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NUCLEAR
Pakistan Premier Says Nuclear Arms in Safe Hands
Inspectors in Iraq Shift to Nuclear Plant and Former Factory
U.N. Chief Challenges Bush's Iraq Assessment
Iraq Accuses UN Team of Spying, U.S. Cools War Talk
N.Korea Rejects U.N. Nuclear Watchdog's Call
High Security Trips Up Some Irradiated Patients, Doctors Say
Irradiated Patients May Set Off Devices
Ohio Site Chosen for Nuclear Fuel Testing
Bush war cabinet close to decision
MILITARY
Missiles Are Being Sold in Afghanistan
Spectre of smallpox attack looms for US
Pentagon Moves to Collect $2 Billion
Report Supports Chemical Weapons Incineration
Scientific Panel Urges Incinerating Obsolete Chemical Arms
Iran's Khatami: U.S. Government a Danger to World
U.S. Defends Burying Iraqi Troops Alive
Turkey Saying No to Accepting G.I.'s in Large Numbers
U.S. Confident of War Support From Uneasy Turks
Turkey gets $3 billion, allows U.S. to use its bases
Saudi Officials Defend Record Against Terror
Turkey offers bases to U.S.
Defense Dept. Seeks More Patriot Missiles
Weapon of the Week
POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS
'Enemy Combatant' Wins Right to Obtain Counsel
U.N. Official Urges Detainees to Be Tried
Court Examines Use of Police Questioning
Judge Denies NYC Secret Evidence Request
Ill. Senate OKs Death Penalty Changes
Indonesia Arrests a Top Suspect in Southeast Asia Terror Network
OTHER
Genetic Code of Mouse Published
ACTIVISTS
RENOWNED ANTI-WAR ICON PHILIP BERRIGAN
Jailed nuns peacefully puzzle officials
A force of habits: Nuns raid silo site
Troops Disrupt Protest as Caracas Oil Workers Join Strike
Charges Dropped for Activists in Pakistan
Activists Keep Vigil at 400 - Year - Old Oak
-------- NUCLEAR
-------- india / pakistan
Pakistan Premier Says Nuclear Arms in Safe Hands
December 4, 2002
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-pakistan-nuclear.html
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's new Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali Wednesday played down Russian concerns about the security of the country's nuclear weapons, saying that they were in ``safe hands.''
Russian President Vladimir Putin, in India for talks on terrorism, was quoted as saying in interviews with Indian media that he was concerned weapons of mass destruction in Pakistan could fall into the hands of bandits and terrorists.
``Pakistan's nuclear assets are in safe hands. Pakistan is a positive thinking country and there is no need for worry about the country's nuclear program,'' Jamali was quoted as saying by the official APP news agency.
Russia has praised Pakistan's contribution to the U.S.-led war on terrorism.
But officials in Moscow also indicated that certain circles in Pakistan continue to support the al Qaeda network and leader Osama bin Laden, as well as separatists in Kashmir that lies at the center of tensions between Pakistan and nuclear-armed India.
Pakistan has also strongly denied recent reports that it traded nuclear technology with North Korea.
-------- inspections
Inspectors in Iraq Shift to Nuclear Plant and Former Factory
December 4, 2002
New York Times
By JOHN F. BURNS
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/04/international/middleeast/04CND-BAGH.html
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 4 - The new zero-tolerance weapons inspections shifted today from the elegance of one of Saddam Hussein's presidential palaces to a former chemical weapons factory in the desert and a nuclear complex once attacked by the Israelis.
The al-Muthanna State Establishment, 40 miles northwest of Baghdad, was destroyed by United Nations inspectors in the late 1990's after they found it was a key to the production of mustard gas, sarin and other deadly chemical weapons.
The object today was to make sure production had not resumed.
The al-Tuwaitha nuclear complex, about 16 miles southeast of Baghdad, was attacked by Israeli warplanes in 1981, destroying the nuclear reactor known as Tamouz.
New construction has shown up in satellite photographs since the site was heavily bombed in the gulf war, and inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, run by the United Nations, were thought to be checking out the new buildings.
But there has been nothing to compare in the inspectors' first week with the moment on Tuesday when two teams of United Nations inspectors in blue jeans and baseball caps emerged briskly from the early morning fog before one of Mr. Hussein's palaces and demanded that its imposing iron gates be rolled back for an immediate search.
For Iraqis, this was the stuff of the wildest imagination. In the 23 years he has been Iraq's absolute ruler, feared in every corner of this land, Mr. Hussein has built dozens of palaces, each more grandiose than the last. Vast and imperial, they are intended to overwhelm, and they do. Passing by, Iraqi drivers plead with passengers not to gaze, lest the very act convey an unhealthy interest or, perhaps fatally, disrespect.
This was, in a sense, the instant when the reach of American power made itself felt most keenly in Mr. Hussein's Iraq.
The inspectors' new mandate equips them with virtually unlimited powers of search and seizure, and Iraq's response to that power was evident as the government moved quickly to counter suggestions that inspectors had uncovered a breach.
The inspectors have the right to demand access to any of Mr. Hussein's palaces, at any time of day or night, and to go anywhere in the palaces, even into his bedrooms. The powers were written into the mandate on the demand of President Bush, and adopted by the United Nations after weeks of bare-knuckle American diplomacy.
This morning at 8:55, the new powers met their keenest test yet at the gates of Al Sajoud Palace, one of at least 20 that Mr. Hussein maintains here. Iraqi officials have complained bitterly during inspections elsewhere - at missile plants and nuclear research institutes and biological toxin factories - that the inspectors' step-aside authority inflicts unacceptable indignities.
But they have opened up on the instant all the same, conscious that Mr. Bush has said any defiance could bring on an American military attack.
The guards stood their ground this morning, but only long enough to make a symbolic point. Just seven minutes after the inspectors arrived in their cavalcade of white Land Cruisers, the guards stepped back. A large gathering of reporters was there to catch the moment, and with them a score of Iraqi minders, officials assigned to watch and listen to everything the reporters do.
Little was said, but facial expressions betrayed the strong mix of emotions that some of the minders admitted to later. It was as if, at that moment, something quite new in Iraq had been born, as though far more was opening in the Iraqi consciousness than just those gates.
The palace is far from Mr. Hussein's most astonishing, but it is not too shabby, either. Like much of the massivist architecture the Iraqi leader favors, it dominates by sheer size. The outer walls run half a mile on each side. On one side lies the Tigris, the broad, muddy river that flows down to the Persian Gulf. Between the palace and the river is an ornamental lake.
Nearby, conveniently, are the headquarters of the ruling Baath party, an immense pillared building that looks like something out of imperial Rome.
Since Iraq's defeat in the Persian Gulf war, Mr. Hussein has reached out to the rest of the Arab world by embracing Islam more assertively than before, and Al Sajoud, whose name comes from the Arabic word for bowing before God, reflects this.
The building, in tan brick, is crowned by a dome of blue mosaic traced with gold. The towering entranceway, with its curved arches, seems borrowed from a mosque. The grounds, with banks of red and yellow flowers in geometric-shaped beds, and water flowing in marbled channels, could have been modeled on the Moghul gardens of 16th-century India.
Reporters waited outside while the United Nations team entered from two gates on different sides of the grounds, to inhibit any effort by Iraqi officials to rush documents or computers or other secrets away.
All that was visible of the inspectors' work was what was captured by the Iraqi television crew that was allowed to accompany them. The film, made available to Western networks later, suggested that the search was mostly in the form of a polite walk-through.
Clutching clipboards, the inspectors, with United Nations armbands, could be seen moving through the marbled corridors, asking for doors to be unlocked here, opening cabinets there, speaking quietly to one another as Iraqi officials stood by.
According to one report circulating at United Nations headquarters later, Demetrius Perricos, the 67-year-old Greek-born nuclear chemist who leads the inspectors looking for evidence of banned chemical, biological and missile programs, paused at one point in the kitchen to sniff a marmalade jar. But perhaps that was apocryphal.
Hiro Ueki, the former Japanese diplomat who is spokesman for the teams, said later that the two-hour inspection had gone off without incident, and with courtesy on both sides. As they entered and left, none of the inspectors could be seen wielding the latest in high-tech radiation detectors and microbe sniffers they have used elsewhere.
In fact, much about the inspection suggested that it had not been ordered out of any real belief that Mr. Hussein might be hiding toxins in the cookie jars or enriched uranium in the socks, but to make the point, early on, that the inspectors are empowered to enter any of the palaces, and probably will.
Mr. Ueki said the inspectors had looked at "every corner and every room" of the palace. He declined to say whether they had found anything. He summarized the purpose in a way that made it sound mostly symbolic. "It was a first inspection of a presidential site," he said. "Our inspectors are authorized to inspect any site they choose."
Whatever the Iraqis made of the inspection, the inspectors appeared to be making their mark in Washington. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell described the overall inspections as "off to a good start" and "working as intended." On a flight to Colombia, he was asked about Mr. Bush's remarks on Monday that the initial results of the inspections were "not encouraging." Mr. Powell said Mr. Bush was not referring to the inspections themselves, but to initial Iraqi denials.
But Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, speaking at the Pentagon, echoed Mr. Bush, saying: "The burden of proof is not on the United Nations or on the inspectors to prove that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. The burden of proof is on the Iraqi regime to prove that it is disarming, as required by the successive U.N. resolutions."
At Al Sajoud Palace, Mr. Hussein was nowhere to be seen, but then he almost never is, apart from his ubiquitous presence on television, where he is shown endlessly meeting associates in the Revolutionary Command Council or being hailed by crowds in old film. For years, defectors have said, the 65-year-old leader has moved restlessly from place to place, sometimes several times a day, as a guard against assassination.
American intelligence officials seem to believe that he spends much of his time in his palaces, because in the gulf war and the attacks that followed the failure of the last round of weapons inspections in 1998, they ordered many palaces, including Al Sajoud, hit by cruise missiles and bombs.
Those inspections included searches of eight palaces, but under far different conditions from now. The Iraqis agreed in advance to the inspections, and foreign diplomats, many of them from countries friendly to Iraq, were always present. Their report could stand as the archetype of diplomatic inconclusiveness. The inspectors looked at more than 1,000 buildings, and reported that they found most empty.
When the inspectors left on Tuesday, reporters were allowed into the palace, but only into the entrance hall. What they saw confirmed what those earlier inspections suggested. If the lobby was a guide, either moving men had been by recently or Al Sajoud, doubled in size when it was rebuilt after the American missile attacks in 1998, performs much the same psychological function as Imelda Marcos's collection of hundreds of pairs of identical unworn shoes. There was nothing to suggest that the palace was actually lived in.
The walls were mostly bare, even of the one thing that is found in almost every entranceway in every home in Iraq, a portrait of Mr. Hussein. The white-cushioned furniture had a showroom look. On the tables, in place of elegant China or glassware, were models of the palace after being bombed, with a blackened hole in the dome, and as it is now. High in the atrium, in a cursive Arab script traced in gold, ancient poetry in praise of Baghdad ran around the base of the dome.
The only sign that Mr. Hussein might have ever been there appeared on the gigantic wood doors, locked to the reporters, that lead to the interior. On burnished gold roundels set into the woodwork were two Arabic letters.
"S.H.," they said.
----
U.N. Chief Challenges Bush's Iraq Assessment
Search Teams Gain Access, Annan Says
By Colum Lynch and Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, December 4, 2002; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A5724-2002Dec3?language=printer
UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 3 -- U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan today challenged the Bush administration's downbeat assessment of weapons inspections underway in Iraq, saying that Iraqi "cooperation seems to be good" following the inspectors' first week of work.
Annan said it is too early to make a conclusive judgment regarding Iraq's commitment to disarm, but added he was pleased the inspectors have had no trouble gaining access to all the sites they targeted, including one of eight presidential palace compounds they visited today. He urged the government of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to continue to cooperate with the inspection teams.
"It's only been a week and obviously the cooperation seems to be good, but this is not a one-week wonder," Annan said. "They have to sustain the cooperation and the effort and perform."
The secretary general's comments posed a stark contrast to statements by President Bush and other senior U.S. officials, who have offered a much more pessimistic assessment of the inspections so far. They pointed to a growing tug of war between the Bush administration and the United Nations over how to assess Iraqi compliance with U.N. disarmament demands in the run-up to this weekend's deadline for an Iraqi declaration on its weapons and missile development programs.
In a sign of the continuing divisions within the administration over Iraq policy, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell painted a far different picture. Speaking to reporters on a flight to Bogota, Colombia, Powell said the inspections "are off to a pretty good start," though he cautioned that much of the work so far has involved collecting baseline data and checking equipment.
Bush expressed mounting skepticism today about the likelihood that the inspections would stave off U.S. military action against Iraq, twice telling audiences in Louisiana that he will not wait out a prolonged game of "hide and seek."
Bush and other U.S. officials began a campaign on Monday to deflect attention from the daily comings and goings of the inspectors from sites in Iraq and toward what the administration says is the fundamental issue: Iraq's compliance with demands that it give up any chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons programs, and long-range missile systems.
"The issue is not the inspectors," Bush said today in Shreveport, La. "The issue is whether or not Mr. Saddam Hussein will disarm like he said he would. We're not interested in hide and seek in Iraq. The fundamental question is . . . will he disarm? The choice is his. And if he does not disarm, the United States of America will lead a coalition and disarm him in the name of peace."
A senior administration official said that first, Bush may push for a more aggressive approach to inspections, possibly including such enhancements as a much larger force, simultaneous inspections of several sites, and multiple inspections each day.
White House officials dismissed Annan's more optimistic assessment of Iraqi cooperation. "It's too soon to say with any certainty, from the president's point of view," spokesman Ari Fleischer said. "But the overall picture, the president is not encouraged."
Iraq's U.N. ambassador, Mohammed Douri, continued to maintain that Iraq has destroyed all its weapons of mass destruction and that it has nothing to hide. "We declared everything and destroyed everything, so we have nothing," he said.
"We are cooperating with UNMOVIC in a good way." Douri added, referring to the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, which is conducting the inspections along with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
In Baghdad, a senior Iraqi official told reporters that Iraq would hand over the declaration of its biological, chemical and nuclear weapons programs on Saturday -- a day ahead of the Dec. 8 deadline set out in U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441, adopted unanimously by the 15-member body on Nov. 8.
Bush made it clear that he does not believe the statements by Hussein and other Iraqi officials that they are not hiding any weapons. "He says he won't have weapons of mass destruction; he's got them," Bush said in Shreveport. Later in New Orleans, Bush added, "He's a man who has got terrorist ties, a man who helps train terrorists. He's a threat and he's a danger."
On Monday, the inspectors searched a Baghdad missile design plant that made guidance and control systems for Scud missiles that Iraq used during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. The inspectors wanted to ensure that the installation was not involved in producing missiles capable of ranges longer than 93 miles, which are banned under earlier U.N. resolutions.
During their six-hour search, however, the inspectors discovered that several monitoring cameras and some of the equipment on which they had placed identification tags no longer were at the site, now called the Karama Co.
Iraq's Foreign Ministry said today that some of the cameras and other equipment were destroyed when the United States bombed the site in 1998. The ministry statement said the other equipment sought by the inspectors had been moved to the offices of Iraq's National Monitoring Directorate, a government agency that acts as a liaison to the inspectors.
The ministry said it had informed the U.N. inspections commission of the movement of the equipment in a meeting in Vienna in October, when Iraqi officials handed over large documents about the country's weapons-making equipment.
"The majority of the cameras were destroyed during the aggression and some parts of the monitoring system that weren't destroyed were transferred to the National Monitoring Directorate center for protection," the statement said. "They exist there now."
U.N. officials said today they did not believe the movement was a cause for immediate concern, noting that at a veterinary medicine plant visited last week, the inspectors were able to trace a fermentation unit at first thought to be missing.
"If it were to be moved for some illicit purpose, then of course it would be more serious," Hans Blix, the chief U.N. weapons inspector, told reporters in New York. "But in the first case there was a fermenter which had been moved, and they showed where it was. And in other cases I hope that there are good explanations, but this has to be found out."
The Bush administration, meanwhile, sought to postpone a vote for the second time in nine days on a resolution that would extend Iraq's authority to export oil for the next six months. John D. Negroponte, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, asked the Security Council for a two-week delay in order to persuade council members to add about 40 items to a list of items that would require U.N. approval before they could be imported by Iraq.
Iraq is allowed to sell oil under U.N. supervision to buy food and medicine, and to rebuild the country's battered infrastructure. The Security Council typically renews the mandate for the oil-for-food program every six months, but the United States has insisted that the council first place new restrictions on the import of such items as atropine, which is used to treat medical conditions but can also be used as an antidote for nerve agents.
The latest dispute in the Security Council is expected to reopen a recently settled battle over what Iraq is allowed to import. Following several months of acrimonious negotiations, the council agreed in May to approve a 300-page list of items that required Security Council approval. But with the prospect of war in Iraq, the Pentagon is concerned that Iraq will import medicines and products that can be used to inoculate Iraqi soldiers from chemical agents or to interfere with U.S. communications equipment.
Correspondent Rajiv Chandrasekaran in Baghdad and staff writer Glenn Kessler, in Bogota, contributed to this report. Allen reported from Shreveport, La.
----
Iraq Accuses UN Team of Spying, U.S. Cools War Talk
December 4, 2002
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-iraq.html
BAGHDAD/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iraq accused U.N. arms inspectors of being U.S. and Israeli spies and helping Washington prepare for possible war on Baghdad, but the United States cooled any talk of imminent military action.
It was not immediately clear on Thursday whether Iraq planned to take any action against the inspectors or whether it was simply an escalation in a war of words with Washington over U.S. accusations that Baghdad has weapons of mass destruction.
``The inspectors have come to provide better circumstances and more precise information for a coming aggression,'' Iraqi Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan said on Wednesday, speaking just after Baghdad promised to carry on cooperating with the United Nations.
``This is not an accusation, because the inspectors, from day one, their foremost work was spying. Their work was spying for the CIA and Mossad together,'' he said, referring to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and Israel's secret service.
Addressing an Egyptian delegation in a Baghdad hotel, Ramadan accused the inspectors of looking for any pretext for war and said a search of one of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's lavish palaces on Tuesday amounted to provocation.
The inspectors, who trudged past camels and through a foul-smelling desert site on Wednesday, suspended searches for Thursday and Friday because of a Muslim holy period. So far they have found nothing untoward, apart from some old artillery shells containing mustard gas that the U.N. already knew about.
Iraq said on Wednesday it would go ahead with a planned declaration to the U.N. on Saturday that would cover its biological, chemical, missile and nuclear technologies, but stressed again it had no weapons of mass destruction. The U.N. had set a Sunday deadline for the declaration.
Baghdad's statement was another message of defiance to President Bush, who insists Iraq does possess weapons of mass destruction and has threatened war if necessary to disarm it.
US HAWK COOLS WAR TALK
U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, a leading Bush administration hawk on Iraq, dismissed any suggestion that Iraq's declaration to the U.N. would in itself trigger a U.S. decision on military action. World oil prices fell two percent on his words.
``I'm quite sure (Bush) is not going to make it simply on the basis of one single piece of information,'' Wolfowitz said in Brussels. ``He's going to make it...also (in) close consultation, particularly with our allies but indeed with the international community.''
Hussam Mohammed Amin, head of the Iraqi National Monitoring Directorate, said Baghdad's arms dossier for the U.N. would be huge but he added: ``The declaration will repeat that in Iraq there are no weapons of mass destruction.
Amin said it would cover ``biological, chemical and missile and nuclear activities'' as well as ``dual-use activities,'' a reference to technology with both civilian and military uses.
Washington dismissed Baghdad's statement and demanded more aggressive U.N. searches in Iraq. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said previous Iraqi denials that it had arms of mass destruction had been proved false by earlier U.N. inspections.
U.N. arms inspectors resumed inspections in Iraq last week under a new U.N. Security Council resolution after leaving in 1998 complaining Iraqi authorities were obstructing them.
They searched Iraq's main nuclear research plant and a former chemical arms production center on Wednesday, once again reporting cooperation from the Iraqis as they have done all through their week-long mission so far.
Analysts said Baghdad's statement that it would hand over a huge dossier meant it was likely to be days before the U.N., Washington and others could make any assessment. There will be copies in both Arabic and English.
SADDAM REAPPEARS IN PUBLIC LOOKING RELAXED
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, looking relaxed and chatting to former Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda, was seen on Iraqi TV on Wednesday for the first time for nearly three weeks. Usually hardly a day goes by without him appearing.
U.N. inspectors swooped on Iraq's main nuclear plant al-Tuweitha, some 12 miles south of Baghdad.
A team from the International Atomic Energy Agencyspent five hours examining buildings. Several tons of uranium have been under seal by the IAEA at Tuweitha since 1998.
Inspectors from the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission searched the sprawling Muthanna military site, some 45 miles north of Baghdad.
They said they found artillery shells at the desert complex containing mustard gas that previous inspectors could not destroy before they left in 1998.
``Of course we are interested because it is a good quantity of mustard,'' said chief inspector Dimitri Perricos.
Reporters saw warehouses full of destroyed weapons such as bombs that could be filled with chemicals, as well as rusting equipment ranging from tanks to metal pipes.
A foul smell wafted round the site, and Iraqi officials said it came from remaining chemicals. Near the entrance stood a picture of Saddam. A herd of camels made their way through a hole in the complex's fence.
It was a chemical arms research, development and production facility from 1983 to 1991, producing thousands of tons of precursors, nerve agents and mustard gas. The site was bombed heavily during the 1991 Gulf War.
Inspections would resume on Saturday, an Iraqi official said.
The U.N. Security Council extended on Wednesday the U.N. oil-for-food humanitarian program in Iraq for six months and agreed to review within 30 days a list of goods that Baghdad needs approval to import.
The United States dropped its demand for only a two-week extension at the insistence of the other 14 council members.
Despite Wolfowitz's comments, U.S. preparations for possible war were still in evidence. U.S. Navy officials said the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman and its battle group were set to depart on Thursday with warplanes and missiles that could be part of an opening salvo in any U.S.-led attack on Iraq.
Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz told Swedish TV: ``Nobody thinks that anybody in a military conflict with the United States is going to win the military conflict. But we can win the political conflict.
``They can kill, they can destroy... But they cannot change the will of the Iraqi people. They cannot change the Iraqi government because the Iraqi government is not their own pawn.''
-------- korea
N.Korea Rejects U.N. Nuclear Watchdog's Call
December 4, 2002
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-korea-north.html
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said Wednesday it had rejected a call by the International Atomic Energy Agency to open its nuclear weapons program to inspections, saying the U.N. nuclear watchdog was abetting U.S. policy toward the North.
The IAEA called on North Korea last week to open its atomic weapons program to inspections and said it ``deplored'' Pyongyang's assertion it had a right to possess the weapons.
Closing off an avenue North Korea's neighbors had hoped might pre-empt a crisis, Pyongyang's communist government spurned the resolution as ``an extremely unilateral resolution.''
``The DPRK government cannot accept the November 29 resolution of the IAEA board of governors in any case and...there is no change in its principled stand on the nuclear issue,'' Pyongyang's official Korea Central News Agencysaid.
The report -- using North Korea's official title, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) -- quoted a Dec. 2 letter from Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun to IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei.
``I was disappointed at the IAEA Board of Governors still acting under the manipulation of the United States while following its policy to isolate and stifle the DPRK,'' Paek wrote.
The United States said North Korea had admitted, during a visit to Pyongyang in October by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly, to enriching uranium secretly for a weapons program.
Pyongyang says it will neither confirm nor deny whether it actually has nuclear weapons but says it is entitled to have them, despite its treaty pledges to stay non-nuclear, because it is under nuclear threat from Washington, which has branded North Korea part of the ``axis of evil'' with Iran and Iraq.
``DEEP CONCERN''
Any nuclear weapons program violates the terms of its membership in the IAEA and several treaties and agreements signed with the United States and South Korea.
IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky told Reuters that the North Korean letter did not respond to ElBaradei's request for confirmation of the U.S. claims about its nuclear arms program or to his request for high-level talks in Vienna or Pyongyang.
``ElBaradei reiterates his deep concern and readiness to discuss these matters with the DPRK,'' Gwozdecky said, adding that the IAEA urged North Korea to accept IAEA inspections in keeping with the Safeguards Agreement as soon as possible.
Paek reiterated Pyongyang's assertion that Washington's hostility toward the isolated and impoverished state had forced North Korea to pursue nuclear weapons.
``This crisis is a product of the U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK,'' his letter said.
The North Korean minister dismissed the IAEA resolution, saying it ``can never be considered as an impartial one, and it will only lay one more serious obstacle in the way of solving the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula.''
Shortly after its clandestine uranium program was revealed, North Korea said its condition for ending it was a non-aggression treaty with the United States. Washington has said there can be no talks until Pyongyang abandons its atomic arms ambitions.
Kelly said last week that North Korea was railing against an American threat that does not exist, and other U.S. officials have said that a move by Pyongyang to halt its uranium enrichment scheme would enable bilateral talks to proceed promptly.
-------- terrorism
High Security Trips Up Some Irradiated Patients, Doctors Say
December 4, 2002
New York Times
By AL BAKER
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/04/nyregion/04PATI.html
In one case last spring, a man being treated for an overactive thyroid gland was stopped by the authorities on two occasions while at a subway stop at Pennsylvania Station. In another case about a month ago, a woman who had undergone a diagnostic heart study was stopped while trying to drive out of Manhattan through a tunnel.
In both cases, the people involved had been treated with radioactive materials. And in both cases, doctors said, they were stopped by law enforcement officers armed with radiation detectors used to track possible terrorists.
Such reports are flowing into doctors' offices, physicians in the metropolitan region and elsewhere say.
The expanded use of radiation and metal detectors to guard against potential terrorism after Sept. 11, 2001, has prompted many unintended security stops, whether of cancer patients undergoing radiation treatment or of travelers with prosthetic limbs or pacemakers passing through airport metal detectors. Drug dealers have been known to mark their goods with radioactive material as a way of tracing it, and one doctor said he had heard of shipments being stopped at border crossings in Europe.
"This is all along the law of unintended consequences," Fred Mettler, the chairman of radiology and nuclear medicine at the University of New Mexico, said yesterday. "The question is, `How does the poor patient convince the law enforcement authorities that they are truly patients and not terrorists?' "
To better prepare their patients for security episodes relating to their radioactive treatment, and to keep them from being mistaken for those who would do harm, doctors in New York are drawing up guidelines telling patients how they should react. Doctors say Police Department officials have recommended that patients carry letters from their doctors to avoid confusion, but the police said that they had issued no broad recommendations and that such letters would not suffice to resolve the matter.
Countless patients being treated for a variety of ailments may have had radioactive isotopes injected into their bodies and can therefore set off alarms at borders, bridge crossings or transportation hubs, or trigger the attention of authorities who have portable radiation detectors.
The woman stopped recently near the tunnel contacted her physician, Dr. Chaitanya Divgi, an expert in nuclear medicine in the radiology department at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. "She called me from the cellphone," said Dr. Divgi, who could not identify the tunnel but added that he spoke with the officer and that the woman was later able to pass through. "Doctors are talking about patients being stopped, about security alarms going off after patients are being administered radio pharmaceuticals."
Doctors say they have not criticized law enforcement officers for their efforts, under which patients may be questioned intensely and subjected to body searches. Rather, most interviewed yesterday said the recent incidents pointed out one of the sometimes odd byproducts of the nation's heightened state of alert and gave them confidence that the authorities' detection equipment was working.
Dr. Christoph Buettner, an endocrinologist treating the man with the overactive thyroid who was stopped at Penn Station, said: "They did not treat him badly. They just detected radioactivity and they had to pursue that, and that is obviously the right thing to do in these circumstances, in these times. We just want the cops to have a way to identify patients who have been treated with radioactive isotopes."
As part of the Police Department's new measures to guard against potential terrorism, radiation detectors have been installed outside several city buildings. Also, about 250 radiation detectors, worn on the belt, have been distributed to officers. The devices are intended to form a sort of moving detection curtain so that police officers can interact with the public as they look for radioactive material.
When the Police Department installed radiation detection devices outside Police Headquarters in Lower Manhattan in June, a police inspector who had been injected with radioactive dye for a stress test reportedly set them off.
The man with the overactive thyroid gland was stopped after authorities somehow detected gamma rays emitting from him and detained him for questioning, said Dr. Martin I. Surks, the director of endocrinology at Montefiore Medical Center who oversaw the man's treatment, which was administered by Dr. Buettner. The doctors could not say which law enforcement agency was involved.
A Police Department official said last night that the department could find no records to confirm that incident. Tom Kelly, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said he had no record of it, either. Cliff Black, an Amtrak spokesman, said yesterday that he was still researching the matter.
According to his doctors, the patient, a 34-year-old fitness instructor from the Bronx, was being treated for Graves' disease, a thyroid condition, with radioactive iodine (iodine-131). Sixty-three percent of it was concentrated into his thyroid gland, in the front of his windpipe in his lower neck, the doctors said.
"Three weeks after treatment, he returned to our clinic complaining that he had been strip-searched twice at major Manhattan subway stations," Dr. Surks and Dr. Buettner wrote in a letter to be published today in The Journal of the American Medical Association. "Police had identified him as emitting radiation and had detained him for further questioning."
The doctors said that the patient had requested that he not be identified publicly and that they were unable to reach him by phone yesterday. In their letter to the the journal and in interviews yesterday, Dr. Surks and Dr. Buettner said a police official had recommended that physicians who treat patients with radioactive material give them letters describing the isotope and dose, its biological half-life and the date and time of treatment. The doctors also said the police had recommended that patients be given a telephone number where they can reach the physician 24 hours a day.
But a police official said last night that the department had made no such broad recommendation. The official said police officers would not treat a letter from a doctor as sole proof that someone was above suspicion, but would conduct an investigation first.
--------
Irradiated Patients May Set Off Devices
December 4, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Irradiated-Patients.html
CHICAGO (AP) -- Patients treated with radioactive materials may be setting off anti-terrorism devices installed in public places, according to a medical journal letter detailing a case that occurred in the New York subway.
The case involved a 34-year-old man with a thyroid condition who was being treated with radioactive iodine.
Three weeks after treatment, he complained to his doctors that he'd been strip-searched twice at Manhattan subway stations.
``Police had identified him as emitting radiation and had detained him for further questioning,'' according to the letter in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.
``He returned to the clinic and requested a letter stating that he had recently been treated with radioactive iodine,'' said the letter from Drs. Christoph Buettner and Martin Surks of Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
The experience suggests that radiation detection devices are being installed in public places in New York and perhaps elsewhere and that patients should be informed of the potential problem, the doctors said.
They said they called New York's terrorism task force for advice and were told that doctors should give patients letters describing the isotope used, its dose and date of treatment. Such letters should also include doctors' phone numbers to allow police to verify the information, the physicians said they were told.
``Even in the best-case scenerio, however, the patient would have to wait during this verification process,'' the doctors said.
Patients may choose to avoid public transportation to escape the problem, the doctors said.
Tom Kelly, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York City, said he knew nothing of the man's case or the journal letter.
Michael O'Looney, spokesman for the New York Police Department, said police have no record of the incident and have not developed any official policy for such circumstances.
Radioactive materials have a variety of medical uses, including cancer treatment and diagnostic imaging tests. In the case detailed in JAMA, it was used to treat Graves' disease, an autoimmune disorder that causes excessive production of thyroid hormones.
Former President Bush was treated for the condition with radioactive iodine in 1991.
-------- u.s. nuc facilities
-------- ohio
Ohio Site Chosen for Nuclear Fuel Testing
December 4, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Uranium-Plant.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Ohio will be the site of a $150 million facility that will test a new way to produce nuclear fuel, the project operator announced Wednesday.
USEC Inc., a Bethesda, Md.-based company, had also considered Kentucky for the work on centrifuge technology, which was tested by the U.S. Department of Energy in the 1980s before being abandoned. USEC was once part of the Energy Department before being privatized.
``The proposals by Kentucky and Ohio offered substantial incentives and strong community support,'' said William Timbers, USEC president and chief executive. He would not release details on what each state offered.
The company said it chose its Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in southern Ohio in part because of existing buildings from the previous testing. The Ohio site also has less risk of an earthquake because USEC's sister plant in Paducah, Ky., is near the New Madrid fault, which could mean a bigger price tag for a plant.
USEC ceased uranium-enrichment production at its southern Ohio plant last year and consolidated operations at Paducah. The Ohio plant remains on standby, with 1,350 workers maintaining it, doing environmental cleanup, and transfer and shipping work. The Energy Department funds the standby operations and cleanup work.
The company planned to seek a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the test facility early next year. Construction of the plant, located in Piketon, Ohio, would begin in 2004 with operations starting in 2005. The test project will bring about 50 new jobs, USEC said.
The company has pledged to build by 2010 a permanent plant that will use the new technology to process uranium into nuclear fuel for use at commercial power plants. A permanent operation would employ 500 to 600 people and cost $1 billion to $1.5 billion.
The state that is host to the test project would be in a good position to be chosen for the permanent plant.
In centrifuge processing, which is used in several other countries, uranium molecules are separated by gravity in tall, spinning cylinders, allowing technicians to extract enriched uranium and waste. The method uses 10 percent of the power needed for the 1940s-era gaseous diffusion process and produces much less waste.
Centrifuge technology was tested briefly at the Piketon plant before the government predicted laser technology would be the future of uranium processing.
USEC will continue to employ 1,000 workers and spend $500 million a year on its Kentucky plant for the next decade, Timbers said. The Paducah plant will help the company keep its market share and maintain national security while it is building the permanent centrifuge plant, he said.
On the Net:
http://www.usec.com
-------- us politics
Bush war cabinet close to decision
Joel Mowbray
December 4, 2002
Washington Times
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20021204-81950.htm
In a Cabinet-level meeting yesterday - attended by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Vice President Dick Cheney - the administration's heavy hitters discussed the question of how to handle the looming deadline in the weapons inspection dance with Saddam Hussein: The infamous "list" that Iraq must produce by Dec. 8. Although a senior administration official describes the results as "inconclusive," the White House is inching closer to the position that the United States must declare a "material breach" when Saddam - as expected - hands the United Nations a sham list.
The U.N. resolution - in its unanimous, albeit murky way - warns of dire consequences if Iraq is found to be in "material breach" of the new weapons inspection regime. But, because the weapons inspectors, led by European diplomat Hans Blix, have decided on the "nonconfrontational" approach, it is unlikely that Mr. Blix's team will uncover any "material" violations anytime soon. Long before the weapons inspectors canvass the entire countryside, however, Saddam must compile a list of all weapons of mass destruction and any materials or other capabilities that could be used for development of WMDs. Since Saddam is obviously not going to comply with an honest accounting of his arsenal, the Sunday deadline could become the day of reckoning.
Within the administration, there are two schools of thought about how to respond to Saddam's expected noncompliance. The wait-and-see crowd - led originally by Mr. Powell - wants to give the weapons inspectors breathing room to find contraband, something that could take months or even a year or more. The competing faction, however, believes that the go-slow approach would do nothing but undermine our credibility, because we have already declared that Saddam has WMD capability. So, if he denies possessing what the United States, through its intelligence, knows what Saddam in fact has, then a failure to call him out would erode our moral clarity.
The Blix backers within the administration have the nature of the weapons inspections upside-down; the "last chance" offered to Saddam is about the dictator coming clean, not the ability of the weapons inspectors to outmaneuver Baghdad's dilatory tactics. To see the trouble with giving Saddam any slack, look at what happened yesterday at one of the presidential palaces.
In a surprise visit to one of Saddam's palaces, the weapons inspectors were physically blocked from entering for at least 10 minutes - more than enough time to tip off those who needed the head's up. The situation was reminiscent to one several years ago, when inspectors reported being held up at the front of a building, while witnessing trucks being loaded in back of the location. And when the weapons inspectors yesterday did finally enter the premises, they cruised through the palace in a mere hour and a half - clearly not enough time for a thorough sweep.
Although he refused at the daily press briefing yesterday to state his view of how the U.S. should respond when Saddam turns in the WMD-related dossier, Mr. Rumsfeld made clear his opinion of the status of Baghdad's WMD program. "The United States knows that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. Any country on the face of the earth with an active intelligence program knows that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction."
Mr. Rumsfeld's statement, along with repeated similar declarations from U.S. and British government officials in recent months, leaves the United States with no reasonable response to Saddam's list other than calling a spade a spade. If the United States says Saddam has "one last chance," but then gives him yet another chance after lying about his WMD program, President Bush's credibility is shot. The U.N. team would also see its mission compromised, notes Danielle Pletka, vice president of foreign and defense policy studies for the American Enterprise Institute. "If the weapons declaration is a lie, then the entire inspection regime is predicated on a lie, and it cannot, by definition, work," Ms. Pletka said.
The view espoused by Ms. Pletka - and others - is gaining force within the White House. According to a senior administration official, even Mr. Powell's position has "evolved," though he hasn't exactly cast his lot with Mr. Rumsfeld and company just yet. Mr. Powell is in Colombia today, but he will attend the follow-up meeting currently scheduled for tomorrow.
With the latest word inside the administration that the "list" is expected a day early, Saturday could mark an important milestone: The declaration that Iraq is in "material breach" of the U.N. If the U.S. does so, though, bombs might not start dropping immediately, but the prospect of war would be much closer to reality.
Joel Mowbray is a National Review reporter and a contributing editor to National Review Online. (jdmowbra@erols.com.)
-------- MILITARY
-------- afghanistan
Missiles Are Being Sold in Afghanistan
December 4, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Afghan-Missiles-for-Sale.html
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- American-made Stinger missiles, capable of taking down aircraft, are for sale in the Afghan capital for $200,000, as well as rockets for as little as $5,000, peacekeepers said Wednesday.
Unidentified men recently approached peacekeepers with offers to sell the deadly weapons, the Turkish commander of the international force, Maj. Gen. Hilmi Akin Zorlu, said.
The revelation came after after six rockets whistled over Kabul last week and exploded on the eastern edge of the city. The next day, another rocket hit a two-story building downtown near the Finance Ministry. Neither incident caused casualties or serious damage.
``After almost each incident we've been receiving some proposals to buy some rockets or missiles,'' Zorlu told reporters.
Asked how much the arms were going for, he said: ``Some cheap, $5,000, $10,000. For a Stinger missile, $200,000.''
The 4,800-strong International Security Assistance Force has no policy of buying back arms to disarm Afghans, though the force often seizes or destroys weapons. It was unclear why peacekeepers turned away men offering to sell weapons rather than arresting or questioning them.
British Cmdr. Geoff Wintle said he was aware of only one attempted sale, at the peacekeepers' Kabul compound two weeks ago.
``Some guy just pitched up at the gate and said he had a couple of Stingers in his backyard to sell. I don't think he was taken particularly seriously,'' Wintle said. ``It's too bizarre a thing to do.''
Wintle said the man's story was discounted in part because peacekeepers did not believe Stinger missiles were still around or posed any serious threat.
Yet, the CIA supplied hundreds of surface-to-air Stinger missiles to Afghan guerrillas fighting the former Soviet-backed regime in the late 1980s. It is estimated that between 50 to 100 missiles remain unaccounted for. Several years ago, the United States offered to buy back the remaining missiles for $80,000 each. None were reportedly sold.
Stinger missiles lock onto their targets using a radar-guided system, making them more effective than heat-seeking missiles, which are easily foiled by decoy flares.
Zorlu said those who offered to sell the weapons were probably desperate for cash. Afghanistan, still struggling to emerge from over two decades of continuous warfare, is a poor country where housing and jobs are hard to come by. The country has also been flooded with weapons.
``During the wars and ethnic conflicts, people had been provided with weapons including rockets, mines, explosive materials, guns and air defense missiles,'' Zorlu said. ``This is a really important issue to be solved for the security of the country.''
Peacekeepers and Afghan authorities frequently seize caches of arms, including rockets, ammunition and assault rifles, while patrolling the city. International bomb disposal experts destroy mines and other unexploded ordnance almost daily.
Security in Kabul has been tight after several small explosions and occasional rocket attacks. The worst incident, the explosion of a powerful car bomb in a busy street Sept. 5, killed 30 people and injured dozens more.
The government blames the violence on its enemies: Remnants of the Taliban, loyalists of renegade Afghan commander Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, or al-Qaida terrorists.
Senior Afghan intelligence chief Mohammad Ali said Afghan authorities had not been approached by anyone wishing to sell arms. He had not heard of peacekeepers being approached.
But he rejected the possibility that anyone firing rockets at Kabul would be trying to sell them.
``We know that al-Qaida, Gulbuddin, and the Taliban are active,'' he said. ``They want to disrupt life in Kabul and show there is no security here. They're not going to sell their weapons.''
Zorlu said Afghan security forces, acting on intelligence from peacekeepers, seized a vehicle in the capital Monday carrying explosive materials. He said police had also recently seized 60 rockets in the city.
Despite the presence of peackeepers in Kabul this year, there have been two high-profile assassinations in broad daylight, including that of deputy president Abdul Qadir, and dozens of rocket attacks and bombings. Few arrests have been made.
-------- biological weapons
Spectre of smallpox attack looms for US
By Judith Miller
December 4 2002
Sydney Morning Herald
The New York Times and agencies
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/12/03/1038712939143.html
The CIA is said to be investigating an informant's accusation that Iraq obtained a particularly virulent strain of smallpox from a Russian scientist who worked in a smallpox lab in Moscow during Soviet times.
United States officials said several US scientists were told in August that Iraq might have obtained the mysterious strain from Nelja Maltseva, a virologist who worked for more than 30 years at the Research Institute for Viral Preparations in Moscow before her death two years ago.
The information came to the US Government from an informant whose identity has not been disclosed. The attempt to verify the information is continuing.
Ms Maltseva is known to have visited Iraq on several occasions. . Some experts fear she may have provided the Iraqis with a version that could be resistant to vaccines and could be more easily transmitted as a biological weapon.
The possibility that Iraq possesses this strain is one of several factors that has complicated the decision about how many Americans should be vaccinated against smallpox.
Formerly secret Soviet records show that in 1971, Ms Maltseva was part of a covert mission to Aralsk, a port city in what was then the Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, to help stop an epidemic of smallpox. The Soviet Union did not report that outbreak to world health officials, as required by regulations.
Last June, experts from the Monterey Institute of International Studies, drawing on those Kazakh records and interviews with survivors, published a report saying the epidemic was a result of open-air tests of a particularly virulent smallpox strain on an island in the Aral Sea.
Alan Zelicoff, a scientist who co-authored the Monterey report, said the Aralsk outbreak demonstrated that the smallpox virus could be made to travel large distances, and that there might be a vaccine-resistant strain, or one that at least was more communicable than common-or-garden-variety smallpox.
In Britain, the Government announced plans to vaccinate some members of the military and health service workers against smallpox as a precaution against a terrorist attack.
Thought it denied receiving specific information of a smallpox attack, the British Government said on Monday that it would vaccinate 350 health specialists, as well as selected members of the armed forces likely to be in the front line of any biological attack.
The immunisations are expected to be carried out by the end of next month.
The Government also said it was starting a tender for more smallpox vaccine as it sought to stock enough for the whole population.
The White House is expected to announce this week that, despite the risk of illness or death that mass vaccinations can bring, it will authorise vaccinating those most at risk - 500,000 members of the military who could be assigned to the Middle East for a war with Iraq, and 500,000 civilian medical workers.
-------- business
Pentagon Moves to Collect $2 Billion
December 4, 2002
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/04/business/04PLAN.html
WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 (AP) - The Pentagon said today that it would begin collecting $2.3 billion from General Dynamics and Boeing for what the government considers a debt owed on a canceled A-12 stealth aircraft project 11 years ago.
Instead of asking the companies to turn over the $2.3 billion, the Pentagon will withhold about $128 million a month for 18 months on other government contracts of the companies.
General Dynamics said it intended to ask a federal judge to block the deductions from the payments.
"The Defense Department's entitlement to any payment in the A-12 matter is central to the issues that court is already scheduled to hear on Jan. 9, 2003," the company said.
The A-12 was to be built for the Navy, but Dick Cheney, then secretary of defense, canceled the project in 1991, citing cost overruns and delays. The contractors and the Pentagon have been in court ever since.
A Pentagon statement said the decision to start collecting was made because there was no sign that the case would be resolved soon.
-------- chemical weapons
Report Supports Chemical Weapons Incineration
By Cat Lazaroff
December 4, 2002
ENS
http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2002/2002-12-04-06.asp
WASHINGTON, DC, Despite problems with chemical releases and safety violations at two existing chemical weapons incinerators, it is safer to burn the obsolete weapons than to continue storing them in Alabama, Arkansas and Oregon, concludes a new report from the National Academies' National Research Council. But critics charge that the council ignored many of the dangers inherent to incineration.
The council says the munitions can be incinerated safely if facility managers follow rigorous procedures, encourage a strong culture of safety among personnel, and learn from problems encountered at the first two facilities designed to destroy chemical munitions.
igloo
Daily operations at the chemical storage igloos at the Deseret Chemical Depot near Tooele, Utah include an inspection of the munitions for vapor or liquid leaks. (Two photos courtesy U.S. Army) While the National Research Council (NRC) cautioned that the risk of serious accidents cannot be eliminated, "the risk to the public and to the environment of continued storage overwhelms the potential risk of processing and destruction of stockpiled chemical agent," the report argues.
"The destruction of aging chemical munitions should proceed as quickly as possible," the NRC added.
Under the international Chemical Weapons Convention treaty, the United States has agreed to destroy its stockpile of aging chemical weapons - 31,000 tons of nerve and blister agents deployed in several million individual munitions and containers - by April 29, 2007. Most of the weapons disposed of thus far have been destroyed in high temperature incinerators at two facilities located in the Utah desert and on and island in the Pacific Ocean.
The Army has now built or is building three new incinerators located much closer to inhabited areas, in Anniston, Alabama; Umatilla, Oregon; and Pine Bluff, Arkansas. All of these facilities have met public resistance due to safety concerns, and lawsuits are now challenging the facilities in Anniston and Umatilla.
The Army asked the NRC to investigate whether incidents at the first generation Johnston Atoll incinerator and the second generation Tooele incinerator yielded information that could help improve safety at the planned third generation incinerators scheduled to begin operating at Anniston, Umatilla and Pine Bluff.
Tooele
The Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility operates 24 hours a day staffed by 600 workers.
After examining 12 years of incinerator operations at the first two facilities, the NRC identified 40 serious incidents that resulted in unexpected levels of agent within some part of the facilities, or in a few cases, release of agent outside the facility. In the three documented events in which chemical agent breached the incineration facilities' containment systems, monitoring records show that no more than the equivalent of a few small drops of agent was released into the environment.
In contrast, from 1990 to 2000, leakage at two storage sites from deteriorating containers and weapons - most over 40 years old - occurred several hundred times. The most serious event involved a leak into the environment of 78 gallons of mustard agent, which can last underground up to 10 years and cause skin blisters, difficulty breathing, blindness and even death.
"The Army has incinerated about a quarter of the nation's chemical agent stockpile, but not without incident," said committee chair Charles Kolb, president and chief executive officer of Aerodyne Research Inc.
"None of the events we identified threatened residents beyond the perimeters of the facilities, but they did raise safety concerns among local residents and elected officials," Kolb continued. "We reviewed information about these events from sources within the government and from a full range of public sources, and concluded that safe incineration is feasible and should proceed as quickly as possible with continued strict observation of safety precautions."
But critics of the study say it glosses over many of the most serious incidents at the two existing incinerators. Craig Williams, director of the nonprofit Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG), said the report is a "review of carefully selected information on the Army's incineration program which in no way represents the real life risks of the technology to workers and the public."
containers
At the Chemical Agent Storage Yard in Maryland, stacks of ton containers of mustard agent await disposal. (Three photos courtesy U.S. Army Program Manager for Chemical Demilitarization) The report ignores thousands of pages of official documents submitted by the CWWG, Williams said, along with reports by whistleblowers and complaints by local officials. The NRC report also overlooks the potential of alternatives to incineration, which some groups call safer than incineration, and which are slated to be used for disposal of chemical weapons in Indiana, Maryland, Colorado and Kentucky.
For the NRC report, the Army, county commissioners, state regulatory agencies, and concerned groups and citizens provided the NRC committee with information on incidents at the Johnston Atoll and Utah facilities. After a 10 year effort ending in 2000, the Army completed the destruction of the stockpile at the Johnston Atoll in the Pacific. Between 1996 and 2001, almost 40 percent of the 13,616 tons of agent at the Deseret Chemical Depot in Tooele County, Utah - the site of the largest stockpile - was incinerated.
The committee selected seven unusual occurrences for study on the basis that they could have had serious outcomes, were complex in nature, and were well documented. Two of these incidents were selected for detailed study - one at the Johnston Atoll facility and one at the Utah facility - which had resulted in the release of agent into the environment and triggered detailed investigations.
Extraordinary safety precautions are built into the design of incineration plants, the NRC report says. Releases from the facilities have been rare, isolated events involving no more than the equivalent of a few drops of chemical agent.
In all cases, the releases did not occur while the facilities were incinerating chemical agent, but while they were undergoing maintenance or, in the case of the Johnston Atoll facility, plant closure procedures. However, some incidents did lead to actual or potential exposures to workers.
newport
The Newport Chemical Depot in Indiana has eight product bulk storage tanks, used to hold the chemical agent VX Deficiencies in standard operating procedures, design failures, and inappropriate assumptions by operations personnel contributed to almost all of the incidents investigated in depth by the committee. For example, frequent false alarms have led workers to discount alarms until they have been confirmed.
To counter this, management must emphasize a culture of safety in which responding to alarms is more important than production goals, the NRC advised. At the same time, they must acquire more sensitive and specific chemical agent monitoring instruments to minimize the number of false alarms that reduce confidence in the current monitoring system.
"There will be future 'chemical events,' and serious consequences to both plant personnel and surrounding communities cannot be ruled out," the report warns. However, "The major hazard to the surrounding communities arises from potential releases of agent from stockpile storage areas, not the demilitarization facilities," the NRC adds.
Appropriate communications during and after incidents have not always occurred as intended among various stakeholders, the committee found. Site specific reporting procedures should be established and supplemented by a training program to test and improve procedures and communication systems.
An approach developed by the Deseret Chemical Depot could serve as a model for other communities to ensure both close oversight of operations and a reliable means of informing local officials about chemical events, the NRC said. In addition, more accurate models for predicting how a plume of gas may disperse over an area should be combined with timely communication of consequences and recommended responses.
umatilla
An Umatilla Chemical Depot employee stands in front of a storage igloo holding the nerve agent sarin (GB). About 7.2 million pounds of chemical weapons are stored at Umatilla in Oregon; incineration was scheduled to begin in 2001, but was delayed by legal challenges and technical issues. Stronger coordination of training, equipment and plans for responding to an emergency incident are also needed, the committee said. The Army should continue its program of outreach - including listening and responding to community concerns - to the public and government oversight agencies, to enhance understanding of its chemical weapons disposal program.
The committee also recommended that future investigations of serious chemical agent related incidents at demilitarization facilities be undertaken by a single, prearranged investigation team including representatives from all relevant management, regulatory and oversight groups, along with a qualified person from the public.
CWWG director Williams said that while the NRC makes some good recommendations for improving safety at existing facilities, it fails to justify using incineration when alternatives such as chemical immobilization of weapons materials are available. He suggested that the report may in fact be biased toward incineration because certain members of the NRC committee and some of the report's reviewers are connected with the chemical demilitarization program or other government projects, raising conflict of interest questions.
"For anyone to accept this report as either accurate or objective would be a mistake," said Williams. "Unfortunately, it is the citizens living near the incinerators who will bear the consequences of its failures."
To read the full report, "Evaluation of Chemical Events at Army Chemical Agent Disposal Facilities," visit: http://www.nap.edu/books/0309086299/html/
----
Scientific Panel Urges Incinerating Obsolete Chemical Arms
December 4, 2002
New York Times
By WARREN E. LEARY
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/04/politics/04CHEM.html
WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 - Despite the risk of serious accidents, tons of obsolete chemical weapons stored at sites across the country can be safely disposed of by incineration, a division of the National Academy of Sciences concluded in a report released today.
The report from the National Research Council said destroying aging stores of chemical weapons in high-temperature furnaces is not without risks. But delays in getting rid of the leaky stockpiles could be even more dangerous to the public, it contended.
"Safe chemical weapons disposal operations are feasible at the new facilities scheduled to begin operating at Anniston, Ala.; Umatilla, Ore.; and Pine Bluff, Ark.," according to the report, which called for rigorous operational procedures and enforcement of strong safety measures.
A 13-member committee of experts examined operations at two older incinerators and identified 40 "serious" incidents involving unexpected releases of chemical agents. But the panel concluded that such incidents could be avoided or reduced with more diligence, better training and placing a greater emphasis on safety than on meeting disposal schedules.
The panel said the new plants, which each cost the Army almost $1 billion to build, should be put into operation as soon as possible because of the deteriorating condition of chemical stockpiles, including nerve agents and toxins, such as mustard gas.
"The risk to the public and to the environment of continued storage overwhelms the potential risk of processing and destruction of stockpiled chemical agent," the report found. "The destruction of aging chemical munitions should proceed as quickly as possible."
The committee examined 12 years of operations at the first two incinerators that were commissioned to destroy 31,000 tons of nerve and toxic blister agents deployed in millions of individual artillery shells, rockets and other containers.
About one-quarter of the stores already have been destroyed by burning them at 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit, primarily in furnaces at Johnston Atoll in the Pacific and at the Deseret Chemical Depot in Tooele County, Utah.
Most of the 40 chemical releases the panel studied in detail occurred within the disposal plants, but three reached outside the buildings. In those three incidents, data showed that no more than the equivalent of a few drops was released into the environment and little or none spread beyond base fences, the report said.
In contrast, it said, several hundred leaks occurred at two storage sites housing deteriorating weapons and containers, most more than 40 years old. In the most serious of these incidents, 78 gallons of mustard agent escaped into the environment, the report said.
Dr. Charles E. Kolb, the president of Aerodyne Research, an environmental research company in Billerica, Mass., who served as the committee's chairman, said that no leak at the incinerators threatened residents beyond the perimeters of the plants, but that safety concerns needed to be addressed seriously.
"There will be future chemical events," he said in an interview. "But we are saying it's still possible to do this safely if we strictly observe procedures at the plants and make safety the highest priority."
The committee recommended that the Army: establish criteria to uniformly classify chemical events at all disposal plants; research improved emission sensors that issue fewer false alarms; institute review boards that include a citizen representative at each site to investigate release incidents; and provide more comprehensive training for plant personnel.
Craig Williams, director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group, a Kentucky-based coalition of local groups opposing the incinerators, called the report a "whitewash" that understated the risks of burning chemical weapons.
"This report is anything but objective and balanced," Mr. Williams said. "The committee only examined selected incidents of leaks and other problems and ignored other significant incidents."
Instead of incineration, Mr. Williams called for wider use of a chemical neutralizing process to destroy the weapons agents that will be employed at bases in Newport, Ind.; Aberdeen, Md.; Pueblo, Colo.; and Blue Grass, Ky.
-------- iran
Iran's Khatami: U.S. Government a Danger to World
December 4, 2002
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-iraq-iran-usa.html
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami mounted an unusually strong attack on the U.S. government on Wednesday, accusing it of seeking a pretext to attack Iraq and of posing a danger to the whole world.
``We have always voiced our opposition to an American attack on Iraq and basically we sense danger from America's unilateral policies, not just for ourselves, but the whole of mankind,'' Khatami told reporters after a weekly cabinet meeting.
Khatami, a moderate cleric who has made great efforts in the past to improve the Islamic Republic's relations with the West, said Iran was no friend of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who launched an attack on Iran in 1980 that sparked an eight year war in which one million people were killed.
``We are not happy with the Iraqi regime which has carried out so much oppression against our nation, but this (a U.S. attack) is not the way to deal with it,'' he said.
``I hope this attack does not take place even though it seems that the United States is looking for a pretext.''
U.S. officials have urged U.N. inspectors currently in Iraq to pursue a more intensive, multi-pronged operation to make it harder for Baghdad to conceal any arms programs.
Under the U.N. resolution Iraq has until Sunday to provide a detailed list of its weapons programs. Baghdad has said it will submit its statement by Saturday but insists it has no weapons of mass destruction.
Khatami urged Iraq to comply with the U.N. resolution in order to avert a ``catastrophe.''
Washington, which earlier this year branded Iran part of an ``axis of evil'' along with Iraq and North Korea, broke ties with Tehran in 1980 after radical students stormed the U.S. embassy and held 52 hostages for 444 days.
Khatami, who is engaged in a bitter power struggle with Iranian hard-liners who have blocked many of his attempts at reform, said it was up to Washington to make the first move to improve ties with Tehran.
``Unfortunately, due to the rule of a hard-linefaction whose policies in my view are dangerous for the whole world, a favorable outcome cannot be predicted,'' he said.
-------- iraq
U.S. Defends Burying Iraqi Troops Alive
Pentagon Cites "Gap" in International Law
San Francisco Chronicle
12/4/02 Antiwar.com:
Published by the GI Refusnix to the Persian Gulf Massacre in Support of All War Resisters
Edition Four, July 1992 - ARCHIVE
http://jeff.paterson.net/aw/aw4_buried_alive.htm
The Pentagon said that a "gap" in the laws governing warfare made it legally permissible during the gulf war for U.S. tanks to bury thousands of Iraqi troops in their trenches and for U.S. warplanes to bomb the enemy retreating along the so-called Highway of Death.
An elaborate legal justification was contained in an appendix to the report on the war sent to Congress by Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney. The section also accused Iraq of "widespread and premeditated" war crimes and environmental terrorism.
But it absolved U.S. forces on war crime issues raised "by some in the post-conflict environment."
Newsday disclosed in September that many Iraqi troops were buried alive when the First Mechanized Infantry Division attacked an 8,000-man division defending Saddam Hussein's front line.
U.S. commanders told Newsday that thousands had been buried during the two-day assault Feb. 24-25, 1991. During the February 27 Iraqi retreat from Kuwait, tens of thousands of vehicles were destroyed by U.S. jets. But most estimates said 1,000 or fewer Iraqis were killed.
According to the new report, the incidents raised questions about the Geneva Convention's prohibition of "denial of quarter" -- refusing to accept an enemy's offer to surrender. It said:
"There is a gap in the law of war in defining precisely when surrender takes effect or how it may be accomplished. An attempt at surrender in the midst of a hard-fought battle is neither easily communicated nor received. The issue is one of reasonableness."
At the time the Iraqi front was breached, commanders were still concerned about the threat of chemical, gas and missile attack. "Because of these uncertainties and the need to minimize loss of U.S. lives, military necessity required that the assault ... be conducted with maximum speed and violence," the report said.
"Many Iraqis surrenderd during this phase of the attack and were taken prisoner. The division then assaulted the trenches containing other Iraqi soldiers. Once astride the trench lines, the division turned the plow blades of its tanks and combat earth movers along the Iraqi defense line.
"In the process many more Iraqi soldiers surrendered; others died in the course of the attack and the destruction or bulldozing of their defensive positions."
Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said the report ignored the Bush administration's failure to disclose the location of the burial site. "That is a clear violation of Articles 15 and 16 of the First Geneva Convention," he said.
Pentagon spokesman Pete Williams has said Cheney's interpretation of the conventions does not require the United States to provide such details. Roth said the killing of Iraqi troops fleeing Kuwait was another violation of the conventions -- specifically the ban on attacking defenseless soldiers: "Those Iraqis were wholly at the mercy of our warplanes."
But the Pentagon report argued that the fleeing soldiers could have reorganized and resumed offensive operations. "The law of war permits the attack of enemy combatants at any time, whether advancing, retreating, or standing still," the report said.
Jeff Paterson 1230 Market Street #104 San Francisco CA 94102 jeff@paterson.net http://jeff.paterson.net
-------- mideast
Turkey Saying No to Accepting G.I.'s in Large Numbers
December 4, 2002
New York Times
By MICHAEL R. GORDON with ERIC SCHMITT
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/04/international/04TURK.html
ANKARA, Turkey, Dec. 3 - Turkey said today that it would not allow the United States to deploy substantial numbers of ground troops on its territory in the event of a war with Iraq.
The new Turkish government, dominated by a party with Islamist roots, did say that the United States could station warplanes and use Turkish air space to carry out strikes - but only if the United Nations Security Council adopted a new resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq.
Turkey's stance was outlined tonight by Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis after meetings between government leaders and Paul D. Wolfowitz, the United States deputy defense secretary.
"If we are talking about the extensive presence of American forces in Turkey, we have difficulty in explaining this to Turkish public opinion," Mr. Yakis said. "It may be difficult to see thousands of American forces being transported through the Turkish territory into Iraq or being stationed or deployed somewhere in Turkey and then carrying out strikes in Iraq."
While the two sides sought to emphasize areas of agreement, the Turkish position could complicate the Bush administration's planning for a possible war with Iraq.
Turkey, a NATO member and Iraq's northern neighbor, views the United States as a key ally and wants to cooperate with Washington, but officials in the new government pointed to their need to deal with public sentiment, which is skeptical about a military campaign.
Mr. Wolfowitz said tonight that he was satisfied with his consultations with the Turks but declined to provide details about what cooperation Washington had requested, and the Turkish response.
One senior Turkish official, who insisted on anonymity, said the United States Embassy in Ankara had recently forwarded a paper that outlined several areas of possible cooperation. The United States, the Turkish official said, wants access to Turkish air space for combat and support aircraft, and access to about 10 Turkish air bases and ports.
The United States, the Turkish official added, also explored the possibility of stationing ground troops on Turkish territory. The official said the Pentagon wanted to have the option to deploy "tens of thousands of American troops."
American officials have declined to discuss options for deploying troops in Turkey. There has been speculation, however, that the American ground forces, possibly the elite 101st Airborne Division, might use Turkish bases as a staging area into northern Iraq, where helicopter-borne infantry would help secure important oil fields in the Kurdish region and prevent Kurds from attempting to seize territory of their own. That would add to the pressure on the Iraqi military in the north while the main invasion came from Kuwait in the south.
The request from the embassy also sought the use of Turkish troops to deal with Iraqi refugees and maintain order near the Turkish-Iraqi frontier, Turkish officials said.
While ruling out a large deployment of ground troops, Turkish officials today did not preclude the stationing of Special Operations forces and small ground units.
The Turkish insistence on the need to return to the Security Council before the American military can make any use of bases or air space in any war on Iraq is at odds with the Bush administration's position.
Asked about Turkey's stance, a senior American official said Washington hoped that the Turks would change their minds. One option might be to return to the Security Council for discussion, but not a vote on a new resolution, if Iraq did not comply with the United Nations on disarmament.
"We're not convinced that this represents their final position," said one senior American military official.
Washington has insisted that the resolution passed unanimously last month - and past Iraqi breaches of United Nations resolutions - confer all the legal authority needed to carry out an attack if Iraq fails to cooperate with United Nations inspectors and take steps to dismantle programs suspected of producing weapons of mass destruction. Obtaining a second resolution from the 15-member Security Council could substantially delay a military operation and would by no means be assured.
On the military front, the Pentagon has sought to assemble a potent air and ground combat force in Turkey. Only the deployment of a powerful force, American officials assert, will induce President Saddam Hussein to comply with United Nations demands. If war cannot be avoided, such a force would require Iraq to fight on multiple fronts, they note, and help bring the war to a speedy conclusion.
"It's important that he see that he's surrounded by the international community, not only in the political sense, but in a real practical military sense," Mr. Wolfowitz said.
During the Persian Gulf war in 1991, Turkey allowed the United States to launch air strikes against targets in Iraq and mount search and rescue operations. Turkey's decision to allow the Americans to use their bases was made at the last moment.
American and British warplanes currently monitor the no-flight zone in northern Iraq from bases in Turkey and carry out limited bombing raids against air defense sites that target allied planes.
In a war, Turkish bases could be used to mount punishing air raids against Mr. Hussein's government and the security forces that keep him in power. Without Turkish bases, coalition fighter-bombers flying from European or Persian Gulf states would require extensive aerial refueling to reach northern Iraq.
To encourage Turkish cooperation in any attack on Iraq, Washington has been pressing the European nations to facilitate Turkey's entry into the European Union. The Americans have also been promising increased support through the International Monetary Fund and direct American aid, while assuring Ankara that the Bush administration does not support establishment of an independent Kurdish state.
Mr. Yakis outlined what Turkey would do if Mr. Hussein failed to cooperate with the United Nations.
"If it comes to that, then of course, we will cooperate with the United States because it's a big ally and we have excellent relations with the United States," Mr. Yakis said. He said the cooperation would include "the opening of air space, first of all, and the utilization of facilities in Turkey."
Asked if Turkey thought a second United Nations resolution was necessary before military action was taken, Mr. Yakis said it was. The Turkish understanding, he said, is that Resolution 1441, passed last month, "does not allow the automatic resorting to armed intervention."
That position was endorsed by Omer Celik, a senior political adviser to the new dominant Justice and Democracy Party and a member of Parliament. "We believe if the inspections are prevented by any means, we have to go back to the United Nations to get another decision to launch an attack," he told a group of American reporters today. "We find the United States' struggle against terrorism to be a just struggle," Mr. Celik said. "However, we believe that if the United States acts alone this can create problems in the world."
Turkish officials suggested that they were likely to be more patient than Washington about the United Nations inspection process to ensure that war is truly a last resort.
The Americans, Mr. Yakis said, "may believe that all stones are turned and we may find out that there is one stone left that has not been turned."
----
[Huh?]
U.S. Confident of War Support From Uneasy Turks
Top Pentagon Official Says Bases Will Be Upgraded
By Vernon Loeb
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 4, 2002; 12:56 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A8696-2002Dec4?language=printer
ANKARA, Turkey, Dec. 4-Despite obvious Turkish unease, the Pentagon's number two official predicted today that Turkey would support military action against Iraq if Baghdad refuses to peacefully disarm. He also said defense officials would soon give Ankara a proposal for spending several hundred million dollars to upgrade Turkish bases for possible use by U.S. air and ground forces.
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz offered his confident assessment after concluding talks here in which he told Turkey's new government that its full support for a possible invasion of Iraq was critical in convincing Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to voluntarily disarm under terms set forth by the U.N. Security Council.
Turkish Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis offered only qualified support. In the government's only public statement during Wolfowitz's visit, Yakis told reporters Tuesday that Turkey might, under certain circumstances, allow U.S. warplanes and ground forces to operate from Turkish bases, as long as every peaceful means of disarming its neighbor had been exhausted.
But Wolfowitz insisted his delegation had received unequivocal pledges of support privately from Prime Minister Abdullah Gul and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party, clearing the way for talks between U.S. and Turkish military officials over specific basing rights for strike aircraft and combat ground forces.
"Turkish support is assured," Wolfowitz said. "It was said at all levels of the government that we spoke to-that Turkey has been with us always in the past and they will be with us now."
Wolfowitz also disclosed that he had on President Bush's behalf invited Erdogan, the country's most powerful political figure, to Washington for an official visit. That could come within the next week, before the European Union considers Turkey's bid for membership, which the Bush administration strongly supports.
Erdogan's political party is a self-described "centrist conservative" movement with deep roots in Islam. He is now banned from holding office by Turkey's secular government for overtly religious policies he enacted in the mid-1990s as mayor of Istanbul.
Since the party assumed power, Erdogan and other leaders have disavowed any link to political Islam and promised to uphold Turkey's stridently secular government.
However strong the support expressed by him and other Turkish officials for possible military action against Iraq, their talks with Wolfowitz revealed a yawning divide between Washington and Ankara over the need for a second U.N. resolution before military action against Iraq could begin.
Gul told reporters that Turkey's "understanding" is that U.N. Resolution 1441, requiring Iraq's chemical, biological and nuclear disarmament, "does not allow automatic resorting to armed intervention" if U.N. inspectors determine Iraq refuses to comply, and that a second resolution would be needed to trigger military action.
Asked about this seeming obstacle, Wolfowitz restated the Bush administration's position-that 1441 requires a second meeting of the U.N. Security Council prior to the use of military force, but not a second resolution-and promised that the issue would be discussed during Erdogan's visit to Washington.
"It is an important question," Wolfowitz said, "and it is one we need to clarify at the highest levels of both governments."
Even more importantly, those talks would enable senior administration officials to convince Erdogan just how badly the Pentagon needs to base U.S. ground forces in Turkey so that any possible invasion could come from both the north and the south of Iraq. Wolfowitz called it the most complicated issue facing the two countries, given strong public opinion in Turkey against a U.S. invasion of Iraq.
"I think we're quite comfortable with what we can do from [bases in] the south," Wolfowitz said. "Obviously, if we're going to have significant ground forces in the north, this is the country they have to come through. There is no other option."
Wolfowitz said administration officials would try to persuade Erdogan that, in the event Iraq refuses to disarm and war becomes necessary, Turkey would be much better off with U.S. ground forces in northern Iraq "to help manage what comes afterward."
Pentagon officials have already discussed the possibility of Turkish troops deploying along the Turkey-Iraq border to police refugees and possibly guard prisoners of war. "I'm quite confident that we will in fact have a significant level of Turkish participation," Wolfowitz said.
The Turkish military completed plans earlier this year for deploying as many as 45,000 troops along a security zone that would extend about 25 miles across the Iraq border to ensure that thousands of refugees from northern Iraq do not try to cross the border into Turkey, according to one retired Turkish general.
About 1,500 refugees died along the border trying to escape fighting in northern Iraq in 1991, when neither the Turkish military nor the international aid community were prepared to handle such an influx.
Wolfowitz would not comment on how many troops the Pentagon has asked Turkey to provide. But on the issue of basing U.S. troops in Turkey, Wolfowitz said war planners at the Pentagon would soon be in position to lay out for Turkish officials "what kinds of forces might be based in Turkey, where they might be based, what kind of improvements would have to be made to facilities in Turkey."
Beyond the basing rights, the issue of foreign aid is sure to arise during Erdogan's visit to Washington. Turkish officials say their country has lost $40 billion as a result of sanctions slapped on Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War. With unemployment now at 30 percent and Turkey's economy reeling under the weight of international debt, those officials want to see a significant increase in foreign aid from Washington. Indeed, Turkey's economic problems helped propel the Justice and Development Party to victory, giving the country its first majority government in more than 10 years.
Wolfowitz said the Bush administration would offer Turkey a substantial foreign aid package as compensation for economic hardship stemming from the Gulf War and additional short-term losses that could flow from another war in Iraq. But the two sides still seem far apart on just how big the aid package will be.
"It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of economics for Turkey and for Turkish public opinion with respect to almost everything that's going on in this country right now," Wolfowitz said.
----
Turkey gets $3 billion, allows U.S. to use its bases
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Wednesday, December 4, 2002
http://216.26.163.62/2002/ss_turkey_12_04.html
ANKARA - Turkey has approved a U.S. request to use its military bases for a possible campaign against Iraq in exchange for the promise of more than $3 billion in aid from Washington.
Turkish leaders agreed to the U.S. use of Turkey's air space and military bases in any offensive against the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The leaders said Washington would first require United Nations endorsement, but officials said this condition appears flexible.
"If it comes to that, then of course, we will cooperate with the United States because it's a big ally and we have excellent relations with the United States," Turkish Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis said on Tuesday. "What we mean by cooperation is opening air bases and opening facilities to use. The military authorities of the two countries are consulting on the assumption that such a cooperation may be necessary one day."
The Turkish offer of cooperation came during the visit of a senior U.S. delegation to Ankara led by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman.
Officials said the Bush administration has offered Turkey $3.4 billion in aid. The package consists of about $2.5 billion in military aid and the rest in a low-interest credit. Other elements in the military package include Washington's pledge to transfer unspecified technology and grant licenses for U.S. defense systems.
Yakis said Ankara would also allow U.S. fighter-jets to launch strikes against Iraq from Turkish air bases. He did not say whether Turkey would fly combat missions against Iraqi targets, but other officials said Washington has asked Ankara for 35,000 soldiers to help contain northern Iraq and its Kurdish and Turkmen populations. Yakis said the deployment of tens of thousands of American troops in Turkey is a scenario he found difficult to envision.
Hours later, the Turkish Foreign Ministry appeared to backtrack from Yakis's assurances to Washington. The statement said Yakis's words did not comprise a "commitment on the part of Turkey, because these possibilities have not been the subject of discussion with any country."
Wolfowitz provided assurances of U.S. support for its longtime ally. "U.S.-Turkish cooperation is serious ... If there is a crisis in this region, we know that Turkey is going to be one of the countries the most affected. We want to make sure we deal with that."
Wolfowitz also met Turkish military commanders and senior defense officials. A Turkish military statement said the issues discussed included the future of Cyprus, Iraq, European Union defense policies and strategic relations between Ankara and Washington.
-------- saudi arabia
Saudi Officials Defend Record Against Terror
December 4, 2002
New York Times
By JAMES DAO
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/04/international/middleeast/04SAUD.html
WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 - The government of Saudi Arabia brushed aside criticism of its efforts to combat terrorism today, asserting that it, too, had been a major target of Al Qaeda's violence and that its close cooperation with Washington to stem Islamic extremism had gone unnoticed and unappreciated.
During a news conference to unveil Saudi initiatives against terrorism, Adel al-Jubeir, a senior foreign policy adviser to Crown Prince Abdullah, lashed out at the kingdom's critics, arguing that Americans had been consumed by anti-Saudi sentiments that bordered on hate.
The Saudi effort, detailed in an eight-page report released today, includes freezing 33 bank accounts containing $5.5 million, requiring all Saudi charities to undergo audits and creating a financial intelligence unit to investigate money-laundering. The report also said Saudi Arabia had questioned more than 2,000 people and detained about 100 others on suspicion of aiding terrorists. The Saudi initiative was first reported in Tuesday's Washington Post.
The United States praised the report, saying it showed that the Saudis were moving in the right direction, but experts said not many of the measures it detailed were new.
Mr. Jubeir, a polished diplomat who was in turn defensive and combative at the news conference, also argued that Osama bin Laden had purposely deployed a large number of Saudis during the Sept. 11 attacks - 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi citizens - to "drive a wedge" between Washington and Riyadh.
"And the irony of it is, those who are most critical or hostile toward Saudi Arabia in the United States are playing right into his hands," Mr. Jubeir said. "Bin Laden, if he's dead, is laughing at them from his grave. If he is alive and sitting in a cave, he's doing the same thing."
"If, instead of 15 of the 19 hijackers, you had only two or three Saudis on the planes, does anyone in this room think that Saudi Arabia, that our people, that our faith, that our educational system would have been subjected to this severe and outrageous criticism, which borders on hate?" he said. "As somebody who's lived in the United States for almost 20 years, I have never seen this side of America."
Mr. Jubeir's remarks today followed a report last week that about $2,000 from the wife of Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States may have ended up in the hands of two of the Sept. 11 hijackers. Congressional and administration officials said the report demonstrated that Riyadh had been lax about regulating charities used as conduits to finance terrorists.
The Bush administration is also preparing to make a formal request to Riyadh to use Saudi air bases if there is an American-led invasion of Iraq, and to ask the Saudis to step up oil production if a conflict causes a worldwide shortage.
Though American officials say they expect the Saudis to let American-led forces use their bases, Mr. Jubeir was coy about how Riyadh would respond to such a request. "We will not make a decision until the time comes and until we have weighed all of the options," he said.
American officials and terrorism experts said much of the eight-page Saudi document released today was a repackaging of measures under discussion or under way for months.
But administration officials nevertheless praised the Saudis for taking a more public, aggressive stand even though it was likely to anger conservative Muslims back home.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell praised Saudi efforts today, calling them "impressive." But he said they would need to take further steps to curb the flow of money.
In comments aboard a flight to Colombia, where he is to meet with the new president, Álvaro Uribe Velez, the secretary said of the Saudis: "Could they do more? Yes. Will there be more things we will ask them to do? Yes."
Similarly, several independent experts raised questions about the initiatives, arguing that Saudi Arabia has often failed to fulfill its promises to crack down on terrorists and their financiers.
"There's a lot of smoke here," said Matthew A. Levitt, a senior fellow in terrorism studies at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "There's nothing concrete enough to indicate how they will implement it, so as to make sure it has teeth."
The new report also failed to win over Saudi Arabia's leading critics on Capitol Hill.
"They are in denial," said Senator Richard C. Shelby, an Alabama Republican who was on the Senate Intelligence Committee and is expected to become chairman of the Banking Committee next month. "They're hoping this issue will go away. But I don't believe it's going to go away. A lot of people in America realize that there are just too many unanswered questions about powerful people in Saudi Arabia either wittingly or unwittingly helping to finance terrorism."
Congressional officials said one of Mr. Shelby's first actions as Banking Committee chairman would be to hire investigators to look into the financing of terrorists by banks and charities in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere.
Mr. Jubeir argued today that Saudi Arabia had been the victim of terrorism for longer than the United States - and just as big a target for Qaeda attacks. "Ultimately," he declared, "it is our two countries that are in the crosshairs of Al Qaeda."
For that reason, he added, Saudi Arabia has worked closely with the United States to track down terrorist financing and interrogate terrorist suspects. Those efforts have included freezing accounts belonging to Wael Hamza Jalaidan, a bin Laden aide, and to the Balkan branches of a Saudi-based charity, Al Haramain Islamic Foundation, he said.
But he argued that Americans remained unaware of Saudi Arabia's actions because the Saudis had not promoted them. "This is about to change," he said, indicating plans for a new Saudi public relations blitz.
Bush administration officials said today that a total of $121 million in suspected terrorist funds had been frozen worldwide, $36 million in the United States. Though the $5.5 million frozen by Saudi Arabia represents less than 5 percent of that total, American officials said they considered the Saudi effort "substantial."
One State Department official said the Saudis were "bold" to announce antiterror initiatives when American policies in the Middle East are deeply unpopular throughout the Persian Gulf region. But the official also said it could be months before it became clear whether the Saudis' plans were real or window-dressing.
"At this point," the official said, "we've got the pillars and the load-bearing walls. Now we need to see that the long-term commitment is there, that they will take an active role instead of waiting to be prompted every couple of weeks by a high-level American visit. That's something that we're not going to know for months."
-------- turkey
Turkey offers bases to U.S.
By Andrew Borowiec
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
December 4, 2002
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20021204-29712393.htm
NICOSIA, Cyprus - Turkey said yesterday that it would allow the United States to use its airspace and military bases in the event of a war against neighboring Iraq, provided that Washington acted with the approval of the United Nations.
Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis made the announcement after meeting with visiting Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman, who are in Turkey on a two-day visit to discuss support for an operation against Iraq.
Mr. Yakis said Turkey was against a war but that "if it comes to that, then of course, we will cooperate with the United States because it's a big ally and we have excellent relations with the United States."
Turkey has repeatedly said that any action in Iraq must have U.N. approval. But Mr. Yakis suggested yesterday that another U.N. resolution may be necessary before Turkey gives its approval.
"The present U.N. resolution does not allow the automatic resorting to armed intervention," he said.
According to diplomats in Ankara, Turkey is expected to give the U.S. officials a detailed memorandum on the country's requirements and estimated costs in the event of a war.
This was the first high-level visit by the Bush administration with the new Turkish government of Prime Minister Abdullah Gul, dominated by the Islamist Justice and Development Party.
Turkish officials have estimated the initial economic damage to Turkey at $12 billion, although higher estimates have been made.
The Turks appear most concerned about the possibility that Saddam Hussein's fall and Iraq's fragmentation could lead to the creation of a separate Kurdish state, capable of undermining Turkey's unity.
Mr. Wolfowitz did not answer directly when asked whether the United States had asked for permission to station U.S. troops in Turkey during any war.
"Military and diplomatic planning must proceed because Saddam Hussein must see that we are serious that he is surrounded by the international community," Mr. Wolfowitz said.
Apart from Iraq, Mr. Wolfowitz said that Washington had been working with the International Monetary Fund, which has given Turkey $16 billion in loans to help its economic recovery. Washington played a crucial role in helping Turkey get those loans.
Turkey's support is considered crucial in any war. Turkey is host to 50 U.S. aircraft that patrol a no-fly zone over northern Iraq, and its bases would be needed if Washington opens a northern front against Iraq.
The diplomats said the U.S. officials' talks in Ankara will focus on the Iraq situation as well as on Turkey's concern about the European Union's reluctance to set a date for its membership application at the EU summit in Copenhagen on Dec. 12.
Mr. Grossman's travels will also take him to Athens and Nicosia, where the attention is focused on a new U.N. plan to solve the Cyprus problem. It has been festering since the 1963 breakdown of cooperation between the island's Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities.
The plan calls for complicated power sharing between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, Turkish territorial concessions and Greek recognition of a separate Turkish Cypriot identity in the north of the Island. The Greek Cypriot government has accepted the plan as the basis for negotiations despite widespread opposition.
-------- us
Defense Dept. Seeks More Patriot Missiles
December 4, 2002
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/04/politics/04PATR.html
WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 - The Defense Department, preparing for a possible war with Iraq, said today that it would increase production of an improved version of the Patriot missile by 16 percent. Experts say the original Patriot largely failed to hit Iraqi missiles fired at Israel and Saudi Arabia in 1991.
Edward Aldridge, defense undersecretary for acquisition, logistics and technology, signed a memorandum on Monday ordering increased production of the PAC-3, or Patriot Advanced Capability-3, said Cheryl Irwin, a Pentagon spokeswoman.
The memo calls for production of 208 PAC-3 missiles, manufactured by the Lockheed Martin Corporation, in fiscal years 2003 and 2004, Ms. Irwin said, or 100 in 2003 and 108 in 2004. The planned output in 2003 had been 79, with 100 for 2004, according to defense and industry officials. The fiscal year ends Sept. 30.
Lockheed has received PAC-3 missile production orders totaling $850 million to date. No data were immediately available on the cost of the proposed production increase.
Unlike the PAC-2 missiles, which Israeli experts say failed to intercept 39 short-range Iraqi Scud missiles fired at Israel during the gulf war, the PAC-3 missile is a "hit to kill" missile, said Craig Vanbebber, a spokesman for Lockheed.
PAC-2 missiles are designed to destroy aircraft by exploding near their sides, but PAC-3 missiles are intended to smash into an incoming ballistic missile high in the Earth's atmosphere and destroy it, as well as any weapons of mass destruction it may be carrying.
--------
Weapon of the Week
The Microwave Phaser
by George Smith
December 4 - 10, 2002
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0249/smith.php
Medium rare: the mobile microwave (illustration: www.de.afrl.af.mil)
The Pentagon has always craved a phaser. Now it's turning to microwaving as a potential means of singeing the enemy.
The Department of Defense's bland name for this electronic heat ray is the Vehicle-Mounted Active Denial (VMAD) system, a mouthful of jargon that yields few clues about the weapon's nature. Allegedly designed for an Orwellian task-"humanitarian missions"-the VMAD is a giant version of your microwave oven, without the safety box surrounding it. The generals want to move it around on a humvee.
Official propaganda on the device is that it makes one's skin only lightbulb hot, enough to force a person to run but not enough to cook him. Of course, there is no proof this can be achieved, because the results of tests on people are classified. It's safe, insist the inventors, the air force's Directed Energy Directorate in Albuquerque.
But anyone with first-hand experience broiling hot dogs and other non-robust meats in their tabletop microwave might be chary of such an assertion. Struck by the heat ray, "Sssss," went the eyeball.
What is the microwaver's target? It must be unarmed civilians, because as described, the VMAD wouldn't seem to offer much against terrorists or regular soldiers ready to fire back with conventional weapons. What is certain is that the Pentagon's microwave projects lack oversight and common sense. In one manic, grandiose claim, the Defense Department calls VMAD "the biggest breakthrough in weapons technology since the atomic bomb."
The lust for military microwaving has also been a sinkhole for tax dollars. While much of the work remains deep in the shadows, the Directed Energy Directorate (DED) does allow that $40 million went out the door for the VMAD over the last decade. An additional $15 million was awarded to ITT Industries for research on high-power microwaving applications in bombs and other types of ray guns.
Microwaving facilities pictured as part of the Directorate also look to have cost a small fortune. One 27,000-square-foot concrete monolith is worth $9 million, resulting in a "cost-effective and timely capability."
Vendors capitalizing on the VMAD include Raytheon, CPI (Communications and Power Industries), and Veridian Engineering-a tech firm menacingly cited for its part in researching "biological effects."
-------- POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS
'Enemy Combatant' Wins Right to Obtain Counsel
December 4, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Terror-Suspect.html
NEW YORK (AP) -- A federal court has the authority to decide whether a former Chicago gang member accused of plotting with terrorists to detonate a radioactive ``dirty'' bomb was properly detained as an enemy combatant, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Until he makes that decision, U.S. District Judge Michael Mukasey said, Jose Padilla may meet with his lawyers. Padilla, a U.S. citizen, had been barred from meeting with attorneys since he was declared an enemy combatant in June.
The ruling was a blow to the government, which had argued that Padilla, a U.S. citizen, had no right to challenge its actions in court because of the enemy combatant status.
However, the judge did agree that the government has the power to detain unlawful combatants.
Padilla's lawyers, Donna Newman and Andrew Patel, say he is being held illegally.
The government has maintained that Padilla has no rights as an enemy combatant. It also said he could use contact with his lawyers to unwittingly pass messages to coconspirators, but Mukasey said rules could be crafted to avoid that possibility.
The government said Padilla twice met with senior al-Qaida operatives in Pakistan in March and discussed a plot to detonate a radiological weapon in the United States.
He was arrested May 8 at Chicago's O'Hare airport on a material witness warrant issued by a grand jury. He has been held in a Navy brig since he was declared an enemy combatant in June. The government says that declaration allows it to hold him without formal criminal charges.
A spokesman for U.S. Attorney James B. Comey had no immediate comment on the judge's ruling.
Newman said she was pleased with Mukasey's ruling.
``It is a significant decision. It's certainly a thorough decision,'' the defense lawyer said. ``I need to review it.''
Although the opinion opened a legal window for lawyers to fight on Padilla's behalf, the judge wrote supportively of the government's powers.
``The president ... has both constitutional and statutory authority to exercise the powers of commander in chief, including the power to detain unlawful combatants, and it matters not that Padilla is a United States citizen captured on United States soil,'' Mukasey wrote.
He said he would later resolve the issue of whether Padilla was lawfully detained and whether President Bush has evidence to support his finding that Padilla was an enemy combatant.
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U.N. Official Urges Detainees to Be Tried
December 4, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-UN-Human-Rights.html
GENEVA (AP) -- The United States should bring to trial terror suspects held in Cuba or hand them over to judicial authorities in their home countries, a top United Nations official said Wednesday.
Sergui Vieira de Mello, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, acknowledged the right of the United States to gather information on terrorism. ``But how long can you keep a person in legal limbo?'' he asked.
The U.S. military is detaining about 650 people from more than 40 countries at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, without access to lawyers.
Attorneys for several of the detainees have asked a U.S. federal appeals court to overturn an earlier ruling that the prisoners do not fall within the jurisdiction of U.S. courts because they are not in the United States. That case is pending.
Vieira de Mello said ``terrorism is an exceptional threat'' that may require governments to respond with ``exceptional, preventive and repressive measures'' to guarantee national safety.
``But in doing so, there is absolutely no need to reduce the standards of civil and political rights,'' he said.
``Curtailing such rights and civil liberties is exactly what terrorists want to see happen, because their objective ultimately is to bring down the democratic system of government.''
Vieira de Mello, a Brazilian, succeeded Ireland's Mary Robinson as U.N. human rights chief in September. At that time, he said he planned to work behind the scenes and be less publicly outspoken than his predecessor, who often ruffled feathers among world leaders.
-------- courts
Court Examines Use of Police Questioning
December 4, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Scotus-Police-Questioning.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Supreme Court justices struggled Wednesday with how aggressively police can question people without violating their constitutional rights.
At issue was the case of a California farmworker who, after being shot five times by police, never was told of his Miranda right to remain silent before a lengthy interrogation.
The court's ruling could have implications for counterterrorism interrogations, when building a criminal case may take a back seat to gathering intelligence.
The terrorism issue was on the minds of justices as they questioned lawyers on both sides, particularly about permissible levels of coercion in interrogations.
Justice Antonin Scalia wondered whether police could use extraordinary means on someone to get information about a plot to blow up the World Trade Center.
R. Samuel Paz, the lawyer for injured farmworker Oliverio Martinez, tried to steer the discussion toward Martinez's tragic circumstances. ``The terrorist situation is a difficult one,'' Paz said. ``It's not our case.''
Martinez's civil rights lawsuit against the City of Oxnard, Calif., includes allegations that police Sgt. Ben Chavez violated his rights five years ago by pressing Martinez to answer his questions as Martinez awaited medical treatment for a police shooting that left him blind and paralyzed.
The questioning continued even after the wounded man twice said he did not want to answer questions. Martinez was never charged with a crime.
A federal district court and the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals agreed Chavez could be sued for his actions. The case has not been tried, pending Chavez's appeal to the Supreme Court.
Lawrence S. Robbins, Chavez's lawyer, and Deputy Solicitor General Paul D. Clement told justices that the failure to give a Miranda warning should not be an issue since Martinez was never prosecuted.
``Miranda concerns in this case are an utter red herring,'' Robbins said.
The Bush administration, police organizations, the state of California and more than 50 California cities are siding with Chavez.
At one point Justice Stephen Breyer seemed to agree with Robbins. ``No one is talking about weakening or overturning Miranda,'' Breyer said.
The Miranda warning takes its name from the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in a 1966 case involving the use of a confession in the rape prosecution of Ernesto Miranda.
But Paz argued the case is very much about the viability of the Miranda warning. Chavez's purpose in questioning Martinez was to build a case against him, he said.
Ben Wizner, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer in Los Angeles who supports Martinez, said police will increasingly fail to advise people of their rights if the court rules against Martinez. ``That's why we have been saying that the court has to somehow make clear that at least deliberate violations of Miranda are not constitutional,'' Wizner said.
The other aspect of Martinez's plight that drew the justices' interest was whether the questioning was reasonable.
Paz said it was not. ``No reasonable police officer can believe the questioning was reasonable,'' he said.
Justice Stephen Breyer pressed Chavez's lawyer on the same point. With Martinez lying in agony, asking for help and believing he would die, why did Chavez continue to ask questions, even telling Martinez he would receive medical aid after talking, Breyer asked.
``Why isn't that the equivalent of beating someone up?'' the justice said.
Robbins said the officer was trying to elicit critical information because, like Martinez, he believed the man would die. ``I acknowledge there is coercion in this case. We don't blanch on that,'' Robbins said. ``But the reality is this: this officer was there to find out an extraordinarily important piece of information under exigent circumstances.''
The case is Chavez v. Martinez, 01-1444.
On the Net:
Supreme Court: http://www.supremecourtus.gov
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Judge Denies NYC Secret Evidence Request
December 4, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-BRF-Police-Surveillance.html
NEW YORK (AP) -- A federal judge has refused the city's request to present secret evidence in its effort to lift restrictions on police surveillance of political groups.
Lawyers for the city had argued that the case involved issues of ``national security,'' but Judge Charles Haight rejected the request Tuesday as ``unusual'' and ordered both sides to return to court Dec. 11.
The police department is seeking the right to conduct undercover investigations of political groups when there is no evidence of a crime. Currently, officers must first seek permission from a three-member panel.
That panel, known as the Handschu Authority, was established to settle a 1971 Black Panther Party lawsuit.
In September, the department argued in court papers that the panel hinders the hunt for terrorists who use mosques and Islamic institutes to shield their activities.
On the Net:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd
-------- death penalty
Ill. Senate OKs Death Penalty Changes
December 4, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Illinois-Death-Penalty.html
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) -- The Republican-controlled Illinois Senate approved a watered-down version Wednesday of Gov. George Ryan's plan to establish safeguards against executing innocent people.
However, the fate of the bill was uncertain because of likely opposition from Democrats, who control the House, and a possible veto from Ryan, a Republican who has championed death penalty reform.
The key provision in the bill would give the state Supreme Court expanded authority to review death penalty appeals and reduce sentences to life in prison without parole.
However, the bill omits Ryan's proposals to limit the number of crimes eligible for the death penalty or require videotaping of interrogations in capital cases.
Senate President James ``Pate'' Philip, a Republican, said a governor's veto would be a mistake because he is getting ``70 percent of what he wants.''
Democrats will control the Senate next year, and the future Senate president said Wednesday he will push for a broader overhaul of the death penalty system.
Ryan imposed a moratorium on executions nearly three years ago after 13 people on death row were found to have been wrongly convicted. That's one more than the state has executed since reinstating the death penalty in 1977.
On the Net:
Illinois Legislature: http://www.legis.state.il.us
-------- terrorism
Indonesia Arrests a Top Suspect in Southeast Asia Terror Network
December 4, 2002
New York Times
By RAYMOND BONNER
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/04/international/04CND-INDO.html
JAKARTA, Indonesia, Dec. 4 - A man suspected of being a senior commander in a regional terrorist network, and a mastermind of the Bali disco bombing attack, was arrested here today, the Indonesian police said.
The arrest of the suspect, Ali Ghufron, better known as Mukhlas, was heralded by diplomats and security officials as a significant step in learning more about the regional terrorist network, Jemaah Islamiyah, and its links to Al Qaeda.
"It's a big breakthrough, not only into the investigation of the Bali attack, but into shutting down the terrorist network here," said a senior Western diplomat.
"That's really tremendous!" exclaimed a security specialist when he learned of the arrest.
The arrest of Mr. Mukhlas, who is also wanted in Singapore in connection with a plot to blow up the American Embassy there last December, underscores a marked change in the Indonesian government's attitude and policy toward terrorism.
For more than an year, when American officials presented Indonesian officials with evidence of a terrorist network in this sprawling archipelago, the officials bristled at the suggestion and lashed out at the Americans for their policy of closing their embassy and schools.
Now, in the aftermath of the Bali bombing in October, while there are still Indonesians who believe it was all a Central Intelligence Agency plot, law enforcement officials are moving swiftly to roll up suspected members of Jemaah Islamiyah.
"It shows that when there is the political will, they have the ability to do it," said a Western official.
Mr. Mukhlas is the older brother of Amrozi, one of the first individuals arrested in connection with the Bali attack, which killed nearly 200, most of them Australians. At least five others have been arrested, but they have been identified by the police as cell members, or foot soldiers.
But with the arrest of Mr. Muhklas, "you're beginning to get at the network structure," said the security specialist. He is believed to have been the operational commander for several cells.
-------- ENERGY AND OTHER
-------- genetics
Genetic Code of Mouse Published
Comparison With Human Genome Indicates 'Junk DNA' May Be Vital
By Justin Gillis
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 5, 2002; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A11238-2002Dec4?language=printer
The huge stretches of genetic material dismissed in biology classrooms for generations as "junk DNA" actually contain instructions essential for the growth and survival of people and other organisms, and may hold keys to understanding