Archive By Date | Today's Links to Search By
Activists' News | Nuclear | Depleted Uranium | Military | Police
Alternative Energy Etc. | From Subscribers
NUCLEAR
Ayoon wa Azan (Que Sera, Sera)
Iranians protest nuclear inspections
Israel would disarm if peace assured: Nuclear watchdog
A nuke-free Middle East?
N Korea says it intends to consider US security offer
North Korea May Consider Bush's Security Plan
Nuclear Plant's Courtship of Its Neighbors Pays Off
This Memo Must Not Be Leaked: Wink, Wink
MILITARY
A Brutal Legacy of Congo War
Air Force Opposes Scaled-Back Tanker Plan
Halliburton Defends No - Bid Iraq Contract
U.S. Forces to Lift Night Curfew for Muslim Holy Month
Over $13 Billion in Aid Is Pledged to Rebuild Iraq
Mortar Attacks Multiply in Iraq
Questions Linger Over Gaza Attack
Israel May Extend Barrier Deeper in West Bank
Intelligence Problems In Iraq Are Detailed
C.I.A. Disputes Accusations
US Military In Iraq Plagued By Intelligence Shortcomings
POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE
Rights Group Says Zimbabwe Starves Dissidents
Congress Is Close to Eliminating a Privacy Law
Britain Warns of Attacks in Saudi Arabia
FBI Urges Police to Stay Alert During Islamic Holy Month
OTHER
Report Says E.P.A. Aide Knew Rule Change Could Hurt Lawsuits
AIDS Plan Would Cut Drug Costs For Poor
ACTIVISTS
Over 250 arrested in anti-nuke protest at NATO military HQ
Anti-war protesters rally in Washington, San Francisco
Dissent on the home front
-------- NUCLEAR
-------- depleted uranium
Ayoon wa Azan (Que Sera, Sera)
Jihad Al Khazen Al-Hayat
2003/10/25
english.daralhayat.com
http://english.daralhayat.com/column/10-2003/Article-20031025-734b83cb-c0a8-01ed-002a-cc149bb69f8b/story.html
I must have lived a lot, because I've seen a thousand strange things happening before and after the war on Iraq, and I still am. While it is already absurd enough to insist on the presence of weapons of mass destruction, which simply don't exist, I am now talking about the Western media, as we all complained from its biasness and submission to the logic of the U.S. administration during the war, as well as its agreement on censorship and self-censorship. Then, we lived to see that the Bush administration considered the media that supported it as biased against it, to the extent that it made moves to retaliate and to voice its opinion the way it wants.
Around mid-October, President Bush gave press interviews to five local American television networks that usually cover the White House. Sources close to the administration said that the President wanted to reach out to the ordinary Americans, as he felt that the major media networks weren't giving an objective view of the war and its results, and that he wanted to express his own opinion to around 10 million American viewers of local networks.
How is that? I had prepared a study I meant to read at a seminar in which I participated during the convention of Dubai press club, but I didn't; however, as I preferred to tell the participants journalistic stories that were relevant to the subject, then I handed the study to the Dubai club to be distributed to those who wished to have it. Although the study is about 40 pages long, I promise the reader to be as brief as possible, as I present to him the war coverage of the Western media in limited series.
At the Dubai convention, I said and I repeat it today, that I didn't expect to hear myself saying that the Arab media coverage of an important event such as the war on Iraq would be better than that of the Western one. But it did happen; and since I'm trying to be totally objective and neutral, I am introducing a general presentation on the Western media by saying that we will never meet the standards of the New York Times, or the Washington Post or the weekly Observer in London, and that we shall always remain lower than the BBC, whether as a radio or television network. Moreover, CNN dealt with war just as expected, even if what is broadcasted in the U.S. is different from what we see in our region.
This is all true, and there is no use denying it; certain Western media networks are so professional and powerful that we can only hope to get there one day. However, my study addresses the media in general and not anyone in particular.
Major American cable networks, mainly Fox News which is owned by Robert Murdoch, were obviously supporting the war. This war also coincided with a plan presented by the federal communications committee, headed by Michael Powell, the son of U.S. Secretary of State, in a bid to disrupt governmental rights over media property. This is what the major networks have always sought, and it is not hard to relate between Fox News' support for war and Robert Murdoch's attempt to buy Hews Electronics' company, which owns Direct TV, one of the greatest satellite networks in the U.S. This deal was worth 6.6 billion dollars, and the signatories inked it in April 2003, after three years of hard efforts; all they needed was the acceptance of the federal communications committee. However, the Senate, which feared that all the American media would fall into the hands of five major companies, later voted to prevent the cancellation of any restraints over media property.
The biasness of the major companies for war was obvious before it was even waged, as in February 2003, MSNBC (which shares its property with Microsoft) stopped a show hosted by liberal TV anchor, Phil Donahue, six months after it started, under the pretext of having low audience rates. But an internal memo at the network was leaked to the press, describing Donahue to be a tired leftist liberal who doesn't know the reality of the market. Is that true? The New York Times asserted that the public opinion polls showed a large popularity for Donahue's show, knowing that he criticized the decision made to stop his show and said that he was hoping he would manage to get through the tumult of war and offer a balanced image of both sides.
After firing Donahue, MSNBC referred to conservative commentator Mike Samedge, and retired politician Dick Ermy, as well as Joe Scarborough, in an indication that it tried to compete with Fox News.
War advocates adopted an offensive strategy, so the media supervision center, which is very well financed and defines its goal as "the documentation of liberal media's biasness, scandalizing and neutralizing it", became active; this center also runs a unit that aims at supervising the New York Times alone. Hence, it attacked some of the American television's famous people such as Dan Rather and Peter Jennings, but the fair and accurate news institution made an opposed stance and published a report called "Offending democracy in covering war."
The best that was written in this regard was an article called "Iraq: How television failed," by Michael Massing, which was published in the New York Review of Books. The author is a media figure and a renowned academic who went to Iraq on a mission for the journalists' protection committee. The article strongly criticized the American central leadership and accused General Vincent Brooks of deliberately giving misleading information some of the times. He said that European and Arab reporters had asked more direct questions than Americans, raising hence important issues such as the accuracy level of the American missiles, the Iraqi victims and the effect of the depleted uranium. He added that he didn't like at all the coverage of the American television, especially when comparing it to the European and Arab one.
Still, the White House seems to be unsatisfied, even with this obvious biasness, and this is why it is looking for additional networks. However, this might not help either, as a station in Baltimore used to cut an interview with the White House to talk about violence in post-war Iraq and the inexistence of weapons of mass destruction, then it would accuse the President of trying to present a beautiful image of war, regardless of the American victims dying everyday.
I shall close today by saying that I have further information and details, which I can provide the reader with if he wants, especially regarding the federal communication committees and the Congress' voting. I shall continue tomorrow.
-------- iran
Iranians protest nuclear inspections
October 25, 2003
(UPI)
http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20031024-082849-3064r.htm
TEHRAN, Iran, Oct. 24 -- Conservatives are protesting the government's decision to permit tougher inspections of its nuclear facilities and to suspend uranium enrichment.
The BBC reported some 1,000 hardliners marched through Tehran's streets after Friday prayers and held a rally to denounce Iran's decision to sign the protocols.
The supreme leader and other clerics have ruled all weapons of mass destruction are un-Islamic.
So far, vocal opposition to Iran's nuclear compliance has been confined to an extreme right wing fringe.
-------- israel
Israel would disarm if peace assured: Nuclear watchdog
Oct. 25, 2003.
REUTERS
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1067033408655&call_pageid=968332188854&col=968350060724
VIENNA-Israel, which has never publicly admitted to having atomic weapons, would be willing to get rid of any nuclear arms it may have if there was peace in the Middle East, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog says.
Despite Israel's refusal to deny or confirm the possession of a nuclear arsenal, non-proliferation analysts estimate that the country has anywhere from 100 to 200 atomic weapons.
"(It is) good news, at least, that Israel agreed that in the long term they need to get rid of their nuclear weapons capability or the nuclear weapons that they have," International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei said in an interview with Austria's Die Presse newspaper.
"However, they (Israel) are saying they cannot do that except in the context of a comprehensive peace, when their right to exist is fully recognized by all the countries of the region."
It was not immediately clear when and how Israel had communicated this to the IAEA, which has never inspected Israel's alleged atomic weapons program and only carries out limited inspections of a single research reactor in Israel.
Like India and Pakistan, which also have nuclear weapons, Israel has not signed the 1968 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the global pact aimed at stopping the spread of nuclear weapons. ElBaradei said Arab countries complain that while they open up their nuclear programs to the IAEA to ensure they are not secretly developing atomic weapons, it is widely believed that Israel already has a nuclear arsenal.
"My feeling is that the only way where we can make progress (in convincing Israel to disarm) is when the peace process starts to move," ElBaradei said.
----
A nuke-free Middle East?
October 25, 2003
WorldNetDaily.com
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35262
Here we go again. The neo-crazies are demanding the Iranians prove they don't have a nuke development program - or else.
A year ago, the neo-crazies were demanding the Iraqis prove they didn't have a nuke development program - or else.
Of course, neither Iraq nor Iran are required to prove anything to the neo-crazies.
But Iraq and Iran are signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Hence, they are required to satisfy the International Atomic Energy Agency that they aren't engaging in NPT-prohibited activities. And if they can't, the U.N. Security Council could invoke sanctions - or worse.
In particular, they are required to "declare" uranium-enrichment facilities once constructed and subject them to the IAEA Safeguards regime once operational. It is a violation of the NPT to not "declare" such facilities and - even if "declared" - to produce weapons-grade enriched uranium in them.
In the aftermath of the Gulf War, the IAEA discovered that Iraq had constructed uranium enrichment facilities and operated them in violation of the NPT. When these NPT violations were reported in 1991 to the U.N. Security Council, economic sanctions were imposed on Iraq, which were never lifted even though the IAEA reported in 1997 that Iraq was no longer in violation.
Within the last year, Iran has revealed that it, too, has uranium-enrichment facilities under construction - but not yet ready to "declare" - and invited IAEA inspectors to come take a look around, take environmental samples, etc.
Director General ElBaradei was reportedly "stunned" at the scale of the Iranian construction and the sophistication of the enrichment technology. Worse still, two of the environmental samples taken at not yet "operational" facilities showed trace amounts of "highly enriched" uranium.
The IAEA Board of Governors promptly expressed "grave concern" that ElBaradei had been unable to provide "assurances" that there were no materials or activities in Iran that ought to have been "declared," but had not been.
The board resisted U.S. pressure to take the Iranian NPT "violations" to the Security Council so sanctions could be imposed on Iran, similar to those imposed on Iraq in 1991.
Instead, the board adopted - on Sept. 12, 2003 - a resolution that "calls" on Iran to provide "full transparency" to IAEA inspections and to ensure there are "no further failures to report material, facilities and activities that Iran is obliged to report pursuant to its safeguards agreement."
In the meantime, the board called on Iran to "suspend all further uranium enrichment-related activities" and "any reprocessing activities, pending provision by the director general of the assurances required by member states."
For their part, the Iranians are confident they will be able to provide such assurances. In particular, they claim the radioactive contamination the IAEA found was already on the enrichment equipment when they bought it.
You see, the United States has applied sanctions on Iran for more than 20 years, pressuring European suppliers not to supply Iran with technology, materials and equipment Iran has every right to acquire under the NPT. In particular, President Clinton forced Russia to cancel the sale of a gas-centrifuge uranium-enrichment plant to Iran in 1995.
So, Iran has had to be "discreet" in its acquisitions.
The Iranians have now turned over to ElBaradei - nine days before the "deadline" in the IAEA resolution - what they claim is a complete "audit" of all their acquisitions.
Perhaps anticipating some embarrassing revelations about certain "discreet" acquisitions, Brit, German and French foreign ministers hastily converged on Tehran this week and - on behalf of Russia and the European Union - promised that if Iran does satisfy ElBaradei, their countries would provide "easier access to modern technology and supplies in a range of areas"
Furthermore, they have promised to "cooperate with Iran to promote security and stability in the region, including the establishment of a zone free from weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, in accordance with the objectives of the United Nations."
What does that mean?
It means Russia and the EU - including the Brits - will respond to any attempt by the Israelis to "'take out" Iranian reactors and enrichment facilities.
Furthermore, Russia and the EU - including the Brits - will join with the Organization of the Islamic Conference in demanding that Israel transparently dismantle and dispose of its nuke stockpile, fissile materials and fissile material production capability.
Needless to say, this declaration by Russia and the European Union is not what the neo-crazies had in mind when they set out to do unto Iran what they had done to Iraq.
Physicist James Gordon Prather has served as a policy implementing official for national security-related technical matters in the Federal Energy Agency, the Energy Research and Development Administration, the Department of Energy, the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Department of the Army. Dr. Prather also served as legislative assistant for national security affairs to U.S. Sen. Henry Bellmon, R-Okla. -- ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee and member of the Senate Energy Committee and Appropriations Committee. Dr. Prather had earlier worked as a nuclear weapons physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico.
-------- korea
N Korea says it intends to consider US security offer
SEOUL (AFP)
Oct 25, 2003
http://www.spacewar.com/2003/031025121907.69p9gpch.html
North Korea's foreign ministry said Saturday it was ready to consider US President George W. Bush's offer of a written security assurance in return for dismantling the communist country's nuclear program.
"We are ready to consider Bush's remarks on the written assurances of non-aggression if they are based on the intention to co-exist with the DPRK (North Korea) and aimed to play a positive role in realizing the proposal for a package solution on the principle of simultaneous actions," a foreign ministry spokesman said.
The new stance was prompted by Bush's comment this week that Washington and its partners were serious about offering North Korea security assurances, the spokesman said through the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
North Korea originally rejected Bush's offer, saying that it would comply with nothing less than a formal non-aggression treaty from the United States.
"We have already informed the US side of it through the channel of New York contact and are now in the process of ascertaining the real intention of the United States," the spokesman said.
He called for simultaneous action by both sides and said the crisis could be resolved if the North's proposal for "a package solution based on the principle of simultaneous actions is realized."
The spokesman, however, said that it is premature to talk about whether North Korea would return to six-way nuclear crisis talks.
"What we want is for both sides to drop guns and establish normal state relationship to co-exist peacefully. The unilateral demand that one of the two belligerent parties forces the other party to drop guns and come out first with its hands up can never be met," he added.
Since the crisis erupted a year ago, North Korea has repeatedly demanded a legally binding non-aggression pact with Washington, maintaining the United States was planning to invade the Stalinist country.
South Korea welcomed the North's about-face saying it would ease the way for a second round of six-party talks.
"We anticipated North Korea's acceptance of President Bush's proposal. It is a positive development ahead of six-party talks," said Ban Ki-Moon, presidential adviser for foreign policy.
Russia, China, Japan, South Korea and the United States held three days of inconclusive multilateral talks with North Korea in Beijing in August.
No date has been set for a resumption of the talks which North Korea has since described as useless.
Pressure to push the issue forward was exerted this week by leaders of the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) bloc -- including the United States, Russia, China, Japan and South Korea, who are all involved in the six-party process.
While backing away from any condemnation of impoverished North Korea, they declared their support for a nuclear-free Korean peninsula.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell was consulting with his counterparts on the form of a security assurance.
Powell floated the non-aggression proposal last week, only to have North Korea dismiss the offer as an "empty piece of paper" and say it would step up its nuclear weapons program as a result.
The crisis erupted in October last year when Washington said Pyongyang admitted to running a secret uranium-enrichment program in violation of a 1994 nuclear safeguard accord.
In retaliation, the United States stopped its fuel supply to energy-starved North Korea which later reactivated a mothballed nuclear power plant to produce weapons-grade plutonium in protest.
Washington believes North Korea already possesses one or two nuclear bombs after diverting weapons-grade plutonium from an experimental reactor more than 10 years ago.
----
North Korea May Consider Bush's Security Plan
October 25, 2003
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Koreas-Nuclear.html?hp
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- In a sudden shift, North Korea said Saturday that it would consider President Bush's offer of written security assurances in return for dismantling the communist state's nuclear weapons programs.
Pyongyang had previously ridiculed Bush's offer as laughable and ``not worth considering.''
The abrupt change brightened prospects for restarting the six-nation talks to ease tensions in the yearlong standoff over North Korea's nuclear programs, which some experts say could produce several more atomic bombs within months.
North Korea already has informed Washington of its new intentions through a contact in New York between Bush administration officials and North Korean diplomats at the United Nations, said an unnamed spokesman of Pyongyang's Foreign Ministry.
U.S. officials in Washington could not immediately be reached for comment.
Separately, the Japanese government said North Korea may have test-fired a short-range missile off its eastern coast Saturday. It is the third suspected missile launch by Pyongyang this week.
During a Bangkok, Thailand summit of Asia-Pacific leaders earlier this week, Bush proposed that the United States, Russia, South Korea, Japan and China would offer written assurances the North will not be attacked if it promises to dismantle its nuclear program. North Korea initially rejected Bush's offer, insisting that it would settle for nothing less than a formal nonaggression treaty from the United States.
But the North Korean spokesman said Saturday: ``We are ready to consider Bush's remarks on the 'written assurances of nonaggression' if they are based on the intention to coexist with the (North)'' and offer ``simultaneous actions.'' The comments were carried by Pyongyang's official KCNA news agency.
When it calls for ``simultaneous actions,'' North Korea means it wants the United States to first provide economic and humanitarian aid, sign a nonaggression treaty with Pyongyang, open diplomatic ties and build a nuclear power plant. Meanwhile, North Korea will first declare its willingness to give up nuclear development, allow nuclear inspections, give up missiles exports and finally dismantle its nuclear weapons facilities.
The North Korean spokesman said it was ``premature'' to talk about whether his country would return to six-nation talks. His country must first confirm that the United States will take ``simultaneous actions'' toward ending the nuclear crisis, he said.
``Simple and clear is our request,'' the North Korean spokesman said. ``What we want is for both sides to drop guns and establish normal state relationship to coexist peacefully.''
North Korea was now ``in the process of ascertaining the real intention of the U.S.,'' he said.
U.S. officials pledged to maintain their New York contact with North Koreans, he added.
Representatives of the United States, China, Russia, Japan and South and North Korea met in Beijing in August for their first round of six-nation talks aimed at ending the North Korean nuclear crisis. But the meeting ended without agreement on a new round, as the United States and North Korea failed to narrow their differences.
Washington demanded that North Korea first shut down its nuclear program immediately. Pyongyang demanded a formal nonaggression treaty and economic aid before dismantling tis nuclear facilities.
In recent weeks, North Korea added urgency to the crisis by declaring that it is using plutonium extracted from its 8,000 nuclear spent fuel rods to build new atomic bombs, besides the one or two it is already believed to possess. Last week, it threatened to test a bomb.
Bush made his overture amid international efforts to bring North Korea back to six-nation talks. Wu Bangguo, head of China's legislature and the Communist Party's No. 2 man, will travel to Pyongyang next week to encourage North Korea to return to the talks.
The nuclear dispute flared last October, when U.S. officials said North Korea admitted having a secret nuclear weapons program in violation of international agreements.
-------- u.s. nuc facilities
-------- new jersey
Nuclear Plant's Courtship of Its Neighbors Pays Off
October 25, 2003
By DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/25/nyregion/25NUKE.html?pagewanted=all&position=
FORKED RIVER, N.J. - Given the eventful history of the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station, people who live near the plant might be excused for the occasional case of the jitters.
While Oyster Creek has amassed an improving safety record during the past decade, it did have its own brush with disaster in 1979, just five weeks after the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in Pennsylvania. An error by engineers allowed the water level in Oyster Creek's reactor to drop 10 feet, leaving the radioactive core alarmingly close to being exposed. Only an emergency shutdown of the plant averted the release of dangerous levels of radiation.
Yet today, while other plants, most notably the Indian Point nuclear plant in Westchester County in New York, have generated widespread concern and opposition, New Jersey residents near this plant in Ocean County seem at peace with the fact that they live near the nation's oldest nuclear power plant.
That relationship will be tested in the coming months, because the plant's owners must decide by Dec. 31, 2004, whether to apply for renewal of the reactor's 40-year license or shut down by 2009. But Oyster Creek is a reminder that for many nuclear plants - perhaps most of them - economic and political issues can be potent forces for marshaling support.
Ernest J. Harkness, a manager at the plant, said Oyster Creek has earned that good will because it has made contributions to schools, charities and community groups and has a better than average safety record.
Opponents of nuclear power contend that other factors have induced nearby residents to minimize the possible dangers of the 650-megawatt reactor: Oyster Creek's influence with political leaders has allowed it to quell protests, and its out-of-the-way location has permitted the plant to operate without intense or sustained attention from the news media. Residents on the Jersey Shore, meanwhile, have had to contend with an assortment of environmental problems, like a cancer cluster in Toms River, which have diverted public attention.
But both opponents and supporters of the plant agree that Oyster Creek has won much of its grudging acceptance from the community because it provides hundreds of solid, high-paying jobs in an area with few other major employers.
John C. Parker, the deputy mayor of Lacey Township, which includes Forked River, lobbied to bring the plant to town 40 years ago and remains one of its most fervent supporters. "People don't want to say anything bad about the plant because they're worried that the people they're talking to may work there," he said. "It would be like you're trying to take food off of their table."
Oyster Creek has not always coexisted quite as peacefully with communities along the Jersey Shore. After Jersey Central Power and Light announced its intention to build a nuclear plant in Ocean County in the early 1960's, federal officials suggested that the location was ideal because its sparse population would limit the potential human toll of any nuclear accident. Some of the county's 50,000 residents took offense.
"It was like we were expendable," said Leonard T. Connors Jr., a state senator who was then an Ocean County freeholder.
The most intense protests came after the near-accident in 1979, when many nuclear power opponents warned that the plant had come close to a meltdown. But local officials rallied behind the plant owners to ease the fears of the community. Oyster Creek soon underwent a $100 million overhaul to address concerns raised by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Lacey Township residents were reminded, again and again, that the millions of dollars the plant paid each year in taxes helped give their community a quality of life that was the envy of many other shore communities - a low crime rate, low property taxes and excellent municipal services.
Oyster Creek continued to suffer the kind of periodic malfunctions that might incite a more excitable community: cracks in containment walls, leaks of iodine gas. But by 1992, when the owners announced plans to build an above-ground storage facility for nuclear waste, there was virtually no organized opposition and a sense that it was futile to fight the plant, said William DeCamp, an advocate who unsuccessfully opposed its construction.
Owners of the plant say that Ocean County residents do not need to battle, because Oyster Creek poses little threat. AmerGen Energy, which bought the plant two years ago, is quick to point out that Oyster Creek has improved its safety performance during the past two decades. David Lochbaum of the Union of Concerned Scientists, a watchdog group that has been critical of many nuclear plants, agrees that Oyster Creek's safety record in recent years compares favorably to many younger reactors.
But there are also signs that business and community leaders are careful not to stoke any uneasiness about the plant's potential dangers. An emergency preparedness leaflet distributed by the Ocean County sheriff lists 12 possible reasons for an evacuation. Nuclear accident is ninth - after blizzard, flood and fire.
That low-key approach is just fine with Lacey Township residents like Glenda Knobe. "The people in the plant and the government have done their job so far," she said, scooping ice cream at a shop two miles south of the generating station. "So it's better to just not think about it."
In the months since the Sept. 11 hijackers flew their commandeered jetliners perilously close to Indian Point, Westchester County and Ocean County have been a study in contrasts.
In the Westchester town of Buchanan, where Indian Point is, officials have made the same economic arguments heard in Lacey Township. But residents of surrounding towns and villages in Westchester - and a celebrity-funded group led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - have complained that the Indian Point evacuation plan is unworkable and have made the slogan "Close Indian Point" a familiar sight.
In New Jersey, the State Police anticipate that it would take 9 hours 28 minutes to evacuate the 244,000 people who live within 10 miles of Oyster Creek during the summer - nearly the same evacuation time as Indian Point. But even supporters of Oyster Creek concede that it could take far longer, especially if the problems occurred on a weekend when the Jersey Shore is jammed.
Since 9/11, the turnout at meetings about Ocean County's evacuation plan have been relatively sparse, and last year, when federal officials offered potassium iodide pills to people in 18 towns near the plant, only 4,000 of the 100,000 doses were claimed by residents.
A succession of security lapses at Oyster Creek this year has also done little to rouse public concern. Gov. James E. McGreevey's aides - most notably Gerald Nicholls, a nuclear expert in the state's Department of Environmental Protection - have argued that the evacuation plan is sound and that the state does not need to hire an outside consulting firm to evaluate it, like Gov. George E. Pataki did in New York.
As the deadline nears for Oyster Creek to apply to renew its license, Edith Gbur, director of Jersey Shore Nuclear Watch, said she sees an opportunity to engage and mobilize the public. But with little money and no celebrities involved - Bruce Springsteen, who starred in the "No Nukes" concerts in the late 1970's, lives 30 miles from the plant but has remained silent on the issue - nuclear opponents are focusing on rallying locally elected officials. So far, eight communities have passed resolutions asking that the plant be shut down when the license expires, and the county freeholders are considering a similar move.
Emily Rusch, the energy advocate for New Jersey Public Interest Research Group, said the organization plans to begin a community outreach program to warn residents about both the aging reactor and the radioactive waste it produces.
Mr. Parker, Lacey Township's deputy mayor, predicts that they will have a hard task ahead of them. "These protesters are always from outside," he said. "We've seen them come and we've seen them go. But the public is pretty smart when it comes to their pocketbooks. So I think the plant is going to be around."
-------- us politics
WASHINGTON TALK
This Memo Must Not Be Leaked: Wink, Wink
October 25, 2003
By DAVID JOHNSTON
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/25/national/25MEMO.html
WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 - Technically, they are called confidential memorandums. But in the capital, as it became vividly clear again this week, there is really no such thing.
In the hands of a skilled practitioner, a private memorandum, leaked immediately or strategically placed in a file for later use, is a device that can be used to criticize, deflect, settle scores, temporize, obfuscate, discredit, claim credit or deny without having to do it in public - or asking permission from a superior.
This week, official Washington is buzzing over how - and why - a memorandum by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld made its way into USA Today on Wednesday, less than a week after it was written (at least ostensibly) for an "eyes only" audience at the Pentagon.
In the document, Mr. Rumsfeld observed that American forces in Afghanistan and Iraq faced a "long hard slog."
That bleak assessment contrasted starkly with his public optimism and combative dismissal of complaints that he seemed to acknowledge in his memorandum. It said that "we are having mixed results with Al Qaeda, although we have put considerable pressure on them - nonetheless a great many remain at large."
Many political analysts (including veteran memo writers) of both parties said they believed that the memorandum, although seemingly sent in confidence, was written to carefully position Mr. Rumsfeld in the struggle within the Bush administration for control of postwar policy in Iraq.
"From a public standpoint, this is a memo we all wish that Robert McNamara had written during the Vietnam War, and it might have been something that saved a lot of lives," said David Gergen, a veteran adviser to Democratic and Republican presidents.
Mr. Gergen said of Mr. Rumsfeld: "My suspicion is that he knew this memo would find its way into the public and he wanted it there. When you send a memo out to five people in Washington, you know it will get out."
Whatever the motive, the Rumsfeld memorandum was a reminder that the private contents of memorandums are often more memorable than the public utterances of public officials themselves.
Many officials in the capital still remember Daniel Patrick Moynihan's memorandum to President Richard M. Nixon in 1969 suggesting that race relations could be calmed by a period of "benign neglect."
Memorandums often seem intended as tools in internecine bureaucratic battles. A State Department note in 1986, which was used to devise American policy toward Libya, suggested "a coup or assassination attempt" against Muammar el-Qaddafi, the Libyan leader, after President Ronald Reagan had affirmed a ban on the killing of foreign officials.
President Bill Clinton's campaigns provided fertile ground for a string of embarrassing memorandums. In 1992, for example, a Clinton memorandum outlined a confidential plan to repackage Mr. Clinton's public image to make him "communicate in a way that sounds less political."
Republicans pounced then and again after the leak of a memorandum in 1994 by Mr. Clinton's budget director, Alice M. Rivlin, which offered a written "catalog" of ideas for reducing the budget deficit by tax increases and Social Security cuts.
This week, the Democrats pounced. Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, the senior Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said: "Rumsfeld has never admitted the facts before. This is the first scent of introspection that I have even whiffed out of the civilian side of the Defense Department."
Republicans countered that the memorandum reflected Mr. Rumsfeld's restless search for ways to improve the Pentagon's performance against an unconventional foe. And some said it seemed to shift responsibility for problems from Mr. Rumsfeld to others in the Pentagon.
There seems to be an ample flow of leaked memorandums to satisfy the appetite of the press and the political establishment. Writers have not been daunted by the advent of computer systems and e-mail - or by the fear that any private communication could be subpoenaed in any of the seemingly ubiquitous investigations by federal prosecutors or Congress.
"There is the myth of the paperless office, but in actuality the computer has enabled the infinite replication of paper," said Thomas S. Blanton, executive director of the National Security Archives at George Washington University, which collects records of controversial government actions. "With the flick of a button, you've got millions of copies."
-------- MILITARY
-------- africa
A Brutal Legacy of Congo War
Extent of Violence Against Women Surfaces as Fighting Recedes
By Emily Wax
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, October 25, 2003; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A14059-2003Oct24?language=printer
BUKAVU, Congo -- She walks slowly in padded slippers inside a hospital ward. Bohoro Nyagakon is a woman with gentle eyes and a frail five-foot frame, with a friendly 5-year-old daughter playing nearby. She is waiting in this cramped room -- with dozens of others -- to undergo a harrowing procedure: reconstruction of her vagina.
Gang rape has been so violent, so systematic, so common in eastern Congo during the country's five years of war that thousands of women are suffering from vaginal fistula, leaving them unable to control bodily functions and enduring ostracism and the threat of debilitating lifelong health problems.
Around the world, cases of ruptured vaginal tissue are usually caused by early childbirth and seen in such African countries as Ethiopia, Nigeria and Mali, where brides as young as 12 are too small to give birth. What makes the fistula cases in Congo so jarring to medical professionals here is the large number of them caused by rape.
In the past few months, as a peace agreement has taken hold and fighting has slowed, the extent of the brutality has become evident, physicians say. There are so many cases being reported that the destruction of the vagina is considered a war injury and recorded by doctors as a crime of combat.
"There are thousands of violated ladies showing up. It's like nothing we have ever seen anywhere in the world," said Jo Lusi, head of a Congolese-run hospital in the eastern city of Goma that is working with the U.S.-based aid group Doctors on Call for Service.
"We are here repairing an organ that is so important to women and to our country and to our dignity," Lusi said. The U.N. Children's Fund is building a special ward at the hospital for women suffering from fistula and other effects of rape. "Imagine, that this is what the war in Congo has come to. What could be more terrible for our women and our families?"
Village health posts are reporting far more cases than those arriving at hospitals, because journeys from the country's interior are long and difficult, according to health care workers at the British aid agency Merlin.
"I think we are addressing the tip of the iceberg because access to health care is so limited," said David Tu, a doctor at the Bukavu branch of Doctors Without Borders-Holland. "For every one case there could be 30 more in the rural areas that we aren't hearing about."
Still, doctors say hundreds of women have arrived in recent months in Goma, Bukavu, Shabunda and several other cities in eastern Congo to wait for an operation that will deliver them from life as a village recluse -- unable to work, or to have children or sexual relations. Many local women's groups have joined to help the women make the journey by foot through miles of jungle to city hospitals. Some patients go through three or even four painful operations -- each requiring 21 days of bed rest. Each operation costs about $300 but is paid for through international donations.
In Congo, it is often said that women have paid the highest price in the war that began in 1998, pitting government forces against rebels backed by Uganda and Rwanda. Young soldiers from the dozens of factions that roam eastern Congo -- wired on cocaine, drunk from palm wine -- have turned rape into a primary weapon of war, as common as looting or setting a hut afire. Rape has even been encouraged by commanders as a way to gain control of such scarce resources as food, water and firewood, intimidating the women on a continent where women do nearly all the labor in the fields.
An estimated 3.5 million people in Congo have died in the past five years, mostly from disease and starvation. Rape has become so prevalent that some aid groups estimate that one in every three women are victims. With Congo lacking a functioning court system, no one has been punished.
But there has been a remarkable response by women around eastern Congo, who at times have launched spectacular -- and, in Africa, unheard-of -- protests to bring attention to the issue.
In March, for instance, hundreds of women stripped naked in the center of Goma and challenged thousands of dumbfounded onlookers, mostly men.
"If you are going to rape us, rape us now, because this must stop today," Mama Jeanne Banyere, head of the Federation of Protestant Women in Goma, recalled telling the crowd.
As the men stood watching, the women chanted that they would no longer accept rape in the community. They demanded health care for women suffering from fistula, who were being abandoned by husbands and ostracized by the community.
"So many women have it and so many were raped. Some were even raped by men sticking branches and guns up their vaginas," said Banyere. "We couldn't just cry. Everywhere in the country there are women crying because of this. We had to fight back."
After the protest, the health care workers at Doctors on Call for Service moved quickly to find Congolese physicians who could perform the operations for fistula patients. They predicted in April that they would need to perform only 50 such surgeries. Instead, they have done more than 150 of the operations.
Inside a ranch-style complex of wards, 55 women are housed under white tents in what used to be the hospital's garden. Girls as young as 8 and women as old as 73 sat on small wire cots wrapped in gray blankets donated by UNICEF. All had been raped and were undergoing counseling for trauma. Some said they considered killing themselves after surviving multiple rapes. Some had puddles of urine under their seats because of their condition.
A vast majority of the women in the tents were waiting for operations, sometimes a second or third procedure. About 10 more women arrive each week, doctors said.
Nyagakon, 30, was waiting for her third procedure at the Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, capital of South Kivu Province. The story of how she arrived here began on May 12, 2002, when rebel fighters demanded that she disrobe in her home. It was 8 p.m. She was eight months pregnant and had finished a long day of cooking and washing. She was resting in the sitting room of her small hut.
"Five of them came at me. I closed my eyes. They told my husband to get in another room and they held him down. They were shouting that they would kill him," she said, looking down. "Then they each had sex with me, five of them. Afterwards, I was so bruised and my mind was shutting off."
After the rebels left, her husband carried her through the banana trees under the cover of darkness and onto a boat for the five-hour ride from her town of Niabembe to Kabare, a bigger town with a hospital.
In the middle of the night, the doctors had to cut her abdomen open and remove the dead fetus.
"Afterwards my mind was really gone," she said, her eyes tearing. "I was thinking how would I survive like this."
Her husband, who teaches the Bible at a local church, took her home and was kind to her, she said. For that she felt lucky, because many husbands have left their wives after they were raped and suffered from vaginal fistula.
He could not help her, though. She stayed in bed for 10 months trying to survive the humiliation of a condition that often leaves women foul-smelling because of a tear in the bladder or the rectum. In some villages, women with fistula are told to sleep with animals. She just sat in bed crying and trying to stop the endless flow of urine and feces. Finally, a friend of her husband from a women's group at his church told him of a place in Bukavu where she could have an operation.
They left right away on the two-day journey. When she arrived, she was sad to see so many women suffering from the same affliction. "My heart was hurting," she said.
But in another way, she was happy to be among those who would not judge her or make fun of her illness. "I was feeling better because I couldn't survive this way," she said. "I was thinking I might be okay again."
Her first operation, which took nearly four hours, was unsuccessful; doctors said it was because she had suffered such severe ruptures to her bladder wall. The second operation, three months later, went far better. She can now control most of her bodily functions.
Sitting recently in her doctor's office, where drawings that depict soldiers raping a woman warn of such acts, she said she was encouraging other women to talk about what they went through.
One woman in the hospital had been shot in her vagina with a gun. Another was taken as a slave of a rebel group and gang-raped for months. Some of the women are pregnant; others are HIV-positive. The hospital has had 897 rape cases since March.
"We are good, good friends," Nyagakon said. "If I see a woman who is sad, I help her."
For now, she sat sitting in the ward with other women, who were lying listlessly on beds, some with jugs of water nearby to help them become hydrated after an operation. Others rested with bedpans nearby, waiting for surgery.
Nyagakon is awaiting her third operation. She hears on the radio of a fragile peace. She hopes that by the time she recovers, she will finally be healed and it will be safe to go home.
-------- business
Air Force Opposes Scaled-Back Tanker Plan
By Renae Merle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 25, 2003; Page E02
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14062-2003Oct24.html
The Air Force balked yesterday at a Senate committee proposal to save $4 billion by scaling back its $21 billion plan to lease then buy 100 Boeing Co. tankers.
The proposal could force cuts in the F/A-22 fighter jet, Joint Strike Fighter and C-17 cargo jet programs, said Marvin R. Sambur, the Air Force's chief weapons buyer. "It's going to be a difficult situation. We need those tankers, but we need these other things too," he said.
The proposal offered by Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), a ranking member, calls for leasing 20 planes and buying up to 80. That would require about $500 million in funding initially, but that figure would jump to $3.5 billion in 2008, according to a congressional aide.
The Air Force's budget does not have room for that, and the language should be changed to preserve the current lease plan, Sambur said. The Air Force believes that the only way it can afford to modernize its current fleet of 40-year-old tankers, which refuel fighter jets in midair, is by leasing then buying them.
It's unclear whether the Air Force's objections could derail the compromise. Frustrated that the Senate Armed Services Committee has not approved the original plan, some House members are considering attaching the leasing plan as an amendment to the $87 billion Iraq supplemental budget request or another appropriations bill, according to several congressional aides.
Three congressional committees have backed the Air Force plan to lease 100 planes, but the Senate Armed Services Committee will not act on the original proposal, a congressional aide said. Instead, the committee will insert the Warner-Levin compromise into the 2004 defense authorization bill. A committee spokesman did not return calls for comment.
--------
Halliburton Defends No - Bid Iraq Contract
October 25, 2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Halliburton-Memo.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The head of Vice President Dick Cheney's former employer, Halliburton, is asking employees to contact newspapers and lawmakers to counter Democratic criticism of the company's no-bid contract in Iraq.
In an Oct. 17 memo entitled ``Defending Our Company,'' Halliburton's president, Dave Lesar, said he was offended by the criticism but cautioned employees to be positive in their letters.
``We should avoid stooping to our critics' level of dialogue, no matter how tempting that may be,'' he wrote. He said the critics are ``distorting our efforts'' to restore Iraq's oil industry and provide other services to the U.S. military in Iraq.
Several congressional Democrats have leveled criticism against the Houston-based Halliburton, which Cheney left when he ran for office in 2000. Cheney still receives deferred payments for services previously performed, but his office says he severed his ties with the company and had no role in the company's contracts.
Democrats in the House and Senate have questioned whether Halliburton's oil industry contract resulted from favoritism to Cheney, since there were no competitive bids.
Halliburton's KBR subsidiary has been paid $1.59 billion so far for the oil industry contract with the Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps has said it would soon award two replacement contracts through competitive bidding.
The Lesar memo was obtained by operators of an Internet site, Misleader.org, which publishes what it calls ``misrepresentations, distortions and downright misleading statements by President Bush and the Bush administration.'' An official of the site said it was provided to a subscriber by a relative employed by Halliburton.
Lesar, Halliburton's president, CEO and chairman, said: ``Now I'm asking you to help by writing a letter to the editor of your newspaper.'' He listed ``some facts that you can use to help deliver your letter.''
He also told workers ``it would be helpful to write to your representatives in Washington, D.C., asking them to support fairness and accuracy.''
Halliburton spokeswoman Wendy Hall said: ``We often encourage employees to share their voice and opinions on matters that they feel are important. As many companies do, we encourage employees to write to their respective representatives in Washington.
``Many of our employees have expressed appreciation for this effort, so that they have an active voice in support of the company.''
Among Lesar's suggestions for the letters to newspapers:
--``Halliburton makes our troops more comfortable in a difficult environment by bringing shelter, supplies, clean uniforms and mail from home.''
--``Halliburton is proud to offer its global resources at this critical time in the Middle East.''
--``Halliburton has successfully helped to restore needed services in Iraq that will help bring some sense of normalcy for those who have suffered losses.''
The e-mail also included suggestions for making the letter effective, telling employees to ``write from the heart and use your own words and, where possible, use firsthand stories.''
``It's OK to show your pride in your work and your co-workers, and to mention your own experience with Halliburton,'' Lesar said.
On the Net:
Misleader.org: http://www.misleader.org/
Halliburton: http://www.halliburton.com/
-------- iraq
THE OCCUPATION
U.S. Forces to Lift Night Curfew for Muslim Holy Month
October 25, 2003
By SUSAN SACHS and THOM SHANKER
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/25/international/middleeast/25IRAQ.html?pagewanted=all&position=
BAGHDAD, Oct. 24 - Iraq's American overseers said Friday that they would lift the nighttime curfew on Baghdad's five million residents beginning Sunday, to accommodate the country's Muslims during Ramadan and demonstrate that the country is returning to normal despite the persistent armed resistance to the occupation.
The announcement coincided with the arrival in Iraq of Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz, one of the architects of the war to unseat Saddam Hussein, whose itinerary was choreographed to highlight successes that the Bush administration complains have been ignored.
Military commanders have instructed soldiers to keep a low profile during the month of Ramadan out of respect for religious sensibilities. But they also warned that Ramadan could bring an increase in attacks, either from religious militants who associate the period with heralded acts of martyrdom or from other guerrilla fighters.
The continuing threat was highlighted on Friday, when three American soldiers were killed and four wounded in two attacks north of Baghdad. In the city of Samarra, two members of the Fourth Infantry Division were killed in a mortar attack that also wounded four others. In the city of Mosul, a soldier with the 101st Airborne Division was killed by small-arms fire, according to military officials.
Ramadan begins with the first sighting of the new crescent moon, a moment expected to arrive here tonight or this weekend. Mr. Hussein used to decree the start of the fast and brooked no dispute.
This year, Iraq's Shiite and Sunni Muslims will hear the word from their own clerics, who have hinted they may well differ by a day in their proclamations.
Baghdad has been under curfew since it fell to American-led troops nearly six months ago, leaving the capital's streets deserted after midnight except for military and Iraqi police patrols.
Officials with the occupation administration said, however, that crime had decreased to the point that they were willing to experiment by lifting the curfew for Ramadan, leaving the option of reimposing it for security considerations.
In other parts of the country, individual military commanders will be free to do the same, according to their own assessments. Soldiers have also received briefings from their commanders and Muslim clerics on the traditions of Ramadan.
"It's in part due to an improvement in the overall security situation, now that there is a police force on the streets, and an evaluation by military and Iraqi police," said a spokesman for the American-led authority. "And it's being done in time for the whole month of Ramadan."
Muslims believe that the Koran, Islam's holy book, was first revealed to the Prophet Muhammad during Ramadan. It is meant to be a time of fasting, reflection and prayer, with Muslims traditionally finishing each day of abstinence with a night of family feasts and visits.
Religious leaders said they were not concerned that the absence of a national telephone system - Iraq's was destroyed by American bombs during the war - might make it difficult to spread the news once the crescent moon is spotted somewhere in the countryside.
In preparation, they have set up their own relay service of satellite telephones, called Thuraya, which sell for about $700 apiece in Iraq. So far they are the only portable phones available to most Iraqis.
"If someone sees the crescent, he will go to his local sheik with two witnesses and there will be a list of Thuraya phone numbers for sheiks in different towns and sheiks in Baghdad," said Moayed al-Adami, imam of the Abu Hanifa mosque in Baghdad, a revered shrine for Iraq's Sunni Muslims.
"Anyway, even ordinary news spreads like wildfire around here," he added. "What do you think will happen when it comes to the Ramadan crescent, when every Muslim is waiting anxiously for this news?"
Ali al-Musawi al-Waaf, a Baghdad representative of the leading Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, said the Shiites had made similar preparations.
Like many Shiite clerics, Sheik Waaf said he had been persecuted by the former government, spending 23 years under house arrest.
"During the days of Saddam, he acted like the supreme religious leader of the country and he would declare Ramadan according to his personal choice," he recalled. "But those times, I'd pick up the phone and call the grand ayatollah to ask when it was Ramadan. And people would come to my house, knock on the door, and whisper, `Has Ramadan started?' And I would tell them."
Earlier this week, special instructions went out to each American military unit counseling soldiers to expect more than the usual celebratory gunfire and to avoid "callous or disrespectful attitudes."
"Coalition forces must have an increased cultural awareness during this period," the advisory said. Treating Iraqis with disrespect during the period, it added, could tarnish the soldiers' image in the international and local media.
Beginning today, Iraqi television and radio, both supervised by the American authority, will repeatedly broadcast a Ramadan message from the occupation administrator, L. Paul Bremer III.
In it, he urges Iraqis to face their future with hope while recalling their deprivations under "the evil one," referring to the deposed dictator.
"When the people of the world demanded that the evil one stop, he threatened them and fought them," Mr. Bremer said in the broadcast, which was provided in advance in script form. "And when the evil one fought them, he fought them in your name, with your money and your blood and the blood of your fathers, your mothers and your children."
Civilian and military officials overseeing Iraq have tried to focus attention, inside and outside Iraq, on what they consider the positive results of the war and the occupation.
To that end, Mr. Wolfowitz's first day in Iraq included a stop at Hilla, where the bodies of thousands of people executed by the former Iraqi government have been unearthed, and lunch with the Polish commander of an international division, to demonstrate that the occupation has gained multinational support.
Maj. Gen. Roy Odierno, commander of the Fourth Infantry Division, said he also was lifting curfews, releasing some prisoners and providing money to refurbish mosques.
In a briefing for Mr. Wolfowitz, who traveled Friday to the Fourth Infantry Division's headquarters in Tikrit, General Odierno said the Americans had already spent $154,000 repairing mosques as part of an overture to the Muslim community and its leaders.
"We are keeping a low profile during Ramadan to reduce possible interference with the holiday," the general told Mr. Wolfowitz and his Defense Department delegation. But he warned, "We will respond if threatened."
Susan Sachs reported for this article from Baghdad and Thom Shanker from Tikrit.
--------
RECONSTRUCTION
Over $13 Billion in Aid Is Pledged to Rebuild Iraq
October 25, 2003
By STEVEN R. WEISMAN
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/25/international/europe/25DONO.html?hp=&pagewanted=all&position=
MADRID, Oct. 24 - The United States, completing an extraordinary campaign for economic aid to Iraq, won commitments on Friday of at least $13 billion over five years for reconstruction of water, power, health care and other systems devastated by the American invasion six months ago.
The total surpassed what many had expected, although roughly two-thirds of the aid appeared to be in the form of loans rather than grants, which might complicate efforts by the Bush administration to beat back a drive in Congress to make more American aid in the form of loans.
Administration officials have said repeatedly that Iraq needs grants and cannot afford to add to its debt.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell hailed the $13 billion sum as larger than the Bush administration expected only a few weeks ago, when he said some colleagues were considering whether to call off the meeting of donors here.
"But here we are, and we've had a very successful conference," Mr. Powell said, adding that the estimated total was at the "low end." A senior American official said afterward that the number might grow by as much as $4 billion.
Exactly how much of the figure mentioned Friday was in the form of grants was not immediately clear. But it appeared that total grants between now and the end of 2004 would come to between $3 billion and $4 billion.
While some donors - which include both nations and institutions - said that was close to what Iraq could realistically absorb, American officials said the country could use far more in grants right away.
Some donors apparently pledged sums that they had already announced and transmitted earlier. Others included import credits, relief assistance - including $500,000 worth of rice from Vietnam - or other items not on the list of reconstruction and security needs for which the Madrid conference was called. Nor is it clear how much money will be available how soon.
Arab nations did not come through with the large number of grants that the administration had sought, in part because of antipathy toward the war in Iraq and, more recently, the collapse of the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. The United Arab Emirates offered $200 million to $250 million. Saudi Arabia offered $1 billion in low-cost loans and an additional $500 million to finance Saudi export credits. Kuwait came up with $500 million.
Most loans come not from countries but from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which will most likely have to negotiate the terms of their aid along with a plan to reschedule and perhaps forgive at least some of Iraq's existing $120 billion in debts, according to World Bank officials.
The senior administration official said that while much of the money would be received as loans, interest rates and repayment schedules would be highly favorable to Iraq. Loans, he added, will supply quick infusions of cash to get construction projects going quickly.
Asked why loans were acceptable from the international agencies and other donors but not from Congress, American officials said that they had to recognize the reality of donor finances and that this did not diminish the need for Congress to provide grants.
"Sure, we prefer grants," Treasury Secretary John Snow said. "But what we really are counting on here is financial support, lines of credit, money in the bank that can be drawn on to finance the rebuilding of Iraq."
As delegates left Madrid on Friday evening, many questions remained about the sums pledged. Many development officials cautioned, for example, that the nations pledging them might not live up to their promises. That is what has happened, at least in part, with the $5 billion raised for Afghanistan last year.
The biggest unanswered question, many delegates said, is whether the troubled security situation in Iraq will prevent the aid from being delivered.
"Security is a problem," Mr. Powell said at a news conference closing the meeting. "We don't deny it. But we are confident that security will improve in a manner that will permit reconstruction to accelerate."
The $13 billion in loans and grants pledged here, if they materialize, could be added to the $20 billion that Congress is expected to approve for Iraq's reconstruction and security needs. The combined total of $33 billion falls substantially short of the $55 billion that the World Bank and the United States assessed as Iraq's needs in the next four years.
But development officials also say that $33 billion for one country over four or five years dwarfs what other impoverished or war-torn countries have received in the modern history of aid projects.
Moreover, administration officials emphasized that the money pledged here would be supplemented by future pledges and by $15 billion in oil revenues from 2005 to 2007, assuming that the Iraqi oil industry gets back on its feet.
The sums were announced at the end of a long day of speeches and presentations by envoys from more than 70 countries and organizations. During the day, American officials insisted that they did not know what the total would be by sundown. Some said the totals might not become clear for weeks.
Accompanying the pledges were heated demands and warnings from donor nations and from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and other international institutions that the United States and Iraq must do a better job in disclosing how money is spent.
"So far there hasn't been a good accounting of how the money was used," said Mark Malloch Brown, head of the United Nations Development Program, referring to the several billion dollars already spent in Iraq from oil revenues and seized Iraqi assets.
American officials bridled at those accusations, saying there had been a full accounting even though it had not yet been made public. L. Paul Bremer III, administrator of the American-led Iraqi occupation, said the accounting would be on a Web site soon.
Immediate grants are the highest priority for American officials, but the exact amount of these was not clear on Friday night. The total pledged by the European Union and individual European countries was about $800 million. Conspicuous by their absence as individual donors were Germany and France, vigorous opponents of the war.
Iran, a longtime enemy of Saddam Hussein, came gladly to the conference. American officials avoided the delegation, in keeping with the administration's characterization of Iran as a potential nuclear-armed threat to peace and part of an "axis of evil."
Many Iraqis are themselves wary of Iran's apparent attempts to extend its influence. Iran announced that it would subsidize 100,000 tourists and Muslim pilgrims a month in Iraq, generating $500 million a year for Iraq. This money was not counted here as aid. Aid officials said that despite what American officials had said about the need for grants rather than loans, it was highly unrealistic to think that all aid could be in the form of grants.
Indeed, Mr. Malloch Brown of the United Nations backed the Bush administration's request for grants from Congress but said that if Iraq received all of its aid as grants, money for other impoverished regions of the world would effectively dry up.
--------
Mortar Attacks Multiply in Iraq
Latest Strikes Kill 2 U.S. Soldiers, 2 Iraqis
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, October 25, 2003; Page A18
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13977-2003Oct24.html
BAGHDAD, Oct. 24 -- A spree of mortar strikes, a tactic employed with increasing frequency and accuracy by resistance fighters, killed two U.S. soldiers and two Iraqi civilians, and wounded at least 24 other people Thursday night and Friday morning, according to reports from the American military and witnesses.
A third U.S. soldier, from the 101st Airborne Division, was killed by small-arms fire in the northern city of Mosul before dawn Friday, the military said. Later in the day, news services reported that two Iraqi children were killed and three adults were wounded in a grenade attack on a police station in Mosul, which had been regarded as one of the more stable cities in northern Iraq.
In Fallujah, a restive city west of Baghdad where U.S. forces have been attacked every day since Sunday, witnesses said a roadside bomb planted on a main street wounded several soldiers in a convoy.
The U.S. military released few details about the mortar strikes. The first, which was not formally reported by the military, occurred Thursday evening in Baghdad's southern Daura neighborhood. A series of mortars slammed into a market, killing two Iraqi civilians and injuring seven people.
It was not clear what the attackers were targeting, but a police station is near the market and the Daura power-generation station is about 200 yards away. The power plant was slightly damaged in the attack.
Later that night, 13 soldiers from the Army's 4th Infantry Division were wounded when a mortar round struck at a hangar at Camp War Horse near Baqubah, about 30 miles northeast of Baghdad.
Shortly before noon Friday, two soldiers were killed and four were wounded in a mortar strike on a 4th Infantry forward operating base near Samarra, a town north of Baghdad, the military said.
Mortar attacks have emerged as a deadly new challenge for soldiers in Iraq. Although resistance fighters have fired mortars at American bases since July, the intensity of the strikes has increased in recent weeks, according to military officials and daily compilations of hostile incidents.
Mortars are also being fired from new locations. Initially, they were fired only from uninhabited stretches of desert around bases in areas to the north and west of Baghdad, where resistance activity has been the heaviest.
But mortars have increasingly been fired in the heart of the capital. One recent attack targeted the Rasheed Hotel, home to hundreds of U.S. military personnel and civilian reconstruction staff. Other mortar rounds have landed in a supposedly secure swath of central Baghdad that houses the headquarters of the U.S.-led occupation authority. None of those attacks have resulted in deaths or injuries.
Defending bases and buildings against mortar attacks is difficult. Although radar units can pinpoint the location from which the devices are fired, Iraqi assailants typically stage hit-and-run attacks, packing up their mortar tubes and driving off within minutes, complicating U.S. attempts to target them with return fire. In many cases, the tactics have prevented attackers from adjusting successive rounds to improve accuracy.
With the Muslim holy month of Ramadan approaching, the occupation authority will lift a midnight-to-4 a.m. curfew in Baghdad that had been instituted in April, after president Saddam Hussein's government was toppled.
Although U.S. officials attributed the decision to what they described as an improvement in the city's security situation, it is also an acknowledgement of the nocturnal rhythms that take over the Islamic world during Ramadan, when Muslims fast during daylight hours and eat at night.
"Lifting the curfew is a great step forward for the people of Baghdad during the blessed month of Ramadan," the chairman of Baghdad's interim city council, Adnan Abdul Sahib Hassan, said in a statement announcing the decision, which will take effect Sunday. "It reflects the ability and willingness of all the good people of Baghdad to watch out for each other."
Reaction to the decision was generally positive on the streets of the capital. Several residents said they supported the move but worried that criminals and resistance fighters would take advantage of the change.
"It's a good step, but we're afraid of the saboteurs," said Rayas Ridda Kadhim, 43, the owner of a grocery store in Baghdad's Karrada neighborhood. Nevertheless, he said that he planned to extend the hours of his store to 1 a.m.
"It will be good for business," he said.
-------- israel / palestine
Questions Linger Over Gaza Attack
Palestinians Say Second Missile Hit a Crowd, Which Israelis Vehemently Deny
By John Ward Anderson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, October 25, 2003; Page A16
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A14194-2003Oct24?language=printer
GAZA CITY, Oct. 24 -- Ibrahim Habbash, director of Shifa Hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip, was driving home after a grueling day late Monday when he noticed a stream of ambulances pouring into Al Aqsa Hospital, a small medical center about a mile from his home. He pulled in to see whether there was trouble, and whether he could help.
"Within 10 minutes, there were 30 injured people inside the reception area," he recalled. The wounded overwhelmed the hospital, suffering severe head and chest injuries that victims said had come from an Israeli missile attack on a car passing through Nuseirat refugee camp a few miles away in central Gaza. Habbash added, "I was astonished by the number. People were shouting for help. I was calling on the phone for extra doctors and ambulances, 'Come to me!' "
Eighteen hours later, a senior Israeli air force official, at a background briefing for reporters in Tel Aviv, delivered the Israeli military's assessment of the event: It couldn't have happened. To buttress his claim, he showed a videotape of the missile strike that was filmed by a drone flying overhead. There was no one in the street, he observed, and no possibility of collateral damage beyond four or five yards.
Furthermore, he said, four other Israeli air force strikes in the Gaza Strip on Monday had been carefully selected beforehand and reviewed afterward, and Palestinian claims of 11 dead and more than 100 injured were highly suspect.
"We know from experience the numbers and outbursts to the media from the Palestinians are far more exaggerated than eventually is the case," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We cannot see any possibility of dozens of injuries and casualties."
But a visit to the scene of the attacks and a review of Palestinian hospital records show that the Israeli missile strikes and bombing attacks left a trail of death and injury. According to hospital records, 103 people were injured in the attacks and associated operations, and 12 died that day. Three more people have since died of their injuries, and four more are listed as brain dead in the intensive care unit of Shifa hospital, hospital officials said.
Palestinian officials, victims and witnesses claimed that the casualty count was so high because in the Nuseirat attack, the Israeli pilot first shot a missile, then waited until a crowd of rescuers gathered in the street and fired a second, more lethal one -- an assertion denied by Israeli military officials. "The allegation that the second missile was fired into the heart of Palestinian crowds gathered at the scene is false and a blatant lie," said Maj. Sharon Feingold, an Israeli military spokeswoman.
The senior Air Force official said the video showed that after the first strike, there was "no ambulance, no humanitarian aid, no doctor, nothing" except a burning car and an empty street.
"Any case of shooting into a crowd would be impossible, impossible," he said. "It's not professional, it's not ethical, it's not moral and it didn't happen. At the moment the second missile hit, there was no such crowd.
The Israeli videos suggested the streets were empty, and the Air Force official said that situation led commanders who were reviewing it in real time to authorize a second strike.
But according to the Palestinian witnesses, the side of the street was crowded with shop owners and residents sitting on the stoops, chatting with their neighbors. These people were under awnings and trees that might have shielded them from the drone's camera, the witnesses recalled.
In the end, the large number of Palestinian casualties suggests that Israeli officials might have misinterpreted the video, which led to faulty decisions about whether and when to launch their attacks.
The Israeli air force official claimed that two missiles fired by an AH-64 Apache attack helicopter were only "a few" pounds and should not have caused collateral damage more than four or five yards away. The official refused to say what kind of missile was fired.
Palestinian witnesses reported that people sustained injuries more than 100 yards away. An inspection of buildings on both sides of the street by a reporter showed that shrapnel crashed through windows and punctured iron doors as far as 30 yards away.
The Israeli military officials said that one reason the second blast might have been so severe was that the second missile could have hit a suicide bomb that the targeted Palestinians might have been carrying inside their car. But witnesses recalled -- and the Air Force video suggests -- that the second missile missed the car and hit the street in front of it. This conclusion seems to be supported by a separate video shot by a freelance news cameraman, which showed numerous people sitting inside and standing on top of the car after the two missile strikes.
Israeli officials claim that eight of the 12 people killed in all of the attacks on Monday were militants from the Islamic Resistance Movement, known as Hamas. They did not provide evidence. A reporter examined hospital casualty lists, with identification of individual victims aided by residents of the Nuseirat camp. Four of the victims were identified as militants -- two from Hamas and two from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) -- and eight others as civilians.
The events Monday began when Israeli ground forces spotted several men near a border fence and shot and killed two of them. Israeli officials later said they were members of Hamas trying to sneak into Israel to commit a massive suicide bombing attack. The PFLP later released a statement saying the two men were its members and had gone to the fence to lay a mine.
The senior Israeli air force official said the car that dropped the two men off at the fence was later spotted by an Apache helicopter, which followed it into Nuseirat camp and fired two missiles at it. The PFLP statement said its men were in the car but did not name them or list them as "martyrs," unlike the men at the fence.
While showing the video of the Nuseirat attack to reporters, the Israeli air force official said that it was the same scene that senior officials had watched as the event unfolded. The official said the video was not available for the pilot to see. After the first missile was launched, he said, officials had about 30 seconds in which to decide whether to fire a second missile. With a 30-second flight time, a longer delay could increase the risk that circumstances on the ground could change, and civilians could enter the attack zone. As it was, he said the video showed no crowds near the car when the missile was launched or when it struck.
On the ground, according to interviews with about a dozen victims of the blast and residents of the neighborhood, the streets were crowded. But most people were sitting in the doorways of their stores and along the sidewalk, as they usually did.
Tariq Barod, 17, said he was sitting with a friend, Mohammed Qadouha, 21, on the sidewalk outside their homes when the first missile struck the car about 25 yards away.
"Suddenly, there was a strong explosion, and I fell to the ground," he said. He got up and noticed his friend slumped forward with blood on his head, "And when I raised his head, his eyes closed." As he was carrying his friend to a local clinic, he said, the second missile struck.
Qadouha is one of the men listed as brain-dead in Shufa hospital. Barod's 11-year-old brother was killed in the attack and his father, Ziad, 42, was seriously injured.
Ibrahim Abdel Qader, 19, also was standing on the sidewalk about 25 yards away from the first strike, leaning against a large palm tree. Nearby were three men -- Mohammed Joudah, 18, and Mahdi Abu Jarboa, 20, who were walking together to an English class, and Mohammed Masry, 21. Masry and Jarboa died in the attack and Joudah was in critical condition at Shifa hospital. All had shrapnel wounds to the head, according to medical records.
Like other witnesses, Qader said the men in the car escaped after the first blast, but were outside the car and were severely injured in the second missile strike. Residents identified the two men from the car as Masaoud Ayyash, 35, and Jaber Dahlez, 21, both from the Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza. The two men are listed as brain-dead at Shifa Hospital.
Correspondent Molly Moore in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
--------
Israel May Extend Barrier Deeper in West Bank
October 25, 2003
By GREG MYRE
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/25/international/middleeast/25MIDE.html?pagewanted=all&position=
JERUSALEM, Oct. 24 - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Friday that Israel's military was working on a proposal to extend a contentious West Bank barrier with a section that could go into the Jordan Valley near the border with Jordan.
Mr. Sharon's comments came as the Israeli Defense Ministry published its first detailed map of where the barrier is expected to run. Israel says the barrier, made up of sections of electronic fence, concrete walls and trenches and razor wire, is essential to keep out Palestinian suicide bombers.
But as the barrier zigs and zags through the West Bank, it will put tens of thousands of Palestinians on the Israeli side, isolating them from other Palestinian communities in the West Bank. Palestinians have been fiercely critical of the plan, saying Israel is unilaterally creating a de facto border and confiscating Palestinian land.
The map released Friday is largely in line with plans already announced by Mr. Sharon's government. However, the map does not include an additional segment in the Jordan Valley, a proposal that has been under discussion for months.
"The route is being planned now. The moment it will be completed, it will be presented to the government," Mr. Sharon said of the Jordan Valley proposal in a television interview. The cabinet has approved other sections of the barrier by large majorities.
Mr. Sharon insists the barrier is solely for security and could be moved or taken down if the two sides reach a future agreement on borders. However, any additions to the barrier in the West Bank are sure to further anger Palestinians.
The international community has been strongly critical of the barrier, and even the United States, Israel's strongest ally, has objected to the proposed route because it cuts so far into the West Bank.
Israel says the barrier needs to go into the West Bank to protect Jewish settlements, though not all of them will be on the Israeli side. Extending the barrier into the Jordan Valley would offer additional protection to about 20 small, isolated settlements.
Meanwhile, violence continued on Friday.
Striking at night in a thick fog, a Palestinian gunman cut through a wire fence and shot five Israeli soldiers in a barracks, killing three and wounding two in the most serious of several attacks in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli troops and Palestinian militants have been trading blows in Gaza almost daily, and Palestinians described the shooting at Netzarim, a combined army base and Jewish settlement, as a response to recent Israeli military actions.
The shooting was unusual in that the gunman, Samir Fouda, a 22-year-old member of Hamas, was able to pass through the perimeter fence protecting Netzarim.
Palestinian gunmen have frequently fired on Israeli soldiers and settlers on the road in and out of the settlement, but they had not been able to get inside the seaside enclave, where Israeli soldiers guard about 300 settlers.
Heavy fog rolls in from the Mediterranean this time of year, and it apparently helped the Palestinian gunman traverse the sand dunes and reach Netzarim without being detected.
Two of the dead soldiers were 19-year-old women, and one of the wounded was also a woman. The soldiers were in their barracks when the gunman struck at 4:30 a.m., and most or all were believed to be sleeping, a military official said.
After the shooting. Mr. Fouda was fatally shot by soldiers. An assailant from the Islamic Jihad faction who had accompanied him did not get past the fence and fled.
In the Jabaliya refugee camp on Friday, not far from the Jewish settlement, thousands of Palestinians cheered a Hamas leader, Nizar Rian, who called the shooting a retaliation for Israeli military action.
"Our blood is not cheap and our operations will go on until we return all of Palestine," Mr. Rian said. Mr. Rian is a prominent Hamas leader who still appears in public despite recent Israeli strikes aimed at senior figures in the Islamic faction.
Nearby, at Mr. Fouda's home, his sister Amal Fouda praised the shooting. "There is sadness," she said at the loss of her brother. "But at the same time I am very proud of this operation. I wish he killed more than three."
In a videotape released to news organizations, Mr. Fouda read from a statement and questioned why Arab and Muslim leaders had not done more for the Palestinians.
"You Muslim and Arab leaders, where are you?" he said.
The other Palestinian attacker with Mr. Fouda also appeared in the video. But because he survived, his face was blacked out to conceal his identity.
The joint attack by Hamas and Islamic Jihad followed a pledge this week by the leaders of the factions to coordinate their actions. The groups have carried out most of the suicide bombings in Israel, but usually act independently.
Israel did not say how it might respond, but the Israeli military has hit hard at Palestinians in Gaza recently. After Palestinian rocket attacks Sunday, Israeli warplanes and helicopters carried out five airstrikes on Monday in Gaza, killing more than 10 Palestinians and wounding dozens.
"There's an ongoing war on terror and it will continue," said Dore Gold, an adviser to Mr. Sharon.
Meanwhile, Einat Osman, a sister of one of the slain soldiers, Adi Osman, was critical of the way the Israeli troops were being used in the Gaza Strip. A large number of soldiers guard about 7,000 Jewish settlers, who are vastly outnumbered by the 1.2 million Palestinians in the territory.
Ms. Osman said her sister wanted to be a combat soldier, but was given little responsibility and had little to do.
"Most of the time she sat in the room and watched television," Ms. Osman told Israel radio. "She had very little motivation and didn't know what she was doing there."
Asked if the family was upset that Adi Osman had been posted to Gaza, Ms. Osman said: "Of course we had a problem with this. What are they there for? But Adi wanted to be a fighter. She wanted to be useful."
Gaza was the scene of several other violent incidents on Thursday night and Friday.
Palestinian medics said an 11-year-old boy, Muhammad Hamaydah, was killed by Israeli gunfire on Friday in central Gaza. Israeli military officials said they were not aware of any shooting in the area.
Also, Palestinians fired three mortars on Friday at a Jewish settlement in southern Gaza, causing minor damage but no injuries.
On Thursday night, Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian gunman in southern Gaza after he fired on an Israeli car, lightly wounding three civilians, the military said.
Troops also shot dead a Palestinian man who approached a settlement in the north of Gaza.
-------- spies
Intelligence Problems In Iraq Are Detailed
By Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 25, 2003; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14278-2003Oct24.html
The U.S. military intelligence gathering operation in Iraq is being undercut by a series of problems in using technology, training intelligence specialists and managing them in the field, according to an internal Army evaluation.
A report published this week by the Center for Army Lessons Learned at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., uses unusually blunt language to identify the intelligence problems and to recommend solutions. In discussing the training of intelligence specialists, for example, it states that commanders reported that younger officers and soldiers were unprepared for their assignments, "did not understand the targeting process" and possessed "very little to no analytical skills."
In a related assessment, the report also states that reserve troops specializing in civil affairs and psychological operations sent earlier this year to Afghanistan received "marginally effective" training before their deployment. "The poor quality of mission preparation was inexcusable given that the operation was over a year and a half old," it concludes.
The Army critique of U.S. intelligence efforts in Iraq is especially noteworthy, because the Bush administration and senior military commanders have maintained for months that more U.S. troops are not needed in Iraq, and that what is needed, instead, is better intelligence. The report discloses, for example, that the intelligence teams already operating in Iraq have been far less productive than the Army expected them to be. The 69 "tactical human intelligence teams" operating in the country at the time of the study, at the beginning of the summer, should have been producing "at least" 120 reports a day, but instead were delivering an average total of 30, it states. It attributes that apparent underperformance to "the lack of guidance and focus" from the intelligence office overseeing the teams' work.
The report also says that some key intelligence machinery has been misused in Iraq, which raises questions about the high-tech solutions that some at the Pentagon are advocating to improve the U.S. military's performance in Iraq.
Most notably, it is critical of how unmanned aircraft have been used in recent months. At one point, it notes that one such "unmanned aerial vehicle," or UAV, was assigned to find buried aircraft. Also, a major UAV system, the Hunter, was kept idle for 30 days because it had not been assigned an operational frequency on which to operate.
Managers of UAV operations were "overwhelmed" with tasks and were "lucky" to have their aircraft in the right place at the right time, the report says. UAVs fly so slowly, it adds, that they could not get to where they were needed. So, while the planes were employed to try to locate Iraqi fighters attacking U.S. military convoys, "the daily mortar and rocket attacks on bases and convoys became virtually undetectable to the UAVs," the report says.
In another technological issue, the report says that a network that was supposed to link intelligence teams and convey time-sensitive information among them -- as well as permit them to tap into an evolving database -- worked so poorly that it was "nonexistent." The report recommended that, among other things, the teams be provided with satellite telephones -- gear that most news reporters working in Iraq and Afghanistan possess as a matter of course.
Intelligence gathering in both those countries has also been hampered by problems with interpreters, the report notes. Not only was there a "lack of competent interpreters throughout the theater," it says, but those available "were not used to their full capability." Poorly trained soldiers would speak to their interpreters, for example, rather than maintain eye contact with the people being questioned. Also interpreters were wasted on errands such as being sent with troops "to buy chicken and soft drinks," the report says.
Danielle Pletka, vice president for foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, said the findings about intelligence problems are consistent with the some of the shortcomings she observed during a recent trip to Iraq.
"The fundamental thing you see as an outsider is that there is no mechanism to tell the good guys from the bad guys, whether it's in the towns or on the borders," Pletka said. She said she was surprised that the U.S. military has not developed a national database that could be used quickly by field units to identify former Baathists and others detained in raids.
That lack, combined with a reluctance to rely on Iraqis for that judgment, means that detention decisions frequently are made "arbitrarily, from lack of knowledge," she said.
In an unusual sidelight, the report also notes an instance in which some surveillance technologies appear to be working too well. The sensors being used by conventional Army units are so "sophisticated and accurate," it says, that they are detecting Special Operations troops hiding near the battlefields. Thus, it recommends that, to avoid "friendly fire" incidents, those unconventional forces consider abandoning their "long-standing unwillingness . . . to disclose their unit locations."
Lt. Col. Robert Chamberlain, the top intelligence trainer at the Army's Joint Readiness Training Center and senior author of the study, did not return calls seeking comment. Sgt. Maj. Lewis Matson, a spokesman at the Central Command, the headquarters for U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, noted that the report is in the tradition of the Army's "after-action reviews," in which a premium is placed on honest assessments to correct potentially lethal mistakes.
He noted that the UAV involves a relatively new technology, and that "there are clearly still bugs." Likewise, he said, the network problems in the human intelligence operation reflect the continuing efforts of the military to computerize its operations. He also noted that, despite the difficulties found in training civil affairs troops for Afghanistan, "over two years, a lot of great things have been accomplished."
--------
INTELLIGENCE
C.I.A. Disputes Accusations That Its Prewar Conclusions on Iraq Arms Were Flawed
October 25, 2003
By DOUGLAS JEHL
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/25/international/middleeast/25INTE.html
WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 - The Central Intelligence Agency responded angrily on Friday to new Congressional criticism of its handling of prewar intelligence about Iraq's suspected illicit weapons program. At a briefing at C.I.A. headquarters, four senior intelligence officials said that a top-secret internal review now underway had found no evidence of faulty work.
"What it has shown us is that the judgments were not only sound, they were very sound, and backed up by more than one source," a senior intelligence official said of the review, which is being conducted under orders from George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence.
The briefing was organized in response to a report in The Washington Post that said the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence was preparing to issue a report saying that intelligence agencies made serious errors of judgment in their prewar conclusion that Iraq possessed chemical and biological weapons and was reconstituting its nuclear program.
In an angry public statement, the C.I.A. spokesman, Bill Harlow, said that any such finding would be premature. Mr. Harlow said that top intelligence officials had not yet been given an opportunity to share their own findings with members of the intelligence committee.
"The committee has yet to take the opportunity to hear a comprehensive explanation of how and why we reached our conclusions," the statement said. Congressional officials said that the detailed review by the Senate committee had indeed turned up indications of serious errors. But Senator Pat Roberts, the Kansas Republican who is the panel's chairman, issued a statement saying that the committee was nowhere near to completing its review and that it would hear from Mr. Tenet and others before reaching any findings.
The senior intelligence officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, as they outlined findings from a 405-page review being conducted by the National Intelligence Council, said David Kay, the American heading the search for illicit weapons in Iraq, would ultimately determine if the C.I.A. had been right.
"We don't think what we did was deficient, we don't think it was sloppy, and we're waiting to see what David finds to see whether we got it right," a senior official said. In an interim report this month, Mr. Kay said his team had not yet found any chemical, biological or nuclear weapons in Iraq. The search is to be completed sometime next year.
Over the course of two hours, the senior intelligence officials sought to rebut comments by Senator Roberts and others claiming that the intelligence agencies' conclusions in an October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate had been based on incomplete and circumstantial evidence.
"When you get all done parsing this, what you find is a compelling case that no reasonable person could have concluded anything other than what we have" about Iraq's weapons program, based on the information available at the time, a second senior intelligence officials said.
The Senate Intelligence Committee's review is the most extensive effort by Congress now underway to reconcile the failure to find illicit weapons in Iraq with unambiguous claims by the administration and intelligence agencies that Iraq had at least chemical and biological weapons in its arsenal before the American invasion in March. The review is expected to form the basis of a public report that Republicans who control the committee hope to issue later this year.
But Congressional officials said the timing and nature of the conclusions may be affected by opposition from Democrats. The Democrats say the committee still has not been able to review evidence that might shed light on the possible misuse of intelligence by Bush administration officials, as opposed to errors made by intelligence analysts.
The Democrats fear that Senator Roberts and other Republicans on the panel want to blame the C.I.A. for producing faulty intelligence on Iraq to shield President Bush and his top advisers from charges that they exaggerated the Iraqi threat.
The nature of the committee's findings was first reported in Friday's editions of The Washington Post, which attributed to Senator Roberts a statement that the review was "95 percent complete."
But by late afternoon, after the C.I.A. and the ranking Democrat on the committee, Senator John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, issued statements on Friday questioning how the panel could have reached such a conclusion, Senator Roberts said that his statements had been mischaracterized.
"The committee has not finished its review of the intelligence and has not reached any final conclusions or finished a report," Senator Roberts said. He said he had agreed that Mr. Tenet "should have an opportunity" to speak to the committee "before the report is finalized."
Still, a congressional official who was authorized to speak about the highly classified review said on Friday that "some initial concerns and issues" that have emerged from the committee review "may not be positive for the intelligence community."
Senator Roberts has said that he is deeply troubled by signs that intelligence agencies made mistakes in their prewar findings, most notably in an October 2002 intelligence estimate produced over a period of less than three weeks at the request of the Senate intelligence committee.
Congressional officials reflecting the view of the committee's Republicans have said that its review had concluded that many of the findings reached by the C.I.A. and other agencies in that document were unfounded and based on circumstantial and contradictory evidence. But Senator Rockefeller told reporters on Capitol Hill on Friday that the review was "far from complete" and that a committee report "cannot possibly be finished before the end of the year."
In a hint of the partisan discord on the committee, Senator Rockefeller said he believed that Senator Roberts "wants to put this to bed as soon as possible," while he himself believed that the review should be completed "honorably and fairly."
--------
US Military In Iraq Plagued By Intelligence Shortcomings
(AFP)
Oct 25, 2003
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/uav-03zza.html
US operations in Iraq are being plagued by serious shortcomings in the military's ability to collect and process intelligence, with specially trained reconnaissance teams delivering barely a quarter of their planned output, according to the latest US Army assessment.
The undated report, prepared by the Center for Army Lessons Learned in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, came amid intensifying guerrilla attacks on US forces in Iraq that have brought the US death toll to at least 347 troops since the beginning of the war.
It is based on observations by two US Army investigative teams that toured Iraq, Qatar, Kuwait and Afghanistan in late May and early June to assess the needs of units on the ground.
They found that troops hunting down sympathizers of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and foreign Islamic militants often receive outdated information, which gets held up in processing and communications channels, and because of command flaws.
As many as 69 tactical reconnaissance teams have been deployed in the country since the beginning of the war, according to the report.
They were expected to deliver at least 120 intelligence reports a day, but are able to actually produce about 30.
"The lack of reports was not because of the lack of activity, but because of the lack of guidance and focus provided" by headquarters, the document said.
A high-tech communication system between units that relied on a string of top-notch laptop computers actually "hindered operations in Iraq" because "connectivity between the terminals was non-existent," the teams concluded.
Many reconnaissance units have ruined their crucially important relations with the local populations by joining so-called "door-kicker teams" that conduct searches for Baathist supporters and al-Qaeda sympathizers.
And if intelligence were available, commanders "at every echelon" had trouble figuring out how to make the best possible use of it, according to the report.
Intelligence collection is being further hindered by the lack of qualified interpreters described in the report as "a big problem" throughout the theater of operations.
"Laugh if you will, but many of the linguists with which I conversed were convenience store workers and cab drivers, most over the age of 40," observed one of the investigators, who chose to remain unidentified. "None had any previous military experience."
Their skills are so low that most are capable only "to tell the difference between a burro and a burrito," the teams pointed out.
There are also doubts about interpreters' loyalty.
The investigators noticed that interpreters often uttered no more than yes or no when the person under interrogation delivered a 10-minute diatribe.
"Who knows what agenda the interpreter has?" The report asks.
The suspicion echoes those voiced recently by US officials at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the military is re-checking all translations after two interpreters, who worked with al-Qaeda suspects held at the base, had been arrested on charges of espionage and mishandling classified documents.
The Army also expressed disappointment with the performance on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) that received rave reviews during the war in Afghanistan.
They "simply cannot fly fast enough," and as a result "the daily mortar and rocket attacks on bases and convoys became virtually undetectable to the UAVs," the report acknowledged.
-------- POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE
-------- human rights
Rights Group Says Zimbabwe Starves Dissidents
October 25, 2003
By MICHAEL WINES
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/25/international/africa/25ZIMB.html
JOHANNESBURG, Oct. 24 - On the heels of new reports of growing desperation in Zimbabwe, Human Rights Watch charged Friday that the nation's rulers were using its limited food supplies as a weapon of political control.
In a lengthy report on conditions inside Zimbabwe, Human Rights Watch said government relief programs regularly withheld food from critics of the ruling political party, ZANU-PF, and often from entire classes of people, like city dwellers, many of whom are seen as opponents of ZANU-PF.
But the watchdog group also offered muted criticism of international relief agencies, saying some food donors were reluctant to feed supporters of Zimbabwe's authoritarian government out of concern that they could be supporting an oppressive government.
"Donors that have withdrawn support for humanitarian programs in Zimbabwe should reconsider their duty under international law to assist those in need," it said.
The report was issued against a backdrop of ever more bleak accounts of deprivation in Zimbabwe, where drought and a chaotic land-redistribution program have all but destroyed agriculture and wrecked the economy.
Zimbabwe once was an exporter of farm goods. But since 2000, the sometimes brutal takeover of white-owned commercial farms by politically connected supporters of the government has brought crop production to a near standstill.
Five million of Zimbabwe's 12 million-plus citizens are short of food, and the United Nations' World Food Program has said that as many as 7 million may require emergency relief in the next year.
On Wednesday, the police beat and arrested 400 demonstrators in African Unity Square in central Harare, the capital, after a protest to demand a new constitution and changes in the country's legal system.
A monthly report by United Nations officials in Zimbabwe, issued on Thursday, cited growing evidence that families were turning to child labor and prostitution in an effort to cope with worsening food shortages. The report stated that most Zimbabwean provinces have exhausted supplies of meat, and that government price controls and bans on private imports of food have only worsened the hunger crisis.
-------- privacy
Congress Is Close to Eliminating a Privacy Law
October 25, 2003
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/25/business/25PRIV.html
WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 - Congress is poised to pass a law that would strike down groundbreaking rules in California intended to give people the power to stop banks, insurers and brokerage firms owned by the same company from swapping their financial secrets.
The effort, spurred by banking lobbyists, is part of a broader push by the financial services industry for legislation that would permanently abolish state and local laws that could give consumers greater control over their private financial information. Federal law already includes broad provisions pre-empting state and local financial-privacy regulations, but the existing law is set to expire at the end of this year unless Congress passes new legislation.
The California law was passed with wide bipartisan support in Sacramento two months ago after corporate lobbyists who had derailed similar legislation before were cowed by strong public support for a proposed referendum that would have established a tougher state law. Privacy advocates, concerned about the growth of financial institutions that operate many lines of business under one roof, had hoped other states would follow California's lead by limiting how these companies can use personal financial information.
But legislation is expected to make it to the Senate floor as soon as next week that would pre-empt much of the California law and prevent other states from taking similar steps. The bill was approved unanimously in the Senate Banking Committee last month, but Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, both California Democrats, have proposed an amendment that would adopt the California rules nationally. They also propose extending the current federal law by only one year, to give Congress more time to review the issue.
In the House last month, lawmakers voted 392 to 30 for a bill that would also pre-empt the state law.
Bankers and others who object to the California law, which takes effect next July, say it would lead to an unworkable patchwork of confusing state and local rules that would make it harder and more costly for people to obtain credit.
According to its proponents, the California law is intended to protect against one of the biggest fears of privacy advocates voiced after passage in 1999 of a federal law ending the Depression-era rules that barred banks, insurance companies and brokerage firms from entering one another's businesses.
The concern was that big financial services conglomerates, newly freed to grow much larger and expand into new businesses, would establish giant databases of customer credit and financial information, like bank balances and incomes, that could be used for such things as setting mortgage rates and deciding whether to offer insurance coverage. The problem, privacy advocates say, is that all of this is happening out of the view of consumers - who would be powerless to correct or challenge inaccurate data - and out of reach of laws that regulate credit-reporting agencies.
In an interview, Senator Feinstein said that the banking industry was trying to make an end run to quash the new California rule and that despite strong support in California for the law it would be an "uphill fight" to win approval for her proposal in the Senate.
Her amendment, modeled on the state law, would allow people to bar financial institutions from sharing their private information with affiliates of the same company. For example, the banking subsidiary of one company could not tell its sister insurance company or brokerage firm about how much a customer had on deposit, or details of their credit card debts or mortgage payments. A narrow exemption would be allowed for companies that are in the same line of business, have the same regulator, are wholly owned subsidiaries and operate under the same brand name.
Jamie Court, president of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, based in Santa Monica, Calif., said that without the California law, "the door will be open to a lot of abuses when banks can share their information with thousands of corporate affiliates, even after consumers say no."
But the Senate bill's sponsor, Richard Shelby, Republican of Alabama, said his bill had strong consumer protections. "Will it satisfy everybody? No. Nothing does," Mr. Shelby said. "But it's a pretty good piece of legislation that will withstand scrutiny" and is a "big improvement" over the House version.
Mr. Shelby's bill seeks to tighten credit-reporting standards, give consumers easier access to their credit reports, and make identity theft more difficult.
Edward Yingling, executive vice president of the American Bankers Association, added that allowing states to enforce their own conflicting financial-privacy rules would create a mess of regulations that would impair consumers' ability to obtain loans. "With the way our economy works and with the mobility of our society these days, it's an area where you need to have a national rule," he said.
Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director for the United States Public Interest Research Group, said he was "very disappointed" the Senate bill did not protect the California law. But he said Mr. Shelby, whom he described as generally strong on privacy rights, might have been "boxed in" politically and may have thought it impossible to pass a bill with protections similar to the California law.
Over all, Mr. Mierzwinski said, the Senate bill is stronger than the House bill.
-------- terrorism
Britain Warns of Attacks in Saudi Arabia
October 25, 2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/25/international/europe/25BRIT.html
LONDON, Oct. 24 - Britain's Foreign Office said Friday that it believed that "terrorists may be in the final phases of planning attacks" in Saudi Arabia, and that its warning against all but essential travel in the kingdom remained in place.
A statement posted on the department's Web site advised travelers to make sure they had confidence in their security arrangements and warned visitors to military buildings to take special care.
On Thursday, Australia warned that another terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia "may be in the final stages of planning" and urged its citizens to avoid going there. The Australian government did not elaborate but it also authorized families of Australian Embassy staff members to leave Riyadh, the Saudi capital.
On May 12, car bomb attacks on three Western housing compounds in Riyadh killed 26 people and the 9 assailants. Saudi Arabia linked Al Qaeda to the attacks and cracked down on Islamic militants in a series of raids.
The Saudi Press Agency reported on Thursday that 600 people suspected of having links to Al Qaeda had been arrested and that 400 of those suspects remained in detention.
--------
FBI Urges Police to Stay Alert During Islamic Holy Month
Associated Press
Saturday, October 25, 2003
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14143-2003Oct24.html
The FBI is urging extra vigilance for possible terrorist attacks and violence against Muslims during the upcoming Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
In its weekly bulletin to 18,000 state and local law enforcement agencies, the FBI said it has no credible information that an attack is planned by al Qaeda or any other terrorist group during the period of fasting and reflection that will begin next week.
But attacks overseas have been timed in the past to coincide with symbolic dates, the FBI said. It added that "the possibility of such an attack in the United States cannot be discounted." At the same time, the bulletin said local police should step up outreach efforts to Muslim communities to guard against potential violence or hate crimes. Of special concern are Islamic sites, such as mosques and businesses.
Ramadan begins with the sighting of a new moon, expected on Sunday, and it lasts for four weeks.
Last year, the FBI issued a more pointed warning, but no attack occurred. Officials said there are no plans to raise the terrorism warning level, currently at yellow or elevated, during the holy month.
-------- ENERGY AND OTHER
-------- environment
Report Says E.P.A. Aide Knew Rule Change Could Hurt Lawsuits
October 25, 2003
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/25/politics/25CLEA.html
WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 - Congressional investigators have determined that a top Bush administration air-quality regulator was warned that administration proposals to revise federal clean-air regulations could harm government lawsuits to force power plants and refineries to make upgrades that would sharply reduce the pollution they produce.
With the release of the report this week by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, several Democratic senators have called for an investigation by the inspector general of the Environmental Protection Agency.
The senators contend that the administration official, Jeffrey R. Holmstead, the assistant E.P.A. administrator for air and radiation, may not have been honest with them in testimony before Congress last year.
Appearing before a Senate committee in July 2002, Mr. Holmstead testified, "We do not believe these changes will have a negative impact on the enforcement cases."
But the report by the accounting office indicates that Mr. Holmstead took part in at least one of several meetings in 2001 and 2002 attended by members of the environmental agency's enforcement staff in which the regulatory changes were discussed.
During those meetings, the accounting office's investigators found, members of the "enforcement staff raised concerns about the revisions' potential adverse impact on the cases."
In addition, Public Citizen, the group founded by Ralph Nader, has obtained a memorandum, dated June 3, 2002, in which a top E.P.A. enforcement official at the time, Sylvia K. Lowrance, writes to Mr. Holmstead that a "number of proposals" being examined as revisions to clean-air regulations "could undermine current enforcement activities if promulgated as final rules."
Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said this week that the report by the accounting office indicated that Mr. Holmstead "intentionally misled Senate committees last year and has continued to work to get industry polluters off the hook and out of court."
Mr. Leahy and two other senators, James M. Jeffords, independent of Vermont, and Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut, have asked for the E.P.A. investigation. Mr. Lieberman is running for the Democratic presidential nomination.
A spokeswoman for the agency said there were "extensive discussions" among staff members both before and after Mr. Holmstead's testimony about how the rules could affect enforcement actions. But she said that Mr. Holmstead, after taking into consideration all the available information, believed then, and continues to believe today, that the proposals he testified about last year would not affect enforcement.
"The criticism of Mr. Holmstead's testimony is misleading," said the spokeswoman, Lisa Harrison. "His comments were accurate in that the upcoming rule would not have an impact on enforcement."
Frank Clemente, the director of Public Citizen's Congress Watch, said the corporations that could be affected by the clean-air revisions donated $4.8 million to the Bush campaign and the Republican Party during the 2000 election cycle.
-------- health
AIDS Plan Would Cut Drug Costs For Poor
WHO Would Provide 3-in-1 Pill to Nations
By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 25, 2003; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A14310-2003Oct24?language=printer
GENEVA, Oct. 24 -- The World Health Organization will disclose next week the first details of a global AIDS strategy to bring low-cost drugs to 3 million people in poor countries, a plan that top officials said will eventually include endorsement of pills that combine three HIV drugs in a single tablet.
The endorsement of the three-in-one pills is expected to be controversial because they could violate a variety of patents. Only about 300,000 people are receiving AIDS medicine in the regions targeted by WHO.
The strategy is also expected to call for treating patients at the first sign of symptoms, rather than waiting for tests to confirm infection by HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and to allow nurses and community organizations to dispense the medicines. As a first step, WHO will issue a list next week of the "first line" medicines to be used in poor countries.
One "fixed-dose" combination already is being sold by a generic-drug manufacturer in India, and several others are in the pipeline. Health experts here said the single-pill combinations would offer huge benefits by providing medication that would work for about 80 percent of patients in an easy-to-use and low-cost form.
If the pills proved popular and effective, the Bush administration could face a politically difficult choice between high-priced patented drugs and low-cost combination generics as it implements its own five-year program to fight AIDS in Africa and elsewhere.
Unlike generic AIDS medicines that copy a single drug's formula, each of the new combination pills could infringe on several patents in one stroke, taking the conflict between providing lifesaving medicines and protecting intellectual property rights into uncharted waters.
"If we have this regimen in fixed-dose combinations, it will be the best," Paulo Teixeira, director of WHO's HIV/AIDS Department, said in an interview. "I hope very soon we will have more and more fixed-dose combinations."
The combination pills are expected to be part of a broad strategy that the health agency will soon outline to reach its "3 by 5" target. Teixeira and others said the effort could press ahead without the all-in-one pills, but such medicines would be the best way to rapidly increase the number of people receiving lifesaving therapies.
Of the 3 million patients targeted worldwide, nearly 2 million are in Africa; the rest are scattered across Asia and Latin America.
Activist groups have championed the "fixed-dose" approach. The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations opposes the approach, however, contending that combination pills have not been rigorously tested and would make it easier for counterfeit drugs to enter the market.
The pending WHO announcement will mark the second important development in days in the effort to increase access to AIDS medicines. On Thursday, the William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation, founded by former president Bill Clinton, announced agreements with three generic-drug manufacturers in India and one in South Africa to dramatically lower the price of AIDS drugs. Ira Magaziner, chairman of the foundation's HIV/AIDS Initiative, said three fixed-dose combination pills were covered by the agreement, at an annual cost of $132 to $240 per patient.
Meeting WHO's goal of providing treatment to an additional 2.7 million AIDS patients by the end of 2005 means 100,000 people would need to be started on medication every month. Several officials here privately conceded that the target is unrealistic, but all said it will spur a long-overdue international effort. More than 5 million people in poor countries need AIDS medication but are not receiving it, health specialists estimate.
Teixeira said the ultimate goal is to radically expand access to AIDS treatment in poor countries.
"We will say, you don't need to get care only from doctors; let's train nurses, community organizations and families," he said. "We're changing the paradigm of AIDS treatment." Teixeira is credited for having rapidly increased access to HIV treatment in his native Brazil. Half of all patients in poor countries now being treated for AIDS are Brazilians.
The fixed-dose approach has several advantages, as well as a few drawbacks. Peter Graaff, an AIDS medicine policy expert at WHO, said the biggest advantage may be in getting people to take the medicine on the right schedule. Taking combinations of separate pills can be difficult, and supply problems with any one medicine can upset the entire regimen, he said. That could make it more likely that patients would develop and pass along resistant strains of the virus. However, some patients on fixed-dose medicines may experience side effects caused by just one of the medicines in the combination, Graaff said, and packaging the drugs in a combination tablet would limit the flexibility to switch patients to a different drug combination.
One combination medicine, called Triomune, developed by the Indian pharmaceutical company Cipla, is being used in Africa. It combines the medicines 3TC (lamivudine), d4T (stavudine) and nevirapine.
India is not part of the global system on intellectual property rights, but is expected to sign on by 2005. Under recently negotiated exceptions to the patent system, poor countries can allow local manufacturers to duplicate lifesaving generic medicines, and to export them after completing arrangements that carve out limited exceptions to patents.
Negotiating those "compulsory licensing" arrangements is expected to be much more complicated for the fixed-drug combinations.
Thomas Kanyok, who works in a WHO program that develops medicines for poor countries, said the threat of compulsory licensing could prompt multinational pharmaceutical companies to develop their own fixed-dose combination medicines or license other manufacturers to make them.
The other large variable in the equation is the U.S. government, which has pledged $15 billion to fight AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean over five years.
"Will that be used to buy generics, or will there be stipulations to buy from a U.S. manufacturer?" Kanyok asked.
Harvey Bale, director general of the international pharmaceutical federation, said that generic fixed-dose combination drugs have not being thoroughly tested and that WHO's endorsement would encourage counterfeit drugs.
"We're going to start treating 3 million by 2005," he said. "The question is, are we going to help 3 million by 2005?"
But Ellen 't Hoen, spokeswoman for the Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines of the nonprofit group Doctors Without Borders, said combination pills are essential to fight AIDS in poor countries.
"WHO would have to say that this is the way to go," she said. "That implicitly says that patents shouldn't stand in the way."
-------- ACTIVISTS
Over 250 arrested in anti-nuke protest at NATO military HQ
BRUSSELS (AFP)
Oct 25, 2003
http://www.spacewar.com/2003/031025151712.poulvzh5.html
Over 250 protestors were arrested Saturday at an anti-nuclear demonstration at NATO's military command centre for Europe, including some 40 who managed to enter the base, organizers and police said.
Police at one point used water cannon to disperse demonstrators trying to enter via the main entrance to the Supreme Headquarters Allied Forces Europe (SHAPE) compound near Mons in southern Belgium.
But no violence was reported in the protest action, dubbed "Get in Shape," of which the specific aim was to try to carry out "civilian inspections" inside the sprawling base.
Those arrested were due to be released later in the day, after being taken to a nearby holding centre to prevent them re-offending.
"There was a game of cat and mouse between police and demonstrators," said police spokeswoman Anne-Sophie Charle (eds: correct), putting the provisional arrest toll provisionally at 258 by late afternoon.
"There is no particular acts of violence, and no damage to public property," she added.
Security was particularly tight since the demo came a year after a similar protest at the Kleine Brogel military base in northern Belgium, which was entered by 500 people while 1,117 were arrested.
Nearly 2,200 police and troops backed with helicopters were on hand to keep control of the demonstration, whose organizers wanted to express their opposition to nuclear weapons.
"The aim of this action (was) to carry out civilian inspections on the SHAPE compound to look for proof of preparations for the use of nuclear weapons," said Fabien Rondal, spokesman for Bomspotting, the group organizing the demo.
Rondal said 39 people had entered the base -- either by cutting or scaling fences, using a variety of equipment including mattresses and rope ladders -- although most were arrested almost immediately inside.
Early Saturday morning a group of 12 -- including Belgian, British, Finnish, Swedish and US nationals -- did manage to spend over 20 minutes inside the compound before being arrested close to the main SHAPE building, he said.
Those arrested included notably a number of Belgian politicians, including the president of the Flemish-speaking Spirit party and three deputies from the national parliament.
Both police and protestors claimed success from the day's events. The police spokesman added that turnout was lower than they anticipated -- about 1,000 instead of 1,500-2,000.
According to the organizers, the protestors had intended to be arrested to highlight their cause, he said, adding that they also hoped to be charged in order to take their case to a Belgian court.
SHAPE's own security forces were not involved in dealing with the protestors, although they were on hand if anyone had penetrated further into the actual buildings themselves.
"We (were) prepared," said SHAPE spokesman Lt. Col. Hartmut Beilmann, adding that such demonstrations "are a right in a democracy."
--------
Anti-war protesters rally in Washington, San Francisco
10/25/2003
Associated Press
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-10-25-war-protests_x.htm
WASHINGTON (AP) - To chants of "Impeach Bush," thousands of anti-war protesters rallied in the nation's capital Saturday and delivered a scathing critique of President Bush and his Iraq policy.
Demanding an end to the U.S.-led occupation and the quick return of American troops, the demonstrators gathered on a sunny fall day at the Washington Monument to listen to speeches and songs of peace.
One man's small cardboard sign gave his summing-up of the day: "This administration does not represent me," it said in black capital letters typewritten on white paper.
Al Sharpton, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, exhorted the crowd not to be content with the gradual withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.
"Don't give Bush $87 billion, don't give him 87 cents, give our troops a ride home," Sharpton said to loud cheers from the crowd.
Hundreds of anti-war protesters also took to sun-drenched streets in San Francisco.
"This war is not about us," actor Danny Glover told the protesters. "It is against us, against Iraqi people, and against our children." Burbank, Calif., bookstore owner Bill Nelson said, "We want the money here for health care and jobs, not a military industrial complex."
The rallies on both coasts were organized by International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) and United for Peace and Justice.
The protest in Washington drew a diverse crowd - young, old, veterans, relatives with loved ones in the armed forces and American Muslims. An activist group of older women called the Raging Grannies, singing anti-Bush songs, brought whoops of agreement from the protesters.
Organizers estimated that 100,000 people turned out for the demonstration, but police at the scene put the number much lower, from 10,000 to 20,000. Police no longer issue official crowd estimates, so the size of the protest could not be verified.
Waving signs reading "Make Jobs Not War" and "Bush is a liar," the protesters marched down around the White House, on to the Justice Department and then back to the Washington Monument.
But the activists weren't afforded the symbolic satisfaction of yelling protests to the White House gates, because the Secret Service put up barriers to keep them from marching directly in front of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Bush was spending the weekend at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland.
Michael McPhearson, a veteran from the 1991 Persian Gulf War, denounced the president, saying he had misled the nation. "You have butchered the truth, George Bush."
The D.C. chapter of Free Republic, an independent grass-roots conservative group, gathered a few dozen people at the U.S. Capitol to show support for Bush and the troops in Iraq.
"Whether or not the war should have started is a moot point," said Eric Campbell, a 32-year-old who served in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. "We have to stay if anything for the Iraqi people."
----
Dissent on the home front: families of US soldiers in Iraq lead anti-war protests
Troops' relatives speak out as death toll rises and morale falls
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Saturday October 25, 2003
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1070641,00.html
News of the death of Jane Bright's son, Evan, arrived with the US military's greatest triumph in Iraq since the fall of Baghdad. In Mosul, the 101st Airborne cornered and killed Saddam Hussein's sons, Uday and Qusay. Outside town, a US patrol came under attack, and Ms Bright's son, an infantryman, was killed along with two other soldiers.
That was on July 24. Her anger has not abated. "There are some terrible things going on there," she says.
Yesterday, other American families waited for official confirmation of death, after reports arrived of one soldier from the 101st Airborne killed near Mosul and two members of the 4th Infantry Division killed in a mortar attack near Samara. This brought to 108 the number of US troops to die under hostile fire since May 1, when President George W Bush declared an end to major combat.
The growing toll and reports of poor conditions and low morale among troops have produced an undercurrent of dissent among US military families. The Guardian has found that 75% of the 478 troops removed from the Iraqi theatre because of mental health issues have been reservists.
In researching this story, we received more than 70 emails and phone calls from relatives of US forces overseas. All but two were negative - about the treatment of soldiers, the reasons for the Iraq war, the pain of family separation and the insensitivity of the military bureaucracy.
The criticisms - a breach of military culture - is viewed with concern at the Pentagon, which sent a team to Iraq this week to investigate 13 cases of suicide in recent months. It has also promised better treatment of sick soldiers, and has vowed to expand the programme of 15-day furloughs introduced last month - despite the failure of about 30 soldiers to catch their flights back to Iraq. But many on the home front remain furious, and today's anti-war protests in Washington and others US cities will kick off with candlelight vigils by families of soldiers serving in Iraq.
Horrific
Ms Bright's unease set in soon after her son arrived in Iraq, and grew deeper with calls and emails home in the months before he was killed. "He had lost 25 pounds from dysentery. My daughter-in-law told me he called one day and he sounded very upbeat. She said, 'Why are you so happy?' He said he had just got food and water.
"I don't care what the administration says about flag-waving and children throwing flowers. It is just not true. The stories coming back are horrific. All he told me was that he had seen and done some horrible things, that they had all done and seen some terrible things."
The stories coming back from Iraq have helped to chip away at the culture of stoicism. So have the circumstances of the deployment. An underclass that grew up to view military services as a ticket to advancement or a college education now finds itself going off to two distant wars - in Afghanistan and Iraq - in less than two years.
It is still uncommon for families of soldiers to voice criticism. Some are afraid of retaliation against their relative serving in Iraq. But there are signs of growing outspokenness, in part because of the Bush administration's decision to rely heavily on reservists and National Guard members to fights its wars.
Almost half of the 130,000 US troops on the ground are drawn from these sources - weekend warriors now serving overseas tours of duty that were recently extended to 12 or 15 months. The Pentagon is planning to send another 30,000 reservists to Iraq next year.
On the home front, families may be less than understanding of having their lives interrupted. Not knowing how long their relatives will stay in Iraq has fuelled resentment and deepened anxieties about losing jobs, falling behind on mortgage payments, and family separation.
For Barbara Willis, whose son is a reservist serving in a postal unit at Baghdad airport, it is the idea that he was pulled out of college in his final term of study for a degree in business education, only to sit at Fort Dix, New Jersey, for three months, waiting to be sent to Iraq. "If only they'd have said, 'Stay at home until you finish your education,'" she said. "I am not against President Bush but it gets very aggravating the way he is ruining all these young people's lives."
The families of reservists have taken the separations harder than those on active duty, who are used to military life. The experience of war, with its mix of tedium, brutality and the capriciousness of the US military bureaucracy, also appears harder for the reservists and National Guard members to bear.
Rattled
Reservists are beginning to speak out, saying they are made to do the "grunt work", and are treated unfairly in provision of supplies - especially of bulletproof vests for which there are shortages - and of military furloughs. "The equipment they tried to hand us was items that were bound for the trash pile," Nicholas Ramey, a reservist from Indiana working in a public affairs unit, writes in an email.
"Vietnam-era flack vests held together by dental floss and a prayer would keep us safe ... It was like pulling teeth trying to get the things we needed. As 'dirty reservists', we didn't deserve the same respect, even though we're supposed to watch the active duty's backs."
Such stories are increasingly common among reservists, and circulated among family members at home. The friction, combined with growing confusion about their mission in Iraq, has rattled even longstanding members of the reserves.
None of the people the Guardian contacted said their family member would re-enlist. Some have taken a decision to get out - even those who have devoted their lives to the reserves. "My husband has 20 years in the military, and loved every minute of it," says Candance Gordon, the wife of a reservist from Texas. "He will be resigning his commission the minute he steps foot on American soil, and he says almost everyone he knows is doing the same. The only ones staying in are those who have long contracts, or no family, or make more money being in the reserves than in their civilian life."
The biggest complaint is the one most difficult for the Pentagon to remedy: that service personnel are under strain from long deployments in Iraq. Families described the slow agony waiting for details about each fallen soldier. They are also thinking about homecoming. Several said they feared their children or spouses would be unrecognisable.
Others said they detected anger and depression in their emails that would be difficult to fix when they returned. "They're changing. They have dehumanised the Iraqis. They call them 'hajji' now - that's like 'gook'. I am old enough to remember the Vietnam war, and I remember," says Adele Kubein, whose daughter is a National Guard mechanic serving in Iraq.
On one occasion, her daughter telephoned her, sobbing. "She said, 'Mom, I have shot people. I am never going to be able to come home and live a normal life again. How can I come home and live a normal life when every second I am trying to be alert to see if I will be shot?'"
Dear Mom... Emails from the war zone
From a female member of the National Guard serving in northern Iraq "I don't see anything wrong with doing whatever it takes to stay alive. There is nothing sacred about kids with guns. There is nothing sacred about anybody trying to kill anybody else, it don't matter how old they are. I hate this shit ... I don't mind Iraq, I don't mind war, but I absolutely hate the situation I'm in, and I'm beginning to hate most of the people I'm surrounded by."
From a reservist serving as a mechanic near Baquba
"I was offered to go on a convoy today but I did not go. They came back late tonight, and it turns out that the Iraqi people opened fire on them from a rooftop in a small town. We returned, but did not kill any of them, no one was hurt. This happens all the time. No one really aimed at the enemy. You just get scared and pull the trigger and open up in the direction you think they are firing from."
From an artilleryman's wife
"The morning they shipped out they handed them their papers and things were missing that were supposed to be in there. Now I talk to him via the computer because the phones are never working. I'm on anti-depressants and sleeping pills. I try to make it through the day without crying but lately that's impossible. I never thought that this would be so hard. I wake wondering if my husband is still alive and I turn on the news to see more soldiers dead in Iraq."
From a reservist from Indiana
"Everyone hears that morale is high and it is a bold-faced lie. The only people they ever talk to are these commanders. The reserve soldiers never get to speak their mind. We are the pawns of this war. We watch the active duty retire, and move to new assignments. We watch their tours end as we are still trapped because of poor post-war planning."
-------
------- OneList (submissions from subscribers)
------- Depleted Uranium Keeps On Killing!
-----------
Posted
without profit or payment for research and educational
purposes only,
in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107.