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NUCLEAR
Loose Bolts Send NRC Team to PPL Plant
EFFECTS OF WARS AND THE USE OF DEPLETED URANIUM ON IRAQ
U.S. Urges Pakistan Against Nuke Network
Pakistan's nuclear polemic
Nuclear arms not with terrorists: Pak
Pakistan Scientist's Pardon 'Conditional'
Powell plans Pakistan nuclear talks
Bush: Hussein Eluded Containment Efforts
N.Korea Dismisses Pakistan Nuclear Disclosures
Libya's A-Bomb Blueprints Reveal New Tie to Pakistani
U.S.-Russian Plan to Destroy Atom-Arms Plutonium Is Delayed
Terrorists pursuing WMDs capability
Revived N-testing evokes dread
Downwinders battle renewed nuclear testing at Kanab forum
Lawrence Berkeley Lab Head Stepping Down
EPA Inspector General Report on INEEL
Russia's problems delay American MOX plant
Dirty job nears end
U.S. EPA exploring deregulating waste to streamline disposal process
Rebellion against the Patriot Act
Kerry, Too, Needs to Clear the Air
The Price Of Failure In Iraq
Bush Was Surprised at Lack of Iraqi Arms
MILITARY
7 Are Killed in a Clash of Afghan Militias
Afghan Harmony Hard to Find
Rumsfeld Lauds Croatia's Efforts
British Army Reserve Force Stretched to the Limit
Calls for an inquiry into deaths of Red Caps issued with 'few bullets'
U.S. Says Files Seek Qaeda Aid in Iraq Conflict
U.S. Army Begins Its Plan for a Lower Profile in Baghdad
Iraqi Militias Resisting U.S. Pressure to Disband
Israeli Supreme Court Hears 2 Petitions Against Barrier
Israel Tells Court W.Bank Barrier Route May Change
Adjustments in Barrier Under Way, Israeli Says
Armed Revolt In Haiti Spreads To More Cities
Uprising Against Aristide Spreads in Haiti
NATO Says World Security Tied to Afghan Stability
Intelligence hit mark on nuclear ambitions
Iraqis, U.N. Discuss Elections
Powell: US Will Not Impose Its Values on Mideast Governments
Bush at Sea
POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE
Scalia Travel Sparks New Questions About Recusals
Protests Continue in California as Execution Nears
Bush Aide Testifies in CIA Leak Probe
Blair Announces Plans for 'British FBI'
ENERGY
Plants Give Up Their Secret of Splitting Water
OTHER
Study Shows Why 1918 Flu Epidemic Was So Deadly
Vaccine supplies dwindle for many diseases
ACTIVISTS
Activist Group Resists Handing Over List
Transporting hazardous materials
-------- NUCLEAR
-------- accidents and safety
Loose Bolts Send NRC Team to PPL Plant
February 9, 2004
REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-utilities-ppl.html
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. power company PPL Corp. on Monday said U.S. nuclear regulators had sent an inspection team to its Susquehanna plant, after loose bolts were found on a diesel generator at the site.
The company said during testing on Jan. 25, its crew discovered loose bolts on a bracket supporting the generator's governor, which control's the generator's speed. The generator was one of five diesel generators at the plant and the company found no problems at the other generators. Advertisement
PPL said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission had sent a team to the plant to assess PPL's efforts to determine the underlying cause of the loose bolts.
-------- depleted uranium
EFFECTS OF WARS AND THE USE OF DEPLETED URANIUM ON IRAQ
By Dr. Jawad Al-Ali Director of the Oncology Center Basrah, Iraq
From: davey garland <thunderelf@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Mon Feb 9, 2004 2:53pm
This was forwarded by Joseph Gerson from the American Friends Service Committee
Dr Al-Ali description plus photographs by the Japanese photo journalist Takashi Morizumi can be found at:
http://www.afsc.org/newengland/pesp/effects-of-wars.ppt
It is 42 Megabytes, so it will take a while to load for most connections.
Japan Peace Conference
Naha, Okinawa - January 29 - February 1, 2004
During the last 50 years, Iraq passed through many wars. The more destructive one is the 1991 war (gulf war 2). In this war the infrastructure of Iraq has been destroyed completely. The war targeted the military as well as the civilian targets. The factories, government buildings, bridges, and hospitals were destroyed. During this war and for the first time in the history the allied forces used Depleted uranium containing weapons extensively at the west parts of Basrah City (more than 300 tons were delivered at that area). The estimated delivery of depleted uranium all over Iraq was 800 tons. This Depleted uranium led to the increased levels of radiation in the battlefield and the nearby cities and countries. The levels of radiation in the area, measured by the department of environmental engineering (college of engineering, university of Baghdad ) reached hundreds to thousands times the normal background levels in the Iraqi soil which is 70 Bq/kg of soil. This radiation and other factors like chemicals and poor nutrition caused many diseases (cancers, congenital malformation in children, kidney diseases and infections...etc.), then the economic sanction is added to increase the suffering of the Iraqis.
We were lacking food and medicines. The death rate among children is increased because of poor nutrition and infections (more than 5 millions of children died within the last 12 years). Although the Iraqi government accepted the memorandum of understanding (oil for food and medicines), the committee 661 of the Security Council has crippled this memorandum in many ways. The committee delayed contracts, partially accepting contracts and sometimes delaying payments to the companies with which the contracts are signed.
The Iraqi people were deprived from the recent advances in different sciences and technology. The newly issued journals and published books were not allowed to enter and to reach the Iraqi universities. We were pushed backward years behind the fast development of technology and we are now suffering the great lag of that period.
The damaged factories, hospitals and bridges were reconstructed by the Iraqi people but still unable to provide our requirements. The electricity, the water supply, and the industries are not sufficient.
In addition, our own government (saddam regime) assaulted our people by low payments at work, which led to the low income of the families and poor financial capabilities specially for those who have simple jobs. This low financial income (2-5 dollars/month) led to the appearance and the increase in the low social classes of population and low educational levels. Children left their schools to work in order to increase their families' income and to maintain their lives. We could say all aspects of life have been affected by that war and it could be described as the most destructive war against Iraq. It was dirty war because of the use of weapons containing depleted uranium against military as well as civilian targets.
The recent war (gulf war 3) in 2003 was a violation of the international law and against the will of the international community, which opposed this war. The reasons were unbelievable (the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction which till now have no evidence).
During this war, again the depleted uranium was used extensively around the city of Baghdad, city of Babylon, city of Karbala, city of Najef and in the city of Basrah, which is still suffering the effects of the depleted uranium of the gulf war 2 (1991). According to a report from the Guardian newspaper 1000-2000 tons were delivered on 51 local areas in different Iraqi cities. I witnessed the A-10 planes for three days delivering the depleted uranium rounds against the tanks and armor vehicles near Basrah airport and at the southern parts of Basrah city. The estimated amount of this weapon of mass destruction is exceeding the amount used in gulf war 2 (1991).
Again the infrastructure of our country is destroyed to greater extent. More buildings were destroyed, libraries and other government buildings were burned, the banks were robbed, and the occupation forces did not take any action to protect these buildings, the schools and hospitals from damage. Unknown people had stolen the Iraqi museum. All the Iraqi army forces were released and no more army to protect the Iraqi cities. In my opinion the aim of this war is the destruction of the Iraqi structure, its history and its role in the civilization of the world. Also to secure the oil of Iraq and Gulf States and to control all the energy sources of the world and not merely the weapons of mass destruction, which are not detected till this moment.
The rate of crime is increased to a dangerous level. Many people were killed in the streets, at their homes and in their cars. Children and girls were kidnapped from their schools. Doctors were killed at their clinics. In spite of all these crimes the occupation forces did nothing to stop it. Till now we have no elected government, and we have weak police offices and no army to protect the people and their properties. The electricity is not available and no healthy drinking water supply. No security but we hope this situation will improve in the near future.
The resistance against the occupation forces is increasing and stills active even after the capture of Saddam Hussein. This is mainly at the middle and northern parts of Iraq, while at the south the resistance is slight and nearly negligible. This is because the middle and northern parts are more loyal to Saddam regime than the southern regions. The aggressive behavior of the American soldiers worsens the situation in their occupied areas. The more calm British soldiers made the resistance less in the south. As revenge the Americans destroyed the houses and killed many Iraqi people blindly without differentiation between innocent people, terrorists and resistance militias. Thousands of people were captured and put in prisons. In my opinion the Iraqi people dislike occupation and will continue to fight until they extract their sovereignty and to have their own elected government, which represents all the parties and the different slices of community.
The health consequences of these wars affected mainly the people in the south of Iraq. The rate of cancers is increased more than ten times (that is 12 years after the gulf war 2) the rate in 1988. The death rate from cancers increased 19 times the rate of death in 1988. The congenital malformations in newly had borne babies increased 7 time the rate in 1990. New and strange phenomenon of cancers appeared like clustering of cancer in families, the double and triple cancers in one person. The death rate among children is increased as a result of malnutrition and infections. Lack of medicines and medical equipment worsens the health situation.
The causes of all these health problems are multifactorial. The most important factors are the radiation, the chemical, nutritional and infection.
The victims are mainly the children who were affected by cancers, malnutrition and congenital malformations.
The following pictures are the evidences of the effects of the wars and the use of depleted uranium in the gulf war 2(1991).
We have many reasons to blame the radiation as a cause for all the health problems in the south of Iraq:
• Significant increase in cancer rates after 1991.
• Significant increase in death rate from cancers after 1991.
• Increased rate of congenital malformations in children borne after 1991.
• Cancer clustering in families is noticed only after 1991.
• Double and triple cancers are seen only after 1991.
• The only cancer-producing factor that is added to our environment after 1991 is the radiation factor.
We need to confirm the cause (the radiation) by testing the soil for levels of radiation, confirming the uranium particles in the tissues and urine of patients, chromosomal analysis and cytogenetic studies of the affected people and patients. In that case we could confidently prove the causal relationship between the cancers, congenital malformations, other diseases and radiation due to depleted uranium. We are lacking the equipment for investigations and no body is allowed to find evidences and to prove that there was great crime committed by those who are supposed to protect the world.
At the end of my talk I hope that every nation will fight for freedom and sovereignty, to strengthen the solidarity with other nations for the sake of peace and freedom. This conference is one of the means by which we build the good and solid relations between the different nations.
I hope that the Iraqi people and other people elsewhere will live peacefully in a world free of nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction. No for occupation by strangers and yes for sovereignty and self-ruling of nations.
Thank you
Dr. Jawad Kadhim Al-Ali Basrah, Iraq
--
What Next for the Children of Iraq?
From: Hussein Al-Alak <hussy_al_2000@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: February 9, 2004
Speaker: Camille Warren, from the Campaign Against Depleted Uranium.
Date: Wednesday 18th Feb, Time; 7-30pm. Venue, The Friends Meeting House, Mount Street, Manchester.
For more information please contact; 0161 882 0188 / 07946 783 801. or write to the Iraq Solidarity Campaign, c/o Bridge 5 Mill, 22a Beswick Street, Ancoats, Manchester, M4 7HR, the UK.
Organised by the Iraq Solidarity Campign, supported by the Middle Eastern Cultural Association UK.
-------- india / pakistan
U.S. Urges Pakistan Against Nuke Network
February 9, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-US-Pakistan-Nuclear.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Secretary of State Colin Powell insisted Monday that Pakistan, an ally in the U.S. war against terrorism, dismantle ``by its roots'' a secret network of nuclear technology sales run by the nation's leading atomic scientist.
While dismissing reports he planned a trip soon to Islamabad, Powell said that President Pervez Musharraf had told him in a telephone conversation during the weekend that the pardon he granted Abdul Qadeer Khan, once the scientist revealed his operation, was a conditional one.
Powell did not provide any details about Musharraf's intentions in dealing with the revered father of Pakistan's atomic bomb, who was at the center of a widespread and sophisticated operation that sent nuclear technology to North Korea, Libya and Iran, all of which are designated as sponsors of terror by the State Department.
Since the Bush administration took office more than three years ago, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage had made a point of looking into a Pakistan role in proliferation and has raised his concerns with Musharraf and other Pakistani officials, said the department's spokesman, Richard Boucher.
Explaining what Musharraf meant by conditioning his pardon for Khan, the U.S. official said all activity by Khan and others who may have been part of the operation must end.
There has been speculation that the Bush administration had avoided sharp criticism of the pardon because it considered Musharraf a valued ally in the U.S. campaign against al-Qaida terrorists.
``The Pakistani government has done quite a bit now to roll up the network,'' Powell said at an informal news conference at the State Department.
``I said to President Musharraf that we wanted to learn as much as we could about what Mr. Khan and the network was up to. It has to be pulled up by its roots and examined to make sure we have left nothing behind,'' Powell said.
``He assured me that was his objective as well, and he would share with us all the information they came up with,'' Powell said.
As for a trip to Pakistan, which some reports quoting anonymous U.S. officials said was imminent, Powell said he was sure he would go there sometime in the spring or summer but said a visit was not being planned now.
Even while insisting on a complete uprooting of the technology network, Powell said ``it's a matter for the Pakistani government to handle and make their own decisions.''
Khan has said he acted without the knowledge of Pakistani authorities in leaking nuclear secrets to countries developing nuclear weapons.
Only a few weeks before the scandal surfaced, Pakistan's ambassador to Washington dismissed allegations that Pakistani scientists had provided Libya and possibly Iran and North Korea with advanced nuclear technology.
``As far as we know, none was shipped out -- ever. Nobody has presented us with evidence that this happened at such and such a time,'' Ambassador Ashraf Qazi said at the time.
Boucher said Monday Pakistan was cooperating with the United States in trying to round up al-Qaida fighters on both sides of the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
That cooperation does not require the use of U.S. troops on the Pakistan side, Boucher said.
----
Pakistan's nuclear polemic
February 09, 2004
Washington Times
Editorial
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20040208-102851-1717r.htm
Pakistan's nuclear mastermind Abdul Qadeer Khan delivered his scripted mea culpa last week for exporting nuclear know-how, amid crocodile sighs. The unclimactic next act, a presidential pardon, was widely anticipated in the media and interpreted as a quid pro quo. Mr. Khan assured the global public that the Pakistani government didn't know about or condone the scientist's proliferation, and in return President Pervez Musharraf got Mr. Khan off the hook legally. But the great Mr. Khan is moribund. His very public capitulation, in what author Ahmed Akbar describes as Pakistan's honor culture, has debased him. The global audience, meanwhile, is horrified by his reckless endangerment of the international community.
The question then remains: What is the damage to Pakistan in general and Gen. Musharraf specifically? Mr. Khan's admission represents an attempt by Gen. Musharraf to give some sort of airing of Pakistan's proliferation wrongs, which have become very clear in the wake of recent revelations by Libya and Iran. But most serious observers recognize the admission as more whitewash than sunlight. Mr. Khan's contention that no military or government officials were aware, for example, of the weapons of mass destruction links between Pakistan and North Korea is not credible.
All of this presents difficult foreign policy choices for the United States. Pakistan's policing has led to the most important counter-al Qaeda breakthroughs in the world, and it is expected to become more aggressive in the border region with Afghanistan.
But if U.S. officials are calculating that turning a blind eye towards proliferation will produce a tied and shackled Osama bin Laden, compliments of Pakistan, they are probably mistaken. As Pakistani experts maintain, Islamabad fears that given the history of U.S.-Pakistani relations, producing bin Laden would lead to an incremental end to the U.S. courtship. While a bin Laden capture can't be ruled out, such a move (if tactically feasible for Pakistan) would probably be poorly timed in Islamabad.
Washington should not therefore soft-peddle its concern over nuclear proliferation, but should blunt the impact of its measures by directing all actions through international organizations. Mr. Khan's professed contrition doesn't put to rest proliferation issues. Gen. Musharraf will have many questions to answer in the next few months, in Pakistan and beyond.
----
Nuclear arms not with terrorists: Pak
Feb. 9, 2004
(Reuters)
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1040210/asp/foreign/story_2879716.asp
Rawalpindi: Groups like al Qaida obtained neither nuclear weapons nor knowhow from Pakistan, despite a proliferation scandal linking a top scientist with Libya, Iran and North Korea, an official said today.
"We exclude the possibility," military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan said, when asked if Abdul Qadeer Khan's leaked nuclear technology and hardware could have reached groups like al Qaida. "It has not come out of our investigations, or any other intelligence agency. There has been no such hint."
Khan, revered as the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb, has admitted to peddling nuclear secrets abroad, saying he acted alone and absolving the government and military of any blame.
A Pakistani investigation launched in November has thrown light on a nuclear black market involving middlemen in countries including Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Germany and the Netherlands. Khan, part of the network, is accused of helping Iran, North Korea and Libya acquire atomic weapons technology and equipment.
The US says it fears al Qaida-type groups might gain access to weapons of mass destruction to use against Americans.
Quoting sources close to al Qaida, a pan-Arab newspaper said yesterday Osama bin Laden's shadowy network bought tactical nuclear weapons from Ukraine in 1998 and is storing them. Ukrainian officials denied the report today, saying the country never controlled the former Soviet arms on its territory which had passed straight into Russian hands.
Pakistan said today last week's presidential pardon of Khan was conditional on his "cooperation" in the probe. President Pervez Musharraf issued the pardon on Thursday, a day after Khan made a public confession on state television.
"This is not a blanket pardon for the future. There are strict security restrictions on him and he is bound by them," foreign ministry spokesman Masood Khan told a news briefing.
Pakistan says it investigated 11 people, seven of them scientists including Abdul Qadeer Khan, on charges of nuclear proliferation after the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency provided it with names of the Pakistanis involved. Masood Khan said investigations against colleagues and associates of the scientist were continuing and none would be "resuming" their work at nuclear research facilities.
The Pakistani government insists there have been no nuclear leaks from Pakistan since the National Command Authority was established in February 2000 to oversee the arsenal.
----
Pakistan Scientist's Pardon 'Conditional'
February 9, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Pakistan-Nuclear.html
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistan left open on Monday the option of criminal prosecution against the father of its nuclear program if more revelations come to light about his leaks of nuclear technology.
The presidential pardon for Abdul Qadeer Khan is ``conditional'' on his admissions so far in selling nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea, the government said Monday.
``The pardon is specific to the charges made so far, and about which Dr. A.Q. Khan has made a confessional statement,'' Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan said, adding that Khan is cooperating with the probe. ``But this is not a blanket pardon.''
Masood Khan said the investigation into Khan and his associates continues.
Secretary of State Colin Powell, who spoke by telephone with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf over the weekend, insisted Monday that Pakistan dismantle ``by its roots'' a secret network of nuclear technology sales run by Khan.
Musharraf pardoned Khan last week after he admitted in a televised confession to giving away secrets.
Pakistani officials have told journalists Khan also has signed a confession revealing details of selling nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea, all of which are designated as sponsors of terror by the U.S. State Department.
Details of the confession haven't been publicly released, and Masood Khan declined Monday to reveal the exact charges.
``Strict security restrictions'' have been imposed on Abdul Qadeer Khan and others being investigated, and they ``will not be allowed to resume their normal duties or activities,'' the spokesman said.
Powell, dismissing reports he planned a trip soon to Islamabad, said that Musharraf had told him that Khan's pardon was conditional. Powell did not provide details about Musharraf's intentions.
There has been speculation that the Bush administration had avoided sharp criticism of the pardon because it considered Musharraf a valued ally in the U.S. campaign against al-Qaida terrorists.
``The Pakistani government has done quite a bit now to roll up the network,'' Powell said in Washington.
``I said to President Musharraf that we wanted to learn as much as we could about what Mr. Khan and the network was up to. It has to be pulled up by its roots and examined to make sure we have left nothing behind,'' Powell said.
``He assured me that was his objective as well, and he would share with us all the information they came up with,'' Powell said.
Underscoring that the current probe was an ``internal exercise,'' Masood Khan said Pakistan would share its findings with the International Atomic Energy Agency ``in as much as it helps in countering proliferation and cracking the international black market.''
Musharraf has insisted there was no official involvement in proliferation, and said he won't allow an independent investigation or any international probe into Pakistan's nuclear program.
Seeking to deflect accusations of state involvement in proliferation, Masood Khan also denied Monday that the government delivered nuclear technology to North Korea in exchange for missiles.
Such allegations have long focused on the flight of a Pakistani C-130 military cargo plane to North Korea in July 2002. Masood Khan acknowledged that flight Monday, but said Pakistan only picked up shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles.
``There was no nuclear technology on board, absolutely none,'' he said. ``This is utter nonsense.''
In March 2003, the United States placed sanctions on Khan Research Laboratories -- the nuclear facility named for Abdul Qadeer Khan -- and a North Korean company, Changg Wang Sinyong Corp., for missile transactions.
At the time, the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan said the lab made ``material contributions'' to another unspecified country, person or entity's efforts to ``use, acquire, design, develop and/or secure weapons of mass destruction, and/or missiles capable of delivering weapons.''
The Federation of American Scientists has said Pakistan's Ghauri missile series -- capable of carrying a nuclear payload deep into rival India -- is a copy of North Korea's Nodong missile. Pakistani has denied that claim.
Musharraf forced Khan out as head of the lab in 2001 and appointed him a top government adviser. Khan was fired from that job last week before his TV apology.
Pakistan had denied allegations of proliferation for years, but began its probe in late November after Iranian revelations to the IAEA, the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
--------
Powell plans Pakistan nuclear talks
By Farhan Bokhari in Islamabad and Mark Turner at the United Nations
February 9 2004
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1075982384637&p=1012571727169
Colin Powell, US secretary of state, is expected to visit Pakistan in the next few weeks to discuss the country's nuclear proliferation investigations with General Pervez Musharraf, the military ruler, Pakistani officials said.
Mr Powell would be the first senior western figure to visit Pakistan since Abdul Qadeer Khan, father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb project, last week conceded that he had overseen transfer of nuclear know-how and technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea.
Dr Khan was pardoned by Gen Musharraf, but officials said the nuclear scientist would not be allowed to leave Pakistan and his activities would be closely monitored.
Mr Powell spoke by telephone to Gen Musharraf on Saturday in their first conversation since the pardon was announced. "Gen Musharraf has invited Powell to visit Islamabad and he has agreed to come soon, but there are no dates fixed yet," said one Pakistani official. "The US has supported Pakistan's approach on this matter."
In public, the US administration has backed Gen Musharraf's handling of the nuclear investigation. But western diplomats said there were bound to be concerns in Washington to avoid fur ther leaks by rogue individuals seeking to pass on the technology to third countries.
"In Powell's discussions, it's difficult to imagine that there would be no mention of the ways in which Pakistan must intensify security around its nuclear weapons," said one diplomat.
Gen Musharraf has emerged as an important US ally in the war on terror. The relationship has led to the capture in Pakistan of more than 600 militants linked to al-Qaeda, who were handed over to US troops.
Pakistan has, however, expressed serious reservations over US-Russian proposals in the United Nations to ban the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction to "non-state actors", expressing fears that a draft resolution under discussion goes too far and is insufficiently defined.
The five permanent members of the UN Security Council are discussing a text they say will plug an international legislative loophole, requiring states to forbid terrorists and other non-state actors from making, acquiring, possessing or transporting nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
The move follows a call by President George W. Bush to the General Assembly and similar proposals from Russia. But almost half a year later, the 10 elected members of the Security Council have not been consulted, raising concerns that they will be presented with a fait accompli by the five veto-wielding nuclear states.
-------- iraq / inspections
Bush: Hussein Eluded Containment Efforts
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 9, 2004; Page A08
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24031-2004Feb8.html
In defending his decision to go to war in Iraq, President Bush suggested yesterday a belief that U.N. inspections and sanctions were of limited utility in preventing Saddam Hussein from acquiring weapons of mass destruction.
"Containment doesn't work with a man who is a madman," Bush said during his interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," even as he acknowledged banned weapons have yet to be found.
Bush's assessment of the U.N. efforts, however, does not appear to be shared by his own former chief weapons inspector, David Kay. In testimony Jan. 28 before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Kay lauded the effectiveness of past U.N. efforts. "In holding the [Iraq arms] program down and keeping it from break out [building numbers of weapons], I think the [U.N.] record is better than we would have anticipated," Kay said.
Kay also said Iraqi scientists had told him recently that they were surprised the U.N. inspectors were so tough and reported some programs were ended in the mid-1990s because of the inspections, but without specific evidence the U.N. inspectors did not believe the Iraqis because they had lied before.
NBC's Tim Russert asked Bush about statements he had made during fall 2002 when the administration was building support for a congressional authorization for war. These included Bush saying, "The Iraqi regime is a threat of unique urgency," and "Saddam Hussein is a threat that we must deal with as quickly as possible." Bush did not acknowledge having made those statements and said, "In my language, I called it a 'grave and gathering threat,' " a phrase he used in a speech before the United Nations on Sept. 12, 2002.
White House aides have insisted, since no weapons have been found, that Bush never used the word "imminent" in describing the Iraq threat. Yesterday, Bush said, "I don't want to get into a word contest."
In describing the threat posed by Hussein, Bush said twice that the former Iraqi leader was a threat to the United States because he "was paying for suicide bombers" that went into Israel, implying that the Iraqi money generated the attacks. After suicide bombings, Hussein in recent years said that, as Saudi Arabia and several Gulf states had been doing for years, he would give $25,000 to support each of the perpetrators' families. But many experts agree those funds, no matter where their origin, were not the motivation for the attackers.
Bush also said Hussein was a threat because "he was funding terrorist groups." Iraq had granted asylum to terrorists such as Abu Nidal and supplied money and training to Palestinian groups that fought Israel. Authorities say there is no evidence that Hussein gave direct financial support to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network either before or after the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, although some al Qaeda operatives and associates passed through Baghdad.
-------- korea
N.Korea Dismisses Pakistan Nuclear Disclosures
February 9, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-korea-north.html
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea dismissed on Tuesday an admission by Pakistan's top nuclear scientist that he sold nuclear weapons technology to the North and other states as ``nothing more than sordid false propaganda'' spread by the United States.
The statement by a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman, published by Pyongyang's official KCNA news agency, said Washington had fabricated revelations by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan in order to isolate North Korea in six-country nuclear talks later this month. It was Pyongyang's first reaction to the Pakistan news.
-------- mideast
Libya's A-Bomb Blueprints Reveal New Tie to Pakistani
February 9, 2004
By WILLIAM J. BROAD
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/09/international/africa/09WEAP.html?pagewanted=all
Investigators have determined that the nuclear weapon blueprints found in Libya from the Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan were of his own relatively crude type of bomb - not the more advanced models that Pakistan developed and successfully tested, American and European arms experts have said in interviews.
The analysis of the blueprints, which establish a new link between Dr. Khan and the underground nuclear black market now under global scrutiny, has heartened investigators in Europe and the United States because his design is seen as less threatening in terms of the spread of nuclear weapons.
"If you had to have a design circulating around the world, we'd be worse off if it was a design other than Khan's," said an American weapons expert who is familiar with the Libyan case.
However, European and American investigators said they feared that Dr. Khan and his network of shadowy middlemen might have peddled the weapon blueprints to other nations in deals that have not yet come to light. They also said the Libyan findings gave new credence to what was apparently an attempt by Dr. Khan more than a decade ago to sell a nuclear weapon design to Iraq.
Pakistani officials have focused their recent disclosures on Dr. Khan's illicit spread of equipment to enrich uranium to produce nuclear fuel, and have said little or nothing of the blueprints for a nuclear warhead that went to Libya, which are considered more sensitive. To the amazement of inspectors, the blueprints discovered in Libya were wrapped in plastic bags from an Islamabad dry cleaner.
"The Libyans said they got it as a bonus," an official said of the plans.
The centrifuge equipment and warhead designs from Dr. Khan's laboratories in Pakistan were discovered in Libya after the country's leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, agreed to dismantle his secret nuclear program, opening it to United States and United Nations nuclear officials.
Late last month, a 747 aircraft was chartered by the United States government for the sole purpose of carrying the small box with the warhead designs from Libya to Dulles airport near Washington. They are now undergoing analysis.
The American weapons expert said Western analysts, while relieved to find that the blueprint was of Dr. Khan's design, were not overjoyed. "A bad bomb is still a nuke," he said. "It can still do pretty terrible things to your city."
Dr. Khan is known in Pakistan as the father of the Pakistani bomb or the founder of its nuclear weapons program, but Western experts say the credit is not all his. A metallurgist, he is an expert at building centrifuges - hollow metal tubes that spin very fast to enrich natural uranium in its rare U-235 isotope, which is an excellent bomb fuel. His mastery of the difficult art proved vital to Pakistan's acquiring a nuclear arsenal.
But other Pakistani scientists, Western experts said, had far greater success in turning the enriched uranium into nuclear warheads.
To develop the armaments, the American expert said, Pakistan ran "two parallel weapons programs, one good and one bad; Khan ran the bad one." Dr. Khan's weapon was inferior in terms of such as things as size, power and efficiency. The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, the nation's official authority for nuclear development, ran the more successful program.
All Pakistan's atom bombs resemble designs that China tested in the late 1960's and passed on to Pakistan decades ago, European and American experts said.
So too, Pakistan's atom bombs all use a relatively advanced means to detonate bomb fuel known as implosion.
The weapon that destroyed Hiroshima in 1945 used a simpler detonation method known as a "gun-type system," in which conventional explosives sped a uranium projectile through a cannon barrel into a uranium target, creating a critical mass and a gargantuan blast.
By contrast, experts said, Pakistan's designs used the more advanced principle of implosion, as did the bomb dropped on Nagasaki. It works by having a sphere of conventional explosives squeeze inward to crush a ball of bomb fuel, creating the critical mass. Implosion uses much less fuel than detonations from the gun-type system, making the bombs far cheaper and lighter.
Even so, Dr. Khan's design is "vanilla flavored and very old in concept," a European weapons expert said.
Analysts said the Libyan episode gave new life to the case of a middleman claiming to represent Dr. Khan who in 1990, on the eve of the Persian Gulf war, offered to have the Pakistani help Iraq build its own nuclear weapon.
The case came to light in the mid- 1990's when United Nations inspectors came across documents relating to the middleman's offer. "He is prepared to give us project designs for a nuclear bomb," an Iraqi memo said of Dr. Khan. "The motive behind this proposal is gaining profits for him and the intermediary." But the investigators made little headway, largely because Pakistan furiously denied there had been any aid to Iraq and refused to allow Dr. Khan to be questioned.
Now, those denials have collapsed, bringing new interest. David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, said Iraqi documents, coupled with the Libyan developments, raised the possibility that Dr. Khan's network operated for more than a decade to offer atomic blueprints not only to Libya and Iraq but to countries like Iran, Syria and North Korea. Global investigators must now carefully examine that possibility, he said.
------- russia
U.S.-Russian Plan to Destroy Atom-Arms Plutonium Is Delayed
February 9, 2004
By MATTHEW L. WALD
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/09/international/europe/09PLUT.html?pagewanted=all
WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 - A project to destroy the plutonium from thousands of retired Russian and American nuclear weapons has been delayed, and some experts say they fear that the work may never be done.
The plan was to have both countries build factories that could mix uranium with plutonium, the material at the heart of nuclear bombs, to be burned as fuel for civilian reactors. It was conceived in the mid-1990's at a time of intense concern over the security of weapons materials in the former Soviet Union; Russia agreed to it in 2000.
The point was to ensure that weapons being disassembled by mutual agreement would never be rebuilt, and that the weapons plutonium, the hardest part of a nuclear bomb to make, could not be sold or stolen.
But the Bush administration's budget plan for the Energy Department, released last week, said groundbreaking for a conversion factory planned for South Carolina had been delayed from July of this year until May 2005.
The immediate reason is that the United States and Russia are deadlocked on the liability rules for American workers and contractors that would help build the plant in Russia, and the United States will not break ground first. Each plant is to dispose of about 34 tons of weapons plutonium.
Administration officials want to use terms written for early nuclear agreements that protect American contractors from almost all liability in case of accidents involving the release of radioactive material; the Russians have refused those terms.
But another problem is that after years of effort, Western nations have not raised the approximately $2 billion that the Russians say they need to build and operate their conversion plant. The British said recently that they were withholding any pledge until the liability issue was resolved.
In 1997, when President Bill Clinton's energy secretary, Hazel R. O'Leary, announced that the United States would rid itself of weapons plutonium, she said burning it as fuel in civilian reactors might begin by 2002. But even before the delay made clear in the Bush budget, the American plant, estimated to cost nearly $4 billion, was expected to begin producing fuel only in 2008. The Energy Department's eventual plan is to pay the Duke Power company to use the plutonium in its reactors.
The issue is particularly delicate in South Carolina, because the Energy Department has already been shipping plutonium from its other weapons factories to its Savannah River Site, near Aiken.
In 2002, South Carolina sued the Energy Department in an unsuccessful effort to prevent shipments. The governor at the time, Jim Hodges, said he wanted a binding agreement that the weapons plutonium would be disposed of elsewhere if the plant was not built. The new delay, Mr. Hodges said, "leads me to believe there's no serious commitment from the Bush administration."
But administration officials say the plan is alive. "I'm absolutely confident we're going to resolve this," said Linton F. Brooks, the under secretary of energy for nuclear security. But he could not say when. "Nobody who tells you he can predict how long it will take is worth listening to," he said.
He described the impasse on liability as "a speed bump as opposed to a death blow." The money, he said, would follow quickly once an agreement on that issue was reached.
But a State Department official acknowledged that "between the liability and details of financing, there's a lot of things to iron out."
Some environmentalists oppose turning weapons plutonium into reactor fuel. Dr. Ed Lyman, a senior nuclear physicist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, has argued that a reactor accident would be more serious if the fuel was a plutonium mix rather than simply uranium, because the fuel's constituents are more dangerous if released.
A Greenpeace nuclear expert, Tom Clements, said the plan would leave Russia with a factory that - after the weapons plutonium is processed - could turn additional plutonium into reactor fuel, encouraging the creation and circulation of material that could be diverted into weapons production, or be stolen by a terrorist or militant group.
In Europe, some plutonium is recovered from spent fuel for reuse, and the Russians would like to do the same. In contrast, the Energy Department plans to bury American spent fuel, including the plutonium.
The plan for the South Carolina factory also faces its own hurdles.
The consortium of contractors the Energy Department chose to build it - an affiliate of the Duke Power company; the Stone and Webster engineering firm; and Cogema, a French nuclear company - proposed to meet the limits for radiation releases at the plant by pushing the measurement boundary about five miles from the factory.
The Energy Department insisted that the boundary be the factory site perimeter, requiring changes to the safety analysis the consortium must submit to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to win a license.
-------- terrorism
Terrorists pursuing WMDs capability
February 09, 2004
By Steven Gutkin
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20040208-105638-7734r.htm
JAKARTA, Indonesia - Terrorists have the will and some of the expertise to make a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapon and are "doing everything they can" to acquire the materials, the State Department's top antiterror official said in an interview.
Cofer Black, ambassador at large for antiterrorism, said al Qaeda is still dangerous even though more than two-thirds of its leaders from the time of the September 11 attacks have been killed or arrested.
Speaking at the U.S. ambassador's residence in Jakarta on Saturday, Mr. Black said he and other U.S. officials are "killing ourselves" to make sure terrorists don't get a so-called "dirty bomb" or other unconventional weapon, but the threat remains.
"We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that a number of these groups, if they had it, would use it," said Mr. Black, who accompanied Attorney General John Ashcroft to an Asia-Pacific antiterror summit on the Indonesian island of Bali last week.
"They've got the will. A lot of these guys seek the expertise, and there's a reasonable amount of that out there, but what you're really looking for is the coming together of all the factors: the will, the expertise and the materials," he said.
Authorities fear terrorists could create a dirty bomb, which would use conventional explosives to disperse a plume of radioactive dust over a city.
Unlike a nuclear weapon, a dirty bomb would not ignite an atomic chain reaction and would not require highly enriched uranium or plutonium, which are hard to obtain. The materials could be a lower-grade isotope, like those used in medicine or research.
Mr. Black's comments follow revelations that the father of Pakistan's nuclear program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, sold equipment related to centrifuges, used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons, to Iran, Libya and North Korea.
Experts say the same black market that enabled those countries to obtain nuclear-weapons technology might also have supplied bomb components or plans to terrorists.
"If al Qaeda were to put together a radiological device, they're going to use it," Mr. Black said. "We know that they have the determination; they've killed large numbers before; their objective is to kill more; they're doing everything they can to acquire this type of weapon and we are working to try to prevent it."
Al Qaeda's apparent interest in acquiring nuclear technology came to the fore in 2001 when two Pakistani nuclear scientists were arrested after meeting Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan on suspicion of giving away secrets. The scientists were later released without being charged.
A pan-Arab newspaper said yesterday that al Qaeda bought tactical nuclear weapons from Ukraine in 1998 and is storing them in safe places for possible use, Reuters news agency reported from Cairo.
There was no independent corroboration of the report, which appeared in the newspaper al-Hayat under an Islamabad dateline and cited sources close to al Qaeda.
The newspaper said the terrorist group bought the weapons in suitcases in a deal arranged when Ukrainian scientists visited the Afghan city of Kandahar in 1998.
Al Qaeda would use the weapons only inside the United States or if the group faced a "crushing blow" that threatened its existence, such as the use of nuclear or chemical weapons against its fighters, the paper quoted its sources as saying.
-------- u.s. nuc weapons
Revived N-testing evokes dread
By Mark Havnes
The Salt Lake Tribune
February 09, 2004
http://www.sltrib.com/2004/Feb/02092004/utah/137181.asp
KANAB -- It must never happen again, according to those who spoke in Kanab on Saturday night in opposition to the resumption of nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site.
President Bush last summer introduced legislation approved by Congress that authorizes $25 million for the study and testing of a weapon known as the "robust nuclear earth burrower." The weapon would use a five-kiloton nuclear warhead to slam into an enemy's subterranean bunkers.
Just the thought of such a weapon evokes dread in many residents of southern Utah, where testing at the Nevada Test Site north of Las Vegas from 1951 to 1992 covered the region with radioactive fallout thought to have caused a high number of cancer-related deaths.
"There's no such thing as an underground nuclear test," Craig Axford, a co-chairman of the Progressive Caucus, told about 50 people attending Saturday's forum. "A nuclear test is always vented into the atmosphere and jet stream which takes the fallout as far as Tennessee and Kentucky."
The forum at the Kanab City Library was organized by the Utah Democratic Progressive Caucus. Speakers included caucus representatives, an official from Rep. Jim Matheson's office, former Utah Attorney General and U.S. Senate candidate Paul Van Dam, and some downwinders, who recalled earlier testing.
Myrna Cox, who has lived most her life in the tiny community of Glendale, about 30 miles north of Kanab, told the group that her father and brother died two years ago from cancer she attributes to exposure to nuclear fallout.
"My parents and eight siblings on many occasions would go on a drive to watch the beautiful clouds from a test that would rise green, orange and yellow," said Cox, who also suffers from cancer. "Now we have to fight this. We don't need anymore of this to taint southern Utah."
Among the literature distributed at the meeting was a reprint of a small pamphlet originally published in 1957 by the then-Atomic Energy Commission containing reassurances for the public about the safety of nuclear testing. The book was being passed out by Thalia Dondero, from Las Vegas where she lived during the earlier testing.
Dondero, who from 1974 to 1994 was a commissioner for Clark County where Las Vegas and the Test Site are located, said she has also fought to keep Nevada from becoming a dumping ground for nuclear waste from around the country.
"I like my state too well to see it destroyed," Dondero said. "Let the states that produce [nuclear waste] keep it."
Matheson, who supports the objectives of the Progressive Caucus, said he saw his father, former Utah Gov. Scott Matheson, die from cancer that he suspects was the result from nuclear testing while he lived in Cedar City.
From Washington on Friday, Matheson said he voted against Bush's request for money to develop the bunker-buster bombs, and even though he might not be able to stop testing of the weapon, he said he will try and make the testing more difficult, partly by requiring full health, safety and environmental reviews before any tests resume. The legislation will also require real-time monitoring of the tests with the information available on the Internet.
----
Downwinders battle renewed nuclear testing at Kanab forum
By DIXIE BRUNNER
The Spectrum
Monday, February 9, 2004
http://www.thespectrum.com/news/stories/20040209/localnews/382451.html
Nevada Division of Environmental Protection / Submitted
The Baneberry underground nuclear test is detonated in this Dec. 18, 1970, file photo from the Nevada Test Site. Its dramatic leak released radioactive debris 10,000 feet into the atmosphere.
http://www.thespectrum.com/news/stories/20040209/localnews/382451-135301.jpg
"I didn't realize the sprays of radiation from the mushroom clouds were signing death warrants for all of us," said downwinder Myrna Cox emotionally at the Kane County Democratic Party's forum on renewed nuclear testing Saturday. "The government told us it was safe."
The heavily attended meeting at the Kanab City Library featured Laura Bonham and Craig Axford, co-chairs of the Utah Democratic Progressive Caucus, U.S. Senatorial candidate Paul Van Dam, a videotaped message from Utah downwinder and anti-nuclear activist Mary Dickson and congressman Jim Matheson's field representative, Michael Empey.
The forum in Kanab was to address the government's proposed renewal of nuclear testing. The White House is seeking a repeal of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Impetus for the renewal is the unique nature of underground terrorist bunkers: Weapons designed to breach them will require field testing. Congress voted in May 2003 to lift the test ban on low-yield nuclear weapons and allow research into 'bunker buster' nuclear weapons.
At least 100 above-ground tests were conducted at the Nevada test site between 1951 and 1962 until atmospheric testing was banned. The nuclear fallout was picked up by jet streams and tracked across the U.S. as far east as New York.
Two days after the Atomic Energy Commission began testing in 1951, Eastman Kodak's Rochester, N.Y., film production facilities began producing batches of film clouded by the effects of the Nevada radiation. Kodak's geiger counters detected high levels of radiation in snow that blanketed Rochester. When Kodak complained, the AEC agreed to provide Kodak and other photographic companies advance warning of nuclear tests so they could protect the film.
"The Government has a pattern of failing to do the right thing when it comes to nuclear testing," said Bonham. "The Bush administration wants a new push for a 'United States of Amnesia.'"
Kane County, as well as most of northern Arizona and Southern Utah, was profoundly affected by years of nuclear testing. As of 2004, the Department of Justice Civil Division statistics reveal that 269 "downwinder" claims were approved in Garfield County, 180 in Kane County and a whopping 531 in Washington County since 1992. Many more have been filed.
"It's not just unconscionable," said Axford. "It's right at criminal. In the name of national security, so much has been done to deceive people."
But while all forum speakers provided important insights into the dangers of renewed nuclear testing, it was the downwinders themselves who offered the the strongest arguments against renewed testing.
Cox detailed her family's experience growing up in Alton during Nevada's nuclear testing years -- the above-ground testing in the '50s and '60s and in Nevada and the less publicized below-ground testing from 1951 to 1993. Cox recounted times when she and her eight siblings would be walking around on the hardwood floors of their home, touching and jolting one another with electricity.
"My mom would just laugh and say, 'the government must be testing again.'" Cox quietly listed name after name of family members and friends from the Southern Utah area who have fallen prey to various types of cancer.
"My younger brother and dad died within two weeks of one another," said Cox, who was later diagnosed herself with carcinoid tumors.
The below-ground testing wasn't much safer that the atmospheric testing. The trajectories of these tests had serious public health consequences as well. The "Sedan Shot" was detonated on July 6, 1962. The 104-kiloton device was buried 635 feet beneath the earth. Sedan generated the equivalent of a magnitude 4.75 earthquake and the resulting cloud reached 16,000 feet, ultimately crossing much of the west, Midwest and as far east as Kentucky and Tennessee before tracking ceased.
Kaibab Paiute tribe member Vivian Jake spoke passionately against the proposed renewal of nuclear testing.
"Our (Native American) relationship with the United States Government hasn't always been a pleasant or happy one," said Jake. "My people have been here a long time and we're still going to be here in the future. Our creator said that we have to be responsible for Mother Earth. It bothers me greatly our government is considering this."
Empey said that Rep. Jim Matheson had family members affected by the nuclear testing and that it would be his priority to stop it from happening again.
"Congressman Matheson has introduced a bill that would put in place more requirements for continued nuclear testing," said Empey.
Bill objectives would hopefully include requiring a National Environmental Policy statement prior to test resumption; retrofitting national weather stations for fallout detection equipment; requiring that data from weather stations be sent to multiple labs for independent analysis; requiring that analyses be made public within two weeks of the nuclear test; requiring public notification prior to every test; requiring that CDC or other relevant agencies evaluate the population within areas of significantly high fallout; and administering grant money to be distributed to state or local health departments in affected areas.
"I don't care if you're a Democrat or a Republican, we can't let this continue," said Cox. "I'm a survivor and, by damn, I intend to fight this. We don't need to do anything more to taint our children's futures."
-------- u.s. nuc facilities
-------- california
Lawrence Berkeley Lab Head Stepping Down
February 9, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Lab-Resignation.html
BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) -- The head of the Lawrence Berkeley national lab said Monday he plans to step down after 15 years in the job.
Charles Shank will return to the University of California-Berkeley, where he is a tenured professor in the physics, chemistry, and electrical engineering and computer science departments.
``I feel I've accomplished what I've come here to do,'' said Shank, 60. ``Any institution needs new leadership after 15 years.'' Advertisement
UC has managed Lawrence Berkeley, which conducts unclassified research, since it was founded by pioneering physicist Ernest O. Lawrence in 1931. The university has managed the Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore nuclear weapons labs since they were formed in 1943 and 1952, respectively.
Challenges to UC's stewardship role have been raised in recent years, especially at the Los Alamos facility in New Mexico, where there have been a series of embarrassing business and security lapses.
Last year, the Energy Department announced it would seek competitive bids for a lab manager when the Los Alamos contract expires in 2005. And Congress has since passed legislation requiring competitive bids for a number of facilities, including the Berkeley and Livermore labs.
On the Net:
http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/labs/welcome.html
-------- idaho
EPA Inspector General Report on INEEL
Date: Mon, 09 Feb 2004
From: Preston J Truman <hermit@downwinders.org>
Environmental Defense Institute Troy Idaho 83871-0220
News Release
February 9, 2004
Contacts: David B. McCoy 208-542-1449
Chuck Broscious 208-835-5407 Environmental Defense Institute
EPA Inspector General Report Blasts Poor Enforcement of Hazardous Waste Laws by the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality and Region 10 EPA at INEEL
A February 2004 report of the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Inspector General (IG) confirmed charges made by environmentalists that there are serious failures by the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality and the Region 10 Environmental Protection Agency to enforce compliance with hazardous waste management laws for operating nuclear waste processing facilities at the Department of Energy's Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL).
The IG report is based on a three year investigation of charges made by the Environmental Defense Institute, Attorney David B. McCoy and Keep Yellowstone Nuclear Free which submitted petitions beginning in August 2000. One of the petitions demanded removal of IDEQ as the hazardous waste management authority for the State of Idaho.
The IG criticized the State of Idaho and the Regional EPA and ordered both agencies to take corrective action for nearly a decade long lack of coordinated enforcement, compliance, and inspection. The Inspector General focused on three systems at INEEL that process high level nuclear waste where hazardous waste has not been managed at INEEL "in an environmentally safe manner in accordance with the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)."
The systems include the Calciner which is a nuclear waste incinerator, along with the High Level Liquid Waste Evaporator (HLLWE) and the Process Equipment Waste Evaporator (PEWE) and numerous tank systems which are part of the INEEL liquid waste management system.
The Inspector General found that:
! IDEQ failed to exercise control by requiring permits for the Calciner.
! IDEQ allowed Calciner operations from 1991 until 2001 closure although there was the inability to sample waste, establish emissions monitoring for radionuclides, and establish risk assessments for the workers and public.
! Idaho has failed to demand a complete permit application for at least eight years up until the present for the High Level Liquid Waste Evaporator even though it identified "substantial issues" in the operation of the unit involving waste characterization. The IDEQ failed to make "timely permitting decisions ... protective of human health and the environment" for the HLLWE.
! The IDEQ did not independently collect data or adequately conduct annual inspections to confirm whether or not the emissions from Process Waste Equipment Evaporator and associated tanks were safe.
! The IDEQ failed to verify whether waste sampling activities were appropriate at the PEWE and another facility, the Liquid Effluent Treatment & Disposal unit prior to the treatment, storage or disposal of the hazardous wastes.
The IG noted that the EPA Region 10 did not fully assess all allegations of the environmentalists regarding compliance with emission requirements. Environmentalists complained about enforcement complacency involving INEEL incinerator and evaporator operations that are processing mixed high-level radioactive and hazardous waste left over from the "reprocessing" of spent nuclear reactor fuel. This waste is the most deadly material on the planet and must therefore receive the most stringent enforcement oversight by the state and federal regulators.
The IG stated that if "the deficiencies we observed," were "known or observed by members of the public, it could be taken to indicate much broader and serious program deficiencies if not addressed directly and timely by Idaho or EPA officials." The IG recommended that the EPA Region 10 Administrator:
! Require the IDEQ to address and resolve deficiencies for the HLLWE including establishing a date to submit information about the deficiencies.
! Require IDEQ inspections to include evaluations of the PEWE and its associated tanks for air emissions and waste characterization compliance.
! Verify implementation of recommendations.
The environmental organizations and attorney David B. McCoy are demanding that the State of Idaho and the Region 10 Environmental Protection Agency order a stand down of the operation of the liquid hazardous/radioactive mixed waste processing facilities at the DOE's Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL).
The groups are in agreement that continuing operations of the INEEL liquid waste processing evaporators and tanks should be halted due to the lack of permits, prior characterization of the waste, and the use of inadequate treatment technologies to control dangerous emissions that represent a serious hazard to the public health and the environment.
The IG rejected numerous disagreements of IDEQ to the IG report and excuses by both the EPA Region 10 and the IDEQ for their failures to properly obtain information, do followup on permitting deficiencies and require compliance.
The IG disagreed with IDEQ that the permitting and oversight activities discussed in the IG report are exaggerations especially given the "years of delay with follow up actions for resolution of permit application deficiencies for the Calciner and HLLWE.
The IG stated that IDEQ's doubt about whether the Calciner would ever run again did not relieve IDEQ from their regulatory responsibility to require the unit to be permitted or closed.
The IG stated IDEQ could not rely on DOE assertions about emissions and waste characterization as a substitute for IDEQ's independent assessment of compliance with regulations prior to waste operations.
The IG rejected IDEQ's excuses that IDEQ could not adequately enforce permitting at the three facilities because they were so busy permitting other INEEL facilities or because the INEEL facilities are too complex for thorough inspection of all RCRA requirements.
The IG rejected EPA's Region 10 position that IDEQ was not obligated to verify compliance with sampling methods and waste characterization requirements.
Carolyn Copper, principal author of the EPA/IG's report can be contacted in Washington, DC at 202-566-0829 or Michael Owen in Seattle at 206-553-2542 for copies of the IG's report.
-------- south carolina
Russia's problems delay American MOX plant
Monday, February 9, 2004
By Jason Zacher jzacher@greenvillenews.com
ENVIRONMENTAL WRITER
http://greenvilleonline.com/news/2004/02/09/2004020924426.htm
A plan to use and remove 34 tons of plutonium being stored in South Carolina has been pushed back 10 months because of problems with a parallel program in Russia, according to federal officials.
The problems will delay construction of a plant that would convert plutonium from nuclear weapons to a mixed-oxide fuel called MOX that can be used in commercial nuclear reactors - principally Duke Energy's Catawba and McGuire plants near Charlotte.
The $4 billion project is expected to create 500 jobs for 20 years at the Savannah River Site near Aiken. The 10-month delay came because of a legal dispute between the United States and Russia, said Bryan Wilkes, a spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration.
The MOX program began as a way for the United States and Russia to dispose of nuclear weapons, but questions about the Russian side have surrounded it from the beginning, said Robert Alvarez, a former adviser to the Department of Energy and a senior scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington.
"I told you so," said former Gov. Jim Hodges, who threatened in 2001 to post Highway Patrol troopers at the state's borders to block shipments from Rocky Flats, Colo., because he believed the president would not fund a permanent disposal plan for the plutonium.
The delay does not mean the Bush administration has abandoned the program, Wilkes said.
"Design work and other details are still being worked on," Wilkes said. "The only thing delayed is the pouring of concrete."
Wilkes said there are two main problems delaying the project in Russia - one human, one natural. The first is a dispute over liability for American workers and contractors building the MOX plants in that country. The second deals with Mother Nature, since the legal dispute has delayed construction past the short building season in Siberia.
The delay may push back plans to use the fuel in Duke Energy's power plants, said Rose Cummings, a spokeswoman for Duke, but the company is pressing forward with its plans to use MOX in two of its nuclear plants.
The disagreement will not keep the plutonium stored longer at Savannah River, Wilkes said.
Broken promises?
Since the MOX program was created in a nuclear nonproliferation agreement, the projects in this country and Russia must proceed together, Wilkes said. He added that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell are working to break the legal logjam with their Russian counterparts.
Opponents of the MOX project fear the delay could be just the first broken promise. In 2002, the Bush administration agreed to build two MOX plants at the Savannah River Site and pledged that no plutonium entering South Carolina will remain here permanently.
Those promises became law when Congress told the Department of Energy to remove the plutonium by 2011. The law forces the department to pay penalties if it does not meet the deadline. Federal officials will not confirm whether the nation's excess plutonium is at SRS, though The Greenville News reported last year that shipments from the Rocky Flats plant in Colorado had been completed.
"The plutonium has been concentrated in South Carolina and no one in the country has any motivation to dispose of it," Hodges said. "The congressional leadership on the Republican side said we would be taken care of. We haven't, and they have some explaining to do."
There is no explaining to do, said Kevin Bishop, spokesman for Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, because of the law proposed by the late Sen. Strom Thurmond and Graham when he was a U.S. 3rd District representative. It fines the federal government $1 million a day or $100 million a year if the plant is not producing MOX by 2011.
"The governor took the federal government to court and the governor lost," Bishop said. "The federal courts ruled the federal government had the right to ship plutonium to South Carolina."
Congress gave the plant $400 million last year to start construction this summer, and the Bush administration asked for $368 million next year. Tom Clements of Greenpeace's Nuclear Campaign said he isn't sure Congress will keep funneling money to a program that is being delayed beyond this country's control.
From World War II until 1989, the United States manufactured about 100 metric tons of plutonium, a highly dangerous man-made metal, in reactors at Savannah River and the Hanford, Wash., weapons plants.
Alvarez said the MOX program will "only take care of a fraction" of the plutonium being stored at Savannah River and a few other sites around the country. Environmentalists want the plutonium turned into glass and buried in Nevada.
MOX facilities currently exist in France and Belgium, and a unit is being tested in England. But environmentalists have continued to oppose MOX, questioning problems with the fuel, including issues about safety and quality.
Jason Zacher covers the environment and natural resources. He can be reached at 298-4272.
-------- washington
Dirty job nears end
Monday, February 9th, 2004
By Annette Cary Herald staff writer
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/tch/local/story/4723614p-4672704c.html
Hanford workers are close to having the nuclear reservation's first piece of heavily contaminated land clean enough to be redeveloped for industrial use.
Whether any business will be interested in building on the land is an unanswered question.
The land on a scenic stretch of the Columbia River a mile north of Richland is still too contaminated to be used for homes or a park, and the 300 Area is still plagued with an underground plume of uranium that's not dissipating as expected.
But completion of cleanup on the first section of the 300 Area still shows significant progress in the effort to halt continued contamination of groundwater near the Columbia River and to convert back to community use some of the land taken by the government during World War II.
"This is the way the cleanup process is supposed to work," said Nick Ceto, Hanford program manager for the Environmental Protection Agency, in a prepared statement.
Other Hanford land has been released or is close to being released for recreation or industrial use.
But none of it had the heavy contamination of Hanford's 300 Area.
From 1943 to 1994 waste generated at Hanford's 300 Area just north of Richland was dumped, untreated, at the northern end of the 1.5-square-mile area along the Columbia River.
As Hanford developed the science and processes of making plutonium for weapons, starting during World War II, the 300 Area was used for research.
The liquid waste produced was pumped untreated into nearby ponds and trenches along the banks of the Columbia. In later years, up to 1.5 million gallons a day of liquid contaminated with uranium, cobalt, arsenic and polychlorinated biphyenals, or PCBs, were sent to the trenches.
Two percolation ponds dug along the river were intended to allow liquids to travel through the soil and into the river.
"Then it would plug up and have to be scraped out," said Mike Goldstein of the EPA. "There were blowouts in the '40s to the river."
In addition, solid waste generated in the 300 Area was buried in its northern sections over 27 years.
Cleaning up the mess began a little more than six years ago.
So much dirt has been hauled away from the 117-acre parcel that it now accounts for about 15 percent of the waste at the landfill.
As the job progressed, workers had one particularly nasty surprise.
In one waste burial site, workers turned up 786 barrels filled with uranium chips and depleted uranium oxide powder. The uranium chips had been packed in oil to keep them from spontaneously bursting into flames.
The drums have all been removed and are being treated for disposal at central Hanford.
The last few months of the project have been marked by a parade of trucks carrying clean soil from a borrow area across Stevens Boulevard from the 300 Area.
On Friday, workers were fighting sleet and mud to regrade the largest of the former waste percolation ponds. Including its berms, it stretched about 30 acres and was up to 23 feet deep.
The goal is to get the land and former ponds not only cleaned to EPA industrial standards, but also looking good enough to market, Goldstein said.
Removing more contaminated dirt could bring the site up to standards required for residences along the river, but cleanup started with a plan that the area would be used for industrial use. That meant children would not play there, nor would people be digging in gardens.
But other plans have changed since 1997.
"When we characterized it as industrial, we thought a fair number of buildings would still be there" in the southern portion of the 300 Area, said Pamela Brown Larsen, Richland's Hanford analyst.
But city officials learned a year ago that DOE has an accelerated plan to dismantle most, if not all, of the developed portion of the 300 Area by 2012. Even though not all buildings are contaminated, much of the soil is.
City officials are concerned now that the area could be a tough sell for industrial use.
They've studied other areas in the nation that have converted formerly contaminated land to industrial use. Those had little industrial land available to develop, unlike the Tri-City area, Larsen said.
Those areas also had millions in federal money available to develop infrastructure, which Richland does not expect to receive.
The land does have one major asset -- access to a $17 million plant for treating water contaminated with liquid metal waste.
"Maybe that will be the silver lining," she said.
There may also be questions about groundwater issues in the 300 Area.
Removal of the contaminated dirt will reduce the risk of more contaminants reaching groundwater or the river. But a plume of uranium still remains beneath the 300 Area.
Cleanup plans originally called for nature to break down and disperse the uranium. But that's not happening as quickly as expected. An upcoming evaluation at the problem could require more remediation work in the 300 Area.
-------- us nuc waste
U.S. EPA exploring deregulating waste to streamline disposal process
Michael Burnham,
Greenwire reporter
Monday, February 9, 2004
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/Backissues/020904/020904gw.htm#9
Environmental advocacy groups are urging the U.S. EPA to cancel or postpone for six months a proposal that could pave the way for radioactive waste to be shipped to sites not currently licensed for such materials.
The calls for delay come after EPA published a Federal Register notice in November indicating it may change its rules to allow hazardous waste sites and ordinary landfills to store low-level radioactive waste. The "low-activity radioactive waste" -- including cesium, strontium, cobalt and plutonium -- currently must be stored in repositories monitored by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, EPA and state governments (Greenwire, Nov. 18, 2003).
Wastes subject to the new proposal are found in laboratory equipment and medical supplies, as well as in contaminated soil from Superfund sites, drilling platforms and mining operations. Such wastes are now shipped to three licensed facilities in South Carolina, Utah and Washington.
While EPA officials say the notice is merely a request for public comment on a rulemaking that would make regulations on radioactive materials more consistent, environmental groups charge the agency is moving too quickly toward the deregulation of dangerous wastes.
With the public comment period set to expire March 17, the Global Resource Action Center for the Environment and others are pressing EPA to withdraw its advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) or postpone it for six months to study the rule's potential effect on communities with waste sites. The proposed rulemaking comes after the National Academy of Sciences estimated that such changes could save the federal government and waste producers $11 billion annually. The EPA has not conducted its own cost analysis.
"If anything, existing regulations for nuclear waste disposal should be strengthened," said Alice Slater, head of the GRACE environmental group. "Instead of protecting corporate interests, the EPA should better protect the public by proposing rules to make sure radioactive waste is identified, tracked, stored, managed and isolated from the environment for the length of its hazardous life and at facilities specifically licensed for that purpose."
However, EPA spokesman John Millet said postponement of the ANPR is unlikely because the proposal is not a regulatory change and does not require any action. What's more, the agency has not committed to moving forward with regulatory changes, he said.
"It's a very preliminary step," Millet said of the 120-day public comment process. "EPA is really most interested in gathering information, and any sort of proposed rule or regulatory change stemming from the ANPR is at least six months or longer away."
If EPA implements the changes outlined in its ANPR, the decision would not alter disposal rules for the nation's 104 nuclear facilities under the purview of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Millet said. The federal Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in southeastern New Mexico takes much of the facilities' transuranic waste.
-------- us politics
Rebellion against the Patriot Act
February 09, 2004
By Nat Hentoff
http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20040208-102841-7428r.htm
There has been insufficient national media attention to an important bill to revise sections of the Patriot Act that Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho, a vigorous conservative, introduced - with bipartisan sponsorship - on Oct. 15: The SAFE Act (the Security and Freedom Insured Act). Attorney General John Ashcroft wrote urgently to Sen. Orrin Hatch, Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, of his strong objections to the bill.
In introducing the bill, Mr. Craig said: "I spend a lot of time on the ground in my home state of Idaho, and regardless of the pride Idahoans have in the success of the war on terrorism, many of them continue to raise concerns about the tools being used in that war." He cited the Patriot Act among those concerns that "are shared by a wide regional and political spectrum." The SAFE Act's bipartisan cosponsors include Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat.
Among the groups supporting the SAFE Act's revisions to the Patriot Act are the American Conservative Union, the Gun Owners of America, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Free Congress Foundation and the American Library Association.
In a letter to the Senate, these groups emphasize that "the SAFE Act would prevent fishing expeditions into sensitivepersonal records by requiring that the records sought in foreign intelligence investigations pertain to an alleged spy, terrorist or other foreign agent."
Right now, these Patriot Act critics say, "Federal agents can get a court to order that anyone's library, bookstore or other records be turned over regardless of whether there is any suspicion about the person whose records are turned over." Though Mr. Ashcroft says he hasn't used that provision to search library records, he hasn't said he would not.
These fishing expeditions by the FBI have become even more extensive. On Dec. 13, President Bush signed the 2004 Intelligence Authorization Act, which includes a provision giving the FBI the power - without having to go to any judge - to obtain a wide range of personal records through the greatly expanded use of the national security letters.
These letters, in the form of administrative subpoenas, allow the FBI to obtain such business records as data from financial institutions, credit card companies, airlines, stockbrokers and the U.S. Post Office. With no judicial supervision, these records are gathered and searched regarding persons who may be "relevant" to a national security investigation.
This is hardly a precise standard, and indeed invites abuse.
This additional invasion of individuals' rights was originally part of a draft of Mr. Ashcroft's Patriot Act II. But when that proposal was leaked by someone in the Justice Department, and then suffered considerable criticism, the Justice Department began to try to slip parts of that legislation into law piecemeal. The greatly enlarged scope of national security letters was enacted without public hearings.
Furthermore, in keeping with the overall secrecy of this government "security" operation, recipients of the national security letters are bound by law not to reveal they have received the letters.
So, it was hardly surprising that when Mr. Bush, during his State of the Union Address, told Congress that sections of the Patriot Act would expire on Dec. 31, 2005, there was applause by some congressional members who absolutely want those sections removed. The press said only Democrats applauded these expirations, but according to eyewitnesses there, Republican libertarians also expressed their reservations about the Patriot Act.
However, the president strongly urged Congress to renew those sections. So did Vice President Dick Cheney when he spoke before the American Conservative Union's Political Action Conference Jan. 24. But the response from the audience was less than enthusiastic. And, as the New York Times reported, conservative Republican Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, "vowed that extending the act before reviewing its results by 2005 would happen 'over my dead body.' "
The Patriot Act and other revisions of the Bill of Rights are in trouble in Congress. Moreover, it is time for Mr. Hatch to hold hearings on Mr. Craig's SAFE Act (Senate Bill 1709) and other bipartisan bills that create responsible congressional oversight to counter this administration's bypassing of the very Constitution it is sworn to protect. Mr. Hatch approves of the Patriot Act, but he must remember that he has also sworn to uphold the Constitution.
"More than two centuries ago," the Jan. 20 Boston Globe reports "the patriots of Brewster (Mass.) shut down the Colonial courts on Cape Cod in one of the first acts of resistance" to King George III. Now, the Brewster Town Meeting "has formally condemned the ... USA Patriot Act, united against the laws of a different leader named George." So have 236 towns, cities and counties in 37 states, through Bill of Rights Defense Committee resolutions.
Congress has heard from these Americans. They must hear from more citizens to secure the liberties the president always assures us we are fighting to protect from the terrorists.
----
Kerry, Too, Needs to Clear the Air
by Scott Ritter
Monday, February 9, 2004
by Newsday / Long Island, NY
http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vprit093662615feb09,0,359814.story
On April 23, 1971, a 27-year-old Navy veteran named John Kerry sat before the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee and chided members on their leadership failures regarding the war in Vietnam.
"Where is the leadership?" Kerry, a decorated hero who had proved his courage under fire, demanded of the senators. "Where are they now that we, the men they sent off to war, have returned?" Kerry lambasted those who had pushed so strongly for war in Vietnam. "These men have left all the casualties and retreated behind a pious shield of public rectitude."
Today, on the issue of the war in Iraq, it is John Kerry who is all pious rectitude.
"I think the administration owes the entire country a full explanation on this war - not just their exaggerations but on the failure of American intelligence," Kerry said following the stunning announcement by David Kay, the Bush administration's former lead investigator in Iraq, that "we were all wrong" about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in that country. The problem for Sen. Kerry, of course, is that he, too, is culpable in the massive breach of public trust that has come to light regarding Iraq, WMD and the rush to war.
Almost 30 years after his appearance before the Senate, Sen. Kerry was given the opportunity to make good on his promises that he had learned the lessons of Vietnam. During a visit to Washington in April 2000, when I lobbied senators and representatives for a full review of American policy regarding Iraq, I spoke with John Kerry about what I held to be the hyped-up intelligence regarding the threat posed by Iraq's WMD. "Put it in writing," Kerry told me, "and send it to me so I can review what you're saying in detail."
I did just that, penning a comprehensive article for Arms Control Today, the journal of the Arms Control Association, on the "Case for the Qualitative Disarmament of Iraq." This article, published in June 2000, provided a detailed breakdown of Iraq's WMD capability and made a comprehensive case that Iraq did not pose an imminent threat. I asked the Arms Control Association to send several copies to Sen. Kerry's office but, just to make sure, I sent him one myself. I never heard back from the senator.
Two years later, in the buildup toward war that took place in the summer of 2002, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on which Kerry sits, convened a hearing on Iraq. At that hearing a parade of witnesses appeared, testifying to the existence of WMD in Iraq. Featured prominently was Khidir Hamza, the self-proclaimed "bombmaker to Saddam," who gave stirring first-hand testimony to the existence of not only nuclear weapons capability, but also chemical and biological weapons as well. Every word of Hamza's testimony has since been proved false. Despite receiving thousands of phone calls, letters and e-mails demanding that dissenting expert opinion, including my own, be aired at the hearing, Sen. Kerry apparently did nothing, allowing a sham hearing to conclude with the finding that there was "no doubt" Saddam Hussein had WMD.
Sen. Kerry followed up this performance in October 2002 by voting for the war in Iraq. Today he justifies that vote by noting that he only approved the "threat of war," and that the blame for Iraq rests with President George W. Bush, who failed to assemble adequate international support for the war. But this explanation rings hollow in the face of David Kay's findings that there are no WMD in Iraq. With the stated casus belli shown to be false, John Kerry needs to better explain his role not only in propelling our nation into a war that is rapidly devolving into a quagmire, but more importantly, his perpetuation of the falsehoods that got us there to begin with.
President Bush should rightly be held accountable for what increasingly appears to be deliberately misleading statements made by him and members of his administration regarding the threat posed by Iraq's WMD. If such deception took place, then Bush no longer deserves the trust and confidence of the American people.
But John Kerry seems to share in this culpability, and if he wants to be the next president of the United States, he must first convince the American people that his actions somehow differ from those of the man he seeks to replace.
"Where is the leadership?" John Kerry asked more than 30 years ago, questioning a war that consumed life, money and national honor. Today this question still hangs in the air, haunting a former Navy combat veteran who needs to convince a skeptical nation that he not only has a plan to get America out of Iraq, but also possesses the leadership skills needed to avoid future ill-advised adventures.
Scott Ritter, former UN chief inspector in Iraq, 1991-1998, is the author of "Frontier Justice: Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Bushwhacking of America." http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1893956474/commondreams-20/ref=nosim/
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The Price Of Failure In Iraq
By Fred Hiatt
Monday, February 9, 2004; Page A21
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24450-2004Feb8.html
The failure thus far to find chemical, biological or nuclear weapons in Iraq is at the center of Washington attention, and with good reason. The breakdown or misuse of prewar intelligence, or both, has large implications, political and strategic, for President Bush and the United States.
But those consequences are dwarfed by the significance of success or failure in the rebuilding of Iraq. Senior administration officials are very much aware of what is at stake in the range of outcomes now possible. The worst-case scenarios on their minds are civil war or an attempt to impose a strict Islamist theocracy, which are connected, since the latter would probably lead to the former.
Officials do not view these outcomes as foreordained or even likely. But they recognize that no matter what scheme is agreed upon for transition to Iraqi sovereignty, U.S. power to dictate, always limited, is diminishing rapidly. "We're going to be doing a lot of negotiating for a long time," one official said, "and if you don't like that, we went into the wrong place."
The first risk comes in the vast rotation of troops now underway. Officers and soldiers of the 4th Infantry Division, the 101st Airborne Division and others have worked heroically for the past year, not only countering a vicious insurgency but also conducting civic affairs: negotiating among tribes and ethnic groups, helping schools, businesses and city councils get off the ground, mediating between Saddam Hussein's victims and his beneficiaries. Some civilians from the U.S. occupation are also working heroically, but far fewer than those in uniform.
Now these experienced legions will flow out of the country, with a crop of rookies to take their place. The Army and Marines have planned the rotation with as much care as possible. But inevitably relationships will be ruptured -- and at a time of maximum sensitivity, as the United States seeks to transfer political sovereignty while maintaining a military presence.
The questions surrounding that transfer are vexing and totally up for grabs: Can elections be held, and if not, how can a legitimate government be chosen? Will the June 30 deadline stick? What role will the United Nations play? Can the United States negotiate an agreement for the continued operation of its forces, and with whom?
But all of those are in a sense proxies for one underlying question: Can Iraq's Shiite, Sunni, Kurds and smaller minorities live in one nation other than by brute compulsion? Or, as one officer wrote in an e-mail, "I am unsure if the Iraqis will be able to make the transition to sovereignty without starting a war against each other. . . . We can't make them love each other, but we are trying hard to teach them that it is possible to work with each other and to agree to disagree."
Administration officials cite at least three factors working in favor of that effort. First, even after the transfer of sovereignty, U.S. leverage -- flowing from 110,000 troops and $18 billion in nation-building cash -- will be considerable.
Second, although Hussein's regime brutally repressed Kurds and Shiites, there is no tradition in Iraq of grass-roots ethnic violence. Intermarriages are common. All communities are represented in Baghdad today, and what violence there is in the capital is not communal.
Most important, officials posit that most Iraqis and even most Iraqi leaders want to find a way to live together, to compromise, to make Iraq work. To the extent that they behave otherwise, it is out of fear and the one thing they all share, which is, paradoxically, a sense of relative weakness: The Sunni, now in the minority, believing that the Shiites will exact revenge for the way Hussein treated them; the Shiites, long oppressed and impoverished, fearing they will be cheated and betrayed again, as they were in 1991; the Kurds, history's losers, vowing that history will not repeat itself.
When every side feels weak and wronged, the possibilities for strategic miscalculation are many. They are multiplied when al Qaeda terrorists and regime die-hards are determined to wreck the process and are skilled at finding targets to sow maximum distrust: Kurdish political parties, Shiite clergy, newly trained Iraqi police.
In such a situation, continued U.S. commitment and U.S. military presence are essential, to reassure the weak -- who cannot publicly admit weakness or welcome the help -- and to discourage the wreckers. Though a U.N. mandate for the political transition could be crucial, replacing U.S. soldiers with foreign troops, as proposed by some Democrats, would therefore be counterproductive (even if it were feasible).
But the transition in official status from occupier to friendly invited force will require a sensitivity, a combination of aggressiveness and delicacy, that would be a challenge even for a totally prepared and unified U.S. government. This administration has been neither in its approach to postwar Iraq. Hopefully what it does have is a president who understands that failure would simply be too costly.
fredhiatt@washpost.com
--------
Bush Was Surprised at Lack of Iraqi Arms
In Television Interview, President Also Defends His Military Service
By Dana Milbank
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 9, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A23494-2004Feb8?language=printer
President Bush acknowledged that he was apparently wrong in stating on the eve of war with Iraq that there was "no doubt" that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
Bush, in an hour-long interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," allowed that he had been surprised by the lack of weapons in Iraq. "I expected to find the weapons," he said in the session, taped Saturday and broadcast yesterday. But he said he did not take the nation to war under false pretense, adding: "I based my decision on the best intelligence possible."
In the Sunday talk-show interview, the first of his presidency in such a format, Bush also defended as honorable his Vietnam-era service in the National Guard and committed to the release of additional records to quell a renewed controversy over whether he fulfilled his military obligation.
Bush, preparing for a reelection campaign in which he appears increasingly likely to face a decorated Vietnam veteran in Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), said "I put in my time" in the National Guard and suggested that his critics were disparaging the National Guard as a whole. Reacting for the first time since the old controversy was revived by Democratic charges that he was "AWOL" during Vietnam, Bush said he would "absolutely" release records such as pay stubs that would, if found, indicate more precisely how often he reported for duty.
Bush, who consented to the unusual Oval Office session after polls showed his popularity slumping amid the evidence that his main justification for war was unfounded, appeared alternately defensive and comfortable as he discussed a full range of domestic and international issues.
Calling himself a "war president," Bush said he expected the 2004 election to be fought over "who can properly use American power," and he defended his actions regarding economic growth and the budget deficit. He said his "biggest disappointment" in office is that he is perceived as dividing the country rather than uniting it. Using many of the same lines he employs in stump speeches, Bush repeated earlier assertions that the Iraq war was justified regardless of what weapons are found there.
Bush's promise to release all of his military files, including pay stubs and tax records, has the potential to resolve the long debate over Bush's service from May 1972 to May 1973. No records have been found showing he performed his duties during that period, but he received an honorable discharge, indicating that he had served properly.
Experts in such matters have said payroll records and Bush's annual retirement "point summary" from the time -- neither of which has been uncovered -- should demonstrate definitively how often Bush participated in drills. Such records, unless they have been purged, should exist on microfiche in St. Louis or Denver.
Bush said it was unlikely those records still exist. Asked whether he would allow their release, he replied: "Yeah, if we still have them. But, you know, the records are kept in Colorado, as I understand, and they scoured the records." Bush also said his campaign had authorized the release of such information in the 2000 campaign, but no such information has been released. A spokeswoman, Claire Buchan, said yesterday that all existing records, including pay stubs and retirement points, had already been made available.
In recent days, Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe accused Bush of being "AWOL in the Alabama National Guard." Bush, in the interview, replied that "I put in my time, proudly so," and said the questions could be seen as an assault on the National Guard. "It's fine to go after me, which I expect the other side will do," he said. "I wouldn't denigrate service to the Guard, though, and the reason I wouldn't, is because there are a lot of really fine people who served in the National Guard and who are serving in the National Guard today in Iraq."
Kerry, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination to challenge Bush, disputed Bush's response. Appearing in Richmond, where he accepted Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner's endorsement for the state's primary Tuesday, Kerry said receiving the discharge did not resolve questions about Bush's absences in Alabama. "Just because you get an honorable discharge does not answer that question," Kerry said.
Kerry said his own comments that many people sought to avoid going to Vietnam in the late '60s by enlisting in the National Guard is not a criticism of Bush's choice of service.
"Did a whole bunch of people make that choice, then, as a way of sort of serving, but not necessarily going to Vietnam? The answer is yes," Kerry said. "That's the truth. You can ask people who served back then. Does that denigrate the service of it? No it doesn't. Nor have I ever, ever suggested that any choice anybody made was somehow negative back then. People had terrible conflicts over the war."
But Kerry added that "when you make your choice, people have the obligation to live out the choice they made."
In the interview, Bush acknowledged that he left the Guard eight months before his service term ended so he could attend business school, and that he did not volunteer to go to Vietnam. "I served," he said. "I flew fighters and enjoyed it, and we provided a service to our country."
Speaking about the more recent war in Iraq, Bush said it is "correct" to say that his March 17 statement about Hussein's weapons was apparently not vindicated. "Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised," he said then, on the eve of war.
But Bush said there were many possible explanations for the failure to find the forbidden weapons. "They could have been destroyed during the war," he said. "Saddam and his henchmen could have destroyed them as we entered into Iraq. They could be hidden. They could have been transported to another country, and we'll find out."
The president repeatedly defended the war and said his actions as president are shaped by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. "That's very important for, I think, the people to understand where I'm coming from to know that this is a dangerous world. I wish it wasn't. I'm a war president. I make decisions here in the Oval Office in foreign policy matters with war on my mind."
He said the United States must deal with threats "before they become imminent" and cautioned that "there is no such thing necessarily in a dictatorial regime of ironclad, absolutely solid evidence." Bush said Hussein's capability to produce weapons was sufficient. "What wasn't wrong was the fact that he had the ability to make a weapon," he said.
Bush, though resistant to testifying before the commission he named to study the intelligence failures in Iraq, said he would "perhaps" answer questions of the commission examining the response to the Sept. 11 attacks. Asked whether al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden would be found before the November election, Bush said: "I have no idea whether we will capture or bring him to justice, may be the best way to put it."
Bush spoke optimistically about events at home and abroad. He said the United States is "welcomed in Iraq." Asked about the loss of 2.2 million jobs during his presidency, he said, "There is good momentum when it comes to the creation of new jobs."
He said the nation's economic troubles -- a 23 percent increase in the national debt, a 33 percent increase in the unemployment rate and a swing from surpluses to deficits -- should not be grounds for voters to turn him out of office. "I have been the president during a time of tremendous stress on our economy and made the decisions necessary to lead," he said.
Bush said critics, including conservatives, are "wrong" to say he has not kept control of the federal budget. "If you look at the appropriations bills that were passed under my watch, in the last year of President Clinton, discretionary spending was up 15 percent, and ours have steadily declined," he said.
Federal discretionary spending has grown by more than 25 percent in the past two fiscal years, following average annual increases of 2.4 percent in discretionary spending in the 1990s, according to figures from congressional budget panels.
While allowing that uniting the country is "the hardest part of being president," Bush expressed frustration that Democrats did not cooperate with him on the recent Medicare prescription drug legislation. "The Medicare bill is a bill that a lot of people could have signed on to and had it not been for, kind of the sense of, well, 'Bush might win, we might lose,' " he said. Democrats complained that all but two of them were denied representation on the committee that drafted the legislation.
Bush allowed no doubt about his ultimate victory in November. "I'm not going to lose," he said when asked whether he was prepared for defeat. Asked what he would do in defeat, he replied: "Well, I don't plan on losing."
Staff writers Lois Romano and Michael D. Shear contributed to this report.
-------- MILITARY
-------- afghanistan
7 Are Killed in a Clash of Afghan Militias
February 9, 2004
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/09/international/asia/09AFGH.html?pagewanted=all
KABUL, Afghanistan, Feb. 8 - Four days of fighting between rival warlords competing to control their local cut of the narcotics trade in northeastern Afghanistan has left seven people dead and eight wounded, officials said Sunday.
Fighting flared between the militias of the district chief and the police chief of an area called Argo, near the town of Faizabad, in the province of Badakshan, said Gen. Muhammad Daoud, the top military commander in northeastern Afghanistan. The two men had been at loggerheads for three months, and the clash was stopped only when a Defense Ministry delegation intervened, the general said.
The delegation, sent from the general's military headquarters in neighboring Kunduz, reported that seven people had died and eight had been wounded in the fighting, he said. The fighting was over and the two local leaders would be taken to Kunduz for questioning, he said by satellite telephone.
The deputy interior minister, Hilaluddin Hilal, said the argument was over who should control what is in effect a road tax imposed by local leaders on the illegal opium trade. Badakshan Province is one of the highest producing areas of opium in Afghanistan, and it provides a major route for smuggling drugs into neighboring Tajikistan and then on to Russia and Europe.
News of the clash came just as Afghanistan was preparing to hold a two-day international conference on combating narcotics.
The Afghan government has banned the cultivation of poppies and production of narcotics, but it has little power to enforce the ban. Afghanistan is the source of about 90 percent of the heroin on the streets of Europe.
--------
Afghan Harmony Hard to Find
Battle Over Broadcasts of Female Singers Reflects Ideological Divide
By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, February 9, 2004; Page A14
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A23935-2004Feb8?language=printer
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Mirmen Parveen chortled with conspiratorial delight as she described hiding under a veil, slipping into the state radio and TV studio, and recording a plaintive ballad about a girl who sells flowers in a market.
"I was afraid of the mullahs, but I was determined to sing," Parveen recounted last week. "My relatives cut their ties with me afterward, but I didn't care. I was young and bold. In time, other women started singing, too, and the audiences loved us."
That was half a century ago. Today Parveen, frail but feisty at 80, is witnessing the reprise of a battle her generation of Afghan women fought and won in the 1950s. This time, though, the stakes are higher, the adversaries are tougher and the role of electronic media is far more dominant in Afghan society.
Last month, for the first time in a decade of strict Islamic rule and two years of weak transitional government, Kabul Television began airing taped performances by female singers. The move was cheered by urban viewers, but it immediately drew outraged opposition from the Supreme Court and an alliance of powerful Islamic groups.
The brouhaha, which erupted soon after the adoption of a new national constitution that enshrines both women's rights and Islamic values, is widely viewed as a first skirmish in what could become a bruising constitutional struggle between reformers and Islamic conservatives as the country prepares for elections later this year.
"This is just the start," said Hafiz Mansour, an Islamic conservative politician and journalist who is a key figure in the alliance against President Hamid Karzai and his Western-backed reelection agenda. "Many things will be said by the Supreme Court and not accepted by the other side. This will very much play a role in the elections."
The controversial broadcasts are neither live, contemporary nor provocative. Most feature old footage of dignified Afghan women in head scarves and traditional, long-sleeved gowns, standing woodenly against backdrops of fields or mountains as they lip-sync recorded patriotic or romantic ballads.
Some of the most popular videos feature Nooria Parasto, an entertainer who fled Afghanistan's civil war in the early 1990s and now lives in Hamburg. Reached there last week, she said she longed to return home and could not understand why her decades-old tapes were arousing such opposition.
"I am a Muslim, I love my country and have been singing for 30 years. We had Islamic laws in the past, too, but there was never any objection," said Parasto. "After so many years of listening to shooting and rockets, what is wrong if people listen to me singing again?"
Even to delighted fans, the broadcasts have come as a shock as well as a thrill after a long period of stern Islamic control, including five years of Taliban militia rule when women were barred from work and school, and television was banned altogether.
To Islamic conservatives, who dominate the high court and control regional militias, the performances are a dangerous throwback to the libertine excesses of Afghanistan's fling with communism in the 1980s -- and a new threat to traditional Muslim values in a society that is scrambling to catch up with the world after a quarter-century of occupation, conflict and isolation.
The day after the first tape aired, Supreme Court officials sent a letter to Karzai's Information and Culture Ministry, which operates the state media. Declaring that singing by women "contradicts Islamic law, the constitution . . . and the tradition of Afghans," the letter demanded that such broadcasts be stopped.
"We have many problems in Afghanistan. Broadcasting women singing in these circumstances can create security problems," Murad Ali Murad, a deputy high court justice, said in an interview. What pleases urban viewers, he suggested, might offend villagers and bolster rural support for the revived Taliban movement.
Murad said court officials do not oppose women's rights unless they conflict with Islam, which he said forbids a woman to go out at night without her husband's permission or to travel without a related male escort. "We are not against singing," he said, "but if people get the wrong idea about women's freedom, it could damage the nation."
State media officials, backed by Karzai and emboldened by the new constitutional protections, ignored the court's order and have continued showing female singers after the nightly TV news. They said the decision was partly intended to make public TV competitive with the rapidly growing cable market and partly to promote women's cultural rights.
"I am here to get something done. I am not afraid of fanatics who use religion as a political instrument," said Sayed Raheen, the information and culture minister, who awarded Parveen an honorary music degree at a ceremony last year. "The public strongly approves of this, and women sing all over the Muslim world. It is not [the court's] job to tell me what to do."
Still, the ministry has prudently banned both live female entertainment and a variety of archival videos that would offend many Afghans today. These include female singers with uncovered heads and clingy dresses, as well as communist-era footage of scrubbed young couples singing revolutionary hymns to workers and peasants.
"We must be careful not to create a spark," said one video archivist at the ministry, where Taliban police destroyed hundreds of tapes of stylish female singers from Iran and India. "After so many years of violence, we are moving toward peace and stability. We don't want to make problems because of a small mistake."
In the two years since the defeat of Taliban rule, women have enjoyed increasing freedoms, but opposition to their emancipation has also sharpened. The most puritanical voices are those of the same Islamic militias that helped Western forces rout the Taliban -- but that have since proved to be only marginally less conservative in their traditional notions of Islam.
In the past two months, moreover, the competition between conservative and modernist visions of Afghanistan's future has gained new political and legal significance. Under a U.N.-mandated transition plan, a constitutional assembly was held this winter and voter registration began for national elections this summer, with Karzai as the leading candidate for president.
The constitutional assembly produced emotional confrontations between female activists and aging militia leaders, and the meeting almost collapsed in failure. The resulting charter was a hodgepodge of religious and worldly concepts that supported women's equality but also designated Afghanistan as an Islamic state and declared that no law shall contradict "the sacred religion of Islam."
It took just two weeks after that for Karzai's aides to fire the first salvo by returning female singers to the TV screen, and less than 24 hours for the Islamic conservative judges to shoot back the warning letter. So far the conflict has not escalated, but experts said it could foreshadow more serious judicial challenges to the constitution -- as well as an increasingly bare-knuckled Islamic challenge to Karzai's candidacy and the U.S.-backed reformist agenda.
From Parveen's lace-curtained parlor, though, the cultural contretemps seems like a pale rerun of past wars. As a young woman, after all, she single-handedly circumvented the religious strictures of the 1950s, won the hearts of Afghan music fans and went on to enjoy a successful singing career.
"I don't think this conflict will last long. It's just a few people with empty minds who are against what the people demand," she said, puffing on a cigarette. Then she recited a few lines from her famous flower girl song: "All you need is to dare, to be bold, and to sing."
-------- balkans
Rumsfeld Lauds Croatia's Efforts
New Leaders Seeking Stronger U.S. Ties, but Hurdles Remain
By Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 9, 2004; Page A15
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24403-2004Feb8.html
ZAGREB, Croatia, Feb. 8 -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld stopped in this Balkan country Sunday to meet with a newly elected leadership that has pledged stronger ties to the United States and a furthering of democracy and minority rights for Croatians.
The visit was the first by a U.S. Cabinet member since Madeleine K. Albright, then secretary of state, came in February 2000. It followed the return to power in November of the Croatian Democratic Union, which governed for much of the 1990s before being ousted in 2000 over allegations of corruption and because of its hard-line nationalist policies.
A new generation of party leaders say they have abandoned the group's nationalist heritage, transforming the party into a center-right group that aspires to have Croatia join NATO and the European Union.
At a news conference, Rumsfeld praised Croatia's efforts to shrink and restructure its military. He thanked Croatia for its contributions to the U.S.-led war on terrorism and said he supported the country's desire to join NATO.
A 50-member Croatian military police unit is about to start its third six-month rotation in Afghanistan as part of the international peacekeeping force led by NATO. In addition, Croatia has supplied rifles and ammunition to the new Afghan national army.
Appearing with Rumsfeld, Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said the Croatian government might expand its role in Afghanistan by sending "assistance personnel" to serve on reconstruction teams being organized by the United States and NATO.
Sanader said Croatia was also considering sending doctors and aid workers to Iraq, but there has been resistance in parliament to assisting the U.S.-led effort there.
Neither Rumsfeld nor Sanader reported progress on what remains a major stumbling block in bilateral relations -- namely, U.S. insistence that Croatia sign an agreement, known as an Article 98, promising that no Americans charged with war crimes or other grave offenses would be extradited to the International Criminal Court.
In 2002, the Bush administration withdrew the U.S. signature from the treaty that created the court and has sought to persuade nearly 180 countries to sign such immunity pledges. U.S. officials argue that Americans need protection from politically motivated prosecutions at the court, which opened in July 2002. A U.S. deadline for cooperation expired in July, freezing aid to about 35 countries. In Croatia's case, the United States has suspended about $15 million in financing for military equipment purchases from 2003 to 2005. An additional $2.3 million in education and training funds for the Croatian military was also shelved.
The Croatians consider the loss of the money highly ironic, as they have come under strong U.S. pressure to turn over to the United Nations tribunal in The Hague those accused of committing war crimes against Serbs during the civil wars of the early 1990s. Asked Sunday whether Croatia would sign an immunity agreement, Sanader said only that his government "understands" the U.S. position.
Another unresolved issue involves an outstanding warrant from the U.N. tribunal in The Hague for the arrest and extradition of Ante Gotovina, a former Croatian army general wanted for atrocities against Serbs in the disputed region of Krajina. Gotovina has been in hiding since his 2001 indictment.
Sanader has pledged cooperation with the tribunal, though he has not promised to turn over Gotovina.
"Sanader has effectively accepted the task," a U.S. diplomat said. "If he finds himself unable to produce, it will be up to him now to show why."
Several U.S. officials said they were encouraged by the new government's first moves and statements, including efforts to reach out to the Serbian community. But the Bush administration appears in no hurry to meet Zagreb's request for accelerated membership in NATO. "We're seeing a generational change," a U.S. official said of Croatia's new leading party. "I think it's pretty dramatic, but we'll see."
-------- britain
British Army Reserve Force Stretched to the Limit
February 9, 2004
REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-britain-army-reserves.html
HYTHE RANGES, England (Reuters) - The heavy commitment of Britain's army reserves in Iraq and elsewhere have stretched the part-time force to the limits, the commander of its largest infantry regiment told Reuters.
With some infantrymen expected to leave and others to go into full-time soldiering on their return to the UK, the unit is launching a new drive to recruit part-time soldiers who are willing to go on operations overseas. Advertisement
In the past, many reservists -- who all have civilian jobs during the week -- believed they would never be sent to war but that has changed in recent years, Lieutenant-Colonel Jeremy Mooney said as his battalion prepared for live firing training on England's south coast.
The Territorial Army (TA), a part-time force originally formed to defend the country from French invasion, has provided some 10,000 troops for operations in the last year and there are not many left, Mooney said.regular British army was under strength, he said.
``We are a double-barreled weapon,'' he said, referring to his 600-plus strong regiment of London workers who practice military skills at the weekends, several hundred of whom have been sent to Iraq.
Most of them have been providing security around the southern city of Basra in the aftermath of the U.S.-led invasion last March.
``By the end of this year we will have fired both barrels and we have to regenerate,'' Mooney added.
The regiment sent 115 soldiers to Iraq in January and will dispatch a similar number to replace them in May, just ahead of elections being held by the coalition-backed provisional government.
``In this day and age, you can be pretty sure that you're going to go out there eventually,'' said Private Mark Cherry, a laborer who recently returned from an operational tour in Afghanistan with the regular army.
Other London reservists had been in Kosovo, Bosnia and Northern Ireland.
In another new role, the London Regiment is also expected to provide several hundred men within 24 hours of a disaster or major attack in the capital. The soldiers would probably be unarmed and would operate under the direction of emergency services.
In one exercise, the scenario involved a hijacked aircraft carrying a radioactive ``dirty bomb'' to attack London that had crashed into an urban area, soldiers said.
The regiment also had to look into ways of getting its soldiers to assembly points if the transport system had collapsed, Mooney said.
``There are 38,000 full-time policeman, firemen and paramedics in London and only a few hundred of us,'' said Mooney. ``What we're providing is not something that will make a difference in the first hour but more the first week.''
----
Calls for an inquiry into deaths of Red Caps issued with 'few bullets'
By Ben Russell, Political Correspondent
09 February 2004
UK Independent
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=489259
Geoff Hoon, the Secretary of State for Defence, is facing demands for a full military board of inquiry into the deaths of six Royal Military Police killed by a mob in Iraq after reports that they had been issued with as few as 20 bullets apiece.
Reg Keys, whose son, Lance Corporal Thomas Keys, was one of the servicemen who died, expressed fury yesterday at claims that the patrol had to hand back ammunition and medical supplies days before they were killed.
Nicholas Soames, the Shadow Defence Secretary also entered the dispute, demanding a formal board of inquiry into the deaths of the soldiers, known as Red Caps, which were the largest single loss of life suffered by the Army in one day since the Gulf War in 1991.
The Ministry of Defence refused to comment on reports in the News of the World that the Army's Special Investigations Branch had found the men each had between 20 and 60 rounds of ammunition at the start of their mission. But sources insisted that the soldiers would have had about 50 rounds of ammunition when on patrol.
The six military policemen, all serving with 156 Provost Company, were manning a small police station in the town of Al Majir Al Kabir, 120 miles north of Basra, last June. They were helping restore order in the area, but were ambushed and attacked by an angry mob believed to be loyal to Saddam Hussein.
Mr Keys, of Llanuwchllyn, near Bala, in north Wales, said: "It was vital the men should be quite well armed in that environment. If they came under attack en route from one place to another, they needed to be able to defend themselves. Thomas has been let down all along the line. We want closure, we want a Board of Inquiry with a family presence so we can find out exactly what happened."
Mr Soames said he would be writing to Mr Hoon to demand a formal board of inquiry. He said: "The Army continues to hide behind the requirement for there to be a Special Investigations Branch Inquiry. That has gone on for eight months, which is quite long enough. The MoD needs to order a board of inquiry, which is a statutory body set up by the Army which will investigate from beginning to end what happened."
The Ministry of Defence declined to comment. A spokeswoman said: "The investigation is ongoing and it would be inappropriate to pre-empt it and talk about it."
-------- iraq
U.S. Says Files Seek Qaeda Aid in Iraq Conflict
February 9, 2004
By DEXTER FILKINS
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/09/international/middleeast/09INTE.html?hp=&pagewanted=all&position=
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Feb. 8 - American officials here have obtained a detailed proposal that they conclude was written by an operative in Iraq to senior leaders of Al Qaeda, asking for help to wage a "sectarian war" in Iraq in the next months.
The Americans say they believe that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian who has long been under scrutiny by the United States for suspected ties to Al Qaeda, wrote the undated 17-page document. Mr. Zarqawi is believed to be operating here in Iraq.
The document was made available to The New York Times on Sunday, with an accompanying translation made by the military. A reporter was allowed to see the Arabic and English versions and to write down large parts of the translation.
The memo says extremists are failing to enlist support inside the country, and have been unable to scare the Americans into leaving. It even laments Iraq's lack of mountains in which to take refuge.
Yet mounting an attack on Iraq's Shiite majority could rescue the movement, according to the document. The aim, the document contends, is to prompt a counterattack against the Arab Sunni minority.
Such a "sectarian war" will rally the Sunni Arabs to the religious extremists, the document argues. It says a war against the Shiites must start soon - at "zero hour" - before the Americans hand over sovereignty to the Iraqis. That is scheduled for the end of June.
The American officials in Baghdad said they were confident the account was credible and said they had independently corroborated Mr. Zarqawi's authorship. If it is authentic, it offers an inside account of the insurgency and its frustrations, and bears out a number of American assumptions about the strength and nature of religious extremists - but it also charts out a battle to come.
The document would also constitute the strongest evidence to date of contacts between extremists in Iraq and Al Qaeda. But it does not speak to the debate about whether there was a Qaeda presence in Iraq during the Saddam Hussein era, nor is there any mention of a collaboration with Hussein loyalists.
Yet other interpretations may be possible, including that it was written by some other insurgent, but one who exaggerated his involvement.
Still, a senior United States intelligence official in Washington said, "I know of no reason to believe the letter is bogus in any way." He said the letter was seized in a raid on a known Qaeda safe house in Baghdad, and did not pass through Iraqi groups that American intelligence officials have said in the past may have provided unreliable information.
Without providing further specifics, the senior intelligence officer said there was additional information pointing to the idea that Al Qaeda was considering mounting or had already mounted attacks on Shiite targets in Iraq.
"This is not the only indication of that," the official said. The intercepted letter also appears to be the strongest indication since the American invasion last March that Mr. Zarqawi remains active in plotting attacks, the official said.
According to the American officials here, the Arabic-language document was discovered in mid-January when a Qaeda suspect was arrested in Iraq. Under interrogation, the Americans said, the suspect identified Mr. Zarqawi as the author of the document. The man arrested was carrying it on a CD to Afghanistan, the Americans said, and intended to deliver it to people they described as the "inner circle" of Al Qaeda's leadership. That presumably refers to Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri.
The Americans declined to identify the suspect. But the discovery of the disc coincides with the arrest of Hassan Ghul, a Pakistani described by American officials at the time as a courier for the Qaeda network. Mr. Ghul is believed to be the first significant member of that network to have been captured inside Iraq.
The document is written with a rhetorical flourish. It calls the Americans "the biggest cowards that God has created," but at the same time sees little chance that they will be forced from Iraq.
"So the solution, and only God knows, is that we need to bring the Shia into the battle," the writer of the document said. "It is the only way to prolong the duration of the fight between the infidels and us. If we succeed in dragging them into a sectarian war, this will awaken the sleepy Sunnis who are fearful of destruction and death at the hands" of Shiites.
The author offers his services and those of his followers to the recipients of the letter, who American officials contend are Al Qaeda's leaders.
"You noble brothers, leaders of the jihad, we do not consider ourselves people who compete against you, nor would we ever aim to achieve glory for ourselves like you did," the writer says. "So if you agree with it, and are convinced of the idea of killing the perverse sects, we stand ready as an army for you to work under your guidance and yield to your command."
In the period before the war, Bush administration officials argued that Mr. Zarqawi constituted the main link between Al Qaeda and Mr. Hussein's government. Last February at the United Nations, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said, "Iraq today harbors a deadly terrorist network, headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, an associate and collaborator of Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda lieutenants."
Around that time, the Americans believed that Mr. Zarqawi was holed up in the mountains at the Iranian border with Ansar al Islam, a group linked to Al Qaeda that is suspected of mounting attacks against American forces in Iraq.
Since the war ended, little evidence has emerged to support the allegation of a prewar Qaeda connection in Iraq. Last month, Mr. Powell conceded that the American government had found "no smoking gun" linking Mr. Hussein's government with Al Qaeda.
In the document, the writer indicated that he had directed about 25 suicide bombings inside Iraq. That conforms with an American view that suicide bombings were more likely to be carried out by Iraqi religious extremists and foreigners than by Hussein allies.
"We were involved in all the martyrdom operations - in terms of overseeing, preparing and planning - that took place in this country," the writer of the document says. "Praise be to Allah, I have completed 25 of these operations, some of them against the Shia and their leaders, the Americans and their military, and the police, the military and the coalition forces."
But the writer details the difficulties that he and his comrades have been experiencing, both in combating American forces and in enlisting supporters. The Americans are an easy target, according to the author, who nonetheless claims to be impressed by the Americans' resolve. After significant losses, he writes, "America, however, has no intention of leaving, no matter how many wounded nor how bloody it becomes."
The Iraqis themselves, the writer says, have not been receptive to taking holy warriors into their homes.
"Many Iraqis would honor you as a guest and give you refuge, for you are a Muslim brother," according to the document. "However, they will not allow you to make their home a base for operations or a safe house."
The writer contends that the American efforts to set up Iraqi security services have succeeded in depriving the insurgents of allies, particularly in a country where kinship networks are extensive.
"The problem is you end up having an army and police connected by lineage, blood and appearance," the document says. "When the Americans withdraw, and they have already started doing that, they get replaced by these agents who are intimately linked to the people of this region."
With some exasperation, the author writes: "We can pack up and leave and look for another land, just like what has happened in so many lands of jihad. Our enemy is growing stronger day after day, and its intelligence information increases.
"By God, this is suffocation!" the writer says.
But there is still time to mount a war against the Shiites, thereby to set off a wider war, he writes, if attacks are well under way before the turnover of sovereignty in June. After that, the writer suggests, any attacks on Shiites will be viewed as Iraqi-on-Iraqi violence that will find little support among the people.
"We have to get to the zero hour in order to openly begin controlling the land by night, and after that by day, God willing," the writer says. "The zero hour needs to be at least four months before the new government gets in place."
That is the timetable, the author concludes, because, after that, "How can we kill their cousins and sons?"
"The Americans will continue to control from their bases, but the sons of this land will be the authority," the letter states. "This is the democracy. We will have no pretexts."
Douglas Jehl contributed reporting from Washington for this article.
-------
U.S. Army Begins Its Plan for a Lower Profile in Baghdad
February 9, 2004
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/09/international/middleeast/09CND-IRAQ.html
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Feb. 9 - American commanders today detailed their new plans for patrolling the streets of Baghdad and said their primary goal was to be less conspicuous.
Starting now, the Army is closing down most of its bases in central Baghdad, withdrawing to the outskirts of the city, swapping Humvees for tanks and using fewer soldiers, said the First Armored deputy commander, Brig. Gen. Mark Hertling.
This change comes as the First Armored Division hands off authority over the capital to the First Cavalry Division, part of the larger replenishing of troops going on throughout the country.
"We're going to be less intrusive," Col. Mike Formica of the First Cavalry Division said. "We won't have 70-ton tanks running through neighborhoods, destroying infrastructure we're trying so hard to rebuild."
Along with the different equipment, Colonel Formica said the incoming troops would have a different attitude. Back at Fort Hood, Tex., where the First Cavalry Division is based, commanders down to the level of sergeant have been tutored in Arab culture. Meanwhile, rank-and-file soldiers have been reoriented from battlefield missions to urban combat ones.
"All of our armor and artillery guys have been retrained as infantry," Colonel Formica said. "That's what we need out here."
When the First Armored Division, based in Germany, arrived in Baghdad in May, 80 Army posts were scattered throughout the city. Those numbers gradually dropped and now the tank-heavy division, known as Old Ironsides, is spread among 26 bases.
Once the First Cavalry takes over, sometime in April, the number of bases will be reduced to eight, most outside the city limits.
Also, the replacement troops in Baghdad will be fewer, around 25,000, compared with a high this spring of 37,000.
"We've changed things based on what the enemy is doing," General Hertling said.
Still, General Hertling warned, the new troops face "a very complex insurgency in town."
"We're talking about a fight between extreme elements and those interested in moderation," he said.
The Iraqi police and civil defense forces are expected to take over day-to-day security responsibilities, with American troops ready to help in big emergencies.
An American military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, likened the role to "manning a fire station."
Many Iraqis feel torn about the new plans for a lower-profile American presence.
"We don't feel safe now," said a money changer, Bilal Orfalle. "How is it going to be any better if there are fewer troops on the streets?"
But his friend, Hussam Al Salemi, said fewer American soldiers could be a good thing.
"Sometimes, they are so rude," Mr. Al Salemi said. "They speak to us very badly and they stare at our girls."
Also today, American officials elaborated on the secret letter they recovered from a captured operative in Iraq to senior leaders of Al Qaeda. A senior occupation official confirmed that the operative was Hassan Ghul, a Pakistani described by American officials as a courier for Al Qaeda network, bolstering the evidence that Al Qaeda is working in Iraq.
American officials said that the suspected author of the letter, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian who is thought to be close to the leadership of Al Qaeda, was trying to set up "an Al Qaeda franchise" in Iraq.
A senior American official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Mr. Zarqawi was the mastermind behind several of the deadliest suicide attacks in Iraq and "the most capable terrorist in Iraq today." Meanwhile, in the Sinjar area of northern Iraq, two American soldiers were killed and six were wounded while they were trying to remove an explosive.
--------
Iraqi Militias Resisting U.S. Pressure to Disband
February 9, 2004
By EDWARD WONG
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/09/international/middleeast/09MILI.html?pagewanted=all
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Feb. 8 - Several of the biggest political parties in Iraq say they are determined to keep their well-armed militias despite American opposition to the idea.
They contend that the militias remain necessary in light of the lack of security throughout the country.
Having had scant success so far in persuading the militias to disband, occupation officials are searching for a new policy that will help disarm the groups, whose members total in the tens of thousands, said a senior military official.
But less than five months remain until the transfer of sovereignty to an Iraqi government, leaving the Bush administration little time to deal with what many officials here consider an incendiary problem.
In the rugged north, Kurdish militiamen called the pesh merga patrol the roads. In the south, members of the Badr Organization, a militia run by a prominent Shiite political party, work with the police to secure the cities, said the group's leader.
Iraq's instability - and fog-shrouded political future - leave the parties with no incentive to disband the militias, experts say.
"It's all a matter of confidence in the future," said Joost R. Hiltermann, an Iraq expert at the International Crisis Group, a conflict prevention organization. "You're not going to give up your weapons if you think you're going to fight again in the future."
Militia leaders say the groups can help stabilize the country, something they argue that American troops have been unable to do.
Several politicians say they may push to have the Iraqi Governing Council enshrine the existence of the militias in an interim constitution due Feb. 28, with the justification that the armed groups can serve as emergency forces.
Some even suggest that American officials should transfer oversight of security entirely to Iraqi forces - including the militias.
"The issue is just like cleaning the city," said Hassan al-Amari, the leader of the Badr Organization, estimated to have at least 10,000 members. "You can't keep the city clean without the help of the people themselves."
All along, the Americans have worried that private armies like the militias could inflame a nation already divided along ethnic and religious lines. Starting in the mid-1970's, militias fought each other in the Lebanese civil war.
The major militias here are attached to parties dominated by Kurds or Shiite Arabs, who make up a majority of the population but were long excluded from real power. The other main group, the Sunni Arabs, do not have political parties with militias and fear retribution for their years in power.
"People don't like the militias," said Samir Shakir Mahmoud Sumaidy, a Governing Council member and a Sunni Arab. "They think they are going to destroy what we are building here."
The continuing presence of the militias "holds real danger," said Mr. Hiltermann of the International Crisis Group. "If you give real power to these militias, how do you fold them into a big army? They might not want to join."
There are three groups the American military considers to be active militias. First, there is the pesh merga, whose 50,000 soldiers are split between the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. Next is the Badr Organization, a unit of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a powerful Shiite party. Then there is the Mahdi Army, formed by Moktada al-Sadr, a virulently anti-American cleric who is Shiite.
The senior military official estimated the number of the Mahdi Army in the "high hundreds to thousands," and said its antioccupation stand "concerns us greatly." In October, members of the militia ambushed American soldiers in Sadr City, a sprawling Shiite slum in Baghdad. Two soldiers and two Iraqis were killed in firefights.
Days later, other members of the Mahdi Army, named for a mythic Shiite imam who is supposed to reappear to lead an apocalyptic battle, reportedly fought in the city of Karbala against American soldiers and supporters of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the revered Shiite cleric.
A representative for Mr. Sadr said the Mahdi Army helps the police in Sadr City and guards institutions like mosques. "The Americans have failed to provide security, not only in Sadr City, but in all of Iraq," said the representative, Sheik Amir al-Husseini. "Sadr City has taken it upon itself to provide peace and security to the people."
The Mahdi Army's main rival is the Badr Organization, formerly the Badr Brigade. Leaders changed the name after the group's Iranian-trained members entered Iraq following the American invasion. They now call it a "humanitarian" or a "political" group, though they boast its members help the police secure the streets of large cities, sometimes with AK-47's, sometimes through intelligence gathering.
Some Iraqi police officers have accused the Badr group of assassinating former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, though militia officials deny that.
Many Shiite Arabs, led by Ayatollah Sistani, are demanding direct elections before the scheduled transfer of sovereignty on June 30. Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Shiite party overseeing the Badr Organization, said the group could help provide security at polling stations if given "special permission" by the Americans. But many people find the idea of using party militias at polling sites disturbing.
The Badr Organization is dwarfed by the pesh merga, an obvious presence in the northern Kurdish region, with their baggy uniforms and Kalashnikov rifles. They were trained to fight against Mr. Hussein's forces and to protect the no-flight zone declared by the American and British governments in 1991.
After the twin suicide bombings in Erbil on Feb. 1, pesh merga - meaning "those who face death" - set up checkpoints every couple of blocks in that city.
Kurdish leaders say they want to retain broad autonomous powers in the region, including the use of the pesh merga. Militias can be kept as reserve forces, similar to the National Guard in the United States, said Barham Salih, prime minister of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.
As the Governing Council tries to define federalist powers in the interim constitution, Kurdish leaders will probably argue for the right to keep the pesh merga, especially given their memory of mass killings of the Kurds under Mr. Hussein's rule.
Mr. Amari, the head of the Badr Organization, said his Shiite party had not yet asked the Governing Council to legally approve the militias, but would do so if the Kurds and others pushed for that right. Once the country is stabilized, he said, those armed groups should be dissolved.
The two other political parties that had militias at the time of the American-led invasion, the Iraqi National Congress and the Iraqi National Accord, supposedly disbanded their armed groups over the summer.
The Congress's militia, numbering at least 1,000, was trained and equipped by the Pentagon, while the Accord's force was backed by the Central Intelligence Agency.
But the Iraqi National Accord now runs the Interior Ministry, which controls many of the country's security forces, including the police. The Congress retains many armed guards. A spokesman for the Iraqi National Congress, Entifadh Qanbar, said "militias are very important in certain areas" and could serve as emergency forces.
"It will counter the Iraqi army, so it will prevent coups d'état," Mr. Qanbar said.
The Coalition Provisional Authority lets Iraqis keep properly licensed small arms, a policy that allows militia leaders to say their weapons are legal.
The American military has discovered illegal caches of artillery in the hands of some political parties. Last month, in the northern city of Kirkuk, considered a powder keg of ethnic tensions, the 173rd Airborne Brigade found rocket-propelled grenade launchers and mortar rounds in the offices of the Kurdistan Democratic Party.
Occupation officials are experimenting with absorbing the militias into national defense units. Five major parties with militias contributed about 100 people each to the formation of the 36th Battalion of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps last month. The battalion has mixed the different soldiers at the squad level.
But it is unclear how well this works. Asked to allow a reporter to observe the battalion in action, the American military declined, citing "operational considerations."
Election Discussions Begin
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Feb. 8 (AP) - United Nations experts met with Iraqi leaders for the first time on Sunday to discuss the chances of holding early elections.
In attacks on Army convoys, one American soldier was killed and three were wounded, witnesses said. The soldier was killed when a roadside bomb exploded near Mahmudiya, 20 miles south of Baghdad, a military spokesman said.
In southeastern Iraq, a convoy of Japanese soldiers arrived as part of their country's first military deployment in a hostile region since 1945.
American and European officials said the United States believed that it had found at least $300 million hidden in bank accounts by Saddam Hussein but lacked the evidence to get countries like Syria and Switzerland to turn over the funds. Investigators said much of the money could already be gone.
-------- israel / palestine
Israeli Supreme Court Hears 2 Petitions Against Barrier
February 9, 2004
By GREG MYRE
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/09/international/middleeast/09CND-MIDE.html?hp
JERUSALEM, Feb. 9 - The Israeli Supreme Court heard petitions from two rights groups today challenging the West Bank separation barrier, a day after a senior aide to the government said Israel is working to reroute parts of the barrier to make it less burdensome on the Palestinians and more acceptable to the United States.
The groups, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and the Center for the Defense of the Individual, say the construction on occupied land is illegal.
Chief Justice Aharon Barak said the three-judge panel would rule "as soon as possible," The Associated Press reported.
In two weeks the International Court of Justice in The Hague is to hear arguments and issue a nonbinding, advisory ruling on the legality of the barrier.
Justice Barak did not say whether the Israeli court's decision would come before the case is heard in The Hague.
Israel is continuing to build the barrier, but Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government has made some minor adjustments, and is considering additional changes, the senior aide, Zalman Shoval, said Sunday.
Mr. Sharon has recently spoken of a range of independent measures that he could take if he concludes that Middle East peace efforts are hopelessly deadlocked. Mr. Sharon expects to visit Washington in the next few weeks, and Israeli officials acknowledge that they will be seeking American support before proceeding with unilateral steps.
Last week Mr. Sharon said he was considering plans to withdraw most Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip. The new proposals on the West Bank barrier are to be presented to visiting Bush administration officials this week, Mr. Shoval said.
He spoke in response to an article published Sunday in Haaretz, a liberal Israeli newspaper, that said parts of the barrier that would cut deep into the West Bank would be altered so the route runs closer to the West Bank boundary. The newspaper said such changes would reduce the barrier's length to about 420 miles from about 480 miles.
"The aim is to make the line more efficient and alleviate the problems that some Palestinians face," said Mr. Shoval, though he said he could not confirm the details of the Haaretz article.
The Bush administration has been generally supportive of Israel during the past three years of Middle East fighting. But the president has criticized Israel for building the barrier inside the West Bank, which Israel captured in the 1967 war.
Israel says that the barrier is needed to stop Palestinian suicide bombings and other attacks, and that the route runs through the West Bank to protect Israeli settlements.
The barrier is roughly one-quarter built. A long stretch runs along the northern West Bank, and parts have been erected around Jerusalem.
Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said the talk of limited adjustments to the barrier was not acceptable to the Palestinians. "I hope the Americans will simply tell Israel, `Stop building the wall,' " he said.
--------
Israel Tells Court W.Bank Barrier Route May Change
February 9, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-mideast.html
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli state attorneys told the Supreme Court on Monday the route of a barrier designed to stop suicide bombers, which cuts deep into the occupied West Bank, would probably be revised to ease Palestinian hardship.
``The fence route will probably be moved, and a change of policy in the seam-line area is being considered in order to ease as much as possible the lives of the Palestinians living in it,'' attorney Michael Blass told the two-hour hearing.
Completed parts of the barrier have restricted Palestinians' access to fields, schools and neighboring villages and two Israeli civil rights groups had petitioned the court to declare illegal the planned route of the barrier, looping deep into the West Bank to encircle Jewish settlements.
It was not clear when the judges would rule. The World Court in The Hague is to look at the same issue later this month.
The petitioners pursued the case despite signals from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office that Israel intended to shorten the route, making it follow the pre-1967 war boundary with the West Bank more closely in a bid to secure U.S. support.
Parliamentary allies opposed to Sharon's plan to evacuate settlers from the Gaza Strip dealt him an embarrassing blow by abstaining in a confidence motion. He survived the second such vote in a week with only a few more votes than the opposition.
Israel has so far built 93 miles of the planned 452 mile long barrier of wire fences and cement walls.
PALESTINIAN RESPONSE
In court, Israel said the barrier has stopped suicide bombers from reaching its cities, where hundreds have died in attacks since a Palestinian uprising began in 2000.
``The basic reason for the barrier is the duty the government has to protect the right to life of its citizens,'' Blass said.
The International Court of Justice is to open hearings in The Hague on February 23 at the behest of the United Nations. Its opinion will not be binding.
In a separate challenge to Israel, Palestinian leaders were considering whether to declare a state unilaterally in the West Bank and Gaza. A senior Palestinian official said it could counter an Israeli threat to give up on efforts to negotiate a peace and take go-it-alone steps to disengage from the conflict.
``This is one of the options that are being studied in response to Sharon's unilateral plan and to try to foil it,'' said the official, Yasser Abed Rabbo.
Unilateral moves could wreck a U.S.-backed peace ``road map.'' It calls for an end to violence, confidence-building steps and negotiations leading to creation of a Palestinian state by 2005.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie urged the Quartet of world powers to revive efforts to implement the road map.
``I think it is time for the Quartet to move, at a high level, to push the peace process back on track,'' he said in Dublin, referring to the U.S.-EU-U.N.-Russia grouping.
The U.S. envoy to Israel told a group of rabbis President Bush was ``firmly committed'' to peace efforts: ``Let no one suggest that the interests of the administration are waning even during this election year,'' ambassador Daniel Kurtzer said.
He also criticized a Palestinian trial of four suspects over the killing of three Americans in Gaza, saying it should not be held behind closed doors and that the charges be tougher.
Sharon, 75, had a hospital operation on kidney stones on Monday and aides said he would recuperate at home for some time.
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Adjustments in Barrier Under Way, Israeli Says
February 9, 2004
By GREG MYRE
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/09/international/middleeast/09MIDE.html?pagewanted=all
JERUSALEM, Feb. 8 - Israel is working to reroute parts of its West Bank separation barrier to make it less burdensome on the Palestinians and more acceptable to the United States, a senior aide to Israel's prime minister said Sunday.
Israel is continuing to build the barrier, but Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government has made some minor adjustments, and is considering additional changes, said the aide, Zalman Shoval.
Mr. Sharon has recently spoken of a range of independent measures that he could take if he concludes that Middle East peace efforts are hopelessly deadlocked. Mr. Sharon expects to visit Washington in the next few weeks, and Israeli officials acknowledge that they will be seeking American support before proceeding with unilateral steps.
Last week, Mr. Sharon said he was considering plans to withdraw most Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip. The new proposals on the West Bank barrier are to be presented to visiting Bush administration officials this week, Mr. Shoval said.
He spoke in response to an article published Sunday in Haaretz, a liberal Israeli newspaper, that said parts of the barrier that would cut deep into the West Bank would be altered so the route runs closer to the West Bank boundary. The newspaper said such changes would reduce the barrier's length to about 420 miles from about 480 miles.
"The aim is to make the line more efficient and alleviate the problems that some Palestinians face," said Mr. Shoval, though he said he could not confirm the details of the Haaretz article.
The Bush administration has been generally supportive of Israel during the past three years of Middle East fighting. But the president has criticized Israel for building the barrier inside the West Bank, which Israel captured in the 1967 war.
Israel says that the barrier is needed to stop Palestinian suicide bombings and other attacks, and that the route runs through the West Bank to protect Israeli settlements.
The barrier is roughly one-quarter built. A long stretch runs along the northern West Bank, and parts have been erected around Jerusalem.
Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said the talk of limited adjustments to the barrier was not acceptable to the Palestinians. "I hope the Americans will simply tell Israel, `Stop building the wall,' " he said.
The barrier is facing two legal challenges this month. The Israeli Supreme Court is to hear a claim this week by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, which says the barrier infringes on Palestinian rights. In The Hague, the International Court of Justice is to hear arguments and issue a nonbinding, advisory ruling on the legality of the barrier.
In a clash on Sunday, Israeli troops entered the Palestinian town of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, searching for a suspect and a tunnel used to smuggle weapons.
When the suspect, Asraf Abu Libdeh, fled a house and refused orders to stop, he was shot and killed, the Israeli military said.
-------- latin america
Armed Revolt In Haiti Spreads To More Cities
By Michael Christie
Reuters
Monday, February 9, 2004; Page A14
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23937-2004Feb8.html
ST. MARC, Haiti, Feb. 8 -- Embattled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide faced his most serious challenge in months of anti-government protests Sunday as an armed revolt spread to several more cities in the impoverished Caribbean nation.
Hundreds of looters in the port of St. Marc stripped shipping containers of television sets, radios and corn flour, then set the empty containers ablaze, a day after outnumbered police were forced to flee armed gangs.
Barricades were thrown up in the sprawling slums and streets of St. Marc, the largest town on the road north from the capital, Port-au-Prince, to the country's fourth-largest city, Gonaives, where police tried unsuccessfully Saturday to restore control after being driven out two days earlier.
Youth gangs, many of whose members carried handguns tucked under their T-shirts, controlled all traffic to and from Gonaives.
Police stations were attacked in the cities of Trou de Nord, Listere and Grand Goave, independent Radio Metropole said.
The main police station in St. Marc was a smoking ruin Sunday. The neighboring courthouse was also destroyed. Residents said two bystanders died when police tried to defend their outpost against an attack on Saturday. The city's pro-Aristide mayor fled town, as did other supporters of the ruling Lavalas Party, residents said.
"We're just waiting for Aristide to go," said Louis Andrel, a gang leader with apparent clout in a city that appeared to be run by rival, but for now united, armed bands.
"Step by step, town by town. When we have all the departments, we'll go down to Port-au-Prince," Andrel said.
Residents looked on nervously, refusing to be identified by name. "People are scared. The ones who are out in the street aren't, because they're the ones with the guns," said one man.
Gonaives, a city of about 200,000 people, was taken over by an armed group after an assault on police headquarters and other government buildings on Thursday and Friday. Seven people were killed.
Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest once regarded as a champion of the country's fledgling democracy but now accused by opponents of corruption and political thuggery, is under pressure to resign halfway through his second term.
The revolt has come after months of sometimes violent anti-Aristide demonstrations in Port-au-Prince and other cities in Haiti, a country of about 8 million people that has suffered repeated civil wars and dictatorships since independence 200 years ago, and two U.S. invasions.
Prime Minister Yvon Neptune on Sunday accused the opposition of fomenting a coup.
"It is not the government that is organizing the violence," he told local broadcast media.
Micha Gaillard, spokesman for opposition group Democratic Convergence, said Aristide had only himself to blame for the violence in Gonaives.
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Uprising Against Aristide Spreads in Haiti
February 9, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Haiti-Unrest.html?hp
ST. MARC, Haiti (AP) -- Rebels blocked streets and hundreds of Haitians looted shops in this port town as an uprising raged in several communities against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Using felled trees, flaming tires and car chassis, residents blocked streets throughout St. Marc on Sunday, a day after militants drove out police in gunbattles that killed two people. Many residents have formed neighborhood groups to back insurgents in their push to expel the president.
``After Aristide leaves, the country will return to normal,'' said Axel Philippe, 34, among dozens massed on the highway leading to St. Marc, a city of about 100,000 located some 45 miles northwest of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
At least 18 people have been killed since armed opponents of Aristide began their assault Thursday, setting police stations on fire and driving officers from the northwestern city of Gonaives -- Haiti's fourth-largest city -- and several smaller nearby towns.
Anger has been brewing in Haiti since Aristide's party won flawed legislative elections in 2000. The opposition refuses to join in any new vote unless the president resigns; he insists on serving out his term, which ends in 2006.
Clashes between government opponents, police and Aristide supporters have killed at least 69 people since mid-September.
In the bloodiest fights of recent days, 150 police tried to retake control of Gonaives on Saturday but left hours later after meeting fierce resistance, witnesses said. At least nine people were killed, seven of them police, in gunbattles with rebels hiding on side streets and crouched in doorways.
Crowds mutilated and beat the corpses of three police officers. One body was dragged through the street as a man swung at it with a machete, and a woman cut off the officer's ear. Another policeman was lynched and stripped to his shorts, and residents dropped large rocks on his body.
Haitian radio stations reported claims by other rebels that as many as 14 police were killed in Gonaives on Saturday, but that couldn't be confirmed.
Before dawn Sunday, arsonists burned down a two-story building in northern Cap-Haitien housing the studio of Radio Vision 2000, the independent Haitian broadcaster said.
Rebels continued to rule the streets of Gonaives on Sunday, witnesses said, though it was unclear how many armed militants were in the city of 200,000.
Calling the violence acts of terrorism, the government has vowed to regain control of the area, but it was unclear when police planned to return.
Police have deserted at least six other nearby towns, including Ennery, Gros Morne, L'Estere, Anse Rouge, Petite Riviere de l'Artibonite and Trou du Nord, according to the Haitian Press Network, a local news service.
Attackers set fire to the police stations of Gonaives, St. Marc and Trou du Nord.
One 22-year-old bystander in St. Marc, David Saint-Louis, was wounded by a gunshot in the chest Sunday and said it was a police officer -- in civilian clothing but wearing a badge -- who fired at him near a barricade.
A number of people in both Gonaives and St. Marc said they formed neighborhood committees to aid the militants and keep watch over their areas.
The recent violence started Thursday when members of the Gonaives Resistance Front, took control of the Gonaives police station during a five-hour gunbattle. They set fire to buildings -- including the mayor's house -- and freed more than 100 prisoners from the city jail. Those clashes left at least seven dead and 20 injured.
The Gonaives Resistance Front used to be allied with Aristide. But it turned against him last year and changed its name from the ``Cannibal Army,'' accusing the government of killing its leader Amiot Metayer to keep him from releasing damaging information about Aristide. The government denies it.
-------- nato
NATO Says World Security Tied to Afghan Stability
February 9, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-afghan-nato.html
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan stability is vital to world security and is NATO's top priority, the alliance's secretary general said Monday at a ceremony to hand command of the NATO-run force, policing mainly Kabul, from Germany to Canada.
``Our future security, wherever we are, depends on Afghanistan's security,'' Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told an audience including Afghan President Hamid Karzai and NATO military officials. Advertisement
``We will do what we must to help you, President Karzai, your government and the people of this country build a better, safer and more prosperous future.''
NATO took over the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) some half a year ago, and member countries rotate command of the 6,420-strong force.
The handover took place amid tight security at a school in central Kabul after de Hoop Scheffer landed at the U.S.-controlled airbase of Bagram, north of Kabul, with NATO's top soldier, U.S. General James Jones.
Although no timeframe and numbers have been given, NATO has pledged to increase the number of soldiers in ISAF so it can spread into lawless provinces, mostly by setting up more Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs).
Karzai said that extra NATO forces were needed.
``This assistance...is not going to help Afghanistan alone, it is going to eventually help all of us in the international community,'' he said.
NATO has control of one PRT and a U.S.-led force of 10,600 -- whose primary aim is to hunt remnants of the Taliban and al Qaeda -- runs the rest.
Questions still remain about how quickly PRTs will be fully set up, as some NATO members say their armed forces are thinly stretched across the globe.
But NATO's peacekeeping force aims to set up five new teams as the country prepares for a presidential election in June.
Canada has the largest ISAF contingent of 2,000 troops, due to leave in August. It says up to 500 troops stay on.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, speaking after talks with French President Jacques Chirac in Berlin Monday, said the two leaders were examining whether a joint Franco-German brigade of troops could be deployed in Afghanistan.
``As you know we have been very engaged there,'' Schroeder said. ``It's being checked whether the German-French brigade can be active there. The checks are not yet finished.''
The German-French brigade, set up in 1989, has 5,200 troops. Since 1993 it has been under control of the pan-European Eurocorps headquarters, which is expected to replace Canada in command of ISAF operations later this year.
-------- spies
Intelligence hit mark on nuclear ambitions
February 09, 2004
By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20040209-122516-8754r.htm
U.S. intelligence agencies may have wrongly estimated Iraqi weapons stockpiles, but on other key assessments - such as Saddam Hussein's nuclear ambitions - the CIA was right, say current and former government officials.
Proponents of ousting the Iraqi dictator say the fact Saddam was actively seeking an atomic bomb and operating chemical and biological programs were sufficient reasons to go to war.
The main benchmark for judging the CIA is a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) completed in October 2002 and partially declassified by the White House in July.
The NIE - which is a consensus, but not a unanimous finding - by the CIA and other intelligence agencies, offered several main points: that Iraq possessed stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons; that it was reconstituting its nuclear-bomb research and that Saddam still wanted atomic weapons; that it was producing missiles beyond the range allowed by United Nations resolutions; and that research continued into chemical and biological agents.
On the first point, David Kay, who resigned last month as chief CIA weapons inspector in Iraq, concluded the Bush administration was wrong. He said the group he ran, the Iraq Survey Group, found no evidence of stockpiles of chemical or biological weapons since the 1990s. (CIA Director George J. Tenet says inspections continue and that the jury is still out.)
But on the nuclear issue, Mr. Kay said the CIA was right on some important points. The NIE said: "If Baghdad acquires sufficient fissile material from abroad, it could make a nuclear weapon within several months to a year."
Mr. Kay, at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, said: "If they managed to acquire a sufficient amount of plutonium or high-enriched uranium from a place like the former Soviet Union stockpile, how long would it take to fashion that into a nuclear explosive device? And I think that estimate was actually fairly conservative."
He added, "Fortunately, from my point of view, Operation Iraqi Freedom intervened, and we don't know how or how fast that would have gone ahead."
The NIE stated that "reconstruction is under way" of the Iraq nuclear program.
Mr. Kay seemed to side with this view. "It was in the early stages of renovating the program, building new buildings," he said. "It was not a reconstituted, full-blown nuclear program."
In addition to beginning the construction of sites to build atomic bombs, Iraq had brought together nuclear scientists who were already working together and conducting experiments.
In 1991, Iraqi officials since have acknowledged, Baghdad was perhaps less than a year away from producing sufficient fissile material to produce Saddam's first nuclear bomb. The Desert Storm air war, and subsequent U.N. inspectors, foiled those plans.
"Given their history," Mr. Kay said, "it was certainly an emerging program that I would not have looked forward to their continuing to pursue. It was not yet up as a full nuclear-production site again."
The NIE also stated, "Iraq is continuing, and in some areas expanding, its chemical, biological, nuclear and missile programs contrary to U.N. resolutions."
On the missile issue, Mr. Kay found the NIE was correct.
"The missile program was actually moving ahead," he testified. "I think you will have ... pretty compelling evidence that Saddam had the intention of continuing the pursuit of [weapons of mass destruction] when the opportunity arose, and that the first start on that, the long pole in the tent, was this restart of the long-range missile program."
Mr. Kay, while not finding stockpiles, found proof that Saddam had programs in place to restart production of chemical and biological weapons. For example, Mr. Kay discovered a program to find a substitute for a precursor for deadly VX nerve agent. And there was research into the deadly anthrax germ. "That's WMD-related work," he said.
All such work violated U.N. resolutions.
Daniel Gallington, an analyst at the conservative Potomac Institute and former counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Baghdad became skilled in the 1990s at counterintelligence that kept the CIA from developing spies.
"What's 'right' is relative," Mr. Gallington said. "We always have to go with the most dangerous possible scenario with these guys. The one that troubles me most is that Saddam did know we were going to invade and he sent [weapons material] to possibly Syria. So, if you can't find it in country and you can't figure out how or where he disposed of it, then we should be looking elsewhere. It is extremely dangerous that we can't precisely account for any of it, at all. This is the point that all the commentators, in and out of government, seem to be missing."
-------- un
Iraqis, U.N. Discuss Elections
Prince Charles Visits Troops; U.S. Soldier Killed in Attack
By Hamza Hendawi
Associated Press
Monday, February 9, 2004; Page A15
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24038-2004Feb8.html
BAGHDAD, Feb. 8 -- U.N. experts met with Iraqi leaders for the first time Sunday to discuss the chances of holding early elections. Britain's Prince Charles, meanwhile, made a surprise visit to troops in the south.
Also Sunday, insurgents attacked two U.S. Army convoys with explosives, killing one soldier and wounding three, witnesses said. The soldier was killed when a roadside bomb exploded near Mahmudiyah, about 15 miles south of Baghdad, a military spokesman said. No other details were available.
Charles, wearing desert camouflage and a black beret, visited British troops in Basra at a palace that once belonged to deposed president Saddam Hussein. Charles was the first member of the royal family to go to Iraq since Hussein's ouster. The prince mingled with about 200 soldiers, shaking hands, sipping tea and praising them for their role in keeping security in southern Iraq.
"This part of the world doesn't have much chance unless their armed force can learn a lot from your experience . . . not only in the military but in the hearts and minds," the prince said, according to the British news agency, the Press Association.
Security was tight for the prince's 51/2-hour visit. His staff allowed journalists to report that he had been in Iraq only after he left for Iran -- the first member of a British royal family to visit that country in 33 years.
In an incident north of Baghdad, gunmen, including a major in the new U.S.-trained Iraqi police force, attacked a group of American soldiers, sparking a gun battle in which the officer was killed and two other attackers wounded, the U.S. military said Sunday. Soldiers with the 22nd Infantry Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division were observing the house of a suspected insurgent in the village of Qadisiyah, 30 miles south of Tikrit, when the gunmen opened fire Saturday evening, the military said in a statement.
In Baghdad, the U.N. team, led by Lakhdar Brahimi, a special adviser to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, sat down with the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council to start determining whether legislative elections can be held by June 30, when the Americans plan to transfer sovereignty to Iraqis.
The U.S. plan calls for legislators to be selected in regional caucuses -- a move opposed by the country's most powerful Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. If early elections are deemed unfeasible, the U.N. team will offer alternatives to the U.S. plan.
After keeping the United Nations at arm's length in Iraq, the Bush administration asked for its help last month to resolve the dispute with Sistani and find a way to constitute a new Iraqi government.
U.N. and Iraqi officials said little about the substance of the first day's talks. Brahimi said after the meeting that the United Nations would "do everything possible" to help the Iraqi people "regain independence and sovereignty."
-------- propaganda wars
Powell: US Will Not Impose Its Values on Mideast Governments
David Gollust
State Department
09 Feb 2004,
http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=69D33E09-2C41-47C5-8051C8DE97356116
Listen to David Gollust's report (RealAudio) Gollust report - Download 502k (RealAudio)
The Bush administration is preparing a new international initiative aimed at encouraging greater democracy and economic reform in the Middle East. But Secretary of State Colin Powell says the United States will not try to impose its values on reluctant governments in the region.
President Bush has already committed his administration to working for democratic reform in the Middle East in a policy address late last year.
But officials say they hope to reinforce that by enlisting key U.S. allies in the democratization effort with appeals at summit meetings later this year of NATO, the European Union and the G-8 industrial powers and Russia.
Though details are still being worked out, the initiative is expected to be announced by President Bush in June when he hosts the annual G-8 summit at Sea Island Georgia.
Officials say they hope to bring the U.S. allies and countries in the greater Middle Eastern region into a structure loosely modeled on the 1975 Helsinki Accords, which are widely credited with advancing democratization of the former Soviet bloc.
Administration officials have already begun sounding out European and Middle Eastern countries about the idea, and it figured in meetings Secretary Powell had Monday with Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot and Bahrain's Foreign Minister, Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al Khalifa.
At a joint press appearance with his Bahraini counterpart, Mr. Powell said the United States is looking for ways to assist reform efforts already underway in the region, without being heavy-handed. "We're not looking for something to impose on the region. We're looking for things we can work with the region on. It's an effort to engage the region. And there are nations in the region that are making very important decisions and steps with respect to democracy, with respect to the protection of human rights, with respect to economic development. Bahrain is an example, a good example of one of these nations. And so we're looking at how we can bring this all together to support reform in the Middle East, for the benefit of the people of the Middle East," he said.
The Bahraini Foreign Minister, whose government has held trend-setting parliamentary elections and is close to having a free-trade agreement with the United States, said the regional reform process can benefit from help from established democracies. But the U.S. educated Bahraini official also said no one model for democratization can work for all countries in the Middle East and broader Muslim world. "One size fits all is not going to work across the whole region. But we certainly support the general principles advocated by the reform process. You can summarize them in three basic principles: one is democracy, two is rule of law, and three is adherence to a free-market or capitalist system. I think those three pillars need to be encouraged, and each country needs to define how it wants to move, and when it wants to move on these issues. Now, if they do want to move, there needs to be support for them and help to get them across the difficult barriers that lie in the way of real reform," he said.
President Bush launched the United States' effort in a Washington speech last November, challenging longtime U.S. Middle East allies such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt to begin embracing reforms, and to view the fall of Saddam Hussein in Iraq as a "watershed event" in a "global democratic revolution."
He said 60 years of Western countries "excusing and accommodating" a lack of freedom in the Middle East had done nothing to make them safe, and that stability "cannot be purchased at the expense of liberty."
The Washington Post newspaper said Monday the aim of the broader effort with U.S. allies is to flesh out the Bush initiative and keep it moving despite problems with Iraq's political transition and the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.
----
Bush at Sea
Does this war president have any idea what he's talking about?
By Fred Kaplan
Monday, Feb. 9, 2004
Slate
http://slate.msn.com/id/2095184/
New policy or "just Bush"? Going over the transcript of Tim Russert's interview with President Bush, a disturbing question comes to mind: Is the president telling lies and playing with semantics, or is he unaware of what's going on-including inside his own administration?
Two sections of the interview particularly stand out in this regard: a) Bush's defense of the war in Iraq, despite his concession that Saddam Hussein did not possess weapons of mass destruction; and b) his views on the war in Vietnam.
Russert asked Bush what he made of the recent comments by David Kay, who recently resigned as the CIA's chief weapons inspector, that Iraq did not have biological, chemical, or nuclear weapons after all. Bush replied:
David Kay did report to the American people that Saddam Hussein had the capacity to make weapons. ... There was no doubt in my mind that Saddam Hussein was a danger to America ... because he had the capacity to have a weapon, make a weapon ... and then let that weapon fall into the hands of a shadowy terrorist network. ... He could have developed a nuclear weapon over time. I'm not saying immediately, but over time, which would then have put us in what position? We would have been in a position of blackmail.
There are many remarkable things about this statement, but let us note just two.
First, President Bush seems to be vastly enlarging his doctrine of pre-emptive warfare. This doctrine originally declared that the United States has the right to attack a hostile power that possesses weapons of mass destruction. The idea was that we must sometimes strike first, in order to prevent the other side from striking us.
Now, however, the president is asserting a right to strike first not merely if a hostile power has deadly weapons or even if it is building such weapons, but also if it might build such weapons sometime in the future.
The original doctrine, though controversial, at least stemmed from the logic of self-defense. Bush's expansion of the doctrine, as implied in his remarks to Tim Russert, does not.
If no commentators have noted, or perhaps even noticed, this new spin on American military policy, it may be because they don't take Bush's unscripted remarks seriously. (It's just Bush, talking off the top of his head. No sense parsing the implications.) That in itself is quite a commentary on this president. But it's not clear that these particular remarks were unscripted. Bush used the same phrase-"a capacity to make a weapon"-three times; it was almost certainly a part of his brief. Either the statement means something-that we now reserve the right to wage pre-emptive war on a hostile power that has the mere capacity to make weapons of mass destruction-or it's empty blather. It's unclear which would be more unsettling.
Second, unless the president is defining the "capacity to make a weapon" in an extremely loose sense, David Kay said nothing of the sort. When Kay said he'd concluded that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction in the months leading up to the war, he elaborated with this comment: "We don't find the people, the documents, or the physical plants that you would expect to find if the production was going on."
No people, no documents, no physical plants-it doesn't sound like much "capacity." On chemical weapons in particular, Kay said that Iraq's infrastructure was destroyed by President Clinton's air strikes in 1998. On biological weapons, Kay noted in his written report last October that his team had found laboratories that "may have engaged in research." On nuclear weapons, the report cited only "small and unsophisticated research initiatives ... that could be useful in developing a weapons-related science base for the long term." (Italics added.)
Also worthy of note were Bush's comments on the war in Vietnam. Russert asked him whether he supported that war. Bush replied that he did, sort of. The president added:
The thing about the Vietnam War that troubles me, as I look back, was it was a political war. We had politicians making military decisions, and it is a lesson that any president must learn, and that is to set the goal and the objective and allow the military to come up with the plans to achieve that objective. And those are essential lessons to be learned from the Vietnam War.
This is the great conservative shibboleth about the Vietnam War-that we lost the war because Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, and to a lesser extent President Lyndon Johnson, put too many constraints on the generals, telling them which targets they could and could not hit. But it's very odd for George W. Bush to be reciting this case because the two wars he's commanded, in Afghanistan and Iraq, have been, in this sense, the most "political" wars in recent American history.
While Bush himself may not have done much micromanaging of the war, his defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, not only helped pick targets, but rearranged the structure of the units sent into battle. In preparing for Iraq, he ordered the removal of several heavy-artillery battalions from Army divisions. In the weeks leading up to the invasion of Afghanistan, he rejected several war plans submitted by Gen. Tommy Franks, the commander of U.S. Central Command, until the general devised an unprecedented combination of troops and special operations commandos that conformed to Rumsfeld's concept of "military transformation" and smaller, lighter forces.
The interesting thing about this blatant intrusion into the nuts and bolts of military planning is that Rumsfeld was right. With the advent of very precise "smart bombs," aerial drones with real-time video transmissions, and computerized command-control networks that allowed for much greater coordination between air forces and ground troops, the Army didn't need so much artillery; air power could break up enemy defenses in a way that, in an earlier era, only artillery could. Or at least Rumsfeld was right in the battlefield phase of the war. He should have paid more attention to his generals in planning how many troops would be needed after victory was declared.
But the point here is that if civilian interference is "the thing about the Vietnam War that troubles" George W. Bush, why wasn't he troubled about the way his own wars were planned and fought, for better and for worse? Or has he ever really been troubled about the Vietnam War, back then or now? And was he aware of the intense internecine fighting between Rumsfeld and the Army over the war plans for Iraq? The main message that President Bush tried to send during his session with Russert was that he is a leader in command. "I'm a war president," he said at the start. "I make decisions here in the Oval Office on foreign policy matters with war on my mind." But in some of his remarks that followed, the president cast doubt on how much he's even in the loop.
-------- POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE
-------- courts
Scalia Travel Sparks New Questions About Recusals
By Charles Lane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 9, 2004; Page A02
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A23934-2004Feb8?language=printer
Recent socializing between Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and Vice President Cheney -- who is a named party in a case before the court -- has sparked renewed scrutiny of the court's practices for deciding when justices should recuse themselves from hearing cases to avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived.
Though federal law prescribes disqualification in certain specific situations, the rules are in many instances open to interpretation and leave the final outcome up to each justice. And because the Supreme Court is the highest court in the land, those decisions, unlike those of lower-court judges, can be reviewed by no other authority.
When members of the court recuse from cases, they almost never publicly explain their reasons for doing so. And rarely do they make public their reasons for deciding to sit on a case after considering recusal.
The justices "are the only judges in the country, maybe the whole world, who are the sole determiners of their own partiality," said Steven Lubet, a professor of law at Northwestern University.
Scalia's situation illustrates the point. Federal law requires a judge to disqualify himself when he has "a personal bias or prejudice . . . or personal knowledge of disputed facts"; when he was involved as a private lawyer in the case at an earlier stage; when he took a position on the case as a government lawyer; when he or a family member has a financial stake in the outcome of the case; or when a family member is involved as a party, a lawyer or a witness.
A judge is also to recuse "in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned."
Scalia flew to Louisiana with Cheney aboard an official aircraft for an extended duck hunting trip with Cheney and seven other men in January. They did so shortly after the court had agreed to hear the Justice Department's appeal of In re. Cheney. In that case, the White House is battling to keep confidential the internal records of the vice president's energy policy task force.
Scalia's travel with Cheney was first reported by the Los Angeles Times. Scalia has since said that no reasonable person could conclude that his activity with Cheney would affect his impartiality in the case.
"Social contacts with high-level executive branch officials (including cabinet officials) have never been thought improper for judges who may have before them cases in which those people are involved in their official capacity, as opposed to their personal capacity," Scalia explained to the Times, in a rare departure from the justices' practice of not commenting on recusals.
Cheney does not face criminal charges or a civil fine in the case.
Scalia's view may have described ethical norms in a clubbier Washington. But in today's climate, his off-court activities with Cheney were denounced by legal ethicists and editorial writers.
"The whole structure of adjudication forces us to assume open-mindedness," Lubet said. "So something that damages the appearance of open-mindedness damages the whole enterprise."
Scalia's view of the Cheney matter makes an interesting comparison with his recusal from a 2001 case in which the court considered death row appeals by Napoleon Beazley. He was convicted of killing the father of Scalia's former law clerk, federal appeals court Judge J. Michael Luttig.
Justices David H. Souter and Clarence Thomas also recused from the Beazley matter; as a Justice Department official in the first Bush administration, Luttig aided both Souter and Thomas in their confirmation hearings.
Still, as a pure matter of law, Scalia's duck hunting with Cheney did not fall into one of the categories specifically addressed by the recusal statute.
"Wisdom would have dictated that he had not gone on the trip," said James Moliterno, a professor of law at the College of William and Mary. "But having gone, the law does not require him to recuse."
Moliterno noted that the Sierra Club and Judicial Watch, the two parties seeking access to Cheney's records in the case, have not yet asked for Scalia to recuse himself. Judicial Watch has said it will not file such a motion because it sees no real or apparent conflict of interest, but the Sierra Club has said it is still considering a motion because of a possible appearance of a conflict.
By contrast, in the Pledge of Allegiance case, which the court will hear in March, Michael A. Newdow, the California atheist challenging the phrase "under God" in the Pledge, asked Scalia to disqualify himself after the justice made public comments critical of a lower court ruling banning the phrase. Scalia did so.
In separate recent letters to Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist that were prompted by the Scalia controversy, first Sens. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.), and then Reps. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) and Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), asked the court to review its recusal procedures.
Conyers and Waxman suggested that Scalia was failing to follow the same standard for recusal that a federal appeals court followed when, at the request of then-independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr, it ordered a district judge who was friends with President Bill Clinton out of a Whitewater-related case in 1996.
Rehnquist has not responded yet to Conyers and Waxman. His response to Leahy and Lieberman, however, defended the high court's autonomy in such issues and called any suggestion by them regarding recusal "ill-considered."
Rehnquist himself was the focus of a recusal battle in 1972, when the court threw out a challenge to an Army domestic intelligence program. Attorneys for the opponents demanded that Rehnquist recuse because he had commented on the issue in Senate hearings while an official of the Nixon administration. Rehnquist refused, and cast the deciding vote in the 5 to 4 case. But the case prompted Congress to tighten the law on recusal.
Although federal district court and appeals court judges are easily replaced, the loss of a single Supreme Court justice raises the possibility of a 4 to 4 tie in a case -- which results in an automatic affirmation of the lower court's ruling. If four justices recuse in a case, the court lacks a quorum.
Rehnquist emphasized such potential problems in explaining his decision not to recuse when the court voted not to intervene in Microsoft's antitrust case in 2000; his son represented Microsoft in a separate antitrust case.
A review of Supreme Court records for the last 10 years indicates that Justices Stephen G. Breyer and Sandra Day O'Connor are by far the most frequent recusers on the court, disqualifying themselves from dozens of cases affecting companies in which they hold stock, according to their financial disclosure forms. Breyer has also sat out a number of cases involving his brother, Charles R. Breyer, a district court judge in California.
The other justices recuse in at most two or three of the thousands of petitions, motions and appeals the court considers each term. An example: In the 1998-99 term, Rehnquist recused from consideration of an appeal brought by Emma Lee Paul against William Morrow Co., which had published one of the chief justice's books. The petition was rejected.
In the court's 2001-02 and 2002-03 terms, Scalia recused from a total of 29 cases, most of which directly or indirectly involved the Department of Labor, where his son Eugene was serving as solicitor.
But the recusal records also suggest that some justices have stayed out of cases even where their apparent connections are relatively remote or obscure.
Souter consistently recuses from cases involving the state of New Hampshire, whose government he represented as a lawyer from 1968 to 1978 before becoming a state judge.
Justice John Paul Stevens has recused himself twice from cases involving suits by Vietnam veterans or their families against companies that made the defoliant Agent Orange, which has been blamed for cancer and birth defects. Stevens's son John Joseph served in Vietnam and died of cancer in 1996 at age 47.
Stevens has also said publicly that he considered recusing from the recent case in which the court upheld affirmative action at the University of Michigan law school. His former law clerk had been dean of the school when it developed the policy, Stevens explained. But he consulted with the other eight justices, and stayed in the case at their urging.
-------- death penalty
Protests Continue in California as Execution Nears
February 9, 2004
By DEAN E. MURPHY
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/09/national/09CALI.html
OAKLAND, Calif., Feb. 8 - California is set to put to death a man convicted in 1985 of killing four people, in what, barring a reprieve, would be the fourth execution by the state in as many years and the first under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The man, Kevin Cooper, is scheduled to die by lethal injection just after midnight on Tuesday. Mr. Cooper, 46, who was convicted of killing two adults and two children after escaping from a prison in Southern California, has maintained his innocence. Advertisement
Mr. Schwarzenegger, in his first clemency decision, described the evidence against Mr. Cooper as "overwhelming" and said the brutality of the killings - the four victims were hacked to death in a home near the prison in Chino - justified the death sentence.
"His is not a case for clemency," Mr. Schwarzenegger, a Repubican, said on Jan. 30.
A campaign of several weeks to spare Mr. Cooper's life continued in high gear on Sunday, with the Rev. Jesse Jackson raising questions about the evidence against him at a news conference here in Oakland and advocates of a clemency hearing holding a rally in Mr. Schwarzenegger's Los Angeles neighborhood, Brentwood.
"This is not a case of seeking mercy on the philosophy of opposition to the death penalty," Mr. Jackson said in an interview. "The outstanding information deserves a hearing."
Mr. Jackson said Mr. Cooper, who is black and had been in prison for burglary at the time of his escape, was at a disadvantage in his murder trial because of his race and income.
"If you had had your Johnnie Cochran dream team kind of lawyers, this would have been dealt with in court," he said. "But you didn't have a dream team."
Last week, Mr. Cooper's lawyers lost two legal battles on his behalf. In the first, the California Supreme Court refused to stay the execution so DNA evidence linking Mr. Cooper to the killings could be retested. In the second, a federal judge rejected contentions that lethal injections were cruel and unusual punishment.
But one of Mr. Cooper's lawyers, Lanny J. Davis, said Sunday that there had been "some amazingly late-breaking developments" in the case and that fresh appeals to halt the execution would be made Monday to Mr. Schwarzenegger, the United States attorney in Los Angeles, the California attorney general and the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
"We are not asking Cooper be set free," Mr. Davis said. "We are not asking him to be declared innocent. We are not necessarily opposed to the death penalty, at least I am not. We are only asking for more time to investigate."
Mr. Davis released excerpts of statements made by a former police informant, Albert Ruiz, to state investigators on Friday that suggested the killings had resulted from "a hit gone sour" and that "Cooper was a scapegoat." Mr. Ruiz was also quoted as saying that "they got the wrong family" and that "they literally dropped the load off on Cooper."
Mr. Davis said Mr. Ruiz backed off some of those statements later in the same interview with the investigators. But Mr. Davis also released a deposition by Kristina M. Rebelo-Anderson, a former reporter for United Press International who wrote about the Cooper trial in 1985.
In her statement, Ms. Rebelo-Anderson said she met Mr. Ruiz by chance in 1997 while having her car stereo repaired.
"I told Mr. Ruiz that I was a reporter who covered most of the trial and that, in fact, I thought Mr. Cooper did commit the murders," Ms. Rebelo-Anderson said in the statement. "Mr. Ruiz, in turn, told me, `He didn't do it. We were told to plant evidence.' Mr. Ruiz went on to tell me during the 1997 conversation that the murders were a `hit on the wrong family on that hill.' "
Mr. Cooper's supporters hope that the new assertions will at least lead to a review of the DNA evidence against Mr. Cooper, which was obtained from a bloodstained shirt. Defense lawyers would like to have the sample tested for a preservative, which might indicate the evidence had been tampered with. They would also like a review of hair samples found in the hand of one of the victims, which were described as blond and could not have belonged to Mr. Cooper.
The one survivor of the attacks, Josh Ryen, who was 8 years old at the time, suggested then that there might have been multiple attackers who were not African-American. But in a letter provided to Mr. Schwarzenegger by prosecutors in San Bernardino County, Mr. Ryen said he was in favor of the execution.
-------- justice
Bush Aide Testifies in CIA Leak Probe
February 9, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-CIA-Leak.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush's press secretary said Monday he had testified before a federal grand jury investigating the leak of a CIA undercover officer's identity.
Scott McClellan told reporters that he appeared before the panel in Washington last week.
``I'm doing my part to cooperate, as the president directed all of us to do,'' McClellan said aboard Air Force One during Bush's trip to Springfield, Mo.
The Justice Department is trying to determine who leaked the name of CIA officer Valerie Plame to syndicated columnist Robert Novak in July.
Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, contends the disclosure may have been intended to discredit his assertions that the Bush administration exaggerated Iraq's nuclear capabilities to build a case for war.
Whoever leaked Plame's name could be charged with a felony.
McClellan did not discuss the substance of his testimony or questions asked by prosecutors. Justice Department and White House officials have steadfastly refused to discuss any aspect of the investigation other than to confirm that it is under way.
A spokesman for U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald of Chicago, who is overseeing the investigation, said he could not confirm or deny the identity of anyone who has appeared before the grand jury.
Fitzgerald was chosen to run the investigation in late December after Attorney General John Ashcroft disqualified himself from the politically sensitive case to avoid an appearance of conflict of interest.
A group of former CIA officers and several members of Congress are demanding a congressional investigation as well. So far, however, Republican leaders of the House and Senate have not initiated separate action.
-------- police
Blair Announces Plans for 'British FBI'
February 9, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Britain-Police.html
LONDON (AP) -- Prime Minister Tony Blair announced plans Monday for an elite new police force to combat increasingly sophisticated organized criminals on a national scale.
Dubbed the ``British FBI'' by local media, the Serious Organized Crime Agency will tackle offenses including people smuggling, drug trafficking, high-tech crime and money laundering. It won't investigate murders or terrorist offenses. Advertisement
``Crime organizations work as one cohesive unit and we have got to do the same,'' Blair said. ``We can't treat this like other categories of crime.
``We need to have one focal point instead of different agencies that will come together for certain operations but aren't working in the coordinated way that we want.''
Home Secretary David Blunkett, who is in charge of criminal justice, told British Broadcasting Corp. radio the new agency would be able to help in situations ``where triads are involved,'' referring to Chinese gangsters.
Officers investigating the deaths of 19 Chinese workers who drowned last week while shellfishing in an English bay have said some of the cockle-pickers were recent immigrants employed at low wages by ``gangmasters.''
The new police agency will merge the activities of the National Crime Squad, the 1,200-member National Criminal Intelligence Service and the investigative functions of the immigration and customs services -- and will work with Britain's 43 regional police forces, including London's Metropolitan Police, which is known as Scotland Yard.
The Home Office said the government would introduce legislation as soon as possible to set up the new centrally funded agency and hoped to have it running by 2006. It is expected to have some 5,000 employees.
``The idea behind it is a U.K.-wide organized crime agency which will comprise an elite squad of specialist investigators who will be able to take on the challenge of fighting crime in 21st century,'' the Home Office said.
The security services, the anti-terrorist unit of London's Metropolitan Police and special branch officers from Britain's other regional police forces will continue to tackle terrorism, the department added. The regional forces will retain responsibility for murder investigations in the nation of about 59 million.
Some of the proposed changes may prove controversial. During a visit Monday to a London-based unit that fights high-tech crime, Blair suggested the law could be changed to require a lower burden of proof in organized crime cases.
``My impression sometimes is that the system is struggling against a presumption that you treat these crimes like every other type of crime and that you build up cases beyond reasonable doubt,'' Blair said. ``I think we have got to look at this.''
A suggestion by Blunkett last week that the burden of proof could be lowered in terrorism cases was condemned by many lawyers.
-------- ENERGY AND OTHER
-------- alternative energy
Plants Give Up Their Secret of Splitting Water
REUTERS USA:
February 9, 2004
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/23739/newsDate/9-Feb-2004/story.htm
WASHINGTON - Researchers said on Thursday they had taken another step toward understanding how plants split water into hydrogen and oxygen atoms - which may provide a cheap way to produce clean-burning hydrogen fuel.
Producing hydrogen from water is the stuff of science fiction - and some comments by President Bush. But the team at Imperial College London and Japan Science and Technology Corp. in Yokohama said they had taken the best pictures yet of the plant structures that do it every day.
They used high-resolution x-ray crystallography to make an image of the tiny atomic splitter that separates the two hydrogen atoms from an oxygen atom in a water molecule.
"Results by other groups, including those obtained using lower resolution x-ray crystallography at 3.7 angstroms have shown that the splitting of water occurs at a catalytic center that consists of four manganese atoms," said So Iwata of Imperial's Department of Biological Sciences.
"We've taken this further by showing that three of the manganese atoms, a calcium atom and four oxygen atoms form a cube-like structure, which brings stability to the catalytic center," Iwata added in a statement.
"Together this arrangement gives strong hints about the water-splitting chemistry."
Writing in the journal Science, Iwata and colleagues said they looked at a plant bacterium called Thermosynechococcus elongatus. "Without photosynthesis life on Earth would not exist as we know it," Jim Barber of Imperial's Department of Biological Sciences said in a statement.
"Oxygen derived from this process is part of the air we breathe and maintains the ozone layer needed to protect us from ultraviolet radiation.
"Now hydrogen also contained in water could be one of the most promising energy sources for the future. Unlike fossil fuels it's highly efficient, low-polluting and is mobile so it can be used for power generation in remote regions where it's difficult to access electricity."
Water has always seemed a logical source for hydrogen but the only known feasible method to separate it, electrolysis, costs ten times as much as natural gas, and is three times as expensive as gasoline, Barber said.
-------- health
Study Shows Why 1918 Flu Epidemic Was So Deadly
Story by Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
REUTERS USA:
February 9, 2004
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/23741/story.htm
WASHINGTON - The 1918 flu virus, which killed 20 million people around the world, was probably so deadly because of a unique bird-like protein, U.S. and British scientists reported.
Like a current outbreak of bird flu in east Asia, the 1918 influenza appears to have jumped from birds to people with little change, they wrote in this week's issue of the journal Science.
But unlike the 1918 flu, the current bird flu, which has killed 16 people, so far has not developed the mutation that allowed influenza to decimate human populations 80 years ago.
"What (this study) says is this transmission between birds and humans seems to be able to happen in more than one way," John Skehel of Britain's Medical Research Council, who led one study, said in a telephone interview.
Two teams of researchers analyzed samples of the virus from the 1918 outbreak and said it bears the clear hallmarks of a bird virus that mutated very little before jumping from birds to people.
Health officials in China, Thailand, South Korea and Vietnam are scrambling to control the current outbreak of avian influenza, known as H5N1. It is lethal to people, which is often the case when viruses leap from one species to another.
In 1997 when it first appeared in Hong Kong it was contained very quickly because it did not spread from human to human, but only from birds to people.
So far this year only 16 people have been killed, but there is some evidence it may have begun spreading from person to person. If that happens, experts fear the virus has the potential to be as bad as the 1918 epidemic.
Understanding just what it is about the viruses that makes them deadly, and what makes them able to live and spread among humans, will be key to controlling or pre-empting future epidemics, the researchers noted.
DUG UP FROM THE PAST
Skehel's team and another led by Ian Wilson at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California looked at bits of the virus extracted from the bodies of victims, some buried in Alaska permafrost and others saved in laboratory jars. They looked specifically at a part of the virus called hemagglutinin, which is a protein the virus uses to infect cells. Each strain of virus has a unique hemagglutinin structure, and scientists believe small mutations of the protein are what allows the virus to infect new species.
The 1918 virus was an H1 virus - different from H5N1.
They found it had some unique structures that may have given it "novel mechanisms" for infecting people, Wilson and colleagues wrote. This may explain why the 1918 epidemic killed so many young, healthy adults.
And this explains why the current avian flu outbreak has, so far, not lived up to fears, said Skehel.
"Presumably, what's blocking this current flu from spreading person-to-person is that its hemagglutinin structure has not yet evolved such that it can efficiently infect humans," Skehel said in a statement.
"This tells us more about the transmission of infections from birds to humans," he added.
"However, it will not have an immediate impact on the situation currently unfolding in the Far East with the chicken flu known as H5, since, from our previous work, we know that the 1918 and the H5 hemagglutinins are quite different."
He said scientists should be testing birds for various forms of influenza to see what else may be lurking out there with the potential to infect people.
----
Vaccine supplies dwindle for many diseases
February 09, 2004
By Joyce Howard Price
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20040209-122516-6931r.htm
The recent shortage of flu shots received much attention, but vaccine stocks have also dwindled in the past few years for such diseases as meningitis, mumps, measles and diphtheria.
The problems with supply are blamed on a number of interrelated factors - the low prices the federal government pays for childhood vaccines, the dwindling number of vaccine producers, and others.
For doctors, regardless of the cause, the effect is the same. Last fall, New York pediatrician Dr. Elihu Sussman ordered 40 doses of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), which protects against deadly meningitis, bloodstream infections and pneumonia in young children.
But after waiting a month, he received only five.
"Wyeth [the sole manufacturer of PCV] said there were problems in the manufacturing process and that they were allocating on the basis of [a provider's] orders in the last six months," Dr. Sussman said in a telephone interview,
"We raised a whole lot of stink [about the allocation policy], and Wyeth wound up releasing to me the other 35 doses I ordered ... but they told me not to call again" for several months with any further orders, he added.
Dr. Sussman is not alone.
Repeated warnings
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) announced Dec. 19 that PCV Prevnar is being apportioned. The academy further warned that there could be changes in the vaccination schedule against the life-threatening infections if widespread vaccine shortages occur.
These types of infections annually strike 250 children per 100,000, ranging in age from 6 months to 2 years.
Less than a week later, Wyeth announced its vaccine production was adequate, and it released 1.4 million doses of Prevnar, according to Dr. Keith Powell, a member of AAP's Committee on Infectious Diseases.
He noted that research has shown that the vaccine, which was introduced in 2000 and costs about $40 per dose for the recommended four-dose treatment, was responsible for a 69 percent decrease in invasive diseases in children under age 1 in 2001.
"Wyeth now expects to be able to meet demand, but it's run into some problems with bottling that could mean continued distribution problems," said Dr. Powell, a pediatrician at Children's Hospital of Akron, Ohio.
Douglas Petkus, a Wyeth spokesman said, "There was a bottleneck over time, but we are supplying 100 percent of a [provider's] historical monthly average of orders."
He said having to revamp the vaccination schedule is unlikely.
The General Accounting Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, warned of continued shortages of childhood vaccines in a report released in September 2002.
The National Vaccine Advisory Committee made the same prediction in a report released Dec. 16, which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
"Beginning in late 2000, significant unprecedented and unanticipated shortages of routinely administered vaccines against eight of 11 vaccine-preventable childhood infectious diseases occurred in the United States," said the 15-member panel, established in 1988 to advise government policy-makers on vaccines.
"Disruptions to the supply of routinely administered vaccines are likely to continue to occur. Action to implement short- and long-term solutions should be considered and implemented now," said the panel, whose members included vaccine manufacturers, doctors, parents, and state and local health officials.
The advisory committee's report addressed shortages in eight of 11 vaccines recommended beginning in infancy. Those in short supply have been vaccines for chickenpox, mumps, measles, pertussis (whooping cough), tetanus, diphtheria, rubella (German measles) and pneumonia.
Vaccines that have not been in short supply are those for polio; Hepatitis B; and Haemophilus influenzae, a bacterium that can cause meningitis in children, acute respiratory infections and conjunctivitis.
Panicked demand
When the advisory committee's report was released, many Americans were in a panic about their inability to find a vaccine to immunize their children against influenza in a flu season that has been especially deadly for children. Flu shots are recommended for children 6 months to 23 months, and for other children with chronic illnesses.
According to Dr. Bruce Gellin, the director of the federal government's National Vaccine Program Office in Washington, the number of Americans getting immunized against influenza has grown "three- or four-fold" in the past decade.
"But until the current flu season, the level of supply always exceeded demand. But for this flu season, there was excess demand beyond any demand we've ever seen for vaccine against influenza," Dr. Gellin said.
Key reasons for this unusual demand, he said, were the early start of the flu season last year and the increased recognition that influenza can kill. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the flu kills an average of 36,000 Americans annually.
The GAO report noted that "unanticipated demand," which it described as "record-breaking" in the first months after PCV became available, was responsible for initial shortages of the vaccine, which continued for three years. The GAO said the demand came after an "extensive education campaign" before the vaccine became available.
Dr. Gellin said the introduction in the 1980s of a vaccine that prevents infection with the bacillus, Haemophilus influenzae, "essentially eliminated" a type of childhood meningitis caused by that microbe.
"With that gone, pediatricians feared pneumococcal meningitis" and advocated use of the vaccine against that disease, he said.
Costly venture
"The U.S. vaccine system has some good things going for it, but it also has some important deficiencies," said Frank Sloan, a professor of economics at Duke University, who chaired an Institute of Medicine (IOM) committee that in August issued a report, "Financing Vaccines in the 21st Century." The IOM is affiliated with the National Academy of Sciences.
Mr. Sloan said money - notably the low prices the federal government pays for childhood vaccines - is a primary factor in many of the vaccine shortages that have plagued the country.
"We're using a lot of old vaccines that are very cheap, only a dollar or so a dose," Mr. Sloan said in a telephone interview. "The government tries to get low prices, which discourages research and development [into new vaccines]."
The IOM report found that vaccines are not very important to drug companies financially, because only 1.5 cents per dollar of drug-company revenue comes from vaccines. The report urged that financial incentives be offered to stimulate new vaccine development.
Mr. Sloan said undoubtedly, the low prices paid for vaccines played a role in the manufacturing glitches that, for a time, stalled Wyeth's production of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine.
"Because of the prices being paid, some firms are not putting enough resources into production," he said.
And few companies are making vaccines these days. In 1967, about 30 U.S. firms manufactured vaccines. But now there are only five, according to the IOM report.
In the 2002-03 flu season, three companies - Wyeth, Chiron Corp. and Aventis-Pasteur - made a vaccine. But because millions of doses were left over at the end of that season and the influenza vaccine can be used only one season, Wyeth dropped out. So only two firms made the vaccine that was in such short supply this season. And that vaccine did not provide full protection against the Fujian strain of influenza virus responsible for most of the deaths and serious illnesses in this year's epidemic.
Necessary changes
Recent vaccine shortages have necessitated temporary changes in the recommended immunization schedule and have caused states to scale back vaccination requirements. In a survey of 64 state, local and territorial immunization programs, the GAO said all 52 that responded said they had experienced shortages of two or more vaccines and have taken action to deal with them.
Thirty-five states, including Minnesota, South Carolina and Washington, reported putting into effect new requirements that allowed children receiving fewer than the recommended number of immunizations to attend school, the GAO found.
Central to the availability of childhood vaccine, or lack thereof, is the federal Vaccines for Children Program (VFC), established in 1993.
Robert Goldberg, director of the Manhattan Institute's Center for Medical Progress, describes VFC as "Hillary Clinton's dry run for national health care," because she was a leading advocate of the program.
"The vaccine program buys up nearly 70 percent of all childhood vaccines at government-set prices and then distributes them to states according to a federal formula. The result is ... vaccines have gone to where the outbreaks aren't, and price controls have discouraged vaccine makers from producing more than what the government orders," Mr. Goldberg wrote in a column published in The Washington Times.
The IOM report makes it clear that VFC has not been cheap.
"Government vaccine expenditures are growing rapidly. Funding for the Vaccines for Children entitlement program jumped from $500 million to $1 billion between 2000 and 2002, with the addition of new vaccine products to the recommended childhood schedule," it said in an executive summary.
"CDC negotiates large purchase contracts with manufacturers and makes the vaccine available to public immunization programs under VFC," stated a report by GAO on the VFC system.
VFC provides vaccines for certain children, including those eligible for Medicaid and the uninsured, the report said. It points out that participating public and private health care providers obtain vaccines through VFC at no charge.
A second program, created under Section 317 of the Public Health Service Act, provides project grants for preventive health services, including immunizations. The GAO says CDC currently supports 64 state, local and territorial immunization programs.
Altogether, about 50 percent of all the childhood vaccines administered in the United States each year are obtained by public immunization programs through CDC contracts, the GAO report said.
The federal government not only has a role as the "largest purchaser of vaccines in the country," according to the GAO, but the Food and Drug Administrates licenses all vaccines sold in the United States and regulates the vaccine industry.
"The federally price-controlled bulk purchase of vaccines has decimated the vaccine industry. Vaccine prices have remained stagnant since 1994, while new regulations and lawsuits have driven up the cost of producing old vaccines and developing new ones," Mr. Goldberg wrote.
Dr. Powell of the AAP cites several "major problems with the vaccine market," including the small number of manufacturers, low profit margins and the time required for vaccine production.
"Some vaccines take a year to produce," he said.
"Funding for the Vaccines for Children program has been responsive to the introduction of newer vaccines, but the government negotiates at very low prices. And the industry says it needs new markets," Dr. Powell added.
Dr. Powell says he fully agrees that there will be further critical shortages of life-saving childhood vaccines. "I do believe that, because we haven't changed the infrastructure in any significant way to alleviate the problems," he said.
-------- ACTIVISTS
Activist Group Resists Handing Over List
by RYAN J. FOLEY,
Associated Press writer,
Mon, Feb 09, 2004
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&e=1&u=/ap/activist_investigation
DES MOINES, Iowa - An activist group asked a federal court Monday to block a judge's subpoena ordering Drake University to turn over names of its local members and others who took part in an anti-war gathering.
The judge's subpoena, linked to a grand jury probe, seeks records relating to the Drake chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, including names of officers and the current location of offices. It also orders the university to turn over records about a Nov. 15 forum for anti-war activists.
The forum offered sessions on the war in Iraq and nonviolence training for those planning to participate in a protest the following day at the Iowa National Guard headquarters.
Bruce Nestor, an attorney for the lawyer's group, wrote in his request Monday that the subpoena "has no purpose or effect other than to harass and intimidate persons engaged in constitutionally protected advocacy and expression."
Authorities said a sheriff's deputy suffered a dislocated knee when he was kicked during the demonstration. Twelve protesters, including three who have been subpoenaed, were arrested. A fourth activist subpoenaed, Brian Terrell, was at the forum and the protest but was not arrested.
The four were scheduled to testify Tuesday before the grand jury, but the government on Monday rescheduled the testimony for next month.
"I'm personally very relieved to have a breather," said Terrell, head of the Catholic Peace Ministry.
Federal prosecutors declined to comment.
The New York-based guild, once targeted for alleged ties to communism in the 1950s, provides legal support to protesters across the country. The Drake chapter has few members and does not meet very often, said Sally Frank, a Drake law professor who is the local contact for the group.
Nestor wrote that the university has indicated it would comply with the request for its records. Officials at Drake, a private university with about 5,000 students, declined comment.
Frank filed a motion Monday seeking to lift a gag order that prohibits the university from speaking about the case.
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Transporting hazardous materials
Letters to the Editor
February 09, 2004
Washington Times
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20040208-102839-7537r.htm
We write to respond to Tuesday's editorial "Hazardous safety plans." The Washington Times implies it is trivial that "only .5 percent of the 1.7 million carloads of hazardous materials shipped annually around the country actually pass through the District." Assuming these statistics are correct, this amounts to 8,500 rail cars of hazardous materials traveling through the District each year, or more than 23 rail cars a day, each of which is a potential target for terrorists.
In this day and age, we think it would be irresponsible to ignore the potential threat posed by these 8,500 carloads of hazardous materials annually passing through the nation's capital. Should a terrorist successfully target just one tanker car full of chlorine or some other hazardous material contained in those rail cars, the aftermath would be devastating, not only to the residents of the District of Columbia, but to the country as well. The transportation of radioactive waste headed to the planned repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, as mentioned by The Times, does not compare with the transportation of highly toxic and deadly materials on railroad tracks just four blocks from the Capitol and within a few miles of hundreds of thousands of people.
The Times states that "all parties in this debate agree that shipments can be delayed or rerouted at the request of local officials." Delaying a through-shipment of chlorine during the State of the Union address or the National Football League Kickoff Concert on the Mall last fall is fine, but our residents live and work here every day of the year and are at risk every day of the year. We also are concerned with the safety of the president, members of Congress and our visitors from the region, across the country and around the world. The attacks on September 11, the anthrax murders and the ricin attack here bear this out. "Other communities" are not the seat of the government of the United States. The District of Columbia is uniquely at risk and merits the special considerations regulating the transportation of hazardous materials that are incorporated in our bill.
CAROL SCHWARTZ
Council member at-large
Chair Committee on Public Works and the Environment
KATHY PATTERSON
Council member, Ward 3
Chair Committee on the Judiciary Washington
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