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NUCLEAR
China's Economic Engine Needs Power (Lots of It)
DEPLETED URANIUM SHELLS DECRIED
Experts to discuss uranium test results
U.S. Widens View of Pakistan Link to Korean Arms
UN nuclear watchdog needs more cooperation from Pakistan
India and Nuclear Proliferation
Iran Freezes Nuclear Inspections After It Is Censured by the U.N
Iranians Bar Further Nuclear Inspections
Iran May Harden Position Against IAEA
Lasting Discord Clouds Talks on North Korean Nuclear Arms
DUAL USE Buy a Golf Club, Build a Bomb
Democrats Demand Inquiry Into Charge by Medicare Officer
MILITARY
U.S. directs new 'Storm' at al Qaeda, Taliban
U.S. Launches New Operation in Afghanistan
Chinese Leaders Speak of Reform, But How Quickly?
Top Bush Aides Say Attack Won't Shake Europe's Resolve
Marines kill two as top general arrives
Iraq-Iran Border to Be Tightened in Bid to Stem Attacks
U.S. Tightens Security Measures at Iraq's Borders
Roadside Bombs in Iraq Kill 4 U.S. Soldiers
Suicide Attacks Leave 11 Dead in Israel
Attack in Israeli Port Kills at Least 10; Talks Called Off
'Special skills draft' on drawing board
White House Marks Invasion Anniversary
Rumsfeld: Iraq Weapons May Still Be Found
POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE
Border security to be beefed up
Yee's Lawyers Ask Army To Drop Serious Charges
Video asserts al Qaeda attacked Spain
Spain Links 3 Moroccans and 2 Indians to Bomb Case
Five Held in Madrid Blasts
OTHER
Little Action on Lead Warnings
WASA Backpedaling Prompts Confusion
ACTIVISTS
Thousands in S. Korea Protest Impeachment
War and resolution on the home front
U.S. families protest war
Protester is unrepentant
-------- NUCLEAR
-------- china
China's Economic Engine Needs Power (Lots of It)
By JIM YARDLEY
March 14, 2004
NY TIMES
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/14/weekinreview/14yard.html
BEIJING - For all the hoopla about China's booming economy, its manufacturing muscle and its potential to become a great power, the world's most populous country is struggling to keep the lights on. And the sporadic blackouts that plagued much of China last year are raising complicated questions for the Communist Party and for the rest of the world:
How and where will China get the energy it needs to maintain its economic growth? And how much will the environment suffer for it?
"It's one of the hottest issues facing the international energy industry," said Scott Roberts, chief representative in the Beijing office of Cambridge Energy Research Associates, a consulting firm based in Massachusetts. "The growth has been explosive, and I think it has caught many people in China and elsewhere off guard."
China's emergence has already roiled commodities markets, as the country has become a voracious consumer of energy and raw materials. Last year, its oil imports rose by nearly a third. It also built so many new cars, factories, airports and high-rises that it passed the United States to become the world's biggest steel importer, according to the Iron and Steel Statistics Bureau, a British-based information clearinghouse for the steel industry. Last year, China accounted for almost a third of the world's consumption of finished steel.
Electricity consumption jumped by 15 percent. Domestic coal production rose by 100 million tons - and still there were shortages.
Yet China's appetite today is modest compared with what is estimated for the future; the country's energy needs are expected to more than double by 2020. This prospect has the Communist Party reportedly rolling out plans for at least 100 new power plants, including nuclear, hydropower and coal-fired ones. It has also raised concerns that efforts to improve China's polluted environment will be muted by the demand for power.
China is trying just about every possible avenue to satisfy its power demands, and none offers a completely risk-free or "clean" solution. Plans call for at least 20 nuclear plants to be built by 2020. Hydropower projects, regarded by many Chinese officials as a clean power source, are threatening to disrupt the ecological balance on many important rivers that flow out of the high Tibetan plateau.
China's primary energy source, and its dirtiest, is coal, which accounts for almost 70 percent of the power supply. Coal is a primary source of greenhouse gases, and experts predict that by 2020 China could pass the United States to become the world's biggest source of carbon monoxide. That this is happening is perhaps not surprising, because America is an economic, if not political, model for China.
"The fundamental problem is that China is following the path of the United States, and probably the world cannot afford a second United States," said Zhang Jianyu, program manager for the Beijing office of Environmental Defense, an American-based advocacy group.
In an address earlier this month before the annual meeting of the National People's Congress, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao captured the competing pressures of the economy when he cited environmental protection and called for building a "conservation-minded society." Yet he also exhorted the country to develop more energy sources.
"We must speed up the development of large coal mines, important power generating facilities and power grids, the exploration and exploitation of petroleum and other important resources," he said.
Michelle Billig, a former energy attaché in the United States Embassy in Beijing, said China's leaders are improving energy efficiency and becoming more environmentally friendly. She noted that China is completing the creation of fuel-efficiency standards that are better than those in the United States. The government is also experimenting with buses and taxis that run on natural gas and expanding its use of ''clean'' coal technology.
"In some ways, they are addressing these issues a lot more seriously than we are in the United States," said Ms. Billig, now an international affairs fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations.
But experts agree that such efforts, as yet, are making only a tiny difference and that too often environmental restraints are brushed aside to meet the demand for power. Mr. Zhang said China's environmental degradation is already being measured in economic losses. He said state officials estimate that acid rain causes about $13 billion, while air pollution reduces the annual gross domestic product by about 3 percent.
China is also often inefficient in its energy use. Mr. Roberts, the Cambridge Energy consultant, said that the worst Chinese industries waste 70 percent more energy than their counterparts in the United States. He also noted that China's electricity consumption grew by 15 percent last year and 10.4 percent in 2002 - a spike in demand he said was equal to total power consumption in Brazil. "They are adding a middle-sized country every two years in terms of energy consumption," he said.
This helps explain why energy security is an increasingly important issue for Chinese leaders, particularly regarding oil. China began importing oil in the early 1990's, partly because its own supplies were leveling out, but also because of rising demand. Now the American invasion of Iraq has shown Chinese leaders, dependent on Middle East oil, how vulnerable they could become.
A December 2003 analysis of China's energy situation by Deutsche Bank noted that in response to the Iraq war, China has begun building a group of storage facilities to create a strategic oil reserve. The report also noted that the country is aggressively pursuing oil deals around the world, from neighboring Kazakhstan and Russia to other oil fields in South America and even Canada. Earlier this year, President Hu Jintao made visits to African countries with significant oil fields.
For now, power officials are warning citizens that another spate of blackouts is likely. Last year, nearly two-thirds of the provinces and autonomous regions experienced varying degrees of blackouts. This year, officials say, could be as bad, or maybe worse.
-------- depleted uranium
DEPLETED URANIUM SHELLS DECRIED
Citizens find Bush guilty of Afghan war crimes
By NAO SHIMOYACHI
The Japan Times:
March 14, 2004
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20040314a5.htm
A citizens' tribunal Saturday in Tokyo found U.S. President George W. Bush guilty of war crimes for attacking civilians with indiscriminate weapons and other arms during the U.S.-led antiterrorism operations in Afghanistan in 2001. The tribunal also issued recommendations for banning depleted uranium shells and other weapons that could indiscriminately harm people, compensating the victims in Afghanistan and reforming the United Nations in light of its failure to stop the U.S.-led operation there.
The tribunal participants spent two years examining Bush's role as the top commander in the war, making eight field trips to Afghanistan and holding nearly 20 public hearings.
"Bush said that military presence in Afghanistan is self-defense," said Robert Akroyd, a British lawyer who served as one of the five judges.
"But under international law," he said, "a defendant must pay great care to discriminate (between) legitimate objects and civilians" in claiming that one's act is self-defense, said Akroyd, former head of legal studies at Aston University in Britain.
Bush failed to do so with the U.S. military's use of "indiscriminate weapons such as the Daisy Cutter (a huge conventional bomb), cluster bombs and depleted uranium shells," he said.
Civilians and experts who have supported the tribunal movement agreed to work for creation of an international treaty that would prohibit the production, stockpile and use of depleted uranium rounds, like the Ottawa process that succeeded in 1997 in outlawing antipersonnel land mines.
Organizers said the tribunal on Afghanistan was the latest attempt to try a head of state by the efforts of citizens.
The history of citizens' tribunals dates back to the 1960s, when the British philosopher Bertrand Russell and others tried to examine the acts of the U.S. government during the Vietnam War.
--------
Experts to discuss uranium test results
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
3/14/2004
http://www.rgj.com/news/stories/html/2004/03/14/66187.php?sp1=rgj&sp2=News&sp3=Local+News&sp5=RGJ.com&sp6=news&sp7=local_news
State environmental regulators are scheduled to discuss recent water sampling for uranium in Yerington-area wells at a public meeting March 24.
The Nevada Division of Environmental Testing said tests in December revealed that eight of 27 wells tested had uranium concentrations that exceeded state and federal drinking water standards. The experts also will discuss potential health effects of uranium.
The meeting begins at 7 p.m. at the Casino West Convention Center, 11 N. Main St., Yerington. Officials will be there from 6 p.m. with a display of water sampling results.
-------- india / pakistan
U.S. Widens View of Pakistan Link to Korean Arms
March 14, 2004
By DAVID E. SANGER
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/14/international/asia/14KORE.html?hp=&pagewanted=all&position=
WASHINGTON, March 13 - A new classified intelligence report presented to the White House last week detailed for the first time the extent to which Pakistan's Khan Research Laboratories provided North Korea with all the equipment and technology it needed to produce uranium-based nuclear weapons, according to American and Asian officials who have been briefed on its conclusions.
The assessment, by the Central Intelligence Agency, confirms the Bush administration's fears about the accelerated nature of North Korea's secret uranium weapons program, which some intelligence officials believe could produce a weapon as early as sometime next year. The assessment is based in part on Pakistan's accounts of its interrogations of Abdul Qadeer Khan, the developer of Pakistan's bomb, who was pardoned by President Pervez Musharraf in January.
The report concluded that North Korea probably received a package very similar to the kind the Khan network sold to Libya for more than $60 million - including nuclear fuel, centrifuges and one or more warhead designs.
A senior American official described it as "the complete package," from raw uranium hexafluoride to the centrifuges to enrich it into nuclear fuel, all of which could be more easily hidden from weapons inspectors than were North Korea's older facilities to produce plutonium bombs.
In the report, Mr. Khan's transactions with North Korea are traced to the early 1990's, when Benazir Bhutto was the Pakistani prime minister, and the clandestine relationship between the two countries is portrayed as rapidly accelerating between 1998 and 2002. At the time, North Korea was desperate to come up with an alternative way to build a nuclear bomb because its main plutonium facilities were "frozen" under an agreement struck with the Clinton administration in 1994. North Korea abandoned that agreement late in 2002.
But the new assessment leaves two critical issues unresolved as the Bush administration attempts to use a mix of incentives and threats to persuade North Korea to dismantle its nuclear program, so far with little success.
American intelligence agencies still cannot locate the site or sites of any North Korean uranium enrichment facilities, meaning that if the six-party negotiations over the North's nuclear program fail, it would be virtually impossible to try to attack the facilities, which can be hidden in tunnels or inside mountains, undetectable by spy satellites.
American intelligence has also been unable to forecast exactly when the new facilities would be able to produce enough uranium to make a nuclear weapon. It takes several thousand centrifuges to efficiently produce enough uranium to make a nuclear weapon, but North Korea may only be assembling a few hundred a year.
"The best guess is still in the next year or two, but it is a guess," said one senior United States official with access to the new intelligence report. "That does not leave much time to find this thing and shut it down."
China has told the Bush administration that it believes North Korea is much farther away from creating a uranium bomb, and Chinese officials have dismissed the American concerns with references to mistakes made by American intelligence agencies in assessing Iraq's nuclear program and Saddam Hussein's reputed program to produce biological and chemical weapons.
But North Korea is a very different case. It developed its plutonium program in plain view of American satellites; it is believed to already possess two or more nuclear weapons; and it has bragged about its efforts to produce more.
The C.I.A.'s conclusions about North Korea's uranium were presented to senior White House officials, including the national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, in a series of briefings on March 4 and 5. That followed an inconclusive second round of negotiations involving the United States, North Korea, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia that produced agreements to hold more meetings but no commitment by North Korea to dismantle its nuclear program.
It is unclear whether President Bush, who has been deeply involved setting the strategy concerning North Korea but rarely discusses the issue in public, has yet personally received the new assessment.
The assessment is based partly on interviews that Pakistani officials have held with Mr. Khan and his associates from the Khan Research Laboratories. But so far, American officials have had no direct access to the Pakistani scientist, who is regarded as a hero in his country.
"What we are getting is second-hand accounts, which means the Pakistanis may be editing it," said one senior American diplomat.
The United States, in turn, is declining to reveal some details of its new assessment to some of its closest allies, including Japan, which has asked Pakistan to give it a separate set of briefings about Mr. Khan's confession.
The unusual American reluctance to share its full intelligence findings has led several senior Asian officials, in interviews in recent weeks, to speculate that the assessment is particularly sensitive because the lengthy timeline of transfers it describes inevitably leads to the conclusion that the Pakistani military was a major partner with Mr. Khan.
The evidence suggests that North Korean scientists worked at the Khan Laboratories in the late 1990's, ostensibly on missile technology, and that several of the critical shipments to Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, took place on Pakistani military cargo planes.
According to two officials with access to the intelligence at the time, American spy satellites repeatedly took photographs of Pakistani cargo planes on the tarmac at an airfield in Pyongyang. At the time, many officials believed the cargo planes were picking up parts for North Korean missiles; it was unclear whether they were also unloading material intended for North Korea.
But even then, one of the officials said, "we suspected there was a quid pro quo, and there was a lot of speculation on the nuclear side. But there was no evidence."
The issue is particularly sensitive for Mr. Bush and Mr. Musharraf. Despite the mounting evidence, the White House has decided not to challenge Mr. Musharraf's contention that the Pakistani military was never involved in nuclear transfers to North Korea, and that he was never personally aware of them.
Although Mr. Bush has vowed to pursue and prosecute those who spread nuclear weapons technology, the administration did not criticize Mr. Musharraf when he decided to pardon Mr. Khan, who ran what now appears to be one of the largest nuclear proliferation networks in the past half-century.
Administration officials have conceded that their decision was rooted in pragmatism: Mr. Musharraf's assistance was critical in the search for Osama bin Laden and other leaders of Al Qaeda. Mr. Bush decided, they said, that the search for the Qaeda leader must take priority over pressing Pakistan to hand over Mr. Khan and even over investigating the role of the Pakistani military.
The classified report is largely a history of the Khan Laboratories' dealings with North Korea, a relationship that dates back to the early 1990's. Many of those early dealings concerned importing North Korean missile technology to Pakistan, which needed long-range missiles that could reach virtually all parts of India. That Pakistani goal has now been reached, partly because of North Korea's help.
The report also detailed how Mr. Khan, who was already selling nuclear components to Iran, converted the relationship to that of two-way trade. By the late 1990's, he was sending raw uranium hexafluoride to North Korea directly from the Khan laboratory. North Korea also obtained parts for manufacturing its centrifuges, intelligence officials said, from some of the same factories and middle-men that supplied Libya.
--------
UN nuclear watchdog needs more cooperation from Pakistan - IAEA chief
WASHINGTON (AFP)
Mar 15, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040314231807.covis1jv.html
The UN nuclear watchdog needs more cooperation from Pakistan in its investigation of Iran's atomic program, which is suspected of developing nuclear weapons, the watchdog's chief Mohamed ElBaradei said Sunday.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general Mohamed ElBaradei told reporters on a flight from Vienna to Washington that he had "been in touch with Pakistan."
ElBaradei is to meet Wednesday with US President George W. Bush.
Pakistan has "been cooperating, but I still need more cooperation" from them in allowing "environmental sampling" to compare centrifuge components of a type sold through an international black market to Iran, ElBaradei said.
Iran claims contamination from particles on the imported components was the source of highly enriched uranium (HEU) discovered by the IAEA.
HEU can be used both as nuclear fuel in civilian reactors or as the raw material for an atomic bomb.
IAEA inspectors have found traces of HEU at two sites in Iran. The United States says the particles are proof that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons, despite Iran's claims of contamination.
The IAEA said in February that its investigation into Pakistani-led black market nuclear trading was on track, despite Islamabad's refusal to reveal documents or allow inspections of its facilities.
"We are intensely interested in this black market because it impacts on our ability to complete our work in Iran and Libya," IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky told AFP on February 6.
He was speaking after Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf rejected demands for an independent investigation, sharing of documents with the IAEA, or opening of nuclear installations to UN inspections.
This followed revelations by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, that he had shared sensitive nuclear technology with Iran, Libya and North Korea for more than a decade.
"This is a sovereign country, no documents will be submitted to the IAEA, to an independent inquiry and we will not allow UN to supervise our nuclear" programme, Musharraf said.
But IAEA officials would be welcome to visit and Pakistan would discuss with them the results of its own investigation, he said.
Pakistan is a member of the IAEA but not a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which empowers the agency to monitor worldwide compliance with nuclear safeguards.
The IAEA set off the Khan scandal when it alerted Pakistan last year that Iran had blueprints for centrifuges that were similar to ones Pakistan had used in building the bomb. Khan acquired those blueprints when he worked in the Netherlands in the 1970s.
ElBaradei said the Pakistani ambassador to the IAEA had said at an IAEA board of governors meeting in Vienna last week that the Pakistani government is "still investigating Mr. Kahn, even yesterday, even tomorrow."
"So I think I don't need to speak to him directly.
"We need to get all information from Paksitan through the Pakistani authorities. That's good enough for us," ElBaradei said.
--------
India and Nuclear Proliferation
By Momin lftikhar,
March 14, 2004
Pakistan Times
http://www.pakistantimes.net/2004/03/14/guest2.htm
EVER SINCE Dr A Q Khan's role in aiding Libya and Iran to acquire nuclear technology has come to light, India in her own smug way is endeavouring to use the episode as a catalyst for defining a new relation with the US. In this evolving equation India projects her image as a benign and responsible de facto nuclear Weapon State (NWS) with watertight non-proliferation credentials.
Creation of this shining perception is essential for India's seeking of common grounds with US in its global fight against terror and nuclear proliferation. Indian propaganda machinery led by her expert spin doctors use the leverage of this myth for justifying the logic of the Agreement for Strategic Cooperation between US and India, announced this January, which outlines the blueprints of cooperation between two countries in the vital quartet of space nuclear high tech trade and ballistic, missile defence fields. It should, therefore, be instructive to have a glance at India's record related to clandestine acquisition of nuclear' technology and proliferating the same in support of her policy objectives.
First, India owes its nuclear status to a persistent and no holds barred quest for nuclear weapon technology during which it resorted to all kinds of deceptions and hypocrisy. She brazenly used the camouflage of peaceful application of nuclear research to develop the bomb. When their activities aroused suspicion, Indians, despite strong pressure from the United States refused to place the key installations under International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) safeguards. Such stonewalling kept their nuclear development plan free of legal constraints that might limit development of nuclear weapons.
India had exploded a 'peaceful' nuclear device in 1974, but generated, true momentum for building up a nuclear stockpile in the eighties - Indira Gandhi, who returned to office in the beginning of 1980, declared that she would "not hesitate from carrying out nuclear explosions. or what ever is necessary in the national interest". At this point in time Mrs Gandhi authorised work on improved nuclear weapon design and fabrication of nuclear weapons components. Five facilities, which remained outside the IAEA safeguards or other external non-proliferation restrictions, worked feverishly to produce weapons grade plutonium. These were two nuclear power reactors Madras I and II (which could produce enough unsafeguard plutonium for 12 weapons annually); two Indian research reactors, the Cirus and Dhruva located at the Bhaba Atomic Research Centre (BARC) near Bombay (capable of producing plutonium for seven devices annually); and the Tarapur plutonium extraction plant. As the 1990's commenced, India continued to expand its quantum of plutonium production, free from IAEA safeguards. The most important new addition to its roster of unsafeguarded facilities was the 235-megawatt Narora I nuclear power reactor', which could produce 60 KG of plutonium annually without non-proliferation on restrictions. Taken together, these facilities could produce enough plutonium for 40 nuclear weapons per year. It is surprising to note that Indians could boast about stockpiling of weapon grade plutonium without the risk of censure from the international community. M R Srinivasan, Chairman of the Indian Atomic Energy Commission from 1987 to 1990 repeatedly declared that by the next century India planned to acquire several tons of the material free from IAEA restrictions to serve as fuel for advanced "breeder" reactors. It is instructive to note, though, that despite total absence of transparency, and existence of deep suspicions about India's nuclear intentions, US failed to question the motives behind India's stockpiling of weapon grade plutonium. Given this scenario it doesn't appear surprising that Pakistan speeded up efforts to develop a nuclear capability of its own, through 'uranium enrichment technology, to maintain a balance of deterrence in the subcontinent.
Second, while India consistently project Pakistan's insistence for obtaining nuclear arms at all costs, she herself has been a nuclear outlaw, extensively relying on international nuclear black market and smuggling rings to advance her nuclear weapons programme. Abundant evidence exists to show that India relied on clandestine nuclear expand nuclear weapons.
The Madras I and II, Dhruva and Narora reactors, which began to operate between 1983 to 1989, require heavy water to function. To circumvent the IAEA restrictions, India engaged in sustained and clandestine smuggling of heavy water to enable operations of the unsafeguarded plutonium production facilities. In late 1988 Norway announced that it had traced an illicit 1983 transfer of 15 ton Norwegian-origin heavy water to India. Again in April 90, Romanian Government announced that in 1986, the country's former Government led by Nicolai Ceausescu had diverted 12.5 tons of Norwegian heavy water in its possession to India. Besides clandestine patronage by sympathetic States, India also harnessed nuclear smuggling rackets to procure nuclear related materials.
In late 1988 and 89, West German investigators determined that India's unsafeguarded nuclear programme was dependent on external assistance and that a West German smuggler and black marketeer, Alfred Hempel, was being employed by India to smuggle large quantities of heavy water. West Germany parliamentary investigation has established that operations by Hempel provided clandestine transfer of hundreds, of tons material to India. On Aug 1, 1983 German investigators unearthed an agreement between Hempel and Indian Department of Atomic Energy's "Directorate of Purchase and Stores" for the long term delivery of heavy water "from Europe to, Bombay". For procuring Norwegian and Soviet heavy water, the smuggling racket created a cover that the item was meant for' use by West Germany or other. West European countries. It was typically routed first to Basel or Zurich and then, to disguise its ultimate destination further transhipped to Sharjah or Dubai before directing it onwards to Bombay. Many observers believe that long period over which Soviet heavy water found its way illegally to India indicates to a knowing involvement by the Soviet Union, which clandestinely supported the nuclear ambitions of its Indian ally. In face of this 'evidence, Delhi's claims that during the eighties India didn't receive a single shipment of heavy water through clandestine trafficking needs to be treated with much deserved scepticism. Evidence has also established that in 1984, India clandestinely acquired 2 10 pounds of high-grade beryllium, used in nuclear weapons and nuclear reactions. At that time it was beyond India to produce beryllium of this quality.
Third aspect of Indian proliferation activities relates to her clandestine support to Iraqi and Irani attempt at building up Weapons of Mass Destruction.
Incontrovertible evidence provided by British and US intelligence agencies has linked NEC, an Indian Engineering Trading Company, to Saddam Hussein's clandestine programme for developing chlorine-based chemical weapons and propellants for long-range missiles. Using front companies in three countries, phoney custom declarations and false documents, NEC Engineers Private Limited operating from New Delhi, exported 10 consignments of contraband material and provided equipment and materials that were meant to support Saddam's 'regime for producing WMD and their delivery means. The involvement of Indian Government becomes manifest once viewed in the context that the exported items needed special approval before export under the Special Chemical.
Organisms, Material, Equipment and Technologies Provisions of the 1997-2002 Exam Policy. Inexplicably the Indian Government looked aside as the shipments to Iraq, valued at approximately $800,000, took place between September 1998 and February 2001, the period during which the UNSCOM were not in Iraq to conduct their inspections.
Similarly it has also come to light that Indian scientists have been supporting the Iranian endeavours at acquiring nuclear weapons capability. The revelations have come at a time when Iranian Nuclear Programme is under intense scrutiny of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its outside linkages are under investigations.
Investigations have revealed that a prominent Indian nuclear scientist, Dr YSR Prasad, a former chairman and managing director of the Nuclear Corporation of India, helped Iran in her uranium enrichment programme. Dr Prasad was inducted into Iran's nuclear development programme after he retired from service in July 2000; ostensibly with the approval of the Indian Government. Indian officials, according to reports, have, tacitly acknowledged that Prasad, one of the top ranking Indian nuclear scientists, highly rated for his work on enrichment technology, worked for the Iranian nuclear programme. The Indian official sources however take cover behind the stance that the scientist didn't seek the Government's permission to join the Iranian Nuclear programme. Indian Government, according to reports, had been permitting the Iranian scientists to carry out post-doctoral Tata research on sensitive nuclear subjects at the Tata 'Institute of Research in Mumbai.
Ever since it embarked on a quest for acquisition of nuclear power, Indian efforts, have been singularly driven by the urge to acquire nuclear weapons. Indians have resorted to all kind of skull duggery to acquire the statues of a de facto NWS. Pakistan's nuclear related efforts have been motivated by the imperatives to seek a parity of strategic deterrence; otherwise she runs the risk of being overwhelmed by Indira's burgeoning military capability. In fact the present fiasco of proliferation centred on Dr A Q Khan has its genesis in the environment, when in, 'a desperate race for, retaining nuclear balance vis-a-vis India, the scientists had to be given exceptional liberty of action beyond the institutionalised checks and balances.
The writer is a freelance columnist and a noted South Asian Affairs analyst.
-------- iran
Iran Freezes Nuclear Inspections After It Is Censured by the U.N
March 14, 2004
By CRAIG S. SMITH
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/14/international/middleeast/14TEHR.html
PARIS, March 13 - Iran indefinitely suspended international inspections of its nuclear facilities on Saturday in an angry response to a resolution by the United Nations atomic agency that criticized its activities.
The suspension came after a week of tense negotiations at the Vienna headquarters of the International Atomic Energy Agency, where Iran sought to quash and then soften international censure of its failure to fully disclose its clandestine nuclear program to the world.
"Today, I.A.E.A. inspectors were expected to arrive in Iran," Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Hassan Rowhani, said at a news conference in Iran's capital, Tehran. "We will not allow them to come until Iran sets a new date for their visit. This is a protest by Iran in reaction to the passage of the resolution."
On Friday, Tehran postponed the visit by United Nations inspectors until the end of April, saying it did so because of the approach of the Iranian New Year, which begins March 20. Many diplomats, however, took the postponement as a warning to the atomic energy agency's board that it risked losing the country's future cooperation if it passed a critical resolution.
The agency's director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, sought to play down Iran's latest action, telling reporters, "I'm pretty confident that Iran will understand that we need to go within the time scheduled, and the decision to delay the inspection will be reviewed and reversed within the next couple of days."
But the delay is likely to deepen Washington's conviction that the country is hiding a nuclear weapons program. Iran insists its work is for purely peaceful purposes.
If inspections are not resumed soon, tension between Washington and Tehran is likely to be heightened, and the atomic energy agency might offer even harsher criticism when its board of governors meets again in June.
Kenneth Brill, the chief United States delegate to the meeting, told reporters that he suspected the freeze was an attempt by Iran to gain time and hide covert activities before allowing agency inspectors access to new sites.
"Is it possible that, even as we meet, squads of Iranian technicians are working at still undeclared sites to tile over, paint over, bury, burn or cart away incriminating evidence, so that those sanitized locations can finally be identified to the agency as new evidence of Iran's full cooperation and transparency?" he asked, as reported by The Associated Press.
A spokesman for the atomic energy agency said the agency expected Iran to set a new date for inspections before it caused further damage to the relationship. "Every state has a right to work with us on the timing of inspections, and even our agreements allow for holidays and that sort of thing," he said. "We believe we're going get back on track based on the fact that we've been working cooperatively with Iran for a long time and we believe it's in their interest to continue."
--------
Iranians Bar Further Nuclear Inspections
By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 14, 2004; Page A19
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56472-2004Mar13.html
Iran barred international nuclear inspectors from entering the country yesterday, hours after the U.N. atomic agency sharply rebuked Iran's leaders for failing to provide full details of its past nuclear activities.
The suspension of inspections -- which Iranian officials described as indefinite -- signaled a dramatic turn in an 18-month-old crisis that began with revelations that Iran was secretly building factories to make enriched uranium. The Bush administration contends that Iran is seeking to build nuclear weapons.
A U.S.-backed resolution approved by the International Atomic Energy Agency early yesterday strongly criticized Iran for failing to disclose key parts of its nuclear program, including a scheme to build advanced gas centrifuges for enriching uranium. The resolution, adopted without dissent by the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors, defers until June a decision on how to respond to the omissions.
But Iran's top nuclear official, Hassan Rouhani, denounced the IAEA's resolution as "unfair and deceitful," and said Iran would refuse to allow a team of the agency's nuclear inspectors to enter the country.
"Today, IAEA inspectors were expected to arrive in Iran," Rouhani said at a news conference in Tehran, according to the Associated Press. "We will not allow them to come until Iran sets a new date for their visit. This is a protest by Iran in reaction to the passage of the resolution."
IAEA officials sought to play down the decision, noting that Iran had threatened last September to freeze cooperation with the agency after coming under similar criticism by the IAEA's governing board.
"Our inspection work has to proceed on a timetable," said Mark Gwozdecky, spokesman for the IAEA in Vienna. "We are confident that Iran will understand that it needs to get back on schedule, and we're hopeful that it will review and reverse its decision within the next few days."
Iran has repeatedly denied accusations that it intends to make nuclear weapons, but its leaders have said they will not be deterred from exercising their right to develop a commercial nuclear power industry. Although no direct evidence of a nuclear weapons program has been discovered in Iran, nonproliferation experts note that the advanced nuclear facilities now under construction in Iran would give the Islamic republic the ability to quickly make nuclear bombs if it decides to do so.
The resolution criticizing Iran was adopted by IAEA member nations at the conclusion of a week of intense negotiations that pitted hard-liners, led by the United States, Canada and Australia, against Europeans and others who argued that an overly aggressive approach would backfire. The statement approved yesterday notes Iran's cooperation with nuclear inspectors in many areas, but it criticizes Iran's leaders for breaking repeated promises to come clean about all aspects of the country's nuclear program. In unusually blunt language, the agency said it "deplores" Iran's failure to disclose an attempt to develop the advanced centrifuge known as the P-2. Iran was forced to acknowledge the P-2 program last month after IAEA inspectors found blueprints and components for the machine.
The agency also cites Iran's failure to adequately explain the existence of traces of highly enriched uranium at two of its nuclear facilities, and its failure to disclose an experimental program to manufacture polonium-210, an isotope used chiefly in nuclear weapons production.
The Bush administration had initially sought an even harsher condemnation of Iran, though the resolution that ultimately was adopted was praised by U.S. officials as evidence of growing international impatience with Iran. Kenneth Brill, the top U.S. representative at the Vienna talks, said Iran was "continuing to pursue a policy of denial, deception and delay."
"Is it possible that, even as we meet, squads of Iranian technicians are working at still undeclared [nuclear] sites to tile over, paint over, bury, burn or cart away incriminating evidence, so that those sanitized locations can finally be identified to the agency as new evidence of Iran's full cooperation and transparency?" Brill said in statement prepared for delivery to a closed IAEA session.
--------
Iran May Harden Position Against IAEA
Mar 14, 2004
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
Associated Press Writer
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAN_NUCLEAR?SITE=DCTMS&SECTION=HOME
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran indicated Sunday it could harden its position against the U.N. nuclear agency, a day after freezing international inspections to protest a critical resolution by the watchdog agency.
On Saturday, Tehran said it was indefinitely barring inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, hours after its 35-nation governing board adopted a resolution that said it "deplores" recent discoveries of uranium enrichment equipment and other suspicious activities that Iran had failed to reveal.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Sunday the resolution's tone "was unfair and insulting. We don't allow anybody to talk to us in such language."
He said no date has been set for when inspectors would be allowed back into the country, but first "realities must be taken into consideration."
"If realities are not seen, it's possible that the method of our cooperation with IAEA may change," Asefi told a press conference. "Barring the inspectors from visiting Iran should be interpreted in this context."
Asefi did not specify what actions Iran might take.
However, the spokesman later insisted Iran's "cooperation with IAEA is not being questioned. We are willing to cooperate because we are transparent in our intentions and goals."
The agency's Director General Mohamed ElBaradei and senior U.S. officials planned to discuss the weekend's developments at a meeting Monday in Washington. ElBaradei also was expected to meet with President Bush.
Iran insists its nuclear activities are for the generation of electricity. The United States suspects Iran is undertaking a secret program to build nuclear weapons and had called for even harsher language in the resolution.
Diplomats familiar with the work of IAEA said that a lengthy ban on inspections would be a huge obstacle to the agency's efforts to deliver a judgment by June on the nature of Tehran's nuclear past and present.
But in Vienna, ElBaradei said he was sure Iran would overturn it soon.
"I'm pretty confident that Iran will understand that we need to go within the time scheduled, and the decision to delay the inspection will be reviewed and reversed within the next couple of days," ElBaradei said.
The U.S. envoy to the IAEA, Kenneth Brill, condemned the freeze.
"This is a measure of their 'full cooperation' - their postponing the very thing that they are called on to do by their obligations," Brill told reporters.
The United States has been lobbying for the IAEA to declare Iran in breach of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and to refer Iran's activities to the U.N. Security Council, where economic sanctions could be imposed.
The IAEA resolution holds off on taking such action until the board of governors meets again in June.
Asefi said he was certain that Iran's nuclear dossier will not be referred to the council because of "Iran's cooperation with IAEA, and the other reason is that we didn't conceal anything."
-------- korea
Lasting Discord Clouds Talks on North Korean Nuclear Arms
March 14, 2004
By STEVEN R. WEISMAN
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/14/international/asia/14NORT.html
WASHINGTON, March 13 - Almost two weeks after North Korea agreed to new, supposedly more intimate "working groups" to discuss its nuclear weapons program, Bush administration officials say that the agenda for the talks remains unclear and that the discussions may not occur until April or May.
The idea of trying to resolve disagreements over North Korea's nuclear programs in one or more working groups came up in the last round of talks in Beijing at the end of February. Besides the United States and North Korea, Russia, China, South Korea and Japan took part.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said afterward that he was "quite satisfied" with how they went and that the working groups established "an institutionalized process to move forward in further discussions."
The objective, according to administration officials, is to create an unpressured atmosphere in which North Korea may feel more free to negotiate steps toward the American demand for a "complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement" of its nuclear programs.
But there is dissent in the administration over how much the talks with North Korea accomplished and whether the working groups will produce further progress. "The premise is wrong," said an American official. "If the North Koreans are not willing to show flexibility at a high level, they're not going to let their munchkins do the job."
The framework of the Bush administration's approach is to insist on an upfront pledge by North Korea to dismantle its programs, and then to grant benefits - from security guarantees to economic and energy assistance - in return for step-by-step progress toward that goal.
Hard-liners in the administration say the main disappointment of the most recent talks was the failure to get a commitment on the dismantling of the weapons. Those who favor a more conciliatory approach say the main accomplishment was to get all the other participants in the talks to agree that North Korea must commit itself to that goal.
A top administration official described the proceedings as "grueling" and said that even minor progress was a real victory. "The consensus among us is that this is a ground game," he said, using a football metaphor. "We're going to move the ball five yards at a time."
American and Asian diplomats said the biggest disappointment occurred because of a last-minute snag on the last day of the talks in Beijing, when the six nations could not agree to a statement committing themselves to the working groups format.
North Korea, several diplomats said, came in with a last-minute demand that the final statement include a reference to its disagreement on fundamental issues with Washington, viewed by the American delegation as a step backward. In the absence of a joint statement, Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing of China announced a consensus for working groups on his own.
An Asian diplomat said the Chinese delegates were "very, very disappointed and probably annoyed" over North Korea's move. An American official described Mr. Li and other Chinese officials as furious.
Another clash at the meetings occurred over the American insistence that North Korea acknowledge not only its plutonium program but also its efforts to make a nuclear bomb with highly enriched uranium. North Korea has acknowledged the first method but not the second.
The leader of the American delegation, James A. Kelly, an assistant secretary of state, recalled at a recent Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing that the North Korean delegate demanded proof it had a uranium enrichment program. Mr. Kelly said he replied, "If I were to give you all that information, it might make it easier for you to conceal it."
Administration officials said Mr. Bush had telephoned President Roh Moo Hyun of South Korea in February to make sure his delegates would offer energy assistance to the North only in return for an upfront commitment on disarmament. In the end, the offer was transmitted in exactly the fashion that Mr. Bush wanted, an administration official said, adding, "That was huge."
Another major victory tallied by administration officials had to do with China more than North Korea. Many American officials say that they were elated that China had basically endorsed the American approach and that the five parties were lined up against North Korea.
"I'll be frank," the American official said. "The Chinese and Russians would like us to give more goodies, but now they're pushing the North Koreans in the direction we want. Those are things we've never had before."
-------- terrorism
DUAL USE
Buy a Golf Club, Build a Bomb
March 14, 2004
By KENNETH CHANG
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/14/weekinreview/14chang.html
CANNIBALIZE a kidney stone machine for A-bomb parts!
Transform tennis rackets into ballistic missile nose cones!
Sometimes, it seems that any piece of modern technology can, with a few turns of a screw, be transformed into a weapon of mass destruction. Federal agents arrested Asher Karni, an Israeli businessman living in South Africa, on Jan. 1 for exporting parts that Mr. Karni said were destined for machines that break apart kidney stones. Federal agents say the parts, known as triggered spark gaps, were actually destined to be triggers for nuclear bombs in Pakistan.
The triggered spark gaps - precision switches that send short, large bursts of electricity - are in fact used by a machine called a lithotripter to break up kidney stones. But the same device can also serve as the trigger for detonating the cocoon of conventional explosives that surrounds the uranium in an atomic bomb, starting the chain reaction that creates the much larger nuclear explosion.
The triggered spark gap is a classic example of a so-called dual-use technology, which cannot be exported without permission from the Department of Commerce.
"A dual-use item by definition can be perfectly innocent or it could have military applications," said Kenneth I. Juster, the under secretary of commerce who oversees the export control program.
Mr. Karni invited suspicion by ordering 200 spark gaps from PerkinElmer Optoelectronics of Salem, Mass., far more than the handful of spares a hospital would need. PerkinElmer notified governmental officials and, at their request, sent a shipment of 66 triggers, secretly disabled.
The list of dual-use technologies, largely drawn from international agreements, also includes some other items not obviously deadly. Carbon fibers, the stuff of tennis rackets and golf clubs, are ideal for the nose cones of intercontinental ballistic missiles, because they resist the heat of re-entry through the atmosphere.
A type of extremely hard steel, known as maraging steel, , is useful for bombs (and golf clubs, too). The element beryllium, used in high performance aircraft and furnace linings, can be shaped into reflectors of neutrons, necessary to make sure a nuclear explosion doesn't peter out.
Aluminum tubes can be used in centrifuges that separate out the rare form of uranium used in atomic bombs. And many ingredients in common insecticides can be made into deadly human poisons as well. Also regulated are high-precision scientific equipment needed to assemble bombs.
The law regulating dual-use technologies, the Export Administration Act, expired three years ago, but remains in force by presidential executive order. The Senate passed a new version in 2001, but it stalled in the House because of concern that the new version weakened controls on potentially dangerous technologies. Even if controls on American exports were airtight, however, they would be of no use if a country or terrorist could buy what they needed elsewhere.
Mr. Juster recently returned from a trip to Britain, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Israel to discuss strengthening export controls, but such restrictions by themselves will not prevent terrorists or a rogue nation from building an atomic bomb. With enough time and money, they will learn to manufacture their own spark gaps and centrifuges.
It's not easy, though. Iran now appears to have enriched uranium, but that was after more than a decade of effort. Libya, which agreed last year to give up its nuclear program, was able to buy much of the needed high-tech equipment to build a bomb, but was unable to call in the technical support needed to make use of it. The equipment was simply left in its packing crates.
Gary Milhollin, director of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, based in Washington, said controlling exports "slows people down, makes them spend more money, and sometimes things don't work." And that, he said, gives a chance for diplomacy or sanctions to take hold. Had Iraq, Iran and Libya been able to buy what they needed directly, Mr. Milhollin said, "they would all have had bombs long ago." With each advance in technology, the world of dual-use problems grows. Night vision goggles, which aid emergency workers digging victims out of earthquake rubble, also aid terrorists. Molecular engineering, which promises major advances in electronics and medicine, could also lead to new, undetectable weapons.
The conundrum is how to benefit from one use without suffering from the other. A patient ought to be able to have kidney stones treated without a mushroom cloud in the distance.
-------- us politics
Democrats Demand Inquiry Into Charge by Medicare Officer
March 14, 2004
By ROBERT PEAR
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/14/politics/14MEDI.html?pagewanted=all&position=
WASHINGTON, March 13 - Democrats called Saturday for an investigation of charges that the Bush administration threatened to fire a top Medicare official if he gave data to Congress showing the high costs of hotly contested Medicare legislation.
The official, Richard S. Foster, chief actuary of the Medicare program, said he had been formally told not to provide the information to Congress. Moreover, he said, he was told that "the consequences of insubordination would be very severe."
Senior officials at the Medicare agency made it clear that "they would try and fire me" for responding directly to inquiries from Congress, Mr. Foster said in an interview on Saturday.
Mr. Foster said he had received that message from Thomas A. Scully, who was then administrator of the Medicare program. Mr. Scully denies threatening Mr. Foster but confirms having told him to withhold certain information from Congress.
A White House spokesman, Trent D. Duffy, declined to comment on Mr. Foster's statements. Mr. Duffy said he did not know if anyone had threatened to dismiss Mr. Foster.
The Senate and the House approved different Medicare bills on June 27, after being assured that the cost would not exceed $400 billion over 10 years, the amount proposed by President Bush.
Just two weeks earlier, Mr. Foster estimated that the drug benefits in a bill very similar to the Senate measure would cost $551.5 billion.
Mr. Foster said he prepared "dozens and dozens of analyses and estimates" of the cost of the legislation last year. "All our estimates showed that the cost of the drug benefit, through 2013, would be in the range of $500 billion to $600 billion," he said.
The cost estimates were all provided to Mr. Scully, and some were also sent to the White House, the Office of Management and Budget and top officials at the Department of Health and Human Services, Mr. Foster said. For example, he said, "some cost estimates were sent directly to Doug Badger," the White House official who coordinates health policy for the administration.
Mr. Duffy confirmed that the White House had received the actuary's cost estimates for parts of the bill. But he said the administration had relied on the Congressional Budget Office as "the primary authority" on the overall cost.
"For many years," Mr. Foster said, "my office has provided technical assistance to the administration and Congress on a nonpartisan basis.
"But in June 2003, the Medicare administrator, Tom Scully, decided to restrict the practice of our responding directly to Congressional requests and ordered us to provide responses to him so he could decide what to do with them. There was a pattern of withholding information for what I perceived to be political purposes, which I thought was inappropriate."
Mr. Foster, 55, was an actuary at the Social Security Administration from 1973 to 1995, when he became chief Medicare actuary.
Congressional Democrats asked the inspector general at the Department of Health and Human Services to investigate what they described as possible intimidation of Mr. Foster.
In a letter to the inspector general, they said: "Throughout the debate on the Medicare bill, the legislation's cost was a central issue for lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. The withholding of cost information may have impeded lawmakers' ability to engage in fair debate on the bill."
The request was made by Representatives Pete Stark of California, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut and Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, all Democrats, and Bernard Sanders of Vermont, an independent. Mr. Stark and Mr. Brown are the senior Democrats on powerful subcommittees responsible for health legislation.
"The administration seems to have a habit of suppressing information to serve its political purposes," Mr. Stark said. "Tom Scully told my staff that Rick Foster would be `fired so fast his head would spin' if he released this information to us."
In most cases, Mr. Foster said, the effect of the restrictions imposed on his office was to withhold information sought by Democrats. But in one case, he said, Mr. Scully told him not to provide information requested by Representative Bill Thomas, Republican of California, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and a principal author of the Medicare bill.
In an e-mail message to colleagues on June 26, Mr. Foster said: "This whole episode, which has now gone on for three weeks, has been pretty nightmarish. I'm perhaps no longer in grave danger of being fired, but there remains a strong likelihood that I will have to resign in protest of the withholding of important technical information from key policy makers for political reasons."
Mr. Foster still has his job. But Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, said, "It is outrageous that the Bush administration would withhold vital information on an issue as important as the Medicare prescription drug benefit."
The Senate Democratic leader, Tom Daschle of South Dakota, said: "An investigation of some kind is clearly warranted. Whether this is criminal or not is a matter that we will certainly want to clarify. If not criminal, it is certainly unethical."
Senator Charles E. Grassley, the Iowa Republican who is chairman of the Finance Committee, also expressed concern.
"No one should have withheld the actuary's estimate," Mr. Grassley said. "Every cost estimate is relevant to every debate, this one included, and government analysts with relevant information should never be muzzled."
But Mr. Grassley said the Democrats were being disingenuous.
"They embrace an administration estimate to suit the partisan cause of undermining the Medicare bill," he said. He said many Democrats had favored an alternative bill that "by anybody's estimate would have cost hundreds of billions of dollars more than what we enacted."
Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, worked closely with Republicans to write the Medicare law and strongly supports it. But he said he too had "grave concerns" about the withholding of data.
"It was unacceptable that Congress was denied access to this valuable information during the Medicare negotiations," Mr. Baucus said.
Robert E. Moffit, director of the Center for Health Policy Studies at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said: "There's no excuse for what the administration did. The people who were hurt the most were Congressional Republicans who put their faith in estimates that turned out to be wrong."
Mr. Moffit said the higher cost estimates could have affected the outcome of the debate or the contents of the legislation. "A number of House Republicans voted for the bill under duress," he said. "They did not want to impose huge unfunded liabilities on the American taxpayer."
The Medicare bill finally squeaked through the House on Nov. 22. The roll call lasted nearly three hours as Republicans tried to persuade opponents of the bill to switch their votes. The House ethics committee is looking into accusations of attempted bribery surrounding the vote of one lawmaker, Nick Smith, Republican of Michigan.
Mr. Bush promised drug benefits to the elderly in his 2000 campaign and continually pushed Congress to pass the Medicare bill, which relies heavily on private insurance companies to deliver such benefits.
In November 2003, before final votes on the bill, administration officials repeatedly said, without qualification, that the legislation would cost no more than $400 billion over 10 years. In making those statements, administration officials relied on estimates by the Congressional Budget Office, without citing much higher cost estimates by the Medicare actuary.
Mr. Bush signed the measure on Dec. 8. Then, on Jan. 29, the White House announced that the new law would cost $534 billion, or one-third more than the price tag used when Congress passed the legislation.
The administration assumed that more people would sign up for drug benefits, get low-income subsidies and enroll in private health plans.
At a press briefing on Jan. 30, the White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, said Mr. Bush had been informed of the final higher cost estimate "just in the last two weeks."
But administration officials said they had known for months that, according to their own actuaries, the costs could far exceed $400 billion.
-------- MILITARY
-------- afghanistan
U.S. directs new 'Storm' at al Qaeda, Taliban
March 14, 2004
Washington Times
From combined dispatches
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20040314-121044-5261r.htm
KABUL, Afghanistan - The U.S. military yesterday announced a sweeping new operation across troubled southern and eastern Afghanistan, with the aim of destroying al Qaeda and the Taliban and ultimately reeling in Osama bin Laden.
U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty told reporters yesterday that the offensive, called "Operation Mountain Storm," began March 7 and involved troops from the 13,500-strong U.S.-led force backed by air support.
An Associated Press reporter at the military's main southern base at Kandahar noted what base personnel said was heavier than usual air traffic, with C-130 cargo planes and Chinook helicopters landing through the night.
The base also served a lobster-and-steak dinner on the eve of the new operation. The army traditionally serves special meals to kick off large offensives.
The offensive comes as Americans step up their hunt for the al Qaeda leader and his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, who are believed to be hiding out in the border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"We believe this will help bring the heads of the terrorist organizations to justice, by continuing placing pressure on them," Col. Hilferty said.
The operation, however, was "about more than one person," he added.
He said American forces were confident they will eventually catch the al Qaeda leadership, as well as Taliban chief Mullah Mohammed Omar, but not necessarily during the new operation.
The Washington Times reported Feb. 23 that the Pentagon is moving elements of a supersecret commando unit from Iraq to the Afghanistan theater to step up the hunt for Osama bin Laden. Task Force 121, which was involved in the capture of Saddam Hussein in December, is a mix of Army Delta Force and Navy SEALs.
Meanwhile, the senior military commander for Afghanistan's southern region, Gen. Haji Granai, said U.S. aircraft attacked a truck carrying 12 suspected Taliban guerrillas in the Maruf district of Kandahar province Thursday, killing all of them.
Col. Hilferty said he had no information on such an attack, though he told the briefing that U.S. forces had carried out a small-scale air assault in the south.
U.S. defense officials told Reuters in Washington on Friday that "Mountain Storm" was timed to exploit improving weather in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Lt. Gen. David Barno, the top American commander in Afghanistan, has said his soldiers are engaged in a "hammer-and-anvil" strategy along with Pakistani forces on the other side of the border.
Some 70,000 Pakistani troops have moved into semiautonomous tribal regions to take away maneuver room for al Qaeda and Taliban fugitives believed to have taken refuge there.
A Feb. 24 operation in Wana, the main town in Pakistan's South Waziristan region, netted 24 suspects, but none were believed to be important al Qaeda operatives.
Pakistan, a key ally in the U.S. war on terrorism, has arrested more than 500 al Qaeda suspects. But Afghans also say they have not done enough to seal the border, and complain that Taliban commanders have been organizing operations from large Pakistani border towns like Quetta and Peshawar.
--------
U.S. Launches New Operation in Afghanistan
By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, March 14, 2004; Page A22
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56168-2004Mar13.html
KABUL, Afghanistan, March 13 -- U.S. military officials announced Saturday that they had begun a major new operation in southern and eastern Afghanistan aimed at "destroying terrorist organizations and infrastructure."
The officials stopped short of identifying the operation, called Mountain Storm, as the long-anticipated spring offensive against Taliban and al Qaeda forces in the region.
Instead, they described it as a continuation of anti-terrorist operations that have been underway in the region for months.
"It is the next in a continuing series of operations . . . a continuing effort to keep pressure on terrorist organizations and their infrastructure," said Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty, chief spokesman for the U.S. military in Afghanistan.
Asked if Mountain Storm would focus on hunting down the al Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden, and his aides, Hilferty said the operation was "certainly about more than one person." But he added, "We believe this will help bring the heads of terrorist organizations to justice by continuing to place pressure on them."
Hilferty did not release any details of the new operation, other than to say it had begun March 7 and would include patrols, raids, ground searches for weapons and some air attacks. He did not say how many U.S. troops would be involved.
There are now about 13,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, several thousand of whom have arrived in recent weeks. There have been several reports of additional troops and weapons being sent to Afghanistan in preparation for a major military campaign.
There are also reports that a highly specialized commando team, previously based in Iraq and involved in the successful hunt for former president Saddam Hussein, has been transferred here. Those reports have boosted speculation about an intensified hunt for bin Laden, who once lived in Afghanistan and supported the former Islamic Taliban movement.
The launching of Mountain Storm in the rugged border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan coincides with stepped-up efforts by Pakistani troops to conduct anti-terrorist sweeps in that country's semi-autonomous tribal borderlands, where Islamic extremists, possibly including bin Laden, are widely believed to be hiding.
Senior U.S. military officials here have previously described the parallel Pakistani and U.S. military operations as having a "hammer and anvil" effect on Islamic extremist groups operating or hiding in wilderness and tribal areas along the porous border.
Hilferty described in detail the methods and results of an earlier, two-month U.S. military operation in the border area, called Mountain Blizzard, and suggested the new operation might be conducted in a similar manner.
He said that operation involved 1,731 patrols and 143 raids, in which 22 enemy fighters were killed and weapons caches were discovered containing 3,648 rockets, 3,202 mortar rounds, 2,944 rocket-propelled grenades, 3,000 rifle rounds, 2,232 land mines and tens of thousands of small-arms ammunition rounds.
In addition to taking advantage of the warmer weather, Mountain Storm is also timed to coincide with preparations for national elections scheduled for June. The Afghan government plans to open about 4,000 voter registration sites by May, and security is a major concern for voters, especially in the volatile south and east.
In the past six months, revived Taliban and other Islamic forces have staged numerous deadly attacks in those areas of the country, killing foreign and Afghan aid workers, ambushing civilian projects and convoys, planting bombs in markets and kidnapping highway workers.
-------- china
Chinese Leaders Speak of Reform, But How Quickly?
By Philip P. Pan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, March 14, 2004; Page A19
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A56471-2004Mar13?language=printer
BEIJING -- On the afternoon of Sept. 29, the most powerful men and women in China gathered in a conference room in Zhongnanhai, the headquarters of the Chinese Communist Party. President Hu Jintao and the other 23 members of the ruling Politburo took seats around a circular desk, and about 70 other high-level officials sat in rows behind them.
Two scholars had been summoned to deliver a briefing on a subject of growing interest to the leadership: the reform of China's authoritarian political system.
One of the scholars, Li Lan, a law professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said he and his colleague addressed the room for about an hour and a half. They suggested the party could strengthen its rule by adopting elements of Western political systems, just as it had by developing a market economy. And they singled out general elections, checks and balances, rule of law and representative democracy as practices worth studying.
None of the Politburo members objected to the presentation. Instead, Li said, they peppered the scholars with questions for 30 minutes, asking about separation of powers, for example, and the relative advantages of bicameral and unicameral legislatures.
The meeting, which state media described vaguely as a study session on "building a socialist political civilization," was one of a series of signs that the Communist leadership is considering significant changes to China's rigid, inefficient and often corrupt political system.
But as they prepare to close the annual session of the National People's Congress on Sunday, the country's new leaders have done little more than talk about political reform.
By contrast, they have taken several actions that send a different message -- extending a crackdown on organized religion, tightening controls on newspapers and magazines, launching a hard-line propaganda campaign against democracy advocates in Hong Kong and, most recently, sharply increasing censorship of news and debate on the Internet.
The contradictory signals are partly the result of divisions in the senior leadership, where allies of former President Jiang Zemin remain influential and are resisting policies that could undermine his legacy or hurt their interests, according to party officials and scholars. But more important, they said, Hu and his team, who took office in a broad, generational transfer of power one year ago, have decided that political reform should be gradual and aimed at both improving the party's ability to govern China and ensuring it stays in power.
"The bottom line of any political reform is that it must maintain the leadership of the Communist Party," Li said. "The question is, how can we make the party more clean, more honest, more efficient and more powerful, as a means toward serving the public better."
In effect, according to party officials and scholars who have participated in internal discussions, Hu and his colleagues are searching for a new political model for China. They argue that this country, with its huge population and its history of political turmoil, is not suited for multiparty democracy. But they also appear to have concluded that China's current system is crippled by corruption and increasingly unable to manage rising social discontent or implement economic reforms needed to ensure growth.
The challenge, as the officials and scholars perceive the leadership's views, is to make the government more accountable and responsive to the public without causing the party to collapse or upsetting social stability.
"Simply put, we want to improve our governing capacity, but we don't want to lose political power," said Huang Weiding, a senior editor at one of the party's leading theoretical journals, who has taught classes for party officials on the collapse of the Soviet Union. "We know that no one has done this before. We know that we can't move too slowly, and we can't go too fast. And we know it will be difficult."
Many party officials and scholars who favor faster political liberalization are skeptical. "They want the benefits of competitive elections without taking the risk of losing power, and that won't work," said a party official who asked not to be identified. "We haven't seen anything from the new leaders that suggests they are serious about real political reform."
In recent months, the leadership has actually tightened control of the media and academic institutions, warning them against the "new liberalism" and against attempts to use the SARS crisis to promote a free press. State security has been ordered to monitor university lectures and identify professors who are Christians, publishing houses have been told not to translate as many foreign books and Internet companies are receiving daily phone calls from censors who often tell them to delete stories even though they have been published in state-run newspapers.
At the same time, however, Hu and Premier Wen Jiabao have developed a reputation as clean politicians and populists by visiting impoverished villages, sharing dumplings with coal miners and pledging to address the problems of the rural poor. In addition, they have punished at least 13 provincial party chiefs, cabinet ministers or their deputies for corruption over the past year, many more than in previous years.
The strategy has won Hu a political honeymoon, with many in China who favor political liberalization willing to blame the lack of progress on Jiang and others. They have withheld judgment on their new leaders, who at least have taken symbolic steps such as amending the constitution to protect human rights and private property.
In addition to the Politburo study session, scholars point out that Hu and Wen have moved quickly to limit police detention powers, have placed more emphasis on the constitution and rule of law in their speeches and, within limits, have allowed more debate and research on political reform. The party has also established a new office to investigate senior provincial officials, and last month, after 13 years of debate, it issued new regulations that attempt to reduce the authority of local party chiefs, restrict patronage and encourage party members to report improper behavior by their superiors. The rules also require party leaders at all levels to begin providing regular work reports to the party congresses that purportedly elect them.
Wang Yukai, a professor at the National School of Administration who has written extensively about corruption and its roots in China's political system, said the regulations represented Hu's first move to expand what scholars have called "intra-party democracy." Wang said the party was discussing a variety of proposals to go further by holding real elections for delegates to the congresses, allowing the congresses to meet annually instead of every five years and giving them more power to select, oversee and oust party leaders.
Gao Fang, a professor at People's University who recently published two articles in a journal run by the Central Party School arguing in favor of strengthening the congresses, said Hu could move quickly forward with intra-party democracy because that would not threaten the Communist Party's grip on power. Instead, he said, the changes would strengthen the party, and eventually give it the confidence to compete in multiparty elections.
"We will have to see how large a stride Hu and Wen are willing to take, and that could depend on both the international and the domestic situation," Gao said. "But I'm still hopeful they can make some progress."
One complicating factor is the incomplete leadership transition, party officials say. Jiang has not surrendered his last remaining position as chief of the military, and Hu remains surrounded by Jiang's allies on the Politburo Standing Committee.
Hu has made progress in consolidating his position, winning over Politburo members as Jiang's influence begins to fade, but his hold on the party's top job is still not entirely secure, party officials say. As the party chief, he is now listed before Jiang by state media, but it was Jiang who led the procession of leaders into the Great Hall of the People at the opening of the National People's Congress this month.
"The situation is very fragile," said one official with access to the leadership. "If there is a problem or a crisis, things could unravel very quickly."
The divide already appears to be an important factor in the government's response to demands for universal suffrage in Hong Kong. Beijing adopted a moderate approach after 500,000 people participated in a rally on July 1, and backed off controversial anti-subversion legislation. That policy was associated with Wen, because he had just visited the territory.
Soon afterward, however, the Hong Kong issue was assigned to Vice President Zeng Qinghong, Jiang's longtime aide and Hu's main rival on the Politburo. The central government then took a harder line against political reform in the former British colony and began questioning the patriotism of democracy advocates.
A senior editor at a party newspaper said his paper had been told to prepare 10 editorials on the patriotism theme. Then, in a sign of disagreement with the harder line, after the first editorial appeared in print, he suddenly received orders to stop publishing them.
-------- europe
Top Bush Aides Say Attack Won't Shake Europe's Resolve
March 14, 2004
By BRIAN KNOWLTON,
International Herald Tribune
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/14/international/europe/14CND-POLI.html
WASHINGTON, March 14 - Top Bush administration officials said today that they felt confident the devastating bombing attacks in Madrid would not shake European determination to continue fighting terrorism, and that those who retreat now from the war on terror would do so at the risk of becoming terrorists' future targets.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and the national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, all appeared on television today in an apparent effort by the administration to mount a strong defense of the invasion of Iraq, the first anniversary of which comes this week.
Ms. Rice said that with terrorists steadily being pushed back, Americans were now "safer, much safer" at home.
But such administration assertions drew a sharp rejoinder from Howard Dean, the Vermont Democrat who recently ended his presidential campaign. His reply indicated that as an American electoral issue, the continuing terror threat may cut both ways after the Madrid attacks.
"For the president of the United States to assert that we were safer because Saddam Hussein is in jail is ludicrous, given what happened three days ago in Spain," Dr. Dean said on the NBC News program "Meet the Press." President Bush said in January that the world was a "better and safer place" after Mr. Hussein's overthrow.
Meanwhile, amid speculation of an Al Qaeda role in the Madrid attacks, some Spanish politicians - and thousands of angry protesters in Madrid - have suggested that the bombings were the direct price for Spanish governmental support of the United States in the Iraq war.
But Ms. Rice said she did not expect Spanish voters to be deterred.
Mr. Rumsfeld rejected the notion that a pullback by Spaniards or others would make them safer. "It's kind of like feeding an alligator, hoping it eats you last," he said on the CBS News program "Face the Nation."
And Mr. Powell said that the lesson of the Madrid attacks had to be that anti-terror efforts should be redoubled, not lessened.
"There is a war on terror that must be fought," Mr. Powell said. "Nobody's immune."
He said that as the outgoing Spanish prime minister, José María Aznar, had accepted the responsibility to fight terror, "I hope other leaders will not shrink from our responsibility, collective responsibility, to go after terrorists."
Spanish socialists have said that if they prevail in the elections today, they will withdraw the country's troops from Iraq by summer unless the United Nations provides a clear mandate for their presence.
"Well," Mr. Powell said on "Fox News Sunday," "we think there is an opportunity to get a clear U.N. mandate." By July 1, when Iraqis are scheduled to regain sovereignty, "there may well be another U.N. resolution" that would provide "more than an adequate mandate."
The bloody images from Spain have given Americans a painful reminder of their own losses of Sept. 11, 2001. Speculation of a possible Al Qaeda role in Madrid shook investors, and the Dow Jones industrial average fell 168 points Thursday. Hundreds of people in New York and Washington rallied in solidarity with the Spanish.
As a direct result of the Madrid bombings, security on American railways has been stepped up. Subways, bridges and tunnels are now under closer watch.
None of the United States officials speaking today shed further light on who was behind the Madrid bombings. Mr. Powell said that while the Basque separatist group ETA was "still a candidate for responsibility," the Spanish had to "consider that it might have been another group, perhaps Al Qaeda."
Ms. Rice offered a pugnacious defense of the United States-led war against terrorists. "Slowly but surely their world is getting smaller - not larger," she said. "They don't have Afghanistan as a base of operations, They will not have Iraq as a base of operations. They will not have Pakistan and Saudi Arabia," or Libya or Sudan.
"The terrorists are losing," she said.
The United States officials also made these points:
Mr. Powell said the United States was concerned by efforts under President Vladimir Putin to reduce participation by opposition candidates in Sunday's Russian elections, but that he did not see Russian democracy as being imperiled;
He said the United States "won't sit idly by" if Iran remains defiant on nuclear cooperation, indicating that it might push for United Nations sanctions if no improvement is seen by June;
And Ms. Rice said the planned Jamaica trip by Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the recently deposed Haitian leader, was "a bad idea" by a man who had "forfeited" his leadership.
Mr. Powell reacted with evident indignation when asked about a suggestion by Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, Mr. Bush's presumed opponent in the Nov. 2 elections, that the Bush administration might have delayed announcing improved relations with Libya in a bid for electoral advantage.
"It's absurd," Mr. Powell said. "I don't know what Senator Kerry's talking about." The agreement, in which British negotiators played a key role, "was not held up for any campaign or political purpose" and the suggestion, he said, was "offensive."
Mr. Rumsfeld, meanwhile, was asked whether he expected to be involved in the president's re-election campaign. "There won't be a role," he said. "The president has specifically asked Colin Powell and me not to be involved in the campaign."
-------- haiti
Marines kill two as top general arrives
March 14, 2004
Washington Times
From combined dispatches
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20040314-121101-6513r.htm
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard Myers, visited U.S. peacekeepers in Haiti yesterday, hours after Marines killed two more armed Haitians.
Gen. Myers arrived in Port-au-Prince at the end of a Latin American trip, visiting troops sent to restore order after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide went into exile last month.
Gen. Myers, spending just a few hours in Haiti, was to take a helicopter from the heavily guarded airport to the Marines' base in another part of the sprawling capital, avoiding roads that pass through some of the slums that are a stronghold of support for the ousted president.
The latest shooting took place Friday night after suspected supporters of Mr. Aristide opened fire on Marines patrolling a slum near the National Palace in Port-au-Prince.
The Marines, leading a U.N.-sanctioned 2,550-member international peace force, have fought half a dozen battles since their landing on Feb. 29, hours after Mr. Aristide was pushed out of Haiti by a monthlong revolt.
Mr. Aristide, in exile in the Central African Republic, was planning to fly to Jamaica in the next few days to visit his family. He has claimed that he was forced out of Haiti by the U.S. government.
A delegation of U.S. and Jamaican officials - including Rep. Maxine Waters, California Democrat, and a representative of Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson - was scheduled to leave Miami yesterday on a charter plane for the Central African Republic to bring Mr. Aristide to Jamaica, activist Randall Robinson told the Associated Press. Mr. Robinson said he also would be on the plane.
Haiti's new prime minister, Gerard Latortue, has warned that Mr. Aristide's return to the region would only increase tension in Haiti, and said he would not meet with the ousted leader. Mr. Aristide planned to stay several weeks in Jamaica visiting with his family.
Gunbattles erupted, meanwhile, in the seaside slum of Cite Soleil yesterday. The shantytown is also a pro-Aristide stronghold, but the gunfire purportedly was coming from gangs and not between peacekeepers and bandits. At least one person was wounded, and residents in the poor neighborhood said the fight began over a shipment of donated rice and flour.
The violence is the biggest challenge facing Mr. Latortue, who was sworn in Friday and who has said bringing stability and peace to Haiti is his top priority.
Initially the U.S. Marines and French peacekeepers were sent to secure key sites and provide security. Their mission has changed, however, and now they are working with Haitian police to disarm the general population. U.S. troops have shot and killed at least six Haitians in the past week.
-------- iraq
Iraq-Iran Border to Be Tightened in Bid to Stem Attacks
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran and Karl Vick
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, March 14, 2004;
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A56477-2004Mar13?language=printer
BAGHDAD, March 13 -- The occupation authority plans to close all but three official crossing points along Iraq's border with Iran, double the number of border guards and set up a computerized immigration tracking system in an effort to stem infiltration of foreign fighters, U.S. officials said Saturday.
The officials said the enhanced security measures were prompted by recent terror attacks, including suicide bombings in Baghdad and Karbala earlier this month that killed more than 180 people commemorating a Shiite Muslim holy day. Although U.S. military officials said they have not identified the culprits, many Iraqi political and religious leaders have attributed those attacks to foreigners.
The issue of foreign infiltration has become a rallying point for many Iraqis, particularly Shiite leaders, who regard the lack of aggressive border controls as a chief cause of the violence that has wracked this nation for months. Several senior religious leaders, including the country's top Shiite cleric, issued edicts this week sharply criticizing the occupation authority for not doing enough to protect Iraq's borders.
The new policies appeared to be a response to that criticism.
"Foreign terrorists are present in Iraq," L. Paul Bremer, the country's U.S. administrator, said in a statement. "The numbers are not known with precision, but recent attacks and their continuing presence underscores the importance of improving security at Iraq's borders."
Starting next Saturday, the occupation authority will close 16 of the 19 points of entry along Iraq's nearly 900-mile frontier with Iran, said Daniel Senor, a spokesman for Bremer. Visitors at the three open border posts will have to apply for an entry permit and provide personal information that will be logged into a computer tracking system.
Bremer said in his statement that the number of law enforcement personnel patrolling Iraq's borders would be doubled from the current 8,000.
He called the new policies "the first stage in a multistage effort." Senor said the occupation authority was also considering closing some frontier crossings with Syria, which has been accused by U.S. officials of not doing enough to clamp down on cross-border infiltration.
"It's important to send a very clear signal to governments of countries that border Iraq that enough is enough, that they need to do more to stem the flow of foreign fighters coming across their borders," Senor said.
It is not clear, however, that closing official entrances will staunch the influx of fighters. Military officials believe many of them cross at remote points along Iraq's vast, desolate frontier.
Military commanders also question the extent to which foreigners are responsible for the violence in Iraq. The commanders estimate that several hundred foreign fighters have entered Iraq since the fall and may be helping to instigate attacks, but they believe the vast majority of insurgents striking U.S. and Iraqi security forces are Iraqis. Of the more than 10,000 people detained by the military for security violations, fewer than 150 held foreign passports, said Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the chief military spokesman in Baghdad.
Kimmitt also sought to play down suggestions made by Iraqi leaders that Iranians were responsible for the bombings on the Shiite holy day. "We have no evidence at this point, no intelligence at this point, that links the bombings in Karbala and Baghdad to any Iranians we have in custody," he said.
Elsewhere in Iraq, attacks continued against U.S. forces and Iraqis deemed sympathetic to the occupation. In Tikrit, the home town of former president Saddam Hussein, two American soldiers were killed and three were wounded in a roadside bombing early Saturday. The soldiers were the first casualties suffered by the 1st Infantry Division's 1st Battalion, which took over control of Tikrit on Saturday.
In Baghdad, a midafternoon explosion killed a relative of a prominent Shiite politician. Haider Qazweni, a middle-aged merchant, was killed by powerful explosives tossed into his clothing shop after he returned from prayers. Qazweni was married to the sister of Ibrahim Jafari, the leader of the Dawa party and a member of the country's Governing Council.
A witness described the assassin as a short man with thick glasses and a light beard. "He was carrying a handbag, folded into a newspaper. It was thick," recounted Said Hamza, who was in the shop next door. He said the man hurried out of Qazweni's shop and climbed into a white Volkswagen Passat, in which a driver was waiting.
"The next thing I knew there was a huge explosion," said Hamza, 27. He said both men appeared to be Iraqi, and people milling about at the scene repeated accounts by other area residents who said that the man, who had been asking for Qazweni, spoke with an Iraqi accent.
In Karbala, meanwhile, an Iraqi police official who spoke on condition of anonymity said that the four suspects detained in the Tuesday killings of two Americans and their Iraqi translator were police officers based there. The Americans were working for the occupation authority.
In a telephone interview, Shakir Jaber Abdul-Hussein, the father of one of the suspects, maintained his son's innocence. Abdul-Hussein said his son, Mahmoud Shakir Jaber Abdul-Hussein, joined the police force less than a year ago and was assigned to a new anti-drug unit after completing a three-week training course.
The father also said that 23 of his relatives were executed during Hussein's rule and that his son would have no reason to oppose the occupation. "We are grateful for the Americans who have helped us to get rid of the old regime," Abdul-Hussein said.
U.S. officials have called the three killings, the first involving American civilians working for the occupation authority, a "targeted act of terrorism." The FBI and the Iraqi police are investigating the crimes.
Separately, Senor said Robert Blackwill of the National Security Council staff had arrived in Iraq for consultations with Bremer and members of the Governing Council. Although Senor described Blackwill's scheduled discussions as routine, other U.S. officials have said he is trying to get Iraqi political leaders to agree on the shape of the caretaker government that will assume control of the country after the occupation authority hands over sovereignty on June 30.
Correspondent Sewell Chan in Karbala contributed to this report.
--------
U.S. Tightens Security Measures at Iraq's Borders
March 14, 2004
By THOM SHANKER
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/14/international/middleeast/14IRAQ.html
BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 13 - The American administrator for Iraq announced Saturday that all but three crossings from Iran would be closed and that the number of border security troops would be doubled, all in an effort to halt foreign fighters and terrorists from sneaking into the country.
At the same time, military commanders said they were deep into planning new missions to choke off the routes that smugglers take into Iraq, particularly from Iran and Syria.
The 19 border crossings between Iraq and Iran will be reduced to three ports of entry, and all visitors to Iraq will be required to present a passport and comply with new visa requirements and limits on duration of stay. Visitors also will be tracked on a new computer database.
In the next phase of the program, restrictions will be imposed on border crossings with Syria, an American official said.
A delegation of Air Force officers arrived in Baghdad on Saturday to discuss the new operation. The senior officer who led the group said the Air Force was analyzing how best to deploy high-flying U-2 spy planes and E-8C Joint Stars surveillance aircraft on round-the-clock patrols to watch the border and guide occupation ground troops to people crossing illegally.
L. Paul Bremer III, the American civil administrator in Iraq, issued a statement on Saturday saying that while the number of foreign terrorists operating here remained unknown, "recent attacks and their continuing presence underscore the importance of improving security at Iraq's borders."
A $300 million program will be used to double Iraqi border security forces, increase their training and buy equipment. As of March 8, there were 8,259 Iraqi border police officers hired and on duty, a military spokesman said.
Mr. Bremer vowed that the heightened security would not impede Iraq's economic reconstruction and that special measures would be instituted to accommodate religious pilgrims.
Although the tough border security measures were announced in response to spectacular and symbolic bombings - most recently the Ashura holiday attacks in Baghdad and Karbala that killed more than 180 people - there was a strong political aspect to the announcement.
While senior American officials in Baghdad and Washington have complained about foreign fighters crossing from both Syria and Iran, Mr. Bremer's statement focused on Iraq's eastern border with Iran.
Ahead of Iraq regaining its sovereignty on June 30 and holding elections next year, the announcement may help reassure the nation's Sunni and Kurdish minorities that Iranian influence will not grow, despite religious ties between Iraq's newly assertive Shiite majority and Iran.
A delegation of Iraqi leaders traveled to Iran on Saturday with an agenda that included their shared border. Agence France-Presse reported that Muhammad Bahr Ulum, a Shiite cleric and the current head of the interim Governing Council, led the delegation.
Iraq's borders, which run for more than 2,000 miles and touch six other nations, "are very porous - it's a topographic fact of life," Dan Senor, Mr. Bremer's spokesman, said at an evening news conference. "We hope that some of the countries that border Iraq will be more aggressive in their policing to stop the flow of individuals crossing illegally, particularly foreign fighters."
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of operations for the military force in Iraq, used the same news conference to issue an unusual plea to Iraqis for help in identifying foreign fighters and terrorists operating in their midst.
"The borders are your first line of defense, but your own cities and communities are your second line of defense," General Kimmitt said, asking the public to be alert for strangers unloading trucks or engaged in unusual activities.
By channeling those entering Iraq from Iran into a limited number of border crossings, Iraqi security forces may be able to more efficiently screen visitors. At the same time, limiting the number of legal border crossings will also allow military forces to focus their efforts.
Lt. Gen. Thomas F. Metz, the commander of day-to-day military operations in Iraq, said occupation forces would deploy "at predicted places the enemy may want to surge and come in."
The borders with Turkey, Jordan and Kuwait are far more secure than those with Syria and Iran, General Metz said, and the challenge along the border with Saudi Arabia is the length and desolate nature of that terrain.
In an interview, General Metz said the strengthened border controls and fresh military missions would be used to choke the flow of terrorists, their funds and munitions.
"You want to make it as hard as you can without taking forces away from other, valuable missions," General Metz said.
Roadside Bomb Kills 2 G.I.'s
TIKRIT, Iraq, March 13 (AP) - A roadside bomb killed two American soldiers and wounded three on Saturday, the first casualties suffered by an Army unit taking over security in Saddam Hussein's hometown as part of a giant troop rotation.
In Baghdad, the brother-in-law of a member of the American-appointed Iraqi Governing Council was killed when a bomb exploded in a shop on Saturday, an official said.
--------
Roadside Bombs in Iraq Kill 4 U.S. Soldiers
March 14, 2004
By NAT IVES
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/14/international/middleeast/14CND-IRAQ.html?hp
The debate over the war in Iraq intensified today, with supporters and opponents jostling for the spotlight in anticipation of the invasion's first anniversary on Friday. But the talk was again shadowed by events on the ground, as the latest roadside bomb attacks in Baghdad killed four United States soldiers on Saturday and today.
The attack on Saturday struck soldiers from the First Armored Division at about 10:45 p.m. as they patrolled southeastern Baghdad, killing three of them and wounding another, a military spokesman said. Another roadside explosion went off in the western part of the city early this morning, wounding one soldier who later died at a hospital.
The blasts followed several other deadly incidents this week, including an attack earlier Saturday in Tikrit in which an explosion was followed by gunfire from insurgents, killing two American soldiers and wounding several more. The conflict has now seen 561 American military deaths.
Today top Bush administration officials fanned out on television news programs to say the Iraq war and fight against terrorism had made the United States safer, part of a planned series of appearances and events to focus on Iraq this week. President Bush will mark Friday's anniversary by delivering a speech in the East Room of the White House.
Appearing on the NBC News program "Meet the Press," Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, said the American dead and injured "served in a noble cause, in American's noblest traditions, and that is to bring freedom and to bring security to America."
Asked about the conclusion of the former chief weapons inspector in Iraq, David A. Kay, that the country contains no stockpiles of illicit weapons, Ms. Rice said the search was not yet complete.
Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, speaking on the CBS News program "Face the Nation," emphasized the United States' achievements in Iraq over the past year. "We'll have 25 million people who have been liberated. Schools are open. Hospitals are functioning. There's 1,200 clinics working. They have a new currency. They have a central bank."
Mr. Rumsfeld also faced blunt questions about the reasons for the invasion. "I do believe it was the right thing to do, and I'm glad it's done," Mr. Rumsfeld said. "A vicious regime is gone after decades of repression and death squads and mass graves and mass killings."
But Howard Dean, the former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, followed Ms. Rice on "Meet the Press" to renew his argument against the war.
"Everybody's going to fight terrorism hard." Dr. Dean said. "The question is, has the administration done a good job? And the answer is absolutely not, because Iraq was a diversion."
Partisans of each side also seemed to draw different lessons from the devastating railway bombings in Madrid, which some say were retribution from Al Qaeda for Spain's support of the Iraq war, while others blame ETA, a militant separatist group from the country's Basque region.
Dr. Dean brought up Madrid as he answered a question on Iraq, saying, "For the president of the United States to assert that we are safer because Saddam Hussein is in jail is ludicrous given what happened three days ago in Spain."
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, speaking on "Fox News Sunday," said the Madrid attack showed that Spain could protect itself only by going on the offensive against terrorism.
"And so, rather than finding fault with what Spain has done by being aggressive in the war on terror, they should redouble everyone's efforts to go after terrorist organizations of any kind, whether it's ETA, whether it is Al Qaeda or any other terrorist organization," Mr. Powell said. "Terror has to be brought to an end."
-------- israel / palestine
Suicide Attacks Leave 11 Dead in Israel
March 14, 2004
By PETER ENAV
Associated Press Writer
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/ISRAEL_PALESTINIANS?SITE=DCTMS&SECTION=HOME
ASHDOD, Israel (AP) -- Two Palestinian suicide bombers blew themselves up in this closely guarded Israeli port Sunday, killing nine Israelis and wounding 18 in the first deadly attack on a strategic installation in more than three years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting.
The bombings raised serious questions about Israel's vulnerability. Police said the bombers may have been trying to blow themselves up near chemicals, causing far greater loss of life.
The bombers were identified as residents of a Gaza refugee camp and would be the first militants from Gaza to infiltrate into Israel during the current round of violence. The volatile coastal strip is surrounded by a fence and subject to stringent security.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called off a meeting with his Palestinian counterpart, Ahmed Qureia, that had tentatively been set for Tuesday. Preparatory talks set for Monday were also called off, a Sharon aide said.
Sunday's bombings could signal that bombers were trying to carry out a so-called "mega attack." Many of the bombings since 2000 targeted buses, cafes and markets, where a large number of people gather, but the death toll in each attack never rose above 30. In recent months, security forces said they had stopped dozens of planned attacks every day.
"They found a weak point and they exploited it," Israeli Cabinet Minister Yosef Paritzky said. "There are many people coming and going. It is impossible to seal the entire country hermetically."
Hamas and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, militants with links to Yasser Arafat's Fatah party, claimed joint responsibility for the attack.
Sami Pinto, a portworker, said that when he entered the port, he saw smoke from the explosions near the fence of the facility and one in a workshop inside the port.
"One of our workers who was lightly wounded told me that the terrorist came in and asked for water and the moment he showed him where there was a tap he blew up," Pinto said.
Nine were killed in addition to the bombers, whose bodies were found near the scene of the blasts, authorities said.
Moshe Karadi, police chief of southern Israel, said the bombers were using a different type of bomb than usual and may have been trying to blow themselves up next to tanks of bromide or other dangerous chemicals stored in the port, causing far greater casualties as clouds of poisonous gas billow about. The explosions went off some way from the chemical storage area, possibly prematurely.
All Palestinian bombers since 2000 came from the West Bank, which has a much more porous border with Israel. Israel is building a barrier in the West Bank aimed at stopping attackers, but Palestinians object to the planned route, which cuts deep into territory they claim for a future state.
The Ashdod bombers were identified as Nabil Massoud and Mohammed Salem from the Jebaliya refugee camp in Gaza. The militant groups said the attack came in response to Israeli killings of Palestinian militants.
Sharon said last month that in the absence of peace moves, Israel will implement his "disengagement plan," which includes the evacuation of Gaza Strip settlements.
In preparation for the possible withdrawal, the Palestinian Authority has drawn up a security plan for Gaza that would ban militants from carrying weapons in public, according to a copy obtained Sunday by The Associated Press.
The plan, finalized March 4 after discussions with Egyptian officials, would also leave Arafat's cousin, Moussa, as head of a new security force of 700 soldiers that would maintain order on the border of Egypt and Gaza, Palestinians security sources said.
The proposal was presented to Palestinian militant groups last week. There has been some concern that an Israeli pullback could leave a power vacuum in the volatile coastal strip and lead to chaos. Egypt also fears disorder along its border with Gaza.
The proposal, which details steps over a five-week period, would begin with a major conference of Gaza leaders to reiterate allegiance to the Palestinian Authority and call on citizens to adhere to the laws.
Since Sharon's announcement, violence between Israelis and Palestinians - and among competing Palestinian factions - has increased in battles for power in advance of the proposed withdrawal.
On Sunday, Israeli forces killed three Palestinian militants near the Israeli settlement of Netzarim in Gaza, the army said. Soldiers discovered explosives on the men's bodies, according to the army.
Also Sunday, a Palestinian court ordered the release of four Palestinians who had possible links to the bombing of a U.S. diplomatic convoy that killed three American security guards, Palestinian security sources said. The judge cited lack of evidence.
The four had been arrested several weeks ago and charged with manslaughter for planting bombs aimed at Israeli tanks that might also have hit the convoy in October.
However, U.S. diplomats and even Palestinian security sources questioned whether the men were the real culprits. Some Palestinian officials said the real perpetrators of the October attack could be linked to Arafat's own Fatah organization, or even to the security forces.
Hours after the court order, the men had still not been freed.
The attack on the convoy was the first on a U.S. target in more than three years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting.
--------
Attack in Israeli Port Kills at Least 10; Talks Called Off
March 14, 2004
By JAMES BENNET
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/14/international/middleeast/14CND-MIDE.html
ASHDOD, Israel, March 14 - Two Palestinian suicide bombers who apparently managed to cross the Gaza Strip's fenced boundary with Israel blew up moments apart in the industrial port here today, killing themselves and 10 others and wounding more than 20, the Israeli police said.
After the attack, the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, canceled a planned first meeting this week with his Palestinian counterpart, Ahmed Qurei, who was appointed last fall. With its Middle East peace initiative at a standstill, the Bush administration has been pushing for the two men to meet.
The attack was claimed by Hamas and the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, a militant offshoot of Yasir Arafat's Fatah faction. In a joint statement, the two factions attributed the bombings to two teenagers, aged 17 and 18, from a refugee camp in northern Gaza. Palestinians marched in Gaza late today to celebrate the attack.
Militant groups had vowed retaliation after Israeli forces killed 14 people, most of them gunmen, on a raid into central Gaza on March 7.
It was the first time in more than three years of conflict that Palestinian suicide bombers slipped out of the Gaza Strip, just south of here, to strike inside Israel. Crediting the Gaza fence with stopping attackers in the past, Israel is now building a more elaborate barrier against West Bank Palestinians.
The bombers exploded roughly 100 yards apart. The first somehow penetrated the 10-foot chain-link fence protecting the industrial zone here and detonated his shrapnel-packed bomb at the entrance to a warehouse for heavy machinery, shattering windows more than 50 feet up.
The second blew up on the sidewalk outside the fence, ripping limbs off of olive trees and reducing a small pre-fabricated office building to a heap of twisted, blackened metal.
Itzhak Tubol, 33, said that he was driving home past the warehouse when he saw the first explosion and stopped to help. "I saw the roof fly off and pieces of flesh fall down," he said. "I spotted a head on the road. I grabbed a plastic bag to pick up the head. As I bent down to pick it up, I felt the second blast."
Mr. Tubol said that he was knocked flat and saw only black for a moment before discovering he was covered in blood. He spoke as he lay in Kaplan Medical Center, west of Ashdod near Rehovot, with a bloody bandage covering a gash in his forehead.
Gaza's militants have shown signs of a new daring and aggressiveness since Prime Minister Sharon announced a "unilateral disengagement" plan to evacuate most or all of the Israeli settlements in Gaza.
Some Israeli officials noted that dangerous chemicals were stored at the port and speculated that the Palestinians planned some sort of "mega-attack." But Superintendent Gil Kleiman, a police spokesman, said the police did not suspect such strategic intentions. "They were targeting people," he said.
Eight bystanders were killed at the scene. Two others died in the hospital.
At least one of the bombs was packed with steel ball bearings. Dr. Leon Pones, deputy director of the medical center, said, "The seriously injured patients sustained organ injuries, head injuries, crush injuries, multiple shrapnels."
After receiving news of one of the deaths, a group of sobbing friends or relatives stumbled out of Kaplan Medical Center. "Yesterday he helped me and now he's gone," wept one woman, as two others supported her.
Dore Gold, an adviser to Mr. Sharon, compared the attacks to the bombings Thursday in Madrid. "These are attacks on sensitive areas of national infrastructure," he said. "And the organizations are clearly not driven by limited aims over which either Europeans or Israelis can have negotiations, but rather by maximalist goals to destroy the societies that they're targeting."
In central Gaza today, Israeli forces killed three Palestinian militants near the Israeli settlement of Netazarim. The army said that soldiers had found explosives on the men's bodies.
Also today, a Palestinian court ordered the release of four men being held on suspicion of killing three American security guards with a bombing attack on an American diplomatic convoy passing through northern Gaza in October.
The court cited a lack of evidence. American diplomats and Israeli security officials had previously expressed skepticism that the suspects were the real culprits.
-------- us
'Special skills draft' on drawing board
Computer experts, foreign language specialists lead list of military's needs
Saturday, March 13, 2004
Eric Rosenberg,
Hearst Newspapers
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/03/13/MNG905K1BC1.DTL
Washington -- The government is taking the first steps toward a targeted military draft of Americans with special skills in computers and foreign languages.
The Selective Service System has begun the process of creating the procedures and policies to conduct such a targeted draft in case military officials ask Congress to authorize it and the lawmakers agree to such a request.
Richard Flahavan, a spokesman for the Selective Service System, said planning for a possible draft of linguists and computer experts had begun last fall after Pentagon personnel officials said the military needed more people with skills in those areas.
"Talking to the manpower folks at the Department of Defense and others, what came up was that nobody foresees a need for a large conventional draft such as we had in Vietnam," Flahavan said. "But they thought that if we have any kind of a draft, it will probably be a special skills draft."
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said he would not ask Congress to authorize a draft, and officials at the Selective Service System, the independent federal agency that would organize any conscription, stress that the possibility of a so-called "special skills draft" is likely far off.
A targeted registration and draft is "is strictly in the planning stage," said Flahavan, adding that "the whole thing is driven by what appears to be the more pressing and relevant need today" -- the deficit in language and computer experts.
"We want to gear up and make sure we are capable of providing (those types of draftees) since that's the more likely need," the spokesman said, adding that it could take about two years to "to have all the kinks worked out. "
The agency already has in place a special system to register and draft health care personnel ages 20 to 44 in more than 60 specialties if necessary in a crisis. According to Flahavan, the agency will expand this system to be able to rapidly register and draft computer specialists and linguists, should the need ever arise. But he stressed that the agency had received no request from the Pentagon to do so.
The issue of a renewed draft has gained attention because of concerns that U.S. military forces are over-extended. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist strikes, U.S. forces have fought two wars, established a major military presence in Afghanistan and Iraq and are now taking on peacekeeping duties in Haiti. But Congress, which would have to authorize a draft, has so far shown no interest in renewing the draft.
Legislation to reinstitute the draft, introduced by Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., has minimal support with only 13 House lawmakers signing on as co- sponsors. A corresponding bill in the Senate introduced by Sen. Fritz Hollings, D-S.C., has no co-sponsors.
The military draft ended in 1973 as the American commitment in Vietnam waned, beginning the era of the all-volunteer force. Mandatory registration for the draft was suspended in 1975 but resumed in 1980 by President Jimmy Carter after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. About 13.5 million men, ages 18 to 25, are registered with the Selective Service.
But the military has had particular difficulty attracting and retaining language experts, especially people knowledgeable about Arabic and various Afghan dialects.
To address this need, the Army has a new pilot program underway to recruit Arabic speakers into the service's Ready Reserves. The service has signed up about 150 people into the training program.
A Pentagon official familiar with personnel issues stressed that the armed forces were against any form of conscription but acknowledged the groundwork already underway at the Selective Service System.
"We understand that Selective Service has been reviewing existing organizational mission statements to confirm their relevance for the future," the official said. "Some form of 'special skills' registration, not draft, has been a part of its review."
-------- propaganda wars
White House Marks Invasion Anniversary
By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 14, 2004; Page A21
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56474-2004Mar13.html
The White House will mark this Friday's first anniversary of the invasion of Iraq with a week-long media blitz arguing that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein was essential to combating global terrorism and making the United States safer.
The message is crucial to President Bush's reelection campaign, which has tried to shift the focus of the race from troublesome issues such as the economy to his biggest strength in polls -- his handling of the aftermath of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Bush's presumed opponent, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), is responding with events this week focusing on troops and veterans in West Virginia and other battleground states. Kerry will say that Bush has shortchanged soldiers and their families in a time of war. Retired Army Gen. Wesley K. Clark, who lost his bid for the Democratic nomination, will speak for Kerry in Ohio.
Jim Wilkinson, deputy national security adviser, said the administration's main message for the week is that the nation is "more secure" because of the capture of Hussein. "A dangerous regime with a history of aggression and links to terrorist organizations is no longer in power," Wilkinson said. "The principled action taken by the United States in Iraq has sent our enemies a clear signal about resolve in the war on terror."
Other administration officials said they will use appearances in coming weeks to begin setting what the White House calls "realistic expectations" for the condition of Iraq's infrastructure -- including its electricity supply, gas lines and food distribution network -- in advance of the scheduled end of the U.S.-led occupation on June 30.
Administration officials plan to point out that the demand for oil and electricity has soared now that more Iraqis have cars, air conditioners and satellite dishes. Administration officials have said they overestimated Iraq's modernity before the attack and now want to dampen expectations about the progress of the reconstruction, which will come under increased scrutiny before June 30.
The war-week events began Friday with a town hall meeting by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld with Pentagon employees.
Three members of Bush's war cabinet are on talk shows today. On Monday, the National Security Council and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham will hold a show-and-tell in Oak Ridge, Tenn., of centrifuge parts and other gear that Libya surrendered after agreeing to halt its nuclear-weapons program.
A huge ship bearing the rest of the equipment from Libya's nuclear program will dock on the East Coast as soon as late this week.
On Tuesday, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, Rumsfeld and other administration officials will give interviews to radio stations around the country from the Pentagon.
On Wednesday, two U.S. government television stations beaming into the Middle East will mark the anniversary of the 1988 gassing of Kurds in Halabja, in northern Iraq, that killed an estimated 5,000 people. The administration points to this episode as proof that Hussein once had weapons of mass destruction and used them.
Also Wednesday, the Republican-controlled House is scheduled to hold four hours of debate and vote on a resolution that says the world is better off without Hussein in power. It does not mention Bush or weapons of mass destruction, except in connection with the Kurdish attack.
Bush will speak Thursday at Fort Campbell, Ky. He and first lady Laura Bush will eat lunch with troops.
And on Friday, the president and the first lady will pay their third visit in six months to wounded soldiers at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Bush also will give a major speech in the East Room to ambassadors from countries that were members of the U.S.-led coalitions that attacked Afghanistan and Iraq.
Kerry, who voted to authorize the use of force in Iraq, will point to times that he questioned whether Iraq had or could obtain nuclear material.
Republicans will counter that Kerry started emphasizing his opposition only after the campaign of former Vermont governor Howard Dean began catching fire.
Rand Beers, a former high-level Bush national security official who left the administration and joined Kerry's campaign as his adviser on national and homeland security, said the White House is trying to use images from the week to "paint the picture that they want to be seen rather than allowing others to describe the more dismal reality."
Bush and the first lady will end the week at a "Florida Welcome" rally in Orlando -- the first time he will speak at a Bush-Cheney event that is not a fundraiser.
--------
Rumsfeld: Iraq Weapons May Still Be Found
Sun, Mar 14, 2004
By KEN GUGGENHEIM,
Associated Press Writer
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=7&u=/ap/20040315/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_iraq
WASHINGTON - Bush administration officials said Sunday they do not regret that America went to war against Iraq even though banned weapons have not been found one year after the U.S.-led invasion.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said he believes weapons of mass destruction could still turn up. Secretary of State Colin Powell said even if they don't, that doesn't mean prewar intelligence was distorted to make the case for ousting Saddam Hussein, as some Democrats charge.
"We may not find the stockpiles. They may not exist any longer. But let's not suggest that somehow we knew this" before the war, Powell said on ABC's "This Week." "We went to the United Nations, we went to the world with the best information we had. Nothing that was cooked."
Friday marks the one-year anniversary of the start of the war.
Powell, Rumsfeld and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice appeared on the Sunday morning talk shows to defend the decision to topple Saddam and to highlight progress in rebuilding Iraq.
They cited work on schools and hospitals, the improving economy, and creation and development of Iraqi security forces. They said that after decades of Saddam's rule, Iraq now has an interim constitution that protects human rights and is building a democracy.
Asked on CNN's "Late Edition" if the war was worth the lives of the 564 U.S. soldiers killed, Rumsfeld said, "Oh, my goodness, yes. There's just no question ... 25 million people in Iraq are free."
President Bush's handling of Iraq has become a leading issue in the presidential campaign. Democrats say Bush's rush to war, poor planning and failure to build a broader international coalition have left the United States mired in a conflict with an extraordinary cost in lives and tax dollars.
Bush built the case for war around intelligence that Saddam had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and an advanced nuclear weapons program. But the former chief weapons inspector, David Kay, has said that intelligence was wrong. He has urged Bush to acknowledged the error.
Rumsfeld said 1,200 inspectors are continuing to look for weapons that could be well-concealed in a country the size of California.
"I think it's perfectly proper to reserve final judgment until we've been able to go through that process, run down those leads and see what actually took place," he said on CBS's "Face the Nation."
Powell laid out the administration's case against Saddam in a speech before the United Nations one month before the war. Asked on "Fox News Sunday" if he felt responsible for giving bad information, Powell said, "I wasn't giving the world bad information. I was giving the world the information that we had at the time we had it."
Powell said the failure to find weapons doesn't take "away from the merit of the case" for war.
"I don't think this takes away from the rightness of this, to remove this dictator, make sure that there would be no weapons of mass destruction in the future," he said.
Powell said Saddam never lost his intention to have weapons of mass destruction and he had the capability and infrastructure to build them.
Rice told NBC's "Meet the Press" that Saddam represented "the most dangerous regime in the world's most dangerous region."
Both Powell and Rumsfeld expressed confidence that Iraqis will set up an interim government in time to take control of the country when the U.S.-led occupation ends July 1. But they did not say what form that government was likely to take.
Powell said he hoped Iraqi leaders will ask the United Nations to help form the interim government, though he noted it has not been asked to do so yet.
He said several options are being considered, such as expanding the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council or holding a national conference to designate a government. He said the current 25-member council is not representative enough of the entire nation.
Powell said the United States will still have 100,000 troops in Iraq even after Iraqis regain sovereignty. "We're not walking out on Iraq on the first of July," he said.
-------- POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE
-------- homeland security
Border security to be beefed up
March 14, 2004
Washington Times
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20040314-121102-3803r.htm
BAGHDAD - The U.S.-led authority in Iraq said yesterday it would introduce a new border policy to try to keep out foreign insurgents, including closing all but three of the 19 official crossing points from Iran.
The number of border officials will be doubled and all visitors to Iraq will be given a temporary permit and have their details registered on a computer system.
U.S. officials say there is an increasing threat from foreign fighters in Iraq, who they believe are behind some of the major bombings of recent months.
When attacks on Shi'ites taking part in Ashura mourning ceremonies earlier this month killed more than 180 people, Iraqi religious leaders criticized Washington for not doing enough to police the borders and protect the country.
Yesterday, the U.S. administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, issued a statement saying measures to increase border security would be accelerated.
"Foreign terrorists are present in Iraq," Mr. Bremer said. "The numbers are not known with precision, but recent attacks and their continuing presence underscores the importance of improving security at Iraq's borders."
There are 27 ports of entry along Iraq's 2,270 miles of border, 19 of those along the 930-mile frontier with Iran, according to Dan Senor, Mr. Bremer's spokesman. Within a week, only three Iraq-Iran crossings will remain open, Mr. Senor said, according to Reuters news agency.
Mr. Senor said neighboring countries must do more to stop the flow of "undesirables" across the borders and said an Iraqi delegation had gone to Tehran to discuss the problem. After Iran, the next priority would be the border with Syria.
"Our experience thus far is that border controls have been tight along some of the other borders - Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Turkey," Mr. Senor told reporters in Baghdad.
"We have recognized a lot of problems along the Iranian border, and problems along the Syria borders. But [the new policy] will apply to all of Iraq's borders."
The number of border personnel will be doubled within a year from the current 8,000. All visitors arriving in Iraq by land will need to present a passport, fill in an entry form, be issued a temporary entry permit and be entered into a computer system. Visa fees and requirements are still being finalized.
Special arrangements will be made for larger movements of people wanting to come to Iraq for religious ceremonies.
In other developments yesterday, a roadside bomb killed two American soldiers and wounded three others in Saddam Hussein's hometown, Tikrit, and U.S. forces responded by making several arrests and dispatching troops into the streets in a show of force.
The slain soldiers were the first casualties suffered by the 1st Infantry Division's 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, which took over control of Tikrit yesterday.
In Baghdad, a bomb planted in a shop killed Haidar al-Qazwini, brother-in-law of a Shi'ite member of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, an aide to Mr. al-Jaafari said.
Also yesterday, the White House said it sent a senior official to Baghdad to help form an interim government - action that is needed before sovereignty can be transferred to the Iraqi people by June 30.
In Baghdad, Mr. Senor identified the official as Robert D. Blackwill of the National Security Council staff, who visits Iraq every four to six weeks.
Mr. Blackwill was sent in part to resolve problems some Shi'ite members of the Governing Council have with the interim constitution signed by the council last week, a senior administration official told the Associated Press. He also is charged with convincing the Governing Council to let the United Nations help set up elections, which are scheduled to be held before Dec. 31.
-------- prisons / prisoners
Yee's Lawyers Ask Army To Drop Serious Charges
Associated Press
Sunday, March 14, 2004; Page A15
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56099-2004Mar13.html
ATLANTA -- Lawyers for the Muslim chaplain accused of mishandling classified documents at Guantanamo Bay have proposed a settlement that would throw out the more serious charges and allow him to leave the Army with an honorable discharge.
Capt. James Yee spent 76 days in custody after the military initially linked him to a possible espionage ring at the U.S. naval base in Cuba where terrorism suspects are held. But the government failed to build a capital espionage case against him.
He is charged with mishandling classified material, failing to obey an order, making a false official statement, adultery and conduct unbecoming an officer for allegedly downloading pornography on his government laptop.
The proposed settlement calls for the Army to dismiss the more serious charges, while Yee would waive his right to be court-martialed on the accusations involving the pornography.
That would mean the government could still punish Yee on those charges through an Article 15 proceeding, the military's method for dealing with minor infractions. The penalties would be minor, such as duty restriction or a temporary pay cut.
Petty Officer Christopher Sherwood, spokesman for U.S. Southern Command, which operates the detention center in Cuba, said military officials are reviewing the proposal.
Terms of the proposal for Yee were accidentally e-mailed Thursday to dozens of media outlets by one of Yee's civilian lawyers. Minutes later, the lawyer, Eugene Fidell, sent another e-mail, urging recipients to "disregard and destroy the e-mail I sent a few moments ago. It was sent inadvertently."
Some news organizations ignored the request.
Fidell said Friday that he was aware that his proposal had been published and would have no further comment.
"Most people honored my request," he said.
Michael Greenberger, a former deputy associate attorney general for counterterrorism in the Clinton administration, said the Army has the authority to accept Fidell's proposal and may decide to back off to minimize its embarrassment.
"Frankly, this case seems to have been ill-founded from the start," said Greenberger, now a professor at the University of Maryland. "I think it would not be surprising at all that the U.S. would want to cut their losses and accept Eugene Fidell's offer."
If convicted of all charges, Yee could face dismissal and a maximum of 14 years in prison.
-------- terrorism
Video asserts al Qaeda attacked Spain
March 14, 2004
By John Leicester
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20040314-121049-4297r.htm
MADRID - A man purporting to represent al Qaeda claimed in a videotaped message that the terrorist network was behind the bombings in Madrid that killed 200 and wounded more than 1,500, Spain's interior minister said late last night.
The video along with the detention yesterday of three Moroccans and two Indians as suspects provides the strongest indication yet that Islamic radicals plotted Thursday's attack on one of Washington's staunchest allies in the war in Iraq.
The Spanish government, however, said it could not confirm the tape's authenticity.
The announcement by Interior Minister Angel Acebes came just hours before polls were to open today in general elections weighed down by debate over who carried out the 10 nearly simultaneous bombings of four commuter trains.
"We declare our responsibility for what happened in Madrid exactly 2 years after the attacks on New York and Washington," the man on the video said, according to a government translation of the short message, recorded in Arabic. "It is a response to your collaboration with the criminals Bush and his allies."
Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, the nation's outgoing leader, has been a staunch supporter of the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
A London-based Arabic newspaper earlier received a claim of responsibility in al Qaeda's name; the government, however, has been reluctant to blame Osama bin Laden's terror network, saying the Basque separatist group ETA also was a suspect. ETA denied responsibility.
Speaking at a news conference at the Interior Ministry just after midnight, Mr. Acebes said the videotape was discovered in a trash can after an Arabic-speaking man called a Madrid TV station.
A statement from the ministry said the man in the video was identified as Abu Dujan al Afghani. Mr. Acebes said he had a Moroccan accent and claimed to be the "military spokesman" of al Qaeda in Europe, but was not known to law-enforcement authorities in Spain. He also threatened further attacks.
"This is a response to the crimes that you caused in the world, and specifically in Iraq and Afghanistan, and there will be more, if God wills it," he said, according to the translation.
"You love life and we love death, which gives an example of what the prophet Muhammad said. If you don't stop your injustices, more and more blood will flow and these attacks will seem very small compared to what can occur in what you call terrorism."
At demonstrations in Spain yesterday, some protesters said they believed the ruling party was playing down the likely link between the bombings and the nation's role in Iraq, fearing it would hurt the party's chances in today's elections.
About 5,000 protested outside the Popular Party's headquarters in Madrid, holding up signs saying "Peace" and "no more coverup."
One banner read: "Aznar, because of you, we all pay."
"Maybe now the truth will come out," Fernando Hernandez, a college student, said after hearing about the five arrests. "All we want is the truth."
Earlier yesterday, Mr. Acebes said the five suspects were arrested around Madrid.
A spokesman for the Moroccan government identified the three Moroccans as Jamal Zougam, 30; Mohammed Bekkali, 31, a mechanic; and Mohammed Chaoui, 34. All three are from northern Morocco, but the government gave no further details.
"One might have connections with Moroccan extremist groups. But it is still very early to establish to what degree," Mr. Acebes said, without naming any group.
The five were arrested after a gym bag packed with explosives and a cell phone was discovered on one of the four bombed rush-hour trains, the minister said.
Those arrested were suspected of being involved in the sale and falsification of the mobile phone and data chip known as SIM found with the unexploded bomb, Reuters news agency quoted Mr. Acebes as saying.
Two Spaniards of Indian origin also were called for questioning, but are not expected to be arrested, he said.
Spanish citizens were among 33 persons killed by suicide bombings that targeted Jewish sites and a Spanish restaurant close to the Spanish Consulate in Casablanca, Morocco, in May 2003.
Those attacks were blamed on Salafia Jihadia, a secretive, radical Islamic group thought by Moroccan authorities to have links to al Qaeda. Twelve suicide bombers also died.
Just months ago, a taped threat thought to be from bin Laden named Spain among countries that could be attacked "at the appropriate time and place."
Confirmed involvement by Islamic extremists in the Madrid bombings could play into the hands of Aznarcritics who opposed sending 1,300 peacekeepers to Iraq.
"If it was al Qaeda, this was a reprisal for sending troops to Iraq, where we have no business being," said Damian Garcia, whose 86-year-old father died in the bombings.
The government had sought to dampen such speculation. Mr. Acebes said yesterday that autopsies conducted on victims showed no signs of suicide bombings a hallmark of Islamic militants.
Pressure mounted for answers. The crowd outside the Popular Party headquarters chanted, "We want the truth before voting."
Mr. Aznar's handpicked candidate to succeed him, Mariano Rajoy, charged that the rally violated a law banning political demonstrations on the day before an election.
"I hereby demand that the organizers of this illegal demonstration end this antidemocratic act of pressure against tomorrow's elections," he said.
Hours earlier, the opposition Socialists charged that Mr. Rajoy himself violated the law by urging voters in a newspaper interview to give an absolute majority in parliament.
Mr. Rajoy was only three to five percentage points ahead of Socialist candidate Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero when opinion polls were stopped before the blasts in the final week of campaigning.
The massive police hunt for the bombers focused in part on a stolen van found with seven detonators and an audiotape of verses from the Koran. A witness told Associated Press Television News he saw three suspicious men go from the vehicle to a station where three of the bombed trains originated.
The men wore coverings on their faces believed to be ski masks but "it wasn't cold. I thought it was very strange," said the man, who did not want to be named. "They went into the train station. I tried to follow one of them, but I couldn't because he was very fast."
The attack's lethal coordination 10 explosions within 15 minutes pointed to al Qaeda.
The compressed dynamite used, however, is favored by ETA, which has killed more than 800 in four decades of bombings and assassinations to carve out an independent Basque homeland in northern Spain.
ETA attacks never have been as deadly as the Madrid bombings, and mostly targeted police and politicians. On Friday, a caller claiming to represent ETA told a Basque newspaper that the group was not responsible the first time ETA is known to have denied an attack.
The death of a man in a hospital overnight pushed the toll up to 200. Of the 1,511 injured, 266 remained hospitalized with 17 in critical condition.
Since the September 11 attacks 30 months ago in the United States, only the Bali bombing in Indonesia in October 2002 was deadlier, with 202 persons dead. The Madrid attack was the worst act of terrorism ever in Spain and Europe's deadliest since the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, killed 270.
A steady stream of hearses carried coffins in and out of Madrid's biggest funeral home, Tanatorio Sur, which was overwhelmed. The coffins of a couple killed in the attacks were placed in a room normally used for staff meetings.
"My son," an elderly woman repeatedly sobbed, leaning on relatives. "Why?"
--------
Spain Links 3 Moroccans and 2 Indians to Bomb Case
March 14, 2004
By LIZETTE ALVAREZ and ELAINE SCIOLINO
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/14/international/europe/14SPAI.html?pagewanted=all&position=
MADRID, March 13 - Spain announced Saturday evening that it has arrested five people in connection with terrorist train bombings that killed 200 people and injured 1,400 others.
Interior Minister Ángel Acebes told a hastily convened news conference that three Moroccans and two Indians were arrested in Madrid in connection with the sale and falsification of a telephone and its phone card attached to an unexploded bomb in one of the trains. Two other Spaniards of ``Indian origin'' were being questioned, he added.
Mr. Acebes stressed that ``the investigation had just begun'' and that it was ``too early to make a determination that they are linked to Islamic groups.'' But he said that this development ``opens an important piece of the investigation.''
In response to a question, Mr. Acebes revealed that some of those arrested may have links to ``Moroccan extremist groups.''
Special national police units are searching homes and businesses for more leads, he said.
The center-right government of José María Aznar has been under extraordinary pressure both inside the government and among its political opponents to conduct an open investigation as the country prepares to go to the polls on Sunday.
Initially, the government said with seeming certainty that ETA was responsible but day by day has added qualifiers to that pronouncement.
Mr. Acebes defended his government's handling of the investigation, saying, ``Sixty hours after the brutal attack we have five arrests.''
In an interview earlier Saturday, Ignacio Astarloa, secretary of state for security in the Interior Ministry, acknowledged that officials investigating the train bombings on Thursday found themselves hampered by fingerprints so muddled they may be useless and evidence that is both contradictory and confusing, a senior Spanish official said Saturday.
``We keep finding things in this investigation that take us to one side and then other things that take us to another.''
Earlier in the day, Mr. Astarloa said the government continued to focus primarily on ETA, the Basque terrorist organization, as the chief suspect in the investigation. But he added, a point underscored in a news conference today by Mr. Acebes, that investigators are also vigorously investigating information that could implicate a militant Islamic group - even Al Qaeda.
The most important clue by far was the unexploded bomb found in a gym bag on one of the trains. Mr. Astarloa called its discovery ``a blessing'' because, he said, ``it is the only bag planted by the terrorists that allows us to investigate something that isn't just ashes.''
A cellphone found in the gym bag presumably led to the arrests. The bag also contained a detonator and about 20 pounds of explosives as well as shrapnel on one of the trains that the terrorists attacked, he said.
The unexploded bomb, which he said was believed to have been connected to an alarm clock function on the phone, failed to go off. Mr. Astarloa said that one hypothesis was that the phone had not been properly activated.
He said that ETA had detonated bombs using mobile phones but that typically the trigger had been a call to the phone, not an alarm. The phone was not a brand used by ETA in the past, he added.
At a news conference on Saturday, Mr. Acebes, the Interior Minister, said for the first time that the attack could have involved cooperation between ETA and another terrorist group.
``Of course you can't rule out at the moment that terrorist organizations of this type have coalitions, reach agreements, help each other,'' he said when asked a question about possible ETA links with radicals in Iraq.
Spain has reached out for help to the intelligence services of a number of allies, including Britain, the United States, France, Israel and Morocco, Mr. Astarloa said, adding that ``so far, nobody has been able to provide any concrete information.''
He added, ``There has been no conversation overheard in a bar, no evidence of a bank wire transfer.''
He also said the license plate on a van that was left at the station in Alcalá de Henares and contained seven copper-wired detonators that matched the one found on the unexploded bomb, was not changed. This is also unusual for an ETA operation, he added.
``A lot doesn't fit into ETA's typical picture,'' he said. ``And other facts don't fit the pattern of other terrorist groups.''
Investigators continue to analyze the contents of the van and the gym bag, but Mr. Astarloa said some of the fingerprints probably belonged to the police officers who handled the evidence.
He said the cellphone contained five fingerprints.
``There are many fingerprints, too many,'' he said. For example, in the van, which was stolen, he said, ``There are years and years of normal people who used it. Then there are the possible fingerprints of terrorists. Then there are the fingerprints of the police who took charge of the van.''
As investigators continued piecing together the evidence, people in Spain prepared to vote Sunday in general parliamentary elections, which will forever be linked with the terrorist attack on Thursday.
The bombings are expected to galvanize voters to come to the polls in a sign of newfound unity and purpose - to rally against terrorism - and many political analysts predict a record-high turnout.
It has been widely predicted that the winner of the parliamentary election will be the Popular Party, now headed by the departing Prime Minister José María Aznar , which has been ahead in public opinion surveys for months. It is unclear whether the party will retain its absolute parliamentary majority.
If the Popular Party wins against the Socialists, Mr. Aznar's handpicked successor, Mariano Rajoy, will take the helm. He has hefty political experience but minimal charisma and would be thrust into leadership at a time of chaos and uncertainty.
``The people are in shock,'' said Victor Pérez-Díaz, a political science professor at the University of Madrid. ``And there will be a reaction. There will be a new sense of firmness, of determination, of resolution.''
With no clear sense of who is responsible for the carnage, few people are willing to gauge the public mood and dissect how it could influence political opinion and actual votes in Sunday's election.
Campaigning was suspended on Thursday, bringing an eerie silence to the frenetic political activity that typically leads up to an election.
An Islamic militant group sent a letter claiming responsibility to an Arabic-language newspaper in London on Thursday. The police also found in the van a cassette tape in Arabic of chanted verses from the Koran, followed by interpretative commentary, a type of educational tape that is sold widely at mosques and Islamic bookstores.
But government officials said the tape could have been put there as a decoy. ``We don't know whether those things were planted to throw us off the track of ETA,'' Mr. Astarloa said.
The bomb hidden in the gym bag was built with a Spanish-made explosive, known as Goma 2-E, a gelatinous, nitroglycerin-based explosive that is typically used in mining, that ETA has not used in the recent past, Mr. Astarloa said.
He said investigators were working on the assumption that Goma 2-E was the substance used in all of the explosions.
Like the unexploded bomb, 9 of the 10 bombs that exploded contained about 20 pounds of explosives; the tenth was believed to be about 40 pounds, he said.
In a call to a Basque radio station and newspaper, ETA denied playing a role in the bombings on Friday. Some Basque political leaders have expressed outrage over Mr. Aznar's allegations, accusing him of political trickery to increase his party's chances in the elections on Sunday and have demanded proof that ETA was involved.
In Europe and the United States, security was heightened, a reaction to the uncertainty over who was behind the attacks.
``This is the new menace of our time,'' British Prime Minister Tony Blair said at a Labor Party conference on Saturday.
Talking to CNN, President Bush offered help to the Spanish government in tracking down the killers and said it was too early to know who was responsible. ``I wouldn't rule anybody out,'' he said.
Political analysts say people are now likely to cast their votes on Sunday through the filter of terrorism, which has been a longstanding issue here, instead of the vigorous economy. Conventional wisdom here dictates that if the culprits are ETA, then Mr. Aznar's party stands to gain votes in the election, since he has never swayed from his tough line on the group.
If those responsible are Islamic militants, it is expected that Mr. Aznar will be blamed for supporting the war in Iraq, which 90 percent of the people here opposed, and putting Spain in the cross hairs of terrorist attacks.
Elaine Sciolino contributed reporting for this article.
--------
Five Held in Madrid Blasts
Tape Asserts Al Qaeda Responsibility
By Keith B. Richburg
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, March 14, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A55692-2004Mar13?language=printer
MADRID, March 14 -- The Spanish government announced Saturday that three Moroccans and two Indians, possibly with links to Muslim extremist groups, had been arrested in connection with Thursday's multiple bombings on rush-hour trains in Madrid, which killed 200 people and injured nearly 1,500.
Interior Minister Angel Acebes said that two other people, whom he described as Spaniards of Indian descent, were also being questioned and that several buildings and houses were being searched for more leads. Earlier, government officials had repeatedly said they believed Basque separatists carried out the bombings.
Acebes announced the arrests at a news conference on national television just after 8 p.m. "Sixty hours after the brutal attacks, we now have five detentions," he said.
He said the suspects had been linked to a cellular telephone and a cell-phone card found Friday night in a gym bag that also contained undetonated explosives and wiring. The bag had been mistakenly placed among train luggage lost after the attacks. Police said they believed Thursday's attackers used the same technique -- wiring explosives inside gym bags and backpacks to cell phones -- to bomb the trains.
At another news conference early Sunday, Acebes said authorities had received a videotape in which a man identifying himself as al Qaeda's military spokesman in Europe asserted responsibility for the attacks. "We declare our responsibility for what happened in Madrid exactly 21/2 years after the attacks on New York and Washington," the man said, according to a government translation of the tape, which was recorded in Arabic. "It is a response to your collaboration with the criminals Bush and his allies."
Acebes said the videotape was discovered after an Arabic-speaking man called a Madrid television station and described where it could be found. Acebes cautioned, however, that the authenticity of the claim could not be immediately confirmed.
The arrests appeared to throw the country into political turmoil just hours before polls were scheduled to open for national elections scheduled for Sunday, capping a long and emotional day spent burying and cremating dozens of victims of the attacks.
Reports of the suspected Islamic link brought thousands of anti-government protesters onto the streets of Madrid. They converged on offices of the ruling Popular Party and accused the outgoing prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar, of withholding information and trying to manipulate public opinion about the terror attacks before the elections. There were similar anti-government protests in Barcelona and Bilbao.
The protesters blamed Aznar and his pro-American policies -- including sending 1,300 Spanish troops to Iraq -- for the bombings, and said the government initially tried to ascribe blame to the Basque separatist group ETA to avert a popular backlash before the Sunday elections.
Aznar's handpicked successor, Mariano Rajoy, has pledged to continue the prime minister's pro-American policies. His Socialist Party challenger, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, has promised to pull Spanish troops out of Iraq immediately. In a speech Saturday night at the besieged party headquarters in Madrid, Rajoy called the protests outside illegal and appealed for people to remain calm and for the demonstrators to disperse, but his plea was ignored.
Acebes continued to insist Saturday night that no group had been ruled out as a suspect in the bombings. "Police are still investigating all avenues," Acebes said. "This is an open investigation, which is only just starting."
Acebes provided little information about the suspects arrested Saturday, but said they "could be connected to Muslim extremist groups." He added, "All of them are implicated in the sale and falsification of the mobile phone and the mobile phone card found in the bag that did not explode."
The discovery of a possible Islamic terrorist link to the attacks marks a major and embarrassing shift for the government and the Popular Party, since officials, including Acebes, asserted within hours of the attacks Thursday that the bombings were the work of ETA, whose initials in the Basque language stand for Basque Homeland and Freedom.
ETA has been waging a violent, 30-year campaign for independence for Spain's Basque region, and authorities said that two weeks ago they had intercepted two ETA members with a van containing 1,100 pounds of explosives and headed for Madrid.
But on Friday, ETA issued an unusual denial of involvement in the attack in a statement to Gara, a Basque-language newspaper, and to Basque regional television.
In addition, many Spaniards with long experience observing ETA's methods said the Thursday attacks would mark a significant departure from the group's established pattern -- the scale was far larger and the choice of victims far more random. Also, government officials in recent months have said that ETA had been significantly weakened, following the mass arrests of many of its leaders here in Spain and across the border in France.
Many other signs pointed to the involvement of Islamic extremists with possible links to the al Qaeda network. Simultaneous explosions and mass casualties have long been considered signatures of al Qaeda.
Al Qaeda's leader, Osama bin Laden, specifically threatened Spain, as well as other countries closely aligned with the United States, in an audiotape last October that was verified as genuine.
The news of the possible Islamic link raised the prospect that the type of terrorism that the United States experienced on Sept. 11, 2001, had come to Europe. Even though Spaniards, and all Europeans, expressed solidarity with the United States after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon, "in reality, there wasn't a real internalization of the danger," said Edurne Uriarte, a political scientist and expert on terrorism.
"Europeans continued thinking the real danger was for Americans, not for Europeans," Uriarte said. "Spaniards tended to see the security obsession of Americans with some feeling of superiority."
She added: "The problem is Europeans did not have September 11. Now we have the equivalent. I don't think Europeans can feel secure now. They see you can have this type of crime in Madrid, in one of the European capitals."
Spain has long been considered an operating center for the al Qaeda network. Mohamed Atta, the suspected leader of the Sept. 11 hijacking team, held high-level meetings in Spain in the summer before the attacks.
Last year, a Spanish high court judge, Baltasar Garzon, who has investigated both ETA and al Qaeda, said there were al Qaeda "sleeper cells" operating in Spain, and he charged 35 people, including bin Laden, in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks.
Spain has rounded up dozens of suspected Islamic extremists, including Algerians and Moroccans believed to have been connected to several suicide bombings that killed 45 people, including the 12 bombers, in Casablanca last May. Four Spaniards were among the dead, and the targets included a Spanish restaurant. One bomb also exploded near the Spanish consulate. An al Qaeda-linked group called Salafist Jihad was named as responsible.
Spanish investigators contacted their counterparts in Morocco on Saturday, seeking information on the arrested men, according to a Moroccan intelligence official. A Moroccan team was expected to travel to Spain on Sunday to assist in the investigation.
-------- ENERGY AND OTHER
-------- health
Little Action on Lead Warnings
Many D.C. Residents Remain Unaware of Problem
By Monte Reel and Sarah Cohen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, March 14, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56582-2004Mar13.html
The expanding scope of the District's problems with lead-contaminated water during the past six weeks has obscured understanding of the issue for many residents, leaving them misinformed or apathetic.
Visits last week to households that participated in the District's voluntary lead testing program last year revealed scattered clusters of well-informed residents, but the conversations indicated that more residents remain largely unaware of lead's potential health risks. Few said they have discussed their results with neighbors, leaving those in untested households largely unaware that nearby homes tested high. Some said they didn't trust the water company or its motives, and many expressed a fatalistic exasperation about the problems, saying that possible water contamination ranks low among day-to-day concerns.
"I'm drinking the water the way I've always done," said Roland Kave, whose house in the 4600 block of Hayes Street NE tested at 105 parts per billion, seven times the maximum level under federal guidelines. "I'm frustrated with this, but life goes on. It's every man for himself."
After the problems were first publicized in late January, WASA officials said the contamination was confined to homes with lead service lines -- about 23,000 in all. But then some homes with copper service lines showed elevated lead levels, indicating a broader problem. City and federal officials last week said new rounds of testing would aim to develop a fuller picture of contamination problems throughout the city, not just in those homes believed to be served by lead lines.
In some neighborhoods, the problems have caused people to alter their routines and have spurred regular community meetings of residents struggling to keep up-to-date with the evolving issue. Evelyn Jackson, who lives in the 2000 block of Lawrence Street in Woodridge, said she hadn't been worried about lead before last week because some lead pipes in her home had been replaced, which she thought would have solved any problems. But when she learned that her home might still have high levels, she requested a test kit from WASA and was placed on a waiting list.
"We've been drinking bottled water for some years, but now I make sure we cook with it," said Jackson, who shares the house with her husband, 7-year-old son and great-grandmother. "It's a scary situation. Everyone in the neighborhood basically is buying water."
But even within the limited sample of homes tested last year, the city's efforts to communicate the problems and possible dangers have had limited success, door-to-door visits of several neighborhoods throughout the city showed.
WASA sent its test results to those who participated late last year and early this year; however, some residents said they weren't aware of their results until notified by reporters. Some said they might have simply overlooked a mailing.
Riffling through a stack of mail, Elizabeth Page was trying to figure out whether she had been given any special instructions after her 1927 rowhouse in Petworth was tested at 110 and 53 ppb on successive draws. She said she started drinking bottled water a few years ago, but still cooks with tap water.
"Every time I turn around they send me something else," said Page, who has lived in the house since 1969. "I haven't taken the time to read all this."
Some of those who did read mailings said they weren't really sure what they meant. Elizabeth Jones, who lives in the 4600 block of Hunt Place NE in Deanwood, got a letter saying her water tested at 31 ppb. The letter informed her that the result was higher than the federal action level, but she said she wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Annie Resper, whose home on 17th Street SE in Randall Heights was tested at 710 ppb, also said she wasn't sure how to interpret her results until she sought out information on her own. Under federal regulations, when testing shows that levels exceed 15 ppb -- the action level -- a utility must take corrective action.
"It was very upsetting for me that they didn't just pick up the phone and say the lead in your water is very high and you shouldn't be drinking it," said the retired school cafeteria worker and mother of 10. "They didn't explain it to me. . . . They haven't been up-front with us and honest about what's going on."
Many residents said they had the impression that the problems were caused solely by the same lead service pipes that have been connected to their properties for decades -- a notion reinforced by WASA for several weeks after the problems first were publicized. Those residents said they didn't know that recent changes to the water's chemical composition are suspected to have made it more corrosive, causing lead to leach from pipes and fixtures into the water. Because they believed the problems were caused solely by the pipes, many adopted the same attitude: If I've had the same pipes for years and they haven't hurt me yet, why be concerned now?
"It doesn't make sense to me," said Ernest Fitzgerald, whose house in the 600 block of Emerson Street NW in Petworth tested at 41 ppb. "People have been living here 80 to 90 years in some cases, and it seems like they'd be having problems if it was bad for you. I'm wondering if WASA is just coming up with all this as a way to make money. . . . They lie to you so much, what can you believe?"
According to some residents, some test results themselves shouldn't be believed.
WASA's protocol called for residents to prepare the samples. Norma Johnson of the 800 block of 48th Street NE in Deanwood submitted water from a faucet she rarely uses instead of the filtered faucet on her sink "just to mess with them," she said. In Anacostia, Joanne Correira got a result of 301 ppb for her 1907 home, but she said her kitchen was undergoing renovation at the time of the test and the sink hadn't been installed. She said a neighbor who wasn't invited by WASA to participate in the test filled her vials with his water and left them on her doorstep. Correira said she thought the water came from neighbor McKinley Womack, but Womack said it wasn't his -- he got the water from another neighbor who was trying to capitalize on the $25 incentive.
No matter where the water came from, Womack said he's not concerned about the high result.
"I'm not worried," said Womack, 79. "I've been in the house since 1967 and raised six children there. I drink tap water. I'm paying for it. I like it. It's better than the water you buy."
Many of those whose water tested high said they hadn't talked about the results with their neighbors, and some of those neighbors said they had no idea lead problems affected their blocks.
"I haven't even discussed it with my neighbors," said Mae Rochester, whose Petworth home tested at 390 ppb. "We don't see much of each other in the winter time."
Ruth Silverstein, who lives across the street from Rochester on Farragut Street and who didn't participate in last year's test, said she was surprised to see that all but one of the 15 participating neighbors on her street received results over the federal action level. She said she hadn't talked to any of them about their tests.
"You always think you'll get away with not being involved," she said.
In some neighborhoods, however, residents have become very involved. In Woodridge in Northeast, some parents said they have sent bottled water to their children's schools and have been talking to each other about lead contamination at community meetings and via the Internet.
"People are upset that this has been allowed to happen and to go on without being rectified," said Anthony Hood, president of the Woodridge Civic Association. "What I've heard is, let's stop the blame game. We're very concerned and we want answers. Let's see what the quickest way is this can be rectified."
Hood, who said he works for the Environmental Protection Agency but not in the section dealing with water, said he helped organize a neighborhood meeting last weekend and invited WASA officials. They didn't come because they were busy, and he said he understood because "they can only go so far."
On Oliver Street NW in Chevy Chase, Evelyn Devlin and Carol Ido, who live across the street from one another, were surprised to learn during a recent conversation that their lead levels were significantly different.
The water in Devlin's house had lead levels reaching 350 ppb, while Ido's highest result was 29 ppb and her second draw reading was 11 ppb, under the EPA's limit. Then Ido remembered that last year she found a leak in her house's internal plumbing and replaced the pipes with copper. Although Ido's house still had a lead service line running from the water main to the property line, she figured that the removal of at least a portion of the lead pipes lowered her reading.
"I feel badly for people over the last six months, especially pregnant women or those who have little kids, who didn't know," Devlin said.
Health experts have warned that young children, pregnant women and nursing mothers are at the most risk to lead's harmful effects, though other residents expressed concern that their ailments might have something to do with lead. Winston Stanford of Petworth said he recently asked his doctor whether his shaking hands might be caused by lead; his doctor told him medication he had been taking after an accident was a more likely source, he said.
Edith Brock of U Street in Anacostia said she believes waterborne lead is exacerbating a skin condition. She said she has been boiling gallons of water before using it to bathe in; she was not aware that boiling the water doesn't remove lead from the water.
"Why are we charged so much for dirty water?" Brock asked.
That sentiment was widespread throughout the city, even from those who use bottled water for drinking. Vincent Hawkins Jr. of Petworth said he buys about 10 five-gallon bottles of water each month, but his WASA bills have still tripled in recent years.
"My retirement check doesn't go up that fast," said Hawkins, who is a retired city employee.
On U Street SE, James Faulk's lead levels were tested at 25 ppb. The retired utility worker, who used to work on gas lines, said he was disturbed by WASA's performance.
"I feel that they need to be held accountable," he said. "They knew it was a problem, and they didn't tell people about it until recently."
WASA officials on Friday protested the publication of the 6,000-plus test results. General Manager Jerry Johnson said the agency fears that private companies and others might prey on households with high lead levels. He said that residents should demand identification from any visitors claiming to be a WASA employee.
Staff writers D'Vera Cohn, Avram Goldstein, David Nakamura and Arthur Santana contributed to this report.
--------
WASA Backpedaling Prompts Confusion
D.C. Agency Changed Advice on Flushing Taps, Replacing Pipes, Health Risks
By David Nakamura
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 14, 2004; Page A16
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56388-2004Mar13.html
Over the past six weeks, D.C. Water and Sewer Authority officials have sounded confident when they advised residents about where to expect high lead levels, how to flush lead away, when not to drink their tap water and how replacing lead service lines would reduce the contamination problem.
But after every major assessment, after every major recommendation, the officials have had to amend their advice. The result has been an ever-shifting collection of pronouncements and massive confusion for residents and city leaders.
One by one, many of WASA's key recommendations have had to be changed, and many of its basic assumptions have proved false.
"My level of frustration is very high right now," said Mary Williams, a community activist from Southwest Washington. "Every day we get a whole different take on it from WASA."
During one week in February, the agency mailed letters to all city residents suggesting they flush their taps for a minute and a half to reduce lead levels. But during the same week, federal authorities demanded WASA change the recommendation to 10 minutes for residents who live in homes with lead service lines. WASA made the adjustment.
WASA officials told residents that lead levels would be reduced when the agency replaced lead service lines. But after WASA contractors replaced some public lead service lines, lead levels in some homes increased. That's because most homeowners had not replaced the private portions of their lead pipes, so when contractors linked copper pipes to the lead pipes, the disruption often accelerated lead leaching.
From the start, agency officials have emphasized that the lead contamination is limited almost exclusively to houses with lead service lines, roughly 23,000 of the city's 130,000 total service lines. But results from new water tests last month showed that 51 of the 556 homes with copper service lines had water with high lead levels, a significant percentage according to environmentalists. Now, WASA plans to expand its tests to include more homes that do not have lead service lines.
Relying on WASA's assessments, city health officials last month narrowly aimed an advisory not to drink unfiltered water at pregnant women, nursing mothers and young children who live in homes with lead service lines. Now that tests show that some homes with copper service lines also have high lead levels, environmentalists are concerned that the health advisory is too narrow.
"This clearly shows their strategy to limit their action to those with lead lines was inadequate," said Paul Schwartz, policy coordinator for Clean Water Action.
Already under fire for failing to fully notify the public of the extent of the lead problem after it was discovered two years ago, WASA officials are taking more criticism for their handling of the crisis since The Washington Post disclosed the problems six weeks ago.
"This was soft-pedaled from the instant it started," said D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1). "Rather than make clear the seriousness of the problem, WASA has done the exact opposite, much to the detriment of public health."
WASA General Manager Jerry N. Johnson took umbrage at that characterization late last week. He said the lead problems in the District are unlike any that have been found in other parts of the country.
Therefore, officials are delving into new territory and are providing the most accurate information possible as they go along. Occasionally, that means statements made at one point might later be altered, Johnson said.
"We are dealing in an arena we have not dealt in before. We are learning things as we progress through this process," he said. "It's an evolutionary process."
After discovering in the fall that lead levels in more than 4,000 D.C. homes exceeded the federal standard of 15 parts per billion, WASA officials said last month that they did not hold a news conference to publicize the problem because they did not want to panic residents citywide. WASA officials still believed the problem was relatively limited.
But some city leaders, residents and environmentalists complain that even as federal and local leaders have pressured the agency to be more forthcoming, WASA leaders have purposely given out incomplete data and issued misleading statements designed to back up their initial assessment.
Too often, they say, WASA officials have summarily downplayed the lead problems and health risks, only to have to readjust their stance later after city leaders, residents, activists or reporters challenged the assumptions.
"You expect from the top, highly qualified professionals a set of consistent advice," said Brent Blackwelder, president of Friends of the Earth, an environmental group. "If you don't know all the answers, that's fine. People understand. But when you offer one set of unqualified advice and then repeatedly change positions when you're supposed to be the experts, that leaves the general public in a state of being baffled."
In late January and early February, as the media first began reporting on the lead problems, WASA officials initially seemed to have the data to support their assessments and proposed solutions.
Michael Marcotte, the agency's chief engineer, said that the problem likely was limited to 23,000 homes that WASA's database showed had lead service lines. He also noted that WASA contractors had embarked on a plan to replace 7 percent of the city's lead service lines, or 1,600 each year, a federal requirement that would help reduce the lead problem.
In the meantime, until pipes were replaced, Marcotte pointed to guidelines from the Environmental Protection Agency that recommended residents flush their taps for a minute and a half if they have a lead service line.
As it turned out, each of those statements was partially accurate.
WASA did not have a database, but rather a pile of paper records that were not computerized. The records provided a rough mathematical estimate developed in 1990 of how many homes have lead service lines.
WASA had replaced 385 lead service lines the previous year, and officials used a regulatory loophole to avoid replacing another 1,200.
And, although Johnson sent a letter to all city residents Feb. 9 that urged them to run their taps for a minute and a half, the EPA decided Feb. 13 to change that recommendation to 10 minutes for those with lead service lines. Many residents received Johnson's letter after officials had announced the new guidelines.
"The flushing regime that we initially talked about was one talked about by the U.S. EPA," Johnson said. "It was the information we had at the time. After going back and reviewing that and having further discussions with the health department and the EPA, the flushing regime for homes with lead service lines was changed. . . . That shows we're trying to get the best information to the customers . . . that we can get to them at any point in time."
In fact, WASA should have known its initial recommendation would be ineffective. The agency had information from last year's water testing program and from a consultant's reports that showed flushing for one or two minutes would, in many cases, make the lead contamination worse.
WASA's moves to adjust its recommendations have been met with mixed reactions.
"There are two options here," said Erik Olson, a lawyer for the Natural Resources Defense Council. "One is bumbling incompetence, and the other was a strategy to minimize the public concern and public outcry. Either way, they look bad, but I have to say that every single example of misinformation tilts in the direction of minimizing the public health impact."
Council member Carol Schwartz (R-At Large), head of an interagency task force, said last week that she believes that WASA officials, after initially hiding information, are now "trying to be upfront and accurate" but are facing a complex issue.
But WASA's approach has prompted council member Adrian M. Fenty (D-Ward 4) to call for a change in management at the quasi-independent agency.
"It's the old adage that it's not the problem itself, but the coverup that is most damaging," Fenty said. "What you have with WASA is the worst of both worlds: They have the efficiency of a typical D.C. government agency and the accountability of a private company."
-------- ACTIVISTS
Thousands in S. Korea Protest Impeachment
Mar 14, 2004
By JAE-SUK YOO
Associated Press Writer
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SKOREA_POLITICS?SITE=DCTMS&SECTION=HOME
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Tens of thousands of anti-impeachment demonstrators streamed into the streets on Sunday, as North Korea asked that economic talks with the South be switched to the North because of "uncertainty" over the impeachment of President Roh Moo-hyun.
The opposition-controlled parliament stunned the nation on Friday by impeaching Roh on charges of violating election rules and incompetence, sparking two days of protests.
"Nullify impeachment!" chanted thousands of protesters gathered in downtown Seoul as they peacefully waved lit candles.
Police estimated some 35,000 demonstrators sang songs and held banners as they sat cross-legged on the streets that had been closed for the rally. Some 50,000 had gathered the night before.
Meanwhile, rival North Korea - in a veiled reference to the historic move to oust Roh - expressed concern over a "very unstable" political situation and "unprecedented confusion" in the South.
The North requested that a round of inter-Korean economic talks, scheduled to begin Monday in the South Korean city of Paju, be switched to the North Korean city of Kaesong, according to an official North Korean radio broadcast monitored by South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
North Korea charged the impeachment was "a coup in the parliament" stirred up by the United States.
"It is a political rebellion staged by a handful of political quacks quelling the mindset of tens of millions of South Korean people," Pyongyang's state-run KCNA new agency said, quoting a spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland.
South Korea's Unification Ministry, which handles relations with the North, said it was unclear whether the talks would still go ahead. It said it would ask the North to stick to the original plan. "I'm not saying President Roh did nothing wrong, but it is clear that the opposition pushed the impeachment for political reasons," said Koo Chul-hoi, a 34-year-old artist.
Roh's fate will be determined by the Constitutional Court, which must decide within 180 days whether to oust him from office or reinstate his powers.
"We urge the Constitutional Court to deal with the issue swiftly and restore the South Korean president!" a female demonstration leader shouted from a makeshift podium. The court will meet Thursday to review the case.
For now, Prime Minister Goh Kun is acting as president.
Preparing for the country's first impeachment trial, Roh tapped a former adviser on civil affairs, Moon Jae-in, to put together a legal team to defend the president, Roh spokesman Yoon Tae-young said.
Opinion polls show that about seven in 10 South Koreans oppose the impeachment and that support for the minority Uri Party backing Roh has also only increased in its wake.
The movement against Roh's impeachment has found support not only among his political backers but also from civic groups that have criticized alleged corruption in Roh's administration, his decision to send troops to Iraq and his recent tussle with authorities over illegal campaign funds ahead of next month's parliamentary elections.
Trying to quell concerns of a national division over the impeachment, the Uri Party vowed not to organize or lead any street protests that could further fuel political unrest.
"This incident is clearly unconstitutional and illegal, but we will not stage any street demonstrations," Chung Dong-young told business leaders Sunday.
Chung also urged the Constitutional Court to issue a swift ruling.
The Grand National and Millennium Democratic parties impeached Roh for allegedly breaking election laws by stumping for the Uri Party in the upcoming April 15 parliamentary poll. Roh doesn't belong to the Uri party but has said he wants to join.
--------
War and resolution on the home front
Eureka Peace March set for Saturday
By Meghan Vogel,
Sunday, March 14, 2004
Eureka (CA) Times-Standard
http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127~2896~2017614,00.html
Gay marriage. The campaign to recall Paul Gallegos. A liquefied natural gas plant on the Samoa Peninsula.
Humboldt County, like the rest of the nation, has faced its share of divisions since the first bombs started falling on Baghdad almost a year ago. America is fighting a war not only in the Middle East, but also at home -- a war of ideas.
"We have a tremendous ideological war at home," said sociologist Nezzie Wade, who teaches at Humboldt State University and College of the Redwoods. "There's a terrible chasm."
It would seem as if there is no end in sight to the debate between those who wanted a peaceful solution in Iraq and those who saw military action as necessary. Both sides argue that the United States entered Iraq for different reasons -- either to free the Iraqi people from a brutal dictator or to pursue special corporate interests.
A local National Guard soldier's wife, who requested anonymity, said her husband left for Iraq on Friday from Eureka. She said it doesn't matter that no weapons of mass destruction or concrete links to al-Qaida terrorists have been found in Iraq.
"The Iraqi people are our neighbors and we needed to help our neighbors out," she said when referring to the horrors of Saddam Hussein's dictatorship.
"I think we did the right thing," said Mike Harvey, chairman of the Humboldt County Republican Party. "Hopefully all countries in the Middle East will now be on their way toward democracy."
Others are strongly opposed to the United States' invasion of Iraq.
"I have to believe that what is going on there is consistent with what is driving all facets of the Bush administration -- big profits for a small group of select insiders," said Dave Goggin, a member of Veterans for Peace who is one of the many organizers of the Eureka Peace March set for Saturday.
Another veteran, and a member of the Navy League Humboldt Bay Council, Tom Wattle, is also opposed to the war in Iraq.
"I've seen what war does, and the minute (President) Bush proposed we go over there I was dead set against it -- absolutely against it," said Wattle, a veteran of World War II and the Korean War. "We made a pre-emptive strike, and we've never done that before. It's disgraceful."
Both sides say the media is not giving Americans the whole truth.
A tiny spectrum
In this era of information overload it can be difficult to sort out conflicting news from different sources. While those in support of the U.S. efforts in Iraq argue the media under-reports the good news, others dismiss news from corporate sources as propaganda.
"The situation is so complex that it's hard to get accurate information unless you're aggressive about seeking it," Wade said.
"I think people are dreadfully gullible," Goggin said when referring to the United States' changing logic for going to Iraq. "Our government just pulls one deception after another."
Wade, who is also helping to plan the Eureka Peace March, agrees.
"We say we're attempting to make the world safe, and advance freedom and democracy, but many don't realize that these things have now been inextricably linked to economic special interests," she said.
Perhaps the most contentious debate is over Bush's justification for going to war. Since weapons of mass destruction have yet to be found, the mainstream media has shifted its coverage from weapons of mass destruction and links to terrorism toward democratizing Iraq. With the signing of the nation's draft constitution this month, it looks as though U.S. policy is moving quickly away from WMDs toward nation-building.
"I don't think Bush lied to us. To say he just lied is foolish. Maybe the intelligence was flawed, but we need perspective to know what really happened," Harvey said. "History will tell us we did the right thing."
"A lot of people think Bush is wonderful," Wattle said. "It's a matter of ignorance. If I really stretched my tolerance, I'd say maybe, maybe Bush was the victim of poor advice."
Lance Cpl. Joshua Ingram of Arcata, who recently returned from Iraq after serving with the U.S. Marines, believes the Bush administration could have been more level with Americans. Although he's not ruling out the possibility weapons of mass destruction could still be found, he believes the main focus should have been on saving the Iraqi people from Saddam's ruthless dictatorship. "I can't get across enough how much the people there appreciated us," he said. "For us, it was all about the people, which people here seem to not understand. Ninety-nine percent of the people there were our friends."
Ingram said wherever he went old men in tears would hug him, asking why it took so long for the United States to come. He said the media only reports the tragedies, while ignoring the good.
"It seems that the media reports predominately the bad things -- the bombings, the attacks," said Ted Humphry of Arcata, whose son, Army Spc. Nicholas Humphry, was injured in Iraq last summer. "There aren't many stories on the positive effects of having the U.S. there."
"We only know about these things because Nick told us," added Nicholas' mother Cindy.
"The kids in the leukemia wards from exposure to depleted uranium weren't out there waving to soldiers, neither were the kids with their arms blown off by our bombs," said Emily Shears, a peace march organizer.
Tracee Hart attended last year's peace march in Eureka, which drew approximately 4,000 people. She's also the mother of Lance Cpl. Bill Lee Hart Jr., who recently returned from Iraq.
"Bill doesn't talk much about what he saw over there," Hart said. "He said the people who really saw action don't talk about it. He had two good friends who didn't make it."
Hart also said her son had to sign a military form instructing him not to speak with the media, or if he did, to only say that he was fighting for Iraq's freedom. "Part of the problem is that we're not encouraged to think critically," Wade said.
Democracy vs. cultural genocide
If, as those on both sides of the issue argue, the media cannot be trusted, then America is still left with the unanswered question of why we're there -- are we making it safe for democracy or safe for corporations?
"You can't take an oligarchy -- one of the oldest in the world -- and turn it into a democracy overnight," Wade said. "And you can't just put in privatized businesses, because democracy doesn't work under those conditions."
"If we're going to go off on a crusade like this -- to take Saddam out because he's a bad guy -- then we'll have to go after most of Africa and the Middle East," Wattle said. "Are we prepared to do that?"
"Our planet has any number of dictators and malevolent government officials about which we do nothing," Goggin said.
Some believe the U.S. interest in Iraq is far from benevolent. Don Mesiti, a Veterans for Peace member, said, "The 3,000-pound gorilla in the room is never talked about -- oil."
Others believe the United States' sole interest in Iraq is to spread democracy. "The people of Iraq are now better off," Harvey said. "We need to have faith in the process while they work toward their new democracy."
"But we can't just jam our sense of rightness down another culture's throat," Mesiti said.
The patriotic paradigm
Many of those involved in the upcoming Eureka Peace March feel frustrated with the Bush administration's policies, both at home and abroad.
"I was programmed like every young soldier is -- you just don't question," Goggin said. "But doing nothing only encourages the worst in government."
"Dissent is democratic," said Martha Divine, a local activist.
Shears, whose son is currently serving in the U.S. Army in Afghanistan, believes questioning the government is patriotic.
"We're exercising our right to call the administration into accountability," she said. "We're exercising good citizenship, because it's very easy for power to be abused."
Others believe America's military helped us to become the country we are today.
"I support George W. Bush 100 percent, and we need to take a deep look at where we are and not take our freedoms for granted," said Sgt. Major Randall Cady, a National Guard reservist for more than 20 years. "Freedom is not free -- it comes with a price."
While Ingram was waiting in Kuwait for orders to enter Iraq, he said there was a group meeting of soldiers to discuss the peace marches going on across the globe. Many felt it was the will of the people that the United States not invade the country, and some thought the war would be called off because of the protests.
"We came to the conclusion that people have the right to protest because we have free speech," Ingram said.
The troops: common ground
If there's one thing both sides agree on, it's unconditional emotional support for the troops serving in the Middle East.
"My son is aware of my activism," Shears said. "I tell him he has a job to do in Afghanistan -- 'You made a commitment to follow orders, but I have my job here to advocate for you.'"
Still, others believe you cannot simultaneously protest the war and lend support to the troops.
"If you're not supporting what's going on as a whole, then you're not supporting our soldiers," said the wife of the National Guardsman. "It's hard for me to see people protesting. One of the reasons why I love my husband is because he's willing to put his life on the line to help others."
"I really hope the military people are aware a lot of people care passionately for them and their families involved in this whole enterprise," said Wade, whose nephew is second in command on the nuclear submarine USS Alabama.
Stacy Stein, a 24-year-old peace march organizer who volunteers with disabled veterans, said both sides share common values.
"We all love our families and our friends, and I think with that we can find common ground to help bridge the gap," she said.
Bridging the divide
"With so much that has happened this year we've almost lost sight that we're even in a war," said Genie Cancellier, a national Navy League director who organizes local support for the troops. "We're still losing people over there.
"We need to support our troops, finish what we've done and have them come home as quickly as possible," she continued.
Many hope the Eureka Peace March will help foster a dialogue.
"We would all like a world without war," said march organizer Lisa Brown.
"In spite of the serious problems facing us, this march will be a celebration -- a celebration of free speech and the power of the people to determine their destinies," said organizer Linda Lee.
Another march organizer, Rev. Bud Tillinghast, would also like to have a celebration for troops when they come home. He believes a dialogue is needed between people on both sides of the war issue.
"There aren't many venues to be able to deal with the polarization," he said. "The question is are people willing and interested in hearing the other side, or are they looking to perpetuate a stereotype?"
Harvey said it's important for people to be able to respectively disagree, adding "We all want peace."
"I'm so glad I live in Humboldt County," Wade said when referring to the unanimous passage of a proclamation declaring March 20 as a day of peace by the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors. "We're very fortunate that our publicly elected officials are willing to foster working together."
"We all support peace," Cancellier said. "There's no opposition there."
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U.S. families protest war
Those who've lost loved ones in Iraq join in dissent
Timing coincides with White House PR campaign
TIM HARPER
TORONTO STAR WASHINGTON BUREAU
Mar. 14, 2004
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1079219409840&call_pageid=968332188854&col=968350060724
WASHINGTON-Sue Niederer never doubted what the future held for her son Seth Dvorin and her daughter-in-law Kelly.
"Oh, those kids, they would have knocked the world apart," she says.
Instead, on Feb. 3, their worlds were blown apart when 24-year-old U.S. Army Lt. Seth Dvorin died in a blast from a makeshift bomb south of Baghdad.
It left Kelly Dvorin - who was married to her husband a mere five days before he left for Iraq - a 25-year-old widow. And it has turned Sue Niederer into a middle-aged anti-war protester.
Today, the Pennington, N.J., woman will be at the U.S. air base in Dover, Del., where her son came home a war statistic. She'll be joined in protest with other military families who have lost loved ones in a war that has so far killed 555 Americans and wounded nearly 3,200.
Tomorrow, many others will gather here in front of the Walter Reed Army Hospital, where the war's most seriously wounded recuperate, then will march to the White House. They are coming from California, New Jersey, Alabama, Illinois, Ohio, Arkansas and places in between, all paying their own way because they feel they must raise their voices to save others the anguish they feel.
"Anyone who has been killed over there has died in vain," Niederer said. "What are we there for?
"Our war is over, supposedly. Our troops should have been out. So many men and women have died, been maimed and suffered psychological problems since the president declared this war over.
"So if I can help, by doing what I am doing, get all the troops out, from all countries, then I am a happier person because then my son did not die in vain.
"Then, he died for a purpose."
Such protests are not unprecedented, but the speed with which dissent from families affected by the Iraqi war has coalesced is likely historic.
During the Vietnam War, Gold Star mothers marched with veterans against the war only rarely - until it had dragged on for almost 10 years.
These families are marching to protest a war that is a year old on Friday.
"It speaks to the immorality and illegality of this war," says Nancy Lessin of Boston, who co-founded Military Families Speak Out with her husband, Charlie Richardson. His son, her stepson, Joe Richardson, was a marine deployed to Iraq who came home alive last May.
"None of our sons and daughters have come home really safe or sound because they have all been exposed to things that could put them at risk for decades to come," she says, "whether it is depleted uranium or trauma that can cause post-traumatic stress disorder. This is not going to go away."
Protests by families who have lost loved ones will provide the counterpoint to a White House offensive as the war anniversary approaches.
President George W. Bush is sending out key lieutenants such as Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to try to convince Americans the war effort has been a success.
The public relations blitz culminates with a speech by Bush at the White House on the anniversary of the war's outbreak.
Not all the anti-war families have the same objective.
Some want all the troops out now; some who are not affiliated with Military Families Speak Out want Iraq stabilized and rebuilt as a proper legacy to their loved ones.
Others are most resentful that their sons, daughters, husbands and wives were sent in harm's way without proper equipment or training; virtually all face some frustration with authorities who are slow to provide causes of death or the return of personal effects or the payment of death benefits.
Virtually all resent the fact they lost family members under false pretences because they are convinced no weapons of mass destruction will ever be found.
Jean Prewett of Birmingham, Ala., said it was the government's admission that the intelligence was faulty that caused her to speak out, even though her son Kelley, 24, a private out of Fort Benning, Ga., died early in the war, last April 6.
"He didn't even make it to Baghdad," she said. "He thought he was going to be able to go in and kick some butt and get out."
Now, Prewett is lending her voice to the cause because she wants Bush and Rumsfeld to know how families have suffered, while they act "like it's no big deal."
"I've never done this before," she says. "I'm basically pretty shy."
When her son died, she said, she received a "little snippet of a letter" from the president saying how sorry he and his wife, First Lady Laura Bush, were over Kelley Prewett's death.
But when a memorial certificate arrived, she felt a slap from the president.
"They didn't even put it in a damn frame," she said. "I mean, good gosh, the least they could do was put the thing in a frame.
"It makes me sick."
Rosemarie Dietz Slavenas, whose son Brian Slavenas was killed last Nov. 2 when his helicopter was shot out of the sky near Fallujah, speaks without rancour, in measured tones, when she speaks of the government that sent her son to his demise.
"I am not resentful of the president," she says. "But I do not find him truthful, I do not find him credible, I do not find him statesmanlike, I do not find bombing countries and calling people names an effective technique either for fighting terrorism or conducting foreign policy."
Her son and others were sent on a "snipe hunt" - a reference to the initiation rite where newcomers are sent to search for something which does not exist - in their search for weapons of mass destruction, she says from her home in Rockford, Ill.
"It was all illusion and allegation. We don't bomb on the basis of illusion and allegation. You have to have hard information before you go bombing other countries, in my opinion. I think we have abused our power."
At Dover, she believes, she will find her voice - and power.
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Protester is unrepentant
By Janene Scully/Staff Writer,
Santa Maria Times
Sunday, March 14, 2004
http://www.santamariatimes.com/articles/2004/03/14/news/local/news04.txt
A year after drawing his own blood and tossing it onto Vandenberg Air Force Base's sign, Dennis Apel doesn't regret his actions, which landed him in prison for two months.
"It was worth it personally," said Apel, 53, of Santa Maria. "It was a very personal decision and something I needed to do and I never regretted having done it."
Apel said he took his actions for the people of Iraq and U.S. military members.
"If I could have done more I would have done more," he said.
Apel served half his term in the San Bernardino County Jail, under a federal contract. He later moved to the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles.
It wasn't easy being away from home for the father of two toddlers.
"They missed me something terrible and I missed them something terrible," he said, adding he was allowed to hold them during visits near the end of his sentence.
The days were long in the prison.
"I'm fortunate to have had many, many friends correspond with me," he said, adding that he also spent days reading since he doesn't watch television or play cards, both common activities behind bars. "It was mostly corresponding and reading."
He started off in solitary confinement because there was no other room for him. Later he wound up in 60-man cells Apel likened to a huge cage. Many of those he was with had drug conviction or tax-related crimes, but the largest percentage of people he met were undocumented immigrants.
Both inside and outside prison, his action drew shocked reaction, but many of those inside the prison expressed a greater respect for his actions.
"It was blood on a wall. People are just shocked by that, that I would throw my own blood on a wall, but don't think twice about children being killed, women being killed. They're not appalled by that."
Apel will mark the first anniversary of the beginning of hostilities against Iraq by joining with members of the Santa Maria Peace Coalition for a vigil from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday at the intersection of Main Street and Broadway.
The organization also will gather at 7 p.m. March 27 in the Board of Supervisors hearing room at the Betteravia Government Center for a film and forum night. This month's topic will center on Palestinian issues.
He also will join the Vandenberg Action Coalition for a May 15 afternoon vigil at Vandenberg Air Force Base, an annual gathering that coincides with Armed Forces Day.
He has no definitive plans for future civil disobedience, but doesn't rule it out either.
"I still firmly believe there's a time and place for that," he said. "That was the time and place for that. It's a matter of conscience for me. It's not taken lightly."
Staff writer Janene Scully can be reached at 739-2214 or by e-mail at janscully@p....
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