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NUCLEAR
Agency uses polygraph despite shortcomings
Depleted uranium casts shadow over peace in Iraq
Depleted uranium will affect Iraq for generations to come
David meets Goliath
UN watchdog asks US to secure Iraq nuclear site
Nuclear Material, but No Smoking Gun, Found at Plant
Library books, letters and priceless documents are set ablaze
U.S. Favors WMD - Free Mideast, Linked to Peace
Japanese Utility Shuts Down Nuclear Grid
Power shortage looming large in Japan as nuclear reactors shut down
Powell Optimistic on North Korea Talks
Energy Dept. Eyes More Lie Detector Tests
Radiation Fund Is Expected to Run a Deficit
The misadventures of neoconservatives
Please, no more made-in-the-USA monsters
Clinton blasts US approach to international affairs
MILITARY
As the Iraq War Goes On, Afghan Violence Increases
Indonesia Turning to Russia for Arms
Jobs for the boys: the reconstruction billions
Living dangerously in Colombia
Tests rule out suspect bio-labs
Army probes buried trailers
Arms hunt narrows to priority sites
Troops find 'suspicious labs' buried near factory
As Iraqis Flee To Syria, U.S. Nets Scientist
2,000 policemen report for work
Marines Raid Journalists' Baghdad Hotel
Threat of military tribunals
With God and guns behind them, clerics begin calling shots
People in Basra Contest Official View of Siege
U.S. Convenes Meeting Focusing on Future of Iraq
Mosul shootings overshadow US-led talks
Syria Fears the Unknown: What's Behind U.S. Threats
U.S. Believe Iraqi Scientist Was in Syria
U.S. Threatens to Impose Penalties Against Syrians
Top agent in CIA's 'secret war' dies
Prosecutors: Accused Spy Has Money, China Contacts
Kofi Annan Worriedby Rhetoric on Syria
U.S. Has No Plans to Count Civilian Casualties
Rumsfeld Requests Power to Reorganize Services
CNN's disinformation campaign
War seen as in line with Christian view
POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS
Breyer Says Rights Need Guarding in Terror War
White House seeks to expand DNA database
The war on drugs
Police focus on terror, security
Justice Deems Secrecy Fears 'Unfounded'
ENERGY AND OTHER
The Battle Between Natural Gas and Diesel
Sunlight Can Convert Disinfectant Into Dioxin
ACTIVISTS
IRAQ: Hundreds of U.S. Soldiers Emerge as Conscientious Objectors
D.C. Officer on Desk Duty After Allegedly Hitting Protester
Protests Greet U.S.-Led Talks on Iraq
Seven activists win top environmental prize
-------- NUCLEAR
-------- accidents and safety
Agency uses polygraph despite shortcomings
ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 15, 2003
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20030415-98631720.htm
The Energy Department decided yesterday to continue using polygraph tests to protect the nation's nuclear-arms stockpile, despite a scientific study that found severe shortcomings in the tests' accuracy.
Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said the department must use the best tools available to protect sensitive information about the stockpile. Critics said the department is making a mistake by ignoring recommendations of the study of polygraph effectiveness conducted six months ago at the urging of Congress.
"Basically they've ignored the evidence," said Stephen Fienberg of Carnegie Mellon University, who was chairman of the National Academy of Sciences study.
A spokesman for Sen. Jeff Bingaman, New Mexico Democrat, said the Energy Department's response to the National Academy of Sciences is a "surprising and disappointing result" that is hard to understand.
The Energy Department imposed polygraph requirements on employees several years ago in the aftermath of the Wen Ho Lee spy situation at the department's nuclear weapons laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M. Many scientists at department labs objected that the tests were inherently inaccurate, which prompted congressional inquiries and the scientific review.
Congress ordered the Energy Department to take the study's findings into account.
In a proposed rule, however, the department says that retaining the program is well-suited to fulfilling national security needs.
The scientific review led by Mr. Fienberg concluded that federal agencies should not rely on polygraphs to screen workers and job applicants because the machines are too inaccurate.
The likelihood of ignoring a spy because he passed a polygraph test is so high that relying on the tests is probably a greater danger to national security than discarding them, Mr. Fienberg said in response to the proposed Energy Department rule.
"It's bureaucratic impudence," said Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists. "Energy said, 'We'll replace the existing policy with precisely the same policy.' "
By refusing to change, Mr. Abraham is expressing unwillingness to make life difficult for intelligence agencies and the Pentagon, which made the mistake long ago of using polygraphs as their primary counterintelligence tool, said Dr. Alan Zelicoff, senior scientist in the Center for National Security and Arms Control at Sandia National Laboratory.
Dr. Zelicoff, whose laboratory is covered by the Energy Department policy, said the careers of some scientists have been ruined because of false positive results on polygraph tests.
In justifying keeping the polygraph program as it is, the Energy Department pointed to language in the scientific study about use of polygraphs as a trigger for detailed follow-up investigations.
Mr. Abraham said the polygraph is not used on a "stand-alone basis but as part of a larger fabric of investigative and analytical reviews."
The Energy Department's position follows a move by the Pentagon to expand its polygraph program. The Pentagon told Congress recently that it might seek authorization to conduct more than the allowed 5,000 polygraph exams per year.
-------- depleted uranium
Depleted uranium casts shadow over peace in Iraq
15 April 03
New Scientist Print Edition
Duncan Graham-Rowe, with additional reporting by Rob Edwards
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993627
Wrecked tanks and vehicles litter the Iraqi countryside. Ruined buildings dominate towns and cities. Many were blown to pieces by shells tipped with depleted uranium, a material that the US and Britain say poses no long-term health or environmental risks. But many Iraqis, and a growing band of scientists, are not so sure.
Last week, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) announced it wanted to send a scientific team into Iraq as soon as possible to examine the effects of depleted uranium (DU). People's fears that DU leaves a deadly legacy must be addressed, says UNEP. Some scientists go further. Evidence is emerging that DU affects our bodies in ways we do not fully understand, they say, and the legacy could be real.
DU is both radioactive and toxic. Past studies of DU in the environment have concluded that neither of these effects poses a significant risk. But some researchers are beginning to suspect that in combination, the two effects could do significant harm. Nobody has taken a hard look at the combined effect of both, says Alexandra Miller, a radiobiologist with the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. "The bottom line is it might contribute to the risk."
She is not alone. The idea that chemical and radiological damage are reinforcing each other is very plausible and gaining momentum, says Carmel Mothersill, head of the Radiation and Environmental Science Centre at the Dublin Institute of Technology in Ireland. "The regulators don't know how to handle it. So they sweep it under the carpet."
Read "Before the dust settles", the New Scientist editorial on this story here.
A by-product of the uranium enrichment process, DU is chemically identical to natural uranium. But most of the 235 isotope has been extracted leaving mainly the non-fissionable 238 isotope. It is used to make the tips of armour-piercing shells because it is extremely dense: 1.7 times as dense as lead. Also, unlike other heavy metals that tend to flatten, or mushroom, upon impact, DU has the ability to "self-sharpen" as material spread out by the impact ignites and burns off as the munition pierces its target.
During the Gulf war in 1991, the US and Britain fired an estimated 350 tonnes of DU at Iraqi tanks, a figure likely to be matched in the course of the current conflict. In the years since then, doctors in southern Iraq have reported a marked increase in cancers and birth defects, and suspicion has grown that they were caused by DU contamination from tank battles on farmland west of Basra.
As the Pentagon and the Ministry of Defence point out, this claim has not been substantiated. Iraq did not allow the World Health Organization to carry out an independent assessment. Given its low radioactivity and our current understanding of radiobiology, DU cannot trigger such health effects, the British and American governments maintain.
But what if they are wrong? Though DU is 40 per cent less radioactive than natural uranium, Miller believes that its radiological and toxic effects might combine in subtle, unforeseen ways, making it more carcinogenic than thought. It's a controversial theory, but one for which Miller has increasing evidence.
Uranium is "genotoxic". It chemically alters DNA, switching on genes that would otherwise not be expressed. The fear is that the resulting abnormally high activity in cells could be a precursor to tumour growth.
But while the chemical toxicity of DU is reasonably well established, Mothersill points out that the radiological effects of DU are less clear. To gauge the risk from low-dose radiation, researchers extrapolate from tests using higher doses. But the relationship between dose and effect is not linear: at low doses radiation kills relatively fewer cells. And though that sounds like good news, it could mean that low radiation is having subtle effects that go unnoticed because cells are not dying, says Mothersill.
Miller has found one way this may happen. She has discovered the first direct evidence that radiation from DU damages chromosomes within cultured cells. The chromosomes break, and the fragments reform in a way that results in abnormal joins (Military Medicine, vol 167, p 120). Both the breaks and the joins are commonly found in tumour cells.
More crucially, she has recently found that DU radiation increases gene activity in cultured cells at doses of DU not known to cause chemical toxicity (Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, in press). The possible consequences are made all the more uncertain because no one knows if genes switched on by DU radiation enhance the damage caused by genes switched on by DU's toxic effects, or vice versa. "I think that we assumed that we knew everything that we needed to know about uranium," says Miller. "This is something we have to consider now when we think about risk estimates."
Britain's Royal Society briefly referred to these synergistic effects in its report last year on the health effects of DU munitions. "There is a possibility of damage to DNA due to the chemical effects being enhanced by the effects of the alpha-particle irradiation." But it makes no recommendations for future research to evaluate the risks.
The bystander effect
Miller points to another reason to be concerned about DU: the so-called "bystander effect". There is a growing consensus among scientists that radiation damages more than just the cells it directly hits. In tests using equipment that allows single cells to be irradiated by individual alpha particles, gene expression increases both in irradiated cells, and in neighbouring cells that have not been exposed. "At high doses, 'bystander' is not an issue because you are killing so many cells. But at low doses that's not really true," says Miller. There is a danger that experiments not specifically looking for this effect could miss an important source of damage.
A body of research has also emerged over the past decade showing that the effects of radiation may not appear immediately. Damage to genes may be amplified as cells divide, so the full consequences may only appear many generations after the event that caused it.
And while the chemical toxicity of DU itself is more clear-cut, the possibility remains that there may still be some unforeseen synergistic effects at a genetic level. Other heavy metals, such as tungsten, nickel and cobalt are similarly genotoxic. When Miller and her team exposed human cells to a mixture of these metals, significantly more genes became activated than when the cells were exposed to the equivalent amount of each metal separately (Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, in press).
Miller and Mothersill say that recommended safe radiation limits are often based on the idea that only irradiated cells will be affected, and ignore both the bystander effect and the possible amplification over the generations. "Nothing should be written in stone when it comes to risk assessment," agrees Michael Clark at Britain's National Radiological Protection Board. But even if there were a case for re-evaluating the dosimetry for low-dose radiation, he says we should be cautious of the significance of Miller's lab-based research. "An in vitro effect is not a health effect."
Also, says Clark, everyone has traces of natural uranium in their bodies. "If there was some sort of subtle low-dose effect I think we would have seen it," he says. Because none has shown up in epidemiological studies, it seems unlikely there are any health effects associated with DU, which is less radioactive. But Miller is not convinced. While most people have small amounts of uranium in their bodies, she says no studies have been done to see whether this contributes to cases of cancer in society at large.
The military tends to dismiss such hazards as being of only theoretical significance, at least when it comes to civilians. According to the Pentagon, the only risk of exposure is during combat, when DU shells hit hard targets and the metal ignites. This creates clouds of uranium oxide dust that can be breathed in. But heavy oxide particles quickly settle, it says, limiting the risk of exposure. "A small dust particle is still very heavy," says Michael Kilpatrick of the US Deployment Health Support Directorate. "It stays on the ground."
That sounds reassuring until you read UNEP's latest report on DU left over from conflicts in former Yugoslavia in the mid-1990s. Last month, a team of experts collaborating with the International Atomic Energy Agency, WHO and NATO concluded that DU poses little risk in Bosnia although it can still be detected at many sites. Just 11 tonnes was fired in that conflict.
But evidence that DU may be moving through the ground and could contaminate local water supplies should be investigated further, UNEP says. And on rare occasions, wind or human activity may raise DU-laden dust that local people could inhale. The Royal Society admits that localised areas of DU contamination pose a risk, particularly to young children, and should be cleared up as a priority. They also recommend the environmental sampling of affected areas (see Royal Society Reports on DU, 2002", below).
Such evidence is partly why UNEP is keen to study DU fired during the present conflict in Iraq. Assessments in former Yugoslavia were made up to seven years after DU weapons were used, UNEP admits, and a more immediate study in Iraq would give us a much better understanding of how DU behaves in the environment. Any hazards such a study identifies could be dealt with immediately, says UNEP. And even now, an investigation in Iraq could reveal risks remaining from DU fired during the Gulf war in 1991.
Veterans show ill effects
Cracks are also appearing in the argument that DU munitions have not proven harmful even to troops. In the 1991 war, more than 100 coalition troops were exposed to DU after being accidentally fired on by their own forces. The majority inhaled uranium oxide, while the rest suffered shrapnel injuries. Some still have DU in their bodies. Britain and America point out that none has developed cancers or kidney problems, as might have been expected if DU posed a long-term danger.
But researchers at the Bremen Institute for Prevention Research, Social Medicine and Epidemiology in Germany have found that all is not well with the veterans. Last month they published results from tests in which they took blood samples from 16 of the soldiers, and counted the number of chromosomes in which broken strands of DNA had been incorrectly repaired. In veterans, these abnormalities occurred at five times the rate as in a control group of 40 healthy volunteers (Radiation Protection Dosimetry, vol 103, p 211). "Increased chromosomal aberrations are associated with an increased incidence of cancers," says team member Heike Schröder. The damage occurred, they say, because the soldiers inhaled DU particles in battle.
The NRPB is unconvinced. "It is possible that exposure to significant amounts of DU could cause excess chromosome aberrations, but this study has technical flaws," says Clark. "There are no proper controls to compare results with soldiers who were not exposed to DU. And some of the reported excess aberrations are well known to be linked to chemicals rather than radiation."
Tough decision to make
Deciding whether DU is to blame will be tough. Independent research may confirm that rates of cancer have increased in the Iraqi population. But the Iraqi government has used chemical weapons on its own people that can produce the same outcome, and it is impossible to know for sure who may have been exposed. Soldiers may similarly have been exposed to chemicals in 1991. The only way to resolve the issue is more research, says Dudley Goodhead, director of Britain's Medical Research Council's Radiation and Genome Stability Unit at Harwell, near Oxford. "It's something important that needs to be explained."
Miller admits it is entirely possible that DU contamination is safe. But many of the scientific investigations into DU have only just begun, and their results will be long coming. "None of this has been looked at or even thought about it until the last few years," she says. As the dust begins to settle in Iraq, it remains to be seen when the ravages of war will end.
Royal Society reports on DU, 2002 - Conclusions
• Most soldiers have a negligible risk of dying of cancer caused by radiation from battlefield DU. It will be undetectable above the risk of dying from cancer over a normal lifetime. Soldiers should not suffer adverse effects on the kidney or other organs.
• A few soldiers, for instance those who clean up vehicles struck by DU, may have an excess risk of lung cancer and may develop short-term kidney damage.
• People living in areas where DU was deployed have a negligible risk of developing cancers as a result of inhaling DU resuspended in the air. But it is uncertain how much DU is inhaled in years following a conflict. Most people should not suffer any effects on kidney function from inhaled DU.
• Ingestion of DU from contaminated water and food, and from soil, will be highly variable and may be significant in some cases: for example, children playing in areas where DU shells have impacted.
Royal Society reports on DU, 2002 - Recommendations
• Long-term epidemiological studies of soldiers exposed to DU, and environmental sampling, particularly of water and milk, should be undertaken. Information about DU levels should be given to local populations, and contaminated areas cleaned up.
• British veterans exposed to high levels of DU should be identified and independently evaluated. An independent study of anecdotal reports of death and illness in US veterans linked to DU is required.
• In any future conflict using DU munitions, tests of kidney function should be completed on soldiers as soon after exposure as practical.
• Better estimates of DU levels in the air around tanks, and models of DU oxide behaviour during impact, are required. More information is needed on the bioavailability of DU and titanium products from munitions, and whether these concentrate in plants and animals.
The full Royal Society reports can be obtained here and here (pdf files).
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Depleted uranium will affect Iraq for generations to come
Wednesday April 15 2003
Al Jazeera
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=03/04/16/6309693
Our guest is professor Major Doug Rocke, former chief of the Depleted Uranium Project at the Pentagon.
Prof Rocke says he suffered the effects of depleted uranium from the first week of the Gulf War in 1991 but did not realise it until March 1995. Tests showed that he had 5000 times the normal level of radiation in his body, enough he says sarcastically, to light up a small village. He is also suffering from problems with breathing, immune system and one eye. He has had 15 surgical operations to his liver as a result of his infection by this uranium syndrome.
http://english.aljazeera.net/topics/article.asp?cu_no=1&item_no=2565&version=1&template_id=273&parent_id=258
The Presenter (Ahmed Mansour): Despite research by a large number of scientists and experts on the enormous damage inflicted by depleted uranium ... and the use by the US in the Gulf War in1991 , and wars in the Balkans and Afghanistan in1994 ,1995 , 1999 and2000 ...The US use of depleted uranium is not confined to the total destruction of targets but extends to the destruction of the environment and human life in general in the affected regions. Such areas will be unfit for habitation for millions of years.
Our guest is professor Major Doug Rocke, former chief of Depleted Uranium Project at the Pentagon.
Born in Illinois1949 , professor Doug Rocke joined the US Air Force in1967 , took part in the Vietnam War from 1969 to 1971as a B 52pilot. He obtained his PhD in nuclear physics. He worked until 1996as a field doctor and specialist in nuclear physics in the US Army. He took part in the 1991 Gulf War, tasked with depleted uranium clean up in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
From March to June1991 , Prof Rocke compiled contaminated equipment from the battlefield and shipped part of it back to the US and supervised the burial of more equipment in Saudi Arabian deserts. He was appointed head of the Depleted Uranium Project in the Pentagon between 1August 1994 and November1995 . He also worked as a professor of nuclear physics at Jackson University - Alabama until2000 .
Prof Rocke says he suffered the effects of depleted uranium from the first week of the Gulf War in 1991 but did not realise it until March1995 . Tests showed that he had 5000 times the normal level of radiation in his body, enough he says sarcastically, to light up a small village. He is also suffering from problems with breathing, immune system and one eye. He has had 15 surgical operations to his liver as a result of his infection by this uranium syndrome.
Q: At this very critical time, a lot of people are trying to understand and know more about the weapons containing depleted uranium which the United States plans to use... Despite all the studies and research that came up during the last period and confirmed the risks of using the depleted uranium, officials at the Pentagon announced that they are going to use depleted uranium bombs in Iraq again. What is your understanding of this announcement?
Professor Rocke: The announcement is very simple. Uranium munitions kill and destroy everything that they contact. Going back to the (1991) Gulf War and even before, the Pentagon had decided to use weapons that are absolutely efficient in combat. At the completion of the 1991 Gulf War when I was specifically assigned to clean up the uranium mess I received a memorandum, this is a Los Alamos memorandum written by a colonel at Los Alamos national laboratories in New Mexico. In that memorandum, he said "Even though we know there are health and environmental effects, you should make sure that we can always use uranium munitions in combat because they are so effective. And therefore lie about the health and environmental effects of the use of uranium munitions in combat."
Smoke rises over the Iraqi capital Baghdad following further bombing raids by US-led forces, March22
The Presenter: Being the former chief of the depleted uranium project in the Pentagon, what are the risks of using depleted uranium on life and human beings in general?
Professor Rocke: The first thing that we have to understand is that each individual uranium round fired by an Abrams tank is ten pounds of solid uranium contaminated with plutonium, neptunium and americium. On impact, you have a fine uranium outside dust that is generated. This represents about one half of the original mass. So if you have4500 grams, you have about 2300 grams or 2200 grams that turn into a dust on the outside, they can be inhaled .. and then get into the body. When this happens, you have all kinds of serious problems both metal poisoning and radiological effects on the body.
The Presenter: Being one of the victims of depleted uranium, can you describe the symptoms you felt when you were infected?
Professor Rocke: The most significant effect that we noticed was respiratory problems. And the respiratory problems acted like you had a really bad case of bronchitis. Your respiratory system was affected, you couldn't breathe as well and you started noticing all kinds of serious apparatus effects with your breathing system......The other health effect we saw immediately in ourselves and everybody else was the terrible rash. And the rash that we suspect and which we still have to this day is from the heavy metal poisoning that occurs just as if you would have eaten a litre of any other heavy toxic metal.
The Presenter: Dr. Rocke, What are the most important symptoms of inhaling depleted uranium?
Professor Rocke: The biggest problem that we had, in addition to the respiratory problems, is cancer which developed in members of our team within eight to nine months. Within two years, additional cancers developed and people started to die. Individuals that we had confirmed had embedded uranium shrapnel deliberately locked in their bodies by the United States Department of Defence did develop tumours in and around that embedded shrapnel. Published research verifies that uranium shrapnel or uranium embedded in the tissue will cause cancer. That we see in any place that uranium has been used, manufactured and processed .... in various areas of the United States.
The Presenter: But Michael Kilpatrick, who was responsible for providing medical care to the veterans at the Pentagon, said in a press conference that a study covering 90 infected veterans from the 1991 Gulf War proved that they were not suffering from any disease, whether it be cancer or otherwise. What do you say about this?
Professor Rocke: Dr. Kilpatrick lied to the world. It is very simple. First he stated that 90 individuals were affected ..... I had well over 100 individuals who were affected. I had another250 individuals who were absolutely exposed while we were cleaning it up. .........
The Presenter: Why did your colleagues in the Pentagon lie and for the benefit of whom?
Professor Rocke: The reason that they lie is to avoid any liability for the deliberate use of uranium munitions not only in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, throughout the Balkans and throughout all the sites in the United States. Again the purpose of the war is to kill and to destroy. Uranium munitions are absolutely destructive.
The Presenter: On 3 February 2003 an official from the Veteran's Association in Britain said that 560 British soldiers have died since 1991 from Gulf War Syndrome and that 5000 are under treatment. Do you have any statistics on the number of wounded American soldiers?
Professor Rocke: Yes, I do. The US Department of Veterans' Affairs released a report in September2002 . In that report they formally acknowledged that there are over160 , 000Gulf War veterans permanently disabled and over 8000 dead from the effects of Gulf War syndrome...It (Iraq) is a toxic wasteland that is absolutely proven to exist today by additional statistics.
House destroyed from a missile during an air strike in Baghdad
The Presenter: What are the main diseases that can be caused by uranium?
Professor Rocke: The problems that we have are very significant. We have the respiratory problems, all the eye problems, neurological problems, and cancers. What we know today is that the American veterans who participated in the 1991 Gulf War are dying at a rate of over 140a month here in the United States alone.
The Presenter: You said that36 % of the veterans who took part in the 1991 Gulf War will die because of cancer and that160 ,000 are handicapped and 8000 have already died but still the US insists on using uranium. Do you expect more cases of infection from uranium?
Professor Rocke: Absolutely. We have already seen additional casualties coming back. Although the war ended in the fall of1991 , the US continued to send troops to that region. Today we know, actually verified by the United States Department of Veteran Affairs that there are now over a quarter of a million American soldiers who served during the Gulf War and stayed in the region until May 2002 are now permanently disabled due to complex exposures. And we also now know that over10 , 000are dead and that the current death rate is over a 140 a month.
The Presenter: What happened to the inhabitants of Kuwait, Iraq and north of Saudi Arabia as a result of the spread of400 tonnes of uranium dust?
Professor Rocke: There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that the health effects that we have seen in the women, the children and other residents of that region is absolutely due in part to the uranium contamination that has been left there. Congressional representatives and scientists, and independent individuals from all over the world have gone over there and verified the level of contamination and that contamination has not been removed as required by US Department of Defence directives.
The Presenter: Professor Harry Shalimer has said that at least100 , 000of the inhabitants of Basra have been infected with cancer since1991 . Do you have any statistics on the number of infections in these regions?
Professor Rocke: I have not been back to Iraq since the 1991 Gulf War, but I have talked to Dr. Shalimer and other scientists and physicians involved in this. I have no doubt in my mind that Dr. Shalimer is probably correct. I know for a fact that he has verified uranium in those individuals residing in that region and therefore you can make a direct correlation between those exposures and the health effects that have been documented. Dr. Shalimer again is one of the world's experts on this, so we must listen to him.
The Presenter: Do you have any information about the uranium ammunition that the US is going to use in its war against Iraq?
Professor Rocke: Absolutely...The uranium munitions that will be used are again and once more the rounds that will be fired by the Abrams tank. Each round is over 4500 grams of solid uranium contaminated with plutonium, neptunium and americium. The A- 10Warthog aircraft will additionally fire the 30 ml round, that is, each individual round is 300 grams of solid uranium. We also know that the Bradley fighting vehicle will fire the25 ml round, and each individual round is over 200 grams of solid uranium. In addition, cruise missiles contain uranium components, and the giant bunker busters contain uranium components.
The Presenter: A weapons expert, Dai Williams, in one of our programs said that the ammunition used by the US in the1991 Gulf War weighed around 5 kilograms, and against Afghanistan they used bombs and ammunition of up 10,000 pounds, and it is expected that they are going to use the same ammunition in Iraq. They even announced that the mother of bombs weighs 10,000 tonnes. If the previous Gulf War left around 400 tonnes of uranium dust, what do you expect will happen to the region this time?
Professor Rocke: What I expect is that we will again see serious health effects in the American soldiers who go there and use it. We will see health effects in all the residents of that region. We will see health effects in the Iraqi soldiers who will be the targets of direct uranium used by US forces. I must repeat and make this very clear, as the head of the project to clean up uranium munitions during the1991 Gulf War, and as the director of the Depleted Uranium Project for the Department of Defence who did the research, and as a DU casualty, the use of uranium munitions during warfare is a crime against God, is a crime against humanity, and should be considered a war crime. You cannot take solid uranium radioactive waste, throw it in anybody's backyard and refuse to provide medical care and complete the environmental clean-up that is required to sustain the health and safety of the citizens of the earth.
The Presenter: Do you think depleted uranium is considered a weapon of mass destruction or a nuclear weapon?
Professor Rocke: The United Nations on10 September 2001 did rule that uranium munitions were considered a weapon of mass destruction. The European Parliament has issued a proclamation that uranium munitions should be banned from use in the world.
The Presenter: Do you think that using depleted uranium against human beings in general falls under the category of crimes of war?
Professor Rocke: Absolutely, because in the United States you cannot even take 500 grams of solid uranium and throw it in anybody's backyard without going to jail. Therefore, what right has the United States, England or any other nation has to take hundreds and hundreds of tons of uranium and throw them in somebody else's backyard, refuse them medical care as they have done now for decades and also refuse to clean up the environment.
The Presenter: Professor Dracovic said that the cleaning of the region needs $ 200billion. Is it possible to clean up the region (if this fund is raised)?
Professor Rocke: The problem that we have, when I actually did the research, was to determine how to clean up. For each and every vehicle that is struck by a single uranium munition you have to take that entire vehicle, and physically remove it. Then you have to clean up all the uranium penetration that is left around that vehicle. Then you have to take a bulldozer, and go out to at least 100 metres and scrape down at least 10 centimetres and remove all of that dirt in order to make that area safe again, that is for each and every vehicle.
The Presenter: If Baghdad is being struck by such ammunition, how far will the effects of such uranium impact the surrounding areas of Baghdad?
Professor Rocke: Studies in the United States by one of the former scientists in this area measuring the uranium contamination from a production plant in the United States showed that the uranium contamination has caused adverse health effects within 50 kilometres.
The Presenter: This is around the plant itself, what about the dust and the wind?
Professor Rocke: The wind carried the uranium dust 50 kilometres away from the plant and there were sufficient quantities to cause adverse health effects. We know today that in and around all the production facilities where they are making uranium munitions there are cancers, kidney problems, respiratory problems, rations, neurological problems in the residents of that area.
The Presenter: Some studies say that in the areas affected in the Balkans, uranium dust travelled more than 1000 kilometres and reached a lot of European capitals. Do you think that Kuwaitis, Saudis, Iraqis and Jordanians are safe from the uranium dust that Iraq might be hit with?
Professor Rocke: You have the whole combination of by-products of the war. When we destroy the infrastructure of Iraq...when we deliberately use uranium munitions and contaminate the air, water and soil, the entire region becomes a toxic wasteland. And again the reason that we know that it is a toxic wasteland today is that since1991 , the United States has continued to send American soldiers into the region. Since1991 , an additional60 , 000American veterans have been labelled as permanently disabled from this exposure and another 3000 have been confirmed dead.
The Presenter: How long can these areas remain contaminated?
Professor Rocke: The contamination will remain in the area unless it is physically and totally removed, for4 . 5billion years and beyond.
The Presenter: Will these areas remain contaminated for4 . 5billion years?
Professor Rocke: Unless it is physically removed according to the procedures and processes that I have developed for the US Department of Defence.
The Presenter: Those contaminated areas, are they fit for human life now?
Professor Rocke: They are not. The US Department of Defence, in the common test training for use of uranium munitions, specifically states that all American soldiers must wear full respirator and skin protection within 25 to 50 metres of each and every vehicle that is struck by uranium munitions.
The Presenter: Having supervised the burial of some of the waste in1991 , how true is that some of the areas north of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are no longer fit for human habitation, and that people should be prevented from going into these areas?
Professor Rocke: Absolutely. The entire...area near Basra, the contamination there is absolutely verified. US Congressmen, James McDermott and his staff went over to Iraq in the fall of last year. They measured the contamination and verified that it was so great that people should be prevented from entering that area permanently until all of it is cleaned up.
The Presenter: Also, the region that could be hit by uranium ammunition, whether Baghdad or other Iraqi cities, would they be contaminated also, and the contamination there will be for4 . 5billion years again?
Professor Rokke: Absolutely...
The Presenter: Is it possible that Baghdad, Basra and other cities will be unfit for human life after this war?
Professor Rocke: If you destroy the entire infrastructure ..... and if Iraq does possess any chemical, biological or radioactive materials and you destroy them, that would be just like hitting an ice cube with a hammer. All you do is split it. If you use uranium munitions and you do not clean it up, the entire area will be a toxic wasteland, that unless all environmental clean-up is completed will be uninhabitable.
An explosion rocks one of Saddam Hussein'spalaces in Baghdad during air strikes
The Presenter: This means that there are more than 20 million human beings in Iraq who are subject to being hit by uranium, and if Iraq will be hit by uranium munitions it will be unfit for human habitation. Does this mean that the United states will eliminate a total country from the surface of the earth?
Professor Rocke: That is an absolute possibility. When you destroy the infrastructure, you use all the types of munitions and you contaminate air, water and soil. That is an absolute possibility...
The Presenter: Can simple human beings who are living in Iraq, and who have nothing to do and are helpless, can they do anything against the United States, which will not hesitate to use uranium against them?
Professor Rocke: For years, as the individual that cleaned up uranium munitions in the 1991 Gulf War, and as the director of the Depleted Uranium Project, I have requested and I have insisted that the United States and other countries refrain from using uranium munitions in combat. Uranium munitions must be banned from use on earth and in the universe for eternity. At the same time, I have requested numerous times that medical care be provided not only for the fired casualties on my staff, but for thousands and thousands of individuals who have been exposed. And I have also requested numerous times that all uranium contamination be cleaned up. However, those requests have been denied, denied, and denied.....
The Presenter: Since you stayed in the region until 1996 and supervised a lot of activities and you know the contaminated areas, is it possible to give us a list of contaminated areas in Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Kuwait...?
Professor Rocke: One of the problems we have is that the United States Department of Defence has not identified all the areas where uranium munitions have been used. So therefore, individuals who reside in that area must look for the ... signature of uranium munitions use.
On a destroyed vehicle you will see a clean round hole around the area. You will also see black dust surrounding the area. Any vehicle or structure that you see that has this signature you should not approach within 100 metres unless you are wearing full skin and respiratory protection.
The Presenter: What are the symptoms so that if they appear on the inhabitants of those areas they can tell they have been exposed?
Professor Rocke: The first symptom that will show up ..... will be the respiratory problems. It acts like a chronic bronchitis. The second thing that you will probably see is the rashes.
The Presenter: The infections that showed up in the south of Iraq and the deformities in the newborn, do you expect these to last for4 . 5billion years? Is there a possibility that in the future generations more complications will come up?
Professor Rocke: Absolutely... Again as along as individuals are being exposed to uranium, we know that the changes in the RNA in DNA, the changes that occur genetically are causing all of these birth effects. We have seen those birth effects in American soldiers who were exposed. We are seeing those birth effects all over the world where uranium exposures have occurred.
The Presenter: Can the insistence of the United States to use this ammunition again against human beings and against Iraq be considered a new war crime?
Professor Rocke: Anybody who uses uranium munitions in war must understand that it is a crime against God and it is a crime against humanity... Yes, it is. When you deliberately and wilfully spread radioactive waste, ignore the health effects and refuse to clean it up, that is a crime against God and a crime against humanity.
The Presenter: What do you think the size of the disaster that will result from using hundreds of tonnes of uranium in the war against Iraq? If this is the picture given for the past 10 years, what will be from the result on the region of using uranium again?
Professor Rocke: If we have the same exposures and we have extensive use we can estimate that the number of casualties and the percentage of people in the area...that is going to be30 % again. That is the numbers, we cannot change the statistics. We cannot change the epidemiological effects of all of the contaminations that results from war.
--------
David meets Goliath
Lawrence Smallman,
Al Jazeera
Tuesday 15, April, 2003
http://english.aljazeera.net/topics/article.asp?cu_no=1&item_no=712&version=1&template_id=273&parent_id=258
The United States has the ability to kill off any nation on the planet. The biggest bombs, the biggest budget and the biggest army can destroy others in a number of ways. The US military is spoilt for choice when it comes to weaponry.
Iraq, Bosnia and Afghanistan have provided regular battlefield experience and testing grounds for the US armed forces and their armoury. Depleted uranium, thermobaric weapons, cluster bombs and 6,800kg 'daisy cutters' have all been tested around the world in the last 10 years.
But even before live trials of these weapons, the United States destroyed much of Saddam Hussein's army with devastating effect. Eyewitnesses to the 'highway of death' near Basra spoke of the remains of 2,000 mangled Iraqi military vehicles, and the charred and dismembered bodies of tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers. Many Iraqi and Palestinian civilians were killed too. Aerial bombardment will always be indiscriminate.
Missile falls on Baghdad
The United States is likely to launch 3,000 precision missiles in the first 48 hours; the objective will be the annihilation of Iraqi air and communication defences. If these missiles are as precise as in 1991, this means that 600 missiles will hit their targets and 2400 will hit somewhere else. This is worrying, as the US is highly likely to test out some of the latest generation of its instruments of death.
Bombs and missiles
The BAT, or Brilliant Anti-Tank bomb, is a self-guided weapon that is delivered by missile and then deployed in mid-air. It uses its onboard sensors to identify enemy combat vehicles by using acoustic and infrared scanners. Iraq has some 90-110 surface-to-air missile launchers.
The BLACKOUT bomb is a non-kinetic weapon that dispenses carbon-fibre filaments that disable electrical power grids. The E-bomb emits bursts of microwave energy that can scramble computer systems. Iraq has 500 - 700 light surface-to-air missile launchers.
The CBU-97 is the first 'smart' bomb for Air Force bombers and uses passive infrared and active laser sensors to find its enemy. The JDAM bomb uses GPS signals to convert dumb bombs into higher precision munitions. Iraq has some 3,000 antiaircraft guns.
The MOAB, contrary to popular opinion, does not stand for the 'mother of all bombs' but rather Massive Ordinance Air Blast. This bomb weighs 9 500kg and is like dropping a small nuclear weapon. No one has anything like this in any country, least of all Iraq.
Planes and tanks
The SUPER HORNET is the US Navy's new aircraft. It is equipped with a powerful laser sensor and can designate four targets at once. The B 2bomber is now world famous for its ability to pass near undetected and deliver cruise missiles just about anywhere in Iraq.
Out of Iraq's 316 combat aircraft, "only about 20 are advanced planes that have any ability to confront most of the planes possessed by the United States or Israel. The rest are old planes from the 1970s, or even before" according to General Shlomo Brom (ret.), Senior Research Associate, Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, Tel Aviv University. Even these '20 advanced planes' are 1970s and 1980s models, with no major modernisation of avionics, munitions, or electronic warfare equipment.
The APACHE LONGBOW is touted as the most advanced combat helicopter in the world. It can target 16 enemy tanks at once from eight kilometres away. They will precede the advancing US tank divisions. Iraq has 70 armed helicopters - most of which can be operational for at least short periods.
Even in 1991, the earlier models of the US M-1 tanks proved far superior to the Iraq T-72 tanks that were much touted at the time. The US now has M-1A1 Abrams tanks while Iraq has exactly what remained after the last war. Tanks aren't known to improve with age; the US's depleted uranium shells will tear through them.
Latest technology
The US comes into its own in this department. EYES IN THE SKY are unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) that will play a key role in hunting for Saddam's dozen or so scud missiles across Iraq. DRAGON EYE, another UAV, is small enough to fit into a Marine's backpack. It weighs only two kilos and can beam video pictures to a screen on a soldier's wrist. PACKBOTS are small reconnaissance robots armed with weapons and sensors that can navigate narrow city streets and other areas of danger. While US special forces will be using their intranet and laptops to relay targeting information to attack aircraft and heavy artillery, Iraqis will still be using walkie-talkies, radio and mobiles to coordinate.
Troops
The United States and Britain have the largest defence budgets between them. Investment in each soldier each year works out at more than US $25,000 per year in training alone. Between them, there are 250,000 troops armed to the teeth and supplied by first world countries with first world communications.
Iraq is now a third world country, coming out of the twelve years of sanctions that have caused hundreds of thousands of deaths. Half of Iraq's conscript army consists of low-grade reservists who are given a gun and little training, then called soldiers. Although the Iraqi government is clearly taking its presentation of the war more seriously than in the 1991 Gulf War, the Iraqi public relations machine is still no match for the US in sophistication
-------- iraq
UN watchdog asks US to secure Iraq nuclear site
Story by Marcus Kabel
REUTERS AUSTRIA:
April 15, 2003
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/20479/newsDate/15-Apr-2003/story.htm
VIENNA - The chief United Nations nuclear watchdog said it had asked the United States to guarantee the security of a former Iraqi nuclear research site until U.N. inspectors could return.
U.S. forces are reported to have entered the Tuwaitha nuclear research site that U.N. inspectors had previously identified as part of Saddam Hussein's nuclear programme that inspectrs dismantled after the 1991 Gulf war.
In a letter to Washington, the head of the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) said American forces must secure the Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Centre to ensure nuclear materials were not removed until U.N. inspectors could resume verification work.
"I have written yesterday to the United States Government asking that it ensure the security and safety of all the nuclear material there, which has been under IAEA seal since 1991," Mohamed ElBaradei said in a statement.
"The IAEA has subsequently received such assurances," the statement said.
ElBaradei has said that his inspectors alone, not the United States, have the authority under U.N. Security Council decisions to inspect and disarm Iraq if weapons or weapons programmes are found.
He has also urged that the inspectors be permitted to return to Iraq as soon as conditions permit to resume their hunt for weapons of mass destruction.
Before the war started last month, IAEA inspectors reported finding no trace of banned nuclear arms activities in Iraq since resuming inspections late last year after a four-year hiatus.
Iraq launched a crash programme to test its first nuclear bomb using highly enriched uranium after it invaded Kuwait in 1990. The target date was April, 1991, but bombing by U.S. planes in the Gulf War earlier that year stopped testing.
Other equipment was destroyed by inspectors in subsequent years.
Nuclear experts familiar with the IAEA inspection history said the U.N. was well aware of nuclear materials stockpiled at a Tuwaitha, a research facility where U.S. troops this week registered high radiation readings, according to some reports.
Iraq was allowed to keep some non-weapons grade nuclear materials after the 1991 war, including tonnes of raw uranium and uranium enriched only slightly. To be used in a bomb, uranium must be highly enriched.
----
Nuclear Material, but No Smoking Gun, Found at Plant
April 15, 2003
By JUDITH MILLER
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/15/international/worldspecial/15CND-SEAR.html
KARBALA, Iraq, April 15 - An American team hunting for unconventional Iraqi weapons at an ammunition plant near Karbala have discovered some radioactive material in a maintenance building and biological equipment that can be used for peaceful or military purposes buried in metal containers, but no "smoking gun" proving that Iraq made chemical, biological or nuclear materials at the plant.
Col. Richard McPhee, commander of the 75th Exploitation Task Force, a Defense Department unit responsible for the search for unconventional weapons, brought a specialized nuclear detection team to the site today and removed seven canisters of cesium, a radioactive metal, from the huge maintenance warehouse. Although analysts have not yet determined their specific purpose, the experts said the cesium was probably intended to calibrate machinery in one of the many buildings under construction here.
Ending a weeklong survey here today, the American experts said the specific purpose of some parts of the giant manufacturing and storage plant remained a mystery. The purpose may not be known for weeks, as intelligence analysts in Washington pore over the detailed maps, engineering drawings and inventories of equipment - about 1,000 pounds of documents that were found and removed.
The experts said they continued to regard the plant as "suspicious."
But after a week in which expectations of finding proof of unconventional weapons soared and were repeatedly deflated, the military experts said the survey showed the difficulty of discovering hard evidence without specific information from Iraqi scientists and military officers.
The plant near here was one of Iraq's leading ammunition production facilities, but much of it was under construction when the war began and American bombs targeted it. Although international inspectors visited the plant as late as February, they failed to find biological or chemical weapons or agents.
After the war began, the site was visited by advancing American troops, who reported finding nothing of special interest to weapons inspectors. But because the site was considered sensitive, officials in Washington said, an Army specialist team was also sent to the plant. But that team, too, missed the buried containers of biological equipment and the radioactive material, which was stored openly in a maintenance building. Not until American combat forces came by a second time, more than a week ago, were the first two of what turned to be 11 sealed containers found. Contrary to instructions about what to do in such situations, the soldiers opened one of the containers, then moved on, leaving only a small platoon in charge of guarding the material and securing the five-square-mile facility.
Word that the plant was open to pillage spread quickly through surrounding villages, several of which have been without electricity, medicine and water since the war began. By the time the Defense Department specialist unit arrived, much of the plant had already been looted.
For instance, the experts found manuals that came with two drying ovens imported from Germany, equipment that can be used to culture viruses and bacteria for weapons. But the ovens themselves were gone by the time the specialists arrived.
The weapons experts quickly determined that the containers, found under huge mounds of gravel and dirt, held expensive, highly sophisticated equipment from Germany, Italy, China, Britain and other countries that could be used for military or civilian purposes. An intense survey of the roughly 50 large buildings on the complex began.
One mound of dirt, 50 feet long and 5 feet high, was a particular focus of the team's efforts. Ground-penetrating radar indicated that objects had been buried beneath it.
Lacking earth-moving equipment, the team hired laborers from the nearby village of Ayyash. With the laborers' shovels, bolstered later by a farmer with a tractor and another man with a front-end loader, the team began digging. But the effort, which took more than a day, was for naught. The team found nothing under the mound.
The 75th Exploitation Task Force, camped farther south in Iraq, has struggled to carry out its mission as Washington's attention has shifted from the search for chemical and biological weapons, the ostensible reason for the United States' decision to go to war, to war crimes committed by the Iraqis after the war began. Resources, including communications equipment, security, engineers and even basic supplies like generators and batteries, have often been unavailable. Helicopter transport, essential for rapid mobility in such a large country, has been sporadic, and the weapons teams have had to scrounge vehicles from other units to travel to suspect sites.
People who have monitored the search also say the Army site survey teams have occasionally overreacted or underreacted to discoveries in the field.
Chief Warrant Officer Richard L. Gonzales, the leader of the weapons specialist team at the plant near Karbala, played down the inspectors' problems and said he remained convinced that proof of unconventional Iraqi weapons would be found eventually.
"We're not going to find just a smoking gun, but a smoking cannon," he said. "It's only a matter of time."
----
Library books, letters and priceless documents are set ablaze in final chapter of the sacking of Baghdad
Robert Fisk:
15 April 2003
UK Independent
http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=397350
So yesterday was the burning of books. First came the looters, then the arsonists. It was the final chapter in the sacking of Baghdad. The National Library and Archives a priceless treasure of Ottoman historical documents, including the old royal archives of Iraq were turned to ashes in 3,000 degrees of heat. Then the library of Korans at the Ministry of Religious Endowment was set ablaze.
I saw the looters. One of them cursed me when I tried to reclaim a book of Islamic law from a boy of no more than 10. Amid the ashes of Iraqi history, I found a file blowing in the wind outside: pages of handwritten letters between the court of Sharif Hussein of Mecca, who started the Arab revolt against the Turks for Lawrence of Arabia, and the Ottoman rulers of Baghdad.
And the Americans did nothing. All over the filthy yard they blew, letters of recommendation to the courts of Arabia, demands for ammunition for troops, reports on the theft of camels and attacks on pilgrims, all in delicate hand-written Arabic script. I was holding in my hands the last Baghdad vestiges of Iraq's written history. But for Iraq, this is Year Zero; with the destruction of the antiquities in the Museum of Archaeology on Saturday and the burning of the National Archives and then the Koranic library, the cultural identity of Iraq is being erased. Why? Who set these fires? For what insane purpose is this heritage being destroyed?
When I caught sight of the Koranic library burning flames 100 feet high were bursting from the windows I raced to the offices of the occupying power, the US Marines' Civil Affairs Bureau. An officer shouted to a colleague that "this guy says some biblical [sic] library is on fire". I gave the map location, the precise name in Arabic and English. I said the smoke could be seen from three miles away and it would take only five minutes to drive there. Half an hour later, there wasn't an American at the scene and the flames were shooting 200 feet into the air.
There was a time when the Arabs said that their books were written in Cairo, printed in Beirut and read in Baghdad. Now they burn libraries in Baghdad. In the National Archives were not just the Ottoman records of the Caliphate, but even the dark years of the country's modern history, handwritten accounts of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, with personal photographs and military diaries,and microfiche copies of Arabic newspapers going back to the early 1900s.
But the older files and archives were on the upper floors of the library where petrol must have been used to set fire so expertly to the building. The heat was such that the marble flooring had buckled upwards and the concrete stairs that I climbedhad been cracked. The papers on the floor were almost too hot to touch, bore no print or writing, and crumbled into ash the moment I picked them up. Again, standing in this shroud of blue smoke and embers, I asked the same question: why?
So, as an all-too-painful reflection on what this means, let me quote from the shreds of paper that I found on the road outside, blowing in the wind, written by long-dead men who wrote to the Sublime Porte in Istanbul or to the Court of Sharif of Mecca with expressions of loyalty and who signed themselves "your slave". There was a request to protect a camel convoy of tea, rice and sugar, signed by Husni Attiya al-Hijazi (recommending Abdul Ghani-Naim and Ahmed Kindi as honest merchants), a request for perfume and advice from Jaber al-Ayashi of the royal court of Sharif Hussein to Baghdad to warn of robbers in the desert. "This is just to give you our advice for which you will be highly rewarded," Ayashi says. "If you don't take our advice, then we have warned you." A touch of Saddam there, I thought. The date was 1912.
Some of the documents list the cost of bullets, military horses and artillery for Ottoman armies in Baghdad and Arabia, others record the opening of the first telephone exchange in the Hejaz soon to be Saudi Arabia while one recounts, from the village of Azrak in modern-day Jordan, the theft of clothes from a camel train by Ali bin Kassem, who attacked his interrogators "with a knife and tried to stab them but was restrained and later bought off". There is a 19th-century letter of recommendation for a merchant, Yahyia Messoudi, "a man of the highest morals, of good conduct and who works with the [Ottoman] government." This, in other words, was the tapestry of Arab history all that is left of it, which fell into The Independent's hands as the mass of documents crackled in the immense heat of the ruins.
King Faisal of the Hejaz, the ruler of Mecca, whose staff are the authors of many of the letters I saved, was later deposed by the Saudis. His son Faisel became king of Iraq Winston Churchill gave him Baghdad after the French threw him out of Damascus and his brother Abdullah became the first king of Jordan, the father of King Hussein and the grandfather of the present-day Jordanian monarch, King Abdullah II.
For almost a thousand years, Baghdad was the cultural capital of the Arab world, the most literate population in the Middle East. Genghis Khan's grandson burnt the city in the 13th century and, so it was said, the Tigris river ran black with the ink of books. Yesterday, the black ashes of thousands of ancient documents filled the skies of Iraq. Why?
-------- israel / mideast
U.S. Favors WMD - Free Mideast, Linked to Peace
April 15, 2003
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/politics/politics-mideast-usa.html
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Tuesday it favored a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction but linked international inspection of Israel's weapons programs to peace with Syria and Lebanon.
``We would like to see that whole region free of weapons of mass destruction,'' Secretary of State Colin Powell told a news conference, in response to questions on whether Washington is willing to apply equal standards to Syria and Israel.
On Monday, Powell threatened economic and diplomatic measures against Syria if it does not meet a range of demands, including abandoning an alleged chemical weapons program.
Syria denies having such a program and has offered to open its facilities to U.N. inspections as part of a regional disarmament campaign which includes Israel.
Powell repeated the list of U.S. concerns on Tuesday, which includes the weapons program, support for groups which Washington labels terrorist, and suspicions that the Syrians allowed fighters to enter Iraq or allowed fugitive Iraqi leaders into Syria.
``We hope that Syria understands now that there is a new environment in the region with the end of the regime of (Iraqi leader) Saddam Hussein, and that Syria will reconsider its policies of past years and understand that there are better choices it can make,'' Powell said.
Pressed on inspection of the weapons programs of U.S. ally Israel, which is believed to have some 200 nuclear warheads outside any international inspection system, he said that ``pieces will begin to fall in place'' after peace between Israel and Syria and Lebanon.
``If we can move forward with a comprehensive peace process that leads to a comprehensive solution that creates a Palestinian state living side by side in peace with a Jewish state, Israel, and ultimately have that comprehensive solution reach out and touch Lebanon and Syria, then I think a lot of pieces will begin to fall in place with respect to what people's various needs are,'' he said.
``But right now we will just continue to say that we believe that the entire region should be free of weapons of mass destruction,'' he added.
Powell said he hoped that the Palestinian legislature would confirm prime minister-designate Mahmoud Abbas ``some time in the next week or so'' so that the United States can publish a Middle East peace plan known as the ``road map.''
The Israelis and the Palestinians would then have a chance to comment on the peace plan and discuss those comments with each other, he added.
``This is going to be a very difficult process but I believe progress can be made if both sides enter this road map process with an understanding of the needs of the other side and with a good faith effort to use the new situation,'' he said.
``We have a new opportunity, an opportunity I think that is enhanced by what has happened by the removal of the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein,'' he added.
An Israeli delegation gave the United States its preliminary comments on the peace plan on Monday, after reports that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is seeking some amendments to the document.
U.S. officials have said the plan is for implementation in its existing form, but Powell did not say that on Tuesday.
-------- japan
Japanese Utility Shuts Down Nuclear Grid
Tue Apr 15
By ERIC TALMADGE,
Associated Press Writer
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030415/ap_on_re_as/japan_nuclear_2
TOKYO - Staggered by a series of scandals, Tokyo's main power company shut down the last of its 17 nuclear reactors for safety checks Tuesday, meaning Japan's capital may soon face its first blackouts in nearly two decades.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. took the final reactor offline at midnight, said company spokesman Mamoru Shirakashi. Operations at the 16 other reactors run by the company, known as TEPCO, already have been halted.
The closures represent an unprecedented crisis in Japan's power industry.
Though a system glitch left some 3 million people in Tokyo without power in 1987, TEPCO - the world's largest electric utility - says the city has never faced blackouts due to a shortfall in supply.
Senior government officials were quick to voice their concern.
"Unless we can restart the facilities whose operations are halted now, we will inevitably face power shortages," said Yasuo Fukuda, the top spokesman for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Cabinet.
"The government will do all it can," he said. But he did not offer any suggestions on what the government could do.
To break its heavy reliance on imported oil, resource-poor Japan has long pursued an ambitious nuclear power program. The country today gets about 30 percent of all its energy from nuclear reactors.
The industry has been plagued by accidents and coverups of lax safety practices, however.
TEPCO was ordered to suspend operations for a thorough safety review after it admitted last year to covering up structural problems and obstructing government inspections at its reactors a decade ago.
The admissions only deepened concerns raised in 1999 by Japan's worst-ever nuclear accident, when an uncontrolled reaction at a fuel-reprocessing plant north of Tokyo killed two workers - later found to have been illegally mixing uranium in buckets - and exposed at least 600 people to radiation.
No date has been set for restarting TEPCO's nuclear reactors.
That will depend on how long it takes to complete the safety checks and "earn the public's understanding," spokesman Shirakashi said.
In the meantime, TEPCO plans to compensate for the shutdown, which accounts for about 40 percent of the electricity consumed by Tokyo and its surrounding areas, by reactivating five thermal power plants and purchasing surplus electricity from other power companies.
Even so, it forecasts a shortfall of 9.5 million kilowatts - the equivalent of the output from 10 nuclear reactors - when air conditioner use peaks in Japan's sweaty summer months.
----
Power shortage looming large in Japan as nuclear reactors shut down
Tue Apr 15
(AFP)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20030415/wl_asia_afp/japan_energy_nuclear_030415065406
TOKYO - An acute electricity shortage is looming large in Japan as power giant Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) completed the shutdown of all 17 of its nuclear reactors for emergency inspections.
TEPCO, the world's largest private power utility, stopped operations around 12:00 am Tuesday (1500 GMT Monday) at its last running nuclear reactor in Fukushima, 200 kilometres (125 miles) northeast of Tokyo.
TEPCO has been forced to shut down all its nuclear reactors for emergency inspections after admitting to falsifying safety records at nuclear plants since the late 1980s.
With the first halt to all its nuclear reactors since 1976, TEPCO has lost 17.38 megawatts, or about 30 percent, of its power generating capacity.
"We are seriously facing the fact that an unprecedented situation occurred due to a series of scandals," TEPCO President Tsunehisa Katsumata said in a statement.
"Our company will pursue inspections and carry out measures to prevent such a scandal from being repeated so that we can regain people's trust," the president said.
The scandal has angered residents near the reactors, most of whom are opposed to the immediate re-starting of the nuclear plants. The approval of local communities is a pre-requisite of resuming operations.
"We have not set any specific timetable for the resumption of the nuclear reactors here," said Sekiya Hiroyuki, an official of Kashiwazaki city, TEPCO's largest power plant host, which houses seven reactors.
"It is still uncertain when residents can accept TEPCO's request for the resumption as people living near the reactors are still concerned about a future accident," Hiroyuki said.
Japan, which is heavily reliant on nuclear power energy due its lack of natural resources, is widely expected to face a serious power shortage if TEPCO fails to reopen at least 10 reactors by summer when hot humid weather prompts millions to reach for the air conditioner switch.
"We hope we can restart at least 10 reactors by summer, when electricity demand is to hit a peak, but the prospects for resumption are by no means certain," a TEPCO spokesman said.
The company has started boosting operations at other types of power generators -- thermal power and hydroelectric power generations -- and plans to buy electricity from other utility companies in a bid to make up for the drop in nuclear output.
Despite a series of scandals and accidents involving nuclear reactors in Japan, the government still plans to raise its reliance on nuclear power, from providing 35 percent of the nation's power in 2001 to 42 percent in 2010. Germany, by contrast, plans to eliminate all nuclear power plants by 2020.
-------- korea
Powell Optimistic on North Korea Talks
April 15, 2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Powell-North-Korea.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Secretary of State Colin Powell, citing conciliatory statements by North Korea, said Tuesday ``a lot of pieces have come together'' in his quest for multilateral discussions on Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program.
North Korea signaled willingness over the weekend to accept the U.S. approach after months of insisting on one-on-one talks with Washington.
Powell told a news conference that the quick U.S. military success in Iraq may have influenced North Korea's thinking on opening diplomatic discussions.
While saying he was not prepared to make any announcements, Powell said he was following up the North Korean statement through diplomatic channels.
Powell said it was ``absolutely clear'' that discussions with the North must encompass ``the views and thoughts of all the neighbors in the region.''
At a minimum, Powell has wanted future talks to include the two Koreas, Japan, China and Russia as well as the United States. Until now, the North Koreans had ruled out any talks except one-on-one meetings with the United States.
On the Net:
State Department's North Korea page: http://www.state.gov/p/eap/ci/kn/
-------- u.s. nuc weapons
Energy Dept. Eyes More Lie Detector Tests
April 15, 2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Energy-Polygraphs.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Despite mounting scientific evidence against polygraph examinations, the Energy Department plans to continue its lie detector program as is, prompting criticism from lawmakers and some of the agency's scientists.
Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said Monday that the department must continue to use ``the best tools available'' to protect sensitive information about the nation's nuclear arms stockpile. But a National Academy of Sciences report concluded that federal agencies should not rely on the tests to screen workers and job applicants.
``I can hardly believe this decision,'' said Sen. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, senior Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee
Bingaman said the academy report in October pointed out the twin dilemmas of applying polygraphs to Energy Department employee security screening: Either too many loyal employees will be judged deceptive or too many major security threats will be left undetected.
``Basically, they've ignored the evidence'' at the Energy Department, said Stephen Fienberg of Carnegie Mellon University, who chaired the National Academy of Sciences study.
The department imposed lie detector requirements on employees several years ago in the aftermath of the Wen Ho Lee spy controversy at DOE's nuclear weapons laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M. Many scientists objected that the tests were inherently inaccurate, which prompted congressional inquiries and the scientific review.
Congress ordered the department to take the National Academy of Sciences study into account.
In a proposed rule, however, DOE says retaining the program is well-suited to fulfilling national security needs.
The likelihood of ignoring a spy because he passed a polygraph test is so high that relying on the tests probably is a greater danger to national security than discarding them, Fienberg said in response .
The department's ``mishandling'' of the polygraph issue ``is representative of the worst of government,'' said Dr. Alan Zalicoff, senior scientist at the Center for National Security and Arms Control at Sandia National Laboratories, one of the labs covered by the polygraph program.
Abraham said the polygraph is not used on a ``stand-alone basis, but as part of a larger fabric of investigative and analytical reviews.''
Fienberg said, however, one problem the scientific study identified is that ``every time we asked what it means to follow up, there is nothing for them to turn to.''
``It's hard to believe that you would be able to catch a spy'' from polygraph tests, he said.
In a news release, the Energy Department characterized the scientific study as having concluded that polygraph testing is accurate enough for ``event-specific investigations'' but that its costs outweigh its benefits when used for employee screening.
Fienberg said that statement ``ignores the substance of all of the problems associated with the polygraph, its use and its scientific base that we spent our time on.''
On the Net:
Energy Department's Office of Security: http://www.so.doe.gov
--------
Radiation Fund Is Expected to Run a Deficit
April 15, 2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/15/politics/15URAN.html
WASHINGTON, April 14 (AP) - A report to Congress said today that payments to people suffering from cancer and other illnesses as a result of work on cold war-era atomic weapons projects might be delayed by budget shortfalls.
Based on figures from the Congressional Budget Office, the Radiation Exposure and Compensation Act, or R.E.C.A., program is expected to run a deficit of $101 million for the 2003-2007 budget years, according to the General Accounting Office, Congress's investigative arm.
The Justice Department projected a smaller shortfall but agreed that the money provided was inadequate, the accounting office said.
The last time the program's money ran out was in May 2000, when for more than 18 months the Justice Department suspended payments.
In December 2001, Congress agreed to add $655 million through 2011 to cover the thousands of anticipated claims.
Those involved in the issue assumed that solved the problem, said Ed Brickey, a former chairman of the Western States R.E.C.A. Reform Coalition.
-------- us politics
The misadventures of neoconservatives
Ali Abunimah and Hussein Ibish,
Electronic Iraq
15 April 2003
http://electroniciraq.net/news/649.shtml
As the war in Iraq moves toward its conclusion, neoconservatives in and around the Bush administration are beginning to aggressively push a chilling agenda for a generalized war against much of the Arab and Islamic worlds.
This program to deliberately unleash a calamitous "clash of civilizations" must be urgently confronted before it succeeds in plunging us into a cycle of uncontrolled chaos and confrontation.
Former CIA Director James Woolsey illustrated how extreme this vision really is when he recently told a group of California college students that the United States is engaged in fighting "World War IV," which will "last considerably longer than either World Wars I or II," but hopefully not as long as the Cold War.
The enemies in this war, which he unconvincingly presented as a campaign for democracy, are the rulers of Iran, the "fascist" rulers of Iraq and Syria and groups like Al Qaeda.
Woolsey also singled out the pro-American rulers of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, declaring "We want you nervous. We want you to realize now, for the fourth time in 100 years, this country and its allies are on the march and that we are on the side of those whom you--the [Egyptian President Hosni] Mubaraks, the Saudi royal family--most fear. We're on the side of your people."
Norman Podhoretz, editor-at-large of Commentary magazine, who was the first to dub the project World War IV, and other neoconservatives, openly call for "regime change" in a whole list of Middle Eastern states, governed by both pro- and anti-American regimes.
For Podhoretz, the global extremism, chaos and violence that the war on Iraq may provoke are not the undesirable side effects of a noble mission, but the necessary pretext for more aggressive American intervention. He says that the U.S. can "win" this war and "reform" Islam provided that America has "the stomach to impose a new political culture on the defeated parties."
Neoconservatives long have been demanding an attack on Iraq as the first step in a far more ambitious regional and global agenda, but for the past decade made little headway with the rest of the foreign policy establishment.
A 2000 report from the neocon think tank, the Project for a New American Century, co-authored by several key members of the Bush administration, laid out the vision of a world order completely dominated by unilateral American power. It also lamented that, due to opposition from more responsible elements in government, their hyper-aggressive agenda would have to be advanced slowly, "absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event like a new Pearl Harbor."
Playing exactly that role, the Sept. 11 attacks opened the political space necessary for the attack on Iraq, promoted mainly through the theory that Iraq might one day supply chemical or biological weapons to terrorists.
Many Americans reluctantly supported the attack on Iraq because they truly believed that it would make America safer and Iraqis freer. Precious few have willingly signed up for a new, catastrophic and completely unnecessary global confrontation with Islam.
An increasing number of more sober voices are speaking out against this recklessness.
A full scale civil war on the right over foreign policy has broken out in the press, with conservative icons such as columnist Robert Novak trading bitter accusations with overwrought neocons like David Frum, author of the irresponsible "axis of evil" speech.
Stalwarts of the first Bush administration such as former Seretary of State James Baker, former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft and former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger have been openly trying to steer President Bush away from what one unnamed former senior official called "this bum advice he has been getting" from neocons. Another observed that "The only one who can reach the president is his father but it is not timely yet to talk to him," indicating a plan for a protracted campaign. They have obvious potential allies in the Cabinet such as Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. Liberals are also joining the fray, with Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) leading the call for "a vision of the world that is very different from what these excessively ideological unilateralists want to thrust on us."
These voices of reason need to be encouraged and emboldened.
President Bush has insisted that U.S. troops will not stay in Iraq any longer than necessary. The question is, necessary for what? The Pentagon intends to rule Iraq directly for the meanwhile, and no plans exist for any election or representative government.
Among those slated for senior positions in Iraq is James Woolsey. Woolsey's latest statements, and continued ambiguity about long-term American intentions in the region, can only fuel fears that neoconservatives in the administration intend not to give Iraq back to its people as soon as possible, but to use it as a launching pad for further adventures that may truly plunge us all into World War IV.
Ali Abunimah is co-founder of electronicIraq.net and Hussein Ibish is communications director for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. This article first appeared in The Chicago Tribune on 15 April 2003.
-----
Please, no more made-in-the-USA monsters
April 15, 2003
by David H. Hackworth,
WorldNet Daily
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=32067
Hopefully, the looting and shooting across Iraq will soon subside, and peace will settle over the innocents of Iraq - a people who've suffered only bloodshed and repression ever since our CIA recruited Saddam Hussein more than 40 years ago.
Blame it on the Cold War, when "Better dead than Red" became our national byword, and any useful cutthroats were automatically added to the team if they were against communism. We would have dealt with the Devil if he had offered to shoot a commie for Uncle Sam.
So when Iraqi Prime Minister Abd al-Karim Qasim started playing footsie with the Soviets, placing his Red pals in power positions in his government, all wasn't exactly copasetic in Washington. At the time, CIA Director Allen Dulles declared Iraq "the most dangerous spot in the world."
Enter Saddam, whose potential for violence suited us to the max.
Whether it was the threat of Soviet missiles being set up in Iraq or the chance to secure all that black liquid gold as ours for the pumping, we hired Psycho Saddam as our hit man, set him up in an apartment across the street from the prime minister's Ministry of Defense and ordered Qasim taken out with "extreme prejudice."
But the Mustached One's 1959 assassination attempt was a mess-up from the get-go, the botched mission a precursor to his subsequent eight-year war with Iran and later fights with Stormin' Norman and Tommy Franks. The signs were all there right from the start - we just didn't take the time to read the tea leaves.
For openers, Saddam lost his nerve and triggered the ambush too soon. One member of this hit team that couldn't shoot straight had the wrong ammo; another, the grenade man, couldn't fling that sucker because it got caught in his coat; and yet a third member missed the prime minister but somehow managed to shoot Saddam in the leg. Qasim escaped, and so did Saddam, limping off to Cairo, Egypt, where - even after all those blunders - the CIA propped him up in a safe-house and kept his pockets lined with Yankee green while continuing his training in terrorism
In 1963, after Qasim was knocked off in a second CIA black op, Saddam scurried home to slay his way up the power ladder and eventually become head of the dreaded al-Jihaz a-Khas, the feared intelligence apparatus of the Ba'ath party.
From there, with a little more help from his CIA pals, he continued to plot, plunder and massacre his way to the head-beast slot, where we anointed him our newest very best friend. Not just because of the Cold War or Iraq's rich oil deposits, but also because he went after our former best friend and newest major enemy, Iran. We supported our fave new despot with the works: arms and munitions, precursors for chemical and biological weapons, and intelligence information gained from our ultrasecret intelligence intercepts of Iranian radio traffic and other hot skinny from our satellites showing up-to-the-minute Iranian battle dispositions.
Even current SecDef Donald Rumsfeld rushed to Saddam's palace in 1983 to bow and scrape and assure the Bully of Baghdad he had a Ronald Reagan-signed blank check for almost any bombs and bullets in our arsenal. After which our generals and admirals taught him how to use them, completing his morph into a master of Military Miscalculation.
Then, in 1990, Saddam did a Noriega and foolishly bit the hand that fed him - as has almost every U.S.-sponsored Cold War dictator from every dark corner of every continent. His ill-conceived blitzkrieg against one of our primary gas stations, Kuwait, only served to get him locked down in Iraq for 12 no-fly-zone years, with heavy sanctions and bombing raids.
And when he still didn't get it, the pre-emptors decided to take him out for good.
Now billions and perhaps trillions of our dollars and our best and brightest will be rebuilding Iraq to create a stable government - a beacon of democratic light in a dismally troubled region.
But that's only if we don't empower yet another world-class serial killer, and then in a decade or two have to spend still more precious American lives making another regime change in a country that's already paid too hard a price.
----
Clinton blasts US approach to international affairs
Tue Apr 15
(AFP)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20030416/ts_alt_afp/us_attacks_clinton_030416002722
NEW YORK - Former US President Bill Clinton blasted US foreign policy adopted in the wake of the September 11 attacks, arguing the United States cannot kill, jail or occupy all of its adversaries.
"Our paradigm now seems to be: something terrible happened to us on September 11, and that gives us the right to interpret all future events in a way that everyone else in the world must agree with us," said Clinton, who spoke at a seminar of governance organized by Conference Board.
"And if they don't, they can go straight to hell."
The Democratic former president, who preceded George W. Bush at the White House, said that sooner or later the United States had to find a way to cooperate with the world at large.
"We can't run," Clinton pointed out. "If you got an interdependent world, and you cannot kill, jail or occupy all your adversaries, sooner or later you have to make a deal."
He said he believed Washington overreacted to German and French opposition to US plans for military action against Iraq and suggested that the current administration had trouble juggling foreign and domestic issues.
"Since September 11, it looks like we can't hold two guns at the same time," Clinton said. "If you fight terrorism, you can't make America a better place to be."
Clinton said that if he were at the White House right now he would scrap a 726-billion dollar tax cut proposal made by the president in January to stimulate the flagging economy.
Congress has since cut the proposal to 550 billion dollars in the case of the House of Representatives and 350 billion under a Senate version of the plan.
-------- MILITARY
-------- afghanistan
THE TALIBAN
As the Iraq War Goes On, Afghan Violence Increases
April 15, 2003
The New York Times
By CARLOTTA GALL
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/15/international/worldspecial/15AFGH.html
SANGEEN, Afghanistan, April 11 - It was a good place for an ambush, a natural parapet sticking up from a riverbed within easy firing range of the road, and a warren of gullies providing cover for the getaway. The men who fired on United States Special Forces, killing two instantly and critically wounding a third, chose their spot well, Afghan intelligence officers here said, as they walked over the site.
The gunmen opened up with a machine gun on the last of the four cars on March 29, the Afghans said. The vehicles in front turned at the brow of the hill to return fire. By then, the gunmen had fled.
That Afghan gunmen can stage an effective ambush is no surprise. But the pattern of recent violence and arrests by American forces in southern Afghanistan suggests both that Taliban loyalists are newly active - having laid low here or in neighboring Pakistan for over a year - and that they have had help from local officials who are supposed to be loyal to President Hamid Karzai.
While United States forces have been busy in Iraq, there has been an alarming spate of violence, much of it in southern Afghanistan. Last Friday, Gen. Tommy R. Franks, who is commanding the war in Iraq, took time to visit United States forces at Bagram Air Base outside Kabul. The commander of American forces in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. Daniel K. McNeill, and President Karzai have called for greater efforts to catch the killers. General McNeill told The Associated Press he hoped that Pakistan would put more troops on its border to catch "nefarious characters" escaping there.
In Helmand Province, which was always one of the main Taliban strongholds and where anti-American feeling is still strong, American forces are focusing on wealthy or influential Taliban supporters who remain in local power structures.
Last week, they returned here to Sangeen in force, deploying 500 men to search houses and make arrests. Among those detained was the district police chief, who had been host to the Special Forces during their visit here on the day of the ambush.
Another was the brother of a senior aide to the governor of Helmand Province, who had made 12 telephone calls to senior Taliban figures in recent days, according to an Afghan official citing information from American military officials.
Afghan officials said some of the local officials appeared to be victims of false information being fed to the Americans. But the governors of two southern provinces admitted in interviews that former Taliban, who were granted an amnesty by President Karzai, have been actively undermining the government.
"That was a mistake to let them stay," said Abdul Hai Achakzai, the governor of Farah Province, in southwestern Afghanistan. "We thought, `They are Pashtuns, and this is their country also,' but they took advantage of our leniency. We hope now that we can do what we should have done a year ago. We have started an operation to detain those Taliban who are sitting in their houses and take them in for questioning."
After the murder of a Red Cross worker in northern Kandahar last month, Gul Agha Shirzai, the powerful governor of Kandahar, ordered all Taliban to leave his province in 10 days unless their village and tribal elders could guarantee their good behavior. Mr. Shirzai, who has welcomed the American military and international aid agencies, was smarting at the mounting Taliban attacks in an interview last week.
Some of the worst attacks have been in Kandahar, with a bus bomb that killed eight people Jan. 31, and then the shocking execution of the Red Cross engineer on March 27. Fourteen of Mr. Shirzai's soldiers guarding the American air base have been killed in attacks over recent months. Six more soldiers died in attacks last month on posts near the border, the governor said.
[The violence continued over the weekend when Mr. Shirzai's son was assaulted in Pakistan, and then his brother was attacked at the border in an ambush that killed a relative and one other person.]
"They are people who were in power for seven years and they were just killing during that time," Mr. Shirzai said. "They don't want peace."
Some local leaders, including Mullah Naqibullah, Mr. Karzai's original choice for governor of Kandahar, and some officials in the United Nations mission argue that arresting the Taliban leaves them little choice but to take up arms.
Even as they began a crackdown on suspected Taliban supporters in their provinces, police and intelligence officials across the region said the real leaders and paymasters who were behind the campaign of violence were all sheltering in Pakistan.
"Whoever they are, they are not coming themselves to Afghanistan, they are training people and they pay them to come and do those attacks," said Hajji Muhammad Arif, police chief of the border town of Spinbaldak, the scene of repeated attacks.
The chief of police of Kandahar, Gen. Muhammad Akram Khakrezwal, said three main groups, all based in Pakistan, are behind the recent violence.
One group is clustered around the former Taliban leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar. His main commanders are still with him, including Mullah Dadullah, who claimed responsibility for the roadblock where the Red Cross worker was killed.
A second group has formed around the former Taliban corps commander of Kandahar, Maulavi Akhtar Muhammad Usmani, who, Afghan intelligence officials say, was behind the ambush on the American Special Forces here. He is a close ally of Mullah Omar and is believed to retain very strong links with members of the Pakistan military intelligence service, General Khakrezwal said. Finally there is a group called Jaish-e-Muhammad, led by Akbar Agha, who is known to have been close to Osama bin Laden, he said.
-------- arms sales
Indonesia Turning to Russia for Arms
Mon Apr 14, 2003
By SLOBODAN LEKIC,
Associated Press Writer
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20030414/ap_on_re_as/indonesia_us_russia
JAKARTA, Indonesia - The dictator has fallen, the media unshackled, democratic elections held, East Timor freed and Indonesia was quick to sign onto President Bush's global war on terror after Sept. 11, 2001.
Yet, Washington maintains a 12-year ban on arms sales to the world's most populous Muslim nation to curb continuing human rights abuses, leading Jakarta's frustrated generals to look elsewhere to replace antiquated arsenals.
Toward that end, Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri travels to Moscow later this month to seek the Kremlin's help in modernizing her 300,000-member armed forces.
She also is likely to open the way for Russian companies to vie for lucrative deals in the oil and gas sector, long dominated by American and British resource giants.
Although far apart on the globe, Indonesia and Russia have basic things in common.
Both have massive, multiethnic populations. Both struggle to preserve national unity as they fight separatism and build democracy after the collapse of decades of authoritarian rule.
Both are resource-rich but face huge economic problems made worse by endemic corruption. And, both have opposed the U.S.-led war on Iraq.
Indonesia's Foreign Ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa says Megawati's meeting with Russian President Putin scheduled for April 21 will touch on the Iraq crisis.
But other diplomats say that issue will serve primarily to bring the two closer together on bottom-line issues such as trade and arms sales.
Analysts worry that Indonesia's military now is so degraded it no longer can control the borders of the far-flung archipelago, allowing for easy infiltration by extremists.
Last year's Bali bombings, which killed 202 people, illustrated the threat of terrorism in Indonesia. Also, broad opposition to the U.S.-led attack on Iraq threatens to lead to a backlash by militant Islamists.
Close ties between Moscow and Jakarta are not unprecedented.
Indonesia relied on Soviet military assistance in the 1950s under founding President Sukarno - Megawati's father - but these were severed after the anti-communist Gen. Suharto seized power in 1965.
The United States quickly became the Southeast Asian country's main weapons supplier, and annual arms sales peaked at $400 million in the 1980s.
In 1991, however, the U.S. Congress banned this after Indonesian troops killed hundreds of civilians in East Timor.
In 1999, East Timor became free, but only after Indonesian forces laid waste to it as they withdrew after a pro-independence referendum.
The destruction prompted U.S. lawmakers to expand the ban to cover almost all military ties with Indonesia.
Since then, some in the Bush administration - particularly Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, a former ambassador to Jakarta and an architect of the Iraq war - have pushed for the ban to be repealed.
However, a U.S. official said on condition of anonymity, "In terms of military sales, the accountability is still a problem that's out there, and it's not likely that it will be resolved soon."
When asked about potential arms deals between Indonesia and Russia, the U.S. official said, "Nothing could be served by comment from us on that."
Indonesia, a mainly Muslim but politically secular state, is a natural ally in the struggle against terrorism.
So far, U.S. lawmakers have reinstated only a limited officer training program. But that is far from enough for Indonesia's generals.
"I think the Indonesian military has finally decided that restrictions and conditionalities from Washington are just not worth it," said Juwono Sudarsono, a former defense minister. "So they want to look for alternative sources for planes, helicopters and other hardware."
Moscow has already had some success in wooing Indonesia as a customer.
Jakarta recently purchased some Russian weapons, including 10,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles, a squadron of naval Mil-2 helicopters and a dozen BTR-80A amphibious carriers for its marines.
Currently, Indonesia uses short-range Rapier missiles purchased 30 years ago to protect its vital oil and natural gas fields in Sumatra, Borneo and Papua from air attack.
"Replenishing them has been a big problem," Sudarsono said.
Air defense commanders want to augment the Rapiers with Russia's impressive long-range S-300 missiles, or shorter-range systems such as the SA-15 Gauntlet or shoulder-fired Igla.
The Air Force reportedly is considering purchasing several squadrons of Sukhoi Su-27 interceptors, considered the world's premier dogfighters.
Previously, Indonesian Air Force commanders preferred Western jets that were compatible with the U.S.-made F-16 fighter-bombers already in the Indonesian inventory. But neighboring Malaysia's success in integrating Russian MiG-29s and American F/A-18 Hornets persuaded them otherwise, Sudarsono said.
-------- business
Jobs for the boys: the reconstruction billions
Questions over favoured firms' links to Bush administration
David Teather in New York
Tuesday April 15, 2003
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,937108,00.html
Anti-war protesters in San Francisco recently barricaded the gates of Bechtel, the engineering group that oversaw the construction of the Channel tunnel. The protesters set aside the usual rallying cry: the war in Iraq was not all about oil, they noted, it was also about building roads and schools, and getting power and water services back in operation in a country ravaged by years of underinvestment as well as war.
Contracts worth billions of dollars for the reconstruction of Iraq are already being handed out by the US government, offering huge profits to a few, favoured companies, many with high-level contacts in the Bush administration and a history of donations to the Republican party. The contracts are being awarded exclusively to US firms and, instead of the usual tendering process, are by invitation only. Bechtel is one of six construction firms chosen to bid.
The army said this week that the biggest of the contracts dished out so far, fighting oil well fires, could be worth $7bn (£4.45bn). It has been awarded to Kellogg, Brown & Root, a division of Halliburton, the company once run by Vice-President Dick Cheney. In response to questioning from Capitol Hill, the army said the contract was awarded under an existing deal with KBR signed in December 2001.
Washington, as well as San Francisco, has taken note. "This administration is beyond Nixon when it comes to secrecy," said Bill Allison, a spokesman for the DC-based Independent Centre for Public Integrity. "There's definitely the potential for the appearance of conflict of interest. They have thrown out the normal procedures and the administration is very close to corporate America. When Halliburton in particular is involved then it raises questions."
Separate from the Halliburton deal, a tranche of eight contracts is being awarded by the US agency for international development (USAid). The organisation has earmarked $2.4bn for reconstruction and humanitarian aid but will continue to fund projects beyond the initial work. It is still unclear who will take the lead role in reconstruction.
But what is clear are the huge amounts at stake in what is being billed as the biggest reconstruction effort since the second world war. The cost of reconstruction has been put as high as $100bn and could last several years. It is assumed that those in at the first will have significant advantage in bidding for future deals, including the exploitation of Iraq's oil industry.
The first two awards have been relatively minor. Washington-based International Resources Group won the first in February, a $7m contract to provide personnel support for reconstruction. Stevedoring, a Seattle firm, won a $4.8m contract to manage the port of Umm Qasr.
According to the Centre for Responsive Politics, the invited bidders together contributed almost $3.6m during the current election cycle, mostly to the Republicans. The amounts, though individually not large, are part of the process of ensuring a seat at the table, said Charles Tiefer, professor of law at Baltimore University and an expert in government contracting.
Credibility gap
He said the administration faced a "credibility gap" by awarding the contracts behind closed doors. "I see the Halliburton/Cheney connection as revealing of a broader pattern in this administration rather than something unusual or surprising," he said. "This is not corruption in terms of actually breaking the law but a pattern of favouring and influence."
The connections between the companies invited and the administration run deep. Ray Hunt, a director of Halliburton, is on the president's intelligence advisory board. Lawrence Eagleburger, secretary of state under the first President Bush, is also a Halliburton director.
Kenneth Oscar, the vice-president of Fluor, another of the six bidders, is a former army secretary and oversaw the Pentagon's $35bn procurement budget. Its board also includes Bobby Inman, a former CIA deputy director. The labour secretary, Elaine Chao, worked on the board of another of the six, Parsons, before joining the government.
Bechtel employed the former defence secretary Caspar Weinberger, and the former secretary of state George Shultz is on the board. Jack Sheehan, a senior vice-president with Bechtel, is on the defence policy board, a Pentagon advisory group, one of many apparent conflicts among its 30-strong membership.
Democrats Henry Waxman and John Dingell have written to the general audit office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, asking that the process for handing out contracts be examined. Mr Waxman has separately asked that the contract to the Halliburton subsidiary KBR be put under the microscope.
In a letter to David Walker, comptroller general of the audit office, they asked: "We are interested in how certain companies were invited to bid on these contracts, how the contract winners were selected, why so little information has been provided to the public and Congress about the contracts, and what role various agencies played in making the determination to proceed with these contracts."
The agency's handling of the process was decried by Chris Patten, the European commissioner for external relations, as "exceptionally maladroit". It was only under pressure from Britain that the US administration agreed to open up subcontracting to overseas companies.
But it is inevitably the Halliburton contract that has come under the most scrutiny. Mr Cheney ran the Dallas-based company between 1995 and 2000 before stepping down to run for office. When he left, he received a $33m thank you, much of which was at the discretion of the board. He is still receiving $180,000 a year in deferred income from the business.
The company is also no stranger to controversy. Last year it was forced to pay $2m to settle fraud claims involving work at a military base, and was found in 1997 by the general audit office to be billing the army for questionable expenses. The company has been criticised by its shareholders for dealing with Iran and is still under investigation by the US financial watchdog, the securities and exchange commission, for a possible accounting scandal while Mr Cheney was at the helm.
Wendy Hall, a spokeswoman for Halliburton, defended the company's role in Iraq, citing KBR's long history in the field, going back to building ships for the US navy in the second world war. More recently it built the detention centre for suspected terrorists in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The company did equally well under the Clinton administration.
"The vice-president has absolutely nothing to do with the awarding of defence contracts, the bidding process or the current work orders," she said.
Innuendo
Construction and government officials point out that there are few companies with the experience or capabilities to carry out the kind of work needed in Iraq. They argue that suggesting any inside influence is being brought to bear is the stuff of lazy innuendo.
Jonathan Marshall, a spokesman for Bechtel, said it was absurd to suggest there was any horse-trading behind the scenes. "The USAid process seems to have been handled by career civil servants and it's not reasonable to suggest they are influenced by political pressure nor that we have attempted to bring any political pressure to bare," he said. "We have a proud record in engineering and construction and have handled very large contracts, many in the Middle East, where we have been for 60 years. It's almost inconceivable that we wouldn't be on the list."
USAid argues that it expedited the usual method of tendering for contracts because of the need to get reconstruction under way as quickly as possible as well as for security reasons.
"There are classified documents they have to see," said Andrew Nastios, the USAid administrator. "We asked for companies that had security classifications already, that knew how to bid for federal contracts and work through the existing accounting system for the federal government, so we could move this very rapidly."
But for critics, the process has been one more example of an unhealthy tendency toward secrecy and the impression of government being run like a private members' club, from the formation of energy policy to new rules giving Mr Cheney more power over what information is eventually declassified for public consumption.
-------- colombia
Living dangerously in Colombia
EDITORIAL
April 15, 2003
Washington Times
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20030415-22428136.htm
The death toll of Americans fighting terror and narco-trafficking in Colombia has reached five since February 13. Approximately 150 U.S. troops are still combing Colombia's countryside, looking for three Americans kidnapped in February by the most brutal terrorist group in the Western Hemisphere, known as the FARC. By involving Americans in such dangerous work in Colombia, the administration is demonstrating it takes the problems there seriously. But the troubles in Colombia may be escalating beyond the priority level that Washington has assigned them. If further action isn't taken, the Americans in that country may soon be involved in a mission impossible.
Colombia's narcotics and terrorism cabals are currently spreading their violent presence beyond the country's borders. They have been given safe harbor in Venezuela, are involved in coca cultivation in Peru, are behind some drug-related violence in Brazil and launch occassional forays into Ecuador. Recently, this regional aspect of the Colombian problem has developed a dangerous dynamic. Eyewitnesses claim the Venezuelan military has picked and chosen which narco-terror group they are backing, and are bombing the adversaries of their chosen in Colombian territory. Thus far, the Colombian response has been subdued. But, if Venezuelan bombing continues, the situation could erupt in conflict. Also, coca-activism, whereby peasant farmers are demanding their right to harvest the drug crop, is quickly gaining momentum in Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador. The United States and other donor countries trying to help Colombia are now dealing with a more urgent problem.
Washington has already taken some key steps toward meeting the challenge. Since July 2000, the United States has provided Colombia with almost $2 billion to combat drug trafficking and terrorism. Also, last year Washington approved a trade pact for Colombia and its neighbors. But, the region also needs a country like the United States to help coordinate a regional approach to the transnational threat.
Colombia and its neighbors must do a better job of policing their borders to keep the narco-terrorist danger contained. Since resources in these countries are limited, effective cooperation is essential. And here, Brazil, which has warm ties with Venezuela, must intervene to convince the government of President Hugo Chavez to stop harboring terrorists.
The United States should share its extensive customs, interdiction and border patrol expertise by holding joint training sessions with authorities from Colombia and surrounding nations. These joint exercises will also serve to bolster the trust needed for fluid information and intelligence exchanges. Also, the United States should help Colombia better coordinate police and military activities. These strategies may seem elementary, but they have yet to be implemented.
The donor countries helping Colombia must also provide the funds and know-how to bolster the country's rural development. Colombian authorities only control about 60 percent of the country. Much of the nation is therefore a kind of no-man's land that provides the ideal habitat for terrorists. The presence of the state must be judicious and balanced in order to win the welcome and cooperation of the Colombian people.
Before the violence in Colombia claims more American lives and causes greater regional instability, the administration should become more active in seeking solutions. Colombia's problems can't be eradicated overnight. But, with U.S. help, they can be steadily reduced.
-------- iraq
Tests rule out suspect bio-labs
Tuesday, April 15, 2003
(CNN)
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/04/15/sprj.irq.no.labs/index.html
KARBALA, Iraq -- The buried labs U.S. troops found last week were not the mobile chemical and biological weapons labs one U.S. Army general suspected, according to the head of an expert team brought in to examine them.
The 11 cargo containers were filled with new laboratory equipment apparently intended to make conventional weapons, said team leader Chief Warrant Officer 2 Monte Gonzalez.
"Based on what we've seen, the containers are full of millions of dollars worth of high-tech equipment," he said. "It possibly has a dual use. But it does not appear to be weapons of mass destruction."
Members of the 101st Airborne's 2nd Brigade found the site -- about 50 miles south of Baghdad near Karbala -- last week as they were heading north to Baghdad.
Some of the containers, used to hold cargo on ships, were partially buried. The troops dug up the containers and Gonzalez's team was brought in to investigate.
The containers held equipment typically found in laboratories, including test tubes, water baths, sand baths, ph transmitters, explosive-proof lights, ethyl alcohol gauges, shakers, test tubes, test tube holders, and temperature and pressure gauges.
Gonzalez's team finished its investigation Tuesday and will report its findings to the head of the 101st Airborne Wednesday, he said.
They will continue to examine the large number of documents found at the site. He said the containers might have been partially buried to prevent looting.
"It's like a Scooby-Doo mystery," he said. "It's a puzzle. But we don't expect to find a smoking gun."
Brig. Gen. Benjamin Freakley, of the Army's 101st Airborne Division, said Monday soldiers found what they thought were 11 mobile chemical and biological laboratories. (Full story)
"Initial reports indicate that this is clearly a case of denial and deception on the part of the Iraqi government," Freakley said. "These chemical labs are present, and now we just have to determine what in fact they were really being used for."
During the buildup to the war in Iraq, U.S. officials said Iraq was using mobile laboratories to help conceal its production of banned weapons.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told a U.N. Security Council meeting that Iraq had biological weapons labs on at least 18 flatbed trucks.
Iraq denied having mobile weapons labs. U.N. weapons inspectors said they had found that Iraq used mobile labs to test food but had come across no evidence of banned weapons production.
On a visit February 23, U.N. weapons inspectors found nothing "untoward" at the Karbala Ammunition Filling Plant that is close to the site, a U.N. inspection team spokesman said Monday.
The site was among several that had been visited previously by weapons inspectors.
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Army probes buried trailers
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
April 15, 2003
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20030415-87947820.htm
U.S. Army forces have discovered 11 large containers with equipment inside that appear to be elements of Iraq's covert mobile chemical and biological weapons program.
The vessels, described as modified container express, or conex, trailers, were found buried near Karbala, about 50 miles south of Baghdad. The site was near a weapons plant, defense and military officials said.
The containers, also called vans, were discovered by troops of the 101st Airborne Division. The Army's 75th Intelligence Exploitation Unit was sent to the site to examine the containers.
"Obviously this shows that they [Saddam Hussein´s government] were pursuing a covert weapons program," one official said. "We still need actual proof of the weapons themselves."
Army Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, deputy director of operations for the Joint Staff, said the vans are being investigated "very seriously."
Gen. McChrystal told reporters at the Pentagon that other suspected chemical weapons found last week have not proved to be weapons. Other samples are still being investigated.
The 20-foot by 20-foot metal containers can be attached to trucks or rail cars. In addition to the containers, some 1,000 pounds of documents were discovered at the site.
"Initial reports indicate that this is clearly a case of denial and deception on the part of the Iraqi government," Army Brig. Gen. Benjamin Freakly told CNN in Karbala. "These chemical labs are present, and now we just have to determine what in fact they were really being used for."
Gen. Freakly described the containers as "dual-use, chemical and biological."
The mobile laboratories contained an estimated $1 million worth of new equipment and were "clearly marked so they could be found again," he said.
"These chemical labs are present, and now we just have to determine what in fact they were really being used for," Gen. Freakly said.
Iraq's mobile weapons vans were an element of a highly detailed intelligence briefing presented to the United Nations in February by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, who called mobile weapons facilities "one of the most worrisome things" about Iraq's arms programs.
Mr. Powell said intelligence on the vans was obtained from several Iraqis, including an Iraqi chemical engineer in 2000 who supervised a mobile production facility for biological and chemical weapons.
"He actually was present during biological agent production runs," Mr. Powell said Feb. 5. "He was also at the site when an accident occurred in 1998. Twelve technicians died from exposure to biological agents."
At least 18 of the vans were thought to be hidden in Iraq, Mr. Powell said.
"The trucks and train cars are easily moved and are designed to evade detection by inspectors," he said. "In a matter of months, they can produce a quantity of biological poison equal to the entire amount that Iraq claimed to have produced in the years prior to the Gulf war."
United Nations weapons inspectors sent to Iraq earlier this year were unable to find any mobile facilities for banned weapons.
Weapons inspectors visited the site where the containers were found on Feb. 23. It was known as the Karbala Ammunition Filling Plant.
Chief U.N. arms inspector Hans Blix dismissed the U.S. claims about the mobile facilities on March 7.
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Arms hunt narrows to priority sites
April 15 2003
Sydney Morning Herald
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/14/1050172547120.html
United States forces have narrowed their hunt for banned weapons in Iraq to about three dozen sites and hope to accelerate their search, say US government officials.
So far no chemical, biological or nuclear weapons have been found, although US marines have discovered 278 artillery shells carrying a substance which initial tests showed was a chemical agent.
The shells - found in a Baghdad schoolyard parked in trailers, three of them on launchers - are to undergo further analysis.
The priority search sites are dispersed throughout Iraq and their exact location remains undisclosed. They were selected from more than 1000 laboratories, plants, military installations and storage facilities once thought to contain banned weapons and component materials.
Narrowing the list was intended to increase the odds of military search teams quickly uncovering banned weapons materials, but the inspection of the sites is expected to take at least a month.
The hunt is being conducted by the army's 75th Intelligence Exploration Unit, which includes numerous teams of Defence Intelligence Agency officers, CIA officers, FBI agents and biologists.
Nearly a dozen of the priority sites had already been inspected, officials said. But so far inspectors have found no clear evidence of weapons whose elimination was often cited by President George Bush and Britain's Prime Minister, Tony Blair, as a principal justification for the war with Iraq.
Several times in the past three weeks US marines have come upon sites where they suspected banned weapons might have been developed, only to learn later that they were benign.
It remains a strong belief among US officials that Saddam's regime intended to use chemical weapons but did not proceed - possibly because the fall of Baghdad happened so quickly and the chain of military command was broken.
Officials have confirmed that a top Iraqi nuclear scientist, Jaffar al-Jaffar, has surrendered in Iraq in the past few days.
His surrender follows that of Lieutenant-General Amir Saadi, Saddam's chief scientific adviser, who turned himself in on Sunday with the help of Germany's ZDF television network.
A US official said Jaffar would "certainly" know about Iraq's nuclear program as well as "likely other aspects of the WMD program".
Saadi, for his part, told ZDF that Iraq no longer had weapons of mass destruction.
Bush Administration officials said they were confident that banned weapons would be found. The Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said US forces needed to find people "who tell us where the things are".
US military intelligence officials have also sought evidence that al-Qaeda had a presence in Iraq and ties to Saddam's government. Here, too, the US has come up empty so far.
Meanwhile, arms experts say the Bush Administration may be legally bound to let independent inspectors confirm any findings of unconventional weapons in Iraq. But they added that the White House, which has resisted assistance from the United Nations in the search for weapons, might decide to ignore such legalities.
The New York Times, AFP
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Troops find 'suspicious labs' buried near factory
From Tim Reid in Washington
April 15, 2003
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,5944-647075,00.html
AMERICAN forces in Iraq say they have discovered 11 mobile "chemical and biological laboratories" buried in ground near a factory filled with empty artillery shells.
As the political pressure on Washington and London mounts to find concrete evidence of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, particularly after a series of false alarms that a "smoking gun" had been uncovered, American arms experts were last night analysing the 20ft by 20ft "large metal vans" unearthed near Karbala, south of Baghdad.
General Benjamin Freakly, commander of the 101st Airborne Division 2nd Brigade, which made the discovery after fighting near Karbala last week, told CNN yesterday: "(They found 11 buried . . . large metal 20ft by 20ft vans, buried in the ground. They are dual-use chemical labs, biological and chemical labs . . . close to an artillery ammunition plant, which had empty shells.
"It is too early to tell if this is evidence of banned weapons (programmes but clearly it was new equipment, a lot of money in the 2002/2003 time period spent in that camp, probably over $1 million-worth of capability in these 11 vans and we continue to develop (the investigation with better expertise."
General Freakly added that 1,000lb of documentation was found buried with the mobile laboratories and each "chemical lab" could store 4,467 drums of material. He said no chemical or biological weapons were found with the laboratories.
"Initial reports indicate that this is clearly a case of denial and deception by the Iraqi Government and that these chemical labs were present, and we just have to determine what in fact they were being used for," he said.
One of the key accusations made against Saddam's regime by Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, when he addressed the UN Security Council in February was that Iraq had easily hidden mobile laboratories capable of making weapons-grade chemical and biological material.
As each day passes since the demise of Saddam's regime, President Bush and Tony Blair are keenly aware that the discovery of a "smoking gun" has become increasingly urgent. The main diplomatic and moral justification for invading Iraq rested on their repeated assertion that Saddam was hiding chemical and biological weapons, and as coalition troops have spread throughout the country the question of why no incriminating evidence has been found