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NUCLEAR
Panel able to build nuke using items found on open market
Report assails U.S. nuclear security effort
Activist Urges Depleted Uranium Clean-Up in Iraq
N-programme non-negotiable
Iran Bars UN from Military Sites - Diplomats
World Must Prevent Spread of Nuke Arms: IAEA Chief
India's Policy On Israel Likely To Change - Expert
Israeli Nuclear Spy Appears in Court
Japan PM gambles on nuclear progress
North Korea provided Libyan uranium - NY Times
Nuke fuel mystery Evidence points to N. Korea as Libya's supplier.
The North Korean Uranium Challenge
Some Russian Submarines Said Mothballed
Report Urges Tighter Nuclear Controls
Los Alamos to conduct `subcritical' experiment in Nevada
Nuclear experiment planned at Nevada site
Nuclear Experiment Planned at Nevada Site
Road reopens after radiation spill; investigation continues
MILITARY
Projects Put Strain On Afghan Province
Afghan Deaths Linked to Unit at Iraq Prison
'Charlie's Angels' latest US weapon in Afghanistan
Raid in Sudan Claims 56, Villagers Say
Czech police stop illegal arms shipment to Iraq
UK Mulled Using Birds for Bio-War After WW2 - Files
Brown may increase war fund to £6bn
RAE Systems Wins $1 Million Radiation Sensor Contract From U.S. Military
The Ultimate Insider
South Africa says no legal challenges to new mine law
Contractors caught under a microscope
Some U.S. prison contractors may avoid charges
Army researches futuristic copters
U.S. Forces Move Into Stronghold Of Cleric
Factions Jostle for Top Posts in a New Iraq
G.I.'s Report Killing 36 Insurgents Around Kufa Mosque That Held Arms
U.S. Needs More Time to Train and Equip Iraqis
Iraq Homicide Rate 10 Times New York City's
Palestinians claim Israel dumped toxic waste in West Bank
Key Israeli Condemns Offensive In Gaza
Israeli Official Offers Empathy but Hits a Nerve
41 terrorists killed, 56 homes demolished in Rafah
UAE offers to build Gaza homes
Arab Summit condemns attacks on Palestinian, Israeli civilians
Nato launches review of Afghan failings
Reject Islamic Extremism, Musharraf Tells Pakistan
Prison abusers were 'stupid,' retired intelligence officer says
Chalabi Denies Charges He Spied for Iran
U.S. Steps Up Hunt in Leaks to Iraqi Exile
Mossad Goes On-Line to Recruit Spies...and Waiters
U.S. and Britain Present Resolution on Iraq Transfer
Text of U.N. Draft Resolution on Iraq
Iraq draft gives wide powers to US forces
Allied troops may win immunity from Iraqi laws
Army to deploy peel-and-stick armor in Afghanistan
Ex-U.S. Marine: I Killed Civilians in Iraq
Soldiers Vented Frustration, Doctor Says
Soldier claims he was beaten as part of training at Guantanamo
Retired General Assails Planning for Iraq War
US soldier jailed and thrown out of army for Iraq prison abuse
Base Closure Plans Divide Congress
POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE
U.S. Nearing Deal on Way to Track Foreign Visitors
Case Reveals Nuts and Bolts of Nuclear Network, Officials Say
POLITICS
Pentagon's postwar fiasco coming full-circle?
Wall Street Firms Funnel Millions to Bush
Senate Copy of Report On Abuse May Be Short
General Says Sanchez Rejected Her Offer to Give Address
The Ultimate Insider
ENERGY
James Lovelock: Nuclear power is the only green solution
Michigan Students Convert Fryer Oil to Fuel
S&P issues report on UK wind power sector
Iraqis fail to regain control of oil revenue
Russian energy industry has good future
OTHER
'Only nuclear power can now halt global warming'
WASA Studying Meters For Lead
ACTIVISTS
Permit or Not, Protesters Prepare for Republicans in New York
-------- NUCLEAR
Panel able to build nuke using items found on open market
May 24, 2004
Washington Post / Associated Press
http://www.tdn.com/articles/2004/05/24/nation_world/news03.txt
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. wondered aloud one day in 2002 whether someone could build an atomic weapon from parts available on the open market. His audience, the leaders of the government's nuclear laboratories, said it could be done.
Then do it, the Delaware Democrat, then chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, instructed the scientists in a confidential session. A few months later, they returned to the soundproof Senate meeting room with a workable nuclear weapon, missing only the fissile material.
"It was bigger than a breadbox and smaller than a dump truck, but they were able to get it in," Biden said in a recent speech. The scientists "explained how -- literally off the shelf, without doing anything illegal -- they actually constructed this device."
The relative ease with which U.S. scientists built an explosive nuclear weapon illustrates the need to secure plutonium and highly enriched uranium scattered in armories and research sites around the world, a pair of Harvard University researchers argue in a new study that contends the Bush administration is not doing enough.
Less fissile material was secured in the two years after Sept. 11, 2001, than in the two years just before, according to the Harvard report, which was obtained by The Washington Post. Half the equipment dispatched to Russia nearly four years ago as a fast, interim solution remains in warehouses, uninstalled because of bureaucratic disputes.
Calling it a "dangerous myth" that terrorists could acquire a nuclear weapon only with the help of a rogue state, authors Matthew Bunn and Anthony Wier use the Biden example to allege that a failure of U.S. commitment and leadership could lead to a nuclear calamity. They also warn that, in an unstable country, a nuclear weapon could be bought or stolen.
"What's missing is a sense of urgency," said former senator Sam Nunn, D-Ga., who heads the nonprofit Nuclear Threat Initiative, which funded the 111-page study. Nunn believes President Bush must focus on removing bureaucratic hurdles and work more pointedly with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"If one of the great cities of the world goes up in smoke, and you look back on these obstacles, it will make our retroactive rear-view mirror look at September 11th look like a waltz," Nunn said Sunday in an interview. "It would be so obvious that the obstacles should have been overcome by the presidents."
Bunn and Wier credit the Bush administration, particularly the leadership of the Department of Energy, for making strides. But they write that the U.S. commitment is no match for the danger. As they put it, U.S. authorities are not meeting Bush's own pledge to "do all we can."
In one case, plans were announced six years ago to destroy 68 metric tons of plutonium stripped from bombs and warheads in the United States and Russia, but the project remains stalled because of a dispute over who would pay if an accident or sabotage occurred in Russia. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., has blamed "trivial negotiating issues."
In another example, the administration on average has requested less money to control nuclear materials and technology than was sought in the final Clinton administration budget, adjusted for inflation.
Although 16 percent more money has been spent than if the Clinton numbers had continued, "essentially all" of the increase was injected by congressional initiative, write Bunn and Wier, who reviewed federal spending on nonproliferation as an analyst at the Office of Management and Budget.
They report that the United States has taken more effective action than any other country, spending $9.2 billion from 1992 to 2004 to dismantle and secure weapons of mass destruction. Yet they note that the Defense Department is seeking $9.2 billion in the 2005 budget year alone to build a largely unproven defense system against a small number of missiles in a corner of the United States.
"It's very easy in the standard political debate for them to point to the successes and not put them in the context of how small they are, and not showing what they have not yet done," Bunn said in an interview. "The president has an opportunity to take action now that would drastically reduce the danger of nuclear terrorism in a few years."
The Bush administration is preparing to announce an expanded effort to secure nuclear stockpiles and supplies of bomb-grade material, officials have said. In a Feb. 11 speech, Bush promised a series of strong steps to curtail the production and spread of fissile material that could be used in a nuclear explosive or scattered in a radiological device called a "dirty bomb."
Basic security improvements have not been made at dozens of facilities in Russia, where more than 60 percent of the country's plutonium and weapons-grade uranium is kept, the General Accounting Office has warned. In a more recent report, the GAO said U.S. government facilities are also vulnerable to an increased risk of terrorism.
Despite improvements in Russia, Bunn and Wier report that visitors continue to see broken detectors, decaying fences, vulnerable seals and paper records never designed for careful monitoring. They also note that fissile material exists in "hundreds of buildings in more than 40 countries."
Evaluating an extreme case, they point to Pakistan, which has perfected nuclear weapons, as a potential target of terrorists with potent weapons and political connections.
Bunn and Wier, analysts at the Project on Managing the Atom, challenge the argument that the danger of terrorists assembling a bomb and acquiring fissile material is small, unless sponsored by a nuclear-capable government.
"We believe that this view is profoundly wrong," the authors write. They contend that the availability of nuclear designs and the work of U.S. weapons scientists in the Biden experiment prove their point.
----
Report assails U.S. nuclear security effort
Sense of urgency missing, study sponsor says
Peter Slevin,
Washington Post
Monday, May 24, 2004
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/05/24/MNGOU6QPQM1.DTL
Washington -- Sen. Joseph Biden wondered aloud one day in 2002 whether someone could build an atomic weapon from parts available on the open market. His audience, the leaders of the government's nuclear laboratories, said it could be done.
Then do it, the Delaware Democrat, then chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, instructed the scientists in a confidential session. A few months later, they returned to the soundproof Senate meeting room with a workable nuclear weapon, missing only the fissile material.
"It was bigger than a breadbox and smaller than a dump truck, but they were able to get it in," Biden said in a recent speech. The scientists "explained how -- literally off the shelf, without doing anything illegal --
they actually constructed this device."
The relative ease with which U.S. scientists built an explosive nuclear weapon illustrates the need to secure plutonium and highly enriched uranium scattered in armories and research sites around the world, a pair of Harvard University researchers argue in a new study that contends the Bush administration is not doing enough.
Less fissile material was secured in the two years after Sept. 11, 2001, than in the two years just before, according to the Harvard report. Half the equipment dispatched to Russia nearly four years ago as a fast, interim solution remains in warehouses, uninstalled because of bureaucratic disputes.
Calling it a dangerous myth that terrorists could acquire a nuclear weapon only with the help of a rogue state, authors Matthew Bunn and Anthony Wier use the Biden example to allege that a failure of U.S. commitment and leadership could lead to a nuclear calamity. They also warn that, in an unstable country, a nuclear weapon could be bought or stolen.
"What's missing is a sense of urgency," said Sam Nunn, a former Democratic senator from Georgia, who heads the nonprofit Nuclear Threat Initiative, which funded the 111-page study. Nunn said he believes President Bush must focus on removing bureaucratic hurdles and work more pointedly with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Bunn and Wier credit the Bush administration, particularly the leadership of the Department of Energy, for making strides. But they write that the U.S. commitment is no match for the danger. As they put it, U.S. authorities are not meeting Bush's own pledge to "do all we can."
In one case, plans were announced six years ago to destroy 68 metric tons of plutonium stripped from bombs and warheads in the United States and Russia, but the project remains stalled because of a dispute over who would pay if an accident or sabotage occurred in Russia. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., has blamed "trivial negotiating issues."
In another example, the administration on average has requested less money to control nuclear materials and technology than was sought in the final Clinton administration budget, adjusted for inflation.
Although 16 percent more money has been spent than if the Clinton numbers had continued, essentially all the increase was injected by congressional initiative, write Bunn and Wier, who reviewed nonproliferation spending as an analyst at the Office of Management and Budget.
They report that the United States has taken more effective action than any other country, spending $9.2 billion from 1992 to 2004 to dismantle and secure weapons of mass destruction.
Yet they note that the Pentagon is seeking $9.2 billion in the 2005 budget year alone to build a largely unproven defense system against a small number of missiles.
The Bush administration is preparing to announce an expanded effort to secure nuclear stockpiles and supplies of bomb-grade material, officials have said. In a Feb. 11 speech, Bush promised a series of strong steps to curtail the production and spread of fissile material that could be used in a nuclear explosive or scattered in a radiological device called a dirty bomb.
Basic security improvements have not been made at dozens of facilities in Russia, where more than 60 percent of the country's plutonium and weapons- grade uranium is kept, the General Accounting Office has warned. In a more recent report, the GAO said U.S. government facilities are also vulnerable to an increased risk of terrorism.
-------- depleted uranium
Activist Urges Depleted Uranium Clean-Up in Iraq
Story by Lisa Richwine
REUTERS USA:
May 24, 2004
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/25212/story.htm
WASHINGTON - The U.S. military should clean up depleted uranium ammunition scattered across Iraq to prevent future health problems such as cancer and birth defects, a leading anti-nuclear activist said.
The Pentagon said it had not found any evidence the material, which is so dense it can pierce steel tanks, causes long-term health consequences. An ongoing study of 1991 Gulf War veterans has shown no ill effects.
But Dr. Helen Caldicott, a pediatrician and president of the Nuclear Policy Research Institute, linked depleted uranium to higher rates of cancer and birth defects in Iraq following the Gulf War.
Depleted uranium ammunition is being used by U.S. troops in Iraq and could seriously harm civilians living there in the decades to come, said Caldicott, founding president of Physicians for Social Responsibility, an anti-nuclear group that shared the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize.
"We should be taking responsibility for what is happening over there," she told reporters at the National Press Club.
The Pentagon should test buildings in Iraq for depleted uranium, destroy ones with high levels and bury the material underground, Caldicott said.
The U.S. government also should compensate people with cancer related to the material, she said.
Depleted uranium is a byproduct of nuclear fuel production. It strengthens ammunition and gives weapons twice the range of ones using other heavy metals. Tanks made with depleted uranium have proven impenetrable by enemy weapons, the Pentagon said.
There has been controversy about it since its use during the Gulf War and the Balkans conflict, including some claims that European soldiers may have developed leukemia after being exposed to the material in Kosovo in 1999.
"We don't see anything from the science" indicating long-term health problems to people exposed to depleted uranium in the environment, said Dr. Michael Kilpatrick, the Defense Department's deputy director for deployment health support.
An ongoing study of 70 Gulf War veterans who were hit by weapons using depleted uranium in "friendly fire" incidents has found no major health problems for the soldiers or their 35 children, Kilpatrick said.
Kilpatrick said research on potential long-term impacts is continuing.
"We are looking at it scientifically. We are keeping an open mind to it," he said in an interview.
-------- india / pakistan
N-programme non-negotiable
Jamali says world accepts Pakistan as nuclear power
May 24, 2004
Pakistan Daily Times
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_21-5-2004_pg7_1
ISLAMABAD: The nuclear programme is the cornerstone of Pakistan's security policy and is as such non-negotiable, Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali said on Thursday.
"The policy of credible minimum deterrence has national consensus and has stood the test of time and events over many years. We continue to critically monitor our security environment," Mr Jamali said in a speech to the scientists and engineers of Kahuta Research Laboratories (KRL).
The prime minister said the government would continue to provide necessary resources for the qualitative development and advancement of the country's strategic programme. The prime minister was briefed on the role and functions of the uranium enrichment facility during his daylong visit to the KRL.
Mr Jamali dismissed apprehensions that the nuclear programme would be rolled back or frozen and asked the nation to develop confidence and maturity.
"We are a declared nuclear power," he said, adding that the international community had accepted the reality of a nuclear Pakistan. "The apprehensions of a roll-back in some cynical domestic circles are at least two decades late. There is only one direction, and that is forward dynamism, which will be maintained at all cost."
Mr Jamali said Pakistan had acquired nuclear capability strictly for defence and non-proliferation of nuclear technology was a declared national policy. "We moved swiftly to investigate the reports of past nuclear proliferation by certain individuals and we are determined to completely root out the network."
He said difficult decisions had been taken because Pakistan did not shy away from its international obligations. "We extended full cooperation to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in its efforts to investigate international proliferation and we will continue to do so, remaining within the bounds of national sovereignty and security."
During his visit to KRL, the prime minister saw various uranium enrichment plants and Ghauri missile production facilities and expressed his satisfaction at the standards being maintained in the plants running to capacity.
He complimented the officers and workers on their technical prowess and motivation level which, he said, had given Pakistan the ability to deter aggression.
Earlier on arrival, the prime minister was received by Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Chairman General Muhammad Aziz Khan, Strategic Plans Division Director General Lt General Khalid Kidwai and KRL Chairman Dr Javed Arshad Mirza.
Online adds: Also on Thursday, the Saudi ambassador to Pakistan, Brigadier (r) Ali Awaddh Asseri, called on Mr Jamali at Prime Minister's House.
They discussed matters related to Pakistan-Saudi relations and the prime minister's upcoming visit to Saudi Arabia. Mr Jamali said Pakistan attached great importance to its relations with Saudi Arabia. He said that the traditionally close and brotherly relations between the two countries would be strengthened in the future. Mr Asseri said that the existing cooperation between the two countries in various fields would be enhanced.
-------- iran
Iran Bars UN from Military Sites - Diplomats
May 24, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-nuclear-iran.html
VIENNA, Austria (Reuters) - Several Western diplomats on the board of the U.N. nuclear watchdog accused Iran of barring U.N. inspectors from military sites, but Tehran said the agency was getting full access inside the Islamic republic.
Diplomats who follow the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said IAEA inspectors had been prevented from inspecting around a dozen workshops at three locations.
``They have yet to allow access to the military sites,'' one Western diplomat said. ``This will probably be the topic of one of the inspection visits'' by IAEA officials.
``They (Iranian officials) have been obstructing visits to military sites,'' said another diplomat, adding U.N. inspectors were being escorted by members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
The United States says Iran has two nuclear programs -- a public one it has declared to the U.N. and a secret one aimed at developing atomic weapons. Tehran rejects this charge, saying its plans are limited to the peaceful generation of electricity.
Iran's ambassador to the United Nations in Vienna, Pirooz Hosseini, denied that the IAEA was facing access problems.
``This is not correct information ... from these unnamed diplomats,'' Hosseini told Reuters, adding that there were ``discussions'' between Tehran and the United Nations about site access.
``They're not problems. (The IAEA) will have access to the sites they want to visit. Everything is going in a smooth way.''
IAEA officials declined comment.
But a third diplomat close to the IAEA said the agency had the right only to what is called ``managed access'' to sensitive sites, not the ``anytime, anywhere'' powers U.N. weapons inspectors had in Iraq.
A fourth Western diplomat said any delays caused by discussion of ``managed access'' would only deepen suspicions that Iran is hiding something.
``Iran's got to throw open the doors,'' the diplomat said.
The IAEA began looking closely at Iran after an exiled Iranian opposition group said in August 2002 Tehran was hiding a massive uranium enrichment plant at Natanz and other facilities from the U.N. Iran later declared these sites to the IAEA.
NO HARD EVIDENCE
``There's a general hardening of opinion'' against Iran on the 35-nation IAEA governing board, the second diplomat said. ``The pattern of behavior suggests they're trying to hide something.''
However, he acknowledged there was no hard evidence that Iran was concealing anything, just suspicions.
He said a number of countries wanted IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei to criticize Iran's less-than-adequate cooperation in his new report on Iran, due out soon. But he said ElBaradei, concerned about Tehran's reaction, was putting up resistance.
The diplomat close to the IAEA disagreed, saying ElBaradei felt strongly about the importance of the IAEA being objective and would not withhold criticism for fear of anyone's reaction.
The first diplomat said Iran may grant the IAEA inspectors access to the sites right before ElBaradei's report comes out -- so ElBaradei would not need not to mention access problems.
ElBaradei's report will be discussed at a meeting of the IAEA's board of governors beginning on June 14, at which the United States is expected to push hard for a resolution that harshly condemns Iran's nuclear program.
--------
World Must Prevent Spread of Nuke Arms: IAEA Chief
Monday, May 24, 2004
http://www.indolink.com/displayArticleS.php?id=051604020837
New York, May 16 (NNN): The head of the United Nation's nuclear watchdog, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohammed ElBaradei, has called for a new global system to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.
Addressing a seminar of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, ElBaradei said that after the Cold War and the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US, many countries felt they could only achieve security through nuclear deterrent.
He also raised the threat of "extremist terrorists" who sought nuclear weapons.
ElBaradei said the crisis over North Korea's nuclear arms sent "the worst signal" to potential proliferators.
He said that a first step towards better international control could be a global moratorium on the right of any country to develop plutonium and highly-enriched uranium.
The two substances can be used to manufacture nuclear bombs.
ElBaradei said North Korea had shown that a country which protected its weapons programmes and accelerated them could force powerful countries to the negotiating table. "If you want to protect yourself, accelerate yourself ...then people will sit around the table with you," he said
The IAEA chief said Iran had the "know how" to enrich uranium, although there was no proof it had done so to military levels. However, he said, the issue would only be brought to a close when "we can say Iran's programme is dedicated exclusively for peaceful purposes, and we are not there yet."
ElBaradei said there were 100 facilities in 40 countries using highly enriched uranium, adding that it was time for a nuclear "clean-up".
-------- israel
India's Policy On Israel Likely To Change - Expert
The Congress allies backed Sonia's nomination for the premiership
May 15, 2004
By Khaled Mamdouh,
IOL Staff, (IslamOnline.net)
http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2004-05/15/article06.shtml
CAIRO - Indian's foreign policy is likely to change, though not radically, under the new Congress-led coalition government, an Indian political analyst expected.
"The Congress, unlike the defeated Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People's Party), surely will not seek strategic relations with Israel, for example," Zafarul-Islam Khan told IslamOnline.net Saturday over phone from New Delhi.
He stressed that while the Congress is unlikely to severe ties with Israel, it will not seek strategic relations with Tel Aviv.
"The relations with Israel under the BJP dismayed not just [Indian] Muslims, but other Indian circles as well".
A B Bardhan, General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI) - a main Congress ally - also criticised the pro-Israel policy of the outgoing BJP.
"Israel is the only nation in the world which practices state terrorism. There have been a number of U.N. resolutions on Palestine but Vajpayee government changed tracks on supporting an independent Palestine state," he told India Times.
--------
Israeli Nuclear Spy Appears in Court
May 24, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Israel-Vanunu.html
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) -- Mordechai Vanunu, who served 18 years in prison for revealing Israel's nuclear secrets, appeared in court in a libel suit Monday, his first public appearance since being released last month.
Vanunu has been secluded at a Jerusalem church since is April 21 release.
Wearing a blue Oxford shirt and a cross around his neck, Vanunu did not testify, and the case was continued. Asked by reporters how he was doing, Vanunu signaled with a nod that he was OK. He was whisked out of the courtroom by security guards without speaking to reporters.
Vanunu has filed a libel suit against the Yediot Ahronot daily. The newspaper reported in November 1999 that Vanunu had passed information on how to prepare explosives to Hamas militants in prison.
Yediot's lawyer, Mibi Moser, said Vanunu was seeking about $78,000 in damages.
During a procedural stage, Vanunu's lawyer, Avigdor Feldman told the judge that Vanunu lives in Jerusalem. The judge turned to Vanunu and asked him where in the city he lives.
``In the church, St. George,'' Vanunu replied. Vanunu, a convert to Christianity, has stayed at St. George, an Anglican Church near Jerusalem's Old City, since his release from prison.
Vanunu served 18 years in prison for providing The Sunday Times of London with information and pictures of Israel's nuclear reactor. Based on the pictures and information provided by Vanunu -- who worked as a technician in the reactor -- experts assessed at the time that Israel has the sixth-largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world.
-------- japan
Japan PM gambles on nuclear progress
May 24, 2004
(Reuters)
http://www.arabtimesonline.com/arabtimes/breakingnews/view.asp?msgID=5848
TOKYO - Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will win kudos at home if he reunites the families of kidnapped Japanese as a result of his upcoming summit in Pyongyang, but he needs to make progress in the crisis over North Korea's nuclear programmes to earn global applause as well.
Koizumi will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang on Saturday to seek both a breakthrough in the dispute over the Japanese abductees and progress in deadlocked six-party talks on the communist state's nuclear arms programme.
"I think the prime minister has a very strong determination to act in a very proactive way to bring about peace and stability in the region," a government source told Reuters.
"We have no intention whatsoever of putting the question of nuclear weapons on the shelf," the source added.
Working level talks on the nuclear crisis ended in Beijing on Saturday with little apparent success in narrowing gaps between the two main protagonists, the United States and North Korea. The other participants were South Korea, Japan, China and Russia.
"The nuclear question is the delicate part," said Masao Okonogi, a Korea specialist at Keio University in Tokyo.
"There was little progress at the working talks and it is very hard for North Korea to compromise with the United States. Conversely, there is a chance that Kim wants to use Japan as a messenger, a mediator, and so will say something to Koizumi."
North Korea wants compensation for giving up its nuclear arms programme, with a deal for a freeze as a first step, and says it has the right to pursue nuclear projects for peaceful purposes.
The United States wants North Korea to abandon completely both a programme to make weapons-grade plutonium and a uranium enrichment programme that Pyongyang now says does not exist.
"It's very hard to expect North Korea to accept in talks with Japan the demand for complete, verifiable, irreversible dismantling that it has rejected in the six-way talks," defence policy analyst Satoshi Morimoto said in a weekend TV talk show.
But he added: "While not accepting complete dismantlement, North Korea may show a more positive stance towards freezing its nuclear programme."
The latest crisis over North Korea's nuclear ambitions emerged on October 2002, when U.S. officials said Pyongyang had confessed to pursuing a project to enrich uranium for weapons.
-------- korea
North Korea provided Libyan uranium - NY Times
REUTERS USA:
May 24, 2004
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/25208/story.htm
NEW YORK - North Korea secretly provided Libya with nearly two tonnes of uranium in early 2001, The New York Times has reported, citing unnamed U.S. officials and European diplomats.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said there was 1.7 metric tons of uranium hexafluoride, a standard raw material for enrichment through feeding centrifuges, but experts told the newspaper the uranium was far short of the potency needed to make a nuclear weapon.
A large quantity of uranium hexafluoride was turned over to the United States by the Libyans earlier this year as part of leader Muammar Gaddafi's agreement to give up his nuclear program. At the time, the United States identified Pakistan as the likely source.
However, the IAEA told The Times it found evidence that the uranium came from North Korea. The agency based its conclusion on interviews of members of the secret nuclear supplier network set up by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the former head of Pakistan's main nuclear laboratory.
While saying he could not confirm the information, White House spokesman Trent Duffy said, "That's why it's imperative that we continue with our policy of making sure that North Korea disarms in a complete, verifiable and irreversible fashion."
Duffy also said the United States is working with other countries, through the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative, "to ensure that the illicit trading of weapons of mass destruction is caught and reversed."
American officials say the discovery of the North Korean connection is an intelligence success that resulted indirectly from Libya's decision to dismantle its nuclear program, and the ensuing drive to break up Khan's network, according to the newspaper's web site.
The uranium shipped to Libya could not be used as nuclear fuel unless it was enriched in centrifuges, which the Libyans were constructing as part of a $100 million program to purchase equipment from the Khan network, The Times reported.
The paper said the classified evidence had touched off a race among the world's intelligence services to explore whether North Korea has made similar clandestine sales to other nations or perhaps even to terror groups seeking atomic weapons.
Iran has bought centrifuges from the Khan network, investigators believe, but it has denied it is seeking a nuclear weapon.
Bush administration officials warned last year that North Korea could make good on its threats to provide nuclear materials or weapons. However, until recently U.S. officials said they had no evidence that the country was dealing in anything beyond missiles and missile technology.
----
Nuke fuel mystery Evidence points to N. Korea as Libya's supplier.
By George Jahn
Associated Press
Monday, May 24, 2004
http://www.sfexaminer.com/article/index.cfm/i/052404b_nukefuel
VIENNA, Austria -- North Korea has emerged as a possible supplier in the clandestine nuclear network, with diplomats on Sunday saying the communist country was the likely source of nearly two tons of uranium that Libya bought for its now-scrapped weapons program.
The revelations stoked concern that Iran and other nations also could have benefited from cooperation with the secretive nation to get fuel, components and the knowledge needed to build nuclear weapons.
Previously, Pakistan -- the key country implicated in a worldwide nuclear black market -- had been thought to be the source of 1.87 tons of uranium hexafluoride that Libya handed over to Americans in January as part of its decision to get rid of weapons of mass destruction.
Now, the evidence increasingly points to North Korea, the diplomats said, though they cautioned that the investigation was not yet complete and other sources for Libya's program could not be ruled out. The diplomats spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
The new evidence pointing to North Korea came from the International Atomic Energy Agency and was based on interviews with members of the clandestine network headed by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani scientist implicated in selling his country's nuclear secrets to Libya, North Korea, Iran, and possibly other countries, according to one diplomat.
A U.S. official, however, told AP that U.S. intelligence was "still pursuing" the alleged North Korean link "to see how much truth there is to it" and needed more information to "disprove" Pakistan as the source.
One major proliferation concern is Iran, whose nuclear program already is under scrutiny because of fears it might be developing weapons.
Iran's activities are up for review next month when the International Atomic Energy Agency's board meets to discuss the state of investigations into programs that go back nearly two decades and include covert attempts to enrich uranium, reprocessing small amounts of plutonium and other suspect activities with possible weapons applications.
Inspections last year by the Vienna-based IAEA showed that Iran failed to report imports in 1991 of large amounts of uranium hexafluoride -- the same substance shipped to Libya, apparently by North Korea.
While the origin of the Iran shipments was China, other channels of weapons cooperation between the communist North and the Islamic regime appear to exist at least since the early 1980s, when North Korea sold about 100 refitted Soviet Scud B missiles to Tehran, which used them in its war against Iraq.
More recently, Japanese media quoted unidentified military officials as saying North Korea and Iran had agreed on joint production of long-range ballistic missiles. One of the diplomats who spoke to AP on Sunday cited intelligence saying that North Korean officials were believed to have visited Tehran last year, possibly in connection with such a deal.
----
The North Korean Uranium Challenge
May 24, 2004
New York Times NEWS ANALYSIS
By DAVID E. SANGER
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/24/politics/24asse.html
WASHINGTON, May 23 - The discovery that North Korea may have supplied uranium to Libya poses an immediate challenge to the White House: while President Bush is preoccupied on the other side of the world, an economically desperate nation may be engaging in exactly the kind of nuclear proliferation that the president says he went to war in Iraq to halt.
Yet to listen to many in the White House, concern about North Korea's nuclear program brings little of the urgency that surrounded the decision 14 months ago to oust Saddam Hussein. When Mr. Bush has been asked about North Korea in recent months, he has emphasized his patience. He does not refer to the intelligence estimates that North Korea has at least two nuclear weapons, or to the debate within the American intelligence community about whether North Korea has spent the past 18 months building more.
Instead, he lauds the progress he says the United States has made in organizing China, Russia, Japan and South Korea to negotiate as one with the North Koreans - though those talks have resulted in no progress so far in ending either of North Korea's two major nuclear programs.
Just last week, the Pentagon even announced it was removing a brigade of troops that had been securing South Korea's border with the North, and sending it to provide additional forces for the Iraqi occupation.
With international inspectors recently reporting that North Korea may have shipped uranium, already processed into a gas that can be fed into centrifuges for enrichment into bomb fuel, the White House has been silent. On Sunday, a White House spokesman declined to talk about the reports, other than to issue a statement at the president's ranch in Texas that the news proves the need for "the United States policy for North Korea to disarm in a complete, verifiable and irreversible fashion."
"I admit there appears to be more than a little irony here," said one senior administration official, when asked how what he thought Mr. Bush might have said in public if Saddam Hussein - instead of Kim Jong Il, the North Korean leader - had been suspected of shipping raw material for nuclear weapons to a country like Libya. "But Iraq was a different problem, in a different place, and we had viable military options," he continued. In North Korea, he said, Mr. Bush has virtually none. Indeed, the problems and the threats are different, even though Mr. Hussein's Iraq was lumped with North Korea as part of the "axis of evil" that President Bush cited in 2002.
Even hawks within the administration - a group led by Vice President Dick Cheney, who said on a trip to Asia last month that "time is not necessarily on our side" - see no major risk that North Korea will lash out at its neighbors or the United States.
The country is broke; American military officials say it can barely afford the jet fuel to give its fighter pilots time to train. Iraq, too, was in desperate economic straits, but it at least had oil revenue, skimmed from the United Nations oil-for-food program, and active trade. North Korea is literally starving; millions have died of malnutrition.
But the same poverty that makes North Korea less of a military threat makes it a potent proliferation threat. For years, the North's main export has been missiles. It has sold them to Pakistan, Egypt, Iran, Syria, Libya and others, often sending its engineers abroad to fabricate custom designs. The reports of likely uranium sales to Libya have created the chilling possibility that the North has now found a new and profitable product - and that Libya may not have been the only customer. "Many predicted that sooner or later we would have to worry about the North Koreans not only as users but as exporters of nuclear technology," said Daniel Poneman, a former national security official and co-author of "Going Critical" (Brookings Institution Press, 2004), a new book about the first North Korean nuclear crisis in the mid-1990's. It was this fear that Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage expressed to Congress last year, when he warned that North Korea would not have to develop complete nuclear arms to become a serious threat; it could sell ingredients.
In short, if the North's sales to Libya are confirmed, the nightmare that Mr. Bush discussed so often last year - the sale of "the world's worst weapons to the world's most dangerous dictators" - may be happening at the other end of the axis. Iraq, it turns out, had little or nothing to sell.
Mr. Bush has addressed the issue chiefly through an agreement among a growing number of nations to intercept suspected shipments of illegal weapons, nuclear parts or chemical precursors. The United States, Germany and Italy stopped a shipment of nuclear equipment to Libya last year, apparently convincing Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi to give up his nuclear program.
Beyond the interception strategy, there is a widespread sense in Washington that neither the Bush administration nor North Korea has much incentive to confront the nuclear issue this year. Mr. Bush, notes Don Oberdorfer, the author of "The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History" (Basic Books, 2002), is not "prepared to do anything about North Korea because he is overcommitted in Iraq and has a great loathing of dealing with the North Koreans directly."
The result, Mr. Oberdorfer argues, is that the United States is not "making the kind of preliminary compromises that would be necessary to get a negotiation going."
Administration officials disagree, saying that North Korea should not be rewarded for cheating on its past nuclear agreements and must begin dismantling weapons before it sees any economic benefits.
So far this has been a prescription for stalemate. But many in the administration agree that Mr. Kim has his own reasons for not seeking a deal this year: the North Korean leader is presumed to be rooting for Mr. Bush's defeat in November, in hopes he will face a more willing negotiating partner in John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic nominee.
The risk is that by the time the two countries re-engage, North Korea could have six or eight more weapons, according to the most dire estimates in the C.I.A. and the Defense Intelligence Agency, a view that more cautious intelligence analysts say is based more on conjecture about the North's engineering skills than any real intelligence. Such a number could let the North keep one or two for its own use, and have more to sell, in whole or parts, which is a very different position.
-------- russia
Some Russian Submarines Said Mothballed
May 24, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Russia-Submarines.html
MOSCOW (AP) -- A top admiral alleged the chief of Russia's navy has decided to mothball its most powerful nuclear submarines after refusing to modernize their missiles. The navy denied it Monday and accused the admiral of divulging state secrets.
Adm. Gennady Suchkov, the head of the Northern Fleet, said that Adm. Vladimir Kuroyedov had ordered the navy to decommission the Typhoon-class submarines, depriving Russia of an important component of its strategic nuclear arsenal.
``Nuclear weaponry is the only thing that brings respect to our nation,'' he said in an interview published Monday in the liberal newspaper, Novaya Gazeta.
With a displacement of about 27,500 tons, the Typhoon-class submarines are the world's largest. Each is equipped to carry 20 intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Suchkov said in separate comments to the Interfax-Military News Agency that the Northern Fleet has three Typhoon-class submarines -- the Arkhangelsk, the Severstal and the Dmitry Donskoi. He said his pleas for modernizing the missiles had fallen on deaf ears, and that only the Severstal carries 10 missiles, while the other two are unarmed.
Suchkov said the navy had refused to earmark about $1.1 million, a sum he said was necessary to upgrade the submarines' missiles.
Navy spokesman Capt. Igor Dygalo insisted Monday that there are no plans to scrap the Typhoon-class submarines.
``They will remain on duty fulfilling their tasks,'' Dygalo told The Associated Press. He also assailed Suchkov for unveiling what he said was confidential information about the submarines' weapons.
But Suchkov said he had written a letter to President Vladimir Putin to inform him of Kuroyedov's plan to mothball the vessels.
``I don't understand this decision, because these submarines can remain in service for a long time to come,'' Suchkov said.
The outspoken Suchkov has long been on a collision course with Kuroyedov, the navy chief. Putin suspended Suchkov as the Northern Fleet chief after the August sinking of a decommissioned nuclear submarine, and a military court convicted him last week of negligence that led to the death of nine of the submarine's 10 crew and gave him a four-year suspended prison sentence.
Many in the navy blamed Kuroyedov for the accident and alleged Suchkov had been a scapegoat.
``The most powerful submarines have been taken off-duty,'' Suchkov told the Interfax-Military News Agency. ``And we haven't received new submarines yet.''
Putin went to sea aboard one of the Typhoon-class submarines, the Arkhangelsk, in February during an exercise of Russia's strategic forces. In the course of the maneuvers, Northern Fleet submarines failed to perform missile launches on two consecutive days, tarnishing Putin's efforts to restore Russia's military might.
The navy has kept quiet on results of the investigation into the failed launches. Independent observers have blamed the failures on the money crunch that has badly hurt Russian weapons industries and affected the quality of their products.
Since the 1991 Soviet collapse, the Russian navy has been plagued by a lack of funds, which prompted it to mothball relatively new ships because it couldn't afford maintenance.
Suchkov accused Kuroyedov of favoring one Russian shipyard, the Northern Shipyards, which charges much more for repairs, compared with others. He said one of two destroyers sent to the Northern Shipyards for repairs had instead been disassembled for spare parts, which were later put on a destroyer commissioned by China.
-------- terrorism
Report Urges Tighter Nuclear Controls
White House Not Doing Enough to Secure Weapons Materials, Analysts Say
By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 24, 2004; Page A02
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50362-2004May23.html
Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. wondered aloud one day in 2002 whether someone could build an atomic weapon from parts available on the open market. His audience, the leaders of the government's nuclear laboratories, said it could be done.
Then do it, the Delaware Democrat, then chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, instructed the scientists in a confidential session. A few months later, they returned to the soundproof Senate meeting room with a workable nuclear weapon, missing only the fissile material.
"It was bigger than a breadbox and smaller than a dump truck, but they were able to get it in," Biden said in a recent speech. The scientists "explained how -- literally off the shelf, without doing anything illegal -- they actually constructed this device."
The relative ease with which U.S. scientists built an explosive nuclear weapon illustrates the need to secure plutonium and highly enriched uranium scattered in armories and research sites around the world, a pair of Harvard University researchers argue in a new study that contends the Bush administration is not doing enough.
Less fissile material was secured in the two years after Sept. 11, 2001, than in the two years just before, according to the Harvard report, which was obtained by The Washington Post. Half the equipment dispatched to Russia nearly four years ago as a fast, interim solution remains in warehouses, uninstalled because of bureaucratic disputes.
Calling it a "dangerous myth" that terrorists could acquire a nuclear weapon only with the help of a rogue state, authors Matthew Bunn and Anthony Wier use the Biden example to allege that a failure of U.S. commitment and leadership could lead to a nuclear calamity. They also warn that, in an unstable country, a nuclear weapon could be bought or stolen.
"What's missing is a sense of urgency," said former senator Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), who heads the nonprofit Nuclear Threat Initiative, which funded the 111-page study. Nunn believes President Bush must focus on removing bureaucratic hurdles and work more pointedly with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"If one of the great cities of the world goes up in smoke, and you look back on these obstacles, it will make our retroactive rear-view mirror look at September 11th look like a waltz," Nunn said yesterday in an interview. "It would be so obvious that the obstacles should have been overcome by the presidents."
Bunn and Wier credit the Bush administration, particularly the leadership of the Department of Energy, for making strides. But they write that the U.S. commitment is no match for the danger. As they put it, U.S. authorities are not meeting Bush's own pledge to "do all we can."
In one case, plans were announced six years ago to destroy 68 metric tons of plutonium stripped from bombs and warheads in the United States and Russia, but the project remains stalled because of a dispute over who would pay if an accident or sabotage occurred in Russia. Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) has blamed "trivial negotiating issues."
In another example, the administration on average has requested less money to control nuclear materials and technology than was sought in the final Clinton administration budget, adjusted for inflation.
Although 16 percent more money has been spent than if the Clinton numbers had continued, "essentially all" of the increase was injected by congressional initiative, write Bunn and Wier, who reviewed federal spending on nonproliferation as an analyst at the Office of Management and Budget.
They report that the United States has taken more effective action than any other country, spending $9.2 billion from 1992 to 2004 to dismantle and secure weapons of mass destruction. Yet they note that the Defense Department is seeking $9.2 billion in the 2005 budget year alone to build a largely unproven defense system against a small number of missiles in a corner of the United States.
"It's very easy in the standard political debate for them to point to the successes and not put them in the context of how small they are, and not showing what they have not yet done," Bunn said in an interview. "The president has an opportunity to take action now that would drastically reduce the danger of nuclear terrorism in a few years."
The Bush administration is preparing to announce an expanded effort to secure nuclear stockpiles and supplies of bomb-grade material, officials have said. In a Feb. 11 speech, Bush promised a series of strong steps to curtail the production and spread of fissile material that could be used in a nuclear explosive or scattered in a radiological device called a "dirty bomb."
Basic security improvements have not been made at dozens of facilities in Russia, where more than 60 percent of the country's plutonium and weapons-grade uranium is kept, the General Accounting Office has warned. In a more recent report, the GAO said U.S. government facilities are also vulnerable to an increased risk of terrorism.
Despite improvements in Russia, Bunn and Wier report that visitors continue to see broken detectors, decaying fences, vulnerable seals and paper records never designed for careful monitoring. They also note that fissile material exists in "hundreds of buildings in more than 40 countries."
Evaluating an extreme case, they point to Pakistan, which has perfected nuclear weapons, as a potential target of terrorists with potent weapons and political connections.
Bunn and Wier, analysts at the Project on Managing the Atom, challenge the argument that the danger of terrorists assembling a bomb and acquiring fissile material is small, unless sponsored by a nuclear-capable government.
"We believe that this view is profoundly wrong," the authors write. They contend that the availability of nuclear designs and the work of U.S. weapons scientists in the Biden experiment prove their point.
-------- u.s. nuc weapons
Los Alamos to conduct `subcritical' experiment in Nevada
May 24, 2004
KRNV TV
http://www.krnv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1872276&nav=8faONAoi
Los Alamos National Laboratory plans its eighth subcritical nuclear experiment at the Nevada Test Site this spring.
Los Alamos researchers say it will use bomb-grade plutonium. But they say the configuration of the explosives will prevent a full-fledged nuclear explosion.
The detonation will take place inside a high-strength steel, underground vessel to contain the explosion.
The United States banned nuclear testing in 1993.
Los Alamos' director of operations at the Nevada Test Site, Raffi Papazian, says subcritical tests help maintain expertise and equipment in case the United States decides to restart nuclear tests.
----
Nuclear experiment planned at Nevada site
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Monday, May 24, 2004
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=Nuclear%20Experiment
LAS VEGAS -- Government scientists plan an underground nuclear experiment, short of a nuclear blast, at the Nevada Test Site on Tuesday. The experiment will involve detonating high explosives around plutonium in a steel sphere while X-rays, radar and lasers chart the behavior of the radioactive element.
Scientists from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico will run the test in a tunnel nearly 1,000 feet below ground at the site about 80 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
The test dubbed "Armando" is the 21st subcritical experiment at the site. Federal officials say the experiments are essential to maintaining the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
The experiments technically do not violate the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty because no critical mass is formed and there is no full-scale nuclear explosion. Anti-nuclear groups criticize the experiments as contrary to the treaty's spirit.
The U.S. has observed a nuclear testing moratorium since 1992, but has not ratified the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
The Bush administration and Congress last year reduced from three years to two years the time it would take to resume full-scale nuclear tests.
On the Net:
National Nuclear Security Administration: http://www.nnsa.doe.gov
Nevada Test Site: http://www.nv.doe.gov/nts
Los Alamos National Laboratory: http://www.lanl.gov
-------- u.s. nuc facilities
-------- nevada
Nuclear Experiment Planned at Nevada Site
May 24, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/science/AP-Nuclear-Experiment.html
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Government scientists plan an underground nuclear experiment, short of a nuclear blast, at the Nevada Test Site on Tuesday. The experiment will involve detonating high explosives around plutonium in a steel sphere while X-rays, radar and lasers chart the behavior of the radioactive element.
Scientists from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico will run the test in a tunnel nearly 1,000 feet below ground at the site about 80 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
The test dubbed ``Armando'' is the 21st subcritical experiment at the site. Federal officials say the experiments are essential to maintaining the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
The experiments technically do not violate the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty because no critical mass is formed and there is no full-scale nuclear explosion. Anti-nuclear groups criticize the experiments as contrary to the treaty's spirit.
The U.S. has observed a nuclear testing moratorium since 1992, but has not ratified the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
The Bush administration and Congress last year reduced from three years to two years the time it would take to resume full-scale nuclear tests.
On the Net:
National Nuclear Security Administration: http://www.nnsa.doe.gov
Nevada Test Site: http://www.nv.doe.gov/nts
Los Alamos National Laboratory: http://www.lanl.gov
-------- tennessee
Road reopens after radiation spill; investigation continues
May 24, 2004
(AP)
http://www.wkrn.com/global/story.asp?s=1872580&ClientType=Printable
OAK RIDGE, Tenn. - A portion of state Highway 95 where radioactive waste dripped onto the pavement was repaired and reopened near the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge Reservation, a spokesman said Monday.
However, short-haul deliveries of contaminated material on the reservation were suspended pending a review of the Friday mishap, DOE-Oak Ridge spokesman Steven Wyatt said. A plastic-covered mixing tank containing strontium 90, a byproduct of the fission of uranium or plutonium, was found to have leaked while being moved in a dump truck around 11:30 a.m. Friday.
The watery, grout mixture was being taken from a shuttered waste cleanup project near the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to a new waste treatment facility near the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant.
Authorities determined the truck left the secure reservation for about three-tenths of a mile on state Highway 95 near the intersection with Bethel Valley Road. Contaminated asphalt was removed and taken to the waste management facility and the road reopened on Sunday.
A portion of Bear Creek Road within the Oak Ridge Reservation leading to Y-12 also was contaminated. One lane was reopened Monday with work continuing on the other lane.
No contamination was found on workers or more than 70 personal vehicles that were checked after passing along Highway 95, Wyatt said.
-------- MILITARY
-------- afghanistan
Projects Put Strain On Afghan Province
Disarmament and Poppy Eradication Leave Residents Feeling Persecuted
By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, May 24, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A50495-2004May23?language=printer
MAIDAN SHAHR, Afghanistan -- On a windblown field, 300 leathery men listened Saturday to speeches praising their past bravery in battle and their current contribution to peace. Behind them, standing in soldierly rows, were rocket launchers, artillery and machine guns the former fighters were reluctantly surrendering to international peacekeepers.
Ten miles away, two dozen farmers watched sullenly from the edge of a neatly planted plot as a squad of government eradicators, wielding hoes and scythes, chopped down their carefully tended opium poppy shoots. On all sides, Afghan police and security guards hired by the U.S. Embassy stood watch against attack.
"The government has taken away our guns, and now it is destroying our livelihoods," protested Nasir Ahmad, 45, a sunburned farmer in the village of Kote Ashro. "We have agreed to turn in our weapons in the name of peace, but we don't have enough water to grow any other crops but poppy. Why are they bringing this cruelty on us now?"
By most standards, Wardak province should be a model for the rest of Afghanistan. It is the only place in the country where militia disarmament, poppy eradication and voter registration -- three efforts backed by the United Nations and Western governments -- are taking place simultaneously.
But some residents say they feel this ruggedly beautiful, impoverished province is less a showcase than a victim. They complain that it has been singled out for unpopular projects demanded by international powers because it is close to Kabul, economically vulnerable and without a dominant leader to resist the pressure.
Some local officials and U.N. officers said the simultaneous launching of the anti-poppy and disarmament programs could sharpen anti-government sentiment. It also could undermine provincial support for national elections in September, they said, which to succeed will require accelerated voter registration in rural areas by July.
"We are getting increasingly concerned about Wardak, because everything is taking place there at once, and it's putting a lot of pressure on people," said one U.N. officer in the capital. "People see the international process as one thing, whether it's disarmament, poppy eradication or voter registration. If they get upset enough to boycott the elections, it could hurt everything."
Wardak, just southwest of Kabul, might seem an ideal place to make a multi-pronged push for progress. It has enormous agricultural potential and strategically straddles the newly reconstructed north-south highway. It is dominated by ethnic Pashtuns, who make up the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan but have felt neglected by the current government.
The province has been largely free of Islamic terrorism, and its small armed factions have been far more willing to disarm than more powerful militia bosses elsewhere. Mohammed Musa Hotak, a local commander and Islamic cleric, volunteered to turn in his weapons and demobilize 100 fighters last month, earning high-level official praise.
Voter registration, a danger-fraught undertaking in many remote areas, has proceeded relative smoothly in Wardak since the government began opening rural registration sites May 1. Turnout among women has been low because of cultural taboos against their leaving home, but mobile voter registration teams are being trained so they can sign up women in their own villages.
Poppy is a relatively new crop in Wardak, and thus the region was deemed a relatively painless spot to initiate the government's new program to forcibly eradicate opium poppies. The sap collected from Afghan poppies is estimated to produce 75 percent of the world's heroin, and cultivation has skyrocketed since the collapse of Islamic Taliban rule in late 2001.
"We are happy the government is putting its programs into action in our province," said Mohammed Basir, the deputy governor. "We were the closest bunker to Kabul during jihad, so we are proud to be the first in disarming and contributing to national reconstruction." Jihad, or holy war, is the term Afghans use for the armed resistance to Soviet occupation in the 1980s.
Nevertheless, the simultaneous start of the disarmament and anti-poppy programs has aroused resentment in a region where poor farmers and ex-militia fighters are often one and the same, and where ethnic Pashtuns are suspicious of being abused by ethnic Tajik factions in the transitional government set up by the United Nations in 2001.
Many residents said they favored disbanding all militias and collecting their weapons and that they understood that poppy is used to create addictive drugs and is outlawed in Islam. But they questioned why Wardak, whose farmers grow far less poppy than those in many other provinces, was the first to be targeted after two years of official indulgence.
Such anger could undermine regional enthusiasm for the September elections. Voter registration, which has reached only 2.3 million of about 9.5 million eligible voters, must accelerate fast in rural provinces to guarantee a successful election, the highest national priority for Afghan, U.S. and U.N. officials.
In the village of Charaka, where no poppy has yet been destroyed, farmers took precious hours from their fields last week to trudge to a schoolhouse registration site. Sher Shah, 26, said his potatoes and apples needed watering, but that the first election in Afghanistan's history needed his vote.
"The time for fighting and chaos is over. We hope this election will bring us a good government, bring us peace and jobs," he said. "We want to choose our leaders. Everyone in my village wants this. Everyone in Afghanistan wants this."
But the mood was different Saturday in Zaibudah, a village where a guarded eradication team swept through the fields, hacking at poppy shoots that quickly turned from emerald to sickly yellow.
"We want the era of cruelty and guns to end, but we are very disappointed in the government, because it is condemning us to hunger," said Hajji Jalil, 64, a village elder. "How can they expect people to vote when they are hungry?"
The government originally announced it would spare 25 percent of local poppy crops, but the eradication teams have been instructed to destroy every plant they find. Because of delays in training, the program did not begin until after poppies had been harvested in other provinces, making Wardak appear to be a scapegoat.
During the past two years, farmers in traditional poppy areas such as Nangahar and Helmand provinces began replanting with a vengeance. Afghan officials could do little to stop them, and Western military officials, preoccupied with their anti-terrorist mission and in some cases reliant on Afghan militia leaders who grew poppy, looked the other way.
Now, with poppy harvests said to account for nearly half the gross domestic product and drug traffic burgeoning as well, Afghan and international authorities have awakened to the overlapping scourges of violence and drugs, and officials warn that Afghanistan could become a narco-terror state. But it is the small farmers of Wardak, newcomers to the poppy boom, who are the first to be punished.
"Our orders are to destroy whatever we see," said Gen. Sher Agha, an Interior Ministry official who is overseeing the Wardak eradication project and living in a guarded tent compound with his force of 300 poppy choppers. "There is no compensation."
The disarming of Wardak's militias has been handled with more diplomacy and compassion. At the ceremony Saturday outside the 42nd army division barracks in Maidan Shahr, the provincial capital, officials praised the militiamen for their bravery in defending the country and promised to provide them with job training and opportunities to join the newly formed national army and police.
In addition, provincial officials said U.S. diplomats had offered to finance the repair of an important hydroelectric dam in southern Wardak, damaged in fighting years ago, and to bring other development projects to the impoverished province.
Still, the weather-beaten fighters seemed skeptical and a bit sad as they caressed their heavy weapons before reluctantly lugging them into a wire cage, where U.N. and Afghan army officials received them for storage.
"This was my father's rocket launcher in the jihad against the Russians, and now it is mine. I know we have peace and freedom, so I will give it up," said Syed Rahman, 24, who plans to become a truck driver. "The government has promised us many things, but if they don't follow through, we can always take our guns back and begin the fight again."
In the coming weeks, the pace of both poppy destruction and voter registration in Wardak is due to pick up, while the effects of militia disarmament will begin to sink in. Perhaps the failure or success of the first two projects will mirror the fate of Mia Jan, 55, a militiaman who leaned Saturday on an enormous black machine gun. Once, he used it to mow down Russian soldiers; now he is surrendering it to history.
"We have our freedom, so I won't miss this gun," he said, patting the steel barrel. "They said the army will protect us now. They said the government will find us jobs, but we'll see. I have some land, but there's no water, and now they're cutting down all the poppy. What will happen to men like me, I really don't know."
--------
Afghan Deaths Linked to Unit at Iraq Prison
May 24, 2004
By DOUGLAS JEHL and DAVID ROHDE
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/24/politics/24ABUS.html?pagewanted=all&position=
WASHINGTON, May 23 - A military intelligence unit that oversaw interrogations at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq was also in charge of questioning at a detention center in Afghanistan where two prisoners died in December 2002 in incidents that are being investigated as homicides.
For both of the Afghan prisoners, who died in a center known as the Bagram Collection Point, the cause of death listed on certificates signed by American pathologists included blunt force injuries to their legs. Interrogations at the center were supervised by Company A, 519th Military Intelligence Battalion, which moved on early in 2003 to Iraq, where some of its members were assigned to the Joint Interrogation and Debriefing Center at Abu Ghraib. Its service in Afghanistan was known, but its work at Bagram at the time of the deaths has now emerged in interviews with former prisoners, military officials and from documents.
Two men arrested with one of the prisoners who died in the Bagram Detention Center that month said in southeastern Afghanistan on Sunday that they were tortured and sexually humiliated by their American jailers; they said they were held in isolation cells, black hoods were placed over their heads, and their hands at times were chained to the ceiling. "The 10 days that we had was a very bad time," said Zakim Shah, a 20-year-old farmer and a father of two who said he felt he would not survive at times. "We are very lucky."
The account provided by the two men was consistent with those of other former Afghan prisoners, including those interviewed by The New York Times and cited in reports by human rights officials.
In interviews, the two men and other former prisoners who were held at the center in Afghanistan at that time have described an environment similar in some ways to that of Abu Ghraib, whose outlines have been depicted in photographs and testimony. At both places, prisoners were hooded, stripped naked and mocked sexually by female captors, according to a variety of accounts.
In Iraq, at least three members of the 519th Military Intelligence Battalion who had been assigned to the joint interrogation center at Abu Ghraib have been quietly disciplined for conduct involving the abuse of a female Iraqi prisoner there, an Army spokesman said.
At least one officer, Capt. Carolyn A. Wood, served in supervisory positions at the interrogation units both at the Bagram Collection Point from July 2002 to December 2003 and then again at the joint center at Abu Ghraib, according to Army officials. That center was established in the fall of 2003. In Congressional testimony last week, a senior Army lawyer, Col. Marc Warren, praised Captain Wood as an officer who took initiative in Iraq at a time when American commanders had yet to spell out rules for interrogation. But he also singled out Captain Wood and her unit as having brought to Iraq interrogation procedures developed during their service in Afghanistan. No one is known to have accused Captain Wood of any wrongdoing in connection with the abuses at Abu Ghraib or the deaths of prisoners there or in Afghanistan.
A spokesman for the 18th Airborne Corps, in Fort Bragg, N.C., identified Captain Wood as having been sent to Afghanistan in July 2002 as Company A's interrogation platoon leader, and having later assumed the duties of "operations officer in charge of the Bagram Collection Point." In a written statement sent Friday, that spokesman, Lt. Col. Billy Buckner, said Captain Wood had been assigned to the 519th Battalion at Abu Ghraib. But other Army officers have described her as having served as the officer in charge of the interrogation center there, under Lt. Col. Steve Jordan, a reservist who served as its director.
In an interview on Sunday, Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who oversaw Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq but has since been admonished and suspended from command, described Captain Wood as an impressive and well-spoken expert on interrogations who oversaw the center. Colonel Buckner said that Captain Wood's commanding officer in Iraq, Lt. Col. Robert Whalen, was not available for comment. To date, seven enlisted personnel from a military police unit have been the only soldiers charged with crimes in connection with the abuses at Abu Ghraib. But an Army report completed in March identified Colonel Jordan as among four people who may have been among those "directly or indirectly" responsible for the misconduct.
Within days after the deaths of the two prisoners in Afghanistan in December 2002, both were ruled homicides by American military doctors in Afghanistan. But in a public statement at the time, the military described at least one death as the result of natural causes.
The deaths of two prisoners at the Bagram Collection Point in Afghanistan in December 2002 are believed to be among nine being investigated by the Army as possible homicides linked to interrogation practices in Iraq and Afghanistan. At least two other deaths being investigated occurred in Abu Ghraib, senior military officers have said, but it is not clear whether those prisoners were under the authority of the Joint Interrogation and Debriefing Center.
The two former Afghan prisoners who were interviewed in Afghanistan on Sunday said they believed that their acquaintance, a young man named Dilawar whose death is considered a possible homicide, received the same harsh treatment that they did. Both prisoners were later sent to the American-run detention center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, but were released with letters from the Army saying they did nothing wrong.
The two men said that at Bagram they were forced to strip naked in the presence of female soldiers when receiving prison clothes, undergoing medical exams and taking showers. They said female soldiers were never present when they were naked in Guantánamo Bay.
Both men said appearing naked in front of women was deeply humiliating for Afghan men, who live in a conservative Islamic culture. "The other things don't matter," Parkhudin said, referring to the kicking and sleep deprivation. "But we are angry about this."
Since 2002, about 350 prisoners have been held at any given time at American-run detention centers in Afghanistan. The Bagram Collection Point, at Bagram Air Base, just north of Kabul, is the main American detention center, and is visited by officials of the International Committee of the Red Cross. No outside inspectors visit roughly 20 smaller American bases around Afghanistan where prisoners are also held.
The two Afghan prisoners who died in American custody in December 2002 are identified on death certificates only as Dilawar and "Ullah, Habib." Friends and family members have identified Dilawar as a 22-year-old farmer and part-time taxi driver. The second prisoner who died has been identified by family members as Mullah Habibullah, about 30 years old and a brother of a former Taliban commander.
The Dec. 13 death certificate for Dilawar says he died as a result of "blunt force injuries to lower extremities complicating coronary artery disease." The document was signed by Lt. Col. Elizabeth A. Rouse of the Air Force, a military pathologist, and listed as its finding that the "mode of death" was "homicide," rather than "natural," "accident" and "suicide."
At the time, American military officials said Dilawar had died of a heart attack and had coronary artery disease. The fact that the military characterized his death a "homicide" was not publicly known until his family showed a reporter from The New York Times his death certificate in late February 2003. Family members, who do not speak English, were unable to understand the certificate.
According to military documents, Dilawar was found dead in his isolation cell on Dec. 10, his fifth day of captivity. The military later disclosed that the death in Bagram of Mullah Habibullah, which occurred on Dec. 3, 2002, had also been deemed a homicide by an Army pathologist. He too was found collapsed in a cell on the second floor of the center.
The two men interviewed on Sunday in Turiuba, a village in Khost Province in southeastern Afghanistan, said they had been held in isolation cells on the second floor of the Bagram center for the first 10 days.
Mr. Shah, the 20-year-old farmer, and Parkhudin, a 26-year-old farmer and former soldier, said they were later transferred from Bagram to the American detention center in Guantánamo Bay. Their first 10 days in Bagram were by far the most harrowing of their 15 months in American custody, they said.
Guards shouted at them or kicked them whenever they tried to sleep, the two men said. The only time they were allowed to move freely was during trips to eat or go to the bathroom, they said. If they tried to speak to a prisoner in an adjoining cell, guards beat them, they said.
"They were punching me and kicking me when I talked to the other prisoners," said Parkhudin, who like many Afghans has only one name. Mr. Shah said soldiers never struck him when he tried to sit, but they constantly shouted at him to keep him awake. "We were standing for the whole 10 days," said the young farmer, who said he grew so exhausted at one point that he vomited. "When we were trying to sit they would tell us `Hands up!' `Stand up!' " Parkhudin said his hands were chained to the ceiling for 8 of the 10 days. Mr. Shah said his hands were chained for only 4 hours in total over the 10 days. Parkhudin said he believed American interrogators treated him worse because they thought he was a Taliban commander.
A third detainee who was in the Bagram center at the time, Abdul Jabar, a 35-year-old taxi driver from the same area as Dilawar, said he saw him being led downstairs to the bathroom hooded. In a March 2003 interview with The New York Times, he said the young man "was struggling a lot."
He added, "He was scared because he could not get enough oxygen."
Sixteen months later, military investigations into both deaths have not been completed. Military officials have said that it has proved difficult to track the personnel who were on duty in the Bagram Detention Center at the time.
"It's complicated because forces have rotated outside of Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Tucker Mansager, a United States military spokesman in Afghanistan, said Saturday. "Our United States Army Criminal Investigative Division is having to follow those people to the various places they've gone in order to interview them and complete an actual criminal investigation into those allegations."
Douglas Jehl reported from Washington for this article, and David Rohde from Khost, Afghanistan.
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'Charlie's Angels' latest US weapon in Afghanistan
Afghanistan (AFP)
May 24, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040524023327.5w0sxs4s.html
"'Choop sha', no talking," American servicewoman Angela Bousquet firmly tells the Afghan women and children sitting at her feet.
Separated from the men of their village in insurgency-hit Uruzgan provinces, the group is being dealt with by the US military's latest improvement in its search for Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan -- 12 females in the infantry of the marines.
Young, pretty and toting shotguns, M-16s and pistols on their standard issue military uniforms, the six women assigned to 'C' Company of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit are part of a more culturally sensitive approach to detaining and questioning Afghan women.
As the US military is under fire in Afghanistan and Iraq for the alleged appalling treatment of some detainees, the sight of women searching and guarding Afghan women represents an acknowledgement from the US that what might be culturally acceptable in America does not work in conservative Afghanistan.
Searches of Afghan women by male coalition troops loom prominently among the 44 complaints against the US-led coalition force received by the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission received since its formation in late 2001.
"Afghans have their own culture and they don't allow men to search females but during the searches this happens in some cases... and that is something against Afghan culture," commissioner Farid Hamidi said.
Although a man is still present at the interviews because all the interpreters with the unit are men, the 12 women are believed to be the first females to be deployed in combat patrol in the marines infantry in Afghanistan.
The six assigned to 'C' or Charlie company have been handed the call name 'Charlie's Angels' -- not surprising given the commanding officer of the marines in the field, Pakistan-born Lieutenant Colonel Asad Khan, goes by the tag 'Genghis.'
"They called me and said we've got a name for you and I thought 'I hope it's not Barbie,'" recounted Lori Butierries, 21, a hospital medic pulled from the US Navy to join the group.
In the remote villages, devoid of electricity and the most basic elements of modern life, the female marines are something of an oddity where many women rarely leave their homes or take part in public life.
"Generally, they are cooperative," said Second Lieutenant Melanie Scott of the Afghan women.
"But they don't know that we're women until we take off our Kevlars (helmets). They've just never seen females in uniforms, they've never seen women with weapons."
"Two of us smoke and that really gets them," adds specialist Bousquet, 28, from Minnesota.
Perhaps the worst reaction has come from the male marines --one woman found that her ammunition had been hidden around the camp as part of a prank.
"We got a lot of advice before we came out," Bousquet admits. "We were told 'The men have a mission. Stay out of the way'."
"They were shy," says Butierries of the men. "They didn't know how to react. They thought 'What are we going to do with a bunch of females?'
"But they respect you as long as you can hold your own."
The women have won grudging respect as it has become evident they are doing a tough job.
In their first two weeks in the field the women have been assaulted several times and in one case urinated on by a frightened Afghan lady, meanwhile they have not been given the extensive training handed to the men.
Yet after two weeks in the field unable to shower, sleeping in the open and tampon supplies exhausted, 'Charlie's Angels' remain cheerful and confident that they are doing important work.
Settling in for another cold and uncomfortable night in the mountains, they nod as Bousquet says: "Goodnight angels."
-------- africa
Raid in Sudan Claims 56, Villagers Say
May 24, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/24/international/africa/24suda.html
YALA, Sudan, May 23 - Arab militiamen killed at least 56 people in a raid in western Sudan, villagers said Sunday, just days after the government declared the region stable.
On Saturday, the militiamen, known as Janjaweed, raided Abga Rajil, a village about 30 miles south of Nyala, the capital of South Darfur State, witnesses said.
Abdel-Rahman Rizk, 29, speaking from a hospital bed in Nyala, where he was recovering from a bullet wound to the thigh, said the militiamen arrived on horses, camels and a car and surrounded the village.
"They were firing, and people were scattering, and they set fire to the houses and then they started picking off people as they ran out of their houses," he said.
Ibrahim Adam, also from the village, said: "The tally of those we buried was 56. Forty of them we buried in one grave."
Others from the area gave the same figure, although an official from the Sudan Liberation Army, one of the two main rebel groups in Darfur, said he had understood that 46 had been killed. Independent verification is hard to obtain in the remote Darfur region.
Villagers and rights groups accuse the government of arming the Janjaweed to loot and burn African villages and fight a proxy war against rebels who started a revolt last year to demand a fairer share of power and resources.
The government denies the accusations, calling the militiamen outlaws.
The United Nations says fighting in the impoverished and arid Darfur region has displaced about a million people and created one of the world's worst human calamities.
The rebels signed a cease-fire with the government in early April, but have since accused it of several violations.
The government said last week that Darfur was stable and that security would be maintained by the police. But many of those displaced from Darfur fear new attacks and are reluctant to return to their homes and fields, where they should now be planting crops ahead of approaching rains.
Aid workers fear the spread of disease. "Our priority is health," said Muhammad Abdullah, administrative manager for the Kas region. "These people are out in the open, and the rains will affect the health of the displaced people who are already malnourished."
-------- arms
Czech police stop illegal arms shipment to Iraq
PRAGUE (AFP)
May 24, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040524103632.bv0j6lfg.html
Czech police stopped in April illegal arms and ammunition shipments to Iraq and several Asian and African countries, police spokesman Blanka Kosinova said Monday.
Two Czechs were arrested by a special police unit for violating laws on trade in weapons, Kosinova said.
"They were sending weapons on order to Africa, the Middle East, Iraq, Iran and Israel and now face up to 10 years in prison," she said.
She said police had seized 157 long-range weapons, 20 pistols, nine machine-guns and six revolvers in raids.
She refused to comment on a report in the Prague newspaper Dnes on Monday that the alleged ringleader in the arms trade, a 43-year-old Czech, had been manufacturing ammunition at his firm in Pavlice in the southeast of the Czech Republic and was preparing to export ammunition to Iraq, using an American firm.
The ammunition was apparently destined for Iraq government units but Czech intelligence was afraid it could fall into the hands of anti-government forces, Dnes said.
-------- biological weapons
UK Mulled Using Birds for Bio-War After WW2 - Files
Reuters
May 24, 2004
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/25210/story.htm
LONDON - Britain considered training pigeons to deliver biological weapons after World War II but decided the birds had outlived their usefulness in battle, government files released last week show.
Homing pigeons carried vital messages in wartime, and the Pigeon Policy Committee of the day discussed training them to undertake ever more daring tasks.
"We can now train pigeons to 'home' to any object on the ground when air-released in the vicinity... Bacteria might be delivered accurately to a target by this means," the Head of the Air Ministry Pigeon Section Lea Rayner said in a 1945 report.
"With the latest developments of explosives and bacterial science I suggest that this possibility should be closely investigated and watched."
"A thousand pigeons, each with a two ounce explosive capsule, landed at intervals on a specific target might be a seriously inconvenient surprise."
But Rayner's enthusiasm was not shared by other committee members and in 1948 the armed services said they had no further interest in pigeons.
The secret services however thought anti-British forces would continue to communicate with each other via pigeons and asked a civilian pigeon fancier to keep 100 birds for MI5 to use to prepare countermeasures, but they abandoned that scheme in 1950.
Britain used around 250,000 pigeons to carry messages in World War II and 32 of the birds received the Dickin Medal, the highest award of valor for animals.
-------- britain
Brown may increase war fund to £6bn
independent.co.uk
By Ben Russell Political Correspondent
24 May 2004
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=524307
Gordon Brown could be forced to ask Parliament for extra money to fund Britain's continuing presence in Iraq early next year, as new estimates suggest the cost of military action is running at about £4m a day.
Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokes-man, warned that the Chancellor's £3.8bn fund to pay for operations in Iraq could be exhausted by January or February, if the scale of British involvement is maintained.
He said the overall cost of the British operation could approach £6bn if troops remained in Iraq through 2006, and added that there was the danger of widespread economic damage caused by the huge costs of the American-led operation.
Ministers are still debating whether to send up to 3,000 extra troops to Iraq to help quell continuing unrest amid warnings that Labour voters will use the local and European elections on 10 June to protest against the war.
Last week Geoff Hoon, the Secretary of State for Defence, confirmed that Liberal Democrat estimates that the war was costing £125m a month were "roughly consistent" with the confirmed costs since the invasion last year. Mr Cable said the long-term effect of the war could be damaging to the global economy, with instability in the Gulf contributing to increasing oil prices, and American borrowing to fund military action threatening to increase long-term interest rates.
He said: "The first Gulf war cost £2.5bn but Britain got 80 per cent of that back because it was backed by the United Nations. This war will cost Britain many times that because it has been done unilaterally.
"All this spending has an opportunity cost. It could have been spent on something else. Compared with the size of the national economy it is not all that significant, but as we enter the public-spending round there are commitments which we will not be able to make."
He warned that the huge US military spending in Iraq was helping to fuel the American budget deficit. "When you stack all of this spending up in the context of the widening fiscal deficit, there are wide implications for the rest of the world, building up long-term interest rates which everybody ultimately has to pay."
He also warned that oil dealers were paying a $10-a-barrel risk premium because of the increasing attacks by Iraqi insurgents on many of the country's oil installations.
-------- business
RAE Systems Wins $1 Million Radiation Sensor Contract From U.S. Military
May 24, 2004
BUSINESS WIRE
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20040524005375&newsLang=en
RAE Systems Inc. (AMEX:RAE), a leading global developer and manufacturer of rapidly-deployable, multi-sensor chemical and radiation detection monitors and networks for homeland security and industrial applications, today announced that a branch of the U.S. Military has signed a contract worth approximately $1 million for radiation sensors to be used for base security at domestic and international locations.
The NeutronRAE Pager is a rapid detector of gamma-ray and neutron sources. Its cesium iodide (CsI) and lithium iodide (LiI) scintillators provide low level detection in a compact unit that is hundreds of times more sensitive than similar sized Geiger-Muller detectors. Even low energy neutrons in the thermal range can be counted. The NeutronRAE alerts first responders to the presence of a radiation threat well before they might be exposed to health threatening levels, and this same high sensitivity allows security personnel to instantly detect smuggled nuclear material.
The NeutronRAE Pager is particularly useful for detecting neutrons from weapons grade plutonium (239Pu), which are much more difficult to shield than gamma-rays. Outfitting a large number of security personnel with NeutronRAEs can help establish a "moving curtain" of radiation protection that can be more effective than large, fixed radiation detectors.
"The illicit traffic and use of radioactive material is clearly a growing concern for both government, military and civilian agencies," said Robert I. Chen, CEO of RAE Systems. "Unlike dosimeters, our radiation products provide highly sensitive detection and instant data that a threat exists. Since military bases are a particularly high-profile target, this better, faster data enables better, faster decisions that protect lives and mitigate damage."
About RAE Systems
RAE Systems is a leading global developer and manufacturer of rapidly-deployable, multi-sensor chemical detection monitors and networks for homeland security and industrial applications. In addition, RAE Systems offers a full line of portable single-sensor chemical and radiation detection products. RAE Systems' products enable the military and first responders such as firefighters, law enforcement and other emergency management personnel to detect and provide early warning of weapons of mass destruction and other hazardous materials. Industrial applications include the detection of toxic industrial chemicals, volatile organic compounds and petrochemicals. RAE Systems' products are used by many U.S. government agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the Department of State, as well as all branches of the U.S. military, and by numerous city and state agencies. Our end users also include many of the world's leading corporations in the airline, automotive, computer and oil industries. Our products are used in civilian and government atmospheric monitoring programs in over 50 countries. For more information about RAE Systems, please visit www.RAESystems.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains "forward-looking" statements, as that term is used in Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements are denoted by such words as "continue to be strong." These types of statements address matters that are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, the general economic and industry factors and receptiveness of the market to RAE and its products. In addition, our forward-looking statements should be considered in the context of other risk factors discussed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to our annual report on Form 10-K and 10-Q filings, available online at http://www.sec.gov. All forward-looking statements are based on information available to the company on the date hereof, and the company assumes no obligation to update such statements.
----
The Ultimate Insider
Richard N. Perle's Many Business Ventures Followed His Years as a Defense Official
By David S. Hilzenrath
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 24, 2004; Page E01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A50388-2004May23?language=printer
For longtime Pentagon adviser and boardroom insider Richard N. Perle, the bonus plan at newspaper publisher Hollinger International Inc. was a can't-lose proposition.
While Perle was overseeing Hollinger as a member of the board for the past several years, he also was co-chairman of a subsidiary that invested in dot-coms. He participated in a bonus plan that paid executives a share of the profits from successful Internet investments without taking into account losses on failures, the company said in a complaint against its former chief executive, Conrad M. Black, and others filed in federal court in Chicago this month.
Perle received $3.1 million in such bonuses from May 2000 to January 2001, the complaint said.
During that time, as a member of Hollinger's executive committee, Perle signed forms giving officers of the company license to negotiate deals that Hollinger now alleges improperly enriched the other two members of the executive committee, Black and F. David Radler, who was chief operating officer.
Hollinger said in court papers that one such executive committee authorization in September 2000 was "bogus" partly because Perle received the bonuses, "knew nothing about" the transaction and answered to Black and Radler, thus lacking independence.
Black and Radler have vigorously denied the company's charges. Perle was not named as a defendant in the recent Hollinger complaint. He was named as a defendant in an earlier suit filed in Delaware by a Hollinger institutional investor, which accused him of "standing idle" and failing to provide "any meaningful oversight" while Black and other executives looted the company. Proceedings in the Delaware suit have been held up, awaiting the results of an investigation by a Hollinger committee.
In an interview Saturday, Perle said the investor's lawsuit "is in many respects just out and out wrong and in other respects very misleading," and any suggestion "that actions or decisions taken by me involved a quid pro quo for compensation I received . . . is absolutely false."
"Did I take actions, inappropriate actions, because of actual or promised or anticipated rewards or compensation? The answer is flatly no," he said.
The Hollinger story opens a window on a less visible side of Perle's career since he left the Reagan administration, in which he was assistant secretary of defense. He has been a director on more than a dozen corporate boards, and has served with some of the same people on multiple boards.
On one level, Perle's business career is like those of many former Washington officials who used the expertise and contacts gained in government to carve niches in the corporate world. But more than most, Perle also has maintained an active public policy role. Perle, 62, is best known in recent years for his advocacy of war with Iraq and tough measures to fight terrorism. Over the weekend, Perle was trying to rally support for Ahmed Chalabi, the embattled head of the Iraqi National Congress, who for years Perle has backed.
Perle also is an author and lecturer, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and was a foreign policy adviser to George W. Bush's 2000 presidential campaign.
"There is no 'main gig,' " Perle said of his many roles. "It's all of these and it changes from one day to the next," he said.
"There are days when I am on the way to the airport and I say to myself, 'How am I managing to do this?' Sure there are days when I'm spread too thin and there are times when I've thought this isn't fair to my family."
Unlike many who pass through Washington's revolving door, Perle for 17 years managed to keep one foot in the government as a member of the Defense Policy Board, which offers advice on key issues to the secretary of defense.
That role created controversy last year after the New York Times and the New Yorker magazine reported on Perle's activities as a consultant to Loral Space and Communications Ltd. and Global Crossing Ltd., which had matters pending with the government, and as a partner in a venture capital firm pursuing investments in homeland security technology.
An investigation by the Pentagon's inspector general concluded last fall that Perle had not violated ethics rules, in part because certain restrictions did not apply to him as chairman of the Defense Policy Board and in part because he "did not mention or invoke" his unpaid position when he contacted the State Department on behalf of a company.
He gave up the chairmanship in March 2003, saying he did not want the controversy surrounding him to become a distraction for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. In February, he resigned from the board itself, saying that he did not want his strong views on key issue such as terrorism to become a factor in this year's presidential campaign.
"I think I've made a successful transition from public policy to the private sector, and the evidence of that is the readiness of a number of companies to invite me to join their board or assist them in other ways, and in many cases companies that have nothing to do with the government," Perle said. "I'm interested in interesting businesses, not in mundane ones, and of course in my business activity I'm driven by the necessity to provide for my family."
Tour at Defense
"It's well known that you can peddle your influence after you leave the government for a certain number of years," William Happer, a Princeton University physicist and former Energy Department official, who serves with Perle on the strategic advisory council of USEC Inc., a uranium-enrichment company, said in an interview. "It's an old American tradition, and Richard Perle I think is doing it in an honest way. He's one of hundreds and hundreds who do it."
Perle said he did not like Happer's characterization. "I don't believe that anybody has hired me for connections," he said. "Nothing is about connections," he said. "I do not ask the people I know to do things for me."
Later in the interview, however, he confirmed that he had contacted ambassadors from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in the 1990s on behalf of a company for which he was both a director and a sales consultant, seeking to sell security systems in the Middle East. "Was that a result of my influence? Yeah, it was. It was a result of the fact that they, the people I went to, knew me so they took my phone call," Perle said.
Perle, who started his career in Washington as an aide to Sen. Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson (D-Wash.), began applying his government experience to business soon after he left full-time employment at the Pentagon in 1987.
As assistant secretary of Defense for international security policy, Perle advocated increased U.S. assistance to Turkey. He chaired a U.S.-Turkey high-level defense group.
FMC Corp., a U.S. defense contractor, was working on a deal to sell armored personnel carriers to the Turkish government and enlisted Perle's help, former executives said. Perle's "main asset to us was his relationship with the Turkish government," Robert H. Malott, former chairman and chief executive of FMC, said in an interview. He said a U.S. ambassador to Turkey told him that the Turks regarded Perle "as a demigod."
A $1.1 billion deal, finalized in 1989, called for FMC and a Turkish partner to sell Turkey about 1,700 armored vehicles. Perle became a member of the board of directors of FNSS Defense Systems Inc. , the joint venture FMC set up to manufacture the vehicles in Turkey.
Perle said FMC's contract to sell Turkey the armored vehicles "was essentially done" when he got involved. He said he thought there were "occasions" when he talked about the venture with Turkish Prime Minister Turgut Ozal, whom he described as a "good friend."
Around the same time, Perle urged Turkish officials to establish a lobbying shop to advance the country's interests in Washington, he told the Wall Street Journal in a letter in 1989. Though he did not personally register as a lobbyist for Turkey, he became a paid consultant to the lobbying firm, International Advisers Inc., which was led by Douglas J. Feith, who worked under Perle in the Reagan administration and is now an undersecretary of defense. Perle received $255,000 from the firm from early 1989 through early 1994, according to lobbying records.
It was during that early period in the private world that Perle began a longtime relationship with Morgan Crucible Co. PLC, an English maker of industrial ceramics. He met company officials after speaking at a London conference hosted by an investment bank , he recalled, and they asked him to join the board. He served for 15 years before leaving last June, a period in which the company found itself in legal trouble.
In 2002, Morganite Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of the company, admitted to price fixing and agreed to pay a $10 million criminal fine. Morgan Crucible pleaded guilty to witness tampering and paid $1 million. Its former chief executive, Ian Norris, was indicted last year for allegedly conspiring to fix prices for more than a decade and then obstructing the criminal investigation. The government charged that he prepared a false script for employees to follow in the investigation and instructed employees to hide or destroy records.
Perle said the Morgan Crucible board cooperated with the authorities, appointed a special committee, retained legal counsel to advise it on how to proceed, "and I believe conducted itself in an exemplary fashion." Regarding the alleged crimes at the company, he said, "I don't believe they reflect on me or any of the other non-executive directors at all, and I don't know of any suggestion to the contrary by anyone."
He joined another board in 1990, that of Vikonics Inc., a New Jersey company that marketed security systems to the armed forces. He also had a consulting arrangement that entitled him to receive a 7 percent commission on contracts that he helped the company obtain, according to a regulatory filing.
John L. Kaufman, who was Vikonics' president at the time, recalled in an interview that "what he really had done was help us with introductions to people who he knew," including "high-ranking people in the areas of government there and in the military." He recalled traveling with Perle to Kuwait, where the former Defense Department official received a grateful and enthusiastic welcome shortly after the Persian Gulf War.
"The minister of this or the secretary of that -- no matter who it was, everyone wanted to meet him," Kaufman said. "I do believe that he did help us to gain contracts just by being there to help us."
In 1994, the company announced a contract to install a security system at Kuwait's Ministry of Information, and the kingdom was soon one of Vikonics' largest customers.
Perle recalled phoning the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, about Vikonics. "I talked to Bandar and said I'm on the board of this company, and we make some very high quality security devices, and if there's a market for thesein Saudi Arabia, we'd like to go talk to people who make those decisions. Same thing in Kuwait."
In 1995, Perle resigned from the Vikonics board. The company reported that he had been awarded no commissions and the company was de-emphasizing its efforts in the Middle East in part "due to the limited success to date."
In the early 1990s, Raytheon Co. retained the American Enterprise Institute to advise it on business opportunities in Turkey, and Perle "was one of the associates involved in that process," Raytheon said in a statement.
At times, Perle joined longtime associates in the boardroom. Former Army Chief of Staff Edward C. Meyer, for example, was a director with Perle in FMC's venture in Turkey, and has served with him on three other boards. An investment firm Meyer helped manage granted Perle stock options to run for a board seat. The options produced a profit of about $250,000 for Perle. At Perle's recommendation, Meyer was appointed to join him on another board.
The retired general praised Perle's performance. "I would say he's always been in the top one-third of all of the directors I've seen because he always goes out of his way to understand all the details of what the company is doing and how he can contribute to its success, and a lot of directors do not do that -- they just sit there and nod sagely," Meyer said.
"His contacts are particularly useful to companies that have businesses overseas," Meyer said. The contacts he's seen Perle use "did not have as much to do with the U.S. government as they did . . . foreign governments and foreign personages," he said.
Perle joined Hollinger's board in 1994, having met Black at an annual Bilderberg Conference, where members of the international business and foreign policy elite meet to network and discuss issues.
Friends Helping Friends
Through serving together at Hollinger, Perle became friends with Leonard P. Shaykinwho recruited Perle to serve on the board of a biotech company he headed, NaPro BioTherapeutics Inc., now known as Tapestry Pharmaceuticals Inc. As chairman of that firm's compensation committee, Perle now oversees Shaykin's pay. "Personally, I consider him a friend," Shaykin said in an interview. "I gained a great respect for both his judgment and his negotiating capabilities, which are legendary," he said. "I can tell you Richard hasn't rubber-stamped anything on my board."
Perle has served on the boards of two Washington area technology companies headed by Ken Bajaj, including a stint on an audit committee that did not meet one year. Bajaj has served on an advisory board of a venture capital firm that Perle co-founded.
Familiarity is the norm when boards recruit directors, and it can be a good thing if "you have learned that this director was an aggressive, careful, monitoring director who asked probing questions on some other board and you want him to do the same on your board," said John C. Coffee Jr., a professor at Columbia Law School. But familiarity can be bad if it involves mutual back-scratching or if the director in question "is simply never going to find fault with someone who is one of his close friends," Coffee said.
"It is an all too common practice to find the same directors popping up on boards with each other over and over again," said Gregory P. Taxin, chief executive of Glass, Lewis & Co., which advises institutional shareholders on how to vote in board elections. "The world of directors is a very incestuous one."
"If you are good friends with other people on the board and you all go to board meetings together, it's far less likely that you will start an acrimonious and strong debate in the boardroom about issues large or small," Taxin said.
Perle said Taxin's concerns do not apply to the boards on which he has served. "I have never hesitated to debate" when it was warranted, he said. "I don't think that people would say I am a wallflower."
Famous Company
On the board of Hollinger, which publishes the Chicago Sun-Times and London's Daily Telegraph, among other newspapers, Perle joined a gathering of luminaries. Directors have included former secretary of state Henry A. Kissinger, former U.S. ambassador to Russia Robert S. Strauss, former Illinois governor James R. Thompson and former Sotheby's chairman A. Alfred Taubman, who remained on the board after he was convicted of antitrust violations.
For Black, Hollinger supported a lifestyle that included the use of corporate jets to fly to the Tahitian island Bora Bora and shuttle between houses around the world, the Hollinger lawsuit said. Black billed Hollinger for household staff such as chefs, butlers, chauffeurs, footmen and security personnel, the lawsuit said. Through an unusual system of annual management fees to a company owned by Black and Radler, Hollinger paid its top executives five to six times what competing companies paid for similar services, the suit said.
Black resigned as Hollinger chief executive in November and was removed as chairman in January. His holding company said in a recent statement that Hollinger's board members "were all extremely sophisticated professionals" and that the "vast majority" of matters the firm is challenging "were reviewed and approved by its independent directors." Black has sued several directors, alleging defamation.
During several hours of interviews for this article, Perle declined to answer most questions about Hollinger, citing pending litigation and the advice of counsel. Perle would not describe his relationship with Black, but confirmed that he once flew with Black on a company jet to the Middle East to attend a meeting with the crown prince of Jordan and to visit Perle's friend, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, in the mid-1990s.
By 1998 Perle was listed as chairman and chief executive of Hollinger Digital. He was one of three members of Hollinger International's executive committee, with Black and Radler.
As a member of the executive committee, Perle signed "unanimous written consent" forms authorizing management to negotiate terms of certain Hollinger newspaper sales, the documents show. For example, the Sept. 15, 2000, document authorized "the proper officers" of the company -- without naming them -- to "take all such actions" and negotiate "all terms . . . which in their sole judgment are necessary, proper or advisable" to carry out a $90 million transaction. The form expressly authorized the officers to negotiate a "noncompete agreement" without specifying all the details.
That noncompete agreement and others like it became devices for Black and Radler to divert millions of dollars to themselves, Hollinger alleged. Meanwhile, Black and Radler used such deals to acquire Hollinger newspapers at cut-rate prices, Hollinger alleged.
Perle was paid about $300,000 a year as head of Hollinger Digital, according to a Delaware suit by Hollinger shareholder Cardinal Value Equity Partners LP. That pay was in addition to his $3.1 million in bonuses, said a Hollinger source who would not agree to be identified because lawyers told company insiders not to speak to the press.
Hollinger Digital's "upside only" bonus arrangement was "virtually unheard of," the complaint said. The company paid $15.5 million in such bonuses, though the subsidiary's investments lost more than $65 million overall, it said. Perle said that, on balance, the investments for which he was responsible for were profitable. He said he urged the board to create Hollinger Digital because he envisioned the Internet transforming the newspaper business.
The Hollinger executive committee also approved the company's January 2001 $8 million purchase of papers of Franklin Delano Roosevelt so Black would have "exclusive and private access" to them while writing a book about FDR, the Cardinal lawsuit alleged. The Hollinger lawsuit put the price closer to $9 million and said most of the documents were stored in Black's homes. A spokesman for Black, James Badenhausen, said Black believed the papers were an attractive investment, and added that the contents of the papers were widely available to the public.
After Hollinger Digital invested money with New York financier Gerald Paul Hillman, Perle pursued a more entrepreneurial opportunity. He joined Hillman in setting up their own venture capital investment fund. Soon after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks , they formed Trireme Partners L.P., which stated that its focus was investing in technologies for homeland security. And the way they solicited capital for the fund would draw scrutiny.
Hillman also joined the Defense Policy Board after Perle recommended him to Rumsfeld, Perle said. The board's charter said its membership "will consist primarily of private sector individuals with distinguished backgrounds in national security affairs." Perle said he recommended Hillman because he was a brilliant analyst with a business background and "a lot of experience dealing with complex situations."
Trireme solicited Boeing Corp., with Hillman noting in a letter in early 2002 that he and Perle were members of the Defense Policy Board, according to a Boeing spokesman. Boeing committed to invest $20 million with Trireme. Ethics rules prohibit invoking government titles for private gain.
Perle said, "If we had not related that information we would have been withholding information." He added that the status as Pentagon adviser can be a drawback in business because "it means there are . . . things you can't say and can't do."
Last year Hollinger invested $2.5 million in a Trireme entity, the company said in an SEC filing. That was part of a $25 million commitment by Black, Bloomberg News reported in January. "I think that's right," Perle said when asked about the amount.
Black made the commitment to invest Hollinger money in Trireme without the board's approval, the Hollinger source said. When the audit committee learned about those actions last year, it canceled the commitment for the balance, the source said.
And when other directors discovered that Hollinger was paying for Perle's secretary, the company ended the arrangement, the Hollinger source said. Perle said the woman, based at a long-time Hollinger office at his Chevy Chase home, was not his personal secretary, but the sole secretary for Hollinger Digital. He declined to say if she handled all of his professional activities, saying the matter could become a subject of litigation.
Hollinger's complaint "is without merit and will be defended vigorously," said Josh Pekarsky, a spokesman for Radler. The company suit "repeatedly acknowledges that many of the things Mr. Radler is being accused of were presented to the Board, considered by the Board, and approved by the Board, yet it somehow fails to implicate the board in any of the alleged misconduct," he said in a statement.
A special committee at Hollinger is still examining the performance of the board of directors. Perle, who remains a Hollinger director, is no longer at Hollinger Digital or on the executive committee.
The perpetually busy Perle knows there may be more demands on his time.
"I've said to myself more than once and my wife has said even more often than that 'you've really got to scale back.' And then something really interesting comes along and I say yes and sometimes regret having said yes, like anyone else. I've got a piece due on June 1st that I'd forgotten I'd agreed to write. It's a chapter in a book."
He said he will squeeze it in.
Staff researcher Richard Drezen contributed to this report.
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South Africa says no legal challenges to new mine law
planetark
May 24, 2004
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/25220/story.htm
JOHANNESBURG - South Africa has not received any challenges to its new mining charter, a government official said last week, despite questions about whether it conflicts with bilateral treaties on expropriation.
A new law that took effect this month in South Africa, the world's biggest producer of gold and platinum, ends private mineral rights and transfers them to the state.
To gain mining licences, firms must now meet a range of conditions, including boosting the involvement of the black majority under the Black Economic Empowerment programme.
"We have not been given notice that anyone wants to challenge this," Jacinto Rocha, chief director of Mineral Resources Management, told Reuters.
An article on Mineweb (www.miningweb.co.za), an Internet mining information service owned by Moneyweb Holdings (MNYJ.J: Quote, Profile, Research) , said the government could face a flood of mining claims from companies arguing that bilateral investment treaties call for prompt and adequate compensation for any expropriation.
It said the government had been approached by lawyers on the issue.
The new law provides for "equitable" compensation in line with the constitution, where emphasis is put on the public interest demanding fair access to resources.
Most major mining companies, which consulted with government extensively about the new law, are working to implement it and several have said they have fulfilled initial requirements.
If any party wanted to challenge the new law under bilateral treaties, they would first have to get the backing of the foreign government concerned, since treaties are between states, not citizens, said Rocha, who works in the government's Department of Minerals and Energy.
"If the citizens feel aggrieved, they must approach their government first... We have not been informed by any other government with whom we have a bilateral agreement that we have violated these treaties," he said.
The new mining charter demands companies sell 15 percent of their local assets to black-controlled groups within five years and 26 percent in a decade.
Among an array of other targets, it also requires more representation in management by majority blacks, who were largely shut out of the mainstream economy during apartheid.
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Contractors caught under a microscope
washingtontechnology
By ROSEANNE GERIN
05/24/04
http://www.washingtontechnology.com/news/19_4/cover-stories/23555-1.html
Iraqi prison scandal raises questions about outsourcing
Outsourcing faces greater scrutiny in the wake of the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal.
Several lawmakers want the Defense Department and the White House to give a detailed accounting of the role contractors play in areas beyond traditional military support after employees with two companies were named as participants in the abuse of Iraqi prisoners.
Leading Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee have asked the General Accounting Office to examine the use of private security contractors in the Central Command's area of responsibility.
During recent hearings before the Senate Armed Services Committee, lawmakers raised questions about the lack of oversight of contractors supporting the military at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad, where the alleged abuses occurred.
Few government or industry officials expect the military to immediately reduce its reliance on contractors. Some regard the Democrats' calls for investigations as partisan posturing.
But questions about the contractors' involvement at Abu Ghraib, coupled with their prominent role in the military and rebuilding efforts, have made outsourcing a topic of public debate.
"Folks within both the House and Senate are, obviously, now activated on the issue and starting to not only demand a GAO investigation, but also [beef] up legislative language," said Peter Singer, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, an independent Washington think tank.
For defense IT companies, outsourcing is a significant and growing opportunity. Defense spending on IT outsourcing projects, such as networking support, data center management and various technical services, is expected to rise from $3.8 billion in 2003 to $7.4 billion in 2008, according to market research firm Input Inc. of Reston, Va.
Overall federal spending on IT outsourcing will rise from $8.5 billion in 2003 to $15.5 billion in 2008, Input said.
Rep. Vic Snyder (D-Ark.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, is one of those calling for better oversight of contractors and a clear understanding of their functions.
Asked whether the prison scandal would cause Congress to look at federal outsourcing practices beyond the military in Iraq, Snyder said in an e-mail: "It is possible that there will be some spillover, but at least immediately, it would probably be more in terms of looking at which jobs we are hiring contractors to fulfill."
SUPPORTING WARFIGHTERS
The Pentagon has long relied on contractors for functions such as logistical support, food and supply deliveries and fuel transport. But with recent engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military's need for outside civilian personnel has increased, especially for a host of new services, including translations, interrogation and intelligence work, IT support and other technical services related to network-centric warfare.
Among the tens of thousands of contractors in Iraq, the Bush administration said there are about 20,000 private security contractors supporting the military, among them Americans, foreign nationals and Iraqis.
Congressional scrutiny of contractors started early in the war, when critics charged that some contractors, such as Halliburton Corp. and Bechtel Corp., were gouging taxpayers after being awarded contracts without sufficient competition.
The graphic photos, videos and reports of military personnel mistreating and humiliating Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison have prompted congressional hearings and military investigations.
So far, some soldiers posted at the detention center have been charged with criminal or sexual abuse of prisoners, while others have been reprimanded. One soldier has pleaded guilty.
Soldiers charged with the criminal abuse of prisoners fall under the dictates of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, but contractors are not subject to military discipline and law. Contractors for CACI International Inc. of Arlington, Va., and Titan Corp. of San Diego, who were named in an Army report on the scandal as possible suspects or witnesses, have not yet been charged with any wrongdoing and are still on the job. CACI supplies interrogators to assist the military, while Titan provides interpreters.
Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, has been pressing the Pentagon for information about private military and security personnel, including the number of contractors, the names of their companies, their duties and how much they are being paid. He also asked to whom they report, the rules of engagement that govern them and how any disciplinary or criminal accusations against them are handled.
Skelton and Snyder also requested that GAO examine the use of private security contractors in the Central Command's area of responsibility, which covers the Middle East, the Horn of Africa, Central Asia and South Asia, including Afghanistan.
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) urged President Bush in a letter May 4 to suspend immediately all contracts with private military firms in Iraq that deal with the supervision, security or interrogation of prisoners.
Her spokesman, Nadeam Elshami, said Schakowsky also questions whether the government is actually saving money by using contractors instead of government personnel.
As Washington Technology was going to press last week, Schakowsky had offered an amendment to the defense authorization bill to require better reporting on contractors.
"There are concerns, especially with Iraq, about how we treat [contractors] who violate laws overseas and [if] they are more concerned about profits and not fulfilling their functions in the field," Elshami said. He also said Schakowsky will take steps in the future to limit the use of private military contractors.
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), ranking minority member on the House Committee on Government Reform, and his 18 fellow Democratic committee members sent a letter May 11 to Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), committee chairman, saying that the committee had failed to fulfill its oversight functions in investigating the allegations of misconduct at Abu Ghraib prison.
Waxman also said there seemed to be a concerted effort by Republican House leadership not to investigate the scandal. Waxman and other representatives have led investigations into the Bush administration's awarding of contracts for reconstruction and development work in Iraq, including several billion-dollar contracts with Halliburton.
Davis' spokesman David Marin dismissed Waxman's charges as partisan politics.
"We receive politically motivated hearing demands from our minority every day, so we have to treat them with a grain of salt," Marin said.
Davis' committee held a hearing on contracting issues in March and is planning a follow-up for early June, Marin said. If Davis "determines that there are outstanding issues related to contractors and prisoner abuse, then he may decide to include those matters in the hearing," he said.
OUTSOURCING GOES ON
Despite the burgeoning controversy, congressional staffers and experts said lawmakers will not push to reduce outsourcing because the military has a continuing need for contractors.
Marin said Davis' committee will not be in a position to recommend that the Defense Department either reduce or increase its use of contractors until the facts are determined.
"Contractors are making a huge contribution to the effort [in Iraq] and any broad brushstroke indictment of overall contractor support is, at best, premature," Marin said.
Olga Grkavac, an executive vice president of the Information Technology Association of America, an Arlington, Va., trade association for IT firms, agreed.
"With the important role that IT plays in supporting the warfighter, we do not see a reduction in the number of contractors," she said. Grkavac added that the government may reduce the number of contractors in areas where they're not as critical, but presently the Pentagon doesn't have the personnel to take over the roles that contractors play.
Legislators also will call for clearing up legal ambiguities in existing legislation regarding interrogators, Singer said.
"Later on, we may expect some movement on closing loopholes in the relevant laws and also rein in the broad extent of outsourcing, limiting it from being in such mission-critical areas, such as interrogation," Singer said, referring specifically to the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act of 2000.
The act authorizes the United States to maintain criminal jurisdiction over American citizens working for or accompanying a member of the military while overseas. Singer said the act has loopholes and gaps because it only applies to Defense Department contractors, and excludes contractors from other federal agencies and third-party contractors from other countries.
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Some U.S. prison contractors may avoid charges
Interior Department hired Abu Ghraib interrogators;
Loophole tangles prosecution;
Army chain of command blurred in civilian abuses
By Scott Shane
May 24, 2004
The Baltimore Sun
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/iraq/bal-te.contractor24may24,0,1298454.story?coll=bal-nationworld-headlines
The U.S. civilian interrogators questioning prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq work not under a military contract but on one from the Department of the Interior, a bureaucratic twist that could complicate any effort to hold them criminally responsible for abuse of detainees or other offenses.
The unexpected role of the Department of the Interior, usually associated not with wartime intelligence-gathering but with national parks, grew out of a government plan to cut costs. But in practice, it may have increased costs and reduced scrutiny, said Peter W. Singer of the Brookings Institution.
"You're placing a military interrogation task under Smokey the Bear," Singer said. "You can't have good oversight."
What's more, legal experts say, contractors for nonmilitary agencies such as the Department of the Interior may be able to escape prosecution for crimes they commit overseas because of an apparent loophole in the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act. The law, passed in 2000, applies only to contractors with the Department of Defense - a flaw some members of Congress want to remedy.
Michael J. Nardotti Jr., a Washington lawyer who served as judge advocate general of the Army from 1993 to 1997, said the law is untested and that it is uncertain whether a court would stretch the law to cover an Interior Department contractor working on Army assignments.
What is certain, Nardotti said, is that a contractor charged with a crime would use the issue to challenge the prosecution.
The Iraq war and its aftermath have focused attention on the extraordinary expansion of the work performed by federal contractors, often in sensitive security and intelligence roles. U.S. security contractors in Iraq, who do everything from guarding U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer III to advising Iraqi police, number more than 20,000, making them the second-largest security force after the U.S. military.
Many military officers and outside experts say that using contractors as interrogators is a bad idea no matter what agency hires them, because they are not subject to military discipline and control.
Questions of command
"I would never have tolerated civilian contractors working as interrogators," says Army Col. Charles Brule, a Rhode Island reservist who worked at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2002. "Who do they answer to? What's the chain of command?"
Congress has also expressed concern about contract interrogators. A defense spending bill passed Thursday by the House would require the Pentagon to disclose in greater detail the work of contractors in Iraq, and Senate Democrats have said they might propose legislation banning contractors from interrogating prisoners.
Sen. Daniel K. Akaka, a Hawaii Democrat, pressed top Army officials on the issue at a hearing last week. "The contractors seem to be outside of the line of command," he said. "And as a result, some things they do are not known by us."
Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller replied that "no civilian contractors had a supervisory position. It's the military ... who sets the priorities and ensures that we meet our standards."
But in the case of the contract interrogators at Abu Ghraib, the chain of command is especially blurry, because it ends with an obscure Department of the Interior office 70 miles southeast of Tucson, Ariz.
The interrogators work for CACI International, a global government contractor based in Arlington, Va., with more than $1 billion a year in revenue. And CACI's contract is with the Interior Department's National Business Center, which for the past four years has run the contracting office at Fort Huachuca in Sierra Vista, Ariz., said Interior Department spokesman Frank Quimby.
Quimby said the arrangement was a result of federal efforts in the 1990s to "streamline and reduce duplication," by having agencies with particular skill at administrative functions such as payroll or contracting handle those jobs for other agencies.
Thus, with efficiency in mind, the Fort Huachuca Contract Administration Office was gradually transferred from the Army to the Department of the Interior between 1998 and 2001.
"Now the Army comes to that office when it needs services," Quimby said.
In 2001, the Interior Department contracting office awarded a "blanket purchase agreement" to a company called Premier Technology Group for services to be provided to the Army. Last year, CACI International acquired Premier Technology.
The blanket purchase agreement allows the Department of the Interior to purchase services from CACI International without going through a new round of competitive bidding for each new job. Since 2001, the department has approved 81 "delivery orders" under the Premier Technology-CACI contract, including 11 for services in Iraq.
Most of the services relate to information technology, but at least two involve the provision of interrogators, Quimby said - one for $19.9 million covering "interrogation support" and another for $21.8 million labeled "human intelligence support."
Under those contracts, Army officials have said that CACI has provided 27 interrogators to work in detention centers in Iraq. Several work at Abu Ghraib, and one - a 34-year-old Navy veteran named Steven Stefanowicz - is sharply criticized in an Army investigative report on the prisoner abuse.
Stefanowicz instructed military police officers to "facilitate interrogations" in such a way that "he clearly knew his instructions equated to physical abuse," says the report by Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba. It also declares that Stefanowicz "made a false statement to the investigation team regarding the locations of his interrogations, the activities during his interrogations, and his knowledge of abuses."
Henry E. Hockeimer Jr., an attorney representing Stefanowicz, said his client denies doing anything wrong at Abu Ghraib. "Anything he did there was both appropriate and authorized, and he did not do anything wrong, nor is he aware of any wrongdoing by any other CACI employee," Hockeimer said.
CACI International did not respond to a request for comment, but company officials say they have seen no evidence of wrongdoing by employees.
Taguba's report recommends that Stefanowicz be fired, reprimanded and stripped of his security clearance. The report does not suggest criminal charges.
Apparent loophole
Technically, Stefanowicz and other CACI workers are not Defense Department contractors - and thus do not appear to be covered by the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act. Two congressmen submitted legislation last week designed to plug such loopholes in the law.
"Pentagon contractors working in Iraq are operating in a legal fog, where they are not accountable to Iraqi laws, U.S. laws or military laws governing our troops," Rep. David E. Price, a North Carolina Democrat, said in a statement about the amendment he proposed along with Rep. Christopher Shays, a Connecticut Republican.
Their bill would extend the law to contractors with any federal agency, as long as they are "supporting the mission of the Department of Defense." But even if it passes, the amendment would not apply to crimes committed before it takes effect.
Singer, of the Brookings Institution, said the Interior Department's role began with an attempt to be frugal. But by involving two Cabinet departments and having a contractor provide services for years without new bidding, the government has almost certainly increased costs, he said.
"There is no competition and no oversight," Singer said. "The free market can be a wonderful mechanism. But not if you do everything possible to ensure that it won't work."
Quimby, the Interior Department spokesman, sounded frustrated that his agency has been dragged into the prison scandal.
"The Army set the requirements for the contract," he said. "The Army pays for the contract. The Army benefits from the contract.
"But when there's a media inquiry," Quimby said, "it's an Interior Department contract."
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Army researches futuristic copters
(AP)
May 24, 2004
http://www.washtimes.com/metro/20040523-102957-2224r.htm
WILLIAMSBURG (AP) - On one side of an oversized helicopter hangar at Fort Eustis sat what Adam Sawicki, a Boeing Co. engineer, called the perfect example of old Army aviation - a Chinook cargo helicopter made almost entirely of metal.
On the other side, Mr. Sawicki said, sat the service's future - a handful of researchers and soldiers gathered around a table and a small sheet of a black composite material.
The material, made of resin and fibers, will one day replace the metal used in making helicopters. It's odorless, feels like a thin sheet of rigid cardboard and is lighter than metal, even the aluminum used in making most helicopters.
Its development is part of the Army's $74 million Survivable, Affordable, Repairable Airframe Program. The Army Aviation Applied Technology Directorate at Fort Eustis is managing the effort.
"What we are doing in this program is so significant because of its impact on Army aviation," said Marc Portanova, the program's Fort Eustis-based project engineer.
The directorate is working with Boeing, Bell Helicopters and Sikorsky Aircraft to help pay for the program and to share new technology.
"Building lighter helicopters is a big priority for the Army," Mr. Portanova said. "A lower weight gives helicopters the ability to fly farther, fly faster, fly at a higher altitude and/or carry more stuff."
Troops in Afghanistan have been having trouble flying Black Hawk utility helicopters in the high altitudes of the mountainous country, Mr. Portanova said. Anything that makes them lighter will help with high-altitude missions.
The program also is one way Army aviation is benefiting from the recently canceled Comanche helicopter program. The Comanche program was a 20-year, multibillion-dollar project to build a new helicopter for armed reconnaissance missions.
The program was plagued with rising costs and canceled after $6.9 billion already had been spent on its development. The Pentagon had budgeted $14 billion through 2011 to build 121 Comanches. Since the Comanche's death, the Army has vowed to use as much of that money as possible on other aviation projects.
Mr. Sawicki said the Comanche was to be made mostly of composite material. But new technology requires new repair methods, and that's what soldiers and researchers were testing this month at Fort Eustis.
"One of the goals we wanted to accomplish was to have the soldiers who would be doing the repair work in the field practice patching holes here in the hangar to see if it's possible for the repairs to be done on a battlefield," Mr. Portanova said. "Everything breaks, and we need to know that this technology can be repaired quickly."
Sgt. 1st Class Chris Broussard, an instructor at the fort's U.S. Army Aviation Logistics School, where soldiers are taught to maintain helicopters, said the goal was to pretend a helicopter had been shot at and left with holes in its body. His job was to take the black, sticky composite material and precisely layer tiny sheets into what looked like a thick patch.
Then he had to attach the patch to the hole and test the strength of the repair. Sgt. Broussard said the only challenge of the new material is making sure every deployed aviation unit has the tools needed for repair work.
"This new material makes the repair process a lot easier and a lot faster," he said. "And anything to make a helicopter perform better, I'm all for."
-------- iraq
U.S. Forces Move Into Stronghold Of Cleric
Insurgents Scatter as Hunt For Their Leader Intensifies
By Daniel Williams and Scott Wilson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, May 24, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A50048-2004May23?language=printer
KARBALA, Iraq, May 23 -- U.S. forces expanded an offensive against rebel cleric Moqtada Sadr on Sunday by pushing into his stronghold of Kufa for the first time, as his armed followers vanished from the streets of this Shiite holy city.
The battle for southern Iraq, which has occupied U.S. soldiers for weeks, appears to have shifted from a broad engagement across several fronts to a sustained battle aimed at a single elusive objective: Sadr, who leads thousands of militiamen, known as the Mahdi Army.
For seven weeks, U.S. forces have been killing scores of the fighters loyal to Sadr, who has fomented an anti-American insurrection in a region once receptive to the occupation. But the Americans have largely left Sadr alone, fearing that killing him could turn him into a martyr.
The U.S. military's first push into Kufa, where Sadr preaches each Friday, and a strike on a convoy carrying his top aide over the weekend suggest that U.S. commanders have set aside that concern.
U.S. military officers involved in the operation say the assault in Kufa, which began before dawn Sunday and continued into the night, is the latest phase in a campaign that has squeezed Sadr forces out of Kut, Diwaniyah and, over the weekend, the holy city of Karbala.
"We're closing in," said a military official familiar with the operation, declining to characterize it as a hunt specifically for Sadr. "We're keeping the pressure on."
U.S. military officials have five weeks to tame a broad insurgency before an interim Iraqi government assumes limited political authority from the Americans. Quieting the rebellion has become among the most pressing security concerns for U.S. officials as anti-occupation sentiments rise in the run-up to the June 30 handover.
The resistance appeared first in the Sunni Triangle, a region north and west of Baghdad once devoted to ousted president Saddam Hussein. Earlier this month, Marine commanders withdrew from Fallujah, a city in the area and a hotbed of insurgent activity, and ended a siege against the insurgents there. The Marines handed security responsibilities to a group of former Baath Party members who once served in Hussein's army.
The move failed to end attacks against U.S. troops. Two Marines were killed Sunday just outside Fallujah when their convoy was attacked with rocket-propelled grenades. Putting the former army officers in power also angered Iraq's majority Shiite population, which suffered under Hussein's Sunni-led government.
U.S. officials have ruled out negotiating with Sadr to win his withdrawal from Najaf and the demobilization of the Mahdi Army. They have called on Sadr to submit to face charges in the killing of Abdel-Majid Khoei, a moderate rival cleric who was stabbed in April 2003.
Mainstream Shiite political and religious leaders, some of whom command their own party militias, have been unable to agree on who would make up a local security force to control Najaf. Their negotiations have produced new divisions among the Shiites, and U.S. officials have expressed little hope of their success.
"If there is progress to be made, we are open-minded, given that those two conditions are met -- Moqtada al-Sadr faces justice and his illegal militia disbanded and disarmed," said Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq. "But in the interim, we will continue to use our own methods for getting Moqtada's militia off the streets."
Since announcing the arrest warrant against him, U.S. military officials have continued to allow Sadr to travel between Najaf and Kufa to deliver his Friday sermons. But this past Friday, U.S. troops fired on a convoy of cars that resembled Sadr's, hours after he had called on Iraqis to rise up against the occupation during his sermon. U.S. troops captured Mohammed Tabtabaie, a top Sadr aide, and killed his driver in the firefight.
Overnight Saturday, U.S. troops, for the first time, drove deep into Kufa in tanks backed by attack helicopters. U.S. soldiers remained there Sunday, raiding the green-domed Salah mosque. The military said U.S. soldiers killed at least 32 insurgents in Kufa, the Associated Press reported.
Footage from inside the mosque showed blood-red marks curving along the white floor, apparently left by the wounded being dragged to cover. Hospital officials said at least 10 Iraqis died as a result of the fighting.
"It was possible to solve it all peacefully, but the other side refuses," said Mohammad Taqi Modarresi, a cleric and an ally of Sadr in Karbala.
The sudden withdrawal over the weekend of Sadr's forces has perplexed some military officers after weeks of deadly street-to-street fighting. The insurgents, numbering in the hundreds, abandoned their refuge near the sacred shrines of Abbas and Hussein in Karbala. The streets remained calm for the second consecutive day after U.S. forces withdrew from a strategic mosque in the city center. In a time-tested guerrilla tactic, Sadr's forces had vanished.
Bulgarian forces, part of the U.S.-led coalition, manning checkpoints near downtown, said stores opened for business as their owners cleaned up debris left from the weeks of clashes. Some schools also reopened.
"The bad guys may have left . . . we don't know," said a U.S. officer, whose troops were returning to Baghdad after reinforcing units on the outskirts of Karbala.
The pullback of troops from Task Force 1-36, a unit of the 1st Armored Division, came after U.S. officials canceled a push into Karbala set for Friday.
"There was no cease-fire, no deal made in Karbala," said Maj. David Gercken, a spokesman for the 1st Armored Division. "We do not and will not make deals with militias or criminals."
Iraqi police began to patrol the market area around the shrines, where some of the heaviest recent fighting took place, U.S. officials said. U.S. patrols, meanwhile, continued to probe Karbala in nighttime operations and fan out into the countryside looking for arms depots. The searches yielded neither guerrilla suspects nor weapons.
Sadr loyalists warned their U.S. adversaries of the danger of pursuing their leader into Najaf and Karbala and appealed to Shiites to defend the cities.
"The holy cities are of great concern to Shiites and Muslims," said Modarresi, the cleric. He said Sadr was looking for a way to peacefully exit the crisis without surrendering.
Karbala residents, however, seemed eager for Sadr to give up now that U.S. troops had left the city center. Like Najaf, the town depends on religious pilgrims, including many Shiites from Iran, as a major source of income.
"We don't want the Americans here, and they are in their base. It is time also for the others to get out and leave us alone," said Karim Haidar, who sells eggs in Karbala.
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Factions Jostle for Top Posts in a New Iraq
May 24, 2004
By STEVEN R. WEISMAN
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/24/politics/24DIPL.html
WASHINGTON, May 23 - President Bush prepared Sunday for a campaign to rally support at the United Nations about his policies in Iraq, while senior envoys struggled in Baghdad with competing demands by Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds for the top positions of the new caretaker government.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell spent Sunday in telephone conversations with envoys on the United Nations Security Council, which could get an American draft of its resolution on Iraq as early as Monday.
The resolution, critical to efforts to make the United Nations more involved in Iraq, is expected to call for international donations and troops. It is also supposed to define any limitations on Iraq's sovereignty after the transfer of power planned for June 30.
The overture to the United Nations comes as Mr. Bush is preparing a speech for Monday night at the United States Army War College in Carlisle, Pa., and amid sagging poll results for the president at home.
An administration official said Mr. Bush would outline a plan of action to dispel "this idea that we don't know what we're doing" on Iraq. Mr. Bush will explain to Americans and people around the world that the United States has a plan to overcome the security problems and the political impasse in Iraq, this official said.
The situation has been complicated by recent security developments, including the decision to install former Saddam Hussein-era military commanders in Falluja.
That deepened the distrust of Shiites and Kurds that the Sunnis would wield their old powers. After Falluja, many diplomats say, the Kurds and Shiites are even more determined to press for leadership positions.
The process of selecting government leaders is being overseen by Lakhdar Brahimi, a special United Nations envoy, who has been working closely with Robert D. Blackwill, a former United States ambassador to India who is now Mr. Bush's special envoy in Iraq. They have set a deadline for the end of May.
"What happened in Falluja compounds Brahimi's problems," a senior administration official said. "He can mollify the Shia by giving them status in the new government. But with the Shias in charge, the Sunnis and the Kurds don't want to feel like junior partners."
United Nations, Iraqi and American officials said Mr. Brahimi and Mr. Blackwill had been struggling over demands for a Kurd to be either the president or the prime minister. At the same time, they said, Shiites are fighting for control of the new Iraqi government, which is to stay in power until elections next year.
People who have been in contact with Iraqi officials said Mr. Blackwill was continuing to press for a prominent role for Adnan Pachachi, a former Iraqi foreign minister who has been a favorite of the United States. But his supporters are charging that Shiites and Kurds are trying to sideline him.
Administration and Iraqi officials said the eight positions over which Iraqi factions are jockeying are the jobs of prime minister, which is supposed to be the principal governing job; president and two vice presidents, which are defined as more ceremonial; and four ministries, including defense, foreign affairs, finance and oil.
"Brahimi is starting to close in on the choices," said the senior Bush administration official.
But "he doesn't just have three or four positions to play with," he said. "He's got a larger structure to identify. The trick will be not letting all these politics overwhelm the effectiveness of the government that is chosen."
A spokesman for Mr. Brahimi said in a phone interview from Baghdad that the United Nations envoy was shuttling among Iraq's various factions and constituencies, including many of the 400 political parties that have identified themselves since Mr. Hussein was overthrown. "There's still a lot of maneuvering going on," said the spokesman, Ahmad Fawzi. "There's still shuttling back and forth between all the parties and players. We're not there yet."
People familiar with Mr. Brahimi's style say that in Afghanistan, where he helped set up the government two years ago, he spent the first weeks listening to people and not proposing any names as his favorites. But then when the deadline approached, they said, he would start suggesting names.
An element of drama is part of the process, according to people who have watched Mr. Brahimi. They say that demands by one or another group - like the demands of the Kurds for a top position - might be placated by other kinds of offers.
A Kurdish official said Sunday that "we'll never be obstructionist" as Mr. Brahimi reaches his conclusion. "We want to cooperate to make sure the process is successful," he added.
At the same time, many diplomats at the Security Council say they crave more information about the Bush administration's plans. Officials there said that the Security Council had presented the administration with a long list of questions, including some on the powers of the new Iraqi government over security, oil revenues and finances, but that they had failed to get answers.
Mr. Fawzi and Mr. Brahimi have avoided identifying any Iraqis who might lead the government. Earlier this month, some American officials said Mr. Brahimi had circulated the name of Dr. Mahdi al-Hafidh, now the planning minister in Iraq, as a possible prime minister. But Mr. Fawzi said Mr. Brahimi vehemently denied that claim.
Other Iraqis say that another possible prime minister candidate is Adel Abdel Mehdi, a leading Shiite Islamist with the support of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. Mr. Mehdi was at a dinner Friday attended by Mr. Brahimi and other top Shiite leaders, along with Ahmad Chalabi.
Mr. Chalabi's attendance at the dinner was surprising to some Iraqis, because Mr. Chalabi has accused Mr. Brahimi of trying to impose a government on Iraq that was not representative.
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COMBAT
G.I.'s Report Killing 36 Insurgents Around Kufa Mosque That Held Arms
May 24, 2004
By EDWARD WONG
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/24/international/middleeast/24KARB.html?pagewanted=all&position=
KARBALA, Iraq, May 23 - American troops attacked insurgents loyal to a rebel cleric around a mosque in the southern holy city of Kufa late on Saturday and early on Sunday, killing at least 36 fighters, military officials and witnesses said. Soldiers seized a cache of heavy weapons in the mosque afterward, the military said.
The attack came shortly after American commanders in Karbala said it appeared that the militia led by the cleric, Moktada al-Sadr, had cleared out of the shrine area in the city center here in Karbala. Members of the militia, the Mahdi Army, had been using two shrines as shields in their war against the occupiers.
The withdrawal by the insurgents came after American forces pulled back from a mosque in downtown Karbala early on Friday that they had been using as a forward base. A spokesman for Mr. Sadr said the two sides had reached a deal for a mutual withdrawal of forces from the city center, but American commanders here denied any such agreement.
It is unclear exactly where those insurgents went. Some residents of Karbala said they had seen militiamen hiding their weapons and leaving town. Another theory held that the insurgents could be regrouping, either in their usual havens in the old city or on the outskirts of Karbala.
But many shops that had been shuttered during the fighting in recent weeks were open again in the morning, and one resident observed that life seemed almost normal. The police began patrolling the old city again for the first time since Mr. Sadr began his revolt in early April.
"I'm not saying all the Moktada militia have left or are gone or whatever," said Lt. Col. Garry P. Bishop, commander of American forces in Karbala. "But they're not conducting active operations."
Colonel Bishop said he did not intend to send American forces into the shrine area in the near future.
On Sunday afternoon, a platoon of combat engineers from the First Armored Division drove through a southern neighborhood of Karbala to gauge infrastructure needs, signaling that the soldiers were trying to move forward with reconstruction projects after nearly three weeks of intense urban warfare in which 4 American soldiers died and at least 250 insurgents were reported killed.
"Over the next couple of days, we'll work toward assessing the old city," said Lt. Col. John Kem, commander of the 16th Engineer Battalion. "We're still not going into the old city yet. We've just had less than 24 hours of not getting shot at."
The fighting in Kufa, where Mr. Sadr preaches every Friday, began late on Saturday, as soldiers of the First Armored Division attacked insurgents holed up near the Salah Mosque. Approaching in armored vehicles with air support, they attacked the mosque area, a nearby mortar position and insurgents in a technical college and a building known as Saddam's Palace, the military said in a written statement.
Soldiers killed 4 militiamen at the mortar position and at least 32 others at the other sites, the statement said.
Officials at the Salah Mosque said soldiers had forced their way into the building. They pointed out blood splotches on the walls and on the ground. The soldiers stayed in the mosque until the morning, they said.
In its statement, the American military said members of the Iraqi Counterterrorism Force "entered and cleared the mosque," seizing a .30-caliber machine gun, two 60-millimeter mortar tubes, 12 rocket-propelled grenades, more than 200 82-millimeter mortar rounds and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.
The Iraqi commandos were trained in Babylon by Special Forces soldiers, who use them on mosque raids.
The American military has said it is justified in attacking mosques and shrines, contending that insurgents use such buildings as arsenals. The assaults have not resulted in large protests in Iraq, which is perhaps an indication of how unpopular Mr. Sadr is in southern towns he has seized. But the Americans have refrained from sending troops to the three holiest shrines in Shiite Islam - the Shrine of Ali in Najaf and the Shrines of Hussein and Abbas here in Karbala - for fear of inflaming Shiites.
"We have no intention of entering the shrines," Maj. Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, commander of the First Armored Division, said in a written statement. He added that Iraqi security forces would go into the holy sites if necessary.
In Karbala, the police started driving through the old city on patrols at 8 a.m. on Sunday, Colonel Bishop said. He added that members of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, a national militia, would begin conducting patrols with American soldiers on Monday. Many Iraqi policemen and members of the defense corps quit their jobs or joined the insurgents during the uprising, and the American military is now struggling to build the groups up again.
Colonel Bishop said it appeared that Hamza al-Tai, the local leader of the Mahdi Army, had left the old city and gone into hiding. Early on Friday, the Americans called in an airstrike on his headquarters, just southwest of the Shrine of Hussein. An AC-130 Spectre gunship pounded the building with cannon fire.
The colonel said that at least 250 insurgents had been killed in the three weeks of urban fighting. The neighborhood just south of the Shrine of Hussein has met with "complete, total destruction," he added.
On Sunday afternoon, Captain Matthew Warner led a platoon from Company A of the 16th Engineer Battalion to look at possible reconstruction projects in southern Karbala. The battalion has $400,000 for such efforts available from a discretionary fund that each division general in Iraq manages.
The platoon visited several schools, an electricity power substation, a water purification plant and the main hospital. Nearly everywhere they went, people had a wish list as long as the Euphrates River.
At a recently renovated school, Muhammad Abdul Hassan, a guard, said that the front gate needed to be repaired and that new books and soccer balls would be appreciated.
At a more dilapidated school several blocks away, a barefoot Ali Abdul-Zara, 17, pointed out that it needed windows, classroom doors and a wall around the compound.
At the power substation, Adil Naji, the manager, said the "big problem" was not having telephones.
The one place where the soldiers were not welcome was Hussein Hospital. It is the city's main hospital, and many of the insurgents who had been killed or wounded in the fighting in the last three weeks have been brought there. Captain Warner walked into the lobby surrounded by soldiers with M-16's and asked a doctor if the hospital had any needs.
The doctor refused to allow the soldiers inside the hospital. A group of men with cold stares formed a wall in front of the soldiers.
As the captain walked out, he said he had counted at least five men in the emergency room with injuries that appeared to be bullet wounds.
A young man walked out of the hospital with a bloody white bandage over his left eye and streaks of blood on his white shirt.
"See that guy?" said Lt. Rob McMahon. "He's probably a sniper that we hit."
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SECURITY
U.S. Needs More Time to Train and Equip Iraqis
May 24, 2004
By ERIC SCHMITT
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/24/politics/24EQUI.html?pagewanted=all&position=
WASHINGTON, May 23 - Senior American officers in Iraq have been forced to extend significantly the time for training and equipping Iraqi security and military forces, prolonging the period that large numbers of American forces will be required to help with such basic duties as policing and border patrol.
The new American general in charge of training and equipping all Iraqi security and military forces, Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus, declined last week to set a date for when more than 200,000 Iraqi police officers, civil defense forces, border guards, soldiers and facility protection guards would be fully ready.
"I don't think you can put a timetable on this," General Petraeus said in a telephone interview from Fort Campbell, Ky., as he prepared to leave for his new assignment in early June. "We'll accelerate as fast as we can. But you have to be careful not to rush to failure. If you ask too much of a unit that's not sufficiently trained and equipped, it'll set you back."
General Petraeus spoke as Gen. John P. Abizaid, commander of American forces in the Middle East, told Senators last week that because of recent setbacks, including the failure of many Iraqi units to join in Marine operations during the standoff at Falluja in April, he had revised his estimate for when all Iraqi forces would be fully trained and equipped, to between January and April. Earlier, he said Iraqi forces would be ready by December at the latest.
The failings of some Iraqi units have forced the Army to extend the tours of 20,000 soldiers in Iraq and divert American troops from other security operations. "Our mission in some areas where the police force is not working unfortunately causes troops to have to do police work," General Abizaid said.
On Capitol Hill last week, Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that despite an intense Pentagon effort to cut through contracting snarls, most Iraqi police officers would not be fully equipped with radios, weapons and vehicles until December.
He said the equipping problems had been solved. But in a veiled criticism, he suggested that responsibility for the delays lay with L. Paul Bremer III, the chief American administrator in Iraq, and Mr. Bremer's top aides, who until recently were in charge of equipping the police. "We should have done this earlier," General Myers told the House Armed Services Committee on Friday, "but it was somebody else's responsibility for a while, and now that'll come under General Petraeus."
The collapse of many Iraqi security forces last month has forced American officials to revamp training and vetting procedures, install new Iraqi military leaders and rush other improvements to the field, even as commanders brace for increased attacks by insurgents as the American-led occupation prepares to hand over sovereignty to Iraqis on June 30.
At a high-level conference in Baghdad on May 4, Iraqi Civil Defense Corps commanders and American officers, including Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the ground commander in Iraq, addressed successes and failures from the April operations, said a senior officer who took part.
In recent weeks, the Pentagon quietly decided to increase the size of the civil defense force to 40,000 from about 31,000. The force, which patrols the streets but also is charged with gathering intelligence and searching sites, like mosques, has been rushed into service with much on-the-job training beside American forces.
An unclassified briefing slide from the conference, titled "Ten Principles of I.C.D.C.," shows some of the problems and proposed solutions for the civil defense corps. Participants agreed that allied forces should "live, eat and sleep" with Iraqi civil defense units to create closer working relationships. In some cases, American trainers and Iraqi forces had been living in separate camps.
Senior Army officers acknowledged that the integration of Iraqi civil defense forces with allied troops had been uneven, with high marks going to forces working together in northern Iraq, but with little or no coordination and integration in south-central Iraq, where a Polish-led multinational force has responsibility. "It varied widely throughout the country," said one senior American officer.
It was noted that many Iraqis blamed their American trainers for pushing them into battles before they were ready, arguing that they were outgunned and outmanned by insurgents.
"When people aren't properly trained, aren't properly equipped, and if there's not a chain of command that is an Iraqi chain of command, it's not surprising that some of the performance, when the going gets tough, is less than perfect," General Myers told lawmakers.
The conference participants also pledged to pay Iraqi civil defense members the same higher salaries as police officers. Disparity in pay has been a source of friction among many Iraqi forces, including those in and around Tikrit.
The briefing slide said allied forces should "show that we care - good facilities, good gear, good food, memorial ceremonies, joint operations" and "look for and recognize success" - tacit acknowledgment that Iraqi forces were getting short shrift on some necessities and morale-raising measures available to American forces.
Looking beyond the June 30 transfer of sovereignty, General Myers said the United States was aiming to build a more substantive partnership with Iraqi security and military forces. "It needs to be more intense, more regular and a regular way of doing business," he said.
"We want to be able to share the threat situation with the Iraqi leadership, so that as they view the threat and as the coalition forces view the threat, that we view it the same way," General Myers told the House committee on Friday.
"If we can agree on the threat, then reasonable people can come to conclusions about what needs to be done."
American officials have also moved quickly to establish an Iraqi military chain of command filled at the top levels by former Iraqi generals. "You can't expect in this part of the world for Iraqi security forces to fight for the United States of America," General Abizaid said in a recent interview at his headquarters in Doha, Qatar. "They need to fight for Iraq, an Iraq that has a defined leadership that's legitimate, and that's broadly supported."
General Petraeus said in the interview last week that the widening abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad had not hurt recruiting for the new Iraqi security forces. "We see no discernible reduction in the larger number of volunteers," he said. "People want jobs."
Pentagon officials have high hopes for the general in his new job, based on the success that the 101st Airborne Division he commanded had in training 18,000 Iraqis as security forces in northern Iraq. He will work closely with the Iraqi Defense and Interior Ministries.
General Petraeus, one of the Army's most highly regarded officers, who recently turned over command of his division to assume another yearlong tour in Iraq, said: "There's a huge amount of work to do. But I don't think it's mission impossible."
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Iraq Homicide Rate 10 Times New York City's
foxnews
May 24, 2004
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,120735,00.html
BAGHDAD, Iraq - More than 5,500 Iraqis died violently in just Baghdad and three provinces in the first 12 months of the occupation, an Associated Press survey found. The toll from both criminal and political violence ran dramatically higher than violent deaths before the war, according to statistics from morgues.
There are no reliable figures for places like Fallujah and Najaf that have seen surges in fighting since early April.
Indeed, there is no precise count for Iraq as a whole on how many people have been killed, nor is there a breakdown of deaths caused by the different sorts of attacks. The U.S. military, the occupation authority and Iraqi government agencies say they don't have the ability to track civilian deaths.
But the AP survey of morgues in Baghdad and the provinces of Karbala, Kirkuk and Tikrit found 5,558 violent deaths recorded from May 1, 2003, when President Bush declared an end to major combat operations, to April 30. Officials at morgues for three more of Iraq's 18 provinces either didn't have numbers or declined to release them.
The AP's survey was not a comprehensive compilation of the nationwide death toll, but was a sampling intended to assess the levels of violence. Figures for violent deaths in the months before the war showed a far lower rate.
That doesn't mean Iraq is a more dangerous place than during Saddam Hussein's regime. At least 300,000 people were murdered by security forces and buried in mass graves during the dictator's 23-year rule, U.S. officials say, and human rights workers put the number closer to 500,000.
"We cannot compare the situation now with how it was before," Nouri Jaber al-Nouri, inspector general of the Interior Ministry, said recently. "Iraqis used to fear everything. ... But now, despite all that is happening, we feel safe."
Still, the morgue figures, which exclude trauma deaths from accidents like car wrecks and falls, highlight the insecurity Iraqis feel from the high level of criminal and political violence, and underline the challenges that coalition and Iraqi forces face in trying to bring peace.
In Baghdad, a city of about 5.6 million, 4,279 people were recorded killed in the 12 months through April 30, according to figures provided by Kais Hassan, director of statistics at Baghdad's Medicolegal Institute (search), which administers the city's morgues.
"Before the war, there was a strong government, strong security. There were a lot of police on the streets and there were no illegal weapons," he said during an AP reporter's visit to the morgue. "Now there are few controls. There is crime, revenge killings, so much violence."
The figure does not include most people killed in big terrorist bombings, Hassan said. The cause of death in such cases is obvious so bodies are usually not taken to the morgue, but given directly to victims' families.
Also, the bodies of killed fighters from groups like the al-Mahdi Army (search) are rarely taken to morgues.
Morgue records do not document the circumstances surrounding the 4,279 deaths - whether killed by insurgents, occupation forces, criminals or others. The records list only the cause of a death, such as gunshot or explosion, Hassan said.
It is the police's responsibility to determine why a person dies. But al-Nouri, the official at the Interior Ministry, which oversees police, said the agency lacks the resources to investigate all killings or keep track of causes of death.
U.S. forces have records for the numbers of claims for compensation from Iraqis for personal injury, deaths of family members, or for property damage caused by U.S. military action in "non-combat" situations.
Some $3 million has been paid to about 5,000 claimants, American officials said last month. About 8,000 claims had been rejected and 3,000 were pending, they said.
The officials declined to provide a breakdown of the figures to show how many claims were for deaths. They also said a single incident involving U.S. forces could lead to multiple compensation claims.
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the U.S. military's deputy director of operations, said U.S. forces do not have the capacity to track Iraqi civilian casualties. To highlight the complexity of the task, he pointed to the March 17 bombing of the Mount Lebanon (search) Hotel in Baghdad where a U.S.-announced death toll dropped from an initial 27 to 17 and later to just seven.
"There are always discrepancies any time you have a situation as chaotic as the aftermath of a bombing," he said.
The death toll recorded by the Baghdad morgue was an average of 357 violent deaths each month from May through April. That contrasts with an average of 14 a month for 2002, Hassan's documents showed.
The toll translates into an annual homicide rate of about 76 killings for every 100,000 people.
By comparison, Bogota, Colombia, reported 39 homicides per 100,000 people in 2002, while New York City had about 7.5 per 100,000 last year. Iraq's neighbor Jordan, a country with a population a little less than Baghdad's, recorded about 2.4 homicides per 100,000 in 2003.
Other Iraqi morgues visited by AP reporters also reported big increases in violent deaths.
In Karbala, a province of 1.5 million people 60 miles south of Baghdad, 663 people were killed from May through April, or an average of 55 a month, said Ali Alardawi, deputy administrator of Alhuien Hospital, which runs the morgue in the provincial capital, Karbala. That compares with an average of one violent death a month in 2002, he said.
Tikrit, a province of 650,000 people 90 miles north of Baghdad, recorded 205 people killed from May through April, or an average of 17 a month, said Najat Khorshid Sa'id, statistics director at the morgue in the provincial capital, Tikrit, which was Saddam's hometown. He said no one died from violence in 2002.
In Kirkuk, a northern province of 1.5 million people, 401 people were killed from May through April, or an average of 34 a month, said Fadhillah Ahmed Rasheed, head of the morgue in the provincial capital, Kirkuk. The province averaged three violent deaths a month in 2002, he said.
Officials at the main morgue in Najaf city, the capital of southern Najaf province, said they didn't have casualty figures. Officials in Baqouba, the capital of northwest Diyala province, and Ramadi, the capital of western Anbar province, declined to release their numbers.
In Fallujah, where U.S. Marines launched an offensive against Sunni militants on April 4, the city's hospital director, Rafie al-Issawi, reported 731 people killed during the month. However, the Iraqi health minister, Khudayer Abbas, had called Issawi's numbers highly exaggerated.
The human rights organization Amnesty International (search), based in London, estimated in March that more than 10,000 Iraqi civilians had been killed "as a direct result of military intervention in Iraq, either during the war or during the subsequent occupation."
"This figure is an estimate as the authorities are unwilling or unable to catalogue killings," the group said in a statement.
There are no precise estimates for deaths during last year's invasion.
The Associated Press conducted a major investigation of wartime civilian casualties, documenting the deaths of 3,240 civilians from March 20 to April 20, 2003.
That investigation, conducted last May and June, was based on a survey of about half of Iraq's hospitals, and counted only those deaths for which hospitals had good documentation. The report concluded the real number of civilian deaths was sure to be much higher.
The deaths of foreign soldiers in Iraq are documented.
As of May 17, 783 U.S. military personnel had died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq last year, according to the Department of Defense. Of those, 571 died as a result of hostile action and 212 died of non-hostile causes.
The Pentagon says 645 of the deaths have occurred since May 1, 2003 - 462 as a result of hostile action and 183 from non-hostile causes, such as accidents or illness.
The British military has reported 58 deaths; Italy, 20; Spain, eight; Bulgaria, six; Ukraine, five; Thailand, two; Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia and Poland, one each.
The Brookings Institution (search) counts 84 non-Iraqi civilian deaths since the occupation began through May 14, a figure that includes non-military employees of the U.S. government.
-------- israel / palestine
Palestinians claim Israel dumped toxic waste in West Bank
Palestinian sources say nauseating odors led to barrels of Israeli chemical waste in Tulkarm refugee camp
Itamar Inbari,
Maariv International
2004-05-24
http://maarivintl.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&articleID=7810
The Arabic language newspaper Al-Quds al-Arabi, published in London, reported Monday that Israel is exporting toxic chemical waste into areas under Palestinian Authority control.
Palestinian sources told the paper that quantities of toxic chemical waste were discovered in the northern part of the West Bank. The sources claim that the waste originated in Israel and that it is an environmental and health hazard.
According to the report, Palestinians discovered the waste after "nauseating and choking" odors spread around the area of the Tulkarm refugee camp.
Tulkarm Municipality medical teams and representatives from the Palestinian Authority's health ministry rushed to the scene and found barrels of chemical waste. The Palestinians took samples of the waste for examination and to help determine the scope of damage it could have caused.
The Palestinian ministry of the environment's district manager, Atsam Kassem told the paper that the barrels contained sulfur and other dangerous chemicals.
----
Key Israeli Condemns Offensive In Gaza
Deputy Premier Says Images Evoke Holocaust Memories
By Glenn Frankel
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, May 24, 2004; Page A14
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49787-2004May23.html
JERUSALEM, May 23 -- One of the key political moderates in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's cabinet deplored on Sunday the Israel army's offensive in the Gaza Strip, saying television images reminded him of the suffering of his family during the Holocaust.
In stark and emotional language, Deputy Prime Minister Yosef Lapid, who also holds the Justice Ministry portfolio and is a Holocaust survivor, told Israeli radio that the country risked further international condemnation if the army continued its campaign of pursuing Palestinian gunmen, demolishing homes and expelling civilians from the heart of the populous Rafah refugee camp.
"On TV I saw an old woman rummaging through the ruins of her house looking for her medication, and it reminded me of my grandmother who was thrown out of her house during the Shoah," or Holocaust, Lapid said in a radio interview after the weekly cabinet session.
"We look like monsters in the eyes of the world," he added. "This makes me sick."
Lapid also confirmed during the interview that the army is considering destroying hundreds more houses to expand the security corridor between the camp and the Egyptian border to prevent the smuggling of weapons into Gaza. Israel has already destroyed an estimated 1,300 houses in the area since the start of the Palestinian uprising in September 2000, uprooting more than 11,000 people.
"The destruction of homes must stop because it is inhuman, un-Jewish, and causes us great harm around the world. In the end, we'll be kicked out of the U.N., we'll be put on trial in The Hague," Lapid said, referring to the site of the International Court of Justice, "and no one will want to have anything to do with us."
Although Lapid denied he was comparing Israeli soldiers to Nazis, his remarks were immediately denounced by some of the more hawkish members of the cabinet, who demanded a retraction. Sharon said Lapid's remarks were "like oil for the Arab propaganda machine," according to Israeli media.
Lapid is a former television talk show host and newcomer to politics who helped guide the Shinui party to a strong third-place finish in last year's parliamentary elections on a platform that placed the party squarely in the political middle on the peace process. With 15 seats in the 120-member Knesset, it is the second-largest party in Sharon's government and a pivotal element in his coalition.
Lapid has been a strong supporter of Sharon's plan to withdraw troops and 7,500 Jewish settlers from Gaza, and he has grown increasingly impatient with the army's continuing presence there. He has warned he would pull his party out of the cabinet if Sharon does not come up with a new proposal by the end of the month to replace the one that was defeated in a referendum of Sharon's Likud party three weeks ago.
Lapid's remarks underscored the political problems Sharon faces as he seeks to steer a new plan through his fractious cabinet. Analysts said Sharon faces a difficult choice: He can present a watered-down proposal and risk a walkout by Shinui, or he can present a stronger proposal and further alienate Likud members.
Earlier on Sunday, Israeli tanks and armored bulldozers returned to Rafah's Brazil neighborhood, searching for militants and weapons. Hundreds of residents fled again, while helicopters and tanks fired, and soldiers and militants exchanged gunfire. At least 42 Palestinians died last week when the army sealed off and invaded several sections of the city and adjoining refugee camp.
[An unidentified Israeli military official said Monday that soldiers had "lifted their encirclement" of the Tel Sultan neighborhood of Rafah, the Reuters news agency reported. The official said troops withdrew as part of a "new deployment" and to "ease conditions for Palestinians," but said they remained deployed in other parts of Rafah along the Gaza-Egypt border.]
In the West Bank city of Nablus, three members of the Islamic Resistance Movement, known as Hamas, were killed when their car exploded. Witnesses at first said the car had been rocketed by an Israeli aircraft, but later accounts said explosives stored in an abandoned vehicle had detonated next to the car. The Israeli army denied any knowledge of or responsibility for the blast.
--------
Israeli Official Offers Empathy but Hits a Nerve
May 24, 2004
By JAMES BENNET
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/24/international/middleeast/24gaza.html
JERUSALEM, Monday, May 24 - Israel's justice minister, a Holocaust survivor, started a political uproar on Sunday when he attacked an Israeli plan to demolish Palestinian homes in Gaza and said that a suffering Palestinian woman reminded him of his grandmother.
The minister, Yosef Lapid, said he was not comparing the Israeli Army to the Nazis in his comments, made during a cabinet meeting.
But, he told Israel radio after the meeting, "I did think, when I saw a picture on the TV of an old woman on all fours in the ruins of her home looking under some floor tiles for her medicines - I did think, 'What would I say if it were my grandmother?' "
Mr. Lapid, who was born in a Hungarian-speaking part of Yugoslavia, lost relatives in the Holocaust, including his father and a grandmother.
His remarks fed an Israeli debate about a continuing Israeli military campaign, now in its sixth day, in the Palestinian neighborhoods of the southern Gaza Strip. At least 40 Palestinians have been killed during the raid, and Palestinians say Israeli armored bulldozers and tanks have destroyed more than 30 homes.
Another cabinet minister, Danny Naveh, who also lost relatives in the Holocaust, rejected any comparison to the Holocaust, even implied.
"Any analogy, even hinted at and - I am convinced from my acquaintance with Mr. Lapid - unintentional, creates greater anger and has no place in any form," he said.
In the radio interview, Mr. Lapid said the army was considering demolishing as many as 2,000 Palestinian homes in the Rafah refugee camp to expand an Israeli-patrolled zone along the Egyptian border.
"We look like monsters in the eyes of the world," said Mr. Lapid, a combative television personality who is now the leader of the centrist Shinui party, which is part of the governing coalition. "This makes me sick."
During more than three years of conflict, the army has already demolished many homes in that area, expanding the Israeli-controlled zone as it combats weapons smugglers who tunnel under the Israeli soldiers to Egypt. The wider the patrol zone, the army says, the harder it will be for smugglers to dig tunnels.
Israeli officials previously spoke of demolishing up to hundreds more homes, prompting an international outcry and criticism from the Bush administration. Officials say the army is considering compensating Palestinians whose homes it destroys.
The army said that during the current operation it had demolished only a few homes in Rafah, in response to shooting by militants. It also said that it had suffered no casualties and that it had found one tunnel, and possibly a shaft to a second one.
The army has reduced its presence in Rafah in the last two days, though some bulldozers and tanks were seen Sunday in the Brazil neighborhood. Early Monday, military officials said troops had withdrawn from the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood, Reuters reported.
In the West Bank city of Nablus on Sunday, three members of the militant group Hamas were killed, apparently when explosives that they were handling blew up.
The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees said that early Thursday, during an Israeli raid on the West Bank city of Jenin, Israeli forces broke into the agency's office near the refugee camp there. It said soldiers fired a shot toward the agency's senior project manager, then handcuffed and blindfolded him and held him for three hours, threatening him with violence.
The manager, Paul Wolstenholme, was released unharmed, and Israeli military officials later apologized, the agency said.
In November 2002, in the same United Nations compound, a soldier shot and killed Iain Hook, Mr. Wolstenholme's predecessor in Jenin, during a skirmish with militants.
--------
41 terrorists killed, 56 homes demolished in Rafah
Haaretz
By Nir Hasson
24/05/2004
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/431138.html
The Israel Defense Forces Gaza division commander Brigadier General Shmuel Zakai said on Monday the army killed 41 terrorists and demolished 56 Palestinian homes during Operation Rainbow in Rafah, which began seven days ago.
"We killed 41 terrorists, we pinpointed and destroyed three [weapons-smuggling] tunnels and another opening that was used for preparing tunnels. We also arrested terror operatives connected to construction of the tunnels," Zakai told reporters.
The division commander said the army demolished 56 Palestinian homes in the city, some via gunfire and others with explosive charges.
Some structures were destroyed when troops passed through them rather than moving over roads mined with explosives. Other buildings destroyed included those belonging to terrorists, including the man responsible for the murder of Tali Hatuel and her four daughters on the Kissufim road.
Zakai believes there are other weapons-smuggling tunnels in Rafah and said the IDF will continue searching for them.
He said 12 unarmed Palestinian civilians were killed during the course of Operation Rainbow, including seven killed by a tank shell during a demonstration in the Tel Sultan neighborhood last Wednesday.
He said the investigation into that incident has not yet been completed, but it appears as if the tank commander who fired a shell at the abandoned structure did not see the nearby demonstration.
"We did not use the tank shell in order to disperse the demonstration but rather to create a boom effect," Zakai said. "To the best of my professional judgement, the tank commander's decision was correct."
Regarding the other civilians killed during the operation, Zakai said it has not been determined they were killed by IDF gunfire. He said that in at least one of the incidents, Israeli soldiers spotted terrorists who were shooting at civilians.
Palestinian human rights workers dispute the IDF's estimates, saying that just 12 of those killed in Rafah were known to have been armed.
Zakai rejected claims there is a humanitarian crisis in Rafah.
"One of the considerations we were directed to take was to allow the passage of food and medications, and to allow the repair of water, electricity and sewage infrastructure," he said.
Gaza District Coordinating Office Commander Yoav Mordechai was quoted Monday by Israel Radio as saying the IDF enabled Palestinians to receive food and medical equipment, and fixed the water and electricity infrastructure in Rafah. He added that Palestinians had dug tunnels inside mosques and schools and under children's beds in private homes.
IDF leaves Tel Sultan neighborhood, siege lifted
IDF pullout out of most of the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah early Monday morning. Troops left the Tel Sultan and Brazil neighborhoods, lifted the siege north of Rafah and renewed traffic flow to other parts of the Strip.
On Monday night, the last of the IDF troops pulled out of the Kishta neighborhood, adjacent to the Brazil neighborhood, where they were searching for an arms-smuggling tunnel.
In the West Bank, IDF troops killed an armed Palestinian in the Balata refugee camp in Nablus on Monday morning. He was identified as Hamza al-Bureini. Earlier in the day troops critically wounded another armed Palestinian in Nablus.
Pressure on Israel to roll back Operation Rainbow in Rafah continued to mount, as Justice Minister Yosef Lapid said his Shinui party would reconsider its membership in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government if house demolitions in Rafah continued, Israel Radio reported early Monday.
Lapid added, however, that he preferred to not to issue threats.
The extensive Rafah operation is expected to end in days, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Sunday in a weekly cabinet meeting. He admitted that Israel had still not been able to completely block weapons smuggling routes in Rafah.
The IDF says it has detained 100 Palestinians during the current operation. Of these, it says 10 were taken for questioning.
Lapid: Shinui may rethink its role
Justice Minister Yosef Lapid told the BBC late on Sunday that his party, Shinui, would reconsider its membership in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government if house demolitions in Rafah continued, Israel Radio reported early Monday.
On Sunday, Lapid told the cabinet that "the demolition of houses in Rafah must stop. It is not humane, not Jewish and causes us grave damage in the world."
Lapid added that he had seen a picture of an elderly Palestinian woman searching in the debris for her medication, and had been reminded of his grandmother who perished in the Holocaust.
His remarks sparked an uproar in the cabinet since Lapid is a Holocaust survivor and his words were interpreted as a comparison between the IDF and the Nazis.
Specifying the potential damage in the international community, Lapid said: "At the end of the day, they'll kick us out of the United Nations, try those responsible in the international court in The Hague, and no one will want to speak with us."
-------- mideast
UAE offers to build Gaza homes
heraldsun.news.com.au
24may04
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,9642318%255E663,00.html
THE President of the United Arab Emirates yesterday offered to pay for 400 new houses in Gaza to replace homes demolished by Israeli forces, a UAE delegate to an Arab summit in Tunis said.
Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahayan, who is also the ruler of oil-producing Abu Dhabi, made the offer after Palestinian President Yasser Arafat spoke to the summit by video-link from his besieged headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
Israeli forces have destroyed thousands of Palestinian homes in the past 3 1/2 years, many of them during recent incursions into the Rafah area of southern Gaza.
The delegate, who asked not to be named, said he had no estimate for how much the 400 houses would cost but said it would be a substantial sum.
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who withdrew from the summit, said he saw no point in rebuilding at this stage because Israeli forces would destroy them again.
Israel says Palestinians use the houses for attacking Israeli troops or for digging tunnels to smuggle weapons from neighbouring Egypt. Palestinians say the demolitions are a form of collective punishment.
Earlier, a Palestinian girl was shot dead in Rafah yesterday, day five of Israel's offensive in southern Gaza, as angry residents pleaded with a visiting UN official to help them rebuild their ruined homes.
Three-year-old Rwan Abu Zaid died of gunshot wounds to the head after Israeli troops opened fire in Rafah's devastated Brazil neighbourhood. The Israeli army said it was verifying the claims.
"My daughter was just going to the shops. They shot her while she was walking," the girl's father, Mohammed Abu Zaid, said after Rwan's burial in Rafah's main cemetery just a few hours after her death. "My daughter was three years old. Did she fire rockets, shoot at tanks?"
Her death brought to 43 the number of Palestinians killed since the start of Israel's Operation Rainbow, an offensive to arrest militants and smash weapons smuggling, on Tuesday.
--------
Arab Summit condemns attacks on Palestinian, Israeli civilians
By The Associated Press and Haaretz Service
24/05/2004
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/430980.html
Arab leaders concluded a two-day summit in Tunis on Sunday with a general statement condemning violence against civilians - both Israeli and Palestinian. The leaders also issued statements committing their countries to reforms and calling for the revival of Middle East peace initiatives.
But the annual gathering - already delayed by two months amid sharp differences over the agenda - was marred by the walkout of one leader, the no-show of eight others and the departure of four even before the curtain came down.
And the documents approved by kings, presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers from the 21 member states and the Palestinians were broad and short on specifics and details, reflecting a vague commitment to the promises made.
Unlike previous summits over the decades since the Arab League was created in 1945, Arab leaders for the first time declared their commitment to implement the organization's decisions, which have been criticized in the past as ineffective and lacking the mechanism for enforcement.
The leaders agreed to a document entitled "Pledge of Accord and Solidarity," which commits them to implementing Arab League decisions "to guarantee a better future for the Arab countries and their peoples and to avoid the ordeals of sedition, division and infighting."
"We pledge among ourselves and before God Almighty, then before our peoples, to undertake to work together to take decisions which fulfill these targets," said the document, read at the summit's closing session by Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa.
The leaders promised to work toward integration and "strengthening our collective potential in order to safeguard the sovereignty, security and safety of Arab lands."
They also called for resolving inter-Arab conflicts peacefully and expressed the determination of the leaders to "continue the steps of comprehensive reform in political, economic, social and educational fields in order to achieve sustained development."
The pledge also promises "broader participation in public affairs," ensures "responsible freedom of expression," and calls for human rights and the strengthening of the role of women "in line with our faith, values and traditions."
The document also renewed Arabs' commitment to an Arab peace initiative adopted at a summit in Lebanon in 2002 and pledged to work to garner international support for the proposals.
President Zine El Abedine Ben Ali, the summit host, called the decisions made in Tunisia "a new starting point" for Arabs to regain their place in the world.
He said the summit's "message of peace" to the international community was a "strategic choice" for the Arab world.
-------- nato
Nato launches review of Afghan failings
By Judy Dempsey in Brussels
May 24 2004
Financial Times
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1084907767544&p=1012571727169
Nato is launching an inter-nal review into why it has been unable to provide basic equipment for Afghanistan, according to senior alliance diplomats.
The operational military review, the first since the end of the cold war, reflects the mounting frustration of General James Jones, Nato's military chief and head of US forces in Europe, and Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Nato's secretary-general, with many member nations. It coincides with preparations for next month's Nato summit in Istanbul at which the US-led military alliance will be in the limelight over its mission in Afghanistan and what role, if any, it would play in Iraq.
Some countries, particularly Britain and Poland, want Nato to play a substantial role in Iraq after June 30, when the US hands sovereignty to the Iraqis. Nato already provides planning to the Polish-led multinational force but is not present as an organisation on the ground.
Nato diplomats said the alliance would be reluctant to go into Iraq. One said it could be seen as an extension of US influence and could be tainted because of US soldiers' abuse of Iraqi prisoners. It would also suck resources from Afghanistan, already subject to serious shortfalls by Nato. "So much depends on the security situation, the role of the United Nations and Afghanistan," said a Nato diplomat.
The internal review is a result of foot-dragging by Nato countries over providing helicopters, airlift, communications and even medical back-up to the 6,500-strong Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in Afghanistan. Nato took over the Isaf command in August, its first "out of area" mission from its traditional base of Europe.
Nato chiefs want to change the way countries provide assets to the alliance by relying on fixed commitments by nations, regardless of the mission, instead of having to request assets for each new mission.
As it is, Nato military planners have substantial assets at their disposal, ranging from helicopters, troops, strategic air transport and medical corps. But the availability of the assets is limited by the defence policy process.
It sets out what equipment the alliance can deploy in the case of an "article five" request - when it is obliged to come to the assistance of another member that comes under attack.
These assets are not automatically available for Afghanistan or the Balkans because they are not article five missions. Nato planners have to call "force generation" conferences where each country is asked what it could provide.
"It takes months to dovetail the mission with the availability of equipment," says a military planner, adding that Afghanistan shows how countries have dragged their feet, mainly for financial reasons.
Nato's military officials say article five is a relic of the cold war when nations could expect an attack from Moscow.
The first and only time article five was invoked was after the September 11 attacks on the US. Washington did not take up the offer, preferring to choose it allies than be subject to Nato's slow decision-making processes.
-------- pakistan / india
Reject Islamic Extremism, Musharraf Tells Pakistan
May 24, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-pakistan-musharraf.html
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - President Pervez Musharraf appealed to Pakistan's young people Monday to shun the forces of conservative Islam, warning that extremism and militancy threaten the country's future.
Musharraf, who critics say has not done enough to match his rhetoric against radical Islam since coming to power in a bloodless military coup in 1999, was hard-hitting in a speech broadcast live on state television. ``What is the biggest source of extremism? Unfortunately mosques are misused, loud speakers are misused, not all ... and a few madrassahs are misused to spread hatred, create divisions,'' Musharraf, dressed in his general's uniform, told a youth conference in Islamabad.
``We cannot allow that.''
He said Pakistan was a victim of misperceptions in the outside world, where it was blamed for violence in Afghanistan, insurgency in Indian-controlled Kashmir, nuclear proliferation, and for being a haven for ``extremists'' causing terrorism abroad.
``These misperceptions, what damage can they do to us?'' he asked a few hundred students from across the country.
``I will not go into details but let me tell you that they can lead to such serious consequences that Pakistan will be incapable of bearing it.''
Musharraf, a key ally of the United States in its war on terror, has angered hard-line Islamic groups for abandoning the Afghan Taliban after Sept. 11, 2001.
``We are in the eye of a storm,'' Musharraf said. ``If we get out of the storm we rise, the road ahead is great, if we don't, we jump in the storm.''
He has often spoken on reform and moderation in the deeply Islamic country of about 150 million people but has remained careful in the past not to directly provoke the powerful mullahs.
However, he sounded more aggressive Monday.
``Instead of behaving like an ostrich, hiding the face in the sand in front of dangers, we must confront these dangers realistically and squarely,'' he said.
``You must condemn and counter any religious personality who is dividing you and fueling hatred and sectarianism and promoting militancy in any form.''
Musharraf said militants involved in attacks in mosques, bombings and firefights were the real enemies of Islam and quoted the 18th-century French philosopher Voltaire:
``Beware of a man who says believe in God as I do, otherwise God will punish you. Because he would say tomorrow, believe in God as I do, otherwise I will kill you.''
-------- prisoners of war
Prison abusers were 'stupid,' retired intelligence officer says
Monday, May 24, 2004
By Ted Roelofs
The Grand Rapids Press
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-14/1085410135225370.xml
The detainees in Afghanistan were like those in Iraq. The goal was the same -- break them as quickly as possible.
But according to the West Michigan native who supervised interrogation at Bagram Air Base, the methods were vastly different from the alleged abuse at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad.
"Everything done under duress is suspect," said retired Army Maj. Steve Hillebrand, 42, a former Benzie County deputy sheriff who oversaw interrogation for much of 2003 at Bagram.
"I am very confident in the fact that those things were not going on there," said Hillebrand, a 1979 graduate of Comstock Park High School.
Hillebrand is dumfounded by the images of naked and shackled Iraqi detainees emerging from Abu Ghraib. In his view, the accused soldiers violated more than moral and military codes. They applied methods he believes simply do not work.
"I was revolted. I could not believe that individuals were that stupid. It cuts to the core of all that I believe as a soldier and an officer."
The military intelligence specialist returned from Afghanistan in January and has resumed his civilian job as a manager with FedEx in suburban Detroit, where he lives with his wife, Michelle, and their four children. He resigned from the Army Reserves on April 30, ending an 18-year military career.
From April to January 2003, he commanded a company-sized military intelligence unit of regular or National Guard soldiers who interrogated detainees at Bagram. Hillebrand said several hundred individuals were housed there.
He described the detainees as members of al Qaida, the Taliban, foreign fighters or individuals thought to have high intelligence value.
Although most media attention is focused on Abu Ghraib, Hillebrand acknowledged Bagram also came under scrutiny for alleged abuse.
Four months before Hillebrand arrived at Bagram, two detainees died in what military coroners ruled were homicides.
The men died shortly after arriving at the facility north of the Afghan capital, Kabul. The first man died Dec. 3, 2002, of a pulmonary embolism, and the second died a week later of a heart attack.
Autopsies found "blunt force trauma" was a contributing factor, military sources said.
The deaths and other reports of abuse prompted U.S.-based Human Rights Watch to accuse military authorities of systematic violations of the Geneva Conventions. It said Bagram detainees were kept awake for extended periods of time, kicked, beaten and doused with freezing water, with most of the abuses occurring in 2002.
Investigations continue into alleged abuse in Afghanistan and Iraq as the top military commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, told Congress on Wednesday the abuse "will be thoroughly investigated up the chain of command."
Hillebrand said he sanctioned no harsh procedures, and Red Cross officials had regular and open access at Bagram.
But he conceded the two deaths shook up the system.
"A lot of things changed as a result of that," said Hillebrand, who assisted in the investigation of those deaths.
"You will read more about that in the future," he added, declining to elaborate.
In his tenure, Hillebrand said the Bagram facility was geared to extract information in the most efficient, least intrusive way possible. "It was not set up to be pleasant."
But he said it did not resort to brute force or sexual humiliation of the type exposed at Abu Ghraib. He said cameras were banned from interrogation.
Instead, interrogators appealed to detainees' love of family, their ego, or their craving for cigarettes or tea. They were asked the same question over and over. On occasion, they were deprived of sleep.
Hillebrand said he was given the option of using guard dogs to intimidate detainees. "I declined it. It was something I didn't want to do in Afghanistan."
He said he became convinced rough tactics did not make for good intelligence.
"We received detainees that had been roughed up. We found the information they obtained could not be proven.
"I constantly stressed to the troops how important it (interrogation) was. But you've got to do it within the guidelines."
Philis Ripley, of Grand Rapids, has another perspective.
From October 2002 to September 2003, Ripley served with the Jackson-based 303rd Military Police company at the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Now back at her civilian job as a Grand Rapids postal worker, Ripley, 33, believes the media paints a one-sided picture of events in Iraq and elsewhere.
"Nobody ever sees our side of it," she said. "The media always expands on the things that happened to the other people."
Ripley said she saw no abuse at Guantanamo, where she and others in the unit had the task of escorting detainees to and from interrogation.
On occasion, she said, detainees threw urine or feces at members of her unit.
Still, she said, "I never once saw anyone strike anyone."
But based on his experience in Afghanistan, Hillebrand sees a system that failed at multiple levels in Abu Ghraib. He faults Military Police linked with abuse for violating their training, not to mention decency and common sense.
But he suspects elements of military intelligence condoned or encouraged the practices as well.
"You are probably going to find that military intelligence was probably involved at a lower level," Hillebrand said.
"But where were the officer corps? People did not do their jobs. People covered up. I hope those leaders are held accountable for what happened."
Hillebrand fears the United States could pay for this for years.
"This goes against most of the things that are important to an Arab or Islamic male," he said. "If you talk about what would make a great recruiting poster for Osama bin Laden, they've got that."
-------- spies
Chalabi Denies Charges He Spied for Iran
Iraqi Says CIA Chief Is Responsible for 'Smear,' Offers to Testify Before Congress
By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 24, 2004; Page A19
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50420-2004May23.html
Calling allegations that he spied for Iran a "smear," Iraqi politician Ahmed Chalabi lashed out at the Bush administration yesterday, three days after Iraqi police backed by U.S. forces raided his Baghdad home.
Chalabi, once the choice of leading Defense Department civilians to run Iraq, said his calls for Iraqi sovereignty and an end to the U.S. occupation have made him unpopular with the Bush administration, which he said is running a failed occupation.
Chalabi said he will cooperate with any U.S. investigation, but not with an Iraqi one. He volunteered to testify before Congress, where he still counts a number of supporters. As investigators continue their search for several of Chalabi's associates in the Iraqi National Congress, he blamed CIA Director George J. Tenet.
"This charge is put out by George Tenet," Chalabi told ABC's "This Week." "Let Mr. Tenet come to Congress. And I am prepared to come there and lay out all the facts and all the documents that we have, and let Congress decide whether this is true. Or whether they are being misled by George Tenet."
A U.S. intelligence official described Chalabi's allegations as "absurd."
"We would welcome hearing from him before Congress under oath," said the official, who requested anonymity. A suitable line of questioning, the official said, would be the allegation "that Tenet and the CIA had trumped up these charges against him."
Chalabi has long been a controversial figure in the Bush administration and Congress, bitterly opposed by influential players in the CIA and the State Department who mistrust him. The debate over his future was one of the administration's messiest political battles before the March 2003 invasion of Iraq.
His strongest backers before the war could be found in the office of Vice President Cheney and the Defense Department, where leading postwar planners wanted to establish an early provisional government with Chalabi in the lead.
After the U.S. military toppled Saddam Hussein, Chalabi became a member of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council and served a month-long term in the rotating presidency. Four months ago, he sat behind Laura Bush in the gallery of the House of Representatives for President Bush's State of the Union address.
Chalabi is not wanted for a crime, although the government in Jordan, where he was convicted in absentia of embezzling bank funds, reiterated yesterday that a jail cell awaits him.
In the Iraq case, INC members are suspected of providing information to neighboring Iran about the occupation of Iraq, including sensitive intelligence about U.S. troop positions. A warrant has been issued for the arrest of Aras Habib, Chalabi's top intelligence adviser.
U.S. authorities suspect Habib is a paid agent of the Iranian intelligence service. Chalabi, a regular visitor to Tehran before the war, made no secret of his ties to Iranian intelligence, but he denied delivering secrets.
Chalabi told George Stephanopoulos of ABC News that the United States gave him no classified information. An Iranian government spokesman told reporters yesterday that Chalabi provided no clandestine intelligence.
Chalabi and the INC routed Iraqi defectors to U.S. intelligence agencies, where their reports about Hussein's weapons programs often turned out to be false or unconfirmable. He said yesterday that the INC presented three defectors to U.S. agencies but never vouched for their credibility.
"We gave no information about weapons of mass destruction," Chalabi said. "It was up to them to analyze this. And the responsibility for reporting to the president after analyzing the information is not mine, neither is it the INC's."
Chalabi has spoken increasingly firmly on the need for Iraq to be run by Iraqis, not by the U.S.-led occupation. Yesterday he predicted that an interim government being negotiated by U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and U.S. diplomats L. Paul Bremer and Robert D. Blackwill will fail.
A better solution, Chalabi said, would be for Bush to invite the Iraqi leadership to the presidential retreat at Camp David and "iron out the formation of a new government there, with them directly."
Shown in opinion polls to be unpopular in Iraq, and considered undesirable by Brahimi, Chalabi may believe that his chances of winning a significant role in the next Iraqi government would be strongest if Bush took command. But for reasons of domestic politics and the legitimacy of the future government, the White House has made clear that it does not want the president to play such a role.
--------
INTELLIGENCE
U.S. Steps Up Hunt in Leaks to Iraqi Exile
May 24, 2004
By DAVID JOHNSTON and RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/24/politics/24CHAL.html
WASHINGTON, May 23 - The information that Ahmad Chalabi, the Iraqi exile leader, is believed to have passed to Iran was so highly classified that federal investigators have intensified their inquiry to find out whether anyone in the American government gave the material to Mr. Chalabi, government officials said Sunday.
Federal investigators now suspect that Mr. Chalabi funneled a wide array of Pentagon and C.I.A. secrets to Iran - much more material than they believe he might have obtained through his political contacts with Americans, they said. "This was not the kind of stuff that he would have gotten by accident," one official said.
Intelligence officials have said the investigation centers on a handful of officials in Washington and Iraq who dealt regularly with Mr. Chalabi, and an even smaller number who also had access to the compromised information. Most of them are at the Pentagon, which was Mr. Chalabi's main point of contact with the Bush administration.
Mr. Chalabi, in appearances on Sunday on several television news programs, said that he had met with Iranian officials as recently as six weeks ago, but that he had never received classified documents or briefings from the United States. He also said he had never passed any American secrets to Iran.
On CNN's "Late Edition," Mr. Chalabi acknowledged that he met in Tehran in December with the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the Iranian president, Mohammad Khatami. He also said he had met in Tehran with the Iranian minister of information.
In his televised comments, Mr. Chalabi attacked the Central Intelligence Agency and the director of central intelligence, George J. Tenet, saying the agency was behind what Mr. Chalabi asserted was an effort to smear him.
"I have never passed any classified information to Iran or have done anything - participated in any scheme of intelligence against the United States," Mr. Chalabi said on "Fox News Sunday." "This charge is false. I have never seen a U.S. classified document, and I have never seen - had a U.S. classified briefing."
Mr. Chalabi, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council, said, "We meet people from the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad regularly," but he called those normal visits to be expected of Iraqi officials like himself.
It is unclear whether investigators suspect that Mr. Chalabi obtained the information from sources inside or outside the government, or from a high-level government official or someone of a relatively low rank, who had access to classified data.
At the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which has jurisdiction over intelligence investigations, officials would not discuss the case, but acknowledged privately that they had been examining the accusations against Mr. Chalabi. Federal espionage statutes prohibit anyone from knowingly passing classified information to a foreign power, even though, in this case, the United States has supported Mr. Chalabi.
Asked in the Fox interview how much senior Bush administration officials relied on him before the war in Iraq, Mr. Chalabi said that he "met Mr. Rumsfeld less than four times, I believe," adding that the meetings with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld were not "substantial." He said he recalled meeting with Vice President Dick Cheney twice and had a "general discussion."
"There was no exchange of intelligence," he said.
Responding to the accusations of spying for Iran, Mr. Chalabi said: "These charges are being put out by George Tenet. Let him come to Congress. I will come to Congress, and I will lay everything on the table."
While Mr. Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress received about $40 million in the last four years from the State Department and Defense Intelligence Agency, the C.I.A. cut its ties to him in the 1990's after concluding that his group was unreliable.
A United States intelligence official said Sunday that "Chalabi's claims are absurd, and we would welcome him to come before Congress to testify under oath."
Iranian officials acknowledged Sunday that they have had a close relationship with Mr. Chalabi, but said he never gave them classified United States data.
In Tehran, The Associated Press reported, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said: "We had continuous and permanent dialogue with Chalabi and other members of the council. But spying charges are unfounded and baseless."
He added, "We didn't receive any confidential information from Chalabi or any other member of the Iraqi Governing Council."
--------
Mossad Goes On-Line to Recruit Spies...and Waiters
JERUSALEM (Reuters)
By Dan Williams
May 24, 2004
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=5237541
- The Israeli spy agency Mossad emerged from the shadows on Monday when it launched a Web site to attract recruits for "special tasks" -- as well as intelligence analysts, waiters and drivers.
Long a secretive elite, Mossad is raising its profile to compete with the private sector in the search for talent.
"Mossad's mainstay is its people," reads the site's (www.mossad.gov.il) foreword by agency chief Meir Dagan, posted next to backlit photographs of unnamed intelligence analysts at their desks.
The launch of the site is the spy agency's second break with the era of the old-boy network whereby veteran agents would tap their friends when job openings appeared.
Dagan's predecessor Efraim Halevy began the trend in 2000 by placing advertisements for case officers in the Israeli press -- a big change for an agency whose motto is the biblical proverb "Without subterfuge, the nation falls."
Halevy argued market forces took precedence over mystique.
"The days when a security career was seen as the be-all and end-all of Israeli citizenship are over," he told Reuters. "Now we are an open society, and Mossad has had to appeal to the widest range of talented applicants who might otherwise head for hi-tech or other private sectors."
For decades, Mossad had a reputation for deadly derring-do.
In 1960, its agents captured Nazi fugitive Adolf Eichmann in Argentina. After 11 Israeli athletes were killed by Palestinian gunmen at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Mossad hunted for the masterminds, killing some of them.
But Mossad has also been embarrassed by a series of bungles. In 1997 its agents botched an attempt on the life of a leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Jordan. In 1998 a Mossad team was arrested in Switzerland while spying on a local man believed linked to Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas.
Mossad's U.S. counterpart, the Central Intelligence Agency, has had a Web site since 1995. But Yossi Melman, senior security correspondent for Haaretz newspaper, said it was too early to trumpet a new American-style transparency in Mossad.
"This is basically a belated employment move which Mossad is making the most of," Melman said, noting that the Web site advertises for English-speaking waiters and bus drivers as well as analysts, translators and agents for "special tasks."
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U.S. and Britain Present Resolution on Iraq Transfer
May 24, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-UN-Iraq.html?hp
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The United States and Britain presented a new U.N. resolution Monday that would transfer ``governing authority'' in Iraq to a sovereign interim government by June 30 and authorize a multinational force to maintain peace with Iraqi consent.
The draft resolution was an attempt by the Bush administration to win international backing for its post-occupation plans in Iraq, which have been severely shaken by violence in the country.
With his approval ratings sinking after repeated setbacks in Iraq, President Bush is also seeking to rebuild support at home. He is to deliver a nationally televised speech Monday night aimed at convincing U.S. voters he has a political and security blueprint that can stabilize Iraq.
The resolution was introduced Monday at a closed-door meeting of the U.N. Security Council. Council ambassadors heading into the meeting, who had received advanced copies of the draft, reacted positively.
Though the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq officially ends June 30, the United States is maintaining more than 130,000 troops in the country. That has raised concerns among some Iraqis and European nations that Iraqis will still feel under U.S. domination and that any new government will have little legitimacy.
In an attempt to address those concerns, the U.S.-British resolution would allow a future Iraqi government to ``review'' the presence of the U.S.-led multinational force.
Under the resolution, the force's mandate would be reviewed in 12 months ``or at the request of the Transitional Government of Iraq.''
It wasn't immediately clear whether this was a reference to the interim government that will take over on June 30 or the government chosen by the Transitional National Assembly due to be elected by Jan. 31.
Secretary of State Colin Powell has said the U.S.-led coalition force would leave if the interim government asked it to, though he doesn't expect that to happen.
Washington will not seek a vote on the resolution for a week or two, until U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi finishes his work on drawing up the interim Iraqi government due to take power on June 30, a senior U.S. official said.
Germany's U.N. Ambassador Gunter Pleuger said the U.S.-British draft was ``a good basis for discussion.''
``I think it is important that the resolution will make clear that we have a new start in Iraq -- the political process, the restoration of sovereignty to Iraq. And we will have to make sure that this process provides Iraqi ownership for the political process as well as for the process of economic reconstruction,'' he said.
Chile's U.N. Ambassador Heraldo Munoz said he was ``relatively optimistic'' that differences could be overcome. ``I don't see major disagreements ... although there are points to be refined,'' he said.
Several ambassadors said they want to wait to hear from Brahimi.
Iraqi Governing Council member Adnan Pachachi said Monday that Brahimi could announce the new government as early as the end of this week.
Brahimi would announce the names of a president and prime minister, as well as two vice presidents and Cabinet ministers, Pachachi told the Kuwait News Agency.
Filling the top two posts will be Brahimi's most challenging task, since Iraq's three main groups -- the Shiite majority and the large Sunni Arab and Kurdish communities -- all want a representative either as president or prime minister.
Brahimi said the new government will reflect Iraq's ``wide diversity,'' but he did not say when the posts would be announced.
Declaring U.S.-British determination for a new start for Iraq, the draft resolution would recognize the new interim government and give it control over oil and gas resources -- as well as a fund now in the hands of the United States and Britain where oil revenue has been deposited.
The draft also endorse the continued presence of U.S.-led international forces ``to take all necessary measures to contribute to the maintenance of security and stability in Iraq including by preventing and deterring terrorism.''
The Bush administration has sought mostly unsuccessfully for months to persuade other countries to send peacekeepers to beef up the multinational component of forces in Iraq -- and it was unclear if the new resolution, if approved, would convince any other countries to join in.
The issue of how much influence the caretaker government will have over the multinational forces -- and even Iraqi armed forces -- has been a focus of debate in recent days.
The new government ``should be given the possibility to decide on security issues, without which this would not be a transfer of sovereignty,'' German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said.
The United States is retaining control over Iraq's police, security forces and military. But U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday that Iraqi troops will have the right to ``opt out'' of any military operation.
Iraqi forces will work for an Iraqi general ``in partnership'' with coalition forces, under a unified command structure led by an American general, Armitage said.
Bush administration officials have made clear that U.S. troops -- who make up the vast majority of the forces in Iraq -- would remain strictly under U.S. command only and not be commanded by either the U.N. or by commanders from other nations.
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Text of U.N. Draft Resolution on Iraq
The Associated Press
May 24, 2004
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-un-iraq-text,0,1936678.story?coll=sns-ap-world-headlines
The United States and Britain circulated the following draft U.N. resolution on Iraq to Security Council members Monday. The date in section 5(a)(i) is incomplete, as in the distributed text.
The Security Council,
Recalling its previous relevant resolutions on Iraq, in particular resolutions 1483 (2003) and 1511 (2003),
Reaffirming the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq,
Recognizing the importance of international support, particularly that of countries in the region, Iraq's neighbors and regional organizations, for the people of Iraq in their efforts to achieve security and prosperity,
Determined to mark a new phase in Iraq's transition to a democratically elected government, and looking forward, to this end, to the end of the occupation and the assumption of authority by a sovereign Interim Government of Iraq by 30 June 2004,
Welcoming the ongoing efforts of the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General to assist the people of Iraq in achieving the formation of a sovereign Interim Government of Iraq,
Welcoming the progress made in implementing the arrangements for Iraq's political transition referred to in resolution 1511 (2003),
Affirming the importance of the principles of rule of law, including respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and of democracy, including free and fair elections.
Recalling the establishment of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) on 15 August 2003, and determined that the United Nations should play a leading role in assisting the Iraqi people in the formation of institutions for representative government,
Recognizing that international support for restoration of stability and security is essential to the well-bring of the people of Iraq as well as to the ability of all concerned to carry out their work on behalf of the people of Iraq, and welcoming Member State contribution in this regard under resolution 1483 (2003) of 22 May 2003 and resolution 1511 (2003) of 16 October 2003,
Recalling the report provided to the Security Council on 16 April 2004 under resolution 1511 (2003) on the efforts and progress made by the multinational force authorized under that resolution, welcoming the willingness of the multinational force to continue efforts to contribute to the maintenance of security and stability in Iraq in support of the political transition, especially for upcoming elections, and to provide security for the UN presence in Iraq, as further described in the letter to the President of the Security Council and recognizing the importance of the consent of the sovereign government of Iraq for the presence of the multinational force and of close coordination between the multinational force and that government,
Noting that the multinational force will operate in accordance with generally accepted principles of international law and cooperate with relevant international organizations,
Affirming the importance of international assistance in reconstruction and development of the Iraqi economy,
Recognizing the benefits to Iraq of the immunities and privileges enjoyed by Iraqi oil revenues and by the Development Fund for Iraq, and noting the importance of providing for continued disbursements of this fund by the Interim Government of Iraq and its successors upon dissolution of the Coalition Provisional Authority,
Determining that the situation in Iraq continues to constitute a threat to international peace and security,
Acting under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations,
1. Endorses the formation of a sovereign Interim Government of Iraq that will take office by 30 June 2004;
2. Welcomes the commitment of the occupying powers to end the occupation by 30 June 2003, at which time the Coalition Provisional Authority will cease to exist and the Interim Government of Iraq will assume responsibility and authority for governing a sovereign Iraq;
3. Endorses the proposed timetable for Iraq's political transition to democratic government, including:
a. formation of a sovereign Interim Government of Iraq that will assume governing authority by 30 June 2004:
b. convening of a national conference; and
c. holding of direct democratic elections by 31 December 2004 if possible, and in no case later than 31 January 2005, to a Transitional National Assembly which will, inter alia, have responsibility for drafting a permanent constitution for Iraq under which democratic elections to a national government will be held;
4. Calls on all Iraqis to implement these arrangements peaceably and in full, and on all States and relevant organizations to support such implementation;
5. Decides that, in implementing its mandate to assist the Iraqi people, the Special Representative of the Secretary General and the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI)
a. shall in particular:
i. assist in the convening, no later than XX XX 2004, of a national conference to select a Consultative Council;
ii. advise and support the Interim Government of Iraq and the Transitional National Assembly, as required, on the process for holding elections;
iii. promote national dialogue and consensus-building on the drafting of a national constitution by the people of Iraq; and
b. shall as circumstances permit:
i. advise the Interim Government of Iraq in the development of effective civil and social services;
ii. contribute to the coordination and delivery of reconstruction, development and humanitarian assistance;
iii. promote the protection of human rights, national reconciliation, and judicial and legal reform in order to strengthen the rule of law in Iraq; and
iv. advise and assist the Interim Government of Iraq on initial planning for the eventual conduct of a comprehensive census;
6. Reaffirms the authorization for the multinational force under unified command established under resolution 1511 (2003), having regard to the letter referred to in preambular paragraph 10 above, decides that the multinational force shall have authority to take all necessary measures to contribute to the maintenance of security and stability in Iraq including by preventing and deterring terrorism, so that inter alia the United Nations can fulfill its role in assisting the Iraqi people as outlined in paragraph five above and the Iraqi people can implement freely and without intimidation the timetable and program for the political process and benefit from reconstruction and rehabilitation activities, and decides further that the mandate for the multinational force shall be reviewed 12 months from the date of this resolution or at the request of the Transitional Government of Iraq;
7. Notes the creation by the multinational force of a distinct entity within the multinational force and under its unified command with a dedicated mission to provide security for the UN presence in Iraq and requests Member State and relevant organizations to provide resources to support that entity;
8. Recognizes that the multinational force will also assist in building the capability of the Iraqi security forces and institutions, through a program of recruitment, training, equipping, mentoring and monitoring, to enable the Iraqi forces progressively to play a greater role in creating conditions of security and stability in Iraq and welcomes in that regard the arrangements that are being put in place to establish a partnership between the multinational force and the sovereign Interim Government of Iraq and to ensure coordination between the two;
9. Requests Member States and international and regional security organizations to contribute assistance to the multinational force, including military forces, to help meet the needs of the Iraqi people for security and stability, humanitarian and reconstruction assistance, and to support the efforts of UNAMI;
10. Emphasizes the importance of developing effective Iraqi police, border enforcement and Facilities Protection Service for the maintenance of law, order, and security, including combating terrorism and requests Member States and international organizations to assist the Interim Government of Iraq in building the capability of these Iraqi institutions;
11. Condemns all acts of terrorism in Iraq, and decides that, in accordance with their obligations under resolutions 1373 (2001), 1267 (1999), 1333 (2000), 1390 (2002), 1455 (2003) and 1526 (2004) and with other relevant international obligations, all States shall take immediate and necessary steps, inter alia, to freeze funds and other financial assets or economic resources of relevant individuals and entities, to prevent the entry into or transit through their territories of relevant individuals, to prevent the direct or indirect supply, sale or transfer of arms and related material to relevant individuals and entities, to refrain from providing any form of support, active or passive, to relevant individuals or entities, to prevent individuals and entities from using their respective territories for the purpose of financing, planning, facilitating or committing terrorist acts against Iraq or its citizens, and to ensure that such individuals are brought to justice;
12. Welcomes efforts by Member States to support the Interim Government of Iraq through the provision of technical and expert assistance;
13. Decides that the prohibitions related to the sale or supply to Iraq of arms and related materiel under previous resolutions shall not apply to arms or related materiel required by the multinational force or the sovereign government of Iraq to serve the purpose of this resolution, calls upon the multinational force and the sovereign government of Iraq each to ensure appropriate implementation procedures are in place, and stresses the importance for all States, particularly Iraq's neighbors, to strictly abide by them;
14. Reiterates its request that Member States, international financial institutions and other organizations strengthen their efforts to assist the people of Iraq in the reconstruction and development of the Iraqi economy, including by providing international experts and necessary resources through a coordinated program of donor assistance;
15. Notes that upon dissolution of the Coalition Provisional Authority that funds in the Development Fund for Iraq shall be disbursed at the direction of the Interim Government of Iraq and its successors, and decides that the Development Fund for Iraq shall be utilized in a transparent manner and through the Iraqi budget including to satisfy outstanding obligations against the Development Fund for Iraq, that the arrangements for the depositing of proceeds from export sales of petroleum, petroleum products, and natural gas and its products established in paragraph 20 of resolution 1483 (2003) shall continue to apply, that the International Advisory and Monitoring Board referred to in resolution 1483 (2003) shall continue its activities in monitoring the Development Fund for Iraq and shall include as an additional member a duly qualified representative of the sovereign government of Iraq, and that the provisions above shall be reviewed no later than 12 months from the date of this resolution or at the request of the Transitional Government of Iraq, and that appropriate arrangements shall be made for the continuation of deposits of the proceeds referred to in paragraph 21 of resolution 1483 (2003);
16. Decides that in connection with the dissolution o the Coalition of Provisional Authority, the Interim Government of Iraq and its successors shall assume the rights, responsibilities and obligations relating to the Oil for Food Programme that were transferred to the Authority pursuant to Resolution 1483 (2003), including all operational responsibility for the Programme and any obligations undertaken by the Authority in connection with such responsibility, and responsibility for ensuring independently authenticated confirmation that goods have been delivered, and further decides that, following a 120 day transition period, the Interim Government of Iraq and its successors shall assume responsibility for certifying delivery of goods under contracts prioritized in accordance with that resolution, and that such certification shall be deemed to constitute the independent authentication required for the release of funds associated with such contracts;
17. Further decides that the provision of paragraph 22 of resolution 1483 (2003) shall continue to apply, except that the privileges and immunities provided in that paragraph shall not apply with respect to any claim arising out of an obligation entered into by Iraq after 30 June 2004;
18. Welcomes the commitment of creditors, including those of the Paris Club, to identify ways to reduce substantially Iraq's sovereign debt, urges the international financial institutions and bilateral donors to take immediate steps to provide their full range of loans and other financial assistance to Iraq, recognizes that the Interim Government of Iraq has the authority to conclude and implement such agreements as may be necessary in this regard, and requests creditors, institutions and donors to work as a priority on these matters with the Interim Government of Iraq;
19. Recalls the continuing obligation of Member States to freeze and transfer certain funds, assets and economic resources to the Development Fund for Iraq in accordance with paragraph 23 of resolution 1483 (2003);
20. Calls upon all Member States to take appropriate steps within their respective legal systems to stay for a period of 12 months from 30 June 2004 all legal and other similar proceedings before their courts or other tribunals involving claims by or against the State of Iraq, its Government, or any of its agencies or instrumentalities, including its State-owned enterprises or similar bodies;
21. Requests the Secretary-General to report to the Security Council within three months from the date of this resolution on UNAMI operations in Iraq, and on a quarterly bases thereafter on the progress made toward national elections and fulfillment of all UNAMI's responsibilities;
22. Decides to remain actively seized of this matter.
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Iraq draft gives wide powers to US forces
By Evelyn Leopold
Monday May 24, 2004,
Reuters
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040524/325/euecx.html
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States and Britain have asked for U.N. endorsement of a handover of power to an interim Iraqi government but have proposed the U.S. force there could "take all measures" to keep order and set no date for it to leave.
The resolution, co-sponsored by Britain and distributed to U.N. Security Council members on Monday, would back the formation of a "sovereign interim government" that would take office by June 30. It says that government would "assume the responsibility and authority for governing a sovereign Iraq."
The draft emerged as President George W. Bush prepared a televised speech later on Monday mapping out his plans for Iraq, where attacks on occupying forces have thrown into doubt prospects for a peaceful transfer to democratic rule.
As part of the transition process, U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, now in Baghdad, is due to name a president, a prime minister, two vice presidents and 26 ministers soon. They would stay in office until elections for a national assembly, expected to be held by January 2005.
No vote is expected until Brahimi reports to the council.
The definition of sovereignty, particularly on the role of foreign troops, is a contentious issue, with the Bush administration attempting to assure U.N. members they would not be asked to approve an occupation under another name.
CRITICISM FROM FRANCE
The text endorses a U.S.-led multinational force, which would have "authority to take all necessary measure to contribute to the maintenance of security and stability."
But the draft has run into criticism from France and others, which opposed the Iraqi invasion last year. It does not give a definite timetable for the foreign force to leave and calls for a review after a year. An elected Iraqi government, after January, can also call for such a review.
A review, however, would be similar to an open-ended mandate and would not mean the force would leave unless the Security Council, where the United States has veto power, decides it should do so.
Deputy U.S. Ambassador James Cunningham acknowledged there was no authority for Iraq to ask foreign troops to leave.
But, quoting earlier remarks from Secretary of State Colin Powell, he said, "The United States has said we will leave if there is a request by the Iraqi government to leave."
A senior U.S. official said the resolution should not dictate too many details to a future Iraqi government and that military arrangements would be worked out in a separate letter between the U.S. command and the Iraqis.
8,000 IRAQI PRISONERS
However, Chile's U.N. ambassador, Heraldo Munoz, said the length of stay by a multinational force should be spelled out in the resolution and be "determined by a sovereign government."
The resolution is silent on several points -- whether the Iraqi military can refuse to go into battle, U.S. prisoners and the current interim constitution, although U.S. officials say it stands until a new constitution is crafted.
The measure also does not mention the 8,000 Iraqi prisoners in U.S.-run jails and what would happen to future prisoners. The senior official said this would be worked out between Iraqis and U.S. authorities.
The resolution defines a "key" role for the United Nations in the political sphere but allows Secretary-General Kofi Annan to decide whether to return U.N. staff to Iraq, depending on security. The United Nations has no permanent foreign staff in Iraq since last October, two months after its offices in Baghdad were bombed, leaving 23 dead.
On oil, the draft resolution says Iraq would have control over its oil revenues. But it would keep in place an international advisory board, which audits accounts, to assure investors and donors that their money was being spent free of corruption, U.N. envoys said.
Under a May 2003 Security Council resolution adopted after the fall of Saddam Hussein, all proceeds of Iraq's oil and gas sales were deposited into a special account called the Development Fund for Iraq, controlled by the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority.
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Allied troops may win immunity from Iraqi laws
independent.co.uk
By Ben Russell and Ciar Byrne
24 May 2004
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=524305
A deal to give British forces immunity from Iraqi law is being negotiated by British diplomats drawing up a United Nations Security Council resolution to set up an Iraqi government. Sources said they expected the British military to be under their own domestic and military laws.
The deal would echo military operations in Afghanistan and Kosovo where foreign forces remain subject to the military law of their own countries. A Foreign Office spokesman said: "The legal status of multi-national forces post-30 June is a matter for discussion between the multi-national force and the Iraqi interim government and will be discussed in the new UN security resolution."
Diplomats have been discussing the working of a resolution to hand authority to the Iraqis with a full document expected to be published within days, in time for the expected handover of power on 30 June.
The resolution will transfer full power to the Iraqi Interim Authority before elections are held next year. Because the formal occupation of Iraq would end, British and American forces would remain in the country under an agreement with the new government.
One British soldier cleared by his commanding officer on a murder charge over the death of an Iraqi civilian could still face prosecution. The victim is believed to be a 26-year-old hotel receptionist Baha Mousa, who died in British custody.
The head of Scotland Yard's murder squad, Commander Andy Baker, is reported to have recommended that the Crown Prosecution Service launch a full-scale murder inquiry.
Scotland Yard, which refused to comment on whether it has made any recommendations, was asked to consider the case by the CPS. The file on the death was then passed to the Army Prosecuting Authority, overseen by the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, who consulted the CPS.
And the Ministry of Defence has refused to comment on speculation over the identity of a man suspected of being behind the fake Iraqi prisoner-abuse photographs published in the Daily Mirror. A report in a Sunday newspaper said the man was a 25-year-old private who served in Iraq with the Territorial Army, attached to the Queen's Lancashire Regiment.
An MoD spokeswoman said: "This is the subject of a Special Investigations Branch investigation and it would be inappropriate for us to comment or get involved in speculation about identities
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Army to deploy peel-and-stick armor in Afghanistan
Portland Business Journal,
May 24, 2004
http://portland.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2004/05/24/daily12.html
A Vancouver, Wash.-based company is supplying Humvee armor kits for U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The Army Humvees will be the first military vehicles outfitted with a peel-and-stick armoring system manufactured by Armor Systems International. ASI representatives are now at a U.S. military base, where they will load 15 Aztik 100 armor kits onto a cargo plane bound for troops in Kandahar early next week.
The Army's Rapid Equipping Force ordered the Aztik armor kits in December for use in Iraq but determined a greater need for these resources in Afghanistan.
"We're excited to demonstrate the effectiveness and uniqueness of our armored HMMWV kit solution to American soldiers in Afghanistan," said ASI President and CEO Terry Billedeaux. "This product is long overdue and will protect our troops from deadly" munitions. Over the next couple of weeks, the ASI team will train troops to install the armor, observe its performance in the combat environment and gather feedback from soldiers for future product enhancements.
The panels, made of a composite, can deflect high-caliber arms fire and fragmentation from roadside bombs as well as, or better than, conventional steel-plate armor, according to the company. ASI's armor, however, is much lighter than steel-plate, and addresses a critical concern. The suspension and transmission systems of military vehicles often are unable to withstand the weight of steel armor, ASI officials said in a written statement.
ASI's 19-piece Aztik 100 HMMWV [Humvee] armor kit includes door panels, floor protection, a rear-protection panel, seat cushions and bullet-resistant glass. Two soldiers can install the system in the field in less than two hours, enabling almost instant protection from deadly arms fire.
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Ex-U.S. Marine: I Killed Civilians in Iraq
Monday, May 24th, 2004
Democracy Now!
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/05/24/148212
Ex-Marine Staff Sergeant Jimmy Massey talks about his time in Iraq where he admitted the U.S. treatment of Iraqi civilians is fueling the Iraqi resistance. In a recent interview he said "I felt like we were committing genocide in Iraq." [includes rush transcript] The US Army is denying reports that the highest-ranking American officer in Iraq, Lieutenant-General Ricardo Sanchez, was present during some of the interrogations and prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison outside of Baghdad. This follows a report in The Washington Post over the weekend about an April 2nd military hearing on the prisoner torture allegations. According to The Post, a lawyer representing one of the accused soldiers said that the commander of the U.S. military police company at the centre of the abuse scandal, Donald Reese, told him that General Sanchez was aware of what was taking place.
Tonight President Bush will deliver a prime time address on Iraq aimed in part at controlling the damage from the situation at Abu Ghraib. Meanwhile, Conscientious Objector Sgt. Camillo Mejia was sentenced to a year in prison for desertion from the Army. His application for CO status mentioned prisoner abuse in Iraq long before the current scandal.
Now another US soldier who participated in the Iraq invasion and occupation has begun speaking out. Twelve year Marine veteran Jimmy Massey joins us on the line from North Carolina.
- Marine Staff Segt. Jimmy Massey (Ret.), former Marine staff sergeant who was honorably discharged in December after serving 12 years, most recently in Iraq. He is speaking to us from his home in Waynesville, North Carolina in the Smokey Mountains.
RUSH TRANSCRIPT
This transcript is available free of charge, however donations help us provide closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing on our TV broadcast. Thank you for your generous contribution. Donate - $25, $50, $100, more...
AMY GOODMAN: Welcome to Democracy Now!.
STAFF SERGEANT JIMMY MASSEY: Good morning. How you are doing?
AMY GOODMAN: Very good. Can you talk about when you were in Iraq?
STAFF SERGEANT JIMMY MASSEY: Yeah. I was part of the initial invading force. I was part of first marine division categorized into RCP-7. The battalion that I was with was third battalion seventh marines, weapons company cap 1. I was basically in the main invasion all the way up into Baghdad, and then once Baghdad fell, my battalion headed south towards the city of Karbala.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about your experience there?
STAFF SERGEANT JIMMY MASSEY: Really, what led up to my disgust with the war was the civilian casualties that we were inflicting. We were given intelligence reports -- the civilian casualties really started taking place after we left the town of Anu Mannia on the drive north towards Baghdad. We were getting intelligence reports from higher command saying that the Fedayeen and Republican Guards were trading in their uniforms for civilian clothes, and they were mounting terrorist attacks against U.S. soldiers and marines using guerrilla-style tactics, suicide bombings. They were using civilians as human shields. They were loading down stolen ambulances and police cars with explosives. So, as we progressed on towards Baghdad, our fears and anxieties were heightened, and also due to the lack of sleep, some of us had less than 48 hours of sleep getting into Baghdad. So, whenever we were placed into these situations where civilian vehicles were coming up to our checkpoints, and not heeding our warning shot, we were lighting them up. What I mean by lighting them up, we were discharging our weapons, 50 cals and M-16's into the civilian vehicles. When we would do this, we were expecting secondary explosions, ammunition to be cooking off or actually have the occupants in the vehicle fire back at us. However, none of this ever happened. When we would go to search the vehicles, we would find no weapons, and nothing to link these individuals with -- these individuals with terrorists acts. And this happened continuously through the fall of Baghdad. I would say my platoon alone killed 30-plus innocent civilians.
AMY GOODMAN: How would you realize what you had done? Can you give us a specific example?
STAFF SERGEANT JIMMY MASSEY: Sure. Sure. A car would roll up to our checkpoint. And prior while we were still in Kuwait, we had actually made up Arabic road signs to place out in front of our checkpoint area warning the Iraqis to slow down. That didn't help. We would verbally tell them stop and we would fire a warning shot. When we would light the cars up, you know, we would go through and search the dead occupants as well as the vehicles, and we would find nothing that directly linked them to any type of terrorists. They were just average civilians that were trying to flee out of Iraq -- or excuse me -- out of Baghdad, out of the city limits because of the invading American force. They were scared. But with the intelligence reports that we were given, it was very hard for us to distinguish the good guys from the bad guys. We ultimately started looking at everybody in Iraq as a potential suicide bomber or terrorist from women to children to old men. We didn't know who the enemy was.
AMY GOODMAN: We're talking to Jimmy Massey former marine staff sergeant, honorably discharged in December after serving 12 years, most recently in Iraq. He was in charge of a platoon that consisted of machine gunners and missile men describing, quote, lighting up cars, opening fire on Iraqi cars. When you would go up to the cars and see who was dead inside, what would you do with the bodies?
STAFF SERGEANT JIMMY MASSEY: We would take the bodies and search them to try to find any type of identification or anything like that. Generally, we found large quantities of cash, and that's what led us to believe that the people were just fleeing out of Baghdad. They were trying to secure what valuables that they had. Some of them had their valuables in the car, but you know, there was basically nothing that we could do with the bodies other than toss them in the ditch and off the road. So, that's what we would do, and then hopefully wait for the Iraqi medics, civilian medics to come in and take care of the bodies.
AMY GOODMAN: How many children would you estimate you killed?
STAFF SERGEANT JIMMY MASSEY: With unknown gunfire, the potential is unlimited, and what I mean by unknown gunfire, whenever you fire a machine gun especially a 50 caliber and any type of lightweight machine gun, you don't know where the bullets are going to go. So bullets could indiscriminately hit a child. The architecture - some of these villages that we went into were very shady construction. Our weapons could easily punch through. The reason I say that or use that as an example. I had a young child die in my arms. The father came up to us at the checkpoint with a child, and began to say, the bombs -- the bombs killed his child. I called the corpsman. The corpsman came over to assist the child and said the child probably had internal damage from the concussion, from the bombs. So, as his child died in my arms you know, I began to think, you know, wow, here's an innocent child that was just sleeping or doing things that children do, and the -- the response that I got from my command was, well, better them than us, and, you know, it's -- he's just a casualty of war. Sorry. However, that father that was standing there as his child was dying in my arms, and, you know, the doc was resuscitating, doing CPR, this father was looking at me like, why did you do this? You know, and -- you know, why does my son have to die? Almost just like a hatred look towards me. He knew I was obviously in command. Another incident it was on the outskirts of Baghdad near the Baghdad stadium, we had pulled into an area, and shortly after we had pulled in, it was on a major highway like a superhighway going in towards Baghdad. We had just lit up a vehicle, a red KIA, the Korean-made passenger vehicle, and we had just lit it up. They failed to stop at our checkpoint. Three of the men were fatally wounded that were in the vehicle and one -- the driver, had survived without any damage. As we were pulling the bodies out of the vehicle, of course, we're searching and we find nothing, and these were young -- these were young men. They were in their mid 20's. The one that was unscathed, he looked up at me and he goes, you know, why did you kill my brother? We didn't do anything to you. We're not terrorists. So, I have three dying men with bullet holes from our weapons, and this gentleman asking me why I killed his brother. That's a tough pill to swallow, and that continuously happened the entire time that we were in Iraq. After we left the city of Anu Mannia, it just became utter chaos. It sickened me so that I had actually brought it up to my lieutenant, and I told him, I said, you know, sir, we're not going to have to worry about the Iraq -- you know, we're basically committing genocide over here, mass extermination of thousands of Iraqis, and with the depleted uranium that we're leaving around on the battlefield, we're setting up genocide for future generations within Iraq. He didn't like that. He immediately went to my commanding officer, Captain Schmitt and proceeded to tell him about how I felt about Iraq. Word spread pretty quickly and I knew that my Marine Corps career was over. I knew that the statement that I had just made was going to bring about the blackball pretty quickly. So, I was scurried out of Iraq quickly, and ordered to report back stateside to receive psychological therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder and major depression. When I got back stateside, that's when things really became ugly. I felt like the staff sergeant that just received the prison sentence for a year. I had to hire a lawyer because they were trying to pin me with conscientious objector, and basically, they were doing everything in their power to threaten me and to intimidate me so that I would go U.A. Unfortunately, with the staff sergeant, he fell into their trap, and he went U.A.
AMY GOODMAN: What does U.A. mean?
STAFF SERGEANT JIMMY MASSEY: Unauthorized absence. That means that he left without authorization. That's basically -- you know, that's what they charged him with. Then they later on pinned on the conscientious objector. However, the Marine Corps told me they were going to bring legal repercussions against me and I decided to hire a lawyer. The lawyer that I hired was actually -- he was involved with the My Lai trials. I got really lucky, a man by the name of Gary Myers in Washington D.C. Their main concern was whether or not I was a conscientious objector. I told them that I believed in war and some wars in our history have been helpful for humanity and society as a whole, however, I do not believe in killing innocent civilians. So, I told them if they wanted to label me as a conscientious objector for disagreeing with, you know, killing innocent civilians, then I'll see them in court.
AMY GOODMAN: We're talking to Jimmy Massey former staff sergeant Marine, honorably discharged in December after serving 12 years. We're speaking to him from his home in Waynesville, North Carolina, in the Smoky Mountains. We'll come back to him if a minute.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! The War and Peace Report. Democracynow.org. I'm Amy Goodman, as we continue with Marine Staff Sergeant Jimmy Massey, honorably discharged in December, talking about his experiences in Iraq. You talk about opening fire on a group of protesters.
STAFF SERGEANT JIMMY MASSEY: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you describe it?
STAFF SERGEANT JIMMY MASSEY: Sure, we had just rolled up -- it was probably about 20 miles north of the Saddam International Airport. We had rolled up into this military compound area, and to try to give you -- it's a little bit important that you understand the architecture. This military compound was heavily fortified with about 13-foot-tall concrete fences going all the way around the compound. This particular road that we went into, these walls were on the left and right, and the road itself was about 1,000 meters long. So, it made a very difficult -- it was a prime area for an ambush. When we pulled up, there was already an Abrams tank that was parked into one of the entrances at the military compound. At the end of the street about 200 meters a way from the tank there was a group of demonstrators. They were holding a peaceful demonstration. They were holding up signs that looked like a Muslim cleric as well as Saddam Hussein. The intelligence that we had received was these demonstrators -- there was about four of them and there was ten in the background. They were standing next to a highway overpass. The intelligence that we had gotten, these people were probably members of the Iraqi military that had slipped back into the community, and they were going to be waging all of these terrorist attacks against us. We rolled up, and about two minutes later, we had heard a stray gunfire. My men were already on the edge, you know, with anxiety, and the lack of sleep, and with the constant reports that we were given. When the gunshot was fired, my marines opened up on the demonstrators. I turned around just in time because I was walking the lines inspecting my marines to make sure that they had food and water and they were in the right position in case of an ambush. I turned around to the front of the convoy, and I saw the -- I saw my marines opening up. I swung my rifle around. I didn't know what was going on, and I started discharging my weapon as well into the demonstrators. After that, the lieutenant decided to go on a reconnaissance up onto the overpass area. We -- as we were driving towards the demonstrator, I didn't see any weapons. It just horrified me at the thought that we just opened up on a group of peaceful demonstrators, however, we heard gunshots coming from that direction towards us. So, as we rolled up onto the highway overpass, I looked down and below the highway it looked like the Iraqis had set up some sort of makeshift military compound, but it had been abandoned. I saw some R.P.G.'s lining up against the wall underneath this highway, and it was about -- they were about 200 meters away from the Iraqi demonstrators. This really disturbed me, because the demonstrators if they wanted to fire on us, they had the ability. They had the ability before we even got there to destroy this tank, because the way that we were jammed into this area, it was almost impossible for us to turn around quickly. Nearly -- or double almost impossible for this tank to fire or use its main battle gun. It left this tank defenseless. These Iraqis had a clear shot of the tank before we even got there, but they didn't. I just quickly- put two and two together and said, oh, my God - we just opened up on a group of peaceful demonstrators.
AMY GOODMAN: We're talking to former marine staff sergeant Jimmy Massey, what about the use of cluster bombs?
STAFF SERGEANT JIMMY MASSEY: I had a staff sergeant at the very beginning of the war. He was our supply staff sergeant. He lost his leg because of cluster bombs. Cluster bombs were everywhere, and I believe that he was the first marine to be awarded the Purple Heart in "Operation Iraq." because it happened in Safwan, the town of Safwan, the first city as your heading into Iraq from Kuwait. They were everywhere. The long-term casualties of these cluster bombs with children and -- you know, older people working in the fields is going to go on for years.
AMY GOODMAN: Where were they from?
STAFF SERGEANT JIMMY MASSEY: From Marine Artillery and from air.
AMY GOODMAN: In the case of the protests, when you realized that you had open fire on defenseless civilians, what was the he reaction of your troops? How many people felt the way you did?
STAFF SERGEANT JIMMY MASSEY: The reaction of the troops was they were joyous. You know it's not their job to play politics. That's the job of the staff sergeant and the lieutenant, to make determinations on whether or not we were in the right or we were in the wrong. I didn't tell my troops. My job was to keep them motivated so they go home alive, and in one piece, and left with some sort of sanity after the war. However, I did have several of my younger troops come up to me in private and say, you know, staff sergeant, can I talk you to? And then they would go on to tell me, you know, that some of the incidents were affecting them. So, I told them, I said, listen double dog, we're here to do a job and provide democracy for the Iraqis, and you questioning and you playing politician is not helping them. So, I want you to get back out there on the gun line and do your job as a marine, and let the politicians do their job. But deep down, it was seriously affecting me, because it was so evident. Marines are trained from day one that you go in -- when you go in to boot camp you learn what the Geneva Convention is, what the rules of the Geneva Convention are, what the rules of engagement. However, Iraq violated every rule of engagement that I have ever been taught - violated every rule of the Geneva Convention that I have been taught. If you have young marines coming up you to and asking you, staff sergeant, what's going on? You know, we have got a problem.
AMY GOODMAN: What are you doing right now? How are you living with yourself? How are you dealing with what happened in Iraq with you and what you and your soldiers did in Iraq?
STAFF SERGEANT JIMMY MASSEY: I'll be honest with you, there isn't a waking moment of the day that I don't think about it and think about what we have done over there. A lot of people ask me, you know why you are speaking out? Why are you -- you know, are you just trying to do this for money fame, fortune. What are you doing? I have been called a traitor, a disloyal s.o.b. You name it. The reason that I'm doing this is to heal myself. To possibly heal other marines that are not in the position for them to come out and say something from fear of retaliation from the marine corps. I'm doing this not only to heal myself about to help other marines that feel the same way that I do.
AMY GOODMAN: Are others talking to you now here?
STAFF SERGEANT JIMMY MASSEY: No. Let me explain you to -- I was also a recruiter for three years in the Marine Corps. Whenever you sign up for the military, army, navy, air force, marines, coast guard, have a four-year commitment. At the end of that four-year commitment, you still have another four-year commitment in what's called an I.R.R., Individual Ready Reserve. That means in the time of national emergency or crisis, the president of the United States can call these members back to active duty. So, these marines that have been discharged, you know, after the fall of Iraq, they're living back in their civilian community but they're still fearful to come out and say anything because the Marine Corps can call them back to active duty. And then they're worried about what happened to the staff sergeant. The staff sergeant is being used as a patsy. He's being used as: see, this is what will happen to you to if you speak out. However, I spent 12 years in. There's nothing that they can do to me as far as calling me back to active duty. So, I feel it's my responsibility to let the civilian public know. You know, the boards that we put into those -- the bullets that we put into the civilians were paid for by the U.S. Tax dollar. I believe that the U.S. Taxpayers have a rate to know what's going on over there. When we pulled into that military compound, they had makeshift morgues. They had tractor-trailer beds full of bodies. It was so bad -- this is because of the bombing that we did -- some of them had Iraqi flags on them, representing that they were a soldier, but 80% of them didn't. We would find tractor-trailers literally full of stocked bodies. It was so bad that the plasma from the body and the skin was decomposing and literally oozing out of the crevices of the tractor-trailer bed. We asked -- we asked some of the Iraqis that -- the locals that were basically homeless and they were living in the compound, we asked them, like, what is this? How come, you know, the bodies are in there, and he told us it was from the bombing, and when they lost the power, they didn't have any other place to put them. So, they put them in there to bury them later on.
AMY GOODMAN: Jimmy Massey, I want to thank you very much for being with us, former marine Staff Sergeant, honorably discharged in December after serving 12 years, speaking to us from his home in Waynesville, North Carolina, in the smoky mountains. Any last thoughts?
STAFF SERGEANT JIMMY MASSEY: Yeah. I'd just like to say to the Marines, you did a great job. You did what your country asked you to do. Unfortunately, the rules of engagement and the Geneva Convention weren't used. But it's up to you to look within your heart and do the right thing. You know who you are. Don't be scared. Come out. The American public, they need to know. You're not the only one. There are other people out there that can help you to heal. There are other people out there that can help you to get on with your life. Don't feel ashamed. Don't feel embarrassed. Did you a great job, however, you know, the Command -- they didn't give you the right tools for you to carry on with your mission. Just do the right thing, marines.
AMY GOODMAN: Who do you hold most responsible for this?
STAFF SERGEANT JIMMY MASSEY: The president of the United States. He's the win that authorized it. He's the one that said there were weapons of mass destruction. He's the one that gave the case to us for going to war. We went to war backing him, however, the intelligence reports that we were getting hindered our ability to make Iraq a free democracy. You know, it's hard to tell a middle aged or middle -- you know, young man in his 20's -- say 20 to 28 years old that just watched his brother die by the hands of Americans. It's hard to tell him, you know, what, hey, we're sorry. All right. He's just a casualty of war. Now, this young man has taken revenge or is acting in revenge against the United States in Fallujah, in Karbala. He's picking up that R.P.G. because he's mad. He's mad at the Americans. We were supposed to go in there and set up a democracy. All we did was cause chaos and have a genocidal mindset. So, they're mad. They have every right to be mad. I know if somebody killed my brother, you know, indiscriminately and laughed about it and said, well, sorry, wrong place, wrong time, I would be mad, too.
AMY GOODMAN: Jimmy Massey, thank you for being with us, former Marine staff sergeant, speaking to us from North Carolina.
STAFF SERGEANT JIMMY MASSEY: Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!.
To purchase an audio or video copy of this entire program, click here for our new online ordering or call 1 (800) 881-2359.
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Soldiers Vented Frustration, Doctor Says
Psychiatrist Studied Interviews With Guards Accused of Abusing Iraqi Detainees
By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 24, 2004; Page A18
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50522-2004May23.html
Physical abuses by U.S. military police of Iraqi prison detainees stemmed from a mixture of soldiers' anger and frustration over poor working conditions, their racism and the absence of any meaningful supervision, according to the report of an Air Force psychiatrist who studied the episode for the Army.
The unclassified report, by Col. Henry Nelson, provides the military's principal, internal explanation for why the soldiers participated in the abusive actions. His independent study was based on a review of thousands of pages of interview transcripts and other documents the Pentagon has not released, and it is appended to a report of the Army investigation headed by Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba.
At the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, "the worst human qualities and behaviors came to the fore" in an atmosphere of "danger, promiscuity and negativity" within a closed environment, wrote Nelson, a member of the Army's investigating team. He noted training lapses, as others have, but also said that soldiers' unfamiliarity with Islamic culture, their pervasive sense of danger and the indefinite nature of their tenure were factors that wore them down.
"The sadistic and psychopathic behavior was appalling and shocking," Nelson wrote in the report, which was provided to The Washington Post by a government official. "Abuse with sexual themes occurred and was witnessed, condoned [and] photographed, but never reported."
Much of the language in Nelson's study supports the Army's contention that the abuses were a product of a distorted environment at Abu Ghraib last year, amounting to a wartime version of the malicious conduct by marooned children in the novel "Lord of the Flies." But the report is at odds with recent congressional testimony by top Army and military intelligence officials that the prison abuse involved only low-ranking soldiers and was not known by more senior officers.
On Aug. 23, 2003, Nelson wrote, an intelligence officer "kicked and beat a passive, cuffed detainee who was suspected of mortaring Abu Ghraib." This incident, Nelson wrote, "was witnessed by officers and NCOs [senior enlisted officers] alike."
Military officials have generally described the abuses as a function of "aberrant behavior" and weak leadership within the military police units stationed at the prison, rather than as a result of orders passed down the military chain of command. Nelson's study, according to a brief summary given by Taguba, suggested the abuses were "wanton acts of select soldiers in an unsupervised and dangerous setting."
Some senators have said they suspect, to the contrary, that the abuses stemmed from a Washington-directed policy to encourage particularly aggressive interrogations during this period, involving an unusually close collaboration between military police who were guarding the prisoners and intelligence analysts who wanted to extract information from the detainees.
The collaboration deepened at the urging of an Army general sent from Washington last August to improve the efficiency of the intelligence-gathering process. Before then, the prison was run by the 800th Military Police Brigade; after a policy change formalized on Nov. 19, military police at two key cellblocks containing prisoners that posed a security threat were placed under the direct control of the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade.
Taguba said the collaboration violated Army doctrine, but senior Pentagon officials have challenged this view. Nelson did not address whether it was appropriate but confirmed that military police and intelligence analysts jointly perpetrated some abuses. In addition to the incident in August, he cited an Oct. 28-29 incident in which two military police beat up a prisoner suspected of involvement in a rape, at the specific instruction of "MI soldiers."
Witnesses -- including some of the abused Iraqis -- also told the investigators that "pairs" of interpreters and interrogators were involved in other abuses. Moreover, the military intelligence unit at the prison "seemed to operate in a conspiracy of silence," Nelson wrote, allowing the abuse to escape wider notice.
In highlighting psychological and cultural factors underlying the abuses, Nelson noted that soldiers sent to Iraq were immersed in Islamic culture for the first time and said "there is an association of Muslims with terrorism" that contributed to misperceptions, fear and "a devaluation of a people." He reported that one military police platoon leader was openly hostile to Iraqis, and that a police dog handler was "disrespectful and racist" -- attributing to his dog a dislike of Iraqi "culture, smell, sound, skin tone [and] hair color."
Nelson also described the climate at Abu Ghraib as grim and the living conditions as "deplorable" and dangerous, a circumstance that he said provoked some of the U.S. soldiers' anger and hostility toward their prisoners.
The prison was "lacking most of the amenities at other camps," the Iraqi guards were corrupt, and "all present . . . were truly in personal danger," Nelson said. A weapon was smuggled into the camp, mortars rained on the facility every day, and prisoners sporadically rioted, leading to "numerous injuries for both soldiers and detainees alike."
The prison has "both depressive and anxiety-laden elements that would grind down even the most motivated soldier and lead to anger and possible lack of control," Nelson said. He drew a contrast between the current detention mission and procedures during Operation Desert Storm, the first U.S. invasion of Iraq, in 1991, in which most detainees were held only briefly before being repatriated.
The present war, he said, is "ongoing, with no end in sight." Every day, he said, "the soldiers deal with . . . extraordinary frustrations and hostile detainees who are in total limbo concerning their fate and release." The prison guards and intelligence officers also were under pressure from their U.S. military leaders, he wrote, to "either prevent escape or obtain intelligence rapidly." Some of the abuses were committed by "MP and MI soldiers" as retribution, Nelson said. The soldiers were "especially indifferent and vindictive towards detainees involved in any violence towards coalition forces or who exhibited deviant behavior."
A prisoner who smuggled in the weapon was shot in the legs, and then a military police soldier ripped off his bandages, beat him on his wounds, and hanged him by the arms until they became dislocated, Nelson reported. Police also stripped, tethered together and photographed some Iraqis suspected of raping a young boy in the prison, he wrote.
A vindictive attitude was not the only psychological problem, Nelson wrote. "Clearly some detainees were totally humiliated and degraded" by people who were practicing a "perversive dominance." He said the events were "a classic example" of the formula that "predisposition plus opportunity" can produce criminal behavior.
"Inadequate and immoral men and women desiring dominance may be attracted to fields such as corrections and interrogations, where they can be in absolute control over others" in the absence of appropriate supervision, Nelson wrote. He noted that two men suspected as "ringleaders" in the abuses, Spec. Charles A. Graner Jr. and Staff Sgt. Ivan L. "Chip" Frederick II, "both had experience in corrections."
"They collaborated with other MP soldiers and several unknown MI personnel, to include soldiers as well as their U.S. civilian contract interrogators and interpreters," Nelson wrote.
Frederick and Graner are now awaiting court-martial. Graner's attorney Guy Womack did not return a phone call for comment; he has previously said Graner was only following orders from military intelligence officials. One of Frederick's attorneys, Gary Myers, has said his client acted under the direct supervision of military intelligence officers.
It is important, Nelson wrote, "to remember dominance in and of itself is not improper. In fact, interrogators knowingly dominate their subjects and sometimes intimidate their subjects. But clearly, behavior at Abu Ghraib crossed the line."
Nelson also emphasized that "command factors" set the stage for the abuse and allowed it to persist. He cited, in particular, friction between the police and intelligence commanders, poor training and supervision of the soldiers, and what he characterized as a "lenient" attitude by senior officers in the military police at the prison toward infractions of the rules.
The abuses at the prison, he said, were "common knowledge among the enlisted soldiers," but even some officers knew of them or witnessed them. Those involved took the view that the chain of command would "essentially do nothing" and believed "I can get away with this," Nelson wrote.
"There were several commanders and NCOs [among those studied] who were ineffective leaders," Nelson said. He singled out in particular Brig. Gen. Janis L. Karpinski, who commanded the 800th Military Police Brigade and was responsible for the prison until she was shunted aside by intelligence officers on Nov. 19 at the request of Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the top U.S. military officer in Iraq.
Nelson said Karpinski had difficulty delegating work, dismissed punishments of lesser officers that were recommended by her staff, and was ineffective in resolving problems with personnel, logistics, administration and supplies, of which she was aware. Karpinski "felt herself a victim and she propagated a negativity that permeated throughout" the area of her command responsibility, Nelson wrote.
One of Karpinski's attorneys, Fred Taylor, dismissed the claims in an official rebuttal, stating that Nelson was unqualified to make findings of fact. Taylor also said Army investigators had ignored statements by officers in her brigade "replete with praise and admiration of her clear guidance, firm, fair and common-sense enforcement of standards, [and] her caring for the soldiers."
In his summary, Nelson wrote that "the psychological factors of negativity, anger and hatred combined with a desire to dominate and humiliate within an unsupervised workplace" where no threat of punishment existed.
In his report, completed by early March, Nelson urged that a "competent authority . . . expedite the release of detainees." But it was not until April 23, after a group of Iraqi professors complained to the civilian U.S. administrator of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, that Bremer announced a program to improve the detainees' processing and also to accelerate their release. Nelson also urged the military to have more psychological help available for soldiers in Iraq.
And finally, Nelson said, "we must be ever ready to prevent the recurrence of such inhumane behavior." The way to do that, he said, is to ensure that the guilty "face swift, appropriate justice."
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Soldier claims he was beaten as part of training at Guantanamo
Monday May 24, 2004
(AP)
http://cbs11tv.com/national/Soldier-Guantanamo-aa/resources_news_html
LEXINGTON, Ky. A former military police officer said in a television interview broadcast Monday that he was severely beaten while posing as a detainee during a January 2003 training exercise at Guantanamo Bay.
Sean Baker, a former member of the 438th Military Police Company, said he played the role of a prisoner and was beaten so badly by four U.S. soldiers that he suffered a traumatic brain injury and seizures.
``I don't want this to happen to anyone else, what I'm living with daily,'' Baker told WLEX-TV in Lexington.
Kentucky National Guard Capt. David Page, a guard spokesman, would not comment about Baker's specific claims.
``There was a training accident, after which he was medically discharged,'' Page told The Associated Press.
Page confirmed that Baker was a former member of the 438th Military Police Company, based in Murray, Ky. He said Baker was with the unit when it was stationed at the naval base in Cuba, where the United States is holding detainees from Afghanistan.
Page referred further questions to the U.S. Southern Command in Miami.
Lt. Cmdr. Chris Loundermon at Southern Command confirmed that Baker had a medical discharge from the guard, but had no further comment.
Baker was a member of the Kentucky National Guard from 1989 through 1997 and re-enlisted after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
In the interview, Baker said that as part of the training drill, he was given an orange detainee jumpsuit to wear and turned over to four soldiers. Baker said the soldiers beat and choked him, stopping when they saw he was wearing parts of an Army uniform.
Baker said he has undergone numerous treatments, but still has medical problems.
Attempts by The Associated Press to reach Baker by telephone Monday were not successful.
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Retired General Assails Planning for Iraq War
Zinni Warns Against Staying the Course
By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 24, 2004; Page A19
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50730-2004May23.html
Retired Marine Gen. Anthony C. Zinni, former U.S. commander in the Middle East, charges in a book to be published today that "everybody in the military knew" that the Bush administration's plan for Iraq consisted of only half the troops that were needed, and says that country is now "a powder keg" that could break apart into warring regions.
Zinni has been a critic of the Iraq war since before the invasion and served briefly as a special envoy for President Bush. He wrote that he was moved to speak out by "false rationales presented as a justification; a flawed strategy; lack of planning; the unnecessary alienation of our allies; the underestimation of the task; the unnecessary distraction from real threats; and the unbearable strain dumped on our overstretched military."
"In the lead-up to the Iraq war and its later conduct, I saw, at a minimum, true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility; at worst, lying, incompetence, and corruption," he wrote. " . . . If there is a center that can hold this mess together, I don't know what it is. Civil war could break out at any time. Resources are needed; a strategy is needed; and a plan is needed."
The harsh new critique is being released just as Bush heads to the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle Barracks, Pa., to present his latest strategy for Iraq in a prime-time address at 8 p.m. today. Zinni is hitting the interview circuit at a time when Republican lawmakers have turned sharply pessimistic about the situation in Iraq and the White House continues trying to restore confidence in its handling of the war despite falling poll numbers and continuing revelations about brutality against detainees in Iraq.
The book, "Battle Ready," is by novelist Tom Clancy, with Zinni and Tony Koltz. Zinni was U.S. special envoy to the Middle East for Secretary of State Colin L. Powell from November 2002 to March 2003. In several interviews and statements at the time, Bush mentioned Zinni's presence in the region as one reason for his optimism about the peace process and said he was looking forward to his recommendations. Referring to himself and Vice President Cheney, Bush said during an exchange with reporters in the Oval Office, "We both trust General Zinni."
A passage written by Zinni voiced support for the views of retired Gen. Eric K. Shinseki, the former Army chief of staff, whose estimate that several hundred thousand troops would be needed in postwar Iraq was dismissed by the administration as wildly off the mark. "Recently, the Army chief of staff testified that we would need 300,000 troops to pacify Iraq," Zinni wrote. "Everybody in the military knew he was right. But the party line down from the Pentagon decreed that the number was half that, and he was pilloried."
Zinni, 60, appeared last night on CBS's "60 Minutes" and said that staying the course in Iraq is not feasible. "The course is headed over Niagara Falls," he said. "I think it's time to change course a little bit or at least hold somebody responsible for putting you on this course." He said the current situation is the product of "poor strategic thinking" combined with "poor operational planning and execution on the ground."
Zinni was one of the earliest and most outspoken critics of the war and remains highly regarded in the military. He was commander of the U.S. Central Command from 1997 to 2000. He wrote that when he left, he had a preliminary plan for attacking Iraq. "I'm not sure where it went after I left. As far as I can tell, the plan was pigeonholed," he said.
His successor, Gen. Tommy R. Franks, prosecuted the war past the fall of Baghdad and is now retired. Discussing the Iraq war with The Washington Post in December, Zinni said he believed that "the American people were conned into this."
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US soldier jailed and thrown out of army for Iraq prison abuse
telegraph.co.uk
By Toby Harnden in Baghdad
Monday 24 May 2004
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;$sessionid$TTP5WWJFKPQ0RQFIQMGSFF4AVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2004/05/20/wtort20.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/05/20/ixnewstop.html
The first soldier to be tried for prisoner abuse in Iraq was thrown out of the US army in disgrace yesterday.
Tears, an apology to the Iraqi people and a declaration of American patriotism failed to save Specialist Jeremy Sivits, 24.
He pleaded guilty and was given the maximum sentence of one year's confinement and discharged from the military with a bad conduct notation despite his request for leniency.
He is now due to testify against other soldiers more deeply implicated in the scandal, which has rocked the Bush administration and threatens to undermine the already faltering attempts to bring stability to Iraq.
Turning to the Stars and Stripes beside the military judge's podium in a makeshift court martial room in a conference centre once used by Saddam Hussein, Sivits, married with two children, begged to be allowed to remain in uniform.
"I've let everybody down," he said, his voice breaking with emotion. "I love the army. I love that flag. That's all I have ever wanted to be, an American soldier. Sir, I'm truly sorry for what I've done." Two female officers observing wept silently.
But Sivits's account of the "hell" of Abu Ghraib prison - "like out of a horror movie" - where mortars rained down and he helped to carry a badly wounded comrade to medics, could not erase his earlier evidence about the treatment of Iraqi detainees.
He admitted that he had watched, photographed and failed to prevent serious abuse one night in November last year. The single picture he took of a human pyramid of detainees was itself abuse, he said, because "they could hear the click of the camera and probably see the flash" through their hoods.
His first tears came as he told how he had seen Staff Sgt Ivan Frederick, who had earlier been arraigned on more serious charges, punch a prisoner in the chest. "The detainee went down and Staff Sgt Frederick said, 'I might have put him in cardiac arrest'." Minutes later, he saw Cpl Charles Graner punch a prisoner in the temple, almost knocking him out.
Sivits said Graner, also arraigned on more serious charges, cried out: "Damn, that hurt." The junior soldier said: "I guess he hit him so hard it hurt his wrist." The same prisoner, supposedly suspected of rape, had the misspelt word "rapest" painted on his leg by a woman soldier.
The trial took place amid tight security. Sniffer dogs checked the courtroom and everyone watching was searched four times.
The prosecutors and defence lawyer, all serving US army officers, wore pistols strapped to their chests and five guards with M16 rifles patrolled the courtroom.
Private Lynndie England, pregnant by Graner and also awaiting a court martial, was portrayed as a central figure in the abuse. Sivits said she "stomped" on the toes of prisoners, "commenting on the sizes of their penises" as she posed for lewd pictures.
The details of how the prisoners had been arranged in pyramids came so fast that they flummoxed Col James Pohl, the military judge presiding over the trial. "I'm getting confused by the piles here," he said at one point. Sivits said that when he saw inmates being made to masturbate he was disgusted. "Honest to God, I'd had enough and I left."
At this point Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer, who took over as president of the Iraq's Governing Council when his predecessor was blown up on Monday, also decided that he could stand no more and left abruptly.
Sivits said other soldiers claimed they were being directed from above to abuse prisoners. "They said they were told by military intelligence ... to keep doing what they were doing to the inmates because it was working, they were talking." But when Col Pohl asked Sivits if he believed this was the case he replied that he did not.
Captain John McCabe, prosecuting, said it was essential that Sivits be punished harshly. "We must send a message to other soldiers, to our nation, to the Iraqi people. The accused violated American values, human values," he said.
--------
Base Closure Plans Divide Congress
foxnews
By Peter Brownfeld
Monday, May 24, 2004
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,120713,00.html
WASHINGTON - A political storm without a partisan tone is rare on Capitol Hill, but that's exactly what's shaping up in the fight over military base closings.
Ignoring a veto threat from President Bush, the House voted last Thursday to delay scheduled 2005 base closings round until 2007, while the Senate favors keeping the original timetable. Democrats and Republicans are lining up on both sides of the issue.
At a time of asymmetric and emerging threats as well as calls for the military to expand, eliminating military bases would be a grave error, say House lawmakers who favor the delay. They say they want to know how the military plans to operate in the future.
"Our military will have to do the same or more in the future on a smaller footprint, with a smaller industrial base and with fewer critical assets," warned Rep. Jeb Bradley, R-N.H., who supported the delay during the House debate.
But the Pentagon, the Senate and other House lawmakers say that delaying the base re-alignment and closure (search) (BRAC) schedule would hurt the War on Terror because it would set up a roadblock to plans to transform the military and save money as a result of running a leaner and meaner organization.
"Maintaining excess bases is very expensive. Closing unneeded bases produces long-term savings. It is a key component in the military transformation, and it reshapes the military to respond to new global missions," said Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz.
The House passed the fiscal year 2005 defense authorization bill last Thursday with the delay in place until 2007. The Senate has indicated it would reject such a delay, but will not vote on the bill until after the Memorial Day recess.
Since 1988, the Department of Defense (search) has closed 97 major installations and realigned missions at 55 others. Prior BRAC actions have resulted in a savings of $7 billion a year, Raymond F. Dubois, deputy under secretary of defense for installations and environment, testified to Congress last year.
The bases to be closed have not been determined yet. Next May, the secretary of defense will submit base closure recommendations to the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission, which will review and possibly amend the secretary's recommendations before presenting a final list to the president by September 2005. If the president approves it, Congress will receive it by Sept. 23, 2005, with 45 days to disapprove the list. Otherwise, the Department of Defense begins base closings. The bases under consideration will not be made public until the Pentagon forwards its recommendations to the commission.
The Pentagon said that BRAC (search) must move forward to continue defense transformation, and base closures will actually aid the fight on terror, not detract from it.
"With everything else going on, it still does not mean we do not have excess capacity. If we can eliminate that, we will be able to save money as we did with the first four [rounds of] base closures," Pentagon spokesman Glenn Flood told Foxnews.com. Flood said that the funds from closing these bases can be better used for improving quality of life for personnel, purchasing new equipment and other upgrades.
A March 2004 Pentagon report emphasized this assertion.
"Recent world events have not altered the need to transform the military infrastructure to meet future needs. In fact, these recent events have exacerbated the need to rapidly accomplish transformation and reshaping," reads the report, which estimates that the military's infrastructure is 24 percent larger than is needed.
The Pentagon acknowledges that base closures will be expensive in the short run, but officials say the cost is worth it because of the long-term savings. But with America in the midst of a War on Terror, some lawmakers say they are not so sure.
Bradley said that BRAC's estimated closing costs are $15 billion and these funds could be better used for immediate needs like armored Humvees. If the bases are closed right away, he said, the expected savings won't be realized until 2011.
A May 17 General Accounting Office (search) report found that the savings won't be achieved right away nor can their size be predicted. "While the potential exists for substantial savings from the upcoming round, it is difficult to conclusively project the expected magnitude of the savings because there are too many unknowns at this time."
Some lawmakers are also concerned that with military needs changing so rapidly, a major basing realignment may be a mistake.
"We think that having a BRAC in 2005 while we're at war and while a lot of basing strategies are incomplete" might be unwise, said Cathy Travis, spokeswoman for Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Texas. "Because the threat is evolving, Congress needs to know more about the infrastructure needs before beginning a BRAC."
But other lawmakers drew the opposite conclusion, and backed the Pentagon line that with a war on, it is important to keep BRAC on schedule.
"Delaying the transformation of our bases overseas and at home ties the hands of our military at the same time as we are fighting the War on Terror," said Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz.
On May 17, the Senate narrowly rejected, by 49 to 47, an effort to require the 2005 base realignment and closings to apply only to overseas bases, with any new domestic base closings being delayed until 2007. The strange bedfellows who sponsored the delay were Republicans Trent Lott of Mississippi and Olympia Snowe of Maine and Democrats Byron Dorgan of North Dakota and Dianne Feinstein of California.
The fight to delay base closings has also uncapped anger by some lawmakers who have long felt that the Pentagon fails to report often enough to Congress. Several senators and representatives were enraged after being surprised by the Abu Ghraib prison abuse photos, and they had harsh words for the Pentagon for failing to provide enough information on the BRAC process.
Some lawmakers said that conceding to the Pentagon's desire for BRAC to move forward without compelling the Defense Department to provide more information would be allowing their oversight powers to be usurped.
"Congress needs to know more about the infrastructure needs before beginning a BRAC," Travis said. "Congress is not just your hall monitor. We're in charge of this."
Sarah Shelden, spokeswoman for Joel Hefley, R-Colo., said her boss has a lot of questions and he has not received enough answers. She said it is better to slow down the process and get it right because "once you close these bases, generally you don't get them back."
The House and Senate could go to conference committee on the defense authorization bill in June, with a lively debate on the future of the bases to be expected.
-------- POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE
-------- homeland security
U.S. Nearing Deal on Way to Track Foreign Visitors
May 24, 2004
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and JOHN MARKOFF
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/24/politics/24VISI.html?hp=&pagewanted=all&position=
WASHINGTON, May 22 - The Department of Homeland Security is on the verge of awarding the biggest contract in its young history for an elaborate system that could cost as much as $15 billion and employ a network of databases to track visitors to the United States long before they arrive.
The contract, which will probably be awarded in coming days to one of three final bidders, is already generating considerable interest as federal officials try to improve significantly their ability to monitor those who enter at more than 300 border-crossing checkpoints by land, sea and air, where they are going and whether they pose a terrorist threat.
But with that interest have come questions - both logistical and philosophical - from Congressional investigators and outside experts. Will a company based outside the United States, in Bermuda, get the megacontract? How much will it end up costing? What about the privacy concerns of foreign visitors? And most critical, for all the high-end concepts and higher expectations, can the system really work?
Interviews with government officials, experts and the three companies vying for the contract - Accenture, Computer Sciences and Lockheed Martin - reveal new details and potential complications about a project that all agree is daunting in its complexity, cost and national security importance. The program, known as US-Visit and rooted partly in a Pentagon concept developed after the terrorist attacks of 2001, seeks to supplant the nation's physical borders with what officials call virtual borders. Such borders employ networks of computer databases and biometric sensors for identification at sites abroad where people seek visas to the United States.
With a virtual border in place, the actual border guard will become the last point of defense, rather than the first, because each visitor will have already been screened using a global web of databases.
Visitors arriving at checkpoints, including those at the Mexican and Canadian borders, will face "real-time identification" - instantaneous authentication to confirm that they are who they say they are. American officials will, at least in theory, be able to track them inside the United States and determine if they leave the country on time.
Officials say they will be able, for instance, to determine whether a visitor who overstays a visa has come in contact with the police, but privacy advocates say they worry that the new system could give the federal government far broader power to monitor the whereabouts of visitors by tapping into credit card information or similar databases. The system would tie together about 20 federal databases with information on the more than 300 million foreign visitors each year.
The bidders agree that the Department of Homeland Security has given them unusually wide latitude in determining the best strategy for securing American borders without unduly encumbering tourism and commerce.
Whoever wins the contract will be asked to develop a standard for identifying visitors using a variety of possible tools - from photographs and fingerprints, already used at some airports on a limited basis since January, to techniques like iris scanning, facial recognition and radio-frequency chips for reading passports or identifying vehicles.
"Each of these technologies have strengths and weaknesses," Paul Cofoni, president of Computer Sciences' federal sector, said of the biometric alternatives. "I don't know that any one will be used exclusively."
Virtual borders is a high-concept plan, building on ideas that have been tried since the terrorist attacks of 2001.
But homeland security officials say making the system work on a practical level is integral to protecting the United States from terrorist attacks in the decades to come. "This is hugely important for the security of our country and for the wise use of our limited resources," Asa Hutchinson, under secretary for border security, said in an interview. "We're talking here about a comprehensive approach to border security."
But the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, concluded in a report in September that "the program is a very risky endeavor," given its enormous scope and complexity. "The missed entry of one person who poses a threat to the United States could have severe consequences," the report said.
An update issued by the accounting office earlier this month found that while homeland security officials had made some headway in meeting investigators' concerns about management and oversight problems, the progress "has been slow." The update said major questions remained about the project's cost and viability. "I don't think there's any less concern today," Randolph Hite, who wrote the reports, said in an interview.
"This program is going to get more and more complex as time goes on, and you can't count on human heroes bailing you out to ensure that the system works," Mr. Hite said. With the program to be phased in over a decade, he said, "the question you have to ask is: What value are we getting for these initial increments, and is it worth it?"
Indeed, the costs are enormous, and Congressional investigators said they did not believe officials had a clear handle on the financing. The bid request set a maximum of $10 billion, but the accounting office found that some of the cost estimates were outdated and the final price tag - when financing from agencies like the State Department is considered - could reach $15 billion by 2014.
The idea of virtual borders originated in 2002 with a group of researchers at the National Defense University's Center for Technology and National Security Policy. The group, led by Hans Binnendijk, the center's director, was trying to find new ways to secure the nation's shipping containers.
"We got interested in this soon after 9/11 as a fairly obvious problem," he said.
The group wrote an article discussing the need to inspect cargo long before it arrived in United States harbors. They then briefed a range of government agencies.
The virtual border is similar to the idea of an air traffic control center, officials note. In this case, the system would allow homeland security officials to monitor travel on a national level, shifting resources and responding as necessary.
The air traffic control analogy is significant in part because Computer Sciences and Lockheed Martin have traditionally been the nation's two largest contractors for the Federal Aviation Agency in the development and maintenance of the nation's air traffic control system.
The air traffic control parallel worries some executives. More than $500 million and 15 years were squandered on the effort to modernize the nation's aging air traffic system beginning in the late 1980's and a prime contractor was I.B.M.'s Federal Systems Division, now part of Lockheed Martin.
Another problem the system faces is the potential inability to get access to all needed data from foreign countries and from the United States' own intelligence community. Experts agree that no matter how good the technology, the system will rely on timely and accurate information about the histories and profiles of those entering the country to detect possible terrorists. It will have no direct impact on illegal immigrants.
The system will lead to a broad interconnection of federal databases, ranging from intelligence to law enforcement as well as routine commercial data.
Officials say they will work to ensure that the privacy of foreigners is protected and that the system will not be used to profile travelers, but civil libertarians say they are nonetheless alarmed that databases could be used to monitor both foreign visitors and American citizens, and they have already challenged it in court.
Yet another issue irking some lawmakers is the fact that Accenture is incorporated in Bermuda.
"I don't want to see the Department of Homeland Security outsourcing its business to a Bermudan company," said Representative Lloyd Doggett, a Texas Democrat who has pushed to close a loophole allowing foreign bidders on federal contracts.
Federal officials say they are satisfied that Accenture, which has about 25,000 employees in the United States and less than a dozen in Bermuda, meets the definition of a United States company and is eligible for the contract.
Accenture, for its part, sees the issue as irrelevant.
Jim McAvoy, an Accenture spokesman, said, "The real question is: Should the federal government be forced to select an inferior bid because the bidder is incorporated in the U.S.?"
-------- terrorism / trafficking
Case Reveals Nuts and Bolts of Nuclear Network, Officials Say
By Josh Meyer
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
May 24, 2004
http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news1/latimes161.htm
ROCKVILLE, Md. - As they race to dismantle a global black market in nuclear weapons components, U.S. authorities are focusing on an unusual case: an Orthodox Jew from Israel accused of trying to sell nuclear weapons parts to a business associate in Islamic Pakistan.
Asher Karni, 50, currently a resident of South Africa, was arrested at Denver's international airport as he arrived with his wife and daughter for a New Year's ski vacation. Friends and family have been pressing for his release, describing him as a hard-working electronics salesman just trying to earn a living.
However, federal authorities contend that Karni is something more: a veteran player in an underground network of traffickers in parts, technology and know-how for the clandestine nuclear weapons programs of foreign governments.
The Karni case offers a rare glimpse into what authorities say is an international bazaar teeming with entrepreneurs, transporters, scientists, manufacturers, government agents, organized-crime syndicates and, perhaps, terrorists.
Authorities say the case also provides a classic illustration of how illicit nuclear traffickers operate - readily skirting export bans, disguising the real use for products, using middlemen to buy from legitimate manufacturers and routing shipments through several countries.
Such traffickers have flourished amid little effective response by the United States, its allies or the U.N. watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, despite repeated warnings, authorities say.
"There are Iranian networks, Chinese networks, Middle East networks, sophisticated networks buying technology and parts all over the world," said a senior official at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, who cited sensitive investigations in demanding anonymity. "They're operating in the United States every day. Some of them are family businesses, where fathers pass it on to their sons."
One such network came to light several months ago when top Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan admitted selling nuclear weapons programs to Iran, Libya and North Korea for tens of millions of dollars.
Authorities have kept Karni in custody since his arrest, arguing that he is a flight risk and a threat to national security. He has been charged with violating the federal Export Control Act and other laws aimed at curbing nuclear proliferation. Ensconced in the county jail in a Washington suburb, he faces a maximum sentence of 10 years.
Karni is accused of orchestrating a deal to send as many as 200 electrical components that can be used for medical or nuclear weapons purposes to a Pakistani businessman named Humayun Khan.
Karni and Humayun Khan have denied knowingly breaking any U.S. laws, and both say they have no ties to Abdul Qadeer Khan or his network.
Some U.S. officials believe the ultimate destination of the electrical components would have been the Pakistani government, which is also suspected of complicity in Abdul Qadeer Khan's network. Federal agents plan to go to Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, as part of their probe.
The components, called triggered spark gaps, are sophisticated electrical switches that have nonmilitary uses, including breaking up kidney stones. But because they emit intense and rapid-fire electrical charges, they are also ideal as nuclear detonators, prompting the U.S. government to restrict their export.
In court documents filed in Karni's case in Washington, authorities say Humayun Khan, in Islamabad, placed an order with Karni for 200 of the switches last summer, at $447 apiece, and that Khan has links to Pakistan's military and a militant Islamic political group.
"The charges are extraordinarily serious. The allegations couldn't be more grave," said Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), chairman of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security.
"This is another piece in the global puzzle of suppliers and buyers, middlemen and [front companies] all over the planet," said Cox, who said he was not commenting on Karni's innocence or guilt. "The problem was hardly created on Sept. 11. But the stark reality of it and the unspeakable consequences of it have now gripped policymakers."
Pakistani officials insisted in interviews with The Times that the government was not involved in any effort to buy U.S. products prohibited for export to their country, a ban prompted in part by Pakistan's nuclear weapons program.
1975 Deal With Ex-Nazi
But The Times has confirmed that Humayun Khan's family import-export business, Pakland Corp., was a purchasing agent for that nuclear program as far back as 1975. At the time, Pakland was negotiating at least one deal for suspected nuclear weapons material with Alfred Hempel, a German industrialist, former Nazi and central figure in the then already-burgeoning global nuclear bazaar.
Hempel, who died in 1989, did as much to spread nuclear weapons in his day as did Abdul Qadeer Khan, perhaps more, said Gary Milhollin, founder of the Washington-based Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control. During the 1970s and '80s, Hempel used cargo planes, bribes and a secret network of operatives to supply countries in South Asia, Africa, South America and the Middle East with nuclear weapons materials. Like Abdul Qadeer Khan, he made millions and, despite years of scrutiny by nuclear proliferation watchdogs, escaped any serious consequences.
The Homeland Security Department official said investigators planned to aggressively pursue any connections between the Karni case and what may remain of Hempel's network. Humayun Khan, the official said, appears to have been involved in illegal deals going back at least several years.
Channing Phillips, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Washington, said he could not comment because the investigation was in its preliminary stages. "There are still a lot of unanswered questions," he said. "We're trying to follow the trail, if you will."
Karni and his lawyers have declined to comment on the case. But authorities say he has already provided them with a rare window into the nuclear underworld, without even knowing it.
Over the years, Karni has built up a global list of intermediaries and clients as a salesman of sophisticated military and aviation electronics equipment, most recently through his company, Top-Cape Technology in Cape Town, South Africa.
In a stroke of good fortune, federal agents were able to get an inside view of one of those business deals. Authorities launched their investigation in July, after an anonymous South African tipster said Karni had been using front companies, straw buyers and misleading shipping documents to sell restricted U.S. products to Pakistan and India. The tipster said Karni was in the process of buying as many as 400 of the switches for Humayun Khan.
Updates From Tipster
Agents with the U.S. departments of Commerce and Homeland Security monitored the deal with updates from the tipster, including Karni's e-mail correspondence and shipping information for the switches.
Karni first tried to buy the switches directly from Perkin- Elmer Optoelectronics of Salem, Mass., according to an affidavit filed by Special Agent James R. Brigham of the Commerce Department's Office of Export Enforcement.
The affidavit and other court documents lay out the alleged criminal conspiracy to evade U.S. export control laws, including e-mails between Karni and Khan.
A PerkinElmer official told Karni he needed to submit required U.S. certificates detailing what the switches would be used for, and promising not to send them to blacklisted countries such as Pakistan or use them in nuclear-related applications. Karni told Khan he wouldn't submit such paperwork.
"Dear Asher, I know it is difficult but thats [sic] why we came to know each other," Khan replied. "Please help to re-negotiate this from any other source, we can give you an end user information as it is genuinely medical requirement."
Karni then contacted Zeki Bilmen, head of Giza Technologies of Secaucus, N.J. On Aug. 6, Giza ordered 200 of the switches from PerkinElmer for $89,400, submitting certificates saying they would be used in a Soweto, South Africa, hospital.
Authorities contacted Per- kin-Elmer officials, who told them a typical hospital order was for five or six switches. In response, the U.S. agents asked them to discreetly disable the first batch of 66 switches and send them on.
The original tipster told authorities that Karni might list a lithography company at Khan's address as the end user, not Khan's firm, Pakland PME, and later provided Federal Express tracking numbers showing a circuitous route through Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.
Traffickers frequently ship restricted U.S. items to Dubai, Malta and other unrestricted trade zones worldwide and then re-export them to third countries to hide the origin or destination and avoid laws aimed at curbing nuclear proliferation, authorities say.
Karni did just as the tipster predicted, and agents tracked the package at every step.
Giza, which had certified to PerkinElmer that the switches were for hospital use, sent them to Karni's Cape Town office by declaring them "electrical splices and couplings for switchings," which don't require an export license, Brigham's affidavit says. Providing such false or misleading information is a violation of federal law, he noted.
Karni then labeled them electrical parts and sent them to Dubai and on to Islamabad, where, in late October, someone identifying himself as an employee of the AJKMC Lithography Aid Society signed for the spark gaps.
Authorities suspect the letters stand for All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference, a political party that controls the Pakistani-ruled part of the disputed Kashmir region and allegedly has terrorist affiliations.
On Dec. 11, South African police raided Karni's offices at U.S. authorities' request. Karni admitted sending the spark gaps, court papers say. Less than a month later, in one of the many mysteries of the case, he came to the U.S., where he was arrested.
Bilmen, of Giza Technologies, has not been charged. His lawyer, Robert C. Herbst, said Giza employees "were a victim of Asher Karni as much as anyone else was."
In court records, authorities said Karni often sent air freight to Pakistan and that he either completed or discussed other suspicious deals. In one, Karni bought for Khan a type of sophisticated oscilloscope often used in nuclear weapons and military programs, also through Giza. In another, he exchanged e-mail with a man identified as an Indian contact trying to buy several kinds of high-tech material for two Indian rocket factories.
Soon after his arrest, Karni and his case were transferred to Washington. He was eventually moved from federal custody to the county jail.
"This case represents one of the most serious types of export violations imaginable," one prosecutor argued in a court filing. "Karni has exported goods that are capable of detonating nuclear weapons to a person he knows has ties to the Pakistani military.
"Although Pakistan's current leadership has vowed to curb the spread of this technology, that region of the world remains volatile, and Islamic militants in the area have made no secret of their desire to obtain nuclear weapons," the filing says. "The threat that Karni's conduct posed was real."
Karni insists that he didn't know the spark gaps could be used as detonators in nuclear weapons, according to Rabbi Herzel Kranz of the Hebrew Sheltering Home in Silver Spring, Md., who says he keeps in frequent contact with Karni. A federal judge has approved bail for Karni if he were to stay at the home and wear an electronic monitoring bracelet, but authorities have kept him in custody on alleged immigration violations.
In an interview, Kranz said a friend told him about Karni's "distressed situation." He said he went to his aid believing he was innocent, perhaps an unwitting victim of some kind of conspiracy.
"Why would a religious Jew send nuclear weapons parts to a country that hates Israel as much as Pakistan?" Kranz asked. "He has no idea what he's gotten himself into. But he's really grabbed a tiger by the tail here."
Kranz said everything about Karni seemed to contradict the profile of a black-market trafficker: Karni was born in Hungary but grew up in Israel, where he was orphaned at a young age, Kranz said. He displayed prowess in the Talmud, or Hebrew scholarship. He spent 15 years in the Israeli army, becoming a major while obtaining a bachelor's degree in chemistry and an MBA.
Karni moved his young family to South Africa in behalf of an Orthodox Jewish organization and decided to stay.
Destination of Material
Privately, senior U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the case said a critical question is where the spark gaps were headed, particularly because Humayun Khan - Karni's alleged collaborator - apparently is a supplier to the Pakistani military.
In e-mail exchanges, Humayun Khan had no comment on a February 1975 letter obtained by The Times, in which a man named M. Akram Khan of Pakland Corp. in Karachi tells Switzerland-based firm Adero Chemie that it must act quickly to beat out a competing Australian firm for a large shipment of material used to run nuclear reactors that make plutonium.
But he confirmed that M. Akram Khan was his late father and that he spent 11 years working with him at the family business, Pakland Corp., before starting Pakland PME in 1994.
Khan didn't respond to questions about his father's apparent role as a purchasing agent for the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission or whether he took over any of those business relationships upon his father's death.
But he insisted that he had done nothing wrong, and said someone else used his e-mail address to send incriminating e-mails to Karni. He added, "The obvious is not what it seems."
Milhollin, who provided the letter to The Times, first exposed Hempel's activities more than 15 years ago, sounding repeated alarms before congressional committees.
Milhollin, whose organization maintains a database that tracks suspected nuclear proliferators, which is used by dozens of governments, warned in 1989 that U.S. officials needed to stop the nuclear black market before it was too late.
"Otherwise, the strategic map of the world is being redrawn without anyone really understanding the consequences," Milhollin wrote. "That these sales are still happening - after a decade of U.S. efforts to stop them - shows how U.S. diplomacy has failed."
Fifteen years later, it appears little has changed. A senior Energy Department official said the latest intelligence showed that nuclear black market activity had continued to flourish.
"Demand hasn't diminished. In fact, it's increased," the official said. "Where there's demand, there are people willing and able to supply it."
-------- POLITICS
Pentagon's postwar fiasco coming full-circle?
csmonitor
By David L. Phillips
May 24, 2004
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0524/p09s02-coop.html
NEW YORK - Pentagon mismanagement, which takes the form of abuses in Abu Ghraib and confusion in dealing with Ahmed Chalabi's aspiration to political power in Iraq, is part of a disturbing pattern.
Pentagon officials shelved existing postwar plans for the reconstruction of Iraq - yet had no plan of their own. They ignored the advice of Iraqis, except Mr. Chalabi. Critical information was obscured or withheld from Congress. As a result, national interests have been ill-served, and the promise of democracy in Iraq has been betrayed.
The Future of Iraq project was set up more than a year before the war and was led by the State Department. The project also involved 16 other federal agencies and hundreds of Iraqis,and cost $5 million. I was the architect and facilitator of the project's democratic principles working group, which Iraqis called "the mother of all working groups." It was charged with developing a strategy for the political transition after Saddam Hussein was removed from power.
I know that the Future of Iraq project was no silver bullet for all of Iraq's problems. Yet the Pentagon's outright dismissal - and even undermining - of the project was one of its critical mistakes.
Pentagon officials thought the endeavor was too academic and ignored its recommendations simply because it was an initiative of the State Department. As part of a bureaucratic turf battle, Pentagon civilians treated State Department colleagues with disdain and disrespect. Civilians in the Office of Secretary of Defense were scornful of diplomacy itself, which is inherently about dialogue and compromise.
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his inner circle thought they could liberate a nation without even talking with those they were liberating. The Pentagon never had a policy or a program. All it had was a person - Ahmed Chalabi, who agreed with the Pentagon vision of making Iraq a laboratory for democratic development and using it as a launch point for reshaping the broader Middle East.
The State Department had a fundamentally different approach. It engaged Iraqis representing the country's different ethnic and religious groups. It was clear from the beginning of our work, however, that empowering other Iraqis was antithetical to the Pentagon's goal of pushing Chalabi into power.
At a meeting I attended with European diplomats to discuss reconstruction, a Rumsfeld protégé asserted that "Ahmed Chalabi is like the prophet Muhammad. At first, people doubted him but they came to realize the wisdom of his ways."
When a proxy of Chalabi's was wavering on whether to join our working group, he told me that officials in the Office of the Vice President had persuaded him to participate, with assurances that his views would prevail if he participated.
For sure, the Bush administration's decision to purge the Baath party and disband the Army was ideologically driven. In practical terms, the administration also wanted to eliminate centers of political gravity that might impede Chalabi's rise to power.
From the beginning, Pentagon officials and staff from the Office of the Vice President kept close watch on the democratic principles working group. As observers present at every meeting, they were all over the process. But independent-minded Iraqis had their own views about the transition. When representatives of Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress tried to persuade the group to endorse creation of a government in exile, presumably to be led by Chalabi, other Iraqis would have none of it.
Though the working group was ultimately unable to reach consensus on a transition a few months prior to the start of military action, US plans went ahead for a large conference of free Iraqis in December 2002. When Chalabi was pushed to the sidelines of the meeting, Pentagon officials lost confidence in the ability of Iraqis to manage their own affairs and discouraged an Iraqi-led process that would culminate in a basic law and an elected Iraqi assembly.
The irony is not lost on anyone that the Bush administration's current approach mirrors previous plans developed by the Future of Iraq project. Denied self-rule, Iraqis became disaffected with the presence of US occupation. The failure to hand over power to Iraqis is at the root of resentment and rebellion.
Many of today's tensions surfaced in the Future of Iraq project during the run-up to war. However, the administration did not want difficulties to come to light lest they discourage support for the war on Capitol Hill. The Pentagon established the secretive Office of Special Plans. The project's director, a State Department official, was excluded from attending meetings of the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance.
Dissembling and obfuscation defined the Pentagon's approach all along. Gen. Eric Shinseki was rebuked for suggesting that 200,000 troops would be needed to stabilize Iraq. Pentagon officials refused to provide an estimate of the costs of the Iraq war until September 2003, when congressional hearings were held to consider the administration's $87 billion request. Revelation of abuses at Abu Ghraib were suppressed. In addition, the Pentagon demonstrated an alarming unwillingness to admit mistakes and make course corrections.
One senior career military officer tells me that in the halls of the Pentagon his colleagues are grumbling that one of Rummy's new rules is "Never let the facts interfere with reality."
As a result of the Pentagon's mismanagement, hundreds of American soldiers and thousands of Iraqis have died needlessly. In Iraq, the well has been poisoned and a hard job made even harder. The fight against terrorism and the cause of global democracy are also casualties of war.
The administration plan has come full circle - after a year of failed occupation, the administration is finally focused on giving power to Iraqis and establishing self-rule. It's a year behind schedule, but not too late to salvage democracy in Iraq.
• David Phillips is a senior fellow and deputy director of the Center for Preventive Action at the Council on Foreign Relations. He resigned as senior adviser from the US Department of State last September.
-------- campaign finance
Wall Street Firms Funnel Millions to Bush
Finance Sector Produces Surge of Cash to President Who Cut Taxes on Dividends, Gains
By Thomas B. Edsall and Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, May 24, 2004; Page A04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A50364-2004May23?language=printer
At Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc., a suggestion from chief executive E. Stanley O'Neal is not to be taken lightly.
O'Neal eliminated 24,000 jobs, froze pay and steadily pushed out competitors for executive power, including colleagues who had championed his rise up the corporate ladder. "Ruthless," O'Neal has reportedly told colleagues, "isn't always bad."
So it came as no surprise that when O'Neal sent letters to senior executives at Merrill Lynch in early June asking them to contribute to President Bush's reelection campaign, the response was prompt and generous.
Between June 12 and June 30 of last year, the Bush-Cheney campaign was inundated with 157 checks from Merrill Lynch executives and at least 20 from their spouses; 140 checks were for the maximum allowed by law: $2,000.
Total take generated by the O'Neal letter: $279,750 in less than three weeks. When that total is combined with the rest of the money contributed to Bush by employees during the current election cycle, Merrill Lynch personnel have given $459,050, according to Dwight Morris & Associates, which studies political money.
The money flowing from Merrill Lynch employees is part of a $12.14 million tidal wave of cash to the Bush campaign from the finance and insurance sectors.
Wall Street has stepped up to the plate in support of Bush, and Bush has sponsored legislation producing billions of dollars in revenue on Wall Street.
Capital gains and dividend tax cuts have encouraged substantial asset shifting by investors -- transactions producing commissions for securities firms. In addition, in 2001, Bush secured a gradual repeal of the estate tax, allowing the accumulation of investment wealth without fear of large tax liability for heirs.
The 10-year revenue loss from the elimination of the estate tax will be $133.2 billion, according to Congress's Joint Committee on Taxation. The revenue losses from the dividend and capital gains cuts will be $125.3 billion through 2010, according to the committee.
In addition, the administration has proposed creation of tax-free "Lifetime Savings Accounts" that, if approved, would result in a major shift from savings accounts to investment accounts managed by Wall Street companies.
O'Neal is one of nine Wall Street "Rangers" -- each one has raised at least $200,000 for the Bush campaign. In addition, five other executives of prominent securities firms have raised at least $100,000 each to qualify as Bush "Pioneers."
The O'Neal-generated cash is a record for such a short time period, according to Morris and other campaign finance experts.
O'Neal's success, however, represents only a small fraction of an unprecedented drive by top Wall Street firms in support of the president.
When employers of contributors to the Bush campaign are ranked, seven out of the top 10 are major securities firms. Employees of Morgan Stanley & Co. Inc. have contributed the most of any single company to Bush: $505,675.
Asked why so many of the top 10 employers of contributors are Wall Street securities firms, Scott Stanzel, spokesman for the Bush-Cheney '04 Campaign, said, "We are proud that we have over 1 million donors to the Bush-Cheney campaign representing every county in every state in this nation."
Altogether, personnel at these seven top 10 firms have given Bush $2.33 million, or a fifth of the $12.14 million from employees of the finance and insurance sector that has flowed to Bush this election cycle.
By comparison, the presumptive Democratic nominee, Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), has raised $472,564 from employees of the same seven firms, and the entire finance and insurance sector has given Kerry $2.7 million.
Many of the Wall Street Rangers and Pioneers are, like O'Neal, chairmen and CEOs -- top executives who rarely engage in the mundane work of political fundraising.
This year, the Wall Street Rangers include Philip J. Purcell, CEO of Morgan Stanley; Joseph J. Grano Jr., chairman of UBS Financial Services Inc.; Henry M. Paulson Jr., chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs & Co.; and John J. Mack, CEO of Credit Suisse First Boston Corp.
None of them tried to become a Pioneer for the Bush campaign in 2000.
Spokesmen for the firms that replied to inquiries about the contribution patterns denied that the money was related to Bush tax policies. Mark Herr, of Merrill Lynch, said, "The simple facts are these: Mr. O'Neal wrote a letter to executives and asked them if they wanted to contribute to the president. He also made it clear that no one was obliged to do so." In a prepared statement, UBS Financial Services said employee contributions "reflect personal decisions by UBS employees with their own funds and are not from UBS as a corporate entity."
For the securities industry, a lot has changed since 2000, and the changes wrought by the Bush administration have produced large new profits. Those profits stand to soar higher if Bush is reelected.
Three successive tax cuts proposed by Bush and passed by Congress were specifically designed to lower taxation on savings and investment. The tax rate on most corporate dividends fell from 38.6 percent to 15 percent. Most capital gains on investment are now taxed at 15 percent rather than 20 percent.
Such measures were explicitly designed to encourage investment, thus channeling billions of dollars through Wall Street investment banks.
The liberal Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy said last week that those tax cuts -- coupled with other tax advantages -- have lowered the average federal tax rate on investment income to 9.6 percent.
In contrast, federal tax rates on wages -- including Social Security and Medicare taxes -- average 23.4 percent. The Social Security payroll tax falls most heavily on wage earners making $87,900 or less because income above that level is exempt.
The most dramatic Bush tax proposal has yet to be enacted.
The administration has proposed the creation of "Lifetime Savings Accounts," to which any individual could contribute as much as $7,500 a year. The capital gains, dividends and interest earned in the accounts would be free of taxation, and the money could be withdrawn at any time for any reason.
The proposed savings accounts contrast sharply with existing tax-free accounts, which are often restricted to lower- and middle-income savers, have much lower annual contribution limits and can be accessed only for certain expenditures, such as retirement, education and health care.
Under the proposal, a family of four could shield earnings of as much as $30,000 a year from taxation. That would, in effect, eliminate capital gains, dividend and interest taxation for most families. The median pre-tax income for a family of four is $63,278, and only very high-income families could afford to put as much as $30,000 annually into a tax-free savings account.
In a major boon for Wall Street, the new accounts would make traditional bank accounts all but obsolete. The Securities Industry Association (SIA) firmly backs the proposal.
"Lifetime Savings Accounts will allow people to save more of their money tax-free," said Richard Hunt, SIA senior vice president for federal policy. "SIA has strongly advocated the expansion and enhancement of savings and investment options available to Americans," the organization said in a statement.
Bush's plans for Social Security are potentially even more lucrative for the securities industry. The president has repeatedly said he would like to allow individuals to divert some percentage of their Social Security taxes into personal investment accounts, which in many cases would be managed by financial services firms.
The idea -- a centerpiece of Bush's 2000 campaign -- has gone nowhere. But White House economic policy aides have said Social Security reform could become the crowning domestic achievement of a Bush second term.
-------- investigations
Senate Copy of Report On Abuse May Be Short
2,000 Pages Missing, Committee Aides Say
Associated Press
Monday, May 24, 2004; Page A18
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50365-2004May23.html
At least 2,000 pages might have been missing from the copy of the Army report on soldiers' abusive treatment of Iraqi prisoners that was delivered to the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The 6,000-page report, compiled by Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba, formed the basis for hearings this month into the allegations. Taguba found "numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses" had been inflicted on Iraqis held at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad between last October and December.
Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita said he knew of no contact with the Pentagon by anybody at the committee about the reported missing pages. He said he understood there may have been a computer glitch that made some of the electronically stored pages difficult to open, but the problem was resolved.
"Certainly, if there is some shortfall in what was provided, it was an oversight," Di Rita said in a statement.
Time magazine reported yesterday that committee aides noticed the report was missing a third of its pages after they divided the document and its 106 annexes into separate binders, stacking them and comparing the stack with an already counted stack of 6,000 pages.
One committee member, Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), said yesterday he would talk to the chairman, Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), to get the facts.
"I don't know" whether pages are missing, Roberts said, "but we'll sure . . . find out." Roberts heads the Senate intelligence committee, which also has been given the report.
Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), another Armed Services Committee member, said he became aware Friday of the possibility of the missing pages.
Reed, who appeared with Roberts on CBS's "Face the Nation" yesterday, indicated he would not be surprised if it were true because of the way, he said, that the Defense Department usually treats Congress.
"There's a lack of cooperation. There's a lack of candor. And that has hurt not only their perception but also gives rise to feelings or inferences that something is amiss deliberately," Reed said. "I hope that's not the case."
--------
MILITARY CONTRADICTIONS
General Says Sanchez Rejected Her Offer to Give Address to Iraqis About Abuses
May 24, 2004
By DOUGLAS JEHL and ERIC SCHMITT
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/24/politics/24GENE.html?pagewanted=all&position=
WASHINGTON, May 23 - The top American general in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, rejected a recommendation in January that the military make a public Arabic-language radio or television address to the Iraqi people to confront accusations of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison, the former head of the military police at the prison said in an interview on Sunday.
The officer, Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, also said General Sanchez visited a military intelligence unit at Abu Ghraib at least three times in October, when the first of the worst abuses were taking place. And while General Sanchez has said he did not learn of the abuses until Jan. 14, General Karpinski said his top deputy, Maj. Gen. Walter Wojdakowski, was present at a meeting in late November at which there was extensive discussion of a Red Cross report that cited specific cases of abuse.
An article in The Washington Post on Sunday cited a statement from a military lawyer that a captain at the prison had placed General Sanchez at the scene of some "interrogations and/or allegations of the prisoner abuse."
But a spokesman for General Sanchez, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, described that report on Sunday as "false," and said the general "stands by his testimony before Congressional committees" that he did not learn of the abuses until Jan. 14. And the statements by the captain, Donald J. Reese, that were referred to in the Post article contradicted his sworn testimony to Army investigators in January. When the investigators asked Captain Reese then if the "chain of command" was aware of abuse, he said "no."
In the interview, General Karpinski, commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade, said she volunteered during a meeting with General Sanchez on or about Jan. 23 to make an address to the Iraqi people about the prison abuse. Army investigators in Iraq had learned of the abuse on Jan. 14 and, on Jan. 16, the American military headquarters in Baghdad issued a five-sentence written statement in English acknowledging that allegations of abuse at the prison had surfaced and were being investigated by the military.
According to General Karpinski, General Sanchez responded to her recommendation about an address to the Iraqis by saying something like, "No, absolutely not - we're handling this." It was not until March that General Sanchez's spokesman, General Kimmitt, volunteered further information, announcing at a news briefing in Baghdad that charges had been filed against six enlisted soldiers in General Karpinski's unit.
In an e-mail message, General Kimmitt said the account provided by General Karpinski and her lawyer, Neal Puckett, was "inconsistent with my meetings with LTG Sanchez around the same time where he was very clear with me that `we were going to do the right thing.' He was behind the press announcement 100 percent."
But two Defense Department officials acknowledged that the command in Baghdad was reluctant to say too much at the outset because of the continuing criminal investigation and, to some extent, because of the reaction in Iraq and throughout the Arab world to sketchy reports of serious abuses at Army-run prisons that had been photographed.
"We had to work with them to make sure it was out there," a senior defense official said. "There was a lot of concern that this was an ongoing investigation and they didn't know where it was going. In addition, they have their own sensitivities to manage in the theater."
General Karpinski, an Army reservist from South Carolina, acknowledged that the Jan. 23 meeting was one in which General Sanchez had formally admonished her in connection with the abuses, which were carried out at least in part by members of a military police unit that was assigned to her brigade. But she also said she regarded the military's failure to say more at the time about the abuses as a major mistake.
"Suppose the statement had been cleared and approved and it was launched two days later," said General Karpinski, an Arabic speaker who lived for six years in the United Arab Emirates. "That would have been a lot better than people finding out now. It would have shown the Iraqi people that we were doing the right thing."
She said that during the year she spent in Iraq, she read and reread "Leadership," the memoir by Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York. "One of the things kept coming back," she said. "He said when there's bad news that's been delivered to you or that's been uncovered, tell the public immediately, because it doesn't get better over time."
"It's true," General Karpinski said. "If you're truthful, you defuse anger and overreaction to any circumstance."
General Kimmitt said he could not comment directly on the meeting between General Sanchez and General Karpinski, because he had not been present. He has not responded to requests made over several days for a direct statement by General Sanchez on the exchange.
The scope of the abuse did not begin to emerge until the end of April, first in a broadcast on the CBS News program "60 Minutes II" that included the first photographs of the misconduct, and then in an article in The New Yorker that reported on the findings of a classified inquiry completed in March by Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba. That inquiry concluded that those "directly or indirectly responsible" for the abuses probably included military intelligence officials and civilian contractors as well as the military police.
Although General Karpinski was formally admonished by General Sanchez, she remains commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade. Mr. Puckett, her attorney, has said she remain constrained by an Army directive that has cautioned all Army personnel involved in the prison abuse issue "to limit their comments to their own personal knowledge, and not to reveal any classified information or discuss other people involved."
In an e-mail exchange several days ago, Mr. Puckett first described General Karpinski's recommendation to General Sanchez. General Karpinski agreed in a telephone interview on Sunday to discuss that recommendation further. She said she herself learned in late November about the report by the International Committee of the Red Cross, which had been sent to military lawyers in Baghdad earlier that month, but had not understood the extent of the abuses until she was told by Army investigators on Jan. 14 about the discovery of incriminating photographs.
General Karpinski said that she did not know whether General Sanchez might have known about the abuses before January, but that his deputy, General Wojdakowski, certainly knew by late November about the details of the I.C.R.C. report, which said that what Red Cross officials witnessed during visits to the prison in October "included deliberate physical violence," as well as verbal abuse, forced nudity and prolonged handcuffing in uncomfortable positions.
The Army spokesmen have not replied to questions about General Wojdakowski's knowledge of the events.
-------- us politics
The Ultimate Insider
Richard N. Perle's Many Business Ventures Followed His Years as a Defense Official
By David S. Hilzenrath
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 24, 2004; Page E01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A50388-2004May23?language=printer
For longtime Pentagon adviser and boardroom insider Richard N. Perle, the bonus plan at newspaper publisher Hollinger International Inc. was a can't-lose proposition.
While Perle was overseeing Hollinger as a member of the board for the past several years, he also was co-chairman of a subsidiary that invested in dot-coms. He participated in a bonus plan that paid executives a share of the profits from successful Internet investments without taking into account losses on failures, the company said in a complaint against its former chief executive, Conrad M. Black, and others filed in federal court in Chicago this month.
Perle received $3.1 million in such bonuses from May 2000 to January 2001, the complaint said.
During that time, as a member of Hollinger's executive committee, Perle signed forms giving officers of the company license to negotiate deals that Hollinger now alleges improperly enriched the other two members of the executive committee, Black and F. David Radler, who was chief operating officer.
Hollinger said in court papers that one such executive committee authorization in September 2000 was "bogus" partly because Perle received the bonuses, "knew nothing about" the transaction and answered to Black and Radler, thus lacking independence.
Black and Radler have vigorously denied the company's charges. Perle was not named as a defendant in the recent Hollinger complaint. He was named as a defendant in an earlier suit filed in Delaware by a Hollinger institutional investor, which accused him of "standing idle" and failing to provide "any meaningful oversight" while Black and other executives looted the company. Proceedings in the Delaware suit have been held up, awaiting the results of an investigation by a Hollinger committee.
In an interview Saturday, Perle said the investor's lawsuit "is in many respects just out and out wrong and in other respects very misleading," and any suggestion "that actions or decisions taken by me involved a quid pro quo for compensation I received . . . is absolutely false."
"Did I take actions, inappropriate actions, because of actual or promised or anticipated rewards or compensation? The answer is flatly no," he said.
The Hollinger story opens a window on a less visible side of Perle's career since he left the Reagan administration, in which he was assistant secretary of defense. He has been a director on more than a dozen corporate boards, and has served with some of the same people on multiple boards.
On one level, Perle's business career is like those of many former Washington officials who used the expertise and contacts gained in government to carve niches in the corporate world. But more than most, Perle also has maintained an active public policy role. Perle, 62, is best known in recent years for his advocacy of war with Iraq and tough measures to fight terrorism. Over the weekend, Perle was trying to rally support for Ahmed Chalabi, the embattled head of the Iraqi National Congress, who for years Perle has backed.
Perle also is an author and lecturer, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and was a foreign policy adviser to George W. Bush's 2000 presidential campaign.
"There is no 'main gig,' " Perle said of his many roles. "It's all of these and it changes from one day to the next," he said.
"There are days when I am on the way to the airport and I say to myself, 'How am I managing to do this?' Sure there are days when I'm spread too thin and there are times when I've thought this isn't fair to my family."
Unlike many who pass through Washington's revolving door, Perle for 17 years managed to keep one foot in the government as a member of the Defense Policy Board, which offers advice on key issues to the secretary of defense.
That role created controversy last year after the New York Times and the New Yorker magazine reported on Perle's activities as a consultant to Loral Space and Communications Ltd. and Global Crossing Ltd., which had matters pending with the government, and as a partner in a venture capital firm pursuing investments in homeland security technology.
An investigation by the Pentagon's inspector general concluded last fall that Perle had not violated ethics rules, in part because certain restrictions did not apply to him as chairman of the Defense Policy Board and in part because he "did not mention or invoke" his unpaid position when he contacted the State Department on behalf of a company.
He gave up the chairmanship in March 2003, saying he did not want the controversy surrounding him to become a distraction for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. In February, he resigned from the board itself, saying that he did not want his strong views on key issue such as terrorism to become a factor in this year's presidential campaign.
"I think I've made a successful transition from public policy to the private sector, and the evidence of that is the readiness of a number of companies to invite me to join their board or assist them in other ways, and in many cases companies that have nothing to do with the government," Perle said. "I'm interested in interesting businesses, not in mundane ones, and of course in my business activity I'm driven by the necessity to provide for my family."
Tour at Defense "It's well known that you can peddle your influence after you leave the government for a certain number of years," William Happer, a Princeton University physicist and former Energy Department official, who serves with Perle on the strategic advisory council of USEC Inc., a uranium-enrichment company, said in an interview. "It's an old American tradition, and Richard Perle I think is doing it in an honest way. He's one of hundreds and hundreds who do it."
Perle said he did not like Happer's characterization. "I don't believe that anybody has hired me for connections," he said. "Nothing is about connections," he said. "I do not ask the people I know to do things for me."
Later in the interview, however, he confirmed that he had contacted ambassadors from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in the 1990s on behalf of a company for which he was both a director and a sales consultant, seeking to sell security systems in the Middle East. "Was that a result of my influence? Yeah, it was. It was a result of the fact that they, the people I went to, knew me so they took my phone call," Perle said.
Perle, who started his career in Washington as an aide to Sen. Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson (D-Wash.), began applying his government experience to business soon after he left full-time employment at the Pentagon in 1987.
As assistant secretary of Defense for international security policy, Perle advocated increased U.S. assistance to Turkey. He chaired a U.S.-Turkey high-level defense group.
FMC Corp., a U.S. defense contractor, was working on a deal to sell armored personnel carriers to the Turkish government and enlisted Perle's help, former executives said. Perle's "main asset to us was his relationship with the Turkish government," Robert H. Malott, former chairman and chief executive of FMC, said in an interview. He said a U.S. ambassador to Turkey told him that the Turks regarded Perle "as a demigod."
A $1.1 billion deal, finalized in 1989, called for FMC and a Turkish partner to sell Turkey about 1,700 armored vehicles. Perle became a member of the board of directors of FNSS Defense Systems Inc. , the joint venture FMC set up to manufacture the vehicles in Turkey.
Perle said FMC's contract to sell Turkey the armored vehicles "was essentially done" when he got involved. He said he thought there were "occasions" when he talked about the venture with Turkish Prime Minister Turgut Ozal, whom he described as a "good friend."
Around the same time, Perle urged Turkish officials to establish a lobbying shop to advance the country's interests in Washington, he told the Wall Street Journal in a letter in 1989. Though he did not personally register as a lobbyist for Turkey, he became a paid consultant to the lobbying firm, International Advisers Inc., which was led by Douglas J. Feith, who worked under Perle in the Reagan administration and is now an undersecretary of defense. Perle received $255,000 from the firm from early 1989 through early 1994, according to lobbying records.
It was during that early period in the private world that Perle began a longtime relationship with Morgan Crucible Co. PLC, an English maker of industrial ceramics. He met company officials after speaking at a London conference hosted by an investment bank , he recalled, and they asked him to join the board. He served for 15 years before leaving last June, a period in which the company found itself in legal trouble.
In 2002, Morganite Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of the company, admitted to price fixing and agreed to pay a $10 million criminal fine. Morgan Crucible pleaded guilty to witness tampering and paid $1 million. Its former chief executive, Ian Norris, was indicted last year for allegedly conspiring to fix prices for more than a decade and then obstructing the criminal investigation. The government charged that he prepared a false script for employees to follow in the investigation and instructed employees to hide or destroy records.
Perle said the Morgan Crucible board cooperated with the authorities, appointed a special committee, retained legal counsel to advise it on how to proceed, "and I believe conducted itself in an exemplary fashion." Regarding the alleged crimes at the company, he said, "I don't believe they reflect on me or any of the other non-executive directors at all, and I don't know of any suggestion to the contrary by anyone."
He joined another board in 1990, that of Vikonics Inc., a New Jersey company that marketed security systems to the armed forces. He also had a consulting arrangement that entitled him to receive a 7 percent commission on contracts that he helped the company obtain, according to a regulatory filing.
John L. Kaufman, who was Vikonics' president at the time, recalled in an interview that "what he really had done was help us with introductions to people who he knew," including "high-ranking people in the areas of government there and in the military." He recalled traveling with Perle to Kuwait, where the former Defense Department official received a grateful and enthusiastic welcome shortly after the Persian Gulf War.
"The minister of this or the secretary of that -- no matter who it was, everyone wanted to meet him," Kaufman said. "I do believe that he did help us to gain contracts just by being there to help us."
In 1994, the company announced a contract to install a security system at Kuwait's Ministry of Information, and the kingdom was soon one of Vikonics' largest customers.
Perle recalled phoning the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, about Vikonics. "I talked to Bandar and said I'm on the board of this company, and we make some very high quality security devices, and if there's a market for thesein Saudi Arabia, we'd like to go talk to people who make those decisions. Same thing in Kuwait."
In 1995, Perle resigned from the Vikonics board. The company reported that he had been awarded no commissions and the company was de-emphasizing its efforts in the Middle East in part "due to the limited success to date." In the early 1990s, Raytheon Co. retained the American Enterprise Institute to advise it on business opportunities in Turkey, and Perle "was one of the associates involved in that process," Raytheon said in a statement.
At times, Perle joined longtime associates in the boardroom. Former Army Chief of Staff Edward C. Meyer, for example, was a director with Perle in FMC's venture in Turkey, and has served with him on three other boards. An investment firm Meyer helped manage granted Perle stock options to run for a board seat. The options produced a profit of about $250,000 for Perle. At Perle's recommendation, Meyer was appointed to join him on another board.
The retired general praised Perle's performance. "I would say he's always been in the top one-third of all of the directors I've seen because he always goes out of his way to understand all the details of what the company is doing and how he can contribute to its success, and a lot of directors do not do that -- they just sit there and nod sagely," Meyer said.
"His contacts are particularly useful to companies that have businesses overseas," Meyer said. The contacts he's seen Perle use "did not have as much to do with the U.S. government as they did . . . foreign governments and foreign personages," he said. Perle joined Hollinger's board in 1994, having met Black at an annual Bilderberg Conference, where members of the international business and foreign policy elite meet to network and discuss issues.
Friends Helping Friends Through serving together at Hollinger, Perle became friends with Leonard P. Shaykinwho recruited Perle to serve on the board of a biotech company he headed, NaPro BioTherapeutics Inc., now known as Tapestry Pharmaceuticals Inc. As chairman of that firm's compensation committee, Perle now oversees Shaykin's pay. "Personally, I consider him a friend," Shaykin said in an interview. "I gained a great respect for both his judgment and his negotiating capabilities, which are legendary," he said. "I can tell you Richard hasn't rubber-stamped anything on my board."
Perle has served on the boards of two Washington area technology companies headed by Ken Bajaj, including a stint on an audit committee that did not meet one year. Bajaj has served on an advisory board of a venture capital firm that Perle co-founded.
Familiarity is the norm when boards recruit directors, and it can be a good thing if "you have learned that this director was an aggressive, careful, monitoring director who asked probing questions on some other board and you want him to do the same on your board," said John C. Coffee Jr., a professor at Columbia Law School. But familiarity can be bad if it involves mutual back-scratching or if the director in question "is simply never going to find fault with someone who is one of his close friends," Coffee said.
"It is an all too common practice to find the same directors popping up on boards with each other over and over again," said Gregory P. Taxin, chief executive of Glass, Lewis & Co., which advises institutional shareholders on how to vote in board elections. "The world of directors is a very incestuous one."
"If you are good friends with other people on the board and you all go to board meetings together, it's far less likely that you will start an acrimonious and strong debate in the boardroom about issues large or small," Taxin said.
Perle said Taxin's concerns do not apply to the boards on which he has served. "I have never hesitated to debate" when it was warranted, he said. "I don't think that people would say I am a wallflower."
Famous Company On the board of Hollinger, which publishes the Chicago Sun-Times and London's Daily Telegraph, among other newspapers, Perle joined a gathering of luminaries. Directors have included former secretary of state Henry A. Kissinger, former U.S. ambassador to Russia Robert S. Strauss, former Illinois governor James R. Thompson and former Sotheby's chairman A. Alfred Taubman, who remained on the board after he was convicted of antitrust violations.
For Black, Hollinger supported a lifestyle that included the use of corporate jets to fly to the Tahitian island Bora Bora and shuttle between houses around the world, the Hollinger lawsuit said. Black billed Hollinger for household staff such as chefs, butlers, chauffeurs, footmen and security personnel, the lawsuit said. Through an unusual system of annual management fees to a company owned by Black and Radler, Hollinger paid its top executives five to six times what competing companies paid for similar services, the suit said.
Black resigned as Hollinger chief executive in November and was removed as chairman in January. His holding company said in a recent statement that Hollinger's board members "were all extremely sophisticated professionals" and that the "vast majority" of matters the firm is challenging "were reviewed and approved by its independent directors." Black has sued several directors, alleging defamation.
During several hours of interviews for this article, Perle declined to answer most questions about Hollinger, citing pending litigation and the advice of counsel. Perle would not describe his relationship with Black, but confirmed that he once flew with Black on a company jet to the Middle East to attend a meeting with the crown prince of Jordan and to visit Perle's friend, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, in the mid-1990s.
By 1998 Perle was listed as chairman and chief executive of Hollinger Digital. He was one of three members of Hollinger International's executive committee, with Black and Radler.
As a member of the executive committee, Perle signed "unanimous written consent" forms authorizing management to negotiate terms of certain Hollinger newspaper sales, the documents show. For example, the Sept. 15, 2000, document authorized "the proper officers" of the company -- without naming them -- to "take all such actions" and negotiate "all terms . . . which in their sole judgment are necessary, proper or advisable" to carry out a $90 million transaction. The form expressly authorized the officers to negotiate a "noncompete agreement" without specifying all the details.
That noncompete agreement and others like it became devices for Black and Radler to divert millions of dollars to themselves, Hollinger alleged. Meanwhile, Black and Radler used such deals to acquire Hollinger newspapers at cut-rate prices, Hollinger alleged.
Perle was paid about $300,000 a year as head of Hollinger Digital, according to a Delaware suit by Hollinger shareholder Cardinal Value Equity Partners LP. That pay was in addition to his $3.1 million in bonuses, said a Hollinger source who would not agree to be identified because lawyers told company insiders not to speak to the press.
Hollinger Digital's "upside only" bonus arrangement was "virtually unheard of," the complaint said. The company paid $15.5 million in such bonuses, though the subsidiary's investments lost more than $65 million overall, it said. Perle said that, on balance, the investments for which he was responsible for were profitable. He said he urged the board to create Hollinger Digital because he envisioned the Internet transforming the newspaper business.
The Hollinger executive committee also approved the company's January 2001 $8 million purchase of papers of Franklin Delano Roosevelt so Black would have "exclusive and private access" to them while writing a book about FDR, the Cardinal lawsuit alleged. The Hollinger lawsuit put the price closer to $9 million and said most of the documents were stored in Black's homes. A spokesman for Black, James Badenhausen, said Black believed the papers were an attractive investment, and added that the contents of the papers were widely available to the public.
After Hollinger Digital invested money with New York financier Gerald Paul Hillman, Perle pursued a more entrepreneurial opportunity. He joined Hillman in setting up their own venture capital investment fund. Soon after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks , they formed Trireme Partners L.P., which stated that its focus was investing in technologies for homeland security. And the way they solicited capital for the fund would draw scrutiny.
Hillman also joined the Defense Policy Board after Perle recommended him to Rumsfeld, Perle said. The board's charter said its membership "will consist primarily of private sector individuals with distinguished backgrounds in national security affairs." Perle said he recommended Hillman because he was a brilliant analyst with a business background and "a lot of experience dealing with complex situations."
Trireme solicited Boeing Corp., with Hillman noting in a letter in early 2002 that he and Perle were members of the Defense Policy Board, according to a Boeing spokesman. Boeing committed to invest $20 million with Trireme. Ethics rules prohibit invoking government titles for private gain.
Perle said, "If we had not related that information we would have been withholding information." He added that the status as Pentagon adviser can be a drawback in business because "it means there are . . . things you can't say and can't do."
Last year Hollinger invested $2.5 million in a Trireme entity, the company said in an SEC filing. That was part of a $25 million commitment by Black, Bloomberg News reported in January. "I think that's right," Perle said when asked about the amount.
Black made the commitment to invest Hollinger money in Trireme without the board's approval, the Hollinger source said. When the audit committee learned about those actions last year, it canceled the commitment for the balance, the source said.
And when other directors discovered that Hollinger was paying for Perle's secretary, the company ended the arrangement, the Hollinger source said. Perle said the woman, based at a long-time Hollinger office at his Chevy Chase home, was not his personal secretary, but the sole secretary for Hollinger Digital. He declined to say if she handled all of his professional activities, saying the matter could become a subject of litigation.
Hollinger's complaint "is without merit and will be defended vigorously," said Josh Pekarsky, a spokesman for Radler. The company suit "repeatedly acknowledges that many of the things Mr. Radler is being accused of were presented to the Board, considered by the Board, and approved by the Board, yet it somehow fails to implicate the board in any of the alleged misconduct," he said in a statement. A special committee at Hollinger is still examining the performance of the board of directors. Perle, who remains a Hollinger director, is no longer at Hollinger Digital or on the executive committee.
The perpetually busy Perle knows there may be more demands on his time.
"I've said to myself more than once and my wife has said even more often than that 'you've really got to scale back.' And then something really interesting comes along and I say yes and sometimes regret having said yes, like anyone else. I've got a piece due on June 1st that I'd forgotten I'd agreed to write. It's a chapter in a book."
He said he will squeeze it in.
-------- ENERGY
James Lovelock: Nuclear power is the only green solution
We have no time to experiment with visionary energy sources; civilisation is in imminent danger
24 May 2004
UK Independent
http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=524230
Sir David King, the Government's chief scientist, was far-sighted to say that global warming is a more serious threat than terrorism. He may even have underestimated, because, since he spoke, new evidence of climate change suggests it could be even more serious, and the greatest danger that civilisation has faced so far.
Most of us are aware of some degree of warming; winters are warmer and spring comes earlier. But in the Arctic, warming is more than twice as great as here in Europe and in summertime, torrents of melt water now plunge from Greenland's kilometre-high glaciers. The complete dissolution of Greenland's icy mountains will take time, but by then the sea will have risen seven metres, enough to make uninhabitable all of the low lying coastal cities of the world, including London, Venice, Calcutta, New York and Tokyo. Even a two metre rise is enough to put most of southern Florida under water.
The floating ice of the Arctic Ocean is even more vulnerable to warming; in 30 years, its white reflecting ice, the area of the US, may become dark sea that absorbs the warmth of summer sunlight, and further hastens the end of the Greenland ice. The North Pole, goal of so many explorers, will then be no more than a point on the ocean surface.
Not only the Arctic is changing; climatologists warn a four-degree rise in temperature is enough to eliminate the vast Amazon forests in a catastrophe for their people, their biodiversity, and for the world, which would lose one of its great natural air conditioners.
The scientists who form the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported in 2001 that global temperature would rise between two and six degrees Celsius by 2100. Their grim forecast was made perceptible by last summer's excessive heat; and according to Swiss meteorologists, the Europe-wide hot spell that killed over 20,000 was wholly different from any previous heat wave. The odds against it being a mere deviation from the norm were 300,000 to one. It was a warning of worse to come.
What makes global warming so serious and so urgent is that the great Earth system, Gaia, is trapped in a vicious circle of positive feedback. Extra heat from any source, whether from greenhouse gases, the disappearance of Arctic ice or the Amazon forest, is amplified, and its effects are more than additive. It is almost as if we had lit a fire to keep warm, and failed to notice, as we piled on fuel, that the fire was out of control and the furniture had ignited. When that happens, little time is left to put out the fire before it consumes the house. Global warming, like a fire, is accelerating and almost no time is left to act.
So what should we do? We can just continue to enjoy a warmer 21st century while it lasts, and make cosmetic attempts, such as the Kyoto Treaty, to hide the political embarrassment of global warming, and this is what I fear will happen in much of the world. When, in the 18th century, only one billion people lived on Earth, their impact was small enough for it not to matter what energy source they used.
But with six billion, and growing, few options remain; we can not continue drawing energy from fossil fuels and there is no chance that the renewables, wind, tide and water power can provide enough energy and in time. If we had 50 years or more we might make these our main sources. But we do not have 50 years; the Earth is already so disabled by the insidious poison of greenhouse gases that even if we stop all fossil fuel burning immediately, the consequences of what we have already done will last for 1,000 years. Every year that we continue burning carbon makes it worse for our descendants and for civilisation.
Worse still, if we burn crops grown for fuel this could hasten our decline. Agriculture already uses too much of the land needed by the Earth to regulate its climate and chemistry. A car consumes 10 to 30 times as much carbon as its driver; imagine the extra farmland required to feed the appetite of cars.
By all means, let us use the small input from renewables sensibly, but only one immediately available source does not cause global warming and that is nuclear energy. True, burning natural gas instead of coal or oil releases only half as much carbon dioxide, but unburnt gas is 25 times as potent a greenhouse agent as is carbon dioxide. Even a small leakage would neutralise the advantage of gas.
The prospects are grim, and even if we act successfully in amelioration, there will still be hard times, as in war, that will stretch our grandchildren to the limit. We are tough and it would take more than the climate catastrophe to eliminate all breeding pairs of humans; what is at risk is civilisation. As individual animals we are not so special, and in some ways are like a planetary disease, but through civilisation we redeem ourselves and become a precious asset for the Earth; not least because through our eyes the Earth has seen herself in all her glory.
There is a chance we may be saved by an unexpected event such as a series of volcanic eruptions severe enough to block out sunlight and so cool the Earth. But only losers would bet their lives on such poor odds. Whatever doubts there are about future climates, there are no doubts that greenhouse gases and temperatures both are rising.
We have stayed in ignorance for many reasons; important among them is the denial of climate change in the US where governments have failed to give their climate scientists the support they needed. The Green lobbies, which should have given priority to global warming, seem more concerned about threats to people than with threats to the Earth, not noticing that we are part of the Earth and wholly dependent upon its well being. It may take a disaster worse than last summer's European deaths to wake us up.
Opposition to nuclear energy is based on irrational fear fed by Hollywood-style fiction, the Green lobbies and the media. These fears are unjustified, and nuclear energy from its start in 1952 has proved to be the safest of all energy sources. We must stop fretting over the minute statistical risks of cancer from chemicals or radiation. Nearly one third of us will die of cancer anyway, mainly because we breathe air laden with that all pervasive carcinogen, oxygen. If we fail to concentrate our minds on the real danger, which is global warming, we may die even sooner, as did more than 20,000 unfortunates from overheating in Europe last summer.
I find it sad and ironic that the UK, which leads the world in the quality of its Earth and climate scientists, rejects their warnings and advice, and prefers to listen to the Greens. But I am a Green and I entreat my friends in the movement to drop their wrongheaded objection to nuclear energy.
Even if they were right about its dangers, and they are not, its worldwide use as our main source of energy would pose an insignificant threat compared with the dangers of intolerable and lethal heat waves and sea levels rising to drown every coastal city of the world. We have no time to experiment with visionary energy sources; civilisation is in imminent danger and has to use nuclear - the one safe, available, energy source - now or suffer the pain soon to be inflicted by our outraged planet.
The writer is an independent scientist and the creator of the Gaia hypothesis of the Earth as a self-regulating organism.
-------- alternative energy
Michigan Students Convert Fryer Oil to Fuel
May 24, 2004
ANN ARBOR, Michigan, (ENS)
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/may2004/2004-05-24-098.asp
University of Michigan engineering students have discovered that waste grease produced in campus cafeterias that can be used to make biodiesel fuel for campus buses.
During a term project for a course in environmental sustainability, a four student team led by Lisa Colosi and Andres Clarens demonstrated that it is economically and technically feasible to harvest the 10,700 gallons of waste grease produced in the 10 campus dining halls to make a biodiesel fuel.
They produced the fuel in the lab and tested it out on a small university tractor.
The students' vision, "from the fryer to the fuel tank" could save the university $28,000 per year in transportation and disposal costs for the waste food oil, said their instructor, chemical and environmental engineering professor Walter Weber Jr.
Weber said this annual savings could be increased to more than $150,000 by incorporating waste greases from the University Health System cafeterias and area restaurants. The report recommends that the University construct a pilot processing facility on campus to further demonstrate the efficacy of the process.
The University produces nearly 11,000 gallons of waste fat annually that is removed at a cost of 95 cents a gallon. Even if an institution determined it didn't want to produce the biodiesel fuel itself, it could still realize significant savings in disposal costs and perform an environmentally friendly deed by harvesting the waste grease and contracting a vendor to convert it to biodiesel fuel, Weber said.
The university already uses some biodiesel fuel, purchasing 60,000 gallons of soy diesel fuel from a commercial vendor to blend with regular petroleum diesel fuel to make up the 300,000 gallons of combined fuel it uses annually.
"The challenge the students had in this project was to produce a satisfactory or better substitute biodiesel fuel from waste cooking oils," Weber said. "And they did it."
The students collected waste grease from deep fryers in the West Quad cafeteria and mixed it in a tank with potassium hydroxide and methanol to create a reaction that produced a glycerine and fatty acid methyl ester solution.
They then separated the glycerine and heated the residual solution to evaporate excess alcohol and water to produce their biodiesel fuel.
The report the students submitted further suggested that the glycerin by-product of the process could be cured and used to make a biodegradable alternative to commercial soaps for use on campus.
"The project provides an intriguing idea and presents possible options for increasing our waste recycling while yielding a usable product," said Dave Miller, director of U-M's Parking and Transportation Services. "We are exploring the research results and analyzing the potential impact on our existing operations."
--------
S&P issues report on UK wind power sector
Reuters
USA: May 24, 2004
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/25211/story.htm
NEW YORK - The positive momentum achieved in the U.K. wind power sector in 2003 has been overshadowed in the first quarter of 2004 by uncertainty regarding planning requirements, infrastructure, and grid access costs, according to a report released today by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services.
The U.K. has the most ambitious proposals for development of the sector in Europe, particularly relating to largely untested offshore wind farm technology.
"There have been some positive developments in the wind power industry recently, including an extension of the renewables obligation scheme, the incorporation of 100 MW of new capacity, and projected offshore capacity of 1,000 MW for 2005," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Jan Willem Plantagie.
"Objections to wind farm proposals from the Ministry of Defence, however, are high, and the approval process is becoming increasingly protracted. Furthermore, a number of reports have concluded that wind power is more expensive than other sources of power."
The article, entitled "Winds of Change Blow Through the U.K. Wind Power Sector", examines the industry in its present form and the potential impact of all the recent developments.
The report is available to subscribers of RatingsDirect, Standard & Poor's Web-based credit analysis system, at www.ratingsdirect.com. Ratings information can be found on Standard & Poor's public Web site at www.standardandpoors.com; under Credit Ratings in the left navigation bar, select Find Ratings, then Credit Ratings Search.
Alternatively, call one of the following Standard & Poor's numbers: London Ratings Desk (44) 20-7176-7400; London Press Office Hotline (44) 20-7176-3605; Paris (33) 1-4420-6708; Frankfurt (49) 69-33-999-225; Stockholm (46) 8-440-5916; or Moscow (7) 095-783-4017.
-------- energy
Iraqis fail to regain control of oil revenue
Aljazeera
By Ahmed Janabi
Monday 24 May 2004
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9E21D088-7317-45DF-BE62-7CE8BEB830B1.htm
Easy access to fuel for Iraqis has not been a US occupation's priority
The latest Iraqi attempts to recover control of the country's oil revenues from the United States appear to have hit a dead end with a special delegation being rebuffed in its bid secure UN help.
The delegation has been in New York in a bid to petition the UN to exert pressure on US occupation authorities, who currently preside over Iraq's oil output.
It includes Hamid al-Bayati, a deputy in the Iraqi interim foreign ministry and a spokesperson for the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
In New York since last week its members have so far failed to get an audience with UN officials.
The control of Iraq's oil revenue has been controversial ever since the US-led occupation of Iraq in 2003.
The US has imposed secrecy on oil deals, exportation, and use of revenues. Iraqi officials have previously asked for access to oil revenues, but have been turned down by the occupation Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) headed by Paul Bremer.
Day light robbery
Muzhir al-Dulaymi, spokesman for the League for the Defence of Iraqi Peoples' Rights, told Aljazeera the US was systematically milking Iraq of its oil.
Dr Abd al-Hay Zallum speaking to Aljazeera
"A daylight robbery is going in Iraq. I have first hand information from sources in al-Bakr port in southern Iraq, and in the Turkish port of Jihan, confirming that three million oil barrels are being taken out of Iraq on a daily basis" al-Dulaymi said.
"Oil sale contracts only go to the Iraqi oil ministry for signing. They cannot say a word about them; not to mention the fact that there are many sealed contracts which the Iraqi ministry of oil is not notified of."
Al-Dulaymi says the Bush administration is benefiting from the process.
"When oil prices surpassed $30 last year, Bush sent his Energy Secretary to the Middle East, who held talks with Saudi Arabia and other oil producers to reduce prices.
"But here we are now; oil prices have reached $40 and not a word from the Bush administration. Why? Because they are benefitting. Definitely, they will not sacrifice such revenue and give it to Iraqis."
Motives
US officials have consistently denied that the 2003 invasion was motivated by a desire to seize Iraq's vast oil reserves.
The latest charge came from the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the UK and Ireland Prince Turki al-Faisal.
"What we read and hear from our commentators in America and sometimes congressional sources, if you remember going back a year ago, there was the issue of the oil reserves in Iraq and that in a year or two they would be producing so much oil in Iraq that, as it were, the war would pay for itself," the envoy told the Irish Independent on Monday.
"[This] indicated that there were those in America who were thinking in those terms of acquiring the natural resources of Iraq for America."
Dwindling resources
Iraq oil fact box
-Proven Iraqi oil reserves: 112 billion barrels.
-Estimated Iraqi oil reserves: 200 billion barrels.
-60 Iraqi oil wells are still untouched.
Oil experts agree that in the coming decades, oil resources will run low, and some current oil producers will not be able to maintain current output.
Iraq possesses oil reserves equal to those of US, Canada, Mexico, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and non-middle eastern Asian countries put together.
The deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein said in the 1970s that Iraq would provide the last drop of oil in the world.
In 2020, the world will need 112 million barrels of oil a day. Iraq and Arab Gulf states are the only countries which will be able to provide such quantities of oil.
Abd al-Hay Zalloum, an oil expert and author told Aljazeera before the invasion of Iraq that oil should not be forgotten as a US war aim.
"The US produces six to seven million barrels of oil a day. That means oil in the US will be dried out in a decade" he said "the Bush administration sees Iraq as a valuable resource."
US oil fact box:
-In 1920 the US had 62% of world's oil reserves.
-US first imported oil in 1970. Currently it imports 60% of its oil needs.
-In 2007 the US will be fully dependent on imported oil.
-Current US oil reserves: 22 billion barrels.
-US individuals are rated as highest oil consumers.
-Each US individual consumes 28 oil barrels a year.
Dr Mohamad al-Douri, the former Iraqi ambassador to the UN believes that the US might give Iraqis control over oil revenues.
"Currently, the US is not after oil revenues. What is more important to them is to secure oil flow in the coming decade, when oil resources run low", al-Douri said "Their goal now is not the money, but to control the oil flow itself in the future.
"At present Iraq's oil exportation is not huge, but Iraq possesses one third of the world's oil reserves, and this is what the US is after. They want to secure their future."
During the UN sanctions on Iraq 1990-2003, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates made up for Iraq's absence from the oil market.
--------
Russian energy industry has good future
24.05.2004,
ITAR-TASS
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=856407&PageNum=0
AMSTERDAM, May 24 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia's energy industry will prosper, Ivan Materov, the Russian deputy minister of industry and energy, told Tass. Materov heads the Russian delegation at The Ninth World Energy Forum underway here. Taking part in the forum are world petroleum producers -- Saudi Arabia, Russia, Qatar, Norway, and major oil consumers -- the European Union and the United States.
Materov said, "The Russian energy sector has good prospects for the near future". The head of the Russian delegation believes that the present high price of oil is connected with "a number of specific features of the present, for instance, the economic growth of China and uncertainty in Iraq".
He said the forum discussed questions of energy security and problems of supplying the world markets with oil and gas. In the framework of the forum the Russian delegation discussed questions of the dialogue on energy between Russia and Germany, the prospects of the construction of a pipeline to reach the Pacific, as well as the problems of utilizing weapon-grade plutonium, Materov said.
-------- OTHER
-------- environment
'Only nuclear power can now halt global warming'
Leading environmentalist urges radical rethink on climate change
By Michael McCarthy Environment Editor
24 May 2004
UK Independent
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=524313
Global warming is now advancing so swiftly that only a massive expansion of nuclear power as the world's main energy source can prevent it overwhelming civilisation, the scientist and celebrated Green guru, James Lovelock, says.
His call will cause huge disquiet for the environmental movement. It has long considered the 84-year-old radical thinker among its greatest heroes, and sees climate change as the most important issue facing the world, but it has always regarded opposition to nuclear power as an article of faith. Last night the leaders of both Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth rejected his call.
Professor Lovelock, who achieved international fame as the author of the Gaia hypothesis, the theory that the Earth keeps itself fit for life by the actions of living things themselves, was among the first researchers to sound the alarm about the threat from the greenhouse effect.
He was in a select group of scientists who gave an initial briefing on climate change to Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Cabinet at 10 Downing Street in April 1989.
He now believes recent climatic events have shown the warming of the atmosphere is proceeding even more rapidly than the scientists of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) thought it would, in their last report in 2001.
On that basis, he says, there is simply not enough time for renewable energy, such as wind, wave and solar power - the favoured solution of the Green movement - to take the place of the coal, gas and oil-fired power stations whose waste gas, carbon dioxide (CO2), is causing the atmosphere to warm.
He believes only a massive expansion of nuclear power, which produces almost no CO2, can now check a runaway warming which would raise sea levels disastrously around the world, cause climatic turbulence and make agriculture unviable over large areas. He says fears about the safety of nuclear energy are irrational and exaggerated, and urges the Green movement to drop its opposition.
In today's Independent, Professor Lovelock says he is concerned by two climatic events in particular: the melting of the Greenland ice sheet, which will raise global sea levels significantly, and the episode of extreme heat in western central Europe last August, accepted by many scientists as unprecedented and a direct result of global warming.
These are ominous warning signs, he says, that climate change is speeding, but many people are still in ignorance of this. Important among the reasons is "the denial of climate change in the US, where governments have failed to give their climate scientists the support they needed".
He compares the situation to that in Europe in 1938, with the Second World War looming, and nobody knowing what to do. The attachment of the Greens to renewables is "well-intentioned but misguided", he says, like the Left's 1938 attachment to disarmament when he too was a left-winger.
He writes today: "I am a Green, and I entreat my friends in the movement to drop their wrongheaded objection to nuclear energy."
His appeal, which in effect is asking the Greens to make a bargain with the devil, is likely to fall on deaf ears, at least at present.
"Lovelock is right to demand a drastic response to climate change," Stephen Tindale, executive director of Greenpeace UK, said last night. "He's right to question previous assumptions.
"But he's wrong to think nuclear power is any part of the answer. Nuclear creates enormous problems, waste we don't know what to do with; radioactive emissions; unavoidable risk of accident and terrorist attack."
Tony Juniper, director of Friends of the Earth, said: "Climate change and radioactive waste both pose deadly long-term threats, and we have a moral duty to minimise the effects of both, not to choose between them."
----
WASA Studying Meters For Lead
By David Nakamura
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 24, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50459-2004May23.html
Water meters that the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority installed over the past two years at every residence in the city are considered "lead free" under federal standards but likely leach lead into drinking water, several independent experts said.
WASA spent $36 million in 2002 and 2003 to replace about 110,000 meters at private residences and 20,000 at commercial locations in an effort to get more-accurate readings on water usage and improve customer billing. The automated meters have increased revenue for the agency because the old ones were often defective.
But with drinking water in thousands of D.C. homes having lead levels above the federal limit, the new meters, which contain about 5 to 7 percent lead, are being examined more closely by WASA officials, federal regulators and industry analysts.
Water utilities in California and other jurisdictions, concerned about lead, have begun using a new kind of meter that many believe is safer than that used by WASA.
"Unfortunately, D.C. did a major change-out right before the issue came out and [lower-lead meters] were available," said Richard Maas, a University of North Carolina-Asheville professor whose studies on such meters show that they can leach lead.
D.C. Council member Adrian M. Fenty (D-Ward 4) said WASA may have been too eager to replace water meters in order to increase revenue and did not take proper precautions.
"My hope is that WASA quickly adopts a zero-tolerance policy for lead in the water," Fenty said. "WASA wanted the new meters to increase revenue, and it has. But lead in the water seems to be a new concept to WASA."
If water meters are found conclusively to leach lead, that could have significant ramifications locally and across the nation.
WASA's board of directors is considering replacing all 23,000 of the city's known lead service lines over the next six years, at a cost of at least $350 million. But now some are questioning whether that effort and expense will solve the lead problem if meters also contribute to contamination.
"If money is no object, we'd do everything," WASA board Chairman Glenn S. Gerstell said. "But if you have only a certain amount of money, do you replace lead lines and leave the meters? I don't know that we have the answer to that."
Erik Olson, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said WASA should not immediately replace all the meters with newer ones that have less lead because of the substantial costs and disruption. Lead services lines, he and other analysts agreed, pose a much bigger threat to the water supply.
But Olson added that WASA and all other utilities should create new policies to "make sure they are installing only truly lead-free" meters.
Congress is considering legislation to do just that. Both the Senate and House are debating bills aimed at revamping federal regulations governing lead in drinking water, including requiring water systems to use newly developed meters and plumbing fixtures that have only tiny traces of lead.
At a hearing on the matter last week before the House Government Reform Committee, Katherine Funk, a Capitol Hill mother of a 5-month-old girl, urged passage of the legislation.
"Lead-free doesn't really mean lead-free," she told committee members.
WASA General Manager Jerry N. Johnson has stressed that agency engineers believe the lead contamination problem in the District was probably triggered when the chemical chloramine -- a combination of chlorine and ammonia -- was added to the water four years ago, making the city's water more corrosive.
Officials have said the problem is largely concentrated in houses with lead service lines. Results of recent tests by a team of WASA and independent scientists have supported this analysis. WASA officials plan to add another chemical, zinc orthophosphate, to the water beginning June 1 that they said will coat the pipes and stem the leaching.
Still, WASA has found that some homes without lead service lines also have excessive lead levels. That could be caused by leaching from lead solder, plumbing fixtures or water meters.
"We've done a number of tests . . . but have not seen any final data," said Michael Marcotte, WASA's chief engineer.
WASA's meters, manufactured by the company ABB, are made of a material known as "waterworks bronze," which is classified as lead free by the federal government. The federal standard, written in 1986, allows meters to contain up to 8 percent lead because it makes the metal more malleable and therefore easier and less expensive to produce. At the time, manufacturers argued that it would be difficult to make durable, affordable meters without using some lead.
Some tests have shown that the meters probably leach lead when processing corrosive water, industry analysts said.
Gregory Korshin, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Washington, said that lead does not dissolve when used to manufacture a water meter. Rather, it forms small scales on the final product.
"The lead exists as an entity by itself," Korshin said. Maas said the amount of lead that leaches from a water meter is far less than what comes off a lead service line. Tests have shown that water taken from bronze meters contains up to 100 parts per billion of lead, Maas said. That would then be reduced to, at most, about 20 to 25 ppb by the time the water reached the tap, he added. Still, that exceeds the Environmental Protection Agency's federal safety limit of 15 ppb.
Maas added that the disturbance caused by work crews that installed the meters for WASA might have dislodged particulates from lead service pipes and helped contribute to the excessive levels of lead found in the water supply of thousands of city homes.
Concern over lead in water meters and other products sparked a lawsuit in California a few years ago. State courts mandated that utilities switch to meters made of a relatively new material called "enviro brass," meaning they contain no added lead concentration and have a natural content of less than 0.25 percent.
Mark Champagne, a vice president of AMCO, which bought ABB's water metering division, said enviro brass meters were on the market several years ago when WASA was making its decision to purchase water meters. But, he noted, they were not common, and most jurisdictions were not even considering them.
Pankaj Parekh, director of water quality compliance for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, said his agency has been replacing 40,000 meters a year with the enviro brass variety.
"Most utilities, if they can afford it, should try to do something like this," he said.
In fact, others have, including the one in Bangor, Maine. "If we can reduce the amount of lead in the system, why not?" said Kathy Moriarty, Bangor's water quality manager.
Still, not everyone is convinced that the enviro brass meters are a major improvement. Steve Reiber, an industry consultant based in Bellevue, Wash., said they are untested.
"If these meters fail after five or 10 years, when the old ones lasted 30 years, that's a serious issue," he said. "I don't think leaded brass is a big, big issue. It's not to say it's insignificant, but it does not begin to approach the magnitude related to lead service lines. It's a bit player in the overall lead exposure world."
Rhodes Trussell, a Pasadena, Calif.-based consultant, agreed that optimizing water chemistry to control corrosion and removing lead service pipes should be the priorities.
But, he added, "you can't have lead in the water if the water is not exposed to lead. If we have alternatives [to meters with lead], then we should explore those."
-------- ACTIVISTS
Permit or Not, Protesters Prepare for Republicans in New York
May 24, 2004
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/24/nyregion/24protesters.html?pagewanted=all&position=
He relishes the idea, and it is just an idea, he says, of linking arms on streets around Madison Square Garden to block delegates and bring the Republican convention to a halt. Getting arrested for civil disobedience, if it comes to that, does not faze him.
"I am not going to have a work schedule for two weeks after, just in case,'' says Jim Straub, 23, who is a part-time dishwasher and bookstore clerk and full-time radical in Richmond, Va.
For Jen Lawhorne, 24, who also plans to attend the convention from Richmond: "This is going to be one of the finer moments of the American left. The sheer numbers excite me.''
They are a band of like-minded activists, many in their 20's, leading a charge to direct protesters from Richmond to New York for the convention, Aug. 30 to Sept. 2.
Linked by indignation over the war and economic and social issues, protesters from Chicago, Santa Barbara, Calif., Cleveland and scores of other places across the country are developing their plans to descend on New York City for the convention.
The protesters are not deterred by the barriers they face. New York City has yet to issue any protest permits. Housing is in short supply and prohibitively expensive. And just the logistics of getting to vehicle-unfriendly New York can be daunting. But convention protesters like the group in Richmond are pressing forward with plans, and developing ways around the hurdles.
An organizer on the West Coast is suggesting using airline discounts to New York. Another is arranging backpacking trips to raise money for airfare, while some groups in Los Angeles and San Francisco have discussed a car caravan. And in Richmond, organizers plan to pass the hat at parties and hold other fund-raisers for the $1,000 or so needed to charter a bus.
The fact that the New York police have not issued permits for any of the 15 groups that have applied for marches and rallies near the Garden matters little, especially to the more rebellious sorts.
The RNC Not Welcome Collective, an affiliation of radicals in New York, is encouraging prospective demonstrators to focus on other sites besides the Garden, like parties and other gatherings of delegates.
"If we are diffused throughout the city, we will have a much better advantage,'' read a recent handout at a strategy meeting. "After all, the real target is not Madison Square Garden, the stage of the spectacle, but the various events where deals are made - where the lobbyists wine, dine, and bribe Bush & Co.''
"If we are truly everywhere in this very big city,'' it goes on, "the police cannot be concentrated in one area, their communications will be hampered by their hierarchical processes, their steps will be slowed by their pounds of body armor and fatigue from forced overtime.''
Whether for organized demonstrations or not, people eager to protest the convention are strategizing.
A "consulta'' was held recently in Chicago among various groups to discuss plans to take at least 1,000 people to New York, said José Martín, an organizer in Chicago.
M. J. Musler, an antiwar activist in Cleveland, said groups across Ohio hoped to muster 15,000 people in New York, "little church ladies to the more radical end of the spectrum.'' Most, she said, plan to go for at least Aug. 29, when United for Peace and Justice has applied for a permit for an antiwar demonstration past the Garden for 250,000 people or more.
West Coast demonstrators may find it more difficult to get to New York, but they seem undeterred, with groups sprouting in Santa Barbara, the San Francisco Bay area, Los Angeles, Fresno and other places promising to bring carloads.
Tanya Mayo, an organizer with a national group called Not In Our Name who is in Oakland, Calif., said she had even advised prospective demonstrators who want to fly to take advantage of a Continental Airlines discount on air travel to New York during the convention period.
"It's a beautiful location for mobilizing people,'' she said of New York. "Three international airports, big bus terminals."
While established antiwar groups and labor unions are actively organizing, many grass-roots organizers, young, self-described radicals like Mr. Straub and his Richmond companions, are playing a role , too.
Nicholas DeGraff, a 23-year-old antiwar activist in Fresno, helped coordinate a group called Rancor (a play on the initials for the Republican National Convention), that is raising money through guided backpacking trips and other events to send at least a couple of dozen demonstrators to New York.
"A lot of people going are professionals, social workers, people who have the ability to save up and pay for a ticket and a place to stay,'' Mr. DeGraff said last week. "We are having fund-raisers for people who can't afford to fly out, like students and individuals whose voices are not heard.''
Mr. DeGraff himself does not have a place to stay yet, counting on the beneficence of churches or other organizations that may offer housing. But he said that would not hold him back and that he planned to take part in acts of civil disobedience, if it comes to that.
"Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. taught that civil disobedience is your duty if that's what it takes,'' Mr. DeGraff said. "The thinking is: Are we going to have to shut down your convention before you listen to average people?''
Organizers are discussing with several churches in New York the possibility of housing demonstrators, and people across the country are calling in favors with friends who live in the city. An anticonvention Web site includes a bulletin board for housing and transportation assistance.
Many activists are deciding to skip the Democratic convention in Boston July 26-29 - and other events like the Group of 8 summit meeting of presidents and prime ministers in Savannah, Ga., June 8-10 - to reserve resources for the Republicans. While many object to Senator John F. Kerry, the presumptive Democratic nominee whose support of the Iraq war is anathema to the left, "he is the lesser of two evils,'' said June Grossholtz, a retired college professor organizing convention protesters in western Massachusetts.
The will may not be a problem but the means can be, especially in places like Richmond, which does not have a deep history of leftist mobilization.
"I am less concerned about getting people interested than where we are going to get the money for the buses,'' Mr. Straub said, adding that they rent for $1,000 per bus.
Muna Hijazi, another organizer, retorted, "People always find a way to pay for them.''
The organizers plan to pass the hat at parties and meetings. They will pass out leaflets at a planned July 3 antiwar demonstration in Richmond, and they are collaborating with organizers in Washington for at least the Aug. 29 demonstration.
The uncertainty over what permitted marches will materialize has caused some confusion and delays in planning.
"What are we going to, if there have been no permits issued?'' one woman asked at a meeting in Richmond the other night to plan the July 3 march, which Mr. Straub and his companions see as a way to fire people up for a descent on New York.
"You don't need a permit to go to New York and express free speech,'' replied Emily Harry, an anticonvention organizer.
This Richmond group began organizing eight months ago, after regular Sunday gatherings in a city park of the local chapter of an antipoverty group, Food not Bombs. Not all are agitated 20-somethings; Connie Moss, 45, who has a son in the Air Force stationed in Europe, said she wanted to show that not all military families support the war.
"The reason I am going to New York is I want the numbers there,'' she said.
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