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NUCLEAR
"EMP" - Non-Lethal Nukes?
Washington's blind eye on proliferation
My God! My Country Is Using Poison Gas In Iraq
Iran Denies Providing Missile Test Site
Nuclear Watchdogs Verify Uranium in Iraq
U.N. Inspectors Complete Iraq Nuclear Inventory
Before the bomb: A young girl's diary
Greenland Base to Be Upgraded as Part of Missile Shield Plan
Washington's blind eye on proliferation
Anti-nuke group makes annual visit to town
MILITARY
Refugee Agency Cuts Mission in Part of Afghanistan
Monitor Blames Sudan For Darfur Militia Killings
Sudan Says to Accept African Forces, No Peacekeepers
U.S. oil firms' payments probed
Sadr militia surrender in Najaf: Iraqi police
300 Shiite Militiamen Killed in Iraqi South
Iraq passes amnesty law for minor players in insurgency
U.S. Officers Say Two-Day Battle Kills 300 Iraqis
2,000 Return Home After Israel Opens Border Crossing
NATO Sends Officers to Train Iraqi Forces
Pakistan Intelligence Claims Another Al Qaeda Scalp
Manila says unconcerned if out of US coalition
Prison abuse report 'hard call'
Asylum decision by U.S. fuels ire
Unmasking of Qaeda Mole a U.S. Security Blunder - Experts
U.N. Blames Sudan for Civilian Atrocities
At Abuse Hearing, No Testimony That G.I.'s Acted on Orders
Pentagon Focuses on Voting Plan for Troops
POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE
D.C. May Sue Government If 15th Street Is Closed
Federal Roadblocks and Checkpoints Creating Capital Maze
F.B.I. Declines to Explain Raids
Guantánamo Inmate Complains of Threats and Long Isolation
Terrorism Suspect Had U.S. Ship Data
N.Y. Imam Tied To Terror Camp
Slowdown in 'Chatter' Worries Officials
Ex-Reservist Details Iraqi Prison Abuse
Soldier Who Reported Abuse Testifies, 'It Was a Hard Call'
Bahrain Royal Tortured at Guantanamo - Rights Group
POLITICS
'Zarqawi' Disk Seeks Recruits
Foreign observers to audit election
Bush Warns Americans They Are 'Still Not Safe'
ENERGY
A Push for Freedom From Oil
ACTIVISTS
Remembering Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the Dark Cloud Over Civilization
-------- NUCLEAR
"EMP" - Non-Lethal Nukes?
by Gordon Prather,
August 7, 2004
Antiwar.com
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/prather.php?articleid=3258
A couple of weeks ago, the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack delivered its final report to Congress.
The Commission was asked to assess - among other things - "the nature and magnitude of potential high-altitude EMP threats to the United States from all potentially hostile states or non-state actors that have or could acquire nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles enabling them to perform a high-altitude EMP attack against the United States within the next 15 years."
What the hell is "EMP"?
Well, in Operation Dominic, a series of nuke tests we conducted over the Pacific in 1962, we learned - much to our surprise - then when a large megaton-yield anti-ballistic-missile nuke warhead is detonated at the very high altitudes where incoming Soviet nuke warheads would be intercepted, in addition to destroying the incoming Soviet warhead, our ABM nuke's enhanced radiation also produces extreme charge separation in the underlying atmosphere. That is, the atoms in the air are not merely ionized - separated into positively-charged ions and negatively-charged electrons. Zillions of electrons are driven far away from the ions, creating humongous high-frequency 'dipole' radio transmitters.
The resulting multi-frequency electromagnetic pulse - EMP - can interfere catastrophically with the operation of electrical and electronic systems at considerable distances. That first high-altitude megaton-yield nuke test over Johnson Island resulted in power system failures in Hawaii, more than 700 miles away.
Once the EMP effect was discovered, we did two things. One was to spend a zillion dollars EMP-hardening all military electrical and electronic components and weapons systems.
The second was to see if specially designed nukes of much lower yield could produce EMP as the primary 'kill mechanism'. Were we successful?
Well, according to the Commission
China and Russia have considered limited nuclear attack options that, unlike their Cold War plans, employ EMP as the primary or sole means of attack. Indeed, as recently as May 1999, during the NATO bombing of the former Yugoslavia, high-ranking members of the Russian Duma, meeting with a US congressional delegation to discuss the Balkans conflict, raised the specter of a Russian EMP attack that would paralyze the United States. The Commission concluded that such an attack - non-lethal, in and of, itself - "has the potential to hold our society at risk and might result in defeat of our military forces."
Of course, it is one thing for Russia or China to have that capability. It is quite another for a "potentially hostile state or non-state actor" to acquire a ballistic missile capable of delivering a thousand-pound megaton-yield nuke warhead to the continental United States and detonating it exo-atmospherically.
In fact, if al-Qaeda ever acquires a megaton-yield nuke, what reason do we have for supposing they would choose some non-lethal use for it? Wouldn't they just smuggle it into Washington and attempt to detonate it. [Hollywood to the contrary, detonating on the ground a nuke that was designed to be carried to 500,000 feet by a missile and then detonated, is not a 'slam-dunk'.]
Nevertheless, the Commission devoted considerable effort to assessing the EMP threat posed by terrorists.
But what about North Korea?
According to Jane's, North Korea has developed and is deploying, two new missile systems, both based on the Soviet R-27 liquid-fueled submarine-launched ballistic missile.
The R-27 - as deployed by the Soviets during the 1970s and 1980s - had an operational range of about 1600 miles carrying a 1.2 megaton nuke warhead. Jane's says the Korean ground-launched model could have a range of about 2500 miles, bringing Hawaii into range.
However, if the Koreans have substantially increased the range of the liquid-fueled R-27, they have probably done it the way they increased the range of their chief "cash crop", Soviet liquid-fueled Scuds; by increasing the lengths of the fuel tanks. The cost of that extra fuel is decreased payload. The Korean R-27 could hardly deliver a thousand-pound 1.2 megaton nuke warhead to Hawaii - much less detonate it at 250,000 feet over Hawaii - even if the Russians were to give them one.
In fact, the Korean R-27 could hardly deliver to Waikiki Beach one of the first-generation plutonium-implosion nukes they are suspected of having. The Korean nukes - if they exist - must weigh at least a thousand pounds. Our first generation plutonium-implosion nuke - the one we dropped on Nagasaki 59 years ago - weighed ten thousand pounds.
Nevertheless, as silly as it sounds, both the EMP-Commission report and the Jane's report on new Korean missiles are being used as justification for the Clinton ABM system now being installed by Bush in Alaska.
--------
Washington's blind eye on proliferation
Asia News Network
By Jonathan Power
August 7, 2004
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2004/08/07/200408070009.asp
In his forthcoming memoir on his involvement in the India-Pakistan nuclear relationship, Strobe Talbott, former U.S. deputy secretary of state, recounts the surprise and alarm that swept through the eighth floor of the State Department when, on May 11, 1998, the first reports came in over CNN that India had tested a nuclear weapon. Yet, one presumes his diplomats were reading the Indian press carefully.
For example, I have in front of me two articles dated April 8 and 15, 1998 in The Statesman that argued that since the Indian nationalists of the Bharatiya Janata party had now come to power, India going nuclear was going to happen very quickly. The information was around for those who had eyes and ears. It was as if Washington didn't want to know until it had to.
Rather similarly, the reports emerging now suggesting that Saudi Arabia may be the latest West Asian country to engage in a planning program on nuclear weapons recalls a report of the International Institute for Strategic Studies published as long ago as 1989. This well-informed, London-based body remarked on the then recent Saudi purchase of Chinese CSS-2 rockets: "Missiles of such range are difficult to justify unless they carry nuclear weapons."
"They are too elaborate and expensive to make sense for anything else," I was told at the time. "Controllable thrust engines, inertial guidance systems and heat shielding put up the cost to astronomical levels."
But Washington didn't want to know and still doesn't want to know. Not one senior administration figure is talking about Saudi Arabian nuclear weapons plans despite the new worrying intelligence reports. It is the same with U.S. policy towards Israel's large stock of nuclear weapons. The United States will not confirm on the record what everybody knows - that Israel has around 200 nuclear weapons.
Washington prefers, when it is in its immediate strategic interest (albeit not its long-term one), to put its telescope to its blind eye. It couldn't allow itself to be too agitated about India's nuclear research because it had kept quiet for so long about that of Pakistan, its close ally. When the Soviet army poured into Afghanistan during the Carter administration, the United States suspended its nuclear nonproliferation policy so that Pakistan was sanctions-free and could receive the military and economic aid which the United States wanted it to have. Yet, everyone knew that Pakistan was rapidly developing its nuclear weapons capability. And today, we know that Pakistan's chief nuclear weapons scientist was running a side-show, selling nuclear technology and equipment far and wide - to North Korea, Libya, Iran and, now the spooks say, to a "fourth customer," which can only be Saudi Arabia.
How can Washington be a credible force for anti-proliferation when this is the recent historical record: that it does little or nothing until too late? Strobe Talbott gives a hair-raising ringside view of the India-Pakistan nuclear crisis of 1999. He reports that President Bill Clinton thought that it brought the antagonists closer to nuclear war than the United States and the Soviet Union were at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
We know too that when Saudi Arabia bought these Chinese missiles in 1988, Israel was nervous enough to warn Saudi Arabia that it would engage in a preemptive nuclear strike if it ever had cause for suspicion they would be used against it. Some close observers are still convinced that only U.S. pressure stayed the Israeli hand in the very nervous March and April of 1988. (Saudi Arabia, for its part, attempted to reassure Israel by saying it had acquired the rockets for defense against Iran, not Israel.)
Diplomatically, it is very difficult for Washington to rally international opinion behind a hard line on nuclear nonproliferation in North Korea and Iran when its recent past performance is so ambiguous and inconsistent.
The credibility of the Bush administration is further undermined by its actions in securing "loose nukes" and near-nukes, in Russia.
Harvard Professor Graham Allison, has described the attitude of the G8 nations towards this issue as "lackadaisical and unfocused." Despite agreement in principle with Russia to work together on the issue, less plutonium and highly enriched uranium have been secured in the two years since Sept. 11, 2001 than in the two years before. President George Bush does not give the issue his direct personal involvement. Meanwhile at home, rather than setting a good example by freezing weapons development, the administration has been seeking an increase in research funding for two new kinds of nuclear weapons.
So where do we go from here? Is the sauce that is good for the goose not good for the gander?
By Jonathan Power The Statesman (India) / Asia News Network
-------- depleted uranium
My God! My Country Is Using Poison Gas In Iraq: We've Weaponized Uranium Gas
August 7, 2004
by Bob Nichols
www.dissidentvoice.org
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Aug04/Nichols0807.htm
Radioactive, poison gas made from uranium was recommended to the American Military in 1943 during World War II by atom bomb builders working on the Manhattan Project run by Gen Leslie Groves.
Sixty-one years later deadly, radioactive, poisonous, weaponized uranium oxide gas plays a vital role in implementing the "Total Worldwide Domination Plan" as practiced by the NeoCons and President Bush. It is entitled "Rebuilding America's Defenses" and was written in September 2000 by the neo-con think tank, Project for the New American Century (PNAC).
That would be the American government's Cheney and the Pentagon's Rumsfield, Wolfowitz, and Feith, the most hated men in the world, the Gang of Four.
What is weaponized uranium oxide gas? It's any high velocity bullet or shell, any High Explosive Bomb or missile made with uranium metal. The uranium components turn into uranium oxide gas after the high velocity bullet or shell penetrates anything solid and explodes, as much as 80% of it ignites, burns, and aerosolizes into tiny, tiny radioactive pieces and floats in the air as a gas, blown about by the wind. They can stay airborne for years and be re-suspended for years, over and over again.
Missiles and bombs that explode as planned are blasted into uranium gas by the bomb's high explosive (HE). Pretty simple really. Once the uranium metal is worked into the business end of a bullet, tank shell, bomb, or missile the uranium oxide gas is "weaponized," and ready to go.
The feedstock uranium that's manufactured into war munitions is processed one time to purify it. Less than one half of one percent, a tiny impurity, is removed to make thermonuclear bombs and nuclear reactor cores. This leaves more than 99.8% of the uranium for bullets and bombs.
The uranium is fully 88% as radioactive as it was before it was processed. The Gang of Four cynically calls this uranium "depleted" as if everything is OK with it; it is safe; it has been depleted; there is no problem with it. No Problem! To top it off and make it worse, America's academics dutifully talk about and study "Depleted Uranium," at retreats and seminars thus keeping the Big Lie alive for the millions of common folk who long for some straight answers from academe.
This so-called Depleted Uranium is what the American government is using to make sniper bullets, tank shells, bombs, and cruise missiles. And, the American government just ordered some more depleted uranium weapons. It only takes a few months to re-arm. Who's next? Iran? Syria?
The 70-ton 1,500 HP workhorse M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tanks actually deliver up to eight pounds of poisonous uranium oxide gas per high velocity shell fired. The Abrams Death Machines fired many thousands of the 10-pound uranium "penetrator" rods during the Gulf Rape of Iraq turkey shoot. They are fully 18 inches long and 3/4 inch wide. That's the real name, too, "penetrator rods." It's an Abu Ghraib for the entire country.
But, using uranium munitions is a War Crime. As Vice President Cheney would say "Big Time!" That would be a major problem for less dedicated countries than the United States. That is not a showstopper for Bush, the NeoCons, or the American military. The Military is taught to refuse to follow orders that embrace War Crimes because they aren't legal. They failed America and the entire world.
The American President (Bush) stated that the International Criminal Court's (Re: War Crimes) jurisdiction does not apply to America's leaders or the Military. Presidential Translation: Go for it, dudes! Result: 4,000,000 pounds of uranium munitions poisoned Iraq with radioactive gas and dust rendering large parts of it uninhabitable. We Americans have already successfully killed Iraqis as yet unborn with radiation induced birth defects and cancers. This same uranium oxide gas, of course, is also sickening and killing our kids and friends in the Army in Iraq.
Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat, former Chief of Staff of the Indian Navy, calculated that the radiation in 4,000,000 pounds of uranium is the equivalent of that in 250,000 unexploded Nagasaki Plutonium Bombs. (1) That would be the Bomb the US dropped on Nagasaki, Japan three days after the Atom Bomb was dropped on Hiroshima August 6, 1945. This current Iraq Nuclear Radiation War was announced in the United States by the article "There Are No Words" by this writer on DissidentVoice.org on March 27, 2004. (2)
My God! Have the Gang of Four no humanity? Are they some kind of unfeeling Aliens from a Hollywood horror movie? The invisible, odorless, tasteless uranium oxide poison gas in the air can't be controlled or even seen! It's as dangerous to our kids and neighbors in the Army shooting it as it is to the "enemy" Iraqis. What's more, it migrates with the wind. This means it will soon be in all countries within 1,000 miles of Iraq. This includes America's ally, the state of Israel.
Nazi Germany had the political will in WWII to commit war crimes. The Germans finally settled on Zyklon B Gas to exterminate six million Jews during the cruel reign of the Third Reich. Zyklon B was "effective" but lacked a long "killing trail." After Jews in the gas chamber or mobile van were killed, the deadly gas was withdrawn and the corpses removed from the chamber or van. Nazi SS soldiers were required to dispense more Zyklon B to the next killing cluster. Effective killer, short killing trail.
Well, America is nothing if not relentless. Specifically, a 1943 memo to Gen Groves recommended uranium oxide gas be used as a gas warfare instrument to Kill People and to Contaminate Land. The memo did raise the problem that the radioactive uranium gas could not be controlled and was, and is still, dangerous to our own kids and friends: the American Troopers. (3) It would be another thirty years before that hurdle was publicly demolished.
In 1973 in General Alexander Haig's presence, Henry Kissinger, the National Security Advisor, referred pointedly to military men as "dumb, stupid animals to be used" as pawns for foreign policy. (4) Kissinger set the public stage for the war managers to sacrifice the gullible, but patriotic and "stupid" American Troopers to the use of weaponized uranium oxide gas. American General Norman Schwarzkopf from the First Gulf War stated they were not told anything about harmful uranium munitions.
Uranium gas also is a good deal for the Bush Administration because it has built in plausible deniability. Depending on the uranium gas dose the American Troopers get, they can be expected to sicken and die over a period days, months, and years. There is no minimum dose that is harmless. Inhaling as little as one gram over a year means the equivalent of one X-Ray per hour for the rest of their shortened life. Each gram in the lung shoots 12,000 little bullets per minute, forever, at the lung cells next to it. What do you think is going to happen to the lung cells. All radiation counts.
The ensuing Veteran's Administration disability payment requests can be denied for years while the "dumb, stupid," used up vets conveniently and obligingly die off. The former American Trooper's painful deaths go virtually unnoticed scattered across the North American continent in some 7,000 American hospitals and among 300 Million people.
Collaborating VA doctors merely chant, "You can't prove it," when confronted by hundreds of thousands of sick and dying Troopers. Anyway, all the well-paid NeoCon or timid doctors need do is delay. The invisible, deadly, ever-present radiation does the rest.
To say the least, the American Military and their wealthy helpmates in the private weapons industry have resolutely and definitively solved the Nazi killing trail problem. Weaponized Uranium Oxide Gas, when used properly, packs a killing trail up to a truly majestic 4.5 Billion years. In fact, that pretty well qualifies as "forever" in most American classrooms studying "Total Worldwide Domination Theory."
Instinctively racist in nature, the political decision makers, Bush and the NeoCons with a supporting crew of weak minded Democrats, decided that the Iraqi race had to go. It's an inescapable conclusion to any fair minded person contemplating the purposeful use of Four Million pounds of uranium on Iraq. That's cold blooded genocide.
Get a group of your friends together some lazy Sunday afternoon and appoint yourselves as a Pentagon Procurement Committee. Would you choose uranium munitions for our Troopers to use in Iraq?
Put your own ending to this article here.
A lot of people in the States have done everything we can think of to stop these nuclear radiation wars, uranium poison gas, and the the use of uranium as a munition. We've tried and failed for years. Failed! There are no excuses for our collective failures. Why don't you give it a try? Can't hurt anything! View this Flash animation, "Poison Fire USA," by Russell Hoffman to see the animated history of 60 years of major nuclear activities in the continental United States. It will amaze you. These events all lead up to recklessly using uranium munitions in Iraq. [www.animatedsoftware.com/poifu/poifu.swf ]
For further expert scientific information read former Lawrence Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab scientist Leuren Moret's: "Depleted Uranium: The Trojan Horse of Nuclear War."
Do you have a solution? Then write what steps you would take to turn this situation around. If you represent your country at the United Nations General Assembly, be creative. Who else is going to stop the United States from committing genocide? Send it to me at this address. I'll publish it, as appropriate, and maybe we all can make it happen. info-radiation-wars@cox.net
- Depleted Uranium is the result of a step in the process of creating enriched uranium for nuclear power plant reactor cores and thermonuclear bombs, commonly called Hydrogen Bombs and Neutron Bombs. The uranium impurity used in bombs and reactor cores is about .711 percent of one percent of natural uranium, a tiny amount. Like iodine in salt, except it kills everything. Processing natural uranium removes about half of the bomb making material. It is then called Depleted Uranium by the powers that be because it can no longer be used to make bombs; but, it is used to make bullets and shells instead. The Depleted Uranium is fully 88% as radioactive in total radiation as the original uranium. There are an estimated 1.5 Billion Pounds of Depleted Uranium at U.S. Nuclear Weapons Labs and related facilities (Bomb Factories) in the US. The word depleted does not mean the uranium is safe or OK to use, it means it has been processed, that's all. Perhaps a less deceptive name would be "12% depleted uranium." The familiar 60% depleted uranium figure refers to what is called "Alpha" radiation only.
Bob Nichols writes in Oklahoma City and is occasionally a contributing writer for DissidentVoice.org, LiberalSlant.com, DemocraticUnderground.com, OnlineJournal.com, AmericaHeldHostage.com, and other online dot com publications. Mr. Nichols is a contributor to The Oklahoma Observer newspaper. He is a member of CASE -- Citizens' Action for Safe Energy. CASE has successfully killed two serious, well funded attempts to build Nuclear Power Plants in Oklahoma and several attempts to site what is now known as the "Yucca Mountain Used Reactor Core Dump" in Oklahoma. All these efforts to build nuclear facilities have failed. CASE won every time. Copyright (C) 2004, Bob Nichols. All rights reserved. Permission for reposting is allowed provided the complete text and attribution are kept intact.
REFERENCES
(1) Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat's paper presented at a medical conference in New Delhi, India, February 29, March 1-2, 2004 titled "Silent WMDs - Effects of Depleted Uranium."
(2) This radiation war was announced in the United States by the article "There Are No Words" by Bob Nichols on DissidentVoice.org on March 27, 2004.
(3) Summary of the report of the Committee, Dr. James B. Conant, Chairman.
(4) Kissinger's quote regarding military men comes from Chapter 14, which extensively discusses Al Haig, Kissinger and other Nixon staff advisors' negotiations and differences over national security issues during the 1969-1974 period. The exact, direct quote marks begin with the word 'dumb' and terminate after the word 'used'. SOURCE: Bob Woodward & Carl Bernstein, The Final Days second Touchstone paperback edition (1994), Chapter 14, pp. 194-195.
-------- iran
Iran Denies Providing Missile Test Site
(AP)
Saturday August 7, 2004
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4397574,00.html
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran on Saturday dismissed allegations it was providing test sites for North Korean long-range missiles designed to deliver nuclear warheads, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported. A Bush administration official claimed earlier that North Korea was getting around a self-imposed missile test ban by sharing technology information with Iran, which is allegedly carrying out missile tests on Pyongyang's behalf.
Iranian Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani rejected the claim, saying, ``Iran does not cooperate with North Korea in missile technology and it does not need to.''
President Bush has labeled Iran and North Korea as being part of an axis of evil, accusing both of pursuing nuclear weapons programs.
A leading military publication, Jane's Defense Weekly, reported recently that North Korea was developing two new ballistic missile systems that have ``appreciably expanded the ballistic-missile threat.''
Shamkhani said Iran is developing its Shahab-3 missile as a measure against Israel's missile power, which Tehran concluded tests of last year.
The missile is thought to be capable of carrying a 2,200-pound warhead over a distance of some 800 miles, which would put Israel within its range.
While Shamkhani denied any kind of nuclear military activity by Iran, he said his country would not leave its people without defense.
``That's why we have to invest on nuclear defense preparation,'' he added without elaborating.
Washington is working with South Korea, Japan, China and Russia to negotiate an agreement with North Korea to end its nuclear weapons program.
With Iran, the White House has been trying to haul Tehran before the United Nations Security Council based on accusations that the Persian state has been trying to build nuclear weapons against its Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty obligations.
Iran maintains its nuclear program is entirely peaceful, geared toward production of nuclear energy.
-------- iraq / inspections
Nuclear Watchdogs Verify Uranium in Iraq
Sat Aug 7, 2004
By GEORGE JAHN,
Associated Press Writer
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&e=2&u=/ap/20040807/ap_on_re_mi_ea/un_nuclear_agency_iraq_1
VIENNA, Austria - Experts from the U.N. atomic watchdog agency have verified that none of the tons of natural uranium listed as still being in warehouses south of Baghdad is missing, the agency said Saturday.
Melissa Fleming, a spokeswoman for the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the IAEA experts returned to Vienna Saturday after taking inventory of "several tons" of natural uranium in storage near Iraq's Tuwaitha nuclear complex.
The check confirmed that none of the natural uranium at the site had been taken after the United States removed from Tuwaitha 1.8 tons of uranium, enriched to a level of 2.6 percent, another 6.6 pounds of low-enriched uranium, and approximately 1,000 highly radioactive sources.
Natural uranium has extremely low radioactivity and cannot be used for weapons programs without enrichment.
The U.S. airlift of the materials out of Tuwaitha took place six weeks ago, and Washington said at that time that the material was taken out of Iraq due to "security concerns" it did not elaborate on.
Diplomats familiar with the transfer said Saturday the substances airlifted out were deemed either to pose a proliferation risk or to be open to possible theft.
The IAEA experts - whose mandate does not include looking for any signs of a secret nuclear weapons program - were last in Iraq over a year ago, following accounts of widespread looting of the storage rooms at Tuwaitha. The agency subsequently reported that most of the missing material had been recovered and none of it could be used to make weapons.
U.N chemical, biological and nuclear inspectors left Iraq just ahead of the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. After Saddam Hussein's fall, the United States barred all U.N. inspectors from returning and instead deployed its own inspection teams to look for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction - a search that also failed to find evidence of such arms.
The U.N. Security Council has put off a decision on the return of U.N. weapons inspectors under pressure from the United States.
IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei described the mission completed Saturday as "a good first step," adding in a statement that he hoped his weapons inspectors could also soon return to Iraq and complete their mission.
The U.N. Security Council authorized U.N. inspectors to dismantle Iraq's weapons programs after the first Gulf War in 1991. Under its resolution, the council must state that Iraq has no banned weapons before U.N. sanctions can be lifted.
On the Net:
IAEA, www.iaea.org/worldatom
--------
U.N. Inspectors Complete Iraq Nuclear Inventory
August 7, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-iraq-nuclear.html
VIENNA (Reuters) - Inspectors from the U.N. nuclear watchdog have completed an inventory of Iraq's declared nuclear material and the agency's head said U.N. arms experts should return to the country to finish their job.
The routine survey of Iraq's stocks of natural and low-enriched uranium accounted for all the material remaining in the country, International Atomic Energy Agencyspokeswoman Melissa Fleming said on Saturday.
``No nuclear material had been diverted,'' Fleming said.
The United States removed 1.8 tons of nuclear material from Iraq after the facility it was stored in was looted.
Unlike their pre-war counterparts, these inspectors were not searching for signs of a nuclear weapons program in Iraq.
They were performing a routine stock-taking task that even Iraq's ousted President Saddam Hussein allowed the U.N. agency to carry out after barring U.N. weapons inspectors from the country in the wake of U.S. and British bombing raids in 1998.
``The material -- natural or low-enriched uranium -- is not sensitive from a proliferation perspective and is consolidated at a storage facility near the Tuwaitha complex, south of Baghdad,'' the IAEA said in a statement.
IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said last month that Iraq's interim government had requested the return of IAEA inspectors to verify the status of Iraq's nuclear material.
ElBaradei repeated that he hoped this would be a step toward the resumption of full inspections ordered by the U.N. Security Council, aimed at ruling out the possibility that Iraq under Saddam had restarted a clandestine nuclear arms program.
``This week's mission was a good first step,'' ElBaradei said.
``Now we hope to be in a position to complete the mandate entrusted to us by the Security Council, to enable the Council over time to remove all sanctions and restrictions imposed on Iraq,'' he added.
In four months of inspections before the war started in March 2003, the IAEA never found any signs that Saddam had revived his nuclear weapons program -- despite U.S. and British assertions that he was pursuing nuclear arms.
But in its pre-war reports to the Security Council, the IAEA never ruled out the possibility that U.S. and British charges were true.
Two U.N. agencies hunted for banned weapons in Iraq before last year's invasion. ElBaradei's IAEA handled nuclear inspections, while the UNMOVIC agency was charged with looking for chemical, biological and ballistic arsenals.
When an interim Iraqi government formally took power in June, ElBaradei said U.N. inspectors were ready to begin talks with the new administration to arrange a return.
-------- japan
Before the bomb: A young girl's diary
By Adam Leibowitz,
Aug 7, 2004
Asia Times
http://atimes.com/atimes/Japan/FH07Dh02.html
TOKYO - There is a certain frisson in the air in Japan in August.
Although ceremonies for the atomic fatalities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are held on the days the cities were attacked (the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6), it is accurate to say that the whole month is devoted to mourning and remembrance. Television almost daily broadcasts a bomb-related story and although daily summer routines are unabated, no doubt history and its unresolved - possibly irresolvable - issues hang in the air. Possibly these sentiments increase due to O-Bon, the period when deceased spirits return to the family homes and are entertained. O-Bon is actually a spirited time in another fashion with festival parades, dancing, and fireworks, a way to overcome the fear of death while acknowledging its ever-presence.
Yet despite these festivities there is still the underlying tension associated with atomic memory. The triumphal narrative of the two cities and the whole of Japan "rising from the ashes in pacifist prosperity" holds little purchase these days given Tokyo's full endorsement of a "war on terrorism" (that includes the use of depleted uranium). The nuclear power plants that dot our earthquake-ridden archipelago also seem to confuse the issue. The victims of the attack, although mourned in ceremony, seem not to have a place in this narrative. This is very disquieting because the hibakusha, the survivors who directly witnessed the attack, are aging and next year's 60th anniversary will no doubt be the last of its kind, similar to this year's D-Day commemoration in Europe.
True understanding of our complex nuclear present might in fact never materialize, but I believe it is possible to place the dropping of the atomic bomb in some sort of historical context that brings into fuller account the victims as individual lives. We can do this by examining the harshness of living under wartime conditions even before the bomb was dropped. I was brought to this awareness by novelist Nosaka Akiyuki's nine-part lecture/documentary series entitled Reading the Diaries from War's End that aired on NHK TV from August-September, 2002. Fans of Japanese animation know Nosaka for his screenplay Grave of the Fireflies (Hotaru no Haka) about two wartime orphans who slowly starve to death through community neglect. The message of this partially autobiographical story is that families turn against their own in the home-front hardships of war.
As suggested by the series title, Nosaka used diaries by well-known Japanese literati as a frame for "World War II", with on exception: The journal of 13-year-old Moriwaki Yoko. Kept as homework from her entrance to the prestigious Hiroshima Prefectural Girls' HS #1 on April 6, 1945, it now stands as a school-age record of "domestic history", that is, home life under national conflict. The excerpts below show the term "home front" seems particularly apt here:
Moriwaki's diary April 6: Today was the entrance ceremony for the Showa 20 (1945) school year. I have become what I always longed to be, a student of the Hiroshima Prefectural First Girls High School. As a pupil of this school in Japan, so as not be an embarrassment I will live each day fully with all my heart and always give the best I can.
April 7: My first day going to school. That morning I leaped out of bed. If my father were here how happy he would have been. He is at the front now and he would have celebrated my coming out. For the sake of my father I must always give the most that I can. Father, your Yoko has become the assistant leader of the sixth class. Please be happy.
April 8: On the fifth we walked the six ri (approximately 25 kilometers) distance from Tsuda all the way to the far end of Yoshiwa, and my legs were so tired that I woke up later than usual. April 10: Today was the first day classes started. First and second periods were sewing. Third period was literature. Fourth period was art class. Fifth period was grammar ... On the way home from school I saw my relative little Mei. She is in the fourth grade of primary school. Very soon she is going to be evacuated to the country away from her parents and she looked very sad. However, this is for victory. Mei-chan, be brave.
April 13: Today I saw one of those hated B-52s for the first time. It left a long, beautiful smoke trail, circled once in the sky above Hiroshima and then left. I felt really sad. The air raid signal went off again and we went home at noon.
April 19: I stayed home because I was sick. I have been pushing myself too hard the past few days and today I just could not go to school. My throat was hurting so badly that I could not talk. My head felt so heavy and I could barely lift my hands. I really wanted to go but I could not.
April 23: Today we had math in first period and we began learning how to use a slide rule. It seemed pretty interesting. Midway through fifth period the air raid signal went off and we soon went home.
April 25: We learned care for older people in home economics. The old have worked most of their lives for the country and their families, and today I felt that thanks to them we are here. It's also important to take good care of them because they are our ancestors. I listened very closely to the discussion and felt I learned something very important ...Today the air raid warning came on in the afternoon and I caught the 15:16 ferry home. We heard that one large airplane got to Akise shoals. On our way home there was a large "boom", and I wonder what it was.
April 26: Today was the first day of biology class. The teacher is Kimura-sensei. He was a pretty good teacher. We learned about pine pollen today and examined it under a microscope. We could see so much.
April 28: Today during first and second periods we visited the school's farm plots in Minami-takeya. Using a hoe we turned over the dirt, pulled weeds, and then returned to school. As soon as we returned the air raid siren went off and I took the 12:15 ferry home. Because of the air raid signal I got home earlier than usual. I helped with many household tasks and did my homework. I cut wood. When I was doing it the axe hit the pointer finger on my left hand and gave me a real shock. Fortunately it was not hurt and I felt very relieved.
Always the air raid sirens, dad's away at the front May 5: There was an air raid signal during third period and we went home early ... One year ago today Father went away to the front.
May 11: Today as I was going to school we immediately had an air raid warning and so I went into the shelters. Soon after there was an "all clear" and I was about to return home when the siren came on again, and we went back into the shelters. After the "all clear" I caught the 11am ferry home ... After lunch I rested a little and then began preparing food for an emergency, when Mother suddenly came down with a terrible stomach ache. I took care of her in every way and made dinner. I was praised for doing such a good job and felt very happy.
May 17: Today there were many things to do in work practical class. Our job is to tidy-up the 70 trees around the Regional Courts. There is a lot to do but I want to give it my all. My feet were aching a little from today's work, but when I think of our soldiers it is nothing. I want to do the best job I can tomorrow, so after writing in my diary and housework chart I went to bed.
May 18: We had our work practical class again today and it was the same as the day before. I cut my hand on some bamboo. It was only a little cut but it hurt a lot. But, it must be nothing compared to the front lines.
June 4: Today we had road cleaning again and we took care of the same areas. Although the sun was hot and I was sweaty and tired, when I saw how nice the road looked it felt really good and I thought we did a good job.
June 5: Today right now the battle on Okinawa continues. I think the girls' school students in the US and in England probably stand united. We cannot let them do that better than us. We cannot ... During the day while I study, Osaka and Kobe are attacked by enemy planes. Probably there are students like me there who are being bombed into tiny pieces like cherry blossoms. Classmates, we are fighting the enemy at every turn. You can sleep peacefully under the ground.
June 18: I woke up early this morning to buy a train ticket. All the tickets were sold out right before me and I was disappointed. Then I was very glad to find a truck. I arrived at Yoshiwa around 12pm and Grandfather looked very happy. Today I was tired and I could not help with much of the work.
June 19: Today was my second day in Yoshiwa. My job was to get up early, care for the chickens, prepare food and clear up after eating, clean the house, and pull weeds in the garden. After resting a little, I went back to work. (She stayed to work at her grandparent's farm for two weeks.)
When I'm tired, I think of our soldiers July 7: My feet hurt a little because yesterday I walked 25km. However, it is nothing when I think about how much marching soldiers must do. We cleaned during the first period, and we had just finished when there was an air raid signal. We quickly lined up and people living outside the city, evacuated schoolbooks and carried them home.
July 16: Today during first period we learned to tie a triangular bandage around the head, eye, ear, and jaw ...Today there was an air-raid signal and I took the 14:20 ferry home. Then, I did homework and studied until 17:00, ate dinner, wrote in my diary and went to bed.
July 24: After I boarded the ferry this morning there was an air raid, and since the ferry could not go on I returned home and waited for the all-clear. It continued until 10am and so I could not go to school. I think it is terrible that the enemy causes us to miss school, even if it is just for one day.
July 29: Today I went to see relatives in I-no-guchi. We had to walk part of the way and my feet were tired. We ate some peaches and brought them home.
August 3: We went to the park in Takeya today. The grass and weeds were very tall because nobody had cut them for a very long time. Everyone worked very hard to clear away the grass and weeds until we could see the black earth. It was such a beautiful color. We plowed all the weeds back into it. We worked up a great sweat and it felt so good afterwards when we finished together ... My body felt a little tired but it was really nothing. The students in the upper classes are also working so hard. There is no reason to say "I'm tired". Tomorrow we go back to the park. I'm going to give it my all.
August 5: Yesterday Uncle came over for a visit and it was very lively in the house. I thought it would be so nice if it were always like that. Tomorrow I will do clean-up after a house-breaking. I will put my all into it.
"House-breaking" (kaya-sokai) was a traditional form of fire protection in urban areas in which houses surrounding an important structure were taken down to prevent the spread of conflagration in case of an aerial incendiary attack. The next day, August 6, Yoko and her classmates were working on at a site in the Dobashi district of Hiroshima when the bomb was dropped. In the companion volume to his series, Nosaka Akiyuki describes her death:
She died that evening, giving her best "On the 6th after it was taken down as she was laboring to clean up in what would have been the house's shadow, the atom bomb blazed out about 1km away. In most likelihood in the afternoon her mangled self was taken to the kitchens of her school about 10km away and she died that evening. The students attending the lower grades of her school probably had no idea what had happened. The adults had long since stopped thinking. In the summer of that year the only group of people who were "giving their best" for Emperor and for country was Yoko and her generation."
This last sentence is echt Nosaka: an uncompromising historical materialist, he once suggested on national television that the Emperor accompany Prime Minister Koizumi to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, not to honor the war dead as is the custom but to apologize to them. His reasoning was since more Japanese soldiers died from lack of food and medicine than enemy bullets they were not receiving support from the Imperial system they had sworn to defend.
This historical materialism can work as some small palliative in the face of the irresolvable moral or epistemological questions that come to the fore during this period of atomic remembrance: "Why did they die?" The answer is easy: an atomic bomb was dropped; "Why was it dropped?" Because there was a war, and modern warfare includes nuclear weaponry. Then we must ask: "Why was there a war?" This most complex of questions refuses an answer accepted by everyone, but Nosaka can at least answer directly why there was still war on August, 6, 1945: Because Japan's political leaders dithered away the opportunity to respond actively to the Potsdam Accords and surrender in late July.
Article Nine the clause of Japan's constitution renouncing war as an instrument of foreign policy is often invoked during the ceremonies as Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The late combat journalist Hashida Shinsuke lamented politicians tend to interpret it as more "anti-battle" than "anti-war", which stymies open discussion about what war actually is. In fact, "war" as a concept if anything is entirely subjective, and the same war can be different things to different people. Of course, soldiers and military action are the story of war, but Nosaka's use of diaries makes us aware that the hard lives of home-front non-combatants also should have a central role in this story.
Moriwaki Yoko's family survived the war, including her music-teacher father who returned from China. The diary was preserved by her family and published by her brother in 1992 in Japan. Understanding the reality of the A-bomb experience requires not just a viewing of the horrors that it brought, but in addition the conditions, the hardships that preceded it. Anything less demeans our knowledge of its experience.
Adam Leibowitz is a teacher and translator living in Japan 13 years. His articles have appeared in Counterpunch and Japan Focus and he is completing a collection of original Japanese poetry. His e-mail is noriko-adam@tokai.or.jp.
(Translation Copyright 2004 Adam Leibowitz)
-------- missile defense
Greenland Base to Be Upgraded as Part of Missile Shield Plan
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
August 7, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/07/international/americas/07powell.html
GALIKU, Greenland, Aug. 6 (AP) - The United States, Denmark and Greenland signed agreements on Friday to upgrade the early warning radar system at Thule, an important American air base during the cold war and now a crucial part of the Bush administration's plans for an antimissile defense system.
"Together we will meet the security challenges of the 21st century, from missile defense to international terrorism," Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said at a ceremony in this village.
Greenland's deputy prime minister, Josef Motzfeldt, said Greenland, a Danish protectorate, had had no say when the United States and Denmark signed an initial defense agreement in 1951 under NATO's auspices. He said that accord did not take into consideration the environment or animal life and exposed Greenland to cold war risks that "we were not allowed to know about."
Now that Greenland has home rule, Mr. Motzfeldt said, historians will see Friday as "the day when Greenland took a decisive step toward equality and co-responsibility."
Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller signed for Denmark.
Three documents were signed. One updates the 1951 pact, the second provides for economic and technical cooperation and the third is aimed at protecting the environment. Mr. Powell told Greenland television that the agreement "allows us to make sure that we are providing for the kind of threats that the civilized world might see in the future." Mr. Moeller signaled that Denmark still had misgivings about the missile-defense plan. He said his government was not fundamentally opposed to them but that it had said yes to the agreements "and nothing else."
"Right now we are some distance from determining where we might need interceptors," Mr. Powell said, "but there is no plan right now for anything other than what we have already made known to the home-rule government and Kingdom of Denmark." The Thule base is just south of the North Pole. It housed more than 10,000 people, mostly Americans, at the height of the cold war and was a base for warplanes capable of carrying nuclear weapons. Now, there are about 550 people, including 125 Americans, at Thule.
The Greenland ceremony was the second in two days in which a NATO ally signed documents that dealt with the missile defense plans of the United States. Canada and the United States agreed Thursday in Toronto to amend the treaty that established the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or Norad, to reflect the United States system. As amended, Norad will share its missile warning function with United States commands that run its projected missile defense system.
Defense Minister Bill Graham and Foreign Minister Pierre S. Pettigrew of Canada said the agreement did not commit Canada to join the missile program. That decision "remains with the government and will only be made after extensive consultations," Mr. Graham said.
-------- treaties
Washington's blind eye on proliferation
2004.08.07
By Jonathan Power
The Statesman (India) / Asia News Network
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2004/08/07/200408070009.asp
In his forthcoming memoir on his involvement in the India-Pakistan nuclear relationship, Strobe Talbott, former U.S. deputy secretary of state, recounts the surprise and alarm that swept through the eighth floor of the State Department when, on May 11, 1998, the first reports came in over CNN that India had tested a nuclear weapon. Yet, one presumes his diplomats were reading the Indian press carefully.
For example, I have in front of me two articles dated April 8 and 15, 1998 in The Statesman that argued that since the Indian nationalists of the Bharatiya Janata party had now come to power, India going nuclear was going to happen very quickly. The information was around for those who had eyes and ears. It was as if Washington didn't want to know until it had to. Rather similarly, the reports emerging now suggesting that Saudi Arabia may be the latest West Asian country to engage in a planning program on nuclear weapons recalls a report of the International Institute for Strategic Studies published as long ago as 1989. This well-informed, London-based body remarked on the then recent Saudi purchase of Chinese CSS-2 rockets: "Missiles of such range are difficult to justify unless they carry nuclear weapons."
"They are too elaborate and expensive to make sense for anything else," I was told at the time. "Controllable thrust engines, inertial guidance systems and heat shielding put up the cost to astronomical levels."
But Washington didn't want to know and still doesn't want to know. Not one senior administration figure is talking about Saudi Arabian nuclear weapons plans despite the new worrying intelligence reports. It is the same with U.S. policy towards Israel's large stock of nuclear weapons. The United States will not confirm on the record what everybody knows - that Israel has around 200 nuclear weapons.
Washington prefers, when it is in its immediate strategic interest (albeit not its long-term one), to put its telescope to its blind eye. It couldn't allow itself to be too agitated about India's nuclear research because it had kept quiet for so long about that of Pakistan, its close ally. When the Soviet army poured into Afghanistan during the Carter administration, the United States suspended its nuclear nonproliferation policy so that Pakistan was sanctions-free and could receive the military and economic aid which the United States wanted it to have.
Yet, everyone knew that Pakistan was rapidly developing its nuclear weapons capability. And today, we know that Pakistan's chief nuclear weapons scientist was running a side-show, selling nuclear technology and equipment far and wide - to North Korea, Libya, Iran and, now the spooks say, to a "fourth customer," which can only be Saudi Arabia.
How can Washington be a credible force for anti-proliferation when this is the recent historical record: that it does little or nothing until too late? Strobe Talbott gives a hair-raising ringside view of the India-Pakistan nuclear crisis of 1999. He reports that President Bill Clinton thought that it brought the antagonists closer to nuclear war than the United States and the Soviet Union were at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
We know too that when Saudi Arabia bought these Chinese missiles in 1988, Israel was nervous enough to warn Saudi Arabia that it would engage in a preemptive nuclear strike if it ever had cause for suspicion they would be used against it. Some close observers are still convinced that only U.S. pressure stayed the Israeli hand in the very nervous March and April of 1988. (Saudi Arabia, for its part, attempted to reassure Israel by saying it had acquired the rockets for defense against Iran, not Israel.)
Diplomatically, it is very difficult for Washington to rally international opinion behind a hard line on nuclear nonproliferation in North Korea and Iran when its recent past performance is so ambiguous and inconsistent.
The credibility of the Bush administration is further undermined by its actions in securing "loose nukes" and near-nukes, in Russia.
Harvard Professor Graham Allison, has described the attitude of the G8 nations towards this issue as "lackadaisical and unfocused." Despite agreement in principle with Russia to work together on the issue, less plutonium and highly enriched uranium have been secured in the two years since Sept. 11, 2001 than in the two years before. President George Bush does not give the issue his direct personal involvement. Meanwhile at home, rather than setting a good example by freezing weapons development, the administration has been seeking an increase in research funding for two new kinds of nuclear weapons.
So where do we go from here? Is the sauce that is good for the goose not good for the gander?
-------- u.s. nuc facilities
-------- new mexico
Anti-nuke group makes annual visit to town
August 7, 2004
Los Alamos Monito
ROGER SNODGRASS, roger@lamonitor.com
http://www.lamonitor.com/articles/2004/08/04/headline_news/news03.txt
Northern New Mexico activist and their supporters will be in town for several activities Thursday. Organized by the Los Alamos Study Group, a public interest organization, the visit will cap several days of activities that began with workshops in Santa Fe and Albuquerque earlier in the week.
The program focusing on Los Alamos National Laboratory is called "citizen inspections" and will include aerial and walk-around tours.
A release by the group says, "(C)itizens can see for themselves some of the facilities involved in the Los Alamos weapons programs, barring interruptions by LANL security forces."
The laboratory has alerted its workforce of the visit, warning that the visitors may try to interact with LANL personnel.
"We have informed our employees and it's entirely up to them if they choose to interact or not," said Linn Tytler, a laboratory spokesperson, this morning. "We have asked them to be polite, as they would be to any citizens. They can choose to discuss unclassified information with anyone or they can choose not to."
LASG's invitations have noted the lab's current safety and security crises.
"True nonviolence does not capitalize on this event," Mellow wrote. "We will learn, listen and gently engage. It is, for some, a teachable moment, a moment when they begin to see what the lab is all about."
The core of the group arrives from Albuquerque, where LASG moved its headquarters several months ago, and from Santa Fe by car and van.
A couple of aerial tours that will avoid restricted air space will also bring special guests including journalists to the Hill.
In past years members of the group have been involved in non-violent demonstrations in which some members of the group were symbolically arrested and later released without charges.
This year, no written understanding has been reached between the group and the laboratory, according to LASG Director Greg Mello.
Writing to the laboratory in June, Mello requested permission to inspect several facilities, including "the interiors of the Plutonium Facility (PF-4) and Nuclear Materials Storage Facility (never used) in TA-55, and the site of the proposed Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Facility, also in TA-55."
The group also asked to receive "an unclassified, on-the-record briefing or briefings on all programmatic, budgetary, and infrastructure aspects of pit production at LANL.
A response by the Government Relations Office said that for national security reasons the visit could not be accommodated and suggested the group visit the Bradbury Science Museum as an alternative for meeting the group's informational needs without the security problems.
LASG proposes to hold a press conference at Sigma Facility parking lot south of the MSL building at 3 p.m. on Thursday.
"They have no authority to hold a press conference on lab property," Tytler said. "They have been told they don't have authority to hold a press conference on lab property."
She said that roadways and sidewalks on Diamond Drive and East and West Jemez roads are public property, but that signage clearly delineates government property. There are signs that say "No Trespassing," about every hundred feet in proprietary areas.
"We've had no indications that the Study Group or its adherents are looking to be arrested," Tytler said.
The proposed press conference will be followed later in the day by a public discussion at Fuller Lodge from 6-8 p.m., focusing on LANL's current and future role in the nation's nuclear pit production plans.
Special guests, joining Mello on a panel, will include Jacque Breaver, a former Rocky Flats worker and Ron Avery a former pit production supervisor.
Laboratory spokespeople have been invited to participate, but Mellow said on Tuesday, that he had not yet found anybody to represent the laboratory.
Scientists who study the aging nuclear stockpile say new nuclear pits, the plutonium-based packages that provide the triggers for nuclear weapons, may be required in the next several decades.
Formerly, pits were made at the Rocky Flats Plant in Colorado, until the FBI closed it down in 1989 because of health and environmental problems.
Subsequently, LANL was given the mission to develop a temporary pit-making capability, and was one of five locations under consideration for a new pit factory.
An environmental impact statement for the Modern Pit Facility was withdrawn last year, when a key House committee requested more information on the administration's pit requirements.
UC and LANL officials have not shown enthusiasm for bringing the facility to Los Alamos, and the New Mexico congressional delegation has favored Carlsbad as a location.
But Mello believes that Los Alamos, which was the Department of Energy's highest rated location for the production, may get the facility after all.
"People in Los Alamos don't understand that they are moving back into the bulls eye," for the pit facility, Mello said.
-------- MILITARY
-------- afghanistan
Refugee Agency Cuts Mission in Part of Afghanistan
August 7, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/07/international/asia/07afghan.html?pagewanted=all
GENEVA, Aug. 6 (Reuters) - The United Nations refugee agency said Friday that it was scaling down operations in southeastern Afghanistan after the killing of two Afghan aid workers there this week.
The two, a field officer and his driver employed by a German Catholic aid agency working with the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, were shot in their car from a passing vehicle on the road between Gardez, 65 miles south of Kabul, and the town of Zormat.
"We have put all staff travel in the southeast on hold while we review the situation," Jennifer Pagonis, a spokeswoman for the agency, said at a news briefing. "We do not operate in areas where we don't feel secure."
Malteser Germany, the agency employing the men, has suspended its work in the region, where it had been carrying out vocational training programs for the United Nations agency among returning refugees.
It was the latest in a series of attacks on aid workers that have left more than 30 dead across the country. Last week, the Paris-based aid group Doctors Without Borders said it was leaving the country after 24 years because it feared for its employees' safety after five were killed in one shooting in June.
The United Nations refugee agency said its programs were helping about 20,000 people around Gardez who have recently returned from Pakistan. More than half a million refugees have returned to Afghanistan this year - about 250,000 from Pakistan and 280,000 from Iran.
-------- africa
Monitor Blames Sudan For Darfur Militia Killings
U.N. Awaits Pact on Steps to Halt Atrocities
By Colum Lynch
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 7, 2004; Page A14
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46656-2004Aug6.html
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 6 -- An independent U.N. human rights monitor said Friday that it is "beyond a doubt" that Sudan bears responsibility "for extrajudicial and summary executions of large numbers of people" in the country's Darfur region.
In a sharply critical 26-page report, Asma Jahangir, the United Nations' special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, also said that members of government-backed Arab militias responsible for some of the worst excesses have been incorporated into the Sudanese police and armed forces.
"Some of the militia leaders have been integrated into the Sudanese armed forces and given official military ranks," Jahangir wrote.
The Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, are believed to have killed as many as 50,000 black civilians in Darfur over the past 18 months and to have driven more than 1 million from their homes. The Security Council adopted a resolution July 30 warning Sudan that it could face sanctions if it failed to demonstrate a commitment to disarm, arrest and prosecute militia members within 30 days.
The violence in Darfur began in February 2003, when two black rebel groups launched an offensive against the government, citing discrimination against the region's three main black tribes. The government armed and trained local Arab militias to put down the rebellion and drive thousands of potential backers from their villages, according to U.S. officials and human rights groups.
Sudan has repeatedly denied that it supports the militias and maintains that its attempts to halt their activities have been undermined by rebel activities. Sudan's U.N. ambassador, Elfatih Erwa, was unavailable for comment.
The report's release came as the Sudanese government finalized an agreement with the United Nations to establish a series of "safe areas" in Darfur within 30 days to protect displaced civilians. Sudanese authorities are required to "provide secure routes" to the havens and immediately cease all offensive military operations against the rebels in those areas, according to the agreement.
The two-page accord, to be signed Monday in Khartoum by the United Nations' top envoy, Jan Pronk, and Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustaf Osman Ismail, notes that Sudan may not be able to fully meet the Security Council's demand to disarm the militia within 30 days. It outlined a series of actions Sudan could take to "demonstrate its commitment to comply" and escape sanctions.
The Sudanese government pledges to "identify and declare those militias over which it has influence and instruct them to cease their activities forthwith," the accord states. "They would then lay down their weapons."
Jahangir's findings, drawn from a 13-day trip to Sudan in June, echo recent reports of Sudanese complicity in Darfur atrocities by human rights organizations and the U.N. high commissioner for human rights.
Jahangir said that eyewitnesses reported the presence of mass graves in some villages and charged that government-backed militias routinely looted houses, killed unarmed civilians, raped women and visited local hospitals, where they executed the wounded. She said that it was too dangerous to verify the reports of mass graves.
While Jahangir stopped short of declaring the violence in Darfur genocide, she said, "I have to conclude that there is overwhelming evidence that extrajudicial killings of civilians in Darfur have been carried out, with some exceptions, in a coordinated manner by the armed forces of the government and government-backed militias."
--------
Sudan Says to Accept African Forces, No Peacekeepers
August 7, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-sudan.html
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan will accept African troops to protect observers in its troubled western Darfur region, but underlined any peacekeeping role would be limited to Sudanese forces, Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said on Saturday.
Ismail also said he had signed a Sudanese-U.N. pact pledging safe areas for up to 1 million African villagers uprooted by fighting in remote Darfur, which U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan sent to Security Council members on Friday.
``We have to make a distinction between three categories. The presence of observers, the presence of protection forces for those observers and the presence of peacekeeping forces,'' Ismail told reporters in Khartoum when asked whether Sudan would accept African peacekeepers.
``We don't have a problem with either the first or the second categories. As far as the third category is concerned ... this is the responsibility of the Sudanese forces.''
He added Darfur, which the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis, was a regional problem and Sudan was discussing it with bodies such as the African Union and the Arab League, due to hold an emergency meeting on Sunday.
The AU is proposing sending up to 2,000 troops to protect its cease-fire monitors in Darfur and to serve as peacekeepers, but has yet to send an official request to Khartoum.
Sudan has about three weeks left to show the U.N. Security Council it is serious about disarming marauding Arab militias known as Janjaweed, or face possible sanctions.
The joint pact pledges to set up safe areas for those displaced, work to disarm marauding militia and stop actions by its own troops in civilian areas.
Ismail said the pact, due to be signed on Monday, had in fact already been signed. ``It was signed in the early hours of Friday morning in my office.''
REBELS TROOPS SURRENDER
A statement from the governor of Northern Darfur state said 210 rebels had surrendered. Rebels rebuffed the claim.
``Armed insurgents from the Justice and Equality rebel Movement (JEM) in Darfur delivered themselves today with all of their equipment to the military command in Tina (Tine), on the Sudanese-Chad border,'' the statement from governor Osman Kebir's office said overnight.
``The governor reiterates that the door is open to the absorption of all of the returnees from the armed insurgents in the different paths of the civil and military service and help would be given to them in the resumption of their normal lives.''
JEM is one of two main rebel groups that took up arms in February last year, accusing the government of neglect and of arming Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, to loot and burn African villages in a campaign of ethnic cleansing.
The government denies the charge and says the Janjaweed are outlaws.
JEM Secretary-General Bahar Idriss Abu Garda said the governor's statement was ``totally wrong.''
``What happened actually is the government rented six cars from the civilians inside Chad and they brought some people from inside Chad and they gave them arms contending they were from JEM,'' he told Reuters from Darfur.
Abu Garda also accused the government of joint attacks with Janjaweed on civilians and rebel troops in violation of a cease-fire signed by both parties in early April.
``They killed 30 people, they burned eight villages and they attacked our troops (four days ago).'' He added the fighting was in an area near Nyala, the capital of Southern Darfur state.
Both rebels and the government have accused each other of violating the April cease-fire.
Ben Parker, spokesman for the U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, said the conflict had probably claimed about 50,000 victims, although it was difficult to obtain exact numbers in Darfur, which is the size of France.
A U.N. investigator said on Friday the Sudanese government was largely to blame for the Darfur humanitarian crisis and Khartoum's responsibility for large numbers of killings in the region was beyond doubt.
Ismail said the Sudanese advisory council for human rights would reply to the investigator's report in due course.
-------- business
U.S. oil firms' payments probed
ASSOCIATED PRESS
August 07, 2004
http://www.washtimes.com/business/20040806-101658-5178r.htm
The Securities and Exchange Commission is examining payments by four big U.S. oil companies to officials of Equatorial Guinea and businesses they controlled, as government inquiries related to the Riggs Bank affair expand.
Spokesmen for the companies - Amerada Hess, ChevronTexaco, Exxon Mobil and Marathon - confirmed yesterday that they had recently received letters from the SEC requesting information in a preliminary investigation. They said the companies were cooperating in the inquiry, which is being conducted by the SEC's office in Fort Worth, Texas.
SEC spokesman Matt Well in Washington declined comment.
At issue is whether U.S. anti-bribery laws were violated in the companies' activities in Equatorial Guinea, a poor West African country cited by the State Department for human rights abuses, corruption and diversion of oil revenues to government officials.
In the course of an overall investigation of account transactions at Riggs, Senate investigators discovered large payments made by the oil companies to officials of Equatorial Guinea and their relatives. That raised concerns about possible corruption, voiced by senators at a hearing last month.
Executives defended the companies' actions in Equatorial Guinea, testifying that they have strictly complied with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and have entered only into legitimate business ventures there.
Spokesmen for Amerada Hess, ChevronTexaco and Marathon reiterated that position yesterday.
Exxon Mobil spokeswoman Susan Reeves would say only that the company received the request from the SEC on Thursday and planned "to cooperate fully."
The SEC inquiry concerning the four oil companies and Equatorial Guinea is preliminary and not formal and the companies' furnishing of information is voluntary.
News of the inquiry, first reported Thursday by The Washington Post, comes about a week after the disclosure that the Justice Department is investigating the federal regulator who oversaw Riggs during a period of deficient money-laundering controls and later became a senior executive at the bank.
The ethics investigation of R. Ashley Lee was triggered by a referral of the matter on July 20 by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency - where Mr. Lee was the lead examiner for Riggs - to the Justice Department. Inquiries into activities of current or former federal employees by Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility can develop into criminal investigations.
-------- iraq
Sadr militia surrender in Najaf: Iraqi police
AFP
Saturday, August 7
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200408/s1171087.htm
More than 1,200 militiamen loyal to radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr have surrendered following fierce clashes with US and Iraqi forces in Najaf, the police general directorate said.
"Over 1,200 criminals have surrendered to Iraqi forces," it said in a statement, adding that the holy city of Najaf had been "secured".
It said most of the captured militiamen were criminals who were released from Iraqi prisons by ousted president Saddam Hussein before last year's US-led invasion.
The statement accused Sadr's Mehdi Army of wanting to "destabilise the country," and vowed "this operation will continue until this illegal and cruel violence has been quelled".
No one in Sadr's Najaf office was immediately available for comment on the statement.
The US military said on Friday that 300 militiamen were killed in Najaf since Thursday's fighting, while the province's coalition-appointed governor Adnan al-Zorfi said the number was as high as 400.
The military said also three US soldiers were killed and 12 wounded.
Sadr's spokesman Sheikh Ahmed al-Shaibani said only nine militiamen were killed in fighting and 20 wounded.
Battles have raged in several Iraqi cities in the past two days between fighters from Sadr's Mehdi army and foreign forces.
The fighting appears to have shattered a two-month-old cease-fire between US forces and the Mehdi militia.
Clashes between British troops and fighters loyal to the radical cleric also broke out on Friday evening in the southern city of Basra, a Reuters witness said.
He said residents took shelter as British troops fought with members of the Mehdi militia in the centre of the city.
Automatic weapons fire echoed from the area, along with the sound of mortars or rockets, he said.
A British military spokeswoman said the clash occurred when a British foot patrol came under attack near Sadr's Basra office.
She said it was unclear if there were any casualties, adding the patrol later withdrew from the area.
--------
300 Shiite Militiamen Killed in Iraqi South
Three U.S. Troops Slain; Clerics Call for Uprising
By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, August 7, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A44653-2004Aug6?language=printer
BAGHDAD, Aug. 6 -- Shiite Muslim militias clashed with Iraqi and foreign forces Friday in several cities, and officials said the fighting, which began Thursday, has killed at least 300 militiamen, three U.S. troops and uncounted Iraqi civilians.
Spurred by impassioned calls to arms at Friday prayer services in Baghdad and other cities, masked militia members loyal to the firebrand Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, armed with rifles and rocket launchers, roamed freely through Najaf, 90 miles south of Baghdad, and Sadr City, a sprawling Shiite slum in the capital.
Spokesmen for Sadr said Friday that the radical cleric, who has marshaled thousands of rebellious young Shiites, wanted to restore a truce established in early June. That cease-fire followed two months of heavy fighting between his militia and U.S. and allied forces. Mahmoud Soudani, Sadr's spokesman in Baghdad, said: "We have no objections to entering negotiations to solve this crisis. . . . We want a resumption of the truce."
But other Shiite clerics openly called on their followers to kill Americans and join a nationwide uprising against Iraqi authorities, accusing coalition forces of attacking sacred Shiite sites and occupying Iraq.
"The Americans have attacked Najaf and the shrine of Ali. I don't want to hear people say this is wrong, I want them to come here and fight," Hazim Araaji, a local sheik, thundered in a sermon in the central mosque in Kadhimiya, a large Shiite district in Baghdad. "Our god says you must prepare yourself to fight the occupiers. . . . You do not need our permission to fight the Americans. You should do it directly."
As the violence spread, a potential voice of reason among Shiite leaders was absent. Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, 73, an influential moderate cleric, was reported to have left Iraq on Friday to seek medical treatment in London for a heart condition.
The most intense conflict was in Najaf, the site of the tomb of Imam Ali, one of Shiism's most revered figures. During 36 hours of sustained fighting, U.S. Marines battled militiamen from Sadr's Mahdi Army, while U.S. helicopters, F-16s and AC-130 gunships circled the city.
Most of the fighting took place in the area of Najaf's vast Shiite cemetery, which had been off-limits to U.S. forces under the June cease-fire agreement. U.S. military officials said hundreds of militia members had taken cover and hidden weapons in the graveyard, which is near the shrine.
"Najaf is being subjected to . . . total destruction," said Ahmed Shaibany, an aide to Sadr in Najaf. "We call on the Islamic world, and on the entire civilized world, to intervene to save the city."
There were conflicting reports of casualties in Najaf. Iraqi officials said at least 400 people had been killed and more than 1,000 militiamen had been arrested. Officers from the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit based outside Najaf said 300 militia fighters and two unidentified Marines had been killed, but they gave no estimate of casualties among Iraqi security forces or civilians. A U.S. soldier was also killed in the fighting, the Associated Press reported.
Lt. Col. Gary Johnston, the operations officer for the unit, said Marine forces had not broken the truce but had responded late Thursday to a request for help from overwhelmed Iraqi security forces after militia fighters began massing in the cemetery and repeatedly attacking the city. Iraqi officials said the fighting began when militia forces attacked a police station Thursday morning.
"We received heavy fire and were attacked, and we attacked back," Johnston said. He also stressed that U.S. troops were not pursuing Sadr, saying: "Our mission is not focused on any particular individual, it is to support the governor of Najaf. We are not at war with [Sadr]; we are here to support the Iraqi forces and the Iraqi people."
In Sadr City, Iraqi health officials said at least 19 people had been killed and 100 injured in two days of clashes. Residents said U.S. forces had surrounded the community with tanks and had fired from helicopters but had not entered on the ground.
In the southern city of Nasiriyah, officials said militia fighters attacked Italian troops with automatic weapons during fighting that began Thursday and lasted until dawn Friday. Iraqi officials said Iraqi and coalition forces were in control of key sectors of the city by midday, although Sadr's forces were moving freely in one area.
There were also reports of more limited clashes in the southern city of Basra, near the Persian Gulf, where British troops are based. British military officials said their garrison was hit by mortar fire early Friday, and witnesses said sporadic street fighting with automatic weapons continued into the evening. No serious casualties were reported.
In separate violence, officials reported clashes between U.S. troops and Sunni Muslim insurgents in the town of Samarra, about 70 miles north of Baghdad. Hospital officials said at least two people were killed.
In the volatile Sunni region of north-central Iraq, the governor of Anbar province abruptly resigned Friday, apparently under pressure from insurgents who had set his house on fire and kidnapped his three sons one week ago in the city of Ramadi, west of Baghdad.
The governor, Abdul Karim Rawi, appeared on Arabic TV, looking grim and subdued and read a statement saying he "repented" having acted in collaboration with "the infidels, the Americans." The video then showed Rawi on the floor of a room, weeping and hugging his sons, who appeared to have been released.
Meanwhile, Lebanese officials said Friday that four Lebanese truck drivers had been reported missing in Iraq. They were believed to be the latest victims in a rash of kidnappings in which Islamic militant groups and criminal gangs have abducted drivers as well as other foreigners.
Iraqi officials said Friday that they were confident they could contain the violence in the south, and they referred to the Shiite militiamen as terrorists and criminals. Georges Sada, a spokesman for Iraq's interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi, said the government "will fight them and will not allow their criminal actions in the various cities, irrespective of who they are or how big they are."
But other comments made Thursday by Interior Minister Falah Naqib appeared to have further inflamed the Shiite populace and were invoked in rousing sermons. Falah advised Sadr and his troops to stop "killing yourselves" and said it was "good news" that several militiamen had been killed.
Several Shiite leaders asserted that coalition forces had attacked sacred sites without provocation and that the dome of the Imam Ali shrine had been damaged. But Iraqi and U.S. officials said Sadr's forces had instigated the violence by attacking the police station.
"We did not want to escalate the situation . . . but the actions of the American troops have enraged the sons of these cities," said Soudani, Sadr's spokesman in Baghdad.
The previous flare-up of Shiite violence, in April, led to two months of intense fighting and was triggered when U.S. authorities issued an arrest warrant for Sadr and shut down his movement's newspaper in March.
Another object of Shiite anger was the Najaf governor, Adnan Zurfi, a close U.S. ally. In speeches and sermons, Shiite clerics have called him a "lunatic" and a "lackey" of U.S. forces.
Soudani said Sadr's movement held U.S. troops and Zurfi "totally accountable for the state the crisis has reached to now." Late Friday, Zurfi issued an ultimatum to Sadr's forces, giving them 24 hours to leave the city.
Special correspondents Omar Fekeiki, Bassam Sebti and Luma Mousawi contributed to this report.
--------
Iraq passes amnesty law for minor players in insurgency
8/7/2004
Associated Press
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-08-07-iraq-amnesty_x.htm
BAGHDAD (AP) - Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi signed a long-awaited amnesty law Saturday that would pardon Iraqis who have played minor roles in the country's 15-month-long insurgency, but not those guilty of killing.
The amnesty had been expected to be a key element in the government's efforts to coax Iraqis away from the anti-U.S. campaign, but the more limited offer is unlikely to dampen the violence.
The announcement came as sporadic clashes continued in the holy Shiite city of Najaf, but fighting was largely calmed after two days of the most intense battles between U.S. forces and Shiite Muslim militiamen in months. The fighting Thursday and Friday spread to other Shiite communities and threatened to reignite a Shiite insurrection.
Shiite leaders, joined by a U.N. official, met with aides to militant Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose militia was involved in the fighting, in an effort to mediate an end to the violence.
The amnesty had been intended to help put down similar outbursts of violence by drawing nationalist guerrillas to the side of Allawi's government - which came to power in late June - and away from fighters using terrorist-style bombings.
Early drafts reportedly would have forgiven most people involved in the insurgency, but the law was apparently changed to exclude anyone who had killed.
"This amnesty is not for people ... who have killed. Those people will be brought to justice, starting from Zarqawi down to the person in the street," he said, referring to Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whose followers have claimed responsibility for deadly suicide bombings.
The amnesty would forgive those who committed minor crimes between May 1, 2003, just after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, and Saturday, he said. Those eligible would need to turn themselves in over the next 30 days, he said.
Those eligible for the amnesty include people in possession of light arms and explosives, those who hid intelligence about terrorist groups and people who helped those groups commit crimes, Allawi said.
"This order has been established to allow our citizens to rejoin civil society and participate in the reconstruction of their country and the improvement of their lives, instead of wasting their lives pointlessly toward a lost cause," he said.
Iraqi officials had earlier said the amnesty might extend to those who killed U.S. and other coalition troops. U.S. officials said an early draft contained ambiguous language on that issue, but later drafts ruled it out.
Meanwhile, Iraqi religious leaders tried to restore a ceasefire between al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militants and coalition and Iraqi forces that had shattered in two days of fighting that began Thursday.
The fighting in Najaf killed five U.S. servicemembers, bringing to 16 the number of U.S. troops who died in Iraq in the first week of August.
Iraqi casualties from the fighting varied widely. Falah Muhana, a Health Ministry official in Najaf, said the city's hospitals reported 21 people killed and 121 injured during fighting in the city. The U.S. military said 300 militants were killed in Najaf, but Ahmed al-Shaibany, an al-Sadr aide in Najaf, said 36 militants had been killed. The militants often use their own health system so it is difficult to confirm their casualties.
Al-Sadr aides met in Baghdad on Saturday with Iraqi dignitaries and U.N. official Jamal Benomar.
"We called for a more effective U.N. role, the end of military actions, respecting the truce and a political solution for this crisis," said Ali al-Yassiry, an al-Sadr aide.
Benomar said al-Sadr's group was prepared for an immediate cease-fire and had asked for a meeting between their group and Allawi and Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawer.
Officials from the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq - a top Shiite faction - arrived in Najaf on Saturday to mediate between al-Sadr, the local government and coalition forces, said Redha Taqi, a SCIRI official.
In Karbala, senior Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Taqi al-Modaresi called for an immediate end to the violence.
"We stress the need to halt fighting immediately, to adhere to the truce and to let reason and wisdom play a role in solving the problems through political dialogue," said Jaafar Mohammed, al-Modaresi's spokesman.
Much of the main fighting appeared over by Saturday afternoon. In Najaf, U.S. warplanes flew overhead and American armored vehicles and Humvees blocked the main roads into the city, but most streets appeared deserted. Sporadic explosions and gunfire echoed through the city, but the violence was far less than that of the previous days.
Najaf Gov. Adnan al-Zurufi on Friday gave insurgents 24 hours to leave the city.
On Saturday, it was unclear if militiamen were withdrawing. None were present outside al-Sadr's house, which is usually heavily guarded.
Allawi said more than 1,200 people had been arrested during the clashes - some of them followers of Saddam's regime, others common criminals released during Saddam's rule.
Operations to restore security in Najaf would continue, he said.
"The Iraqi police, National Guard and the army will escalate their operations against the outlaw people. This should be clear," he said.
Friday's clashes were the fiercest seen in Najaf since the fall of Saddam Hussein, with U.S. helicopter gunships and fighter jets pounding insurgents hiding in a sprawling cemetery in the holy Shiite city.
On Saturday, the U.S. military said it had secured the cemetery. Marines also found weapons caches there, including bomb-making materials, rocket-propelled grenades, assault rifles and ammunition.
The fighting with al-Sadr's followers spread Friday to the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City and the southern cities of Amarah, Basra and Nasiriyah.
At dawn Saturday, gunmen attacked the governor's office in Basra with rifles and mortar rounds. Police repelled the attack, killing one of the gunmen, police Capt. Mustaq Talib said.
In Amarah, insurgents attacked a British base and the main Iraqi police station overnight with mortars, said Maj. Ian Clooney, a British military spokesman. There were no reports of injuries.
In the capital, guerrillas fired five mortar rounds into central Baghdad about 7:30 a.m. Saturday, damaging two sport utility vehicles, the U.S. military said. One passer-by was wounded when one of the shells hit near the Electricity Ministry, said Majid al-Jubouri, a spokesman there.
In a separate attack just before midday, two other mortar shells struck a wall outside Iraq's National Olympic Committee, injuring two guards, said Ahmed al-Hijeya head of the committee. Police said those shells, which exploded near the Iranian Embassy just before midday, wounded five people in all.
--------
COMBAT
U.S. Officers Say Two-Day Battle Kills 300 Iraqis
August 7, 2004
By SABRINA TAVERNISE and JOHN F. BURNS
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/07/international/middleeast/07iraq.html?pagewanted=all
FORWARD OPERATING BASE DUKE, Iraq, Aug. 6 - Hundreds of marines backed by helicopter gunships and fixed-wing strike aircraft fought alongside Iraqi forces in Najaf for a second day on Friday in a fierce battle with militia fighters loyal to the rebel Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr.
The fighting continued deep into Friday night, with senior American officers saying 300 Iraqis had been killed over the two days, the heaviest Iraqi casualty figures in such a short period that the Americans have reported since Iraq fell to American forces 16 months ago. Mr. Sadr, from an unknown refuge, put the number of his losses far lower, about 40.
Incomplete figures for American casualties, given in a briefing at a Marine base 30 miles east of Najaf at 1 p.m. local time on Friday, were that two marines had been killed and 12 wounded. Medevac helicopters carried at least 10 more wounded Americans to a military hospital in Baghdad by midnight.
No figures were available for casualties among Iraqi forces, who appeared to have been deployed into the fighting in larger numbers than in any previous battle against the insurgents. The militia forces have turned much of Iraq into a battlefield and over the last three months have made at least half a dozen cities, including Najaf, virtual no-go zones for American troops.
The battle in Najaf, 120 miles south of Baghdad, centered on a vast cemetery that lies close to the Golden Mosque, one of the holiest shrines in Shiite Islam, and appeared to be shaping into a climactic showdown with Mr. Sadr.
In April, the populist cleric, with a mass following among young, impoverished Shiites, had set off a major uprising in Shiite areas of Baghdad and several southern cities including Najaf.
American officers, speaking in a tented encampment that had virtually emptied of troops as the Marines pushed men forward into the battle, estimated that Mr. Sadr had as many as 2,000 fighters in the city, and that the Iraqi police forces numbered about the same.
Sporadic fighting was also reported in two other cities: Samarra, in the Sunni-dominated area northwest of Baghdad; and Nasiriya in the south, where 6 people were killed and 13 wounded, according to the Iraqi Health Ministry. In Baghdad, there were skirmishes in the immense Shiite slum of Sadr City throughout the day.
Hundreds of fighters loyal to Mr. Sadr could be seen on the streets of Sadr City, guarding makeshift checkpoints fashioned from burning tires and large pieces of wood. American tanks and Bradley vehicles occasionally entered the area, but pulled back when they drew fire. The Health Ministry reported that 20 people had been killed and 114 wounded since fighting broke out in the area early Thursday.
In some ways, the Najaf fighting resembled the battle in April and May for Falluja, the Sunni Muslim city 35 miles west of Baghdad where the Marines fought for weeks, then pulled back when mounting casualty figures among Iraqis caused Iraqi politicians to withdraw their support. But unlike Falluja, American troops in Najaf are now fighting with the approval of Iraq's six-week-old interim government. It issued a statement on Friday, in the form of a declaration by the country's police commander, saying that "the interim government ordered a combined operation involving Iraqi military forces and units from the multinational forces," meaning the American-led alliance of 160,000 troops, "with the task of regaining control of the city."
The statement added, "It is now clear that the operations have been a complete success."
In effect, the battle appeared to have become a watershed for the new power alignment in Baghdad, with the new government, established when Iraq regained formal sovereignty on June 28, asserting political control, and American troops providing the firepower to sustain it.
Many Iraqis appear unconvinced that Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and his government are much more than puppets of the Americans, but the police commander's statement appeared intent on showing that what is involved now is a battle for Iraq's future, not for solutions imposed by Americans.
The statement was caustic in its references to Mr. Sadr's fighters. It made no mention of the cleric by name, but said interrogation of 1,200 of the fighters who had been captured in Najaf showed them to be "mostly criminals released from prison by the previous regime," meaning Saddam Hussein's, shortly before the American invasion last year.
"These enemies of a united and peaceful Iraq have been carrying out appalling acts against innocent Iraqis and their property," it said, adding, "This operation will continue until this illegal and cruel violence has been quelled."
The statement appeared to be a flat rejection of a cease-fire offer made through one of Mr. Sadr's aides on Thursday night, and seemed to suggest that Dr. Allawi's government and the Americans intend to use the Najaf fighting decisively to curb Mr. Sadr's challenge to the new government.
"This operation will never stop before all the militia leave the city," Najaf's governor, Adnan al-Zorfi, said at a briefing. "The cemetery is now a field of terror in the city."
Lieut. Col. Gary JohnstonThe cemetery had been off limits to the American military for religious reasons, as are the deeply sacred shrines in the center of the city. But on Friday the cemetery had been turned into a warehouse for weapons, marine commanders said, and a staging ground for numerous attacks on a nearby police station and fighers shot back at Marines from the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit from behind the graves."We are fighting them on close terrain but we are on schedule," said Col. Anthony M. Haslam, the units commanding officer. "You have to move very slowly because the cemetery has a lot of mausoleums and little caves."
The governor, Mr. Zorfi, said that militia fighters on Friday were using Iranian rocket propelled grenades, and suggested that there may also have been Iranians among the militia.
An even more troubling sign was the apparent influx of fighters from other cities. According to Col. Haslam, the Marines have received reports of militia men arriving in Najaf on buses from Baghdad and from other cities in the south.
American accounts of the fighting have said that it began in the early hours of Thursday, when Mr. Sadr's fighters made three attempts to storm a police station, pressing Iraqi defenders so hard that they eventually called in American troops.
By this afternoon, the marines had managed to cut a buffer zone between the police station and the cemetery, Lt. Col. Gary Johnston said, speaking at the base. But it was an open front, and slow going, he said.
"It's a very fluid battlefield out there," he said.
Sabrina Tavernise reported from outside Najaf for this article and John F. Burns from Baghdad.
-------- israel / palestine
2,000 Return Home After Israel Opens Border Crossing
August 7, 2004
By GREG MYRE
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/07/international/middleeast/07mideast.html
JERUSALEM, Aug. 6 - Israel opened a border crossing on Friday between the Gaza Strip and Egypt that had been closed for nearly three weeks, allowing most of the more than 2,000 stranded Palestinians to return home.
Israel closed the Rafah crossing on July 18, saying it believed that Palestinians were planning to attack the site. Since then, Palestinians who were in Egypt have been unable to return to Gaza.
More affluent Palestinians were able to turn back and wait out the delay at hotels in Cairo or elsewhere in Egypt. But many of the travelers spent the entire time at a cramped, sweltering terminal building on the Egyptian side of the border.
Many had to sleep outside, and the terminal had limited sanitary facilities. A large number of the Palestinians had gone to Egypt for medical treatment, and some were still ailing as they tried to return home.
Khalil Abu Foul, a doctor with the Palestinian Red Crescent who was given special permission to cross from Gaza to the Egyptian side, treated the stranded Palestinians for the past two weeks. He said one woman gave birth and two women had miscarriages, while many people suffered from illnesses related to diarrhea and high blood pressure.
Abu Muhammad al-Salahiat, 40, said that his father and aunt, both of them ailing, went to Egypt for medical treatment and that both died in Cairo during the past two weeks. At midday on Friday, he was still waiting for the bodies to be returned.
"They are both dead," said an exasperated Mr. Salahiat. "Why won't they let the bodies cross?"
Egypt had called on Israel to reopen the border for aid reasons, and the United States raised the issue.
Israel had offered to allow a limited number of Palestinians to pass through a separate crossing along the Israeli-Egyptian border. But Palestinian officials rejected the proposal, saying it was a violation of the existing agreement on the border crossing. The Israeli proposal would have permitted just 200 Palestinians to return home each day.
Palestinian authorities also expressed concerns that Israel might be planning to close the Rafah crossing permanently.
Palestinian officials said that around 1,500 travelers had returned to Gaza as of Friday evening and that the rest were expected soon.
On the Gaza side of the border, Palestinians who were unable to go to Egypt simply remained at home, and there was no backlog of stranded travelers at the crossing point.
In a separate development, the Israeli defense minister, Shaul Mofaz, said some Palestinian police officers in the West Bank would be allowed to carry their weapons in public for the first time in more than two years.
The Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qurei, recently raised the issue, saying the Palestinian Authority could not combat the growing chaos on the streets unless there was an armed police force.
Mr. Mofaz told Israel radio that he was concerned about "a situation of anarchy that could spread and create chaos on the Palestinian side."
The defense minister said that the Palestinian police would only be allowed to carry pistols and clubs, and that officers would have to be approved individually by Israel. The policy will be put in place gradually and is reversible, Mr. Mofaz said.
Elsewhere on Friday, the Israeli military said troops shot and killed a would-be bomber who was approaching a Jewish settlement in southern Gaza. The Israeli forces also shot to death a member of the Hamas faction, and arrested a militant during the same operation in the northern West Bank, the military said.
Taghreed El Khodary contributed reporting from Gaza for this article.
-------- nato
NATO Sends Officers to Train Iraqi Forces
AP
Sat Aug 7, 2004
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=2&u=/ap/20040807/ap_on_re_mi_ea/italy_nato_iraq
ROME - NATO sent a first group of officers Saturday to prepare for the alliance's training mission for Iraqi forces.
The main part of the NATO Training Implementation Mission - led by Dutch Air Force Maj. Gen. Carel Hilderink and initially consisting of about 45 people - should deploy in Iraq next week, NATO said in a statement from Naples. The first four officers left Saturday from a command center in the southern Italian city.
NATO leaders agreed to the mission at their summit in late June but had left details vague. The 26 NATO countries agreed a week ago to send the team after sidestepping a dispute between the United States and France over command of the alliance operation.
The advance team that left Saturday will work out plans for the training both inside and outside Iraq. The overall mission members are being drawn from NATO military planning headquarters in southern Belgium as well as command centers in Naples and Norfolk, Virginia.
The team is to report back to NATO headquarters on Sept. 15 about proposed command links with the U.S.-led multinational force, which is expected to provide security. Washington was pushing for "unity of command" between the two, but Paris insists they be kept separate.
-------- pakistan / india
Pakistan Intelligence Claims Another Al Qaeda Scalp
August 7, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-security-pakistan.html
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A senior al Qaeda operative who knew Osama bin Laden and was linked to assassination attempts on Pakistan's president has been arrested in Dubai and handed over to Islamabad, Pakistani intelligence sources said Saturday.
Qari Saifullah Akhtar, a leader of the radical Islamic group Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami, was arrested by authorities in Dubai Friday after Pakistan had requested his detention, and handed over to Islamabad Saturday.
The capture was the latest breakthrough in a broadening offensive against terrorist groups in Pakistan that has netted over 20 suspects in recent weeks including computer engineer Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan and top al Qaeda figure Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani.
One intelligence source said Khan e-mailed al Qaeda comrades while in custody as part of a sting by security agencies, but his name appeared in U.S. newspapers, which may have compromised the operation, according to experts.
Ghailani had a multi-million-dollar bounty on his head for his alleged role in the 1998 East African U.S. embassy bombings.
Information gleaned from Khan led to the arrest of 12 al Qaeda suspects in Britain earlier this week and the decision by the United States to put New York and Washington on high alert against possible al Qaeda attacks.
British newspapers said that among the 12 arrested was senior al Qaeda figure Abu Musa al-Hindi or Abu Eisa al-Hindi, and that he was believed to be plotting an attack on Heathrow airport.
In a separate development, Pakistani sources said on Saturday that authorities had arrested Fazal-ur Rehman Khalil, head of the banned Harkat-ul-Mujahideen group linked to an insurgency against Indian rule in Kashmir, the Afghan Taliban and al Qaeda.
His arrest will be seen as a warning to other leaders of banned radical Islamic outfits that have re-emerged under new names. Some are sectarian, but several have links to al Qaeda.
AKHTAR KNEW OSAMA, OMAR
Pakistan's intelligence services used information gleaned from a spate of high-profile arrests of al Qaeda members in recent weeks, including those of Khan and Ghailani, to track down Akhtar, described by a source as ``an operational head of al Qaeda in Pakistan.''
He was with al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar in Afghanistan at the time of the U.S.-led war against the hard-line Islamic militia late in 2001 and fled first to Saudi Arabia and then to United Arab Emirates.
Akhtar is also allegedly linked to two assassination attempts on Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in December and a bid to kill Prime Minister-designate Shaukat Aziz in July.
Radical Islamic groups are angered by Musharraf's decision to back the U.S.-led war on terror.
Pakistan has captured hundreds of al Qaeda suspects since the September 11, 2001 attacks, including the alleged mastermind of the hijacked airliner attacks on New York and Washington, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Many have been handed over to U.S. custody, and the government is considering doing the same with Khan and Ghailani.
Pakistan's crackdown on al Qaeda in recent weeks has raised international hopes of dealing the terror network a telling blow, but security experts warn that it is clearly still active in Pakistan and poses dangers across the globe.
-------- philippines
Manila says unconcerned if out of US coalition
August 7, 2004
Reuters
http://www.utusan.com.my/utusan/content.asp?y=2004&dt=0807&pub=Utusan_Express&sec=World&pg=wo_02.htm
MANILA Aug 6 - The Philippine government reacted stoicly on Friday to its apparent exclusion from the US ``Coalition of the Willing'', saying it was ready to pay the price for its early withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
Richard Boucher, a US State Department spokesman, told reporters in Washington on Wednesday that Manila was no longer a member of the coalition after its withdrawal last month to save the life of a Filipino truck driver held hostage by militants.
``The President has stuck to her oath, taken responsibility and has no apologies,'' Ignacio Bunye, spokesman for President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, said in a statement.
``If this is the price to pay for being a Filipino and for leading the Filipino nation, so be it.''
The Philippine foreign ministry said the US embassy in Manila had clarified that Boucher's comment only meant that Philippine troops were no longer in Iraq rather than signaling Manila's exclusion from the coalition that helped in post-war reconstruction.
But an embassy official would not confirm this, only reiterating that Washington was ``disappointed'' with the government's decision to withdrawal.
Boucher's comment seemed unambiguous: ``No, they're not a member of the coalition at this point,'' he said, according to a State Department transcript of a briefing he gave on Wednesday.
Senator Manuel Villar, vice chairman of the Philippine Senate's committee on foreign relations, said the removal was ``no big deal''.
``It was expected that the US would remove us from the coalition,'' he said in a statement.
Despite Washington's disappointment, analysts and diplomats expect little long-term impact on the countries' close security alliance.
Sources in the defence and military establishments said they were not expecting any further cuts in U.S. security assistance because Washington had already announced a reduced military aid package for 2004.
From a total of $114.46 million in security assistance in 2003, defence department sources told Reuters the country will only get $59.38 million this year, excluding 10 second-hand UH-1H choppers which Manila has paid for $7.3 million last March.
``We don't expect any serious fall-out from the sudden pull-out from Iraq,'' a senior defence official told Reuters. ``Our security ties with Washington remained strong. We believe the military assistance package will be delivered as scheduled.''
He said the Philippines is counting on its friends in the Bush administration and in the US Congress to work for additional security assistance for 2004.
Since 2001, the US security assistance package to Manila has been steadily increasing to help the Philippines improve its capability in fighting domestic and international terrorism.
In 2001, the US gave the Philippines only $38.03 million, including a medium-class Coast Guard cutter and some 30,000 M16 rifles with 120,00 magazines.
Washington more than doubled the security assistance in 2002 to $94.50 million, including five helicopters, 300 trucks, a C130 plane and two Point Class cutters.
The security package reached $114.46 million last year, including an additional three helicopters, a Cyclone-class ship that arrived this year and 33 more trucks.
-------- prisoners of war
Prison abuse report 'hard call'
August 07, 2004
(AP)
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20040806-101703-5440r.htm
FORT BRAGG, N.C. - The soldier who was the first to report the abuse of Iraqi inmates at Abu Ghraib prison testified yesterday that he agonized for a month about disclosing what he had seen, but decided he could not let the abuse go on.
"It violated everything I personally believed in and all I'd been taught about the rules of war," Sgt. Joseph Darby testified during a pretrial hearing for Pfc. Lynndie England. "It was more of a moral call."
Sgt. Darby turned over two compact discs of photos, including some that showed Pfc. England leading a naked prisoner by a leash and smiling as she pointed at the genitals of a hooded detainee. Sgt. Darby had known the 21-year-old reservist since basic training with the Maryland-based 372nd Military Police Company and wrestled with the decision to come forward.
"These people were my friends," Sgt. Darby testified by phone from an undisclosed location. "It's a hard call to have to make the decision to put your friends in prison."
The Article 32 hearing at Fort Bragg is to determine whether Pfc. England should face a court-martial on 13 counts of abusing detainees and six counts stemming from possession of sexually explicit photos. If convicted, she could get up to 38 years in prison.
Meanwhile, in Maryland, an Army reservist who witnessed the abuse said military intelligence officials led and directed it.
The account by Kenneth A. Davis, a former sergeant in the 372nd Military Police Company, contradicted the government's position that only members of Mr. Davis' unit were directly responsible for the abuse.
Mr. Davis' account - in a May statement to Army investigators and in interviews this week with the Associated Press - makes him the first member of the unit who is not facing charges to publicly describe one of the episodes that led to criminal charges against others. No military intelligence personnel have been charged.
Mr. Davis said military intelligence soldiers were more culpable in the incident he witnessed than a military intelligence analyst acknowledged during testimony Thursday at the pretrial hearing of Pfc. England, one of seven members of the 372nd charged with abusing detainees.
Friday's fourth day of testimony painted a picture of a prison in disarray, where it was often unclear whether guards or military intelligence officers were in charge and where barely trained reservists were often left to make decisions alone.
-------- russia / chechnya
Asylum decision by U.S. fuels ire
August 07, 2004
(Agence France-Presse)
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20040806-101701-7024r.htm
MOSCOW - Russia reacted with fury yesterday to a U.S. decision granting political asylum to the self-declared foreign minister of separatist Chechnya who is viewed as a "terrorist" by Moscow.
Moscow accused Washington of setting double standards in its global war on terror, in a comment straining relations between two Cold War era foes that had warmed after the September 11 attacks on the United States but have had increasingly frequent chilly spells in recent months.
Ilias Akhmadov, foreign minister in the self-styled but unrecognized government of Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov, said that he was informed this week that he has been officially granted political asylum by authorities in Boston.
He had been granted asylum earlier this year but the U.S. office of homeland security challenged the decision. Mr. Akhmadov said the appeal has since been withdrawn and he is now staying in the United States.
"I learned [on Monday] that they had granted it to me," Mr. Akhmadov said by telephone from the United States.
Russia, which accuses Mr. Akhmadov of terrorism and of links to an armed incursion in the Russian republic of Dagestan in 1999, has been seeking his extradition since he arrived in the United States in 2002.
"I am happy to have succeeded in convincing the American authorities that the accusations were unfounded," Mr. Akhmadov said.
A U.S. official in Moscow refused to confirm that Mr. Akhmadov was in the United States but said granting him asylum should not reflect on Washington's relations with Moscow.
"The U.S. government is not allowed to interfere on decisions on asylum cases," the U.S. Embassy official said. "No decision on asylum should be misinterpreted as a statement of foreign policy."
The foreign ministry said the decision showed that Washington was "setting double standards in the fight against terrorism."
"These sort of actions contradict the spirit of Russia-U.S. relations and do not correspond our joint goals of fighting international terrorism," it said in a statement.
It said Moscow has "repeatedly asked the United States to extradite this international terrorist ... but unfortunately we must note that our requests were ignored."
Mr. Maskhadov was a top field commander in the first Chechen war from 1994-1996 and won the presidency the next year after Russian troops pulled out and gave the Muslim republic in the Caucasus region de facto independence.
But he was quickly disavowed by Moscow, which poured troops back into the impoverished region in October 1999 to fight what was to be a lightning anti-terror operation but has instead descended into drawn-out guerrilla war.
The former Chechen president has been in hiding since then, with various reports suggesting he was either in Chechnya's southern mountains - still under rebel control - or a neighboring Muslim state.
Mr. Akhmadov has said he intends to represent the interests of Chechnya in the United States and elsewhere.
-------- spies
Unmasking of Qaeda Mole a U.S. Security Blunder - Experts
August 7, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-security-source.html
LONDON (Reuters) - The revelation that a mole within al Qaeda was exposed after Washington launched its ``orange alert'' this month has shocked security experts, who say the outing of the source may have set back the war on terror.
Reuters learned from Pakistani intelligence sources on Friday that computer expert Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan, arrested secretly in July, was working under cover to help the authorities track down al Qaeda militants in Britain and the United States when his name appeared in U.S. newspapers.
``After his capture he admitted being an al Qaeda member and agreed to send e-mails to his contacts,'' a Pakistani intelligence source told Reuters. ``He sent encoded e-mails and received encoded replies. He's a great hacker and even the U.S. agents said he was a computer whiz.''
Last Sunday, U.S. officials told reporters that someone held secretly by Pakistan was the source of the bulk of the information justifying the alert. The New York Times obtained Khan's name independently, and U.S. officials confirmed it when it appeared in the paper the next morning.
None of those reports mentioned at the time that Khan had been under cover helping the authorities catch al Qaeda suspects, and that his value in that regard was destroyed by making his name public.
A day later, Britain hastily rounded up terrorism suspects, some of whom are believed to have been in contact with Khan while he was under cover. Washington has portrayed those arrests as a major success, saying one of the suspects, named Abu Musa al-Hindi or Abu Eissa al-Hindi, was a senior al Qaeda figure.
But British police have acknowledged the raids were carried out in a rush. Suspects were dragged out of shops in daylight and caught in a high speed car chase, instead of the usual procedure of catching them at home in the early morning while they can offer less resistance.
``HOLY GRAIL'' OF INTELLIGENCE
Security experts contacted by Reuters said they were shocked by the revelations that the source whose information led to the alert was identified within days, and that U.S. officials had confirmed his name.
``The whole thing smacks of either incompetence or worse,'' said Tim Ripley, a security expert who writes for Jane's Defense publications. ``You have to ask: what are they doing compromising a deep mole within al Qaeda, when it's so difficult to get these guys in there in the first place?
``It goes against all the rules of counter-espionage, counter-terrorism, running agents and so forth. It's not exactly cloak and dagger undercover work if it's on the front pages every time there's a development, is it?''
A source such as Khan -- cooperating with the authorities while staying in active contact with trusting al Qaeda agents -- would be among the most prized assets imaginable, he said.
``Running agents within a terrorist organization is the Holy Grail of intelligence agencies. And to have it blown is a major setback which negates months and years of work, which may be difficult to recover.''
Rolf Tophoven, head of the Institute for Terrorism Research and Security Policy in Essen, Germany, said allowing Khan's name to become public was ``very unclever.''
``If it is correct, then I would say its another debacle of the American intelligence community. Maybe other serious sources could have been detected or guys could have been captured in the future'' if Khan's identity had been protected, he said.
Britain, which has dealt with Irish bombing campaigns for decades, has a policy of announcing security alerts only under narrow circumstances, when authorities have specific advice they can give the public to take action that will make them safer.
UNNECESSARY ALARM
Home Secretary David Blunkett, responsible for Britain's anti-terrorism policy, said in a statement on Friday there was ``a difference between alerting the public to a specific threat and alarming people unnecessarily by passing on information indiscriminately.''
Kevin Rosser, security expert at the London-based consultancy Control Risks Group, said an inherent risk in public alerts is that secret sources will be compromised.
``When these public announcements are made they have to be supported with some evidence, and in addition to creating public anxiety and fatigue you can risk revealing sources and methods of sensitive operations,'' he said.
In the case of last week's U.S. alerts, officials said they had ordered tighter security on a number of financial sites in New York, Washington and New Jersey because Khan possessed reports showing al Qaeda agents had studied the buildings.
Although the casing reports were mostly several years old, U.S. officials said they acted urgently because of separate intelligence suggesting an increased likelihood of attacks in the runup to the presidential election in November.
U.S. officials now say Hindi, one of the suspects arrested after Khan's name was compromised, may have been the head of the team that cased those buildings.
But the Pakistani disclosure that Khan was under cover suggests that the cell had been infiltrated, and was under surveillance at the time Washington ordered the orange alert.
The security experts said that under such circumstances it would be extraordinary to issue a public warning, because of the risk of tipping off the cell that it had been compromised.
-------- un
U.N. Blames Sudan for Civilian Atrocities
August 7, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Sudan-Report.html?pagewanted=all&position=
GENEVA (AP) -- A top U.N. human rights investigator Friday released a scathing report that blames the Sudanese government for atrocities against its civilians in the Darfur region and says ``millions of civilians'' could die.
``It is beyond doubt that the Government of the Sudan is responsible for extrajudicial and summary executions of large numbers of people over the last several months in the Darfur region, as well as in the Shilook Kingdom in Upper Nile State,'' said Asma Jahangir, the U.N. investigator on executions, in a report based on a 13-day visit to the region in June.
``The current humanitarian disaster unfolding in Darfur, for which the government is largely responsible, has put millions of civilians at risk, and it is very likely that many will die in the months to come as a result of starvation and disease,'' said Jahangir, a Pakistani lawyer.
Jahangir said there was ``overwhelming evidence'' that the killing was carried out ``in a coordinated manner by the armed forces of the government and government-backed militias. They appear to be carried out in a systematic manner.''
The scale of violations means they ``could constitute crimes against humanity for which the government of the Sudan must bear responsibility,'' she said in the 26-page report to the U.N. Human Rights Commission.
A leading U.S. lawmaker toured camps in eastern Chad holding hundreds of thousands of refugees and said he would investigate the relationship between the Sudan government and the militias. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist also said the threat of U.N. sanctions against Sudan was not enough to end the violence.
The Tennessee Republican said he planned to talk with other U.S. lawmakers about remedying that, but he did not elaborate.
The U.S. Congress has labeled the atrocities genocide. The United Nations has described the conflict in Darfur, which began with a rebellion early last year, as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
Last week the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution giving Sudan 30 days to curb the pro-government Arab militias blamed for the violence in Darfur or face diplomatic and economic penalties.
The militias, called the Janjaweed, have been blamed for violence that has killed 30,000 people, forced a million from their homes and left an estimated 2.2 million in urgent need of relief aid.
``I remain seriously concerned at the very slow and negligent reaction of the government toward the situation unfolding in Darfur,'' Jahangir said. ``Such a reaction despite the huge international outcry would appear to indicate either complete disrespect for the right to life of the population of Darfur, or, at worst, complicity in the events.''
She said all attacks against the civilian population must stop and that the government must disarm all militias.
The government also must assure that aid workers have complete access to people in need, Jahangir said.
The African Union worked Friday to boost the number of troops it plans to send to the region, asking Rwanda to increase its contribution from about 150 soldiers to nearly 1,000.
The AU said last month it would send 300 soldiers to Darfur to protect its monitors. But Wednesday it announced plans to increase the number of soldiers to as many as 1,800.
In New York, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said the Sudanese government and the United Nations would sign an agreement Monday outlining steps Sudan must take this month to start disarming the militias and other outlawed groups and to improve security in western Darfur.
He said the agreement reached Wednesday night by Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail and U.N. special representative Jan Pronk ``has now been finalized by the Sudanese government.''
A copy of the agreement was given to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan who was expected to send it to the 15 members of the U.N. Security Council. It was not made public.
``A formal copy will be signed by Mr. Pronk and the foreign minister and officially issued on Monday,'' Eckhard said.
But it wasn't clear whether the Sudanese Cabinet had officially approved the agreement. Officials in Khartoum said the Cabinet was expected to discuss the agreement during a meeting on Sunday.
Ismail said Thursday in Khartoum that foreign military intervention to end the Darfur crisis was unlikely. He said the government ``will do our best'' to meet Security Council demands to end the region's violence although he called the resolution ``unfair.''
His comments followed a mass state-organized protest on Wednesday to condemn the U.N. resolution.
John Danforth, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Thursday the clock was ticking for Sudan and it must show by the end of the month that it is making ``a good faith effort'' to comply with the council resolution.
Jahangir said the government was sponsoring militias to fight the rebels ``and, more distressingly, to terrorize and kill civilians suspected of supporting the rebels.''
She said she had met a large number of people who ``had a strong perception'' that the government ``was pursuing a policy of 'Arabization''' of the country, especially the Darfur region.
``Allegedly, those of Arab descent seek to portray themselves as 'pure' Muslims as opposed to Muslims of African ethnicity,'' she said.
Jahangir said she had ``credible information'' that members of the armed forces, the volunteer Popular Defense Force and government-sponsored militias ``had in recent months attacked villages and summarily executed civilians, looted homes and forcibly displaced the inhabitants.''
``The most often heard report was of villages being surrounded by military vehicles accompanied by Arab militia riding horses. The local population was plundered, looted, tortured, raped and often shot at in a random manner; however, adult men seemed often to be specifically targeted.
``Before leaving, the Arab militia would burn down the villages. In some cases, helicopters or Antonov airplanes were used to bomb or attack the villages or to provide cover for ground operations, including operations carried out by Arab militia.''
She said the government ``appeared oblivious to the dramatic and disastrous proportions and the magnitude'' of the crisis.
``The persistent denial of the current humanitarian disaster in Darfur by most government officials was shocking, Jahangir said.
-------- us
PRISON SCANDAL
At Abuse Hearing, No Testimony That G.I.'s Acted on Orders
August 7, 2004
By KATE ZERNIKE
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/07/international/middleeast/07abuse.html?pagewanted=all
FORT BRAGG, N.C., Aug. 6 - In the three months since photographs of detainees in sexually humiliating positions triggered the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, the soldiers charged with mistreatment have defended themselves by saying they were simply following orders.
But as of the end of testimony here on Friday in a military court hearing for Pfc. Lynndie R. England - the last, the longest and the most closely watched of the proceedings to determine whether the seven soldiers should be court-martialed - there have been no witnesses and no evidence to back up that central assertion.
Witnesses, more than 25 for Private England's hearing alone, have described a prison in chaos, where military police even ran a prostitution and liquor ring. Soldiers often did not know who was in charge or how they were supposed to treat detainees. Prisoners were left naked for long periods as punishment and were at least occasionally abused, in one case leading to a death from what investigators called trauma to the head.
Yet no one has said there were direct orders to carry out the treatment seen in photos, or even, as Private England has told investigators, that the military police soldiers were encouraged to "keep it up" as a way of encouraging better interrogations.
"To my knowledge, ma'am, they were never ordered to do anything," Specialist Joseph M. Darby, the soldier who first turned in the photos, replied to a question from a prosecutor here on Friday.
Witness after witness has said that the treatment in the pictures, including forcing prisoners to masturbate and piling naked detainees in a pyramid, would never be allowed under any stretch of the rules.
"It was wrong - it was more than wrong," testified Specialist Matthew Wisdom, who like the charged soldiers, is a member of the 372nd Military Police Company. "It was absolutely wrong."
Capt. Donald Reese, the commander of the company, testified that military intelligence soldiers conducting interrogations would ask the police soldiers to strip detainees or deprive them of sleep. Then a prosecutor asked him about whether there had been requests for the behavior seen in the photos: Slapping? A dog pile of naked detainees? Forced masturbation? Taking nude photographs?
"No, ma'am," he replied grimly.
However, other testimony has contradicted the government's argument that the Abu Ghraib abuses were solely the work of seven rogue soldiers. Witnesses have described varying degrees of mistreatment or sexual humiliation committed by soldiers beyond the group accused. Some testimony has included the assertion that high-ranking officers, including Col. Thomas Pappas, the highest-ranking intelligence officer at the prison, knew about the improper use of dogs, as well as some abuses, including the death.
The testimony in the hearings also leaves unclear what the rules were for interrogations and how harsh the treatment was. Soldiers have testified about seeing detainees being kicked and handcuffed with their hands so high above their heads that their toes barely touched the ground. One interrogator, according to testimony in Private England's four-day hearing here, put his hand on a male detainee's chest and taunted, "Do you like being touched by a guy?"
One soldier, Staff Sgt. Christopher Ward, testifying about detainees being left naked, said, "It was my perception that M.I. (military intelligence) was trying to create an uncomfortable environment to try to facilitate their interrogations."
According to other testimony, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, who came to Abu Ghraib in August to improve interrogations, said the military police should "set the conditions" for military intelligence soldiers doing interrogations. "We got that in writing from the commander, which was Colonel Pappas," Sgt. First Class Shannon Snider testified.
Yet the soldiers did not say that meant harsh treatment of prisoners. As Capt. Carolyn Wood, of the 519th Military Intelligence Battalion, described it, military police were to collect information on detainees' families or personalities that interrogators could use in questioning, and to help move an increasingly large population of detainees between several wings of the prison.
The soldier who investigators call the ringleader of the abuse, Cpl. Charles Graner, wrote in a log that military police soldiers should not deprive an inmate of sleep without a written order from military intelligence.
Although the accused soldiers say they received orders, none could recall who gave them. "Initially there was some, 'They told us to do it,' " testified Special Agent Tyler Pieron, an Army investigator. "Never could figure out who 'they' was."
The military judge must still rule over the next few weeks whether Private England, 21, will face a court martial on 19 counts of sexual and other misconduct and prisoner mistreatment, and she left open the possibility that she might hear testimony from other witnesses first. Five other soldiers have been ordered to face courts-martial, and a seventh pleaded guilty in exchange for his testimony and a year in prison.
Private England's lawyer, Richard Hernandez, said he had names of military intelligence soldiers who had given orders to carry out the acts seen in the photographs, but he would not produce them yet because the burden of proof in this hearing, he said, "is on the government."
By the end of the four days of testimony, Private England's legal team has seemed to have embraced an "everyone else was doing it" defense, pushing witnesses to say that higher-ups had not vigorously prosecuted or even investigated abuse by other soldiers, or inappropriate conduct. They argue that Private England, who is pregnant, faces more jail time for her alleged sexual misconduct than for prison abuse, while other sexual misconduct went unpunished.
--------
Pentagon Focuses on Voting Plan for Troops
August 7, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Military-Voting.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon, faced with nearly a half-million troops overseas, has improved its Web site for absentee voters and promised faster mail service as it pushes several programs to avert a repeat of the balloting problems of the 2000 election.
Television and radio announcements and banners in commissaries and classrooms are part of the Defense Department plan to help the 492,000 troops abroad have better access to ballots back home.
Nearly 70 percent of the 258,000 service members overseas during the last presidential election cast ballots, compared with 51 percent of the general public and 37 percent of U.S. civilians overseas, said Charles Abell, principal deputy to the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness.
Of those who didn't vote, nearly 22 percent said they never received ballots, according to Pentagon research, and 7 percent said they got them late. Twenty-six percent said they didn't know how to get a ballot.
Military voting problems created an uproar in the 2000 election when some ballots were rejected in Florida, where George W. Bush's razor-thin margin of victory gave him the presidency after an extended legal battle. Several hundred absentee ballots from troops abroad were thrown out in the state for lack of postmarks, as required by state law, or other flaws such as no signatures.
Laws for casting ballots from abroad differ from state to state, and the mailing process itself can be daunting.
For instance, while nearly three months remain until the election on Nov. 2, the process for voters overseas starts in September. In its awareness program this year, the Pentagon is stressing two key weeks, the first Sept. 3-11.
``If you have not requested your ballot, or you have not registered for this election yet, you should do it, you must do it, during this week,'' Abell said. That will allow enough time for the request to get to the voter's local precinct, for the precinct to send back the empty ballot, and for the service member to send it back completed, he said.
The week of Oct. 11-15 is the last time overseas voters can safely send in their ballots. ``This is sort of like the Christmas mailing season,'' Abell said.
If ballots are mailed by then, ``even from the remotest part of the world to the remotest part of the United States, the ballot material should get back to the local voting official in sufficient time to be counted,'' he said.
Meanwhile, an American Bar Association report released Friday called for better accounting of votes of National Guard members and reservists. ABA President Dennis Archer said too many absentee ballots from soldiers overseas are not counted because of the complex process.
The military has trained officers to help troops, has worked with states to increase from 23 to 32 the number that permit fax delivery of blank ballots, and is providing an online version of the federal ballot application, which is accepted by 53 states and territories, Abell said.
Since 2000, officials have worked with the federal postal service and with the states to improve logos and designs on balloting materials so they are better recognized in post offices and election offices.
Officials also have worked with the postal service to get expedited handling and have issued proper postmarking machines to military units, Abell said.
The Defense Department is responsible for voting for all Americans overseas. Abell said that among the potential absentee voters, 1.4 million are military members and 1.3 million their dependents. Another 100,000 are federal civilian employees, and 3.7 million are U.S. civilians not affiliated with the government.
The Pentagon had been hoping to do away with some problems by starting Internet voting. But the pilot program that would have allowed up to 100,000 military and overseas civilians from seven states to vote on the Internet was canceled in November after outside security experts reported that hackers or terrorists could penetrate the system.
On the Net:
Pentagon voter assistance: http://www.fvap.gov
-------- POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE
-------- homeland security
D.C. May Sue Government If 15th Street Is Closed
By Debbi Wilgoren
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 7, 2004; Page A02
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46614-2004Aug6.html
D.C. officials said yesterday that they would explore all legal options, including suing the federal government, if the Secret Service or another federal agency moves to restrict traffic on 15th Street NW east of the White House and the Treasury building in response to a heightened security alert.
"We should be in court the next minute," said D.C. Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), whose downtown district includes the area around the White House. "We can't always be in a reactionary mode."
A Secret Service spokeswoman, Lorie Lewis, said federal agencies are working with local officials -- and will continue to do so -- to decide what precautions are needed in the wake of the recent terror alert at the Treasury building and other major financial institutions.
The Secret Service announced earlier this week that it would close the west sidewalk on a two-block stretch of 15th Street to pedestrians within a few days, once it obtains the metal barricades to do so. Federal officials are discussing with local officials the possibility of barring trucks from that portion of the road -- a move that would be similar to one taken jointly two years ago by federal and D.C. officials on an eight-block stretch of 17th Street, west of the White House.
Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) praised the collaboration this week, saying he much prefers that approach to the unilateral decision by U.S. Capitol Police Chief Terrance W. Gainer to shut down First Street east of the Capitol starting Tuesday morning.
But a spokesman for Williams also agreed with Evans that the city should be prepared to seek a restraining order or other court intervention if the Secret Service moves to close 15th Street to some or all motor vehicle traffic without city agreement.
"We should be ready, and we are getting ready," said Tony Bullock, the mayor's director of communications. "The mayor has said he would fight these closures with 'every fiber of his being.' I think a lawsuit would come under the general category of every fiber of your being."
D.C. Attorney General Robert J. Spagnoletti yesterday completed a report for Williams summarizing who has legal control of which streets and what the city's options are for challenging closures. City officials would not discuss those options in detail.
Williams and other local officials say that closing streets wreaks havoc on traffic and tourism and damages the city's sense of well-being without eliminating the threat of terror attacks. Less disruptive methods, such as increased police presence and checkpoints, would be sufficient responses to the heightened alerts, they say. They often cite the examples of Pennsylvania Avenue NW in front of the White House and E Street NW in back of it to illustrate the ill effects of downtown street closures.
A spokeswoman for Spagnoletti said the city has authority over all streets except for the Capitol complex -- an area roughly bounded on the west by Washington Avenue, Third Street NW, Constitution Avenue, Louisiana Avenue and North Capitol Street; on the north by D Street; on the east by Second Street, extending to Third Street between East Capitol Street and Independence Avenue; and to the south by the 100 block of C Street SE, as well as D Street between First Street SE and Washington Avenue.
Federal agencies control the sidewalks outside their buildings, however, and can prohibit parking outside buildings where federal law enforcement activities are taking place.
Because of the District's unique status as a city ultimately under the control of the federal government, Congress can vote to close any street without the D.C. government's approval, Spagnoletti spokeswoman Tarifah Coaxum said.
--------
IN WASHINGTON
Federal Roadblocks and Checkpoints Creating Capital Maze
August 7, 2004
By JAMES DAO
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/07/politics/07capital.html?pagewanted=all
WASHINGTON, Aug. 6 - Each day seems to bring a new reminder that this is a city under siege by an invisible enemy.
On Monday, following a terrorism alert naming financial institutions as targets, parking spaces were eliminated around the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. By Tuesday, the Capitol Police had closed a street and established 14 traffic checkpoints around Capitol Hill.
By Thursday, the police were inspecting vehicles near the Federal Reserve. And by Friday, the Secret Service was planning to close a sidewalk outside the Treasury Department. More is to come, security officials said.
On its own, each measure might have seemed inconsequential. But together, they have brought an explosion of denunciations from local officials fed up with the growing maze of concrete barriers and guard posts around their city. To them, the latest round of fortifications have seemed excessive, intrusive and even harmful.
"It's an overreaction," said Eleanor Holmes Norton, the city's nonvoting delegate in Congress, who contends street closings have created havoc for emergency vehicles and choked off the city's evacuation routes.
Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey complained, "The city has to be able to function," predicting cancerous traffic jams when vacation season ends and Congress returns in September.
And Tony Bullock, the spokesman for Mayor Anthony Williams, called the moves "a decidedly knee-jerk reaction" by federal agencies seeking to use the latest alert to impose security measures they had wanted long before Sept. 11, 2001.
"It's not entirely clear what we're reacting to," Mr. Bullock said. "The warning from the Department of Homeland Security was specific to certain buildings. We're seeing federal government agencies using that information to implement security measures that have no connection to that warning. What is happening in the capital is unsustainable."
Their anger, on one level, reflects the longstanding frustration of Washingtonians who have felt powerless to rebuff federal demands. The federal government is not only the city's largest landowner and employer, it also controls its budget and exerts virtual veto power over its laws. The Secret Service and Capitol Police even have authority over city streets around the White House and Capitol Hill.
"We are treated as a colonial possession," said Mark Plotkin, a political commentator on a local radio station, WTOP. "We're not part of America, we're just props."
But on another level, many here are increasingly worried that the city is changing in fundamental ways. Institutions that were once beacons of open government, particularly the Capitol, have imposed stricter security than at any time in history, including when Washington was under imminent threat of invasion during the War of 1812 and the Civil War, historians said. Even monuments and museums are being encircled by protective walls.
"No question that security now is far greater than ever before," said Richard A. Baker, the Senate historian.
"It has always been a strong article of faith that the building needs to be open to the public," he said of the Capitol. "Fences come and go, but in the past, they usually have gone. Because there was always a sense that if this building is not open to the public, then the nation is in real trouble."
Federal security officials say that the advent of powerful truck bombs and suicidal assailants has made tougher measures unavoidable. They assert they have tried to work with city officials to ensure that expanding security perimeters are as unobtrusive as possible.
"Secret Service really prides itself on working with its local partners," said Lorie Lewis, a spokeswoman for the agency. "We do take into consideration the concerns of all affected."
But even the chairman of a commission that coordinates planning for the federal government worried that some agencies are hastily expanding security.
"I am concerned that we may have unintended consequences," said John V. Cogbill, chairman of the National Capital Planning Commission.
For decades, Washington has seen a creeping expansion of protective barriers around government buildings. A bomb set off by the Weather Underground inside the Capitol in 1971 led to the installation of security cameras and metal detectors, Mr. Baker said. Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House was closed to vehicle traffic after the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995.
And after a man smuggled a gun into the Capitol and killed two police officers in 1998, Congress appropriated money for a visitors center intended to restrict public access to the Capitol.
In the past, some powerful lawmakers, led by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, were able to resist such efforts to wall off the government, its museums and monuments. But Mr. Moynihan died in 2003, and few other members of Congress have been willing to oppose the heightened security since Sept. 11.
And that has opened the gates to a flood of security measures by the federal government that local officials have felt helpless to resist.
Shortly after the terrorist attacks, for instance, the State Department closed C Street and removed nearby street parking, even though the department lacked the legal authority to do so, city officials contend. Similarly, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing regular puts up "no parking" signs on meters outside the mint, without city permission.
City officials contend that some federal agencies have even proposed replacing public parking with permit parking for their employees, claiming the restricted spaces would provide "security buffers" for their buildings.
Dan Tangherlini, the director of the city''s transportation department, said the city was losing $100,000 a month in parking fees because of post-Sept. 11 security restrictions. And the closing of Pennsylvania Avenue and E Street near the White House has caused such severe disruptions that the city is studying plans to build a tunnel under the White House complex to speed crosstown traffic.
Mr. Tangherlini can tell many stories about the battle over security. Shortly after Sept. 11, he says he saw federal workers erecting barriers to close 10th Street outside the Energy Department - without his authorization. He leapt out of his car and ordered the men to stop, threatening to call in heavy equipment to remove the barriers if they refused. They relented.
But it is one of the few fights he has won in recent years, he says. "Sometimes I feel like Neville Chamberlain," Mr. Tangherlini said. "If I tell them, 'O.K., you can close 15th Street, but that's all,' it's not going to stop them from asking for more."
-------- police
F.B.I. Declines to Explain Raids
August 7, 2004
By The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/07/politics/07anthrax.html?pagewanted=all
POINT PLEASANT BEACH, N.J. , Aug. 6 - F.B.I. officials would not explain on Friday why the New York and New Jersey homes of a doctor who has consulted on bioterrorism preparedness were raided on Thursday, saying only that the man being investigated, Dr. Kenneth M. Berry, was not arrested in connection with the 2001 anthrax attacks.
"It's a pending case and the search warrants are sealed and that's it," said Debbie Weierman, a spokeswoman for the bureau's Washington field office, which led the searches in Ocean Beach, N.J., and Wellsville, N.Y.
Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Postal Service were seen removing items wrapped in trash bags on Thursday from the New Jersey house, which Dr. Berry's father owns, as well from the house in Wellsville where Dr. Berry, 46, lives.
Dr. Berry had sought a patent for a system to identify chemical and biological strikes in September 2001, the month that the first anthrax letters were postmarked, The Associated Press reported.
-------- prisons / prisoners
Guantánamo Inmate Complains of Threats and Long Isolation
August 7, 2004
By NEIL A. LEWIS
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/07/politics/07gitmo.html?pagewanted=all
WASHINGTON, Aug. 6 - A brief unsealed in a Seattle courtroom this week contains an account by a prisoner at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, alleging that he was mistreated in several ways that may have violated the Geneva Conventions, including having his life threatened, being beaten and being kept in prolonged isolation.
While the United States government has asserted that it has no obligation to give the Guantánamo prisoners the protections of the Geneva Conventions, officials have insisted that they have done so as a humanitarian gesture.
In a separate affidavit, the Navy lawyer for the detainee asserted that when he met the prisoner on several occasions he found him to exhibit symptoms, including sudden mood changes and suicidal tendencies, that medical experts said indicated a profound and worsening mental illness they attributed to his isolation.
The affidavit of the prisoner, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a 34-year-old Yemeni, said he did not know how long he had been kept in isolation at Guantánamo, but suggested it was at least eight months. The prisoner, who has admitted to having been a driver for Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, also said he was regularly beaten by American guards in Afghanistan after his capture there at the end of 2001.
Mr. Hamdan also said that the cell in which he is now being isolated had caused him to consider pleading guilty "in order to get out of here.''
A Pentagon spokesman, Maj. Michael Shavers, said on Friday that officials were aware of the documents but had no comment on their assertions. Mr. Hamdan was charged last month with conspiracy to attack and to commit terrorism.
The documents, including the affidavits of Mr. Hamdan and his lawyer, Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, are part of the first lawsuit directly challenging the Bush administration's authority to try prisoners held as unlawful combatants before military tribunals.
Mr. Hamdan is one of a handful of prisoners who have been charged and face a preliminary hearing at Guantánamo before a tribunal on Aug. 23.
Commander Swift has argued that Mr. Hamdan was an agricultural worker for Mr. bin Laden and was not part of Al Qaeda.
The Supreme Court ruled in June that the naval base on the tip of Cuba was not, as the government had contended, beyond the reach of United States constitutional law.
The court said prisoners being held there could challenge their detentions in federal courts.
As a result, dozens of detainees have filed habeas corpus lawsuits in federal court in Washington, D.C., seeking to force the government to justify the detentions before a judge.
--------
Terrorism Suspect Had U.S. Ship Data
British Subject Accused of Trying To Aid Taliban
By Dana Priest and Glenn Frankel
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, August 7, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A45141-2004Aug6?language=printer
A computer specialist arrested this week in England possessed the classified routes of a U.S. naval battle group and is part of an al Qaeda branch linked to Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed that authorities on three continents have been working to dismantle in recent weeks, according to court documents released yesterday and U.S. officials.
Babar Ahmad, who possessed three-year-old documents detailing the routes and vulnerabilities of the USS Constellation, which was then operating in the Straits of Hormuz, is the cousin of Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, a key figure in the recent arrests of alleged terrorist plotters, U.S. intelligence officials said.
Khan became part of a sting operation organized by the CIA after he was captured last month and agreed to send coded e-mail messages to al Qaeda contacts around the world, according to a senior U.S. official. U.S. authorities are using the information to identify other operatives.
Khan's arrest led to the discovery of computer equipment containing detailed pre-Sept. 11, 2001, surveillance of five U.S. financial buildings that caused U.S. officials to raise the threat alert level for the financial sectors in Washington, New York City and Newark.
"We believe there were direct and indirect connections between Khan and individuals we believe are involved in the pre-election threat" to sites in the United States, said the senior U.S. official, who asked not to be identified further. The official declined to give any more details about the link.
Khan was arrested after the June apprehension of Abu Musab al Baluchi, a nephew of Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who oversaw the Sept. 11 attacks.
The unraveling of a network with direct links to Mohammed and the computer equipment and Internet connections discovered in the process are a valuable catch that has given U.S. and foreign intelligence and law enforcement officials dozens of new leads, officials said.
The computerized data from Ahmad's arrest alone -- 500 gigabytes -- resulted from nine search warrants and 100 subpoenas, said Michael J. Garcia, the assistant secretary of homeland security in charge of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Department of Homeland Security investigators are poring over the data -- the equivalent of 10 hard drives from moderately priced home computers -- for clues to other al Qaeda suspects, plots and Web sites.
Ahmad, who according to the court documents operated two U.S.-based Web sites to recruit and raise money for Taliban fighters, had been under investigation for three years, Garcia said. He is in London, and the United States is seeking to extradite him to face charges here.
Another law enforcement official said Ahmad's arrest on Wednesday and the extradition request were hastened after the apprehension of 12 men in England on Tuesday. They include Eisa Hindi, described as a significant al Qaeda figure in Britain who helped prepare the pre-Sept. 11 surveillance of the five U.S. financial buildings.
One of the men, the official said, had computerized information connected to Ahmad.
Ahmad, 30, a British subject of Pakistani descent, faces four charges of involvement with terrorism, each with a penalty of 10 years to life in prison, according to the criminal complaint unsealed yesterday by the U.S. attorney's office in New Haven, Conn., where Ahmad's Web site servers were based.
Ahmad appeared for the first time in a British court yesterday. Rosemary Fernandes, appearing for the U.S. government, said Ahmad had documents outlining the specific assignments of each ship, a drawing of the battle group's formations and details of its movements on April 29, 2001. The classified documents also noted that ships in the group could be vulnerable to a small craft firing rocket-propelled grenades, she said.
Ahmad's attorney denied he was involved in terrorism, and his sister told a Muslim news service in London that the charges were "all lies." Ahmad told the court he opposed extradition to the United States. A magistrate agreed to hold him pending another hearing next Friday.
The U.S. extradition request accused Ahmad of operating a series of "pro-jihad" Web sites, including two that appealed to Muslims to use every possible means to undertake military and physical training for holy war. The sites also appealed for financial support and provided instructions on how to infiltrate war zones in Afghanistan and Chechnya.
Ahmad, who lives in south London and works at Imperial College there, was arrested by British police last December and held for six days under suspicion of terrorism. At that time, Fernandes told the court, investigators searching his house found the naval documents, which suggested planning for an attack similar to that carried out against the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000.
Fernandes said Ahmad was in contact with an unnamed al Qaeda agent who worked within the battle group.
U.S. naval officials identified the man as a reservist who is no longer in the military service. A Navy spokesman said the man could not be tied "directly to the information," one reason he has not been charged with any crime.
Ahmad's attorney described his client as an educated professional who had lived in Britain all his life and had no prior criminal record. She alleged that Ahmad had been assaulted by police both in his home and in a police van during the December arrest and search.
"The police searched everything in December last year," Ahmad's sister, who would not disclose her name, told Muslim News. "They took away his computers, private mail. . . . They did not find anything then." She added: "There is no proof of his involvement in terrorism."
Contested extradition requests can take five years or longer to work their way through British courts, although Home Secretary David Blunkett, who oversees such requests, has pledged to streamline the process. Blunkett issued a statement Friday evening through the British Press Association seeking to reassure the public after reports that five al Qaeda militants were at large.
He said the authorities were "taking every feasible precautionary measure to protect British citizens both here and abroad."
The wave of arrests was reportedly triggered by the June 12 capture of Abu Musab al Baluchi, nephew of Khalid Sheik Mohammed and a cousin of Ramzi Yousef, who organized the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Baluchi was previously identified by Pakistani authorities as Mussad Aruchi.
Baluchi's arrest led to the capture in Pakistan of Khan, 25, a computer engineer, and Ahmed Kahlfan Gailani, a Tanzanian. Khan was a frequent visitor to Britain, and officials at City University in London have confirmed that he enrolled there last year, although he dropped out after a few weeks.
The charges against Ahmad are similar to charges the federal government pursued unsuccessfully this spring against a Saudi doctoral student at the University of Idaho. Sami Omar Hussayen was acquitted of allegations he sought to provide material support for terrorists by running an Internet network that sought to raise money and recruit fighters for holy war in Chechnya and Palestine. Hussayen argued that his maintenance of Islamic Web sites was constitutionally protected free speech.
But Hussayen's Islamway Web site offered some scholarly material as well as support for jihad, while the sites that Ahmad administered -- www.azzam.comand www.qoqaz.net -- were described by a Justice Department official as "more operational."
The court documents indicate that Ahmad allegedly worked with a New Brunswick, N.J., man who made backup copies of the site.
Frankel reported from London. Staff writer Susan Schmidt and researcher Robert Thomason contributed to this report.
--------
N.Y. Imam Tied To Terror Camp
Associated Press
Saturday, August 7, 2004; Page A13
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46594-2004Aug6.html
Documents found by U.S. troops at a terrorist camp in Iraq last year contained the name of a New York mosque imam facing federal charges of plotting to obtain a shoulder-fired grenade launcher, law enforcement officials said yesterday.
An entry in an address book found by the soldiers at an Ansar al-Islam camp last summer in northern Iraq referred to Yassin Aref as "the commander" and included his address and telephone number in Albany, N.Y., the officials said.
Although Aref had come to the FBI's attention before the address book's discovery, two law enforcement officials speaking on the condition of anonymity said it was a strong indication that Ansar al-Islam -- which the United States has linked to al Qaeda -- had a presence in the United States.
Aref, 34, and Mohammed Hossain, 49, are charged with money laundering and trying to conceal material support for a terrorist group.
-------- terrorism
Slowdown in 'Chatter' Worries Officials
Drop in intercepted communication also noticed before 9/11
(CNN)
Saturday, August 7, 2004
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/08/06/terror.wrap/index.html
Heavily armed police have been patrolling Wall Street in New York City this week. http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2004/US/08/06/terror.wrap/story.cops.fri.ap.jpg
A drop in so-called "chatter" among suspected terrorists is troubling some counterterrorism officials, who noticed a reduction in intercepted communications before the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, government sources said.
Diminished communication prompted the concern because the counterterror experts don't know why suspected terrorists would be talking less. But they noted that similar reductions have happened several other times during the past few years.
Pakistan authorities arrested a key al Qaeda suspect, Muhammed Naeem Noor Khan, in mid-July. Officials said chatter continued after that arrest, but has fallen off in recent days.
Khan's arrest was announced this week.
Within the past few days a series of arrests in Britain and Pakistan produced thousands of leads, particularly intelligence related to two men allegedly involved in helping al Qaeda operatives communicate with each other: Khan and Esa al-Hindi.
Sources said some of the intelligence information being pursued includes phone numbers and e-mail addresses that the FBI and other agencies are trying to track down to locate any al Qaeda operatives in the United States.
U.S. government officials describe al-Hindi as a "major player who moved operational information between key components of al Qaeda" in Britain, the United States and Pakistan. Born of Indian parents, al-Hindi converted to Islam at 20 and fought in Kashmir, a disputed border region between India and Pakistan.
Now in his mid-30s, al-Hindi wrote a book called "The Army of Medina and Kashmir," in which he advocated attacking the economies of Western powers as the best way to get them to disengage from the Muslim world.
One source told CNN that law enforcement authorities have placed al-Hindi in three of the financial buildings that were cased: the New York Stock Exchange and the Citigroup building in New York City, and the Prudential Financial building in Newark, New Jersey.
Earlier this week, U.S. officials said images found on Khan's computer contained details about buildings in New York, New Jersey and Washington, D.C. (Full story)
After meeting with the FBI to review photographs contained in the surveillance reports, Prudential officials believe none of the photos of its headquarters in Newark were taken after 2001, spokesman Bob DeFillippo said Friday.
Company executives were able to verify that the photos weren't taken within the past three years because they did not contain surveillance cameras installed on the building's exterior after September 11, 2001, he said.
DeFillippo also said most of the photos appeared to have been taken from a book on the company's history that was published in 2001.
Al-Hindi was one of a dozen suspects arrested Tuesday in Britain whom authorities have accused of being part of a terror cell. The British authorities also said the United States has been particularly interested in al-Hindi for some time. (Full story)
Government sources told CNN that surveillance reports found recently in Pakistan contain details about the U.S. facilities written in perfect English. U.S. authorities said al-Hindi is known to speak perfect English.
Senior Pakistani intelligence officials said Khan spoke of a terror network in Britain and said he frequently relayed messages from Pakistan to an important al Qaeda operative.
British authorities said Heathrow Airport was one of several places in London that were uncovered by the Pakistani investigation, which turned up photos of potential targets. Judge denies bail
On Friday, a judge in London denied bail for Babar Ahmad, a British citizen arrested on an extradition request from U.S. authorities, who allege he sought to use U.S.-based Web sites in connection with "acts of terrorism in Chechnya and Afghanistan."
Ahmad told the court he did not want to go to the United States, and he was remanded to jail until his next hearing August 13.
In Connecticut, U.S. Attorney Kevin O'Connor said investigators found a floppy disk at Ahmad's home that contained details about a U.S. Navy battle group from April 2001.
The plans included drawings of the battle group's formation, specific assignments of individual ships and details of each ship's vulnerability.
Friday's hearing included a formal reading of charges. Ahmad, 30, is accused of trying to use the Internet and e-mail to raise money to fund violence and murder in the two countries, with the intention of "advancing a political or religious or ideological cause."
At the hearing August 13, the judge will consider whether to allow the extradition to move forward. Ahmad will remain in London's Woodhill Prison until then. (Full story) Saudis arrest most-wanted figure
Saudi Arabian police arrested a cleric Thursday night whom authorities said is a senior al Qaeda leader in the kingdom and is on that country's list of 26 most-wanted terror suspects.
Faris al-Zahrani was captured in Abhar, a town in the mountains of southwest Saudi Arabia, near the Yemen border, an Interior Ministry official said. Nine of the 19 hijackers on September 11, 2001, were from Abhar province.
Al-Zahrani has been described as a cleric who would give religious justification for al Qaeda's activities.
CNN's Kelli Arena, Alan Chernoff and Jamie McShane contributed to this report.
-------- torture
Ex-Reservist Details Iraqi Prison Abuse
Hagerstown Man's Statement to Superiors Blames Military Intelligence Personnel
By Elizabeth Williamson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 7, 2004; Page A04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46642-2004Aug6.html
HAGERSTOWN, Md., Aug. 6 -- A former Army reservist who served with the 372nd Military Police Company in Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad provided a detailed account Friday of Iraqi prisoner abuse that he says was directed and encouraged by military intelligence officers.
Kenneth Davis, 33, who held the rank of sergeant until he left the military last month, said he went to superiors to describe the abuse he saw and gave a statement to Army investigators implicating military intelligence personnel. So far, none has been charged in connection with the scandal for which seven soldiers from the 372nd, based in Cresaptown, Md., are being held responsible. He said that he has not been asked to testify for or against the accused soldiers.
"I believe the truth needs to be known here," Davis said in a lengthy interview at his Hagerstown home Friday. "These soldiers were led down a path, and whoever led them down that path is a culprit as well."
Davis's statements contradict testimony presented this week in a preliminary court hearing for Pfc. Lynndie R. England, 21, who is charged with abusing detainees at Abu Ghraib last year. On Thursday, Capt. Carolyn A. Wood, a top military intelligence commander who worked at the prison, said her unit did not encourage physical abuse or sexual humiliation of prisoners.
Davis said he took his story to Reps. Roscoe G. Bartlett (R-Md.) and Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), who are members of the House Armed Services Committee, and John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) beginning in April. Bartlett said that the congressmen have videotaped Davis's statements. "Responsibility for this goes way, way up the line," beyond the seven soldiers charged, Bartlett said Friday.
Davis served at Abu Ghraib from Oct. 1 until early December, when he returned to the United States for a family emergency. He led a team responsible for escorting prisoners to court and accompanying high-ranking officers in the country.
According to a copy of a signed statement Davis said he gave investigators May 27, he went in late October 2003 to Tier 1-A, the section of Abu Ghraib that housed prisoners of special interest to intelligence services, to speak with a member of his team.
There, his statement says, "I observed two service members. . . . I perceived both service members to be military intelligence (MI). I saw both MI soldiers handcuff two naked Iraqi detainees to the bars of cells on opposite sides. I then witnessed the same MI soldiers handcuff the detainees together, face to face. The MI soldier . . . approached me and asked me in a sarcastic tone of voice: 'Do you think we crossed the line?' or words to that effect. I responded: 'I am not sure, you are MI' or words to that effect."
Through an interpreter, the intelligence officers repeatedly ordered the detainees to confess, according to Davis's statement. They told Cpl. Charles Graner, one of the seven accused members of the 372nd, to yell at them. When a third intelligence officer arrived, Davis asked, according to his statement: " 'Is this how you interrogate detainees?' The MI soldier responded, 'There are different ways to get it done,' or words to that effect. The MI soldiers escorted the naked detainees around Tier 1A."
A third detainee then joined the group, Davis said in his statement. The MI officer ordered Graner to tell the detainee to strip. The detainees, Davis recalled, were screaming and distraught.
"Then the MI soldiers ordered all three detainees to low crawl" so their genitals dragged on the cement floor. "When the detainees attempted to arch up, two of the MI soldiers put pressure in the middle of their backs and yelled at them to get down. Two MI soldiers then cuffed the detainees together."
Davis said he observed England taking photographs that night. In a photograph that has been published in several media reports, Davis identified himself, Graner, and four men he said were military intelligence officers.
Davis said he reported the incident to his platoon leader and was told, " 'They are MI and they are in charge, let them do their job,' or words to that effect."
Davis has been in e-mail contact with Graner, who is still in Iraq. Retired Lt. Col. Guy Womack, Graner's civilian attorney, said that Graner's pretrial hearing is scheduled for Aug. 23 in Mannheim, Germany.
In a copy of an Army "Developmental Counseling Form" dated Nov. 16, 2003, that Davis said Graner e-mailed to him, a written summary begins: "Cpl. Graner, you are doing a fine job in Tier 1 . . . you have received many accolades from the MI units here. . . . "
Womack said that Davis's statements "support what we have been saying all along, and that is that military intelligence officers were in charge at Abu Ghraib and were directing the actions of the MPs."
--------
Soldier Who Reported Abuse Testifies, 'It Was a Hard Call'
By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 7, 2004; Page A05
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45230-2004Aug6.html
FORT BRAGG, N.C., Aug. 6 -- One of the few heroes to emerge out of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal testified Friday that he anonymously reported members of his military police unit to investigators and turned over a series of disturbing photographs because he wanted to put an end to the abuse of detainees at the facility in Iraq.
Sgt. Joseph Darby said he agonized over whether to go to authorities with disturbing digital photographs that captured his friends and colleagues in the 372nd Military Police Company beating and humiliating detainees. Darby left a letter and a compact disc with investigators in early January, nearly a month after he discovered the images. It was a move that spurred a series of military probes, scrutiny of American detention facilities, and widespread concern about U.S. policies in Iraq and around the world.
"It was a hard call to have to make the decision to put your friends in prison, ma'am," Darby said by telephone, answering questions from military prosecutors and explaining that the abuse shook him. "It violated everything I personally believed in and everything I was taught about the rules of war. It was a moral thing more than anything."
Darby broke months of public silence when he testified during the fourth day of a preliminary court hearing here for Pfc. Lynndie R. England, 21, a military police administrative clerk who has been charged with a series of abuses and indecent acts. Army Col. Denise Arn heard 25 witnesses this week and could hear more in coming days as she weighs whether to send as many as 19 criminal charges to a court-martial. If convicted, England could face as many as 38 years in prison.
The hearing has focused on the soldiers of the 372nd and their roles at the Abu Ghraib prison, a bleak place on the outskirts of Baghdad that has been described as crowded and underfunded. The prison lacked food, water, clothing and cleaning products. Some detainees opted to remain naked rather than wear burlap-like jumpsuits or female underwear -- the only clothes provided by the Coalition Provisional Authority, according to testimony.
The widely publicized sexual humiliation of detainees and abusive practices there also have opened up questions about the role of military intelligence interrogators at the facility, with defense attorneys arguing that the low-level MPs were following their orders to soften up detainees for interrogations. Although most MI officials who have testified said there was no policy that called for having MPs involved in such practices, some of the techniques used in the abuse appear similar or parallel to approved harsh interrogation practices.
England's defense attorneys said Friday that they believe the abuse is linked to high-level orders and to sexual pranks in the MP company. Soldiers testified that they often mocked gay sex acts, mooned each other, used fruit props to mimic sex and found all of it funny.
Capt. Donald Reese again testified about seeing a dead detainee who had been interrogated in a shower room and said that he believed one of MI's tactics was to keep detainees naked to humiliate them. Reese also said officials kept detainees from the International Committee of the Red Cross, with as many as 10 detainees hidden at once.
England told military investigators that she believed the abuse was being carried out at the direction of military intelligence officials, and that she was involved in a sanctioned "humiliation tactic." The abuses took place on Tier 1, in a shower room and along a stairwell, places where MI officials said authorized interrogations also took place.
Military prosecutors have presented their case by highlighting the idea that England and six other MPs were a rogue bunch that delighted in having naked, hooded detainees masturbate and in piling them in a naked human pyramid. England is shown in an iconic photograph holding a leash tied to a detainee's neck.
Darby, whom members of Congress and high-ranking Pentagon officials have praised as a conscientious soldier who did the right thing, testified that he was seeking photographs of the unit's travels through Iraq when he went to Spec. Charles A. Graner Jr. and asked him for any digital images he had. After Graner turned over two CDs, Darby found the now-infamous images of abuse.
What worried Darby was that Graner -- identified in testimony as the ringleader of the abuse -- was supposed to be assigned back to the prison, and Darby did not want the actions to continue.
"I was concerned about the abuse starting again," Darby said.
Another of the praised soldiers at the prison -- Sgt. Hydrue Joyner -- testified that conditions at Abu Ghraib were horrible and that he tried to make the best of it, often giving clothes back to inmates who were stripped by soldiers on the night shift.
Joyner said the MP unit was not trained for a correctional facility mission and that people were confused about who was in charge of Tier 1A. "No one knew what to do," Joyner said. "I was just shooting from the hip and hoping I didn't screw up."
--------
Bahrain Royal Tortured at Guantanamo - Rights Group
MANAMA (Reuters)
Sat Aug 7, 2004
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=5902767
- A Bahraini rights group said on Saturday it had received reports a member of the country's royal family had been tortured at Guantanamo Bay.
It is the second report of abuse of a Bahraini national at the U.S. naval base in Cuba where hundreds of people seized during the 2002 U.S.-led war in Afghanistan are held.
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) said an Arab recently freed from the base had said Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa, a distant relative of Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, had been tortured but did not elaborate.
The charge comes a day after Bahrain said it would ask its close ally the United States to investigate allegations U.S. troops in Guantanamo tortured another Bahraini detainee Juma al-Dossary.
A report by BCHR quotes three Britons freed from the base as saying al-Dossary was repeatedly beaten by U.S. soldiers.
"One of the Arabs who was recently freed from Guantanamo told our center that Sheikh Salman was also tortured," BCHR's president, Nabeel Rajab, told Reuters.
"He said Sheikh Salman was mistreated because he was not cooperative ...," Rajab said, declining to give the name or nationality of his source.
Bahraini Foreign Ministry official Youssef Mahmoud told Reuters the Gulf Arab state's query to Washington would also include Sheikh Salman and four more Bahrainis who have been held at Guantanamo for more than two years.
"The query includes everybody. Depending on the report we have directed our embassy in Washington to discuss the information with the U.S. secretary of state. What applies to one of the prisoners should cover all six," Mahmoud said.
Sheikh Salman's family said he was arrested in Pakistan where he had gone to do relief work. Bahrain's royal family has several thousand members.
The inmates in Guantanamo are suspected of fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan or supporting the militant al Qaeda network. U.S. officials have denied allegations of abuse.
A group of international lawyers visited Bahrain, the headquarters for the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, last month during a trip to other Arab countries to prepare a lawsuit on behalf of the Guantanamo prisoners.
-------- POLITICS
-------- propaganda wars
'Zarqawi' Disk Seeks Recruits
AP
August 07, 2004
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,128296,00.html
KUWAIT CITY - Followers of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (search) released a CD-ROM urging Muslim men to take up arms against the "crusaders" in Iraq and threatening to kill Iraq's interim prime minister.
The 45-minute CD-ROM, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press on Friday, appeared aimed at recruiting potential fighters and included claims of responsibility for attacks in Iraq and footage of bombings against U.S. forces and other targets in Iraq.
The release of the CD, the contents of which could not be independently authenticated, was reported Friday by Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Siyassah, which provided a copy to the AP. It was not clear where the CD was produced.
Titled "The Winds of Victory," the recording shows fighters purportedly from al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad (search) group undergoing weapons training in different locations, some apparently in the desert and others in grassy areas. It also contains footage taken from inside cars following militants in Iraq conducting attacks, some of which has been previously aired by TV stations.
The Kuwaiti newspaper said the professionally produced CD-ROM is being circulated among fundamentalists in this oil-rich country, which borders Iraq.
A narrator on the film urges Muslim men to join the fight against U.S.-led forces in Iraq, saying "get up friends, God has opened the doors of paradise [to martyrs]."
The CD-ROM also repeats Tawhid and Jihad's threat to kill Ayad Allawi (search), the interim Iraqi prime minister, saying, "You escaped ... several times from tight traps, but we promise you to go on [trying] until the end."
Footage used shows a car exploding in a street as people pass by. The narrator claims this attack was the May 2004 car bomb assassination of Iraqi Governing Council president Abdel-Zahraa Othman, better known as Izzadine Saleem.
The production starts with scenes of bombing raids conducted during the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq that toppled Saddam Hussein more than a year ago.
The footage shows injured Iraqi children, American soldiers searching houses as frightened Iraqis leave their homes with arms raised and photos showing the mistreatment of Iraq prisoners by American captors at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.
"Whenever I remember our ... sisters in the prisons of the crusaders ... I feel the earth moving underneath me and I promise God to take revenge," the narrator on the CD-ROM.
The recording identifies an Egyptian man, named Abu Farida al-Masri, as being responsible for the Aug. 19, 2003, truck bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad. Twenty three people, including the U.N. representative in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, died in that attack.
Al-Zarqawi's group has claimed responsibility for numerous deadly attacks across Iraq, including the beheadings of U.S. businessman Nicholas Berg, South Korean translator Kim Sun-il and Bulgarian truck driver Georgi Lazov.
-------- us politics
Foreign observers to audit election
August 07, 2004
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
By Joseph Curl
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20040806-115723-1192r.htm
The Bush administration has invited a team of international monitors to observe the U.S. presidential election in November, but the group will not come from the United Nations, as some congressional Democrats had urged.
Assistant Secretary of State Paul V. Kelly, who handles legislative affairs for the department, affirmed the invitation this week in a letter to 13 House Democrats. They had requested U.N. monitors for this year's elections in an effort to avoid the charges of disenfranchisement and voting irregularities that plagued the 2000 election, the closest in history.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the largest regional organization in the world with 55 participating nations, will monitor the U.S. election on Nov. 2. Members include Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Spain and the United States.
"OSCE members, including the United States, agreed in 1990 in Copenhagen to allow fellow members to observe elections in one another's countries," Mr. Kelly wrote. "Consistent with this commitment, the United States has already invited the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) to observe the November 2, 2004, presidential elections."
The OSCE, headquartered in Vienna, Austria, has deployed observers to more than 150 elections in Europe and around the world, according to Urdur Gunnarsdottir, spokeswoman for the ODIHR. She said the observer team would arrive in September to plan how to monitor the election, including how many observers to send and where to deploy them.
OSCE officials deployed an observer team to monitor the most recent U.S. elections, on Nov. 5, 2002.
She said the OSCE does not have authority over the election results in any way. "We don't give them a yes or a no or grade them," she said. "But we monitor, we publicize what we see. You can call it political pressure."
The Democrats who had pushed for U.N. involvement applauded the move, saying it may help avoid what they say was disenfranchisement of voters during the 2000 election in Florida and other states.
"This represents a step in the right direction toward ensuring that this year's elections are fair and transparent," said Rep. Barbara Lee, California Democrat. "I am pleased that the State Department responded by acting on this need for international monitors. We sincerely hope that the presence of the monitors will make certain that every person's voice is heard, every person's vote is counted."
She said that filmmaker Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" showed "that the 2000 presidential elections were rife with deception and fraud."
"Our elections certainly should be fair and free and transparent, and we know the last election was not," she added.
According to Votewatch 2004.org, 4 million to 6 million voters "were voiceless in the 2000 elections due to faulty equipment and confusing ballots (1.5 million to 2 million), registration mix-ups (1.5 million to 3 million), polling-place operations (up to 1 million), absentee-ballot problems (unknown)."
The Justice Department said in May 2002 it had concluded that the vast majority of Floridians were not denied their right to vote during the 2000 presidential elections, and that the few problems that did exist could not have affected President Bush's victory.
"The Civil Rights Division found no credible evidence in our investigations that Floridians were intentionally denied their right to vote during the November 2000 election," Assistant Attorney General Ralph Boyd wrote in a letter to Capitol Hill.
Two separate media recounts concluded that Mr. Bush carried Florida and, therefore, won the election. But Democrats, especially black leaders such as Jesse Jackson, continue to charge that blacks were disenfranchised and that Mr. Bush "stole" the election through a U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
Thirteen Democrats in the House first sent a letter in July to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan asking that the world body monitor the U.S. election. But under U.N. guidelines, the official written request for electoral assistance must come from a representative of the "member state" or "national electoral authorities" - meaning the Bush administration itself, not the legislature.
The GOP-controlled House last month passed an amendment to a foreign-aid bill barring federal officials from using money to ask the United Nations to observe the Nov. 2 election. Rep. Steve Buyer, Indiana Republican and sponsor of the amendment, fiercely opposed U.N. participation.
"For over 200 years, this nation has conducted elections fairly and impartially, ensuring that each person's vote will count. ... Imagine going to your polling place on the morning of November 2 and seeing blue-helmeted foreigners inside your local library, school or fire station. The United Nations has sent monitors to Haiti, Nicaragua, Angola, Mozambique ... and now the United States?" Mr. Buyer said on July 15.
"The constitutional authority to ensure the integrity of U.S. elections rests with the states and the Congress. ... This amendment merely seeks to keep it that way," he added.
The Democrats then requested monitors through the State Department in a letter to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell.
"I am pleased that Secretary Powell is as committed as I am to a fair and democratic process," Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, Texas Democrat, said after the State Department announced it would allow observers. "The presence of monitors will assure Americans that America cares about their votes and it cares about its standing in the world."
Mr. Bush also weighed in yesterday on the subject during a question-and-answer period at the Unity minority journalists convention in Washington.
"Look, I can understand why African Americans, in particular, are worried about being able to vote, since the vote had been denied for so long in the South, in particular. I understand that. And this administration wants everybody to vote," Mr. Bush said.
"Just don't focus on Florida. Now, I'll talk to the governor down there to make sure it works," he said to laughter, referring to his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush. "But it's the whole country. ... Voter-registration files need to be updated, the machines need to work. And that's why there's $3 billion in the budget to help. ... Obviously, everybody ought to have a vote."
--------
Bush Warns Americans They Are 'Still Not Safe'
August 7, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/politics/politics-campaign-bush.html
KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine (Reuters) - President Bush warned Americans on Saturday last weekend's terrorism alert was another sign the country was still not safe but said he was taking steps to prevent future attacks.
Alert levels were raised for specific locations in New York City, Washington and New Jersey after a top-level review of information that al Qaeda may be plotting to attack financial institutions including the New York Stock Exchange, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
``We're doing everything we can in our power to confront the danger,'' Bush said in his weekly radio address. ``We're making good progress in protecting our people and bringing our enemies to account.''
The administration has been facing tough questions after it became known that some of the information that led to the elevated alert was three years old.
Bush defended the new alerts, stating new information gleaned from arrests in Pakistan and other new intelligence suggested that al Qaeda had recently updated information on those potential targets.
``We're still not safe,'' said Bush, who was spending the weekend at his family's oceanfront compound in Maine to attend the wedding of his nephew, George P. Bush, the son of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. He also found time to do some fishing with his twin daughters and father, former President George Bush.
``We'll keep our focus, we'll keep our resolve, and we will do our duty to best secure our country,'' he said.
TAKING STEPS
Under political pressure, Bush said this week he would name a national intelligence director to coordinate information collected domestically and abroad, a key recommendation by the commission that investigated the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Bush, initially cool to the idea of a new intelligence chief, overrode the advice of some top advisers in agreeing to appoint one, but decided to make the office independent of the White House, counter to commission's proposal.
His opponent in the race for the White House, Massachusetts Democratic Sen. John Kerry, has urged quick adoption of the commission's recommendations and said Bush should call Congress back from its summer break to adopt the reforms.
A Time Magazine survey of 758 likely voters released on Saturday showed Kerry slightly widening his lead over Bush, 48 percent to 43 percent, with independent Ralph Nader receiving 4 percent. A majority of 53 percent said they wanted a new leader, versus 43 percent who said Bush deserved another four years. The margin of error was plus or minus 4 points.
The magazine's poll before the Democratic National Convention had Kerry up 46 percent to 43 percent.
Kerry has also criticized his opponent's policies, saying they have failed to make the United States as safe as it could be and potentially encouraging the recruitment of terrorists to the cause against the nation.
His aides noted that the new Bush campaign line, ``We're turning the corner and we're not turning back,'' failed to pass muster after lackluster employment gains in July reported on Friday, and the same was true for domestic security.
``Now's he's telling us we're turning the corner on homeland security, but we have so much more to do to protect our ports, our rails and our chemical plants,'' said Kerry spokesman Chad Clanton. ``America can do better.''
Refuting the criticism about the latest terrorist warning, Vice President Dick Cheney said it was irrelevant when al Qaeda had collected information on possible targets because such plots can take years to carry out.
``If it takes years, they're prepared to wait for years to do it,'' he said at a town hall meeting in Minnesota on Friday.
-------- ENERGY
-------- alternative energy
A Push for Freedom From Oil
Democrats Call for Investment in Alternative Fuels, Vehicles
By Jim VandeHei and Mary Fitzgerald
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, August 7, 2004; Page A09
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44954-2004Aug6.html
SMITHVILLE, Mo., Aug. 6 -- With crude oil prices hitting new highs, Sen. John F. Kerry said Friday that the United States should set a goal of deriving 20 percent of its motor fuel from domestic sources such as hydrogen, ethanol and biodiesel by 2020.
At a large, picturesque family-owned farm here in politically divided Clay County, the Democratic presidential candidate proposed spending $30 billion over the next 10 years on a mix of grants, tax incentives and government mandates to expedite the creation of a new generation of automobiles and sport-utility vehicles and renewable fuels produced in the United States to power them.
Kerry has been talking about energy independence since the primaries, and the only new spending program he offered Friday was a $5 billion program -- called the "clean fuels partnership" -- to encourage the production of new and often cleaner-burning fuels and vehicles. The Democratic ticket announced that it will lead by example: Kerry said he and his running mate, Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), are each on a waiting list to purchase the 2005 Ford Escape hybrid, which runs on gasoline and electricity. Sticker price: $27,000 and up, according to Ford.
Kerry came under fire earlier in the campaign for claiming he did not own a gas-guzzling SUV, when it turned out his wife did.
Alternative fuels are "America's next great wave of discovery," Kerry said on the second day of a whistle-stop train tour headed west. It's "good health practice, good farming practice, good economic policy and good national security policy." With farmers and their families, a mix of young and old, sitting on hay bales, Kerry said, "We're not just going to make this feasible, we want to people to be excited about it -- this is the future."
Critics say it will take more than excitement to meet Kerry's goal: This year, less than 1.5 percent of motor fuel is coming from alternative sources, according to the Energy Information Administration. These fuels and the vehicles powered by them are often very costly to produce. Consumers often complain about inferior performance of alternative-fuel vehicles, a technology still in its infancy. There is little existing infrastructure, such as filling stations offering fuels such as ethanol or biodiesel.
Automakers and oil producers are also two of the better-funded and most influential business sectors, with long track records of beating back efforts in Washington to raise mileage standards for vehicles and create alternatives to oil.
Still, President Bush and Kerry consider energy one of the central issues of this election, aides say. The twin threats of higher oil prices and unrest in the Middle East, the source of a large portion of the nation's oil, are stirring anxiety among many voters, especially lower-income Americans hit hardest by rising prices at the pump, polls show. More than 60 percent of U.S oil is imported -- roughly one-quarter of it from the Middle East. Oil prices neared a record high of $45 a 42-gallon barrel on Friday.
Kerry's aides believe the Democratic ticket is ideally positioned to benefit from this anxiety because Bush's energy plan was rejected by Congress (with the help of Edwards and Kerry) and the war in Iraq is serving as a constant reminder of how Bush's Middle East policies are contributing to higher oil and gas prices.
"We know the impact [oil] can have on our economy as a whole. We know what it can do to our security because as long as we are dependent on oil from the Middle East, it tends to drive our policy in that part of the world," Edwards said.
Moreover, many of the battleground states are in the Midwest, where proposals to turn corn, soy and biomass into fuel are welcome news to farmers getting lower prices for their crops and paying more to produce them. Studies show production costs are outpacing increases in crop prices from many farmers.
Here in Clay County, where Al Gore defeated Bush by just 25 votes in 2000, many farmers invited to the event complained about falling prices for grain and competition from larger agribusinesses and foreign countries. As one farmer noted during the question-and-answer session, just talking about family farming wins votes in these parts. Kerry and Edwards did not disappoint. They put on their blue jeans, rolled up their sleeves and struck folksy tones in a long conversation with fewer than 100 locals surrounded by grazing horses and rolling green fields.
Kerry even played the role of Farmer John, waxing nostalgic about a couple of days he spent on an uncle's farm nearly a half century ago. "There was nothing more rewarding at the end of the day than being covered in dust and feeling dirty but looking behind you and seeing those furrows and the beautiful pattern and you knew you had done that. You could just sense this connection to the earth and to what was going to grow there," he said.
"I remember going out clearing a field or two -- hardest work I've done in my life, folks, I'm telling you." Kerry visited his uncle's farm for a short time when he was between the ages of 12 and 14.
While Kerry and Bush blame each other for high energy costs, they agree on the fundamental goal of expanding alternative-fuel use, as well as on many of the ways government can help attain it. The president's energy bill, which has been stuck in Congress for months, contains many of the ideas Kerry talked about here on Jim and Ruth Nelson's farm.
Both candidates support a plan to ensure a minimum of 5 billion gallons of renewable fuels are in use by 2012; extending ethanol tax incentives and providing consumers a big tax break for buying alternative-fuel vehicles. Both support a government role in making hydrogen-fueled vehicles a big part of the future. Both envision paying for these programs, in part, by making federal office buildings more energy efficient. "We're not trying to pretend this is all new stuff," said Sarah Bianchi, Kerry's policy adviser.
These ideas are included in Bush's energy bill, which Kerry, Edwards and many other Democrats oppose. This "flies in the face of what they are talking about on the campaign stump," Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.) said in a conference call arranged by the Bush campaign.
Where the candidates diverge is on issues such as drilling in Alaska and legal protections for producers of MTBE (methyl tertiary-butyl ether, a gasoline additive). Kerry and Edwards oppose both measures, while Bush supports them.
Kerry's energy message struck a chord with Ed Theis, 70, who, with his wife, Alice, traveled 40 miles from his farm in Leavenworth, Kan. to hear Kerry speak. "The prices are so high for foreign fuel that as farmers the price we pay for fuel is killing us -- we can't survive," he explained.
Marcia Byerson, a farmer's wife from nearby St Joseph, said high fuel prices are strangling her family's livelihood. "It's almost impossible to carry on without help," she said. "We have even discussed opting out of farming because of the rising costs of running tractors and other farm machinery. We can't sustain the farm for our children at this rate."
-------- ACTIVISTS
Remembering Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the Dark Cloud Over Civilization
by Douglas Mattern,
August 7, 2004
Antiwar.com
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/mattern.php?articleid=3259
August 6-9 marks the 59th anniversary of the atomic bombs that obliterated the Cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the instant slaughter of over 100,000 individuals, with tens of thousands of others dying in the days that followed. People who were outside at the time of the blast simply disappeared, leaving only a shadow on the ground where their bodies had blocked the intense heat from scorching the ground a lighter color.
Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the development of the far more powerful hydrogen bomb initiated the first period of the nuclear nightmare. The second period was the Cold War when enough nuclear weapons were stockpiled to kill every human being on the planet many times over and create a "nuclear winter" that would spell the end of civilization, if not humanity.
The continuing nightmare is that same nuclear threat that dominated the cold war remains with us today with many analysts convinced the situation may be even more dangerous. The reason is the deterioration of Russia's nuclear command structure, its early warning system, the proliferation of nuclear weapon states, and the intention of the Bush administration to build a new class of nuclear weapons.
Moreover, thousands of U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear warheads are on a hair-trigger alert, ready for launch in a few minutes notice. A recent Rand think tank study warned that this situation could result in a nuclear exchange either by accident or miscalculation that would destroy both countries in an hour.
About 20 close calls to nuclear war have been documented over the years, and who knows how many others never recorded. The sad indictment on the values and priorities of our civilization is that the warning made by President Kennedy before the UN General Assembly in 1961 remains true today:
"Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident or miscalculation or madness. The weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us."
In his recent article "Cloud Over Civilization" the economist and former ambassador John Kenneth Gailbraith wrote: "Civilization has made great strides over centuries in science, healthcare, the arts and, if not for all, economic well-being. But it has also given a privileged position to the development of weapons and the threat and reality of war. Mass slaughter has become the ultimate civilized achievement."
Nuclear weapons are the ultimate tool of mass slaughter, conceivably of the human race. They cannot be allowed to exist if we are to avoid a disaster beyond history. The playwright Anton Chekhov who wrote that if a gun hung on the wall in the first act of a play it would be fired by the third act. We're in the third act of the nuclear drama and the gun on the wall is fully loaded with 30,000 nuclear weapons stockpiled worldwide. It's Hiroshima 59 and we are running out of time.
The Association of World Citizens and Friends of Earth Australia have produced a resolution that calls for the removal of all nuclear warheads from "hair-trigger" alert to end the daily threat of a nuclear exchange initiated by an accidental missile launch, miscalculation, or early warning system failure.
The resolution is being endorsed by influential individuals such as Nobel Laureates, with peace laureates Oscar Arias and the Dalai Lama among the first to sign. Nearly 100 peace organizations have also endorsed the resolution that will be presented to the United Nations General Assembly when it meets in September. The Australian Senate passed a version of this resolution on June 23, and it is being submitted to other national parliaments.
It's long overdue to put our priorities in order. Number one is to end the nuclear terror that began with the fireballs from Hell over Hiroshima and Nagasaki 59 years ago by eliminating all nuclear weapons from the face of the earth. The future of civilization depends on it. The responsibility lies within each of us.
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