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NUCLEAR
Nuclear risks aren't going away, author says
Reactor shut after power failure
Iran Says It Has Tested Strategic Missile
Iran's cooperation conditional on full right to nuclear technology
German businessman suspected of selling nuclear secrets to Iran: report
U.N. Presses N. Korea on Arms
N. Korea Missile Site Movements Said Continuing
N.Korea Silent as Japan Raises Missile Issue - Kyodo
Brazil Pressing for Favorable Treatment on Nuclear Fuel
IAEA to visit Jordan to probe suspected Israeli nuclear radiation
Twisting Dr. Nuke's Arm
Shutdown contract for FFTF awarded
US nuclear clean-up carries major risks
MILITARY
Thousands of Taiwan People Protest U.S. Arms Deal
Lockheed Martin Wins $3.3 Billion Navy Contract
Taiwan PM vows to retaliate Chinese attacks
U.S. Targets Iran's Influence in Iraq
Demise of Iraqi Units Symbolic of U.S. Errors
Allawi Says All Iraq Will Vote
U.S. Strikes Zarqawi Network, Killing 16
U.S. Air Strikes Target Militants in Falluja
Allawi safety claims 'out of touch with reality' say Iraqis
Israel Razes 35 Palestinian Homes in Gaza
Israeli Army Flattens Rows of Houses in Gaza Raid
G-8, Arab Governments Sign Democracy Pact
Mission to Space Station Called Vital
3 More Navy SEALs Face Abuse Charges
Hussein's Trial Not Likely to Begin This Year, U.S. Official Says
Chile's Pinochet Questioned by Investigative Judge
POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE
Human Dignity, Crazy Mike, and Indian Country
TSA Tests Relaxed Security for Team Charter Flights
POLITICS
How Bush's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power
Two Rights Groups Call for Probe of La. Election
Source for Rather Seeks New Lawyer, Might Sue CBS
'60 Minutes' Delays Report Questioning Reasons for Iraq War
Kerry Blasts Iraq 'Diversion'
ACTIVISTS
Arms plan sparks Taiwan protests
Keep Space for Peace Week
-------- NUCLEAR
-------- accidents and safety
Nuclear risks aren't going away, author says
The CNU professor investigated programs in the U.S. and elsewhere. He found that many countries lost nuclear material or have insecure operations.
The Daily Press
BY ANGELA FOREST
September 25, 2004
http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/dp-82856sy0sep25,0,6621247.story?coll=dp-news-local-final
NEWPORT NEWS -- Many argue that the world was transformed by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, but those who study nuclear weapons development might add another date - Aug. 6, 1945, when the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Japan.
While other weapons of mass destruction have recently attracted more attention, the nuclear threat has not gone away. In fact, according to Nathan Busch, an assistant professor of world politics at Christopher Newport University, the possibility of countries unleashing their nuclear arsenals on their regional or world neighbors is as great as ever.
In his book, "No End in Sight: The Continuing Menace of Nuclear Proliferation," Busch details his seven-year investigation into the safety and security of nuclear programs in this country and others - including Russia, China, Iran, India, Pakistan and North Korea. He determined that many countries either have lost nuclear material or maintain operations that could allow it to fall into the hands of people interested in hurting countries such as the United States.
During the early years of nuclear development in the United States, officials shipped plutonium by mail in a box, Busch said. A few years ago, a mock terrorist attack to test readiness at the Pantex nuclear facility in Texas resulted in the guards shooting at each other 20 minutes after the mock "terrorists" escaped with plutonium. Still, Busch said his research indicated that American nuclear sites would be difficult for terrorists to access.
"Overall security is pretty tight," he said. However, he noted that "when you're dealing with a highly trained terrorist attack, it's difficult to defend a facility."
Terrorist groups don't have the technical expertise and nuclear materials to manufacture weapons, but that could change, Busch said. Al-Qaida has been trying for over a decade to acquire material to create nuclear weapons.
"Terrorist groups like al-Qaida are well funded, extensive and, given enough time and safe haven, could potentially build a nuclear weapon," he said.
Of the countries he studied, Busch said, Russia and Pakistan are two where the risk is greatest. The concern in Russia stems from lax security. In Pakistan, it's related to radical ideology.
"The Russian government has admitted to around two dozen instances of theft or attempted thefts" that were tracked, Busch said, adding that U.S. government officials have noted other cases where Russian nuclear material was stolen and never recovered. At least one notable scientist involved with Pakistan's nuclear program has been accused of consulting with Osama bin Laden.
The Chronicle of Higher Education magazine has featured Busch and his book, which should be going into bookstores in the next few weeks. In a Chronicle interview, Busch said he was raised in Los Alamos, New Mexico, where his father worked as a laser physicist at the national laboratory there.
As part of research for the book, Busch worked for a year and a half at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He also spent a year and half at Harvard University, where he spoke with former officials tied to India's nuclear program. He also reviewed unclassified government documents, CIA intelligence reports and information from congressional hearings.
The book might be on a suggested reading list for some of his classes at CNU, but Busch won't expect students to read it.
"It really used to rub me the wrong way when the professor would have his own book as required reading."
-------- britain
Reactor shut after power failure
BBC
25 September, 2004
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/suffolk/3688984.stm
A reactor at Suffolk's Sizewell A nuclear power station has been shut down after an electrical power failure.
Emergency services were called to the site just after 1900 BST on Friday after a local resident reported smoke and hearing a bang.
The reactor was safely shut down and no injuries were reported.
A spokesman for British Nuclear Group, which owns the plant, said the incident was more of an inconvenience than a danger.
The reactor is expected to remain closed for several days.
-------- iran
Iran Says It Has Tested Strategic Missile
Sep 25, 2004
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
Associated Press Writer
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAN_MISSILE?SITE=DCTMS&SECTION=HOME
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran added a "strategic missile" to its military arsenal after a successful test, and the defense minister said Saturday his country was ready to confront any external threat.
The report by state-run radio did not say whether the test involved the previously announced new version of the Shahab-3 rocket, capable of reaching Israel and U.S. forces stationed in the Middle East, or a different missile.
"This strategic missile was successfully test-fired during military exercises by the Revolutionary Guards and delivered to the armed forces," Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani was quoted as saying.
The exercises were held Sept. 12-18.
Shamkhani refused to give details about the missile for "security reasons," but he said Iran was "ready to confront all regional and extra-regional threats," according to the radio.
Defense Ministry officials could not be reached for comment.
The announcement in Tehran came amid a war of words between Iran and Israel this week as Iran faces increasing international pressure over its nuclear energy program.
The United States - which once labeled Iran part of an "axis of evil" with North Korea and prewar Iraq - and other nations suspect Iran is developing atomic weapons.
The United Nations' atomic watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has demanded that Iran freeze its uranium enrichment program - a demand that Iran has termed "illegal" but has not rejected outright.
Iranian officials have repeatedly said the country's nuclear program is a peaceful one.
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said Iran was a worldwide threat whose missiles can reach London, Paris and southern Russia.
In 1981, Israel bombed Iraq's nuclear reactor before the reactor could begin operating and the smart bombs are believed to be capable of destroying Iranian nuclear facilities. Earlier this month, Israel said it was buying from the United States about 5,000 smart bombs, including 500 1-ton bunker-busters that can destroy 6-foot-thick concrete walls.
Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi has warned that Tehran would react "most severely" to any Israeli strike against its nuclear facilities.
Israel is the only nation in the Middle East that possesses nuclear weapons, although Israeli officials have refused to confirm this.
Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards staged military maneuvers earlier this month near the Iraqi border, with top military officials saying the exercise was designed to reinforce Iran's resolve to defend itself against "big powers."
During the maneuvers, a "long-range missile" would be test fired, state-run radio said. There was no official confirmation of the test.
In August, Iran said it test fired a new version of its Shahab-3 ballistic missile. Iran's Defense Ministry did not give its range, but Israeli sources in Jerusalem later said it could reach targets more than 1,200 miles away, or 400 miles farther than its previous range.
The development of the Shahab, whose name means "shooting star" in Persian, has raised fears in Israel about possible attack by the Iranian government, which strongly opposes the Jewish state's existence.
Earlier this month, Israel launched a spy satellite meant to monitor Iran but the Ofek-6 plunged into the Mediterranean Sea shortly after launch.
----
Iran's cooperation conditional on full right to nuclear technology
TEHRAN (AFP)
Sep 25, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040925150725.bg9j6fs6.html
Iran is ready to cooperate fully with the International Atomic Energuy Agency (IAEA) on condition it has complete rights to use peaceful nuclear technology, Iran's nuclear negotiator Hassan Rowhani was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA on Saturday.
"Tehran is ready to completely cooperate with international pacts in the nuclear field, on condition it is fully granted its legitimate and national rights regarding peaceful nuclear technology," Rowhani said during a meeting with South African ambassador Yusof Saluji.
Rowhani will head to South Africa on Sunday to hold talks on security issues, mutual cooperation and nuclear issues.
In a resolution passed on September 18, the IAEA called on Iran to halt its uranium enrichment-related activities, a part of the nuclear fuel cycle that can be directed to both energy and weapons purposes.
Nuclear fuel cycle work, including enrichment, is permitted under the Non-Proliferation Treaty if it is for peaceful purposes, but the IAEA wants such activities stopped pending the completion of its more than 18-month-old investigation.
Iran suspended enrichment itself last year, but has continued to advance on other parts of the fuel cycle.
The resolution from the board of the UN nuclear watchdog also gives Iran until November 25 to clear up suspicions over its activities. Failure to do so could see the country referred to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions -- something the United States has been pushing for.
----
German businessman suspected of selling nuclear secrets to Iran: report
Sep 25, 2004
HAMBURG, Germany (AFP)
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040925151906.lb7w74mp.html
A German businessman under investigation for illegally exporting nuclear technology had planned to sell the material to Iran, Der Spiegel magazine reported in its issue out on Monday.
On Thursday the German federal prosecutor's office arrested 53-year-old Helmut R., in Friedrichshafen in southwest Germany, on suspicion of involvement in the delivery of 24 long-distance detonators, a device indispensable to the development of nuclear arms.
While the prosecutor's office gave no indication of the destination of the detonators, according to Der Spiegel they were to be delivered to Iran, but authorities intervened in time to stop the operation.
Prosecutors said the German national had been released on bail but was being investigated for conducting secret activities and aiding nuclear development.
As part of the investigation, several companies were searched in Germany and Switzerland around the Lake Constance area on the border.
Swiss cantonal officials confirmed searching two companies on Friday.
In February, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) submitted a list of 15 persons suspected of participating in the development of Iranian and Libyan nuclear programs.
On the list were three Swiss citizens and a German living in the Swiss canton of Saint Gallen.
-------- korea
U.N. Presses N. Korea on Arms
Associated Press
Saturday, September 25, 2004
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48641-2004Sep24.html
VIENNA, Sept. 25 -- The U.N. nuclear watchdog agency demanded Friday that North Korea end its nuclear weapons program and urged the country to allow agency inspectors to police the scrapping of its arms programs.
In a separate resolution, the 137-nation meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency also called for the Middle East to become a nuclear weapons-free zone. The text of the resolution was seen as obliquely critical of Israel, the only country in the region believed to possess fully developed nuclear arms.
The conference has no authority to enforce resolutions, but the texts reflect international concerns about two potential flash points.
North Korea is threatening to build nuclear weapons. While in the Middle East, Israel's nuclear capacities are feared by Muslim nations, and Iran is suspected of trying to build such weapons.
--------
N. Korea Missile Site Movements Said Continuing
By REUTERS
September 25, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-nuclear-korea.html
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Suspicious ground movements in North Korea may reflect maintenance of missile sites rather than preparations for a missile test, according to South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon.
U.S. and Japanese officials recently detected signs North Korea was preparing to launch a ballistic missile capable of reaching almost anywhere in Japan.
In an interview with Reuters late on Friday, Ban said he understood such movements were continuing.
But he added, ``We're not quite sure what their intentions are, whether they are to fire missiles or simply maintaining their missile sites.''
The preparations were noticed after the reclusive communist country refused to take part in a fourth round of six-party talks this month on ending its nuclear ambitions and said it would never forsake its nuclear deterrent.
U.S., South Korean and Japanese officials have played down the possibility of a missile test. But Ban said a missile firing will set back cooperation between South Korea, with a vibrant economy, and impoverished North Korea, as well as the six-party process.
A missile fired by Pyongyang over Japan in 1998 shocked the world.
Speaking on the fringes of the U.N. General Assembly, Ban expressed frustration with ``overblown'' media reports about previously secret South Korean nuclear experiments and rejected comparisons to Iran and North Korea.
He said he could not predict when six-party North Korea talks might resume and attempted to explain why South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said he sees no need to rush into another round of the China-hosted dialogue.
The six-party talks, involving the United States, North and South Korea, Japan and Russia, as well as China, were to resume this month.
But Pyongyang said it saw no point in more negotiations because of Washington's ``hostile policy.''
It also cited revelations that South Korea -- which relies heavily on nuclear energy but has promised to forsake nuclear weapons -- conducted secret, limited, nuclear-related experiments in 1982 and 2000.
Experts believe Pyongyang is waiting for results of the Nov. 2 U.S. presidential election before deciding next steps.
A Russian official has said the next six-party round may not happen until the end of the year. Ban said he could not make such a prediction and hedged when asked if he were confident another round would occur.
After stressing the talks should happen ``as soon as possible,'' Ban was asked to reconcile that sentiment with Roh's stamen on Wednesday that there is no need to rush into another six-party meeting.
U.S. officials say Pyongyang has one or two nuclear weapons already plus material for another six bombs.
``There are sometimes ups and downs (in this kind of bilateral negotiation) ... so what (Roh) said means that we need to be patient,'' Ban said.
Seoul raised eyebrows when it recently disclosed that its scientists enriched a small amount of uranium in 2000 and separated plutonium in 1982 -- activities forbidden to South Korea as a signer of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear weapons states.
Ban spent the past few days assuring world leaders the work was ``isolated laboratory-scale research activities that a few scientists conducted on their own'' without government knowledge.
``We have never had such consistent and organized programs as Iran or North Korea have been developing,'' he said.
The United States and some other countries accuse Iran of aggressively pursuing nuclear weapons, which Tehran denies.
--------
N.Korea Silent as Japan Raises Missile Issue - Kyodo
By REUTERS
September 25, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-korea-north-japan.html
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan expressed ``serious concern'' to North Korea on Saturday about its reported plan to test-fire a ballistic missile but the Koreans did not respond, the head of Japan's delegation at talks in Beijing was quoted as saying.
Earlier, a North Korean official in New York dismissed reports that the secretive country was preparing a missile launch, calling them speculation, Kyodo news agency said.
The head of Japan's delegation in the Beijing talks, Akitaka Saiki, had said before they opened that he would raise reports of a planned missile test because it was ``quite an important issue for Japan's security,'' Kyodo reported.
Pyongyang was to report to Japan at the talks on progress in its reinvestigation of 10 Japanese who Tokyo says were abducted by the North.
Kyodo quoted Song Il Ho, vice director of the North Korean Foreign Ministry's Asian Affairs Department, as telling reporters the two sides held ``sincere discussions'' and that he talked only about the abduction issue in the session, which lasted 3-1/2 hours.
The talks are due to end on Sunday but may carry over to Monday, Kyodo quoted Japanese officials as saying.
Japanese and U.S. government sources said on Thursday there were signs North Korea was preparing to test launch a ballistic missile of a type capable of reaching almost anywhere in Japan.
But Japan's top government spokesman said on Friday that Tokyo did not believe that a launch was imminent.
In a meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi in New York, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Su-hon called reports that Pyongyang was preparing to fire a missile, ``conjecture, rumor and speculation,'' Kyodo reported, quoting a Japanese government official.
He said North Korea would only take part in six-way talks on its suspected nuclear programs when the situation allowed, Kyodo said.
Choe was also quoted as saying that North Korea was still committed to six-way talks on its nuclear program, which also involve China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States, but added that details about South Korea's nuclear experiments must also be clarified.
``We would participate only when the situation allowed,'' he was quoted as saying, referring to the six-way talks. North Korea has refused to take part in the fourth round of those talks, which was to be held this month.
In the meeting with Kawaguchi, held on the sidelines of the annual U.N. General Assembly session, Choe also said North Korea would abandon its nuclear program if the United States provided security assurances, Kyodo said.
North Korea has rejected Washington's demand for complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of its projects. It also demanded full explanations over the recent revelations of unsanctioned South Korean uranium enrichment experiments.
South Korea's foreign minister reiterated on Friday the government has no intention of developing or possessing nuclear weapons, and urged Pyongyang to drop its nuclear programs.
``It is our fervent wish that North Korea will make a strategic decision to forgo all its nuclear weapon programs, including uranium enrichment programs, in a thorough and transparent manner,'' Ban Ki-moon told the U.N. General Assembly session on Friday. A copy of his speech was provided by the foreign ministry on Saturday.
North Korea denies it has an enrichment program but has said it has restarted an older, plutonium-based scheme because of what it sees as U.S. plans to attack it.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog separately adopted a resolution on Friday that called on North Korea to ``completely dismantle any nuclear weapons program.''
-------- latinamerica
Brazil Pressing for Favorable Treatment on Nuclear Fuel
September 25, 2004
By LARRY ROHTER
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/25/international/americas/25brazil.html
RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept. 24 - With Brazil hoping to begin operating a uranium enrichment plant this year, the International Atomic Energy Agency is trying to reach an agreement that would guarantee its inspectors unimpeded access to the factory that would produce the nuclear fuel.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva once complained about being armed with slingshots while other countries have cannons, but no one here or abroad is suggesting that Brazil intends to build an atomic bomb. Still the timing is delicate.
The energy agency is focused on curbing Iran's uranium enrichment effort, so Brazil's demands for more favorable treatment have created an impasse and fed concerns that any easing of standards would establish a dangerous precedent.
"This comes up at a very, very sensitive and inopportune time," said James E. Goodby, who was the Clinton administration's chief negotiator for nuclear security and dismantlement and is now a scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington. "Brazil is losing a chance for statesmanship by being difficult at a moment when there is broad interest in reining in Iran."
On Thursday, the Brazilian press quoted the minister of science and technology, Eduardo Campos, who was in Vienna for a meeting at the International Atomic Energy Agency headquarters, as announcing an agreement that would allow the agency only partial access to the hundreds of centrifuges at the core of the Brazilian plant. The ministry's Web site later amended that declaration after the agency said negotiations had not concluded.
"We've made progress, but we remain in discussion with the Brazilian authorities on this issue," Mark Gwozdecky, an agency spokesman, said in a telephone interview from Vienna. "The minister was a bit more optimistic."
Brazil has the world's fifth-largest known natural reserves of uranium, and the plant at the center of the controversy, in Resende, 100 miles northwest of here, would allow it to join a select group of about a dozen nations that produce enriched uranium. Both the plant and the enrichment program are partly operated and controlled by the Brazilian Navy, and therefore are considered to have possible civilian and military applications.
Brazil's official position, as expressed by Defense Minister José Viegas this year, is that it deserves a "dignified and differentiated" treatment, recognizing that it is not a rogue state and that its nuclear program exists exclusively for peaceful purposes. But arms control analysts in the United States and Europe have rejected that approach.
"If we give Brasília a pass at the same time that we are bearing down on Tehran, it not only will send exactly the wrong message to would-be proliferators, but will sharply diminish any prospects for success with Iran," Brent Scowcroft, a former United States national security adviser, wrote in June in an essay in The Washington Post.
Brazil signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty only in 1997 but has not yet signed an additional protocol that would permit spot inspections at the plant in Resende. Though a Foreign Ministry official said Brazil "speaks with one voice on this issue," another official said the impasse stems partly from foot-dragging in the military.
"There are internal divergences, between the Foreign Ministry and the Navy," said the official, who works in the nuclear field and spoke on the condition that he not be identified. "Although the Navy is willing to account for every gram of fuel, it is balking at letting outsiders have a free run of the structural side, of granting full access to the mechanical and technological aspects."
During the military dictatorship that governed Brazil from 1964 to 1985, each of the three military services had its own, largely secret nuclear weapons program. The Navy's was the only effort to achieve much success, though plans to build a nuclear submarine, which would use a higher level of enriched uranium, continue to be stymied by budgetary and technical constraints.
In their public statements, Navy and civilian officials have suggested that Brazil sees uranium enrichment as a promising source of income that could ease those problems. They apparently would like to export enriched uranium once Brazil's own needs are met, perhaps to China, as President da Silva proposed during a state visit there in May, or to license the centrifuge technology.
But some independent specialists consider those ambitions overblown. They note there is a glut of uranium on the market, now that atomic powers are building fewer bombs, and that the centrifuge technology Brazil describes as innovative is in fact widely known.
A delegation from the energy agency is to visit the Resende plant in mid-October "to consider possible verification approaches" that Brazil has suggested, Mr. Gwozdecky said. According to Brazilian specialists, the visit is likely to focus on the number and placement of inspection cameras and the visibility of tubes and other parts of the centrifuges, which have been blocked by panels.
"This needs to get done before the plant begins functioning, that's for sure," said a foreign diplomat who is a nuclear affairs specialist. "The bottom line is that the I.A.E.A. is going to need full visual access to do proper verification and that standards are the same for similar plants all over the world. There is no discrimination, positive or negative."
-------- mideast
IAEA to visit Jordan to probe suspected Israeli nuclear radiation
VIENNA (AFP)
Sep 25, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040925112518.kck547w3.html
The UN nuclear watchdog is to send experts to Jordan to verify whether the ageing Dimona nuclear plant just across the border in Israel is emitting high levels of radiation, an IAEA spokesman said Saturday.
"We have received a request from the Jordanian government to assist them monitoring the radiological situation," said Mark Gwozdecky, spokesman for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
"We agreed to send a fact-finding mission in the coming weeks to help them determine whether there is any radiological incident."
The request came from Jordan's parliamentary health and environment committee after former Israeli nuclear scientist Mordechai Vanunu warned that the plant, built in the late 1950s with the help of France, in the southern Negev desert could become a "second Chernobyl."
Vanunu, a former technician, served an 18-year prison sentence in Israel for revealing secrets about the plant.
But a diplomat based in Vienna, where the IAEA is headquartered, said there was no proof of any contamination from the Dimona plant.
"There is no evidence of radiation... nobody has ever gotten near Dimona," he said.
Jordan said in August it was preparing to invite UN experts from the IAEA to carry out independent surveys in the kingdom to eliminate any fear of contamination from the plant in neighbouring Israel.
However, Jordan's government spokeswoman Asma Khodr has insisted the country is free of any contamination from the aging Israeli reactor and reiterated that radiation levels were normal.
The IAEA said it had had no similar request from Israel which maintains a high level of secrecy around its nuclear programmes.
Chernobyl was a nuclear plant that exploded in Ukraine in 1986, causing the world's worst ever civilian nuclear accident.
-----
Twisting Dr. Nuke's Arm
NY TIMES
September 25, 2004
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF OP-ED COLUMNIST
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/25/opinion/25kristoff.html
SLAMABAD, Pakistan - President Bush has been searching vainly for Osama bin Laden for three years now, so I've decided to help him out. I'm traveling through Pakistan and Afghanistan to see whether I can find Osama, bring him back in my luggage and claim that $25 million reward. So for the last few days, I've been peering into mosques and down village wells, even under mullahs' couches. No luck so far, but I did find something almost as interesting.
I'm talking about the arrangement under which the U.S. cuts Pakistan some slack on nuclear proliferation, in exchange for President Pervez Musharraf's joining aggressively in the hunt for Osama - in the hope of catching him by Nov. 2.
If a nuclear weapon destroys the U.S. Capitol in coming years, it will probably be based in part on Pakistani technology. The biggest challenge to civilization in recent years came not from Osama or Saddam Hussein but from Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb. Dr. Khan definitely sold nuclear technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya, and, officials believe, to several more nations as well.
But, amazingly, eight months after Dr. Khan publicly confessed, we still don't know who the rest of his customers were. Mr. Musharraf acknowledged as much in an interview.
"I can't say surely that we have unearthed everything that he's done, but I think we have unearthed most of what he's done," Mr. Musharraf said. Translated, that means: I'm afraid you're eventually going to find out about other transactions that we're still trying to hide.
American intelligence experts haven't been able to interrogate Dr. Khan, and Mr. Musharraf claims that the U.S. has not even asked to do so. "Let me put the record straight: nobody asked us to be allowed to question him," Mr. Musharraf said.
President Bush apparently did not ask for that direct access at his meeting on Wednesday with Mr. Musharraf, and it's clear that the administration is not pressing the issue. Why? Because Mr. Bush in this election season has another priority: getting Mr. Musharraf to help catch Osama.
Unless he's pressed hard, Mr. Musharraf won't make Dr. Khan available. Dr. Khan is a Pakistani hero, and there'd be great outrage if so-called Yankee anti-Muslim crusaders were allowed to interrogate him. "There would be a very strong reaction," warned Ghafoor Ahmad, a senator and Islamic politician.
An interview with Senator Ahmad is a reminder that the alternatives to Mr. Musharraf could be worse: Mr. Ahmad indignantly told me that Osama had nothing to do with 9/11. He suggested that it might have been a joint operation of the U.S. government and Mossad.
So which other countries would Dr. Khan implicate if we could interrogate him?
Mr. Musharraf confirmed that the Saudi defense minister had visited Dr. Khan's laboratories a few years ago, but he insisted that Saudi Arabia was not a nuclear customer. I'm not so sure.
The Saudis, alarmed by Iran's bomb program and jealous of Israel's, may well want their own nukes. But if the Saudis build a bomb, so will Egypt, and all hell will break loose in the Middle East.
Mr. Musharraf also denied that Syria was one of Dr. Khan's clients. A Syria with nukes would also not be a prescription for stability in the Middle East. In addition, Dr. Khan had ties with African countries, and those ties are not yet fully understood.
The charitable explanation for Mr. Bush's failure to get to the bottom of the Khan affair is that putting too much pressure on Mr. Musharraf would risk his destruction in the crucible of Pakistani nationalism. And the U.S. government certainly has a genuine interest in catching Osama as soon as it can.
Yet it's impossible to overstate the risks if countries like Saudi Arabia or Syria develop nuclear weapons because of Dr. Khan's help. Mr. Bush portrays himself as Mr. Security, defending America from terrorism, but the paramount security threat we face is a nuclear 9/11, which could kill half a million Americans in one explosion. Whatever its electoral concerns, the White House simply can't be so complacent about tracking down Dr. Khan's other nuclear clients.
Aargh. My last column ended with a jet-lagged correction that repeated the error it was meant to fix. William Rood saw John Kerry's Silver Star incident, not the Bronze Star episode. Mea culpa squared.
-------- u.s. nuc facilities
-------- washington
Shutdown contract for FFTF awarded
tri-cityherald
September 25th, 2004
By Annette Cary Herald staff writer
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/tch/local/story/5595954p-5527727c.html
The Department of Energy has awarded the contract to finish shutting down, then dismantling Hanford's Fast Flux Test Facility to SEC Closure Alliance, which includes Tennessee and New Mexico businesses.
The contract is valued at $235 million, DOE announced Friday afternoon.
The winning team includes SEC Federal Services of Safety and Ecology Corp. of Knoxville, Tenn.; Los Alamos Technical Associates of Los Alamos, N.M.; Parallax of Germantown, Md., and Hart Crowser of Seattle. Areva and Resource Consultants, which has opened an office in Richland, also is included in the alliance, .
"This small-business-led alliance offers the best value to the taxpayer to complete the closure of the reactor," said Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham in a prepared statement.
DOE plans called for the work taking until 2018 and costing more than $600 million. SEC Closure Alliance will complete the work by 2011 at less than half that cost, according to DOE.
The contract was restricted to teams of small businesses to support President Bush's Small Business Agenda. At least 51 percent of the work is required to be done by businesses with 500 or fewer employees.
DOE had been considering three finalists for the project. They included a team headed by Federal Engineering and Constructors and Nuvotec, both of Richland, and a team headed by Environmental Chemical Corp., based in Burlingame, Calif.
FFTF, a research reactor, operated from 1982 to 1992. It's being permanently shut down after Democratic and Republican administrations concluded the nation did not have a financially viable use for the reactor.
Safety and Ecology Corp. is the 40th largest environmental firm in the United States, according to information supplied by the company. Founded in 1991, it has a staff of more than 450 and conducts more than $45 million of business annually.
Los Alamos Technical Associates has had a Hanford presence for more than 25 years and is an industry leader in nuclear operations and engineering, according to information from SEC Closure Alliance documents.
Hart Crowser is a national expert in environmental law and has 30 years of experience in Washington state regulations, according to the alliance. Parallax has nuclear safety and health expertise for DOE and commercial nuclear reactors.
Subcontractor Resource Consultants is an asset recovery firm and has worked as a consultant to the Port of Benton and the Tri-City Industrial Development Council.
Areva has more than 500 employees in Richland and has performed more than $300 million in nuclear facility decommissioning work in the United States.
"The team has experience maintaining work force stability in closure projects and has proposed employee programs for post-project opportunities and fee sharing that should ensure outstanding project performance," Paul Golan, acting assistant secretary of environmental management for DOE, said in a prepared statement.
SEC Closure Alliance will take over shutting down FFTF from DOE contractor Fluor Hanford. Fluor Hanford employees are working on draining the sodium from the reactor's primary cooling loops.
DOE is preparing to begin work on an environmental study that will determine how the reactor will be decommissioned. DOE is considering entombing the reactor, which would include removing the dome of the reactor above ground and then grouting and leaving in place radioactively contaminated components below ground, including the reactor vessel.
A second option would be removing the dome and the underground components to leave a cleaner site.
Information was not available late Friday afternoon on what plan the $235 million figure was based. A record of decision on what FFTF will look like when it is completed should be issued in late 2005.
--------
US nuclear clean-up carries major risks
Rob Edwards
25 July 04
New Scientist
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996199
There is a 50% chance of a major accident while the US government attempts to clean up its dirtiest nuclear site over the next three decades, a new study concludes. Even without an accident, the groundwater, a nearby river and fish could end up badly contaminated.
A decision to fast-track the rehabilitation of the vast Hanford nuclear complex in Washington State poses dangers and could lead to "costly and time-consuming mistakes", says Bob Alvarez, formerly a senior environmental adviser to the Clinton administration. His study is due to be published in the September issue of Princeton University's peer-reviewed journal, Science and Global Security.
Over the last 50 years nine reactors at the 1500-square-kilometre site have produced 67 tonnes of plutonium for the US nuclear weapons programme. In 2002 the US Department of Energy (DOE) embarked on a 30-year, $50 billion clean-up, which includes emptying more than 190 million litres of liquid radioactive waste from 177 underground tanks.
"The costs, complexity and risks of the Hanford high-level waste project rival those of the US manned space programme, but have far greater potential consequences to the human environment," says Alvarez, who is now with the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington DC.
"Political considerations"
Allyn Boldt, who was a senior chemical engineer at Hanford for 25 years, fears that any problems at the site will jeopardise the expansion of nuclear power he believes is necessary to meet the world's future energy needs. "The clean-up decisions at Hanford are being made by administrators driven by political and career considerations," he told New Scientist.
That may not lead to the best decisions, he says. Even if the clean-up goes according to plan, Boldt claims there will still be 260 square kilometres of groundwater exceeding drinking water safety limits for over 10,000 years. And ground contamination means "several square miles will be a national sacrifice zone that cannot be excavated for hundreds of thousands of years", he says.
The DOE accepts that it faces major challenges at Hanford but stresses that since 2000 it has made good progress on what it calls "the world's largest environmental clean-up project". A new treatment plant is more than 25% built and will be ready to take high-level waste by 2011.
The aim is to complete the clean-up by 2035, 35 years earlier than originally planned. This will reduce the danger to the environment, as well as cutting the cost, argues a DOE spokeswoman.
"The accelerated progress we've been making would not be possible without a corresponding improvement in safety," she says. "We are working safer today than we were three or four years ago."
Steam explosion
According to Alvarez's study, a risk estimate from US Nuclear Regulatory Commission implies that there is a 50-50 chance of a major radiation or chemical accident at Hanford over 28 years of operation. The worst hazard is from a steam explosion at one of the melters used to mix radioactive waste with molten glass.
"DOE's experience with glass melters does not inspire confidence," Alvarez observes. "Since 1991 there have been at least eight melter-related accidents and failures at DOE sites, including two steam explosions."
He also highlights numerous other risks, including the potential build-up of flammable gases in Hanford's underground storage tanks. In October 2003, one tank was discovered to contain sufficient concentrations hydrogen to burn - after it had been declared safe.
The tanks, most of which date from the Cold War, are also increasingly unreliable, Alvarez alleges. Nearly four million litres of radioactive waste have leaked from a third of them and contaminated the groundwater.
A plan to dispose of iodine-129 at Hanford risks further contamination in breach of the Environment Protection Agency's safety limits for drinking water, he warns. Fish from the Columbia River, which flows through the site, are an important part of the diet for thousands of neighbouring native Americans.
Finally, Alvarez says that almost a fifth of the huge amount of radioactivity at Hanford could end up being left at the site, including six times more caesium-137 and over a hundred times more strontium-90 than were released by the 1986 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine. According to the DOE, there is not enough room for all the waste at the proposed repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
------- MILITARY
-------- arms
Thousands of Taiwan People Protest U.S. Arms Deal
By REUTERS
September 25, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-arms-taiwan.html
TAIPEI (Reuters) - Thousands of protesters marched through Taiwan's capital on Saturday, urging the government to scrap a big U.S. weapons package they said would trigger an arms race with China and squeeze social welfare.
Defending the T$610.8 billion ($18.2 billion) deal, Premier Yu Shyi-kun said maintaining strong defense and a military balance with the island's arch-foe were critical to security.
``If you attack me with 100 missiles, I will at least attack you with 50. If you attack Taipei and Kaohsiung, I will attack Shanghai,'' Yu said in a speech before the protest.
``If we have such counter-strike capability today, Taiwan is safe,'' he said in comments broadcast on cable news networks.
The weapons package is made up of $4.3 billion for Patriot Advanced-Capability 3 missile defenses, $12.3 billion for eight diesel-electric submarines and $1.6 billion for 12 P-3C Orion submarine-hunting aircraft.
China has viewed self-governing Taiwan as a breakaway province since a bloody civil war in 1949 and has threatened to attack if the island declares formal independence.
Many security analysts see the Taiwan Strait as the most dangerous flashpoint in Asia.
Protesters disagreed with Yu's comments.
``President Chen Shui-bian only likes to please the United States to protect his presidency. He wants to die, but we will not follow him,'' said a retired soldier, surnamed Chang.
A 40-year-old housewife surnamed Lin, said: ``We don't want any war, especially since both sides are Chinese.''
Holding banners reading ``Our money, Your war,'' ``Want peace, No war,'' the protesters ranging from veterans to unemployed workers and children, joined the march to the presidential palace.
Some protesters brought with them bubble tea that became a symbol of anti-arms purchases after the defense ministry issued pamphlets saying Taiwan could afford the weapons if its 23 million people each drank one less bubble tea a week.
The milky drink containing small balls of glutinous sago is a Taiwan specialty.
The arms package has come under growing criticism, with opponents charging that the weapons are too costly or take too long to deploy to be an effective defense.
Opposition parties, which hold a slim majority in parliament, said the island could not afford the weapons and the money should be spent on social welfare or education.
If approved by parliament, the weapons deal -- first offered by President Bush three years ago -- would be the biggest in a decade.
The military says the package will help Taiwan maintain a balance of military power with China for another 30 years, but if it falls through, China will have the capability to attack the island in the next 2 to 3 years.
President Chen said earlier this week China has 610 missiles pointed at Taiwan and was increasing its arsenal by 50 to 70 missiles every year. Last December, Chen said China had 496 missiles facing Taiwan.
-------- business
Lockheed Martin Wins $3.3 Billion Navy Contract to Develop Satellite Network
By Renae Merle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 25, 2004; Page E01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48840-2004Sep24.html
After a four-year competition, Lockheed Martin Corp. won a Navy contract worth up to $3.3 billion yesterday to develop satellites that could help soldiers and sailors communicate.
Bethesda-based Lockheed will build as many as five satellites under the contract, said Leonard F. Kwiatkowski, vice president of military space at the company. The narrow-band satellites would enable a soldier in the jungle or a sailor in a submarine to receive maps, video and other data as well as speak to command centers through a handheld device, he said.
While the general trend is toward high-frequency satellites, this program addresses the needs of tactical fighters, said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org. "These channels don't have much more capacity than a dial-up modem," Pike said. But "if I am a little special ops team and I am out in the middle of nowhere and would like to download the latest situation report, I just flip this baby out of the backpack and I am in business. . . . This is like satellite communications to the fox hole."
The Mobile User Objective System will supplement, then replace, Ultra High Frequency satellites now used by the Navy. The first satellite in the series is expected to be launched in 2010.
The contract could be worth more than $6 billion if the Navy buys more satellites as expected, industry analysts have said. Lockheed beat Raytheon Co. for the contract. The program is one of the last large military satellite competitions left, analysts said, and is important because there are few contracts available in the commercial market.
--------
Taiwan PM vows to retaliate Chinese attacks amid anti-arms deal protest
TAIPEI (AFP)
Sep 25, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040925115809.k8zv9x7u.html
Taiwan Premier Yu Shyi-kun on Saturday vowed to retaliate should China launch missile attacks against the island as thousands of Taiwanese took to the streets to protest against the government's massive arms package.
"You (China) have the capability to destroy me and Taiwan should have the capability to counter. You strike me with 100 missiles and I should at least strike back with 50," Yu told a gathering of government officials.
"You strike Taipei and Kaohsiung and I shall strike Shanghai. This way Taiwan will be safe," he added.
Yu's rebuff, his strongest ever, came as thousands of people rallied in the rains against the government's plans for an 18 billion US dollar arms deal they say will lead to an arms race with rival China.
"Refuse raising debts to purchase weaponry," chanted protestors, while marching towards the Presidential Office.
"I think the government should focus on improving the sluggish economy instead of spending so much money on buying weapons," Huang Chung-chang, a 42-year-old engineer who marched with his two children, told AFP.
A "love and peace" concert is scheduled to take place outside the Presidential Office in the evening. Organizers expected more than 10,000 people to take part of the rally but police estimated a turnout of about half that.
Many protestors also held cups of "bubble milk tea," a popular drink in Taiwan, to mock the defense ministry's "drinking less bubble milk tea for arms procurement" advertisement campaign.
The ministry drew criticism after it called on the public to consume less bubble milk tea to save money for the mass arms spending.
Taiwan's cabinet on June 2 approved the special budget of 610.8 billion Taiwan dollars (18.2 billion US) to purchase weaponry from the United States. It is pending final approval by parliament.
It has stirred up heated debate on the island with critics, including about 170 retired generals, warning the hefty military spending would further provoke China and heighten cross-Strait tensions.
Others worry the government would be forced to raise debts or cut social welfare and education budgets for the arms deal.
Taiwan's opposition leader Lien Chan also voiced his disapproval of the special defense budget during a party gathering on Saturday.
"Such a hefty arms procurement should not be handled recklessly and we think it's time to slash military spending and put more money into public welfare," he said.
The arms package includes eight diesel-powered submarines, a modified version of the Patriot anti-missile system and a fleet of anti-submarine aircraft over a 15-year period beginning in 2005.
The government has defended the arms deal by stressing the growing military threats from China.
China regards Taiwan as a part of its territory awaiting to be reunified despite their split in 1949 after a civil war.
-------- iran
U.S. Targets Iran's Influence in Iraq
Officials Say Tehran Aids Shiite Parties
By Robin Wright and Justin Blum
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, September 25, 2004; Page A17
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48635-2004Sep24.html
The Bush administration is exploring several steps aimed at containing Tehran's growing influence in Iraq, according to U.S. officials, who say a split between the Pentagon and the State Department has paralyzed the administration's ability to craft a long-term policy on Iran for three years.
As one measure, the United States has earmarked $40 million to help Iraq's political parties mobilize -- and, subtly, to counter Iran's support for its allies in an emerging race to influence the outcome, U.S. officials said.
With the election in Iraq four months away, the administration has grown increasingly alarmed about the resources Tehran is pouring into Iraq's already well-organized Shiite religious parties, which give them an edge over struggling moderate and nonsectarian parties, the officials said.
Over the past year, Iran has provided tens of millions of dollars and other material support to a range of Iraqi parties, including the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the Islamic Dawa Party and rebel cleric Moqtada Sadr's Mahdi Army, U.S. officials say. The U.S. funds will in theory be available to all Iraqi parties, although the U.S. goal is to bolster the prospects of secular groups -- on the premise that Iranian-backed parties are unlikely to turn to America for training or money, U.S. officials said.
In another diplomatic move aimed partly at Iran, the United States has been promoting a plan for a conference that would bring the United States together with Iraq's neighbors, including Iran, plus representatives of the European Union, the Group of Eight industrialized nations, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the Arab League and the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell lobbied for the conference at the United Nations this week, knowing it would provide a setting in which he and Iran's foreign minister would participate, U.S. officials said. The meeting is tentatively planned for mid-November, after the end of the holy month of Ramadan, in Egypt.
"It's not an attempt to open a channel to Iran. It's a way to talk about how all Iraq's neighbors and special friends and others can help the Iraqi government, and that includes Iran," said a senior State Department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of ongoing diplomacy. "It's about how to be responsible neighbors and one of our concerns is that Iran is not being a responsible neighbor. It's a way of addressing one of the issues we have with Iran."
The two moves follow a decision by the administration's top foreign policy team this summer to initiate steps to prevent Iran from gaining a major behind-the-scenes role in shaping the Iraqi government due to be elected in January, U.S. officials said. But they also reflect U.S. recognition that attempts to keep Iran out of Iraq, given strong religious, geographic and ethnic ties dating back centuries, are likely to fail and could even backfire, U.S. officials said.
"The idea that you can prevent Iran from having influence or playing a role is totally misplaced, given connections between the clergy, geographic proximity, a long border, family connections, the large community of Shiites from Iran and all the mullahs who studied in the same schools under the same teachers," said Shaul Bakhash of George Mason University, an expert on Iran and author of "The Reign of the Ayatollahs: Iran and the Islamic Revolution."
The measures are an attempt to fill a policy vacuum created by divisive debates within the administration -- mainly between the Defense and State departments. The internal splits have prevented agreement on a formal presidential directive on Iran that would clarify the administration's overall, long-term approach, U.S. officials said.
The initial draft of the directive called for a carrot-and-stick combination of pressure and containment, with the prospect of dialogue on some issues of mutual concern, including Iraq and Afghanistan, according to U.S. officials familiar with the document. But some Pentagon policymakers wanted to insert tougher language calling for a change in Tehran's government, the sources said.
The deadlock has left Washington with limited choices in developing a broader strategy and in trying to contain or punish Iran if it goes ahead with uranium enrichment in defiance of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The United States has been attempting to garner support among other nations for referring the matter to the U.N. Security Council, which could impose sanctions, including an oil embargo, if Iran does not meet demands that it end all nuclear activities that could be used to develop weapons. Iran has insisted its nuclear program is aimed at energy production.
The realities of today's oil market, however, make any type of embargo unlikely, if not impossible, say oil analysts.
An international embargo on Iranian oil could jack up the price of oil from the current price, now approaching $50 a barrel, to about $80 per barrel, said Robert E. Ebel, chairman of the energy program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. In prices adjusted for inflation, that would be higher than when oil prices peaked in 1981.
Worldwide oil production is near capacity and demand has been increasing, especially in China and India, Ebel said. "The Security Council would not accept an oil embargo on Iran, particularly when it's unlikely Iraqi oil will come on the market in a measurable way anytime soon," added Ray Takeyh, a Council on Foreign Relations specialist on Iran.
Iran produces an average of 3.9 million barrels of crude oil a day, about 5 percent of world production, the Energy Department said. It exports about 2.6 million barrels per day. Even trying to ban foreign oil companies' investments in Iran would drive up prices, analysts said.
"Assuming a consensus on sanctions of any kind -- and I don't assume that -- then what you're left with are secondary, watered-down sanctions of limited impact on Iran's economic viability, such as on access to lending institutions, certain technologies and travel by diplomats," Takeyh added. "And those types of sanctions aren't going to discourage a serious proliferator, especially a country that believes nuclear weapons are essential for its survival."
-------- iraq
Demise of Iraqi Units Symbolic of U.S. Errors
Rebuilding Hindered by Past Mistakes
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, September 25, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A48707-2004Sep24?language=printer
SAQLAWIYA, Iraq -- The police outpost here is supposed to house 90 armed members of Iraq's National Guard. Their job is to keep watch over a stretch of six-lane highway, deterring insurgents from laying roadside bombs and trying to blow up a bridge over the nearby Tharthar Canal.
But when the U.S. Marine commander responsible for the area visited the outpost this month, he found six bedraggled guardsmen on duty. None of them was patrolling. The Iraqi officer in charge was missing. And their weapons had been locked up by the Marines after a guardsman detonated a grenade inside the compound.
The unit's demise underscores the degree to which errors committed by civilian and military leaders during the 15 months of rule by the U.S.-led occupation authority continue to impede the U.S. effort to combat a vexing insurgency and rebuild Iraq's shattered government and economy. Recovering from those mistakes has become the principal challenge facing the United States in Iraq, three months after the transfer of political authority to an interim government.
"We're trying to climb out of a hole," said an official with the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, who spoke on condition of anonymity. American missteps during the occupation, the official said, "continue to haunt us."
The errors have had a major impact on almost every aspect of the U.S. agenda here, from pacifying rebel-held cities to holding elections in January to accelerating reconstruction projects. In each area, past mistakes have made it far tougher to accomplish U.S. objectives and those of Iraq's interim government.
The guardsmen in Saqlawiya, who come from the nearby city of Fallujah, were not always this pathetic. Early this year, their battalion was lauded by the U.S. military for repelling insurgent attacks on the mayor's office and police headquarters in Fallujah. They were, as one Army officer put it in March, "a glimmer of hope in an otherwise dark place."
The battalion disintegrated in April because of an order by the White House and the Pentagon to have the Marines lay siege to Fallujah -- a decision top Marine officials now acknowledge was a profound mistake. As Marines advanced into the city, the guardsmen were put in an untenable position: Either flee, or join the Marines in fighting Iraqi neighbors -- and risk violent retribution. The guardsmen fled.
When the Marines were ordered by Washington to pull out of the city and hand over security responsibilities to a brigade of former Iraqi army soldiers -- another grave miscalculation, in the eyes of Marine commanders -- the National Guardsmen returned to work. They manned checkpoints and conducted patrols with the former soldiers, who called themselves the Fallujah Brigade.
But before long, an alliance of foreign-born and local insurgents eviscerated both the Fallujah Brigade and the two National Guard battalions in the city.
Soldiers in the brigade who had been former insurgents were either lured back into the resistance or intimidated into submission. The commanders of both National Guard battalions were kidnapped by militants loyal to Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born militant who is now the most wanted man in Iraq. One commander was beheaded; the other is missing and presumed dead. As soon as the commanders were captured, the battalions melted away.
Some Marine officers contend that if they had not been ordered to invade Fallujah after the March 31 killing and mutilation of four American security contractors, the city's National Guard battalions and security forces would be functioning. Although both units had incompetents and insurgent sympathizers in their ranks, the Marine officers maintain that the units could have served as a helpful ally to U.S. forces in the effort to squelch the insurgency.
Now, the Marines are trying to reconstitute the two battalions, mustering members to report to outposts in such nearby towns as Saqlawiya. In some ways, it is exactly what the Army's 82nd Airborne Division did a year ago, when it formed the two battalions.
In an attempt to build discipline, guardsmen who do not show up in their desert camouflage uniforms and with their identification cards are sent home without pay. Training and patrolling are secondary. Attendance is the first challenge.
"The soldiers on duty, they will be paid, they will be taken care of," Marine Lt. Col. Gregg Olson, the commander of the 2nd Battalion of the 1st Marine Regiment, told Iraqi Lt. Wissam Hamid.
After Olson's comment was translated, Hamid nodded but his expression betrayed disagreement. "There is a war there," he said, referring to Fallujah. "People are afraid to come to work."
Olson asked about the unit's vehicles, which were stolen by the insurgents over the summer. Had the guardsmen recovered them? Hamid said they had not.
As Olson walked out into the bright afternoon sun, the task ahead was clear to him. "We have to start from scratch," he said.
Not Enough Forces
In early April, as the Marines were besieging Fallujah, U.S. commanders ordered one of the first battalions of Iraq's reconstituted army to join the fight in a supporting role. The commanders figured it would provide the Iraqi soldiers with a valuable lesson. It turned out to be the other way around.
When the soldiers, who had just finished basic training, were told where they were being sent, they staged a mutiny and refused to board transport helicopters. The Iraqis told U.S. officers that they did not enlist in order to fight fellow Iraqis.
Stunned U.S. military officials tried to determine what had gone wrong. According to several commanders, they eventually concluded that it was a mistake to have a private contractor conduct basic training, a concern that had already been raised by some veteran military officers, who maintained that the military would have done a better job. Their objection was ignored by the Pentagon's civilian leadership. Once the soldiers finished boot camp, they were put under the command of U.S. officers whom they had never met.
The officials concluded later that U.S. Special Forces soldiers should have conducted the training and remained with the units during their first few missions, an approach that would have increased the likelihood of trust and confidence between the Iraqis and the Americans.
That conclusion required a wholesale revision of the training system, which delayed the deployment of Iraqi army units. Instead of fielding 12,000 soldiers by June, as the U.S. occupation administrator, L. Paul Bremer, had promised a year earlier, there were about 4,000 soldiers. There are currently about 6,000 in the field.
Although the director of the training effort, Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, has vastly expanded boot camp capacity -- an additional 12,000 soldiers should be ready by the end of October -- the current size of the Iraqi army has placed the U.S. military and Iraq's interim government in a bind.
The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., and the interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi, share a desire to flush insurgents out from Fallujah, Samarra, Ramadi and other Sunni Muslim-dominated cities where militants have congregated. But both men want those operations to involve a significant number of Iraqi forces.
With just six active Iraqi army battalions -- three of which have been deployed in the Shiite holy city of Najaf to oppose an insurgency there -- there are too few soldiers to conduct those joint operations.
"We simply don't have enough trained Iraqi forces right now to do what we need to do," said a senior U.S. military official in Iraq who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Senior U.S. commanders in Iraq said they intend to mount assaults against insurgent strongholds in the Sunni Triangle before the end of the year to allow Iraqi police and National Guard forces to reassert control. But the wait for trained Iraqi soldiers to conduct those operations means that they will occur precariously close to January's national elections.
Had the training mistakes been avoided, the official said, "we would have far more options now. We could retake Fallujah. We could deal with Samarra."
Dealing With Sadr's Militia
Another place on the list of no-go zones yet to be pacified is Sadr City, the vast Shiite slum in eastern Baghdad where support runs strong for Moqtada Sadr, the rebel cleric whose illegal militia has become the most serious security threat after the Sunni insurgency.
U.S. diplomats and military commanders have complained in private that Sadr's militia should have been dealt with in the early stages of the occupation, when allegations first surfaced that he had ordered the slaying of a rival cleric. At the time, Sadr's militia amounted to no more than a few hundred young men with guns. Today, it has thousands of members and an arsenal that includes mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.
Although Bremer attempted to rein in Sadr in the spring by closing his newspaper, a move that sparked a fierce uprising by his militiamen, U.S. forces did not capture or kill him as they pledged -- or even dismantle his militia. A cease-fire deal gave Sadr effective control of Najaf.
When Sadr's forces violated the agreement in late July by attacking a police station there, the response by U.S. forces was swift and severe, and ultimately compelled Sadr to withdraw his militia from the city's holiest shrine under an arrangement brokered by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the country's top Shiite leader. A condition of that deal was that U.S. troops in the city would be replaced by Iraqi soldiers. As a result, three of the country's six army battalions are tied up there, making it difficult for U.S. commanders to mount joint operations against Sadr's militiamen in Sadr City.
"We've spent a lot of our time and energy dealing with a problem that should have been taken care of months ago," a U.S. commander involved in operations against Sadr's militiamen said.
'Making Up for Lost Time'
When Bremer went to Congress last fall to plead for a massive infusion of U.S. taxpayer dollars to help Iraq, he outlined a blueprint for stability based on far-reaching improvements to the country's shattered infrastructure. In November, Congress approved an $18.4 billion aid package that called for spending nearly $10 billion on electricity, water and sanitation projects. Congress allocated $3.2 billion to train and equip Iraqi security forces.
After taking over from Bremer in late June, U.S. Ambassador John D. Negroponte and his staff concluded that more money needed to go into building Iraq's security forces and generating new jobs. Arguing that immediate concerns trumped long-term development, Negroponte asked the administration to divert $2.3 billion from infrastructure projects to security initiatives, including the funding of Iraqi security forces, and to job programs.
Many U.S. civilian and military officials say the reallocation is long overdue. They contend the occupation authority should have used the aid package to accelerate the training of Iraqi security forces and put hundreds of thousands of unemployed young men to work. By the time Bremer left, just 15,000 Iraqis had been employed with the aid money.
"We think we've found the right balance" with the reallocation, the embassy official said. But the challenge, the official said, "is making up for lost time."
"We should have done this last year," the official said. "If we had, we'd be in a much different, and better, position now."
--------
Allawi Says All Iraq Will Vote
Powell Agrees, Despite Rumsfeld's Talk of Partial Elections
By Robin Wright and Colum Lynch
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, September 25, 2004; Page A14
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48680-2004Sep24.html
Elections will take place throughout Iraq in January with no exceptions, interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said yesterday, contradicting Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's suggestion that the first democratic poll may not be held in some regions controlled by insurgents.
"We will have the elections. All Iraq is eligible to be part of the elections, will be part of the elections. The elections should take place in all the country," Allawi said yesterday in an interview with reporters and editors at The Washington Post.
Powell, in New York for U.N. meetings, said there is "no reason" to believe Iraq should not hold a "full, free and fair election" for a 275-member national assembly by the end of January, a position echoed by Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage in testimony on Capitol Hill. On Thursday, Rumsfeld told a congressional committee that if violence in Iraq prevented polling in some parts of the country, "well, so be it."
The open disagreement between U.S. officials over Iraq's election planning came on a day when Allawi appealed to the international community to honor its commitments to help his country complete the transition to democracy. "We need more assistance from our neighbors and the international community as a whole in order to meet all the objectives and translate the aspirations of the Iraqi people into . . . realities," Allawi told the U.N. General Assembly.
Because of the deadly insurgency, the interim Iraqi leader called for U.N. members to send more troops to fight terrorism, which he called "a disease spreading all over the world." He also asked U.N. members to help create a security force to protect the U.N. election commission that is helping prepare for Iraq's first free vote.
Citing concerns about violence, the United Nations has deployed only about a third of the personnel Iraq has sought, U.S. officials say. After months of resistance by every country approached, Georgia and Fiji indicated this week that they will provide several hundred troops, but Iraq and the United States are still hoping for more.
"Let me state before the members of the international community today, whether they supported or opposed the war: Do not be neutral in the struggle. Do not remain idle, but join us, for our own sake and for your own sake," said Allawi, a neurologist, who took over three months ago from the U.S.-led occupation government. "If we are defeated, it is your defeat," too, he said.
The public differences over the scope of Iraq's elections fueled new tensions between the State Department and the Pentagon yesterday, with some U.S. officials charging that Rumsfeld does not understand how the Iraqi election is going to be held -- and should not have speculated that elections could not be held in the entire country.
"He doesn't get it. With this kind of election, you can't carve out part of the country. The whole country is voting as a single district so you can't hold elections in some parts later. There's no way of fixing it later. You'd have to throw out the whole election to fix it," said a senior U.S. official familiar with election plans. "Our mantra is: It ain't gonna be pretty, but we're going to have an election."
The disagreement led Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards to charge the administration was engaged in flip-flopping on its Iraq policy. "For a president who is fond of saying we should not send mixed messages -- you need a scorecard today to keep up with all the different and contradictory statements from the White House," Edwards said in a statement released by the campaign.
Yesterday's speech at the United Nations capped a week in which Allawi addressed Congress and held talks with President Bush and others, a U.S. debut that played well in Washington among Republicans but also among Democrats who are critical of U.S. policy.
Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) said he was "impressed by Allawi's political sophistication" as well as his nerve and candor in privately acknowledging the challenges ahead. "He's in a tough spot, but he was credible," Biden said.
Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.) called Allawi "as good an instrument of stability as we could come up with."
But in New York yesterday, some U.N. diplomats said Allawi's visit did little to change pessimistic views of the prospects for successful elections in Iraq in January. "A lot of people are very worried about the situation in Iraq, the level of violence, the question of how easily or credibly you can organize elections which will really make a difference," said Edward Mortimer, a senior adviser to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. "The important thing is to have elections which are generally accepted."
Other U.N. officials fretted that elections may be boycotted by key Iraqi communities, primarily the country's Sunni political leaders and insurgents. "There is every indication that the Sunnis want to boycott elections," one U.N. official said. "They believe there can't be a political process under occupation."
France's foreign minister, Michel Barnier, credited Allawi for doing his best to highlight progress in Iraq but said doubts remain about the prospects for elections. "It's a situation that looks like chaos, with bombs everywhere, including the Green Zone, including in the courtyard of the French Embassy," he said at a breakfast with U.S. reporters. "What we fear is that the situation destabilizes the region."
Barnier said that France had warned the United States to "be careful" and to ensure that all of Iraq's tribal, religious and political forces feel they have a stake in the country's transition. He said France would provide financing to a U.N. protection force in Iraq, but ruled out any military role under U.S. command because of opposition to the U.S. intervention.
Lynch reported from the United Nations.
--------
U.S. Strikes Zarqawi Network, Killing 16
September 25, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iraq.html
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- U.S. warplanes, tanks and artillery repeatedly hit at Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terror network in the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah on Saturday, while two British Muslim leaders came to Baghdad to try to convince his followers to release a British hostage.
The strikes in Fallujah targeted two buildings where militants were allegedly meeting and a cluster of rebel-built fortifications used to mount attacks on nearby Marine positions, the U.S. military said. Doctors said 16 people were killed and 37 wounded.
In other violence, an American soldier was reported killed by a bomb Saturday, and the U.S. military said four Marines died in separate incidents Friday. A statement said the Marines were involved in a security operation in Anbar province, which includes Fallujah, Ramadi and other places that see frequent clashes between U.S. forces and insurgents. No further details were disclosed.
In Baghdad, gunmen fired on a vehicle carrying Iraqi National Guard applicants, killing six people, police said. It was the latest attack in a militant campaign that targets Iraqi security units and recruits in hopes of undermining U.S.-backed efforts to build an Iraqi force capable of taking over security from American troops.
The National Guard also clashed with unidentified gunmen in Haswa, south of the capital, injuring four people, hospital officials said. The shooting lasted about a half hour, witnesses said.
Meanwhile, five mortar shells struck the Iraqi Oil Ministry in Baghdad, shattering windows and causing minor damage to the building, ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Several explosions rocked the Iraqi capital late Saturday, but it was not immediately clear what caused the blasts. The military had no immediate comment
In Fallujah, explosions lit up the night sky for hours before dawn Saturday and at least two buildings in the city center were wrecked, witnesses said. The Fallujah mosque switched on its loudspeakers and clerics chanted prayers to rally the city's residents. Doctors said eight people were killed and 15 wounded.
Explosions rocked the city again after dark Saturday. Eight people were killed and 22 injured in the blasts, said Dr. Ahmed Khalil at Fallujah General Hospital. The U.S. military could not immediately be reached for comment on the blasts.
American troops have not entered Fallujah since ending a three-week siege of the city in April that killed hundreds but have staged repeated attacks on sites the U.S. military described as being used by al-Zarqawi's followers.
In a statement released on the Internet, al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group said the death of its spiritual leader in a U.S. missile strike earlier this month had only increased its determination to fight the United States and its allies in Iraq.
The statement said the beheading of two American hostages last week was proof that the group's campaign was not affected by the killing of Sheik Abu Anas al-Shami, apparently when a U.S. missile hit his car in a western Baghdad suburb Sept. 17.
``The beheading of the two Americans was our first signal that we will continue and will not be deterred,'' said the statement, which was posted on a Web site known for carrying communiques from Islamic militants.
Two senior officials of the Muslim Council of Britain arrived in Iraq's capital on Saturday to try to win the freedom of Kenneth Bigley, a British civil engineer who was kidnapped Sept. 16 with the two Americans who were slain.
Al-Zarqawi's group claimed responsibility for the abduction and demanded the release of female Iraqi prisoners at American-controlled prisons -- a move U.S. officials have ruled out.
``We will do everything to contact them (the captors) while we are here,'' Daud Abdullah, assistant secretary-general of the British council, told reporters after talks at the British Embassy.
He conceded, however, that his delegation had not arranged any meetings with Iraqi religious or political leaders and did not know whether they would be able to reach the kidnappers.
``The message is simple, it's a humanitarian one ... he (Bigley) was a noncombatant, Islam does not endorse the capture of noncombatants, let alone the killing of them,'' Abdullah said.
A posting on an Islamic Internet site Saturday claimed al-Zarqawi's followers had killed Bigley, but the Foreign Office in London said the claim was not credible.
Prime Minister Tony Blair said Saturday that the British were doing ``whatever we can'' to seek Bigley's freedom, but he indicated there would be no shift in the government's refusal to negotiate.
``We have been in touch with the Bigley family,'' Blair said. ``We will continue to do whatever we can.''
The little-known site tends to pick up claims from other sites and was among the many to carry video footage of the beheadings of the two American civil engineers -- Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley -- taken hostage with Bigley. It also carried two shaky claims that militants had killed two Italian women aid workers being held hostage.
In Cairo, Eygpt, a spokesman for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said the government was working through religious and tribal contacts in hopes of winning the release of six Egyptian telecommunications workers abducted with four Iraqis in two incidents.
Relatives pleaded Saturday for the release of their loved ones. Neither they nor Orascom, the telecommunications giant in Cairo with ties to all 10 workers seized, had received any demands.
``We want to know at least what they want or what their conditions are,'' Asmaa Abu al-Seoud, wife of captive Mahmoud Mustafa, told The Associated Press. ``Our daughters, Aya, who is 3, and Iman, who is only 1 1/2 months old, are waiting to see their father.''
More than 140 foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq -- some by anti-U.S. insurgents and some by criminals seeking ransoms. At least 26 of them have been killed. Many Iraqis have also been seized.
Insurgents released the dean of Iraq's Anbar University on Saturday, more than a month after he was taken hostage, witnesses said. Abdulhadi Rajab al-Heeti was released in the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi.
Also, Iraqi police in Basra said Saturday that they had arrested three kidnapping suspects and freed an Iraqi hostage who had been selling mobile phones. Police said the suspects were part of a kidnapping gang but did not provide other details.
--------
U.S. Air Strikes Target Militants in Falluja
By REUTERS
September 25, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-iraq.html
FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. aircraft launched new air strikes in the rebel-held city of Falluja on Saturday aimed at killing supporters of a Jordanian militant who has led a campaign of suicide bombings and kidnappings in Iraq.
In one attack, the U.S. military said it targeted supporters of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and that no innocent civilians were in the area. In a second operation, U.S. forces responded with a ``precision air strike'' against a house after American troops came under small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire.
But doctors at Falluja's main hospital said at least seven civilians were killed and 13 wounded, including women and children.
Reuters television pictures showed a crowd of Iraqis digging through the ruins of a destroyed building and pulling out survivors, including two women and two children.
``Intelligence sources reported that Zarqawi terrorists were using the site to plan additional attacks against Iraqi citizens and multinational forces,'' U.S. forces said in a statement.
``There were no innocent civilians reported in the immediate area at the time of the strike,'' it said. ``Multinational forces took multiple measures to minimize collateral damage and civilian casualties.''
Zarqawi's group said this week it had killed American hostages Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley, and posted video footage on the Internet showing them being beheaded.
The Tawhid and Jihad group says it will also kill Briton Kenneth Bigley, 62, unless Iraqi women are released from U.S.- run jails. Bigley was snatched along with the two Americans at their house in Baghdad last week.
Prominent British Muslims arrived in Baghdad on Saturday to plead for the release of Bigley.
``Our religion is one of compassion and love,'' Musharraf Hussain, a member of the two-person delegation from the Muslim Council of Britain, told reporters.
``We believe in the power of prayer turning people's heart and we can only have that trust and reliance in our God... If (the captors) have faith in their hearts and the seeds of true submission to God then there will be some change and it can show that miracles do happen.''
There have been three audacious raids to seize foreigners in Baghdad this month. Two female Italian aid workers were kidnapped more than two weeks ago, and on Thursday evening two Egyptian workers were snatched from their office in the capital.
Two guerrilla groups have said they killed the Italian women but gave no proof, and Rome said the claims were unreliable. An Islamist Web site that earlier reported the Italians had been killed said on Saturday Bigley had been too. The British Foreign Office said the claim lacked credibility.
U.S. OFFICIALS AT ODDS ON POLLS
U.S. forces have mounted repeated air strikes on Falluja targeting supporters of Zarqawi, who has a $25 million bounty on him. The city, 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad, is seen as a haven for insurgents and foreign fighters.
After heavy fighting in the city in April killed hundreds of Iraqis and sparked widespread anger, U.S. marines pulled out, handing responsibility for security to an Iraqi force. That force has collapsed and the city is controlled by insurgents.
The U.S. military has conceded it is not in control of rebel strongholds like Falluja and nearby Ramadi, but says it will launch a campaign to retake them ahead of elections in January. Four U.S. marines were killed on Friday in three attacks in the Iraqi province that includes Falluja and Ramadi.
On Saturday, a U.S. soldier was killed in Baghdad after his vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb, the U.S. military said.
Since the start of the war in Iraq, at least 796 U.S. military and Pentagon personnel have been killed in action.
The question of whether some areas may have to be excluded from the polls has put U.S. officials at odds.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld conceded on Thursday that elections might not be possible in areas in rebels hands. That contrasted with Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage who said elections had to be ``open to all citizens.''
Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi called on world leaders to put aside disagreements over the war in Iraq to help his nation. Violence, he said, would not stop polls going ahead in January.
In the latest guerrilla attack on Iraq's fledgling security forces, gunmen opened fire on men traveling to a Baghdad recruitment center in a van, killing seven, the U.S. military said. Insurgents also fired mortars at the Oil Ministry building in Baghdad, but there were no casualties.
--------
Allawi safety claims 'out of touch with reality' say Iraqis
25 September 2004
independent.co.uk
By Patrick Cockburn
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=565547
Iraqis reacted with astonishment and derision yesterday to a claim made by the interim Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, before the US Congress that 14 or 15 out of Iraq's 18 provinces "are completely safe."
"The truth is exactly the reverse," said a lorry driver, Abu Akil, as he queued for diesel yesterday. "There are 15 provinces which are dangerous and only the three Kurdish provinces in the north are OK. This speech was designed to be heard Americans and not by Iraqis."
The lorry drivers, desperate to feed their families, take great risks but they admit that many roads are now too dangerous. "The speech was ridiculous," said Maithan Maki. "When Allawi became Prime Minister I was in favour of him but things have got worse and worse." Mr Allawi's visit to the US may be doing him lasting damage in Iraq, reinforcing the impression that he is a pawn and out of touch with real events. Iraqis were aware when the US appointed him interim Prime Minister that he had long been financed by the CIA and MI6, but were prepared to forgive this if he could restore security.
Few people in Iraq know more about security in the country's 18 provinces than its lorry drivers, who run the gauntlet of bandits, US patrols, insurgents and police. "All the roads are dangerous," said Mr Maki. He said that bandits not only stole lorries but often kidnapped drivers and held them for ransom.Akhil Khadum, who has spent 14 years driving lorries in Iraq, said: "This speech is not in touch with reality."
But Mr Allawi's claim is difficult to disprove for the ironical reason that most of Iraq is too dangerous to visit by journalists. This is particularly useful for President George Bush as American network news correspondents can scarcely leave the mini-fortresses in which they live in Baghdad. Large areas of the country are wholly under the control of the resistance, such as Fallujah and the mid-Euphrates regions. All the drivers said they no longer carried cargo for the Americans as they were often stopped by insurgents on the road from Jordan who would look at their manifests to make sure the goods being transported were not going to a US company.
After his visit to the US, Mr Allawi will be even more dependent on Washington. He is likely to ally himselfto the Kurds in January'selections. Otherwise he does not have a political base.
-------- israel / palestine
Israel Razes 35 Palestinian Homes in Gaza
September 25, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Israel-Palestinians.html
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Israeli army bulldozers razed 35 homes in a Palestinian refugee camp Saturday, a U.N. official said, a day after a resident of a nearby Jewish settlement was killed by mortar fire from the area.
The army said most of the demolished structures in the Khan Younis camp were uninhabited and served as cover for militants shelling the nearby settlement of Neve Dekalim.
However, after troops withdrew Saturday, dozens of Palestinians pulled clothes, kitchen utensils, school books, mattresses and other belongings from the rubble. One resident said he and his four children had fled in their pajamas as the family's two-story house was destroyed.
The incursion began just after midnight Friday with a missile strike that killed a 55-year-old Palestinian and wounded five other people. The army said the missiles were aimed at militants trying to launch a rocket.
Tanks and army bulldozers then drove into the camp, drawing fire from Palestinian gunmen.
The fighting took place close to Neve Dekalim, where a Hamas mortar killed 24-year-old Tiferet Tratner, an Israeli-American, on Friday. The attack marked the first time a Gaza settler was killed by Palestinian shelling.
Relatives said Tratner was born in Israel but held U.S. citizenship by reason of her parents, who immigrated to Israel from New York City in 1967.
Neve Dekalim is one of 21 Gaza settlements, with a total of 8,200 residents, to be dismantled under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's ``unilateral disengagement'' plan. Sharon has argued that evacuating the Gaza settlements and four isolated West Bank enclaves will strengthen Israel's hold on other areas of the West Bank where most of its 236,000 settlers live.
Sharon is to present his Cabinet Sunday with draft legislation for carrying out the withdrawal, and the bill is to be put to a cabinet vote on Oct. 24. By Nov. 3, the legislation will be presented to parliament for a first of three votes after which it becomes law.
A missile fired by Palestinians at an Israeli target Saturday fell short of its target and hit a car in the Palestinian town of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, blowing up the vehicle but causing no injuries, witnesses said.
In the south of the strip, soldiers fired at a group of Palestinians they said were preparing to launch an anti-tank missile at the settlement of Rafiah Yam, an army spokesman said, adding that the army fire caused the missile to explode, injuring the men. Palestinian hospital staff said four men were injured in the incident but their wounds were not life-threatening.
The army said two rockets were launched after dark Saturday, one falling in a field near the Israeli town of Sderot and other near an army post in the northern Gaza Strip. There were no casualties, the military said.
Sunset marked the end of Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, when observant Jews pray, fast and ask for forgiveness. Israel shut down for the fast, closing its borders, roads, and airports. Armed guards were posted at synagogues and soldiers enforced a blanket closure of the West Bank and Gaza.
Israeli and Palestinian officials said that among those hit by the border closure were Palestinian security personnel due to start training in Egypt, to prepare for the Israeli withdrawal. An Israeli official said the men had failed to apply for special permits exempting them from the frontier shutdown.
In Khan Younis, 35 houses -- standard camp structures consisting of two rooms each -- were destroyed Saturday, according to a field researcher of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which assists refugees.
Fathi Zaroub, a father of four, said he was at home when a bulldozer approached before dawn Saturday.
``We were forced to leave the house under intensive shooting from the sky and from the tanks,'' Zaroub said by telephone from the camp. ``We took nothing from our belongings. We ran away in our pajamas, and we have no other refuge ... I don't know where I am going to take my children.''
Some 20,000 homes have been destroyed and about 130,000 Palestinians have been made homeless by Israeli house demolitions in Gaza and the West Bank in the past four years of fighting, according to the Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights,
Israel does not provide its own figures but says it generally targets houses and buildings that serve as cover for Palestinian militants. In many areas, troops have destroyed entire blocks to widen buffer zones between Palestinian camps or towns and Jewish settlements.
Both Israel and the Palestinians have intensified fighting in Gaza. The Palestinian militants want to portray Israel's planned withdrawal in 2005 as a hasty retreat under fire, while Israel wants to pound the militant groups before leaving.
--------
Israeli Army Flattens Rows of Houses in Gaza Raid
By REUTERS
September 25, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-mideast.html
GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli forces stormed into a Palestinian refugee camp Saturday, killing one man and flattening rows of houses in a growing cycle of violence that threatens to complicate Israel's plan to withdraw from Gaza.
The raid in the southern Gaza Strip followed a mortar attack on a Jewish settlement that killed a 24-year-old woman on Friday, and the ambush killings of three Israeli soldiers guarding another settlement the day before.
A 60-year-old man was killed in an air strike at the start of the incursion into the Khan Younis camp, where U.N. relief workers said Israeli armored bulldozers then destroyed up to 35 homes. It was not immediately known how many were inhabited.
Residents shaken from their beds only had time to grab a few belongings and flee before the start of demolition, a policy that international rights groups condemn as collective punishment but Israel calls self-defense.
Witnesses said up to 100 people were left homeless by the raid, which sparked gun battles between troops and militants.
``We ran away carrying our crying children ... My oldest son was hit by a bullet in the stomach,'' said Mazen Qanan, 43, as he returned with other residents to pick through the rubble of their leveled neighborhood.
An army spokesman said troops destroyed far fewer homes than U.N. officials and witnesses reported and insisted that all were abandoned structures used by militants to provide cover for firing mortar bombs and makeshift rockets at settlements.
The raid came on the fasting day of Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, with Israel shut down and its borders sealed.
``We condemn this Israeli escalation,'' Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat told Reuters. ``This military escalation will only...enlarge the cycle of violence and counter-violence.''
WORSENING BLOODSHED
Bloodshed has worsened in the Gaza Strip ahead of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's planned withdrawal of settlers and soldiers by the end of 2005.
Militants want to portray any Israeli pullout from occupied territory as fleeing under fire. But Israel's army appears determined to smash armed groups before leaving.
Sharon cannot afford escalating militant violence if he is to overcome opposition in his rightist coalition to evacuating Gaza and win a showdown with settlers who refuse to budge.
Polls show most Israelis favor Sharon's plan to uproot all 21 settlements in Gaza and four of 120 enclaves in the West Bank, but hard-liners see it as a ``reward for terror.''
The Khan Younis raid began under cover of darkness. Residents said a missile crashed near a mosque and medics said it killed a man of around 60 and wounded three other civilians.
The army said it fired at militants trying to launch a rocket into the adjacent Neve Dekalim settlement, where a mortar had killed a woman settler hours before the start of Yom Kippur.
Accusing Sharon of ``incitement to murder,'' settler spokesman Eran Sternberg said the government's offer to pay cash advances to settlers willing to leave their homes only encouraged Palestinian attacks on Jewish enclaves in the coastal strip.
Militants fire mortars at Gaza settlements almost daily, but it has been two years since the last death in such an attack.
Some 8,000 Israelis live in heavily fortified enclaves amid 1.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, which Israel captured along with the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war.
-------- mideast
G-8, Arab Governments Sign Democracy Pact
By Colum Lynch
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 25, 2004; Page A19
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48769-2004Sep24.html
NEW YORK, Sept. 24 -- Representatives of the eight major industrial powers and the Arab world signed an agreement Friday endorsing expansion of democratic institutions and a push for political reforms in the Middle East. The agreement came at a session that is part of the Forum for the Future, a key part of the Bush administration's plan to promote democracy in the region.
At the same time, Arab leaders who participated in the event at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel said more progress must be made in restoring full sovereignty to Iraq and settling the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis before the region can take strides toward meaningful political reform. And the forum statement reflected the region's insistence that Arab governments control democratic reforms in their countries -- a reflection of some countries' criticism that the United States has been too quick to prescribe reforms for sovereign nations.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, right, with Moroccan Foreign Minister Mohamed Benaissa, at a New York news conference. (Mary Altaffer -- AP)
Moroccan Foreign Minister Mohamed Benaissa, who co-chaired the meeting with Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, said that governments in the region cannot "carry out reforms" without "putting an end to the Palestinian tragedy and to the war waged against the Palestinian people."
The reaction underscored the challenge the Bush administration faces in pursuing its initiative to promote democracy in the Middle East. That effort faced another setback this week as Saudi Arabia postponed, for the second time, its plans to hold its first political elections, which were scheduled for November, until 2005.
Powell acknowledged that the United States and other governments recognize that "we must achieve peace and security throughout the region" to succeed in bringing reform to the Middle East. But he said that the region's conflicts were no justification for stalling.
"We don't shrink from that reality," he said. "But we can't not move forward while we are waiting for these difficult problems to be solved."
Powell challenged suggestions that the administration's close ties with Russia and Pakistan, which have restricted democratic rights in their countries, had undercut its case for Middle East democracy.
"I see Pakistan and Russia moving forward," said Powell, noting that he has not shied away from pointing out U.S. concerns about any backtracking. "But these are complex issues, and so we want to be good partners and friends to Pakistan and Russia, just as we want to be good partners and friends in the reform and modernization efforts that are going to be taking place within the broader Middle East process."
The Bush administration's plan to promote democracy in the Middle East has its roots in a speech by President Bush last year, in which he said the United States had erred in supporting autocratic governments in the region to achieve stability. But the administration's "Greater Middle East Initiative" -- initially intended to press Arab and South Asian governments to adopt major political and economic reforms -- has been scaled back in the face of resistance in the region.
Today's forum, which was created at a summit of the Group of 8 industrial nations hosted by Bush at Sea Island, Ga., in June, is devoted to promoting education, job creation and economic development. Representatives from 25 countries participated in the meeting.
Friday's meeting was criticized this past Monday by Egypt's foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, who questioned the event's relevance and complained that key Arab governments, including Syria and Libya, had been excluded.
In an address to the 191-member General Assembly, the Egyptian diplomat made no reference to the forum, and criticized U.S. and Israeli policies in Palestinian territories and in Iraq.
Other Arab governments reacted more favorably, saying the initiative gave impetus to reforms that are already underway in their countries.
"What's important is that the political reforms come from within and that every country has to do it at its own pace and that it does it without any patronizing or any pressure from outside," said Algeria's U.N. ambassador, Abdallah Baali.
-------- space
Mission to Space Station Called Vital
NASA Says Russian Ship Must Bring Oxygen, Food by Christmas
Associated Press
Saturday, September 25, 2004
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48636-2004Sep24.html
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Sept. 24 -- Oxygen and food will be worrisomely low on the international space station by Christmas, and it is crucial that a Russian supply ship get there by then, a top NASA official said Friday.
Complicating matters is the breakdown of the station's primary oxygen generator. The unit has barely worked this month despite intensive repair efforts by the two astronauts on board, and the men have had to tap into backup oxygen supplies.
The next Russian cargo ship is scheduled to be launched Dec. 23. That is around the time that supplies -- notably oxygen and food -- will be getting tight, said Bill Gerstenmaier, the space station program manager.
The situation will not be nearly as dire if the astronauts manage to get their main oxygen generator working again. But if they do not and a cargo ship cannot be launched by year's end, the space station will have to be abandoned, with the crew returning to Earth in their docked Russian capsule.
"We're a long way away from de-manning," Gerstenmaier said.
Gerstenmaier said the current crewmen -- Russian Gennady Padalka and American Edward "Mike" Fincke -- are in no immediate danger because of the multiple oxygen reserves on board. He said the same will be true for their replacements, who will rocket away from Kazakhstan on Oct. 11 on a six-month mission. Their capsule will carry more spare parts for the oxygen generator but have room for little else.
"When you couple all of those things together, you take a look at that and it's worth it to go ahead and put the crew on orbit," Gerstenmaier said. "They're not at any undue risk. There's plenty of capability. We have plenty of time to react, and we've got a lot of time to really work this issue to see what happens and what comes."
The space agency would not want to keep a crew on board if oxygen and food dwindled to less than about a 45-day supply, Gerstenmaier said. That "red line" would be reached right around the time the next supply ship is to arrive, on Christmas Day.
NASA has had to rely on the Russian Space Agency for all station crew and cargo deliveries since last year's Columbia accident. The shuttle fleet is not expected to resume flying until next spring at the earliest.
The Russian-built oxygen generator -- a source of repeated trouble -- shut down more than two weeks ago. Padalka has replaced suspect parts and flushed out clogged lines to little avail.
Engineers' latest theory is that the valve used for venting hydrogen overboard may be contaminated. The machine produces oxygen by breaking down waste water into its two basic chemical elements. Another oxygen generator is on board and might be usable, but it has its own history of malfunctions, Gerstenmaier said.
-------- us
3 More Navy SEALs Face Abuse Charges
Sailors Linked to Two Deaths in Iraq
By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 25, 2004; Page A16
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48674-2004Sep24.html
Three members of an elite Navy SEAL team conducting operations in Iraq have been charged with several crimes in detainee abuses that included at least two deaths, Navy officials announced yesterday, bringing the total number of SEAL team members from the same unit charged with such crimes to seven.
The three sailors, who were not identified by name, are charged with counts that include assault with a dangerous weapon, aggravated assault with intent to cause death or serious bodily harm, and maltreatment of detainees. While none of the six SEALs and one support sailor has been charged with manslaughter or homicide, investigators have linked some of them to at least two detainee deaths in Iraq, in November 2003 and April 2004, Navy officials said.
One of the deaths was the highly publicized case of a detainee who died in CIA custody at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison on Nov. 4, 2003, a case Army officials have said began when a group of SEALs took the detainee into custody and violently struggled with him. That detainee was handed over to CIA operatives; military police officers at the prison later photographed his corpse packed in ice.
Pentagon officials acknowledged the second case earlier this year with the release of sparsely filled-out death certificates, but there have been few details on it until now.
According to two Pentagon officials speaking on the condition of anonymity because the death is part of an ongoing investigation, that detainee was captured in the far northern reaches of Iraq in early April and was seriously roughed up by the SEALs as he resisted. He died in Mosul on April 5.
In many ways, that death mirrored the Abu Ghraib case, and according to Navy officials it was linked to the same unit, Navy SEAL Team 7, which was carrying out clandestine operations in Iraq with the CIA. The team, which includes about 200 members, was working to find important insurgent and terrorist targets.
Identified in official death certificates as Fashad Mohamed, a male detainee of unspecified age, he was taken into custody on the battlefield near the Army's Diamondback logistics support area. Mohamed appeared at the facility having sustained unspecified injuries, officials said, apparently after he fought the SEALs at his capture.
"He was interrogated and was then allowed to sleep," said a Pentagon official familiar with the investigative reports. "At some point in the early hours of April 5th, he was found unresponsive."
The official death certificate for Mohamed, dated May 14, lists no details about the nature of his injuries or the cause of death, saying only that both are "pending." A spokesman for the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, which is in charge of the autopsy, said last night that Mohamed's death remains under investigation and that no details or conclusions about his cause of death have been determined.
The seven members of the elite Navy force charged with detainee abuses equal the number of military police soldiers facing charges of abuse for allegedly mistreating detainees at Abu Ghraib. While the MP abuses were captured on digital cameras and created an international firestorm, none of the MP soldiers has been implicated in a homicide or suspicious death.
A Navy official said yesterday that none of the SEALs has been specifically charged with a homicide because there is no conclusive evidence that anything they did caused a detainee to die, as both cases investigated so far involved people who died in the custody of the CIA and the Army. Cmdr. Jeffrey Bender, a spokesman for the Naval Special Warfare Command in San Diego, said the investigation is still open and more charges could arise.
Researcher Lucy Shackelford contributed to this report.
-------- war crimes
Hussein's Trial Not Likely to Begin This Year, U.S. Official Says
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, September 25, 2004; Page A14
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48640-2004Sep24.html
BAGHDAD, Sept. 24 -- The trials of former president Saddam Hussein and his top lieutenants likely will not begin this year, a U.S. official here said Friday, contradicting a recent pronouncement from Iraq's interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi, that Hussein's trial could commence as soon as next month.
Allawi has sought to speed up the trials by exhorting judges and investigators to accelerate their work and by replacing the administrator of the special tribunal that will conduct the trials. The prime minister has said he wants the proceedings to begin before national elections, scheduled for January.
But the U.S. official, who is part of team of Americans advising the tribunal, cast doubt on that timetable because of the complexity in proving that Hussein and other top officials ordered soldiers and low-ranking government officials to commit atrocities.
"These are very difficult trials," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "These are command-responsibility cases. . . . You have to follow the chain of command up. It takes time and it takes effort, and it's not self-evident, and there's no way around it. These cases proceed at their own pace."
The official added that the "likelihood of trials in the near future is remote."
In an interview last Sunday with ABC's "This Week" program, Allawi said Hussein and his lieutenants could go on trial as soon as next month. "Roughly speaking, I think October," he said, adding that the evidence of war crimes and other atrocities against the former president was "overwhelming."
Iraqis involved in the tribunal have said it could take more than a year to prepare for trials. First, they said, investigators must gather the necessary evidence, investigating judges must conduct preliminary proceedings and defense attorneys must have an opportunity to meet with the accused. Thus far, none of the defendants has had a chance to consult with an attorney.
Among the changes Allawi has imposed on the tribunal has been the replacement of its administrator, Salem Chalabi, a nephew of Ahmed Chalabi, a long-time political rival of Allawi. Salem Chalabi's replacement is a member of Allawi's political party.
In a scathing statement issued Thursday, Chalabi accused Allawi of manipulating the court for political purposes.
"The interim government is attempting to politicize the Tribunal to such a large extent that I am very worried that the policies of a fair, independent judicial process, inherent in the Statute of the Iraqi Special Tribunal will be shunted aside," Chalabi wrote. "The future of Iraq depends on justice being done and being seen to be done by the Iraqi people. Show trials followed by speedy executions may help the interim government politically in the short term but will be counterproductive for the development of democracy and the rule of law in Iraq in the long-term."
Chalabi also accused Allawi's government of taking control of the tribunal to quash potential indictments of some former senior members of Hussein's Baath Party. He said his "insistence on the independence of the Tribunal" proved "inconvenient to the secret policy of the interim government to grant amnesty to or otherwise work out deals with senior Baathists inside and outside Iraq."
The U.S. official said he had seen no evidence of political pressure on the tribunal, noting that investigative judges, who are making most of the significant decisions at the moment, are coming to their decisions independently of the tribunal's administrator. "No one from any quarter has pressured us to do anything," the official said.
--------
Chile's Pinochet Questioned by Investigative Judge
By REUTERS
September 25, 2004
SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) - An investigative judge questioned former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet for half an hour on Saturday to decide whether to indict him in one of hundreds of human rights cases stemming from his 1973-1990 rule.
Pinochet, 88, told the judge he had no knowledge of the 19 leftist dead and disappeared in the ``Operation Condor'' case that is being investigated, a judicial system source told Reuters, on condition of anonymity.
The source quoted Pinochet as saying Operation Condor, a coordinated plan by South American military regimes to track down and eliminate dissidents, was handled by mid-level officers in the military chain of command.
The judge said he was satisfied with the questioning.
``General Pinochet's declaration lasted 20 to 30 minutes. He seemed quite tired, and congested. There were about six questions and he answered them directly,'' Judge Juan Guzman, who the defense has accused of bias against Pinochet, told a local television station.
It was only the second time the retired general has been questioned in a human rights case by an investigating judge -- who acts as a prosecutor in Chile.
A police security cordon surrounded Pinochet's house in the wealth La Dehesa neighborhood at the foot of the Andes in Santiago during the questioning. Pinochet was accompanied by his physician and close family members.
Pinochet, who took power in 1973 in a U.S.-encouraged military coup, faces hundreds of different human rights accusations by relatives who were imprisoned, tortured and killed by secret police and the military.
An estimated 3,000 people on both sides of Chile's so-called dirty war died in political violence during his regime.
He left office in 1990 and Chile returned to democracy. For years he seemed untouchable and continued as head of Chile's military, but his surprise 1998 arrest in London on international charges of crimes against humanity made by a Spanish judge unleashed a torrent of legal cases against him in Chile.
In August Chile's Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision to strip Pinochet of immunity from prosecution, which is granted to former presidents in Chile, in the Operation Condor case.
Guzman seeks to determine the level of Pinochet's responsibility in the killings and disappearances of 19 Chilean leftists who human rights lawyers say were kidnapped and killed in 1975 and 1976 in other South American countries under Operation Condor.
The immunity still holds in all the other cases.
The only other time Pinochet's immunity was removed in a human rights case was four years ago. He avoided trial when the Supreme Court ruled his mild dementia made him unfit.
The defense still has many opportunities to derail the Operation Condor case. Next week court-appointed mental health experts are expected to examine the former dictator.
Pinochet has diabetes, a heart condition and other health problems. He no longer participates directly in politics.
Some legal experts say the mental health defense will be tougher to argue now, since Pinochet gave a lucid media interview last year, and last month gave testimony to another judge who is investigating his recently discovered multimillion-dollar offshore bank accounts.
-------- POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE
Human Dignity, Crazy Mike, and Indian Country
by Jim Lobe
September 25, 2004
(Inter Press Service)
http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=3650
The reason why Washington is having such a difficult time persuading others of its good faith and its good works in the "war on terror" was best illustrated Tuesday this week.
While President George W. Bush told the UN General Assembly that the U.S. belief in "human dignity" - a phrase he used no less than 10 times - was the main U.S. motivation for pursuing the war, two articles that appeared in two major U.S. newspapers the same morning offered an altogether different subtext.
The first piece, titled "Indian Country," was written by one of the administration's geo-strategic gurus, Robert D. Kaplan, and published on the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal.
Kaplan, who is writing a series of books about the U.S. military, extolled the wonders of U.S. Special Forces operating in small units from "forward operating bases" (FOBs) without direction from any "Washington bureaucracy" and outside the scrutiny of the global media.
Just like "in the days of fighting the Indians," wrote Kaplan, "the smaller the tactical unit, the more forward deployed it is, and the more autonomy it enjoys from the chain of command, the more that can be accomplished."
Unbeknownst to Kaplan and, presumably, to Bush, as well, the Los Angeles Times that morning was publishing a front-page article that gave one example of precisely what such a unit could do.
Based on reports by a UN team, the Washington-based Crimes of War Project, and the office of the Afghan Armed Forces attorney general, the Times described how U.S. Special Forces at one FOB in southeastern Afghanistan last year beat and tortured eight Afghan soldiers over no less than 17 days, until one of their victims, 18-year-old Jamal Naseer, died.
The eight were taken to the Special Forces FOB near Gardez on March 1, 2003, after they were seized while manning a security checkpoint amid suspicions, apparently planted by local faction leaders competing for US support, that Afghan army units in the area were selling arms to the Taliban.
According to the consistent testimony of the men, they were "pummeled, kicked, karate-chopped, hung upside down and struck repeatedly with sticks, rubber hoses and plastic-covered cables," the Times reported. "Some said they were immersed in cold water, then made to lie in the snow. Some said they were kept blindfolded for long periods and subjected to electric shocks to their toes."
During their ordeal, they were never given medical help or even provided with a change of clothes.
After Naseer's death, his battered body and the seven survivors were handed over to local Afghan police by a Special Forces commander who threatened to kill the police chief if he released any of the prisoners, according to an official of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), who witnessed the warning.
They were held there with as many as 13 other inmates in a "secret detention room" built for five prisoners for the next month and a half - apparently until their wounds had healed. UNAMA interviewed them during their stay there and found that their injuries were consistent with their testimony.
They were finally transferred to a prison near Kabul and released after authorities there found no evidence that they had committed any crimes or had ties to anti-government groups. The prison also referred the case to the attorney general.
The Afghan military has requested an explanation of the incident from the U.S. military authorities, according to the attorney general's report, who so far have provided no response. After the Times began inquiring about the case last weekend, the Pentagon announced that it has launched a criminal investigation.
But as of Tuesday, investigators said they did not know who precisely was running the Gardez base, other than units from the 20th Special Forces Group based in Birmingham, Ala.
Consistent with Kaplan's notion that the Special Forces should operate as independently as possible from Washington bureaucrats, however, an Army detective in Kabul told the Times, "There are no records. . . . There are no SOPs (standard operating procedures) . . . and each unit acts differently."
"Mike," the name used by the commanding officer of the FOB at the time, is a common pseudonym for intelligence and Special Forces officers working in Afghanistan, although this particular "Mike" apparently stood out for his aggressiveness, because at least one of his fellow soldiers referred to him as "Crazy Mike."
At a March 10, 2003 meeting - that is, 10 days into the victims' captivity - "Crazy Mike" attended a security meeting sponsored by UNAMA in Gardez during which he warned local Afghan commanders that he would kill any of them if they released prisoners taken by his unit.
It's unclear whether "Crazy Mike" was also the commander who threatened the local chief police with death if he released the prisoners.
The commander of the detained Afghan unit was Naseer's older brother. He testified that after Naseer's death, there was an argument between two U.S. officers during which one grabbed the other by the collar and said that Naseer should have been shot rather than tortured. One U.S. officer offered condolences and money, which was refused, according to the brother's account.
Naseer's death was never officially reported up the chain of command, so that the Pentagon's recent report in the wake of the Abu Ghraib scandal that a total of 39 detainees have died in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan now appears incomplete.
How incomplete is, of course, unknown, and the incident at Gardez may, indeed, be another case of a "few rotten apples" that the administration has tried blame for the abuses at Abu Ghraib.
On the other hand, this latest incident - and particularly the fact that it was carried out over almost two weeks - certainly adds to the impression that abuses of detainees were indeed far more pervasive the administration has ever admitted.
Kaplan, whose 2001 best-selling book, Warrior Politics: Why Leadership Demands a Pagan Ethos, extolled waging war without mercy, has long argued that maintaining global order is a rough business and that even "successful" wars like those against the Indians or the U.S. counter-insurgency campaign in the Philippines a century ago inevitably lead to excesses. The extent that they can be kept out of the media spotlight - which, of course, is precisely what the Bush administration has tried to do - is all to the good, according to Kaplan's perspective.
"'In Indian country', as one general officer told me, 'you want to whack bad guys quietly and cover your tracks with humanitarian-aid projects,'" Kaplan wrote Tuesday.
"The red Indian metaphor is one with which a liberal policy nomenklatura may be uncomfortable," he went on, "but Army and Marine field officers have embraced it because it captures perfectly the combat challenge of the early 21st century."
Noting that it was the great Victorian leader, William Gladstone, who called on British troops to protect "the sanctity of life in the hill villages of Afghanistan," Kaplan stressed that U.S. leaders must also appeal to the idealism of their citizens in another article he wrote last year on U.S. supremacy.
"Americans are truly idealistic by nature, but even if we weren't, our historical and geographical circumstances necessitate that U.S. foreign policy be robed in idealism," Kaplan wrote in the same article. "And yet security concerns necessarily make our foreign policy more pagan."
"Speak Victorian, Think Pagan," he advised U.S. policymakers. And, thus, while the UN delegates must have heard Bush's rhetoric about "human dignity," they might have been thinking about "Crazy Mike" in "Indian Country."
-------- homeland security / national intelligence
TSA Tests Relaxed Security for Team Charter Flights
By Sara Kehaulani Goo
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 25, 2004; Page E02
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48923-2004Sep24.html
When the Washington Redskins flew out of Dulles International Airport last weekend for their game with the New York Giants, the Transportation Security Administration's chief operating officer, Jonathan Fleming, was there to see them off -- not as a fan of the football team, but to monitor a pilot program loosening security procedures for professional sports teams flying on chartered jets.
The Redskins players and coaches didn't have to go through all of the metal detector, X-ray and other screening procedures required under current rules as they boarded their chartered jet, operated by UAL Corp.'s United Airlines.
"We're running a pilot to see if there's a benefit" to creating new rules for sports teams, said TSA spokesman Mark Hatfield. The program is with United, he said, and the Redskins "just happened to be the first one."
Current security rules for chartered flights differ depending on the aircraft size. Operators of smaller planes, such as Learjets used by corporate executives, must ensure only that criminal history checks have been conducted on the flight crew and that access to the flight deck is restricted. Those flying larger jets, such as ones used by professional sports teams or vacationers on cheap trips to the Caribbean, must "ensure that the aircraft is free of weapons, explosives, and incendiaries before the individuals board," according to the government rules.
Hatfield said the TSA is considering whether chartered flights for sports teams, which usually include the same passengers, could abide by rules that are less stringent than those that apply to large planes.
The Redskins and other professional sports organizations contacted yesterday said they had not asked the government to relax charter rules, even though some sports leagues complained when the rules were put into effect after the terrorist attacks in 2001.
"We didn't ask for anything," said Redskins spokesman Karl Swanson. "The TSA asked us if we'd be part of a pilot program. I assume it's because we're based in Washington and it's easy for them."
The idea for loosening the charter security rules came up at a meeting at the agency's operational center in Virginia this summer with major professional sports leagues, TSA officials said.
A spokesman for the National Football League did not recall that the topic was mentioned. "We certainly, as a league, did not ask for any uniform modifications to the law," said Greg Aiello, spokesman for the league. "However, that's not to say an individual team has not asked for some different solution to conform with the law."
Major League Baseball, each of whose teams has 162 regular-season games a year, half of them on the road, raised questions about the security procedures earlier. But an official yesterday said the league did not ask the TSA to get rid of the rules.
"We thought sports teams obviously would be less threatening just for the very reason about the same group traveling together," said Kevin Hallinan, senior vice president for security and facility management for Major League Baseball.
-------- POLITICS
How Bush's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power
Rumours of a link between the US first family and the Nazi war machine have circulated for decades. Now the Guardian can reveal how repercussions of events that culminated in action under the Trading with the Enemy Act are still being felt by today's president
The Guardian
September 25, 2004
Ben Aris in Berlin and Duncan Campbell in Washington
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1312540,00.html
George Bush's grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany.
The Guardian has obtained confirmation from newly discovered files in the US National Archives that a firm of which Prescott Bush was a director was involved with the financial architects of Nazism.
His business dealings, which continued until his company's assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act, has led more than 60 years later to a civil action for damages being brought in Germany against the Bush family by two former slave labourers at Auschwitz and to a hum of pre-election controversy.
The evidence has also prompted one former US Nazi war crimes prosecutor to argue that the late senator's action should have been grounds for prosecution for giving aid and comfort to the enemy.
The debate over Prescott Bush's behaviour has been bubbling under the surface for some time. There has been a steady internet chatter about the "Bush/Nazi" connection, much of it inaccurate and unfair. But the new documents, many of which were only declassified last year, show that even after America had entered the war and when there was already significant information about the Nazis' plans and policies, he worked for and profited from companies closely involved with the very German businesses that financed Hitler's rise to power. It has also been suggested that the money he made from these dealings helped to establish the Bush family fortune and set up its political dynasty.
Remarkably, little of Bush's dealings with Germany has received public scrutiny, partly because of the secret status of the documentation involving him. But now the multibillion dollar legal action for damages by two Holocaust survivors against the Bush family, and the imminent publication of three books on the subject are threatening to make Prescott Bush's business history an uncomfortable issue for his grandson, George W, as he seeks re-election.
While there is no suggestion that Prescott Bush was sympathetic to the Nazi cause, the documents reveal that the firm he worked for, Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH), acted as a US base for the German industrialist, Fritz Thyssen, who helped finance Hitler in the 1930s before falling out with him at the end of the decade. The Guardian has seen evidence that shows Bush was the director of the New York-based Union Banking Corporation (UBC) that represented Thyssen's US interests and he continued to work for the bank after America entered the war.
Tantalising
Bush was also on the board of at least one of the companies that formed part of a multinational network of front companies to allow Thyssen to move assets around the world.
Thyssen owned the largest steel and coal company in Germany and grew rich from Hitler's efforts to re-arm between the two world wars. One of the pillars in Thyssen's international corporate web, UBC, worked exclusively for, and was owned by, a Thyssen-controlled bank in the Netherlands. More tantalising are Bush's links to the Consolidated Silesian Steel Company (CSSC), based in mineral rich Silesia on the German-Polish border. During the war, the company made use of Nazi slave labour from the concentration camps, including Auschwitz. The ownership of CSSC changed hands several times in the 1930s, but documents from the US National Archive declassified last year link Bush to CSSC, although it is not clear if he and UBC were still involved in the company when Thyssen's American assets were seized in 1942.
Three sets of archives spell out Prescott Bush's involvement. All three are readily available, thanks to the efficient US archive system and a helpful and dedicated staff at both the Library of Congress in Washington and the National Archives at the University of Maryland.
The first set of files, the Harriman papers in the Library of Congress, show that Prescott Bush was a director and shareholder of a number of companies involved with Thyssen.
The second set of papers, which are in the National Archives, are contained in vesting order number 248 which records the seizure of the company assets. What these files show is that on October 20 1942 the alien property custodian seized the assets of the UBC, of which Prescott Bush was a director. Having gone through the books of the bank, further seizures were made against two affiliates, the Holland-American Trading Corporation and the Seamless Steel Equipment Corporation. By November, the Silesian-American Company, another of Prescott Bush's ventures, had also been seized.
The third set of documents, also at the National Archives, are contained in the files on IG Farben, who was prosecuted for war crimes.
A report issued by the Office of Alien Property Custodian in 1942 stated of the companies that "since 1939, these (steel and mining) properties have been in possession of and have been operated by the German government and have undoubtedly been of considerable assistance to that country's war effort".
Prescott Bush, a 6ft 4in charmer with a rich singing voice, was the founder of the Bush political dynasty and was once considered a potential presidential candidate himself. Like his son, George, and grandson, George W, he went to Yale where he was, again like his descendants, a member of the secretive and influential Skull and Bones student society. He was an artillery captain in the first world war and married Dorothy Walker, the daughter of George Herbert Walker, in 1921.
In 1924, his father-in-law, a well-known St Louis investment banker, helped set him up in business in New York with Averill Harriman, the wealthy son of railroad magnate E H Harriman in New York, who had gone into banking.
One of the first jobs Walker gave Bush was to manage UBC. Bush was a founding member of the bank and the incorporation documents, which list him as one of seven directors, show he owned one share in UBC worth $125.
The bank was set up by Harriman and Bush's father-in-law to provide a US bank for the Thyssens, Germany's most powerful industrial family.
August Thyssen, the founder of the dynasty had been a major contributor to Germany's first world war effort and in the 1920s, he and his sons Fritz and Heinrich established a network of overseas banks and companies so their assets and money could be whisked offshore if threatened again.
By the time Fritz Thyssen inherited the business empire in 1926, Germany's economic recovery was faltering. After hearing Adolf Hitler speak, Thyssen became mesmerised by the young firebrand. He joined the Nazi party in December 1931 and admits backing Hitler in his autobiography, I Paid Hitler, when the National Socialists were still a radical fringe party. He stepped in several times to bail out the struggling party: in 1928 Thyssen had bought the Barlow Palace on Briennerstrasse, in Munich, which Hitler converted into the Brown House, the headquarters of the Nazi party. The money came from another Thyssen overseas institution, the Bank voor Handel en Scheepvarrt in Rotterdam.
By the late 1930s, Brown Brothers Harriman, which claimed to be the world's largest private investment bank, and UBC had bought and shipped millions of dollars of gold, fuel, steel, coal and US treasury bonds to Germany, both feeding and financing Hitler's build-up to war.
Between 1931 and 1933 UBC bought more than $8m worth of gold, of which $3m was shipped abroad. According to documents seen by the Guardian, after UBC was set up it transferred $2m to BBH accounts and between 1924 and 1940 the assets of UBC hovered around $3m, dropping to $1m only on a few occasions.
In 1941, Thyssen fled Germany after falling out with Hitler but he was captured in France and detained for the remainder of the war.
There was nothing illegal in doing business with the Thyssens throughout the 1930s and many of America's best-known business names invested heavily in the German economic recovery. However, everything changed after Germany invaded Poland in 1939. Even then it could be argued that BBH was within its rights continuing business relations with the Thyssens until the end of 1941 as the US was still technically neutral until the attack on Pearl Harbor. The trouble started on July 30 1942 when the New York Herald-Tribune ran an article entitled "Hitler's Angel Has $3m in US Bank". UBC's huge gold purchases had raised suspicions that the bank was in fact a "secret nest egg" hidden in New York for Thyssen and other Nazi bigwigs. The Alien Property Commission (APC) launched an investigation.
There is no dispute over the fact that the US government seized a string of assets controlled by BBH - including UBC and SAC - in the autumn of 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy act. What is in dispute is if Harriman, Walker and Bush did more than own these companies on paper.
Erwin May, a treasury attache and officer for the department of investigation in the APC, was assigned to look into UBC's business. The first fact to emerge was that Roland Harriman, Prescott Bush and the other directors didn't actually own their shares in UBC but merely held them on behalf of Bank voor Handel. Strangely, no one seemed to know who owned the Rotterdam-based bank, including UBC's president.
May wrote in his report of August 16 1941: "Union Banking Corporation, incorporated August 4 1924, is wholly owned by the Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart N.V of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. My investigation has produced no evidence as to the ownership of the Dutch bank. Mr Cornelis [sic] Lievense, president of UBC, claims no knowledge as to the ownership of the Bank voor Handel but believes it possible that Baron Heinrich Thyssen, brother of Fritz Thyssen, may own a substantial interest."
May cleared the bank of holding a golden nest egg for the Nazi leaders but went on to describe a network of companies spreading out from UBC across Europe, America and Canada, and how money from voor Handel travelled to these companies through UBC.
By September May had traced the origins of the non-American board members and found that Dutchman HJ Kouwenhoven - who met with Harriman in 1924 to set up UBC - had several other jobs: in addition to being the managing director of voor Handel he was also the director of the August Thyssen bank in Berlin and a director of Fritz Thyssen's Union Steel Works, the holding company that controlled Thyssen's steel and coal mine empire in Germany.
Within a few weeks, Homer Jones, the chief of the APC investigation and research division sent a memo to the executive committee of APC recommending the US government vest UBC and its assets. Jones named the directors of the bank in the memo, including Prescott Bush's name, and wrote: "Said stock is held by the above named individuals, however, solely as nominees for the Bank voor Handel, Rotterdam, Holland, which is owned by one or more of the Thyssen family, nationals of Germany and Hungary. The 4,000 shares hereinbefore set out are therefore beneficially owned and help for the interests of enemy nationals, and are vestible by the APC," according to the memo from the National Archives seen by the Guardian.
Red-handed
Jones recommended that the assets be liquidated for the benefit of the government, but instead UBC was maintained intact and eventually returned to the American shareholders after the war. Some claim that Bush sold his share in UBC after the war for $1.5m - a huge amount of money at the time - but there is no documentary evidence to support this claim. No further action was ever taken nor was the investigation continued, despite the fact UBC was caught red-handed operating a American shell company for the Thyssen family eight months after America had entered the war and that this was the bank that had partly financed Hitler's rise to power.
The most tantalising part of the story remains shrouded in mystery: the connection, if any, between Prescott Bush, Thyssen, Consolidated Silesian Steel Company (CSSC) and Auschwitz.
Thyssen's partner in United Steel Works, which had coal mines and steel plants across the region, was Friedrich Flick, another steel magnate who also owned part of IG Farben, the powerful German chemical company.
Flick's plants in Poland made heavy use of slave labour from the concentration camps in Poland. According to a New York Times article published in March 18 1934 Flick owned two-thirds of CSSC while "American interests" held the rest.
The US National Archive documents show that BBH's involvement with CSSC was more than simply holding the shares in the mid-1930s. Bush's friend and fellow "bonesman" Knight Woolley, another partner at BBH, wrote to Averill Harriman in January 1933 warning of problems with CSSC after the Poles started their drive to nationalise the plant. "The Consolidated Silesian Steel Company situation has become increasingly complicated, and I have accordingly brought in Sullivan and Cromwell, in order to be sure that our interests are protected," wrote Knight. "After studying the situation Foster Dulles is insisting that their man in Berlin get into the picture and obtain the information which the directors here should have. You will recall that Foster is a director and he is particularly anxious to be certain that there is no liability attaching to the American directors."
But the ownership of the CSSC between 1939 when the Germans invaded Poland and 1942 when the US government vested UBC and SAC is not clear.
"SAC held coal mines and definitely owned CSSC between 1934 and 1935, but when SAC was vested there was no trace of CSSC. All concrete evidence of its ownership disappears after 1935 and there are only a few traces in 1938 and 1939," says Eva Schweitzer, the journalist and author whose book, America and the Holocaust, is published next month.
Silesia was quickly made part of the German Reich after the invasion, but while Polish factories were seized by the Nazis, those belonging to the still neutral Americans (and some other nationals) were treated more carefully as Hitler was still hoping to persuade the US to at least sit out the war as a neutral country. Schweitzer says American interests were dealt with on a case-by-case basis. The Nazis bought some out, but not others.
The two Holocaust survivors suing the US government and the Bush family for a total of $40bn in compensation claim both materially benefited from Auschwitz slave labour during the second world war.
Kurt Julius Goldstein, 87, and Peter Gingold, 85, began a class action in America in 2001, but the case was thrown out by Judge Rosemary Collier on the grounds that the government cannot be held liable under the principle of "state sovereignty".
Jan Lissmann, one of the lawyers for the survivors, said: "President Bush withdrew President Bill Clinton's signature from the treaty [that founded the court] not only to protect Americans, but also to protect himself and his family."
Lissmann argues that genocide-related cases are covered by international law, which does hold governments accountable for their actions. He claims the ruling was invalid as no hearing took place.
In their claims, Mr Goldstein and Mr Gingold, honorary chairman of the League of Anti-fascists, suggest the Americans were aware of what was happening at Auschwitz and should have bombed the camp.
The lawyers also filed a motion in The Hague asking for an opinion on whether state sovereignty is a valid reason for refusing to hear their case. A ruling is expected within a month.
The petition to The Hague states: "From April 1944 on, the American Air Force could have destroyed the camp with air raids, as well as the railway bridges and railway lines from Hungary to Auschwitz. The murder of about 400,000 Hungarian Holocaust victims could have been prevented."
The case is built around a January 22 1944 executive order signed by President Franklin Roosevelt calling on the government to take all measures to rescue the European Jews. The lawyers claim the order was ignored because of pressure brought by a group of big American companies, including BBH, where Prescott Bush was a director.
Lissmann said: "If we have a positive ruling from the court it will cause [president] Bush huge problems and make him personally liable to pay compensation."
The US government and the Bush family deny all the claims against them.
In addition to Eva Schweitzer's book, two other books are about to be published that raise the subject of Prescott Bush's business history. The author of the second book, to be published next year, John Loftus, is a former US attorney who prosecuted Nazi war criminals in the 70s. Now living in St Petersburg, Florida and earning his living as a security commentator for Fox News and ABC radio, Loftus is working on a novel which uses some of the material he has uncovered on Bush. Loftus stressed that what Prescott Bush was involved in was just what many other American and British businessmen were doing at the time.
"You can't blame Bush for what his grandfather did any more than you can blame Jack Kennedy for what his father did - bought Nazi stocks - but what is important is the cover-up, how it could have gone on so successfully for half a century, and does that have implications for us today?" he said.
"This was the mechanism by which Hitler was funded to come to power, this was the mechanism by which the Third Reich's defence industry was re-armed, this was the mechanism by which Nazi profits were repatriated back to the American owners, this was the mechanism by which investigations into the financial laundering of the Third Reich were blunted," said Loftus, who is vice-chairman of the Holocaust Museum in St Petersburg.
"The Union Banking Corporation was a holding company for the Nazis, for Fritz Thyssen," said Loftus. "At various times, the Bush family has tried to spin it, saying they were owned by a Dutch bank and it wasn't until the Nazis took over Holland that they realised that now the Nazis controlled the apparent company and that is why the Bush supporters claim when the war was over they got their money back. Both the American treasury investigations and the intelligence investigations in Europe completely bely that, it's absolute horseshit. They always knew who the ultimate beneficiaries were."
"There is no one left alive who could be prosecuted but they did get away with it," said Loftus. "As a former federal prosecutor, I would make a case for Prescott Bush, his father-in-law (George Walker) and Averill Harriman [to be prosecuted] for giving aid and comfort to the enemy. They remained on the boards of these companies knowing that they were of financial benefit to the nation of Germany."
Loftus said Prescott Bush must have been aware of what was happening in Germany at the time. "My take on him was that he was a not terribly successful in-law who did what Herbert Walker told him to. Walker and Harriman were the two evil geniuses, they didn't care about the Nazis any more than they cared about their investments with the Bolsheviks."
What is also at issue is how much money Bush made from his involvement. His supporters suggest that he had one token share. Loftus disputes this, citing sources in "the banking and intelligence communities" and suggesting that the Bush family, through George Herbert Walker and Prescott, got $1.5m out of the involvement. There is, however, no paper trail to this sum.
The third person going into print on the subject is John Buchanan, 54, a Miami-based magazine journalist who started examining the files while working on a screenplay. Last year, Buchanan published his findings in the venerable but small-circulation New Hampshire Gazette under the headline "Documents in National Archives Prove George Bush's Grandfather Traded With the Nazis - Even After Pearl Harbor". He expands on this in his book to be published next month - Fixing America: Breaking the Stranglehold of Corporate Rule, Big Media and the Religious Right.
In the article, Buchanan, who has worked mainly in the trade and music press with a spell as a muckraking reporter in Miami, claimed that "the essential facts have appeared on the internet and in relatively obscure books but were dismissed by the media and Bush family as undocumented diatribes".
Buchanan suffers from hypermania, a form of manic depression, and when he found himself rebuffed in his initial efforts to interest the media, he responded with a series of threats against the journalists and media outlets that had spurned him. The threats, contained in e-mails, suggested that he would expose the journalists as "traitors to the truth".
Unsurprisingly, he soon had difficulty getting his calls returned. Most seriously, he faced aggravated stalking charges in Miami, in connection with a man with whom he had fallen out over the best way to publicise his findings. The charges were dropped last month.
Biography
Buchanan said he regretted his behaviour had damaged his credibility but his main aim was to secure publicity for the story. Both Loftus and Schweitzer say Buchanan has come up with previously undisclosed documentation.
The Bush family have largely responded with no comment to any reference to Prescott Bush. Brown Brothers Harriman also declined to comment. The Bush family recently approved a flattering biography of Prescott Bush entitled Duty, Honour, Country by Mickey Herskowitz. The publishers, Rutledge Hill Press, promised the book would "deal honestly with Prescott Bush's alleged business relationships with Nazi industrialists and other accusations".
In fact, the allegations are dealt with in less than two pages. The book refers to the Herald-Tribune story by saying that "a person of less established ethics would have panicked ... Bush and his partners at Brown Brothers Harriman informed the government regulators that the account, opened in the late 1930s, was 'an unpaid courtesy for a client' ... Prescott Bush acted quickly and openly on behalf of the firm, served well by a reputation that had never been compromised. He made available all records and all documents. Viewed six decades later in the era of serial corporate scandals and shattered careers, he received what can be viewed as the ultimate clean bill."
The Prescott Bush story has been condemned by both conservatives and some liberals as having nothing to do with the current president. It has also been suggested that Prescott Bush had little to do with Averill Harriman and that the two men opposed each other politically.
However, documents from the Harriman papers include a flattering wartime profile of Harriman in the New York Journal American and next to it in the files is a letter to the financial editor of that paper from Prescott Bush congratulating the paper for running the profile. He added that Harriman's "performance and his whole attitude has been a source of inspiration and pride to his partners and his friends".
The Anti-Defamation League in the US is supportive of Prescott Bush and the Bush family. In a statement last year they said that "rumours about the alleged Nazi 'ties' of the late Prescott Bush ... have circulated widely through the internet in recent years. These charges are untenable and politically motivated ... Prescott Bush was neither a Nazi nor a Nazi sympathiser."
However, one of the country's oldest Jewish publications, the Jewish Advocate, has aired the controversy in detail.
More than 60 years after Prescott Bush came briefly under scrutiny at the time of a faraway war, his grandson is facing a different kind of scrutiny but one underpinned by the same perception that, for some people, war can be a profitable business.
-------- corruption
Two Rights Groups Call for Probe of La. Election
Associated Press
Saturday, September 25, 2004
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48679-2004Sep24.html
NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 24 -- Two civil rights groups have asked the Justice Department to investigate an election in which they say voting machine problems prevented as many as 58,000 voters, many of them black, from casting ballots.
New Orleans, where nearly 70 percent of voters are black, was the only part of the state where voting machines were not delivered on time in the Sept. 18 election. Voters cast ballots in a number of local elections, plus on a statewide constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.
The NAACP and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) said in a letter to the Justice Department that a federal investigation is required "in light of possible violations" of the Voting Rights Act.
"Our concerns are that we have been closed out of the election process for so long and we don't want anything else to thwart it any further than it already has been," said Beulah Labostrie, president of the Louisiana chapter of ACORN. "We, particularly in the African American community, do not want any obstruction in the ability for all to vote."
A message left for a Justice Department spokesman was not returned Friday.
The city's clerk of court has accepted blame for the problems, which happened on the weekend after much of the city was evacuated for Hurricane Ivan. Truck drivers hired to deliver the machines to polling places either did not deliver them or were unable to get the machines into the voting sites on time.
The clerk, Kimberly Williamson Butler, who is black, apologized Thursday and said she would work with Secretary of State Fox McKeithen to ensure the Nov. 2 election goes smoothly.
McKeithen, the state official responsible for elections, said he had no problems with a federal investigation but noted he and the state attorney general have already started a probe.
Polls opened at 6 a.m. in the election, but some voting sites did not have machines until 3 p.m. Polls closed at 8 p.m.
Louisiana voters overwhelmingly approved the constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriages and civil unions.
-------- propaganda wars
Source for Rather Seeks New Lawyer, Might Sue CBS
By Michael Dobbs
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 25, 2004; Page A08
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48613-2004Sep24.html
Former Texas National Guard officer Bill Burkett, who provided CBS News with possibly fraudulent documents purporting to show that President Bush shirked his Guard duty, is looking for a lawyer to pursue a possible defamation case against the network.
Burkett is angry with CBS and anchor Dan Rather for disclosing his identity after promising him anonymity, his current attorney, Gabriel Quintanilla, said yesterday. Quintanilla said Burkett's life had become "pure hell" since Monday, when Rather disclosed on the "CBS Evening News" that Burkett was the network's confidential and "unimpeachable" source for the controversial documents.
Burkett has had little luck finding a lawyer to represent him. His first attorney, David Van Os of San Antonio, bowed out because he was involved in the initial negotiations with CBS and feels a conflict of interest. Quintanilla said he is suffering from severe back problems and cannot handle the deluge of calls and messages in an incident that, he said, has generated more conspiracy theories than the "grassy knoll" did in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
A third lawyer, Lin Wood of Atlanta, who represented former Olympic Games security guard Richard Jewell in a successful defamation suit against several news organizations, said yesterday that he had declined a request from Quintanilla to take the Burkett case. Wood pleaded "time constraints" as well as his "high regard for CBS News."
"It appears highly questionable that he has a legitimate defamation claim" against CBS, said Wood, noting that his opinion was based on news reports about the case rather than privileged information.
In an e-mail message yesterday evening, Burkett, who runs a cattle ranch in western Texas, said that he was not "making comments of any kind." He complained through his lawyer that the Fort Worth Star-Telegram had misquoted him as saying that he had discussed the documents with Kerry campaign spokesman Joe Lockhart. Burkett told the newspaper that CBS had set him up as a "fall guy" to cover up its mistakes.
A CBS spokeswoman, Sandy Genelius, declined to comment.
Quintanilla acknowledged that Burkett had misled the network by naming another retired guardsman, George Conn, who now works for the U.S. Army in Germany in a civilian capacity, as the original source of the documents. Burkett now maintains that he was alerted to the documents by a woman named Lucy Ramirez, who contacted him after seeing him on television and has subsequently disappeared. He says he was handed the documents at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo on March 3 by an unknown intermediary.
According to Quintanilla, Burkett believes that CBS officials divulged his identity to the New York Times even before Rather went on the air to state that the network could no longer vouch for the authenticity of documents purportedly written by Bush's former Guard commander.
Quintanilla said an announcement on a new attorney for Burkett is expected shortly.
--------
'60 Minutes' Delays Report Questioning Reasons for Iraq War
September 25, 2004
By KATE ZERNIKE
The New York Times
CBS News said yesterday that it had postponed a "60 Minutes" segment that questioned Bush administration rationales for going to war in Iraq.
The announcement, in a statement by a spokeswoman, was issued four days after the network acknowledged that it could not prove the authenticity of documents it used to raise new questions about President Bush's Vietnam-era military service.
The Iraq segment had been ready for broadcast on Sept. 8, CBS said, but was bumped at the last minute for the segment on Mr. Bush's National Guard service. The Guard segment was considered a highly competitive report, one that other journalists were pursuing.
CBS said last night that the report on the war would not run before Nov. 2.
"We now believe it would be inappropriate to air the report so close to the presidential election," the spokeswoman, Kelli Edwards, said in a statement.
Ms. Edwards said that the report had been scheduled for June but that it was postponed because of additional news on the subject.
The CBS statement followed a report in the online edition of Newsweek that described the frustration of CBS News reporters and producers who said the network had concluded that it could not legitimately criticize the president because of the questions about the National Guard report.
According to the Newsweek report, the "60 Minutes" segment was to have detailed how the administration relied on false documents when it said Iraq had tried to buy a lightly processed form of uranium, known as yellowcake, from Niger. The administration later acknowledged that the information was incorrect and that the documents were most likely fake.
The Newsweek article said the segment was to have included the first on-camera interview with Elisabetta Burba, the Italian journalist who was given the fake documents and who provided them to a United States Embassy for verification. The documents were sent to Washington, where some officials embraced them as firm evidence that Iraq was aggressively trying to make nuclear weapons.
The lead producer on the Niger segment, David Gelber, declined to comment.
-------- us politics
Kerry Blasts Iraq 'Diversion'
Challenger Says War Has Hurt the Fight Against Al Qaeda
By Lois Romano
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 25, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A48716-2004Sep24?language=printer
PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 24 -- John F. Kerry detailed his plan for combating terrorism Friday and insisted that the nation is no safer after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks because President Bush took his "eye off the ball."
In a harsh assessment of his rival's policies, Kerry told an audience at Temple University that Iraq has become a haven for terrorists, and he drew a sharp distinction between the war on terrorism and the war in Iraq to differentiate his policies from those of the president.
"The invasion of Iraq was a profound diversion from the battle against our greatest enemy -- al Qaeda," Kerry said. "The president's misjudgment, miscalculation and mismanagement . . . all make the war on terror harder to win. George Bush made Saddam Hussein the priority. I would have made Osama bin Laden the priority."
Kerry's comments at Temple, reinforced later at a rally of 20,000 at the University of Pennsylvania, included a six-point plan that campaign officials said is designed to contrast his proposals with those of the president's and to demonstrate that foreign policy is a strength of Kerry's.
The Democratic nominee promised to destroy terrorist networks by going after their arms and financing; to revamp and enhance the intelligence apparatus to ferret them out; to build up an overstretched military by 40,000 troops; to support Middle Eastern democracies; and to increase funding for homeland security and for more intense cargo inspections at ports and other points of entry.
"The Bush administration is spending more in Iraq in four days than they've spent protecting our ports for all of the last three years," Kerry charged.
Kerry assailed Bush for alienating longtime U.S. allies, pledging as he has before to rebuild global relationships. "I have news for President Bush: Just because you can't do something doesn't mean it can't be done," Kerry said. "It can be. My friends, it's not George Bush's style that keeps our allies from helping. It's his judgment."
Before Kerry even finished his speech Friday morning, the Bush-Cheney campaign sent out e-mails accusing him of both copying Bush's policies and of distorting his record.
"John Kerry's repackaged proposals embrace initiatives that the President is already implementing, even as he cynically attacks the President," campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt said in a statement. "John Kerry called Saddam Hussein a 'terrorist' before, but now he is taking the opposite position and claiming that the removal of Saddam Hussein has left the world 'less secure.' "
Vice President Cheney weighed in from Lafayette, La., telling supporters: "John Kerry is trying to tear down and trash all the good that has been accomplished."
Kerry's comments came at the end of a week when his campaign switched its strategy of focusing heavily on domestic issues and aggressively attacked Bush's Iraq policies, portraying them as arrogant, misplaced and extremist.
"Drawing these sharp contrasts with Bush on Iraq is very important, because this is a fundamentally important issue," senior adviser Mike McCurry said. "It is the heart of the question about George Bush: Is he capable of seeing mistakes and fixing them so we can get them right?" Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), who accompanied Kerry on Friday, told reporters that Kerry felt "liberated" to make the case against Bush on foreign policy.
Kerry's campaign Friday unveiled a second ad on Iraq in two days, this one turning Bush's words on him. The 30-second spot, to air during Sunday talk shows, shows Bush during a Rose Garden news conference saying, "I saw a poll that said the 'right-track, wrong-track' in Iraq was better than here in America."
"The right track?" the narrator asks. "Americans are being kidnapped, held hostage, even beheaded. Over a thousand American soldiers have died. And George Bush has no plan to get us out of Iraq."
Although Kerry had previously made many of the points in Friday's speech, it was the first time he presented an anti-terrorism plan in such a comprehensive way.
Anthony H. Cordesman, a senior national security analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who said he is not endorsing either candidate's approach, said Kerry's speech amounted to "a wish list of any measure that anybody has proposed without seeing whether they are cost-effective."
He gave Kerry credit for addressing the growing Muslim resentment of the United States and the need for debt relief in Middle East countries. But he said the Bush administration has already been undertaking many of Kerry's proposals, such as expanding the CIA's clandestine service and the military's Special Forces units.
"I have the impression," Cordesman said, "that somebody assembled all the possibilities that would have a rhetoric impact and crammed them into a speech."
One area in which Kerry worked to set himself apart from Bush was on Saudi Arabia, saying the administration has not held it accountable for financing al Qaeda terrorism.
"As president, I will do what President Bush has not: I will hold the Saudis accountable. Since 9/11, there have been no public prosecutions in Saudi Arabia, and few elsewhere, of terrorist financiers," Kerry said.
Bush and others in the administration say that they have put significant pressure on the Saudis, and that the Saudis have become more aggressive in arresting al Qaeda members living in the country and in closing down religious-based contributions to the organization and its affiliates.
Kerry also said that at U.S. ports, he would increase the budgets for "the most promising cargo inspection programs" by 600 percent. A spokesman said Kerry was referring to two widely applauded programs run by the Department of Homeland Security to increase surveillance of incoming containers in foreign ports such as Hong Kong, and to work with U.S. importers to tighten their security. Both programs have been severely understaffed, experts said.
Stephen E. Flynn, a retired Coast Guard official and author of a homeland security book called "America the Vulnerable," said Kerry's proposal makes sense because it would result in tighter security without delaying the flow of goods: "I applaud any effort to bolster the resources going to these two important programs."
Staff writers Dana Priest and John Mintz in Washington contributed to this report.
-------- ACTIVISTS
Arms plan sparks Taiwan protests
BBC
By Caroline Gluck
25 September, 2004
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3689110.stm
Thousands of protesters have marched across Taiwan's capital, Taipei, in protest at government plans to buy $18bn (£9.9bn) of arms from the US.
The government says Taiwan needs to boost its defence capabilities against China.
But the protesters - who included politicians from opposition parties and retired generals - say the deal could spark an arms race.
They say the money would be better spent on public welfare projects.
Taiwan says China has targeted more than 600 missiles at the island.
China regards the island as a breakaway province to be reunited by force if necessary.
Both Taipei and Beijing have been conducting routine war games over the last few months, preparing for the possibility of cross-Strait conflict.
Despite the rain, thousands of people took to the streets to join the protest.
Pearl tea protest
The deal has been approved by cabinet, but still needs to be passed by the opposition-controlled parliament.
The weapons package includes Patriot Pac-III anti-missile systems, eight diesel submarines and anti-submarine aircraft.
But many opposition politicians are against the plan and they have been taking part in the protest.
More than 100 former military officers have also signed a petition opposing the plan.
The ministry of defence, meanwhile, has stepped up its own lobbying efforts to tell the public why the arms purchase should go ahead and has been playing down the cost.
In a leaflet campaign, the ministry says that Taiwan could save enough money to buy the arms if everyone drank one less cup of Taiwan's popular pearl or bubble tea over the next 15 years.
The tea, which features chewy tapioca balls sucked up through a straw, was invented in Taiwan and has recently become a popular drink overseas.
--------
Keep Space for Peace Week
globenet
September 25 - October 2 2004
http://www.globenet.free-online.co.uk/actions/kpfpw04.htm
International Days of Protest to Stop the Militarization of Space
No Election Time Deployment of "Missile Defense"!
No Weapons in Space!
No Nuclear Rocket!
End the War in Iraq!
Keep Space for Peace!
Fund Human Needs!
Sponsors: Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space http://www.space4peace.org Women's Int'l League for Peace & Freedom http://www.wilpf.org
Actions | Speakers | Entertainers
Sept 25 - Oct 2 Local Actions (List in Formation)
1. Albuquerque, NM (Sept 18 Peace Camp at Kirtland AFB) stopthewarmachine@comcast.net
2. Albuquerque, NM (Oct 1-2 Conference on "Resisting the Empire: New Mexico's Role in the Global War Machine") citizen@comcast.net
3. Amherst, MA (Sept 29 Arsenal of Hypocrisy video showing at UMass Campus Center) aswift@physics.umass.edu
4. Amherst, MA (Arsenal of Hypocrisy video showing at Univ. of Mass. during the week) ChadAmherst@aol.com
5. Annapolis Royal, NS, Canada (Oct 2 Rally "The Lights")
6. Asheville, NC (Arsenal of Hypocrisy video showing planned) patrie.wncpsr@main.nc.us
7. Bath Ironworks, Maine (Oct 2 Vigil & potluck gathering) - see flyer globalnet@mindspring.com
8. Bismarck, ND (Oct. 8-9, annual Peace Congress on "Americans Deserve Democracy, Too!") ndpeacecoalition@yahoo.com
9. Boston, MA (Sept 28 Vigil at Copley Square) clagos@verizon.net
10. Boston, MA (Oct 2 Vigil & Leaflet at Park St/Tremont) clagos@verizon.net
11. Brookline, MA (Oct 2 Vigil & Leaflet at Coolidge Corner) clagos@verizon.net
12. Bucharest, Romania (Sept 25 Space presentation at war & globalization meeting) aungiira@yahoo.com
13. Burbank, CA (Oct 1 A Space 4 Peace video showing) (818) 842-5055
14. Calgary, AB, Canada (Oct 2 Human Security not Missile Defense Rally at City Hall) 403-283-6480
15. Cambridge, MA (Sept 26 Vigil & Leaflet at Mass Ave/Garden St) clagos@verizon.net
16. Cape Cod, MA (Oct 2 Demo at PAVE PAWS radar) swalker@capecod.net
17. Castlegar, BC, Canada (Oct 2 Rally at MP's office) jodaz@telus.net
18. Chicago, IL (Sept 26 Arsenal of Hypocrisy video showing at Healing Earth Resources) drlora@ameritech.net
19. Colorado (October 2 The 2nd annual Adopt-a-Silo day will focus on Air Force Space Command's nuclear missile field in Colorado) veggirrrl@aol.com
20. Columbus, OH (Sept 25 Conference "Nuclear Dollars vs The Common Good" with space workshop) ideasinc@ee.net
21. Croughton RAF/USAF base, UK (Oct 2 Rally) oxonpeace@yahoo.co.uk
22. Darmstadt, Germany (Sept. 18 Information table & leafletting at European Space Operation Center's "space night") regina.hagen@jugendstil.da.shuttle.de
23. Des Moines, Iowa (Oct 3 A Space 4 Peace video showing)
24. Detroit, MI (Oct 2 A Space 4 Peace video showing) 313-882-1596
25. Eagan, MN (Sept 29 Vigil at Lockheed Martin) alliantaction@circlevision.org
26. Edina, MN (Sept 29 Vigil at Alliant Tech Systems) alliantaction@circlevision.org
27. Edwards AFB, CA (Oct 2 Demo) sbremser@charter.net
28. Florence, OR (Sept 25 Forum on cost of war in space) shenderson88@hotmail.com
29. Florence, OR (Oct 2 Forum/demo on human cost of war) patdoris@harborside.com
30. Ft Greely, Alaska (Sept 25 Peace Camp begins) ftsaf@uaf.edu
31. Fylingdales, UK (Sept 25 Demo as Star Wars radar) cndyorks@gn.apc.org
32. Goderich, ON, Canada (Oct 2 Candleight vigil at MP office) ontariop4p@yahoo.ca
33. Graham, FL (Oct 2 Peace Pickin Music Festival) fcpj@earthlink.net
34. Grandforks, BC, Canada (Oct 2 Funeral procession from Lois Hagan Park) lpsavi@direct.ca
35. Halifax, NS, Canada (Oct 1 Star Wars film night at Dalhousie University) tlorincz@dal.ca
36. Halifax, NS, Canada (Oct 2 Star Wars film night at Dalhousie University) tlorincz@dal.ca
37. Hartford, CT (Oct 9 Conference entitled "Nuclear Weapons & The American Empire") maryhess2@comcast.net
38. Hiroshima, Japan (Sept 11 Street Action at Atomic Dome) Kota-goldencat@kfa.biglobe.ne.jp
39. Hiroshima, Japan (Translation of Keep Space for Peace poster into Japanese and distribution nationally by Satomi Oba) Kota-goldencat@kfa.biglobe.ne.jp
40. Isahaya City, Japan (Oct 2 Raging Grannie Protest to keep space for peace) Kota-goldencat@kfa.biglobe.ne.jp
41. Kennedy Space Center, FL (Oct 9 Demo) (321) 632-5977
42. Laconia, NH (Sept 30 Arsenal of Hypocrisy video showing) barkers@alumni.unh.edu
43. Linz, Austria (Oct 1-2 Space presentation at anti-nuclear conference) aungiira@yahoo.com
44. London, ON, Canada (Oct 2 Rally & March at Victoria Park)
45. Lyndon State College, VT (Sept 27 Arsenal of Hypocrisy video showing and music by Tom Neilson) Amanda.Ruckdeschel@lsc.vsc.edu
46. Mankato, MN (Sept 29 Arsenal of Hypocrisy video showing at MSU) gschmitz@ssndmankato.org
47. Mankato, MN (Sept 29 Vigil for peace in space at post office) gschmitz@ssndmankato.org
48. Menwith Hill, UK (Oct 2 Demo at NSA/USAF spy base) caab@btclick.com
49. Mid-Hudson Valley, NY (Sept 18 Militarization of space workshop at regional People's Assembly) vanini@netstep.net
50. Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN (Sept 29 Twin Cities Peace Campaign Peace Bridge Vigil with a space theme) alliantaction@circlevision.org
51. Minneapolis, MN (Oct 31 Arsenal of Hypocrisy video showing at St. Martin's Table) alteravista@earthlink.net
52. Midland, ON, Canada (Oct 2 Rally & March at King St. library) peace_works@hotmail.com
53. Milwaukee, WI (Sept 25 Demo at 8th & Wells) cpapa@uwm.edu
54. Molesworth Joint Analysis Centre, UK (Sept 26 Schubert's Quartet "Death and the Maiden" Concert at base main gate) acheetham@beeb.net
55. Montreal, Canada (Oct 2 Rally at Christ Church Cathedral)
56. Naples, FL (Oct 2 Arsenal of Hypocrisy video & luncheon) Browardpeace@cs.com
57. New London, CT (Oct 1 Vigil at General Dynamics Electric Boat factory) 860-376-9970
58. Newton, MA (Sept 30 Vigil at Newton Center) clagos@verizon.net
59. Northumberland, ON, Canada (Oct 2 Busload to Ottawa protest) hjwiersma@sympatico.ca
60. Olympia, WA (Sept 28 Vigil at Sylvester Park) dragonfly100@hotmail.com
61. Olympia, WA (Oct 1 Vigil at Percival Landing) dragonfly100@hotmail.com
62. Olympia, WA (Oct 1 Poems & Songs of peace on Earth and space at Plenty, 4th & Columbia St) dragonfly100@hotmail.com
63. Ottawa, ON, Canada (Oct 1 Nat'l Press Club forum "Canada & Missile Defense: Rogue Policy-Rogue Science) steven_staples@on.aibn.com
64. Ottawa, ON, Canada (Oct 2 Circus & Parade at McNabb Park) BMD2004@yahoo.ca
65. Peterborough, ON, Canada (Oct 2 Public meeting at Grass Roots Cafe) 743-0241
66. Pittsburgh, PA (A Space 4 Peace video showing in coffee houses during the week)
67. Portland, OR (Sept 25 Space videos public showing at Multnomah Friends Meeting) curner@qwest.net
68. Portland, OR ( Sept 29 Vigil & leaflet at noontime at Pioneer Square) curner@qwest.net
69. Portland, OR (Oct 3 Keep Space for Peace contingent in anti-war march) curner@qwest.net
70. Sacramento, CA (Oct 1 Space leafleting near Cal State University campus) schwarte@nicetechnology.com
71. Saintes, France (Oct 29-31 Rally for Int'l Disarmament) acdn.france@wanadoo.fr
72. San Francisco, CA (Oct 2 Public meeting on space issues) (415) 929-0487
73. Saugerties, NY (Sept 29 Arsenal of Hypocrisy video showing) vanini@netstep.net
74. Springfield, IL (A Space 4 Peace video showing during the week)
75. Stennis Space Center, Mississippi (Oct 1 vigil) jeanegan@tulane.edu
76. St Louis MO (Sept 27 Public talk with Helen Caldicott) (314) 862-5735
77. Stockholm, Sweden (Oct 1-3 Conference entitled "Nuclear weapons in space? NPT and the Nordic countries role in US space plans") agneta.norberg@spray.se
78. Stockholm, Sweden (Oct 2 Rally outside U.S. embassy) agneta.norberg@spray.se
79. St Paul, MN (Sept 26 Arsenal of Hypocrisy video showing at Macalester Plymouth United Church) alteravista@earthlink.net
80. Stuttgart, Germany (Oct 2 Rally at EUCOM) Wolfgang.Schlupp-Hauck@t-online.de
81. Toledo, OH (Sept 25 - Oct 2 Daily tabling at Kabuki Sculpture in Levis Square) rkmarovitz@hotmail.com
82. Toronto, Canada (Oct 2 Make Space for Peace Rally and March) cpa@web.ca
83. Traverse City, MI (Oct 12 Arsenal of Hypocrisy video showing at UU Church) as866@tcnet.org
84. Tucson, AZ (Sept 27 Community Forums at University of Arizona & Unitarian Church) birnie@gci-net.com
85. Tucson, AZ (Sept 28 Vigil at Raytheon) birnie@gci-net.com
86. Valley Forge, PA (Sept 25 Vigil at Lockheed Martin) brandywine@juno.com
87. Vandenberg AFB, CA (Sept 25 Demo at NMD deployment site) mindful@redshift.com
88. Washington DC (Oct 2 Nat'l Memorial Procession to White House) mobuszewski@afsc.org
89. Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada (Oct 2 March to Rotary Peace Park)
90. Windsor, ON, Canada (Oct 2 Demo in park at Goyeau & Wyandotte St) windsorpeace@hotmail.com
91. Winnipeg, MB, Canada (Rally at Manitoba Legislature) 204-775-8178 ext. 2
92. Yellowknife, NWT, Canada (Oct 2 Walk to Save our Skies for Northern Lights) 669-0991
93. Yokohama City, Japan (Oct 9 Protest at Int'l Aerospace Exhibition)
SPEAKERS
Please contact these people directly to negotiate speaking dates, travel expenses, etc. during the week of local actions. They all have considerable expertise on the space issue.
- Robert Anderson (Professor American Studies, Univ. of N.M., Albuquerque, N.M.) (505) 858-0882 citizen@comcast.net
- Frida Berrigan (World Policy Institute, New York) (212) 229-5808 ext. 112 berrigaf@newschool.edu
- Jackie Cabasso (Western States Legal Foundation, Oakland, CA) wslf@earthlink.net (510) 839-5877
- Helen Caldicott (President, Nuclear Policy Research Institute) HCaldic@bigpond.com
- Michelle Ciarrocca (World Policy Institute) (212) 229-5808 ext. 107 CiarrM01@newschool.edu
- Craig Eisendrath , Ph.D. (Senior Fellow Center for International Policy, Philadelphia, PA) (215) 413-1461 creisen@aol.com
- Stacey Fritz (No Nukes North, Alaska) (907) 457-5230 info@nonukesnorth.net
- Bruce Gagnon (Global Network) (207) 729-0517 globalnet@mindspring.com
- Joseph Gerson (AFSC, Cambridge, MA) (617) 661-6130
- Jacob Grech (OzPeace, Melbourne, Australia) jacob@ozpeace.net
- Regina Hagen (INESAP, Darmstadt, Germany) regina.hagen@jugendstil.da.shuttle.de
- William Hartung (World Policy Institute, New York) (212) 229-5808 hartung@newschool.edu
- Dave Knight (GN Advisory Committee Chair, UK) daveknight@gn.apc.org
- Dominique Lalanne (Abolition 2000, Paris, France) lalanne@lal.in2p3.fr
- Andy Lichterman (Western States Legal Foundation, Oakland, CA) (510) 839-5877 webmaster@wslfweb.org
- Dr. Hannah Middleton (Australian Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition, Sydney) peace@mira.net
- Satomi Oba (Plutonium Action, Hiroshima, Japan) dogwood@muc.biglobe.ne.jp
- Geov Parrish (Author, activist, Seattle, WA) 206-324-5369
- Lindis Percy (Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases, Otley, England) percy@lindisandchris.freeserve.co.uk
- Sri Raman (Movement Against Nuclear Weapons, India) sriraman_j@yahoo.com
- Alice Slater (Global Resource Action Center for the Environment, New York City) (212) 726-9161 www.gracelinks.org
- Bob Smith (Brandywine Peace Community, Swarthmore, PA) (610) 544-1818 brandywine@juno.com
- Mary Beth Sullivan (Greater Brunswick PeaceWorks, Maine) (207) 729-0517 mbsull@mindspring.com
- Bill Sulzman (Citizens for Peace in Space, Colorado) (719) 389-0644 bsulzman@juno.com
- Dave Webb (Yorkshire CND, England) dave@webbjeff.free-online.co.uk
- Don Whitmore (Seattle, WA) mail@abolishnukes.com
- Loring Wirbel (Citizens for Peace in Space, Colorado) LWirbel@aol.com (719) 481-3698
ENTERTAINERS (These fine singers/songwriters have space songs and other good political music) - Anne Feeney (Pittsburgh, PA) unionmaid@earthlink.net
- Holly Gwinn Graham (Olympia, WA) HollyGG@msn.com (Speaks on these issues as well)
- Joel Landy (New York City) joellandy@yahoo.com (718) 937-2240
- Tom Neilson (Leverett, MA) (413) 548-9394
- Lynda Williams (Santa Rosa, CA) spinor64@hotmail.com (707) 829-5162
INFORMATION/REPORTS
- Albuquerque, NM - September 18 See leaflet
- Albuquerque, NM - October 1-2 Conference on "Resisting the Empire: New Mexico's Role in the Global War Machine") - Flyer (Word document): here
- Bath Ironworks, Maine - October 2 See flyer
- Darmstadt, Germany - September 18 See leaflet for European Space Operation Center's "space night"
- Ft Greely, Alaska - Sept 25 Peace Camp - see: http://www.nonukesnorth.net/PeaceCampAlaska.htm
- Fylingdales, UK - September 25 UK National demonstration from noon - see www.yorkshirecnd.org.uk
- Hiroshima, Japan - Sept 11 See: Street Action at Atomic Dome
- Menwith Hill, UK - October 2 Demonstration - see www.caab.org.uk
- Vandenberg AFB - September 25 Front Gate Protest Rally at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California: 1-3pm - with Helen Caldicott - details from www.vpeaceldf.org . (Download flyer - 256KB pdf file)
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