanyahu and Sharon
November 8, 2002
New York Times
By JOEL GREENBERG
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/08/international/middleeast/08ISRA.html
JERUSALEM, Nov. 7 - A dispute between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his new foreign minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, over an American blueprint for peace emerged here today, reflecting the strains between them as they prepare to compete for the leadership of the Likud Party.
Mr. Netanyahu took office on Wednesday, promising to work harmoniously with Mr. Sharon, but signs of tension between the two men quickly appeared. They are to face each other in a party primary in the next few weeks that will determine the Likud's candidate for prime minister in national elections expected in January.
After a meeting between the two on Wednesday night, in which they reportedly discussed policy differences and the timing of the primary, there were public indications today that the two men did not see eye to eye.
Their policy disagreement was over a recently proposed American "road map" to peace, which envisions a Palestinian state in three years. Although Mr. Sharon has criticized the plan, he has been careful not to dismiss it out of hand, saying Israel would study it carefully before responding.
Mr. Netanyahu, in contrast, told reporters after he took office that the American road map was not on the agenda at the moment. The expected war in Iraq would put off discussion of it, he said. Mr. Netanyahu opposes a Palestinian state, while Mr. Sharon has said he accepts the idea.
According to Israeli media reports, Mr. Sharon complained to Mr. Netanyahu about his remarks in their meeting on Wednesday. Mr. Sharon made his views public today.
"I will not tolerate harm to our international relations, harm that might seriously damage our international standing and our efforts to bring economic assistance to the State of Israel," he said in a speech. "That is why I announced that I will not harm the deep strategic understandings with the United States, and the special relationship formed with the American administration."
After Mr. Sharon's coalition with the Labor Party fell apart last week, his aides gave assurances that he would keep all of his commitments to President Bush, including a pledge not to harm Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader. Mr. Sharon said he would not depart from the government's policy guidelines, adopted when he formed his coalition.
Mr. Netanyahu, for his part, said on Tuesday that an American attack on Iraq that would topple Saddam Hussein would provide a good opportunity to banish Mr. Arafat.
In the West Bank today, a Palestinian suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt and another Palestinian were killed when the device blew up under army fire at a checkpoint near Nablus.
After an alert went out for a suicide bomber heading for Israel, soldiers at the checkpoint stopped a taxi and ordered passengers out, telling them to lift their shirts, an army spokesman said. The soldiers saw that one man was wearing an explosive belt, and when he ran toward them, they opened fire, detonating the bomb, the spokesman added.
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Israel, U.S. to Hold Joint Exercise
November 8, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Israel-US.html
JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel and the United States plan a joint exercise in January on intercepting ballistic missiles, the Defense Ministry said Friday.
The Israeli daily Haaretz said the drill would be held in Israel unless the United States has attacked Iraq by then. Israeli officials have said there is a high probability Iraq will attack Israel with Scud missiles in response to a U.S. strike.
Rachel Ashkenazi, a spokeswoman for the Israeli Defense Ministry, said the exercise is part of ongoing cooperation between armed forces from both countries.
Haaretz said large air defense units from both countries would participate in the exercise, and that the United States would leave behind three upgraded Patriot missile batteries to help boost Israel's anti-missile defenses.
Ashkenazi confirmed that Israel's test-firing of two Patriots earlier this week was successful.
On Thursday, Israel's air force presented Arrow anti-missile batteries to reporters as part of a public relations blitz aimed at discouraging Saddam Hussein from firing his Scuds.
The Arrow system is the most advanced in the world currently deployed, and the air force says it has closed a window of vulnerability that allowed Iraq to rain 39 missiles on Israel during the 1991 Gulf War.
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Palestinians Eager, Israel Reserved on U.S. Mission
November 8, 2002
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-mideast.html
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian officials said on Friday they would formally respond to a U.S.-sponsored peace plan within days, but Israelis indicated their response would be delayed by the collapse of their coalition government.
U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State David Satterfield is due in the Middle East on Monday to renew Washington's efforts to calm a Palestinian independence uprising ahead of a possible U.S. war on Iraq.
Israeli government sources said there would be ``very little movement'' on the internationally backed ``roadmap'' to peace until the rightist Likud party of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had decided who would lead the party in coming elections.
``We are almost done with formulating our response,'' Palestinian Planning and International Cooperation Minister Nabil Shaath told Reuters. ``We might send it earlier so he (Satterfield) can come with an idea of our position.''
During his week-long mission, Satterfield will travel to the Jordanian capital Amman for international talks on Palestinian reforms, a key element of the roadmap, U.S. officials said.
Other elements of the peace plan include an end to armed attacks, Israeli army withdrawals from occupied Palestinian cities, mutual efforts toward a final peace settlement, and a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip by 2005.
Israel and the Palestinians have both expressed misgivings about the roadmap -- the former concerned that its security will not be sufficiently safeguarded, the latter irked at the lack of a strict timetable for implementation.
The ``Quartet'' of Middle East mediators -- the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia -- hopes to adopt a final version of the roadmap once Israel and the Palestinians give their official response.
LIKUD PRIMARY TAKES PRIORITY
A source in Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office said Israel was still formulating its response to the roadmap but that it would not be ready for submission to Satterfield.
``We do not expect to move on the roadmap until the political situation is clearer,'' the source said, referring to the collapse of Sharon's ruling coalition last week.
Sharon opted for a national ballot nine months early after his main coalition partner, the center-left Labor Party, bolted his 20-month-old government in a dispute over funding for Jewish settlements in territories the Palestinians want for a state.
Sharon has made his Likud party rival, Benjamin Netanyahu, foreign minister in Israel's caretaker government. The two will face off in a primary that will choose a leader to take Likud into general elections expected to be held in January.
The source saw the primary coming in late November. ``Until then, there will be very little movement on the roadmap.''
An Israeli opinion poll on Friday indicated Sharon, a longtime hawk who shuns dealing with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, would survive the electoral turmoil.
The survey in the mass circulation Maariv daily said 48 percent of Likud voters would cast their ballots for Sharon in the primary, compared with 38 percent for Netanyahu, who was prime minister from 1996 to 1999.
In violence in the West Bank on Friday, Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian policeman while dispersing stone-throwers in Tel village, Palestinian witnesses and security sources said. Israeli military sources said soldiers did not use live ammunition in the clash.
Earlier, Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian during a raid of Tulkarm refugee camp in the West Bank, Palestinian security officials said. Israeli security sources said two members of the militant Hamas group were detained.
Israeli forces in the town of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip dynamited the family home of a Palestinian who killed two Jewish settlers on Wednesday. Israel calls such demolitions a last-ditch effort to deter future attacks on its citizens.
At least 1,650 Palestinians and 625 Israelis have died in violence which erupted in September 2000, after talks stalled.
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Israel vaunts Arrow missile system, says prepared for Iraqi missile threat
Nov 08, 2002
Agence France-Presse
AFP
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/021108105251.f3dfjvlz.html
PALMAHIM AIR BASE, Israel- Israel has upgraded and improved its double-layer anti-ballistic missile defence system, based on the state-of-the-art Arrow interceptor, and says it is ready for any hostile missile attack coming from Iraq.
"The Arrow will intercept any missile that will threaten Israel or the borders of Israel," Brigadier General Yair Dori said.
"Since 1991 we have built a huge active defence system that will give Israel the ability to survive and make civilians feel safe in the next conflict," he said at a rare demonstration of the Arrow system on Thursday.
"The system can differentiate any kind of tactical ballistic missileand can intercept it," he said.
"We have all heard Saddam Hussein's declarations about Israel and Zionism; I am sure he wants to bring Israel into the conflict," Dori said. "We are s