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NUCLEAR
Nuclear Industry Attempt to Ban Greenpeace Protest
NRC blocks public access to documents
For Shadis, nuke fight personal
earthquake in Niigata
"ON SHAKY GROUND" WILL JAPAN'S NUKE PLANTS BE NEXT?
Russian ecologists urge Hungary to keep nuclear waste
Pakistan reacts calmly to Indian missile test
India tests medium-range missile
Pakistan's disturbing nuclear trail
Iran Threatens to End Nuclear Talks
Group discloses secret nuke effort
Tough nuclear neighborhood
Iran heavy water nuclear plant nears completion
World wants peaceful solution to Iran nuclear issue, even Israel: Powell
Vienna nuclear talks "very constructive": Iran
Iran unveils plant, indicating it will proceed with nuclear program
No Check of Bunker, Unit Commander Says
The Weapons No One Looked For
Unusual activity spotted at North Korean missile base: report
S. Korea Joins China in Criticizing U.S. on N. Korea
In Asia, Powell defends N. Korea policy
US plans to acclerate deployment of Aegis warships for missile defense
Russian Diplomats Worried Over EU Nuke Proposal to Iran
Nuclear strike 'key terror risk'
NRC Closes Web Library for Security Review
Energy Department fights state fine at Hanford
Perma-Fix Awarded a $23 Million Contract
Firm gets $23M contract to neutralize waste
MILITARY
Taiwan's controversial arms deal
Scientists warn of 'ethnic weapons'
Halliburton says profit in Iraq is weak
Lending military equipment to US causes headache for Norwegian PM
Turkey's top security body meets for the first time with civilian head
Poland signs defense deal with Iraq
British Troops in Iraq Begin Redeployment
Signs Point to Imminent Showdown in Iraq
Shells point to police in guardsmen slayings
Allawi Accuses Foreign Troops Of Negligence In Massacre
Military Assault in Falluja Is Likely, U.S. Officers Say
Parliament OKs Sharon's withdrawal plan
Sharon Wins Vote For Gaza Pullout
Sharon Rejects Calls for Referendum on Pullout
Settlements Are Emptied for a Day of Protest
Israel's Coming Civil War
Netanyahu, Livnat threaten to quit unless poll held on pullout
The Struggle to Pry Open Brazil's Military Archives
Zarqawi attains mythic status in his Jordanian hometown
Six NATO warships anchor off Montenegro
Ex-CIA Official Defends Detention Policies
Russia To Build South Korean Launch Pad
UN Terrorism Treaty Deadlocked
Small Minority Says Draft Could Happen
Pentagon denies detainees' torture charges
Judge Bars Military from Forced Anthrax Shots
POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE
Hopefuls' Preferences for Court Spring to Forefront
Intelligence bill misses deadline
Turf War Stalls Intelligence Bill
C.I.A. Is Accused of Delaying Internal Report
Deaths in Custody Could Inflame Thailand's Muslim South
Fingerprinting Glitches Are Said to Hurt Antiterror Effort
POLITICS
White House Weighs Price Tag on Emergency Request for Iraq
CBS eyed '60 Minutes' Bush bombshell
36 Papers Abandon Bush for Kerry
Seymour Hersh: Man On Fire
Bush voted "Movie Villain of the Year"
Attacks Sharpen as Clock Ticks Down
The Battle of the Polls:
Pre-emptive Pie-hole Policy Not an Option
Kerry Campaign: Bush-Cheney Ad Fact Check
Supreme Power: Election 2004 and the Future of the Country's Highest Court
Democrats file 9 suits in Florida
Electorate more fearful than officials of vote fraud
Legal Battles Over Ballots Put Election Rules in Flux
ENERGY
Making waves with renewable energy
China told to invest in cleaner energy technology or face consequences
High natgas prices may open way for new US nukes
ACTIVISTS
78 Arrested in Thai Protests Suffocate in Crowded Trucks
Suffocation cited in most deaths
78 Thai Muslims Die After Protest
Thailand Acknowledges Prisoner Deaths During Transit
-------- NUCLEAR
Nuclear Industry Attempt to Ban Greenpeace Protest Against Plutonium Shipment
Common Dreams
October 27, 2004
http://www.commondreams.org/news2004/1027-19.htm
FRANCE -- -- Greenpeace has been summoned to appear in the Cherbourg Court tomorrow, where it will face a request by Areva, through its subsidiary Cogema, and British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL), for an injunction preventing it from approaching within 300m of the two ships carrying plutonium from the US to France or within 100m of the Cherbourg harbour.
The nuclear companies are further seeking to keep the international organisation from getting closer than 100 m from the road that the nuclear transport will take from the harbour to the La Hague plant (1).
"Once more the nuclear industry is trying to gag peaceful protest. They have nothing to fear from Greenpeace, rather the courts time would be better focussed on the threat posed by 140kg of bomb grade plutonium traversing the high seas and France's highways," said Tom Clements of Greenpeace International. The hearing will take place in Cherbourg Court tomorrow, Tuesday October 5th, at 2:30 p.m.
The plutonium, sent by the US National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), left the port of Charleston, South Carolina, on September 20 The Pacific Teal and Pacific Pintail, operated by BNFL, are approaching Cherbourg where an international flotilla of French, English and Irish protest vessels are waiting.
In contrast to recent statements made by the U.S. Government and BNFL this is not a one-off shipment of plutonium It is the first instalment of 68 tonnes of plutonium from US and Russian stockpiles to be put on the world's roads and seas at a time when terrorists are actively seeking such material.
Greenpeace wants and immediate end to plutonium production and separation and believes current stocks both civil and military should be treated as nuclear waste not shipped around the world as reactor fuel. Plutonium should be mixed with radioactive waste, solidified or vitrified, and stored. This approach would be cheaper, faster, safer, and more secure.
Earlier today, Eugene Riguidel, one of France's most famous sailors, John Castle of Guernsey and Pernilla Svenberg from Greenpeace International were released from the military arsenal in Cherbourg. They were arrested yesterday for mounting a peaceful protest inside the military port against the plutonium shipment.
"We have a military exclusion zone in Cherbourg against small yachts while plutonium transports are free to threaten the lives and livelihoods of everyone in their wake, it is the trade in nuclear bomb material that should be banned not peaceful protest," said Eugene Riguidel, after spending a night in jail.
-----
NRC blocks public access to documents
Vermont Guardian
By Kathryn Casa
October 27, 2004
http://vermontguardian.com/dailies/0904/1027.shtml#article1
BRATTLEBORO - Nuclear watchdogs are howling over the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's move this week to shut down the agency's online database - the public's only comprehensive source for NRC information. The NRC took its Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) offline late Monday afternoon, just hours before NBC Nightly News broadcast a report that revealed the database contained security-sensitive information.
Some of that sensitive information included floor plans of university nuclear laboratories, including one at Norwich University in Northfield. "We did have it pointed out to us that there were some documents that might be better withheld and the way to address that is to shut it down," NRC spokeswoman Diane Screnci said Tuesday.
An e-mail message from an NRC system librarian said it "may be several weeks before the public database is restored."
In Washington, the Union of Concerned Scientists called the action "unbelievable, unfair, unwarranted and unacceptable." That organization has been alerting the agency of security breaches on the site since before the 9/11 attacks, but a complete shutdown is unnecessary, said David Lochbaum, a nuclear safety engineer with the group.
"If you decide for whatever reason that access needs to be interrupted, you should suspend all licensing actions until access to ADAMS is restored," said Lochbaum. "Basically they shut the public out, but the nuclear business of power uprates is ongoing."
Among the groups most hampered by the shutdown is the Brattleboro-based New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution, which is attempting to legally intervene in the NRC application filed by Vermont Yankee to increase power by 20 percent.
The coalition late Tuesday filed a motion with the NRC calling for Vermont Yankee's corporate owner, Entergy, and the NRC to send all pertinent documents directly to the coalition so that it can continue its work.
The coalition also demanded a 30-day filing extension from the time ADAMS goes back online. Ray Shadis, an adviser to the coalition, said the ADAMS lockout "hampers no one but the public."
A full report will be published in this week's Vermont Guardian, available in stores on Friday.
-------- accidents and safety
For Shadis, nuke fight personal
Reformer
By CAROLYN LORIé
October 27, 2004
http://www.reformer.com/Stories/0,1413,102~8860~2494197,00.html
WISCASSET, Maine -- One of these days, Raymond Shadis plans to do something about the neglected paintings gathering dust and mold in the attic of his art studio.
He would also like to begin the project for which he purchased two bags of cement -- last year -- that sit unopened and ossifying on his front porch.
Similarly, the kitchen windows that were nailed in as a temporary measure in 1972 will be replaced.
But not now.
At the moment, Shadis is occupied taking on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee and anyone else blocking the path to what he considers a safer world.
Shadis began opposing fission for power 25 years ago and ever since, a substantial part of his life has been relegated to the proverbial back burner.
He is now the technical advisor to the nuclear power watchdog group, the New England Coalition, and the executive director to Friends of the Coast, a Maine-based nonprofit.
Considering how powerful the institutions are that Shadis considers to be his adversaries, the undertaking has been no small task. Or as he once put it: "It's like Godzilla versus the ant-people."
Shadis, who is 62, was born and raised in Livingston, N.J., the youngest of three sons. His grandparents were from Lithuania and he refers to the household where he grew up as a "Northern European homestead."
When Shadis was 10, his brother was killed fighting in the Korean War. Fifty-two years later, there is a sharpness in his voice when he speaks of that loss.
"It leaves you with a permanent edge about reckless wars," he explains.
After high school, Shadis went to West Virginia State College, where he majored in fine arts and married a fellow art student named Patricia during their senior year. The couple graduated in 1963 and four years later moved to Wiscasset.
Shadis got a job teaching art in the public schools, while Patricia tended to their growing family and worked various side jobs, including waiting tables.
In 1970, the school opted not to renew Shadis' contract.
"It was a lifestyle question," he says, looking back. "I didn't get my hair cut very often and I probably had an attitude they didn't care for. And I was 'from away.'"
The Shadis' "lifestyle" was one that many people were adopting in the late 1960s and 70s: They grew their own organic food, raised their own animals and lived as much as they could off the land. Ray's art, along with some carpentry jobs on the side, generated enough income to keep the family afloat and the rest they produced themselves.
By 1979, they were more than a decade into their homesteading life.
In addition to Ray and Patricia, the household included their two daughters and four sons. At that time, Shadis' youngest child was 6 years old and had never had a sip of store-bought milk -- a choice that would turn out to be not as wholesome as Shadis would have hoped, although he wouldn't know that until an accident hundreds of miles away changed everything.
At 4 a.m., on March 28, 1979, an electrical or mechanical failure tripped an emergency pump at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania, triggering the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history.
It was the beginning of the end of Shadis' quiet idyllic life.
Although he was well aware that he and his family were living downwind from Maine Yankee nuclear power plant, he had never given it much thought.
After March 28, however, the Shadises began researching the plant and discovered that it was not problem-free. Far from it.
After going over documents from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Shadis discovered that the neighborhood power plant had had some troubles. Earlier in 1979, coolant was spilled on the reactor floor, the vents failed to open, the filters were not aligned correctly and iodine 131 seeped into the air unmonitored.
"It was indicative to us that the plant wasn't any better run than Three Mile Island," he says.
At that point, the Shadises decided to have the milk from their cows tested, which commercial dairies in the area did regularly. The milk turned out to have the highest concentration of radioactive nucleoids of any of the local farms.
The Shadises sold or slaughtered all their animals.
"We decided that we had to do something. It came down to the question, what do you care about? What do you treasure," says Shadis.
Ray and Pat organized a protest meeting in April 1979. They designed, printed and distributed posters. They called everyone they knew. They sent out mailings. They did everything they could think of to turn the community out and then wondered if people would show up.
They did.
According to Ray, between 750 and 1,000 people attended that first meeting, some standing in the rain for a chance to speak at the podium.
And so began the long battle against Maine Yankee.
Fast forward to 1996. By then, Shadis had given 17 years of his life to the cause of closing the plant and according to those who have worked with him, he had become something of an expert.
David Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists, met Shadis in 1996. The NRC had just completed an independent safety inspection at Maine Yankee and Shadis asked Lochbaum for his opinion on the inspection report. Lochbaum was impressed by how much the activist knew.
"He does his homework. When Ray tells me something, he's very seldom wrong," explains Lochbaum.
Peter Alexander, executive director of the coalition, echoes that sentiment.
"I spent two years getting a master's degree in environmental advocacy and have learned more in just a few months from working with Ray than I ever dreamed possible," said Alexander.
But Shadis does have his share of critics. Most of them are people working within the nuclear industry or in the government, who have been on the receiving end of Shadis' less-than-diplomatic barbs.
He has accused elected officials of not knowing the difference between "neutrons and croutons" or of being the "lap dog" of the industry. Most recently he called the hearings before the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel a "kangaroo court." The next day he retracted, saying it was much closer to a "platypus court."
"Some people find Ray to be uncompromisingly blunt and some people take offense at that." says Alexander. "My own personal experience is that he is completely accountable and completely accessible as a human being."
He also happens to be effective. It was Shadis who spear-headed the call to have Maine Yankee inspected and Shadis who got the Union of Concerned Scientists involved. The plant permanently shut down in 1997, when the owners decided it would be too costly to fix all the problems uncovered by the inspection.
It took 18 years, but Shadis got what he wanted.
There was, however, a price. One that was paid through the paintings never done and the projects left unfinished and the burden of taking up a fight that seems far from over.
But Shadis has no regrets.
"We'll never win these things by giving out of our surplus. It's only when it's given out of our substance that we'll get somewhere," he says.
Carolyn Lorié can be reached at clorie@reformer.com.
-----
earthquake in Niigata
kisnet.or.jp
October 27, 2004
http://www.kisnet.or.jp/net/help.htm
Dear friends,
It is a chilly morning. After four days since the earthquake in Niigata, the reported figure of casualty has increased up to 31, and more than 2000 have been found injured. It rained yesterday, and 130,000 live in shelters as aftershocks continue.
There is an article from the Asahi Newspaper.
http://www.asahi.com/english/nation/TKY200410260126.html
This morning, I received a call for stop operation of the nuclear reactor at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa by email.
The local group "Citizens' Network of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa who raise question to Pluthermal Program" calls the immediate shut-down of the nuclear reactors at least until the warning of the Meteorological Agency announces the cease of the aftershocks.
The following is the abstract of the message.
Satomi Oba
Plutonium Action Hiroshima
Kota-goldencat@kfa.biglobe.ne.jp
--
Now is the time to stop Kashiwazaki-Kariwa NPP.
In spite of the demand to stop the operation of the reactors from citizens and workers at NPP, Neither Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the government, nor local municipalities of Niigata Prefecture and Kashiwazaki City would take action. If there is another bigger shock, it could trigger an unprecedented disaster.
The site of this NPP is located in the area hit by the tremendous earthquake. The workers of the local municipalities, firefighters, and medical workers are working very hard all the time. And they are the most needed power in case of a nuclear disaster.
The Meteorological Agency still warns the possibility for a strong aftershock. http://www.jma.go.jp/JMA_HP/jma/indexe.html
If there be a severe damage at the NPP, it is not likely that the prevention program for the nuclear accidents works as designed, because the infrastructure such as road and railway are destroyed in a wide area. There is a traffic jam even between the NPP and the city of Kashiwazaki.
In such an emergency, the reactors are running as usual! We have heard whistle blowing about the crack of the important pipes, and we are not sure about the reliability of emergency equipments.
(Geological) Experts say that not only possibility of a strong after shock, but separate strong earthquake can take place near the reactors.
Talking on the phone, we found that the local municipalities and the government have had no plan in case of a nuclear disaster now.
At least we think it a wiser decision for the operator to stop the operation of the reactor until the authority announces the cease of the aftershock. Or until the disaster prevention system is recovered.
It is a question why the damages around Kashiwazaki, and Kariwa have been excluded from media reports. (We heard this from friends who live out of the damaged area.)
In fact, water supply has been cut and many are evacuated in Kariwa Village where large number of workers at the NPP lives.
The train of the shinkansen, which had boasted its safety, derailed. Even if the NPP stopped immediately, the nuclear fuel will maintain its heat for a considerable duration. In case of the coolant loss, the nuclear fuel would melt down, causing a catastrophe.
We know the consequence of the nuclear accident will last for an immeasurable time.
We wish you to call the agencies to stop the reactors of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa.
Citizens from Kashiwazaki-Kariwa still in fear of continuous aftershocks
net0257328818@hotmail.com http://www.kisnet.or.jp/net/
-----
"ON SHAKY GROUND" WILL JAPAN'S NUKE PLANTS BE NEXT?
Dateline Tokyo
http://www.mothersalert.org/earthquake.html
Legend has it that there is a giant catfish buried deep in the sand beneath the Japanese islands who occasionally shifts and changes positions. When that happens the earth shakes and splits, rocks roll down from the mountain tops and the fragile constructions of human beings collapse. People used to say that the ever present danger of earthquakes here contributed to the Japanese sense of ephemerality of all things.
Who would have thought they would build forty-eight [now fifty-two] nuclear power plants on the back of the catfish?
Naturally, people worry about this. In the visitor's center at the Mihama Nuclear Power Complex there is an earthquake safety demonstration display. Viewers stand in front of a mock reactor and a narrator's voice says, "See, the reactor can be safely stopped."
As it happens, running directly beneath this Visitor's Center is an earthquake fault. Far from believing in the ephemerality of their constructions, power company scientists and engineers in Japan seem to believe that science and technology, properly employed, can overcome unpredictability and eliminate the danger of an "accident" from the world. This is a superstition common to scientists everywhere. Without it, no one in his right mind would build a nuclear power plant.
When the nuclear plant at Chernobyl blew up, Japan's nuclear engineers went on TV to assure the public it can't happen here. The Chernobyl plant was badly built; Japanese plants are of a different type, and have superior safety features. There will not be an accident.
And when the killer earthquake hit San Francisco on 1989, and ferro-concrete buildings, elevated highways and a piece of the Bay Bridge came down, engineers here went on TV and said much the same thing. The buildings and highways that collapsed were not built to be earthquake proof, they explained. In Japan, where earthquakes are well understood, all large constructions are built to withstand any earthquake that might predictably occur.
In the great Kobe earthquake of January 17, 1995, every kind of construction went down -- concrete buildings disintegrated, steel buildings looked like squashed tin cans, the subway became a mine disaster and 550 yards of the Hanshin Super highway toppled over to one side, it's massive posts reduced to gravel.
Now the experts are back on TV again, explaining. The construction was earthquake proof, they say, meaning it was built to withstand any earthquake that might PREDICTABLY come to Kobe. This earthquake was beyond prediction. It was bigger than anyone thought possible, and also different. It occurred on a number of different faults, some of which had not even been know to exist. It jiggled in an unusual way, producing strange effects, such as the collapse of only one of the middle floors of high-rise buildings.
It was a tremendous accident of nature. Accidents can happen. The city of Kobe lies next to the southwest corner of what is called the Kinki Triangle, an area where an extraordinarily large number of earthquake faults form a roughly triangular shape. The southeast corner of the triangle is under Ise Bay, and the tip is under Tsuruga Peninsula. Tsuruga is at the eastern edge of Japan's notorious Genpatsu Ginza -- eighty eight miles of coastline dotted with fifteen nuclear power plants. The peninsula itself is the site of the prototype fast breeder reactor Monju, three pressurized water reactors, two boiling water reactors plus a unique Japanese reactor called Fugen, which like Monju, uses plutonium (the earth's most toxic substance) as a fuel. Any one of the commercial reactors on the Genpatsu Ginza contains, at the time of refueling, 1,000 times the radiation generated by the Hiroshima bomb. Monju, on the other hand, contains 1.4 TONS of plutonium. If an "unpredictable" Kobe scale earthquake hit Tsuruga, Koreans would wonder at the green sun rising to their east at the wrong time.
Could such an accident happen?
There is an earthquake fault that runs a third of a mile east of the Mihama Complex (the one under the visitor's center), passing about half-mile west of Monju. Government officials insist that this fault is "inactive." Other experts point out that "inactive" simply means that there has been no earthquake for a long time. It is utterly unscientific to say that this guarantees that there will be no earthquake on that fault in the future. As mentioned above, the Kobe earthquake occurred partly on faults that the experts didn't even know were there.
In any case, the "earthquake-proof" power plants were built on the basis of calculations that excluded the possibility of of an earthquake on this fault. Other faults also run in the area. Calculations that include the possibility of an earthquake on a combination of these faults indicate an earthquake with twenty times the force of the maximum predicted by the governments experts.
What would happen then? One official complained, "That's like asking what would happen if the world blew up!"
There is a strong, but by no means strong enough, anti-nuclear power movement in Japan. On the whole it has been weakened by excessive trust in scientists and government officials.: "They must know what they are doing" is the usual refrain. The Kobe catastrophe has made it clear that they do not. There is no question that nuclear power generation is absurd on these shifting islands and will be abolished some day. The only question is whether that day will come in time."
-------- europe
Russian ecologists urge Hungary to keep nuclear waste
MOSCOW (AFP)
Oct 27, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041027170612.13uq6csr.html
Russian ecologists and inhabitants of the region of Cheliabinsk in the Ural mountains wrote to Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany on Wednesday urging him to stop plans to send 1.5 tonnes of nuclear waste to Russia, the green organisation Ekozachtchita (Eco-defence) said.
Russia and Hungary are currently negotiating the transfer the waste from the Paks nuclear plant to the south of Budapest, to Russia's only factory processing nuclear waste, Maiak, in the region of Cheliabinsk, Vladimir Sliviak, the co-president of Ebozachtchita told AFP.
"Maiak has a monstrous heritage," according to a message to the Hungarian premier signed by 5,000 inhabitants of the region of Cheliabinsk. "Over the past 50 years a lot of people (living in the area) were victims of radiation."
The statement said that if the transfer went ahead Hungary would "become an accomplice to the kinds of nuclear experiences practiced on millions of Russians. Hungary's ecological problems should not be resolved at Russia's expense".
Russia's Supreme Court in May 2002 banned Hungary from sending nuclear waste to Russian territory after ecological organisations and inhabitants of the region for stocking.
However, the court did not ban to delivery of the waste for processing.
-------- india / pakistan
Pakistan reacts calmly to Indian missile test
ISLAMABAD (AFP)
Oct 27, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041027114001.r0lljpre.html
Pakistan reacted calmly to neighbouring India's test on Wednesday of a nuclear-capable missile, while emphasising it did not want an "open-ended" arms race in South Asia.
India tested the naval version of its Prithvi-III nuclear-capable ballistic missile, which has a range of 250 to 300 kilometres (156 to 188 miles).
Foreign office spokesman Masood Khan told AFP Islamabad had noted the missile test and had prior information about it through Pakistan's mission in New Delhi.
He said Pakistan had also conducted similar tests to validate the technical parameters of its arsenal.
Khan said Pakistan and India were committed to working towards strategic stability in the region and a meeting of the two nations' nuclear experts was scheduled for December 14-15 in Islamabad.
"We do not favour an open-ended arms race in South Asia. We believe that a strategic restraint is in the interest of both nations," Khan said.
Pakistan conducted its last missile test on October 12 when it fired a Hatf V or Ghauri missile with a range of 1,500 kilometres. It was the country's fourth missile test this year.
Nuclear-capable India and Pakistan, which have fought three wars, routinely carry out missile tests.
-----
India tests medium-range missile
BBC
27 October, 2004
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3957587.stm
India has successfully test-fired a naval version of its Prithvi-III nuclear-capable missile, defence sources say.
The launch took place on Wednesday in the Bay of Bengal off Chandipur in the state of Orissa.
India's nuclear rival, Pakistan, test-fired its own nuclear-capable missile on 12 October.
Both countries have continued test launches on a routine basis despite the recent peace process.
Underwater platform
The latest launch comes two days after Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf suggested a new initiative to end the long-standing bilateral dispute over Kashmir.
The Prithvi has a range of up to 300km (180 miles), can carry a nuclear warhead and can be launched either from a ship or submarine.
The Press Trust of India said the latest launch was the first from an artificial underwater platform.
Pakistan has conducted four tests this year of its nuclear-capable Ghauri missile.
Islamabad said it had been notified of the latest Indian test through its mission in Delhi.
Pakistani foreign office spokesman Masood Khan said Pakistan and India were committed to working towards regional strategic stability.
-----
Pakistan's disturbing nuclear trail
Materials from A.Q. Khan's black-market nuclear network remain unaccounted for.
October 27, 2004
By Faye Bowers
The Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1027/p03s01-usgn.html
WASHINGTON - It's been a year since US and British agents boarded a German ship in the Mediterranean Sea that led to the exposure of the unimaginable: a vast black-market nuclear arms bazaar operating under superpower radar for more than a decade.
Today, investigators from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and some 20 countries working together have uncovered many parts of the clandestine network run by the father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, Abdul Qadeer Khan. Just in the past month, three more people who allegedly acted as middlemen were arrested in South Africa. The records confiscated from these men's companies, together with other confiscated documents and information from Dr. Khan and his top aides, have led to the virtual shutdown of the clandestine network.
But government officials and experts say that in today's world, where both major presidential candidates say nuclear proliferation is the nation's most critical security threat, much more needs to be done.
"Overall, the Khan network is the biggest nonproliferation disaster of the nuclear age," says Matthew Bunn, a nuclear expert at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. "It is certainly good news that at least the beginning of breaking up that network has occurred. Unfortunately, a substantial number of players in that network are still walking around free people."
Those walking free are probably additional businessmen, still unidentified, with specific technical capabilities to manufacture parts for centrifuges, the machines used to enrich uranium, a necessary ingredient for a nuclear bomb.
Moreover, Dr. Khan and his top aides remain free, or at least semi-free. Although Khan publicly admitted his guilt this past February, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf pardoned him. Khan is said to be under house arrest in five costly mansions. His top aides are free as well, their movements apparently monitored.
Neither US nor IAEA investigators have been given access to Khan and his aides - a huge problem, investigators say, because they need to know if other countries besides Libya, North Korea, and Iran were offered Khan's plans and/or technology. For example, investigators in Iraq found records indicating that before the 1991 Gulf War, Khan offered Saddam Hussein, through a middleman, the same blueprints that he provided Libya.
Pakistani officials have interviewed Khan and his aides, and have "provided some information," says a Western diplomat close to the IAEA. "But they could provide much more."
Far more useful, say experts familiar with the network, have been documents confiscated in the raids on the various companies tied to the network - in Germany, Switzerland, Turkey, Malaysia, Dubai, and South Africa.
The IAEA, the nuclear watchdog arm of the United Nations, has no leverage on Pakistani officials. The United States is widely seen as the only country with the clout to pressure Pakistan.
But Washington walks a fine line with Islamabad: It must avoid alienating the country, since it's crucial to the US war on terror. At the same time, however, by backing the Musharraf regime too much, the US could inflame Islamic radicals in the country, leading to the government's overthrow. Relations between the two nations are tenuous.
Still, on balance, many experts think the US could do more to persuade Pakistan to let IAEA investigators interview Khan. "For the US to leverage Musharraf so the IAEA could talk to Khan, how does that destabilize Pakistan?" asks David Albright, president of the Institute of Science and International Security in Washington.
US government officials, for their part, won't talk about how much information Musharraf has handed over, nor how much pressure they are applying. A CIA official said the State Department is the government's focal point for tracking the network. Secretary of State Colin Powell has only said he's speaking with Musharraf, who is cooperating.
Still, investigators and officials are concerned that Khan's plans and technology may have been passed to other unknown people or countries.
One top concern: Critical parts for the centrifuge remain unaccounted for, even though individuals and companies in some 30 countries have been apprehended and searched, IAEA officials say. That suggests that other companies or people, still not caught, may be able to produce the missing parts.
"There's no sense that all the information this network possessed - gas centrifuge or nuclear weapons design or fabrication - has been recovered," says Dr. Albright. "It's still out there and could be offered to others."
"The most disturbing sign found in Libya was the bomb blueprints," says the Western diplomat close to the IAEA. "Is there some hard disk somewhere that has all these designs and where are they?"
Melissa Fleming, an IAEA spokeswoman, says an intensive probe is under way. "We need to determine who all the players were, what was involved, who the customers were, and to what extent it has now been busted or contained."
-------- iran
Iran Threatens to End Nuclear Talks
October 27, 2004
By SUSANNA LOOF
Associated Press Writer
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/N/NUCLEAR_AGENCY_IRAN?SITE=DCTMS&SECTION=HOME
VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- Iran's supreme leader threatened to pull out of negotiations if European countries press their demand for total suspension of uranium enrichment, as a new round of talks ended Wednesday without an agreement to avert the possible threat of U.N. sanctions.
Britain, France and Germany are trying to work out a deal that would avoid a standoff with Iran over its nuclear program, which the United States says aims to develop nuclear weapons.
The Europeans are offering Iran incentives - a trade deal and peaceful nuclear technology, including a light-water research reactor - in return for a halt in enrichment, which can produce fuel for both nuclear energy and atomic weapons.
They have warned that most European states will back Washington's call to refer Iran's nuclear file to the U.N. Security Council for possible economic sanctions if Tehran doesn't give up all uranium enrichment activities before the Nov. 25 meeting of the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
In talks Wednesday, Iran's delegates insisted on the right to enrich uranium. And supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in all issues in Iran, ruled out any long-term suspension of the program.
"A long term suspension of enrichment is a discussion without logic," Khamenei said, according to state-run television in Tehran.
"If there is any form of threat in the talks, it will show a lack of logic on the part of (Iran's) partners in the negotiations," he said. "In that case, the great Iranian nation and the Islamic Republic of Iran will reconsider the very basis of negotiations and cooperation."
Sirus Naseri, a member of the Iranian delegation at the talks in Vienna, said "total suspension will not be accepted under any circumstances."
Diplomats have called the EU package a "last chance" offer ahead of a key Nov. 25 meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The meeting could result in Tehran's defiance being reported to the U.N. Security Council, which has the authority to impose punishing sanctions.
Still, Iranian negotiators held out the possibility of a compromise with the Europeans. The Iranians and British officials said another round of talks would be held soon.
Hossein Mousavian, Iran's chief delegate to the IAEA, told Iran's state-run radio Wednesday that Iran has not ruled out a compromise with the Europeans before the IAEA meeting.
"We haven't closed the door for an understanding before the November meeting, but will reach compromise if there is a balanced package of agreements. Obligations and confidence-building measures have to be bilateral," said Mousavian, adding that the agreement had to be clear and contain a timetable.
"There has to be no discrimination against Iran," he said.
In London, a spokesman for the British Foreign Office said "some progress was made toward identifying the elements of a common approach toward the issues, and the two sides agreed to meet again shortly."
Iran insists its nuclear activities are peaceful and geared solely toward generating electricity. The United States, pointing to Iran's vast oil reserves, contends it is running a covert nuclear weapons program.
Heightening the U.S. concerns, Iran has resumed testing, assembling and making centrifuges used to enrich uranium.
The European envoys, who first presented their offer to the Iranians in Vienna last week, made clear they would not budge on the enrichment issue, but Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Hasan Rowhani, has suggested there was some flexibility in the talks.
Rowhani told state television earlier this week his government might be willing to consider a temporary suspension of enrichment, but he cautioned: "No other country can stop us exploring technology which is the legal right of Iran."
Rowhani said Iran has run its program "under the influence of agreements and safeguards of the IAEA" and has signed a so-called additional protocol to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which allows unfettered IAEA inspections of Iranian facilities.
On the Net:
IAEA, www.iaea.org
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Group discloses secret nuke effort
October 27, 2004
By Jennifer Joan Lee
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20041026-100139-5203r.htm
PARIS - The Iranian opposition group that exposed the nation's covert nuclear weapons program two years ago said yesterday that supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has ordered the effort to continue in secret.
The opposition group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), also disclosed the existence of what it said is a new uranium enrichment facility in central Iran that is nearing completion.
Speaking to reporters in Paris yesterday, Mohammad Mohaddessin, chairman of the NCRI's Foreign Affairs Committee, said the Iranian regime is "playing a double game" with Europe.
"Khamenei has ordered his regime to not only continue the enrichment of uranium, but to buy time and accelerate the project in order to make the bomb as quickly as possible," Mr. Mohaddessin said.
"Khamenei has ordered his diplomats and his negotiators to prolong the negotiations as much as possible, possibly by between eight and 12 months, which is exactly the time needed to complete the bomb," he said.
The Bush administration and European powers have branded the NCRI a terrorist group, mainly because its military wing was sheltered by Saddam Hussein at bases in Iraq, from which it launched attacks in Iran.
The group, however, gained credibility in August 2002 by exposing another secret uranium enrichment facility being built underground in Natanz, 150 miles south of Tehran, and a heavy water production facility at Arak, about 120 miles southwest of Tehran.
That exposure triggered the current nuclear standoff with Iran, by forcing the Islamist regime to open these sites to the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Talks today between European negotiators and Iran represent a "last-chance" at getting the Tehran regime to stop enriching uranium and avoid the threat of U.N. sanctions.
In exchange, the Europeans are offering technical assistance - such as helping Iran build a light-water power reactor and providing a supply of reactor fuel - and trade incentives.
Mr. Mohaddessin said that while the regime was negotiating with Europe, it was also putting the finishing touches on a major site that would be needed to produce large quantities of enriched uranium.
The site, located in Isfahan in central Iran, would convert uranium oxide, called "yellowcake," into uranium hexafluoride gas, a stage prior to enrichment.
He said a test center for centrifuges had been constructed with "utmost discretion" near the site, and that between 120 and 180 centrifuges will be installed there.
Uranium hexafluoride is fed into centrifuges for enrichment.
Mr. Mohaddessin credited a network of sources inside Iran for his information.
A spokesman at the British Foreign Office, reached by telephone, declined to comment on Mr. Mohaddessin's charges but said there was "nothing to lose" by continuing to negotiate.
"If we do get compliance, that's all well and good, and if we don't, there's more chance of a consensus at the next [IAEA] board meeting because all options would have been looked at," he said.
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Tough nuclear neighborhood
The Washington Times
By Arnaud de Borchgrave
October 27, 2004
http://washingtontimes.com/commentary/20041026-090659-7596r.htm
From the days of Cyrus the Great and Darius the Great, who ruled the Persian empire some 500 years before Christ, through the shah en shah (king of kings), who lost his throne to revolutionary clerics in 1979, the talons of military supremacy ruled strategic thinking. The shah, not the ayatollahs, decided Iran would be a nuclear power.
Before the cancer-stricken shah was forced into exile, he had launched a plan to build 20 nuclear reactors, including two in Bushehr, which became a Russian project. The shah's regime also ratified the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 1970, and promptly began research and development efforts on fissile materials for nuclear weapons.
Today, as the ayatollahs survey the neighborhood, Iran is surrounded by nuclear powers - Russia to the north, Israel to the West, Pakistan and India to the east. That's four of the world's eight nuclear powers. No amount of economic sticks and carrots will deflect the Iranian theocracy from a course originally set by the late shah. The ayatollahs will lie and cheat, but they won't roll over and play dead like Libya's Col. Muammar Gadhafi, who surrendered his embryonic nuclear weapons program.
Russia made clear in 2002 it will finish construction of the $840 million nuclear reactor in Bushehr and has contracted to build five more Iranian reactors over the next 10 years for $10 billion. Jobless former Soviet nuclear engineers are known to have landed lucrative contracts in Iran. Could this know-how and expertise have rubbed off on Iranian counterparts in the form of weapons technology?
With 140,000 U.S. soldiers next door in Iraq, and U.S. carrier task forces south and west in the Arabian Sea and the Mediterranean, and the Israeli Air Force rehearsing pre-emptive strikes against Iran's underground nuclear facilities, the incentives, as the ayatollahs see them, are to speed things up. Tehran is also buying time by agreeing to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). A new IAEA report on Iran won't be ready till mid-February 2005.
"We have a lot of work to do before we can conclude that Iran's program is exclusively for peaceful purposes," as the clerics claim, said IAEA Director-General Mohammed el-Baradei. Meanwhile, uranium enrichment and a parallel plutonium effort continue in 11 different underground facilities. These are designed to reduce the risk of detection or attack.
Pakistani denials notwithstanding, nuclear black marketeer Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal and arguably his country's most popular figure, built his fortune by assisting North Korea and Iran - two of the evildoers on President Bush's axis of evil - in their nuclear quest. Mr. Khan supplied the centrifuges now used to process uranium into fuel for reactors or fissile material for bombs.
Iran received Mr. Khan's centrifuge designs as early as 1987. That was when Gen. Zia ul-Haq, Pakistan's late dictator, greenlighted secret nuclear cooperation with Iran. Pakistan's intelligence agency knew Iran was willing to cough up several billion dollars - much of it in free oil - for "Dr. Strangelove" Khan's nuclear secrets. Mr. Khan and some of his nuclear scientists made several trips to Iran in the late 1990s.
President Pervez Musharraf has assured the Bush administration he knew nothing of Mr. Khan's extracurricular activities. If that were true, Mr. Musharraf was conceding by the same token he didn't know what his intelligence agency was up to.
Some ranking European diplomats based in Tehran have told their home governments Iran will pursue its nuclear ambitions as long as Israel remains the only nuclear power in the Middle East. Israel, for its part, long ago concluded its very survival depends on its nuclear monopoly in the region. Hence, its decision to destroy Iraq's nuclear reactor before it went critical in 1981.
With 10 percent of the world's oil reserves and oil at $50 plus per barrel, Iran may not be too impressed by the threat of U.S. and European sanctions under counter-proliferation strategies. But these may persuade Iran to opt out of NPT and, like North Korea, go nuclear before the U.S. can figure out how to neutralize its efforts.
North Korea's latest act of nuclear defiance came over the weekend with a warning it would double its nuclear deterrent force if the United States persists in challenging its nuclear-weapons program.
Iraq has drained what little credibility the United States has left in the Middle East. For the United States to demand an end to Iran's nuclear programs while developing a new class of bunker-busting tactical nukes and to acquiesce in Israel's nuclear arsenal by pretending it doesn't exist, doesn't build back trust.
Unencumbered by image problems in the Middle East, Israel may take it upon itself to find a military solution to Iran's budding nuclear threat. That may well be the message the Bush administration intended when it was leaked that the United States had supplied Israel with 500 deep-penetration precision-guided bombs. They are effective through concrete walls and ceilings to a depth of 100 meters.
There is little doubt Israel, using fighter-bombers, air-to-air refueling over Iraq, and submarine-launched cruise missiles from the Persian Gulf, can retard Iran's nuclear plans several years. But there is also little doubt such an Israeli strike would inflame the region. Some Arab intelligence sources believe Iran would retaliate by "activating" a new Iran-Iraq front. That, in turn, would spell quagmire for U.S. forces in Iraq.
Arnaud de Borchgrave is editor at large of The Washington Times and of United Press International.
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Iran heavy water nuclear plant nears completion
REUTERS
October 27, 2004
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20041027-0357-nuclear-iran-plant.html
TEHRAN - An Iranian nuclear plant which atomic experts say could give the Islamic state access to bomb-grade material is nearing completion, a senior Iranian nuclear official said on Wednesday.
The Arak heavy water production facility in central Iran is one of several plants the European Union is hoping to persuade Tehran to close down.
"Two of the three main units are now operational," said Manouchehr Madadi, head of research and development at Arak.
"We hope that the third unit will become operational by the end of the current (Iranian) year (March 2005) so that we can reach full production capacity," he told state television.
Iran denies U.S. accusations that it is making a covert bid to build nuclear arms and it has resisted international pressure to scale back an ambitious atomic programme.
Iran's defiance has brought it to the brink of being referred to the United Nations Security Council for possible sanctions when the International Atomic Energy Agency's board next meets on November 25.
Iranian officials were due to meet negotiators from Britain, Germany and France in Vienna on Wednesday to discuss an EU proposal which would avert Security Council referral provided Tehran freezes key activities which could be used to produce bomb-grade material.
The announcement on the Arak facility, which followed the announcement earlier this week that another nuclear facility in the city of Isfahan was near completion, reflected Tehran's desire to show it intends to push ahead with its atomic plans regardless of international pressure.
The heavy water complex at Arak is designed to feed a 40 megawatt heavy water reactor to be built nearby.
Experts say bomb-grade plutonium is far easier to extract from used fuel rods at heavy water reactors than at the more common light water reactors.
Part of the EU trio's proposal to Iran, being discussed in Vienna, is the offer of help with a light water reactor in exchange for Iran scrapping its heavy water reactor project.
Arak is one of two key Iranian nuclear sites. The other is the Natanz uranium enrichment facility, first revealed by an Iranian exile opposition group in 2002.
U.N. inspectors have subsequently visited both sites and many others in Iran. While they have uncovered considerable activities which are potentially weapons-related, they have not found a "smoking gun" that proves Iran is seeking atomic arms.
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World wants peaceful solution to Iran nuclear issue, even Israel: Powell
WASHINGTON (AFP)
Oct 27, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041027203258.0gohesz2.html
The entire world, including Israel, wants a peaceful solution to problems posed by Iran's nuclear program, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Wednesday.
"I think the whole world, to include Israel, is trying to find a diplomatic and peaceful solution to this problem," Powell told CNBC.
He said he had no information on rumors that Israel might launch pre-emptive strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities if Israeli officials suspect Iran is close to developing a nuclear weapon.
Earlier, Iran and the European Union failed to agree on getting Tehran to suspend all uranium enrichment activities but will hold more talks on the matter, an Iranian official said after a meeting in Vienna.
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Vienna nuclear talks "very constructive": Iran
AFP
Oct 27, 2004
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20041027/wl_mideast_afp/iran_nuclear_iaea_europe_041027170303
TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran said its negotiations on uranium enrichment with European officials in Vienna were "very constructive" while insisting on its right to nuclear technology, state television reported.
"The negotiations were very constructive for Iran, and numerous questions were dealt with during five hours of negotiations," a member of the delegation said, quoted on television.
Officials from Britain, France and Germany met with their Iranian counterparts to hear Tehran's response to an offer that would allow it to avoid potential UN sanctions and receive nuclear technology for indefinitely suspending uranium enrichment.
"Negotiations will continue and, most certainly, can satisfy both parties," Syrus Nasseri, also part of the delegation, told Iranian television, adding that "Iran will in no way give up its right to uranium enrichment."
While the talks broke up without any agreement announced, Nasseri told journalists in the Austrian capital where the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is based that a follow-up meeting would be hosted "very soon" by one of the so-called European Three.
"A certain progress has been accomplished and there will soon be a second meeting," senior nuclear official Hossein Moussavian told AFP in Tehran.
"Concerning the suspension of uranium enrichment, as a confidence-building measure, we have not yet given a definitive reply."
The MP in charge of the Iranian parliament's foreign affairs and national security committee insisted that Europe recognize the Islamic republic's right to uranium enrichment.
"It is very important that our right to uranium enrichment be recognised and they (the Europeans) must recognize this right", Allaeddin Borujerdi was quoted as saying by the official IRNA agency.
"I hope we reach an agreement that considers (Iran's) need to follow through with (peaceful) nuclear technology," Borujerdi added.
He also said that a bill to force Iran's reformist government to resume uranium enrichment in defiance of the IAEA was likely to pass after it is debated Sunday.
"I think this bill will be adopted by a vast majority," Borujerdi said of the bill that was proposed earlier this month by his committee.
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Iran unveils plant, indicating it will proceed with nuclear program
Oct. 27, 2004
Knight Ridder Newspapers
By Saeed Kousha and Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/10030936.htm
ARAK, Iran - Iranian officials unveiled their disputed heavy water plant 40 miles south of here Wednesday in a sign that Iran has no plans to suspend its nuclear program, despite calls from the United States to do so.
Leading a small group of journalists on the first-ever public tour of the facility, the plant's deputy director for research and development said that if the West won't provide Iran with nuclear technology, Iranians would provide it themselves. He said the United States and Europe have no reason to be concerned about the plant.
"They are 100 percent wrong" to be concerned over Iran's development of the ability to manufacture heavy water, said Manouchehr Madadi. "It is only for research."
So-called heavy water, which contains a heavier hydrogen particle than regular water, will allow Iran to run other nuclear reactors with the natural uranium it mines, rather than enriched uranium, which is far more expensive and difficult to produce, Madadi said.
But heavy water also can be used to develop material for nuclear weapons. It's that possibility that has alarmed the Bush administration, which has demanded the site be shut down and Iran's pursuit of uranium enrichment halted.
Great Britain, Germany and France, trying to avert a showdown next month between Iran and the United States before the U.N. Security Council, have offered to provide Iran with nuclear fuel and a light water research reactor that can't be used to develop nuclear weapons if Iran agrees to cease activities like those at Arak.
Iranian officials told European negotiators in Vienna Wednesday that they wouldn't suspend work on their nuclear program. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, threatened on Iranian television to pull out of the talks if the West failed to soften its stance.
There were no signs of surrender at the plant, heralded at its entrance by a sign reading "Distillation Workshop." Anti-aircraft batteries guarded the facility.
Showing off the maze of pipes, cranes and scaffolding that took 10 years to construct, Madadi said the plant currently produces 8 tons of heavy water a year.
Within five months, he said, the plant is expected to double its output. Madadi said the plant's output would be used only for peaceful purposes.
But the facility remains a question for the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. watchdog in Vienna scrutinizing Iran's nuclear activities whose inspectors have toured it twice.
"Of all the types of nuclear reactor, why heavy water?" asked one Western diplomat reached by phone in Vienna, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
(Knight Ridder Newspapers special correspondent Kousha reported from Arak, Iran. Nelson reported from Amman, Jordan.)
-------- iraq / inspections
MISSING EXPLOSIVES
No Check of Bunker, Unit Commander Says
October 27, 2004
The New York Times
By JIM DWYER and DAVID E. SANGER
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/27/politics/27bomb.html?oref=login
hite House officials reasserted yesterday that 380 tons of powerful explosives may have disappeared from a vast Iraqi military complex while Saddam Hussein controlled Iraq, saying a brigade of American soldiers did not find the explosives when they visited the complex on April 10, 2003, the day after Baghdad fell.
But the unit's commander said in an interview yesterday that his troops had not searched the site and had merely stopped there overnight.
The commander, Col. Joseph Anderson, of the Second Brigade of the Army's 101st Airborne Division, said he did not learn until this week that the site, Al Qaqaa, was considered sensitive, or that international inspectors had visited it before the war began in 2003 to inspect explosives that they had tagged during a decade of monitoring.
Colonel Anderson, who is now the chief of staff for the division and who spoke by telephone from Fort Campbell, Ky., said his troops had been driving north toward Baghdad and had paused at Al Qaqaa to make plans for their next push.
"We happened to stumble on it,'' he said. "I didn't know what the place was supposed to be. We did not get involved in any of the bunkers. It was not our mission. It was not our focus. We were just stopping there on our way to Baghdad. The plan was to leave that very same day. The plan was not to go in there and start searching. It looked like all the other ammunition supply points we had seen already."
What had been, for the colonel and his troops, an unremarkable moment during the sweep to Baghdad took on new significance this week, after The New York Times, working with the CBS News program "60 Minutes," reported that the explosives at Al Qaqaa, mainly HMX and RDX, had disappeared since the invasion.
Earlier this month, officials of the interim Iraqi government informed the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency that the explosives disappeared sometime after the fall of Mr. Hussein on April 9, 2003. Al Qaqaa, which has been unguarded since the American invasion, was looted in the spring of 2003, and looters were seen there as recently as Sunday.
President Bush's aides told reporters that because the soldiers had found no trace of the missing explosives on April 10, they could have been removed before the invasion. They based their assertions on a report broadcast by NBC News on Monday night that showed video images of the 101st arriving at Al Qaqaa.
By yesterday afternoon Mr. Bush's aides had moderated their view, saying it was a "mystery" when the explosives disappeared and that Mr. Bush did not want to comment on the matter until the facts were known.
On Sunday, administration officials said that the Iraq Survey Group, the C.I.A. taskforce that hunted for unconventional weapons, had been ordered to look into the disappearance of the explosives. On Tuesday night, CBS News reported that Charles A. Duelfer, the head of the taskforce, denied receiving such an order.
At the Pentagon, a senior official, who asked not to be identified, acknowledged that the timing of the disappearance remained uncertain. "The bottom line is that there is still a lot that is not known," the official said.
The official suggested that the material could have vanished while Mr. Hussein was still in power, sometime between mid-March, when the international inspectors left, and April 3, when members of the Army's Third Infantry Division fought with Iraqis inside Al Qaqaa. At the time, it was reported that those soldiers found a white powder that was tentatively identified as explosives. The site was left unguarded, the official said.
The 101st Airborne Division arrived April 10 and left the next day. The next recorded visit by Americans came on May 27, when Task Force 75 inspected Al Qaqaa, but did not find the large quantities of explosives that had been seen in mid-March by the international inspectors. By then, Al Qaqaa had plainly been looted.
Colonel Anderson said he did not see any obvious signs of damage when he arrived on April 10, but that his focus was strictly on finding a secure place to collect his troops, who were driving and flying north from Karbala.
"There was no sign of looting here," Colonel Anderson said. "Looting was going on in Baghdad, and we were rushing on to Baghdad. We were marshaling in."
A few days earlier, some soldiers from the division thought they had discovered a cache of chemical weapons that turned out to be pesticides. Several of them came down with rashes, and they had to go through a decontamination procedure. Colonel Anderson said he wanted to avoid a repeat of those problems, and because he had already seen stockpiles of weapons in two dozen places, did not care to poke through the stores at Al Qaqaa.
"I had given instructions, 'Don't mess around with those. It looks like they are bunkers; we're not messing around with those things. That's not what we're here for,' " he said. "I thought we would be there for a few hours and move on. We ended up staying overnight."
Thom Shanker and William J. Broad contributed reporting for this article.
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The Weapons No One Looked For
antiwar.com
by Matthew Barganier
October 27, 2004
http://www.antiwar.com/barganier2/?articleid=3862
Who was searching for the vast cache of explosives recently revealed to be missing from al-Qaqaa? Not the U.S. military:
"The first U.S. military unit to reach the Al-Qaqaa military installation after the invasion of Iraq did not have orders to search for the nearly 400 tons of explosives that Iraqi officials say were stolen from the site sometime following the fall of Baghdad, the unit spokesman said Tuesday.
"When the troops from the 101st Airborne Division's 2nd Brigade arrived at the Al-Qaqaa base a day or so after Baghdad's fall on April 9, 2003, there were already looters throughout the facility, Lt. Col. Fred Wellman, deputy public affairs officer for the unit, told The Associated Press.
"The soldiers 'secured the area they were in and looked in a limited amount of bunkers to ensure chemical weapons were not present in their area,' Wellman wrote in an e-mail message. 'Bombs were found but not chemical weapons in that immediate area.'
"'Orders were not given from higher to search or to secure the facility or to search for HE type munitions, as they [high-explosive weapons] were everywhere in Iraq,' he wrote.
"His remarks appeared to confirm the observations of an NBC reporter embedded with the army unit who said Tuesday that she saw no signs that the Americans searched for the powerful explosives during their 24 hours at the facility en route to Baghdad, 30 miles to the north."
CIA weapons inspector Charles Duelfer, who recently released his findings on Iraq's missing WMD, says he was never told to look for the weapons, either. Meanwhile, the State Department claims that securing all weapons facilities in Iraq was "impossible."
"'We, from the very beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom, did everything we could to secure arms caches throughout the country. But given the number of arms and the number of caches and the extent of militarization of Iraq it was impossible to provide 100 percent security for 100 percent of the sites,' [State Department spokesman Adam] Ereli said."
But according to a top Iraqi science official, the weapons could not have been removed from the site before the Hussein regime fell.
Either way, according to reporter David J. Morris, al-Qaqaa is only the beginning:
"However disturbing this story, what the New York Times and CBS News have overlooked so far is that the missing munitions at Al Qaqaa are only the tip of the iceberg and in all likelihood represent a mere fraction of the illicit explosive material currently circulating in Iraq. Having personally toured weapons caches comparable in scale to Al Qaqaa and seen similar ordnance in the process of being converted into roadside bombs at an insurgent hideout, I believe that the theft and redistribution of conventional explosives and weapons represent the largest long-term threat to American troops in Iraq. Strangely enough, it is likely that dealing with this conventional weapons threat, rather than eradicating the mythical unconventional WMD threat, will be the U.S. legacy in Iraq."
-------- korea
Unusual activity spotted at North Korean missile base: report
SEOUL (AFP)
Oct 27, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041027035501.ykznnpc5.html
The United States, South Korea and Japan have been closely monitoring a North Korean missile base where brisk activity has been spotted in the past several days, a newspaper reported here Wednesday.
The three countries have yet to confirm the movements at the base in Jeongju, 100 kilometers (some 60 miles) north of Pyongyang, are for test-firing missiles or for simple training, the largest-circulation South Korean daily Chosun Ilbo said, quoting an unnamed official.
"Since two or three days ago, there have been activities -- such as the relocation of mobile launchers in an apparent bid to test-fire Scud or Rodong missiles," the official said.
"We are following the movements to see if this is just part of a routine training or intended to launch a missile."
Seoul's defense ministry officials refused to confirm the report.
North Korea has short-range Scud missiles targeting South Korea and intermediate-range Rodong missiles with a 1,300 kilometer range which cover most areas of Japan.
Pyongyang stunned the world in 1998 by test-launching over Japan a Taepodong-1 missile with a range of up to 2,000 kilometers.
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S. Korea Joins China in Criticizing U.S. on N. Korea
By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post
October 27, 2004
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A63255-2004Oct26?language=printer
SEOUL, Oct. 26 -- South Korea joined China on Tuesday in expressing concern that the Bush administration had not been sufficiently creative or willing to compromise in stalled negotiations over ending North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
South Korea's foreign minister, Ban Ki Moon, told reporters after meeting with Secretary of State Colin L. Powell that he suggested to Powell that the United States and its allies "must come up with a more creative and realistic proposal" to lure North Korea back to the talks "as soon as possible." He did not elaborate.
Chinese officials in Beijing told Powell on Monday that the Bush administration should be more open to compromise in the six-nation talks. Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing told him that China wished "the U.S. side would go further to adopt a flexible and practical attitude," the official New China News Agency reported.
The United States has insisted that it will give North Korea no rewards until the communist state fully discloses its nuclear programs and allows independent verification of its report. South Korea and Japan, by contrast, have proposed to immediately provide fuel oil if the North commits to freeze and ultimately dismantle its programs.
At the news conference with Ban, Powell defended the administration's position. "We have a good proposal on the table," Powell said, noting that U.S. officials had modified their plan in June, which he said demonstrated flexibility.
"The way to move forward is to have the next round of six-party talks so we can discuss that proposal and not have negotiations with ourselves at press conferences," Powell said.
During a three-day swing through the region, Powell won support from Japan, China and South Korea for resuming the talks as soon as possible. But the conflicting statements on the U.S. position suggested a growing divide with key U.S. allies over how to structure an opening offer to North Korea.
Multilateral talks planned for September were scrapped after North Korea refused to attend, citing what it described as the Bush administration's "hostile policy."
South Korean officials have privately pressed the United States to make a symbolic contribution to the fuel oil deliveries, such as paying a few million dollars in administrative expenses. But the Bush administration has resisted the idea.
In official statements before Powell's arrival in Asia on Saturday, North Korea tried to take advantage of the division by insisting it would return to the bargaining table only if the United States committed to making such a goodwill gesture upfront. At the news conference Tuesday, Ban also expressed some irritation at a new U.S. law signed by President Bush last week that calls for human rights issues in North Korea to be addressed at the nuclear talks. Ban said that while South Korea supports standing up for human rights in the North, "the particular situations of that particular country have to be taken into account when we deal with these kinds of issues." He expressed hope that the legislation -- heavily criticized by the North Korean government -- would not harm the talks.
Three rounds of talks, which also include Russia, have been held in Beijing since August 2003, with inconclusive results. Li said China would "make efforts to push for a new round of six-party talks at the earliest possible date." In the past, China, North Korea's main benefactor, has provided aid worth tens of millions of dollars to North Korea before each session in order to prod its reclusive government to send a delegation.
During his one-day visit to Seoul, the South Korean capital, Powell also sought to ease concerns over the Bush administration's plans to reduce the number of U.S. troops in South Korea. The cut is part of a broader plan for military redeployments around the world designed in part to better counter terrorist groups.
The reduction of U.S. troops, including some stationed in Seoul, "will return valuable urban land to our Korean hosts that will allow us to adapt to the new international circumstances and take advantage of new military technology" while still deterring North Korea, Powell said.
U.S. intelligence analysts have said they believe that North Korea has produced enough weapons-grade plutonium in the past two years to make six nuclear weapons. Officially, the United States says that North Korea now possesses one or two nuclear weapons.
Powell has repeatedly stated that the United States wants a diplomatic solution to the standoff over North Korea's nuclear programs. But a U.S.-led naval exercise this week in Japanese waters, simulating the interception of a ship carrying chemical weapons from North Korea, has riled officials in Pyongyang, North Korea's capital. The official KCNA news agency condemned the exercise on Monday as the "ultimate war action," warning that "these moves only make the prospect of the negotiations . . . dimmer as the days go by."
On Tuesday, Pyongyang levied a new accusation, claiming Bush was trying to win votes in next week's presidential election by blaming North Korea for a delay in the nuclear talks.
Special correspondent Joohee Cho in Seoul contributed to this report.
-----
In Asia, Powell defends N. Korea policy
Washington Post
By Glenn Kessler
October 27, 2004
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2004/10/27/in_asia_powell_defends_n_korea_policy/
SEOUL -- Secretary of State Colin L. Powell yesterday sought to fend off complaints from key partners in the effort to end North Korea's nuclear programs that the Bush administration has not been sufficiently creative or willing to compromise in the negotiations.
During his three-day swing through Asia, Powell has insisted that North Korea must return to the bargaining table without any modification of the tough American position on dismantling the weapons. But Chinese officials told Powell on Monday that the Bush administration should be more flexible. South Korea's foreign minister, Ban Ki-Moon, told reporters yesterday that he told Powell the United States and its allies "must come up with a more creative and realistic proposal" to bring North Korea back to the talks "as soon as possible."
A September session of the six-nation talks was scrapped after North Korea refused to show up, citing the US administration's "hostile policy." But while Powell won support from Japan, China, and South Korea during his trip for a resumption of talks, the conflicting statements suggested the effort to disarm North Korea was in disarray because of a growing divide among key US allies over how to structure an opening bid to North Korea.
South Korea and Japan have proposed to provide fuel oil immediately if Pyongyang commits to freezing and dismantling its programs. But Washington has maintained that it would provide benefits, such as a security guarantee, only after North Korea discloses and allows the verification of the full extent of its programs.
Seoul has privately privately pressed the United States to make a symbolic contribution to the fuel oil deliveries, such as paying a few million dollars in administrative expenses. But the Bush administration has resisted the idea. North Korea, in official statements before Powell's arrival in Asia on Saturday, tried to take advantage of the division by insisting it will return to the bargaining table only if the United States commits to making such an upfront gesture.
On Monday, China's foreign minister, Li Zhaoxing, told Powell "we wish the US side would go further to adopt a flexible and practical attitude" during the North Korean negotiations, the official New China News Agency said.
Powell said the administration already has addressed the concerns of its allies. "We have a good proposal on the table," Powell told reporters after his talks in Seoul. "We modified it for the third round of six-party talks," he said, adding that in doing so the United States "showed flexibility."
-------- missile defense
US plans to acclerate deployment of Aegis warships for missile defense
WASHINGTON (AFP)
Oct 27, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041026220727.gn5ql5n3.html
The United States plans to accelerate the deployment of Aegis warships in waters off North Korea to serve as forward radars for a missile defense system that is being readied for operations, a top US general said Tuesday.
Lieutenant General Henry Obering, director of the Missile Defense Agency, also said discussions were well underway with allies about placing a third site for ground-based interceptor missiles in Europe.
He outlined US missile defense plans amid expectations that President George W. Bush will declare the missile defense system to be operational before the end of the year.
Speaking to defense analysts and reporters at a luncheon, Obering would not say when the system would be put on alert but said it was now in a "shakedown period" with trained crews.
"There's no show-stopper there, and there's no reluctance," he said. "What we're doing is making our way very systematically through this. I believe when the time is right, there will be a declaratory policy that will be issued and then we will go on with business.
Two Aegis destroyers already are operating in the Sea of Japan, their powerful tracking radars serving as the leading edge of a system of ground-based interceptor missiles centered in Fort Greely, Alaska and Vandenburg Air Force Base, California .
Obering said four or five Aegis warships will be operating by the end of the year, and plans call for deploying 18 Aegis ships -- 15 destroyers and three cruisers -- in a missile defense role wherever they are needed by 2007. They will serve initially only as forward radars to track long-range missiles. But starting next year they also will be equipped with SM-3 missiles designed to intercept medium-range ballistic missiles, he said.
"We'll accelerate initial forward deployed radars into 2005," Obering said.
While the North Korean missile threat is the focus of the initial missile defense system being set up in Alaska and California, the Pentagon also has begun to take steps to increase its coverage of the Middle East. "We also have plans, and have conducted quite a bit of consultations with our allies, on putting (in) a third interceptor site," he said. "In addition to Fort Greely and Vandenburg we'll put a site in Europe to expand that coverage to our allies."
British newspaper reports earlier this month said Prime Minister Tony Blair had agreed in principle to host interceptors in Britain.
Asked why Washington was moving now on the British site when US intelligence does not forsee an Iranian threat before 2015, Obering said, "We think its prudent to lay the foundation now because we are going to expect we're going to run into problems. There may be some delays we'll have to address."
"But I think it's important that we invite our friends, our allies to participate in this with us, and that they can benefit from the coverage the same way we have. Because they are defenseless against the threat just like we would have been if we had not begun to deploy this," he said.
A tracking radar at Beale Air Force Base in California also will be upgraded next year to provide coverage of ballistic missile threats emanating from the Middle East, he said.
As envisioned by the Pentagon, the system initially will be centered on ground-based interceptor missiles in Alaska and California that would be cued to collide in space with incoming long-range missiles through an elaborate computer-linked network of radars and other sensors.
The plan has aroused intense controversy over the years. Critics say it has been insufficiently tested, and that the tests to date have been conducted under unrealistic conditions.
Obering said the system's next integrated flight test will be in December, its first in nearly two years.
Meanwhile, five interceptor missiles have been positioned in launch silos at Fort Greely, and a sixth is due to be added in November. Two more interceptor missiles are to go into silos at Vandenburg Air Force Base in California by the end of the year.
Work to upgrade a Cobra Dane tracking radar on Shemya Island has been completed, upgrades of another radar in RAF Fylingdales in Britain are on track for completionin February, he said.
A huge sea-based X-band radar that is capable of detecting an object the size of a golf ball from 1,000 miles away is being built on giant pontoons. Obering said it will be on station off Alaska by December 2005.
-------- russia
Russian Diplomats Worried Over EU Nuke Proposal to Iran
MosNews
27.10.2004
http://www.mosnews.com/news/2004/10/27/iraneu.shtml
Some diplomats in Moscow are worried Russia might lose Iran as a strategic nuclear customer after the European Union's "Big Three" offered to help Tehran with atomic technology.
Despite concerns expressed by Moscow diplomats Tuesday, Russia's Atomic Energy Agency said the EU proposal that Iran stop enriching uranium in exchange for European nuclear technology would not harm Russian interests centering on Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactor, Reuters reported.
Russian nuclear officials said the EU offer posed no threat to Russian plans as Britain, France and Germany were in no rush to make concrete proposals before the U.N. nuclear agency declares Tehran fully clean.
"We have long-standing, traditional ties with Iran in that field. Our relationship is solid, besides we don't expect the Europeans to start building nuclear reactors there any time soon," Reuters quoted a spokesman at Russia's Atomic Energy Agency.
"So we are not particularly worried."
"Basically, it's a big bargain," a Western diplomat was quoted as saying. "It's all about competition. For Russia, Bushehr is not just about money, it's also about Russia's status as a major nuclear power."
"And they are going to fight for the Iranian market."
Russian media speculated the EU proposal might involve shipping Western-mined uranium for processing in Russia and then on to Iran -- an offer likely to benefit all parties involved.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has given Iran until Nov. 25 to stop all uranium enrichment activities or face being reported to the U.N. Security Council. Russia, a veto-wielding permanent council member, has long urged Iran to stop all sensitive nuclear work.
-------- terrorism
Nuclear strike 'key terror risk'
BBC
27 October, 2004
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3956813.stm
The UK and US must realise they cannot prevent all terror attacks and should focus on making sure they are not nuclear strikes, says a top academic.
Amitai Etzioni, a key influence on New Labour thinking, says the US emphasis on an "Axis of Evil" is misplaced.
The priority should instead be on "failing states", including Russia and Pakistan, who cannot properly control their nuclear material, he argues.
His report demands a major overhaul of world rules on nuclear technology.
Arms access
Professor Etzioni was a senior adviser to President Carter's White House and is the guru behind communitarian ideas which influenced the development of Blairite Third Way politics.
In a report for the Foreign Policy Centre think tank, he says a nuclear terrorist attack is the main danger faced by many nations.
"Attempts to defend against it by hardening domestic targets cannot work, nor can one rely on pre-emption by taking the war to the terrorists before they attack," he says.
That means there is an urgent need to curb terrorists' access to nuclear arms and the materials used to make them.
"We must recognise that we will be unable to stop all attacks and thus ensure terrorists will not be able to strike with weapons of mass destruction," Prof Etzioni continues.
Russia warning
He suggests so-called rogue states such as Iran and North Korea are less of a problem than "failed and failing states", which are more likely to be a source of nuclear materials.
He names Russia as the "failing state" of gravest concern as it has an estimated 90% of all fissile material outside America.
And he is also worried about Pakistan after one of its top nuclear scientists, Abdul Qadeer Khan, admitted leaking nuclear secrets.
Prof Etzioni criticises the US for overlooking those reports, suggesting it was done in return for Pakistani help in hunting Osama Bin Laden.
"This is like letting a serial killer go because he promised to catch some jay-walkers," he says.
Among his proposals for an overhaul of the current world non-proliferation regime are:
- Upgrading security at nuclear arms stores as a temporary measure
- Creating a new Global Safety Authority to tackle nuclear terrorism, using the intelligence links established in the wake of 11 September - backed by the United Nations' authority
- Encouraging, pressuring and using "all available means" to persuade countries to switch their highly-enriched uranium for less dangerous less-enriched uranium
- When possible, taking fissile material away from failing states to safe havens where it can be blended down or converted
- Compelling "failing and rogue states", and eventually all states, to destroy their nuclear bombs.
-------- u.s. nuc facilities
NRC Closes Web Library for Security Review
Associated Press
Wednesday, October 27, 2004
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A455-2004Oct26.html
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has closed public access to its online document library, pending a review to determine what potentially sensitive documents should be removed because they might be useful to terrorists, the agency said yesterday.
"Agency guidelines provide that any information that could be useful, or could reasonably be expected to be useful, to a terrorist in a potential attack should be withheld," the NRC said in a statement.
The action came after a report by NBC that the agency's Web site included detailed information on the location of radioactive substances, generally used in medicine and for industrial purposes, that could be used to prepare a "dirty bomb."
In some cases, the data included diagrams that pinpointed the location of the material in hospitals and other facilities, according to the NBC report.
As part of the review, the NRC said it temporarily closed public access to its online document library, its electronic hearing docket files and NRC staff documents related to NRC consideration of a high-level nuclear waste repository.
"This action, when completed, is intended to ensure that documents which might provide assistance to terrorists will be inaccessible while maintaining public access to information regarding NRC activities," the agency said.
After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, more than 1,000 documents were removed from the NRC Web site. Additional documents disappeared in subsequent reviews.
While the Web site does not contain classified material, the NRC "is widening its review to remove additional information that could potentially be of use to a terrorist," the agency said.
-------- us nuc waste
Energy Department fights state fine at Hanford
10/27/2004
The Associated Press
http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/washingtonstate/index.ssf?/base/news-9/1098915860139450.xml&storylist=orwashington
RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) - The U.S. Department of Energy and two contractors at the Hanford nuclear site have appealed a record $270,000 fine issued by the state of Washington last month.
The state Department of Ecology contends the federal government shipped unknown waste from another nuclear site to the south-central Washington reservation. The penalty was the largest the state has ever issued to the Energy Department.
In documents filed with the state Pollution Control Hearings Board, the Energy Department, contractor Fluor Hanford and subcontractor Duratek Federal Services of Hanford contend the state is holding them to regulations that do not apply to plutonium-tainted waste shipped to Hanford from the Savannah River nuclear site in South Carolina.
Even if the board does find the regulations apply, the fine is excessive, the documents said.
"Ecology would have the board believe that the Hanford Facility is an egregious violator of the state's dangerous waste regulations, but the facts simply do not support such an unfair proposition," according to the appeal documents.
The violations center on 83 drums of debris from Savannah River, which has been conducting treatment studies on waste from Hanford's 177 underground waste tanks. The waste is the remnants of decades of plutonium production for the nation's nuclear weapons arsenal.
Federal law allows the waste to be shipped to South Carolina for study and returned to Hanford, exempting it from provisions of state and federal hazardous-waste regulations. But the state contends those exemptions do not apply to waste generated at Savannah River - debris such as equipment, clothing and supplies that may have been contaminated in the testing process.
Waste brought to Hanford also falls under state regulations for hazardous waste, which mirror federal regulations, state officials said.
The state fined the Energy Department and two contractors for not following regulations, which include requiring trained workers observe the packing of the drums, verify the type of waste and place a tamper-resistant seal on the drums.
The Energy Department and the contractors say they managed the waste in a safe manner.
Even if the regulations apply to the waste, they represent infractions of administrative and record-keeping requirements that would pose "relatively minor or even no potential risk to human health or the environment," the documents said.
The state also issued an administrative order last month with three pages of instructions for the Energy Department. The federal agency has been complying with the order while the appeal is heard, spokesman Erik Olds said.
For 40 years, the 586-square-mile Hanford reservation made plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons arsenal. Today it is the nation's most contaminated site, with cleanup costs expected to total $50 billion to $60 billion.
-----
Perma-Fix Awarded a $23 Million Contract by Fluor Hanford for Thermal Treatment of Mixed Low-Level Waste
Capitol Reports
(10/27/04)
http://www.caprep.com/b1004034.htm
OAK RIDGE, TN -- Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Inc. (Nasdaq: PESI; BSE: PESI; Germany: PES.BE) has been awarded a multi-year contract valued at approximately $23 million for the treatment of mixed low-level wastes generated at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Hanford Site.
The Hanford Site, located in southeastern Washington State and covering 586 square miles, was a plutonium production complex that played a pivotal role in the nation's defense for more than 40 years. Today, under the direction of DOE, the Hanford Site is engaged in the largest environmental clean-up project in the world. Fluor Hanford, a prime contractor supporting DOE's cleanup mission at Hanford, has awarded this contract to Perma-Fix to provide specialized thermal treatment for a variety of mixed low-level radioactive wastes generated at Hanford. Some of these mixed wastes are currently in storage awaiting treatment while additional wastes will be generated through ongoing site operations.
Perma-Fix will utilize the capabilities of its Nuclear Segment's three mixed waste treatment facilities to accomplish this work for the term of the three-year contract. The variety and complexity of these mixed wastes require specialized technical expertise and operational capacity that will be provided using the synergistic capabilities of each of our facilities. Dr. Louis F. Centofanti, Perma-Fix chairman and chief executive officer, stated, "The award of this contract is very gratifying to Perma-Fix in that Fluor Hanford continues to be confident of our capability to address some of the most challenging waste streams that result from the Department of Energy's cleanup efforts. We have performed similar work for Fluor Hanford, and we will continue to support DOE and its contractors with their goals to clean up the legacy of the Cold War."
Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Inc. is a national environmental services company, providing unique mixed waste and industrial waste management services. The Nuclear Segment provides radioactive and mixed waste treatment services to hospitals, research laboratories and institutions, numerous federal agencies, including the Departments of Energy and Defense, and nuclear utilities. The Industrial Segment provides hazardous and non-hazardous waste treatment services for a diverse group of customers including Fortune 500 companies, numerous federal, state and local agencies and thousands of smaller clients. The company operates eleven major waste treatment facilities across the country.
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" which are based largely on the Company's expectations and are subject to various business risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the Company's control. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the information concerning statements that the contract has a potential value of approximately $23M. These forward-looking statements are intended to qualify for the safe harbors from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. While the Company believes the expectations reflected in this news release are reasonable, it can give no assurance such expectations will prove to be correct. There are a variety of factors which could cause future outcomes to differ materially from those described in this release, including without limitation, general economic conditions, future environmental regulatory restrictions, disputes arising under the contract, failure to deliver waste volumes anticipated under the contract, or termination of the contract prior to its completion. Contracts with the federal government or with others as a subcontractor to the federal government generally provide that the government may terminate or renegotiate the contract at the government's option. The Company makes no commitment to disclose any revisions to forward-looking statements, or any facts, events or circumstances after the date hereof that bear upon forward-looking statements.
Please visit us on the World Wide Web at http://www.perma-fix.com .
------
Firm gets $23M contract to neutralize waste
October 27, 2004
Knoxville News Sentinel
By FRANK MUNGER, munger@knews.com
http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/local_news/article/0,1406,KNS_347_3283272,00.html
OAK RIDGE - Perma-Fix Environmental Services Inc. has won a $23 million contract to treat radioactive and hazardous waste from a government cleanup site in Washington state, and most of the work will be done at the company's Oak Ridge facilities.
Lou Centofanti, the chairman and chief executive officer of Perma-Fix, said the project is expected to take about 2 1/2 years to complete. It will involve about 2,000 drums of solid wastes shipped from the U.S. Department of Energy's Hanford, Wash., operations.
The wastes will be thermally treated at Perma-Fix's Oak Ridge facilities to destroy hazardous chemicals. The materials then will be mixed with cement to fix the low-level radioactivity.
The company's treatment facilities are at the East Tennessee Technology Park, a former uranium-enrichment plant once known as K-25.
After the wastes are processed in Oak Ridge, they will be shipped back to Hanford or somewhere else for disposal, Centofanti said. He emphasized that the wastes will not remain in Oak Ridge.
It will take about 25 truck shipments to bring the wastes to Oak Ridge, he said.
The wastes are categorized as "mixed low-level" and will include soil and other solids contaminated with radioactivity and organic chemicals, Centofanti said.
"What we will do is treat them to make them nonhazardous," he said.
Perma-Fix earlier this month completed another Hanford project involving the treatment of depleted uranium chips, Centofanti said. That work was valued at about $5 million, he said.
The Florida-based company's nuclear division has annual revenues of about $45 million, and about half of that work is done in Oak Ridge, he said.
Senior writer Frank Munger may be reached at 865-342-6329.
-------- MILITARY
-------- arms
Taiwan's controversial arms deal
BBC, Taipei
By Caroline Gluck
27 October, 2004
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3950907.stm
Ever since Taiwan's cabinet approved plans for a special budget to buy $18bn of weapons from the United States, the issue has proved highly controversial.
There have been heated debates over the arms deal and large protests in Taipei and other big cities - including one in the southern port city of Kaohsiung last week end.
A Taiwanese soldier stands in front of one of Taiwan's many Patriot missile air defence systems Friday, Oct. 22, 2004, near the northern coastal town of Wanli, Taiwan. Taiwan wants to upgrade its missile defence system
The government had hoped the plan would get swift legislative approval in the current session. Instead, it is shaping up to be one of the hottest topics in legislative elections set for 11 December.
The arms purchase - which includes Patriot Pac-3 antimissile systems, eight diesel submarines and anti-submarine aircraft - is part of a package first approved by Washington three years ago.
The US switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979. But under the Taiwan Relations Act, Washington is obliged to supply weapons to Taiwan to allow it to maintain a self-defence capability against a possible Chinese attack.
China claims sovereignty over Taiwan and has threatened to take the island by force.
For years, Taiwan had urged the US to sell it more sophisticated military hardware to defend it against mainland China.
Time running out
Defence officials in the US and Taiwan say there is a now a new urgency.
For starters, there is no guarantee that after the US presidential election, Washington will honour the existing arms package on offer.
And some US officials appear to be losing patience with Taiwan.
US Deputy Undersecretary of Defense, Richard Lawless, said this month that the island would be viewed as a liability rather than a partner if lawmakers did not approve the arms package.
Taiwan's Foreign Minister, Mark Chen, is also concerned about the impact on ties with the US if the arms budget is not passed.
"The basic message that could be interpreted by our American friends is that we are not really willing to defend Taiwan by ourselves," he said.
"Our mutual interactions may be discounted in some way; and that's something I don't want to see that happen. "
China threat
Analysts worry that the military balance of power is already tipping in China's favour.
China has already targeted more than 600 missiles at Taiwan, and is adding around 75 ballistic missiles each year to its arsenal.
There is no way Taiwan can compete against China in military build-up... the more you buy weapons the more dangers we face Hsu Hsin Liang, DPP founder
"We are facing China's military threat; therefore have to defend ourselves to increase our defence capability," said Deputy Defence Minister Michael Tsai.
He said the weapons Taiwan wants to buy are of a defensive nature, designed to intercept incoming missiles and aircraft and detect underwater submarine operations.
The Ministry of National Defence (MND) has embarked on an unprecedented public relations campaign to try to convince a sceptical public that the costly arms purchase is essential.
It earlier released brochures with cute cartoon characters setting out its case.
One argument said the money for the weapons deal over the next 15 years was equivalent to the savings that could be made if the people of Taiwan skipped drinking one cup of a popular drink called pearl milk tea each week, over the same period of time.
Last week, the MND opened up one of its three Patriot missiles bases for the first time to the media, to underline its argument about the need for more advanced weaponry.
But critics have questioned the massive cost - and the effectiveness of the systems on offer to deter threats from China.
They say the money would be better spent on public welfare projects.
Many like Hsu Hsin Liang, a founder and former chairman of the governing Democratic Progressive Party who has since moved away from the party, fear Taiwan will end up in an arms race.
Several thousand protesters take the streets of the capital to denounce an arms deal with the U.S., Saturday, Sept. 25, 2004, in Taipei, Taiwan. There have been big protests against the costly arms deal
"There is no way Taiwan can compete against China in military build-up. This kind of military build-up itself is against peace," he said.
"The more you buy weapons the more dangers we face."
Protestors are now urging people to not vote for legislators who support the arms deal in December's.
"We think Taiwan peace is more important than an arms race," said Professor Yachung Chang, of one of the protest groups, the Democratic Action Alliance.
"More legislators are supporting us - saying if they are re-elected they will back our case."
Out on the campaign trail, Lai Shih Bao, candidate for the opposition KMT, has made it a key plank of his election campaign.
"The arms sale is a hot issue", he said. "We are against this; we don't need this expensive budget. We're not against national defence, but we oppose this special budget."
Political manoeuvring in the legislature has meant that a vote on the arms deal is unlikely to take place before the elections.
The governing DPP and its smaller ally, the Taiwan Solidarity Union, hope to increase the number of seats they hold in the 225-seat legislature and gain a working majority.
In 2001 elections, the DPP captured 87 seats.
But Deputy Defence Minister, Michael Tsai, is cautiously optimistic that the budget will eventually be passed. The bill is high, he admitted, but unavoidable.
"What a choice do we have? The US spends a lot; so does Japan, Israel, so does Singapore. I know its more expensive to develop defensive than offensive weapons. But in order to win the peace, we have to pay the price," he said.
-------- biological weapons
Scientists warn of 'ethnic weapons'
The Australian
By Leigh Dayton
October 27, 2004
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11197760%255E401,00.html
BIOLOGICAL weapons that target selected ethnic groups could become part of the terrorists' arsenal unless governments and scientists act now, the British Medical Association warns.
Such designer weapons would be based on the growing ability of scientists to unravel and compare human DNA.
In theory, experts could engineer organisms to attack genetic variations commonly found in, say, Chinese or German populations.
Genetically engineered anthrax, smallpox and polio viruses are also "approaching reality", the BMA claims in a new report, Biotechnology, Weapons and Humanity II.
The report, released yesterday in London, adds that organisms designed to attack food crops and even human immune and nervous systems are serious threats.
For instance, the agent used by Russian authorities to end the Moscow theatre hostage crisis in 2002, a fentanyl derivative, is an example of a "bio-regulator" targeted against the human nervous system.
"All of the above are feasible or possible if anyone would be mad enough or evil enough to do it," commented University of Melbourne immunologist Sir Gus Nossal.
"There already exist potential biological weapons of enormous destructive power, chief among them smallpox and anthrax," added Professor Emeritus Nossal, who in 1979 announced the eradication of smallpox on behalf of the World Health Organisation.
He agreed with BMA head of science and ethics Vivienne Nathanson that, "If we wait too long it will be virtually impossible to defend ourselves (against biological weapons)".
According to the BMA report the "window of opportunity" to control the spread of powerful biological weapons is shrinking fast.
That's so, said the report's author, Malcolm Dando of Britain's Bradford University, because "the same technology being used to develop new vaccines and find cure's for Alzheimer's and other debilitating diseases could also be used for malign purposes".
Professor Dando said it was essential that governments worldwide beef up the international Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention when it comes up for review in 2006.
The BTWC prohibits signatory states from acquiring biological weapons and means of delivery them.
But eminent Australian microbiologist Frank Fenner questioned the effectiveness of the BMA recommendations.
"It's all very well to say governments ought to adhere to these suggestions, but they didn't adhere to them before and even now the US Government says it's not going to take any notice of the (BTWC)," he said.
According to Emeritus Professor Fenner -- who was central to the development of myxoma virus to control rabbits, as well as the WHO smallpox eradication campaign -- public health strategies designed to respond to biological weapons such as smallpox are more likely to be effective.
In Canberra, a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Australia signed the BWTC in 1972 and ratified it in 1977.
-------- business
Halliburton says profit in Iraq is weak
Agence France-Presse
October 27, 2004
http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file=/articles/2004/10/26/business/halli.html
HOUSTON Halliburton, the oil services company once run by Dick Cheney, the U.S. vice president, reported on Tuesday a quarterly loss and only meager pickings from its vast operations in Iraq.
Halliburton had a loss of $44 million, or 9 cents a share, in the three months ending Sept. 30 as costs of an asbestos-related settlement swelled to $230 million. A year earlier, Halliburton had posted a profit of $58 million, or 13 cents a share.
Revenue surged 15.5 percent to $4.79 billion - nearly 30 percent of which came from the operations in Iraq conducted by Halliburton's KBR unit.
Halliburton said it squeezed out just $4 million in operating profit from its Iraq operations, despite taking in $1.4 billion in revenue.
The Iraq operations produced an operating profit a year earlier of $34 million and revenue of $900 million.
KBR said it had an operating loss of $50 million, reversing a year-earlier operating profit of $49 million, because of losses including those at a gas plant in Algeria. KBR revenue for the third quarter rose 15 percent to $2.7 billion.
The chairman, president and chief executive of Halliburton, David Lesar, said the core energy-services business had record revenue, operating income and operating margins.
KBR had restructured to cut costs and "resolved issues with customers on a number of projects," he added. "These efforts should position KBR for profitability in future years."
Halliburton, where Cheney was chief executive from 1995 to 2000, has been in a dispute with the Pentagon over its accounting for services provided to the U.S. Army in Iraq.
Lockheed profit surges 41%
Lockheed Martin, the largest U.S. defense contractor, posted a 41 percent rise in quarterly profit Tuesday, beating Wall Street forecasts, on strong demand for its combat aircraft and information technology services, Reuters reported from New York.
The maker of the Joint Strike Fighter jet said third-quarter earnings jumped to $307 million, or 69 cents per share, from $217 million, or 48 cents per share, a year earlier. Wall Street analysts' average forecast was 65 cents per share.
Lockheed, which also makes the F-16 fighter plane as well as commercial and government satellites and data-gathering technology, said revenue rose 4 percent to $8.44 billion. Analysts' average forecast was $8.58 billion.
The company's 2004 and 2005 sales forecasts were lower than Wall Street estimates. Lockheed's chief financial officer, Chris Kubasik, attributed this to difficulty in predicting exactly when a product will be delivered and counted in sales.
-------- europe
Lending military equipment to US causes headache for Norwegian PM
OSLO (AFP)
Oct 27, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041027143929.ec7uta7p.html
Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik was on Wednesday forced to defend a harshly criticized government decision to lend military equipment to the United States ahead of the war in Iraq, which Norway was officially against.
"We do not usually insist on being kept abreast of how materiel we lend to our allies in NATO is used," Bondevik said during a question session in parliament.
Norwegian public broadcaster NRK revealed on Tuesday that the Norwegian military had in March 2003 lent 25 laser searchlights and range finders to the US that were used by US troops to direct bombers to their targets during the US-led military operation in Iraq only days later.
Officially, the Norwegian government said it was opposed to the war on the grounds that the US failed to secure United Nations Security Council approval for the action.
The NRK report provoked a wave of criticism from opposition parties, which accused the government of "double speak".
Bombarded with questions in parliament on Wednesday, Bondevik admitted that he had been informed at the time that Norway was lending the laser searchlights and range finders to the US military, but insisted that such equipment exchanges were common practice between NATO member countries and that they were in line with parliament approved policy.
"We will gladly look into ways of giving parliament a more detailed overview" of military equipment exchanges, he said, but ruled out transferring the right to authorize such exchanges to the legislative body, as had been suggested by opposition parties.
-----
Turkey's top security body meets for the first time with civilian head
ANKARA (AFP)
Oct 27, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041027160922.9f43rtec.html
Turkey's top security body Wednesday held its first meeting under a civilian secretary-general, named to curb military influence in Turkish politics and help align the country's democratic standards with EU norms.
Yigit Alpogan, a former ambassador appointed to the post in August, was the center of attention at a regular meeting of the National Security Council, which brings together the country's top civilian and military leaders.
Only senior generals had served thus far as secretaries-general of the body, a forum the military used to weigh in on decisions concerning key domestic and foreign policy issues, such as Iraq, Cyprus and the fight against Kurdish separatism and Islamist extremism.
Reforms aimed at boosting Turkey's bid to join the European Union have stripped the military wing of the council of its executive powers and put military spending under civilian control.
Turkey's EU prospects topped the agenda of the council on Wednesday.
A brief statement issued at the end of the meeting urged EU leaders not to discriminate against Turkey when they meet on December 17 to decide whether to start accession talks with the Muslim nation.
"Criteria and methods that have not been envisaged for other countries should not be envisaged for Turkey either," it said.
The European Commission, the EU executive arm, said in an October 6 report that Turkey had fulfilled the democracy norms required for the opening of accession talks.
But much to Ankara's discontent, it said the launch of talks would not guarantee Turkey's ultimate membership and mentioned the possibility of permanent measures to bar the free movement of Turkish nationals in the bloc.
The Turkish military is officially in favor of Turkey's EU membership, although some generals have expressed reservations on some of the reforms sought by Brussels.
The European Commission report noted that "civilian control of the military has been strengthened," but added that the generals continue to exercise influence through "informal channels."
The Turkish army carried out three coups -- in 1960, 1971 and 1980 -- and in 1997 forced the resignation of Necmettin Erbakan, the country's first Islamist prime minister.
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Poland signs defense deal with Iraq
(AFP)
Oct 27, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041027151533.71wwy9je.html
WARSAW, Oct 27 (AFP) - Poland said Wednesday it had signed a cooperation agreement with Baghdad to help train and equip the Iraqi security forces.
Deputy Defense Minister Janusz Zemke said the agreement signed by the defense ministers of the two countries would provide for training for leaders in various branches of the Iraqi armed forces. He recalled that Iraq already had ordered 60 million dollars (46.9 million euros) worth of military equipment and ammunition from Poland.
A close ally of Washington in the Iraq conflict, Poland commands a 6,000-man multinational force in a sector south of Baghdad, of whom 2,500 are Polish soldiers.
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British Troops in Iraq Begin Redeployment
October 27, 2004
By RAWYA RAGEH
Associated Press Writer
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ?SITE=DCTMS&SECTION=HOME
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Nearly 800 British forces left their base in southern Iraq on Wednesday, heading north toward Baghdad to replace U.S. troops who are expected to take part in an offensive against insurgent strongholds.
The deployment came hours after Iraq's most feared militant group released a video threatening to behead a Japanese captive within 48 hours unless Japan withdraws its troops from Iraq. Japan's prime minister, a staunch U.S. ally in Iraq, took a tough stance and rejected any troop withdrawal.
Large flatbed trucks were seen carrying armored British vehicles up a road through Iraq's southern desert as the redeployment began for the nearly 800 Scottish soldiers of the First Battalion, Black Watch, headquartered in Basra.
"We can confirm that there is some movement," said British military spokesman Maj. Charlie Mayo. He gave no specifics on troop numbers, citing security concerns.
British officials have been vague on the precise destination, though the troops are expected to deploy in an area just south of Baghdad. Som media reports indicated the Black Watch would be sent to Iskandariyah, a town that sees frequent violence between the capital and the city of Hillah.
The soldiers' families expressed worries Wednesday that the redeployment puts the troops in greater danger.
"It wasn't a cake walk in Basra but it's going to be a lot, lot more dangerous up there," said James Buchanan, 56, from Arbroath in central Scotland, who has two sons with the regiment in Iraq. "They're going to get one hell of a kicking this time," he said.
The troops are to replace U.S. forces who are expected to take part in offensives against insurgent strongholds west and north of the capital in an attempt to bring order to Iraq before elections in January.
The American military wants the British to assume security responsibility in areas close to Baghdad, so U.S. Marines and soldiers can be shifted to insurgency strongholds west of the capital, including Fallujah.
Prime Minister Tony Blair's decision to agree to the U.S. request for redeployment is a politically sensitive one for the British leader, whose popularity has plummeted because of his support for the Iraq war.
Britain's 8,500 troops are based around the southern port city of Basra in a relatively peaceful area of Iraq. Sixty-eight British soldiers have been killed in Iraq, compared with more than 1,000 U.S. troops.
The political pressure mounted with last week's kidnapping of British aid worker Margaret Hassan, who heads CARE International's operations in Iraq. Hassan, 59, who also holds Iraqi and Irish citizenship, was kidnapped on her way to work in Baghdad. No group has claimed responsibility.
Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said Tuesday that more extremists are massing in Fallujah and warned of increasing terrorist attacks to come. On Saturday, insurgents ambushed and executed about 50 unarmed Iraqi soldiers as they were heading home from a U.S. military training camp northeast of Baghdad.
On Wednesday, a motorcycle bomber attacked a U.S. convoy in central Iraq, killing one American soldier and wounding another, the U.S. military said in a statement. The name of the soldier killed was being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
In the hostage drama, a video of the Japanese captive was posted on a militant Web site Tuesday, and the al-Qaida-linked militant group led by Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi vowed to kill the hostage within 48 hours unless the 500 Japanese troops in Iraq leave the country.
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi rejected the demands.
"The Self-Defense Forces will not withdraw," he said. "I cannot allow terrorism and cannot bow to terrorism."
The captive, who in the video had long hair and wore a white T-shirt, was identified by the Japanese government as 24-year-old Shosei Koda. He spoke briefly in halting English and Japanese, addressing himself to Koizumi.
"They asked me why Japanese government broke the law and sent troops to Iraq," the man said in English. "They want Japanese government and Koizumi prime minister, they want to withdraw the Japanese troops from Iraq or cut my head."
He then paused, sighed and switched into Japanese.
"Mr. Koizumi. They seek the withdrawal of Japanese Self-Defense Forces... (and say they) will take my head off," the captive said. "I'm sorry. I want to return to Japan again."
The video's authenticity could not be independently confirmed.
Tokyo has dispatched some 500 troops to the southern Iraqi city of Samawah on a humanitarian mission to purify water and rebuild schools in support of U.S.-led reconstruction efforts.
The video claimed that Koda was connected to the Japanese military, but the government denied that. Friends and relatives suggested Koda had gone to Iraq as a tourist.
"Mr. Koda is a private individual who is not related to the Self-Defense Forces or the government of Japan," Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said.
When the captive finished speaking, the video showed him kneeling before three masked militants. The man's head was bowed to the floor as the militant spoke, and another of the militants grabbed him by the hair to face the camera.
"We give the Japanese government 48 hours to withdraw its troops from Iraq, otherwise his fate will be the same as that of his predecessors, Berg and Bigley and other infidels," the man said, referring to the beheadings of British engineer Kenneth Bigley and U.S. businessman Nicholas Berg.
The video, which lasted just under three minutes, bore the logo of al-Qaida in Iraq, the new name for al-Zarqawi's group, which was previously known as Tawhid and Jihad and has allied itself with Osama bin Laden. The group has claimed responsibility for the beheadings of Bigley, two American co-workers and Berg, as well as numerous car bombings and other attacks.
The United States has offered a $25 million bounty for the capture or killing of al-Zarqawi, who is believed to be hiding in the militant stronghold of Fallujah.
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Signs Point to Imminent Showdown in Iraq
October 27, 2004
By ROBERT H. REID
Associated Press Writer
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ_SHOWDOWN_AHEAD?SITE=DCTMS&SECTION=HOME
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- An uptick in airstrikes and other military moves point to an imminent showdown between U.S. forces and Sunni Muslim insurgents west of Baghdad - a decisive battle that could determine whether the campaign to bring democracy and stability to Iraq can succeed.
American officials have not confirmed a major assault is near against the insurgent bastions of Fallujah and neighboring Ramadi. But Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi has warned Fallujah leaders that force will be used if they do not hand over extremists, including terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
A similar escalation in U.S. military actions and Iraqi government warnings occurred before a major offensive in Najaf forced militiamen loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to give up that holy city in late August. And U.S. and Iraqi troops retook Samarra from insurgents early this month.
Now U.S. airstrikes on purported al-Zarqawi positions in three neighborhoods of eastern and northern Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, have increased. And residents reported this week that Marines appeared to be reinforcing forward positions near key areas of the city. Other military units are on the move, including 800 British soldiers headed north to the U.S.-controlled zone.
The goal of an attack would be to restore government control in time for national elections by the end of January. However, an all-out assault on the scale of April's siege of Fallujah would carry enormous risk - both political and military - for the Americans and their Iraqi allies.
A series of policy mistakes by the U.S. military and the Bush administration have transformed Fallujah from a shabby, dusty backwater known regionally for mosques and tasty kebabs into a symbol of Arab pride and defiance of the United States throughout the Islamic world.
A videotape obtained Tuesday by Associated Press Television News featured a warning by masked gunmen that if Fallujah is subjected to an all-out assault, they will strike "with weapons and military tactics" that the Americans and their allies "have not experienced before."
Regardless of whether the threat was an empty boast, insurgents elsewhere in Iraq could be expected to step up attacks to try to relieve pressure on fighters in the Fallujah and Ramadi areas.
But the main problem an assault would pose for both the U.S. military and Allawi's government is political, such as a widespread public backlash. A nationwide association of Sunni clerics also has threatened to urge a boycott of the January elections if U.S. forces storm Fallujah.
So Iraqi officials appear anxious to convince the public that they have made every effort to solve the Fallujah crisis peacefully. The government spin is that the people of Fallujah are held as virtual hostages of armed foreign terrorists. Although Fallujah leaders insist there are no more than a few foreign fighters in the city, Arab journalists who have visited say they heard non-Iraqi accents at some checkpoints.
U.S. and Iraqi officials hope the Iraqi people are so fed up with suicide attacks, assassinations and kidnappings - many of them believed orchestrated from Fallujah and Ramadi - that they will acquiesce to the use of force.
"There are terror groups in this city who are taking human shields," Iraq's deputy prime minister for national security, Barham Saleh, said Wednesday, referring to Fallujah. "We are