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NUCLEAR
China Seeks Overseas Supplier for $8 Bln of Reactors
Bush: Iran 'won't have a nuclear weapon'
Tests Show No Nuke Activity at Iran Site
Iran not seeking nuclear bomb, but will defend itself: minister
No Sign of Nuke Work at Suspect Iran Site - Diplomats
Kepco ordered to shut down Mihama reactor
Japan Foreign Minister Favors Constitution Change
Chinese minister doubtful on North Korea nuclear claim
N Korea warns on nuclear rods
Minister: N. Korea Has Nuclear Deterrent
North Korea Resists Talks on Nuclear Arms
Chinese Minister Doubtful on N.Korea Nuclear Claim
U.S. Reacts Calmly to N. Korea Nuke Claim
MILITARY
Pentagon announces billion-dollar plan to build five Afghan army bases
In Darfur, Rwandan Soldiers Relive Their Past
In Party Speech, Blair Admits Political Cost of Iraq Mistakes
Taking On Sadr City in a Pickup Truck
Iraqi Judge Dismisses Chalabi Case
U.S. Says More Iraqi Police Are Needed as Attacks Continue
7 Palestinians Killed in Spate Of Violence
7 Arabs Killed in 5 Attacks, One by a West Bank Settler
Israeli Army Masses Forces in Northern Gaza - Radio
Reporters Put Under Scrutiny in C.I.A. Leak
Prewar Assessment on Iraq Saw Chance of Strong Divisions
2 U.S. Soldiers Charged in Iraqi's Death
US, Russian warships drill together in North Sea
POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE
Senate Bill Proposes Anti-Terror Database
Screening of Foreign Visitors to Expand
Sikh Group Finds Calling in Homeland Security
FBI Backlogged in Translation of Counterterrorism Wiretaps
POLITICS
Gorbachev Says Iraq War 'Undermined' Law
Foundation's Funds Diverted From Mission
Truths Worth Telling
60 Minutes: Shelving a Story to Boost Bush?
ENERGY
Electricity Industry News
Shell, PowerGen step up UK wind farm project plan
ACTIVISTS
Greenpeace rings alarm over US nuclear waste shipment to France
-------- NUCLEAR
-------- china
China Seeks Overseas Supplier for $8 Bln of Reactors (Update2)
(Bloomberg)
September 28, 2004
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080&sid=aFXC.TLWU7Ck&refer=asia
Sept. 28 -- China may award an $8 billion order for four nuclear reactors to an overseas supplier such as Areva SA, Westinghouse Electric Co. or Siemens AG as part of the world's biggest nuclear power construction program.
A single foreign bidder may be chosen to build the four reactors, with work starting by 2007, said Yu Jianfeng, a director at China National Nuclear Corp., which operates the nation's reactors. China Nuclear and affiliate Guangdong Nuclear Power Co. plan to build a further four reactors to supplement the 11 already operating or under construction in China, he said.
``It's an ambitious project for us,'' Yu said in an interview in Sydney at the World Energy Congress earlier this month. ``We can't finish the project on our own. We need help with expertise.''
The expansion of nuclear power in China and other Asian nations such as India may revive an industry that's slumped in North America and Western Europe. The U.S. hasn't built a reactor since the failure of a unit at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania, in 1979, while a fire at the Ukraine's Chernobyl reactor in 1986 heightened safety concerns.
China needs to add two reactors a year to meet a target of generating 4 percent of its power from nuclear plants by 2020, Yu said. Currently, nuclear power provides 1.7 percent of China's electricity needs.
India plans to treble its nuclear power capacity to 10,000 megawatts by 2012 and raise it further to 20,000 megawatts by 2020, Power Minister P.M. Sayeed said at the conference in Sydney. Of the 27 units under construction worldwide, 16 are located in India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and China, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency's Web site. Twenty-two of the 31 reactors planned worldwide are in East and South Asia.
Opportunities
``Asia-wide, it would appear that strong demand for new power generation capacity in future will expand opportunities for foreign suppliers in the nuclear power sector, an area that has been largely dormant for a decade or so,'' said Simon Dodd, Hong Kong-based Asia Pacific head of project finance at Banca Intesa SpA, Italy's largest lender by assets.
The eight planned Chinese reactors will be built in the southern province of Guangdong and the eastern province of Jiangsu, Yu said. National Nuclear and Guangdong Nuclear may start construction of the first four as early as October 2005, he said.
China, the world's second-largest energy consumer after the U.S., aims to more than double total power generation capacity to about 900,000 megawatts by 2020 from the current 400,000 to alleviate shortages caused by the country's economic growth.
Power shortages caused blackouts in cities including Shanghai and Beijing this year and affected 24 of the nation's 27 provinces.
Within two months, China will for the first time invite bids from foreign companies to partake in the nuclear power projects, National Development and Reform Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Guobao said on Sept. 6.
New Reactors
The eight new reactors, each able to generate 1,000 megawatts, are part of the government's plan to increase nuclear capacity fivefold by 2020 to 36,000 megawatts -- enough to meet peak demand for California. It costs as much as $4 billion for a pair of 1,000 megawatts reactors, Yu said.
Westinghouse, a Monroeville, Pennsylvania-based unit of British Nuclear Fuels Plc, Munich-based Siemens and Paris-based Areva are among the companies that plan to bid for contracts to build the additional capacity, China National Nuclear's Yu said.
Siemens and Areva will make a joint bid, Nicole Dellero, a deputy director at Areva's corporate strategy department, said in an interview.
Paris-based Framatome ANP Inc., a joint venture between Siemens and Areva, has supplied China with four reactors and employs about 3,000 people in the country. The company is the world's biggest maker of nuclear reactors.
Seoul-based Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co., a unit of state- run Korea Electric Power Corp., will also bid, said Yoon Yong Woo, a member of the company's overseas project team.
Teaming Up
``Our Korean group plans to team up with Westinghouse to bid for a contract to build nuclear power plants,'' Yoon said in a telephone interview. ``Mitsubishi is also going to join hands with Westinghouse. Their team is bidding for different kinds of reactors.''
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., Japan's largest maker of heavy machinery, said in January it would team up with Westinghouse to bid for a contract to build plants in China's Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces.
The Tokyo-based machinery maker also plans to bid for other contracts in China, spokesman Kengo Tatsukawa said.
Foreign bidders would have to agree to transfer technology and expertise to Chinese companies to get a share of the nuclear reactor projects, Yu said.
``Chinese companies need to become self-sufficient eventually,'' he said.
Finance
About 70 percent of the equipment in China Nuclear's four planned reactors will be Chinese, Yu said. As much as 20 percent of the finance for China's nuclear plants comes from project shareholders and the rest from domestic bank loans, he said.
China will need more reactors in provinces along the Yangtze River and in southeastern and coastal provinces over the next 16 years, Yu said. China has nine active nuclear reactors and two under construction in the eastern provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and in southern Guangdong, with total generating capacity of 8,700 megawatts.
To contact the reporter on this story: Loretta Ng in Hong Kong at Lng13@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reinie Booysen at rbooysen@bloomberg.net.
-------- iran
Bush: Iran 'won't have a nuclear weapon'
Like Kerry, president is preparing for Thursday's debate
(AP)
Tuesday, September 28, 2004
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/09/28/bush.tuesday.ap/index.html
WACO, Texas -- President Bush, preparing for this week's much-anticipated campaign debate on foreign policy, is insisting Iran will not develop a nuclear weapon on his watch.
"My hope is that we can solve this diplomatically," Bush said in a TV interview broadcast Monday. "We are working our hearts out so that they don't develop a nuclear weapon, and the best way to do so is to continue to keep international pressure on them."
Pressed on whether he would allow Iran to build a bomb, Bush said: "No, we've made it clear, our position is that they won't have a nuclear weapon." (Special report: America Votes 2004)
Bush's comments on Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor" did not mark new policy.
In June 2003, Bush said that "the international community must come together to make it very clear to Iran that we will not tolerate the construction of a nuclear weapon."
But Bush has not spoken out so forcefully on the matter since signs emerged recently that Iran could be on the path toward developing a bomb. (Iran rejects U.N. call on nukes)
Iran defied rules set by 35 nations and announced it had started converting raw uranium into the gas needed for enrichment, a process that can be used to make nuclear weapons. While insisting its intentions are peaceful, Iran pledged to continue even if it means a rupture with U.N. monitors and an end to inspections of its nuclear facilities. (Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful)
Thursday's presidential debate centers on foreign policy, and Iran is likely to come up.
Bush and his Democratic challenger, Sen. John Kerry, have modest differences on how to confront the issue. (Stakes high heading into debates)
Kerry charges that Bush's Iraq policies "took our attention and our resources away" from dealing with Iran.
Kerry holds out some hope that a negotiated solution with Iran is possible. He said the United States and other nations should "call their bluff" by offering nuclear fuel for peaceful purposes, then taking back the spent fuel so it can't be used for weapons.
If that process fails, the United States could try to ensure that the International Atomic Energy Agency takes the issue to the U.N. Security Council, where Iran could face sanctions.
In 2001, Bush called Iran part of an "axis of evil," along with Iraq and North Korea. Yet, he too favors diplomacy, though his administration has been divided on how to deal with it. Some, mostly in the Pentagon, favor a tougher approach. Others, mostly in the State Department, believe some accommodation is possible with Iranian moderates.
Bush is putting the finishing touches on his debate preparation this week.
He is done sparring with mock-debate partner Sen. Judd Gregg, R-New Hampshire, said White House communications director Dan Bartlett.
Bush planned a low-profile day at his Crawford, Texas, ranch Tuesday, "crystallizing" his thoughts on policy and sharpening zingers, Bartlett said.
The ranch has an important mind-clearing effect, he said.
"I'm sure some of the best zingers he's given have been (written) out there with a fishing pole in his hands," Bartlett said.
----
Tests Show No Nuke Activity at Iran Site
September 28, 2004
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Nuclear-Agency-Iran.html
VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- Initial tests of soil samples have revealed no signs of nuclear activities at a site in northern Iran that the United States says Tehran could have used to run secret uranium enrichment programs, diplomats said Tuesday.
However, the diplomats, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, warned that the investigation of the Lavizan Shiyan site was not complete.
``We have still not looked at all results'' of environmental sampling, one diplomat said.
The State Department earlier this year said Lavizan had undergone a complete dismantling and razing as part of an attempted nuclear cover-up.
American officials cited commercial satellite photography as showing major dismantling of buildings and said top soil had been removed from the site as part of attempts to hide nuclear experiments meant to make weapons.
The International Atomic Energy Agency is investigating nearly two decades of covert nuclear activity by Iran. Tehran maintains its program is meant to generate electricity, but the United States claims it is a weapons program.
U.S. officials have linked the alleged razing of Lavizan Shiyan to the extensive remodeling of the Kalay-e Electric Co., just west of Tehran, two years ago before U.N. inspectors were allowed to visit the latter site. Although buildings were repainted and otherwise sanitized, samples taken from Kalay-e showed traces of enriched uranium, which -- at high levels -- can be used to make nuclear warheads.
A senior diplomat who is familiar with Iran's nuclear dossier said that the agency ``needed to have all testing finished'' -- including environmental samples beyond the soil that was carted away from Lavizan Shiyan -- before it could draw definitive conclusions.
On the Net: http://www.iaea.org
----
Iran not seeking nuclear bomb, but will defend itself: minister
NEW YORK (AFP)
Sep 28, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040928173319.58tpkf5m.html
Iran is not trying to build a nuclear bomb, but it has developed long and medium-range missiles to defend itself against potential threats, Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi told CNN television on Tuesday.
Asked if Iran was trying to develop nuclear weapons, Kharrazi replied: "Not at all. We are against (a) nuclear bomb. And it's not part of our defense strategy."
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has called on Tehran to immediately halt all activities related to uranium enrichment, a process that can make the explosive material for nuclear weapons.
Kharrazi said Iran wants to promote a nuclear-free Middle East and he stressed that UN weapons inspectors had not found any nuclear weapon programs in Iran.
"Iran is quite transparent. All sights are under inspection," he said.
The United States claims Iran is hiding a covert weapons development program, and wants the IAEA to bring Iran before the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.
Kharrazi said Iran should not be referred to the UN Security Council "because there hasn't been a violation," but said Tehran has developed long and medium-range missiles to defend its territory.
Iran's Defence Minister Ali Shamkhani said on Saturday the army had taken delivery of a new "strategic missile" but it is unclear if the weapon is the Shahab-3 medium-range missile, acquired by the Revolutionary Guards in July.
The Shahab-3 is believed to be based on a North Korean design and is thought to be capable of carrying a one-tonne warhead at least 1,300 kilometres (800 miles), well within range of Israel and US bases in the region.
"We have to be able to defend ourself," Kharrazi said.
Asked what Tehran would do if Israel launched an air strike against the country's nuclear facilities, Kharrazi replied: "We would be able to react. How we do react, I cannot tell you that."
The foreign minister said Iran had arrested "several Al-Qaeda" members, but did not detail how many alleged terrorists had been detained or what their names were.
He said they numbered in the "dozens" and that 14 "new elements" had been detained recently.
He said there was no reason to hand them over to Washington as they would be "judged and tried in Iranian courts."
Kharrazi said Tehran would support a regional summit on Iraq and that Iran was not seeking to influence elections scheduled for Iraq in January.
"We are not going to influence any other nation. But what is important for us is to have a democracy, a representative government in Iraq in place."
"We hope that election would be held by the end of January so as to have that representative government in Iraq, which will be able to maintain security for itself," the minister added.
-----
No Sign of Nuke Work at Suspect Iran Site - Diplomats
REUTERS
September 28, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-nuclear-iran.html
VIENNA (Reuters) - The analysis of soil samples taken by U.N. inspectors at Lavizan, a site in Tehran that U.S. officials suspect may be linked to an atomic weapons program, shows no sign of nuclear activity, Western diplomats said.
Satellite photos of Lavizan taken between August 2003 and May 2004 showed that Iran had completely razed Lavizan, a site which Iran said was a former military research laboratory, but which it said had nothing to do with atomic-related activities.
``The environmental samples taken at Lavizan have come back negative so far,'' a Vienna-based diplomat who follows the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told Reuters. Negative means the samples contained no traces of nuclear materials.
Washington accused Iran of removing a substantial amount of topsoil and rubble from the site and replacing it with a new layer of soil, in what U.S. officials said might have been an attempt to cover clandestine nuclear activity at Lavizan.
Former U.S. ambassador to the IAEA, Kenneth Brill, accused Iran in June of using ``the wrecking ball and bulldozer'' to sanitize Lavizan prior to the arrival of U.N. inspectors.
But another diplomat close to the IAEA told Reuters that on-site inspections of Lavizan produced no proof that any soil had been removed at all.
The United States accuses Iran of developing nuclear weapons under cover of a civilian atomic energy program, a charge Tehran has repeatedly denied.
The IAEA has been inspecting Iran's nuclear program for two years. Although it has uncovered many previously concealed activities that could be linked to weapons activity, it has found no ``smoking gun'' to prove Washington's case.
-------- japan
Kepco ordered to shut down Mihama reactor
The Japan Times
Sept. 28, 2004
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20040928a6.htm
FUKUI (Kyodo) Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Shoichi Nakagawa on Monday ordered Kansai Electric Power Co. to halt the No. 3 reactor at its Mihama nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture until the reactor is confirmed to meet government standards.
The reactor was the scene last month of Japan's deadliest-ever nuclear plant accident.
The move came after a ministry panel probing the accident released an interim report Monday that blamed the Aug. 9 accident that killed five workers and injured seven others on safety shortcomings by Kepco and other parties regarding a faulty coolant water pipe.
The workers had been undertaking preparatory work for regular checks of the reactor.
The minister also reprimanded Kansai Electric President Yosaku Fuji for a series of indiscretions and requested that he take every possible measure to prevent another accident.
Nakagawa harshly criticized the utility and indicated more penalties will come.
"Kansai Electric's responsibility is grave," he told a news conference. "I don't think the case will be closed with a reprimand and a suspension order. This is simply an interim report, not a final decision."
In the interim report, the panel said failure to check corrosion of pipes triggered the accident, singling out for blame Kepco, Nihon Arm Co., Kansai Electric's affiliate overseeing maintenance of its power plants, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., which manufactured the reactor.
The report urged the three to set up an integrated system to maintain the pipes and to share information on safety controls.
The ministry also canceled its quality guarantee assessment for three reactors. The three, all in Fukui, are the Mihama No. 1 reactor, the No. 3 reactor at the Takahama Nuclear Power Plant and the No. 2 reactor at the Oi Nuclear Power Plant.
-----
Japan Foreign Minister Favors Constitution Change
By REUTERS
September 28, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-japan-diplomacy.html
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan should revise its pacifist, U.S.-drafted constitution so that the world's second-biggest economy can play a greater security role abroad, Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said on Tuesday.
He also said Japan would not hold talks with North Korea on forging diplomatic ties unless Pyongyang responds ``convincingly and sincerely'' in a dispute over Japanese citizens Tokyo believes to have been abducted by North Korean agents decades ago.
Stressing that Japan has been engaged in non-combat peace-keeping activities abroad, he said it should become a permanent member on the U.N. Security Council with a bigger military role.
``I think we should revise the constitution in the sense that it is better to have a constitution with no ambiguity when Japan becomes a permanent member of the Security Council,'' Machimura told Reuters in an interview.
Article Nine of Japan's postwar constitution renounces the right to go to war and forbids a military, although it is interpreted as permitting forces for self-defense.
Japan, along with Germany, has long sought a permanent seat on the Security Council whose five members with veto power -- the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China -- have held their seats since they emerged victorious from World War II.
Machimura said, however, that the 1947 constitution would not hamper Japan's bid for the top U.N. seat.
``The argument that Japan, with the present constitution, cannot become a Security Council member, is wrong,'' he said.
Separately, new defense minister Yoshinori Ohno was quoted by Kyodo news agency as saying Japan should change the interpretation of its constitution so it can exercise the right to collective self-defense, or aiding an ally under attack.
``I would like (Japan's) interpretation of the right to collective self-defense to be made clearer to enable Japan to exercise it,'' Kyodo quoted Ohno as telling Kyodo and other Japanese media.
Ohno also indicated his support for revising the constitution to allow the right of collective self-defense to be exercised, Kyodo said.
Successive Japanese governments have interpreted the constitution's pacifist Article Nine as prohibiting Japan from exercising the right to collective self-defense.
In a speech to the General Assembly last week, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said countries with the will and resources had to have a place in the council and outlined Japan's contribution to ``peace-building and nation-building.''
STAUNCH U.S. ALLY
Japan, one of the United States' closest allies in Asia, has sent about 550 ground troops to Iraq -- with a strictly non-combat remit -- to help rebuild the war-torn country, its biggest and riskiest mission since World War II.
Critics say the deployment violates the pacifist clause of the constitution.
Japan's willingness to stretch the limits of the constitution and talk of its revision have sparked concern in China and other Asian countries that still harbour bitter memories of Tokyo's wartime aggression.
Japanese media quoted Secretary of State Colin Powell as saying this month that Japan must consider revising its constitution if it wanted to become a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.
Machimura also voiced his displeasure at North Korea for not furnishing details of 10 missing Japanese whose suspected abduction decades ago by the North is the main stumbling block in the way of diplomatic ties.
Japan and North Korea failed to make any progress in the dispute during two days of talks in Beijing at the weekend.
Machimura said Japan would not hold talks with North Korea on establishing ties as long as the reclusive communist state refuses to provide enough information on the abductees.
``We can in no way move forward unless North Korea responds convincingly and sincerely,'' he said.
Another block is North Korea's nuclear program, the subject of separate multilateral talks that also involve South Korea, Russia, China and the United States.
-------- korea
Chinese minister doubtful on North Korea nuclear claim
(Reuters)
Tue Sep 28, 2004
By Carol Giacomo, Diplomatic Correspondent
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=5YNAQ51AXJ4G4CRBAE0CFFA?type=topNews&storyID=6359592
UNITED NATIONS - Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing on Tuesday cast doubt on North Korea's claim that it has boosted its nuclear weapons capability and expressed skepticism about reports that Pyongyang may be preparing a new missile test.
In an interview with news agency reporters, he also said that "exceptional, mutual distrust" between the United States and North Korea was a major new complication in trying to arrange new six-party negotiations on the North's nuclear programs.
North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Su Hon on Monday reiterated claims his country had weaponized the fuel from 8,000 reprocessed spent fuel rods, which experts say could raise Pyongyang's nuclear cache from one or two bombs to eight bombs.
But Li, whose government is Pyongyang's closest ally and is playing a key role hosting the six-party talks said: "I have never ever heard about such news."
In fact, he added, "The official news I've got from the DPRK side seems not to be exactly the same as what you have heard about." He referred to the North by its official title of Democratic Republic of Korea.
Asked about reports North Korea may be preparing to test a ballistic missile, Li responded: "It seems that you know more than I do. "None of my colleagues from Japan, the United States or any countries you have been referring to has ever told me that they have seen that."
China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States are trying to persuade the North to scrap its nuclear program in exchange for security guarantees and energy aid.
Li reiterated China's view that North Korea's "legitimate security concerns" should be addressed and that there should be no research, development or possession of nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula.
While there has been progress in the three rounds of six-party talks held so far, "there have been new complicating factors and new difficulties. The major difficulty is the exceptional, mutual lack of trust between the DPRK and the United States," Li said.
Despite these problems, he said "the good news is that no one in the six parties has ever said that there is a better way than a peaceful and dialogue-based solution and they are all in favor of the continuation of the six-party process."
He declined to predict a date when the talks might resume, saying that was up to Pyongyang and Washington.
However, a leading Bush administration hawk, Under Secretary of State John Bolton, on Tuesday questioned the value of the slow-moving negotiations.
Bolton said the administration intended to resume the negotiations after the Nov. 2 U.S. election but if the North continued to "stonewall," Washington may move from talks to confronting Pyongyang in the U.N. Security Council.
Li dodged substantive discussion about U.S. allegations that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program, saying only that Beijing hopes Tehran cooperates with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, which is investigating its activities.
He also sidestepped questions about U.S. sanctions imposed on Chinese entities charged with transferring missile and other technology to Iran.
----
N Korea warns on nuclear rods
BBC
28 September, 2004
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3696092.stm
North Korea has said it has turned plutonium from 8,000 spent fuel rods into nuclear weapons.
Speaking at the UN General Assembly, Vice Foreign Minister Choe Su-hon said the weapons were needed for "self-defence" against "US nuclear threat".
Pyongyang has said before that it had reprocessed the rods, but has not been specific about how the material was subsequently used.
Seoul has estimated that 8,000 rods is enough for up to eight weapons.
In his speech to the General Assembly, Mr Choe again blamed the US' "hostile policy" for the nuclear stand-off.
He was then asked in a news conference afterwards what the North Korean nuclear deterrent entailed.
"We have already made clear that we have already reprocessed 8,000 wasted fuel rods and transformed them into arms," he said.
Asked if the fuel had been turned into actual weapons, he replied "We declared that we weaponised this."
Missile test
Pyongyang is also known to have missiles, and in recent days US and South Korean intelligence has picked up signs a missile test may be planned.
But Mr Choe, in an interview with Chinese state news agency Xinhua, denied this as "nothing but rumours".
Six-nation talks on the nuclear issue, which were due to have resumed before the end of September, have been put on hold since Pyongyang made clear its dissatisfaction with Washington's stance.
Analysts believe North Korea has ruled out further progress until after the US presidential election in November.
The North did, however, take part in talks with Japan over the weekend which focused on missing Japanese which North Korea is believed to have kidnapped, but Japanese officials said they were disappointed that Pyongyang did not release more details.
"We don't think that was enough," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda told reporters on Monday.
"It's important for North Korea to provide more detailed reports soon."
----
Minister: N. Korea Has Nuclear Deterrent
ASSOCIATED PRESS
September 28, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-UN-North-Korea.html
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- North Korea says it has turned the plutonium from 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods into nuclear weapons to serve as a deterrent against increasing U.S. nuclear threats and to prevent a nuclear war in northeast Asia.
Warning that the danger of war on the Korean peninsula ``is snowballing,'' Vice Foreign Minister Choe Su Hon provided details Monday of the nuclear deterrent that he said North Korea has developed for self-defense.
He told the U.N. General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting that Pyongyang had ``no other option but to possess a nuclear deterrent'' because of U.S. policies that he claimed were designed to ``eliminate'' North Korea and make it ``a target of preemptive nuclear strikes.''
``Our deterrent is, in all its intents and purposes, the self-defensive means to cope with the ever increasing U.S. nuclear threats and further, prevent a nuclear war in northeast Asia,'' he told a news conference after his speech.
In Washington, a State Department official noted that Secretary of State Colin Powell has said repeatedly that the United States has no plans to attack the communist country.
But in his General Assembly speech and at the press conference with a small group of reporters, Choe blamed the United States for intensifying threats to attack the communist nation and destroying the basis for negotiations to resolve the dispute over Pyongyang's nuclear program.
Nonetheless, he said, North Korea is still ready to dismantle its nuclear program if Washington abandons its ``hostile policy'' and is prepared to coexist peacefully.
At the moment, however, he said ``the ever intensifying U.S. hostile policy and the clandestine nuclear-related experiments recently revealed in South Korea are constituting big stumbling blocks'' and make it impossible for North Korea to participate in the continuation of six-nation talks on its nuclear program.
North Korea said earlier this year that it had reprocessed the 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods and was increasing its ``nuclear deterrent'' but did not provide any details.
Choe was asked at the news conference what was included in the nuclear deterrent.
``We have already made clear that we have already reprocessed 8,000 wasted fuel rods and transformed them into arms,'' he said, without elaborating on the kinds or numbers.
When asked if the fuel had been turned into actual weapons, not just weapons-grade material, Choe said, ``We declared that we weaponized this.''
South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuck said in late April that it was estimated that eight nuclear bombs could be made if all 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods were reprocessed. Before the reprocessing, South Korea said it believed the North had enough nuclear material to build one or two nuclear bombs.
The State Department official said he hadn't seen Choe's comments but noted that the Bush administration has long believed that North Korea has at least one or two nuclear weapons. The official, asking not to be identified, said the North Koreans also have made a number of conflicting statements about how far along their weapons development programs have come.
The crisis erupted in 2002 when the United States accused North Korea of running a secret nuclear weapons program. The United States, the two Koreas, Japan, China and Russia since have held three rounds of talks on curbing the North's nuclear ambitions, but have produced no breakthroughs.
``If the six-party talks are to be resumed, the basis for the talks demolished by the United States should be properly set up and the truth of the secret nuclear experiments in South Korea clarified completely,'' Choe told the General Assembly.
South Korea disclosed recently that its scientists conducted a plutonium-based nuclear experiment more than 20 years ago and a uranium-enrichment experiment in 2000. It denied having any weapons ambitions, and an investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency is under way.
Choe told the press conference that North Korea wants an explanation because Pyongyang believes it is impossible that such experiments took place ``without U.S. technology and U.S. approval.''
He also accused President George W. Bush's administration of being ``dead set against'' reconciliation between North and South Korea, and of adopting an ``extremely undisguised ... hostile policy'' toward the country after it came to power in early 2001.
``As it becomes clear that the U.S. has been pursuing the aim to stifle the DPRK by military means, so our determination to build up a powerful deterrent becomes resolute more and more,'' Choe said, using the initials of North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
At the third round of six-party talks in June, the United States proposed that the North disclose all its nuclear activities, help to dismantle facilities and allow outside monitoring. Under the plan, some benefits would be withheld to ensure the North cooperates.
But North Korea said it would never scrap its nuclear programs first and wait to get rewarded later. Instead, it insisted on ``reward for freeze.''
Choe said a freeze would be ``the first step toward eventual dismantlement of our nuclear program'' -- and that Pyongyang had intended ``to include in the freeze no more manufacturing of nuclear weapons, and no test and transfer of them.''
A freeze would be followed by ``objective verification,'' he said.
--------
North Korea Resists Talks on Nuclear Arms
Meeting by U.S. Election Is Unlikely
By Colum Lynch
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 28, 2004; Page A21
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55179-2004Sep27.html
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 27 -- North Korea said Monday that it will not resume talks on its nuclear weapons program until the Bush administration ends its "hostile policy" against Pyongyang and South Korea publishes complete details of its secret efforts to produce nuclear-weapons-grade fuel.
The new conditions, which were outlined by North Korea's vice foreign minister, Choe Su Hon, in a speech before the 191-member U.N. General Assembly, have diminished the prospects of talks aimed at resolving the nuclear standoff before the U.S. presidential election, according to diplomats. Three months ago, North Korea agreed to participate in a fourth round of six-party negotiations over the fate of its nuclear program with the United States, China, Russia, South Korea and Japan.
It remains unclear why Pyongyang is stalling. But the government has escalated its anti-American rhetoric since President Bush referred to North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il, as a "tyrant" last month at a campaign rally in Wisconsin. The North Korean foreign ministry responded by calling Bush a "fascist tyrant," a "man killer" and "human trash."
Choe, meanwhile, warned Monday that the "danger of war is snowballing" in the Korean Peninsula as a result of the Bush administration's efforts to "isolate" Pyongyang. "The ever intensifying U.S. hostile policy and the clandestine nuclear-related experiments recently revealed in South Korea are constituting big stumbling blocks to the continuation of the talks," Choe told U.N. delegates. "The serious situation . . . makes us unable to participate in the talks aimed at discussing the nuclear weapon program."
The North Korean's refusal to continue talks represents a setback for the Bush administration, which is pursuing resumption of negotiations before the Nov. 2 election to demonstrate its commitment to end the crisis diplomatically.
"We certainly want to see another round take place," said State Department spokesman Adam Ereli. "We hope that the North Koreans will realize that the sooner they return to the six-party format and begin discussions, the sooner we'll be able to help them deal with their very serious economic problems. We are continuing to work with the other parties to the six-party talks to move the process forward, and it's not something we're giving up on."
The latest nuclear crisis in North Korea began in 2002, when a senior North Korean official told visiting U.S. diplomats that the country had a program to enrich uranium. The two sides agreed to participate in the six-party talks to resolve the matter diplomatically. The group, which first met in August 2002, has held three meetings.
Choe defended his government's decision to develop nuclear weapons, citing the Bush administration's embrace of a policy of preemptive action against nuclear weapons proliferators and Bush's designation of North Korea, along with Iran and the former regime in Iraq, as members of an "axis of evil."
He said that North Korea is willing to dismantle its nuclear weapons program as part of a step-by-step agreement -- which Choe dubbed "reward for freeze" -- that would require compensation for billions of dollars in losses Pyongyang maintains it incurred in developing its nuclear program.
"Our demand is simple and plain," he said in a statement read to reporters after the speech. "It is for the U.S. to commit itself to non-aggression guarantee and normalize relations with the DPRK [the Democratic People's Republic of Korea] and refrain from impeding the economic transactions between the DPRK and other countries. Our demand is also for the U.S. to make due compensation for the freeze and dismantlement of nuclear facilities that we have built with huge investment, tightening our belts."
The Bush administration has said that it is prepared to consider easing sanctions on Pyongyang and offering security assurances once it can verify that the government is serious about scrapping its nuclear program.
But the administration maintains that it is unwilling to pay Pyongyang to halt its program, citing its failure to abide by an agreement with the Clinton administration to forgo its nuclear weapons ambitions in exchange for Western funding for two light-water nuclear reactors, which cannot be easily converted to produce weapons-grade fuel.
--------
Chinese Minister Doubtful on N.Korea Nuclear Claim
By REUTERS
September 28, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-un-china.html
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing on Tuesday cast doubt on North Korea's claim that it has boosted its nuclear weapons capability and expressed skepticism about reports that Pyongyang may be preparing a new missile test.
In an interview with news agency reporters, he also said that ``exceptional, mutual distrust'' between the United States and North Korea was a major new complication in trying to arrange new six-party negotiations on the North's nuclear programs.
North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Su Hon on Monday reiterated claims his country had weaponized the fuel from 8,000 reprocessed spent fuel rods, which experts say could raise Pyongyang's nuclear cache from one or two bombs to eight bombs.
But Li, whose government is Pyongyang's closest ally and is playing a key role hosting the six-party talks said: ``I have never ever heard about such news.''
In fact, he added, ``The official news I've got from the DPRK side seems not to be exactly the same as what you have heard about.'' He referred to the North by its official title of Democratic Republic of Korea.
Asked about reports North Korea may be preparing to test a ballistic missile, Li responded: ``It seems that you know more than I do. ``None of my colleagues from Japan, the United States or any countries you have been referring to has ever told me that they have seen that.''
China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States are trying to persuade the North to scrap its nuclear program in exchange for security guarantees and energy aid.
Li reiterated China's view that North Korea's ``legitimate security concerns'' should be addressed and that there should be no research, development or possession of nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula.
While there has been progress in the three rounds of six-party talks held so far, ``there have been new complicating factors and new difficulties. The major difficulty is the exceptional, mutual lack of trust between the DPRK and the United States,'' Li said.
Despite these problems, he said ``the good news is that no one in the six parties has ever said that there is a better way than a peaceful and dialogue-based solution and they are all in favor of the continuation of the six-party process.''
He declined to predict a date when the talks might resume, saying that was up to Pyongyang and Washington.
However, a leading Bush administration hawk, Under Secretary of State John Bolton, on Tuesday questioned the value of the slow-moving negotiations.
Bolton said the administration intended to resume the negotiations after the Nov. 2 U.S. election but if the North continued to ``stonewall,'' Washington may move from talks to confronting Pyongyang in the U.N. Security Council.
Li dodged substantive discussion about U.S. allegations that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program, saying only that Beijing hopes Tehran cooperates with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, which is investigating its activities.
He also sidestepped questions about U.S. sanctions imposed on Chinese entities charged with transferring missile and other technology to Iran.
-------
U.S. Reacts Calmly to N. Korea Nuke Claim
September 28, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-US-North-Korea.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration responded calmly Tuesday to North Korean claims it has turned the plutonium from 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods into nuclear weapons.
Senior administration officials said they were not abandoning the six-nation talks designed to halt North Korea's nuclear weapons program, even as they acknowledged negotiations will not resume this month despite previous North Korean commitments to do so.
They suggested North Korea might be wooed back to the table later this year after the U.S. presidential election and after the board of the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency meets in November and reviews South Korean experiments with enriched uranium and plutonium.
North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Su Hon disclosed Monday at the United Nations that his country had converted the spent nuclear fuel rods, saying it would serve as a deterrent to increasing U.S. nuclear threats and to prevent a nuclear war in northeast Asia.
The danger of war on the Korean peninsula ``is snowballing,'' the North Korean diplomat warned.
``We take all their claims seriously,'' State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Tuesday, but he also suggested a touch of theater in the North Korean diplomat's statement, saying Pyongyang ``is bragging about violating its commitments and its promises.''
Boucher said he held out no hope that a fourth round of negotiations could be held by Thursday, the end of September, as promised by North Korea. The six-nation talks also include South Korea, Japan, China and Russia.
Meanwhile, Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton said the Bush administration remains committed to six-party talks, and that North Korea was using criticism of South Korean tests as a propaganda ploy. Bolton said it was ``very hard to know'' how advanced North Korea's nuclear weapons program was.
North Korea's nuclear weapons program has become part of the presidential election campaign.
Democratic candidate John Kerry prefers one-on-one negotiations with North Korea and has accused the Bush administration of letting a ``nuclear nightmare'' develop by refusing to deal with North Korea when President Bush took office in January 2001.
``North Korea's nuclear program is well ahead of what Saddam Hussein was even suspected of doing, yet the president took his eye off the ball, wrongly ignoring this growing danger,'' Kerry said recently.
Some U.S. intelligence analysts are becoming concerned that North Korea may have up to six nuclear weapons instead of the one or two the Central Intelligence Agency estimates.
Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the private Arms Control Association, said North Korea has claimed before to be turning plutonium from spent fuel rods into nuclear weapons, but the claim has never been substantiated.
Kimball said the administration was engaged in ``wishful thinking'' about six-nation talks. ``The North Korean situation has devolved under their watch, and the current approach is clearly not working out,'' he said in a telephone interview.
-------- MILITARY
-------- afghanistan
Pentagon announces billion-dollar plan to build five Afghan army bases
WASHINGTON (AFP)
Sep 28, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040928213203.ik1z7w5g.html
The Pentagon notified Congress Tuesday of plans to build five bases in Afghanistan for the Afghan National Army at a cost of up to one billion dollars.
The Pentagon said Afghanistan had requested the bases be built for the Afghan army's Central Corps in Kabul and four regional commands planned in Gardez, Kandahar, Herat and Mazar-i-Sharif.
"The total value, if all options are exercised, could be as high as one billion dollars," the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agencysaid in a statement.
It said the project would be carried out by the Army Corps of Engineers.
The description provided to Congress indicated that plans call for building a large walled base in Kabul with training barracks, medical and dining facilities and buildings to store vehicles and supplies.
The other bases also would have training barracks, dining facilities, medical clinics, and communications centers as well as basic utilities -- power, water, and sewage tretment plants.
The Pentagon did not say where the money would come from for the project, or how soon construction might begin.
"The proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a friendly country that we hope to help become an important force for political stability and economic progress in South Asia," the DSCA said.
It said Afghanistan "needs these services to support the recruitment, training, bed-down, and operational effectiveness of a military capability to establish security and stability throughout Afghanistan, and to promote the stability and development of a friendly, democratic central government."
The creation of the Afghan National Army has been the centerpiece of US efforts to gradually offset the power of regional warlords.
Only about 13,500 Afghan army troops have been trained and fielded so far, but plans call for a force of some 70,000 troops in five years.
-------- africa
In Darfur, Rwandan Soldiers Relive Their Past
Protectors Hope Presence Will Halt Another Genocide
By Emily Wax
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, September 28, 2004; Page A20
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A55184-2004Sep27?language=printer
EL FASHER, Sudan -- As the sun set over this desert camp, Pvt. Lambert Sendegeya, an African Union soldier from Rwanda, popped in a tape of music from his country and launched into a series of leg bends. Lt. Eugene Ruzianda peered from his canvas tent and, removing his green beret, joined the evening exercises.
As they stretched, they lamented their daunting task: protecting 80 African Union military observers who are charged with monitoring a rarely observed cease-fire in Sudan's strife-torn region of Darfur, an area about the size of France.
They rattled off the reports of violence they had heard and the instances in which victims had handed them handwritten notes about fighting and rapes. But neither the monitors nor the protection forces have enough vehicles or manpower to investigate, the soldiers said.
"Every night you go to sleep thinking, 'I could do more. We could do more with a better mandate,' " said Ruzianda, also a Rwandan, whose family fled to Congo during a civil war in his country in the 1990s. "I hate it, to see people living like this. There are some things that remind me of our country when people were fleeing. It can be a shock to see it all again. This time, the only comfort is that at least we are here. At least there is something."
These men are part of the generation that survived the 1994 Rwandan genocide, 100 days of violence in which 800,000 people were slaughtered. The Organization of African Unity, since replaced by the African Union, stood by silently while the carnage unfolded. The United Nations, which had a small force on the ground during the bloodshed, also did not intervene.
Now 155 Rwandans, part of a 305-member African Union force, are being asked to demonstrate that Africans can stop African wars. The United Nations, backed by the United States and the European Union, called for the group's involvement in Darfur, its first serious test.
Burned villages smolder across the region. About 1.4 million Africans who were driven from their farms now live in squalid tent cities that continue to swell. Thousands of people have died in the crisis, which the United States has termed a genocide.
The violence erupted in February 2003, when African tribes rebelled against the Arab-led government. The government responded by bombing villages and arming and supporting an Arab militia known as the Janjaweed to put down the rebellion, according to the United Nations and human rights groups. The government has said the Janjaweed is not under its control.
The U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution this month that threatens sanctions against Sudan unless it stops the violence and establishes a commission to investigate atrocities. The council has also threatened to send 3,000 more African Union troops to Darfur if security does not improve.
The monitors and their protectors are key to ending the conflict. Their job is to track violations of the cease-fire by the government and by the African rebels and report them to the union's political wing, which is conducting peace talks between the two sides in Nigeria.
Aid groups say the force's mandate is vague and are pressing for more explicit orders that would allow the soldiers to use force to stop the attacks on civilians.
Sudan's government has said it would reject any role for the force beyond monitoring. In Khartoum, government-owned newspapers are filled with fiery editorials accusing the troops, who represent 12 countries, of bringing HIV/AIDS to Sudan. Other stories have likened the mission to the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
But Sudan's government may not have a choice. Attacks are continuing in villages and around camps, which refugees describe as "prisons without walls," said Louise Arbour, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, who recently visited the region.
"People cannot return home because they do not trust the government to protect them," Arbour said. "It's clear they need an increased international presence on the ground."
The African Union force, created in 2002, is still in its infancy. The union's chairman, President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, has appealed for $200 million to buy logistical equipment. The U.S. Senate on Thursday approved a bill providing $75 million for the force.
During a recent visit to a base in El Fasher, Gen. Festus Okonkwo of Nigeria sat in an air-conditioned trailer and listed the vehicles in his tiny fleet: three helicopters and six armored personnel carriers.
"As many more as you can afford to give me, I will take," Okonkwo told a visiting delegation that included U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.), chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations.
The shortages resonate with the Rwandans.
"We hope and would appreciate the very important help," said Maj. Emmanuel Rugazoora, a Rwandan commander. "We want to solve an African problem. No one should be ashamed to ask for more help where there are people suffering."
Rugazoora encouraged his men to keep working, and not to worry about politics. "Focus on Darfur," he ordered.
"We want to go in deep," said Sendegeya, the private, who grew up as a refugee in Burundi during Rwanda's war. Many of his family's friends, who stayed behind, were killed. "As a Rwandan you feel this should be looked at very carefully and there should be goals," said Sendegeya, 32. "My sentiment is emotional if there is a problem."
There are days when there are not enough cars for all of the monitors to go out, and Sendegeya sits in his tent, cleans up the compound and exercises.
But he said he was glad to be here. "You know, it's interesting because in spite of everything, I feel like I am doing something to resolve the conflict," he said.
Ruzianda, his immediate commander, slapped his friend's back and said he understood.
"Even when I complain, I am very happy to be contributing to this, even a little bit," said Ruzianda, who was a member of the military force that stopped the genocide in Rwanda. "It's different for us."
The Rwandan soldiers, some holding AK-47s, gathered to talk about the good they said they hoped they were doing. Many said they had attended ceremonies back home in April commemorating the 10th anniversary of the genocide.
They talked about the women who attended the ceremonies, many wailing and holding up framed photo collages of the children they had lost. Some of the soldiers mentioned that foreigners descended on their country for the anniversary, but weren't there a decade ago to stop the slaughter. And they spoke about the words inscribed atop the recently opened genocide museum: "Never Again."
One youthful-looking guard, who said he had lost his parents in the genocide, walked away. "I'm going to bed," he said. Another stared bleakly at the ground.
Ruzianda smiled weakly and shrugged his shoulders. "This is my wish: never again. And isn't that what we are proclaiming here? So stop being foolish," he said. "Our continent doesn't need this all over again."
-------- britain
In Party Speech, Blair Admits Political Cost of Iraq Mistakes
September 28, 2004
By PATRICK E. TYLER
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/28/international/middleeast/28CND-BLAI.html?pagewanted=all
BRIGHTON, England, Sept. 28 - Prime Minister Tony Blair acknowledged today that there had been a decline of public trust in his government over the military campaign in Iraq and he offered the assembled delegates of his governing Labor Party a qualified apology for some of the judgments he had made in taking the country to war.
"The evidence about Saddam having actual biological and chemical weapons as opposed to the capability to develop them has turned out to be wrong," he told hundreds of party leaders and delegates as about 8,000 protesters against the war and against a ban on fox hunting demonstrated outside the hall in this seaside resort on Britain's southern coast.
"And the problem is, I can apologize for the information that turned out to be wrong, but I can't, sincerely at least, apologize for removing Saddam," Mr. Blair said, adding, "The world is a better place with Saddam in prison, not in power."
A small number of protesters slipped inside to twice interrupt Mr. Blair's address, one of them shouting that the prime minister had "blood on his hands." Party delegates booed the intrusion as security officers forcibly pushed the protesters out of the hall.
The speech is seen by party leaders as critical to shoring up Mr. Blair's personal standing at the top of the Labor Party as it prepares for elections next year. The Labor government hopes to win its first third term in the party's history, a realignment that has profoundly affected the future prospects of the Conservative Party, which dominated British politics from Winston Churchill through Margaret Thatcher, whose successor, John Major, relinquished No. 10 Downing Street to Mr. Blair in 1997.
While a number of Labor Party delegates said they interpreted Mr. Blair's remarks as an apology and helpful to galvanizing the party for the election fight ahead, others were more measured. A prominent union leader, Derrick Simpson, issued faint praise in a televised interview by saying Mr. Blair had given a "sound" performance.
Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative Party leader, appearing in a BBC television panel immediately after the speech, asserted that Mr. Blair's apology was too conditional. "I certainly didn't hear an apology about the war," he said.
A debate on Iraq is expected to dominate the Labor gathering on Thursday.
The speech was delivered on a day when two more British soldiers were killed in Iraq and as the fate of a British engineer, Ken Bigley, was unknown after being taken hostage in Baghdad 12 days ago.
In a contrite tone, Mr. Blair said he was as "fallible" as "any other human being" in his mistaken judgments on the war, but he also said the struggle against global terrorism since the attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, had changed him as a leader.
"I know this issue has divided the country," he said, and that many Britons think the prime minister has stopped "caring" about jobs, families and the domestic agenda.
"Or worse," he added, many Britons have come to believe Mr. Blair has been "pandering to George Bush" in a cause "that's irrelevant to us."
But he asserted that the threat from terrorism had changed profoundly from the terrorism "we have always lived with" in international affairs.
"I never anticipated, and neither did you, spending time on working out how terrorists trained in a remote part of the Hindu Kush could end up present on British streets threatening our way of life," he said.
The new terrorism, he said, has become deep rooted and based on a "perversion" of Islam and pervades the religious schools of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and parts of the political spectrum in the Middle East, Asia and the mosques of European cities.
Mr. Blair was applauded when he told the delegates that "the only path to take is to confront this terrorism, remove it root and branch and at all costs stop them from acquiring the weapons to kill on a massive scale, because these terrorists would not hesitate to use them."
Sounding a note from President Bush's campaign speeches, Mr. Blair said that he had come to realize that "caring in politics isn't really about caring: It's about doing what you think is right and sticking to it."
In that vein, Mr. Blair was slightly more defiant on the Iraq issue, saying that "healing" within the party could only come "from understanding that the decision, whether agreed with or not, was taken because I believe, genuinely, that Britain's future security depended on it."
And while he said that the fight against terrorism would require "more fighting" by British and American forces in Iraq, he added that "military action will be futile unless we address the conditions in which this terrorism breeds and the causes it preys on."
In a pledge that drew vigorous applause for its implicit criticism of President Bush, the British prime minister said that after the American elections in November, he would make the revival of the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians "a personal priority."
"Two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in an enduring peace would do more to defeat this terrorism than bullets alone can ever do," he said.
The Brighton conference is crucial for Mr. Blair because it will probably stand as the last party gathering before Mr. Blair leads the party into an election, probably in May 2005, to face an electorate whose preferences appear from recent public opinion surveys to be evenly apportioned among Labor, the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats.
Mr. Blair used the annual address to lay out a domestic agenda, setting forth 10 specific pledges for improvements in education, crime fighting, health and social welfare and sought to rally the party with humor, taunts at the opposition and then a lengthy homily on Iraq and how the struggle against terrorism had changed him as a leader.
Referring to the 10 pledges, he exhorted the delegates in language that clearly conveyed that the election campaign had begun.
"Don't tell me that's not worth fighting for," he said of the pledge list. "And now we have to go out and win the trust of the people to do it with some fire in our bellies."
The decline in Labor's fortunes has raised the question of whether Mr. Blair could rally the country again behind his leadership, or whether he has become such a liability due to the Iraq war that he should step aside in favor of Gordon Brown, his oldest political ally. The party consensus, fragile at times, has been that Mr. Blair will lead the party in the elections, but perhaps not all the way through a third term if Labor prevails.
Friction between Mr. Blair and Mr. Brown over the nuances of policy and a rivalry of leadership vision has been the hallmark of their seven years in power. In an effort at unity, Mr. Blair's wife, Cherie, entered the hall in advance of her husband's speech and dramatically embraced Mr. Brown to the applause of delegates.
And in his speech, Mr. Blair paid special tribute to Mr. Brown as "a personal friend for 20 years and the best chancellor this country has ever had."
-------- iraq
Taking On Sadr City in a Pickup Truck
Four Deaths Illustrate Vulnerability of Iraqi Forces
By Steve Fainaru
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 28, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A55284-2004Sep27?language=printer
BAGHDAD, Sept. 27 -- The convoy stopped in a single-file line: a half-dozen U.S. armored military vehicles and one gray Nissan pickup truck, all of them idling in a dirt lot in the insurgent-controlled slum called Sadr City.
In the pickup were five members of the Iraqi National Guard, resting up after patrolling with U.S. troops. The men sipped water in the hot midday sun. They wore bulletproof vests but no helmets as they sat in their unarmored truck.
Without warning, an orange fireball engulfed the area, followed by a deafening explosion and then gray smoke that blotted out the sun. When it cleared, the Nissan and the Iraqis inside it were riddled with marble-size ball bearings that had sprayed from a roadside bomb.
"They're dead! All of them are dead!" shouted an American soldier who had rushed to the vehicle.
"Make sure!" shouted another. "See if any of them are moving."
"They're done," said the first, turning away. "They're all done."
Three Americans -- all gunners whose job requires them to stand partially exposed in the rear hatches of the bulletproof Humvees -- sustained wounds, though none that were life-threatening. Dozens of other U.S. troops on the scene escaped unharmed, thanks largely to their vehicles' armor.
The blast, witnessed by a Washington Post reporter riding in an armored Humvee directly behind the Nissan on Monday afternoon, demonstrated the uneven vulnerability of U.S. forces, who are equipped with the most sophisticated weaponry and armor, and their Iraqi allies, who fight the same battles using vastly inferior equipment.
Among the Iraqis, there are frequent complaints that they don't have the tools for the job. About two dozen Iraqi soldiers and would-be recruits have died in the past week in ambushes and bombings. With elections here scheduled for January, the Bush administration has staked its hopes for the country on Iraqis assuming increasing responsibility for security.
Asked if a Nissan pickup afforded sufficient protection in Sadr City, where more than 100 roadside bombs exploded last month, Capt. Haider Yehya, the commander of the Iraqi guardsmen, responded: "No. Those vehicles, those are civilian vehicles. They're not right for the army."
The Iraqis who died were Amar Ali, 22; Walid Younes, 28; Sabah Mujed, 25; and Thamer Ali Majed, 20, according to Yehya. Despite the American soldiers' initial fear that everyone in the truck had died, there was a survivor, the Nissan's driver, Ahmed Khaleb, 25, who sustained severe shrapnel wounds to his face and leg. Khaleb crawled from the truck, soaked in blood, then collapsed in the dirt. He was evacuated to the U.S.-run Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad. There was no information about his condition.
The day began at around 11:30 a.m., when the 2nd platoon of Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion of the 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, made its way up Baghdad's Canal Road to patrol Sadr City, which remains largely under the control of insurgents loyal to Moqtada Sadr, the rebellious Shiite cleric.
The Iraqis were members of the 305th National Guard battalion, which has two companies attached to the 1st Cavalry Division. The company whose men were hit by the explosion, Company C, is nicknamed "The Lions of Freedom."
The vehicles assembled at a traffic median near Sadr City's southern boundary. The convoy then made its way into the slum, steering around huge mounds of festering garbage and past narrow alleys that the soldiers eyed warily as potential hiding places for ambushers. Posters of Sadr were plastered to the sides of buildings.
In this tense environment, children walked along streets, watching the patrol. Some waved at the soldiers and smiled; when the convoy briefly stopped, they surrounded the Iraqi guardsmen and talked with them. Then, as the convoy drove away, the mood changed. Some children threw rocks at the vehicles.
Around 2:45 p.m., the convoy made its way back to a large vacant lot near the southern edge of Sadr City, where it was joined by vehicles from other units patrolling the area. Two M1-A2 Abrams tanks were pointed at the neighborhood.
Lt. Tye Graham, 23, of Pecos, Tex., said commanders had decided to use the lot as a staging area for a raid on insurgents thought to have plotted a bombing in Sadr City that had injured two Americans about two hours earlier.
Behind the Nissan, Sgt. Anthony Stewart, 31, of Sumter, S.C., sat in his Humvee, watching the Iraqi guardsmen. Two were sitting in the rear bed of the pickup; one was swigging water spiked with rehydration powder that the U.S. soldiers had given him. But he was spitting the water into the dirt.
"Look at those guys, they don't know how to drink it," said Stewart. He said later that he thought about getting out of the Humvee and walking over to explain that they needed to swallow the powdered water for it to be effective.
Before he could do that, the air filled with an orange fireball that seemed to erupt about 10 feet to the right of the Nissan.
The smoke from the explosion cleared after about 30 seconds, revealing the carnage.
"We have ING wounded!" Stewart shouted into the radio. "ING are down!"
The truck had offered no protection. The man who had been swigging the water was slumped against the rear of the cab, his eyes open, his body bloodied and motionless. The man next to him also appeared to have been killed instantly; his body lay against the left side of the truck, his right hand spread across his lap. Blood and parts of his brain and skull trickled down the left rear panel.
Inside the cab, two others were dead; a man in the passenger seat had two ball bearings lodged in his forehead.
Khaleb, the driver, managed to open his door and take a few steps toward the company medic, Spec. Justin "Doc" Martin, who was riding in the Humvee in front of the Nissan. But then Khaleb collapsed in the dirt and crawled until the medic reached him.
Martin cut off the man's bloodied clothing and began to treat him for arterial bleeding.
Another soldier shouted that the gunner in Martin's Humvee was also down. The man, who was unconscious, had been blown back into the gunner's hatch.
"We got him woken up," Martin said later. "He didn't know where he was. He didn't know who I was."
Martin turned to another gunner who had been two Humvees behind the Nissan. He cut away the man's shirt, revealing his punctured right shoulder.
"My shoulder, Doc," he said. "I can't feel my shoulder."
U.S. officials requested that the names of the three Americans wounded by the bomb not be released, because their families may not have been notified.
In the meantime, two American soldiers got Khaleb onto a stretcher and placed him in a Humvee.
U.S. commanders quickly began to clear the area, fearing another attack. The truck was abandoned. The Humvees raced out of the southeast side of the lot, a cloud of dust rising in their wake. The two that had led and followed the Nissan headed back down Canal Road in the same order, now minus the pickup.
Within a half mile of the lot, the shrapnel-pierced right rear tire of the front vehicle began to disintegrate. Black smoke and the smell of the burning tire trailed behind it, filling the air. Outside Sadr City, in a more secure area of Baghdad, the two vehicles pulled over to the side of the road. An hour passed as the soldiers struggled to jack up the heavy vehicle and replace the oversize tire.
The skin on the right side of both vehicles was gouged with holes the size of marbles. The right rear windows were also punctured, but shrapnel did not appear to have penetrated either vehicle.
Pfc. Dion Butler, 20, was riding in a rear passenger seat in the Humvee in front of the Nissan. He said he had opened the door slightly before the blast to test it because it had been sticking.
A piece of shrapnel appeared to have entered through the slight opening. It narrowly missed the head of Sgt. Jason Pries, 28, of Rochester, N.Y., who was seated in the front passenger seat. The ball bearing hit the front window, gouging the glass and spreading a web of cracks from the point of impact.
"You almost got me killed, man," Pries joked in relief when Butler said he had left the door open.
Sgt. Nick Varney, of Lancaster, Calif., was driving the Humvee behind the Nissan. He called Sadr City "an IED planet," using the shorthand for the military term improvised explosive device, and said an attack in the lot had been likely because U.S. tanks frequently park there. "It was only a matter of time before the Mahdi militia was going to try to stage an ambush," he said.
The vehicles made it back to Camp Cuervo, a forward operating base about six miles southeast of Sadr City, at 5:30 p.m.
"I've never needed a cigarette more in my life," said one of the soldiers.
"I've never needed to drop acid more in my life," said another.
Lt. Col. Florentino "Lopez" Carter, the task force commander, said that until the Iraqis received better equipment he would no longer send them into Sadr City.
Before the June 28 transfer of political authority to an interim Iraqi government, the Iraqis accompanied the American soldiers on patrols, often taking vacant seats in their Humvees. They now ride in their own vehicles -- not just used pickups but civilian transport trucks and minivans provided by the interim government's Defense Ministry. They use old AK-47s and RPK light machine guns.
"They're still using those old World War II-style helmets," said Carter. "Truth be told, they're better off without them, because they don't provide the ballistic protection that our equipment provides."
Carter said the lack of adequate equipment is "the biggest challenge" to the goal of integrating the Iraqis into U.S.-led operations.
As Carter spoke, Maj. Hugh McGloin, his operations chief, walked into his office. Earlier in the day, McGloin had been wounded by a separate roadside bomb. Shrapnel hit him in the back of his helmeted head. As he bent over, he said, his blast-resistant glasses fell off, then began to pool with blood.
McGloin's head was bandaged. Carter handed him a cell phone to call his family, then examined the injured soldier's helmet.
"That saved your life, bro," said Carter.
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Iraqi Judge Dismisses Chalabi Case
With Evidence Lacking, Counterfeiting Charges Dropped for Now
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, September 28, 2004; Page A22
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55069-2004Sep27.html
BAGHDAD, Sept. 27 -- The chief investigating judge of Iraq's Central Criminal Court said Monday that he had "temporarily dismissed" a counterfeiting case against Ahmed Chalabi, the exile leader who was supported by the Pentagon before the war but became a leading critic of the U.S. occupation.
The judge, Zuhair Maliky, had opened an investigation of Chalabi and issued an arrest warrant for him after police found counterfeit currency in the house where Chalabi was living. But Maliky said in an interview that the case had been dismissed for the time being because there was not sufficient proof that the house, a Chinese-style mansion in an affluent Baghdad neighborhood, was owned by Chalabi.
Attorneys for Chalabi had argued that the house was the headquarters for his political organization, the Iraqi National Congress, and that numerous people had access to the premises, the judge said.
"The Chinese house where the money was found is the residence of Ahmed Chalabi or the headquarters of the INC," Maliky said. "If it is the residence, he is the major suspect, but if it is the headquarters of the INC, which may be used by other people, he will not be the primary suspect."
Maliky said the plaintiff in the case, the Central Bank of Iraq, could not prove that it was Chalabi's house. The judge also said that Chalabi had presented witnesses who testified that the house belonged to the INC.
The argument used to dismiss the charges is different from the defense Chalabi put forward in August, when Maliky issued an arrest warrant for him. At the time, Chalabi acknowledged that he possessed counterfeit currency, but said the notes were samples used for a meeting with Iraq's Central Bank in his capacity as chairman of the finance committee of the now-disbanded Governing Council. He has said that the value of the counterfeit currency in his house was 3,000 dinars, or about $2.
Chalabi could not be reached for comment Monday. A Chalabi aide, Haider Mousawi, told the Associated Press on Friday that "they are not going to find any evidence against Chalabi, because there was no evidence from the beginning."
Formal charges were never filed by the judge.
Maliky said the case was dismissed about 10 days ago but that it could be reopened if further investigations produced evidence of wrongdoing.
Before the U.S.-led war that toppled Saddam Hussein's government, Chalabi was a favorite of many in the Pentagon to lead Iraq. But in the following months, he fell out of favor with the U.S. government because of his criticism of postwar U.S. policy in Iraq and his efforts to forge close ties with neighboring Iran. He has also been a longtime rival of the interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi.
In 1992, a Jordanian court convicted Chalabi in absentia of embezzlement and fraud after a bank he ran collapsed with about $300 million in missing deposits. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison. Chalabi, who fled Jordan before the case went to trial, has long denied the charges, which he has accused Hussein of orchestrating.
In other developments Monday, two soldiers with the U.S. 1st Infantry Division were killed near Balad, north of Baghdad, the Associated Press reported. The first died in a vehicle accident and the second was killed when a patrol, returning from the crash scene, came under attack, the military said.
The AP also reported that car bomb attacks killed at least seven Iraqi National Guardsmen in the northern city of Mosul and at a checkpoint near Fallujah.
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U.S. Says More Iraqi Police Are Needed as Attacks Continue
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 28, 2004; Page A23
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55070-2004Sep27.html
At a time when Iraqi insurgents are targeting local police officers and recruits for attack, the United States has raised by one-third -- to 135,000 -- the size of the Iraqi police force it says will be needed to help secure the country, according to information the administration has provided to Congress.
The challenges to the United States in training and deploying that many officers are considerable, officials acknowledge. Currently, about 82,051 Iraqi police officers are on the payroll, but only 32,880 have received training under U.S. guidance, according to figures provided by Capt. Steven Alvarez, an Army officer working with the Iraqi Interior Ministry. Of that number, Congress was told last week that only 8,200 had received the eight-week training; the rest got a more basic course for three weeks or less.
Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage described the latter group as "shake and bake" trainees, saying in congressional testimony last week that they were mostly former police officers under Saddam Hussein's government being trained "primarily in human rights, respect for law, things of that nature."
Although interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and President Bush emphasized last week that progress is being made in training Iraqi police, others say the going has been slow.
A senior U.S. official in Iraq said in an interview last week that the new goal for 135,000 officers may not be reached for two more years under the best of circumstances. Officials point, among other things, to a lack of qualified personnel and appropriate training facilities.
More than 750 Iraqi police officers and hundreds more recruits have been killed over the past 10 months, said the senior official, who would speak only on the condition of anonymity. At the same time, officials in Baghdad said such attacks on recruits haven't stemmed the flow of willing volunteers.
The Iraqi Police Service is only one of several security forces that Americans are working to train and equip. Officials say this is essential to quell the insurgency, provide security for Iraq's January election and set the stage for U.S. forces to diminish their role in the country.
In addition to the national police force, the security array includes military units such as the Iraqi army, the Iraqi National Guard, the Iraqi Prevention Force and Iraqi Special Operations Forces, and police-type units such as the Department of Border Enforcement and the Facilities Protection Service, whose members guard government buildings.
Estimates of the number of Iraqi police officers have varied, and officials say record-keeping is primitive and chaotic.
"The payrolls are stubby pencil right now," said the U.S. official in Baghdad. He described a system in which a handwritten list of police to be paid is generated in towns and cities across Iraq, approved at a regional level and then delivered to Baghdad, where cash is taken from the Finance Ministry and sent back down the line. "It is all cash right now," he said. The Iraqi Interior Ministry is "determined to set standards and have a database of those who are on the payroll."
To help solve the Interior Ministry's problems in managing the force, U.S. officials have introduced a new high-tech system in which digital fingerprints and retinal eye scans are taken of individuals on the force. To that they are adding the individual's educational and employment background to help them decide whom to keep on, whom to retire and whom to hire.
Anthony H. Cordesman, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, released a study Friday showing that the Iraqi Police Service payroll list "includes large numbers of pensions and 'non-performing' police" known not to be serving. He also said the overall police numbers were dropping "in part because of desertions and purging of low-grade personnel."
Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus, who has taken charge of all Iraqi security training, has tried to purge the rolls of unqualified or unfit officers even as he works to recruit and train new ones. In June he received $20 million in Iraqi oil money to provide severance pay. At that time, 120,000 people were on the police payroll, but the force was authorized to have only 90,000.
Another new problem for Petraeus is what to do for the families of police who are killed by insurgents and for those officers who have been wounded and are now disabled. The Petraeus fund has grown to $60 million, the official said, in part to address these new problems.
And officials had hoped that a facility in Amman, Jordan, would be able to train 3,000 Iraqis at a time in an eight-week program, but it has not performed at that pace. A new facility is planned for Baghdad and other locations across the country.
Petraeus, in an op-ed column Sunday in The Washington Post, said progress was being made.
"In the past week alone, some 1,100 graduated from the basic policing course and five specialty courses. By early spring, nine academies in Iraq and one in Jordan will be graduating a total of 5,000 police each month from the eight-week course, which stresses patrolling and investigative skills, substantive and procedural legal knowledge, and proper use of force and weaponry, as well as pride in the profession and adherence to the police code of conduct."
Finding people to conduct the training continues to be a challenge, though. Officials said last week that they have filled their needs for about 500 foreign trainers, but the Justice Department's International Criminal Investigation Training Assistance Program was still advertising for instructors to sign on for six-month or year-long tours in Iraq.
The pay: an annual rate of $153,000, almost all tax-free, plus room, board, travel expenses and paid vacations, available to U.S. police officers with five years of experience, even if they had no prior training duties.
-------- israel / palestine
7 Palestinians Killed in Spate Of Violence
CNN Producer Kidnapped From Taxi in Gaza City
By Molly Moore
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, September 28, 2004; Page A20
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54062-2004Sep27.html
JERUSALEM, Sept. 27 -- Seven Palestinians were killed in several incidents across the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Monday, while gunmen kidnapped a CNN television producer in Gaza City, according to Israeli and Palestinian security officials.
In addition, a Bedouin man, Mazhar Azzama, 42, and his year-old daughter, Islam, were killed when their car hit a piece of Israeli military ordnance, causing it to explode, on an artillery training base near the southern Israeli desert city of Dimona, Israeli military and medical officials said.
Relatives told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that Azzama was in the area collecting scrap metal to sell. An Israeli military spokesman said he and his daughter were in a restricted military zone.
Near the Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, Israeli aircraft fired a missile at a car carrying Mohammad Abu Nasira, a leader of the Popular Resistance Committees, a loose-knit group of militants who have split from other armed Palestinian factions, according to Israeli and Palestinian security officials. Abu Nasira survived and fled the vehicle, but his bodyguard, Ali Shaer, was killed, Palestinian medical officials said. Several other Palestinians near the car were wounded.
CNN reported that Riad Ali, a Jerusalem-based Arab producer and interpreter for the television network, was kidnapped about 6:30 p.m. Monday when a car intercepted a taxi carrying a CNN crew in downtown Gaza City.
A man in his early twenties, dressed in civilian clothes, emerged from the car, pointed a revolver into the taxi and asked, "Which one of you is Riad?" CNN correspondent Ben Wedeman said in an on-air account of the incident. Wedeman was in the vehicle with Ali and photographer Mary Rogers.
Several other men, some carrying Kalashnikov rifles, surrounded the taxi, then "took Riad out of the car and drove away with him," Wedeman reported.
He said CNN had "no information about Riad's whereabouts" and no information about his captors. No organization had asserted responsibility for the abduction as of late Monday night. Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, condemned the abduction as "a violation of the sanctity of journalism," CNN reported.
A number of kidnappings have occurred in the Gaza Strip recently. Many have involved internal rivalries among Palestinian security organizations and militant groups. Several foreigners also have been seized by militant groups. The captives have usually been released within a few hours.
In the Khan Younis refugee camp, a 45-year-old teacher standing near the front door of his school was killed by what appeared to be stray machine-gun fire, Palestinian medical officials said. An Israeli military spokesman said the army had no information on the death of the teacher, but said troops had opened fire in the area early in the day after receiving reports that militants were trying to plant explosives.
Israeli soldiers shot and killed two Palestinian men when they were spotted near a fence where the Israeli military prohibits Palestinian access, Israeli military officials said, adding that explosives and grenades were found near the area where the men were shot.
Israeli police arrested a Jewish settler who had shot and killed a Palestinian driver near the settlement of Itamar in the northern West Bank. The settler told police the Palestinian had tried to run his vehicle off the road, according to Israeli media accounts. Palestinian security officials said settlers frequently harass Palestinian drivers near the junction where the incident occurred.
Israeli soldiers killed two armed Palestinians in the Balata refugee camp near Nablus when the men began approaching armored military vehicles, an Israeli military spokesman said.
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7 Arabs Killed in 5 Attacks, One by a West Bank Settler
By GREG MYRE
September 28, 2004
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/28/international/middleeast/28mideast.html?pagewanted=all
JERUSALEM, Sept. 27 - Seven Palestinians were killed in scattered violence on Monday that included an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip and a raid by soldiers into a West Bank refugee camp.
Palestinian gunmen in Gaza City abducted an Israeli Arab working for CNN, the network reported. The gunmen stopped a taxi carrying a CNN crew and seized Riad Ali, a producer, said Ben Wedeman, a correspondent for the network who was present.
"We had no indication that this was going to happen,'' Mr. Wedeman said on CNN. "They just asked, 'Which one of you is Riad?' and that was it.''
No group claimed responsibility, and it was not clear who was behind the kidnapping, or why the kidnappers had singled out Mr. Ali.
Gaza has grown increasingly lawless and has had a rash of kidnappings in recent months. Most of the abductions have been related to internal Palestinian fighting, and the victims have been held only a few hours and released unharmed.
Israel has also been hitting hard at Palestinian factions in Gaza, and a missile strike on Monday killed one Palestinian militant and wounded three others while they where traveling in a vehicle near the southern town of Khan Yunis, Palestinian witnesses and hospital officials said.
The attack killed Ali al-Shaer, a member of the Popular Resistance Committees, a faction behind many attacks in Gaza. The main target was Muhammad Abu Nsair, who is responsible for mortar and bomb attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians, Israeli security officials said. Mr. Nsair suffered serious wounds, Palestinian hospital officials said.
In a separate incident in southern Gaza, a Palestinian man in his 50's was fatally shot outside a school, Palestinians said. The Israeli military said it had fired in a nearby area to guard against a possible attack, but was not aware of hitting anyone.
Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinians who were carrying explosives and crawling toward the perimeter fence in northern Gaza, the military said.
In the West Bank, a Jewish settler was arrested by the Israeli police after he fatally shot a Palestinian taxi driver on a road outside the city of Nablus, the police said.
The Israeli man, who was not identified, told the police he was driving when the taxi tried to force him off the road. The Israeli contended that he then shot the taxi driver in self-defense, the police said.
But Palestinian witnesses said the Israeli had fired without provocation, The Associated Press reported.
Gil Kleiman, an Israeli police spokesman, said that the Israeli would be brought to court on Tuesday and that the investigation into the episode would continue.
Also in the West Bank, the military said soldiers had shot two armed Palestinians who approached troops during an operation in the Balata refugee camp in Nablus. Palestinian hospital workers said both men had been killed.
In Jerusalem, the Israeli authorities announced the arrest of five border policemen who are accused of abusing Palestinian men in an incident this month. The officers are accused of detaining the Palestinians at a roadblock and then of burning them with cigarettes, urinating on one of them and forcing them to jump from a second-story window, the Justice Ministry said.
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Israeli Army Masses Forces in Northern Gaza - Radio
By REUTERS
September 28, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-mideast.html
GAZA (Reuters) - The Israeli army has massed forces in the northern Gaza Strip in response to rocket attacks launched on Israeli towns earlier on Tuesday, Israel Radio reported.
Palestinian security sources said dozens of tanks and armored personnel carriers had been spotted taking up positions outside the town of Beit Hanoun and close to a nearby Jewish settlement.
The troop movements came after Palestinian militants had fired repeated barrages of homemade Qassam rockets into southern Israel, some of them landing in the town of Sderot.
Israel has launched numerous raids in Gaza in an effort to prevent rocket attacks which have increased as part of a show of force by militants in anticipation of Israel's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
-------- spies
Reporters Put Under Scrutiny in C.I.A. Leak
September 28, 2004
By ADAM LIPTAK
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/28/politics/28leak.html?pagewanted=all&position=
Walter Pincus, a 71-year-old Washington Post reporter who has earned the respect and envy of his colleagues for the government contacts he has cultivated in more than 30 years at the paper, walked into a conference room at a Washington law firm two weeks ago and read a statement.
"As someone who covers national security and intelligence, I depend on confidential sources more than most reporters," he told Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor appointed to investigate the disclosure to journalists of the identity of a covert C.I.A. agent, Valerie Plame. "My sources take a chance when they trust me with information that could cost them their jobs or have other serious consequences. In turn, I will protect them."
Mr. Pincus proceeded to answer Mr. Fitzgerald's questions about two once-confidential conversations with administration officials, identifying one person. Mr. Pincus, who says he did so with the officials' blessings, became at least the fourth reporter to testify in the investigation.
Leak investigations are often halfhearted and one-sided enterprises. Suspected leakers are questioned, not always vigorously or under oath, and the source of the disclosure is seldom found. The journalists who could say for sure are almost never subpoenaed.
The Plame case is different. This is largely because, unlike most leaks, the disclosure of an undercover intelligence agent's identity is a felony. The disclosure of Ms. Plame's identity, moreover, may have been motivated by politics. And the investigation inside the government, in which the president, the vice president and many other officials have been questioned, seems to have been both exhaustive and inconclusive.
The only remaining witnesses to the crime are the journalists who received the information about Ms. Plame, leaving them to make agonizing choices against a backdrop of diminishing legal protection. In recent years, courts have become increasingly skeptical of a journalistic article of faith: that the benefits to society of the information provided by confidential sources outweigh the costs to the justice system of allowing reporters to protect their sources.
Mr. Pincus and the other reporters who have testified, some under the threat of jail, all say they found an appropriate middle ground. They say that their sources had authorized them to testify and that they had betrayed no promises. Mr. Pincus said one official gave him permission to repeat a conversation but not to name the official. The Post reported on the case in October, citing a journalist there, later identified as Mr. Pincus.
But experts in law and journalism are nonetheless at odds over whether the spectacle of reporters testifying about people who gave them information in confidence sends the wrong message, to the public and to potential sources. Some say it may do lasting damage to the bonds of trust built between sources and journalists over several decades.
"Every time I hear about one of these reporters going in to speak about their sources, my stomach drops to my shoes," said Jane Kirtley, a professor of media ethics and law at the University of Minnesota. "We're in a crisis on this. I'm absolutely terrified about how this is going to turn out for media credibility."
Brian A. Sun, a former federal prosecutor who now represents the atomic scientist Wen Ho Lee, said the press should be more concerned about publishing classified information than about protecting sources.
"It's aiding and abetting a crime," Mr. Sun said of the journalists who published Ms. Plame's name.
He added that journalists should face the same sanctions as other citizens. "People are compelled to talk all the time," he said, "or they get thrown in the can for contempt. Very few prosecutors have been willing to take on the press, historically. Pat Fitzgerald is a tough guy. Other prosecutors may now be willing to take on the press."Mr. Fitzgerald is using a new tactic that may have implications in future investigations. He has asked White House officials to sign forms waiving the confidentiality of any discussions with reporters.
In addition to the four reporters who have testified in the Plame matter, Judith Miller of The New York Times is fighting a subpoena in the investigation. And Robert Novak, the columnist who identified Ms. Plame in the first place as "an agency operative on weapons of mass destruction," citing "two senior administration officials" as his sources, is not saying whether he has been subpoenaed or whether he has provided any information to prosecutors.
The subpoenas are part of what lawyers call an alarming trend.
Several reporters have been held in contempt for refusing to name their sources in a civil suit brought by Dr. Lee saying the government committed privacy violations. Dr. Lee, a scientist at the Los Alamos nuclear laboratory in New Mexico, was suspected of espionage in 1999 but ultimately pleaded guilty to a lesser charge. A television reporter in Rhode Island has been held in contempt for refusing to say who gave him a surveillance tape.
Mr. Fitzgerald, who was named a special prosecutor in the Plame case after Attorney General John Ashcroft recused himself, is also looking into whether Ms. Miller and another Times reporter were tipped off about developments in his investigation of an Islamic charity. In that case, he is acting as the United States attorney in Chicago.
All these reporters face difficult legal terrain. Under a 1972 Supreme Court decision, Branzburg v. Hayes, reporters have essentially no protection from grand jury subpoenas. An influential federal appeals court judge in Chicago, Richard A. Posner, ruled last summer that reporters had little right to resist subpoenas for their sources and information in any setting. In the Plame case, Thomas F. Hogan, chief judge of Federal District Court in Washington, has repeatedly ruled that reporters subpoenaed in the case must testify.
The four reporters who have testified in the Plame case say they talked about conversations with I. Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff.
Mr. Pincus, the last to testify, also discussed a conversation with another administration official. And Matthew Cooper, a reporter for Time magazine who testified on Aug. 23 about Mr. Libby, received a second subpoena on Sept. 14, for information from other officials. Mr. Cooper is fighting that subpoena.
Earl Caldwell, a journalism professor who was involved in the 1972 Supreme Court case as a reporter for The Times, said he was troubled by the reporters' decisions to testify.
"In the public mind, it gets confusing," Mr. Caldwell said. "How are all these reporters going in and testifying? We're getting in a position where people will see us as an arm of the government."
Mr. Libby's lawyer, Joseph A. Tate, said Mr. Libby had signed a form authorizing reporters to tell prosecutors about their conversations with him.
But lawyers for the reporters said the reporters refused to accept Mr. Libby's waiver at face value. It was, they said, possible that Mr. Libby signed it because refusing to do so would cast suspicion on him or endanger his job.
The reporters relied instead on conversations with Mr. Libby or messages conveyed by lawyers. "I told them they had nothing to hide and could rely upon the waiver," Mr. Tate said.
Mr. Pincus said: "Under the circumstances, I had complete confidence in the assurances I received. I refused to do anything that would identify or tend to identify a confidential source."
James C. Goodale, a lawyer at Debevoise & Plimpton in New York and a former general counsel of The New York Times Company, said that none of the reporters should have testified and that they had done grave damage to a bond of trust that had roots in the 1970's.
A reporter for The Times, M. A. Farber, spent 40 days in jail in 1978 rather than name a source. "You ought not go back to a source from whom you have obtained confidential information and ask to be absolved of your obligation," Mr. Farber said. "The reporter always has the option of keeping his mouth shut. If he isn't willing to accept that responsibility, he oughtn't be in the game in the first place."
Robin Bierstedt, a deputy general counsel at Time Inc., disputed that reasoning. "Confidential source protection is based on the reporter's protection of the source," Ms. Bierstedt said. "If the source no longer wants that protection, and informs the reporter of that fact, the reporter should be free to testify, if he or she chooses."
The current investigation has its roots in a critical Op-Ed commentary published in The Times on July 6, 2003, about one of the justifications offered by the Bush administration for the war in Iraq. The article, by Joseph C. Wilson IV, a former ambassador, recounted a trip he had made to Niger for the C.I.A. Mr. Wilson concluded that the administration later manipulated intelligence about whether Iraq had sought to buy uranium from Niger.
In the days after the commentary appeared, a number of reporters were told that Mr. Wilson's wife, Ms. Plame, was a covert C.I.A. agent.
The motive for the disclosure of Ms. Plame's identity is unclear. Mr. Wilson has said it was payback for his criticism. Others have suggested that it was meant to undermine Mr. Wilson's conclusions by dismissing his trip as a boondoggle arranged by his wife.
Either way, the disclosure may well have violated a 1982 law that makes it a crime for people with access to classified information to intentionally disclose agents' identities. The law does not generally apply to people without such access, like reporters.
The real mystery in the investigation, lawyers involved in it say, is what Mr. Novak has done. Mr. Novak's lawyer, James Hamilton, declined to comment. There are four essential possibilities.
Mr. Novak may not have been subpoenaed, which would be curious. He may have asserted the reporter's privilege, but there is no reason to think that Judge Hogan would have ruled in his favor.
He may have asserted his rights under the Fifth Amendment. But Mr. Novak faces no real peril under the 1982 law, and Mr. Fitzgerald could in any event require him to testify by offering him immunity. Or Mr. Novak may have testified.
Mr. Wilson said he was distressed about the conduct of White House officials. "None have stepped forward and said, 'Yeah, I'm the one who made the disclosure to Bob Novak and others,' " he said.
The investigation, Mr. Wilson added, carries its own risks. "Anything that further circumscribes the ability of the press to protect its sources is bad for the American people," he said.
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Prewar Assessment on Iraq Saw Chance of Strong Divisions
September 28, 2004
The New York Times
By DOUGLAS JEHL and DAVID E. SANGER
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/28/politics/28intel.html?pagewanted=all
WASHINGTON, Sept. 27 - The same intelligence unit that produced a gloomy report in July about the prospect of growing instability in Iraq warned the Bush administration about the potential costly consequences of an American-led invasion two months before the war began, government officials said Monday.
The estimate came in two classified reports prepared for President Bush in January 2003 by the National Intelligence Council, an independent group that advises the director of central intelligence. The assessments predicted that an American-led invasion of Iraq would increase support for political Islam and would result in a deeply divided Iraqi society prone to violent internal conflict.
One of the reports also warned of a possible insurgency against the new Iraqi government or American-led forces, saying that rogue elements from Saddam Hussein's government could work with existing terrorist groups or act independently to wage guerrilla warfare, the officials said. The assessments also said a war would increase sympathy across the Islamic world for some terrorist objectives, at least in the short run, the officials said.
The contents of the two assessments had not been previously disclosed. They were described by the officials after two weeks in which the White House had tried to minimize the council's latest report, which was prepared this summer and read by senior officials early this month.
Last week, Mr. Bush dismissed the latest intelligence reports, saying its authors were "just guessing'' about the future, though he corrected himself later, calling it an "estimate.''
The assessments, meant to address the regional implications and internal challenges that Iraq would face after Mr. Hussein's ouster, said it was unlikely that Iraq would split apart after an American invasion, the officials said. But they said there was a significant chance that domestic groups would engage in violent internal conflict with one another unless an occupying force prevented them from doing so.
Senior White House officials, including Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, have contended that some of the early predictions provided to the White House by outside experts of what could go wrong in Iraq, including secular strife, have not come to pass. But President Bush has acknowledged a "miscalculation'' about the virulency of the insurgency that would rise against the American occupation, though he insisted that it was simply an outgrowth of the speed of the initial military victory in 2003.
The officials outlined the reports after the columnist Robert Novak, in a column published Monday in The Washington Post, wrote that a senior intelligence official had said at a West Coast gathering last week that the White House had disregarded warnings from intelligence agencies that a war in Iraq would intensify anti-American hostility in the Muslim world. Mr. Novak identified the official as Paul R. Pillar, the national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia, and criticized him for making remarks that Mr. Novak said were critical of the administration.
The National Intelligence Council is an independent group, made up of outside academics and long-time intelligence professionals. The C.I.A. describes it as the intelligence community's "center for midterm and long-term strategic thinking.'' Its main task is to produce National Intelligence Estimates, the most formal reports outlining the consensus of intelligence agencies. But it also produces less formal assessments, like the ones about Iraq it presented in January 2003.
One of the intelligence documents described the building of democracy in Iraq as a long, difficult and potentially turbulent process with potential for backsliding into authoritarianism, Iraq's traditional political model, the officials said.
The assessments were described by three government officials who have seen or been briefed on the documents. The officials spoke on condition that neither they nor their agencies be identified. None of the officials are affiliated in any way with the campaigns of Mr. Bush or Senator John Kerry. The officials, who were interviewed separately, declined to quote directly from the documents, but said they were speaking out to present an accurate picture of the prewar warnings.
The officials' descriptions portray assessments that are gloomier than the predictions by some administration officials, most notably those of Vice President Dick Cheney. But in general, the warnings about anti-American sentiment and instability appear to have been upheld by events, and their disclosure could prove politically damaging to the White House, which has already had to contend with the disclosure that the National Intelligence Estimate prepared by the council in July presented a far darker prognosis for Iraq through the end of 2005 than Mr. Bush has done in his statements.
The reports issued by the intelligence council are of two basic types: those that try to assess intelligence data, like the October 2002 document that assessed the state of Iraq's unconventional weapons programs, and broader predictions about foreign political developments.
The group's National Intelligence Estimate about Iraqi weapons has now been widely discredited for wildly overestimating the country's capabilities. Members of the intelligence council have complained that they were pressured to write the document too quickly and that important qualifiers were buried.
The group's recent National Intelligence Estimate, prepared in July this year, with its gloomy picture of Iraq's future, was described by White House officials in the past two weeks as an academic document that contained little evidence and little that was new.
"It was finished in July, and not circulated by the intelligence community until the end of August,'' said one senior administration official. "That's not exactly what you do with an urgent document.''
Mr. Pillar, who has held his post since October 2000, is highly regarded within the C.I.A. But he has been a polarizing figure within the administration, particularly within the Defense Department, where senior civilians who were among the most vigorous champions of a war in Iraq derided him as being too dismissive of the threat posed by Mr. Hussein.
A C.I.A. spokesman said Monday that Mr. Pillar was not available for comment and that his comments at the West Coast session had been made on the condition that he not be identified. An intelligence official said Mr. Pillar had supervised the drafting of the document, but the official emphasized that it reflected the views of 15 intelligence agencies, including the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and the State Department's bureau of Intelligence and Research.
A spokesman for the National Security Council, Sean McCormack, said Monday that "we don't comment on intelligence and classified reports," and he would not say whether Mr. Bush had read the January 2003 reports. But he said "the president was fully aware of all the challenges prior to making the decision to go to war, and we addressed these challenges in our policies."
"And we also addressed these challenges in public," he added.
A senior administration official likened Mr. Bush's decision to a patient's decision to have risky surgery, even if doctors warn that there could be serious side effects. "We couldn't live with the status quo," the official said, "because as a result of the status quo in the Middle East, we were dying, and we saw the evidence of that on Sept. 11."
Officials who have read the July 2004 National Intelligence Estimate have said that even as a best-case situation, it predicted a period of tenuous stability for Iraq between now and the end of 2005. The worst of three cases cited in the document was that developments could lead to civil war, the officials have said. Some Democratic senators have asked that the document be declassified, but administration officials have called that prospect unlikely.
The White House has also sought to minimize the significance of the estimate, with Mr. Bush saying that intelligence agencies had laid out "several scenarios that said, life could be lousy, life could be O.K. or life could be better, and they were just guessing as to what the conditions might be like.'' Mr. Bush later corrected himself, saying that he should have used the word estimate.
Democrats have contrasted the dark tone of the intelligence report with the more upbeat descriptions of Iraq's prospects offered by the administration. The White House has defended its approach, saying that it is the job of intelligence analysts to identify challenges, and the job of policy makers to overcome them. But administration officials have also emphasized that the White House was not given a copy of the document until Aug. 31, only about two weeks before it was made public by The New York Times.
In an interview on "Fox News Sunday," Secretary of State Colin L. Powell acknowledged that "we have seen an increase in anti-Americanism in the Muslim world'' since the war began. Mr. Powell also said the insurgency in Iraq was "getting worse'' as forces opposed to the United States and the new Iraqi leadership remained "determined to disrupt the election'' set for January.
-------- us
2 U.S. Soldiers Charged in Iraqi's Death
Reuters
Tuesday, September 28, 2004; Page A23
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55230-2004Sep27.html
BAGHDAD, Sept. 27 -- Two U.S. soldiers have been charged with murdering an Iraqi civilian, raising to four the number of American soldiers from the same unit charged in the past week with killing Iraqis.
The 1st Cavalry Division, which operates in and around Baghdad, named the two soldiers as Staff Sgt. Johnny Horne and Staff Sgt. Cardenas Alban, both from the 1st Battalion of the 41st Infantry Regiment, based at Fort Riley, Kan.
The military said it would give no further details of the case because an investigation had begun.
Last week, two soldiers from the same unit, Sgt. Michael P. Williams and Spec. Brent W. May, were charged with premeditated murder in the deaths of three Iraqi civilians.
On Sunday, the military announced that a U.S. soldier had been sentenced to 25 years in prison for the murder of an Iraqi National Guardsman in May.
Spec. Federico Merida, 21, from Briscoe, N.C., pleaded guilty to murder and to making false official statements during his court-martial, the Army said. In addition to getting 25 years, he was dishonorably discharged and reduced in rank to private, a statement said.
A Dutch soldier, meanwhile, pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of negligence and excessive use of force in the fatal shooting of an Iraqi civilian, in the first court-martial of a Dutch serviceman in Iraq, the Associated Press reported from Arnhem, Netherlands.
--------
US, Russian warships drill together in North Sea
Sep 28, 2004
WASHINGTON (AFP)
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040928191813.yyhbqehh.html
US and Russian warships Tuesday began a weeklong naval exercise in the North Sea, the first ever between the US Navy and Russia's Northern Fleet, the US Navy said.
The guided missile cruiser USS Hue City and two SH-60B Sea Hawk helicopters were taking part in the drills with two Russian surface combatant ships, and two KA-27 helicopters, a navy official said.
The aim is to practice working together in areas such as force protection, damage control, search and rescue missions, choke point transit and maritime interdiction, the navy said.
-------- POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE
-------- homeland security / national intelligence
Senate Bill Proposes Anti-Terror Database
Civil Liberties Groups Express Concern
By Robert O'Harrow Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 28, 2004
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55175-2004Sep27.html
Counterterrorism authorities would be granted unprecedented access to law enforcement and commercial databases containing billions of records about private citizens under a bipartisan bill to restructure the intelligence system that the Senate began debating yesterday.
The proposed national information-sharing network eventually would link hundreds or thousands of local, state, federal and commercial computers, according to the bill's language and congressional aides familiar with the intent of lawmakers. The new network would enable authorized investigators to draw on details about where suspects live, the cars they drive, their associates, their police records and their possible ties to terrorist activities.
a The proposal, part of the Senate's version of the National Intelligence Reform Act of 2004, would be one of the most far-reaching changes in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But it has gone largely unnoticed amid intense debate over other proposed reforms, including creation of a national intelligence director and national counterterrorism center and House measures to beef up law enforcement powers and border controls. The network was first recommended by the Markle Foundation Task Force, a group of academics, technology executives and counterterrorism officials seeking to balance anti-terrorism activities with concerns about personal privacy. The task force, headed by Zoe Baird, issued a report last December urging the Bush administration to assemble and coordinate burgeoning public and private data systems to help authorities prevent another catastrophic attack.
Philip D. Zelikow, who served as executive director of the Sept. 11 commission and supervised its recommendations, which served as the basis for the Senate legislation, was also executive director of the Markle Foundation Task Force on National Security in the Information Age.
"The network should make it possible for the government to effectively utilize not only information gathered through clandestine intelligence activities and law enforcement investigations, but also appropriate information held by private companies," said the task force's report, which lawmakers drew from.
Police and intelligence officials already have access to vast quantities of government and commercial records, but the information is often dispersed and not readily available. A supercomputer system dubbed Matrix, built by an information service after the Sept. 11 attacks, enabled authorities in participating states for the first time to instantly and simultaneously query commercial and confidential police records. But some civil liberties experts criticized that system, which was funded by the federal government, because it was developed in secret and, initially, without clear guidelines.
The Senate bill, introduced this month by Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.), contains a complex set of rules for expanding the sharing of information that would also restrict how the information is shared to limit possibilities for abuse.
Under those rules, an agency such as the FBI or CIA might only respond to a query by acknowledging that it has information that might be relevant and then arranging a meeting with the official seeking the records to discuss them. In other instances, one computer would respond to another computer request by instantly transmitting electronic records, officials said.
Government watch lists, meanwhile, would confirm whether someone appears to be a suspect, while commercial services would confirm that an individual exists and provide records about addresses, homeownership, telephone numbers and other background details. The level of access that police or intelligence officials are granted would depend on how much clearance they have. Electronic audits, also mandated by the law, would track how the system is used and alert authorities to abuses.
Baird said that although the government needs to use information to prevent terrorism, "the challenge of this will be writing the policy rules. That will be more challenging than the technology."
The proposal alarms some civil liberties activists and privacy specialists, who worry that the network will give authorities too much power to monitor people. They said they doubt that government officials and their advisers have the ability or the political will to restrain the use of such a sweeping network.
"There's no need to enact this so quickly when the effect is going to be to build the largest technological surveillance system we've ever seen," said Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, a civil liberties group.
Congressional aides and other involved in the drafting of the law played down the chance the network would be misused, saying that the law creates a civil liberties board to monitor its use
The House version of the intelligence reform legislation is very different from the Senate bill and does not contain the proposal for the information-sharing network. Leaders of both chambers said their respective bills reflect the findings and recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission.
The commission's leaders have signaled that they prefer the Senate bill, but they have not openly criticized House members and they expressed hope the House bill will be changed.
Commission Vice Chairman Lee H. Hamilton said in an interview that the Senate bill "closely tracks the commission's recommendations" but added: "We are pleased the House is addressing many issues the commission raised." Staff writer Charles Babington contributed to this report.
--------
Screening of Foreign Visitors to Expand
Associated Press
Tuesday, September 28, 2004
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55182-2004Sep27.html
Beginning Thursday, foreign visitors from 27 more countries will be fingerprinted and photographed when they enter the United States, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Until now, citizens of 22 European countries including Britain and France, along with Australia, Brunei, Japan, New Zealand and Singapore, have not had to undergo such screening because they can travel to the United States without a visa. That will change Thursday.
Since January, most foreign visitors who travel with a visa have had to be photographed and fingerprinted under the US-VISIT program when they arrive at 115 major airports and 14 major seaports. The information is checked against databases to verify documents and flag names that appear on terrorist or law enforcement watch lists.
The Department of Homeland Security estimates the new requirement will affect 33,000 people coming to the United States every day.
Homeland Security spokesman Dennis Murphy said the government wanted to make sure that US-VISIT worked before expanding it.
Canadians can enter the country with little more than a declaration of their citizenship.
Mexicans with laser visa cards -- border crossing cards -- who stay for 30 days or fewer are exempt from the system for now.
US-VISIT is scheduled to be in use at the 50 busiest land ports by the end of the year.
--------
Sikh Group Finds Calling in Homeland Security
September 28, 2004
By LESLIE WAYNE
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/28/business/28sikh.html?pagewanted=all&position=
ESPANOLA, N.M. - At the end of a dusty road, behind a barbed-wire fence, is the Sikh Dharma of New Mexico, a religious compound with a golden temple of worship, a collection of trailers used for business and a quiet group of people wandering the grounds wearing flowing white robes and turbans.
In the New Age culture here, the Sikh Dharma community, founded in the early 1970's, provides a place where admirers of Yogi Bhajan, a Sikh spiritual leader and yoga master, can live in harmony and follow their beliefs in vegetarianism, meditation and community service. Except for Yogi Bhajan, who was born in India and came to the United States in 1969, most members of the Sikh Dharma are American-born converts who moved here to pursue their way of life.
The compound is also home to Akal Security, wholly owned by the Sikh Dharma and one of the nation's fastest-growing security companies, benefiting from a surge in post-9/11 business. With 12,000 employees and over $1 billion in federal contracts, Akal specializes in protecting vital and sensitive government sites, from military installations to federal courts to airports and water supply systems.
Despite Akal's unusual lineage, Sikh Dharma members say they are following an ancient Sikh tradition of the warrior-saint - as well as showing deftness at the more modern skill of landing federal contracts.
"Our customers look at who we are and filter it all out,'' Daya Singh Khalsa, Akal's co-founder and senior vice president, said in an interview in his office here. "They couldn't be less interested in our religion and what we look like.''
Among Sikhs "there is no stigma in being financially successful,'' Mr. Khalsa added. "Prosperity does not take away from spiritual net worth. You can have both."
Akal certainly bears that out. It is the nation's largest provider of security officers for federal courthouses, with contracts for 400 buildings in 44 states, including the federal courthouse in Manhattan.
The company just won a major contract to guard Army bases and munitions dumps in eight states, and also provides guards for the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, blocks from the White House. It handles security at the Baltimore-Washington International Airport, as well as at four new detention centers run by the Homeland Security Department where foreigners await deportation.
In the straight-laced world of the security business, where most people have a police or military background, Akal stands out. It is the only security company that anyone in the business, including Akal's own executives, can think of that is owned by a nonprofit religious organization.
"If we are in a room with 50 other contractors, you won't remember the other guy, but you will remember us," said Mr. Khalsa, who wears a white turban, has a long beard and refrains from cutting his hair.
It has also not hurt that Akal has been a generous campaign contributor to both Democratic and Republican candidates at the federal level, and that Mr. Khalsa has met with President Bush both in the White House and in New Mexico. Local New Mexico politicians have also benefited from this largess - and responded with friendship and support.
Four former New Mexico governors stopped by Yogi Bhajan's recent 75th-birthday party; Gov. Bill Richardson was last year's keynote speaker at the group's International Peace Prayer Day.
"We play in the political arena like everyone else," Mr. Khalsa said. He and his wife, Sat Nirmal Kaur Khalsa, who is Akal's chief executive, have given more than $30,000 to both Democratic and Republican federal candidates since 2000.
Mr. Khalsa, who was once known as Daniel Cohn, was given his name by Yogi Bhajan after he moved here in 1971, soon after graduating from Amherst College. Like other members of the 300-family Sikh Dharma community, he has adopted the name Khalsa, which refers to a group of orthodox Sikhs.
The Sikh Dharma community here blends New Age values and orthodox Sikhism, a monotheistic religion that originated in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent in the 15th century.
"We are not used to non-Punjabis joining our religion; it is a curious development," said Gurinder Singh Mann, professor of Sikh studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who explained that many of these new converts are more devout than those born into the religion.
Unlike their counterparts in India, women in Sikh Dharma wear turbans, as do some of the children. Most members of the Sikh Dharma live in modest houses near the compound and Yogi Bhajan's ranch in Espanola, the Hacienda De Guru Ram Das Gurdwara. Yogi Bhajan has arranged many marriages within the community.
Under Akal's biggest security contract, worth $854 million, it provides protection for federal courthouses and judges. While federal courthouse guards wear United States marshals' uniforms in nine districts, their employer is Akal, which hires mainly former police and military officers, almost none of them Sikhs. Akal's contract with the guards prohibits them from wearing turbans or having facial hair, unlike the company's Sikh officials, who are required to do so by their religion.
For all the group's unusual ways, government officials have few complaints about Akal. "Our people have done checks on them years ago and we have no issues with them," said John Kraus, a contracting officer for the Department of Justice. "Last I've checked, we've had freedom of religion."
One high-profile contract Akal recently garnered, beating 20 other companies, was for $250 million to provide security guards at five Army bases and three weapons depots. The Army has turned to the private sector to replace soldiers sent to Iraq.
Competition was based on ability, past performance and price, according to an Army official, who added that Akal's religious ties were not a factor, nor did Akal benefit as a religious group.
"We do not discriminate based on race, creed, religion or national origin," the official said. "It was never really a factor."
Because of that open approach, Akal has almost exclusively gone after government contracts.
"The federal government has created the fairest acquisition system in the world," Mr. Khalsa said. He added that with the company's low overhead - Mr. Khalsa, its top executive, earns a modest $90,000 - Akal is "very price-competitive" in the eyes of government agencies on tight budgets.
Yet Ira A. Lipman, founder and chairman of Guardsmark, one of the nation's largest security companies, is critical of the government's low-price approach to protecting important installations.
"You have people working in highly sensitive government sites and the government is working on a low-rate concept," Mr. Lipman said. "This company has taken advantage of a low-rate mentality in the government to assemble a lot of business. But let the buyer beware and let the public focus on the people and their experience."
Akal is just one of several for-profit and nonprofit entities that are part of a larger Sikh Dharma financial empire. These include Golden Temple, a natural foods company that makes Yogi herbal teas, Soothing Touch health and beauty products, Peace natural cereals, dietary supplements and private-label products for Trader Joe's, the specialty food chain. Its annual revenues exceed $60 million.
Akal and Golden Temple both operate under the loose umbrella of the Khalsa International Industry and Trading Company, which also includes Sun & Son, a computer software company.
The sole shareholder of all these companies is the Sikh Dharma church.
Equally important are a number of nonprofit ventures also owned by Sikh Dharma. The biggest of these is the 3HO Foundation, with the name standing for Healthy, Happy and Holy Organization. That group is dedicated to the spread of Kundalini yoga, which is focused on releasing inner energy, and of Yogi Bhajan's teachings. Other nonprofit organizations have been set up to preserve Yogi Bhajan's archives as well as to support a Sikh Dharma school in India, where many of the group's children are sent.
"The whole point of all these ventures is not for an individual to get rich, but to perpetuate the mission of the community," said Avtar Hari Singh Khalsa, who, as Arthur S. Warshaw, was once president of Time-Life Television in Hollywood. Today he is chief executive of the 3HO Foundation and other nonprofits.
No money from Akal, Golden Temple or the other profit-making ventures goes to the church, which is supported by donations, officials say. Sending money to the church is barred by Akal's bankers and could also jeopardize the tax-exempt status of the church. Akal pays no dividends and plows all cash generated back into the business to support its expansion, Daya Khalsa said.
Officials here say that no individual member of the Sikh Dharma community, including Akal executives and Yogi Bhajan, has any equity in either Akal, Golden Temple or any other profit-making businesses. Yogi Bhajan has served as an unpaid Akal adviser and has been hired, occasionally, as a paid consultant on Akal management issues.
Yogi Bhajan's guidance led to the founding of Akal. In 1980, Akal's other co-founder, Gurutej Khalsa, found that although he had graduated from several law enforcement schools, his beard and turban prevented him from getting a job. He turned to Yogi Bhajan for advice and was told that if he started his own company, the police would begin to work for him.
The Amar Infinity Foundation, based in Phoenix, is also tied in financially. It has $100 million in assets, gained mainly through individual donations and through such fund-raising events as the annual Yogiji Golf Classic in Phoenix. Amar Infinity was set up to support the 3HO Foundation, the Sikh Dharma and a long list of other nonprofit groups.
A final piece of the Sikh Dharma financial mosaic is the Siri Singh Sahib, a nonprofit organization set up, according to its state incorporation papers, to "administer and manage affairs of Sikh religion." Yogi Bhajan is the sole officer and director.
Akal has developed a comfortable relationship with leaders of both major political parties. In Daya Khalsa's office are numerous "grip and grin" photos of him with various politicians, including President Bush, former President Bill Clinton and former vice president Al Gore.
Akal donates at the state level, too, giving $10,539 to Governor Richardson's 2002 election campaign and thousands more to the New Mexico Democratic and Republican parties.
Federal election records also show numerous political contributions to both parties from various Khalsas of Espanola, in amounts ranging from several hundred to several thousand dollars, along with $14,000 in contributions from Yogi Bhajan.
The group has built up trust at the federal level over a long period. When questions were raised after Akal landed its first big contract in 1986 to protect the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, Senator Jeff Bingaman, a Democrat from New Mexico, rose to Akal's defense.
"People were saying, 'How could you let these foreign whomevers take over a critical weapons testing site?' " Daya Khalsa recalled. "And he said that we were friends and that we're good Americans doing a good job."
-------- police
FBI Backlogged in Translation of Counterterrorism Wiretaps
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 28, 2004; Page A25
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55181-2004Sep27.html
The FBI has failed to translate hundreds of thousands of hours of wiretap recordings from counterterrorism and counterintelligence investigations since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, despite steep increases in funding for new linguists and other translation services, according to a report released yesterday.
An audit by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine also found that more than a third of al Qaeda-related audio recordings were not translated within 12 hours, as mandated by FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III. Many of the recordings were not even received at FBI headquarters within that time frame, the study found.
The findings -- which were completed in classified form in July but not released publicly until yesterday -- show the persistent problems that the FBI and other U.S. intelligence agencies have faced in attracting and retaining translators with expertise in Middle Eastern and South Asian languages. Mueller and other U.S. officials have repeatedly said that recruiting qualified linguists is among their top priorities in the fight against al Qaeda and other terrorist groups.
The report also underscores the extent to which the Justice Department and FBI rely upon special intelligence wiretaps authorized by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which oversees warrants for terrorism and counterintelligence investigations. Such warrants now outpace the number of traditional criminal wiretaps nationwide.
"The FBI cannot translate all the foreign language counterterrorism and counterintelligence material it collects," the report said. "The FBI's collection of material requiring translation has continued to outpace its translation capabilities. In fact, despite the infusion of more than 620 additional linguists since September 11, 2001, the FBI reported that nearly 24 percent of ongoing . . . counterintelligence and counterterrorism intercepts are not being monitored."
Mueller said in a statement that the bureau had implemented many of Fine's recommendations for reform, but he acknowledged that "more remains to be done in our language services program."
"We are giving this effort the highest priority," he said.
Fine's investigation determined that as of April, the FBI had not translated more than 123,000 hours of recordings "in languages primarily related to counterterrorism activities," such as Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and Pashto. The study also found that more than 370,000 hours of recordings in languages connected to counterintelligence probes had not been deciphered by that time. The backlog accounts for 30 percent of the total hours of audio recordings in those categories, the report said.
The problems persist, Fine's report found, despite a dramatic increase in funding for translation-related services within the FBI. The FBI now employs more than 1,200 linguists, compared with fewer than 900 three years ago. It spends $70 million annually on language services, compared with $21 million in fiscal 2001.
Fine also reported that the bureau lacks the computer storage capacity to keep up with the amount of recording it is conducting. The limitations mean that, in some cases, surveillance recordings may be deleted before they can be reviewed, the report said. Fine determined that although deleted recordings can be retrieved through archives, FBI translators generally have no way of knowing that material has been lost.
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement that "the Justice Department's translation mess has become a chronic problem that has obvious implications for our national security."
"What good is taping thousands of hours of conversations of intelligence targets in foreign languages if we cannot translate promptly, securely, accurately and efficiently?" Leahy said. " . . . The administration has a responsibility to explain why it has repeatedly failed to take the necessary steps to fix it."
Intelligence agencies struggled to keep up with the heavy volume of electronic intercepts they collected before the Sept. 11 attacks. In one example, two messages apparently related to the hijackings were intercepted by the National Security Agency on Sept. 10, 2001, but were not translated until two days later. The Arabic-language messages said, "the match is about to begin" and "tomorrow is zero hour," according to intelligence officials.
In its final report on the attacks, the bipartisan Sept. 11 commission said the FBI needed to improve its recruitment and retention of linguists and other counterterrorism specialists.
Yesterday's release by Fine's office included only the executive summary of the translation audit, some of which was redacted for national security reasons. A separate review of translation-related allegations brought by a former FBI contract employee, Sibel Edmonds, is still considered classified, but Fine's office is negotiating with the Justice Department to produce a public copy of that report, officials said.
-------- POLITICS
Gorbachev Says Iraq War 'Undermined' Law
(AP)
September 28, 2004
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BRITAIN_GORBACHEV?SITE=DCTMS&SECTION=HOME
LONDON -- Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on Thursday condemned the U.S.-led campaign toward war in Iraq as an affront to democracy, saying it undermined international law.
"I regard the invasion of Iraq as undermining international law and undermining democracy because millions of people spoke out against it," said the Nobel Peace Prize laureate during a visit to London. He added the war "was done without the mandate of the U.N. Security Council."
Gorbachev said in the age of international terrorism it was necessary to destroy nuclear weapons, not just control them.
He acknowledged that military intervention, with U.N. approval, was necessary where terrorist infrastructures exist, but argued terrorism should be fought by stopping its financial backers and alleviating world poverty.
Gorbachev visited Britain in support of the WMD Awareness Program - a network of non-governmental organizations which aims to fight against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 for helping bring an end to the Cold War.
-------- corruption
Foundation's Funds Diverted From Mission
Records Detail Spending By GOP Lobbyist Abramoff
By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 28, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A55283-2004Sep27?language=printer
The Capital Athletic Foundation's Web site portrays youths at play: shaking hands over a tennis net, learning how to hold a bat, straining for a jump ball. Its text solicits donations for what it describes as "needy and deserving" sportsmanship programs.
In its first four years of operation, the charity has collected nearly $6 million. A gala fundraiser last year at the International Spy Museum at one point attracted the Washington Redskins' owner as its chairman and was to honor the co-founder of America Online.
But tax and spending records of the Capital Athletic Foundation obtained by The Washington Post show that less than 1 percent of its revenue has been spent on sports-related programs for youths.
Instead, the documents show that Jack Abramoff, one of Washington's high-powered Republican lobbyists, has repeatedly channeled money from corporate clients into the foundation and spent the overwhelming portion of its money on pet projects having little to do with the advertised sportsmanship programs, including political causes, a short-lived religious school and an overseas golf trip.
The foundation's brief history -- now the subject of a federal investigation -- charts how Abramoff attached himself to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) and, in so doing, became a magnet for large sums of money from business interests. It also demonstrates how easily large amounts of such cash flowed through a nonprofit advocacy group to support the interests of a director.
Internal records state, for example, that Abramoff and his wife, Pam -- who are listed as the foundation's sole directors -- spent more than 70 percent of its revenue from 2001 to 2003, or $4.03 million, on a Jewish school that Abramoff founded in Columbia. The Eshkol Academy operated for two years and schooled two of his sons before closing this spring with unpaid bills, faculty members said.
The records also state that $248,742 of the foundation's income went toward buying a house near Abramoff's in Silver Spring, titled in the name of a company directed by Abramoff and fellow lobbyists from Greenberg Traurig, the Washington law firm where he worked until March. It was initially a school dormitory but is now slated to be sold, with proceeds benefiting the company.
Other recorded expenditures include $500 to help finance a memorial dinner two years ago in honor of the Angolan rebel Jonas Savimbi, and $150,225 for a golf trip to Scotland aboard a private jet. Abramoff's guests on the August 2002 trip included two fellow lobbyists, the Republican chairman of the House Administration Committee and a senior official at the General Services Administration.
Those and other expenditures by the foundation have sparked wide-ranging investigations by the Justice Department, the Internal Revenue Service and two congressional committees. A source familiar with the scope of the probes said a grand jury has asked questions concerning whether Abramoff used the foundation to conceal payments from clients and shelter income from taxation. A Senate hearing on Abramoff's lobbying activities and billing practices is planned for tomorrow.
Abbe D. Lowell, Abramoff's attorney, declined to respond to detailed questions about the Capital Athletic Foundation and its activities but said -- as Abramoff has -- that its critics are pursuing a "political and improper agenda." Abramoff publicist Andrew Blum said both the foundation and the Eshkol Academy were "real and properly run charitable institutions which supported real programs that made a real difference in the lives of children in our community."
Abramoff, Blum said, "has not used any charity improperly for his own benefit."
Ties to Indian Tribes
The investigation into Abramoff's financial activities began this spring after The Post disclosed that he and public relations executive Michael Scanlon, a former spokesman for DeLay, had received at least $45 million from Indian tribes that operate gambling casinos. The tribes also had donated $2.9 million to federal candidates since 2001.
After Abramoff became their lobbyist, three tribes -- the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana -- contributed more than $2.02 million to the Capital Athletic Foundation, according to foundation tax records. The Choctaws also gave $1.07 million to the National Center for Public Policy Research, a nonprofit group for which Abramoff is a board member, according to the center's tax records.
Saginaw Chippewa officials have told federal investigators that they made the donations because Abramoff told them it would impress DeLay, a fellow golf buff whom Abramoff described in a 1995 letter to Arnold Palmer as his "very close personal friend."
The tribe donated $25,000 to the Capital Athletic Foundation in 2002 and another $25,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee the following year, tribal attorney Henry Buffalo said. The lawyer said tribal leaders assumed that if they gave money, "Mr. DeLay would recognize that in some way," and if they needed legislative help, "Mr. DeLay would be able to look on that more favorably than not."
Stuart Roy, DeLay's spokesman, responded that many lobbyists exaggerate their influence with powerful lawmakers.
The ties between Abramoff and DeLay go back a long way. Since 1997, Abramoff and his wife have contributed $40,000 to DeLay's political action committees, and last year the Capital Athletic Foundation donated $25,000 to the DeLay Foundation for Kids, a charity the lawmaker founded. Abramoff has long been a member of DeLay's Congressional Council, which DeLay describes in promotional materials as a "special group of supporters."
Blum, Abramoff's publicist, said that "in the over 10 years that Jack Abramoff has known Congressman Tom DeLay, each has properly supported the other's charitable causes, each has properly followed the rules of lobbying and disclosure, and each has only properly advocated positions on national policy in which they both believe."
DeLay has also shown support for causes important to Abramoff's clients. A source close to Abramoff who asked not to be named because of the continuing grand jury investigation said Abramoff lobbied DeLay's office to organize a June 2003 letter -- co-signed by DeLay, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Deputy Whip Eric I. Cantor (R-Va.) -- that endorsed a view of gambling law benefiting the Coushattas' desire to block gambling competition by another tribe.
The letter, sent to Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton, said the House leaders opposed a plan by the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians to open a casino at a non-reservation site, expected at the time to be outside Shreveport, La., not far from a casino owned by the Coushattas. The intent of the letter, the source said, was to protect the income from the Coushattas' casino -- about $300 million a year.
V. Heather Sibbison, a lobbyist at the time for the Jena Band, said: "I do this for a living, and I have never seen a letter like that before. It was incredibly unusual for that group of people, who do not normally weigh in on Indian issues, to express such a strong opinion about a particular project not in any of their home states."
DeLay spokesman Roy did not address whether Abramoff had contacted DeLay about the letter but said: "The majority leader has been consistent in his opposition to the expansion of gambling. Accusations and insinuations to the contrary are simply attempts to make a sexier story."
Using School as a 'Front'
Abramoff and his wife created the Capital Athletic Foundation in 1999 as a limited-liability company. He initially listed his home as the foundation's principal office, and in September 2002 he filed an operating agreement with the state of Maryland that said "all profit or loss shall be allocated to Abramoff," as well as any cash remaining at the end of each year.
In 2000, the foundation's purpose was described in tax documents as providing "gifts to schools in the Wash DC area in order to provide and enhance academic and athletic programs for children." Its Web site said the foundation would make lifetime Spirit of America awards, issue certificates of achievement to schools that emphasized athletics and appoint national ambassadors of sportsmanship.
There is no indication those things happened. Abramoff was the foundation's sole donor that year, giving $12,850, and the Yeshiva of Greater Washington was the sole grant recipient, getting $11,824.
In 2001, the foundation's reported income rose to more than $1.24 million, largely on the strength of a $1 million donation by the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, a $177,415 donation made in Abramoff's name and a $50,000 donation by Foxcom Wireless, an Israeli-financed telecommunications company seeking the House Administration Committee's approval to install cell phone antennas throughout House office buildings. The firm Abramoff worked for, Greenberg Traurig, registered as a lobbyist for Foxcom in 2003.
Catherine Zatloukal, president and chief executive of the company, which is now named MobileAccess Networks, did not respond to questions about the firm's donation to the foundation.
As to the Coushattas' donation, Abramoff and Scanlon told them "where to send money" in Washington, said Roy Fletcher, a spokesman for the tribe. Fletcher and tribal lawyer Kent Hance said tribal leaders concluded eventually that the money was being used to pay for a luxury box at FedEx Field, where Abramoff would lobby for them during Redskins games.
For all its new wealth, the foundation recorded just two major grants that year. It paid a Web designer $50,510 to create an Internet presence for the Eshkol Academy, and it spent $115,930 on a Judaic studies home-schooling program that Abramoff created.
In 2002 the foundation, which on the Web site listed as its address a mail drop on Pennsylvania Avenue, collected more than $2.56 million from nine donors, including $991,749 from Abramoff. Other major donors, according to tax records, included three Indian tribes and the National Center for Public Policy Research.
By that time, the Eshkol Academy had leased office space to use for classes and enrolled several dozen students, some of whom paid annual tuition of more than $12,000. The Capital Athletic Foundation contributed more than $1.85 million to the academy that year, enough to pay a handful of teachers and a dean. The school also bought two Zamboni ice-cleaning machines, even though it did not own a hockey rink.
In 2003, the foundation took in more than $2.15 million, including a $250,000 donation from the National Center for Public Policy Research, a $400,000 donation by Abramoff, a $950,000 donation from Scanlon's consulting firm and a $500,000 donation from the International Interactive Alliance, an Internet casino group that employed Abramoff as a lobbyist, according to tax records. The foundation gave $2.13 million to the Eshkol Academy that year.
E-mails at the time showed Abramoff pushing for more money for his enterprise. He sent an e-mail to Scanlon in February 2003 stating: "Please make sure the next $1M[illion] from Coushatta for me goes to Eshkol Academy directly. Please tell them that we are 'using the school as our conduit for some of activities.' " The e-mail added that "if that won't fly with them, use CAF," referring to the Capital Athletic Foundation, or the National Center for Public Policy Research.
Abramoff repeated the request in e-mails in March and April. The Eshkol Academy "is our front group," the first e-mail said. The second said: "I really need to get those funds into Eshkol asap. Let me know what we have to do."
Scanlon replied in an e-mail, obtained by federal authorities, that he could not direct the money to Eshkol because he did not have any invoices from the school.
Stephen L. Braga, an attorney for Scanlon, confirmed that the request to direct a Coushatta payment to the foundation "was received by Mr. Scanlon's firm" but said "no attempt was made by Mr. Scanlon or anyone at his firm to comply with that request. Furthermore, Mr. Scanlon never made any of the representations to tribal leaders that were suggested." Braga also said that any payment made to the Capital Athletic Foundation by Scanlon's firm in 2003 is "wholly unrelated" to Abramoff's e-mailed requests for money.
Lowell, Abramoff's attorney, did not dispute the e-mails but said whether Abramoff distributed his fees "to charities directly or asked his employers or clients to make charitable contributions on their own, the bottom line is that the money went and was used by legitimate charities for proper charitable purposes."
Major Expenses
A social highlight for the foundation was to have been a $1,000-a-plate fundraiser in March 2003 at the International Spy Museum chaired by Washington Redskins owner Daniel M. Snyder and Fox News commentator Tony Snow. Its aim, according to invitations, was to honor James V. Kimsey, the co-founder and former chairman of America Online.
Snyder, Kimsey and Abramoff are all members of the Washington Redskins Leadership Council charity. The Capital Athletic Foundation donated $4,000 to the council in 2002, according to the foundation's tax records. Kimsey's chief of staff, Peter Kirsch, said that to his knowledge the dinner was rescheduled several times and then canceled; Redskins publicist Karl Swanson said that Snyder "lent" his name to the function at Kimsey's request but never attended.
A planner for the event said it was finally held in December. Nothing in the foundation's books indicates that the dinner raised more than a few thousand dollars.
Travel was another major foundation expense, totaling $240,416 in 2001 and 2002, records show. More than half of that was spent in August 2002 on the chartered jet that flew at least six people -- including Abramoff, House Administration Committee Chairman Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio), lobbyist and former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed, and then-General Services Administration chief of staff David Safavian -- to St. Andrews, Scotland, with a stopover in London on the way back.
None of those on the plane would say precisely how they spent their time, although two people confirmed that they played golf in St. Andrews. Ney spokesman Brian J. Walsh said Ney thought the trip's purpose was to raise money for the foundation, but Walsh did not cite any fundraising events.
Noam Neusner, a spokesman for Safavian -- who has been nominated for a senior position at the Office of Management and Budget -- said the trip was "primarily for golfing." "It had no business orientation to it," Neusner said, noting that Safavian paid back $3,100 for his expenses.
Researcher Lucy Shackelford contributed to this report.
-------- propaganda wars
Truths Worth Telling
NY TIMES
September 28, 2004
By DANIEL ELLSBERG OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR,
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/28/opinion/28ellsberg.html
Kensington, Calif. - On a tape recording made in the Oval Office on June 14, 1971, H. R. Haldeman, Richard Nixon's chief of staff, can be heard citing Donald Rumsfeld, then a White House aide, on the effect of the Pentagon Papers, news of which had been published on the front page of that morning's newspaper:
"Rumsfeld was making this point this morning,'' Haldeman says. "To the ordinary guy, all this is a bunch of gobbledygook. But out of the gobbledygook comes a very clear thing: you can't trust the government; you can't believe what they say, and you can't rely on their judgment. And the implicit infallibility of presidents, which has been an accepted thing in America, is badly hurt by this, because it shows that people do things the president wants to do even though it's wrong, and the president can be wrong."
He got it exactly right. But it's a lesson that each generation of voters and each new set of leaders have to learn for themselves. Perhaps Mr. Rumsfeld - now secretary of defense, of course - has reflected on this truth recently as he has contemplated the deteriorating conditions in Iraq. According to the government's own reporting, the situation there is far bleaker than Mr. Rumsfeld has recognized or President Bush has acknowledged on the campaign trail.
Understandably, the American people are reluctant to believe that their president has made errors of judgment that have cost American lives. To convince them otherwise, there is no substitute for hard evidence: documents, photographs, transcripts. Often the only way for the public to get such evidence is if a dedicated public servant decides to release it without permission.
Such a leak occurred recently with the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, which was prepared in July. Reports of the estimate's existence and overall pessimism - but not its actual conclusions - have prompted a long-overdue debate on the realities and prospects of the war. But its judgments of the relative likelihood and the strength of evidence pointing to the worst possibilities remain undisclosed. Since the White House has refused to release the full report, someone else should do so.
Leakers are often accused of being partisan, and undoubtedly many of them are. But the measure of their patriotism should be the accuracy and the importance of the information they reveal. It would be a great public service to reveal a true picture of the administration's plans for Iraq - especially before this week's debate on foreign policy between Mr. Bush and Senator John Kerry. The military's real estimates of the projected costs - in manpower, money and casualties - of various long-term plans for Iraq should be made public, in addition to the more immediate costs in American and Iraqi lives of the planned offensive against resistant cities in Iraq that appears scheduled for November. If military or intelligence experts within the government predict disastrous political consequences in Iraq from such urban attacks, these judgments should not remain secret.
Leaks on the timing of this offensive - and on possible call-up of reserves just after the election - take me back to Election Day 1964, which I spent in an interagency working group in the State Department. The purpose of our meeting was to examine plans to expand the war - precisely the policy that voters soundly rejected at the polls that day.
We couldn't wait until the next day to hold our meeting because the plan for the bombing of North Vietnam had to be ready as soon as possible. But we couldn't have held our meeting the day before because news of it might have been leaked - not by me, I'm sorry to say. And President Lyndon Johnson might not have won in a landslide had voters known he was lying when he said that his administration sought "no wider war."
Seven years and almost 50,000 American deaths later, after I had leaked the Pentagon Papers, I had a conversation with Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon, one of the two senators who had voted against the Tonkin Gulf resolution in August 1964. If I had leaked the documents then, he said, the resolution never would have passed.
That was hard to hear. But in 1964 it hadn't occurred to me to break my vow of secrecy. Though I knew that the war was a mistake, my loyalties then were to the secretary of defense and the president. It took five years of war before I recognized the higher loyalty all officials owe to the Constitution, the rule of law, the soldiers in harm's way or their fellow citizens.
Like Robert McNamara, under whom I served, Mr. Rumsfeld appears to inspire great loyalty among his aides. As the scandal at Abu Ghraib shows, however, there are more important principles. Mr. Rumsfeld might not have seen the damning photographs and the report of Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba as soon as he did - just as he would never have seen the Pentagon Papers 33 years ago - if some anonymous people in his own department had not bypassed the chain of command and disclosed them, without authorization, to the news media. And without public awareness of the scandal, reforms would be less likely.
A federal judge has ordered the administration to issue a list of all documents relating to the scandal by Oct. 15. Will Mr. Rumsfeld release the remaining photos, which depict treatment that he has described as even worse? It's highly unlikely, especially before Nov. 2. Meanwhile, the full Taguba report remains classified, and the findings of several other inquiries into military interrogation and detention practices have yet to be released.
All administrations classify far more information than is justifiable in a democracy - and the Bush administration has been especially secretive. Information should never be classified as secret merely because it is embarrassing or incriminating. But in practice, in this as in any administration, no information is guarded more closely.
Surely there are officials in the present administration who recognize that the United States has been misled into a war in Iraq, but who have so far kept their silence - as I long did about the war in Vietnam. To them I have a personal message: don't repeat my mistakes. Don't wait until more troops are sent, and thousands more have died, before telling truths that could end a war and save lives. Do what I wish I had done in 1964: go to the press, to Congress, and document your claims.
Technology may make it easier to tell your story, but the decision to do so will be no less difficult. The personal risks of making disclosures embarrassing to your superiors are real. If you are identified as the source, your career will be over; friendships will be lost; you may even be prosecuted. But some 140,000 Americans are risking their lives every day in Iraq. Our nation is in urgent need of comparable moral courage from its public officials.
Daniel Ellsberg is the author of "Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers."
--------
60 Minutes: Shelving a Story to Boost Bush?
CBS puts Niger expose on hold as boss endorses Republicans
FAIR
September 28, 2004
http://www.fair.org/activism/cbs-niger.html
In an outrageous politicization of journalism, CBS announced it would not air a report on forged documents that the Bush administration used to sell the Iraq war until after the November 2 election (New York Times, 9/25/04). A network spokesperson issued a statement declaring, "We now believe it would be inappropriate to air the report so close to the presidential election."
The 60 Minutes segment was ready to air on September 8, but was bumped in favor of the now infamous report that relied on supposed National Guard memos whose authenticity CBS now says it cannot confirm. The furor over the Guard memos has created a situation where CBS executives say "the network can now not credibly air a report questioning how the Bush administration could have gotten taken in by phony documents" (Newsweek online, 9/22/04).
Of course, what's really inappropriate here is CBS allowing its PR problems to suppress a news report on an important issue until after it no longer matters. The shelved 60 Minutes story deals with the origins of documents purportedly showing that Iraq under Saddam Hussein tried to obtain uranium from Niger-- documents that turned out to be forgeries. The story, according to the Newsweek online report, asks "tough questions about how the White House came to embrace the fraudulent documents and why administration officials chose to include a 16-word reference to the questionable uranium purchase in President Bush's 2003 State of the Union speech."
Though such questions are clearly relevant to a presidential campaign that largely revolves around Bush's decision to invade Iraq, CBS intends to keep the answers to itself until the election has passed. Could there be more than the embarrassment over the Guard story behind this decision?
Sumner Redstone, CEO of CBS's parent company Viacom, made an unusual political statement at a gathering of corporate leaders in Hong Kong (Asian Wall Street Journal, 9/24/04):
"I don't want to denigrate Kerry... but from a Viacom standpoint, the election of a Republican administration is a better deal. Because the Republican administration has stood for many things we believe in, deregulation and so on. The Democrats are not bad people.... But from a Viacom standpoint, we believe the election of a Republican administration is better for our company."
Redstone repeated these sentiments in an interview with Time (10/4/04):
"There has been comment upon my contribution to Democrats like Senator Kerry. Senator Kerry is a good man. I've known him for many years. But it happens that I vote for Viacom. Viacom is my life, and I do believe that a Republican administration is better for media companies than a Democratic one."
According to a write-up by Forbes (9/23/04)-- the sponsor of the conference where Redstone issued his endorsement of Bush-- the CEO asserted that "he never gets involved in any aspects of the network's news coverage." But that claim, hard to believe when made by any media industry chief executive, seems particularly dubious given Forbes' report that ''Redstone said he has been talking daily to top CBS officials and to Viacom board members about the controversy'' over the Guard memos.
It is journalistically indefensible for CBS to withhold a story due to embarrassment incurred by another, unrelated piece. It is particularly unacceptable when the shelving of a story benefits a candidate that CBS's boss has just publicly endorsed. If CBS wants to restore trust in its news judgment, it can begin by applying journalistic standards, not political calculations, to the decision on when to air its report on the origin of the forged Niger documents.
ACTION: Please contact 60 Minutes and urge them to stand up for journalistic principle by airing the report on the Niger forgeries. And call Viacom and CBS executives and tell them to allow 60 Minutes to report the news without political interference.
CONTACT:
CBS 60 Minutes
524 West 57th St. New York, NY 10019
60m@cbsnews.com Phone: (212) 975-3247
Sumner Redstone, Chairman, Viacom
(212) 258-6000
Les Moonves, Chairman of CBS;
co-President & co-CEO, Viacom
(323) 575-2345
As always, please remember that your comments are taken more seriously if you maintain a polite tone. Please cc fair@fair.org with your correspondence.
-------- ENERGY
-------- alternative energy
Electricity Industry News
Research and Markets: Biomass - Largest Form of Renewable Energy, Supplying 11% of World's Energy Requirement
PR Newswire
September 28, 2004
PRNewswire via COMTEX
Exerpt from
http://www.canelect.ca/english/article.html?SMContentIndex=0&SMContentSet=0
"DUBLIN, Ireland, -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com) has announced the addition of Biomass Report 2004 to their offering.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040820/RESEARCH )
Biomass is the largest form of renewable energy, with a greater contribution than hydropower, wind or solar power. Resources are constantly being created either through growth of crops and forests, or through the waste generated from organic sources. Biomass supplies 11% of the world's energy requirement and it is used at different levels of technology. It can be used "directly", as in household fires or wood burning cookers, or "indirectly" after conversion into another form of energy, such as biodiesel, gas or biopower. Indirect use is the focus of much technological development."
~
I note that the UN estimates that biomass energy emissions are killing 2.5 million people per year.
Karl Johanson karljohanson@shaw.ca Date: Tue Sep 28, 2004 1:24pm
----
Shell, PowerGen step up UK wind farm project plan
REUTERS UK:
September 28, 2004
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/27373/newsDate/28-Sep-2004/story.htm
LONDON - Energy giant Royal Dutch/Shell (RD.AS: Quote, Profile, Research) (SHEL.L: Quote, Profile, Research) and PowerGen (EONG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) have stepped up plans to build a wind farm, aiming to submit a preliminary planning application to the British government by early 2005.
"The consortium is hoping to submit a preliminary planning application to the Department of Trade & Industry and the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs in early 2005," said a Shell spokesman.
In December, Shell and PowerGen first announced that their consortium - London Array Ltd - was planning to build a wind farm on the Thames Estuary that could ultimately supply up to a quarter of London's power.
The wind farm's turbines would be located some 20 km off the coasts of Essex and Kent in southeast England, and the companies said it could save annually 1.3 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
-------- ACTIVISTS
Greenpeace rings alarm over US nuclear waste shipment to France
PARIS (AFP)
Sep 28, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040928182336.7n94g7yd.html
The environmental group Greenpeace warned Tuesday that a shipment of US nuclear waste on its way to France for recycling posed an ecological and public danger.
"What's going to be transported on French roads is the purest form of nuclear material for military use," a spokesman for the association, Tom Clements, told a Paris media conference.
The shipment of 140 kilogrammes (308 pounds) of plutonium from US weapons arsenals left the North Carolina port of Charleston on September 20 and is due to arrive under British escort "probably Friday" at the French port of Cherbourg, he said.
The nuclear matter is to be taken to the French nuclear reconditioning station at La Hague nearby, then sent on to a facility in southern France to be transformed into mixed-oxide, or MOX, fuel for civilian nuclear reactors and eventually returned to the United States.
Greenpeace said the long distances of road transport involved constituted "considerable" risk, not least because the cargo's containers could easily be opened by shoulder-launched rockets.
Cogema, the French state nuclear company, rejected the accusations in a statement, saying the transport of plutonium is carried out with "all safety guarantees" and the truck convoy would be unmarked to avoid attracting attention.
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------- OneList (submissions from subscribers)
------- Depleted Uranium Keeps On Killing!
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without profit or payment for research and educational
purposes only,
in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107.