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NUCLEAR
Weapons Lab Rolls Out Radiation Detectors
Chernobyl's Real Effects:
Scientists debate depleted uranium weapons' possible contamination
Depleted uranium lingers in Iraq
Russia to Insist U.N. Inspectors Go to Iraq - Source
Administration Divided Over North Korea
Lugar says N. Korea nukes beg war option
Duke Cogema mixed oxide fuel-fabrication facility
Mixed Results From Health Study of Rocky Flats Workers
Inspectors find questionable charges, management problems at Los Alamos
Uncle Sam May Want You, but Do You Really Want Uncle Sam?
MILITARY
Serb War Crime Suspect Reportedly Surrenders
Biotoxins Fall Into Private Hands
Workers Not Told All on Contamination
Government may block inquiry into Iraqi arms
Federal Contracts
IBM in Deal to Connect Gen Dynamics to Suppliers
U.S. finds suspicious chemicals in Iraq
Iranian exiles in Iraq hit hard
Iran Won't Back U.S. - Installed Iraq Gov't
Illicit Arms Kept Till Eve of War, an Iraqi Scientist Is Said to Assert
US struggles with new rules as war turns to occupation
Islamic pilgrimage to test U.S. military
Kurds Return to Northern Iraqi City, Evicting Arabs
Self-appointed mayor of Baghdad challenges Pentagon's authority
Ba'athists slip quietly back into control
Saddam took refuge in bodyguard's home
U.S. Does Not Recognize Baghdad 'Governor'
Syria Welcomes Easing of Tensions With Washington
Syria Welcomes Bush Remarks, Wants Serious Dialogue
Pakistanis Wonder - - Will They Face Iraq's Fate?
Pakistan May Send Peacekeepers to Iraq
Philippines Bars U.S. Troops From Combat
U.S. Expects Smooth Iraqi Interrogations
Baghdad welcomed bid for spy ties
U.S. Performance in Iraq War Sparks Budget Questions
Rumsfeld Says No U.S. Plan for Long-Term Bases in Iraq
Did the New York Times just change the rules of journalism?
Al-Jazeera correspondent detained in Basra
Hokum From the Prosecution
POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS
Offer the FBI decided it had to refuse
Peruvian Farmers March on Lima to Defend Coca Crop
Red Alert Means Virtual Lockdown
ACTIVISTS
Local Officials Rise Up to Defy The Patriot Act
Arcata defends its snub of Patriot Act
Hollywood revives McCarthyist climate by silencing and sacking war critics
Shi'ites in Anti - American Protest in Baghdad
Americans Protest Public Education Cuts
-------- NUCLEAR
-------- accidents and safety
Weapons Lab Rolls Out Radiation Detectors
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 21, 2003
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Homeland-Security-Tools.html
LIVERMORE, Calif. (AP) -- A cell phone that will be able to tell the difference between a ``dirty bomb'' and someone who's undergone radiation treatment is among the next generation of anti-terrorism tools being worked on by national weapons lab scientists.
The device, known as RadNet, is designed to make calls, surf the Web, act as a Personal Digital Assistant, pinpoint locations with Global Positioning System technology and sniff out radioactive materials with a cutting-edge sensor. It is one of several national security projects under development at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
``It almost sounds like science fiction, but it's here today,'' said Simon Labov, director of the new Radiation Detection Center at Lawrence Livermore, which celebrated its formal opening Thursday with a display of the RadNet and other devices.
Lab officials showed off their work with theatrical flair, whipping away white cloths from some prototypes.
``This is called UltraSpec,'' Labov said as he displayed the Ultra-High Resolution Gamma Ray and Neutron Spectrometers. ``No other instrument like it in the world.''
The Ultra-Spec uses extremely low temperatures -- within one degree of absolute zero, or -459 degrees Fahrenheit -- to detect gamma rays emitted by radioactive materials. It works by recording, very precisely, the rise in temperature when a single gamma ray hits the detector's superconducting material, which is usually tin.
``At these low temperatures we get incredible sensitivity,'' Labov said.
Much of the technology on display Thursday uses gamma ray detection because gamma rays travel farther and are easier to identify than other tiny particles emitted by nuclear material, Labov said. Radioactive substances also emit neutrons, which are detected by other sensor technology.
Scientists hope to have RadNet prototypes ready for testing within a few months and could have the devices ready for action in about two years.
On the Net:
http://www.llnl.gov
----
Chernobyl's Real Effects:
In Time For Earth Day & Plans To Push More Nuke Power
Mon Apr 21, 2003
From: "Bill Smirnow" <smirnowb@ix.netcom.com>
Just in time for Tuesday's Earthday, April 22, 2003 this description of the effects of Chernobyl needs to be read and distributed to any and all interested parties, lists, NGOs and media. Please dissemenate as widely as possible. Thanks.
-Bill Smirnow
YOU SHOULD ASK FOR AN EMAIL COPY OF MY ARTICLE ON CHERNOBYL FROM EARTH ISLAND JOURNAL, VOL. 12, NO. 3, SUMMER 1997, P. 28 TOO.
SINCERELY, JOHN LaFORGE
Nukewatch
P.O. Box 649
Luck, WI 54853
Phone (715) 472-4185
Fax (715) 472-4184
E-Mail: nukewatch@l... Web http://www.nukewatch.com
--
Chernobyl: For 14 years, the industry has downplayed the damage to humans and the planet
MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE
Sunday, May 7, 2000
John M. LaForge
With a heavy dose of half-truth, the commercial press works overtime to reduce the results of the April 26, 1986, Chernobyl catastrophe to a "nervous disorder" confined to the former Soviet Union and Europe. Understated anniversary reports of the worldwide radiation disaster help the nuclear industry hold on against overwhelming opposition, in spite of what should have been the final insult from nuclear power.
Efforts at psychological "cleanup" often sound like Peter Crane, a lawyer at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), who says that "the explosion . . . sent a radioactive cloud into the atmosphere of Eastern Europe." This is a true statement. It merely neglects to mention the rest of planet Earth.
Journalist Michael Specter reports, "The fire, which burned out of control for five days, spewed more than 50 tons of radioactive fallout across Belarus, Ukraine and Western Russia." This loaded sentence is true, in a limited sense. That the fire burned uncontrolled for two weeks after a series of three explosions; that perhaps 190 tons of reactor fuel was catapulted into the atmosphere; or that the radioactive fallout spread worldwide, reaching Minnesota's milk, for example, doesn't make Specter a liar, only a miser with the truth.
The Associated Press' Dave Carpenter's description that "deadly reactor fuel shot into the atmosphere, contaminating some 10,000 square miles and reaching as far as Western Europe" is likewise "correct," but Reuters reported on Nov. 28, 1995, that the contaminated areas include about 61,780 square miles. What is it to understate the total of irradiated territory by a factor of six? It isn't the pot calling the kettle black; it's the cesium calling the strontium a cancer agent.
Carpenter's AP lullaby was published widely and included the comment that "those living in the shadow of Chernobyl will be living with its deadly health and environmental legacy for years."
For years? The word "centuries" would have been more accurate, if conservative, since radiation's health effects are multigenerational and not limited in time. Indeed, some genetic effects appear to be increasing with each successive generation.
The AP's Angela Charlson reported that the explosions sent "a radioactive cloud across parts of Europe." Understatement was practiced as well by the New York Times, which said the disaster "spewed radiation across much of Europe" and that "a plume of toxic gases and dust . . . spread across the western Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and Scandinavia." While this uncomfortable fact is nowadays passe, the contamination of the whole world was hinted at when the Times reported that the radiation spread across western Russia "and beyond."
'Irrational fears'?
While Chernobyl's long-lived carcinogens -- primarily cesium, plutonium, strontium and iodine -- are well known to be deadly for decades or centuries, Soviet officials, the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and U.S. editors have all ridiculed the common-sense fear of Chernobyl's radioactive fallout.
The official Soviet paper Izvestia said in 1988 that doctors in the Ukraine were "spending more time on trying to dispel irrational fears than on treating the effects of radiation."
The IAEA, which at first refused to conduct a post-Chernobyl health study, claiming that all the accident's effects were confined within Soviet borders, dared to say in a 1991 study that Chernobyl's health effects were mainly "psychological." The heavily criticized report did not consider the health of the emergency-response workers or of the evacuees from the 18-mile exclusion zone, 8,000 of whom are now known to have died from radiation-related diseases.
The IAEA study failed to mention the lengthy latency period for observed cancer incidence. This cavalier whitewash of the disaster's inevitable results came from a nominal nuclear watchdog. "After all, the IAEA is in the business of promoting nuclear energy, not discouraging it. For 10 years the agency has attempted to downplay the consequences of the accident," wrote Alexander R. Sich in a cover story for the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. The IAEA, still downplaying in 1995, said any increase in cancer caused by Chernobyl would be "undetectable."
Editors across the country have embraced the IAEA's dismissive attitude, distracting readers with headlines like "Citizens still suffering radiation phobia" and "The legacy of Chernobyl: Fear is the deeper wound." A dread of radiation doesn't appear irrational in view of 1995's report that "A second catastrophic explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine could happen 'at any time,' Western scientists have warned."
A short review of Chernobyl's fallout pattern shows how irresponsible the reporting has become.
AP, May 15, 1986: "Airborne radioactivity from the Chernobyl nuclear accident is now so widespread that it is likely to fall to the ground wherever it rains in the United States, the EPA said."
AP, May 14, 1986: "An invisible cloud of radioactivity spewed over the Soviet Union and Europe, and has worked its way gradually around the world."
AP, May 15, 1986: "State authorities in Oregon have warned residents dependent solely on rainwater for drinking that they should arrange other supplies for the time being."
Star Tribune, May 17, 1986: "Since radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear accident began floating over Minnesota last week, low levels of radiation have been discovered in . . . the raw milk from a Minnesota dairy."
AP, April 4, 1996: "Plutonium and other dangerous particles released in the accident . . . have now found their way to Ukraine's major waterways . . . . 'We have billions of tons of radiated earth that can't be dumped anywhere, and which will pour plutonium, cesium and strontium into Europe for decades,' the chief consultant to the Ukrainian Parliament's Chernobyl commission said."
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, May 1996: "radiation contamination was detectable over the entire Northern Hemisphere."
Well beyond "Belarus, Ukraine and Western Russia," and further than "parts of Europe," Chernobyl's contamination doused at least half the world. But with so much disparity among estimates, we may never know the true biological, ecological, psychological and economic dimensions of Chernobyl's radiation bomb.
-- John M. LaForge is codirector of Nukewatch, a peace group based in Wisconsin, and editor of its quarterly newsletter, the Pathfinder.
--
Chernobyl at Ten:
Half-lives and Half Truths
(Part one of two)
By John M. LaForgeã
With a heavy dose of half-truth, the commercial press worked over-time to reduce the results of the Chernobyl catastrophe to a "nervous disorder" confined to the C.I.S. and Europe. Understated reports on the 10th anniversary of the world-wide radiation disaster help the nuclear reactor industry hold on against overwhelming opposition, in spite of what should have been the final insult from nuclear power.
The latest psychological "clean up" often went like this. Peter Crane, a lawyer at the U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), said that "...the explosion... sent a radioactive cloud into the atmosphere of Eastern Europe." (1) This is a true statement. It merely neglects to mention the rest of planet Earth.
Reporter Michael Specter wrote that, "The fire which burned out of control for five days, spewed more than 50 tons of radioactive fallout across Belarus, Ukraine and Western Russia." (2) This loaded sentence is also literally true. The fact that the fire burned uncontrolled for two weeks, after a series of three explosions; that perhaps 190 tons of reactor fuel was catapulted into the atmosphere; or that the radioactive fallout spread world-wide -3/4 reaching Minnesota's milk for example - doesn't make of Mr. Specter a liar, only a miser with the truth.
Associated Press (AP) correspondent Dave Carpenter 's description - that "deadly reactor fuel shot into the atmosphere, contaminating some 10,000 square miles and reaching as far as Western Europe" (3) is likewise "correct," but Reuters News Service reported on 28 Nov. 1995 that the contaminated areas include about 61,780 square miles.
Carpenter practiced perfect obfuscation in his dispatch, saying of the reckless nuclearists over there: "In a big lie, Soviet officials. . . first hushed up the disaster then played down its severity." What is it to understate the sum of irradiated territory by a factor of six? It isn't the pot calling the kettle black; it's the cesium calling the strontium a cancer agent.
Carpenter's AP lullaby was published widely and included the comment that, ". . .those living in the shadow of Chernobyl will be living with its deadly health and environmental legacy for years." (4)
For years? The word centuries would have been more accurate, if conservative, since radiation's health affects are multi-generational and not limited in time. Indeed, some genetic effects appear to be increasing with each successive generation.
The AP's Angela Charlson went so far as to say the reactor sent "a radioactive cloud across parts of Europe ..." (5) Understatement of the overwhelming facts was practiced as well by the editors of The New York Times, who said on April 21 that the disaster "spewed radiation across much or Europe" (6) and on the anniversary, that "...a plume of toxic gases & dust...spread across the western Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and Scandinavia." (7) Although the contamination of the rest of the world was hinted at as lately as 6 Oct. 1995, when the Times reported that the radiation spread across western Russia "and beyond," this uncomfortable fact is nowadays passé.
The Disaster's in Your Head
While the explosions' long-lived carcinogens - primarily cesium, plutonium, strontium and iodine - are well known to be deadly for decades and even centuries, Soviet officials, the U. N's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and U.S. editors have all ridiculed the common sense fear of Chernobyl's radioactive fallout.
The official Soviet paper Izvestia said in 1988 that doctors in the Ukraine were, ". . .spending more time on trying to dispel irrational fears than on treating the effects of radiation." (8)
The IAEA which at first refused to conduct a post-Chernobyl health study, claiming that all the accident's effects were confined within Soviet borders (9), dared to say in a 1991 study that Chernobyl's health effects were mainly "psychological." This heavily criticized report didn't even consider the health of the "liquidators," or the evacuees from the 18-mile exclusion zone, 8,000 of whom are now known to have died from radiation related diseases. (10)
The IAEA study failed to mention the lengthy latency period for observed cancer incidence. This cavalier white-wash of the disaster's inevitable results came from a nominal nuclear watchdog, which in fact is only the most prestigious booster of nuclear power. "After all the IAEA is in the business of promoting nuclear energy not discouraging it. For ten years the agency has attempted to downplay the consequences of the accident," wrote Dr. Alexander R. Sich in a cover story for the May/June Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. (11) The IAEA, still sticking in its vacuum, said in 1995 that any increase in cancer caused by Chernobyl would be "undetectable." (11.1)
Editors across the country have embraced the IAEA' s dismissive attitude, distracting readers with headlines like, "Area Frozen In Fear," "Citizens Still Suffering Radiation Phobia," and "The Legacy of Chernobyl: Fear is the Deeper Wound." A dread of radiation doesn't appear irrational in view of last year's report that "A second catastrophic explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine could happen "at any time," Western scientists have warned." (12)
Reality Officially Forgotten
A short review of Chernobyl's fallout pattern shows how irresponsible the late reporting has become. AP, 15 May 1986: "Airborne radioactivity from the Chernobyl nuclear accident is now so widespread that it is likely to fall to the ground wherever it rains in the United States, the EPA said." AP, 14 May 1986: "An invisible cloud of radioactivity spewed over the Soviet Union and Europe, and has worked its way gradually around the world." AP, 15 May 1986: "State authorities in Oregon have warned residents dependent solely on rainwater for drinking that they should arrange other supplies for the time being." Minneapolis Star Tribune, 17 May 1986: "Since radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear accident began floating over Minnesota last week, low levels of radiation have been discovered in... the raw milk from a Minnesota dairy." AP, 4 April 1996: "Plutonium and other dangerous particles released in the accident...have now found their way to Ukraine's major waterways. ... 'We have billions of tons of radiated earth that can't be dumped anywhere, and which will pour plutonium, cesium and strontium into Europe for decades,' [the chief consultant to the Ukrainian parliament's Chernobyl commission] said." Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, May 1996, p. 38: "...radiation contamination was detectable over the entire northern hemisphere."
With so much disparity among so many figures, we may never know the true dimensions of Chernobyl's radiation bomb.
Notes:
(1) NYT, Op-Ed, 5 April 1996.
(2) International Herald Tribune, 2 April 1996.
(3) Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, 14 April 1996.
(4) Minneapolis Star Tribune, 21 April 1996.
(5) St. Paul Pioneer, 27 April 1996.
(6) NYT, 21 April 1996, The Week In Review.
(7) NYT, 26 April 1996, signed editorial by Philip Taubman
(8) Los Angeles Times, 11 Feb. 1988.
(9) In These Times, 22 April 1987.
(10) AP, 23 April 1992; WISE News Communiqué, (Amsterdam) No. 449, 10 April 1996.
(11) Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, May 1996, p. 38.
(11.1) Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, May/June 1996, p. 8.
(12) The London Observer, 26 March 1995; Milwaukee Journal, 27 March 1995.
--
Half Lives and Half Truths: Chernobyl Ten Years On
By John M. LaForge ã
(Second of two parts)
The 10th anniversary was no party.
"I have seen the beginning of the end of the world," is how Michael Mariotte, editor of The Nuclear Monitor, put it after visiting Chernobyl's doomed landscape, everything dead or dying for miles around. "The end of the world begins in Pripyat, Ukraine, a once-thriving city of 45,000. Now it sits crumbling, abandoned, a mute but overwhelming testament to technological arrogance gone amok."1
Pripyat was the city nearest Chernobyl's Unit 4, the reactor that exploded on April 26, 1986 and burned dangerously until October, spewing tons of cancer-causing isotopes around the world.2
Mr. Mariotte is not known for emotional writing in The Monitor, but anyone who can stand to investigate the unfolding human consequences of the world's worst industrial catastrophe can understand his choice of words. Izvestia called it "the greatest technological catastrophe in world history."3
Cancers and other disease caused by Chernobyl's radioactive poisons are being recorded thousands of kilometers from the reactor site. The ninety million people who lived in the path of the very worst fallout are learning the hard way that damage done by ionizing radiation is unrelenting, cumulative and irreversible.
In the first part of this article (Spring 1996 Pathfinder) I compared the recent trivialization of Chernobyl's consequences to news accounts that appeared soon after the explosions and fire. For example, while the commercial press now tell us that the disaster "spread radiation across parts of Europe," the fact is that the federal EPA announced in mid-May 1986 that, "Airborne radioactivity from the Chernobyl nuclear accident is now so widespread that it is likely to fall to the ground wherever it rains in the United States."4
In this part I look at how much radiation Chernobyl evidently dumped added to the "background," at official skewing of the its inevitable long-term effects, and at recent reports of its human health consequences.
Answers are Blowin' in the Wind
How much radiation was released? What percentage of which isotopes were thrown into the atmosphere. Was it mostly iodine-131? How much of the total was made up of the far more dangerous cesium-137, strontium-90 and plutonium?
Piecing together the truth is a dizzying job of ferreting out bias and vested interest. The pro-nuclear Time magazine reported in 1989 that perhaps "one billion or more" curies were released, rather than the 50 to 80 million estimated by Russian authorities.5 One curie is the amount of radiation equal to the disintegration of 37 billion atoms - 37 billion becquerels - per second. It is a very large amount of radiation.
The U.S. government's Argonne Nat. Lab has said that 30 percent of the reactor's total radioactivity - 3 billion of an estimated 9 billion curies - was released.6 And scientists at the U.S. Lawrence Livermore Nat. Lab suggested that one-half of the core's radioactivity was spewed - 4.5 billion curies, according the World Information Service on Energy, quoting Science, 6-13-86.
Vladimir Chernousenko, the chief scientific supervisor of the "clean up" team responsible for a 10-kilometer zone around the exploded reactor, says that 80 percent of the reactor's radioactivity escaped, something like seven billion curies.7 At the Union of Concerned Scientists, senior energy analyst Kennedy Maize, concluded that "the core vaporized" - all 190 tons of fuel, and all 9 billion curies.8
Former Chair of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Joseph Hendrie, concluded likewise, saying "They have dumped the full inventory of volatile fission products from a large power reactor into the environment. You can't do any worse than that."9
The Russians and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) claimed in a 1986 report, that 50 million curies of radioactive debris, plus another 50 million curies of rare and inert gasses were discharged. However, the rocketing incidence of cancers, leukemias and other radiation-induced illnesses, leads scientists to suspect that the higher radioactive fallout estimates are likely. Pandemic numbers of thyroid cancers led even the cautious Dr. Alexander Sich, in his Chernobyl cover story for the May 1996 Bulletin of Atomic Scientists to conclude that the "higher [radiation] release estimates support the conclusions drawn by medical experts."
Geneticist Valery N. Soyfer, founder of the former Soviet Union's first molecular biology laboratory, analyzed the 1986 report to the IAEA, which has since been condemned as a cover-up. Dr. Soyfer says that if only 100 million curies were vented, then world "background radiation doubled at once."10 This claim was unsupported by accompanying evidence, but if "background" was doubled by 100 million curies, then it was multiplied 180 times by the release of Chernobyl's "full inventory." Nineteen months after the disaster, in Nov. 1987, the U.S. government officially doubled its estimate of the "background" radiation to which we are exposed every year.11
Thyroid Cancers: More, Sooner, Untreatable
Dr. Soyfer further discovered that the Soviets focused on and publicized the fallout's radioactive iodine content, but understated the amounts of other far more dangerous isotopes. While 10 to 15 percent of the fallout was iodine-131, the long-lived radionuclides strontium-90 and cesium-137 made up more than two thirds of the total contamination.12
Furthermore, the Soviet's 1986 estimate of future cancer deaths was based only on the impact of iodine-131, and then only on external doses. As a result, the IAEA misled the world about Chernobyl' s cancer threat. People contaminated with iodine-131 ingested it, first by breathing, then by drinking contaminated milk for six weeks. Thyroid cancer is caused by the iodine-131. Its rates are today ten times higher than the increase any scientist had anticipated. The U. N. has said that the number of thyroid cancers among children in Belarus - where 70 percent of the fallout landed - are 285 times pre-Chernobyl levels.13
The British Medical Journal reported in 1995 that the rate of thyroid cancer in the region north of Chernobyl - Ukraine and Belarus - is 200 times higher than normal, and the (British) Imperial Cancer Research Fund found a 500 percent increase in thyroid cancers among Ukrainian children between 1986 and 1993.14
Fear is growing among physicians treating the young radiation victims, because the thyroid cancers are appearing sooner than expected and growing quicker than usual. Dr. Andrei Butenko, at Kiev Hospital No. 1 in Ukraine, says of his patients, "Routine chemotherapy seems to have lost its effectiveness; something has changed in the immune system."15
Cesium's Genetic Assault: the 300 Years War
Cesium-137 contamination is probably Chernobyl's most devastating and ominous consequence. The body can't distinguish cesium from potassium, so it's taken up by our cells and becomes an internal source of radiation. Cesium-137 is a gamma emitter and its half-life of 30 years means that it stays in the soil, to concentrate in the food chain, for over 300 years. While iodine-131 remains radioactive for six weeks, cesium-137 stays in the body for decades, concentrating in muscle where it irradiates muscle cells and nearby organs.16
Strontium-90 is also long-lived and, because it resembles calcium, is permanently incorporated into bone tissue where it may lead to leukemia.
The Soviet's acknowledged in 1986 that the influence of cesium-137 on cancer death rates would be nine times that of iodine-131. They said that the effects of strontium-90 would "perhaps have, along with cesium-137, the most important meaning."17
Early Findings Go from Bad to Worse
Exposure to radiation more often results in genetic and reproductive damage than cancer. These hereditary disorders are unlimited in time, since they pass from generation to generation in the sperm and ovum. So, as geneticist Soyfer points out, Chernobyl's enduring biological legacy will be that of inherited diseases, deformities, developmental abnormalities, spontaneous abortions and premature births.
Some recent epidemiological studies confirm the worst of these inevitable effects. The June 25, 1995 Washington Post reported that birth defects in the areas most heavily poisoned have doubled since 1986.
In a long page one story, the Aug. 2, 1995 New York Times reported that life expectancy has plummeted in Russia, making it the first nation in history to ever experience such a public health status reversal. Male life expectancy is now the lowest in the world (below even India or Bolivia) and, at the same time, infant mortality rose 15 percent in both 1993 and 1994, and there are now epidemic rates of heart disease and cancer. dr. David Hoel, an epidemiologist at the Medical University of S. Carolina, is studying whether Chernobyl's radiation is a major factor in the spread in cancers and birth defects. "Everyone assumes the connection," he said.
The journal Nature has published a study of children born in 1994 to mothers exposed to Chernobyl's fallout in 1986. Researchers studied 79 families 186 miles from Chernobyl and found never-before-observed "germ-line" mutations: changes in DNA of the sperm and ovum. Such mutations are passed on from generation to generation.18
Nature has also reported that in Greece, 2,800 kilometers from Chernobyl, where radiation exposures were far lower than in areas close to the reactor, leukemia has been diagnosed at rates 2.6 times the norm in young people who were in the womb when the reactor exploded. The British epidemiologist Dr. Alice Stewart found long ago that only one diagnostic X-ray to the pregnant abdomen increases the risk of leukemia in the offspring by 40 percent.19 However, the report from Greece is the first to link Chernobyl's wreckage to increased leukemia incidence in children exposed in utero.20 The report has moved some experts to again warn that the low levels of radiation to which people are exposed every day "could contribute to cancer."
Even the stodgy New York Times has reported that "cancers are now believed to be the result of smaller [radiation] doses, and the amount of damage inflicted by a given dose is now believed to be larger."21
In a related study, two U.S. geneticists analyzing animals inside Chernobyl's 6-mile radius found that small rodents known as voles "sustain an extraordinary amount of genetic damage." The study found that "the mutation rate in these animals is...probably thousands of times greater than normal." Two findings called "ominous" were, first, that one-third of the mutations that the scientists expected to see were not even detected - probably because they were lethal. "It could be that the animals were never born," said Dr. Robert Becker of Texas Technical Univ. Second, "the vole mutations were cumulative, increasing with each succeeding generation." Both researchers doubted that any species could sustain such a mutation rate indefinitely.22
Acceptable Whole-Earth Poisoning
The extent of Chernobyl's radioactive, biological and ecological damage, and the depth its psychological and economic devastation are incalculable.
What everyone does know about nuclear reactors is that they have a record of whole-earth poisoning, and that their potential for more of the same is considered acceptable - authorized in advance. This potential, for unlimited and uncontrollable radiation "accidents," has been deliberately developed, promoted, protected, ignored and then denied, or forgotten.
Sadly, denial and forgetfulness only make another Chernobyl inevitable.
Notes:
1 The Nuclear Monitor, newsletter of Nuclear Information Resource Service (NIRS), April 1996.
2 St. Louis Post Dispatch (SLPD), 7-23-90.
3 SLPD, 4-26-90.
4 Associated Press, 5-15-86.
5 Time, 11-13-89.
6 The Chicago Tribune, 6-22-86.
7 "The Truth About Chernobyl," Critical Mass: Voices for a Nuclear-Free Future, Ruggiero and Sahulka, Eds., 1996 by Open Media, p. 127.
8 Not Man Apart, the journal of Friends of the Earth, March 1987.
9 The Minneapolis Star Tribune, 5-19-86.
10 SLPD, 4-24-87.
11 The New York Times, 11-20-87.
12 SLPD, 4-24-87.
13 The New York Times, 11-29-96.
14 The Washington Post, 3-25-95.
15 Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, 12-12-94.
16 Caldicott, H., Nuclear Madness, 1994, Norton, p. 137.
17 SLPD, 4-24-87.
18 The New York Times, 4-25-96.
19 Caldicott, Ibid., p. 43.
20 St. Paul Pioneer, 7-25-96.
21 The New York Times, 6-23-96.
22 The New York Times, 5-7-96, B6. --end--
[Part One ran in NUKEWATCH The Pathfinder, Summer 1996, part Two in Winter 1996/1997 EDITION; an edited compilation of both parts is published in Earth Island Journal, Summer 1997, EIJ, 300 Broadway, No. 28, San Francisco, CA 94133].
-------- depleted uranium
Scientists debate depleted uranium weapons' possible contamination of Iraq, civilians
By Joseph B. Verrengia,
Associated Press
4/21/2003
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/111/nation/Scientists_debate_depleted_ura%3A.shtml
http://www.msnbc.com/news/903272.asp?cp1=1
As soon as it's safe, the United Nations and international scientists plan to fan out over Iraq's smoking battlegrounds to investigate whether the leftovers of American firepower pose serious health or environmental threats.
Thousands of rounds containing tons of depleted uranium were fired in Iraq over the past four weeks. Fragments of the armor-piercing munitions now litter the valleys and neighborhoods between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. That's where most of the combat occurred and where most of Iraq's 24 million people live.
Wounded fighters and civilians also may carry depleted uranium shrapnel in their bodies.
Many medical studies have failed to show a direct link between DU exposure and human disease, though a study of rats linked intramuscular fragments with increased cancer risk. Test-tube experiments also suggest DU may trigger potentially dangerous changes in cells.
The munitions are conventional and do not generate a nuclear blast. Depleted uranium, a very dense metal fashioned from low-level radioactive waste, allows them to easily pierce armor and buildings that would deflect other projectiles.
The Pentagon vigorously defends the decisive battlefield advantage that the super-hard metal provides and says the munitions do not create pollution or health hazards. Tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles and A-10 attack jets all fire depleted uranium rounds. Some missiles also contain the material.
''There's going to be no impact on the health of people in the environment or people who were there at the time,'' said Dr. Michael Kilpatrick, a top Pentagon health official.
''You would really have to have a large internalized dose,'' Kilpatrick said. ''You are not going to get that with casual exposure.''
However, experts differ as to what qualifies as casual exposure.
Some worry that it could affect civilian populations especially children if it enters groundwater used for drinking water and irrigation.
''The soil around the impact sites of depleted uranium penetrators might be heavily contaminated,'' said Brian Spratt, chair of the depleted uranium committee of the Royal Society, England's scientific academy. ''We recommend the fragments should be removed.''
Some experiments suggest DU may cause serious illness even if tiny particles are inhaled or ingested.
Critics complain that studies so far have not been nearly large or long enough to conclude the munitions pose no long-term risks.
Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., has introduced legislation requiring broader federal research.
''Depleted uranium is toxic and carcinogenic and it may well be associated with elevated rates of birth defects in babies born to those exposed to it,'' said McDermott, who is a physician.
Before the current war, Iraqi doctors were blaming high rates of cancer and birth defects in Basra and other southern cities on U.S. munitions fired 12 years ago when fighting was concentrated along the southern border with Kuwait. Iraqi officials claim their number of cancer patients has risen 50 percent in 10 years, although complete medical surveys have not been conducted.
Some U.S. veterans also blame certain mysterious symptoms of Gulf War Syndrome on DU exposure.
To many, the issue could mushroom into a controversy similar to that involving Agent Orange spraying during the Vietnam War. Exposure to the herbicide has caused catastrophic health problems even to generations born after the war.
''The fact that most of the fighting in Iraq has been in population centers is of great worry to me,'' said geochemist Vala Ragnarsdottir of the University of Bristol in England. Ragnarsdottir was one of 17 scientists from five European nations who conducted DU field assessments for the U.N. in the Balkans in 2000.
That investigation, the first of its kind, found no direct link between DU munitions and current disease rates in Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro. However, the study was limited to 11 combat sites. About 12 metric tons of depleted uranium ordnance was used in the Balkans; that compares with 300 metric tons during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, and far more in the current campaign.
In Iraq, Ragnarsdottir said, ''many hard targets were hit and therefore DU dust was produced, which still could be blowing around.''
''I think that DU water pollution is likely to occur with time,'' she said.
The U.N. inquiry would sample DU residues in soil, air, water and vegetation throughout the battle theater, as well as measure for radiation hotspots.
Investigators will need information from the Pentagon to calculate how much DU ordinance was used and the coordinates of specific Iraqi targets.
''An early study in Iraq could either lay these fears to rest or confirm there are potential risks which then could be addressed,'' said Klaus Toepfer, executive director of the U.N. Environmental Program, which will manage the investigation.
Depleted uranium is a byproduct of the industrial process in national weapons labs that enriches the energy content of nuclear fuel rods and warheads by adding more of the fissionable U-235 isotope. What's left is a concentrated metal waste that is about twice as dense as lead, but 40 percent less radioactive than uranium in its natural form.
A DU-hardened projectile can bore straight through an enemy tank. DU shrapnel also ignites, engulfing the target in fire.
What happens then has been studied by several government labs and international agencies with varying conclusions.
The Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute in Bethesda, Md., and other labs suggest that DU fragments embedded in the muscle of laboratory rats cause cancerous tumors.
But do the animal trials really mimic battlefield exposures? Studies of human patients and health records by the World Health Organization and others found no direct link to cancer rates and other illnesses.
Studies by the RAND Corp. and others suggest the radiation danger from handling the munitions is low.
A 2002 study by the Royal Society concluded that most battlefield soldiers won't be at risk. But dangerous vapors are generated when the weapons are fired or explode. If the particles are inhaled or ingested, they might settle in the kidneys and skeleton of some soldiers, or raise the risk of lung cancer.
But at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Baltimore, more than 500 urine samples from veterans concerned about DU exposure were evaluated by toxicologists. The VA reported 20 samples showed elevated uranium levels, but those could be attributed to natural uranium in food and water.
Urine provided by patients carrying DU shrapnel in their bodies from friendly fire during the Persian Gulf War also showed elevated uranium levels, but the higher levels were not tied to disease.
DU critics complain the VA studies have examined fewer than 100 veterans of the 1991 conflict.
''The military's policy is don't look, don't find,'' said Dan Fahey, a Navy veteran in the Persian Gulf who now works for a San Francisco environmental group.
Fahey said: ''If they don't do proper studies of veterans, they can say there is no evidence of adverse health effects.''
--------
Depleted uranium lingers in Iraq
Scientists hope to test battlefields for any dangers
By Joseph B. Verrengia
ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 21, 2003
(MSNBC)
http://stacks.msnbc.com/news/903272.asp?cp1=1
'The soil around the impact sites of depleted uranium penetrators might be heavily contaminated.' - BRIAN SPRATT England's Royal Society
As soon as it's safe, the United Nations and international scientists plan to fan out over Iraq's smoking battlegrounds to investigate whether the leftovers of American firepower pose serious health or environmental threats. Thousands of rounds containing tons of depleted uranium were fired in Iraq over the past four weeks.
FRAGMENTS OF the armor-piercing munitions now litter the valleys and neighborhoods between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. That's where most of the combat occurred and where most of Iraq's 24 million people live.
Wounded fighters and civilians also may carry depleted uranium shrapnel in their bodies.
Many medical studies have failed to show a direct link between DU exposure and human disease, though a study of rats linked intramuscular fragments with increased cancer risk. Test-tube experiments also suggest DU may trigger potentially dangerous changes in cells.
The munitions are conventional and do not generate a nuclear blast. Depleted uranium, a very dense metal fashioned from low-level radioactive waste, allows them to easily pierce armor and buildings that would deflect other projectiles.
The Pentagon vigorously defends the decisive battlefield advantage that the super-hard metal provides and says the munitions do not create pollution or health hazards. Tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles and A-10 attack jets all fire depleted uranium rounds. Some missiles also contain the material.
"There's going to be no impact on the health of people in the environment or people who were there at the time," said Dr. Michael Kilpatrick, a top Pentagon health official.
"You would really have to have a large internalized dose," Kilpatrick said. "You are not going to get that with casual exposure."
However, experts differ as to what qualifies as casual exposure.
Some worry that it could affect civilian populations - especially children - if it enters groundwater used for drinking water and irrigation.
"The soil around the impact sites of depleted uranium penetrators might be heavily contaminated," said Brian Spratt, chair of the depleted uranium committee of the Royal Society, England's scientific academy. "We recommend the fragments should be removed."
Some experiments suggest DU may cause serious illness even if tiny particles are inhaled or ingested.
Critics complain that studies so far have not been nearly large or long enough to conclude the munitions pose no long-term risks.
Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., has introduced legislation requiring broader federal research.
"Depleted uranium is toxic and carcinogenic and it may well be associated with elevated rates of birth defects in babies born to those exposed to it," said McDermott, who is a physician.
Before the current war, Iraqi doctors were blaming high rates of cancer and birth defects in Basra and other southern cities on U.S. munitions fired 12 years ago - when fighting was concentrated along the southern border with Kuwait. Iraqi officials claim their number of cancer patients has risen 50 percent in 10 years, although complete medical surveys have not been conducted.
Some U.S. veterans also blame certain mysterious symptoms of Gulf War Syndrome on DU exposure.
VIETNAM, KOSOVO
To many, the issue could mushroom into a controversy similar to that involving Agent Orange spraying during the Vietnam War. Exposure to the herbicide has caused catastrophic health problems even to generations born after the war.
"The fact that most of the fighting in Iraq has been in population centers is of great worry to me," said geochemist Vala Ragnarsdottir of the University of Bristol in England. Ragnarsdottir was one of 17 scientists from five European nations who conducted DU field assessments for the U.N. in the Balkans in 2000.
That investigation, the first of its kind, found no direct link between DU munitions and current disease rates in Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro. However, the study was limited to 11 combat sites. About 12 metric tons of depleted uranium ordnance was used in the Balkans; that compares with 300 metric tons during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, and far more in the current campaign.
In Iraq, Ragnarsdottir said, "many hard targets were hit and therefore DU dust was produced, which still could be blowing around."
"I think that DU water pollution is likely to occur with time," she said.
The U.N. inquiry would sample DU residues in soil, air, water and vegetation throughout the battle theater, as well as measure for radiation hotspots.
Investigators will need information from the Pentagon to calculate how much DU ordinance was used and the coordinates of specific Iraqi targets.
"An early study in Iraq could either lay these fears to rest or confirm there are potential risks which then could be addressed," said Klaus Toepfer, executive director of the U.N. Environmental Program, which will manage the investigation.
HOW DU WORKS
Depleted uranium is a byproduct of the industrial process in national weapons labs that enriches the energy content of nuclear fuel rods and warheads by adding more of the fissionable U-235 isotope. What's left is a concentrated metal waste that is about twice as dense as lead, but 40 percent less radioactive than uranium in its natural form.
A DU-hardened projectile can bore straight through an enemy tank. DU shrapnel also ignites, engulfing the target in fire.
What happens then has been studied by several government labs and international agencies with varying conclusions.
The Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute in Bethesda, Md., and other labs suggest that DU fragments embedded in the muscle of laboratory rats cause cancerous tumors.
But do the animal trials really mimic battlefield exposures? Studies of human patients and health records by the World Health Organization and others found no direct link to cancer rates and other illnesses.
Studies by the RAND Corp. and others suggest the radiation danger from handling the munitions is low.
A 2002 study by the Royal Society concluded that most battlefield soldiers won't be at risk. But dangerous vapors are generated when the weapons are fired or explode. If the particles are inhaled or ingested, they might settle in the kidneys and skeleton of some soldiers, or raise the risk of lung cancer.
But at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Baltimore, more than 500 urine samples from veterans concerned about DU exposure were evaluated by toxicologists. The VA reported 20 samples showed elevated uranium levels, but those could be attributed to natural uranium in food and water.
Urine provided by patients carrying DU shrapnel in their bodies from friendly fire during the Persian Gulf War also showed elevated uranium levels, but the higher levels were not tied to disease.
DU critics complain the VA studies have examined fewer than 100 veterans of the 1991 conflict.
Fahey, a Navy veteran in the Persian Gulf who now works for a San Francisco environmental group.
Fahey said: "If they don't do proper studies of veterans, they can say there is no evidence of adverse health effects."
-------- inspections
Russia to Insist U.N. Inspectors Go to Iraq - Source
April 21, 2003
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-iraq-russia.html
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will insist on U.N. arms inspectors declaring Iraq free of weapons of mass destruction before sanctions against it can be lifted, Itar-Tass news agency quoted a senior Foreign Ministry official as saying on Monday.
Moscow, which opposed the U.S.-led war, has consistently diverged with Washington over the U.N.'s role in postwar Iraq and a top U.S. defense adviser said Russia's stubborn refusal to back the United States would probably mean an end to its lucrative oil deals there.
The unnamed Russian foreign ministry official said chief weapons inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, who headed U.N. teams in Iraq before the war, should be allowed to return and quickly finish their work.
``This could be done within a couple of weeks as it is obvious that there are no such weapons there,'' the official told Itar-Tass.
The remark, though showing Moscow did not want the United Nations to drag its feet on lifting the sanctions, also appeared to be a jab at Washington, which cited President Saddam Hussein's chemical, biological and nuclear weapons as a key justification for the war it launched on March 20.
Washington accused Baghdad of hiding its banned arms from U.N. inspectors, but Iraq denied having any, and so far no evidence of such weapons has been found.
The United States is pushing for the quick scrapping of the 12-year-old sanctions but Russia, along with France and some other countries, fears that once they are gone the United Nations will have no more leverage over Iraq's future.
Russia, which has veto power on the U.N. Security Council, has turned down Washington's calls for an immediate lifting of the crippling economic sanctions, imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of neighboring Kuwait.
The sanctions are tied to the country being certified free of weapons of mass destruction, and while U.N. inspectors have said they are keen to return to Iraq, Washington has said it prefers to do the job itself.
DEALS TO GO UP IN SMOKE
Pentagon adviser Richard Perle, a key architect of the U.S.-led drive to topple Saddam, said it was time for Russia to pay the price for its refusal to back the United States.
In an interview with respected Russian daily Kommersant, Perle said Moscow had ``placed its bets on a loser'' and was likely to see its deals with Saddam's government go up in smoke.
``It is a great probability that all previous deals with Russia will be declared null-and-void,'' Perle said in remarks published in Russian.
``Of course, it is up to the new Iraqi government to decide but I would be surprised if Russia received the same level of support from the new Iraqi government as it had under Hussein.''
The fall of Baghdad into U.S. hands has put Moscow in an awkward situation, leaving it torn between its own policy of preaching an end to sanctions and a desire to preserve a leading role for the United Nations in world affairs.
``The sanctions should be lifted as quickly as possible, immediately after Iraq complies with U.N. Security Council resolutions,'' the foreign ministry official said.
The official rejected any automatic steps to rid Baghdad of U.N. control over its foreign trade.
``Such lifting of sanctions would contravene international law,'' he said.
Blix has said experts could be back in Iraq within two weeks of a green light from the Security Council but the United States has given no signal as to whether it wants their early return, saying its troops were looking for banned weapons themselves.
-------- korea
Administration Divided Over North Korea
By DAVID E. SANGER
April 21, 2003
NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/21/international/asia/21KORE.html
WASHINGTON, April 20 - Just days before President Bush approved the opening of negotiations with North Korea over its nuclear program, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld circulated to key members of the administration a Pentagon memorandum proposing a radically different approach: the United States, the memo argued, should team up with China to press for the ouster of North Korea's leadership.
Mr. Rumsfeld's team, administration officials said, was urging diplomatic pressure for changing the government, not a military solution. But the classified memo, drafted by officials who are deeply opposed to opening talks that could eventually end up benefiting North Korea economically, shows how the handling of the crisis has become the newest subject of internal struggle over how to pursue Mr. Bush's determination to stop the spread of nuclear arms and other unconventional weapons.
Officials on all sides of the arguments say that, with the fall of President Saddam Hussein of Iraq, the internal battles that once surrounded the policy on Iraq are re-emerging over North Korea.
White House officials say a change of government in North Korea is not official administration policy - and some suggest that the secret memorandum was circulated for discussion among high-level officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, and may not represent Mr. Rumsfeld's view. Mr. Rumsfeld's spokeswoman, Victoria Clarke, said today that the defense secretary completely supported the president's diplomatic strategy for disarming North Korea.
But the memo's main argument, that Washington's goal should be the collapse of Kim Jong Il's government, seems at odds with the State Department approach of convincing Mr. Kim, in the words of one senior administration official, "that we're not trying to take him out."
The memorandum was described by several officials who have seen it, including critics of the Pentagon approach who say it is ludicrous to think that China - which is acting as intermediary between North Korea and the United States - would join in any American-led effort to bring about the fall of the North Korean government.
"The last thing the Chinese want," said a senior administration official dealing with the delicate diplomacy, "is a collapse of North Korea that will create a flood of refugees into China and put Western allies on the Chinese border."
President Bush said today that China's willingness to intervene in the negotiations - along with close coordination with Japan and South Korea about dealing with the North Korean government - meant that there was "a good chance of convincing North Korea to abandon her ambitions to develop nuclear arsenals."
But some in the administration liken the new effort to force North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons to Mr. Bush's attempt last September to force Iraq to open up to full inspections: while the White House believes that it is worth a try, few in the administration believe it will work. Mr. Bush and Mr. Rumsfeld have carefully avoided ruling out a military strike on North Korea, though they have both publicly insisted that this is a moment for diplomacy and that no military action is currently contemplated.
Even those who urged the administration to talk to North Korea, like Senator Richard G. Lugar, Republican of Indiana and the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, say the threat of military action, no matter how risky, must underpin any talks. "I think that that always has to be there as a very strong possibility," Mr. Lugar said today on the NBC News program "Meet the Press." Hard-liners in the Pentagon - and some at the White House - say that the United States should use its speedy victory in Iraq to drive home to North Korea that it could meet the same fate if it ignores Mr. Bush's demand that it dismantle its nuclear weapons program, ship its spent nuclear fuel out of the country and open up to intrusive inspections.
Mr. Powell's approach, officials familiar with his thinking say, is to offer North Korea assurances that the United States is not trying to undermine its government, but to make clear that until the nuclear programs are dismantled, the country will get no aid and investment. Mr. Powell received final approval for his approach in a meeting with President Bush last week, a session Mr. Rumsfeld did not attend. "There's a sense in the Pentagon that Powell got this arranged while everyone was distracted with Iraq," said one intelligence official. "And now there is a race over who will control the next steps."
North Korea is the next case in Mr. Bush's policy of zero tolerance for "rogue states" with such weapons, because unlike Iraq it has two active nuclear programs. The Central Intelligence Agency believes that the country may have developed two weapons before a 1994 nuclear-freeze agreement. North Korea continues to sell missiles to Iran, Syria, Pakistan and other states around the world, and Mr. Powell's deputy, Richard L. Armitage, told Congress earlier this year that if the country made weapons-grade plutonium, it would probably sell it.
On Friday, in its first explicit comment on the Iraq war, North Korea said it had learned something from the fall of Mr. Hussein. "The Iraqi war teaches a lesson that in order to prevent a war and defend the security of a country and the sovereignty of a nation," North Korea said in a statement, "it is necessary to have a powerful physical deterrent."
The talks scheduled for this week were nearly scuttled on Friday when, in that same statement, North Korea appeared to suggest - according to its own English-language translation of a government statement - that it had already begun reprocessing its spent nuclear fuel into bomb-grade plutonium. That would mean that Mr. Bush was entering into talks with the nuclear clock ticking. Unless a quick deal was struck, North Korea would be producing weapons-grade material within weeks.
But by midday Friday, American, Japanese and South Korean officials said that when read in the original Korean, the statement said that North Korea was poised to begin producing plutonium, not that it had done so. Today the White House said it was consulting with its allies about whether to go ahead with the talks, scheduled to begin Wednesday.
----
Lugar says N. Korea nukes beg war option
By Joyce Howard Price
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
April 21, 2003
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20030421-53364310.htm
The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said yesterday that the United States should consider war if North Korea does not stop developing nuclear weapons, but President Bush expressed optimism that the four-power talks set for this week would defuse the standoff.
Interviewed yesterday on NBC's "Meet the Press," Sen. Richard G. Lugar, Indiana Republican, said he believes that military action "always has to be there as a very strong possibility" in dealing with North Korea and its nuclear program.
Mr. Lugar made that comment when asked by host Tim Russert whether he would advocate military action if "we wake up this summer" and North Korea is "on the verge of having six to eight more [nuclear] weapons."
In confirming that war may be necessary, the chairman said, "I say that fully cognizant of all the testimony we have heard of the potential ramifications for South Korea, for Japan, for our own American forces, for innocent American civilians who are in the Seoul area.
"But the proliferation of materials to make weapons as well as the weapons themselves and North Korea's reputation for producing them simply to obtain the "revenues for a failed state - this is intolerable, and the North Koreans have to understand that."
In televised comments yesterday to reporters in Crawford, Texas, Mr. Bush seemed far more upbeat about the North Korea situation.
He said he thinks the United States, Japan, South Korea and China together have a "good chance of convincing North Korea to abandon her ambitions to develop nuclear arsenals."
The was uncertainty Friday about whether the multinational talks will be held after contradictory statements Pyongyang made about the reprocessing of spent fuel rods from the Yongbyon nuclear plant.
North Korea appeared to be announcing that it had taken steps that could yield six to eight nuclear bombs within months. But later, it was not clear whether the state-run news agency had announced that reprocessing had begun or whether there had been a faulty translation between versions of the report in English and Korean.
U.S. and South Korean officials told the Associated Press that after reviewing the versions, there was no proof that reprocessing spent fuel rods for weapons-grade plutonium was under way.
In his remarks yesterday, Mr. Bush singled out praise for China, saying he believes that country will play an important role in persuading North Korea to stop developing nuclear weapons.
He said Beijing has confirmed that it is committed to a pledge that former President Jiang Zemin gave him "that China's policy is for a nuclear-weapons-free peninsula."
However, White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said later that Mr. Bush's remarks about China should not be taken as an indication that the talks are still on. China was to be host to the negotiations.
On NBC, Mr. Lugar said he has been an advocate of getting together with North Korea for negotiations. Washington had rejected calls by Pyongyang that they meet one on one.
Mr. Lugar said he's pleased the talks are "going to happen" and that China will be involved. "It's important to find out what [the North Koreans] intend to do. Now if they tell us at these meetings they intend to build weapons, we've got to indicate upfront that is totally unsatisfying. I think that President Bush has made that clear."
South Korea and Japan want the talks to proceed. The United States is reported to still be deciding. "At this point, there is nothing new on the talks," State Department spokeswoman Brenda Greenberg told the AP yesterday.
Sen. Pat Roberts, Kansas Republican and chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and Sen. Evan Bayh, Indiana Democrat and a member of that panel, discussed on "Fox News Sunday" the problems posed by North Korea.
"They're going to be a very difficult problem, but that's one of negotiation. There isn't any military option that we can threaten at this particular point," Mr. Roberts said.
He said he was pleased that China will take part in the talks with North Korea. "China's the key here, and China has made some significant changes here just recently in their attitude toward North Korea."
Mr. Bayh accused North Korea of blackmail, and he identified some other "provocative steps" that country might take to try to get its way.
"The commencement of reprocessing would be a significant threshold for them to cross," he said.
"If they do develop additional nuclear devices maybe six months down the road or so," Mr. Bayh predicted that North Korea could end up "testing one to develop its nuclear capability."
What's more, Mr. Bayh said, Pyongyang could also "launch a test flight of one of those three-stage rockets capable of hitting the United States.
"They might fire one of those in the Pacific."
Mr. Roberts initially said he thinks it's "probable" that North Korea would take both those actions but then revised that prediction to "possible."
Fox host Tony Snow asked Mr. Roberts whether North Korea is the "major security threat facing the United States right now."
"Without question," Mr. Roberts replied.
-------- u.s. nuc facilities
Duke Cogema mixed oxide fuel-fabrication facility
April 21, 2003
Washington Times
Daybook
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20030421-8699940.htm
10 a.m. - Nuclear Regulatory Commission holds a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, Reactor Fuels Subcommittee, to review the Duke Cogema Stone & Webster construction application request resubmittal for a mixed oxide fuel-fabrication facility. Location: 11545 Rockville Pike, Room T-2B3, Rockville. Contact: 301/415-3151.
-------- colorado
Mixed Results From Health Study of Rocky Flats Workers
April 21, 2003
(ENS)
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2003/2003-04-21-09.asp#anchor2
DENVER, Colorado, Working with nuclear materials may not increase an individual's overall risk of cancer, but it could increase mortality rates for some forms of the disease, finds a new government report.
The 10 year health study of some 16,300 individuals who worked at the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant between 1952 and 1989 found these people had lower death rates for all causes and for cancer when compared to the general public. Still, the researchers concluded that for certain cancers, mortality rates for Rocky Flats workers were higher than those for the general public.
The government funded study was conducted by researchers at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
According to the researchers, the risk for lung cancer from inhaling radioactive particles is the most important finding in the study. Through a case-control study of 180 workers who died of lung cancer and 720 who did not, they found a statistically significant risks for lung cancer for cumulative internal lung doses greater than 400 milli Sievert.
The study also found unspecified tumors of the nervous system at over two times the expected rate. More research is needed to determine what is responsible for these increases and scientists with the University of Colorado are continuing to study the possible causes.
The study's authors believe it should be a first step to further understanding the health risks to nuclear workers.
The most important area for future work, according to the authors, is the estimation of doses from internal exposures to plutonium and other isotopes, for all workers, with methods like those used in the lung cancer case-control study.
They also are completing analyses of cancer diagnoses for Rocky Flats workers reported to the Colorado Central Cancer Registry. The registry is based at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
-------- new mexico
Inspectors find questionable charges, management problems at Los Alamos
4/21/2003
USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-04-21-los-alamos_x.htm
WASHINGTON - Porous financial management at Los Alamos National Laboratory allowed for $11.1 million in questionable expenditures, government inspectors reported.
Energy Department Inspector General Gregory H. Friedman recommended Monday that the government require the University of California, which has managed the lab for six decades, to repay any unallowable charges, pay appropriate penalties and improve its internal controls.
"The caliber of business operations is simply inadequate given the nature and size of operations at Los Alamos and the requirements of the university's contract with the Department of Energy," the report said.
Lab Interim Director Pete Nanos took "strong exception" the Energy Department's conclusions.
"We believe the laboratory's operations related to meal and travel costs, and the operation of its audits and assessments function, are consistent with its contract," Nanos said in a statement. "We also believe we have been consistent with the requirements of federal travel regulations and other federal requirements and guidance for allowable and unallowable costs."
The audit covers $5.2 billion in charges during the 2000-2002 budget years. It comes amid allegations of weak fiscal oversight, costly cases of equipment theft and financial fraud, and the firing of two investigators who pressed the issues with management.
The Energy Department is considering whether to allow bidders to compete for the lab's contract. That decision is expected April 30.
Friedman identified $3.7 million in meals and $7.4 million for travel costs that were potentially not allowed under the contract, and said $3.5 million on internal audits did not meet government or professional standards.
Friedman also identified "control weaknesses" in the lab's audit function, financial reconciliation, payroll and travel approval. There was also a backlog of audits of subcontracts at the lab, about half of all lab expenditures.
In a letter responding to a draft audit, Anthony R. Lane, associate administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, said the university and lab managers "have taken positive steps to strengthen the laboratory's control environment and business practices."
Earlier this month, the university released its own report on gaping holes in procurement policies that left the lab vulnerable to theft and fraud, but did not attempt to put a dollar figure on an amount lost.
On Monday, the university released a 107-page independent review of the lab's business operations by Ernst and Young LLP. UC spokesman Michael Reese said the report suggests specific program and accounting changes.
The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations will hold a hearing - the third - on management problems at the lab on May 1.
Deputy Energy Secretary Kyle McSlarrow, NNSA administrator Linton Brooks, and University of California President Richard Atkinson are expected to testify.
McSlarrow is expected to report to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham on whether bidding for the contract is appropriate.
-------- us politics
Uncle Sam May Want You, but Do You Really Want Uncle Sam?
By Stephen Barr
Monday, April 21, 2003
Washington Post; Page B02
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A64696-2003Apr20?language=printer
You probably already know this. But here are 10 reasons to avoid a career in government:
1. Political appointees. Too many of them assume the worst about career employees. Some come straight from the campaign trail; most only stay two to three years. Many only want to enhance their r?sum?s. They relish creating programs and try to avoid the debris left behind by prior appointees. Who wants to work for a revolving boss? Recent testimony by members of the Volcker commission suggests the ranks of political appointees could be cut by half and the president would still have ample aides to carry out his policies.
2. Bureaucrat bashing. Too often, politicians portray federal employees as more interested in their job security than the nation's security, more interested in red tape than results. Stories of waste, fraud and abuse attract far more attention than "good government." While perceptions of public service have changed for the better since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, many Americans find it hard to trust their government.
3. Little recognition for hard work and good performance. Although most agencies hand out bonuses, many employees feel they go to the boss's favorites or get passed around the office as a supplement to regular pay. In a recent survey of federal employees, only 30 percent said their agency's bonus program "provides me with an incentive to do my best." Only 38 percent said agencies rewarded their creativity and innovation.
4. No opportunity to ever make really big bucks. Yes, public service is not about getting rich. But the Volcker commission found evidence that judges and federal executives are not keeping pace with salaries paid by colleges and nonprofits. Federal executives have faced pay freezes in five of the last 10 years. Congress also puts a cap on executive pay. This year, a career executive in the Washington area is limited to a salary of $142,500. The government's bonuses are small compared with those of many companies, and, of course, it doesn't offer stock options.
5. Turf battles. Federal programs are built around law and rules. The old hands like to do it the tried-and-true way and have little patience with new employees and their ideas. Information is power, so don't expect anyone to share it easily. Do expect to get caught up in playing the blame game. And expect to attend hours of nonproductive meetings trying to sort things out.
6. Seemingly constant attacks on job benefits. When Congress needs money to bring down budget deficits, it often tinkers with employee health and retirement benefits. The changes, such as delayed cost-of-living adjustments for retirees or higher employee contributions toward their retirement, are usually short-lived.
7. Frequent changes in program direction and funding. Congress places multiple, and sometimes conflicting, requirements on agencies. There's almost never enough money to do everything the law mandates. More often than not, political appointees set the priorities. That makes for what seems to be constant change.
8. Few opportunities to be entrepreneurial. The government talks a good game about encouraging employees to think outside the box. But many employees point out that taking risks inevitably results in some failures, and when things go bad, management doesn't back up its employees. Who wants a blot in the official file? If the idea does succeed, count on a political appointee or higher-up taking all the credit.
9. Long commutes to downtown buildings. Many federal buildings were placed in the centers of cities to help support the economy and to be near private-sector counterparts. It made sense at the time but now works against the interest of many taxpayers, who would prefer to obtain their government assistance closer to where they live and often work. Although the government has moved many services to the Internet, only 5 percent of employees telecommute.
10. Having to start each day reading the Federal Diary. Just kidding, of course!
No Top 10 list can say it all. If you've got additions or subtractions for this list, or for yesterday's list of the best reasons to work for the government, send me an e-mail.
Stephen Barr's e-mail address is barrs@washpost.com.
-------- MILITARY
-------- balkans
Serb War Crime Suspect Reportedly Surrenders
April 21, 2003
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-serbiamontenegro-warcrime.html
BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serb war crimes suspect Miroslav Radic, wanted for the killing of 200 civilians in Croatia in 1991, has surrendered to Belgrade authorities, Beta news agency reported on Monday.
Quoting Serbian government sources, Beta said Radic had been brought before an investigative judge in Belgrade. No further details on the hearing were immediately available.
The U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague has indicted three former Yugoslav army officers -- Radic, Veselin Sljivancanin and Mile Mrksic -- for the killings near the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar in November 1991.
The indictment says the three are responsible for the deaths of the 200 civilians who were beaten and shot after being taken from Vukovar's hospital when the town fell to Serb forces.
Mrksic surrendered to the tribunal last year while Sljivancanin is still at large.
Radic is the least known of the Vukovar Three. The tribunal's 1995 indictment did not even specify his age, saying only he was ``approximately 35 years of age.''
It said he was a captain and had led a special infantry unit that was part of the First Guards Motorized Brigade, commanded by Mrksic and Sljivancanin.
Local media said he had left military service in 1993 to start a private business in Serbia.
The Serb reformers who ousted former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic, himself on a trial for war crimes in The Hague, have been under intense Western pressure to step up cooperation with the tribunal, but many ordinary Serbs believe the U.N. court is biased against them.
The assassination last month of reformist Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, however, sparked a new effort among ruling reformers to arrest and transfer Serbians accused of atrocities during the 1990s Balkan wars.
Officials said those behind the assassination, blamed on a powerful criminal group linked to a special police unit set up during Milosevic's rule, were also involved in war crimes and wanted to bring down the government.
On April 14, the parliament of Serbia and Montenegro cleared the way for its nationals to be extradited to the tribunal regardless of the time of the indictments. Previously, only those indicted before the law was passed could be handed over.
-------- biological weapons
Biotoxins Fall Into Private Hands
Global Risk Seen In S. African Poisons
By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 21, 2003; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A64518-2003Apr20?language=printer
Second of two articles (first: 4/20/03)
PRETORIA, South Africa -- In three days of secret meetings last July, the man known throughout South Africa as "Doctor Death" astounded U.S. law enforcement officials with tales of how the former white-minority government carried out unique experiments with chemical and biological weapons.
Wouter Basson, the bearded ex-commander of South Africa's notorious 7th Medical Battalion, spoke candidly of global shopping sprees for pathogens and equipment, of plans for epidemics to be sown in black communities and of cigarettes and letters that were laced with anthrax. He revealed the development of a novel anthrax strain unknown to the U.S. officials, a kind of "stealth" anthrax that Basson claimed could fool tests used to detect the disease.
But most disturbing was the question Basson could not answer: Who controls the microbes now?
Nearly a decade has passed since the last South African president under apartheid, Frederik W. de Klerk, dismantled the top-secret biological and chemical weapons program known as Project Coast, of which Basson was the director. In 1993, South Africa declared all the weapons, pathogen strains and documents destroyed. Since then, South Africa has been held up as a model -- an example for Iraq and other nations of "what real disarmament looks like," as Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said in a speech in January.
But in reality, Project Coast's legacy continues to haunt South Africa in ways that bode poorly for countries seeking to roll back programs for weapons of mass destruction, according to government officials and weapons experts. South Africa is still struggling to answer basic questions about the kinds of weapons developed in the program, how they were used and what happened to them, the officials said. Bacterial strains that supposedly were destroyed continue to turn up in private hands. Law enforcement officials remain concerned that former weapons scientists may share secrets with extremist groups or foreign governments.
The lingering threats from Project Coast attest to the existence of a gray zone, the combination of weak states, open borders, lack of controls and a ready market of buyers and sellers for weapons of mass destruction.
"So many of the past problems occurred because there weren't enough checks and balances in the system," said Torie Pretorius, one of two lead prosecutors in the state's case against Basson on murder and fraud charges stemming from Project Coast, of which he was acquitted. "Are those checks and balances any better today? I don't think so," he said.
"The rollback in South Africa is incomplete," said Milton Leitenberg, an arms control expert and senior research scholar at the University of Maryland's School of Public Affairs. "It's unclear that the government ever wrapped these programs up, and they need to wrap them up. The fact that you've got a guy with a walking collection of bacteria traveling around the world is just more evidence of that." Novel Methods
Project Coast was a closely guarded state secret, created as a unit of the South African National Defense Force (SADF) in 1981, at a time when the white-minority government saw itself under siege from all sides -- from communist-led insurgencies in neighboring countries and from an increasingly restive majority black population within its borders.
"The SADF viewed the liberation movements as terrorist organizations, a view that held that every white South African was a potential target," South African researchers Chandre Gould and Peter Folb wrote in a major study on Project Coast released in January for the United Nations.
The first authoritative accounts about Project Coast surfaced only in 1998 when Basson and other top scientists were called to testify before South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings. In 1999, state prosecutors began a 21/2-year trial of Basson on murder and fraud charges, alleging that he had directed the use of weapons in assassinations and misused state money. The trial resulted in the release of thousands of pages of documents, and produced sensational disclosures about South Africa's use of chemicals and pathogens. In a stunning rejection of the state's case, a South African judge acquitted Basson on all counts last April, finding that Basson did not break any laws. Prosecutors are appealing the case.
Testimony in the trial portrayed Basson as a skillful and wily manager who built a sophisticated weapons program on a modest budget with little oversight from the country's political and military leadership. Unlike the vastly larger Soviet weapons program, Project Coast produced no warheads or missiles and no "weaponized" agents that would be considered militarily significant. Instead, it focused entirely on small-scale, custom-made weapons intended to terrorize, weaken and kill opponents of the apartheid government, testimony and documents showed.
"The most characteristic feature of the South African program was the development, testing and utilization of a wide array of hard-to-trace toxic agents to assassinate 'enemies of the state,' " said Gary Ackerman, a South African weapons expert with the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute for International Studies.
Project Coast scientists collected hundreds of strains of deadly pathogens, including 45 types of anthrax and the bacteria that cause cholera, brucellosis and plague, according to documents released by the government. They also developed novel methods for distributing toxins. A 1989 sales list released by the government provided a partial inventory: sugar cubes laced with salmonella, beer bottles and peppermint candies poisoned with pesticide, cigarettes and letter-size envelopes sprinkled with anthrax spores.
More sinister were the attempts -- ordered by Basson -- to use science against the country's black majority population. Daan Goosen, former director of Project Coast's biological research division, said he was ordered by Basson to develop ways to suppress population growth among blacks, perhaps by secretly applying contraceptives to drinking water. Basson also urged scientists to search for a "black bomb," a biological weapon that would select targets based on skin color, he said.
"Basson was very interested. He said, 'If you can do this, it would be very good,' " Goosen recalled. "But nothing came of it." Toxic Trail
When South Africa announced destruction of its nuclear weapons program in 1993, teams of international observers were flown in for verification that the warheads as well as thousands of pages of blueprints and documents were destroyed. But the process was different for biological and chemical weapons -- the only witnesses to the destruction at Project Coast were the program's top managers. Their claims came into question as early as 1997, when steamer trunks filled with Project Coast documents belonging to Basson turned up in the home of an associate. The trunks contained financial and scientific records as well as a sales list of clandestine weapons.
When questioned by U.S. officials in July, Basson said he could offer no assurances about the possible existence of other documents, or bacterial strains and chemicals that he previously claimed were incinerated or dumped at sea.
"His suspicion was that people working in the labs had probably taken things with them," said a knowledgeable U.S. law enforcement source. "As the program ended, an effort was made to destroy or sell off as many assets as possible. That's because the white leadership didn't relish the prospect of this technology ending up in the hands of the new black government."
Goosen acknowledged in an interview that scientists had retained copies of bacterial strains to continue work on vaccines and antidotes with commercial applications. Goosen said he ended up with scores of such strains in his private laboratory, a collection he attempted unsuccessfully to sell to the United States last May. Goosen did not destroy them, he said, because he considered them vital to his continued research and vaccine business.
Documents and e-mails generated as part of that attempted sale to U.S. officials suggested that additional "replica" copies of Project Coast strains existed. Tai Minnaar, a retired South African general who represented Goosen in the attempted sale, wrote to a retired CIA official describing one such replica that "is in fact a copy of the original in every way." Goosen said he had no knowledge of such a replica.
Reconstructing what happened to Project Coast materials is made more difficult because of uncertainties over the identities of outside companies and institutes that may have provided assistance. Most of Project Coast's scientists worked for one of two front companies, Roodeplaat Research Laboratories and Delta G Scientific. But based on interviews with former South African military leaders, some U.S. researchers have concluded that other entities were deeply involved.
"There were a number of different research and testing centers at universities and companies, and scientists in various parts of South Africa assisted," professors Helen E. Purkitt and Stephen F. Burgess wrote in a June 2002 article in the Journal of Southern African Studies. Over time, Basson was able to acquire or develop "pathogens that had never before been seen," they wrote. Global Marketplace
During his trial, Basson boasted of logging many tens of thousands of miles visiting foreign capitals, from Taipei to Tripoli. According to his own testimony, his trips included a visit to Iran to acquire samples of chemical weapons used in the Iran-Iraq war, and a trip to Russia to purchase sophisticated equipment used in genetic engineering. Along the way he built a network of foreign contacts who later became business partners.
Although weapons experts dismiss many of Basson's claims, travel records confirm that he made at least five trips in the 1990s to Libya -- a country the CIA believes is attempting to establish a biological weapons program. The State Department became so concerned about his visits that a formal complaint was made to the South African government in 1995.
Other former Project Coast officials have made extended visits to Libya as well as China, and still others have received visitors from countries regarded by the United States as proliferation concerns. Gould and Folb, in their U.N.-sponsored study, describe a visit by a group of Syrian businessmen to meet with former Project Coast scientists Andre Immelman and Jan Lourens some time after the program was shut down.
One of the visitors was "quite open in his request for technology in the form of documentation or skills," Lourens was quoted as saying. He said the Syrians returned home empty-handed, and no further contact was made.
Deciphering the intent of the foreign contacts was a key objective of U.S. officials who met with Basson during a secret three-day session last summer. Basson, who did not respond to requests for an interview for this story, has kept a relatively low profile while awaiting the outcome of the state's appeal of his acquittal. But in July, he offered himself to U.S. government officials for questioning at the fortress-like U.S. Embassy in Pretoria, the capital.
Officials knowledgeable of the meeting agreed to discuss some of the revelations on the condition they not be identified. They recalled Basson had requested the meeting, saying he wanted to clear his record with U.S. law enforcement officials who had tracked his movements in recent years to determine whether he was trying to sell biological agents or secrets to other countries. During three days of questioning, Basson answered questions and told stories with the assurance that none of his statements could be used against him in any criminal or civil court, the officials said.
In past statements, Basson told extraordinary tales that later turned out to be either fabricated or unverifiable. The U.S visitors were not convinced of his candor on many points, particularly about his foreign travels. Basson acknowledged the trips but offered innocuous explanations. For example, he said that in Libya he consulted with senior government officials about plans to construct a hospital and a railway.
"He was having one hell of a time going all over the world," said a law enforcement official familiar with details of the embassy meetings. "He told us about Libya, Iran, Syria, Egypt and Israel. He mentioned meeting officials from North Korea. And of course, we're convinced he only told about the things he thought we already knew."
The officials did find disturbingly credible Basson's account of an unknown "stealth" anthrax strain. South Africa's most tightly guarded anthrax weapon was a native bacterial strain, known to be lethal to humans and animals -- one of 45 anthrax types in Project Coast's collection. But the strain achieved a whole new significance, he said, when his scientists were able to induce a change that rendered the microbe invisible to standard field tests commonly used in South Africa and neighboring countries.
"They ended up with an organism that would confound conventional detection," said one U.S. law enforcement official who reviewed Basson's claim. "That way, the spread of the disease is not stopped, and more people would become ill." The official said more sophisticated anthrax tests commonly used in the United States would not be fooled by the stealth microbe.
Anthrax experts who learned details of Basson's claim said the reported accomplishment was possible, but likely not very effective as a weapon. The alterations described by Basson would likely have severely reduced the virulence of the strain, said Martin Hugh-Jones, an anthrax specialist at Louisiana State University.
"It might make a few goats sick but it wouldn't do very well at killing people," Hugh-Jones said. "It appears he turned a pathogenic organism into a nonpathogenic one." Basson acknowledged to U.S. officials that the modifications stripped the microbe of some of its virulence, but said Project Coast scientists remained interested because of the strain's ability to sicken and debilitate targets without leaving a trace.
Basson also told U.S. officials he had learned the technique from Israeli government scientists, a claim that could not be independently verified. Israel has persistently denied having biological or chemical weapons programs, although many U.S. weapons experts believe such programs exist. Israel also is widely believed to have assisted South Africa with the development of its former nuclear weapons program, a claim Israeli officials also deny. Basson and at least one other member of South Africa's biological and chemical weapons team made extended trips to Israel in the 1980s, according to testimony and documents cited by authors Gould and Folb.
"The two countries at the time shared a similar mind-set: Both saw groups inside their own borders that threatened the country's survival," said a U.S. government weapons analyst with first-hand knowledge of Project Coast and its aftermath, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "The enemy wasn't another nation-state but pockets of individuals within their own population."
Washington Post staff writer Joby Warrick will answer reader questions about this series in a video interview that can be viewed online this afternoon. Submit questions for Warrick at www.washingtonpost.com.
--------
Workers Not Told All on Contamination
April 21, 2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/health/AP-Anthrax-Report.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- State health and postal officials failed to tell workers at the Wallingford, Conn., mail facility how badly it was contaminated with anthrax in November 2001, according to a federal report released Monday.
A nearby resident died from anthrax believed to have reached her home on mail contaminated at the facility.
The General Accounting Office, Congress' investigative arm, concluded that postal officials violated federal worker safety regulations when they declined to release detailed testing that showed the Wallingford plant received higher contamination levels than the Postal Service's Brentwood facility in the nation's capital. The Washington distribution center was shut down for cleaning and will not reopen until later this summer.
``It is difficult for me to fathom why postal workers were kept in the dark about this level of anthrax contamination,'' said Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., who requested the GAO report. ``Postal and health officials, through their own missteps, put Wallingford employees at serious and unnecessary risk. We can only thank God that no postal employees died as a result.''
Otillie Lundgren, 94, of nearby Oxford, Conn., died Nov. 21, 2001, of inhalation anthrax that investigators believe she got through her mail, which had been processed at the Wallingford distribution center.
After initial tests at the mail center came up negative, more extensive sampling found a concentration of 3 million anthrax spores per half a gram in one of the mail sorting machines. Levels between 8,000-10,000 spores are considered harmful, and the Brentwood facility had levels between 8,700 and 2 million.
Employees at the Wallingford facility were first told that only ``trace'' amounts of anthrax were found, and later that was changed to a ``concentration of spores.'' But following recommendations from Connecticut public health officials, postal supervisors told workers that the health risks were minimal. And since workers were already taking antibiotics, they were told that all necessary protective measure had been taken.
Despite several union requests, postal officials did not release the detailed contamination report until September 2002.
The postal service's decision not to release the detailed December 2001 test results, said GAO, ``did not satisfy (Occupational Health and Safety Administration's) disclosure requirements.'' GAO said the failure was ``understandable'' given the circumstances at the time.
Postal officials were not cited for nondisclosure, but OHSA noted that a ``failure to effectively communicate issues which can have an effect on a worker's health and safety, can lead to fear and mistrust.''
In response to the GAO report, Patrick R. Donahoe, U.S. Postal Service executive vice president, agreed that test results should be released ``as quickly as possible.'' And he said the agency is revising its guidelines for responding to anthrax incidents.
Union officials, however, called the report ``very generous'' to the postal service, and added, ``we are unaware of any circumstances under which it is understandable to ignore statuary worker protection standards.''
The Wallingford center employs 1,100 workers.
-------- britain
Government may block inquiry into Iraqi arms
By Andrew Grice Political Editor
21 April 2003
UK Independent
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=399023
The British Government insisted yesterday it would find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq amid growing demands for an inquiry into claims that it misled people to justify an invasion.
When the Commons returns from its Easter break a week today, Labour MPs will demand an investigation by the Commons Intelligence and Security Committee into the intelligence given to the Government on Saddam Hussein's weapons programmes.
Tony Blair is under growing pressure on the issue because many Labour MPs who voted to support military action did so after assurances from ministers that there was cast-iron evidence that Iraq possessed the weapons.
Jeremy Corbyn, a left-wing MP who opposed the war, accused the United States and British governments of deception. "We were told it was a war about weapons of mass destruction but they have not been found," he said.
The Government will seek to block an inquiry, arguing that Britain and America should be given more time to track down chemical and biological weapons in Iraq.
One British official said: "We are 100 per cent confident that that the weapons are there and that in time we will be led to them. You only have to look at the issue of arms dumps in Northern Ireland. You need the active co-operation of people actively involved; you are unlikely to just chance upon the weapons."
Lewis Moonie, a Defence Minister, said he was "surprised" that Labour MPs were suggesting they or the Government had been duped by the security services. He insisted it was "far too early" to consider a parliamentary investigation into the intelligence on weapons of mass destruction.
Mr Moonie said there were "potentially thousands of sites in which these weapons could have been hidden", adding: "Saddam was a master of dissembling. It will take a great deal of time to uncover and don't forget we have only been in Iraq now for four weeks. I have no doubt whatsoever we will find them."
Alan Duncan, a Tory foreign affairs spokesman, said calls for an investigation were premature but added: "The people who are calling for such an inquiry do have a point, which is that the international community will not trust America, and potentially us, in future opinions if the reason given for the war doesn't turn out to have been valid."
The Government also faces pressure to allow the United Nations weapons inspectors to return to Iraq to verify any weapons found. The US wants an American and British task force to organise the searches, but some MPs are worried that evidence could be rigged to suit Western aims.
Robin Cook, who resigned from the Cabinet over the Iraq war, said at the weekend: "The war was justified on the fear that there may be weapons of mass destruction. I think it is crucial that the UN inspectors are brought in to validate any discovery that is made in Iraq, so that we have an independent, objective assessment."
Mr Blair will discuss Iraq and the Middle East peace process with Jose Maria Aznar, the Spanish Prime Minister, in London on Wednesday. He has invited Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, to Downing Street but no date has been fixed.
-------- business
Federal Contracts
States News Service
Monday, April 21, 2003
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A58491-2003Apr19?language=printer
Bell-Boeing Joint Program Office of Patuxent River, Md., won a $49.62 million contract modification from the Navy for the TMCR 91-91 Interactive Electronic Technical Manual and paper technical manuals for the MV-22 and CV-22 Engineering and Manufacturing Development Programs.
Information Management Services Inc. of Silver Spring, won a $43.47 million contract from the Health and Human Services Department for biomedical computing support for the Division of Epidemiology and Genetics.
D.M Saunders and Associates of Bowie won a share of a contract valued at up to $40 million from the Housing and Urban Development Department for program and policy support technical assistance.
Econometrica Inc. of Bethesda won a share of a contract valued at up to $40 million from the Housing and Urban Development Department for program and policy support technical assistance.
First Pic Inc. of Crofton won a share of a contract valued at up to $40 million from the Housing and Urban Development Department for program and policy support technical assistance.
North American Management of Alexandria won a share of a contract valued at up to $40 million from the Housing and Urban Development Department for program and policy support technical assistance.
QED Group LLC of Bethesda won a share of a contract valued at $40 million from the Housing and Urban Development Department for program and policy support technical assistance.
Windwalker Corp. of McLean won a share of a contract valued at up to $40 million from the Housing and Urban Development Department for program and policy support technical assistance.
EGandG Technical Services Inc. of Gaithersburg won a $20.94 million contract from NASA for logistics services.
Lockheed Martin's Naval Electronics and Surveillance Systems-Marine Systems of Baltimore won a $13.81 million contract modification from the Navy for technical and engineering services in support of the MK 41 VLS Program.
Northrop Grumman's Space and Mission Systems Division of Reston won a $10 million contract from the Defense Department for an assessment of kinetic energy interceptor capabilities.
Aero International Inc. of Sterling won an $8.7 million contract from the Defense Supply Center to provide complete supply chain management of automotive parts for all military services.
AAI Corp. of Hunt Valley won a $4.69 million contract from the Navy for performance based logistics and maintenance services for the JSECTS.
Science Applications International Corp. of Falls Church won a $4.07 million contract from the Health and Human Services Department for the A-DAIDS Enterprise System development.
Information Experts of Herndon won a contract valued at up to $2.5 million from the General Services Administration for management, organizational and business improvement services.
Northrop Grumman Systems Corp. of Linthicum Heights won an $809,680 contract from the Defense Department for communications, detection and coherent radiation equipment.
King Construction Inc. of Baltimore won an $802,345 contract from the Interior Department for the a renovation and addition project for a visitors center.
Lockheed Martin Mission System of Gaithersburg won a $750,000 contract from the Army for TCS integration into WIN-T.
Insituform East Inc. of Landover won a $644,621 contract from NASA for the repair of a storm drainage system.
Acquisition Solutions Inc. of Chantilly won a contract worth up to $550,000 from the General Services Administration for management, organizational and business improvement services.
Fluor Intercontinental of Arlington won a $500,000 delivery order as part of a $100 million contract from the Army for road and bridge services.
Pulse Medical Instruments Inc. of Rockville won a $461,474 contract from the Army for the development of a mobile, miniaturized, field-deployable pupilometer to assess fitness for duty.
Neal R. Gross and Co. of Washington won a $370,000 contract from the General Services Administration for temporary administrative and professional staffing services.
Litton Systems' Poly-Scientific Division of Blacksburg, Va., won a $280,080 contract from the Defense Supply Center for electrical fluid pressure connector assemblies.
Fabriteck Co. of Winchester won a $249,504 contract from the Defense Supply Center for rack storage.
Lockheed Martin Mission System of Gaithersburg won a $233,330 contract from the Army for TCS integration into WIN-T.
Mid-Atlantic Engineered Systems Inc. of Virginia Beach won a $231,000 contract from the Navy for seal kits.
JGW International Ltd. of Fairfax, operating as JGW Group, won a $212,800 contract from the Air Force for ADACASIM chemical training simulators.
Amyx Defense Logistics Inc. of Alexandria won a $180,000 contract from the Defense Logistics Agency for program management and technical support services.
C.R. Daniels Inc. of Ellicott City won a $165,546 contract from the Defense General Supply Center for aircraft seats.
Lockheed Martin's Naval Electronics and Surveillance Systems Division of Manassas won a $150,000 contract from the Navy for SnifferStar/Unmanned Aerial Vehicle integration and test proposal.
Dynanet Corp. of Columbia won a $132,000 contract from the Agriculture Department for telecommunications networking services.
Corporate Identity of Herndon won a $125,000 contract from the General Services Administration for swimming pool equipment and supplies; musical instruments; theatrical equipment and supplies; toys; sports clothing and accessories; park and outdoor recreational equipment.
DWA Security Services Inc. of Silver Spring won a $125,000 contract from the General Services Administration for alarm and signal systems, facility management systems, professional security and guard services.
Eagle Technologies Inc. of Lanham won a $125,000 contract from the General Services Administration for alarm and signal systems.
Holiday International Security of Silver Spring won a $125,000 contract from the General Services Administration for alarm and signal systems, facility management systems, professional security and guard services.
Potomac Vacuums and Appliances of Sterling won a $125,000 contract from the General Services Administration for cleaning equipment, accessories, janitorial supplies, cleaning chemicals and sorbents.
National Institute of Building Sciences of Washington won a $101,187 contract from the Department of the Treasury for an indoor environmental quality project.
Comptech Corp. of Rockville won a $99,450 contract from the Defense Supply Center for power sensors.
Sensytech Inc. of Newington won a $93,933 contract from the Navy for electronic components.
Kollmorgen's Inland Motor Division of Radford won an $89,250 contract from the Defense General Supply Center for control motors.
C.R. Daniels Inc. of Daniels won an $88,603 contract from the Defense Personnel Support Center for nylon, poleless, nonrigid litters.
Jo-Kell Inc. of Chesapeake, Va., won an $85,860 contract from the Defense Supply Center for tuning shunts.
Technical Products Group Inc. of Marion, Va., operating as Marion Composites Division, won an $82,626 contract from the Defense Industrial Supply Center for dust and moisture boots.
Wrightwood Properties of Arlington won a $75,000 contract from Housing and Urban Development Department for front-end risk assessment for the Capital Fund Program.
London Bridge Trading Co. of Virginia Beach won a $72,643 contract from the Defense Personnel Support Center for nylon cordura medical backpacks.
Cenna International Corp. of Waldorf won a $72,450 contract from the Defense General Supply Center for magnetic contactors.
FDGM Inc. of Chesapeake, Va., won a $70,934 contract from the Defense Supply Center for rotary pumps.
Phoenix Industries Inc. of Richmond won a $70,403 contract from the Defense General Supply Center for polyelectrolyte.
Litton Systems' Poly-Scientific Division of Blacksburg, Va., won a $68,640 contract from the Defense Supply Center for receiver synchros.
Dela Technology Corp. of Rockville won a $62,846 contract from the Defense Supply Center for digital display indicators.
Holmes Brothers Enterprises of Portsmouth, Va., won a $61,580 contract from the Coast Guard for dockside repairs to the USCGC Blackberry (WLI-65303) at Caswell Beach, N.C.
National Information Technology Consulting Inc. of Jessup, won a $59,107 contract from the Defense Supply Center for fuel nozzle assemblies.
Mail-Well Graphics of Cambridge, Md., won a $56,478 contract from the Government Printing Office for printing the Natural Inquirer, Vol. 4, No. 1.
Ibide International Corp. of Woodstock, Va., won a $55,709 contract from the Navy for magnetic field probes.
Benny F. Hall and Sons of Hallwood, Va., won a $52,500 contract from the Department of the Interior for the delivery of clamshells.
Industrial Sales Co. of Baltimore, operating as Indusco, won a $50,107 contract from the Defense Supply Center for winch cable assemblies.
The contracts listed were awarded by the federal government to companies and other vendors in Virginia, Maryland and the District. For more information, contact states2001@aol.com, or 202-628-3100, ext. 266
--------
IBM in Deal to Connect Gen Dynamics to Suppliers
April 21, 2003
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/technology/tech-tech-ibm-generaldynamics.html
NEW YORK (Reuters) - International Business Machines Corp.(IBM.N) said on Monday it signed a contract with General Dynamics Corp.'s(GD.N) Electric Boat unit for technology to connect it to its suppliers over the Internet and cut the time it takes to make submarines.
General Dynamics -- Electric Boat, which builds nuclear submarines for the U.S. Navy, has been running a pilot of the program with 52 suppliers for the past year, according to its spokesman Neil Ruenzel. Advertisement
In the pilot, it cut the days it takes to process an order with its suppliers to 10 days from 30, he said. The company will start the deal with IBM with about 100 suppliers and end 2003 with about 150 suppliers hooked into the system, covering a majority of its vendor information requests.
IBM has been working on the technology with a consortium of U.S. shipbuilding firms, called the National Shipbuilding Research Program, to increase U.S. shipbuilding efficiency. It aims to sell the combination of software, hardware and services to other shipbuilders.
Electric Boat will pay a monthly usage fee for the service based on the number of users, suppliers and other factors, IBM said in a statement. It is part of IBM's emphasis on on-demand computing, which allows customers to pay only for they use.
-------- chemical weapons
U.S. finds suspicious chemicals in Iraq
By DAFNA LINZER
Associated Press
Mon, Apr. 21, 2003
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/5685060.htm
U.S. weapons experts in Iraq have discovered ingredients and equipment that can be used to make a chemical weapon, U.S. military officials confirmed Monday.
The discovery south of Baghdad was made several days ago with the help of an Iraqi scientist who claimed to have worked in Saddam Hussein's chemical weapons program.
The military officials, involved in the weapons hunt and based at Camp Doha in Kuwait, refused to name the scientist or identify the material that had been buried in the ground. Many chemical weapons ingredients have nonmilitary purposes and officials cautioned that the findings, which are being analyzed, do not confirm the presence of chemical weapons at that site.
Officials also raised suspicions about some of the scientist's claims that couldn't be immediately verified.
According to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the scientist said Iraq destroyed and buried chemical weapons and biological warfare equipment days before the war began March 20.
A senior defense official in Washington said the Pentagon was "highly skeptical" of information the scientist provided alleging that Iraq recently began cooperating with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network.
The Bush administration has claimed that Saddam's regime had ties with al-Qaida but they've provided little conclusive evidence.
So far, no new discoveries have been made in Iraq that link Saddam to al-Qaida, the defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
In Washington, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld declined to confirm the discovery, which was first reported in Monday's edition of The New York Times.
He said inspections were continuing in a search for evidence of weapons of mass destruction and that the government would "obviously look with favor on" Iraqis who provide information on hidden materials.
Rumsfeld said last week that U.S. troops would need to rely on the help of Iraqis to find the weaponry. The Pentagon is offering rewards of up to $200,000 for information on the whereabouts of Iraqi leaders and any hidden weapons.
Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix cautioned the Americans to treat information with skepticism, noting that some Iraqis may be motivated to claim more than they know.
"They have to examine everything critically," Blix told The Associated Press on Monday.
Blix's inspectors, working in Iraq between November until mid-March, didn't find any evidence that Iraq had weapons it claimed to have destroyed years ago.
But the Bush administration was unconvinced and has said one of the main reasons for the war was to disarm the country of the chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs it believes Saddam was concealing.
So far, U.S. teams haven't found any conclusive evidence of the kind of weapons Iraq was banned from having after the 1991 Gulf War. Tests are still being conducted, however, and officials have said it was possible the Iraqis may have moved materials out of the country before the war.
The scientist told military officials that several months before the war, he watched as Iraqi officials buried chemical precursors for weapons and other sensitive material to conceal and protect them for future use. He said stockpiles of deadly agents and weapons technology had been transferred to Syria in the mid-1990s.
Four days before President Bush gave Saddam an ultimatum in March, Iraqi officials set fire to a warehouse where biological weapons research was conducted, the scientist said.
The scientist reportedly gave a note to the Army's 101st Airborne Division. The note was then passed to the inspection team, which found the scientist at his home.
A handful of U.S. search teams are in Iraq now, each with about a dozen members from various government agencies including the CIA, Pentagon, FBI and the Defense Intelligence Agency.
The teams have visited some 50 sites, including those selected before the war and some discovered as Army and Marine units pushed through the country during fighting, officials said.
-------- iran
Iranian exiles in Iraq hit hard
By Borzou Daragahi
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
April 21, 2003
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20030421-98852870.htm
CAMP ASHRAF, Iraq - The forces of the Mujahideen Khalq have been reduced to disarray by a U.S. bombing campaign against the Iraq-based Iranian opposition group, which has close ties to many members of the U.S. Congress.
Charred military trucks, exploded tanks and crushed artillery pieces give mute testimony to the effectiveness of the American attack on the group, which shares U.S. opposition to the clerical regime in Tehran but has been on the U.S. list of terrorist groups since 1997.
U.S. Central Command spokesman Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks confirmed last week that U.S. forces had targeted the group, also known as the People's Mujahideen, and predicted an early surrender by its forces, which he said had been operating under the direction of Saddam Hussein's regime.
But those who remained at this camp in eastern Iraq over the weekend downplayed the most recent U.S. attacks - which killed at least seven and wounded dozens here - and said they are far more worried about Iranian and Iranian-backed forces, who they claim have been crossing into Iraq to attack them.
"We are at the center of misery, devastation and crisis," said spokesman Hossein Madani. "Despite that fact, our morale is excellent. Hundreds of new people are coming. Volunteers are coming from Europe and America."
The Mujahideen Khalq occupies a unique place in Washington politics, having enjoyed repeated expressions of public support from more than 150 members of Congress despite being listed as terrorists by the State Department.
Supporters say the group was placed on the terrorist list by the Clinton administration to encourage what the U.S. then considered a reform-minded administration in Tehran led by President Mohammed Khatami.
But the years of lobbying U.S. officials and staging demonstrations in American cities did not spare the group from American bombs, which blew up 15 to 20 tanks, numerous vehicles and pieces of artillery, and a barracks in the center of Camp Ashraf over several days of bombing that ended about six days ago, Mujahideen officials said.
U.S. military officials have said the group numbers several thousand fighters stationed in and around three bases in east-central Iraq. But the group has claimed 15,000 fighters spread out across a dozen bases near the Iranian border.
Neighbors and officials say the Mujahideen members keep mostly to themselves. "They don't talk with anyone else, and they don't associate with anyone else," said Hamed Kadam, an Arab shepherd from the nearby village of Behayra.
Critics and some former members of the group say it is a sect that separates couples and families and is led by a charismatic woman named Maryam Rajavi, second wife of the group's longtime leader Massoud Rajavi.
"Maryam Rajavi is our ideological teacher," said 22-year-old member Asefeh Behzadi, who grew up in Sweden. "She's the pure and holy Mary. She is everything we have. She represents the future of Iranian women. She's our only hope."
During an overnight stay at the Mujahideen's Camp Ashraf headquarters, commanders granted a reporter limited access to the group's soldiers, who were preparing to defend themselves against an expected attack from Iran.
A dozen rusty tanks guarded the 14-square-mile camp, which lies on a flat and sun-backed expanse swarmed nightly by mosquitoes and frantically barking dogs. Surrounded by barbed wire and gun towers, the camp included two hospitals totaling 100 beds, a supermarket, a park, grazing sheep and gardens.
About 40 miles from the Iranian border and 65 miles north of Baghdad, the camp is surrounded by a 450-square-mile no-man's land dotted by Mujahideen checkpoints and outposts.
Many of the members are former professionals in their 40s speaking fluent English.
"I had a very good life in Canada and the U.S.," said Massoud Farshchi, 40, who studied at the University of California at Los Angeles and Montreal's McGill University. "This is something that people have chosen as a way of life. It becomes your identity after a while."
Thirty percent of the militia are women, many of them Iranians in their late teens or early 20s who grew up in the West and whose parents were either Mujahideen warriors or sympathizers.
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Iran Won't Back U.S. - Installed Iraq Gov't
April 21, 2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iraq-Iran.html
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) -- Iran said Monday it will not support a U.S.-installed government in Iraq.
It also said some Iraqi opposition groups will not accept an American-led administration but could support one set up ``under United Nations auspices.''
``I believe the government led by Americans in Iraq will not be acceptable (to Iran),'' Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi told Dubai-based Al Arabiya satellite television. ``This is a matter that will not be accepted by the Iraqis.''
In the interview monitored in Lebanon, Kharrazi also called for Iran and Iraq to work together now that Saddam Hussein's regime had collapsed.
``The Iraqis and Iranians were the victims of Saddam,'' Kharrazi said, apparently referring to the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran war that killed more than 1 million people.
He also called the U.S.-led military presence in Iraq an occupation because coalition forces launched the war without U.N. approval.
Iran has not had diplomatic relations with the United States since students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979.
On whether Iran is planning to restore diplomatic ties, Kharrazi said: ``So far no, because the United States is not ready for the kind of relations based on mutual respect among countries.''
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has repeatedly rejected any talk about restoring U.S. ties.
Kharrazi also said recent American threats against Syria for allegedly harboring members of the ousted Iraqi regime were ``not acceptable'' and said the issue should be resolved through diplomacy.
The U.S.-Syrian tensions have calmed in recent days, with the Bush administration praising Syria's decision to bar Iraqis from entering the country.
Secretary of State Colin Powell is planning to visit Syria in early May with an offer to participate in Mideast peace talks.
Iran is listed by the U.S. State Department as supporting terrorism. President Bush declared it part of the ``axis of evil'' along with Iraq and North Korea.
-------- iraq
Illicit Arms Kept Till Eve of War, an Iraqi Scientist Is Said to Assert
By JUDITH MILLER
April 21, 2003
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/21/international/worldspecial/21CHEM.html
WITH THE 101ST AIRBORNE DIVISION, south of Baghdad, Iraq, April 20 - A scientist who claims to have worked in Iraq's chemical weapons program for more than a decade has told an American military team that Iraq destroyed chemical weapons and biological warfare equipment only days before the war began, members of the team said.
They said the scientist led Americans to a supply of material that proved to be the building blocks of illegal weapons, which he claimed to have buried as evidence of Iraq's illicit weapons programs.
The scientist also told American weapons experts that Iraq had secretly sent unconventional weapons and technology to Syria, starting in the mid-1990's, and that more recently Iraq was cooperating with Al Qaeda, the military officials said.
The Americans said the scientist told them that President Saddam Hussein's government had destroyed some stockpiles of deadly agents as early as the mid-1990's, transferred others to Syria, and had recently focused its efforts instead on research and development projects that are virtually impervious to detection by international inspectors, and even American forces on the ground combing through Iraq's giant weapons plants.
An American military team hunting for unconventional weapons in Iraq, the Mobile Exploitation Team Alpha, or MET Alpha, which found the scientist, declined to identify him, saying they feared he might be subject to reprisals. But they said that they considered him credible and that the material unearthed over the last three days at sites to which he led them had proved to be precursors for a toxic agent that is banned by chemical weapons treaties.
The officials' account of the scientist's assertions and the discovery of the buried material, which they described as the most important discovery to date in the hunt for illegal weapons, supports the Bush administration's charges that Iraq continued to develop those weapons and lied to the United Nations about it. Finding and destroying illegal weapons was a major justification for the war.
The officials' accounts also provided an explanation for why United States forces had not yet turned up banned weapons in Iraq. The failure to find such weapons has become a political issue in Washington.
Under the terms of her accreditation to report on the activities of MET Alpha, this reporter was not permitted to interview the scientist or visit his home. Nor was she permitted to write about the discovery of the scientist for three days, and the copy was then submitted for a check by military officials.
Those officials asked that details of what chemicals were uncovered be deleted. They said they feared that such information could jeopardize the scientist's safety by identifying the part of the weapons program where he worked.
The MET Alpha team said it reported its findings to Washington after testing the buried material and checking the scientist's identity with experts in the United States. A report was sent to the White House on Friday, experts said.
Military spokesmen at the Pentagon and at Central Command headquarters in Doha, Qatar, said they could not confirm that an Iraqi chemical weapons scientist was providing American forces with new information.
The scientist was found by a team headed by Chief Warrant Officer Richard L. Gonzales, the leader of MET Alpha, one of several teams charged with hunting for unconventional weapons throughout Iraq. Departing from his team's assigned mission, Mr. Gonzales and his team of specialists from the Defense Intelligence Agency tracked down the scientist on Thursday through a series of interviews and increasingly frantic site visits.
While this reporter could not interview the scientist, she was permitted to see him from a distance at the sites where he said that material from the arms program was buried.
Clad in nondescript clothes and a baseball cap, he pointed to several spots in the sand where he said chemical precursors and other weapons material were buried. This reporter also accompanied MET Alpha on the search for him and was permitted to examine a letter written in Arabic that he slipped to American soldiers offering them information about the program and seeking their protection.
Military officials said the scientist told them that four days before President Bush gave Mr. Hussein 48 hours to leave Iraq or face war, Iraqi officials set fire to a warehouse where biological weapons research and development was conducted.
The officials quoted him as saying he had watched several months before the outbreak of the war as Iraqis buried chemical precursors and other sensitive material to conceal and preserve them for future use. The officials said the scientist showed them documents, samples, and other evidence of the program that he claimed to have stolen to prove that the program existed.
MET Alpha is one of several teams created earlier this year to hunt for unconventional weapons in Iraq. Supported by the 75th Exploitation Task Force, a field artillery brigade based in Fort Sill, Okla., the teams were charged with visiting some 150 top sites that intelligence agencies have identified as suspect.
But the Pentagon-led teams, which include specialists from several Pentagon agencies, have been hampered by a lack of resources and by geography.
Because the task force has two expensive, highly sophisticated, transportable labs in which chemical and germ samples can be analyzed quickly, it was kept at a safe distance from fighting at a desert camp in Kuwait, just across the Iraqi border.
Unable to move their task force closer to Baghdad, where most of the suspect sites and scientists who worked in them are situated, the mobile exploitation teams have had to rely on scarce helicopters to travel to suspect sites in the Baghdad area. Until recently, these were reserved mainly for soldiers going to battle. As a result, most of the teams had done almost no weapons hunting until the fighting had largely concluded.
Two weeks ago, MET Alpha was finally given a mission of inspecting barrels filled with chemicals that were buried on the outskirts of Al Muhawish, a small town south of Baghdad. A small team with little equipment and virtually no supplies traveled to the town for what was supposed to be a half-day survey. The barrels turned out to contain no chemical weapons agents.
But during the survey of that site, Maj. Brian Lynch, the chemical officer of the 101st Airborne Division, told MET Alpha members about a report of suspect containers buried in the area that fit the description of mobile labs.
Other officers mentioned that a man who said he was an Iraqi scientist had given troops a note about Iraq's chemical warfare program. No one had yet followed up the report, they said, because of the fighting and also because similar tips had failed to produce evidence of unconventional weapons.
The team, with vehicles and supplies from the 101st Airborne Division, went out on its own to survey other sites and pursue the tip about the buried containers and the scientist. After completing a lengthy survey of one installation, Mr. Gonzales and other team members from the Defense Intelligence Agency's Chemical Biological Intelligence Support Team decided to try to find the scientist.
Mr. Gonzales tracked down the scientist's note, which had never been formally analyzed and was still in a brigade headquarters, along with the scientist's address, military officials said.
The next morning, MET Alpha weapons experts found the scientist at home, along with some documents from the program and samples he had buried in his backyard and at other sites.
The scientist has told MET Alpha members that because Iraq's unconventional weapons programs were highly compartmented, he only had firsthand information about the chemical weapons sector in which he worked, team members said.
But he has given the Americans information about other unconventional weapons activities, they said, as well as information about Iraqi weapons cooperation with Syria, and with terrorist groups, including Al Qaeda. It was not clear how the scientist knew of such a connection.
The potential of MET Alpha's work is "enormous," said Maj. Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the 101st Airborne Division.
"What they've discovered," he added, "could prove to be of incalculable value. Though much work must still be done to validate the information MET Alpha has uncovered, if it proves out it will clearly be one of the major discoveries of this operation, and it may be the major discovery."
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US struggles with new rules as war turns to occupation
Under international law, an occupied nation's laws take priority, but the US doesn't understand all local codes.
By Seth Stern
The Christian Science Monitor
April 21, 2003
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0421/p02s01-woiq.html
Exiled Iraqi lawyers say the US government failed to adopt - or even translate from Arabic - suggestions they provided in advance on how to prevent the kind of civil disorder, including looting and revenge killings, that has marred postwar Iraq.
Weeks before the unrest erupted, the exiles proposed imposing martial law for 24 hours. The Pentagon also shelved a recommendation to recruit and vet Iraqi traffic police and security officers, who American soldiers did eventually turn to - but without checking their backgrounds.
These are just two examples, lawyers familiar with the process say, of how inadequate preparation by US officials hampered efforts to reestablish law and order in Iraq. While the war itself may have been meticulous - planned over many months to achieve its objectives with speed and flexibility - US preparation for the next phase appears to have been less thorough.
As the process of occupation begins, US officials are struggling to cope with new legal and administrative rules that take effect when hostilities turn to governance. For instance, coalition forces are supposed to begin applying local laws, but they don't understand what they all mean.
"Some 18-year-old marines are arresting people suspected of looting. But what do they do with them?" says one international lawyer who has been involved with the US in postwar planning. "They don't have a clue on what procedure to apply."
To be sure, US officials were caught off guard by the rapid fall of the Hussein regime. But outside analysts say that infighting between the State and Defense departments hasn't helped with transition issues. Laws of occupation
In general, the duties of both civilians and soldiers change once the military phase of a war is over. The 1949 Geneva Conventions specify that the laws of the occupied country take precedence over those of the conquering nation, unless doing so imperils the security of the troops. Only a new, legitimate Iraqi government could change laws related to marriage or owning property, for example, but Hussein's most egregious decrees, such as legalizing torture, could be stripped away.
Yet even here, the correct approach isn't always clear cut. What do you do, for instance, if one part of a country is still at war and another isn't? Further complicating matters, the law of occupation has gone essentially unused since its adoption half a century ago, says Claude Bruderlein, director of Harvard University's Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Resolution. "There aren't so many precedents" he says. It remains unclear, for instance, how the US should handle political dissent.
The Defense Department's Office of General Counsel, for its part, says the decision about when occupation law applies "is a factual issue that will vary throughout Iraq based upon conditions." It also says US military lawyers in Iraq are, in fact, familiar with local laws.
But those laws represent a complex amalgamation of French codes and Muslim sharia law, and international lawyers say the US did little in advance to master legal details. "They don't know what's in there. They have no idea," says one senior international diplomat who has been involved with previous nation-building efforts.
Delays in reasserting the rule of law can put the US in a precarious position. Experience in other countries suggests people under occupation may become disillusioned with their new overseers, taking matters into their own hands.
Part of the problem is that the US is a victim of its own military success. US officials thought they'd have far more time to prepare. Once fighting ceased, the Defense Department's Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA) anticipated a period of relative calm, during which it would dispatch a 25-member team to assess the legal and police system before designing new alternatives, says one attorney familiar with the agency's plans.
Instead, civil unrest broke out as Hussein's regime collapsed. For now, US soldiers and Iraqi police officers are relying on "common sense" to fill the legal vacuum, says the diplomat. Different court scenarios
The Pentagon did have at least one element of its plan in place: how to prosecute anyone involved in biological-or-chemical-weapons attacks. According to a lawyer who participated in the process, the National Security Council readied two plans: one to set up a UN-sanctioned international court; the other, the Pentagon's preference, would use military tribunals.
Still, while US officials have a developed plan to deal with users of weapons of mass destruction, insiders say the administration is less definitive on how it will handle more general war criminals.
Under one three-tiered plan, high ranking Baath Party and military officials charged with crimes against humanity, genocide, and torture would be tried by a special Iraqi court. Lower-level offenders would tried before Iraqi criminal courts. A separate forgiveness and reconciliation commission would handle lesser crimes.
The plan, fashioned largely by exiled Iraqi lawyers, is being considered at the upper echelons of the State and Defense departments and the National Security Council. But it has yet to be approved. "There is a bit of ambivalence about moving ahead with it," says one lawyer. "There's a fear that if they have an independent structure for the judiciary, it would interfere with political plans."
Iraqi exiles say competition between the State and Defense departments has hampered their contributions. "The Pentagon is going off on its own and is not recognizing all this work that has been done," says Sermid al-Sarraf, a Los Angeles lawyer and member of the exile working group.
But others see unrealistic expectations as much as politics involved. M. Cherif Bassiouni, a DePaul University law professor who is advising the State Department, says its members may have overestimated the role they'd play in helping rebuild Iraq. "The Iraqi expatriates had expectations that this wasn't really a training seminar, but that these people were being selected or tapped to be involved in the future administration of Iraq," he says.
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Islamic pilgrimage to test U.S. military
By Denis D. Gray
Associated Press
Saturday, April 19, 2003
http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200%7E20954%7E1338076,00.html
NAJAF, Iraq -- Chanting prayers and carrying black flags, Shiite pilgrims walked the roads of central Iraq on Saturday toward one of their holiest shrines for a religious gathering that could present a major test for U.S. forces.
Up to 2 million Shiites from Iraq, Iran and other countries are expected to converge on the city of Karbala -- site of the 7th-century martyrdom of Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad and one of the sect's most revered saints.
The annual pilgrimage culminates Thursday. Thousands set off from Baghdad on Saturday, marching under black banners of mourning for Hussein.
"In the days of Saddam, if anyone did this march, he was killed," said Hussein Saman, 48, imprisoned for 11 years by Saddam Hussein's regime for openly practicing Shiite rituals. "The least penalty was prison, for life."
The march comes as Shiites are flexing newfound strength since the fall of Saddam, whose mostly Sunni Muslim government severely repressed Iraq's Shiite majority. Shiites have been setting up local administrations to re-establish order, and religious leaders have emerged as key sources of political power.
At least one leading Shiite figure has called for the Karbala gathering to be used as a protest against U.S. domination of Iraq.
U.S. troops are hoping to avoid any eruptions of anti-American feelings, so they are keeping a low profile -- even as they stockpile emergency food and water for the pilgrims and work out security measures for the march.
"We don't want to interfere with the pilgrimage. We want it to proceed as normally as possible. But we are prepared for the worst," said Maj. James M. Bozeman, a civil affairs officer with the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division.
The worst, it seems, would be U.S. troops firing on pilgrims to restore order, thereby giving credence to hardline clerics who say their country is being occupied by a hostile, "infidel" power. The ideal, from the American viewpoint, would be a trouble-free religious festival, with Shiites nationwide giving credit to transitional authorities in Iraq.
Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, issued a statement Friday rejecting "any foreign rule in Iraq."
Al-Sistani, however, disavowed any political ambitions, saying he "by no means whatsoever is looking to establish (himself) as a political authority in Iraq." He said he would "not interfere in the type of government the Iraqi people wish to choose."
The grand ayatollah is based in the southern holy city of An Najaf. His rulings are followed by clerics and faithful throughout the country.
But rifts also have erupted among the Shiites since Saddam's fall. Abdul Majid al-Khoei, a cleric who, in exile, had opposed Saddam's rule, was hacked to death April 10 in An Najaf along with a pro-Saddam cleric with whom he appeared as a gesture of reconciliation. Last week, a mob reportedly led by a rival cleric surrounded al-Sistani's house in An Najaf demanding he leave Iraq.
Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, head of the Iran-based opposition group Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution of Iraq, has called on the Karbala march to be turned into an anti-U.S. demonstration.
However, Maj. Jason Chung, an intelligence officer with the 82nd, insisted participants in the trek to Karbala do not see it as a protest against the Americans.
"What we're getting is that it's really a demonstration of their liberation, that they have religious freedom now," he said Saturday. "It's important for them that it's a Shiite-run, Shiite-organized event."
The fallen regime permitted the annual pilgrimages, but it prohibited movement on foot and monitored the participants as well as centers of Shiite rebellion in the cities of An Najaf and Karbala.
American units like the 82nd are keeping their distance as hundreds of the faithful take to the roads, chanting prayers and carrying black, red-and-green banners emblazoned with Quranic verses. The main, 45-mile pilgrimage route runs from An Najaf to Karbala.
Up to 2 million pilgrims are expected to reach Karbala, most of them arriving on foot and in vehicles during the last three days of the pilgrimage.
The gathering marks 40 days, or al-Arbe'ein, after the date on which the Prophet Muhammad's grandson is believed to have been killed in Karbala. Ashoura, which marks the day Hussein was killed, fell this year on March 12 under the lunar Islamic calendar.
Bozeman said the U.S. military had stockpiled 2,000 humanitarian rations at hospitals in An Najaf and the same number in Karbala, with 96,000 more individual daily meal packages prepared for emergency backup. The food as well as water and medicines will be handed out by Iraqi authorities, not U.S. troops, he said.
The U.S. military says Shiite clerics have made it clear they don't want Americans involved in the religious activities. In An Najaf, religious leaders have worked out an agreement with the American military to keep U.S. troops at least 500 yards away from the burial shrine of Hussein's father, Imam Ali, son-in-law of Islam's Prophet Muhammad and regarded by Shiites as his successor.
A cleric appeared at the gate of the 82nd Division headquarters last week to protest after a cross, erected for Christian Easter services, protruded above the compound wall. The cross was taken down.
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Kurds Return to Northern Iraqi City, Evicting Arabs
Hundreds Being Ousted as Displaced Group Reclaims Land Taken Over 30 Years
By Mary Beth Sheridan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, April 21, 2003; Page A15
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A64190-2003Apr20?language=printer
KIRKUK, Iraq, April 20 -- It's been a decade since Abd Ali Hamid moved to this northern Iraqi city, eager to start a new life. The Iraqi government had promised him a plot of land in Kirkuk and a loan the equivalent of $20,000, an irresistible offer for a poor Arab fisherman from the south. Hamid built a roomy, two-story home with mint-green walls and black-speckled tile floors.
But with the fall of President Saddam Hussein's government, Hamid suddenly is homeless. The fisherman left Kirkuk during the recent U.S. bombardment. When he returned a few days ago, he found his home taken over by Kurds. Now, Hamid's family of 11 is crowded in with relatives across town, worried that they and other Arabs will be pushed from this city.
"Our children are in school here. All our relatives and colleagues are living here. We don't have people in the south anymore," protested Hamid, 60, a tall man with charcoal eyes wearing a black-and-white checkered headdress and flowing gray robe.
Added his wife, Jundiya: "If it stays like this, the results could be very bad. All the Arabs will be kicked out."
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Iraqi Arabs are being ousted from their homes in and around this ethnically mixed city as Kurds retaliate for decades of repression by Hussein's government. The newly emboldened Kurds deny this is "ethnic cleansing;" they say they are merely reclaiming lands seized from them in the past 30 years. The property was often given to Arabs whom the government resettled here to blunt Kurdish influence.
But the evictions are creating a new group of homeless, Iraqis who in some cases have lived in this area for decades. And the problem could escalate as thousands of displaced Kurds return from refugee camps in the north.
Both the new homeless and human-rights groups are calling on U.S. troops in charge of the city to stop the forced removals. Soldiers from the Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade moved into an Arab neighborhood in the southeastern part of the city in recent days to guard against evictions. But their commander says they are stretched too thin and got started too late to prevent many of the seizures.
"Our biggest fear is that these kinds of incidents are going to raise the temperature significantly in the city," said Hania Mufti, London director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch, who visited Kirkuk last week. "This may, in turn, lead to inter-ethnic violence."
The Kurds are an ethnic and linguistic group that inhabits the mostly mountainous area where the borders of Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria converge. They number at least 25 million and had been promised their own country after World War I.
Kurds have claimed to be a majority in this key oil city and its surrounding countryside, but Kirkuk also has significant numbers of Arabs, Assyrians and Turkmen. Hussein tried to tilt the balance by expelling the rebellious Kurds and resettling Arabs from the south. Now, the militia-backed Kurdish parties are saying the Arabs should go home, though not through force.
That message, however, hasn't trickled down. Human Rights Watch estimates 2,000 Arabs were forced to leave four villages south of Kirkuk after the area was seized April 10 by Kurdish militia fighters working with the U.S. military. Now, some Kurds are starting evictions inside this city of 1 million, according to Arab witnesses. Hamid said he, his brother and his cousin have all had to leave their homes in the Shorja neighborhood in eastern Kirkuk on the orders of Kurdish neighbors, some of them armed. "They accuse us, 'You belong to Saddam's regime. You have to leave,' " he said, clicking his black plastic worry beads as he sat cross-legged on the floor of his relative's house.
Hamid's journey has been difficult. He belongs to the country's Shiite Muslim majority, which was also repressed under Hussein's government. He lost his livelihood in his native Maisan province, near Basra, when authorities drained the area's lakes and marshes to deny Shiite rebels a hiding place.
The government offered him a chance to start over, he said, with an empty plot of land on the outskirts of Kirkuk and the loan. Forty families from Hamid's tribe accompanied him, getting similar benefits. "I sold my wife's gold jewelry, and some furniture" to finish the home, said Hamid. He showed a visitor an official document printed in Arabic. "Look, I have an ownership certificate," he said.
But Hamid arrived in Kirkuk as part of a brutal effort to redraw the city's ethnic map. The government banned non-Arabs from purchasing property, prohibited businesses from using non-Arab names and even ordered the script on tombstones replaced with Arabic. Since 1991, according to Human Rights Watch, 120,000 people, mostly Kurds, were driven from their homes in Kirkuk and the surrounding area.
Among them was Nasrin Jafar. The young mother said her family was forced out of the city in 1991, after a Kurdish uprising. Their home was blown up, one of 2,000 destroyed in the Shorja neighborhood, according to Kurdish officials. The family eventually returned but had to bribe Baath Party members, she said. With the U.S.-led invasion, Jafar now has new freedoms, new hopes and, at last, a house.
Hamid's.
"I fully believe I am entitled to have this house, because we suffered so much under the Baath Party," said Jafar, 23, in a long green velour robe, her 5-year-old daughter in her lap and neighbors sitting around her. Above them, on the mint-green walls of the living room, were posters of the two main Kurdish leaders, Jalal Talabani and Massoud Barzani.
Jafar and her husband were renting a room in a nearby house when Hamid's family left during the recent war. When the regime fell, they moved in. "This house does not belong to them. It belongs to the government," insisted Jafar's husband, Ali Jalal, 24.
Hamid's wife and children tried to return to the house after the war. But the neighbors screamed that they were not welcome.
"They wanted to come back," said Jalal. "But all the neighbors say, 'We don't want anything to do with these people. We do not want them here. In the past, they behaved badly.'"
In particular, the couple said, Hamid and his family were active members of Hussein's Baath P arty who informed security agencies that neighborhood people were linked to the Kurdish guerrillas. A neighbor sitting in the living room, Serbast Yunus, 17, said Hamid had accused his brother of robbery and ties to Kurdish rebels, resulting in his spending a night in jail and having to pay a large bribe to Baath Party officials.
Asked whether he had been a Baath Party member, Hamid said no. But he added, "If you didn't join, you couldn't get a government job. You would be hated. That's why most people had to join. I am the only person who did not."
Hamid said he would be willing to return to southern Iraq if he and his tribe had guarantees they could get housing and jobs.
Kemal Kerkuki, a senior Kurdish official here, said a committee would be formed at some point to look into providing compensation for Arabs who were leaving the city. But, he added, it would be better if they left as soon as possible, since many Kurds were impatiently waiting to recover their property.
"Arabs who came under the Arabization campaign have to leave. But we exclude the use of force," said Kerkuki, the top local representative of the Kurdistan Democratic Party.
The U.S. military, the ultimate authority here, has so far played a limited role in preventing the evictions. Col. William Mayville, commander of the 173rd Airborne Brigade here, said he had dispatched a company of soldiers to an Arab neighborhood in the southeastern part of the city to prevent evictions from occurring. In a few cases, soldiers had been able to return people to their homes.
But, he said, it wasn't clear how many evictions there have been. "If you listen to the allegations, billions," he said.
He appeared surprised when told of Kerkuki's statement that the Arabs who had been resettled here would have to leave. "We certainly aren't buying that," said Mayville.
He said his troops were stretched so thin that they had not been able to prevent Kurds from clearing Arabs from villages south of the city. He added that the Kurds involved were not the militia, but apparently average Kurds claiming to represent the Kurdish parties.
"That is the area we've got to do better," he said.
----
Self-appointed mayor of Baghdad challenges Pentagon's authority
DAN MCDOUGALL
Mon 21 Apr 2003
Scotsman
http://www.news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=456802003
THE United States faced a renewed challenge to its interim authority in Iraq last night after a leading member of the exiled Iraqi National Congress appointed himself mayor of Baghdad.
Mohammed Mohsen al-Zubaidi, a leading Muslim cleric who returned to Iraq last week after almost 20 years of exile in Paris and Tehran, presented a direct challenge to US forces by announcing the establishment of an interim administration to govern the Iraqi capital.
Speaking at a rally in central Baghdad, Mr al-Zubaidi, the deputy leader of the US-backed Iraqi National Congress, also designated his own chief of police and appointed a number of officials to oversee control of electricity and water supplies to Baghdad. His move came days after he led more than 200 protesters in opposition of the continued US presence in the Iraqi capital.
The long-time Iraqi exile proclaimed himself in charge of Baghdad, pledging that the country's new constitution would be derived from Islamic law and promising to try anyone whose "hands are stained with the blood of the Iraqi people".
In an impassioned speech to a large crowd in the city centre, Mr al-Zubaidi also announced plans to get Baghdad's civil administration moving again.
He said: "We have met with lawmen to create laws and to open the courts so that life can begin to take on legitimacy.
"The security situation in Baghdad is considered first priority in our agenda."
He added: "I have been chosen as mayor not by America, but legitimately by tribal leaders and educated people, the doctors of the city and other prominent figures. We are not a transitional government. We are an executive committee to run Baghdad."
In further opposition to the US, Mr al-Zubaidi claimed that Iraq's new constitution would be based on Islamic law and not the democratic model of government insisted by the State Department.
He added that 22 committees had been formed to administer Baghdad and leaders of these had been appointed. He also urged workers in Iraq's ministries to return to the workplace, claiming enough funds remained in government coffers to pay civil servants' salaries.
Baghdad currently has no government. US forces, together with returning Iraqi police officers, are keeping the peace in the city until the establishment of an interim civil authority, expected to be led by an American, General Jay Garner.
The Pentagon refused to offer backing for the Iraqi National Congress, claiming the creation of an interim authority was already in progress without Mr al-Zubaidi as a fixture.
As looting in Baghdad began to subside, stores were opened across the city while residents began sweeping up debris and cleaning their homes. In a further bid to impose order in the city, the coalition-run Information Radio station announced last night that an 11pm to 6am curfew would be imposed in Baghdad for the next fortnight.
In other parts of the city, thousands of Christians crammed into the smattering of churches across the capital to celebrate Easter, praying for peace and harmony after 24 years of Saddam Hussein's rule.
The mood was sombre in Baghdad's churches which, like the mosques, have been spared the looting that has wrecked parts of the capital.
"We are just praying that the situation stabilises. That is the most important thing for this country," said Firas Showkal, at the Lady of Our Salvation Catholic church.
In the city centre, as aid convoys for the Iraqi people arrived from Jordan, food donated by the Kuwait government and transported by coalition forces was also delivered to the starving animals in the zoo.
The aid, including a two-week supply of fruits, vegetables and meat, and a one-month supply of dry feed, was handed out to the animals by US troops.
The Kuwait Zoo and Kuwait's ministry for agricultural affairs and fisheries have also offered to provide veterinary and agricultural support.
Despite the troubled political atmosphere, US marines continued to pull out of Baghdad last night, leaving the job of maintaining order in the hands of US soldiers, who have already deployed the help of the newly-resurgent Iraqi police force.
Nearly two weeks after pushing across tributaries of the Tigris river into east Baghdad, convoys of US marines headed south to take up new positions while US army units moved into east Baghdad.
The marine withdrawal is understood to represent a significant drop in the number of US troops in Baghdad, though precise figures were not released.
Websites:
Ministry of Defence - Operation Telic http://www.operations.mod.uk/telic/index.htm
US Central Command http://www.centcom.mil/
UNMOVIC http://www.un.org/Depts/unmovic/
UN - Office of the Iraq Programme http://www.un.org/Depts/oip/
UN News Centre http://www.un.org/News/
FCO - Policy towards Iraq http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1007029394374
US Dept of State - Iraq Update http://usinfo.state.gov/regional/nea/iraq/
Iraqi Presidency http://www.uruklink.net/iraq/
Iraq Watch http://www.iraqwatch.org
----
Ba'athists slip quietly back into control
Suzanne Goldenberg in Baghdad
Monday April 21, 2003
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,940335,00.html
They have quietly removed the pictures of Saddam Hussein from their sitting rooms, and reconfigured their memories to transform lives of privilege into tales of suffering. Less than two weeks after the collapse of the regime, thousands of members of the Arab Ba'ath Socialist party, the all too willing instrument of Saddam, are resuming their roles as the men and women who run Iraq.
Two thousand policemen - all cardholding party members - have put on the olive green, or the grey-and-white uniforms of traffic wardens, and returned to the streets of Baghdad at America's invitation.
Dozens of minders from the information ministry, who spied on foreign journalists for the security agencies, have returned to the Palestine Hotel where most reporters stay, offering their services as translators to unwitting new arrivals.
Seasoned bureaucrats at the oil ministry - including the brother of General Amer Saadi, the chemical weapons expert now in American custody - have been offered their jobs back by the US military. Feelers have also gone out to Saddam's health minister, despite past American charges that Iraqi hospitals stole medicine from the sick.
It has become increasingly apparent that Washington cannot restore governance to Baghdad without resorting to the party which for decades controlled every aspect of life under the regime.
It has equally become apparent that the Ba'ath party - whose neighbourhood spy cells were as feared as the state intelligence apparatus - will survive in some form, either through the appeal of its founding ideals, or through the rank opportunism of its millions of members.
"The coming bureaucracy will be overwhelmed by Ba'athists. They had loyalty to Saddam Hussein, and now they have loyalty to foreign invaders," said Wamidh Nadhmi, a political science professor at Baghdad University who broke with the Ba'ath in 1961, and is trying to organise a new political grouping.
The Ba'athist project of reinvention gathered pace at the weekend when the Iraqi Writers' Union - who received salaries for poems for Saddam - held a meeting at which they claimed to have been secret opponents of the regime for years.
At the same time, remnants of the regime see no reason to abandon a party that has been around since 1947.
"The Arab Ba'ath Socialist party was not Saddam Hussein's idea. Like Marxism, it was not founded by Lenin and Stalin. It is an idea. That is why the Arab masses sup ported Iraq, not because of Saddam Hussein, but because of ideas," said a senior culture bureaucrat.
The resurrection of the Ba'ath is, in part, acknowledgment of the daunting reality of governing a country as complex and battered as Iraq. Under Saddam membership was mandatory for teachers, police, the army, and senior posts in hospitals, universities, banks and the civil service.
Local party bosses, or mukhtars, dispensed marriage licences, pressganged locals into militias, and organised parades in honour of Saddam. They also winnowed out potential neighbourhood traitors, destroying the lives of the millions who fell foul of the regime.
That elite - dominated by the Sunni minority which has governed Iraq since the Ottoman empire - remains the major source of local talent for the new US administration.
Now, though the party cadre has been orphaned by the flight of Saddam and the upper echelons, local party bosses and bureaucrats who joined up strictly for career advancement see no reason to step aside. "I haven't hurt anyone, and the people love me," said Haji Talat, the boss of Adhamiya, with direct charge for 4,000 households.
The northern neighbourhood was the most solidly Ba'athist of Baghdad - so secure that Saddam did a walkabout there just three days before the US tanks rolled in.
Mr Talat has taken down his photo of Saddam but he is not willing to relinquish his control. "I had to go along with the regime because otherwise they would turn me into cinnamon. But the people know me. The bad mukhtars might go now, but the good ones will stay," he said.
Such attitudes prevail even in poorer neighbourhoods, such as the Jamila suburb of Baghdad, where there was more resentment of the Ba'ath. "In our circumstances, it is necessary to work with the Americans to keep order, but later we might not agree," said Rahim Ahmoud, a mukhtar of eight years.
The prospects for the survival of the Ba'ath have been enhanced by the chaos of these early days of the US military occupation. There is also no serious challenge to its iron grip.
The party, with its secular principles - though trampled on by Saddam's cynical use of religion - also represents a bulwark against a nascent Islamist movement among Iraq's disenfranchised Shia majority.
For middle class Iraqis, the declarations for religious self-rule now emanating from mosques in Baghdad and southern cities are deeply troubling. The new assertiveness by the Shia clergy probably does not sit very well with the Americans either. So that leaves the Ba'ath.
"The Ba'ath party was the right hand to Saddam," said Hind Mahmoud, a computer programmer at one of the nationalist banks sacked by the looters. For people like Ms Mahmoud, faith in the party, and in its future role in Iraq, remains undimmed: "No one can take the place of the Ba'ath party. The Ba'ath party has experience - doctors and managers and scientists. It works in everything."
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Saddam took refuge in bodyguard's home
By Ellen Knickmeyer
ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 21, 2003
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20030421-2441382.htm
BAGHDAD - Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's entourage hid out in the home of a former family bodyguard for much of the U.S.-led air war, fleeing only when a bunker-bursting bomb meant for Saddam struck a block away, neighborhood residents said yesterday.
The accounts heightened speculation that Saddam had survived the April 7 attack.
Neighbors said they believed Saddam had stayed in the house in the well-off western Baghdad block, though none of those interviewed claimed to have seen him.
However, Saddam's top bodyguard, Ali Nassir, and Saddam's cousin Gen. Ali Suleyman Abdullah al-Majid were among those seen coming and going for about 10 days. Mr. Nassir and others guarded the house until all inside fled in the hours after the U.S. bombing on the afternoon of April 7.
"They came out in civilian clothes, in groups, and you could see the fear on their faces," said Osama al-Bidery, next-door neighbor to the high-walled compound. "They left their guns, they left their uniforms, and they left like civilians."
The home's owner, a woman who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Ba'ath Party officials barred her from the house during the time they commandeered it and told her to burn a discarded two-star general's uniform she found when she moved back into the home.
Saddam, fearful of assassination attempts, was known to move from private home to private home on a regular basis. Even before the war began, he declined to spend nights in one of his family palaces.
In the last hours of the U.S. entry into Baghdad, the United States unleashed bunker-bursting bombs that blew a crater 60 feet deep into a street of the al-Mansour neighborhood. The bombs blew at least three houses and 14 persons into barely discernible bits.
U.S. authorities said at the time that it would take digging and forensic work to determine whether Saddam had been inside.
However the London Daily Telegraph reported today that the bomb missed the restaurant and instead hit nearby homes, leaving three children among the dead.
The restaurant, a cheap establishment selling chicken lunches for about $1.50, was open again yesterday though its windows had been blown out and its customers had to eat outside, the newspaper said. The building appeared to have suffered no serious structural damage.
The targeted area was on a block behind the ornate United Arab Emirates Embassy. Just a block away, on the other side of the embassy, was the house where neighbors said Saddam's camp took refuge.
The neighborhood housed intelligence officials and other ranking members of Saddam's regime, said Mr. al-Bidery and neighbor Falhel al-Zaidi.
Residents said Saddam once had given the house in question to one of his favorite bodyguards - an operative slain by Saddam's elder son in a notorious case that highlighted Uday Hussein's brutality.
Mr. al-Zaidi and Mr. al-Bidery said the current homeowner worked in intelligence for Uday. But she denied working in any way for Saddam's son, saying she ran a tourism business.
The house, an ornate two-story limestone structure with arches looping on top, at times had been rented by ambassadors of Libya and Algeria, the woman and other neighbors said.
The homeowner said she and her family had fled Baghdad in advance of U.S. bombs. When family members changed their minds and returned, they found the house occupied. Ba'ath Party officials had changed the locks and told the family it could not move back into the house.
People up and down the block spoke of the top military officials they said had moved into the residence, saying the high-ranking squatters barred neighbors from approaching the house.
Residents said they resented the new occupants, fearing they and their frequent use of the trademark white sport utility vehicles of Saddam's regime would draw a U.S. attack, they said.
"Every five [yards] you stepped, there was a truck with guns," Mr. al-Zaidi said.
----
U.S. Does Not Recognize Baghdad 'Governor'
Mon April 21, 2003
By Mona Megalli
(Reuters)
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=2598467
BAGHDAD - The United States does not recognize a former exile who says he is governor of Baghdad and Washington thinks his deputy cannot represent Iraq at an OPEC meeting this week, a senior U.S. official said on Monday.
Barbara Bodine, coordinator for central Iraq in the U.S. civil administration overseeing reconstruction, said the United States did not recognize Mohammed Mohsen al-Zubaidi, who said last week he was made chief of an interim council to run the capital.
"We don't really know much about him except that he's declared himself mayor," said Bodine, a former U.S. ambassador to Yemen. "We don't recognize him. There hasn't been a process of selection. Once there's a process, then whomever."
Zubaidi has said he was elected by people representing clerics, academics, Shi'ites and Sunni Muslims, Christians, writers and journalists. He has also said he was in close contact with the U.S. military, but that he had not been appointed by them.
Neither he nor U.S. officials have explained how or when a vote took place or who organized it.
Zubaidi insisted in an interview with al-Jazeera television on Monday he was politically independent and simply administering civil services -- not heading a government.
"We are not an authority, we are a civil administration," he said. "An authority is elected by the Iraqi people."
He added: "We are now in the process of bringing back the administration of our city and the provision of services like hospitals, water, electricity and bringing back security but are not a government."
OPEC DELEGATION UNLIKELY
Zubaidi's self-styled deputy, Jawdat al-Obeidi, told Reuters on Sunday he would lead an Iraqi delegation to the emergency meeting of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries starting on Thursday in Vienna.
"He can't," said Bodine during a visit to Baghdad by Jay Garner, the retired U.S. general heading the U.S. civilian administration for postwar Iraq.
"I don't think OPEC would take him. We wouldn't prevent him but I would find it odd that OPEC would accept him as a representative," she said.
Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh has said only a government recognized by the United Nations could represent Iraq at the OPEC meeting, an Iranian newspaper reported on Monday.
There was no immediate comment from OPEC headquarters in Vienna.
The OPEC meeting to review market conditions and output policy was called after oil prices dropped by about 30 percent in one month.
The choice of representatives had presented Washington with an awkward diplomatic problem. It has de facto control of the country after toppling Saddam Hussein but does not want to appear to dictate Iraqi policy, especially on oil.
U.S. officials had said it was possible nobody would represent Iraq at the OPEC meeting. One OPEC source said last week the cartel had invited Saddam's oil minister, who is on a U.S. wanted list.
Garner, speaking at a sewage treatment plant south of Baghdad, also cast doubts over Iraqis claiming positions of authority.
"There are a lot of de facto leaders," he said. "I don't know who they are but our goal is to start a process whereby the Iraqi people elect their own leaders...We haven't appointed anyone or recognized anyone."
Garner heads the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA), which was set up to help rebuild Iraq and prepare for an eventual interim government made up of Iraqis.
-------- mideast
Syria Welcomes Easing of Tensions With Washington
April 21, 2003
By BRIAN KNOWLTON,
International Herald Tribune
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/21/international/worldspecial/21CND-SYRI.html
WASHINGTON, April 21 - Syria welcomed today what it considered to be conciliatory comments from President Bush, and it said that it had closed its border with Iraq, a move the United States had sought as it pursues a handful of former Iraqi leaders suspected to have sought refuge in Damascus.
Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa said Syrians "welcome the recent statement by President Bush and hope that this statement marks the beginning of a serious and constructive dialogue."
Syria, he added, has "never wanted confrontational dialogue with the United States."
On Sunday, Mr. Bush said he now believed that the Syrians "want to cooperate with us" by not providing refuge for any former Iraqi leaders.
Mr. Sharaa also told reporters in Damascus today, during a news conference with the visiting Spanish foreign minister, that "we have completely closed the border with Iraq and no one is authorized to cross without a visa." Iraqis previously needed no entry visa for Syria.
In Washington today, Richard A. Boucher, the State Department spokesman, said that "some progress" had been made with Syria in closing the border and keeping former Iraqi officials out of the country.
He said Syria was now refusing to permit Iraqi diplomats to board Syria's airline or other fights for Damascus. But Mr. Boucher added that not all Iraqis given haven in Syria had been identified, and that the border closing was not yet assured.
Mr. Boucher also said that there had been no agreement yet for Syria to return Iraqis wanted for prosecution, although two American congressmen who visited Damascus recently said the Syrian president, Bashar Assad, had promised to do so.
The Bush administration remained "highly concerned" about Syrian acquisition of weapons of mass destruction, Mr. Boucher said.
Still, the softer tones on both sides confirmed a considerable easing of tensions since a week before, when Mr. Bush and other American officials had accused Damascus of harboring fugitive Iraqi officials, supporting terrorists, allowing weapons and anti-American fighters to enter Iraq, and possessing chemical weapons.
The accusations, denied by Damascus, had sharply raised fears in the region that Syria could become the next target of the powerful American-led military force assembled for the war in Iraq. Several Arab officials have denounced any such threat.
Qatar, for example, hosted American military planners during the Iraq war. But its foreign minister, Hamad bin Jaber al-Thani, whose country now heads the Organization of the Islamic Conference, said today that "we reject the American threats against Syria in all their forms."
He also predicted, however, that a planned but as yet unscheduled Damascus visit by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell would improve American-Syrian relations.
Mr. Sharaa welcomed Mr. Powell's planned visit as part of a "continuing dialogue between Syria and the United States for creating a better environment, especially after this war."
Mr. Sharaa was speaking during a visit by Foreign Minister Ana Palacio of Spain, who had praise for Syria as a "very responsible international actor." She said Damascus had played a "constructive and pragmatic" role in supporting the Security Council resolution in November that called on Iraq to provide unfettered access to United Nations weapons inspectors.
Ms. Palacio's comments followed a two-hour meeting with President Assad.
The Spanish assessment was thought to carry some weight with the United States, even if skepticism about Syrian actions, past and present, remains high in parts of the Bush administration. Prime Minister José María Aznar provided strong political support for the American stance on Iraq even as most Spaniards opposed a war.
Ms. Palacio also emphasized that Syria faced no military threat from the United States. Mr. Aznar said the same last week, pointedly referring to Madrid's "warm" relations with Damascus.
In fact, Ms. Palacio implicitly criticized Washington's recent complaints about Syria. "Statements against Syria do not reflect the Spanish view," she said. "My government thinks that some statements are not helpful."
Without assailing Washington, Mr. said that the recent heightening of tensions had nothing to do with any Syrian action. He said that if there had been any provocation or escalation recently, "it was not in Damascus" but in Washington.
He indicated, however, that Syria would put no limits on its talks with Mr. Powell. Asked about reports that the United States was planning to maintain a military base in Iraq near the Syrian border, Mr. Sharaa said, "We can discuss anything."
Sana, the official Syrian news agency, quoted Mr. Assad and Ms. Palacio as emphasizing the need for the United Nations to have "an active and positive role in international peace and security issues," an apparent allusion to international calls for a broader United Nations role in postwar Iraq.
Syria still faces Congressional pressure in Washington. Lawmakers introduced a bill last week calling for sanctions against Damascus. A draft says, "Syria needs to get out of Lebanon, clean out the terrorists and stop building weapons of mass destruction."
Syria controls parts of southern Lebanon, and the United States has accused it of providing support and haven to members of Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim militant group, and Hamas and other Palestinian organizations.
While Syria has had closer ties to Iraq than have Iraq's other neighbors, Mr. Sharaa sought to emphasize that Damascus was no automatic ally of Baghdad's. It did not support Iraq in its 1980 invasion of Iran or its 1990 occupation of Kuwait, he noted.
Ms. Palacio's talks in Damascus also dealt with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to the Sana news agency. That is another area in which the United States seeks greater cooperation from Syria. Ms. Palacio said that the Syrian position on the Middle East peace talks was changing and that she hoped it would support the "road map" for achieving Israeli-Palestinian peace that Washington is poised to unveil.
"Syria will accept anything the Palestinians accept," Mr. Assad was quoted as telling Ms. Palacio.
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Syria Welcomes Bush Remarks, Wants Serious Dialogue
April 21, 2003
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/politics/politics-syria-usa.html
DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syria said it wanted a ``serious and constructive dialogue'' with Washington and welcomed remarks by President Bush in which he noted Damascus was heeding U.S. calls for cooperation.
``We welcome the statement of President Bush and hope that this statement marks the beginning of a serious and constructive dialogue,'' Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara said on Monday. ``We in Syria do not like argument ... we are for dialogue.''
On Sunday, Bush said Damascus was ``getting the message'' that it should deny sanctuary to fleeing members of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's government, one of the issues that fueled tensions between Syria and the United States in recent weeks.
A spat between Damascus and Washington over U.S. allegations that Syria may be developing chemical weapons sparked fears in the Arab world that Syria could be the Pentagon's next target after the U.S.-led war against Iraq.
Syria has denied the U.S. charges and argued that Israel, which is widely believed to have about 300 nuclear warheads, posed a threat to its neighbors. The Jewish state's policy is never to discuss the issue.
Shara said Syria has sealed its borders to Iraqis and required them to apply for visas. Before the war, Iraqis, like all fellow Arabs, were allowed to frequent Syria without visas.
Shara told a joint news conference with visiting Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio in Damascus that his country ``never wanted a confrontation'' with Washington. ``The strong tone from our side was a reaction (to U.S. charges),'' he said.
``Syria is a stabilizing factor in the Middle East,'' he added.
Palacio, who met with President Bashar al-Assad earlier on Monday, said the situation between its ``friend'' Syria and ally the United States did not require mediation.
She described the U.S. allegations against Syria as ``isolated statements'' and said: ``I insist that there was no such thing as a (U.S.) threat to Syria.''
HEAR AND BE HEARD
Commenting on the purpose of a planned visit by Secretary of State Colin Powell to Damascus, Shara said: ``I am sure he is not coming to Syria to dictate but to listen, to tell us their concern and to tell our concern to them.''
Powell said last week he may soon visit the Middle East, including Syria, to push for Arab-Israeli peace. U.S. officials have declined to give specific dates for his visit.
Palacio said she saw Syria's stance on Middle East peacemaking changing and hoped the country would support the ``road map'' plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Spain wants the road map to be announced as soon as possible, she said.
``The time for declarations is long over due. We now have to deliver and make progress in the peace process. I believe we have a window of opportunity that we have to seize to push forward the peace process,'' Palacio said.
Washington is expected to unveil a road map for peace after the Palestinian legislature approves a new government. The plan envisages a Palestinian state by 2005.
Syria has expressed fears the plan is designed to further Israeli interests at the expense of Arabs.
-------- pakistan / india
Pakistanis Wonder - - Will They Face Iraq's Fate?
April 21, 2003
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-pakistan.html
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - It has nuclear weapons, a general as president, an increasingly powerful Islamist fringe, and it is accused of supporting terrorism in another country.
No wonder some Pakistanis worry that their country will one day face a similar fate to Iraq and fall victim to the new American doctrine of pre-emptive strike.
Neighbor and nuclear-armed rival India is already trying to make the connection. Ironically, but for different reasons, so are the Islamists in Pakistan themselves.
``Thinking that our turn will not come is like closing your eyes to the truth,'' Qazi Hussain Ahmed, leader of Pakistan's biggest Islamist party, told Reuters in a recent interview.
``America...does not want (Muslims) to be able to defend themselves.''
Absurd, say Western diplomats. Secretary of State Colin Powell has already ruled out Indian suggestions that Islamabad's government could be compared to Iraq's.
Islamists, diplomats say, are simply trying to scare-monger, and undermine a solid partnership between Pakistan and the West.
``Definitely the West wants to remain engaged with Pakistan,'' said one Western diplomat. Dialogue not confrontation, he said, was the key to the West's relationship with the nuclear-armed Muslim state of 140 million people.
President Pervez Musharraf may have his faults in Western eyes, but he has been a solid partner in the war on terror, supporting military action in Afghanistan and rounding up several key al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan.
Removing him or trying to forcibly disarm Pakistan would only play into the hands of the extremists and make the country 100 times more unstable, diplomats say.
'DE-FANG PAKISTAN'
Yet behind the politics and propaganda, Pakistan was arguably on the road to becoming a ``rogue state'' under the chaotic second term of Nawaz Sharif, before Musharraf toppled him in his 1999 military coup.
Pakistan's liberal intellectuals fear the country could easily go down that road again one day, especially as Islamist parties exploit anti-American sentiment to expand their powers.
Pakistan, some critics argue, is also playing with fire by supporting jihadis, or holy warriors, fighting Indian rule in Kashmir -- something India refers to as ``cross-border terrorism,'' although Islamabad denies the charge.
A.H. Nayyar, research fellow at Islamabad's Sustainable Development Policy Institute, says the world's nuclear powers are worried about a nuclear-armed subcontinent with India and Pakistan constantly on the verge of war.
When push comes to shove, it is India and not Pakistan with whom the West will side, he says.
``So all of them would like to seize the first opportunity that comes their way to de-fang Pakistan,'' said Nayyar.
``They only have to build up the case, like they have done with other countries and behold, within months you will not find a single person who will be sympathetic to Pakistan.''
Nayyar fears the United States would not hesitate to ``neutralize'' Pakistan's nuclear weapons if that became necessary, or could use India as a proxy for the same purpose.
Selig S. Harrison, director of the Center for International Policy research group in Washington, said that despite ``clear evidence'' Pakistan had provided communist North Korea with nuclear technology, the United States was doing nothing to punish Islamabad or prevent it from helping a country branded part of an axis of evil along with pre-war Iraq and Iran.
``The United States need not make an either-or choice between keeping Pakistan as an ally against al Qaeda and making sure that it stops transferring nuclear technology,'' he wrote in the International Herald Tribune.
``Both critical objectives can be achieved with a determined carrot-and-stick diplomacy.''
Pakistan denies transferring nuclear technology.
It may sound far-fetched at the moment, but Musharraf knows his country faces some tough choices in the years ahead, and will have to confront Islamic extremism if it is to remain a trusted nuclear power.
``Our power, the atomic power, the missile power, we will not let it come to an end,'' he told an audience of tribal elders in the North West Frontier Province this month.
``The question arises what should be our attitude toward the world,'' he said. ``We have two paths in front of us. One path is that of confrontation. The other path is of forbearance.''
``In my view the path of forbearance is in Pakistan's interest.''
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Pakistan May Send Peacekeepers to Iraq
April 21, 2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iraq-Pakistan.html
LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistan's president on Monday said his country is prepared to send peacekeeping troops to help stabilize Iraq, and would likely be asked to do so by the United Nations.
``We have received indications from the United Nations that we will be asked to send troops to help the people of Iraq as part of international forces to be stationed there,'' President Gen. Pervez Musharraf told reporters in Lahore. ``We are ready to provide medical assistance or any other form of assistance to the Iraqi people.''
Pakistan has sent troops to help enforce the peace in the aftermath of several recent conflicts, including after U.S. operations in Somalia. Musharraf gave no details as to how many Pakistani troops could be involved, or when they might be sent, nor is it clear what precise role the United Nations will have in the reconstruction of Iraq.
Pakistan is a key ally of the United States in the war on terrorism, but the government has been critical of Washington's approach to Iraq, saying it favored a peaceful solution. An overwhelming majority of Pakistanis opposed U.S. military action against Iraq, a fellow Muslim country.
-------- philippines
Philippines Bars U.S. Troops From Combat
April 21, 2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Philippines-US-Military.html
MANILA, Philippines (AP) -- The Philippine government Monday prohibited U.S. troops from joining soldiers on combat patrols during counterterrorism exercises planned for later this year on Jolo, a southern island where Muslim militants are active.
The ban marks a change from last year, when American soldiers joined Filipino army units on combat patrols during similar exercises on nearby Basilan island. Advertisement
Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes said the new policy is meant to ``emphasize that it will be the Filipino soldiers who should be doing the fighting.''
Philippine officials fear U.S. troops could be drawn into skirmishes, violating a constitutional ban on foreigners fighting in the former U.S. colony.
When asked whether Washington would agree to Philippine restrictions on American soldiers, Reyes said, ``This exercise is being held in Philippine territories so what the government says and what the president says is what will be done.''
Unidentified Pentagon officials caused a political storm earlier this year when they said U.S. troops would engage in combat against the Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim extremist group loosely linked to al-Qaida and notorious for kidnappings and killings.
Philippine officials quickly issued denials, but the U.S. statements led to widespread public opposition to this year's exercises, especially on Jolo, where hundreds of Filipino Muslims died fighting American colonial forces in the early 1900s.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said the maneuvers on Jolo would focus on civic projects, intelligence cooperation and training to evacuate Filipino soldiers wounded in combat.
The annual exercises, called Balikatan or ``shoulder to shoulder,'' were held on the main northern island of Luzon until last year, when the longtime allies decided to shift them to Basilan to help Filipino soldiers better fight the Abu Sayyaf.
Counterterrorism training and weapons provided by the U.S. military last year were credited with decimating the Abu Sayyaf's main faction on predominantly Muslim Basilan. But many rebels survived a U.S.-backed Philippine offensive and moved to Jolo.
Arroyo said this month that Jolo would be the venue of this year's exercises. She said militants on Jolo have ties to terrorist cells in central Mindanao island, where a recent spate of bombings and ambushes has left hundreds of people dead and injured.
-------- prisoners of war
U.S. Expects Smooth Iraqi Interrogations
April 21, 2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iraq-Interrogation.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- It might take money and hardball interrogation techniques, or perhaps just the offer of a good night's sleep, to get Iraqis in U.S. custody to spill details about Saddam Hussein and his alleged arsenal of vile weapons.
Intelligence analysts say that with the threat of Saddam lifted, most Iraqi soldiers, political leaders, scientists and others being held will figure they have little to lose from telling all.
By talking, the captives might gain freedom, relocation, a new job or leniency in prosecution, the analysts said. There will be less dealmaking, though, with Iraqis suspected of committing war crimes or brutal deeds before or after the war.
``A lot of these individuals are not interested in dying for their cause,'' said Steven Aftergood of the American Federation of Scientists. ``If they provide information, we might provide leniency for criminal activity. We might provide financial rewards. We might provide assistance in relocation.
``So there are deals to be made that could serve the interests of both sides.''
In recent days, coalition forces have captured individuals U.S. officials are eager to debrief:
--Jamal Mustafa Abdallah Sultan al-Tikriti, Saddam's son-in-law and one of his bodyguards.
--Samir Abd al-Aziz al-Najim, the Baath Party Regional Command chairman for east Baghdad.
--Two of Saddam's half-brothers, former Interior Minister Watban Ibrahim Hasan, also former head of military intelligence; and Barzan Ibrahim Hasan, former head of Iraq's secret police.
--Muhammad Abbas, known as Abul Abbas, a Palestinian terrorist convicted by an Italian court in his absence for plotting the Achille Lauro cruise-ship hijacking in 1985 in which an American was killed.
--Lt. Gen. Amer al-Saadi, Saddam's alleged point man on weapons, a man U.S. officials believe has a wealth of information on chemical, biological, nuclear and long-range missile efforts.
--Jaffar al-Jaffer, a British-educated physicist dubbed ``the father of Iraq's nuclear weapons program'' by U.N. inspectors.
--Abd al-Khaliq Abd al-Ghafar, Saddam's higher education and scientific research minister.
In November, the Bush administration offered to protect Iraqi scientists who cooperated with U.N. weapons inspectors. But by the end of their four months in Iraq, inspectors had privately interviewed only 14 of the 500 scientists they had wanted to question.
Intelligence experts said the United States might have to offer these scientists gainful employment in America to stop them from drifting into employment in countries unfriendly to the United States.
CIA and military officials decline to discuss interrogative methods, but say they do not use or condone torture, which is against international law.
U.S. techniques to elicit information from prisoners of war, for example, include gaining the subject's trust, flattering him, disorienting him with a battery of questions and playing on his fears and desires, experts said.
``To convince them that it's in their best interest you offer them deals. There are ways to get the information,'' said retired Air Force Lt. Col. Rick Francona, who spent 20 years in intelligence, much of the time in the Middle East. ``Isolation is probably the easiest to do because after three or four days, you want to talk to somebody.''
In 1988, CIA operative Dick Stolz told a Senate panel that the agency counted the following techniques as coercive but falling short of the definition of torture: forcing the subject to stand at attention or sit on an uncomfortable stool for long periods of time, sleep and sound deprivation, isolation and climate changes.
One former CIA official testified that interrogation techniques changed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
``This is a highly classified area,'' Cofer Black, former director of the CIA's Counterterrorist Center, told a Senate hearing a year after the attacks. ``All I want to say is that there was `before' 9/11 and `after' 9/11. After 9/11, the gloves came off.''
Among the techniques used to extract information from al-Qaeda members captured in Afghanistan was turning them over to other Arab intelligence services, which use harsher methods than U.S. interrogators are allowed to use, said Vince Cannistraro, a former CIA counterterrorism chief.
With Saddam's regime in rubble, it won't be necessary to be heavy-handed, he said.
``We generally don't use force,'' Cannistraro said. ``They use interrogation techniques like sleep deprivation, but they can't go far beyond that.''
Jed Babbin, a deputy undersecretary of defense in the first Bush administration, said many of the al-Qaida prisoners in Afghanistan, although ideologically committed, are ``singing like canaries'' under interrogation pressure.
He said he thinks interrogators should be able to use truth serum to extract information from terrorists -- although not for Iraqi detainees from the war.
``If we find one of these clowns -- I'm talking about the terrorists now -- and we have any reason to believe that he has current operational information, we should be shooting him so full of sodium amytal that he thinks he's talking to Allah.''
-------- spies
Baghdad welcomed bid for spy ties
By David Harrison
LONDON SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
April 21, 2003
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20030421-12689408.htm
BAGHDAD - Germany's intelligence services attempted to build closer links to Saddam Hussein's secret service during the buildup to war last year, documents from the bombed Iraqi intelligence headquarters in Baghdad reveal.
The documents, obtained by the Sunday Telegraph, show that an agent named Johannes William Hoffner, described as a "new German representative in Iraq" who had entered the country under diplomatic cover, attended a meeting with Lt. Gen. Taher Jalil Haboosh, the director of Iraq's intelligence service.
During the meeting Jan. 29, 2002, Gen. Haboosh said the Iraqis were keen to have a relationship with Germany's intelligence agency "under diplomatic cover," adding that he hoped to develop that relationship through Mr. Hoffner.
The German replied, "My organization wants to develop its relationship with your organization."
In return, the Iraqis offered to give lucrative contracts to German companies if the Berlin government helped prevent an American invasion of the country.
The revelations came a week after the Sunday Telegraph and some other newspapers reported that Russia was believed to have spied for the Iraqis, passing them intelligence about a meeting between British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. The Italian government has begun an investigation into the disclosures.
The meeting between the Iraqi and German agents took place some six months before German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrat-led government began its policy of direct opposition to a U.S.-led war against Iraq. The policy was adopted in the heat of last year's German general election campaign at a time when the Social Democrats were widely predicted to lose the contest. Mr. Schroeder was re-elected in September largely because of the popularity of his government's outspoken opposition to a war against Iraq.
The apparently verbatim account of the meeting between Gen. Haboosh and Mr. Hoffner was among documents recovered in the rubble of the heavily bombed Iraqi intelligence headquarters.
During the meeting, Gen. Haboosh told the German agent that Iraq had "big problems" with Britain and the United States. "We have problems with Britain because it occupied Iraq" for decades, "and with America because of its aggression for 11 years," he said.
He added, however, that Iraq had no problems with Germany and suggested that Germany would be rewarded with lucrative contracts if it offered international support to Iraq. "When the American conspiracy is finished, we will make a calculation for each state that helps Iraq in its crisis," he said.
He also urged Mr. Hoffner to lobby the German government to raise its diplomatic mission in Baghdad to full ambassadorial level.
A spokesman for the German government said Saturday it was "well known" that it had been offered lucrative contracts by Baghdad providing it maintained an antiwar stance. "Iraq made these kinds of promises before the war and praised Germany for its position," he said.
-------- us
U.S. Performance in Iraq War Sparks Budget Questions
Mon April 21, 2003
By Andrea Shalal-Esa
(Reuters)
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=2599209&fromEmail=true
WASHINGTON - The U.S. military performed well with its existing arsenal of weapons in the Iraq war, raising questions about whether the Pentagon needs all the costly new weapons systems and modernization efforts it plans in coming years, defense and budget analysts said on Monday.
"The major observation from the war is that we can do a lot with what we have today," said Steven Kosiak, an analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
Given the experience in the Iraq war, as well as military engagements in Kosovo and Afghanistan, Kosiak said the Pentagon should consider scaling back its plans for new tactical aircraft and other weapons systems.
But he also called for funding to research and develop a new manned or unmanned bomber ahead of current plans, under which no new bombers will be fielded until 2034, especially given the important role that bombers played in the Iraq war.
Top Pentagon officials have already begun drawing up the fiscal 2005 budget, and Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says he expects the plans to reflect at least some of the lessons learned in the Iraq war.
Lawmakers are still debating administration requests for 2004 defense spending, and analysts said they could draw on the experience in Iraq to pare back programs like the radar-evading F/A-22 fighter jet or bolster spending elsewhere.
Congress, which this month passed a $79 billion package to pay for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, reward allies like Turkey, bolster anti-terrorism and help airlines, will complete the 2004 defense appropriations process later this year.
The administration requested $400.5 billion for defense spending in the 2004 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.
SCALE DOWN MILITARY
Kosiak noted that the Bush administration's defense plans called for spending to exceed Cold War levels by 22 percent by 2009. But full implementation of its plans to transform and modernize the U.S. military would require even more spending.
He said the war showed it might be possible to meet U.S. security requirements at lower costs with "a slightly smaller military and a modernization plan" focusing on revolutionary new weapons rather than improving current weapons systems.
Kosiak said the cost of the war, the need to maintain U.S. forces in the region, plus rising costs for military health care, maintaining equipment, and raising military pay would pressure defense budgets in coming years.
Analysts say there could be further cutbacks to Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F/A-22 program, and its Joint Strike Fighter, or F-35, program.
Kosiak said the cost of the two jets and the F/A-18E/F navy fighter jet would reach $300 billion over the next decades.
"This focus on relatively short-range tactical fighters seems at odds with recent experience in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere, which suggests that ... the U.S. military may often have difficulty securing access to forward air bases," he wrote in a new report on the 2004 defense budget.
The Comanche, the Army's next-generation helicopter built by Boeing Co and United Technologies Corp.'s Sikorsky unit, is slated to get $1.1 billion in the 2004 budget, but could also face budgetary threats, analysts said.
Pentagon Comptroller Dov Zakheim is already drafting a list of possible weapons programs that could be cut to help pay for the war in Iraq. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld last year won a bid to cancel the $11 billion "Crusader" artillery gun.
Another top Rumsfeld aide, Stephen Cambone, intends to review the F/A-22 program very critically, given big cost overruns, according to sources familiar with Cambone's plans.
The current plan calls for the Air Force to get 276 of the expensive stealth fighter jets, also known as "Raptor." Cambone has tried in the past to reduce the number to 180.
Chris Hellman, with the Washington-based Center for Defense Information, said lawmakers already capped F/A-22 spending at $36.8 billion, but were now asking tough questions.
Hellman and other analysts said Congress was unlikely to cancel the program, but the Pentagon needed to reevaluate just how many of the pricey fighters it would need.
Kosiak said the Pentagon could replace some fighters with the latest version of the Lockheed F-16 fighter.
He said many gains made in the Iraq war stemmed from upgrades, such as giving aircraft the ability to drop precision-guided weapons and adding night vision equipment.
But retired Air Force Gen. David Baker, now managing director of Charles Schwab's Washington Research Group, said he did not expect huge pressure from lawmakers to pare back military programs.
"Defense increases are still a high priority in the Bush administration," Baker said, "There's also a lot of support from both sides of the aisle in Congress."
----
Rumsfeld Says No U.S. Plan for Long-Term Bases in Iraq
April 21, 2003
The New York Times
By COMBINED WIRE REPORTS
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/21/international/worldspecial/21WIRE-RUMS.html
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said today that the U.S. has no plans for a permanent military presence in Iraq.
"I have never heard the subject of a permanent base in Iraq discussed," he said, emphatically denying a report in Saturday's New York Times that the U.S. was looking to set up a permanent military presence at four air bases in the country.
"The likelihood of it seems to be so low that it's never been discussed in my presence to my knowledge... it's not like we need a new place," he said.
Iraqi citizens are showing more signs of cooperation with U.S.-led coalition forces, Rumsfeld said, but he added that it is premature to say if there is new evidence of weapons of mass destruction.
Iraqis are showing increasing trust with coalition forces by pointing out large weapons caches and identifying agents of Saddam Hussein's toppled government, Rumsfeld said at a press briefing.
The defense secretary said U.S. government officials are looking for new evidence of Iraq's programs to develop biological, chemical and nuclear weapons, and said their findings would be made known "in good time."
"I've believed all along that we're not likely to stumble over anything," he said of the search for weapons of mass destruction. Saddam Hussein's government did "a superb job of hiding things" through years of U.N. inspections, he said.
-------- propaganda wars
Did the New York Times just change the rules of journalism?
By Jack Shafer
Monday, April 21, 2003
Slate
http://slate.msn.com/id/2081774/
Judith Miller scores a sizzling scoop on Page One of today's New York Times. Her story, "Illicit Arms Kept Till Eve of War, an Iraqi Scientist Is Said To Assert," asserts that an Iraqi scientist who claims he worked on Saddam's chemical warfare program for a decade has led U.S. military investigators to a "supply of material that proved to be the building blocks of illegal weapons" that he buried as proof of the weapons program.
The scientist also says Iraq destroyed chemical weapons and biological equipment before the war commenced, that it sent "conventional [Correction 4/23: that should be unconventional] weapons and technology to Syria," that recently "Iraq was cooperating with Al Qaeda," and that Iraq had shifted its efforts to R&D on weapons more difficult for inspectors to detect. Miller describes the source's allegations and rudimentary proof as "the most important discovery to date in the hunt for illegal weapons."
Journalistic bombshells all (pardon the pun). But one-third of the way into Miller's story come these two paragraphs about the sourcing deal behind the scoop that she struck with Mobile Exploitation Team Alpha, the U.S. military team searching for WMD in Iraq. Raising more questions about her relationship to MET Alpha than she answers, Miller writes:
Under the terms of her accreditation to report on the activities of MET Alpha, this reporter was not permitted to interview the scientist or visit his home. Nor was she permitted to write about the discovery of the scientist for three days, and the copy was then submitted for a check by military officials.
Those officials asked that details of what chemicals were uncovered be deleted. They said they feared that such information could jeopardize the scientist's safety by identifying the part of the weapons program where he worked.
I've read a lot of news stories in my time, and a fair chunk of the reporting from Iraq, but terms of accreditation to report is a new piece of journalistic jargon to me. Is it Miller's way of saying she's an embed, and as an embed she's agreed not to divulge any information that may harm the "operational security" of an ongoing military action?
Or is Miller implying that she struck a more complex ad hoc deal with MET Alpha? (I think she is.) It's quite a deal when you read the story closely. She agreed not to interview the scientist, visit his home, divulge his identity, write about the MET Alpha for three days, or disclose the composition of the chemicals. And, most pungently, she consented to pre-publication review-oh, hell, let's call it censorship!-of her story by military officials.
Did the "military officials" who checked her story require her to redact parts of the story, or did she do so on her own accord? Were any other "terms of accreditation" imposed on Miller? Other levels of censorship? Are other Times reporters filing dispatches under similar "terms of accreditation"? When and where were the terms of accreditation negotiated? Where are they stated?
Did Miller, who co-wrote the well-received Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War, agree to these "terms of accreditation to report" because she's writing another book about unconventional weapons and agreed to withhold her findings until the book comes out? Then, when she got this big scoop, did she ask for permission to sluice her early findings into the Times? Just a theory.
Miller's relationship with MET Alpha does seem to be close. Is it too close? According to Nexis, the first mention of the outfit appeared in an April 10, 2003, Times article by Miller ("Hunt Finds Hint of How Iraqis Fill Power Void"). Miller's relationship with MET Alpha is so tight that, as she writes today, members of the group permitted her to accompany them in their search for the unnamed scientist. They also allowed Miller to watch the scientist from a distance as he pointed to the sites where he said the precursor biochem materials were buried.
Journalists hammer out agreements with sources all the time. They agree to fudge the identities of sources. They agree to put information on deep background, publishing what they've been told without directly attributing it to anybody. In extraordinary instances, as Washington Post Executive Editor Benjamin C. Bradlee wrote in 1986, newspapers will consult with the government about sensitive stories and withhold information for national security reasons. But, Bradlee, snarled, "we don't allow the government-or anyone else-to decide what we should print. That is our job, and doing it responsibly is what a free press is all about. ... Trouble starts when people try to sweep a lot of garbage under the rug of national security."
Give Miller kudos for her scoop, but it's worth asking if she and the Times secured it at a price too dear. If the paper of record has changed the rules of sourcing to the advantage of the U.S. military and the Bush administration, it ought to inform its readers of those changes, preferably in a meaty "Editor's Note" on Page Two.
Finally, what chance do more independent newspapers have of covering terrorism and war without (ahem) fear or favor if the Times is cutting slippery deals on the side?
Send your e-mail comments (on the record, only) to pressbox@hotmail.com.
----
Al-Jazeera correspondent detained in Basra
Monday 21, April, 2003
Al-Jazeera
Mohammad Al- Sayyed Mohsen
http://english.aljazeera.net/topics/article.asp?cu_no=1&item_no=2936&version=1&template_id=263&parent_id=258
British forces detained Al-Jazeera TV correspondent Mohammad Al-Sayed Mohsen on Sunday in the Iraqi city of Basra where he is covering the US-led occupation.
Two British armoured vehicles approached the crew as they were preparing a report in the Tanouma area on the eastern bank of the Shatt Al-Arab River and asked to see their press cards. Mohsen said a British soldier "became furious" when he read the cards, issued from the Iraqi Information Ministry, and confiscated his camera.
The Al-Jazeera correspondent said it was the third time British forces had harassed him.
Weapons were pointed at Mohsen and his driver. The Al-Jazeera correspondent said the British soldier said US-led forces "were dealing only with listed journalists who accompanied coalition forces."
They were escorted to a British camp where a soldier addressed them in Arabic and told them they would not be allowed to work in the area until further notice.
Mohsen said the soldier repeatedly asked him how he could be an Iraqi and be working for Al-Jazeera.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the arrest. "For US-led forces to detain a journalist working in Iraq is a violation of press freedom and coalition forces are obligated to respect the right of journalists of all outlets to work in the country," said spokesman Frank Smyth.
The crew was released after three hours.
----
Hokum From the Prosecution
By William Raspberry
Monday, April 21, 2003
Washington Post; Page A23
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A64680-2003Apr20?language=printer
I love courtroom dramas. Maybe that's why I keep going back to that February day when Colin Powell, as powerfully persuasive as any district attorney ever was, put on that famous multimedia production that convinced me -- convinced America -- that Saddam Hussein really was developing (and hiding) weapons of mass destruction.
Here, the secretary of state was telling the jury masquerading as the U.N. Security Council, you see the chemical and biological labs at one of the production sites. And here, you notice, the trucks are gone -- just hours before the U.N. inspectors are due on the scene. Here are the time-lapse photographs, taken by satellite and spy planes, showing the bulldozed-over locations where the WMD plants used to be. And here is the incontrovertible evidence we would have preferred not to show you, because it could compromise our intelligence sources, that Saddam Hussein not only is in open defiance of U.N. resolutions but also is a threat to the security of the world.
I believed it -- and for much the same reasons I believed the prosecution's DNA evidence against O.J. Simpson. That is to say, I didn't understand most of it, but I was terribly impressed by the certitude of those who said they did.
I suspect I had a lot of company -- that hundreds of thousands of Americans who had earlier had their doubts were now convinced that all the charges against Hussein had been proved. And a lot of them, according to the polls, were ready to endorse military action against him -- with the United Nations if possible, alone if necessary.
And here's what I can't get out of my mind. Those weapons of mass destruction that our intelligence sources had pinpointed and that became the principal rationale for our preemptive war on Iraq haven't turned up. The inspectors couldn't find them while Hussein ruled, and our military, with virtually free range of the country, can't find them now.
I won't say they don't exist; something is sure to turn up sooner or later. And I certainly don't say Hussein should have been declared not guilty and sent home. But I do say that Powell's spellbinding display looks more and more like prosecutorial hokum. And either Powell or the intelligence professionals who supplied him with his talking points must have known it was hokum. Not deliberate lies so much as a glib presentation designed to paper over holes in the evidence. Think of the district attorney who is so convinced he has nailed the right guy that he sweeps aside whatever facts don't fit.
It doesn't happen only on TV. Scores of Americans are on death row as a result of not-quite-ironclad evidence adduced by prosecutors who were certain the defendant was guilty. Juries believed it, and in most cases so did the public. Why shouldn't we believe that what our officials say is the truth? After all, we've had a look at the defendant's rap sheet, and we don't doubt he could have done this crime as well. Besides, doesn't he look guilty?
So we convict -- and, too frequently, execute. And when someone comes up with new evidence that the old evidence was cooked, we don't know what to do.
We don't know what to do in our judicial system, and we don't know what to do in Iraq. It's tough enough when the new evidence proves someone else did the crime, or when a witness admits to having lied. It's a hundred times tougher when the new evidence is merely that the old evidence was oversold.
In the case of Iraq, we're inclined to blur the line between rationale and objective. Maybe the reasons offered for giving up on inspections in favor of war weren't as sound as we thought, but surely the objective of ridding Iraq and the world of Saddam Hussein was a worthy one.
Maybe such blurring is all we can do. I don't know anyone who regrets that Hussein is gone, even those who would have preferred stronger evidence and U.N. support for the war that removed him. All we can do now is hope that Iraq can survive its near-term civic chaos -- couldn't Arab governments supply police officers to help in the emergency? -- and end up an oasis of democracy in a desert of tyranny.
And we can hope that our own leaders won't interpret our gratitude for America's military triumph with open-ended support for more Middle East adventurism.
I love drama, but I don't need a sequel to this one.
-------- POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS
Offer the FBI decided it had to refuse
By Joby Warrick and John Mintz in Pretoria
April 21 2003
Sydney Morning Herald
[excerpt from Washington Post articles, see "--- biological weapons" 4/20 and 4/21/03]
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/20/1050777165503.html
Daan Goosen's calling card to the FBI was a vial of bacteria he had freeze-dried and hidden inside a toothpaste tube for secret passage to the United States.
From among hundreds of flasks in his Pretoria lab, the South African scientist picked a man-made strain that was sure to impress: a microbial Frankenstein that fused the genes of a common intestinal bug with DNA from the pathogen that causes the deadly illness gas gangrene.
"This will show the Americans what we are capable of," Mr Goosen said at the time.
On May 6, 2002, Mr Goosen slipped the parcel to a retired CIA officer who couriered the microbes 12,800 kilometres for a drop-off with the FBI. Mr Goosen said he was prepared to offer much more: an entire collection of pathogens developed by a secret South African bioweapons research program he once headed.
Mr Goosen's extraordinary offer to the FBI, outlined in documents obtained by The Washington Post and interviews with participants, promised scores of additional vials containing the bacteria that cause anthrax, plague, salmonella and botulism, as well as antidotes for many of the diseases. All were to be delivered to the US Government for safekeeping and to help strengthen US defences against future terrorism attacks.
US officials considered the offer but baulked at the asking price - $US5 million ($8 million) and immigration permits for Mr Goosen and up to 19 associates and family members to come to the US. The deal collapsed in confusion last year after sceptical FBI agents turned the matter over to South African authorities, who twice investigated Mr Goosen but never charged him.
The episode throws light on the difficult task of preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. South Africa, which built nuclear, chemical and biological arsenals under apartheid, renounced its weapons in 1993, and sought to destroy all traces of them, including instruction manuals and bacterial seed stocks.
"The weapons programs were ostensibly terminated, yet clearly they weren't able to destroy everything," said Jeffrey Bale, of the Centre for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, which is carrying out a study of South Africa's weapons programs. "The fact that Goosen and others are providing samples and being approached by foreign parties suggests that these things never really went away."
To disarmament experts, the case is worrying because of the kinds of terrorist-ready weapons produced by Project Coast, a top-secret biological and chemical program created by South Africa's white-minority government, which came to light in the late 1990s. Project Coast specialised in the tools of terrorism and assassination - including "stealth" weapons that could kill or incapacitate without leaving a trace.
The Washington Post
-------- drug war
Peruvian Farmers March on Lima to Defend Coca Crop
April 21, 2003
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-peru-coca.html
LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - Thousands of Peruvian coca leaf farmers marched into Lima on Monday demanding the government halt plans to eradicate their sacred cash crop, the raw ingredient of cocaine, and free their jailed leader.
Men, women and children, who have traveled for over a week on foot from jungle areas where coca leaf is a staple crop, marched with flags and banners from the outskirts of Peru's sprawling capital toward the presidential palace.
``(We want) President Alejandro Toledo to listen to our demands and make good on his promises,'' Marisela Guillen, secretary-general of the Agricultural Producers' Association of the Apurimac-Ene River Valleys, told Reuters.
``We don't want to be abandoned (by the government) or to be maligned ... We are against drug trafficking. We just want to survive,'' she said.
Most coca farmers insist they are not involved in the drugs trade and that their crops are grown for traditional Andean uses. Coca is used in tea, chewed to ward off hunger and fatigue and used in traditional Indian religious ceremonies.
Peruvian drugs czar Nils Ericsson, who in recent months has faced a growing tide of coca-grower marches and protests that echoed violence in neighboring coca-growing Bolivia, called for a meeting with farmers' leaders on Monday evening.
But Guillen said they would only hold talks with Toledo, the president whom they complain has forgotten his impoverished roots and now panders to U.S. demands to eradicate coca.
One of the coca farmers' chief demands is immediate freedom for Nelson Palomino, their impassioned leader who was jailed in February for alleged links to outlawed guerrillas and for allegedly kidnapping a journalist.
``The government needs to help us and not attack us,'' Palomino told Reuters in a recent jail interview. He denies all charges and says he has been singled out for energizing the coca-grower movement.
Farmers also want subsidies for lower-priced alternate crops like coffee, bananas, and cocoa, as well as an increase in the amount of coca that can be grown legally.
Peru won praise in the 1990s for cracking down on coca and shaking its title as No. 1 world coca producer. It now ranks second, behind Colombia, with some 89,000 acres of coca, according to U.S. data.
But coca output is on the rise, officials say, as a giant U.S.-funded eradication push in Colombia makes Peru a more attractive spot for drug traffickers. Colombia last month announced a 30 percent drop in coca leaf production.
Washington, which has promised $300 million over six years to help Peru fight drugs, says more farmers are producing cocaine themselves.
-------- homeland security
Red Alert Means Virtual Lockdown
Vol. 19, No. 8
April 21, 2003
Table of Contents
More on Terrorism Order This Issue
http://www.thenewamerican.com/tna/2003/04-21-2003/insider/vo19no08_redalert.htm
The fine line between counter-terrorism and police-state dictatorship is rapidly blurring. What happens if the new Department of Homeland Security issues a "red alert," the highest in the federal government's color-coded terror alert system? According to Sid Caspersen, New Jersey's director of the office of counter-terrorism, it can mean a virtual lockdown of all citizens. And woe to anyone who ventures out of doors or who happens to be out and about unawares when the alert is issued.
Briefing reporters alongside New Jersey Gov. James E. McGreevey on March 14th, Caspersen said of code red: "You literally are staying home.... What we're saying is, 'Everybody sit down.' If you are left standing, you are probably a terrorist." He added later, "That's how we're going to catch you." Caspersen, a former FBI agent appointed to the state post last year by Gov. McGreevey, also told reporters that "Red means all noncritical functions cease." "Noncritical would be almost all businesses, except health-related," he said. Most government agencies "would run at a very low threshold," according to Caspersen, and "state police and the emergency management people would take control over the highways."
-------- ACTIVISTS
Local Officials Rise Up to Defy The Patriot Act
By Evelyn Nieves
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 21, 2003; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A64173-2003Apr20?language=printer
ARCATA, Calif. -- This North Coast city may look sweet -- old, low-to-the-ground buildings, town square with a bronze statue of William McKinley, ambling pickup trucks -- but it acts like a radical.
Arcata was one of the first cities to pass resolutions against global warming and a unilateral war in Iraq. Last month, it joined the rising chorus of municipalities to pass a resolution urging local law enforcement officials and others contacted by federal officials to refuse requests under the Patriot Act that they believe violate an individual's civil rights under the Constitution. Then, the city went a step further.
This little city (pop.: 16,000) has become the first in the nation to pass an ordinance that outlaws voluntary compliance with the Patriot Act.
"I call this a nonviolent, preemptive attack," said David Meserve, the freshman City Council member who drafted the ordinance with the help of the Arcata city attorney, city manager and police chief.
The Arcata ordinance may be the first, but it may not be the last. Across the country, citizens have been forming Bill of Rights defense committees to fight what they consider the most egregious curbs on liberties contained in the Patriot Act. The 342-page act, passed by Congress one month after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, with little input from a public still in shock, has been most publicly criticized by librarians and bookstore owners for the provisions that force them to secretly hand over information about a patron's reading and Internet habits. But citizens groups are becoming increasingly organized and forceful in rebuking the Patriot Act and the Homeland Security Act for giving the federal government too much power, especially since a draft of the Justice Department's proposed sequel to the Patriot Act (dubbed Patriot II) was publicly leaked in January.
Both the Patriot Act and the Homeland Security Act, which created the Cabinet-level department, follow the Constitution, says Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo. Federal law trumps local law in any case, which would mean Arcata would be in for a fight -- a fight it wants -- if the feds did make a Patriot Act request. LaRae Quy, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco FBI office, whose jurisdiction includes Arcata, said that the agency has no plans to use the Patriot Act in Arcata any time soon, but added that people misunderstood it. Although some people feel their privacy rights are being infringed upon, she said, the agency still has to show "probable cause for any actions we take."
But to date, 89 cities have passed resolutions condemning the Patriot Act, with at least a dozen more in the works and a statewide resolution against the act close to being passed in Hawaii.
"We want the local police to do what they were meant to do -- protect their citizens," said Nancy Talanian, co-director of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee in Florence, Mass., which gives advice to citizens groups on how to draft their own resolution.
Although cities across the country passed antiwar resolutions before the attack on Iraq with little notice from the administration, Talanian said that the anti-Patriot Act resolutions are "not quite as symbolic" as those that passed against the war.
"Normally, the president and Congress don't pay that much attention when it comes to waging war," she said. "But in the case of the Patriot Act, the federal government can't really tell municipalities that you have to do the work that the INS or the FBI wants you to do. The city can say, 'No, I'm sorry. We hire our police to protect our citizens and we don't want our citizens pulled aside and thrown in jail without probable cause.' "
In Hawaii, home to many Japanese Americans who vividly recall the Japanese internments during World War II, Democratic state Rep. Roy Takumi introduced a resolution on the Patriot Act as a way to raise debate, he said. Although the resolution may be seen as symbolic, he said, "states have every right to consider the concerns of the federal government and voice our opinions. If a number of states begin to pass similar resolutions, then it raises the bar for Congress, making them realize our concerns. I hope to see what we've done here plays a role in mobilizing people to take action."
Lawmakers and lobbyists on both ends of the political spectrum are beginning to sound more alarms about the antiterrorism act, which gave the government unprecedented powers to spy on citizens. Rep. Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.) has introduced a bill, the "Freedom to Read Protection Act" (H.R. 1157), that would restore the privacy protections for library book borrowers and bookstore purchases. The bill has 73 co-sponsors.
Earlier this month, Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. John Conyers Jr. (Mich.), the ranking Democrat, asked the Justice Department for more information on the government's use of the Patriot Act to track terrorists, questioning what "tangible things" the government can subpoena in investigations of U.S. citizens.
Sensenbrenner and Conyers sent an 18-page letter to Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, challenging the department's increased use of "national security letters" requiring businesses to hand over electronic records on finances, telephone calls, e-mails and other personal data.
They questioned the guidelines under which investigators can subpoena private books, records, papers, documents and other items; asked whether the investigations targeted only people identified as agents of a foreign power; and asked the attorney general to "identify the specific authority relied on for issuing these letters."
The Justice Department said it is working on the request.
But citizens groups, worried about a timid Congress, are not waiting for their elected officials to act before launching a campaign against the proposed sequel to the Patriot Act, the "Domestic Security Enhancement Act." The Idaho Green Party has begun the Paul Revere Project to stop Patriot Act II before it can be passed.
The proposed addendum to the Patriot Act, which the Justice Department has insisted is only a draft of ideas, would enlarge many of the controversial provisions in the first Patriot Act. It would give the government authority to wiretap an individual and collect a person's DNA without court orders, detain people in secret and revoke citizenship, among other powers.
The proposed sequel to the act has galvanized communities in a bottom-up, grass-roots way, Talanian said. "Before a community votes on resolutions, they engage in forums and petitioning to show the town council they want this. After, communities band together and do things like visit the offices of their entire congressional delegations and say our communities have these concerns and now we are asking you to help."
In Arcata, where forums drew little debate, the new law is an unqualified hit. It passed by a vote of 4 to 1, but has what looks like near-unanimous approval from residents.
Meserve, a weather-worn builder and contractor in his fifties who wears a ponytail and flannel shirts, hasn't felt so popular since he won his council seat running on the platform, "The Federal Government Has Gone Stark, Raving Mad."
"The ordinance went through so easily that we were surprised," he said. "We started going up to people asking what they thought. They thought, 'great.' It's our citywide form of nonviolent disobedience."
The fine for breaking the new law, which goes into effect May 2, is $57. It applies only to the top nine managers of the city, telling them they have to refer any Patriot Act request to the City Council.
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Arcata defends its snub of Patriot Act
April 21, 2003
(UPI)
http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20030421-100726-2189r.htm
ARCATA, Calif., April 21 -- A contractor and city councilman in the Northern California town of Arcata Monday defended his community's ordinance that turns its back on the controversial anti-terrorism Patriot Act.
In an interview with Fox News, David Meserve denied his small coastal community 300 miles north of San Francisco was throwing up obstacles to law enforcement but rather had legitimate concerns about the constitutionality of the act that passed in the wake of Sept. 11.
"We're not providing any source of sanctuary for terrorists," said Meserve, whose town of around 16,000 souls became the first municipality in the nation to take a formal stance against the act. "We don't do illegal searches and seizures and we don't do anything else that isn't constitutional."
Critics argue that the Patriot Act was passed without adequate public debate and goes too far in giving investigators the tools they feel they need to ferret out stealthy terrorists whom they believe are well versed in melting into the background.
Nancy Talanian, co-director of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee in Florence, Mass., told the Washington Post that although federal law trumps local statutes, municipal governments could still refuse to get involved in federal matters. "In the case of the Patriot Act, the federal government can't really tell municipalities that you have to do the work that the INS or the FBI wants you to do," she said. "The city can say, 'No, I'm sorry. We hire our police to protect our citizens and we don't want our citizens pulled aside and thrown in jail without probable cause.'"
Police in Southern California, including Los Angeles and San Diego, generally do not arrest illegal aliens solely on their immigration status. Officials in those cities cite the costs in terms of man-hours and detention, and because it causes friction in minority neighborhoods.
Nearly 90 communities have passed resolutions against the Patriot Act, and Hawaii has a measure chastising it presently stalled in the Legislature
"The Patriot Act defines 'domestic terrorism' so broadly as to potentially apply to certain acts of civil disobedience by lawful advocacy groups, which may be labeled as terrorist organizations and subjected to invasive surveillance, signal and electronic intelligence gathering, harassment, and criminal penalties for protected political advocacy," the Hawaiian resolution says in part.
The resolutions are generally symbolic, although Arcata's ordinance, which passed on a 4-1 vote last month and takes effect in May, instructs senior city managers to not get involved with any federal operations that invoke the Patriot Act.
"We thought we would take it a step further and ask our management not to cooperate," Meserve said, adding that examples of such cooperation would include having city police take part in raids or the use of city records -- such as water bills -- as a means of tracking down names and addresses of suspected terrorists.
Meserve told Fox that the city would continue to assist the feds in investigations into more traditional types of crimes.
(Reported by Hil Anderson in Los Angeles)
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Hollywood revives McCarthyist climate by silencing and sacking war critics
By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles
21 April 2003
UK Independent
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=399024
Hollywood is often depicted in the US media as a hotbed of anti-government dissent and left-wing politics but that is not how it feels to Ed Gernon.
Mr Gernon was, until recently, a television producer at CBS responsible for a four-part miniseries on Hitler's rise to power, which will be shown next month. He thought the timing was apt, and said so in an interview with TV Guide magazine. "It basically boils down to an entire nation gripped by fear, who ultimately chose to give up their civil rights and plunged the whole nation into war," he said. "I can't think of a better time to examine this history than now."
That was far too strong for Leslie Moonves, CBS's chief executive, who promptly fired him. No reasons were given, although politics and a strong desire not to fall foul of the Bush administration apparently had plenty to do with it.
Another person who does not find Hollywood particularly liberal these days is the comedian and actress Janeane Garofalo, whose outspoken views on Iraq have made her the object of a vicious e-mail and telephone campaign that has intimidated ABC into pushing her new sitcom, Slice O'Life, into next year's mid-season. Again, the network's fear of losing viewers and advertisers seems rather stronger than its desire to defend one the freedom of speech of of its stars.
The clearly emerging pattern is that entertainment personalities who speak out on touchy political subjects - particularly Iraq - do so at their peril. The group intent on stringing up Ms Garofalo, Citizens Against Celebrity Pundits, has campaigned energetically against everyone from Martin Sheen, whose anti-war views led to a credit card commercial of his being scrapped, to Susan Sarandon, dropped as a speaker at a Florida branch of the umbrella charity group United Way, to Sarandon's husband, Tim Robbins, whose invitation to a 15th anniversary screening of the baseball movie Bull Durham at the National Baseball Hall of Fame was withdrawn because the Hall's president, a former Reagan administration press secretary, felt his very presence might undermine the efforts of American troops in Iraq.
Beyond the film world, powerful radio station chains with strong political ties to the Bush White House have been orchestrating boycotts and hate campaigns against several anti-war performers, most notably the Dixie Chicks, the Texas country trio now fearing for their safety - not to mention their plummeting record sales - after their singer, Natalie Maines, said at a concert in London last month that she was ashamed to hail from the same state as the President. One radio chain, Cumulus Media, responded by arranging for a tractor to crush Dixie Chicks CDs, tapes and videos in an episode that carried uncomfortable echoes of historical book-burnings and other cultural purges.
The venom behind these campaigns is disturbing enough but there is a second strand to the story. And that is that Hollywood might not be such a liberal place after all. As Robbins said in a speech to the National Press Club in Washington last week: "I am sick of hearing about Hollywood being against this war. Hollywood's heavy hitters, the real power brokers and cover-of-the- magazine stars, have been largely silent on this issue."
While several dozen prominent actors and musicians opposed to military action in Iraq signed up for a celebrity-led group called Artists United To Win Without War, recent experience suggests that they are in the minority. Nowhere was this more clearly illustrated than at the Oscars, when the most outspoken of the evening's war critics, Michael Moore, was roundly booed, and those who had suggested it might be distasteful to go ahead with the shameless glitz of the Academy Awards with the bombs falling on Baghdad were systematically ridiculed by the host, Steve Martin.
The wife of a prominent Hollywood entertainment lawyer who attended a high-powered pre-Oscar dinner party was shocked to find that most of the assembled company was in fact heavily pro-war. "Here they were, all these so-called Hollywood liberals, and they were making jokes about peace activists and cheering on the troops," she said.
There is, of course, nothing wrong with Hollywood actors or executives being less liberal than their stereotype, but there is something troubling in the way in which their public image is manipulated, especially by the political spin doctors in Washington.
Hollywood has long been a favourite target of conservatives, who have repeatedly blamed the entertainment industry for gun violence, or drugs, or sexual promiscuity. Now there is an attempt to dismiss the anti-war celebrities in similar fashion -as morally irresponsible, overpaid know-nothings who would do better to keep their mouths shut.
Mike Farrell, one-time star of Mash who is now one of the industry's most prominent liberal activists, sees a distinct political strategy at work. "The suggestion that Hollywood speaks with one voice is of course silly," he said, "but the perspective articulated consistently in the media, courtesy of the right wing, is that celebrities are taking advantage of their forum to spew left-wing views. What this is really about is stifling dissent on a national scale. It does not matter a whit whether we are celebrities or not. What galls them so much is that we have access to the media."
The intimidation experienced by Ed Gernon, the CBS producer, or the Dixie Chicks, is certainly having its effect. In his speech to the National Press Club, Robbins cited an unnamed "famous middle-aged rock-and-roller" who thanked him for speaking out against the war but said he did not dare do the same himself because of the power of Clear Channel, the nation's largest radio station owner, which has an unabashed pro-Bush agenda. "They promote our concert appearances," the rocker said. "They own most of the stations that play our music. I can't come out against the war."
The Screen Actors Guild has likened the atmosphere to the McCarthy-era anti-Communist witch-hunts of the 1950s. It issued a statement saying that no performer should be denied work on the basis of his or her political beliefs. "Even a hint of the blacklist must never again be tolerated in this nation," it said.
Within three hours of that statement being posted, the guild was inundated with the by now familiar deluge of hate mail. Nevertheless, the statement remains steadfastly posted on the guild's website.
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Shi'ites in Anti - American Protest in Baghdad
April 21, 2003
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-iraq-protest.html
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - About 2,000 Iraqi Shi'ite Muslims staged an anti-American protest in Baghdad on Monday, saying U.S. troops had arrested one of their leaders.
Shi'ites said their leader Muhammad al-Fartusi had been detained but gave no details. U.S. military officials were not immediately available for comment.
``We want Sheikh al Fartusi released now,'' they shouted as U.S. troops stood behind barbed wire outside the Palestine Hotel, where some American military units are based.
U.S. troops took over Baghdad this month after toppling Saddam Hussein from power. While Iraqis were happy to see Saddam's fall, many are suspicious of U.S. intentions.
``The Americans are just like (Saddam's) Baath party,'' said one protester.
``No, no to colonialism,'' they shouted.
Shi'ites, who make up about 60 percent of Iraq's population, were persecuted under the Baath party's secular rule. Saddam himself is a Sunni Muslim.
Fartusi is believed to be close to a radical faction alleged to have been involved in killing moderate Shi'ite cleric Abdul Majid al-Khoei earlier this month in the city of Najaf, 100 miles south of Baghdad.
Khoei was hacked to death shortly after returning from exile in London. The faction has denied any involvement.
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Americans Protest Public Education Cuts
April 21, 2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Schools-Protests.html
High school students in Fairbanks, Alaska, shouted from street corners to protest bigger class sizes. Parents in Denver braved frigid wind chills to rally against cuts to a voter-approved school fund.
Buses for a demonstration in Frankfort, Ky., had interstate traffic backed up for two miles.
Public schools typically eat up more cash than any other state service. So as states face their worst financial conditions in decades, many have planned school cuts broad and deep, from firing teachers to requiring cheerleaders to pay if they want a squad.
The public outcry is growing louder.
Since January, hundreds to thousands have protested in Arkansas and California, Maryland and New Jersey, Texas and at least 15 other states. The crowds in Frankfort and in Oklahoma City topped 20,000. New Yorkers hope a May 3 event will draw 30,000 in support of public schools.
``The scale of the protests is as large and as extensive as we've seen since the '82-'83 recession,'' said Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools. ``And now, schools are more reliant on the states. So when the states cut back, the impact on local school districts is more severe than anything we've ever seen.''
In Washington state, 25,000 people rallied in Olympia to tell state leaders not to touch education dollars as they close a $2.6 billion budget gap.
``People were not there to whine or complain,'' said Charles Hasse, president of the Washington Education Association, which organized the event. ``We were there with a sense of resolve and purpose. We're very serious about this.''
Although many services face cuts, none is turning out people like education, which has broad popular appeal and can count on organized support from unions and advocacy groups.
``It's the talk of the state right now, and we're going to keep it that way,'' said Mary Ann Isak, chairwoman of the school board in Norton City, Ohio, south of Akron. The turnout at a May 15 rally, she predicted, will be so big lawmakers ``are going to have to knuckle under.''
In perspective, school programs generally fare better than others in tight times. But legislators say education spending is too great to go unscathed.
Unlike the federal government, almost every state must balance its budget. Combined, states face a gap of roughly $80 billion for the budget year starting July 1.
They are targeting preschool and after school, hot breakfasts and bathroom cleaning, textbooks and transportation. Schools have shortened their week just as academic expectations are rising. Nursing, sports, languages and field trips have become expendable.
``It's getting down to the classroom level. That's why you're seeing more protests,'' said Steve Smith, a school finance specialist for the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Kerry Crist, a school board member in Columbia, Mo., said some smaller districts may have to close schools. ``It's that radical,'' said Crist, who joined an April 9 rally in Jefferson City, where lawmakers may cut up to $300 million in school costs from a $19 billion budget.
``We asked them to raise money, but too many of them were elected saying 'Absolutely no new taxes,''' Crist said. ``We're really nervous.''
The rallies typically target state lawmakers, who control most education spending. In Kentucky's capital city of Frankfort, ``it was a miserable day, bitterly cold,'' said teacher Kim Crump. ``But we got the word out.''
In Montana, education groups held statewide events -- more like community meetings than demonstrations -- and timed them so legislators could attend.
``I think the result for K-12 is that we'll end up saving the status quo,'' said Eric Feaver, president of the union representing Montana educators. ``Given what's happening to human services or the university system, saving the status quo is a huge victory.''
Casserly, the urban schools advocate, said protests remind leaders which issues will drive people to the streets. But gauging the impact of mass action is tough, he said.
``It's hard to imagine legislators going into session saying, 'We've got crowds at the barricades. We better put these items back in the budget,''' Casserly said. ``It happens much more subtly than that. But it's still constructive.''
Protests can be more powerful than briefings from lobbyists, said Republican Ken Pruitt, chairman of the Appropriations Committee in the Florida Senate. His state, in the midst of a budget standoff, has not seen much protest, but that will change if education cuts run deep, Pruitt said.
``Wait until we have to start cutting football,'' he said. ``That'll bring them out.''
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