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NUCLEAR
Canada's bid to site EU thermonuclear reactor project in jeopardy
When 'David' Took On Goliath
Italy shelves plans for nuclear waste storage facility after protests
EU nears decision on candidate for huge thermonuclear project
Russia, Pakistan, China gave nukes
US accuses Iran of "brazen" tricks to hide nuclear program
US left in delicate position over Iran nuclear demands
Iran Seeks U.N. Assurance on Nuclear Arms Issue
U.S. Assails Iran for Nuke Program 'Lies'
U.S. Says Iran Wants Bomb, Helps Revise Resolution
Europeans, U.S. Still at Odds Over Iran Resolution
Israel threatens strikes on Iranian nuclear targets
Work on N. Korea Nuke Reactors Suspended
Expert: reactor freeze won't kill talks
U.S. and Allies Suspend North Korea Nuclear Plant
U.S. sparks UN nuclear flap
Energy Dept. Pressed on Ill Nuke Workers
Survey to Look for Volcanoes by Nuke Site
Nuclear Plant Near Toledo Subpoenaed
Patriot Act Expansion Moves Through Congress
MILITARY
US begins hypersonic weapons program
Air Force scrubs MOAB test because of a malfunction
Eurocopter to build helicopters in China
Rockets Hit Two Hotels and Ministry in Baghdad
Truck Bomb Kills 5 in a Pro-U.S. Kurdish Stronghold in Northern Iraq
Israel's help
Israeli officials brush off criticism from Bush
Israel Misinformed Journalists
Bombers Hit British Targets in Istanbul
Bush Says Pentagon's Plan to Reduce Forces
Mother of 7 Released From Army Duty
G.O.P. to Run an Ad for Bush on Terror Issue
MI6 ran 'dubious' Iraq campaign
Bush, Blair Say Iraq War Is Not Cause of Attacks
POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE
Terrorism Panel Subpoenas Tapes From New York
9/11 Panel Issues Third Subpoena
Gen. Franks Doubts Constitution Will Survive WMD Attack
White House Is Evacuated, but the Scene is Serene
Error Caused White House Alert
Contractors Complain of TSA Limits
Security Rules Require Truckers to File Cargo Data
U.S. Set to Revise How It Tracks Some Visitors
F.B.I. Used Killers as Informants, Report Says
FBI Shielded Informants From Murder Charges, Panel Finds
Terrorism Inc.
ENERGY AND OTHER
Senate Derails Energy Bill - For Now
Brazil's Environmentalists Crying Foul
ACTIVISTS
Anti-War Demonstrators Vent at Bush
National Congress of American Indians asks Senate to kill energy bill
Marchers in London Denounce Bush Visit
Demonstration Turns Violent at Trade Talks in Miami
Protesters, Police Clash in Miami Anti-Accord Demonstrations
A Popular Voice for Peaceful Change in Battle-Scarred Burundi
Bush Meets More Activists in Sedgefield
-------- NUCLEAR
-------- canada
Canada's bid to site EU thermonuclear reactor project in jeopardy: ITER Canada
MONTREAL (AFP)
Nov 20, 2003
http://www.spacewar.com/2003/031120212250.e44ply6j.html
Canada's bid to site the European Union's vast International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project is in jeopardy because the government has not committed enough cash to its bid, ITER Canada's president warned Thursday.
ITER Canada president and chief executive officer Murray Stewart told AFP the Canadian government has no present "offer on the table" for the multi-billion euro (dollar) project, which is expected to rain a financial windfull on its final location.
"As of today, we do not have an offer on the table," Stewart said.
He said, unless there is an international delay in the project, there is a risk Canada's bid to site the reactor will fall by the wayside unless vital financing is forthcoming.
The French, Spanish and Japanese governments are also pitching for the EU award to site the ITER. Project partners, which include the EU, Japan, the United States, Canada, China, Russia and South Korea, are expected to announce their chosen site for the reactor at a Washington meeting December 19-20.
But Canada's government has yet to give a financial green light to its bid, and its application has been slowed due to political events as the country waits for prime-minster-in-waiting Paul Martin to takeover from still serving premier Jean Chretien on December 12.
The potential siting of the reactor, billed as the largest international science project since the space station, in Clarington in the Canadian province of Ontario would require an investment of some 2.3 billion dollars Canadian (1.75 million dollars US), according to ITER Canada.
Ontario's state government has pledged to stump up half of the costs, but Stewart said the federal government had yet to respond to a request to meet the other half of the financing.
"We have been in touch with everybody, including Paul Martin ... we have a serious problem," Stewart said.
"Unless there is a delay internationaly, we will not have an offer on the table," he said.
ITER Canada is a non-profit organization, formed in 1997 between nuclear industry representatives, universitities and different government departments, charged with promoting Canada's bid to locate the reactor.
The ITER project seeks to produce in some 30 years clean energy at the pre-industrial stage, notably from hydrogen, through controlled-reproduction of the kind of fusion that occurs in the sun and other stars.
-------- depleted uranium
When 'David' Took On Goliath - One Dying Worker Challenges The Corporate Giants
by Davey Garland
2003-11-21
UN Observer
http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout5.php&id=1205&blz=1
The East Devon - West Dorset coastline has a history of producing and harbouring various trouble makers, be it the pirates and wreckers that inhabited these shores, attacking and sinking trading vessels in the 18th Century, or those who supported disputed heirs to the British crown, such as the Duke of Monmouth, landing his ill-fated cause against James I in 1685.
Upon the shingled beach at Seaton, a new challenger, picks and rolls selected pebbles in his hands, as he gently tosses them into the morning breakers. This person goes by the name of Richard David, or Nibby to his friends. He is set to start in motion one of the most controversial and difficult civilian claims against an employer over direct "toxic kill" levels and radiological contamination, unprecedented, in that the main cause of the collapse in Nibby's health is claimed to be depleted uranium (DU).
In his tiny home, not far from the seafront, Nibby reflects upon the last 15 years of his life, the steady deterioration of his own health and the deaths of his former work mates, colleagues and friends. Nibby was an engineer and machinist between 1985 - 1995, working for an aerospace firm in Somerset, (UK), known world wide for producing and designing helicopters and other parts for the industry.
In the last few years he has discovered that DU was used at the worksite during the period 1966 - 1982, with possible DU oxides emanating from helicopter ballast floating around his area of operation. Nibby's own task was fine finishing metal components with a scouring pad which produced a fine, almost invisible dust, resembling talcum powder, that was inhaled in each breath or would settle upon the work place and employees' clothing. This metal, he now, accepts, was possibly uranium, combined with titanium to form a metal alloy.
Nibby's daily prescribed medication lies out in a coloured line on his dressing table, a pile of pills which includes pain killers, a steroid inhaler, medication for lowered potassium, and diuretic tablets. It was 1985 when he first noticed upper respiratory complications, although conventional doctors failed to acknowledge these health problems. Through an acupuncturist friend, he was warned that his liver was under duress. The ailment continued and in 1989, with Union representation, Nibby's employer sent him for a full medical examination - but again they found nothing. Strangely, the report of this visit was never sent on to his own general practitioner for comment.
On reflection, Nibby acknowledges that those years were filled with constant pain, plus a growing discolouration and change in his skin texture and feeling, especially in his fingers. This was another mystery area to press upon his family's mind. Nibby's body failed him in many ways and at times, his life could be termed an "existence" rather than the life of a husband, father and friend.
In 1990, a top specialist in London began a union sponsored investigation of respiratory problems. Nibby was not able to see the conclusions of this report until 1996. It did in fact show that long term bi-lateral inflammation had caused permanent scarring of his windpipe.
By that time, Nibby's health had deteriorated further, showing increased breathlessness and incapacity, with no amount of antibiotics or inhalers solving the problem. Joint pain and muscular spasms made it almost impossible for him to walk and x-rays showed that both lungs had been permanently scarred and shrunken. In the next two years, other anomalies occured, including chronic fatigue and various growing lumps upon his skull, adding further pain and distress. Heartache continued when he was eventually diagnosed with a rare kidney disorder called Gitlemans Syndrome.
Nibby reaches for another photograph, which was taken in the early 1980's of him riding a bike, his face full of colour and cheer. He then opens his hands to show himself now. For a man in his early 40's who never smoked, was a keen athlete and embraced life fully, these debilitating symptoms were - and are - a living nightmare.
The Legal Struggle
Nibby's attempts to legally challenge his employer began in 1993, when his union persuaded him to meet a lawyer - who bluntly told him that he didn't stand a chance and that there was nothing wrong with him.
Nibby has travelled through 3 legal phases of his case with the company since 1990, starting off with trying to prove a toxic environment. In 1996, he tried to acquire union legal assistance when his lung disease was confirmed but this was dropped in 1997, due to poor medical and legal advice.
Undefeated, Nibby borrowed 500 pounds to issue a high court writ himself, but even after gathering all of his evidence, no medical expert would touch his case. Fortunately, he was eventually able to find a solicitor to represent him, and an out of court settlement was reached. However, 3 weeks later, came the devastating news that the results of independent testing by the Uranium Medical Research Centre in Canada - run under the auspices of Professor Durakovic - showed undisputedly that his body was contaminated with depleted uranium.
Further testing in Berlin has shown chromosomal damage which could have only occurred through radiation exposure and - like many gulf veterans who similarly proved positive in these tests - is far more likely to double the risk of cancer.
He immediately set about putting in a legal bid but, by this time, any chance of legal aid had been phased out for personal injury claims and his lawyers, after initial support, suggested that he would not be able to substantiate his charges, as his previous employer would defend all allegations, "scaring any solicitor into submission." Before this episode, Nibby was never aware that he was working with uranium based metals, and certainly no one was ever told or given any safety and protective information. It is certainly the end of an "illusion" that DU is only a military concern and now points to the stark reality that this pernicious substance is present and a danger to the general public.
Although Nibby is trying to secure an outcome that will make his life easier, (he is presently unable to secure any benefits, and his wife is working all hours to make ends meet) he feels that this case is not about just him any more, but about all the victims, both civilians and veterans, who have been contaminated by DU.
He looks at the pictures of his work mates, most of whom are now dead or dying of lung cancer or heart problems, in their 40's and 50's. Even his managing director died of throat cancer, directly after retirement. He believes that - like himself - this work-force was exposed to radioactive and poisonous substances.
Having been a county councillor for some years, Nibby had access to various environmental health reports, and began to research the subject of depleted uranium contamination, on his own. In the last few years, Nibby has now established close contacts with many specialists and scientists who support and confirm that Nibby was indeed in contact with radiological substances. Like many others, he finds that his case is not unique and that many unsuspecting victims like him have been contaminated.
He quotes two examples: firstly in Britain, the many scrap metal industry workers who were not aware that they were handling metal contaminated with radioactive DU, and secondly, after the El Al plane - with a still unknown cargo - crashed in Amsterdam in 1992, over 800 families and many clean-up workers have reported similar symptoms to those of veterans and other civilian war victims. Hundreds of kilograms of DU counterweights in the plane burned in the crash, contaminating the neighbourhood with deadly uranium oxide smoke.
Nibby's constant condemnation of the aerospace industry, which still uses this heavy metal, has also opened the discussion as to how much uranium based metals are being used generally within civilian life. In the US, some advocates of recycling DU have hinted that such metals could be used in everyday house-hold products, with DU reportedly having been used, some years ago, in the dental industry and within the building industry. In the UK, this concern is already being realised by some union representatives - who wish not to be named -claiming that these metals have already proliferated into a vast array of various products, such as flywheels and clutches with, again, very few employees aware of the danger.
At the recent World Uranium Weapons Conference in Hamburg, Nibby spoke passionately of the need to expose this cover-up of the effects of uranium metals, be it in the workplace or on the battlefield, and that there is a concerted effort by the manufacturers, government and military to hide the facts from an ever-worried public.
It is evident that the nuclear industry, with its waste problems, is increasingly looking towards finding an outlet, be it overtly or covertly, and is able, if need be, to conceal the source and composition of the materials being used, even if they are of radioactive origin.
Nibby's position is just the tip of the iceberg and although he has had some union support, officials are still silent - possibly worried about the outcome and loss of jobs - if it is ever discovered that these metals are being constantly worked upon with no safety or health prevention measures put in place.
Can the international trade union and anti-globalisation movement be intransigent, if so many workers and an unsuspecting public are at risk from the proliferation of this toxic metal ?
Science says no amount of exposure to radiation is too small to cause damage. In the case of DU, which is an alpha emitter and so does its damage once it is ingested and inside the body, then the findings and case studies from Afghanistan, the Balkans, and Iraq, where DU and uranium weapons were used, fully illustrate that the long term prognosis is very bleak, indeed.
Use of depleted uranium in weapons is illegal, according to the United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, beginning with its pronouncements in Resolutions in 1996 and 1997 and then, in reports prepared at its request, submitted and accepted in 1997, 2002 and 2003. In particular, the 2002 and 2003 reports (U.N. Docs. E/CN.4/Sub.2/2002/38 and E/CN.4/Sub.2/2003/35 prepared by Chief Justice Yueng Sik Yuen, Supreme Court, Mauritius) clearly indicate that weapons with depleted uranium are necessarily indiscriminate (weapons of indiscriminate effect, or WIE) and cause superfluous and unnecessary suffering. This makes their use incompatible with existing rules of armed combat.
It is highly regrettable that neither the United States nor Britain fully acknowledges the lethality of DU weapons, although studies made in the U.S., years ago, attest to awareness of it.
There are increasing calls for a moratorium on the use of DU weapons, due to their inherent illegality - but no matter, if DU is vaporized in the heat of weapons or when metal is drilled or sanded in a factory, the physical effects are the same. Those exposed, due to ruthless use of DU weapons in war or from factories making use of it, have a right to full disclosure, the highest standard of medical care and, of course, compensation.
Back on Seaton beach, Nibby catches his breath but manages to smile optimistically. Staring out to sea, he knows that the next few months will be trying and tiring but already, people are beginning to work, both locally and internationally, to support his cause and to spread information about the use of DU and other radioactive weapons/substances. This time, when David goes to meet Goliath, there will be a large crowd behind him, each hoping to throw a stone that will break this deadly charade and finally expose the truth about this metal.
Davey Garland
For those who want to support this campaign or raise funds for the Nibby David DU Support Fund, please contact: nddusupportfund@b...
Davey Garland is co-ordinator of the Pandora DU Research Project and is working with an alliance of other anti-DU/nuclear groups, environmentalists, trade-unionists and veterans for a moratorium on all radioactive weapons. For more details contact: pduproject@y... and visit: http://www.pandoraproject.org .
Ed. Note: For a graphic display, please watch the following - but only if you feel you can bear some very disturbing images. Reality can be shocking. http://www.ericblumrich.com/pl_lo.html
-------- europe
Italy shelves plans for nuclear waste storage facility after protests
ROME (AFP)
Nov 20, 2003
http://www.spacewar.com/2003/031120213737.1b9x8zoo.html
The Italian government said Thursday it had shelved a decree authorising the construction of a single storage site for all the country's radioactive nuclear waste following widespread protests.
"In the wake of the protests brought about by the choice of the site for a nuclear waste storage facility, the government is ready to modify its decision," the government said in a statement.
The decision will go on ice pending parliamentary discussions and the formation of a commission to consult with scientists and regional authorities on the choice of Scanzano Jonico, in the southern region of Basilicata, it said.
On the basis of these talks, either the choice of the site will be confirmed or a new site will be chosen.
"Once the choice on the site is made, construction work will start and will be finished in five or six years," the government said.
The Italian government has since January sought to consolidate its nuclear waste storage facilities in order to better protect against a possible terrorist attack.
It issued a decree last week naming a new site to be located in the rural village of Scanzano Jonico capable of storing around 60,000 cubic metres of second and third category nuclear waste.
Almost 55,000 cubic metres of highly radioactive nuclear waste and nearly 300 tonnes of spent fuel are currently stored at 19 sites throughout Italy.
----
EU nears decision on candidate for huge thermonuclear project
BRUSSELS (AFP)
Nov 21, 2003
http://www.spacewar.com/2003/031121132311.b7nt57a5.html
The European Union hopes next week to decide on whether France or Spain will go forward as a candidate to host an ambitious project to replicate the Sun's nuclear fusion, officials said Friday.
Spain on Thursday informed the European Commission that it was doubling its contribution to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactorproject to 900 million euros (1.07 billion dollars).
But Brussels said the announcement would have no bearing when EU industry ministers meet next Thursday to decide if Vandellos in Spain or Cadarache in southern France will go forward as the EU's candidate to host ITER.
"We insist that there should be just one European candidate at the end of all this for ITER," Commission spokesman Reijo Kemppinen told reporters.
Canada and Japan are also pitching for the 4.5-billion-euro project, which will seek to replicate the kind of nuclear fusion seen in the Sun to deliver clean energy from hydrogen.
Project partners, which include the EU, Japan, the United States, Canada, China, Russia and South Korea, are expected to announce their chosen site for the reactor at a Washington meeting next month.
-------- iran
Russia, Pakistan, China gave nukes
November 21, 2003
By George Jahn
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20031120-090525-4293r.htm
VIENNA, Austria - The U.N. atomic agency has identified Russia, China and Pakistan as among the probable suppliers of equipment that Iran used to conduct suspected nuclear programs with weapons potential, diplomats said yesterday.
The diplomats spoke to the Associated Press as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) weighed how harshly to censure Tehran for two decades of covert nuclear activities, which Iran says were aimed at peaceful purposes.
The IAEA's 35-nation board is debating the wording of a resolution that would satisfy both U.S. calls for strong condemnation of Iran's past cover-ups and European desires to keep Iran cooperating by focusing on its recent openness.
Mohamed ElBaradei, the IAEA director-general, said agency delegates were discussing a "quite strong" resolution. The talks, which broke off yesterday after less than two hours, are to continue today.
Although Iran has acknowledged nearly two decades of concealment, it recently has begun cooperating with the agency in response to international pressure. To that end, it has suspended uranium enrichment - an activity that had raised U.S. suspicions of a nuclear-weapons agenda.
Iran says it enriched uranium only to produce power. Although admitting that some of its enrichment equipment had traces of weapons-grade highly enriched uranium, it insists those traces inadvertently were imported on material it purchased abroad.
However, Tehran says it cannot identify the countries of origin because it bought the centrifuges and laser-enrichment equipment through third parties.
The Vienna-based IAEA must know where the equipment came from if it is to ascertain whether Iran is telling the truth about the source of trace uranium.
The diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, declined to say how the agency established the probable origin of the equipment.
Pakistan, suspected from the start, repeatedly has denied any involvement.
Russia likewise denied that it was a willing participant in providing enrichment technology to Iran for the purpose of a nuclear-weapons program.
----
US accuses Iran of "brazen" tricks to hide nuclear program
VIENNA (AFP)
Nov 21, 2003
http://www.spacewar.com/2003/031121182107.2yc94d5w.html
The United States said Friday that Iran had made "brazen and systematic" breaches nuclear safeguards as it pressed its case before the UN nuclear watchdog agency for a tough judgement on Iran's secret nuclear program.
The International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) 35-nation board of governors separately approved a deal allowing for more intrusive inspections of Iranian nuclear sites and said it was now ready to be signed by Tehran.
The IAEA meeting was adjourned until Wednesday after the United States and Europe's big three -- Britain, France and Germany -- failed in two days of intense, closed-door negotiations to agree on a resolution in response to the watchdog's report detailing almost two decades of hidden Iranian nuclear activities.
The adjournment would give time for the issue to be discussed "by home governments in their capitals," a Western diplomat said.
The United States wants Iran to be declared in "non-compliance" with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), a move that could see the issue put before the UN Security Council, which could slap sanctions on Iran.
But many countries, led by Britain, France and Germany, think that taking the issue to the Security Council could cause a backlash, prompting Tehran to cut off cooperation with the IAEA.
US Ambassador to the IAEA Ken Brill told the board that Iran could not be seen as "a state that tried in good faith to meet its obligations" under international nuclear non-proliferation agreements, according to a copy of his speech given to reporters.
"Iran's breaches of its obligations have been brazen and systematic and far from merely 'technical' ones," Brill said.
He said Iran's claim to have turned a new page in cooperation since October can not be taken at face value since "so much of what it has said in the past year about its nuclear program has turned out to be false."
Brill said the IAEA has damaged its credibility by concluding there was as yet no evidence that Iran had a nuclear program.
But IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei rejected the charge by saying that his agency had after all been right in the past when it said there was no evidence in Iraq of a nuclear weapons program.
The IAEA board is considering a report from ElBaradei that outlines 18 years of hidden suspect nuclear activities by Iran, including making small amounts of plutonium and enriched uranium.
ElBaradei said the IAEA has no "evidence," however, that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, with investigations continuing.
But Brill said there clearly was evidence but no "proof" and that ElBaradei's comment had been misinterpreted.
Iran has cooperated with the IAEA since October 21, when it struck a deal with Britain, France and Germany to agree to wider, snap inspections and suspend the enrichment or uranium, in return for promises that the IAEA would not bring it before the Security Council, diplomats said.
After the IAEA board approved the additional protocol that allows for snap inspections, agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said it was now "ready to be signed".
But Iran refused to set a date for signing the text on the new inspections regime until its sees what sort of a resolution the board is to pass on its non-proliferation violations.
Iran's ambassador to the IAEA Ali Akbar Salehi told reporters the protocol and the resolution were a "package" together.
The United States, however, "is looking for some pretty strong language and is willing to compromise only to a point," a Western diplomat said.
A key sticking point in the so-called Euro 3's draft resolution is its saying that if Iran continues to cooperate, the issue of its compliance should stay with the IAEA.
The text says that should ElBaradei "report that there have been further significant failures, the board of governors would meet immediately and decide upon measures to be taken," according to a copy shown to reporters.
A diplomat said this formulation, however, was not enough since the term "significant failures" was vague.
"A failure is a failure," the diplomat said, stressing that the resolution should also unambiguously say when the matter would go to the Security Council.
----
US left in delicate position over Iran nuclear demands
WASHINGTON (AFP)
Nov 21, 2003
http://www.spacewar.com/2003/031121210106.3l2yf19l.html
The US Department of State on Friday backed off demands to take Iran's nuclear program before the UN Security Council.
Deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said Washington hoped the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would "take firm action" in response to an IAEA report on Iran's suspect nuclear activities.
However, he refused to repeat a statement made on Thursday that Washington intended to take the matter before the Security Council.
"Our diplomatic discussions with (IAEA) board members are continuing" in Vienna, he said.
The United States wants the IAEA to declare Iran in non-compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty. But it has failed to agree with Britain, France and Germany on a resolution in response to the report detailing almost two decades of hidden nuclear activities.
Ereli went too far in his statement during a State Department press briefing Thursday, a senior State Department official said privately.
The spokesman "might have been a little too forward leaning," the official said. "I'm not sure frankly, that referring it to the security council is something that we are insisting on in our negotiations."
Kenneth Brill, the US Ambassador to the IAEA has criticized Iran for backtracking on a pledge to accept wider inspections, after Tehran had promised full cooperation.
He said in Vienna, "Iran's breaches of its obligations have been brazen and systematic and far from merely 'technical' ones."
But the IAEA adjourned until Wednesday because of the failure to agree on a resolution.
Declaring Iran in "non-compliance" with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty could see the issue put before the UN Security Council, the only body which could slap sanctions on Iran.
But Britain, France and Germany fear an Iranian backlash that could lead Tehran to cut off cooperation with the IAEA.
----
Iran Seeks U.N. Assurance on Nuclear Arms Issue
November 21, 2003
New York Times
By DAVID E. SANGER
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/21/international/middleeast/21IRAN.html
VIENNA, Nov. 20 - An International Atomic Energy Agency debate about how to deal with the 18-year-long effort by Iran to conceal its nuclear programs got off to a sputtering start on Thursday, when the Iranian delegation said it would not commit itself to an accord that would open the nation to more intrusive inspections until an agreement is reached on how strongly the agency will condemn Iran for its past actions.
A meeting of the agency's board of governors was recessed after two hours.
The agency's director general, Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, tried privately to persuade European nations to toughen the wording of a resolution under consideration by the the board to include specific references to Iran's nuclear "breaches" and a statement deploring its actions.
Iran has resisted those terms, and Germany, France, Britain and Russia have argued for a weakly worded resolution in the hope of encouraging Iranian leaders to open their program to further inspections.
The Bush administration has refused to give ground, saying that the agency's charter - and its future credibility - require it to report Iran's actions to the United Nations Security Council. That seemed highly unlikely, and Dr. ElBaradei repeated Thursday that there was "no evidence" that Iran had pursued a nuclear weapons program.
But American officials and outside experts say there is no other explanation for why a nation with abundant oil would spend millions of dollars on difficult, inefficient methods of enriching uranium at levels that could be useful for bomb-making.
The Bush administration is also pressing the board to include in its resolution a "trigger" that would result in penalties if Iran backed away from any new commitment.
"There is a new draft circulating that will make the United States happier, but not much happier," one diplomat here said.
-------
U.S. Assails Iran for Nuke Program 'Lies'
November 21, 2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Nuclear-Agency-Iran.html?pagewanted=all&position=
VIENNA, Austria (AP ) -- The United States voiced unprecedented criticism of the U.N. atomic agency chief Friday, suggesting he glossed over Iranian deceptions about its nuclear program, even as diplomats in Washington hinted at a compromise on whether the Iranian issue should be referred to the U.N. Security Council.
U.S. envoy Kenneth Brill attacked as ``questionable'' a report from International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei. That report said the agency had found ``no evidence'' of an Iranian nuclear program.
``Disingenuous,'' replied ElBaradei to Brill's criticism.
Despite the rhetoric, however, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli suggested the United States was backing away from its insistence that the IAEA board refer Iran's record on nuclear activities to the Security Council.
``We continue to work with our friends to make sure that the IAEA Board of Governors take fully into account what Dr. ElBaradei reported about Iran's nuclear program,'' he said in Washington.
Asked specifically if the United States still wants the Iran matter to be referred to the Security Council, Ereli said, ``I'm not going to negotiate a board of governor's resolution from the podium.''
But a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: ``I'm not sure, frankly, that referring it to the Security Council is something we are insisting on.''
On Thursday, Ereli had said the United States expects the board ``to meet its obligations under the IAEA statute to find that Iran has been in noncompliance with its safeguards agreement and to report that noncompliance to the UN Security Council.''
The exchange between Brill and ElBaradei, an Egyptian, reflected differences at the IAEA board meeting over whether to condemn Iran's past nuclear transgressions or focus on what major European nations say seems to be its newfound openness.
After two days of failure, the board adjourned until Wednesday in hopes of finding a compromise. IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said the pause would allow for high-level talks in foreign capitals.
Addressing delegates, Brill criticized Iran for ``violations and lies'' by enriching uranium, processing small amounts of plutonium, and other activities that Washington says point to a weapons agenda.
``Iran systematically and deliberately deceived the IAEA and the international community about these issues for year after year after year,'' Brill said. The purpose, he said, was ``the pursuit of nuclear weapons.''
Such conduct ``constitutes noncompliance with its safeguards obligations,'' he said, in language that indirectly accused Iran of violating the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty -- an act that normally results in U.N. Security Council involvement.
Brill suggested a statement in ElBaradei's report was ``questionable'' in saying there was no ``evidence'' that Iran had tried to build nuclear weapons. Brill said the proper wording should have been that there was no ``proof.''
A combative ElBaradei dismissed the criticism.
``Frankly, I find it disingenuous that this word 'evidence' has suddenly become a matter of disbelief,'' he told board members, in comments made available to reporters.
Citing Black's Law Dictionary, ElBaradei, a lawyer, quoted entries from the book to plead his case that ``proof'' and ``evidence'' may be used interchangeably.
He suggested that in at least one instance -- the war in Iraq -- the IAEA's credibility was ``enhanced,'' and America's diminished, because there is still no sign of the nuclear weapons program that Washington accused Saddam Hussein of having.
``We reflect facts, as radar does, without partiality,'' ElBaradei said. ``We do not jump to conclusions or make leaps of faith. We have not said that we have come to the conclusion that the Iranian program is exclusively for peaceful purposes, because we still have work to do.''
In Washington, Ereli sought to smooth over the rift.
``There's no intention to impugn the credibility of the International Atomic Energy Agency and the fine work that Director ElBaradei has done in putting together what is an important report on Iran's nuclear program,'' Ereli said.
Earlier, Iran submitted a letter to the board agreeing to open its nuclear programs to pervasive spot inspections, giving up attempts to wait until it saw the text of the resolution and approved its language.
Diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Iran continued to insist it had the right to withdraw its pledge if the resolution made reference to Security Council involvement or contained other language it found unacceptable.
Such a move, however, would almost guarantee a strong resolution that might even meet U.S. wishes to have Iran declared in violation of safeguard agreements -- triggering possible Security Council involvement.
Asked what links there were between a soft resolution and his country's acceptance of wider inspections as well as its decision to suspend uranium enrichment -- both of which are board demands -- chief Iranian delegate Ali Akbar Salehi said: ``They all go together.''
He suggested the United States was isolated on the board.
``We think that the American delegation -- or the U.S. as a whole -- is sort of a hostage to its own accusations,'' Salehi said. ``And I think the majority of the board are looking forward to see that this ... is resolved peacefully.''
A diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity said only a few countries -- Canada, Australia and Japan -- supported the U.S. position.
Salehi suggested that Germany, France and Britain -- the chief backers of a relatively soft resolution -- had pledged to keep the issue from going to the Security Council if Iran continued to cooperate with IAEA efforts to probe its nuclear past and present.
The European Union said it welcomed Iran's ``new attitude'' but warned that further ``significant breaches'' of IAEA agreements, ``or evidence of further concealment,'' would be met ``by an appropriate and immediate response from the international community'' -- shorthand for Security Council involvement.
ElBaradei has said he wants a strongly worded report that nonetheless stops short of asking for Security Council involvement.
On the Net:
IAEA Web site: www.iaea.org
--------
U.S. Says Iran Wants Bomb, Helps Revise Resolution
November 21, 2003
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-nuclear-iran.html
VIENNA, Austria (Reuters) - The United States accused Iran Friday of secretly developing atomic weapons, but diplomats said Washington was willing to forego its demand to report Tehran to the U.N. Security Council for covering up nuclear research.
``So much of what (Iran) has said in the past year about its nuclear program has turned out to be false that there is no rational basis simply to assume the contrary now,'' said U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. nuclear watchdog, Kenneth Brill.
Iran's ``pursuit of nuclear weapons'' was clear, he added.
Washington says the credibility of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is at stake over Iran and has pushed the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) board to condemn Iran's two-decade cover-up of atomic research in the harshest possible terms in a resolution.
An IAEA report said Iran concealed a uranium enrichment program for 18 years and secretly reprocessed plutonium useable in weapons. It said there was ``no evidence'' of an arms program but the jury was still out as to whether one existed.
Brill told the IAEA Board of Governors the phrase ``no evidence'' was ``highly unfortunate'' in light of the revelations about Iran's cover-up and said the IAEA should have used the words ``no proof'' instead.
He said the wording used by the IAEA provoked ``expressions of disbelief that the institution charged with ... scrutinizing nuclear proliferation risks was dismissing important facts.''
IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei lashed back, calling the U.S. statement ``disingenuous.''
After two-days of meetings in Vienna, the 35-member IAEA board adjourned until Wednesday to give diplomats time to consult with their capitals on the revision of resolution.
U.S. HELPS DRAFT NEW RESOLUTION
The United States has rejected as too weak two drafts of a French, British and German IAEA resolution that ``strongly deplores Iran's past breaches'' but stops short of sending Tehran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.
Diplomats close to the negotiations said Washington would accept an indirect reference to Iran's NPT ``non-compliance'' and was willing to forgo an immediate report to the Council.
In exchange, the United States is backing a Japanese proposal to include a timetable in a revised resolution, which Washington will help London, Paris and Berlin draft.
Diplomats said the idea of a timetable setting dates by which certain specific goals should be achieved would keep the pressure on Iran to continue complying with U.N. inspectors.
Diplomats said it was unclear what exactly would be in the timetable, though it might include things like signing the NPT additional protocol allowing tougher IAEA inspections and complying with the protocol prior to its ratification by Iran.
Other European board members have joined Washington in refusing to back the first two French, German and British resolutions for being too weak in its condemnation of Iran's cover-up of key parts of its nuclear program.
The IAEA board also formally approved Iran's intention to sign the NPT additional protocol, although Tehran has said it will only sign the document if the board passes a resolution that leaves out the term ``non-compliance.''
(Additional reporting by Tehran bureau and Francois Murphy in Vienna).
--------
Europeans, U.S. Still at Odds Over Iran Resolution
November 21, 2003
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/politics/politics-nuclear-iran.html
VIENNA (Reuters) - European and U.S. diplomats were at loggerheads on Friday after late-night talks on a draft U.N. nuclear resolution that would condemn Iran for its 18-year concealment of research that could be used to make an atom bomb.
France, Britain and Germany spent much of Thursday revising a draft resolution in the hope of satisfying Washington's hard-liners, who want Iran declared in violation of international non-proliferation obligations. A final draft would be put to the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) Board of Governors.
Talks between the three European states and other IAEA board members continued late into the night in the hope of tabling a draft on Friday, but one diplomat close to the talks said it was unclear if the text would reach the board soon.
``It's not ready yet,'' a diplomat from a non-aligned country told Reuters. ``I don't know if it will be tabled today.''
Another Western diplomat told Reuters the three European powers were managing the drafting process. The United States, which accuses Iran of developing a secret atomic weapons program, has rejected two drafts so far for being too soft on the Islamic republic.
``There are instructions coming out of London based on talks between the Bush administration and the British,'' the diplomat said, referring to President Bush's state visit to Britain.
U.S. negotiators have agreed to forego an immediate report on Iran's breaches to the U.N. Security Council, which could impose economic sanctions, but they still insist that Iran be declared in ``non-compliance'' with international nuclear obligations.
In a new report on Iran, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said Tehran had been guilty of numerous breaches of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), including the undeclared production of plutonium and enrichment of uranium.
In his report, ElBaradei said there was no evidence to date of a secret nuclear weapons program, but the jury was still out on whether Tehran's nuclear aims were entirely peaceful as it insists.
SECURITY COUNCIL
The United States also wants the resolution to include a ``trigger mechanism'' in the event of further breaches by Iran.
A trigger is in the revised draft -- a clause calling for the board to meet and decide on measures to be taken if further breaches are uncovered. ``Measures'' would mean reporting Iran to the Security Council.
In Tehran, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi told reporters the United States was trying to exert the maximum influence on proceedings.
``They are looking for excuses to send Iran's case to the Security Council, but initiatives from us and the Europeans remove the excuses,'' he said.
But at the IAEA's headquarters in Vienna, it was not simply a case of the United States versus Europe.
One diplomat said the proposed resolution had a clause calling for an expansion of a Franco-German-British deal with Tehran into an agreement between Iran and the entire IAEA board, something that most board members found unacceptable.
Last month, the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany agreed to consider an exchange of technology with Iran if it accepted tougher, short-notice IAEA inspections and suspended its uranium enrichment program.
European diplomats outside the ``big three'' states have complained privately that London, Paris and Berlin appointed themselves the spokesmen for all 25 of the present and future EU members but do not represent the views of the entire bloc. (Additional reporting by Tehran bureau and Francois Murphy in Vienna).
-------- israel
Israel threatens strikes on Iranian nuclear targets
ROSS DUNN in JERUSALEM,
Sun 23 Nov 2003
Scotsman
http://www.news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1292472003
ISRAEL has warned that it is prepared to take unilateral military action against Iran if the international community fails to stop any development of nuclear weapons at the country's atomic energy facilities.
As the International Atomic Energy Agency prepares to meet again this week to discuss the situation in Iran, Israel has told Washington it is prepared to act alone and launch a strike similar to its attack on Iraq in 1981 when its air force bombed a nuclear reactor near Baghdad.
In an apparent attempt to increase pressure on the IAEA and United Nations to limit the development of Iran's nuclear facilities, Israel's defence minister Shaul Mofaz has made what sources have described as a warning of "unprecedented severity".
At the time of the Iraq attack, Israel defended its actions, claiming it had dealt a devastating blow to Saddam Hussein's goal of developing nuclear weapons. Israel views Iran in much the same way as it did Saddam's Iraq.
Mofaz set out his government's position last week during a visit to the United States stating that "under no circumstances would Israel be able to tolerate nuclear weapons in Iranian possession".
He said that in the course of the next year Iran's drive for nuclear weapons would "reach the point of no return".
Mofaz's warning has been reinforced by Meir Dagan, the head of Israel's secret services, Mossad, who claimed that the spectre of nuclear weaponry in Iran represented the greatest threat Israel had faced since the founding of the Jewish state in 1948.
Addressing Israel's foreign affairs and defence committee, he added that he thought Iranian nuclear capabilities would pose a threat not only to Israel but to Europe as well. He also said that the Iranians were developing ground-to-ground missiles with a range of thousands of kilometres.
Dagen dismissed Iran's claims that it had no plans to equip its missiles with atomic warheads. He said the reactor at Bashir in Iran was far too large to be used solely for generating electricity. He added that Iran was close to completing the building of a uranium enrichment facility and it would have the potential to produce 10 nuclear bombs a year. The European Union position has been lightweight until now
The Israeli warning follows recent statements by Iran to the IAEA claiming that it is temporarily suspending its uranium enrichment programme and insisting that its atomic energy programme is only for peaceful purposes.
But Israel rejected Iran's claims and took its case directly to the Vienna-based international watchdog where foreign affairs minister Silvan Shalom met with the director of the IAEA, Mohammed El Baradei. Shalom said the latest IAEA report "clearly indicated continuous Iranian violation over the past 20 years of its commitments to the international community regarding the nuclear issue and its programme to develop nuclear weapons".
During the meeting, Shalom called on the agency and the international community to act to guarantee that Iran abandons all of its efforts to enrich uranium.He argued that inspection of Iranian facilities should be rigorous and continuous and added that the issue should also be addressed by the UN Security Council.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon also weighed into the debate during talks last week with the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in Rome. "I spoke at length with Berlusconi about the danger posed by Iran... It's the number one danger," he said. Sharon called on Italy to appeal to the rest of Europe to take a stronger stand against Iran.
"I hope that Italy keeps Iran in very close check, because it seems to me that the European Union position has been lightweight up until now," he said.
Sharon's concerns are shared by the United States. President George Bush said last week that the UN nuclear agency must hold Iran accountable under international non-proliferation agreements.
His appeal came amid divisions between the US and some European leaders over Iran's nuclear programme, in advance of the key meeting of the IAEA governing board in Vienna.
Bush administration officials maintain that Iran has not been completely forthcoming to European envoys about its nuclear programme.
But the US administration has given key European foreign ministers credit for going to Tehran last month and getting a commitment from the Iranians to, among other things, stop enriching uranium.
At the same time, Washington continues to insist that Iran has been hiding a nuclear weapons programme and is concerned that this week's IAEA board meeting will end without the matter being referred to the Security Council.
The issue was on the agenda at a recent State Department meeting between Secretary of State Colin Powell and German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, who made the trip to Tehran last month along with his British and French counterparts.
Then Powell took issue with an assertion by European Union chief diplomat Javier Solana that Iran has been "honest" in its dealings with the international community on its nuclear programme.
"I wouldn't have gone quite as far," Powell said. "The Iranians have provided us with a great deal of information. It confirms what the United States has been saying for some time, and which we believe, that the Iranian nuclear development programme was for more than just the production of power; that it had intent to produce a nuclear weapon. And I think that the information that has come forward establishes that," he said.
Fischer sounded a similar theme in his remarks in Washington, saying recent Iranian actions had been "quite positive" but that close scrutiny was needed.
"We are moving forward based on realism, and realism based on transparency. I think we are moving in the right direction. But we must go into the details now.
-------- korea
Work on N. Korea Nuke Reactors Suspended
November 21, 2003
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-US-North-Korea.html
NEW YORK (AP) -- The United States, South Korea, Japan and the European Union decided Friday to suspend construction of two nuclear reactors in North Korea, which is suspected of secretly developing atomic weapons.
The four are members of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization executive board, which had been building the light-water reactors under a 1994 deal between the United States and North Korea. The reactors were meant to come online in 2007.
The suspension will be for one year, the board said in a statement from its New York headquarters, announcing a decision reached earlier this month.
However, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said Thursday the U.S. position was that ``there's no future for the reactor project.''
The light-water reactors, difficult to adapt to nuclear weapons production, were meant to replace three North Korean reactors that are able to produce weapons-grade plutonium.
North Korea has said it is enriching uranium, which could be used in bombs. Most security analysts believe the communist nation has reprocessed enough plutonium from spent fuel rods to make at least two bombs and fear it may be stepping up weapons production.
The future of the $4.6 billion reactor project came into question when it became apparent a year ago that North Korea was violating a 1994 agreement to cease any nuclear weapons programs.
Japan said it hoped Friday's announcement would force North Korea to reconsider its nuclear ambitions, noting the KEDO board could decide to resume construction at any time so long as Pyongyang made clear it was abandoning its weapons program.
``We'd certainly hope to see a positive response from North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons development program in an irreversible, complete, and verifiable manner,'' said Foreign Ministry spokesman Jiro Okuyama.
Meanwhile, North Korea on Friday berated Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for calling its regime ``evil,'' and accused Washington of deception.
The statement came as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly wrapped up an Asian tour and left for Washington to further coordinate policy amid hopes for a second round of six-nation talks on the standoff over North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
``Recently the Bush administration is talking about offering a security guarantee for our country, but the slander by Rumsfeld, who leads the U.S. policy, shows that the 'security guarantee' is nothing more than a play aimed at deceiving us,'' KCNA, the North's official news agency, said in a commentary. The commentary was monitored by South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
This shows that it is only right ``for us to increase the nuclear deterrent force,'' KCNA said.
North Korea has accused Washington of planning a pre-emptive attack against it, after labeling the communist country part of an ``axis of evil'' along with Iran and Iraq.
On Friday, Kelly met his South Korean counterpart, Assistant Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuck, for a second day in the South Korean capital, Seoul. They discussed security assurances for North Korea, one of Pyongyang's key conditions for abandoning its nuclear ambitions.
Kelly made a quick tour of Asia this week amid efforts to hold another round of the nuclear talks involving the United States, the two Koreas, Japan, China and Russia. He visited Tokyo and Beijing before coming to Seoul.
Diplomatic efforts to resume the six-nation conference gained speed last month after North Korea agreed ``in principle'' to return to the negotiating table. Pyongyang also dropped its demand for a nonaggression treaty with Washington, saying it would consider President Bush's offer for written security assurances from the United States and North Korea's neighbors.
The first six-nation conference in August ended without an agreement on when to meet again.
Upon arrival in South Korea on Wednesday, Kelly said it was uncertain whether a second round of six-nation talks will take place next month. South Korean officials have said the talks could be held Dec. 17-18.
----
Expert: reactor freeze won't kill talks
Nov. 22, 2003
(UPI)
http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20031122-074118-5660r.htm
SEOUL, South Korea -- The U.S.-led consortium's decision to suspend its nuclear project in North Korea is not expected to halt mediation between North Korea and its neighbors.
Although the one-year suspension has clearly angered officials in Pyongyang, the North Koreans are expected to continue participating in the six-way nuclear forum, the Korea Herald reported Saturday.
Experts said the North recognized the need for negotiations to break the current impasse and the one-year suspension of the light-water nuclear reactor construction has long been expected.
The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization officially announced in New York on Friday that it would freeze the $4.6 billion project for one year due to North Korea's nuclear threat in violation of the 1994 Agreed Framework.
The decision came amid growing diplomatic engagement between the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia to reconvene their talks in December.
----
U.S. and Allies Suspend North Korea Nuclear Plant
November 21, 2003
REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-korea-north-reactors.html
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States and its key Asian and European allies said on Friday they were suspending a North Korean nuclear power project for one year, but stopped short of scrapping it as the Bush administration wanted.
The New York-based Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization, or KEDO, said the suspension would start on Dec. 1. A decision to resume operations will be made within a year while five countries try to persuade communist Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons programs that have spooked the United States and nations in the region.
``KEDO is not leaving the place,'' A diplomatic source said. ``Hopefully you will have a diplomatic outcome in the talks ... and the organization may be involved in delivering what kind of energy assistance has been decided.''
KEDO was the international consortium established to run and manage a project that stemmed from the so-called Agreed Framework between the Clinton administration and Pyongyang.
North Korea agreed to freeze nuclear programs in return for two light-water nuclear reactors, which could not be used for weapons programs. The United States agreed to send fuel oil to meet North Korea's energy needs.
The deal began to break down when the United States said in October 2002 that the North Koreans had admitted working on a secret uranium enrichment project.
Relations remain tense between Washington and the insular, unpredictable state that President Bush bracketed as part of an ``axis of evil'' along with Iran and Iraq under former President Saddam Hussein.
U.S. DECLARES SATISFACTION
A State Department official said the United States was satisfied with Friday's multilateral decision, although it fell short of the Bush administration's position, which was to scrap the project.
KEDO, which includes the United States, Japan, South Korea and the European Union, would maintain about 100 caretakers, most of them South Korean nationals, at the reactor site in Kumho on the eastern coast of North Korea, an official said.
``The executive board of KEDO, given that the conditions necessary for continuing the light water reactor project have not been met by the DPRK (North Korea), has decided to suspend the light water reactor project,'' KEDO said in its announcement, which was expected after intense pressure from Washington.
``The suspension process will require preservation and maintenance both on-site and off-site. KEDO continues to consult with the DPRK,'' the KEDO statement said.
Meanwhile, James Kelly, the top U.S. envoy on North Korea, ended a three-day visit to South Korea on Friday. He was returning to Washington to continue diplomatic efforts next week to arrange six-nation talks aimed at halting all of Pyongyang's nuclear programs.
Delegates from the two Koreas, the United States, China, Russia and Japan met inconclusively in Beijing in August and were expected to meet again next month, but whether the parties would meet in December was uncertain.
-------- un
U.S. sparks UN nuclear flap
Associated Press,
Friday, Nov. 21, 2003
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20031121.wnuke1121/BNStory/International/
Vienna - The United States voiced unprecedented criticism of the U.N. atomic agency chief Friday, suggesting he glossed over Iranian deceptions about its nuclear program, even as diplomats in Washington hinted at a compromise on whether the Iranian issue should be referred to the U.N. Security Council.
U.S. envoy Kenneth Brill attacked as "questionable" a report from International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei. That report said the agency had found "no evidence" of an Iranian nuclear program.
"Disingenuous," replied Dr. ElBaradei to Mr. Brill's criticism.
Despite the rhetoric, however, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli suggested the United States was backing away from its insistence that the IAEA board refer Iran's record on nuclear activities to the Security Council.
"We continue to work with our friends to make sure that the IAEA Board of Governors take fully into account what Dr. ElBaradei reported about Iran's nuclear program," he said in Washington.
Asked specifically if the United States still wants the Iran matter to be referred to the Security Council, Mr. Ereli said, "I'm not going to negotiate a board of governor's resolution from the podium."
But a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "I'm not sure, frankly, that referring it to the Security Council is something we are insisting on."
On Thursday, Mr. Ereli had said the United States expects the board "to meet its obligations under the IAEA statute to find that Iran has been in noncompliance with its safeguards agreement and to report that noncompliance to the UN Security Council."
The exchange between Mr. Brill and Dr. ElBaradei, an Egyptian, reflected differences at the IAEA board meeting over whether to condemn Iran's past nuclear transgressions or focus on what major European nations say seems to be its newfound openness.
After two days of failure, the board adjourned until Wednesday in hopes of finding a compromise. IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said the pause would allow for high-level talks in foreign capitals.
Addressing delegates, Mr. Brill criticized Iran for "violations and lies" by enriching uranium, processing small amounts of plutonium, and other activities that Washington says point to a weapons agenda.
"Iran systematically and deliberately deceived the IAEA and the international community about these issues for year after year after year," Mr. Brill said. The purpose, he said, was "the pursuit of nuclear weapons."
Such conduct "constitutes noncompliance with its safeguards obligations," he said, in language that indirectly accused Iran of violating the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty - an act that normally results in U.N. Security Council involvement.
Mr. Brill suggested a statement in Dr. ElBaradei's report was "questionable" in saying there was no "evidence" that Iran had tried to build nuclear weapons. Mr. Brill said the proper wording should have been that there was no "proof."
A combative Dr. ElBaradei dismissed the criticism.
"Frankly, I find it disingenuous that this word 'evidence' has suddenly become a matter of disbelief," he told board members, in comments made available to reporters.
Citing Black's Law Dictionary, Dr. ElBaradei, a lawyer, quoted entries from the book to plead his case that "proof" and "evidence" may be used interchangeably.
He suggested that in at least one instance - the war in Iraq - the IAEA's credibility was "enhanced," and America's diminished, because there is still no sign of the nuclear weapons program that Washington accused Saddam Hussein of having.
"We reflect facts, as radar does, without partiality," Dr. ElBaradei said. "We do not jump to conclusions or make leaps of faith. We have not said that we have come to the conclusion that the Iranian program is exclusively for peaceful purposes, because we still have work to do."
In Washington, Mr. Ereli sought to smooth over the rift.
"There's no intention to impugn the credibility of the International Atomic Energy Agency and the fine work that Director ElBaradei has done in putting together what is an important report on Iran's nuclear program," Mr. Ereli said.
Earlier, Iran submitted a letter to the board agreeing to open its nuclear programs to pervasive spot inspections, giving up attempts to wait until it saw the text of the resolution and approved its language.
Diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Iran continued to insist it had the right to withdraw its pledge if the resolution made reference to Security Council involvement or contained other language it found unacceptable.
Such a move, however, would almost guarantee a strong resolution that might even meet U.S. wishes to have Iran declared in violation of safeguard agreements - triggering possible Security Council involvement.
Asked what links there were between a soft resolution and his country's acceptance of wider inspections as well as its decision to suspend uranium enrichment - both of which are board demands - chief Iranian delegate Ali Akbar Salehi said: "They all go together."
He suggested the United States was isolated on the board.
"We think that the American delegation - or the U.S. as a whole - is sort of a hostage to its own accusations," Mr. Salehi said. "And I think the majority of the board are looking forward to see that this ... is resolved peacefully."
A diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity said only a few countries - Canada, Australia and Japan - supported the U.S. position.
Mr. Salehi suggested that Germany, France and Britain - the chief backers of a relatively soft resolution - had pledged to keep the issue from going to the Security Council if Iran continued to cooperate with IAEA efforts to probe its nuclear past and present.
The European Union said it welcomed Iran's "new attitude" but warned that further "significant breaches" of IAEA agreements, "or evidence of further concealment," would be met "by an appropriate and immediate response from the international community" - shorthand for Security Council involvement.
Dr. ElBaradei has said he wants a strongly worded report that nonetheless stops short of asking for Security Council involvement.
-------- u.s. nuc facilities
Energy Dept. Pressed on Ill Nuke Workers
November 21, 2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/health/AP-Sick-Workers.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senators complained Friday that the Energy Department is moving too slowly toward promised compensation to ill nuclear weapons workers. Agency officials responded that Congress doesn't provide the program enough money.
``It's a complete disaster,'' Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said about the compensation program in a hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Congress established the program three years ago and put the Energy Department in charge of getting aid to government contract workers exposed to toxic substances while building the nation's bombs.
Reversing a decades-old policy, the department was told to help the workers file claims under state compensation systems and direct its contractors not to fight the claims.
Congressional auditors, however, found a seven-year backlog of unprocessed claims because the department is acting so slowly.
About 20,000 workers have filed for help. So far, the Energy Department has told a little more than 100 of them whether evidence shows their illness was caused by their jobs.
Energy Undersecretary Robert Card said Congress should give the agency more money if lawmakers want the program to move faster.
Congress approved $25 million for the program for the fiscal year that started Oct. 1. Card said another $30 million was necessary to clear the claims backlog.
Lawmakers were skeptical that money alone would fix the program's problems.
``I'm loathe to say you did a terrible job, so here's more money,'' said Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo.
Several senators said they would try to move the program to the Labor Department, which has more experience running compensation programs. Against Energy's opposition, efforts to do that failed this year.
Most of the claims are from people who worked at Energy Department facilities in nine states: Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, New Mexico, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee and Washington.
On the Net:
Energy Department program:
http://tis.eh.doe.gov/advocacy
-------- nevada
Survey to Look for Volcanoes by Nuke Site
November 21, 2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Yucca-Mountain-Volcanoes.html
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Aerial surveys will look for evidence of hidden volcanoes around the southern Nevada site tapped to be the nation's nuclear waste repository.
The field studies, expected in February around Yucca Mountain, will use aircraft equipped with magnetic-sensing instruments to find where workers should drill in search of evidence of volcanic activity, Energy Department geologist Eric Smistad said Thursday.
Opponents of the project say they fear dormant volcanoes could become active and spawn earthquakes that could rupture containers buried in the repository, possibly releasing lethal radioactivity.
``The question is, 'Are there indeed buried volcanoes?''' Smistad said after presentations to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste, which met in Las Vegas.
The studies were approved by the Energy Department even though previous scientific work found that extinct volcanoes and cinder cones near the mountain posed no credible threat to the government's plans for burying spent nuclear fuel and highly radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain.
New studies show that scientific work that was used to support recommending the site last year by Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham was not finished, said Bob Loux, director of the state of Nevada's Agency for Nuclear Projects, which has fought for years against the Yucca Mountain dump.
-------- ohio
Nuclear Plant Near Toledo Subpoenaed
November 21, 2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-FirstEnergy-Subpoena.html
CLEVELAND (AP) -- A federal grand jury is seeking documents from FirstEnergy Corp. concerning its damaged nuclear plant along Lake Erie.
FirstEnergy said in a filing Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission that its FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co. subsidiary recently received a grand jury subpoena, which calls for documents and records relating to the inspection and maintenance of the reactor vessel head at Davis-Besse.
The plant along Lake Erie near Toledo has been shut down since February 2002. A month later a leak was discovered that had allowed boric acid to eat nearly through the 6-inch-thick steel cap covering the plant's reactor vessel.
The documents and materials are to be presented to a grand jury of U.S. District Court for Northern Ohio.
James Matthew Cain, executive assistant U.S. attorney in Cleveland, said Friday he could neither confirm nor deny the existence of a grand jury investigation.
``We will comply with the subpoena and fully cooperate with the investigation,'' said FirstEnergy spokesman Todd Schneider.
FirstEnergy said in the filing that it was unable to predict the outcome of the investigation.
The company's nuclear operations also remain subject to civil enforcement action by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission related to Davis-Besse, which had the most extensive corrosion ever at a U.S. nuclear reactor. Discovery of the problem led to a nationwide review of all 69 similar plants.
The shutdown has cost FirstEnergy more than $500 million for repairs and the purchase of power from other sources, and the company still does not have federal approval to restart the plant.
Also Friday, Ohio officials said state utility regulators will vote next week whether to order FirstEnergy to upgrade equipment that was blamed for contributing to the nation's worst blackout.
A report by a task force of U.S. and Canadian energy officials released Wednesday pointed to the failure of a FirstEnergy computer system that monitors electricity flow in causing the Aug. 14 blackout, which affected 50 million people from Connecticut to Michigan.
The task force found that the blackout was triggered by the failure of three high-voltage lines belonging to FirstEnergy. That led to a series of transmission-line failures that knocked out more than 263 power plants across the Midwest, Northeast and Ontario, the report said.
Mark Durbin, a spokesman for FirstEnergy, said the company's SEC filing revealing the demand for Davis-Besse documents ``is a totally separate issue and is not related to the blackout.''
Headquartered in Akron, FirstEnergy has seven electric utility operating companies serving 4.3 million customers in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. It has annual revenue of $12 billion.
On the Net:
FirstEnergy: http://www.mfirstenergycorp.com
-------- us politics
Patriot Act Expansion Moves Through Congress
by Jim Lobe
November 22, 2003
Antiwar.com
http://www.antiwar.com/ips/lobe112203.html
Congress is poised to approve new legislation that amounts to the first substantive expansion of the controversial USA Patriot Act since it was approved just after the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and the Pentagon.
Acting at the Bush administration's behest, a joint House-Senate conference committee has approved a provision in the 2004 Intelligence Authorization bill that will permit the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to demand records from a number of businesses - without the approval of a judge or grand jury - if it deems them relevant to a counter-terrorism investigation.
The measure would extend the FBI's power to seize records from banks and credit unions to securities dealers, currency exchanges, travel agencies, car dealers, post offices, casinos, pawnbrokers and any other business that, according to the government, has a "high degree of usefulness in criminal, tax or regulatory matters." Such seizures could be carried out with the approval of the judicial branch of government.
Until now only banks, credit unions, and similar financial institutions were obliged to turn over such records on the FBI's demand.
Shortly after the conference agreement was reached, the House of Representatives approved the underlying authorization bill by a margin of 263 to 163. The measure is expected to pass the Senate shortly.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said it was "disappointed" with the House's approval, but also expressed satisfaction that a number of lawmakers on both left and right decided to oppose the bill because they oppose the records provision, whose inclusion in the bill was discovered by staff aides only last week.
Particularly notable in Thursday's House vote was the defection by several conservative Republicans from the administration's fold.
"This PATRIOT Act expansion was the only controversial part of this legislation, and it prompted more than a third of the House, including 15 conservative Republicans, to change what is normally a cakewalk vote into something truly contested," said Timothy Edgar, ACLU Legislative Counsel.
"One need look no further than this vote to get an effective gauge of the PATRIOT Act's lack of popularity on Capitol Hill and among the American people," he said.
The USA PATRIOT Act - which gives unprecedented powers to the FBI and the federal government as a whole and was rammed through Congress at the administration's behest just six weeks after the 9/11 attacks - has evoked great controversy.
An unusual coalition of liberal, left, and right-wing groups is convinced that the law's expansion of the government's surveillance and investigatory powers threatens individual freedoms and privacy rights.
More than 200 local governments, including some of the country's largest cities, have approved resolutions upholding the full enjoyment of the rights guaranteed in the Constitution and urging a narrowing of the USA PATRIOT Act, while the Senate Judiciary Committee has been holding a series of critical hearings over the past month about the Act's impact.
Members of the Judiciary Committee, including Republican Larry Craig of Idaho and five Democratic senators, sent a letter to the conference committee earlier this week urging it strip the new provision from the intelligence bill so that it could be taken up by their Committee in public hearings. The provision has never been publicly debated.
"I'm concerned about this," Illinois Sen. Richard Durbin, who tried unsuccessfully to limit the life of the new provision, told the New York Times. "The idea of expanding the powers of government gives everyone pause except the Republican leadership."
The government wants these powers in order to more effectively prosecute the "war on terrorism," although critics warn that, once given these powers, the FBI may use them in cases that are not relevant to terrorism in order to gather evidence against other targets of investigation.
Indeed, recent Senate hearings have covered incidents in which information about individuals was obtained by the FBI through the use of its counter-terrorism powers even though the investigations were directed against what the ACLU called "garden-variety criminals."
The provision not only permits the FBI to seize records from more kinds of businesses; it also forbids businesses from informing their clients about the seizures.
In that respect, it is comparable to a particularly controversial section of the PATRIOT Act permitting the FBI to seek an order for library records for an "investigation to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities" and imposing a gag order on librarians, who are prohibited from telling anyone that the FBI demanded the records. Librarians and civil-liberties groups have sued the government to have that section declared unconstitutional.
"The more checks and balances against government abuse are eroded, the greater that abuse," said the ACLU's Edgar. "We're going to regret these initiatives down the road."
-------- MILITARY
-------- arms
US begins hypersonic weapons program
21 November 2003
New Scientist
by Celeste Biever
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994408
The US military has begun development of an ultra-high speed weapons system that would enable targets virtually anywhere on Earth to be hit within two hours of launch from the continental US.
Ten companies have been given grants by the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Pentagon for six-month "system definition" studies. If the Pentagon likes the results, a three-year design and development phase will begin.
The ultimate aim, slated for around 2025, is a reusable Hypersonic Cruise Vehicle (HCV) that can take off from a conventional runway in the US and strike targets up to 16,700 kilometres (10,350 miles) away.
"There is a strategic military need to be able to strike potentially dangerous military targets that are far away and may only be accessible for a short period of time," explains Daniel Goure, an analyst at the Lexington Institute, a think tank in Washington DC.
Current cruise missiles travel relatively slowly, meaning a target may move before it arrives. One solution is to use military bases in foreign countries, but this brings political and logistical difficulties. A hypersonic weapons systems solves both problems.
However, experts describe the technical challenges posed by the program as "tough" and "challenging". Tearing through the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds requires materials that can withstand the phenomenal temperatures produced by air resistance. Travelling above the atmosphere, in space, avoids this, but would require the creation of a new type of rocket-plane hybrid vehicle.
Twin track
The Pentagon has split the project into two tasks. The nearer-term task, aiming for 2010, is the development of a weapons delivery system and rocket to launch it. The Common Aero Vehicle would be an unpowered but manoeuvrable hypersonic craft capable of carrying about 500 kilograms of munitions over a range of 5500 km.
The CAV would be launched into space by the new rocket, before being guided down by GPS to its target. DARPA hopes the rocket could also be used for satellite launches and such a launcher will be unveiled on 4 December by California-based company Spacex, one of the grant recipients.
The CAV would be used in the longer-term HCV project. Several bomb-laden CAVs would be fitted inside the HCV to provide its firepower. But the HCV will be a much bigger technical challenge.
It will need to fly like an aeroplane, so that it can take off and land on a runway. But air-breathing aeroplane engines will not work above the atmosphere. Therefore a hybrid fuel system would be required, enabling a stored oxidiser to be supplied to the engines when the HCV is in space.
Star Wars
Similar hi-tech projects backed by the US military have not worked out well, for example the 1980's Star Wars program. But Goure is optimistic about the latest program, which is called Falcon: "I don't think there is any reason why we won't be able to do this very well."
But Livingston Holder, of Andrews Space in Seattle, a Falcon grant recipient, says it could be "tough". He says: "We can propel smaller objects at high velocity for short periods of time, but we can't yet cruise across the ocean."
There could also be problems with securing intelligence enabling a target 16,000 km away to be accurately identified. "It's going to be a challenge to be accurate at high speed, but it's not insurmountable," Goure told New Scientist.
----
Air Force scrubs MOAB test because of a malfunction
WASHINGTON (AFP)
Nov 20, 2003
http://www.spacewar.com/2003/031120210740.0138ifp5.html
The US air force scrubbed a test in Florida Thursday of a 21,700-pound MOAB bomb, the largest conventional bomb in the US inventory, because of an electrical malfunction in the test equipment, a spokesman said.
"They hope to reschedule it soon but we don't have a firm date," said Jake Swenson, a spokesman for the Air Force Research Laboratory at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.
The test would have been only the second of the MOAB, which was first tested March 11 and rushed into service for the war in Iraq. Several of the weapons were shipped to the Gulf region in April, a Pentagon official said at the time.
MOAB stands for Massive Ordnance Air Blast but the bomb is known informally as the "mother of all bombs."
It is similar to the 15,000 pound "daisy cutter," which was used to raze jungle for helicopter landing pads in Vietnam, to clear minefields in the first Gulf war and more recently to blow out caves in Afghanistan.
The test was supposed to check out the reliability of the bomb's components and to certify for use in an MC-130 Combat Talon 1 aircraft, which is used by special operations forces. The first test certified it for use on an MC-130 Combat Talon 2 aircraft.
The MOAB has a satellite guidance system and a tail kit to steer it to within about 13 meters (14 yards) of its target.
It is so big it has to be dragged out of the back of a C-130 cargo plane by a parachute.
-------- business
Eurocopter to build helicopters in China
SHANGHAI (AFP)
Nov 21, 2003
http://www.spacewar.com/2003/031121054547.tsveyx5g.html
China's Hafei Aviation Industry on Friday inked a deal to build helicopters in the northeast of the country with France's Eurocopter and Singapore Technologies Aerospace.
Hafei, a listed subsidiary of military contractor China Aviation Industry Corp II, will produce EC120 helicopters, a product it already supplies parts for, the company said in a statement.
It provide no further details and company officials were not immediately available for comment.
Eurocopter, a wholly-owned subsidiary of European aerospace consortium EADS, which also makes Airbus planes, is taking a 61 percent stake in the venture, according to a report in the official China Daily.
Hafei will own a 24 percent share and Singapore Technologies Aerospace the remaining 15 percent of the new assembly line based in the northeastern city of Harbin set to make 20 helicopters a year, under the trade name HC120.
The Harbin Aviation Industry Group Corp. said the public security bureau in the city of Daqing will sign a letter of intent with Hafei Aviation and the China National Aero Technical Import and Export Corp. to buy two HC120 helicopters, with the first aircraft scheduled to be delivered in 2004.
China is expected to need about 1,800 helicopters, worth some 4.9 billion, by 2013, reports said.
-------- iraq
IN BAGHDAD
Rockets Hit Two Hotels and Ministry in Baghdad
November 21, 2003
By JOHN F. BURNS
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/21/international/middleeast/21BAGH.html?hp
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Nov. 21 - The Palestine and Sheraton hotels in central Baghdad were hit by a volley of rockets at about 7:15 this morning. First indications were that there were no casualties among the large number of Americans and other Westerners who live in the Palestine Hotel, but a CNN report said at least two wounded people had been carried from the Sheraton Hotel after the attack.
Just before the attack on the hotels, two rockets were fired at the Oil Ministry, nearby. There were no reports of casualties in that attack.
The two 20-story hotels, on the east bank of the Tigris River, have long been regarded as potential targets for terrorist attacks.
The rockets hit simultaneously from opposite sides of the hotels, suggesting a degree of sophistication in the planning of the attack. The rockets that hit the Palestine Hotel, where this reporter was staying, struck on the 15th and 16th floors, where rooms are mostly occupied by reporters and Westerners working for companies involved in reconstruction efforts across Iraq.
At both hotels, there are a large number of American officials protected by uniformed American troops of the First Armored Division. American soldiers were quickly at the scene, clearing rooms and ushering guests down fire stairwells.
After Friday's strikes on the two floors of the Palestine Hotel hit by the rockets, guests milled about the corridors in their nightclothes, stepping over rubble and into air thick with soot and grime, as a loudspeaker urged then to go down stairwells to the ground. Guests in the room close to where the rockets struck - including this reporter, whose room was 50 feet away from one of the strikes - heard what appeared at first to be a single explosion, suggesting that the weapon used against the hotel might have been a multiple rocket launcher of the type used on Oct. 26 against the Rashid Hotel, base for many senior American military and intelligence officials. One person was killed in that attack.
The attack on Friday was potentially the most serious strike on a major target involving foreigners in Baghdad since the Oct. 27 suicide bombing of the International Committee of the Red Cross, one of a series of suicide bombings that day across the city that killed more than 25 people.
The pattern of several of the most serious attacks in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq in recent months has appeared to have been aimed at driving as many Westerners out of the country as possible, isolating the American and British troops who carried the brunt of fighting in the war to topple Saddam Hussein, and making impossible the implementation of plans to spend billions of dollars on reconstruction here.
A voice purporting to be that of Mr. Hussein said in an audiotape released Sunday that those mounting the attacks on the Americans should also concentrate on ``foreign agents'' who were assisting in the occupation of Iraq, and that the defeat of ``the evil ones'' meaning the Americans was inevitable.
The strike on the Palestine Hotel was an eerie echo of an American tank shell that hit the hotel on April 7, two days before American forces overran Baghdad. The shell fired from a bridge across the Tigris to the north of the hotel also struck on the 15th floor, killing two men, a Ukrainian and a Spaniard, both television cameramen. A Pentagon investigation later cleared the tank unit of responsibility, saying the shell had been fired by a tank commander who did not know that the hotel used by almost all the foreign reporters in Baghdad.
--------
ATTACKS
Truck Bomb Kills 5 in a Pro-U.S. Kurdish Stronghold in Northern Iraq
November 21, 2003
By SUSAN SACHS
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/21/international/middleeast/21IRAQ.html
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Nov. 20 - A powerful truck bomb killed five people on Thursday near the offices of a pro-American Kurdish group in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, while the commander of American forces in Baghdad reported that a 12-day bombing campaign against suspected guerrilla bases had sharply reduced attacks on occupation troops.
The target of the Kirkuk bombing appeared to be the regional offices of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, or P.U.K., a Kurdish political movement allied with the United States.
It was not clear whether the attack was a suicide bombing, as was the case last week when an explosives-laden truck crashed into an Italian police compound in Nasiriya, killing at least 32 people.
Jalal Talabani, the P.U.K. leader, who currently holds the rotating presidency of the American-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, was not in Kirkuk at the time.
The attack came three days after a recorded message, said to be from Saddam Hussein, the deposed Iraqi leader, urged Iraqis to kill anyone cooperating with the American-led occupation forces. On Wednesday night, two Iraqis were killed and 11 others were wounded in a car bombing in Ramadi, northwest of Baghdad, near the offices of a local governing council.
Some of Mr. Talabani's aides blamed Ansar al-Islam, a militant Islamic group that has been linked to Al Qaeda, for the bombing in Kirkuk. American bombs destroyed the group's base in northern Iraq in March, but American forces have captured several suspected leaders of Ansar al-Islam in recent weeks.
Speaking in Baghdad on Thursday, Brig. Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, commander of the First Armored Division, said the rash of suicide bomb attacks on Iraqi and foreign installations over the past three months might be the work of Islamic militants or "jihadists" hired by loyalists to Mr. Hussein.
While no definite link has been established, the general said, American investigators suspect that Mr. Hussein's agents may be recruiting non-Iraqis to drive explosive-filled cars "when they decide they're going to commit a sensational attack, one in which they're going to try to grab the headlines."
"Whether it's an alliance or simply a matter of convenience, we don't know," the general added.
A high-ranking Iraqi security official went further in an interview on Thursday, saying he believed that at least some of the attacks on Iraqi and foreign targets in Iraq were the work of Al Qaeda.
The official, Ibrahim Jannabi, is the director of intelligence in the newly reconstituted Interior Ministry in Baghdad. He said that, as the Bush administration has maintained, Mr. Hussein's intelligence service had developed contacts with the terrorist network in the past few years.
Al Qaeda and rogue officers of the former government may now be using those contacts to organize attacks against Western targets in Iraq, he said.
Mr. Jannabi also said that his investigators believed that the suicide bombing at the United Nations headquarters here in August was planned either by Al Qaeda or by former Iraqi intelligence agents with links to the terrorist group.
"We have informed the coalition that we found four groups involved in the U.N. bombing," Mr. Jannabi said. "None of the groups knew about the other but there was a single coordinator. I think the coordinator was Al Qaeda or those connected with Al Qaeda in Iraq, in other words, Saddam's intelligence service."
Over the past two weeks, American troops have shifted to a more aggressive strategy to quell a persistent insurgency across the central and northern parts of Iraq.
In the capital, General Dempsey said, the First Armored Division has disrupted three cells made up of loyalists to the former Iraqi government, capturing 104 people suspected of being insurgents, killing 14 and wounding 23.
He said the cells carried out some of the mortar, bomb and rocket attacks that have rattled Baghdad over the past two months. Since his forces shifted tactics and began using helicopter gunships and warplanes, General Dempsey said, the number of such attacks has dropped by about 70 percent.
In their offensive, he added, American troops destroyed buildings where they suspected that insurgents were making bombs or firing mortars shells. They also seized a cache of weapons, including 18 blocks of C-4 plastic explosives, two surface-to-air missiles and 522 artillery and mortar rounds.
"I want the enemy to know that, although I'm on his home turf, he is not going to use that to his advantage," General Dempsey said.
Concentrated offensives were also launched against suspected guerrilla targets in the area north and west of Baghdad, military officials said.
Troops from the 101st Airborne Division, supported by helicopters, detained 158 people suspected of conducting or aiding attacks and seized C-4 plastic explosives, the officials said.
U.N. to Announce Iraqi Plans Soon
UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 20 - Secretary General Kofi Annan told reporters on Thursday that he planned to submit a report to the Security Council by the beginning of December detailing how he planned to continue United Nations operations in Iraq.
Earlier this month, citing the worsening security situation, Mr. Annan pulled all but about 40 foreign workers out of Iraq. American and British officials, while saying they are mindful of Mr. Annan's need to protect his staff, have been prodding him to accelerate his staff's return.
Mr. Annan also said he planned to appoint an envoy "fairly shortly" to oversee operations in Iraq. The envoy will be based in Jordan or Cyprus and will serve as the operational coordinator in the region, he said. Sometime later, he said, he would appoint a new special representative to Iraq, a post last held by Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was killed in a bombing in Baghdad on Aug. 19.
Until the security improves, Mr. Annan added, the United Nations will probably run operations in Iraq from outside the country with staff members shuttling across the border.
-------- israel / palestine
Israel's help
November 21, 2003
Washington Times
http://www.washtimes.com/national/inring.htm
Early in the war on terrorism, the Pentagon acquired from Israel special electronic equipment that can detonate roadside bombs from a safe distance.
The Pentagon is tight-lipped on what types of technologies it has sent to Iraq to counter the ever-present improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
But a source tells us the Israelis perfected a truck-mounted electronics suite that sends a radio pulse across a designated area to detonate any hidden IEDs. They have used it to explode bombs still attached to Palestinian suicide bombers. The system is not foolproof, however. The remote control device is sometimes on a frequency not covered by the pulse.
IEDs have killed scores of American soldiers in Iraq. Iraqi fighters hide them among debris or just underground along routes traveled by U.S. convoys. The Iraqis detonate the bombs by remote control, sometimes using cell phones.
In an interview last week with The Washington Times, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Israel has been willing to help. Typically, Israeli officials do not, on the record, discuss military assistance it gives America for fear of raising Arab ire.
"I believe every experience that the state of Israel has is open to the U.S." said Mr. Mofaz, the former military chief of Israeli Defense Forces.
----
Israeli officials brush off criticism from Bush
November 21, 2003
By Abraham Rabinovich
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20031120-090512-1981r.htm
JERUSALEM - Israeli officials tried to put on a brave front yesterday after President Bush sharply criticized Israeli policies toward the Palestinians and the U.N. Security Council adopted the "road map" peace plan that failed to note Israeli conditions.
Mr. Bush's criticism of Israel, in a speech in London on Wednesday, was the bluntest since he took office. He called on Israel to freeze settlement construction, dismantle illegal settlements and "end the daily humiliation of the Palestinian people."
Toughening the U.S. stance on a barrier Israel is building on the West Bank, Mr. Bush said Israel must not prejudice final peace negotiations "with the placement of walls and fences."
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, whose friendship with Mr. Bush has been a major political card for him, reacted mildly to the president's statement.
"Everyone knows that there are issues between Israel and the U.S. on which we don't agree, but that does not mean there is tension," he told reporters.
Vice Premier Ehud Olmert said the barrier, which Israel says is necessary to stop suicide bombers but which Palestinians see as land grab, would remain an option.
"Israel will always have the right to take unilateral steps for separation from the Palestinians through a fence or other means," Mr. Olmert told Israel Radio.
Israeli officials said they were resigned to the expectation that the United States would deduct the cost of parts of the barrier and of building Jewish settlements on occupied land from $9 billion in loan guarantees.
The U.N. Security Council vote on the road map Wednesday, initiated by Russia, was another unpleasant surprise for the Israeli leader. During a visit to Moscow earlier this month, Mr. Sharon had asked President Vladimir Putin not to seek a U.N. vote on the issue.
Israel wants no U.N. role in peacemaking, because it sees the world body as pro-Palestinian.
"Judgment regarding the plan's implementation will be in the hands of the United States," Mr. Sharon's office said in a statement. "Israel will not accept any other intervention in the implementation of the plan."
Israel had attached 14 conditions for accepting the road map drawn up earlier this year by the Quartet, comprising the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations.
Meanwhile, efforts by Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia to achieve a cease-fire had gained momentum yesterday as Hamas officials indicated readiness to concur.
"Hamas is prepared to remove Israeli civilians from the cycle of violence on the condition that Israel guarantee that it will not harm Palestinian civilians," said Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin.
--------
Israel Misinformed Journalists
Military Prevaricated on Missiles Used in Attack in Gaza
By John Ward Anderson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, November 21, 2003; Page A38
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1824-2003Nov20.html
JERUSALEM, Nov. 20 -- The Israeli military gave journalists incorrect information last month about a helicopter attack on a Gaza Strip refugee camp in which at least 10 Palestinians were killed and more than 55 injured, the military chief of staff said in a statement released late Wednesday.
Sources said the commander of the air force, Maj. Gen. Dan Halutz, gave inaccurate information in an Oct. 21 briefing for Israeli military correspondents, apparently in an effort to avoid revealing details about Israeli operational techniques and equipment that could be useful to Palestinian militants. The information at issue centered on the types of missiles fired and military methods used in the engagement, according to the sources, who spoke on condition they not be identified.
Senior air force officials previously had said that the two missiles fired during the Oct. 20 nighttime attack at the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza were so small they were incapable of causing a large number of casualties. They accused Palestinian witnesses and officials of lying and inflating the number of dead and injured.
The statement Wednesday, citing "security sensitivity," did not specify which part of the initial report on the operation was incorrect. In addition, Israeli journalists and lawmakers familiar with the facts of the case were prohibited by government censors from divulging the details of the false information.
According to Israeli media accounts Thursday, Halutz told Israeli reporters that the two missiles were Hellfires -- laser-guided missiles made in the United States -- when he knew they were not. In a separate briefing for foreign reporters, including one from The Washington Post, another air force official refused to identify the type of missiles that were fired.
The sources said the Israeli military now maintains that the missiles that were fired were not significantly more powerful or destructive than Hellfires and would not have caused more casualties.
But the issue has added to the controversy over the military and its tactics in responding to the Palestinian uprising.
The air force was sharply criticized in September, when 27 current and former pilots signed a public pledge to boycott missions over Palestinian civilian areas. Israeli news media have reported several other cases of pilots refusing to obey direct orders to drop bombs or fire missiles at Palestinian targets because of the potential for civilian casualties.
"The question is: Is the IDF allowed to lie -- not to stay silent, but to lie -- regarding the details of any operation to the press, and expect afterward that anybody will believe them?" said Nahum Barnea, a leading Israeli newspaper columnist, referring to the Israel Defense Forces. "We are living in 2003, and the truth doesn't matter anymore. It's not the censorship that's the problem. It's the lying, the coverup. It's a big scandal, and it's a big problem for the army and the people."
In a vaguely worded statement issued Wednesday, Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, the military chief of staff, said that when reporters were briefed in October, "it was not possible to give full details regarding the incident . . . due to field security and operational concerns, and in order not to compromise vital security details."
"Perhaps, due to the operational and security sensitivity of the matter at hand, we erred in the way we chose to define the operational means we used," the statement said. "It is important to stress that there was no intention to mislead."
Israeli military officials would not elaborate on the statement.
The incident in Nuseirat was one of five attacks launched on Oct. 20 against Palestinian targets in Gaza. In the attacks and related operations, at least 15 Palestinians were killed and more than 100 were injured, according to Palestinian hospital records.
The attack in Nuseirat was the most deadly. It began when Israeli soldiers killed two Palestinian militants who were trying to sneak up to the border fence to plant a roadside bomb. An Israeli AH-64 Apache helicopter followed the car that had dropped off the militants. When the car reached Nuseirat, the helicopter fired two missiles at it.
Some Palestinian officials and witnesses said that after firing the first missile, the Israeli pilots waited for a crowd of rescuers to gather in the street before firing the second -- a charge denied by Israeli military officials.
The day after the attack, which drew wide international condemnation, Israeli military officials organized separate briefings for small groups of Israeli and foreign reporters to rebut the Palestinians' allegations regarding deaths and injuries. The officials showed a videotape of the attack shot by a remote-controlled drone. The tape, they said, showed no crowds in the street when the missiles struck.
In the foreign press briefing, officials said that the missiles used were only "a few" pounds and would not have caused collateral damage more than four or five yards from the point of impact. They said it was possible that the second missile might have hit explosives inside the car, magnifying the explosion's impact.
But in interviews conducted during the days following the attack, witnesses said many people were on the side of the street when the attack occurred but that trees and overhangs would have obscured them from an aerial view. Buildings as far as 30 yards from the car had deep shrapnel marks, and evidence suggested that the second missile fired missed the car and struck the pavement in front of it.
-------- mideast
Bombers Hit British Targets in Istanbul
At Least 27 Dead, Hundreds Hurt at Consulate, Bank
By Molly Moore
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, November 21, 2003; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A1920-2003Nov20?language=printer
ISTANBUL, Nov. 20 -- Two truck bombs exploded minutes apart outside the British Consulate and a British bank Thursday morning, killing at least 27 people and injuring 450 in the second double bombing in the city in six days, Turkish authorities said.
The bomb blasts shocked a city that had just begun to recover from similar attacks on two synagogues last Saturday, prompting Turkish officials to put Istanbul security forces on their highest state of alert and to close the nation's stock exchange. The U.S. Consulate here was shut down for all but emergency services, and the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, the Turkish capital, warned Americans in Istanbul to drastically restrict their movements.
Turkish, British and U.S. officials said the coordinated bombings matched the patterns of al Qaeda-sponsored suicide attacks but conceded there was no concrete proof as to who was behind the attacks.
The first bomb was detonated outside the Turkish headquarters of London-based HSBC Bank in the upscale Levent commercial center, peeling off the front of the 20-story building, flattening automobiles and flinging body parts as far as two blocks away.
About five minutes later, witnesses said, a pickup truck with a catering company logo on its side rammed the front gate of the British Consulate in Taksim, Istanbul's most crowded business and shopping district, and exploded, digging a nine-foot-deep crater in the street and ripping apart storefronts for blocks.
British Consul General Roger Short, 58, who had just entered the building, was killed, according to British and Turkish officials. At both sites, most of the victims were pedestrians or shopkeepers and their customers, Turkish authorities said.
"The explosions that occurred today resembled completely the attacks launched five days ago," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, bearing a somber expression and deep circles under his eyes, said during a nationally televised news conference Thursday night.
Erdogan attempted to deflect accusations that his eight-month-old government had not reacted swiftly enough to security threats, saying: "We don't know when, what, where and how terrorism will hit the targets. Can you show me one country that sorted out the terrorism problem? No, there is not."
The latest attacks in this officially secular nation -- which has closer ties with the United States, Europe and Israel than any other Muslim country -- came on the same day that President Bush was meeting in London with his staunchest ally in the Iraq war, Prime Minister Tony Blair. Bush said the bombing showed "utter contempt for innocent life."
"Great Britain and America and other free nations are united today in our grief and united in our determination to fight and defeat this evil wherever it is found," he said.
"Once again we are reminded of the evil these terrorists pose to people everywhere and to our way of life," Blair said. "There must be no holding back, no compromise, no hesitation in confronting this menace."
Britain's foreign secretary, Jack Straw, who flew to Turkey Thursday night, said the attacks showed "all the hallmarks of international terrorism practiced by al Qaeda." Attorney General John D. Ashcroft said that "they appear to be . . . in the operational style of al Qaeda or al Qaeda operatives or affiliates." Turkish officials cited "international" links to the explosions and said they were cooperating with several foreign intelligence services to determine who orchestrated the attacks.
The semi-official Anatolia News Agency reported that it received a telephone call Thursday from a man who said al Qaeda and a Turkish militant group, the Islamic Great East Raiders Front, were asserting joint responsibility for the two bombings. The two groups said they had also carried out Saturday's attacks.
Turkish investigators have said the two synagogue bombers and at least one associate were from Bingol, an impoverished eastern province where domestic Islamic groups have been active. Turkish security forces killed 12 people Wednesday night in Bingol in an operation against alleged militants, an official of the Gendarme General Command told Anatolia.
Thursday's blasts occurred minutes before 11 a.m., when the streets near both targets were jammed with cars and sidewalks were teeming with pedestrians.
Phillip Rosenblatt, 38, of New York, said he ran from his nearby law office to the HSBC Bank building when he heard the explosion. "There was absolutely no glass left on the front of the building," Rosenblatt said. "I saw the parts of at least two bodies -- their torsos -- lying in front. People were in a panic. People were lying on the ground bleeding. I saw a young security guard carrying a submachine gun cursing in fear and anger."
HSBC, the fifth-largest private bank in Turkey, shut down its more than 150 branches across the country. Neighbors said its 20-story headquarters, in a relatively new upscale commercial center in the eastern part of the city, was heavily guarded by uniformed and armed security forces.
The assault on the British Consulate occurred in one of the city's most heavily policed districts -- historic Taksim, a congested area of foreign consulates, chic clothing boutiques, traditional open-air fish markets and scores of restaurants, both trendy and traditional. The British compound is surrounded by a high stone wall, but the U.S. government considered the area such a security risk that the U.S. Consulate there was closed last summer and moved to a fortified hilltop several miles away, above the Bosporus Strait.
Turkey's earthquake search and rescue teams helped pull survivors and bodies from the rubble at both of the attack scenes. At the Taksim First Aid Hospital, where officials said 160 victims were brought for treatment, hundreds of anxious Turks gathered to read the list of dead and injured posted outside. Blood covered the hospital's entrance hall, and patients spilled out of the emergency room into every ward, according to one nurse.
"I felt myself flying in the air, and then I hit the wall across the room," said Muradiye Demir, 38, who said she worked in a household-appliance store near the British Consulate. Her face was covered in cuts and stitches, her left hand a bloody pulp of flesh and glass splinters. "I don't know who did this. But I don't understand what our sin was to deserve something this bad."
The series of bombings, just as Turkey was dragging its economy out of the worst collapse in decades, could kill any hope of rebuilding the country's tourism industry, which was devastated after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
In the kind of wording usually reserved for the world's most dangerous countries, the U.S. Embassy in Ankara posted a message on its Web page Thursday that essentially warned Americans to stay off the streets of Istanbul.
"American citizens are advised to avoid Western-oriented businesses, religious institutions, shopping centers, restaurants, bars, etc.," the notice says. "Please contact your family in the U.S. to let them know that you are okay." The message states that although there "is no evidence of immediate threat" to the U.S. Consulate, Americans should stay away from the compound until further notice.
Britain's Foreign Office warned its citizens against "all but the most essential travel to Istanbul," and British Airways temporarily shut its offices here. Germany, home to 2 million Turkish immigrants, advised citizens to delay travel to Turkey. A soccer match between Turkish and Italian teams was canceled. And inside Turkey, two private universities canceled classes, as did the American High School in the coastal city of Izmir.
Staff researcher Yesim Borg contributed to this report.
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TROOPS
Bush Says Pentagon's Plan to Reduce Forces in Iraq Next Year Could Be Reconsidered
November 21, 2003
By RICHARD W. STEVENSON and THOM SHANKER
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/21/politics/21TROO.html
LONDON, Nov. 20 - President Bush said Thursday that he was open to rethinking the Pentagon's plan to reduce the size of the United States military force in Iraq next year.
Asked at a news conference with Prime Minister Tony Blair how it was possible for the United States and Britain to start bringing troops home next year when the security situation in Iraq is so unsettled, Mr. Bush challenged the premise of the question and said he would rely on his military commanders to judge how many troops to deal with conditions on the ground.
"I said that we're going to bring our troops home starting next year?" Mr. Bush replied, in a tone that conveyed that he was committing himself to no such thing.
"We could have less troops in Iraq; we could have the same number of troops in Iraq; we could have more troops in Iraq," Mr. Bush said, adding that the number would be whatever is "necessary to secure Iraq."
His statement was in line with his previous statements that he would be guided by the military's judgment in deciding on troop levels in Iraq. But it appeared to suggest that he could still revisit the Pentagon's plan to reduce American troop levels to 105,000 by May from about 130,000 now. It also seemed to leave open the possibility that he could decide that troop levels would need to increase.
White House officials quickly sought to clarify Mr. Bush's statement, saying that nothing the president had heard from his military commanders would suggest the need to raise troop levels.
"The president simply emphasized that what we do is going to be very dependent on what's going on on the ground, and he listens to his commanders to tell him what's going on on the ground," said a senior administration official who was in London with Mr. Bush. "But, if anything, the discussions are in the other direction."
Pressed on the meaning of the president's words, the official said Mr. Bush, here on a state visit to a country that has more than 10,000 troops in Iraq, had given a "logical answer" to the question he was asked.
"But there is simply nothing to suggest that the number of American forces would need to increase," the official said.
After Mr. Bush's comments, Pentagon and military officials in Washington said no significant changes had been made to the troop rotation plan announced this month.
Even so, these officials said, one new concept under discussion was adding the equivalent of a brigade of marines to the force to be sent to Iraq next spring. If approved, that would push the number of Americans on the ground next year to about 108,000, still below current numbers.
But these officials noted that during the time of the troop rotation itself, the total of American soldiers in Iraq would sharply spike, since there would be an overlap when large numbers of fresh troops had arrived before significant numbers of others had departed.
Mr. Bush's words, and the White House's effort to explain them, underscored the array of military and political pressures facing the president over Iraq. He has pledged to finish the job of stabilizing Iraq. But he is heading into an election year with American casualties there mounting and polls showing diminished confidence in his handling of Iraq.
And despite taking steps to begin granting sovereignty to a transitional Iraqi government, he has yet to persuade any nations that do not already have troops in Iraq to make the kind of substantial military commitment that could help speed a reduction in American forces. Here in Britain, which Mr. Bush called "our closest friend" in a speech on Wednesday, tens of thousands of demonstrators marched through the streets on Thursday protesting the war.
Some Republicans in Congress, like Senators John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, have urged Mr. Bush to consider increasing rather than decreasing the number of American troops in Iraq to ensure that a hasty withdrawal does not lead to chaos or the establishment of an unfriendly government in Baghdad.
Mr. Bush said that beyond the judgments of his military commanders, the biggest factor in determining the level of American troops would be the speed with which Iraqi security forces could be trained and put to work.
"There's over 130,000 Iraqis now who have been trained, who are working for their own security," he said. "We know that they're willing to work for their own freedom. And the more people working for their own freedom, the more we can put that into our calculations as to troop levels."
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Mother of 7 Released From Army Duty
Associated Press
Friday, November 21, 2003
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1933-2003Nov20.html
FORT CARSON, Colo., Nov. 20 -- A soldier who stayed in the United States to care for her children rather than return to service in Iraq has been released from active duty, the Army said Thursday.
Spec. Simone Holcomb, whose last day is Nov. 29, will return to duty as a medic in the Colorado National Guard the next day.
Holcomb, 30, and her husband, Sgt. 1st Class Vaughn Holcomb, 40, were sent to Iraq in February. Family members were caring for their seven children, but the couple returned on leave in September to settle a custody dispute involving Vaughn Holcomb's ex-wife.
Simone Holcomb told a judge she would stay home with the children to resolve the dispute.
Her decision raised the possibility of criminal charges. Her commanders in Iraq also threatened to charge her with being absent without leave and give her a less-than-honorable discharge, which would have denied her benefits.
Lawyer Giorgio Ra'Shadd said Holcomb had wanted to be reassigned to Fort Carson to care for her children while fulfilling her active-duty commitment, which ends in April.
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G.O.P. to Run an Ad for Bush on Terror Issue
November 21, 2003
New York Times
By JIM RUTENBERG
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/21/politics/campaigns/21REPU.html?pagewanted=all&position=
WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 - After months of sustained attacks against President Bush in Democratic primary debates and commercials, the Republican Party is responding this week with its first advertisement of the presidential race, portraying Mr. Bush as fighting terrorism while his potential challengers try to undermine him with their sniping.
The new commercial gives the first hint of the themes Mr. Bush's campaign is likely to press in its early days. It shows Mr. Bush, during the last State of the Union address, warning of continued threats to the nation: "Our war against terror is a contest of will, in which perseverance is power," he says after the screen flashes the words, "Some are now attacking the president for attacking the terrorists."
By indirectly invoking the Sept. 11 attacks, the commercial plays to what White House officials have long contended is Mr. Bush's biggest political advantage: his initial handling of the aftermath of the attacks.
Republican Party officials said that television stations in Iowa were to begin broadcasting the commercial on Sunday, the day before a televised Democratic debate there. The commercial is to continue running through Tuesday and will also probably be broadcast in New Hampshire about the time of the next debate, which is scheduled to take place there two weeks later. The party said it was spending roughly $100,000 for the initial broadcast of the advertisement, which seemed intended for voters in the states with the first contests, as well as for the journalists who cover the race.
The Bush campaign has sought to keep a low profile and put off overt electioneering for as long as possible. But some Republicans are worried about Mr. Bush's popularity, and, officials acknowledge, some Bush supporters have pressed for a response to the avalanche of Democratic critiques of his performance in office, which have been extensively covered on television.
Still, the White House has sought to keep distance from this first commercial. It is not a product of the president's campaign committee, but was paid for and produced by the Republican National Committee.
The party has acted as a proxy for Mr. Bush while he tries to maintain the appearance of being above the political fray.
Bush campaign officials have been reluctant to discuss when they intend to broadcast their own commercials, but suggest they will come in mid-March, when they expect the Democrats to settle on their nominee.
Jim Dyke, the Republican National Committee's communications director, said the party did not believe that the Democrats' attacks were hurting Mr. Bush. Even so, he said, the time seemed right to provide a contrast to what Mr. Dyke called the negativism of the Democratic field - which he said had rallied around policies that are in sharp contrast with Mr. Bush's and, he argued, out of step with mainstream America.
"It's fine to say Iraq's wrong, Afghanistan's wrong," Mr. Dyke said. "But what we're talking about is the safety of the American people and who's putting forth the policies to address it."
Mr. Dyke added, "What we're going to start doing is point to the positive policies of this president and this party and present the sharp contrast in approach and also in tone."
The 30-second advertisement gives the first sampling of the powerful array of images Mr. Bush's campaign team will have at its disposal when it begins what is expected to be a formidable advertising campaign.
With somber strings playing in the background, the commercial flashes the words "Strong and Principled Leadership" before cutting to Mr. Bush standing before members of Congress. Intended to call out the Democrats for their opposition to Mr. Bush's military strategy of pre-emptively striking those who pose threats to the nation, the screen flashes "Some call for us to retreat, putting our national security in the hands of others," the