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NUCLEAR
NEOs and nukes
China successfully tests multi-warhead missiles
NO RADIOACTIVE WEAPONS IN GREEK ARMY
We now sit in an uneasy twilight - at home, abroad
Pakistan Expels Indian Embassy Officials
India, Pakistan expel diplomats
UN Arms Expert Says Iraq Talks 'Very Substantial'
Leave it in Blix's hands
Iraq Shows Facilities Cited by Powell
Media Tour Alleged 'Poison Site' in Iraq
Reporters on Ground Get Iraqi Rebuttal to Satellite Photos
High level of secrecy on space launch
S. Korea Appeals for Calm in Nuke Crisis
Bush Urges Chinese President to Press North Korea on Arms
S.Korea Questions U.S. 'Emotions' Over North
S. Korea Appeals for Calm in Nuke Crisis
Nation Put on Higher Threat Alert
Nuke this bad idea in the bud
For reader, this Perle doesn't shine
US cranks up economic pressure on Germany
Rumsfeld: Delay in disarming Iraq may mean war
Bush Prepared to Act on Iraq if U.N. Balks
Rumsfeld Slams NATO Delay on Support for Turkey
MILITARY
Official afraid of backlash from war
Tamil Rebels Set Off Explosion
In Stalin's Footsteps
Howard's support of US defies public opinion
Blast at Bogota Club Kills at Least 25
At least 25 die in Bogota blast
Franco-German Plan Floated to Avert Iraq War
U.S. Met With Iranians On War
Iranian Calls U.S. Presence Worse Than Rival's Weapons
France Said to Favor Peacekeepers in Iraq
Kuwait Builds Up Arsenal, Confidence
US urges quick end to Hajj so it can prosecute war
Egypt Asks U.S. for Trade Pact, Aid Boost
Hamas Leader Tells Muslims to Retaliate if U.S. Attacks
Turks unhappy with decision to allow in American troops
Extremist Groups Renew Activity in Pakistan
Two panels to monitor Pentagon's spy project
Iraq: Blair seeks new 'fig-leaf' resolution to avert French veto
France and China Rebuff Bush on Support for Early Iraq War
Boards to Monitor Surveillance Program
Britain Admits That Much of Its Report on Iraq Came From Magazines
Myths of the 'War on Terrorism'
POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS
U.S. May Seek Wider Anti-Terror Powers
Justice Dept. Draft on Wider Powers Draws Quick Criticism
Ashcroft Sets a Tone on the Death Penalty
Tons of boric acid hijacked in SoCal
U.S. put on higher terror alert
Tighter Security Under Terror Alert
Pentagon Forms 2 Panels to Allay Fears on Spying
ENERGY AND OTHER
War Worries Compound Energy Woes
Federal program to aid trafficked victims
ACTIVISTS
Rumsfeld Faces Tense Greeting and Antiwar Rallies in Munich
Venezuelan Opposition Stages March for Oil Strikers
Germans Rally Against War as Rumsfeld Speaks
Thousands in Germany Protest Iraq War
New York City Rally and March Permit Status
Christian Leaders Prominent in Anti-War Movement
-------- NUCLEAR
NEOs and nukes
WASHINGTON TIMES EDITORIAL •
February 8, 2003
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20030208-69354831.htm
It's a lottery that no one wants to win, since everyone will lose - it's also the one that the earth plays each day, as it rolls like a roulette ball around the sun. Someday zero, a devastating hit by a near earth object (NEO) - an asteroid or comet - will come up.
There are basically three types of threats from such objects, based on their size. Large objects (greater than 1 kilometer in size - 1 kilometer is roughly 1/2 mile) have the potential to wipe out civilization. Thanks to its Spaceguard Survey, NASA has been cataloguing those objects (it's estimated that there are between 900 and 1,230 of them), and should have more than 90 percent of them identified by 2008. Midsized NEOs, about 150 meters in size, are large enough to penetrate the atmosphere, and so could wipe out cities or states. There are thought to be about 25,000 such objects, about 250 of which are thought to be potentially hazardous. Only about 300 of those NEOs have been catalogued. The smallest threatening NEOs, less than 10 meters in size, pose a different threat. Instead of penetrating through the atmosphere, they explode in it with nuclear-weapon sized detonations.
That happens about 30 times a year, according to Randall R. Correll, who addressed the national security implications posed by NEOs at a seminar hosted this week by the George Marshall Institute. It's an area of increasing concern, considering the growing number of nuclear powers. Last June, for instance, a Hiroshima-sized NEO explosion over the Mediterranean might have triggered a war had it hit over Kashmir.
Defense Department satellites detected that and other explosions. Mr. Correll pointed out that, while the DOD can distinguish between natural NEO explosions and nuclear war shots, it does not have procedures for processing that information or presenting it in a timely manner to interested parties, whether scientists or nuclear powers engaged in a standoff. Mr. Correll suggested that the DOD, or at least its civilian leaders, look into ways in which such information can be shared without compromising classified mission data.
It is understandable that the DOD is reluctant to share any information that could compromise its spy satellites. There's a constant tension between scientific openness and national security. However, midpoints can, and should, be sought, especially since preventing unnecessary nuclear wars would seem to be in the best interests of the DOD.
Also, policymakers should seriously consider a program to catalogue midsized NEOs. While the last thing that either the DOD or NASA needs is another worry, the threat posed by NEOs will only grow greater with time.
-------- china
China successfully tests multi-warhead missiles
Hiroyuki Sugiyama,
Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent (Japan),
February 8, 2003
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/20030208wo41.htm
China successfully test-launched a medium-range missile with multiple warheads in December 2002, indicating a rapid modernization of China's nuclear missile capability aimed at countering the U.S. missile defense network planned for the region, sources said Friday.
The launching of the Dong Feng-21 (DF-21), with a target range of about 1,800 kilometers, was the first successful test launch of the missile with multiple warheads for China.
According to the sources, the launch was carried out in mid-December at a Second Artillery Corp's base of the People's Liberation Army in Shanxi Province, China.
It is believed that the multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV), which China had sought to develop quickly, was used for the missile.
Few newspapers in China carried any specifics of the test launch.
One newspaper wrote, "The first flight mission of a missile targeting certain points was successfully carried out."
Another newspaper said, "The successful test launch plays an important role in improving China's defense capabilities."
Although the success of the test launch does not mean that the missiles will be immediately deployed, Beijing is expected to further improve its technical capabilities and to aim for an early deployment based on the test results.
China has been trying to quickly develop a multiple-warhead missile system to counter the missile defense network being pursued by the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush on the U.S. mainland and in east Asia and to deter U.S. military pressure, Chinese diplomatic sources said .
China maintains two major types of missiles as a deterrence to U.S. military force. They are intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), which include the U.S. mainland in their target range, and medium-range missiles, designed to contain U.S. military intervention in Taiwan.
The DF-21 is categorized as a medium-range missile. About 50 DF-21s have been deployed in China since the 1980s.
If the MIRV missiles are deployed, they could help to deter U.S. mobile forces on aircraft carriers near Taiwan.
According to the sources, Beijing will begin deploying the DF-31--a new type of ICBM with a target range of about 8,000 kilometers--by this summer at the earliest. Three test launches of the ICBM have been carried out so far.
China reportedly has begun testing the DF-31 with multiple warheads.
During the 16th China Communist Party Congress last autumn, the party confirmed a policy to spur modernization of its military.
The strategic missile unit is the core of the policy, the sources said. The rate of modernization of Chinese missiles is expected to increase, analysts said.
-------- depleted uranium
NO RADIOACTIVE WEAPONS IN GREEK ARMY
Athens, 8 February 2003
MPA (Macedonian Press Agency)
http://www.mpa.gr/article.html?doc_id=324336
The Greek armed forces do not use radioactive weapons, while there are no such weapons in shooting ranges, underlined in Parliament yesterday Undersecretary of Defense Loukas Apostolidis responding to a question by Communist Party deputy Mrs. Liana Kanelli.
Mr. Apostolidis stated that the Atomic Energy Committee has conducted inspections and no radiation was recorded in the following areas: the Naval Yard in Salamina, the Greek army camp in Kosovo and Bosnia, the Air Force and land forces shooting ranges and in the island of Samos.
He said that the Greek army does not use neither depleted uranium missiles nor any kind of missiles with radioactive elements. He clarified that the only case is a number of missiles that are in storage in a special Navy depot since 1990 and added that based on the existing figures the number of cancer cases among the military personnel have dropped.
--------
We now sit in an uneasy twilight - at home, abroad
February 8, 2003
Albuquerque Tribune
http://www.abqtrib.com/archives/opinions03/020803_opinions_price.shtml
The late U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas observed, in the McCarthy era, that "as nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight. And it is in such twilight that we all must be aware of change in the air - however slight - lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness."
Oppression comes in strange packages. These twilight days, we can barely discern it, as it moves toward us, deflecting concerns about needless human suffering in wartime with institutional fibs etched in stone and a foreboding magic act of PR, in which the right hand works a puppet selling fear about terrorism, while the left hand pushes buttons to massacre tens of thousands.
Of course, terrorism is to be feared and condemned in all its endless forms and permutations. There's simply no good terrorist, period - not in uniform or disguised in noble causes.
The twilight of oppression, however, cloaks the truth in terror and denial. And you don't need to go halfway around the world to see it.
So-called "harmless" depleted uranium munitions-testing outside Socorro in the late 1980s and early 1990s; denial of health dangers from post-Cerro Grande Fire plutonium concentrations in runoff around Los Alamos Laboratory that are 100 times as potent as runoff measured four years ago; and the complete disguising of war-caused human catastrophes in euphemisms about "regime change" and "disarmament" - these are dark enough.
In this twilight, an aggressive war against Iraq is being sold as if our military could simply scoop out the offending Iraqi "illegal weapons" and, along with them, Saddam himself.
But the reality is surely nothing like the sell. American troops by the thousands, and Iraqi civilians in appalling numbers, will be killed, and all to demolish a single monster, who probably will have escaped before the first bomb is dropped, much like that other monster, Osama bin Laden.
Imagine what would happen to Albuquerque if a war should take from us an estimated 48,000 to 260,000 civilians - numbers cited by the United Nations and the World Health Organization as probable for the citizens of Iraq.
As Newsweek noted recently, "New reports predict that, as bombs destroy Iraq's transportation networks and electricity grids, millions will lose access to basic medicine, adequate food and even potable water . . . (and) health consequences range from malnutrition and dysentery to deadly outbreaks of measles and meningitis." All that for "regime change."
If cruise missiles should hit us here, our lives would change forever, if we survived. Dead friends and spouses, dead children, closed schools, closed banks, no food or water, rampaging illness, social disruption, trauma of all kinds - what could possibly be worse? It would be a living hell.
In order to kill one man, in essence, a whole nation and its people have to be irreparably mangled. The U.N. high commissioner for refugees estimates that, after such a war in Iraq, some 7.4 million people will need humanitarian aid. That's over three times the population of New Mexico. How can that be sane?
In twilight times, however, even madness is sold as rationality. State health officials here see, for instance, "no immediate health risks" from what they euphemistically call "legacy waste," in the form of old plutonium carried in runoff to the Rio Grande in intense concentrations since the big Los Alamos fire. The facts that there are some 2,000 toxic dump sites around Los Alamos, that petty crime is rampant at the labs and that institutional lying, in the form of national security coverups, are the order of the day make twilight seem darker than ever.
The darkness is particularly chilling, though, when it comes to ammunition made from depleted uranium, a material suspected as a cause of lung and kidney cancer and nonchalantly tested behind New Mexico School of Mining and Technology for years.
Depleted uranium is "pyrophoric" - it burns on contact - and as an Army fact sheet states that the impact of DU shells causes great heat, which "results in smoke that contains high concentrations of DU particles . . . (which) can be inhaled or ingested and are toxic."
Think of Iraq covered in such smoke. Think of Socorro. These are twilight times, indeed.
Price is an Albuquerque free-lance writer, author, editor and longtime commentator. His column runs on Saturdays.
-------- india / pakistan
Pakistan Expels Indian Embassy Officials
February 8, 2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Pakistan-India-Expulsions.html
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistan on Saturday ordered the acting Indian ambassador and four other Indian Embassy officials to leave the country in an apparent retaliation for the expulsion by India of its senior diplomat.
Sudhir Vyas, the acting ambassador of the Indian Embassy has 48 hours to leave the country, according to a foreign ministry statement.
Earlier Saturday, India ordered Jalil Abbas Jilani, the acting head of the Pakistani diplomatic mission, to leave India within 48 hours, a day after accusing him of funneling money to separatists in Kashmir. Four other Pakistan Embassy staff also were ordered to leave India.
The two countries routinely engage in tit-for-tat diplomatic posturing.
Pakistan accused Vyas and his four colleagues at the Indian Embassy here of ``involvement in activities incompatible with their status,'' a usual reference to spying. The other Indian Embassy officials ordered out of Pakistan were Rahul Rasgotra, first secretary, and embassy staff M.R. Balu, Rambir Singh and Surinder Raj Anand.
While the Indian Embassy officials have to be out of the country within two days, their families have seven days to leave.
The Pakistan foreign ministry said the decision to expel five employees of the Indian Embassy here keeps staff numbers the same as those at the Pakistan Embassy in New Delhi.
``Reciprocating the Indian decision to further cut the strength of the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi from 51 to 47 personnel, the government of Pakistan has also decided to apply the same staff ceiling on the Indian High Commission in Islamabad,'' the ministry statement said.
Pakistan and India have fought three wars since the British gave the Asian subcontinent its independence in 1947.
Two of the three conflicts have been over the disputed Kashmir region, which is divided between the two nuclear neighbors and claimed in its entirety by both nations.
They routinely accuse the other of fomenting violence and carrying out acts of sabotage on each other's territory. India says Pakistan is arming, training and financing a bloody secessionist movement in Indian-controlled Kashmir that has killed as many as 60,000 people since 1989.
Pakistan says its support is limited to political and diplomatic help.
----
India, Pakistan expel diplomats
By Harbaksh Singh Nanda
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
February 8, 2003
http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20030208-092512-7552r.htm
NEW DELHI, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- India on Saturday expelled Pakistani Deputy High Commissioner in New Delhi Jaleel Abbas Gilani and four other diplomatic officers for allegedly funding Kashmiri separatists.
New Delhi has asked Gilani to leave the country within 48 hours since he allegedly committed actions in breach of his diplomatic status.
"We have hard evidence to show that what he (Gilani) was doing is incompatible with diplomatic norms," the Press Trust of India quoted India's foreign ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna as saying. Pakistan retaliated by expelling India's deputy high commissioner in Islamabad and four diplomatic officers.
India said it seized 300,000 rupees (about $6300) from a Muslim woman who said the money was to be passed on to the chief of an umbrella group of separatist rebel groups in Kashmir. She said the money was given to her by the expelled Pakistani officials.
Anjum Zamrooda Habib was arrested Thursday near the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi. She told a judge the money was a "gift" from the High Commission for Kashmir's All Party Freedom Conference chief Abdul Ghani Bhatt.
India also directed four officials of the Pakistani High Commission to leave the country. They are Habibur Rehman, Aftab Ahmed, Abdul Razak and Mohammed Nazir.
A Pakistani high commission spokesperson termed India's decision to expel the diplomatic officials as "very regrettable," PTI said.
Pakistan retaliated by expelling Sudhir Vyas, India's deputy high commissioner in Islamabad, and four other embassy officials.
India had earlier expelled the Pakistani high commissioner and withdrew its own envoy to Islamabad to protest Pakistan's alleged complicity in the Dec. 13, 2001, attack on the Indian parliament by Muslim separatists.
The embassy staff in both capitals was also halved.
India and Pakistan have often expelled each other's diplomats on charges of spying or funding militants. They have fought three wars since gaining independence from Britain in 1947.
-------- inspections
UN Arms Expert Says Iraq Talks 'Very Substantial'
February 8, 2003
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-iraq.html
BAGHDAD/MUNICH (Reuters) - Chief U.N. arms inspector Hans Blix called new disarmament talks with Iraqi officials on Saturday ``very substantial,'' as the United States rebuked European allies for their reluctance to back war on Baghdad.
Blix and chief U.N. atomic expert Mohamed ElBaradei opened two days of talks in Baghdad as they prepared to present a fresh report to the U.N. Security Council next Friday that could start a countdown to war.
In Germany, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told a security conference the world was serious about disarming Baghdad. He rounded on France, Germany and Belgium for ``inexcusable'' stalling of NATO moves to help protect Turkey from any war in its neighbor Iraq.
Apparently undeterred, Germany announced a new Franco-German initiative to try to avert military conflict. A German magazine reported it involved sending thousands of U.N. peace-keeping troops to Iraq and trebling the number of arms inspectors.
But President Bush appeared to be preparing his nation for war in a radio address: ``The United States, along with a growing coalition of nations, will take whatever action is necessary to defend ourselves and disarm the Iraqi regime.''
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in an address at William and Mary College in Virginia, warned the United States against attacking Iraq on its own, saying collective action under a U.N. umbrella would have greater legitimacy and better odds of success.
A U.N. source in Baghdad said Iraqi had handed over documents to Blix and ElBaradei during their first round of talks on Saturday.
IRAQ HANDS OVER DOCUMENTS
``The Iraqi side gave us documents. We will work on them tonight and will discuss them tomorrow,'' the source said.
Blix and ElBaradei are in Baghdad for the first time since Secretary of State Colin Powell spelled out to the Security Council last Wednesday Washington's case against Iraq.
Blix categorized Saturday's talks as ``very substantial.''
ElBaradei said: ``The Iraqi side is providing explanations on some of the issues. We have discussed the (U-2) surveillance flights, scientists' interviews as well as outstanding chemical, biological and missile issues.''
``We have to see the results tomorrow,'' ElBaradei said, adding that there would be more talks on Sunday.
They have warned Iraq it must take drastic steps to avert a U.S.-led war to rid it of alleged weapons of mass destruction.
Babel, Iraq's most influential newspaper, said Baghdad would do its best to make the visit a success.
``No one wants war. War is never a first or an easy choice. But the risks of war need to be balanced against the risks of doing nothing while Iraq pursues weapons of mass destruction,'' Rumsfeld told the conference in the south German city of Munich.
``Clearly, momentum is building, momentum that sends a critically important message to the Iraqi regime -- about our seriousness of purpose and the world's determination that Iraq disarm.
``This is not months or years, this is days or weeks we're going to know whether they are going to cooperate,'' he said.
``He (Iraqi President Saddam Hussein) has not been contained, he is successfully getting into that country darn near everything he wants.''
DEEP U.S.-EUROPEAN DIVISIONS
Laying bare deep U.S.-European divisions over Iraq, Rumsfeld said NATO's failure to agree on planning defense measures for alliance member Turkey risked undermining NATO's credibility.
Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer of Germany, a firm opponent of war on Iraq, replied by insisting peace should be given a chance. He said Berlin stood by NATO obligations but wanted to wait until after the U.N. inspectors' report.
In Ankara, Prime Minister Abdullah Gul sought to ease concerns in Turkey about an unpopular war, saying it must be prepared if its close ally the United States struck neighboring Iraq.
Ankara has agreed to allow U.S. engineers to upgrade Turkish air bases and sea ports ahead of a parliamentary vote on February 18 to open the military facilities to U.S. forces in the event of a war.
Opinion polls show four out of five Turks oppose a possible war on a fellow Muslim state.
Confirming the Franco-German peace initiative, a German government spokesman said: ``I can confirm that there are joint considerations on finding a peaceful alternative to a military solution to the Iraq conflict.'' He gave no details.
A report by news magazine Der Spiegel said the plan for U.N. troops to enforce disarmament was to be put to the Security Council. It would also involve stricter rules on exports to Iraq and an agreement with Iraq's neighbors to stop oil smuggling.
FRANCE SAYS WAR A LAST RESORT
French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said in Munich Paris had never ruled out military action to disarm Iraq, but it would have to be a last resort.
Amid the diplomatic moves for peace, Pope John Paul urged the world not to resign itself to war, declaring:
``We have to multiply efforts. We can't stop when faced with either terror attacks or the threats that are on the horizon. We should never resign ourselves, almost as if war is inevitable.''
Amid a huge U.S. military buildup in the Gulf, Bush has said he would welcome a new U.N. resolution after one in November that warned of serious consequences if Iraq failed to comply.
Diplomats said a new Security Council resolution seeking international legitimacy for war might not include a deadline for Saddam to comply, or explicitly authorise force.
Defense and foreign ministers of six pro-Western Gulf Arab states agreed to send a joint force to Kuwait ``as soon as possible'' to defend it against any Iraqi attack in the event of war.
-------- iraq
Leave it in Blix's hands
By Linda S. Heard,
Arab News SAUDI ARABIA'S FIRST ENGLISH LANGUAGE DAILY
08 February 2003
http://www.arabnews.com/print.asp?id=22616&ArY=2003&ArM=2&ArD=11
We knew in advance that Secretary of State Colin Powell did not have the infamous "smoking gun", we knew that Powell would not provide solid proof that Saddam Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction, but we did expect that Powell would present convincing evidence to the UN Assembly.
In reality, Powell's presentation, although professionally delivered, merely illuminated that America has little evidence to back up their claim that Iraq still has weapons of mass destruction. It was a mishmash of hearsay, supposed communications intercepts, eye-witness reports, and secondhand accounts from defectors and the "disappeared" languishing in Guantanamo Bay. The latter would no doubt say that the moon was made of Feta cheese, if that would help their case. Hans Blix, in his earlier report, said that information from such defectors is not reliable.
First of all we heard a transcript of a conversation between a Republican Guard and an officer in the field where the guard asks his subordinate to clear out the scrap. He then goes on to tell him to destroy the message. What message?
Powell comments that this is part and parcel of Iraq's policy of evasion and deceit. Given that we know for certain that the Bush administration is determined to overthrow the Iraqi regime, and is willing to go it alone if necessary, how can we be certain that this alleged intercept is genuine?
My own experience in the Middle East and the Gulf convinces me that this recording does not sound like an authentic exchange between two Arabs of differing status. First, there would have been elaborate greetings, with the junior soldier calling his superior by a respectful title, instead of just answering "na'am", meaning "OK". To my ears, the soldier sounded far too curt to be for real. Amer Al-Sa'adi, Saddam Hussein's chief scientific advisor, referred to this as "manufactured evidence." He said: "It is known as the concealment theory and the author of this theory is still around, Scott Ritter. You can ask him about the concealment theory to which Colin Powell repeatedly refers." Al-Sa'adi derided Powell's presentation as being "a typical American show complete with stunts and special effects".
The secretary of state next described the high level committee set up by Iraq to monitor the inspectors, a committee headed by Foreign Minister Taha Yassin Ramadan. Again, in the light of the fact that several UNSCOM weapons inspectors were found to be American spies, why wouldn't Iraq be cautious about allowing foreigners to run around its country unfettered on the brink of a possible war? "Orders were issued to Iraq's security organizations to hide all correspondence with the Organization of Military Industrialization," said Powell. He said that Hussein's son had ordered the removal of illicit weapons from the Iraqi president's palaces. He talked about material, which has been concealed in scientist's home, as well as items in cars, which drive perpetually around the countryside.
Amer Al-Sa'adi, countered by saying that Hans Blix had jumped the gun talking about the document found in the scientist's home. He said that the document was not classified, as Blix had first supposed, and that a copy of this research document had been given to a representative of the IAEA after a conference in the 1980s.
Satellite photographs: I was pleased to hear Powell saying that he found satellite photographs hard to interpret. An astute observation. A cloudy photograph of a munitions facility in Taji, taken before the latest inspections, showed decontamination vehicles driving around what he said were four active chemical munitions bunkers.
Just before the inspections, Powell said, the vehicles were nowhere to be seen, and the bunkers had been cleaned out. We have to wonder why the satellite didn't later capture the current locations of these vans, and how every trace of chemicals could have been so completely cleared from those bunkers and the surrounding areas.
The inspectors have such sophisticated state-of-the-art testing equipment. Still if Iraq removed every single trace of illicit materials, we must surely regard it with awe for its technical expertise. America and Britain have shown us numerous satellite photographs before in relation to Iraq. On many of these occasions, Iraq immediately took reporters to the sites photographed, and each and every time they found nothing, except such innocuous items as baby milk and sugar.
Al-Sa'adi said that the inspectors, armed with similar satellite imagery, have already checked these sites and left satisfied with the answers to their questions and their test results.
Iraq is currently being threatened with a massive bombing campaign in which nothing is ruled out including the use of microwave technology, depleted uranium and even the nuclear bunker busting warheads. Baghdad is under threat. Which country on earth would wish to see its enemies' spy planes circling overhead at a time like this? The Americans are already listening in to telephone and wireless communications, taking satellite pictures, and has admitted to the infiltration of human intelligence to pinpoint Iraq and persuade the world to rubber-stamp a war. Is Iraq just expected to lift up its skirts leaving itself exposed and vulnerable to attack?
Al-Sa'adi explained that the Iraqi government did not object to U2 flights but could not be responsible for their safety as long as British and American planes were dropping bombs over the so-called "no-fly" zones.
He asked that these incursions over Iraqi territory stop as per Resolution 1441, which provides for the maintenance of the sovereignty and integrity of Iraq.
Al Qaeda: As the editor of the Arabic daily Al-Quds, Abdel Bari Atwan says, "the link with Al- Qaeda is very weak. The secretary said these links (between Al-Qaeda and Iraq) started in 95, so why didn't Saddam pass his nerve gases to Al-Qaeda then? If Al-Qaeda had been handed these devastating weapons from Saddam Hussein they would have used these on Sept. 11 and not aircraft."
Bari Atwan said that Osama Bin Laden once offered his services to the Saudi government to eliminate Saddam Hussein and was angered at being turned down. Given their widely differing ideologies - Saddam Hussein a secular leader and Osama Bin Laden an extremist Wahhabi, who has called Hussein "an apostate" - it is hardly unlikely that they would now be working together. Powell is crediting Saddam Hussein with adhering to the principle of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend," but has no evidence that this is the case.
As for Abu Musab Zarqawi, an Al-Qaeda affiliate implicated in the African embassies and the USS Cole bombings, he is based in Powell's own words in northwestern Iraq, which is Kurdish territory protected by the United States. If Powell knows this, why doesn't America go after him? Based on the way that the US treated the Taleban, targeting them because they were harboring Bin Laden, then why is America so reticent when it comes to the Kurdish tribes, who they say have welcomed Zarqawi into their bosom?
He said that Zarqawi spent some time in a Baghdad hospital and was soon followed by Al-Qaeda militants who are allowed to come and go as they please. Couldn't we say the same thing about London, Paris, Milan, and yes, even Washington? Isn't there an Al-Qaeda presence in almost every country of the world, according to United States government sources? Osama Bin Laden was reported to have undergone treatment in the American Hospital in Dubai in mid-2001 where he was visited by a CIA agent, but nobody is pointing fingers at the UAE.
Iraq's UN ambassador said that just a few days ago the CIA reported that there are no verifiable significant links between the Iraqi government and Al-Qaeda members. This was backed up by the British intelligence services, which are miffed that their work is being distorted for political purposes.
Powell once again talked about the aluminum tubes, those same tubes that IAEA head Mohamed El-Baradei had investigated at length and which he declared, during his earlier presentation to the UN, as having been used to manufacture short-range ballistic missiles, not for producing fissionable material.
The dove-turned-hawk didn't shrink from vilifying Saddam Hussein on a personal level citing "his contempt for the truth" and "his utter contempt for human life". We again heard how Hussein used mustard and nerve gas against the Kurds (his own people they are called, even though at the time those chemicals were used, the Kurds were attempting to pull down the Baghdad regime). The Iraqi ambassador to the UN said that he was surprised about this statement since the CIA had verified years ago that Iraq didn't have that particular type of chemical weaponry in its armory.
The secretary talked about how chemical weapons had been used on another nation, obviously talking about Iran but failed to say, that at that time Hussein had been the blue-eyed boy of Washington. America supplied Iraq not only with weapons but also with technical know-how during the Iran-Iraq War. No wonder the US grabbed the Iraqi weapons declaration document, pulling out entire sections, before it was handed over to the other Security Council members. The pages were choc-a-bloc with the names of American and British companies, which had willingly sold materials for the manufacture of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
"When we confront a regime that harbors ambitions for regional domination - unless we act we are confronting an even more frightening future," warned Powell. Detractors of American hegemony in the region and beyond may well be thinking the very same thing about the US.
Al-Sa'adi was dismissive of Powell's claim that Iraq had pronounced many Iraqi scientists as "deceased" while they were still walking around. He challenged Powell to produce these individuals if, as he says, they were still alive, and called the American contention "ridiculous" in these days of DNA testing. "This is really below the level of a country leading the world," he said. So which side do we believe? Both sides have a vested interest and so we should leave the final analysis in the hands of Blix and El-Baradei. After all, they are the UN-appointed experts.
There is one question that bothers me in the meantime. Why did the US come up with this so-called "evidence" at the eleventh hour?
Time is running out for Saddam Hussein, we are told over and over by the Bush-Blair partnership. Jack Straw, Britain's foreign secretary, in his speech to the UN even parroted George Bush's frequent use of the word "evil" pertaining to the Iraqi leader.
But what both Powell and Straw failed to mention was the horrendous human tragedy that would be suffered by the Iraqi people if the pyrotechnics begin. Iraq is not threatening its neighbors, does not want war and wants to rejoin the world community. For the sake of the Iraqi children and the stability of the region, we should keep the inspectors in place for as long as it takes and say a firm "no" to any war for regional domination, the furtherance of American hegemony and oil.
----
Iraq Shows Facilities Cited by Powell
Missiles Within U.N.'s Limits, Officials Assert
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, February 8, 2003; Page A14
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42275-2003Feb7?language=printer
AL MUSAYYIB, Iraq, Feb. 7 -- The Iraqi rocket-testing workshop here was cited before the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday as a hiding place for banned weapons. Today, journalists brought in by the government saw missile tubes, tailfins and nosecones inside the building, along with four assembled Al Fatah missiles, freshly painted white, that lay outside near a large truck.
Nothing at the facility, Iraqi officials asserted as they showed reporters around, constitutes a violation of U.N.-imposed weapons restrictions.
In his presentation to the council, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell alleged that President Saddam Hussein's government sought to hide missile components here in the weeks before U.N. inspectors began scouring the country for banned arms, including missiles that can travel more than 93 miles. Powell displayed a satellite photograph of the workshop, which he said was taken Nov. 10. To ministers and diplomats assembled around the Security Council chamber, he pointed out missile-storage canisters, warhead canisters, missile airframes and a cargo truck, all of which, he said, suggested unusual goings-on.
To respond to Powell's contention, Iraq's weapons-monitoring directorate organized a field trip for about 100 journalists, escorting them to Al Musayyib and another rocket-testing facility. At both sites, officials insisted they test and assemble only missiles whose ranges and payloads do not violate U.N. disarmament resolutions.
Powell's "allegations are untrue and absolutely baseless," said the facility's director, Karim Jabbar. On any day, he said, "Colin Powell can claim there is intense activity here . . . because we are busy assembling and testing."
Jabbar said the solid-propellant Al Fatah missiles assembled and tested at Al Musayyib have a range of less than 93 miles. Asked if biological or chemical warheads were ever placed on one of the missiles, he responded with an icy "absolutely not!"
Conspicuously absent during the workshop visit were workers. "It's Friday," an amused official from Iraq's weapons-monitoring directorate explained. Friday is the Muslim Sabbath, and in Iraq, it is the day of the week people do not go to the office. Every other day, said Jabbar, "there is constant activity here."
At the other facility to which the journalists were escorted, the Al Rafah missile test stand, site director Ali Jassem maintained that the liquid-propellant Al Samoud missile engines he tests are within the approved range, despite Powell's contention that a new testing unit on the grounds is designed for longer-range missiles.
The two sites were among the least-sensitive of those Powell mentioned in his presentation. U.N. inspectors have visited both of them more than once. The inspectors even observed a missile engine test at Al Rafah, which is near the town of Al Fallujah about 50 miles west of Baghdad. The inspectors also have placed small metallic identification stickers on missiles at Al Musayyib, which is about 50 miles south of Baghdad.
It was impossible for the journalists to determine whether the missiles on display at Al Musayyib or the design of the stand at Al Rafah violate U.N. resolutions passed after the 1991 Persian Gulf War to limit Iraq's weapons. But in his report to the Security Council last month, the chief U.N. weapons inspector, Hans Blix, did not mention either site as a potential concern -- a point Iraqi officials were quick to point out today.
"The inspectors looked at everything technical. They copied all the plans. They asked many questions," Jassem said. "They found no problem with it."
But Blix did say that the Al Fatah and the Al Samoud have been tested to a range in excess of 93 miles. "Some of both types of missiles have already been provided to the Iraqi armed forces, even though it is stated that they are still undergoing development," Blix told the council on Jan. 27.
What has prompted concern among U.S. intelligence officials at Al Rafah is a new engine-testing unit so large it is housed in a four-story concrete-frame hangar. Powell asserted that the unit "is larger than anything [Iraq] has ever had" and is designed for missiles that can fly 750 miles.
But Jassem said that, because the new unit is designed to test engines horizontally, instead of vertically as it was previously done, the unit needs a large exhaust vent and a cavernous structure. He also disputed Powell's contention that the structure has a corrugated tin roof to prevent satellite observation. "We are covering it because of rain and dust," he said.
Jabbar said the activity at Al Musayyib on Nov. 10, captured in a grainy black-and-white satellite photo, was not intended to sanitize the facility in anticipation of inspections. With Iraq facing a possible war with the United States, Al Fatah missiles are regularly brought to the site for alignment and testing, he said, adding that "we do this every day."
Walking over to the truck parked outside, he pointed inside the empty cargo compartment. That day, he said, the truck was loaded with 10 separate missile components. "It was just machine parts used in the assembly of the missiles," he said. "There was nothing forbidden."
Jabbar said he could think of only one reason Powell mentioned his facility. "It was to mislead," he said. "What he said was not the truth."
----
Media Tour Alleged 'Poison Site' in Iraq
Islamic Militants Show Press the Camp Powell Called Poison Site
The Associated Press
February 8, 2003
http://www.abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20030208_1486.html
SARGAT, Iraq Feb. 8 - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell called the camp in northern Iraq a terrorist poison and explosives training center, a deadly link in a "sinister nexus" binding Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida.
But journalists who visited the site depicted in Powell's satellite photo found a half-built cinderblock compound filled with heavily armed Kurdish men, video equipment and children but no obvious sign of chemical weapons manufacturing.
"You can search as you like," said Mohammad Hassan, a spokesman for the Islamic militant group Ansar al-Islam, which controls the camp and the surrounding village. "There are no chemical weapons here."
Ansar al-Islam, believed to have ties to al-Qaida, says the camp serves as its administrative office for Sargat village, living quarters and a propaganda video studio.
A half-dozen children and some teenagers watched with curiosity as Western journalists arrived in a convoy of white SUVs. A couple of dozen bearded men in black turbans, heavily armed with Kalashnikovs and grenades, watched closely.
During his appearance before the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday, Powell displayed a satellite photo of this camp, which was identified as "Terrorist Poison and Explosive Factory, Khurmal."
Powell said the camp was run by al-Qaida fugitives from Afghanistan who were under the protection of Ansar al-Islam here in the autonomous Kurdish area of Iraq in a region beyond Saddam Hussein's control.
But Powell maintained that a senior member of Ansar al-Islam was a Saddam agent, implying a tenuous link between Baghdad and the terrorists who carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
Western journalists were brought to this camp, with its distinctive polygon-shaped fencing and nearby hills, by the Islamic Group of Kurdistan, a moderate Muslim organization which maintains good relations with Ansar al-Islam.
The compound, accessible by a long dirt road, is in a village of several hundred people at the base of the massive Zagros mountains separating Iraq from Iran.
Security appeared lax at the compound, whose jagged barbed-wire perimeter matched a satellite photograph Powell displayed in his Security Council presentation.
As evidence that the camp serves as a housing area, child-sized plastic slippers could be seen in the doorways. A refrigerator had been turned into a closet and filled with colorful women's clothes. The most sophisticated equipment seen at the site was the video gear and makeshift television studio Ansar says it uses to make its propaganda films.
Ansar officials speculated that Powell was misled in his accusations of a poison factory by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of two parties governing the autonomous northern Kurdish section of Iraq. Ansar has been at war for two years with the PUK.
"Everything Powell said about us is untrue," said a man calling himself Ayoub Hawleri. Other Kurds referred to him as Ayoub Afghani, who manufactures explosives for suicide bombers.
"He was just repeating the PUK's lies," Ayoub said.
The Patriotic Union said Powell's allegations about the poison laboratory were correct and it was in the Sargat compound in an area accessible only to those who had come from Afghanistan and had "ties to al-Qaida." A PUK spokeswoman said Saturday that Ansar could have moved the facility before the journalists got there.
Though Ansar officials allowed the journalists access to the site, they did not permit reporters to talk to anyone except two designated Ansar officials.
Hawleri said he was shocked and surprised after watching Powell's speech, which said Ansar harbored Abu Musaab al-Zarqawi, a suspected al-Qaida operative and alleged assassin of U.S. diplomat Laurence Foley in Jordan last year.
"The first time I even heard of al-Zarqawi was on television," he said.
The name on the photo Powell showed to the world was Khurmal, a nearby town that is under the control of Islamic Group of Kurdistan.
Islamic Group denies there is such a camp at Khurmal and believes Powell's satellite photo evidence misidentified the site's location.
An official at the equivalent of the local social security office said the Sargat compound is in the district of Biyare, near the town of Biyare where Ansar has its headquarters.
Before taking journalists to Sargat, Islamic Group took them to Khurmal to show them the camp was not there.
Group official Fazel Qaradari said he welcomed the large contingent of Western media to "see for themselves" that there is no such factory in Khurmal.
The road to Sargat passes the ruins of numerous villages destroyed by Saddam Hussein in his late 1980s campaign against Iraq's Kurds. Though less well-known than nearby Halabja a city about 19 miles away where 5,000 Kurds were killed by chemical weapons in 1988, the Sargat area also was subjected to chemical weapons bombardment.
In the village of Ahmad Awa, headquarters of the Islamic Group's leader, Ali Bapir, residents said they frequently visit Sargat, and although they have been denied access to the compound, they do not believe there are any chemical weapons or al-Qaida operatives in the village.
"We're certain that's wrong," said Azad Muhedil, head of the village council. "We have been victims of war and upheaval in the past. The people here are still recovering from chemical weapons."
photo credit and caption: The Ansar Al-Islam base is seen at Sargat, Iraq, Saturday, Feb. 8, 2003. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell called camps in this area in northern Iraq a terrorist poison and explosives training center, a link binding Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida. But journalists who visited the site depicted in Powell's satellite photo found a half-built cinderblock compound filled with heavily armed Kurdish men, video equipment and children - but no obvious sign of chemical weapons manufacturing. (AP Photo/Hasan Sarbakhshian)
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Reporters on Ground Get Iraqi Rebuttal to Satellite Photos
February 8, 2003
New York Times
By IAN FISHER
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/08/international/middleeast/08BAGH.html
AL MUSAYYIB, Iraq, Feb. 7 - "No smoking - please!" the Iraqi official said, and he meant it.
In front of him were actual missiles - five of them, with a scattering of steel cases for the warheads - in a lot at a factory near here. Not just any factory, but one that Secretary of State Colin L. Powell showed the world this week in his presentation to the United Nations Security Council, charging that satellite photos had caught the Iraqis hiding things they did not want weapons inspectors to see.
"At this ballistic missile site on Nov. 10," Mr. Powell said at the United Nations on Wednesday, "we saw a cargo truck preparing to move ballistic missile components."
To which, Kareem Jabbar Yusuf, the manager of the plant near here, said, "It's all lies."
Thus was crystallized, under the sun in the steadily warming desert, the dynamic in the debate over whether to attack Iraq: American accusations, Iraqi denials and pretty much no way for anyone else to know where the truth lies.
But what is clear is that Iraq is working vigorously to present its version of events, the day before the two chief United Nations weapons inspectors' scheduled treturn to Baghdad for another round of last-minute talks. After devoting two news conferences this week to rebutting Mr. Powell's accusations that Iraq still possesses weapons of mass destruction, officials here escorted dozens of journalists to two sites that he singled out before the Security Council.
These were not the precise, scientific visits that the inspectors, who have gone to both sites several times since November, presumably enjoy. Rather, the scene was one of chaos, with journalists armed with little more knowledge than the transcript of Mr. Powell's speech jostling one another for scraps of Arabic translated on the fly.
Officials took reporters to Al Rafah plant, near Faluja, roughly 50 miles west of Baghdad, to view a new testing stand for Iraqi rockets. Under United Nations resolutions, Iraq is permitted to make rockets with a range of no more than 150 kilometers, or about 93 miles. But Mr. Powell alleged that this new testing stand was designed "for long-range missiles that can fly 1,200 kilometers," or about 745 miles.
"These are missiles that Iraq wants in order to project power, to threaten, and to deliver chemical, biological and, if we let him, nuclear warheads," Mr. Powell charged.
The new and unfinished stand, which rises in steel and concrete roughly 50 feet, is in fact, as Mr. Powell alleged, much larger than the old stand a few hundred yards away, which Iraq has used to test its rockets for more than a decade. The vent for the exhaust, a concrete channel embedded in the desert, is bigger, too, about 36 yards long, according to the plant's director, Ali Jassim.
But, Mr. Jassim said, the explanation is simple. Unlike the old stand, in which rockets are mounted and fired off in a vertical position, the new stand is designed to test the same permitted rockets lying horizontally, and thus the vent must be longer. This design, he said, was safer.
"By constructing this facility, we are taking precautions to keep people from getting burnt," he said.
As to whether this new stand could be used for rockets that go farther than 150 kilometers, he said that the inspectors visited here five times and made no complaints. Also, an aluminum roof, which Mr. Powell said was meant to conceal activities from satellites, is actually meant to protect the stand, Mr. Jassim said, "from rain and dust."
Here at Al Rashid company, the second stop on the tour, about 50 miles south of Baghdad, things look much as they did in the satellite photo taken in November. In front of a building full of the unfinished tail pieces of Fatah missile, surrounded by large earthen bunkers, sat a truck similar to the one in the photo - which Mr. Powell said was used to move components that Iraq wanted to conceal from the inspectors.
But the director of this plant, Mr. Yusuf, who showed off the empty inside of the truck, said it was used only to move "mechanical parts" allowed under United Nations regulations. Nothing unusual was happening in November, he said.
"Any day they would see constant activity here," he said. "Colin Powell could say any day that there is activity."
He said the plant had never been used for any prohibited weapons, including biological or chemical ones.
On the eve of a war that seems ever closer, one firm fact, at least, stands out: Both these plants were bombed extensively, either in the 1991 Persian Gulf war or in American-led missile strikes in 1998, after the last weapons inspections were called off.
-------- japan
High level of secrecy on space launch
By Hans Greimel
ASSOCIATED PRESS
February 8, 2003
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20030208-79159653.htm
TOKYO - Shrouded in secrecy and guarded by gunboats, Japan's latest rocket arrived yesterday at the country's secluded space center, where officials are quietly preparing to launch Japan's first spy satellites in response to North Korea.
The launch is likely to be the most clandestine to date by Japan's space program, the reasons being its payload and the current international standoff over North Korea's nuclear programs.
The project was nearly four years in the making and originally envisioned as an advance-warning system against North Korean military moves.
But officials from Japan's National Space Development Agency were mum about details yesterday as coast guard patrol boats escorted a ship carrying rocket parts to the southern island of Tanegashima, where Japan has its launching pad.
Spokeswoman Yuko Kubota would not confirm media reports that the shipment contained Japan's two-stage H-2A rocket, although she said it was part of the launch. The truck-sized rocket containers, usually bearing the National Space Development Agency logo, were bare and a squad of riot police secured the port as they unloaded, according to Kyodo news agency.
Japan announced last year that it planned to launch the two Earth-observation satellites by the end of March.
But as the launch date nears and relations with North Korea deteriorate, space agency officials have declined to discuss details, including the launching timeline.
Miss Kubota cited the payload as a reason for the extra precautions and said the stepped up security on the island may be extended to include a ban on press coverage of the launch itself.
Japan usually welcomes news coverage of its beleaguered and cash-strapped space program. It has launched four H-2A rockets, most recently in December when one lifted off with an Australian satellite - Japan's first launch with an international payload.
-------- korea
S. Korea Appeals for Calm in Nuke Crisis
By SANG-HUN CHOE
Associated Press Writer
Feb 8, 2002,
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/K/KOREAS_NUCLEAR?SITE=DCTMS&SECTION=HOME
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- South Korea's ruling party said Saturday it feared Washington might be getting emotional in its handling of a nuclear standoff with North Korea, a day after President Bush left open the possibility of a military strike.
"North Korea's recent moves cannot be praised, but we cannot help expressing concern as to whether emotions have interfered with U.S. efforts to resolve the North's nuclear problem," Chang Chun-hyong, a deputy spokesman of the South's ruling Millennium Democratic Party, said in a statement.
Bush said Friday that "all options are on the table," suggesting that the United States could consider military action to curb the Stalinist regime's nuclear activities. Bush and his aides usually take care to state that the United States has no intention of attacking North Korea. In his comments Friday, Bush did not repeat that message.
On Saturday, North Korea accused Bush of planning to invade the impoverished state and warning that a conflict on the divided Korean Peninsula would devastate the South as well.
Chang also referred to remarks by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who called North Korea "a terrorist regime" on Wednesday.
"We make it clear that there should be no mistake in judgment and a worst-case scenario should never unfold on the Korean Peninsula," Chang said in his statement.
South Korea, while saying it wants to continue its close military alliance with Washington, fears that the standoff between the United States and North Korea could lead to clashes and has urged the United States to seek a peaceful settlement.
"The situation on the Korean Peninsula is inching closer to the phase of serious crisis," the North's state-run daily Rodong Sinmun said. "There is no guarantee that the U.S. warhawks, seized by extreme war fever, would not ignite a war of aggression."
"This war will not bring disasters to the North only," the newspaper said. "It is, therefore, a task facing all Koreans in the North and the South to avert the danger of a war and protect peace on the Korean Peninsula."
North Korea's long-standing strategy has been to drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington by arguing that the U.S. stance poses a threat to South Korea as well. It warned Thursday that if the United States builds up reinforcements in the region, it could trigger "a total war."
Relations between the United States and North Korea deteriorated in October, when U.S. officials said North Korea had admitted having a nuclear program in violation of a 1994 agreement. Washington and its allies suspended oil shipments to North Korea - which in turn expelled U.N. nuclear inspectors and pulled out of a global nuclear arms control treaty.
The U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board of governors will meet next Wednesday to discuss the standoff and is almost certain to send the dispute to the U.N. Security Council, which may discuss economic sanctions against Pyongyang.
U.S. officials have spoken before about their ability to respond militarily to any potential hostile action by North Korea, in part to dispel any hopes Pyongyang may have about taking advantage of Bush's focus on Iraq.
----
NUCLEAR DIPLOMACY
Bush Urges Chinese President to Press North Korea on Arms
February 8, 2003
New York Times
By JAMES DAO
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/08/international/asia/08KORE.html
WASHINGTON, Feb. 7 - President Bush urged President Jiang Zemin of China today to help resolve the crisis with North Korea, telling him in a phone conversation that Beijing had a responsibility to prevent the North from developing nuclear weapons that could threaten much of Asia.
But even as he insisted that the crisis could be resolved peacefully, Mr. Bush told reporters that "all options are on the table," including military action, if diplomacy failed to prevent North Korea from resuming its efforts to build nuclear weapons.
"I will continue working diplomatically to convince Kim Jong Il that he will be further isolated if he continues to develop a nuclear program," Mr. Bush said of North Korea's leader.
Shortly after Mr. Bush conferred with Mr. Jiang, Pentagon officials said that Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld had ordered the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson from the West Coast to Japan, to replace the Kitty Hawk carrier battle group, which is heading to the Persian Gulf.
The swap ensures that America's military presence around the Korean peninsula will not shrink even if the United States attacks Iraq, allowing for what White House officials have called a "robust deterrent" against North Korea. The latest deployment comes on top of a decision to place 24 long-range bombers on alert to move toward the area on short notice.
North Korea issued a new round of threats today, saying that a buildup of American "aggression troops" could lead to nuclear war that would reduce both Koreas "to ashes." The statement called on South Koreans to join the north in a "struggle to check and frustrate the U.S. arms buildup."
Concerns about North Korea's nuclear program intensified this week when the North announced that it was restarting a mothballed nuclear reactor at Yongbyon that can produce plutonium for nuclear weapons. The move came after evidence that the north had begun removing spent nuclear fuel rods from storage, possibly in preparation for reprocessing them for weapons.
Many American officials believe that China could play a lead role in pressuring North Korea, particularly now that America's relations with South Korea have been strained.
China is one of North Korea's largest trading partners and, since the collapse of the Soviet Union, has emerged as the largest provider of economic, food and fuel aid to the north, American officials said. By some estimates, half of China's foreign aid budget goes to North Korea.
American officials say the Chinese have been a conduit for American messages to North Korea and have worked with Washington to set up a multinational meeting at which American and North Korean officials could meet privately. But some officials have complained privately that Beijing could do more to pressure concessions from the North.
Speaking at the Foreign Press Center in Washington, John Wolf, the assistant secretary of state for nonproliferation, said a nuclear North Korea "would pose an enormous threat to its neighbors and would create an unstable situation in Northeast Asia, which would be a threat not only in the region but, given the importance of the countries in that region, it would be a threat that would worry us all."
He called North Korea "Missiles-R-Us," because of its history of selling ballistic missile technology.
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S.Korea Questions U.S. 'Emotions' Over North
February 8, 2003
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-korea-north.html
SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - South Korea's ruling party questioned the United States' handling of North Korea's nuclear crisis on Saturday and said it feared emotions may have interfered with diplomacy.
President Bush, preparing for possible war in Iraq, said all options were open to end a stand-off over the North's suspected nuclear arms program, after Pyongyang warned of ``horrible nuclear disasters'' should the United States attack.
On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called North Korea's announcement that it was preparing to restart nuclear facilities dangerous and said U.S. forces were ready to confront the ``terrorist regime'' if necessary.
``We are closely watching as to what the real intention was regarding Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and President Bush's comments,'' the South's Millennium Democratic Party said in a statement containing rare criticism of the country's alliance partner for the past half-century.
``North Korea and Iraq are different. We make it clear that there must be no mistake in decision-making...
``North Korea's recent activities cannot be praised, but we cannot but express concern as to whether emotions have interfered in the United States in resolving the North's nuclear problem.''
Bush said he hoped the problem could be resolved diplomatically and the United States has repeatedly stressed that it has no intention of attacking North Korea, which Bush last year branded part of an ``axis of evil'' along with Iraq and Iran.
ALL OPTIONS ON TABLE
``All options are on the table, but I believe we can solve this diplomatically,'' Bush told reporters in Washington on Friday when asked whether he was prepared to use military force in North Korea, which Washington suspects of building nuclear weapons.
A foreign ministry official in Seoul told Reuters Bush's comments did not ``deviate'' from Washington's original stance.
``We view it as only natural for a president to keep all options open,'' he said.
Late last year, South Korea saw a wave of anti-U.S. sentiment sparked by the accidental death in June of two schoolgirls under a U.S. military vehicle.
But since his election in December, president-elect Roh Moo-hyun, who won office with promises of less reliance on U.S. protection, has embarked on a series of pragmatic moves, calling the 37,000 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea ``the driving force of security and the backbone of our prosperity.''
U.S. bombers, fighter jets and warships have been put on alert for possible deployment to the western Pacific to deter any aggression by North Korea in the event of a war in Iraq.
North Korea's state media kept up its bombastic rhetoric after a senior diplomat told British reporters in Pyongyang that ``pre-emptive attacks are not the exclusive right of the U.S..''
Pyongyang portrayed U.S. contingency plans to beef up forces in the western Pacific during any Iraq hostilities as actual deployments that foreshadowed an attack.
``If the U.S. moves to bolster aggression troops are unchecked, the whole land of Korea will be reduced to ashes and the Koreans will not escape horrible nuclear disasters,'' the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland was quoted as saying by North Korea's KCNA news agency on Friday.
DIPLOMATIC FLURRY
Bush said he had spoken with Chinese President Jiang Zemin, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in a bid to solve the crisis.
``We will continue to work diplomatically to make it very clear to (North Korean leader) Kim Jong-il that should he expect any kind of aid and help for his people that he must comply with the world's demand that he not develop a nuclear weapon,'' he said.
North Korea insists the nuclear issue can only be settled in direct negotiations with the United States.
Washington says Pyongyang has admitted to enriching uranium in violation of a 1994 accord, under which the North froze its nuclear program in exchange for two electricity-generating reactors and free fuel.
Since December, North Korea has expelled International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors, withdrawn from the Non-Proliferation Treaty and threatened to resume missile tests.
The North's dire warnings followed a statement from the energy-starved country's Foreign Ministry on Wednesday, indicating Pyongyang was preparing to fire up a reactor thought to have produced plutonium for weapons in the past.
Washington said the developments were dangerous but not a reason to abandon diplomacy to resolve the four-month-old crisis.
Last week, U.S. officials said satellite surveillance had shown North Korea was moving fuel rods around the Yongbyon reactor complex, including possibly some of the 8,000 spent fuel rods experts consider a key step in building bombs.
But there was no sign that reprocessing the rods had begun, a step that would enable North Korea to start adding to the two bombs the West suspects it may have built already.
--------
S. Korea Appeals for Calm in Nuke Crisis
February 8, 2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Koreas-Nuclear.html
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- South Korea's ruling party said Saturday it feared Washington might be getting emotional in its handling of a nuclear standoff with North Korea, a day after President Bush left open the possibility of a military strike.
``North Korea's recent moves cannot be praised, but we cannot help expressing concern as to whether emotions have interfered with U.S. efforts to resolve the North's nuclear problem,'' Chang Chun-hyong, a deputy spokesman of the South's ruling Millennium Democratic Party, said in a statement.
Bush said Friday that ``all options are on the table,'' suggesting that the United States could consider military action to curb the Stalinist regime's nuclear activities.
Bush and his aides usually take care to state that the United States has no intention of attacking North Korea. In his comments Friday, Bush did not repeat that message.
On Saturday, North Korea accused Bush of planning to invade the impoverished state and warning that a conflict on the divided Korean Peninsula would devastate the South as well.
Chang also referred to remarks by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who called North Korea ``a terrorist regime'' on Wednesday.
``We make it clear that there should be no mistake in judgment and a worst-case scenario should never unfold on the Korean Peninsula,'' Chang said in his statement.
South Korea, while saying it wants to continue its close military alliance with Washington, fears that the standoff between the United States and North Korea could lead to clashes and has urged the United States to seek a peaceful settlement.
``The situation on the Korean Peninsula is inching closer to the phase of serious crisis,'' the North's state-run daily Rodong Sinmun said. ``There is no guarantee that the U.S. warhawks, seized by extreme war fever, would not ignite a war of aggression.''
``This war will not bring disasters to the North only,'' the newspaper said. ``It is, therefore, a task facing all Koreans in the North and the South to avert the danger of a war and protect peace on the Korean Peninsula.''
North Korea's long-standing strategy has been to drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington by arguing that the U.S. stance poses a threat to South Korea as well. It warned Thursday that if the United States builds up reinforcements in the region, it could trigger ``a total war.''
Relations between the United States and North Korea deteriorated in October, when U.S. officials said North Korea had admitted having a nuclear program in violation of a 1994 agreement. Washington and its allies suspended oil shipments to North Korea -- which in turn expelled U.N. nuclear inspectors and pulled out of a global nuclear arms control treaty.
The U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board of governors will meet next Wednesday to discuss the standoff and is almost certain to send the dispute to the U.N. Security Council, which may discuss economic sanctions against Pyongyang.
U.S. officials have spoken before about their ability to respond militarily to any potential hostile action by North Korea, in part to dispel any hopes Pyongyang may have about taking advantage of Bush's focus on Iraq.
-------- terrorism
Nation Put on Higher Threat Alert
Officials Cite 'High Risk' of Al Qaeda Attacks With Poisons, 'Dirty Bombs'
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 8, 2003; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42521-2003Feb7?language=printer
The government yesterday raised the terrorist threat index for only the second time, warning that newly acquired intelligence indicates a "high risk" of attacks by the al Qaeda terrorist network against U.S. targets at home and abroad.
U.S. intelligence and health officials said in public announcements and private briefings that they were particularly concerned about chemical, biological or radiological weapons, including ricin, cyanide and "dirty bombs" that would spread radioactive debris over a wide area.
Attorney General John D. Ashcroft and other officials said al Qaeda operatives may seek to time attacks to coincide with the hajj, the annual five-day pilgrimage by Muslims to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, that begins Sunday. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge urged citizens to "to prepare for an emergency" by readying contact lists, talking with their families and reviewing information on other precautions.
The heightened alert status, from yellow to orange on the five-tiered, color-coded scale, is the result of days of contentious debate within U.S. counterterrorism circles over what to do about a surge in intelligence information indicating the possibility of attack. Many analysts, particularly in the White House and Pentagon, had pushed for a general public warning like the one issued yesterday. But some FBI and CIA officials had argued that the information was too vague and could unnecessarily alarm the public.
Ultimately, President Bush made the decision, raising the 11-month-old threat index to its second-highest level. The designation triggered tighter security at borders, airports and hotels, enhanced identification checks at government buildings and beefed-up protection of power grids, dams, financial networks and transportation systems. Officials also urged greater vigilance by all Americans.
Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, said the threat information "is serious and specific. . . . There's not just chatter, but a pattern, and not just a pattern, but dots" that intelligence agencies have been able to connect in a general way.
"There are a lot of things that add up," Roberts said.
However, others with access to the intelligence upon which the alert was based said it was largely an effort to make sure government officials could not be blamed for not warning Americans, as they were after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. "That's what this whole process is about," said one well-placed intelligence source. They said the information was voluminous but not specific.
The warning comes amid international rancor over a possible U.S. invasion of Iraq and follows a wave of high-profile terrorism arrests throughout Europe in recent weeks. Ashcroft said U.S. officials were particularly concerned about the arrests of more than a dozen men, mostly Algerians, in London after authorities there discovered traces of the deadly toxin ricin. Traces of the poison, which is made from castor beans, were discovered near a London mosque that security officials have described as a recruiting ground for al Qaeda. Some authorities are concerned that the European network may have operatives in the United States.
The State Department on Thursday issued a "worldwide caution," warning of a growing threat of attacks by al Qaeda or other terrorist groups with chemical or biological weapons.
The FBI also announced separately yesterday that it was seeking a Pakistani man, Mohammed Sher Mohammad Khan, who is wanted for questioning and is believed to have entered the United States illegally sometime after September 2001. His case was "one of a number of factors taken into consideration" in elevating the threat index, a law enforcement official said.
Information provided about Khan was sketchy and mixed. The FBI said in one notice that Khan was "being sought in connection with possible terrorist threats against the United States." But a separate FBI news release said his name and birth date may be fictitious and that there was "no specific information that this individual is connected to any potential terrorist activities."
Since it was unveiled last March, the terror threat warning system has generally been held at yellow, which signifies an elevated risk of attack. Yesterday's decision to raise the threat level to orange, indicating high risk, was only the second time the index has been moved up. The last time was on the eve of the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The only level above orange is red, which indicates an imminent or ongoing attack.
Ashcroft, joined at an afternoon news conference by Ridge and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, said the decision to elevate the threat index was based on "specific intelligence" that had been "corroborated by multiple intelligence services."
Ashcroft warned about the threat of attacks on "soft or lightly guarded targets" in the United States, including apartment buildings and hotels. The attorney general also said authorities were particularly concerned about al Qaeda's interest in conducting biological, chemical or radiological attacks on U.S. targets. He said recent terror strikes in Bali, Indonesia, and Mombasa, Kenya, "demonstrate the continued willingness [of] al Qaeda to strike at peaceful, innocent civilians."
Ridge took the unusual step of urging citizens to take "precautionary measures" to "minimize the damage" from a possible terrorist attack, and to consider a "contact plan" in the event of an emergency. Yet Ridge and other officials also encouraged people not to drastically change their plans or lifestyles.
"We are not recommending that events be canceled or travel or other plans be changed," Ridge said. "We do recommend that individuals and families in the days ahead should take some time to prepare for an emergency."
Homeland Security officials held urgent briefings throughout the day with police chiefs, sheriffs, public health directors and other community leaders from around the country. Officials said that security would be noticeably tightened in public locations, while health authorities issued alerts urging that hospitals and physicians review procedures for treating victims of radiation and chemical exposures.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Bush made the decision to raise the alert level after receiving recommendations from Ashcroft and Ridge and regular daily briefings from the FBI and CIA. The Homeland Security Council spent more than an hour debating newly received intelligence in the White House situation room yesterday, Fleischer said.
In response to the recommendation, Bush said, "I agree. Change the code," according to Fleischer.
Ridge conducted conference calls yesterday to brief governors, congressional members and key industry leaders about the threat level. Jerome M. Hauer, acting assistant secretary for public health preparedness at the Department of Health and Human Services, held a similar conference call with state health commissioners, in which he said there were new, credible threats relating to cyanide, ricin and "radiological dispersion devices," according to several people on the call.
A report released Thursday by the Association of Public Health Laboratories found that virtually none of the nation's state labs are capable of testing chemical agents likely to be used as terrorist weapons.
In New York, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (R) and Gov. George E. Pataki (R) said security measures would be beefed up, but added that no specific threat had been made against the city.
State homeland security officials said the information they received about the threat did not go much beyond what was presented publicly at yesterday's news conference.
"There has not been any reference to a specific means of attack," said Timothy Lowenberg, Washington state homeland security director. He said federal officials have told the states that there has been "an across-the-board increase in chatter," coming both from human intelligence sources and signals intelligence.
Joseph Samuels Jr., police chief of Richmond, Calif., and president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, said training since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, combined with preparations for a possible invasion of Iraq, have already placed most police departments on a high state of readiness. "The imminent war was probably enough," Samuels said. "The alert just added credence to what we're already expecting."
Staff writers Ceci Connolly, Spencer S. Hsu, Dana Priest and Susan Schmidt contributed to this report.
-------- u.s. nuc facilities
-------- utah
Nuke this bad idea in the bud
Deseret News editorial
Saturday, February 8, 2003
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,455030301,00.html
There are bad ideas and very bad ideas. And then there's the idea to out-maneuver the Goshute tribe for a nuclear waste storage facility, put it on state lands, and make a killing in the process.
That's not a bad plan.
It's a terrible plan.
Rep. Steve Urquhart of St. George has filed HB366, which would permit state trust lands to be used to store spent nuclear fuel.
Here's a better idea: Find a way to work with the Goshutes instead of working against them. Pull the state together instead of pulling it apart. Now, more than ever, the world needs more plowshares and fewer swords.
Having 40,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel in Utah is troubling, no matter who reaps the benefits. The state has spent several years trying to block the Goshutes from building a facility in the name of public welfare. For the state to jump in at this point and create its own facility would pit the state against its citizens.
The days of fighting the Indians are over. The ashes of Manifest Destiny are cold. And any attempt to submarine Native Americans in the name of self-interest carries overtones of racism. The state's Native Americans have been pushed to the periphery of society and their tribal lands pushed to the periphery of the state. It is time to welcome them back, not drive them farther away.
What's more, any attempt by the state to get involved in the nuclear storage business makes a sham out of the high-minded rhetoric about Utah not being the nation's garbage dump. To put it politely, the state cannot afford to send mixed signals. To put it bluntly, passage of the bill would be two-faced.
Meanwhile, the old arguments used against storing nuclear waste remain. Nuclear waste lasts forever. Guarding it would be a headache, transporting it a nightmare. The state is right to fight against this coming to Utah, whether on Goshute land or anywhere else.
In the end, the reason the Goshutes are looking to store nuclear waste is they have turned their backs on government funds. They don't want the government controlling their destiny. They are desperately looking for ways to make ends meet. The tribe should be commended for showing the kind of free-spirited independence championed by the Republican right.
The best way to make the best of this ugly situation is for the state to lend the Goshutes a hand, not offer them the back of one.
-------- us politics
For reader, this Perle doesn't shine
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
February 8, 2003
Washington Times
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20030208-15786076.htm
Richard Perle's ridiculous statement that France is no longer an ally of the United States is part of a larger pattern of irresponsible behavior on his part ("Top Pentagon adviser says France no longer U.S. ally," Nation, Wednesday).
Previously, Mr. Perle brought in Laurent Murawiec of the Rand Corp. to brief the Pentagon's Policy Advisory Board on relations with Saudi Arabia. Mr. Murawiec proposed declaring Saudi Arabia an enemy and suggested that our government invade Saudi Arabia and occupy its oil fields.
Mr. Perle must be removed from his position as chairman of the Policy Advisory Board. He was not elected by the American people, nor does he reflect the views of a majority of us.
Furthermore, Mr. Perle's behavior poses a threat to America's image and interests abroad. He should be left to express his ridiculous views as an individual without any affiliation with the Bush administration.
ARIF RAFIQ Greenvale, N.Y.
----
US cranks up economic pressure on Germany
AFP
Saturday February 8, 2003 3:59 PM
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/030208/1/375mq.html
Washington is tightening the economic screws on Berlin over a looming conflict with Iraq, threatening to clamp down against both the government and private companies in staunchly anti-war Germany, according to press reports.
The United States has decided to freeze all but the bare minimum of its planned multi-million investments in its German military bases "because of the political situation," the weekly Welt am Sonntag will report on Sunday.
A letter from the office of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announcing the decision has been sent to the US command in Germany, according to the weekly.
Washington is also threatening to clamp down on German companies who maintain their trade ties to Iraq, the newspaper Die Welt said in its edition due out on Saturday.
The administration of US President George W. Bush, in a letter to Berlin's economy ministry, said companies that do business with Baghdad would compromise their ties to their US trade partners, according to the daily.
Germany-Iraq trade ties are worth some 336.5 million euros (364.0 million dollars) yearly, according to German government statistics.
Blocking US military investment across Germany could mean a major loss of capital, as it would shelve a 100-million-euro US Air Force investment in the southwestern state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Renovation at the US military airport at Ramstein, in the same state, could also be affected by the plan, the paper said.
Germany has more US military bases than any other European country.
Berlin, a traditional US ally, has come out strongly against waging war on Iraq, saying it will not participate in military operations and will not vote in the Security Council in favor of the use of force.
Pentagon chief Rumsfeld has lashed out several times at Germany, recently lumping it together with Libya and Cuba -- Washington's sworn enemies -- as countries who would not participate at all in a US-led coalition against Iraq.
He also has chided Germany and France for being part of an "old Europe" because of their calls for continued UN inspections and reluctance to use military force to disarm Saddam Hussein.
----
Rumsfeld: Delay in disarming Iraq may mean war
2/8/2003
AP
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2003-02-08-rumsfeld-iraq_x.htm
STANDOFF WITH IRAQ
MUNICH, Germany - In a jab at major U.S. allies, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Saturday countries such as France and Germany that favor giving Iraq another chance to disarm are undermining what slim chance may exist to avoid war.
"There are those who counsel that we should delay preparations" for war against Iraq. "Ironically, that approach could well make war more likely, not less, because delaying preparations sends a signal of uncertainty," Rumsfeld said in the opening address at an international conference on security policy.
President Bush said he will not wait much longer before moving against Saddam Hussein, declaring in his weekly radio address that the Iraqi leader is wasting a last opportunity to come clean.
Rumsfeld said "there is no chance" Saddam will disarm voluntarily or flee his country if given yet another opportunity to comply with the U.N. Security Council resolution from November that demands Iraq's complete disarmament.
Thousands more American forces are converging on the Persian Gulf region in anticipation of a decision by Bush, within days or weeks, to invade Iraq and oust Saddam. Also, Turkey's top civilian and military leaders reportedly agreed Saturday to let the United States send 38,000 troops to the country to open a northern front should there be war with Iraq.
On Munich's snowy streets, as many as 20,000 people staged protests against U.S. policy on Iraq. "Today Munich says yes to peace and no to war," said Roman Catholic Bishop Engelbert Siebler.
Rumsfeld said Saddam has time to avert war but should not be given another U.N. reprieve.
"We all hope for a peaceful resolution," Rumsfeld said at the 39th Munich Conference on Security, which attracted lawmakers, policy officials, military leaders and private analysts from the United States, Europe and Asia.
"But the one chance for a peaceful resolution is to make clear that free nations are prepared to use force if necessary - that the world is united and, while reluctant, is willing to act."
In response to Rumsfeld's remarks, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer made an impassioned plea for patience with Iraq and said the German public sees no justification for going to war.
"We must not accept the logic of a military campaign," Fischer said. "We must give the inspectors more time."
In Berlin, a German government official said his country is working with France on "specific peaceful alternatives to a military solution." The German magazine Der Spiegel reported that the French-German plan includes placing U.N. troops across Iraq, conducting reconnaissance flights over the country and tripling the number of U.N. weapons inspectors.
Rumsfeld told reporters he had heard of the proposal through media reports, but suggested inspections only work if a country cooperates. A senior U.S. official said Rumsfeld, in a meeting with German Defense Minister Peter Struck, mentioned the report, but Struck said he could not discuss it because it was not finalized.
Bush said in his broadcast that Saddam "was given a final chance. He is throwing away that chance." Also Saturday, the president spoke with Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, who endorses the U.S. hard line on Iraq.
Sergei Ivanov, the Russian defense minister whose government opposes early military action against Iraq, told the Munich conference the main focus should be on fighting international terrorism of all kinds.
Ivanov did not mention Iraq. He and Rumsfeld met later for a one-on-one session that included a discussion of the way ahead in Afghanistan, including the training of a national army.
The split over Iraq among the United States, Britain and numerous other European countries on the one hand and Germany, France and Russia on the other has caused severe strains in diplomatic relations.
Some of the harshest words came from Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who, with Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., led a U.S. congressional delegation to the conference.
McCain hammered France and Germany for blocking a NATO effort to plan for ways of defending alliance member Turkey from potential attacks by Iraq in the event of war. Turkey has requested such assistance, and the United States is strongly in favor of it. The Turks want Patriot anti-missile batteries, surveillance planes and other defensive help.
McCain accused the Germans and French of "calculated self-interest." He said their actions had caused a "terrible injury" to NATO and exposed their "vacuous posturing."
NATO officials are to meet Monday in an attempt to resolve the conflict over defensive aid for Turkey.
"Turkey needs to be looked after," Rumsfeld said before returning to Washington. He noted that Turkey shares a border with Iraq, and "the idea that NATO would deny them NATO support in that circumstance, in my view, is inexcusable.'
In his speech, Rumsfeld left no doubt that Bush is prepared to act soon on Iraq. The Pentagon chief referred to Secretary of State Colin Powell's presentation to the Security Council last week and said it provided "not conjecture but facts" on the Iraqi threat.
"It is difficult to believe there still could be any question in the minds of reasonable people open to the facts before them," Rumsfeld said. "The threat is there to see. ... Really the only question remaining is: what will we do about it?"
He concluded his speech by saying, "The coming days and weeks will tell."
Rumsfeld also criticized the United Nations for making Iraq the head of the U.N. Commission on Disarmament and Libya the head of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights.
"An institution that, with the support or acquiescence of many of the nations represented in this room, would permit" this to happen "seems not to be even struggling to regain credibility," he said with a tone of incredulity.
"That these acts of irresponsibility could happen now, at this moment in history, is breathtaking."
In another development signaling the Bush administration's move toward war, the U.S. government has started granting permission for American humanitarian organizations to work in Iran and Iraq.
For now, groups that received U.S. funds will begin surveying the potential needs and getting supplies in position to prepare for the fallout of war, said Sid Balmer, spokesman for InterAction, an alliance of 160 private U.S. organizations doing overseas humanitarian work.
----
Bush Prepared to Act on Iraq if U.N. Balks
February 8, 2003
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/politics/politics-iraq-usa.html
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush braced the nation on Saturday for a possible war with Iraq, saying it must be prepared to act if the U.N. Security Council backs down.
``The United States, along with a growing coalition of nations, will take whatever action is necessary to defend ourselves and disarm the Iraqi regime,'' Bush said in his weekly radio address.
Bush consulted by telephone with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, a key ally on Iraq, about stepping up diplomatic pressure on the Security Council, as top U.N. weapons inspectors began crucial disarmament talks in Baghdad.
Bush said he would welcome a new U.N. resolution that backs up the demands of the one the Security Council approved in November warning of serious consequences if Iraq did not give up its suspected weapons of mass destruction.
``Having made its demands, the Security Council must not back down when those demands are defied and mocked by a dictator,'' Bush said.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned Washington on Saturday against attacking Iraq on its own, arguing action under a U.N. umbrella would have greater legitimacy and be more likely to succeed.
Annan stressed that force should be used only as a last resort. But if the Security Council concluded, after a critical report by U.N. inspectors due on Friday, that Iraq was not disarming as required, ``the council must face up to its responsibilities,'' he said.
The comments came one day after the United States ordered a fifth aircraft carrier to the Gulf region, where more than 110,000 U.S. troops have already gathered, and increased the terror alert level at home, warning of a high risk of attack.
In preparation for a possible invasion, warplanes participating in an American-British patrol over the ``no-fly'' zone in southern Iraq dropped 480,000 leaflets on Saturday saying the United States did not wish to harm Iraqi civilians, the U.S. military's Central Command said in a statement.
VAST ARSENAL
Citing evidence presented to the United Nations by Secretary of State Colin Powell, Bush said Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had never accounted for a vast arsenal of deadly biological and chemical weapons, and was pursuing an ``elaborate campaign'' to conceal them from U.N. inspectors.
Bush, who spent the weekend at the Camp David presidential retreat, accused Baghdad of ``actively and secretly'' attempting to obtain equipment needed to produce nuclear weapons, and said Iraq had at least seven mobile factories -- mounted on trucks and rails to evade discovery -- to produce biological agents.
``The Iraqi regime's violations of Security Council resolutions are evident, they are dangerous to America and the world, and they continue to this hour,'' Bush said.
Citing unidentified sources, he said the Iraqi leader had recently authorized his field commanders to use chemical weapons, and accused him of having ``long-standing, direct and continuing'' ties to terrorist networks, including al Qaeda.
He said Iraq sent bomb-making and document forgery experts to work with al Qaeda, and provided the group with training in chemical and biological weapons. In addition, he said members of a group affiliated with Abu Musab Zarqawi, who has had contacts with al Qaeda, had been operating freely in Baghdad.
Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda has been blamed by Washington for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
IRAQ SAYS IT OBEYING UNITED NATIONS
Iraq accused the Bush administration of manufacturing evidence and said Baghdad had no banned weapons. Baghdad also has said it has no ties with Zarqawi.
Bush hopes to convince balky Security Council members France, Russia and China to back U.S. war plans -- or at least not block them. But so far, they appear to be standing their ground in demanding more time for weapons inspections.
Berlusconi's office said Bush and the Italian prime minister agreed ``on the need to try every possible means to avoid a military conflict in the face of Saddam Hussein's persistent refusal to neutralize his arsenal of chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction.''
The statement added, ``With the aim of defending peace and security, the United States and Italy will intensify their efforts, respectively in the United Nations Security Council and the European Union.''
White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said Bush and Berlusconi agreed to ``stay in touch as we move forward with the consultative process concerning Iraq.''
The leaflets dropped on Saturday over southern Iraq pointed Iraqis to frequencies of broadcasts criticizing Saddam and giving information on the U.N. Security Council resolution demanding Iraqi disarmament and U.N. arms inspections.
Another leaflet stated that ``coalition forces do not wish to harm the noble Iraqi people or destroy their landmarks, and for the civilian populace to avoid military occupied areas,'' Central Command said.
----
Rumsfeld Slams NATO Delay on Support for Turkey
Reuters
Saturday, February 8, 2003; 7:45 AM
By John Chalmers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A43857-2003Feb8?language=printer
MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Saturday branded as "inexcusable" moves by France, Germany and Belgium to stall NATO planning for the protection of Turkey in the event of a war in Iraq.
Rumsfeld said if a three-week deadlock at NATO is not ended, Washington and other allies will provide defense for Turkey anyway, and NATO's credibility would suffer a severe blow.
"Turkey will not be hurt. The United States and the countries in NATO will go right ahead and do it," he told a security conference in the German city of Munich. "What will be hurt will be NATO, not Turkey."
"Turkey is an ally," he said. "To prevent defensive capabilities -- just the planning, not even deployment -- I think that is inexcusable."
NATO Secretary-General George Robertson on Thursday put the onus on the three dissenters, which have opposed any NATO war preparations as premature, to stop the clock on a decision to launch planning of limited defensive measures for Turkey.
Unless one of the countries objects before 0900 GMT on Monday, military planning will begin automatically.
Speaking in Munich after Rumsfeld, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said Berlin stood by its obligations to its NATO partners but defended not wanting to push forward planning for protecting Turkey.
"We didn't want an extra build-up to be done so to speak before the decisive Security Council meeting," he said. "Otherwise the NATO secretary-general knows we are working hard to bring things forward. We have absolutely no fundamental dissent, not to speak of wanting to undermine anything."
DEEP DIVIDE
Robertson voiced confidence that the 19-nation alliance would adopt the plan early next week to prepare to send Patriot air defense missiles, early warning aircraft and anti-chemical and biological warfare units to Turkey, which borders Iraq.
Actual deployment of the systems would require a further unanimous NATO decision. Turkey would probably be a major launchpad for a U.S.-led attack on Iraq, which military experts say could come as early as next month.
France continued to insist publicly on Friday that NATO should not begin any war preparations and U.N. weapons inspectors should be allowed more time to do their work in Iraq.
Diplomats said they expected intensive talks at the Munich conference, on the sidelines of which Rumsfeld was due to hold talks with German Defense Minister Peter Struck.
But Fischer said he remained unconvinced of the case for a war against Iraq and rejected suggestions by Rumsfeld that Europe was divided on the issue, saying public opinion was firmly anti-war.
"I am not convinced. That is my problem. I cannot go to the public and say these are the reasons because I don't believe in them," he said, switching briefly from German into English.
Robertson's use of the NATO "silence procedure" -- after another bruising North Atlantic Council meeting failed to break the deadlock -- piled pressure on Paris and Berlin.
Diplomats said that if they wanted to climb down, the three dissenters could argue that the decision did not involve war preparations or military deployments but merely planning to help protect a NATO ally in case of need.
However, some said France and Germany were so angered by disparaging comments by Rumsfeld and other influential U.S. officials, and so strongly backed by public opinion, that they might well block the NATO decision.
Rumsfeld sought to play down his recent comment that France and Germany's reticence over war had sidelined them, branding them "old Europe," saying at his age "old" was a term of endearment.
But he urged Berlin and Paris to get on board: "As the old saying goes, if you're in a hole, stop digging."
-------- MILITARY
-------- africa
Official afraid of backlash from war
By David R. Sands
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
February 8, 2003
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20030208-11455840.htm
Kenya, twice the site of brazen attacks by Islamic terrorists in recent times, fears it may experience a "backlash" to any U.S.-led military strike in Iraq, the country's new foreign minister said yesterday.
With the United States and Britain gearing up for war against Saddam Hussein, "our fear in Kenya is about the very possible backlash," Stephen K. Musyoka said in an interview.
"Our hope is that any attack on Iraq does not bring an escalation in the kind of international terrorism from which we have already suffered."
Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network is blamed for the August 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi that killed some 220 people and for last November's attacks on an Israeli plane and a hotel favored by Israeli tourists in Mombasa that took 16 lives.
In both cases, the large majority of the victims were Kenyans.
"When the bulls fight, it is the grass that suffers," Mr. Musyoka said, quoting an old Kenyan proverb.
Mr. Musyoka, the highest-ranking Kenyan official to visit Washington since the Dec. 27 election that swept the party of longtime Kenyan leader Daniel arap Moi from power, said he found understanding for Kenya's vulnerability in talks this week with National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and other senior administration officials.
U.S. military officials last month announced a new joint task force with Kenya and five other Horn of Africa countries, backed by a 900-soldier force in Djibouti, to disrupt terrorist operations in the region.
"Certainly we found U.S. leaders very aware of our situation," Mr. Musyoka said.
He said Kenya has been exploited in part because Nairobi has tried to maintain good relations with Israel, with the Arab world, and with Washington and the West.
"We want to be the Switzerland of Africa," he said.
The Bush administration and European leaders have hailed the peaceful transfer of power in Kenya and the triumph of an opposition coalition headed by one-time Moi ally Mwai Kibaki. Mr. Musyoka, who served for a time as foreign minister under President Moi in the 1990s, was one of a number of senior officials of the ruling Kenya Africa National Union (KANU) who defected to Mr. Kibaki's cause in the months before the election.
With a 125-seat majority in the 210-seat parliament, Mr. Kibaki's National Rainbow Coalition now faces steep voter expectations to bolster the economy and sagging educational and social services while attacking endemic corruption.
"We know there are a lot of eyes focused on us, in Africa and around the world," said Mr. Musyoka. "We have to demonstrate we can implement the attributes of good governance, that we can make Kenya a place where there is zero tolerance for corruption."
The foreign minister met with International Monetary Fund and World Bank officials in Washington and said his country is preparing to apply for funding from President Bush's new Millennium Challenge Accounts, an aid program designed to reward countries that institute political and corruption reforms. Analysts say Kenya's economy, which grew by less than 1 percent in 2002, needs fresh international funding to be revived this year.
Mr. Musyoka hailed President Bush's State of the Union pledge to sharply increase U.S. funding to fight HIV/AIDS. An estimated 2.2 million Kenyans have AIDS, and just a tiny fraction can afford the latest anti-viral treatments used in the West.
He said the new Kenyan government has the political support to take a more active role in regional crises, notably the instability in neighboring Sudan and Somalia. The virtual collapse of central authority in Somalia has led to a surge in smuggling and criminal activity across the poorly policed border with Kenya.
"It is one of our top foreign policy interests to restore law and order in Somalia," said Mr. Musyoka, adding that Kenya and the United States have cooperated closely in the effort.
-------- asia
Tamil Rebels Set Off Explosion
Sri Lankan Tigers Blow Up Boat, Weapons in Suicide Blast
Associated Press
Saturday, February 8, 2003; Page A22
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42715-2003Feb7?language=printer
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Feb. 7 -- Three ethnic Tamil rebels blew up their boat and themselves today after they were found trying to smuggle an antiaircraft gun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition into Sri Lanka, defense officials said.
Two European peace monitors who had boarded the boat to inspect it were unharmed. Before blowing up their boat, the rebels asked the monitors to jump overboard, a military spokesman, Brig. Sanath Karunaratne, said in a statement.
The monitors, who searched the trawler this morning, found an antiaircraft gun, spare parts for the gun, two boxes of ammunition, three hand grenades and a radio communication set, Karunaratne said.
The monitors had earlier said the find was a "clear violation" of a cease-fire agreement the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam signed with the government last February. The Tigers began fighting in 1983 to create a separate state for Sri Lanka's minority Tamils. The war has killed nearly 65,000 people and displaced more than 1.6 million.
The rebels dropped a demand for a separate state last year and agreed to discuss setting up a federal system that would give them regional autonomy.
The explosion came only hours before a fifth round of peace talks started in Berlin. Norwegian mediators drafted a statement to keep the negotiations on track, blaming the explosion on an "apparent communication failure" between the rebels and their commanders.
Sri Lanka's government has repeatedly accused the rebels of smuggling arms during the cease-fire. There was no comment from the rebels.
----
In Stalin's Footsteps
By Masha Lipman
Saturday, February 8, 2003
Washington Post; Page A21
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42683-2003Feb7?language=printer
In just over a decade as independent states, the various former Soviet republics have gone their separate ways so fast and so far that it's hard to believe they were once parts of the same empire.
Under Communist rule, all the constituent republics, from the Baltics to Central Asia, worked according to economic plans drafted for them in Moscow. They were governed by the same Communist nomenklatura, brainwashed with the same ideological tools, had the same school curriculum and the same schoolbooks and watched the same daily TV news at 9 p.m. -- with the secretary general of the Soviet Communist Party as the central newsmaker.
Today the three Baltic states are about to join NATO. Russia is relatively democratic. And the Central Asian state of Turkmenistan, a former Soviet republic, is a totalitarian autocracy of Orwellian -- or Stalinist -- dimensions.
Turkmen President Saparmurad Niyazov, who has assumed the title of Turkmenbashi ("The Father of All Turkmen"), apparently regards himself as complete master not only of his people but also of the universe. He has renamed streets, city districts, a town, a canal and countless schools and hospitals in honor of himself. He has also given new names to three months and to six days of the week. He has closed down the Turkmen opera and ballet theater, deeming these arts to be alien to Turkmen culture. His list of achievements even includes the reinvention of human age: Youth in Turkmenistan now extends through 37, and at 61 one enters "spiritual greatness" (Niyazov is 62), which lasts for 12 years. Old age begins at 85. The Father of All Turkmen has granted his nation a "spiritual code of conduct," which he compares to the Bible and Koran. Living by this code is a moral duty of all Turkmen. Learning it is mandatory in Turkmen schools.
When a ruler assumes divine powers and undertakes to shape his own reality by giving new names to the basic elements of life, it's not long before he sets out to reshape his people as well -- an ambition that invariably results in ferocious repression. Unfortunate nations -- such as the Soviet Union and North Korea -- have learned this from experience. The lucky ones that have never been subjected to such megalomaniac experiments find it hard to see what is so obvious to us: The leader who has taken to writing epics or inventing his own philosophy of time and space is a mortal danger to his people.
In today's Russia it's not uncommon to hear people say, "It's like the year '37" -- the time when Joseph Stalin's terror killed millions of Soviet citizens. But it's only a metaphor. Vladimir Putin's Kremlin may be obsessed with taking control of political life in Russia, but fortunately it's far from succeeding. There is no fear of the state in post-Communist Russia.
In Turkmenistan, however, "the year '37" is more than metaphor. It has elements of chilling reality. Niyazov has built a brutal and isolationist totalitarian regime in his country. Any trace of political opposition has been eradicated. Torture, lawless arrests and disappearances of people are common. A free press does not exist (the Russian print media were recently barred from Turkmenistan). Internet access is strictly limited.
In late November 2002 it was reported that there had been an attempt on Niyazov's life. It proved to be a bizarre, and apparently staged, assassination scheme in which several men with automatic weapons tried to take aim at Niyazov's motorcade. Niyazov was unhurt. The evildoers were arrested.
Of course, assassinations have been repeatedly used by a variety of rulers as a pretext for campaigns of terror. One of the most well known is the murder of Leningrad Communist leader Sergei Kirov in 1934. After that killing, Stalin launched a massive extermination of much of the Communist elite, as well as of great numbers of rank-and-file Soviet people. The terror was effectively enhanced by show trials.
The aftermath of the purported attempt on Niyazov's life looks a bit like "Turkmen '37." The Father of All Turkmen promptly named the perpetrators of the hideous crime. The plotters, the nation was informed, included several high-ranking officials who had dared criticize Niyazov's regime.
Some had sensed the danger and defected, among them former foreign minister Boris Shikhmuradov. But according to some accounts, Shikhmuradov came back when he learned that his family had been arrested. A short time later he was seen making a confession on Turkmen television, looking blank-faced and speaking in an eerily even voice -- possibly the result of torture or drugs or both.
Television has lent the affair an immediacy not available to those who conducted Stalin's show trials. Shortly after Shikhmuradov's confessions, scenes of public wrath were also televised. One after one, Turkmen people have appeared on the screen demanding that the traitors be killed. They plead that the criminals be given to them so they can kill them with their own hands.
The trials were conducted quickly. Within two months of the alleged assassination attempt, 46 people had been convicted as plotters, with more to come. Shikhmuradov and several others were sentenced to life. About a month later, Niyazov placed strict limits on travel abroad.
Little concern has been raised in the world over the Turkmen show trials. In Russian intellectual circles, people shudder at the news coming from Turkmenistan, yet some admit to a perverse satisfaction: By comparison with Turkmenbashi's regime, Russia looks like an ideal democracy.
The Russian government is far too pragmatic these days to antagonize Turkmenistan's dictator and thereby threaten its ties with a country rich in natural gas. But Russia is not alone in showing indifference to the plight of Turkmen people. Since Sept. 11, 2001, interest in human rights has subsided dramatically. Except for human rights organizations, the world has expressed hardly any concern over Niyazov's regime. With Saddam Hussein picked by the United States as the epitome of evil, other villainous leaders can kill and torture their citizens undisturbed.
The writer, deputy editor of the Russian newsmagazine Ezhenedel'ny Zhurnal, writes a monthly column for The Post.
-------- australia
Howard's support of US defies public opinion
By Barbie Dutter in Sydney
08/02/2003
UK Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/02/08/wirq208.xml/
John Howard, Australia's prime minister, flies to Washington today to confirm his place in the coterie of leaders girding for military action against Iraq.
Mr Howard's stalwart support of American moves to disarm Saddam Hussein has caused uproar in Australia, where three-quarters of the population opposes going to war without United Nations backing. Critics have accused Mr Howard of being President George W Bush's southern hemisphere surrogate, condemning his decision to deploy 2,000 Australian troops to the Gulf without the mandate of parliament, the public or the UN.
Mr Howard has fractiously maintained that he abhors the prospect of war and hopes his whistle-stop tour next week - taking in talks with Mr Bush, the UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan, Tony Blair and President Megawati Sukarnoputri of Indonesia - will be a mission of peace. But he has acknowledged that his pro-US stance on Iraq is a gamble that has already dented his personal standing and could cost his government dearly.
While much of the pacifist protest has been put down to anti-American sentiment or anxiety over US unilateralism, the vast majority of Australians are clearly not persuaded that their national interest lies in attacking Saddam Hussein.
For the first time since Mr Howard's third consecutive election victory in 2001 the opposition Labour Party is surging out of the political sidelines with public opinion filling its sails. In an unprecedented move the Senate passed a no-confidence vote against a serving prime minister, censuring Mr Howard over his handling of the Iraq crisis.
"John Howard has let this nation down," said Senator Bob Brown, the leader of the Australian Greens. "He stands condemned, censured and without the confidence of the house of review, the senate in Australia." Commentators have claimed that Mr Howard is pinning his hopes on a swift, UN-sanctioned liberation of Iraq that will vindicate his position and restore his popularity at the grassroots.
In the meantime, Mr Howard has emphasised the importance of the Australia-US alliance and hinted broadly to parliament that Australia would consider joining an American-led strike even if the UN did not authorise the use of military force.
-------- colombia
Blast at Bogota Club Kills at Least 25
February 8, 2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Colombia-Explosion.html
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Vice President Francisco Santos on Saturday blamed the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, for planting the car bomb at an exclusive Bogota social club that killed at least 25 and injured more than 150.
Santos said that he ``had no doubt,'' that the FARC, Colombia's largest rebel group, was responsible for the blast which gutted the El Nogal Club, suggesting the rebels were making good on their threat to carry attacks to the capital's elite.
He blamed the rebel organization for adopting the tactics of the drug lords who plague the country as well.
``Before, what the narcoterrorists used, now they (FARC) use without any concerns of conscience,'' he said.
The bombing was the worst terrorist attack in Colombia since Pablo Escobar's Medellin drug cartel orchestrated a wave of bombings and assassinations in the 1980s and early 1990s. His organization carried out the attacks in Colombia's cities in an attempt to preven his extradition to the United States.
After Escobar was killed by police in 1993, Colombia's cities saw little of the violence that remained a staple of the countryside.
Rescue searched the wreckage of the 11-story club in northern Bogota Saturday morning, looking for the bodies of more victims.
Though officials held little hope of finding anyone alive, rescuers dug out 12-year-old Maria Camila Garcia about midday Saturday, said Attorney General Luis Camilo Osorio after touring the scene.
The girl was found between the third and fourth floors and suffered only minor injuries, Osorio said. Her uncle, Mauricio Mugno, at the scene hoping for news of her, said both her parents had been killed in the blast.
The 330-pound bomb was planted in a car in the underground parking garage. It gutted much of the fancy club that was packed Friday night.
Floors collapsed, windows were blown out and a fire burned for more than two hours before fire crews brought it under control. Scores of people stumbled from the wrecked building, many of their faces streaked with blood.
Rescue workers set up a morgue in tents outside the building. Bodies, many of them charred from the fire, were brought out on stretchers.
Family members of missing employees and patrons of the club gathered nearby, many holding pictures of their loved ones.
Jose Fernando Cadavid said his brother-in-law was in a business meeting on the 11th floor when the explosion occurred.
``From here on out, it would be a miracle if they found him alive,'' he said. ``We have looked in all the clinics and this is the last option we have.''
While no one claimed responsibility for the attack, FARC said several months ago it intended to start attacking Colombia's elite. The rebels had only recently brought their four-decade war from the countryside into the cities.
The club was one of Colombia's most exclusive, and a symbol of wealth and power. It was frequented by politicians and business executives and included restaurants, a miniature golf course, a gym and rooms for overnight guests.
The blast could be heard for miles across this capital city of 7 million.
Among those injured in the bombing were children who were to put on a ballet show at the club Friday night.
More than 40 people, including several children, were able to escape from the fifth floor, where many others died, because one of the survivors found a large plastic tube near a hole where air was coming in through the smoke.
``That's how my small children got out,'' said Luis Carlos Naranjo, explaining that his 2-year-old daughter slid down the tube on the shoulders of her nanny and his 4-year-old son escaped the same way, with the help of a waiter who was himself injured.
``The man's face was bleeding, but despite his injuries, he helped my son,'' Naranjo said. ``Some 48 people, among them six or eight children, were able to escape sliding down the tube.''
Naranjo said he was on the eighth floor during the explosion. Others had also told of escaping in the tube, apparently a piece of the building detached in the explosion.
President Alvaro Uribe visited the scene, asking for the world to stop tolerating Colombia's armed groups.
``This tragedy is the daughter of the mix of drugs and violence,'' he said. ``While many countries of the world tolerate the consumption of drugs ... the laundering of money, while they arm these violent groups, they produce tragedies like what occurred tonight in the streets of Bogota.''
``When will this end?'' asked taxi driver Jairo Alvarez, crossing himself and asking for the Virgin Mary's protection as he detoured around the charred hulk of the club.
Jorge Velandia, who works at the miniature golf course in the building, said the blast opened a hole in one of the floors and people tumbled through.
``It was a huge explosion. I thought an airplane had crashed outside,'' said Luis Moreno, who lives across the street from the club and whose apartment building's windows were shattered in the blast.
----
At least 25 die in Bogota blast
February 8, 2003
UPI
http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20030208-050309-9378r.htm
BOGOTA, Colombia, Feb. 8 -- Investigators in Colombia are blaming Marxist militants for a car bomb that left ripped through a multi-story club complex, killing at least 25 people and injuring more than 150 others, authorities said Saturday.
The Friday night blast, which appears to have originated in a third-floor parking lot, caught the upscale Club El Nogal building in full swing, trapping people on the upper floors. The bomb attack -- the most deadly in Colombia since clashes between government forces and drug lords in the early 1990s -- ignited a blaze that took two hours to get under control.
Emergency workers were still removing bodies Saturday. Media reports indicated a number of children were in the building at the time of the explosion, and the club is a favorite of upper-class foreigners as well as Colombians. It encompassed a swimming pool, playing courts and an art gallery as well as hotel and restaurant facilities.
No group immediately claimed responsibility but Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos blamed the far-left rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. Known by its Spanish initials, FARC, the group used mortars last August to attack the presidential palace during Uribe's inauguration.
"It was a huge explosion -- I thought an airplane had crashed outside," Luis Moreno, who lives across the street from the club, told the British Broadcasting Corp.
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe toured the wreckage and offered an $180,000 reward for information about who was behind the suspected terror attack. Experts in explosives from the United States were summoned for the investigation.
U.S. President George Bush extended "deepest sympathy" for the devastation Saturday and added in a statement, "We stand with the Colombian people in their fight against narcoterrorists who threaten their democratic way of life. We will offer all appropriate assistance to the Colombian government in bringing to justice the murderers responsible for this act."
-------- europe
Franco-German Plan Floated to Avert Iraq War
Reuters
Saturday, February 8, 2003
By Emma Thomasson
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A45121-2003Feb8?language=printer
MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) - Germany and France are working on a new plan to try to avert war in Iraq that would compel Baghdad to admit thousands of U.N. troops to enforce disarmament and tighter sanctions, a magazine said on Saturday.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he knew nothing officially of the proposal.
Germany's leading news magazine Der Spiegel said the idea had originated in the office of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Berlin and Paris had been working on the details of the initiative in secret talks since the beginning of the year.
A German government spokesman confirmed Berlin and Paris were collaborating to find a p