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NUCLEAR
Fire at Georgia Nuclear Plant Quickly Contained
It shouldn't happen to a vet
Victims of French A-bomb tests demand compensation
Pakistan And India Agree to Hold Talks
Iraq's Arsenal Was Only on Paper
Israel Wants Jailed Nuke Whistleblower to Keep Mum
Japan Minister Plans Push for Nuclear Fusion Plant
US Welcomes North Korean Nuclear Offer
Powell: N. Korea gains nothing from nukes
Powell Hails North Korea for New Step
Chinese Not Convinced of North Korean Uranium Effort
S.Korea, U.S. See Better Climate for N.Korea Talks
A Denial by Pakistan
U.S. agents disguised in dirty bomb scare
'Dirty Bomb' Was Major New Year's Worry
Experts Seeking 'Dirty Bombs' in Cities
U.S. Quietly Looked for Dirty Bomb Over New Year's
Flats clean-up project about 80 percent done
Radioactive shipments to begin on disputed Nev.-to-N.M. route
Nuke waste to go through Barstow
MILITARY
Death no option for future soldiers
8 Children Among 17 Killed in Afghan Blast
Bill would forbid illegals to bear arms
Turks add water to cement arms deal
Bechtel awarded contract for Iraq
Danish firms mulling leaving Joint Strike Fighter jet program
Bechtel Wins Its Second Big Contract for Iraq
3 Teams Picked to Plan Airliner Defense Systems
Three Firms to Study Defending Airliners Against Missiles
Army Official Backs Halliburton on Fuel Price
Beijing Derails Hong Kong Plans for Democratic Reforms
EU to be nominated for 2004 Nobel peace prize
U.S. to Free 506 Low-Security Prisoners in Iraq
In Hussein's Shadow, New Iraqi Army Strives to Be Both New and Iraqi
Past and Future Clash on Iraqi Army Day
Israeli Troops Kill Three Palestinians in West Bank
Politician: Israel, Libya ties possible
Assad given weapons ultimatum
NATO defense ministers to meet informally in Munich
Senior Iraqi Urges U.N. to Enter Planning for Self-Rule
Pentagon eyes Iraq command split
GIs in Iraq Scoff at Re-Enlistment Bonus
Marines to Offer New Tactics in Iraq
Pentagon Looks to Close Bases
Rumsfeld outlines DOD priorities
Army Calls Up More Reservists for Iraq
POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE
U.S. will develop antimissile system
3 firms tapped for anti-missile project
World Opinion Is Fragmented on Tighter Security for Visitors
Nations Balk at Sky Marshals
Bush Would Give Illegal Workers Broad New Rights
Bush Plan Would Give Immigrants Legal Status
White House Want Faster Detainee Review
Players: Dennis J. Reimer
Detained, Bludgeoned and Electrocuted into a Coma.
Saddam's victims eager to tell stories
OTHER
Explosions slam chemical plant
EPA Denies Petition to Ban Sewage Sludge on Farmland
ACTIVISTS
Alternative Mideast peace plan gathers 250,000 signatures
-------- NUCLEAR
-------- accidents and safety
Fire at Georgia Nuclear Plant Quickly Contained
BAXLEY, Georgia, (ENS)
January 7, 2004
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2004/2004-01-07-09.asp#anchor1
A fire on the refueling floor at the Hatch Nuclear Plant was declared as an emergency on Monday. The plant was operating at full power when the fire broke out in a portable modular building. The fire lasted more than 10 minutes, which led to the declaration of an emergency, but the plant was not shut down.
The fire lasted 22 minutes, but it did not spread beyond the boundary of the modular building, known as a Kelly building. "The Kelly building was in a contaminated area, but there was no radioactive release outside of the Kelly building," according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) official report of the incident.
In 1998, the commission ordered the Southern Company to take corrective action to upgrade its fire barriers at the Hatch nuclear power plant. The Thermo-Lag fire barriers manufactured and supplied by Thermal Science, Inc., of St. Louis, Missouri, had been used to provide fire resistance to wiring and equipment at nuclear plants.
The NRC had been concerned that this fire barrier material may not provide the intended level of fire protection and that licensees may not be meeting regulatory requirements. The Southern Company complied with the NRC fire barrier upgrade order.
Concern was aroused when the Hatch plant had to shut down due to a fire in 1990.
The Edwin I. Hatch Nuclear Plant located near Baxley in southeastern Georgia's Appling County, is one of Georgia Power's two nuclear facilities and is one of three nuclear facilities in the Southern Company electric system.
-------- depleted uranium
It shouldn't happen to a vet
Uncle Sam needs soldiers to protect his pipelines in Iraq - but they shouldn't expect his help when it's all over
AL Kennedy - comment@guardian.co.uk
Wednesday January 7, 2004
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1117600,00.html
Feeling restless? Is 2004 looking just like 2003? Do you long to have your place in life very firmly defined by others and to wear a range of interesting hats? Do you have low financial expectations, a vigorous desire to travel and a functioning index finger? Then the US military could be for you.
Not a US citizen? Don't fret - the Department of Defense Inc welcomes one and all. You can fight for a passport, fight for a green card, just fight for the Christian, God-fearing hell of it. And you'll be in good hands - Secretary of the Air Force James Roche is a former vice-president at Northrop Grumman; Secretary of the Navy Gordon England is a former executive at General Dynamics; and former Secretary of the Army Thomas E White came direct from those hard-fighting boys at Enron. You're only a few months of training from jury-rigging armour on your combat-unready vehicle, eating out of filthy, Halliburton-run kitchens, sewing patches on your Vietnam-issue flak jacket and tying plastic strips round the wrists of numberless fascinating strangers, often in their own homes. Brits also have local access to a subsidiary enterprise, run to the same exacting standards. French nationals need not apply.
Or perhaps you've just finished a tour for Uncle Sam. Maybe you're one of last year's lucky amputees, or you've suffered a recent "mystery illness" or "mental breakdown". Well, give yourself a shake, shine up those new prosthetics and re-enlist today. In other wars you'd have been left idle, but no matter what levels of physical and mental trauma you've endured, this time the Department of Defense Inc still needs you. And with veterans making up 9% of the US population but 23% of the homeless - and Veterans Affairs taking care of 40,000 out of 500,000 - what better options have you got? You have a 50% chance of substance abuse and a 45% chance of mental illness - and let's not even talk about Gulf war syndrome and depleted uranium. In fact, let's not talk about that, ever.
And who would miss the chance of serving alongside forces from Kellogg Root Brown, Northrop Grumman and DynCorp International - the war professionals? They can ignore the Geneva convention (they're not protected by it, either) and you can simply dodge round it. Feel like beating some prisoners in Camp Bucca? Confining whole villages as collective punishment? Shooting unarmed civilians? Gunning down a surrendered combatant in the street? Arresting the pesky journalists who'd film you gunning down a surrendered combatant in the street? Failing to establish and sustain civil order? Obtaining information "under duress"? Lifting harmless valuables during house-to-house searches? Then this war's for you.
Or are you a brave, decent individual with a trust in your country's leaders and a deep sense of duty? Obviously, you can sign up, too, but your disillusionment will cause no end of trouble. You might well suffer long-term psychological problems, send emails to Michael Moore, complain to your relatives that you're being forced into illegal acts for corporate profit, and generally reduce company morale. Your duty is to keep your head down and make sure those pipelines stay secure.
Of course, if you don't keep your head down, you may experience a period of negative good health. This is to be avoided, because it tends to depress voters at home, so you might find yourself being withdrawn for a while and stored in a variety of hospitals, barrack blocks and sheds with other inconveniently indisposed personnel, until you can be returned to the combat zone, or filtered quietly back into society.
Your secluded storage may also affect your ability to receive Purple Hearts and other awards. And you will, naturally, be expected to repay your $8.10 food allowance for each day spent enjoying hospital meals, while any disability benefit you receive later (subject to further cuts) will be reimbursed to the government out of your retirement pay. There are moves afoot to alter these nominal, reasonable burdens, but don't hold your breath.
And rest assured, for those of you who no longer have breath to hold, the Charles C Carson Centre for Mortuary Affairs will deal with your remains efficiently in tasteful surroundings. You won't be best placed to appreciate it, but the 70,000 sq ft, state-of-the-art facility at Dover air force base, in Delaware, has been expressly designed to process you and your comrades. It has a foyer with reflecting pool and rock-effect seating area and a glass Wall of Fallen Heroes, ready and waiting for your name.
Better still, no ceremony will be held there to mark your passing, in case your grieving relatives feel compelled to attend. Coincidentally, this means George Bush won't be attending, either. And nor will the press gain any access - your arrival will be entirely private, as if you had never been.
Vietnam and Korean war remains still arriving at Hickam air force base can be filmed, because they're Good News. But you, you're different - it's better for all concerned if you just disappear.
-------- europe
Victims of French A-bomb tests demand compensation
30 years of testing in Polynesian colony
By Wolfgang Kleiner
7 January 2004
WSWS
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/jan2004/poly-j07.shtml
For 30 years, beginning in 1966, France detonated 46 atomic bombs in atmospheric tests and exploded 147 underground at its atomic-testing site in the South Pacific atoll of Moruroa. The testing program ended in 1996, following massive worldwide protests, and today French A-bomb tests are simulated on computers. International protest groups no longer mobilize over Moruroa. However, former workers at the site, left by France to deal with the radiation-related health problems, are only just beginning to organize in protest.
The French government, perhaps deliberately, conducted no systematic medical examinations of workers at the site, either when it was first set up or when it was dismantled. Fifty per cent of former test workers were unfamiliar with or had never worn a radiation measuring device. The damage to the victims from exposure to radiation can no longer be established, as the military failed to release the necessary medical data. Officially, there was no risk of radiation, and therefore French authorities reject requests for compensation. Many radiation victims have no health insurance or are inadequately covered and unable to obtain medical treatment.
Following Algerian independence, France lost its atomic test site in southern Algeria. The remote and barely inhabited coral atoll within France's colony in Polynesia appeared to the military to be an ideal substitute-so ideal that every precaution was thrown to the winds. In contrast to the practice in Algeria, atmospheric tests were immediately conducted. It is also possible that atmospheric tests were conducted in order to compete with the US-the latter was conducting atmospheric tests in the Bikini atoll at the time-and to boost France's pretensions as a world power.
From 1962 to the present, up to 15,000 Polynesians worked on the French atomic-testing program, blandly named "The Centre for Pacific Experiments", or CEP. Most worked in menial jobs such as construction or in the kitchens, but some had to carry out highly dangerous decontamination work, dig detonation chambers on oil rigs or carry out tests following explosions.
Former test workers were stationed on the atomic-test islands of Moruroa and Fangataufa, the garrison island of Hao, or in laboratories on the main island of Tahiti. Many came into contact with radiation during the course of their work, but were unsure of the danger. They were mainly local villagers, who did not understand French. Concepts such as "radiation" and "contamination" were outside of their experience.
In the documentary Moruroa and Us, the Dutch social scientists Pieter de Vries and Hans Seur interviewed 737 former workers at the French nuclear weapons test site. Seventy-three percent of those questioned did not know when they were hired that they would be working in an atomic-testing program. Ten percent of new employees were 17 years or younger, with 0.3 percent aged 10 years or under. Forty-one percent of those questioned said they had to work in a contaminated zone. Of these, 14 percent said that the handling of contaminated material was part of their job. At times no protective clothing was available, while on other occasions protective clothing was removed because it hindered work in the hot climate.
The practice of frequently altering the boundaries of contaminated zones contributed over the course of time to the prohibited area not being taken seriously. In line with their cultural traditions, Tahitians often did not observe the restrictive rules. For example, fishing in the Moruroa lagoons was prohibited, but 55 percent of those interviewed stated they ate fish caught there. Fishing and the consumption of fish are an important part of Polynesian culture, and no fresh fish was available from the canteens.
Many of those who had consumed fish were treated for poisoning in the hospital, and the consumption of fish was therefore no secret. While the CEP had formulated safety measures, in practice these were not supervised. Many former test workers today blame the CEP for not adequately informing them of the dangers involved and for establishing an atmosphere in which their questions and concerns had no place. Ironically, the word Moruroa translates as "Big Secret" in the Tahitian language. Many work contracts contained a secrets clause that carried the threat of dismissal combined with a carefully selected system of bonuses for dangerous work. The combined effect was to thwart any discussion of the dangers among employees.
The survey established that 7.4 percent of former Moruroa workers had physically disabled children,with 2.4 percent having mentally disabled children.
Raymond Pia, who must formerly have been a strong man, is now in early retirement. He appears older than his 59 years and his eyes twitch nervously. He worked for 28 years, from 1968 to 1996, at "Ground Zero," the detonation area on Moruroa. During this time, he was relatively close to nearly all the explosions. His job was to work with a team drilling shafts more than 500 meters deep in which to sink the bombs and then, after detonation, to bury the remains of the detonation cylinders underground. "The employers said it could be dangerous but we had no protective clothing." So Pia, along with his coworkers, handled the highly charged radioactive components dressed only in T-shirts and shorts.
In December 2002, he had a big toe removed in the private Paofai Clinic in Tahiti ("supposedly only diabetes"). In May this year his testicles were removed. "Nothing serious, only a minor cancer," according to his doctors. He is at present in France for further treatment, and declared. "Without exception, all my co-workers have cancer. I am very afraid." Dr Michael Brygiere, from the organisation "Medecins du Monde," recently examined Raymond Pia and diagnosed radiation sickness.
Roland Oldham, 52, is president of the association, "Moruroa e tatou" (Moruroa and Us). The organization has 3,359 members, former test workers, 70 percent of whom have health problems related to radioactivity from Moruroa. The association was founded only two years ago, long after the tests had ended. Up until then, not only had the secrets clause in the employment contract prevented public discussion about the danger of atomic testing, but it was also politically taboo. One would have been branded an enemy of France. The silence was broken only with the establishment of the association, when the victims were no longer isolated individuals.
"France should admit that the atomic tests carried with them dangers to health and it should take full responsibility," said Oldham. "We demand free medical treatment, compensation for health damages, infertility and the inability to work. It should also grant pensions to the surviving veterans. In addition, the government should enact legislation similar to that in the US, where 21 types of cancer, associated with atomic explosions, are automatically recognized as work-related illnesses. The workers are all dying off!"
Oldham cited the case of a female colleague at the military laboratory in Mahina, Tahiti. She was forced to handle apparently radioactive coral from Moruroa and prepare it for analysis. She is now in the terminal stages of leukemia and a few days ago asked to be discharged from the hospital to die at home. Last year 84 of the 1,544 original members of the association died.
The CEP authorities and the French government maintain that, because Moruroa was an official weapons testing site in which all risks were scientifically controlled, there was no radiation fallout and therefore no radiation victims.
Gilles Soubiran, 53, an intern at the only public hospital-Territorial Central Hospital-in Tahiti's capital, Papeete, pointed to the obstructionist methods of the military. "Until 1998, Moruroa workers were treated in military hospitals, and we received no records of their medical histories," he said. Nor was the hospital provided with information about the damage to patients from radiation.
Dr. Soubiran emphasized that thyroid cancer, related to the release of radioactive iodine after atomic explosions, is more common in Polynesia than in the rest of the world's population. "One can certainly state on the basis of scientific evidence that at least in the case of the above ground atomic tests that the risks of cancer throughout Polynesia have increased," he said.
In the Moruroa and Us study, it was established that in Polynesia, 25.7 out of 100,000 women contracted thyroid cancer, compared to a ratio of 4.8 out of 100,000 women in France. Dr Soubiran is not surprised that victims are only now coming forward. "Leukemia typically manifests itself 15 to 20 years after contact with radiation." The victims are therefore at the mercy of the government. "I know of one case dealing with a civilian inspector who contracted cancer and was acknowledged as a cancer victim. His driver, with a lesser social status, received over many years perhaps the same dose of radiation and likewise contracted cancer. He was, however, refused recognition as a cancer victim."
The authorities are not taking Dr. Soubiran's opinion as a medical expert seriously. He gave evidence on behalf of Alfred Pautehea, a Moruroa worker who is campaigning for recognition as a victim of radiation poisoning. He said that the Pautehea "was suffering with the type of leukemia that workers who have been in contact with radioactive iodine contract." A Dr. F. Yune from the medical council of the state-run health and social service insurance "CPS" in Tahiti argued the contrary, declaring that, as Alfred Pautehea was not exposed to radioactivity in the course of his work, leukemia could not be a work-related illness.
After chemotherapy and two admissions to hospital in France, Alfred Pautehea's condition has at present stabilized, but he is by no means cured.
Doubts and a change in attitude towards the official French view of the completely safe and harmless nature of atomic testing first surfaced among former Moruroa workers and the public at large following the Chernobyl disaster and its associated fallout over wide areas of Europe. At the same time, serious atomic accidents also occurred in Moruroa during the period of underground testing. In March 1982, cyclone William removed a layer of asphalt from buried plutonium, spreading over 10 kilograms of highly radioactive substance over the atoll and also over the residences of approximately 2,000 workers stationed there. It took the military over five years to decontaminate the area.
The French authorities even regarded atmospheric tests as harmless. Notwithstanding their view, the then-French defence minister, Yves Bouges, referring to accidents at Moruroa and speaking during the transition to underground testing, affirmed that Moruroa would become a safer workplace-implicitly acknowledging that previously the facility had been unsafe.
"The only safe place in Tahiti is in the church!", declared John Doom, a former evangelist church official and now co-coordinator of "Moruroa e Tatou." Doom has been a bitter opponent of atomic testing since tests began in July 1966.
At that time he worked as an interpreter for a French government minister who had observed the first atmospheric nuclear explosion from a nearby island in the Gambier group. The wind turned and drove the fallout towards the island. The pair just managed to escape by plane while the inhabitants remained behind unprotected. "On average, 17 percent of the population develops cancer. Of our former Moruroa workforce, 34 percent have cancer!"
When French President Jacques Chirac visited Tahiti at the end of April, Doom led the first-ever demonstration of the association of victims in order to hand Chirac a resolution signed by 19 of Tahiti's parliament members and 38 members of the French parliament. After marching 300 meters, the peaceful procession was blocked by a massive police contingent and Doom was forced to send the resolution by post. "Nevertheless, I'm very pleased," he said. Only a few years ago, the victims would not have dared to be seen on the street for fear of reprisals, but today 300 association members were no longer afraid to go public.
"Moruroa e Tatou's long-term strategy is to lobby parliament and exert public pressure so that its members achieve the status of victims. The French Senate, at the initiative of the organization, held a conference in Moruroa in February 2002. Its sister organization, the French "Association of veterans of nuclear tests" (AVEN), forced the courts to recognize three of its members as atomic radiation victims.
However, one group has no particular advocates: the Foreign Legion frequently had to perform particularly dangerous jobs. "I know one legionnaire who went to Moruroa in 1995 as an 18-year-old in order to assist in the decontamination of the facilities following the final tests. To date, he has undergone five operations - on the thyroid gland, lungs, heart and head. He is still a member of the Foreign Legion and therefore cannot go public; otherwise he would be considered a traitor. He was told a soldier's duty is to die," said Roland Oldham.
It is not only the 15,000 Polynesian workers who have suffered the ill effects of the atomic tests in the South Pacific. The long-term damage caused by radiation and the associated contamination of a whole region is not yet clear. The French government has failed to carry out a public inquiry or make its own findings publi,c while it has repeatedly blocked any thoroughgoing investigation by independent scientists.
Prior to the commencement of atomic testing, Tahiti was a sleepy paradise whose people on the whole lived in harmony with nature and in accord with the laws of its thousand-year-old culture. Within 40 years, Tahiti was catapulted into the modern era through changes brought on by the atomic tests. Cultural identity was lost; young people do not even speak the language of their fathers and grandfathers and no longer understand the old culture. But neither do they have any prospects in the modern era. With the end of the tests, the largest employer has left, and France will end its massive financial support in 2006. Future social conflicts can already be foreseen in the slums of Tahiti's capital, Papeete, and its neighboring city of Faaa.
--
This text was generously supplied to the World Socialist Web Site by Wolfgang B. Kleiner (www.wolfgangkleiner.de), who conducted interviews and also took the photos.
Sources for the text include the document "Moruroa and Us" (ISBN 2-9508291-5-5), and reports in the newspapers Dépêche de Tahiti, Nouvelles de Tahiti, and the monthly magazine Toere.
Moruroa is the geographically correct form of spelling. The Tahitian abbreviation for the islands is Muru, which explains the repeated wrong spelling used in the west of Mururoa.
-------- india / pakistan
Pakistan And India Agree to Hold Talks
Nuclear Rivals Attempt To End Decades of Strife
By John Lancaster
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, January 7, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A60339-2004Jan6?language=printer
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Jan. 6 -- Less than two years after their countries nearly went to war, the leaders of India and Pakistan agreed Tuesday to begin formal talks aimed at ending more than half a century of bloodshed and hostility, including their struggle over the divided Himalayan province of Kashmir.
India's prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president, agreed during a morning phone conversation that representatives of their governments would begin talks next month, officials said. The announcement came a day after the leaders held their first face-to-face meeting since July 2001.
The agreement on talks, which provided a surprise ending to a summit of South Asian leaders, fueled hopes for a possible end to a conflict that has haunted the world with the prospect of a war between the nuclear-armed neighbors and stunted development in the region for decades.
"Ladies and gentlemen, history has been made," a smiling and relaxed-looking Musharraf said at a packed news conference Tuesday afternoon. "Victory is to the moderates in India and moderates in Pakistan."
Since their simultaneous founding in 1947, India and Pakistan have fought three wars -- two of them over Kashmir -- and nearly fought a fourth war following a December 2001 terrorist attack on the grounds of India's Parliament that India said was attributable to Pakistan.
Since that crisis was defused under intense U.S. and British pressure, Pakistan has been pushing India to begin formal peace talks aimed at resolving the dispute over Kashmir, but Indian officials have refused, citing what they say is Pakistan's support for a violent Islamic insurgency in the part of the region that India controls. Recently, heavy winter snows have blocked routes used by the militants to cross into the Kashmir Valley, causing a seasonal reduction in violence.
At the same time, India has been encouraged by Musharraf's willingness in recent months to reciprocate a number of Indian moves toward normalization, including the restoration of diplomatic ties and transportation links as well as Pakistan's agreement during the regional summit to participate in a free-trade zone. The measures constitute a softening of Pakistan's long-standing insistence that normal relations with India are impossible until the question of Kashmir is settled.
In contrast to previous failed peace initiatives, the talks slated to begin next month will not seek to strike a grand bargain on Kashmir, at least at the outset. Instead, diplomats say, the emphasis will be on a methodical approach that will aim to produce agreements on a variety of less challenging matters, thus building confidence for discussions on the toughest problem.
The obstacles before the two governments are daunting. India, which controls the bulk of the region, remains committed to its view that Kashmir is an integral part of the country and that Pakistani forces should withdraw. Pakistan has long insisted on the implementation of a U.N.-mandated referendum on the future of Kashmir, though Musharraf has recently softened that line.
When British colonial authorities quit the Indian subcontinent in 1947, Kashmir was one of hundreds of semi-autonomous states whose native rulers were given the choice of joining mostly Muslim Pakistan or mostly Hindu India. Pakistan's new leaders assumed that Kashmir, whose population was and is predominantly Muslim, would fall under their control. But as Pakistani fighters sought to gain control of the region, its Hindu maharajah chose to join India, setting the stage for today's unresolved conflict.
Militant groups fighting Indian rule in Kashmir denounced the accord. "The agreement reached by India and Pakistan is a massacre of the Kashmiri cause," said Amanullah Khan, chairman of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, in remarks cited by the Associated Press.
In response to a question, Musharraf said that he could "never guarantee a cease-fire and total cessation of everything that's happening there," but that he would be willing to help "facilitate" a truce if "we start moving forward" toward a settlement of the conflict.
In a joint statement, India and Pakistan said that the two leaders "welcomed the recent steps toward normalization" and that "to carry the process of normalization forward, the president of Pakistan and the prime minister of India agreed to commence the process of the composite dialogue in February of 2004."
"The two leaders are confident that the resumption of the composite dialogue will lead to the peaceful settlement of all bilateral issues, including Jammu and Kashmir, to the satisfaction of both sides," the statement continued, using the formal name of the state.
"Composite dialogue" is a Pakistani coinage that is understood to mean that all issues, including Kashmir, will be open for discussion. An Indian official told the AP that in addition to Kashmir, the talks will cover two smaller territorial disputes, terrorism, trade, an Indian dam project, further confidence-building measures on peace and security, and easier visa access for the public and for cultural exchanges.
At an afternoon news conference, India's foreign minister, Yashwant Sinha, said Vajpayee had agreed to the talks on the basis of an assurance from Musharraf about Pakistan's commitment to curbing terrorism as well as the recent ebbing of violence in Kashmir.
"There would have been no joint statement if we had no satisfaction," Sinha said.
The two nations have made other efforts to resolve their differences through dialogue, including Vajpayee's celebrated bus ride in 1999 to the Pakistani city of Lahore to meet with Nawaz Sharif, the Pakistani prime minister subsequently overthrown by Musharraf. The two leaders emerged with a promise of dialogue, but the initiative foundered a few months later when an incursion by Pakistani forces into a sliver of Indian-held Kashmir triggered a brief but bloody engagement that came to be known as the Kargil conflict. The operation was directed by Musharraf, who soon afterward seized power.
A July 2001 summit between Musharraf and Vajpayee in the Indian city of Agra dissolved in acrimony, also over Kashmir.
On the other hand, much has changed since then. As Musharraf acknowledged at his news conference, the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have drained much of the world's sympathy for Islamic militancy, while global economic competition has increased pressure on India and Pakistan to put aside old enmities in the interest of development.
"With all that is happening in the world, maybe a realization has settled, in the whole world, also in Pakistan and India, that the way forward is peace," he said.
Musharraf added that because of the Indo-Pakistan conflict, South Asia has largely been "out of the loop" in terms of reaping the benefits of globalization that have boosted economies in Southeast Asia and elsewhere. "This obstacle needs to be removed for the sake of one-fifth of humanity," Musharraf said.
Vajpayee, 79, who left Islamabad Tuesday without public comment, began laying the groundwork for the current peace initiative last April, when he offered to extend "the hand of friendship" to Pakistan in what he said would be his last such effort in his lifetime. The two governments subsequently embarked on a halting series of steps toward normalization, including "people-to-people" exchanges that have proved enormously popular with the public in both countries.
Hard-line religious parties, which lead the opposition to Musharraf's government in parliament and have traditionally adopted a militant stand on Kashmir, have offered their cautious blessing to Tuesday's initiative.
In the period preceding the summit of the seven-nation South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, Indian officials had played down the prospects for any breakthrough. They suggested that Vajpayee would limit his interaction with Musharraf and Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali to a "courtesy call." But diplomats said the breakthrough was underpinned by several weeks of quiet, behind-the-scenes contacts between the Indian and Pakistani foreign ministries as well as a low-key weekend visit to Islamabad by Brajesh Mishra, India's national security adviser and one of Vajpayee's most trusted lieutenants.
Another striking aspect of the summit here was that neither side indulged in the sort of point-scoring and posturing that usually colors their simultaneous appearances at international gatherings, most recently during the September opening of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
Musharraf, in fact, seems to have won a degree of sympathy from India after narrowly escaping assassination in two bombings attributed to Islamic militants over the last three weeks. When he spoke with Vajpayee by phone Tuesday morning, Musharraf said, "I wished him very good health and he wished me protection from . . . "
Smiling, he left the sentence unfinished.
-------- iraq / inspections
Iraq's Arsenal Was Only on Paper
Since Gulf War, Nonconventional Weapons Never Got Past the Planning Stage
By Barton Gellman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 7, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A60340-2004Jan6?language=printer
BAGHDAD -- Of all Iraq's rocket scientists, none drew warier scrutiny abroad than Modher Sadeq-Saba Tamimi.
An engineering PhD known for outsized energy and gifts, Tamimi, 47, designed and built a new short-range missile during Iraq's four-year hiatus from United Nations arms inspections. Inspectors who returned in late 2002, enforcing Security Council limits, ruled that the Al Samoud missile's range was not quite short enough. The U.N. team crushed the missiles, bulldozed them into a pit and entombed the wreckage in concrete. In one of three interviews last month, Tamimi said "it was as if they were killing my sons."
But Tamimi had other brainchildren, and these stayed secret. Concealed at some remove from his Karama Co. factory here were concept drawings and computations for a family of much more capable missiles, designed to share parts and features with the openly declared Al Samoud. The largest was meant to fly six times as far.
"This was hidden during the UNMOVIC visits," Tamimi said, referring to inspectors from the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission. Over a leisurely meal of lamb and sweet tea, he sketched diagrams. "It was forbidden for us to reveal this information," he said.
Tamimi's covert work, which he recounted publicly for the first time in five hours of interviews, offers fresh perspective on the question that led the nation to war. Iraq flouted a legal duty to report the designs. The weapons they depicted, however, did not exist. After years of development -- against significant obstacles -- they might have taken form as nine-ton missiles. In March they fit in Tamimi's pocket, on two digital compact discs.
The nine-month record of arms investigators since the fall of Baghdad includes discoveries of other concealed arms research, most of it less advanced. Iraq's former government engaged in abundant deception about its ambitions and, in some cases, early steps to prepare for development or production. Interviews here -- among Iraqi weaponeers and investigators from the U.S. and British governments -- turned up unreported records, facilities or materials that could have been used in unlawful weapons.
But investigators have found no support for the two main fears expressed in London and Washington before the war: that Iraq had a hidden arsenal of old weapons and built advanced programs for new ones. In public statements and unauthorized interviews, investigators said they have discovered no work on former germ-warfare agents such as anthrax bacteria, and no work on a new designer pathogen -- combining pox virus and snake venom -- that led U.S. scientists on a highly classified hunt for several months. The investigators assess that Iraq did not, as charged in London and Washington, resume production of its most lethal nerve agent, VX, or learn to make it last longer in storage. And they have found the former nuclear weapons program, described as a "grave and gathering danger" by President Bush and a "mortal threat" by Vice President Cheney, in much the same shattered state left by U.N. inspectors in the 1990s.
A review of available evidence, including some not known to coalition investigators and some they have not made public, portrays a nonconventional arms establishment that was far less capable than U.S. analysts judged before the war. Leading figures in Iraqi science and industry, supported by observations on the ground, described factories and institutes that were thoroughly beaten down by 12 years of conflict, arms embargo and strangling economic sanctions. The remnants of Iraq's biological, chemical and missile infrastructures were riven by internal strife, bled by schemes for personal gain and handicapped by deceit up and down lines of command. The broad picture emerging from the investigation to date suggests that, whatever its desire, Iraq did not possess the wherewithal to build a forbidden armory on anything like the scale it had before the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
David Kay, who directs the weapons hunt on behalf of the Bush administration, reported no discoveries last year of finished weapons, bulk agents or ready-to-start production lines. Members of his Iraq Survey Group, in unauthorized interviews, said the group holds out little prospect now of such a find. Kay and his spokesman, who report to Director of Central Intelligence George J. Tenet, declined to be interviewed.
Poxes and Professors
On Dec. 13, as a reporter waited to see the dean of Baghdad University's College of Science, two poker-faced men strode into the anteroom. One was an ex-Marine named Dan, clad in civilian clothes, body armor, a checkered Arab scarf and a bandolier of eight spare magazines for his M-16 rifle. The other identified himself to the receptionist only as Barry.
He asked to see the dean, Abdel Mehdi Taleb, immediately. Dan preceded Barry into Taleb's office, weapon ready, then stood sentry outside.
According to Taleb, Barry asked -- once again -- about the work of immunologist Alice Krikor Melconian. For months, Taleb said, the Americans had sent scientists and intelligence officers to investigate the compact, curly-haired chairman of the university's biotechnology department.
Three Iraqi scientists said U.S. investigators asserted they have reason to believe Melconian ran a covert research facility, location unknown. In July, colleagues said, Melconian emerged from her office with a burly American on each arm and was placed into the back seat of a car with darkened windows. U.S. investigators held her for 10 days in an open-air cell and then released her.
Described by associates as shaken by her arrest, Melconian said she has done no weapons research and knows of no secret labs. "I have never left the university," she said. "I have nothing more to say about this. I do not want to make any more trouble."
Like others on campus, and at a few elite institutes elsewhere, Melconian remains under scrutiny in part because investigators deem her capable of doing dangerous biological research. Investigators said they are casting a wide net at Iraq's "centers of scientific excellence" in an effort to confirm intelligence that is fragmentary and often lacks essential particulars.
Kay's Iraq Survey Group, which has numbered up to 1,400 personnel from the Defense Department, Energy Department national laboratories and intelligence agencies, is looking for biological weapons far more dangerous than those of Iraq's former arsenal. A U.S. National Intelligence Estimate, published in October 2002, said "chances are even" that Iraqi weaponeers were working with smallpox, one of history's mass killers. It also said Iraq "probably has developed genetically engineered BW agents."
As the Associated Press first reported, a scientific assessment panel known as Team Pox returned home in late July without finding reason to believe Iraq possessed the variola virus, which causes smallpox. Even so, interviews with Iraqi scientists led to a redoubled search for work on animal poxes, harmless to humans but potentially useful as substitutes for smallpox in weapons research.
Rihab Taha, the British-educated biologist known in the west as Dr. Germ, has generally been described by U.S. officials as uncooperative in custody since May 12. But according to one well-informed account of her debriefing, she acknowledged receiving an order from superiors in 1990 to develop a biological weapon based on a virus. That same year, a virologist who worked for her, Hazem Ali, commenced research on camelpox.
If truthful and correctly recounted, Taha's statement exposed a long-standing lie. Iraq's government denied offensive viral research. One analyst familiar with the debriefing report, declining to be identified by name or nationality, said investigators believe that Taha's remarks demonstrate an intent to use smallpox, since camelpox resembles no other human pathogen.
"Hearing that from the lips of the people involved is kind of like that MasterCard commercial: 'Priceless,' " the analyst said.
There is no corresponding record, however, that Iraq had the capability or made the effort to carry out such an intent.
Taha, according to the same debriefing account, said Iraq had no access to smallpox. Ali's research halted after 45 days, with the August 1990 outbreak of war in Kuwait, and did not resume. And Taha, like all those in custody, continues to assert that biowar programs ceased entirely the following year.
Chimeras, Science Fiction
More alarming even than Taha's statement, investigators said, were highly classified indications that Iraq sought to produce a genetically altered virus. Australian scientists reported in 2001 that an apparently innocent change in mousepox DNA transformed the virus into a rampant killer of mice. Investigators spent months probing for evidence that Iraq sought to master the technique, then apply it to vaccinia -- a readily available virus used to inoculate against smallpox -- and finally to smallpox itself.
Survey group scientists discovered no sign of pox research save at the Baghdad College of Veterinary Medicine, which declared the work to U.N. inspectors in 2002. Researchers there were manipulating the viruses that cause goatpox and sheeppox, in well-documented efforts to develop vaccines. U.S. investigators arrested Antoine Banna, the Cornell-trained dean, but soon released him. Much the same result followed a probe of avian virus research at the Ghazi Institute.
"It was legitimate research, but if they wanted to swing the other way they had some of the wherewithal to do that," said an analyst apprised of the results.
When investigators paid a call on Noria Ali, a genetic engineer who wears the head cover and long robes of an observant Muslim, "they said they knew there was [genetic] research on these viruses, and we had secret labs for this work," Ali said.
Ali acknowledged a history that attracted suspicion. In 1990, she said, Rihab Taha ordered her to build a genetic engineering lab at Iraq's principal bioweapons research center. The Special Security Organization warned her that "any person who talks about his work will be executed," Ali said. But Iraq's invasion of Kuwait left the lab unfinished, an account confirmed by U.S. and European experts.
"We could have done a lot in this lab, but the fact is that this lab never existed," Ali said.
The survey group's most exotic line of investigation sought evidence that Iraq tried to create a pathogen combining pox virus with cobra venom. A 1986 study in the Journal of Microbiology reported that fowlpox spread faster and killed more chickens in the presence of venom extract. Investigators received a secondhand report that Iraq sought to splice them together.
Such an artificial life form -- created by inserting genetic sequences from one organism into another -- is called a "chimera," after the fire-breathing monster of Greek mythology commingling lion, serpent and goat.
"They have asked about developing some kind of chimera, a pox with snake-venom gene," said Ali Zaag, dean of the university's Institute for Biotechnology. "You have seen our labs. For us, these capabilities are science fiction."
Investigators also searched for what one of them termed "starter sets" of pathogens, laboratory samples that could be used for later production. For each suspected weapon, the investigators carried a supply of "labeled antibodies," a classified technology used in field kits that resemble home pregnancy tests. "We didn't find anything, so certainly not anything engineered," a coalition scientist said.
Team Pox, as the group of investigators dubbed itself, eventually dropped the chimera investigation.
"You've got to learn to walk before you start running," said a European government scientist who studied Iraq's biological programs last year. "The evidence we have about the virus program is they hadn't started to walk yet."
Recently, Zaag said, the chimera hunt resumed. This time the investigators are intelligence officers. Their approach, Zaag said, is "We'll give you a few more days to reveal something, and then we'll have to take you." Spokesmen for the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency declined requests for interviews.
What 'the Traitor' Knew
Late last month, fresh evidence emerged on a very old question about Iraq's illegal arms: Did the Baghdad government, as it said, rid itself of all the biological arms it produced before 1991? The answer matters, because the Bush administration's most concrete prewar assertions about Iraqi germ weapons referred to stocks allegedly hidden from that old arsenal.
The new evidence appears to be a contemporary record, from inside the Iraqi government, of a pivotal moment in Baghdad's long struggle to shield arms programs from outside scrutiny. The document, written just after the defection of Saddam Hussein's son-in-law on Aug. 8, 1995, anticipates the collapse of cover stories for weapons that had yet to be disclosed. Read alongside subsequent discoveries made by U.N. inspectors, the document supports Iraq's claim that it destroyed all production stocks of lethal pathogens before inspectors knew they existed.
The defection of Hussein Kamel was a turning point in the U.N.-imposed disarmament of Iraq in the 1990s. Kamel, who had married one of Saddam Hussein's daughters, Raghad, and controlled Baghdad's Military Industrial Commission, told his Western debriefers about major programs in biological and nuclear weaponry that had gone undetected or unconfirmed. Iraq was forced to acknowledge what he exposed, but neither inspectors nor U.S. officials were sure Kamel had told all there was to tell.
A handwritten Iraqi damage report, composed five days after the defection, now suggests that Kamel left little or nothing out.
The author is Hossam Amin, then -- and until his April 27 arrest -- the head of Iraq's National Monitoring Directorate. As liaison to the inspectors he provided information and logistical support, but he also concealed the government's remaining secrets.
Sufiyan Taha Mahmoud, who was private secretary to Amin in 1995, said in an interview that Amin flew into a rage when he learned Kamel had slipped across the border to Jordan. "It was as if he was hit with a hammer," Mahmoud said.
Five days later, Amin dispatched a six-page letter to the president's son Qusay.
The person who provided a copy to The Washington Post had postwar access to the presidential office where he said he found the original. Iraqis who know Amin well and experienced government investigators from the United States and Europe, who analyzed the document for this article, said they believe it to be authentic. They cited handwriting, syntax, contemporary details and annotations that match those of previous samples. Markings on the letter say that Qusay read it, summarized it for his father and filed it with presidential secretary Abed Hamid Mahmoud.
Just before his "sudden and regrettable flight and surrender to the bosom of the enemy," Amin wrote, "the traitor Hussein Kamel" received a detailed briefing on "the points of weakness and the points of strength" in Iraq's concealment efforts.
Amin then listed, in numbered points, "the matters that are known to the traitor and not declared" to U.N. inspectors.
Inspectors knew Iraq tried to enrich uranium for a nuclear weapon, but not, Amin wrote, about the "crash program" to fabricate a bomb with French reactor fuel by 1991. They knew Iraq made biological toxins, but not that it put them in Scud missile warheads. There were major facilities -- Dawrah Foot and Mouth Disease Institute, a centrifuge factory in Rashdiya, and the Al Atheer bomb-fabrication plant -- whose true purposes were unacknowledged to inspectors.
Shortly after Amin sent the letter, Kamel's debriefings and subsequent inspections exposed every item in Amin's catalogue.
Until now, Kamel's debriefers suspected that "maybe he decided to keep something for himself," said Ali Shukri, a Jordanian military officer who debriefed Kamel on behalf of the late King Hussein, speaking in an interview in Amman. After reading Amin's letter in silence and then rereading it, Shukri looked up and said Kamel had held back nothing.
The most significant point in Amin's letter, U.S. and European experts said, is his unambiguous report that Iraq destroyed its entire inventory of biological weapons. Amin reminded Qusay Hussein of the government's claim that it possessed no such arms after 1990, then wrote that in truth "destruction of the biological weapons agents took place in the summer of 1991."
It was those weapons to which Secretary of State Colin L. Powell referred in the Security Council on Feb. 5 when he said, for example, that Iraq still had an estimated 8,500 to 25,000 liters of anthrax bacteria.
Some things Amin's letter did not say may also be meaningful. If Iraq had succeeded in spray-drying anthrax spores to extend their life and lethality, that would have been among the most important secrets of its wide-ranging weapons program. The letter did not speak of it. The letter also enumerated Baghdad's nuclear secrets, but mentioned nothing to suggest Iraq manufactured unknown parts of an "implosion device" to detonate uranium.
There was only one important thing, Amin said, that Hussein Kamel did not know: some of the locations where Iraq hid its library of arms research. That supports long-standing suspicions that Iraq held back portions of a knowledge base that could speed revival of development and production one day.
A U.S. intelligence official, who was provided with a copy of Amin's letter for comment, said the government would not discuss it in detail. He said an initial check of records "suggests that we have not previously seen the letter." Without the original and an account of its origins, he said, government analysts "cannot verify the authenticity of the letter." He added, "It is plausible and, from a quick scan of it, presents no immediate surprises."
'The Stupid Army'
Thair Anwar Masraf, an affable project engineer, made an appointment last summer to see an investigator from David Kay's survey group. He had information, he said in an interview, that might help the Americans interpret two trailer-mounted production plants found near Mosul in April and May.
"I waited more than one hour in the Palestine Hotel," Masraf said. "He did not show up."
Masraf watched with curiosity, in coming months, as the Bush administration touted its discovery of mobile germ-weapon factories.
A joint study released May 28 by the CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency called the trailers "the strongest evidence to date that Iraq was hiding a biological warfare program." Two days later, in Poland, President Bush announced: "For those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong. We found them."
When Iraqi engineers told investigators that the discovered trailers were meant for hydrogen, the CIA dismissed the "cover story."
By July, with contrary evidence piling up, Kay described the trailer episode as a "fiasco." He told BBC Television, which broadcast the tape Nov. 23: "I think it was premature and embarrassing."
Even so, Kay's October report to Congress left the question unresolved. Kay said he could not corroborate a mobile germ factory, but he restated the CIA argument that the trailers were not "ideally suited" for hydrogen.
Had Masraf found Kay's investigator at the Palestine Hotel, he said he would have explained that Iraq actually used such trailers to generate hydrogen during the eight-year war with Iran. Masraf and his former supervisor at the Saad Co. said Masraf managed a contract to refurbish some of the units beginning in 1997.
According to the two men, Iraq bought mobile hydrogen generators from Britain in 1982 and mounted them on trucks. The Republican Guard used one type, Iraq's 2nd Army Corps another.
Iraqi artillery units relied on hydrogen-filled weather balloons to measure wind and temperature, which affect targeting. Munqith Qaisi, then a senior manager at Saad Co. and now its American-appointed director-general, said the trailers used a chemical -- not biological -- process to make hydrogen from methanol and demineralized water.
The feature that analysts found most suspicious in May -- the compression and recapture of exhaust gases -- is a necessity, Masraf said, when gas is the intended product.
In the late 1990s, the Republican Guard sent some of its trailers for refurbishment at the Kindi Co. The 2nd Army Corps signed a similar contract with Saad Co. Masraf said the first units were finished in 2001, including the two discovered by coalition forces around Mosul.
Qaisi's account may also clear up an unexplained detail from the May 28 intelligence report: traces of urea in the reaction vessel aboard one of the trailers. Qaisi said the vessels corroded badly because Iraqi troops disregarded strict orders to use only demineralized water.
"The stupid army pissed in it, or used river water," he said.
Said's Last Experiment
On Thursday, Dec. 11, a rumpled man with a high, balding crown arrived late for work at the University of Technology. In his unpainted office, about the size of a family sedan, electrical fixtures drooped from cement walls.
Sabah Abdul Noor once moved among the nation's elites. He played a part in the most ambitious undertaking of Iraqi industrial science: creation from scratch, and largely in secret, of the wherewithal to design and manufacture an atomic bomb. When the 1991 Gulf War intervened, an Iraqi bomb was -- informed estimates vary -- six months to two years from completion.
Abdul Noor watched as that multibillion-dollar enterprise was reduced to slag under the cutting torches of U.N. inspectors, who arrived under Security Council mandate after Iraq's defeat in Kuwait. Since the fall of Saddam Hussein, Abdul Noor said, U.S. forces have been questioning him for indications that the nuclear program was secretly revived.
"I have just come from such an interview," he said, apologizing for the hour. "They didn't give names. They did not say where they were from. I am kept as long as they wish to keep me."
What the Americans want to talk about, almost always, is Khalid Ibrahim Said.
Until 1991, Said was going to be the man who built Iraq's atomic bomb. Other leading figures were responsible for uranium enrichment. Said led the team -- "PC-3, Group 4," in Iraq's cryptic organization chart -- that would form 40 pounds of uranium into a working nuclear device. Abdul Noor was Said's powder metallurgist.
Said died on April 8 when Marines opened fire on his moving car near a newly established checkpoint. His loss grieved Kay's nuclear investigators, who had many questions for him. When they came across Said's last experiment, the late bomb designer moved to the center of their probe.
Said spent his final days in a warehouse filled with capacitors and powerful magnets. He and his team were building what they described -- in a mandatory disclosure to the International Atomic Energy Agency -- as a "linear engine." The purpose, Iraq declared, was air defense.
The machine in Said's warehouse was more commonly known as a "rail gun." It used electromagnetic pulses to accelerate a small object to very high speed.
When U.S. investigators arrived, they found the gun had been "shooting an aluminum projectile at an aluminum target plate like the skin of an airplane," said an analyst who reviewed their report. But rail gun technology is thought to be decades from use in a practical weapon, and investigators believed Said might have something else in mind.
Impact of an extremely high-velocity projectile in a target chamber, they said, might be used to measure the behavior of materials under pressures that compare to a nuclear implosion. Such "equation of state" experiments, as physicists call them, could be applied to nuclear warhead design. When the U.S. nuclear team looked closely at that question, however, it "saw no evidence of equation of state work" with the rail gun, according to an authoritative summary of the team's report.
A sad look crossed Abdul Noor's face when he tried to explain his bafflement at suspicions that Iraq had secretly rebuilt -- "reconstituted," as the Bush administration put it in the summer and fall of 2002 -- a nuclear weapons program. He and his colleagues still know what they learned, Abdul Noor said, but their material condition is incomparably worse than it was when they began in 1987. "We would have had to start from less than zero," he said, with thousands of irreplaceable tools banned from import. "The country was cornered," he said. "We were boycotted. We were embargoed. The truth is, we disintegrated."
Of his late friend Said, Abdul Noor said: "I don't know what was in his heart. Probably he wanted to return to [nuclear weapons work] one day. That is in the category of dreams."
A common view among investigators today is that Said had the motive but not the means. One Western physicist who knew Said well said the rail gun enabled Said to maintain his team and "hone their skills on diagnostics, flash X-ray cameras, measuring very high speeds, and measuring impacts of ramming things together." The physicist added, "It's basic science. There's no relation to actual [bomb] design and fabrication."
Some investigators have yet to be convinced. They continue to look for warhead research in the guise of the rail gun.
"Today they were asking me that again," Abdul Noor said. "I was not on the same wavelength. I could see they were not pleased with me."
Red on Red on Blue
There is another explanation for the rail gun, according to one man who worked on it and does not want to be named. It was, he said, a deception operation against Saddam Hussein.
Hussein resented U.S. air patrols over "no-fly zones" where Iraqi aircraft were forbidden in northern and southern Iraq. After trying for years to challenge the patrols, another Iraqi said, "we had yet to scratch the wing of one American F-15."
Said gave the president an answer involving futuristic technology. He was a good enough applied physicist to understand the long odds against success, Said's anonymous colleague said, but the project earned him favor, prestige and a substantial budget.
In every field of special weaponry, Iraqi designers and foreign investigators said, such deceit was endemic. Program managers promised more than they could deliver, or things they could not deliver at all, to advance careers, preserve jobs or conduct intrigues against rivals. Sometimes they did so from ignorance, failing to grasp the challenges they took on.
Lying to an absolute ruler was hazardous, Iraqi weaponeers said, but less so in some cases than the alternatives. "No one will tell Saddam Hussein to his face, 'I can't do this,' " said an Iraqi brigadier general who supervised work on some of the technologies used in the rail gun.
David Kay's survey group has turned up other such cases. Analysts are calling the phenomenon "red-on-red deception," after the U.S. practice of using red to stand for enemy forces and blue to stand for friendly ones. In some cases, they said, "red on red" amounted to "red on blue" -- because Western intelligence collected the same false reports that fooled Hussein.
Sufiyan Taha Mahmoud, who worked for Iraq's National Monitoring Directorate throughout its 12 years, said spurious programs also led to needless conflict with U.N. arms inspectors.
"They couldn't build anything," Mahmoud said of overpromising weaponeers, "but they had to hide the documents because they related to prohibited activities."
Secrecy and a procurement system based on smuggling, Iraqi scientists said, abetted those who inflated their reports.
George Healey, a Canadian nuclear physicist and longtime inspector in Iraq, said entire programs were devised, or their design choices distorted, in order to siphon funds. "They had a system to graft money out of oil-for-food," he said, referring to the U.N. program that supervised Iraqi exports and imports after 1991. "What you had to have was a project -- the more expensive the better, because the more you can buy, the more you can graft out of it. You'd have difficulty believing how much that explains."
Intertwined with internal deception, many analysts now believe, was deception aimed overseas. Hussein plainly hid actual programs over the years, but Kay, among others, said it appears possible he also hinted at programs that did not exist.
Hans Blix, who was executive chairman of UNMOVIC, the U.N. arms inspection team, said in a telephone interview from Sweden that he has devoted much thought to why Hussein might have exaggerated his arsenal. One explanation that appeals to him: "You can put a sign on your door, 'Beware of the dog,' without having a dog. They did not mind looking a little bit serious and a little bit dangerous."
Defectors who sold false or exaggerated stories in Washington, Iraqi and American experts said, layered on still another coat of deception.
"You end up with a Picasso-like drawing -- distorted," said Ali Zaag, the Baghdad University biotechnologist.
'Long Pole in the Tent'
One line of thought in the survey group now, as it constructs a narrative of the Iraqi threat, is that the Baghdad government set out to revive its nonconventional programs in sequence. Instead of beginning with "weapons of mass destruction" -- nuclear, biological or chemical -- Iraq began with the means to deliver them .
"Missiles are very significant to us because they're the long pole in the tent," Kay told "BBC Panorama." "They're the thing that takes the longest to produce. . . . The Iraqis had started in late '99, 2000, to produce a family of missiles that would have gotten to 1,000 kilometers [625 miles]."
Kay was referring to Tamimi's work, though the designer and details have not been made public before. If reached, a 625-mile range would have menaced Tel Aviv, Tehran, Istanbul, Riyadh, the world's richest oil fields and important U.S. military installations from Turkey to the Persian Gulf.
When that might have happened -- or whether -- is difficult to forecast. Of all Iraq's nascent programs, Tamimi's was among the most advanced. A closer look at its prospects helps answer a question common to all four fields of forbidden arms: Was the country capable of carrying out the presumed intentions of its leader?
Tamimi is a man of robust self-esteem, but he expressed no confidence about his long-range missile, which depended on clustering five engines in a single stage. (An intermediate version called for two engines.) Western missile experts, who suggested questions and reviewed answers from a reporter in multiple rounds of interviews with Tamimi, emerged uncertain of the timetable or outcome.
Their best estimate was that it would take six years -- if the missile worked at all -- to reach a successful flight test. Tamimi would need less time with major help from abroad, but considerably more if he had to conceal the work from U.N. monitoring that persisted until the United States invaded in March. U.S. government spokesmen declined to provide an estimate.
Tamimi "was the star" of Iraq's three rival rocket establishments, said a French expert who has known him for years. Another European rocket scientist said of Tamimi: "In our country he would be a very good design engineer."
But Tamimi lacked access to the modern tools and technical literature of his profession. He left Czechoslovakia's Antonin Zapotecky Military Academy in 1984 with a doctorate degree and a collection of Russian rocketry texts now entering their third decade in print. For the essential modeling of thrust, flight qualities, trajectory and range, he relied on unsophisticated software written in Baghdad. In an e-mail exchange, Tamimi expressed strong curiosity about what the "more accurate modeling programs" of overseas experts might show about his designs.
Tamimi faced challenges he had not encountered before, some of which he knew about and others he did not. He knew he would have difficulty lashing together multiple engines and igniting them at the same instant. "The main problem was synchronization, which we hadn't solved yet," he said.
To fit multiple engines in an airframe based on the existing Al Samoud missile, Tamimi's designs called for a flared missile that nearly doubled in diameter -- from 760mm (30 inches) to 1500mm (59 inches) -- from top to bottom. Foreign experts said the shape would produce enormous strains. "If it didn't break up going up, it would most likely do so on reentry," said a Western expert who did not want to be named, after submitting Tamimi's sketches and descriptions to an evaluation team. "To avoid that, they would have to develop some sort of separation system to abandon the wider bit, and also master terminal guidance after the separation."
Tamimi said "we did not consider the problem of separation." For terminal guidance, which steers a missile in its final approach to target, Tamimi pinned his hope on Russian technology he did not have in hand.
In test flights, the Al Samoud missile never landed -- literally -- within a mile of its target. In 2001, Tamimi obtained a small black-market supply of precision Russian gyroscopes. He hoped they would increase the missile's accuracy from about 1.5 miles to 500 yards. To increase accuracy still further, he said "we were near success" in negotiating a contract -- he would not say with whom -- for a complete Russian-built inertial navigation system.
"He knew very well where he was going, especially in guidance and gyroscope equipment," a foreign expert said.
An enormous problem for Tamimi's program, however, was that he designed it to allow procurement of parts under cover of the openly declared Al Samoud. When inspectors ruled the Al Samoud illegal and destroyed its production lines in March, Tamimi said, he began to doubt the project's viability.
"Saddam Hussein ordered this work, but where would we get the materials?" said an Iraqi general who declined to be named and who kept close tabs on Tamimi's missile designs. "This was the case in every field. People would prepare reports under the order of Saddam Hussein and the supervision of the people around Saddam Hussein. But it was not real."
-------- israel
Israel Wants Jailed Nuke Whistleblower to Keep Mum
Story by Dan Williams
REUTERS ISRAEL:
January 7, 2004
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/23338/story.htm
JERUSALEM - Israel is worried a nuclear whistleblower winding up an 18-year prison sentence has more secrets to tell, and may make his freedom conditional on his silence, security sources said on Sunday.
They said Mordechai Vanunu, who in 1986 went public with details of his work at Israel's main atomic reactor, could be barred from leaving the country when he is released on April 21, under emergency laws reserved for cases of national security.
"Vanunu dealt an enormous blow to the country, and we believe he has more in store," a Israeli security source said. "There is no double-jeopardy proviso when it comes to treason."
The Jewish state is still sore from a tell-all interview Vanunu, now 49, gave Britain's Sunday Times in October 1986 on the Dimona reactor where he had worked as a mid-level technician for eight years. He was to receive an undisclosed fee but was abducted by Mossad before payment could be made, the paper said.
Vanunu's revelations, and some 60 accompanying photographs, led independent experts to conclude Israel has between 100 and 200 nuclear warheads -- an embarrassment given Israel's policy of ambiguity regarding its non-conventional capabilities.
Absent from the expose were the names of Vanunu's former colleagues at Dimona. Security sources say these are among sensitive data he could still publish abroad after his release.
In Israel, any public statement Vanunu makes would be subject to military censors who have kept a tight lid on the case since he was spirited back and tried behind closed doors.
Vanunu's lawyer was not available for comment. But Vanunu, who dabbled in pro-Palestinian politics and became a Christian after quitting Dimona in 1985, apparently feels no remorse.
"The secrets collapsed without any bombs, without killing anyone. That was the great power of a non-violent act," the U.S. Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu web site quotes him as saying.
Newsweek, in a report to be published on Monday, said Vanunu last year refused to sign a non-disclosure pledge offered by an Israeli official in exchange for the promise of early release.
"He believes in freedom of speech," Mary Eoloff, an American peace activist who legally adopted Vanunu with her husband in a failed attempt to get him U.S. citizenship, told the magazine.
-------- japan
Japan Minister Plans Push for Nuclear Fusion Plant
REUTERS JAPAN:
January 7, 2004
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/23343/story.htm
TOKYO - Japan's science minister plans to visit Russia and China next week to try to win backing for Tokyo's bid to host an experimental nuclear fusion program, a ministry spokesman said Tuesday.
The campaigning tour, which may start on January 14 and which would include South Korea, is the latest move in a tug-of-war between the European Union and Japan, both of which are bidding for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER).
The European Union is backing Cadarache in southern France, while Tokyo is pushing Rokkasho, a remote fishing village in northern Japan as its proposed site for the world's first attempt at generating energy in the same way as the sun.
At a meeting in Washington on December 20, the six members of the ITER joint venture failed to reach agreement, with the United States and South Korea backing Japan, while Russia and China favored France.
Media have suggested the deadlock over the multi-billion dollar project reflected Washington's displeasure over France's opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
The six countries are set to meet again next month.
France has proposed a compromise whereby the reactor would be in Cadarache, but data analysis could take place elsewhere.
Nuclear fusion has been touted as a solution to the world's energy problems, as it would be low in pollution and would theoretically use seawater as fuel.
Fusion involves sticking atoms together, as opposed to today's nuclear reactors and weapons, which produce energy by blowing atoms apart.
Fifty years of research, however, have failed to produce a commercially viable fusion reactor.
-------- korea
US Welcomes North Korean Nuclear Offer
Story by Paul Eckert and Arshad Mohammed
REUTERS USA:
January 7, 2004
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/23339/story.htm
SEOUL/WASHINGTON - North Korea has offered to freeze its nuclear power programme and the United States has called this a positive step that may help lead to new six-way talks on ending Pyongyang's atomic weapons programmes.
North Korea described its offer as a "bold concession" to restart the six-way talks, which are designed to find a way to persuade the secretive, communist nation to abandon its quest for nuclear weapons.
Pyongyang made the offer as a private U.S. delegation that included congressional aides, former U.S. officials and an Asia scholar flew to North Korea hoping to visit the Yongbyon nuclear complex at the heart of the country's nuclear programme.
The United States hopes to persuade North Korea to agree to the complete, verifiable and irreversible end to its suspected nuclear arms programme through six-way talks among U.S., Chinese, North and South Korean, Japanese and Russian officials.
With prospects for talks in January appearing to recede, Pyongyang called on Washington to accept an offer to freeze its nuclear arms programme, throwing in for the first time the "bold concession" of offering to suspend nuclear power generation.
"The DPRK is set to refrain from test and production of nuclear weapons and stop even operating nuclear power industry for a peaceful purpose as first-phase measures of the package solution," said Pyongyang's official KCNA news agency, using the abbreviation of North Korea's formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
'AN INTERESTING STATEMENT'
The comments on freezing North Korea's nuclear arms programme largely reiterated a proposal it first issued on December 9, when Pyongyang offered to freeze its "nuclear activities" if the United States dropped it from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism and ended economic sanctions, among other steps.
The December 9 statement, however, did not explicitly refer to suspending North Korea's nuclear power programme, which U.S. officials fear may be a cover for weapons development. North Korea has no fully operational nuclear power station, but does have a small reactor at the Yongbyon complex.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell welcomed the North Korean comments despite previous U.S. statements dismissive of the idea of a freeze on Pyongyang's suspected arms programme.
"It was an interesting statement. It was a positive statement. They in effect said they won't test and they implied that they would give up all aspects of their nuclear programme, not just (their) weapons programme," Powell told reporters.
"I'm encouraged by the statement the North Koreans made," he added. "We hope that it will allow us to move more rapidly toward six-party framework talks."
Powell said he believed all six nations want to get back to the negotiating table and he said that "a lot of papers have gone back and forth" among them in recent weeks.
In a sign it may not be easy to resume six-way talks, a KCNA commentary said U.S. policy -- which demands the irreversible dismantling of North Korea's nuclear arms programme rather than a freeze -- "will destroy the foundation of the dialogue and cast a dark shadow" over hopes for new talks.
The two sides exchanged their statements as an unofficial U.S. delegation flew to North Korea to begin a five-day tour that the visitors hope will include a visit to Yongbyon.
A trip to the nuclear complex would mark the first time outsiders had been allowed into the plant since U.N. inspectors were expelled a year ago at the start of the latest North Korean nuclear crisis.
A U.S. newspaper and South Korean officials have said the group would visit Yongbyon, but North Korea has yet to confirm that and the head of the delegation said he was not certain.
"It's like going to Disneyland and knowing what rides you're going to go on. We're not going to be able to tell you. We'll know what we've seen when we get back," said John Wilson Lewis, a professor emeritus at Stanford University.
Charles "Jack" Pritchard, a former State Department envoy for North Korea now at the Brookings Institution think tank, and Sig Hecker, director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1985 to 1997, are accompanying Lewis as private citizens.
Also on the trip are Senate Foreign Relations Committee aides Keith Luse and Frank Jannuzi. Washington says the visitors are not going on behalf of the Bush administration.
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Powell: N. Korea gains nothing from nukes
By Lou Marano
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
January 07, 2004
http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20040106-042927-9718r.htm
WASHINGTON, Jan. 6 (UPI) -- Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday he hopes developments in Iraq and Libya will show North Korea that nuclear weapons are a waste of money that bring no political gain.
Powell told reporters at the State Department that he was "encouraged" by North Korea's offer on Tuesday to suspend the testing and production of nuclear weapons and to freeze its nuclear industry. He referred to the "breakthrough" last month with Libya, adding that "a great deal of pressure has been put on Iran," and said, "Iraq is no longer going to be a source of weapons of mass destruction."
"And I hope our colleagues in Pyongyang are watching all of this and realizing that they're wasting a lot of money for weapons and technologies and other kinds of programs that will not gain them anything politically," he concluded.
In an interview broadcast on CNN Dec. 22, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi said the war in Iraq may have played a role in his decision to dismantle his country's weapons of mass destruction programs.
Pyongyang's offer came in a statement released by the official Korean Central News Agency as two private delegations of U.S. experts arrived in North Korea's capital, where they hope to visit the Yongbyon nuclear complex. One of the groups is led by John W. Lewis, a professor of international relations at Stanford University. It is composed of academics and the nuclear scientist Sig Hecker, a former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The other group is led by U.S. congressional aides Keith Luse and Frank Jannuzi, who met U.S. Embassy officials in the Chinese capital of Beijing before leaving for Pyongyang.
Pyongyang has offered to freeze its nuclear program before in return for a non-aggression pact with the United States and other diplomatic and economic concessions. But the United States has said that it wants North Korea to begin dismantling its nuclear program before it gives any concessions.
The six countries trying to resolve the North Korean nuclear stalemate are the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.
"I'm convinced that all of the six parties want to get back to the table," Powell said. "Because we have not been sitting at a table does not mean we have not been talking to each other.
"A lot of papers have gone back and forth, and we are in touch with our four partners in this effort, and some of our partners are directly in touch with North Korea. So we have been doing a lot."
State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher said later that "papers" referred to possible outcomes of future meetings. "That's something the Chinese have wanted to work on. ...
"We've certainly been in close touch with the Chinese throughout the last few weeks. We've been willing to work with the Chinese and hope the North Koreans are as well in pulling together another round of six-party talks."
Boucher said verification mechanisms would have to ensure an irreversible end to North Korea's nuclear weapons program. "Going forth with simple statements" on the part of the KCNA news agency is not enough, he said.
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Powell Hails North Korea for New Step
January 7, 2004
By STEVEN R. WEISMAN
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/07/politics/07KORE.html?pagewanted=all
WASHINGTON, Jan. 6 - Secretary of State Colin L. Powell on Tuesday labeled as "positive" the latest offer by North Korea to suspend its nuclear programs as part of an overall nuclear agreement, saying that he hoped the offer would lead to more talks on the issue.
Appearing at the State Department after a meeting with the foreign minister of Tunisia, Habib Ben Yahia, Mr. Powell said it was "interesting" that North Korea had "in effect said they won't test and they implied they would give up all aspects of their nuclear program, not just weapons program."
The secretary's comments were a response to the latest statement from North Korea on the contentious issue of nuclear weapons, issued earlier on Tuesday from the official Korean Central News Agency.
Administration officials said the North Korean offer differed only slightly from a proposal put forward last month but said it was important to take note of it in order to encourage more cooperation.
As is often the case, the North Korean statement contained words that were both bluntly challenging and mildly conciliatory. Administration officials acknowledged frankly that they had decided to overlook the bluster and seize on the more moderate aspects of the statement in order to restart a stalled conversation with the North.
The more confrontational language by the North Korean agency said American demands for an irreversible dismantling of its nuclear weapons program, as opposed to a suspension, "will destroy the foundation of the dialogue and cast a dark shadow" over hopes for new talks.
For the last year, the United States has been working with China, Russia, Japan and South Korea to engage the government in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. Two largely unsuccessful sessions took place in Beijing last year.
A third session was supposed to have occurred in December, but plans foundered when China, the sponsor of the talks, tried to work out a rough statement of what was accomplished ahead of time.
There is now no plan to try to prearrange a statement for the next round, but American officials did not rule out a set of goals being worked on once the talks are scheduled.
The main problem has been disagreement over sequencing the steps that would be taken by North Korea toward the goal of ending its nuclear programs, and the steps that the United States and others would offer in return, ranging from security guarantees to economic benefits.
Mr. Powell's comments were described by an aide as reflecting the view that North Korea had indeed gone a bit further than it had in the past by expressing willingness to suspend its nuclear energy programs, which many experts say are a front for weapons activities.
In addition, the official said, Mr. Powell wanted to take note of what seemed to be a concession in order to lock it in at the next round of negotiating.
"This is an interesting step on their part, a positive step," Mr. Powell said. "We hope that it will allow us to move more rapidly toward the six-party framework talks." He was referring to the talks sponsored by China.
Administration officials say that it has not been easy forging a common policy toward North Korea within the administration and not easy to get a consensus accepted by China, South Korea, Japan and Russia.
The Bush administration has said it could not go along with any kind of a "freeze" or "suspension" of North Korea's nuclear programs because of concerns that the program could be restarted down the road.
The repeated goals of the administration have been to get a "complete, irreversible and verifiable" dismantling of its nuclear weapons program. Only after North Korea has agreed to accept that as a goal, administration officials say, could the United States begin to think about offering concessions in return.
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Chinese Not Convinced of North Korean Uranium Effort
By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 7, 2004; Page A16
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60332-2004Jan6.html
China told Asian diplomats last week it is not convinced of U.S. claims that North Korea has a clandestine program to enrich uranium for use in nuclear weapons, according to U.S. officials who have been briefed on the discussions.
The previously unreported conversation -- raising doubts about the central element in the Bush administration's case against Pyongyang -- underscores how Chinese and U.S. aims appear to be diverging in the diplomatic effort to restrain North Korea's nuclear ambitions. China has taken the lead in organizing another round of six-nation talks, but the effort has bogged down over disputes among the parties about the scope and content of the negotiations.
North Korea yesterday announced what it called a "bold concession" of offering to freeze both its nuclear weapons production and its nuclear power facility as "first-phase measures" of a package deal that would call for the United States to lift sanctions and provide energy aid. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said the statement was "a positive step" that could lead to a rapid resumption of talks.
The talks have not been scheduled in part because of U.S. insistence that a statement issued after the talks include North Korea's agreement to a "complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement" of its nuclear programs. Asian and U.S. officials said yesterday that both sides now appear willing to go into the talks without a joint statement agreed on in advance, even though there are concerns that an open-ended session could result in little movement by either side.
Some U.S. officials are worried that the Chinese effort to play down the revelations about North Korea's uranium enrichment program suggests Beijing is preparing the diplomatic groundwork to merely freeze the nuclear facility at Yongbyon, while leaving aside the issue of nuclear enrichment. Yongbyon once before was shuttered under a 1994 agreement between the United States and North Korea.
U.S. officials have said that North Korean officials admitted they had a clandestine program during a meeting in October 2002 -- which sparked the current crisis -- but the North Koreans have since denied that.
"As long as they continue to deny the existence of the highly enriched uranium program, it is guaranteed the talks will fail," one administration official said. "We cannot have a long-term solution to the problem if we cannot agree on the facts."
Although the Bush administration has been deeply divided over how to respond to the North Korean crisis, there is little disagreement inside the government over the intelligence indicating North Korea has been secretly building uranium enrichment capability in violation of the 1994 accord. The main question has been when the program would be fully functioning and capable of making fissile material, with the Energy Department and Defense Intelligence Agency estimating the end of this year and the CIA and State Department providing a more conservative forecast of 2006 or 2007.
U.S. officials briefed key allies, including China, on the highlights of its evidence immediately after the October 2002 confrontation with North Korean officials. Citing the admission, the U.S. cut off shipments of heavy oil to Pyongyang, saying the 1994 agreement had been nullified. North Korea then evicted United Nations inspectors from Yongbyon and said it had begun reprocessing spent fuel rods into plutonium for weapons.
But last week, at a meeting in Seoul between Chinese, South Korean and Japanese officials on the North Korean crisis, one of the most senior Chinese diplomats dealing with the issue declared China did not believe North Korea had a highly enriched uranium program, according to U.S. officials who have been informed about the meeting by the Japanese.
At the meeting, the Chinese official, Fu Ying, and her Japanese counterpart, Mitoji Yabunaka, were discussing a possible freeze of North Korea's nuclear programs when Yabunaka noted it would be necessary to freeze both Yongbyon and the highly enriched uranium program.
Fu responded that North Korea has denied having an enrichment program, and that China also did not believe that it had one. She added that the U.S. government briefing provided to China had not been sufficient to convince China that North Korea had such a program.
Chinese officials, in their own briefing to U.S. officials on the talks, said that Fu merely noted to Yabunaka that the United States and North Korea have not come to an agreement on whether the enrichment program exists.
Chas Freeman, a former assistant secretary of defense and senior U.S. diplomat in China, said to some extent the administration is paying the price for the controversy over its intelligence on Iraq's weapons. "Post-Iraq, the credibility of U.S. intelligence is not very high" around the world, he said.
But Freeman said that increasingly "we've been the odd man out" among the five nations meeting with North Korea on the crisis, offering a policy that he described as "all sticks and no carrots." He said China usually has wanted stability on the North Korean peninsula above all else, but lately has adopted the U.S. goal of a nuclear-free peninsula. "If they have doubts about the evidential basis of our concern," he said, China may be reverting to its traditional goal of stability.
Sun Weide, spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, checked with Beijing on the Japanese account of the meeting. He noted that at the first round of six-nation talks in August, North Korea and the United States disagreed on whether Pyongyang had been pursuing uranium enrichment.
"China has never taken part in DPRK's nuclear program," Sun said, using the initials for North Korea's official name. "We have no knowledge of DPRK's nuclear program or its capabilities. We do not know if DPRK has a HEU [highly enriched uranium] program. According to our understanding, the Japanese are not completely aware of the situation, either."
Japanese officials declined to comment.
A nongovernmental delegation, including a former State Department official, flew yesterday from Beijing to Pyongyang after receiving hints from the North Korean government that it may be able to visit the Yongbyon facility. U.S. officials view the offer as another attempt by the North Koreans to shift the focus from the uranium enrichment project, whose location has not been determined.
"It is very easy to freeze Yongbyon," one official said. "It is not the most interesting place to be in North Korea right now."
Correspondent Philip P. Pan in Beijing contributed to this report.
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S.Korea, U.S. See Better Climate for N.Korea Talks
January 7, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-korea-north.html
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean, U.S. and Japanese officials on Wednesday suggested North Korea's offer to freeze its nuclear program may help bring about a new round of talks ending on Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.
North Korea's offer on Tuesday to suspend its nuclear power program as well as refrain from testing or making atomic bombs was more specific than its previous statements and appeared to inject some hope for a fresh six-way talks among the United States, China, the two Koreas, Japan and Russia.
``This should be helpful in creating the atmosphere for a second round of talks,'' South Korean Foreign Minister Yoon Young-kwan told a news conference.
``I think it may show that North Korea may also be starting to show a will to somehow seek a breakthrough in the situation. I think it is a good thing,'' Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters in Tokyo.
``Even though we haven't had a six-party meeting for some time, I expect that the prospects of having one are improving,'' Secretary of State Colin Powell told a news conference in Washington, saying there has been ``a lot of work'' among the six parties to prepare the way for a fresh round of talks.
But he also injected a cautionary note, saying the North Korean offer to suspend its civilian and suspected military nuclear programs was not a breakthrough and that Washington wanted any fresh talks to have concrete results.
``I hope that this will improve the atmosphere for the talks,'' Powell said. ``But we really just don't want another set of talks that are the exchange of the old positions -- we want something that will result in a step forward and that's what we're hard at work on.''
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan echoed Powell's cautious optimism, noting there was ``a growing momentum for the resumption'' of the talks and urging ``the parties to the talks to intensify their preparations.''
IMPATIENCE
The six parties have not met together since their first round of talks in Beijing ended inconclusively in August.
Washington hopes to persuade Pyongyang to accept the ``complete, verifiable and irreversible'' dismantling of its suspected nuclear arms program through the talks.
With prospects for talks in January appearing to recede, Pyongyang on Tuesday called on Washington to accept the North's offer to freeze its nuclear arms program. In addition, Pyongyang threw in for the first time what it called the ``bold concession'' of offering to suspend nuclear power generation.
Yoon said North Korea had mostly just added detail to several similar statements last month offering to freeze its nuclear activities in exchange for aid and diplomatic concessions from Washington and other parties to the talks.
``We regard it as positive that North Korea has reaffirmed its intention to solve the problem through dialogue and stated a little more concretely the actions it is willing to take,'' he said.
South Korean analysts said the timing was more important than the content of the offer, reflecting impatience with the slow pace of diplomacy Pyongyang hopes will relieve dire energy shortages that have left North Koreans in cold and darkness.
``It indicates that North Korea wants a new round of six-party talks,'' said Paik Hak-soon of the Sejong Institute in Seoul.
``North Korea's need for energy aid from the outside means that it will sign an agreement to stop developing its nuclear program at the end of six-way talks,'' said Yu Suk-ryul of Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security.
Pyongyang's official KCNA news agency on Wednesday said Washington ``should respond to this magnanimity in good faith.''
Rejecting parallels some analysts have drawn with the disarmament of Iraq and Libya, KCNA added: ``The U.S. is grossly mistaken if it thinks it can bring (North Korea) to its knees with a military threat as it did to other countries.''
-------- pakistan
A Denial by Pakistan
January 7, 2004
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/07/international/asia/07REAX.html?pagewanted=all
WASHINGTON, Jan. 6 - Pakistan on Tuesday denied a report in The New York Times that Libya had obtained a design for enriching uranium from Pakistani scientists, The Associated Press reported.
"This is total madness," Information Minister Sheik Rashid Ahmed told the agency. "The report is absolutely false, and there is no truth in it."
Asked today about the report, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said: "I don't have enough information at hand to answer a question quite as specific as that. We know that there have been cases where individuals in Pakistan have worked in these areas and we have called it to the attention of the Pakistanis in the past."
-------- terrorism
U.S. agents disguised in dirty bomb scare
January 07, 2004
(UPI)
http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20040107-093200-7473r.htm
WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 -- Fears of a so-called dirty bomb prompted the Bush administration late last month to secretly dispatch nuclear scientists to five U.S. cities.
The crisis began Dec. 19 when analysts assembled what they described as extremely specific intelligence, including electronic intercepts of al-Qaida operatives' communications, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.
One fear was a dirty bomb, a conventional bomb surrounded by radioactive material that is spewed across a small area. Such a weapon is unlikely to cause mass casualties but could panic people and devastate an economy.
By Dec. 22 teams of scientists, dressed as business travelers or tourists and carrying detection gear in briefcases or luggage such as golf bags, were taking radiation measurements 24 hours a day in places like Manhattan, Baltimore, Las Vegas, Washington and Los Angeles.
No suspect radiation was found.
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'Dirty Bomb' Was Major New Year's Worry
By John Mintz and Susan Schmidt
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, January 7, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A60519-2004Jan6?language=printer
With huge New Year's Eve celebrations and college football bowl games only days away, the U.S. government last month dispatched scores of casually dressed nuclear scientists with sophisticated radiation detection equipment hidden in briefcases and golf bags to scour five major U.S. cities for radiological, or "dirty," bombs, according to officials involved in the emergency effort.
The call-up of Department of Energy radiation experts to Washington, New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Baltimore was the first since the weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. It was conducted in secrecy, in contrast with the very public cancellation of 15 commercial flights into this country from France, Britain and Mexico -- the other major counterterrorism response of the holiday season.
The new details of the government's search for a dirty bomb help explain why officials have used dire terms to describe the reasons for the nation's fifth "code orange" alert, issued on Dec. 21 by Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge. U.S. officials said they remain worried today -- in many cases, more concerned than much of the American public realizes -- that their countermeasures would fall short.
"Government officials are surprised that people [in the United States] aren't more hyped about all this," said one source familiar with counterterrorism preparations.
Even now, hundreds of nuclear and bioweapons scientists remain on high alert at several military bases around the country, ready to fly to any trouble spot. Pharmaceutical stockpiles for responding to biological attacks are on transportable trucks at key U.S. military bases.
Officials said intelligence can be misleading, and some in law enforcement acknowledged that there is no way to know the actual urgency of the threats. Officials said one of their key challenges is determining whether al Qaeda is planting provocative but false clues as a diversion or as deliberate disinformation to test the U.S. response. Some foreign governments have voiced concerns that the United States is overreacting.
In recent days, intelligence has become even more difficult to sort through, officials said yesterday, because of what one described as "circular" repeating of information that has been made public.
The attention to a potential dirty bomb, for example, resulted not from specific recent information indicating such an attack but from the belief among officials that al Qaeda is sparing no effort to try to detonate one.
The terrorism crisis began late on Dec. 19, when analysts assembled what they described as extremely specific intelligence, including electronic intercepts of al Qaeda operatives' telephone calls or e-mails. One fear was that al Qaeda would hijack and crash an overseas flight into a U.S. city or the ocean. Another was that terrorists would shoot down an airliner with a shoulder-fired missile.
U.S. officials also became concerned that a large, open-air New Year's Eve celebration might be targeted. While the perimeters of football stadiums can generally be secured, outdoor celebrations are much more vulnerable, they said.
One of the U.S. officials' main fears was of a dirty bomb, in which a conventional bomb is detonated and spews radioactive material and radiation across a small area. Security specialists say such a weapon is unlikely to cause mass casualties but could cause panic and devastate a local economy.
On the same day that Ridge raised the national threat level to orange ("high") from yellow ("elevated"), the Homeland Security Department sent out large fixed radiation detectors and hundreds of pager-size radiation monitors for use by police in Washington, New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Chicago, Houston, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Detroit.
Homeland Security also ordered the dispatch of scores of Energy Department radiation experts to cities planning large public events. One of them was Baltimore, where Coast Guard and Energy Department personnel patrolled the waterfront with sophisticated radiation detectors in preparation for a New Year's Eve party at the Inner Harbor.
Dozens of others fanned out in Manhattan, where, on New Year's Eve, up to 1 million people were scheduled to gather in Times Square. Still others converged on Las Vegas, home of a huge yearly New Year's Eve party on the Strip, and around Los Angeles, where the Rose Bowl parade on New Year's Day draws as many as 1 million people.
The Energy Department scientists proceeded to their assigned locations to take covert readings with their disguised radiological equipment in a variety of settings.
"Our guys can fit in a sports stadium, a construction site or on Fifth Avenue," one Energy Department official said. "Their equipment is configured to look like anybody else's luggage or briefcase."
Starting on Dec. 22, the teams crisscrossed those cities, taking measurements 24 hours a day. FBI agents persuaded businesses in some cities -- including hotels and truck-rental firms in Las Vegas -- to voluntarily turn over lists of guests or customers for comparison with terrorism watch lists.
On Dec. 29 in Las Vegas, the searchers got their first and only radiation "spike," at a rented storage facility near downtown. The finding sent a jolt of tension through the nation's security apparatus; the White House was notified. The experts rechecked the reading with a more precise machine that told them that inside the cinderblock storage unit was radium, a radioactive material used in medical equipment and on watch dials.
As rare snow fell on the city that early morning, FBI agents secured the industrial neighborhood around the site, and a small army of agents and scientists converged on the business. Soon the renter of the storage closet in question, a homeless man, happened on the odd scene and asked the officers not to cut his padlock. He supplied the key.
The scientists sent in a robot to snag a duffel bag in which the man had been storing a cigar-size radium pellet -- which is used to treat uterine cancer -- since he found the shiny stainless-steel object three years before. Not knowing what the object was, he had wrapped it in his nighttime pillow.
Officials said he has not exhibited any signs of ill health, yet. The man, whose name could not be obtained, was released.
Five tense hours after their radiation detectors had spiked, officials concluded there was no security crisis in the storage locker.
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Experts Seeking 'Dirty Bombs' in Cities
January 7, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Dirty-Bombs.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Government nuclear experts are working undercover in major U.S. cities, using high-tech equipment hidden in briefcases and golf bags to hunt for radiological ``dirty'' bombs and other weapons terrorists might use.
The Energy Department's Nuclear Incident Response Teams were in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York and Washington last month, according to three government officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. Later, more teams went to other cities, which the officials declined to identify.
The Homeland Security Department also has sent detection equipment for police to use in Chicago, Detroit, Houston, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle.
Agency spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said there is no specific intelligence pointing to a dirty bomb -- which uses conventional explosives to disperse a plume of radioactive dust over several city blocks -- or plots involving chemical, biological or nuclear devices.
The federal action came as the nation's terror alert status was upgraded just before Christmas to orange, or high risk. Security officials were particularly concerned that holiday gatherings with large crowds could serve as targets for terrorists.
The teams took readings ahead of New Year's celebrations at New York's Times Square and the Las Vegas strip, and for the Rose Bowl Parade on New Year's Day in the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena, Calif.
The only detection of radiation so far was on Dec. 29 at a rented storage locker near downtown Las Vegas, one government official said. The White House was told, the FBI called in, and a robot was used to retrieve a duffel bag. In it was a stainless steel capsule of radium used for treating cancer.
A homeless man who provided the key to the locker told government officials he had found the capsule several years earlier. Officials said the man is not a terrorism suspect.
The nuclear experts, drawn from national labs, use detection equipment concealed in briefcases, golf bags and other items. Officials declined to provide specifics, but among the tools the experts might use is a Palm Pilot with a cadmium-zinc-telluride crystal that can detect radiation.
The government officials did not disclose how many experts are on the teams.
David Heyman, director of the homeland security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, said sending these experts to cities for unspecified threats is a new mission.
``Our teams are typically on call for accidents to react to possible incidences, but we're on new ground when we deploy them for countering unexpected threats,'' Heyman said.
Unlike a nuclear weapon, a dirty bomb has no atomic chain reaction and does not require highly enriched uranium or plutonium, which are normally heavily guarded and hard to obtain. It relies on a lower-grade isotope, like those used in medicine or research, for its radioactive component.
The al-Qaida terrorist network is known to have sought such a weapon, which experts say is most effective at spreading fear and panic but probably would not cause many casualties.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has said it receives an average of 300 reports a year of small amounts of radioactive materials missing from various users, but has no evidence that anyone is systematically collecting it to use in a dirty bomb.
Each year about 50 soil-testing gauges used for construction and road-building that contain small amounts of highly radioactive Cesium-137 and Americium-241 are reported stolen, and many are never recovered, the NRC has said. A dirty bomb could be made from the radioactive material, though it would take hundreds of the gauges to supply enough.
Commission spokesman Dave MacIntyre said there is no evidence the thefts are coordinated.
Associated Press reporter John J. Lumpkin contributed to this story.
On the Net:
Homeland Security Department: http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic Energy Department: http://www.doe.gov
Nuclear Regulatory Commission: http://www.nrc.gov
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U.S. Quietly Looked for Dirty Bomb Over New Year's
January 7, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-security-dirtybomb.html
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government sent teams of scientists with radiation detection devices to four major cities over the New Year's holiday to search for dirty bombs, Homeland Security officials said on Wednesday.
Although there was no fear of a specific plot to use a ``dirty bomb'' -- radioactive material scattered by conventional explosives -- officials said teams were dispatched to monitor radiation levels in Washington, New York, Las Vegas and Los Angeles during and leading up to New Year's celebrations.
``It should come as no surprise that the Department of Homeland Security directed that certain security measures be put into place to prevent an act of terrorism,'' Homeland Security spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said.
``These actions were not based on a specific plot by al Qaeda to use WMD (weapons of mass destruction) but these protective measures were put into place for large holiday celebrations in large cities based on concerns about al Qaeda's desire to obtain or develop WMD for potential use,'' he said.
The four cities have been viewed as possible targets of a new attack. New York and Las Vegas have massive New Year's celebrations that attract hundreds of thousands of people and the Los Angeles area hosts the Rose Bowl parade and football game on New Year's Day, which also draw huge crowds.
The U.S. government, which on Dec. 21 raised its terror alert to the second highest level, has said repeatedly it fears al Qaeda -- blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked airline attacks -- might try to use biological, radiological or nuclear weapons in another attack on U.S. soil.
In raising the alert level to ``orange,'' or a ``high'' possibility of attack, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge warned that there was a high risk of an attack that could be bigger than that of Sept. 11, which killed about 3,000 people.
Under the orange alert, security was beefed up, particularly in areas hosting large public gatherings.
Unlike very public aviation security efforts, measures to try to prevent a dirty bomb attack were not advertised.
The Department of Energy's Nuclear Incident Response Teams -- made up mostly of scientists -- put preventive detection capabilities in place, officials said.
They said the scientists were deployed to the four cities with sophisticated radiation detection equipment, likely disguised in everyday items like bags.
The Coast Guard, whose cutters are often equipped with radiation detection devices, was also ordered to monitor major ports for any sign of radiation.
Some radiation ``pagers'' normally used by border inspectors were given to local police in the four cities and other places with major gatherings or large sporting events.
No spike in radiation connected to any possible attack was detected, officials said.
-------- u.s. nuc facilities
-------- colorado
Flats clean-up project about 80 percent done
Some remain cautious of faster schedule
By Alisha Jeter, Enterprise Staff Writer
January 7, 2004
http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/broomfield_news/article/0,1713,BDC_2495_2556965,00.html
Clean-up at Rocky Flats is about 80 percent complete, ahead of schedule and slightly below budget, according to an annual status report by site officials Monday.
The year 2003 marked several milestones, including the last shipment of weapons-grade plutonium out of state, the demolition of well known buildings and remediation of the highly contaminated 903 Pad.
"We are both ahead of schedule and a little bit under budget," said Frazer Lockhart, manager of the Rocky Flats field office for the Department of Energy.
The former nuclear munitions trigger-making site is a few miles from Broomfield's southern border.
Congress has allocated about $664 million per year to the project. Costs for scheduled 2003 work came in under that, and officials allocated the remainder for projects originally expected to be done in 2004, Lockhart said. Total projected cost of the project through closure is about $7 billion.
One of the most significant moves, Lockhart said, was the end to plutonium storage onsite, which required $20 million per year in security measures. He said although some plutonium contamination continues to exist on the site, weapon-usable plutonium is gone.
The last shipment of more than 12 metric tons of plutonium left in August for 50-year storage at the DOE's Savannah River site in South Carolina. In all, some 106 metric tons of nuclear material - held in such things as ash and duct tape - were cleared from the site, said Nancy Tuor, executive vice president and chief operating officer for contractor Kaiser-Hill Co. Kaiser-Hill has been working to clean the site since 1995.
The work is scheduled for completion by Dec. 15, 2006, but Kaiser-Hill estimates show it could be completed as much as a year earlier.
Upon closure, the site is to convert to a National Wildlife Refuge under the authority of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, though the Department of Energy will still monitor the 300-acre industrial core and possibly some other areas.
Hank Stovall, a former Broomfield City Council member and a representative on the Rocky Flats Coalition of Local Governments, said progress in the last year was a little better than he'd expected.
"They're getting ahead of schedule, however, I think the more difficult projects are ahead, and I would have questions whether (contractors) can beat the schedule as much as they say," Stovall said.
The last phases of the project include decommissioning and tearing down nearly 500 more buildings of 800 that originally stood, completing remediation of about 20 acres surrounding the 903 Pad and removing all remaining waste from the site, including so-called "orphan" waste - or material currently without a repository.
Implementation of a new safety plan is also already under way. The plan is in response to a May fire that started as workers tried to remove a glovebox from one of the site's most contaminated buildings, Building 771, Tuor said. The building was cleaned to a safer level later in 2003.
An independent review of the incident criticized Kaiser-Hill's planning and other aspects, said RFCLOG executive director David Abelson.
-------- us nuc waste
Radioactive shipments to begin on disputed Nev.-to-N.M. route
Ken Ritter Associated Press
Jan. 7, 2004
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0107radioactiveshipments-ON.html
LAS VEGAS - Shipments of medium-level radioactive waste were to begin Wednesday on a previously disputed route from the Nevada Test Site through California and Arizona to New Mexico, officials said.
"The schedule is tomorrow," Ralph Smith, spokesman for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., said Tuesday. "We have seven shipments planned this month."
California balked at allowing the shipments in July, but the federal Energy Department and the four states' governors agreed Oct. 9 to allow 40 to 60 shipments this year on the 1,130-mile route, Smith said.
"A fair solution has been worked out," Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., said Tuesday through a spokesman. Feinstein had led the opposition to the shipments, arguing that the California desert route included an old highway with poorly maintained stretches unsuited for heavy trucks.
A spokeswoman for California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger referred questions to the governor's office of emergency services, which did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment.
Bob Loux, Nevada Nuclear Projects Office chief, said the agreement allowed for half the original number of shipments along the California desert route, as long as the other half goes another route.
Smith said no decision had been made on a second route. The Energy Department did not consider as viable an alternate route across 1,800 miles of Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico, passing through Salt Lake City and Denver, he said.
Loux and an official with the National Nuclear Security Administration office in North Las Vegas said about 1,650 drums of "transuranic" waste have been stored for decades north of Las Vegas at the Nevada Test Site, awaiting transport to the plant in New Mexico.
The waste - much of it from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California - includes items such as plutonium-contaminated protective gear, tools and equipment that can take thousands of years or more to decay to safe levels.
Smith said barrels of waste will be carried on specially modified flatbed trucks owned by a contractor, Tri-State Motor Transport of Joplin, Mo.
The shipments will go from a test site gate south along state highways to Baker, Calif.; southwest on Interstate 15 to Barstow, Calif.; and east on Interstate 40 through Flagstaff, Ariz., and Albuquerque, N.M., before heading south on U.S. 285 to Carlsbad. The route avoids Las Vegas.
NNSA spokesman Darwin Morgan said security concerns prevented him from discussing shipment times or routes.
"We're concerned that these shipments should not be a terrorist target," Smith said. "We're trying to keep our shipments below the radar screen and keep them safe."
He said the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant won't pay for police escorts but the Energy Department will monitor the trucks by satellite tracking system.
"It's up to the states whether they want to provide police escorts," Smith said.
Loux, in Carson City, said emergency workers along the shipping route have received training since July in responding to radioactive waste hazards.
Smith said there have been 2,240 shipments to the New Mexico plant from various states in the past five years, with no release of radioactivity.
One shipment was involved in a crash in August 2002, when an allegedly drunken driver hit the rear of a truck. No one was seriously hurt, and officials said there was no leak of radioactivity.
Loux said Nevada does not oppose transporting the transuranic material to New Mexico, but the state is fighting plans to ship 77,000 tons of highly radioactive material from nuclear power plants around the country to the planned waste dump at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
--------
Nuke waste to go through Barstow
Department of Energy plans seven shipments in January and 40 to 60 during 2004
By LEO MONIZ/Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 7, 2004
Victorville, CA Daily Press
http://www.vvdailypress.com/cgi-bin/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1073499415,98754,
BARSTOW, CA - Nuclear waste shipments previously canceled because of safety concerns will begin passing through Barstow today along the original route, officials said.
The U.S. Department of Energy will transport plutonium-contaminated garments, tools and other items from the Nevada Test Site to a New Mexico disposal plant on specially modified flatbed trucks. The medium-level tran-suranic waste, generated during nuclear weapons development, can take thousands of years or more to decay to safe levels, said Ralph Smith, a spokesman for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M.
The material will follow a circuitous route spanning 329 miles of California highways, entering the state on Highway 127, traveling south to Interstate 15 at Baker, southwest to Interstate 40 at Barstow, and then east through Needles into Arizona, Smith said.
California Highway Patrol officers will escort the trucks during their passage through the state, said Tom Marshall, a CHP spokesman. The federal government is reimbursing the state for the cost of the escorts, Marshall said.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein and state and local officials had opposed the shipments in July, arguing that poor engineering and difficult access for emergency responders would make California's remote desert highways too risky for the heavy transport trucks.
But the Energy Department and the governors of California, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico agreed Oct. 9 to allow 40 to 60 shipments along the route in 2004.
Seven shipments are expected in January, Smith said.
"We are very comfortable with the idea that this will be a safe movement through California," Marshall said. State officials insist the shipments will not set a precedent that could lead to the transportation of high-level waste along the same route, Marshall said.
"A fair solution has been worked out," Feinstein said through a spokesman.
Representatives from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office were not available for comment Tuesday.
Barstow spokesman John Rader said city officials have been apprised of the shipments.
"The city of Barstow will continue to be involved in the briefing process to ensure the community is prepared through state and federal resources in the event of an emergency," Rader said in a statement.
Bob Loux, Nevada Nuclear Projects Office chief, said the agreement allowed for half the original number of shipments along the California desert route, as long as the other half goes via another route.
Smith said no decision had been made on a second route. The Energy Department did not consider as viable an alternate route across 1,800 miles of Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico, passing through Salt Lake City and Denver, he said.
Loux and an official with the National Nuclear Security Administration office in North Las Vegas said about 1,650 drums of transuranic waste have been stored for decades north of Las Vegas at the Nevada Test Site, awaiting transport to the plant in New Mexico.
Smith said there have been 2,240 shipments to the New Mexico plant from various states in the past five years, with no release of radioactivity.
One shipment was involved in a crash in August 2002, when an allegedly drunken driver hit the rear of a transport truck. No one was seriously hurt, and officials said there was no leak of radioactivity.
Tracey Martinez, a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Fire Department, said county authorities have received first-responder training and conducted a drill to prepare for the shipments, but would have to rely on federal personnel in case of an accident.
"In the event that there is a nuclear waste spill, we will cordon off the area and then we will have to call in other officials to come in and handle the incident," Martinez said.
Ken Ritter of the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Leo Moniz can be reached at leo_moniz@link.freedom.com or256-4126.
-------- MILITARY
Death no option for future soldiers
January 07 2004,
South African edition of Popular Mechanics
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=116&art_id=iol1073473748336F362&set_id=1
Crouched in a desert trench somewhere in the Middle East, enemy bullets thudding into the sand just above his head, the wounded soldier checks his wrist-mounted thermometer. It's a searing 43 degrees, and he's been trapped there for two days with little water and no food at all.
Amazingly, he's comfortable. A microturbine integrated into his battlesuit provides power for a highly effective microclimate air-conditioning system that maintains his body temperature at a safe level. A transdermal nutrient delivery system provides just enough nourishment to keep his body going. The pain of a leg wound sustained in a firefight two hours earlier has subsided to a dull ache.
He's not especially worried: an integrated ultrasound system has located the bleeding wound and cauterised the blood vessels. A fractured tibia has been splinted with an exomuscular device forming part of his body armour. Stray bacteria have already been zapped by a nanoscale fabric coating inside his battlesuit, which has broadcast details of his location and physical condition to headquarters.
Minutes later, a rescue helicopter arrives and the wounded soldier is hoisted to safety. His rescuers shake their heads: embedded in his battlesuit, their formidable kinetic energy absorbed by just a few millimetres of material, is a neat row of AK-47 bullets.
A scene from a futuristic war movie?
A scene from a futuristic war movie? Not at all - much of this technology is already a fact, and it's coming soon to an army near you.
Nothing works on Future Warrior, and that's the way it's supposed to be. This advanced uniform ensemble depicts technology that's still decades away from battlefield application.
Whereas the US military's Objective Force Warrior (OFW) soldier weapon platform is likely to be fielded within the decade, Future Warrior is set apart as a visionary tool for researchers, says Cheryl Stewardson, spokesperson for the Natick Soldier Centre's OFW programme.
Future Warrior was reintroduced (the original made its debut in 1999) at last year's opening of the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN), a partnership between the US Army and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "We wanted to showcase now the concepts they're working on for the future," says Stewardson. "Seeing concepts on a human form helps us see how technologies might be used... and their limitations."
Today's dismounted infantry soldier carries a back-breaking load (anything from 45 to 63 kg) and still has insufficient ballistic protection, little defence against chemical and biological weapons, and too many pieces of equipment that don't work well together. The ISN's challenge is to transform today's cotton/ nylon fatigues and bulky equipment belts to a sleek, lightweight battlesuit that provides everything from responsive armour to medical monitoring to communications - and more - in one integrated system.
'There's always going to be a Future Warrior' Eager to show off their creation to the brass, ISN produce a real soldier and kit him out. Looking distinctly menacing in the all-black, custom-fitted uniform is Sergeant Raul Lopez, liaison sergeant with the Operational Forces Interface Group.
Replacing the modified motorcycle helmet used in the previous Future Warrior concept, the custom-designed helmet Lopez wears is leaner, and incorporates several features born from upcoming technology. For example, a blue-tinted visor signifies agile eye protection against tunable lasers. Inside is new projection display technology based on that found in the Joint Strike Fighter helmet.
Says Stewardson: "We now have sensors for thermal and image intensification, but making them small enough, fusing the images and projecting them on to the visor - that's the leap."
Openings at the top of the helmet fit in with the idea of a 3-D audio and visual sensor suite. They restore natural hearing lost in an encapsulated space, and enhance long-range hearing. Cameras provide vision from the sides and behind. A smaller halo on the helmet represents a tracking system for friendly and enemy forces.
By reshaping the helmet, Future Warrior's creators have given the soldier an expanded field of view.
Protection against chemical and biological agents is "more realistic" than before, with a respirator tube that attachs to the back of the helmet and connects to a low-profile air purifier that forces cool air into the helmet for comfort and visor defogging.
"It was envisioned to come down very sleek into the body, but we couldn't find a material to do it in the short time we had to put this concept prototype together," Stewardson says.
Another major change in the uniform is the addition of protruding, interconnecting black pieces of plastic on the legs that represent a lower-body exoskeleton. It will connect through the boots up to the waist and enable the wearer the ability to carry up to 90kg.
Above the waist, MIT's research on nanomuscles for advanced arm and torso strength may be linked to the exoskeleton to give Future Warrior potentially superhuman ability to move or carry. A flexible display on the forearm glows when switched on and draws attention to the simulated touch-screen keypad for information input and output for tasks such as navigation, physiological status monitoring and command communication.
The display is connected to a compact computer worn on an armoured belt around the waist.
Attached to the arm is a slim box representative of the remote control unit for any system that might be used in a future battle, such as a robotic mule or unmanned aerial vehicle.
Found near the top of the torso (front and back) are what look like small buttons built into the fabric. These depict a nanostructure sensor array to detect weapons of mass destruction, friendly or enemy lasers, or even changing weather patterns.
Explains Stewardson: "The sensors could trigger a response in the uniform to open or close the fibres, depending on temperature or precipitation."
Black was chosen to suggest to observers that it's a uniform of the future, she says, although their ultimate target is a uniform that's invisible.
Speaking of stealth, much of the futuristic capability can't be shown because it's based on nanotechnology. Along the black stretch fabric are custom-fitted plastics and foams that take the place of liquid body armour that will instantly solidify when struck. "All the parts are much harder than we wanted. We haven't figured out how to portray it (liquid armour)," says Stewardson.
"I believe nanotechnology is going to give us much more than we can even envision today. This is just a sampling."
Through nanotechnology, multifunctional materials will be able to transport power and data. The materials will also be able to fend off chemical and biological agent attacks, self-decontaminate, and become waterproof.
As in the original concept, a microturbine will provide power for items such as the microclimate conditioning system for heating and cooling. The weapon remains a fire-and-forget system using soft-launch seeking missiles, and a transdermal nutrient delivery system provides the nourishment to get through a battle.
Future Warrior will remain a moving target for researchers, shedding workable techno-logy for the next best thing.
"There's always going to be a Future Warrior," Stewardson says. "In the soldier business, you can never rest on your laurels. Somebody is always out there to beat you."
Future Warrior may be stuck in the future, but Objective Force Warrior (OFW) is moving closer to becoming a reality.
Eagle Enterprise, a division of General Dynamics, will execute Phase II (preliminary and detailed design) and Phase III (demonstration build, training and demonstration) of the OFW programme, managed by the Natick Soldier Centre.
OFW is the Army's flagship soldier science and technology programme. It's focused on providing the future soldier and small team with combat overmatch and skip-a-generation capabilities intended to improve soldier survivability and enable greater combat lethality. Added to this is networked communications between soldiers and other combat platforms such as the Future Combat Systems and Commanche helicopter.
"Army transformation is all about networking soldiers with weapon systems, vehicles, and aircraft to create a joint, integrated fighting force with overwhelming and devastating power," says Lt-General John Riggs, director, Objective Force Task Force. "OFW forms the heart of the soldier-centric Objective Force."
The Objective Force is the US Army's future full-spectrum force - organised, manned, equipped and trained to be more strategically responsive, deployable, agile, versatile, lethal, survivable and sustainable across the entire spectrum of military operations. Its aim - to enable the army to see first, understand first, act first and finish decisively from major-theatre war to peacekeeping missions and US homeland security.
Enabled through a seamless network, the OFW soldiers will have unprecedented battlefield knowledge, standoff precision lethality, ballistic survivability and mobility capabilities available today only in "platform-based" forces, but without burdensome weight. The goal is to reduce a soldier's physical load by 50 percent, down to less than 22kg.
The Natick Soldier Centre is doing its best to integrate electronic capabilities and optical components with textile materials and soldier equipment. Future Warrior Systems already in the pipeline have head-up displays, wireless weapons, global positioning, chemical detectors, battery power, physiological status sensors, and combat ID, all linked to the Warrior's personnel computer to assist in situational awareness and understanding.
Electronic devices are being miniaturised for personal use; however, limited technologies exist to integrate electronics into clothing. Combat clothing materials are currently passive. Consequently, the integration of electronics into the Soldier System will provide enhanced capabilities by providing real-time information to the soldier on the battlefield.
Active "intelligent" textile systems will have the capacity to improve the Warrior's performance by sensing and responding to a situational combat need, allowing the wearer to continue his mission without distraction.
The solution, say its creators, is to convert passive combat clothing into active materials that provide electronic/optical power and data transmission to the on-body computer, batteries, displays and sensors, and to several integrated antennas for near and remote communications.
Personal area network cables, connectors for attaching sensors and computer peripheral devices, and a variety of concealed antennas for near and remote communications need to be integrated into the Warrior's clothing and equipment to reduce the weight and bulk of the current electronic systems that need to be carried. Other areas of interest include the integration of conductive plastic batteries, solar and other power-generating components into textiles.
This is weird stuff. Imagine a fabric coating just a few molecules thick that kills bacteria and keeps the wearer dry, or dynamic body armour based on fluids that harden when exposed to a magnetic field. How about composites of nanoparticles that could be used to create molecular chain mail?
One ISN team is developing ways to monitor patient physiology as well as novel materials to aid wound healing. If all goes according to plan, battlesuit sensors will relay details of a soldier's location and physical condition to headquarters. New nanosurfaces can detect biological and chemical agents and protect the future soldier from those threats.
Biomedical monitoring will use ultrasound to detect a haemorrhage in the injured soldier and cauterise vessels to staunch the bleeding. Soldiers' uniforms can become exomuscular devices for medical applications, such as splints for broken bones. And new nanomaterials can instantaneously change their properties by electrical switching, thereby controlling the delivery and release of life-saving medications.
Another team is working on electronic polymers that can function as chemical and mechanical sensors. Actuator polymers naturally enable the measurement of pressure and motion. In future soldier systems, electronic polymers can be used to create ultrasensitive sensors for detecting explosives, nerve gas, nitric oxide, and even the DNA of specific biological agents.
Nanotechnology fits into this vision in two important ways. First, it offers the potential for miniaturisation, a key part of reducing weight. Today's hefty radio worn on a harness might be reduced to a button-sized tab on the collar.
And a waterproof poncho could be replaced by a permanent nano-thin coating applied to everything the soldier carries.
Second, because nano-technology operates at length scales where classical macroscopic physics breaks down, it offers engineers the potential for creating unprecedented new materials properties and devices. Nanotechnology can solve problems that scientists have been struggling with for decades.
Mechanical actuators embedded as part of a soldier's uniform will allow a transformation from a flexible and compliant material to a non-compliant material that becomes armour, thus protecting the soldier by distributing impact. Soft switchable clothing can also be transformed into a reconfigurable cast that stabilises an injury such as a broken leg.
Contracting materials can be made to apply direct pressure to a wound, function as a tourniquet, or even perform CPR when needed. Mechanical actuators can also be used as exo-muscles for augmentation of a soldier's physical strength or agility, and as wound compresses.
From the US military's perspective, death is not an option.
# Sources: MIT Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies, Natick Soldier Centre.
This article originally appears in the January issue of the South African edition of Popular Mechanics.
-------- afghanistan
8 Children Among 17 Killed in Afghan Blast
January 7, 2004
By CARLOTTA GALL
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/07/international/asia/07AFGH.html?pagewanted=all
KABUL, Afghanistan, Jan. 6 - As many as 17 people were killed and dozens injured, many of them children, in a double bomb blast in the southern city of Kandahar on Tuesday, local officials said. The bombing came just one day after the country triumphantly adopted a new Constitution.
The governor of Kandahar, Yousuf Pashtun, blamed the Taliban movement for the explosions, which took place in the middle of the day within minutes of each other. "They are terrorists, they are coming from Pakistan and they are killing innocent people," he said in comments to Kandahar Television.
President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack as an "act of cruelty and barbarism" and said it would only strengthen his resolve to fight terrorism in Afghanistan.
A statement from his office said that at least eight children were among the dead.
The blasts seemed calculated to cause a high number of casualties, officials said. The first bomb exploded inside a gas cylinder and was far less damaging, injuring no one. The second was far bigger and went off 10 to 15 minutes later in the same place, wounding the many people who had gathered at the site of the first blast, said the head of the police criminal investigation department in Kandahar, Muhammad Nabi Majrooh.
The second bomb had been laid underground and was probably set off by remote control, he said. Twisted wrecks of bicycles were strewn around the bomb site, and at least one truck was destroyed by the blast, television film showed.
Casualties by evening had risen to 17 dead and 43 wounded, Mr. Majrooh said. United States soldiers took 26 children to the hospital at an air base on the edge of Kandahar, said the deputy governor, Muhammad Anas.
Officials said the terrorists might have been planning to attack police and security officials or American soldiers who might be drawn to the site by the first blast. But most victims were children from the Abdul Ahad Karzai primary school, named for the president's father, who was assassinated by Taliban agents five years ago. "They did not kill any government people, but small children coming out from school," Mr. Majrooh said. "Lots of children ran to see what had happened."
He gave a warning on Kandahar Television about the peril of double bombings, and he urged people not to converge on the site of any explosion but to evacuate it immediately. "We had information that the Taliban was going to explode several bombs in Kandahar," Mr. Pashtun said. "We found four bombs in recent days but unfortunately we did not find this one before it exploded." Soldiers caught two suspects fleeing from the scene and were searching for four more men, he said.
He has warned that the Taliban will turn to urban terrorism and aim at soft civilian targets to try to undermine the government and stall reconstruction and investment efforts in the region.
-------- arms
Bill would forbid illegals to bear arms
January 07, 2004
By Christina Bellantoni
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/metro/20040106-101057-1008r.htm
A Virginia lawmaker is drafting a bill that would prohibit illegal immigrants from carrying a gun, a move that toughens a law that he says allows potential terrorists and drug dealers to roam free.
Delegate Thomas C. Wright Jr., Victoria Republican, said current law allows illegal aliens to carry any guns except assault weapons. He said his bill will give police new authority when trying to crack down on terrorism and drug trafficking.
"If it's only used one time, it's worthwhile," Mr. Wright said.
"I'm not approaching this from a gun-control standpoint. If someone is in this country illegally, there is no basis for granting them rights to a firearm," said Mr. Wright, who describes himself as a "strong Second Amendment supporter."
The number of illegal immigrants trying to buy guns has steadily increased over the past 14 years, according to Virginia State Police Lt. Pete Fagan.
Between 1989 and 1999, there were 54 attempts by illegal immigrants to buy guns, Lt. Fagan said. Between 1999 and last year, there were 157 attempts, he said.
State police do not track how many guns are discovered during traffic stops, said Lt. Gary Payne, a state police spokesman.
Federal law already makes it illegal for an illegal alien to carry a gun, but it's difficult to convict anyone of the offense in a timely manner. A state law like the one Mr. Wright is proposing would help police act quickly against offenders, Lt. Fagan said.
Mr. Wright will present his bill in the upcoming session, which starts Jan. 14. He said he doesn't see how any of his fellow lawmakers could "logically" disagree with the proposal.
Lt. Payne said his department would likely take a stance on Mr. Wright's bill before lawmakers vote on it.
Gun control has long been a hot topic in Virginia.
Last year, a Senate panel rejected a bill that would have imposed tighter controls over gun-show sales by subjecting more buyers to criminal-background checks.
A bill to ban all non-police weapons in the state Capitol and General Assembly office building in Richmond also was rejected.
In 2002, the General Assembly voted to bar localities from banning guns in public facilities. The law was drafted to give the state uniform gun laws, and forbids city managers and local elected bodies from imposing a ban through written regulations or ordinances.
----
Turks add water to cement arms deal
By John Vidal
January 7, 2004
The Guardian, The New York Times
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/01/06/1073268041506.html
Israel and Turkey have agreed an extraordinary "water for arms" deal which will involve giant tankers taking millions of gallons of fresh water across the eastern Mediterranean to Israeli ports.
In a series of agreements expected to have long-term strategic implications throughout the Middle East, Israel's Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, and Turkey's Energy Minister, Zeki Cakan, reached the water deal at a meeting in Jerusalem on Monday.
An official in Mr Sharon's office said Turkey tied the arms deal to the water agreement. It will involve Israel building a fleet of giant water tankers to ship 50 million cubic metres of water a year for 20 years from the River Manavgat in Anatolia, and Turkey buying Israeli tanks and air force technology.
Although the amount of water to be imported amounts to only 3 per cent of Israel's current needs, it is expected to cement the growing relationship between the two countries and lay the foundations of long-term water security for Israel.
In the barren Middle East, water is a strategic issue. Turkey, the only country in the region with big water reserves, hopes to become a fresh water superstate. It already delivers water by tanker to Turkish Cyprus and wants to sell Manavgat water to Malta, Greek Cyprus and Crete. It has also held talks on selling water to Jordan.
Sales of water could boost Turkey's position as a regional power, bring in hundreds of millions of dollars a year in hard currency, and build peaceful relations, says its government .
Israel, which uses far more water per capita than any other state in the region, is already desperately short and expects to need much more in the next 20 years for farming and industrial development.
Meanwhile, Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, was showered with catcalls from his own right-wing party when he said on Monday that he would dismantle some Jewish settlements and permit the creation of a Palestinian state if the sides reached a peace agreement.
But Mr Sharon again warned that he was prepared to set a security line unilaterally that would separate Israelis and Palestinians if they could not make progress under the road map peace plan, which has been stalled for months.
-------- business
Bechtel awarded contract for Iraq
January 07, 2004
By Jeffrey Sparshott
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/business/20040106-094001-1892r.htm
The Bush administration yesterday opened the spigot on $18.6 billion in U.S. reconstruction funds for Iraq, awarding San Francisco-based Bechtel National a contract worth up to $1.8 billion to rebuild the country's power grid, water system and other public works.
Congress last year approved the multibillion-dollar funding package for Iraq's stabilization and reconstruction. International donors have also pledged $13 billion to help Iraq, a country ravaged by years of neglect under Saddam Hussein and further battered by military invasion and subsequent looting.
Bechtel has been one of the biggest corporate winners as the U.S. government funds projects in Iraq. The firm last year won what was then the biggest U.S. Agency for International Development contract, originally worth up to $680 million and later expanded by up to $350 million.
The contracting process has come under severe criticism from some legislators and watchdog groups, who have complained of limited competition and potentially improper connections between companies that have won awards and the Bush administration. Bechtel has contributed heavily to Republican election campaigns, and top officials have ties to the Bush administration.
Another firm with administration ties, Houston-based Halliburton Co., also has come under scrutiny for contracts in Iraq. The Army Corps of Engineers awarded Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root contracts worth $2.26 billion through mid-December to restart Iraqi oil production. Vice President Dick Cheney was Halliburton's chief executive before joining George W. Bush's campaign for the presidency.
Pentagon auditors have said KBR may have overcharged the Army by $67 million for fuel delivered to Iraq between April and October. The audit is continuing.
Companies contracting with USAID in Iraq have not been accused of any improprieties, though the bidding process has drawn complaints.
Bidding on the contract announced yesterday was open only to American firms. Bechtel submitted a bid together with Pasadena, Calif.-based Parsons Corp. to beat out two other rivals, USAID said.
USAID officials said the award was made strictly on merit.
"I don't see Bechtel as having any particular advantage or disadvantage," said Tim Beans, director of procurement for USAID.
The Pentagon yesterday also announced plans to open bidding on an additional 17 contracts worth $5 billion. Retired Navy Adm. David Nash, who oversees reconstruction contracts for the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority, said they would likely be awarded in the first part of March.
Mr. Nash said the CPA, which reports to the Pentagon, was holding $4.6 billion of the $18.6 billion for future reconstruction work, which would be identified as the situation in Iraq unfolds.
A report by the White House's Office of Management and Budget yesterday outlined other spending priorities, including security and law enforcement, institution building, oil projects, health care and education.
The procurement process has been delayed as the State Department (which oversees USAID), the Defense Department and other agencies battle over the funds and as the administration outlines project priorities.
The reconstruction projects are part of a complex effort led by the CPA, headed by L. Paul Bremer, to stabilize the country and transfer power to Iraqis by the end of June.
Mr. Beans and Andrew Natsios, USAID's administrator, said Mr. Bremer is setting reconstruction priorities, with input from Iraq's government ministries, for all agencies involved in reconstruction.
It is still not clear which agencies - the CPA, the Pentagon, USAID or the Army, which is handling oil-related contracts - will oversee some of the remaining reconstruction work.
"Are there disagreements over details? Yes, there are, but I have to tell you: I think sometimes they are a little exaggerated," Mr. Natsios said.
While the USAID contract was limited to U.S. firms, the Pentagon contracts will be open to a wider range of countries that supported the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. France, Germany and other war opponents are not allowed to bid, though the list may be revised, a senior adminstration official said yesterday at the Pentagon.
USAID officials said subcontracts, which can cover the majority of the award, are open to all but a handful of nations forbidden by federal regulations, such as Cuba and Libya.
Iraqi firms are expected to see much of the subcontracting work. Bechtel said as part of its first reconstruction contract, it had thus far awarded 122 of 162 subcontracts to Iraqi firms.
Bechtel's latest contract will run through December 2005, well after Iraqis are expected to be running their own government.
----
Danish firms mulling leaving Joint Strike Fighter jet program: report
COPENHAGEN (AFP)
Jan 07, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040107170728.hrtzqgu2.html
Danish companies involved in the US-led Joint Strike Fighther program are considering leaving the project because they have yet to receive orders from US defence group Lockheed Martin, the business newspaper Boersen reported Wednesday.
"If we don't get firm contracts for the JSF before the summer, we'll give up on the project as a sub-contractor. That means we paid millions of kroner for nothing," the head of Systematic Software Engineering, Michael Holm, told the newspaper.
Four Danish firms agreed in the late 1990s to pay 170 million kronermillion dollars, 23 million euros) and the Danish government 722 million kroner to participate in the project to develop the latest generation of the fighter jet, for which Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor.
Potential suppliers Terma and Maersk Data Defence were also losing patience, the newspaper reported.
Terma had expected firm orders before the end of 2003 but negotiations have been dragging on, according to its head Jens Maaloee.
"There's the general problem of this project that the Americans have to give foreign suppliers confidential information with the risk in the worse case that it falls into the hands of ennemies. But we told them that that they will have to do it if we are to to participate in the development of this project," he said.
The first batch of 400 JSF aircraft are expected to go into service from 2008 to 2012.
The JSF, originally developed for the US and British armed forces, is envisioned as a stealthy fighter aircraft built in variants to operate from aircraft carriers, conventional airfields or in a short takeoff and vertical landing mode.
----
RECONSTRUCTION
Bechtel Wins Its Second Big Contract for Iraq
January 7, 2004
By MICHAEL JANOFSKY
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/07/international/middleeast/07CONT.html?pagewanted=all
WASHINGTON, Jan. 6 - For the second time in nine months, the engineering company Bechtel National, the government contracting arm of the Bechtel group, has won a large government contract to help restore power, water and other essential services in Iraq.
Officials from the United States Agency for International Development said Tuesday that the deal could be worth as much as $1.82 billion over two years. It follows the awarding of a $1 billion contract for similar work over 20 months that Bechtel won in April.
The latest award was made after a three-month open bidding process in which Bechtel competed against two other companies, which were not identified. The earlier award came after the agency invited Bechtel and six other companies to bid for reconstruction work.
Bechtel's first deal with the government was one of a series of federal contracts awarded shortly after the end of major combat in Iraq. The contracts not only drew criticism from members of Congress and public interest groups who charged that the bidding was not open enough but they also attracted the interest of the General Accounting Office, which began an investigation. Its report is expected to be completed in a few months.
Still sensitive to questions about the integrity of the award process, Bechtel, a San Francisco-based company, has been a generous campaign contributor to President Bush and other Republicans, but senior agency officials insisted Tuesday that both awards were made in full compliance with federal laws and that Bechtel had not gained any special advantage as a result of winning the first contract.
Tim Beans, the agency's director of procurement, insisted that Bechtel's proposal was not only less expensive but technically superior to the others. "You have to assume that past performance was taken into consideration, but Bechtel had just as much chance to mess up as do well," he said.
Andrew S. Natsios, the agency administrator, said sharply, "The notion that any of us going in manipulated the process is ridiculous."
Shortly after the Bechtel contract was announced, the Defense Department said it was seeking bids for another 17 construction and management projects in Iraq worth $5 billion.
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3 Teams Picked to Plan Airliner Defense Systems
January 7, 2004
By MATTHEW L. WALD
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/07/national/07MISS.html
WASHINGTON, Jan. 6 - The Homeland Security Department said on Tuesday that it had picked three teams of companies to try to adapt military antimissile systems to protect airliners in an effort to counter the threat of terrorists with shoulder-fired missiles near airports.
The contracts are the first American effort to place such protection on airliners. Officials said it would take two years before they knew whether such a system was practical. Officials said that along with the costs they also worried about blinding people on the ground with lasers and starting fires with flares if a "false positive" or actual attack activated the system. In a war zone, military planes do not face those considerations to the same degree, the domestic security officials said.
Critics said the Bush administration was proceeding too slowly because of the potential cost. Under the first phase of the program, each team named on Tuesday will have $2 million and six months to draw up plans. After those are reviewed, the government will pay two or three teams to test a prototype. After 18 months, the department will decide on the feasibility.
"We don't have any facts right now," said Penrose Carballo Albright, assistant secretary for plans, programs and budgets in the Homeland Security Department. "We're going to spend the next two years collecting facts."
Two teams were assembled by military contractors, Northrop Grumman of Los Angeles and BAE Systems of London, and the third by United Airlines, part of UAL of Elk Grove, Ill. Twenty-four companies had submitted proposals. Five were asked for more detailed presentations. Officials said the criteria included management skills.
Mr. Albright said that although the technology existed it was not suitable for commercial airline use. Laser systems used on military planes, he said, generally require maintenance after a few hundred hours of operation, but airliners fly longer between major maintenance visits.
Adaptation, he said, was "an extraordinarily difficult problem."
Senator Charles E. Schumer, the New York Democrat who has proposed legislation to require such systems, noted that a terrorist attack on an Israeli plane in Kenya occurred 14 months ago. Air Force One and El Al use such systems, Mr. Schumer said.
Northrop Grumman has a Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures system on the large Boeing C-17 cargo plane that uses infrared energy to jam sensors of an incoming missile.
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Three Firms to Study Defending Airliners Against Missiles
By Renae Merle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 7, 2004
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60470-2004Jan6.html
The Department of Homeland Security, which has identified shoulder-fired missiles as threats to commercial aircraft, yesterday chose three companies to develop anti-missile technology.
BAE Systems Inc., Northrop Grumman Corp. and United Air Lines Inc. each will get a $2 million contract to study the cost of the technology and submit designs within six months. One or two contractors will then build prototypes of the systems.
Shoulder-fired missiles have been used to shoot down military helicopters and other aircraft in Iraq and Afghanistan, raising concerns that the weapons could be used against the 6,800 U.S. commercial planes.
The government proposal calls for adapting military technology to commercial planes -- a concept that many are skeptical of. Some military planes drop hot flares during takeoff or landing to confuse heat-seeking missiles, but the flares sometimes cause ground fires and could be dangerous in populated areas, industry experts say. The military systems also often need frequent and expensive maintenance and the high cost would be difficult for airlines to absorb, they say.
The competition will determine whether the technology can be adapted safely and economically, said Penrose C. Albright, the assistant Homeland Security secretary for plans, programs and budgets. It would then be up to Congress and the president to determine whether to deploy the technology and who should pay for it, Albright said.
Some have estimated that putting the technology on all commercial aircraft could cost $7 billion to $10 billion.
"It would be premature to discuss who will pay until we know all the facts," Albright said in a conference call. "We don't have any facts right now."
Some critics in Congress have complained that the department has been slow in pursuing the technology. "Shoulder-fired missiles are probably the greatest danger commercial airliners face in today's world. While I'm glad [the department] is finally moving forward, it's at much too slow a pace," said Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). "We can't afford to wait another two years to outfit planes. It's already been 14 months since the Kenya attacks." In 2002, a shoulder-fired missile targeted but missed an Israeli charter jet taking off in Kenya.
Homeland security officials defended the agency's progress. The Bush administration is "taking a very aggressive approach on measures to counter the potential threat of shoulder-fired missiles," said Charles E. McQueary, the undersecretary of science and technology.
BAE plans to adapt a laser-based system used on several types of Army helicopters. After a sensor detects an incoming missile, a laser tracks it and emits enough energy to confuse it and send it off course, company officials said.
Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman also is using a laser-based technology, one that jams the guidance system of incoming missiles, company officials said. With a large order, Northrop Grumman officials have said they could deploy the system for $1 million a plane.
United is leading a team that includes Alliant Techsystems Inc., a defense contractor, to develop a system deploying flares similar to one used by military aircraft. When a plane detects an incoming missile, it emits small decoys that confuse heat-seeking missiles and send them off course, said Bryce Hallowell, a spokesman for Alliant. Unlike the military's flare-based systems, the Alliant decoys are invisible to the naked eye, burn at a low temperature and evaporate before hitting the ground, he said. The system is already used on C-5 and C-17 military transport planes, Hallowell said.
--------
COSTS
Army Official Backs Halliburton on Fuel Price
January 7, 2004
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/07/politics/07FUEL.html?pagewanted=all
WASHINGTON, Jan. 6 - An Army Corps of Engineers official overseeing Halliburton's imports of fuel into Iraq from Kuwait has found that the company has "continued to negotiate the best price possible" for the fuel and has also provided information indicating that the prices paid are "fair and reasonable."
Halliburton, the giant Texas oil services concern, has been under fire since the disclosure last month that Pentagon auditors found evidence that its Kellogg Brown & Root subsidiary allowed a Kuwaiti subcontractor to overcharge the government by at least $61 million.
Halliburton did not profit from overcharges, officials have said, but the disclosure has led to calls for the company to repay any overcharges.
But on Dec. 19 - after the disclosure of the auditors' preliminary findings - the head of the Army Corps signed a waiver allowing Kellogg Brown & Root to continue to buy gasoline and other fuel from the Kuwaiti contractor, Altanmia, without submitting the cost and pricing information that otherwise would be required by federal contracting rules. The waiver, signed by Lt. Gen. Robert B. Flowers, was reported on Tuesday by The Wall Street Journal.
On Tuesday, officials with the Army Corps cautioned that the waiver did not absolve Halliburton of liability for any overcharges.
"We're still awaiting the outcome of the audit to see what they've determined," said a spokeswoman for the Army Corps, Carol Sanders. "The waiver does not relieve KBR of their responsibility to charge the government a fair and reasonable price for the fuel purchases."
Gordon Sumner, the Army Corps contracting officer who found that the prices were "fair and reasonable," wrote in the waiver request that officials at the Kuwaiti Petroleum Company had blocked efforts to export fuel from Kuwait to Iraq using anyone other than Altanmia, even though other companies had made more favorable proposals.
Altanmia has refused to provide cost and pricing information because doing so would violate Kuwaiti law, according to the Army Corps.
Last month, the deputy director of the Defense Contract Audit Agency, Michael Thibault, said the draft report by the agency recommended that the Army Corps seek reimbursement. The preliminary findings, Mr. Thibault said, involved "potentially very substantial" overcharging.
In a statement on Tuesday, the agency said the Army Corps had promised to provide auditors with information establishing that the prices paid for the subcontracted fuel deliveries were fair and reasonable. Once that is received, "that will conclude the D.C.A.A. audit work on this issue," the statement said.
Democrats in Congress attacked the waiver on Tuesday, saying it would sabotage efforts to recover improper overcharges. "The Defense Department is ignoring their own audit that showed Halliburton had bilked taxpayers out of $61 million," said Senator Frank Lautenberg, Democrat of New Jersey.
Wendy Hall, a Halliburton spokeswoman, said, "The facts show that KBR delivered fuel to Iraq at the best value, the best price, and the best terms and in ways completely consistent with government procurement policies."
-------- china
Beijing Derails Hong Kong Plans for Democratic Reforms
January 7, 2004
By KEITH BRADSHER
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/07/international/asia/07CND-HONG.html
HONG KONG, Jan. 7 - Objections from Beijing have derailed plans to set a timetable for democratic reforms here, senior Hong Kong officials said today, as they announced that a task force would begin meeting immediately with various mainland Chinese government departments.
Residents of this autonomous Chinese territory have held many rallies in the past six months to demand greater voting rights, with as many as 100,000 taking to the streets on New Year's Day and 500,000 on July 1. But after promising in September to set a timetable by the end of December for pursuing constitutional changes, senior officials said here today that they were unable to set any schedule because of Beijing's concerns.
Donald Tsang, the chief secretary and second-ranking government official in Hong Kong, said that President Hu Jintao of China had expressed concerns to Tung Chee-hwa, Hong Kong's chief executive, on Dec. 3, and that Beijing officials had subsequently asked for consultations on "matters of principle and legislative procedure."
"There was a clear indication at the end of December it would be better for Hong Kong to hold discussions with the various departments of the central government," Mr. Tsang said.
In his annual policy speech to the legislature, Mr. Tung devoted just four paragraphs to constitutional changes. Mr. Tung said Mr. Tsang would form the task force with Elsie Leung, the secretary of justice, and Stephen Lam, the secretary for constitutional affairs.
The absence of any timetable for greater voting rights angered democracy advocates, who announced that they would follow up the march on New Year's Day with a smaller candlelight vigil downtown on Thursday evening.
With China's ruling Politburo having taken increasingly direct control over Hong Kong policy in recent months after three street demonstrations here in July, the decision not to proceed quickly toward greater voting rights here suggests that the Communist Party remains leery of political changes despite some signs of greater openness since Mr. Hu became president last spring, China experts said.
"It certainly raises doubts about the democratic or liberal credentials of the new leadership," said Michael Davis, a professor of law and public affairs at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
While President Hu has not presented himself as a democrat, he has tried to craft a more friendly public image than his predecessors, visiting workers in impoverished areas and tolerating the election of a handful of political independents to neighborhood people's congresses. President Hu called in October for the Communist Party to "ensure that the people can exercise democratic elections."
But Mr. Tung said that when he recently visited Beijing, President Hu "pointed out to me the serious concern and principled stance of the Central People's Government toward the development of Hong Kong's political structure."
The latest delay in progress toward democracy here is likely to hurt pro-government political parties in the next legislative elections, to be held in early September. Voters in Taiwan, who will choose their next president on March 20, are also likely to view the setback here as another reason not to support closer relations with China, which has wanted Taiwan to rejoin the mainland politically under much the same "One country, two systems" approach it has used in Hong Kong.
Protesters have been calling for Mr. Tung's successor to be chosen in 2007 through universal suffrage, and not by the same 800-member committee of Beijing loyalists here who selected Mr. Tung. Democracy activists also want all members of the legislature to be elected democratically in 2008 elections, instead of having half the legislature chosen by industry leaders and prominent professionals, who tend to favor Beijing as well.
Hong Kong's Basic Law, a mini-constitution drafted for the territory by China and Britain before Britain's handover of the territory to China in 1997, calls for chief executives after 2007 to be chosen by more democratic means, but is vague on whether this would include the chief executive selected in 2007 to serve until 2012.
Mr. Tsang pointed out that the government here always planned to consult with Beijing on constitutional changes, and would have included this in a timetable that it drafted but never issued. The task force and Beijing want to work as quickly as possible to reach consensus, and will definitely do so by 2007, Mr. Tsang said.
-------- europe
EU to be nominated for 2004 Nobel peace prize
OSLO (AFP)
Jan 07, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040107153645.6gx8q5ku.html
Former Norwegian prime minister Thorbjoern Jagland said Wednesday he would nominate the European Union for the 2004 Nobel peace prize, stating that its expansion plans to include 10 new countries on May 1 will help enhance democracy in Europe.
"The expansion has been decided and will be realized. This is the main thing the Nobel Committee should have in mind," Jagland told AFP.
"2004 is, in my opinion, the right year to give the peace prize to the European Union," he said in an earlier article published in Norwegian daily Aftenposten.
Jagland, who headed up a labor government from 1996 to 1997, and who currently presides over the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, said that he soon intended to submit the EU candidacy to the Nobel Committee, which is made up of five independent members.
Parliamentarians and ministers of every nation, along with former Nobel prize laureates and some university professors, can nominate candidates for the prestigious Nobel peace prize. They must submit their nominations to the Nobel Committee by February 1.
Jagland has long been one of the main advocates for Norway to join the EU.
The oil-rich Scandinavian country has in two separate referendums -- one in 1972 and one in 1994 -- rejected becoming a member of the Union.
"Big things have happened and will happen in Europe thanks to the EU," Jagland told Aftenposten. "The EU, as I see it, has transformed the old bellicose powers... into peacemakers."
"Initially inclined to war and colonization, the continent has transformed itself into a peacemaker. It deserves the most important peace prize," he added.
In addition to leveling the democratic and financial playing field in Europe, Jagland said the EU had played a vital roll in bringing the Greek and Turkish communities in Cyprus closer together, improving the protection of minorities in Central and Eastern Europe, and accelerating the democratization process in Turkey.
Nobel Institute director Geir Lundestad has himself on several occasions said he felt the European Union belonged on the list of Nobel laureates.
The Nobel Committee has, however, avoided giving the Union the prestigious prize out of fear, observers say, of appearing to interfere with internal Norwegian politics.
"The committee should make its decision based on historical facts and not out of consideration for Norwegian politics," Jagland said to AFP.
The peace prize laureates are usually announced in Oslo in mid-October.
The peace prize in 2003 was awarded to Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian human rights lawyer.
-------- iraq
U.S. to Free 506 Low-Security Prisoners in Iraq
January 7, 2004
By EDWARD WONG
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/07/international/middleeast/07CND-DETA.html?hp
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 7 - The American-led government announced here today that it will release 506 prisoners held as low-security threats over the past eight months, with the first 100 to be freed on Thursday.
The authority also said it would take a more aggressive approach to hunting down leading figures in Saddam Hussein's government still on its most-wanted list and other people believed to be directing an insurgency against coalition forces.
"It is time for reconciliation, time for Iraqis to make common cause," L. Paul Bremer III, the United States administrator in Iraq, said at a news conference. He was accompanied by Adnan Pachachi, president of the Iraqi Governing Council, who praised the move.
"In a gesture to give impetus to those Iraqis who wish to reconcile with their countrymen, the coalition will permit some currently detained offenders to return to their homes and families," Mr. Bremer said.
About 9,000 security detainees are being held by American forces in Iraq and many more have been briefly detained and released since Mr. Hussein was ousted in April.
Officials said those to be released on Thursday included 28 juveniles and were all male. The others will be freed over the coming months. Mr. Bremer said none of the prisoners was suspected of carrying out attacks against the coalition.
"This is not a program for those with blood-stained hands," he said. "No person directly involved in the death or serious bodily harm to any human being will be released."
Military officials said those to be released were mostly people detained for associating with suspected insurgents or carrying out low-level anti-occupation activities.
Those released must sign a form renouncing violence and must be seconded by a guarantor, such as a prominent community figure, religious leader or tribal chief, who will take responsibility for their conduct after release.
If they violate the conditions, they could be re-arrested.
But Mr. Bremer said it should not be interpreted as American forces' going soft now that Mr. Hussein is in captivity. The hunt for Hussein loyalists would continue, he said.
"If they continue to fight, the coalition is prepared to capture or kill them and, I am convinced, the coming Iraqi government will be prepared to do the same," he said. Washington is planning to hand over power to an Iraqi government in June.
One senior military official gave an example of the detainees: Soldiers raiding a house might have held four brothers, three of them armed and planning attacks, and the fourth in an upstairs room reading. The fourth man would have known about the plot, the official said, and might even have planned to take part, but was not caught doing anything wrong.
Once detainees are freed, there are no rules dictating what they do. As for the community leaders who guarantee their behavior, their promises are moral, not legal, and they face no consequences, the officials said.
The American military in Iraq regularly releases detainees, but this is the first time the military will free people who are considered suspect. Most are being held in Abu Ghraib, a prison on the western outskirts of Baghdad.
The officials said the authorities hope that the action will persuade low-level insurgents or sympathizers to refrain from violence or to help occupation forces.
"The reconciliation process is beginning," a senior official with the Coalition Provisional Authority said. "This is one small part of it."
To determine who would be freed, the military reviewed the files of 9,000 detainees; those who had committed violence were eliminated from consideration. Military lawyers and intelligence officers reviewed those remaining and sent on 1,200 files to a board that settled on the final 506.
The military will review the files of detainees to see whether others qualify to be released, the officials said.
--------
THE MILITARY
In Hussein's Shadow, New Iraqi Army Strives to Be Both New and Iraqi
January 7, 2004
By JOHN F. BURNS
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/07/international/middleeast/07IRAQ.html?pagewanted=all
TAJI, Iraq, Jan. 6 - If moments in the new Iraq strain credulity for those who knew the country under Saddam Hussein, few have done so more than the scene on Tuesday at this old Iraqi barracks: recruits of the new Iraqi Army marched across the parade square, past rows of saluting American officers, to the strains of "Colonel Bogey March," the theme for the movie "The Bridge on the River Kwai."
When Mr. Hussein was still taunting President Bush over his threat to overthrow him, the huge base at Taji, 20 miles northwest of Baghdad, was synonomous with the dictator's yearning for military power and conquest.
New tank battalions came here in the 1980's before deploying in Iraq's brutal war with Iran. At least until the mid-1990's, a secret complex adjacent to the base was at the heart of Mr. Hussein's drive to acquire chemical weapons and missiles.
At Taji, engineers built and tested the pilotless plane that Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said was one of Iraq's major threats when he addressed a crisis meeting of the United Nations Security Council in February.
Now, Mr. Hussein is an American detainee facing a probable war crimes trial, and here arrayed on the sun-beaten asphalt at Taji for their graduation parade stood 691 men of the Second Battalion of the new Iraqi Army, nearly 60 percent of them soldiers in Mr. Hussein's army until the American invasion in March.
The new battalion made a creditable showing with a precision marchpast in camouflage uniforms self-consciously different from those of both Mr. Hussein's army and the Americans': British-style berets and badges of rank and other insignia that go back to the first Iraqi republic, which was established in 1958 by the military coup that overthrew and killed King Faisal II. The badges have been stripped of the Baathist tracery that slipped in under Mr. Hussein.
A poignant but somewhat inauthentic air echoed in the discordant strains of the new army's marching band, especially when it played tunes borrowed from the country's occupiers, like "Colonel Bogey" and "The British Grenadier," which harks back to Napoleonic wars.
But the Iraqis on hand cheered up when the band shifted to "The Army Is a Fence for the Country," a tune that originated under the first military ruler, Abdul Karim Kassem, and remained in vogue under Mr. Hussein.
Through the parade and the soldiers' exuberant tribal dancing that followed, there was an air of expectancy, hesitant but still real, that Iraq can overcome the paralyzing insurgency of recent months and construct the Arab Middle East's first, or at least fullest, democracy.
Just as palpable was the soldiers' unease at the shadow still cast by Mr. Hussein, in whose cause, or memory, many of the insurgent attacks have been made, and many threats have been leveled against any man joining the new army.
It was a moment for the politicians vying for power in the new Iraq, and for the British and American officers, to speak proudly, or at least hopefully, of the role the new army of 40,000 men can play in burying the grim memories of Mr. Hussein. They are to be deployed by September.
Among the hopeful was Adnan Pachachi, the current chairman of the government-in-waiting, the American-appointed Iraqi Governing Council.
He is one of the leading candidates to be Iraq's next president, after the United States returns sovereignty to Iraq. The scheduled date is June 30.
The new Iraqi Army, Mr. Pachachi said, would return all Iraqis to their lost days of "glory and pride." As well, he said, it would be the guarantor that nobody like Mr. Hussein could ever arise again.
"You, my friends, are the nucleus of our new army, the bastion of a new democracy and freedom in Iraq," he said.
As Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld reckons it, Iraqis are already bearing a major share of the burden in defending the post-Hussein state.
By the Pentagon's count, the new battalion will join 160,000 armed Iraqis serving alongside the United States-led occupation forces - in the police, in a new civil defense force, in the border police, in a unit called the Facilities Protection Service, which guards important buildings and installations. The figure is greater than the total strength of the occupation forces, currently about 140,000 troops from 38 countries.
But the hard fact, admitted by American commanders, is that the new Iraq will depend on a steadying presence of tens of thousands of American troops for years, even if Iraqi politicians, Arabs and Kurds and Turkmens, Shiite and Sunni Muslims and the small minority of Christians, can settle their squabbles over power-sharing in a new constitution.
Some American officers said troops would be here three to five years; others say 10 to 15. Iraqis tend to the higher estimates, even as they say they wish the Americans could withdraw much sooner.
Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the American commander in Iraq, told reporters at the parade that he believed that the American command had overcome a setback that developed when about 400 men from the first 700-man battalion to graduate, in October, quit within a month in protest over low pay. Other American officers said about 30 of those who deserted had been taken back, or are under review for readmission, after a decision to add a "hazardous duty allowance" of $72 to the basic monthly salaries of the new soldiers, which begin at $60 for a private first class and rise to about $150 for a lieutenant colonel.
Among the new soldiers, thoughts ran back to Mr. Hussein. After the parade, many told of abandoning their front-line units in the dictator's army as American troops pushed north from Kuwait toward Baghdad.
Faris Islam, a 34-year-old native of Mosul, in Iraq's northland, said he was based in Basra, in the south, as a captain, the rank to which he has been restored in the new army.
As the invasion began, Captain Islam said, he and his fellow officers broke years of silence born out of the fear of being arrested and executed for disloyalty.
"We talked about Saddam for the first time," he said, "and we discovered that we all thought the same: that he had tyrannized the entire country and driven all of us into poverty, and that there was nobody to blame for this but him."
So, Captain Islam said, he and the rest of the unit fled north. "I was not prepared to die for him," he said.
In a group of men gathered around Captain Islam, all said that joining with the Americans in constructing a new army put them and their families at risk of attack by the insurgents, who have vowed to kill any Iraqis in league with the Americans.
But one officer pushed forward and said, to mutters of approval, that the risk was worth it.
"Ignorant people don't respect us," said the officer, Capt. Uday Najam, 28. "Former regime people, flunkies of Saddam, say we are serving the Americans. But we don't pay them any attention. Iraq is our country, and we will serve it in any way we can until we can get the country back on its feet again."
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Past and Future Clash on Iraqi Army Day
New Troops Graduate As Ex-Soldiers Protest During Subdued Holiday
By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, January 7, 2004; Page A12
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60342-2004Jan6.html
BAGHDAD, Jan. 6 -- There was no public wreath-laying Tuesday at the national monument to unknown soldiers, now off-limits inside a U.S. military zone. There were no street parades or tributes to the fallen of the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s and the Persian Gulf War of the early 1990s.
Instead, the annual holiday known as Iraqi Army Day highlighted two contradictory versions of the nation's proud but checkered military history, and two competing visions of its hopeful but uncertain military future -- one from a young generation of fresh army recruits, the other from an older one of embittered dismissed officers.
In the southern city of Basra, meanwhile, a protest by jobless soldiers and officers -- most of them fired in May when U.S. authorities announced the disbanding of Iraq's half-million-man army -- led to fatal violence when Iraqi police shot into the rock-throwing crowd. Four demonstrators were injured, and two of those reportedly died later in a hospital.
At a graduation ceremony in a spartan, guarded training camp north of the capital, a battalion of 700 new infantry troops, recruited and trained by U.S. and allied forces, marched smartly past American and Iraqi officials Tuesday morning, presenting their colors and saluting for formal inspection.
"Today we are taking a big step toward building the army of a democratic and free Iraq," said Adnan Pachachi, current holder of the Iraqi Governing Council's rotating presidency. The holiday is both a tribute to soldiers who died defending the nation and a reminder of the "brutal rulers who made the army an instrument for aggression," he told the recruits. The "army of the future will be a professional force, subordinate to a civilian government chosen by the people."
At the same time, in a posh men's social club in suburban Baghdad, several hundred dismissed army officers and their associates gathered to commemorate the holiday with mixed emotions. All wore business suits, tribal robes or other civilian attire to avoid problems with occupation forces.
"After 30 years, a uniform is part of your life. Can you imagine how humiliating it feels to leave it hanging at home on a day like this?" said Nasser Said Taufiq, 55, a former inspector general of the army, whose chin bristled with white stubble. "In the army it is forbidden to grow a beard. For us it is a sign of mourning, like going to a funeral."
Yet leaders of the former officers' movement -- many of whom once professed loyalty to Saddam Hussein as a requisite for rising through the ranks -- spoke with patriotic pride as they recounted Iraq's military support of Arab causes, including the Palestinians' conflict with Israel. They swore their only ambition was to be reinstated and recognized as a professional and apolitical force in national life.
"We never wanted to be involved in politics. Our role was to be neutral and protect the people," said former lieutenant general Khaled Mohammed Jabouri. Hussein's government "tried to convert the army to party politics, but people complied only in appearance. In their hearts they did not want to interfere."
A senior U.S. diplomat, making a brief and heavily guarded appearance at the event, reached out to the former officers and acknowledged they had faced "questions and problems." Speaking in Arabic, Ronald Schlicher, a top deputy to L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator of Iraq, stopped short of offering the officers their old jobs back but said occupation authorities wanted them to become "partners in building a new Iraq."
Since the wholesale dismissal of the army eight months ago, U.S. officials have concentrated on recruiting and training fresh soldiers who have no association with Hussein's government as part of its strategy to create a force of 20,000. But the initiative has encountered numerous difficulties, from lack of equipment to poor morale and a high desertion rate among the recruits.
On patrol in Baghdad, members of another new Iraqi security force, the Civil Defense Corps, expressed commitment to their jobs and determination to win popular support after years of dictatorship.
"Not everyone is proud of the Iraqi army, because they are still not sure what our duties and motives are," said Sgt. Mohammed Mehdi, 41, a former agricultural engineer who was guarding a gas station. "They have an image of soldiers protecting the former regime, but day by day, as they see how humanely we treat them, they are gaining respect and trust toward us."
Despite the solemn occasion, which has traditionally been used to honor the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi soldiers killed in various regional wars, some groups used the occasion to emphasize the abuses and defeats of the Iraqi army since its founding in 1921.
The Iraqi National Congress, a major U.S.-backed political group, highlighted these flaws in detail for the press, describing how the army had oppressed southern tribes and northern Christians, gassed Kurdish villages, attacked Iran and invaded Kuwait, all at a cost of countless lives and expense.
"We are not against the Iraqi army, but we must be clear about its role and acknowledge its past mistakes before we open the page to a new and democratic Iraq," said Entifadh Qanbar, a spokesman for the Iraqi National Congress. "Millions of Iraqis were killed by the army, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis wasted their youths in foolish wars."
Yet many Baghdad residents strolling the sidewalks, eating at cafes and browsing in shops on the holiday expressed stubborn faith and pride in the armed services. Even without the traditional parades and wreath-laying ceremonies, people said they would celebrate privately, in their own way, with family and friends.
"We must remember that those who served in the army are our brothers and husbands and fathers. How can we forget them?" said Lamia Sabrin, 28, who was pushing a baby carriage down a suburban Baghdad street. Pausing to sit on a bench, she offered a foreign visitor a chocolate bonbon in honor of the occasion.
Her husband, an engineer named Rughad Ahmad, shook his head in resigned disagreement.
"The army is finished," he said grimly. "Once they were very strong, but now we don't see them on the streets anywhere. We only see American troops."
During the war last April, he said, his two younger brothers were accidentally shot by U.S.-led forces. "For now, people are just trying to survive. Maybe one day, God willing, Iraq and its army will be strong again."
-------- israel / palestine
Israeli Troops Kill Three Palestinians in West Bank
January 7, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Israel-Palestinians.html?pagewanted=all
JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israeli soldiers patrolling West Bank towns shot and killed three Palestinian militants Wednesday during an ongoing sweep of the area, according to the army and witnesses.
The army has been conducting stepped up operations against militants throughout the northern West Bank since mid-December, focusing heavily on the city of Nablus. Soldiers have killed 14 Palestinians in the city over the past three weeks.
On Wednesday, troops in Nablus killed two members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a militia loosely affiliated with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah party, witnesses said. It was not clear if the men, identified as Naim Atari and Aboud Kasas, had been resisting, the witnesses said.
An army spokesman said troops in Nablus shot and killed one Palestinian who drew a pistol and threatened to fire on them and a second who refused repeated commands to give himself up.
``Nablus is the hottest and most dangerous town,'' a senior Israeli commander told reporters in Nablus on Tuesday on condition of anonymity. ``Most of the suicide bombers, most of the bombs, most of the ammunition, is in Nablus.''
Troops shot and killed a third Palestinian in Tulkarem, in the northern West Bank, after he fired on troops during an arrest operation, the military said. Palestinian witnesses identified the dead man as Hisham Haraish, 21, who was affiliated with the militant Hamas group.
During overnight raids in the area of Nablus and the nearby town of Jenin, troops also arrested 19 militants, the army said.
Late Tuesday, the army shot at a suspicious figure, possibly armed with an anti-tank missile, crawling toward a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip. The army said it was unsure if the person was hit, and Israeli and Palestinian searches of the area revealed no body.
The continued violence came amid stalled efforts to rejuvenate the peace process aimed at ending 39 months of attacks.
Palestinians dismissed on Tuesday an Israeli list of 28 settlement outposts to be dismantled under a U.S.-backed peace plan as inadequate and deceptive.
Security sources said the 28 outposts were slated for removal under the U.S.-backed ``road map'' peace plan, which requires Israel to take down all outposts built since March 2001.
The Peace Now watchdog group says there are at least 60 of them and several dozen others established earlier.
Palestinians charge that the outposts are part of a larger effort to prevent them from setting up a state in the West Bank and Gaza. They view all Jewish settlement in the areas as illegal.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat dismissed the list. ``They don't want peace, but the continuation of the military operation and what they are doing, removing outposts here and there, which is only deception,'' he said Tuesday.
The list was disclosed Tuesday a day after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told a convention of his hawkish party that even some of the larger veteran settlements would have to be torn down under a peace accord or moved as part of a proposed unilateral plan to disengage from the Palestinians.
The shift in the thinking of Sharon -- the settlers' patron for decades -- underscored the effect the violence has had on Israel coupled with the U.S. push to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Speaking on Tuesday in Jerusalem, Efraim Halevy, a former head of the Mossad secret service, said the willingness to remove settlements was connected to the U.S. toppling of Saddam Hussein, which removed the threat of attack from the east -- one of the key reasons some in Israel wanted to hold on to the West Bank.
``One has to reconsider the settlements in terms of their strategic (importance) as they are today, not as they were yesterday or the day before. Strategic considerations ... change over the years,'' Halevy said.
Halevy, who also served as head of Sharon's National Security Council but is now out of public service, said the ``road map'' cannot be implemented. ``We know this, and the Palestinians know this, and the United States knows this,'' Halevy told foreign journalists.
Noting that the plan's first target dates -- stopping all violence, reforming the Palestinian Authority and setting up a provisional Palestinian state by 2003 -- have passed, Halevy said the real role of the plan was to serve as a catalyst for restarting peace talks. With negotiations going in their own direction, the road map would become irrelevant, he said.
Neither side has carried out the road map's first steps, which require the Palestinians to dismantle violent groups and Israel to take down outposts and freeze settlement construction.
Also Wednesday, Israeli media reported that Israel was seeking ties with Libya -- a longtime bitter foe -- in the wake of the country's announcement it had given up efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction.
-------- mideast
Politician: Israel, Libya ties possible
January 07, 2004
(UPI)
http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20040107-091229-4426r.htm
JERUSALEM, Jan. 7 -- An Israeli Knesset member says there is a possibility Israel could establish diplomatic links with Libya.
Ephraim Sneh, confirming a report he and fellow legislator Ilan Shalgi met recently with the son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, said Wednesday the Libyan leader is not averse to diplomatic ties, Ha'aretz reported.
His remarks came as the Foreign Ministry launched a diplomatic initiative to develop ties with Libya. The initiative followed the announcement by Gadhafi that his country is scrapping its weapons of mass destruction.
Sneh told Israel Radio of an August meeting involving Israelis, Palestinians, and the Libyan leader's son and heir apparent, Saif al-Islam Gadhafi.
"My impression from speaking to Gadhafi the son, who is said to be his intended heir, is that they are beginning to tour the world, to examine this modern world that they wish to join," he said.
Officials in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon expressed skepticism about the Libya initiative, saying, "It doesn't appear serious."
----
Assad given weapons ultimatum
By Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor
07/01/2004
UK Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;$sessionid$2LJXDU5ENWKMFQFIQMFSFF4AVCBQ0IV0?xml=/news/2004/01/07/wsyria07.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/01/07/ixworld.html
America and Britain rebuffed President Bashar Assad of Syria yesterday, telling him bluntly that Damascus must give up its weapons of mass destruction or face ostracism - even if neighbouring Israel keeps its nuclear arms.
"Israel is in a unique position as the only state whose very existence is threatened," said a senior British Government source yesterday. "There is no point in asking for a WMD-free Middle East while there are countries parading missiles with a sign up the side saying Death to Israel."
Isolated since the fall of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, Mr Assad is under strong pressure to follow the lead given by Libya's Col Muammar Gaddafi, who last month announced the dismantling of his secret non-conventional weapons.
But the Syrian leader told The Telegraph this week that he would not agree to destroy his chemical weapons unless Israel abandoned its undeclared nuclear arsenal, estimated at between 100 and 200 warheads. "Unless this applies to all countries, we are wasting our time," he said.
Washington and London have told Damascus that giving up its well-developed chemical arsenal and its embryonic biological programme agents is the price for better relations with America.
They say they support the idea of a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction but have all but abandoned the pretence of an even-handed policy. They believe that "rogue" states such as Syria must disarm first, and, by implication, Israel will be last.
A senior western diplomatic source said: "They [the Syrians] have to make a decision about whether the chemical weapons will make much of a difference against the Israelis, or whether they would not be in a better position by saying, 'We're giving it up and now we want a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction'.
"The pressure will rise on the Israelis as Arab states give up their weapons of mass destruction."
Despite the new attempt by Mr Assad to charm the West - which included a ground-breaking trip yesterday to Turkey, a close American ally - there is a growing sense of frustration with his failure to reform the country since taking over after his father's death in 2000.
Syria has caused particular anger by criticising the war in Iraq, hailing the resistance by Saddam loyalists, and failing to prevent extremists from crossing the border into Iraq to fight US-led forces.
Moreover, Britain believes Syria not only harbours Palestinian extremist groups, but is actively preventing them from agreeing to an Egyptian-mediated Palestinian ceasefire.
-------- nato
NATO defense ministers to meet informally in Munich
BRUSSELS (AFP)
Jan 07, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040107164843.zzlxjxcb.html
NATO defense ministers will hold an informal meeting on the eve of the Atlantic alliance's conference in Munich on February 7 and 8 to discuss security issues, a NATO official said Wednesday.
"The meeting is taking place certainly" on February 6, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity. He said defense ministers attending will notably discuss the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) mission in Afghanistan.
The alliance since August has headed the International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) in Kabul and on Tuesday began expanding its operations into the country's provinces by having international peacekeepers assume control of a reconstruction team in the north of Afghanistan.
The NATO official said similiar operations are planned in the future and the alliance was looking for more countries to participate.
"The key trick is to come up with a coordinated approach to this," he said.
He added that the two-day NATO conference in Munich would pave the way for the Alliance summit in June and would allow NATO's new chief -- former Dutch foreign minister Jaap de Hoop Scheffer -- to get acquainted with ministers of member countries.
-------- un
Senior Iraqi Urges U.N. to Enter Planning for Self-Rule
By Colum Lynch
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 7, 2004
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60466-2004Jan6.html
UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 6 -- A senior member of Iraq's interim authority appealed to the United Nations to play a direct role in planning Iraq's transition to self-rule and negotiating the future role of U.S.-led forces in Iraq, U.S. and U.N. diplomats said Tuesday.
Abdel Aziz Hakim, a Shiite Muslim who was president of the U.S.-appointed Iraq Governing Council last month, asked U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in a confidential Dec. 29 letter to U.N. experts to Iraq to determine how to plan the transfer of power from the U.S.-led coalition.
Senior U.N. diplomats said the appeal was aimed at ending a political impasse between Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, who favors direct elections for a provisional government this summer, and other Iraqi political leaders who support U.S. plans to organize a series of regional representatives, or caucuses, to appoint new leadership by June 30.
"Everyone agrees that there should be a provisional government by June 30," said one U.N. diplomat who was familiar with the contents of the letter. "But when it comes to the question of how you establish that government, there are two camps. [Hakim] wants the United Nations to find a way out."
A senior council diplomat said Hakim's appeal lacks the full backing of the 24-member governing council. It also faces opposition from L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator of Iraq, and other coalition officials, who are reluctant to reopen discussions on a Nov. 15 agreement with the Iraqi council that outlines a carefully choreographed plan leading to the establishment of a provisional Iraqi government by June 30.
Sistani has voiced concern that the arrangements for the establishment of a new government would place the country's Shiite Muslims, who account for more than 60 percent of the population, at a disadvantage. And he has proposed that general elections be held to select the country's transitional government.
Hakim's political group, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution (SCIRI), had initially relayed a request last month from Sistani to the United Nations to determine whether elections could be organized before June 30. But Annan indicated last month that there would not be enough time to hold credible elections.
Hakim's latest initiative appeared calculated to enlist Annan's support in mediating a compromise. It also called on the United Nations to play a mediation role on a range of issues, including a request that the world body advise the Iraqis in their upcoming negotiations with the United States and its military allies on a security agreement that would determine the fate of the coalition's military presence in the country.
Annan, who has yet to respond to Hakim's request, said he wants to see the U.N.'s role during Iraq's transition clarified at a Jan. 19 meeting with an Iraqi delegation headed by Adnan Pachachi, the current monthly president of the Iraq Governing Council; Hakim; and Jalal Talabani, a Kurdish leader who will preside over the council in February. Annan said he expects that the United States and Britain will send senior officials to participate in the meeting.
-------- us
Pentagon eyes Iraq command split
January 07, 2004
By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20040106-103406-2527r.htm
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday he and the Joint Chiefs chairman are discussing a plan to put a four-star officer in charge of military operations in Iraq as the country moves to self-rule this year.
"General [Richard B.] Myers and I have talked about it, but not in a fully structured way yet," Mr. Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon press conference. "He is going to be coming back to me at some point and discussing that."
He added "it may very well be" that he will reorganize the military command structure.
Mr. Rumsfeld's comment came the day after The Washington Times reported that his top commander in the region, Army Gen. John Abizaid, favors creating the four-star post. It would free up the three-star general now in charge of military operations in Iraq to focus on fighting the insurgency, said sources familiar with Gen. Abizaid's thinking.
A four-star officer, likely an Army or Marine Corps general, would oversee broad strategic goals, such as the fitness of an expected 220,000-member Iraqi security force and its relationship with a new interim government.
Gen. Abizaid, a four-star general himself and chief of U.S. Central Command, has far-flung responsibilities in the region. He oversees military operations in Iraq and the rest of the Persian Gulf, as well as counterterrorism operations in the Horn of Africa and Afghanistan.
"If you think of where we are, we have a situation where we have a coalition of forces in the country," Mr. Rumsfeld said yesterday. "We have a combatant commander in Gen. Abizaid that has a large region with Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa and a whole host of things he has to think through."
If Mr. Rumsfeld appoints a new four-star officer, Iraq essentially would have two commanders - one dealing with tactical issues and the other with making sure all the military and civilian pieces fit together. The Bush administration expects to keep American troops in Iraq for at least several years to ensure there is no return of Saddam Hussein's hard-line Ba'ath Party rule or the emergence of some other autocratic ruler.
"I can't think of a reason not to do it myself," said a military officer familiar with the discussions on a new four-star officer. "That four-star could focus on making sure the civilian-military effort is consistent and well-integrated. The corps commander could focus on fighting the fight."
Mr. Rumsfeld said that once an Iraqi interim government is in place, the missions of the Coalition Provisional Authority may be shifted to a "beefed-up" American Embassy operation.
Having two four-star officers in one theater would be a sign of the times. The U.S. war on terrorism has conducted most of its combat in Gen. Abizaid's theater. Meanwhile, the European theater, which has four four-star generals, largely plays a supporting role.
One U.S. official said an option might be to take a four-star billet out of Europe to send to Iraq.
U.S. Pacific Command also has two four-star officers. One runs operations in the region and the other is limited to American forces in South Korea.
----
GIs in Iraq Scoff at Re-Enlistment Bonus
Wed Jan 7,
By MATTHEW ROSENBERG,
Associated Press Writer
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040107/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_paid_to_stay_1
BAQOUBA, Iraq - At a checkpoint on the barren plain east of Baqouba, word of a new U.S. Army plan to pay soldiers up to $10,000 to re-enlist evoked laughter from a few bored-looking troopers.
"Man, they can't pay me enough to stay here," said a 23-year-old specialist from the Army's 4th Infantry Division as he manned the checkpoint with Iraqi police outside this city 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.
His comments reflect a sentiment not uncommon among the nearly two dozen soldiers in Iraq who have spoken with The Associated Press since the Army announced the increased re-enlistment bonuses for soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait on Monday. Other soldiers at home were divided about the offer.
The soldiers in Iraq who spoke about the bonuses were serving in a range of assignments, from training the new Iraqi army at a base east of Baqouba to patrolling some of the most dangerous roads in the country, like those leading north from Baghdad.
Some cited the monotonous routine of a lonely life spent thousands of miles from loved ones. Others offered simpler reasons - such as the fear of an early death.
Griping about Army life is a tradition among soldiers, and it is unclear how many will actually opt out to take their chances in a civilian economy where jobs are scarce.
However, Staff Sgt. Julian Guerrero, 38, who runs a re-enlistment program for a battalion in the 4th ID based in Tikrit, said only 10 of the battalion's 80 eligible soldiers have taken the deal so far.
At Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina, a few soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division preparing to ship out to Iraq seemed evenly split over whether the Army was offering enough money.
"For three years, that's kind of cheap," said Spc. Derek Gay, 24, of Tampa, Fla. "Some people would re-enlist anyway, but there's more incentive for a good chunk of money."
Staff Sgt. Raymond Strickland, 30, said he received a $5,000 bonus when he re-enlisted in 2002.
"No matter how much it is, it's a good thing," he said.
Col. Patrick Donahue, commander of the 1st Brigade, said some soldiers flying out Wednesday would sign re-enlistment papers when they arrived in Iraq so they could receive some of the bonus tax-free while in a combat zone.
But along the road leading north from Baghdad and into the "Sunni Triangle," the heartland of Saddam Hussein's support and the center of anti-American resistance, a sergeant from the 1st Armored Division said he's not interested in the money because he has been shot at a "few times" and "I don't want to die here."
According to the Defense Department, 332 soldiers have been killed by hostile fire since the Iraq war began March 20.
"Every car, every person are potential weapons. We can't trust anything," said the sergeant, who has been in Iraq since May and is due to leave in two or three months. He spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The increased bonus program is part of an effort to avoid a manpower crunch. It's aimed at soldiers like Spc. Justin Brown of the 4th Infantry Division. "I don't want to be in the Army forever and just keep fighting wars," said the 22-year-old from Atoka, Okla.
Back-to-back wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have stretched the Army thin. Nearly two-thirds of its active duty brigade-sized units are deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. When the troops currently in Iraq rotate out this spring, the Pentagon plans to lean heavily on the National Guard and Reserves for replacements.
"What we're trying to do is to manage the force now so that we don't have a falloff in recruitment or retention a year from now, and then have a gap where we have to scramble to rectify that," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday.
Under the program, soldiers serving in Iraq, Afghanistan or Kuwait who re-enlist for three years or more will be paid bonuses of up to $10,000, regardless of their military specialty.
Bonuses are frequently used by all branches of the military to retain troops. But they tend to be targeted at those with special skills, like fighter pilots, who were offered $20,000 or more by the Air Force a few years ago.
The bonuses offered under the latest program are earmarked for every soldier. And $10,000 is a tidy sum for low-ranking soldiers who earn $25,000 to $35,000 a year.
At the checkpoint outside Baqouba, the 23-year-old specialist, who refused to give his name saying he feared retribution from military higher-ups, stubbed out a cigarette on the side of a Humvee. As he began to speak, he was interrupted by the blast of a Kalashnikov rifle a few yards up the road. An Iraqi policeman fired the rounds in a mound of dirt for no apparent reason.
"You see what I have to put up with?" asked the soldier. With two months left in a 12-month tour, "there's not enough money in the world to make me stay a month longer."
Of course, there are also soldiers who said they want to stay on.
Back in the United States "we spend most of our time training and it can get to be a pretty monotonous," said Master Sgt. Rohan McDermott, a single 38-year-old, who is also with the 4th Infantry Division and is helping train the new Iraqi army. "It's harder over there than it is over here ... doing here what we're always training to do."
But for those with wives waiting at home, life is a lot lonelier in Iraq.
"Maybe if I were single I'd think about it," said Sgt. Dante Legare, 32, of the 4th Infantry Division.
"That's pretty good money ... enough to maybe put a down payment on a house," said Legare, a New York City native. "But is it worth it? I've already been away something like nine months. I want to see my wife."
Associated Press reporter Estes Thompson in Fort Bragg, N.C., contributed to this report.
----
Marines to Offer New Tactics in Iraq
Reduced Use of Force Planned After Takeover From Army
By Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 7, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A60455-2004Jan6?language=printer
As the Marine Corps prepares to take over occupying much of western Iraq from the U.S. Army, it is planning a fresh approach that emphasizes restraint in the use of force, cultural sensitivity and a public message that the new troops aren't from the Army, according to an internal Marine document and interviews with top officers.
The working plan for Marines moving into the Sunni Triangle includes more interaction with Iraqis and a premium on respect for peaceable civilians. Marines will be taught a few words of Arabic, counseled on religious etiquette and ordered never to wear sunglasses when talking to Iraqis.
In a tactic reminiscent of the U.S. presence in Vietnam, platoons of Marines will live among the people in many Sunni towns and villages to facilitate training of the Iraqi police and civil defense forces, according to the document. To emphasize to Iraqis that the Marines arriving in Fallujah and other centers of resistance are a new crowd, the Marines are considering wearing green camouflage uniforms for their initial 45 days of patrolling instead of the dessert cammies worn by the Army.
Army officers and other military professionals who have seen the document summarizing the Marines' approach viewed it as an implicit criticism of the Army's tactics and results in the Sunni heartland west of Baghdad. Some called it unfair and ill-advised second-guessing. But others viewed it as a constructive attempt to learn from the hardships and mistakes of the Army in western Iraq, historically Saddam Hussein's power center and more recently the hub of the resistance that has hobbled U.S. efforts to rebuild the country.
Maj. Gen. James N. Mattis, the commander of the Marine Corps force scheduled to deploy soon to Iraq, said in a telephone interview that he doesn't see the Marine approach as a criticism of the Army. Rather, he said, the planning document reflects intense discussions and "the free competition of ideas in the world." The document was a summary of points made at a two-day Marine planning session last month in California.
"We don't see any difference in our appreciation of the situation from the 82nd Airborne," he said, referring to the Army paratroop division now in the area that the Marines will move into. "We believe very strongly that the 82nd Airborne has it right, not only in the estimate of the situation but also in their concept of operations and in their tactics."
But, speaking on the condition of anonymity, other Marine officers criticized the Army approach.
"I'm appalled at the current heavy-handed use of air [strikes] and artillery in Iraq," one said. "Success in a counterinsurgency environment is based on winning popular support, not blowing up people's houses."
Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Division, based at Camp Pendleton, Calif., said he intends to pursue a two-track effort. One track will be aimed at capturing or killing what Mattis considers to be a small minority who are determined to fight the U.S. presence. He said he would employ some novel and aggressive tactics. At Mattis's request, The Washington Post is not printing information about those tactics.
The other track, he said, focuses on diminishing support for the resistance among the populace in western Iraq.
Among other things, Mattis plans to revive the Vietnam War's Combined Action Platoons (CAPs), small Marine units that lived among villagers and helped train them to defend themselves. The notes from the Marine planning conference state, "Idea is that this Platoon, similar to Vietnam, will live and work with Police and ICDC," a reference to the new Iraqi Civil Defense Corps that the U.S. occupation authority is creating to conduct some security functions.
These small units resemble an armed version of the Peace Corps, with training in such areas as cultural sensitivities and night patrolling. Details about how to use them are still being worked out and are likely to vary from town to town, one Marine officer said.
Retired Army Col. Harry G. Summers Jr., a historian of the Vietnam War, wrote that the CAP program represented a major difference between the Marine and Army approaches in Vietnam. While the Army tended to emphasize "search and destroy" operations in which they swept through an area and moved on, he wrote, the Marines settled on "clear and hold" operations in which CAPs stayed on land they held. CAPs are widely seen by historians as "one of the few success stories in Vietnam," noted John Miller, who fought in the war and wrote a book about it.
Marine officers said they are also aiming for more restraint in the use of force and intend to limit the use of heavy weapons, using bombs and weapons as a last resort. That contrasts with Army operations, in which airstrikes and artillery were sometimes used to intimidate at the outset of confrontations.
The Sunni Triangle, the parts of the Tigris and Euphrates valley north and west of Baghdad, has been where most attacks on U.S. troops have occurred over the past six months. The 4th Infantry Division, headquartered in Tikrit, has occupied its northern part. The 82nd Airborne now operates in its western section.
Some officers in both the Marines and the Army argue that the U.S. occupation there got off to a terrible start in April when several U.S. units moved through Fallujah.
At the end of that month, an Iraqi mob clashed with Army troops, resulting in shooting that killed 13 Iraqis and wounded scores more.
The western part of the Sunni Triangle is seen by many in the Army as the toughest ground in Iraq. Indeed, some Army officers who were interviewed expressed concern that any conciliatory Marine tactics would fail in the face of car bombings and armed mobs.
Retired Army Col. Lloyd Matthews said he found the Marine discussions somewhat distasteful. "It is hardly advisable in joint operations to denigrate the tactics of the sister service that preceded you in the trenches and to suggest that you are going to do a lot better," he said.
Matthews, a former editor of Parameters, the Army's premier professional journal, was also skeptical about whether the Marine CAP program would be viable in the hostile Sunni Triangle environment. "CAPs work only when they operate in a broadly secure environment," he said.
Army Maj. Gen. Charles H. Swannack Jr., commander for operations in the area the Marines will move into, declined to comment on the Marines' plan. But in a Baghdad news conference yesterday, Swannack, commander of the 82nd Airborne, said his soldiers "have turned the corner. . . . We're on a glidepath toward success as attacks against . . . [82nd Airborne] forces have decreased almost 60 percent" in a month.
Some Army officers in Iraq said the Marines' plan shows they are simply trying to capitalize on lessons learned in Iraq.
"I like the Marine approach, and I think it'll succeed," said Army Lt. Col. David J. Poirier, military police commander in Tikrit. "I love our Army, and I will not criticize it, but war is not free of mistakes, and I believe that some of the insurgency is due to families acting out against American forces for deaths occurring as a result of collateral damage."
--------
Pentagon Looks to Close Bases
Reuters
Wednesday, January 7, 2004; Page A19
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60198-2004Jan6.html
The Pentagon took the first step yesterday in the politically charged process of selecting domestic military bases that it will recommend next year that the White House and Congress approve for closure.
The Defense Department asked commanders of about 425 installations in the United States and its territories and possessions to provide information about their bases for a fifth round of cost-saving but unpopular closings in recent years.
The long process, aimed at saving billions of dollars by eliminating unnecessary installations, will also involve input from states and communities whose economies rely heavily on the bases.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and the Joint Chiefs of Staff say the nation is wasting defense dollars because there is a 25 percent "overcapacity" in domestic bases needed to support the reduced post-Cold War military.
An independent Base Realignment and Closings Commission (BRAC) will be named next year, and the Pentagon will submit a list of proposals for bases to be closed, realigned or expanded to the panel by May 16, 2005.
"I can assure you that every inch of that [BRAC] law will be complied with," Rumsfeld told reporters at a Pentagon briefing. "We've been through this before," he said. "It's going to be examined 16 ways from every direction, as you can imagine, by local officials, by members of the Congress."
Defense officials declined to specify what information was being sought from base commanders, but Rumsfeld said it would include "how many people and what are they doing . . . and how many square miles of land do they have."
Elected officials, from Washington to local communities, will wade into the process later.
After the closure of 97 major bases and changes in dozens of others in four previous BRAC processes since 1988, which the Pentagon says saved more than $16 billion in military spending, Rumsfeld and top military officers are pressing for more closings.
But Rumsfeld has stressed that addressing the 25 percent overcapacity in domestic bases would not necessarily mean closing a quarter of the bases.
On a separate track, the Pentagon has embarked on a realignment of its forces worldwide that is expected to bring base closures in Western Europe.
--------
Rumsfeld outlines DOD priorities
1/7/2004
by Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
http://www.af.mil/stories/story.asp?storyID=123006327
WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- The war on terrorism will remain the Defense Department's top priority in the new year, as officials continue to focus on improving and modernizing its programs, systems and forces to make them more responsive to 21st century requirements.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said the department already has made "remarkable progress" and will continue its work to "strengthen, improve and transform our forces, modernize and restructure programs and commands ... and streamline DOD processes and procedures."
Secretary Rumsfeld laid out an ambitious list of initiatives, many already under way, that he said will help free the department of its Cold War-era trappings that no longer support current demands.
Among these initiatives is the effort to rebalance the active and reserve components throughout the services. Secretary Rumsfeld said the war on terror, with its heavy use of National Guard and Reserve troops, underscores the importance of the effort.
"Our experience thus far in the global war on terror, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan, has shown that we have somewhat of a Cold War mix of active and reserve forces remaining," Secretary Rumsfeld said. "And we really do need to adjust it to reflect the circumstances of the day."
Proposals being drafted by the services "will set a new balance between active and reserve that will fit the 21st century," Secretary Rumsfeld said.
Also high on the agenda for 2004 is implementation of the new National Security Personnel System that took effect with passage of the 2004 National Defense Authorization Act, Secretary Rumsfeld said. The new law gives DOD the authority to create a new framework of rules, regulations and processes that govern the way civilians are hired, paid, promoted and disciplined within the department. The new system will replace outdated and rigid civil service rules that many said hindered DOD's ability to carry out its national security mission.
"Executed properly, the new system ... can play a key role in relieving stress on the force," Secretary Rumsfeld said.
On a broader scope, Secretary Rumsfeld said the military will continue its efforts to adjust global posture during 2004.
This initiative involves re-examining the U.S. military "footprint" in the world -- much of it the result of historic, Cold War threats that no longer exist -- and to revise them to meet current demands.
Besides those people permanently stationed at its bases worldwide, the U.S. military has thousands of servicemembers on deployments worldwide, said Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. This includes roughly 125,000 in Iraq; 13,000 in Afghanistan; more than 2,000 at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; and more than 1,000 participating in Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa.
Meanwhile, nearly 3,500 servicemembers are conducting stabilization operations in the Balkans, and about 1,500 are performing counterdrug operations and other training in Central and South America, General Myers said.
Secretary Rumsfeld continued to list efforts and initiatives the department will pursue in 2004.
"Going forward, we will continue to aggressively pursue the global war on terrorism, strengthening joint warfighting capabilities, transforming the joint force, strengthening our intelligence capabilities (and) strengthening our ability to counter the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," he said.
Secretary Rumsfeld said DOD also will focus on improving force planning through quality of life, infrastructure and other modifications, refining and improving the department's role in homeland security, and streamlining its budget, contingency and other departmental processes.
"We have a full agenda," Secretary Rumsfeld said. "It is what President Bush has asked of us. It is what the American people expect of us. And it is work that we intend to proceed with over the coming months of 2004."
--------
Army Calls Up More Reservists for Iraq
Wednesday January 7, 2004
(AP)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3597724,00.html
WASHINGTON - The number of military reservists called to active duty jumped by more than 10,000 in the past week, the Pentagon said Wednesday, reflecting an Army mobilization of National Guard and Reserve troops for Iraq to relieve the forces that have been there nearly a year.
Guard and Reserve troops will play a larger role in the new force, representing nearly 40 percent of the total of 110,000 troops, compared with about 20 to 25 percent of the force there now. They have been told they will spend up to 12 months in Iraq, meaning many will be on active duty for about 18 months, including a pre-deployment training period and a demobilization.
There are now 193,959 reservists on active duty around the world, the Pentagon said. That is the highest total since the week of July 30, when the number stood at 197,226. The number declined steadily from that point and stood at just over 154,000 in early November, according to Pentagon figures.
The number has increased by about 30,000 since early December as the Army has called up many Guard and Reserve units to prepare for their deployment to Iraq. This week the Army added 10,653 to its active-duty rolls - the biggest weekly increase since a jump of 13,384 in early December.
Here is the breakdown by service, for the week ended Wednesday:
- Army: 165,847, an increase of 10,653 from a week earlier.
- Marine Corps: 6,515, down from 6,742.
- Air Force: 19,942, down from 20,112.
- Navy: 1,491, down from 1,519.
On the Net:
The Defense Department at http://www.defenselink.mil
-------- POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE
-------- homeland security
U.S. will develop antimissile system
January 07, 2004
By Audrey Hudson
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20040106-103409-3710r.htm
Homeland Security officials yesterday announced the development of antimissile technology for commercial aircraft but said it will take $122 million and at least two years to implement.
A six-month first phase of the project will determine whether the concept is viable and can protect against the threat of Man-Portable Air Defense Systems, said Charles McQueary, the Homeland Security Department's undersecretary for science and technology.
BAE Systems, Northrup Grumman and United Airlines are negotiating with federal officials for $2 million each in the first phase to redesign existing military technology for commercial planes.
"At the end of the first phase, we will determine if it is appropriate to proceed to the second phase of prototype and testing," Mr. McQueary said in a conference call with reporters.
After 12 to 18 months, the department will make a final recommendation to Congress and the White House. Officials called this an "extraordinarily aggressive" timetable to engineer the technology.
Several technological alternatives have been proposed to defend against missile attacks, including flares and infrared jamming systems, but officials declined to elaborate on which system is most likely to be developed for commercial use.
"There is no single solution to thwart the threat," Mr. McQueary said.
The timing of the announcement, as the country remains on high alert for a terrorist attack, "does not reflect particular concern," said Asa Hutchison, the Homeland Security Department's undersecretary for border transportation security.
One option is a pyrotechnic flare that burns a chemical compound designed to emit infrared energy to deflect missiles away from aircraft. Close to the ground, however, these devices can ignite fires. The risk of missile attack to aircraft is highest during takeoff and landing, officials said.
Another option is a pyrophoric flare that does not burn so hot and more closely matches the signature of the missile.
Lasers can be mounted on planes to jam missile seekers, but all of these options "come with issues attached to them," said Penrose Albright, assistant secretary of homeland security.
"The idea is to make the missile miss the aircraft. But the whole idea that we can just flip a switch ... this is an extraordinarily difficult problem," Mr. Albright said.
Officials said any estimated cost of equipping the 6,800 jets in the U.S. commercial fleet would be premature. Antimissile technology would include hardware, maintenance, training and ground-support costs.
One missile-jamming system, Directed InfraRed CounterMeasure, is cost-prohibitive at $5 billion to $10 billion a year to operate.
Asked if airlines will be forced to install the technology, Mr. Albright said, "We don't have any facts right now and will spend the next two years getting facts. It's the wrong thing to speculate what we might do in terms of regulation until we get the facts on the table."
Some airline pilots have opposed additional security measures, including handguns.
Calls to airline associations yesterday to gauge reaction to the new technology, including the Airline Pilots Association, were not returned.
----
3 firms tapped for anti-missile project
By Shaun Waterman
UPI Homeland and National Security Editor
January 07, 2004
http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20040106-064321-5282r.htm
WASHINGTON, Jan. 6 (UPI) -- The Department of Homeland Security Tuesday announced the names of three companies it will commission to explore ways of protecting civilian airliners against attacks by terrorists using shoulder-launched missiles.
The announcement includes -- for the first time -- a look at a ground-based system designed to detect missiles when they are launched and automatically shoot them out of the sky.
Officials said Northrop Grumman, British Aerospace and United Airlines would soon be signing 6-month, $2 million contracts with the department to produce plans to adapt existing military technology for use on commercial passenger jets.
One or more might then be selected to build a prototype of their design for testing and evaluation.
The two-stage process is expected to take 18 to 24 months - and the administration is being accused of foot-dragging.
Charles McQueary, undersecretary for science and technology at the Department of Homeland Security, called the announcement "an important step towards making our skies safe from the threat of shoulder fired missiles."
Calls for the development of such technology followed a failed attempt by al-Qaida terrorists in November 2002 to shoot down an Israeli airliner as it took off from an airport in Mombassa, Kenya. According to Jane's Information Group, dozens of terror groups around the world have access to these light, cheap and easily available weapons, which can be purchased on the black market for as little as $20,000.
But the administration has responded cautiously.
In a conference call with reporters, McQueary said the department was aiming to ascertain "whether there is a viable technology" that could be safely, practicably and affordably deployed on civilian aircraft.
Officials declined to speculate about who might pay the hundreds of millions of dollars it would cost to equip the nation's 6,000-strong commercial airline fleet or whether legislation might be needed to mandate the technology.
But Homeland Security Department chief scientist Parney Albright hinted at the need for legislation, saying that whatever course the department decided upon would require "a lot of help from congress, a lot of help from the administration."
He pointed out that - until the feasibility studies were complete - there was no way of judging what the costs might be. The aim of the exercise, said Albright is to "put facts on the table in regard to acquisition costs, and - very, very importantly - maintenance and operational costs" as well.
The latter is a big issue, because of the very high maintenance requirements of currently deployed military technology, which require a complete overhaul every few hundred hours of operation.
Albright said the military technology was like a professional Nascar racing vehicle - "they travel with a complete crew, spare parts, practically a whole machine shop" and strip the car after every race. The civilian version, he said, would have to be more like a family Buick, "with a leaflet in the glove box" and an annual service.
Until all these issues were resolved, he said, "It is premature to speculate about how the deployment of this is going to occur."
Critics immediately slammed the administration's schedule.
"The bottom line is that, under their plan, no commercial airplanes will be protected until at least 2006," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., a longtime proponent of fitting commercial aircraft with anti-missile technology.
"That is not good enough," she concluded.
Officials vehemently denied they were foot-dragging.
"Everybody who knows about systems engineering would tell you the opposite," said Albright. "This is an extraordinarily aggressive timeline."
Boxer and others argue that the huge cost of installing missile counter-measures should be born by the federal government as a form of insurance. They say it is small next to the damage that would be done to the $150 billion a year U.S. commercial airline industry by even a failed attempt to shoot down a jetliner.
Boxer has suggested that at the least, the 300-plane Civil Reserve Air Fleet - commercial jets which can be called upon by the military - should be fitted with counter measures, since they might be needed to fly into dangerous airspace.
Her calls were give added urgency last year when a DHL cargo plane leaving Baghdad airport was hit by two Russian-made SA7s -- the same missile used in the Mombassa attack -- and forced to make an emergency landing.
Officials would not disclose the precise nature of the technology that each contractor will be proposing, but current military equipment uses flares, lasers or infrared lamps to confuse the guidance systems of the missiles, which are designed to home in on the heat generated by an aircraft engine.
But a spokesman for Northrop Grumman told United Press International that its proposal includes a ground-based system designated HORNET -- for Hazardous Ordnance Engagement Toolkit.
"Our proposal was in two parts," said Northrop Grumman spokesman Bob Bishop. It includes conventional technology that would use an infrared lamp mounted underneath the plane's fuselage, but also a longer-term proposal to develop a mobile, airport-based system that would use high-energy lasers to shoot down any missile threats.
"As the threat evolves down the road," said Bishop, "we'll need more effective means to defeat it."
The chilling reality, say experts, is that the technology now being used by the military -- and developed by the Department of Homeland Security for civilian deployment -- will be ineffective against a new generation of shoulder-fired missiles using sophisticated computer profiling to distinguish the heat signature of an aircraft engine from that produced by a decoy flare or a laser lamp.
"The sophistication of the guidance systems (of these new missiles) goes beyond the ability to confuse it with another heat source," said Northrop Grumman Vice President Pat Caruana.
Albright acknowledged the problem, calling the relationship between missile and anti-missile technology development a "cat and mouse game."
"You have to keep your eye... on what else is evolving and have a science and technology program in place" capable of keeping up with the latest generation of threats, he said.
Caruana said that HORNET could defeat the latest missile technology, because it does not seek to confuse the guidance system, but simply destroys it by focusing enough laser energy on the warhead that it explodes harmlessly in midair.
"It's a novel concept," he said, "but under girded by technology that has been tested and developed." He said the technology was five years away from deployability.
Like both flare and laser-based technology, ground-based systems raise serious questions about safety.
"Clearly flare-based systems bring a number of concerns," said Albright. "If they're deployed at low altitudes they can cause fires."
Ground-based systems raise different issues. Because the system needs to identify and hit a target so quickly, no human intervention is possible, explained Caruana. Once the system is activated it will act automatically.
Caruana played down fears that HORNET might mistakenly fire at planes. "The system will only engage with objects that have a specific threat signature," he said, "it has the ability to distinguish that from a plane."
"All these concepts come the table with serious issues," said Albright, but he said safety would be a "key point" -- along with affordability -- in the study the Department of Homeland Security was undertaking.
--------
World Opinion Is Fragmented on Tighter Security for Visitors
January 7, 2004
By ELAINE SCIOLINO
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/07/international/07TRAV.html?hp=&pagewanted=all&position=
PARIS, Jan. 6 - No one would dare to seem soft on terrorism these days. But the new security measures imposed on travel to the United States have sparked strong and starkly different reactions around the world, veering from loud cheering to swift retaliation.
In a sense, the response provides a fresh global analysis of the trauma of Sept. 11, 2001, as countries and airline companies, unions and associations frame their views according to their perceptions of their own vulnerability to terrorism and of the likelihood that a plane could be transformed into a guided missile against the United States.
Rather than one deep divide, in which players line up either with or against the United States, several fissures have been exposed.
Biometrically coded identification like fingerprinting is either the only reliable way to track passengers or a racist act that violates human rights as it singles out citizens of certain countries. A plan to install armed marshals on some airplanes entering the United States is accepted by countries like Israel, which has long used the practice, but is opposed by countries like Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, South Africa and Thailand, which view it as potentially chaotic and dangerous.
Some critics of the new measures are suspicious that they are part of a crass political campaign by the Bush administration to keep Americans on guard at least through November's presidential election.
There is widespread agreement, however, that coming to the United States will not be more enjoyable because of what William Gaillard, head of communications at the International Air Transportation Association, calls "the hassle factor."
"People are not afraid of flying, but all these security measures take the fun out of flying; it's as simple as that," Mr. Gaillard said in Geneva, where the trade group that represents most international air carriers has its European headquarters. "Is the Bush administration trying to make a point in an election year?"
Michel Ayral, an air transport director for the European Union in Brussels, described the carrying out of the new security measures in a telephone interview as "unilateralist and impetuous."
Part of the difficulty in analyzing the new American security measures is figuring out just what they are. One component is the new procedure that went into effect on Monday that requires the fingerprinting and photographing of visitors from most countries around the world. Citizens of 27 countries, including Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore and most European nations, are exempt on tourist visits less than 90 days.
The other component is emergency measures linked to intelligence that terrorists had plotted to commandeer planes. Those included the cancellation or delay of about a dozen flights since Dec. 24 and a requirement that certain flights to the United States carry armed marshals.
In some countries, the fingerprinting requirement has tapped into deeply rooted resentments of the United States. A Brazilian judge was so furious that Brazilians would have to be fingerprinted and photographed that he took revenge.
"I consider the act absolutely brutal, threatening human rights, violating human dignity, xenophobic and worthy of the worst horrors committed by the Nazis," the judge, Julier Sebastiao da Silva, said last week in a court order subjecting all Americans entering Brazil to the same practice.
At a State Department briefing on Tuesday, a spokesman, Richard Boucher, said the United States had officially complained about the order.
On the other end of the spectrum are countries like France, which has long fought its own battle against terrorism. For Nicolas Sarkozy, the French interior minister, who owes much of his popularity to a tough approach to crime and terrorism, the American measures do not go far enough. "We share the analysis of the American services that we live in a very tense period and what is required is increased vigilance," Mr. Sarkozy said last Friday. "I prefer that we are reproached for having too many security measures than too few."
A senior official in Mr. Sarkozy's office said the State Department had rejected a French proposal last summer to require fingerprints not only on visa requests, but also in all passports. Last November, France adopted a law that foreigners needing visas be fingerprinted and photographed at French consulates.
The most contentious part of the new security scheme is the use of armed marshals. The United States first deployed them some 30 years ago in response to hijackings to Cuba. The number was increased sharply after Sept. 11, 2001.
Germany began to use air marshals on flights to the United States and elsewhere soon after Sept. 11, a spokeswoman for Lufthansa said. Britain and France, by contrast, deployed their first air marshals in the last few weeks.
Switzerland has been using air marshals since 1970, when specially trained undercover police and army recruits began to board random international flights. "The best measures are when you know tough measures exist, but you don't tell the potential terrorist what to expect," said Christian Frauenfelder, a spokesman for the pilots' union Aeropers.
Some countries and airlines have announced that they will ground their planes rather than succumb to American demands that they put armed marshals aboard them.
"We don't need additional security in the sky," said Rich Mkhondo, a spokesman for South African Airways, the national carrier, which has 28 round-trip flights a week to Atlanta and New York. Thailand's prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, told reporters on Tuesday that he would not allow armed guards on his country's national carrier, Thai Airways. "We don't need to go that far since we always conduct proper checks from our end and our planes stop at one destination," he said.
Most police officers in Britain patrol unarmed, yet the government is defending the American demand that flights into the United States carry armed sky marshals. British Airways objected strongly and the pilots' union initially opposed the directive, but the union is now trying for concessions. The government has already said that pilots will be informed when a marshal is on board and that marshals will not outrank the flight crew. The union wants assurances that pilots and crews be given the choice not to fly on planes that have air marshals.
In Israel, citizens are used to heavy security and rarely complain about it. Strict security in Israel and on El Al flights mean that "terrorists have long since moved on to other airlines," said Boaz Ganor, head of the International Policy Institute for Counterterrorism in Israel.
After a rash of airline hijackings involving Israel, or planes flying through Israel, the national carrier, El Al, began putting sky marshals on flights in the early 1970's. Shortly afterward, an air marshal prevented an attempted hijacking.
Aviation experts emphasize that it is crucial to balance security with prudence and common sense.
"There are two goals in aviation security: one is to make sure no act of terrorism can occur; the other is to make sure the flow of aviation commerce is maintained," said Frank Costello, a lawyer who specializes in aviation at the Washington law firm Zuckert, Scoutt & Rasenberger. "It is difficult to reconcile the two. If terrorists can shut down the system, it probably does more to furthering their goals than doing harm to an aircraft."
Matthew Wald in Washington, Lizette Alvarez in London and Greg Myre in Jerusalem contributed reporting for this article.
--------
Nations Balk at Sky Marshals
By Sara Kehaulani Goo
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 7, 2004; Page A06
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60536-2004Jan6.html
U.S. officials said yesterday that they are discussing alternatives that other nations might have to putting armed marshals on foreign airliners, after some countries indicated they would rather cancel U.S.-bound flights than introduce a lethal weapon on board.
The governments of Sweden and Portugal and South Africa's largest airline said they would take additional security measures on the ground or cancel a flight if intelligence information indicated a specific flight might be targeted by terrorists. British Airways pilots also raised concerns about the new U.S. requirement, though the airline is complying.
The Department of Homeland Security announced last week that it would require foreign carriers to place armed air marshals or law enforcement officers aboard planes if the agency received specific intelligence that a flight might be targeted. U.S. officials said then they could revoke landing rights for certain airlines that refused to comply with the order, citing the country's sovereign rights to impose conditions for foreign carriers entering U.S. airspace.
U.S. officials yesterday seemed to soften their stance about revoking landing rights and acknowledged that some foreign nations and carriers are likely to cancel flights if asked to place armed guards aboard the planes.
Foreign flights that receive requests for armed marshals would make up "only a small percentage of the thousands and thousands of international flights entering our country," said Homeland Security spokesman Brian Roehrkasse. It is unlikely that the United States would ever revoke landing rights for airlines, he added. "We do not anticipate that we would ever need to take this measure, considering the tremendous cooperation we have seen from our international partners," he said.
The European Union has circulated a letter to member nations asking their views on the air marshal requirement, but it has so far left the issue up to individual members to negotiate with the United States, according to an EU official.
Portugal's five major carriers rejected putting air marshals aboard their flights after meeting on Monday to discuss the requirement, according to embassy spokesman Manuel Pereira in Washington.
Swedish and U.S. officials "agreed that if there's ever a threat assessment that warrants [additional security], then you take security measures on the ground," said Swedish embassy spokesman Gunnar Alden. "If that's not enough, then you cancel the flight. . . . Air marshals is not a concept we use."
South African Airways said it did not oppose putting air marshals on flights, but the country does not have an air marshal program. "We are going to cancel the flight -- ground it -- rather than have it fly with armed guards," said carrier spokesman Rich Mkhondo.
Britain, France and Mexico said last week that they have complied with U.S. requests to place armed guards aboard certain U.S.-bound flights that American intelligence indicated might be targeted by al Qaeda. At least 15 flights from those countries have been canceled in the past three weeks for security reasons, as U.S. officials expressed serious concern that terrorists had targeted certain international flights over the holidays.
Tighter security measures continued this week. On Monday, British Airways canceled its eighth flight within a week, this one from London to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Security checks delayed the flight for four hours in London and the flight was not cleared for takeoff, the carrier said. Passengers on Flight 183 sat on board the aircraft for more than four hours Monday evening, but by that time, under contract rules, the crew could not operate the 81/2-hour flight. The flight was rescheduled yesterday.
Yesterday, 181 passengers aboard a Delta Air Lines flight from Paris to Cincinnati underwent additional security screening upon arrival. Officials removed a 22-year-old Saudi Arabian woman from the flight before takeoff because she was wearing a jacket with wires inside, according to an administration official. She was later cleared by security personnel, after the garment was determined to be a self-heating motorcycle jacket, and booked on a later flight, the official said.
Staff writer Dan Eggen contributed to this report.
-------- immigration / refugees
Bush Would Give Illegal Workers Broad New Rights
January 7, 2004
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/07/politics/07IMMI.html?hp=&pagewanted=all&position=
WASHINGTON, Jan. 6 - President Bush will propose a sweeping overhaul of the nation's immigration laws on Wednesday that could give legal status to millions of undocumented workers in the United States, senior administration officials said Tuesday night.
Under Mr. Bush's proposal, which effectively amounts to an amnesty program for illegal immigrants with jobs in the United States, an undocumented worker could apply for temporary worker status here for an unspecified number of years, with all the employee benefits, like minimum wage and due process, accorded to those legally employed.
Workers who are approved would be permitted to travel freely between the United States and their home countries, the officials said, and would also be permitted to apply for a green card granting permanent residency in the United States.
Administration officials said that Mr. Bush would also propose increasing the number of green cards issued each year, which is now about 140,000, but they did not provide a specific number. The administration officials, who briefed reporters in a conference call on Tuesday night, said only that Mr. Bush would ask for a "reasonable increase."
Mr. Bush's proposal, one administration official said, would "match willing workers with willing employers" and would "promote compassion" by fixing what one called "a broken system." The officials declined to call it an amnesty program.
Under the proposal, workers in other countries could also apply for guest worker status in the United States, provided there was no American to take the job.
But the president's plans are expected to face a tough fight in Congress, where conservative Republicans have said they consider programs like the one the president is proposing nothing more than amnesty for people who have broken the law.
The president's proposals were designed to appeal to Hispanic groups, a constituency that the White House is focusing on as Mr. Bush seeks re-election this year. The proposals are expected to be embraced by President Vicente Fox of Mexico, who has been lobbying for them for the past three years.
Mr. Bush is to meet with Mr. Fox at an economic summit next week in Monterrey, Mexico, where immigration will be a significant part of the agenda and Mr. Bush's proposals are likely to become a major focus.
Mr. Bush's proposal is closely modeled on legislation introduced last summer by Senator John McCain and Representatives Jim Kolbe and Jeff Flake, all Republicans from Arizona. The issue of illegal workers has been an important one there.
"We are ecstatic that they are addressing this," Mr. Flake said in a telephone interview on Tuesday night. "We've maintained all along that you have to deal with both sides of the issue - those who want to come to the country, and those who are here now. We're very happy to see a realistic approach. We deal with it daily, and we have to have a rational policy." Mr. Bush's proposal is in some ways more generous to illegal workers than is Mr. Flake's bill. The legislation, for example, requires that a guest worker wait three years before applying for a green card. Under Mr. Bush's proposal, a worker could apply for a green card right away.
Mr. Bush's proposals apply to all illegal immigrants in the United States, which officials estimate at 8 million to 14 million people. About 60 percent are thought to be Mexican. No one is certain how many undocumented workers there are among all illegal immigrants, but Mr. Fox has said that some 3.5 million of the workers are Mexican.
Mr. Bush entered office with immigration reform at the top of his foreign policy agenda, and in the late summer of 2001 various guest worker proposals were under discussion by United States and Mexican officials. But the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks led to increased concerns about the safety of America's borders and derailed the negotiations.
Under Mr. Bush's proposals, an undocumented worker and an employer would have to apply for the guest worker program hand in hand, with the employer serving as the sponsor for the worker. There would also be a fee to register for the program, but officials would not say how much that would be.
The plan also includes incentives for workers to return to their countries, like a promise of retirement benefits there based on income earned in the United States.
Critics of Mr. Bush's proposal noted that unless the White House sought, and obtained, a large increase in the number of green cards issued each year, many of the undocumented workers who apply under the president's program could face an extended wait for residency, 10 to 20 years, by some estimates.
Administration officials acknowledge that the wait for a green card could take up to six years or longer, meaning that some guest workers who apply for green cards but do not receive them before their guest worker status expires would face the prospect of being forced to leave the United States. In that case, critics of the proposal said Tuesday night, workers would be better off remaining illegal and staying indefinitely in the United States, rather than revealing themselves to immigration officials when they sign up for a program that may, these critics assert, lead to their deportation.
"They're asking people to sign up for a program that is more likely to ensure their departure than ensure their permanent residency," said Cecilia Muñoz, a vice president of the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic advocacy organization.
Administration officials declined to say how long people could remain in the guest worker program. But Ms. Muñoz said congressional officials briefed on the program told her they were led to believe that it could be no longer than six years.
Groups opposed to increased immigration also criticized the president's proposal. "It's an amnesty, no matter how much they dance around the fact," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center on Immigration Studies, a group that seeks to limit immigration. "It's legalizing illegal immigrants."
Other critics say that the guest worker program could lead to the exploitation of immigrant workers. "If you are dependent on an employer filing a petition on your behalf, that employer has a tremendous club over you," one person briefed on the president's proposal said.
But an administration official said that the plan would protect the rights of undocumented workers, "who now live in the shadows, and are fearful of coming out of the shadows."
A number of limited guest worker programs already exist in the United States, but they are designed for skilled technology workers, who typically come from India, China and Eastern Europe.
Mr. Bush will also argue, administration officials said, that his plan will make the country safer by giving the authorities a better idea of who is in the country and crossing its borders.
--------
Bush Plan Would Give Immigrants Legal Status
Temporary Standing Based on Employment
By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 7, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60529-2004Jan6.html
President Bush will propose today an overhaul of immigration laws that would grant temporary legal status to millions of undocumented workers in the United States and their families as long as the workers can prove they are employed, a senior administration official said last night.
In a White House speech, the president will ask Congress to create a new temporary worker program -- open to undocumented workers now in the United States and to foreigners who want to come -- that would give them legal status for three years, renewable for a yet-to-be-determined number of times, the official said.
Bush's supporters in the business community have made liberalization of immigration laws a top priority because of a shortage of workers willing to take low-wage jobs. And both political parties see Latino voters, who generally support more liberal immigration policies, as crucial to the November elections. But some congressional conservatives object to looser immigration policies, and a Republican leadership aide predicted that opposition will be swift and loud.
The administration estimates that 8 million undocumented people, more than half of them from Mexico, are in the country. All would qualify as long as an employer will vouch for them, the official said. Administration sources described the program broadly, and lawmakers will determine its details and fate.
"So long as the undocumented person represents that they are working here and we can confirm that, then it could be as many as 8 million people" affected, the official said on a conference call for reporters. The official gave an example of "somebody who is working at the Holiday Inn" illegally. If the employer says, "We're a match, she's been working here as of such-and-such date," then "that person is now legal, let's say, for the three years of this program," the official said.
The temporary workers would receive Social Security cards and would be eligible for driver's licenses in most states, officials said.
The official said the program is designed to "match willing foreign workers with willing U.S. employers when no American can be found to fill those jobs." But if an immigrant is already working in the United States, that requirement will be considered fulfilled, the official said.
The administration also intends to expand the number of people who can obtain a green card, or lawful permanent residency, which begins the path to U.S. citizenship. Bush aides said they have not decided how much they want to expand the program, which now issues about 1 million cards a year.
Aspects of the administration's immigration proposal have emerged in recent days, but last night's briefing outlined a plan that is broader than many lawmakers and immigration advocates had expected. The plan is similar in many respects to legislation introduced by three Arizona Republicans, Sen. John McCain and Reps. Jim Kolbe and Jeff Flake.
The proposal, Bush's first in his reelection year, would constitute the biggest change to the nation's immigration system in two decades. Bush is unveiling the program five days before meeting in Mexico with President Vicente Fox, who has advocated such changes.
Bush had said during his 2000 campaign that he would make the restructuring of immigration laws a top priority. But those plans were shelved after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when the White House began focusing on tightening border controls, and Bush has been virtually silent on immigration for two years.
The official briefing reporters said that under Bush's plan, which he is calling "Fair and Secure Immigration Reform," eligible temporary workers "will be able to travel freely back, to and from their home country," and will "enjoy minimum wage, due process protection" and all the other employment rights of U.S. workers. "It will protect the rights of illegal workers who now live in the shadows and are fearful of coming out of the shadows for fear of deportation," the official said. Dependents would be included if the worker could demonstrate that he or she can support them.
The program includes "incentives for return to the home country," most notably agreements that would allow workers to collect retirement money that would include Social Security checks and benefits paid by their home government, apportioned according to how many quarters they had worked in each country. Social Security money is already sent abroad. But under the current system, the pensioners' home countries can penalize them for years spent in the United States.
Bush also is proposing tax-preferred "savings accounts that could be used for the benefit of the participant for either retirement or for a nest egg to buy land or capitalize a business," the official said.
The official said the administration plans "more strenuous enforcement" of immigration laws on employers and workers. Bush will propose five principles, including "We must protect the homeland by controlling our borders."
Another is to "promote compassion" by making undocumented workers "part of the legitimate part of our economy."
Officials said the program does not include any route that will make it easier for the temporary workers to become full citizens.
Bush has said that he opposes "blanket amnesty." The official said that is not an accurate description of his plan since "there is no linkage between participation in this program and a green card, and it is temporary in nature -- one must go home upon conclusion of the program."
Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, an advocacy group for immigrants, said the program could "result in a large group of second-class citizens who are unable to get on a path to citizenship."
-------- prisons / prisoners
White House Want Faster Detainee Review
January 7, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Scotus-Enemy-Combatants.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration said Wednesday it plans to rush an appeal in the case of a U.S.-born terrorism suspect so that the Supreme Court can decide by summer whether the government may hold U.S. citizens indefinitely and without charges.
The administration wants the high court to quickly hear the case of Jose Padilla, a former gang member and convert to Islam who was arrested in Chicago in May 2002 in connection with an alleged plot to detonate a radioactive ``dirty bomb.''
Last month, a federal appeals court ruled that President Bush does not have the authority to declare Padilla an enemy combatant and hold him in open-ended military custody. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals gave the government 30 days to release Padilla.
The administration had promised an appeal. It said it will also ask that the appeals court ruling be put on hold.
The administration's top Supreme Court lawyer went a step further on Wednesday by notifying the Supreme Court that it will file an appeal there by Jan. 20, in time for the court to squeeze the case onto its calendar for the final session of scheduled oral arguments in April.
The lower court ruling ``undermines the president's constitutional authority to protect the nation from additional enemy attacks in wartime,'' Solicitor General Theodore Olson told the justices in a court filing.
Olson called the order to release Padilla unprecedented and warned that the president, as commander in chief, had determined that Padilla ``is an enemy combatant intent on committing hostile and warlike acts against the United States.''
Ordinarily, the government would have weeks or months beyond Jan. 20 to file its Supreme Court appeal. But the court's calendar is nearly full, so the government wants to get the paperwork in early. Filing any later would probably mean the high court could not consider the case until its next term, which begins in October.
Olson's notice came in paperwork for a separate but related terrorism appeal. The high court is scheduled to consider Friday whether to hear the appeal of another U.S.-born terror suspect, Yaser Esam Hamdi.
The government has won its argument in lower courts that Hamdi, arrested in Afghanistan while fighting with Taliban troops in November 2001, may be held indefinitely without access to a lawyer or the U.S. court system.
Hamdi, who grew up in Saudi Arabia, was held with other battlefield detainees at the military prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but authorities later transferred him to a U.S. naval brig in South Carolina after discovering he was born in Louisiana.
A lawyer who has never met Hamdi appealed his case to the Supreme Court before the 2nd Circuit's Dec. 18 ruling in the Padilla case.
Hamdi's lawyer recently told the court that the Padilla ruling makes his case all the more important for the high court. Olson, however, suggested that the justices shelve the Hamdi case for now.
The court has discretion to hear either case, or neither of them. Although the two cases present slightly different legal questions, the justices may prefer to evaluate both cases at the same time, after the Padilla appeal is filed, Olson said.
The Hamdi case is Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, 03-6696.
-------- terrorism
Players: Dennis J. Reimer
Focusing on Anti-Terrorism Retired General Leads Okla. Institute Aimed at Prevention
By Lois Romano
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 7, 2004; Page A19
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60199-2004Jan6.html
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Long before a truck bomb tore open a federal building here and jets piloted by terrorists brought down the World Trade Center, Dennis J. Reimer said he recognized that something had to be done about the growing threat of terrorism.
As a 37-year Army combat veteran, he had seen international violence firsthand. He testified on Capitol Hill in the late 1990s about the impending dangers of unconventional warfare, and shortly after that he was among the first wave of military officers who voluntarily agreed to take an anthrax vaccine, believing bioterrorism was the next line of terrorist offense.
A few years ago, after Reimer retired as the Army's 33rd chief of staff, the native Oklahoman got his chance, as he says, "to put my money where my mouth is."
The retired general in April 2000 became the first director of the National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (MIPT), a federally funded research and development organization founded as an outgrowth of the April 19, 1995, bombing here.
"As an Okie, I was given an opportunity to come back and help my home state. I knew the great tragedy in 1995, and I believed deeply the nation needed to be prepared," Reimer, 64, said during a recent interview in his downtown offices here. "Because of what happened here, we believe Oklahoma City is a place where you can bring serious people together and talk about the complex issues associated with combating terrorism on U.S. soil."
The concept for an anti-terrorism center to prepare government officials, rescue workers and the public for another domestic attack was formulated shortly after Timothy J. McVeigh blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, killing 168 people. State leaders, survivors and relatives of the victims wanted -- as part of the memorial complex -- a nonprofit organization whose broad mission is to "prevent terrorism on U.S. soil." To date, it has largely focused its research and efforts on preparing the "first responders" -- rescue workers.
Reimer sees the institute with its staff of 12 as sort of a national and neutral clearinghouse for facts, figures and research in helping the country respond to the terrorist threat. One of its prized projects is a booklet called "Oklahoma City 7 Years Later: Lessons for Other Communities," which the MIPT sent to hundreds of cities nationwide after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
"Family members and survivors wanted an organization that looked to the future," Reimer said. The organization is funded through the Department of Homeland Security's Office for Domestic Preparedness.
Reimer said his focus and mission have not changed much since the 2001 attacks -- but he acknowledged that people pay more attention when he talks these days. "Quite frankly, outside of Oklahoma City you really didn't get a whole lot of traction," he said. "People were saying, 'Well, it happened in Oklahoma City, but it won't happen here.' "
Today, the MIPT works with and funds various university research projects: a study for improving crisis communication and protecting telephone networks in the event of an attack; a project evaluating the long-term mental health effects of an attack; studies on the development of anthrax vaccines; and the development of appropriate protective clothing for emergency responders. It offers summaries of its projects and other research on its Web site, www.mipt.org.
So far, its impact and reach has been broad, experts say.
In the summer of 2001, two months before Sept. 11, Reimer and the MIPT helped organize an exercise called "Dark Winter," in which a group of former senior government leaders role-played members of a fictional National Security Council responding to a smallpox epidemic.
The exercise, conducted at Andrews Air Force Base with former senator Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) portraying the president, received attention from Congress, the media and the White House when it demonstrated that the nation's modest available doses of the smallpox vaccine would be inadequate in the face of an epidemic.
"I personally briefed the results of the simulation to Vice President Cheney a month after 9/11, but before the anthrax attack," John Hamre, chief executive of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), wrote in an e-mail. "The results of Dark Winter directly affected the bioterrorism preparations of the federal government, and the MIPT was indispensable in getting this work going."
Hamre also credits the MIPT with directly affecting the way the Department of Homeland Security is now assessing risk vulnerabilities as a result of the "Silent Vector" exercise, an exercise that the MIPT also helped organize, which simulated a crisis situation where the government was facing a credible but ambiguous warning.
"This project was directly simulated by conversations with General Reimer because of his perception of the problems people at state and local government were having with the alerting system set up by the federal government," Hamre said. "It was path-breaking work."
Reimer said the next project he would like to tackle is educating the public about the long-term affects of the USA Patriot Act, which critics say deprives citizens of basic rights in the name of protecting them.
"The American people need to be better educated on what's happening with the Patriot Act," he said. "I think in some cases we might have gone too far, and I don't think we can afford to go too far. . . . We don't want to wake up 10 years from now and say, 'How did we lose these rights, how did we get to this a particular point?' "
-------- torture
Detained, Bludgeoned and Electrocuted into a Coma.
Dahr Jamail
7 January 2003:
(ICH)
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5482.htm
Sadiq Zoman Abrahim, 55 years old, was detained this past August in Kirkuk by US Soldiers during a home raid which produced no weapons. He was taken to the police office in Kirkuk, questioned by the Americans there, then transferred to Kirkuk Airport Detention Center.
It was from this detention center he was transferred to Tikrit Airport Detention Center. While in this detention center Mr. Abrahim managed to find a man who was about to be released, and have him pass on to his family information about where he was. It was from this place that the Americans transferred him, comatose, to the hospital in Tikrit.
Acting on this information the family searched the hospital, but was unable to find him. While there, the hospital administration informed them they had someone in a coma by the name of Abrahim Sadiq Zoman, who was dropped off two days prior by the Americans.
According to the administrative staff at the hospital, the only information provided by the Americans was the incorrect name and a medical report which said Mr. Abrahim had suffered a heart attack. They provided no information as to where he had been picked up, no address and no other personal information.
It is documented by both the hospital and Iraqi Red Crescent in Tikrit (who took the photos of Mr. Abrahim), that the Americans dropped the comatose man off with the aforementioned information. Before his family had found him, the Iraqi Red Crescent had posted photos of Mr. Abrahim on buses leaving Tikrit in hopes of someone recognizing him, as noone in the city knew who he was.
In the photos taken by the Red Crescent, Mr. Abrahim appears with long hair and an unshaven, scruffy face. The staff at the hospital shaved him, and cleaned up his ragged appearance.
The doctors at the hospital in Tikrit, after performing diagnostic tests, informed the family that Mr. Abrahim had suffered massive head trauma, electrocution, and other beatings on his arms. An EKG proved that his heart was functioning perfectly. The family was told that he was in an unrecoverable state and would be in a coma for the rest of his life from the obvious trauma suffered from torture.
The family decided to take him to Haitha, where CT and CAT scans proved the man was in a hopeless condition. In despair, the family then took Mr. Abrahim to Baghdad, where the same tests verified his vegetative state as being permanent.
Now, today, three months later Mr. Abrahim lies dormant, his eyes staring blankly at the ceiling, blinking slowly from time to time, yet completely unresponsive to any stimuli.
This horrible situation raises many questions.
If the Americans knew who he was and where he was when they detained him, why did they fail to provide this information to the hospital when Mr. Abrahim was dropped off?
Why did the Americans fail to notify the hospital of Mr. Abrahim having an accident if there had been one?
How do you explain the massive head trauma, the burns on the bottoms of his feet caused by electrocution and bruises on his arms, if he had only suffered a heart attack as the medical report provided by the Americans states?
The family saw Mr. Abrahim in perfect health upon being detained by the Americans. He was in their custody the entire time until dropped off at the hospital in Tikrit.
No firearms, bombs, or other incriminating evidence was ever found by searches conducted in the home of Mr. Abrahim upon his detention. His family states that they have no idea why he was detained.
Even if the worst case scenario was true: that Mr. Abrahim was an active member of the resistance and/or a high ranking Ba'ath Party member, does this justify being tortured by electrical shock and being bludgeoned into a coma?
Is this not a violation of International Law?
Should not he have been held for a trial to determine whether he was innocent or guilty?
Today Sadiq Zoman Abrahim lies staring at the ceiling, eyes wide open, in Haitha, Iraq.
His family is left sitting with him, with nothing else but unanswered questions from the CPA.
--------
Saddam's victims eager to tell stories
January 07, 2004
By Niko Price
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20040106-094004-4730r.htm
BAGHDAD - A ship's captain dipped into nitric acid wants to offer his wrecked body as evidence of Saddam Hussein's crimes. A janitor wants to tell the world how the dictator ordered her husband killed and her son tortured.
A tribunal created to try top former Iraqi officials doesn't have custody of Saddam. It doesn't have courtrooms, judges or prosecutors. Things such as charges and witness lists remain months away.
But already, thousands of Iraqis who suffered under Saddam's bloody rule are lining up for a chance to testify against the man who to them personifies the evil of a regime that destroyed its people.
They include Abdul-Wahid al-Obeidi, 63. A merchant marine captain, he was arrested in 1971 for doling out religious and political advice aboard his ship. He was dipped into nitric acid and left for dead, and his family was persecuted in the decades after his miraculous survival.
Nuria Bash Agha Yassin, 47, a janitor at a home for the elderly, still mourns her husband 20 years after his execution. She cares for the son he left in her womb - a son who hasn't been well since he was imprisoned and tortured with electric shocks for three months.
They and thousands more see their trauma as an entitlement: to confront the man in their nightmares and then watch him suffer.
Mr. al-Obeidi says the victims are many. "Their nails were pulled out. Their ears were cut off," he said. "We will show him the evidence of our bodies. We will tell Saddam Hussein: 'Aren't these things evidence enough of your crimes?' "
Mr. al-Obeidi graduated in 1957 from Baghdad's military college with the rank of captain, his allegiance split between the country he loved and the God he served.
By the end of the 1960s, he had a good job at the helm of a ship leaving Iraq's southern ports loaded with oil and returning with manufactured goods for a country that was modernizing rapidly under its new Ba'ath Party leadership.
One of his proudest achievements was the construction of a small mosque aboard his ship. When crew members came to pray, they often asked their captain for religious advice, which he happily gave.
One day, a sailor asked him whether God would approve of the purges of political opponents being carried out by Saddam's Ba'ath Party. Mr. al-Obeidi told the man he didn't think God would. That comment later found its way into a secret police report.
In June 1971, Mr. al-Obeidi sailed into the port of Umm Qasr to find police waiting for him. They blindfolded him and took him to Baghdad's Qasr al-Nihaye - Palace of the End.
"They would hang me from a ceiling fan by my legs," he said, dangling a string of prayer beads to illustrate. "They'd beat me with cables. When they were finished, they'd turn the fan on and leave me spinning."
Finally, more than a year later, in September 1972, the torturers took Mr. al-Obeidi to what was known as the death room.
"They told me, 'It's over. You're going to die,' " he said.
But he said they took pity on him. When they lowered him into a bathtub filled with nitric acid, they immersed only his back.
"They put me in for less than a second, then pulled me out," he says. "I felt my flesh melting. I was unconscious for three days."
When he woke up, he saw his tearful family gathered around him. He later learned that prison officials, thinking he would die soon, sent him home so they wouldn't have to dispose of the body.
Mr. al-Obeidi faced a long recovery. His back and upper arms were destroyed. A former bodybuilder, he had wasted away to nothing. He sold a plot of land to travel to Westminster Hospital in London, where doctors performed 13 skin grafts to replace the dead flesh.
Meanwhile, the government that had failed to kill him did what it could to make his life miserable. He was fired from his job, denied his pension for 12 years of service and forbidden from working for the government. He found odd jobs loading and unloading trucks, and a local mosque gave him a monthly pension of 5,000 dinars - $3.
His children were kicked out of school, and police burst into his home regularly to search for political writings. A security agent moved in next door to keep an eye on him. He was summoned frequently for questioning.
"For 30 years, we lived with fear inside of us," he said. "But we had conviction that God would punish Saddam."
Mr. al-Obeidi watched with joy as TV stations broadcast images of Saddam in captivity, his mouth being probed by a U.S. soldier. The very next day, he went to an organization of former prisoners to let them know he wanted to take the stand.
"If there is a sentence worse than the death penalty, Saddam should face it," he said. "When he goes to the hereafter, God will punish him. If he killed 1 million people, he will be killed 1 million times. That will be God's punishment."
Mrs. Yassin, the widow, has met Saddam.
It was 1983, a few months after her husband had been arrested for membership in the Communist Party. She knew nothing of his fate, but requested an audience with the president because she needed to feed her three daughters and her newborn son.
"I told him, 'I have children, and I have no support,' " Mrs. Yassin said. "He said, 'Your husband was executed. You're young. You can work.' He called an officer and told him to take me away."
The work Mrs. Yassin was given consisted of cleaning a home for the elderly in the Baghdad slum then known as Saddam City. She was paid 3,500 dinars - $2 - a month.
She raised her family as best she could, marrying off two of her daughters. Her son, Khaled Khawan, graduated from high school and got a job as a prison guard, but after two months the government realized his father had been a communist, and fired him.
Mr. Khawan cursed Saddam for his predicament and was overheard. In November 2002, he was hauled into jail where he received three months of electric shocks to his hands, neck and ears before being transferred to a prison. He was released in April by American soldiers, but his mother said he isn't the same.
"He has a nervous disorder now," Mrs. Yassin said. "When he remembers how they hung him from the ceiling, he starts shouting and goes into convulsions."
And so he has become another mouth to feed, huddled in his mother's one-room shack, jagged pieces of linoleum covering the bare cement floor.
Mrs. Yassin begins to cry at the thought of the trial, saying she would testify not because of her suffering, or even her husband's, but because of her son's.
"I raised him with my tears. I gave him everything. I raised him so he would protect his sisters," she said. "Why did they torture him? Why did they destroy him?"
Testifying at the trial, she said, would be "just like talking to God."
"Saddam saw our suffering and tortured us anyway," she said. "I need him to suffer just like he made our children suffer. I want him to see what we saw."
-------- ENERGY AND OTHER
-------- environment
Explosions slam chemical plant
Around the Nation
January 07, 2004
Washington Times
http://www.washtimes.com/national/aroundnation.htm
CONWAY, ARKANSAS - A series of explosions rocked a chemical plant in this central Arkansas city yesterday, shooting fireballs into the sky and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of people from nearby schools and businesses.
Two persons were hospitalized with burns, one in critical condition. All plant workers were accounted for. The cause of the explosions wasn't known.
Fires were spread throughout the Detco Industries plant on the city's south side. The plume of smoke could be seen 30 miles away in Little Rock and was so thick that it showed up on weather-service radar screens.
----
EPA Denies Petition to Ban Sewage Sludge on Farmland
WASHINGTON, DC, (ENS)
January 7, 2004
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2004/2004-01-07-09.asp#anchor2
On New Year's Eve, December 31, 2003, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) denied a petition from a coalition of 73 labor, environment, and farm groups requesting that the agency ban the land application of sewage sludge from wastewater treatment plants.
On the same day, the agency published its review of regulations governing the use and disposal of sewage sludge. The review was prompted by criticism of EPA's sludge rules by the National Research Council (NRC).
In both responses, the agency decided to permit the continued application of sewage sludge on agricultural fields.
The petition to EPA offers a detailed case regarding the dangers of land application of sewage sludge and requests this practice be prohibited. Signatories include the United Mine Workers of America, Clean Water Action, the Organic Consumers Association, the Center for Food Safety, Farm Aid, and Citizens for a Future New Hampshire.
The petitioners say the sludge contains heavy metals, radioactive materials, and other contaminants such as medical waste and is harmful to people, livestock and the environment.
Since the EPA allowed the practice 10 years ago, the petitioners complain that millions of tons of sewage sludge have been applied to American farmland. No system is in place to track health and environmental problems arising from the sludge, although 350 people have reported sludge related health incidents to the Cornell Waste Management Institute, and three people have died immediately after contact with the sludge.
"The EPA has once again chosen to make its controversial rulings on a holiday in the hope that no one will notice it's obfuscating," said Laura Orlando, a spokesperson for the coalition. "But EPA's dodging the ball when no one is looking is not going to make the facts go away: cows are dying, people are getting sick, and the food supply is being poisoned."
-------- ACTIVISTS
Alternative Mideast peace plan gathers 250,000 signatures
JERUSALEM (AFP)
Jan 07, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040107144322.rlki9utf.html
Organisers of an alternative Middle East peace plan said Wednesday that more than 250,000 people had now signed a petition in favour of the blueprint after they met their target of 100,000 Palestinian names by the end of 2003.
The People's Voice "realised its projected campaign goal of accumulating over 100,000 Palestinian endorsers by the end of 2003," the group said in a statement.
"In addition to the campaign's growing number of Palestinian supporters, over 150,000 Israelis have signed the statement of principles."
The People's Voice is an Israeli-Palestinian initiative which was launched officially in July 2002, drafted by former chief of the Shin Beth interior security services Ami Ayalon and Palestinian intellectual Sari Nusseibeh.
The agreement advocates the creation of a Palestinian state covering the areas conquered by Israel during the 1967 Middle East war and is being promoted in the shape of a petition submitted to the people on both sides.
Its most controversial principle is the explicit renunciation of the Palestinian refugees' right of return, which has been one of the main stumbling blocks of past negotiations.
The project has been somewhat overshadowed since the rival Geneva Initiative, a similar but much more detailed project, was launched in Switzerland last month.
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