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NUCLEAR
Radioactive water leaks from Czech Temelin nuclear plant
We Need a Global Attack on Nuclear Proliferation
Japanese, Chinese, S.Korean diplomats begin talks, focus N.Korea
Pakistan introduces bill in parliament to check nuclear proliferation
Pollution Chokes the Tigris
Inspectors: Iraq Weapons Sites Destroyed
UN Inspectors Find Iraqi Missile Parts in Holland
On This Day 1981: Israel bombs Baghdad nuclear reactor
Japan, US to conduct joint anti-missile exercises from 2005
Radioactive materials recycling eyed
US to pullout 12,500 troops from SKorea despite security fears
Japan, US to conduct joint anti-missile exercises from 2005: report
Nuclear Solutions Issues Company Update
UN's Annan hails Reagan's leadership on nuclear weapons
Terrorist Preparedness Test Set for Indian Point Reactor
Hanford's FMEF building still unused
DOE to stop trying to bring Hanford sludge to New Mexico
MILITARY
Leaders Unite to Honor D-Day
UN Inspectors Find Iraqi Missile Parts in Holland
Military Wants 'Biodefense' Ties Against Attacks
contracts awarded
Federal Contracts Giving New Democracies Counsel
Report Cites 'Climate of Fear' in Iran
Despite Agreement, Insurgents Rule Fallujah
Shiite Leaders Urge Radical Cleric to Join Political Process
Iraqi Backs U.S. Stance on Military
9 Militias to Disband in Iraq, but Not Rebel Cleric's Force
U.S. Releases More Prisoners; Bombings Kill at Least 21 Iraqis
Israeli jets overfly Lebanon after rounds fired: security sources
Compromise Plan on Gaza Approved by Israeli Cabinet
Sharon Advances Toward Removal of Some Settlers
Contraband missile issue to be resolved very soon
NATO-Ukraine meet to boost ties
NATO says no entry timetable for Ukraine at summit meeting
US plan to build military training facility in Australia advances
Australian ships head to multinational Pacific Rim war games
'Change inevitable in Pakistan'
India and Pakistan Continue Peace Efforts
When They Knew
What Really Caused Tenet's Departure?
Preserving CIA Status Will Test New Chief
UN Iraq resolution hits Russia snag
U.S. and Iraq Submit Plan to Security Council Session
U.S. to Pull 12,000 Troops From South Korea
POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE
Mourners to Encounter Tightened Security
Pentagon denies approving use of torture
POLITICS
Crack and the White House
U.S. Sen. John Edwards at Bilderberg
A Nation and the World Pay Tribute to Reagan
Weeklong Tribute to Reagan Begins at Presidential Library
Kucinich Takes Roads Less Traveled in Bid
ENERGY
Poll: Voters Want Fuel Economy, Ethanol, Hydrogen
Seven States Urge Bush Action on Tennessee Valley Pollution
OTHER
Twelve Chemical Companies Put Millions at Risk
ACTIVISTS
Russians Protest Plutonium Program at U.S. Embassy
Summit-fueled art, film and forums take center stage
Ban on Subway Photography Prompts Underground Protest
Nuke whistleblower Vanunu appeals to leave Israel
-------- NUCLEAR
-------- accidents and safety
Radioactive water leaks from Czech Temelin nuclear plant
PRAGUE (AFP)
Jun 07, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040607181000.mg0x1pu4.html
Three cubic metres of radioactive water escaped at the weekend from the Czech nuclear power plant Temelin, the plant's spokesman Milan Nebesar told AFP Monday.
The leak on Sunday came from the main circuit pipe in the second block of the plant, located in the south of the country, 60 kilometers (36 miles) from the Austrian border.
"This is nothing serious," the spokesman said, adding that the leak happened in a specially-fitted pipe.
The block is currently closed to allow a faulty transformer to be replaced.
"The nuclear reaction has been stopped for a few days and we expect its relaunch in mid-June," Nebesar added.
Attributed to "a fault in the airtightedness", the incident happened inside a zone controlled by a special floor fitted for such a type of leak, Zdenek Prouza, spokesman for the Czech Office of Nuclear Safety, told AFP.
The incident was first revealed by the Upper Austrian regional government on Monday.
Nebesar said the plant, operated by Czech power company CEZ, had 78 hours to give information following any minor incident at Temelin under a bilateral agreement established between the Czech Republic and Austria.
The plant, which was begun in the mid-1980s under the communist regime, has been controversial since its launch in 2000 with nuclear-free Austria campaigning for its closure ever since.
----
We Need a Global Attack on Nuclear Proliferation
By Madeleine Albright and Robin Cook
June 7, 2004
Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-albright7jun07,1,2981694.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions
The time has come to prevent the nightmare scenario of a nuclear attack. The rhetoric of international leaders about the spread of nuclear weapons and materials has not been matched by enough concrete action, even as Osama bin Laden declares that it is his "religious duty" to acquire and use a nuclear weapon against the West.
When the G-8 leaders meet Tuesday in Sea Island, Ga., we urge them to put aside their differences over Iraq and unite to implement a comprehensive nonproliferation strategy that includes concrete steps and increased financial commitments to control the spread of bomb-making materials and thwart the ambitions of those who would acquire them.
First, the G-8 nations - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, Britain and the United States - must fulfill their pledge to raise $20 billion to fund the G-8 Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction. Still $3 billion short, this important effort helps Russia and other countries safely store and dispose of chemical and nuclear weapon materials.
Even if the pledges were fulfilled, there still would not be enough money to get the job done. Securing the nuclear legacy of Russia alone will cost $30 billion, and there are other stockpiles of inadequately secured highly enriched uranium and weapons-grade plutonium around the world.
Presidents Bush and Vladimir V. Putin have launched a program designed to secure fissile materials around the world. But their plan will take 10 years to complete, during which time terrorists will still be able to collect fissile materials for a bomb.
Our second recommendation therefore is that the G-8 should commit to a far more aggressive timetable - within the next four or five years - for completing this important work.
Third, the G-8 nations must bring to bear all the incentives and sanctions they have at their disposal to stop proliferation. This includes closing the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty loophole that enables states like North Korea to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of programs to produce nuclear energy.
Fourth, the G-8 leaders should pledge themselves to active, person-to-person diplomacy that can help reduce the regional tensions that could lead to the use of nuclear weapons. For example, the scaling back of the nuclear threat between India and Pakistan may have opened the door to further steps to reduce the risks of a nuclear exchange.
Fifth, the leaders must commit their nations to develop and maintain a global network linking intelligence and export control efforts with border, port and airport security to ensure that nuclear materials and technology cannot be moved undetected.
Finally, although France, Russia, Britain and the United States have taken good steps to reduce their nuclear arsenals, more must be done. A failure in this regard would encourage states that do not have nuclear weapons to rebel against nonproliferation norms out of dissatisfaction with what they perceive to be a double standard: Some states get nuclear weapons, while others do not. We call on President Bush and the United States, therefore, to stop developing new nuclear weapons such as the so-called bunker buster. The United States should also sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Together, the United States and Britain should support a fissile materials cutoff treaty that would end the production of fissile materials for use in nuclear weapons.
Given their nuclear weapons capacities, the U.S. and European countries have a special responsibility to ensure that these terrible weapons do not spread further. Before they can fulfill this responsibility, however, they must be seen as credible proponents of nuclear nonproliferation.
The steps described here would help restore credibility to the calls for global nuclear nonproliferation, and enable the U.S. and Europe to exercise the leadership that is so desperately needed to fight proliferation.
Imagine the G-8 meeting that would follow a nuclear incident. The leaders of the industrialized world would be compelled to explain how such a terrible tragedy could have happened. It is their challenge - and responsibility - to take the necessary steps now to protect us all.
Madeleine Albright was secretary of State under President Clinton. Robin Cook was foreign secretary of Britain and is a member of Parliament.
-------- asia
Japanese, Chinese, S.Korean diplomats begin talks, focus N.Korea
TOKYO (AFP)
Jun 07, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040607100515.q5ub260z.html
Senior diplomats from Japan, China and South Korea began two days of talks on Monday to discuss cooperation in the region, including their joint effort to solve the North Korean nuclear standoff.
Officials denied that upcoming six-nation talks over Pyongyang's stance were on the agenda for the meeting at the hot spring resort of Hakone, southwest of Tokyo, but said there "could be some remarks forthcoming (on the talks)."
The gathering also follows on from a landmark agreement by the leaders of the three countries last year, which promised broad regional links as well as attempts to resolve the nuclear issue through dialogue.
Mitoji Yabunaka, director-general of the foreign ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, hosted the talks, officials said.
China's delegation was led by Cui Tiankai, chief of the Chinese foreign ministry's Asia division, while Chung Sang-Ki, head of the South Korean foreign ministry's Asia-Pacific bureau, represented Seoul
"We will discuss details of our cooperation based on the joint statement issued by our leaders last year," a Japanese foreign ministry official said.
Last October, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun signed their first ever joint statement on the sidelines of their talks with Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders.
Under the accord, Japan, China and South Korea agreed to build "across-the-board and future-oriented cooperation in economic, cultural and security areas."
They also underlined their "commitment to a peaceful solution of the nuclear issue facing the Korean peninsula through dialogue."
Yabunaka, who attended May 22's summit between Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, is expected to brief the Chinese and South Korean delegations on that meeting.
Koizumi and Kim discussed North Korea's kidnapping of Japanese nationals, normalising bilateral ties and the nuclear issue.
Yabunaka is also head of Japan's delegation to the six-country talks. China, Japan, North and South Korea, Russia and the United States have met twice in Beijing on the nuclear crisis -- in August last year and in February.
The third round of six-nation talks will be held June 23-25 in Beijing, Kyodo news agency reported last week.
The Hakone meeting was also seen as preparing for a gathering of the three countries' foreign ministers on the sidelines of the Asia Cooperation Dialogue forum, scheduled for June 21 and 22 in China.
The forum groups 18 Asian and Middle Eastern countries including the 10 ASEAN members as well as Japan, China and South Korea.
-------- india / pakistan
Pakistan introduces bill in parliament to check nuclear proliferation
ISLAMABAD (AFP)
Jun 07, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040607170059.i5pafnug.html
A bill was introduced Monday in Pakistan's parliament to tighten controls on the export of nuclear weapons technology following a UN resolution calling on members to prevent weapons of mass destruction from falling into the hands of terrorists, state media reported.
The bill to control the export of goods, technologies, material and equipment related to nuclear and biological weapons and their delivery systems was put before the lower house by minister for parliamentary affairs Raza Hayat Hiraj, national television said.
Pakistan's cabinet last month approved this draft bill which provides imprisonment of up to 14 years, a maximum fine of five million rupeesdollars) or both for offenders.
The move followed a UN Security Council resolution, unanimously passed on April 28, aimed at keeping weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of terrorists and black market traders.
Nuclear-armed Pakistan was hit by an arms proliferation scandal recently when the architect of its atomic weapons programme, Abdul Qadeer Khan, publicly confessed to leaking nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea.
Khan was given a conditional pardon by President Pervez Musharraf but he remains under virtual house arrest in the capital Islamabad.
The government has said a probe into the leaks has not been completed.
-------- iraq
Pollution Chokes the Tigris, a Main Source of Baghdad's Drinking Water
By Dahr Jamail
Jun 7, 2004, 13:20
http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_item&itemid=481
http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_8691.shtml
NewStandard correspondent Dahr Jamail put a tremendous amount of effort into this story, digging up what's really going on with the water situation in the Baghdad area. When authorities wouldn't let him into any of the treatment facilities, he got on a boat to look for himself.
Baghdad , Jun 6 - With reconstruction of a highly inadequate water treatment and distribution system at a near standstill throughout much of Central Iraq, some residents of Baghdad are left with little choice but to drink highly polluted water from the Tigris River. Aside from a newly formed Iraqi non-governmental organization that is focusing on the cleanup of one section of the river, not much is being done to improve Baghdad residents' access to potable water, and US contractors appear unable or unwilling to help.
While many areas of Baghdad have access to drinking water from a few of the functional treatment plants, millions of residents remain without a clean, reliable source. All too many of these unfortunates turn to the rotten banks of the Tigris, which snakes prominently through the heart of Baghdad collecting toxins as it flows.
Abdul Salam Abdulali works on the river, running a dredging machine. A river man for most of his life, he has long been employed by a company that dredges the muddy Tigris, but which was recently incorporated into the Ministry of Water Resources.
"I am married to the water," he said standing atop his dredging machine as it floated atop the river. "But it is too polluted now. I wish I could eat the fish, but when I cut them open I can smell the oil."
In an alarming development, Dr. Husni Mohammed's research has additionally concluded that Iraqi and US military waste during the 2003 invasion deposited oil and benzene into the Tigris, the effects of which include nervous system damage, birth defects and cancer. The residents of the impoverished Baghdad neighborhood called Sadr City are often forced to drink untreated water directly from the Tigris. They are also plagued by diarrhea; many reportedly suffer from recurring kidney stones. Sadr City shopkeeper Ranzi Amher Aziz joined a chorus of voices protesting the lack of potable water in this Baghdad slum. "The situation here is worse now than before the war," he said, echoing others' complaints.
Many here say they cannot see any sign of the US making an effort to help. Aziz stood near a pool of raw sewage in the street. "There has been no work here by the Americans to give us clean water or fix the sewage problem," he said.
Tigris River water is a concentrated cocktail of pesticides, fertilizers, oil, gasoline and heavy metals, reports Dr. Husni Mohammed, an Iraqi who holds a PhD in Environmental and Biological Science and has researched the condition of the Tigris. Raw sewage mixes with particles from antiquated piping and US-fired depleted uranium munitions, he says, plus remnants from untold amounts of other chemicals released by American and Iraqi weaponry used since the 1991 Gulf War.
In an alarming development, Dr. Mohammed's research has additionally concluded that Iraqi and US military waste during the 2003 invasion deposited oil and benzene into the river.
The health effects of benzene -- an ingredient found in gasoline and jet fuel -- are well known and severe. Short-term exposure can cause significant damage to the nervous system and dramatic suppression of the immune system. Consistent consumption of benzene-tainted water can cause long-term effects including cancer (particularly Leukemia), birth defects and damage to the reproductive system.
Heavy metals in drinking water are also known to damage the liver, brain and other vital organs.
Adding to the hazards, very few sewage treatment plants in Baghdad are operational. Raw waste from the city of five million residents can be pumped through the sewer system, completely bypassing any treatment, and flow right into the river.
Statistics underscore the widespread suffering of Iraqis. The incidence of diarrheal diseases, such as typhoid, dysentery and cholera, doubled between August 2002, before the US-led invasion, and a year later. So reported the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), a UN agency tasked with coordinating responses to severe humanitarian crises. Seventy percent of all children's sicknesses are linked to contaminated water, the report adds.
Over one year into the occupation, the situation is not seen by most residents here as having improved much. Therefore, some have begun to take on the responsibility and work of enacting changes they do not believe can wait for foreign authorities or the new interim government to undertake.
Shwaqi Kareem, the president of the National Association for Defense of Environment and Children (NADEC), founded the non-governmental organization (NGO) because he felt it was time to start cleaning up a particularly polluted section of the Tigris. He hopes to remove the garbage, stop the deluge of raw sewage that is flowing into the river and establish gardens along the banks.
Kareem said the Tigris is in worse condition now than before the invasion, and blames the US's disinterest in taking care of a waterway considered vital by Iraqis.
NADEC draws on the labor of around 1,000 workers, said co-founder Salim Kamel. Some are paid, but the majority are volunteers. "We get some money from the municipality," Kamel said, "but some of the volunteers are business owners who donate money as well."
Kareem is reluctant to work with the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in the cleanup; he blames the Coalition for allowing companies to dump their garbage and sewage into the river over the past year.
A contractor interviewed inside the Coalition-run "Green Zone" area echoed Kareem's sentiments. Awshalim Khammo recently quit his job in frustration after working to clean up the areas of the CPA near the Tigris. "I tried all last year to help improve the Palace ground and the river side within the Green Zone, but things went from bad to worse," he said. Khammo complained in particular about dumping -- which he referred to as a "disaster" -- near the Kellogg Brown and Root warehouse and yards on the east end of the presidential palace.
Bechtel Corporation was awarded a no-bid, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract on April 17, 2003 worth $680 million. The controversial contract made Bechtel and its subcontractors responsible for the rehabilitation of the Sharkh Dijlah water treatment plant in Baghdad, as well as the Kerkh Waste Water Treatment Plant.
Repeated contacts with various authorities in charge of civilian press access to water treatment projects yielded no invitations to verify progress made on any Baghdad area water treatment facilities.
The brochure produced by Bechtel to highlight its work in Iraq concerning the drinking water situation only gives a concrete finishing date for two projects, one of which is the rehabilitation and capacity-building of the Sharkh Dijlah plant.
Work on the plant, Bechtel's number two priority in Baghdad since June 2003, is expected to increase potable water by 225 million liters per day. The work was due to be completed by this month.
According to the Washington Post, however, Baghdad officials said Bechtel spent four months studying plans for the expansion made by Iraq's state-run water company, finally concluding they were acceptable. They then reissued the same orders for the same parts from the same supplier Iraqi engineers had tried to acquire them from. Bechtel estimates it will spend $16 billion on the project, carrying out the work essentially as had previously been done by Iraqi engineers no longer permitted to participate.
Bechtel admits the water treatment plant is still being rehabilitated, but says the delay is caused by extra capacity. "We are expanding the treatment capacity of the plant by 50 percent over the design capacity, or 50 million gallons per day," said company spokesperson Francis Canavan. "Our work is expected to be completed in the fall."
Dr. Abdul Latif Rashid, the Minister for Water Resources in Iraq, told the BBC that the poor state of Iraq's infrastructure and past mismanagement are to blame for some of the water problems Iraqis are now facing.
The UN's OCHA report spread the blame more broadly: "Three wars and 13 years of sanctions, as well as the Coalition invasion and the looting that followed it, have dealt a heavy blow to the country's already creaking water system."
Kerkh Wastewater Treatment Plant -- another Baghdad area plant in Bechtel's Implementation Plan -- is currently undergoing rehabilitation efforts, according to a company spokesperson, who said, "Last week, the Kerkh Wastewater Treatment Plant, which we are rehabilitating, began treating sewage for the first time in years, when one-third of the plant reopened."
During a boat tour of the Tigris' banks taken to inspect treatment facilities, NADEC founder Shwaqi Kareem pointed to a massive outpouring of brownish gray wastewater flowing right into the river. The source of this vile discharge? "The Kerkh Wastewater Treatment Plant," said Kareem.
--------
Inspectors: Iraq Weapons Sites Destroyed
June 7, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-UN-Weapons-Inspectors.html
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- A number of sites in Iraq known to have contained equipment and material that could have been used to produce banned weapons and long-range missiles have been either cleaned out or destroyed, U.N. weapons inspectors said Monday.
The inspectors' report said they didn't know whether the items, which had been monitored by the United Nations, were at the sites during the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
U.N. inspectors were pulled from Iraq just before the war began in March 2003 and the United States has refused to allow them to return, instead deploying its own teams to search for weapons of mass destruction.
``It is possible that some of the materials may have been removed from Iraq by looters of sites and sold as scrap,'' the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission said in its quarterly report to the U.N. Security Council.
UNMOVIC said its experts and a team from the International Atomic Energy Agency, which was responsible for dismantling Iraq's nuclear program, were jointly investigating items from Iraq that were discovered in a scrap yard in the Dutch port of Rotterdam.
Through photographs taken during an initial IAEA investigation, UNMOVIC said it discovered that SA-2 engines used in Iraq's Al Samoud 2 banned missile program were among the scrap.
Commission experts examined one missile engine at the site and discovered from the serial number that it had been tagged by U.N. inspectors in the past and had not been declared as having been fired.
Representatives at the scrapyard indicated that between five and a dozen similar engines had been seen there in January and February, and that more could have passed through the yard unnoticed, the report said.
Company staff said other items made of stainless steel and other corrosion-resistant metal alloys bearing the inscription ``Iraq'' or ``Baghdad'' had been observed in shipments delivered from the Middle East since November 2003, it said.
UNMOVIC experts examined a number of items with a portable metal analyzer and determined that they were composed of heat-resistant inconel and titanium -- both subject to monitoring because of their possible dual-use in legitimate civilian activities and banned weapons production, the report said.
Despite cooperation from the Netherlands and the company, UNMOVIC said it wasn't possible to determine how many engines and how much other material previously subject to monitoring in Iraq may have been sent out of the country. It said its investigation was continuing.
The report said high-resolution satellite photos had detected that some sites subject to UNMOVIC monitoring had been cleaned up and equipment and material had been removed.
``In other areas, whole buildings that had previously contained equipment and materials subject to monitoring had been completely dismantled,'' it said.
The report showed satellite photos of a storage site in Shumokh, about than 10 miles northwest of downtown Baghdad, taken in late May 2003 and late February 2004.
UNMOVIC said that during the period between the photos, scrap items and other material was removed from one area and several buildings were demolished.
UNMOVIC spokesman Ewen Buchanan said the Shumokh site and the adjacent Ibn Al-Batyr facility contained biological, chemical, and missile-related items subject to U.N. monitoring. These included fermenters, a freeze drier, distillation columns, parts of missiles, and a 130-gallon ``jacketed reactor vessel'' which could be used in biological or chemical weapons production, he said.
``All sorts of sites seem to have been systematically dismantled, and it's not clear to us what has happened to items and material that was subject to U.N. monitoring,'' Buchanan said. ``It creates a headache in trying to keep an accurate picture of what happened to everything.''
The report noted that the U.S. inspection team -- the Iraq Survey Group now led by UNMOVIC's former deputy director Charles Duelfer -- has not provided the United Nations with any official information on its work or the results of its investigations.
Nonetheless, UNMOVIC said it was evaluating Iraq's procurement network during the period from 1999 to 2002 when U.N. inspectors were not allowed to return and had discovered a sophisticated network to obtain foreign materials, equipment and technology.
``To date, UNMOVIC has found no evidence that these were used for proscribed chemical or biological weapon purposes,'' it said.
--------
UN Inspectors Find Iraqi Missile Parts in Holland
June 7, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-iraq-un-weapons.html
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Iraqi missile motors and other weapons-related equipment have been smuggled to Europe for recycling in scrapyards after they were left unguarded following the U.S. invasion last year, U.N. inspectors said in a report released on Monday.
Several sites in Iraq that once contained equipment that could have been used for biological or chemical weapons, have been emptied and dismantled since May 2003, according to the report to the U.N. Security Council.
It made clear that the U.S.-led occupation force had not protected sites or items that inspectors tagged before the war because of their potential use in weapons of mass destruction.
``A number of sites which contained dual-use equipment that was previously monitored by U.N. inspectors has been systematically taken apart,'' said Ewen Buchanan, spokesman for the New York-based inspectors. ``The question this raises is what happened to equipment known to have been there.
``Where is it now? It's a concern,'' Buchanan asked.
The U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, known as UNMOVIC, sidelined by the United States since its invasion of Iraq last year, did not say all the materials that disappeared were banned weapons.
But it showed before and after satellite pictures of a denuded missile-related site, the Shumokh stores, northwest of Baghdad and photos of a missile engine discovered in a scrapyard in the Dutch port of Rotterdam.
The report said an engine of SA-2 surface-to-air missiles also used by Iraq for its Al Samoud 2 missile program was found in Rotterdam. The engine had been tagged by UNSCOM in 1996.
In 2003, UNMOVIC declared the Al Samoud 2 banned as it had a range of more than 150 km, the limit set by the Security Council. The inspectors destroyed two thirds of Iraq's Al Samoud missiles before they were withdrawn from Iraq on the eve of the Iraq war, but some 25 of the missiles remained in mid-March 2003.
``The existence of missile engines originating in Iraq among scrap in Europe may affect the accounting of proscribed engines known to have been in Iraq's possession,'' UNMOVIC said.
The report said the U.N. inspectors also found papers showing illegal contracts by Iraq for a missile guidance system, laser ring gyroscopes and a variety of production and testing equipment not previously disclosed.
UNMOVIC also complained that it had no access to the reports of the U.S.-organized Iraq Survey Group (ISG) which continues to search for unconventional arms in Iraq.
It said that testimony the ISG presented to the U.S. Senate on unmanned aerial vehicles programs and long-range missiles, was not detailed enough for the commission's experts to determine whether the data had been known to UNMOVIC.
UNMOVIC said it was trying to determine to what extent the contracts had been fulfilled and items delivered to Iraq.
The International Atomic Energy Agency earlier this year warned the Security Council that large quantities of scrap, some of it contaminated, had been transferred out of Iraq from sites it previously monitored.
Mohammed ElBaradei, the agency's director, said that the disappearance of items may have a significant impact on the agency's knowledge of Iraq's remaining nuclear capabilities.
-------- israel
On This Day 1981: Israel bombs Baghdad nuclear reactor
BBC
June 7, 2004
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/7/newsid_3014000/3014623.stm
June 7, 1981: "The Israelis have bombed a French-built nuclear plant near Iraq's capital, Baghdad, saying they believed it was designed to make nuclear weapons to destroy Israel.
It is the world's first air strike against a nuclear plant.
With remarkable precision, an undisclosed number of F-15 bombers and F-16 fighters destroyed the Osirak reactor 18 miles south of Baghdad, on the orders of Prime Minister Menachem Begin.
The army command said all the Israeli planes returned safely.
The 70-megawatt uranium-powered reactor was near completion but had not been stocked with nuclear fuel so there was no danger of a leak, according to sources in the French atomic industry.
Mortal danger
The Israeli Government explained its reasons for the attack in a statement saying: "The atomic bombs which that reactor was capable of producing whether from enriched uranium or from plutonium, would be of the Hiroshima size. Thus a mortal danger to the people of Israel progressively arose."
It acted now because it believed the reactor would be completed shortly - either at the beginning of July or the beginning of September 1981.
The Israelis criticised the French and Italians for supplying Iraq with nuclear materials and plegded to defend their territory at all costs.
The statement said. "We again call upon them to desist from this horrifying, inhuman deed. Under no circumstances will we allow an enemy to develop weapons of mass destruction against our people."
The attack took place on a Sunday, they said, to prevent harming the French workers at the site who would have taken the day off. There have been no reported casualties.
The Osirak reactor is part of a complex that includes a second, smaller reactor - also French-built - and a Soviet-made test reactor already in use.
Iraq denies the reactor was destined to produce nuclear weapons."
Your Memories? Write your account of the events. http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/bsp/witness_form.stm
In Context
News of the audacious raid did not actually emerge until 24 hours later when Israel made its announcement. Only then did Iraq admit it had happened and express indignation.
One of the pilots involved was Ilan Ramon who trained as Israel's first astronaut but was killed in the Columbia shuttle disaster in 2003.
Two weeks after the Osirak attack Israel admitted it had the capability of developing its own nuclear weapons.
And in 1986, Mordechai Vanunu, a former nuclear technician was found guilty of espionage after he told a British newspaper, the Sunday Times, that Israel was secretly building atomic bombs.
French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac cultivated France's special relationship with Iraq during the 1970s to maintain an influence in a region dominated by Anglo-Saxons and boost trade links with the oil-rich nation.
He led the universal condemnation of Israel's attack on Osirak.
Then, 22 years later - as French president - Mr Chirac was vehemently against the USA and Britain going to war with Iraq over the issue of weapons of mass destruction.
-------- japan
Japan, US to conduct joint anti-missile exercises from 2005: report
TOKYO (AFP)
Jun 07, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040607003618.yvrb5yvf.html
Japan and the United States will from next year begin joint exercises simulating their response to a ballistic missile attack on Japan, according to reports Monday.
The exercises will simulate a missile launch, test the information-sharing capabilities of the two countries and confirm their course of action, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said, citing government sources.
The plan came as the US navy from September plans to deploy an Aegis warship with anti-missile capabilities in the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea.
The deployment and the training exercises are seen as precautions against missile attacks by North Korea, the Nihon Keizai said.
----
Radioactive materials recycling eyed
The Asahi Shimbun,
June 7, 2004
http://www.asahi.com/english/business/TKY200406070083.html
The law on nuclear power plant operation may be relaxed to allow reuse of plant materials.
Extremely low-level radioactive materials may be recycled or treated as industrial waste if a government panel's proposal goes ahead, sources said.
Materials such as metal piping, pumps and concrete from dismantled nuclear power plants should be used again or dumped, a subcommittee of an industry ministry advisory panel indicated last week.
At present, all radioactive matter is kept or buried on-site in accordance with the nuclear power reactor law.
Sources said the government aims to revise this law in 2005 so that such materials can be recycled if their radioactivity levels are low enough.
The panel proposal specifies radiation levels of recycled materials must be below one-hundredth of the upper limit a person may be subjected to in a year, set at 1 millisievert.
If adopted, about 4.5 tons of material from the Japan Atomic Power Co.'s Tokai nuclear power plant, now being dismantled, could be reused.
While most materials from the Tokai plant will probably be used in other nuclear power projects, further down the track, material may also be used in manufacturing home appliances or building houses.
For safety and to avoid criticism, the panel has requested the government and power companies to take extra precautions to ensure safe recycling methods and to win the public's trust.
Sources said the government will start by scrutinizing methods used to check radioactivity.
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is slowly softening its stance on the operation of nuclear power facilities, aiming to lift efficiency. Last October, reactors were given the green light to continue operating despite minor damage.
A number of other countries are already reusing low-level radioactive materials.
The costs for a nuclear waste recycling plant now being built in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, were calculated on the assumption that waste will be reused when it is decommissioned.(IHT/Asahi: June 7,2004) (06/07)
-------- korea
US to pullout 12,500 troops from SKorea despite security fears
SEOUL (AFP)
Jun 07, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040607111548.2sbiwsco.html
The United States plans to withdraw 12,500 troops from South Korea by the end of next year, slashing by one third its forces aligned against North Korea, a senior South Korean official announced Monday.
US officials maintain that the troop cut will not result in a weakening of its ability to deter the Stalinist member of President George W. Bush's "axis of evil."
"The United states informed us of its plan to pull out 12,500 troops by the end of December 2005. That figure includes 3,600 to be sent to Iraq," said Kim Sook, the head of the foreign ministry's North American affairs bureau.
Kim said that South Korea had a counter-proposal to present to the United States, which would be delivered after consultations between related government agencies.
Washington currently stations more than 37,000 troops in South Korea under a five-decade-old mutual defense pact.
"US troops will eventually be reduced to 25,000," Kim added at a televised press conference here.
The announcement comes amid lingering uncertainty over the unresolved 20-month standoff over North Korea's nuclear weapons drive and amid growing concern about the health of the US-South Korean military alliance.
Kim said the US plan was disclosed at talks late Sunday with Richard Lawless, the US deputy assistant secretary of defense.
He said Lawless had explained that the troop realignment was part of Washington's ongoing Global Defense Posture Review (GPR) and would be pursued in such a way as to avoid weakening the capability of US and South Korean forces to deter a nuclear-armed North Korea.
"The United States has pushed for the GPR plan ... affecting all US troops including those in Japan, Germany and elsewhere in the world," Kim said.
"Broad consultations between the national security council, the defense ministry and foreign ministry should follow before we notify the United States of the government's position on the US plan."
Under the GPR plan, Washington is seeking to transform its military into a leaner, more mobile force to deal with the shifting post-Cold War security environment.
The announcent came during scheduled talks on the military alliance between South Korea and the United States.
Those talks were to focus on long-standing US plans to realign its forces in South Korea by pulling front-line troops away from the border with communist North Korea to bases south of Seoul.
Part of the plan includes the relocation of the Yongsan military garrison, headquarters of US forces in South Korea, away from Seoul to an area further south.
The issue of wide-ranging troop withdrawals from the Korean peninsula was dealt with as a separate item and is certain to have a deep impact in South Korea, amid fears among conservatives that North Korea could exploit any security vacuum left by departing US troops.
North Korea fields a 1.1 million strong army arrayed close to the world's most heavily fortified border against South Korea's 700,000 troops.
Already Washington's recent announcement that it will redeploy 3,600 troops from its elite 2nd Infantry Division based in South Korea to reinforce the US-led coalition forces in Iraq triggered a backlash from some South Koreans.
Others, including many younger South Koreans, no longer see North Korea as a military threat and would welcome the departure of US troops, according to opinion polls.
The initial redeployment to Iraq scheduled to start around August marks the first reduction in US troop numbers in South Korea since the early 1990s.
Washington has repeatedly denied that its realignment plans and its broader strategy of re-evaluating its forces world-wide reflect a loosening of its commitment to the defense of South Korea.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last week that despite changes in the alignment, there will be no weakening of US deterrent capabilities against North Korea.
-------- missile defense
Japan, US to conduct joint anti-missile exercises from 2005: report
TOKYO (AFP)
Jun 07, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040607003618.yvrb5yvf.html
Japan and the United States will from next year begin joint exercises simulating their response to a ballistic missile attack on Japan, according to reports Monday.
The exercises will simulate a missile launch, test the information-sharing capabilities of the two countries and confirm their course of action, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said, citing government sources.
The plan came as the US navy from September plans to deploy an Aegis warship with anti-missile capabilities in the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea.
The deployment and the training exercises are seen as precautions against missile attacks by North Korea, the Nihon Keizai said.
-------- terrorism
Nuclear Solutions Issues Company Update on Nuclear Weapons Detection Technology
June 7, 2004
(PRIMEZONE)
http://www.primezone.com/newsroom/news_releases.mhtml?d=58743
Nuclear Solutions, Inc. today said it will submit a funding proposal for its new technology to detect shielded nuclear materials and nuclear devices to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The company previously announced that it is developing a new technology to be integrated into passive, primary portal systems to screen trucks and shipping containers in real time for the presence of nuclear weapons materials such as uranium (U-235) and plutonium (Pu-239).
Nuclear Solutions CEO Patrick Herda said, "In order to obtain government support for this project, we anticipate submitting a full proposal for funding the prototype development of our proprietary nuclear weapons detection technology to the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA). The proposal will be in response to HSARPA's solicitation for "Detection Systems for Radiological and Nuclear Countermeasures" (DSRNC BAA04-02) and is due by the end of June.
Nuclear Solutions' proposed project will come under Parts B and C of the agency's solicitation. Those sections address development of next generation detection capabilities. According to the HSARPA, "Part B solicits complete system solutions, and Part C solicits enabling component technologies in the context of a specific Part B system solution."
HSARPA award announcements will begin August 25. (More information, including timetables for submission and awards, is available at http://www.hsarpabaa.com).
"Our mission is to develop product technologies for application in the areas of homeland security, nanotechnology, and environmental technology," Herda explained. "In general, we are making steady progress with patent applications and business development activities. Our overall goal right now is to leverage our technologies to strengthen the financial position of the company over the next few months and we expect to make further announcements as certain milestones are reached.
"Our goal is to provide enabling technologies that will allow partner companies to offer new and improved products in these areas," the Nuclear Solutions CEO added.
In its solicitation, HSARPA explains that it "invests in programs offering the potential for revolutionary changes in technologies that promote homeland security" and it "accelerates the prototyping and development of technologies that reduce homeland vulnerabilities."
Disclaimer: A limited amount of funding is available under the HSARPA Detection Systems for Radiological and Nuclear Countermeasure program and is awarded on a competitive basis. There is no guarantee that Nuclear Solutions will receive funding for this program and or that the program will be successful. The matters discussed in this press release are forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. The actual future results for the Company could differ significantly from those statements. Factors that could adversely affect actual results and performance include, among others, the Company's limited operating history, dependence on key management, financing requirements, technical difficulties commercializing any projects, government regulation, technological change, and competition. In any event, undue reliance should not be placed on any forward-looking statements, which apply only as of the date of this press release. Accordingly, reference should be made to the Company's periodic filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
About Nuclear Solutions, Inc:
Nuclear Solutions, Inc. (OTCBB: NSOL) is dedicated to developing proprietary product technologies responding to the needs and opportunities of the 21st Century in the areas of Homeland Security, Nanotechnology, and Environmental technology. The company's business model centers on developing product technologies that can be licensed to industry or government for further commercialization.
Homeland Security and Defense: Development of new technologies and services to detect shielded nuclear materials and nuclear devices.
Nanotechnology: Development of long-lived nuclear micro-power sources, based on three U.S. Patents, to power applications related to Homeland Security and the emerging field of Nanotechnology such as Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems.
Environmental Technology: Development of tritiated water remediation technology.
More information about Nuclear Solutions, Inc. may be found on its website, www.nuclearsolutions.com
CONTACT: Nuclear Solutions, Inc. John Dempsey, Vice-President 202-787-1951 info@nuclearsolutions.com
-------- u.n.
UN's Annan hails Reagan's leadership on nuclear weapons
Jun 07, 2004
UNITED NATIONS (AFP)
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040607203942.5xdxw3l7.html
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said Monday he was deeply saddened by the death of former US president Ronald Reagan and hailed his work in slowing the global nuclear arms race.
"President Reagan will be remembered for his leadership and resolve during a period of momentous change in world affairs, as well as for the warmth, grace and humour with which he conducted affairs of state," Annan's spokesman said in a statement.
"The positive and optimistic attitude that he brought to ending longstanding conflicts led to historic agreements on the reduction of nuclear arms as well as advances in peace processes in different parts of the world."
Later Monday, the UN Security Council held a moment of silence to mark Reagan's death.
-------- u.s. nuc facilities
-------- new york
Terrorist Preparedness Test Set for Indian Point Reactor
June 7, 2004
BUCHANAN, New York, (ENS)
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jun2004/2004-06-07-09.asp#anchor1
On June 8, 2004 the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which now is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, will conduct an exercise is to assess the level of state and local preparedness in responding to a radiological emergency in the 10 mile Emergency Planning Zone (EPZ) around the Indian Point nuclear power plant 35 miles north of New York City.
Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the federal government has come under criticism from local government and citizens groups concerned that the emergency planning for an accident or terrorist attack at the plant would not be adequate to safeguard the millions of living near the plant.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Chairman Nils Diaz said the exercise is "the first of a kind."
"Yes, we have an emergency preparedness exercise that will take place at the Indian Point Power Plant in New York that contains a terrorist scenario, and that has been the subject of significant attention, both by Homeland Security, the NRC, and especially the local authorities, the county executives and the state of New York," he told a press briefing May 27 sponsored by "Energy Daily."
He said the participants "are prepared." for the force-on-force test, tabletop exercises involving state, local and federal agencies and a comprehensive preparedness exercise for the response to a terrorist attack.
But Tuesday's drill will take place on paper and no one will be evacuated - a main concern of those opposing the plants.
"If FEMA's top priority is protecting public health and safety in the event of a radiological release at Indian Point, then the upcoming exercise must be based on a fast-breaking release scenario and the whole exercise must be open to independent evaluation," said Alex Matthiessen, executive director of Riverkeeper.
"Only a realistic scenario could evaluate the true adequacy of Indian Point's emergency plan. Another staged exercise will be worse than meaningless - it constitutes reckless endangerment of human lives," said Matthiessen.
Officials from Entergy Nuclear Northeast, which owns and operates Indian Point, dismissed many of the coalition's criticisms.
Diaz said it will be "fairly tough test" that "involves a significant amount of resources, and in which we're going to test all of the elements of emergency preparedness, including these issues that have been brought up regarding communications."
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is planning 25 such emergency response exercises this year.
-------- washington
Hanford's FMEF building still unused
Monday, June 7th, 2004
By Annette Cary,
Tri-City Herald staff writer
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/tch/local/story/5165897p-5098389c.html
For possible lease: 250,000-square-foot building, $350 million sunk capital cost, extremely sturdy, remote desert location, only slightly used.
More than a quarter of a century after construction began on the Fuels and Materials Examination Facility, it sits unused on the Hanford nuclear reservation.
"If someone's interested in it, we'd be interested in hearing from them," said Andrea Harper, a Department of Energy Richland spokeswoman.
DOE has come up with no final plan for the building, having more pressing environmental cleanup problems to address at Hanford. Nor has there been a serious effort to market the building commercially since one was announced in 1995.
There have been plenty of proposals -- including an inquiry about using it as a movie soundstage -- but no long-term use for the building has been found. "It's quite a magnificent facility," said Jim Steffen, the chief engineer for the deactivation and decommissioning project for DOE contractor Fluor Hanford.
That's kept government and commercial interests pitching suggestions to keep the building from becoming the target of a wrecking ball for nearly two decades.
The facility was conceived in the mid-'70s as a place to study and test fuels for the nation's breeder reactor technology program, a program to make power and reactor fuel at the same time. But its mission was changed because of nuclear proliferation concerns.
The building, still never used, was modified at a cost of $100 million to support the manufacture of fuel for the Fast Flux Test Facility, a Hanford research reactor, and the proposed Clinch River Breeder Reactor.
But by 1986 the breeder program was dead and $280 million had been spent on the hulking, gray building in the desert. Equipment costs raised the government's expenses further.
"It's big and bleak from the inside, too," Steffen said.
Each of its six floors has a 22-foot ceiling. It stands 98 feet above ground and extends 35 feet below ground.
It's equipped with 14 hot cells for work on radioactive material, the largest 40-by-50-by-100 feet. Work may be done in large manufacturing bays or a series of laboratories and other smaller rooms.
A past contractor tried to market some of its fortresslike features. On-site turbines can make its own power and it has the same capacity to withstand earthquakes as a commercial nuclear reactor.
Westinghouse Hanford Co. was expecting interest from manufacturing firms, chemical or pharmaceutical processors and firms supporting the nuclear industry.
But there also has been interest in using the building as a movie soundstage, a secure facility for the gemstone industry and an earthquake-proof, power failure-resistant repository for Internet banking records.
The list of proposed government uses compiled by Steffen is even longer. It's been considered to replace the Rocky Flats Weapons Plant, for weapons storage and to be used with the Fast Flux Test Facility to produce isotopes for medicine or deep space missions.
It's been evaluated for several Hanford or Tri-City projects, ranging from providing laboratory space for Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to storing spent nuclear fuel to serving as a pilot plant for processing radioactive waste stored in underground tanks.
The project that looked most promising, manufacturing plutonium-powered batteries for the nation's deep space probes, resulted in a $30 million investment in the plant.
But that project too was doomed after reactors producing plutonium 238 for the project shut down. The work eventually was sent to New Mexico.
As large projects were proposed, the building began to be used occasionally for the stray Hanford program.
Training courses were held there for operators needing to learn to use large cranes the building housed. Equipment was tested there. And like any extra space, it became a storage area for seldom-used equipment.
"One of the good decisions made is it was never used for minor missions (involving) radioactive materials so it was never contaminated," Steffen said.
It's a long shot, but DOE or the Office of Homeland Security might still find a use for the facility someday, he said.
-------- us nuc waste
DOE to stop trying to bring Hanford sludge to New Mexico
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Monday, June 7, 2004
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/aplocal_story.asp?category=6420&slug=NM%20WIPP%20Sludge
CARLSBAD, N.M. -- The U.S. Department of Energy has agreed to stop trying to move radioactive sludge from its Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington state to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant here.
Under a deal reached with the state of New Mexico, the DOE could apply for future permission to bring the sludge to the state, but the state would have the legal right to reject it.
Don Hancock, head of the Nuclear Waste Safety Project at the Southwest Research and Information Center in Albuquerque, said the agreement would give the state veto power.
"We think this is a good thing," said Hancock, a longtime WIPP watchdog who was involved in the discussions.
State Environment Secretary Ron Curry said the deal is the best way to ensure that the waste never comes to New Mexico.
"It's under our state control," he said Thursday.
The 2,150-foot-deep repository excavated from underground salt beds opened in 1999. The facility buries such things as gloves, rags, tools, dried sludge and other debris contaminated by plutonium during weapons work.
New Mexico has been trying to prevent waste shipments to WIPP from Hanford's underground tanks, which hold about 53 million gallons of radioactive liquid, sludge and saltcake.
The DOE has been pushing to reclassify tank waste at Hanford and in Idaho and South Carolina so the agency would not have to ship it to a special high-level waste repository. After a federal judge ruled the agency could not reclassify the waste in the tanks, DOE began lobbying Congress to change the law.
The Senate last week approved a bill that would allow the department to reclassify sludge at its South Carolina nuclear site as low-level waste.
Under the New Mexico deal, the DOE agreed that all waste "formerly managed as high-level waste" could not come to WIPP. The new deal will be included in a modification to WIPP's state operating permit.
A DOE application to revise the permit would ensure an opportunity for public comment, said Paul Detwiler, head of the DOE's WIPP office.
-------- MILITARY
Leaders Unite to Honor D-Day
Bush, Chirac Celebrate Heroism of Normandy Invasion
By Keith B. Richburg and Dana Milbank
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, June 7, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A20763-2004Jun6?language=printer
CAEN, France, June 6 -- Under a pristine blue sky, more than 20 world leaders gathered Sunday to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy, the world's largest amphibious military expedition, which cost tens of thousands of lives and eventually wrested control of mainland Europe from Nazi Germany.
Thousands of aging and ailing D-Day veterans -- Americans, Britons, Canadians, French and others -- met for what will likely be the last major reunion of what is now commonly called the Greatest Generation. With most of the D-Day veterans now in their eighties and dying at a rate of more than 1,000 a day, the ceremony -- with mournful martial music and the blasts of cannons -- bore the mark of a valedictory for those who fought, as well as a tribute to the fallen.
"France will never forget," French President Jacques Chirac said during ceremonies at the American military cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer. "She will never forget that sixth of June 1944, the day hope was reborn and rekindled. She will never forget those men who made the ultimate sacrifice to liberate our soil, our native land, our continent from the yoke of Nazi barbarity."
President Bush, who attended the events with first lady Laura Bush, said: "Generations to come will know what happened here, but these men heard the guns. Visitors will always pay respects at this cemetery, but these veterans come looking for a name, and remembering faces and voices from a lifetime ago."
"In the trials and that sacrifice of war we became inseparable allies," Bush said at the event, facing a sea of white stone crosses and Stars of David, marking the 9,387 American gravesites there. "The nations that battled across this continent would become trusted partners in the cause of peace, and our great alliance of freedom is strong and it is still needed today."
Bush offered a conciliatory pledge to Europeans who today question the U.S. commitment to the transatlantic alliance forged in World War II: "America would do it again for our friends."
He blended his remembrance with a brief tribute to former president Ronald Reagan, who died Saturday at age 93. "Twenty summers ago, another American president came here to Normandy to pay tribute to the men of D-Day," Bush said. "He was a courageous man, himself, and a gallant leader in the cause of freedom, and today we honor the memory of Ronald Reagan."
Twenty years ago, Reagan gave a memorable speech marking the 40th anniversary of D-Day. "These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc," Reagan said then. "These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war."
Bush spoke about the waning days of the surviving veterans. "Now has come a time of reflection, with thoughts of another horizon, and the hope of reunion with the boys you knew," he said. "I want each of you to understand you will be honored ever and always by the country you served and by the nations you freed."
At the main flag-draped ceremony at Arromanches, the midway point along the Normandy beaches where U.S., British and Canadian forces landed at dawn 60 years ago, Chirac said: "France will never forget what it owes America, its steadfast friend and ally."
"France is keenly aware that the Atlantic Alliance, forged in adversity, remains, in the face of new threats, a fundamental element of our collective security."
The event took on the form of a mini-summit. Bush, Chirac, Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, Queen Elizabeth II, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, Australian Prime Minister John Howard, as well as the leaders of Belgium, Norway, New Zealand and the Netherlands, met for a working lunch at a chateau that survived the Allied bombing of Caen and now serves as city hall.
Also in attendance was German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, making the first appearance at a D-Day commemoration by a German leader. Schroeder was born just two months before the invasion began, and for many Germans, his presence at the commemoration marked a long-sought recognition that the postwar period is over and Germany has resumed its place as a full and equal partner in the Western alliance.
Chirac's surprise invitation to Schroeder this year was as much a measure of the personal warmth between the two leaders -- who became close last year after jointly opposing the Iraq war -- as a sign of how far Europe has come in burying its wartime past.
In a poll published Saturday, conducted by the French firm IFOP for the French daily newspaper Figaro, the vast majority of French surveyed considered Germany a better ally to France than the United States. About 82 percent of those polled said they considered Germany a very strong or somewhat strong ally, compared with just 55 percent who said the United States was a very strong or somewhat strong ally. Ten years ago, 70 percent of French citizens surveyed in a similar poll said the United States was a very strong or somewhat strong ally.
In Le Molay-Littry, Marie Marie-Therese Ozenne, 49, owner of Cafe du Commerce, said, " I know there are some people in Normandy who still speak badly of Germans, but that is just the older generation." She added, "The funny thing is that most people here in Molay-Littry don't see Schroeder's visit as a problem. The people here are more against Bush than Schroeder."
Schroeder's participation stirred a debate in Germany that mixed patriotism, guilt, remorse over the German war dead and the sense that for Germans, D-Day was as much a defeat as a liberation. Most controversial was Schroeder's decision not to go to a German cemetery, but instead lay a wreath in a Commonwealth cemetery in Ranville, where 322 German soldiers are buried with more than 2,000 soldiers from eight allied countries.
Chirac and his wife Bernadette greeted the leaders at the foot of a red carpet as they arrived for lunch at the Abbaye aux Hommes chateau. Schroeder lingered far longer than most other guests, chatting with Chirac, who rested his left hand on his German colleague's back.
The greeting for Bush and first lady Laura Bush, in contrast, was more perfunctory. When Bush emerged from his limousine, the two presidents shook hands quickly, Bush patted Bernadette Chirac on the back, and Chirac kissed Laura Bush's hand. Then the Bushes moved quickly inside.
Bush, lectured on Saturday night by Chirac for comparing World War II to the Iraq war, avoided such comparisons Sunday, instead celebrating the U.S. friendship with France. Telling the story of a woman from Colleville-sur-Mer who married an American G.I. who fought on Omaha Beach, Bush produced chuckles by declaring it "another fine moment in Franco-American relations."
Bush departed Europe on Sunday night for Sea Island, Ga., where he is hosting the G-8 Summit of world leaders this week.
Walter Rayman, 79, of Barnegat, N.J., was on his first visit to the beaches of Normandy since he landed at Omaha on D-Day. To him, the ceremony was a blur.
"Truthfully, I've got so much on my mind that it's hard to even consider their words," he said. "It's very difficult to be back here."
Staff writer Matt Mosk and special correspondents Pan Yuk in Ste.-Mere-Eglise and in Le Molay-Littry, and Shannon Smiley in Berlin contributed to this report.
-------- arms
UN Inspectors Find Iraqi Missile Parts in Holland
Mon Jun 7, 2004
Reuters
By Evelyn Leopold
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040607/wl_nm/iraq_un_weapons_dc_2
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Iraqi missile motors and other weapons-related equipment have been smuggled to Europe for recycling in scrapyards after they were left unguarded following the U.S. invasion last year, U.N. inspectors said in a report released on Monday.
Several sites in Iraq that once contained equipment that could have been used for biological or chemical weapons, have been emptied and dismantled since May 2003, according to the report to the U.N. Security Council.
It made clear that the U.S.-led occupation force had not protected sites or items that inspectors tagged before the war because of their potential use in weapons of mass destruction.
"A number of sites which contained dual-use equipment that was previously monitored by U.N. inspectors has been systematically taken apart," said Ewen Buchanan, spokesman for the New York-based inspectors. "The question this raises is what happened to equipment known to have been there.
"Where is it now? It's a concern," Buchanan asked.
The U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, known as UNMOVIC, sidelined by the United States since its invasion of Iraq last year, did not say all the materials that disappeared were banned weapons.
But it showed before and after satellite pictures of a denuded missile-related site, the Shumokh stores, northwest of Baghdad and photos of a missile engine discovered in a scrapyard in the Dutch port of Rotterdam.
The report said an engine of SA-2 surface-to-air missiles also used by Iraq for its Al Samoud 2 missile program was found in Rotterdam. The engine had been tagged by UNSCOM in 1996.
In 2003, UNMOVIC declared the Al Samoud 2 banned as it had a range of more than 150 km, the limit set by the Security Council. The inspectors destroyed two thirds of Iraq's Al Samoud missiles before they were withdrawn from Iraq on the eve of the Iraq war, but some 25 of the missiles remained in mid-March 2003.
"The existence of missile engines originating in Iraq among scrap in Europe may affect the accounting of proscribed engines known to have been in Iraq's possession," UNMOVIC said.
The report said the U.N. inspectors also found papers showing illegal contracts by Iraq for a missile guidance system, laser ring gyroscopes and a variety of production and testing equipment not previously disclosed.
UNMOVIC also complained that it had no access to the reports of the U.S.-organized Iraq Survey Group (ISG) which continues to search for unconventional arms in Iraq.
It said that testimony the ISG presented to the U.S. Senate on unmanned aerial vehicles programs and long-range missiles, was not detailed enough for the commission's experts to determine whether the data had been known to UNMOVIC.
UNMOVIC said it was trying to determine to what extent the contracts had been fulfilled and items delivered to Iraq.
The International Atomic Energy Agency earlier this year warned the Security Council that large quantities of scrap, some of it contaminated, had been transferred out of Iraq from sites it previously monitored.
Mohammed ElBaradei, the agency's director, said that the disappearance of items may have a significant impact on the agency's knowledge of Iraq's remaining nuclear capabilities.
-------- biological weapons
Military Wants 'Biodefense' Ties Against Attacks
June 7, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-security-biotech.html
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The Pentagon made an appeal on Monday to biotechnology scientists and executives to help the United States build a strong defense against attacks employing deadly biological, chemical and radiological weapons.
An estimated 16,000 scientists, executives, and government officials are attending BIO 2004 Annual International Convention.
U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Stephen Reeves, who oversees the Joint Program Office for Chemical-Biological Defense, called for partnerships with biotech companies to speed up the launch of new products to detect and diagnose infections and decontaminate poisoned areas.
Jim Zarzycki, technical director of the U.S. Army's Edgewood Chemical and Biological Center in Maryland, outlined a range of new technologies that could be tapped to weave molecular detection systems into the uniforms of ground troops, create ``edible'' vaccines, and develop lightweight but tougher body armor built around bioceramics.
``Our goals are to move beyond basic research and learn how to work with bioindustry so we can aim for funding to apply new opportunities in fiscal 2006,'' he told a panel discussion.
Reeves said he was encouraged by new work in radar systems that can be used to scan ``suspect clouds'' that could contain contamination.
The call for more joint biodefense work was endorsed by Richard Hollis, chief executive officer of Hollis-Eden Pharmaceuticals Inc., a San Diego company developing a radiation-protection drug.
``This is a call to arms for our industry,'' Hollis said, adding that the nation should develop medical counter-measures to threats such as chemical contamination or a ``dirty bomb'' that could spread dangerous radiation in a crowded city or an attack on a nuclear power plant.
Dozens of extra police were stationed outside downtown convention halls to keep protesters away.
-------- business
contracts awarded
Washington Post/States News Service
Monday, June 7, 2004; Page E04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A20999-2004Jun6?language=printer
ANHAM of Vienna won a $120.13 million contract from the Army's Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command for Iraqi Armed Forces and Associated Security Forces, 15 Battalion Sets, and six Brigade Headquarters Sets.
Development Associates Inc. of Arlington won a shared contract valued at up to $100 million from the Agency for International Development for international legislative strengthening technical assistance.
Financial Markets International Inc. of Bethesda won a shared contract valued at up to $100 million from the Agency for International Development for international legislative strengthening technical assistance.
Development Alternatives Inc. of Bethesda won a shared contract valued at up to $100 million from the Agency for International Development for international legislative strengthening technical assistance.
Management Systems International of Washington won a shared contract valued at up to $100 million from the Agency for International Development for international legislative strengthening technical assistance.
Innovative Solutions of Hollywood, Md., won a $30 million contract from the Air Force's Electronics Systems Center for the Battle Control System-Mobile.
Lankford/Sysco Food Services Inc. of Pocomoke City, Md., won a $25.1 million contract from the Defense Supply Center for food and beverage support for the military forces and the Job Corps.
BAE Systems of Rockville won a $17.06 million contract from the Naval Air Systems Command for technical and engineering services for communication-electronic platforms, systems and subsystems.
ASRC Management Services of Greenbelt won a $13.34 million contract from the Justice Department's Drug Enforcement Administration for technical and clerical support.
Accenture LLP of Reston won a $10 million contract from the Homeland Security Department to support border security programs.
JACER Corp. of Arlington won a contract valued at up to $7.5 million from the General Services Administration's Federal Supply Service for management, organizational and business improvement services.
Northrop Grumman Information Technology of Reston won a $6.06 million contract from Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center for the second phase of the Transformational Communication MilSatcom Mission Operations Segment effort to refine its requirements.
AETC Inc. of Arlington won a $5.55 million contract from the Navy's Office of Naval Research for research and development in submarine science and technology.
Norfolk Dredging Co. of Chesapeake, Va., won a $3.24 million contract from the Army for a shore protection project in Pinellas County, Fla.
Praxis Inc. of Alexandria won a $2.84 million contract from the Naval Research Laboratory for scientific, technical and engineering support services.
Alutiiq Security & Technology LLC of Chesapeake, Va., won a $2.14 million contract from the Naval Surface Warfare Center for assistance in developing, implementing and maintaining electronic security systems programs for the Headquarters Army National Guard Bureau mission.
Bay Electric Co. of Newport News, Va., won a $1.65 million contract from the Justice Department's Bureau of Prisons for high mast lighting.
Advex Corp. of Hampton, Va., won a $1.33 million contract from the Navy for work on the USS Stout (DDG-55).
Andrew Taylor Inc. of Gaithersburg won a $1.21 million contract from the Air Force's Air Mobility Command for an advanced counterintelligence training program.
Booz Allen Hamilton of McLean won a $1.1 million contract from the Agriculture Department's Forest Service for a performance accountability system project.
Northrop Grumman Systems Corp. of Linthicum Heights won a $942,600 contract from the Air Force Materiel Command for fire control equipment.
Comptech Corp. of Rockville won a $615,215 contract from the Defense Logistics Agency for gun solenoid assemblies.
Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory of Laurel won a $604,087 contract from the Navy's Office of Naval Research for research and development of an integrated wireless coastal communication network.
Market Vision Inc. of Burke won a contract valued at up to $450,000 from the General Services Administration's Federal Supply Service for management, organizational and business improvement services.
American Technology Corp. of Baltimore won a $445,350 contract from the Army's Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command for hazard-detecting instruments and apparatuses.
Integrated Asset Management Inc. of Millersville, Md., won a $421,562 contract from the Senate's Office of the Sergeant at Arms for inventory services.
Survice Engineering Co. of Belcamp, Md., won a $399,677 contract from the Air Force's Air Armament Center for high-bypass engineer modeling and analysis.
Lockheed Martin Corp. of Gaithersburg won a $325,000 contract from the Army's Communications-Electronics Command for research and development.
Network Industries of Norfolk won a $250,000 contract from the Veterans Affairs Department for construction services.
Costabile Associates Inc. of Bethesda won a $147,041 contract from the Health and Human Services Department's National Library of Medicine for foreign-language catalogues.
North Taiga Ventures Inc. of Gaithersburg won a $143,493 contract from the Homeland Security Department's Coast Guard to replace the windows, doors and air conditioning.
Allied Enterprises Inc. of Norfolk won a $127,132 contract from the Defense Logistics Agency for cleaning compound.
Quantico Arms & Tactical Supply Inc. of Quantico, Va., won a contract valued at up to $125,000 from the General Services Administration's Federal Supply Service for law enforcement, security, marine craft, fire-rescue and special purpose clothing.
Mid-Atlantic Chemical Inc. of Stevensville, Va., won a $100,000 contract from the Defense Logistics Agency for ball and roller-bearing grease.
ITT Industries Inc.'s Night Vision division in Roanoke won a $99,524 contract from the Naval Inventory Control Point for night image converters.
Wilder Mechanical Corp. of Newport News, Va., won a $90,330 contract from the Homeland Security Department's Coast Guard for renovation services.
Coda Research of Silver Spring won a $59,774 contract from the Health and Human Services Department's National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for a study of twins and siblings with systemic rheumatic disorders.
These contracts were awarded by the federal government to companies in Maryland, Virginia and the District. For more information, call States News Service at 202-628-3100, Ext. 266.
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Federal Contracts Giving New Democracies Counsel
By Anitha Reddy
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 7, 2004; Page E04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20631-2004Jun6.html
Development Associates Inc., an Arlington consulting firm, won the right to compete for work advising legislatures of young democracies.
Three other local companies -- Financial Markets International Inc. and Development Alternatives Inc., both of Bethesda, and Management Systems International of Washington -- won access to the contract, which is administered by the U.S. Agency for International Development.
All four will now bid against each other for projects around the world, typically worth less than $10 million each. The contract's value, for the companies combined, is capped at $100 million.
The consultants are usually hired for specific assignments and include former state legislators and congressional representatives, sociologists, software engineers and political science professors. They work in teams, usually made up of about six people and led by a few Americans, and counsel legislators on a wide range of practical issues. The jobs usually last for three years.
In countries where the laborious process of updating laws is still done by hand or with rudimentary software, "people don't know what laws are passed and they keep passing the same law over and over again," said Jack Sullivan, an executive at Development Associates who oversees legislative consulting projects. To solve that problem, the teams set up computer systems and teach legislative staff how to enter laws and pending bills into databases.
The consultants also teach parliamentary research staff members how to respond to legislators' requests, such as a summary of laws on a given topic. They also edit early drafts of legislation and show lawmakers' staffs how to write laws briefly and clearly.
The advisers also give courses in political jockeying. In Armenia, consultants from Development Associates are counseling the legislature on how to assert itself in contests with the executive branch. That's a tricky issue in unstable democracies where a powerful executive frequently overwhelms the legislators. One suggestion: Call more members of the executive branch before the legislature to explain their actions in formal hearings.
"In many of these systems, the legislatures are rubber stamps for the executive branch and many would like not to be," Sullivan said.
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Report Cites 'Climate of Fear' in Iran
By Karl Vick
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, June 7, 2004; Page A17
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20714-2004Jun6.html
ISTANBUL, June 6 -- Iran's hard-line conservative rulers have succeeded in stifling public criticism through illegal arrests, systematic beatings and "white torture" in secret prisons, according to a new report by an international watchdog group.
Human Rights Watch, a New York-based advocacy group, concluded that hard-liners have intimidated critics by shuttering dozens of newspapers, arresting student protesters by the thousands and operating jail facilities beyond the reach of Iran's elected reformers. "White torture" is the term political prisoners use for excruciating confinement alone inside tiny, artificially lit cells for weeks at a time.
The title of the 65-page report, "Like the Dead in Their Coffins: Torture, Detention and the Crushing of Dissent in Iran," refers to the rows of solitary cells in which detainees were confined. The cells typically measure 3 feet by 6 feet.
Massoud Behnoud, a journalist who eventually fled overseas, is quoted in the report as saying, "In the first few hours it is very hard. You have never been so close to walls in your life."
The report details the "climate of fear" noted in a U.N. human rights report issued in January. The U.N. report mentioned a downward trend for human rights in Iran that diplomats and other observers trace to 2000, when political reformers swept into parliament with promises to ease the grip of religious conservatives on daily life and reform a corrupt economy.
The reformists' electoral victory provoked hard-liners to fight back by using the appointive offices that remained under the control of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme authority in Iran's theocracy. This year, one appointed body, the Guardian Council, was widely condemned for disqualifying about 2,400 reform candidates from parliamentary elections in February, ensuring a conservative victory. Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, whose son is married to Khamenei's daughter, was elected parliamentary speaker on Sunday.
The human rights report also documented a parallel, four-year effort by Iran's conservative judiciary to stifle the public discussion that fueled the reform movement.
"By targeting the leadership of the student activist community and the most influential writers and newspaper editors, the government was able to chill expression among the larger public," the report stated.
Students were more likely than journalists to suffer beatings in prisons controlled by the judiciary or Revolutionary Guard Corps, the report said, noting that more than 4,000 were rounded up by plainclothes agents in demonstrations last July.
Last July , a Canadian photographer, Zahra Kazemi, died after being beaten into a coma during interrogation in a Tehran prison two weeks before. Canada recalled its ambassador over the incident.
-------- iraq
Despite Agreement, Insurgents Rule Fallujah
By Daniel Williams
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, June 7, 2004; Page A15
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A20761-2004Jun6?language=printer
FALLUJAH, Iraq -- The travelers entered Fallujah first through a checkpoint operated by the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, a U.S.-trained paramilitary unit meant to add muscle to the American-led occupation. The men in black berets distractedly waved cars past, onto the city's main street.
Then it became apparent who was really in charge. A few yards in, wild-eyed young men in masks pulled cars over at will, searched them and demanded identification documents. No one could leave or enter without passing muster. Other groups of fighters in masks roamed side streets and alleys, brandishing rifles at all sorts of angles.
It was not supposed to be like this. Under an agreement made last month with U.S. Marine commanders, a new force called the Fallujah Brigade, led by former officers from Saddam Hussein's demobilized army, was to safeguard the city. The unruly gunmen -- many of them insurgents who battled the Marines through most of April -- were supposed to give way to Iraqi police and civil defense units.
Instead, the brigade stays outside of town in tents, the police cower in their patrol cars and the civil defense force nominally occupies checkpoints on the city's fringes but exerts no influence over the masked insurgents who operate only a few yards away.
The Marines gave the brigade the task of apprehending the killers of four American contractors whose bodies were burned, mutilated and hung from a bridge in March, capturing foreign fighters and disarming the insurgents. None of that has happened.
President Bush endorsed the Fallujah solution on the grounds that it made "security a shared responsibility." But the sight of insurgents still in control of byways and the kidnapping of foreigners and Iraqis with impunity suggests that they are sharing their power with no one.
Moreover, continuing mayhem on Fallujah's outskirts raises the question of whether the Americans have simply created a safe haven for anti-occupation fighters. On Saturday, a Fallujah-based group calling itself the Mujaheddin Battalions announced it was transferring its fight to Baghdad -- but was still committed to the truce in its home city.
Fallujah byways are a hell of roadside bombs and ambushes. On Friday, an armored sport-utility vehicle carrying this Washington Post reporter and his driver was attacked close to Fallujah on the main highway to Baghdad. Four men in an orange-and-white taxi pumped dozens of bullets from AK-47 assault rifles into the vehicle for more than two minutes, each round causing a loud thump on the vehicle's metal plating and reinforced windows. They shot from behind, from in front and from the sides, where their determined frowns and mustached faces were clearly visible, as they and we weaved down the highway at 90 mph. The fusillade stopped when the SUV, its back tires missing and its rear windows shattered, spun out of control. The gunmen sped down the road, evidently thinking their mission was accomplished. Neither the driver nor the reporter was injured.
Marines were once determined to put an end to the threats in and around Fallujah. After the April fighting, they were poised to stage a full-blown assault on Fallujah, but a public outcry over casualties and calls from Iraqi allies for a negotiated solution led to the new arrangement. A similar dynamic has slowed the U.S. pursuit of Shiite Muslim rebels in southern Iraq, where fear of igniting a broader revolt has stayed the hand of U.S. forces. So far, two cease-fires have been called in the south.
In Fallujah, despite the compromise, the Marines' brash adversaries dominate the streets. Yet no U.S. offensive is in the works.
"We don't intend to go in wholesale. There's no doubt we could clear Fallujah out, but to what end?" asked Col. Larry Brown, an operations officer with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force camped outside the city. "We measure progress in small steps. We prefer to bring them back into the fold slowly. It is a good sign that Iraqis are handling their problems."
Brown acknowledged that Marines were concerned that Fallujah could become a guerrilla staging area, but said, "it is only supposition that Fallujah is a sanctuary for insurgents. If it is in any way, then the deal's off. There is probably a small contingent of hard-core gunmen there," he said.
"Inevitably, if we went in, there would be a lot of collateral damage. People would defend their homes. We would only go as a last resort," Brown said.
Fallujah, about 35 miles west of Baghdad in an area known as the Sunni Triangle, has been a center of anti-occupation rebellion among Sunni Muslims for more than a year. It is a city renowned for smugglers and for supplying recruits for Hussein's army and security services. It is also known for piety; residents call Fallujah "the city of 100 mosques," several of which were used as redoubts for fighters firing on Marines.
Since the truce, Islam has emerged openly as a potent force, according to Brown and Iraqis familiar with the city. Islamic law, or sharia, is beginning to take root, to the point where clandestine vendors of alcohol have been flogged and paraded naked on the street; beauty salons have been shut down and barbers told to eschew Western cuts and not shave off beards. Among strict Muslims, beards are a requirement.
Foreigners have frequently been kidnapped by gangs of masked gunmen, who have released their captives only in response to requests by religious leaders.
On Friday, masked men in Fallujah handed out a manifesto signed by 18 groups with names such as the God Is Great Battalions, the Muhammad Messenger of God Forces, the Islamic Resistance Brigades and the Jihad Battalion. They rejected Iraq's newly named interim government and accused the United States of "acts of killing, destruction, violation of holy places and organized plunder."
"America shall reap, with God's help, what it has sown," the document said. It pledged to "continue resistance in all its forms as the only way to achieve victory."
Fallujah residents who supported the creation of the U.S.-backed Fallujah Brigade said the city was unsettled but not out of control. Jasim Saleh, one of the brigade's commanders, said "it is a mystery" who was kidnapping foreigners and that he opposed imposition of Islamic law in the city. Insurgents who came to Fallujah from elsewhere are being pressured by local leaders to leave, he said, adding that the killers of the American contractors have probably already fled the city. In any case, he said, "Everyone in Fallujah condemns the mutilation."
Saleh said there was no need for the Marines to resume patrolling the city, because about 1,700 brigade members are equipped to take control. "There are still influences in Fallujah trying to spoil the accord. Many are from outside the city and some from outside Iraq, but we will soon be able to dominate Fallujah," the former army officer said in a telephone interview.
Esawi Barakat, a local tribal leader described by Marines as a power broker in the city, played down the imposition of Islamic law. Restrictions on alcohol and hairdressers only complement Fallujah's conservative personality, he argued.
"After so many deaths, people who misbehave in front of Fallujah's families must be punished," he said. "If you want to drink, you should go to Baghdad. Western hairstyles offend our rural tastes."
Barakat said that danger to foreigners originates with a lust for revenge after a year of turmoil that climaxed with heavy fighting in April and May. "There have been too many dead. People only think of revenge," he said. "If people discover a visitor is an American agent or traitor, they are all happy to punish him."
U.S. forces jailed Barakat for six months on suspicion of leading anti-occupation actions. He was released in April. If the city is tense, he argued, it is because residents suspect the Marines will move in again. Another tribal leader and former army general, Khalaf Aliyan Khalaf, said that keeping Marines out of Fallujah is only the first step.
"As long as the Americans are inside Iraq, there will be no security anywhere," he said.
Saleh, Barakat and Khalaf all said that forces such as the Fallujah Brigade ought to be given control of other cities in central Iraq. Brown said it was too early to expand the experiment. "The jury is still out on Fallujah," the Marine colonel said.
In Fallujah on Friday, neither police nor the brigade showed any eagerness to clear the streets of masked men. Their inaction made for a nerve-wracking trip. When my driver and I approached four policemen who were sitting in a squad car and asked them to escort us out of the city, one answered, "If we did that, they would kill us as spies, and kill you, too."
The policemen suggested that the best escape route lay on the northeast side of town, on the approach to Fallujah Brigade headquarters. As it turned out, the insurgents had set up another checkpoint there, but the gunmen manning the post remained huddled in thin shade and did not pay heed to The Washington Post's vehicle as it passed.
At the brigade headquarters, a group of recruits stood idly among new U.S.-installed tents in a small military complex. Brigade members said that they had not entered Fallujah for several days but insisted that the masked men had no authority to stop anyone. "We are all cooperating, so it does not make any difference if we are there or not," said one guard.
The brigade has been billed as a trained unit of former Iraqi soldiers, with some additions of Fallujah fighters. At their base, a group of brigade members appeared to be unimpressed by their chain of command. They repeatedly interrupted a portly man, who said he was the commander on duty, when he advised us to move north, away from the city. The men insisted instead on escorting us back into Fallujah, and from there, would lead us to the highway. They said there was no way to get on the road to Baghdad by heading north. "Come with us. We will protect you, no problem," a bearded man said.
The suggestion appeared odd, since the Fallujah police had said there was a gravel on-ramp to the highway just a few miles north of the brigade camp. We turned down the offer.
Instead, we decided to follow a U.S. military convoy just a few hundred yards away. The convoy had stopped because someone had spotted a roadside bomb, and the troops were waiting for engineers to arrive and blow it up. The Fallujah Brigade members then tried to block the Post vehicle from proceeding when the U.S. troop convoy moved out. They allowed us to pass only when a U.S. military Humvee topped by a menacing machine gun rolled back to the brigade headquarters to see what was going on.
On the highway, the military convoy peeled off to travel to its home base just east of Fallujah. The Washington Post vehicle continued toward Baghdad. Ten miles down the road, the orange-and-white taxi carrying the gunmen appeared and began firing.
Despite damage to the vehicle, it eventually limped to Abu Ghraib prison, about 20 miles west of Baghdad, where U.S. military police gave us refuge. Few residents of the notorious facility probably ever entered the compound as happily as we did.
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Shiite Leaders Urge Radical Cleric to Join Political Process
By Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, June 7, 2004; Page A17
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20836-2004Jun6.html
BAGHDAD, June 6 -- Iraq's Shiite Muslim establishment has launched a concerted effort to transform Moqtada Sadr's Mahdi Army militia into a political movement and enlist the defiant Shiite cleric along with his anti-U.S. followers into the political process leading to national elections next January.
The effort was the political backdrop to an agreement Friday that sealed a cease-fire between Sadr's militia and U.S. occupation troops in the Najaf region, 90 miles south of Baghdad, after two months of bloody clashes, according to Shiite officials who helped negotiate the accord. A heralded meeting Saturday between Sadr and Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Iraq's most respected and influential Shiite cleric, was designed to cement the truce and show the upstart cleric and his radicalized followers that Sistani and the religious establishment respect his views, the officials said.
The recruitment effort is based on the premise that Sadr leads a significant portion of Iraq's 60 percent Shiite majority and must therefore be part of Iraq's postwar politics if Shiites are to become a coherent political force. As a result, it clashes with the U.S. occupation authority's stand that Sadr is an outlaw -- a "thug" in President Bush's words -- whose movement must be disbanded and who must stand trial before an Iraqi court on charges that he conspired in the murder of a fellow cleric.
"Moqtada Sadr must face Iraqi justice," declared Daniel Senor, a spokesman for the U.S.-run Coalition Provisional Authority.
At the same time, U.S. military officials have dropped their previous talk of capturing Sadr; he appears in the open regularly for Friday prayers. In any case, the U.S. occupation authority ends June 30, when Iraq's interim government recovers national sovereignty, at least in name, and the decision about Sadr's fate in theory would then fall under Iraqi jurisdiction.
Adnan Ali, a senior leader of Dawa, a Shiite religious party, said much of the trouble that U.S. forces have had with Sadr's militia in Najaf, the neighboring city of Kufa and the Baghdad slum of Sadr City can be traced to a U.S. decision two months ago to move against his organization, close its newspaper and arrest one of his chief lieutenants. "We feel the crisis was a penalty we paid because they were left out of the political process," Ali said Sunday in an interview.
The question now, Ali said, is the degree to which Sadr will move to make sure his followers and their ragtag militia really do put away their weapons and turn their energy to political work, as discussed in the Najaf cease-fire talks. As enticement, he added, they are likely to be offered slots in a national conference of about 1,000 Iraqi leaders scheduled to convene next month to choose a legislature-like assembly of 250 to 275 members that will supervise the interim government of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.
Shiite political leaders, including members of the Dawa party, are eager to bring Sadr and his followers into the process because that would reinforce chances of a dominant political role for Shiites in the government that emerges from elections scheduled for January. A split Shiite electorate, or a section of the Shiite majority that refuses to participate, could undermine the power of having a 60 percent majority among Iraq's 25 million inhabitants, they fear.
"The unity of Shiites is very important as we are moving toward sovereignty," Ali said.
Ahmed Shaibani, a spokesman for Sadr in Najaf, said Sistani and Sadr discussed transforming the Mahdi Army into a political movement but did not come to any specific conclusion. The subject, he added, is under intense discussion among Sadr followers, Shiite political leaders and the supreme Shiite religious authorities under Sistani.
"In the next days, there will be important discussions to work out the active role of the Mahdi Army and its conversion into a political organization," said Abdul Hadi Darraji, Sadr's spokesman in Baghdad. "But this will not happen under the authority of the occupation or the interim government. It is up to Shiite religious authorities whether they dissolve the army or convert it into a political movement."
Hassan Adhari, who runs Sadr's headquarters in Sadr City, the Shiite-inhabited area of 3 million people in eastern Baghdad where the cleric has his base, said the militia's members are not formally military and thus could easily participate in January's elections as a political party. But he made it clear that while the discussions continue, Mahdi Army fighters in Najaf and Kufa will put away their weapons but not abandon them altogether.
Under the truce accord, they pledged to avoid any armed presence in the two cities and allow Iraqi police to ensure security, while U.S. forces were urged to stay away from the Shiite shrines in the area to avoid provocation.
As the Najaf area has calmed down, clashes in Sadr City between U.S. occupation forces and armed Sadr followers have erupted almost daily. Adhari said the street confrontations are likely to ease now, though, because on Sunday morning U.S. soldiers abandoned a police station they were using as a fortified outpost deep in the slum.
The station, painted pastel blue, sat empty and half-destroyed Sunday afternoon, with a crowd of young men gathered outside to view the rubble. Residents explained that Mahdi Army gunmen had set off explosives to destroy the building shortly after the U.S. soldiers left, seeking to guarantee that they would not return.
A roadside bomb exploded nearby, however, as a U.S. military convoy passed later on Sunday, Iraqi police told reporters. The blast caused no injuries to the U.S. soldiers but killed a 14-year-old boy and injured two Iraqi policemen, the Associated Press reported. Another bomb beside an avenue just outside Sadr City killed two U.S. soldiers Saturday and wounded two others. Five U.S. soldiers were killed and five were wounded Friday in an ambush in the same neighborhood.
To the north of Baghdad, insurgents set off a car bomb at a base shared by U.S. and Iraqi military personnel on Sunday, killing nine people. More than 20 others were wounded, U.S. officers on the scene told reporters. The blast was part of an intensified campaign of shootings and bombings in the weeks leading up to June 30, but did not appear connected to the situation in Sadr City.
Assailants using automatic rifles killed seven policemen Saturday after taking over a police station in Musayyib, 40 miles south of Baghdad, witnesses said Sunday. Before they left, the insurgents planted timed explosives that went off and killed four civilians who had come later to see what happened to the policemen, they added.
Special correspondents Huda Ahmed Lazim in Baghdad and Saad Sarhan in Najaf contributed to this report.
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Iraqi Backs U.S. Stance on Military
Interim President Wants Partnership
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, June 7, 2004; Page A15
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20782-2004Jun6.html
BAGHDAD, June 6 -- Iraq's new president said Sunday that his government would allow U.S. commanders to retain overall control over U.S. and international forces in Iraq after limited authority is handed over to Iraq on June 30, offering the interim Iraqi leadership's first public endorsement of the Bush administration's post-occupation military policy.
The newly named interim president, Ghazi Yawar, said in an interview that the new Iraqi government wanted control over all military forces in the country but recognized that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to wield such power over international troops.
"Unfortunately, there is a big difference between dreams and reality," Yawar, a Sunni Muslim tribal sheik, said in a 40-minute conversation in his office. "Our dream, or our wish, is that the Iraqi high command should have the final say, but due to practical and very obvious tactical reasons, these national forces have to be under the command of the strongest of that corps."
When international forces face threats, he said, commanders "cannot wait until the government is awake and then you convene and then you decide on it."
But he said that he and other Iraqi leaders expected to have "very close coordination and consultation" with U.S. commanders. The commanders, he said, should seek the consent of the Iraqi government whenever possible, particularly before conducting major operations. "We do not want to deter their movement, but at the same time, we have to make sure that no negative political consequences come out of these operations," he said. "We want these forces to act as an invited force, not as an occupying force."
The issue of how much autonomy the U.S. military will have in Iraq after June 30 is a subject of debate at the U.N. Security Council, where a U.S.-sponsored resolution on Iraq's future is being discussed. Iraq's new prime minister, Ayad Allawi, sent a letter to the council over the weekend in which he said the issues of coordination between Iraqi and U.S. officials should be decided by a joint national security committee that would include Iraqi security officials and U.S. commanders. He said the group, which he would chair, would "reach agreement of the full range of fundamental security and policy issues, including policy on sensitive offensive operations."
Yawar said he expected the military relationship to be "a partnership or a joint venture between both countries."
"We don't see any problems," he said.
Despite his endorsement of U.S. military policy, Yawar urged the Bush administration to tolerate an interim government that does not always accede to the wishes of U.S. officials, saying that it is in the best interests of Iraq and the United States to have a transitional administration that asserts its independence. "Iraq has to be a live-and-let-live society," he said.
"This friendship should be based on mutual national interests as well as mutual respect," he said. "The United States' interests will be well served by a strong Iraqi government that believes in strategic friendship. The strength of this government is from the unified support it gets from most of the Iraqis. To be accepted by most Iraqis, you have to be independent in your vision."
Yawar, who was named interim president last week, plans to depart Iraq on Monday for Sea Island, Ga., where he will meet with heads of state at the economic summit of the Group of Eight industrialized democracies. Before he returns to Iraq, he said he would stop in Washington to tell U.S. officials that the interim government needs to be regarded as fully independent by Iraqis if it is going to prevail.
"I'm sure the United States does not want a weak friend or ally that goes up in smoke with the last American chopper leaving Iraq, like what happened in Saigon," he said. "They want to have a deeply rooted Iraqi leadership that draws its acceptance and legitimacy from the heart of the Iraqi nation."
Yawar, an engineer who returned from exile last year, said he never sought to become the president, and until 10 days ago, most Iraqi politicians did not expect him to get the job. Although chosen to serve on the U.S.-appointed Governing Council, Yawar never emerged as a dominant member, largely because of his proclivity to speak his mind and his reluctance to ally himself with a political party.
But he quickly became the council's near-unanimous choice for president when Lakhdar Brahimi, the U.N. envoy charged with sorting out Iraq's political transition, expressed interest in naming another council member to the post. Several members regarded the other candidate, former foreign minister Adnan Pachachi, as being too close to the United States -- a characterization he denies -- and threw their support behind Yawar.
Brahimi offered the presidency to Pachachi, who turned it down. The U.N. envoy then offered the job to Yawar, who readily accepted.
Yawar said he was urged by intermediaries representing Brahimi and the U.S. occupation authority to withdraw his candidacy in exchange for another position in the interim government. "I said, 'I cannot do so because I did not put my name in. Go to these political and social forces who support me and convince them to accept that I won't be in the race. But I cannot withdraw. I cannot be a deserter,' " he recalled telling the intermediaries.
Yawar was regarded by fellow council members as an ideal person to be president because of his ability to work across cultures, embrace the country's two dominant religious groups and draw upon tribal allegiances. He is the nephew of the leader of one of Iraq's largest tribes, the Shamar, which includes almost as many Shiite Muslims as Sunnis.
Yawar, who dresses in gold-fringed Arab robes and wears a crisp white headdress, speaks English fluently and knows the United States well. He said he spent three years studying engineering at George Washington University in the 1980s before returning to Saudi Arabia, where his family was living in exile. Prior to coming home to Iraq -- he was born in the northern city of Mosul -- he worked as an engineer in Riyadh, the Saudi capital.
Yawar said the task ahead is daunting. As president, his role is largely ceremonial, but he must approve, in conjunction with two vice presidents, decisions made by Allawi's council of ministers. More important, he said, will be using his position to unite his violence-scarred nation.
The challenge, he said, was crystallized by a congratulatory phone call he received from his 6-year-old nephew. "He said, 'So now you're the president, are you going to execute 50 percent of the Iraqi society?' " Yawar recalled.
"That broke my heart. That means our job is more complicated than we imagined. It's not just rehabilitating a nation but creating a new way of thinking in Iraq. When a kid thinks the role of a president is to kill half of his people -- God help us."
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9 Militias to Disband in Iraq, but Not Rebel Cleric's Force
June 7, 2004
By DEXTER FILKINS and KIRK SEMPLE
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/07/international/middleeast/07CND-IRAQ.html?hp
BAGHDAD, Iraq, June 7 - Nine political parties in Iraq agreed today to disband their private militias, Iraq's prime minister said, though the radical Shiite cleric who has been leading a two-month uprising against American forces did not join the accord.
Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said in a statement that about 100,000 paramilitary soldiers would demobilize and re-enter civilian life or join the country's security forces. The deal was an initiative of the American occupation authorities and was the culmination of weeks of strategizing.
"By doing this, we reward their heroism and sacrifices, while making Iraq stronger and eliminating armed forces outside of government control," Mr. Allawi said.
The accord is a boon for the American authorities, who have been seeking to disarm Iraqi society and simplify the security challenge. But since none of the nine militias have been fighting the Iraqi government or foreign troops, the demobilization will not eliminate the greatest armed threats to American control, particularly the militia led by the radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr and armed Sunni factions in Falluja.
Militias that did not take part in the deal were outlawed, Mr. Allawi said.
The Sadr militia, known as the Mahdi Army, has been fighting coalition forces since early April. Last week, Mr. Sadr agreed to order his fighters to pull out of the the holy towns of Kufa and Najaf and hand over security to Iraqi police officers. In return, the American military has agreed to pull out of the towns, leaving only small contingents to guard government buildings.
Under the agreement signed today, most of the nine militias will be phased out by next January, when national elections are to be held in Iraq. The remaining militia will be disbanded by the fall of 2005.
The deal includes militia members who fought for two Kurdish parties and battled the forces of Saddam Hussein in the northern part of the country, Mr. Allawi said. The Badr Brigade of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq also agreed to disband, although representatives of the party asserted that negotiations had not even begun, news services reported.
Other militias included in the agreement are those loyal to the Iraqi Islamic Party, the Iraqi National Accord, the Iraqi National Congress, Iraqi Hezbollah, the Iraqi Communist Party and Dawa, a Shiite party.
The development came amid continuing violence in Iraq today. In Kufa, an arms dump exploded near the town's main mosque, where a radical Shiite cleric presides, officials said. The cause of the detonations was not immediately known.
At least one rebel fighter was killed and nine were wounded, witnesses and hospital sources told Reuters. The American military said in a news release that no American troops were in the area at the time of the explosion and that Iraqi police who had responded to the explosions were repelled by "unknown attackers" inside the mosque.
For weeks this spring, the mosque was the site of clashes between American troops and forces loyal to the radical cleric, Moktada al-Sadr. But the town has been calm since last week, when Mr. Sadr and the American authorities agreed to a cease-fire there and in nearby Najaf.
Riyadh Moussa, a militiaman who had been sleeping in the mosque compound, told The Associated Press that he had heard a "whoosh of a missile in the air" and a thud when a projectile hit the arms storage area.
"I'm sure it was the Americans who did it," he said. "We have no other enemies."
An American soldier was killed and two were wounded today when a roadside bomb exploded near Iskandariyah, 25 miles south of Baghdad, Agence France-Presse reported, quoting a military spokeswoman. American troops shot an unknown number of suspects fleeing the scene, the spokeswoman added.
The developments came a day after bomb blasts killed at least 21 people in a car bombing at a military base north of Baghdad and at an Iraqi police station 40 miles to the south.
Dexter Filkins reported from Baghdad and Kirk Semple contributed reporting from New York.
--------
SECURITY
U.S. Releases More Prisoners; Bombings Kill at Least 21 Iraqis
June 7, 2004
By JAMES GLANZ
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/07/international/middleeast/07IRAQ.html
BAGHDAD, Iraq, June 6 - American forces released hundreds of Iraqi prisoners from the scandal-ridden Abu Ghraib prison on Sunday. Violence continued through the day, with bomb blasts killing at least 21 people in a car bombing at a military base north of Baghdad and at an Iraqi police station 40 miles to the south.
But the streets reportedly remained calm in Najaf, where the Mahdi Army, a militia loyal to the radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, began withdrawing Saturday as part of a peace deal worked out with American-approved Shiite clerics. Hopes that the quiet in the streets could last were raised Saturday when Mr. Sadr met with Iraq's most revered Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. Still, in Sadr City, the Baghdad slum named after Mr. Sadr's father, gunmen shot at and then blew up a police station that was apparently unoccupied at the time. The police station had earlier been taken over by the United States Army. Around Baghdad, there was speculation on Sunday that armed fighters returning from Najaf and nearby Kufa could spark a surge in violence here in the capital.
Those concerns were intensified by the possibility that insurgents might try to disrupt the official transfer of power from the American-led occupation to a newly appointed Iraqi government on June 30.
After dark on Sunday, two large explosions were heard in central Baghdad. The causes could not be immediately determined.
Also on Sunday, the private security firm Blackwater USA confirmed that four civilians, two Americans and two Poles, who were killed in an attack on the main road from Baghdad on Saturday, were employees of the company. The killings of four Blackwater employees in Falluja in March provoked an invasion of the town by occupation forces.
The attack at the police station in Musayyib, south of Baghdad, began when approximately 10 men in Iraqi police uniforms entered the station and then forced the local police officers into their own cells. Then the insurgents wired the station with explosives and apparently set them off when others arrived and tried to free the police officers.
A spokesman for the occupation authorities said that as many as three separate bombs might have been detonated in the attack, which occurred around 4:20 p.m.
"A portion of the front of the police substation collapsed," the spokesman said. At least 10 Iraqi police officers and 2 civilians died in the explosions, Reuters reported.
The car bombing took place early in the morning outside the gates of a major military base in Taji, north of Baghdad. Reuters reported that a group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a militant linked by the United States to Al Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack, which hospital officials said left at least 9 Iraqis dead and 61 injured. The group described the bombing as a suicide attack.
The release from Abu Ghraib prison began at 8 a.m., and a series of buses carrying the detainees left the site during the day as local sheiks stood by.
The prison, west of Baghdad, become infamous when photographs of Iraqi prisoners being humiliated and abused were made public in April. An occupation spokesman said that about 320 prisoners had been released from Abu Ghraib during the day and that 3,100 remained under detention.
-------- israel / palestine
Israeli jets overfly Lebanon after rounds fired: security sources
BEIRUT (AFP)
Jun 07, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040607110300.zbxqvj5e.html
Israeli warplanes overflew southern Lebanon early Monday after four mortar rounds fired toward Israel fell inside Lebanese territory and off the coast, security sources said.
The aircraft flew at low altitude over the coastal area of Bayyada before turning inland toward the southern border regions of Hasbaya, Marjayoun, the Western Bekaa and Iqlim al-Tuffah, they said.
The four rounds had been fired from the region of Bayyada at 5:00 amon Monday in the direction of the Jewish state, the security sources said.
Three rounds landed inside Lebanese border territory and the fourth in the Mediterranean, they said.
In Jerusalem, the Israeli military said the mortar rounds had been aimed at an Israeli naval ship in territorial waters and caused neither casualties nor damage.
"It was a provocation by the terrorist organisations which operate from Lebanon under the protection of Syria and put our citizens and forces in peril," said Captain Sharon Feingold.
"We continue to hold the Lebanese and Syrian governments responsible for these operations which take place under their protection."
The Israeli military did not confirm a report on Israeli public radio which said the rounds were fired by the Lebanese Shiite Muslim fundamentalist Hezbollah.
A Hezbollah spokesman in Beirut did not wish to comment.
Hezbollah, which was instrumental in ending Israel's military occupation of southern Lebanon in May 2000, says it will maintain its campaign until the Shebaa Farms border area is also evacuated by Israeli troops.
On March 24, the radical Palestinian group -- the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) -- said Israeli warplanes killed two of its fighters in southern Lebanon after they had fired a salvo of rockets into northern Israel.
--------
Compromise Plan on Gaza Approved by Israeli Cabinet
By Robin Shulman
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, June 7, 2004; Page A20
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20715-2004Jun6.html
JERUSALEM, June 6 -- The Israeli cabinet on Sunday voted for a modified version of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip that included contradictory language about the evacuation of Jewish settlements. The plan allowed dissenting members of Sharon's cabinet to approve a formula for disengagement from Gaza without immediately deciding to dismantle Jewish communities there. The revised plan passed in a cabinet vote of 14-7.
The main body of the document said: "There is nothing in this decision regarding the evacuation of settlements." But Appendix A read: "The state of Israel will evacuate the settlements in the Gaza Strip" and continued, "The intention is to complete the evacuation by the end of 2005."
Explaining the contradiction, Raanan Gissin, an adviser to Sharon, said, "You want to keep the coalition together and you don't want to lose time."
"The prime minister is determined to get the disengagement plan through as presented to the ministers in all its components and as agreed by the United States," Gissin added.
Critics said the plan contained no clear indicators of future Israeli policy in Gaza.
"As a declaration without a clear-cut plan to be followed, it's half a measure," said Labor Party leader Shimon Peres. "The policies are not clear. So we shall wait and support every move that involves a withdrawal from Gaza and dismantling of settlements."
"Better to make one move than no move," Peres said.
Also Sunday, Marwan Barghouti, leader of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement in the West Bank, was sentenced in a Tel Aviv court to five life terms for murder and another 40 years for conspiracy and membership in a "terror" organization.
"I don't care whether I am sentenced to one life sentence or 10 or 50 -- my day of liberty is the day the occupation ends," Barghouti said in the courtroom.
Barghouti was convicted of murder in the deaths of two people in the West Bank in 2001 and 2002 and three people in Tel Aviv in 2002. The Tel Aviv District Court issued the maximum sentence possible and said that as head of Fatah, Barghouti also led the Tanzim, an armed wing of Fatah, and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and through these groups issued orders to kill.
Barghouti has insisted that he is a political leader not involved with violence, and that Israel does not have jurisdiction to try him. "I'm appealing to my people to resist the occupation and to seek peace," he said in court, "because peace is the shortest way to live in dignity."
The revised Gaza plan allowed the return to the cabinet room of three Likud ministers who had walked out earlier in the day. They were Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, a former prime minister; Education Minister Limor Livnat; and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom.
The revised plan includes a clause saying that under certain conditions new construction in Gaza settlements could be approved by a ministerial committee.
The revised Gaza plan also states that committees would be established that will spend months assessing how settlement evacuation should proceed. By March 2005, the government would make concrete plans on whether and how to dismantle settlements. Under the plan's appendix, all the Jewish settlements in Gaza are to be evacuated by the end of next year.
The disengagement plan, if carried out, would mark the first time that Israel evacuates settlements in the West Bank or Gaza. The only precedent for dismantling settlements is in the Sinai peninsula, which Israel returned to Egypt in 1982 as part of the Camp David accords. Sharon presided over that evacuation as defense minister.
Sharon originally presented a Gaza withdrawal initiative to his own Likud Party in a referendum, but it was defeated May 2.
For weeks, Sharon had scrambled to muster support for the measure among his cabinet. Sunday's vote took place after Sharon fired two nationalist cabinet ministers Friday so that they could not vote against the plan.
Sharon, who advocated settlement in Gaza for decades, now argues that Israel has no reason to maintain 7,500 settlers in a small enclave among 1.3 million Palestinians. He argues that evacuating Gaza could help save some of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank. The plan that passed includes a clause that pledges support for major Jewish settlement blocs there.
President Bush endorsed Sharon's original plan for withdrawal, and Sharon had warned his cabinet ministers they would provoke a diplomatic confrontation with the Bush administration if they rejected the proposal.
Researcher Samuel Sockol contributed to this report.
--------
Sharon Advances Toward Removal of Some Settlers
June 7, 2004
By JAMES BENNET
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/07/international/middleeast/07MIDE.html?pagewanted=all&position=
JERUSALEM, June 6 - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon coaxed Israel on Sunday toward evacuating some settlements next year, winning approval from his right-wing coalition government to begin preparing for what he calls "disengagement" from the Palestinians of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
The government decision fell far short of what Mr. Sharon originally had sought - approval for his plan to evacuate all 21 settlements in Gaza and 4 small ones in the West Bank. Instead, the government said any withdrawals would require further votes, to be held next year.
But through a mix of compromise and calculated bullying, including the abrupt dismissal of two far-right ministers before the vote, Mr. Sharon appeared to be advancing toward his goal despite fervent rightist opposition. Having already converted what was once a derided dovish notion - the unilateral evacuation of settlements - into the subject of mainstream debate, he edged it on Sunday toward official policy.
His advisers said the vote would permit him to pursue his plan while preserving his coalition and forestalling parliamentary elections, buying him months to build more domestic and international support.
But it was not immediately certain that a crucial pro-settler party, the National Religious Party, would remain in the government. Mr. Sharon's plan has also opened deep fissures within his own party, Likud.
The gingerly worded compromise approved Sunday night did not guarantee the evacuation of any settlements. The first vote on taking that step might not be held until March. But Mr. Sharon and his opponents left no doubt they saw the decision as portending an Israeli withdrawal.
"Today the government decided that by the end of 2005 Israel intends to leave Gaza and four settlements in Samaria," or the northern West Bank, Mr. Sharon said during a speech here after the vote. "The majority in Israel understands the immense importance of this decision. This is a decision that guarantees the future of Israel."
In giving up all of Gaza and some of the West Bank, Mr. Sharon is bidding to retain large West Bank settlements, a goal embraced in the vote on Sunday.
The Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qurei, said Palestinians welcomed an Israeli withdrawal "if the withdrawal is total and comprehensive, which includes dismantling all the settlements."
The Bush administration called the withdrawal plan "a courageous and historic step."
"We urge that practical preparatory work to implement the plan now proceed as rapidly as possible in Israel," the statement said.
Mr. Sharon is acting without seeking a peace agreement. He asserts that the Palestinian leadership is not a credible negotiating partner but that Israel must act now to avoid ceding more land in an eventual, internationally imposed solution.
Before the vote on Sunday, an Israeli court in Tel Aviv sentenced a prominent Palestinian leader, Marwan Barghouti, to five consecutive life terms, plus 40 years. Mr. Barghouti, who has challenged Israel's right to try him, was convicted last month of involvement in attacks that killed four Israelis and a Greek monk.
An advocate of a two-state solution who was once seen in Israel as an appealing pragmatist, Mr. Barghouti was found by the court to be "up to his neck in terror activity."
On entering the court, Mr. Barghouti, in a brown prison uniform, called for the Palestinian uprising to continue. "This occupation is dying, and they had better start preparing for its funeral," he said.
After the vote, some ministers said they feared that the decision jeopardized Israel's hold on Gaza.
"There are no word launderers or terminology gambits that can conceal the fact that the government of Israel reached one of the darkest and most terrible decisions in its history," Effie Eitam, the housing minister and the leader of the National Religious Party, told reporters.
Mr. Eitam described the vote as a "decision to cast out thousands of Jews from their homes and establish a Hamas state of terror," a reference to a Palestinian militant group with widespread support in Gaza.
Until Sunday evening, it was not certain that the government would actually vote, and the intricate maneuvering at times veered toward farce. One of the two ministers whom Mr. Sharon had dismissed Friday, Benyamin Elon, hid rather than accept the letter of dismissal, believing that an arcane Israeli law would permit him to vote if he could duck the letter through the weekend. But Israel's high court ruled Sunday that Mr. Elon, the tourism minister, should consider himself fired.
Some Israelis saw in Mr. Elon's flight a metaphor for an attempt by Israel to avoid reckoning with its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, seized in the 1967 war.
"Benny Elon represents the story of Israeli politics these past 37 years," the commentator Nadav Eyal wrote Sunday in the newspaper Maariv. "This morning, which will perhaps one day be remembered as the dawn of an historical day, proves that for too long the political establishment hid from the truth," that settlements could not endure.
In the end, Mr. Sharon prevailed in his cabinet by a vote of 14 to 7. He won the backing of three crucial ministers from his own faction. The three, including Mr. Sharon's chief rival in Likud, Benjamin Netanyahu, had retreated from their grudging support for his original proposal after it was decisively rejected in a Likud referendum last month.
That vote, following a strong endorsement of Mr. Sharon's original plan from President Bush, was an embarrassment for the prime minister and threw his plan into doubt.
But, presented with the compromise proposal, the three ministers also confronted a political reality - broad public support for a withdrawal from Gaza.
Further, if this coalition had broken apart over the withdrawal plan, Mr. Sharon could have turned for support to the left-of-center Labor Party. That might have cost the Likud ministers their portfolios and resulted in a far broader evacuation of settlements.
The fear that Labor could pull Mr. Sharon to the left appeared to be restraining the National Religious Party from bolting from the coalition. Zevulon Orlev, a minister from that party, said he wanted to avert Labor influence that could produce "a jumbo disengagement."
A senior Sharon adviser said the prime minister's challenge now was to prevent any opponent from emerging who could summon a blocking majority of 61 votes in the 120-seat Parliament. That way, the adviser said, Mr. Sharon can make it through the summer session of Parliament and into the fall, while committees formed to prepare to relocate and compensate settlers complete their work. Mr. Sharon must also survive continuing legal inquiries, including a bribery investigation.
The adviser predicted that Mr. Sharon had gained at least six months. "By then, the committees will have completed their planning, and he can move forward to the next stage, which may require, eventually, a change in the composition of the government," he said. "But as time passes, one must understand, you garner more domestic support."
He compared Mr. Sharon's approach to the right to giving bitter medicine to a child: "You mix it a little bit with sugar, and you give him little sips, one at a time, one at a time. We want to cure the patient."
In his speech on Sunday night, Mr. Sharon added a significant argument in support of his disengagement plan. On the left and increasingly on the right, Israelis have warned of a Palestinian "demographic threat" - that Arabs will become a majority in Israel and the occupied territories within a few years. Those Israelis have argued that once the balance of populations shifts, Israel will be forced to abandon either its Jewish identity or its democratic character.
By giving up Gaza, which has 1.3 million Palestinians and only 7,500 Jewish settlers, Israel could defer this demographic challenge for many years. Mr. Sharon has played down the demographic issue, which settlers spurn as ignoring their biblical claims to the land.
But in his speech, Mr. Sharon said of the vote, "This is a decision that is good for the security of Israel, its diplomatic status, its economy, and is good for the demography of the Jewish people in Israel."
-------- mideast
Contraband missile issue to be resolved very soon: Turkish FM Gul
CAIRO (AFP)
Jun 07, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040607145138.5nun24jx.html
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdallah Gul said here Monday that controversy over contraband military equipment found in containers bound for Egypt and seized in Turkey would be resolved soon.
Gul made the comment at a news conference with Arab League secretary general Amr Mussa after their meeting and Gul's talks earlier on Monday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
"I briefed the president about it," Gul told reporters, referring to the shipment from Ukraine that included a radio-controlled missile and warheads.
"We will solve it very soon, maybe today. It is a technical problem that should not be exaggerated," he added.
Gul told reporters that his discussions with Mubarak included Iraq, the Middle East conflict, and Cyprus, and that he delivered a letter to the Egyptian leader from his Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Necdet Sezer.
He said he had also sought Egypt's support for Turkey's candidature for the position of secretary general of the Organization of Islamic Conference, and appealed to Egypt to help lift the blockade imposed on the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is recognised only by Ankara.
On the issue of Iraq, Gul urged Iraq's neighbours, the US-led coalition forces and the new government in Baghdad to exert "joint efforts in order to preserve the unity of Iraq and of its people."
The Turkish minister said he was also opposed to the recently-imposed US sanctions on Syria, adding that past experience had shown that such policies failed to produce the intended results.
Gul arrived in Cairo late on Sunday on a visit which coincided with one by Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom.
In recent months, Ankara has voiced strong criticism of Israeli actions in the occupied territories, tempering years of close ties to the Jewish state.
-------- nato
NATO-Ukraine meet to boost ties
WARSAW (AFP)
Jun 07, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040607104329.79s3ipeu.html
NATO defence ministers held talks with the Ukraine on Monday as the alliance seeks ways of boosting cooperation with a strategic eastern ally as it adapts to new security challenges.
"Ukraine is and will remain a partner with which NATO wants to promote political consultations as well as practical cooperation. We have achieved much together but there is considerable potential to do more," NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told the opening of the one-day meeting.
"Ukraine has shown on a number of occasions that it is a producer and exporter rather than a mere consumer of security," he said, saying it played a key "role in maintaining peace and security in the Euroatlantic area and beyond."
Ukraine's Defence Minister Evhen Marchuk told the meeting the talks would broach "a wide range of issues from restructuring Ukrainian military organisation to participating in the joint fight against terrorism and peacekeeping operations."
Ukraine, a former Soviet republic of 48 million inhabitants, announced in 2002 that it planned to join the North Atlantic alliance and has also set 2011 as a target date for starting negotiations on joining the European Union.
While insisting on what Polish Defence Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski told the meeting were "painful, but indispensable" democratic reforms, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation has increasingly embraced Ukraine, as it adapts to new security threats like the fight against terrorism.
Ukraine has contributed to a NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo and opened its airspace and contributed Antonov aircraft to NATO forces in Afghanistan.
It has also contributed some 1,650 soldiers to a NATO-supported Polish-led multinational force which is patrolling a large swathe of southern Iraq.
In a sign of the developing relationship, President Leonid Kuchma has been invited to NATO's end-June summit in Istanbul, the first meeting of alliance leaders since admitting seven new ex-communist bloc countries, including three former Soviet republics.
----
NATO says no entry timetable for Ukraine at summit meeting
WARSAW (AFP)
Jun 07, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040607160010.g5n0am83.html
NATO agreed on Monday to intensify cooperation with Ukraine, but warned it not to expect a timetable for joining when President Leonid Kuchma attends the Alliance's forthcoming summit in Istanbul.
"NATO knows about Ukraine's ambitions. But I think it will go a bit far to give an exact timetable for the next steps," NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told a news conference after NATO defence ministers met their Ukrainian counterpart in the Polish capital.
"But do know and do remember, it is an important partnership," he said. "It's highly appreciated by NATO that Ukraine participates substantially in NATO-led peacekeeping operations."
"I would say we can't do without Ukraine, and let's try from all sides to come ever closer together."
Ukraine, a former Soviet republic of 48 million inhabitants sandwiched between Russia and expanding European organisations, announced in 2002 that it planned to join the North Atlantic alliance.
It has also set 2011 as a target date for starting negotiations on joining the European Union.
While insisting on what Polish Defence Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski called "painful, but indispensable" democratic reforms, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation has increasingly embraced Ukraine as it adapts to new security threats like the fight against terrorism.
In a sign of the developing relationship, President Leonid Kuchma has been invited to NATO's summit in Istanbul at the end of the month, the first meeting of alliance leaders since in March admitting seven new ex-communist bloc countries, including three former Soviet Baltic republics.
Kuchma, who has been in power since 1994, and has been repeatedly criticised in the West for his authoritarian rule, turned up uninvited to NATO's last summit, in Prague in November 2002.
He was also given a frosty reception over accusations that Ukraine had sold military radar systems to the fallen Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein.
Ukrainian Defence Minister Evhen Marchuk told the news conference that Ukraine would have hoped for a membership plan at the Istanbul summit.
"We very much would like to see a membership action plan signed, but being a realist I realise this is not a target for the NATO summit."
He said Ukraine hoped the meeting would "give us the right signals and messages that would say that there's great room for improvement, that we are on the right track."
Pointing to "real substantial progress" in Kiev's efforts in meeting NATO demands for defence and domestic reforms, De Hoop Scheffer said that at talks with Kuchma, NATO should concentrate on securing further progress.
"Those factors, the two legs of the reform process -- defence reform, and reform of society, it's all there. We don't have to devise anything new as far as NATO-Ukrainian relations are concerned" he said.
"And let's discuss that openly and intensively as you do between partners."
Ukraine has contributed to a NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo and opened its airspace and contributed Antonov aircraft to NATO forces in Afghanistan.
It has also contributed some 1,650 soldiers to a NATO-supported Polish-led multinational force which is patrolling a large swathe of southern Iraq.
Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, hopes one day to join NATO as it inches away from neighbouring Russia.
Kuchma, whose second term ends in October, has promised to leave power this year although the constitutional court in December ruled that he could stand for a third mandate.
-------- pacific
US plan to build military training facility in Australia advances
SYDNEY (AFP)
Jun 07, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040607024347.fzd44jna.html
Australia and the United States have moved closer to an agreement on basing a major US military training facility in northern Australia, officials said Monday.
Australian Defense Minister Robert Hill said he discussed the project with his US counterpart, Donald Rumsfeld, during a security conference in Singapore over the weekend and an agreement could be signed as early as next month.
Under the plan, first mooted last year, Washington would spend tens of millions of dollars upgrading a military base in Queensland or the Northern Territory for joint land, air and sea exercises with Australian forces, Hill said.
"It's to enhance mutual capability, ensure inter-operability and to assist a critically important ally," Hill said on Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio.
Hill said an agreement in principle on setting up the training facility could be reached at annual bilateral defense talks to be held in Washington next month.
Australia has long been one of Washington's closest military allies, fighting alongside US troops in both World Wars, Vietnam and more recently Afghanistan and Iraq.
The decision by Prime Minister John Howard to contribute troops to the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq has become a controversial issue ahead of national elections due later this year.
The leader of the main opposition Labor Party, Mark Latham, has vowed to pull the troops out of Iraq and follow a foreign policy more independent of the United States if he wins the election.
A major enhancement of the US military presence in Australia could also upset neighboring states like Indonesia, which has in the past bristled at suggestions Australia serves as Washington's "deputy sheriff" in the region.
Hill stressed that in the training proposal currently under consideration, no US forces or military equipment would be permanently based in Australia.
"The confusion in Australia has been that people have therefore assumed that the Americans would want to be basing forces in Australia," he said.
"But we are not actually very conveniently located for any potential theatre," he said.
Hill said that new military capabilities meant "the options for power projection have vastly increased".
"You don't need the same level of forward deployment that you once needed," he said.
Rumsfeld also sought to allay concerns that the United States, which is seeking to redeploy forces from its major Pacific base in Okinawa, wants to station troops in Australia.
"We don't want to be in a static defence mode. We want to be in a more agile arrangement," he told ABC radio.
----
Australian ships head to multinational Pacific Rim war games
SYDNEY (AFP)
Jun 07, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040607043433.npq8b6v7.html
Three Australian navy ships left Sydney harbor Monday to participate in seven-nation maritime war games near Hawaii.
The guided missile frigate HMAS Newcastle, supply ship HMAS Success and Anzac frigate HMAS Parramatta will make up Australia's contingent in the exercise, Rimpac 2004, to be held next month.
More than 35 ships, seven submarines, 90 aircraft and 17,000 sailors, airmen, marines, soldiers and coastguardsmen from Australia, the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Peru, Chile and Britain will participate, the defense ministry said.
"Rimpac will provide the opportunity to practice our warfighting skills in a combined forces situation," said Australian Commodore Davyd Thomas, who will act as deputy commander of the maneuvers.
"We aim to improve our readiness and efficiency in exercising with our allies and friends," he said.
"By enhancing interoperability, Rimpac helps promote stability in the Pacific Rim region," he said.
Next month's war games will be the 19th Rimpac exercise held since 1971.
-------- pakistan / india
'Change inevitable in Pakistan'
Wajid Shamsul Hasan - London
June 7, 2004
Hindustan Times
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/5983_810288,00430005.htm
Change seems to have become inevitable in Pakistan. Freak contraptions that come into existence through test-tube experimentations are destined to collapse and disappear despite the best efforts of their wily procreators and beneficiaries.
Growing desperation and panic that has taken better hold of General Musharraf's camp is littered all over and the country is in the grip of rumors that its days are numbered.
Musharraf-Jamali administration has lost all control and the current wave of violence has already caused sectarian bloodbath that is pushing it into a state of civil and class war.
Law and order has become a fig leaf just big enough to hide the shrunken imbecility of the government. Suicides due to growing unemployment are adding to the huge toll of people who are being killed daily since the entire security apparatus has collapsed.
The so-called harbingers of good governance and who by their job descriptions are supposed to be the providers of domestic safety and territorial security dare not step out of their well-secured and heavily guarded homes without huge cavalcades of gun-totting cops in front and behind their bullet proof vehicles.
Some statisticians claim that bulk of the police force in the country is employed in providing protection to the VIPs such as the 'popularly' elected ministers. President Musharraf has his own security apparatus comprising commandos and millions are spent to keep him safe.
In their hopeless efforts to save their sinking ship Musharraf's power usurping collaborators are running helter-skelter in search of options that could give them further lease of life. Having deprived the country of its genuine political leadership and having it rendered into a state of complete anarchy, they are seeking to do a patch work job in the power-sharing game without surrendering themselves to the general will of the people.
Now they want country's largest federal party PPP to help them to be dragged out of the bloody quagmire of problems that their mismanagement has rendered Sindh into.
Not only that, the shoddy treatment meted out to that long-time Washington's Iraqi loyalist Ahmad Chalabi is definitely a good cause to give sleepless nights to the occupier of the Presidency in Islamabad. It is a pointer to General Musharraf that if he does not stop his game of running with the American hare and hunting with the Jihadi hounds, then he too could find himself in the company of Chalabis and General Noriegas.
There is more to it than Chalabi's example to make matters more difficult for Musharraf. His propagandists claim that he has come to be the most supported leader of a Third World country ever by the Americans. According to them President Bush eats out of his hand. Not only that, if John Kerry succeeds him, the new President would feel honored to be on Musharraf's right side for the sake of securing Washington's security interests. In support of their conclusions they refer to the recent statement of US Secretary of State Colin Powell and series of speeches by John Kerry.
In an interview to NDTV channel in Washington late last month, Powell declared that the United States would not support any efforts to replace Musharraf. "We would not be supportive of any effort to change the government of Pakistan in any way that is not part of the political process or constitutionally".
This statement reminds people in Pakistan of a similar statement that the American State Department made in the month of September 1999 in support of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's Government only to be dismissed by General Musharraf just days after on October 12, 1999.
While those with Musharraf who want to hang on to the last straw along with their boss, consider it to be a message to forces that the Americans think are planning to get rid off Musharraf through a coup. Such an interpretation has credence in the light of Musharraf's own confession that some lower rank officers in the army and air force had unsuccessfully plotted to bump him off in December last.
It is being rightly perceived by the analysts that Colin Powell's is a double-edged sword. It could as well be interpreted as an indicator to the democratic forces in the country to get rid of him constitutionally.
Musharraf is bound by the 17th Amendment to give up his post of Army Chief by December 31, 2004 and since the two offices-that is-President's and that of Army Chief's-would become separate there would altogether be a new situation in the country.
And what it would be like was succinctly put in words by Musharraf's own Defence Minister Rao Sikandar Iqbal. In an interview to Monthly Herald earlier last month, Rao Sikandar said that if Musharraf gives up his uniform no one in the country would listen to him.
Political pundits believe that in that such a situation, possibility of collaboration between democratic forces and those generals who want to depoliticize the military establishment to save the institution from further rot and revert it back to professionalism, cannot be ruled out.
President Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) had set the high moral ground for the future American presidents when he made it clear that "No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expediency". This was concretized by President Woodrow Wilson in setting the American global goal of "making world safe for democracy".
President George W. Bush gave a double meaning to the democratic ideals set by the American founding fathers. He invaded Iraq - besides destroying its imaginary weapons of mass destruction - to replace a ruthless dictator who had got himself elected through a fraudulent referendum with democracy.
At the same time he made himself overly keen to have close association with the Pakistani dictator who had also got himself elected through a Saddam-like referendum and under whom Pakistan is run like a police state, according to the latest report of the Amnesty International.
While Bush had committed this despicable blasphemy against democracy without saying it, Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry has put it in words that he would be least concerned about democracy and human rights etc. and that his preference would entirely be in securing American global security and strategic interests.
In an interview on his Foreign Policy Agenda to Washington Post Kerry indicated that as president he would play down the promotion of democracy as a leading goal in dealing with Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, China and Russia, instead focusing on other objectives that he said are more central to the United States' security. Kerry said Pakistan is a "critical relationship," and he said he would not immediately pressure President Pervez Musharraf to loosen the reins of power.
This statement has been music to the ears of Musharraf administration. It has been rejoicing over it since it felt that while their future would be secure in any case if Bush got re-elected, they will also be eating the cake if John Kerry replaces him since support to global democracy is not a priority item on his agenda.
However, his subsequent declaring to "lock up" the world's unsecured stockpiles of enriched uranium and plutonium by the end of 2008 to prevent Al-Qaeda and other terrorist networks from obtaining the material to build a nuclear weapon must have thrown cold water over their expectations.
In the second of a cross-country series of speeches linking national security concerns to the latest mantra of his presidential campaign, "a stronger America," Kerry has been saying he would emphasize speed and farsightedness in dealing with nuclear terrorism, which he grimly described as the greatest threat to Americans since the end of the Cold War.
Within four years, he said, his administration would locate and secure nuclear material in Russia, the former Soviet States, Pakistan, and other countries, as well as remove highly enriched uranium from more than 130 research reactors in more than 40 countries that could be used to make nuclear bombs.
Under current administration timetables, Kerry said, it would take 13 and 10 years, respectively, to accomplish both goals. Kerry also pledged to appoint a national coordinator on nuclear terrorism and counter-proliferation, who would work in the White House and immediately ask United Nations Security Council members to stop producing nuclear material and join negotiations on a Kerry-led global ban on weapons-grade uranium and plutonium.
The matter of prime concern for Pakistan should be Kerry's accusation against President Bush for failing to take to task countries such as Pakistan, North Korea and Iran with unchecked nuclear programs while remaining "fixated on Iraq."
"We must work with every country to tighten export controls, stiffen penalties, and beef up law enforcement and intelligence sharing, to make absolutely sure that a disaster like the AQ Khan black market network, which grew out of Pakistan's nuclear program, can never happen again. We must also take steps to reduce tension between India and Pakistan and guard against the possibility of nuclear weapons falling into the wrong hands there," he said. This obviously means that Kerry would not spare any effort to expose the role of Pakistan Army generals including President Musharraf in the alleged nuclear proliferation.
Being aware of what is around the corner for him, Musharraf has put in top gear his propagandists to present him as the champion of moderate Islam opposed to extremism. In his Op-ed in Washington Post and other newspapers, General Musharraf has rushed to whitewash himself into a champion of moderation.
It would require much more than an Op-ed or a series of speeches as an Islamic reformer especially when Pakistan has been branded as a rogue state allegedly involved in cross border terrorism, training, funding, patronage of Jihadi elements, their use as its proxy and mercenary warriors.
Musharraf can rest assured that whatever enlightened public posture he might adopt his ministers like Ejazul Haq are like an inbuilt mechanism in his system to expose his masquerade as a moderate. Only the other day, Musharraf's Minister of Religious Affairs vociferously supported the concept of Jihad these days and declared that "anyone who did not believe in jihad was neither a Muslim nor a Pakistani" and that "given what is happening to the Muslims, he was himself prepared to act as a human bomb."
It would, therefore, be in the best interest of Pakistan to bring about a healthy change within ourselves rather than wait for others to decide our fate. Time is running out on us. We must get united to defend Pakistan's vital and strategic interests that include its nuclear program, its commitment to the people of Kashmir and above all make a gigantic effort to restore its status from that of banana republic to a sovereign, independent nation-state. And this is achievable if we have truly representative democracy.
The writer is a former Pakistan High Commissioner to UK
--------
India and Pakistan Continue Peace Efforts
June 7, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/07/international/asia/07indi.html
NEW DELHI, June 6 (Reuters) - The foreign ministers of India and Pakistan spoke by telephone on Sunday and vowed to continue working toward peace, an Indian Foreign Ministry official said.
External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh told his Pakistani counterpart, Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri, that contacts between the neighbors would be intensified and that "both sides had vested interests in promoting good bilateral relations."
It was the second telephone conversation between them in the past three days. After their last call, on Thursday, the nuclear-armed rivals, who came to the brink of war in 2002, agreed to keep in close touch and avoid publicizing differences ahead of peace talks this month.
That telephone call appeared to be intended to put to rest a public dispute that had erupted between the ministers on how to proceed on the tentative peace effort.
Pakistani and Indian officials are to meet in New Delhi on June 19 and 20 to discuss ways to improve nuclear security and then on June 27 and 28 on other issues, including their bitter dispute over the divided Kashmir region.
There was a fresh surge of violence this weekend in Kashmir, where at least 14 people, including 8 rebels, were killed in one explosion and a string of gun battles between soldiers and militants, the police said.
Officials say more than 40,000 people have been killed in Kashmir since an armed rebellion broke out there in 1989.
-------- prisoners of war
When They Knew
American intelligence was telling of prisoner abuse last summer
By Paul Sperry
June 7, 2004
American Conservative
http://amconmag.com/2004_06_07/article1.html
When American troops rolled into Baghdad last April, 43 percent of Iraqis viewed them as liberators, according to a poll of 1,620 Iraqis conducted for the State Department. By October, the share had sunk to 15 percent. A whopping 67 percent of Iraqis across the country-in Sunni and Shia areas alike-instead described Americans as an occupying force. What changed?
In that period, their uninvited American guests began to mistreat them seriously-randomly locking them up and even killing them-and they did so long before the bout of homosadistic detainee abuse uncovered in the recent investigation of Abu Ghraib prison.
When the news first broke, administration officials, desperate to contain fallout from the mushrooming scandal in an election year, maintained it was an isolated incident, and as far as they knew, the mistreatment of Iraqi detainees was not systemic.
But it was widespread, involving several prisons in addition to Abu Ghraib, which holds less than 1,500 of the roughly 10,000 Iraqis detained by American forces. And not only was the problem pervasive, it's been widely known by at least Pentagon brass for almost a year as evidenced by after-action reviews written last year by U.S. Army intelligence. I obtained two of the internal Army reports, known inside the military as "lessons learned," before the Pentagon recently locked them away. (All future reviews will be classified, which I'm told is an unprecedented move.)
The first report was prepared July 1, 2003, by the Center for Army Lessons Learned in Fort Leavenworth, Kan., which cataloged the observations of a team of four Army investigators in Iraq: Lt. Col. Bob Chamberlain, Maj. Dan Pinnel, Cpt. Mike Liverpool, and Staff Sgt. Norris Whitford. They found that "detention facilities throughout Iraq were overcrowded, and there appeared to be no standard release criteria" for Iraqi detainees. "It's like the Roach Motel, 'They can check in, but they never check out!'" they observed.
One prison located at Baghdad International Airport, or BIAP, "was growing daily at an alarming rate," the report said. "The facility was built to detain 300 persons, but is currently detaining over 800 persons." The small BIAP "cage" was run mainly by contractors working for the CIA and other agencies, an Army intelligence official told me.
Many of the detainees were not even enemy suspects but merely victims of circumstance, "who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time," according to the report. Others were "randomly accused of crimes by vindictive neighbors and enemies." Yet they remained in custody.
Another U.S. prison in Tikrit, north of Baghdad, held 218 detainees even though it was built for 80, the investigators reported, and most were being held without cause. "Approximately 80 percent of the persons are unnecessarily detained and were probably just victims of circumstance," they said in the report. That figure mirrors one found in the March 3 report on the Abu Ghraib prison, which notes that more than 60 percent of the civilian inmates there were deemed not to be a threat to society, which should have triggered their release.
"We were not winning the battle [for] the 'hearts and minds' of the Iraqi people," the team warned ominously-and as it turns out, presciently-in their July report. "Randomly detaining civilians will create future enemies of the U.S."
Those conclusions contradict contemporaneous statements made by top military officials. Just nine days after the July internal review was completed, the senior American commander in Iraq, Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, told reporters in Baghdad that innocent detainees "get released immediately." Pressed to provide numbers, he could not.
And Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told a different story two months later. He said in a Sept. 16 press conference that the military police don't lock up any Iraqis they don't need to. "We let them all go," he said. "There are a group of people in Iraq that were scooped [up]. And they're in the net, but we don't want them. They're not going to go steal cars, they're not going to go become a foreign terrorist or something, and they're not Ba'athists. They're just foot soldiers," Rumsfeld said. "And we let them go. I mean, we must have let, I don't know, 8- 10- 12,000 of these people go."
So how did so many innocent Iraqis still wind up in jail? Another Army investigative team, deployed to Iraq in August, found one answer: bad intelligence. "Many units are targeting off of single-source, unconfirmed reports," they said in an internal report dated Sept. 17, 2003, and authored by Chamberlain, chief of military intelligence at the Army's Joint Readiness Training Center. "Yes, units have to act fast, but conducting operations against the wrong targets is having an adverse effect."
Unnecessary arrests are not the only fruit of such misguided raids. They have also led to many Iraqi civilians getting killed, Army intelligence officials say. "There's a lot of killing of Iraqis going on over there that you don't hear about," said one senior intelligence official who toured some 20 Iraqi cities in the fall. "I would estimate at least a dozen a day." At that rate, some 4,000 Iraqis can be expected to be killed each year during the planned 10-year occupation, for a combined toll of 40,000-on top of the estimated 10,914 civilians and 6,370 military already killed.
Even Iraqi journalists are being killed. In March, the Army admitted soldiers killed two Iraqi TV correspondents after mistaking them for insurgents at an Army roadblock in Baghdad. The journalists were shot several times while driving away from the roadblock. Arab reporters walked out of a press conference in Baghdad by Secretary of State Colin Powell to protest the shootings.
Alleged murders at U.S.-run prisons also are being investigated. Army investigators made a number of recommendations in their reports last year including: training and deploying more military police, human-intelligence collectors, and Arabic interpreters (many of whom are local "cab drivers" with questionable loyalties) to better screen the good guys from the bad guys and devising standard procedures for operating the Iraqi prisons.
Apparently their recommendations were not taken seriously, because this year's Abu Ghraib report repeated the recommendations.
Administration officials from the president to the defense secretary to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs have all expressed shock over the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. President Bush said he was "shaken" by the news. Rumsfeld acted as it was the first he had heard of it and then claimed it was too early in the investigation to say if the mistreatment was systemic.
Their reaction is odd. The earlier "lessons learned" reports, starting with the summer review, essentially gave the Pentagon advance warning of an impending human-rights disaster at a number of its Iraqi detention facilities-an issue that directly influences the Iraqi people, many of whom have relatives still locked up in those facilities. And of course winning hearts and minds is the key to the success of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Still, military brass did nothing to remedy the situation until it was too late.
The mistreatment of Iraqi detainees is now a full-blown scandal, complete with graphic images, played out for all the Arab world to see on Al-Jazeera. It threatens not only the administration's already quixotic goal of bringing democracy to Iraq but also the lives of more U.S. soldiers and, as jihadists point to the abuses as further justification to attack Americans, the all-important war on terrorism itself.
Paul Sperry, formerly of Investor's Business Daily, is a Hoover Institution media fellow and author of Crude Politics.
-------- spies
What Really Caused Tenet's Departure?
by Gordon Prather,
June 7, 2004
Antiwar.com
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/prather.php?articleid=2764
If you thought the neo-crazies had lost control over President Bush, think again. A neo-crazy delegation - headed by Richard Perle - marched up to the White House last week and demanded that Bush fire Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) George Tenet.
Quoth Perle, "There is a smear campaign under way, and it is being perpetrated by the CIA and the DIA and a gaggle of former intelligence officers who have succeeded in planting these stories, which are accepted with hardly any scrutiny."
Whom did Tenet smear? Ahmad Chalabi. The neo-crazy darling who provided the disinformation - accepted with hardly any scrutiny by neo-crazy media sycophants - used to "justify" Bush's pre-emptive invasion and occupation of Iraq.
Well, there are lots of reasons to fire Tenet, but "smearing" Chalabi is not one of them. If anything, Tenet should be fired for not exposing Chalabi years ago.
Actually, Tenet never should have been named DCI in the first place.
Think back.
In April 1999, DCI Tenet "confirmed" the information contained in the yet unreleased Cox Committee report - but already "leaked" to the New York Times - that China "obtained by espionage" classified U.S. nuclear weapons information.
Tenet also said China had obtained information on several U.S. "nuclear re-entry vehicles," including one containing the "W-88 nuclear warhead."
China? W-88 warhead? The New York Times had already revealed the leaked information that Taiwanese-born Wen Ho Lee - who had worked on the W-88 warhead at Los Alamos National Lab - was the FBI's prime suspect.
Then, after nine months of fruitless investigation, the FBI arrested U.S. citizen Wen Ho Lee anyway, and charged him with 59 counts of "mishandling classified information."
So, they threw him into jail. Solitary confinement. Lights on in his cell, day and night. Frequent interrogation. Lie-detector tests. Threats of execution. Threats about what might happen to his family if he didn't confess.
Then, inexplicably, in September 2000, nine months after his arrest and confinement, they told Wen Ho they would let him go if he would plead guilty to one measly little count of "mishandling" classified data.
So what has all that got to do with Tenet's unsuitability to be DCI?
Well, Tenet was acting DCI in December 1996 when the absolutely mind-blowing mishandling and misuse of highly classified data by departing CIA Director John Deutch was discovered by horrified CIA investigators.
For years, Deutch had been creating classified data files, on personal computers at his homes and on portable memory cards. That was bad enough. But many of these files were based upon "sensitive compartmented information" and "special access programs," and Deutch had shared this information - via e-mail - with various "uncleared" White House officials. That's almost unbelievable.
Presumably, Tenet was as horrified as the CIA investigators and immediately notified President Clinton of what Deutch had done. By law, Tenet was required to immediately notify the Justice Department and to file a "crimes report." We now know Tenet didn't' file a "crimes report" until March 1998, and didn't get around to telling Congress until February 2000, whereupon a "redacted" version was made public.
By then, Wen Ho had been in solitary confinement for three months.
There was an immediate international hue and cry. Wen Ho Lee was in prison, in solitary confinement, charged not with espionage but with "mishandling classified data." Where was John Deutch, the mother of all classified-data mishandlers?
Well, in December of 1997 - a year after the Deutch "crimes" had been discovered and six months after a CIA internal investigation of those "crimes" had been completed - President Clinton had appointed Deutch to be co-chairman of the Commission to Assess the Organization of the Federal Government to Combat the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction!
Tenet - ignoring the recommendations of his own investigators - promptly gave Deutch the high-level security clearances he would need as co-chairman. Tenet quietly "stripped" Deutch of those clearances in August of 1999, months after the commission had completed its report and more than a year after the Deutch "crimes report" had been filed.
The Director of Central Intelligence has the key role in our system for protecting "classified" information. So you may be wondering how President Clinton came to appoint a man like John Deutch - who, according to the CIA's report to Congress, had displayed contempt for the system throughout his government career - to be DCI - and whether Clinton appointed George Tenet to be DCI because of the way he handled the Deutch affair, or in spite of it.
--------
Preserving CIA Status Will Test New Chief
By Dana Priest and Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, June 7, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A20762-2004Jun6?language=printer
The White House-sanctioned photos said it all: George Tenet with President Bush at Camp David as the Afghanistan war began. George Tenet seated behind Secretary of State Colin L. Powell at the U.N. briefing on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. George Tenet leaning across the president's desk addressing Vice President Cheney the day the Iraq war kicked off.
The message: After years of obscurity, the CIA was back, and at the center of the major White House decisions on foreign operations.
Of all the challenges that face Tenet's successor, John E. McLaughlin, when he steps into the job July 11, preserving the CIA's status at the White House and among world leaders will be among the toughest.
McLaughlin's tricky political task will be "to hold on" to the agency's voice at the White House during a tenure expected to last at least through the fall election, said one senior U.S. intelligence official.
His understated personality and his career as an analyst signal to many administration officials and current and former intelligence personnel that the CIA's role is in danger of being marginalized within the context of such domineering personalities as Cheney, Powell and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. "He'll be seen as a colonel analyst" rather than a combat general, predicted one former senior intelligence official.
"George Tenet was one of those very few individuals in Washington who could sit at a table with Condi Rice and Colin Powell and Don Rumsfeld and be viewed as a peer," a former senior administration official said. "No disrespect to Mr. McLaughlin, but that's a very small list of people who can do that, and he's not on it."
Complicating McLaughlin's prospects as the new acting director of central intelligence is another factor:
Although he keeps a low profile, McLaughlin was more substantively involved than Tenet in the problems that led to the writing of a National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq -- the official prewar assessment of the Iraq threat -- that was based on faulty, outdated and poorly sourced intelligence.
One former official said that McLaughlin is blamed in the West Wing for having signed off on the allegation in Bush's State of the Union address that Iraq had sought to acquire "yellowcake" uranium from Africa. Tenet said he had not approved the passage, but White House officials said McLaughlin did.
"That is going to color the relationship, not with the president, but with Condi and [Rice's deputy, Stephen J.] Hadley and Andy Card and the vice president's office," said the former official who, like several other current and former officials, would share candid views of McLaughlin's prospects only anonymously.
McLaughlin also has done much of the classified briefing for Congress that Tenet otherwise would have done, aides said. Members of Congress have not forgotten that.
"There is no way he can say, 'I'm not part of the problem,' " said the former senior intelligence official, who knows McLaughlin well.
Aside from the Washington calculations that shape foreign policy and direct billions of dollars toward one program or another are the worldly demands that ultimately so stressed Tenet that he finally decided to leave.
McLaughlin will take over in the middle of a year that counterterrorism experts believe could prove one of the most dangerous for U.S. interests, as intelligence reporting shows al Qaeda and other terrorist groups are preparing to launch attacks against large, symbolic gatherings of Americans, such as the Democratic and Republican party conventions, this week's Group of Eight summit in Sea Island, Ga., and the Olympics in Greece.
McLaughlin, who has helped Tenet make life-and-death decisions about operations during the daily 5 p.m. Counterterrorism Center meetings, is known as unflappable under stress, even though he is relatively new to the clandestine operations side of the agency.
Part of the agency's success in foreign counterterrorism operations has come from its newly robust relationship with foreign intelligence services. The CIA has lavished top-level attention and hundreds of millions of dollars in equipment and cash to win the foreign services' cooperation. Tenet was part of the campaign, and over the years, he developed close ties with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinians.
To pave the road for McLaughlin, who has met many of these same men, Tenet made a round of calls after his announced resignation Thursday, touting his confidence in McLaughlin, whom he described as his "alter ego," according to a senior intelligence official with knowledge of the calls.
Within the intelligence community, McLaughlin will also be responsible for continuing to strengthen the clandestine and analytical departments and to help facilitate the still-bumpy, but newly invigorated working relationship with the FBI. Unlike Tenet, who had trouble before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, persuading the White House and Congress to give the intelligence community more funds, McLaughlin's task will be to make sure the subsequent huge increases are spent effectively.
And at a time of unprecedented recruiting for new CIA case officers and analysts, McLaughlin will be expected to defend the agency's reputation and morale during the coming onslaught of criticism from two congressional reports and the Sept. 11 commission. "He will have to go down and defend it," the former senior intelligence official said. "John is so nice, I worry about him. You've got to be able to push back, make people unhappy. He needs a sharper edge."
At the heart of Tenet's power was his relationship with Bush, who cottoned immediately to the CIA director and his charismatic personality.
McLaughlin -- with his calm, controlled style -- has a professional and somewhat more conventional relationship with Bush. According to White House records, Bush had never uttered McLaughlin's name in public until he announced him as Tenet's successor Thursday morning .
A senior administration official who has attended classified briefings with both Tenet and McLaughlin said the stylistic differences will mean a different morning experience for Bush, who sees the CIA director after Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr.
The change may be jarring in such a stressful period. "Tenet is ethnic, charming, a hail fellow well met," said a senior administration official. "This guy is inward, self-contained, analytical."
But this official pointed out that Bush has developed bonds with aides whose style is very different from his own, citing the academic mien of his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, and the scholarly reserve of his chief speechwriter, Michael Gerson.
"The president may have less fun, but that doesn't mean he can't develop a different but prosperous relationship," the official said.
McLaughlin has spent considerable time with Bush discussing operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and often briefs the president when Tenet is out of town.
Other former intelligence officials who have worked with McLaughlin said he will carve out his own place within the administration, and it will be as valuable as Tenet's. "John has a seductive quality in his relationship with other people," said Winston P. Wiley, former chief of the CIA's counterterrorism center and deputy director of intelligence. "In some ways it's equally compelling," but different from Tenet's charisma.
"He's more cerebral, it's easier for him to listen," Wiley added. "He's a performing magician, which takes a lot of discipline, and he knows how to read crowds."
In wondering last week whether McLaughlin will maintain Tenet's influential relationship with the White House, former and current intelligence officials lamented the days when then-CIA Director R. James Woolsey was able to wrangle only two semi-private meetings with President Bill Clinton during his two-year tenure.
When a Cessna airplane crashed into the South Lawn in 1994, White House staff members joked that it must be Woolsey trying to get an appointment.
The story has been retold countless times since Tenet announced his resignation Thursday.
Staff writer Walter Pincus contributed to this report.
-------- un
UN Iraq resolution hits Russia snag
Iraqi PM Iyad Allawi called for control over security
Monday 07 June 2004,
Al Jazeera / Agencies
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/0F6BAD7E-8531-4841-99AE-A76942C36105.htm
US efforts to put the finishing touches on a draft UN resolution on the 30 June handover of power in Iraq appear to have hit a snag with Russia maintaining it still has reservations.
Washington wants the UN Security Council to vote on Tuesday, according to US ambassador John Negroponte who said a final version of the draft would be put forward late on Monday.
But although Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov acknowledged "intensive diplomatic consultations, including on Saturday and Sunday, have led to further positive changes in the Anglo-American draft resolution," he added that "nevertheless, there are still some issues to be agreed further."
The US resolution marks virtually the final piece in the puzzle for the transfer of power more than a year after the invasion began that ousted Saddam Hussein.
The council on Sunday discussed letters from US Secretary of State Colin Powell and Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi pledging that Baghdad and the multinational force will cooperate on any military actions.
The relationship between the force and the government in Baghdad had been a sticking point in earlier council talks on the resolution, which is co-sponsored by Britain.
Allawi and Powell, in separate letters, called for broad Iraqi control over its own security and pledged to reach agreement over sensitive military operations.
More changes are expected to the draft on Monday after a briefing by UN envoy Lakhdar Ibrahimi, who helped form an interim Iraqi government to take power after the US-led occupation ends officially on 30 June.
Virtual veto
The letters from Allawi and Powell will be attached to the resolution that would endorse an interim Iraqi government to take office on 30 June and authorise a US-led multinational force to "use all necessary means" to keep the peace.
But France proposed an amendment that gives Iraq a virtual veto over US-led "sensitive offensive operations" during a closed-door special council session on Sunday.
In his letter, Allawi said he would chair a ministerial committee for national security, in which the US command would participate. He said this group needed to "reach agreement on the full range of fundamental security and policy issues, including policy on sensitive offensive operations."
Allawi said that his government would establish a national security committee and invite MNF commanders to "attend and participate," and he asked the Security Council to act now to pass the resolution.
"Until we are able to provide security for ourselves, including the defence of Iraq's land, sea and air space, we ask for the support of the Security Council and the international community in this endeavour," Allawi wrote.
'Sovereignty'
Powell said in his letter the US command would "work to reach agreement on the full range of fundamental security and policy issues, including policy on sensitive offensive operations" in partnership with the Iraqis.
US Ambassador Negroponte said the letters clearly showed "the full sovereignty" of Iraq was being respected.
He said they established a mechanism "to include the fullest possible coordination between Iraqi government on one hand and multinational force on the other, including on policy towards sensitive offensive operations."
Britain's UN ambassador, Emyr Jones Parry, was more categorical. He said his government understood that "the policy on sensitive offensive operations will require the assent of a (new Iraqi) ministerial committee."
Nevertheless, Algeria's UN Ambassador Abd Allah Baali, who backed the French amendment, said the intent of the letters "had to be reflected in the resolution itself, in a separate paragraph so we need to have an answer to this last concern."
Right to imprison
Germany, China, Chile and Brazil also spoke in favour of the French proposal in varying degrees, diplomats said.
Powell made clear the US military still would have the right to jail Iraqis, despite an outcry in Iraq and around the world over abuse of Iraqi prisoners in US-run jails.
His letter says the US military could intern suspects "where this is necessary for imperative reasons of security ..."
The United States and the UK revised their resolution for the third time in less than two weeks on Friday.
The latest draft also tightened up language making it clear the mandate of the force would expire in January 2006, when a permanent Iraqi government is expected to take office.
--------
UNITED NATIONS
U.S. and Iraq Submit Plan to Security Council Session
June 7, 2004
By WARREN HOGE
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/07/international/middleeast/07NATI.html
UNITED NATIONS, June 6 - The United States and Iraq submitted a military partnership plan to the Security Council on Sunday night, clearing the way for passage of a resolution conferring international legitimacy on the American-led multinational force after Iraq regains sovereignty on June 30.
The contentious issue of what independence Iraqi troops will have under American command and what say the Iraqis will have in the conduct of the foreign troops had been the major impediment to agreement on the American-British draft resolution.
The new arrangement was spelled out in separate letters to the Security Council from Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and the prime minister of the new Iraqi interim government, Iyad Allawi. The correspondence, dated June 5, was introduced before the 15 Council members in an emergency Sunday night session at the United Nations.
"We're confident that they do the trick," Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry of Britain said, referring to the letters. He said they supplied "the missing link."
John D. Negroponte, the American ambassador who is about to become the United States envoy to Iraq, said, "We have every reason to expect that this draft resolution has strong support from Council members."
He predicted a vote on Tuesday.
Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sablière of France, which strongly opposed the war and has particularly focused on the relationship between the Iraqi military and the United States command in the resolution, indicated he was satisfied with the explanation in the letters.
France's remaining interest, he said, was in having mention of the arrangement described in the letters, which are to be annexed to the resolution, included in the resolution itself. "Just a paragraph," he said, in keeping with the almost genial mood that has emerged in the forum where such bitter division arose over the war itself a year ago.
Commenting on that, Ambassador Heraldo Muñoz of Chile said: "We are very near a consensus, and both the British and the American delegations have incorporated many of our concerns and suggestions. I feel there is a very positive mood and a very constructive attitude."
In his letter, Mr. Allawi said he would head up a Ministerial Committee for National Security that would set the framework for security operations and would include, "as appropriate," commanders from the multinational force "to discuss mechanisms of coordination and cooperation."
Mr. Powell, in his letter, said, "Recognizing that Iraqi security forces are responsible to the appropriate Iraqi ministers," the multinational force "will coordinate with Iraqi security forces at all levels - national, regional and local - in order to achieve unity of command of military operations in which Iraqi forces are engaged" with the American-led foreign soldiers.
He said the United States Command would work in "partnership" with the Iraqis "on the full range of fundamental security and policy issues, including policy on sensitive offensive operations."
Mr. Powell said the American military would still have the right to imprison Iraqis, though he said internment would be resorted to only "where this is necessary for imperative reasons of security." He pledged that members of the multinational force would always act "consistently with their obligations under the law of armed conflict, including the Geneva Conventions."
In almost identical language, the two letters said that the two sides would share intelligence and that decisions would be referred up the respective chains of command where necessary. Mr. Powell said the Americans would also be training Iraqi troops so that they could "increasingly take responsibility for maintaining Iraq's security."
"The whole purpose of these two letters is to demonstrate clearly that the full sovereignty of Iraq is being respected in these security arrangements," Mr. Negroponte said, "and the letters make clear that the Iraqi security forces, both police and armed forces, will be under the sovereign authority of the government of Iraq."
Both Mr. Powell and Mr. Allawi said they hoped that the passage of a resolution would lead to a more internationalized effort in Iraq. The United States has been largely unable to persuade major countries to contribute military assistance. But it has received private promises from at least three countries not currently in Iraq, of soldiers for a force designated for the protection of United Nations operations and personnel. Mr. Powell confirmed that such a force was being created and said it would be brigade-size. A brigade is about 4,000 troops.
"Will this resolution serve as an additional basis for countries that are disposed to help to do so?" Mr. Negroponte asked, speaking to reporters outside the Security Council chamber. "I hope so."
Mr. Negroponte said the timetable included submission of a new version of the resolution, the fourth in two weeks, to the Council on Monday. It is to be followed by an open presentation in the Council chamber by Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations special envoy who played an important role in shaping the interim government, and a final consultation before setting up the vote for Tuesday.
The measure now on the table gives the new interim government the right to order the multinational force to leave and makes it clear that the mandate of the force would expire in January 2006, when a fully elected full-term Iraqi government is expected to take power.
The interim government is highly unlikely to exercise its right to seek the withdrawal of the force because its foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, told the Security Council on Thursday that any "premature" departure would consign Iraq to chaos and civil war.
Disarming Iraq of unconventional weapons, the original basis for war put to the Security Council last year by the Americans and British, was not mentioned in either of the letters. But Mr. Powell said the multinational force would continue to search for "weapons that threaten Iraq's security."
-------- us
U.S. to Pull 12,000 Troops From South Korea
June 7, 2004
By JAMES BROOKE
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/07/international/asia/07CND-KORE.html?hp
TOKYO, June 7 - The United States plans to withdraw one third of its 37,000 troops from South Korea by the end of the next year, according to a South Korean government official.
The withdrawal of more than 12,000 troops, the first pullback since 1992, would include 3,600 American soldiers scheduled to deploy from South Korea to Iraq this summer, according to Kim Sook, head of the North American division at South Korea's Foreign Ministry, who held a press briefing this afternoon in Seoul. He said the South Korean government was informed of the plan Sunday night.
The American decision to cut troops in South Korea, the only major American military presence in the Asian mainland, caught South Koreans by surprise.
President Roh Moo Hyun, speaking at an event honoring South Korea's war dead on Sunday, promised to "properly nurture the South Korea-U.S. alliance." This morning, in an address for the opening of a new session of the National Assembly, he made no reference to the alliance.
The cutback appears to be part of a wider rearrangement of American troops in the Pacific. In Tokyo today, the newspaper Asahi Shimbun reported that the United States is sounding out Japan about moving some of the 14,000 United States marines stationed in Okinawa to a Japanese base in Hokkaido.
On a stopover in Okinawa last fall, the United States Secretary of Defense, Donald H. Rumsfeld, endured a scolding from the local governor, who complained about the disproportionate burden of the American forces on his crowded island.
Separately, Australian Radio reported today that Mr. Rumsfeld and his Australian counterpart, Defense Minister Robert Hill, may sign an agreement next month in Washington to build a major military training center in northern Australia, either in Queensland or the Northern Territories. The joint training center was discussed at a meeting in Singapore last week between the two defense chiefs.
Australian Radio reported that the United States would not pre-position equipment at the center, which would be used for joint air, land and sea exercises.
With Washington's concern growing about monitoring and patrolling international sea lanes in the region, the United States is already investing tens of millions of dollars this year in expanding Air Force and Navy facilities on Guam, an American island in the Western Pacific.
According to the South Korean news agency, Yonhap, South Korea wanted the troop reduction to be phased over 10 years. Fifteen years ago, the United States agreed to move its headquarters, with about 7,000 soldiers, out of the Yongsan base in downtown Seoul.
But it was only last year, after years of anti-American demonstrations outside Yongsan, that South Korea finally came up with an out-of-town site. Although South Korea originally agreed to pay for the move, some members of the new, liberal-dominated National Assembly now are objecting to the cost.
In a retort, some American conservatives say that South Korea, now the world's 11th-largest economy, can afford to defend itself against its impoverished northern neighbor.
"The South Korea lobby in Washington is dying," a conservative American lawyer, John E. Carbaugh, said here on Saturday, referring to the fact that there are no longer any Korean War veterans in the United States Congress.
On the peninsula, Communist North Korea has 1.1 million soldiers, and South Korea has 690,000. The American contingent of 37,500 troops, about one-tenth the size of the Korean War peak, is largely symbolic.
For years, some American soldiers served in border posts as "trip wires," deployments designed to awaken American public opinion in the event of a repeat of North Korea's 1950 invasion of the South.
Discarding the "trip wire" strategy, Mr. Rumsfeld announced last year that by 2006 all American troops would be shifted south of the Han River, out of artillery range of the North.
The United States has promised to spend $11 billion over the next five years to upgrade its military firepower in Korea. But some South Korean conservatives complain that this is merely a repackaging of planned spending programs.
-------- POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE
-------- homeland security
Mourners to Encounter Tightened Security
By Del Quentin Wilber and Sari Horwitz
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, June 7, 2004; Page A09
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A20676-2004Jun6?language=printer
Hundreds of police officers and federal agents will blanket the District this week to provide security as world leaders arrive for the first presidential funeral here in three decades and the first in the shadow of the 2001 terrorist attacks. D.C. and U.S. Capitol police yesterday canceled days off, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced that memorial services for former president Ronald Reagan would be a National Special Security Event -- a designation that brings with it heightened planning and resources.
"We are mobilizing the whole department," said Cmdr. Cathy Lanier, head of the D.C. police special operations division. "This is a major event. . . . In the current environment, there is a lot to think about."
Security will be especially tight at the Capitol, where as many as 100,000 mourners are expected to pay their respects to Reagan as his body lies in state Wednesday evening and Thursday.
The former president's funeral will be Friday at Washington National Cathedral, where services will be closed to the public amid a heavy police presence.
Reagan, the nation's 40th president, who served from 1981 to 1989, died Saturday at his home in Bel Air, Calif., after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer's disease.
His will be the first presidential funeral in Washington since Lyndon B. Johnson's in 1973. The only former president to die since then, Richard M. Nixon, had his funeral service and burial in California.
As a National Special Security Event, Reagan's memorial service will receive an increased presence of federal agents and police officers, with the U.S. Secret Service coordinating law enforcement activities. The same status has been granted to the Group of Eight summit this week in Georgia and the Republican and Democratic nominating conventions this summer.
Sharpshooters will be posted on rooftops, bomb-sniffing dogs will roam the crowds, and scores of officers will line motorcade and funeral procession routes, officials said. The heightened police presence will be apparent from the moment the plane carrying Reagan's casket touches down at Andrews Air Force Base in Prince George's County about 5 p.m. Wednesday, authorities said.
After a short ceremony at the base, the casket will proceed to the District in a lengthy motorcade. Police declined yesterday to say what route the procession will take from Andrews and said they have yet to settle on final details of the plan. However, police and transportation officials warned motorists to expect lengthy delays during rush hour Wednesday as roads are closed to accommodate the procession.
The motorcade will stop near the White House at Constitution Avenue and 16th Street NW, where Reagan's casket will be transferred from a hearse onto a horse-drawn caisson. Led by a lone drummer, the procession will then head down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol, arriving about 6:50 p.m.
At the Capitol, officials will hold a military arrival ceremony that is expected to last until 8 p.m. Former presidents, members of Congress, diplomats and other dignitaries are expected to attend. During the arrival, the Capitol area will be closed to the public, officials said.
Police could not say yesterday when the public would be allowed to visit the Capitol Rotunda, where Reagan's body will lie in state.
"We are preparing as if the viewing will proceed from Wednesday evening to Friday morning," said U.S. Capitol Police Chief Terrance W. Gainer.
Gainer said those who want to view the closed casket will enter through the Capitol's West Front Terrace, facing the Mall. Visitors will have to go through a preliminary screening at the south side of the Capitol and will pass through a metal detector.
No cameras, food, large purses or backpacks will be permitted inside, Gainer said. Once inside, visitors will walk up the Grand Stairwell to the second floor and Reagan's casket. Gainer encouraged visitors to take Metro to the Union Station, Smithsonian or Capitol South stations.
Capitol Police officials began about 13 months ago to update a long-standing presidential funeral plan, which envisioned visitors entering the Capitol from the East Front. Construction at the East Front caused them to revise the plan yesterday.
Friday morning, Reagan's casket will be placed in a hearse. It will leave the Capitol in a motorcade at 10:45 a.m. and arrive at Washington National Cathedral about a half-hour later. The funeral is scheduled to begin at 11:30 a.m.
The cathedral has gone to "modified Level 3 security," which means security checkpoints have been set up at all access points to the cathedral's close, officials said.
"We have not had a funeral for a president here since Dwight Eisenhower's funeral" in 1969, said Gregory A. Rixon, the cathedral's director of public affairs. That service was held in a different building because the cathedral had not been completed.
The close -- the 57-acre area around the cathedral -- will be closed to cars later this week, as security efforts intensify, he said.
Rixon said the public will not be allowed on the cathedral grounds during the funeral. "This is a ticketed event," Rixon said. "The general public will be able to watch on television."
Services are expected to conclude about 1:15 p.m., and Reagan's body will return to Andrews Air Force Base in a motorcade for the return flight to California. The burial will be Friday evening at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif.
Preparations for Reagan's funeral have been in the planning stages since he took office in 1981, and the military has a 138-page book that covers even the smallest details of the event.
Despite the planning, authorities said they are still scrambling to work out the last kinks.
"It's going to be a pretty big, a very big event," said D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey. "You never know when you are going to have to put it into motion. It's a challenge, but we'll handle it."
Staff writer Steve Ginsburg contributed to this report.
-------- torture
Pentagon denies approving use of torture
WASHINGTON (AFP)
Jun 07, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040607193041.3m2fuo23.html
Torture has not been approved for use on prisoners at Guatanamo Bay, Cuba, a Pentagon spokesman said Monday, following a report that administration lawyers argued that President George W. Bush was not bound by laws prohibiting torture.
"The idea that there is some trap door to permit torture in these procedures is just false, and it's demonstrably false," Pentagon spokesman Larry DiRita told AFP.
"The procedures are what they are. We've briefed them in great detail and there is no torture involved," he said.
DiRita would not comment on whether administration lawyers argued in a draft report reviewed by the Wall Street Journal that Bush had authority as commander-in-chief to approve almost any physical or psychological actions during interrogation, up to and including torture.
According to the Journal, they also argued that government agents who might use torture at the president's direction could not be prosecuted by the Justice Department.
The arguments were contained in a classified draft report on interrogation methods prepared for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in March 2003 after commanders at Guantanamo complained that conventional interrogation methods were insufficient, the Journal said.
DiRita said the working group that reviewed interrogation procedures and techniques at Guantanamo considered the broadest possible range of options, including interrogation techniques that went beyond anything the commanders had requested.
But the outcome reached in the end was a consensus, one that both administration and military lawyers agreed "was legally supportable and consistent with Geneva," he said.
"There is no procedure approved for Guantanamo that allows for the use of torture. Period," he said.
"Of the procedures that were approved for Guantanamo, the procedures that were approved by the secretary of defense, not a single one of those procedures could be alleged to be considered to be torture."
The procedures ultimately approved for use in Guantanamo remain classified, although DiRita said members of Congress have been briefed extensively on them.
General James Hill, the head of the US Southern Command, which is responsible for the Guantanamo detention center, has said that of the final set of interrogation techniques approved in April, four techniques required Rumsfeld's approval and only two of those had been used.
The Journal said that at the heart of the argument that the president had authority to permit the use of torture, and that the normal strictures on torture might not apply, was that nothing was more important than "obtaining intelligence vital to the protection of untold thousands of American citizens."
The report said civilian or military personnel accused of torture or other war crimes have several potential defenses, including the "necessity" of using such methods to extract information to head off an attack, and the Nuremberg defense that an accused was acting pursuant to "superior orders."
But it said the draft report also dealt with a range of legal issues related to interrogations, offering definitions of the degree of pain or psychological manipulation that could be considered lawful.
-------- POLITICS
-------- us politics
Crack and the White House
By Crispin Sartwell
Mon, 7 Jun 2004
http://www.crispinsartwell.com/crack.htm
I've got a scary question for you: what if the Reagan-Bush White House was partly responsible for the epidemic of crack cocaine? This question arises now in response to recent CIA internal investigation.
RIDING REAGAN'S COFFIN - Forgive me, but I am about to speak ill of the dead.
RIDING REAGAN'S COFFIN
In the coming months, the Republican propaganda machine will shift into high gear. Their goal: to turn Ronald Reagan into a saint. Just watch.
First will come the coffin in the Capitol rotunda.
Then there will be a proposal to put Reagan's face on the dollar coin.
Next will come a demand that his statue appear on the Washington Mall. And at the Republican Convention in September-- oh, just wait. The highlight of that week will be a long, elegiac video of Saint Ronald, with moving music, snippets of favorite speeches, and the voiceover of, say, Charlton Heston. When the video ends, there will be heard the rapturous cheers of the faithful.
Then George W. Bush will try to ride Ronald Reagan's coffin back into the White House.
For that reason, it is necessary now to speak ill of the dead.
- As president, Ronald Reagan was a mediocrity.
- He has left no legacy.
- He did not change the world in any significantly good way.
- His greatest achievement was to win a war with Grenada.
- He ran for president blaming Jimmy Carter for high gas prices and
- For letting Americans be taken hostage in Iran -
- both situations that no American president could have prevented. (If you believe otherwise,then you must blame George W. Bush for today's high gas prices and for the 2,700 Americans killed on 9/11.)
- Reagan came into office spouting stories of welfare mothers driving Cadillacs-stories that, it turned out, were simply figments of his speechwriters' ever-fertile imaginations.
- On Reagan's watch 241 marines were killed by terrorists in Lebanon.
- On his watch, Antonin Scalia, the most reactionary Supreme Court justice in generations, was placed on the bench (thereby negating Reagan's admirable appointment of Sandra Day O'Connor).
- On Reagan's watch, the U.S. supported and armed Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
- On Reagan's watch the proposed Star Wars anti-missile system made us the laughing stock of the world military and scientific community,
- America's poorest schoolchildren were told that ketchup was a vegetable.
- And on Reagan's watch, the most insidious threat to the Constitution since Watergate took place: Iran-Contra. If Reagan knew that Oliver North, John Poindexter and their cronies were breaking the law in the Iran-Contra deal, then Reagan was a criminal. If he didn't know, then he was merely a figurehead.
All the evidence points to the latter: that Ronald Reagan, as president, was in fact simply a figurehead-a voice, a grin and a head of good hair. An official inquiry by a nonpartisan commission later declared that Reagan just "didn't understand" the Iran-Contra scandal and that while it was going on,the White House was "in chaos." Just as his opponents had claimed before his election, Reagan wasn't so much president as an actor performing the role of president. He didn't need to understand the scripts. He simply had to read them aloud.
In this, George W. Bush is in fact the natural political heir of Ronald Reagan. Reagan, famously, refused to consider any national policy that could not be written down on a 3 X 5 notecard; Bush, it appears, refuses to read even that much. Reagan reduced national policy to two simple concepts:
1) taxes are evil and
2) the Soviet Union was an Evil Empire.
Change "Soviet Union" to "Iraq/Iran/North Korea," and "Evil Empire" to "Axis of Evil," and you've got George W. Bush's entire national policy. Just like Reagan, Bush sees the world as the Black Hats vs. the White Hats, and, beyond that, has almost no ideas of his own. Like Reagan, Bush simply reads aloud what his speechwriters put in front of him. George W. Bush is Ronald Reagan in miniature. Reagan was a better actor.
The Republican propaganda machine would have us believe that Ronald Reagan singlehandedly brought down the Berlin Wall and ended the Soviet Union. This, of course, is nonsense. The Soviet Union fell apart because, as any political scientist, liberal or conservative, will tell you, it was the product of a flawed economic and political system and because discontented empires ultimately bankrupt their rulers.
To the extent that any American president could claim some credit for the end of the Soviet Union, Reagan could claim only to be the last of eight Cold War presidents who had contributed to that end, beginning with Harry Truman.
No, Reagan left no meaningful legacy--nothing as significant as Lyndon Johnson's civil rights legislation or Richard Nixon's overtures to China or Jimmy Carter's lasting peace between Israel and Egypt.
Speaking of Carter, let me end with a true story. In 1989 (I believe it was), shortly after he left office, Ronald Reagan came to Memphis to deliver a speech to a group of businessmen. He read the speech, collected a reported $100,000 speaking fee, and immediately left town.
That same week, Jimmy Carter came to Memphis. During his stay, Carter picked up a hammer and helped build houses for the poor as part of Habitat for Humanity. Carter received no money. That's the difference, to my mind, between a pitchman and a statesman.
May Ronald Reagan rest in peace. He was, to all appearances, a genial man. But in the months to come, let us not be led astray.
As president, Ronald Reagan was no saint.
----
[Remember Reagan at Bilderberg?]
U.S. Sen. John Edwards at Bilderberg
Jun. 6, 2004
Milan, Italy, (UPI)
http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20040606-103603-4126r.htm
Among the 100 or so invitees to the annual Bilderberg conference under way Sunday in a northern Italy resort is potential U.S. vice president John Edwards.
Reporters generally are not invited and those who are observe the conference group's general pledge of secrecy, reinforcing the view of conspiracy theorists that the elite gathering is up to no good, London's The Guardian newspaper reported.
Sen. Edwards is regarded in Democratic circles as a good performer in his battle with Sen. John Kerry for the nomination to be presidential candidate and so is expected to be a finalist when Kerry chooses a running mate.
Other invitees are Mrs. Bill Gates and likely are regulars Bill Clinton, Henry Kissinger and U.S. Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld.
The Bilderberg tradition began in 1954 as a transatlantic post-war sounding board.
--------
A Nation and the World Pay Tribute to Reagan
Body to Lie in State at Capitol; State Funeral Set for Friday
By Rene Sanchez
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 7, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A20543-2004Jun6?language=printer
LOS ANGELES, June 6 -- Amid national mourning and global tributes, the family of Ronald Reagan detailed on Sunday weeklong memorial plans for the former president that will include public services in Washington and California.
Reaction to Reagan's death Saturday after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease continued to reverberate around the world Sunday, and set into motion meticulous preparations for the first state funeral in the nation's capital in more than 30 years. The solemn event will require enormous security as scores of world leaders and thousands of mourners arrive in the city.
Reagan, 93, died Saturday afternoon at his home here with his wife, Nancy, and two of his children beside him. He had spent a decade out of public view afflicted with a disease that had destroyed his memory and cognizance.
Since his passing, an outpouring of affection and respect for the former two-term president has spread from small towns to world capitals, although some Middle East leaders were critical.
President Bush, in France with other world leaders Sunday to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the D-Day invasion, extolled Reagan as a "gallant leader in the cause of freedom."
In Plains, Ga., former president Jimmy Carter, who lost to Reagan in 1980, also paid homage. "This is a sad day for our country," Carter said before teaching Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church. "I probably know as well as anybody what a formidable communicator and campaigner that President Reagan was. It was because of him that I was retired from my last job."
Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry said Sunday that he is canceling public campaigning for a week in deference to Reagan's family. Speaking to graduating high school students in Michigan, Kerry called Reagan a "modern giant" and said, "Yesterday, we lost one of our greatest optimists."
As the nation grieved, a Reagan family spokeswoman detailed the last moments of his life and announced memorial plans that will include a horse-drawn procession Wednesday evening down Constitution Avenue to the Capitol, where the former president will lie in state through Thursday. There will be a funeral Friday morning at Washington National Cathedral.
Joanne Drake, Reagan's chief of staff since he left office, said that Nancy Reagan summoned family members to the couple's hillside home in Bel-Air on Saturday morning amid signs that his health was rapidly deteriorating. Drake declined to describe the president's last weeks of life, saying that subject was private.
Reagan's family, she said, is exhausted from the vigil it held at his bedside in his final days, and is at once profoundly saddened and relieved by his passing.
"There's definitely a sense of relief that he is no longer suffering and has gone to a better place," Drake told reporters outside a mortuary in Santa Monica where Reagan's body was brought Saturday evening.
She said that Nancy Reagan is "deeply touched" by the outpouring of affection for the late president. "It's been a really hard 10 years for her," Drake said, adding later, "It's going to be a hard six days" for her this week.
Across the country Sunday, makeshift memorials to the former president blossomed. Americans came in droves to his birthplace and boyhood home in Illinois, to his presidential library in Simi Valley, Calif., to his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and to the mortuary's lawn.
All day long there, mourners gently placed gifts to the Reagan family. They planted small U.S. flags in the ground and brought flowers, photographs, a cowboy hat -- even jars of jelly beans, Reagan's favorite candy.
Some mourners stood on the lawn, bowing their heads in prayer near a cardboard sign that said, "God Bless the Gipper." A sailor in dress whites came to salute.
"He loved America," said Richard Paul, a film editor in Los Angeles who came to pay homage to Reagan outside the mortuary. "You could feel it."
Drake said that memorial plans are proceeding according to Reagan's wishes. She said he requested that services be held in both Washington and Southern California, where he lived much of his life, and that they be open to ordinary Americans, not just world leaders.
"It was really important to him that people have the opportunity to pay their respects if they wanted," Drake said.
Reagan's body is scheduled to be moved from the Santa Monica mortuary Monday morning and brought to his presidential library in Simi Valley, where it is to lie in repose for visitors to pay their respects until Tuesday evening.
On Wednesday morning, Reagan's body is to be flown to Andrews Air Force Base and driven to a site near the Washington Monument. There his casket will be loaded on to a horse-drawn caisson and led up Constitution Avenue to the Capitol by a solitary drummer. In the Capitol Rotunda, Reagan will lie in state through the night and until Thursday evening. His casket will be closed.
Bush on Sunday declared that Friday would be a national day of mourning for the former president, saying that Reagan's "optimism, strength, and humility epitomized the American spirit."
A funeral will be held at Washington National Cathedral. Then Reagan will be flown back to California for a sunset burial on the grounds of his presidential library, beneath an oak tree on a hillside overlooking the Pacific.
As preparations were made for Reagan's memorial events, tributes continued to flow in from around the world. He was praised for his role in ending the Cold War and strengthening the United States.
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev described Reagan as "a great president, with whom the Soviet leadership was able to launch a very difficult but important dialogue." He said Reagan's accomplishments included helping to "stop the nuclear race, start scrapping nuclear weapons, and arrange normal relations between our countries."
Gorbachev said his summit meetings with Reagan "kick-started the process which ultimately put an end to the Cold War."
"I do not know how other statesmen would have acted at that moment, because the situation was too difficult," he told the Russian news agency Interfax. "Reagan, whom many considered extremely rightist, dared to make these steps, and this is his most important deed."
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, who was one of Reagan's national security advisers, said on CBS's "Face the Nation": "He believed, ultimately, that the Soviet Union was a failed political system. It was his role as president to help bring about the end, not to push them over a cliff, but to help guide them to the realization that there was a better political system for them."
In a letter of condolence to Bush, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said Reagan's "vision of a free and united Europe created the conditions for change that in the end made the restoration of German unity possible." The Berlin Wall fell in 1989, the year Reagan stepped down as president, paving the way for the reunification of Germany.
Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi expressed regret that Reagan died without standing trial for U.S. airstrikes in 1986 that killed Gaddafi's adopted daughter and 36 other people in Libya, the country's official JANA news agency reported. Reagan ordered the air attack in response to a disco bombing in Berlin that Gaddafi allegedly instigated and that killed two U.S. soldiers and a Turkish woman, and injured 229 people.
Lebanon's culture minister, Ghazi Aridi, said the Reagan years marked the beginning of a "bad era" of U.S. Middle East policy that continues to this day, the Associated Press reported. "In Reagan's days, the destroyer New Jersey bombed poor areas of Mount Lebanon, the Americans protected Israel's invasion of Lebanon and joined the Israelis in imposing the May 17 agreements," Aridi said, referring to a failed deal to withdraw Israeli troops.
"Reagan's role was bad for the Arab-Israeli conflict and was specifically against Syria. He was the victim of the Israeli right wing that was, and still is, dominating the White House," Syria's former ambassador to the United Nations, Haitham Kilani, was quoted as saying.
Calls to the Reagan family in California were more supportive.
Drake said that Nancy Reagan has spoken to an array of national and world leaders since her husband's death, including former presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Gerald Ford; former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher; and the Rev. Billy Graham.
"The phone has been ringing literally to the point where it's hard to keep up with it," Drake said.
Outside the Santa Monica mortuary, crowds of mourners kept coming. Donna Glassman, 60, was among them.
"When I think of him, I think of America," she said. "What's that saying -- American like Mom and apple pie? He should be in that, too. Because he represented what this country is all about."
Staff writer Michael Dobbs in Washington contributed to this report.
--------
Weeklong Tribute to Reagan Begins at Presidential Library
June 7, 2004
By JOHN M. BRODER and MARIA NEWMAN
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/07/national/07CND-CALI.html?hp=&pagewanted=all&position=
SIMI VALLEY, Calif., June 7 - With a military band playing ``America,'' the flag-draped coffin of Ronald Reagan arrived today at his presidential library here for the beginning of five days of national tributes to the nation's 40th president.
As thousands of people watched outside the library and presumably multitudes more on television, Mr. Reagan's widow, Nancy, followed the coffin into the library's lobby on the arm of a military escort. Accompanied by her daughter, Patti Davis, and her son, Ronald Prescott Reagan, Mrs. Reagan and a few other relatives and guests sat near Mr. Reagan's coffin, which was surrounded by a military honor guard.
``The world is a better place because he was here,'' a minister, the Rev. Dr. Michael Wenning of Bel Air Presbyterian Church, said in brief remarks that included a reading of the 23rd Psalm.
As he spoke, Patti Davis, who has said she was estranged from her mother until a few years ago, held tightly to Mrs. Reagan's hand.
Also attending the service were Michael Reagan, the president's son by his first wife, Jane Wyman; Michael Reagan's wife, Colleen; and their children Cameron and Ashley. Dennis Revell, the widower of Maureen Reagan, Mr. Reagan's other child with Ms. Wyman, was also present. Maureen Reagan died of cancer in 2001.
After the brief service, the family left the library, and the lobby was opened for a public viewing that is to last until Tuesday evening. One of the first visitors were California's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and his wife, Maria Shriver.
Mr. Reagan's body will then be flown to Washington where he will lie in state at the Capitol. Burial will be back in California, on the grounds of the presidential library, on a hilltop with a commanding a view of the Santa Susana Mountains and, in the distance, the haze-shrouded sea.
Mrs. Reagan made her first appearance since the former president died on Saturday when she arrived today at the funeral home in Santa Monica to accompany the president's body to the library, about a 40-minute-drive northwest. Dressed in a black suit and white pearl necklace, Mrs. Reagan, appearing drawn and fragile, stopped outside the funeral home with her children to view the mounds of flowers, flags and other mementoes that visitors have been leaving all weekend in tribute to the late president.
Moments later, Mrs. Reagan stood stoically in the funeral home's driveway, leaning on a military escort, Maj. Gen. Galen B. Jackman, commanding general of the Military District of Washington, as her husband's coffin was placed in the back of a black hearse for the ride to the library.
Mrs. Reagan waved at the large crowd that had come to watch before she boarded a black sedan that followed the hearse on the drive to the library. Crowds of people lined the streets, some of them waving at the procession, some of them taking photographs, some just standing silently.
Mr. Reagan, 93, died at his Bel Air home after a decadelong battle with Alzheimer's disease.
Mr. Reagan's formal state funeral, whose elaborate rites will be dictated by history, military custom and the wishes of his family, will be the first such funeral since that of Lyndon B. Johnson in 1973. It will follow many of the customs observed at that occasion and at the funerals of presidents before him, from Lincoln to Kennedy.
President Richard M. Nixon, who died in 1994, was buried in a simple ceremony at his presidential library in Yorba Linda, Calif., in accordance with his wishes. Mr. Nixon never felt welcome in Washington, which he left in 1974 after resigning under the threat of impeachment because of Watergate.
Mrs. Reagan and other members of the Reagan family had been in seclusion on Sunday, preparing for a taxing week of observances and formalities, said Joanne Drake, chief of staff at the Reagan office in Los Angeles.
``It's going to be a hard six days ahead of them,'' Ms. Drake said Sunday at a press briefing at the Santa Monica funeral home. ``As you can understand, the family is in deep mourning over the loss of a husband, a father, a grandfather and their hero,'' she said.
Ms. Drake said Mrs. Reagan had said she and her family ``are deeply touched by the outpouring of sympathy from across the country and around the world.''
She said that the nearly 30 hours that the president's body will lie in repose at the library on Monday and Tuesday - including all through the night - followed Mr. Reagan's wish that ordinary citizens be given an opportunity to participate in the state affair.
``He was a man of the people and it was real important for him that people be given the opportunity to pay their respects if they wanted,'' she said.
Asked her personal reaction, Ms. Drake fought back tears and said: ``Working for President Reagan was an honor, one I wish every American could experience. He was an extraordinary man.''
Ms. Drake said the pallbearers would include Frederick J. Ryan Jr., chairman of the board of the Ronald Reagan Foundation; the entertainer Merv Griffin, a family friend; Charles Wick, head of the United States Information Agency during the Reagan administration; Michael Deaver, one of Mr. Reagan's top White House advisers; and Dr. John Hutton, Mr. Reagan's longtime physician.
Mr. Reagan's coffin will not be open at any time during the week, aides said.
Makeshift shrines of flags, balloons and flowers began springing up here on Sunday, as well as at various other places throughout the nation in tribute to Mr. Reagan, including the Reagan family home in Los Angeles, at the former president's birthplace in Tampico, Ill., and at his boyhood home in Dixon, Ill.
Someone placed candles and a framed photo of Mr. Reagan by his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In Dixon, a shrine grew Sunday beneath the life-size statue of Mr. Reagan that stands outside his boyhood home here. Visitors brought flowers, poems, flags and bags of jellybeans, and many stayed to pay silent homage to the former world leader who never forgot his ties to his home.
Milan Kondic, a 49-year-old electrician, summed up what many here believe to be Mr. Reagan's legacy: ``He stamped out Communism.''
Historians debate the accuracy of that statement, but many in Dixon today, like many others around the world, take it as the plain truth.
``There are negative aspects to his legacy, like the Iran-contra scandal, but the important thing people will always remember is that the Soviet Union collapsed and the Berlin Wall fell while he was president,'' said Gene Stepanovic, 67, a former Navy pilot. ``He had a very positive profile and effect on our country. He had a sense of proportion. He knew he was and he knew where he wanted to go.''
Mr. Reagan's boyhood home is now a museum, and Jim G. Burke, the mayor of Dixon, spent much of the day there, wearing his American-flag necktie.
``The institutions here - school, church, library, neighborhood - all played a part in shaping his life, and he never forgot that,'' Mr. Burke said. ``This was not a man who ever forgot his roots.''
The man who lived the eventful life that was shaped by Dixon will be laid to rest Friday evening here in Simi Valley, a place where he never lived but where he chose to be buried among the rolling vistas of his adopted home of Southern California.
Berhane Selassie Mesfin, 45, who immigrated to the United States from Ethiopia about the time Mr. Reagan became president, stopped at the presidential library to leave a poem.
``He means a lot to me,'' Mr. Mesfin said. ``He ended the crazy cold war.''
A short while later, Jerry Butler, a 64-year-old Vietnam veteran, walked up to the Reagan library with a small offering.
``It's a chance to leave flowers for a president who was a good guy,'' Mr. Butler said, ``a guy who saved the world.''
Charlie LeDuff contributed reporting for this article.
--------
Kucinich Takes Roads Less Traveled in Bid
Campaign Stops in Neglected Areas Help Democrat Net 70 Convention Delegates
By Evelyn Nieves
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 7, 2004; Page A04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20705-2004Jun6.html
MOORESTOWN, N.J. -- As the candidate for president of the United States stepped onto the stage, flashing a smile and a wave, the audience exploded with cheers and applause and screams worthy of Beatles fans.
This went on for several minutes. Even the candidate was a little taken back. It was as though he had already won the election.
Which, of course, he had. Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio) came to the Moorestown Friends School on Friday afternoon to thank the students for making him the landslide winner in their mock presidential primary. (Al Sharpton had come in second.) It was a magnanimous gesture amid a busy schedule. Kucinich, the only Democrat besides Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) left in the race, is still campaigning as though he were a viable candidate, sort of.
He crisscrossed the country, as he has done for months, campaigning in Montana, then here in New Jersey, then back in Montana before these two states hold the nation's final primaries Tuesday. Kucinich has seemed determined to visit places most candidates would ignore as not rich enough in potential voters.
In between trips to New Jersey (where he spent two hours at the kindergarten-through-12th-grade Friends School) and Montana, he was scheduled to join Jesse L. Jackson in Pittsburgh on Sunday for the kickoff of a bus tour through parts of economically depressed Appalachia.
For several months, Kucinich has made it a point to visit some of the most forgotten corners of the country -- public housing complexes, down-and-out main streets and the like -- to call attention to poverty, which he calls "a weapon of mass destruction." At each turn, he launches into lengthy discussions on the need to pull out of Iraq, the invasion of which he voted against, and his proposals for a Cabinet-level "Department of Peace," which would apply Gandhian principles to curbing violence, both domestic and global.
Until May, Kucinich's campaign gained little traction. He had won 40 delegates to the Democratic National Convention, out of 4,322. Kerry had won enough delegates by early March to secure the nomination. But after the primaries and caucuses in Maine, Colorado, Alaska and Oregon, Kucinich suddenly had 70 delegates.
In Missoula, Mont., late last month, he spoke at a jampacked theater. The audience greeted him with a standing ovation. The television talk shows, which had all but ignored him all year, have started calling. The campaign hopes to go into the convention with about 80 delegates, after the last primaries are counted.
Kucinich is hoping that those delegates will help give him a platform on which to discuss why the country should leave Iraq, and how. "This is why I've stayed in the race," he said, talking to reporters after his meeting here with the students. "I hadn't planned on running for president until I saw this president launch headlong into war. I knew it was wrong from the beginning."
At the Quaker Friends School, that message resonated loud and clear. Kucinich gave his classic stump speech on how a Department of Peace could be used for everything from stemming spousal abuse ("It would help young men look at their attitudes about women") to racial discrimination ("It would start a whole new discussion on racial violence") to preventing war ("The preconditions for war come about because of the widespread acceptance of the inevitability of war").
Throughout Kucinich's half-hour presentation, the students remained attentive, even rapt. When he answered questions later about reconciling being a Roman Catholic and supporting abortion rights, and defending the rights of gay men and lesbians to marry, the audience applauded loudly.
When the 12th grade began its mock primary season, Kucinich was not even in the race. Neither was Kerry nor Sen. John Edwards (N.C.).
Two sophomores, Ben Spielberg and Ben Jones, both 15, and a senior, Mike Borden, 18, heard of the slight and crashed their way into the mock campaign.
"This is so exciting," Borden said, after he and a few others on the school's Kucinich campaign got to meet privately with the real candidate.
Borden had shown Kucinich a campaign video he created. "I missed a day of school to do it," he confessed sheepishly. He was still awestruck by the candidate's compliments.
"I registered to vote and put my name on a petition to get him on the ballot," Borden said.
Students mobbed the candidate after his talk. He autographed a boy's arm cast, a girl's notebook, pieces of paper. He grinned for photos, indulging what seemed an endless line of students waiting to shake his hand.
"I did it! I shook Kucinich's hand!" a girl squealed.
Finally, teachers told the students that enough was enough and that they would be late for class. The candidate for president of the United States did not budge. "I'm so sorry I have to leave," he said. It was obvious he meant it.
-------- ENERGY
-------- alternative energy
Poll: Voters Want Fuel Economy, Ethanol, Hydrogen
June 7, 2004
WASHINGTON, DC, (ENS)
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jun2004/2004-06-07-09.asp#anchor3
Doing more to conserve energy by improving fuel economy in cars and trucks is the best way to lower gas prices, a majority of Americans surveyed in a new national poll believes. Sixty-five percent of those questioned preferred energy conservation as the best alternative.
The survey of likely voters last week by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) found that 59 percent favor reducing our dependence on foreign oil, and 53 percent favor investing more in alternative sources of fuel like ethanol and hydrogen.
"Short-term fixes, like using the strategic petroleum reserve or drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge do not adequately address the problem in the eyes of most voters," the NRDC concluded from the survey results.
The most important factors behind the increased price of gasoline in the eyes of the likely voters surveyed are oil companies (24 percent), dependence on foreign oil (18 percent), conflict in the Middle East (12 percent) and OPEC (11 percent).
Forty-seven percent of those questioned think penalizing oil companies and gas stations that gouge the public would help keep prices down, and 29 percent think pressuring OPEC to increase production of fuel is a good idea.
Only 24 percent believe a solution is increasing domestic oil production, including drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and 18 percent would like to use oil from the strategic petroleum reserve.
Fifty-nine percent favored the NRDC's "Break the Chain" plan, and 26 percent were opposed.
"Under this plan, the government would raise fuel efficiency standards for cars, trucks and SUVs, increase production of hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell cars and use more renewable fuels such as ethanol.
Supporters say the Break the Chain plan will reduce dependence on foreign oil, reduce global warming and create jobs for the future, saving almost twice as much oil as America imports from the Middle East today. Opponents say Break the Chain will force Americans to drive smaller, unsafe cars, will cost billions of dollars and will destroy manufacturing jobs.
Tax breaks for drivers who buy hybrid cars, which combines a gasoline-powered engine with an electric motor to provide increased gas mileage and lower carbon dioxide emissions, met with the favor of 67 percent of those polled.
Tax credits to car manufacturers to build and market hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell cars was approved by 64 percent.
-------- energy
Seven States Urge Bush Action on Tennessee Valley Pollution
June 7, 2004
WASHINGTON, DC, (ENS)
By J.R. Pegg
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jun2004/2004-06-07-10.asp
Attorneys general from seven states urged President George W. Bush on Friday to immediately require the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to install modern pollution controls at its 11 coal-fired power plants. A federal corporation and regional development agency, the TVA is the nation's largest public power company.
The attorneys general called on the President to act because efforts to "remedy significant, on-going violations of the Clean Air Act's New Source Review requirements" have failed and the subsequent pollution is harming public health and the environment.
"TVA is one of the nation's largest air polluters and its emissions degrade air quality throughout the eastern and mid-western United States," said the attorneys general of Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont. All these states are outside of the TVA's service area and do not receive electricity generated by the power plants at issue.
The TVA's Paradise coal-fired power plant in Kentucky (Photo courtesy TVA) At issue is the Tennessee Valley Authority's compliance with the Clean Air Act's New Source Review program, which is designed to ensure the nation's dirtiest power plants do not expand operations without installing new pollution control technology.
In 1999, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) alleged that TVA violated New Source Review when it carried out 14 projects at eight of its coal-fired plants between 1982 and 1996.
The Tennessee Valley Authority contends the projects were routine maintenance, and therefore not subject to New Source Review.
As the Tennessee Valley Authority is a federally owned power company, the EPA believed it did not have the authority to take the federal entity to court and instead issued an administrative compliance order and brought the power company in front of the EPA's Environmental Appeals Board.
The board said "TVA's view of the breadth of the exception would swallow the rule that subjects existing sources to the requirement to install modern pollution controls when physical changes that increase emissions are made to these plants."
TVA's Board Chairman Craven Crowell says Tennessee Valley residents hold TVA to a higher standard of accountability than investor-owned utilities where the environment is concerned. (Photo courtesy TVA) Tne TVA refused to comply with the order to install new pollution controls and challenged the agency in federal court.
In June 2003 a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the government should not have used an administrative order to address the TVA's alleged violations of the New Source Review program - the ruling did not address the merits of the allegations.
Last month the Supreme Court declined to hear the U.S. Justice Department's appeal of the 11th Circuit ruling.
"Thus, within the Executive Branch, now only the President can order TVA to reduce its pollution," the attorneys general said in their letter to President Bush. "We urge you now to stop these violations of the law - violations that are degrading air quality, harming the health of Americans and impairing states' efforts to ensure clean air for their residents."
The attorneys general say the EPA and Department of Justice have "spent significant time and resources seeking pollution controls on the TVA plants."
They add it is "imperative that this effort not languish."
The pollution from the TVA's plants is substantial - in 2003 these plants released some 583,000 tons of sulfur dioxide, 235,000 tons of nitrogen oxides, and 4,645 pounds of mercury.
The attorneys general note that EPA models show more than 1,200 Americans die prematurely every year due to TVA's power plant pollution and thousands more suffer from respiratory ailments, including asthma.
In addition, these emissions inhibit efforts by states to meet new smog and particulate matter standards.
The TVA's coal-fired Kingston Power Plant in Kingston, Tennessee (Photo courtesy TVA) The Tennessee Valley Authority had no immediate comment on the letter, but officials note the public utility has spent about $3 billion on air pollution control equipment at its 11 coal-fired plants. "These investments have reduced TVA's sulfur dioxide emissions by two-thirds and lowered nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions by one-fifth since 1976," the agency says.
To further reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides, the TVA says it is installing 18 selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems on seven of its fossil plants. "By 2005, the SCR systems, with a projected cost of between $800 and $900 million, will reduce NOx emissions during the summer ozone season by 75 percent compared with mid-1990 levels."
The TVA points out that it modified the 16 combustion turbines at Johnsonville Fossil Plant and four turbines at Gallatin Fossil Plant to burn natural gas in addition to fuel oil. This gives the agency the flexibility to purchase the lowest cost fuel and reduce NOx emissions when natural gas is being used.
"Our current plans are to spend $2.6 billion more between 2002 and 2010. This comes out to an average of about a million dollars a day," the TVA said in its March 2003 publication "Inside TVA."
There is little chance the President will heed the call of the attorneys general. Since taking office the Bush administration has finalized several major industry friendly changes to the New Source Review program.
The TVA's Gallatin Power Plant has been modified to run on both coal and natural gas. (Photo courtesy TVA) A dozen states along with several environmental and public health organizations have challenged the revisions to New Source Review in federal court.
In December 2003, the court agreed to stay the most recent rule changes until it decides the case.
Critics argue the changes roll back existing law, but the administration and industry groups say the revisions will clarify a confusing program for industry and will result in improved efficiency and increased emissions reductions.
The attorneys general also hold the option of filing their own suit against the Tennessee Valley Authority. Late last month attorneys general from Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania announced they would sue Allegheny Energy for alleged New Source Review violations.
The Bush administration dropped its investigation of Allegheny late last year.
Industry representatives say the attorneys general have got the TVA situation wrong - on two levels.
The Justice Department "still has options at the district court level," said Scott Segal, executive director of the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council.
Second, there is little merit to the allegations that the TVA violated New Source Review requirements of the Clean Air Act, Segal said, adding, "these facilities are governed by air permits fully protective of human health and the environment."
The TVA's power-service area covers 80,000 square miles in the southeastern United States, and it includes almost all of Tennessee and parts of Mississippi, Kentucky, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia.
-------- OTHER
-------- environment
Twelve Chemical Companies Put Millions at Risk
June 7, 2004
WASHINGTON, DC, (ENS)
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jun2004/2004-06-07-09.asp#anchor2
Twelve chemical companies each endanger more than five million Americans in the event of an accident or terrorist attack at their facilities, according to a new report by a national citizens research group.
In the report, "Dangerous Dozen: A Look at How Chemical Companies Jeopardize Millions of Americans," U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG) analyzes the chemical companies' own estimates submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The 12 companies whose facilities endanger the most people are JCI Jones Chemical, The Clorox Company, Kuehne Chemical, KIK Corporation, DuPont, Pioneer Companies, Clean Harbors, GATX Corporation, PVS Chemicals, Dow Chemical, Ferro Corporation and Occidental. These companies own 154 high hazard facilities in 31 states.
U.S. PIRG is the national advocacy office for independent state Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs), non-profit, non-partisan public interest advocacy organizations.
U.S. PIRG is asking the federal government to require high hazard chemical plants to review and use safer chemicals and processes wherever possible and to enact strict security standards where safer chemicals are not feasible.
Meanwhile, the advocacy organization is calling on these 12 companies to reduce the threat to nearby communities by using safer chemicals and processes wherever possible.
Since 1990, the National Response Center (NRC) has received more than 8,400 reports of incidents involving oil or chemical spills at facilities owned by these 12 parent companies.
"It is unacceptable that these 12 companies endanger so many lives," said U.S. PIRG Environmental Health Advocate Meghan Purvis."Unfortunately, the Bush administration and the chemical industry continue to oppose strong, mandatory chemical security regulations."
The three companies whose facilities put the greatest number of people at risk are JCI Jones Chemical, The Clorox Company, and Kuehne Chemical, which put a total of more than 20 million, 14 million, and 12 million people at risk, respectively.
The chemical industry and the Bush administration argue that voluntary industry security programs are enough to protect America from accidents or attacks at these facilities.
The American Chemistry Council, a lobbying organization that works on behalf of the chemical industry, opposes mandatory chemical security regulations and instead favors voluntary measures. Half of the 12 companies profiled in the PIRG report are Chemistry Council members.
"Despite lax security at many plants, the chemical industry would prefer to ignore the best way to reduce the threat these facilities pose to surrounding communities - using safer chemicals and processes wherever possible," said Paul Orum, director of the Working Group on Community Right-to-Know.
-------- ACTIVISTS
Russians Protest Plutonium Program at U.S. Embassy
June 7, 2004
Moscow News
http://www.mosnews.com/news/2004/06/07/plutonium.shtml
Russian ecologists protested Tuesday's G8 meeting in front of the U.S. Embassy Monday, calling on the United States and Russia to abandon a plan for plutonium utilization between the two countries.
The protesters, numbering up to ten people, briefly protested outside the embassy at about noon Monday, holding up banners calling on the G8 not to finance plutonium production.
Several dozen journalists were also present, a MosNews correspondent reported. Police became involved in the demonstration soon after it started, confiscating the banners. They took two demonstrators aside for questioning, but they were released.
The demonstration lasted several minutes before the police intervened.
Ecologists from the "Ecoprotection" group are concerned that the $8 billion joint program will increase the risk of nuclear disasters and plutonium contamination. They also fear the plutonium may get into the wrong hands and be used by terrorists.
----
Summit-fueled art, film and forums take center stage
April Jo Harder 912.652.0309 april.harder@savannahnow.com
Savannah Morning News,
June 7, 2004
http://www.savannahnow.com/stories/060604/2216364.shtml
The leaders of the G-8 nations aren't the only ones holding talks this week.
The war in Iraq, fair trade, globalization, civil liberties, nuclear power, the environment and out-sourcing jobs are sure to be on the tip of protesters' tongues.
Those issues will also be reflected in art exhibits, films and educational forums that take center stage in a handful of Savannah galleries and coffee houses this week.
Here's a look at some of those events:
The Sentient Bean hosts art, films and forums
"Harvesting Potatos, Muslumovo" is a silver gelatin print by Dutch photographer Robert Knoth. It is part of "Half Life: Living With the Effects of Nuclear Waste," on exhibit through June 15 at Starland Center for Contemporary Art. Special to the Savannah Morning
Local artists inspired by the proximity of the G-8 Summit have contributed works to "Free Speech Zone: Recent Art Concerning Global Matters," an art exhibition on display through June 25 at The Sentient Bean, 13 E. Park Ave.
The group exhibition addresses global themes and concerns in paintings, sculpture, graphics and digital art.
"If we value our free-and-just society, we need to take responsibility and participate in the democratic process and continue to engage in free speech and debate. I hope that this art show will inspire people to really use this space as a Free Speech Zone," said Kelli Pearson, co-owner of the Sentient Bean.
The Bean will host a forum on economic globalization at 7 p.m. June 7. Panelists will discuss some of the core issues of globalization, its pros and cons, and will outline some alternatives to the current international trade system.
"We really wanted to do something constructive and educational, so if people wanted to learn about it they'd have a place to go," Pearson said.
The focus will be on how to make globalization sustainable and beneficial to the world.
Speakers will include Njoki Njoroge Njehu, the Kenyan-born director of the 50 Years is Enough Network, addressing issues of the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and Africa; Marie Clarke, Jubilee Campaign national coordinator, speaking on debt cancellation; Bill Harris, chairman of Cooperative Coffees, a co-op of fair-trade coffee roasters, speaking on fair trade and the commodity market; and Ned Rinalducci, a professor of political sociology at Armstrong Atlantic State University, who will give an academic overview of globalization.
"Free Speech Zone: Recent Art Concerning Global Matters" is a globally-minded art exhibition on display through June 25 at The Sentient Bean. Special to the Savannah Morning
"No-Nukes Night" on June 8 will include lectures and films sponsored by Greenpeace International; co-sponsored by Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Citizens for Environmental Justice and Georgians Against Nuclear Energy.
The evening will include a "Briefing on the Summit and the Global Partnership, Plutonium: The G-8, Proliferation and the Savannah River Site," from 7-8:30 p.m. and the Psychotronic Film Society and Nuclear Films presentation of "Invasion USA" and "Red Nightmare" from 9-11 p.m. One is a campy Hollywood production, the other a Cold War propaganda short.
The SGVT Globalization Film Series concludes its series of films at 8 p.m. Wednesday with the showing of "No Logo: Brands, Globalization & Resistance." The series has been a collaborative effort of The Sentient Bean, SGVT, Savannah Fellowship of Reconciliation, Atlanta Independent Media Center and the Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition.
For more information on the art show, call (912) 356-1331. For information on film and forums, call 232-4447 or visit www.sentientbean.com.
Film tour visits Savannah
The YETI Tour 2004 will make a stop in Savannah, showing works by Atlanta filmmakers at 8 p.m. today and Tuesday in the Starland Design District, 2425 Bull St.
"Remote Weapon" by Rachel Green is part of "Free Speech Zone: Recent Art Concerning Global Matters," an art exhibition on display through June 25 at The Sentient Bean. Special to the Savannah Mornng N
One film with a particularly political message, "Bush Boys," by POP Films, is a collage of news footage that illustrates the U.S. relationship with Saddam Hussein and the current war with Iraq. The film, from YETI's "Under the Influence" project, is set to the beat of the DJ Danger Mouse song "Bush Boys," from his "Ghetto Pop Life" album. The film, which contains war images and adult language, can be viewed at submediatv.com/war/bushboys01.mov.
The filmmakers include POP Films, subMedia, Item 6 Films, Jon Hill, Psychopia Films, Itaki Design Studio, Eyekiss Films, Stinky and Spanky, Musashi Films and Tsubasa.
Several of the filmmakers will be present at Savannah's screenings. Admission is $5. For more information, visit starlandsavannah.com/ or YETI.tv.
Opus Gallery hosts 'Blueprint'
Starting Tuesday, the Opus Gallery, 18 W. Hull St., hosts "Blueprint," an exhibit that explores the sacrifice of civil liberties for the sake of security during a time of war.
It includes a film installation, photos and other works.
The gallery is open from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. For more information, visit www.theopusgallery.com or call 596-1173.
Starland hosts Greenpeace photo exhibit
Greenpeace International is sponsoring a photo exhibit titled "Half Life: Living with the Effects of Nuclear Waste" by Robert Knoth that will be on display at the Starland Center for Contemporary Art, 2428 Bull St., through June 15. It is free and open to the public.
The exhibit underscores the social, health and environmental costs of the production of weapons plutonium in Russia. The collection of haunting photos was taken around Russia's massive Mayak plutonium production site. Upstream from Savannah, the sister facility of Mayak, the Department of Energy's Savannah River Site also produced weapons plutonium in five now-closed reactors and is a designated plutonium storage facility.
To view the Mayak photo exhibit, visit archive.greenpeace.org/mayak/. For more information on the Starland Center for Contemporary Art, call 447-0011 or visit www.starlandsavannah.com. Gallery hours are 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday.
SCAD posters still up downtown
Savannah College of Art and Design graduate graphic design students, led by professor Scott Boylston, have developed a series of posters designed to remind people gathering in Savannah during the summit that freedom of speech and freedom of assembly are personal rights connected to personal responsibility.
The series of six posters have been on display in the city since May 24 and will remain in businesses, in empty storefronts downtown and on southside Savannah throughout the summit.
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Ban on Subway Photography Prompts Underground Protest
June 7, 2004
By ALAN FEUER
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/07/nyregion/07subway.html
At a protest by photographers, you see things like a guy taking pictures of a guy taking pictures of a few more guys taking pictures of one another.
There was such a protest yesterday, but it might take hundreds of pages to describe it, given all the pictures that were taken, each one worth at least a thousand words.
The photographers - about 100 of them - gathered to express their outrage at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's proposed ban on taking pictures in the subway system. Meeting at Grand Central Terminal, they rode the trains for upward of an hour, shutters clicking, flashes popping, in a filmed rebuke to the idea that photography is somehow a national security threat.
"The point is really to make everyday people wake up and realize that photographers are not terrorists," said Joe Anastasio, who organized the event. "In the last few years, photographers near anything vaguely important have been getting harassed."
Mr. Anastasio went on to tell the story of a friend who took his wife's picture near the Whitestone Bridge, only to be called in for questioning by the police. He told another of a man caught snapping pictures at a Metro-North station who was interrogated for nearly two hours by authorities at the scene.
"The paranoia," he said, "has gone a little too far."
The transit authority's proposal, posted on its Web site, says the agency is planning to adopt "a general prohibition against photography and videotaping in the system." The agency is soliciting public comment on the ban and plans to vote on the proposal in the next few months.
"It's a security measure," said a spokeswoman for the agency, Deirdre Parker. "It was suggested by the N.Y.P.D."
Mr. Anastasio and his fellow photographers said it was ridiculous that pictures of the subway might somehow make the trains unsafe. After all, they said, there are thousands of subway photographs already on the Internet.
"The subway is so well documented that what's the point?" asked Jean Miele, a fine art and commercial photographer. "This sort of thing makes us less free, not safer."
Infuriated that his photographic rights might in fact be curtailed, Mr. Anastasio sent messages to several friends, asking them to show up yesterday to photograph the subway. They did - with Nikons, Leicas, Canons and such. There were an $8,000 digital job and a cheap mini that showed a nudie picture through its viewfinder.
When a downtown No. 6 train arrived, the photographers began to cheer. They boarded in a herd and held their cameras up, taking pictures of other hands holding cameras up.
At the 14th Street station, they split into two groups, stood against the walls and photographed each other across a corridor. This had varying effects on the people passing by. One woman fixed her hair before she ran the gantlet; another covered her face.
One guy said to his buddy, "Hey, what's with all the paparazzi?"
His buddy said, "Dunno, I think it must be you."
There was a tense moment when the crowd decided it would photograph a transit police dispatch station at 14th Street. A startled officer came out and suggested that they leave.
"You didn't say 'Cheese!' " one of the cheekier photographers said.
When an L train finally arrived, they tried taking pictures of the motorman. He was not keen on this idea, however, and blocked his window with an advertising circular.
Many of the photographers said they planned to post their pictures on the Internet - Jared Skolnick, for example, who takes pictures of the subway on his cellphone and then displays them online.
"I've learned that so many crazy things can happen on the subway," said Mr. Skolnick, who paused and then added, "including this."
--------
Nuke whistleblower Vanunu appeals to leave Israel
By Yuval Yoaz and
Reuters Ha'aretz,
03/06/2004
<http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/435039.html>http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/435039.html
Nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu petitioned the High Court of Justice on Thursday to let him leave the country, saying restrictions he has been under since his release from prison in April were unjustified. The petition was filed by the Association of Civil Rights in Israel. It argues that Vanunu poses no threat to national security and should be allowed to leave Israel. It also disputes other restrictions imposed on Vanunu, including restrictions on travel within Israel and a clause which requires Vanunu to request permission before speaking to foreign nationals.
Vanunu was jailed in 1986 after discussing his work with a British newspaper. His revelations to the Sunday Times led independent experts to conclude Israel had amassed between 100 and 200 nuclear weapons.
Vanunu has been living in a Jerusalem church since his release on April 21. He expressed a desire to settle in the United States or Europe.
In an interview conducted by an Israeli intermediary and broadcast on the BBC on Sunday, Vanunu said he blew the whistle about Israel's nuclear program because he wanted to save the country from a nuclear holocaust.
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2. Vanunu fights to lift curbs on his freedom
By Stephen Farrell in Jerusalem Times of London June 04, 2004
MAKING a rare foray out of the Jerusalem church where he has sought sanctuary since his release from Israeli prison, Mordechai Vanunu yesterday began legal moves to lift restrictions on his movements.
The freed nuclear whistleblower pleaded with Israel's Government to let him leave the country, saying that a travel ban and prohibition on contact with foreigners infringed his human rights. He made his plea at a press conference at the headquarters of the Association For Civil Rights in Israel, which submitted a petition to Israel's Supreme Court demanding that the restrictions be abolished.
Mr Vanunu said that three followers of a far-Right movement had threatened him in the street this week, calling him a traitor and saying that he should be killed. "There is hate and even danger to my life here. I have no future in the Israeli state," he said, speaking in English rather than Hebrew. "I am free but I don't feel free. I am not free to walk in the street and walk in every part of Israel. This is another proof to me that my place is not in Israel. My future is in Europe or the United States."
Mr Vanunu was released five weeks ago from an 18-year jail sentence for disclosing details of Israel's secret nuclear plant at Dimona.
He has taken up residence at the Cathedral of St George in Jerusalem. He cannot change his address without giving 48 hours' notice, or go within 500 metres of Israel's border crossings. He is also banned from airports and ports, from entering any foreign diplomatic mission, establishing contact with foreigners or participating in internet chat sites.
Asked by Israeli journalists about claims by the security agency Shin Bet that he still had secrets, he insisted that he had nothing more to reveal. He claimed that files and drawings taken from his cell and cited by Israel's security establishent as evidence of his intent to further damage Israel's interests were already published in the 1986 Sunday Times article that led to his capture and imprisonment.
Dan Yakir, the chief legal counsel for the civil rights association, said that Mr Vanunu had paid his dues and now wanted to start a family. "He has no chance to rehabilitate himself in Israeli society while the incitement conducted against him by the security establishment has permeated the Israeli public," he said.
Mr Yakir intends to ask the Supreme Court to cancel the 1945 Emergency Regulations dating back to the British Mandate that allow the state to restrict Mr Vanunu and impose curfews, house demolitions and military censorship on Palestinians across the occupied territories.
"We are asking the Supreme Court to rethink and decide that these regulations are unconstitutional and invalid in light of the establishment of the State of Israel as a democratic state," Mr Yakir said.
A spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Jonathan Peled, said: "The whole issue of Vanunu is a balancing act between respecting his rights as someone who has served his punishment and trying to safeguard the national security interests. Hopefully a time will come, sooner better than later, when some of these restrictions will be lifted."
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3. Petition submitted to Court
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) 3/6/04 ACRI submitted a petition this morning [June 3] to the Supreme Court: To cancel the restrictions imposed on Mordechai Vanunu
ACRI also calls on the Supreme Court to establish that the Defense Regulations of 1945, and the 1948 Emergency Regulations relating to leaving the country are void.
ACRI submitted a petition this morning on behalf of Mordechai Vanunu against the Minister of the Interior and the head of the Home Front Command to demand the cancellation of the severe restrictions that were imposed on Vanunu after his release from jail. ACRI is also asking the court to issue a ruling that the 1945 Defense Regulations (State of Emergency), and the 1948 State of Emergency Regulations, which enable the state to prohibit civilians from leaving the country, be cancelled. The petition was submitted by ACRI's Chief Legal Counsel, Attorney Dan Yakir, and ACRI Attorney Oded Feller. In light of the extreme restrictions that were imposed on Vanunu, which constitute a harsh and daily punishment for him, ACRI requested that the court hold an urgent hearing on the petition.
The restrictions imposed on Vanunu include, not just the prohibition on leaving the country for a year, but also a series of other severe restrictions: Vanunu is not allowed to change his residency address without giving 48 hours advance notice; he is required to give 24 hours notice before leaving his city of residence, including details of the exact destinations he intends to visit and how long he will be in each one; he must give a day's notice each time he intends to sleep somewhere other than his home; he is prohibited from being within 500 meters of any crossing point from which it is possible to leave Israel by air, sea or land; he cannot enter or try to enter any foreign diplomatic mission; and finally, he is prohibited from establishing contact with, or exchanging any information in any way, with foreign residents or citizens, or participating in any Internet chat sites. Any request to deviate from any of the stated restrictions must be submitted in writing to the officer in charge of the police headquarters in closest proximity to his residence at least 48 hours in advance.
Attorneys Yakir and Feller note in the petition that the severe restrictions that have been imposed on Vanunu enforce upon him "assigned residency" as he is not only condemned to social isolation, but the state is also totally ignoring his status as a prisoner who has been released from an extended jail term, and ignoring the unique position of Vanunu in particular. This is reflected in denying him the basic rights of flexibility, mobility and opportunity to integrate into society, to which he has re-emerged after his lengthy imprisonment. The petition also states that the restrictions condemn Vanunu to an inability to engage in social interaction with individuals who do not happen to hold Israeli citizenship. The attorneys also stressed that fact that, in light of the fact that Vanunu is part of a society that has turned its back on him, the only people who would seek out his company are denied him. The prohibition on Vanunu leaving the country not only imposes an unreasonable infringement on his freedom of movement but it also sentences him in such a way that he is unable to rehabilitate his life, as he is forced to reside in a society that abhors him, that sees him as a traitor and a dangerous enemy, and within which he has no chance to realize his desire to establish a family, find employment and earn a living, and take a legitimate part in public, democratic and open discourse.
Attorneys Yakir and Feller further emphasize in the petition that the authorities fear of "state security breaches", the fear that lies at the heart of the restrictions on Vanunu, have been rendered meaningless over the last few years, and for the entire period following his release from solitary confinement, during which he was allowed to come into contact with other prisoners and family members (with whom he met throughout almost the entire period of his internment). Mordechai Vanunu, the petition stresses, repeatedly states at any given opportunity that, he has no intention of divulging any more information and that he couldn't even if he wanted to. The information that he disclosed to the Sunday Times newspaper that was published in great detail relates to reality that existed over twenty years ago, to which Vanunu has nothing to add. In his position as a technician and not as a scientist in the nuclear research facility, his knowledge of the procedures used to produce nuclear materials is limited to the specific area he was involved in, which has already been published and made available to anybody who wishes to study it, and none of which provides any new information. The petition further sets forth that Vanunu's ability to harm state security is, in retrospect, highly doubtful, and even more so when one looks to the future, which is what the severe restrictions are based upon. This is further demonstrated by the findings of the American researcher Thomas B. Cochran, who specializes in the research of nuclear weapon proliferation. He determined that Vanunu has no additional information that is liable to undermine the state's policy of deliberate "obscurity", that he has no information relating to operational policy, that he never had access to information related to weapons deployment (the production of launching methods), and even if he did, the information has become completely redundant as the years passed. He further concluded that it is highly unlikely that Vanunu possesses any additional information as to the design of nuclear weapons, or information related to experimentation with different warheads, and it is also highly unlikely to presume that he can expose any information related to intelligence sources, including names of individuals, and that if he did publish any individuals' names that he encountered during his work at the facility, this would in no way endanger the security of the state. Even former senior security officials have expressed the opinion that the restrictions on Vanunu have no discernable purpose, and that he has no information in addition to that which he divulged in the 1980's. Dr Frank Barnaby, an internationally renowned nuclear physicist, also supports this view.
The representing attorneys also state that the quotes taken from Vanunu's letter, which were part of a presentation prepared by the Defense Ministry's Chief of Security, and were used by him to justify the restrictions, are incomplete, taken out of context, are chosen selectively, and are open to interpretation. They represent nothing more than a collection of facts, and are not based on a firm foundation of factual evidence that is fitting and credible. There is nothing in the collected facts that indicate that Vanunu possesses any new or additional nuclear secrets that have yet to be published, or any intention or ability to harm state security. The psychiatric assessment referred to by the Defense Ministry's Chief of Security, Yechiel Horev, as the basis of the perceived danger posed by Vanunu, was prepared on the basis of video and tapes and letters written by Vanunu, without the psychiatric specialist meeting with Vanunu at all!
In view of the aforementioned, and on the basis of numerous additional evidence, no other conclusion can be reached other than that the restrictions were imposed to ensure the policy of deliberate nuclear obscurity by Israel, while preventing legitimate public discourse on the issue. The restrictions, the petition further notes, reflect a desire for revenge, punishment, and deterrence, and not an attempt to protect Israel's national security - the declared objective.
In addition to the claim that there is no justification for imposing restrictions on Vanunu, the attorneys also claim that the Supreme Court should cancel the 1945 Defense Regulations (State of Emergency) and section 6 of the 1948 State of Emergency Regulations (relating to leaving the country), upon which the restrictions are based. The regulations are not in accordance with the constitutional framework of the State of Israel, and the imposition of such restrictions, with no real justification in the case of Vanunu, does not comply with the State of Israel's basic laws.
ACRI's website: <http://www.acri.org.il>www.acri.org.il
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25/4/04
Set forth are the post-release conditions, prohibitions and regulations that were imposed on Mordechai Vanunu after completing his 18-year prison sentence for disclosing details of the operation of Israel's nuclear facility in Dimona.
The following is a signed statement by the Minister of the Interior, Avraham Poraz, prohibiting Vanunu from leaving the country:
"In accordance with regulation 6 of the State of Emergency Regulations 1948 (that relate to leaving the country), and after I was convinced that a real risk exists that in the event that Mordechai Vanunu, ID No.068411933 leaves the country (hereinafter will be referred to as Vanunu), that state security is liable to be damaged, and after I have examined the written claims raised by Vanunu against the issuance of the order and was not convinced by them, I hereby order the prohibition on Vanunu leaving the country for a period of a year from the date this order is issued". 19/4/04
Listed below are the details of the supervision and limitation order issued by the head of the Home Front Command that are applicable to Vanunu immediately upon his release from prison:
The limitation and supervision order in accordance with regulation 108, 109 and 110. Defense Regulations (Emergency), 1945
Vanunu will be subject to police supervision from the date of his release from prison for a period of 6 months.
24 hours before his release he is required to notify the Prison Director of his exact address.
After his release, he is required to provide 48 hours notice of any change of address, and inform the local police authority of his exact residential address. In addition, the following restrictions and prohibitions will be placed on Mr. Vanunu according to regulation 109 of the regulations.
Vanunu is required to give 24 hours notice to the officer in charge of the nearest police station before leaving his city of residence, including his destination, the places he intends to visit and the amount of time he intends to spend in each place.
He is required to give 24-hour notice to the officer in charge of the nearest police station if he intends to sleep somewhere other than the official address given to the police, and the notice of dates he will sleep there.
Mr. Vanunu is prohibited, without prior permission, to be within 500 meters from places detailed in the attached document via which it is possible to leave Israel, including the area of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip (including ports, airports, border crossings and international borders). He will however be allowed to travel on intercity roads even if they are in close proximity to the aforementioned sites.
Mr. Vanunu is prohibited from entering, or trying to enter, any foreign diplomatic mission in Israel without obtaining prior permission.
Mr. Vanunu is prohibited, without written permission, to meet with or exchange information of any kind with foreign residents or citizens. In addition, he is prohibited from participating in any chat sites on the Internet.
Permits that are required by this order must be issued in writing by the officer in charge of the local police headquarters in close proximity to his place of residence, and the permit request must be submitted in writing 48 hours before it is due to be put into use.
In the event that any of the restrictions are not clear to Mr. Vanunu, he is required to obtain clarifications from the officer in charge of the local police headquarters.
Any action in contradiction to that set forth in the order or, without the appropriate authorization, will constitute a criminal act as defined by the law.
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Listed below are the details of the prohibition on the transfer of classified information, as detailed in the letter of the Defense Ministry's Chief of Security.
Re: Prohibition on the Exchange of Information
1. In lieu of your imminent release from prison, we feel it is appropriate to clarify a series of prohibitions that are applicable to you in accordance with the laws of the State of Israel, and the orders that were issued to you.
2. In your capacity as a citizen of Israel you are subject to the state's Penal Law, including the laws pertaining to the security of the state, its international relations and classified information.
3. The confidentiality agreement you signed upon beginning and ending your term of employment at the nuclear research facility are still binding, despite the extended time period that has elapsed.
4. In accordance with the Penal Law, you are prohibited from divulging any classified information, that was acquired during your work at the nuclear research facility, to any individual as explained to you during your debriefing. Likewise, you are prohibited from divulging any classified information that arose during your trial or any judicial proceedings that you were involved in.
5. You are prohibited from passing on classified information that is in any way connected to your work at the nuclear research facility, even if this information has been made available in the past.
6. The prohibition on passing on classified information also pertains to family members, Israelis and foreign nationals.
7. You are prohibited from being interviewed on all the classified subjects that relate to your work at the nuclear research facility, the prohibition applies to all media representatives, radio, print, and television. You are also prohibited from transmitting any of the aforementioned information via fax, telephone, Internet or any other means of communication.
8. You are required to notify the police any time you are approached by anyone, including foreign nationals, intelligence or governmental representatives, who request any classified information relating to your work at the nuclear research facility.
9. The regulations and prohibitions that are detailed in this letter are applicable from the moment you are released from prison, and you are obligated to act in accordance with them.
10. If you are in any doubt as to whether or not you are permitted - despite the prohibitions that are set forth above - to talk about any particular subject relating to past work at the nuclear research facility, you must consult with the Defense Ministry Security Chief (Tel: 03-6977883).
11. If you contravene any of these prohibitions, the state will act in accordance with the Penal Law.
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