Archive By Date | Today's Links to Search By
Activists' News | Nuclear | Depleted Uranium | Military | Police
Alternative Energy Etc. | From Subscribers
NUCLEAR
Grant funds nuclear study
Blood Money
Pollution not patriotic
Death By Slow Burn - How America Nukes Its Own Troops
French affirmation on new reactor
U.S. Must Explain Removal of Iraqi Nuclear Equipment, Buildings
U.N. Warns of Possible Nuclear Thefts in Iraq
Israeli Nuke Whistleblower Has No Regrets
Released Japanese hostages want to stay in Iraq
Cheney Makes Clear U.S. Is Not Willing to Bend on North Korea
Genesis of Nuclear Proliferation
LANL to host Procurement Expo in Espanola
Eye on Effingham: County's sewer plans cause a stir
Lawyer barred from Hanford health case
Government says it will ship nuclear waste to Nevada
Nevada Seeks to Block Ohio Nuclear Waste
Inside the Ring
Bush Uses 'Terror' as A Fallback, Kerry Says
New Book Says Bush Asked for Iraq War Plan in 2001
MILITARY
US 'bound by law to sell arms to Taiwan'
New way for NATO to do business
U.S. Names More Firms With Ties to Hussein
Pentagon criticises Air Force over Boeing pact
Audit Criticizes Another Boeing Deal
New Unity on Contracts Seen in NATO
Chen receives delegates from US, Germany
Hong Kong Leader Backs Slow Reform
Europeans Reject Bin Laden 'Truce'
Bin Laden's truce offer rejected as 'absurd'
Factions Slug It Out in Battle To See Who Will Lead Ukraine
Get Out Now, Before We Are Thrown Out
Rumsfeld Says He Underestimated Level of Violence in Iraq
Radical Cleric Stands Firm, Says He Won't Disband Army
Iraqis Are Hoping for Early and Peaceful End to Shiite Insurrection
Delicate Maneuvers Led to U.S.-Israeli Stance
'US Soldier' Captured in Iraq, 4 Foreigners Freed
US Holding 200 Iraqi Troops Who Mutinied - Comrades
The war of words over war in space
Domestic Spy Agency: New Call, Old Worries
CIA Warned of Attack 6 Years Before 9 / 11
China air force officers arrested for spying for Taiwan: reports
U.S. Open to a Proposal That Supplants Council in Iraq
Bush and Blair Signal Support for U.N. Plan for Iraqi Government
U.S. deaths from enemy fire at highest level since Vietnam
Extended Tours in Iraq Dash Hopes and Raise Fears Among Families
U.S. troops, parents confirm Humvee risks
Rumsfeld: Iraq Toll Higher Than Expected
Journalist Shares War Secrets
Krohn departs
How the 'NewsHour' Changed History
52 Pick Up and the 100- to-1 Rule
General Calls Insurgency in Iraq a Sign of U.S. Success
Arab TV Airs Video of Captured U.S. Soldier
Tape, Probably bin Laden's, Offers 'Truce' to Europe
POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE
Drugs Found Aboard Colombian Warship
Time Eases Tough Drug Laws, but Fight Goes On
FBI said buried by security demands
City resolution doesn't favor the Patriot Act
Administration Considers a Post for National Intelligence Director
Ship Cargo Security Upgrades Approved
In Jordan, Refugees Cling to Hope
D.C. Police Are Arrested At High Rate
New Target and Tone Message Shows Al Qaeda's Adaptability
Evacuation Is Ordered for Most U.S. Diplomats in Saudi Arabia
Troops Blast Music in Siege of Fallujah
Special Counsel's Chief Is Assailed Bloch Accused of Silencing Staff
OTHER
OMB Modifies Peer-Review Proposal
Region's Air Doesn't Meet New Standards
Company's Mad Cow Tests Blocked
Survey Shows Slight Decline in Homeless on the Streets
ACTIVISTS
Brethren peacemakers return from Iraq.
"Peace Criminal" Shares His Experience In Iraq
Guardsman Pleads Innocent to Desertion
Tax resisters make their case
Antiwar activist tells of son's death in Iraq, questions reasons for war
Judge upholds government's use of obscure 1800s law in charging Greenpeace
Honduras to halt gold mine after protests
The Guardian profile: Mordechai Vanunu
War protesters close federal building
-------- NUCLEAR
-------- business
Grant funds nuclear study
Gabrielle Lahatte
USC Tiger News Writer,
Friday, April 16, 2004
http://www.thetigernews.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/04/16/407f033fd9924
Recently, the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) awarded a research grant to the University to improve analytical systems used by the IAEA's Safeguard Analytical Laboratory (SAL) in Seiborsdorf, Austria to separate radioactive samples from various nuclear sites around the world.
The Clemson research team, headed by Dr. James Navratil, an environmental engineering professor, hopes to improve the analysis of uranium, plutonium and americium. The presence of these elements often indicates a nuclear weapons program.
The group also plans to develop new radiochemistry separation methods used in analysis of radionuclides. The goal for the team is to create a system that is able to detect smaller quantities of each substance. The team hopes to achieve its goal by using different sizes and qualities of resin in order to separate the samples more efficiently.
This research will help inspectors identify smaller samples of uranium-235, which is desired for nuclear weapons because of its fissile properties. It will also help them detect lower concentrations of plutonium and americium isotopes, which also indicate suspicious nuclear activity. Finally, it will allow inspectors to separate and concentrate these radioactive isotopes from diluted liquid samples.
With the uncertainty of the Iranian nuclear program and other nuclear programs worldwide, this research is essential to the IAEA's mission. Founded because of great fear and expectations about nuclear energy, the IAEA was created to regulate nuclear technology's use, security and safety. Using its inspection system, the agency verifies that countries comply and are in accordance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty and other non-proliferation agreements, which say nuclear material and facilities may only be used for peaceful purposes.
The SAL was created by the IAEA to interpret the samples collected by inspectors, providing the agency with crucial information that allows them to achieve their goals of nuclear safety.
The major bulk of the research has yet to be conducted. Monday, Dr. Navratil left for Austria to work at SAL during the summer and Amanda Padgett, a team member and a Clemson environmental science graduate student, will join him in mid-May for two to three weeks in order to master SAL's radiochemistry separation techniques before applying them in their research here at Clemson.
Padgett, a recent Clemson graduate who officially joined the project two weeks ago, explained the significance of the upcoming trip to Seiborsdorf.
"As a chemical engineer, I haven't taken a chemistry lab since my sophomore year. You get a basic understanding from concepts in class, but there will certainly be a learning curve for me."
Padgett, also a current intern at Oconee Nuclear Power Plant, hopes to apply her knowledge from her job to the project as well.
The grant seems appropriate for Clemson, one of the few universities in the country that offers a nuclear-related concentration in its environmental science graduate program. Dr. Navratil's previous work experience with the SAL also helped Clemson secure the funding for the project.
With better analytical systems to detect radioactive isotopes, the IAEA hopes to be better equipped to determine the true nature of suspicious nuclear programs before it is too late to act. With the impending public report about Iran's program, any new advances in analytical technology will be greatly appreciated by the SAL.
----
Blood Money
Former Exec: American Company Paid Terrorist Group to Protect Overseas Interests
By Brian Ross and Rhonda Schwartz
April 16, 2004
ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/Primetime/World/paying_abu_sayyaf_040415-1.html
April 16 - Before his company sent him overseas, Allan Laird, a former Denver-based mining executive, had never heard of Abu Sayyaf.
As Laird quickly learned when he arrived in the Philippines, Abu Sayyaf is one of the world's most-feared terrorist organizations, closely connected to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.
Laird said he also soon discovered the company for whom he formerly worked, Echo Bay, was regularly paying Abu Sayyaf and other terror groups in the Philippines in exchange for protection of its gold-mining operations. Laird calls the practice "corporate support of terrorism."
Laird took his story to the Sierra Club, the conservation group known for its opposition to the mining industry. Marilyn Berlin Snell, a reporter for the club's bimonthly magazine Sierra, is reporting Laird's story this week.
Thursday, in a moral victory for Laird, the Department of Justice reversed course and reactivated the investigation into Echo Bay's business practices.
"My company was dealing directly with terrorists. It must have been close to $2 million [U.S. dollars]. Maybe more," Laird said.
Laird said he believes that the funding provided by his former company cost American lives. That funding, he says, continued until the company closed its mining operations in 1997.
In May of 2001, Gracia and Martin Burnham, missionaries from Wichita, Kan., were celebrating their 18th wedding anniversary trip at Dos Palmas Resort off Palawan Island in the Philippines when they were kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf and taken to the jungles of Basilan Island.
"My goal is to go home alive to my children," Martin Burnham said while in captivity on a videotape recorded by a reporter for a television station in the Philippines, who was given permission to visit the hostages.
He never did. After 376 days of captivity, Martin was killed in a firefight when the Filipino Army made a rescue attempt.
-------- depleted uranium
Pollution not patriotic
Rules to fight pollution caused by military training and munitions must stand
Florida Today,
Apr 16, 2004
http://www.floridatoday.com/!NEWSROOM/opedstory0417WBASES.htm
Atoxic plume containing a cancer-causing chemical is working its way from a Superfund landfill site at Pensacola Naval Air Station toward Bayou Grande on Florida's Gulf Coast.
That's despite the Navy's multiyear, multimillion dollar effort to clean up 13 heavily polluted sites at the base.
Other cancer-causing substances have contaminated drinking-water wells at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, compromising the health of thousands of Marines and their families.
Despite such clear evidence that pollution from military activities poses grave dangers, the Bush administration again has asked Congress to exempt Defense Department facilities from crucial laws that protect the environment and the public health.
In all, nine Florida installations and more than a hundred munition ranges around the state -- including areas at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Patrick Air Force Base -- would be exempted under the proposed changes.
The Pentagon claims that military readiness and national security are weakened by compliance with pollution standards that all other branches of government must heed.
But that's a manipulation of patriotism in this time of war and terrorism to disguise what's really going on:
More of the across-the-board assault on environmental regulations that we've seen from the White House since President Bush took office.
In 2002, the first time the Pentagon asked for exemptions, congressional investigators found the laws in question have little effect on military readiness and refused to change them.
Plus, the military already has the right to request exemptions from such laws on a case-by-case basis.
What exactly is at stake?
# Giving blanket exemptions from some Clean Air Act rules to the Pentagon so standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency won't count military-caused pollution.
# Exempting munitions, including chemical weapons or those made with depleted uranium, from laws regulating safe disposal.
That opens the door for deadly weapons to be left where they can endanger base residents, or leak toxins into the groundwater and put entire communities at risk of exposure.
# Exempting from EPA or state oversight the contamination of water, air and soil caused by use of munitions, thus shielding the military from the burden of pollution clean-up at Superfund sites.
That's where Florida stands to lose.
The Sunshine State is home to some of the most polluted military bases in the nation, such as the Pensacola and Jacksonville naval air stations, and Homestead Air Reserve Base near the Everglades.
If the Pentagon is allowed to abdicate its responsibility for obeying environmental laws put in place to safeguard the public health, who would be saddled with the consequences?
Communities would not only bear the human cost in damaged lives, but hold the bag for clean-up expenses.
That constitutes an arrogant, unpatriotic disregard for service members who are dying in the line of duty, their families, and the communities that support them.
Congress must again refuse the administration's request.
----
Death By Slow Burn - How America Nukes Its Own Troops
What 'Support Our Troops' Really Means
By Amy Worthington
The Idaho Observer
4-16-3
http://proliberty.com/observer/20030401.htm
On March 30, an AP photo featured an American pro-war activist holding a sign: "Nuke the evil scum, it worked in 1945!" That's exactly what George Bush has done. America's mega-billion dollar war in Iraq has been indeed a NUCLEAR WAR.
Bush-Cheney have delivered upon 17 million Iraqis tons of depleted uranium (DU) weapons, a "liberation" gift that will keep on giving. Depleted uranium is a component of toxic nuclear waste, usually stored at secure sites. Handlers need radiation protection gear.
Over a decade ago, war-makers decided to incorporate this lethal waste into much of the Pentagon's weaponry. Navy ships carrying Phalanx rapid fire guns are capable of firing thousands of DU rounds per minute.1 Tomahawk missiles launched from U.S. ships and subs are DU-tipped.2 The M1 Abrams tanks are armored with DU.3 These and British Challenger II tanks are tightly packed with DU shells, which continually irradiate troops in or near them.4 The A-10 "tank buster" aircraft fires DU shells at machines and people on the battlefield.5
DU munitions are classified by a United Nations resolution as illegal weapons of mass destruction. Their use breaches all international laws, treaties and conventions forbidding poisoned weapons calculated to cause unnecessary suffering.
Ironically, support for our troops will extend well beyond the war in Iraq. Americans will be supporting Gulf War II veterans for years as they slowly and painfully succumb to radiation poisoning. U.S and British troops deployed to the area are the walking dead. Humans and animals, friends and foes in the fallout zone are destined to a long downhill spiral of chronic illness and disability. Kidney dysfunction, lung damage, bloody stools, extreme fatigue, joint pain, unsteady gait, memory loss and rashes and, ultimately, cancer and premature death await those exposed to DU.
Award-winning journalist Will Thomas wrote: "As the last Gulf conflict so savagely demonstrated, GI immune systems reeling from multiple doses of experimental vaccines offer little defense against further exposure to chemical weapons, industrial toxins, stress, caffeine, insect repellent and radiation leftover from the last war. This is a war even the victors will lose."6
When a DU shell is fired, it ignites upon impact. Uranium, plus traces of plutonium and americium, vaporize into tiny, ceramic particles of radioactive dust. Once inhaled, uranium oxides lodge in the body and emit radiation indefinitely. A single particle of DU lodged in a lymph node can devastate the entire immune system according to British radiation expert Roger Coghill.7
The Royal Society of England published data showing that battlefield soldiers who inhale or swallow high levels of DU can suffer kidney failure within days.8 Any soldier now in Iraq who has not inhaled lethal radioactive dust is not breathing. In the first two weeks of combat, 700 Tomahawks, at a cost of $1.3 million each, blasted Iraqi real estate into radioactive mushroom clouds.9 Millions of DU tank rounds liter the terrain. Cleanup is impossible because there is no place on the planet to put so much contaminated debris.
Bush Sr.'s Gulf War I was also a nuclear war. 320 tons of depleted uranium were used against Iraq in 1991.10 A 1998 report by the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances confirms that inhaling DU causes symptoms identical to those claimed by many sick vets with Gulf War Syndrome.11 The Gulf War Veterans Association reports that at least 300,000 Gulf War I vets have now developed incapacitating illnesses.12 To date, 209,000 vets have filed claims for disability benefits based on service-connected injuries and illnesses from combat in that war.13
Dr. Asaf Durakovic, a professor of nuclear medicine at Georgetown University, is a former army medical expert. He told nuclear scientists in Paris last year that tens of thousands of sick British and American soldiers are now dying from radiation they encountered during Gulf War I. He found that 62 percent of sick vets tested have uranium isotopes in their organs, bones, brains and urine.14 Laboratories in Switzerland and Finland corroborated his findings.
In other studies, some sick vets were found to be expressing uranium in even their semen. Their sexual partners often complained of a burning sensation during intercourse, followed by their own debilitating illnesses.15
Nothing compares to the astronomical cancer rates and birth defects suffered by the Iraqi people who have endured vicious nuclear chastisement for years.16 U.S. air attacks against Iraq since 1993 have undoubtedly employed nuclear munitions. Pictures of grotesquely deformed Iraqi infants born since 1991 are overwhelming.17 Like those born to Gulf War I vets, many babies born to troops now in Iraq will also be afflicted with hideous deformities, neurological damage and/or blood and respiratory disorders.18
As an Army health physicist, Dr. Doug Rokke was dispatched to the Middle East to salvage DU-contaminated tanks after Gulf War I. His Geiger counters revealed that the war zones of Iraq and Kuwait were contaminated with up to 300 millirems an hour in beta and gamma radiation plus thousands to millions of counts per minute in alpha radiation. Rokke recently told the media: "The whole area is still trashed. It is hotter than heck over there still. This stuff doesn't go away."19
DU remains "hot" for 4.5 billion years. Radiation expert Dr. Helen Caldicott confirms that the dust-laden winds of DU-contaminated war zones "will remain effectively radioactive for the rest of time."20 The murderous dust storms which ensnared coalition troops during the first few days of the current invasion are sure to have significant health consequences.
Rokke and his clean-up team were issued only flimsy dust masks for their dangerous work. Of the 100 people on Rokke's decontamination team, 30 have already "dropped dead." Rokke himself is ill with radiation damage to lungs and kidneys. He has brain lesions, skin pustules, chronic fatigue, continual wheezing and painful fibromyalgia. Rokke warns that anyone exposed to DU should have adequate respiratory protection and special coveralls to protect their clothing because, he says, you can't get uranium particles off your clothing.
The U.S. military insists that DU on the battlefield is not a problem. Colonel James Naughton of the U.S. Army Material Command recently told the BBC that complaints about DU "had no medical basis."21 The military's own documents belie this. A 1993 Pentagon document warned that "when soldiers inhale or ingest DU dust they incur a potential increase in cancer risk."22 A U.S. Army training manual requires anyone who comes within 25 meters of DU-contaminated equipment to wear respiratory and skin protection.23 The U.S. Army Environmental Policy Institute admitted: "If DU enters the body, it has the potential to generate significant medical consequences."24 The Institute also stated that, if the troops were to realize what they had been exposed to, "the financial implications of long-term disability payments and healthcare costs would be excessive."25 For pragmatic reasons, DOD chooses to lie and deny.
Dr. Rokke confirms that the Pentagon lies about DU dangers and is criminally negligent for neglecting medical attention needed by DU-contaminated vets. He predicts that the numbers of American troops to be sickened by DU from Gulf War II will be staggering.26 As they gradually sicken and suffer a slow burn to their graves, the Pentagon will, as it did after Gulf War I, deny that their misery and death is a result of their tour in Iraq.
Dr. Rokke's candor has cost him his career. Likewise, Dr. Durakovic's radiation studies on Gulf War I vets were not popular with U.S. officials. Dr. Durakovic was reportedly told his life was in danger if he continued his research. He left the U.S. to continue his research abroad.27
Naive young coalition soldiers now in Iraq are likely unaware of how deadly their battlefield environment is. Gulf War I troops were kept in ignorance. Soldiers handled DU fragments and some wore these lethal nuggets around their necks. A DU projectile emits more radiation in five hours than allowed in an entire year under civilian radiation exposure standards. "We didn't know any better," Kris Kornkven told Nation magazine. "We didn't find out until long after we were home that there even was such a thing as DU."28
George Bush's ongoing war in Afghanistan is also a nuclear war. Shortly after 9-11, the U.S. announced it would stockpile tactical nuclear weapons including small neutron bombs, nuclear mines and shells suited to commando warfare in Afghanistan.29 In late September, 2001, Bush and Russian president Vladimir Putin agreed that the U.S. would use tactical nuclear weapons in Afghanistan while Putin would employ nuclear weapons against the Chechnyans.30
Describing the Pentagon's B-61-11 burrowing nuke bomb, George Smith writes in the Village Voice: "Built ram tough with a heavy metal casing for smashing through the earth and concrete, the B-61 explodes with the force of an estimated 340,000 tons of TNT. It is lots of bang for the buck, literally two apocalypse bombs in one, a boosted plutonium firecracker called the primary and a heavy hydrogen secondary for that good old-fashioned H-bomb fireball."31
Drought-stricken Afghanistan's underground water supply is now contaminated by these nuclear weapons.32 Experts with the Uranium Medical Research Center report that urine samples of Afghanis show the highest level of uranium ever recorded in a civilian population. Afghani soldiers and civilians are reported to have died after suffering intractable vomiting, severe respiratory problems, internal bleeding and other symptoms consistent with radiation poisoning. Dead birds still perched in trees are found partially melted with blood oozing from their mouths.33
Afghanistan's new president, Hamid Karzai, is a puppet installed by Washington. Under the protection of American soldiers, Karzai's regime is setting a new record for opium production. Both UN and U.S. reports confirm that the huge Afghani opium harvest of 2002 makes Afghanistan the world's leading opium producer.34 Thanks to nuclear weapons, Afghanistan is now safe for the Bush-Cheney narcotics industry.35 ABC News asserts that keeping the "peace" in Afghanistan will require decades of allied occupation.36 For years to come, "peacekeepers" will be eating, drinking and breathing the "hot" carcinogenic pollution they have helped the Pentagon inflict upon that nation for organized crime.
As governor of Arkansas during the Iran-Contra era, Bill Clinton laundered $multi-millions in cocaine profits for then vice-president George Bush Sr.37 As a partner in the Bush family's notorious crime machine, President Clinton committed U.S. troops to NATO's campaign in the Balkans, a prime heroin production and trans-shipment area. DOD's campaign to control and reorganize the drug trade there for the Bush mafia was yet another nuclear project.
For years, the U.S. and NATO fired DU missiles, bullets and shells across the Balkans, nuking the peoples of Serbia, Bosnia and Kosovo. As DU munitions were slammed into chemical plants, the environment became hideously toxic, also endangering the peoples of Albania, Macedonia, Greece, Italy, Austria and Hungary. By 1999, UN investigators reported that an estimated 12 tons of DU had caused irreparable damage to the Yugoslavian environment, with agriculture, livestock and air water, and public health all profoundly damaged.38
Scientists confirm that citizens of the Balkans are excreting uranium in their urine.39 In 2001, a Yugoslavian pathologist reported that hundreds of Bosnians have died of cancer from NATO's DU bombardment.40 Many NATO peacekeepers in the Balkans now suffer ill health. Their leukemias, cancers and other maladies are dubbed the "Balkans Syndrome." Richard Coghill predicts that DU weapons used in Balkans campaign will result in at least 10,000 cases of fatal cancer.41
U.S. citizens at home are also paying a heavy price for criminal militarism gone mad. DOD is a pollution monster. The General Accounting Office (GAO) found 9,181 dangerous military sites in USA that will require $billions to rehabilitate. The GAO reports that DOD has been both slothful and deceitful in its clean-up obligations.42 The Pentagon is now pressing Congress to exempt it from all environmental laws so that it may pollute and poison free from liability.43
The Navy uses prime fishing grounds off the coast of Washington state to test fire DU ammunition. In January, Washington State Rep. Jim McDermott chastised the Navy: "On one hand you have required soldiers to have DU safety training and to wear protective gear when handling DU...and submarines must stay clear of DU-contaminated waters. These policies indicate there is cause for concern....On the other hand the Department of Defense has repeatedly denied that DU poses any danger whatsoever. There has been no remorse about leaving tons of DU equipment in the soil in foreign countries, and there appears to be no remorse about leaving it in the waters of your own country."44
DU has been used in military practice maneuvers in Indiana, Florida, New Mexico, Massachusetts, Maryland and Puerto Rico. After the Navy tested DU weaponry on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, one third of the island's population developed serious illness. Many people show high levels of uranium in their bodies. Hundreds have filed a class action suit against the Navy for $100 million, claiming DU contamination has caused widespread cancers.45
The Navy's Fallon Naval Air Station near Fallon, Nevada, is a quagmire of 26 toxic waste sites. It is also a target practice zone for DU bombs and missiles. Area residents report bizarre illnesses, including 17 children who have contracted leukemia within five years. A survey of groundwater in the Fallon area showed nearly half of area wells are contaminated with radioactive materials.46
The materials for DU weaponry have been processed mainly at three nuclear plants in Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee, where workers handling uranium contaminated with plutonium have suffered for decades with cancers and debilitating maladies similar to Gulf War Syndrome.47
Emboldened by power-grabbing successes made possible by his administration's devious 9-11 project, President Bush asserts that the U.S. has the right to attack any nation it deems a potential threat. He told West Point in 2002, "If we wait for threats to fully materialize, we will have waited too long."48 Thus, it is certain that Bush-Cheney future pre-emptive nuclear wars are lined up like idling jetson a runway. Both Cheney's Halliburton Corp. and the Bush family's Carlyle Group are profiteers in U.S. defense contracts, so endless war is just good business.49
The Washington Post reported that the Pentagon will create special nuclear weapons for use on North Korea's underground nuclear facilities.50 Next August, U.S. war makers will meet to consolidate plans for a new generation of "mini," "micro" and "tiny" nuclear bombs and bunker busters. These will be added to the U.S. arsenal perhaps for use against non-nuclear third-world nations such as Iran, Syria, Lebanon.51
The solution? Americans must stop electing ruthless criminals to rule this nation. We must convince fellow citizens that villains like Saddam Hussein are made in the U.S. as rationale for endless corporate war profits. Saddam was placed in power by the CIA.52 For years U.S. government agencies, under auspices of George Bush Sr., supplied him with chemical and biological weapons.53 Our national nuclear laboratories, along with Unisys, Dupont and Hewlett-Packard, sold Saddam materials for his nuclear program.54 Dick Cheney was CEO of Halliburton in the late 90s when its subsidiaries signed $73 million in new contracts to further supply Saddam.55 The wicked villain of Iraq was nurtured for decades as a cash-cow by U.S. military-industrial piranhas.
If America truly supports its troops, it must stop sending them into nuclear holocaust for the enrichment of thugs. Time is running out. If the DU-maniacs at the Pentagon and their coven of nuclear arms peddlers are not harnessed, America will have no able-bodied fighting forces left. All people of the earth will become grossly ill, hideously deformed and short- lived. We must succeed in the critical imperative to face reality and act decisively. Should we fail, there will be no place to hide from Bush-Cheney's merciless nuclear orgies yet to come or from the inevitable nuclear retaliation these orgies will surely breed.
Endnotes
1."DOD Launches Depleted Uranium Training," Linda Kozaryn, American Forces Press Service, 8-13-99.
2."Nukes of the Gulf War,"John Shirley, Zess@a.... See this article in archives at www.gulfwarvets.com.
3. BBC News, "US To Use Depleted Uranium," March 18, 2003; U.S. General Accounting Office, Operation Desert Storm: "Early Performance Assessment of Bradley and Abrams," 1-2-92.
4."Nukes of the Gulf War," op. cit.
5. Ibid.
6. "Invading Hiroshima," William Thomas, 2-4-2003, www.willthomas.net
7. "US Shells Leave Lethal Legacy," Toronto Star, July 31, 1999; also "Radiation Tests for Peacekeepers in the Balkans Exposed to Depleted Uranium," www.telegraph.co.uk, 12-31-02.
8. "Depleted Uranium May Stop Kidneys In Days," Rob Edwards, New Scientist.com, 3-12-02; also "Uranium Weapons Too Hot to Handle," Rob Edwards, New Scientist.co.uk, 6-9-99.
9. "Navy Seeks Cash for More Tomahawks," David Rennie in Washington, Telegraph Group Limited, 1-4-03, news.telegraph.co.uk.
10. "Going Nuclear in Iraq--DU Cancers Mount Daily," Ramzi Kysia, CounterPunch.org, 12-31-01.
11."Depleted Uranium Symptoms Match US Report As Fears Spread," Peter Beaumont, The Observer (UK) 1-14-01, www.guardianlimited.co.uk.
12. "Gulf War Illnesses Affect 300,000 Vets," Ellen Tomson, Pioneer Press, www.pioneerplanet.com. See also American Gulf War Veterans Association at www.gulfwarvets.com.
13. "2 of Every 5 Gulf War Vets Are On Disability: 209,000 Make VA Claims," World Net Daily, 1-28-03, WorldNetDaily.com.
14. "Research on Sick Gulf Vets Revisited, "New York Times, 1-29-01; "Tests Show Gulf War Victims Have Uranium Poisoning," Jonathon Carr-Brown and Martin Meissonnier, The Sunday Times (UK) 9-3-02.
15. "Catastrophe: Ill Gulf Vets Contaminated Partners With DU," The Halifax Herald Limited, Clare Mellor, 2-09-01. This article is available in archives at www.rense.com.
16. "Iraqi Cancer, Birth Defects Blamed on US Depleted Uranium," Seattle Post- Intelligencer, 11-12-02; "US Depleted Uranium Yields Chamber of Horrors in Southern Iraq, Andy Kershaw, The Independent (London) 12-4-01.
17. "The Environmental and Human Health Impacts of the Gulf War Region with Special References to Iraq," Ross Mirkarimi, The Arms Control Research Centre, May 1992. See also Gulf War Syndrome Birth Defects in Iraq at www.web-light.nl/VISIE/extremedeformities.html.
18. "The Tiny Victims of Desert Storm, Has Our Country Abandoned Them?," Life Magazine, November 1995; "Birth Defects Killing Gulf War Babies," Los Angeles Times, 11-14-94; "Depleted Uranium, The Lingering Poison," Alex Kirby, BBC News Online, 6-7-99.
19. "Depleted Uranium, A Killer Disaster," Travis Dunn, Disaster News.net, 12-29-02.
20. San Francisco Chronicle, 10-10-02.
21. "US To Use Depleted Uranium," BBC News, 3-18-03.
22. "Depleted Uranium Symptoms Match US Report As Fears Spread," Peter Beaumont, The Observer (UK) 1-14-01.
23. "Iraqi Cancer, Birth Defects Blamed on US Depleted Uranium," Seattle Post- Intelligencer, 11-12-02.
24. "US To Use Depleted Uranium," BBC News, 3-18-03.
25. US Army Environmental Policy Institute: Health and Environmental Consequences of Depleted Uranium in the U.S. Army, Technical Report, June 1995.
26. "Pentagon Depleted Uranium No Health Risk," Dr. Doug Rokke, 3-15-03; also "The Terrible, Tragic Toll of Depleted Uranium," Address by Dr. Rokke before congressional leaders in Washington, D.C.,12-30-02; also "Gulf War Casualties," Dr. Doug Rokke, www.traprockpeace.org. 9-30-02.
27."Tests Show Gulf War Victims Have Uranium Poisoning," Sunday Times (UK), Jonathon Carr-Brown and Martin Meissonnier, 9-3-00.
28. "The Pentagon's Radioactive Bullet: An Investigative Report," Bill Mesler, The Nation, 5-28-99, see www.thenation.com/ issue/961021/1021mesl.htm.
29. "Tactical Nukes Deployed In Afghanistan," World Net Daily, 10-7-01. 30. Ibid.
31. "The B-61 Bomb,The Burrowing Nuke" George Smith,VillageVoice.com 12-29-02.; also "Bunker-busting US Tactical Nuclear Bombs, Nowhere to Hide," Kennedy Grey, Wired.com, 10-9-01.
32."Perpetual Death From America," Mohammed Daud Miraki, Afghan-American Interviews, 2-24-03; also "Dying of Thirst," Fred Pearce, New Scientist, 11-17-2001.
33. Ibid.
34. "Afghanistan Displaces Myanmar as Top Heroin Producer," Agence France-Presse, 3-01-03. This article is at www.copvcia.com.;also "Opium Trade Flourishing In the `New Afghanistan,'" Reuters, 3-3-03.
35. "The Bush-Cheney Drug Empire," Michael C. Ruppert, Nexus Magazine, February-March 2000; The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade, Alfred W. McCoy, Lawrence Hill & Co., revised edition due May 2003; Drugging of America, Rodney Stich, Diablo Western Press, 1999; "Blood for Oil, Drugs for Arms," Bob Djurdjevic, Truth In Media, April 2000, www.truthinmedia.org. 36. ABC News, February 27, 2003.
37. Compromised, Clinton Bush and the CIA, Terry Reed and John Cummings, S.P.I. Books, 1994; The Clinton Chronicles and The Mena Cover-up, Citizens for Honest Government, 1996; "The Crimes of Mena, Grey Money," Ozark Gazette, 1995 (see www.copvcia.com.)
38. "Damage to Yugoslav Environment is Immense, Says a UN Report," Bob Djurdjevic, 7-4-99, truthinmedia.org. This report was submitted to the UN Security Council on June 9, 1999; also, "New Depleted Uranium Study Shows Clear Damage," BBC News,8-28-99; also "NATO Issued Warning About Toxic Ammo," Associated Press, 01-08-01.
39. CounterPunch.org, 12-28-01.
40. "Hundreds Died of Cancer After DU Bombing--Doctor," Reuters, 1-13-01.
41."Depleted Uranium Threatens Balkan Cancer Epidemic," BBC News, 7-30-99.
42. "Many Defense Sites Still Hazardous," Associated Press, 9-24-02; also Old US Weapons Called Hidden Danger, Los Angeles Times, 11-25-02.
43. "Pentagon Seeks Freedom to Pollute Land, Air and Sea," Andrew Gumbel in L.A., 3-13-03, Independent Digital (UK) Ltd.
44. "Radioactive DU Ammo Is Tested in Fish Areas," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 1-11-03; Letter from Rep. McDermott to Department of the Navy: see "Navy Fired DU Rounds Into Waters Off Coast of Washington," 1-20-03, rense.com.
45."Cancer Rates Soar From US Military Use of DU On `Enchanted Island,'" www.telegraph.co.uk, 2-5-01; also "Navy Shells With Depleted Uranium Fired in Puerto Rico," Fox News Online, 5-28-99.
46. "The Fallon, NV Cancer Cluster And a US Navy Bombing," Jeffrey St. Clair, CounterPunch.org, 8-10-02.
47. "DU Shells Are Made of A Potentially Lethal Cocktail of Nuclear Waste," Jonathon Carr-Brown, www.sunday-times.co.uk, 1-22-01.
48. "Preventative War Sets Perilous Precedent," Helen Thomas, Hearst Newspapers, 3-20-03.
49. PIGS at the Trough, Arriana Huffington, Random House, 2003 (New York Times best seller.); also "The Best Enemies Money Can Buy, From Hitler to Saddam Hussein to Osama bin Laden Insider Connections and the Bush Family's Partnership With Killers of Americans;" Mike Ruppert, From the Wilderness,10-10-01; also "Bush Sr.'s Carlyle Group Gets Fat on War and Conflict," Jamie Doward, The Observer (UK), 3-25-03; also "Halliburton Wins Contract for Iraq Oil Firefighting, Reuters, 3-7-03; also "Cashing In-Fortunes in Profits Await Bush Circle After Iraq War, Andrew Gumbel, The Independent (London) 9-15-02; also "War Could Be Big Business for Halliburton," Reuters, 3-23-03.
50. "Pentagon Seeks a Nuclear Digger," Washington Post, March 10, 2003.
51. "Remember: Bush Planed Iraq War Before Taking Office," Neil Mackay, The Sunday Herald (UK) 3-27-03; also "US Mini-Nukes Alarm Scientists," The Guardian (UK) 4-18-01; also "US Nuclear First-Strike Plan--It Keeps Getting Scarier, Jeffrey Steinberg, Executive Intelligence Review, 2-24-03.
52. Wall Street Journal, 8-16-90: The CIA supported the Baath Party and installed Hussein as Iraqi dictator in 1968.
53. "United States Dual-Use Exports to Iraq and Their Impact on the Health of Persian Gulf War Veterans," Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, 1992, 1994; "U.S. Had Key Role in Iraq Buildup," Washington Post, 12-30-02.
54. "US Government, 24 US Corps Illegally Helped Iraq Build Its WMD," Hugh Williamson in Berlin, Financial Times, 12-19-02; "Full List of US Weapons Suppliers To Iraq," Anu de Monterice, coachanu@e..., 12-19-02.
55. Huffington, op. cit.
Amy Worthington is a reporter for The Idaho Observer Observer@coldreams.com
-------- europe
French affirmation on new reactor
World Nuclear Association
Weekly Digest
16 April 2004
http://www.world-nuclear.org/news/2004/wd_apr16.htm
The French Prime Minister's recent statement that construction of a demonstration EPR unit in France was needed to keep the nuclear option open has been enlarged upon by the Industry Minister. He affirmed that the new government sees nuclear power as vital in combating the greenhouse effect and preserving national energy independence - "I don't know how we could do without nuclear". Any new reactor would be built by EdF, though at the same time it is keeping longer term options open for France by participation in the US consortium seeking a combined construction and operation licence in the USA for the Westinghouse AP1000 reactor.
EdF continued its strong export performance in 2003, with 66 billion kWh net exported, @ 3.35 cents/kWh average - total EUR 2.2 billion. Nucleonics Week 15/4/04.
Major European study of geological disposal. The European Commission has signed up to support a project demonstrating the technical feasibility of constructing, operating and closing a deep geological repository for high-level radioactive wastes. It is known as the Engineering Studies & Demonstrations of Repository Designs (ESDRED) project. It will involve industrial-scale prototypes and run for five years, with a budget of EUR 18 million. The EC agreement is with 13 organisations from nine W. European countries, coordinated by France's Andra. Other participants include ENRESA (Spain), Nagra (Switzerland), Nirex (UK), Posiva (Finland) and SKB (Sweden) - all involved with national radwaste projects. SKB's Aspo hard rock laboratory near Oskarshamn will be a key part of the research.
This complements another EC-funded project begun in January and run by ARIUS (based in Switzerland) and Slovakia's DECOM to undertake a pilot study on the technical and legal requirements for a regional waste repository. This SAPIERR project is related to the needs of countries with smaller nuclear programs, and it involves 21 organisations from 14 countries. ARIUS c March 2004, NucNet news #86/04.
-------- iraq / inspections
U.S. Must Explain Removal of Iraqi Nuclear Equipment, Buildings
NEW YORK, New York, (ENS)
April 16, 2004
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2004/2004-04-16-05.asp
The chief of the United Nations nuclear agency has asked the United States for "clarifications" about what has happened to nuclear equipment and "entire buildings" the agency was monitoring before the Iraq war that now appear to have been removed from the country.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei expressed his concern about the missing buildings and equipment in an April 11 letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan that was transmitted to the Security Council and made public on Thursday.
Lawyer and diplomat Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei heads the International Atomic Energy Agency. (Photo courtesy IAEA) Dr. ElBaradei said he is concerned about "the proliferation risk associated with dual-use material and equipment disappearing to unknown destinations."
A technology is considered to be of dual use when it has current or potential military and civilian applications.
The IAEA director-general said these disappearances may have "a significant impact on the agency's continuity of knowledge of Iraq's remaining nuclear-related capabilities."
The IAEA has a mandate to monitor and verify nuclear installations in Iraq and report to the Security Council every six months. Since March 17, 2003, the IAEA has not been in a position to implement its mandate in Iraq due to the war, but Dr. ElBaradei said the agency has been monitoring known nuclear sites by means of commercial satellite imagery.
"The imagery shows that there has been extensive removal of equipment and, in some instances, removal of entire buildings," he wrote in the letter to Annan.
From left: IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and Dr. Hans Blix, former chief weapons inspector in Iraq. January 10, 2003 (Photo courtesy U.S. State Department) "Other information available to the agency, confirmed through visits to other countries, indicates that large quantities of scrap, some of it contaminated, have been transferred out of Iraq, from sites monitored by IAEA," he wrote.
"It is not clear," he wrote, "whether the removal of those items has been the result of looting activities in the aftermath of the recent war in Iraq, or as part of systematic efforts to rehabilitate some of the locations."
He did not specify the names or locations of the missing buildings and equipment.
Dr. ElBaradei said that the IAEA remains ready to resume its verification activities in Iraq. In the meantime, member states are expected to provide any information relevant to prohibited programs in Iraq or aspects of the IAEA mandate, to enable the Agency to fulfil its responsibilities under Security Council resolutions and under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
The IAEA "expects" that all findings will be shared with the agency "in the near term," Dr. ElBaradei wrote.
--------
RADIOACTIVE SCRAP
U.N. Warns of Possible Nuclear Thefts in Iraq
April 16, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/16/international/middleeast/16NUKE.html
UNITED NATIONS, April 15 - Some Iraqi nuclear facilities appear to be unguarded, and radioactive materials are being taken out of the country, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency has reported after reviewing satellite images and equipment that has turned up in European scrap yards.
The International Atomic Energy Agency sent a letter to United States officials three weeks ago telling them of the findings. The information was also sent to the Security Council in a letter from the agency's director, Mohamed ElBaradei, which was circulated on Thursday.
Officials said the agency was awaiting a reply from the United States, which leads the alliance administering Iraq. Arms control officials fear that the war and the continuing unrest may have increased chances that terrorists may get their hands on materials used for unconventional weapons or that civilians may be exposed to radioactive materials.
According to Dr. ElBaradei's letter, satellite imagery shows "extensive removal of equipment and in some instances, removal of entire buildings," in Iraq.
In addition, "large quantities of scrap, some of it contaminated, have been transferred out of Iraq" from sites previously monitored by the agency.
In January, the agency confirmed that Iraq was the likely source of radioactive material found in a shipment of scrap metal in Rotterdam Harbor.
The material, natural uranium ore, probably came from a mine in Iraq that was active before the 1991 Persian Gulf war.
The material was uncovered on Dec. 16 by a Rotterdam-based scrap metal company, Jewometaal, which had received it in a shipment of scrap metal from a dealer in Jordan. A small number of Iraqi missile engines have also turned up in European ports, agency officials said.
"It is not clear whether the removal of these items has been the result of looting activities in the aftermath of the recent war in Iraq or as part of systematic efforts to rehabilitate some of their locations," Dr. ElBaradei wrote to the council.
The agency has been unable to investigate, monitor or protect Iraqi nuclear materials since the United States invaded the country in March 2003. The United States has refused to allow the agency's weapons inspectors into the country, saying that the alliance has taken over responsibility for illicit weapons searches.
So far those searches have come up empty-handed.
-------- israel
Israeli Nuke Whistleblower Has No Regrets
April 16, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Israel-Vanunu.html
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) -- An Israeli who has spent 18 years in prison for spilling his country's nuclear secrets says he has no regrets, his brother tells The Associated Press.
Mordechai Vanunu, a traitor in the eyes of the Israeli government but a hero to anti-nuclear activists around the world, is due to be released on Wednesday, when he will have completed his term.
But instead of the freedom he has long awaited -- he wants to go to the United States -- he will face a series of restrictions on his movement.
Vanunu, 50, was a technician at Israel's top-secret nuclear plant near the desert town of Dimona. In 1986, he disclosed details and photos of the plant and the country's reputed nuclear weapons arsenal to The Sunday Times of London.
He subsequently was seized in Europe by the Mossad intelligence agency and spirited to Israel, where he was convicted of treason and espionage. He served 12 of his 18 years in prison in solitary confinement.
In an AP interview on Thursday, a day after visiting Vanunu in prison, his brother, Meir, said Vanunu has no second thoughts. ``It is obvious that Mordechai regrets nothing in his action,'' he said.
Israel won't confirm or deny whether it has nuclear weapons. But based partly on photographs that Vanunu provided to the Sunday Times, it is widely believed the country has a large nuclear arsenal. The CIA recently estimated Israel has 200-400 nuclear weapons.
Meir Vanunu said his brother's actions provoked an essential debate on nuclear weapons and put an effective end to the policy. ``Nuclear ambiguity -- there's not much left of it,'' he said.
Though Israeli military censorship still weighs heavily against specifics about Israel's nuclear programs, in recent years members of parliament have spoken out on the issue, and the subject of nuclear weapons has been debated at times in the local media.
On Sunday, Vanunu learned that following his release, Israel's Shin Bet security agency will impose a series of restrictions on him, including barring him from leaving Israel, approaching border terminals and foreign embassies, and communicating with foreigners, including foreign residents of Israel.
Meir Vanunu said his brother had expressed great frustration about the restrictions and will challenge them in court.
``It is unbelievable what they are doing now after 17 1/2 years of persecution,'' Meir quoted him as saying. ``I didn't believe they would do this after all this time.''
Senior Israeli officials have suggested that Vanunu may still have sensitive security information and could divulge it after his release, but Meir Vanunu denied that. ``Mordechai spoke to the Sunday Times in 1986,'' he said. ``Everything he had to say he said then.''
Vanunu has been adopted by a family in Minnesota in the mistaken belief that the adoption would provide him with American citizenship. After visiting him Thursday in prison, Nick and Mary Eeloff expressed disappointment that they could not take him back to the United States.
``He just wants to lead a normal life and we just want to bring him home,'' Nick Eeloff told the AP.
Vanunu's cell has been emptied of books and other belongings, which are being checked as part of a pre-release routine, Moss said. The Prisons Authority declined comment.
Meir Vanunu said his brother wants to live abroad ``as a free man.''
``He wants to go to the United States,'' he said.
-------- japan
Released Japanese hostages want to stay in Iraq
Koriyama wishes to stay to document Iraq, Takato wants to continue her volunteer work in war-torn country.
April 16, 2004
By Hiroshi Hiyama - TOKYO
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=9667
Two of the three Japanese hostages released in Iraq have said they want to stay in the troubled nation, prompting disbelief and exasperation among relatives and politicians Friday.
Moments after she was released by a militant group, volunteer worker Nahoko Takato, 34, said on the Arab satellite television station Al-Jazeera that she wanted to continue her volunteer work in Iraq.
Another released hostage, photojournalist Soichiro Koriyama, 32, told his family he wished to stay to document the war-torn nation, relatives told reporters.
"I will continue my work in Iraq," Takato said in an interview conducted shortly after she was released.
Takato went to Iraq as an unaffiliated volunteer, distributing medicines to Iraqi people and helping street children.
"The kidnappers did things to me that I did not like. But I cannot hate the Iraqi people," she said, wiping away tears.
In the same Al-Jazeera footage, released in Japan on Friday, Koriyama was seen smiling, snapping photos of Takato and the other released hostage Noriaki Imai, 18, and telling them: "My job is to shoot pictures."
It was not immediately clear if the two former hostages were refusing to return to Japan. The government said the hostages were due to fly to Dubai Friday to meet Senior Vice Foreign Minister Ichiro Aisawa before heading home.
Koriyama, former soldier turned freelance photographer, provided a mass circulation Japanese magazine with pictures of Baghdad after the city fell.
Koriyama's mother Kimiko said he told her on the phone he wanted to remain in Iraq to continue taking pictures.
"I told him, 'What a foolish son you are'," Kimiko told reporters at her home in southern Japan.
"I don't think he realises how much trouble he has caused," she said.
Takato's brother Shuichi also said he told Nahoko to realise the gravity of the situation.
"I want her to rest up and be able to rationally understand the entire ordeal," Shuichi said.
There was no indication of whether the third hostage Imai hoped to stay in Iraq. Imai, who only graduated from high school in March, went to Iraq to write a children's book about the problem of depleted uranium used in coalition munitions, believed to have contaminated parts of Iraq.
The comments from Takato and Koriyama triggered exasperation and anger among Japanese leaders, including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who faced the worst crisis of his administration as Tokyo worked intensely for their release.
"So many government staff worked so hard without sleep, without eating, and they are saying such things? They need to become aware," about the work of others, a visibly irritated Koizumi said.
Trade minister Shoichi Nakagawa also reacted angrily.
"Please go if you like. But if anything happens, it is your own responsibility," he said using a press conference to send his message to the former hostages.
The minister in charge of disaster management Kiichi Inoue said the families and the hostages ought to have to pay part of the cost associated with the rescue efforts.
Tokyo would bill the three for part of the cost of chartering an aircraft to transport them from Baghdad to Dubai. The three would also have to pay for a medical checkup and the flight back from Dubai to Japan, the foreign ministry said.
The Japanese media meanwhile treated the news of the release of the three with a mixture of celebration and recrimination.
"It was hard to decide why we were being forced to decide the grave matter of whether to put human lives or national policy first thanks to the reckless behaviour of the three Japanese," said a signed opinion piece in the conservative Yomiuri Shimbun, the nation's best-selling daily.
-------- korea
Cheney Makes Clear U.S. Is Not Willing to Bend on North Korea
He repeats warnings to Japan, China and South Korea on threat posed by Pyongyang and its nuclear program.
By Doyle McManus,
April 16, 2004
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-cheney16apr16,1,7384002.story?coll=la-headlines-world
SEOUL - Vice President Dick Cheney stepped up pressure on Asian nations to embrace the U.S. stance on North Korea this week, renewing Bush administration warnings that the reclusive regime could provide nuclear weapons to terrorist organizations such as Al Qaeda and touch off a regional arms race.
After meeting with South Korea's acting president and foreign minister this morning, Cheney said the U.S. and the government in Seoul "stand together in insisting on a Korean peninsula that is free of nuclear weapons."
But Cheney diplomatically avoided noting that the South Korean government had been moving toward a policy of conciliation with North Korea, and did not mention Thursday's parliamentary election that gave a slight majority to the Uri Party - which is in favor of greater cooperation with the North.
In his visits to Japan, China and South Korea, Cheney delivered strong warnings on North Korea - both privately and publicly - reiterating Washington's assessment that the North already had nuclear weapons, was building more, and posed an increasing threat to its Asian neighbors as well as the United States.
"Time is not necessarily on our side," he told students at Shanghai's Fudan University on Thursday. "We worry that, given what they've done in the past, and given what we estimate to be their current capability, that North Korea could well, for example, provide [nuclear weapons] ... to, say, a terrorist organization. We know that there are terrorist organizations out there like Al Qaeda that have sought to acquire these kinds of weapons in the past."
And in a comment designed to get China's attention, Cheney warned that if North Korea deployed nuclear-armed missiles, "other nations in the region" might go nuclear as well. That was a veiled reference to Japan, China's strategic rival, which has the technical expertise to build nuclear weapons but has chosen not to do so.
One of Cheney's main goals in Asia this week has been to convince China, Japan and South Korea - which along with Russia and the U.S. have been engaging in six-party talks with North Korea on the nuclear issue - that the Bush administration will not soften its demand that North Korea dismantle its nuclear programs as soon as possible.
China has urged Cheney and President Bush to show more "flexibility" in negotiations with North Korea - for example, by agreeing to a step-by-step process that would reward North Korea with economic aid as the regime made incremental steps toward dismantling its nuclear programs.
But Cheney, who has been a strong opponent of that kind of "incremental" approach, spent much of this week telling the Chinese and others why he believed that strategy was flawed.
"Our concern is that North Korea has, in the past, entered into agreements to give up its aspirations to acquire nuclear weapons, in 1994, and then subsequently violated that agreement," Cheney said in his remarks at Fudan, which were broadcast on China's state-run television network.
"Because of the Pyongyang regime's past history of irresponsibility and deceit, the removal of all its nuclear capabilities is absolutely essential to the peace and stability of Northeast Asia and the world," he said.
North Korea agreed in 1994 to freeze and dismantle its efforts to build nuclear weapons in exchange for a program of economic aid from the U.S., Japan, South Korea and other countries. At the time, the CIA said the impoverished North had already produced enough plutonium for two nuclear bombs.
In the years that followed, U.S. and other intelligence agencies charged that North Korea was secretly violating the agreement - among other things, by starting a second, clandestine program to produce weapons with highly enriched uranium even as it was showing U.N. inspectors the mothballed equipment from its plutonium-based program.
The argument escalated in 2002, when the U.S. slowed its aid shipments and Pyongyang renounced the 1994 agreement, declaring that it was restarting its plutonium production. At the same time, U.S. officials said North Korea officially acknowledged the existence of the uranium-based program. Pyongyang later denied making such an admission.
Since 2003, the United States has pushed the six-party talks in an effort to end the impasse. A key U.S. strategy in those talks has been to win support for its position from the other regional powers, especially China, North Korea's most important economic supplier and the closest Pyongyang has to an ally.
U.S. officials believe that Cheney made headway in convincing China that the Bush administration is in no mood to compromise with the North Koreans. The Chinese were publicly silent on the issue; they now appear to face a choice of how hard to press Kim Jong Il, the reclusive North Korean leader, in response to Cheney's direct requests.
The last round of six-party talks ended in Beijing in February without any breakthrough and the discussions are expected to reconvene this month or in May. Diplomats and Asia experts believe that North Korea is unlikely to agree to any deal before the U.S. presidential election in November, if only to see whether Democrat John F. Kerry wins the White House and adopts a different strategy.
But part of Cheney's message was that the election should not serve as an excuse for other parties to ease up on Pyongyang.
"We'll continue to ... do our level best to achieve this objective by diplomatic means and through negotiations," Cheney said. "But it is important that we make progress."
"Given the sad state of their economy, [the North Koreans] obviously need outside support," Cheney said. "In order simply for that regime to survive, they must understand that no one in the region wants them to develop those weapons."
In South Korea, Cheney held two back-to-back meetings with the country's acting president, Goh Kun - first in Goh's original capacity as prime minister, and second in his current role.
The elected president, Roh Moo Hyun, has been suspended from his job since the conservative majority in the National Assembly voted to impeach him March 12. But Roh is expected to win reinstatement from the Constitutional Court.
Though Cheney would have liked to have met with Roh, U.S. officials said his "suspended" status made that impossible - a dilemma one senior official called, with understatement, "rather awkward."
Cheney wanted to press Roh on the North Korea issue in the same way he pressed leaders in China and Japan. The South Korean president has already distanced himself from the tough U.S. negotiating position and the election returns may encourage him to move even further toward peaceful coexistence and dialogue with the North.
In his meeting with Goh, Cheney thanked South Korea for sending 600 military engineers and medics to Iraq, and encouraged Seoul to follow through on plans to send 3,000 more troops.
A South Korean government advisor, who asked not to be quoted by name, said Goh would reassure Cheney that Seoul's commitment to send more troops to Iraq remained firm.
Times staff writer Barbara Demick contributed to this report.
-------- treaties
Genesis of Nuclear Proliferation
The entire gamut of how nuclear proliferation started
Friday April 16, 2004
Pakistan Tribune
Adnan Gill, Defence Journal
http://www.paktribune.com/news/index.php?id=61964
An open season has been declared on Pakistan in the wake of Doctor A Q Khan's bold confessions. It seems that Pakistan and its scientists are the first and only proliferators in the history of nuclear weaponry.
Nuclear proliferation was born with the first set of nuclear weapons. Its a half century long saga of strategic maneuvering, clashes of ideologies, espionage, love, hate, deceit, back stabbing and personal greed.
History bears witness to the fact that there is nothing extraordinary, new or unique about Pakistan proliferating nuclear know-how, if at all. The United States started the tradition by gifting it to the UK and France. The rogue (socialist) elements in the UK and US exported the same technology to the Soviet Union, who in turn gave it away to countries like China and India. China in kind, passed it to Pakistan who is said to have kept the tradition alive by trying to pass it on to the Iran, Libya and N. Korea. India and Israel did their part by bringing South Africa and Brazil onboard.
For their share of proliferation the French passed the nuclear technology to Israel. Despite De Gaulle's opposition and direct orders to shut the technology pipeline built by Shimon Peres, his atomic energy minister Jacques Soustelle kept the transfer going on. Was Soustelle punished for going rogue and breaking the laws against the proliferation? Not that the world knows of.
If anything, it is the United States, which unintentionally, or otherwise, initiated the nuclear proliferation. The US was the first to let the nuclear genie out of the bottle, the rest merely followed in its footprints.
The US proliferation started even before the first nuclear device was ever detonated. It began when the US started to train the foreign scientists from Britain, Canada and France in the art of "Atomic Bomb" making during the Manhattan project. The fear of expansion of communism right after the WWII was so intense, that the US started to pass the nuclear technology willy-nilly to its friends under the garb of a program called "Atoms for Peace". To this day the world has not been able to recover from this massive US proliferation.
At times the US looked the other way when its friends were building the nuclear network, and even pretended like nothing happened when its spy satellites detected an atmospheric nuclear explosion over the Indian Ocean on September 22, 1979. The episode was swept under the rug because there was a strong possibility that it was one of the American allies who conducted the test, namely Israel.
The recent transfer of simulation software to France enabled it to check the health of its nuclear weapons without detonating one is an example of American proliferation. A pledge to cooperate with India in the dual use nuclear and space technology is only the latest example the American proliferation.
Though the United States merits the dubious distinction of being the original proliferator, it was soon joined by a host of other wannabes. Following is a brief history of international proliferation, the actors involved and the end results.
Soviet Union/Russia: Despite the fact that great Soviet minds such as Yakov Zel'dovich and Yuli Khariton were already tinkering with the nuclear technology even before the WWII started, the Russians were still far from crossing the threshold. It took no less than complete design and data of American nuclear weapon supplied by the "Atom Spies" like Klaus Fuchs and Rosenbergs to detonate its first nuclear device four years after the United States.
Outcome of proliferation: The Soviets detonated their first nuclear device on August 29, 1949.
Britain: The British program directly benefited from the American "Manhattan Project" when its first rank scientists like Geoffrey I. Taylor and William G. Penney were sent to Los Alamos under the cover of 1943 Quebec Agreement. These American trained British scientists provided the nucleus for British post-war atomic weapons development efforts.
Thanks to the Quebec Agreement, Canada supplied plutonium was incorporated into the core of first British nuclear device, code-named Hurricane.
Outcome of proliferation: Britain detonated its first device on September 15, 1952.
France: Just like the British scientist, the French scientists like Dr. Bertrand Goldschmitt also worked with the Anglo-Canadian team on the Manhattan Project. After the war, he continued the weapons work in France and gave it its nuclear weapon.
Outcome of proliferation: The first French nuclear test, code-named Gerboise Bleue, was conducted on February 13, 1960 at Reggane in Algeria.
China: China was never a direct beneficiary of American proliferation, but it made tremendous gains from the blatant Soviet proliferation. In 1951 Peking signed a secret agreement with Moscow through which China received massive Soviet nuclear assistance in exchange uranium ores.
In 1957, China and USSR signed an agreement on new technology for national defense, which included additional Soviet nuclear assistance. The Soviets also provided China with a major gaseous diffusion facility for production of enriched uranium.
Outcome of proliferation: China's first nuclear test was conducted at Lop Nor on October 16, 1964.
India: India is a prime example of American initiated nuclear proliferation under the cover of "Atoms for Peace" program. During the 1950s and then in 1960s the United States and Canada helped India to lay the foundation for its nuclear weapons technology.
In 1956, Canada built 40 megawatt Canadian-Indian Reactor in India. The United States supplied the heavy water for it. This reactor will later become the source of plutonium for India's first nuclear device.
In 1963, India ordered two 210-megawatt boiling-water reactors for the Tarapur Atomic Power Station from General Electric.
India received its first heavy water production plant from Germany in 1962 and then built additional seven heavy water plants with help of France and Switzerland.
The United States continued to display a total disregard for all of non-proliferation conventions. In 1964, its assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs John McNaughton proposed to initiate a program to train and equip Indian forces to use nuclear weapons, and create a stockpile to disperse to India in times of crisis.
In 70s, the Soviet Union assumed the role of India's main supplier of heavy water, and covert and overt nuclear proliferation. During the 80s, India clandestinely acquired and developed centrifuge technology from the USSR and built uranium enrichment plants at Trombay and Mysore.
During the same decade, a German exporter and a former Nazi, Alfred Hempel shipped tons of heavy water via Dubai to India. This clandestine supply enabled the Indians to use its reactors like Dhruva to create plutonium for its atomic weapons program. The suppliers of heavy water included China, Norway and Soviet Union.
In January 1996, in a barefaced show of defiance of a "Nuclear Suppliers Group" ban, Moscow and New Delhi, reached an agreement to build two Russian light-water nuclear reactors at Kudankalam in Tamil Nadu.
Outcome of proliferation: India conducted its first so-called "peaceful nuclear explosion," on May 18 1974.
Israel: France laid the foundation of Israeli nuclear program on October 3, 1957, when it signed an agreement to build a 24 MWt reactor (although the cooling systems and waste facilities were designed to handle three times that power), and a chemical reprocessing plant in Israel. A secret nuclear complex was constructed outside the IAEA inspection regime, at Dimona, in the Negev desert under the leadership of Col. Manes Pratt of the IDF Ordinance Corps. France not only built a nuclear and reprocessing plant for Israel, it also supplied the heavy water and delivered Uranium for the Israeli plant. The plant went critical in 1964.
Since 1958, the United States had been well aware of the Israel nuclear program, but it did nothing to stop it. Walworth Barbour, US ambassador to Israel from 1961-73, allegedly said at one point that "The President did not send me there to give him problems. He does not want to be told any bad news." After the 1967 war, Barbour even put a stop to military attachés' intelligence collection efforts around Dimona. When in 1966, the US embassy staff sent a warning message to Washington upon learning that Israel was beginning to put nuclear warheads on its missiles, the message disappeared in thin air and was never acted upon.
Outcome of proliferation: Israel is speculated to be in possession of between 100 to 200 nuclear weapons, and in 1979 is suspected to have conducted a nuclear explosion over the southern Indian Ocean in collaboration with South Africa.
South Africa: Israel introduced South Africa to the exclusive nuclear weapons club. Israel provided South Africa with technical assistance on its weapons program, in exchange for S. Africa's 300 tons of uranium. "Oppenheimer of Israel" Ernst David Bergmann and several other Israeli nuclear scientists visited South Africa in 1967.
In 1974, Moshe Dayan is reported to have made a secret visit to South Africa and discussed nuclear weapon cooperation, including the possibility of nuclear tests.
Between 1977 and 1978 Israel received 50 tons of natural uranium from South Africa and in return supplied 30 grams of tritium, in 12 separate shipments. Israel is also believed to have provided the bomb design.
Outcome of proliferation: Till July 1990, South Africa was in possession of six nuclear devices as well as the partially completed seventh device.
Argentina: Argentina's nuclear program was supported by a number of countries. Canada and West Germany supplied the power reactors, while China and Switzerland supplied a heavy water plant. The Soviet Union supplied other nuclear equipment. In the absence of international safeguards, hot cells were operated from 1969-1972.
Outcome of proliferation: Argentina came stones throw away from building a nuclear device, as a number of sites and facilities were developed for uranium mining, milling, and conversion, and for fuel fabrication. A missile development program was also pursued for some years.
Brazil: The US proliferation to Brazil goes way back to the 1940s when it signed an agreement to transfer the nuclear technology in exchange for cooperative mining of uranium and monazite. In 1965, the US provided Brazil with medium-grade enriched uranium for its first nuclear reactor.
In 1975, Brazil signed a technology transfer agreement with Germany (not covered under the IAEA safeguards) for a complete nuclear fuel cycle, including enrichment and reprocessing plants. The agreement called for West Germany to transfer eight nuclear reactors, uranium enrichment facility, plutonium reprocessing plant, and Becker "jet nozzle" enrichment technology.
Outcome of proliferation: Brazilian nuclear weapons program code-named "Solimões" was exposed by the members of CPI (Comissão Parlamentar de Inquérito). In its report it was revealed that the IEAV (Instituto de Estudos Avançados) had designed two atomic bomb devices, one with a yield of twenty to thirty kilotons and a second with a yield of twelve kilotons. In September 1990, a nuclear test shaft was closed at Cachimbo, in Pará State.
Iraq: Iraqi nuclear weapons program's root are also traced back to the American "Atoms for Peace" program and to the Soviet supplied research reactor - the 2 megawatt IRT-5000, which was later upgraded to 5 MW in 1978.
In 1976, Iraq and France concluded an agreement for MTR reactors. MTR reactor was a derivative of the French Osiris reactor which was a pool-type reactor fuelled by 93% enriched weapon grade uranium.
In 1979, Iraq sent engineers to visit India's nuclear establishments and scientists.
During the same year, Iraq contracted with the Italian company SNIA-Techint for pilot plutonium separation and handling facility, and a uranium refining and fuel-manufacturing plant (not covered by IAEA safeguards).
Iraq also obtained large amounts of uranium - 100 tons of natural uranium from Portugal, and additional large shipments from Brazil and Nigeria.
During 1998 and 2001, an Indian company, NEC Engineers shipped several consignments of rocket fuel ingredients to Iraq via Dubai.
Outcome of proliferation: On behest of the IAEA, a group of nuclear weapon designers from the United States, Britain, France, and Russia met in April 1992 to assess the progress of Iraq's nuclear program prior to the Persian Gulf War. The group suggested Iraq's nuclear weapons program plan was established in 1988. Iraq's objective was to produce its first nuclear by 1991.
Those who view Pakistan's amateurish attempts at nuclear proliferation as unique or as a new phenomenon either harbor malice in their hearts or are selectively oblivious of history of nuclear proliferation. Their attempt is as spiteful as it is deliberate.
If the world community is really interested in finding the real nuclear proliferators, then it has to look no further than looking at the two superpowers. The Americans initiated the nuclear proliferation, while the Soviet Union setup the one stop nuclear superstore.
A parting word on pardons too. In the name of extraordinary services, the history is full of famous personalities going scot-free for their clear disregard of laws. For example, despite Oppenheimer's open association with the Communists, he was allowed to run the nuclear program till 1953. Eventually, he was quietly sidelined for his Communist associations, but only after he gave the US its nuclear bombs. Shouldn't the hush hush sidelining of a diehard Communist spy and a true "father of the Atomic Bomb" be called a "mother of all Pardons"?
How about Casper Weinberger receiving the pardon and a "Medal of Freedom" for the breakup of the communist block despite his utter disregard for the US laws, and his clear role in the Iran-Contra deals?
Lets not even talk about President Clinton pardoning the drug runners and other criminals, because it's beyond any logic and reason.
Last but not the least, how about President Gerald Ford pardoning Richard Nixon for making a mockery of the US constitution and laws?
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is any way so discriminatory that it was rightly called as "disarming the unarmed". Those moralizing to Pakistan are well advised to do some honest soul searching.
Pakistan is only a window to the Nuclear Proliferating World, but certainly not the door to it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Adnan Gill, now residing in the United States, received degrees in Political Science and Computer Information Systems. His Political Science studies focused on Internal Relations and Strategic Studies. He frequently writes opinions and letters to editors in local and national news media.
-------- u.s. nuc facilities
-------- new mexico
LANL to host Procurement Expo in Espanola
Los Angeles Monitor
April 16, 2004
http://www.lamonitor.com/articles/2004/04/16/headline_news/news02.txt
Los Alamos National Laboratory is hosting a procurement expo Oct. 15 and 16 in Espanola to bring together the small business community, key federal, state and local government procurement agencies and their major subcontractors to explore and promote available procurement opportunities at the laboratory.
"Reaching New Heights" is the theme of the procurement expo at the northern New Mexico Community College, said Tim Martinez of Los Alamosâ Community Relations Office. The city of Espanola, the Small Business Administration and the northern New Mexico Supplier Alliance are co-sponsoring the two-day event.
More than 400 business owners, entrepreneurs, procurement officials and community leaders are expected to attend the expo, which also includes a job fair.
"The expo is the ideal opportunity for small, Northern New Mexico businesses to introduce their goods and services to government agencies in the area," said Martinez. "There are many locally-owned and operated businesses that can meet the needs of not only the Laboratory, but other agencies of government, in a timely and cost-effective manner."
The keynote speakers for the luncheon at noon Wednesday are Jacob Lazada,diversity adviser for the Office of Personnel Management, and Lee Allen, the Bureau of Land Managementâs western business coordinator in the Office of Small Disadvantaged and Business Utilization.
After the kickoff luncheon, the expo is open to the public at 2 p.m., and includes an afternoon "get-to-know the buyers" session with one-on-one meetings between buyers from Los Alamos and Sandia national labs, other federal agencies and small businesses. Buyers and small business owners should contact Martinez at 667-2390 to set up a one-on-one appointment.
Also scheduled on Wednesday is a celebration and awards dinner at 6 p.m.
"Welcome to Northern New Mexico, Bienvenidos al Norte," is the theme of the celebration dinner, which is open to the public. The cost to attend is $25; proceeds from the dinner will be used to pay for training for small business owners and their employees, said Martinez. Contact Martinez for reservations to the dinner.
Martinez said in addition to the expo serving as a networking opportunity for businesses interested in doing work for the laboratory, business owners can meet procurement officials from other local, state and federal government agencies who also need goods and services and are looking for area businesses to fill those needs.
Also at the expo, procurement personnel and businesses can take part in two workshops, "How to utilize a GSA schedule" by Pat Cotterell of the General Services Administrationâs Federal Supply Services on Wednesday (Oct. 15) and "Government Competitive Sourcing (OMB A-76) Process" by Steve Merritt of Delta Solutions and Strategies on Thursday (Oct. 16). The workshops begin at 10 a.m.
Martinez said business owners can gain insights into government markets, identify and develop new suppliers and vendors, develop out-of-state markets and meet prospective employees at a job fair that also is part of the procurement expo.
Recruiters from the Laboratory are scheduled to be at the job fair to talk about job opportunities at Los Alamos. Other agencies participating in the job fair include KSL Services, Weirich and Associates, the Plus Group, Butler International, Protection Technology Los Alamos, Shaw and Associates, Jacobs Engineering, Los Alamos Medical Center, Los Alamos County, the city of Espanola, the New Mexico Department of Labor, the federal Department of Interior and its agencies and Ohkay Casino of San Juan Pueblo. In addition, job placement representatives from Northern New Mexico Community College, Santa Fe Community College, the University of New Mexico and its Los Alamos and Taos campuses and the College of Santa Fe are scheduled to attend.
Other sponsors of the expo include KSL Services, Networx Inc., Abba Technologies, JGM Management Systems, Tsay Corp., QUICK fix, Hensel Phelps Construction, Jacobs Engineering, Ares Corp., New Mexico Building and Trades Council, New Mexico Rural Development Response Council, Pro2Serve Inc., Shaw Environmental, Weirich and Associates, Washington Group International U-Lock-It Storage, Wells Fargo and others. Exhibit Solutions of New Mexico is the expo display provider.
-------- south carolina / georgia
Eye on Effingham: County's sewer plans cause a stir
More than 600 sign petition seeking another EPD hearing.
April 16, 2004
By Don Lowery dlowery@alltel.net
Savannah Morning News
912-826-1290
http://www.savannahnow.com/stories/041604/LOC_sewer.shtml
Opponents of Effingham County's sewer infrastructure plans, which could result in treated wastewater being dumped into the Ogeechee River, are petitioning the state for a hearing on the matter.
Guyton resident Frank Arden and others say the plan is flawed because it could pollute the Ogeechee with radioactive contaminants originating from the Savannah River.
"We have over 600 signatures of citizens who love the Ogeechee River and do not want to see it destroyed,'' Arden said Thursday. "We ask the Georgia Environmental Protection Division to provide a public hearing to discuss the concerns of citizens, to answer questions and to defend EPD's current policies.
"We respectfully request this meeting not only for these citizens but also for their children and their children's children, who will have to live or die with this decision,'' Arden said.
Karen Robertson, a spokeswoman for Effingham commissioners, said the county's plans are designed to avoid dumping treated wastewater in the Ogeechee. She noted that those plans were modified last fall to further avoid putting the treated effluent in the river.
"I think there are some people trying to make others think the county will be dumping radioactive materials in the river and that simply is not true,'' she said.
County officials say the wastewater treatment facility is part of long-term plans to establish a countywide water-sewer infrastructure to support rapid growth, improve the environment by reducing the number of septic tanks and deliver water to an area where groundwater withdrawals are limited by the state.
The $19 million project was the subject of two hearings, one by the county and another by the EPD, that drew standing-room-only crowds. Almost all the spectators opposed the plans, but the state approved a loan for the project in January, construction has started and the project is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Most of the opposition focuses on dumping treated wastewater into the Ogeechee. County officials say the design of the sewage plant allows wastewater to be filtered and treated to produce "re-use water'' that can be used for irrigation, industrial use and other non-drinking uses.
Most of the re-use water will be piped to residences, schools and businesses along the sewer pipeline that stretches from Rincon to Marlow across southern Effingham.
But county officials say as a last resort, some unused re-use water may be dumped into the Ogeechee. Opponents say that should not be an option because treated surface water from the Savannah River is linked to the sewer project and will eventually go into the system.
"The water that will be treated at the plant will be pumped from the Savannah River, the seventh most polluted river in the U.S.,'' said Arden, a spokesman for the Neighborhood Organization, formed in opposition to the sewer plans. "It is contaminated with tritium, plutonium, strontium and other radioactive waste from the Savannah River Site nuclear facility near Aiken, S.C.''
Arden said the county is looking for a quick fix to handle Effingham's rapid growth rather than long term solutions.
State and county officials say the trace amounts of radioactive materials in the Savannah River are at acceptable levels.
Brian Baker, director of the EPD office in Savannah, said EPD Director Barbara Couch considers the quality and quantity of residents' concerns when determining public hearings on environmental issues. Couch is likely to do the same in this case, Baker said.
-------- washington
Lawyer barred from Hanford health case
04/16/2004
Associated Press
http://www.kgw.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D82025501.html
A federal appeals court has upheld a ruling that bars an attorney from representing people who believe their health was harmed by radioactive releases from the Hanford nuclear reservation.
About 1,800 people have a lawsuit pending against former contractors at the Hanford site, claiming they have thyroid disease, cancer or other illnesses because of radioactive material released from the site when plutonium was being made during World War II and the Cold War.
Nancy Oreskovich, an attorney representing some of the plaintiffs, was removed from the case in 1996 when U.S. District Judge Alan McDonald ruled she had run a substandard solo practice, violated court orders, missed deadlines and overcharged her clients for work on the case.
The public must be protected from "an unqualified or unscrupulous practitioner," McDonald said.
The Washington Bar Association also investigated but dismissed all allegations against Oreskovich in October 2001.
Oreskovich used the dismissal by the bar to ask the federal court to allow her to again participate in the case. A federal court judge ruled that her motion, made more than nine months after the bar decision, was too late.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, according to recent filings in federal court in Spokane.
"Oreskovich had only personal excuses for her delay, not valid reasons," the appeals court memo said. The memo said the court would have ruled against her, however, even if she had filed sooner.
The bar association's dismissal of allegations was irrelevant in the face of a federal court's adoption of a report with 150 factual findings of misconduct, the appeals court concluded.
Oreskovich moved from Spokane to Beverly Hills, Calif., in 2001. Her clients were reassigned.
The first downwinders lawsuit was filed in 1990 after the federal government admitted its contractors released radioactivity from Hanford between 1944 and 1972. Most of the releases involved radioactive iodine-131, which has been linked to diseases of the thyroid, including cancer.
The downwinders lawsuit is scheduled to go to trial in March 2005 for an initial group of about 11 plaintiffs.
Information from:
Tri-City Herald,
http://www.tri-cityherald.com
-------- us nuc waste
Government, ignoring threat of legal action, says it will ship nuclear waste to Nevada
Friday, April 16, 2004
By John Nolan,
Associated Press
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-04-16/s_22888.asp
CINCINNATI - The Energy Department said Thursday it will ship radioactive waste from a Cold War-era nuclear plant in Ohio to Nevada despite that state's threat of legal action.
"They're protesting our legal right to transport low-level defense waste," Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis said from Washington. "We've got a plan in place. We're going to go forward with it."
The department plans to truck what it says are the most dangerous remaining wastes at the former Fernald uranium-processing plant. Fernald processed uranium metal from 1951 until 1989 for use in government reactors to produce nuclear weapons.
The uranium ore sludge residue and powdery, metallic production wastes material will be shipped to the Nevada Test Site, a vast desert tract 65 miles north of Las Vegas that the government uses for disposal of low-level radioactive waste.
Other wastes from Fernald, about 18 miles northwest of Cincinnati, have been shipped for years to the Nevada site. But Nevada officials say the silo waste is more radioactive and is mixed with hazardous waste and will need a more secure disposal site with lined pits.
"I'm very sympathetic with the people of Ohio who want to get rid of it. But we're not the dumping ground for the whole country," said Marta Adams, a senior deputy attorney general for Nevada.
In a letter faxed Tuesday to the Energy Department, Nevada Attorney General Brian Sandoval said he intends to sue in federal court to stop the shipments unless the government tells him by April 30 that it will voluntarily stop them.
A lawsuit could delay the Fernald cleanup, which has been under way more than a decade and has cost about $4 billion.
Nevada already is battling the government in federal court over Washington's plan to permanently store 77,000 tons of highly radioactive spent reactor fuel from 31 states and waste from the government's nuclear weapons program at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The Energy Department wants to open that dump in 2010.
--------
Nevada Seeks to Block Ohio Nuclear Waste
April 16, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Nuclear-Waste-Fernald.html
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Nevada asked federal regulators to block shipments of waste from a Cold War-era nuclear plant in Ohio.
The request to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for an emergency order comes after the state threatened to file a lawsuit over the shipments.
The agency had no immediate comment, commission spokesman David McIntyre said Friday from Rockville, Md.
The U.S. Energy Department plans to truck what it says are the most dangerous remaining wastes at the former Fernald uranium-processing plant. Fernald processed uranium metal from 1951 until 1989 for use in government reactors to produce nuclear weapons.
The uranium ore sludge residue and powdery, metallic production wastes material will be shipped to the Nevada Test Site, a vast desert tract 65 miles north of Las Vegas that the government uses for disposal of low-level radioactive waste.
Other wastes from Fernald, about 18 miles northwest of Cincinnati, have been shipped for years to the Nevada site.
But Nevada officials say the silo waste is more radioactive and is mixed with hazardous waste -- and will need a more secure disposal site with lined pits.
Nevada cited a 2003 law that requires radioactive waste to be stored at an NRC-regulated facility, said Bob Loux, director of the state Nuclear Projects Office.
The test site, where the government tested nuclear weapons for decades, is administered by the National Nuclear Security Administration, a branch of the Energy Department.
``They cannot send it to the test site at all, under any circumstances,'' Loux said. ``It can only be disposed of at an NRC facility. We don't have an NRC-regulated facility in Nevada of any kind.''
The Energy Department said it plans to go ahead with shipments.
``We are aware of Nevada's activities to block our legal right to ship this low-level defense waste, including their petition before the NRC,'' Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis from Washington.
A lawsuit could delay the Fernald cleanup, which has been under way more than a decade and has cost about $4 billion.
Nevada already is battling the government in federal court over Washington's plan to open a national nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, on the western edge of the test site.
On the Net:
Nevada Attorney General: http://www.ag.state.nv.us
Fernald: http://www.fernald.gov
Nevada Test Site: http://www.nv.doe.gov/nts
-------- us politics
Inside the Ring
April 16, 2004
By Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/inring.htm
Staying home
Some of the Senate's most vehement Democratic critics of President Bush's policies in Iraq have never gone there during the war. We obtained a copy of an official list of all the members of Congress who have visited Iraq since May.
We count 211 members, including 37 senators. Missing from the traveling senators are Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the presumptive party presidential nominee; Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts; Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia; Richard J. Durbin of Illinois; and Byron L. Dorgan of North Dakota.
"Your five lead dogs have never gone," said a Republican staffer. "The people who have been there are quieter."
The staffer said lawmakers return from such trips, known as "co-dels" for congressional delegations, with the impression that progress is being made in rebuilding post-Saddam Hussein Iraq and introducing democratic ideals.
Four senators have traveled to Iraq twice. Only Sen. Jack Reed, Rhode Island Democrat and West Point graduate, has gone three times.
Additional trips have been postponed given the spike in violence in Iraq.
Pacific bases
Vice President Dick Cheney, who returns tonight from a eight-day, three-nation swing through Asia, talked on the trip about upcoming changes in the U.S. military force structure around the world.
Mr. Cheney said the planning is looking at "some adjustments" in how American forces are aligned not just in Asia and Japan, but around the world.
"U.S. forward deployments, our commitment to the security of Japan, our very strong alliance relationship now that's been so important to both nations for 50 years will in no way be diminished by these activities," Mr. Cheney said after a speech in Tokyo on Tuesday.
"It's simply a matter of modernizing and upgrading our military posture and keeping with the threats and the needs that we face out there today," he said.
Mr. Cheney, a former defense secretary, also said that U.S. forces are sensitive to local community concerns about U.S. troops in foreign countries and that "we'll do our best to minimize any negative impacts" in communities.
Bremer successor
The question of who will replace outgoing Coalition Provisional Authority leader L. Paul Bremer is being asked more and more. Vice President Dick Cheney was asked in Tokyo if Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz might replace Mr. Bremer.
The vice president said Mr. Bremer will be replaced by a new U.S. ambassador to Iraq that will be a "major posting."
"We're in the process of selecting the individual to take on that job and that responsibility, and I would expect an announcement in the near future," Mr. Cheney said.
Don't expect the choice to be Mr. Wolfowitz. "Mr. Wolfowitz, who once worked for me and [is] a man for whom I have the highest regard, is heavily occupied at this point as the deputy secretary of defense, the No. 2 man in our defense establishment," Mr. Cheney said.
"And my guess is we probably could not persuade Secretary Rumsfeld, his boss, to part with him at this particular time."
Sources said a likely candidate to replace Mr. Bremer is John Negroponte, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. The United States is scheduled to hand over sovereignty to Iraqis on July 1.
Made in America
The Pentagon's clothing store is stuffed with all the official uniforms worn by the Air Force, Army, Marines and Navy. There are also racks of T-shirts affixed with military slogans, such as the "Army of One." Check the label, and you'll find that a lot of those shirts were made in Vietnam.
"Boy, how far we've come," commented one officer.
Book shelf
Two of Fox News Channel's most ubiquitous military analysts, retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas G. McInerney and retired Army Maj. Gen. Paul E. Vallely, are out with a new book on how to win the global war against al Qaeda and other terror groups.
In "Endgame: The Blueprint for Victory in the War on Terror," the two Vietnam combat veterans call for ratcheting up the global conflict by taking on Iran, North Korea and Syria - now.
An excerpt: "Some have said that the war on terror could last 25, 50, 100 years. We cannot wait that long. We need to defeat the web of terror now, not just deter it for some indefinite period, hoping it runs out of gas or that time will somehow heal the perceived wounds that drive those who want us destroyed. State sponsors of terrorism must destroy the monsters they have created - or they themselves will be destroyed. Saudi Arabia and Pakistan must clean their own nests, while Iran, North Korea, Syria and Libya either must change regimes, or, as Libya has professed to do, cease supporting terror and surrender any ambitions to develop weapons of mass destruction."
The two authors were good enough to quote from Rowan Scarborough's book "Rumsfeld's War." They note that it discloses for the first time - using a secret Pentagon document - that Israel's nuclear arsenal is estimated at about 80 warheads.
Gens. McInerney and Vallely then disclose that the United States, Israel and other countries are working on a "mega secret project" to deploy a weapon that "can neutralize nuclear weapons."
• Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough are Pentagon reporters. Mr. Gertz can be reached at 202/636-3274 or by e-mail at bgertz@washingtontimes.com. Mr. Scarborough can be reached at 202/636-3208 or by e-mail at rscarborough@washingtontimes.com.
--------
Bush Uses 'Terror' as A Fallback, Kerry Says
U.N. Role in Iraq His Idea, Senator Adds
By Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 16, 2004; Page A04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15951-2004Apr15.html
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J., April 15 -- Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) accused President Bush on Thursday of exploiting the war on terrorism, saying the president has tried to draw links between Iraq and the al Qaeda terrorist network for political purposes. He vowed to convince voters that he can do a better job than Bush in fighting to keep the country safe.
"Home base for George Bush in this race, as you saw to the nth degree in his press conference, is terror," Kerry told about 100 donors at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in New York.
"Ask him a question and he's going to go to terror," Kerry said. "And everything he did in Iraq, he's going to try to persuade people it has to do with terror, even though everybody here knows that it has nothing whatsoever to do with al Qaeda and everything to do with an agenda that they had preset, determined. That's where they're going to go." Kerry's criticism drew another swift reply from Bush's campaign chairman, Marc Racicot, who said Kerry's "reckless allegation" demonstrates "a profound misunderstanding" of the global war on terrorism and the threat facing the United States.
"On a day when Osama bin Laden again threatened the United States and our allies, it is disturbing to realize that John Kerry neither recognizes nor understands the murderous ideology of our enemies and the threat that they pose to our nation," Racicot said in a statement.
On a busy day that took Kerry from the morning New York fundraiser to Washington for an appearance at Howard University and a private meeting with Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, and then to New Jersey for another fundraiser, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee repeatedly attacked his opponent and the Republican Party on terrorism, taxes and the economy.
Continuing to draw differences with Bush over Iraq, Kerry accused the administration of now embracing his calls for giving the United Nations a significant role in overseeing the creation of a new government. But for the second day in a row, Kerry, who prides himself on his expertise in foreign policy, repeatedly misnamed the U.N. special representative, Lakhdar Brahimi, who is helping to negotiate the terms of the transfer of power to the Iraqis on June 30. Kerry referred to him as "Brandini."
"What you're seeing already is the administration is essentially trying to implement my strategy without admitting they're implementing my strategy," he said. "They've got Brandini over there, and he's negotiating. They've basically turned over the decision of what they're going to turn over the government to, to Brandini -- whatever he creates. . . . And they're desperately trying to avoid a visible public transfer of authority to the U.N., because that would be an admission of failure in the way they've approached it."
Republicans said Kerry's latest criticism of Bush was especially ill-timed because of the new bin Laden tape, but Kerry spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said the issue was not whether the nation is united in its determination to bring bin Laden to justice but what she called Bush's shifting rationale for going to war in Iraq.
Saying even Secretary of State Colin L. Powell agreed there was no link between al Qaeda and Iraq before the war, Cutter said Iraq has now become a breeding ground for terrorists. "This president has to decide what the mission is in Iraq and how we're going to achieve that goal instead of challenging John Kerry's patriotism and his commitment to the security of this nation," she said.
At Howard University, where Kerry held a question-and-answer session with students, he sought to rebut charges by the Bush campaign that he would raise taxes significantly as president by asserting that despite Bush's tax cuts, most middle-class Americans have seen their overall tax burdens rise because the weak economy has forced state and local governments to raise taxes and colleges to raise tuition.
After the campus event, Kerry met with McCarrick for about 45 minutes, at Kerry's request. Campaign officials declined to provide any information, with Cutter calling it "a private meeting between a man and a member of his clergy."
Kerry, who is likely to be the first Roman Catholic presidential nominee since John F. Kennedy in 1960, supports abortion rights, which puts him at odds with the church's position. McCarrick heads a church task force addressing the issue of what to do about politicians who openly disagree with the church's teaching.
Some Catholic prelates have criticized Kerry, and Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis said he would not want Kerry to take communion in his archdiocese. On Easter, McCarrick defended the bishops' right to criticize Kerry during an interview with "Fox News Sunday," saying, "It's an issue, yes."
McCarrick said Kerry "certainly should follow the teachings of the church" but stopped short of saying he would recommend denying communion to Kerry. "I would want to get to talk to him, get to see him and get to understand him before I would make a decision like that," he said.
Staff researcher Brian Faler contributed to this report.
---------
New Book Says Bush Asked for Iraq War Plan in 2001
April 16, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iraq-Woodward-Book.html?hp
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush secretly ordered a war plan drawn up against Iraq less than two months after U.S. forces attacked Afghanistan and was so worried the decision would cause a furor he did not tell everyone on his national security team, says a new book on his Iraq policy.
Bush feared that if news got out about the Iraq plan as U.S. forces were fighting another conflict, people would think he was too eager for war, journalist Bob Woodward writes in ``Plan of Attack,'' a behind-the-scenes account of the 16 months leading to the Iraq invasion.
Bush did not address those preparations when asked about them Friday, saying, ``I do know that it was Afghanistan that was on my mind and I didn't really start focusing on Iraq 'til later on.''
Spokesman Scott McClellan confirmed Bush talked to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld about Iraq war preparations during the Afghan campaign but said that did not mean the president was set on a course for invading Iraq at that time. ``There's a difference between planning and making a decision,'' he said.
The Associated Press obtained a copy of the book, which will be available in bookstores next week.
``I knew what would happen if people thought we were developing a potential war plan for Iraq,'' Bush is quoted as telling Woodward. ``It was such a high-stakes moment and ... it would look like that I was anxious to go to war. And I'm not anxious to go to war.''
Bush and his aides have denied accusations they were preoccupied with Iraq at the cost of paying attention to the al-Qaida terrorist threat before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. A commission investigating the attacks just concluded several weeks of extraordinary public testimony from high-ranking government officials. One of them, former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke, charged the Bush administration's determination to invade Iraq undermined the war on terror.
Woodward's account fleshes out the degree to which some members of the administration, particularly Vice President Dick Cheney, were focused on Saddam Hussein from the onset of Bush's presidency and even after the terrorist attacks made the destruction of al-Qaida the top priority.
Woodward says Bush pulled Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld aside Nov. 21, 2001 -- when U.S. forces and allies were in control of about half of Afghanistan -- and asked him what kind of war plan he had on Iraq. When Rumsfeld said it was outdated, Bush told him to get started on a fresh one.
Bush said Friday the subject of Iraq came up four days after the terrorist attacks when he met his national security team at Camp David to discuss a response to the assault. ``I said let us focus on Afghanistan,'' he said, taking questions after a meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Asked about the Nov. 21 meeting with Rumsfeld in a cubbyhole office adjacent to the Situation Room, Bush said only, ``I can't remember exact dates that far back.''
The book says Bush told Rumsfeld to keep quiet about their planning and when the defense secretary asked to bring CIA Director George Tenet into it at some point, the president said not to do so yet.
Even Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, was apparently not fully briefed. Woodward said Bush told her that morning he was having Rumsfeld work on Iraq but did not give details.
In an interview two years later, Bush told Woodward that if the news had leaked, it would have caused ``enormous international angst and domestic speculation.''
The Bush administration's drive toward war with Iraq raised an international furor anyway, alienating longtime allies who did not believe the White House had made a sufficient case against Saddam. Saddam was toppled a year ago and taken into custody last December. But the central figure of al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden, remains at large and a threat to the west.
The book says Gen. Tommy Franks, who was in charge of the Afghan war as head of Central Command, uttered a string of obscenities when the Pentagon told him to come up with an Iraq war plan in the midst of fighting another conflict.
Woodward, a Washington Post journalist who wrote an earlier book on Bush's anti-terrorism campaign and broke the Watergate scandal with Carl Bernstein, says Cheney's well-known hawkish attitudes on Iraq were frequently decisive in Bush's decision-making.
Cheney pressed the outgoing Clinton administration to brief Bush on the Iraq threat before he took office, Woodward writes.
In August 2002, when Bush talked publicly of being a patient man who would weigh Iraqi options carefully, the vice president took the administration's Iraq policy on a harder track in a speech declaring the weapons inspections ineffective. Cheney's speech was viewed as the beginning of a campaign to undermine or overthrow Saddam. Woodward said Bush let Cheney make the speech without asking what he would say.
The vice president also figured prominently in a protracted decision March 19, 2003, to strike Iraq before a 48-hour ultimatum for Saddam Hussein to leave the country had expired.
When the CIA and its Iraqi sources reported that Saddam's sons and other family members were at a small palace, and Saddam was on his way to join them, Bush's top advisers debated whether to strike ahead of plan.
Franks was against it, saying it was unfair to move before a deadline announced to the other side, the book says. Rumsfeld and Rice favored the early strike, and Secretary of State Colin Powell leaned that way.
But Bush did not make his decision until he had cleared everyone out of the Oval Office except the vice president. ``I think we ought to go for it,'' Cheney is quoted as saying. Bush did.
U.S. forces unleashed bombs and cruise missiles, blanketing the compound but missing the palace. Tenet called the White House before dawn to say the Iraqi leader had been killed. But his optimism was premature. Saddam was alive.
The 468-page book is published by Simon & Schuster. Woodward will be interviewed on CBS' ``60 Minutes'' Sunday night to promote the book.
-------- MILITARY
-------- arms
US 'bound by law to sell arms to Taiwan'
Taiwan Relations Act requires Washington to make sure Taipei can defend itself, US Vice-President tells protesting Chinese
By Jason Leow,
April 16, 2004
Straits Times
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/asia/story/0,4386,246026,00.html
BEIJING - Vice-President Dick Cheney yesterday said the United States was obliged to sell Taiwan military equipment for self-defence under a law enacted in 1979 called the Taiwan Relations Act.
At the same time, Mr Cheney said the US still supports the 'one China' principle, although China thinks the US arms sales will embolden Taiwan's independence seekers and thwart reunification. Advertisement
Mr Cheney's mixed message could irk Chinese leaders who this week had warned him that the US should not send the 'wrong signal' to Taiwan and harm Sino-American ties.
China repeated demands on Monday to drop the Taiwan Relations Act. But at Shanghai's Fudan University, Mr Cheney said that Act bound the US to a recent decision to sell Taiwan advanced early-warning radar.
'We are obligated under the Taiwan Relations Act to provide Taiwan with the capacity to defend itself should that be necessary,' Mr Cheney told students after a 20-minute speech made at the end of a three-day trip to China.
'To do that, we have been selling them military equipment from time to time.'
The US switched diplomatic ties from Taiwan to China in 1979. As a safeguard, Congress passed into law a Bill that allowed the US to protect Taiwan's interests in times of conflict.
Referring to Taiwan media reports that the US may sell submarines, the Patriot-III anti-missile system and anti-submarine planes to Taiwan, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan yesterday accused the US of meddling in China's 'internal affairs'.
He also warned that the arms sale could increase tension across the Taiwan Strait.
Chinese leaders who met Mr Cheney in Beijing this week said they wanted the US to express a clear position on the Taiwan issue. Military chief and former president Jiang Zemin even said a better handling of Taiwan could improve Sino-US ties.
But a senior US official told reporters yesterday that Mr Cheney had reminded Chinese leaders that Beijing's restriction on Hong Kong's self-government could increase Taiwan's tension with China.
The Taiwanese may see Hong Kong as 'sort of a bellwether' for China's commitment to 'one country, two systems', the official quoted Mr Cheney as saying.
Yesterday, hours before he left for South Korea, his last stop, Mr Cheney promised that there were 'no problems here that can't be solved, given the efforts of goodwill and adequate time'.
'Fifty years ago when we were adversaries, we fought each other in the war in Korea - we viewed each other as a significant threat. Today, I think that has changed,' he said.
'No question, we have differences, but in my consultations with leaders in Beijing, I think it would be fair that the areas of agreements are far greater than those we disagree.'
He cited cooperation with China in getting North Korea into a third round of anti-nuclear talks and praised Beijing for hosting the first two rounds.
But 'time isn't necessarily on our side', he said, after urging Chinese leaders this week to put more pressure on North Korea to drop its nuclear programme.
'It's important that we make progress in this area,' he said.
Mr Cheney passed on to Chinese leaders new information from a top Pakistani nuclear scientist suggesting that Pyongyang had at least three nuclear devices and can make them from both plutonium and enriched uranium.
Assessing his trip later, he told reporters he had achieved his aim of clarifying the US position on certain issues.
'I didn't come to alter Chinese policy. I did come with the mission of making clear what our views were. I think we achieved that,' he said.
-------- business
New way for NATO to do business
Katrin Bennhold/IHT
Friday, April 16, 2004
International Herald Tribune
http://www.iht.com/articles/515350.html
PARIS With NATO member states just days away from awarding a E4 billion military contract to a transatlantic consortium of aerospace companies, a new era of joint procurement may be dawning for the alliance, defense experts said Thursday.
A group of six companies, led by European Aeronautic Defense Space, known as EADS, and Northrop Grumman of the United States, looked set to win the contract, worth $4.8 billion, to build a mixed fleet of manned and unmanned surveillance aircraft for the alliance by 2010, said a NATO official familiar with the selection process.
After procurement experts at NATO's Brussels headquarters threw their support behind the EADS-Northrop consortium, officials in national capitals were expected to sign off on that decision "within days" the official said.
"It seems to be a genuine multinational procurement decision, and that is quite a significant step for cooperation in this area," said Steven Everts, a defense expert at the Centre for European Reform, a think tank in London. "There is an acceleration of the desire to cooperate more closely within the EU and across the Atlantic."
Against a backdrop of violence in Iraq and heightened concerns that terrorists may be targeting Europe following the Madrid train bombings, pragmatism may be gaining the upper hand over the political procurement decisions of the past, analysts said. While some major European governments continue to disagree with America on a wide range of issues, including the war in Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the willingness to deepen their cooperation within NATO may herald a renewed commitment to the alliance.
James Appathurai, a spokesman for NATO called the decision "historic," confirming a report on Thursday in The Financial Times.
"This is only the second time in NATO's history that members join forces in procurement on this scale," he said. The first time, he said, was the AWACs surveillance system developed in the 1960s. "The decision was reached pragmatically on the basis of price, capability and scheduling considerations - not necessarily three factors that have determined procurement decisions in the past," Appathurai said.
Governments have preferred to keep national control of procurement, both to determine the exact nature of a project and to award contracts to the titans of a country's defense industry.
As a result, defense capabilities within the European Union, where most countries also belong to NATO, have often been duplicated.
The idea for a joint fleet of air-to-ground surveillance aircraft has been considered for about a decade at NATO, Appathurai said. Recent progress on the matter "reflects a realization on the part of NATO nations that our troops are out there in the field, and they need this type of cooperation," he said.
This evolving pragmatism is rooted at least in part in financial reality. With technology becoming more sophisticated and expensive every year, collective procurement makes financial sense, analysts said. In addition, recent sluggishness in the global economy has depleted state coffers, leaving less room for governments to bolster defense budgets.
"Pooling is the way to go," Everts said. "It's good news for taxpayers and also good news for political cooperation that common sense has won."
The EADS-Northrop consortium includes Galileo Avionica of Italy, General Dynamics Canada, Indra of Spain, and Thales of France. In addition, more than 80 other companies from NATO countries support the joint proposal, which would provide a mixed fleet of manned A320 Airbus planes and unmanned Global Hawk planes.
According to Alexander Reinhardt, an EADS spokesman, the price for an A320 is about E50 million, though a modified version for intelligence purposes may vary in price. The Global Hawk aircraft that Northrop has been building for the U.S. Air Force costs about $30 million, James Stratford, a spokesman for the company said.
A competing consortium, led by Raytheon of the United States and including Siemens of Germany and Marconi of Britain, has complained that NATO's procurement officials took too little time to examine the two proposals, which were submitted only four months ago. Appathurai, of NATO, rejected the complaint.
International Herald Tribune
----
U.S. Names More Firms With Ties to Hussein
WASHINGTON IN BRIEF
Friday, April 16, 2004; Page A04
Washington Post
From News Services
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16342-2004Apr15.html
The Treasury Department yesterday named more companies it says served as financial fronts for Saddam Hussein and members of his government, hoping the move will help in a global search for assets that could be returned to Iraq.
"With this action, we begin the unveiling of Saddam's financial web around the world. In the coming weeks and months, the Treasury Department plans to take similar actions against other operatives of the former regime," Deputy Treasury Secretary Sam Bodman said at a news briefing.
Treasury added five new companies and four new individuals to its own list of firms and people whose U.S.-based assets are to be frozen when found and transferred to the Development Fund for Iraq.
One of the newly named companies, Al Wasel and Babel General Trading, was described as playing "a key role in the former Iraqi regime's schemes to obtain illicit kickbacks on goods purchased through the [United Nations] oil-for-food program."
Another company, Al-Huda State Company for Religious Tourism, is accused of skimming money from Iranian pilgrims visiting Iraq holy sites.
--------
Pentagon criticises Air Force over Boeing pact
April 16, 2004
By Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington
Financial Times
http://www.nytimes.com/financialtimes/business/FT1079420384932.html
Pentagon investigators on Thursday said the Air Force followed inappropriate procedures in awarding Boeing a $1.3bn contract to upgrade Nato aircraft, dealing a fresh blow to the aerospace giant.
The Pentagon inspector-general concluded that the Air Force awarded a contract to Boeing to upgrade Nato's Awac surveillance aircraft "without knowing whether Boeing had proposed an efficient, technically capable or economically responsible solution".
James Roche, Air Force secretary, commissioned the report by the inspector-general. The report highlights the role of senior Air Force officials, including Darleen Druyun, a former senior procurement official who later worked for Boeing, in not following correct business and contracting procedures.
Ms Druyun is at the centre of another controversial $18bn deal in which the Air Force agreed to buy and lease 100 refuelling tankers from Boeing. The company fired both Ms Druyun and Mike Sears, chief financial officer, last year after an internal investigation revealed conflicts of interest in the hiring of Ms Druyun.
The Boeing investigation found that Mr Sears had inappropriate conversations with Ms Druyun about a job at the company while she was still in charge of negotiating the tanker deal. Ms Druyun also represented Nato in negotiations with Boeing over the contract to upgrade the Awac aircraft.
Ms Druyun is scheduled to appear before a federal judge next week, when she is expected to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
Last week the inspector-general concluded that while there were problems in the procurement process for the refuelling tanker deal there were "no compelling reasons" to cancel the contract.
But the deal has come under intense scrutiny on Capitol Hill. John McCain, the Arizona Republican who sits on the US Senate's Armed Services committee and who has led efforts to investigate the deal, has raised concerns that the Air Force allowed Boeing to help draft a key procurement document which ensured that Airbus could not meet the requirements for the in-air refuelling tanker.
Both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Pentagon criminal investigators are understood to be probing allegations that the Air Force and Boeing collaborated in producing the so-called "operational requirements document". Air Force officials have denied that they tailored the document to suit Boeing.
--------
Audit Criticizes Another Boeing Deal
Inspector General Says Air Force Didn't Negotiate NATO Contract Properly
By Renae Merle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 16, 2004; Page E01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16391-2004Apr15.html
A former Air Force official, already under investigation for accepting a job offer from Boeing Co., had a role in the improper restructuring of a $1.34 billion contract with her future employer, according to a report from the Pentagon inspector general.
Darleen A. Druyun, the former principal deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition and management, helped negotiate the contract with Boeing to modernize NATO planes. "Senior level managers did not use appropriate business and contracting procedures" when they negotiated the contract, the report said.
The inspector general conducted the audit at the request of Air Force Secretary James G. Roche following Druyun's dismissal from Boeing last year. Druyun joined Chicago-based Boeing months after helping award the NATO contract in 2002. She was fired when it was discovered that she was still overseeing Boeing contracts while she was being recruited to the company -- a potential violation of federal law. Druyun is scheduled to plead guilty next week to one count of conspiracy.
Roche asked the inspector general to examine several other Boeing contracts Druyun supervised or negotiated at the Air Force.
The inspector general's report does not identify Druyun by name -- only by her title. An Air Force spokeswoman confirmed that the report referred to Druyun.
The report said that because of the relationship between Druyun and Boeing, the need for the contract to be "closely scrutinized is greatly increased."
The audit examined the 2002 contract to modernize 18 NATO Airborne Warning and Control System planes, which are used as airborne command posts. The contract was originally budgeted at $551.3 million but was increased to $1.34 billion when Boeing encountered performance problems.
The restructured contract was awarded without knowing whether the price was "fair and reasonable" and without an independent cost estimate, according to the audit.
"As a result, Air Force officials awarded the contract modification without knowing whether Boeing had proposed an efficient, technically capable or economically responsible solution," the report said.
The Air Force supports the inspector general's conclusions and is reexamining the price of the contract, which may be reduced but will not increase, spokeswoman Jennifer L. Cassidy said in a statement. "The United States and its NATO allies will be protected in any negotiations," Cassidy said.
An attorney for Druyun did not return a call for comment.
A Boeing spokesman said the report does not suggest any wrongdoing by the company. "To remove any doubt that our customer got a fair and reasonable deal, we volunteered to renegotiate the contract. That process is underway," George K. Muellner, Boeing senior vice president for Air Force systems, said in a statement.
An interim contract is expected by May 10, a Boeing spokesman said.
Boeing stock closed yesterday at $41.53, down 4 cents. The report was released after the end of trading.
--------
New Unity on Contracts Seen in NATO
April 16, 2004
By KATRIN BENHOLD
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/16/business/worldbusiness/16nato.html
PARIS, April 15 - With NATO member states just days away from awarding a military contract for 4 billion euros to a trans-Atlantic consortium of aerospace companies, a new era of joint procurement may be dawning for the alliance, defense experts said on Thursday.
A group of six companies, led by the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company, known as EADS, and Northrop Grumman of the United States, looks set to win the contract, worth $4.8 billion, to build a mixed fleet of manned and unmanned surveillance aircraft for the alliance by 2010, said a NATO official close to the selection process.
Since procurement experts at NATO's Brussels headquarters put their support behind the EADS-Northrop consortium, officials in national capitals are expected to approve that decision "within days,'' the official said.
"It seems to be a genuine multinational procurement decision, and that is quite a significant step for cooperation in this area," said Steven Everts, a military expert at the Center for European Reform, a research group in London. "There is an acceleration of the desire to cooperate more closely within the E.U. and across the Atlantic.''
Against a backdrop of violence in Iraq and heightened concerns that terrorists may be aiming at Europe after the Madrid train bombings, pragmatism may be gaining the upper hand over the political procurement decisions of the past, analysts said. While some major European governments continue to disagree with the United States on a wide range of issues, including the war in Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the willingness to deepen their cooperation within NATO may herald a renewed commitment to the alliance.
James Appathurai, a spokesman for NATO, called the decision "historic,'' confirming a report on Thursday in The Financial Times.
"This is only the second time in NATO's history that members join forces in procurement on this scale,'' he said. The first time, he said, was the Awacs surveillance system developed in the 1960's.
"The decision was reached pragmatically on the basis of price, capability and scheduling considerations - not necessarily three factors that have determined procurement decisions in the past,'' Mr. Appathurai said.
Governments have preferred to keep national control of procurement, both to determine the exact nature of a project and to award contracts to the titans of a country's military industry.
As a result, military capacities within the European Union, where most countries also belong to NATO, have often been duplicated.
The idea for a joint fleet of air-to-ground surveillance aircraft has been considered for about a decade at NATO, Mr. Appathurai said. Recent progress on the matter "reflects a realization on the part of NATO nations that our troops are out there in the field, and they need this type of cooperation,'' he said.
This evolving pragmatism is rooted at least in part in financial reality. With technology becoming more sophisticated and expensive, collective procurement makes financial sense, analysts said. In addition, recent sluggishness in the global economy has depleted national coffers, leaving less room for governments to bolster military budgets.
"Pooling is the way to go,'' Mr. Everts of the Center for European Reform said. "It's good news for taxpayers and also good news for political cooperation that common sense has won.''
The EADS-Northrop consortium includes Galileo Avionica of Italy, General Dynamics Canada, Indra of Spain, and Thales of France. In addition, more than 80 other companies from NATO countries support the joint proposal, which would provide a mixed fleet of manned A320 Airbus planes and unmanned Global Hawk planes.
According to Alexander Reinhardt, an EADS spokesman, the price for an A320 is about 50 million euros, or $59.8 million, though a modified version for intelligence purposes might vary in price. The Global Hawk aircraft that Northrop has been building for the United States Air Force costs about $30 million, James Stratford, a spokesman for the company, said.
A competing consortium, led by Raytheon of the United States and including Siemens of Germany and Marconi of Britain, has complained that NATO's procurement officials took too little time to examine the two proposals, which were submitted four months ago. Mr. Appathurai of NATO rejected the complaint.
-------- china / taiwan
Chen receives delegates from US, Germany
04/16/2004
By Lin Fang-yan,
GIO.gov.tw Taiwan
http://publish.gio.gov.tw/FCJ/current/04041611.html
President Chen Shui-bian reiterated his determination to improve Taiwan-China relations and expressed his hope that the United States would play a more active role as a peace envoy to help build friendship between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. He made the comments at the Office of the President April 5 to a visiting delegation of members of the U.S.-based National Committee on American Foreign Policy (NCAFP).
Founded in 1974, the NCAFP is a U.S. think tank dedicated to the resolution of conflicts that threaten U.S. interests. The delegation, led by the committee's President George Schwab, came to Taiwan to observe the post-election situation and assess the development of cross-strait relations.
Schwab congratulated Chen on winning the 2004 presidential poll, to which the president replied that his re-election reflected the desire of the Taiwanese people to protect Taiwan against China. He called on the Beijing authorities not to turn a blind eye to the growing sense of a Taiwanese identity on the island.
Chen said his winning the 2000 election by less than 40 percent of the popular vote was criticized as "a minority president leading a minority administration without a broad-based mandate from the people," and that several proposals he tabled during the past four years that might have improved cross-strait relations were rebuffed by Beijing and domestic opposition parties.
The fact that he won more than 50 percent of the vote in the latest election suggests that his leadership mandate is truly representative of the mainstream will of the general public, said the president. He added that Beijing can no longer refuse to communicate with his government on the grounds that he does not represent the majority of Taiwanese citizens.
"Beijing's 'one China' principle is not acceptable to the 23 million Taiwanese people," noted the president. "For the Beijing authorities, 'one China' is a principle; for Taiwan, however, it is an issue that should be discussed as we seek a solution," Chen said.
If Beijing had responded to his call for talks four years ago, the two sides would not have become so estranged and the sense of Taiwan identity would not have surged so high, Chen told his guests. "Beijing's suppression of Taiwan in almost all fields over the past years only served to put Taiwanese people off," he explained.
The president cited recent opinion polls showing that over 50 percent of respondents identify themselves as Taiwanese instead of Chinese. He urged policy-makers in Beijing to take this trend into account when they adjust their Taiwan policy, as they soon should.
Chen said his proposal for a "framework of interaction for peace and stability" was aimed at replacing Beijing's "one China" principle with a "one peace" principle. It is meant to bring representatives from the two sides back to the negotiating table and pave the way for a better relationship, said the president, adding that he hoped the U.S. government would serve as a peace envoy by helping smooth out cross-strait divisions.
On the legal front, Chen explained that his plan to put a new constitutional proposal to a referendum in 2006 is not a timetable for independence but part of his administration's efforts toward democratic reform. "Our purpose is to secure the nation's long-term peace and stability and improve the efficiency of government. It will have no bearing on the issue of unification or independence," maintained the president. He reaffirmed his commitment to constitutional reform while maintaining the cross-strait status quo.
In related news, a delegation from the Berlin-Taipei friendship group in the German Parliament also visited Taiwan in early April for six days. During his meeting with the delegation, headed by the group's Chairman Klaus Rose, Chen expressed his appreciation for their efforts to promote relations between the two countries.
He also thanked Rose for his hospitality toward Taiwan's first lady Wu Sue-jen when she was in Germany last July to attend the opening of an exhibition of ancient Chinese artifacts at the Altes Museum in Berlin. The artifacts--over 400 items on loan from Taipei's National Palace Museum--were on display in Germany in a museum exchange that will see a collection of 19th-century German artifacts exhibited in Taiwan this May. They will be on loan from museums associated with the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.
There are frequent contacts between the people of the two countries in terms of economics and trade, said Chen. He cited the participation of Taiwanese manufacturers in the CeBIT, the world's leading trade fair for information technology and telecommunications held in Hannover. Taiwanese exhibitors have outnumbered those from any other country at CeBIT for six years running.
According to the president, bilateral trade has grown rapidly in recent years to a total of around US$10 billion last year. "Taiwan is Germany's third-biggest trading partner in Asia, while Germany has always been Taiwan's No. 1 European trading partner," he said.
During the meeting, Chen expressed worries over a recent proposal backed by certain E.U. member states to rescind an E.U. ban on arms sales to China. He was also concerned about Germany's intention to sell China a plutonium factory. Beijing would doubtless use such a facility to produce weapons-grade nuclear material, thus jeopardizing the fragile peace in the region.
The European Council introduced an embargo on trade in arms with China in June 1989 following the Beijing government's brutal massacre of pro-democracy activists in Tiananmen Square.
The European Union imposed the ban because of China's record of human-rights abuses. Chen pointed out that the status of human rights in China has not improved since that time, calling into question the motivations behind lifting the arms embargo.
He expressed his hope that Rose and other members of the Berlin-Taipei friendship group would exert their influence in the German Parliament and urge the German government not to support any proposal that would lift the ban.
Political observers on the island are concerned that E.U. weapons sales to China will trigger an arms race in the Taiwan Strait, with the European Union arming China and the United States supplying weapons to Taiwan. When asked about this by a reporter from the Taipei Times, Rose responded, "There is no exact political position in Germany to really give it up," despite the German chancellor's proposal to lift the ban.
"Now we have a political debate in Germany and even in the European Union. Perhaps it would not be the best way to lift the embargo. Of course, it would not be good to have a new arms race," said Rose.
Opening the door to arms sales to China would benefit some arms manufacturers, but the political consequences are a different question, opined the German parliamentarian. "We are now in the phase of discussing political consequences. This seems to me to be very different from what happened before. We are not coming to an end to really lift the embargo," said Rose, adding "there would be no arms race between the United States and Europe in order to sell weapons to Taiwan." On the issue of China's pressuring European countries to block Taiwan's applications to join the World Health Organization, Rose said German politicians have discussed how to help Taiwan become an observer of the world body. "You cannot exclude the population anywhere in the world from the big question of health," he said.
"Of course the People's Republic of China is a very important partner for trade and many other reasons. But if we speak of the health of the whole world's population, it should be different," noted Rose. "I am quite sure that in Germany and the European Union, we will change our position of always saying, 'Yes, Beijing, you are right,'" said Rose. "In this field, Beijing is not right."
--------
Hong Kong Leader Backs Slow Reform
Activists for Direct Elections Unsatisfied
By Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, April 16, 2004; Page A14
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14371-2004Apr15.html
BEIJING, April 15 -- Hong Kong's chief executive told the Chinese government Thursday that the politically unsettled enclave should change the way it chooses its leaders. But the chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa, suggested the changes should be limited and slow in coming.
Tung's position, conveyed in a report to the Standing Committee of the Chinese National People's Congress in Beijing, was only a partial response to repeated demands from Hong Kong activists for direct elections to choose his successor in 2007 and the full legislature in 2008. As a result, it seemed unlikely to resolve the political dispute that has riled the former British colony for months and strained its relations with the government in Beijing.
"I consider the methods for selecting the chief executive in 2007 and for forming the legislative council in 2008 should be amended so as to enable Hong Kong's constitutional development to move forward," Tung said in the 12-page report . But he added, "No proposed amendments shall affect the substantive power of appointment of the chief executive by the central authorities [in Beijing]."
Tung said that, in his view, the Chinese government should first decide whether any change is allowed in Hong Kong's election arrangements. If it says yes, he said, then Hong Kong's government can begin consulting the public on what kind of changes should be envisioned in a "step by step" process. Those consultations, he explained, would eventually lead to a detailed proposal that would be put to the Chinese government.
Martin Lee, a leader of the main pro-democracy group, the Democratic Party, said Tung's suggestion to Beijing effectively was a veto of direct elections for the chief executive in 2007 and for the full legislature the following year. "We can expect some cosmetic amendments," he said, "but the end results would be the same: Hong Kong people cannot choose their leader."
The steps Tung outlined in his report and in a subsequent news conference suggested a long process controlled from Beijing and with an end point undetermined. No timetable was laid out for the Standing Committee to issue its ruling on the principle of change, for instance, or for the Hong Kong government to carry out consultations with the public if change is allowed.
The Standing Committee ruled April 6 that it alone has the power to initiate political change in Hong Kong. The ruling was couched as an interpretation of the Basic Law that has governed Hong Kong politics since China regained sovereignty over the 414-square-mile territory in 1997. But it amounted to an assertion that the Communist Party government in Beijing intends to set the pace of reform in Hong Kong just as firmly as it does in the rest of China.
The United States and Britain both voiced disappointment with China's decision, expressing hope that the people of Hong Kong could move rapidly toward a full electoral system for choosing their executive and legislature. Democracy activists in Hong Kong charged that Beijing's interpretation of the Basic Law actually amended it, reneging on a guarantee of broad autonomy for the territory's 6.7 million people issued in 1997.
Hong Kong's democracy activists, reacting to the April 6 ruling, had called on Tung to present Beijing with bold proposals for change even if the Chinese government retained the final say. His report Thursday showed that, instead, he bended carefully to the winds blowing from Beijing.
"He was not conveying the public's views to Beijing," said Audrey Eu, a pro-democracy legislator.
Activists have urged that the chief executive be chosen at the ballot box in 2007, when Tung's current term ends. Tung, whose popularity has plummeted, was picked by an 800-member committee largely formed by Beijing.
The activists also have proposed electing the full Legislative Council in 2008. In the current 60-seat legislature, 24 seats were filled by direct elections. The rest were chosen by professional and labor groups. The number of seats to be chosen by direct elections rises to 30 for the next vote, scheduled in September.
Although the activists pushing to expand direct elections do not have a majority in the legislature, their demands have consistently been supported by about 60 percent of respondents in opinion polls over the past two years. Thus, political figures on both sides of the debate have suggested that September's vote could produce a majority that would seek to initiate change, presenting Beijing with a political headache it is eager to avoid.
Special correspondent K.C. Ing in Hong Kong contributed to this report.
-------- europe
Europeans Reject Bin Laden 'Truce'
Tape Attributed to Al Qaeda Leader Seeks Withdrawal of Troops in Muslim Countries
By John Burgess
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, April 16, 2004;
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13809-2004Apr15.html
BERLIN, April 15 -- Five weeks after a series of bombs killed 191 people on trains in Madrid, Arab television networks on Thursday aired an audiotape, purportedly of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, in which the speaker offered not to attack any European nation that withdrew its troops from Muslim countries.
"I am offering a truce to European countries," said the recorded voice, which the CIA said it believed was that of bin Laden. Addressing "our neighbors north of the Mediterranean," he offered not to attack "any country which does not carry out an onslaught against Muslims or interfere in their affairs."
European governments quickly rejected the offer, but analysts said the message appeared to mark a new strategy of trying to manipulate antiwar sentiment in Europe to bring pressure on governments that support the United States.
"What happened on September 11 and March 11 was your goods delivered back to you," said the recorded voice, alluding to the attacks in the United States in 2001 and the bombings of four morning rush-hour commuter trains in the Spanish capital last month.
Although Spanish authorities have said they lack evidence of direct al Qaeda involvement in the Madrid bombings, investigators suspect that the presumed leader of the plot, Sarhane Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet, sought the assistance of an al Qaeda leader in the months preceding the attack.
On the tape, the speaker said the offer was "in response to the recent positive developments that have appeared," an apparent reference to elections in Spain three days after the Madrid bombings. The attacks helped sway voters to oust the party of the staunchly pro-U.S. prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar, and replace him with a Socialist party candidate who vowed to withdraw Spain's 1,300 troops from Iraq unless the United Nations was given greater authority.
In the seven-minute tape, the speaker said that "the door to a truce is open for three months. . . . The truce will begin when the last soldier leaves our countries."
The tape also vowed vengeance for Israel's assassination of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement, the militant Palestinian group known as Hamas.
The message differed from past declarations by the fugitive al Qaeda leader, which were addressed to followers and often called for further attacks against the United States and its allies.
Maha Azzam, an associate fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, said Bin Laden and his aides likely concluded "that something was paying off, that perhaps there was a real rift between the United States and Europe." With the new message, she said, "they have played it for all it's worth."
Azzam said the message could resonate in Europe, where negotiations have helped stop such terrorist attacks as those by the Irish Republican Army in its fight against British rule in Northern Ireland.
She said bin Laden was "trying to create not only a wedge between the U.S. and Europe," but also was telling Europeans that "your politicians are not necessarily following your interests. They're ignoring problems that exist in Palestine and Israel and the Muslim world."
European governments moved quickly to denounce the purported truce offer.
"There can be no possible bargaining with terrorists," President Jacques Chirac of France said during a visit to Algeria, according to the Reuters news agency. Similar statements came from Britain, Germany, Italy and the European Union.
"I think that the international community realizes that they cannot give in to these kinds of threats," Secretary of State Colin L. Powell told reporters in Washington. "I hope this will strengthen our determination to deal with terrorism and especially to do everything we can to bring Osama bin Laden to justice."
Mustafa Alani, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London, said the message fit into an al Qaeda strategy of seeking to isolate the United States from its allies. He cited the alleged involvement of al Qaeda fighters in attacks against allied forces in Iraq and elsewhere.
Alani said the statement was meant to stir public opinion in Europe to "bring pressure on the government, and pressure on the government will change policy." He added: "They want to deepen the rift between the European governments and the United States."
Hans-Joachim Schmidt, a senior research associate at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt, said the offer was unlikely to affect German policy.
"We are part of the NATO mission" in Afghanistan, Schmidt said. "This cannot work for the German government." Some Europeans, he said, believe that countries that refused to provide troops for the Iraq war have bought themselves protection from al Qaeda attack.
In a conversation on a Berlin sidewalk, Wolfgang Lindner, 52, an office worker, praised the German government's rejection of the purported offer. "You can't bargain for peace," he said.
Daniela Brenner, 26, a waitress, said she would not trust bin Laden on such an offer, but added that she would want to think about it.
----
Bin Laden's truce offer rejected as 'absurd'
By David Blair
16/04/2004
UK Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/04/16/wbin16.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/04/16/ixnewstop.html
Osama bin Laden yesterday offered a truce to any European country, provided that it abandoned its alliance with America.
Like earlier messages, it was delivered on audio tape via the al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya Arab satellite channels. The CIA said the tape appeared to be genuine but European leaders rejected the offer as "absurd". Bin Laden: 'Whoever wants this truce, here we bring it'
The voice on the tape described last month's bomb attacks in Madrid, which killed 191 people, as retaliation for Israel's actions against the Palestinians.
The curious logic of the claim was consistent with the idiom of bin Laden's previous messages.
But the tone of the message differed markedly from his 15 or so other pronouncements since the September 11 terrorist attacks, including one in November 2002 telling Europeans: "You will be killed just as you kill and you will be bombed just as you bomb."
Instead of dismissing European nations as the "crusader-Jewish alliance", the voice addressed a "reconciliation" message to European states, referring to them as "our neighbours north of the Mediterranean". America and Israel were explicitly excluded from the offer.
Bin Laden's terms were clearly designed to drive a wedge between Europe and America.
"I offer a reconciliation initiative to [Europe], whose essence is our commitment to stopping operations against every country that commits itself to not attacking Muslims or interfering in their affairs," he said.
To take advantage of this truce, a country must agree to abandon America and its "conspiracy against the greater Muslim world". The speaker denounced President George W Bush as "a fatal threat to the world" and said the war in Iraq was designed to enrich "bloodsuckers".
He gave Europe three months to respond to his offer.
"The announcement of the truce starts with the withdrawal of the last soldier from our land and the door is open for three months from the date of the announcement of this statement. Whoever rejects this truce and wants war, we are its [war's] sons, and whoever wants this truce, here we bring it."
Although the tape offered few details, the demand would require the dissolution of the Nato defence pact, established by western Europe and America after Washington helped Europe to defeat Nazism.
It said: "For those who want reconciliation, we have given them a chance. Stop shedding our blood so as to preserve your blood. It is in your hands to apply this easy yet difficult formula."
The tape cited the "situation in occupied Palestine" as an example of "injustice" and said: "What happened on 11 September and 11 March [the Madrid train bombs] is your commodity that was returned to you." The Madrid attacks aided the election of a Left-wing government committed to withdrawing Spanish troops from Iraq. Bin Laden may have concluded that European electorates can be intimidated.
Spanish leaders were anxious to dispel that impression. Miguel Angel Moratinos, the incoming foreign minister, said the message should be ignored. "Those of us who seek peace, democracy and freedom do not need to listen or pay attention to [bin Laden]," he said.
Other leading government figures in Europe denounced the offer of a truce as "absurd" and dismissed any suggestion of dealing with a criminal such as bin Laden.
Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, said: "One has to treat such claims and proposals by al-Qa'eda with the contempt they deserve. This is a murderous organisation which seeks impossible objectives by the most violent of means."
Franco Frattini, the Italian foreign minister, whose country is mourning the murder of a hostage in Iraq, said that discussing terms with bin Laden was "unthinkable". Romano Prodi: 'There is no possibility of a deal under a terrorist threat'
A German government spokesman branded bin Laden "a terrorist and serious criminal".
Romano Prodi, the president of the European Commission, responded to the offer with incredulity.
"There is no possibility of a deal under a terrorist threat," he said.
Jacques Chirac, the French president, said there could be no "bargaining with terrorists". France would not send troops to Iraq and he rejected American backing for Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Bin Laden has not confined his atrocities to close allies of the United States. Attacks on American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 killed 224 people, all but 12 of them Africans. Many victims of attacks claimed by al-Qa'eda in Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Turkey, Tunisia and Pakistan have been Muslims.
----
Factions Slug It Out in Battle To See Who Will Lead Ukraine
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, April 16, 2004; Page A18.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16340-2004Apr15.html
KIEV, Ukraine -- Politics has become a contact sport lately in Ukraine. Brawling, wrestling and punching have come to characterize an increasingly tense debate about the future of the country.
When President Leonid Kuchma advanced a plan recently to keep power after leaving office, opposition lawmakers smashed the parliament's electronic voting system. As debate resumed weeks later, they threw water and flowers on parliamentary leaders. A fistfight broke out in the chamber last month. A few days later, Kuchma supporters pelted his nemesis, U.S. financier George Soros, with eggs and mayonnaise-filled condoms.
With the president previously committed to stepping down this fall after two terms and 10 years in office, a struggle has erupted for control of this nation of nearly 50 million. Independent radio stations have been yanked off the air. Non-governmental groups report harassment. And opposition leaders call this the most significant moment for Ukrainian democracy since the country emerged from the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
"For all these years, we haven't had such a critical point," said Yulia Tymoshenko, a former deputy prime minister and a prominent opposition leader. "It will not be an election, it will be a war. This circle around the president doesn't even want to think they might lose power. They will try to keep it at any price."
The other side denies any attacks on democracy and castigates the opposition for simply seeking power. But Kuchma's allies agree with their rivals on one thing: As Stepan Havrich, leader of the pro-Kuchma parliamentary majority bloc, put it, "The struggle for the president's post is going to be very acute."
Defying enormous pressure from Kuchma's camp, the parliament last week narrowly rejected proposed constitutional amendments that would have eliminated direct election of the president and effectively allowed him to control succession.
Stung by the setback, Kuchma moved this week to quell growing discontent within his ruling bloc by designating Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych as his choice for successor Yanukovych, a loyalist appointed in 2002, would represent Kuchma's majority coalition as a single consensus candidate in the Oct. 31 election.
The move puts pressure on the fractious opposition to rally behind a single candidate, according to lawmakers and analysts. But so far, former prime minister Viktor Yushchenko, the country's most popular politician and front-runner in campaign polls, has yet to unify the various parties that oppose Kuchma, according to Tymoshenko and others.
"Yushchenko hasn't managed to send signals to society what will happen if he came to power," said Maryna Pyrozhuk, a journalist at Radio Liberty, who cited issues of press freedom, education and health care. "No one can tell what will happen. The struggle goes on, but no one sees a clear message so the electorate can compare arguments."
Yushchenko says he wants to bring his potential coalition together now after the success in beating back the constitutional amendments. "The question is how is it possible for democratic forces to get prepared for the election and come out with a united, solid program," he said in an interview.
Kuchma, a former Soviet factory director, presides over a country torn between historic ties to Russia and aspirations of joining the rest of Europe. Foes accuse him of running a corrupt system dominated by business tycoons. Audiotapes smuggled out of the country by a former bodyguard have linked Kuchma to the killing of an opposition journalist and to illegal arms sales to Iraq when Saddam Hussein was in power. Kuchma denies the charges.
Domestic and international critics contend that Kuchma is pushing Ukraine toward authoritarian rule. Most broadcast media are controlled by groups loyal to Kuchma. U.S.-funded Radio Liberty lost its FM frequency in February in a move journalists said was orchestrated by the government. The network now broadcasts on short wave and has lost 60 percent of its audience.
Kuchma supporters also have targeted nongovernmental organizations, particularly those funded by billionaire Soros, whose Open Society Institute promotes civil society and democratic institutions by funding human rights organizations and independent newspapers. Kuchma supporters accuse them of trying to instigate a change in power as they did in Georgia last fall, but Soros charges that the president's office is using its media outlets to wage a smear campaign against him.
Kuchma's drive to rewrite the constitution drew criticism from U.S. and European officials, who said it would have damaged Ukraine's democratic institutions. Under Kuchma's plan, the president would be picked by parliament rather than voters, leaving the choice in the hands of his allies who control the legislature. The proposal received 294 votes, just six shy of the two-thirds needed in the 450-member parliament.
Although the vote failed, Kuchma split the opposition. Communists and socialists supported the changes, breaking on the issue with allies in Yushchenko's Our Ukraine bloc and Tymoshenko's bloc, both of which support democratic and market reforms.
Yushchenko's chances of bringing all four factions back together behind his candidacy appear slim. In an interview this week, Communist leader Petro Symonenko blasted Yushchenko for opposing the constitutional plan, comparing Our Ukraine's ideology to "Italian fascism and German Nazism." Symonenko appears poised to run.
Socialist leader Oleksandr Moroz also expressed bitterness toward Yushchenko. If Yushchenko does not change his view on the constitutional plan, Moroz said in an interview, "I don't see any opportunity to unite the opposition." In that case, Moroz added, "I will have to" run.
-------- iraq
Get Out Now, Before We Are Thrown Out
by John Pilger,
April 16, 2004
Antiwar.com
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/pilger.php?articleid=2324
Four years ago, I traveled the length of Iraq, from the hills where St. Matthew is buried in the Kurdish north to the heartland of Mesopotamia, and Baghdad, and the Shia south. I have seldom felt as safe in any country. Once, in the Edwardian colonnade of Baghdad's book market, a young man shouted something at me about the hardship his family had been forced to endure under the embargo imposed by America and Britain. What happened next was typical of Iraqis; a passerby calmed the man, putting his arm around his shoulder, while another was quickly at my side. "Forgive him," he said reassuringly. "We do not connect the people of the west with the actions of their governments. You are welcome."
At one of the melancholy evening auctions where Iraqis come to sell their most intimate possessions out of urgent need, a woman with two infants watched as their pushchairs went for pennies, and a man who had collected doves since he was 15 came with his last bird and its cage; and yet people said to me: "You are welcome." Such grace and dignity were often expressed by those Iraqi exiles who loathed Saddam Hussein and opposed both the economic siege and the Anglo-American assault on their homeland; thousands of these anti-Saddamites marched against the war in London last year, to the chagrin of the warmongers, who never understood the dichotomy of their principled stand.
Were I to undertake the same journey in Iraq today, I might not return alive. Foreign terrorists have ensured that. With the most lethal weapons that billions of dollars can buy, and the threats of their cowboy generals and the panic-stricken brutality of their foot soldiers, more than 120,000 of these invaders have ripped up the fabric of a nation that survived the years of Saddam Hussein, just as they oversaw the destruction of its artifacts. They have brought to Iraq a daily, murderous violence which surpasses that of a tyrant who never promised a fake democracy.
Amnesty International reports that US-led forces have "shot Iraqis dead during demonstrations, tortured and ill-treated prisoners, arrested people arbitrarily and held them indefinitely, demolished houses in acts of revenge and collective punishment."
In Fallujah, US marines, described as "tremendously precise" by their psychopathic spokesman, slaughtered up to 600 people, according to hospital directors. They did it with aircraft and heavy weapons deployed in urban areas, as revenge for the killing of four American mercenaries. Many of the dead of Fallujah were women and children and the elderly. Only the Arab television networks, notably al-Jazeera, have shown the true scale of this crime, while the Anglo-American media continue to channel and amplify the lies of the White House and Downing Street.
"Writing exclusively for the Observer before a make-or-break summit with President George Bush this week," sang Britain's former premier liberal newspaper on 11 April, "[Tony Blair] gave full backing to American tactics in Iraq... saying that the government would not flinch from its 'historic struggle' despite the efforts of 'insurgents and terrorists'."
That this "exclusive" was not presented as parody shows that the propaganda engine that drove the lies of Blair and Bush on weapons of mass destruction and al-Qaeda links for almost two years is still in service. On BBC news bulletins and Newsnight, Blair's "terrorists" are still currency, a term that is never applied to the principal source and cause of the terrorism, the foreign invaders, who have now killed at least 11,000 civilians, according to Amnesty and others. The overall figure, including conscripts, may be as high as 55,000.
That a nationalist uprising has been under way in Iraq for more than a year, uniting at least 15 major groups, most of them opposed to the old regime, has been suppressed in a mendacious lexicon invented in Washington and London and reported incessantly, CNN-style. "Remnants" and "tribalists" and "fundamentalists" dominate, while Iraq is denied the legacy of a history in which much of the modern world is rooted. The "first-anniversary story" about a laughable poll claiming that half of all Iraqis felt better off now under the occupation is a case in point. The BBC and the rest swallowed it whole. For the truth, I recommend the courageous daily reporting of Jo Wilding, a British human rights observer in Baghdad.
Even now, as the uprising spreads, there is only cryptic gesturing at the obvious: that this is a war of national liberation and that the enemy is "us." The pro-invasion Sydney Morning Herald is typical. Having expressed "surprise" at the uniting of Shias and Sunnis, the paper's Baghdad correspondent recently described "how GI bullies are making enemies of their Iraqi friends" and how he and his driver had been threatened by Americans. "I'll take you out quick as a flash, motherf###er!" a soldier told the reporter. That this was merely a glimpse of the terror and humiliation that Iraqis have to suffer every day in their own country was not made clear; yet this newspaper has published image after unctuous image of mournful American soldiers, inviting sympathy for an invader who has "taken out" thousands of innocent men, women and children.
What we do routinely in the imperial west, wrote Richard Falk, professor of international relations at Princeton, is propagate "through a self-righteous, one-way moral/legal screen positive images of western values and innocence that are threatened, validating a campaign of unrestricted violence." Thus, western state terrorism is erased, and a tenet of western journalism is to excuse or minimize "our" culpability, however atrocious. Our dead are counted; theirs are not. Our victims are worthy; theirs are not.
This is an old story; there have been many Iraqs, or what Blair calls "historic struggles" waged against "insurgents and terrorists." Take Kenya in the 1950s. The approved version is still cherished in the west - first popularized in the press, then in fiction and movies; and like Iraq, it is a lie. "The task to which we have set our minds," declared the governor of Kenya in 1955, "is to civilize a great mass of human beings who are in a very primitive moral and social state." The slaughter of thousands of nationalists, who were never called nationalists, was British government policy. The myth of the Kenyan uprising was that the Mau Mau brought "demonic terror" to the heroic white settlers. In fact, the Mau Mau killed just 32 Europeans, compared with the estimated 10,000 Kenyans killed by the British, who ran concentration camps where the conditions were so harsh that 402 inmates died in just one month. Torture, flogging and abuse of women and children were commonplace. "The special prisons," wrote the imperial historian V.G. Kiernan, "were probably as bad as any similar Nazi or Japanese establishments." None of this was reported. The "demonic terror" was all one way: black against white. The racist message was unmistakable.
It was the same in Vietnam. In 1969, the discovery of the American massacre in the village of My Lai was described on the cover of Newsweek as "An American tragedy," not a Vietnamese one. In fact, there were many massacres like My Lai, and almost none of them was reported at the time.
The real tragedy of soldiers policing a colonial occupation is also suppressed. More than 58,000 American soldiers were killed in Vietnam. The same number, according to a veterans' study, killed themselves on their return home. Dr. Doug Rokke, director of the US army depleted uranium project following the 1991 Gulf invasion, estimates that more than 10,000 American troops have since died as a result, many from contamination illness. When I asked him how many Iraqis had died, he raised his eyes and shook his head. "Solid uranium was used on shells," he said. "Tens of thousands of Iraqis - men, women and children - were contaminated. Right through the 1990s, at international symposiums, I watched Iraqi officials approach their counterparts from the Pentagon and the Ministry of Defense and ask, plead, for help with decontamination. The Iraqis didn't use uranium; it was not their weapon. I watched them put their case, describing the deaths and horrific deformities, and I watched them rebuffed. It was pathetic." During last year's invasion, both American and British forces again used uranium-tipped shells, leaving whole areas so "hot" with radiation that only military survey teams in full protective clothing can approach them. No warning or medical help is given to Iraqi civilians; thousands of children play in these zones. The "coalition" has refused to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to send experts to assess what Rokke describes as "a catastrophe."
When will this catastrophe be properly reported by those meant to keep the record straight? When will the BBC and others investigate the conditions of some 10,000 Iraqis held without charge, many of them tortured, in US concentration camps inside Iraq, and the corralling, with razor wire, of entire Iraqi villages? When will the BBC and others stop referring to "the handover of Iraqi sovereignty" on 30 June, although there will be no such handover? The new regime will be stooges, with each ministry controlled by American officials and with its stooge army and stooge police force run by Americans. A Saddamite law prohibiting trade unions for public sector workers will stay in force. Leading members of Saddam's infamous secret police, the Mukhabarat, will run "state security," directed by the CIA. The US military will have the same "status of forces" agreement that they impose on the host nations of their 750 bases around the world, which in effect leaves them in charge. Iraq will be a US colony, like Haiti. And when will journalists have the professional courage to report the pivotal role that Israel has played in this grand colonial design for the Middle East?
A few weeks ago, Rick Mercier, a young columnist for the Free-Lance Star, a small paper in Virginia, did what no other journalist has done this past year. He apologized to his readers for the travesty of the reporting of events leading to the attack on Iraq. "Sorry we let unsubstantiated claims drive our coverage," he wrote. "Sorry we let a band of self-serving Iraqi defectors make fools of us. Sorry we fell for Colin Powell's performance at the United Nations... Maybe we'll do a better job next war."
Well done, Rick Mercier. But listen to the silence of your colleagues on both sides of the Atlantic. No one expects Fox or Wapping or the Daily Telegraph to relent. But what about David Astor's beacon of liberalism, the Observer, which stood against the invasion of Egypt in 1956 and its attendant lies? The Observer not only backed last year's unprovoked, illegal assault on Iraq; it helped create the mendacious atmosphere in which Blair could get away with his crime. The reputation of the Observer, and the fact that it published occasional mitigating material, meant that lies and myths gained legitimacy. A front-page story gave credence to the bogus claim that Iraq was behind the anthrax attacks in the US. And there were those unnamed western "intelligence sources," all those straw men, all those hints, in David Rose's two-page "investigation" headlined "The Iraqi connection," that left readers with the impression that Saddam Hussein might well have had a lot to do with the attacks of 11 September 2001. "There are occasions in history," wrote Rose, "when the use of force is both right and sensible. This is one of them." Tell that to 11,000 dead civilians, Mr. Rose.
It is said that British officers in Iraq now describe the "tactics" of their American comrades as "appalling." No, the very nature of a colonial occupation is appalling, as the families of 13 Iraqis killed by British soldiers, who are taking the British government to court, will agree. If the British military brass understand an inkling of their own colonial past, not least the bloody British retreat from Iraq 83 years ago, they will whisper in the ear of the little Wellington-cum-Palmerston in 10 Downing Street: "Get out now, before we are thrown out."
First published in the New Statesman. http://www.newstatesman.co.uk/
--------
Rumsfeld Says He Underestimated Level of Violence in Iraq
By Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 16, 2004; Page A11
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15909-2004Apr15.html
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld acknowledged yesterday that he had not expected the level of violence confronting U.S. forces in Iraq, but he stood by his decision to send fewer troops than some Army officials and lawmakers have argued were necessary to stabilize the country.
His remarks came during a Pentagon news conference at which Rumsfeld announced a three-month extension in tours for about 20,000 troops, keeping combat strength in place to handle attacks by Sunni and Shiite insurgents that have led to record-high casualties for U.S. forces.
Rumsfeld said the extensions would allow the total number of U.S. troops to remain about 135,000, superseding previous plans to reduce the level to about 115,000.
Asked a broad question about whether he could identify any mistakes he made before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Rumsfeld focused instead on his expectations for Iraq after U.S. forces invaded a year ago.
"If you had said to me a year ago, 'Describe the situation you'll be in today one year later,' I don't know many people who would have described it -- I would not have -- described it the way it happens to be today," he said.
Elaborating later, Rumsfeld added: "I certainly would not have estimated that we would have had the number of individuals lost that we have had lost in the last week."
Only halfway over, April already ranks as the deadliest month of the war for the United States, with 92 U.S. troops killed. In all, 685 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq, 491 of them as a result of hostile action, according to Pentagon figures.
Pressed on whether, in retrospect, he should have sent more troops to Iraq months ago, Rumsfeld tossed the question to the officer at his side -- Marine Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs -- who defended the deployment as having achieved the right balance between too many and too few.
Pace said the original plan to reduce the number of troops in Iraq this spring -- while rotating into the country an entirely fresh set of forces -- had been devised to be flexible. Anticipating some rise in violence ahead of the scheduled June 30 transfer of power in Iraq, U.S. commanders had arranged for incoming forces to overlap with outgoing ones, thereby achieving a temporary spike in the total number of troops in country.
"That is part of the flexibility that we built into the replacement plan in the first place," Pace said.
But whatever contingency plans were drawn up for potential trouble around this time, the fierceness and breadth of the attacks in recent days clearly caught Pentagon authorities off guard.
"Everyone is, at this point, realizing that when everybody said this will be a period during which we will be tested a lot, this is what it meant," said a senior Rumsfeld aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to be more candid. "How it would unfold, I don't think anyone knew."
The troops that are being kept in Iraq had expected to return home this month or next after completing a year of duty. Another 16,000 soldiers slated to leave Iraq by May will still be allowed to go as fresh forces continue to arrive over the next few weeks under the original rotation plan, Rumsfeld said.
If, after the 90-day extension ends, U.S. commanders want to continue the elevated troop level in Iraq, new forces will be sent from the United States or elsewhere, Rumsfeld said.
Which troops would fill that gap have yet to be specified, Army officials said.
"I think all of the options are on the table," Gen. George Casey, the Army's vice chief of staff, told reporters after Rumsfeld spoke. "They're sorting those out over the next couple of days here."
Casey declined to offer an opinion about the adequacy of U.S. military preparations that preceded the current surge of violence. But he did address a question on whether the tour extensions would hurt troop morale.
"Everybody's disappointed," he said. "Does it create morale problems? Depends on the strength of the unit."
--------
Radical Cleric Stands Firm, Says He Won't Disband Army
April 16, 2004
By EDWARD WONG and MARIA NEWMAN
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/16/international/middleeast/16CND-SADR.html?pagewanted=all&position=
BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 16 - The Arab satellite television network Al Jazeera today aired the videotape of a captured American soldier reported missing along with another soldier when their fuel convoy was ambushed near Baghdad April 9.
The videotape was dropped off today at the U.S. Embassy in Doha, Qatar, a U.S. Central Command spokesman said.
The two missing soldiers were identified earlier as Pfc. Keith Maupin, 20, of Batavia, Ohio, and Sgt. Elmer Krause, 40, of Greensboro, N.C.
"The soldier in the tape, I understand, identified himself as a Private Maupin," one official told the Reuters news agency.
There was no official confirmation from military officials of the tape's authenticity. In the videotape, which was also shown by CNN, the soldier, dressed in camouflage uniform, appeared in good health. He was unsmiling as he squatted among a group of his captors, and he stared straight ahead, his jaw clenched. On the videotape, his captors call him a prisoner of war, according to Al Jazeera.
About 40 foreigners have been abducted by various groups of guerrilla fighters in the last week, though some have been released. In some cases, their insurgent captors have demanded that countries such as Japan and Italy remove military forces from an American led coalition occupying the country.
Insurgents have killed at least one of the hostages, an Italian civilian.
Earlier today, three Czechs taken hostage were freed, and a Canadian humanitarian worker was released after being delivered to the offices of Moktada al-Sadr, the spiritual leader of the Mahdi militia, in the holdy city of Najafa, according to the Reuters news agency.
The relief worker, Fadi Ihsan Fadel, 33, who was born in Syria, said that his kidnappers beat him and accused him of being a Jewish spy during his eight days in captivity.
He was kidnapped on April 8 along with a Palestinian, Nabil George Razuq, Reuters said.
"At first they beat me, then they kept moving me to different locations every few hours," Mr. Fadel told Reuters, shaking and breaking down as he described his ordeal. "They accused me of being a Jew... I was detained for eight days in a room with other hostages. They spoke Arabic and they looked like Iraqis but they were also detainees. We were not allowed to talk to each other."
Earlier this morning, Mr. Sadr had appealed for the release of all hostages who were nationals of countries unconnected to the occupation of Iraq.
The three Czechs are journalists, Michal Kubal and Petr Klima from Czech Television and Vit Pohanka from Czech Radio. They went missing near the Sunni town of Falluja on Sunday when their taxi was pulled over and they were forced out at gunpoint.
"They are alive, healthy" and in good physical condition at the Czech embassy in Baghdad, a foreign ministry spokesman, Vit Kolar, said in Prague, according to Reuters.
Mr. Kubal told Czech Television in a live telephone interview that they spent six nights in a car repair shop, first sleeping on the ground and later on a makeshift bed.
"It seems we got into the hands of one group organizing anti-American resistance in the Falluja region," Mr. Kubal said.
When Al Jazeera broadcast television broadcast a statement that the Czech Republic was "willing to pay ransom, the group said they want to make a gesture and release us to show they are not in it for the money," he said.
Mr. Sadr has been the target of a manhunt by United States troops deployed near Najaf, about 100 miles south of Baghdad.
This morning, he emerged for the first time in public in two weeks, and warned coalition troops to stay out of Najaf.
He said this morning at a mosque in nearby Kufa that he was not willing to disband his army under any circumstances, further reinforcing the stalemate between him and the American forces.
"All I want is to end the occupation and to hand over sovereignty to the Iraqis," Mr. Sadr said. "There can be no sovereignty with the occupation forces."
Some 2,500 United States troops have amassed in the desert outside of Najaf, lying in wait for Mr. Sadr and his insurgent Mahdi army.
"We will not allow the forces of occupation to enter Najaf and the holy sites because they are forbidden places for them," Mr. Sadr said in a fiery sermon.
He offered no suggestion that he was ready to compromise with the Americans.
"We have been trying to avoid bloodshed," he said, but contended that "everyone, not only the occupiers," had presented him with only unpalatable choices.
United States military commanders have insisted that they must reach some type of settlement regarding Mr. Sadr and his militia before the handover of sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government on June 30. Coalition commanders have vowed to "capture or kill" Mr. Sadr if he doesn't turn himself in. An arrest warrant was issued for him by an Iraqi court for his part in the slaying of another cleric.
Today, the military said that American troops fought back after they were attacked near Kufa, which neighbors Najaf.
Large explosions were seen by the river in a sparsely populated area on the edge of Kufa. Five civilians caught in the crossfire were killed and 14 wounded, hospital officials said.
Maj. Gen. John Sattler, director of operations for the U.S. Central Command, said there were no plans to go into Najaf.
"We're not planning at this time to move any offensive operations into an Najaf," he said. "Sadr is there, we know where he is, but right now we're letting him to continue to marginalize himself and we're not focusing any combat power or combat operations into Najaf."
At another news briefing in Baghdad, Dan Senor, a spokesman for the occupation authority, and Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, an American military spokesman, said Mr. Sadr and his insurgent army had to be stopped.
"The rule of law in Iraq must prevail," Mr. Senor said. "Militias, illegal militias, and mobs must be disbanded. And of course government properties and assets must be returned."
General Kimmit said it was not the coalition's intent to take Najaf just to take it over.
"Najaf is not the target," he said. "Moktada al-Sadr remains the target. And frankly, how he is picked up and brought to Iraqi justice may be incidental to the real end state that we are seeking, which is to bring Moktada al-Sadr to Iraqi justice and the elimination of his militia as a threat to the nation of Iraq."
On Thursday, insurgents released two Japanese aid workers and one photojournalist kidnapped a week ago on the treacherous highway that runs from the Jordanian border to Baghdad through Falluja.
The kidnappers had said the three Japanese would be killed if Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi did not withdraw 530 soldiers who are in Iraq to do aid work. The prime minister refused to acquiesce, and the hostages were handed over Thursday to Sunni clerics who had engaged in talks with the insurgents.
The release came a day after one of four Italian security guards kidnapped around Falluja was killed by his captors.
And it came as reports surfaced of two other Japanese civilians who may have been kidnapped: Junpei Yasuda, 30, a freelance journalist, and Nobutaka Watanabe, an antiwar activist, went missing Wednesday in an area west of Baghdad.
The Japanese authorities said they could not confirm whether they had been kidnapped.
Kufa, where Mr. Sadr's mosque is based, was fairly quiet today, and was still controlled by the Mahdi militia. There was a firefight between the militia and a passing American convoy, witnesses said, but there were no reports of casualties.
On Thursday, men wearing black-and-white headdresses and carrying AK-47's stood next to freshly dug foxholes alongside the road. In Najaf, where Mr. Sadr had previously sought refuge, the city was surrounded by 2,500 American troops.
In a visit to Baghdad on Thursday, Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, depicted the insurrection and fighting that has risen over nearly a two-week period as a sign of progress.
"I would characterize what we're seeing right now as a - as more a symptom of the success that we're having here in Iraq," he said in a news conference, explaining that the violence indicated there was something to fight against - American progress in building up Iraq.
General Myers also expressed optimism about the movement toward an interim government in Iraq, saying, "We have a pretty clear path for how we're going to transition to Iraqi sovereignty."
Even as an Iranian delegation traveled from Baghdad to Najaf at the request of the British government to watch over or perhaps take part in negotiations, an Iranian diplomat was shot dead on Thursday while driving to the Iranian Embassy in central Baghdad. Khalil Naimi, a cultural and press attaché at the embassy, was attacked in the early afternoon by people who drove up alongside his Mitsubishi sedan around the corner from the embassy and riddled it with about a dozen bullets, an Iraqi police guard, Mokdam al-Azawi, said.
"I heard gunshots," Mr. Azawi said. He ran and found Mr. Naimi slumped on the passenger seat.
It was unclear who the killers were and whether the attack was tied to Iranian involvement in the negotiations. Muhammad Omrani, an Iranian diplomat, said the delegation would continue with its work in Najaf. "The Iranian delegation came to study the situation in Iraq and is hoping for a peaceful solution for the Iraqi people," he said.
Edward Wong contributed reporting from Baghdad for this article and Maria Newman contributed reporting from New York.
--------
STANDOFF
Iraqis Are Hoping for Early and Peaceful End to Shiite Insurrection
April 16, 2004
By EDWARD WONG
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/16/international/middleeast/16IRAQ.html?pagewanted=all&position=
BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 15 - Iraqi officials involved in talks aimed at quelling a Shiite insurrection said Thursday that they hoped a peaceful settlement could be reached as soon as Friday, though there was still disagreement between the parties on what to do about the thousands-strong militia behind the uprising.
In the town of Kufa, the home of Moktada al-Sadr, spiritual leader of the Mahdi militia, men wearing black-and-white headdresses and carrying AK-47's stood next to freshly dug foxholes alongside the road. In Najaf, where Mr. Sadr has sought refuge, the city is surrounded by 2,500 American troops.
Fighting flared between marines and insurgents in Falluja on Thursday, despite a cease-fire called to give negotiators on both sides time to reach a solution. In a visit to Baghdad on Thursday, Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, depicted the insurrection and fighting that has risen over nearly a two-week period as a sign of progress.
"I would characterize what we're seeing right now as a - as more a symptom of the success that we're having here in Iraq," he said in a news conference, explaining that the violence indicated there was something to fight against - American progress in building up Iraq.
General Myers also expressed optimism about the movement toward an interim government in Iraq, saying, "We have a pretty clear path for how we're going to transition to Iraqi sovereignty."
Even as an Iranian delegation traveled from Baghdad to Najaf at the request of the British government to watch over or perhaps take part in negotiations, an Iranian diplomat was shot dead while driving to the Iranian Embassy in central Baghdad. Khalil Naimi, a cultural and press attaché at the embassy, was attacked in the early afternoon by people who drove up alongside his Mitsubishi sedan around the corner from the embassy and riddled it with about a dozen bullets, an Iraqi police guard, Mokdam al-Azawi, said.
"I heard gunshots," Mr. Azawi said. He ran and found Mr. Naimi slumped on the passenger seat.
It was unclear who the killers were and whether the attack was tied to Iranian involvement in the negotiations. Muhammad Omrani, an Iranian diplomat, said the delegation would continue with its work in Najaf. "The Iranian delegation came to study the situation in Iraq and is hoping for a peaceful solution for the Iraqi people," he said.
Insurgents on Thursday released two Japanese aid workers and one photojournalist kidnapped a week ago on the treacherous highway that runs from the Jordanian border to Baghdad through Falluja.
The kidnappers had said the three Japanese would be killed if Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi did not withdraw 530 soldiers who are in Iraq to do aid work. The prime minister refused to acquiesce, and the hostages were handed over Thursday to Sunni clerics who had engaged in talks with the insurgents.
The release came a day after one of four Italian security guards kidnapped around Falluja was killed by his captors. And it came as reports surfaced of two other Japanese civilians who may have been kidnapped: Junpei Yasuda, 30, a freelance journalist, and Nobutaka Watanabe, an antiwar activist, went missing Wednesday in an area west of Baghdad.
The Japanese authorities said they could not confirm whether they had been kidnapped.
About 40 foreigners have been abducted by various groups of guerrilla fighters in the last week, though some have been released.
In Kufa on Thursday, members of the Mahdi Army were guarding three checkpoints on the road through the center of town. In Najaf, half the stores appeared to be closed, and many anxious people said they wanted Mr. Sadr to leave. The shrine of Ali, a pilgrimage site for Shiites, had relatively few visitors.
There were strong indications that a compromise was close. The so-called Iraqi branch of the Dawa Islamic Party, a Shiite political group, was acting as a middleman in the negotiations, shuttling back and forth between clerics in Najaf and representatives of the American government in Baghdad.
"The negotiations are going well," Qais al-Khazali, a spokesman for Mr. Sadr, said at a news conference in Najaf.
Hazem al-Araji, a cleric who represents Mr. Sadr in Baghdad, said in an interview in his mosque that Friday was "the last day for this crisis to be solved; either they'll reach a solution or not."
An official with the Dawa Islamic Party said "good results" were being reached with both sides, but that the future of the Mahdi Army was a sticking point. The official, who gave his name only as Abu Zahara because of what he called the sensitivity of the negotiations, said he hoped this knot could be untangled by Friday.
"For one reason or another," he said, "the coalition administration doesn't realize how dangerous this is or the scale of the disaster if we don't move to calm things down very quickly."
American officials have insisted that Mr. Sadr disarm his militia. The banning of illegal militias is one of three principles that the American administration is sticking to during negotiations, said Dan Senor, a spokesman for the occupation authority. The other two are an adherence to the rule of law and the return of stolen property, he added. Mr. Senor's list did not include the arrest of Mr. Sadr, who is wanted in connection with the murder of a prominent Shiite cleric last year in Najaf. An American official said there was a possibility of deferring the arrest warrant until after June 30.
Mr. Sadr agreed on Wednesday to drop several ambitious conditions for negotiations after representatives of three grand ayatollahs in Najaf asked him to enter into discussions with the Americans.
"We told him that it's our duty, all of us, to stop bloodshed and to prevent occupation forces from entering the holy city," said Ali Bashir al-Najafi, the son of Grand Ayatollah Bashir al-Najafi.
In other developments, the American military said Thursday that a soldier was killed and five wounded by roadside bombs in the town of Samarra around noon on Wednesday. In that city and the surrounding region, eight Iraqi civilians were killed on Wednesday by mortar and rocket attacks apparently intended for occupation forces, the military said.
Iraqi employees of The Times's Baghdad bureau contributed reporting from Kufa and Najaf, and John F. Burns contributed reporting from Baghdad.
-------- israel / palestine
Delicate Maneuvers Led to U.S.-Israeli Stance
By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 16, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A16008-2004Apr15?language=printer
The Israeli negotiating team was holed up Sunday at the Hay-Adams hotel with two members of President Bush's National Security Council and a top State Department diplomat. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was due in town in less than 48 hours.
Sharon was counting on the president to embrace a unilateral Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, but the two sides were wrangling over wording that could prove even more combustible. The subject was not Gaza, but Israeli settlements and Palestinian refugees.
They met for hours, struggling to find a formula that provided the support Sharon wanted, in a form Bush would be comfortable delivering. Intrigued by the Gaza idea and aware that Sharon was determined to act with or without him, Bush broke with longstanding U.S. policy on Wednesday to help the Israeli leader.
Bush, standing with Sharon at the White House, said Israel could expect to keep parts of the West Bank seized in the 1967 Middle East war. And he said Palestinian refugees should not expect to return to their homes inside Israel.
"Eliminating taboos and saying the truth about the situation is, we think, a contribution toward peace," a senior White House official said yesterday. "Getting people to face reality in this situation is going to help, not hurt."
Bush said things about the fate of Palestinian refugees and Israeli settlements that even Palestinian negotiators had conceded at times, but always in the context of concessions that would be made by Israel and help to come from the United States. His words rattled the Palestinian leadership and drew criticism from home and abroad that U.S. policy had tilted too strongly in favor of Israel.
The negotiations leading to Wednesday's announcement reflected a decision by the administration to see Sharon's move as an opportunity, while trying to shape it in ways that would preserve the possibility of a negotiated settlement later.
That road began at a secret November meeting in Rome. Sharon invited White House adviser Elliott Abrams to visit, without saying why.
Sharon laid out the beginnings of his notion to remove Israeli forces and 7,500 settlers from overwhelmingly Palestinian Gaza. The next month, Sharon publicly unveiled his proposal in a speech in Herzliya. He then pressed Bush's emissaries to back him in a move audacious and inevitably controversial.
"We needed some reassurances on what is of most concern to us, existential to us: this issue of refugees and this issue of final borders, having defensible borders," a senior Israeli diplomat said yesterday.
Sharon told the Americans that he could not expect to win political backing in Israel without a Bush endorsement. He was particularly concerned about a backlash from the influential Jewish settler movement and his governing coalition.
U.S. emissaries worked on a broad array of issues with the Israelis, including the routing of the new security barrier Israel is building -- which the Israelis call a fence and the Palestinians label a wall -- and the conditions of the Gaza pullout itself.
"We've been thinking about what Sharon's decided he needed to do for his own reasons . . . and actually use it to advance progress down the road," a senior administration official said as talks unfolded.
"We're asking a lot of questions in a very open way with them. We're thinking out loud. They're thinking out loud," the official continued.
A trio of U.S. officials traveled three times to Israel to meet Sharon and his chief of staff, Dov Weisglass. They were deputy national security adviser Stephen Hadley, Assistant Secretary of State William J. Burns and Abrams. Twice, Weisglass came to Washington.
" 'How does he swing it?' was the question," a senior White House official said yesterday of Sharon. "We wanted to help him swing it, because we felt this moves the peace process forward" by giving Palestinians control in Gaza.
On Gaza, the U.S. team partly played the role of mediator. The Israelis made clear that their withdrawal, scheduled for next year, was a unilateral decision. The Palestinian Authority was not consulted, but the Americans said they relayed Palestinian and Arab objections to the Israelis.
One fear, according to the White House official who spoke on background because of the sensitivity of the issue, was that Sharon would remove settlers and troops from Gaza alone, laying claim to the entire West Bank. Paradoxically, some also worried that Israel would withdraw from larger sections of the West Bank and declare the outcome final, setting the borders without the Palestinian approval called for in the U.S.-backed "road map."
The U.S. emissaries pushed the Israelis to make a clean break, vacating Gaza completely, according to U.S. and Israeli officials. At the time, the Israelis were considering keeping three Gaza settlements.
"We reconsidered, and we decided to leave all of it," the senior Israeli diplomat said yesterday.
The Americans also told the Israelis that Sharon should make clear that Israel did not intend to seek control of the entire West Bank. Looking for a statement or an action, the Bush team hoped to set a precedent for future Israeli withdrawals from the disputed region, whose current boundaries date to the 1967 armistice.
On the issue of the West Bank, home to more than 200,000 Jews, Sharon wanted White House approval for making several large settlements permanent. On refugees, he wanted to show his constituents that Palestinians and their descendants should not expect to return home.
There was vigorous debate within the administration over how far to go, with State Department officials warning against giving too much to Sharon. The U.S. team, including national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, settled on a formula that acknowledged changed "demographic realities," but that left borders to future Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
With the Bush-Sharon meeting only days away, the Israelis were worried that they would come up short. Weisglass, Israeli Ambassador Daniel Ayalon and two senior colleagues jumped aboard a commercial flight to Washington. By midday Easter, they were parsing and cajoling at the Hay-Adams.
The Americans in the room were Hadley, Abrams and State Department Middle East specialist David Satterfield. They met until 10 p.m.
About 11, Weisglass called Powell to report problems with the wording. Powell assured him they would work something out, a pledge that Sharon later told Powell persuaded him to proceed with his trip.
Negotiators bridged the gap.
"We needed a clear view on the two existential issues, on borders and refugees," said the Israeli diplomat. "For them, it was easiest to give the vaguest of things, and we wanted the clearest of things. It was a compromise in between."
-------- prisoners of war
'US Soldier' Captured in Iraq, 4 Foreigners Freed
April 16, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-iraq-hostage.html
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Three Czechs and a Canadian taken hostage in Iraq were freed Friday, but in a fresh show of defiance Iraqi guerrillas paraded what they said was a captive U.S. soldier.
On the same day President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair vowed they would not retreat from Iraq, Al Jazeera broadcast a video tape that appeared to show a U.S. soldier held by masked and heavily armed guerrillas.
``A group of mujahideen (holy fighters) has succeeded in taking an American soldier prisoner...and he will be treated in the Islamic tradition of treating prisoners and he is in good health,'' one guerrilla read from a statement.
The poor-quality tape screened by the Arabic television station showed a white male dressed in military fatigues sitting on the floor.
Later in the tape the man identified himself as Keith Matthew Maupin -- apparently one of two U.S. soldiers reported missing this month amid a spate of kidnappings that has snared foreign civilians from more than a dozen countries.
``We are willing to exchange him for Iraqis held by the American enemy... This is the fate of all American soldiers in Iraq,'' the guerrilla with the statement said.
TWO MORE FOREIGNERS MISSING
The latest civilians on the hostage list were a Danish businessman, said to have been seized north of Baghdad, and a Jordanian-born businessman on a United Arab Emirates passport abducted in the southern city of Basra.
More than 40 foreigners have been taken hostage in Iraq. Most have been released, but earlier this week an Italian was killed by captors who threatened to kill another three Italians they were holding if Italy did not withdraw troops from Iraq.
The freed Canadian, humanitarian worker Fadi Ihsan Fadel, was delivered to the Najaf office of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who had called for foreigners to be released if they were not involved in the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq.
``At first (the kidnappers) beat me, then they kept moving me to different locations every few hours,'' said Syrian-born Fadel, 33, shaking and breaking down as he described his ordeal.
``They accused me of being a Jew... I was detained for eight days in a room with other hostages. They spoke Arabic and they looked like Iraqis, but they were also detainees. We were not allowed to talk to each other.''
Fadel said his kidnappers kept promising to release him and then letting him down.
``I was miserable, desperate... Today they put me in a car, told me to behave normally and brought me to the cemetery where I saw the Sayyid,'' he said, pointing at a cleric who was involved in negotiations to release him.
Despite what he had been through, Fadel said he wanted to stay in Iraq and continue the humanitarian work he had started.
Fadel was kidnapped along with Palestinian Nabil George Razuq on April 8. There was no information about Razuq.
Fadel's brother Ghayas, said from Montreal his family was ``very happy.'' ``My mom is flying (overjoyed),'' he said.
The three Czechs, all journalists, went missing near the Sunni town of Falluja Sunday when their taxi was pulled over and they were forced out at gunpoint.
Friday night, the three -- Michal Kubal and Petr Klima from Czech Television and Vit Pohanka from Czech Radio -- were smiling broadly as fellow journalists pointed cameras and microphones at them in the lobby of Baghdad's Palestine Hotel.
``We are fairly well as far as physical health and mental health are concerned,'' Pohanka told Reuters Television. ``I think the important thing is we were kept together. We were not kept in the dark with our eyes shut or whatever.''
The Czech news agency CTK quoted the country's Deputy Foreign Minister Petr Kolar as saying a meeting between the Czech ambassador to Iraq and Sunni religious figures had helped secure the release of the hostages.
--------
US Holding 200 Iraqi Troops Who Mutinied - Comrades
April 16, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-iraq-mutiny.html
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. forces have detained around 200 Iraqi paramilitary soldiers who refused to take part in a U.S. offensive against the Sunni Muslim city of Falluja, their former comrades said Friday.
The U.S. military declined to confirm whether the men were being held. Senior officers play down the significance of such incidents but, asked about reports of mutiny among Iraqi troops, have acknowledged a ``command failure'' took place during the Falluja offensive.
Soldiers from the Baghdad-based 36th Security Brigade, part of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps (ICDC), told Reuters that last week U.S. commanders took them at night to Falluja, west of the capital, where U.S. forces were massing to crush a growing insurgency.
``They told us to attack the city and we were astonished. How could an Iraqi fight an Iraqi like this? This meant that nothing had changed from the Saddam Hussein days. We refused en masse,'' said Ali al-Shamari.
Falluja has been a flashpoint for attacks on U.S. forces since Saddam was toppled last year. The city is inhabited by minority Arab Sunnis, many of whom complain they are worse off under the occupation than under Saddam, a fellow Sunni.
U.S. Marines began a major assault on Falluja on April 5 after the killing and mutilation of four U.S. private security guards in the city the previous week. Doctors say more than 600 Iraqis have died in fighting in Falluja since then.
Shamari said the brigade members did not know they were heading to Falluja until they arrived there.
After the brigade refused to fight, he said, soldiers were stripped of their badges and confined to tents in a U.S. base on the outskirts of Falluja. Their rations were restricted to one meal per day.
``I escaped, but around 200 of our comrades remain there. We demand their release,'' Shamari said.
The 36th brigade, according to four of its members, comprises 340 soldiers from the former Iraqi army and the Peshmerga, the Kurdish militia that once fought Saddam's forces.
Ali Hussein, a Shi'ite private, said the brigade's mission since its formation had been security tasks such as conducting searches and guarding buildings.
``Suddenly we were asked to take part in a huge offensive,'' Hussein said, adding that he felt sympathy for Falluja residents although they were from the Sunni minority who had dominated the Shi'ites for decades.
Bukhtiar Saleh, a Kurdish soldier, said U.S. heavy-handedness had discouraged him from fighting.
``They were bombing the city with warplanes and using cluster bombs. I could not be a part of this,'' he said.
Human rights groups and several leading Iraqi politicians have denounced U.S. action in Falluja, calling it collective punishment of a whole town for the violent actions of a minority.
The U.S. army says it has not targeted civilians. The Sunni insurgency and a separate Shi'ite revolt is testing the resolve of thousands of Iraqi security forces hastily formed after Saddam's government fell last year.
-------- space
The war of words over war in space
Terminology touches off Pentagon test tempest
ANALYSIS
By James Oberg
NBC News space analyst Special to MSNBC
April 16, 2004
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4732874/
HOUSTON - Is the United States really on the verge of putting weapons into orbit? Careless usage of provocative terminology appears to have converted a fairly routine upcoming military space test into a cause celebre for international arms control, and a potentially hot topic for the presidential race.
Internet bulletin boards are abuzz over a test planned by the U.S. Missile Defense Agency later this year, involving a payload called the Near Field Infrared Experiment, or NFIRE. The test is aimed at perfecting a sensor system that could track and destroy enemy missiles.
NFIRE would be sent into space aboard a commercial Minotaur launcher from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Once the satellite is in orbit, a small sensor platform would be deployed, and try to get as close as possible to the rocket plume of another missile.
That platform happens to be a modified warhead, originally designed to knock down enemy missiles in the Pentagon's experimental short-range defense system. When the warhead is used in a missile defense system, it's known as a "kill vehicle." That name has carried over for the NFIRE test - and that is what's causing all the trouble.
For NFIRE, the kill vehicle's fangs have been pulled: It lacks the steering jets that would be required to ram a target in space. Pentagon officials told MSNBC.com that this kill vehicle couldn't kill anything.
But the mere fact that the thing is still called a kill vehicle has set alarms ringing around the world: The Moscow Times said NFIRE would mark a "sinister milestone," when the United States would break "a long-held taboo and launch the first weapon into the global commons of outer space." ABCNews.com called it the "first real step" toward the "unprecedented weaponization of space."
The Pentagon sources acknowledged to MSNBC.com, on condition of anonymity, that NFIRE is associated with space research for a future weapons system. But they said the system itself would not necessarily be based in space - nor would it attack "space objects." It's a subtle distinction, but one worth exploring in depth, particularly in light of the media alarm.
The actual mission
NFIRE is part of the Pentagon's research for developing what's known as a boost-phase missile defense system. The idea is that soon after an enemy missile is launched, an interceptor missile would blast off and home in on the infrared signature of the enemy missile's hot rocket exhaust.
In this scenario, the interceptor would indeed maneuver itself to knock the missile out of the sky. But the job would have to be done during the boost phase - before the enemy warhead reached outer space. Once the missile's fuel is exhausted and the enemy warhead or satellite is coasting, the infrared sensors wouldn't do any good.
That's not to say Pentagon officials haven't thought about basing weapons in space. In fact, they've been thinking about it for almost a half century. But a space-based system would require 100 or more separate satellites, and Pentagon officials say NFIRE doesn't represent any move toward such technology.
In this case, the term "kill vehicle" refers to a category of existing space vehicle, not to its function on this test flight, the Pentagon officials insisted. So whose bright idea it was to use a name bound to spark controversy? MSNBC.com found out it was so named by the engineers who built it.
'Kill vehicle' not quite dead
Still, the macho boosterism of flaunting a "kill vehicle" on a space mission shows up in a number of forums. In February 2003, when the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency reported to Congress on its upcoming research, it expressed pride in the kill vehicle, even if the one on the first NFIRE test would be a non-maneuvering one: "The Generation 2 kill vehicle (KV) will be integrated into the experiment payload," the report stated, adding that such platforms would be "the first KVs with the performance to reliably achieve boost phase intercept."
The non-weapon status of this particular piece of flight hardware thus seems to be purely a matter of configuration, not ultimate capability.
And just a couple of weeks ago, at a March 25 budget hearing of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, a Pentagon official was asked specifically about NFIRE and space-based weapons.
"It is my understanding that this portion of the program would enable MDA to develop technology that can be applied to space-based weapons," Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, told Air Force Undersecretary Peter Teets. "My question to you is, is the NFIRE program intended to pursue space weapons capabilities? If not, what safeguards are being placed on the NFIRE program to stop it from turning into such a program?"
"It is true that the kind of capability that NFIRE will have could, with a different concept of operations, be used as a space-based weapon capability," Teets replied. "But there's no such concept of operations that I'm aware of that is under consideration at this point in time, and this NFIRE sensor will indeed be a sensor that looks at an infrared plume real close up and personal."
A modified kill vehicle had to be used for the test, Teets said, because "I don't know how else you can do that - I mean, if you're going to get close to it, you're not going to do it with an airplane."
Pentagon officials insisted that they didn't consider the NFIRE experiment to be a step toward "weaponizing" space. Even such a plan were approved by the government, one official said, it would be several years more "before we will consider launching even a small experimental space-based interceptor satellite constellation."
Tilting at space windmills?
So if the NFIRE test is as described by the Pentagon, it wouldn't put an actual weapon in space, and it wouldn't be intended to test a space-based weapon system. But even if any of that were true, NFIRE wouldn't represent "the first time in history that any nation has put a weapon in space," as claimed by The Moscow Times.
In fact, there is significant irony that such an assertion would appear in a newspaper in Russia. Space historians realize that the Soviet Union excelled at putting weapons into orbit during the Cold War, weapons without any American counterpart. First there was a space-to-space orbital killer-satellite, then a military jet interceptor cannon that was mounted on a manned space station in the Salyut program.
In 1986, the first test flight of the Energia super-booster carried a 100-ton test payload for an antisatellite beam weapon. Other programs involved placing dummy thermonuclear weapons into low orbits for first strikes against North America. All of these projects collapsed with the fall of the Soviet Union, but their erstwhile existence cannot be denied by any serious investigator.
As for NFIRE's missile plume measurements, they are follow-ons to observational programs the Defense Department has performed for decades, from the ground, from aircraft, from unmanned satellites, and even in 1991 from a space shuttle flight. Soviet cosmonauts made similar observations from Salyut and Mir space stations.
The new tests could well contribute engineering data for the design and development of an antimissile system whose warheads could be based on land, on ships, or even potentially in space. These potential strategies are worthy of public debate, but the only hope for a productive discussion is a firm foundation in reality - and the latest alarms over "weapons in space" fail to provide this.
-------- spies
Domestic Spy Agency: New Call, Old Worries
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson,
AlterNet
April 16, 2004
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18442
National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice's finger point at the FBI during her testimony before the 9/11 Commission for allegedly failing to follow up on its investigation of Al-Qaeda operatives in the United States U.S. prior to the September 11 terror attacks, increased the clamor for an independent domestic spy agency. And FBI Director Robert Mueller's impassioned plea against a separate agency won't quiet the clamor. The failure to coordinate, gather and properly analyze intelligence data between the intelligence agencies, local and state law enforcement and other federal agencies, and the military is the main reason Bush officials allegedly stumbled in the terrorist fight in the days before September 11.
The idea of a domestic intelligence agency is not new. Rice and the heads of the CIA, FBI, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Attorney General John Ashcroft first floated the idea at a White House meeting in November 2002. The next month the Gilmore panel, an advisory panel charged with making recommendations for improved anti-terrorism efforts in the United States, called for the creation of a domestic intelligence agency. But panel members also recognized the potential threat of such an agency to civil liberties. As a safeguard, they recommended that the agency not have expanded wiretap and surveillance powers or law enforcement authority, and that the Senate and House intelligence committees have strict oversight over its activities.
These supposed fail-safe measures are not ironclad safeguards against abuses.
The history of domestic intelligence activities by federal agencies that have operated as super-secret spy forces is littered with troubling cases where these agencies and their operatives have wreaked havoc on individual rights and civil liberties.
The FBI is the prime example. Though it has taken heat for intelligence bumbling prior to 9/11, at the close of World War I it actually had an intelligence unit called the General Intelligence Division. It was used to crack down on radicals and political dissenters after anarchists exploded a bomb outside the home of Attorney General Mitchell Palmer in 1919. The Palmer raids of 1919-20 rounded up many immigrants who later were found innocent of any crimes.
During the 1950s and 1960s, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover kicked FBI domestic spying into high gear. FBI agents compiled secret dossiers, illegally wiretapped, used undercover plants and agent provocateurs, sent poison pen letters and staged black bag jobs against black activists and anti-war groups.
In 2002, President Bush scrapped the old 1970s guidelines that banned FBI spying on domestic organizations. This gave the FBI carte blanche authority to survey and plant agents in churches, mosques and political groups, and ransack the Internet to hunt for potential subversives, without the need or requirement to show probable cause of criminal wrongdoing. The revised Bush administration spy guidelines, along with the anti-terrorist provisions of the Patriot Act, also gave local agents even wider discretion to determine what groups or individuals they can investigate and what tactics they can use to investigate them. The FBI wasted little time in flexing its newfound intelligence muscle.
It mounted a secret campaign to monitor and harass Iraq war protestors in Washington D.C. and San Francisco in October 2003.
Then there's the checkered recent history of Britain's MI-5, which commission members, and other spy agency advocates, tout as the ideal model for a homegrown spy agency. MI-5 has been accused of colossal intelligence lapses in failing to warn of pending attacks in Bali, Kenya, and the Israeli embassy bombing in 1994, and in failing to spot the threat of Al-Qaeda operatives in Britain.
MI-5 also has played fast and loose with rights and civil liberties. Critics charged that it falsely branded dozens of Arabs as terrorists during the 1991 Gulf War, burglarized mosques, concocted phony claims of criminal wrongdoing against mine union leaders, monitored and harassed peace activists and civil liberties groups and targeted liberal and labor politicians with a disinformation campaign.
Though former Bush counter terrorism expert Richard Clarke advocated the creation of a separate domestic spy agency, he was also troubled by its potential for abuse. Clarke noted that it would be a hard sell to convince the public and some in Congress that the new agency will not operate as a secret police. A recent Congressional Research Service report also circled gingerly around the proposal for a separate spy agency. It made that one of only five options for improving intelligence gathering and coordination.
A new domestic intelligence agency supposedly would eliminate the danger of intelligence gaffes. But there's no proof that it would be free of bureaucratic bungles, or serve as a more effective early warning system against potential terrorist attacks. And given the abuses that have been an indelible trademark of past domestic spying efforts, there's certainly no guarantee that a new domestic spy agency would be immune from committing those same abuses.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst.
----
CIA Warned of Attack 6 Years Before 9 / 11
April 16, 2004
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Sept-11-CIA-Warnings.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Six years before the Sept. 11 attacks, the CIA warned in a classified report that Islamic extremists likely would strike on U.S. soil at landmarks in Washington or New York, or through the airline industry, according to intelligence officials.
Though hauntingly prescient, the CIA's 1995 National Intelligence Estimate did not yet name Osama bin Laden as a terrorist threat.
But within months the intelligence agency developed enough concern about the wealthy, Saudi-born militant to create a specific unit to track him and his followers, the officials told The Associated Press.
And in 1997, the CIA updated its intelligence estimate to ensure bin Laden appeared on its very first page as an emerging threat, cautioning that his growing movement might translate into attacks on U.S. soil, the officials said, divulging new details about the CIA's 1990s response to the terrorist threat.
The officials took the rare step Thursday of disclosing information in the closely held National Intelligence Estimates and other secret briefings to counter criticisms in a staff report released this week by the independent commission examining pre-Sept. 11 intelligence failures.
That commission report accused the CIA of failing to recognize al-Qaida as a formal terrorist organization until 1999. It characterized the agency as regarding bin Laden mostly as a financier instead of a charismatic leader of the terrorist movement.
But one senior U.S. intelligence official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said the 1997 National Intelligence Estimate ``identified bin Laden and his followers and threats they were making and said it might portend attacks inside the United States.''
The National Intelligence Estimate is distributed to the president and senior intelligence officials in the executive branch and the Congress.
Philip Zelikow, executive director of the Sept. 11 commission, confirmed the 1997 warning about bin Laden, but said it was only two sentences long and lacked any strategic analysis on how to address the threat. ``We were well aware of the information and the staff stands by exactly what it says'' in its report, he said.
The intelligence official also said that while the 1995 intelligence assessment did not mention bin Laden or al-Qaida by name, it clearly warned that Islamic terrorists were intent on striking specific targets inside the United States like those hit on Sept. 11, 2001.
The report specifically warned that civil aviation, Washington landmarks such as the White House and Capitol and buildings on Wall Street were at the greatest risk of a domestic terror attack by Muslim extremists, the official said.
Deputy CIA Director John McLaughlin testified Wednesday that by early 1996 his agency had developed enough concern about bin Laden to create a special unit to focus on him.
``We were very focused on this issue,'' McLaughlin told the commission.
The commission's report did credit the CIA after 1997 with collecting vast amounts of intelligence on bin Laden and al-Qaida, which resulted in thousands of individual reports circulated at the highest levels of government. These carried titles such as ``Bin Laden Threatening to Attack U.S. Aircraft'' in June 1998 and ``Bin Laden's Interest in Biological and Radiological Weapons'' in February 2001.
Despite this intelligence, the CIA never produced an authoritative summary of al-Qaida's involvement in past terrorist attacks, didn't formally recognize al-Qaida as a group until 1999 and did not fully appreciate bin Laden's role as the leader of a growing extremist movement, the commission said.
``There was no comprehensive estimate of the enemy,'' the commission report alleged.
But the senior intelligence official said the commission report failed to mention that CIA had produced large numbers of analytical reports on the growth, capabilities, structure and threats posed by al-Qaida throughout the late 1990s and those detailed reports were distributed to the front lines of terror-fighting agencies.
The CIA most frequently provided these individual and highly detailed analyses to the White House Counterterrorism Security Group charged with formulating anti-terrorism policies and responses, the official said.
----
China air force officers arrested for spying for Taiwan: reports
HONG KONG (AFP)
Apr 16, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040416063351.3b4ltfq0.html
Nearly a dozen senior officers in China's People's Liberation Army Air Force have been arrested for spying for Taiwan, press reports said Friday.
They include at least four serving and retired generals who are suspected of supplying Taiwan with classified information on the mainland's deployment of fighter jets and air defence systems, the South China Morning Post reported.
Most of the officers worked at the Air Force Command Academy, the PLA's highest training institute for air force officers.
One of the officers was accused of accepting at least 120,000 US dollars from Taiwan's intelligence agencies, the report said.
According to the report, the officers were arrested in February or last month, when the central government said it had cracked spy cases involving Taiwanese businessmen based in China and 19 mainlanders.
Hong Kong Chinese language newspaper Sing Pao had identified two of those held as Major-General Liu Guang-zhi, president of the academy, and Major-General Li Suolin, a former deputy president of the academy.
-------- un
U.S. Open to a Proposal That Supplants Council in Iraq
April 16, 2004
By STEVEN R. WEISMAN and DAVID E. SANGER
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/16/politics/16DIPL.html
WASHINGTON, April 15 - The Bush administration accepted on Thursday the outlines of a United Nations proposal to dissolve the Iraqi Governing Council installed last year by the United States and replace it with a caretaker government when Iraqi sovereignty is restored on July 1.
Administration officials said that the proposal by Lakhdar Brahimi, the special United Nations envoy in Iraq, to create a new government of prominent Iraqis had many details to be worked out, but that for now it was acceptable to President Bush.
"I don't see anything at this point in what he's proposing that would be of concern to us," said Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, in an interview, adding that Mr. Brahimi's mission "thus far has been very successful."
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell also supported the plan, while Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, without explicitly approving it said it was likely to become a reality.
The Brahimi plan would replace the American-appointed Iraqi Governing Council with a transition government whose leaders would be appointed by the United Nations, after consultations with the United States, the governing council and other Iraqis. It could include members of the current governing council, but it is unclear how it would balance religious and regional rivalries within Iraq. By endorsing the Brahimi plan, the administration seemed to accept diminished American influence over the Iraqi political process as self-rule approaches and after power has passed back to Baghdad. The move was the latest abandonment of an element of the plan the Americans arrived at on Nov. 15, specifying the June 30 transfer.
But administration officials asserted that, even with the United Nations overseeing the selection of a caretaker government and then holding an election and helping the Iraqis write a constitution, American influence on the process would be considerable - not least because the United States is to remain in charge of military and security matters, and will be the country's main source of economic aid.
In addition, Ms. Rice's chief deputy for Iraq, Robert Blackwill, has been working side by side with Mr. Brahimi in Iraq to come up with the plan proposed on Wednesday, several officials noted. The surge of violence in Iraq in recent weeks effectively forced President Bush's hand, administration officials said. They acknowledge that any new plan had to be proposed by the United Nations and bear no obvious stamp of American influence.
American, European and United Nations diplomats all said that the Brahimi plan would probably give the United Nations a major role, and perhaps the leading role, in superintending the process of building democracy in Iraq.
"What he has come up with is an idea that he thinks will work," Ms. Rice said, referring to Mr. Brahimi. "In May he will have an actual proposal, but we have no objections thus far to what he has proposed."
Mr. Powell told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that Mr. Brahimi's proposal "reflects some very, very good thinking" and "a great deal of wisdom and experience" on his part, though he noted that the United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, now needed to give his blessing.
On Thursday night, Mr. Annan met in New York with Tony Blair, the British Prime Minister, to discuss Mr. Brahimi's proposal. Mr. Blair said he welcomed Mr. Brahimi's efforts "to find the right political way forward" in Iraq.
Administration officials, speaking anonymously because of the sensitivity of the issues, said they were concerned that at least some members of the current Iraqi Governing Council would try to block Mr. Brahimi's proposal or jockey to make themselves a part of it.
"There are clearly some politics in Iraq, and the governing council is part of that politics," said an administration official. "It isn't a matter of us telling Brahimi what to do. It's a matter of what he thinks is right and of his being aware of what we think will be effective."
The 25-member Iraqi Governing Council was the product of efforts led by L. Paul Bremer III, the American occupation administrator, when he first arrived in Baghdad at the close of what President Bush called major combat. At the time, American officials praised it as representative of Iraqi aspirations and perhaps even the most representative government in the Arab world. Since then, however, the council has lost much credibility in Iraqi society, American officials say.
In recent weeks, however, there were signs that American officials remained wedded to keeping the council, in an expanded version. Mr. Powell said only two weeks ago that an expanded version of the council was the most likely alternative.
Some American officials say that they expect Ahmad Chalabi, an exile favored by the Pentagon, could be marginalized as a result of the new plan. Aides to Mr. Brahimi make no secret of the envoy's disdain for Mr. Chalabi. Mr. Rumsfeld is described by knowledgeable diplomats as still favoring a major role for Mr. Chalabi in Iraq.
Mr. Rumsfeld said that since the Brahimi plan was deemed "a reasonable one" by State Department and White House officials, "the odds favor a model something like what Mr. Brahimi announced."
Mr. Brahimi, a veteran of peacekeeping operations, most recently was in charge of putting together a government in Afghanistan, for which he won widespread praise. The Afghan model of convening a council of notables from around the country to approve a new constitution is similar to the one he has proposed for Iraq. Administration officials cautioned that there was some hard work to do to make sure that Iraq's various factions could coalesce around Mr. Brahimi's proposal, though they acknowledge that the chances of their doing so were better than they would be for anything put forward by an American envoy.
United States armed forces have tried to counter attacks by Shiites and Sunnis and create a stable environment in which the political process could be installed. Meanwhile, military commanders have complained that a lack of progress on the political front has hampered their own efforts to stabilize Iraq.
--------
Bush and Blair Signal Support for U.N. Plan for Iraqi Government
April 16, 2004
By TERENCE NEILAN
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/16/politics/16CND-BLAI.html
Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain met with President Bush today to fulfill the role he has consistently adopted since the Iraq invasion began: giving firm public support for the American-led coalition's military actions, while trying to deal with the growing disquiet they have caused at home, in Europe and the Middle East.
As American and Iraqi civilian casualties have risen this month, and as more foreigners are being captured and held hostage, a united front between London and Washington is important for Mr. Bush, who has consistently portrayed the campaign in Iraq as a multinational effort.
But in private 90-minute talks before a joint news conference at noon, and at a private lunch afterward, Mr. Blair, who has sent up to 12,000 troops to Iraq, was expected to voice his disquiet over the situation there.
One point on which he and Mr. Bush are in agreement is the need for a United Nations Security Council resolution on the transfer of power in Iraq. The outlines of such a plan were accepted by the Bush administration on Thursday, and Mr. Blair told reporters after a meeting with Secretary General Kofi Annan that it was important for the United Nations to have a larger role in Iraq before the June 30 deadline for a handover of sovereignty.
Critics of Washington's policies say that the United States' hard-line tactics after the killings of four American contractors in Falluja have only succeeded in increasing civilian casualties and uniting Iraqis against the occupation.
Britain's former foreign secretary, Robin Cook, who quit Mr. Blair's government in 2001 in protest over Iraq, told the BBC that Mr. Blair would be "a false friend" if he "doesn't fairly bluntly put it to President Bush that he is pursuing policies in Iraq that are going to get into increasing difficulty there."
He stressed that Mr. Blair had "put a lot of his political capital on the line to support that relationship," adding, "President Bush owes it to him to listen today."
In an article published today in the newspaper The Independent, Mr. Cook said Mr. Bush was wrong to think he could make progress in Iraq by military means "regardless of political cost."
He added: "The most important job for Tony Blair today is to convince the Bush administration that they are not engaged in a military operation to beat a discrete enemy, but in a political exercise to win the hearts and minds of a whole people."
It is also likely Mr. Blair and Mr. Bush will discuss the Middle East peace process, and particularly the president's support for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to have Israel disengage from the Gaza Strip, while rebuffing the Palestinians' longstanding insistence on the right of refugees to return to land lost to Israel in 1948.
The president's support, which represented a major policy shift for the United States, has come under widespread criticism in Europe.
-------- us
U.S. deaths from enemy fire at highest level since Vietnam
By Drew Brown
Fri, Apr. 16, 2004
Knight Ridder Newspapers
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/8450277.html
WASHINGTON - With fighting in Iraq now at its worst, the number of U.S. troops killed by enemy fire has reached the highest level since the Vietnam War.
The first part of April has been the bloodiest period so far for U.S. troops in Iraq. There were 87 deaths by hostile fire in the first 15 days of this month, more than in the opening two weeks of the invasion, when 82 Americans were killed in action.
"This has been some pretty intense fighting," said David Segal, director of the University of Maryland's Center for Research on Military Organization. "We're looking at what happened during the major battles of Vietnam."
The last time U.S. troops experienced a two-week loss such as this one in Iraq was October 1971, two years before U.S. ground involvement ended in Vietnam.
There are 135,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. Nearly 700 American troops have died since the beginning of the war. As of Friday, 493 had been killed by hostile fire.
The Vietnam War started with a slower death rate. The United States had been involved in Vietnam for six years before total fatalities surpassed 500 in 1965, the year President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered a massive buildup of forces. There were 20,000 troops in Vietnam by the end of 1964. There were more than 200,000 a year later.
By the end of 1966, U.S. combat deaths in Vietnam had reached 3,910. By 1968, the peak of U.S. involvement, there were more than 500,000 troops in the country. During the same two-week period of April that year, 752 U.S. soldiers died, according to a search of records kept by the National Archives.
U.S. officials say that comparisons with Vietnam are invalid and reject the idea that Iraq has become a quagmire.
But the two-front battle that U.S. troops have been waging against Sunni and Shiite insurgents for the past two weeks is the most widespread resistance U.S. forces have faced since the war in Iraq began.
Senior U.S. officials insist the current fighting is only a "spike" and not indicative of a widening war. On Thursday, Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described the current fighting as a "symptom of the success" U.S. forces are having in Iraq. "The sole intent" of the insurgents is to stop Iraq's transition to self-governance and democracy, he said.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Thursday that the death toll was worse than he had expected a year ago.
He also announced that more than 20,000 troops, mostly from the 1st Armored Division, would remain in Iraq for three more months to deal with the insurgency instead of coming home after a year of duty.
Gunfire has been the biggest killer of U.S. troops, followed closely by improvised explosive devices. The two account for more than 250 deaths.
Those killed represent a wide range of military specialties. Truck drivers and clerks are getting killed just as often, if not more often, than infantrymen and other combat specialties.
That's an indication of the kind of battlefield environment in Iraq.
"Even Vietnam was a more conventional war than this," said Charles Moskos, a sociologist with Northwestern University who specializes in military issues and worked as a correspondent in the Vietnam War.
"Here in Iraq, there are no battle lines," he said. "It's all over."
Another striking difference is age.
The average age of a casualty in Vietnam was 20 years old. The average age of a casualty in Iraq is nearly 27. The youngest American soldier killed in Iraq was 18; the oldest was 55.
More than 12 percent of those killed have come from the Army National Guard and Army Reserve, which helps explain why the average age of the dead is higher.
"Reserve components tend to be older," Moskos said. Another reason is that a number of special operations troops were also killed in the early days of the war, and they tend to be older as well.
The dead were from all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, American Samoa and the Marianas, a U.S. protectorate.
California has 75 dead; Texas, 67; Pennsylvania, 36; and Michigan, 22.
Nearly one-third came from the South, including 22 from Florida and 18 from Georgia.
Nearly 70 percent were white, according to Pentagon figures from April 8, the last date for which those statistics were available. Twelve percent were Hispanic, and 14 percent were black. Asians and other races accounted for less than 6 percent.
In a sharp departure from previous wars, 18 women have been killed, 12 of them by hostile fire, including a civilian lawyer working for the Army.
Sixty-five percent of those killed have been from the Army, which has had the most troops in Iraq. Twenty percent were from the Marine Corps, which has taken more than half of the casualties in April because of fierce fighting in Fallujah.
Many of those killed were from small towns and inner cities, rather than the suburbs, Moskos said.
Hostile fire has accounted for about 70 percent of the deaths in Iraq, according to figures compiled by the Pentagon and www.lunaville.org, an independent Web site that tracks coalition casualties.
In all, 88 U.S. troops died in the first 15 days of April, including one whose death wasn't caused by hostile fire. In the first two weeks of the war, 98 died, including 16 from non-hostile causes.
Since Vietnam, there was one attack on U.S. forces that inflicted a higher death toll than anything experienced since: 241 servicemen were killed in Beirut in 1983 when a suicide bomber from the Islamic group Hezbollah drove a truck full of explosives into their barracks.
Many experts and historians cite that incident as the beginning of America's war with Islamic terrorists.
----
Extended Tours in Iraq Dash Hopes and Raise Fears Among Families
April 16, 2004
New York Times
By ANDREW JACOBS
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/16/national/16BASE.html?pagewanted=all&position=
FORT POLK, La., April 15 - The triumphant display of fighter jets over the nearby town of Leesville has been postponed. So, too, has the celebratory parade down Third Street and the floats featuring decorated veterans and musicians playing big band music. At the Landmark Hotel, just up the road from the entrance to this expansive Army base, the military wives who had traveled cross-country for promised reunions with their husbands are packing their bags and heading home.
For Eboni Abrams, the "welcome home" signs and the march of red, white and blue ribbons up and down Colony Boulevard feel like cruel taunts, now that her husband, Specialist Roy L. Abrams, is spending an extra three months in Iraq along with 2,800 other troops who were supposed to return to Fort Polk in the coming weeks.
"I feel bad, real bad, like I have a hole in my heart," said Ms. Abrams, 25, who was planning a surprise vacation to Disney World for her husband this weekend.
Across the country, thousands of military families who expected joyous reunions in the coming weeks are now trying to grapple with dashed hopes and renewed fears that their loved ones will have to face several more months of perilous duty in Iraq.
In Utah, family members whose relatives are in the 1457th engineer battalion of the Utah National Guard had expected them home within days. They were told at a tense meeting in Spanish Fork on Thursday that after 14 months in Iraq the battalion's tour would be prolonged.
In announcing the extended tours of duty, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said the 20,000 troops who are to remain in Iraq for up to three months were needed to quell the latest surge in violence and to protect supply convoys that have come under increasing attack in the past two weeks. Gen. John P. Abiziad, the top American officer in the Middle East, said earlier this week that he needed an additional two brigades of troops to keep the number of American troops in Iraq at about 130,000.
The extension effectively cancels the Pentagon's plans for reducing troop levels to about 115,000, or lower, this spring, and breaks a department commitment last fall to limit troops' time to 12 months.
"We regret having to extend those individuals," Mr. Rumsfeld told reporters at the Pentagon. "But the country is at war and we need to do what is necessary to succeed."
The Pentagon's order affects a wide range of troops, including infantry, helicopter crews, military police and logistics specialists, in both Iraq and Kuwait. The extensions affect about 11,000 soldiers from the First Armored Division, based in Germany, 3,200 troops from the Second Armored Cavalry Regiment and an unspecified number of soldiers from other posts.
Lt. Gen. Richard A. Cody, the Army's deputy chief of staff for operations, told reporters that about 6,000 Reserve and National Guard soldiers from 20 states will have their tours extended, raising concerns among some military personnel experts.
Maj. Ron Elliott, a spokesman at Fort Polk, said the extension had come in the middle of the Second Armored Cavalry regiment's "flowing" back home, with about 700 servicemen having arrived at Fort Polk and 2,800 still in the Iraq or Kuwait, all of whom were expected to be back by May 11.
"In part, it's because of their expertise and their combat experience" that they were chosen to stay, he said. Some had already reached Kuwait for the journey home and were turned around before they could board planes.
In Leesville, the homecoming party, billed as the Louisiana Homefront Celebration, was scheduled for June 19 and had been in the works since the fall. Mayors from across central Louisiana and the area's Congressional delegation had been involved in planning for the series of events, which were expected to draw tens of thousands of people to downtown Leesville, a town of 7,000 people whose livelihoods are integrally linked to Fort Polk.
Paula Schlag, a community relations officer at the base, said the event was to be inspired by the joyous victory day celebrations that followed the end of World War II but with a modern twist. Fighter jets would screech across the sky, marching bands would parade through town and at least one unnamed Nascar celebrity was expected to join the festivities.
"Imagine a joint color guard and marching units from all the services, with vehicles from a horse to modern transport to show the transformation of the Army," she said. Like many others here, she did her best to find a silver lining in the disheartening news. "We're going to use the extra time to enhance an already phenomenal event," Ms. Schlag said.
Jessica Halverson, whose husband, a second lieutenant, has been in Iraq for more than a year, said it was important not to complain. "I was disappointed, of course, but you give yourself a few hours to feel sorry for yourself, but then you put on your good face for everybody else and just keep on," Ms. Halverson said. "You've got to have a lot of strength to be a military wife, and how you react affects the other wives."
Forced to cancel a planned family holiday at the beach, Ms. Halverson said she took her 3-year-old daughter, Emma Kate, to the zoo and the movies to distract her from the disappointment. "It's kind of like a blanket of sadness for the first couple days," she said.
Others were not so ready to hide their emotions. Angela Macarini, whose husband, Henry, is in Kuwait with an Air Force Special Operations unit out of Hurlburt Field, near Pensacola, said she and her husband were both losing faith in the war effort. "Sometimes I think we did the right thing and sometimes I think we didn't," said Ms. Macarini, a waitress who was shopping at the Winn-Dixie in Navarre, Fla., on Thursday afternoon. "It's getting more and more scary. I feel like the Iraqi people are not prepared for democracy and it's not the Americans' place to go fix the situation for them."
She said she had been worried about the possibility of soldiers having to stay longer than they had planned, adding, "Hopefully my husband won't be one of them."
Over at the Hairport in Leesville, a beauty salon near the base entrance, the disappointment was palpable. Ms. Abrams, who works as a hairdresser, grew tearful as she described the phone call from her husband last week to tell her about his delayed return. He was already in Kuwait, on his way back home, and he was weeping. "That's the first time I've ever heard him cry since we began dating in high school," she said.
Ms. Abrams had been living in South Carolina since January, but she returned to the base in anticipation of the reunion, loading her car with a few of Specialist Abrams's favorite things: boxes of Little Debbie cakes, new jeans and four pairs of Timberland boots she found on sale.
The plan was to surprise her husband with a trip to Orlando, picking up their 2-year-old son in South Carolina on the way to Disney World. The letdown is immense, she said, but even more overpowering is her anxiety over what might lay ahead in the chaos of Iraq. "It hurts me because those boys finally had a chance to catch their breath and it's been snatched away from them," she said. "At this point, I just want him home safe and sound."
Ariel Hart in Atlanta, Eric Schmitt in Washington and Abby Goodnough in Pensacola, Fla., contributed reporting for this article.
----
U.S. troops, parents confirm Humvee risks
Tales of fear, tragedy in unarmored vehicles
April 16, 2004
MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4758004/
Michael Moran received numerous responses to his Brave New World column about the lack of armor protection on U.S. military Humvees in Iraq.Among those responding were soldiers, veterans and parents of troops deployed in Iraq who have seen or heard these complaints firsthand. Here are some examples; e-mail addresses have been removed.
Dear Mr. Moran:
Thank you for this article. My husband just returned from Iraq several weeks ago and after learning only some of what they had to go through to get proper equipment, I know that your article is unfortunately a hard fact of life for our soldiers.
My husband's unit, a Military Police Battalion of which he is the commander, was headquartered in Baghdad. His unit found any type of steel plating that could be welded onto the sides of their vehicles to help keep his soldiers safe as they patrolled the streets. Armor plating was not the only issue. I can't tell you how many family members sent items such as spotlights and leg holsters to their loved ones because the supply system was broken or the items issued were not up to the standard they needed to perform their duties.
Thank you again. As a dedicated military spouse, it is refreshing to see articles such as yours that bring to light the sacrifices that our soldiers are making to defend the freedom enjoyed by all Americans.
Susan and Dave Glaser
-
Mr. Moran:
I agree with you 100 percent. I have a son currently in Iraq, Fallujah to be exact, that is in one of those "barely there" Humvees. It worries me every day to think that our military and government officials cannot or will not do what is in the BEST interest of our soldiers. Thank you for the article. It really hit home.
Janis Kirby
Proud of Marine son Cpl. Aubrey Kollatschny (Iraq)
Proud of Navy daughter HN Kari Baker (Japan)
-
Dear MSNBC:
I want to add my voice to the chorus of military families thanking you for exposing this grave problem facing our troops. What does the fact that soldiers are sent into battle without proper armor to protect them say about the current administration's true concern for the men and women serving in Iraq? Nothing good. This administration wants to piggyback on the bravery and valiance of the soldiers, yet sends them out ill-equipped and undermanned. So many have died, so much blood has been shed. Shame on George Bush.
However, the American people, whether they approve of this administration or not, seem to be unanimous in their care about and concern for the soldiers. It's both heart warming and heart wrenching to hear the stories of soldiers fashioning their own armor, and families and communities pitching in to purchase armor. Thank you for spreading the news, for spreading the truth, about the conditions under which our troops must fight and risk their lives and limbs unnecessarily. Keep up the good work!
Best
Diana Holt,
A proud Army mom of a First Cav soldier now fighting in Sadr City
-
Dear Mr. Moran:
As the mother of a 10th Mountain Division light infantry 240 gunner who served on the border of Bosnia and Yugoslavia during the Kosovo bombing campaign and whose unit provided the "rapid reaction force" for Eagle Base Camp, I am so thankful for your article.
Regarding the Humvees being used by the troops in Iraq: My son, who is reserve now, has kept in touch with soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, and was angered when he learned how many soldiers were dying due to a lack of armored Humvees. I was appalled! Had it not been for the "uparmor" on his squad's Humvee in Bosnia, he and four other soldiers would have been killed when their Humvee was forced off the road.
The Humvee withstood the force of a deep ravine rollover, and my son, seated in the turret as the gunner, would not have survived the incident had it not been for the hard top of the Humvee, (as well as the quick reaction of his fellow soldiers with only seconds to pull him back in the vehicle ) before it finally came to rest on it's top. It was completely uparmored.
The soldiers were not allowed to leave base camp in their convoys on patrol, weapons searches or recon missions without full "body armor," and always in the "uparmored" Humvees. When I initially heard from my son shortly after the beginning of the war in Iraq that soldiers were riding in unarmored and canvassed Humvees, I could not believe our military would send our soldiers out to an almost certain death in those vehicles. I hope your article has informed our public of the immediate need to push our local reps all the way to the top of this administration, of their repeated voiced commitments to provide our soldiers with all the protection they need in this war. I send this e-mail to you at a time when my son has been re-called for possible deployment at the end of this month, and his re-entry to active duty will be combat infantry, again utilizing the Humvee, which now appears not to be a lifesaver for the soldiers, but deathtraps instead. Every soldier deserves well above the very best our country and our military can provide for their safety, and their very lives.
Sincerely,
Deborah Lucas
Crowley, Texas
-
I would like to thank you for writing this story. My wife, brother and myself recently returned from Iraq. It really was sad that in order to do our jobs we had to fabricate our own armor kits as well as weapon mounts. Your story hopefully will help to embarrass them into buying more "uparmour" Humvees, just like the stories about lacking body armor helped us get our interceptor [body] armor.
Sgt. Charles Vender
North Dakota Army National Guard
-
Mr. Moran:
As the father of a soldier (1st Cavalry in Khalidiyah since October 2003) I read with great interest your article today. I agree with it; our troops are not getting what they need, nor in a timely manner. Recently, I went looking for goggles for my son. I found them difficult enough to get, and once I found some at an Army/Navy store, sent him two sets only find that they did not fit him.
INTERACTIVE • Coalition deaths in Iraq since major fighting ended My daughter-in-law tried to get him some and was told that since she was not active military or retired, she could not purchase them. Let's see here: My son needs them for eye protection, cannot get them there and the only source found won't let the purchase be made since she is not in them military. I would submit that as an Army wife she most certainly is in the military.
My son spent the first half of his enlistment in a mechanized unit learning to fight from a Bradley. With some two weeks of training, they were converted to Humvee's and told that this is how they would fight form now on.
If we are going to send these fine young men into harm's way, the least the Army should do is make damn certain that they have the very best that they need to do the mission, or not send them.
Thanks for you article.
David D. McKirdy
USAR, (Ret.)
----
Rumsfeld: Iraq Toll Higher Than Expected
April 16, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-US-Iraq-Military.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Midway through a bloody April for U.S. forces in Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said he did not expect so many recent American casualties.
At least 88 U.S. soldiers, several more civilians and hundreds of Iraqis have died this month, as insurgent fighters battled the American-led occupation. Most causalities have come since April 4.
``I certainly would not have estimated that we would have had the number of individuals lost that we have had lost in the last week,'' Rumsfeld said in answer to questions at the Pentagon on Thursday.
Rumsfeld announced that about 20,000 troops will stay in Iraq longer than they had been told to help quell the violence.
An uprising by followers of militant Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in southern Iraq, coupled with heavy fighting between Marines and Sunni fighters in the restive Fallujah region west of Baghdad, has led to concerns of wider resistance to the U.S. occupation in advance of the scheduled June 30 transfer of power to an Iraqi government.
``It's a tough road. And it's a bumpy road. And I'll be honest, it's an uncertain road,'' Rumsfeld told reporters.
The violence has prompted generals in Iraq to seek more combat power than they had originally planned, and the most convenient source will be the units scheduled to rotate home after yearlong tours.
They will fight alongside troops that were supposed to be their replacements, most of whom have already arrived. The decision to keep more troops in Iraq breaks a promise to soldiers who were assured they would stay no more than one year.
Those remaining include two brigades from the 1st Armored Division, based in Germany, totaling as many as 14,000 troops, said Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. An additional 2,800 soldiers are from the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, based in Fort Polk, La. These are forces geared for heavy ground combat, with tanks and armored Bradley Fighting Vehicles.
The rest include Army National Guard and Reserve units from 20 states, Pace said. Most are military police, engineer and transportation units, according to the Pentagon.
A few soldiers from the 1st Armored had already left. They will have to go back to Iraq, Army generals said.
Should the heightened violence last beyond 90 days and into summer, new units will be rotated into Iraq to take their place, Rumsfeld said. Officials did not specify which units those might be.
The United States has about 137,000 troops in Iraq now, Rumsfeld said. That number was supposed to have decreased to 115,000 by May, but Rumsfeld said Gen. John Abizaid, the overall commander of the Iraq war, decided he needs to keep the force level at about 135,000 troops.
Some critics have asserted throughout the U.S. occupation of Iraq that the military had too few troops on the ground to stabilize the country and assure its economic and political rebuilding.
Pace rejected such criticism, saying generals request the firepower they need but know that having too many soldiers risks increasing local resentment.
Gen. George Casey, the Army vice chief of staff, told reporters Thursday that he believes these soldiers accept that their first obligation is to succeed in the mission.
``Everybody's disappointed,'' he said. ``Does it create morale problems? Depends on the strength of the unit. These guys will always place the mission first. Every soldier understands that.''
-------- propaganda wars
Journalist Shares War Secrets
(CBS)
April 16, 2004
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/04/15/60minutes/main612067.shtml
Legendary journalist Bob Woodward discusses his new book, which reveals secret details of the White House's plans to attack Iraq, for the first time on television in an interview with correspondent Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes, Sunday, April 18, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
Woodward interviewed 75 of the people who helped prepare for the war, including President Bush - the only source who speaks for attribution -- in the upcoming book, "Plan of Attack," published by Simon & Schuster. Both CBSNews.com and Simon & Schuster are units of Viacom.
In the interview, Woodward talked about how the administration was able to finance secret preparations for the Iraq war.
"President Bush, after a National Security Council meeting, takes Don Rumsfeld aside, collars him physically and takes him into a little cubbyhole room and closes the door and says, 'What have you got in terms of plans for Iraq?' What is the status of the war plan? I want you to get on it. I want you to keep it secret," says Woodward.
"... The end of July 2002, they need $700 million, a large amount of money for all these tasks. And the president approves it. But Congress doesn't know and it is done. They get the money from a supplemental appropriation for the Afghan War, which Congress has approved. ... Some people are gonna look at a document called the Constitution which says that no money will be drawn from the treasury unless appropriated by Congress. Congress was totally in the dark on this."
In a preview of Sunday's piece, Wallace described a conversation between Mr. Bush and CIA director George Tenet in which Tenet assured Mr. Bush that finding weapons of mass destruction was a "slam dunk."
Woodward writes of a White House meeting on Dec. 21, 2002, attended by CIA Director George Tenet and his top deputy John McLaughlin, who briefed the president and the vice president assuring them that Saddam Hussein definitely possessed weapons of mass destruction.
"McLaughlin has access to all the satellite photos, and he goes in and he has flip charts in the Oval Office," Woodward tells Wallace. "The president listens to all of this and McLaughlin's done. And and the president kind of, as he's inclined to do, says, 'Nice try,' but that isn't going to sell Joe Public. That isn't going to convince Joe Public."
Woodward writes in his book, "The presentation was a flop. The photos were not gripping. The intercepts were less than compelling. And then George Bush turns to George Tenet and says, 'this is the best we've got?'"
Says Woodward: "George Tenet's sitting on the couch, stands up, and says, 'Don't worry, it's a slam dunk case." And the president challenges him again and Tenet says, 'the case it's a slam dunk.'"
And that reassured the president?
"I asked the president about this and he said it was very important to have the CIA director, 'slam-dunk' is as I interpreted it, a sure thing, guaranteed."
Wallace tells Woodward this is an extraordinary statement to come from Tenet.
"It's a mistake," says Woodward. "Now the significance of that mistake, that was the key rationale for war."
Woodward will answer the following questions, among others, in the interview with Wallace Sunday night:
# How early did President Bush begin planning the war on Iraq?
# In the war's wake, which top administration officials now barely speak to each other?
# What did the CIA say to President Bush to convince him that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction?
# Which foreign dignitary was told of the plans to attack Iraq days before even key cabinet members were briefed?
# Which key advisers did President Bush ask - and not ask - about whether he should go to war with Iraq?
# Why did the CIA think Saddam had been killed before the ground war even began?
----
Krohn departs
Inside the Ring
April 16, 2004
By Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/inring.htm
The Army brought in Charles Krohn to help salvage the stewardship of Army Secretary Thomas White. As Mr. White's public affairs adviser, Mr. Krohn fielded press questions about the embattled secretary's lucrative career at Enron.
Mr. White survived the scrutiny, only to be fired by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. Mr. White had made the fatal mistake of siding with the Army - not the defense secretary - on future transformation.
Today is Mr. Krohn's last day at the Pentagon. He stayed on after Mr. White's departure last year, but never clicked with Mr. Rumsfeld's inner circle.
He's leaving with one last salvo - a message posted on the Internet warning the Coalition Provisional Authority it needs to do a better job of protecting reporters against this new terrorist tactic of hostage-taking.
"I think it's time to think seriously about ensuring continuity of coverage," Mr. Krohn writes. "Reporters embedded with units fighting the war take their own chances, and they are universally respected for the risks they take and the work they do. But the folks in the bureaus take huge risks without much protection. I don't get to vote on this, but I think the leadership in CPA should consider donating some space so credited media could move trailers in on the friendly side of the walls."
----
How the 'NewsHour' Changed History
by Norman Solomon
April 16, 2004
Antiwar.com
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/solomon.php?articleid=2322
When the anchor of public television's main news program goes out of his way to tell viewers that he's setting the record straight about a recent historic event, the people watching are apt to assume that they're getting accurate information. But with war intensifying in Iraq, a bizarre episode raises some very troubling concerns about the "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer."
Here's what happened:
During a panel discussion April 7 on the NewsHour, while battles raged in close to a dozen Iraqi cities, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel referred to the American authorities' closure of a newspaper that had served as a megaphone for the anti-occupation Shiite leader Moktada al-Sadr. "The immediate problem we have to remember is we started this ... with the aggressive policies towards Sadr that came from us, shutting down his press," Col. Sam Gardiner said.
The program's anchor spoke next.
Jim Lehrer: "The reason we shut down his press is because it was calling for violence and anti-American - "
Col. Gardiner: "Sure."
Lehrer: "I just want to get that on the record."
But Lehrer's comment - ostensibly setting the record straight - was at odds with the available factual record about Sadr's newspaper. In sync with other news accounts, the New York Times had reported two days earlier that "the paper did not print any calls for attacks."
I contacted the NewsHour and asked whether Lehrer's statement had been based on information contrary to what had been reported in the April 5 edition of the Times. If so, I asked for any citation that backed up his assertion. Or, if Lehrer did not have such a citation, I asked if there were plans for an on-air correction to set the factual record straight on the program (which reaches nearly 3 million viewers across the United States each night).
In reply to my inquiry, a NewsHour spokesperson cited two articles: A Chicago Tribune piece, dated April 5, said that "the pro-Sadr newspaper Al Hawza was shut down ... for allegedly printing false information that incited violence against the coalition." And an April 6 New York Times piece said that the Sadr newspaper "was closed last week after American authorities accused it of printing lies that incited violence."
The NewsHour spokesperson, Lete Childs, told me: "I hope these two articles help you understand the citations for Jim Lehrer's statement to Col. Gardiner."
But the two articles that the NewsHour cited only seemed to underscore the disconnect. Apparently, the NewsHour staff hadn't been able to find a single source to back up Lehrer's on-air statement that "the reason we shut down his press is because it was calling for violence." And the NewsHour did not provide any explanation for why, in sharp contrast to the flat-out report in the New York Times that "the paper did not print any calls for attacks," Lehrer had gone on the air and claimed that it did.
I reached the reporter in Baghdad who'd written the Chicago Tribune article, Vincent Schodolski, and asked if he was aware of any evidence that the American authorities shut down Al Hawza because it was "calling for violence." Schodolski replied: "I have no other citations than the reasons given by the CPA itself." My search of the official Web site for the Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S.-led occupation authority in Iraq, turned up briefings and news releases with references to Sadr's newspaper - but no backup for what Lehrer had said on the air.
At a March 30 press conference, Dan Senor of the CPA charged that Al Hawza had tried to "incite violence." That was very much in keeping with what the April 5 New York Times reported - that while "the American authorities said false reporting, including articles that ascribed suicide bombings to Americans, could touch off violence," nevertheless "the paper did not print any calls for attacks."
Lehrer's refusal to correct his evident error is especially striking because he had emphasized his incorrect statement on the air by immediately adding: "I just want to get that on the record." (My request to a NewsHour spokesperson for a direct comment from Lehrer did not yield any statement from him.)
When I asked whether a decision had been made, one way or the other, about doing a correction on the NewsHour to set the factual record straight, the last piece of stone in the damage-control wall moved into place. I got the message: "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer stands behind the 'Iraq: What Now?' discussion segment from April 7 and will not be making a correction."
Journalists should scrutinize U.S. government spin, not contribute to it.
Here we have what some people believe to be the nation's most credible news program compounding a factual error by refusing to make a correction.
First-rate journalists change history. But not this way.
----
[I wouldn't have written this. But it's thought-provoking. et]
52 Pick Up and the 100- to-1 Rule
Bremer: "We're Getting Rid of the Poison in the System"
By DOUGLAS VALENTINE
April 16 / 18, 2004
http://www.counterpunch.org/valentine04162004.html
WARNING: If you're an American, don't read this article!!
Why? Because I'm a suicide writer, and this is a suicide article, and it's aimed at--Americans.
Not just overpaid, overfed, married Americans with overfed, overindulged brats boarding planes on happy two-week vacations in Disneyland. Not just single, fit and trim Americans pumping iron or talking to stockbrokers on cell phones while burning off carbohydrates on the treadmill. Not just un-Americans who don't believe that Saddam sent those anthrax letters, or hired bin Laden to blow up Texas, or that Iraqis are a security threat to America. And not unjust American blowhards like Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbo (although I'm wavering when it comes to them, who really should read this suicide article and suffer the consequences). Even if you're a dual-citizen American whose true loyalty is to Israel, like Paul Wolfowitz or (in spirit at least) Judy Miller, I beg of you, don't read this article!
Especially if you're an American agent of the CIA, US Marines, Department of Justice or Homeland Security, for God's sake, don't keep reading this article. It's a suicide article. It's worse than a sick joke that's about to bomb; it's a weapon of mass media destruction.
You're doing it anyway, of course, because its poison is already taking effect, and now you want to know, why did he aim his suicide article at me?
Simple. Because I hate Americans. And because, right now, I have the upper hand, which means, I can.
What's so dangerous about this article anyway, you calmly inquire, in your state of denial?
Beware, I say: every word in this suicide article is infected with a virulent strain of anti-Americanism that seeps into your consciousness and saps your will power, just like fluoride saps your sexual prowess. Worse than that, once infected, you involuntarily spread the virus to every other American you come in contact with. Not only that, the virus works, like guilt, through mere association. It's an information virus, and by reading this article, you infuse every smudge of ink that forms every letter in every word in every American newspaper, book, magazine and Internet image,--and thus you infect everyone else who reads anything American. By merely watching a Hollywood movie at home on DVD, or listening to an American radio show, you spread the virus to every other Amerian who has ever watched a movie or listened to the radio.
It works by telekinesis too: by looking at one Coca-Cola sign, you infect with anti-Americanism every individual who reads any Madison Avenue advertisement for any refreshing beverage in the world--in perpetuity. Even American-made depleted uranium bombs are spreading anti-American atomic particles, just because you read this article.
I warned you not to do it, but you did, and now, without realizing it, you've become suicidal, as well as anti-American. Soon you will become The Unspeakable Truth. As your immune system fails, you will no longer be able to live with yourself. Your skin will turn dark (if it already is, it will just get darker). Like Condoleezza Rice, you will cease to feel remorse, and like Colin Powell, you will repeat whatever you are told to say. ("Yes, Massah! Dem big ceegars you smokin' is slow suicide bombs too!")
In a moment you will know what it's like to be a Palestinian suicide bomber, an Iraqi resistance fighter in Fallujah taking pot shots at US Marines (or burying his dead children in the soccer stadium), or a member of (gasp) al-Queda! In a spiritual sense you are already dead, or as good as dead. At best you are no longer alive. I have taken your life and sent your ghost to a training camp in Afghanistan.1 Your ghost is dark-skinned, and emaciated from years of UN economic sanctions applied at the insistence of the US. You and your family live in Stone-Age poverty without medical attention. You are full of disease, and it hardly matters to you whether you live or die.
You're already dead, and your troubled ghost wants to die. But first, because you read this article, it wants to kill Americans.
To put it in terms any American can understand, you're ghost is on a Columbine High.
The Hundred-To-One Rule (or why Bush ain't to blame)
America's use of indiscriminate, overwhelming firepower to kill and maim 600 elderly men, and women and children of all ages in Fallujah (no photos of the mangled babies, please) in retaliation for the murder and mutilation of four American "contractors (but do show their crispy corpses, please), is a stark example of the Hundred-to-One Rule the Gestapo made popular in its occupied territories in the Second World War.
It was a simple rule, and when it was enforced, it made the Gestapo, and all good and patritotic Germans, feel very good about their superior selves. They knew they were in control of the situation when they could round up a hundred civilians and kill them anytime a Gestapo agent was killed by the Resistance.2
Gestapo agent Klaus Barbie happily enforced the Hundred-To-One Rule. He was the type of guy the American's could relate to and, after the war, US military intelligence hired him to enforce the Hundred-to-One Rule against the Communists who'd been in the French Resistance; then the CIA shuffled him off to Bolivia, where he prospered by manufacturing the quinine that was used to cut the narcotics that shot up the noses and through the veins of a million pacified Americans.
The US Marine Corps' massive war crime of the indiscriminate murder of over 600 innocent civilians in Fallujah has made terrorized, enraged Americans feel much better good about themselves too. On Easter Sunday, George W. Bush told soldiers at Fort Hood that he knew was doing the "right thing."
As Hitler and the Gestapo, and Bush and the CIA know, the Hundred-to-One Rule doesn't terrorize the Resistance into submission, it merely terrorizes the into submission the civilian population in which the Resistance exists. And often, as in France and Iraq, that's good enough. Until some mythic, liberating outside force comes along, the Hundred-to-One Rule is enough to ensure control in the occupied territories, while winning popular support at home.
In this respect, America's illegal invasion and brutal occupation of Iraq is much more analogous to the Nazi's invasion and conquest of France, than it is to the Vietnam War. Even the Big Lie language is similar. As Donald Rumsfeld said about the up-rising in Fallujah that spread to the huge CIA detention and torture center at Abu Ghoryab: "It's a test of will."
Klaus Barbie had the will, and so does Rummy. G. Gordon Liddy, the certified psychopath in the Nixon regime, had the will too: on 13 June 1971 he assembled a number of Nixon's most ardent staffers, including Robert Mardian from the Justice Department's Internal Security Division, and showed them the Nazi propaganda film, "Triumph of the Will." Made in the Jerry Bruckheimer manner, this boom-and-bang movie, commissioned by Nazi propaganda minister Herman Goering, was a visual training manual for any government that wanted to drive a "national will" into its citizens through terror and outrage.
Having viewed "Triumph of the Will," the Nixon gang galvanized into action. National Security Advisor (and dual citizen) Henry Kissinger, having already bombed Cambodia back into the Stone Age, bombed Hanoi at Christmas to ensure a peaceful withdrawal from Vietnam. And it worked! It was the Triumph of the Will.
Don't believe me? Add it up: 50,000 Americans killed in Vietnam; but we killed five million of them!
"Yippee-yi-O-ki-aye!" as the say in Bush country, that part of unreconstructed Texas where they still drag Negroes behind their cars, like terrorists drag Blackwater contractors in Baghdad.
Ever since Liddy showed the Nixon/Kissinger regime "the way", each subsequent neo-con American administration had adopted Goering methods of terrorizing the American public into a murderous frenzy in order to enforce the Hundred-to-One rule, without moral objection. On Easter Sunday, 11 April 2004, Bush said that we have to kill and maim Iraqi civilians, detain them without due process indefinitely, incommunicado in squalid prisons like Abu Ghoryab, torture them and destroy their homes, utilities and holy sites, in order to preserve our "security" and their "freedom."
Talk about Double-Speak. Who could buy this crap?
And yet, terrorized by the propaganda they're bombarded with by the corporate media (which is heavily invested in victory in Iraq), American soldiers and citizens believe this, even after it was proven that Bush lied when he said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and was a threat to America. A big wind could have toppled Iraq after twelve years of CIA-imposed economic sanctions that drove it into poverty, disease, and degradation. But who cares? America got enraged, and enforced the Hundred-to-One Rule, and once again proved itself the Morally and Militarily Superior Force.
Four Americans dead. Six hundred Iraqi civilians dead. Amen.
Israeli President and Ace Assassin Ariel Sharon has the will, and gleefully enforces the Hundred-to-One Rule on that vanishing sub-species called the Palestinians. Like the Nazis, he calls it "collective punishment,' but unlike the Nazis, he gets away with it, because the Palestinians, we are told, are z race of sub-human suicide bombers.
Oh, sorry, I forgot. That's what Hitler said about the Jews - that they were sub-human. So there must be another reason why Israel gets to slaughter the Palestinians and grab their land. There has to be a logical reason why Sharon got to massacre all those innocent people at Sabra and Shattila and get elected president of Israel. Or why Kissinger was able to get away with engineering the bloody coup in Chile (where, afterwards, hooded CIA agents tortured thousands of Chilean Leftists in Santiago'soccer stadium), and bombing half of the people of Southeast Asia into oblivion, without having to face the equivalent of Nuremberg war crimes trials. And that reason is because -American and Israeli citizens have "the will."
The Germans say they don't have the will anymore, but given the chance, they'll find it. Everyone who's got the upper hand has the will. William Calley had the will at that famous cordon and search operation called the My Lai Massacre. The US Marines who massacred 600 old men, women and cildren in Fallujah got the will. CIA always got the will - ask the 10,000 administrative detainees at Abu Ghoryab prison.
Say it out loud, "All God's children got the will!"
Requiem for America
Now you've gone and done it. By reading this article, you've killed America. You've spread anti-Americanism throughout the land, with the result that every American (even those with dual Israeli citizenship) has committed suicide, and America is no more. It is deceased. It desists to be. Even President Bush, having gone mad with limitless power, is defunct.
But take heart, dear President Bush. It was not your fault. It was the fault of the Americans who did nothing to stop you.
And dear Americans: just say what the Germans say when someone asks them how they could have stood by and watch Hitler do what he did.
Say it was fun while it lasted.
Douglas Valentine is the author of The Hotel Tacloban, The Phoenix Program, and TDY. His fourth book, The Strength of the Wolf: The Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 1930-1968, will be published in May 2004 by Verso. For information about Mr. Valentine, and his books and articles, please visit his websites at www.DouglasValentine.com and authorsguild.net/valentine
----
General Calls Insurgency in Iraq a Sign of U.S. Success
Political Achievements Are Cause of Uprising, Myers Says
By Sewell Chan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, April 16, 2004; Page A10
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A15911-2004Apr15?language=printer
BAGHDAD, April 15 -- The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said Thursday that the deadly insurgency that flared this month is "a symptom of the success that we're having here in Iraq" and an effort to undermine the country's transition to self-government.
Asked at a news conference here whether the military had failed to counter insurgents' attacks in Iraq, Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers said guerrillas want to undermine several political successes, including the creation of the Iraqi Governing Council, the signing of a bill of rights and efforts by the United Nations to devise an interim government that would assume power on June 30.
"I think it's that success which is driving the current situation, because there are those extremists that don't want that success," Myers said. "They see this as a test of wills, a test of resolve against those who believe in freedom and self-determination against those who prefer a regime like we saw previously in Afghanistan, or perhaps a regime like we saw previously in Iraq."
Flanked by Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the U.S. ground commander in Iraq, Myers also said the Marines were ready to resume combat in the besieged city of Fallujah because insurgents have repeatedly violated a five-day-old cease-fire.
"We have to be prepared and prepare ourselves that there may be further military action in Fallujah," Myers said. "It's a situation where you have clearly some foreign fighters, former regime element members who -- again, while the cease-fire is ongoing -- are attacking our Marines. The Marines are obeying the cease-fire but they're being fired upon."
Meanwhile, on the second front of a two-pronged insurgency that has killed more than 80 U.S. troops since April 1, Shiite Muslim clerics tried to broker a deal to end a standoff between occupation forces and a radical cleric, Moqtada Sadr.
A delegation from predominantly Shiite Iran has joined the talks with Sadr in the southern city of Najaf, but U.S. officials said its presence was not welcome.
The U.S. administrator of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, was not in contact with the Iranians and did not invite them, said a spokesman, Daniel Senor. Senor repeated U.S. demands that Sadr surrender to face trial on a murder charge and disband his black-clad militia, known as the Mahdi Army.
A State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher, said of the Iranian involvement in talks with Sadr: "We don't think that's appropriate."
Khalil Naimi, a diplomat at the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad, was shot dead in his car near the embassy. It was not clear whether his killing was related to the Iranian delegation's effort in Najaf.
The United States has 2,500 troops deployed around Najaf, where clashes erupted around 9:45 p.m. Thursday in an industrial neighborhood. Rockets, mortars and assault rifles were fired, and witnesses reported that fighter jets flew overhead but did not fire on any ground targets.
Also Thursday, the top U.N. elections official said the world body should help appoint a commission to oversee Iraqi elections by January but warned that persistent violence and daunting logistical challenges could throw off the tight electoral timetable.
The United Nations should be "heavily involved" in creating an independent electoral commission with five to seven members who are not affiliated with the Governing Council, according to the elections adviser, Carina Perelli, who released details of a U.N. proposal that will be formally presented Sunday.
In northern Iraq, a U.S. soldier was killed Wednesday by a roadside bomb near Samarra, the military announced.
Also in northern Iraq, at least eight Iraqi civilians were killed in separate attacks on Wednesday, the military said. A rocket attack on a crowded marketplace in Mosul killed four and wounded seven. Two others were killed, and eight civilians and two U.S. soldiers were injured, in an attack with mortars and a rocket-propelled grenade near the town of Tall Afar, west of Mosul. That night, a rocket attack on a house in downtown Mosul killed a 60-year-old man and a 10-year-old boy.
Kidnappers released three Japanese civilians who had been held since Friday, but the Japanese government was investigating a report that two more of its citizens had been seized.
On his first visit to Iraq since December, Myers met with top deputies, including Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, and Maj. Gen. Martin E. Dempsey and Maj. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, who share responsibility for security in Baghdad. Their discussions focused largely on the training and development of the Iraqi security forces, recent attacks along major highways used for transporting supplies and plans for the next wave of military deployments to Iraq, Myers said.
Myers defended the Bush administration's decision this week to lengthen the deployments of 20,000 soldiers in Iraq who had been scheduled to return to their home bases this month.
"What it shows is our resolve to see this situation through," he said. He added that maintaining a heightened troop level could speed up the deployment of units to Iraq in the fall, including units that fought in the U.S.-led invasion last year.
In Washington, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said the United States would soon seek a new U.N. resolution on Iraq, which the Bush administration hopes will produce commitments for additional troops and financial support both from allies in the current U.S.-led coalition and nations that opposed the U.S. intervention.
Powell, who will assume the lead role in formulating Iraq policy after the June 30 handover, said the United States would particularly welcome assistance with peacekeeping efforts and reconstruction funds. "More financial support is always welcome and more troop support on the ground, if they can, if they are able to do it, police forces or military forces on the ground to help with the peacekeeping efforts," Powell told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. in one of four interviews with news media outlets in countries that belong to the U.S.-led coalition.
Powell also praised the new plan outlined Wednesday by the U.N. special envoy to Iraq, Lakhdar Brahimi, for creating an interim government, which Powell said would be discussed further with the United Nations in the coming days. "They're very sound recommendations," Powell told the CBC. "It shows us a way forward."
Brahimi proposed that the U.S.-appointed Governing Council be abolished on June 30. Under his plan, the United Nations would select a prime minister to head the interim government, as well as a president to serve as head of state.
The proposal Thursday that the United Nations help appoint an electoral panel also aimed at shifting power away from the Governing Council -- which has struggled for popular acceptance -- and toward independent experts and technocrats.
Perelli, the U.N. adviser, said that before elections can be held, the new electoral commission will have to determine who is eligible to vote and to run for office, compile voter rolls and enforce campaign guidelines for political parties and candidates. It will also have to hire and train more than 70,000 poll workers.
Staff writer Robin Wright in Washington and special correspondent Saad Sarhan in Najaf contributed to this report.
--------
Arab TV Airs Video of Captured U.S. Soldier
April 16, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iraq-Kidnappings.html?hp
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- The Arab television station Al-Jazeera aired footage Friday showing a 20-year-old U.S. soldier captured by insurgents, apparently unharmed and surrounded by five masked men holding automatic rifles.
The soldier, wearing camouflage and a floppy desert hat, is shown sitting on the floor as he identifies himself.
``My name is Keith Matthew Maupin. I am a soldier from the 1st Division,'' he is heard saying in the video. ``I am married with a 10-month-old child. I came to liberate Iraq, but I did not come willingly because I wanted to stay with my child.''
Maupin, of Batavia, Ohio, and another soldier, Sgt. Elmer C. Krause, 40, of Greensboro, N.C., were listed as missing after their convoy was attacked April 9 outside Baghdad, amid a wave of kidnappings targeting foreigners. Both soldiers were assigned to the Army Reserve's 724th Transportation Company, based at Bartonville, Ill.
He is the second American and first U.S. serviceman known to be kidnapped by insurgents fighting the U.S.-led coalition since the end of war.
Maupin looked scared and glanced downward occasionally during the tape. The gunmen, their faces covered by keffiyeh scarves, stayed behind him, in contrast to footage aired on Al-Jazeera last week of three Japanese hostages in which their kidnappers held knives to their throats as they screamed. The Japanese, two aid workers and a journalist, were freed unharmed.
On the tape, one of the gunmen was heard saying: ``We are keeping him to be exchanged for some of the prisoners captured by the occupation forces.''
``Some of our groups managed to capture one of the American soldiers, and he is one of many others. He is being treated according to the treatment of prisoners in the Islamic religion and he is in good health,'' the gunman said.
Earlier Friday, three Czech journalists and a Syrian-Canadian aid worker were freed by their captors and new kidnappings were reported of a man from the United Arab Emirates and a Danish businessman, the latest in a wave of abductions accompanying violence in Iraq.
The Arab man was pulled from his hotel by gunmen disguised as police in the southern city of Basra on Thursday night, according to Iraqi police official Col. Khalaf al-Maliki and the hotel's owner.
The victim was carrying a passport from the United Arab Emirates that had U.S. travel stamps in it, leading to incorrect early reports that he was American, al-Maliki said.
The three Czechs had been missing since Sunday after checking out of their hotel to leave for Jordan by taxi.
``We all are in good condition,'' reporter Vit Pohanka told Czech Radio from the Czech Embassy in Baghdad, speaking along with Czech Television reporter Michal Kubal and cameraman Petr Klima.
After being held northwest of Baghdad, the Czechs were brought to the outskirts of the city Friday, and took a taxi to the Czech Embassy, Pohanka said.
Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin said in Toronto that Iraqi militants have released a Syrian-Canadian aid worker Fadi Fadel, who was abducted in the southern city of Najaf on April 7.
The Syrian-born Fadel, 33, talked to his family in Montreal on Friday.
``He said, `Hi mom. I'm out. I'm coming back. I'm OK,''' Roueida Fadel told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.'s French language network. Her son had been working for the New York City-based International Rescue Committee. A Chinese citizen also was released Friday, two days after being taken captive, said Muthanna Harith, a member of the Islamic Clerics Committee, the highest Sunni organization in Iraq. There had been no public reports of the Chinese man being taken.
The clerics' committee had also successfully helped free three Japanese civilians Thursday. That same day, however, an Italian security guard was killed in captivity.
The Danish Foreign Ministry did not identify the Dane who was reported kidnapped.
``A Danish national likely is being held back in Iraq,'' the Danish Foreign Ministry said in a statement from Copenhagen. ``No Iraqis or Iraqi groups have contacted Danish authorities.''
Danish television station DR-1 reported that the victim was a businessman in his 30s working on a sewage project in Iraq. The man was traveling from Basra to Baghdad when he was taken captive in Taji, 20 miles north of Baghdad, DR-1 said.
Denmark, which backed the U.S.-led war to oust Saddam Hussein, has 410 troops in Basra and nearby Qurnah, 250 miles southeast of Baghdad. There are also a dozen Danish police officers in Basra.
Around two dozen foreigners have been abducted in the past week. The kidnappings have coincided with intense violence around the country and most are believed to have been carried out by anti-U.S. insurgents.
At least 17 foreigners, according to an Associated Press count, remain unaccounted for following a wave of abductions that accompanied the worst violence Iraq has seen since the U.S.-led invasion on March 20, 2003.
American experts are working to determine whether four bodies discovered west of Baghdad were the remains of private U.S. contractors missing since the April 9 convoy attack.
One of the missing -- Thomas Hamill, a 43-year-old truck driver from Mississippi -- is known to have been abducted.
--------
Tape, Probably bin Laden's, Offers 'Truce' to Europe
April 16, 2004
By RICHARD BERNSTEIN
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/16/international/europe/16tape.html
HEIDELBERG, Germany, April 14 - A man identifying himself as Osama bin Laden offered on Thursday to stop terrorist actions in European countries that ended military action in Muslim nations. The offer was made on an audiotape broadcast by two Arab satellite television stations.
The speaker also mentions the Israelis' killing of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of Hamas, on March 22.
A C.I.A. official said that after a technical analysis, the agency concluded that the voice was probably Mr. bin Laden's, and, given the reference to Sheik Yassin, was made in recent weeks.
The man, speaking in Arabic, says, "The door to a truce is open for three months," adding that it could be extended. "The truce will begin when the last soldier leaves our countries," he says.
The offer was widely seen as aiming to create divisions between the United States and Europe at a time when the Western alliance is under strain because of disagreements over the conflict in Iraq.
Mr. bin Laden may be calculating that after the attacks in Madrid on March 11, which killed 191 people and have been attributed by Spanish police to Islamic militants, mostly from Morocco, Europeans are feeling particularly vulnerable and will be inclined to press their governments to distance themselves from the United States.
The offer is "an attempt to divide the international community and it cannot be allowed to succeed," Jack Straw, the British foreign minister said.
Rohan Gunaratna, an expert on international terrorism, said in a Reuters report that Mr. bin Laden was "following the principle of divide and rule."
European governments were quick to reject the idea of a truce offer, and many issued statements saying negotiations under terrorist threats were out of the question.
"There cannot be negotiations with terrorists and criminals like Osama bin Laden," a German government spokesman said. "The community of nations must continue the fight against international terrorism, and Germany will continue to contribute to that fight."
Miguel Ángel Moratinos, the new foreign minister of Spain, said Spain would not negotiate with Mr. bin Laden. "Bin Laden is the enemy of all of us who seek peace, democracy and freedom," Mr. Moratinos said. "Therefore we must not listen to him or pay attention to him."
The Italian foreign minister, Franco Frattini, said, "It is unthinkable that we may open a negotiation with bin Laden."
Similarly, Mr. Straw said, "One has to treat such offers by Al Qaeda with the contempt they deserve."
Mr. bin Laden, he said, leads "a murderous organization which seeks impossible objectives by the most violent of means."
In Washington, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell deplored the latest threat from Mr. bin Laden but praised the Europeans' rejection of a truce.
"That has been a very direct and clear reaction," Mr. Powell said, "and that says we will not be terrorized by this terrorist. And I think that the international community realizes that they cannot give in to these kinds of threats."
Some officials and commentators noted that even in rejecting his offer, European governments may be giving Mr. bin Laden a status disproportionate to the actual power of a man on the run, one possibly hiding out in some remote area on the Afghan-Pakistan border
"I think it would be better not to react to the tape in the way many governments did today," said Elmar Thevessen, a commentator on the German television station ZDF. "Of course one shouldn't keep quiet about it, but by talking about bin Laden's message all the time, we are upgrading him to a global player.
"This is exactly what he wants."
The audiotape was the latest of a long series of messages believed to be from Mr. bin Laden since the attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. Earlier messages have extolled martyrdom in the war against the enemies of Islam; warned that any American attacks against Muslims would be returned "twofold," and urged Muslims to repel the American invasion of Iraq.
In September last year, a tape urged Muslims to attack Americans "everywhere." Two months later, one accused Arab governments heeding American calls for democracy of being "infidel" agents of the United States.
One purpose of the messages seems simply to show the world that Mr. bin Laden is still alive despite two years of American-led efforts to arrest or kill him. His very survival enhances his prestige in the Muslim world and, terror experts believe, may inspire some Muslims to cross the boundary between sympathy for his cause to action on his behalf.
But another purpose may be to convey the impression that Mr. bin Laden commands a large army capable of striking any time and any place, a capacity that few experts on terrorism believe Mr. bin Laden actually has. German intelligence experts, for example, believe that there are at most a few dozen hard-core bin Laden followers in Germany today.
And while German experts say they regard Germany as a possible target, they also say there are no signs that any of the known groups, which are kept under tight surveillance, would be able to mount an attack soon.
In some instances, the messages have been followed - weeks or months later - by terrorist attacks.
But terrorism experts said there were no reports of the kind of "chatter'' among militants that in the past had signaled an imminent attack.
Douglas Jehl and Steven R. Weisman
contributed reporting from Washington for this article.
-------- POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE
-------- drug war
Drugs Found Aboard Colombian Warship
April 16, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Colombia-Drug-Ship.html
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Authorities announced an embarrassing discovery Friday: A large stash of cocaine and heroin on the naval warship that the visiting Peruvian president was to tour.
Adm. Mauricio Soto, the commander of the Colombian navy, said nearly 37 1/2 pounds of cocaine and 22 pounds of heroin were found Thursday in the engine room of the Gloria -- Colombia's flagship naval vessel, which is to embark next month on a six-month trip to the United States and Europe.
Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo was scheduled to go aboard the Gloria in Cartagena, a port city along the Caribbean, on Saturday to dine with military commanders and discuss increased cooperation in the fight against drug trafficking. Soto said three navy enlisted men have been detained in connection with the seizure.
Colombia is the world's biggest producer of cocaine. Peru also produces coca, the main ingredient of the drug.
Toledo on Friday met with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe in Bogota, the capital, to explore ways to stem the flow of drugs, weapons and rebels across their porous border and boost trade.
Toledo, marking his first presidential visit to Colombia, has expressed concern that Colombian rebels, who are heavily involved in drug trafficking, are slipping across the 1,008-mile border and destabilizing Peru.
However, Toledo has dismissed the possibility that the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia has ties to remnants of Peru's Shining Path insurgency movement, which waged a 20-year battle with government forces in Peru. The remaining Peruvian insurgents provide protection for drug traffickers in jungle regions of Peru where coca is grown.
Toledo and Uribe are also expected to explore a bilateral extradition treaty to help prosecute traffickers and rebels suspected of terrorism.
--------
Time Eases Tough Drug Laws, but Fight Goes On
April 16, 2004
By AL BAKER
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/16/nyregion/16ROCK.html?pagewanted=all&position=
ALBANY, April 15 - For years, one of the most divisive topics in New York State has been how to soften the Rockefeller-era drug laws, which sought to counter the drug scourge of the 1970's by setting long sentences even for relatively minor drug crimes.
Opponents of the laws, which were enacted at the request of Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller, often portray the laws' legacy as one in which many low-level offenders, tripped up by tough mandatory minimum prison sentences, have languished in prisons as victims of the antiheroin efforts of the day.
Proponents of the laws want change, but warn against a wholesale weakening of the laws.
But as the debate has swirled, a reality has been largely obscured: over the years, the laws have been tweaked to reduce their impact, and prosecutors have increasingly been steering addicts into treatment programs instead of sending them to prison. And perhaps most important, the number of people still imprisoned under the provisions of the original tough sanctions has been falling steadily in recent years.
Of the 16,564 drug offenders imprisoned as of April 3, fewer than 3 percent of them, or 481 people, were serving time for the state's most serious drug offenses, A-1 felonies; that number is down from the 724 imprisoned similarly in 1995. Furthermore, Gov. George E. Pataki has been using his clemency powers in the most compelling cases, releasing 26 of those prisoners during his administration. The governor has also pursued a strategy of releasing nonviolent felons, including drug offenders, early.
When the laws were instituted in 1973, Governor Rockefeller called them "the toughest antidrug program in the nation." They required a minimum sentence of 15 years to life for sale of one ounce of narcotics, or the possession of two ounces. They also increased the penalties for those caught with smaller amounts of drugs.
But as the prison population swelled, and many nonviolent offenders were sentenced to long prison terms, the outcry grew. In one well-known case, Elaine Bartlett, 46, was arrested near Albany in 1983 for selling four ounces of cocaine and sentenced to 20 years to life for the crime, which was her first offense. In another case, Anthony Papa, 49, spent 12 years in prison for making a delivery of four and a half ounces of cocaine, in 1984, in exchange for $500.
Perhaps more than any other, the issue of Rockefeller drug law reform reflects the thorny politics of New York. Neither the governor nor the state's two top legislative leaders want to appear as soft on crime. But in recent years, there has been a growing consensus that the laws are too harsh, a position that, not coincidentally, was highlighted during election years as all side have sought to appeal to black and Latino constituents, whose leaders have been most vocal in demanding changes in the laws. Just Wednesday, the Democratic-led Assembly passed its version of a bill to alter the laws, but the Senate prefers its own plan for change.
But with the passage of time, even though politicians have failed to overhaul the laws, the issue has slowly begun to sort itself out through other means, as prosecutors steer defendants toward treatment and some of those imprisoned under the laws have completed their sentences. Furthermore, far fewer people are being sentenced for A-1 drug felonies than during the crack epidemic of the early 1990's.
"We have enacted some reforms over the course of the years and we have lessened the harshness of the pre-existing Rockefeller drug laws," Mr. Pataki, a Republican, said as the issue bubbled up on Wednesday. "But having said that, I still believe there is room for significant additional reform."
As Joseph L. Bruno, the Senate's Republican Majority leader, put it, the number of inmates who deserve some type of relief may have "dwindled down to a few." But, he said, "That is no justification for keeping those few there if it is unjust."
Still, as the numbers fall, Albany's three most powerful leaders - the governor, Mr. Bruno, and the Democratic Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver - say the basic sentencing grid of the laws remains fundamentally flawed, unduly harsh and rigid.
What they have failed to agree on is how to ease the sentences, how those already in prison would be affected and whether - or how much - discretion should be given to judges to send people facing drug charges into treatment programs instead of sentencing them to mandatory minimum prison terms.
When the original laws were proposed, many legislators, police officials, prosecutors and civil libertarians opposed them. At the time, in 1973, Richard A. Brown, now the Queens district attorney, was working as a lobbyist for New York City's mayor, John V. Lindsay. He came to Albany to argue against the laws that mandated strict sentences and crimped judicial discretion.
Later, in 1979, Mr. Brown returned to Albany as counsel to Gov. Hugh L. Carey, and helped push through an amendment that scaled back a few mandated sentences, doubled the minimum amount of narcotics that would bring the most serious criminal charges (for example, to two ounces from one ounce of cocaine or heroin for an A-1 felony charge for sales) but kept the law tough.
Over the years, other changes took place, short of overhauling the law, which eased the impact on minor drug offenders.
One of them, said Michael A. Arcuri, the Oneida County district attorney, who is president of the New York State District Attorneys Association, is that prosecutors pushed to develop programs to divert otherwise prison-bound offenders to various drug treatment programs. Thousands of offenders, he said, have gone directly to community-based treatment programs rather than to jail. (Mr. Brown said the threat of tough sentences forced them to accept and stay in treatment.)
As Bridget G. Brennan, the city's special narcotics prosecutor, said: "We are more circumspect in how we exercise our discretion. And we have more options."
Another change to circumvent the laws is a plan designed by Mr. Pataki and passed the Legislature that allows those sentenced for A-1 felonies who have no history of violence to earn reductions in their sentences for good behavior. So far, nearly 60 people have left prison early in that way.
Because of the adjustments, Mr. Brown, in a turnabout, said the laws were effective tools for prosecutors. While Mr. Brown said the laws still need some changes, because low-level offenders can still be treated more severely than warranted, "All of those poster cases are gone," he said.
"While the reformers would have you believe that the prisons are just filled with small-time drug offenders who are locked up for 15 years or more, that is just not the case," Mr. Brown said. "Seventy-seven percent of drug felons in state prison today are second felony offenders. Those are the people who are responsible for the violence in the communities."
But to focus on decreasing numbers of drug inmates is misguided, said those pushing for reform or repeal of the laws.
"The fact that, over time, there have been ways that the existing law has been subverted does not change the fact that the law, as it stands, needs to be changed; we should not have to rely on back-door ways to avoid a law that is unjust," said Assemblyman Michael N. Gianaris, a Democrat who represents a Queens district. He said there were "still thousands and thousands of people sitting in jail under these laws."
Though the governor has introduced a bill to do away with the punishment of life in prison for the
A-1 felony offenders and to release many of them from prison, Mr. Silver, the Assembly speaker, has shunned it. He said that proposal sidesteps the issue of giving judges more discretion in sentencing. "The real basic issue is letting a judge evaluate circumstances," he said.
The ways that prosecutors and state officials have found to circumvent the laws is like placing a Band-Aid on a wound, but not healing it, said Robert Gangi, the executive director of the Correctional Association of New York, a group that monitors the state's prisons.
"In effect, they acknowledge that the laws are excessive," he said. "What they are doing is tinkering around the edges of a problem." He added: "What they are avoiding is addressing the heart of the problem."
Today, Class B felony offenders make up most of those imprisoned under the Rockefeller laws. According to figures from the State Department of Correctional Services, 5,312 drug offenders are now in prison on such charges. Many prosecutors point out that 3,526 of them were previous felony offenders.
But looking at the numbers, Senator Eric T. Schneiderman, a Democrat from Manhattan, noted that 1,757 of them were first offenders, suggesting the laws still need to be changed.
"It's still a lot of people," he said, shaking his head. "It's an interesting debate over statistics and semantics, and who is really in under the Rockefeller drug laws."
-------- homeland security
FBI said buried by security demands
ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 16, 2004
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20040415-114936-5908r.htm
The number of secret surveillance warrants sought by the FBI has increased 85 percent in the past three years, a pace that has outstripped the Justice Department's ability to process them quickly.
Even after warrants are approved, the FBI often doesn't have enough agents or other personnel with the expertise to conduct the surveillance. And the agency still is trying to build a cadre of translators who can understand conversations intercepted in such languages as Arabic, Pashto and Farsi.
These are among the findings of investigators for the commission probing the September 11 attacks, which has criticized the intelligence-gathering efforts of the CIA and FBI.
FBI and Justice Department officials said yesterday that they are working to address all three issues, which limit the government's ability to gather the kind of intelligence needed to head off terrorist attacks.
The warrants, authorized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, allow for wiretaps, video surveillance, property searches and other spying on people thought to be terrorists or spies. After the 2001 Patriot Act and a key 2002 court decision crumbled the legal wall separating the FBI's criminal and intelligence investigations, use of FISA warrants has soared as sharing of information has become easier.
The number of warrant requests has risen from 934 in 2001 to more than 1,700 in 2003, according to the FBI. The agency adopted streamlined procedures to move the requests quickly from the field offices to headquarters after the September 11 attacks.
But a report by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States released this week found that the Justice Department approval process "continues to be long and slow" and that the mounting requests "are overwhelming the ability of the system to process them."
----
City resolution doesn't favor the Patriot Act
Supporters say it's a tool to fight terrorism; critics say it erodes civil rights. In a message to Congress, the City Council sides with the critics.
By DAVID KARP, Times Staff Writer
April 16, 2004
http://www.sptimes.com/2004/04/16/Hillsborough/City_resolution_doesn.shtml
TAMPA - Last time he visited this city, President Bush had a clear message for local leaders:
Fix the potholes.
Thursday night, the City Council decided they had a broader responsibility - and took a stance on a national issue that puts them squarely at odds with the president. It voted 4-to-3 for a resolution asking Congress to repeal key parts of the Patriot Act.
As he campaigns for re-election, Bush has called on Congress to reauthorize the Patriot Act, which was passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Supporters say the law gives the government tools it needs to capture terrorists and protect the nation from attack. Critics say the law erodes basic freedoms such as privacy, freedom of speech, and freedom of association.
Thursday, the City Council, before its usual debate on zoning matters, sided with the critics.
The City Council resolution says the Patriot Act chills free speech, allows eavesdropping on conversations between lawyers and their clients and gives the government power to see what books people read. It calls on Congress to repeal parts of the Patriot Act and ensure that future laws protect civil rights.
The resolution is purely symbolic, since the City Council has no power to change legislation crafted in Washington that affects the entire nation.
About 289 other communities, as well as legislatures in Alaska, Hawaii, Maine and Vermont, have passed similar resolutions.
In Florida, heavily Democratic Broward County and the city of Sarasota, home of U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris, have passed resolutions against the Patriot Act. So has Alachua County, home of the University of Florida.
After the debate, City Council member Linda Saul-Saul beamed about the action. "Isn't council exciting? It's a pity I am not wearing red, white and blue," said Saul-Sena, who was dressed in black-and-white.
She praised the diversity of the organizations that were backing the resolution.
Council members Mary Alvarez, Gwen Miller and Kevin White, a former Tampa police officer, also voted for the resolution.
Council members Shawn Harrison and Rose Ferlita, the two Republicans on the Council, voted no. They were joined by City Council member John Dingfelder, a Democrat who represents the south Tampa district that includes MacDill Air Force Base.
The presence of MacDill Air Force, home of Central Command, which is guiding the war in Iraq, served as a backdrop to Thursday's debate.
Opponents said the resolution would undermine the president during a time of war and weaken the country's fight against terrorism.
"I think this sends a terrible message to MacDill," Ferlita said afterward.
Supporters said the resolution shows that Americans can fight for freedom at home, even as its soldiers battle for democracy abroad.
"If I thought anything we were doing would not support the troops, or (would) aid the enemy, I wouldn't do it," said Mike Pheneger, a retired Army colonel who served 30 years in the military and spoke Thursday against the Patriot Act.
Pheneger is a national board member of the American Civil Liberties Union.
A coalition led by Pheneger and prominent criminal defense lawyer Rochelle A. Reback worked for months to build support for the resolution. They got endorsements from groups such as the Tampa Chapter of the National Council of Jewish Women, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tampa and the Arab American Student Alliance at the University of South Florida.
By passing the resolution, Reback told council members Thursday that they could speak for the city's conscience.
The resolution "is largely symbolic, but the issues it addresses are really core concerns of local government - declaring our strong support for civil liberties, privacy and diversity, affirming our conviction that we in Tampa will not sacrifice our freedom for our safety - nor should we have to - ensuring that security and freedom are the twin ideals promoted by local government at home," Reback said.
"All of these things speak out to the world about who are in Tampa, and how we envision our community life and our priorities."
----
Administration Considers a Post for National Intelligence Director
April 16, 2004
New York Times
By DOUGLAS JEHL
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/16/politics/16INTE.html?hp=&pagewanted=all&position=
WASHINGTON, April 15 - The White House is weighing whether to pre-empt the Sept. 11 commission's final report this summer by embracing a proposal to create a powerful new post of director of national intelligence, administration officials said on Thursday.
Under the proposal, management of the government's 15 intelligence agencies, and control of their budgets, would be put under the direction of a single person. That authority is now scattered across a number of departments and agencies.
The plan, drafted more than a year ago by a presidential advisory panel headed by Brent Scowcroft, the former national security adviser, was given little White House attention until now. It is being reviewed, the officials said, as a possible answer to the Sept. 11 commission's preliminary conclusion that the current organization of the government's intelligence agencies has left no one truly in charge on intelligence matters.
In two days of hearings this week, the panel presented a withering dissection of American intelligence agencies, with commissioners signaling that they were preparing to call for more central control.
A staff report issued on Wednesday concluded that a central lesson of the 2001 terrorist attacks was that under the fragmented system now overseen by George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, the 15 departments and agencies simply "lacked the incentives to cooperate, collaborate and share information."
Administration officials declined to discuss the proposal by Mr. Scowcroft's panel on the ground that it was still classified. But they suggested that discussion inside the White House included extensive consideration of that plan, designed to install a more powerful and centralized overseer to take charge of an ad hoc system created in haste after World War II.
Also being discussed within the White House, the officials said, were possible changes within the F.B.I., including the creation of a new directorate within the bureau responsible for domestic intelligence-gathering and analysis. The alternative of creating a new domestic intelligence agency was also being discussed but was seen as less likely to be embraced, the officials said.
It is not known whether F.B.I. intelligence gathering would be under the control of the proposed new director of intelligence.
Still, despite the gaps exposed by the panel, and the signs that the White House is feeling political pressure on the issue, some intelligence professionals and other experts have been calling for caution, questioning whether structural changes are the best way to tackle the problems described by the commission.
"Centralization is rarely the best remedy for government problems and should not be attempted here," Christopher DeMuth of the American Enterprise Institute warned last month at a conference on the issue.
Even now, administration officials say, the Pentagon's determination to retain its grip of the vast swath of the intelligence budget it now controls remains a significant obstacle to any White House recommendation for major change. Altogether the government spends nearly $40 billion a year on intelligence. At the same time, officials say, a widely perceived need to maintain some competition among intelligence agencies and produce the best analytical judgments, as well as concern about disrupting important intelligence work now under way, might mitigate against a sweeping overhaul.
The idea of establishing a director of national intelligence - or, alternatively, expanding the authority of the current director of central intelligence - is not new. In the last two years, it has been recommended to the White House by the joint Congressional committee that looked into the Sept. 11 attacks as well as by the panel headed by Mr. Scowcroft.
In recent weeks, a version of the proposal has been endorsed by Senator John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. A similar proposal is contained in legislation introduced by Representative Jane Harman of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.
On Monday, President Bush said for the first time that "now may be a time to revamp and reform our intelligence services." He did not outline any specific changes under consideration, and he suggested that the White House would wait for recommendations by the Sept. 11 commission and by the separate presidential commission on intelligence matters that is due to report next March.
But after John F. Lehman, the former Navy secretary who is a Republican member of the Sept. 11 panel, said in a hearing on Wednesday that "the train is coming down the track" toward an intelligence overhaul, a senior administration official said on Thursday that discussion within the White House was focusing more intensely on possible change. "We do not foreclose the possibility of doing something in advance of either report," the official said.
In his testimony on Wednesday, Mr. Tenet, who as director of central intelligence since 1997 has enjoyed direct control over the Central Intelligence Agency but more limited authority over the rest of the intelligence community, acknowledged limitations in the current structure, established in 1947.
"I wouldn't design America's intelligence community, 56 years later, the way the National Security Act designed it," Mr. Tenet said.
But he also said he would have deep reservations about any overhaul that would separate the position of C.I.A. director from that of overall intelligence chief, an idea that has been sharply debated among intelligence professionals.
"I believe that if you separate the D.C.I. from the troops, from operators and analysts, I have a concern about his or her effectiveness," he said, adding, "I wouldn't separate the individual from the institution."
By contrast, the vice chairman of the commission, former Representative Lee H. Hamilton, has in the past advocated separating the two jobs. A director of national intelligence, he said in 2002, would "have control over much, if not most, of the intelligence community budget, and the power to manage key appointments."
"You cannot be head of the intelligence community and head of the C.I.A. at the same time," Mr. Hamilton said in testimony before the joint Congressional committee looking into the Sept. 11 attacks.
In a telephone interview on Thursday, Mr. Hamilton said that he would not object to a White House effort to pre-empt the commission's findings, and that he was heartened that Mr. Bush had displayed "an open mind" on the issue. He said the commission had not yet reached a consensus on what change it might recommend.
"I'm interested in the question of giving more power to the director of intelligence, with a small d, and I don't want to go beyond that," he said. "But it is clear to me that there needs to be more unity in the intelligence community in terms of budget and management and personnel.'
The intelligence community spans the breadth of the government, but the vast bulk of its overall budget falls within the Defense Department, whose intelligence agency chiefs report simultaneously to the secretary of defense and the director of central intelligence.
The Central Intelligence Agency, though the best known part of the community, consumes only about a tenth of the overall budget, government officials say. By law, the director of central intelligence oversees the entire community as well as the C.I.A., but his authority over other agencies is limited, particularly on personnel and budget matters. In practice, the Sept. 11 panel said in its recent staff report, Mr. Tenet, like most of its predecessors, has devoted the bulk of his attention to his own agency rather than the broader community.
While praising some recent innovations, like the new Terrorism Threat Integration Center, a joint venture of the C.I.A. and the F.B.I., the presidential commission has criticized the intelligence community as not having mounted a concerted strategy to address the threat posed by terrorism before Sept. 11.
A December 1998 memorandum by Mr. Tenet that declared intelligence agencies to be "at war" against terrorism was either never seen or essentially ignored by intelligence chiefs outside the C.I.A., the staff report said.
--------
Ship Cargo Security Upgrades Approved
Friday, April 16, 2004
WASHINGTON IN BRIEF
Washington Post -- From News Services
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16342-2004Apr15.html
Federal regulators approved technological enhancements allowing more thorough checks of sealed cargo containers, part of an effort to prevent terrorists from using U.S. ports to smuggle explosives or chemical weapons.
More than 7 million tractor-trailer-size containers from overseas are unloaded at U.S. ports each year. Checking them is time-consuming, so only a very small percentage gets a thorough inspection.
Some containers from overseas ports are outfitted with electronic tags that act similarly to the transponders put on cars so they can pass through toll plazas without stopping. When such a container arrives at a U.S. port, customs agents can check the tag to get a quick readout on the cargo and determine whether the container was opened or tampered with in transit.
The Federal Communications Commission approved changes that will allow more thorough electronic checks. The FCC said the electronic tags and the equipment that reads them may now broadcast signals for a minute at a time, rather than one second, and with greater range.
-------- immigration / refugees
In Jordan, Refugees Cling to Hope
Palestinians Assert Right of Return Despite Bush's Policy Shift
By Scott Wilson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, April 16, 2004; Page A15
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15851-2004Apr15.html
AMMAN, Jordan, April 15 -- Yousef Dhahir has listened for decades to the dreamy dinner-table conversations of his father's generation -- about someday returning to their land that is now part of Israel.
Dhahir's Palestinian family abandoned several homes and farmland near the coastal city of Jaffa during Israel's 1948 war of independence. His father, Mohammed, now 72, said he has never ceased imagining that one day he will return to those sunny acres.
In endorsing a disengagement plan promoted by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, President Bush on Wednesday may have lowered the hopes of Mohammed Dhahir and millions of other Palestinian refugees who have long claimed rights to the land they left behind. At a news conference in Washington, Bush addressed the "right of return" that Palestinian and Arab leaders have demanded as part of a negotiated peace. Bush said "it seems clear" that a "realistic framework" for handling the refugee issue would involve settling them in a Palestinian state, rather than in Israel.
"The people who live here have never given up their hopes of returning to Jaffa," said Yousef Dhahir, 26, whose family lives in the Wehdat neighborhood of 80,000 people that evolved from a grim refugee camp into a hardened middle-class section of Amman, the Jordanian capital. "Many here have financial interests, and they will never return. But in the end it is our land and our right. We can't give that up."
A number of Arab leaders said Thursday that Bush's embrace of the Sharon plan -- under which Israel would unilaterally maintain huge settlements in the West Bank while dismantling others in Gaza -- would doom a foundering U.S.-backed peace process called the "road map" by excluding Palestinian input on the resolution of the settlement issue.
Amr Moussa, secretary general of the 22-nation Arab League, said in a statement that Bush's position was "very regrettable because it cancels all frameworks and it represents dangerous developments in the Arab-Israeli conflict." In Lebanon, President Emile Lahoud said the U.S. stance "will have a dangerous fallout, notably the end of hopes for peace, an increase in anti-American sentiments."
Jordan's King Abdullah, a key U.S. ally in the region, traveled to Washington to meet with Bush after urging the president in a letter last week not to abandon the road map, which calls for the creation of a viable Palestinian state by 2005. Palestinian officials and other Arab leaders said that goal would not be achievable under the plan Bush has now endorsed.
The millions of Palestinian refugees living in Arab countries have long been an important constituency for Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, keeping up pressure on Arab governments to sustain the cause of a Palestinian state.
Jordanians of Palestinian descent account for more than half of Jordan's 5 million people, many of them living in self-sufficient enclaves where the Arab-Israeli conflict is avidly monitored. Most have obtained Jordanian citizenship, allowing them to vote in the country's limited democracy.
In Wehdat, reaction to Bush's announcement seemed lost in the daily bustle. The neighborhood streets, a collection of tents following the 1948 war, are now lined with cell-phone shops, pharmacies stocked with American brands, mom-and-pop groceries and mosques. For many Palestinians here, particularly the younger generation, middle-class aspirations have replaced dreams of an independent homeland.
"We left behind two mountains and the valley between them," said Ziad Nebarri, 38, a grocer whose family fled Al-Lid in 1948. The town, also known as Lod, is near the armistice line drawn the following year. "But the people can't worry about this right now. They are making a living."
The market at the center of Wehdat did a brisk business in live chickens, crates of eggs, watermelons, salted almonds and coffee. A wedding party passed by the grand mosque, not far from where demonstrations broke out last month after Israeli forces assassinated Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas.
"We refuse anything Bush says about our rights," said Yunis Ali, who helps collect donations for the mosque and whose family fled farms near Jerusalem in 1948. "Bush is not the owner of Palestine. Anyway, we're not surprised."
Another member of the mosque, a 53-year-old father of seven who gave his name as Abu Mohammed, said, "Our main job is to raise children to return to Palestine, even if it's in a million years.
"So Bush can say whatever he wants. My great hope is that my two sons will die as martyrs for Palestine."
-------- police
D.C. Police Are Arrested At High Rate
By David A. Fahrenthold and Henri E. Cauvin
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, April 16, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A16048-2004Apr15?language=printer
Thirteen D.C. police officers have been arrested so far this year on charges including sexual assault, drunken driving and possession of PCP, according to police and court records.
The cases show that the District's problems with arrested officers have carried over from last year, when 28 officers were charged with crimes. Twenty-two D.C. officers were arrested in 2002. The totals are far out of proportion to those of police departments in the D.C. suburbs and other big cities.
Two arrests this year involve offenses that allegedly took place on duty. In one case, an officer was accused of using excessive force against a motorist during a traffic stop in 2000. In the other, an officer was charged with having sex with a woman who called police to report a domestic violence complaint.
But as was the case last year, most of the trouble is taking place when officers are out of uniform and off duty. One off-duty officer was charged with assaulting another patron at MCI Center, for example, and five officers were charged with drunken driving.
D.C. Council member Kathy Patterson (D-Ward 3) said she fears there might be more misconduct, contending that the police department has an uneven track record in investigating errant officers.
"Although an unfortunately high number of officers have been arrested, it leaves me concerned that there are other actions being taken by officers that are not being investigated," Patterson said.
Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey said he believes that part of the problem stems from officers who joined the department before he began his tenure as chief in 1998.
Of the 13 arrested this year, 10 were hired before Ramsey took over. Six of them joined the force in 1989 and 1990, a period in which a massive hiring push led the department to cut corners on recruiting, background checks, psychological testing and training.
"We did bring on board some folks that can't live up to the standard," Ramsey said. "We pay for the sins of the past."
But, echoing a point he made last fall, Ramsey said that the officers' alleged misconduct does not appear to be a sign of deeper problems on the 3,700-member department.
"I don't know if you can look at 13 arrests and say the department as a whole has a problem," he said.
The number of D.C. officers arrested this year stands out even in comparison with much larger cities. In the Chicago police department -- triple the size of the D.C. force -- four officers have been arrested this year. In Baltimore, which has a slightly smaller police force than the District, no officers have been arrested this year.
Although the charges in the District this year do not involve the kind of corruption that plagued the force in the early 1990s, when a group of officers was caught in a federal sting, police experts interviewed this week said off-duty arrests can drag down morale and undermine the public's confidence.
"Police are supposed to obey the law whether they are on duty or off duty," said Jerome Skolnick, a New York University law professor who tracks police issues. "It hurts the public image of the department. It sets a bad example for the public."
One of the officers accused of committing a crime while on duty is Joseph S. Fagan, 32, who allegedly assaulted a Maryland motorist during a traffic stop in September 2000. He was indicted in February and pleaded not guilty.
Another officer allegedly had sex with a woman after he was dispatched to her house for a report of domestic violence March 12. He was charged with obstructing justice. Prosecutors dropped the charge but said that the investigation is continuing.
Another recent D.C. arrest involved an officer charged with sexual misconduct, although he was off duty. Officer George E. Pickett Jr., 38, was charged with sexually assaulting his girlfriend's 17-year-old daughter in Silver Spring last year.
In another case, Officer Barron Brown, 45, allegedly admitted to an undercover officer that, while off duty, he had beaten a man who had called him a vulgar name at a gas station. Although that offense allegedly happened in 2000, Brown was not indicted until this year.
The drug case charged Officer Joseph Jennifer with illegal possession of PCP in July 2002.
The incident at MCI Center involved Officer Marjorie Temple, 28, who allegedly exchanged words with another person as she walked down a row of seats Feb. 15. Temple knocked the woman down, then struck her several more times, leaving her with bruises on her side, according to court documents charging Temple with assault.
The charges against Pickett, Brown, Jennifer and Temple are pending. All four officers have pleaded not guilty.
One detective was arrested in January in the District on a charge of solicitation of prostitution. The charge was dismissed when he entered a pretrial diversion program.
A police recruit was charged with telephone harassment in February in Prince George's County. That charge was dropped.
This year's five drunken driving arrests include two officers arrested by their colleagues in the District in incidents in March and April, police said. The others were arrested by suburban police.
Officer David V. Chumbley, 26, was arrested by Alexandria police about 5:35 a.m. Feb. 1, court papers say. Chumbley pleaded guilty and was fined $300. His driver's license was suspended for one year. The D.C. police department has taken away his police powers and put him on desk duty.
D.C. police Sgt. James J. O' Boyle, 36, had a blood alcohol content more than three times the legal limit when he was arrested by Fairfax County police about 7:20 a.m. April 5, records show. His case is pending.
Another officer, Duane D. Smith, was arrested early Feb. 13 by Prince William County police after he allegedly was spotted driving erratically about a half-mile from his home. Court documents say Smith, 40, told police he had just come from a pub.
"I know I shouldn't have been driving. Please just take me home," Smith allegedly said to officers. "Don't do this to me. You don't have to arrest me. Haven't you ever heard of professional courtesy?"
Smith was then charged with driving under the influence, a misdemeanor, and with refusal to take a breath test, court documents say.
The documents also note that Smith's Ford pickup had vanity license plates that read "RU DWI."
Carroll A. Weimer Jr., Smith's defense attorney, declined to comment on the case.
Staff writers Elaine Rivera, Josh White, Tom Jackman, Ruben Castaneda and David Snyder contributed to this report.
-------- terrorism
New Target and Tone Message Shows Al Qaeda's Adaptability
By Dana Priest and Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, April 16, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A16002-2004Apr15?language=printer
Osama bin Laden's psychological operations campaign against the United States took a surprising turn yesterday with the release of an audio message that is modern, tactical and nearly diplomatic in tone, and that addresses Europeans rather than Muslim devotees, counterterrorism experts and intelligence officials said.
In doing so, experts who have analyzed his previous audiotapes and videotapes said bin Laden is employing a powerful weapon in psychological warfare: an adaptable propaganda machine that understands the nature of Western democracies, seeks to exploit political dissent and knows how to disseminate its message worldwide without being caught.
The seven-minute audiotape that surfaced yesterday is the latest in a stream of bin Laden recordings released to Arab news outlets since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It offered "a truce with the European countries that do not attack Muslim countries" and that do not "interfere in their affairs." European leaders quickly dismissed the offer.
The contemporary nature of the message was a new twist for bin Laden. It included references to Israel's killing on March 22 of "old, handicapped" Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of Hamas, and to "the billions of dollars in profit" being made in Iraq by Halliburton and other companies. He described the leaders of those corporations as people with "narrow personal interest and subservience to the White House gang."
"Clearly, he's monitoring the news and is taking advantage" of the growing debate in Europe over the U.S.-instigated war in Iraq, said one U.S. counterterrorism official who would comment only on the condition of anonymity.
"He's watching the calendar," the official said, noting that the 90-day deadline bin Laden set for countries to meet his demands would come near the June 30 date set by the United States for handing over sovereignty to Iraqis. "Although he has shown no need in the past to give anyone one last chance, his statement had a kinder, gentler face on it."
The adaptation, said al Qaeda experts, is classic bin Laden, and a key to maintaining successful terrorist groups in the face of counterterrorism operations by the United States and other countries.
"Terrorism in general is psy-ops," said Winston P. Wiley, former director of the CIA's analytical branch and counterterrorism center, using the military term for psychological operations. "The damage he's inflicting is disproportionate to the physical damage he's causing. It's all part of his campaign to destroy the United States."
Bin Laden analysts at the CIA and other counterterrorism specialists here and abroad spent much of the day poring over every word and phrase. They looked for clues embedded in the statement -- phrases and rhetoric that could indicate his mental and physical state, or the status of his finances or manpower, or code words that might trigger an operation.
"It might also be a message to sleeper cells in Europe to wake up," one European intelligence official said.
The statement differed markedly from his previous messages -- he did not refer to the Koran, for example -- but U.S. intelligence officials said they based their belief in its authenticity on a technical analysis that matches voice intonation and other cues with his known voice qualities.
Bin Laden and other top al Qaeda leaders have long recognized the value of a well-run communications operation. Among al Qaeda's four operational committees before Sept. 11, 2001, was one labeled "Media and Publicity," Rohan Gunaratna wrote in "Inside Al Qaeda."
Part of its function was to be familiar with Western culture and politics -- many top leaders studied at U.S. universities -- and to construct speeches that would terrify Westerners and secular Arabs in addition to soliciting Muslim followers and potential recruits. The network also has had the capacity to stage, tape, edit and distribute audiotapes and videotapes that are unusually high in quality for such an outlawed, underground group.
"All his videotapes are carefully orchestrated," said terrorism expert Bruce Hoffman, who called al Qaeda proficient in "strategic communications."
In demanding a pullout in exchange for a truce, however, bin Laden may have overreached, said another U.S. counterterrorism official. "It's almost too blatant," he said.
Although the tape ostensibly offered European leaders a truce if they remove forces from Iraq, U.S. counterterrorism officials said they believe its true target is the European public. Bin Laden refers to demonstrations in Europe as "positive interaction" and mentions "opinion polls, which indicate that most European peoples want peace."
The underlying threat by bin Laden remained the same as always, though: The United States, Israel, Jews and their allies will suffer their due.
The train bombings in Madrid last month, and the political upset in national elections immediately after them, bin Laden said, were "your commodity that was returned to you. . . . Injustice is inflicted on us and on you by your politicians, who send your sons, although you are opposed to this, to our countries to kill and get killed."
A foundation of this oft-repeated threat can be found in a book written in late November 2001 by Ayman Zawahiri, bin Laden's No. 2 man, while he was on the run from U.S. Army forces in the mountains along the Afghan-Pakistani border.
Zawahiri said jihadists should not attack U.S. armed forces who had invaded Afghanistan. Rather, they should strike "at the Americans and the Jews in our countries," meaning the secular countries where other jihadists came from -- Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco.
Zawahiri's message was a call to rally the Muslim populace, terrorism experts said. Yesterday's message was similarly directed at a local populace, but this time at a European one.
Research editor Margot Williams contributed to this article.
--------
Evacuation Is Ordered for Most U.S. Diplomats in Saudi Arabia
By Robin Wright and Dana Priest
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, April 16, 2004; Page A17
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16049-2004Apr15.html
The United States yesterday ordered the evacuation of most U.S. diplomats and all U.S. family dependents from Saudi Arabia, and "strongly urged" all American citizens to leave because of "credible and specific" intelligence about terrorist attacks planned against U.S. and other Western targets, the State Department announced.
The intelligence included the discovery of truck and pipe bombs and the apprehension of at least two suspects in recent days, U.S. officials said late yesterday. The warning noted that Saudi security forces and heavily armed extremists recently engaged in serious clashes.
Some of the intelligence emerged during Saudi interrogations of the suspects. Saudi security forces are in hot pursuit of other suspected terrorists thought to be involved in the new terrorist plots, the U.S. officials added.
The State Department denied that the threat is directly related to the new tape from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, a Saudi renegade who was stripped of his citizenship in the early 1990s. But the new plots are tied to groups linked with past terrorist activity in the kingdom that has been blamed on bin Laden followers and sympathizers.
The Bush administration offered few specifics. "The threat level has gone up," Secretary of State Colin L. Powell told reporters when he made the surprise announcement after meeting with former Costa Rican president Miguel Angel Rodriguez.
At least 200 Americans are expected to be evacuated immediately. The State Department refused to release specific numbers for security reasons. Only the ambassador and an emergency staff will be left at the Riyadh embassy and at two consulates, in Dhahran and Jeddah, a State Department official said.
The new warning also recommended that all U.S. citizens contemplating travel to the kingdom defer their plans. Anyone who stays should register with the embassy, it added. Embassy services may be affected or become unavailable because of personnel shortages or security limitations, it said.
Besides diplomatic posts, the housing compounds for foreigners are particularly vulnerable, the warning noted. "American citizens in Saudi Arabia should remain vigilant, particularly in public places associated with the Western community. Terrorists attacked residential housing compounds in the Riyadh area in 2003. Credible information indicates that terrorists continue to target residential compounds in Saudi Arabia, particularly in the Riyadh area, but also compounds throughout the country," the State Department said in a statement.
Despite the drastic action, the Bush administration said Saudi Arabia is gaining ground on the extremist factions responsible for three suicide attacks last May on U.S. residential compounds in Riyadh and for a November attack on another foreign compound, housing mainly Muslims.
Saudi intelligence averted a "catastrophic" suicide attack on Nov. 25 when it discovered an explosives-laden truck intended for a residential compound in Riyadh, said Lou Fintor, a State Department spokesman. "We remain fully confident that Saudi authorities are doing all they can to protect their citizens and others in the kingdom against terrorist attacks. There is also a solid level of cooperation between our two governments in combating terrorism in Saudi Arabia and around the world," Fintor said.
Another senior State Department official praised Saudi authorities for being aggressive and for having taken important steps since the Riyadh bombings. But he acknowledged that the latest threat indicates that the oil-rich Persian Gulf state "remains a battleground" for terrorism. "As the Saudis act and move to dismantle these networks, the extremists are seeking to reassert themselves," he said.
"In a sense, it's a sign that the Saudis are having an impact. But the networks are not wrapped up, and there continue to be active elements that are a threat. We want to offer them as small a target as possible," the senior official added.
Warnings are issued for a month and are then reviewed.
-------- torture
Troops Blast Music in Siege of Fallujah
April 16, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iraq-Front-Line.html
FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) -- In Fallujah's darkened, empty streets, U.S. troops blast AC/DC's ``Hell's Bells'' and other rock music full volume from a huge speaker, hoping to grate on the nerves of this Sunni Muslim city's gunmen and give a laugh to Marines along the front line.
Unable to advance farther into the city, an Army psychological operations team hopes a mix of heavy metal and insults shouted in Arabic -- including, ``You shoot like a goat herder'' -- will draw gunmen to step forward and attack. But no luck Thursday night.
The loud music recalls the Army's use of rap and rock to help flush out Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega after the December 1989 invasion on his country, and the FBI's blaring progressively more irritating tunes in an attempt to end a standoff with armed members of the Branch Davidian cult in Waco, Texas in 1993.
The Marines' psychological operations came as U.S. negotiators were pressing Fallujah representatives to get gunmen in the city to abide by a cease-fire.
Six days after negotiations halted a U.S. offensive against insurgents in the city, the Marines continue carving out front line positions and hope for orders to push forward. Many are questioning the value of truce talks with an enemy who continues to launch attacks.
``These guys don't have a centralized leader; they're just here to fight. I don't see what negotiations are going to do,'' said Capt. Shannon Johnson, a company commander for the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment. Word of truce talks last week forced his battalion to halt its plunge into the northeast section of the city just hours after arriving to back up other Marines.
In the meantime, perhaps the fiercest enemy -- everyone here seems to agree -- is the boredom, and worst of all the flies that pepper this dusty Euphrates River city west of Baghdad. Marines burn them, using matches to turn cans of flammable bug spray into mini blow torches. They also try to kill them by sprinkling diesel fuel over fly colonies. They joke about calling in airstrikes.
Fallujah's front lines remain dangerous.
On Friday, insurgents fired several mortars at U.S. forces. One of the shells blasted a chunk out of a house where Marines are positioned, filling the building with dust and smoke. No one was injured.
A short time later, an F-16 jet dropped a 2,000-pound bomb on the city, sending up a massive spray of dirt and smoke and destroying a building where Marines had spotted gunmen.
``The longer we wait to push into the city, the more dangerous it's going to be,'' said Cpl. Miles Hill, 21, from Oklahoma, playing a game of chess with a fellow Marine in a house they control.
``They (the insurgents) have time to set stuff up.'' He guesses the insurgents are likely rigging doors with explosives, knowing Marines will kick them in during searches if they sweep the city.
Up on the roof, Pfc. James Cathcart, 18, kept watch from a sandbagged machine-gunner's nest Friday. His platoon commander passed along word that troops found a weapons cache that included a Soviet-made sniper rifle with a night-sight.
``A night-sight, sir?'' he said, surprised that insurgents had the technology. His commander told him to keep his head down. ``Everyone here wants to push forward. Here, you're just a target,'' Cathcart said.
The young Marine looked out over grim city blocks around a dusty soccer pitch and a trash-strewn lot, as a rain shower passed over. He said during the long hours of duty, he wonders what the insurgents are doing, how many there are and if they're watching him.
Adding to the eery feeling up, he said, are the music and speeches in Arabic that come over mosque loudspeakers.
Unable to advance farther, Marines holed up in front-line houses have linked the buildings by blasting or hammering holes through walls between them and laying planks across gaps between rooftops, a series of passageways they call the ``rat line.''
Lying on his stomach on a rooftop and wearing goggles and earplugs, a Marine sniper keeps an eye to his rifle sight. His main task in recent days has been trying to hit the black-garbed gunmen who occasionally dash across the long street in front of him. To dodge his shots, one of the gunmen recently launched into a rolling dive across the street, a move that had the sniper and his buddies laughing.
``I think I got him later. The same guy came back and tried to do a low crawl,'' said Lance Cpl. Khristopher Williams, 20, from Fort Myers, Fla.
Others have run across the street, hiding behind children on bicycles, said the sniper. In his position -- reachable only by scaling the outside ledge of a building -- he sits for hours with his finger poised on the trigger of a rifle that fires 50-caliber armor-piercing bullets with such force that the muzzle flash and exiting gasses from the weapon have blackened the bricks around the gun.
On the street in front of his position sits a car riddled with bullets, where the bloated, fly-infested bodies of three armed men have been left. The vehicle was shot up by Marine gunmen before the sniper set up his position.
Along the front line, Marines have been firing warning shots to scare away dogs chewing on corpses. In some cases, the troops have wrapped bodies in blankets and buried them in shallow graves.
At night, the psychological operations unit attached to the Marine battalion here sends out messages from a loudspeaker mounted on an armored Humvee. On Thursday night, the crew and its Arabic-language interpreter taunted fighters, saying, ``May all the ambulances in Fallujah have enough fuel to pick up the bodies of the mujahadeen.''
The message was specially timed for an attack moments later by an AC-130 gunship that pounded targets in the city.
Later, the team blasted Jimi Hendrix and other rock music, and afterward some sound effects like babies crying, men screaming, a symphony of cats and barking dogs and piercing screeches. They were unable to draw any gunmen to fight, and seemed disappointed.
-------- whistleblowers
Special Counsel's Chief Is Assailed Bloch Accused of Silencing Staff
By Stephen Barr
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 16, 2004; Page A19
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15791-2004Apr15.html
The head of an independent agency that enforces workplace and whistleblower rights of federal employees was accused yesterday of trying to curb employee rights in his own office.
The Office of Special Counsel denied that was the case, and said agency employees will be encouraged to speak up within the office about their concerns.
An internal e-mail was leaked to three watchdog groups, which called it a "gag order" aimed at silencing the agency's career staff. "It is ironic that the nation's protector of whistleblowers is not protecting his own," said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight.
The three groups sent a protest letter to the agency, which responded with a second e-mail to senior staff to clarify the first e-mail.
Scott J. Bloch, the agency head, said in the second e-mail that "nobody on my immediate staff saw the final message before it went out," and "there was no intent" to curtail the First Amendment or statutory rights of the agency's employees.
The e-mail flap came a week after Bloch ended a dispute with gay groups and some members of Congress over how to interpret civil service law, and reinstated a ban on sexual-orientation discrimination in the federal workplace.
Bloch acted after the White House made it clear that President Bush expects federal employees to be protected from discrimination at work.
Bloch told his senior staff to reassure agency employees that they can speak up. "In the future, if there are any concerns about policies or procedures, please encourage any employee to feel free to voice them to me, my staff, or through you to us."
The first e-mail was sent April 9, informing employees that Bloch had reinstated the ban on sexual-orientation discrimination. The e-mail begins with the phrase "the Special Counsel has requested."
That e-mail instructed agency employees to refer complainants, their representatives, federal agency representatives and others "to the press release on our web site as a complete and definitive statement of OSC's policy" on sexual-orientation discrimination.
It also said that "the Special Counsel has directed that any official comment on or discussion of confidential or sensitive internal agency matters with anyone outside OSC must be approved in advance. . . ."
The e-mail prompted a letter of protest yesterday from three watchdog groups -- the Government Accountability Project, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and the Project on Government Oversight.
The groups said "the sweeping and overbroad language" in the e-mail violates the First Amendment, the Whistleblower Protection Act and an "anti-gag" law annually renewed by Congress to ensure that federal employees can bring concerns to lawmakers and congressional committees.
"The special counsel is the last official that should be issuing gag orders," Jeff Ruch, executive director of the environmental group, said.
-------- ENERGY AND OTHER
OMB Modifies Peer-Review Proposal
Guidelines Partly Retreat From Strict Control of Agencies' Information Process
By Rick Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 16, 2004; Page A19
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15852-2004Apr15.html
Responding to a chorus of criticism from science advocacy and citizen groups, the White House Office of Management and Budget yesterday released a revised version of proposed guidelines aimed at standardizing the way federal agencies release and use scientific information.
The revisions mark a partial retreat in what proponents -- led by OMB chief of regulatory affairs John Graham -- have said was a central strategy in the war against "junk science." The "peer review" guidelines set strict criteria that must be met before scientific information may be released through agency Web sites or other channels, especially if that information is to be used in the crafting of significant regulations.
Industry had generally supported the initial version of the proposed guidelines, saying it would help keep shoddy science from shaping federal policies. Among the groups that had written in support were the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association and the American Chemistry Council.
But critics saw the guidelines as an attempt by the executive branch to gain control over the federal flow of scientific information and slow the implementation of regulations that would be costly to industry. Some advocacy groups and even the Department of Health and Human Services had said the proposal was so slanted against the public interest that it ought to be withdrawn and rethought from scratch.
"We listened to the scientific community and made revisions designed to make the peer-review policy more objective and workable," Graham said yesterday.
The new version, which is now open for an additional 30 days of outside comments, adopts several of the suggestions that were submitted to OMB by 187 outside individuals and groups and by various federal agencies during a comment period that closed in January.
Some who had expressed reservations about the earlier version said they were gratified that OMB had been responsive.
"Certainly, comparing it to the original draft, which was much more prescriptive and restrictive, this is significantly improved," said William Colglazier, executive officer of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Research Council, which advise the federal government on matters of science.
Among the improvements, he and others noted, was a change that would allow agencies to release information about an emerging public health or medical risks without waiting for permission from the OMB. Critics had feared that such bureaucratic delays could prove deadly if, say, the Department of Agriculture or the Food and Drug Administration got reliable information requiring a recall of tainted food or dangerous drugs.
Still, several science policy specialists said they remained strongly opposed to the guidelines as written, and some indicated they would press not only for significant changes but also for an extension beyond 30 days to make their cases.
"These are pretty complex federal rules, and you can't rush this through," said Gary Bass, executive director of OMB Watch, a Washington-based watchdog group.
Bass said the guidelines are misguided because they centralize scientific review in an executive office lacking any particular scientific expertise, thus undermining, he said, the federal agencies that have that expertise and subverting the oversight role of Congress.
The guidelines set minimum standards for how scientific information is to be "peer reviewed" before it is released by federal entities. They apply to all "influential" scientific information -- defined as information likely to have an impact on public policies or private industry decisions. And the guidelines insist on higher levels of review and scientific certainty for "highly influential scientific assessments," summaries of technical knowledge used to support regulations whose impact is expected to exceed $500 million a year.
The earlier version had been criticized for demanding especially high levels of review for any information relevant to an "administration policy priority," a broad category that one science organization president had said was "alarming" for its linkage of politics and science. It had also demanded extra layers of review for impacts of only $100 million.
The new version grants agencies far more leeway in deciding how to implement peer-review processes. It also lacks controversial language that had appeared to welcome industry representatives on peer-review panels while restricting participation by academic experts who had been recipients of federal grant money -- a provision that critics had seen as reflecting lopsided concerns about potential conflicts of interest.
Still, there is plenty to complain about in the new version, said Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, a Washington advocacy group. For example, she said, the guidelines exempt information from peer review if that review would interfere with international trade or the approval or drugs or pesticides.
"They've exempted a lot of stuff that business would be irritated by if they were covered," she said.
David Korn, a senior vice president at the Association of American Medical Colleges, was one of several critics of the earlier version who said he was impressed with the changes.
"They've taken a top-heavy, rigid prescriptive, one-size-fits-all form and made it a much more realistic set of guidances that I think do reflect the different approaches to peer review that may be valid in various cases," he said.
Nonetheless, he and others said, the complicated guidelines' real impact on science, business and politics will not be clear until they are finalized and actually put into effect.
"These are words on paper," said Michael Taylor, a senior fellow at Resources for the Future and a former FDA deputy commissioner for policy. "How it's played out in practice is what's going to matter."
-------- environment
Region's Air Doesn't Meet New Standards
April 16, 2004
By ANTHONY DePALMA
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/16/nyregion/16epa.html
Most of the people who live in New York State and all the residents of New Jersey and Connecticut are breathing air that does not meet new federal health standards for smog, according to a report released yesterday by federal environmental officials. The pollution is a combination of dirty emissions produced in the states themselves and contaminants that float in on air coming from the Midwest and central Canada.
As a result, state and county officials across the three states must now prepare plans for reducing the most serious air pollutant, ground-level ozone, which is produced by cars, power plants and factories, and which causes respiratory problems and makes asthma worse.
Officials say they are considering toughening automobile emissions inspections and increasing the use of specially formulated gasoline during the summer, when the ozone problem is most severe. Failure to meet the new, stricter standards could have economic consequences, including the loss of federal highway money or the inability to get approval for new manufacturing and other business developments.
Officials of all three states have long made federal officials aware of their concern about pollution drifting in from the Midwest, and yesterday Gov. James E. McGreevey of New Jersey placed blame for the situation with the Bush administration.
"The Bush administration's lack of leadership and its failure to stop polluters, especially in the Midwest, continues to damage New Jersey's air quality," Mr. McGreevey, a Democrat, said in a statement.
Gov. George E. Pataki of New York did not directly criticize the Bush administration but called on Washington to get tough with Midwest polluters. "Our ultimate goal must be to enact measures across the nation that will make certain Midwestern sources of pollution are reduced," Mr. Pataki, a Republican, said in a statement.
In all, the federal Environmental Protection Agency notified 31 governors yesterday that their states had failed to meet the new ozone standards. New Jersey and Connecticut were among five states, all on the East Coast, in which every county was considered to be plagued by unacceptable levels of pollution. The others are Delaware, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
The New York counties where smog levels exceed federal standards are on Long Island, in New York City, in the suburbs north and northwest of the city, and the western part of the state. They have 16 million residents, most of the state's population.
Jane M. Kenny, the E.P.A.'s regional administrator for New York and New Jersey, said the new list did not mean that the region's air had become dirtier. Rather, she said, the new standards are part of a broader, more aggressive effort to keep the air clean. The new standards, and regulations to help attain them, not only will clean up the region's air, she said, but will help reduce asthma and other respiratory problems.
She added that new regulations released this week by the E.P.A. would reduce power plant emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides that drift across state lines and end up contaminating air on the East Coast.
The new standard for measuring smog requires air samples to be taken over eight hours, replacing standards that used a one-hour sample.
Standards for ozone and soot were tightened in 1997 during the Clinton administration but did not take effect for several years because of legal challenges that rose as high as the Supreme Court, which rejected the arguments in 2001.
It has taken the E.P.A. three years to compile the list of counties in violation of the new standards. During that time, New York and other states lobbied heavily to keep certain counties off the list. Because of an anomaly in testing, officials said, the city of Syracuse and the counties around it, have been left unclassified until more samples can be taken during the ozone season this summer.
The E.P.A.'s final list contains 474 counties, which have a total population of 159 million people. Local and state governments have until April 2007 to come up with plans to reduce the two main components of ozone, nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds. They will then have up to seven years to implement the plans.
David McIntosh, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, said that no matter what New York, New Jersey and Connecticut do, it may not be enough unless federal officials get tougher with industries west of the coast. "The E.P.A. has to require the large air pollution sources in and upwind of New York State to install pollution control technology that American know-how has already made available," he said, "and to do it now, not 20 years from now."
-------- health
Company's Mad Cow Tests Blocked
USDA Fears Other Firms' Meat Would Appear Unsafe
By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 16, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A15855-2004Apr15?language=printer
ARKANSAS CITY, Kan. -- To Creekstone Farms manager Bill Fielding, his company's idea does not seem unreasonable. In order to satisfy its very important customers in Japan -- customers the company needs to survive -- Creekstone wants to test for mad cow disease every one of the cattle it slaughters.
To do that, Creekstone has spent more than $500,000 to build the first mad cow testing lab in an American slaughterhouse, and it has hired seven chemists and biologists to operate it. The company made the investment after Fielding returned from a trip to Japan convinced that officials there would lift their ban on American beef -- imposed after an infected cow was found in Washington state last December -- only if American companies adopt the Japanese practice of testing every animal.
But there is a big obstacle in the way of Creekstone's mad cow initiative: The U.S. Department of Agriculture will not allow it.
The company has all the equipment it needs, but it does not have the kit of chemical reagents needed to run the tests. In the United States, the USDA controls the sale of those kits, and the agency ruled last week that only labs in the U.S. government's testing program can buy them.
"That the USDA is standing in our way makes no sense," Fielding said. "Their position flies in the face of the basic rule of business -- that the customer is always right, and our job is to meet their demands."
As a small, upscale slaughterhouse and meatpacker, Creekstone already does for its domestic and foreign customers many things that competitors do not do. It specializes in premium-quality Black Angus beef, accepts fewer and fewer animals that have been fed antibiotics or hormones, and can trace the origin of each animal it receives.
USDA officials say that they sympathize with Creekstone and similar operations hurt by the bans imposed by Japan and other nations, but that agreeing to the company's request could imply there is a safety issue with American beef and usher in an era of expensive testing that has no scientific justification.
The issue is not the effectiveness of the testing itself, as Creekstone would be working under the auspices of an academic lab that the USDA has approved for mad cow testing. Rather, the agency objects to the very idea of testing every animal, including younger ones.
Following the advice of an international panel of mad cow experts, USDA officials say, the agency has put together an expanded plan to test as many as 250,000 animals over the next 18 months -- a national effort to determine whether mad cow disease is spreading through the American herd.
The agency has also followed the advice of the international panel in limiting the testing to cattle more than 30 months old, because they are most at risk of having the infection. Because most of the cattle that Creekstone slaughters are less than 30 months old, the company's petition to begin testing challenges several government policies.
"I can very much empathize with the situation of the company, and I understand their perspective," said Peter Fernandez, associate administrator of the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. "But our mandate is to stick to the science when it comes to putting together a surveillance system, and ours is to test a limited number of animals older than 30 months."
Bankruptcy Feared Fielding knows his petition creates difficulties for the agency, and he is trying to find compromises. But the USDA, he fears, does not understand how bleak his company's prospects are. If he does not get permission to test soon, he said, his company will face bankruptcy and almost 800 employees will lose their jobs.
"They always talk about the need to follow good science, and I have no problem with that," said Fielding, the company's chief operating officer. "But how would the science be hurt if we did more tests and helped them gather more information about mad cow disease?"
The company's plight has been taken up by local congressman Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.,) who says it is essential that Creekstone be given the right to test.
"USDA made a decision based on old-school bureaucratic thinking that may well end up with us losing millions of customers and hundreds of American jobs," Tiahrt said. "They're afraid of change and new technologies, and that's just not acceptable." He says, however, that others in the Kansas congressional delegation disagree.
A further complication is that the Japanese ban on American beef has become an increasingly complex and contentious trade issue. In an effort to reopen the Japanese market, USDA Secretary Ann M. Veneman wrote earlier this month to Japan's agriculture minister, Yoshiyuki Kamei, asking to discuss the beef export ban under the auspices of the World Organization for Animal Health. That body has already said that testing all animals for mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), is not necessary. The Japanese quickly turned down Veneman's offer to meet.
"I was expecting that you would make an appropriate proposal that is in accordance with Japanese consumers' wishes," Kamei wrote back. He said Veneman's offer appeared to compromise progress already made in ongoing consultations between the two nations.
Japan's intense sensitivity over the issue began in 2001, when mad cow disease was first detected in an animal there. Since then, universal testing there has found 10 more infected animals, and few have had the characteristics that normally put an animal at high risk.
While all American beef exporters have been hurt by the ban on sales abroad, Creekstone is especially vulnerable because it is small -- with less than 1 percent of the market -- and it only packs beef. The big players in the business -- companies such as Tyson Foods, Swift & Co. and Smithfield Foods -- also sell pork and chicken and can weather the beef ban much better.
If Japan will not buy their beef, the more diversified companies can sell pork, which they are doing now at a tidy profit. As a result, Fielding says, the beef export ban works to the advantage of the big firms and could end up squeezing many small operations such as his out of business.
The USDA formally announced its refusal to allow private testing on Friday, with USDA Undersecretary Bill Hawks saying, "The use of the test as proposed by Creekstone would have implied a consumer safety aspect that is not scientifically warranted."
While Creekstone officials said they were disappointed and are considering a legal challenge, they know the obstacles are great. The largest and most powerful meat-packing companies are dead set against Creekstone's proposal, as is the group that represents ranchers and feedlot owners, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.
Association President Jan Lyons said that allowing one company to test all its cattle could quickly snowball into a situation where all companies would have to do similar testing. "If testing is allowed at Creekstone and other companies, we think it would become the international standard and the domestic standard, too," she said. "But it's a standard that's not based on science, would be very expensive and so is something our government definitely needs to resist."
A State-of-the-Art Plant
The Creekstone packing plant does not look, smell or operate like a traditional slaughterhouse. It is an entirely contained building that, from the outside, looks as if it could be manufacturing computer chips or cooking apple pies, rather than slaughtering 1,000 cattle a day.
Its production line is intentionally slow to enhance worker safety and ensure that the animals are dead before butchering begins. In 2001, previous owners built state-of-the-art holding pens and walkways for cattle heading to slaughter, designed by animal welfare specialist Temple Grandin to keep the animals calm.
The average wage is between $11 and $12 an hour, and Arkansas City Manager Curtis Freeland said the company is about as good a corporate citizen as it could be. "The turnover rate at the plant is low, and they want to work with the community," he said. "This is not what people imagine when they think of a slaughterhouse."
One of the largest employers in southeastern Kansas, Creekstone provides jobs to 790 men and women in an area that has been reeling from the closing of several other large plants. But since December, the company has laid off 40 people and put the rest of its workforce on a three-day workweek.
Fielding went to Japan in February and came back convinced that Japanese consumers know their locally raised beef has been tested for BSE and would demand the same of American beef. By then, much of the American beef shipped to Japan had been replaced by meat from Australia, which has never detected mad cow disease in its herd and so does not require testing. The switch is especially galling to American meat producers such as Fielding, who worked hard over many years to expand the historically small Japanese beef market.
Creekstone filed its petition to start testing all animals in February, after Japanese buyers told Fielding they would resume business if the company agreed to follow Japan's testing rules. Japanese officials have supported Creekstone's petition, although Tadashi Sato at the Japanese Embassy in Washington said last week that trade could not be restored unless the USDA not only allowed the testing but also certified that it was being done properly.
In southeast Kansas, the issue is being closely watched. Kevin Gallaway, owner of Gallaway's steak restaurant in Winfield, a buyer of Creekstone beef, said the USDA should approve the testing:
"If our government keeps the company from testing the animals and it goes under as a result," he said, "I can tell you that people around here would be plenty angry about it."
-------- poverty
Survey Shows Slight Decline in Homeless on the Streets
April 16, 2004
New York Times
By LESLIE KAUFMAN
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/16/nyregion/16homeless.html
The number of homeless men and women sleeping on the streets of Manhattan has declined slightly even as the population in city shelters has surged, city officials said yesterday.
That finding was among the results of the second annual census of street homelessness, conducted by the Department of Homeless Services and released yesterday.
The officials also said the city would decentralize its shelter intake system - expanding it from one main office in Manhattan to three offices, two of them outside Manhattan.
In February, volunteers combed sections of the city to count people sleeping on the streets and in subway cars and doorways. From that count, the city extrapolated that there was a total of 2,694 homeless people on the streets of Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island. (Queens and the Bronx will be added next year.)
In Manhattan, the only borough surveyed in 2003, the city said it found 1,472 homeless people, a slight decline from the 1,560 counted last year. Officials said the total number of adults in shelters citywide rose by more than 600, to nearly 9,000 people, in the same period.
Patrick Markee, a spokesman for the Coalition for the Homeless, a nonprofit advocacy group that has criticized the city's counting method, said: "It doesn't even pass the laugh test. You could talk to any New Yorker about the number of homeless they see on the street and know it is not true."
But Linda I. Gibbs, the city's commissioner of homeless services, said the count provided information that should help her agency meet people's needs. As a result of the data, she said, her office will open intake offices closer to outlying populations.
Ms. Gibbs said she would meet with groups that reach out to the homeless and with community planners to find locations for outreach programs in the next year, and that two would be outside of Manhattan. She said she hoped to close the East 30th Street shelter, which processes the intake of all single homeless men, within two years. The city first announced its desire to close the 30th Street shelter in 1999 under Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, but has been slow to build alternatives. Ms. Gibbs said Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg would request $7 million in his new budget to finance the new centers.
-------- ACTIVISTS
Brethren peacemakers return from Iraq.
Church of the Brethren news update
April 16, 2004
Contact: Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford
V: 847/742-5100 F: 847/742-6103
E-MAIL: CoBNews@AOL.Com
http://www.wfn.org/2004/04/msg00106.html
Peggy Gish and Cliff Kindy, Church of the Brethren members of Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), were in Baghdad the day the bombs began to fall a year ago, and on March 20, the one-year anniversary of the beginning of the war. Both returned to the US in late March.
On April 13 the current CPT team left Iraq on the advice of Iraqi colleagues. "The extremely aggressive actions of the US and Coalition forces throughout Iraq and especially in Fallujah have created widespread suspicion and fear," a CPT release said. "This suspicion puts all internationals at risk." CPT is a ministry initiated by Mennonites, Brethren, and Friends, and has had a team in Iraq almost continuously since Oct. 2002.
Gish, of New Covenant Fellowship in Athens, Ohio, spent 11 months of the last year and a half in Iraq, and Kindy, who attends Eel River Community Church of the Brethren, Silver Lake, Ind., spent ten months there. In separate interviews conducted after their return, Kindy and Gish reflected on their work and the situation in Iraq "then and now."
"We were there before the war with the hope that we could stop a war," Kindy said of CPT's initial decision to place a team in Iraq. The CPT presence, along with massive anti-war demonstrations around the world, helped delay the war, he contends.
"We resist getting caught in the mindset of the occupation system," Gish said, emphasizing that CPT's spiritual resistance to the war continues. "We refuse to accept the mindset that anyone resisting the US occupation is a terrorist. We resist seeing either Iraqi or US soldiers as our enemies, or believing that violence is the only way to combat terrorism." In Iraq, Kindy espoused nonviolence to people on all sides of the conflict including an American colonel who befriended the CPT team and an Iraqi-Canadian physician with plans to finance a militia. Such conversations illustrate CPT's mission Kindy said.
Assessing the current situation, he said that the war has been "lost in every way, except maybe for corporations who have more business." "There are little visible signs of hope, but we hold on to hope," Gish said. "Iraq may go through a lot more hell, but good things are happening there too. God is raising up leadership right now, people who have vision for rebuilding a more peaceable society there." Gish gives credit to the many Iraqis who do not resort to violence even though they are angry with the occupation.
Both fear the longterm effects of the war. "We're going to bring the war home in ways we can't even think about in our nightmares," Kindy said. His concerns include loss of US credibility, effects of the war on troops, and the effects of weapons made with depleted uranium, which may include a high incidence of cancer in those exposed and deformations of babies born in Iraq and to US veterans. Gish's concerns focus on the continuing violence. She said that US actions are rapidly increasing the ranks of the opposition, who in her opinion are not terrorists or Al Qaeda "but mostly Iraqis wanting their own autonomy and feeling desperate."
When soldiers return from Iraq, few family or friends know how to deal with their war experiences, Kindy fears. There is a ministry for the church in hearing the stories of the soldiers, both for their healing and to change what is happening in Iraq, he said. "It's going to take the soldiers and us working together."
Gish and Kindy bring questions from Iraq, for themselves and the church. "Is it possible to walk, live, and work in a system of horrendous overt and structural violence without being overcome by it? How can we do it in Iraq, the US, or any other nation?" Gish asked. Kindy wondered how peacemaking in Iraq may help Brethren understand discipleship. "It's the kind of vision that could attract serious followers of Jesus," he said.
Gish is writing a book about her experiences, "Iraq: A Journey of Hope and Peace," to be published by Herald Press in early fall. Kindy is on a speaking tour to churches. For more information call CPT at 773-277-0253 or log on to http://www.cpt.org.
----
"Peace Criminal" Shares His Experience In Iraq
Submitted by Michael Holtz
April 16, 2004,
Oswego Daily News (Ontario, Canada)
http://www.oswegodailynews.com/homearticle.asp?id=42173§ion=home&network=oswego
(Editor's Note: This story is being published as part of the writer's assignment for course credit at SUNY-Oswego)
Ed Kinane, who refers to himself as a "peace criminal," visited SUNY Oswego Wednesday night and shared his experience of life in Iraq as a Peace Team Volunteer.
Invited by The Coalition of Peace Education (COPE) as a part of Peace Week, Kinane informed students, staff, and community members of his observations and openly discussed his political viewpoints on the war in Iraq.
Traveling with Voices in the Wilderness, a non-violent organization dedicated to working against the trade sanctions imposed on Iraq, Kinane spent five months living among the Iraqi people last year.
"They are people of immense dignity," said Kinane. "Hospitality ranks with making money in our culture."
He explained in depth the significance of the Iraqi culture, and then played a video showing a compilation of images of typical people in Iraq involved in the same everyday activities as Americans.
Residing primarily in Baghdad, Kinane encountered a substantial amount of educated individuals. Claiming Iraq to have one of the highest rates of PhDs in the world, many of which being women, he spoke of the sanctions putting many of these intelligent individuals out of work.
On April 9, 2003, during the US occupation of Baghdad, Kinane and the rest of his delegation were residing in the building next to the Palestine Hotel. With banners hung saying, "Life is Sacred," and "Courage For Peace Not For War," they watched as Marines surrounded the area.
According to Kinane, while observing the tanks and troops a voice shouted out, "Are you Red Sox fans?" taking them by pleasant surprise.
Later, a few protestors gave bottled water to the tanks. Kinane said this gesture helped humanize both, Marines and activists, in each other's view. He also described this encounter as a unique moment in history. After a bloody three weeks the soldiers from the US met up with protestors from the US, all on foreign soil.
"Iraq today is a hornet's nest that the US is prodding," Kinane said, characterizing the occupation of American troops in Iraq.
Kinane also presented the effect of using Depleted Uranium munitions in Iraq. Showing a video, which graphically depicted military personnel suffering illness, along with pictures of Iraqi children, born with horrifying deformities from remains of this substance.
Ironically, Kinane never involved himself in the anti-war campaigns during throughout the Vietnam War era. It wasn't until 1969, while traveling through Central America, that he gained a slight interest in activism.
Born and raised in Syracuse, the 60-year-old Kinane describes himself as never being very goal oriented. Driven by mere curiosity, he received a bachelors degree in anthropology from Syracuse University.
Later receiving a masters degree from New School University in New York City, Kinane slowly became more active in peaceful protests.
During a non-violent movement to close the School of Americas (SOA) in Fort Benning, Ga., Kinane was imprisoned for 14 months for trespassing and destruction of government property.
He referred to the SOA as the "School of Torture," making sure to add that an 88-year-old nun also received a six-month prison sentence for trespassing.
"I don't pay Federal Income Taxes," said Kinane. Never holding a job for more than three years, and keeping his earnings below the taxable limit, he makes sure the military does not receive any money from his pocket, he says.
Having jobs such as working on Wall Street for a year, as a deck hand on ships, on a flower farm, and constructing one of the residence halls at Oswego State. Kinane says his ability to survive is due to "low consumption."
What's next on his agenda? Kinane says he doesn't know. He'd rather take it one day at a time and address each new opportunity as it comes, he explained.
----
Guardsman Pleads Innocent to Desertion
April 16, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-BRF-Anti-War-Soldier.html
FORT STEWART, Ga. (AP) -- A National Guardsman who refused to rejoin his unit in Iraq, saying he refused to take part in an ``oil-driven war,'' pleaded not guilty to desertion Friday.
Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia of the Florida National Guard faces up to a year in prison and a bad conduct discharge. His court-martial was scheduled for May 19 at Fort Stewart.
Mejia, 28, was gone without permission for five months. He emerged in Florida in October after a two-week furlough and criticized the war before turning himself in last month.
He has applied for conscientious objector status, but the Army pressed on with prosecution because he was gone so long.
Mejia said he was particularly upset over an incident in which his unit was ambushed and innocent civilians were hit in the ensuing gunfire, and another in which he said an Iraqi boy died after confusion over which military doctor should treat him.
----
Tax resisters make their case
By JUSTIN MASON
Brattleboro Reformer Staff
Friday, April 16, 2004
http://www.reformer.com/Stories/0,1413,102~8862~2087545,00.html
BRATTLEBORO -- While hundreds of Vermonters struggle to beat tax deadlines, a group of local residents has decided to opt out of paying taxes -- at least through the traditional method.
Instead of crunching numbers, nearly three dozen people gathered outside the Brattleboro Post Office on Thursday afternoon and talked about their refusal to pay taxes to the federal government.
Organizer Ellen Kay said the Windham County Tax Resisters of Conscience donated a total of $3,332 would-be tax dollars to four area human services agencies. They divided the money equally between the Women's Crisis Center, Nuclear Free Vermont, Morningside Shelter and Pathways for Youth. She said the money represents tax dollars the group refused to relinquish to the government, instead redirecting them to more peaceful uses.
"While most people are trying to get their check in on time, we're trying to make them think about where that money is going," she said.
According to IRS records, nearly 173,000 Vermont returns had been filed as of last weekend, New England region spokesperson Peggy Riley said. By the deadline, the IRS estimates that nearly 298,000 tax returns will be filed in total and approximately 21,000 people will file for an extension this year, she said.
But between people co-filing, claiming household members as dependents and not filing at all, the amount of Vermonters slipping through the cracks is difficult to determine, Riley said. Nationwide, nearly $250 billion worth of federal tax dollars go uncollected annually between business and individual returns.
During the afternoon, the resisters gathered at the entrance of the post office. To demonstrate how the residents would choose to allocate tax money, the group set up a table with seven glass Mason jars, each labeled with a category of federal spending. Kay said the object was to have people drop pennies into the jar that would represent where they wanted their tax dollars spent. As many of the jars filled up, the military jar remained mostly empty.
"We're trying to draw attention to the uses of (the nation's tax) money to kill people and to produce instability around the world," she said.
Kay estimated that there were nearly 10,000 "conscientious objectors" who would refuse to pay taxes this year out of principle, but said the number could easily be larger.
"There are a lot of people that just do this quietly," she said.
The group wasn't trying to avoid paying its fair share of taxes, Kay said. Instead, the group was trying to direct its tax dollars to an area that would positively affect the surrounding community.
"We feel like we have paid our taxes to the community, that distinction has to be made," she said. "We're not buying big yachts with our refused tax money."
Everyone in the group was willing to face the penalties for their civil disobedience, she said, which has caused some members to relinquish their homes.
"War tax resisters can face some serious consequences, but we're willing to face them," she said. "Paying for these criminal acts seems to be abhorrent."
Local resident Leo Schiff decided to stop paying taxes 20 years ago, because he doesn't believe in supporting war.
"I chose not to register for the (Selective Service System) in 1985," he said. "That made me think carefully about what my beliefs are."
Schiff said the nation would have a much more effective presence in the world with a smaller military. By not paying taxes, Schiff said he can avoid funding the military.
Last August, Louise Rader got the courage to stop paying taxes. She sold her house in Guilford at no profit and began living under the taxable limit in order to stop paying the government.
"I've always been a pacifist and could no longer support the military (with my taxes)," she said.
Rader said a common misconception is that people who don't pay taxes don't hold jobs. On the contrary, she said, many of the non-taxpaying people contribute a lot to their local communities.
"We are very hard-working people," she said.
Instead of paying taxes on earned income, Rader said she volunteers her time with a variety of local social service agencies. In her spare time, she barters her services as a caretaker for room and board.
Erik Schikendanz said he decided to stop paying taxes in 1989 because he was against military spending.
"Why should I pay money for something I don't believe in," he asked.
For two years following his decision, Schikendanz filed a return, but informed the IRS that he had no intention of paying. When the government began docking his pay, Schikendanz quit his job.
Living under the taxable income is just one of many ways to avoid taxes, Schikendanz said. People can also file exempt status or inflate the number of dependents on a W-4 form. However, these practices can lead to federal perjury charges, he said.
Kay hopes that the group's demonstration causes people to consider where all the money goes, once their taxes are filed each year, which may prompt some to join the war resistance.
"The best part about tax resistance is that people don't even need to be out on the street to do it," Kay said.
----
Antiwar activist tells of son's death in Iraq, questions reasons for war
Laura Cruz
Friday, April 16, 2004
El Paso Times
http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/borderland/20040416-106460.shtml
For mor information on Proyecto Guerrero Azteca Before a row of more than 600 photographs of service members who have died in Iraq since March 2003, antiwar activist Fernando Suarez del Solar told an audience of about 100 people Thursday the story of his only son, a Marine lance corporal who died in Iraq.
"I try to see in you the faces of my son and the faces of the many other soldiers who have died because so many of them joined the military in hopes of attaining an education and a career," del Solar said during a presentation at the University of Texas at El Paso's Undergraduate Learning Center.
Del Solar, a native of Tijuana, Mexico, said he moved his family of six to the United States in the late 1990s so that his only son, Jesus A. Suarez del Solar Navarro, could attend an American high school and join the Marines. Jesus joined the Marines immediately after graduating from high school in 2000 and died on March 27, 2003, in Iraq after stepping on a U.S. cluster bomb.
"The day he died, three Marines arrived at my home and began to tell us a series of lies," del Solar said. "They said, 'Your son is a hero. He died at the hand of enemy fire.' They told my wife he had died of a bullet to the head in combat, but three days later in a San Diego paper we learned about a very different story."
Del Solar said he does not oppose people joining the military, but he warns students who are joining the military to get an education to be wary of the military and military recruiters because he says they continually lied or misinformed his and other families.
One man, who refused to give his name, told del Solar that his son's story illustrates the price of freedom and that he thinks that anyone who joins the military might anticipate one day being in combat.
Del Solar said he appreciated the man's point of view, but said the issue he is fighting against is not whether to join the military but instead the reasons for getting involved in the current war.
"This war is not about defending our nation; this war is in fact destroying our nation," he said.
UTEP senior Natomi Austin said she was amazed by what del Solar talked about.
"It was eye-opening," Austin said. "He exposed a lot of the things that the media and the government isn't telling us about."
Laura Cruz may be reached at lcruz@elpasotimes.com; 546-6136.
----
Judge upholds government's use of obscure 1800s law in charging Greenpeace
Friday, April 16, 2004
By Catherine Wilson,
Associated Press
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-04-16/s_22889.asp
MIAMI - A judge refused Thursday to throw out federal charges against Greenpeace for protesting a shipment of Amazon mahogany, setting up a trial that could serve as a test on the limits of political dissent.
The Justice Department charged the environmental group under an obscure 19th-century law enacted to stop pimps from clambering aboard ships heading for port. The government has never successfully prosecuted an activist organization on criminal charges over protest methods.
Although U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan allowed the case to move forward, parts of his ruling could give prosecutors reason to be nervous.
"This case is, to put it mildly, unusual," Jordan wrote. Although the law's "lack of use does not prevent the government from going forward against Greenpeace, it does point to how uncommon such a prosecution is."
Jordan did not make a final decision on Greenpeace's claim that the wording of the old law is too vague but said the argument "looks like a winner."
U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman Matt Dates declined comment.
Greenpeace claims the Bush administration is going out of its way to stifle dissent in retaliation for its pushy challenges to pollution, deforestation, and global warming.
The prosecution "has the potential to transform an important aspect of our nation's legal and political life, significantly affecting our tradition of civil protest," said Greenpeace Executive Director John Passacantando.
The charges stem from a 2002 protest on the 965-foot APL Jade more than three miles off Miami Beach. Two protesters jumped aboard the vessel while members in two rubber rafts zigzagged in front of the ship. The crew kept protesters from unfurling a banner reading, "President Bush, Stop Illegal Logging."
Greenpeace claims the ship was carrying illegally cut Brazilian mahogany and that Bush has failed to enforce an international import ban.
Six Greenpeace members settled criminal charges over the boarding, but a misdemeanor indictment charged the group with conspiracy and an illegal boarding under the 1872 law.
Each count carries a possible $10,000 fine plus probation, a chilling prospect for an organization that is afraid it could be forced to open its records to government inspection.
The judge said the fears were "unfounded" and specifically noted that Greenpeace's membership list would be protected.
The jury trial will begin May 17.
----
Honduras to halt gold mine after protests
Friday, April 16, 2004
By Reuters
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-04-16/s_22896.asp
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - The Honduran government said Thursday it would revoke a Canadian company's right to search for gold near a nature reserve after environmental protesters blocked a major road for two days.
Protesters opened the road in western Ocotepeque province after government negotiators agreed to overturn a concession allowing Canadian mining exploration company Maverick to search for gold in a 950-acre site bordering the Guisayote nature reserve, government sources said.
"The exploration and exploitation contract granted to Maverick will be rescinded. The concession process will be examined and it will be overturned within four months at the latest," said Natural Resources and Environment Minister Patricia Panting.
More than 1,000 local residents took part in the blockade, which prevented some 500 vehicles from crossing the border into neighboring El Salvador and Guatemala, including trucks ferrying goods to and from the Caribbean port of Puerto Cortes in northern Honduras.
Residents feared that the water-rich reserve would be churned up by the open-cast mining process permitted under the concession and risk pollution from sodium cyanide, used by the mining industry to separate gold from ore-bearing rocks.
Opposition to mine working has grown in Honduras in recent months. Two companies are currently working open cast concessions in the Central American nation.
Officials from Maverick, a small unlisted company, were unavailable for comment. The firm won the concession in July 2003.
----
The Guardian profile: Mordechai Vanunu
An imprisoned hero, a Nobel prize nominee, a victim, or a traitor: Israel's nuclear whistleblower represents many things to many people. How will he and his country react when the day of his release from jail dawns next week?
Duncan Campbell
Friday April 16, 2004
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1193015,00.html
Nearly 18 years ago, a young Israeli nuclear technician went to London to reveal the secrets of his country's atomic weapons programme to the world. Then, lured to Italy by an Israeli secret service agent, he was drugged, gagged, bound and returned to Israel, where he was convicted of treason and espionage and sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment.
Next week, after serving most of that sentence in solitary confinement, he will finally be released.
Mordechai Vanunu is 49 and has become a symbol for the international peace movement. He has been nominated for a Nobel peace prize, and a long-running campaign has sought his release.
When he finally walks out of the gates of Shekma prison next Wednesday, to be met by scores of his supporters from a dozen different countries around the world, he will not be allowed to leave the country for at least six months, or communicate with any foreigner.
Born in 1954 in Marrakesh, Morocco, into a large and deeply religious Jewish family which emigrated to Israel in 1963, Vanunu served for three years in the sappers' unit of the Israeli Defence Force after he left school. He held the rank of sergeant and was given an honourable discharge. He then became a technician at the nuclear reactor centre in Dimona. He worked there from 1976 to 1985, when he was made redundant.
At the same time, he was studying philosophy at Ben Gurion university and already beginning to feel uncomfortable about a number of his government's policies.
He was also beginning to come to the attention of the authorities, not least because, along with four other Jewish students and five Arab students, he had formed a radical group, called Campus. He was also an admirer of his professor, Evron Pollakov, a radical who had refused to serve with the Israeli army in Lebanon and had been jailed as a result.
The security services noted Vanunu's increasing radicalism, his professed sympathy for the Palestinians, and the fact that he had links with an organisation called the Movement for the Advancement of Peace.
By now he was starting to suffer what he later described as a crisis of conscience while working at the Dimona plant, which was clandestinely producing nuclear weapons.
He started to take photos of the plant, without having made a decision to do anything with them. As he later explained: "It crossed my mind, of course, but I just wanted to think over my future and make plans to see more of the world."
Made redundant in 1985, he used his $7,500 payoff to travel round the world, visiting Nepal, Burma and Thailand before arriving in Australia, where he booked into a hostel in the Kings Cross district and found himself odd jobs as a hotel dishwasher and later a taxi driver. "The people are friendly," he wrote to a former girlfriend. "They drink a lot of beer."
At around this time, he introduced himself to the local church, St John's, where he was made welcome by the Rev John McKnight, who was well known in the area for his work with homeless people and drug addicts. He gradually decided to convert to Christianity, being baptised as an Anglican in 1986 - a move that was to alienate him from his parents and most of his 11 brothers and sisters.
At the church, during a discussion on peace and nuclear proliferation, Vanunu divulged some of the knowledge that he had gained at Dimona. By chance, a freelance Colombian journalist called Oscar Guerrero was working at the church. He heard about Vanunu and encouraged him to tell all.
Guerrero contacted the Australian press, but without success. He headed for Europe and approached the Sunday Times, which assigned the investigative journalist Peter Hounam and the Insight team to the story. In the summer of 1986, Hounam flew to Sydney to assess the strength of the allegation that Israel, despite its denials, was secretly developing a nuclear arsenal.
"I liked him straight away," said Hounam this week as he prepared to set off to Israel for Vanunu's release. "We spent 12 days together and he answered all my questions in a very straightforward way. He spoke about his disillusionment about what was going on in Israel."
It was agreed that Vanunu should come to London, where he could talk to nuclear scientists in the peace movement and be debriefed. Hounam continued to interview him, and the paper prepared to publish the revelations.
However, before the story had even appeared in the Sunday Times, Vanunu disappeared. He had grown frustrated with a delay in publication, and was upset by a piece in the Sunday Mirror which wrongly accused him of being a hoaxer. Crucially, he had also met a woman, "Cindy", who he believed was an American tourist. She seemed to be attracted to him, and was critical of the Israeli government.
Hounam told him: "Morde, this woman might be lying, she might be a Mossad plant," but Vanunu thought she was genuine.
"Cindy" paid for air tickets to Rome, said that her sister had a flat on the outskirts of the city, and suggested that they could have a holiday there. Vanunu believed her until the moment he entered the flat and was overpowered by two men. He was injected with a drug, smuggled on to a ship and taken back to Israel. At Mossad's headquarters, he was shown a copy of the Sunday Times story which had appeared on October 5 and told: "See the damage you have done."
Convicted of treason and espionage at a closed trial, Vanunu was jailed for 18 years. The first eleven and a half were spent in solitary confinement. There was fear for his mental health as he grew increasingly despairing. For the first part of his sentence, the light in his cell was kept on all the time.
Since being allowed to mix with other prisoners, his health has apparently improved considerably. He has read voraciously, for many years studying Kant, Sartre, Camus and Nietzsche, but more recently reading historical works, and in particular the history of the US. He listens to opera on a cassette player and hopes to travel eventually, possibly settling in Minnesota with Nick and Mary Eoloff, a couple from the peace movement who have gone through an adoption process to name him as their son.
His natural parents are still alive, but it has mainly been his two brothers, Meir, a photographer in Israel, and Asher, the deputy head of a high school there, who have supported him during his long incarceration.
"It's a terrible tragedy," said Hounam. "I've been waiting since 1986 for this moment. I want him to be able to resume his life, maybe get married and have kids. It's been a scandal what has happened to him."
Although denounced as a traitor by his government and the subject of frequent allegations about his motives in some of the Israeli press, his actions have won him international support.
Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon papers in an attempt to end the war in Vietnam in the 70s, has described Vanunu as "heroic" and often refers to him as such in his public speeches.
Sabby Sagall, one of the founding members of the London-based Campaign to Free Vanunu and for a Nuclear Free Middle East, said: "He is one of the bravest and most inspirational people of our time. If Bush and Blair want to find weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, Vanunu has told them where to go."
Professor Joseph Rotblat, a Nobel peace prize winner, has also been outspoken in his support.
Among those flying to Israel this weekend are Bruce Kent, vice-president of CND, and the actor Susannah York.
Ernest Rodker, the secretary of the campaign, said: "He is in some physical danger if he remains in Israel. A talkshow host called for him to be wiped out recently."
Rodker said that Vanunu had a wide range of correspondents who had kept in touch with him over the years. He hoped that, if Vanunu wanted to come to Britain, he would be allowed to do so - Britain had a responsibility towards him because he was in effect lured away while on British soil. It was believed at the time that Vanunu was not seized in Britain because the Israeli government did not want to embarrass Mrs Thatcher.
Over the years, pleas for his release or for a less harsh jail regime met with little response. The Israeli government position was made clear in 1997 when President Ezer Weizman said at a press conference in London: "He was a spy who gave away secrets, and the fact that he did so for conviction rather than for money makes no difference. He was a traitor to his country."
In one of the hundreds of letters that Vanunu wrote in prison, he said he saw himself as a free man.
"I'll stay free, to prove that I was right to reveal the madness of the Israeli nuclear secrets. I am not a spy, but a man who helped all the world to end the madness of the nuclear race."
Life in short
Born: October 13 1954, Morocco
Life
1963: family emigrates to Israel 1971-74: military service in army 1976-1985: technician at Dimona nuclear reactor centre.
Travels in far east before arriving in London to talk to Sunday Times
September 1986: disappears.
October 1986: Sunday Times publishes his story.
November 1986: Israel admits it has him in custody.
March 1988: convicted of treason and sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment.
Vanunu on impending release
"I'll be free, I won. The gates and the locks will be opened. They didn't succeed in breaking me or driving me crazy."
Vanunu on future
"I have no interest in fighting the state. I want to live a normal life, a simple life, as a free man outside of Israel"
----
War protesters close federal building
16 arrested in downtown Oakland as 300 blast U.S., Israel
Friday, April 16, 2004
By Heather MacDonald, STAFF WRITER
http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82%7E1726%7E2087930,00.html
OAKLAND -- Sixteen anti-war protesters were arrested Thursday after staging a "die-in" inside the lobby of the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building to protest spending tax money to pay for the Iraqi occupation and aid to Israel.
Following a rally featuring speeches, slogans and colorful banners outside the federal building in downtown Oakland, a group of protesters chanting slogans and clutching tax forms smeared with red paint locked arms and laid down in a circle inside the lobby.
As private security guards rushed to lock the doors to the federal building on Clay Street, the crowd, which swelled to about 300, pounded on the glass entryway chanting, "Occupation is a crime from Iraq to Palestine."
The protest shut down the federal building for several hours and frustrated dozens of people who had appointments Thursday afternoon with federal agencies, as well as last-minute tax-filers in need of forms and other help.
"This is an awful, messed-up day to do this," said Robyn Hubbard of Oakland, who came to the federal building to file for a tax extension. "It's very inconvenient, very frustrating."
That was the point, protest organizers said. People need to stop and think about how the Bush administration spends their money, especially on April 15, the deadline for filing income tax statements, said Jay Sordean of the Northern California War Tax Resistance.
"It is your solemn and patriotic duty to ask today whether you want your hard-earned money to pay for war and occupation in Iraq and Israel," Sordean said.
The protesters, ranging in age from 20 to 57, were cited for blocking a public entrance and creating a disturbance, then released later in the afternoon, said Art Clabby, chief of staff for the Federal Protective Service.
The six men and 10 women arrested can plead guilty and pay a $100 fine to resolve the charges or demand a trial. The charges carry a maximum sentence of six months in jail or a $5,000 fine, officials said.
"In the last several weeks, we have seen the reality of the war in Iraq and it is up to us to end this oppressive occupation," said Rayan Elamine, the founder of SUSTAIN, Stop U.S. Tax Funded Aid to Israel Now.
Oakland police officers, who assisted federal officials, arrested the protesters, handcuffing most of them with white plastic ties and frog marching them into a holding room in the federal building. Several refused to comply with officers' orders and were picked up and dragged away. No one was injured.
Julia "Butterfly" Hill, who drew international attention a few years ago for living in the canopy of an ancient redwood tree for 738 days, urged protesters not to be dismayed by criticism from those who oppose their views. Hill's protest saved the tree from being chopped down.
"True peace and true justice cannot come at the tip of a gun," Hill said, holding a bit of greenery. "Please do not be afraid to swim up the stream of the status quo."
Last year, Hill refused to pay the Internal Revenue Service nearly $100,000 in taxes from a lawsuit settlement. It is among the largest single act of war tax resistance in history.
"I do not want to pay for another person to die," Hill said.
Other speakers at the rally expressed anger at President Bush's decision to shift American policy in Israel by endorsing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip while retaining some settlements in the West Bank.
"Bush and Sharon met yesterday at the White House to determine the fate of millions of Palestinians, yet the Palestinians were not invited," said Mahrehah Silmi. "They are both war criminals."
E-mail Heather MacDonald at hmacdonald@angnewspapers.com .
-------
------- OneList (submissions from subscribers)
------- Depleted Uranium Keeps On Killing!
-----------
Posted
without profit or payment for research and educational
purposes only,
in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107.