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NUCLEAR
Study: Atomic Radiation Down in Arctic
New radioactivity limit could sink shellfish
New Finnish nuclear plant raises hopes and fears
Germany Arrests Man In Libyan Atomic Case
G8 diplomats to mull Iran nuclear incentives in Washington this week
Pakistan Test Fires Nuclear - Capable Missile
'India possess more N-warheads than Pak'
White House Sounds Out Europeans on Iran
Iran Says Won't Be Made to End Uranium Enrichment
U.S. in Talks With Europeans on a Nuclear Deal With Iran
Western nations may make one last offer to Iran on nuclear issue
US to host G8 talks on Iran nuclear incentives but holds firm on demands
Nuclear assets 'vanish' in Iraq
UN Fears Bombmakers May Get Iraq Nuke Items - Diplomats
Iraq Says Open to UN Inspectors Amid Nuclear Alarm
Nuclear weapons materials 'vanish from Iraq'
UN watchdog says nuclear equipment vanished in Iraq
US downplays concerns about missing Iraqi nuclear equipment
Confusion over Iraq nuclear assets
Army chief 'emptied his magazine' at girl in Gaza
TEPCO shutting Fukushima reactor to replace pipe
U.S. Says N.Korea Miscalculating by Stalling on Talks
Military Plans to Put Missile in Alaska
Protecting America or the President's Reelection Chances?
Fifty-ninth General Assembly First Committee 6th Meeting (PM)
Plan to Explode Nuclear Facility Is Dropped
CMS May Extend Nuclear Plant Outage
Nuclear plans stir concern in Vermont
MILITARY
Election Touted as Model for Iraq -- to a Point
Main Afghan Challenger Drops Election Boycott
Security Deteriorates in Darfur - U.N. Official
Guinea-Bissau mediators suggest overhaul of armed forces
Indian Mirage-2000 crashes during joint exercises with Singapore
Britain Withdraws Iraq Weapons Claims
Boeing Expects Air Force Contract
Air Force Asks for Broader Inquiry Into Boeing Contracts
Canada may sue over its second-hand submarines
Romania Lobbies to Host U.S. Military Base
Disarmament Process Starts In Sadr City, Albeit Slowly
Cleric's Militia Begins to Yield Heavy Weapons
Terror Command in Falluja Is Half Destroyed, U.S. Says
U.S. Says It Hit Terror Targets, but Iraqi Civilians Disagree
A Look at Foreigners Taken Hostage in Iraq
U.S. Urges NATO to Take Afghan Mission
NATO Considers How to Raise Forces Faster
NATO planning for takeover of Afghanistan military operations likely: US
After School Siege, Russians' Grief Turns to Anger
Britain Withdraws Iraq Weapons Claims
POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE
Supreme Court jumps into Ten Commandments issue after 25 years
U.S. Senator Closes Capitol Office Citing Security
Sen. Dayton temporarily closing office, citing security threat
DHS May Appoint Cybersecurity Chief
Hamdi Returned to Saudi Arabia
POLITICS
Senate Passes Corporate Tax Bill
Family's TV Clout in Bush's Corner
Kerry Takes Early Lead in Newspaper Endorsements
Bush's Domestic Policy Gap
Congress Departs with a Pile of Dead Bills
OTHER
Images of Mount St. Helens Show Perforated Rock
English Lab Ready to Clone Embryos for Stem Cells
Christopher Reeve, 1952-2004
ACTIVISTS
Indigenous Peoples Call for Elimination of Columbus Day
An Iraqi-American's Vote in 2004
-------- NUCLEAR
-------- accidents and safety
Study: Atomic Radiation Down in Arctic
October 12, 2004
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/science/AP-Norway-Arctic-Radiation.html
OSLO, Norway (AP) -- Atomic radiation levels are beginning to decline in the Arctic, years after Soviet nuclear weapons tests and the Chernobyl nuclear accident spewed their fallout over the region, according to a study released Tuesday.
But the far north, with its fragile ecosystems, remains at risk from vast depots of aging post-Soviet nuclear weapons, submarines, power plants and waste in northwest Russia, experts say.
``The Arctic is the most sensitive region for nuclear fallout, yet parts of the Arctic have the world's greatest concentration of nuclear materials,'' Per Strand, of the Norwegian Nuclear Protection Authority, told The Associated Press.
Since 1991, scientists from the international Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program have been keeping track of pollutants that reach the remote Arctic.
In its 1991-2002 study, released Tuesday, the group said radiation levels had begun to decline on Arctic land masses.
``The levels are going down in the Arctic, which is a good thing. But it has taken much longer than in the rest of the world,'' said Strand, whose agency led the study in cooperation with the Russian environment and meteorology agency Roshydromet.
He said it has taken longer because tundra vegetation, including mosses, mushrooms and grasses, absorbs more radiation than most plants.
That radiation is then passed on to animals, such as reindeer, and in turn to the people who eat them, including the Arctic's indigenous Sami herders.
Because the region is so vast and the types of radiation are so varied, Strand could give no overall estimate of the decline.
The 1986 Soviet nuclear power plant accident at Chernobyl, in Ukraine, killed more than 4,000 people and spread its fallout to the far north. Its impact can still be measured in the Arctic.
The study also examined other sources of radiation, including a nuclear armed U.S. B-52 bomber that crashed and burned in Greenland in 1968. It carried four nuclear weapons.
Strand said the greatest threat comes from the Kola Peninsula in northwest Russia, which has the world's greatest concentration of nuclear materials.
The Arctic peninsula, bordering Norway and Finland, is home to Russia's North Fleet, which includes 52 decommissioned and rundown nuclear submarines, many with nuclear fuel still aboard. At least two Russian nuclear submarines have sunk while on patrol in the Arctic in the past 15 years.
The peninsula is also home to depots of nuclear weapons and an old nuclear power plant. The Norwegian environmental group Bellona also says about 21,000 spent nuclear fuel assemblies are stored there and many of the containers are leaking.
Strand said it will take billions of dollars to clean up.
The Arctic monitoring program was set up to advise the Arctic Council, made up of the governments of eight Arctic nations: Canada, Denmark (with Greenland), Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States.
On the Net:
The Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program: www.amap.no
--------
New radioactivity limit could sink shellfish
NewScientist.com
Rob Edwards
12 October 04
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996516
Thousands of tonnes of British shellfish currently eaten in Europe could be banned under new international safety limits for radioactivity in food, the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) has warned.
Lobsters, cockles and scallops from the north west of England and the south west of Scotland are so contaminated with plutonium from the Sellafield nuclear complex in Cumbria that they will breach limits due to be introduced by the United Nations in 2005.
Although the new limits are welcomed by radiation experts, they are regarded as "not proportionate to the actual risk" by the FSA. And they have angered the multi-million pound shellfishing industry.
Douglas Macleod, chairman of the Association of Scottish Shellfish Growers, said that limits should only be set on the basis of robust science backed by credible risk assessments. "Why should the industry be unnecessarily crucified if there is no real risk?" he asked.
Cancer risk
The UN's Codex Alimentarius Commission - which brings together the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organisation - is proposing a safety limit for plutonium in food of one becquerel per kilogram. The aim is to reduce the long-term risk of getting cancer from eating these foods to below one in a million.
The proposal takes into account emerging scientific uncertainties about the health risks of small amounts of plutonium inside the body and is in line with radiation safety limits recommended by other regulatory authorities internationally, in the US and in the UK.
The proposed limit seems "reasonable" to Ian Jackson, a radiation consultant from Cheshire, England. He pointed out that the nuclear reprocessing plant at Sellafield had discharged more plutonium into the sea than those in France and Japan.
Concentrations of plutonium and related isotopes in all the shellfish sampled by the FSA between the Ribble estuary at Preston and Kirkcudbright on the North Solway coast in 2002 exceeded 1Bq/kg. Winkles from St Bees, next to Sellafield, contained 66 Bq/kg.
The area includes one of Europe's biggest cockle fisheries - Morecambe Bay - which is expected to produce up to 10,000 tonnes in 2004. Most of the shellfish harvested from the region are exported to Spain, France and the Netherlands.
The new safety limits would have a major economic impact, according to Jim Andrew, from the north west England Sea Fisheries Committee, a regulatory authority. "But if there is a risk to public health, that has got to come first," he said.
-------- europe
New Finnish nuclear plant raises hopes and fears
Story by Peter Starck
REUTERS FINLAND:
October 13, 2004
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/27675/story.htm
OLKILUOTO, Finland - One of the world's largest nuclear power plants is under construction in Finland, raising the long dormant atomic power industry's hopes for a revival but evoking fears among opponents of lethal accidents and waste.
The 3-billion-euro (2-billion-pound) project is the only new nuclear reactor being built in western Europe where nations such as Germany and Finland's neighbour Sweden have decided to phase out their existing atomic power stations.
If the 1,600 megawatt Olkiluoto-3 reactor comes on stream in 2009 as planned, it could herald a new dawn for nuclear power, supporters say. They argue that Europe can't meet its pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions without more nuclear energy.
"The world needs more and more energy. If you must reduce the use of fossil fuels, nuclear power must be given a prominent role," said Sven Kullander, a professor of high energy physics at Sweden's Uppsala University.
Anti-nuclear campaigners - ever fewer in recent years after a heyday in the wake of the 1986 Chernobyl reactor meltdown that contaminated 150,000 square km (57,920 square miles) in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia - oppose Finland's fifth reactor.
"I try to believe that we could stop it," said Annaliisa Mattsoff of Finnish Women Against Nuclear Power.
Last month activists from environment lobby Greenpeace and other anti-nuclear groups demonstrated near Olkiluoto, carrying banners warning the area is "infected by nuclear disease".
"MEGALOMANIA"
The opponents say every new nuclear reactor increases the risk of terrorists getting hold of plutonium, the deadly radioactive material used in nuclear bombs.
Anti-nuclear activist Pirkko Lindberg described the Olkiluoto-3 project as "megalomania". She has written a book about the Pacific state of Tuvalu which is at risk of being submerged if oceans rise as a result of global warming.
"Nuclear power has no effect on the climate," said Stockholm University Meteorology Professor Bert Bolin, who led the United Nations climate change panel during the birth of the Kyoto protocol.
The international treaty, which is yet to come into force, commits industrialised nations to cut their greenhouse gas emissions.
Bolin said 10,000 big nuclear reactors would be needed to produce enough electricity to offset a meaningful cutback in fossil fuel use. "Do we want to have that many?"
Nuclear plants heat up water to steam, which drives a turbine generating electricity. The uranium fuel is extracted from abundant ore deposits mined in several countries.
Enriched uranium used in atomic reactors is highly radioactive and spent fuel remains hazardous for 100,000 years.
CHEAP ELECTRICITY
"I'm not afraid," said part-time farmer Tuomo Jalava, who lives 2 km (1.2 miles) from the two dull-red-and-grey-painted nuclear reactors built in the 1970s at Olkiluoto on Finland's west coast, 200 km (125 miles) northwest of Helsinki.
"It is positive for this community. It creates jobs," he said, seated on a red tractor.
Nuclear power produces some 16 percent of world electricity while coal, oil and gas - the fossil fuels whose carbon dioxide emissions are regarded by some scientists as the main global warming culprit - account for two thirds.
Finnish power group TVO, which runs Olkiluoto, puts domestic electricity demand growth at 1.5 to 2.5 percent a year.
"The forest industry needs nuclear power," said Risto Viitanen, an executive at Finnish forestry group UPM, the world's top paper maker. UPM, a co-owner of TVO, has already reserved almost 30 percent of Olkiluoto-3's output.
"This decision ensures a stable and affordable electricity price for UPM's factories," Viitanen said.
French state-controlled nuclear energy group Areva, whose Framatome ANP subsidiary won the Olkiluoto-3 reactor contract, hailed Finland's decision in 2002 as a milestone, saying it "strikes an encouraging chord for nuclear development".
GUINEA-PIGS
But it is a nightmare for anti-nuclear activist Lindberg.
"This is a prototype, it has been tested nowhere," she said of Framatome's new reactor design.
"France, the mother country of this monster, refuses to have it on its own ground. We are chosen to be guinea-pigs ... with the risks and that horrible deadly dangerous waste of plutonium."
Sweden, whose nuclear phase-out has resulted in the closure of one of 12 reactors, stores 4,000 tonnes of spent fuel in a high-security facility near its three-reactor Oskarshamn complex on the Baltic Sea coast 300 km (185 miles) south of Stockholm.
The facility's underground water basins holding spent fuel shimmer eerily blue. Leaning on the 1.5-metre-thick reinforced concrete basin wall, process engineer Stefan Nordh said anyone trying to grab the nuclear waste would die quickly of radiation.
At the nearby Aspo final disposal test site scientists work 460 metres (1,510 feet) below ground. Even earthquakes, rare in Scandinavia, would do little damage at that depth, said Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management spokeswoman Anni Bolenius.
"This represents ultimate security," she told Reuters during a tour of the cavernous tunnels.
Sweden has yet to decide where to build its final waste repository but the Aspo site resembles Finland's planned waste burial ground in the Olkiluoto bedrock.
Lindberg said: "The bedrock there is as full of ruptures as anywhere so it's impossible to say it's safe, maybe for a short time, then the waste will probably spread all over the place."
----
Germany Arrests Man In Libyan Atomic Case
Suspect Is Alleged to Be Middleman In Worldwide Smuggling Network
By Craig Whitlock and Shannon Smiley
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, October 12, 2004; Page A17
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24420-2004Oct11.html
BERLIN, Oct. 11 -- German prosecutors said Monday they had arrested an engineer on suspicion that he helped Libya in its efforts to build a nuclear weapons program, eight months after the man was named by authorities in Malaysia as a key figure in a network that spread nuclear secrets around the world.
The man was arrested Thursday in the central German state of Hesse, according to the German federal prosecutor's office, which did not release his full name. Officials close to the investigation identified him as Urs Tinner, 39, a member of a Swiss engineering family that has drawn scrutiny from European authorities and nonproliferation experts for more than two decades.
In February, Malaysian officials identified Tinner as a middleman in a network that supplied Libya with gas centrifuge parts that could be used for the enrichment of uranium. That network, headed by Pakistan's top atomic scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, allegedly sold nuclear secrets to Libya, Iran and other customers and is the focus of a global investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency and authorities in more than a dozen countries.
According to German and South African officials, who carried out recent arrests of alleged members of the network, those involved attempted to illegally deliver high-technology engineering equipment to Libya for its then-budding nuclear weapons program, drawing on companies in Germany, Malaysia, Spain, Switzerland, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates. Libya has since dismantled its weapons program under a deal negotiated with the United States and Britain.
German prosecutors said in a statement that they were preparing to charge Tinner, a Swiss citizen, with conspiracy to commit treason. A spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor's office declined to elaborate or give details.
Swiss export-control officials said Monday that they recently completed an inquiry into the business activities of Tinner and his family, based on the allegations made in February by Malaysian police. In a telephone interview, Othmar Wyss, spokesman for the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, declined to discuss the findings but said the results were given in late September to Swiss prosecutors.
"Let me say it this way," Wyss said. "If all this information . . . had been false, we would not have passed the results of our preliminary inquiry to the prosecutor."
A spokesman for Switzerland's general prosecutor confirmed Monday that the agency had cooperated with German investigators in the nuclear black market probe but declined to comment further.
In a brief interview in March at his home in the northeastern Swiss village of Haag, Tinner said his family had not been involved in any wrongdoing. He acknowledged working as a mechanic for a Malaysian firm, Scomi Precision Engineering, but said he was unaware of what the company's products were being used for.
The probe into the nuclear network began in October 2003, when a German ship carrying containers bound for Libya was searched in the port of Taranto, Italy. Inside the containers, investigators said they found centrifuge parts manufactured by Scomi that they suspected were intended to help Libya enrich uranium.
Tinner worked as a consultant for Scomi from April 2002 until October 2003 and had a reputation for being secretive, Malaysian officials said.
Upon leaving the company, he erased technical drawings from the firm's computers and took other records, giving "the impression that [he] did not wish to leave any trace of his presence there," according to a Malaysian police report.
--------
G8 diplomats to mull Iran nuclear incentives in Washington this week: officials
(AFP)
Oct 12, 2004
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20041012/wl_mideast_afp/us_iran_eu_nuclear_iaea_041012203642
WASHINGTON - Envoys from the Group of Eight industrialized nations are to meet here this week to discuss offering incentives to Iran in a last-ditch effort to get the Islamic republic to suspend its uranium enrichment activities that could be used to make nuclear weapons, State Department officials said.
The department will host talks on Friday between mid-to-senior ranking G8 diplomats to go over options for dealing with suspicions that Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons under cover of a civilian atomic power program, the officials said.
The meeting is part of the G8's consideration of ways to get Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment work as a deadline for Tehran to comply with demands from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to suspend enrichment and answer all questions about its nuclear ambitions looms next month, the officials said.
The G8, which comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States, is looking at a package deal for Iran in which it would be given access to imported nuclear fuel but would totally suspend its own work on the nuclear fuel cycle in return, according to diplomats close to the IAEA.
Friday's meeting will gather "political directors" from G8 foreign ministries who get together frequently to discuss nuclear non-proliferation issues, the State Department officials said.
However, neither US Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) nor his deputy, Richard Armitage, would attend, they said. US Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John Bolton is likely to be the highest-ranking diplomat in the talks, they said.
Iran's nuclear ambitions have become a major topic in the US presidential campaign with Democratic challenger John Kerry (news - web sites) berating President George W. Bush (news - web sites) for failing to deal with Tehran while going to war with Iraq (news - web sites) on faulty intelligence.
Diplomats in Vienna, where the IAEA is headquartered, say the Bush administration has not yet signed off on any package and had thus far been reluctant to be involved in defining any possible incentives.
One diplomat said Washington was unlikely to commit until after the November 2 election.
"The day after the election, things will be clearer," the diplomat said.
The New York Times reported Tuesday that the United States is holding talks with European allies on a possible deal with Iran that would give Tehran access to imported nuclear fuel in return for suspension of uranium enrichment activities.
The New York Times reported earlier Tuesday that while the Bush administration had not endorsed any incentives for Iran, it was not discouraging Britain, France and Germany from assembling a package which might also lift certain economic sanctions on Iran, in particular allowing it to import spare parts for its ailing civilian airline.
Any US support for incentives, even if offered by the Europeans, would mark a significant shift in the administration's policy toward Iran's nuclear program, which it has said should be sent to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.
Powell, Bolton and others have been saying publicly for the past month that it is past time for Iran to be referred to the Security Council.
-------- india / pakistan
Pakistan Test Fires Nuclear - Capable Missile
October 12, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-pakistan-missile-test.html
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan test-fired an intermediate-range, nuclear-capable ballistic missile on Tuesday as part of efforts to boost defenses but the test was not a show of strength for rival India, the military said.
The test came at the start of two days of talks between Pakistani and Indian border officials in the Indian city of Chandigarh, their second meeting this year since regular contacts were revived to discuss frontier issues.
Pakistani military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan said the missile test was meant to ``validate its design parameters.''
``Our missile test is not meant to send any signal to anyone,'' he said.
``We are happy that the peace process is going on and we hope it will produce positive results,'' he said of the talks with India, which have raised hopes for their ties two years after the nuclear-armed neighbors went to the brink of war.
The Pakistani military said Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz witnessed the test of the Hatf V, a type of Ghauri missile with a range of 940 miles -- capable of hitting most Indian cities and which can carry a payload of 1,985 lb.
It said the test had been successful.
Pakistan conducts regular missile tests. The last time it test-fired a similar missile was on June 4.
India did not immediately comment on the firing of the Pakistani missile, but both countries inform each other in advance of such tests.
The border talks are being conducted separately from a process of dialogue between Pakistan and India revived last year and aimed at resolving disputes, including the divided region of Kashmir, which has caused two of their three wars since 1947.
TAKING STOCK
Indian officials said Tuesday's meeting would take stock of progress on some border issues since they were last discussed in March in the Pakistani city of Lahore.
The first talks since contacts were suspended after a militant attack on India's parliament in late 2001 that nearly led to the fourth war between the neighbors.
``We will basically focus on peace and tranquility on the border, drug smuggling and also the inadvertent crossings which keep taking place all the time, especially in the areas where there is no fencing,'' said A.K. Mitra of India's border force.
Pakistan tested its first nuclear bomb in May 1998 and says its weapons program is a response to that of India.
In March, Pakistan test-fired the Shaheen II ballistic missile with a range of 1,250 miles and capable of carrying nuclear warheads to every corner of India.
Pakistani Hatf series of missiles, named after an ancient Islamic weapon, includes the Shaheen and Ghauri missiles.
The Ghauri was formally inducted into the military in January 2003. It was developed by Khan Research Laboratories, Pakistan's main uranium-enrichment facility, which was named after Abdul Qadeer Khan, the once-revered as the father of the country's atomic bomb.
Khan was sacked this year from his job as a special government adviser after he admitted to exporting nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea.
Some experts say the Ghauri missile was developed with North Korean help in return for nuclear know-how, but Pakistan denies the link and says it is indigenously produced.
--------
'India possess more N-warheads than Pak'
timesofindia
OCTOBER 12, 2004
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/882803.cms
WASHINGTON: Pakistan possesses 50-90 nuclear weapons compared to India's 55-115, a Washington-based nuclear watchdog has said in a survey. The Institute of Science and International Security headed by well-known nuclear expert David Albright also said Pakistan has 1,000-1,250 kilograms of highly enriched uranium (HEC) or uranium 235 enriched to 20 per cent or more.
India is also believed to possess this material, used for making weapon-grade nuclear fuel but the survey does not reveal much. India, it claims has 300-470 kilograms of plutonium compared to 20-60 kgs of Pakistan. Pakistan mainly relies on uranium for making nuclear fuel while India on plutonium, it said. "India has been working on building a gas centrifuge plant for many years. The status of the project is rarely discussed in public, although progress should have been made.
"Not enough public information exists to determine whether a significant amount of HEU (highly enriched uranium) has been produced in the facility or if so, to estimate the size of an HEU stock. Nonetheless, based on the age of the project India may now be producing HEU in significant quantities, perhaps enough to make both fission and thermonuclear weapons," the survey released yesterday claimed.
"HEU production (by India) in possible," the institute said without giving any figures. Pakistan has about 20-60 kilograms of plutonium and 1000-1,250 kilograms of HEU, the institute that came out with the findings that disgraced scientist A Q Khan was selling nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea last year, said.
-------- iran
White House Sounds Out Europeans on Iran
October 12, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-US-Iran-Nuclear.html?oref=login
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration will talk with European allies later this week about possible economic incentives to Iran if it agrees to suspend the enrichment of uranium, a key step in the production of nuclear weapons, U.S. officials said Tuesday.
While the Bush administration has not yet taken a stand on whether to dangle such incentives before Tehran, a high-profile meeting with allies on the issue would mark a significant shift in U.S. strategy and could have implications in the presidential race.
In the meantime, the administration continues to insist that Iran must stop developing nuclear weapons or face sanctions from the United Nations.
On several occasions, the administration has tried to take the dispute to the U.N. Security Council. Another attempt is virtually certain after a meeting in late November of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency if Iran has not complied by then.
Working with European allies to resolve a major security problem is the sort of multilateral diplomacy that Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has charged is lacking in the administration. President Bush disputes that charge.
``They are going to come and tell us what kind of package and discussions they have been having, and we will hear them out,'' State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said of the meeting Friday with European allies.
Britain, France and Germany are inclined to try to work out some sort of agreement with Iran and are not inclined at this point to impose economic sanctions.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the proposed European package included providing fuel to Iran for civilian nuclear projects. That official and another, also speaking anonymously, said that while the administration was interested in the idea of proposing a package of incentives, none of Europe's specific proposals had received U.S. endorsement.
European diplomats said the talks with the Bush administration were in an initial stage. They also said the United States was holding on to its option of pushing for U.N. Security Council action against Iran if it is found in defiance of international demands to stop all activities related to uranium enrichment.
A European government official said Russia was skeptical of any Security Council move to punish Iran because of concerns that Russia's $800 million deal to build a nuclear reactor in Bushehr, in southern Iran, could be jeopardized.
Also Tuesday, Iran's foreign minister offered European governments assurances that his government would never produce nuclear bombs if Iran's right to enrich uranium was recognized.
``The time has come for Europe to take a step forward and suggest that our legitimate right for complete use of nuclear energy is recognized,'' Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said in a speech to an energy conference in Tehran.
White House spokesman Sean McCormack said the package the Europeans were touting was not ``different materially'' from proposal that have already been discussed with Tehran.
Invited to the meeting on Iran, along with the three European allies, were the other members of the G-8 group of leading industrialized countries -- Russia, Japan, Italy and Canada. The meeting grows out of talks Secretary of State Colin Powell held last month with G-8 foreign ministers at the United Nations in New York.
President Bush condemned Iran in his 2001 State of the Union address as part of an ``axis of evil'' along with Iraq and North Korea.
Negotiations to end North Korea's nuclear program are sputtering. Talks have been suspended, and while Bush defends his strategy of a joint approach with South Korea, Japan, Russia and China, Kerry is calling for one-on-one talks.
In 1994 North Korea promised to freeze its plutonium program and put it under international inspection in exchange for civilian energy assistance from South Korea and Japan.
The Europeans' proposal that civilian nuclear fuel might be provided to Iran to stop enriching uranium is somewhat parallel to the Clinton administration's deal with North Korea.
Associated Press writers George Jahn in Vienna and Ali Akbar Dareini in Tehran contributed to this report.
--------
Iran Says Won't Be Made to End Uranium Enrichment
October 12, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-nuclear-iran.html
TEHRAN (Reuters) - The European Union cannot force Iran to give up its right to enrich uranium, Iran's foreign minister said, dealing a blow to EU efforts to halt the process and ease fears Tehran is seeking a nuclear bomb.
``It is wrong for them (the EU) to think they can, through negotiations, force Iran to stop enrichment,'' Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi told a conference in Tehran on Tuesday. ``Iran will never give up its right to enrichment.''
Diplomats said the EU had agreed on Monday to prepare a package of ``carrots and sticks'' to get Iran to comply with demands by the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agencyto suspend enrichment activities -- a process which can be used to make material for atomic bombs.
Washington is working with the EU on the plan in a final effort to get Iran to cooperate with the IAEA, but is unlikely to offer any specific new incentives of its own, said a senior U.S. official.
Officials in Washington said the United States wanted a commitment from the Europeans that they would back sanctions if Iran insists on continuing its nuclear activities.
Iran says its nuclear program is for electricity generation and says it wants to master the full fuel cycle, including enrichment, so it does not have to rely on imported fuel. Washington believes the program is aimed at developing atomic weapons.
EU ministers had urged Russia, which is building an atomic plant in Iran despite strong U.S. criticism, to join the initiative. But a foreign ministry official in Moscow said on Tuesday Russia thought the EU proposals would be ineffective.
Russia maintains that Iran has an entirely peaceful nuclear program and cannot use Moscow's atomic know-how to make arms.
DEFIANCE
Although Iran is not enriching uranium at present, it is preparing a large batch of raw uranium ready for the process and has resumed building enrichment centrifuges in defiance of a previous agreement with Britain, Germany and France.
The IAEA called on Iran last month to halt such activities and said it may be sent to the Security Council if it failed to do so by the next IAEA board meeting on Nov. 25. Kharrazi said it was up to the EU to make proposals ``that safeguard our right to nuclear technology for peaceful ends'' while he provided assurances to the world that Tehran is not building atomic weapons.
The IAEA said on Monday that equipment and material that could be used to make atomic weapons had been disappearing from Iran's western neighbor, Iraq.
Western diplomats said the agency feared the U.S.-led war aimed at disarming Iraq may have unleashed a proliferation crisis, if looters had sold nuclear equipment.
``If some of this stuff were to end up in Iran, some people would be very concerned,'' a diplomat close to the IAEA told Reuters. ``The IAEA's big concern would be profiteering, people who would sell this stuff with no regard for who is buying it.''
As a signatory of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran is entitled to enrich uranium under IAEA supervision. A senior IAEA team arrived in Iran on Monday, state television reported.
It said the IAEA team hoped to clarify outstanding questions about Iran's nuclear program and to visit several facilities including the Parchin military base near Tehran which some diplomats have cited as a possible covert atomic arms site.
The IAEA has so far said it has found no evidence of a nuclear weapons program in Iran but that some outstanding issues need to be clarified.
-------
U.S. in Talks With Europeans on a Nuclear Deal With Iran
October 12, 2004
By STEVEN R. WEISMAN
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/12/politics/12iran.html?pagewanted=all&position=
WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 - The Bush administration is holding talks with its European allies on a possible package of economic incentives for Iran, including access to imported nuclear fuel, in return for suspension of uranium enrichment activities that are suspected to be part of a nuclear arms program, European and American diplomats said Monday.
The diplomats said that while the administration had not endorsed any incentives for Iran, it was not discouraging Britain, France and Germany from assembling a package that the administration would consider after the American presidential election on Nov. 2, for likely presentation to Tehran later in the month.
Any support of a package of incentives, even if it is to be offered only by the Europeans, would indicate a significant shift in the Bush administration policy of demanding penalties, but not offering inducements, to get Iran to halt activities that are suspected to be for a nuclear arms program.
European diplomats said that the administration was very squeamish about even discussing incentives, in part because it would represent a policy reversal that would provoke a vigorous internal debate, and in part because of the presidential campaign. Senator John Kerry, the Democratic candidate, has made Iran an issue, criticizing the administration for not working more closely with European nations. Mr. Kerry has said that if elected he would endorse a deal supplying Iran with civilian nuclear fuel under tight restrictions and would press for sanctions if Iran refused.
Under prodding from the United States, the International Atomic Energy Agency has set late November as the deadline by which Iran must comply with demands that it do more to disclose its nuclear activities. The United States wants to send the matter to the United Nations Security Council for discussion of sanctions if there is no compliance.
"The Europeans are in discussion to present some kind of package to present to Iran within the short window of opportunity between the American election and the end of November," said a European diplomat. "If it works, fine. If it doesn't work, we are going to have to talk about sanctions."
The package under discussion, besides allowing Iran to import nuclear fuel for the civilian reactor it is planning to install at Bushehr, might also lift certain economic penalties on Iran, allowing it to import spare parts for its ailing civilian airline.
But the discussions with the Europeans are also said to include specifics on what sanctions would be sought if Iran turns down any incentives presented by the Europeans, the European and American diplomats said. Because there may not be enough votes for sanctions on the Security Council, sanctions might only be adopted by the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Japan.
"If there is going to be a substantial Iran policy, it has to have incentives for Iran or it may not work," said a European diplomat. Another European diplomat said that although the incentives had not been fleshed out for endorsement in Washington, there had been "an ongoing process of discussion between the Europeans and the Americans" and that whatever the Europeans come up with next month "will not come as a surprise" to Washington.
European officials said that whether or not President Bush is re-elected, the administration could find itself facing a tough deadline and divided over how to proceed.
Details of the highly sensitive talks on Iran between Europe and the United States have begun to leak out in Europe and were disclosed by European officials who advocate an approach of some conciliation toward Iran as the only way to change its behavior.
Foreign ministers of the European Union, who met Monday in Luxembourg, said that they supported the approach of what officials called "carrots and sticks" for the government in Tehran.
After these disclosures, an administration official subsequently confirmed that the discussions with European nations were under way. "We are still dealing with theoreticals," said the American official, adding that the discussions were intense.
Officials knowledgeable about the package under discussion say that many of the details still need to be fleshed out. But they say that American sanctions on Iran would have to be lifted in order for the package to be accepted.
The package being discussed would, among other things, let Iran import nuclear fuel from Russia for its reactor at Bushehr, under an agreement in which Russia would then re-import the spent fuel and store it. In return, Iran would suspend its enrichment of 37 tons of yellowcake, which is nearly raw uranium.
In addition, the package would lift a ban on exports to Iran of certain badly needed civilian aircraft parts, without which its fleet of civilian airliners has been virtually grounded.
The discussions also concern what to do if Iran turns down the offer, European officials said. One possible step under discussion would be to circumvent the United Nations Security Council, because two members of that body with vetoes, Russia and China, oppose sanctions. Instead, the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Japan, the five biggest economic powers in the world, would impose penalties on Iran.
A European diplomat familiar with the discussions with the Bush administration said that Britain, France and Germany were discussing the package of incentives to be offered Iran but that its ingredients were far from settled.
"We need to have a quiet discussion with the Americans to know what we put in the package," he said.
He added that there was "an ongoing process of discussion between the Europeans and the Americans" so that, even though the United States does not know the details of the incentive package, "the final proposal will not come as a surprise."
There are actually two late-November deadlines looming on Iran. One is the scheduled meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is supposed to rule on the American demand that its board of governors refer Iran's actions to the Security Council.
Another is the late-November meeting of an international conference on Iraq, which is to occur in Egypt and involve Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and his Iranian counterpart, in what would be their first face-to-face encounter.
The main focus of American and European concern, administration and European officials and experts say, is the recent finding by the atomic energy agency that Iran possesses 37 tons of yellowcake and that it appears determined to enrich the material with the use of centrifuges, producing material suitable for a weapon.
Another concern is the nuclear reactor at Bushehr, which Russia has agreed to supply with fuel, taking the spent fuel back for reprocessing once it has been used in Iran. That deal has been suspended at the request of the United States. It would resume under the plan being discussed by the Europeans, according to European diplomats.
Iran maintains that it only wants to enrich the yellowcake for energy purposes, and that it has the right to do so under all international agreements that it has signed. The European approach is to use the incentives to get Iran to suspend its enrichment activities permanently, in a way that respects its sovereign right to enrich for fuel purposes.
The delicacy of confronting Iran has been underscored by its injection in the last two presidential debates.
Administration officials say that their preferred approach so far has been to let the three European Union nations take the lead with Iran and report back to Washington, rather than have the United States get involved in dealing directly with Iran.
---------
Western nations may make one last offer to Iran on nuclear issue: diplomats
VIENNA (AFP)
Oct 12, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041012161644.b5xdvkge.html
European nations are trying to convince the United States to offer Iran incentives in a last effort to get Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment activities that could be used to make nuclear weapons, diplomats said Tuesday.
"There is indeed the idea from the G8 to make a last try on Iran," ahead of a November 25 meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency at which a deadline falls for Iran to suspend enrichment and answer all questions about its nuclear ambitions, a diplomat close to the IAEA told AFP.
The diplomat, who asked not to be named, said there could be a "package" offer, spearheaded by Britain, France and Germany, which might include giving Iran access to imported nuclear fuel, but that Iran would in return have to totally suspend its own work on the nuclear fuel cycle.
The G8, made up of the world's top industrialized nations, comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States. The United States and senior G8 officials are to meet Friday in Washington to discuss Iran, a US State Department official told AFP from Washington.
US President George W. Bush charges that Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons and should be stopped, but he has so far refused to offer Iran incentives to give up its alleged nuclear ambitions.
John Kerry, his opponent for US presidential elections on November 2, has said however that striking a deal with Iran would be the best way to resolve the crisis.
The official said Britain, France and Germany, Europe's big three who advocate a policy of constructive engagement with Iran, "are up to their old tricks. Our policy hasn't changed," as the United States wants the IAEA to bring Iran to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions for hiding sensitive nuclear activities.
Washington has said the Iranians must first agree to abandon any ambitions to make nuclear weapons before such things as technology transfers and the lifting of sanctions can be discussed.
The US official said the European heavyweights were trying now "to get as much G8 endorsement as they can" in order to make it "that much more difficult for Iran to say no."
If the United States backs their position of offering carrots as well as sticks, then the Europeans would agree to work with the United States on taking Iran to the Security Council if Tehran refused, the official said.
Washington is still waiting to see the European proposal.
"The devil is in the details and if the proposal gives Iran any wriggling room to get off the hook, we would be very unhappy with that," the US official said.
The diplomat said "the Americans are not ready now to participate in defining a package," due to the heated campaign ahead of the presidential election.
"The day after the election, things will be clearer," about the position the world's major nations can take in relation to Iran.
In Iran, Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi called on the European Union Tuesday to come up with proposals that could end the stand-off between Tehran and the Vienna-based IAEA, but repeated the Islamic Republic's refusal to give up sensitive fuel cycle work.
"The Europeans have not respected their commitment, and it is time that they took a step and presented proposals that respect our legitimate right to use civilian nuclear technology," he was quoted as saying by the student news agency ISNA.
But he added that "it is wrong to think that they can, through negotiations, oblige Iran to give up its right to uranium enrichment," which is allowed under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) which the IAEA is charged with verifying.
The IAEA has for almost two years been investigating Iran on US allegations that Tehran is secretly developing nuclear weapons and has called for the Islamic Republic to suspend enrichment in order to show its good faith in having a strictly peaceful atomic program.
Uranium enrichment makes fuel for civilian reactors but also what can be the explosive core of atomic bombs.
--------
US to host G8 talks on Iran nuclear incentives but holds firm on demands
AFP
Oct 12, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041012210342.u7wzpozn.html
The United States is willing to consider proposals to entice Iran into suspending uranium enrichment activities that can be used to make nuclear weapons but will not offer incentives itself and still wants the matter to be brought to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions, US officials said Tuesday.
The State Department said it would host a meeting of senior diplomats from the United States and other members of the Group of Eight industrialized nations on Friday at which European ideas for convincing Tehran to halt its enrichment work would be the chief topic of discussion.
"They're going to come and tell us what kind of package and discussions they've been having and we'll hear them out," spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters. "We look forward to hearing their ideas about how to move forward."
He described the meeting as one at which the G8 would "share ideas about how to bring Iran into compliance" with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) demands that it immediately halt enrichment activity.
On Monday, EU foreign ministers said the European Union was ready to renew dialogue with Iran on a host of issues, including trade, if Tehran suspends uranium enrichment activities and described EU policy toward Tehran as one of "engagement with a large number of incentives."
A diplomat close to the IAEA said Tuesday a package offer, spearheaded by Britain, France and Germany, giving Iran access to imported nuclear fuel in return for totally suspending its own work on the nuclear fuel cycle, was under consideration.
In Iran, Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi called on the European Union to come up with proposals that could end the stand-off, but repeated Tehran's refusal to give up sensitive fuel cycle work even as an IAEA deadline to do so looms in November.
One State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the European heavyweights were trying now "to get as much G8 endorsement as they can" in order to make it "that much more difficult for Iran to say no."
Despite its decision to host Friday's meeting, Boucher insisted the United States is not wavering from its hardline policy toward the Iranian nuclear program and remained convinced that the Security Council should act on it.
"The United States position has been and remains that this matter needs to be referred to the UN Security Council," he said.
The State Department official said that the United States might be willing to back the EU position if the Europeans would agree to work with the United States on taking Iran to the Security Council if Tehran refused.
But, the official stressed that the United States would not look favorably on a proposal that would give Iran "any wriggling room to get off the hook."
Friday's meeting will occur amid the highly charged US presidential election campaign in which policy over Iran's nuclear program has become a subject of heated debate.
Democratic challenger John Kerry has berated President George W. Bush for failing to deal with Tehran while going to war with Iraq on faulty intelligence.
Bush has refused to offer Iran incentives to give up its alleged ambitions while Kerry has said striking a deal with Iran would be the best way to resolve the matter.
Diplomats in Vienna, where the IAEA is headquartered, say the Bush administration has not yet signed off on any package and is reluctant to be involved in defining any possible incentives during the campaign season.
One diplomat said Washington was unlikely to commit until after the November 2 election. "The day after the election, things will be clearer," the diplomat said.
The G8 comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.
-------- iraq / inspections
Nuclear assets 'vanish' in Iraq
The US has been blocking full UN inspections in Iraq
BBC
Monday, 11 October, 2004,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3735224.stm
Equipment and materials that could be used to make nuclear arms have been vanishing in Iraq since the invasion, the United Nations has warned.
Satellite images show entire buildings have been dismantled without any record being made, said Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog.
Iraq's US-backed leaders have not reported to the UN on the state of nuclear plants despite a duty to do so.
But they have asked the UN to help sell off unwanted nuclear material.
Inspectors from Mr ElBaradei's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who established that Saddam Hussein had abandoned any nuclear weapons programme before the war, have not been allowed to move about Iraq freely by the US.
Apart from a couple of limited checks on the main nuclear facility at Tuwaitha last June after reports of looting - and with no teams now on the ground - the IAEA has to rely on satellite imagery and other sources.
In a letter to the UN Security Council, Mr ElBaradei said buildings related to Iraq's previous nuclear programme appeared to have been systematically dismantled and equipment and material removed.
"The disappearance of such equipment and materials may be of proliferation significance," the IAEA director general warned.
No reports
Sensitive technology such as rocket engines has turned up for sale abroad, Mr ElBaradei said.
However, high-precision "dual-use" items including milling machines and electron beam welders appear to have disappeared, as has material such as high-strength aluminium.
Mr ElBaradei called on any state with information on the location of such items to inform his agency.
The US removed nearly two tonnes of low-enriched uranium from Iraq earlier this year. The IAEA has verified that 550 tonnes of nuclear material still remain at Tuwaitha.
Iraq, the agency says, has asked for help to sell the nuclear material and in dismantling and decontaminating former nuclear facilities.
Mr ElBaradei reminded the Security Council that Iraq was still obliged to "declare semi-annually changes that have occurred or are foreseen at sites deemed relevant" by the IAEA.
However, since March 2003 "the agency has received no such notifications or declarations from any state", he said.
Last week, a report from chief US weapons inspector Charles Duelfer concluded that Saddam Hussein had stopped trying to build weapons of mass destruction following the 1991 Gulf War.
----
UN Fears Bombmakers May Get Iraq Nuke Items - Diplomats
October 12, 2004
REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-nuclear-iraq.html
VIENNA (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog is worried the U.S.-led war aimed at disarming Iraq may have unleashed a proliferation crisis if looters have sold equipment that can be used to make atomic weapons, Western diplomats said.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which monitored Saddam Hussein's nuclear sites before last year's Iraq war, said on Monday equipment and materials that could be used to make atomic weapons have been disappearing from Iraq but neither Baghdad nor Washington had noticed.
``If some of this stuff were to end up in Iran, some people would be very concerned,'' a diplomat close to the IAEA told Reuters. ``The IAEA's big concern would be profiteering, people who would sell this stuff with no regard for who is buying it.''
The profiteers could have sold the items on to groups or countries interested in weapons, the diplomat added.
The United States believes Iraq's neighbor, Iran, is secretly developing nuclear weapons under cover of a civilian atomic energy program. Tehran denies this, insisting its nuclear ambitions are limited to generating electricity.
Pre-war U.S. allegations that Saddam had revived his atomic weapons program from the early 1990s have never been proven.
But the IAEA has warned countries to keep a close eye on all their nuclear sites due to multiple warnings from Western intelligence agencies that terrorist organizations are interested in getting their hands on a nuclear device.
AUTHORIZED OR UNAUTHORIZED REMOVAL?
Satellite imagery shows entire buildings in Iraq that once housed high-precision equipment have been dismantled, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said in a letter to the U.N. Security Council.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said he believed most of the removal of materials and equipment took place in the chaos that reigned shortly after the invasion last spring.
``It is not clear, but it appears, and I'm seeking more details after receipt of the IAEA report overnight, that most of the unauthorized removal took place in the immediate aftermath of the major conflict in March and April last year,'' Straw told parliament.
The diplomat close to the IAEA said Straw's comment implied the removal of materials and equipment that took place after April 2003 had been authorized.
``If that is the case, the IAEA would like to know,'' he said, adding that the U.N. watchdog had received no response so far from the Iraqi, U.S. or British authorities in this matter.
In 1991, the IAEA detected Saddam's clandestine nuclear weapons program and spent the next seven years investigating and dismantling it. By the time U.N. inspectors fled the country in December 1998, Iraq's covert atom bomb program was gone.
IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said that before the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, all of the nuclear materials, equipment and facilities that have disappeared from satellite photos were accounted for and were not being used in a weapons program.
``This is dual-use stuff of which -- when we were there -- we were certain was not being misused,'' he said, adding that everything had been tagged or sealed and was closely monitored.
``It was systematically removed,'' Gwozdecky said.
A U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad said the issue was in the hands of the CIA's Iraq Survey Group -- U.S. weapons inspectors who declared this month that Saddam had no stockpiles of banned weapons when the U.S.-led invasion began.
President Bush, locked in a tough re-election battle with Senator John Kerry, justified the war in part by saying Saddam was on the brink of developing a nuclear bomb that he might use against the United States or give to terrorists.
----
Iraq Says Open to UN Inspectors Amid Nuclear Alarm
October 12, 2004
REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-iraq.html
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.N. nuclear inspectors are welcome to return an Iraqi minister said on Tuesday in response to concerns of an ``apparent systematic dismantlement'' of Saddam Hussein's once-vigorous nuclear program.
Science and Technology Minister Rashad Omar was responding to an International Atomic Energy Agency report on Monday that neither Baghdad nor Washington appeared to have noticed the disappearance of nuclear equipment and materials once closely monitored by the agency.
``The locations that belong to the Science and Technology ministry are secure and under our control,'' Omar told Reuters.
He said nothing had gone missing since a looting spree after last year's U.S.-led invasion, which the United States and Britain said was to rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction. Both countries now admit Saddam had no banned weapons.
Omar said Tuwaitha, a vast compound south of Baghdad that included Iraq's main nuclear facility, was being turned into a science park. ``The IAEA came back one month ago, they inspected the plant and others and didn't say anything.
``We are transparent. We are happy for the IAEA or any other organization to come and inspect,'' he said, adding he had not seen the agency's report to the Security Council.
The IAEA report, released three weeks ahead of the U.S. presidential election, could fuel criticism of the Iraq policies of the Bush administration, already under fire for its handling of an insurgency that has so far proved impossible to crush.
A U.S. photographer abducted by gunmen on Sunday has been freed, the picture agency representing him said on Tuesday.
Paul Taggart, 24, has been released and has spoken by telephone with his parents in Tulsa, Oklahoma, said Stephen Claypole, chief executive officer of the World Picture News agency in New York.
Claypole said Taggart, who had been in Iraq for about five months, was kidnapped by three masked gunmen on Sunday morning in Baghdad when his car was intercepted by what appeared to be a criminal gang.
On the military front, an overnight U.S. air strike on the rebel-held city of Falluja targeted a restaurant which the military said was a meeting place for followers of America's top enemy in Iraq, Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The latest raid coincided with efforts to restore state authority in Falluja and elsewhere before January elections.
Witnesses said bombs flattened the popular Haji Hussein kebab house on Falluja's main street, killing two guards and reducing it to a pile of crushed concrete and twisted metal.
After sunset, U.S. forces and insurgents clashed just east of Falluja, residents said. U.S. air support was called in, with fighter planes firing on one neighborhood, they said. A doctor at a Falluja hospital, Haithan Rahim, said eight people were killed in the fighting. The U.S. military had no information.
FOCUS ON ZARQAWI
The U.S. military said it was a ``precision strike'' on a location where Zarqawi militants met to plot attacks.
``Zarqawi does not come here. Where is Zarqawi? We have not seen Zarqawi,'' yelled one Falluja resident after the U.S. raid.
Zarqawi's group has claimed some of Iraq's bloodiest suicide bombings, as well as the beheadings of foreign hostages, including Briton Kenneth Bigley, who was killed on Thursday.
Bigley's body was dumped south of Baghdad the following day, insurgent sources said on Tuesday. The British embassy said it had still not recovered the Briton's remains.
Insurgents have sought to frighten U.S. allies into pulling their troops and contractors out of Iraq.
Hungary's new prime minister, Ferenc Gyurcsany, said on Tuesday his government would decide at the end of November or early December whether to keep Hungary's 300-strong transport battalion in Iraq beyond the end of the year.
South Korea is investigating a warning posted on an Arabic Web site threatening attacks if Seoul does not pull its 3,600 troops out of Iraq in 14 days, an official said.
Three South Korean civilians have been killed in Iraq.
The U.S. military believes Falluja is a main sanctuary for such militants and American officers have voiced skepticism that any political deal to pacify the town can dislodge them.
Falluja representatives met interim government officials on Tuesday in the latest of a series of talks to put Iraqi security forces back in control of the rebellious city.
Previous truce deals have failed to calm Falluja.
--------
Nuclear weapons materials 'vanish from Iraq'
Scotsman.com News
IRWIN ARIEFF
12 Oct 2004
http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1185422004
EQUIPMENT and materials that could be used to make nuclear weapons are disappearing from Iraq but neither Baghdad nor Washington appears to have noticed, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency reported yesterday.
Satellite imagery shows that entire buildings that once housed high-precision equipment have been dismantled.
Equipment and materials helpful in making bombs have also been removed from open storage areas in Iraq and disappeared without a trace, according to the satellite pictures, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report to the UN Security Council.
The warning comes just days after a CIA report detailed how armed insurgent groups in Iraq are trying to get their hands on weapons of mass destruction.
The report said rebel groups were trying to manufacture chemical weapons, adding that the availability of chemicals and munitions, as well as sympathetic former Iraqi weapons scientists "increases the future threat".
The new claims by the IAEA will give ammunition to those who claim Iraq had the industrial wherewithal to easily restart its nuclear programme should sanctions be lifted.
In his report to the Security Council yesterday, IAEA Director-General Mohamed El Baradei said that some military goods that disappeared from Iraq after the March 2003 United States-led invasion, including missile engines, later turned up in scrap yards in the Middle East and Europe.
However, he added that none of the equipment or material known to the IAEA as potentially useful in making nuclear bombs has turned up yet.
The US barred the return of UN weapons investigators after launching war on Iraq last year, preventing the IAEA from keeping tabs on high-tech equipment and materials up to the present day.
Under anti-proliferation agreements, the US occupation authorities who administered Iraq until June, and then the Iraqi interim government that took power afterwards, would have to inform the IAEA if they moved or exported any of that material or equipment.
But no such reports have been received since the invasion, officials of the watchdog agency said.
The US also has not publicly commented on earlier UN inspectors' reports disclosing the dismantling of a range of key weapons-making sites, raising the question of whether it was unable to monitor the sites.
In the absence of any US or Iraqi accounting, council diplomats said the satellite images could mean the gear had been moved to new sites inside Iraq or stolen. If stolen, it could end up in the hands of a government or terrorist group seeking nuclear weapons.
"We simply don't know, although we are trying to get the information," said one council diplomat.
US officials had no immediate comment on the report.
-----
UN watchdog says nuclear equipment vanished in Iraq
VIENNA (AFP)
Oct 12, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041012165639.juojruvh.html
Equipment and materials that could be used to make nuclear weapons, in some cases entire buildings housing sophisticated technology, are disappearing from Iraq, the UN nuclear watchdog has reported to the UN.
In a letter to the UN Security Council, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei said he was concerned about the "widespread and apparently systematic dismantlement that has taken place at sites previously relevant to Iraq's nuclear program" under deposed dictator Saddam Hussein.
So-called dual-use equipment - with peaceful as well as weapons-making applications -- is disappearing, ElBaradei said, raising fears terrorists could be getting their hands on it.
The October 1 letter to the United Nations was posted on the IAEA web site Tuesday.
The IAEA, whose inspectors left Iraq before the US-led war to topple Saddam Hussein began in March 2003 and have not been allowed to return, now must rely for its reporting on "open sources and commercial satellite imagery," ElBaradei said.
He said "the imagery shows in many instances the dismantlement of entire buildings that housed high precision equipment (such as flow forming, milling and turning machines; electron beam welders; coordinate measurement machines) formerly monitored and tagged with IAEA seals."
Meanwhile, material such as high-strength aluminium has also vanished from open storage areas, he said.
While some military equipment in Iraq later turned up in scrap yards abroad, "none of the high-quality dual-use equipment or materials ... (have) been found," ElBaradei said.
"The disappearance of such equipment and materials may be of proliferation significance," ElBaradei said.
US President George W. Bush justified the war by saying Saddam's push for weapons of mass destruction was one reason for launching the war.
But a new report last week from chief US weapons inspector Charles Duelfer concluded that Saddam had stopped trying to build weapons of mass destruction after international inspections were begun following the 1991 Gulf war.
ElBaradei reports every six months to the Security Council since the IAEA still has a UN mandate to investigate Iran's nuclear program.
IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said that neither US authorities in Iraq nor Iraq government officials have reported to the agency about nuclear facilities in the country.
ElBaradei said in his letter that the IAEA needed "to be provided by all states with information" relevant to the agency's mandate.
But Gwozdecky said: "We're not getting information from authorities on what's happening."
He said that when the IAEA had inspectors in Iraq, it "had all of this stuff under close scrutiny and Iraq did regularly report to us whenever there were changes in inventory."
"Iraq still has an obligation to report to us whenever there is a change in inventories, but this has not been happening," Gwozdecky said.
-------
US downplays concerns about missing Iraqi nuclear equipment
WASHINGTON (AFP)
Oct 12, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041012211554.vxe17379.html
The United States on Tuesday played down concerns raised by the UN atomic watchdog about equipment and materials that could be used to make nuclear weapons reported missing from Iraq, saying the problem had been addressed.
The State Department acknowledged that such items had been looted from Iraqi facilities in the immediate aftermath of the US-led invasion of Iraq but maintained that "most, if not all," had been accounted for and that Iraqi authorities had acted to prevent further thefts.
"This is a problem that did occur after the war," spokesman Richard Boucher said. "We think though, that, through a variety of efforts that we and the Iraqis have been making, it has been brought under control."
"Indeed, the International Atomic Energy Agency has been able to inspect facilities in Iraq to ensure that the materials that are still there are properly categorized and accounted for," he told reporters
In an October 1 letter to the UN Security Council, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei said he was concerned that material and equipment, in some cases entire buildings housing sophisticated technology, are disappearing from Iraq.
So-called dual-use equipment -- with peaceful as well as weapons-making applications -- is disappearing, ElBaradei said, raising fears terrorists could get their hands on it.
"The disappearance of such equipment and materials may be of proliferation significance," ElBaradei said.
He also said the IAEA, whose inspectors left Iraq before the US-led war to topple Saddam Hussein began in March 2003 and have not been allowed to return, now must rely for its reporting on "open sources and commercial satellite imagery" which show the extent of the missing material.
However, Boucher said IAEA teams had been to Iraq, including the nuclear facility at Tuwaitha, at least twice -- in June 2003 and in August 2004 -- since Saddam was ousted and that such inspections would continue.
ElBaradei reports every six months to the Security Council since the IAEA still has a UN mandate to investigate Iraq's nuclear program.
But IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said that neither US authorities in Iraq nor Iraq government officials have reported to the agency about nuclear facilities in the country and that the agency was not getting the information it needed.
--------
Confusion over Iraq nuclear assets
BBC
By David Bamford
12 October, 2004
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3736158.stm
US troops guard canister containing traces of uranium The IAEA has not been able to properly check Iraq's facilities since looting last year
The statement by Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the UN's nuclear monitoring agency, on the disappearance of nuclear equipment and materials in Iraq, may give rise to some confusion.
The IAEA director-general said entire buildings related to Iraq's former nuclear programme appeared to have been dismantled, and that the agency had lost track of high-precision equipment thought to have been inside the buildings.
News headlines have been full for months of acknowledgements in the US and elsewhere that Iraq had long ago abandoned plans to build nuclear weapons.
Yet now the IAEA is talking of equipment known to have been in Iraq as recently as last year that had potential nuclear use.
Back in the 1970s and 80s, Iraq did have a civilian nuclear programme, being developed under close supervision by the IAEA.
It suffered a major setback in 1981 when the Israelis attacked and destroyed Iraq's French-built Osirak nuclear reactor.
Since then, atomic energy inspectors have visited Iraq but they were forced to leave last year because of the Iraq war.
Answers needed
The Americans have still not allowed them back for further inspections, and this seems to be a key factor lying behind Mr ElBaradei's statement now.
He says the agency knows in which buildings this sensitive equipment was stored when it left Iraq.
Now satellite photos suggest the entire buildings have been dismantled.
The Iraqi interim Minister of Science and Technology, Rashad Omar, told the BBC that the buildings concerned were comprehensively looted during the days following the American-led capture of Baghdad last year and before the coalition troops could secure the facilities.
He said the US did take control - with the approval of the IAEA - of quantities of low-grade uranium.
US troops look down on the nuclear facility at Tuwaitha, Iraq The US has been blocking full UN inspections in Iraq Since the transfer of sovereignty, the Iraqi government has assumed responsibility for the sites.
An IAEA spokesman, Mark Gwozdecky, said that the Agency has been monitoring foreign ports to try to track the flow of nuclear-related and 'dual-usage' items out of Iraq.
He said there has been a steady flow of mildly radioactive scrap items, including missile engines, turning up in locations including Jordan and the Netherlands.
The IAEA says it cannot do its job of guarding the world against secret nuclear proliferation if it is prevented from keeping track of such equipment.
The Americans may well know what has happened to it - or they may not.
Mr ElBaradei does not know because he has been kept out of the information loop - and he wants some answers.
-------- israel
Army chief 'emptied his magazine' at girl in Gaza
12 October 2004
independent.co.uk
By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=571222
Two separate official investigations are under way into the fatal shooting of a 13-year-old girl in Gaza by the Israeli army after soldiers testified that their company commander "emptied his magazine" at her after she had been shot and was presumed dead.
The army has already admitted that the killing of Iman al-Hams in the town of Rafah a week ago was a mistake and that her bag, which it says soldiers thought carried explosives, contained school books.
Soldiers have come forward to explain that her body was riddled with 20 bullets because their immediate commander "confirmed the killing" by shooting two bullets at her already prone body before withdrawing a short distance and then firing a burst of automatic gunfire at the corpse.
The Judge Advocate General, Brigadier General Avi Mandelblit, has instructed the military police to launch a criminal investigation against the commander in the Givati Brigade's crack Shaked Battalion as a result of the claim. Unusually, the investigation was ordered even though the army inquiry is incomplete.
The move follows interviews with soldiers serving in the company published in the Israeli newspaper Yedhiot Ahronot. It quoted them as saying the commander should have been stood down immediately after the incident. One soldier told the newspaper: "The company CO who sprayed the girl with bullets turned us all into vicious animals and besmirched us all ... If he is not dismissed, we will not agree to serve under him." Another said the commander had "desecrated the body".
According to figures produced by 11 UN agencies, 24 Palestinians under the age of 17 have been killed since 28 September when the army entered northern Gaza in response to the firing by Palestinian militants of two Qassam rockets which killed two Israeli children in Sderot. A nine-year-old girl was among 11 Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip over the weekend.
The investigations opened as security sources told the newspaper Haaretz that the Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, had rejected a request from army commanders to withdraw from the densely populated Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza on the grounds that the fortnight-old operation "Days of Penitence" was endangering troops and that militants had now removed rockets to positions outside the camp.
Mr Sharon told the Knesset at the opening of what promises to be a difficult winter session for the government that it would be voting on 25 October on his plan to withdraw some 7,500 settlers from Gaza.
The level of difficulty was underlined last night when the legislature opposed by 45 to 33 a routine motion noting Mr Sharon's speech. Although it does not threaten Mr Sharon's administration, the defeat emphasised the strong opposition to the plan from the extreme right of Israeli politics and from the far right of his own Likud party, seven of whose members abstained last night.
A Palestinian farmer, Hani Shadeh, 26, was shot and critically wounded in his olive orchard near Nablus in the West Bank yesterday.
-------- japan
TEPCO shutting Fukushima reactor to replace pipe
(Reuters)
Oct 12, 2004
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6475759
TOKYO, - Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) (9501.T: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Tuesday it was shutting down the No. 5 nuclear power generation unit at its Fukushima-Daiichi plant in northern Japan to replace a high-pressure gas pipe.
Japan's biggest utility started closing the 784,000-kilowatt unit at around 6 p.m. (0900 GMT) to replace the pipe, which is not directly connected to the reactor, a spokesman said.
"It will take about two to three days to replace the pipe," the spokesman said. He did not specify when the power company would restart the unit.
The Fukushima prefectural government suspected the thickness of the pipe might have fallen below safe levels and had asked TEPCO to replace it immediately, TEPCO said in a statement.
TEPCO had planned to replace the pipe during routine maintenance scheduled for early November, but has decided to shut the unit now due to the government's request, the spokesman said.
Safety inspections at Japanese nuclear power plants have been reinforced after five workers were killed when steam leaked from a pipe at Kansai Electric Power Co.'s (9503.T: Quote, Profile, Research) Mihama nuclear facility in western Japan on Aug. 9.
After the shutdown, eight of TEPCO's 17 nuclear units will be operating, the spokesman said.
-------- korea
U.S. Says N.Korea Miscalculating by Stalling on Talks
October 12, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/politics/politics-korea-north.html
TOKYO (Reuters) - The United States accused North Korea Tuesday of miscalculation by refusing to resume talks on its nuclear programs before the U.S. presidential election while China renewed a diplomatic drive to end the stalemate.
Beijing has played host to three rounds of six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear ambitions. At the last round in June, China, the United States, Russia, Japan and North and South Korea agreed to meet in September, but those talks never took place.
``Unfortunately, I don't have a good crystal ball regarding North Korea. But it appears that since we've only got 22 days I think until our election, that the North Koreans don't have much interest in holding talks before then,'' U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told reporters.
``I think this is a miscalculation on their part,'' Armitage said during a two-day visit to meet Japanese officials and attend an international donors' conference on Iraq.
Analysts say Pyongyang is stalling to see who wins the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 2 because it believes the Democratic contender, Senator John Kerry, will be easier to deal with than President Bush.
Kerry has said he would like to initiate bilateral talks with North Korea alongside the six-way discussions. China has voiced no view on that position.
Taking up the diplomatic baton, China announced Tuesday that North Korea's No. 2 leader, Kim Yong-nam, would visit next week and that Beijing's special envoy for Korean affairs would tour ``relevant countries'' to push for a new round of talks.
North Korea said Friday it wanted bilateral nuclear talks with the United States but would rejoin stalled six-party meetings at once if Washington dropped its ``hostile policy'' toward Pyongyang.
The nuclear crisis began in October 2002 when U.S. officials said North Korea had admitted to pursuing a secret uranium-enrichment program.
FLURRY OF VISITS
North Korea now denies having such a program, and has demanded energy aid and diplomatic concessions in return for freezing an older, plutonium-based nuclear arms program.
Armitage met officials including Vice Foreign Minister Yukio Takeuchi, and the two sides agreed to continue to urge North Korea to take part in six-way talks without preconditions, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said.
Kim, chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, North Korea's parliament, is the most senior official from Pyongyang to visit China since the reclusive country's top leader, Kim Jong-il, toured in April.
During the Oct. 18-20 visit, Kim will meet Chinese leaders to ``exchange views on some issues in bilateral relations,'' Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue told a news conference without elaborating.
The visit will be officially to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the establishment of relations.
In addition to the nuclear crisis, analysts expect economic cooperation to be a key topic. China has been trying for years to coax its secretive neighbor to reform and open its command economy, following in Chinese footsteps.
China's special envoy for Korean Peninsula affairs will make a two-day visit to South Korea from Wednesday for talks on resuming the stalled six-way talks, and would then visit the United States and Japan, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported, quoting the South Korean foreign ministry.
Zhang said only that Ning would visit ``relevant countries'' as part of China's continued efforts to seek a resolution to the thorny standoff.
-------- missile defense
Military Plans to Put Missile in Alaska
October 12, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Missile-Defense-Alaska.html
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- The military plans to place a sixth ballistic missile interceptor inside a silo at Fort Greely by the end of the month, as initial tests of a national defense system critics contend is highly flawed near their conclusion.
To prepare for activation, the military is conducting exercises at the Interior Alaska post, where five of the 55-foot-long rockets have been installed since July, as an essential component of the Bush administration's national security policy.
The first two interceptors destined for Vandenberg Air Force Base in California will go into existing silos in November, with two more scheduled to be deployed there next year and 10 more at Fort Greely.
``We're going through this shakedown period to make sure everything is working properly,'' Rick Lehner, a spokesman for the Missile Defense Agency, said Tuesday.
The ultimate decision on when the system should be activated lies with various commanders, including the U.S. Northern Command, the military force responsible for protecting the United States. Command officials will then brief the secretary of defense and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff before final approval, said Mike Kucharek, a spokesman for the Northern Command, based in Colorado Springs, Colo.
The decision is expected before year's end, Kucharek said.
Until the system is deemed fully operational, interceptors will remain locked down, even as crews go through exercises, including communicating among a network of command centers at Fort Greely, Vandenberg and Colorado Springs.
The system has been criticized by Democrats and others for costing billions without adequately proving itself in tests.
As envisioned by defense officials, the interceptors will be linked to a network of satellites, radars, computers and command centers. In an attack, satellites would alert the Northern Command, triggering a response by interceptors topped with optical sensors called ``kill vehicles,'' while a complex radar system would track incoming enemy missiles.
Critics say no one knows if the interceptors will work; in highly controlled tests, the interceptors have failed three of eight times.
``The system has no demonstrated capability that it would work in realistic conditions,'' said Philip Coyle, who was the Pentagon's former assistant secretary of operational test and evaluation in the Clinton administration. Coyle is now an adviser to the Center for Defense Information in Washington.
Failures have only led to better equipment designs, according to the system's advocates. ``This is always going to be a work in progress,'' Lehner said. ``We're constantly improving.''
On the Net:
www.acq.osd.mil/mda/mdalink/html/mdalink.html
www.cdi.org
--------
Protecting America or the President's Reelection Chances?
Antiwar.com
by Ivan Eland
October 12, 2004
http://www.antiwar.com/eland/?articleid=3764
Pretending to fulfill a 2000 campaign pledge, the Bush administration will soon declare the "activation" of the nation's second national missile defense (NMD) system. Intended to look good for the election, the new system is likely to repeat the fate of the first one-abject failure.
In the early 1970s, President Nixon activated the Safeguard anti-ballistic missile system, which was supposed to protect the United States from incoming communist nuclear weapons, only to deactivate it a short time later after the U.S. government discovered that it didn't work. Today, the Bush administration is traveling the same road.
Because politics rather than national security is driving the program, the rush to have some sort of system in place by November has led to the mentality of "field now and test later." After reviewing many weapons programs, the Government Accountability Office has concluded that this tactic usually leads to disaster-generating escalating costs and diminishing performance. Adequate testing must be done before building hardware or costly redesigns probably will be needed when some planned technologies inevitably don't pan out. With a close election at hand, however, the free-spending Bush administration cares little about the taxpayer's dollars.
Over the years, according to the New York Times, the U.S. government has spent a whopping $130 billion on missile defense but still has no genuinely effective system to fulfill Ronald Reagan's Star Wars fantasy. The desire on the right to deify Reagan and preserve his legacy has made support for missile defense a litmus test issue-even though it has little to do with national security.
The Bush administration's activation of six interceptors is a pale shadow of the grandiose Reagan "Star Wars" vision that only fancifully would have stopped a massive Soviet nuclear attack and made atomic weapons obsolete. And even that assumes those interceptors can actually hit real incoming long-range missiles from North Korea or any other "rogue" state.
NMD is the most complex weapon system ever designed. To allow a "bullet to hit another bullet," the system requires satellite systems for detection of missile launches and tracking, radars for additional tracking, booster rockets to propel the killing warhead, and battle management computers. The Pentagon has conducted some successful intercepts of missiles, but these tests were rigged to help the interceptor kill the incoming missile. The real challenge will be integrating all of these components together so that the interceptor, without cheating, can hit a real missile that might be trying to fool it.
If all of this isn't bad enough, the larger question of whether such a defense system is even needed remains unanswered. Ever since nuclear weapons were invented, the United States has relied on the world's most potent atomic arsenal to deter other countries from a nuclear attack. Countries with a few nuclear warheads-which is all the missile system will ever be able to intercept, even if it works-would likely be deterred from using them against the United States anyway by the threat of national incineration by thousands of accurate U.S. warheads. So if deterrence would work more cheaply than adding on expensive missile defenses, why are conservatives so keen on building them?
Glorifying and keeping alive the legacy of Ronald Reagan is only one of several hidden agendas. As recently released Air Force documents on space weapons and fighting doctrine show, the U.S. government wants to put weapons in space. Hawks hope that funding for missile defense will eventually lead to the deployment of space-based interceptors, which will open the door to a panoply of offensive space weapons. Starting an arms race in space is ill-advised, however, when the United States is the country most reliant on commercial and military satellites.
Although the stated purpose of national missile defense is to protect the nation from a few missiles launched from small "rogue" states, many conservatives eventually would like to use a more robust system against China. The problem with any kind of missile defense, however, has always been that an adversary can build additional missiles to saturate the defenses cheaper than expensive defensive systems can be augmented. An increasingly prosperous China should have no trouble "outbuilding" U.S. defenses.
Finally, the September 11 attacks demonstrated that the main threat to America is probably not from missile-delivered nuclear weapons but from those planted by terrorists or commandos using other means-for example, devices smuggled by ship into a U.S. port. In reality, long-range missiles threaten the ability of the United States to meddle willy nilly in the affairs of other countries. For example, if Saddam Hussein had possessed a few nuclear weapons and long-range missiles that could have hit the United States, the Bush administration probably would have been deterred from invading Iraq. But it is scary to think of a similarly aggressive future U.S. administration that believes an imperfect missile shield would protect America completely from any missiles launched from a nation under U.S. attack.
Most likely, the Bush administration's missile defense will be an ineffective waste of money. But even in the unlikely event that NMD is somewhat effective, it remains a dangerous idea and should be scrapped.
-------- u.n.
Fifty-ninth General Assembly First Committee 6th Meeting (PM)
Press Release
GA/DIS/3276
Middle east nuclear proliferation highlighted, as disarmament committee continues general debate
Conflicting views of the state of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East were highlighted this afternoon, as the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) continued its general debate.
Israel's representative told the Committee international decisions should not be seen as substitutes for national controls because confronting proliferation "begins at home". Criticizing States' "irresponsible behaviour" and reluctance to honour their commitments, the representative of Israel drew special attention to Iran's "serial non-compliance", the case of Libya, and Abdul Qadeer Khan's proliferation network, whose magnitude had still not been fully revealed. Declaring that there were discrepancies between some Middle Eastern States' official statements and their actual behaviour, he warned that the resulting dangerous situation would have ramifications beyond the region.
In view of regional threats, Israel enforced strict controls over conventional weapons exports, including the export of technology, he said. On the other hand, certain States were abetting the illicit traffic of small arms and light weapons in the region. Such actions helped terrorists, he stated. Other States in the Middle East were developing weapons of mass destruction capabilities, supporting terrorist organizations, and publicly threatening Israel's very existence. The combination of such policies was "leading our region far from the vision of peace and security".
By contrast, the speaker from Libya noted that his country's decision to abandon its weapons of mass destruction programme showed its belief that an arms race would not provide security to the Middle East, but would instead make the path to a peaceful world more difficult. Expressing the hope that all States in the region would follow Libya's lead, without double standards, he pointed out that his country had only sought non-traditional weapons because its security and independence had been threatened by other States in the region that possessed weapons of mass destruction.
Although the Treaty for the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) had entered into force long ago, nuclear Powers such as the "Zionist entity" still rejected the Treaty and inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Calling on the international community to apply serious pressure on that entity to change its behaviour, he extolled the virtues of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East.
The representative of Iran noted that the idea of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East had actually been originally proposed by his country, but there had been no papers on the issue because of Israel's refusal to respond to claims about its clandestine programme. In keeping with the spirit of such a zone, Iran had made sure that weapons of mass destruction had no place in the country's defence doctrine. Declaring that using nuclear energy for peaceful purposes was an inalienable right, enshrined in article IV of the NPT, he told delegates that his country had signed the IAEA's additional protocol to enhance confidence, and had even gone so far as to implement it before ratification by Parliament.
Statements in the general debate were also made by the representatives of Myanmar, United Republic of Tanzania, Colombia, Republic of Korea, Viet Nam, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Jordan, Uganda, Dominican Republic, Botswana, Angola, Croatia and El Salvador. The representatives of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea spoke in exercise of the right of reply.
The Committee also heard from the representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The Committee will meet again at 3 p.m. Tuesday, 12 October.
Background
The First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) met this afternoon to continue its general debate on the whole range of arms limitation and security arrangements. (For background, see Press Releases GA/DIS/3271 and 3272.)
Statements
GEREMY ISHASHAROS, Deputy Director General, Strategic Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel, said the Committee could not afford to operate in a vacuum, divorced from existing or emerging threats. In that context, he reasoned that if it wished to preserve its integrity and retain its importance, it would have to address today's most pressing challenges. Because the multilateral community was both continuing to obstinately deal with outdated, irrelevant issues, and taking an unhealthy "all or nothing" approach to negotiation, the various disarmament bodies were locked in a stalemate.
One of the primary challenges facing the international community today was the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, he said. Criticizing States' "irresponsible behaviour" and reluctance to honour their commitments, he drew special attention to Iran's "serial non-compliance", the case of Libya, and Abdul Qadeer Khan's proliferation network, whose magnitude had still not been fully revealed. He also stated that, over the past year, traditional verification mechanisms had been proven to be limited and unable to provide the necessary security assurances.
Referring to man-portable air defence systems (MANPADs), he called for the international community to exert more control over them Ð- by limiting access and taking steps to protect civil aviation. For its part, his country had adopted the relevant export control guidelines. Turning to terrorism, he said it must be discussed in its true form, without euphemisms. Expressing concern that many terrorists aspired to acquire weapons of mass destruction, he said that those aspirations, combined with increased cases of "suicide terrorism", constituted a "potentially apocalyptic vehicle".
Noting that last week's terrorist attacks in Sinai had killed Egyptians, as well as Israeli vacationers, he stressed that terrorists made no distinctions between countries or religions. After all, they had attacked States as diverse as Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Spain. Rather, terrorism was fuelled by simple hatred Ð- hatred for the free world, democratic values, human rights, peace, and reconciliation. Welcoming Security Council resolution 1540, he, nevertheless, stressed that international decisions should not be seen as substitutes for national controls. In that regard, he stated that confronting proliferation "begins at home", through clear policies and accountability.
In view of regional threats, Israel enforced strict controls over conventional weapons exports, including the export of technology, he said. On the other hand, certain States were abetting the illicit traffic of small arms and light weapons in the region. Such actions helped terrorists, he stated. Other States in the Middle East were developing weapons of mass destruction capabilities, supporting terrorist organizations, and publicly threatening Israel's very existence. The combination of such policies was "leading our region far from the vision of peace and security". Declaring that there were discrepancies between some Middle Eastern States' official statements and their actual behaviour, he warned that the resulting dangerous situation would have ramifications beyond the region.
MYA THAN (Myanmar) said that the greatest security threat facing mankind today was the threat of weapons of mass destruction, particularly nuclear weapons. Another great threat starring the international community in the eye was terrorism. The international community had been concerned about the possibility of a nightmarish scenario of weapons of mass destruction falling into the hands of terrorists. Efforts to deal with and overcome those horrendous threats needed to be stepped up. Nuclear disarmament was, therefore, the highest priority on the international agenda for arms control. The benchmarks for the implementation had been laid down by the 2000 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) Review Conference. The international community should, therefore, measure the progress in systematic and progressive efforts for nuclear disarmament against those benchmarks.
The early entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) was an imperative for the effective implementation of nuclear disarmament, he continued. It was, therefore, essential that countries in the Annex 2 of the Treaty ratify it as soon as possible. Another step in a systematic and progressive process of nuclear disarmament was the negotiation of a draft treaty banning fissile materials for nuclear weapons or other nuclear-explosive devices.
He noted that, although the Conference on Disarmament had been unable to agree on its programme of work and to begin its substantive work, there had been some significant developments in the Conference at its 2004 session. On 12 February, it took a decision on the enhancement of the participation of civil society in the work of the Conference. Agreement on the programme of work was the highest priority. The international community should take a balanced approach, based on the three pillars of the NPT -- nuclear non-proliferation, nuclear disarmament, and the peaceful use of nuclear energy. The international community should recognize, respect, maintain and strengthen the interrelationship and synergy among those pillars of the Treaty.
AUGUSTINE A. MAHIGA (United Republic of Tanzania) welcomed Libya's decision to get rid of its nuclear and chemical weapons programmes and said that all countries that possessed weapons of mass destruction should emulate Libya's example. There was no moral or military justification for any country to continue possessing and relying on weapons of mass destruction for its defence or deterrence when their use Ð- intentionally or accidentally Ð- could trigger total annihilation of the world and its civilization.
He said that, despite the fact that the international community agreed that the NPT was the cornerstone of nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, some States did not seem prepared to honour their part of the agreement. It was regrettable that, as the 2005 NPT Review Conference approached, the 13 practical steps agreed upon in 2000 had not been implemented. That was in spite of the fact that the nuclear-weapon States unequivocally undertook to eliminate their arsenals. Worse, the world was witnessing the development of new nuclear doctrines, which included the use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon States. In addition, new types of more sophisticated and concealable nuclear weapons and their delivery systems were being researched and developed. All those actions undermined and contravened the spirit and letter of the NPT.
He reaffirmed his support for the efforts aimed at combating illicit trafficking in small arms and light weapons. Small arms in regional and internal conflicts in recipient countries in the developing world had fuelled violent conflicts, resulting in unrelenting civilian deaths, the destruction of livelihoods and mass human displacements. Concerted international action was needed to arrest that situation. His country had been and would continue to participate in subregional, regional and international processes aimed at addressing that problem.
He added that his country supported efforts aimed at improving the effectiveness of the work of the First Committee. That reform of the Committee should be part of the revitalization of the General Assembly as a whole, and should not be done in isolation. It should address the most urgent challenges that the international community faced today -Ð general and complete disarmament. Nothing would have been achieved if the reforms did not bear fruit.
MABRUK MILAD (Libya) said that this was the Committee's first session since his country's decision to abandon its weapons of mass destruction programme. He said his country's initiative showed its belief that an arms race would not provide security to the Middle East, but would instead make the path to a peaceful world more difficult. Expressing the hope that all States in the region would follow Libya's lead, without double standards, he pointed out that his country had only sought non-traditional weapons because its security and independence had been threatened by other States in the region that possessed weapons of mass destruction.
Listing five reasons why his country had decided to turn away from weapons of mass destruction, he said that, first, maintaining peace and security in today's changing world was important. Second, keeping weapons of mass destruction was not viable or feasible in the long run, and results could be tragic and unpredictable. Third, weapons of mass destruction were dangerous for possessors, as well as potential targets. Fourth, such arms, in addition to being a means for protection, actually needed protection themselves. Fifth, building such an arsenal led to the "bleeding of funds", which came at the expense of socio-economic development.
Although the NPT had entered into force long ago, disappointments still remained. For example, nuclear Powers such as the "Zionist entity" still rejected the Treaty and inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Calling on the international community to apply serious pressure on that entity to adhere to change its behaviour, he extolled the virtues of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East. For its part, his country had ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention and the CTBT this year. Its officials had also signed the IAEA's Additional Protocol, received inspectors, and met with such figures as Mohamed ElBaradei of the IAEA.
Calling for the Conference on Disarmament to become active again, especially so that negotiations on a fissile material cut-off treaty could begin, he reiterated that multilateralism was the only means to bring about complete and general disarmament in the world. Turning to landmines, he said his country had over 10 million such weapons embedded in its soil. They had been buried there during the Second World War, and thousands of innocent civilians had died because of them. In that context, he called on the countries that had planted them to assume their responsibilities, provide maps and information regarding the mines' locations, and compensate victims.
Voicing his desire for the Mediterranean to become a zone of peace, he lauded Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's visit to his country last Thursday to inaugurate a pipeline carrying Libyan gas to Europe via Italy. He also praised the European Union for lifting sanctions and its arms embargo against Libya. To further improve pan-Mediterranean relations, all foreign navies and military bases should be withdrawn from the area, he said. Additionally, outsiders should refrain from intervening in States' internal affairs. Before concluding, he said an international conference should be held to define terrorism, determine its causes, and find the necessary means to confront it. As for reforming the First Committee, he said resolutions should be implemented, especially by the major Powers.
MARIA ANGELA HOLGUIN (Colombia) urged that the initiative to improve the working methods of the First Committee be assessed on its merits, rather than on the basis of the States or group of States that were sponsoring it. The Committee was the most important forum for discussion of international security issues. The international community must, therefore, keep the forum and reform it. It was only by so doing that it could show that multilateralism could be effective.
She reiterated Colombia's position that only the total elimination of weapons of mass destruction would make it impossible for such weapons to fall into the hands of terrorists. Colombia was committed to the total elimination of such weapons. It had signed the CTBT in 1990. It had, however, not been able to ratify it, because of internal requirements. In that regard, her country had proposed the idea of finding ways to address the cases of countries that were in such situations, so that they could ratify the Treaty as quickly as possible.
She said that her country needed greater cooperation in combating illegal drugs. Tighter control was also needed in the area of small arms and light weapons. In addition, it was necessary to ensure universalization of the Ottawa Convention aimed at anti-personnel mines, to ensure that producers of such weapons were bound by it. The international community should also ensure urgent demining throughout the world. She noted that, after years of reduction, world military expenditures had begun to rise.
KIM SAM-HOON (Republic of Korea) said the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction remained the gravest threat to international security today. In that regard, clandestine networks, such as the one run by Abdul Qadeer Khan, had to be addressed, and the NPT's inherent weaknesses and loopholes had to be remedied. He also expressed concern that some countries were attempting to develop weapons under the guise of peaceful energy programmes. Welcoming Security Council resolution 1540, he said it was a good step forward and complemented his country's desires for greater international verification capabilities. For its part, his country was fully cooperating with the IAEA, so that complete nuclear transparency would be achieved.
Underscoring the urgency of the entry into force of the CTBT, he called on all States, especially those whose ratification was required for entry into force, to ratify it. He also highlighted the importance of a fissile material cut-off treaty. Until such instruments were brought into force, it was imperative that States uphold moratoria on nuclear-test explosions and fissile-material production, he said. Turning to the international multilateral machinery, he said its performance had been "rather disappointing". In that regard, he called on such bodies as the Conference on Disarmament and the Disarmament Commission to break out of their stalemates. He also noted that their deadlocks made the First Committee more important than ever, thus, rendering the need for reform even more significant.
He stated that the underlying causes of proliferation should be addressed, through the easing of regional conflicts. In that context, he reiterated his commitment to a peaceful solution to the KoreanPeninsula issue. Looking to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to abandon its nuclear programmes and to join the thriving East Asian mainstream, he called for the continuation of the six-party talks. Turning to missiles, he lamented that the panel appointed by the Secretary-General to discuss the topic had failed to produce a report. On conventional weapons, he welcomed the inclusion of MANPADs in the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms.
NGUYEN DUY CHIEN (Viet Nam) expressed regret that continued endeavours at various multilateral disarmament forums, such as the Disarmament Commission, the Conference on Disarmament and the third NPT Preparatory Committee, had not produced encouraging results. The current state of disarmament affairs could only be rectified if real political will prevailed and cooperative efforts to overcome existing difficulties and obstacles were renewed and redoubled.
Nuclear weapons were posing the most serious threat to international peace and security, he continued. Viet Nam had consistently called for the total elimination of nuclear arsenals and was committed to closely cooperating with the international community to get rid of such dangerous weapons. His country attached great importance to the strengthening of the NPT. It fully supported the Non-Aligned Movement's proposal to establish, at the 2005 Review Conference, subsidiary bodies to the main committees to deliberate on practical steps for systematic and progressive efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons, on security assurances and so on. It hoped that the existing divergence of views among States parties on priorities and perspectives on the 2005 NPT Review Conference would be resolved soon through a broadly acceptable programme to assure its success.
He said that the creation of nuclear-weapon-free zones constituted important steps towards attaining the objective of regional and global nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. His country welcomed the announcement by China of its readiness to accede to the protocol annexed to the Treaty for the South-East Asia Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone and called on all nuclear-weapon States to do likewise.
KHUNYING LAXANACHANTORN LAOHAPHAN (Thailand) said that it was unfortunate that, despite the continuing efforts that the international community had exerted in the promotion of disarmament and non-proliferation, the world today was not any safer from the scourge of weapons of mass destruction and conventional weapons that it was over half a century ago when the United Nations was founded. The Secretary-General's most recent report on the work of the organization recalled that "the clandestine network and violations of non-proliferation commitments along with slow pace of disarmament and threat of terrorism which jeopardized international peace and security may increase the risk of new instances of unilateral or pre-emptive use of force". To prevent those developments from further weakening confidence in multilateralism, it was widely felt that a strong regime of compliance was vital to the effective functioning of a multilateral system. As a developing country, Thailand fully recognized the difficulties that other developing countries faced in fulfilling their obligations, but stood ready to work with them in achieving the common endeavour.
His country believed that the NPT was the cornerstone of collective non-proliferation efforts and the essential foundation for the pursuit of nuclear disarmament, he went on. In that regard, all nuclear-weapon States should become party to the NPT and all NPT parties should implement the Final Document adopted at the 2000 NPT Review Conference with a view to achieving the total elimination of nuclear arsenals. He also hoped that the discussion that would take place during the upcoming Review Conference of the NPT in 2005 would bring about concrete outcomes that would eventually lead to a nuclear-weapon-free world.
While the world was faced with the threat of weapons of mass destruction, chemical and biological weapons, the problem of conventional weapons had never faded away, he continued. Despite the continued effort of the international community in addressing the challenges posed by small arms and light weapons, hundreds of innocent lives were taken away by the scourge of those weapons each year. Thailand supported the establishment of the open-ended working group to negotiate an international instrument on marking and tracing of illicit trade of such weapons. His country saw the merit and admired the work of civil society, including non-governmental organizations, which had contributed greatly to the effort to solve the problem of small arms and light weapons. Those non-profit organizations needed to be given more opportunities to closely coordinate with government agencies and international organizations in raising public awareness and continuously campaigning in that arena. As part of a capacity-building exercise and in accordance with the Plan of Action, Thailand, in collaboration with the United Kingdom, would hold a regional workshop on small arms and light weapons transfer in January in Bangkok.
ALISHER VOHIDOV (Uzbekistan) said that existing or multilateral instruments were no longer an adequate deterrent to terrorist elements and their bid to achieve their goals. In today's world, effective mechanisms for countering the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction were still at early stages development. On the other hand, implementing the provisions of existing multilateral treaties could substantially reduce that threat to international peace and security. Further, priority must be given to the regional agenda. It was only through step-by-step programmes at the regional level, implemented within the framework of multilateral agreements, that could ensure security and stability in the world. In that regard, the establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in Central Asia would be a positive step. Uzbekistan welcomed the readiness of nuclear Powers to cooperate on the establishment of such a zone.
The NPT remained the cornerstone of the global non-proliferation regime and complete disarmament in the world, he went on. His Government expected a positive result in the work of the Conference on Disarmament, in spite of the failure to agree on a programme of work. His country had been among the first to ratify the CTBT and had called on those countries whose ratification was necessary for the Treaty to go into force to ratify it as soon as possible. Finally, he added that Uzbekistan considered the First Committee to be one of the most important forums for exchange of views on peace and security. All delegations should, therefore, make a strong effort to help reform the Committee and ensure its effective functioning.
BISHER AL-KHASAWNEH (Jordan) began by expressing solidarity with Egypt, in light of the recent terrorist attacks in Sinai. He then turned to the state of the world's multilateral disarmament machinery. Declaring that reforming and revitalizing the First Committee and, indeed, the entire General Assembly was important, he expressed concern over the failure of the Conference on Disarmament to make any progress. Looking forward to the next NPT Review Conference, he hoped it would be more fruitful.
Stating that the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction constituted a "present and clear danger", he rejected all forms of terrorism. In that context, he told delegates that, a few months ago, his Government had discovered a terrorist conspiracy involving weapons of mass destruction. The clandestine plan had been stopped immediately, because his country believed in facing and confronting international terrorism. In that regard, he appreciated Security Council resolution 1540, and noted that one of the best safeguards against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction would entail holding important negotiations on a relevant convention.
Complete nuclear disarmament was a necessity, he said. In the meantime, all nuclear Powers should pledge not to use or threaten to use such arms against non-nuclear-weapon States. Turning to his own region, he criticized Israel for refusing to adhere to the NPT. Calling on Israel to do so immediately, and to subject its facilities to international inspections, he extolled the virtues of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East. Regarding small arms and light weapons, he noted the link between such arms and drugs and crime. In that context, he voiced support for an international convention on the marking and tracing of such weapons.
CHARLES WAGABA (Uganda) expressed the hope that the 2005 NPT Review Conference would reiterate and underline the umbilical link between non-proliferation and disarmament. The failure of the third Preparatory Committee for the 2005 Review Conference to agree on substantive recommendations was indicative of the big task that still remained to be accomplished in order to advance the agenda of nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament. The CTBT was still not in force, due to the non-ratification by required States. That treaty was a vital instrument in the nuclear non-proliferation arsenal and the concerned States must immediately ratify it. In the meantime, the moratorium on nuclear tests should be maintained.
He stated that it was more urgent than ever before that weapons of mass destruction should be eliminated, before they fell into the hands of mindless terrorist who had, by their actions, demonstrated that they would use them to devastating effect. All States should ratify or accede to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and of Their Destruction (Chemical Weapons Convention) and the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction (Biological Weapons Convention) in order to bring them into universal application.
He underlined the devastating effects of the inundation of small arms and light weapons on the political, economic and social fabrics of countries across the globe, particularly developing countries. Those weapons had wrought havoc and mayhem through their easy availability and indiscriminate use. Uganda, therefore, welcomed the work that continued to be carried out with a view towards the prevention, combat and eradication of the illicit trade in those weapons. An International Conference on the Great Lakes Region would take place next month in Dar-es-Salaam to grapple with the problems of the inundation of the region with small arms and light weapons in the hands of non-State actors, resulting from the unending conflicts in the region. The international community should support that conference and should extend political and financial support to the resultant programmes.
Global military expenditures, after falling off following the end of the cold war, had resumed its growth, currently by more than 5 per cent annually, he noted. Conversely, the flow of official development assistance (ODA) from developed to developing countries was falling steadily. Additionally, products from the developing countries were finding it difficult to enter the markets of industrial economies. That dual assault had exacerbated the conditions of underdevelopment and poverty in the developing countries. Those conditions, in turn, bred insecurity and conflict. There was, therefore, an urgent need to re-examine the relationship between disarmament and development.
ENRIQUILLO DEL ROSARIO (Dominican Republic) said that, because of the phenomenon of terrorism, which did not respect international borders and spared no one, it was important to strengthen all multilateral disarmament machinery. At the same time, however, it was important to acknowledge that other threats, which were perhaps more subtle but equally important, existed, as well. They included hunger, extreme poverty, and the inability of Member States to meet socio-economic goals. Such soft threats generated sources of conflicts and could, thus, not be ignored.
Turning to his own region, he highlighted the problems posed by the transport of radioactive material and dangerous waste through the Caribbean. After all, because his country depended on tourism to drive development, the maintenance of pure waters and scenic coasts was of the utmost importance. Other countries in the region felt that way, as well. Proposing solutions to the problem, he suggested that offending parties should offer: guarantees against the pollution of the marine environment; commitments to recover material that was dumped; pledges to decontaminate affected areas; and agreements on effective norms in the case of damage.
Turning to small arms and light weapons, he said the illicit trade in such arms was inherently connected to organized crime. In light of that link, his country was doing its part to improve security for its citizens by fighting crime, effectively using the judiciary, and modernizing its police forces. However, the international community could help. Specifically, voicing support for an international instrument to track such weapons, he said that such a mechanism would lay the foundation for lasting peace.
JAVAD ZARIF (Iran) said the danger of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction was a matter of serious concern for the international community. Calling for a global ban on all weapons of mass destruction, especially nuclear weapons, he said the NPT, the Biological Weapons Convention, and the Chemical Weapons Convention should all be strengthened. The reluctance of certain nuclear-weapon States to follow the 13 practical steps for nuclear disarmament was disappointing. What was perhaps more worrying, however, was news that one nuclear Power had plans to produce new types of nuclear weapons and had already allocated millions of dollars towards research in that area. Possible efforts by other nuclear Powers to maintain balances might start a new arms race, he warned.
On the idea of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East, originally proposed by Iran, there had been no progress because of Israel's refusal to respond to concerns about its clandestine nuclear programme. Declaring that using nuclear energy for peaceful purposes was an inalienable right, enshrined in article IV of the NPT, he said his country had invested a lot of financial and human resources in that area. Weapons of mass destruction, on the other hand, had no place in Iran's defence doctrine. In line with its obligations and commitments, his country was cooperating with the IAEA. Furthermore, having signed the body's Additional Protocol to enhance confidence, Iran had even gone so far as to implement it before ratification by Parliament.
Voicing support for negotiations on an international instrument to trace small arms and light weapons, he noted the dangerous link between such arms and drug trafficking. On missiles, the failure of the Secretary-General's panel of governmental experts to produce a report should prompt the international community to work more seriously and with more preparation, so that missiles could be adequately addressed within the United Nations framework. Before concluding, he said that improving the efficiency of the world's multilateral disarmament machinery was of great importance. In that context, he also noted that it was unfortunate that the Conference on Disarmament and the Disarmament Commission were mired in stalemates.
ALFRED DUBE (Botswana) said that his country continued to abide by the principles of the international weapons of mass destruction treaties and the conventions to which it was party. To date, it had acceded to the NPT, the CTBT, the Biological Weapons Convention and the Chemical Weapons Convention. Botswana called on all States to abide by the NPT and to comply by all its articles, as well as the agreed 13 steps towards nuclear disarmament. It also joined those who believed that non-nuclear States should be assured against attack by nuclear-weapon States. The Conference on Disarmament should facilitate the move towards a binding international instrument in that regard.
He attached the utmost importance to the twin issues of small arms and light weapons, and anti-personnel landmines, he continued. Those two classes of conventional weapons represented a far greater danger to the African region. He hoped that the proceeding of the First Committee would significantly benefit from the common African position on anti-personnel landmines recently adopted in New York. Focused and united consideration of the challenges in that area was of the utmost importance, if the menace was to be adequately addressed. He felt that it was not enough to deal only with the clearing of mined areas and the provision of assistance to victims. Instead, there should be a total ban on the production, stockpiling, export and use of anti-personnel landmines. Those weapons deserved the same level of abhorrence that the international community had reserved for nuclear weapons.
His Government subscribed to the United Nations Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects, he went on. It would continue to participate in the process of the open-ended working group to negotiate an international instrument to enable States to identify and trace illicit small arms and light weapons in a timely and reliable manner.
ISMAEL ABRAÌO GASPAR MARTINS (Angola) said that, coming from a country that had recently emerged from conflict, he was greatly concerned by the threats posed by weapons of mass destruction, particularly nuclear weapons. Noting that the number of countries with nuclear capabilities was growing, he stressed that a concerted international effort to tackle nuclear proliferation was needed. Declaring that multilateral cooperation was the most appropriate and effective way to prevent the production and trafficking of weapons of mass destruction, he welcomed Libya's decision to abandon its previously clandestine programmes.
Telling delegates that in 2001 two bullets had been manufactured for each person on the planet, he emphasized that the spread of small arms and light weapons constituted an "insidious phenomenon", especially since it was so closely linked to deadly civil wars, political instability and international organized crime. In that context, he noted that his Government supported the Bamako Declaration, a common African position on the proliferation of such weapons. Turning to landmines, he said that 3 million such weapons still littered Angolan territory. For that reason, his country had made demining one of its priority national policies.
VLADIMIR DROBNJAK (Croatia) said that his country was convinced that only effective multilateralism based on the rule of law could provide an adequate answer to the complex global challenges and threats facing the world today. Weapons of mass destruction falling into the hands of terrorists would constitute unprecedented and potentially destructive prospects for humanity as a whole. It was, therefore, incumbent upon the international community to continually galvanize support for multilateral legally binding agreements and enhance their verification mechanisms.
He said that in the past two years Croatia had taken numerous steps in the fight against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, their components, and their means of delivery. It had tightened its national export legislation and continued institution building at inter-agency levels, while at the same time increasing its participation in international and regional non-proliferation efforts. Croatia had given support to the Proliferation Security Initiative and its Counter-Proliferation Principles, and had expressed readiness to actively contribute to the cause of the Initiative in accordance with existing institutional capabilities and national legislation. Croatia had also applied for membership in the Wassemar Arrangement and the Missile Technology Control Regime and had expressed interest in joining the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the Australian Group and the Zangger Committee.
Croatia was still a mine-affected State, although mine contamination was a gradually decreasing problem in the country, he went on. It believed that, through the joint efforts of government authorities, numerous hardworking personnel involved in mine action on the ground and with generous international assistance, it should be free of mines by 2009. The country was ready to host the 2005 meeting of the States Parties of the Ottawa Convention directly following the Nairobi Conference on a Mine-Free World. That would be a unique opportunity to organize, for the first time, a meeting of States Parties in South-East Europe, a region that was still heavily contaminated with anti-personnel landmines.
GUILLERMO MELENDEZ (El Salvador) said the policies of large and medium-sized Powers sometimes impeded disarmament, as well as the progress of peoples in the least developed countries. Declaring that serious structural and development-related problems had not been solved over the years, he lamented that they were now compounded by new threats, such as organized international crime and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Because multilateral forums were the appropriate places to reach consensus on contentious issues, such as nuclear weapons and landmines, more political will was needed to break existing deadlocks, he said.
Several developments were causing the future to look increasingly uncertain. For example, some States were failing to comply with their disarmament- and non-proliferation-related commitments. Additionally, there had been scant progress vis---vis the NPT's 13 practical steps towards nuclear disarmament, the CTBT had still not entered into force, and the Disarmament Commission and the Conference on Disarmament continued to display a lack of progress. In that context, he stressed that a more secure world for present and future generations depended on implementation of internationally agreed conventions.
GEORGES PALISANU, of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said that the priorities of the ICRC were based on the "Agenda for Humanitarian Action" adopted by the States parties of the Geneva Convention at the twenty-eighth International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent last December. Those priorities included strengthened control on arms transfers Ð- especially small arms and light weapons; the rapid ratification and implementation of the new protocol on explosive remnants of war; the universalization of the Ottawa Convention and success of its first review conference in Nairobi; preventing the misuse of rapid developments in the life sciences for hostile purposes; and ensuring that all States established internal mechanisms to review the legality of new weapons and methods of warfare.
He said that a huge proportion of the civilian suffering witnessed in the field each day resulted from the easy availability of small conventional weapons and ammunitions to forces that acted with no regard for the norms of international humanitarian law or human rights. Yet, all those weapons originated in States parties to the Geneva Conventions and fell into the hands of those who violated those norms through inadequate controls on their transfer. The commitments made at the twenty-eighth international Conference should be converted into intensified implementation of all aspects of the United Nations Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons in advance of the biennial review meeting in 2005, and should result in the strengthening of national laws and policies on arms transfers. Increasing attention needed to be given to demobilization and disarmament in post-conflict situations and the destruction of massive volumes of surplus weapons currently in circulation. States needed to conclude, at the earliest possible time, ongoing negotiations on measures that would enable them to effectively trace small arms, light weapons and their ammunition.
He added that the human cost of explosive remnants of war grew higher with each successive conflict. The burden of clearing those devices continued to expand far more rapidly than resources available. The new protocol on explosive remnants of war provided a prescription for both preventing and remedying the problems caused by unexploded and abandoned munitions.
Rights of Reply
The representative of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea spoke in exercise of the right of reply, in response to earlier remarks made by the speaker from the Republic of Korea. Declaring that for over 50 years the United States had maintained military outposts equipped with nuclear armaments in the Republic of Korea, he said that, even at this moment, all kinds of sophisticated equipment were being deployed in and around the KoreanPeninsula. The military situation prevailing there had, in fact, proven once again that his country had legitimate reasons for building up its self-defence capabilities. Stating that his country did not even have a uranium enrichment programme, he urged his southern neighbour to reveal its own clandestine nuclear programmes, which were being conducted with the help of the United States.
In response, the representative of the Republic of Korea replied that the scientific experiments to which his colleague was referring had been carried out by a small group of scientists on their own. They had nothing to do with any sort of official national nuclear weapons programme, since no such programme existed. What the Republic of Korea had, instead, was the world's sixth largest civilian nuclear programme, one which was permitted under article IV of the NPT and one which abstained voluntarily from uranium enrichment procedures. The experiments to which the speaker from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea had referred involved amounts of nuclear material that were too trivial to have any relevance. Furthermore, the disclosure of such experiments showed that his Government would accept new safeguards standards and reveal even the smallest details of its activities. There should be no doubt about his Government's firm commitment to nuclear non-proliferation and the use of nuclear energy for only peaceful purposes. He expressed hope that the matter would be cleared up when the IAEA presented its report in November.
-------- u.s. nuc facilities
-------- colorado
Plan to Explode Nuclear Facility Is Dropped
October 12, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/12/national/12nuke.html
BOULDER, Colo., Oct. 11 (AP) - Officials have abandoned a plan to blow up a plutonium processing building at the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant, saying it cannot be scoured clean enough to make detonation safe.
The building will have to be demolished manually, said the Kaiser-Hill Company, which is in charge of a $7 billion project to clean up the plant. Rocky Flats made plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons from the 1950's to 1989, when it was shut down because of safety problems and the end of the cold war. The site is eventually to become a wildlife refuge.
Kaiser-Hill had state and federal approval to detonate the building and use the rubble to fill in its 65-foot-deep basement, but only if the above-ground portion could be cleaned to "free-release" level: clean enough to be used in someone's backyard.
A Kaiser-Hill spokesman, John Corsi, said a vault where plutonium was processed and later stored could not be brought to that standard.
Instead, the vault will be demolished and its rubble will be shipped away for disposal as low-level radioactive waste.
-------- illinois
CMS May Extend Nuclear Plant Outage
Associated Press
October 12, 2004
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/041012/cms_energy_delay_1.html
JACKSON, Mich. (AP) -- Electricity and gas distributor CMS Energy Corp. said Tuesday its Consumers Energy unit will likely extend the refueling outage at one of its nuclear power plants for up to six weeks.
The company said its Palisades nuclear plant, which was shut down for refueling Sept. 19, will remain off-line until early December to allow further inspections and possible repairs of two penetrations in the reactor vessel that hold nuclear control rods. CMS said 43 out of the 45 control rod penetrations were inspected, and two may need repairs, while another two will be inspected within the next few days.
CMS said there is no risk to the public or to workers at the plant.
The delay could increase the pretax cost of power to consumers by about $1.6 million per week with about $600,000 not recoverable from customers, the company said. The inspections and repairs could cost CMS $5 million. The company said it could make no assurances on what affect the outage could have on earnings.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call estimate CMS' 2004 earnings at 80 cents per share.
Shares of CMS fell 7 cents, or less than 1 percent, to $9.27 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
-------- vermont
Nuclear plans stir concern in Vermont
By Beth Daley,
Boston Globe Staff
October 12, 2004
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2004/10/12/nuclear_plans_stir_concern_in_vermont/?rss_id=Boston%20Globe%20--%20Business%20News
VERNON, Vt. -- Amid the protests that have erupted over nuclear power plants in New England, the Vermont Yankee plant here has long operated as an oasis of calm. Perched on the Connecticut River about 10 miles from the Massachusetts border, the 32-year-old reactor provides a third of Vermont's electricity.
But that calm is ending. The plant's owner, Louisiana-based Entergy Corp., asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission last year for permission to boost the plant's output by 20 percent, and both nuclear safety advocates and the state of Vermont itself have risen to oppose the request.
"We are just not satisfied this is safe," said David O'Brien, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Public Service, which has asked the regulatory commission for a legal hearing to explain why the power boost would not compromise safety at the plant. A NRC panel will decide as early as this month whether to grant a hearing.
The Vermont dispute is being closely watched outside New England. It marks the first formal challenge to a quiet nationwide push by the energy industry to wring more power out of the nation's aging nuclear plants. No new US plants have been ordered since before Three Mile Island's reactor accident in 1979, and the last reactor was completed in 1996. But by applying for NRC permission for existing plants to work harder, longer, and more efficiently, owners have been able to increase the output of the nation's 103 reactors by the equivalent of 24 new plants over the last quarter century. Now, an increasing number of plants, including Vermont Yankee, are asking the NRC for more power.
The requests are part of a broad rebirth of nuclear power, which energy companies are embracing again as gas and oil prices soar. The nuclear industry has mounted a lobbying effort to be seen as "green," saying that reactors do not produce global warming gases and other pollutants emitted by fossil fuel plants. The Bush administration has streamlined the permitting process and created financial incentives for companies exploring whether to build nuclear plants, and the sites of old plants in Mississippi, Illinois and Virginia are being looked at for new reactors.
Yet even in the best-case scenario, it would take more than five years to construct plants, so in the meantime the industry has focused on getting more power from existing facilities, along with increasing their lifespan with license extensions. Before 1998, requests for power boosts were relatively small, increasing power usually by less than 6 or 7 percent. Since then, however, the NRC has approved 12 boosts above that level, and it is expected to rule on 15 more requests in the next four years.
Among New England's five operating reactors, the Pilgrim plant in Plymouth received a 1.5 percent uprate approval last year and is eyeing, but has not applied for, an additional boost of 12 or 13 percent. The plant in Seabrook, N.H., has a request pending for a 5 percent boost. The other two plants, in Connecticut, are not facing requests for power boosts, called uprates. All New England plants are expected to ask for license extensions in coming years; the operators of two reactors in Connecticut have already applied for their extensions.
Power boosts have been handled with virtually no controversy. But as the size of the power-boost requests have increased, they have drawn the attention of safety advocates who are concerned about the risks of accidents that might cause radiation to be released if aging plants are pushed to work harder.
The Quad Cities plant in Illinois has had several shutdowns related to a 17.8 percent power uprate approved in 2001, according to the NRC.
"These plants were designed for 40 years, and we've seen indications the older they get, the more problems they have," said Paul Blanch, a nuclear engineer and whistleblower who revealed major safety lapses at Connecticut's Millstone plant in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Blanch considers himself a supporter of nuclear power, but is serving as a technical consultant to the New England Coalition, a Brattleboro-based antinuclear group, because he believes Vermont Yankee to be unsafe and wants it to undergo a detailed safety review.
In Vermont, the state's objection is largely focused on a safety credit the NRC must grant to Vermont Yankee if it is to receive permission for the power boost, allowing it to count pressure that builds during an emergency in the containment structure around the reactor as part of its safety mechanism. An NRC guideline states that no credit should be given for the extra containment pressure. Despite that, the NRC has granted 26 of these credits over the years.
Vermont's nuclear engineer came across the discrepancy between the NRC's guideline and practice last year and asked why the agency had ignored its longstanding guideline. O'Brien says it took the NRC eight months to respond, and when it came, the answers were lacking in detail. If the NRC can answer his agency's questions, he said, the state would drop its protest.
NRC officials acknowledge there has been confusion about the issue. They have been developing a new policy on safety credits as they have gained more experience overseeing nuclear plants through the years, but have never formally withdrawn the no-credit guideline. They say they are reviewing Vermont Yankee's request and will deny it if it is in any way unsafe.
"If you look at the amount of work the NRC is going to invest in reviewing this application . . . it's on the order of 4,000 hours," said Neil Sheehan, a NRC spokesman. Beyond that, he said an engineering review is also looking at key safety systems that would be affected by the power upgrade at the plant.
Rob Williams, a spokesman for Entergy, which bought Vermont Yankee in 2002, said engineers conducted a 10-month engineering analysis before determining it was safe to generate more power.
"Our view . . . is that the safety margin is consistent with NRC [guidelines]," said Williams.
Meanwhile, critics' concerns have been amplified by a series of recent episodes at the plant, which has had a good safety record. In April, a crack in a vital instrument called a steam dryer had to be repaired and some parts replaced. Later that month, Entergy reported it could not find two radioactive pieces of spent fuel rods. The pieces were located in July. A month earlier, a transformer fire briefly shut the plant.
Williams said paperwork that showed the rods "lost" occurred decades ago when the plant had different owners. The steam dryer, meanwhile, is repaired, he said, and the transformer fire never affected the plant's safety.
In nearby Brattleboro, the plant's recent woes and uprate request have reenergized a weakened antinuclear movement that spent much of the last generation fighting the Seabrook plant in New Hampshire. Hundreds attended a raucous NRC meeting in March about Vermont Yankee's uprate; protesters held placards denouncing the proposal.
"We don't want the power plant at all," said Peter Alexander, executive director of the New England Coalition. He said a combination of energy efficiency and state-owned hydroelectric plants can provide the power Vermont Yankee does.
But as the US consumption of energy grows an estimated 1.8 percent per year through 2025, some analysts believe nuclear power has to be part of the equation. A plant like Vermont Yankee can generate 540 megawatts for less money than all but the most efficient natural gas and hydroelectric plants.
Some nuclear safety advocates agree, saying they only want to be assured all-possible measures are being taken to avoid an accident.
"It's important to understand these safety margins," said David Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists. He wants to see new nuclear plants because they will be built with the most modern safety measures. While he is not against power boosts or license extensions, he wants to make sure they are in plants that have been well-maintained. "We just want it to be safe," he said.
Beth Daley can be reached at bdaley@globe.com.
-------- MILITARY
-------- afghanistan
Election Touted as Model for Iraq -- to a Point
By Robin Wright
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 12, 2004; Page A19
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25421-2004Oct11.html
At a sensitive moment in the U.S. presidential campaign, the Bush administration is promoting the tentative success of Afghanistan's election as a hopeful model for Iraq's future: a messy, often violent struggle against extremists that has nevertheless produced democratic elections.
The agreement yesterday by Afghan opposition candidates not to boycott the results, despite allegations of irregularities, marks a welcome moment in a tough year for the administration in Iraq and for U.S. diplomacy in the Islamic world.
In Macedonia yesterday, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld called the Afghan voting on Saturday "breathtaking. The great sweep of human history is for freedom. We see that in this region, we have seen it in Afghanistan, and let there be no doubt we are going to see it in Iraq."
At the same time, analysts and some U.S. officials debate just how much similarity there is between the two countries -- and their potential outcomes.
Foreign policy analysts observed that Afghanistan differs from Iraq in security challenges, reconstruction efforts and political history -- notably, Afghanistan's experiment with open elections in 1965 and 1969 during the monarchy, which helped give Afghans a new appetite for democracy. Since its creation after World War I and the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Iraq has never held democratic elections, they noted.
Analysts also say the results in Afghanistan -- and the compromise that prevented a threatened boycott by all 15 opposition candidates for president -- are largely attributable to an Afghan thirst to end the era of civil strife. No international intervention could produce those results unless Afghans had been eager to participate, they said.
"This election had two major messages. First, Afghans believe they have a right to participate in their government, that it's their legacy after 30 years of violence," said Thomas E. Gouttierre, who just returned from Kabul and directs the University of Nebraska's Center for Afghanistan Studies. "The results will also carry a message to jihadis: Thanks for what you did against the Soviets, but we want to turn a new page and have another group of leaders for our future."
Those factors were reflected in the compromise, negotiated by U.N. and U.S. envoys, to let an independent commission investigate alleged irregularities.
Gouttierre said the administration deserves praise for "a step well taken and well delivered." But he also credited major roles by the international community, both in security efforts and election preparation by the United Nations.
In the U.S. campaign and two debates, President Bush has faced intense criticism for his strategy in Afghanistan. Democratic candidate Sen. John F. Kerry charged in a speech at Temple University last month that Bush has made several bad choices, first in rushing to a new war in Iraq before wrapping up the fight against the Taliban and Osama bin Laden, and then when Bush "outsourced" the job to Afghan warlords, who let bin Laden slip away.
At the second debate, last Friday, Kerry also said that Bush's strategy had failed because Afghan elections had been repeatedly postponed, because 75 percent of the world's opium production now comes from Afghanistan, and because more Americans died last year in the country than the year before.
"He's got 10 times the number of troops in Iraq than he has in Afghanistan, where Osama bin Laden is. Does that mean that Saddam Hussein was 10 times more important than Osama bin Laden?" Kerry said. "I don't think so." Afghanistan, not Iraq, should be the focus of the war on terrorism, he added.
But the White House cited the voting in Afghanistan as a validation of the president's strategy on terrorism and Iraq. Democracy is "truly the way to replace the source of terror over the long term," said James R. Wilkinson, deputy national security adviser for communications.
"This election was held in a country where freedom is a new concept. Clearly freedom is also a new concept in Iraq and clearly this election shows that those across the broader Middle East who've never had the vote are eager to cast their vote," he added.
A senior State Department official familiar with policy in both countries said the voting proved that it is possible to move from a society gripped by terror to democracy in a relatively short time. In June, when voter registration was launched, he noted, analysts predicted intimidation and limited security would prevent the majority from signing up. Instead, more than 10 million people registered and more than half voted.
Yet experts on Afghanistan caution that, on many counts, the presidential election is not a fair test of whether democracy is taking deep root. The poll and its aftermath are a success but not a final victory because the Taliban and narcotics traders are still thriving and the political playing field was not even, said Husain Haqqani, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Hamid Karzai, the interim president and likely winner of the vote, was widely seen as the guarantor of U.S. aid, which led voters to turn to him less for his platform than as an intermediary for donors, on whom Afghans heavily rely.
"Basically, the results ensure that the process moves forward without changing anything," Haqqani said. Yet to be seen is whether parliamentary elections, postponed until spring, are successful, or whether they place so many warlords and drug merchants in the new assembly that Afghanistan becomes a Central Asian version of Colombia, he said. And the real test will be if democracy can be sustained after the day-to-day U.S. involvement ends.
"The election is in the right direction," Haqqani said. "But the way it is being projected by the Bush administration to the American public for political purposes does not reflect the complex reality."
Staff writer Thomas E. Ricks and researcher Lucy Shackelford contributed to this report.
--------
Main Afghan Challenger Drops Election Boycott
Candidates Accept Probe Into Vote Irregularities
By Daniel Cooney
Associated Press
Tuesday, October 12, 2004; Page A19
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24730-2004Oct11.html
KABUL, Afghanistan, Oct. 11 -- President Hamid Karzai's main challenger backed off a boycott of Afghanistan's landmark election over allegations of fraud, saying Monday that he would accept the formation of an independent commission to look into any irregularities in the vote.
The announcement by Yonus Qanooni, an ethnic Tajik candidate, followed similar statements Sunday by Masooda Jalal, the only female presidential hopeful, and Mohammed Mohaqeq, an ethnic Hazara candidate.
"I don't want to be against the election, and I appreciate the good will of the people of Afghanistan," Qanooni said. "I want to prove to the people of Afghanistan that the national interest is my highest interest."
He said he made his decision after a meeting with U.N. special representative Jean Arnault and U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad.
Abdul Sattar Sirat, an Uzbek candidate who rallied the others to support the boycott, also appeared to back down. His spokesman, Ramatullah Jalili, said Sirat would respect the decision of an independent electoral commission.
The announcements were a victory for election organizers, who agreed to set up the panel Sunday to end the boycott declared by all 15 opposition candidates in the middle of Saturday's voting. Their complaint focused on allegations that the ink used to mark voters' thumbs in some polling stations could be rubbed off, allowing some people to vote more than once.
The election has been hailed as a success by U.N. officials, President Bush and other world leaders. International electoral observers have criticized the 15, saying their demand to nullify the vote was unjustified.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, the first foreign leader to visit Afghanistan since Saturday's election, all but declared Karzai the winner before a single ballot was counted. Schroeder said the poll "was a great step toward democracy and stability" and predicted a Karzai win.
"It is my opinion that he will do it, and in the first round," the German leader said.
Officials praised the high voter turnout in Afghanistan, which has never before held a presidential election. Voters went to the polls despite fears of attacks by Taliban guerrillas, which failed to occur.
"The numbers and enthusiasm both were very, very great," Karzai said Monday on NBC's "Today" show. "People braved attacks by terrorists and went to the election."
Boxes of ballots, some arriving by mule, were not expected to finish reaching counting centers until Tuesday at the earliest. About 10.5 million voters were registered for the election.
Before the tallying can start, the number of ballots in each box will be checked against a list of votes cast to ensure the boxes have not been stuffed with fraudulent votes, U.N. officials said. Then the ballots from various districts will be mixed together so no one knows which area favored which candidate.
Counting may not start until Wednesday or Thursday, said an electoral spokesman, Sultan Baheen. Another electoral spokesman said candidates had until Tuesday evening to file formal complaints and that the commission did not want to start the count until after it had reviewed them.
Final results were not expected until the end of October.
-------- africa
Security Deteriorates in Darfur - U.N. Official
October 12, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-sudan-security.html
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Security has deteriorated in Sudan's Darfur region in the past month and violence drove a further 220,000 people from their homes, the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan said on Tuesday.
Shortages of funds and resources were the main problems a few months ago in what the United Nations calls one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
But Manuel Aranda Da Silva said insecurity was now the biggest obstacle to helping the more than 1.5 million displaced people in Darfur.
``Security is probably becoming the main constraint to the delivering of humanitarian assistance in Darfur,'' he told Reuters in Khartoum.
``It was not the case a couple of months ago -- that was capacity (but) capacity has increased since,'' he said.
``We have a negative trend on armed robberies against humanitarian workers in Darfur in the last three weeks ... This is a general trend that we are worried about,'' he said.
He said ethnic conflict, attacks on civilians and clashes between Sudanese armed forces and rebels had also increased, despite a shaky cease-fire signed in April by the warring parties.
The United Nations has threatened Sudan with possible sanctions if it fails to stop the violence in Darfur, a remote, arid region the size of France.
After years of skirmishes between Arab nomads and mainly non-Arab farmers over scarce resources in Darfur, rebels took up arms in February 2003 accusing Khartoum of using mounted Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, to loot and burn villages.
Khartoum admits arming some militias to fight the rebels but denies all links to the Janjaweed, calling them outlaws.
The United States has branded the conflict as genocide and U.N. estimates place the death toll at up to 50,000 from violence, hunger and disease.
Da Silva's comments followed news that two aid workers were killed by a land mine in North Darfur on Sunday, including the first international aid worker, a Briton, to be killed in the region since the conflict began.
Da Silva said the land mine accident posed a new threat to humanitarian activities in Darfur and the northwest of the region would be closed to U.N. operations until a thorough road survey was completed, which could take weeks.
``You can clear up to 15 km (9 miles) a day ... and there are many hundreds of km of roads in northwest Darfur,'' he said.
--------
Guinea-Bissau mediators suggest overhaul of armed forces
BISSAU (AFP)
Oct 12, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041012165459.u1gdpsbn.html
A team that mediated a deal in Guinea-Bissau between mutinous soldiers and their officers called Tuesday for a complete overhaul of the military in the west African state to guard against further unrest.
The call came as the national human rights watchdog in the tiny former Portuguese colony urged a complete detailing of the events of October 6 that officially left two senior military officials dead.
The eight-member Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) felt it was "necessary to restructure the armed forces in line with the means available to Guinea-Bissau," CPLP executive secretary Luis Fonseca told reporters in the coastal capital Bissau.
"This would be to guarantee decent living conditions in army barracks and seek to avoid insurrections like the one last week."
Hundreds of soldiers, including troops sent to Liberia as peacekeepers last August, launched an assault Wednesday on the military headquarters in the coastal capital Bissau, demanding back pay for their overseas duties.
Armed forces chief General Verissimo Correia Seabra, who led a coup in September last year in which president Kumba Yala was ousted, and army information officer Domingo Barros were killed in the unrest.
Guinea-Bissau's rights watchdog LGDH said Tuesday that there were other casualties from the pre-dawn melee and several injuries.
Bodies were discovered in a truck seized by the mutinous soldiers two days after the incident, said LGDH president Luis Manuel Cabral. The watchdog had tried in vain to determine their identities but the bodies were buried before they had a chance.
"We call on the government to publish a complete list of those who were killed on October 6," the group said in a statement.
The mutiny was not a coup, said President Henrique Rosa, who was installed just over a week after the 2003 coup, but a "general malaise" over poor living conditions and unpaid wages from the Liberia mission.
Guinea-Bissau is one of the world's poorest countries, deriving most of its foreign exchange from exports of cashew nuts.
Per capita annual income for its 1.5 million citizens hovers around 140 dollars, according to US government statistics.
CPLP mediators on Tuesday also proposed sending a team to Bissau to determine the needs of rank-and-file soldiers "with a view to submitting (the results of the investigation) to donors," said team leader Ovidio Pequeno, the foreign minister from Sao Tome and Principe.
"We urgently need to create better conditions in the barracks," Pequeno said, backing Fonesca's call for an overhaul of the military.
The mediators also suggested establishing a commission to monitor the application of an accord reached Sunday between the disgruntled soldiers and their superior officers.
The agreement included a return to barracks by the soldiers, an amnesty for any soldier implicated in unrest from 1980 until October 6 and military reform.
The members of the commission would be chosen by Guinea-Bissau, though Pequeno said it would be "preferable" for the commission to be drawn from the signatories to the accord, the CPLP included.
The grouping also urged that a timetable be drawn up for the application of the main points of Sunday's accord, so that "the actors and their tasks will be clearly defined," Pequeno added.
The CPLP groups eight Portuguese-speaking countries: Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, Sao Tome and Principe, and East Timor.
-------- asia
Indian Mirage-2000 crashes during joint exercises with Singapore
NEW DELHI (AFP)
Oct 12, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041012132444.tf0v5501.html
A French-built Mirage-2000 of the Indian military crashed Tuesday during joint maneuvers with the Singapore Air Force after a pilot lost control because of technical problems, a spokesman said.
The Indian Air Force jet took off from the central city of Gwalior at 11:30 am (0600 GMT) but within minutes developed unspecified problems, airforce spokesman Squadron Leadar Mahesh Upasani said.
He said the trainer version of the Mirage-2000 was participating with F-16 fighter jets of the Singapore Air Force when it crashed four kilometresmiles) short of the airfield in Gwalior and exploded in flames.
The two pilots on board ejected to safety and the Mirage crashed.
"There were no casualties on the ground," the official said, adding the accident would not disrupt the ongoing exercises, coded "Operation Goad."
Other officials said Singapore has sent six F-16s while the Indian air force was using aircraft of British, French and Russian origins in the joint exercises, which began at the weekend.
"The exercises slated until October 27 are aimed at testing the maneuverability of the US-built F-16s with some of the planes in our inventory and hence just one accident will not disrupt the programme," one Indian airforce officer said.
Tuesday's crash is the second involving a Mirage-2000 in India in less than a month.
On September 23 the Gwalior airbase lost a Mirage-2000 when the multi-role jet crashed into a sparsely populated region near the city.
The aircraft lost its nosewheel in midflight and the pilot ejected safely.
The Indian Air Force has been plagued by crashes of its ageing fleet, although accidents of Mirages have been rare.
Four British-designed Jaguars of the Indian Air Force crashed in quick succession earlier this year, killing three pilots including one whose parachute failed to open.
-------- britain
Britain Withdraws Iraq Weapons Claims
Associated Press
By ED JOHNSON,
Oct 12, 2004
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041013/ap_on_re_eu/britain_iraq_4
LONDON - Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on Tuesday said British spy masters have formally withdrawn the intelligence that Iraqi troops could deploy some chemical and biological weapons on 45 minutes notice, information used as a rationale for joining the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
Straw insisted that Britain was right to go to war even though spy chiefs have now withdrawn two key pieces of intelligence. MI6, Britain's foreign spy service, earlier this year withdrew intelligence on Iraqi production of biological agents, which it said it received from the spy agency of another, undisclosed country.
Straw said it would have been too risky not to act against Saddam Hussein and that U.N. sanctions against him weren't working
"I do not accept, even with hindsight, that we were wrong to act as we did in the circumstances which we faced at the time," Straw told the House of Commons in a response to the U.S. Iraq Survey Group report, which concluded last week that Saddam had no illicit weapons stockpiles.
"Even after reading all the evidence detailed by the ISG, it is still hard to believe that any regime could behave in so self-destructive a manner as to pretend it had forbidden weaponry when in fact it hadn't," he added.
MI6's formal withdrawal of the 45 minute notice claim is an embarrassing development for Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The claim featured prominently in a September 2002 intelligence dossier published by the government as it tried to persuade a skeptical public of the need for war. Official inquiries have already criticized the government for not making clear the 45 minute detail referred only to battlefield munitions, not long-range missiles.
An inquiry earlier this year revealed that spy chiefs had concerns about the reliability of the source, an Iraqi military officer in western Iraq. The Foreign Office said MI6 decided to withdraw the claim after completing a review of intelligence.
Political opponents were quick to respond.
"The building blocks of the government's case for military action are crumbling before our eyes," said Sir Menzies Campbell, foreign affairs spokesman for the opposition Liberal Democrats. "The withdrawal of the 45-minute claim drives a horse and cart through government credibility."
The government insisted it was not alone in viewing Saddam as a threat and said that former chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix was shown a draft of its intelligence dossier shortly before its publication in September 2002.
The Foreign Office released a note that one of its officials at the United Nations wrote, saying Blix had liked the dossier "and felt it did not exaggerate the facts, nor revert to rhetoric."
Blair's principal reason for joining the U.S.-led offensive was his belief that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction stockpiles. Addressing the Labour Party's annual conference earlier this month, Blair acknowledged that British intelligence was flawed.
"I can apologize for the information that turned out to be wrong, but I can't, sincerely at least, apologize for removing Saddam. The world is a better place with Saddam in prison," he said.
Political opponents continue to demand a fuller apology from Blair, however, and say that his confident assertions before the war that Iraq had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons were misleading when intelligence was patchy at best.
-------- business
Boeing Expects Air Force Contract
Firm Looks to Sell, Not Lease, Tankers
By Renae Merle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 12, 2004; Page E01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25432-2004Oct11.html
Boeing Co. still expects to receive a contract to build 100 refueling planes for the Air Force, chief executive Harry C. Stonecipher said yesterday.
Under the 2005 defense authorization bill, the Air Force can buy as many as 100 of the tankers through a traditional purchase -- but not the lease-buy strategy it initially planned. The measure sets aside $100 million to start the program and requires the Air Force to hold a competition for a $5 billion contract to maintain the aircraft. Boeing had been awarded the maintenance work without competition.
Boeing is ready to compete, chief executive Harry C. Stonecipher says.
Even after passing the bill, House and Senate members continued to debate whether it requires the Air Force to hold a competition before pursuing the purchase of tankers. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a critic of the lease-buy strategy, has said it requires a competition, while some House members say it does not.
Stonecipher said there is "no doubt, none whatsoever" that a competition is not required by the bill. But, he added, "if the customer decides they want to compete it, you can bet that we're going to compete." A deal should "come to fruition" by next April or May, he said.
Stonecipher played down the threat of a competition against likely rival Airbus SAS, which was prevented from competing for the work in 2001 because it did not have the proper technology. "I don't see that they bring anything more today than they did when it was competed last time," Stonecipher said in a conference call with reporters.
European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co., which owns Airbus, has spent $80 million developing technology to make its tankers compatible with U.S. military planes and has said it would be ready to compete.
The end of the lease-buy strategy may be a larger problem for Boeing and the Air Force than currently acknowledged, said Richard Aboulafia, aviation analyst for the Teal Group. The Air Force wanted to lease the planes because it couldn't afford to buy them immediately and still continue its planned purchases of fighter jets, he said.
"When it was a lease, it was financially digestible, but if it comes straight out of procurement, that is just a non-starter right now," he said. The Air Force could delay purchasing the planes until 2010, forcing Boeing to decide how to keep its 767 production line, which has faced declining commercial orders, open for the tanker program.
The proposal to begin replacing the Air Force's refueling planes with reconfigured Boeing 767s was derailed last December after the company fired Darleen A. Druyun for accepting a position with the company while still overseeing Boeing contracts for the Air Force. Druyun was sentenced to nine months in prison Oct. 1 after admitting to giving Boeing preferential treatment for years, including inflating the price of the tanker program. The Air Force has said all of Druyun's procurement decisions are being reviewed.
"I don't know if they're tainted or not," Stonecipher said of the programs Druyun admitted improperly influencing. "I haven't seen the evidence that backs up the plea agreement. . . . But if they're tainted, we'll fix them."
--------
Air Force Asks for Broader Inquiry Into Boeing Contracts
October 12, 2004
By LESLIE WAYNE
The New York Time
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/12/business/12boeing.html
The Air Force asked the Pentagon yesterday to broaden its investigation into a procurement scandal to include more contracts that a former official admitted improperly awarding to Boeing, including a $4 billion contract to upgrade software on the C-130 transport airplane.
The request comes as Boeing faces new challenges as a result of an admission last week by the former No. 2 Air Force acquisition officer, Darleen A. Druyun, that she had favored Boeing in granting billions of dollars in contracts in an effort to get jobs for herself and her family.
Ms. Druyun was sentenced to nine months in prison last week, after pleading guilty to violating federal conflict-of-interest laws.
In a related development, the Lockheed Martin Corporation, which lost the C-130 contract to Boeing, said yesterday that it was consulting with its lawyers about filing a protest with either the government or in the courts, and could take that action as early as today.
Lockheed has 10 days since Ms. Druyun's admissions on Oct. 1 to lodge a protest with the Air Force; Congress's budget watchdog, the Government Accountability Office; or through the courts - although many legal specialists say that the company's chances of prevailing in any action are slim, given that the C-130 contract was let three years ago.
In the fallout at the Pentagon, Ms. Druyun's former boss, Marvin Sambur, the Air Force assistant secretary for acquisition, asked yesterday that the Pentagon's inspector general expand its investigation to include all Boeing contracts handled by Ms. Druyun since 2000, including the C-130 contract and a $412 million price adjustment on a C-17 cargo plane contract. Previously, the Pentagon had been looking only into contracts dating back two years.
"We intend to ask the inspector general to investigate any contract where there was a potential for Ms. Druyun to adversely affect Air Force interests," said Mr. Sambur in an e-mail message to Bloomberg News that was confirmed by an Air Force spokesman, Doug Karas.
The investigation is being led by Joseph Schmitz, the Pentagon inspector general.
"Based on Ms. Druyun's admissions, we have not specifically asked the inspector general to include in their investigation her activities on the C-130 contract," the e-mail message continued. "Upon completion of each investigation, we will take appropriate action."
While most military specialists do not expect the Air Force to remove Boeing from the C-130 contract, the company could face financial penalties or be barred from bidding on other contracts. One loser in the awarding of the C-130 contract was Lockheed, which had built the C-130 plane since the 1950's and had been awarded all previous upgrade contracts.
A Lockheed spokesman, Tom Jurkowsky, said that "we have confidence the government will fully explore this entire issue."
The awarding of the C-130 software upgrade contract to Boeing shocked many people in the military; other bidders were Raytheon and BAE Systems. The $4 billion C-130 upgrade contract extends through 2016, with slightly over $300 million having been spent already.
The Air Force's action follows another setback for Boeing. Late Thursday, a House-Senate conference committee killed a $23 billion proposal for the Air Force to lease and purchase as many as 100 Boeing 767's for use as aerial refueling tankers. The conference committee opened up the Air Force tanker modernization contract to further studies, as well as to new competition, most likely from Airbus, a rival European consortium.
The committee also established new rules to prohibit the Air Force from leasing the airplanes from Boeing and to provide stricter budgeting requirements for any tanker modernization program.
Ms. Druyun admitted, in her plea agreement, that she provided Boeing with an overly generous per-plane price under the tanker-lease proposal. She also admitted that she had given Boeing proprietary data from a bid submitted by Airbus.
In a telephone conference call with reporters yesterday, Boeing's chief executive, Harry C. Stonecipher, said that he was not certain whether the C-130 and C-17 contracts were tainted.
"I don't know if they are tainted or not," Mr. Stonecipher said. "I haven't seen the evidence that backs up the plea agreement. But if they're tainted, we'll fix them."
Mr. Stonecipher also expressed optimism that Boeing would be part of the competition in the tanker program. "We're used to competing for everything that we get," he said. "If the customer decides they want to compete it, you can bet that we're going to compete." The customer Mr. Stonecipher was referring to was the Pentagon.
He was brought back as chief executive late last year to address ethical problems at Boeing as it expanded into the military business. He stepped in after the resignation of Philip M. Condit following the initial revelations by Ms. Druyun and the firing of Boeing's chief financial officer, Michael M. Sears, who also pleaded guilty to similar conflict-of-interest charges and is awaiting a hearing.
Beside the Druyun-Air Force scandal, Boeing was forced to give back $1 billion in Air Force contracts and was suspended from new rocket launching contracts after it was found that Boeing employees had stolen proprietary documents from Lockheed.
The final of four contracts that Ms. Druyun said she tilted in favor of Boeing was a $100 million payment for the upgrading of NATO airborne early warning and control system aircraft.
-------- canada
Canada may sue over its second-hand submarines
Scotsman.com
CRAIG BROWN
12 Oct 2004
http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=1184402004
CANADA'S defence minister has refused to rule out suing the British government over the purchase of four second-hand submarines.
Bill Graham, speaking in Glasgow yesterday, said no decision on potential legal action would be taken until the facts surrounding a fire on board the submarine HMCS Chicoutimi last Tuesday - which killed the crew member Lieutenant Chris Saunders - were established.
He said: "I'm not ruling out any single thing. I'm certainly not going to comment on the likelihood of anything taking place until we have established the facts. Once we have the facts, we can all make our decisions.
"We're a great ally of the UK. We work together on many, many fronts, and we will work this out as friends do."
His comments came as Captain Luc Pelletier, the boat's commanding officer, described to a packed press conference, also in Glasgow, the moments when the fire broke out.
"The smoke had nowhere to go and in one or two seconds the section where the fire was, was totally black," he said. "Where I was standing, I had a torch and I still couldn't see a thing."
He said that the submarine's crew, unable to see the flames, had been forced to fight the fire by sensing the direction of the heat.
"Once the fire was out, we had to tackle the problem of being able to clear the smoke," he said. "At that time, Lt Saunders was being evacuated to another area."
Capt Pelletier said that he saw the lieutenant later and that the officer had been breathing without the aid of an oxygen mask. "Lt Saunders had been in one of the compartments where we had the fire. He tried to do his best to do the things he needed to, but was overcome by smoke in a fraction of a second."
The captain said the officer had been speaking to the crew just minutes before being air-lifted to safety, and he had not known about the lieutenant's death until later.
Capt Pelletier added that two other injured crew members were recovering well in hospital in Ireland.
Mr Graham visited the stricken vessel yesterday at Faslane naval base, to where it was towed over the weekend with 54 crew members aboard, five days after the blaze.
The diesel-powered boat, one of four submarines that Ottawa bought from Britain in 1998, underwent extensive repairs in this country. However, HMCS Chicoutimi caught fire shortly after leaving the Clyde for Canada.
A total of nine Canadian crewmen were injured during the incident.
Mr Graham stressed he had not come to Britain to demand compensation from Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, whom he was due to meet later yesterday.
-------- europe
Romania Lobbies to Host U.S. Military Base
By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 12, 2004; Page A24
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23706-2004Oct11.html
BUCHAREST, Romania, Oct. 11 -- As the U.S. military begins the lengthy process of reducing its presence in Europe and repositioning its forces around the globe, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld heard a pitch Monday for moving a contingent of U.S. troops to a dormant air base near the Black Sea port of Constanta.
Romanian Defense Minister Ioan Mircea Pascu briefed Rumsfeld at midday and gave him a tour of Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base on the country's eastern edge. About 7,000 U.S. forces moved through the base en route to northern Iraq during the U.S.-led invasion.
As Pentagon officials look to create smaller military units that are more flexible and able to deploy quickly in various parts of the world, one goal would be to reduce the number of troops at large bases in Germany and other countries and spread them across Europe and Asia.
The trip to the air base by Rumsfeld, who came to Romania for an informal NATO conference to begin on Tuesday in the Carpathian Mountains, had not been designed as a chance to consider it as a station for U.S. troops. But Pascu took the opportunity to sell the merits of the base to American policymakers, according to a defense official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The defense official said strong consideration will be given to the base because nearly $4 million in U.S. funds already have been spent on improvements there, including a $900,000 security fence and many other infrastructure modifications. A nearby army installation, linked by a local access road, also will be empty and could be used by U.S. forces.
"If we were to come here, we could use it as a substantial training range," the defense official said, adding that a base in Bulgaria could be packaged with the Romanian facility to forge a strong U.S. presence in Eastern Europe.
The Romanian government wants the United States to take over the base in large part because of the financial gains it stands to make. Thousands of U.S. troops could relocate there, bringing cash into a Black Sea resort region that relies on revenue earned during just a few summer months each year.
Rumsfeld started Monday in Skopje, Macedonia, where he met with the nation's defense minister and presented awards to a group of soldiers who saved the lives of U.S. troops in Iraq. The Macedonian government signed an agreement with the United States to cooperate in preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and to promote common military goals. The agreement calls for U.S. aid of $258,000 to the country in equipment and training to better monitor and detect traffic of weapons of mass destruction through the Balkans.
-------- iraq
Disarmament Process Starts In Sadr City, Albeit Slowly
By Steve Fainaru and Khalid Saffar
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, October 12, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23773-2004Oct11.html
BAGHDAD, Oct. 11 -- Residents of Baghdad's Sadr City district slowly began to turn in weapons Monday, the first step in a process that U.S. and Iraqi officials hope will lead to a permanent end to fighting in the insurgent-controlled slum.
At three Sadr City police stations, heaps of AK-47 assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, mortars and other weapons grew throughout the day. They were surrendered for cash as part of an agreement between the Iraqi government and followers of a rebellious Shiite cleric, Moqtada Sadr.
Progress at the designated police stations, where Iraqi security officials stood waiting with stacks of crisp dollar bills, was slow, and U.S. and Iraqi officials were cautious in expressing hope that the agreement would end violence in Sadr City, where U.S. forces have clashed repeatedly with members of Sadr's militia, the Mahdi Army. The five-day weapons buyback is scheduled to be followed by a $500 million reconstruction program in the sprawling slum of 2 million.
"We hope things will work out," interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi told reporters. "If it doesn't, we will have to do whatever is necessary for the rule of law to prevail."
Soldiers from the U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry Division, which has responsibility over Baghdad, ceased patrols in Sadr City on Sunday night and were operating only at traffic checkpoints. No fighting was reported in the district. The pacification of Sadr City represents another stage in the U.S. military's effort to reclaim insurgent-controlled areas before nationwide elections in January. Over the past two weeks, U.S. and Iraqi forces have launched an offensive to regain control of the city of Samarra and conducted raids in Babil province, southwest of Baghdad.
However, violence has not been eradicated in places ostensibly under government control. In a suicide attack Monday morning in the northern city of Mosul, a bomb that was concealed beneath crates of fruit and vegetables on a truck exploded next to a military convoy. One U.S. soldier and two Iraqi civilians were killed, and nine soldiers were wounded.
In southern Baghdad, two U.S. soldiers were killed and five were wounded in a rocket attack, the Associated Press reported.
Meanwhile, in the city of Hit, about 100 miles northwest of Baghdad, U.S. warplanes bombed a mosque from which insurgents had engaged in a three-hour firefight with U.S. Marines. The airstrike damaged the mosque and set it ablaze, the U.S. military reported.
"Mosques are granted protective status due to their religious and cultural significance," the military said in a statement. "However, when insurgents violate the sanctity of the mosque by using the structure for military purposes, the site loses its protective status."
The extent of the damage to the Sharqi mosque was unknown, as was the number of casualties.
The insurgents in Hit reportedly included foreign fighters who fled Fallujah, the target of a prolonged U.S. bombing campaign. Residents said the insurgents told them they had come to liberate Hit, as they had liberated Fallujah. They said some local police officers had left their jobs in the face of threats that they would be killed.
A banner hanging from a mosque in Hit read: "Freedom is not given. It is taken by force."
It was unclear how the fighting in Hit might affect negotiations aimed at ending fighting in Fallujah. Those talks continued Monday in Baghdad, where interim Defense Minister Hazim Shalan met with representatives of Sunni Muslim insurgents. U.S. military officials believe that Fallujah is the base of operations for Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab Zarqawi, the most wanted man in Iraq. Zarqawi's organization, Monotheism and Jihad, is believed to be opposed to any accord over Fallujah.
A Turkish contractor and an Iraqi Kurdish translator who apparently worked with U.S. forces were shown being beheaded on a video posted on the Internet Monday. A statement said the men had been kidnapped by the Ansar al-Sunna Army, the same group that asserted responsibility for the slaying of 12 Nepalese hostages in August. About 150 foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq since April.
Payments for weapons handed over in Sadr City on Monday reportedly ranged from $5 for a hand grenade to $150 for an AK-47 to $2,000 for a highly specialized mortar. It appeared that both noncombatants and Mahdi Army insurgents were taking part in the buyback.
Abdulla Abu Ghassan, a bakery owner, received $1,200 after turning in a grenade launcher, an assault rifle and ammunition, all of which he said he had kept after serving in the now-disbanded Iraqi army.
"I'm not connected to the Mahdi Army, but I think this is a good opportunity to end the fighting and achieve peace," he said. "The situation was very good yesterday. We did not hear any explosions, and we slept quietly. We really hope to live a normal life."
At the Habibiya police station, the largest of the three designated sites, just three handovers were observed during a period of three hours, Reuters reported. They included a stash delivered by a Mahdi Army fighter who identified himself as Kamel Hussein. He received $14,500 for several rocket-propelled grenade launchers and mortars.
Col. Mahdi Charek Zayer, commander of the 306th Iraqi National Guard Battalion, said the turnout was "fairly good today, but we hope tomorrow people will realize that the process is real and more will come forth."
Special correspondent Bassam Sebti contributed to this report.
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Cleric's Militia Begins to Yield Heavy Weapons
October 12, 2004
New York Times
By DEXTER FILKINS and EDWARD WONG
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/12/international/middleeast/12iraq.html?pagewanted=all&position=
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 11 - Militiamen loyal to the rebel Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr surrendered hundreds of weapons on Monday, in what appeared to be an encouraging start to a deal struck with the Iraqi government and the American military to end months of fighting in the rundown eastern Baghdad neighborhood known as Sadr City.
On another violent day in which 3 American soldiers were killed and 14 wounded in two separate incidents, dozens of guerrillas came forward to hand over heavy weapons like mortars, grenade-launchers, machine guns and hundreds of artillery shells.
The group's surrender of its heavy weapons is the principal element of an agreement struck over the weekend with the interim Iraqi government and American military forces.
In exchange, American commanders agreed to halt military operations against the group, known as the Mahdi Army, and to begin hundreds of millions of dollars worth of reconstruction projects in the impoverished and dilapidated area. The Iraqi government also promised to release any member of the Mahdi Army, among the dozens picked up in sweeps here, who has not been charged with a crime.
By day's end, an undetermined number of weapons had been turned over, though by the look of the piles of guns and ammunition stacked up, the numbers appeared to reach into the hundreds. Under the agreement, the Iraqi government agreed to pay above-market prices for the weapons: $250 for a mortar, $170 for a grenade launcher and, for a bullet, 25 cents. Still, given the firepower deployed by the militiamen, the total turned in Monday probably represents only a fraction of what the group presumably has stored away. Under the agreement, the Mahdi Army has until Friday to turn over its heavy weapons, after which American commanders said they would assess Mr. Sadr's compliance and, if necessary, resume military operations and conduct house-to-house searches.
Mr. Sadr, who has been in hiding for weeks, has not spoken publicly about the agreement, although his senior aides say he has endorsed it. In the past, Mr. Sadr has shown a penchant for making deals amid great fanfare and then failing to follow through.
In addition, because the Mahdi Army itself is less a discrete military organization than a populist movement, it will be difficult to tell whether it has actually disbanded. Col. Robert B. Abrams, the commander of the First Brigade of the First Cavalry Division, which is overseeing Sadr City, said he intended to examine the militia's command structure to see if it hangs together after the disarmament.
Still, for all the reservations harbored by the Americans and the Iraqi government, the first day of the weapons surrender suggested a level of cooperation on the part of Mr. Sadr that has been missing in the past. If the guerrillas did not turn in all of their weapons on Monday, they at least made a start, and there were indications that more weapons were on the way.
"We have decided to give up our weapons, to disband," said Syed Aziz Abid, a representative of Mr. Sadr who was dispatched to one of the police stations where the weapons were being turned over. "God willing, there will be no more fighting."
Mr. Abid, like other acolytes of Mr. Sadr, indicated that the Mahdi Army might be holding onto the bulk of its heavy weapons until later in the week, to make sure that the Americans and the Iraqi government were serious in keeping their part in the bargain.
The disarming of Mr. Sadr's militia in Sadr City, his stronghold, would represent a major victory for the Iraqi government and its intention to hold nationwide elections by the end of January. But the Mahdi Army would still retain hundreds of fighters in other cities across southern Iraq, and officials here have expressed fears that the militia could still hold what amounts to veto power over the elections.
But circumstances have changed drastically for Mr. Sadr in recent weeks, and American and Iraqi leaders are confident that he might finally be truly ready to disband.
Mr. Sadr's attempt to commandeer the Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf failed two months ago, when his militia was mauled by American forces and he was personally upstaged by the mainline Shiite religious establishment. In Sadr City, Mr. Sadr's militia has been under relentless military pressure. Mr. Abid, the emissary sent to inspect the weapons sites, said he harbored no love for the American forces. Two of his brothers, both Mahdi Army fighters, have died in recent weeks at their hands, he said.
"If it were not for Moktada's orders, I would still be fighting," he said.
The weapons drop-off sites brought out an array of characters, some of them Mahdi Army loyalists following orders to turn in their weapons and some of them unemployed Iraqis looking to exchange their old army equipment for some quick cash.
One Mahdi Army member named Ali Abdullah approached the Habibiya police station to drop off his AK-47 assault rifle, his face wrapped in a white scarf for fear that someone would try to photograph him. He said he would use the $150 he received for his rifle to buy a cart to sell sandwiches on the street.
"If Moktada says drop our weapons, then why should I resist?" Mr. Abdullah said. "He is the leader and he knows better than me what to do."
"Look at my clothes," he said, pointing to his oil-spattered shirt and pants. "I can do any work you ask me, just give me a chance. I've got a family to support. I'll take the $150. Believe me, most of the people here are just ignorant and oppressed."
Colonel Abrams said he was "cautiously optimistic" about the chances for peace in the area, in part because he believed Mr. Sadr had concluded that this was probably his last chance to enter the political mainstream.
"If he were to bring his militia back together, he knows he'll never have that chance again," Colonel Abrams said.
Mr. Sadr began to move toward the negotiating table about a month ago, about the same time as the Americans began staging almost nightly airstrikes in Sadr City, using fighter jets and an AC-130 gunship to rake the streets with missiles and cannon fire.
Even on even a slow day, Colonel Abrams said, his troops kill at least 10 Mahdi Army fighters, more than 40 on a medium-paced day and on a busy day, more than 100. Asked how many busy days his soldiers had experienced, he said: "A lot, a lot."
One of the most daunting problems faced by the Iraqi government and the Americans in the area is setting up a viable Iraqi security force that can replace Mr. Sadr's militia. At the moment, Colonel Abrams said, only about 500 Iraqi police officers show up for work out of the 800 assigned. He estimated that a force of about 7,000 officers would be needed in the area, which has a population of more than two million.
"They're out-manned, out-gunned and until recently, out-led by the militia," he added.
Indeed, at the gates of one of the weapons-disposal sites, the Iraqi security officers checked the identification card of an American reporter and then made him an offer.
"Do you want to buy the weapons inside?" he asked. "Just $150 for a Kalashnikov."
The American casualties on Monday resulted from a pair of attacks in Baghdad and Mosul. In the first, 2 American soldiers were killed and 5 wounded in a rocket attack in south Baghdad. In the second, one American soldier was killed and 9 wounded when a car bomb crashed into a convoy in Mosul.
Nuclear Materials Reported Missing
UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 11 (Reuters) - Equipment and materials that could be used to make nuclear weapons are disappearing from Iraq, but neither Baghdad nor Washington appears to have noticed, the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency reported Monday.
Satellite imagery shows that entire buildings in Iraq have been dismantled. They once housed high-precision equipment that could help a government or terrorist group make nuclear bombs, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report to the Security Council.
Equipment and materials helpful in making bombs have also been removed from open storage areas in Iraq and have disappeared, according to the satellite pictures, the agency's director general, Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, said.
Iraqi employees of The New York Times contributed reporting for this article.
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Terror Command in Falluja Is Half Destroyed, U.S. Says
October 12, 2004
New York Times
By THOM SHANKER and ERIC SCHMITT
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/12/politics/12CND-ATTACK.html?pagewanted=all&position=
WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 - American airstrikes in Falluja have killed at least six senior members of the terrorist network led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant, according to senior Pentagon and military officials, who say the bombing campaign has eliminated about half of the foreign terrorist leadership in the city in the last month.
Even so, these Pentagon, military and intelligence officials concede that because Iraq's border with Syria is porous, foreign fighters - including possible replacements for the Zarqawi lieutenants killed by airstrikes - may still be able to reach Falluja, in central Iraq.
At the same time, Falluja residents and international human rights groups have complained of an increasing loss of life among noncombatants in the city. They say rising anger against the American air campaign serves only to strengthen the insurgents' grip.
In new strikes in Falluja today, American warplanes attacked what an American military statement called a "terrorist safe house" used by Zarqawi associates planning raids. Witnesses quoted by Reuters today said the bombs flattened a popular kebab house on Falluja's main street, killing two guards.
Although the Zarqawi network is the target of the attacks, they are also meant to help the interim government of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi drive a wedge between local leaders and the violent resistance as Dr. Allawi negotiates for lawful control of the city.
The Pentagon also hopes that the strikes may create tensions between homegrown Sunni Muslim insurgents in the city, who eventually may wish to negotiate a settlement with the Allawi government to stave off a full-scale ground offensive, and the foreign militant leaders who are targets of the bombing.
The relationships between the camps are only dimly understood.
"There are fault lines you can exploit," said one senior Bush administration official involved in policy making on Iraq. He said that to the degree that the citizenry of Falluja can be pushed to deny sanctuary and assistance to the Zarqawi network, "That's a good thing."
Pentagon and intelligence officials would not discuss exactly how they tracked casualties among Mr. Zarqawi's associates in Falluja, but they said in broad terms that they relied on intercepted communications and information from informants in the city.
If negotiations under way between the Allawi government and local leaders falter, American military commanders say, the airstrikes in recent weeks will have helped soften up the enemy for a possible ground attack.
Military and Defense Department officials say the strikes against the Zarqawi network in and around Falluja have hampered, though not eliminated, Mr. Zarqawi's ability to direct attacks against American and Iraqi security forces. "His network is hurting," said a senior Defense Department official. "Everything I've seen suggests we're having a measurable impact on him. It's disrupting his operation, though he's still able to use Falluja as a sanctuary, and that's a problem."
Military officials say the air attacks combine new tactics, a new weapon and information gathered by one of the most secretive intelligence efforts under way in Iraq.
Six Zarqawi lieutenants have been reported killed by the strikes, out of a dozen senior leaders identified by American intelligence in advance of the air campaign over Falluja, a center of the Sunni insurgency west of Baghdad. The most senior was killed two weeks ago, officials said. On Sept. 26 three fighter jets from the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy dropped 1,000-pound laser-guided bombs on what surveillance indicated were insurgents unloading weapons from tractor-trailers into at least two buildings.
American officials said one of the 20 people killed in the airstrikes was Abu Ahmed Tabouki, a Saudi described as Mr. Zarqawi's most senior aide in Falluja.
After a subsequent attack, carried out early last Friday, the American military headquarters in Baghdad announced that a "precision strike" had hit a house where Zarqawi associates had been meeting.
But immediately after the attack, Falluja residents and doctors there said that 17 people - neither insurgents nor foreign terrorists - had been wounded, including nine women and children.
One person identified by Reuters as a witness said that a wedding party had been held in the house the evening before the attack, and that the bridegroom had been killed and the bride wounded in the raid.
"We were celebrating my cousin's wedding, and my relatives gathered in this house for the wedding," said Suad Muhammad, as quoted by Reuters from Falluja. "The wedding ended at 10 p.m., but some people gathered outside the house, and the bombing began."
The American military has no way to assess those statements quickly, because Falluja is a `no go' zone for American-led ground forces, but officials expressed confidence in the intelligence that had led to orders for the raid.
"We know what the strike was supposed to hit, and we hit it,' said a senior Pentagon official who monitors the daily assessments of the bombing campaign. "If a wedding was going on, well, it was in concert with a meeting with a top Zarqawi lieutenant."
Even though Americans have repeatedly denied that their strikes have killed civilians, Iraqi employees of The New York Times have gone to the sites of some of the airstrikes where the Americans have claimed to have killed members of the Zarqawi network and have seen the bodies of women and children pulled from the rubble.
Similar disputes have arisen after past strikes in Iraq and have rarely been fully resolved.
Officials declined to provide specific information about the intelligence-gathering effort, except to say that they were using electronic eavesdropping systems and surveillance planes, including pilotless reconnaissance vehicles, and relying on Iraqi informants on the ground.
Both Air Force and Navy fighters have been involved in the strikes. The Navy's planes, from the John F. Kennedy, are carrying out about 20 combat missions a day over Iraq. The Air Force has brought a new weapon to the fight. Beginning in September, F-16's began dropping 500-pound satellite-guided bombs on targets in Falluja, the first time they have been used in combat. So far about 20 have been used there.
These all-weather bombs are as accurate as the more common 1,000-pound and 2,000-pound satellite-guided bombs, but since they are smaller, they should pose less of a risk of hurting or killing civilians or damaging civilian buildings nearby.
Senior administration, Pentagon and military officials said the air campaign was in part intended to present a stark choice to the people of Falluja, especially those who may be supporting Iraqi insurgents or the foreign fighters' network.
"If there are civilians dying in connection with these attacks, and with the destruction, the locals at some point have to make a decision," one Pentagon official said. "Do they want to harbor the insurgents and suffer the consequences that come with that, or do they want to get rid of the insurgents and have the benefits of not having them there?"
A senior administration official said the new air strategy over Falluja was also intended to drive a wedge between Iraqi insurgents and foreign terrorists.
"We're doing kinetic strikes in Falluja, and working on the Zarqawi elements, and setting up divisions among the various anti-regime elements that are in Falluja,' the official said. "Now we begin to see Fallujan leaders come out and say: 'O.K. No más! What do we do about this? How do we work with you, Prime Minister Allawi, to try to stop this kind of warfare.' That's beginning to show some success."
These may be "people in Falluja who don't necessarily like us or the Iraqi government," the official said, but they "also are not particularly keen on blowing up women and children."
Christine Hauser contributed reporting for this article from New York.
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U.S. Says It Hit Terror Targets, but Iraqi Civilians Disagree
October 12, 2004
New York Times
By EDWARD WONG
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/12/international/middleeast/12CND-IRAQ.html?pagewanted=all&position=
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 12 - The American military staged a series of aggressive strikes today in insurgent strongholds west of Baghdad, including firing missiles into the streets of Falluja and conducting raids alongside Iraqi commandos in seven mosques in Ramadi.
The wave of assaults inflamed Sunni Muslim leaders and residents of the cities, who said innocent civilians were killed or arrested in the operations.
Warplanes attacked twice in Falluja in the early hours, with the first strike demolishing one of Iraq's most celebrated kabob restaurants, Haji Hussein, named after the owner. Mr. Hussein's son and his nephew, both working as night watchmen, were killed in the attack, residents said. The second attack took place about four hours later in another neighborhood, hitting an empty house and injuring two neighbors, nearby residents said.
The American military issued a statement asserting that the first target was a meeting place for insurgents associated with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian who leads a network that has taken responsibility for numerous attacks on American and Iraqi security forces, as well as for the beheadings of Western hostages. As for the second attack, it said missiles had been aimed at a safehouse used by the Zarqawi network. "Intelligence sources tracked and confirmed that Zarqawi associates were using the safehouse at the time of the strike," the military said.
In nearby Ramadi, the seat of restive Anbar Province, American troops and Iraqi soldiers arrested a Sunni cleric, Sheik Abdul Aleem Saidy, and his son Osama, both members of one of the country's most famous religious families, according to spokesmen for the Muslim Scholars Association, a prominent group of mostly Sunni clerics. Among the Iraqi soldiers involved in the mosque raids were former Kurdish and Shiite militiamen, one of the spokesmen, Abdul Satter Abdul Jabbar, said. "There is a sense of sectarianism in this," he said.
American commanders have in the recent past deployed units of the Iraqi National Guard that are made up of militiamen recruited from political parties representing diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds. Last April, during a two-front uprising across western and southern Iraq, marines in Falluja fought alongside the Iraqi National Guard's 36th Battalion, which has fighters recruited from Kurdish and Shiite political parties. The battalion reportedly fought well, but the use of such units has raised the ire of Sunnis.
The attacks today came as the American military was trying to put rebel-held territory around the country, especially the hotspots of Anbar Province, under control to prepare for general elections scheduled in January. A wide voter turnout, even in areas hostile to the American occupation, is needed to ensure a sense of legitimacy. American officials have said they could very well invade Ramadi and Falluja, the most intractable cities, but may hold off until after the American presidential elections in early November.
In the southern holy city of Najaf, the office of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most revered Shiite cleric in Iraq, issued a statement from calling for all Iraqis qualified to vote to properly register for the elections. The ayatollah also called on Iraqi leaders to organize committees in neighborhoods to help register voters.
Ayatollah Sistani has been one of the strongest proponents of popular elections in Iraq, pushing for the American government and the United Nations to honor the January timetable. Because Shiite Muslims make up at least 60 percent of the country's population, Shiite candidates will presumably dominate the elections and take over control of the region, which has been run by Sunnis since the days of the Ottoman Empire.
Various Shiite groups are already jockeying to put together slates of candidates and win backing from prominent religious leaders such as Ayatollah Sistani and Moktada al-Sadr, a popular anti-American cleric.
Ayatollah Sistani asserted in his statement that neighborhood committees should help people register for "the election that we hope will be held at the scheduled time and will be free and honest, based on the participation of all Iraqis."
In Sadr City, a vast slum in northeastern Baghdad, people continued selling heavy weapons to Iraqi security forces at three police stations, as part of an amnesty agreement between the organization of Mr. Sadr and Iraqi and American officials. The weapons purchase program began on Monday and is to run until Friday. After weeks of having his militia, the Mahdi Army, pounded by the American military, Mr. Sadr has agreed through his aides to disarm it.
Mr. Sadr has made such promises before but broken them by reigniting attacks against American soldiers and Iraqi security forces. This time, though, his aides say he is serious about trying to get involved in a legitimate political process, especially given the short timetable before the scheduled elections. He commands enormous support throughout the south and especially among the 2.2 million people of Sadr City, and could play a significant role in any popular election.
The American military said today that soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division handed out 300 frozen chickens to residents of Sadr City one day last week. The military said in a statement that the soldiers drove up to a "major thoroughfare" with boxes of frozen chicken and began opening them, attracting swarms of impoverished children. After a half-hour, "all that was left were empty boxes, most shredded by the groping hands of the Iraqi children," the military said.
In the northern city of Mosul, gunmen fatally shot a provincial council member, Abdul Majid al-Antar, and his driver as Mr. Antar was going to work, police and health officials said.
Marines in Ramadi said the mosque raids today came after insurgents had repeatedly used mosques as shelters or as staging areas for attacks. The most recent incident occurred on Monday afternoon, when guerrillas fired at marines and Iraqi National Guardsmen from a mosque in the nearby town of Hit, the First Marine Division said in a statement. After a three-hour exchange of gunfire, the division said, the marines launched an airstrike that dropped "precision-guided munitions" on the mosque.
"It's a very bad situation in Ramadi," Muhammad Bashar al-Fadhi, a spokesman for the Muslim Scholars Association, said in an interview. "The Americans are just arresting whoever is in front of them at the mosques. They're behaving in a strange manner."
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A Look at Foreigners Taken Hostage in Iraq
October 12, 2004
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iraq-Hostages-Glance.html?pagewanted=all&position=
Insurgents in Iraq have kidnapped more than 150 foreigners in their campaign to drive out coalition forces and hamper reconstruction:
HELD HOSTAGE
--Jordanian Hisham Talab el-Aza, an administrator for Starlite, a transport company that works for the U.S. military. Disappeared Sept. 30. A video shows el-Aza surrounded by militants who demand that Starlite leave Iraq. The company announces it has shut down its operation in Iraq; el-Aza's wife says the kidnappers want $100,000 ransom.
--Two Lebanese electrical workers, Marwan Ibrahim Kassar and Mohammed Jawdat Hussein. A video broadcast Sept. 30 shows masked men holding them at gunpoint. Islamic Army in Iraq claims responsibility.
--Two Egyptian engineers, Mustafa Mohammed Abdel Latif and Mahmmoud Turk. Abducted Sept. 22-23 with four co-workers in and around Baghdad. The four co-workers are later freed.
--Two Lebanese travel agency workers, Cherbal Karam Haj and Aram Nalbandian. Kidnapped Sept. 17 between Baghdad and Fallujah.
--Christian Chesnot, 37, and George Malbrunot, 41, French journalists. Disappeared Aug. 20. The Islamic Army in Iraq claims responsibility.
--Aban Elias, 41, Iraqi-American. Seized May 3 by group calling itself the Islamic Rage Brigade.
HOSTAGES KILLED
--Maher Kemal, a Turkish contractor. Internet posting Oct. 11 shows his beheading. A statement says he was captured by the Ansar al-Sunnah Army.
--British engineer Kenneth Bigley, 62. Kidnapped in Baghdad on Sept. 16 with two American co-workers for Gulf Services Co. of the United Arab Emirates. A video issued in the name of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi threatens their lives unless the U.S. frees all Iraqi women in custody. The Americans are slain first; Bigley's killing is confirmed Oct. 10.
--Unidentified Turkish hostage. Al-Jazeera television reports slaying and says it received claim in video from Salafist Brigades of Abu Bakr Al-Sidiq.
--Jack Hensley, 48, a civil engineer from Marietta, Ga. Seized Sept. 16; an Internet message posted Sept. 21 reports his killing by al-Zarqawi's followers. His beheaded body found in Baghdad on Sept. 22.
--Eugene ``Jack'' Armstrong, 52, formerly of Hillsdale, Mich. Kidnapped Sept. 16; a video made public Sept. 20 shows his beheading by al-Zarqawi. Body found in Baghdad the same day.
--Akar Besir, a Turkish driver. Body found Sept. 21 near Mosul.
--Durmus Kumdereli, Turkish truck driver. Beheaded in a video made public Sept. 13 but digitally dated Aug. 17. Video posted on a Web site known for carrying statements from al-Zarqawi's group, Tawhid and Jihad.
--Twelve Nepalese construction workers. One beheaded and 11 shot in the head and killed in a video posted on the Internet Aug. 31. Killings claimed by the Ansar al-Sunna Army.
--Enzo Baldoni, Italian journalist. Reported killed Aug. 26; the Islamic Army in Iraq had threatened his life.
--Murat Yuce, of Turkey. Shot and killed in video made public Aug. 2 by followers of al-Zarqawi. Worked for Turkish company Bilintur.
--Raja Azad, 49, engineer, and Sajad Naeem, 29, driver, both Pakistani, working for Kuwaiti-based firm. Slain July 28. The Islamic Army in Iraq said they were killed because Pakistan considering sending troops to Iraq.
--Georgi Lazov, 30, and Ivaylo Kepov, 32, Bulgarian truck drivers. Al-Zarqawi's followers suspected of decapitating both men.
--Kim Sun-il, 33, South Korea translator. Beheaded June 22 by al-Zarqawi's group.
--Hussein Ali Alyan, 26, Lebanese construction worker. Found shot to death June 12. Lebanon says killers sought ransom.
--Fabrizio Quattrocchi, 35, Italian security guard. Killed April 14. Previously unknown group, the Green Battalion, claimed responsibility.
--Nicholas Berg, 26, businessman from West Chester, Pa. Beheaded by al-Zarqawi's group after being kidnapped in April.
ESCAPED HOSTAGES
--Thomas Hamill, 44, American truck driver. Escaped May 2 after being wounded in April 9 ambush on fuel convoy.
--Radoslaw Kadri, Polish businessman. Escaped by jumping from car near U.S. troops after abduction June 1.
HOSTAGES FREED OR RESCUED
--Ten Turks working for the construction company VINSAN. Kidnapping reported in a video broadcast Sept. 18 and attributed to the Salafist Brigades of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq. Freed Oct. 11. The company initially said it was freezing operations in Iraq in hopes of saving the workers; after the men were freed, VINSAN said it would resume the work because it was unclear the abductions were politically motivated.
--Two Indonesian women, Rosidah binti Anan and Rafikan binti Aming, freed Oct. 4 in Baghdad.
--Italian aid workers Simona Pari and Simona Torretta. Abducted in Baghdad on Sept. 7; freed Sept. 28.
--Fereidoun Jahani, Iranian consul to Karbala. Freed Sept. 27. In video made public Aug. 7, kidnappers had accused Iran of meddling in Iraq's affairs.
--Micah Garen, freelance journalist from New York City. Seized by gunmen Aug. 13. Released after appeal by aides to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
--James Brandon, British freelance journalist. Kidnapped Aug. 12, freed the next day.
--Angelo dela Cruz, Filipino truck driver. Kidnapped July 4. Freed July 22 after Philippines withdrew 51 troops from Iraq.
--Also freed: 24 Turks, 14 Jordanians, 11 Lebanese, seven Egyptians, five Japanese, five Chinese, three Kenyans, three Czechs, three Italians, three Indians, two Canadians, two Russians, a Pakistani, a Somali, a Frenchman, a Pole, a Syrian-Canadian, and an Arab Christian from East Jerusalem.
MISSING IN IRAQ
--U.S. Army Spc. Keith M. Maupin, 20, of Batavia, Ohio. Disappeared April 9 after attack on a fuel convoy. Arab television reported June 29 that he was killed but did not broadcast a video it said showed his shooting death. U.S. military could not confirm that a man shown being shot in videotape was Maupin; he is officially listed by the military as missing.
--William Bradley of Chesterfield, N.H., and Timothy Bell of Mobile, Ala. Truckers last seen after April 9 convoy attack.
RETURNED FROM IRAQ
--Marine Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun. Failed to report for duty in Iraq June 20. Videotaped images showed him apparently kidnapped. Emerged unharmed in Lebanon, July 8. Returned to the United States. Denies having deserted.
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Duelfer report: Hussein planned on postwar insurgency
Classified version of same report says US oil companies and individuals benefitted from UN oil-for-food program
By TOM REGAN
Christian Science Monitor
Wednesday, October 12, 2004
http://www.christiansciencemonitor.com/2004/1012/dailyUpdate.html
Last week's report by the CIA-led Iraq Survey Group - now commonly called the Duelfer Report after chief weapons inspector Charles A. Duelfer - has been generating headlines since its release. One key finding highlighted by the media was the acknowledgement that Iraq possessed no weapons of mass destruction, and what programs it did have to create such weapons had been in decline since 1991. Then came the stories about the UN's oil-for-food program and how Saddam Hussein "gamed" the system in order to secretly raise billions of dollars in allegedly corrupt oil deals.
Now the Boston Globe is surfacing more information from the Duelfer report that shows that the United States with its 'shock and awe" campaign may have played into Mr. Hussein's plans for a prolonged insurgency after the country was captured by US troops. The report based its findings on interviews with former top Iraqi generals, along with other sources.
"Saddam believed that the Iraqi people would not stand to be occupied or conquered by the United States and would resist - leading to an insurgency," said the 1,000-page report by chief weapons inspector Charles A. Duelfer. "Saddam said he expected the war to evolve from traditional warfare to insurgency."
The Age, of Melbourne, Australia, says the Duelfer reports says that from August 2002 to January of 2003 Hussein ordered his military commanders to bury weapons around the country. And the report also says that in the months before the US invasion Hussein and his generals read books by Vietnamese communists on how to conduct guerilla warfare.
The Duelfer report, according to the Globe, also says that the CIA "warned in several secret reports before the war that the invasion would likely be followed by a guerrilla campaign." Other top US military commanders, such as retired Army General George Joulwan, the former NATO commander who led the peacekeeping mission in Bosnia, say there were many other signs that the Iraqis were planning to fight an insurgency rather than a traditional war.
"The US was meeting organized resistance of a different kind, not Republican Guards but this different sort of fighting. It was an early warning." Even by telegraphing that the US-led onslaught would be a "shock and awe" campaign, the United States unnecessarily played into the Iraqis' hands, according to Joulwan, because from an enemy standpoint it provided additional reason not to confront the United States directly. "There were strong indications this was part of their strategy," Joulwan said.
The Daily Telegraph of London reported on Sunday that a "powerful 'old guard'" at the CIA has launched an "unprecedented campaign" to undermine the Bush administration with a series of negative leaks and briefings about Iraq. The Telegraph reports that there is "anger in the CIA" for being blamed for all of the problems with the prewar intelligence on Iraq.
Bill Harlow, the former CIA spokesman who left with the former director George Tenet in July, acknowledged that there had been leaks from within the agency. "The intelligence community has been made the scapegoat for all the failings over Iraq," he said. "It deserves some of the blame, but not all of it. People are chafing at that, and that's the background to these leaks."
Meanwhile, The New York Times reported Monday that several prominent US firms and individuals had received vouchers from Hussein's government that allowed them to buy Iraqi oil under the UN oil-for-food program, and were among the largest purchasers of Iraqi oil right up until the start of the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
When the ISG released its report last week, it listed only foreign companies and individuals that had benefitted from the UN plan. US names were withheld for privacy reasons, an explanation that made foreign countries named in the report furious. But the American names were included in classified copies of the reports given to Congress and the White House and these copies were shown to the Times.
The report said US companies Chevron, Mobil, Texaco and Bay Oil, as well as three US individuals, including oil baron Oscar Wyatt, were together allotted 111 million barrels of oil ... Spokesmen for the companies and for Mr Wyatt said the transactions were legal, but confirmed they had received subpoenas from a grand jury investigating the transactions.
Finally, Jack Kinsella of the Omega Letter, a Christian news website, comments on the fact that it was Saddam Hussein who fooled his generals about the existence of weapons of mass destruction, and not the other way around. Until the Iraq Survey Group report appeared, security experts had speculated on the possibility that Iraqi generals had kept Hussein in the dark about the real condition of his WMD programs, in order to protect their lives. But the ISG report, comments Mr. Kinsella, showed that Hussein was "micromanaging" his weapons programs and policies so that he could fool his two biggest enemies - the United States and Iran - into thinking he was still a power with which to be reckoned.
-------- nato
U.S. Urges NATO to Take Afghan Mission
October 12, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-NATO-Rumsfeld.html
POIANA BRASOV, Romania (AP) -- The United States is pressing NATO to take over the U.S.-led military mission in Afghanistan, possibly as early as 2005, the U.S. ambassador to the alliance said Tuesday.
NATO currently commands the International Security Assistance Force in Kabul, the Afghan capital, and it has set up five Provincial Reconstruction Teams in northern Afghanistan. Its troops do not conduct combat missions as U.S. forces do.
Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambassador to the alliance, told American reporters traveling with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Tuesday that the aim of the United States is to combine the U.S. and NATO missions under an alliance commander.
``There will be a lot of discussion about that tomorrow, but no decisions,'' Burns said, referring to Wednesday's NATO defense ministers meeting.
``It's a very complicated issue, how you put these two very different military missions together,'' Burns said. ``But there will be a number of people who will support -- we will certainly support -- a direction to the military leaders of the alliance to go and look at this question and decide how we can best do that -- give us a sense of how you put these two missions together.''
Burns said he expects the alliance's military leaders to present answers at a planned February meeting of defense ministers in Nice, France.
He said integration of the forces could happen by 2005 or 2006.
The ambassador also said the United States is pressing NATO's newer members who once were part of the Soviet bloc, like Romania, to donate older Soviet-era military equipment that is urgently needed to equip Iraqi forces.
In the shorter term, the United States is pushing its NATO allies to accelerate the deployment of extra peacekeepers to Afghanistan.
Ahead of two days of talks beginning Wednesday, U.S. officials said they were seeking commitments that the alliance would expand its peacekeeping operation into western Afghanistan, which would free up U.S. troops to hunt Taliban and al-Qaida remnants hiding out in the south and east.
``NATO is behind. We should have been in the west by now, and we're not,'' Burns told reporters earlier at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. ``NATO ... needs to move faster, with a greater degree of commitment and political will.''
After much prodding, NATO allies reinforced their peacekeeping mission from 6,500 troops to over 9,000 for the Afghan elections held at the weekend.
Despite that temporary deployment, the alliance is slipping behind with plans to expand its longer-term peacekeeping operation into the troubled western provinces from its bases in the Afghan capital, Kabul, and five northern cities.
On Iraq, NATO envoys agreed last week on the outline of plans to send about 300 instructors, and up to 10 times more guards and support staff, to help train the Iraqi armed forces.
About 40 NATO trainers have been in Baghdad since August, but U.S. officials said last week that the process was moving too slowly to have an impact before elections scheduled in Iraq early next year.
The alliance is playing only a small role in Iraq due to the reluctance of France, Germany and other member nations who opposed the war. Still, most of the 26 allies have troops in Iraq supporting the U.S.-led force.
On the Net:
NATO: http://www.nato.int
--------
NATO Considers How to Raise Forces Faster
October 12, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-NATO-Defense.html
POIANA BRASOV, Romania (AP) -- Struggling to muster more troops for Afghanistan and take on an expanded training mission in Iraq, NATO defense ministers will aim this week to advance reforms that would let the alliance mobilize faster for far-flung operations.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is expected to take a lead in urging more speed, particularly to get extra European troops into Afghanistan. He will huddle Wednesday and Thursday with the other ministers for NATO's first meeting in one of the seven eastern European nations that joined the alliance in April.
``NATO, in our view needs to move faster, with a greater degree of commitment and political will to help the Afghan government,'' Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambassador to NATO said ahead of the meeting at alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
Before flying by helicopter to the NATO meeting site, Rumsfeld met with Romanian government leaders in Bucharest. At a news conference there, he deflected a reporter's question on whether NATO would get military trainers to Iraq in time to make a difference in providing security for the elections.
``Whatever they do will be helpful,'' he said.
After much prodding, NATO allies reinforced their peacekeeping mission from 6,500 troops to over 9,000 for the Afghan elections held at the weekend. Ministers in this Transylvanian resort are expected to express satisfaction with NATO' role in ensuring the election was largely peaceful.
Despite that temporary deployment, the alliance is slipping behind with plans to expand its longer term peacekeeping operation from its bases in the Afghan capital, Kabul, and five northern cities, and into the troubled western provinces.
Ministers will also examine the lessons of the presidential elections, in preparation for a follow-up mission for parliamentary polls scheduled for the early next year.
Washington wants to discuss an eventual integration of the NATO peacekeepers with the larger U.S.-led combat force in Afghanistan, but acknowledges substantive debate on that is likely only next year.
On Iraq, the 26 allies agreed last week on the outline of plans to send about 300 instructors -- and up to 10 times more guards and support staff -- to help train the Iraqi armed forces.
Alliance military experts aim to finalize the plans within two weeks, but U.S. officials have expressed concern that the mission won't be fully up and running by next year and are pushing for the allies to move faster.
Looking further ahead, the ministers will review plans to the prevent shortfalls and delays that have dogged the Afghan mission in any future operations now that the alliance has shifted its focus well beyond the defense of Europe from Soviet attack.
The buzzword at alliance headquarters is ``usability,'' coined by former NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson. He retired in December bemoaning that only around 4 percent of the 2.5 million Europeans in uniform were available for missions beyond their borders.
At a June summit, NATO leaders set usability targets meant to ensure that allies should be able to have at least 8 percent of their forces on mission at any one time, with a total of 40 percent able to deploy.
``These targets sound modest, but if we could achieve them across allied nations it would make a significant difference to out ability to put forces into the field,'' said John Colston, NATO assistant secretary general for defense planning
One way to ensure there's a bigger pool of ready-and-able troops is the elite NATO Response Force which ministers are to declare operational with a strength of 17,500 -- two years after Rumsfeld suggested the idea to his NATO colleagues.
About 550 Italians from the force have deployed to Afghanistan as part of the election support mission, but the spearhead unit does not solve NATO's problem of finding troops for longer-term peacekeeping missions.
Washington would like to see bigger European defense budgets so allies can shoulder more of the burden of such operations.
Burns pointed out that the U.S. defense budget of $417 billion for the current fiscal year is more than double the combined spending of all the other allies.
``This capabilities gap is very important, it's very wide, it's very worrisome,'' Burns said Friday. ``To have the ability to be an effective peacekeeping organization ... you've got to have trained forces and that does cost money.''
--------
NATO planning for takeover of Afghanistan military operations likely: US
(AFP)
Oct 12, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041012190633.pk62kf4r.html
NATO could order the start of military planning for a possible takeover of operations in Afghanistan from US forces as early as next year, the US ambassador to the alliance said Tuesday.
POIANA BRASOV, Romania - Nicholas Burns said NATO defense ministers meeting here were likely to instruct the alliance military leadership to report back in February on how to bring NATO and US military operations under a single NATO command.
"That's the direction the alliance has been heading for many months now, and it will likely be the result of tomorrow's discussion," the US ambassador to NATO told reporters in Romania.
He suggested that the two forces could be brought under a NATO command quickly once the plans have been drawn up.
"It could be 2005, it could be 2006, it depends on how things go. It really depends on what the military leaders will tell us: how would you do this, how difficult would it be, on what basis would it be," he said.
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will press his colleagues for the planning as well as swifter action on expanding NATO's existing 9,000-strong International Security Assistance (ISAF) peacekeeping force.
NATO recently completed the first phase of an expansion of the force from Kabul to relatively trouble-free areas in northern Iraq, but a second planned one into western Afghanistan has stalled.
"I know the US, Secretary Rumsfeld and others will be pushing for the European allies to put their men, women, materiels, assets into the west to establish these provincial reconstruction teams," he said.
ISAF has four small so-called provincial reconstruction teams that are designed to extend the reach of the Afghan central government beyond Kabul.
The United States has nearly 20,000 of its own troops in Afghanistan. They are still pacifying the country's southeastern border regions three years after the fall of the Taliban regime in a US-led invasion.
Rumsfeld first floated the idea of having NATO taking over all military operations in Afghanistan in December, but until now it has remained in the background while NATO struggled to expand its Afghan peacekeeping effort.
If NATO were to take the lead role in Afghanistan it would relieve the stress on US forces, which are tied down by a stubborn insurgency in Iraq.
It also would mark a further expansion of NATO commitment's outside of its European treaty area.
The US push comes just days after presidential elections in Afghanistan. NATO deployed extra troops from its rapid response force to help protect the elections.
Burns cautioned that the issue of merging the two forces was "enormously complex" and no decisions would be taken at the informal meeting of defense ministes at this ski resort in the Carpathian Mountains.
"But I think there will be a number of people who will support, and we will support maybe a direction to the military leaders of the alliance to go and look at this question, and decide how we can best do that," He said.
"Give us the sense of how you can put together these two missions over the course of the next year. Give us the options and we will come back at the next meeting, which is in Nice (in southern France), the first week of February 2005," he said.
Burns said a "lot of thinking" had been done on the issue, and the NATO military has undertaken some informal planning already.
-------- russia / chechnya
After School Siege, Russians' Grief Turns to Anger
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, October 12, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A25439-2004Oct11?language=printer
BESLAN, Russia -- The people of Beslan buried two more children on Friday, a 7-year-old boy and a 2-year-old girl. They still dig graves at the cemetery nearly every day. The weekend before there were yet another 23 funerals.
Three of those laid to rest that weekend were children of Taimuraz Totiyev and Raya Tsolmayova. They had already buried another child, as well as a niece. Yet another niece's body is still missing. Of the eight children who left the Totiyev brothers' adjoining homes on Sept. 1, only two came back alive.
More than five weeks after hundreds perished in the seizure of School No. 1 by Chechen separatists, Beslan remains a town reeling from grief, shock, rage and disbelief, a town whose suffering seems only compounded by the day. Dozens of burned bodies remain unidentified. Many believe the government is covering up the real death toll. Millions of dollars in donations have not reached the victims. And as the traditional Orthodox Christian mourning period ends this week, there are renewed fears of violent reprisals fueled by ethnic animosity.
Many here in North Ossetia harbor a seething hatred for Ingush in the neighboring republic. The Ingush, who are predominantly Muslim, and the Ossetians, most of whom are Christians, have a history of ethnic rivalry that culminated in a brief but bloody territorial war in 1992.
When the 40-day mourning period ends Wednesday, some Ossetians may lash out at the Ingush. "We are very concerned that there be peace, no revenge," said Marina Tuayeva, 41, a volunteer helping school victims. Sergei Tsomartov, 27, another Beslan resident, added, "The older people are trying to convince the younger ones to have peace."
"People are all filled with anger because the tragedy touched practically everyone," said Totiyev, sitting at the table where his children used to celebrate birthdays. "People today are angry . . . some with the government. The majority of the terrorists were Ingush so people are angry with Ingush and many want to take revenge. What is going to happen?"
Hundreds, even thousands, of people wander solemnly through the burned-out, pockmarked school building each day, leaving flowers and lighting candles. Many traumatized children refuse to go to other schools. Local television ends its evening newscast with names of missing people whose families are still seeking information about them.
Prosecutors on Friday began criminal proceedings against three police officers in Ingushetia accused of criminal negligence connected to the case. Amid conflicting official accounts, conspiracy theories have multiplied. In the latest quest for scapegoats, many residents have turned on the school director, covering the school with graffiti painting her as complicit, although there is no evidence she was.
"Everybody's still shocked," said Elza Baskayeva, editor of the local newspaper, whose daughter was among the hostages who survived. "It's so hard. I wake up in the morning with these thoughts in my mind that go back to those days. It doesn't let me go."
The town is eerily silent. "At nine in the morning," Baskayeva said, "you walk to work and there are no cars, no people. It's scary. In the morning, you don't hear the roosters anymore. Even the dogs have stopped barking."
For some, early stoicism has given way to inconsolable anguish. "At first the heart turned to stone and wouldn't let the pain in," said Murat Dzheliyev, 27, who lost family friends. "But as the days went by, it started to hurt even more. The pain really took over. It hurts whenever you look at children."
No one knows for sure why the guerrillas targeted School No. 1. As the fall term opened on Sept. 1, 32 gunmen raced into the courtyard, took at least 1,200 hostages and rigged the gymnasium with bombs. For 52 hours, they held Russian forces at bay, demanding an end to the war in the nearby separatist region of Chechnya.
At midday on Sept. 3, an explosion ripped through the gym, followed by another, sparking pandemonium. As children began leaping out the windows to escape, the guerrillas shot some of them in the back. By most accounts, Russian troops initially held back, hoping to prevent an all-out battle, but local men armed with their own guns had penetrated the perimeter and began firing back, setting off a daylong battle in which hundreds were killed.
Exactly how many died has become a point of controversy. Although the government sticks to an official death toll of 331, there are indications it may have been much higher.
A local committee set up by teachers to assist the victims has compiled a list of 1,220 hostages that it has posted on a Web site, www.beslan.ru. As of a week ago, according to the committee, 329 people had been identified and buried, while another 76 were still listed as missing, for a total of 405.
Fatima Ramonova, a math teacher who serves on the committee, estimated that the actual death toll would be "not less than 500." Yelena Kasumova, the deputy school director who heads the committee, said in a separate interview that "unfortunately it seems to me the figure will reach 500." Another source who has closely followed the issue and did not want to be named for fear of reprisal suggested it could be 600.
Aleksandr Dzasokhov, the president of North Ossetia, declined an interview request, and his spokesman refused to answer questions or make available any other official to comment.
The government has little credibility with residents after lying during the siege about the number of hostages held in the school, a deception it later admitted on state television. Officials also claimed at first that 10 Arabs and an African were among the hostage-takers, but never produced any bodies to prove it. The only bodies identified publicly have been Chechen, Ingush and Ossetian. Former hostages have said they saw no Arabs.
Many residents are convinced that Chechen or Ingush workers hid weapons inside the school during a summertime renovation. A newspaper account from August reported that a crew working on the school was led by a man whose name sounded Chechen or Ingush. But teachers and neighbors insist that they painted and fixed up the building themselves and that no other workers were brought in.
The renovation theory has provoked recriminations against the school director, Lydia Tsaliyeva. Graffiti on the walls around her office, using the diminutive of her first name, says, "Lida -- Sellout. Couldn't you see when they brought the weapons?" And, "Your place is in hell, Lida. God will punish you."
Yet Tsaliyeva, her sister and three of their grandchildren were held hostage, and the director was injured so badly that she remains hospitalized, according to colleagues. "They can't find the real guilty ones and for some reason they blame it on her," said Kasumova, her deputy. Another deputy, Olga Sherbinina, said the man mentioned in the newspaper was actually the school custodian's Dagestani brother, who was helping with repairs last summer. But no one has explained this to a vengeful public.
Little humanitarian assistance has found its way here. Donations in Russia are often stolen, and many fear the same will happen here.
Like other media outlets, Moscow's Silver Rain radio station set up its own fund rather than give to a charitable organization. "There are too many frauds and violations and money doesn't reach the kids," said Olga Popkova, the station's chief editor. "When people brought us money, they expected us to avoid the fraud where money ends up in the bank accounts of dishonest people." So far, she said, the station has delivered $300,000 of $1.2 million collected, mainly buying equipment for hospitals where hundreds of former hostages remain.
All the money in the world, however, could not replace the laughter in the homes of the Totiyev families. Deeply religious Baptists in a largely Orthodox town, they said they took solace in the hundreds of letters they had received from fellow believers around the world, most of which they could not even read. And they said they took solace from their faith in God. But their children are gone and their homes are silent.
Taimuraz Totiyev and Raya Tsolmayova had five children. Four died in the school. Totiyev's brother, Konstantin, had six children -- two were too old to go to school and one too young. Two of the three who went to school that day died. One of those two, Dzera, 14, has not been found.
"We never had a quiet home like now," said Tsolmayova, 44, as her sole surviving child, Madina, slipped upstairs without a word, a day before her 13th birthday. "We had 11 children together, so sometimes we'd have two birthdays in a month."
She and her husband talked about each of their lost children -- Larisa, 14, the oldest who loved writing secrets in her notebook; Lyuba, 11, who survived the blast only to die in the hospital; Albina, 10, the one they called "the aristocrat"; and Boris, 8, the doted-upon son who would steal the neighbor's flowers to give his mother. "Only the memories are left," said Totiyev, 42, a baker.
The passage of time has not helped. Many nights, Tsolmayova said she dreamed she was in the school as the terrorists were killing children.
The bodies of Larisa, Albina and Boris were identified by DNA only a week ago and buried a week ago Sunday.
"It's just getting harder," said Totiyev. "A man has a big family, has all these plans. Then in one moment, everything disappears -- the family, the plans, everything in one moment collapses. It's so hard."
-------- spies
Britain Withdraws Iraq Weapons Claims
Associated Press
By ED JOHNSON
Oct 12, 2004
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041013/ap_on_re_eu/britain_iraq_4
LONDON - Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on Tuesday said British spy masters have formally withdrawn the intelligence that Iraqi troops could deploy some chemical and biological weapons on 45 minutes notice, information used as a rationale for joining the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
Straw insisted that Britain was right to go to war even though spy chiefs have now withdrawn two key pieces of intelligence. MI6, Britain's foreign spy service, earlier this year withdrew intelligence on Iraqi production of biological agents, which it said it received from the spy agency of another, undisclosed country.
Straw said it would have been too risky not to act against Saddam Hussein and that U.N. sanctions against him weren't working
"I do not accept, even with hindsight, that we were wrong to act as we did in the circumstances which we faced at the time," Straw told the House of Commons in a response to the U.S. Iraq Survey Group report, which concluded last week that Saddam had no illicit weapons stockpiles.
"Even after reading all the evidence detailed by the ISG, it is still hard to believe that any regime could behave in so self-destructive a manner as to pretend it had forbidden weaponry when in fact it hadn't," he added.
MI6's formal withdrawal of the 45 minute notice claim is an embarrassing development for Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The claim featured prominently in a September 2002 intelligence dossier published by the government as it tried to persuade a skeptical public of the need for war. Official inquiries have already criticized the government for not making clear the 45 minute detail referred only to battlefield munitions, not long-range missiles.
An inquiry earlier this year revealed that spy chiefs had concerns about the reliability of the source, an Iraqi military officer in western Iraq. The Foreign Office said MI6 decided to withdraw the claim after completing a review of intelligence.
Political opponents were quick to respond.
"The building blocks of the government's case for military action are crumbling before our eyes," said Sir Menzies Campbell, foreign affairs spokesman for the opposition Liberal Democrats. "The withdrawal of the 45-minute claim drives a horse and cart through government credibility."
The government insisted it was not alone in viewing Saddam as a threat and said that former chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix was shown a draft of its intelligence dossier shortly before its publication in September 2002.
The Foreign Office released a note that one of its officials at the United Nations wrote, saying Blix had liked the dossier "and felt it did not exaggerate the facts, nor revert to rhetoric."
Blair's principal reason for joining the U.S.-led offensive was his belief that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction stockpiles. Addressing the Labour Party's annual conference earlier this month, Blair acknowledged that British intelligence was flawed.
"I can apologize for the information that turned out to be wrong, but I can't, sincerely at least, apologize for removing Saddam. The world is a better place with Saddam in prison," he said.
Political opponents continue to demand a fuller apology from Blair, however, and say that his confident assertions before the war that Iraq had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons were misleading when intelligence was patchy at best.
-------- POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE
-------- courts / tribunals
Supreme Court jumps into Ten Commandments issue after 25 years
10/12/2004
Associated Press
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-10-12-commandments_x.htm
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court said Tuesday it will end a 25-year silence on the constitutionality of Ten Commandments displays, agreeing to decide whether they are allowed in courtrooms, town halls and other government property.
Courts around the country, with little guidance from the justices, have splintered over whether the exhibits violate the constitutional principle of separation of church and state.
Disputes have led to emotional battles, like one in Alabama by Chief Justice Roy Moore, who lost his job after defying a federal order to remove a 5,300-pound monument from the state courthouse. The Supreme Court refused last week to help him get his job back.
But the justices, whose courtroom has a wall carving of Moses holding the tablets, agreed to address the constitutionality of displays in Kentucky and Texas. The case probably will be argued in February with a decision before July.
Supporters of the monuments celebrated the news.
"The Lord answers prayers," said former Judge-Executive Jimmie Greene of McCreary County, Ky., which was ordered to remove a display in the hallway of the county courthouse. Greene refused to do the task himself.
"I am a law-abiding citizen, but there is a higher power," Greene said. "I just could not remove that sacred document. Could you think of a better reason to go to jail than standing up in defense of the Ten Commandments?"
The Rev. Barry W. Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State said the court should block all government displays of religious documents.
"It's clear that the Ten Commandments is a religious document. Its display is appropriate in houses of worship but not at the seat of government," Lynn said.
The last time the court dealt with the issue was 1980, when justices banned the posting of Ten Commandments in public schools. That case also was from Kentucky.
Mathew Staver of the conservative law group Liberty Counsel, attorney for Kentucky counties in the current case, said the Supreme Court has expected for a long time that a blockbuster religious liberty case would come along.
"It's finally here," Staver said.
Officials in two Kentucky counties - McCreary and Pulaski - hung framed copies of the Ten Commandments in their courthouses and added other documents, such as the Magna Carta and the Declaration of Independence, after the American Civil Liberties Union challenged the display. The ACLU won and county officials are appealing the decision.
David A. Friedman, general counsel for the Kentucky ACLU, said people of different faiths follow different versions of the document. "Especially in a courthouse, people should not be made to feel like outsiders in their own community because they may not share the prevailing religious view," he said.
In the Texas case, a homeless man, Thomas Van Orden, lost his lawsuit to have a 6-foot granite monument removed from the state Capitol grounds. The Fraternal Order of Eagles donated the exhibit to the state in 1961, and it was installed about 75 feet from the Capitol in Austin. The group gave scores of similar monuments to American towns during the 1950s and '60s, and those have been the subjects of multiple court fights.
Religion cases have been difficult for the Supreme Court. In June, the court sidestepped a ruling on the constitutionality of the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools.
"This is an issue that touches deep chords on both sides - those who believe religious symbols should be part of our government and those who believe the symbols shouldn't be part of our government," said Van Orden's attorney, Erwin Chemerinsky of Duke University.
The Ten Commandments contain both religious and secular directives, including the familiar proscriptions on stealing, killing and adultery. The Bible says God gave the list to Moses.
The court's three most conservative members have made clear that they do not think the bar on state establishment of religion affects local government monuments.
Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas complained in 2001 when the court refused to rule on the constitutionality of a display in front of the Elkhart, Ind., Municipal Building. They said the city sought to reflect the cultural, historical and legal significance of the commandments.
The court's most liberal justice, John Paul Stevens, disagreed. He wrote that the words "I am the Lord thy God," in the first line of the Indiana monument's inscription are "rather hard to square with the proposition that the monument expresses no particular religious preference."
The cases are Van Orden v. Perry, 03-1500, and McCreary County v. ACLU, 03-1693.
-------- homeland security / national intelligence
U.S. Senator Closes Capitol Office Citing Security
October 12, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/politics/politics-security-congress-dayton.html
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic Sen. Mark Dayton said on Tuesday he was closing his office in the U.S. Capitol complex until after the Nov. 2 elections, citing security concerns stemming from a classified intelligence briefing.
The first-term senator from Minnesota said he closed his office in the Senate Russell building ``out of extreme, but necessary, precaution to protect the lives and safety'' of his staff and potential visitors over the next few weeks. A top-secret security briefing prompted the action, he said.
Other Senate offices remained opened. Congress has recessed until mid-November.
Senate Sergeant at Arms Bill Pickle said Dayton, who received the same briefing as other senators, was acting on his own accord and no general order was issued to encourage lawmakers to close their offices.
``Senator Dayton is exercising an abundance of caution. That's his call,'' Pickle said.
Dayton said he hoped his precautions would prove unnecessary, but thought the move was prudent in light of briefings he received.
``I cannot leave Washington for the relative safety of Minnesota and leave the people I employ exposed to risks of which I have been made aware,'' he said in a statement.
Pickle said he would meet with Senate staff on Wednesday to review security and to address anxiety workers may have as a result of the one office closing.
The Capitol, considered a possible target for terrorist attack, has been on heightened alert since early August, when Capitol police set up checkpoints to inspect all vehicles headed toward the complex.
--------
Sen. Dayton temporarily closing office, citing security threat
10/12/2004
Associated Press
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-10-12-senator-security-threat_x.htm
WASHINGTON (AP) - A Democratic senator said Tuesday he has closed his Washington office because of a top-secret intelligence report that made him fear for his staff's safety.
Sen. Mark Dayton, D-Minn., said his office in the Russell Senate Office Building across the street from the Capitol will be closed while Congress is in recess through Election Day, with his staff working out of his Minnesota office and in Senate space off Capitol Hill.
"I take this step out of extreme, but necessary, precaution to protect the lives and safety of my Senate staff and my Minnesota constituents, who might otherwise be visiting my Senate office in the next three weeks," he said.
Dayton said he could not give details of the intelligence report, which he said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., presented to senators at a briefing two weeks ago.
Frist told reporters later that he didn't know of any other senator who had closed their office.
"There has been no new information over the last five to six weeks," he said, referring to intelligence.
Brian Roehrkasse, a Homeland Security Department spokesman, said the department had no intelligence indicating al-Qaeda intends to target any specific U.S. locations.
Added Capitol police spokesman Michael Lauer: "There's been no specific threats against the Capitol complex. We continue to be on guard now, all the way up to the election and all the way through the inauguration."
Nonetheless, Dayton said he would advise people from his home state to avoid Capitol Hill until after the Nov. 2 election.
"I would not bring my two sons to the Capitol between now and the election," he added.
--------
DHS May Appoint Cybersecurity Chief
October 12, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Cybersecurity.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge told industry executives Tuesday he supports appointment of a senior cybersecurity chief higher in his department with broader authority and more control over spending. The department later pulled back from the idea.
Ridge told a meeting of private experts from the banking, transportation, energy and manufacturing industries that he intends to elevate the cybersecurity job to assistant secretary, which would place the job just two steps below him in the chain of command.
Homeland Security officials previously opposed that idea.
Several hours after Ridge's speech, the department said Ridge misspoke at the meeting, and the new computer security chief would be elevated somewhat but not given the broad authority of an assistant secretary.
Some lawmakers and industry experts have pressed the Bush administration in recent months to give the nation's cybersecurity chief more authority and money for protection programs. The intelligence overhaul bill that passed in the House last week would create such a role for a new assistant secretary in Homeland Security.
The previous cybersecurity chief, Amit Yoran, resigned abruptly this month, giving a single day's notice of his intention to leave. He had been in the job one year. Yoran's position as director of the department's National Cyber Security Division was at least three bureaucratic steps below Ridge.
The department has opposed strongly appointment of an assistant secretary for cybersecurity, instead consolidating responsibility for protecting both physical structures and computer networks under Assistant Secretary Robert Liscouski. Liscouski told an industry conference Tuesday in Florida that he did not believe creating another assistant secretary's job was appropriate or imminent. He defended the department's current approach as the most rational.
-------- prisons / prisoners
Hamdi Returned to Saudi Arabia
U.S. Citizen's Detention as Enemy Combatant Sparked Fierce Debate
By Jerry Markon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 12, 2004; Page A02
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23958-2004Oct11.html
Yaser Esam Hamdi arrived home in Saudi Arabia yesterday, bringing an end to a philosophical and legal battle over his confinement that helped clarify the government's power to fight the war on terrorism.
Hamdi, a U.S. citizen who was held by the military as an "enemy combatant" for almost three years, landed in Saudi Arabia aboard a U.S. military aircraft early yesterday morning, the government and Hamdi's lawyer said. He was met by U.S. officials before being released to his family.
Yaser Hamdi was captured with pro- Taliban forces in 2001.
"He was happy, exuberant, like a 5-year-old kid who had just come down and looked at the presents on Christmas Day," said Federal Public Defender Frank W. Dunham Jr., who represented Hamdi and spoke to him by cell phone on the tarmac at an airport in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. Dunham said Hamdi took off from Charleston, S.C., at 1 p.m. Sunday and landed at 6 a.m. yesterday.
Hamdi was in seclusion yesterday, his attorney said, and nobody answered the phone at his family's home despite repeated calls. The State Department said in a statement that the U.S. government "appreciates the cooperation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in facilitating this transfer."
The U.S. military captured Hamdi, 24, with pro-Taliban forces in Afghanistan in 2001. He was sent to Guantanamo Bay along with other detainees until authorities learned that he was born in Louisiana. He had been held in military brigs ever since.
Hamdi's detention in solitary confinement triggered a fierce battle that came to symbolize the larger debate over the government's anti-terror efforts, but lawyers were left yesterday to debate the legacy of his case. Prosecutors initially convinced a federal appeals court in Richmond that the military -- and not the courts -- had the sole authority to wage war and that courts should defer to battlefield judgments.
In June, the Supreme Court ruled that while the government had the authority to detain U.S. citizens as enemy combatants, Hamdi had the right to contest his detention in court. But the decision never spelled out how that challenge would work in practice -- whether Hamdi would have the same rights as other defendants, for example.
"It's clear there is authority to detain people, but otherwise the legal legacy of this case is incomplete," said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond.
Hamdi's release also means that the government never had to explain why he was detained in the first place.
A Pentagon statement said Hamdi was released because "considerations of United States national security did not require his continued detention." The statement added that no further details were available "because of operational and security considerations."
Government attorneys justified Hamdi's detention with a Defense Department declaration that he had joined a Taliban military unit, received training and acknowledged loyalty to the Taliban. Recently, the government said Hamdi would be freed because he no longer poses a threat.
Now, Hamdi intends to finish a degree in marketing he started at a university in Saudi Arabia and enjoy his time with his family. "He just wants to move on with his life," Dunham said.
The release came after a two-week delay that Dunham said was caused by questions the Saudis had raised about the agreement to free him. The agreement subjects Hamdi to a number of conditions, including travel restrictions and requirements that he renounce terrorism and his U.S. citizenship.
"The Saudis were wondering why there were all these restrictions on someone who was never charged with anything," said Dunham, who added that the government's abrupt decision to free Hamdi showed that prosecutors "didn't have a case" that would justify his status as an enemy combatant.
It was unclear yesterday what was done to break the impasse. The Saudi Embassy in Washington was closed, and a Justice Department spokesman did not return telephone calls.
But sources familiar with the negotiations said a federal judge helped speed the process by secretly ordering the government to bring Hamdi to a hearing today in Norfolk. U.S. District Judge Robert G. Doumar, who had ordered previous court hearings for Hamdi, canceled today's proceedings when he learned that Hamdi had arrived in Saudi Arabia, the sources said.
Dunham said he expects the judge to issue an order shortly that dismisses the case.
-------- POLITICS
-------- budget
Senate Passes Corporate Tax Bill
Bush Plans to Sign $143 Billion in Cuts
By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 12, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A25407-2004Oct11?language=printer
The Senate gave final approval yesterday to the most significant corporate tax legislation in nearly 20 years, sending President Bush a 650-page measure that reduces taxes for domestic manufacturers, builders and even Hollywood studios and doles out scores of tax breaks for interests ranging from tackle box makers to Native Alaskan whaling captains.
The 69 to 17 vote, taken in a rare holiday session, belied the acrimony underlying the measure, which includes $143 billion in tax breaks over 10 years, offset by loophole closures and other revenue raisers. The House passed it Thursday night by a similarly comfortable margin, 280 to 141, and White House aides say Bush will sign it into law, despite strong criticism leveled last week by Treasury Secretary John W. Snow.
Public health groups were infuriated that a $10 billion buyout for tobacco farmers was included without a provision to grant the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate cigarettes. Charitable organizations protested a revenue-raising measure that would greatly reduce the value of automobiles donated to charities.
But threatened filibusters over the tobacco provision and the bill's failure to include a tax break for employers of National Guard members and reservists fizzled yesterday. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) agreed to a final vote after Senate leaders attached her $2.5 billion Guard-and-reserve tax break to a different bill. Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) dropped his threat over the tobacco provision when he was promised a separate vote on an FDA regulation bill.
The Senate vote cleared the way for Congress to adjourn for the campaign season. After the tax bill passed, the Senate quickly approved measures to fund homeland security and military construction for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. Congress will return after the election to pass most of the bills that will fund the government this fiscal year. If House and Senate negotiators can work out compromise legislation to reform the nation's intelligence programs, then lawmakers may be called back briefly to ratify the deal shortly before the Nov. 2 election.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) said he expects to know within two days whether Congress will finish work on the intelligence bill in time for enactment before the election.
Adjournment had been held up for days by legislative brushfires that erupted over the corporate tax bill. Proponents hailed it as a job creation measure that would simplify the nation's Byzantine tax laws for multinational corporations, address long-festering grievances and clamp down on loopholes, such as one that allows companies to escape taxation by reincorporating at a post office box in an offshore tax haven.
"This bill is basically about manufacturing jobs," said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa). "Let the record be clear, this bill is fair. This bill is balanced."
But critics -- including budget watchdogs and liberal activists -- decried what they saw as a cornucopia of special-interest tax cuts that would complicate the tax code, favor companies doing business overseas and ultimately worsen the budget deficit. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) pronounced it "disgraceful" and "a classic example of the special interests prevailing over the people's interest."
Ron Field, vice president of public policy for Volunteers of America, a national volunteer social service program, said: "Congress is turning its back on the very service organizations it claims to support through faith-based and community initiatives, while providing billions of dollars in new tax breaks to wealthy corporations."
The tax legislation culminates a two-year effort to repeal an export subsidy ruled illegal by the World Trade Organization. That ruling allowed the European Union to impose sanctions last spring that tack 12 percent onto the cost of a variety of U.S. exports. But wary of raising taxes on the nation's ailing manufacturers, Congress hoped to replace that $5 billion-a-year subsidy with tax cuts to ease the pain.
The centerpiece tax cut -- worth $76.5 billion over 10 years -- provides tax deductions that would effectively lower the corporate income tax rate from 35 percent to 32 percent for U.S. "producers," defined broadly to include traditional manufacturers, Hollywood studios, architectural and engineering firms, home builders, and oil and gas drillers, among others.
Also included are $42.6 billion worth of tax cuts for overseas profits, including a 10-year $3.3 billion temporary tax holiday allowing companies with vast stores of offshore revenue to bring it home under a discount tax rate of 5.25 percent.
Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), one of that provision's champions, predicted it would result in a $300 billion cash infusion into the U.S. economy. But in a letter to Grassley last week, Snow protested that the tax holiday favors foreign operations over domestic businesses and "would not produce any substantial economic benefits."
Beyond those centerpieces are hundreds of smaller measures that benefit restaurant owners and Hollywood producers; makers of bows, arrows and sonar fish finders; NASCAR track owners; and importers of Chinese ceiling fans. Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), an owner of the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team, voted "present" yesterday in deference to a provision favoring sports franchise owners.
Under the bill, foreign gamblers would no longer have to report dog-track and horse-track winnings for taxation. Farmers would receive new tax breaks on ethanol and distressed livestock sold during droughts. Native Alaskan whaling captains could deduct some expenses as charitable contributions. Small oil and gas drillers, already buoyed by record fuel prices, would receive new tax breaks for marginal wells. Railroads would garner a special credit for maintaining their tracks.
General Electric alone could reap tax breaks measured in billions from two provisions: One, costing $7.9 billion over 10 years, that would allow companies with large overseas manufacturing and financial services operations to mingle subsidiary profits for tax purposes, and another that would reduce taxation by $995 million over 10 years on income from shipping and the leasing of aircraft.
A $5 billion measure to temporarily allow residents of states without income taxes to deduct their sales taxes from their federal income tax bill helped win votes in Texas and Florida.
"On issue after issue, page after page, [the bill] puts the interest of the big corporations above the public interests, above the hopes and dreams and everyday needs of the American middle class," said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.).
Grassley accused such critics of grandstanding yesterday, since he said virtually every senator had approached him for a pet tax break.
"Nearly every member raised narrow interest provisions," he said. "So if there's some fault, we all share it. We all do it."
Grassley emphasized the bill's loophole closures, the most stringent measures approved by Congress since the corporate scandals of 2001 and 2002.
The legislation also includes a controversial measure, sought by the Bush administration, that would allow private debt collectors to begin collecting overdue federal taxes and pocket as much as 25 percent of the debt. The measure is expected to bring in nearly $1.4 billion over 10 years, while granting collection agencies $339 million over that time.
Meanwhile, the Senate also sent to the president a $33 billion measure to fund the Department of Homeland Security in 2005, and a $10 billion bill to pay for the construction of military bases and housing.
Attached to the annual military construction bill is $11.5 billion to aid businesses, farms, individuals and government installations damaged by the recent Florida hurricanes, and $2.9 billion for farmers and ranchers hurt by droughts and other weather-related problems in 2003 and 2004.
The bill also includes authority for government loan guarantees of as much as $18 billion for a new Trans-Alaska natural gas pipeline.
Staff writer Dan Morgan contributed to this report.
-------- propaganda wars
Family's TV Clout in Bush's Corner
Sinclair Orders 62 Stations to Air Anti-Kerry Film
By Howard Kurtz and Frank Ahrens
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, October 12, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A25406-2004Oct11?language=printer
Few Americans have heard of David D. Smith, a low-key Baltimore businessman with a million-dollar salary. Or, for that matter, of his three brothers, Frederick, Robert and J. Duncan.
But the four men, while shunning the media spotlight, have assembled the nation's largest collection of television stations, a family-run operation that reflects their conservative views and time and again has sided with President Bush.
After the 2001 terrorist attacks, the Smiths' company, Sinclair Broadcasting Group Inc., ordered its local anchors to read editorials backing the administration against al Qaeda. Earlier this year, Sinclair sent a vice president who has called John F. Kerry a liar to Iraq to find good news stories that it said were being overlooked by the biased liberal press. And the Smith brothers and their executives have made 97 percent of their political donations during the 2004 election cycle to Bush and the Republicans.
Now Sinclair's decision to order its 62 stations to carry a movie attacking Kerry's Vietnam record is drawing political fire -- not least from the Democratic National Committee, which plans to file a federal complaint today accusing the company of election-law violations. "Sinclair's owners aren't interested in news, they're interested in pro-Bush propaganda," said DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe, whose complaint will accuse the firm of making an in-kind contribution to the Bush campaign.
How the Smith brothers turned a handful of stations they took over in 1986 into a national chain of network affiliates is a testament not only to their ingenuity but to relaxed federal restrictions that critics say allow such companies to amass too much market power. David Smith, 53, who once founded a firm that made transmitters for UHF stations, now controls stations from Buffalo to Sacramento, including 20 Fox affiliates, eight from ABC, four from NBC and three from CBS.
In the four days since the Los Angeles Times disclosed that Sinclair has told its stations to preempt regular programming and air "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal," by former Washington Times reporter and Vietnam veteran Carlton Sherwood, industry executives have said they cannot think of a precedent involving a major television chain.
"This is an abuse of the public trust," Federal Communications Commissioner Michael J. Copps, a Democrat, said in a statement yesterday. "And it is proof positive of media consolidation run amok when one owner can use the public airwaves to blanket the country with its political ideology -- whether liberal or conservative."
Eighteen Democratic senators, led by Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), sent a letter to the FCC yesterday requesting an investigation into Sinclair's decision "to air such a blatantly partisan attack in lieu of regular programming."
Josh Silver, executive director of the nonprofit advocacy group Free Press, said: "Sinclair is putting their political interests ahead of journalistic standards by calling this anti-Kerry documentary news, which it's not. . . . It's reprehensible at best, illegal at worst."
But Heritage Foundation media analyst Mark Tapscott called it a free speech issue, saying: "Why are we even thinking about limiting what a media organization can publish? There are lots of things in the world that are unfair."
Democratic officials acknowledge that the Federal Election Commission is unlikely to act on their complaint before Election Day. News is exempt from federal equal-time rules, said Andrew Jay Schwartzman, president of the Media Access Project, a nonprofit public interest law firm. And even if "Stolen Honor" were deemed not to be news, Kerry would not necessarily be entitled to equal time because he, not Bush, is featured in the film.
If the law remains murky, Sinclair's political philosophy is anything but. Mark E. Hyman, the company vice president who went to Iraq in search of uplifting news, is an unabashed Bush supporter and Republican Party donor who delivers a daily commentary on Sinclair stations. He told viewers last month that Kerry had enlisted in the Navy to avoid the draft, accusing him of a "pattern of lies, embellishments and exaggerations" and calling the Democratic presidential candidate "just another example of a politician who just cannot be honest. One who twists the facts to support his lust for elected office."
Hyman told The Washington Post over the weekend that the broadcast networks refused to air "Stolen Honor" unless someone from the Kerry campaign would come on to respond to it. "What they've effectively done is to give veto power over their editorial decisions to the Kerry campaign." The company's Web site yesterday urged viewers to call the Kerry camp and urge the senator to agree to an interview with Sinclair. Company executives did not return calls seeking comment yesterday.
Hyman dismissed the criticism last night, telling CNN that the program "doesn't even exist yet" and "we haven't even finalized a format on this." He said the film is newsworthy because it features two prisoners of war who underwent "horrific abuses" and "have a right to be heard" about Kerry's conduct, which took place in 1971.
The company sparked criticism last spring when it refused to carry an edition of "Nightline" on which Ted Koppel read the names of all Americans who had been killed in Iraq, accusing the ABC anchor of an antiwar agenda. Sinclair also yanked ABC's "Politically Incorrect" after host Bill Maher made controversial remarks about the U.S. war on terror.
Sherwood, the filmmaker, is also no stranger to controversy. He once worked for Washington's Channel 9, which in 1984 apologized for his four-part series questioning the finances of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund and donated $50,000 to the fund. Sherwood has said he felt vilified by Kerry's antiwar comments and believes the candidate branded all Vietnam veterans as "war criminals."
The Smith brothers have given $121,000 to the Republican Party since 1999, and each of them has contributed the maximum $2,000 to the 2004 Bush campaign. David Smith also gave $1,000 to then-vice president Al Gore in 1999.
Sinclair provided Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. the cut-rate use of a luxury helicopter during the Republican's 2002 race. The helicopter came from an aviation firm whose sole director was J. Duncan Smith. A year earlier, as a Maryland congressman, Ehrlich sent the FCC a letter urging action on a Sinclair request to buy a dozen TV stations. An Ehrlich spokesman at the time called the letter "garden-variety constituent service" and said the governor's failure to disclose the helicopter rides was an oversight.
The company has been a leader in the drive to loosen television regulations, persuading a federal court in 2002 to strike down the FCC rule that barred a company from owning more than one station in most U.S. cities. That has allowed Sinclair to maintain these so-called "duopolies" in 21 of its 39 television markets. Sinclair argues that the restrictions, intended to promote diversity, are outdated in the cable and Internet era.
In Baltimore, Sinclair owns Fox affiliate WBFF and programs the WB affiliate, WNUV, through a local marketing agreement, which critics assail as a loophole in FCC rules. WNUV, like four other stations affiliated with Sinclair, is owned by Cunningham Broadcasting Corp., a company in which the Smith brothers' mother, Carolyn, has an ownership stake.
Sinclair, which had $739 million in operating revenue last year -- up from $72 million a decade earlier -- began in 1971 with a single UHF station, WBFF, launched by the men's father, Julian Sinclair Smith.
Little is known about the views of David Smith, who told the Baltimore Sun in a rare 1995 interview that he and his brothers try "to maintain as much anonymity as we can."
But Smith provided a glimpse of his philosophy during the flap over "Nightline," when Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) called the company's move "unpatriotic" and Smith responded in a letter:
"No organization more fully supports our military than Sinclair. In no way was our decision intended to show any disrespect to the brave members of our military, particularly those who have sacrificed their lives in service of our country. To the contrary, our decision was based on a desire to stop the misuse of their sacrifice to support an antiwar position with which most, if not all, of these soldiers would not have agreed."
--------
Kerry Takes Early Lead in Newspaper Endorsements
By Brian Faler and Jo Becker
Tuesday, October 12, 2004; Page A08
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25745-2004Oct11.html
This just in: John F. Kerry popular with editorial writers.
The Democratic presidential nominee has jumped out to an early lead in the race for newspaper endorsements, especially from those in the all-important swing states.
Kerry has won the support of nine papers in closely contested states, while four are backing President Bush. Both of Philadelphia's major newspapers -- the Inquirer and the Daily News -- have endorsed Kerry. So has the Oregonian, which backed Bush in 2000. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Detroit Free Press, the Daily Star in Tucson, the Portland Press Herald in Maine and both of the big papers in Seattle -- the Times and the Post-Intelligencer -- have announced their support for Kerry.
Bush, meanwhile, has won endorsements from the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the Columbian in Vancouver, Wash., the Pueblo Chieftain in Colorado and the Courier in Findlay, Ohio. Most of the rest of his endorsements, according to an ongoing survey by the trade publication Editor & Publisher, have come from smaller papers in uncontested states. Among them: the Tulsa World; the Sun in Lowell, Mass.; Alabama's Mobile Register; and the Amarillo Globe-News in Texas.
Overall, nationwide, Kerry is up 11 papers to eight. Or, if you want to measure in terms of circulation, he's winning 2,534,377 to 637,187.
A Question of Qualifications
As Election Day nears and the memory of 2000 seems to become stronger, both sides are increasingly focusing on balloting. Yesterday, it was the Democratic National Committee and the Kerry-Edwards campaign, which called the attempt by a former executive director of the Nevada Republican Party to disqualify thousands of Democrats in Clark County a "major attempt to disenfranchise voters."
Dan Burdish, now a Las Vegas businessman, sought to disqualify 17,000 Democratic voters he said were on the county's "inactive" list, meaning they do not live at the address they registered or they did not respond to a mail card.
Clark County Registrar Larry Lomax said yesterday that although Nevada law allows residents to formally challenge a voter's eligibility, Burdish did not meet the law's requirements: The person making the challenge must live in the same precinct as the voter being challenged, and the challenger must have "personal knowledge" of a voter's ineligibility.
Lomax said he will not accept the challenges, which would have forced the voters in question to produce ID at the polls, in part because "you don't want to do anything to intimidate voters."
Postscript
The Bush administration will permit nonpartisan voter registration drives at hospitals and clinics run by the Indian Health Service, according to Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.).
Bingaman contacted Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson after reading in The Washington Post that the federal program had prohibited such activity at some New Mexico sites.
In a news release, Bingaman said that although he is pleased that the administration is reversing course, "it is unfortunate" the decision comes too late to make much of a difference, given that the deadline for registering in New Mexico and elsewhere has passed.
Quotable
"You know, Josh Burkeen is our rep down here in the southeast area. . . . He was telling me lesbianism is so rampant in some of the schools in southeast Oklahoma that they'll only let one girl go to the bathroom. Now think about it. Think about that issue. How is it that that's happened to us?"
-- Tom Coburn, the Republican Senate candidate in Oklahoma, at a town meeting Aug. 31 in Hugo.
Staff writer Lois Romano in Tulsa contributed to this report.
-------- us politics
Bush's Domestic Policy Gap
By Dana Milbank
Tuesday, October 12, 2004; Page A21
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25311-2004Oct11.html
President Bush, going into tomorrow night's debate over domestic issues with the Democratic challenger, Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), will be defending the smallest domestic agenda a first-term president has had in at least 44 years.
That's the conclusion of a new Brookings Institution study by Paul C. Light, a professor at New York University's Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service. Light, comparing Bush with his eight most recent predecessors going back to John F. Kennedy, finds that the incumbent ranks last in the number of "major legislative proposals" on his agenda.
Bush largely continues a pattern of shrinking domestic agendas, in part because tax cuts have dried up funds for new initiatives. Kennedy and Johnson had 53 major domestic proposals in the 1961-64 term; Nixon had 40 in his first term; Carter, 41; Reagan, 30; George H. W. Bush, 25; Clinton, 33; and the current president, 18. That means Bush's agenda is less than half as extensive as Nixon's from 1969 to 1972 and not quite two-thirds as big as Reagan's in 1981-84. Light calculates that Bush has proposed only five "large new" programs.
Light grants that Bush's few domestic agenda items have been "undeniably bold": tax cuts, education legislation, prescription drugs under Medicare, a homeland security department and proposed Social Security changes. But he says "it is not clear" that the emphasis on terrorism is responsible for the paucity of Bush domestic proposals -- even before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Bush had the fewest first-year, first-time proposals by a "substantial margin."
Bush's trademark, as president and Texas governor, has been to emphasize a few key policies rather than a lengthy wish list. Although government spending has increased rapidly on his watch, he has pledged his commitment to a smaller federal government. Also, Light points out that agendas have shrunk overall because the 1981 tax cuts took away funds for potential new programs, a pattern accelerated by Bush's tax cuts and the federal government's swing from surplus to deficit.
Light's criteria for a "major" proposal, used in two previous books on the topic in 1984 and 1999, is that it must be mentioned in a president's State of the Union address or similar message to Congress, must be drafted as a legislative proposal and must be included in Congressional Quarterly's coverage of major legislation.
Primaris, the one-plane airline the White House has hired for the suspected purpose of eliminating the White House press corps, continues its descent into aviation history. On one flight, a television news producer was disconcerted to feel something fall in his lap on takeoff: It was a sheared-off screw of unknown origin. On another flight, a jetway rammed the plane, cracking the plastic inside of a forward door, which was patched with duct tape.
Then, last week, in Akron, Ohio, the pilot announced some "bad news": The starter in the starboard engine would not start. While a mechanic removed engine parts and put them on the tarmac, and some White House aides were quickly put on a cargo plane back to Washington, the press corps was taken to a nearby bar until a backup plane, flown by ATA, got them on their way -- six hours late. Some reporters rented cars to drive back to Washington or to stay overnight in Akron.
Listeners were puzzled when President Bush, in Friday's debate, said he would not appoint a Supreme Court justice who supported the 1857 Dred Scott decision justifying slavery. Nobody was expecting Bush might appoint a pro-slavery judge, so the remark seemed to be another case of quirky Bush speak, as when he referred to urban brownfields as "sore spots."
But, in fact, the Dred Scott reference was something of a coded message to abortion opponents, who have long likened the injustice of the case to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision on abortion. The National Right to Life Committee has said the reasoning in the two cases is "nearly identical" and that "unborn children are now the same 'beings of an inferior order' that the justices considered blacks to be over a century ago." The Christian Medical Association has urged Bush "to emulate President Abraham Lincoln's opposition to the Dred Scott rationale."
Will the "guy" from Ground Zero please identify himself? Bush has had some difficulty with his recollection, used to finish almost every speech about his moment on Sept. 14, 2001, atop the rubble of the twin towers. Back in February of this year, as the Web site Salon documented, Bush remembered "a guy pointing at me and saying, 'Don't let me down.' " In May, the figure became "a guy in a hard hat" and then "the firefighter." In June, he became an ensemble of "tired firefighters and police and rescue workers," who said, collectively, "Don't let us down." In July, it was "a fireman or a policeman, I can't remember which one, looking me in the eyes." Presently, Bush added to the tale, saying the guy "grabbed me by the arm." He then added "bloodshot eyes and sweat pouring" to the portrait.
In August, Bush said the fellow, "a firefighter or a policeman," was "looking through the rubble for one of his buddies." The "buddy" morphed into "a loved one" and "somebody that he worked with," then back into a "buddy." By September, Bush had dropped the buddy but developed new recollections about the guy. "I remember a guy grabbed me by the arm, a big old burly firefighter, I guess he was a firefighter. He said: 'Do not let me down.' "
--------
Congress Departs with a Pile of Dead Bills
October 12, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/politics/politics-congress.html
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress left behind an unusually long list of stalled or dead bills -- from energy and transportation to health care and federal spending -- as lawmakers went home to ask voters to re-elect them next month.
To be sure, Democrats and Republicans had some successes this year -- such as expanding free trade, bolstering national defense and providing popular tax, hurricane and drought relief.
But working in closely divided chambers, they had problems finding much common ground on a host of fronts as they jockeyed for position amid a sharply divided electorate.
``The second session of the (Republican-led) 108th Congress has been the least productive that we have seen in many years,'' said James Thurber of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at the American University in Washington.
The Senate left on Monday for the Nov. 2 elections after giving final congressional approval to a massive corporate tax bill. The House of Representatives cleared out on Saturday.
Going into the election, Republicans hold a slim majority in both chambers with 51 of 100 Senate seats and 227 of 435 House seats. Thirty-four Senate seats are up for election this year along with all House seats.
``Pretty pathetic'' is the assessment of Congress' performance this year by congressional scholar Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute.
Bruce Josten, a lobbyist and top official at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, pinned the problem largely on increased partisanship, saying Democrats and Republicans ``just don't like each other.''
SPY AGENCIES AWAIT CHANGES
Congress has creaked with gridlock much of the year with Democrats calling Republicans conservative ``extremists'' and Republicans calling Democrats liberal ``obstructionists.''
Among the matters on which they have failed to agree: comprehensive energy and transportation bills; a fund to compensate victims of asbestos; bankruptcy, welfare and tort reform.
Congress also rejected a bid, backed by President Bush, to amend the Constitution to ban gay marriage, and an effort, pushed by Democrats, to increase the minimum wage.
Under pressure from gun rights advocates, Congress also allowed a 10-year ban on assault weapons to lapse, despite strong public support for the prohibition.
In addition, to the delight of the U.S. pharmaceutical industry, a bipartisan effort to permit the importation of less expensive drugs from Canada died.
While the 2004 record of the 108th Congress is essentially complete, lawmakers hope to be back for a few days before the elections if they can reach a House-Senate compromise and pass a sweeping measure to overhaul U.S. spy agencies and create a post of national intelligence director.
Then they are to return shortly after the elections to wrap up must-pass federal spending bills that were supposed to have been finished by the Oct. 1 start of this fiscal year.
Any time lawmakers are on Capitol Hill they can inject new life into a dead bill. But barring what would be somewhat of a legislative miracle few, if any, resurrections are foreseen.
``This year has been a treading-water year, a do-no-harm year'' for Republicans, said Ethan Siegal of The Washington Exchange, a firm that tracks politics and legislation for investors. ``Republicans are happy to get out of town.''
Republicans plan to run for re-election largely on their record of the past four years, which includes: passing Bush tax cuts, education reform, a controversial Medicare prescription drug bill and increased homeland security after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The elections are expected to produce another closely divided Congress, which should mean more gridlock next year.
-------- OTHER
-------- environment
Images of Mount St. Helens Show Perforated Rock
Associated Press
Tuesday, October 12, 2004; Page A02
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25360-2004Oct11.html
MOUNT ST. HELENS, Wash., Oct. 11 -- Mount St. Helens vented more steam Monday as new thermal images revealed that parts of the lava dome in its crater are piping hot, a sign that magma continues to rise within the volcano.
Scientists said an area on the south side of the old dome, where a large uplift of rock has been growing, now appears perforated as if magma has been hammering at the surface.
"The magma is not just pushing up but pushing out," John Pallister, a U.S. Geological Survey geologist, said at a news conference. He said scientists believe the magma is less than a half-mile below the surface.
Fast-moving magma would cause greater concern because explosive gases would not have time to dissipate. A team in Denver is evaluating aerial photos to gauge how quickly the magma is rising.
The alert level remains at "volcano advisory," but scientists have said an eruption could occur with very little warning.
Pallister said the most likely scenario remains an explosion with a few inches of ash spreading within a 10-mile radius of the crater. Such an event could happen in days, weeks or months -- or not at all, he said.
Scientists believe the chances are slim of a larger eruption such as the one on May 18, 1980, that killed 57 people. But Pallister was cautious nonetheless.
"I'm a fairly conservative guy, and I don't like a one in 10 chance," he said.
Any eruption would likely be vertical instead of the devastating horizontal blast that leveled old-growth trees for miles in 1980.
Willie Scott, a U.S. Geological Survey geologist, said earlier Monday that temperatures in some spots on the dome surface could be as high as 400 to 570 degrees Fahrenheit.
Scientists could not get precise temperatures for the hottest parts of the lava dome -- on the south side -- because the instruments were not calibrated high enough, said Jeff Wynn, chief scientist for volcano hazards at the USGS's Cascades Volcano Observatory.
"They didn't expect it to get that hot," Wynn said.
-------- genetics
English Lab Ready to Clone Embryos for Stem Cells
October 12, 2004
By STEPHEN S. HALL
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/12/science/12stem.html?pagewanted=all&position=
NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE, England - Every year, about 500 women come to the Newcastle Fertility Center, an assisted reproduction clinic in the heart of this northern industrial British city.
They walk under a large, exuberant sign in primary colors that reads "Life" (the "f" in the shape of a chromosome), past a cafe called Twist (the "i" in the shape of a double helix), amid throngs of children parading to the nearby science museum, and then into the bright yellow Life Bioscience Center building. Usually they come in hope of conceiving a child, but beginning recently, the patients have been offered an unusual option: the possibility of donating egg cells for the creation of cloned human embryos, which researchers here hope to use to isolate human embryonic stem cells. So far, the laboratory director says, most patients are willing.
In early August, the British government put Newcastle on the map of controversial world laboratories when the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority, which oversees reproductive technology here, issued a license allowing scientists to pursue human cloning experiments. Although British law forbids use of cloning technology to create a baby (known as reproductive cloning), legislation passed by Parliament in 2001 allows human cloning for research.
The Newcastle team is following the lead set by Dr. Woo Suk Hwang and Dr. Shin Yong Moon of South Korea, who in February startled the world with their report that they had cloned a human embryo and used it to generate stem cells. The work demonstrated an important principle but also revealed the logistical difficulties: 16 women donated 242 eggs to obtain the single line of stem cells.
On a recent morning, Dr. Alison Murdoch discussed the center's ethical safeguards for egg donation and explained how the British government could approve a form of research that, in the United States, has provoked much Congressional debate but no legislation to date.
"It's the will of Parliament, it's the will of the Department of Health and it's the will of the public that this work go ahead," said Dr. Murdoch, who is among several dozen experts convening in Washington today for a two-day symposium on cloning at the National Academy of Sciences.
If the United Nations votes to condemn all forms of cloning in the fall, England will ignore the nonbinding measure and continue the experiments because of the potential importance of the medical research, Dr. Murdoch said in an interview in her office, decorated with photographs of her four children and thank-you cards from children born through assisted reproduction.
In the process of cloning, scientists remove the genetic material from a human egg cell, replace it with the DNA from another person and prod the cell to start dividing like a normal embryo. The embryo, if implanted in a womb, could in theory develop into a clone of the person whose DNA was used.
There is widespread consensus that human reproduction through cloning technology should be forbidden. The fault line in the debate runs through the issue of so-called therapeutic cloning, in which researchers, including the Newcastle group, propose to use the same technology to create an early embryo, called a blastocyst, and harvest stem cells after about five days of development.
Such stem cells might be used to develop therapies for illnesses like Parkinson's disease and diabetes, and may also provide clues to the development of these diseases. This approach, in theory, would also provide stem cells that would be immunologically compatible with the donor of the adult cell, just as transplant tissues like hearts must match organ recipients to avoid rejection. For an old industrial city known elsewhere for that most lumpish of 18th-century technologies, coal, Newcastle may seem an unlikely place to be at the forefront of 21st-century biology. But the location of Dr. Murdoch's office, behind the reception area of a busy in vitro fertilization clinic and two floors above a modern stem cell laboratory where nuclear transfer experiments can be conducted, suggests the convergence of these two research fields and helps explain why the first British license was awarded to this group. As a gynecologist and in vitro fertilization expert, Dr. Murdoch is a clinician with long experience dealing with issues like infertility, embryos and informed consent.
"If you're actually going to talk about getting eggs and embryos, and only the scientists are talking about it," she said, "then you've lost that clinical touch. And I don't think it's by chance alone that I hold the first license to do this work in the U.K. I'm a clinician, not a scientist."
Since the beginning of September, a special nurse, who is purposefully not on the research team, has begun to ask patients at the Newcastle clinic if they would be willing to donate their eggs. In an effort not to compromise the reproductive chances of the patients, the staff proposes to use only eggs that fail to become fertilized during in vitro fertilization.
"We are actually now getting people to consent to give eggs," Dr. Murdoch said. "And the majority of people who are asked are happy to give unfertilized eggs to the research."
Miodrag Stojkovic, the scientist who will do the actual cloning, said he had not performed any actual nuclear transfers yet. But he said he was evaluating the quality of about 20 human eggs that had already been donated and hoped to begin cloning within days.
"The biggest problem in this field is logistical," he said. "The number of eggs is the most important factor in whether we succeed or not." He estimated that the group might ultimately have access to as many as 800 to 1,000 donated eggs in a year.
If anything, the decision by the Newcastle group to use only unfertilized eggs may make their task more difficult. "Whether or not those will work is still a question," said Dr. George Q. Daley, a stem cell researcher at Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston. "Those eggs are not optimal."
"We're making it very difficult for ourselves," Dr. Murdoch admitted, adding, with a reference to the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority, "but we consider, and H.F.E.A. considered, that that was the best ethical use of eggs at the present time."
The agency may soon allow another lab to begin similar work. At the end of September, Dr. Ian Wilmut, the Scottish scientist who led the team that cloned Dolly the sheep in 1997, applied for a license to experiment with human cloning.
Dr. Daley, the Harvard Medical School researcher, applauded the British regulatory mechanism that allows such research to proceed under strict control. By contrast, he said, the United States government had "abdicated any authority on oversight" of cloning experiments. Dr. Daley said his group, for example, is seeking institutional approval from Harvard authorities to pursue therapeutic cloning experiments, which are not banned in the United States, but cannot be done with federal financing.
"The English system, through the H.F.E.A., has clearly defined that the government there has a strong interest in the science, but wants to maintain a strong position in oversight," Dr. Daley said. "That's the way it should be done."
Opponents of cloning technology argue that all forms of human cloning should be banned because the refinement of research techniques may ultimately help maverick scientists make cloned babies. When the South Korean researchers announced their cloning achievement last February, Dr. Leon Kass, chairman of President's Bush's bioethics council, told reporters, "Today, cloned blastocysts for research, tomorrow cloned blastocysts for babies."
But Dr. Murdoch firmly rejected the notion that, if successful, the Newcastle group might technologically enable less scrupulous practitioners. "I don't see a slippery slope," she said, "because the technology to do reproductive cloning in mammals is there, and I don't think that anything we do is going to significantly change the development of that technology. What stops it is that the law says we can't do it, and it's banned."
Although opposition to therapeutic cloning in England is more muted than in the United States, it is not absent.
Josephine Quintavalle, director of the anti-abortion group Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said the Newcastle application was vague and might not meet the requirements of British law. As a result, she said some groups were assessing the possibility of supporting a lawsuit to challenge the license.
Dr. Murdoch said she could never convince abortion opponents of the wisdom of therapeutic cloning, but bristled at the notion that the moral views of some could deny lifesaving options to others.
She also offered a kind of moral "thought experiment" for people who would like to see medical benefits from cloning, but also feel unease about creating embryos for research purposes:
"To those people who say a life is a life is a life, ask them this question," she said. "There is a house, and their 2-year-old child is asleep in bed upstairs, and in their basement they have 10 embryos that are cryo-stored. The house catches fire, and they can go and save either their child upstairs or their embryos in the basement, but not both. Which would they go to?
"I can pretty well guarantee, certainly in the U.K. audience, that 100 percent would say, 'I'll save my child.' They'll not let their child burn to death in order to save 10 embryos that are cryo-stored."
--------
Christopher Reeve, 1952-2004
A Leading Man for Spinal Cord Research
By Joe Holley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 12, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23222-2004Oct11.html
Christopher Reeve, who brought a comic book hero to life in four "Superman" movies and who became a real-life crusader for medical research after a paralyzing, near-fatal horseback-riding accident, died Sunday.
Reeve, 52, had gone into a coma Saturday at his home in Pound Ridge, N.Y., after having a heart attack during treatment for an infected pressure wound, a skin ulcer common to those confined to bed or unable to move on their own. He was transported to Northern Westchester Hospital but did not regain consciousness, his publicist, Colleen Dermody, said.
Despite his paralysis, Reeve used his celebrity status during the past nine years to mobilize funding and support for spinal cord injury research. Last Tuesday, he was at the Rehabilitation Institute in Chicago speaking on behalf of the institute's work. In Friday's presidential debate, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) mentioned Reeve as a friend and fellow advocate for embryonic stem cell research.
The actor believed that such innovative medical procedures would allow him and millions of others with spinal cord injuries to someday walk again. He was an outspoken critic of President Bush's 2001 decision to limit federal funding to existing stem cell lines.
"Perhaps it's my job to offend some scientists," Reeve told the Lasker Foundation last year after receiving the group's annual award for public service. "I'm not asking them to be reckless or unprofessional, but I do want to reinforce a sense of urgency."
The Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, based in New Jersey, has awarded more than $46.5 million in research funds to neuroscientists.
Christopher Reeve was born Sept. 25, 1952, in Manhattan to Barbara Johnson, a journalist, and Franklin Reeve, a writer and professor. His parents divorced when he was young, and he and his brother moved with their mother to Princeton, N.J., when she remarried.
From his early teens, he knew he wanted to be an actor, nothing else. By 16, he was a member of Actors' Equity and soon after acquired an agent.
Reeve received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University in 1974 but spent his senior year at the Juilliard School for Drama in New York City, where one of his teachers was Oscar-winner John Houseman. He took a role in the TV soap opera "Love of Life" to pay for a second year at Juilliard but dropped out of school when his soap opera character, a heartless bigamist named Ben Harper, assumed a larger role in the ongoing story.
In 1975, Reeve landed his first Broadway role, in "A Matter of Gravity" with Katharine Hepburn. The play -- and Reeve -- received mixed reviews. He told Newsday that he learned much from working with Hepburn.
"I'd always thought of acting as a way to lose yourself, disappear into a part and thus find a kind of freedom," he said. "She taught me that quite the opposite is supposed to happen. You must bring your own convictions, things you really love and hate to the character, and then adjust after that."
After the play closed, Reeve moved to California and wrangled a bit part in his first film, a submarine disaster movie called "Gray Lady Down."
When producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind bought the rights in 1974 to make a Superman movie, they had assumed they would find a "bankable" star to play the lead but had no such success. By mid-1976, they had hired Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman to play supporting roles and had decided they could risk going with an unknown Superman.
At first, the handsome, young actor wasn't interested, but after reading the script, he changed his mind. The film's director, Richard Donner, invited Reeve to London for a screen test, and the actor spent two weeks preparing.
During 18 months of filming, beginning in March 1977, Reeve transformed himself physically and mentally into the Man of Steel.
"What makes Superman a hero is not that he has power, but that he has the wisdom and maturity to use the power wisely," Reeve noted in the 1978 book "The Making of Superman" by David Michael Petrou. "From an acting point of view, that's how I approach the part."
"Superman" opened Dec. 15, 1978, and was an immediate success.
"Reeve's charm and assurance save the show from the potentially unfortunate consequences of epic pretensions," Gary Arnold wrote in The Washington Post. "Reeve is such a skillful and discreetly ingratiating actor that he transforms the burden into a cheerful light workout, finessing his incredible identities as deftly as Superman might divert a runaway locomotive."
The movie's success made the 26-year-old actor one of Hollywood's hottest. He took his acting seriously and often sought to play against type. He turned down a million-dollar offer to play the lead role in "American Gigolo" but accepted slightly more than $500,000 to play a love-struck time traveler in a small picture called "Somewhere in Time" (1980) with Jane Seymour.
When Superman II opened in the United States in 1981, it set a record by grossing more than $5 million on a single day, June 20. Most critics liked the Superman sequel as well -- and they liked Reeve.
Throughout the 1980s, Reeve struggled to, as he put it, "escape the cape." He appeared on stage on Broadway in 1980 in Lanford Wilson's "Fifth of July," in which he played a gay, embittered veteran who lost his legs in the Vietnam war.
Reeve went on to star in "Superman III" in 1983 and four years later "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace." He also starred in "Deathtrap," (1982) opposite Michael Caine, and "Street Smart" (1987), with Morgan Freeman, and played in Merchant-Ivory's Oscar-nominated "Remains of the Day" (1993) with Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson.
Although the Superman films earned $300 million at the box office and made Reeve a global star, his career began to falter in the 1990s. He found himself appearing in made-for-TV movies and such instantly forgettable efforts as the 1995 remake of the horror film "Village of the Damned."
A month after the movie's release, on May 27, 1995, he was thrown from a horse during an equestrian event in Culpeper, Va. The horse balked at a rail jump and pitched Reeve forward. Reeve landed on his head and suffered multiple injuries, including two shattered vertebrae, resulting in a C2 spinal cord injury. He stopped breathing for three minutes, and the injury blocked almost all neural communication between his brain and his body.
Doctors initially predicted that Reeve would never have feeling or movement below his head, and the actor told Barbara Walters in a television interview that he considered suicide. He credited his wife, Dana, with insisting that he not give up.
Reeve, who had been politically active before his accident, became an advocate for stem-cell research, therapeutic cloning and increased funding for spinal cord injury research. With his wife, he opened the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Resource Center, a facility in Short Hills, N.J., that helps paralyzed people live more independently.
"Obviously, he did a tremendous job in furthering the cure, but he also was fixated on helping those with disabilities today, pending the wonderful arrival of that cure, which could be many years off," said Michael Deland, chairman of the National Organization on Disability. Reeve served as co-chairman of the organization.
In 1996, Reeve moved an Academy Award audience to tears with a call for more films about serious social issues. He also continued acting.
In his first major role since the paralysis, he directed and acted in a 1998 TV remake of the Alfred Hitchcock thriller "Rear Window." Last year, he appeared in the TV series "Smallville" as Dr. Swann, who helps the young Clark Kent learn more about his origins. He directed a made-for-TV movie, "The Brooke Ellison Story," about a young quadriplegic, that is scheduled to air this month.
According to his official Web site, he appeared in 17 feature films, 12 made-for-TV movies and about 150 plays. He also hosted numerous documentaries and TV specials.
Despite rigorous therapy, Reeve experienced virtually no improvement in his condition during the first five years after the accident, but after beginning an experimental regimen at Washington University in St. Louis in 1999, he experienced some movement in his left index finger. Whether the therapy led to Reeve's improvement is not known, although Reeve believed that it did. So did millions of others living with paralysis, who viewed the actor as a hero and an inspiration.
In addition to his wife, Dana Morosini Reeve, survivors include an 11-year-old son, Will Reeve; two children, Matthew Reeve, 25, and Alexandra Reeve, 21, from his relationship with former model Gae Exton; his parents; and a brother.
-------- ACTIVISTS
[One thing this article doesn't mention: The irradiation of Indigenous nations such as the Western Shoshone, whose sacred ground was turned into the Nevada test site.]
Indigenous Peoples Call for Elimination of Columbus Day
October 12, 2004
MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota, (ENS)
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/oct2004/2004-10-12-09.asp
"The settler governments and peoples of North, Central and South America who occupy the lands of various Indigenous nations of peoples will again celebrate with holiday parades and festivals for the 512th year of the invasion of our sacred lands by the colonial pirate Christopher Columbus," The American Indian Movement (AIM) said in a statement Monday.
Calling October 12 a "national day of mourning," AIM says the landing of Christopher Columbus in 1492 on an island in what is now called the Bahamas, "was the beginning of the American holocaust against Indian peoples that claimed at least 60 million people from 1492 to the present."
"These deaths were characterized by military and biological warfare, murder, torture, raping, pillaging, robbery, slavery, kidnapping, and forced removals of Indian people from their homelands," the indigenous advocacy group said.
AIM called on Congress to eliminate the Columbus holiday "by following the lead of states such as Louisiana, and South Dakota" who declare October 12th each year to be a day for honoring American Indians. "American Indians gave you your spiritual, cultural, social, economic, and political freedom and sanctuary," AIM said.
In New York City, indigenous people and people of color are gathering this evening at St. Mary's Church in Harlem for a discussion of environmentally unjust free trade treaties that they say are "provoking massive strikes and resistance throughout the Americas and have left over a million people jobless" in the United States.
The NYC People's Referendum on Free Trade, the group organizing the free trade event, says among its key demands are "to protect indigenous use of healing plants from pharmaceutical patents, to eliminate the ability of corporations to sue governments for enforcing local labor or environmental standards, and to protect small farms and businesses."
"Free trade is a continuation of the colonization that has been plaguing our people for centuries," says Domingo de la Cruz, founder of the Dominican counterpart to the NYC People's Referendum. "We must educate ourselves and demand that treaties improve our quality of life, instead of creating new forms of slavery."
Read the AIM statement in its entirety at: http://www.aimovement.org/moipr/index.html
Find out more about the NYC People's Referendum on Free Trade at: http://www.wbai.org/index2.php?option=content&do_pdf=1&id=3779
--------
An Iraqi-American's Vote in 2004
axisoflogic.com
By Hawra Karama
Oct 12, 2004
http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_12559.shtml
I've never had the chance to vote for a president or any other national leader in my life. Having grown up in the Middle East, voting, like a laundry list of other apparent pillars of democracy, was something I knew existed almost everywhere but home. Coming from an area of the world where monarchies and dictatorships competed to make their constituents' lives miserable, what could possibly be more exciting than finally being able to flex one's citizenship muscles and to exercise a popular form of self-determination? Voting and the democracy it represents were on my list of reasons for migrating to the United States. Little did I realize when I pledged my allegiance to this country a couple of years ago that I would deliberately waive my fundamental right to vote for president in 2004.
I do not say that in ingratitude of the efforts of the people of color and the women who made suffrage their lifelong struggle. I realize from my brief study of American history and from the number of years I have lived in this country how central voting is to the American definition of liberty; the very same liberty the defense of which was part of the reason we went to war in Iraq. Rather, I view the concept of "democracy" in the same way many of my fellow Iraqis do. Heavily cynical of most people's definition of democracy, I give up my right to vote with absolutely no regrets.
I'm told that our troops are in Iraq to defend America's freedom and to defeat freedom-haters. I can't help but wonder, how many Iraqis were plotting day and night, conspiring feverishly to take away your right to vote? What was the average Iraqi thinking when he stopped worrying about his child dying under sanctions, suspended his terror of Saddam's crushing tyranny, and ignored the diseases depleted uranium inflicted on him, all in order to take the time to hate Americans' right to vote? How many people in Fallujah despised American arrestees' right to Miranda warnings? How many more Iraqis stopped mourning their children lost to Iraq's many wars and mass graves just so they can ponder how much they detest the Statue of Liberty's architecture?
The democracy we sought to defend, the one we insisted on teaching Iraqis, has claimed the lives of thousands of people. It has tortured prisoners, maimed civilians, raped women and belligerently termed the victims of genocide "collateral damage." When the maintenance of freedom depends on killing other people, it's no longer called freedom. When democracy sustains itself by feasting on people's blood, including that of its own citizens', it is defined as anything but democracy.
It is in solidarity with the victims of this "democracy", victims from Detroit to Baghdad, that I choose not to vote. That goes for voting in general. As for this November specifically, I may superficially appear to have every compelling reason to vote. After all, I am an Iraqi and my heart weeps along with those of the grieving widows and orphans in Baghdad, Basra, Najaf, Fallujah, Karbala, and Mosul. Don't I owe them the duty to vote out their American butcher (Bush) now that their Iraqi butcher (Saddam) is finally gone?
Well, what electable alternatives do I have? None other than the Democrats, naturally. We found the Republicans going to war over nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, sending our sons and daughters to a place that didn't greet them with roses, and embarrassing the United States in the world's public eye unforgivable. How, then, can we forgive the Democrats' deliberate starving of the Iraqi people by sanctions, killing 1.7 million of them (according to the United Nations), and bombing them periodically for the duration of both Clinton's terms? If we find the Republicans' acts so repugnant, how can we easily forget Madeline Albright's considering half a million Iraqi children's lives "worth it"? If George W. Bush's decision to drag the country into war was a crime, how can we excuse John Kerry's
collaboration? He did vote for the war, didn't he? Of course, every once in a while, you'll hear someone argue that while Kerry's policy on Iraq is not substantially different from Bush's, we should nevertheless vote for him because at least Democrats improve the economy. The omitted sentence in that argument is "improve the economy, and the Iraqis can go to hell".
I will not vote into office a Democrat who latches onto my people's suffering to advance his own power-lusting, partisan agenda. Someone told me that Iraqis celebrated Clinton's election after the 1991 Gulf War. They, like too many Americans today, fell for the "anyone but Bush" rhetoric. They will know better than to feel overjoyed by the presence of a Democrat in the White House this time.
America is still America, regardless of whether its president is a Republican or a Democrat. By the same token, an occupied country is still occupied, tying a man's genitals to electric wires is still torture, and ordering tanks to roam another country's streets is still imperialism, regardless of whether the president is a Republican or a Democrat. Democrats are every bit as culpable and un-repenting as Republicans and Baathists. I will feel no more justified by Kerry succeeding Bush than an Iraqi did when Paul Bremer succeeded Jay Garner.
Iraqis did participate in democracy a few months ago, and I'm not talking about the formation of Iraq's interim government. In April 2004, Fallujah was bombed and besieged. Over seven hundred people were killed. Hundreds from Baghdad walked 35 miles to donate their blood, their food and their love to their fellow occupied Iraqis in the abused city. Of course, US blockades surrounded Fallujah and stood in the Baghdadis' way. The Baghdadis peacefully broke through the blockades with their bare hands and inspired the world by their courageous humanitarian act.
Similarly, in Benton Harbor, Michigan last year, an entire city rioted in protest to a white police officer's slaying of an African-American motorcyclist. In Jenin and Gaza, battered Palestinians took to the streets to protest the their occupation and the occupation of their brothers and sisters in Iraq.
The chants of angry protesters from Baghdad, Benton Harbor and Palestine are manifestations of peoples' collective will. To my mind, that is the true definition of democracy. The democracy I choose to participate in does not take place for half an hour once every four years in a closed voting booth, where I find myself asking a politician to control my life and the lives of others. Instead, it unfolds when I join hands with people of all racial and religious backgrounds and I march with them, rain or shine, in solidarity with humanity and in defiance of artificial democracy and those who compete to lead it.
Hawra Karama is an Iraqi-American anti-war, anti-racist activist. She was born in Baghdad, Iraq and can be reached at hawrakarama@yahoo.com
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