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NUCLEAR
Tabletop Fusion Reported Again
AP: Pakistan Knew of Nuclear Black Market
UN watchdog to continue investigating Iran nuclear program
U.S., Iran Clash as U.N. Opens Key Nuclear Review
U.S. Blasts Allies Over Iran Nukes
Top Iraq Nuke Scientist Seeks UN Probe
ElBaradei: N.Korea Set Dangerous Nuclear Precedent
US Troops Should Go Under Atomic Deal - N.Korea
North Korea's Nuclear Tests in Pakistan
Russia to recycle weapons-grade uranium from Libya: IAEA
Russia Brings Back Weapons Uranium from Libya
Ohio Nuclear Plant Can Reopen, Agency Says
Ohio Nuclear Plant Can Reopen, Agency Says
Potential nuclear waste dump by Savannah River
Bush Hindering Probes, Kerry Says
MILITARY
Afghanistan: Abuses by U.S. Forces
For More Afghan Women, Immolation Is Escape
U.S. Rebuked on Afghans in Detention
Zimbabwe seizes 'US plane' with military gear
China presses EU to lift arms embargo
US Navy, Marines hold manoeuvres in Albania
federal contracts
Kerry: I'd have sent Aristide US troops
Gunfire Kills 5 During a March in Haiti Capital
Statement From Aristide
The Master Operator
Deal struck on Iraq constitution
Iraqis Sign Interim Constitution After Shiites Drop Objections
Shiites Agree to Sign Iraqi Charter
At Least 14 Palestinians Killed in Firefight in Gaza
14 Palestinians Killed in Battle as Israelis Raid Camps in Gaza
After Haiti, Venezuela is wary of US interference
Military Spending Sparks Warnings
Foreign Crises Stretch U.S. in Election Year
Shifting Sands and Shifting Plans
POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE
Relatives of Prisoners at Guantánamo Bay Tell of Anger
ENERGY
New Mexico Embraces Renewable Energy
Panel scrutinizes energy
OTHER
Dozens Treated After Chemicals Leak in Antwerp
Mine's Pollution Fund Is Focus of Federal Agencies' Duel
Duel to the Death Inside HIV-Infected Cells
-------- NUCLEAR
Tabletop Fusion Reported Again
Science Notebook
Monday, March 8, 2004; Page A08
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39128-2004Mar7.html
Scientists who met widespread skepticism two years ago when they claimed to have achieved tabletop fusion say they have repeated and expanded the feat -- with much better measurements to confirm it. They did it by exposing a canister of liquid to neutron pulses and simultaneously bombarding the liquid with sound waves, causing tiny bubbles to implode at pressures and temperatures comparable to those in the interiors of stars.
Nuclear engineer Rusi P. Taleyarkhan, of Purdue University, said his "sonofusion" device cost less than $1,000 and in the short-term could probably be engineered as a cheap source of neutron emissions for use in portable detection devices.
But Taleyarkhan cautioned that they were far from the coveted "break-even point," when the energy produced by a fusion reaction exceeds the energy needed to cause it -- a milestone that could allow fusion to become the world's primary source of electric power.
This time, Taleyarkhan led a team from several institutions, used a more sophisticated apparatus and subjected the research to more independent reviewers. Results are to be published in Physical Review E.
The researchers filled a thermos bottle-sized glass canister with chilled acetone made with deuterium, a heavy isotope of hydrogen containing one proton and one neutron. The team exposed the liquid to a pulse of neutrons every five milliseconds, while at the same time hitting it with sound waves. The neutron pulse caused tiny cavities to form in the liquid, while the sound waves expanded the cavities, then contracted them suddenly, with tremendous force and a flash of light. The implosion created temperatures of 10 million degrees Celsius and pressures equivalent to 1,000 Earth atmospheres, the researchers said.
This caused deuterium atoms to fuse, while the liquid emitted neutrons, gamma rays and atoms of tritium, another hydrogen isotope. All are characteristic of fusion reactions, Taleyarkhan said.
-- Guy Gugliotta
-------- india / pakistan
AP: Pakistan Knew of Nuclear Black Market
March 8, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Nuclear-Black-Market.html?pagewanted=all&position=
VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- U.N. investigators are increasingly certain Pakistan government leaders knew the country's top atomic scientist was supplying other nations with nuclear technology and designs, particularly North Korea, diplomats told The Associated Press.
While rogue nations were the main customers of the nuclear black market, sales of enriched uranium and warhead drawings have fed international fears that terrorists also could have bought weapons technology or material, the diplomats said.
The investigation has widened beyond Iran, Libya and North Korea -- the identified customers of the network headed by Abdul Qadeer Khan -- they said, speaking on condition of anonymity in a series of interviews.
The diplomats' assessment comes about half way through the probe by the International Atomic Energy Agency and western intelligence services into the Khan network, whose tentacles extended from Pakistan to Dubai, Malaysia, South Korea, Switzerland, Germany, Japan, Britain, the Netherlands and beyond with potential ties to Syria, Turkey and Spain.
Investigators told AP they expect to complete the probe by June, eight months after U.S. officials confronted the Pakistani government with suspicions about Khan, setting into motion events that led the father of Islamabad's nuclear program to confess last month.
Despite denials by the Pakistani government, investigators now are certain that some, if not all, of the country's decision makers were aware of Khan's dealings, especially with North Korea, which apparently helped Islamabad build missiles in exchange for aid with its nuclear arms program, said one diplomat.
``In all cases except Pakistan, we are sure there was no government involvement,'' he said. ``In Pakistan, it's hard to believe all this happened under their noses and nobody knew about it.''
The diplomats didn't say which parts of the Pakistani government might have known of Khan's black market activity - military, political or both.
Andrew Koch, of Jane's Defense Weekly, said he ran into evidence that senior military officers knew of Khan's sideline four years ago when he attended a military technology exhibition in Karachi. There, the booth of A.Q. Khan's Research Laboratories, complete with pamphlets offering uranium enrichment equipment, shared space with displays of electronics, anti-tank missiles and other items sold by the government defense industry, he said.
``I picked up the (Khan) brochures and I inquired whether everything inside was for sale and was told, 'yes, of course, it all had government approval and was available for sale and export,''' he said from Washington.
Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, has insisted his government was not involved.
``The Pakistani government has never and will never proliferate,'' he told a meeting of world leaders in January in Davos, Switzerland, pledging to prosecute all ``anti-state'' elements found culpable.
But his pardon of Khan led to speculation the scientist agreed to keep silent on any government involvement in exchange for avoiding punishment.
Much of what was sold were expensive and high-tech uranium enrichment centrifuge components to Libya -- which has confessed to trying to build weapons of mass destruction -- and Iran, which denies such ambitions and says its enrichment plans are not for warheads but nuclear power.
Such equipment would be useless to terrorists lacking the space and expertise needed to set up thousands of centrifuges in series and repeatedly recycle isotopes until they were weapons grade. The tens of millions of dollars needed to buy the equipment might also be a deterrent.
But the diplomats identified two recent discoveries -- traces of highly enriched uranium apparently of Russian origin found in Iran, and drawings of a nuclear warhead surrendered by Libya -- as representing a potential fast track for terrorists looking to build a weapon.
The uranium apparently was sold by individuals in the black market and not by the Russian government and carried a signature typical of enrichment in the former Soviet Union, the diplomats said. While short of the 90 percent weapons level, it was enriched enough to make it suitable for a warhead with much less equipment and effort than needed to enrich natural uranium.
``We're talking a couple of dozen centrifuges, as compared to about 1,000,'' said one diplomat.
The engineers' drawings of a nuclear weapon, now under IAEA seal in the United States, were of Chinese origin. The texts accompanying them were in both Chinese and English, some handwritten. China is widely assumed to have supplied much of the clandestine nuclear technology that Khan used to establish Pakistan as a nuclear power in 1998.
With such high-tech drawings and about 50 pounds of highly enriched uranium, nuclear experts associated with terrorist groups could make a crude warhead, said one diplomat.
``The simplest way to go about it is to get ready-made nuclear material and weapons design, and -- from what's been found in Iran and Libya -- both seem to be available on the market,'' said another.
Investigators cannot say whether other countries -- or groups -- have the drawings.
Al-Qaida has shown an interest in acquiring nuclear weapons.
The U.S. federal indictment of Osama bin Laden charges that as far back as 1992 the al-Qaida leader ``and others known and unknown, made efforts to obtain the components of nuclear weapons.''
Bin Laden, in a November 2001 interview with a Pakistani journalist, boasted of having hidden such components ``as a deterrent.'' And in 1998, a Russian nuclear weapons design expert was investigated for allegedly working with the Taliban allies of bin Laden.
Another question is whether the Khan network supplied states other than Iran, Libya and North Korea. Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman of the Vienna-based IAEA, said answering that was the agency's ``No. 1 priority.''
A possible suspect is Syria, which denies nuclear weapons ambitions. U.S. officials are divided on whether Syria constitutes a nuclear threat, with Undersecretary of State John Bolton at odds with senior intelligence officials who insist there's no clear evidence implicating the country, diplomats told AP.
Several teams of Syrian experts spent time at Ranstad Mineral, a Swedish plant that extracted uranium for enrichment between 1997 and 2002. The IAEA confirmed sponsoring some visits, as part of Syria's small-scale peaceful nuclear program. But Bengt Lillja, owner of the plant, said the Syrians paid several visits later on their own -- and still later, Sweden's nuclear watchdog agency ordered the plant shut down because of unspecified irregularities in the extraction process.
Experts suspect more covert manufacturing operations will be discovered beyond the centrifuge parts plants identified in Malaysia.
A factory in Turkey is being scrutinized, one diplomat familiar with the investigation said, but declined to go into details beyond suggesting the plant might also be making missile components.
David Albright, a former Iraq nuclear weapons inspector who runs the Institute for Science and International Security, also pointed to Turkey, saying, ``We know some components (to Libya) came out of there.''
A diplomat said a company in Spain also was under investigation.
Associated Press reporter Susanna Loof contributed to this report from Stockholm.
-------- iran
UN watchdog to continue investigating Iran nuclear program
VIENNA (AFP)
Mar 08, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040308191709.p6ilrhkb.html
The UN nuclear watchdog said Monday it would continue probing charges Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons despite Tehran's insistence the investigation should end as it has fully disclosed its atomic activities.
As the watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, began a board of governors meeting in Vienna, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei told reporters that both Iran and Libya "have been in breach of their obligations under the safeguards agreement" of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
"In view of many years of violation of non-proliferation obligations by Libya and Iran, I am asking for the provision of information and a full measure of transparency," he said.
Responding to Tehran's call Sunday for the IAEA to close its file on Iran's nuclear programme, ElBaradei said "that depends very much ... on the kind of cooperation we hopefully will continue to receive from Iran."
The United States charges that Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons, but Tehran maintains its nuclear program is strictly peaceful.
US ambassador to the IAEA Kenneth Brill said Monday that Iran was changing its story in order to hide a continuing nuclear weapons program from investigation by the IAEA.
"The fact is the Iranians change their stories to fit the facts," Brill said.
Diplomats said the United States was trying to get the IAEA board to adopt a tough resolution condemning the Iranians for hiding sensitive technology and insisting on a "trigger mechanism" for the matter to go before the UN Security Council, which could impose sanctions, if more violations are discovered.
But Europeans and other countries, led by Britain, France and Germany, resist this as they want to encourage Iran's cooperation with the IAEA.
The so-called Euro 3 had struck an agreement in October for Iran to cooperate with the IAEA. The three states advocate a tactic of "constructive engagement" with the Islamic Republic.
"The US text is not balanced. Washington acts as if nothing positive has happened since November" despite Iran's allowing wider inspections by the IAEA, one diplomat said.
ElBaradei told the 35-nation IAEA board that he was "seriously concerned that Iran's October declaration did not include any reference to its possession of P-2 centrifuge designs (for making enriched uranium which could be weapon-grade) and related RD (research and development) which in my view was a setback to Iran's stated policy of transparency."
ElBaradei said "this was particularly the case" since the October declaration was trumpeted by Iran as providing "the full scope of Iranian nuclear activities" including "a complete centrifuge R and D chronology."
But Iran's ambassador to the IAEA Pirooz Hosseini told reporters Tehran did not say everything in a report last October "because what we announced at that time was based on our obligations under the safeguard agreement" of the NPT.
In December, Iran signed an additional protocol to the NPT allowing for wider inspections and Hosseini said that "according to the time line of the additional protocol, we are going to provide every information which is necessary for the agency."
Brill said senior Iranian officals had said the October report would be "full, complete and represent total transparency."
"When it was proved that was not the case, that the Iranian declaration was neither correct nor complete in very significant ways" then the Iranians "changed their story and said we didn't mean it was going to be full and complete," Brill said.
The IAEA board is expected to report Libya to the UN Security Council for previous non-compliance with the NPT but praise it for its current cooperation in eliminating weapons development programs.
A Western diplomat said that Libya was "almost done in revealing its nuclear program" and the non-compliance declaration would merely be a "pro-forma" way of closing the chapter with no threat of sanctions against the North African country.
--------
U.S., Iran Clash as U.N. Opens Key Nuclear Review
March 8, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-nuclear-iaea.html
VIENNA (Reuters) - The United States accused Iran Monday of constantly changing its story about its nuclear activities, and the head of the U.N. atomic watchdog rejected an Iranian call to stop investigating the country.
Iran said it was the victim of a ``war of propaganda'' over its nuclear program, which it insists is purely for generating electricity but which Washington says is geared toward building an atomic bomb.
The clashing statements came as governors of the U.N. watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), opened a meeting at which they will vote on resolutions on Iran's and Libya's previously undeclared nuclear programs.
Disagreement centered on Tehran's failure to mention, in a declaration late last year, that it had designs for advanced ``P2'' centrifuges capable of producing highly enriched uranium for use in a nuclear reactor or, potentially, an atomic weapon.
``I am seriously concerned that Iran's October declaration did not include any reference to its possession of P2 centrifuge designs and related (research and development), which in my view was a setback to Iran's stated policy of transparency,'' IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei told the IAEA board of governors.
Iranian ambassador Pirooz Hosseini said Iranian officials had been misquoted by the media last year as saying the October dossier was intended to be exhaustive.
``At the time...we were not obliged to announce everything,'' he told reporters.
U.S. ambassador Kenneth Brill disputed Hosseini's comments, saying Iran had pledged at the time that the declaration would be open and complete.
``CHANGING STORIES''
``I think it's striking that the more the (IAEA) learns, the more the Iranians have to change their stories,'' he told reporters. ``There's a large number of very significant outstanding issues that still need to be dealt with.''
A senior Iranian official said Sunday the IAEA should confirm Iran's innocence and remove it from the agenda of the Vienna meeting, which sources said could run all week. But ElBaradei said the board was not through with Iran.
``I think the issue will be removed from the agenda when we are done with all the issues that are outstanding,'' he said. The main issue is the nature of Tehran's enrichment program and the origin of enriched uranium found by the U.N. last year.
Brill said Iran would be a long-term issue for the IAEA ``because there's more to go to get to the bottom of it.''
Outside the IAEA boardroom, diplomats from 35 board member states were meeting in small groups to find a compromise on a draft resolution on Iran they said was too weak for the Americans and too harsh for Germany, France and Britain.
Iran's envoy told reporters he was disappointed that the draft circulated by the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand has ``very tough and harsh language.''
``There is not any place for a tough and harsh resolution,'' given Iran's cooperation with the U.N. watchdog, he said.
One Western diplomat told Reuters the latest version of the draft resolution on Iran says the board ``deplores'' Tehran's omissions and describes them as a ``matter for serious concern.''
``It's quite strong,'' the diplomat said.
Revelations in recent weeks that a top Pakistani atomic scientist sold nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya have intensified international concern that ``rogue states'' or terrorists could get their hands on weapons of mass destruction.
ElBaradei himself has spoken of an extensive international network of black-market proliferators.
The IAEA chief told governors that export controls needed to become broader and tighter, and mechanisms must be put in place to ensure the agency was told of all sensitive nuclear or nuclear-related technology transfers.
He said he would soon appoint expert groups to look at setting up regional centers to tighten control over activities like nuclear fuel production, processing of weapons-usable material and disposal of waste.
``The nuclear non-proliferation regime remains under stress, and a range of measures will be needed to restore confidence in its effectiveness,'' he said.
The United States is holding out the example of Libya, which unexpectedly renounced all its weapons of mass destruction programs in December, as one for Iran and others to follow.
-------
U.S. Blasts Allies Over Iran Nukes
March 8, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Nuclear-Agency-Iran.html
VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- In a trans-Atlantic rift over Iran, a top U.S. official complained in a letter to France, Germany and Britain that their softer stance was hurting common efforts to get Tehran to honor promises for full nuclear disclosure, diplomats told The Associated Press on Monday.
News of the letter by U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton came amid tensions at a key board meeting of the U.N. atomic agency over whether Iran has done enough to banish suspicions it had a nuclear weapons program.
The diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity, refused to provide details about the letter but said such direct criticism was unusual.
Convinced that Tehran at one point wanted to make nuclear weapons and continues to harbor secrets, Washington wants tough language to dominate in any resolution adopted by the board of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency.
On the other side, Germany, Britain and France seek to emphasize progress Iran has made in revealing nuclear activities and cooperating with U.N. inspectors since the discovery last year of a secret uranium enrichment program and covert tests that could be applied toward making weapons.
At Monday's board of governors meeting, the chief Iranian delegate predicted that U.S. attempts to crack down on Tehran will fail.
Yet Iranian attempts to end international scrutiny of its past and present nuclear agenda found no favor with IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei, who said Tehran would remain a top agenda item for the U.N. agency until fears it was trying to make nuclear weapons were put to rest.
ElBaradei spoke on the first day of what was to be a three-day meeting. But diplomats said the conference might go until Friday because of the lack of consensus on how to deal with Iran's mixed record on lifting nearly two decades of nuclear secrecy.
``We are still far away on common language,'' a senior diplomat said as the meeting progressed.
A U.S-proposed text, seen by AP, spoke of ``serious failures'' by Iran to reveal nuclear secrets and the ``most serious concerns'' about its activities. Europeans consider that language too harsh.
Chief Iranian delegate Pirooz Hosseini said the U.S. attempt to take Iran to task ``is not going to work.''
``Almost all colleagues in the IAEA think that we have done our best in our ability to work with the agency,'' he said.
Before the meeting, senior Iranian official Hasan Rowhani demanded an end to the scrutiny of his country's nuclear activities, insisting they were never geared toward making arms.
ElBaradei, however, suggested that Iran would remain an agency priority. ``The issue will (only) be removed from the agenda when we are done with all the issues that are outstanding,'' he told reporters.
ElBaradei also said the board would discuss agency findings resulting from its probe of the ``complex black market network'' providing Iran, Libya and North Korea with nuclear weapons technology.
He described both Iran and Libya as being in violation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. But with Libya apparently keeping pledges to reveal and scrap its nuclear weapons program, it is Iran taking the heat at the Vienna meeting.
While insisting it is interested in uranium enrichment only to generate power not to make weapons, Iran suspended its program to defang criticism. Still, it reserves the right to resume such activities, despite international demands that its enrichment be totally scrapped.
Tehran has also allowed IAEA inspectors broad access to its nuclear programs and handed over materials requested by ElBaradei. But an IAEA report prepared for Monday's meeting faults Tehran for continuing to hide evidence of nuclear experiments unearthed by agency inspectors. Made public last month, the dossier dealt the Islamic Republic a setback in its efforts to convince the world that its nuclear program is peaceful and that it is fully cooperating with the U.N. agency.
The report mentioned finds of traces of polonium, a radioactive element that can be used in nuclear weapons but that Iran says it wanted for generating electricity. It also expressed concerns with the discovery of an advanced P-2 uranium centrifuge system -- something the Bush administration said raises ``serious concerns'' about Tehran's intentions.
ElBaradei told the board he was ``seriously concerned'' about Iran's refusal to declare the P-2, calling it a ``setback to Iran's stated policy of transparency.''
Hosseini, Iran's delegate, said his country had nothing else to reveal.
Washington was unconvinced.
``I think its striking that the more the agency learns the more the Iranians have to change their stories,'' chief U.S. delegate Kenneth C. Brill told reporters.
On the Net:
IAEA, www.iaea.org
-------- iraq / inspections
Top Iraq Nuke Scientist Seeks UN Probe
March 8, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iraq-Nuclear.html
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) -- The father of Iraq's nuclear bomb program denied Monday that Saddam Hussein tried to restart his atomic activities, but acknowledged Iraq tried to conceal its banned weapons operations before destroying them 13 years ago.
Jafar Dhia Jafar, speaking publicly for the first time since U.S. forces occupied Baghdad, also called for a U.N. probe of what its inspectors knew before the U.S.-led invasion. Inspectors ``reached total conviction'' that Iraq was free of nuclear weapons yet failed to convey that to the Security Council because of U.S. pressure, he said.
``Reports of the United Nations to the Security Council should have been clear and courageous,'' Jafar said.
Before the invasion last March, chief U.N. inspector Hans Blix and his nuclear counterpart Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said that in four months of searching, their teams found no evidence of any weapons of mass destruction or programs to build them, and needed more time to make a definitive conclusion.
Asked to respond to Jafar's claims, IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said ElBaradei was forthright to the Security Council. She rejected the idea that investigators were absolutely convinced Iraq had no weapons program.
``In order to be thorough and factual we had to make sure that we had checked every lead and every possibility before making any final determination,'' Fleming said. ``After four months, we weren't quite there yet.''
At the time, U.S. officials insisted Saddam was developing a nuclear weapons program. After the war, U.S. inspectors also found no signs of a revived program. Still, David Kay, the chief U.S. inspector who resigned in January, contended last October he found ``evidence of Saddam's continued ambition to acquire nuclear weapons.'' That evidence has not been made public.
Jafar has been living in the United Arab Emirates since slipping out of Iraq to Syria during the war. U.S. officials said last April he had surrendered and was questioned.
On Monday, he addressed a meeting on the repercussions of the occupation of Iraq, organized by the Beirut-based Center for Arab Unity Studies. Before a sympathetic audience of intellectuals and Arab nationalists, he presented a paper co-written with Noman Saad Eddin al-Noaimi, a former director-general of Iraq's nuclear program.
``Saddam Hussein issued orders in July 1991 for the destruction of all banned weapons, in addition to the systems to produce them. It was carried out by the Special Republican Guard forces,'' the scientists said in their paper.
``We can confirm with absolute certainty that Iraq no longer possessed any weapons of mass destruction after its unilateral destruction of all its components in the summer of 1991, and did not resume any such activity because it no longer had the foundations to resume such activity,'' they wrote.
In a later panel discussion, Jafar -- who once was an adviser to the Iraqi dictator as a leader of his nuclear program -- acknowledged Iraq tried to conceal its weapons programs from international inspectors, who first arrived in early 1991.
``There was concealment at the beginning in all programs,'' he said.
But Jafar said the speed with which inspectors operated, aerial reconnaissance and the large size of equipment that had to be moved led to the ``the concealment operation failing within weeks'' and to an Iraqi decision to dismantle and destroy the weapons and their programs.
He also acknowledged Iraqi errors in handling the destruction of the weapons programs.
The United Nations had complained that figures relating to chemical and biological agents did not match what was produced, used or destroyed. In a reply to a question from the audience, Jafar said the destruction of the banned weapons and substances by Special Republican Guard forces ``was not done in a proper, detailed manner.''
``There were great and serious attempts later to document it (the destruction), put the pieces together and estimate what was destroyed. It was not convincing,'' he said.
The two scientists wrote about the history of Iraq's nuclear program and how Saddam turned it into a covert effort after Israel's 1981 airstrikes that destroyed a nuclear reactor near Baghdad before it became operational.
In their paper, the scientists said Iraq achieved ``encouraging results'' by the end of 1990 in uranium enrichment programs as well as in studies and designs of nuclear weapons, but the activities ``did not continue as a result of the Desert Storm war in 1991.''
Iraq produced 160 tons of low-grade uranium in 1990, according to the scientists, before most of the facilities were damaged or destroyed in the 1991 Gulf War. The paper listed the detailed destruction of nuclear facilities in the Gulf War and in 1998 U.S. airstrikes.
Scientists, engineers and technicians who worked on armament and homegrown technology ``were dispersed after the 1991 war. Some moved to work in state civilian institutions or universities, some left to work in the private sector, some retired, many emigrated and some died,'' they wrote.
-------- korea
ElBaradei: N.Korea Set Dangerous Nuclear Precedent
March 8, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-nuclear-korea-elbaradei.html
VIENNA (Reuters) - North Korea's nuclear activities and its withdrawal from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) have set a dangerous precedent, the head of the United Nations atomic weapons watchdog said Monday.
The United States believes the reclusive Communist state has at least one nuclear weapon, which it developed during the years when it was thought to be complying with the NPT before quitting the pact early last year.
``The nuclear activities of (North Korea) and its notice of withdrawal from the NPT have set a dangerous precedent and thus remain a threat to the credibility of the nuclear non-proliferation regime,'' International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei said in the text of a speech.
Pyongyang expelled the IAEA's inspectors on December 31, 2002, and has not let them back in the country since -- despite ElBaradei's repeated appeals for their return.
His remarks were prepared for delivery at a closed-door meeting of the IAEA's Board of Governors, which is meeting to discuss Iran's and Libya's violations of the NPT, as well as the global black market that supplied Iran, Libya and North Korea with potentially weapons-related atomic technology.
Although last month's round of six-party talks in Beijing produced no breakthrough, ElBaradei said the ``agreement to continue these talks is a welcome development.''
He added any agreement reached on North Korea would need to ``strike a balance between the security needs ofand the need of the international community to gain assurance, though international verification, that all (its) nuclear activities ... are exclusively for peaceful purposes.''
The six-party talks included the United States, both North and South Korea, China, Japan and Russia.
---------
US Troops Should Go Under Atomic Deal - N.Korea
March 8, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-korea-north.html
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea responded Monday to U.S. demands for it to dismantle its nuclear weapons program, saying U.S. forces should completely withdraw from the South.
The United States repeated at talks with the two Koreas, Russia, China and Japan last month in Beijing it wanted the ``complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement'' (CVID) of North Korea's nuclear program.
In a commentary, the North's main newspaper Rodong Sinmum said the U.S demand was a ploy to try to strangle North Korea economically and snoop around under the guise of inspections.
``Now that the U.S. is persistently forcing the complete, verifiable, irreversible dismantlement of nuclear program upon the DPRK, turning aside from the latter's elastic and most magnanimous proposal, the DPRK cannot but demand the U.S. completely withdraw its troops from South Korea in a verifiable way,'' Rodong Sinmun said.
The initials DPRK stand for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
North Korea's official KCNA news agency carried the newspaper's commentary, which also said Washington should guarantee a peace treaty and normalize relations.
The United States has 37,000 troops stationed in the South to deter the North from attacking, as it did in 1950 at the start of the three-year Korean War. That conflict ended in a truce, not a full peace.
The daily said the U.S. insistence on complete dismantling of the North's nuclear deterrent was ``brigandish logic'' and intended to ``exterminate'' Pyongyang's communist system.
Rodong Sinmun said Pyongyang was prepared to negotiate about its nuclear deterrent but not to give up what it described as its peaceful nuclear activity.
The United States has accused the North of pursuing a uranium enrichment program to make nuclear weapons. The North has denied this. North Korea's nuclear ambitions have been part of President Bush's global focus on illegal arms.
Separately, Rodong Sinmun took a predictable swipe at a serving South Korean minister, describing Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon as an ``ignoramus'' for saying during a visit to Washington it would be difficult to push ahead with large-scale North-South economic projects unless the nuclear crisis was solved.
``Those turning their back on the nation and acting marionettes of the U.S. are bound to meet a miserable end,'' the newspaper said, according to KCNA's English-language service.
--------
North Korea's Nuclear Tests in Pakistan
Source:Han Hosuk's Thesis On Analysis of Korean Peninsula-KWW
Translated on 3/8/2004
http://www.minjok.com/english/index.php3?catagory=engl&code=23104
On June 10, 1998, an Air Koryo chartered plane took off the runway of the Islamabad International Airport of Pakistan. No one had anticipated the significance of this Pyongyang-bound flight in the affairs of the Korean peninsula. On board the plane were the 20 North Korean nuclear scientists who had conducted an underground nuclear test at Pakistan's Balochistan nuclear test site. In addition, the plane was loaded with the nuclear test equipment and test data.
Pakistan has conducted six nuclear tests. On May 28, 1998, Pakistan exploded 5 nuclear devices simultaneously at the Chagal Hills (Ras Koh range) nuclear test site. One of the devices was a boosted fission device. Two days later, a 14 KT nuclear device was tested at the Balochistan test site. This device is believed to be a plutonium bomb flown in from North Korea.
The people of Pakistan were relieved and overjoyed at the news of Pakistani nuclear tests in the aftermath of India's nuclear tests of the same scale (including a boosted bomb) a few months earlier. In stark contrast to the festive mood prevailing in Pakistan, the dark cloud of American spy planes and satellites shadowed the Pakistani nuclear facilities, and a horde of US CIA and DIA agents swarmed to Pakistan's capital.
Pyongyang had no time to celebrate its Balochistan nuclear test because it had the daunting task of extract its nuclear scientists, test equipment and data safely from Pakistan. Hundreds of American spies and agents were out to grab North Korean scientists and nuclear materials. Even if the plane took off safely, it could have been shot down or forced to land by American planes.
North Korea had anticipated dirty plays by the Americans and worked out detailed counter measures for the safe return of its nuclear assets. Little has been published about this super secret operation. Several American news articles have revealed certain aspects of the operation, however.
The Los Angeles Times has published two articles (1999.8.23 and 2004.3.1) related to the operation. On June 7, 1998, one week after the Balohsitan test, a gunshot rang out in the darkness of the night in the exclusive residential district of Islamabad. The district referred to as "E-7" is for high-ranking military officers and nuclear scientists, and as such, it is highly secured. Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of the Pakistani bomb, lives in the district. In fact, the gun was fired only a few meters from Dr. Khan's residence. The victim was Kim Sa-nae, a North Korean woman. There was no eyewitness and Pakistani plainclothes men investigated the incidence. Kim Sa-nae was reportedly well-known for her cold-noodles, a famed North Korean dish.
Kim's death was duly reported on Pakistani newspapers but few paid attention at the time, when the news of the nuclear tests dominated the news at the time. The Pakistanis said that Kim Sa-nae was a North Korean diplomat. Her mysterious murder was forgotten until the Los Angeles Times picked it up one year later in 1998. The Los Angeles Times story went far beyond what was reported by the Pakistanis. It had some sinister twists to the unsolved murder.
1). The Pakistani police refused to disclose the true identity of Kim Sa-nae. The US intelligence claims that Kim was the wife of Kang Thae-yun, a mid-level staff member at the North Korean Embassy in Pakistan, and that Kang was in fact an agent of North Korea's Chang-kwang Trading Company, which sells weapons overseas. The Americans claim that Kang was no diplomat - he was a weapons salesman. Kang left Pakistan one month after Kim's death. On the other hand, the Pakistanis claim that Kim Sa-nae was one of the twenty North Korean nuclear scientists, who were staying at the guest house of Dr. Khan's residence when Kim was shot.
2). The Pakistani police has not disclosed the murderer of Kim Sa-nae. There have been three different speculations. One says that a cook working next door to Dr. Khan borrowed a gun from a guard and fired it by accident. The second story says that one of Dr. Khan's neighbors fired his gun accidentally while cleaning it. Dr. Khan has stated that Kim's death was accidental. In contrast, the American intelligence claims that Kim Sa-nae was an American spy and provided information on North Korea's nuclear tests to the Western intelligence agents, and that she was killed while trying to defect.
3). The Los Angeles Times article claims no autopsy was done on Kim's body and the Pakistani police was told to close the book on her case. The American intelligence claims that her body was returned to Pyongyang on June 10th, four days after her murder on a Pakistani cargo plane, and that her coffin contained two centrifuge machines for enriching uranium and associated manuals. In those days, Air Koryo had two flights per month to Islamabad. In fact, an Air Koryo plane was at Islamabad at the time of Kim's murder. Then, why would Kim's body be on a Pakistani plane?
The truth is most likely that there was no Kim Sa-nae. She was made up by North Korea to create confusion to cover up the extraction of its nuclear assets. On the other hand, the Americans went along to hammer in their claim that Pakistan provided enriched uranium technology to North Korea (and therefore, North Korea has an enriched uranium nuclear program).
The Kim Sa-nae 'murder' was a fabrication to draw away American spies in Pakistan from the imminent departure of the Air Koryo plane carrying North Korean nuclear scientists, test equipment and test data. It was a cat and mouse game, in which North Korea won.
-------- russia
Russia to recycle weapons-grade uranium from Libya: IAEA
VIENNA (AFP)
Mar 08, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040308163830.p185xu9g.html
Russia has agreed to recycle weapons-grade uranium from Libya in a move to help Tripoli dismantle its weapons of mass destruction programs, the UN nuclear watchdog said Monday.
"Russia agreed to take back the HEU (highly enriched uranium)" as it "was the original supplier in the 1980's for the 10-megawatt reactor and critical facility at the Tajoura Nuclear Research Center near Tripoli," the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a press statement.
Russia will "blend down the HEU", which was enriched to 80 percent, "into low-enriched uranium (LEU), making it unsuitable for a nuclear weapon," the statement said.
The HEU was "in the form of fresh fuel, . . . in fuel assemblies containing about 13 kilograms of fissile uranium-235, as well as about three kilograms of uranium," the statement said.
It said "HEU is a safeguarded fissile material that fuels nuclear reactors for research and electricity production but can also be processed and used to make a nuclear weapon."
IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei said in Libya last month that his agency would help the northern African state convert its military-oriented nuclear program into a peaceful program.
The recycling of the Tajoura reactor for the LEU -- which Russia will return once it is recycled -- rather than HEU is part of this.
Libya has since December been dismantling its weapons of mass destruction development programs, after reaching agreement on this with the United States and Britain.
The HEU was taken out of Libya overnight from Sunday to Monday.
"The 700,000 dollar (560,000 euros) fuel-removal was funded by the United States Department of Energy," the IAEA statement said.
--------
Russia Brings Back Weapons Uranium from Libya
Mon 8 Mar 2004
"PA" News Scotsman
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2624875
Russia today brought back weapons-grade uranium that the Soviet Union supplied to Libya for a nuclear research centre at least 20 years ago, Russian officials and the United Nations nuclear watchdog said.
In a United States-funded operation, 88 nuclear fuel assemblies - bundles of rods that contain fuel used for reactors - were transferred to Russia from the Tajura research centre outside Tripoli.
The spokesman said the fuel was made in Russia and supplied to Libya in 1980-1984. The Tajura facility includes a 10-megawatt reactor built in 1980 with equipment imported from the Soviet Union.
Libya recently acknowledged having a nuclear weapons programme and pledged to scrap it, and the International Atomic Energy Association said it had helped Libyan authorities prepare for the removal, monitoring the packing of the fuel.
The uranium was 80% enriched and was in fuel assemblies containing about 13 kilograms (28.7 pounds) of uranium-235, as well as about 3 kilograms (6.6 pounds) of ordinary uranium, the Vienna-based IAEA said in a statement.
-------- u.s. nuc facilities
-------- ohio
Ohio Nuclear Plant Can Reopen, Agency Says
March 8, 2004
By MATTHEW L. WALD
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/08/national/08CND-NUKE.html?hp=&pagewanted=print&position=
WASHINGTON, March 8 - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said today that it would allow an Ohio company to reopen a nuclear power plant that was shut down more than two years ago after technicians discovered that acid used in the cooling water had eaten almost all the way through the lid of the reactor.
The plant, Davis-Besse, near Toledo, has since undergone extensive changes in hardware and personnel, although critics say the reopening is premature. Some are hoping that the owner, the FirstEnergy Corporation, will sell the plant to another operator.
The shutdown is the longest in recent years among the nation's 103 operable reactors, and the discovery raised questions about the industry's ability to learn from its mistakes, since corrosion by such acid was a known problem and First Energy failed to inspect for it.
Avoiding accidents by recognizing problems in their early stages is a critical lesson of the Three Mile Island accident, which occurred 25 years ago this month near Harrisburg, Pa. Despite that accident, which involved a partial meltdown, officials were chagrined to discover that a similar event had almost occurred at Davis-Besse, which is of the same design. But knowledge of the reactor's vulnerability had not been communicated to other operators of the same model.
The corrosion incident also exposed problems within the staff of the regulatory commission, which initially wanted prompt inspections of all 68 plants that could be vulnerable to the problem but relented and gave the owners permission to delay, leaving time for the hole in the lid to grow. Plants are designed with emergency equipment to cope with leaks, but the designs do not contemplate failure of the steel in that location, which is 6 inches thick.
A subsequent investigation by the commission's inspector general found poor communications within the agency itself. The commission had a photo taken during a refueling shutdown in 2000 that showed evidence of the corrosion, but officials failed to act on it, according to the inspector general. The commission staff said that it was still in the process of reforming its internal procedures.
Today, the commission staff said that it had grounds for "reasonable assurance" that the Davis-Besse plant, in Oak Harbor, Ohio, could be started up and operated safely, but that the commission would maintain extra scrutiny of the plant for five years.
A major part of the changes at the plant, the commission staff said, was changes in its "safety culture," or the willingness of plant workers to raise safety questions to managers, and their expectation that such questions would be properly resolved.
FirstEnergy has acknowledged that it delayed an inspection because that would have forced the closing of the reactor and a loss in electricity production, and that it was insufficiently curious about other indications of trouble, like the presence of the acid, in powdered form, around the reactor building.
James Caldwell, the regional administrator for the commission's Midwest region, said that safety culture was still a problem the first time that his agency considered allowing the plant to restart, but that recently "our folks interviewed about 120 people, and based on that interview, we determined that the folks said they would raise safety issue, and management would deal with safety issues promptly."
In anticipation of the announcement, FirstEnergy heated up the reactor to more than 500 degrees Farenheit and to more than 2,000 pounds per square inch of pressure. It will be back to full power in 10 to 14 days, a spokesman, Todd Schneider, said. FirstEnergy has spent more than $600 million on replacement power and on physical improvements at the reactor, he said.
The company still faces a criminal investigation by a federal grand jury into its handling of the corrosion matter. Paul Blanch, an electrical engineer and specialist in what the nuclear industry calls a "safety-conscious work environment," pointed out that the commission had at one point promised not to allow a restarting of the plant before the criminal issues were resolved, but was now doing so.
"If there are people there that could possibly be indicted, obviously they should not restart," he said.
But a commission spokesman, Jan Strasma, said that although a criminal investigation was continuing, "we see no immediate safety issues that warrant agency action."
Mr. Blanch said that last year he had tried to obtain a copy of the plan that the commission was requiring for reform of Davis-Besse's safety culture, and was turned down, making it difficult for knowledgeable outsiders to determine if the remedy was sound. The commission gave him a copy on Monday, after the announcement, he said.
Reopening Davis-Besse is good news for FirstEnergy, but the company faces a variety of other challenges, including the possibility of damage suits arising from the blackout last Aug. 14, which began in its territory and stretched into eight states and parts of Ontario.
---------
Ohio Nuclear Plant Can Reopen, Agency Says
March 8, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Nuclear-Plant-Restart.html?hp
WASHINGTON (AP) -- An Ohio nuclear plant is being allowed to reopen after a two-year shutdown over safety issues stemming from an acid leak that ate through a protective steel reactor cap, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced Monday.
Corrosion on the reactor vessel at the Davis-Besse plant along Lake Erie east of Toledo, Ohio, was the most extensive ever found at a U.S. nuclear reactor and led to a review of 68 similar plants nationwide.
NRC officials blamed plant operators for allowing a breakdown in safety standards that caused the leak to go unnoticed for years. The plant is owned by FirstEnergy Corp., in Akron, Ohio, the same company that a U.S.-Canadian government task force said shares much of the blame for the Northeast blackout last August.
But the NRC also came under fire for not detecting the leak sooner. As a result, regulators have agreed to make changes to its safety and inspection procedures. On Monday, the agency said the plant can safely operate following numerous repairs and changes in management.
The plant was closed in February 2002 for routine maintenance when inspectors found that corrosion on the reactor vessel, where leaking boric acid had nearly eaten through a 6-inch-thick steel cap.
FirstEnergy Corp. spent about $600 million making repairs and buying replacement power while the plant was prevented from producing electricity.
During the shutdown, regulators also found design flaws in Davis-Besse's cooling system pumps, which led to prolonged repairs. FirstEnergy replaced the damaged reactor vessel head and overhauled the plant's management.
The company asked the NRC on Feb. 12 for permission to restart the plant, saying the plant was now capable of being safely operated.
Two teams of NRC inspectors said at the February meeting that they saw marked improvement in plant operations and worker performance. Although the inspectors found widespread problems during a December review, they said none rose to the level of being a safety concern.
Environmental groups, though, questioned whether the plant was really committed to safety.
During the shutdown, some critics in Congress questioned whether the NRC bowed to pressure from FirstEnergy and allowed the utility to keep Davis-Besse operating despite concerns about the reactor lid.
The NRC has rejected allegations that it put profits ahead of safety.
On the Net:
Nuclear Regulatory Commission: http://www.nrc.gov
FirstEnergy Corp.: http://www.firstenergycorp.com
-------- south carolina
Potential nuclear waste dump by Savannah River, new report: Atlanta press conference 3/11
Mon, 08 Mar 2004
From: Lisa Ledwidge/IEER <ieer@ieer.org>
For further information contact:
Arjun Makhijani, IEER: 301-270-5500
Bob Schaeffer: 239-395-6773
MEDIA ADVISORY
NUCLEAR WASTE MISMANAGEMENT WOULD CREATE HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTE DUMP IN SAVANNAH RIVER WATERSHED
Standards for Drinking Water Contaminated with Radioactive Tritium May Need to be Tightened
WHAT: News conference to release 95-page report, Nuclear Dumps by the Riverside: Threats to the Savannah River from Radioactive Contamination at the Savannah River Site (SRS), detailing tritium contamination of the Savannah River, the environmental injustice inflicted by SRS-related contamination on people who subsist on fish from its waters, and the dangerous policies that would create a vast de facto high-level radioactive waste dump in the river's watershed.
WHERE: Georgia Capitol Rotunda, 206 Washington St. on Capitol Square, Atlanta, Georgia
WHEN: Thursday, March 11, 2004, 3:30 p.m.
WHO: Dr. Arjun Makhijani, principal author of the report, and President, Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER); Ms. Bobbie Paul, Executive Director, Atlanta Women's Action for New Directions (WAND) and Board member, Georgia Center for Law in the Public Interest; Reverend Charles Utley, Central Savannah River Area campaign director for Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, Augusta, GA; State Representative Nan Grogan Orrock (GA), House Majority Whip and WiLL President (Women Legislators' Lobby); State Representative Ron Stephens (GA); State Senator Regina Thomas (GA); State Representative Tom Bordeaux (GA)
WHY: The Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina produced more than one-third of the plutonium for U.S. nuclear bombs, almost all of the tritium, and other nuclear materials for the U.S. weapons program. Past dumping and mismanagement and a failure to implement an adequate cleanup plan at SRS have created extensive water pollution beneath the site as well as risks for critical water resources in the region.
This new report describes the breadth and depth of the problem caused by threats to water resources from SRS. It explores the problem of tritium contamination of the Savannah River in detail, both for South Carolina and Georgia. It discusses why tritium standards may not be adequate to protect pregnant women and developing fetuses and may, therefore, need to be tightened. It also discusses environmental injustice arising from the contamination of the Savannah River inflicted on African Americans who depend on the river as a primary source of protein. The report finds that DOE is leaving behind large amounts of radioactivity in high-level waste tanks and pronouncing them closed. Continuation of this policy would create de facto high-level radioactive waste dumps in the Savannah River watershed. It offers recommendations for reducing the SRS-related risks to water resources and for rectifying environmental injustice.
Lisa Ledwidge Outreach Director, United States, and Editor of Science for Democratic Action Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER)
NEW ADDRESS & PHONE:
PO Box 6674
Minneapolis, MN 55406 USA
tel. 1-612-722-9700
fax: please call first
ieer@ieer.org | http://www.ieer.org
IEER's main office:
6935 Laurel Ave. Suite 201
Takoma Park, MD 20912 USA
tel. 1-301-270-5500
fax 1-301-270-3029
-------- us politics
Bush Hindering Probes, Kerry Says
President's Campaign Says Charges of 'Stonewalling' on 9/11, Iraq Are Inaccurate
By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 8, 2004; Page A02
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A38886-2004Mar7?language=printer
TOUGALOO, Miss., March 7 -- Sen. John F. Kerry, intensifying the election fight over terrorism and national security, accused President Bush on Sunday of "stonewalling" for political reasons separate investigations into the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and prewar intelligence on Iraq.
The Massachusetts Democrat echoed Bush's promise to make Sept. 11 a top election issue and, for the second time in the young general election campaign, portrayed the president as playing politics with the deadliest attack on U.S. soil since Pearl Harbor.
"I think one of the most critical questions in front of the country is with respect to 9/11, why is this administration stonewalling and resisting the investigation into why we had the greatest security failure in the history of our country and why is he also resisting having an immediate investigation into the security failure with respect to the intelligence in Iraq," Kerry told reporters at Tougaloo College in Jackson, Miss.
Kerry's new line of attack, described as a direct response to Bush's Sept. 11 political challenge, highlighted the headlining role terrorism and national security are playing in the 2004 presidential election. Bush is trying to paint Kerry as too wobbly and inconsistent to lead the nation through troubled times; Kerry is portraying the president as reckless and inept with his foreign policy.
Steve Schmidt, spokesman for the Bush-Cheney campaign, called the charges "another example of inaccurate attacks by Senator Kerry.
"Senator Kerry feels a great deal of vulnerability because of his record of voting to cut the nation's intelligence budget," Schmidt said.
Marc Racicot, Bush's campaign chairman, asserted earlier on "Fox News Sunday" that Bush has been "entirely cooperative" with the independent panel looking into the Sept. 11 attacks -- formally known as the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.
Just days after blasting Bush for raising Sept. 11 images in election ads, Kerry said the Bush White House has complicated the independent investigation into the terrorist attacks in hopes of shutting it down quickly. "I think they don't want accountability," Kerry said. "They want to get it out of the way as fast as they can so the memory of Americans might be shorter."
A bipartisan independent commission investigating intelligence failures is expected to release its findings this summer, though some commission members have complained of a lack of White House cooperation in getting documents and open interviews with key officials.
Kerry, who voted for the Iraq war, said the British are moving more swiftly than the United States to investigate the prewar intelligence used to justify the invasion, and he accused Bush of "slow walking" a probe here in hopes of pushing the issue off until after the November election.
Last month, Bush named a commission to determine why inspectors have not found the weapons that intelligence experts said Saddam Hussein was hiding in Iraq. He told the panel to report back by the end of March 2005.
Kerry believes "their political agenda has stopped them from doing both quickly or effectively," spokesman David Wade said Sunday.
The senator said he plans to ask a group of Republicans and Democrats to travel to Iraq soon to survey the situation and report their findings. "I do have a responsibility to get the best information possible," he said.
Kerry said he may travel to Iraq himself, but worries that such a trip might be seen as too political during the election season. "That's a possibility and it's something that's been discussed, but the time's difficult and I don't want any sense of politicization in that regard."
Kerry's remarks to reporters came two hours after he used a 15-minute morning speech at a black church to rail against politicians who fail to match their religious words with earthly deeds and seek to divide the nation over race, income and even home states.
"You can run the list of those deeds not matched by words," Kerry said, quoting the New Testament's James, before rattling off everything from broken environmental promises to those who profess to be a "compassionate conservative."
Bush often invokes his religious faith, and Kerry plans to highlight his own beliefs and what he sees as the Bible's call to social action, a top aide said. Kerry will largely confine his Bible-based remarks to church services on the campaign trail as he has throughout his political career, the aide said.
Kerry finished his speech at the Pentecostal church with this warning: "I don't agree with the hollowness, nor do you, that tries to divide black and white, rich and poor, Massachusetts and Mississippi," he said. "In fact, some people just want us pointing fingers at each other. The reason they do that is so no one points a finger at them."
Yet, two hours later, Kerry was pointing the finger at Bush and his administration over delays in finalizing the Sept. 11 report and prewar intelligence. "The American people deserve an answer now," he said. The senator said last week that it was inappropriate for Bush to use images of the Sept. 11 ruins in his election ads, sparking a debate over the politics of terrorism that spilled over into the Sunday morning political shows.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), appearing on ABC's "This Week," said he would not have invoked some of the images used in the Bush ads, but defended the president's reliance on the broader theme.
"Oh, I might not have used the ad of the coffin coming out, or the body coming out of the ruins with a flag on it. But let's be very clear. The president had a defining moment on September 11, and his leadership of the American people clearly is part of the rationale and a large part of the rationale for his reelection."
At the news conference, Kerry said he would meet this week with former presidential rival Howard Dean, who was critical of Kerry through the primaries and caucuses. The Kerry campaign is eager to get Dean on board and tap into the former Vermont governor's fundraising machine, which shattered records in 2003 by raking in more than $40 million.
-------- MILITARY
-------- afghanistan
Afghanistan: Abuses by U.S. Forces
Beatings in Detention; No Legal Process
Human Rights Watch
March 8, 2004
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/03/08/afghan8073.htm
U.S. forces operating in Afghanistan have arbitrarily detained civilians, used excessive force during arrests of non-combatants, and mistreated detainees, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today.
The United States is setting a terrible example in Afghanistan on detention practices. Civilians are being held in a legal black hole - with no tribunals, no legal counsel, no family visits and no basic legal protections.
Human Rights Watch concludes that the U.S.-administered system of arrest and detention in Afghanistan exists outside of the rule of law. The United States is maintaining separate detention facilities at Bagram, Kandahar, Jalalabad and Asadabad military bases.
"The United States is setting a terrible example in Afghanistan on detention practices," said Brad Adams, executive director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch. "Civilians are being held in a legal black hole - with no tribunals, no legal counsel, no family visits and no basic legal protections."
The 59-page report, "Enduring Freedom": Abuses by U.S. Forces in Afghanistan, is based on research conducted by Human Rights Watch in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2003 and early 2004. Human Rights Watch documented cases of U.S. forces using military tactics, including unprovoked deadly force, during operations to apprehend civilians in uncontested residential areas-situations where law enforcement standards and tactics should have been used. Afghan forces deployed with U.S. forces have also mistreated persons during search and arrest operations and looted homes.
The report also details mistreatment in U.S. detention facilities. Released detainees have said that U.S. forces severely beat them, doused them with cold water and subjected them to freezing temperatures. Many said they were forced to stay awake, or to stand or kneel in painful positions for extended periods of time.
"There is compelling evidence suggesting that U.S. personnel have committed acts against detainees amounting to torture or cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment," said Adams.
The report also describes frequent arbitrary arrests of civilians, apparently based on mistaken or faulty intelligence, and numerous cases of civilians-grocers, farmers, or laborers-who were held incommunicado and indefinitely.
Human Rights Watch said that many of the violations documented were reported in non-combat situations, and emphasized that many abuses-especially arbitrary arrests and mistreatment of detainees-were inexcusable even within the context of war.
Human Rights Watch said that Taliban and other anti-U.S. forces operating in Afghanistan had themselves violated international humanitarian law by carrying out armed attacks and abductions against civilians and humanitarian aid workers. But Human Rights Watch pointed out that under international law those violations could not serve as an excuse for U.S. violations.
"The Taliban and other insurgent groups are illegally targeting civilians and humanitarian aid workers," said Adams. "But abuses by one party to a conflict do not justify violations by the other side. This is a fundamental principle of the laws of war."
The United States has not responded adequately to questions about arrest and detention practices. In particular, Human Rights Watch raised the case of three detainees who are known to have died while in U.S. custody-two at the Bagram airbase north of Kabul in December 2002 and one at the Asadabad airbase in eastern Afghanistan in June 2003. The first two deaths were ruled homicides by U.S. military pathologists who performed autopsies on the two men. U.S. officials have yet to explain what happened to any of the three men.
"This stonewalling must stop," said Adams. "The United States is obligated to investigate allegations and prosecute those who have violated the law. There is no sign that serious investigations are taking place."
Human Rights Watch said that the United States was eroding international standards by not taking action.
"Abusive governments across the world can now point to U.S. forces in Afghanistan, and say, 'If they can abuse human rights and get away with it, why can't we?'" said Adams.
President George W. Bush and officials in his administration stated in June 2003 that the United States does not torture or mistreat detainees in the custody of the United States. But the United States has refused to allow any independent observers access to detention facilities in Afghanistan, except for the International Committee of the Red Cross, which does not report publicly on its findings. Human Rights Watch noted that some documented abuses in the report took place after President Bush's statement.
The report includes the following recommendations to the United States:
- Investigate and publicly report on allegations of mistreatment at detention facilities in Afghanistan;
- Instruct military and intelligence personnel to take all appropriate steps to prevent or stop abuses by Afghan forces deployed with or under the command of U.S. forces;
- Create a legal system of tribunals, in conjunction with the Afghan government, to ensure that detainees in Afghanistan-both combatants and civilians-are processed and screened in accordance with applicable standards of the Geneva Conventions and human rights law;
- Permit families of detainees, and those providing legal assistance, to visit detainees;
- Reevaluate and revise arrest methods and standing Rules of Engagement for U.S. military and intelligence personnel in Afghanistan to ensure that law enforcement methods are used when U.S. forces are arresting non-combatants in non-combat situations.
The report also calls on Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the Afghan government to urge the United States to bring their detention system within Afghanistan into compliance with international law, and to order Afghan commanders to stop or attempt to prevent abuses during military operations.
----
For More Afghan Women, Immolation Is Escape
March 8, 2004
New York Times
By CARLOTTA GALL
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/08/international/asia/08BURN.html?pagewanted=all&position=
JALALABAD, Afghanistan - Waiflike, draped in a pale blue veil, Madina, 20, sits on her hospital bed, bandages covering the terrible, raw burns on her neck and chest. Her hands tremble. She picks nervously at the soles of her feet and confesses that three months earlier she set herself on fire with kerosene.
Beside her, on the next bed, her mother-in-law, Bibi Khanum, and her brother-in-law, Abdul Muhammad, 18, confirm her account but deny her reason, which Madina would explain only outside on a terrace, away from her husband's family. "All the time they beat me," she said. "They broke my arm. But what should I do? This was my home."
Accounts like Madina's are repeated across Afghanistan, doctors and human rights workers say. They are discovering more and more young women who have set themselves on fire, desperate to escape the cruelties of family life and harsh tribal traditions that show no sign of changing despite the end of Taliban rule and the dawn of democracy.
Doctors and nurses in Kabul and Jalalabad say they have seen more cases recently, partly because the population has been swollen by the return of two million refugees and because cases are being tracked for the first time by rights groups, hospitals and the government.
But the trauma and social upheaval of decades of war, poverty and illiteracy in Afghanistan have also intensified the traditional pressures on young women, they say.
The recently formed Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission recorded 40 such cases in just the past six months in Herat, a western city of half a million people.
Karima Karimi, one of the commission's officers, says she suspects that the actual figure is higher, and President Hamid Karzai has ordered an investigation. Officials at the commission said it was reasonable to estimate that Afghanistan had hundreds of such cases in a year.
"It is not only in Herat; it is in all of Afghanistan," said Dr. Soraya Rahim, deputy minister of women's affairs, on her return from a government investigative trip to Herat.
"It takes different forms in different provinces," she said in a telephone interview. "Some take tablets. Some cut their wrists. Some hang themselves. Some burn themselves.
"But the reason is very important. The first reason is our very bad tradition of forced marriage. Girls think this is the only way, that there is no other way in life."
Educated women in the cities who were repressed by the old Taliban government have benefited from the changes in Afghanistan, and many are now working and studying. But in villages and remote tribal areas, the new order has not improved women's longstanding low status.
Daughters are often exchanged between families, are given in marriage as compensation for crimes, or are married to men two or three times their age.
When young girls marry, they leave home to live with their husband's extended family, where the mother-in-law rules the household. Often they are seen as little more than a new source of labor.
While the authorities have little idea of the full extent of the burnings, because families hide them out of shame and often claim they are accidents, the desperate attempts of young women to escape lives dictated by tribal customs and a deeply conservative Islam are undeniable.
Often they resort to burning, since kerosene and cooking fuels are easily accessible to women. In heavily populated eastern Afghanistan, the chief of anesthesiology at Jalalabad's Public Hospital No. 1, Muhammad Naseem, said the hospital received an average of 20 burn cases a month, at least two or three of which were self-inflicted.
The rest were household accidents, most caused by pressure cookers, gas or oil stoves or kerosene lamps, which account for many more cases of burns to women and children than those that are self-inflicted.
Nurses often learn the difference only in moments of confidence, or they spot telltale signs of family problems, like the absence of hospital visits by the husband. For the first time, human rights officials are paying attention, too.
The tribal areas, populated by Pashtuns who live by a code entirely their own, are particularly harsh in their treatment of women, said Sharifa, an officer from the human rights commission in Jalalabad. Like many Afghans, she uses only one name.
She said that when she visited the women's wards of Hospital No. 1 one day last month, she found five women who had tried self-immolation. One morning at the hospital, one of the five died after suffering for 11 days.
Madina's account is typical of the hardships young women encounter. She was married at 15 in an exchange of daughters between two families, a common practice in Afghanistan. She married Din Muhammad, and his sister was married to her uncle.
Madina said she had borne two children - Najiba, 4, and Taj Muhammad, 2. When her husband was jailed for drug offenses three years ago, she moved back from Pakistan to live with her in-laws in the village of Charbagh, in eastern Afghanistan.
In the interview on the hospital terrace, Madina explained that her troubles began a year ago, when the girl who had married her uncle died during pregnancy. Madina's mother-in-law turned her grief on Madina. "She would say, `My daughter is in the grave, and you are still alive,' " Madina recounted.
In the hospital room, her mother-in-law, Bibi Khanum, a small woman with blue eyes and tiny hands, denied driving Madina to try to kill herself.
"God knows if it was cruelty," she said. "The reason she was impatient was because her husband was in jail."
"It's not true," Madina whispered.
Madina's husband, freed from prison and remorseful, has promised to take her to live away from the rest of the family. They are poor, and she is painfully thin and ill, but recovering. Away from her mother-in-law, she does not tremble.
Qadri Gul, 20, one of Dr. Naseem's patients, was less fortunate, dying after 11 days. Married for five years, she was the mother of two children. Her husband took a second wife shortly after they had wed, and she told the hospital staff and her family that her husband and her in-laws had beaten her daily, and had even encouraged her when she had threatened to burn herself.
She visited her parents and her numerous sisters in Jalalabad for the Muslim festival of Id al-Fitr in November. "Her body was completely bruised," her sister Basmina recalled. "She had marks on her buttocks and said, `I don't know if I will get better.' "
They did not tell their mother, who nevertheless sensed that all was not well. "She was upset," the mother, Bibi Jan, recalled. "She did not put henna on her hands. She looked unhappy."
She went home after the holiday with a toy car for her son, but when the children started fighting over it, she took it away. That sparked a fight with her husband. He slammed a glass into her head, knocking her out. When she regained consciousness, she threatened to kill herself by setting herself on fire.
"He laughed and said: `There are the matches and the kerosene. Burn yourself,' " Basmina recounted.
As she lay dying in the hospital, Qadri Gul told her mother and sisters what had happened. Sharifa from the human rights office also interviewed her.
Her mother said: "She blamed her husband, her brother-in-law and her mother-in-law. I will leave them to God, but I will just ask them the question `What did you do to my daughter?' " She was sitting in her courtyard, surrounded by relatives and mourners on the third day after her daughter's death.
"She was a very good girl," her mother said. "From neck to legs she was burnt."
--------
U.S. Rebuked on Afghans in Detention
March 8, 2004
By DAVID ROHDE
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/08/international/asia/08AFGH.html
KABUL, Afghanistan, March 7 - A human rights group on Sunday accused American forces in Afghanistan of detaining at least 1,000 Afghans and other people over the past two years in "a climate of almost total impunity" that it contends violates international human rights law. A spokesman for the American military in Afghanistan disputed the findings.
In a 60-page report issued Sunday, the group, Human Rights Watch, also called on the United States military to release the results of investigations into the deaths of three Afghans in American custody in 2002 and 2003. Initial military medical investigators declared two of the deaths homicides.
The report also said it had received "numerous reports" of American forces relying on faulty intelligence or using "excessive or indiscriminate force" that resulted in avoidable civilian deaths and the detention of innocent people. It contended that the United States was employing interrogation techniques, like shackling prisoners, stripping them naked or depriving them of sleep, that the State Department had condemned as torture in countries like Libya, North Korea and Iran.
"There is little doubt that U.S. policies on the detention of terrorism suspects both in Afghanistan and elsewhere have harmed public opinion of the United States around the world," the report said. "This course of action is shortsighted and damaging to the rule of law, not only in Afghanistan but across the world."
Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty, a spokesman for the American-led coalition in Afghanistan, said American forces were acting properly. He said the procedures used in the main American detention facility at Bagram Air Base just north of Kabul had been changed.
"We are in complete compliance with the laws of combat," he said.
Much of the report focused on the treatment of detainees in Bagram and other facilities across the country. The International Committee of the Red Cross is the only outside group allowed to visit the facilities and to carry messages between detainees and their families. For the past two years, the American military has refused to release information about the number of detainees it is holding, their nationalities or their names.
The report said detainees were in a legal limbo in which they could be held in indefinite secret detention, not formally charged and barred from contact with lawyers and journalists. It said the detainees in Afghanistan, no matter what their rank or role, had been treated as "unlawful combatants" who had far fewer legal rights than prisoners of war.
"They are held at the apparent whim of U.S. authorities, in some cases for more than a year," the report said. "The general lack of due process with the U.S. detention system violates both international humanitarian law and basic standard of human rights law."
Colonel Hilferty said the report did not take into account the fact that combat continues in Afghanistan and that using law enforcement methods was inappropriate. "We are engaged in combat operations," Colonel Hilferty said. "It's a war."
-------- africa
Zimbabwe seizes 'US plane' with military gear, 64 'mercenaries': minister
HARARE (AFP)
Mar 08, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040308195543.u5oox1kv.html
Zimbabwe has impounded a US-registered aircraft which landed at Harare airport with military equipment and 64 suspected mercenaries, Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi announced Monday.
In Washington, a US State Department official denied that the plane was registered in the United States, though said it might once have been. "It is not a US registered aircraft right now," the official said on condition of anonymity.
Mohadi said that a "United States of America-registered Boeing 727-100 cargo plane was detained last (Sunday) night at about 1930 hours (1730 GMT) at Harare International Airport after its owners had made a false declaration of its cargo and crew."
"The plane was actually carrying 64 suspected mercenaries of various nationalities," the minister told a press conference.
"Further investigations also revealed that on board the plane was military material."
State television showed footage of the plane late Monday.
Some of the equipment shown included satellite telephones, compasses, radios, military knives and boots, bolt-cutters and sleeping bags.
The television said that most of the suspects were white, "heavily built males".
The equipment found aboard the plane was usually used by "commandos on a special mission" it added.
In Pretoria, meanwhile, South African Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said that "the South African government is concerned at unconfirmed reports that some of the people on board may be South African nationals".
Pahad did not say where those reports came from, but added, in a statement: "Should the allegations that those South Africans on board are involved in mercenary activities prove true, this would amount to a serious breach of the Foreign Military Assistance Act which expressly prohibits the involvement of South Africans in military activities outside South Africa without the due authorisation of the National Conventional Arms Control Committee."
Mohadi said full details would be issued in due course but that in the meantime investigations were under way to establish the "true identities of the men and their ultimate mission".
The plane was moved to a military airbase, AFP was told.
What had been done with the men aboard was not immediately clear.
A US embassy official in Harare claimed "We know nothing about it" and the mystery deepened when the official in Washington confirmed: "It is not a US government or a US commercial aircraft as far as we know.
"I understand that at one point back in the 1970's someone may have owned it in the US but it hasn't been a US aircraft since the early 80s," the official said.
"I have no idea who owns it. There is no US citizen on board."
President Robert Mugabe has repeatedly accused the US government and the former colonial power, Britain, of trying to oust him since he was re-elected in controversial polls two years ago.
Relations between the United States and Zimbabwe worsened last week when US President George W. Bush renewed sanctions imposed on Mugabe and other government officials a year ago for allegedly undermining democracy in the southern African country.
Washington said it was widening the existing sanctions regime against Zimbabwe to include seven government-related businesses.
Bush said the Zimbabwe government was causing a breakdown of the rule of law, economic instability, and fomenting politically motivated violence, but Information Minister Jonathan Moyo responded angrily, referring to the Americans as "hamburger-eating imperialists".
Last month the EU extended sanctions it had imposed against Zimbabwe, to include an arms embargo as well as travel restrictions and a freeze on any overseas assets of 95 government officials, including Mugabe.
The economy of the former British colony has been in a nose-dive in recent years with international support drying up, and rates of inflation and interest skyrocketing to record highs of more than 600 percent.
Mugabe's reputation as an African statesman started fading in recent years after the country -- once the region's breadbasket -- slid into economic decline as land reforms which had been left unresolved for years, were jump-started with the violent occupation of white-owned farms.
-------- arms
China presses EU to lift arms embargo
BRUSSELS (AFP)
Mar 08, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040308200713.o88y248x.html
China's deputy foreign minister pressed the EU Monday to lift a 15-year-old arms embargo on Beijing, saying China has no plans for big increases in weapons imports as a result, EU sources said. But EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten reiterated a call for Beijing to take more "concrete steps" to improve human rights to ensure the lifting of the ban, imposed after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
In talks with Patten in Brussels, Yesui Zhang said China feels the ban was "inappropriate in the current context," and reiterated Beijing's respect for an EU code of conduct on arms imports to countries with human rights problems.
"They said that they were'nt expecting a huge rise in the quantity of arms imports. They understood that the code of conduct would still operate," said an EU source.
The arms embargo was imposed after June 1989, when China sent tanks to crush weeks-long pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in central Beijing, killing hundreds.
China has been lobbying hard for the ban to be lifted. "It's the result of the Cold War, and it's out of date," a foreign ministry spokeswoman said last month. "It's not in the interest of the development of China-EU relations."
A French-led drive to end the EU embargo is fueling tension with the United States, which is vehemently opposed to lifting the ban. But a growing number of EU states appear to support the move.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana has signalled support for lifting the ban. But diplomats say several EU countries, including the Netherlands and Sweden, are reluctant to lift the ban, citing China's human rights record.
Patten explained to Zhang that, while there is no direct link between the arms embargo and anything else, "it would be a great deal easier to persuade those who are not yet persuaded, for example the European Parliament, if they took some concrete steps to improve the human rights record," said the source.
Patten's spokeswoman Emma Udwin said last week that the EU is unlikely to reach an agreement on the issue at a summit in Brussels this month, although EU foreign ministers are likely to discuss it in April.
US and EU leaders locked horns over the issue in talks in Washington last week, with US Secretary of State Colin Powell expressing "concern" that the EU might lift the embargo.
French President Jacques Chirac said in January the embargo "makes no more sense today" and that he hoped it would be scrapped "in the coming months."
Even Britain, which was at the forefront of the EU arms ban in 1989, appears at least open to lifting the ban.
"Our position is that we do accept the need for a review of the arms embargo. We think there probably is an issue about modernizing it," said a British source.
Zhang's meeting with Patten was part of formal preparations for a visit to Brussels in May by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and a trip to China by European Commission head Romano Prodi in April, and to assess the state of relations.
-------- balkans
US Navy, Marines hold manoeuvres in Albania
TIRANA (AFP)
Mar 08, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040308161605.4ivoqcpw.html
A US Navy strike group and special marines task force began exercises Monday with the Albanian military, officials said.
"The propose of the exercise is to conduct training in expeditionary strike group warfare capabilities ... " the US embassy in Tirana said in a statement.
It said the US forces included "special operations capable" marines and the USS Wasp Expeditionary Strike Group.
Albanian defence ministry spokesman Igli Hasani said the five-day exercises were part of ongoing military cooperation between the two countries and would help Albania prepare for eventual NATO membership.
Albania has put its air and naval bases at the disposal of NATO forces and has sent a small contingent of troops to assist the US-led coalition in Iraq.
-------- business
federal contracts
Monday, March 8, 2004
Washington Post States News Service
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A39110-2004Mar7?language=printer
Civilian Police International LLC of Alexandria won a $1.6 billion contract from the State Department of State for support services for peace operations and other complex security operations overseas.
Orkand Corp. of Falls Church won a $100 million contract from the Postal Service for technical support services.
Sentel Corp. of Alexandria won a $22 million contract from the Defense Department to test and evaluate domestic and foreign weapon systems.
Shaw Environmental Inc. of Centreville won a $15.84 million contract from the Defense Energy Support Center for conducting a comprehensive survey of fuel facilities for the Defense Department.
Advanced Resources International of Arlington won a contract valued at up to $5 million from the General Services Administration's Federal Supply Service for management, organizational and business improvement services.
Frederick Ward Associates of Bel Air, Md., won a $2.5 million contract with the Postal Service for architectural and engineering services.
OPX Architecture/Interiors of Washington won a $2.5 million contract from the Postal Service for architectural and engineering services.
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Emerging Markets Ltd. of Washington won a contract valued at up to $2.38 million from the General Services Administration's Federal Supply Service for management, organizational and business improvement services.
Ashe Facility Services Inc. of Yorktown, Va., won a $2.26 million contract from the Navy's Facilities Engineering Command for grounds maintenance services.
AT&T Government Solutions of Vienna won a $1.8 million contract from the Air Force for voice and data services.
SRA International Inc. of Fairfax won a $1.67 million contract from the Air Force Materiel Command for information technology research and development services for command, control, communications, computers and intelligence applications.
AT&T Government Solutions of Vienna won a $1.5 million contract from the Air Force for local voice and data services.
Anixter Federal of Reston won a $1.18 million contract from the Justice Department's Federal Prison Industries/UNICOR for cables.
Varco/Mac Electrical Construction Co. of Annapolis Junction, Md., won an $845,000 contract from the Postal Service to install a fire alarm system.
AT&T Government Solutions of Vienna won a $676,000 contract from the Marine Corps to upgrade its computer hardware acquisitions tracking system.
Mid-American Elevator Co. of Alexandria won a $632,760 contract from the General Services Administration's Public Buildings Service for elevator maintenance.
ITT Industries Inc. of Roanoke, Va., won a $375,552 contract from the Naval Inventory Control Point for optic-cell assemblies.
John Mercer of Alexandria won a contract valued at up to $307,500 from the General Services Administration's Federal Supply Service for management, organizational and business improvement services.
Litton Systems Inc. of Blacksburg, Va., won a $201,246 contract from the Defense General Supply Center for motor rotors.
Smiths Aerospace Inc. of Sterling won a $163,083 contract from the Defense Industrial Supply Center for pins.
Central Parking System of Washington won a $146,440 contract from the Homeland Security Department's Secret Service for parking spaces.
First Dawn & Associates of Newport News, Va., won a contract valued at up to $125,000 from the General Services Administration's Federal Supply Service for special purpose clothing.
Oracle Surveillance Systems Ltd. of Baltimore won a contract valued at up to $125,000 from the General Services Administration's Federal Supply Service for construction and building materials.
Marine Air Supply Co. of Fredrick won a $114,955 contract from the Defense Supply Center for circuit breakers.
Radian Inc. of Alexandria won a $92,748 contract from the Defense Supply Center for electrical cable.
Milspareco Inc. of Richmond won an $83,922 contract from the Defense Supply Center for breakaway airline emergency air brake parts kits.
Wichitech Industries Inc. of Columbia won an $83,910 contract from the Defense General Supply Center for composite repairs.
Radisson Plaza/Lord Baltimore Hotel of Baltimore won a $72,975 contract from the Veterans Affairs Department for hotel accommodations.
Dela Technology Corp. of Rockville won a $70,490 contract from the Defense Supply Center for night vision image intensifier.
Dela Technology Corp. of Rockville won a $66,182 contract from the Defense Supply Center for control unit diesel engine governors.
Comptech Corp. of Rockville won a $64,575 contract from the Defense Supply Center for fuel filters.
Fairfax Precision Manufacturing Inc. of Sterling won a $62,640 contract from the Defense General Supply Center for lower clamp frames.
Metalcraft Inc. of Baltimore won a $55,685 contract from the Defense Industrial Supply Center for fire extinguishers.
Comptech Corp. of Rockville won a $51,990 contract from the Defense Supply Center for electrical receptacle connectors.
These contracts were awarded by the federal government to companies in Maryland, Virginia and the District. For more information, call States News Service at 202-628-3100, ext. 266.
-------- haiti
Kerry: I'd have sent Aristide US troops
By Roy Eccleston, Washington correspondent
March 08, 2004
Australian
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,8898017%255E2703,00.html
DEMOCRATIC presidential candidate John Kerry has struck out at Republican attempts to portray him as a weak commander-in-chief by declaring he would have sent troops to protect the democratically elected president of Haiti who fled just over a week ago.
Senator Kerry said he would have been prepared to use the US military, unilaterally if necessary - a swipe at President George W.Bush's claim that under the Democrats the US would need the world's permission to use its troops.
He previously has accused the White House of effectively backing Haiti's rebels in their attempt to force out President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, but he added yesterday that the US has sent a "terrible message" to democracies in its own region.
"Look, Aristide was no picnic and did a lot of things wrong," Senator Kerry told The New York Times in his first foreign policy interview since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee last week.
"But we had understandings in the region about the right of a democratic regime to ask for help. And we contravened all of that."
His shot was one of several fired as the two sides prepared for an eight-month tussle for the presidency.
Mr Bush, meeting Mexican President Vicente Fox at his Texas ranch, was forced to defend his economic policy in the face of continued weak job growth, as well as his use of the September 11 terror attacks in election ads.
But he also made a push for the votes of Hispanics - now the largest minority in the US - with a promise that Mexicans who travelled frequently to the US would bypass the requirement that foreigners be fingerprinted and photographed.
At a press conference after the meeting with Mr Fox, Mr Bush rejected calls by some families of victims of the 2001 attacks to withdraw the ads.
They feature a fleeting image of the ruins of the World Trade Centre in New York and a flag-draped firefighter's coffin.
Mr Bush told reporters he had an "obligation" to keep talking about the attacks, and how his administration had handled that day and the war on terrorism that followed.
"I will continue to speak out about the effects of 9/11 on our country and my presidency," Mr Bush said.
"I have an obligation to those who died. I have an obligation to those who were heroic in their attempt to rescue. And I won't forget that obligation."
Senator Kerry has declined to comment on the ads, but lashed out yesterday at Mr Bush's failure to live up to his promises to create 4million jobs in the wake of poor new employment figures last month. Just 21,000 new jobs were added in February, well below an estimate last year by Treasury Secretary John Snow that the improving US economy would create an average of 200,000 new jobs a month.
"The economy is getting stronger," Mr Bush insisted. "We've overcome a lot. We've been through a recession. We've been through an attack. We've been through corporate scandals. We've been through war."
In Houston, Texas, Senator Kerry seized on the job numbers to attack Mr Bush's record on the economy, the most important issue in voters' minds.
"Didn't he promise 4 million jobs would be created with those tax cuts?" Senator Kerry asked, referring to three sets of tax cuts that have been the centrepiece of the Bush administration's economic strategy.
--------
Gunfire Kills 5 During a March in Haiti Capital
March 8, 2004
By TIM WEINER and LYDIA POLGREEN
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/08/international/americas/08HAIT.html?pagewanted=all&position=
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, March 7 - At least five people were killed Sunday when gunfire broke out near the presidential palace, after thousands of Haitians, including rebel leaders, marched peacefully through the capital to the palace gates.
The demonstrators, who had marched beside a convoy of armed United States marines and French troops, were calling for a new government and a new army.
Four Haitians and a Spanish television journalist died from gunshot wounds, said Dr. Ronald Georges, a surgeon at the overwhelmed emergency room of the Canape Vert Hospital in the capital. At least 20 people were wounded by "high-velocity weapons," Dr. Georges said.
The carnage marred a march that was by far the largest in Haiti since President Jean-Bertrand Aristide fled into exile a week ago under American pressure, after a monthlong rebellion that had threatened to plunge Haiti into anarchy.
An international peacekeeping force led by the United States has since begun to take control in Haiti, but both Aristide supporters and opponents remain heavily armed, resisting American calls to turn in their weapons. The results of their recalcitrance were plainly displayed Sunday, when men identified by witnesses as militant supporters of Mr. Aristide fired on a crowd of peaceful demonstrators.
Thousands of Mr. Aristide's opponents were gathered near the palace gates when the shooting started. Witnesses said the gunmen were chimères, the toughs Mr. Aristide had used to enforce his authority.
"The chimères just started shooting at us out of nowhere," said Sacha Baker, an opposition protester. "The cops started shooting back, and a lot of people were hit. The marines were nowhere to be seen."
Three marines returned fire from inside the palace gates, said Maj. Richard Crusan, a Marines spokesman in Port-au-Prince. He said a first volley came from outside the gates at 2:40 p.m. and a second from outside the gates eight minutes later.
A small contingent of marines came from inside the palace gates to aid some of the wounded. The marines who were with the parade of demonstrators all morning did not go all the way to the palace, but stopped to secure checkpoints a few blocks away at midday, about two hours before the shooting.
Three witnesses said the gunfire had begun in the Rue Lamarre, 100 yards from the palace gates. They said the shooting stopped after a group of marines came from inside the palace gates toward the armed Aristide supporters, then resumed after the marines went back to the palace carrying wounded people.
"The Marines need to change the rules of engagement," said Charles Baker, a prominent Aristide opponent who helped bring the wounded to the hospital. "They need to protect us or they need to go home and let us protect ourselves."
At the hospital emergency room, doctors struggled to cope with the nearly two dozen gunshot victims. The most seriously wounded lay on gurneys; half a dozen men writhed in pools of blood on the floor. Orderlies in lime-green suits struggled to mop up the pools of blood as each victim passed through, but their yellow buckets were soon full of crimson water.
"We have just two operating rooms," Dr. Georges said. "We are doing the best we can."
In the waiting room, a woman in a black cap screamed: "César is dead! César is dead! We were just together marching, and now he is dead!" Inside the emergency room, behind a screen, lay a dead man, his head covered with a white sheet. A piece of paper taped to his belly identified him: César Milfort.
Guy Philippe, the rebel leader whose actions helped push Mr. Aristide into exile, visited victims at the hospital, his face contorted as he saw their wounds. Mr. Philippe, who has said he would disarm his men with the expectation that American troops would protect the Haitian people but has not yet done so, criticized the marines. "They haven't done anything," he said.
Ricardo Ortega, the New York correspondent for the Spanish broadcast network Antena 3, died of a gunshot wound to the abdomen. The wounded included an American photographer, Michael Laughlin, 37, who was on assignment for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, of Fort Lauderdale. He was shot in the shoulder and cheek, but the wounds were not life threatening, doctors said.
The march to the presidential palace began at about 9:15 a.m., less than six hours before the shooting, when about 50 marines, French soldiers and Haitian policemen rolled up to St. Peter's Church in Pétionville, a suburb of Port-au-Prince, during a Mass.
Several hundred demonstrators immediately set out with the rolling convoy of foreign soldiers, making them part of the march. The river of people grew to many thousands as it reached Toussaint L'Ouverture Boulevard, named after the leader of the slave revolt that created a free Haiti in 1804.
The demonstration surged past the Marine convoy, carrying troops armed with .50-caliber machine guns and assault rifles. Mr. Philippe, the rebel leader, appeared in the crowd next to the marines. The demonstrators sang his praises, and a marine telephoned superiors to report Mr. Philippe's presence.
Mr. Philippe has called for the restoration of the notorious Haitian Army, and so did some demonstrators. The army overthrew Mr. Aristide in 1991 and the United States restored him to power in 1994.
The marchers supported a new government, freed both from the influence of Mr. Aristide's party, Lavalas, and from United States forces.
"We don't want Lavalas!" the crowd sang. "We don't want occupation!" Others chanted "Bring back the army!" and "Fix the police!" They also cheered for Louis-Jodel Chamblain, a former Haitian military officer convicted of killing Aristide supporters.
Hundreds of the marchers called for the arrest of Mr. Aristide's prime minister, Yvon Neptune. Pamphlets, signs and chants supported a retired Haitian Army lieutenant general, Hérard Abraham, to replace him. A seven-member "council of elders" is supposed to select a new prime minister in two or three days.
Mr. Abraham was a member of a military junta in the late 1980's. But, unique among modern Haitian Army officers, he handed power to a civilian leader, the sitting chief justice of the Supreme Court, in 1990. That opened the way to Haiti's first free elections in December 1990, which Mr. Aristide won, only to be overthrown by the army the next year.
As radio reports filtered through the crowd about a possible counterdemonstration by Aristide supporters, the anti-Aristide crowd sang a song in Creole about them. It went something like this, "They're here, they're weird, look out for them."
--------
Statement From Aristide
March 8, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/08/international/africa/08ARIS.html
BANGUI, Central African Republic, March 7 - Jean-Bertrand Aristide said in a message read out by a Central African minister on Sunday that he was being well treated in this African state, to which he came a week ago after stepping down from the Haitian presidency.
But the government of the Central African Republic refused to let Mr. Aristide's wife, Mildred, address a news conference called to reassure the public that Mr. Aristide was not being held a virtual prisoner.
"We have been very well received" at the presidential palace by President François Bozize, said the brief message handed by Mrs. Aristide to Foreign Minister Charles Wenezoui in front of reporters.
Mr. Wenezoui refused requests to allow Mrs. Aristide, who looked calm but slightly uncomfortable, to speak.
-------- iraq
The Master Operator
You might think Ahmad Chalabi is discredited and despised. But he's still growing more powerful
By Christopher Dickey
Newsweek
March 8, 2004
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4409622/
Nobody seems to love Ahmad Chalabi anymore. From the moment he flew into Iraq last year with a band of U.S.-trained militia at his side, many locals saw him as an interloper, a pretender and, in some eyes, an American lackey. These days, when the U.S.-run administration in Baghdad takes confidential polls to gauge public support for its hand-picked Iraqi Governing Council, Chalabi's approval ratings are "the most negative by far" among the 25 members, says an official who's perused the results. "The numbers I've seen run around 60 percent negative to 30 percent positive."
Chalabi is equally unpopular in some Washington fiefdoms. State Department officials and CIA agents have loathed him for years, raising questions about subjects ranging from his expense accounts to the intelligence he supplied on Iraq's phantom weapons of mass destruction. Even Chalabi's friends and patrons at the Pentagon may be having doubts. Privately, some of Chalabi's aides complain their old buddies in the office of the secretary of Defense have forgotten them.
So you might think Chalabi is discredited and finished. But then you'd be wrong-very wrong. On the contrary, the former exile leader has insinuated himself into several of the most powerful positions inside occupied Iraq. This MIT-trained mathematician, a great judge of political odds, knows just how to play both ends against the middle.
A huge stain on Chalabi's reputation, widely known in Iraq, is his conviction in absentia for massive bank fraud in neighboring Jordan during the 1980s. (Chalabi denies the charges and claims Saddam Hussein had a hand in framing him.) Never mind all that. Chalabi is now head of the Governing Council's economic and finance committee. As such he has overseen the appointment of the minister of oil, the minister of finance, the central bank governor, the trade minister, the head of the trade bank and the designated managing director of the largest commercial bank in the country. For the moment, U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer writes the big checks and can veto policies. But all that will change on June 30, the Bush administration's self-imposed deadline for returning sovereignty to an Iraqi government. "Ahmad is positioning himself," says one cabinet minister. "He is a master tactician."
Chalabi's other major source of strength is the De-Baathification Commission, which he heads. Its mandate-to work against former members of Saddam's regime and his Baath Party-is so wide-ranging that even one of Chalabi's aides calls it "a government within the government." It's empowered to oversee educational reform, track down Saddam's funds, purge senior Baathists from government jobs and occasionally reinstate those who can convince the commission they weren't complicit in Saddam's crimes. The backbone of the operation is a vast collection of secret documents seized from Saddam's files. To process them, according to one Chalabi aide, the De-Baathification Commission has 50 document scanners. There are only 20 other scanners in all the rest of the government.
Chalabi's latest feints have been toward the powerful Shiite religious leadership in Iraq, including Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. (Chalabi has long had close ties to the Iranian mullahs, too.) He voiced support for Islamic law, then had a representative of his vote against it last week. As members of the Governing Council struggled to reach agreement on the "fundamental law," or interim constitution that was supposed to be approved by Feb. 28, Chalabi's representative then joined seven other Shiite council members who stormed out of the meeting. "Chalabi is riding the Sistani wave," says one of his critics on the council.
Both Iraqi and U.S. officials in Baghdad say it's almost certain that on June 30, the government that does receive sovereignty-and the purse strings-will be either the current, appointed council, or some variation on it. Will Chalabi and his people still be in place, still powerful? You can just about bank on it.
----
Deal struck on Iraq constitution
March 8, 2004
Sydney Morning Herald
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/03/07/1078594240274.html
An Iraqi Shi'ite official yesterday said a deal had been struck on Iraq's interim constitution, after talks at the home of Shi'ite religious leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani.
"You will hear very good news, very soon, the signing will take place Monday," Governing Council member Muwaffaq al-Rubaie told reporters two days after his religious bloc withdrew their endorsement and pulled out of a signing ceremony.
Mr Rubaie and Ahmad Chalabi, along with Abdel Adel Mahdi, a representative of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), visited Ayatollah Sistani for 25 minutes as informal talks proceeded on how to break the deadlock on the country's transitional law.
"We think Sistani does not want to provoke a crisis in the country but, to the contrary, wishes to facilitate our work to make the political process succeed and without any interruption," Mr Rubaie said.
Both Mr Chalabi and Mr Rubaie later headed to Baghdad.
The Governing Council's current president also voiced optimism that the body would meet Monday's crucial deadline.
"We are headed towards an agreement on the unresolved issues. The signing of the provisional constitution must happen today at 2pm (1100 GMT)," Mohammed Barhul al-Uloom told reporters.
He spoke after meeting Ayatollah Sistani's son, Mohammed Rida, who shuttled back and forth relaying messages between his father and the emissaries sent by the Governing Council.
He was accompanied by Mr Chalabi, Mr Rubaie, Ahmed Shayyah Barak, Rajaa Habib Khuzai and representatives from the Islamist parties Dawa and SCIRI.
The Shi'ite bloc skipped the signing on Friday because they disagreed with a clause in the basic law that gave what they felt to be unfair power to the Kurdish north.
They also wanted a greater presence in Iraq's next executive, and indicated concern about Kurdish becoming an official state language, a source close to the negotiations told AFP.
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Iraqis Sign Interim Constitution After Shiites Drop Objections
March 8, 2004
By DEXTER FILKINS
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/08/international/09CND_IRAQ.html?hp
BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 8 - The Iraqi Governing Council signed the interim constitution today after Shiite leaders ended a deadlock that had threatened to undermine the transfer of sovereignty by the American-led occupation force to the Iraqi people scheduled for later this year.
All 25 members of the Iraqi council signed the document during a ceremony in Baghdad, which the president of the council, Sayyed Muhammad Bahr al-Uloum, called a "historic moment, decisive in the history of Iraq."
The Shiite leaders, who had refused last week to approve the interim constitution, said they had agreed to sign it despite their concerns that it could grant a relatively small number of people veto power over Iraq's permanent constitution, which is to be written after nationwide elections are held this year or next.
They said they had made their decision to endorse the constitution after receiving the approval of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the country's most powerful Shiite leader, adding that he had dropped his objections because he did not want to spoil the Iraqis' opportunity to get a constitution, even an imperfect one.
Ayatollah Sistani, who had touched off the impasse last week by expressing his concerns to the Shiite leaders, today said in a statement that the interim constitution makes it harder for the drafting of a permanent charter, placing "obstacles to arriving at a permanent constitution for the country," and that any further law must be endorsed by an elected national assembly.
Until Sunday, the ayatollah had all but dictated to American officials the terms of such important political questions as elections. Comments by Ayatollah Sistani in January, for instance, scuttled an agreement by which a future Iraqi national assembly would have been selected in a series of nationwide caucuses.
"We've decided to sign the constitution and resolve the problems in it later," said Hamid al-Bayati, a senior leader with the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, one of the groups that had refused to sign the document on Friday.
"Sistani and the others are not micromanaging the political process," said a Shiite political leader who met with Ayatollah Sistani on Sunday, and who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "They have confidence in the Shiite representatives. They understand the political realities. As long as the issue is stated and put out in the open, then they are not going to stand in the way."
On Friday the ceremony was canceled when the 5 Shiites, among the 13 Shiites who are on the council, objected at the last moment and failed to show up. Council members preferred to have unanimous agreement on the document.
In an attack that underlined the difficulties of restoring security, guerrillas fired mortars at a Baghdad police station today, wounding two policemen and three civilians, the Iraqi police said. The deadlock over the interim constitution had pitted the country's majority Shiites against its Kurdish minority in the north. The dispute arose over language that allows the permanent constitution to be ratified by a majority vote of the Iraqi people. With a majority of the votes, the constitution would pass, unless it were opposed by a two-thirds majority in 3 of the country's 18 provinces. In that case, it would fail.
That language was inserted into the interim constitution to reassure the Kurds, who want to retain the autonomous status they have enjoyed since 1991. The Shiite leaders said the clause meant that the constitution could be held hostage to a relatively small number of voters.
When the Shiite leaders insisted that language be deleted, Kurdish leaders threatened to back out of the constitution.
"We already have our own government," one Kurdish official said on Sunday, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "If the Shiites try to make us obey, we won't ask for anything. We will just keep what we have."
The negotiations over the constitution unfolded Sunday as the American compound in Baghdad was attacked by a salvo of seven rockets.
Five of the rockets hit the Rashid Hotel, a target of previous attacks. The other two rockets landed near the American-controlled convention center, where the signing ceremony was scheduled to take place. Officers on the scene said one person was slightly wounded.
It was unclear whether the attackers had timed the rocket explosions to precede the signing ceremony, but an American officer suggested that they might have done so.
"I think there are definitely people who are trying to stop the new Iraq from emerging," said Lt. Col. Randy Lane, standing near the spot where the rockets had been launched.
The rockets were fired from a Toyota Land Cruiser parked just outside the American compound. Two rockets did not go off, and minutes later, the car exploded. An Iraqi security official said the car had been rigged with a bomb.
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Shiites Agree to Sign Iraqi Charter
Officials Say Top Cleric Will Not Block Passage
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, March 8, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A38116-2004Mar7?language=printer
BAGHDAD, March 7 -- Shiite Muslim political leaders who had refused to sign the country's interim constitution said Sunday that they would approve the document without changes on Monday despite concerns voiced by the country's top cleric.
The reversal appeared to signal the end of an embarrassing deadlock over a U.S.-backed document that is designed to prepare Iraq for self-government and enshrine broad protections for individual rights. Officials of Iraq's Governing Council said they hoped to convene a signing ceremony on Monday, resurrecting an event that was canceled Friday after five Shiite leaders balked at the last minute.
A few hours after the Shiite leaders announced their willingness to sign, at least seven rockets exploded a block away from the Baghdad conference center where the ceremony is scheduled to occur. Five rockets struck the al-Rashid Hotel, inside the Green Zone, a high-security swath of the capital where thousands of U.S. personnel live and work. An American contractor was injured in the attack, a military spokesman said.
The Shiite politicians agreed to change their position after meeting with the cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, in the holy city of Najaf. In refusing to sign the document on Friday, the politicians said Sistani had rejected two provisions in the interim constitution, one that would give ethnic Kurds, who make up 20 percent of Iraq's population, effective veto power over a permanent constitution and another that would establish a single president under the transitional administration.
After Sunday's meeting, which lasted for about 30 minutes, a top aide to one of the political leaders said Sistani was not happy with the provisions but would not order the politicians to reject the document.
"Sistani has reservations, but it will not constitute an obstacle," the aide, Mohammed Hussein Bahr Uloum, told reporters in Najaf.
Uloum, the son of Mohammed Bahr Uloum, one of the five Shiite dissenters and the council's current president, said Shiite leaders would sign the interim constitution "as it stands."
Although the Shiite leaders refused to divulge the substance of their discussions with Sistani, they suggested that they had received approval from the grand ayatollah to sign the document, known as the Transitional Administrative Law.
"The news is very good," said Mowaffak Rubaie, one of the Shiite Governing Council members who met with Sistani. "We are very happy that Ayatollah Sistani understands our point. We came to clarify the reason of delaying signing the law."
Sistani, Rubaie said, "understands the explanation we gave him. He doesn't want to create a crisis in the country. He wants to facilitate our work and the political process in Iraq."
Mohammed Hussein Hakim, the son of another senior Shiite cleric who participated in discussions with the politicians, told the Reuters news service that religious leaders were not pleased with the document but they also did not want to block it.
"The religious authorities have made their position clear to the politicians, but don't want to interfere directly," Hakim told Reuters. "They have deep reservations, but also know this interim constitution is a step in the right direction."
The U.S. administrator of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, confirmed that the Shiites had agreed to approve the constitution. "The indications we're getting from what we've heard are that the Governing Council is going to get together tomorrow and sign it tomorrow, and I hope that will happen," Bremer said on CNN's "Late Edition."
The Shiites' initial refusal to sign provided a clear demonstration of the political influence of Sistani and other top clerics. Sistani has vowed to refrain from interfering in the day-to-day operations of government, but he has taken an intense interest in the interim constitution. He has indicated he believes it to be central to Iraq's democratic transition and the guarantee of religious freedom for Shiites, a majority that was long oppressed by deposed president Saddam Hussein's Sunni Muslim-dominated government.
Sistani had earlier demanded that elected individuals draft a constitution, foiling the Bush administration's first transition plan. A second plan, to select an interim government through regional caucuses, was also gutted by Sistani's objections, forcing the administration to agree to hold elections for a transitional government by early next year.
The interim constitution is designed to remain in force until an elected assembly agrees on a permanent charter and it is approved in a nationwide referendum.
The Shiites wanted to delete a clause in the interim constitution that says a permanent charter will not go into effect if two-thirds of the voters in any three provinces reject it, even if the document receives a nationwide majority. Because ethnic Kurds control three provinces in the north, the provision would effectively give the Kurds the ability to scuttle a constitution.
The Kurds regard the provision as an insurance policy that would prevent a Shiite majority from dictating the terms of the constitution, which is supposed to be written next year by an elected transitional assembly.
The five Shiite dissenters also wanted the government that takes power after elections to be headed by a five-member presidency instead of a single president and two powerful vice presidents as outlined by the interim constitution. The Shiites fear that the authority of the president, presumably a Shiite, would be diluted by the two vice presidents, who would almost certainly be a Sunni Arab and a Kurd. Instead, the Shiites wanted a five-member co-presidency that could have given the Shiites a 3-to-2 majority.
Kurdish and Sunni Arab leaders have refused to make changes to the document, which was agreed to last Monday after laborious negotiations.
A senior Kurdish leader said he was "cautiously optimistic" the interim constitution would be signed on Monday. "The indications are positive," the leader said. "But we have to wait until they sign."
The five Shiites who refused to sign the interim document were Rubaie, Uloum, Ahmed Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress, Abdul Aziz Hakim of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and Ibrahim Jafari of the Dawa party.
-------- israel / palestine
At Least 14 Palestinians Killed in Firefight in Gaza
Battle Ensues After Israelis Attempt Incursion
By Molly Moore
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, March 8, 2004; Page A11
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37532-2004Mar7.html
JERUSALEM, March 7 -- At least 14 Palestinians, including three children, were killed and 80 others wounded Sunday during a chaotic firefight in the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli military officials and eyewitness accounts.
The clash occurred when Palestinian fighters armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles, molotov cocktails and crude antitank missiles prevented Israeli tanks and armored bulldozers from carrying out an operation in two Gaza Strip refugee camps, witnesses and officials said. No Israeli soldiers were reported killed or wounded.
The eight-hour battle between Palestinians using guerrilla-style hit-and-run tactics and Israeli armored forces was one of the most deadly encounters in months in the Gaza Strip, where combat has intensified while Israeli political leaders debate a proposal by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to consider evacuating Jewish settlements in Gaza.
An Israeli spokesman said the pre-dawn