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NUCLEAR
Committed to Containing Nukes
Plan to Store Anti-Radiation Pills Is Overdue
WXXI picketers knock media
PM Says India Will Not Pass on Nuclear Technology
Restrictions on N-tech equals rewarding those irresponsible
India wants end to nuclear sanctions, pledges to prevent proliferation
Europeans Offer Plan to Ease Dispute on Iran Nuclear Issue
Iranian conservative MPS dismiss EU nuclear deal as unacceptable
North Korea Sets 3 Conditions for Returning to Nuclear Talks
Powell Rejects 'Reward' for North Korea
N.Korea Vows to Boost Deterrent, U.S. Rejects Demand
Powell's Asia trip election hype: N. Korea
Powell rejects North Korean "conditions" for new round of talks
Brazil Could Make 6 Bombs a Year, Report Says
So Much for Non-Proliferation
U.S. May Not Push for Ouster of IAEA Chief
US Navy commissions first in new class of attack submarines
Licensing board wraps up VY hearing
Air Force clears March land that once held nuclear weapons
MILITARY
How 'Ugly Americans' Forced Muslims Into a Wrong War
New Somali President Asks for 20, 000 AU Peacekeepers
Navy Commissions Fast - Attack Submarine
Over 18,000 armaments handed over in Baghdad's Sadr City
Hostage Begs the British to Remove Troops in Iraq
Memos Warned of Billing Fraud by Firm in Iraq
Agent Orange: An Ongoing Atrocity
Officials Fear Iraq's Lure for Muslims in Europe
EU troops prepare for Bosnia swap
Suicide Bombers Kill 20 Iraqi Security Personnel
U.S. Makes Inroads Vs. Iraq Insurgents
Army Reserve unit to train Iraqis
Iraqis tried by al Sadr for aiding U.S. remain missing
Iraqi PM says no deals over Care hostage
Why it's different in Basra
PM to dismiss ministers, deputies who vote against pullout
NATO sends troops to guard key election
Further abuse at Abu Ghraib detailed
Russia Steps Up Antiterror Drive as Chechen War Spreads
CIA withdraws Iraq WMD claim
U.N. Refuses to Assist Iraqis With War Crimes Trials
POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE
WTC Rescue Hero Sues Bush and Others under RICO Statute
Foreign flight students checked
TSA Tightens Rules For Flight Training
Gen. Myers bucks Bush over intelligence chief
No Direct Evidence of Plot To Attack Around Elections
Intelligence Bill Unlikely to Be Ready by Nov. 2, Negotiators Say
FBI Probes Leads on Election Terror Plot
Kerry Vows Zealous U.S. Terror Hunt, Recalls Vietnam
POLITICS
The envoy silenced after telling undiplomatic truths
President Signs Corporate Tax Legislation
Satellite TV station airs hatred of U.S. globally
Bin Laden's Illusions - and Ours
Bush stresses war on terror
Film suggests U.S. has plan to rule the world
Bush's Choices May Be 'Tough,' but My Choice Is Not
Shortage of Poll Workers Is Cited
OTHER
Russian Vote Will Put Kyoto Pact Into Effect
Russia's Lower House Approves Kyoto Treaty on Emissions
ACTIVISTS
Russians Protest Against War in Chechnya
Quaker Peace activist, 89, begins jail sentence
Russians Protest Against War in Chechnya
-------- NUCLEAR
Committed to Containing Nukes
The Washington Post
By Richard G. Lugar
October 23, 2004
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55755-2004Oct22.html
In a remarkable moment in the first presidential debate, both candidates agreed that the No. 1 national security threat facing the United States was the prospect that weapons of mass destruction would fall into the hands of terrorists.
Although the public consensus confirming the importance of this issue is new, it is not a new concern. Our government has been working on solutions to the problems of weapons proliferation and terrorist acquisition of loose nukes for more than a decade. In 1991 Congress passed the Nunn-Lugar Act, which has devoted U.S. money and expertise to helping the nations of the former Soviet Union safeguard and dismantle their enormous stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, delivery systems and related materials. This program has deactivated more than 6,300 nuclear warheads as well as thousands of missiles and hundreds of bombers and submarines. It has employed weapons scientists in peaceful pursuits and provided security enhancements at nuclear, biological and chemical sites.
Today, even after more than 12 years of success, creativity and vigilance are required to ensure that the Nunn-Lugar program is not encumbered by bureaucratic obstacles or political disagreements. But as one of the authors of the program and a frequent traveler to Russia and the newly independent states on missions to accelerate the dismantling, I am gratified that both candidates have strongly endorsed the Nunn-Lugar program and associated nonproliferation initiatives.
Despite this apparent consensus, however, the Kerry campaign has accused the Bush administration of giving Nunn-Lugar and other nonproliferation issues low priority. This charge is not true. The Bush administration's record on securing weapons of mass destruction has been one of innovation and activism. Its record on securing dangerous weapons and materials is a rare case in U.S. politics where the performance of a candidate far exceeds his rhetoric on the issue. The president's campaign has reason to tout his multilateral accomplishments in this area. The Bush campaign has successfully communicated its core national security message: that the president is best equipped to carry out a comprehensive war on terrorism. It must now emphasize its substantial diplomatic achievements in the field of nonproliferation.
Chief among these successes is the rarely mentioned Group of Eight Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction. Under this agreement, negotiated by the Bush administration, the United States will spend $10 billion over the next 10 years to safeguard and dismantle weapons of mass destruction and related materials in the former Soviet Union. The other members of the G-8 agreed collectively to spend another $10 billion over the same period. Our commitment of funds is primarily money that we had planned to spend anyway through the Nunn-Lugar program and associated efforts. With this agreement, the president doubled the funds committed to securing these weapons in Russia with minimal additional obligation to American taxpayers.
The Bush administration also successfully recruited more than 60 countries to participate in the Proliferation Security Initiative, a program that has enhanced our ability to interdict shipments related to weapons of mass destruction around the world. Through the Energy Department, it established the Global Threat Reduction Initiative, which aims to reduce and secure high-risk nuclear and radiological materials globally. It has facilitated the acceleration of Nunn-Lugar work at the critical chemical weapons destruction facility at Shchuchye in Russia through personal intervention by the president and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice. It finalized the deal with Libya that laid open that country's weapons programs. It advocated passage of the IAEA Additional Protocol, which greatly expands the International Atomic Energy Agency's ability to detect clandestine nuclear activities. It secured passage in April of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1540, which for the first time required states to criminalize proliferation. It also has provided constant encouragement to the promising talks between India and Pakistan that represent an important opportunity to reduce tensions on the subcontinent. The president supported, through personal communications with congressional leaders, and signed into law the Nunn-Lugar Expansion Act, which establishes new authority to use the program's funds and expertise outside the former Soviet Union. On Thursday President Bush authorized the first use of the Nunn-Lugar program outside the former Soviet Union when he directed U.S. agencies to help safeguard and destroy a chemical weapons stockpile in Albania after the Albanian government appealed to us for aid in dealing with this previously unrevealed hazard.
Sen. John Kerry has correctly sensed the mood of the public on weapons of mass destruction, but President Bush has repeatedly demonstrated his personal commitment to Nunn-Lugar and has been out in the world achieving nonproliferation goals. The administration has established relationships and expertise that are critical to the paramount objective of preventing weapons of mass destruction from falling into terrorist hands. The Bush administration will not have to start from scratch in 2005.
The writer is a Republican senator from Indiana and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
-------- accidents and safety
Plan to Store Anti-Radiation Pills Is Overdue
October 23, 2004
By MATTHEW L. WALD
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/23/politics/23nuke.html
WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 - Amid fears of a terrorist attack's causing a leak from a nuclear power plant, a plan to stockpile pills to protect against one of the contaminants that spreads farthest appears to have slipped through the cracks.
The Bioterrorism Act of 2002 required a study by scientists of how to store and distribute the pills, of potassium iodide, a drug that protects against radioactive iodine.
Health officials say that in the event of a big release of radiation, the pills could prevent the thyroid cancer epidemic that struck Eastern Europe after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. The idea that terrorists want to attack a power plant was bolstered this year by President Bush in his State of the Union address, in which he said American forces had found plans for American power plants in Afghanistan.
The study, by an arm of the National Academy of Sciences and originally due to be completed in October 2002, was not finished until late last year. Mr. Bush had six months to issue guidance to state and local governments on stockpiling potassium iodide pills, but he has not done so.
The writer of the potassium iodide provision in the 2002 law, Representative Edward J. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who is frequently critical of national security, said he had written the president to ask about the guidance and had received no answer.
"President Bush has not made America safer against a nuclear attack on our soil," Mr. Markey said this week in a statement. "He won't even implement the laws that Congress has passed to help ensure our communities are better protected against a terrorist nuclear power plant attack. This makes America unsafe."
An administration official said on Friday that the Health and Human Services Department had prepared guidelines that were "in the process of final clearance and will be shared with state and local stakeholders for comment in the near future."
The scientific study said potassium iodide "should be available to everyone at risk of significant health consequences from accumulation of radioiodine in the thyroid in the event of a radiological incident." Infants, children and pregnant and lactating women are high priorities, it said.
The question on storing and shipping the drug is complicated, because it has to be given within hours of exposure to radiation or it is ineffective. Reactors produce radioactive iodine when uranium is split, and if released to the environment, it is absorbed by the body through eating contaminated food or simply through inhalation, and it is concentrated in the thyroid, like ordinary iodine. Potassium iodide protects the thyroid by saturating it, blocking the absorption of the radioactive variety.
Potassium iodide is cheap, about 20 cents for a 24-hour dose, and if kept away from light and moisture, it will last for years in storage. But the number of people who might someday need the drug is in the tens of millions or higher; the law specifies that it should be available to people within 20 miles of nuclear plants.
The government has a contract with a single supplier, Anbex, of New York City. The company's president, Alan Morris, said he had sold 11.5 million potassium iodide pills to the federal government, including 1.2 million in New York State. In case of terrorism or mechanical emergency at a single nuclear plant somewhere in the United States, some pills could be shipped from the vicinity of other plants, Mr. Morris said, but in many cases the pills had already been distributed to households.
"What are you going to do, have thousands of people mail in their tablets?" Mr. Morris asked.
He said the pills should be stocked in post offices, because from there they could be easily distributed door to door or shipped to other post offices.
Mr. Morris said each individual might need 10 or 15 days' worth of the drug. The National Academy study said one day's dose would be adequate, because people would be removed from the area of the plant and because substances like milk, which would carry heavy concentrations as a result of cows' eating contaminated grass, could be quarantined.
"It's hard to understand their motivation for not taking this relatively easy, relatively inexpensive, highly effective approach," Mr. Morris said of the government. "It was the most important thing the Soviets did after Chernobyl."
The scientific report ordered by Congress said radioiodine could be a problem in a release from a power plant. It would also be created by a nuclear weapon explosion, but that would not be a top problem in such an event, it said. Experts also say radioiodine would probably not be an ingredient in a "dirty bomb," a package of radioactive material dispersed with a conventional explosive, because such material has a very short half life, losing half its strength every eight days.
-------- depleted uranium
WXXI picketers knock media
October 23, 2004
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041023/NEWS01/410230334/1002/NEWS
- A handful of people protested outside WXXI Public Broadcasting on Friday, saying its stations and other media outlets have failed to properly cover the military's use of depleted uranium weapons.
Some veterans and other critics say shells made with depleted uranium, used in Iraq and Afghanistan, pose a grave health risk to troops and civilians.
The Defense Department, in a number of studies, says soldiers have not been put at risk by the munitions, which can leave radioactive residue when they explode.
Jim Barlow of Hilton, who organized the protest, which drew three other supporters, said the commercial media has given the issue short shrift.
He chose to picket WXXI's State Street office because he believes publicly funded WXXI has a greater responsibility to report on issues of public interest.
"This is the first place we look to for the full story," he said.
-------- india / pakistan
PM Says India Will Not Pass on Nuclear Technology
October 23, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-india-nuclear.html
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Saturday his nuclear-armed nation would not pass on sensitive technologies, weeks after the United States imposed sanctions on two Indian nuclear scientists.
``India will not be the source of proliferation of sensitive technologies,'' Singh was quoted on state television as saying in Kalpakkam in southern Tamil Nadu state, which houses a nuclear power station and a research facility.
``We will also ensure the safeguarding of those technologies that we already possess,'' Singh said at a function to celebrate the golden jubilee of India's Department of Atomic Energy.
Neither India nor neighboring Pakistan are signatories to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), despite Western prodding to sign.
Concerns over their nuclear capabilities have been heightened by tensions between the countries, which came close to war twice between 1999 and 2002.
The United States imposed sanctions on two former chiefs of India's state-run Nuclear Power Cooperation (NPC) in late September, accusing them of passing nuclear technology to Iran, accused by Washington of trying to develop nuclear weapons.
New Delhi considers Iran an important Middle East ally.
New Delhi has protested against the sanctions, and Washington said earlier this week it would consider lifting them if India showed ``significant and convincing'' proof the scientists were innocent.
The Indian Foreign Ministry said on Saturday the curbs were based on ``faulty evidence and must be revoked.''
U.S. officials have said Washington was considering imposing curbs on one to three additional Indian ``entities'' for aiding Iran's weapons program. Tehran denies it is making atomic weapons, saying its nuclear program is peaceful.
New Delhi is also unhappy that Washington has not cracked down on nuclear rival Pakistan, which has attracted international flak for failing to prevent proliferation from its leaky nuclear establishment.
``Constraining those who are responsible amounts, in fact, to rewarding those who are irresponsible,'' Singh said. Ties between the United States and India have improved, with the world's largest democracy attracting U.S. attention for its booming technology and large commercial market.
Last month, the United States removed decades-old restrictions on equipment for India's commercial space program and nuclear power plants.
But U.S. concerns about India's nuclear record and ties to Tehran continue to create diplomatic sparks.
``Technology denial and closing avenues for international cooperation in some more important fields is tantamount to denial of development benefits to millions of people,'' Singh said to the gathering of nuclear scientists.
--------
Restrictions on N-tech equals rewarding those irresponsible: Manmohan
Navhind Times
October 23, 2004
http://www.navhindtimes.com/stories.php?part=news&Story_ID=10243
PTI Kalpakkam (TN) Oct 23: Opposing "artificial restrictions" on genuine peaceful use of nuclear technology, the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh today said this amounted to rewarding those who were "irresponsible" and constraining those responsible.
He suggested a constructive dialogue between advanced nuclear powers and other countries to evolve more effective measures to stem the tide of proliferation without unduly constraining the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
Asserting that India would not be a source of proliferation of sensitive technologies, Dr Singh said the limitation of the present non-proliferation regime should not be further accentuated by artificial restrictions on genuine peaceful nuclear applications.
"Constraining those who are responsible, amounts, in effect, to rewarding those who are irresponsible," he said while pouring the first concrete for a fast breeder programme at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research Centre here.
"We in India are willing to shoulder our share of international obligations, provided our legitimate interests are met. India has actively embraced globalisation. There is no reason why nuclear energy production should be an exception," he said.
"Technology denial and closing avenues for international co-operation in such an important field is tantamount to the denial of developmental benefits to millions of people, whose lives can be transformed by the utilisation of nuclear energy and relevant techonologies," he said.
"India is a responsible nuclear power. We are fully conscious of the immense responsibilities that come with the possession of advanced technologies, both civilian and strategic. While we are determined to utilise our indigenous resources and capabilities to fulfill our national interests, we are doing so in a manner that is not contrary to the larger goal of nuclear non-proliferation," Dr Singh said.
"We will also ensure the safeguarding of those technologies that we already possess. We will remain faithful to this approach, as we have been for the last several decades. We have done so despite the well-known and glaring examples of proliferation, which have directly affected our security needs," he said.
Maintaining that nuclear energy was cost effective, he said it was a cleaner alternative to fossil fuels. "We are determined to utilise its full potential for the national good. It can also be a much needed cushion against fluctuations in oil prices," he said.
The Prime Minister said energy security was an issue of vital importance, particularly in the context of accelerating the pace of economic growth. "If we succeed in instituting an optimal mix of energy resources, in which nuclear energy is an important component, we will be able to ensure our energy security."
India's low per capita energy consumption could not for long go hand in hand with the quest for an accelerated pace of economic growth, he said.
Nuclear power accounted for only two per cent of overall installed capacity of power generation in India today, he said.
"We have embarked on a major programme to generate 20,000 MW of nuclear power by 2020. By 2008, we hope to add 4,000 MW including the two 1,000 MW nuclear reactors coming up at Koodamkulam in collaboration with the Russian federation."
The Prime Minister said it was a matter of national pride that India had developed comprehensive capabilities in the entire gamut of fuel cycle operations. India was also among the select group of nations which had the ability to recover plutonium from irradiated nuclear fuel and use it to produce power in thermal, as well as in fast reactors. This path would ensure for the country a large quantum of nuclear power on a sustainable basis, he said.
The Prime Minister said the country was uniquely placed to utilise techonologies for launching the third stage of its nuclear power programme, based on utilisation of thorium.
--------
India wants end to nuclear sanctions, pledges to prevent proliferation
Oct 23, 2004
KALPAKKAM, India (AFP)
MMIV ad pepper media International N.V.
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041023133017.r6n0tcye.html
India on Saturday urged the West to remove blocks on the transfer of critical nuclear technology, offering an assurance that New Delhi had effective tools to prevent proliferation.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also said India, which declared itself a nuclear state with a string of weapons tests in 1998, was determined to carry on with its atomic energy programmes to augment the country's ailing conventional power sector.
"India will not be the source of proliferation of sensitive technologies. We will ensure that those technologies, which we already possess, will be effectively safeguarded," he said at a nuclear facility in this southern Indian city.
"While we are determined to use our indigenous capability to fulfill our national interest, we are doing so in a manner that is not contrary to the larger goal of nuclear non-proliferation," Singh said.
Singh criticised the tray of US-led sanctions which were slapped on rivals India and Pakistan after their tit-for-tat nuclear tests, saying such restrictions harmed development.
"Technology denial and closing avenues for international cooperation in such an important field is tantamount to denial of developmental benefits to millions of people, whose lives can be transformed by the utilisation of nuclear energy and relevant technologies," he said.
Singh did not name rival Pakistan but made reference to recent disclosures of proliferation from the neighbouring country.
"India remains faithful to the 'atom-for-peace' policy despite the well-known and glaring examples of proliferation which have directly affected our security interests.
"(And) constraining those who are responsible and rewarding those who are irresponsible -- the international community should face up to the implications of the choice," he said in Kalpakkam, the hub of the country's civilian nuclear programme.
India, which refuses to endorse either the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty or Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, hopes to generate 20,000 megawatts of electricity from its atomic power plants by 2020.
-------- iran
Europeans Offer Plan to Ease Dispute on Iran Nuclear Issue
October 23, 2004
By CRAIG S. SMITH
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/23/international/europe/23iran.html?pagewanted=all
PARIS, Oct. 22 - Britain, France and Germany are working to give Iran a last chance to avoid confrontation with the West over its nuclear program by offering incentives to curtail its most disputed activities.
But Iran's government, which the United States believes is using its nuclear program as a cover to develop nuclear weapons, has given no indication that it would accept the plan.
"The two sides are now engaged in a dialogue with a view to identifying an agreed way forward through diplomatic means," a French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said Friday.
Representatives of the three European nations and the European Union pressed their case with Iran's representatives in Vienna on Thursday. The spokeswoman said the Europeans and Iranians had agreed to meet again soon, probably next week.
Last month, the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency urged Iran to suspend all activities related to the enrichment of uranium, a process for making nuclear reactor fuel that can be adapted for making weapons, or face unspecified action at the agency's next board meeting on Nov. 25.
At that meeting, the United States will push the board to refer Iran's past breaches of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to the United Nations Security Council, which could decide to impose sanctions.
So far, European board members, led by the three nations that met with Iran on Thursday, have favored dialogue and negotiation, fearing that a confrontation with Iran could lead to its withdrawal from the nonproliferation treaty and end its cooperation with the nuclear agency.
Many people say they believe that Tehran will wait at least until after the American presidential election before giving the Europeans a concrete response, believing that a change in administrations in Washington will buy it more time.
"My understanding from talking to Iranian officials is that anything that requires indefinite suspension is unacceptable," said Gary Samore, a nonproliferation expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. He doubts that the Iranians will do more than offer to broaden the temporary suspension of their activities, arguing that they feel they are in a strong position, with the United States bogged down in Iraq, oil prices high and the Iranian government's domestic political position stronger than it was before.
"In particular, they think the Russians and Chinese will protect them because of those countries' dependence on Iranian oil and gas," Mr. Samore said. He added that even if the United States succeeded in referring Iran's case to the Security Council, the Iranians seemed confident that the Council would not be able to agree on any serious sanctions.
While details of the European offer have not been disclosed, diplomats in Vienna say it includes resumption of trade talks and support for Iran's acquisition of a light-water research reactor. It also includes a guarantee that Iran will receive a supply of low-enriched uranium to fuel the power-generating reactors it is building.
It is this last point that has led to a diplomatic standoff between Iran and the West.
Iran, which is pursuing a 30-year-old plan to develop nuclear power, insists that it cannot rely on Western fuel guarantees, pointing to the embargo that followed the 1979 Islamic revolution. It says the embargo forced it to breach its obligations under the nonproliferation treaty by secretly enriching small amounts of uranium on its own in an effort to develop nuclear self-sufficiency.
Iran suspended uranium enrichment a year ago after Britain, France and Germany offered it a deal similar to the current one. But it has continued with some enrichment-related activities, like preparing the uranium feedstock for enrichment, and resumed others, like the assembly of high-speed centrifuges used to enrich uranium.
The Atomic Energy Agency has urged Iran to stop all of those activities, and the European proposal seeks to win Iran's compliance to avoid a showdown at the agency's November meeting.
--------
Iranian conservative MPS dismiss EU nuclear deal as unacceptable
TEHRAN (AFP)
Oct 23, 2004
MMIV ad pepper media International N.V.
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041023125640.92uoasfi.html
Conservative MPs in Iran on Saturday denounced Europe's call for Iran to halt all uranium enrichment activities if it wants to avoid the threat of UN sanctions over its nuclear activities.
"The European proposal is an excessive demand that is contrary to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and unacceptable," Alaeddin Brujerdi, the influential head of parliament's national security and foreign policy committee, told the conservative newspaper Ressalat.
Britain, France and Germany presented Iran with a deal Thursday aimed at avoiding possible sanctions under which Tehran would receive valuable nuclear technology if it indefinitely suspended all uranium enrichment activities, according to a document prepared by the Europeans.
But Brujerdi also raised the possibility that the conservative-controlled parliament could pass a bill forcing Iran to halt its suspension of uranium enrichment in defiance of the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
"The European offer is a denial of the Iranian nation's legal rights bestowed under the NPT," Brujerdi said. "The Islamic republic of Iran will not accept a (Western) monopoly on nuclear technology and will pursue its activities with determination."
Thursday's meeting was to give Iran a last chance to disclose its complete nuclear programme before the IAEA decides on November 25 whether Iran is cooperating with it on Tehran's nuclear activities.
The United States wants the IAEA, which since February 2003 has been investigating US claims that Iran has a covert nuclear weapons programme, to refer Tehran to the UN Security Council, which could impose sanctions.
Tehran has long insisted it is seeking only to generate electricity and on its right to uranium enrichment, which makes fuel for civilian reactors but can also manufacture the explosive material for atomic bombs.
Under the European deal, Iran would receive technology including a light-water reactor which would produce less fissionable material than the heavy-water reactor Tehran is planning to build with Russian help in Bushehr.
"The enrichment of uranium is a question of national dignity and no-one can force the leaders of the country to renounce it, said Hamid Reza Hadji-Babaie, an MP and member of the speaker's office.
"The negotiations were positive but the Europeans must take account of our red lines, that is Iran's refusal to renounce the nuclear fuel cycle."
The official state news agency IRNA quoted an anonymous diplomat in Vienna saying that the next round of talks between Iran and the European Three would start Wednesday.
A report published this week by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a military and defence think tank, said that assuming Iran lifts the suspension on its enrichment programme, "it is still probably a few years away from full scale production of enough enriched uranium for a small nuclear arsenal."
On October 5, the parliamentary committee headed by Brujerdi approved a bill that would force the reformist government of President Mohammad Khatami to resume uranium enrichment in defiance of the IAEA.
If eventually passed in the Majlis (parliament) and approved by legislative watchdogs, it would almost certainly prompt the IAEA to refer Iran's case to the Security Council.
"The plan to oblige the government to resume enrichment has the support of 238 deputies" out of a total 290, Brujerdi said Saturday.
Iran's former representative to the IAEA, Ali-Akbar Salehi, said the European proposals contained both positive and negative points, and urged the country's leaders to examine them without hesitatin.
"I believe the two sides do not want to reach a deadlock. So the Europeans must move some way towards our position," Salehi told AFP.
But another conservative MP dismissed the European offer.
"A light-water reactor is useable only for medical and agricultural needs but a heavy-water reactor can also produce plutonium for use in nuclear power plants," another MP Heshmatollah Falahat-Pisheh said, quoted by the conservative Kayhan newspaper.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Saturday that Washington had seen no sign that Iran would comply with international demands on its nuclear program and would push next month for the matter to be sent to the UN Security Council unless Tehran reversed its course.
-------- korea
North Korea Sets 3 Conditions for Returning to Nuclear Talks
October 23, 2004
By JAMES BROOKE
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/23/international/asia/23korea.html
TOKYO, Oct. 22 - With Secretary of State Colin L. Powell arriving here on Saturday for a four-day tour of Japan, China and South Korea, North Korea on Friday set out three conditions to be met before it would return to the regional talks on its nuclear weapons program.
The United States must drop its hostile policy, join an economic aid program for the North and agree to discuss "South Korea's nuclear problem," a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman told the official KCNA news agency.
After three inconclusive rounds of talks, North Korea boycotted the latest one, in September, citing among other reasons news of several nuclear weapons technology experiments conducted in South Korea. Those experiments are being investigated by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations group that North Korea expelled in January 2003, inciting the current international standoff. Since then, North Korea is believed to have processed enough nuclear material to increase its nuclear bomb arsenal to eight from the two it was once thought to have.
Although North Korean diplomats have made it clear to visitors that they are waiting for the outcome of the American presidential election on Nov. 2 to decide their strategy, the Bush administration is keeping pressure on North Korea.
On Monday, President Bush signed into law the North Korean Human Rights Act, which bans any American economic aid to North Korea unless North Korea can prove it has made progress on human rights.
Under the new law, Washington can spend at least $20 million a year until 2008 for aid to North Korean citizens and refugees, and the president can provide grants to private groups to support programs promoting human rights, democracy and the development of a market economy in North Korea. It also paves the way for North Koreans to seek refugee status in the United States and provides $4 million for expanding Korean-language radio broadcasts into the North to promote democracy and human rights.
On Friday, an official in South Korea's Unification Ministry accused the North of selling international food aid on its domestic market, Reuters reported. The official made the claim at a meeting of the World Food Program. Officials with the program, however, denied that aid it had provided was being sold. The South Korean government has said before that it plans to extend its monitoring of food distribution to the North.
North Korea's state news media also criticized Friday a Washington-led naval drill scheduled to take place on Tuesday in Tokyo Bay. Under the Proliferation Security Initiative, 10 naval and coast guard vessels from the United States, France, Australia and Japan will simulate a drill where Tokyo customs officials X-ray a shipping container and find a "chemical weapon." Designed to curb the trade in materials for unconventional weapons, the initiative has won the formal adherence of 10 other nations and has conducted 10 such drills over the past year.
But in a move that has not escaped the notice of North Korea, this will be the first drill in Northeast Asia and will feature John R. Bolton, under secretary of state for nonproliferation affairs, who has been outspoken in criticizing North Korea, riding in a Japanese Coast Guard patrol boat.
While Mr. Bolton is here, Mr. Powell will be in Beijing and Seoul, seeking to stiffen the resolve of North Korea's neighbors to put more diplomatic pressure on the North to find a formula for its nuclear disarmament.
Complementing the high-level American diplomatic pressure on North Korea, Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage was here last week, meeting with Japan's new foreign minister, Nobutaka Machimura. At a news conference after the meeting, he warned North Korea about further delays on serious talks. "The U.S. Congress is entirely behind the efforts of President Bush," he said, "so if the North Koreans feel they need to wait, then they'll wait. But it's a miscalculation."
--------
Powell Rejects 'Reward' for North Korea
October 23, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Powell-Asia.html
TOKYO (AP) -- Secretary of State Colin Powell on Saturday rejected demands by North Korea of a U.S. ``reward'' before the communist country would agree to resume multinational talks about its nuclear weapons programs.
Powell said any proposals from North Korea should be discussed as part of the negotiating process established more than a year ago that involves both Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.
``This is a six-party discussion, not a U.S.-North Korea discussion or an exchange of U.S. and North Korean talking points,'' Powell told reporters during his flight to Tokyo, the first stop on a three-nation trip to East Asia.
He planned Sunday meetings with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura before heading to China and South Korea.
In a statement apparently timed for Powell's visit, a spokesman for North Korea's Foreign Ministry spokesman indicated the North would agree to a new round of nuclear discussions only if the United States dropped its ``hostile policy'' and consented to a ``reward'' for a nuclear freeze the North is proposing.
The spokesman, who was quoted by the official KCNA news agency but was not identified, said North Korea is insisting on discussing recent disclosures by South Korea that its scientists had carried out nuclear experiments involving plutonium and uranium years ago. The Bush administration has dismissed the South's experiments as insignificant and said they were of an academic nature.
The United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia have held three rounds of nuclear talks with North Korea. A new round was scheduled for September in Beijing, but North Korea declined to attend.
North Korea says it has several plutonium-based nuclear weapons and denies U.S. allegations it has a secret uranium-based nuclear weapons program. The United States has said it would provide economic benefits to North Korea once the North provides a credible commitment to permanent and verifiable disarmament.
Powell's trip could be his last to the region in his current post. The North Korea question is expected to dominate Powell's discussions at each stop.
His decision to travel to Asia shortly before the Nov. 2 presidential election in the United State could be intended as an attempt to show resolve on one of the administration's most difficult foreign policy issues.
Democratic nominee John Kerry contends the administration has mishandled the North Korea problem and should have embraced the Clinton-era policy of direct talks with the country.
Bush administration officials believe North Korea is biding its time on nuclear negotiations, sensing that Kerry might win the election and be easier to deal with than Bush, who has linked North Korea with Iran and Iraq in an ``axis of evil.''
On Saturday, Powell dismissed North Korean concerns about hostile U.S. intent. ``We have no intention of invading them, no plans to attack,'' he said.
But the North Korean news agency said upcoming joint U.S.-Japan naval exercises are a clear indication of U.S. hostility. The exercises are part of an international effort to block attempts at smuggling nuclear technology on the high seas.
The North Korean statement said the maneuvers are an ``undisguised'' attempt to ``blockade and stifle'' the North.
Powell noted that the international anti-smuggling effort is endorsed by the U.N. Security Council.
``There's nothing wrong with naval forces coming together to exercise for the purpose of seeing if we can do a better job of keeping the most dangerous cargos from reaching the most irresponsible purchasers of such cargo,'' Powell said. ``It does not threaten North Korea. ... It protects the rest of the world.''
--------
N.Korea Vows to Boost Deterrent, U.S. Rejects Demand
October 23, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-korea-north.html
SEOUL/TOKYO (Reuters) - North Korea threatened on Saturday to double the size of its nuclear deterrent and the United States rejected its conditions for a resumption of talks, leaving the two nations in a dangerous stalemate.
A day after North Korea set three conditions for returning to six-party talks on its nuclear programs, it warned Washington to drop its ``hostile policy'' aimed at unseating the communist leadership or face a more potent atomic arsenal.
``If the United States persistently pursues its confrontational hostile policy toward the DPRK (the Democratic People's Republic of Korea) from the viewpoint of escapism, it will only compel the DPRK to double its deterrent force,'' the main newspaper in North Korea said in a commentary published by the official KCNA news agency.
North Korea has never said how many nuclear weapons it has and usually refers ambiguously to its ``deterrent force.'' U.S. officials say the North could have between two and eight weapons.
On Friday, North Korea said it would consider returning to the talks if Washington drops its hostile policy, is prepared to join a compensation package in return for the North freezing its programs and allows discussion on South Korea's nuclear experiments.
Secretary of State Colin Powell, who is in the region seeking to revive negotiations, said the demands could be addressed in the six-party talks, which also include China, Japan, South Korea and Russia.
But he ruled out considering improving a U.S. proposal until North Korea, which has refused to return to the talks since June, shows what it will give in exchange at the negotiating table.
``Any outstanding issues that are holding up the progress should be dealt with in the context of thediscussions, not by press statements or rhetoric going back and forth,'' Powell told reporters on his plane en route to Tokyo.
The United States has offered compensatory aid -- from South Korea and Japan rather than Washington -- in return for a freeze as a first step to Pyongyang dismantling its atomic projects.
The United States has been leading slow-moving negotiations since the latest nuclear crisis erupted two years ago when its diplomats said North Korea admitted it was running a covert uranium enrichment program. Pyongyang has since denied this.
ELECTION UNCERTAINTY
On his first trip to the region for 18 months, Powell will also visit China and South Korea and seek to convince his negotiation partners the Bush administration will remain committed to the talks.
But some senior U.S. officials have misgivings about the talks and would prefer to confront and isolate North Korea and presidential Democratic candidate Sen. John Kerry has criticized the administration's mixed signals.
Pyongyang has suggested Powell's trip is merely to keep up the appearance during President Bush's reelection campaign that he is committed to the six-party talks.
Washington suspects Pyongyang is stalling to wait for the outcome of the Nov. 2 election because Kerry favors bilateral talks, which North Korea hopes would lead to more concessions.
The North Korean commentary on Saturday said the root cause of the hostile U.S. policy was that Washington wanted to retain military influence in the region.
The United States holds an international naval exercise in the region next week aimed at stifling any North Korean proliferation.
In a separate report on Saturday, KCNA listed what it said was South Korea's secret nuclear weapons developments over decades. Seoul denies having such a program.
Pyongyang said South Korea was seeking to build a nuclear submarine as part of what it calls Seoul's nuclear-arms scheme and urged it to drop the plan immediately, South Korea's Yonhap News reported on Saturday.
South Korea has denied the submarine plan, which was first raised early this year.
--------
Powell's Asia trip election hype: N. Korea
Canadian Press
October 23, 2004
http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=48e79cec-a0ef-4895-a897-5e217800d0f8&page=2
SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea dismissed U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's Asian trip as pre-U.S. election trickery Saturday and warned it will double its nuclear deterrent force if Washington persists in challenging the North's weapons programs.
Powell, en route to Japan, rejected Pyongyang's demands the United States "reward" the communist country before it will agree to return to six-party discussions on its nuclear programs.
North Korea, which insists it needs a nuclear deterrent against a U.S. invasion, said Saturday talks can only recommence when Washington drops its hostile policy toward it and promises a "reward for freeze" on its nuclear activities.
"If the U.S. persistently pursues its confrontational hostile policy toward the DPRK from the viewpoint of escapism, it will only compel the DPRK to double its deterrent force, much less any solution to the nuclear issue," Pyongyang's Rodong newspaper said, using the acronym for Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.
On his weekend trip, Powell intends to consult with Japan, China and South Korea on how to assure the North that Washington is not interested in attacking the country and how to revive the stalled multilateral talks.
The six-party negotiations include the two Koreas, the United States, Russia, China and Japan. Three rounds of talks, held in Beijing, have yielded little progress. A fourth round was set for September but North Korea refused to attend.
The nuclear negotiations started after U.S. officials said North Korea admitted to running a secret atomic program in violation of international agreements. That prompted President George W. Bush to say North Korea was part of an "axis of evil" with Iran and pre-war Iraq.
Some U.S. intelligence analysts said North Korea may have up to six nuclear weapons, instead of the one or two the Central Intelligence Agency estimates.
North Korea said it has several plutonium-based nuclear weapons and denies U.S. allegations it has a secret uranium-based nuclear weapons program.
On Saturday, Pyongyang sneered at Powell's trip, with a spokesman from the North's Foreign Ministry describing Washington's diplomatic effort as a "sleight of hand in the run-up to the (U.S.) presidential elections."
The North also demands the six-country talks address its allegations South Korea may have been developing nuclear weapons. Seoul denies the accusations, although it recently admitted its scientists had conducted secret nuclear experiments in the past.
"The resumption of the six-party talks depends on whether the U.S. is ready to fully consider the demands raised by the DPRK," the Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
Washington has said it would provide economic benefits to the North once Pyongyang has demonstrated a credible commitment to permanent and verifiable disarmament.
The visit could well be Powell's last to East Asia, falling as it does within two weeks of the U.S. presidential election. The timing of his trip could be intended as an attempt to show resolve on one of the U.S. government's most difficult foreign policy issues.
Democratic presidential candidate Senator John Kerry contends the government has mishandled the North Korean problem and should have embraced former president Bill Clinton's policy of direct talks with Pyongyang, rather than the six-country talks.
--------
Powell rejects North Korean "conditions" for new round of talks
TOKYO (AFP)
Oct 23, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041023101421.ajpubf1l.html
The United States will not accept North Korean demands as "conditions" for the resumption of stalled talks on resolving the Korean nuclear deadlock but Pyongyang is free to raise them if it returns to the table, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Saturday.
Powell, here on the first leg of a three-nation Asian tour that will also take in China and South Korea, said North Korea would not win rewards for simply agreeing to attend a next round of so-called six party talks.
"Anything they wish to talk about we should talk about in six party framework and not talk about conditions to have another session of the six party group," he told reporters on his plane en route to Tokyo.
"They are free to bring anything forward at those discussions but to put forward these kinds of conditions, which may lead to yet another set of conditions, is not the way to approach this problem," Powell said.
A North Korean foreign ministry spokesman Friday demanded Washington drop its "hostile policy" towards Pyongyang and provide rewards for having frozen its nuclear activities.
The spokesman also demanded South Korea's past nuclear experiments be discussed "before anything else" at the six-nation talks, the key multilateral forum aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons drive. North Korea has taken part in three inconclusive rounds of the six-party talks which also involved the United States, South Korea, Russia, China and Japan.
-------- latinamerica
Brazil Could Make 6 Bombs a Year, Report Says
Reuters
Saturday, October 23, 2004; Page A15
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55605-2004Oct22.html
BRASILIA, Oct. 22 -- Brazil's new Resende nuclear plant has the potential to produce enough enriched uranium for six nuclear bombs every year, U.S. researchers said Friday. Brazil denied the claim.
The commentary by the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, published in Friday's issue of the journal Science, came three days after U.N. experts visited the plant to resolve a dispute over inspections.
"At its announced capacity, Brazil's new facility located at Resende will have the potential to produce enough uranium to make five to six . . . warheads per year," according to the article by Gary Milhollin, director of the Wisconsin Project, and research associate Liz Palmer.
Brazil has disputed for nearly a year the level of access that U.N. inspectors say they need. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, wants full access to Resende to ensure that no uranium is diverted for weapons, but Brazil will not allow complete access to the plant's centrifuges, saying it fears industrial espionage.
The United Nations and the United States have pressed Brazil to resolve the impasse to avoid setting an example for countries, such as Iran and North Korea, that the United States suspects of developing bombs in defiance of the IAEA.
Brazil says that it plans to use its enriched uranium only for energy and that its constitution bans nuclear weapons research.
Milhollin and Palmer said in the journal article that upgrades planned for Resende would raise its capacity to 26 to 31 warheads a year by 2010 and 53 to 63 by 2014.
The Wisconsin Project is a private, nonprofit research organization in Washington, funded by foundations and the U.S. government. It aims to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and operates under the auspices of the University of Wisconsin.
-------- treaties
So Much for Non-Proliferation
Antiwar.com
by Gordon Prather
October 23, 2004
http://www.antiwar.com/prather/?articleid=3841
John Kerry has essentially accused President Bush of making the use of a nuclear weapon against us more likely by failing to fully support the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Bush, in rebuttal, pointed with pride to his Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), which he has made "central" to his "dealing with weapons of mass destruction and proliferation."
When Bush became president, North Korea, Iraq, and Iran were signatories to the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) and had made all their NPT proscribed materials, facilities, and activities subject to periodic "safeguards" inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
However, Bush claimed to have "intelligence" that all three were secretly pursuing nuke development programs.
Worse, Bush charged that the IAEA-NPT nuke proliferation prevention regime was incompetent to prevent or even uncover those illicit nuke development programs.
And, obviously, the NPT and other existing international arms control agreements had not prevented the 9/11 terrorists from acquiring box-cutters.
So, Bush announced his own National Strategy to Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction in late 2002, and developed from it the Proliferation Security Initiative of 2003, whose objective was to create a web of international "counter-proliferation partnerships" to prevent "proliferators" from "carrying out their trade in WMD and missile-related technology."
According to Undersecretary of State John Bolton, the PSI was necessary because "proliferators and those facilitating the procurement of deadly capabilities are circumventing existing laws, treaties, and controls against WMD proliferation." Unlike the IAEA-NPT Safeguards regime, "PSI is not diverted by disputes about candidacies for director general, agency budgets, agendas for meetings, and the like."
Bolton began implementing Bush's PSI almost nine months after Bush had unilaterally abrogated the IAEA-monitored Agreed Framework with North Korea and several months after Bush had defied the UN Security Council by unilaterally invading and occupying Iraq.
Now, whenever Bolton suspects anyone is buying, selling, or facilitating the transfer of "deadly capabilities" to or from countries like Iran or North Korea, he just orders one or more of the sixty cooperating states to "interdict" - on land, sea, or in the air - the suspect purchase, sale, or transfer.
Last year, Taiwanese government officials detained - at our request - the North Korean cargo vessel Be Gaehung, which had made port at Kaoshung, boarded it, and confiscated 158 barrels of phosphorus pentasulfide, which U.S. intelligence "suspected" could be used to make "rocket fuel."
Now PSI "interdiction" may sound a lot like piracy to you, a flagrant violation of all kinds of international law. It sounds that way to a lot of international legal experts, too.
But Bolton claims that Bush's PSI is now justified by the U.S.-sponsored Security Council Resolution 1540 of 2004, which reaffirms UNSC President's Statement (S 23500) of Jan. 31, 1992, which says - among other things -
"The proliferation of all weapons of mass destruction constitutes a threat to international peace and security. The members of the Council commit themselves to working to prevent the spread of technology related to the research for or production of such weapons and to take appropriate action to that end.
"The members of the Council underline the need for all Member States to fulfill their obligations in relation to arms control and disarmament, to prevent the proliferation in all its aspects of all weapons of mass destruction; to avoid excessive and destabilizing accumulations and transfer of arms; and to resolve peacefully in accordance with the Charter any problems concerning these matters threatening or disrupting the maintenance of regional and global stability."
Now, Presidential Statements are the product of informal consultations between the Council's president and its members and do not enjoy the status of resolutions. However, having now been cited in UNSC 1540, the Statement carries considerable weight.
Does Bush's PSI constitute the kind of "working together" to "fulfill" their arms control and disarmament "obligations" that members of the Security Council had in mind back in 1992?
Probably not, since the Presidential Statement went on to say,
"On nuclear proliferation, they [Council Members] note the importance of the decision of many countries to adhere to the Nonproliferation Treaty and emphasize the integral role in the implementation of that Treaty of fully effective IAEA safeguards, as well as the importance of effective export controls. The members of the Council will take appropriate measures in the case of any violations notified to them by the IAEA."
Kerry's right. Bush has failed to support the IAEA-NPT regime in North Korea, Iraq, Iran, and elsewhere. Consequently, your chances of getting nuked in your jammies have gone way up.
-------- u.n.
U.S. May Not Push for Ouster of IAEA Chief
October 23, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-nuclear-iaea-usa.html
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Despite urging U.N. nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei to step down after two terms, the Bush administration may be unwilling to undertake an all-out political battle to oust him, U.S. officials and diplomats say.
ElBaradei, who has worked at the International Atomic Energy Agency for 20 years, officially announced his interest in a third term late last month, rebuffing President Bush's team, which said it hoped he would step down and allow the appointment of a new leader.
A senior U.S. official said: ``We'd rather see an elegant way out for everybody. What we're seeking is a resolution that doesn't force the issue.''
Bush and Democratic candidate Sen. John Kerry have both declared that keeping nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists would be their first priority after the Nov. 2 election, and the IAEA is a key player in efforts to halt the spread of weapons of mass destruction.
IAEA directors-general traditionally have not had term limits. But western countries have discussed the need for limits and the White House affirmed its preference for a two-term cap.
Bush administration hard-liners, led by Undersecretary of State John Bolton, fault ElBaradei and the IAEA for not being tough enough on states seeking to develop weapons of mass destruction, including Iran and North Korea.
In the runup to the Iraq war, Elbaradei stoked U.S. anger by saying IAEA inspectors had found no evidence of a continuing nuclear program in Iraq. Bush and top aides insisted the program existed as they made the case for an invasion, but evidence to support the existence of such a program has not been found.
MUCH DEPENDS ON NOV. 2
ElBaradei would have made it easy for his critics if he had agreed to step aside.
His decision to stand for a third term means Washington could provoke an all-out international political battle if it seeks his ouster when the issue comes to a head next year. The IAEA board normally likes to make decisions by consensus.
The U.S. strategy will turn on who wins the presidential election. Bush charted a bold, largely unilateralist, foreign policy course during much of his first term. Kerry has promised to work more closely with allies.
The Massachusetts Democrat has not evolved positions on such issues as the IAEA director-general appointment, campaign sources say.
But a Democratic insider told Reuters that, while some Kerry advisers may like to see ElBaradei replaced, ``We'd have to look at the political consequences.''
Senior Bush officials said there is no obvious alternative candidate to ElBaradei and there is a reluctance, at least in some quarters, to try and forcibly oust an Egyptian-born diplomat from a top U.N. job.
The Clinton administration engineered the ouster of former U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, also from Egypt, after one term.
Some U.S. officials predict an effort to kick out another prominent Egyptian -- ElBaradei was considered this year for a Nobel Peace Prize -- would fan new anti-American feelings in the most populous Arab country.
Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak, is a close U.S. ally and an important intermediary in the Middle East peace process.
Asked if the Bush administration would actually vote against ElBaradei, another senior official said he did not know.
If Bolton stayed in his current job or were promoted, he might persuade the administration to fight ElBaradei on a third term and this ``could be ``nasty,'' that senior U.S. official said.
The last IAEA director-general, Hans Blix, was in his job for 16 years, and the administration believes these appointments should not be open-ended, officials said.
-------- u.s. nuc weapons
US Navy commissions first in new class of attack submarines
WASHINGTON (AFP)
Oct 23, 2004
MMIV ad pepper media International N.V.
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041023081454.4sji0zz3.html
The US Navy on Saturday commissions the first of a new class of nuclear-powered attack submarines, designed more for intelligence missions close to shore than its Cold War predecessors, navy officials said. The USS Virginia, which is to be inducted into the navy in a ceremony in Norfolk, Virginia, can fire Tomahawk cruise missiles from a distance or it can be configured to slip a 50-member special operations force behind the lines, they said.
The two-billion-dollar submarine is the first of 30 that the navy plans to buy, eventually replacing the current fleet of Los Angeles class attack submarines made famous in movies like the "Hunt for Red October". Three others are under construction by Newport News Shipbuilding and Electric Boat Corp. of Groton, Connecticut.
"In the Cold War you'd ask, 'How fast and how deep can the sub go,' for fighting the blue ocean, deep water threats that we had in the Cold War," said Phil McGuinn, a spokesman for the navy's submarine force.
"Well, Virginia is still built to meet those threats, and so you could ask how deep and how fast, and we would still say greater than 25 knots and greater than 800 feet (244 meters). But the important question now for Virginia is, 'How close to a station can you maintain?'"
Unlike the Los Angeles class submarines, the Virginia has automated navigational controls that enable it to spend more time on clandestine missions in coastal areas without tiring the crew.
"If you're going to go sit off someone's coast and do an intelligence and surveillance mission, or be ready to insert some special forces, you want to be able to manage where your boat is and how it hovers in the water," McGuinn said. "You want to be able to really navigate, and fly your boat where you need to go and count on it getting there."
The Los Angeles class submarines can perform those special intelligence missions, but they require more manpower and a more intense effort by the navigation crew to manually keep the submarine on station, he said.
The new submarine has other features designed for special forces missions.
A full nine-member special forces team can get into or out of the submarine through its lockout chamber at a time, instead of only two as is currently the case.
The submarine can host an Advanced SEAL Delivery System mini-submarine, and in the future will be able to carry unmanned underwater vehicles, McGuinn said.
The old style periscope is gone on the Virginia, replaced by photonics and fiber optic sensors that relay images from the mast to large screen monitors in the submarine's command center.
"The captain can sit there with a joystick and a large panel display and get a heads up view of everything that would have been seen through the periscope," he said.
The new submarine's communications systems have greater bandwidth than the Los Angeles class subs, allowing it to communicate and send back more data at higher speeds.
"Its quietness with its ability to hover and maintain station allows it to be in position to be a basically 'big ears,' the ultimate eavesdropper," picking up a variety of signals, analyzing them and relaying them to other commands, he said.
The Virginia also carries Tomahawk cruise missiles, which it can fire either from vertical launchers on deck or through torpedo tubes. It can also fire MK-48 torpedos, or be configured to carry mines.
The submarine, which will be based in Groton, Connecticut, will spend about a year being worked up by its new crew, he said.
It should be ready for real world missions in 2006 or 2007, he said.
-------- u.s. nuc facilities
-------- vermont
Licensing board wraps up VY hearing
Reformer
By CAROLYN LORIé
October 23, 2004
http://www.reformer.com/Stories/0,1413,102~8860~2486862,00.html#
After a day and a half of listening to arguments about why there should or should not be a formal hearing in the Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee "uprate" case, the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel will review the information and issue a decision, although no one is sure exactly when.
According to Neil Sheehan, spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the panel will take as long as necessary to decide the matter.
On Friday, the nuclear power watchdog, the New England Coalition, presented arguments on their final contentions. Closing arguments were then made by the coalition and the Vermont Department of Public Service. Both are challenging the safety of the 20 percent power increase proposed by Vermont Yankee officials.
Accusing Entergy lawyers and plant officials of telling "half-truths," department lawyer Anthony Roisman pressed the panel to grant a full formal hearing.
"You cannot do your job, which is to get to the truth, without [a hearing]," said Roisman.
Coalition lawyer Jonathan Block made a similar claim, adding that a hearing would be the only way for citizens to "get at least somewhat equal footing with [Entergy]."
The Department of Public Service originally filed five contentions (see sidebar), but then added a sixth in the last week. Only the first five are being considered in this process, as Entergy and the NRC have not yet had a chance to respond to the most recent challenge.
Seven contentions were submitted by the coalition.
NRC staff, which is separate from the Atomic Safety and Licensing board (see sidebar) and presented arguments at this week's hearing, recommended that only portions of two of the state's contentions should be admitted and only one of the coalition's. The regulator opposed the granting of a hearing.
The are several decisions before the three-member panel.
First it must decide, based on NRC regulations, whether the parties have standing -- that is, whether they have a legitimate reason to be concerned about the uprate.
Then it must rule on whether any of the challenges have legal merit. If the panel allows that even one of the contentions is admissible, then it must choose the appropriate venue.
There are two options for resolving contentions. One is through a written process, in which questions are asked and answered through the submission of documents. The other is a formal hearing, which is run very much like a trial in a court of law.
The coalition and the department are seeking a formal hearing.
Any decision made by the panel can be overturned by the three-member commission that heads the NRC. Decisions made by the panel can also be appealed to the commission.
According to Raymond Shadis, technical advisor to the coalition, if the panel does not grant a hearing the group will appeal the decision to the commission.
The process, however, has already put a tremendous financial burden on the grassroots nonprofit, said the executive director of the coalition, Peter Alexander.
"Right now we're in the black," he said. "If we do not get substantial donations within a few weeks, we'll be back in the red."
While the state has invested a great deal resources into the process as well, the cost of hiring an attorney will be billed back to Entergy.
Though the company has aggressively fought the challenges presented by the state and the coalition, Entergy officials maintain that they do not oppose the right to challenge the uprate but that the contentions submitted were without merit.
Company officials remain optimistic that the uprate will be approved.
"We spent 10 months in preparation on that petition and we are confident that every single aspect of it is consistent with applicable regulations," said Rob Williams, spokesman for Vermont Yankee.
The NRC originally planned to make a decision on the uprate by Jan. 31, 2005, but now plans to extend its deadline by several months.
Few people attended Friday's hearing, which was highly technical both legally and scientifically.
On Thursday, many elected state officials were on hand, including Sens. Rod Gander, D-Windham, Jeanette White, D-Windham and Reps. Steve Darrow, D-Putney, Richard Marek, D-Newfane and Sarah Edwards, I-Brattleboro.
Edwards said she attended on behalf of her constituents and in preparation for the next legislative session.
"With so many important issues anticipated to come before the Legislature in the coming session, and nuclear power will be one of them, I need to be as informed as possible," said Edwards, who was present for both days of hearings.
After Friday's closing arguments wrapped up, Shadis expressed his frustration with the complexity of trying to intervene before the NRC.
"You'd think there'd be a better way to get to the truth," he said.
Carolyn Lorié can be reached at clorie@reformer.com.
-------- us nuc waste
Air Force clears March land that once held nuclear weapons
There had been concern over radioactive waste; bunkers could now store fireworks.
The Press-Enterprise
By KIMBERLY TRONE
October 23, 2004
http://www.pe.com/localnews/riverside/stories/PE_News_Local_rland24.58e75.html
An abandoned 187-acre storage facility that once housed nuclear weapons has been given a clean bill of health by the Air Force.
In May 2003, the Air Force announced it would re-survey the Orangecrest-area site for low-level radioactive waste because gloves and rags used to wipe down depleted uranium capsules might have been buried there in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Philip Mook, regional environmental coordinator for the Air Force said a complete report on the inspection should be released by the first part of next year.
When the Air Force surveyed the area for radioactive waste in the mid-1990s, Mook said officials believed nuclear weapons were routinely taken for maintenance to sites such as Los Alamos.
When once-classified documents were reviewed some time later, they described a practice of burying special containers of gloves and rags at some Strategic Air Command bases. March became a strategic air base in 1949 and bombers were stationed there until 1982. The base was downsized to an air reserve base in 1996.
"Since there was a process that we did not know about, we determined we needed to go back and reconfirm what the impact was," Mook said. "The Air Force has completed its survey and did not find anything."
The 16 bunkers may eventually house fireworks for Rialto-based Pyro Spectaculars, said Dan Fairbanks, planning manager for the March Joint Powers Authority.
The March authority is made up of Riverside County and the cities of Moreno Valley, Perris and Riverside. Its mission is to redevelop surplus military land, such as the 1,178 acres surrounded by homes in Riverside's Orangecrest neighborhood.
The Air Force transferred the Orangecrest-area property to the March authority about five years ago. Before any fireworks are stored in the weapons bunkers, Fairbanks said the March authority is committed to holding a public meeting prior to any formal public hearing.
The fireworks would be distributed into the bunkers in smaller amounts to avoid any heavy concentration of potential explosives, Fairbanks said.
Stephanie Vega, who is pregnant and has two young children, recently moved into the family's new Dayton Street home. The family's back yard looks out over the thick-concrete weapons bunkers dug deep into the barren hillsides.
"We have always wondered what was in there," Vega said.
Vega said she was surprised to learn of the facilities' former use but was relieved to know there was no radioactive waste lingering in the area.
However, Vega said she did not know about the possibility that fireworks may be located so close to her family's new home.
"It does worry me, because I have children," she said.
Reach Kimberly Trone at (951) 368-9456 or ktrone@pe.com
-------- MILITARY
-------- afghanistan
How 'Ugly Americans' Forced Muslims Into a Wrong War
Arab News
Amir Taheri,
23 October, 2004
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=9§ion=0&article=53315&d=23&m=10&y=2004
The Arab Mujahedeen who went to Afghanistan in the 1980s to fight against the Soviet occupation chose the wrong side in the wrong war in the wrong place and at the wrong time.
This is the message of "The Road to Kabul", a new Arab television series which is captivating millions of spectators as the Arab world is put in low gear for the annual fasting month of Ramadan. The series was made in 38 hour-long episodes by a group of Palestinian and Jordanian filmmakers for the Qatari television that, in turn, sold it to several networks, including MBC, a Saudi-owned satellite channel. The Qatari television, however, decided to cancel its own screening, scheduled for the start of Ramadan just over a week ago, ostensibly for " technical reasons". It then informed other channels that had bought the series that they would not receive the remaining 30 episodes. The Qatari decision has triggered threats of lawsuits from the concerned channels. It has also produced an avalanche of rumors about the reasons for the cancellation. One such is that Condoleezza Rice, President George W Bush's national security advisor, phoned the Qatari leaders to ask them not to air the series.
The series is woven around a love story between a Palestinian whose parents lost their homes when Israel was created, and an Afghan woman whose family were forced to flee Kabul when the Communists seized power in 1979.
Once he develops an interest in the Afghan imbroglio, the Palestinian quickly concludes that this is the wrong war, provoked by the United States against the Soviet Union in the context of the Cold War. In one dramatic scene, he gives an Arab volunteer who is going to Afghanistan a lecture on how the whole thing is an American conspiracy to divert attention from the only war that matters: The war to liberate Palestine, presumably by wiping Israel off the map.
That view is hammered in throughout. One scene shows American intelligence agents encouraging Afghans to grow opium poppies that can then be used to produce heroin to be sold to Soviet soldiers.
We see one particularly obnoxious American agent boasting about an "igneous plan" worked out by his boss William Casey, CIA director under President Ronald Reagan, to finance the Afghan war with money from heroin sold to the Soviet Army. The agent says that the US has tested the method with "The Opium War" that brought China to its knees in the 19th century. (The US, of course, had nothing to do with the Chinese Opium War that involved only the British at the time.)
The series also claims that the Islamist radical movement that began to develop from the late 1970s onwards was the fruit of an American conspiracy to mobilize Muslims against the USSR and use the Mujahedeen as foot soldiers in a proxy war.
"You are not fighting for Islam or the Afghan people," the Palestinian character tells one Arab volunteer. "You are fighting for the Americans."
In a roundabout way the series tries to relay another message: The Americans have only themselves to blame for the Sept. 11 attacks against New York and Washington. The jihadists who carried out the attacks were fruits of a deadly seed sowed by the United States and its regional allies in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In order to portray the American as evil incarnate, the series tries to humanize the Soviet occupation. The Red Army is represented by a number of kindly officers led by a bumbling general with a special fondness for the bottle. There is no sign of the systematic destruction that the Red Army carried out throughout Afghanistan. If anything the Red Army is depicted as a double victim, first of unidentified "conspirators" in the Kremlin who fell into the American trap, and then the jihadists who kill indiscriminately. In one scene the series' heroine, a British-educated doctor whose son has just been injured in an explosion meets the Soviet general and gives him a lecture on poverty and despair in Afghanistan. The general, having just emptied his vodka bottle, nods in sympathy and orders that medical supplies be provided for treating the injured boy.
Judging by anecdotal evidence many Arab viewers love the series. They are comforted in their deep-rooted belief that the only issue that deserves their sympathy is Palestine. Even if Afghans are Muslims and six times as numerous as the Palestinians, their occupation and massacre by the Soviets does not appear as shocking as the oppression of the Palestinians by Israel.
The series exaggerates the role played by the so-called "Arab Afghans" who are presented as the backbone of the war against the Red Army. In fact, the "Arab Afghans" never numbered more than 3,000 compared to over 250,000 native Afghan fighters operating in dozens of guerrilla groups throughout the country.
The "Arab Afghans" were mostly attached to three Pushtun groups led respectively by Abdul-Rasul Sayyaf, Yunus Khalis and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
According to most experts, the impact of these groups on the course of the war in Afghanistan was minimal at best. And when the final crunch came in 1992, none of those groups played any role in capturing Kabul that fell to a coalition of Tajik warriors, led by the late Ahmad Shah Massoud, and the Uzbek militia of Abdul-Rashid Dostum. The series elevates Osama Bin Laden, the fugitive Al-Qaeda terror chief, to the position of a major war leader and a "sheikh" with implied religious authority. Again, this flies in the face of historic facts. Despite his claims about having won a Kalashnikov by killing a Russian general in battle, Bin Laden never saw any serious combat in Afghanistan.
Shot in Jordan with Arab actors and soldiers from the Jordanian Army as extras, the series fails to reproduce an Afghan atmosphere. Jordan is a desert land while Afghanistan is a land of high mountains. The decors and the costumes are also more Arab than Afghan while the theme and background music is either Arabic or Western. Much of the dialogue consists of tearjerkers or pseudo-philosophico-religious clichés.
In one scene an Arab jihadist boasts that he is fighting with "the book in my heart and the gun in my hand." The series does not question the combination. It only suggests that the jihadists chose the wrong enemy.
-------- africa
New Somali President Asks for 20, 000 AU Peacekeepers
October 23, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-somalia-au.html
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Somalia's newly elected president, Abdullahi Yusuf, has asked the African Union to send 20,000 peacekeepers to disarm militias controlling his lawless Horn of Africa country, an AU spokesman said on Saturday.
``The president has formally asked the AU for a 20,000-strong peacekeeping force to help in collecting millions of small arms known to be owned by the Somali people,'' AU spokesman Adam Thiam told reporters.
He said the request would be considered by the AU's Peace and Security Council which is due to meet on Monday.
Yusuf made the appeal to AU Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare during a meeting with top AU officials on Saturday in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
Yusuf was elected as Somalia's president after almost two years of stop-start talks held in neighboring Kenya because of insecurity at home. The former warlord made his first appeal for peacekeepers at his swearing-in ceremony last week.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, also on a visit to AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, said the European Union would offer funding for a peacekeeping mission and consider training Somali security forces.
``The president (of Somalia) has not given me any specific request. But if the request comes ... the EU will assist Somalia and finance a peacekeeping mission as it has done for Darfur,'' Solana told a news conference, adding Brussels would host a donor conference on Somalia on Nov. 28.
Earlier Solana announced the EU would contribute more than $100 million to an enlarged AU force in Sudan's troubled Darfur region, but gave no details on what the EU might offer for an operation in Somalia.
ANARCHY
Somalia collapsed with the ousting of military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, disintegrating into fiefdoms run by rival warlords who have thrived in the absence of a central authority.
Diplomats say Yusuf risks leading a government in exile if he is unable to return quickly to Mogadishu and that the legitimacy of his fledgling government hinges on gaining control of the anarchic country.
Despite the new government's need to its stamp authority on the country of more than seven million, the international community is wary of engaging in Somalia after a failed U.S. peacekeeping mission forced the United States and later the United Nations to withdraw in 1993.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned on Tuesday against a hasty expansion of U.N. nation-building activities in the failed state, saying there must first be greater political progress coupled with serious efforts by Somali leaders to improve security.
But with an operation to deal with what the United Nations calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis in Darfur, the AU will be hard pressed to free up 20,000 troops for Somalia, one analyst said.
``The heavy lifting has to be done by the Somalis first,'' said Matt Bryden, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group think-tank.
``I think it is a really worrying sign because he (Yusuf) is out of touch with international reality,'' Bryden told Reuters.
``No one is going to send troops in to fight, which is what peace enforcement entails, especially after what happened in '93,'' Bryden said, referring to a botched raid that resulted in two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters being shot down in Mogadishu.
-------- arms
Navy Commissions Fast - Attack Submarine
October 23, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-USS-Virginia.html
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) -- With bells ringing and horns blaring, the Navy on Saturday commissioned the lead ship of its latest class of fast-attack submarines specifically designed for post-Cold War security threats.
The $2.2 billion, nuclear-powered USS Virginia differs from other submarines because it can not only roam the deep blue ocean but also get close to shore in shallow water, which Navy officials say is important in fighting terrorism.
Lynda Johnson Robb, daughter of President Lyndon Johnson and wife of former Sen. Charles Robb, D-Va., gave the traditional order to ``man our ship and bring her to life'' in ceremonies at Norfolk Naval Station, the world's largest Navy base.
``Aye, aye, ma'am,'' the crew of about 130 responded. They then raced up both ends of the sub and lined up on deck as a Navy band played ``Anchors Aweigh.''
The 377-foot-long sub is the first to be built without a periscope, using a high-resolution digital camera instead. That meant the control room, which always had to be directly below the periscope, could be moved to a larger space in the sub's lower deck.
The Virginia also can launch unmanned undersea vehicles. Other improvements include a new computerized autopilot designed to reduce stress on the crew and a reconfigurable torpedo room that can hold extra beds for special operations forces.
In his keynote address, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., said the Virginia will help lead the fight against terrorism.
``We cannot ever blink. We cannot ever flinch. We cannot yield,'' said Warner, a former Navy secretary. ``This ship will very definitely play a role in that war on terror.''
The sub is the first of 10 Virginia-class submarines scheduled to be built through a partnership between Northrop Grumman Newport News and General Dynamics Electric Boat. The class is projected to have 30 subs.
First lady Laura Bush christened the USS Texas, the second sub in the class, at the Newport News shipyard in July.
Ralph Folger, 81, of Troy, N.Y., was among more than 4,000 invited guests at the ceremonies Saturday. He served on three subs during World War II.
``It's the newest and latest thing out and completely different from anything I've ever served on,'' Folger said. ``It's spectacular.''
Crew members were excited about the commissioning.
``It really means that we are joining the ranks of the rest of the warships,'' said Lt. Cmdr. Luis Molina, 34, of Jacksonville, N.C., who will serve aboard the Virginia. ``You're going from a big hunk of steel that was built by the shipyard to a ship of the line.''
On the Net:
U.S. Atlantic Fleet Submarine Force: http://www.sublant.navy.mil/
--------
Over 18,000 armaments handed over in Baghdad's Sadr City
BAGHDAD (AFP)
Oct 23, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041023145717.2vklegk6.html
About 18,000 armaments were handed over in a recent weapons-for-cash programme in Baghdad's Sadr City, Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh announced Saturday, calling the process a "great success".
"We have spent close to five million dollars on 9,000 anti-tank mines, 2,000 land mines, 2,000 Kalashnikovs, more than 1,000 rocket launchers, more than 2,000 anti-tank missiles," he told a press conference adding that more than 1,550 mortar shells and nearly 600,000 bullets were also handed in.
"The programme was a great success and the government is looking to repeat it in other parts of the country," he said.
The programme, which ended Thursday, lasted 10 days and came after a call by radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr to his followers in Baghdad to hand over their weapons in return for promises by the interim government to stop arresting members of his movement and release many of those held in US-run prisons.
Iraqi forces backed by the US military are due to begin searches on Sunday to verify the extent of disarmament in Sadr City, which has been the scene of off-and-on clashes between Sadr's militia and US and Iraqi forces over the past six months.
Saleh said the government has allocated 365 million dollars for reconstruction in Sadr City, which is one of the poorest parts of the capital.
-------- britain
THE INSURGENTS
Hostage Begs the British to Remove Troops in Iraq
October 23, 2004
By EDWARD WONG
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/23/international/middleeast/23iraq.html?pagewanted=all
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 22 - A British-Iraqi aid official held hostage by militants made a tearful televised plea on Friday, begging the people of Britain and Prime Minister Tony Blair to save her life by withdrawing troops from Iraq.
The official, Margaret Hassan, a long-time resident of Iraq, appeared in a grainy videotape given to Al Jazeera, the Arab satellite news network. Ms. Hassan, the director of CARE International in Iraq, was abducted Tuesday as she rode to work in her car. In the poor-quality videotape, Ms. Hassan talks of her dire situation between sobs.
"Please help me, please help me," Ms. Hassan said, her face drawn and haggard. "This might be my last hours. Please help me. Please, the British people, ask Mr. Blair to take the troops out of Iraq, and not to bring them here to Baghdad."
Ms. Hassan was referring to an announcement by the British Defense Ministry on Thursday that 850 British troops would be moved from the south to volatile central Iraq to allow American soldiers more time to prepare for an invasion of Falluja, the insurgent stronghold 35 miles west of Baghdad.
Ms. Hassan's kidnapping came less than two weeks after the beheading of Kenneth Bigley, a British engineer who had also been shown in a videotape pleading with Mr. Blair to save his life. The incident raised a furor in England, where residents of Liverpool, Mr. Bigley's hometown, and antiwar advocates attacked Mr. Blair for his support of the American-led occupation. Mr. Bigley was killed by One God and Jihad, the group led by the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The United States military arrested a senior leader of Mr. Zarqawi's group and five others during overnight raids in Falluja, The Associated Press reported Saturday. The 1:30 a.m. raid focused on a site being used as a haven by Mr. Zarqawi's inner circle, the military said in a statement. Also on Saturday, insurgents fired grenades at an American armored vehicle and set it on fire on a highway leading to Baghdad International Airport, Reuters reported. There was no immediate word on casualties.
No abducted foreign woman has been known to be killed in Iraq. Last month, insurgents kidnapped two Italian women, both aid workers, but later released them. More than 150 foreigners have been taken captive, most of them by bandits seeking ransom, but a few by fighters looking to use the hostages as propaganda tools in the guerrilla war.
It is unclear what group is holding Ms. Hassan. A videotape was released just after Ms. Hassan's abduction showing her looking disoriented and frightened. In that tape and the one released on Friday, militants do not appear; the only image is of Ms. Hassan in a trimmed white shirt, framed from her shoulders up.
At one point, the video cuts to close-up shots of identification cards belonging to Ms. Hassan. Mr. Zarqawi's group, which recently posted an Internet message saying it had changed its name to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, typically shoots its videos with black-clad militants standing behind the hostages, who are dressed in orange jumpsuits.
The fate of Mr. Bigley had clearly upset Ms. Hassan. "That's why people like Mr. Bigley and myself are being caught," Ms. Hassan said of the presence of British troops. "And maybe we will die like Mr. Bigley." Ms. Hassan, 52, was born in Dublin and has lived in Baghdad for more than 30 years. She speaks Arabic fluently and is married to an Iraqi, Tahseen Ali Hassan. Ms. Hassan began working for CARE after the Persian Gulf war in 1991. She leads a staff of about 30 Iraqis who distribute medicine and medical supplies to hospitals and help restore access to clean water. She was an outspoken critic of the sanctions imposed on Iraq by the United Nations after the 1991 war.
The head of CARE International suspended the group's Iraq operations after Ms. Hassan's abduction.
Also on Friday, the Macedonian government confirmed that two Macedonian construction workers had been killed by militants. Al Jazeera said Monday that it had received a videotape showing the beheadings of the two men.
A powerful group of Sunni clerics said American military and Iraqi National Guard soldiers had raided the mosque and home of one of the group's prominent officials, Sheik Abdul-Sattar Abdul-Jabbar, and had arrested him, one of his sons and a neighbor. The group, the Muslim Scholars Association, which has been steadfast in its opposition to the occupation, said through a spokesman that it did not know why the sheik had been arrested. A military spokeswoman, Sharon Walker, said she had no information on operations involving the arrest.
-------- business
CORRUPTION ACCUSATIONS
Memos Warned of Billing Fraud by Firm in Iraq
October 23, 2004
By ERIK ECKHOLM
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/23/politics/23whistle.html?oref=login&pagewanted=all
Managers of a security firm that won large contracts in Iraq warned their bosses in February of what they called a pattern of fraudulent billing practices, internal company memorandums suggest.
The memorandums, written primarily by two company managers, charged that the security firm, Custer Battles, repeatedly billed the occupation authorities for nonexistent services or at grossly inflated prices.
The company, which quickly grew to garner security contracts worth $100 million in little more than a year, denies the charges. It argues that the managers confused sincere attempts to document jobs done in a hurry, in a war zone, with deliberate deception and that the company provided all contracted services for the agreed-upon price.
The memos and a lawsuit filed by former employees cite several specific instances, including billing the Coalition Provisional Authority $157,000 for a helicopter pad that in fact cost $95,000, and repainting forklifts abandoned by Baghdad Airways and then charging the authority thousands of dollars a month, claiming that the forklifts were leased.
One of the managers was later fired by the company and is part of a lawsuit charging Custer Battles with defrauding the federal government of tens of millions of dollars. The other manager, who has since been appointed to a high-level position with the company, recently declared that after further research, he believed that any questionable practices were the fault of a few individuals and had not been condoned by the owners.
On Sept. 30, the Pentagon, concerned by the allegations raised by the employees, barred Custer Battles from receiving further military contracts, and it has withheld at least $10 million in payments to the company. The company is appealing the ban.
The charges swirling around Custer Battles in part reflect a problem that American government auditors have acknowledged: the inability of the Iraq occupation authority, particularly in its first year, to monitor properly the performance of hundreds of companies, large and small, that flocked to Baghdad seeking contracts for everything from building materials to armed guards.
The memorandums, provided by a lawyer for the managers who filed the lawsuit against Custer Battles, charge that the company submitted invoices from supposed subcontractors or suppliers that - unbeknownst to the American officials who paid the final tab - were virtual shells, newly created by Custer Battles executives and their partners.
Custer Battles, founded in 2001 by Scott Custer and Michael Battles, both in their 30's, says it has about 700 employees.
Pete Baldwin, then the Iraq facilities manager, wrote in a Feb. 2 memorandum that in one typical invoice, Custer Battles claimed that one of its shell companies had installed a helicopter pad for $157,000. In fact, Custer Battles had hired a different company to build the pad for $95,000, he asserted. He wrote that "every line item on that invoice," which was submitted for a total of $250,000, was just as "false, fabricated, inflated."
Mr. Baldwin wrote that he had repeatedly informed Mr. Custer, the company co-owner, of similar practices, but to no avail. A lawyer for Custer Battles, Richard Sauber, said that Mr. Custer had subsequently brought accountants to Iraq to clear up incomplete books but that they had not found fraud.
Mr. Baldwin said in the memorandum that after he began raising alarms, an executive with the company tried to fire him. Mr. Baldwin was given notice on Feb. 20 - he has said because of his charges of fraud. Larry Robbins, a lawyer for Custer Battles, says he was fired for "incompetence.''
Last week, documents unsealed by the Justice Department disclosed that two former managers of Custer Battles, including Mr. Baldwin, had brought a civil suit under the federal whistle-blower act charging the company with fraud.
The company called those charges baseless and the work of "a competitor and a disgruntled employee." The two former managers could win million of dollars in rewards if the charges hold up.
In a memorandum dated Feb. 28, 2004, Peter Miskovich, who was manager of the company's $21 million contract to safeguard Iraq's new currency as it was being distributed, gave a scathing review of the project, which he took over in midstream. Mr. Miskovich - who is not part of the whistle-blower lawsuit - wrote to his superior, Charles Baumann, then the country manager, that the records provided "prima facie evidence of a course of conduct consistent with criminal activity and intent."
Mr. Miskovich was later named director of the company's new Office of Corporate Integrity. In an Oct. 13 affidavit, he said that after further review, he had concluded that financial improprieties were more isolated than he had declared in February. He said that "I do not believe, based on what I learned during my tenure" as a project manager, "that Scott Custer or Mike Battles was involved in the questionable conduct."
Reached by telephone this week, Mr. Miskovich refused to speak to a reporter. Mr. Baldwin could not be reached for comment.
The Air Force, which suspended the Custer Battles contract, wrote a memorandum citing suspicion of repeated fraud. The Air Force quotes Mr. Miskovich's Feb. 28 memorandum, and calls the evidence of company misconduct "of so serious or compelling a nature that it affects their present responsibility to be government contractors or subcontractors."
In the case of the currency exchange project, said Mr. Sauber, the lawyer for Custer Battles, the occupation authority agreed on a final fee of $21 million, but the Pentagon has held up the final $10 million in payments while it investigates the contract.
Earlier this month, the Justice Department declined to prosecute Custer Battles, though the civil suit continues under the whistle-blower law. The department gave no public explanation, but officials had previously told lawyers in the lawsuit that because the alleged fraud was against the Coalition Provisional Authority, federal prosecutors did not have jurisdiction. Some experts have questioned that reasoning.
The company founders, Scott Custer and Michael Battles, are both Army veterans. Mr. Battles unsuccessfully ran for Congress in Rhode Island as a Republican two years ago.
The two started out by offering security services to nongovernmental organizations in Afghanistan after the fall of Kabul in late 2001.
But their business really took hold in June 2003, soon after the fall of Baghdad. The men obtained a $16.5 million contract from the occupation authorities to provide security for the Baghdad airport.
That one-year contract was not renewed, but the company had already begun pulling in others, directly with the Coalition Provisional Authority or as a subcontractor to other companies.
As it cut a quick and profitable swath, Custer Battles sometimes angered more experienced security companies with its aggressive recruitment of scarce security experts and claims to industry leadership. The company describes itself as "the premier security company in Iraq" on its corporate Web site.
The two founders have received praise for their entrepreneurship. The internal memorandums charge that part of that success, at least, was built on questionable practices.
One example captures some of the fog of post-invasion Iraq. With forged invoices, Mr. Miskovich wrote, Custer Battles billed for providing a security detail for the road delivery from Baghdad to Mosul of prefabricated cabins. The housing was urgently required by teams carrying out the currency exchange.
Not only did the company provide no guards for the trip, Mr. Miskovich said in his Feb. 28 memo, but the convoy was also somehow lost for a week, officials in Mosul had to sleep in tents, and the company had to offer a reward to locate the cabins.
-------- chemical weapons
Agent Orange: An Ongoing Atrocity
Antiwar.com
by Michael Austin
October 23, 2004
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/austin.php?articleid=3838
A review of Agent Orange: "Collateral Damage" in Vietnam by Philip Jones Griffiths Trolley Ltd. (Great Britain) Hardback, 160 pages, with 100 b/w photographs
In this welcome and timely follow-up to his well-known 1971 classic Vietnam, Inc., photojournalist Phillip Jones Griffiths takes readers on a moving journey into the heart of darkness, shining a light on the pain that still lingers in Vietnam, whose residents are reminded every day of the war most of the world has tried to forget about.
As the title suggests, the photos and text of Agent Orange are focused specifically on the lasting damage done by the most famous of the various defoliants (nicknamed for the orange canisters it was transported and stored in) with which U.S. forces drenched the jungles of South Vietnam. Although "Agent Orange" was intended only as a tactical weapon - not meant to inflict physical damage on the enemy, only to deprive them of cover - it contained a byproduct of chlorine known as dioxin, one of the worst toxins known to man. A huge segment of the population of South Vietnam (along with some residents of Cambodia and many U.S. soldiers) was exposed to the poison during the war, whether it was rained directly onto their skin, inhaled during the spraying of large areas, or ingested in water or food that was exposed. (Unbelievably, the used orange storage barrels were also used for water, food and petroleum storage, and even as barbecue pits, causing further spread of the toxin.) Dioxin is a virtual "genetic time bomb" :once it has entered the body, it may cause any number of birth defects in the children of those exposed, ranging from stillbirth or infant death to mental retardation or physical deformity. Agent Orange is a devastating pictorial catalogue of these defects and more - the enduring legacy of dioxin poisoning in Vietnam.
The images that open the book are of the barren landscapes left by the use of defoliants. They are stark, patchy plains, containing only scrubby grass, often leafless trees, and the occasional sign of militaristic life here and there. These opening pictures are just the calm before the storm, tame in comparison to the images of human suffering that follow, but they do set the mood and illustrate succinctly the quote that opens the book's first section of narration: "America didn't just threaten to bomb Vietnam back to the Stone Age, it went right ahead and did so." As these pictures attest, even 40 years later, 40% of South Vietnam remains barren, growing nothing more than grass.
Following these photos is a section entitled "Poisoning the Land," which contains a slightly more positive group of pictures (despite its grim title), mostly of local people working to clear and cultivate damaged land. This more positive section at first seems out of place in a book about collateral damage, but it does express the enduring strength of the Vietnamese people and their will to do their best with the lot they are given, which turns out to be a major theme of the book.
From here the book dives into much darker territory, beginning with a section entitled "The Bell Jar." Griffiths tells his readers that the vast majority of dioxin-affected fetuses are stillborn or die within 48 hours of birth, if they make it to the end of term at all, and he proceeds to document this statement with silently screaming images of some of the many deformed babies that arrived dead or passed away soon after birth at Tu Du Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City and are preserved in formaldehyde in its basement. Here, like a real-life version of some mad scientist's lab, are babies with two heads or two faces, conjoined twins, children with monstrously cleft palates, seemingly missing parts of their skulls, even children so far from the normal form their bodies are barely recognizable as human. But they are human, every one, and every one had a mother and a father they never knew and a life they never got to live. Griffiths worked to prevent this section from becoming a voyeuristic freak show, instead bringing out the humanity and pathos in the victims where he could. The most striking photo here, for instance, is one of a baby with no visible abnormalities simply lying on its back, its hands appearing clasped over its face, as if in despair - as if it were trying to avoid acknowledgment of its fate and the fate of all those who share his dark, silent room. These still, sleeping children, these glimpses of life perverted and destroyed before it even had a chance, are perhaps the saddest and most haunting pictures in the book, though one might argue that at least these victims were spared the lasting torture endured by the victims whose images fill the remainder of the pages.
In the sections that follow are pictures of people living with a huge range of problems almost certainly caused by dioxin's presence in one or both of their parents. It is a collection of portraits eloquent in their expression, yet elegant in their simplicity, accompanied by simple, blunt captions that explain only the necessary details not obvious in the pictures above them: the names of the people pictured, perhaps their age or the town they come from, the scientific names for the disease or deformation they suffer. These pictures would be beautiful if what they portrayed were not so horrible.
Most of the victims shown are young, but many are full-grown adults. Some appear almost normal but suffer from mental retardation, blindness, or epilepsy. Others have perfectly intact minds but live with missing or terribly malformed limbs. Still others suffer from torturous skin conditions, dwarfism, paralysis, double sets of elbows and knees, tumors, and countless other maladies. Some have doctors checking on them, others have parents patiently massaging and holding them. Amazingly, though most of the pictures show people living with deformations, few readers could imagine facing, very few appear to be pictures of suffering. There is little crying or wailing, little beseeching the camera for help. What Griffiths has created is not so much a record of the miseries caused by Agent Orange, but a record of humanity surviving against all odds. Again, these pictures are a testament to the incredible endurance, will, and acceptance that has become a way of life for the South Vietnamese people. Where it might have been easy to create portraits that begged, accused, and frightened, such pictures are all too easy to turn away from, block out, or ignore. Instead, Griffiths' pictures all contain a dignity and a humanity that stares the reader straight in the eye, drawing him in and forcing him to recognize the injustice these people have been forced to live with. The magnitude of the atrocity looms even larger because of the undeniable humanity and admirable strength visible in Griffiths' pictures.
Frustratingly, though there seems to be a large body of research from some of the chemical companies that created Agent Orange showing the genetic havoc wreaked by dioxin in lab animals, though Americans exposed to the chemical during the war won a $180 million lawsuit against its manufacturers, and though South Vietnamese children suffer from an incredibly high rate of these deformities (even in today's third generation, as Vietnamese soil, water, animals, and parents still contain a high concentration of the chemical, which is dangerous even in trace amounts), neither the chemical manufacturers nor the United States government has ever admitted any fault in the matter, and neither has ever paid a penny in reparations to the people of Vietnam or made any effort to help those who still face exposure to dioxin and live with its horrifying effects.
Perhaps Agent Orange's only weakness is the book's lack of explanation as to why, as the publisher's statement says, "theoretically and scientifically there are no proven connections between the maimed subjects of Griffiths' photographs and the presence of dioxin in Agent Orange." There is conclusive scientific evidence of dioxin's poisonous effects on animals and of its presence in Agent Orange, and the author clearly believes in the connection, as the general thesis of the book seems to be that America owes reparations and assistance to dioxin's victims. The reasons cited for America's denial of responsibility and assistance are also frustratingly vague (though not particularly surprising to anyone familiar with the history of American Empire); apparently, dioxin also exists naturally in the world, and no one has proved decisively that the U.S.' use of Agent Orange is solely responsible for the high concentration of it in South Vietnam. The book also states that "selective experts" have denied links between birth defects and dioxin. Perhaps most pertinently, Vietnam simply lacks the economic and political pull to produce its own scientific proof or to force the United States to own up. Griffiths also brings up the fact that by denying or ignoring the problem's existence, the world scientific community is wasting a rare opportunity to study dioxin's effects, properties, and dangers, as they have a near-identical human populations and environments to compare (North Vietnam was sprayed little if at all with Agent Orange during the course of the war, while South Vietnam was inundated with the chemical).
In any case, if the book leaves one a little starved for detail, it also leaves one incredibly frustrated with the injustice of this self-perpetuating war crime. The victims of dioxin have no choice but to accept its effects. The least the United States government could do is accept some measure of fault for the lasting contamination of an entire country, and do something to assist its victims. One hopes Agent Orange will spread awareness and motivate people to do more to assist dioxin's victims and cleanse Vietnam of the poison. In these days of nuclear materials, chemical weapons, depleted uranium and other deadlier toxins being used in warfare, Agent Orange also stands as an undeniable and invaluable record of the lasting horror we risk inflicting on our world for untold generations if we do not stop to consider the lasting consequences of our actions in war.
-------- europe
RECRUITS
Officials Fear Iraq's Lure for Muslims in Europe
October 23, 2004
The New York Times
By CRAIG S. SMITH and DON VAN NATTA Jr.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/23/international/europe/23france.html?pagewanted=all
PARIS, Oct. 22 - France's antiterrorist police on Friday identified a young Frenchman killed fighting the United States in Iraq, the first confirmed case of what is believed to be a growing stream of Muslims heading from Europe to fight what they regard as a new holy war.
Redouane el-Hakim, 19, the son of Tunisian immigrants, died during an American bombardment of insurgents in Falluja on July 17, according to an intelligence official close to the case.
Intelligence officials fear that for a new generation of disaffected European Muslims, Iraq could become what Afghanistan, Bosnia and Chechnya were for European Islamic militants in past decades: a galvanizing cause that sends idealistic young men abroad, trains them and puts them in touch with a more radical global network of terrorists. In the past, many young Europeans who fought in those wars came back to Europe to plot terrorist attacks at home.
"We consider these people dangerous because those who go will come back once their mission is accomplished," the intelligence official said. "Then they can use the knowledge gained there in France, Europe or the United States. It's the same as those who went to Afghanistan or Chechnya."
Hundreds of young militant Muslim men have left Europe to fight in Iraq, according to senior counterterrorism officials in four European countries. They have been recruited through mosques, Muslim centers and militant Web sites by several groups, including Ansar al-Islam, the Kurdish terrorist group once based in northern Iraq.
French officials emphasize that there is not yet evidence of a broad French network funneling fighters to Iraq, and terrorism experts say the vast majority of foreign fighters there come from other countries in the region. But past experience with returning fighters from other Muslim holy wars is causing anxiety in Europe.
Virtually all of the major terrorists arrested in Europe in the past three years spent time in Bosnia, Afghanistan or Chechnya. Two years ago, the French antiterrorism police broke up a cell of Chechen-trained militants who they believe were plotting a chemical attack in Paris. Those arrests triggered an investigation that is still active into what French counterterrorism officials call "the Chechen network."
"Now, the new land of jihad is Iraq," the intelligence official said. "There, they're trained, they fight and acquire a technique and the indoctrination sufficient to act on when they return."
A network of recruiters for Iraq first appeared in Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Norway within months of the United States-led invasion, officials said. Some officials said the recruitment effort had now spread to other countries in Europe, including Belgium and Switzerland. The network provides forged documents, financing, training and information about infiltration routes into the country.
The movement to Iraq has increased in recent months, officials say, but they decline to provide specifics.
One senior European intelligence official said there was evidence that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born militant believed to be operating in Falluja, has established a sophisticated network that has helped recruit nearly 1,000 young men from the Middle East and Europe. "These young men know where the action is - they easily cross the borders of Syria or Turkey, and they go directly to Falluja," the official said.
The French official said many people en route to Iraq were passing through Britain, once the major staging point for Muslims going to Afghanistan, or through Saudi Arabia, using the cover of a pilgrimage to Mecca to enter the Saudi kingdom before making their way across the border.
In June, French news organizations reported that Syria had stopped two French citizens from entering Iraq and had expelled them to Turkey. A Tunisian who left from the southern French port of Marseille was also reported to have died last year in a suicide bombing in Iraq.
That man, Lofti Rihani, had links to a terrorist cell now on trial in France for plotting to attack a market during the Christmas holidays in the eastern French city of Strasbourg in 1999, according to a report in the French newspaper Le Figaro.
Last year, German news media quoted the president of Germany's Federal Intelligence Service, August Hanning, as saying Germany had evidence that some Islamic militants had left Germany to fight in Iraq. He said fighters were also being recruited in Britain and Bosnia.
Seven men arrested in northern Italy last year were accused of providing false passports and money or other support to an Islamic network smuggling fighters to Iraq.
More recently, Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, known as Muhammad the Egyptian, who is facing charges of orchestrating the March 11 train bombings in Madrid, was recorded on wiretaps boasting in Italy that he was about to send a team of suicide bombers to Iraq.
Little is yet known about the man recently killed in Falluja, Mr. Hakim, other than that he left France earlier this year ostensibly to study in Syria. Intelligence officials say that he flew to Damascus with his brother, Boubaker, 21, who is wanted for questioning by the French antiterrorist police because of his association with a group suspected of terrorism-related activities in France. Boubaker was detained in Syria and is still in custody there, but Redouane Hakim continued on to Iraq.
Officials say they became aware of Mr. Hakim's death while questioning his family about the activities of his brother, Boubaker.
In June, the investigation in which Boubaker was identified led to the arrest of a dozen people in nine locations north of Paris on suspicion of terrorist-related activities. The 12, including an Islamic cleric, were associated with a small mosque in the Parisian suburb of Levallois-Perret.
The group, identified as Irqa by Le Figaro, had taken control of the mosque and was using it to collect money and recruit volunteers for holy war, the newspaper said. The police say wiretaps picked up conversations that indicated some associates of the group were traveling through Syria to fight in Iraq.
According to Le Figaro, the group's leaders, a Tunisian and an Algerian identified only as Adnen T. and Djamel D., were well known to France's intelligence services. Adnen T. had been questioned during the investigation of the 2002 bombing of a synagogue on the Tunisian island of Djerba, in which 19 people died. Djamel D. was close to a group that provided logistical support for Djamel Beghal, arrested in 2001 for plotting to blow up the American Embassy in Paris.
Le Figaro reported that on June 11 police found a text message from Iraq on the cellphone of a third member of the group, identified as Toufik T. The message said: "The group has arrived. I will contact you if I need help." Le Figaro reported that the police believe that the message was sent by Greg, a French convert to Islam who had previously worked for a security company at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Paris and was known to have gone to Iraq.
A National Police official on Friday confirmed the accuracy of Le Figaro's report.
French intelligence officials say they know of at least two other Frenchmen in Falluja and believe that there are at least 10 others in Iraq, mostly of Tunisian origin from working-class suburbs of Paris.
Craig S. Smith reported from Paris for this article, and Don Van Natta Jr. from London. Hélène Fouquet contributed reporting from Paris.
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EU troops prepare for Bosnia swap
BBC, Sarajevo
By Nick Hawton
23 October, 2004
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3944191.stm
"It is scarcely possible to overestimate the significance of this operation," says Lord Ashdown seated in his office overlooking Sarajevo.
"For Bosnia, it marks a milestone on the route from war towards peace stabilisation and eventually joining the European Union."
A Nato roadblock on the hunt for war criminals Eufor and Nato will continue to hunt for war criminals Enthusiastic words from the chief international envoy to Bosnia ahead of the deployment of the EU military mission to Bosnia, scheduled to take over from the Nato peacekeeping Stabilisation Force (SFor) on 2 December.
"It's the biggest, most important realisation of the Common European Foreign and Security policy. It has to succeed because, upon this, the whole of the rest of the policy will be based.
"We've got to show we have the capacity to do hard defence, that we can provide the troops, the command and the decision making process to cope with the security situation. The future depends on success here," says Lord Ashdown.
The EU force (Eufor) will have the same number of troops as SFor, around 7,000. Eighty per cent of the troops who are currently in SFor will remain in Eufor.
Intelligence
According to the planners, the only thing that will change will be the shoulder and cap badges. The aim is for a "seamless" transition.
But Nato is not totally leaving Bosnia. A small headquarters will remain in Sarajevo under the current commander of SFor, US General Steven Schook. The Europeans let us down during the Bosnian War - it was the Americans who eventually stopped the war, not Europe Senad Alispahic student "Our principal mission after 2 December will be to provide advice on defence reform, focus on the apprehension of indicted war criminals and counter-terrorism," said General Schook.
The Nato office will also have an intelligence capacity, which Eufor will be able to draw upon.
But to what extent will the two international military organisations complement each other and to what extent could they get in each other's way?
The testing ground will be immediate. In the nine years since the end of the war Nato's SFor has arrested 28 war crimes suspects but has failed to arrest the two most wanted, the former Bosnian Serb political leader, Radovan Karadzic and his military commander, Ratko Mladic.
According to Lord Ashdown, both Eufor and Nato will have responsibility for pursuing war criminals. He rejects suggestions this will confuse the matter and make it easier for suspects to evade justice. General Schook agrees.
Italian forces in Bosnia
Many people in Bosnia remain suspicious of the Europeans "With the sharing of intelligence between both organisations, I think you'll get a synergy that will be even better than we have now."
But he admits the division of duties still has to be finalised with the UK General Leakey who will head Eufor.
"We're still working the details of that co-ordination," concedes General Schook with less than eight weeks to go before the changeover.
But there's another potential problem, at least in one part of Bosnia.
"The Europeans let us down during the Bosnian War. It was the Americans who eventually stopped the war, not Europe," says Senad Alispahic, 26, a student at Sarajevo University.
"Many people here remain suspicious of the Europeans," he says.
Trust
Many Muslims and Croats in Bosnia blame Europe for failing to intervene to stop the three and a half year Bosnian War which left more than 200,000 dead and two million homeless.
'Anyone but the Americans' is a popular sentiment among Serbs It was the Americans who eventually led the military action which brought the war to an end. It is the Americans who are seen as the guarantors of peace.
This view is not shared in the Serb-controlled half of Bosnia, where the mainly-American bombing took place. Eufor's arrival is being viewed from ambivalence to an "anyone but the Americans" attitude.
The stakes are high for Eufor. A mission characterised by inefficiency and failure will put back plans for a single European military force.
But a successful mission will help erase the bad blood caused by their perceived indifference during the Bosnian war, and perhaps provide a foundation for future deployments in other trouble spots including neighbouring Kosovo.
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Suicide Bombers Kill 20 Iraqi Security Personnel
October 23, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-iraq.html
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Suicide bombers killed 20 members of Iraq's fledgling security forces near a U.S. marine base west of Baghdad and at a checkpoint north of the capital on Saturday in a spate of guerrilla attacks across the country. The surge in violence underlined the scale of the task facing the U.S. m