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NUCLEAR
Marshall Islanders unhappy at closing nuclear victim's health programme
Researchers pull cargo into 'nuclear carwash'
China to support "non-discriminatory" non-proliferation regime
China Outlines Nonproliferation Plans
China Reaffirms Non - Proliferation Ahead of U.S. Trip
Health a casualty of war and occupation
Scientists ramping up cargo snooping
North Korea Nuclear Talks May Be Delayed
Powell Optimistic on N.Korea Talks, Denies Deadlock
Australia OKs U.S. Missile Defense Role
42 A-Plants Found to Lack Enough Cash for Cleanup
Officials Permit Nuclear Waste Shipment
MILITARY
Lockheed Martin Delivers First Aegis Weapon System to Norway
ISRAEL WINS APPROVAL FOR U.S. MILITARY TRUCKS
UN Security Council urges nations to tighten Somalia arms embargo
India insists price deal done for Russian for aircraft carrier
Report: Japan to Introduce Missile Defense System
Thailand may withdraw troops from Iraq
Northrop Grumman chosen for missile defense contract
Northrop Grumman Gets $4.5B Defense Deal
Northrop Team Wins Antimissile Deal
Pentagon Delays $20 Billion Boeing Deal
Pentagon Delays Tanker Contract
New Chief Brings Old Style to Boeing
Canada's military becoming obsolete, report warns
US cancels computer war games with Taiwan: report
Beijing Warns That Taiwan Referendum Could Lead to War
Rumsfeld Criticizes EU Defense Plan
Pentagon Official to Visit Europe on Force Changes
U.S. to Form Iraqi Paramilitary Force Unit Will Draw From Party Militias
Israel Approves Construction Of More Homes At Settlements
Israeli Warns Powell on Peace Team; He Rejects Criticism
Powell Effort Aims To Pressure Sharon On Peace Accord
In reversal, Pentagon grants detainee of Saudi descent access to lawyer
Powell Sends Russia Warning About Georgia
Space wars: apocalypse soon?
Blair defends intelligence on Saddam weapons
CIA stands firm on Iraq assessment
Taiwan Arrests Officer on Spy Charges
CIA Agent With Leaked ID Poses for Photos
U.N. Plans Long - Term Monitoring of Iraq
Military establishing global network
White House Changes Story on Bush Plane Incident
Court Finds Rwanda Media Executives Guilty of Genocide
War Crimes Judges Sentence Serb to 27 Years in Massacre
POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE
U.S. Court Strikes Down Part of Anti-Terrorism Law
Think Tank Urges Information Sharing Network Could Help Combat Terrorism
Ridge: Tech Cos. Must Help Fight Terror
FBI Urges Keeping Anthrax Probe
FBI defends secrecy in anthrax probe
U.S. Allows Lawyer For Citizen Held as 'Enemy Combatant'
Two U.S. Embassies Sound Terrorist Alerts
Embassies in Kenya and Saudi Arabia Issue Warnings
OTHER
Russia to Reject Pact on Climate, Putin Aide Says
White House, EPA Move To Ease Mercury Rules
China Tells Its Public of Enormity of AIDS Toll
ACTIVISTS
German Greens blast proposed plutonium plant sale to China
-------- NUCLEAR
Marshall Islanders unhappy at closing nuclear victim's health programme
MAJURO (AFP)
Dec 03, 2003
http://www.spacewar.com/2003/031203092738.zwaxxdoq.html
A United States-funded health program at nuclear test-affected areas in the Marshall Islands is to close at the end of the month, angering local officials.
Funding for the 177 Health Plan, named after the section of the Compact of Free Association between the United States and Marshall Islands that funded it, expires on December 31.
The program, funded by an annual two million dollar grant from the United States, provides health care services to up to 16,000 islanders, about 25 percent of the country, from the nuclear test-affected atolls of Bikini, Enewetak, Rongelap and Utrik.
"It's a very big concern to Rongelap (that the program is closing)," Rongelap Senator Abacca Anjain-Maddison said.
The United States carried out 67 nuclear tests at Bikini and Enewetak from 1946-1958, with nuclear fallout dusting atolls in the area.
The 15 megaton Bravo hydrogen bomb test of 1954 spewed high levels of radioactive fallout over dozens of islands and hundreds of unsuspecting islanders.
Anjain-Maddison said Rongelap leaders would meet later this month to discuss ways to maintain the program, including the possibility of the local government picking up the costs of having a doctor stationed on Mejatto, where the displaced Rongelap Islanders live.
On Bikini Atoll, liaison agent Jack Niedenthal said locals were "really unhappy" about the pending closure.
"The biggest advantage of the program for nuclear victims is not the off-island care, but the primary care offered. This is the most important aspect of the program because it eliminates the need for many off-island referrals."
Anjain-Maddison said efforts were ongoing for the Marshall Islands to lobby the US Congress to extend additional funding to continue the four-atoll health program and to seek health care funding through a petition that has been pending with the US Congress for more than three years.
However, Niedenthal said he was not very optimistic about efforts in Washington, and as the health care program winds down its assets were already being divided up among the four atolls.
-------- accidents and safety
Researchers pull cargo into 'nuclear carwash'
Scientists test new technological twist to locate nukes in container searches
By Ian Hoffman,
TRI-VALLEY STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, December 03, 2003
http://www.trivalleyherald.com/Stories/0,1413,86~10669~1805823,00.html
Despite massive federal investment in radiation detectors and X-ray machines for U.S. maritime ports, security officials still can't be sure of finding a nuclear weapon hidden in a cargo container.
The problem is that plutonium and enriched uranium -- the essential ingredients of atom bombs -- are just weakly radioactive and their emissions can be shielded or absorbed by cargo as common as food, wood and plastics.
Scientists think the answer is a new twist on technologies used to search for solar neutrinos and the illegal diversion of nuclear fuel.
Their "nuclear carwash" would fire neutrons into cargo containers and, if weapons materials are present, trigger a tiny amount of nuclear fission. For a minute or so, byproducts of those split atoms release gamma rays that specifically identify the original source as weapons-grade uranium, plutonium or other man-made elements.
"You can irradiate this cargo and not worry about the radiation at all and -- bingo -- seconds later see this stuff," said Stanley Prussin, a nuclear engineering professor at University of California, Berkeley. "They are in some circumstances unique signatures to nuclear (weapons) materials."
Scientists tested the idea at Lawrence Berkeley lab's 88-inch Cyclotron and were encouraged. Now colleagues at Lawrence Livermore lab are performing experiments and computer modeling to see precisely how well the "carwash" will work. Livermore already has tested an array of technologies for looking into cargo containers.
"This is the best game in town, I think," said Dennis Slaughter, lead scientist of the Berkeley-Livermore team.
Using neutrons to peer into cargo has a few potential drawbacks. The process, known as active neutron interrogation, takes a minute or so -- a fairly short time but too long to scan all 7 million containers flowing into the United States every year. Also, it would make some cargo radioactive for up to a few hours.
So far, scientists say calculations show the amounts of residual radioactivity will be low and vanish quickly. Most will disappear seconds after the container is scanned.
"My nightmare -- the place I don't want to be -- is to do an interrogation of a container of French wine and then have to tell the importer, 'What you've got is a container of radioactive waste,'" Slaughter said.
The worry isn't just wine. People use cargo containers to smuggle themselves into the United States every year. Earlier this year, port inspectors found an Italian man holed up in a U.S-bound container equipped with a computer, food and reading material.
Slaughter says the neutron beam is weak enough that scientists working on the project wouldn't be too worried if they inadvertently walked through it. Prussin says the "carwash" probably would be designed with shielding so port workers and federal agents would not receive a significant dose of radiation while scanning cargo.
The U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection wants cargo scanners that can find nuclear weapons and radiological dispersal devices -- "dirty bombs" -- but at minimal risk of hurting stowaways, said spokesman Jim Michie.
Customs agents now carry belt-mounted radiation detectors and use their experience with shippers to judge which containers need extra scrutiny. They use portable X-ray or gamma-ray machines to take pictures of suspect cargo in a few percent of containers, sometimes resorting to hand search-es. The bureau now is installing radiation detection portals at all ports and borders.
Michie says this layered defense of intelligence on cargo, port security and scanning technologies make smuggling difficult.
"We're fairly confident with the system we have," he said.
"It would be extraordinarily difficult to get something into one of those containers. And it would be impossible for us to come across one of those (suspect) containers and not check it. We must be doing a pretty good job. The system appears to work."
Most of Customs' technologies use passive detection. They rely on radiation escaping the container to work or on radiographs that depict the density and shape of the cargo inside. But scientists say they are not guaranteed to detect the relatively small masses of nuclear material useful for a weapon. A fairly primitive nuclear weapon could be fashioned from 10 kilograms of enriched uranium that is about the size of a baseball.
Last fall, an ABC news team working with the Natural Resources Defense Council smuggled depleted uranium into a U.S. port aboard a cargo container. Michie says the container was scanned and found not to contain troubling amounts of radiation and allowed to go its way.
Thomas Cochran, a physicist who heads NRDC's nuclear program, says the best strategy for keeping nuclear and dirty bombs out of the United States is to lock them down at their source abroad. But he says neutron interrogation probably will do well at detecting terrorist devices -- as long as terrorists aren't smart enough to devise ways around it.
"In theory, it's doable -- for a significant cost," he said. "You certainly can catch the Richard Reids but not the Mohammed Attas."
-------- china
China to support "non-discriminatory" non-proliferation regime
BEIJING (AFP)
Dec 03, 2003
http://www.spacewar.com/2003/031203120633.x64sxs22.html
China voiced strong support Wednesday for the establishment of an effective international mechanism to curb the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), but remained non-committal about joining a US-backed plan.
A government position paper was issued a day after the United States urged beefed up measures to intercept nuclear, chemical and biological weapons on the high seas or in international airspace.
"China maintains that a universal participation of the international community is essential for progress in non-proliferation," said the State Council (cabinet) white paper on "China's Non-proliferation Policy and Measures".
"Unilateralism and double standards must be abandoned, and great importance should be attached and full play given to the role of the United Nations.
"It is highly important to ensure a fair, rational and non-discriminatory non-proliferation regime."
Foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said the white paper marked the continuation of endeavors by the Chinese government to boost global cooperation in the field.
"We are willing to make concerted efforts with all parties concerned to enhance the non-proliferation process and promote the peace, stability and development of the world," he said, according to Xinhua news agency.
While maintaining the right of developing countries to use and benefit from dual-use technologies -- those which can be used for both military and civilian purposes -- the paper said their spread should be balanced with "non-proliferation goals".
"It is also necessary to prevent any country from engaging in proliferation under the pretext of peaceful utilization," it said.
"China does not support, encourage or assist any country to develop WMD and their means of delivery. China stands for the attainment of the non-proliferation goal through peaceful means."
The paper was published a day after Washington announced the addition of four new countries to the 11 nations already signed up to a "proliferation security initiative" (PSI), which aims to implement widespread powers to seize suspected WMD in international waters and airspace.
John Bolton, the top US diplomat for arms control, said Canada, Denmark, Norway and Singapore would participate in the next meeting of countries involved in the PSI, which was first announced by President George W. Bush in May.
Military and law enforcement experts from those countries will join officials from Australia, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain and the United States at that meeting, which is set to be held in the United States later this month, he said.
China has not announced its backing of the initiative, apparently due to concerns that the effort is largely aimed at containing its close ally North Korea.
Pyongyang is currently threatening to develop nuclear weapons to defend itself against the alleged threat of a US-backed Iraqi-style attack to remove Stalinist leader Kim Jong-Il.
North Korea's other neighbours, South Korea and Russia, have also refrained from backing the PSI.
China, which has joined most of the major international non-proliferation treaties, has also established an extensive export control regime aimed at preventing Chinese entities, including the military, from exporting WMD, their means of delivery and dual-use technologies, the paper said.
Missile proliferation has been a key bone of contention in Sino-US relations in recent years, and Beijing has made repeated assurances that it has stepped up monitoring to prevent the trafficking of such technologies.
----
China Outlines Nonproliferation Plans
By TED ANTHONY
Associated Press Writer
Dec 3,
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CHINA_WEAPONS_PROLIFERATION?SITE=DCTMS&SECTION=HOME
BEIJING (AP) -- China pronounced itself a responsible global citizen Wednesday, saying it would follow all international rules to prevent weapons from falling into the wrong hands and implicitly criticizing the United States for "unilateralism and double standards."
At the same time, the communist government cited its own motivation to prevent its technology from being exported to create weapons of mass destruction: its desire to encourage the peace and stability that will keep its all-important development on the fast track.
The comments, in a "white paper" on nonproliferation, dovetailed with a major theme of Beijing's foreign policy in recent years - to establish China as a respectable country that is worthy of trust and, by extension, foreign investment.
They also offset accusations that Chinese support for allies in the past has included ballistic missiles and help for their nuclear weapons programs - charges that China denies. Washington has imposed sanctions on several Chinese companies, accusing them of improperly exporting missile-related technologies.
"The proliferation of WMD and their means of delivery benefits neither world peace and stability nor China's own security," the report said. "A developing China," it said, needs "long-term peace."
The document's release coincides with Premier Wen Jiabao's upcoming trip to the United States. Wen visits Washington next week and is expected to raise with President Bush the issue of U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan, which Beijing has referred to in the past as "proliferation."
The report made no specific mention of North Korea, China's neighbor and communist ally, which is embroiled in a dispute with the United States over its nuclear program. China has hosted one six-nation meeting to resolve the disagreement, and another could take place later this month.
China has become a key manufacturer of machinery and technology, and progress made during two decades of convulsive development has made its products more valuable worldwide - including to groups and nations seeking weaponry and weapons technology.
On Wednesday, a Pakistani government official said his nation would purchase a second nuclear power plant from China, to be built southwest of Islamabad. China sold Pakistan another nuclear plant in the 1990s.
In the report, Beijing said it had made sure an array of procedures and penalties was in place to prevent companies from transferring technology or materials that could be made into chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. "No license, no exports," it said.
"We are willing to make concerted efforts with all parties concerned to enhance the non-proliferation process and promote the peace, stability and development of the world," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said.
In a clear swipe at the U.S. approach in Iraq, China said many nations must work together through established channels to make sure that prevention of proliferation is "democratic."
"Unilateralism and double standards must be abandoned, and great importance should be attached and full play given to the role of the United Nations," it said.
On Tuesday, U.S. Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton said the United States, in rooting out weapons of mass destruction, would seek diplomatic solutions whenever possible but is "also willing to deploy more robust techniques such as the interdiction and seizure of illicit goods."
In a statement Wednesday, the U.S. Embassy in Beijing said it was examining China's export policies as they related to weapons.
"We welcome efforts by China to stem the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, missiles, conventional weapons and related materials and technologies through stricter export control regulations," the embassy said.
China opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq and said any punishment of a sovereign nation's leader should go through the U.N. Security Council, where China is a permanent member and wields veto power. The United States cited Saddam Hussein's purported weapons of mass destruction as justification for its military action.
In the document, China also took a step that was striking for a government known for its opaque methods of operating: It detailed the particular departments responsible for monitoring technology exports that could be used for weapons.
Such agency-by-agency citations suggested China is trying to show it has the apparatus in place to prevent transfers of sensitive technology.
"It is an inevitable demand of the times to strengthen international cooperation and seek common security," the Chinese government said. "The non-proliferation efforts of all countries," it said, are "inseparably linked."
----
China Reaffirms Non - Proliferation Ahead of U.S. Trip
December 3, 2003
REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-arms-china.html
BEIJING (Reuters) - China has reaffirmed its opposition to the spread of weapons of mass destruction ahead of a trip by Premier Wen Jiabao to the United States, which has in the past expressed concern at Beijing's arms sales.
``China does not support, encourage or assist any country to develop WMD and their means of delivery,'' the government said Wednesday in a policy paper published by the State Council, or cabinet.
Wen is due to travel to the United States for a four-day visit Sunday.
The paper highlighted China's new export control laws, its ``resolute support'' for international non-proliferation efforts and its recognition that national and global security were linked.
The United States and others have expressed concern about what they see as unchecked Chinese arms sales to the developing world, including North Korea and Iran, branded by Washington as part of an ``axis of evil'' along with pre-war Iraq.
U.S. officials have also said China, along with Russia, helped North Korea develop an enriched uranium program, although China denies exporting nuclear materials.
The international community has been entangled in a crisis over North Korea's nuclear weapons programs since October 2002 when U.S. officials said Pyongyang had admitted efforts to try to build nuclear arms, violating previous agreements.
Analysts say China has also been a top supplier of missile technology to Pakistan and a key source of information for its nuclear program.
The paper said China had always stood for the ``complete prohibition and thorough destruction of all kinds of weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.''
Tuesday, China's Commerce Ministry issued new rules to control the export of ``sensitive'' materials and technologies to take effect on January 1.
A U.S. embassy spokesman said Wednesday the United States welcomed and was studying the rules.
``We welcome efforts by China to stem the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, missiles, conventional weapons and related materials and technologies through stricter export control regulations,'' he said.
-------- depleted uranium
Health a casualty of war and occupation
Wednesday December 3, 2003
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1098552,00.html
I was one of the many Iraqi British doctors who attended the recent meeting with the appointed Iraqi health minister, Khdair Abbad Fadil, organised by the Iraqi Medical Association in the UK, to find out how to help the ailing health care system. The minister confirmed the resurgence of "social diseases", such as chronic diarrhoea, which can only be conquered if the basic social conditions of the deprived communities in Iraq are fundamentally improved. The termination of the oil for food programme in the current climate will only exacerbate the problem.
In my questions to the minister, I brought up two issues: the clear-up of cluster bombs and dealing with the effects of depleted uranium; and the restoration of free medical care at the point of demand, as was the case before the economic sanction years. I did not receive satisfactory answers to either question.
The minister seems to put the blame for the first issue on the World Health Organisation for not doing its job. Did the WHO drop those bombs? Then the minister told us about the need for a complete overhaul of the basic medical services. He said the fact that their cost was beyond the means of many Iraqis had contributed to the dire health situation in Iraq.
So I was puzzled when he went on to advocate setting up more private hospitals in Iraq. I found the talk about making profit out of people's misery too sickening to bear and had to walk out before the end of the meeting. Dr Naseer Nuaman (GP), Maidstone, Kent
November may indeed have been "the bloodiest month for the coalition forces since the invasion" (Body bag counts put strains on coalition, December 1), with 111 members of the occupying forces killed, but why no mention of the Iraqi civilian casualties in the same period - let alone the overwhelmingly larger number of Iraqi civilians killed since the invasion began? Iraqi civilian deaths are reliably put at between 7,900 and 9,700 (see www.iraqbodycount.net). Total casualties for the occupying forces stand at 524. We need a constant reminder of what the war and occupation mean for the people of Iraq. Otherwise it looks suspiciously like blinkered ethnocentrism.
Prof Eric Clarke Sheffield
----
Scientists ramping up cargo snooping
Researchers test new technological twist to locate nukes in containers
By Ian Hoffman,
TRI-VALLEY STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, December 03, 2003 - 2:54:50 AM PST
http://www.trivalleyherald.com/Stories/0,1413,86~10669~1805826,00.html
Despite massive federal investment in radiation detectors and X-ray machines for U.S. maritime ports, security officials still can't be sure of finding a nuclear weapon hidden in a cargo container.
The problem is that plutonium and enriched uranium -- the essential ingredients of atom bombs -- are just weakly radioactive and their emissions can be shielded or absorbed by cargo as common as food, wood and plastics.
Scientists think the answer is a new twist on technologies used to search for solar neutrinos and the illegal diversion of nuclear fuel.
Their "nuclear carwash" would fire neutrons into cargo containers and, if weapons materials are present, trigger a tiny amount of nuclear fission. For a minute or so, byproducts of those split atoms release gamma rays that specific-ally identify the original source as weapons-grade uranium, plutonium or other man-made elements.
"You can irradiate this cargo and not worry about the radiation at all and -- bingo -- seconds later see this stuff," said Stanley Prussin, a nuclear engineering professor at University of California, Berkeley. "They are in some circumstances unique signatures to nuclear (weapons) materials."
Scientists tested the idea at Lawrence Berkeley lab's 88-inch Cyclotron and were encouraged. Now colleagues at Lawrence Livermore lab are performing experiments and computer modeling to see precisely how well the "carwash" will work. Livermore already has tested an array of technologies for looking into cargo containers.
"This is the best game in town, I think," said Dennis Slaughter, lead scientist of the Berkeley-Livermore team.
Using neutrons to peer into cargo has a few potential drawbacks. The process, known as active neutron interrogation, takes a minute or so -- a fairly short time but too long to scan all 7 million containers flowing into the United States every year. Also, it would make some cargo radioactive for up to a few hours.
So far, scientists say calculations show the amounts of residual radioactivity will be low and vanish quickly. Most will disappear seconds after the container is scanned.
"My nightmare -- the place I don't want to be -- is to do an interrogation of a container of French wine and then have to tell the importer, 'What you've got is a container of radioactive waste,'" Slaughter said.
The worry isn't just wine. People use cargo containers to smuggle themselves into the United States every year. Earlier this year, port inspectors found an Italian man holed up in a U.S-bound container equipped with a computer, food and reading material.
Slaughter says the neutron beam is weak enough that scientists working on the project wouldn't be too worried if they inadvertently walked through it. Prussin says the "carwash" probably would be designed with shielding so port workers and federal agents would not receive a significant dose of radiation while scanning cargo.
The U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection wants cargo scanners that can find nuclear weapons and radiological dispersal devices -- "dirty bombs" -- but at minimal risk of hurting stowaways, said spokesman Jim Michie.
Customs agents now carry belt-mounted radiation detectors and use their experience with shippers to judge which containers need extra scrutiny. They use portable X-ray or gamma-ray machines to take pictures of suspect cargo in a few percent of containers, sometimes resorting to hand search-es. The bureau now is installing radiation detection portals at all ports and borders.
Michie says this layered defense of intelligence on cargo, port security and scanning technologies make smuggling difficult.
"We're fairly confident with the system we have," he said. "It would be extraordinarily difficult to get something into one of those containers."
And it would be impossible for us to come across one of those (suspect) containers and not check it. We must be doing a pretty good job. The system appears to work."
Most of Customs' technologies use passive detection. They rely on radiation escaping the container to work or on radiographs that depict the density and shape of the cargo inside. But scientists say they are not guaranteed to detect the relatively small masses of nuclear material useful for a weapon. A fairly primitive nuclear weapon could be fashioned from 10 kilograms of enriched uranium that is about the size of a baseball.
Last fall, an ABC news team working with the Natural Resources Defense Council smuggled depleted uranium into a U.S. port aboard a cargo container. Michie says the container was scanned and found not to contain troubling amounts of radiation and allowed to go its way.
Thomas Cochran, a physicist who heads NRDC's nuclear program, says the best strategy for keeping nuclear and dirty bombs out of the United States is to lock them down at their source abroad. But he says neutron interrogation probably will do well at detecting terrorist devices -- as long as terrorists aren't smart enough to devise ways around it.
"In theory, it's doable -- for a significant cost," he said. "You certainly can catch the Richard Reids but not the Mohammed Attas."
-------- korea
North Korea Nuclear Talks May Be Delayed
December 3, 2003
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/03/international/asia/03KORE.html
WASHINGTON, Dec. 2 - Planning for six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program has hit a snag that may delay the sessions until next year, United States officials said Tuesday.
One main obstacle is North Korea's reluctance to agree to an American demand for an "effective and irreversible verification regime," which experts have said would open the North to unprecedented intrusive inspections.
American officials said the United States and the other countries involved - China, Russia, South Korea and Japan - were trying to agree in advance on a statement that would be issued at the end of negotiations.
Washington wants the statement to at least include agreement on the principle of verification and a system of inspections and monitoring that would give the world reasonable confidence that the North Korean government has halted its plutonium and uranium programs.
The talks originally had been planned for this month, but one official said planning for the second round was "not going well."
"It's not going to happen in December, the official said, "but maybe January or February."
--------
Powell Optimistic on N.Korea Talks, Denies Deadlock
December 3, 2003
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/politics/politics-korea-north-powell.html
MARRAKESH, Morocco (Reuters) - Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Wednesday he was optimistic six-way talks to defuse the North Korean nuclear crisis will take place soon and denied the process was deadlocked.
U.S. officials in Washington told Reuters on Tuesday that planning for a second round of talks had hit a snag and they may not take place until January or February instead of this month as expected.
``I am still optimistic that they will take place in the near future,'' Powell told a news conference in Morocco, the second stop of a North African tour.
``There is no deadlock. I don't recall someone announcing when the talks will take place,'' he added.
He gave no date, however, for the talks which include North Korea, South Korea, Japan, Russia, the United States and host China. An inconclusive first round was held in Beijing in August.
The crisis on the Korean peninsula has been simmering since last year, when the United States said Pyongyang had secretly admitted to an illicit nuclear weapons program, in breach of international conventions.
North Korea wants security guarantees from Washington which, for its part, insists on an ``irreversible verification regime'' to end Pyongyang's nuclear programs, including production of plutonium and highly enriched uranium for nuclear fuel.
Kyodo news agency reported on Wednesday the United States, Japan and South Korea had rejected a Chinese-backed draft of a proposed joint statement for the next round of talks, saying it was too advantageous to North Korea.
The disagreement over the proposal could delay the next round of six-way talks until next year, the agency said.
But South Korean and Japanese officials said on Wednesday it was too early to rule out a further round of talks this year.
``It is still not clear whether a second round of six-way talks will be held within this year,'' a senior Japanese government official told Reuters in Tokyo on condition of anonymity.
``We will see by the middle of next week whether the talks will be held within this year.''
A South Korean Foreign Ministry official agreed.
``Nothing is fixed. Let's wait for a couple of days,'' he said. ``It's just speculation.''
The Chinese-backed draft statement envisaged a security guarantee for North Korea in exchange for a declaration from Pyongyang that it would abandon its nuclear development program, but before implementation is confirmed, Kyodo said.
But Washington says no such guarantee would be forthcoming until Pyongyang verifiably scrapped its nuclear program.
Working-level officials from Japan, South Korea and the United States are to discuss the crisis on Thursday in Washington.
The South Korean official said by telephone it was significant North Korea had remained publicly silent so far about the timing of the next round of talks.
``The important thing is that North Korea has not denied the opening of the six-party talks, the second round. But recently they emphasized the simultaneous action principle,'' he said.
-------- missile defense
Australia OKs U.S. Missile Defense Role
December 3, 2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Australia-US-Missile-Defense.html
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) -- Australia has agreed to participate in the U.S. missile defense program, the government announced Thursday.
``We believe that taking part in the U.S. program will serve our strategic interest, help us defend Australia and allow us to make an important contribution to global and regional security,'' Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said in a statement.
Washington hopes to develop a shield against ballistic missiles, arguing that ``rogue states'' like North Korea could soon have missiles to threaten the United States. It wants allies such as Britain and Australia involved in the project, particularly for the use of satellite tracking stations in their countries.
-------- u.s. nuc facilities
42 A-Plants Found to Lack Enough Cash for Cleanup
December 3, 2003
By MATTHEW L. WALD
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/03/national/03NUKE.html
WASHINGTON, Dec. 2 - The owners of nearly half the nuclear power reactors in the United States are not reserving enough money to decommission them on retirement, according to Congressional auditors, who also say the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is not tracking the money carefully.
The report, which the General Accounting Office issued on Monday, said that money over all was accumulating faster than required, but that it could not easily be shifted from plant to plant or even from one partial owner to another at the same plant.
A spokesman for the commission said on Tuesday that his agency was confident that the companies it licenses were, in fact, saving fast enough to clean up the reactors on retirement. But the commission has not evaluated the Congressional auditors' methods and cannot explain the differences, he said.
Money is accumulating too slowly at 42 plants, including some shut for years like Indian Point 1, in Buchanan, N.Y., and Millstone 1, in Waterford, Conn., the report said. Those plants and some others are probably decades from decommissioning, because they are next to plants that are still operating and their owners have decided not to act until all plants at a site have been retired.
Some plants for which insufficient money is available are already being decommissioned.
"In theory, they could wait until the end of the road and pay it all at once," Timothy J. Guinane, the assistant director of the agency, said.
But, Mr. Guinane added, it would be "a more prudent path to pay it into the fund gradually, as you go along and as the plant is used up."
Representative Edward J. Markey, the Massachusetts Democrat who requested the report, said in a statement, "While happily pocketing their profits today, many plant owners are shirking their duty to save for tomorrow."
Taxpayers could be left with billions in costs, Mr. Markey said.
As plants have changed hands, critics of nuclear power have expressed concern that a few utilities are acquiring enormous liabilities in buying reactors. The critics say that in a more competitive marketplace payment by these companies is not as assured as it had been by the utilities that built the plants, by virtue of their captive customers in the old regulated system.
Over all, the accounting office found, the combined total of savings for decommissioning by 2000 had reached $26.9 billion, "about 47 percent greater than needed at that point to ensure that sufficient funds will be available to cover the approximately $44 billion in estimated decommissioning costs."
In contrast, in 1999 the office found that the reactor owners were collectively 3 percent short.
In the new report, some companies were in both categories. For example, at Indian Point, the auditors said that Unit 1, which last ran in the 1960's, was underfinanced but that Units 2 and 3 were overfinanced.
At the Nuclear Energy Institute, a trade group, a spokesman, Steve Kerekes, said the analysis was conducted when interest rates were low and stock prices were down, making the sum look smaller.
"I would dare say that even Bill Gates's financial picture may have been dampened a bit over the last couple of years," Mr. Kerekes said.
But in the long term, he added, the money would grow and enough would be available. Mr. Kerekes said most plants would obtain 20-year extensions on their initial 40-year operating licenses, leaving them more time to accumulate money.
At Entergy Nuclear, listed as having several underfinanced plants, a spokesman, Carl Crawford, said that for one of them state regulators had found the fund to be adequate and had told the utility to stop billing ratepayers for more.
At Exelon, which owns 42 percent of the twin Salem reactors in Lower Alloways Creek, N.J., a spokesman, Craig Nesbit, said the utility would move money from overfinanced accounts like the one at Peach Bottom, in the Pennsylvania town of the same name, to underfinanced sites like Salem.
-------- us nuc waste
Officials Permit Nuclear Waste Shipment
December 3, 2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Nuclear-Reactor.html
SAN ONOFRE, Calif. (AP) -- A plan to get a 770-ton piece of nuclear waste to an East Coast burial site by shipping it around South America has been approved despite concerns from environmentalists.
Southern California Edison was cleared to ship a decommissioned nuclear reactor vessel from its San Onofre plant to a dump for low-level nuclear waste in Barnwell, S.C. The 11,000-mile trek around the tip of South America will be the longest journey for a piece of nuclear waste in U.S. history.
The reactor can't go through the Panama Canal because it is over the canal's weight limit for nuclear waste, and Edison said shipping it by rail would be too expensive.
The federal Department of Transportation issued the final permit on Monday, saying Edison had satisfied safety requirements.
But the environmental group Greenpeace International called for regulators to assess the possible effects of an accident.
``There are definitely some environmental risks if the barge were to sink,'' Tom Clements of Greenpeace's nuclear campaign said Wednesday. ``Those waters off Cape Horn are very treacherous. We just think it would be safer to leave it on site.''
Edison did not say when the move will take place. Several contractors will need time to prepare, spokesman Ray Golden said.
-------- MILITARY
-------- arms sales
Lockheed Martin Delivers First Aegis Weapon System to Norway
The Aegis Missile Ship introduces a new concept in "capital ships"
Dec 03, 2003
Space Daily
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/bmdo-03z.html
Moorestown - Lockheed Martin marked the completion of the first Aegis Integrated Weapon System (IWS) with the SPY-1F radar for the Royal Norwegian Navy today with a pull- the-plug ceremony at its Moorestown facility. The system will be packed and shipped to Spanish shipbuilder IZAR for installation on the Fridtjof Nansen, the first ship of the F310 Norwegian frigate program, now under construction in Ferrol, Spain.
The system, which includes Lockheed Martin's SPY-1F radar, successfully completed a full range of acceptance tests during the past several months to verify system performance. Today's pull-the-plug ceremony marks the completion of testing and symbolizes the system is ready for shipboard installation.
"The work done by all parties in connection with the design, construction and testing that has taken place here is amazing," said Capt. Per Erik Goransson of the Norwegian Defence Logistics Organization. "Many skeptics declared that the plan was too ambitious when the program started. But you have proved them wrong!"
In all, five Norwegian New Frigates are currently under contract for production.
"The Nansen-class frigate program is a tremendous international partnership that will provide the people of Norway with proven state-of-the- art capabilities at sea," said Fred P. Moosally, president of Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems & Sensors. "The sailors of the Fridtjof Nansen can operate with the confidence that the SPY-1F and its Integrated Weapons System is ready for all missions."
The SPY-1F system is an important element of Lockheed Martin's responsibilities on the Norwegian Frigate program, which includes integration of the entire IWS encompassing all sensors, weapons, software development, communications, and navigation. The system is based on the Aegis Weapon System, originally developed by Lockheed Martin for the U.S. Navy.
The SPY-1F multi-function radar is a scaled version of Lockheed Martin's SPY-1D radar, which is the most advanced naval surveillance, anti-air warfare and missile defense radar in the world. The SPY-1F is designed to meet the mission needs for a range of ships from corvettes to aircraft carriers.
"This pull-the-plug ceremony will allow the Lockheed Martin and IZAR partnership to safely proceed with the coming F-310 activities, with the common aim to fulfill the Royal Norwegian Navy requirements and expectations," said Jose M. Herranz, IZAR's New Norwegian Frigates director. "This is part of both front-end companies' willingness to succeed in this and future achievements."
The Aegis Weapon System is currently deployed on 71 ships deployed around the world, and 26 more ships are planned. In addition to the U.S. and Norwegian navies, Aegis is aboard Japanese and Spanish warships and the Republic of Korea recently selected Aegis for its newest class of destroyers.
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ISRAEL WINS APPROVAL FOR U.S. MILITARY TRUCKS
Wed, 03 Dec 2003
[MENL]
http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2003/december/12_04_4.html
WASHINGTON -- Israel has won approval for the sale of U.S. military trucks.
The Bush administration has approved an Israeli request for 256 military trucks in a $65 million deal. The trucks will come in a range of configurations.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency has notified Congress of a proposal to sell Israel 256 military trucks from American Truck Co. The agency said in a statement that they consist of 6x6 High Mobility Medium Tactical [HMMT] trucks without cranes, 49 ATC 6x6 High Mobility Medium Tactical [HMMT] trucks with cranes, 10 ATC 6x6 HMMT driver training trucks. American Truck is based in Ft. Wayne, Indiana.
"The proposed sale of the HMMT trucks will upgrade and enhance Israel's fleet with a Medium Tactical Truck between the High Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicles and Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Trucks in their inventory," the agency said in a statement. "Israel will have no difficulty absorbing these trucks into its armed forces."
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UN Security Council urges nations to tighten Somalia arms embargo
UNITED NATIONS (AFP)
Dec 03, 2003
http://www.spacewar.com/2003/031203210049.a3imznh9.html
The UN Security Council Wednesday called for nations to tighten the arms embargo on Somalia, which has been linked to the shipment of weapons used in terror attacks.
The council called for a "united approach and stronger support from the international community for enhanced implementation of the arms embargo," said a statement read by current council president, Stefan Tafrov of Bulgaria.
It said the lack of an effective central government was allowing international terror groups to operate in the east African nation.
The council met to discuss a new UN report which found a "disturbing" amount of continuing arms trafficking that it said was linked to "armed groups and extremists beyond Somalia's borders."
The report recalled that an al-Qaeda cell behind last year's bombing of a Kenya hotel frequented by Israeli tourists, and an attempted missile attack on a flight from Kenya to Israel, used weapons shipped via Yemen and Somalia.
"It remains relatively easy to obtain surface-to-air missiles and import them into Somalia," the report said.
"Additional weapons may have since been imported into Somalia solely for the purpose of carrying out further terrorist attacks."
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India insists price deal done for Russian for aircraft carrier
NEW DELHI (AFP)
Dec 03, 2003
http://www.spacewar.com/2003/031203130930.ut09abwf.html
India on Wednesday insisted it had completed price negotiations with Russia to buy the 44,500-tonne Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov for 30 billion rupees (652 million dollars).
Russian media reports published in Indian papers Wednesday, however, said the price had still not been finalised as "several issues" remained over the supply of foreign weapons systems.
India, however, stuck to its side of the story.
"Price negotiations in a comprehensive manner as stated by the Chief of Naval Staff have been completed and have been agreed by the negotiating teams of both sides," said a defence ministry statement.
"In respect of anti-missile defence system a number of systems are under evaluation. As soon as the evaluation is complete, the chosen system after due approvals will be fitted either during the refit in Russia or on delivery of the ship," it added.
Indian navy chief Admiral Madhvendra Singh had told reporters on Tuesday that India and Russia had agreed on a 30-billion-rupee price tag for Admiral Gorshkov which included two squadrons of MIG 29 K fighter jets
He said the deal was likely to be signed within the next few months but added the carrier would only be brought into the Indian navy in four-and-a-half years time.
Negotiations for the Russian ship have dragged on for three years due to differences over the price and other terms.
Russia offered the Admiral Gorshkov free of charge to India three years ago, with the string attached that New Delhi cough up millions of dollars to refit the ageing hulk.
According to defence experts, the Russians are very unhappy with India's decision to now look around for military hardware from other countries for the Russian aircraft carrier.
"The Russians are now trying to throw a spanner in the works as they just presumed India would buy their anti-missile defence system for Gorshkov. They cannot beleive that they could now lose out to Israel or some other foreign country," said the source.
India's Hindu newspaper also suggested New Delhi wanted to deploy Israeli Barak missiles on the Russian aircraft.
Russia still accounts for more than 70 percent of the military hardware used by India, although New Delhi has increasingly been looking to Europe, Israel and the United States for defence equipment.
The Indian navy decommissioned one of its two aircraft carriers in January 1997, while the second is due to be retired in a couple of years.
-------- asia
Report: Japan to Introduce Missile Defense System
December 3, 2003
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-japan-usa-missile.html
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi intends to introduce a missile defense system to protect Japan from the threat posed by North Korea's ballistic missiles, a Japanese newspaper said on Thursday. Japan has conducted joint research with the United States on developing a missile defense system since North Korea fired a ballistic missile that flew over Japan in 1998.
The government will hold a meeting of cabinet ministers or convene a national security meeting soon for a formal decision on introducing the system, the Mainichi Shimbun daily said.
The missile defense system is controversial in Japan due to questions it raises in connection with the country's pacifist constitution as well as the cost, and the government has so far stopped short of moving the project to the development stage.
The system could violate Japan's constitutional ban on ``collective self-defense'' -- the use of force to counter an attack on a foreign ally -- if it is used to shoot down a ballistic missile fired toward a third country, Mainichi said.
Under a Defense Ministry plan, Japan would spend $4.62 billion from fiscal 2004/05 to 2007/08 to buy a two-stage system developed by the United States, Mainichi said.
The newspaper said part of the system would come into operation in 2007 and that it would be fully deployed in fiscal 2011/12 or later.
The Defense Ministry has already requested 142 billion yen in funding for fiscal 2004/05 starting next April to buy the system.
A ministry official told reporters in August that the first stage of the system consisted of Standard Missile-3equipment, which would be fitted to Japan's four existing high-tech Aegis destroyers starting next year.
The second line of defense would be provided by ground-to-air Patriot PAC-3 missiles, upgrading the PAC-2 system Japan's armed forces already possess.
The official declined to comment on how many PAC-3 missile systems the ministry wanted to buy, but said it planned to begin deployment in 2007.
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Thailand may withdraw troops from Iraq
Wednesday, December 3, 2003
http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=7&id=280850
BANGKOK - Thailand may consider withdrawing troops from Iraq if the country's security situation worsens, Foreign Minister Sathianthai Surakiat said Tuesday.
He told reporters in Bangkok that he will discuss with Prime Minister Chinnawat Thaksin the possibility of withdrawing troops if they can no longer perform their duties smoothly due to worsening security in Iraq. (Kyodo News)
-------- business
Northrop Grumman chosen for missile defense contract
WASHINGTON (AFP)
Dec 04, 2003
http://www.spacewar.com/2003/031204001549.6747gjv2.html
Northrop Grumman Corporation has won a 4.5-billion-dollar contract to develop and test a key component of a future US national missile defense system, as the administration of President George W. Bush prepares to begin deploying parts of the system next year, the Defense Department announced Wednesday.
The eight-year deal calls for putting together a concept for the so-called kinetic energy interceptor designed to destroy ballistic missiles in their boost phase, or three to five minutes after launch.
This ground-based interceptor features a design that used to be prohibited under the now scrapped 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia, according to defense officials.
The United States formally withdrew from the treaty in June 2002, despite protests from Moscow.
"The objective of the contract award announced today is to develop and test a land-based interceptor for use in a 'layered' ballistic missile defense system, possibly in 2010-2012," the Pentagon said in a statement.
The weapon will consist of a mobile launcher built mainly by Northrop Grumman, Raytheon-built interceptor missiles, a battle management and communications system, and satellite receivers necessary to process information about hostile missile launches, according to industry officials.
The equipment is highly mobile and can be easily loaded onto a C-17 transport aircraft and taken to any flash point of the world.
"We are proud of this contract win, which firmly establishes Northrop Grumman's position as a top-tier systems integrator for missile defense," said Ronald Sugar, Northrop Grumman's chairman and chief executive officer.
While the initial interceptor would be land-based, defense officials hope the concept of the weapons will quickly evolve to allow its basing aboard ships to enhance the US capability to deploy them to threat areas.
The Bush administration has long insisted a national missile defense system was necessary to counter threats coming from unfriendly nations such as Iran and North Korea that feverishly working to boost their missile arsenals.
The United States is also developing and testing a ground-based system designed to intercept long-range missiles in their mid-course flight and is expected to begin deploying them next year.
Ship-based Aegis missile defenses are expected to become operational in
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Northrop Grumman Gets $4.5B Defense Deal
December 3, 2003
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Missile-Defense-Contract.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon on Wednesday awarded a $4.5 billion contract to a Northrop Grumman subsidiary to develop a weapon that would destroy enemy missiles shortly after their launch.
The eight-year contract for the defense giant's space and mission systems subsidiary covers the development and testing of an interceptor to destroy a missile in its boost phase.
The boost phase is the time when the missile's engines are firing, before it reaches space.
Ronald D. Sugar, chairman, Northrop's chief executive officer and president, said the work would create nearly 3,000 jobs by 2007.
The Northrop team includes more than 14 subcontractors, including Raytheon Corp. Raytheon is expected to build the actual interceptor or kill vehicle.
The company said significant amounts of work will be performed at these sites: Huntsville, Ala., Tucson, Ariz., Chandler, Ariz., Elkton, Md., St. Louis, Mo., Sunnyvale, Calif., and Naval Base Ventura County, Calif.
Northrop Grumman beat out defense rival Lockheed Martin for the project. The Pentagon had given both companies $10 million to come up with a concept design for the interceptor.
The contract calls for an interceptor designed to be based on land or on a ship or submarine at sea to knock down a missile shortly after launch. Such a defense would have been banned by the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which the United States withdrew from last year.
The Pentagon also is developing two systems to knock out enemy missiles in their midcourse phase, when they are traveling through space. The Defense Department hopes to have six prototype interceptor rockets for the land-based system installed in silos in Alaska by the end of next year.
The Bush administration says the United States needs to develop missile defenses to guard against rogue nations such as North Korea which could fire missiles loaded with nuclear, chemical or biological warheads. Critics say the missile defense plan is too costly and relies on unproven technology.
Among the advantages that the Pentagon cites for destroying missiles shortly after launch is the fact that the missile and its deadly payload ``may fall back on the country from which it was launched.''
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Northrop Team Wins Antimissile Deal
December 3, 2003
REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/politics/politics-arms-missile-northrop.html
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Northrop Grumman Corp. -Raytheon Co. team has won a contract worth as much as $4.5 billion over eight years to develop an antimissile rocket capable of knocking out warheads in their first five minutes of flight, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.
The winners beat out a rival team made up of Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co. to build the ``kinetic energy interceptor,'' part of President Bush's planned multilayered shield against ballistic missiles such as those that could be launched by North Korea.
The interceptor would destroy a target by smashing into it when a missile is most vulnerable, during its boost or early-ascent flight stages, before decoys may be deployed.
In a successful intercept, the missile and its warhead, possibly tipped with chemical, nuclear or biological weapons, might fall back on the attacking nation.
The Bush administration has earmarked $50 billion over the next five years to build a missile defense with an initial, rudimentary, capability to shoot down incoming warheads by next Sept. 30.
Los Angeles-based Northrop will lead the team. Raytheon, based in Lexington, Massachusetts, will be the chief subcontractor responsible for developing and integrating the interceptor and a significant portion of weapon system engineering, the companies said.
The Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency said it had awarded the contract without regard to a recent management shake-up and ethics issues dogging Boeing, which won the prime contract for integrating the overall ground-based leg of the missile defense system in 1998.
Chicago-based Boeing had competed ``without any stigma,'' said Rick Lehner, a missile agency spokesman. ``Recent events had nothing to do with the fact that they were not selected.''
The winners wisely relied on a ``proven'' design that adapted technology already being used on the Standard Missile 3, the interceptor on Aegis cruisers, Air Force Maj. Gen. Henry Obering, the missile agency's deputy chief, told Reuters in a telephone interview.
'IMPORTANT WIN' FOR NORTHROP
The initial installment of the contract is worth about $56 million, Northrop Chief Executive Ron Sugar said in a conference call with reporters, not enough to change the company's earnings guidance for the coming year.
``This is a very important win for Northrop Grumman,'' he said. ``It solidifies our position as a prime contractor in missile defense. It firmly establishes our company as the top-tier systems integrator.''
In addition, Sugar said, it validated the acquisition last year of TRW Inc. to bolster Northrop's position in missile defense. The single interceptor design chosen for this contract is compatible with both land- and sea-basing, the Pentagon said.
The first flight test of the new land-based interceptor is scheduled for 2009, Northrop officials said. It could be used in a ``layered'' defense as early as 2010, the Pentagon said.
The competing teams each had won $10 million contracts for conceptual design work on the interceptor.
The kinetic energy interceptor complements other missile defense programs now in development and testing.
Among these are ground-based interceptor missiles and their ``kill vehicles'' that could attack warheads in the middle of their flights, when they are coasting through space.
After being released, an exo-atmospheric kill vehicle is supposed to be guided to the hostile warhead by onboard infrared sensors and to destroy it by direct impact.
Boeing had also come in for criticism of its handling of the ``kill vehicle,'' analogous to the contract awarded Wednesday, for the ground-based midcourse missile defense.
The contract to build that interceptor was awarded mainly for reasons other than technical merit after the misuse of proprietary information by Boeing employees, the General Accounting Office, Congress's investigative arm, said on Jan. 30.
Raytheon won that contract on or about Dec. 1, 1998, after Boeing workers, who had a rival design, came into possession of Raytheon's proprietary data and improperly used it to study Raytheon's approach, the General Accounting Office found.
No formal criteria were used to evaluate the competing systems ``and there was no formal technical comparison or analysis used by the decision maker to select the EKV,'' said the report prepared for Rep. Howard Berman, a California Democrat.
Dulles, Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp. said it had been awarded a contract by the Northrop-led team valued at up to $400 million for booster vehicle design, development, test and early production for the kinetic energy interceptor.
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Pentagon Delays $20 Billion Boeing Deal
December 3, 2003
New York Times
By DOUGLAS JEHL
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/03/business/03boeing.html
WASHINGTON, Dec. 2 - The Pentagon has delayed a $20 billion contract from the Air Force to the Boeing Company and directed its inspector general to determine whether there is any reason the deal should not go forward, Defense Department officials said on Tuesday.
The action, ordered late Monday after Boeing's chief executive resigned, could lead to the deal's being scrapped and to new bids from Boeing's competitors, the officials said.
The contract, for Boeing to provide 100 refueling aircraft to the Air Force, was authorized in legislation signed by President Bush late last month. But the contract itself has not yet been signed, and the ouster last week of two Boeing executives over their conduct has intensified calls in Congress for the contract to be reopened.
Senator John W. Warner of Virginia, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, warned the Pentagon on Tuesday not to proceed with the sale or lease of any tankers under the deal until Congress had a chance to review the results of the Pentagon investigation.
The move by the Pentagon was ordered by Paul D. Wolfowitz, the deputy defense secretary, and spelled out in a letter from Mr. Wolfowitz to Senator Warner and other senior members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Senator Warner issued his warning in a response to Mr. Wolfowitz, a spokesman for the senator said.
A separate letter by Mr. Wolfowitz to the Defense Department inspector general, Joseph E. Schmitz, directed him to "determine whether there is any compelling reason why the Department of the Air Force should not proceed with its tanker lease program," a Defense Department official said. The review will not be concluded until next month at the earliest, officials said.
A spokesman for Boeing said the company would have no immediate comment on the Pentagon action.
The tanker deal is the second controversy this year to involve Boeing, the world's largest aerospace company, and the Pentagon. Its reputation tarnished and its share of the world aircraft market falling, Boeing announced on Monday that its chief executive, Philip M. Condit, had resigned.
In July, the Pentagon punished Boeing for stealing trade secrets from Lockheed Martin, its rival, to help win rocket contracts. Boeing has been banned from bidding indefinitely on military satellite-launching contracts, a punishment that officials say has already cost it seven launchings worth about $1 billion.
The tanker deal is authorized under an appropriations bill that directs the Air Force to lease 20 Boeing 767's for use as tankers and to buy 80 more tankers from the company. But Senator Warner has said his panel will hold a hearing on the deal next year, and Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican, wrote a letter Friday to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld asking that the Pentagon reconsider its decision to award the deal to Boeing.
For months, the deal has been criticized as beneficial to Boeing at the expense of taxpayers. The criticism intensified after it emerged that Boeing's chief financial officer, Michael M. Sears, had been talking to a Pentagon official, Darleen Druyun, about a job for her at Boeing at the same time that she was representing the Pentagon in financial negotiations over the tanker.
The Air Force began an investigation earlier this year into whether Ms. Druyun improperly disclosed information on a competing bid for the tankers while she was working as the No. 2 acquisition official for the Air Force. Ms. Druyun was hired by Boeing in January and fired last week by the company, along with Mr. Sears.
If Mr. Wolfowitz had not taken action, the contract between Boeing and the Air Force probably would have been signed this week, Defense Department officials said. Asked about the Boeing deal at a news conference on Nov. 25, Mr. Rumsfeld said that the company's decision to fire Mr. Sears had convinced him that it was important to look further into the allegations of improprieties.
"We're the custodian of the taxpayers' dollars," Mr. Rumsfeld said. "We have an obligation to see that things are done properly."
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Pentagon Delays Tanker Contract
Review of Boeing Behavior Ordered
By Renae Merle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 3, 2003
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29805-2003Dec2.html
The Pentagon delayed approval yesterday of a controversial contract to lease and buy Boeing Co. refueling tankers and ordered its inspector general to review the deal, delivering another blow to the aerospace and defense giant as it attempts to recover from a series of alleged ethical lapses.
In a letter to members of Congress, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz called for a "pause in the execution of the contracts" to allow the inspector general to determine whether the actions of two fired Boeing executives tainted the $18 billion deal. The inspector general already is investigating whether a former Air Force official gave Boeing a competitor's proprietary information during the tanker negotiations. The Pentagon's move yesterday broadens the probe and formalizes a review of the deal ordered last week by Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld.
The delay comes after Philip M. Condit, Boeing's chief executive and chairman, resigned Monday. Condit's departure followed the firing last week of Michael M. Sears, Boeing's chief financial officer, and Darleen A. Druyun, a senior vice president and former Air Force procurement officer, for violating company hiring policies. Sears denies wrongdoing, but Boeing's internal inquiry found that he began discussing a job with Druyun while she was still supervising Boeing contracts at the Air Force.
"The Air Force was on the verge of signing this contract if not for Sears and Druyun," said Rep. Norman D. Dicks (D-Wash.), a long-time supporter of the program. "I am disappointed. A lot of effort has been put in by myself and many others."
It is unclear how long the inspector general review will take, but if the delay drags on it could threaten the future of Boeing's 767 line, which has suffered from dwindling orders. The Air Force has said that Boeing might be forced to shut down production of the aircraft if the tanker deal is slow to evolve.
"This doesn't do [Boeing] any favors. They would love the revenue stream sooner rather than later," said Richard L. Aboulafia, aviation analyst for the Teal Group, a defense research firm.
The delay and the expanded investigation raise the prospect that the deal could be killed altogether, said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group that opposes the lease. "It's great to see that they're finally seeing the light in this," she said. "The support for this deal is dissipating because of the ongoing revelations of obvious misconduct taking place."
Boeing has spent millions developing the technology to build the planes and has said if the program were cancelled the company would incur a charge of $180 million to $270 million. Boeing was scheduled to begin building the first wing for the first plane on Dec. 12 at its plant in Everett, Wash., before Wolfowitz ordered the review.
Boeing declined to comment yesterday but in a conference call with analysts, Harry C. Stonecipher, Boeing's new chief executive, said: "I'm [concerned] that we'll see more and more delays on achieving success with the tanker deal."
The program already has been stripped of many of the features sought by the Air Force. Congress gave the Air Force the authority to lease 20 tankers and buy 80, rather than leasing the entire 100, as requested. The revision reduced the government's overall cost of the contract but buying 80 planes would require high upfront costs. The Air Force hasn't said how it will pay for the planes.
The Pentagon was within weeks of signing the contract when Boeing dismissed Sears and Druyun. Negotiations already have taken more than two years and now another round of congressional hearings is likely along with the inspector general probe.
"I am confident that another round of scrutiny will show us again that this is a good deal for taxpayers," said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), a long-time supporter of the lease.
Some Pentagon officials consider Sears and Druyun's alleged unethical behavior unrelated to the tanker deal. They contend that the program was altered significantly after Druyun left the Air Force in 2002. The price of the planes fell $20 million to $131 million each and the Air Force added language that required Boeing to lower the price further if it ever offered the planes cheaper to another customer, industry and government officials said.
Boeing has said it did not receive preferential treatment because of Sears and Druyun's improper conduct.
The Pentagon's action yesterday still hasn't mollified critics of the program. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) called on the Pentagon to turn over documents related to the lease. Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said the inspector general investigation should delve into the entire program -- not just the conduct of Sears and Druyun -- and that the Pentagon should not sign the contract until Congress reviews the results.
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New Chief Brings Old Style to Boeing
Stonecipher Described as Tough Leader
By Greg Schneider
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 3, 2003; Page E01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A29806-2003Dec2?language=printer
New Boeing Co. chief executive Harry C. Stonecipher is a gruff executive who understands Washington and who insiders hope will lead the company out of scandals and sagging fortunes. But he is also a leader whose last company, McDonnell Douglas Corp., suffered serious problems and whose harsh style could irritate Boeing's wounded morale, say long-term observers of the industry.
Boeing announced Monday that Stonecipher, 67, will replace Philip M. Condit, who resigned in the wake of investigations into Boeing's behavior in both defense contracting and in hiring a former Pentagon official.
Stonecipher had remained on Boeing's board after retiring last year as president and chief operating officer. He was chief executive of McDonnell Douglas when Boeing bought that company in 1997 -- a merger that made Boeing a global aerospace powerhouse but left it with an internal clash of cultures that still festers.
"The battle for the future of the company has been going on for years," J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. aerospace analyst Joseph B. Nadol III wrote. "Boeing may have won some of the battles, but it appears that McDonnell Douglas won the war for the future of the company."
At the time of the acquisition, Boeing was focused on commercial business and respected worldwide for its management practices. McDonnell Douglas was mired in a lawsuit with the Pentagon over a canceled bomber program, had just lost a major fighter plane competition and was watching its commercial aircraft business fade into oblivion.
Boeing now finds itself facing some of the same problems. Its sales of commercial aircraft will trail European rival Airbus SAS this year for the first time. Also this year, government contracting will account for more than half of Boeing's business for the first time -- but that is clouded by allegations of unethical behavior.
"Some people may be speculating that Stonecipher is carrying the Douglas curse with him," said Roger E. Bilstein, a retired professor who specializes in aviation history.
"I view this as a desperation move," said Robbin Laird, a defense industry consultant. With Boeing morale suffering and the commercial jetliner business sagging, the military-oriented Stonecipher "would strike one as not being the best guy at this time."
Stonecipher is one of the few outsized figures in an aerospace industry populated with cautious, circumspect leaders. Known to get by on four hours of sleep, Stonecipher made his mark at McDonnell Douglas by cutting jobs and confronting employees he felt were not up to snuff.
"My style comes across as tough and harsh. It's in the interest of decisiveness," he said in a recent interview. "It's really easy to get along with Harry Stonecipher. You just have to do exactly what you said you were going to do. It's failure to meet expectations that brings out the tough side of Harry."
Stonecipher learned the aerospace industry during 27 years with the aircraft engines business of General Electric Co., work that also put him in touch with a rising Boeing executive named Condit. After rising to the top spot at the engines business, Stonecipher left to run Sundstrand Corp., an aerospace parts supplier.
That job was remarkably similar to what he is now undertaking at Boeing. In the late 1980s, Sundstrand was temporarily suspended from Pentagon contracting for allegedly overcharging the government. Stonecipher worked to restore its credibility and cut jobs to improve efficiency.
"That was a company in trouble, and he turned it around," said defense industry consultant Brett Lambert. Today, as Hamilton Sundstrand Corp., the company is a top aerospace parts supplier owned by United Technologies Corp.
Stonecipher's reward came in 1994, when McDonnell Douglas hired him as chief executive. The company's venerable commercial aircraft business was dying against competition from Boeing and Airbus, and Stonecipher steered McDonnell Douglas further into military work.
But some experts say the company's engineering talent was waning. It couldn't control costs on the controversial A-12 stealth bomber program, which the Pentagon canceled, leading to a lengthy lawsuit. And when McDonnell Douglas lost out to Boeing and Lockheed Martin Corp. in the selection of finalists for the Joint Strike Fighter warplane program, the company threw in the towel and merged with Boeing.
McDonnell Douglas brought a new culture into Boeing -- government contracting, schmoozing bureaucrats and politicians, focusing on the needs of a single giant customer. Boeing had no skybox at the Redskins football stadium, for instance, and inherited McDonnell Douglas's.
That government contracting arena is where the new Boeing is running into trouble. The Justice Department is investigating how two Boeing employees -- who originally worked for McDonnell Douglas -- came to possess secret documents from Lockheed Martin as the companies competed for an Air Force rocket contract. The Air Force is looking into Boeing's efforts to hire a former Pentagon official before the official left public office and whether the official gave the company inside information on a contract for tanker aircraft.
Boeing fired its chief financial officer last week over the hiring probe, and Condit resigned Monday to help rid the company of "distractions," he said. Now Stonecipher has pledged to set things straight for as long as his the board of directors allows.
"The great irony is that the whole McDonnell Douglas way of thinking helped lead them to this problem," said Richard L. Aboulafia, an industry expert with consulting firm Teal Group Corp. "The cynical joke was that McDonnell Douglas used Boeing's money to buy Boeing, and there's an element of truth there."
Staff writer Renae Merle contributed to this report.
-------- canada
Canada's military becoming obsolete, report warns
OTTAWA (AFP)
Dec 03, 2003
http://www.spacewar.com/2003/031203183328.3n6ql1ah.html
An influential study warned Canada's incoming prime minister Paul Martin on Wednesday that he would have to massively increase defence spending to replace antiquated military equipment.
The report by the influential School of Policy Studies at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, said Canada's armed forces will face "massive obsolescence" within two years.
According to the study: "Over the next five years, major platforms -- the Hercules CC-130 (military airlift plane), the medium logistics vehicle wheeled (armoured vehicle), the main battle tank, the M-109 howitzer and the maritime helicopter -- will have reached (or be close to) obsolescence."
But capital spending for the military already budgeted will fall short over the next five years by 15 billion dollars (11.5 billion US), said military analyst Brian MacDonald, one of the researchers involved.
MacDonald told a press conference: "many of the Canadian forces' major platforms are at or close to the end of their effectiveness. As a consequence, Canada's military equipment is facing massive obsolescence beginning around
Martin, who takes office next week, could hold off a general election until November 2005.
Even if he does that, the panel warned: "the time required to replace major equipments, develop coherent military capabilities, and rebuild the trained effective strength of the armed forces simply exceeds the mandate of the next government, even it it were to serve a full term."
Canada is heading for "a long period ... without effective military resources, even for domestic and territorial surveillance," said MacDonald.
Following reports that Canada's search and rescue Labrador helicopters and Sea-King shipboard helicopters -- all built in the 1960s -- require more than 30 hours of servicing for every hour of flight, MacDonald said trying to extend their service "is plainly too expensive to contemplate."
Even Canada's four Iroquois-class destroyers and two auxiliary oil refeuling vessels, commissioned in the 1970s, were running out of useful service time, said the report.
-------- china / taiwan
US cancels computer war games with Taiwan: report
TAIPEI (AFP)
Dec 03, 2003
http://www.spacewar.com/2003/031203051729.phe36ue0.html
The United States has cancelled planned computer war games with Taiwan because of rising tension between the island and China over contentious referendum legislation, reports said Wednesday.
CTI television said the reason given for the cancellation was media leaks, but that behind the scenes it was seen as an attempt by Washington to warn the the Taiwanese government.
"Washington scrapped the plan to avoid misleading the Taiwanese people in their judgement of the current situation," the television reported.
Analysts said the United States was trying to give the impression it did not support the maneuvering by the pro-independence movement in Taiwan, which has called for new legislation to be used to hold a referendum on independence.
Statements by President Chen Shui-bian that he would like to hold the referendum during March presidential polls have infuriated Beijing, which considers the island part of China.
Taiwan's vice-defense minister was scheduled to leave for Washington over the weekend, leading a high-profile military mission for comprehensive talks on arms deals and Taiwan's security.
The computer war games were scheduled for Hawaii from December 15 to 17.
Taiwan's defence authorities were not immediately available for comment.
Chen has pledged to hold a vote on the island's presidential election day, March 20, to safeguard Taiwan's sovereignty. He accused China on Sunday of aiming 496 ballistic missiles at the island.
Beijing has considered the island part of Chinese territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary, since the two sides split in 1949 at the end of a civil war.
The CTI report came one day after Washington called on the two sides to refrain from any provocative action.
US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said that Washington "would be opposed to any referenda that would change Taiwan's status or move towards independence".
Washington has observed the "One China" policy - accepting Taiwan as part of the Chinese territory -- since it switched recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979. But it has remained the island's leading arms supplier.
--------
Beijing Warns That Taiwan Referendum Could Lead to War
December 3, 2003
By JOSEPH KAHN
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/03/international/asia/03CND-CHIN.html
BEIJING, Dec. 3 - Chinese military officers said today that Taiwan's leadership had pushed the island toward the "abyss of war" with its independence drive, making clear that China would consider a popular vote on Taiwan's political status as cause for war.
In lengthy interviews carried prominently by the official New China News Agency and other news outlets, the military officials also said that China would prevent Taiwan from formally declaring independence even if that meant pushing the mainland economy into a recession or destroying its plans to be host to the 2008 Olympics.
"Chen has reached the mainland's bottom line on the Taiwan question," said Luo Yuan, a senior colonel with the Chinese Academy of Military Sciences, referring to Taiwan's president, Chen Shui-Bian. "If they refuse to come to their senses and continue to use referenda as an excuse to seek Taiwan independence, they will push Taiwan compatriots into the abyss of war."
Maj. Gen. Peng Guangqian was quoted as saying that the mainland would attack without hesitation if Taiwan sought a formal split. "Taiwan independence means war," Mr. Peng said. "This is the word of 1.3 billion people, and we will keep our word."
The comments were the most strident in a barrage of explicit threats directed toward Taiwan in recent weeks by mainland leaders, and they may indicate a decisive shift in Beijing's approach to managing Taiwan affairs.
For the past several years, China has sought to downplay what it considers political provocations by Mr. Chen. Beijing has courted Taiwanese businessmen and promoted economic integration between the two adversaries, which have been politically divided since the Communists won a civil war in 1949, hoping to create a broader popular constituency in Taiwan that favors eventual reunification.
But mainland leaders, who regard Taiwan as a renegade province, now seem alarmed that softer cross-Straits diplomacy, and China's preoccupation with its extensive leadership transition, may have sent the wrong signals. They have now resumed making bellicose threats whenever they see Mr. Chen tip-toeing toward the edge of declaring independence, the kind of aggressive posturing that some American officials fear could spiral into armed conflict.
At issue is whether Taiwan will hold some kind of referendum, possibly in tandem with its presidential elections in March, that would broach the delicate subject of sovereignty.
Mr. Chen, fighting a tough battle for re-election, has promoted just such a referendum to invigorate his supporters, many of whom favor formal independence from the mainland.
The issue appeared to be defused last week, when Taiwan's Parliament, controlled by the main opposition party, stepped back from a direct confrontation with Beijing. The legislature passed a bill that would permit referendums on constitutional and sovereignty issues, but only under narrow circumstances. The law denies the president the authority to call a referendum on such issues himself, except in matters of national defense.
But Mr. Chen said over the weekend that he saw the law as giving him leeway to organize a referendum because doing so "would protect our country's sovereignty." He did not elaborate, but Mr. Chen has argued in the past that Taiwan must take active steps to protect its de facto independence against encroachment from the mainland.
Chinese military officers do not write articles or speak out in official interviews without clearance from the highest levels, and the comments of General Peng and Colonel Luo were clearly orchestrated to send the firmest possible message about China's agitation ahead of a visit to Washington next week by China's prime minister, Wen Jiabao.
General Peng listed the Olympics, loss of foreign investment, deterioration in foreign relations, economic slowdown or recession and "necessary" casualties by the army as costs China would willingly bear to reunify the mainland. He belittled the idea that China would not dare use military force against Taiwan in advance of the 2008 Olympics, which it campaigned for many years to play host.
The officers are directing the comments at the United States as well as Taiwan. Beijing officials and analysts say the Bush administration needs to take a firmer line against Taiwanese independence, an issue Mr. Wen seems certain to press during his meeting next week with President Bush.
-------- europe
Rumsfeld Criticizes EU Defense Plan
By Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 3, 2003; Page A18
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29688-2003Dec2.html
BRUSSELS, Dec. 2 -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld expressed continuing concern Tuesday about an emerging European proposal to establish a separate military planning group outside NATO's structure, suggesting that such a move could be a step toward undermining the Atlantic alliance.
Ending two days of meetings in Brussels with other NATO defense ministers, the Pentagon leader said the issue of the planning group had not been resolved and indicated it would likely need to be addressed by President Bush and European leaders.
"This is going to be wrestled with at a level higher than mine," he told a small group of European reporters.
In general, Rumsfeld voiced satisfaction with the NATO meeting, noting progress in filling equipment and personnel shortfalls for alliance forces in Afghanistan, shoring up allied support in Iraq and beginning discussions on a possible wider NATO role in both combat zones.
But friction over how to strengthen the 15-nation European Union's defense arrangements and still maintain NATO's dominant role as protector of European security remained an irritant, not just for the United States but among European governments that are divided on the issue.
U.S. officials said they thought the matter had been settled last March when, after four years of negotiations, NATO and the EU signed agreements stipulating that any planning for European military operations would be done within NATO. A month later, however, France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg outlined plans for a full-blown military planning headquarters.
The latest proposal, which French, German and British officials drafted last week, envisions a smaller planning "cell" of perhaps a few dozen people. But U.S. officials still worry the move could lead to duplicated effort and competition with NATO, and open the door to a further erosion of the alliance's importance.
Seeking to avoid a public clash, Rumsfeld gave guarded responses when pressed for his views earlier in the week. But Tuesday, he rejected suggestions that he had meant to convey acquiescence or that his muted criticism had been offered as a tradeoff for greater European support in Iraq.
Referring to NATO, he said "anyone who wants to change it or tear it down or inject an instability into it has to recommend something better, it seems to me." Later he added: "This issue is something that is going to affect the North Atlantic Treaty Organization -- how it's handled -- over the coming decades. It is a critically important question."
On Iraq, Rumsfeld reported that "most if not all" of the NATO members or soon-to-be-NATO members that have troops in the country "have pledged to stay on" in the face of recent attacks on non-U.S. forces.
--------
Pentagon Official to Visit Europe on Force Changes
December 3, 2003
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/politics/politics-security-usa-changes.html
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will begin talks with Germany and other allies next week on plans to change the U.S. military presence worldwide to better combat terrorism and other unpredictable threats, a top Pentagon official said on Wednesday.
Defense Undersecretary Douglas Feith said he and State Department Undersecretary Marc Grossman would discuss how to accomplish the U.S. goal of repositioning troops away from a defensive Cold War stance toward a more agile posture necessary to confront the new challenges.
Besides Germany, he did not say what other countries they would visit.
Feith also offered no specifics on how the long-standing U.S. force structures in Germany and South Korea would change, saying no final decisions would be made until after the consultations.
The United States is seeking to abandon its Cold War strategy crafted to answer threats from known adversaries and instead put air, naval and ground forces in key spots globally so they can quickly go to trouble spots.
``Terrorists as well as rogue states can command formidable destructive power including through access to chemical, biological or nuclear weapons,'' Feith said. ``Threats from these sources may require immediate military responses.''
Feith said the changes were being contemplated for long-term strategic reasons and not in response to current events such as to shift forces for example, to Iraq, where U.S. soldiers remain under attack more than six months after the government of Saddam Hussein was toppled.
``We are not aiming at retrenchment, curtailing U.S. commitments, isolationism or unilateralism,'' Feith said.
``We are not focused narrowly on force levels, but are addressing force capabilities. We are not talking about fighting in place, but moving to the fight. We are not talking only about basing, we're talking about the ability to move forces when and where needed,'' he added.
Feith said a more nimble military force was required since intelligence was imperfect about where the threats may come from.
``We need to be able to hedge against errors regarding emerging threats. We need to plan, but we must plan to be surprised,'' he said.
``Nothing is going to stay unchanged. We are going to be realigning our posture at home and abroad.''
Washington has withdrawn its forces from Saudi Arabia and signaled it intends to reduce a major presence in Germany, moving troops into former Soviet bloc states in Eastern Europe such as Poland in order to deal better with potential threats in the Middle East.
It is also looking at how to realign the 100,000 U.S. troops in the western Pacific, South Korea and Japan.
The Pentagon is planning to move its 37,000 troops in South Korea away from the demilitarized zone with North Korea.
-------- iraq
U.S. to Form Iraqi Paramilitary Force Unit Will Draw From Party Militias
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, December 3, 2003; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A29753-2003Dec2?language=printer
BAGHDAD, Dec. 2 -- The U.S. civilian and military leadership in Iraq has decided to form a paramilitary unit composed of militiamen from the country's five largest political parties to identify and pursue insurgents who have eluded American troops and Iraqi police officers, U.S. and Iraqi officials said Tuesday.
The five parties will contribute a total of 750 to 850 militiamen to create a new counterterrorism battalion within the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps that would initially operate in and around Baghdad, the officials said. They said U.S. Special Forces soldiers would work with the battalion, whose operations would be overseen by the American-led military command here.
The party leaders regard the formation of the paramilitary force, which had initially been resisted by the occupation authority, as an acknowledgement that the Bush administration's strategy of relying on Iraqi police officers and civil defense forces has been insufficient to restore security. The leaders contend Iraq's municipal police departments and civil defense squads are too ineffective to combat resistance fighters.
Although the new battalion is significantly weaker than the force the party leaders had hoped to create, the unit would nevertheless give the five political organizations an unrivaled role in the country's internal security. That advantage has riled some independent members of Iraq's Governing Council, who fear that it could be used after the U.S. occupation ends to suppress political dissent or target enemies.
"This is a very big blunder," said Ghazi Yawar, an independent council member. "We should be dissolving militias, not finding ways to legitimize them. This sends the wrong message to the Iraqi people."
U.S. officials said the battalion would be subject to rigorous conditions aimed at ensuring that the new unit does not become a collection of autonomous militias loyal to their party leaders instead of a unified commander.
"They will have to leave their political identity at the door," a senior U.S. military official said.
American military and civilian officials acknowledge the risk in forming a new force with members of militia organizations, but they have agreed to support the venture largely because of pressure from the five parties, which have long argued that Iraqis should be given more responsibility for security. The parties contend their militiamen are better trained than existing Iraqi security forces and possess a degree of local knowledge that American soldiers lack.
Ayad Alawi, the leader of the Iraqi National Accord, said in a recent interview that the five parties "all have people who are much better suited to fight Baathists and terrorists."
Backing for the force has gathered momentum since a Nov. 15 agreement between the Governing Council and U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer that calls for the occupation to end by summer. Top officials of the parties insisted an independent Iraq will need a security force other than the three that already have been established: the police, the civil defense corps and the new army.
Although more than 50,000 police officers are back at work, many lack firearms, training and vehicles. The civil defense corps assists U.S. troops, but it has not been trained to take a lead role in offensive operations. And the new army is supposed to focus on border security, not domestic issues.
With attacks on U.S. troops increasing and fewer nations contributing soldiers than the Pentagon had expected, the Bush administration has sought to speed the training and deployment of Iraqi security forces. The new battalion is regarded by some administration officials as an attempt to further accelerate that process by giving Iraqis the power to conduct full-fledged counterinsurgency operations.
The five parties that will contribute militiamen are Alawi's Iraqi National Accord, Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress, the Shiite Muslim Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and two large Kurdish parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. Kurdish members will be drawn from the ranks of pesh merga fighters who defended autonomous Kurdish areas from former president Saddam Hussein's army, officials said.
A senior official with the U.S. occupation authority insisted the plan was still "very fluid." But a senior U.S. military official said there was agreement in principle among senior American civilian and military leaders in Baghdad to implement the plan.
"We're moving forward with it," the military official said.
Officials with the five parties briefed members of the Governing Council over the weekend, members said. "It's a done deal," said an official with one of the parties.
The five parties each will contribute between 150 and 170 militiamen to the battalion, the U.S. military official said. The participants will be trained for more than a month before they will be allowed to conduct operations, the official said.
The battalion, equipped with light arms and vehicles, will be divided into five companies, each of which will work with a 10-man U.S. Special Forces A-team, which will provide logistics support and communications links with the American military command, the official said.
The battalion's initial missions will be approved by American commanders, but as the group matures and the planned handover of sovereignty nears, it could begin to execute operations on its own, officials said. The group's initial missions would focus on apprehending Hussein loyalists and other insurgents around the capital
The parties had wanted the paramilitary force to be significantly larger than a battalion and fully under the control of the country's Interior Minister. American officials rejected those demands, saying they wanted to start with a small group under U.S. control.
Party leaders are also pushing for the creation of a domestic intelligence-gathering unit that would be charged with identifying targets for the new battalion, but American officials have not yet agreed to that component of the plan, Iraqi officials said.
To prevent the battalion from appearing to be a collection of rival militias, U.S. military officials intend to mix members in each of the five companies. But they also recognize that they likely will not be able to blend individual squads or platoons.
U.S. officials will also insist that each militiaman commit to working under the command structure, even if it means reporting to an officer from a rival militia. "They have to come in as individuals," one U.S. official said.
American officials also said participants will be screened for links to Hussein's Baath Party and trained in human rights.
But several independent council members said they worry that the battalion will not be free from the sway of the five parties. "When you ask them, 'Who are you loyal to?' they will not say Iraq. They will say Alawi or Chalabi or [Kurdish leader Jalal] Talabani," one independent member said.
"There a risk here," the senior military official acknowledged. "But we're willing to explore different ideas and take risks in turning more responsibility for security to Iraqis."
In other developments on Tuesday, a U.S. soldier attached to the Army's 4th Infantry Division was killed in a roadside explosion near the town of Samarra, where American troops killed 54 Iraqis in a pitched battle on Sunday afternoon. In the northern town of Hawija, troops captured more than 100 people, including a senior former member of Hussein's elite Republican Guard, in a large raid. In Baghdad, workers began removing gigantic bronze busts of Hussein that sit atop the Republican Palace, which now serves as the headquarters of the occupation authority.
-------- israel / palestine
Israel Approves Construction Of More Homes At Settlements
By John Ward Anderson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, December 3, 2003; Page A16
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A29686-2003Dec2?language=printer
JERUSALEM -- The government of Israel has approved the construction of more than 1,720 new houses in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip this year, according to critics of the settlements who say they undercut a U.S.-backed peace plan that mandates a freeze on settlement expansion.
The planned building is in addition to at least 1,000 homes and other infrastructure projects under construction in the West Bank, which Israel is also encircling with a massive fence complex, according to groups and officials that monitor settlement activity.
Two weeks ago, Israeli soldiers began expanding the boundary of Beitar Ilit, a community of more than 20,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews about five miles southwest of Jerusalem. Beitar Ilit is one of the fastest-growing settlements in the West Bank; it added 2,900 residents last year.
Last week, Deputy Defense Minister Zeev Boim announced that several unauthorized settlement outposts -- many of them just a trailer on a remote hilltop between existing settlements -- would soon be categorized as legitimate settlements.
"I've never seen settlement expansion at such a rate, ever," said Mustafa Barghouti, a Palestinian political analyst, who claimed that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is pushing ahead with settlements while the peace process drags on. "He's stealing time to impose his own facts on the ground by practically annexing more than half the West Bank" with the fence project, Barghouti added, "and imposing ghettoization on Palestinian villages that will mean the destruction of a two-state solution."
The Jewish settlers acknowledge their goal is to add more housing. "Our target is to grow and expand as much as possible," said Yehoshua Mor-Yosef, a spokesman for the Yesha Council, the settlement umbrella organization.
In recent weeks, U.S. officials have criticized Israel's refusal to stop building both settlements and the barrier snaking through the West Bank. The officials have said the moves complicate the revival of the peace plan known as the "road map," and could undermine a final accord. The road map, which was adopted by the Israelis and Palestinians at a summit meeting in Aqaba, Jordan, on June 4, obligates Israel to freeze "all settlement activity (including natural growth of settlements)" and "immediately" dismantle the estimated 56 outposts established since Sharon took office in March 2001.
"Israel should freeze settlement construction, dismantle unauthorized outposts, end the daily humiliation of the Palestinian people and not prejudice final negotiations with the placements of walls and fences," President Bush said in a speech two weeks ago in London.
Sharon's spokesman, Raanan Gissin, said Israel was committed to removing a few dozen outposts but added, "We can't evacuate them when we're under attack. That only encourages more terrorist activity."
Israel has also agreed to freeze the number, but not the size, of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Gissin said. He said Israel has an "understanding" with Secretary of State Colin L. Powell that natural growth is permitted. "People have the right to live and multiply and give birth, and we are not going to throw them out," he said.
U.S. officials have denied that Powell made any agreement permitting the natural growth of settlements.
In addition to 635 new homes approved before the Aqaba summit, the Israeli government has approved the construction of at least 1,092 more in the West Bank since adopting the road map, according to Peace Now, a group that is critical of settlements and that monitors housing construction contracts. The total of 1,727 homes approved so far this year is roughly the same as in the previous two years, before Israel adopted the road map, according to the Foundation for Middle East Peace, a Washington-based research group that monitors settlement policy.
Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz have been quoted in the Israeli press in recent days as saying that Israel has dismantled 43 outposts since the Aqaba summit. The government refused several requests to provide a list of the outposts. Instead, it referred a reporter to testimony in Israel's parliament, the Knesset, two weeks ago in which Gideon Ezra, a minister without portfolio in Sharon's government, named 10 outposts that had been evacuated.
Peace Now, which keeps authoritative settlement data, claims that 15 outposts have been dismantled since Aqaba, including seven that were built after the summit. Five outposts established after Aqaba have not been dismantled, according to the group, for a net decrease of three outposts since the peace plan was adopted.
Israel's settlement program is highly controversial and over the years has proven difficult to curtail. Many Israelis citizens oppose the settlements, believing they are expropriation of Palestinian land, a drain on Israel's budget and military resources and the main obstacle to reaching a peace deal with the Palestinians.
But other Israelis believe the lands, particularly in the West Bank, were promised to the Jewish people in the Bible and that they have a religious duty to live there. Since seizing the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1967 war, the Israeli government has encouraged the growth of settlements by subsidizing their development and offering tax breaks, low interest rates and other financial incentives to Israelis who move to them. The large growth in settlements came in the 1980s and 1990s.
The Israeli military, eager to occupy the strategic hilltops where most settlements are located, helped guide the expansion, and Sharon was one of its chief architects. Since he became prime minister, the number of settlers has grown almost 20 percent -- totaling about 230,000 today -- and the number of settlement outposts has more than doubled, to 102, according to data compiled Peace Now.
Today, some of the settlements are small, modern cities, and Israeli and Palestinian analysts and politicians say it is unlikely that Israel will ever relinquish the biggest and oldest of those.
Israelis say that some settlement expansion is for security, citing numerous attacks on settlements by Palestinians. In the rapidly growing settlement of Beitar Ilit, for instance, the Israeli military recently began moving the boundary fence outward about 200 feet to widen the buffer zone around the settlement and give security officials more time to respond to an incursion by armed Palestinians, a military spokesman said. Numerous Palestinian olive trees are being uprooted by the project, and dozens more will now be inside the settlement's fence.
Beitar Ilit's mayor Yitzhak Pindrus, said the newly fenced land will continue to be owned by Palestinians, who will be allowed to enter the settlement through a gate to tend their trees. Settlement experts say they know of no precedent for such an arrangement at any of Israel's 155 settlements.
Dror Etkes, the head of Peace Now's settlement watch program, compared today's settlement and outpost expansion with settlement growth in the 1990s that was one factor, along with Palestinian attacks against Israelis, in undermining the 1993 Oslo peace accords. Since Oslo, the number of Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has more than doubled.
"The Palestinians understood there was no point in negotiating with Israel when the circumstances were creating such a growth in settlements, and that eventually created this explosion," Etkes said, referring to the three-year Palestinian uprising against Israel's continued occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
But Gissin, the Israeli government spokesman, said complaints about settlement growth were excuses to let the Palestinians off the hook for not combating terrorism. "Every time they come to a difficult stage, they want to move the goal post," he said. "They can't fight terror, so they say Israel is not doing this or that. We are trying to do our part, but it is extremely difficult to remove settlements when the ground is infested with terrorism."
--------
Israeli Warns Powell on Peace Team; He Rejects Criticism
December 3, 2003
By GREG MYRE
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/03/international/middleeast/03MIDE.html
JERUSALEM, Dec. 2 - In a rare Israeli criticism of the United States, a senior official said Tuesday that it would be a mistake for Secretary of State Colin L. Powell to meet Israeli and Palestinian politicians who negotiated a symbolic Middle East peace plan.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government has been fiercely critical of the so-called Geneva Accord, calling it subversive, freelance diplomacy.
The self-appointed Israeli and Palestinian negotiators held a signing ceremony on Monday in the Swiss city, saying the document could serve as a blueprint for formal talks between the governments.
The Bush administration says it remains committed to the official Middle East peace plan, known as the road map, which was introduced in June but quickly stalled.
However, Mr. Powell sent a letter last month encouraging the Israelis and Palestinians involved in the Geneva initiative, and is expected to meet them within a week, according to officials and diplomats.
"I think he is making a mistake," Ehud Olmert, Israel's vice premier, said of Mr. Powell in an interview on Israel radio. "I think he is not helping the process. I think this is a wrong step by a representative of the American administration."
Mr. Powell, speaking in Tunis on Tuesday, rejected the Israeli criticism. "Why should we not listen to others who have ideas, such as the ideas that were presented in Geneva yesterday, and other ideas that have been presented?" he said. "What people are saying is that the current situation has to change."
Mr. Sharon sets great store by his close ties with President Bush, whose administration has been largely supportive of Mr. Sharon while boycotting the Palestinian leader, Yasir Arafat.
The American overtures to the unofficial peace negotiators are seen as a way of prodding the Israeli and Palestinian governments toward the negotiating table. But Dore Gold, an adviser to Mr. Sharon, said the Geneva proposal ignored crucial elements of the current peace plan.
He called it "an end run around the opening phase of the road map, which calls first for a termination of violence."
Mr. Sharon has always insisted that the bloodshed must stop before peace negotiations can resume. But many Palestinians claim that Mr. Sharon is not serious about negotiations, and has stepped up Israeli military operations when political progress has appeared to be within reach.
Meanwhile, it was Palestinians who took to the streets in the Gaza Strip on Monday to condemn the Geneva plan.
In a protest in Gaza City, about 1,000 Palestinians from various factions rallied against the proposal and denounced Yasir Abed Rabbo, the former Palestinian information minister who led the Palestinian delegation to Switzerland.
"Abed Rabbo, you coward, you are a collaborator with the Americans," the crowd chanted.
Many Palestinians are angry that the document effectively drops the longstanding Palestinian demand that refugees from the 1948 war be allowed to return to their old land, which is now part of Israel.
The refugees and their descendants now number around four million, but the Geneva document would give Israel the right to block any large-scale return.
"What can I tell my grandchildren?" asked Hikmat Adwan, 60, a Gaza resident who said his family was driven from its village in 1948. "That I gave up my rights? That I gave up my land?"
Mr. Arafat has been sending mixed signals about the document. A statement read in his name at the Geneva ceremony called it "a brave initiative that opens the door to hope." Bur Mr. Arafat has not endorsed the actual plan.
"The Palestinian Authority is encouraging the dialogue that led to this document," said Ghassan Khatib, a Palestinian cabinet member. "But the Palestinian Authority cannot be committed to the content, because it differs from official positions."
Mr. Gold, the Israeli adviser, accused Mr. Arafat of playing a "double game."
"He is encouraging opposition to the accord in order to prop himself up domestically, while at the same time signaling his blessing of the accord abroad," Mr. Gold said.
A poll released Monday by Israel's liberal Haaretz newspaper found that 38 percent of Israelis oppose the Geneva plan while 31 percent support it and 31 percent have no opinion. The survey of 876 Israelis had a margin of error of 4.3 percentage points.
Meanwhile, religious hard-liners on both sides denounced the accord.
A committee of some 250 rabbis, called Pikuah Nefesh, or Preservation of Life, said Israelis who signed the Geneva document should be considered traitors who deserved to be "cast out from human society and brought to trial."
Dar al-Fatwa, a Palestinian institution that specializes in Islamic law, issued a fatwa, or religious edict, saying it would be improper for Muslims to relinquish claims to land lost in wars with Israel.
In violence on Tuesday, the Israeli Army said it had killed two Palestinian militants in the West Bank. One was gunned down during an exchange of gunfire in the town of Jenin, while the other was fatally shot after he threw a firebomb at soldiers outside Ramallah.
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Powell Effort Aims To Pressure Sharon On Peace Accord
By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 3, 2003; Page A23
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29520-2003Dec2.html
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell plans to meet Friday with the authors of an unofficial Israeli-Palestinian peace accord as part of a Bush administration strategy to put increasing pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, U.S. officials said yesterday.
The administration had not previously embraced the initiative, known as the Geneva Accord, but officials said in recent weeks that the administration had become increasingly frustrated with Sharon and decided to use it to prod Sharon to take steps to deal with Palestinian grievances. Sharon has denounced the document, which tackles many of the most contentious issues dividing Israelis and Palestinians.
In a choreographed sequence, the chief negotiators of the agreement -- Yossi Beilin, a former Israeli justice minister and longtime peace negotiator, and Yasser Abed Rabbo, former Palestinian information minister -- will meet with William J. Burns, the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, and Elliott Abrams, the senior National Security Council official for Israeli-Palestinian issues. Then Powell is scheduled to drop by the meeting, U.S. officials said.
"It is part of an effort to put more pressure on Sharon," an administration official said. "It is as much an endorsement of the Geneva plan as a signal to the Sharon government to get in a more cooperative posture."
Abrams met with Sharon in Rome two weeks ago to urge him to take unilateral actions on the U.S.-backed peace plan known as the "road map." But U.S. officials said President Bush's trip to London that week also spurred the administration to press harder for action by the Israelis. British Prime Minister Tony Blair raised the Geneva Accord in his discussions with Bush.
The accord was drafted by a group of Israelis and Palestinians frustrated by the inability of their governments to engage in peace efforts after more than three years of military conflict. The authors held a ceremony Monday in Geneva to promote the document, and international figures such as former president Jimmy Carter and former Polish president Lech Walesa attended.
Some experts have said a flaw in the road map is that it offers the promise of a Palestinian state but does not tackle the hard questions needed to create it. Although President Bill Clinton at the end of his term laid out the parameters of a final deal, Bush rejected doing something similar, arguing that the agreement must come from the parties themselves. Some U.S. officials now believe the Geneva agreement might act as a useful proxy, giving hope to the moderates in both camps that a Palestinian state could be created from Israel-occupied territories.
But the planned meeting drew sharp criticism from Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. "I think that he is not being useful to the peace process," Olmert said, referring to Powell. "This is an incorrect step by a senior representative of the American administration."
Powell, who was in Tunis yesterday, told reporters that a meeting would not undercut the administration's support for the road map. "I do not know why I or anyone else in the U.S. government should deny ourselves the opportunity to hear from others who are committed to peace and who have ideas," he said.
-------- prisoners of war
In reversal, Pentagon grants detainee of Saudi descent access to lawyer
WASHINGTON (AFP)
Dec 03, 2003
http://www.spacewar.com/2003/031203033557.it6w9p5q.html
In a sudden reversal, the Pentagon late Tuesday allowed a US citizen being held as an "enemy combatant" access to a lawyer in what legal experts see as an attempt to ward off US Supreme Court review of the case.
After denying him access to counsel for two years, the Department of Defense said Yaser Esam Hamdi, a US citizen of Saudi descent captured by US forces in Afghanistan in late 2001, "will be allowed access to a lawyer subject to appropriate security restrictions."
The department "decided to allow Hamdi access to counsel because Hamdi is a US citizen detained by DoD in the United States, because DoD has completed its intelligence collection with Hamdi, and because DoD has determined that the access will not compromise the national security of the United States," the Pentagon said in a statement.
It argued the decision was be viewed "as a matter of discretion and military policy" and "should not be treated as a precedent."
Practical arrangements for an attorney to visit the 22-year-old Hamdi at a Navy brig in Charleston, South Carolina, will be finalized over the next few days, according to defense officials.
Designated an enemy combatant, Hamdi was first shipped off to a prison camp on the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but was moved to the United States after it was determined he was a US citizen.
He was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to Saudi parents in 1980, but taken to Saudi Arabia as a child and raised in the desert kingdom.
Under an executive order signed by President George W. Bush in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, US citizens who fought for the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan or elsewhere cannot be tried by military tribunals or confined at Guantanamo Bay.
But the Pentagon has been denying them access to lawyers, insisting that under the rules of war enemy combatants may be detained without charges until the end of hostilities.
That approach has been challenged in US courts. Hamdi's case is pending before the US Supreme Court, which is expected to decide soon whether to take it, according to Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, a non-profit advocacy group.
-------- russia / chechnya
Powell Sends Russia Warning About Georgia
Reuters
Wednesday, December 3, 2003
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A29620-2003Dec2?language=printer
MAASTRICHT, Netherlands, Dec. 2 -- The United States issued an indirect warning to Russia on Tuesday not to back Georgia's breakaway regions and exploit instability in the former Soviet republic after last month's bloodless change of government.
Georgia, which has three restive regions, plans to hold presidential elections Jan. 4 to replace Eduard Shevardnadze, who was toppled during mass protests last month triggered by allegations of fraud in parliamentary elections.
"The international community should do everything possible to support Georgia's territorial integrity throughout and beyond the election process," Secretary of State Colin L. Powell told members of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
"No support should be given to breakaway elements seeking to weaken Georgia's territorial integrity," he told OSCE members gathered for the meeting in Maastricht.
Officials in Tbilisi, Georgia's capital, were angered last week when Russian officials met leaders from South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which broke free of Georgian control more than a decade ago and want to join Russia -- and from Adzharia, which has not stated a desire for secession but is hostile to Georgia's interim rulers.
Later Tuesday, Powell flew to Tunisia, where he met with President Zine Abidine Ben Ali and urged the government to pursue political reforms. It was the first stop on a rapid swing through North Africa aimed in part at promoting democracy in a region marred by human rights abuses.
-------- space
Space wars: apocalypse soon?
Bogged down on earth, the US looks toward space as battleground of the future
by Bill Berkowitz
WorkingForChange
12.03.03
http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=16092
October was a busy month for two U.S. Lieutenant Generals, and they weren't even in Iraq. Lt. Gen. William "Jerry" Boykin hit the headlines when it was discovered that he had been visiting fundamentalist Christian churches across the country delivering speeches sprinkled with anti-Muslim bigotry. Dressed in full military regalia, Lt. Gen. Boykin equated the "war on terrorism" with the "war against Satan," disparaged Islam, and claimed that President Bush was "appointed by God."
While Lt. Gen. Boykin's remarks had an Apocalypse Now vibe to them, the other Lieutenant General -- Lt. Gen. Edward Anderson, a deputy commander of US Northern Command -- was more focused on Apocalypse Soon: He told an audience at a geospatial intelligence conference in New Orleans that war in space was, well, pretty much inevitable.
Lt. Gen. Boykin's defenders claimed that he's a "true believer" who was merely exercising his free speech rights. Critics argued that Boykin's anti-Muslim remarks made him a poor choice to be part of the new secretive Pentagon squad set up to coordinate intelligence on terrorists and hunt down Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and other high-profile targets. As of this writing Lt. Gen. Boykin's fate has yet to be decided.
Lt. Gen. Anderson's remarks stirred up only a few headlines, caused a slight rumble on the Internet, and then drifted off into the media-saturated ether.
In this day and age, anti-Muslim-war-against-terrorism speechifying trumps warnings of real wars just about every time.
China's space program: The irritability factor
The New Orleans conference was held about the same time China became only the third country to put a man into space. When asked about this development, Lt. Gen. Anderson told his audience that in his view, "it will not be long before space becomes a battleground."
"Our military forces ... depend very, very heavily on space capabilities," Lt. Gen. Anderson, who was formerly a Deputy Commander-in-Chief of US Space