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NUCLEAR
Plant security a campaign issue
Exposed: scandal of nuclear leaks at Scots plant
Rocket Launchers and Shells in My Backyard
Iran Parliament OKs Nuke Enrichment Bill
2nd Site With U.N.-Sealed Arms Was Looted, Inspectors Report
At Denuded Weapons Site, a New Menacing Presence
377 tons small part of absent Iraq explosives
If Brazil Wants to Scare the World, It's Succeeding
Cleanup project to begin at Knolls Laboratory
MILITARY
Afghan militants threaten to kill three U.N. workers
Afghan Militants Release Video of Hostages
100 Are Reported Killed In Violence in Somalia
Algeria marks 50th anniversary of launching independence war
Army Tactics Anger Thai Muslims
Three-day protest to block Taiwan's special defense budget begins
Looters overran sensitive Iraq desert site;
Suicide Attack Kills 8 Marines Near Baghdad
Car bomb kills eight Marines, wounds nine in Iraq
Attacks Kill Nine Marines In Iraq
Allawi Warns Falluja Rebels That Time Is Running Out for Talks
Allawi Vows to Clear Fallujah of Rebels
U.S. Hopes To Divide Insurgency
Palestinian leaders close ranks in Arafat's absence
After Gaza Win, Sharon Fights Political Doubt
Israelis and Palestinians Address Arafat's Absence
Military Intelligence chief: Arafat's death may end intifada
Uncovering The Bush Plan For Regime Change In Cuba
Pakistan perturbed by tapes of al Qaeda
At Least 15 Injured in Blast Outside Chechen Hospital
Deputy chief of Russia's strategic air force killed: report
Message from the people of Fallujah
Need for Draft Is Dismissed by Officials at Pentagon
GIs Lack Armor, Radios, Bullets
Pentagon suppresses details of civilian casualties, says expert
POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE
Cutbacks Threaten Work Of Homeland Security Unit
Protecting the Homeland
Spanish Prisons Provide Pool of Recruits for Radical Islam
Terrorist Tape, Political Angst
POLITICS
Bin Laden focus of race as vote nears
U.S. Failure to Capture Bin Laden Is Debated
Now They're Registered, Now They're Not
OTHER
Report Sounds Alarm on Pace of Arctic Climate Change
A Gasoline Additive Lingers in New York's Drinking Water
Chemical Spill at Arthur Kill Waterway
ACTIVISTS
Real Men Don't Let Other Men Bomb Civilians
Hawking to lead anti-war protest on election day
-------- NUCLEAR
-------- accidents and safety
Plant security a campaign issue
10/31/2004
The Mercury
Evan Brandt, ebrandt@pottsmerc.com
http://www.pottstownmercury.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13260059&BRD=1674&PAG=461&dept_id=18041&rfi=6
While the topic of safety at nuclear and chemical plants has long been a subject of debate, in recent months it has become a subject of debate in the presidential campaign.
In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the issue of homeland security has been front and center in the white-hot race between incumbent Republican George W. Bush and Democratic challenger John F. Kerry.
And two arenas in which this debate is being waged -- the security of chemical plants and nuclear power plants -- are of obvious local interest.
Occidental Chemical Corp. operates a plant on Armand Hammer Boulevard in Lower Pottsgrove that produces polyvinyl chloride resin and is among the nation's largest emitters of vinyl chloride, a recognized carcinogen.
And Exelon Nuclear's Limerick Genera-tion Station is perhaps the dominant feature of the region's landscape.
Kerry has taken the position that Bush has done too little to secure chemical plants from a terrorist attack, a charge the Bush campaign refutes. And a report released by a consumer group on Oct. 18 makes similar charges about security at nuclear plants, which the Bush campaign also refutes.
The operators of the two local plants touched by this debate insist their plants are safer now than they ever were.
Chemical Plants
Kerry has singled out chemical plants in particular saying security "is not adequate" to protect them from terrorist attack, making the communities that surround them vulnerable to harm.
Bush counters that the Department of Homeland Security "has already identified the nation's highest-risk chemical sites and is partnering with industry to enhance protections at those sites, improving safety for over 13 million Americans."
There is evidence to support both positions.
Gaps found
Kerry's Web site cites a number of studies including a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency assessment that there are about 123 chemical facilities in the United States "where a terrorist attack could endanger more than 1 million people. In the Philadelphia area, there are seven such plants, the highest concentration of these facilities on the east coast," Kerry's site notes.
Unwilling to provide easy information to terrorists, neither Kerry, nor any of the other security evaluations on this issue have identified specific plants as being particularly vulnerable.
But in general, it makes reference to numerous studies supporting the call for increased security at chemical plants. His site refers to a 2003 Washington Post story quoting a former Georgia-Pacific security chief who told the Post "security at a 7-Eleven after midnight is better than that at a plant with a 90-ton vessel of chlorine."
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reporter Carl Prine made headlines, along with a "60-Minutes" film crew, when both demonstrated the ease with which they could enter unsecured sites in western Pennsylvania, Houston, Baltimore and Chicago.
Kate McGloon, a spokeswoman for the American Chemistry Council, said member plants where problems were found by those reporters generally reacted to the revelations by working to improve security at their plants.
Recent reports
More recently, two reports have taken a look at potential problems.
Wednesday, a federally funded report by the Paper-Allied Industrial Chemical and Energy Workers, better known as PACE, found that while security improvements have been made at many plants after the 9/11 attacks, plants "have not done an adequate job of preventing and preparing for such an event," said Dave Ortleib, the union's director of health and safety programs.
The study, funding by the National Institutes of Health, found while many have added fences and guards, what is "greatly lacking" at the plants is "meaningful worker involvement and participation" in developing ways to prevent an attack, Ortleib said.
"Our members are on the front lines, and we feel there needs to be a greater emphasis on prevention," he said.
A more scathing report was released Oct. 18 by Public Citizen, a non-profit consumer advocacy group in Washington, D.C., in which the contributions Bush has received from the chemical industry are highlighted as a possible reason for what they say is a reluctance by the administration to take proper steps to protect chemical plants.
"Bush has abdicated his responsibility to protect America from the risk of terrorist attacks because he is fundamentally hostile to regulation of private industry and is loath to cross his big money campaign contributors," Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook said when the report was issued.
Claybrook said her group accepts no money from corporations, is not affiliated with any political party and does not endorse candidates.
Rather than an attempt to influence the outcome of the election, Claybrook said it was all the talk about homeland security during the summer campaign, which she felt was ignoring this problem, that motivated the compilation and release of the report.
McGloon scoffed at the suggestion that the report had no political motivations. "It's unfortunate that campaign contributions are being used to avoid talking about the real progress being made on chemical plant security," she said.
Political or not, its doubtful Public Citizens report was welcome news at Bush campaign headquarters. A call to the Bush campaign's Pennsylvania communications director was not immediately returned Friday or Saturday.
Changes at OxyChem
Among the biggest contributors highlighted in the report, who gave to either Bush, his inaugural fund or the Republican National Committee was J. Roger Hirl, President and CEO of Occidental Chemical Co., who collected $100,000 for Bush in 2000.
OxyChem's parent company, Occidental Petroleum and its employees, together donated $434,000 over the last three years, according to the Public Citizen report.
Sam Morris, the plant manager at the OxyChem plant in Lower Pottsgrove, declined to comment on that aspect of his company's relevance to this issue.
However he was willing to talk, in general terms, about security at the 267-acre site, once a Firestone Tire and Rubber plant.
"We have implemented additional security measures since 9/11 and we have tightened up procedures," Morris said. "We have further restricted access to the facility, put up additional vehicle barricades and enhanced monitoring," he said.
He said the plant has also conducted a voluntary security assessment of the plant, made changes after vulnerabilities were identified, "and had those verified by an independent third party," that Morris would identify only as "officials."
Further, the changes and security measures are shared with a community advisory panel as well as the local emergency response team, he said.
Those are the kind of measures recommended by Isadore "Irv" Rosenthal, a research fellow with the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center and a 40-year veteran of Rohn and Haas who was appointed to the U.S. Chemical Safety Board by President Clinton.
"There's no question plants have beefed up security, the question is whether it has been done broadly enough," Rosenthal said. "There are a significant number who have not even met the minimum standard and I understand why they might not be able to. But when you rely on purely voluntary measures, there are always a number who don't volunteer."
He added "I imagine Occidental as a company has behaved responsibly overall."
Worst case scenario
According to documents filed with the government and made available by OMB Watch's Right to Know Network, the worst-case scenario involving OxyChem is not a vinyl chloride incident, but one involving anhydrous ammonia.
Should that storage tank rupture and its contents vaporize in 10 minutes, it could injure the 13,600 people who live within 1.7 mile radius of the plant, a radius that includes several schools and Pottstown Memorial Medical Center.
The document also makes clear that officials at OxyChem consider this scenario to be highly unlikely and would only occur if a variety of fail-safes and back-up systems all failed.
The battle in Congress
Another front in the political war is how security at these plants can be regulated.
Congress has taken two basic approaches, both of which have not made it to the floor for a vote.
One, initiated in the Senate shortly after the 9/11 attacks by New Jersey Democrat Jon Corzine, would require plants to reduce storage of dangerous chemicals and change processes, where possible, to use less dangerous chemicals.
While this general approach is supported by PACE, Ortleib said his union would prefer to see the spefici language before making any kind of endorsement.
McGloon said while the members of the Chemistry Council are strongly in favor of legislation to improve security at the 2,040 chemical facilities owned by its 140 members, they do not look favorably on "the federal government telling us how to run our businesses."
Instead, they support a competing Senate proposal by Oklahoma Republican James Inhofe, that requires better security plans, puts the authority in the hands of the Homeland Security Department, but does not limit the use or storage of dangerous chemicals.
Claybrook derided this approach as "typical bureaucratic shifting to a department that has no power and no authority over these plants. The government regulates safety in food, in cars, why not in chemicals?" she asked.
Nuclear politics
Nuclear power plants, on the other hand, are highly regulated and security at them was stiffened immediately after the 9/11 attacks.
Locally, National Guard units swarmed to the Limerick facility and stood guard for several months in the aftermath of the attacks.
As such, the debate on security at these plants at the presidential level has been less intense.
It is largely Public Citizen that has made the accusations here, which charges similar to those made about chemical plants, its report calls nuclear plant security "grossly inadequate."
This situation is allowed because Bush "has a fierce ideological aversion to regulation" and "the administration is heavily indebted to the nuclear industry and electric utilities for generous campaign contributions," Public Citizen wrote.
According to the Public Citizen report, Exelon has donated $434,161 to Bush and the RNC between 2000 until this year.
While Kerry campaigns on preventing nuclear proliferation and the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site in Nevada, he makes no mention of security problems at nuclear plans in any of his campaign materials.
Bush's campaign makes note of requirements he supported to improve security and training at nuclear power plans and quotes John Hamre, president and CEO of the Center for Strategic International Studies, who said "there is more security around nuclear power plants than anything else we've got."
Lisa Washak, spokeswoman for the Limerick facility, confirmed that the plant recently installed additional fencing, guard towers and has increased the "stand-off" distance, which refers to how close people are allowed to get to the plant without being cleared by security.
"This has always been a highly secure and well-protected facility," she said, pointing to Nuclear Energy Institute material that says since 9/11, the industry has spent an $370 million on additional security.
------
Exposed: scandal of nuclear leaks at Scots plant
Massive area contaminated at Hunterston
sundayherald
By Rob Edwards
31 October 2004
http://www.sundayherald.com/45765
A huge area of land has been contaminated from leaks at Hunterston nuclear power station in North Ayrshire . The contamination is much worse than previously suspected, and far more than has been admitted at other nuclear sites in Scotland.
Some 81,000 cubic metres of soil - enough to fill 900 double-decker buses - are laced with radioactivity which for years has been spilling from pipelines and blowing off open-air ponds of nuclear waste.
Although the state-owned company that runs the plant insists that the contamination is "very low-level", it poses huge clean-up problems. The government regulator, the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate, says the soil will have to be treated and disposed of as radioactive waste.
The contamination has been found at Hunterston A nuclear power station, which is now being decommissioned. The official published inventory of Britain's nuclear waste estimates the total amount of unpackaged low-level radioactive waste at Hunterston A at no more than 28,860 cubic metres. But almost three times that amount were found by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), the government body set up to oversee the clean-up of Britain's nuclear plants. It said the contamination was as a result of "historic leaks".
Pete Roche, a consultant to Greenpeace, pointed out that Hunterston A's 81,000 cubic metres is a huge amount of waste. He said: "It dwarfs the amount of waste that we know about at most other nuclear facilities . It will be decades, at least, before the nuclear waste legacy problem is solved."
The Hunterston A site is run by the British Nuclear Group (BNG) . It claimed that it has known about the contamination "for some time" and that it had been "mainly" caused when the reactors were operating.
"Some of the contamination came from the on-site open-air cooling ponds through some wind-blown contamination within the site," said a BNG spokesman. "Some would also have been caused by spills from effluent lines within the site."
Extensive investigations are planned over the next few years to assess the exact volume and level of contamination, he added. In the meantime, the contamination will be managed and monitored to ensure safety of the public, the workforce and the environment.
But experts said that cleaning up and disposing of such a large amount of contaminated soil will not be easy. The only site available for disposing of low-level radioactive waste - Drigg, near the Sellafield nuclear plant in Cumbria - is nearly full.
Chris Ballance, the Green MSP for the south of Scotland, said the discovery of so much contamination was "a complete scandal". He was present at the NDA stakeholder meeting in Ayrshire where the information was disclosed.
"Is the Ayrshire coast always going to be radioactive around Hunterston? Is the site always going to have to be protected against people with malicious intent?" he asked.
The Hunterston revelations are going to be raised at Westminster by the Welsh anti-nuclear Labour MP, Llew Smith. He has put down a parliamentary question demanding details of the contamination and what is being done to remove it.
The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate wasn't able to comment in detail on the situation at Hunterston A, but a spokesman did say that its policy was that contaminated soil should be treated as radioactive waste and disposed of accordingly.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) was aware of the contamination. "Our understanding is that the main incident leading to the contamination arose in the 1970s," said a spokeswoman.
"If contamination ... is found outside the site boundaries, then Sepa would consider what action should be taken. If there were any recent breaches of authorisation or ongoing releases, then Sepa would use its legislative powers appropriately."
The south of Scotland is also facing another risk from the de commissioning of the four reactors at Chapelcross, near Annan in Dumfries and Galloway. BNG has confirmed that 40,000 nuclear fuel rods are due to be shipped south from the site between 2005 and 2007.
-------- depleted uranium
Rocket Launchers and Shells in My Backyard
axisoflogic.com
Oct 31, 2004
By Sharbani Banerji
http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_13152.shtml
The events of the past few weeks have unearthed some frightening facts. "India is being unwittingly turned into a dumping ground for scrap containing explosives from war-ravaged countries" ( "Scrap ammo: The big dump", Hindustan Times (HT), 9th Oct 2004). What no one has pointed out till now is that these are in all probability, depleted uranium munitions, and pose far greater danger than 'explosives' pose. In Iraq, US has even dropped Mark 77 firebombs, which are similar to napalm bombs used in Vietnam. We don't know what their (inactive) shells would look like. Have they crept into the scrap? Everybody talks about "Nuclear Proliferation". What about this "Proliferation of Explosive and Radioactive Scraps" ? What are we going to do to stop it?
On Sept 30th, while a truck carrying scrap iron, which had sailed from Iran, was unloading the cargo in the compounds of a steel factory in Ghaziabad, a portable rocket launcher hidden inside the scrap exploded, thereby killing eight people on the spot, and also injuring eight others. Two more people died in the city hospital later. The unsuspecting workers had used a gas burner to cut the scrap, resulting in a huge explosion. This factory, Bhushan Steel and Strips Ltd., is located in Shahibabad, in District Ghaziabad, in Uttar Pradesh, India. It imports huge quantities of scrap iron from abroad, which are then melted and recast into iron rods. These rods, the most essential component in all kinds of buildings, bridges etc., are then sold in the market.
The rocket launcher wasn't the only ammunition hidden inside the scrap. As the police sprang into action, thereby arresting the GM and the additional GM of Bhushal Steels for causing death due to negligence, and the army and the National Security Guard (NSG) personnel took over, it was discovered that there were about 15 more 81mm mortars embedded in the heap of scrap metal. NSG diffused two of the shells inside the factory premises itself. Realizing that it was too risky, they took the rest to the Hindon river bed, where three more were diffused. They didn't realize that even this was too risky, especialy if these muntions contain depleted uranium, which in all probability they do, as we shall argue. This incident was only the tip of the iceberg.
The "killer truck" (as HT likes to call it), wasn't the only truck carrying cargo for Bhushan Steels. As more and more trucks started to arrive carrying scrap, the army isolated them and moved them to Kanha Upavan area, for further checking. From the 11 trucks which had been brought to Kanha Upavan, a protected forest area near the factory, 56 more rocket shells were found, some of which were live. And, without thinking twice, the NSG started to diffuse the bombs inside this ecological park !
The scrap consignment was exported by a company named 'Lucky Metals SZE' of Dubai. The company is owned by a Pakistani Dilwar Hussain. There are credible reports that the munitions embedded in the scrap actually originated in Iraq. The $25000 consignment had sailed from the Bandar Abbas Port in Iran, and and reached the Indian port Mundra, in Gujrat. From, there, it landed at the Inland Container Depot (ICD) at Tughlaqabad, New Delhi, for clearance. From Tughlaqabad, seven trucks carried the cargo to Bhushan Steels at Shahibabad. The seventh truck was the 'killer truck'. The consignment had been cleared at every single stage of it's journey. Lucky Metals of UAE, the company shipping it declared that there were no 'bombs, shells, ammunition' in it. So did the authorities at Mundra port, and even those at ICD Tughlaqabad in New Delhi. That is, at none of the check points, be they be in India, or in Dubai or in Iran, a full-fledged physical verification was carried out, of the consignment. From one post to the other, the officials rubber-stamped the papers and cleared it. It's easy. Given the state of affairs, it appears that it is almost impossible to check everything physically.
Thanks to the media, which was quick to highlight the incident, this time, the police did spring into action immediately. The state government ordered an enquiry into the incident. The district was on high alert and so was Delhi police. A country wide inspection of iron and steel units were ordered.
As we said, it was only the tip of the iceberg. Since that incident in the premises of Bhushan Steels, rockets, and shells, a great many of them live, have been found all over the country, from the strangest places, like road sides, fields, ponds, bushes, etc., and they continue to be found everyday.
In Ghaziabad alone, 42 more rockets have been found from different places. Eg., 10 rockets were recovered from behind Delhi Public school on Meerut Road Industrial area, 15 in a bush in a park in Bulandshahar Industrial area, 11 from Kavinagar industrial area, 6 from near Postal Staff College in Rajnagar. They have also been found in Delhi. Atleast 31 empty shells were found in Mayapuri area. 219 shells were found at Dhicchuan Nilwala Road in Najafgarh, out of which, 6 were suspected to be live. 18 'junk rockets' were found by a farmer in a field in Aligarh district, in Harduarganj. 12 Shells were found abandoned at Khurja-Aligarh Road in Bulandshahar.In Meerut four gunny bags containing spent rockets, used machine gun cartridges and other fire arms were found by the road side in Mawikalan village on Delhi-Baghpat road. 120 shells were recovered from Gujrat out of which 50 were found near Shinai village on Mundra road, 5 of them live; 36 were found in Mitiyana village, and 23 at Anjar.
In Siliguri in Darjeeling district, 6 rocket propelled granade shells were found from a riverbed. 72 rockets were recovered from Raipur. In Chattisgarh, about 62 shells have been found in a pond, amongst which about 46 were live. And it continues. Even yesterday, on Oct 26th, hundreds of shells of rocket-launchers, mortars and hand grenades were dug out from a site near Vehlena bypass on Muzaffarnagar-Meerut highway. A godown owner had bought some scrap from a Meerut resident. The consignment contained ammunition shells. Fearing police action, he buried them at that site. It appears that, that is what has happened in all the other cases too. The authorities suspect that the factories dealing in scraps are trying to dispose off the shells, in the wake of stepped up security. That explains why they have been detected in such weird locations. That also rules out a 'terror angle', which the media focussed on, initially. But what comes out is even more dangerous. The incident at Bhushan Steels was just one of the 'explosive situations' which actually exploded. Ammunition-filled scrap has been coming all along, atleast recently for sure. Many more such ammunition-filled consignments had reached the country before 30th Sept, and may be even after 30th Sept, easily dodging detection. They must have slipped from other ports too, as their geographical distribution indicates.
The mess does not end once the killer-shells have been detected. Only NSG has the expertise and infrastructure for disposal of these shells and rockets. But they too seem to be unprepared to deal with such a situation. The ammunitions have not been checked for radioactivity. If they contain depleted uranium, must they be diffused, which essentially means 'exploded'? Initially many shells were thus diffused in the Kanha-Upavan area, thereby causing immense harm to the environment, and may be also to the people who had been exposed to the dust, until protests from the residents of Karhera and nearby villages, from the environment group 'Paryavaran Sachetak Dal', from the officials of Pollution Control Board, from Shri Krishan Gaushala and others, forced them to change plans. Besides, the area is surrounded by the Gas Authority of India Pipe lines and is close to Hindon airbase. The bomb disposal squad then shifted the site for defusal of bombs and rockets from Kanha Upavan to Loni. They buried 94 explosives in that area. On 18th, one of these buried rockets found it's way to a site near a brick kiln under Sihani Gate police station area in the city . Meanwhile, residents of more than eight villages in the Loni area too, launched a campaign against the detonation and piling up of explosives in their area.
We don't know yet, what the authorities plan to do with all the shells that have been found so far, and are continuing to be detected. Nobody seems to have enough expertise on the subject.
It has been pointed out that it is not the first time that live shells have been found in scrap consignments. The incidents were mostly overlooked. They were first detected in 1991 at ICD, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. That particular consignment had originated from Iraq. It was during the first gulf war. In 1993 five people died at ICD Tughlaqbad as the live shells hidden inside a consignment exploded. In 1996 again, explosives were found in a consignment of metallic waste. In April 2004, ICD Ludhiana reported live shells and explosives in a scrap consignment. Three months later, 11,000 live cartridges were found inside an empty container by the Container Corporation of India (CONCOR). In August, ICD Tughlaqabad again detected live shells. In all these cases, though the matter was reported to police, no action was taken. On Oct 9th, at ICD Tughlaqabad, 68 shells found, out of which 47 were live.This consignment originated in Somalia, and was imported by an Indian firm called Norma. Customs officers detected the shells on Aug 7th, but neither CBEC nor police took any notice of Customs report to them. It was only after the incident in Bhushan Steel factory that CBEC and police decided to act. Last month, in Uttaranchal, rocket shells were found in Pauri district.
Given this record, it is obvious that the munitions are sneeking into India, through iron scraps because the ports and ICDs are not equipped enough to check them. Also, they sneek-in whenever US rages a war on Iraq, as it happened during the first gulf war too. And, when business gets high priority, safety and survival takes a back seat.
There are no electronic scanners and sensors at the ICDs or even at the ports. They don't have adequate staff to do physical verification of each and every consignment. Only in suspicious cases consignments are examined thoroughly, that is, manually. But that is time consuming, and business houses donot like that. A proposal has been made that X-ray machines be installed at ports to scan all consignments, and that all scrap containers be subject to 100% examination, before clearance. It has also been suggested that import of loose scrap should be replaced by import of shreddded scrap, as is the norm in most countries. Import of loose scrap if allowed, should be through designated ports only. The suggestions have been acepted by the Director General of Foreign Trade, and notification has been issued. Restrictions on import of scrap from war ravaged countries have also been tightened. Dubai has tightened its rules too. Yes, the authorities have woken up, and directives issued. The administration needs to be tightened at every check point, for banned items can be cleared even by X-ray machines if the officials manning them are not vigilant enough or are corrupt. It happened at Indira Gandhi International Airport on 22/10. The CISF personnel manning X-ray machine failed to detect false revolvers, a banned item, in hand baggage of two passengers, about to board a PIA flight to Karachi. They were caught by PIA sky marshals when they were about to board the aircraft.
The prices of steel are likely to rise as a result of new restrictions. Shredded scrap will eliminate the possibility of shells slipping in, but is costlier. And as is expected, huge volumes of scrap are piling up at ICD as well as at ports like Mundra, Kandla, Mumbai, Kolkata-awaiting clearance. Yes, all this is good and necessary, and we shouldnot complain.
Then, what are we complaining about? Let us come to the bottom of the iceberg, which unfortunately is the most explosive part of the whole story. Metal scrap in India is mainly coming from the Gulf, African and South American countries, as they are cheap. A lot of it is coming from Iraq, via Iran. The port of origin, as declared before the customs is often different from the actual place of origin of the scraps-which would in all probability be a war ravaged country like Iraq. Somalia a war ravaged country is a big scrap collecting port. The rockets, shells and other explosives are passed on by these countries, to the exporting port. Even if India takes up the matter with the exporting ports, we are not sure that they would be able to actually implement full-fledged checking of the consignments, just as in India it has not been possible all these years.
Our contention is that, all the reports revealed so far point to the conclusion that the ammunitions imported with scrap metals are in effect Depleted Uranium (DU) Munitions, hundreds of tonnes of which have been used by US and UK in Iraq. US had used it as a standard weapon in the first gulf war too, and had continued to use it in Balkans and Afghanistan. We can conclude that the same would have happened in Somalia-rather wherever US has intervened so far.
Why do we suspect that the lose rockets and shells imported in India are actually DU munitions? First, consider the properties of DU. DU is a residue left after uranium is enriched for use in nuclear reactors and is also recovered after reprocessing spent nuclear fuel. Thus, it is effectively free. Since it is 20% heavier than steel, it can penetrate steel and concrete much more easily than other weapons. It burns at 10,000C. It is radioactive and has toxic effects. Upto 2000 tonnes of DU has been used in Iraq. DU is an effective tank destroyer and bunker buster. DU shells are lethal. When the DU rod inside a shell disintegrates, it disperses over a wide area, spreading radioactive and toxic dust..
Now see what has been said about the lethal shells and rockets found at Bhushan Steels and other places. (1) Eye witnesses said the explosion at Bhushan Steels was so strong that it could be heard a kilometer away from the accident site. (2) The bombs were so powerful that even their splinters left huge craters while being defused. Had the rocket launcher hit the live bombs, the whole factory would have been gutted. Or if the rockets and missiles had been thrown into the boiler, the explosion could have destroyed atleast a 4 km radius area.(3) Officials said that the rockets and missiles recovered at Bhushan Steels were powerful enough to hit targets in Delhi.(4) And most important, they have come from 'war-ravaged countries'. Now what do we mean by 'war-ravaged' countries? Obviously from countries where US has raged a war --the most war-mongering nation in the world. And DU munitions are standard weapons used by US wherever it has raged a war. (5) No check is carried out when scrap is either picked up from or dumped in the yards in the exporting country. In most cases, bulldozers tear down remnants of buildings and bridges that have been bombed. The scrap is then sold off. It is possible that live shells and partially exploded shells are embedded inside the scrap (HT reported).
Since there has been no 'official-check' or declaration, we can only conjecture with near certainty that the munitions exploded and found so far, active or inactive, are DU munitions, which US is proliferating all over the world.
Now, why should we fear DU munitions even when they are inactive or unexploded? We should, more than we fear a nuclear bomb, because they are radioactive, toxic, and cause slow and untold damage to health, ---- and are 'proliferating'. Yes, nuclear bombs proliferate too, but certainly not as much as DU already has, and is threatening to, in all parts of the world, in an invisible way, even into my backyard.
Though opinions vary, there is a general agreement that DU munitions cause health-hazards of extremely serious nature. The Royal Society in Britain set up an independent expert working group to investigate the health hazards of DU munitions. It's two part report has studied the increased risks of radiation-induced cancer from exposures to DU on the battlefield and the risks from the chemical toxicity of Uranium, non-malignant radiation effects from DU intakes, the long term environmental consequences of the deployment of DU munitions etc. Scientists fear that the effects of DU munitions in Iraq would have a fall out for many generations to come. Scientists have urged shell clear-up in Iraq to protect civilians The Royal Society has recommended that fragments of DU penetrators be removed, and areas of contaminations should be identified, and where necessary, made safe. Pentagon however doesnot consider that necessary. Most scientists believe that DU causes cancer and other severe illnesses. According to the Royal Society, both soldiers and civilians in Iraq were in short and long term danger. Children playing at contaminates sites were particularly at risk. The soil around the impact sites of depleted uranium penetrators may be heavily contaminated, and could be harmful if swallowed by children. For example. If it leaks into water supplies, it would pose a long time threat to health. The UN environment program has been tracking the use of DU in Balkans and found it leaking into the water table. Seven years after the conflict it has recommended decontamination of buildings where DU dust is present to protect the civilian population against cancer. DU contaminates the land, air and water, and ultimately destroying the lives of people exposed to it. DU corrodes the soil and exist for a long time in the dust. Evidence is building that DU causes more genetic damage than scientists suspected, even at levels deemed as low as to be non-toxic. A US soldier Keny Duncan was with the Royal Corps of Transport helping to shift Iraqi tanks destroyed by DU shells in 1991 gulf war. He was exposed to DU. All his three children are born with some kind of deformity.
Given this scenario, what is India supposed to do? It is obvious that the actions taken so far, the directives issued by various offices and agencies have failed to take into account the possibility ( rather a near certainty) that the rockets and shells are part of depleted uranium munitions used by US and UK in whichever country they have landed illegally. It should be the responsibility of US and UK, to clear up the shells not only in Iraq, Afghanistan, Balkans, Somalia and so on, but also in India, where they have proliferated due to their irresponsible and monstrous actions. If they have proliferated to India, it is a near certainty that they would proliferate to many other developing and less developed countries, and ultimately back into the developed countries, including even US and UK. In all probability these munitions are being sold by the hard pressed people of war ravaged countries only for money, and not for terrorism. Also, this is one way to get their own country rid of these lethal weapons. One shouldnot underestimate the knowledge and intelligence of poor and illiterate villagers. They may not know the technicalities, but they sure know that these weapons if lie in their neighbourhood would cause extreme damage to their health and also to flora and fauna. For example, in Ghaziabad, it was the villagers of Kanha Upavan and Loni area who were the first ones to protest against the stockpiling and diffusal of explosives in their area.
Recently, a lot of studies have been done on the hazards of DU, but no new regulations have come into effect. We need new International laws and treaties to deal with this menace, which is sure to take a serious turn in the near future, considering the quagmire the US has put itself into, in Iraq. India should speak out, and raise the issue in the UN. Who should be signing the "Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty" (NPT) now?
Meanwhile, at the domestic level, the ammunitions found so far should be given as much weightage as the nuclear bomb was given during Pokhran Test. They should be carried to a desert-may be to Pokhran for disposal, and not to residential localities, or forests, or river beds. There have been suggestions that loose scrap should be banned, and only shredded scrap should be allowed.Yes, shredded scrap would ensure that there are no untoward explosions, but that would still not ensure that shreds of DU ammunitions are not included in that, especially, if imports are being carried out from war-ravaged countries. Thus, imports from war ravaged countries have to be stopped completely. And stringent checks should be carried out at every check-post, even if that means delays and increase in price of steel. Get the priorities right, Mr. Businessman!
In the words of Noam Chomsky (Hegemony or Survival : America's quest for global domiance, Metropolitan books, 2003):
"One can discern two trajectories in current history: one aiming toward hegemony, acting rationally within a lunatic doctrinal framework as it threatens survival; the other dedicated to the belief that "another world is possible", in the words that animate the World Social Forum, challenging the reigning ideological system and seeking to create constructive alternatives of thought, action and institutions."
Keeping this in mind, India should take up the issue with the World bodies.
Notes: "When the dust settles : Depleted uranium may be far more dangerous than previously thought - and we could be dealing with the fallout for many generations to come " The Guardian, April 17, 2003
"Scientists urge shell clear-up to protect civilians: Royal Society spells out dangers of depleted uranium" The Guardian, April 17, 2003.
"The health hazards of depleted uranium munitions: Part 1", Royal Society, May 2001 ISBN: 0854033540
"The health hazards of depleted uranium munitions: Part 2", Royal Society March 2002 ISBN: 0854035745
The events of the past few weeks have unearthed some frightening facts. "India is being unwittingly turned into a dumping ground for scrap containing explosives from war-ravaged countries" ( "Scrap ammo: The big dump", Hindustan Times (HT), 9th Oct 2004). What no one has pointed out till now is that these are in all probability, depleted uranium munitions, and pose far greater danger than 'explosives' pose. In Iraq, US has even dropped Mark 77 firebombs, which are similar to napalm bombs used in Vietnam. We don't know what their (inactive) shells would look like. Have they crept into the scrap? Everybody talks about "Nuclear Proliferation". What about this "Proliferation of Explosive and Radioactive Scraps" ? What are we going to do to stop it?
On Sept 30th, while a truck carrying scrap iron, which had sailed from Iran, was unloading the cargo in the compounds of a steel factory in Ghaziabad, a portable rocket launcher hidden inside the scrap exploded, thereby killing eight people on the spot, and also injuring eight others. Two more people died in the city hospital later. The unsuspecting workers had used a gas burner to cut the scrap, resulting in a huge explosion. This factory, Bhushan Steel and Strips Ltd., is located in Shahibabad, in District Ghaziabad, in Uttar Pradesh, India. It imports huge quantities of scrap iron from abroad, which are then melted and recast into iron rods. These rods, the most essential component in all kinds of buildings, bridges etc., are then sold in the market.
The rocket launcher wasn't the only ammunition hidden inside the scrap. As the police sprang into action, thereby arresting the GM and the additional GM of Bhushal Steels for causing death due to negligence, and the army and the National Security Guard (NSG) personnel took over, it was discovered that there were about 15 more 81mm mortars embedded in the heap of scrap metal. NSG diffused two of the shells inside the factory premises itself. Realizing that it was too risky, they took the rest to the Hindon river bed, where three more were diffused. They didn't realize that even this was too risky, especialy if these muntions contain depleted uranium, which in all probability they do, as we shall argue. This incident was only the tip of the iceberg.
The "killer truck" (as HT likes to call it), wasn't the only truck carrying cargo for Bhushan Steels. As more and more trucks started to arrive carrying scrap, the army isolated them and moved them to Kanha Upavan area, for further checking. From the 11 trucks which had been brought to Kanha Upavan, a protected forest area near the factory, 56 more rocket shells were found, some of which were live. And, without thinking twice, the NSG started to diffuse the bombs inside this ecological park !
The scrap consignment was exported by a company named 'Lucky Metals SZE' of Dubai. The company is owned by a Pakistani Dilwar Hussain. There are credible reports that the munitions embedded in the scrap actually originated in Iraq. The $25000 consignment had sailed from the Bandar Abbas Port in Iran, and and reached the Indian port Mundra, in Gujrat. From, there, it landed at the Inland Container Depot (ICD) at Tughlaqabad, New Delhi, for clearance. From Tughlaqabad, seven trucks carried the cargo to Bhushan Steels at Shahibabad. The seventh truck was the 'killer truck'. The consignment had been cleared at every single stage of it's journey. Lucky Metals of UAE, the company shipping it declared that there were no 'bombs, shells, ammunition' in it. So did the authorities at Mundra port, and even those at ICD Tughlaqabad in New Delhi. That is, at none of the check points, be they be in India, or in Dubai or in Iran, a full-fledged physical verification was carried out, of the consignment. From one post to the other, the officials rubber-stamped the papers and cleared it. It's easy. Given the state of affairs, it appears that it is almost impossible to check everything physically.
Thanks to the media, which was quick to highlight the incident, this time, the police did spring into action immediately. The state government ordered an enquiry into the incident. The district was on high alert and so was Delhi police. A country wide inspection of iron and steel units were ordered.
As we said, it was only the tip of the iceberg. Since that incident in the premises of Bhushan Steels, rockets, and shells, a great many of them live, have been found all over the country, from the strangest places, like road sides, fields, ponds, bushes, etc., and they continue to be found everyday.
In Ghaziabad alone, 42 more rockets have been found from different places. Eg., 10 rockets were recovered from behind Delhi Public school on Meerut Road Industrial area, 15 in a bush in a park in Bulandshahar Industrial area, 11 from Kavinagar industrial area, 6 from near Postal Staff College in Rajnagar. They have also been found in Delhi. Atleast 31 empty shells were found in Mayapuri area. 219 shells were found at Dhicchuan Nilwala Road in Najafgarh, out of which, 6 were suspected to be live. 18 'junk rockets' were found by a farmer in a field in Aligarh district, in Harduarganj. 12 Shells were found abandoned at Khurja-Aligarh Road in Bulandshahar.In Meerut four gunny bags containing spent rockets, used machine gun cartridges and other fire arms were found by the road side in Mawikalan village on Delhi-Baghpat road. 120 shells were recovered from Gujrat out of which 50 were found near Shinai village on Mundra road, 5 of them live; 36 were found in Mitiyana village, and 23 at Anjar. In Siliguri in Darjeeling district, 6 rocket propelled granade shells were found from a riverbed. 72 rockets were recovered from Raipur. In Chattisgarh, about 62 shells have been found in a pond, amongst which about 46 were live. And it continues. Even yesterday, on Oct 26th, hundreds of shells of rocket-launchers, mortars and hand grenades were dug out from a site near Vehlena bypass on Muzaffarnagar-Meerut highway. A godown owner had bought some scrap from a Meerut resident. The consignment contained ammunition shells. Fearing police action, he buried them at that site. It appears that, that is what has happened in all the other cases too. The authorities suspect that the factories dealing in scraps are trying to dispose off the shells, in the wake of stepped up security. That explains why they have been detected in such weird locations. That also rules out a 'terror angle', which the media focussed on, initially. But what comes out is even more dangerous. The incident at Bhushan Steels was just one of the 'explosive situations' which actually exploded. Ammunition-filled scrap has been coming all along, atleast recently for sure. Many more such ammunition-filled consignments had reached the country before 30th Sept, and may be even after 30th Sept, easily dodging detection. They must have slipped from other ports too, as their geographical distribution indicates.
The mess does not end once the killer-shells have been detected. Only NSG has the expertise and infrastructure for disposal of these shells and rockets. But they too seem to be unprepared to deal with such a situation. The ammunitions have not been checked for radioactivity. If they contain depleted uranium, must they be diffused, which essentially means 'exploded'? Initially many shells were thus diffused in the Kanha-Upavan area, thereby causing immense harm to the environment, and may be also to the people who had been exposed to the dust, until protests from the residents of Karhera and nearby villages, from the environment group 'Paryavaran Sachetak Dal', from the officials of Pollution Control Board, from Shri Krishan Gaushala and others, forced them to change plans. Besides, the area is surrounded by the Gas Authority of India Pipe lines and is close to Hindon airbase. The bomb disposal squad then shifted the site for defusal of bombs and rockets from Kanha Upavan to Loni. They buried 94 explosives in that area. On 18th, one of these buried rockets found it's way to a site near a brick kiln under Sihani Gate police station area in the city . Meanwhile, residents of more than eight villages in the Loni area too, launched a campaign against the detonation and piling up of explosives in their area.
We don't know yet, what the authorities plan to do with all the shells that have been found so far, and are continuing to be detected. Nobody seems to have enough expertise on the subject.
It has been pointed out that it is not the first time that live shells have been found in scrap consignments. The incidents were mostly overlooked. They were first detected in 1991 at ICD, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. That particular consignment had originated from Iraq. It was during the first gulf war. In 1993 five people died at ICD Tughlaqbad as the live shells hidden inside a consignment exploded. In 1996 again, explosives were found in a consignment of metallic waste. In April 2004, ICD Ludhiana reported live shells and explosives in a scrap consignment. Three months later, 11,000 live cartridges were found inside an empty container by the Container Corporation of India (CONCOR). In August, ICD Tughlaqabad again detected live shells. In all these cases, though the matter was reported to police, no action was taken. On Oct 9th, at ICD Tughlaqabad, 68 shells found, out of which 47 were live.This consignment originated in Somalia, and was imported by an Indian firm called Norma. Customs officers detected the shells on Aug 7th, but neither CBEC nor police took any notice of Customs report to them. It was only after the incident in Bhushan Steel factory that CBEC and police decided to act. Last month, in Uttaranchal, rocket shells were found in Pauri district.
Given this record, it is obvious that the munitions are sneeking into India, through iron scraps because the ports and ICDs are not equipped enough to check them. Also, they sneek-in whenever US rages a war on Iraq, as it happened during the first gulf war too. And, when business gets high priority, safety and survival takes a back seat.
There are no electronic scanners and sensors at the ICDs or even at the ports. They don't have adequate staff to do physical verification of each and every consignment. Only in suspicious cases consignments are examined thoroughly, that is, manually. But that is time consuming, and business houses donot like that. A proposal has been made that X-ray machines be installed at ports to scan all consignments, and that all scrap containers be subject to 100% examination, before clearance. It has also been suggested that import of loose scrap should be replaced by import of shreddded scrap, as is the norm in most countries. Import of loose scrap if allowed, should be through designated ports only. The suggestions have been acepted by the Director General of Foreign Trade, and notification has been issued. Restrictions on import of scrap from war ravaged countries have also been tightened. Dubai has tightened its rules too. Yes, the authorities have woken up, and directives issued. The administration needs to be tightened at every check point, for banned items can be cleared even by X-ray machines if the officials manning them are not vigilant enough or are corrupt. It happened at Indira Gandhi International Airport on 22/10. The CISF personnel manning X-ray machine failed to detect false revolvers, a banned item, in hand baggage of two passengers, about to board a PIA flight to Karachi. They were caught by PIA sky marshals when they were about to board the aircraft.
The prices of steel are likely to rise as a result of new restrictions. Shredded scrap will eliminate the possibility of shells slipping in, but is costlier. And as is expected, huge volumes of scrap are piling up at ICD as well as at ports like Mundra, Kandla, Mumbai, Kolkata-awaiting clearance. Yes, all this is good and necessary, and we shouldnot complain.
Then, what are we complaining about? Let us come to the bottom of the iceberg, which unfortunately is the most explosive part of the whole story. Metal scrap in India is mainly coming from the Gulf, African and South American countries, as they are cheap. A lot of it is coming from Iraq, via Iran. The port of origin, as declared before the customs is often different from the actual place of origin of the scraps-which would in all probability be a war ravaged country like Iraq. Somalia a war ravaged country is a big scrap collecting port. The rockets, shells and other explosives are passed on by these countries, to the exporting port. Even if India takes up the matter with the exporting ports, we are not sure that they would be able to actually implement full-fledged checking of the consignments, just as in India it has not been possible all these years.
Our contention is that, all the reports revealed so far point to the conclusion that the ammunitions imported with scrap metals are in effect Depleted Uranium (DU) Munitions, hundreds of tonnes of which have been used by US and UK in Iraq. US had used it as a standard weapon in the first gulf war too, and had continued to use it in Balkans and Afghanistan. We can conclude that the same would have happened in Somalia-rather wherever US has intervened so far.
Why do we suspect that the lose rockets and shells imported in India are actually DU munitions? First, consider the properties of DU. DU is a residue left after uranium is enriched for use in nuclear reactors and is also recovered after reprocessing spent nuclear fuel. Thus, it is effectively free. Since it is 20% heavier than steel, it can penetrate steel and concrete much more easily than other weapons. It burns at 10,000C. It is radioactive and has toxic effects. Upto 2000 tonnes of DU has been used in Iraq. DU is an effective tank destroyer and bunker buster. DU shells are lethal. When the DU rod inside a shell disintegrates, it disperses over a wide area, spreading radioactive and toxic dust..
Now see what has been said about the lethal shells and rockets found at Bhushan Steels and other places. (1) Eye witnesses said the explosion at Bhushan Steels was so strong that it could be heard a kilometer away from the accident site. (2) The bombs were so powerful that even their splinters left huge craters while being defused. Had the rocket launcher hit the live bombs, the whole factory would have been gutted. Or if the rockets and missiles had been thrown into the boiler, the explosion could have destroyed atleast a 4 km radius area.(3) Officials said that the rockets and missiles recovered at Bhushan Steels were powerful enough to hit targets in Delhi.(4) And most important, they have come from 'war-ravaged countries'. Now what do we mean by 'war-ravaged' countries? Obviously from countries where US has raged a war --the most war-mongering nation in the world. And DU munitions are standard weapons used by US wherever it has raged a war. (5) No check is carried out when scrap is either picked up from or dumped in the yards in the exporting country. In most cases, bulldozers tear down remnants of buildings and bridges that have been bombed. The scrap is then sold off. It is possible that live shells and partially exploded shells are embedded inside the scrap (HT reported).
Since there has been no 'official-check' or declaration, we can only conjecture with near certainty that the munitions exploded and found so far, active or inactive, are DU munitions, which US is proliferating all over the world.
Now, why should we fear DU munitions even when they are inactive or unexploded? We should, more than we fear a nuclear bomb, because they are radioactive, toxic, and cause slow and untold damage to health, ---- and are 'proliferating'. Yes, nuclear bombs proliferate too, but certainly not as much as DU already has, and is threatening to, in all parts of the world, in an invisible way, even into my backyard.
Though opinions vary, there is a general agreement that DU munitions cause health-hazards of extremely serious nature. The Royal Society in Britain set up an independent expert working group to investigate the health hazards of DU munitions. It's two part report has studied the increased risks of radiation-induced cancer from exposures to DU on the battlefield and the risks from the chemical toxicity of Uranium, non-malignant radiation effects from DU intakes, the long term environmental consequences of the deployment of DU munitions etc. Scientists fear that the effects of DU munitions in Iraq would have a fall out for many generations to come. Scientists have urged shell clear-up in Iraq to protect civilians The Royal Society has recommended that fragments of DU penetrators be removed, and areas of contaminations should be identified, and where necessary, made safe. Pentagon however doesnot consider that necessary. Most scientists believe that DU causes cancer and other severe illnesses. According to the Royal Society, both soldiers and civilians in Iraq were in short and long term danger. Children playing at contaminates sites were particularly at risk. The soil around the impact sites of depleted uranium penetrators may be heavily contaminated, and could be harmful if swallowed by children. For example. If it leaks into water supplies, it would pose a long time threat to health. The UN environment program has been tracking the use of DU in Balkans and found it leaking into the water table. Seven years after the conflict it has recommended decontamination of buildings where DU dust is present to protect the civilian population against cancer. DU contaminates the land, air and water, and ultimately destroying the lives of people exposed to it. DU corrodes the soil and exist for a long time in the dust. Evidence is building that DU causes more genetic damage than scientists suspected, even at levels deemed as low as to be non-toxic. A US soldier Keny Duncan was with the Royal Corps of Transport helping to shift Iraqi tanks destroyed by DU shells in 1991 gulf war. He was exposed to DU. All his three children are born with some kind of deformity.
Given this scenario, what is India supposed to do? It is obvious that the actions taken so far, the directives issued by various offices and agencies have failed to take into account the possibility ( rather a near certainty) that the rockets and shells are part of depleted uranium munitions used by US and UK in whichever country they have landed illegally. It should be the responsibility of US and UK, to clear up the shells not only in Iraq, Afghanistan, Balkans, Somalia and so on, but also in India, where they have proliferated due to their irresponsible and monstrous actions. If they have proliferated to India, it is a near certainty that they would proliferate to many other developing and less developed countries, and ultimately back into the developed countries, including even US and UK. In all probability these munitions are being sold by the hard pressed people of war ravaged countries only for money, and not for terrorism. Also, this is one way to get their own country rid of these lethal weapons. One shouldnot underestimate the knowledge and intelligence of poor and illiterate villagers. They may not know the technicalities, but they sure know that these weapons if lie in their neighbourhood would cause extreme damage to their health and also to flora and fauna. For example, in Ghaziabad, it was the villagers of Kanha Upavan and Loni area who were the first ones to protest against the stockpiling and diffusal of explosives in their area.
Recently, a lot of studies have been done on the hazards of DU, but no new regulations have come into effect. We need new International laws and treaties to deal with this menace, which is sure to take a serious turn in the near future, considering the quagmire the US has put itself into, in Iraq. India should speak out, and raise the issue in the UN. Who should be signing the "Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty" (NPT) now?
Meanwhile, at the domestic level, the ammunitions found so far should be given as much weightage as the nuclear bomb was given during Pokhran Test. They should be carried to a desert-may be to Pokhran for disposal, and not to residential localities, or forests, or river beds. There have been suggestions that loose scrap should be banned, and only shredded scrap should be allowed.Yes, shredded scrap would ensure that there are no untoward explosions, but that would still not ensure that shreds of DU ammunitions are not included in that, especially, if imports are being carried out from war-ravaged countries. Thus, imports from war ravaged countries have to be stopped completely. And stringent checks should be carried out at every check-post, even if that means delays and increase in price of steel. Get the priorities right, Mr. Businessman!
In the words of Noam Chomsky (Hegemony or Survival : America's quest for global domiance, Metropolitan books, 2003):
"One can discern two trajectories in current history: one aiming toward hegemony, acting rationally within a lunatic doctrinal framework as it threatens survival; the other dedicated to the belief that "another world is possible", in the words that animate the World Social Forum, challenging the reigning ideological system and seeking to create constructive alternatives of thought, action and institutions."
Keeping this in mind, India should take up the issue with the World bodies.
Notes: "When the dust settles : Depleted uranium may be far more dangerous than previously thought - and we could be dealing with the fallout for many generations to come " The Guardian, April 17, 2003
"Scientists urge shell clear-up to protect civilians: Royal Society spells out dangers of depleted uranium" The Guardian, April 17, 2003.
"The health hazards of depleted uranium munitions: Part 1", Royal Society, May 2001 ISBN: 0854033540
"The health hazards of depleted uranium munitions: Part 2", Royal Society March 2002 ISBN: 0854035745
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=66&ItemID=6519%20
-------- iran
Iran Parliament OKs Nuke Enrichment Bill
October 31, 2004
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
Associated Press Writer
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAN_NUCLEAR?SITE=DCTMS&SECTION=HOME
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- To shouts of "Death to America," Iran's parliament unanimously approved the outline of a bill Sunday that would require the government to resume uranium enrichment, legislation likely to deepen an international dispute over Iran's nuclear activities.
Still, Iran's top nuclear negotiator Hossein Mousavian told The Associated Press there was a 50 percent chance of a nuclear compromise with European nations.
He ruled out an indefinite suspension of key enrichment activities - a concession that European negotiators have sought - but suggested Iran would consider calling a halt to building more nuclear facilities.
The talks with the Europeans aim at averting a standoff over Iran's nuclear weapons program at a Nov. 25 meeting of the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
The Europeans have offered to provide nuclear fuel and technology if Tehran reins in its ambitions to develop its own fuel - by creating enrichment facilities that can be used for peaceful purposes or for creating weapons.
Some lawmakers broke out with shouts of "Death to America!" after the conservative-dominated parliament after lawmakers voted to advance the nation's nuclear program, an issue of national pride that provides a rare point of agreement between conservatives and reformers.
Parliament speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel called Sunday's vote a message to the world.
"The message of the absolute vote for the Iranian nation is that the parliament supports national interests," he said. "And the message for the outside world is that the parliament won't give in to coercion."
The legislation said the goverment is "required to make use of scientists and the country's facilities ... in order to enable the country to master peaceful nuclear technology, including the cycle of nuclear fuel."
Another vote is expected on the bill when details are worked out, but that is usually a formality. A date for the second vote was not immediately set.
Washington has pushed hard for Iran to drop its nuclear program, which Tehran maintains is for peaceful energy purposes. The United States, which has secured some support from European nations, accuses Iran of trying to build nuclear weapons.
Mousavian, Iran's top nuclear negotiator told the AP some progress "definitely" was made during last week's talks with Europeans, who he said "showed flexibility and understanding."
Britain, Germany and France have warned that most European states will back Washington's call to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible economic sanctions if Tehran doesn't give up all uranium enrichment activities before a Nov. 25 meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
"I see the chance of a compromise before November (25th) as 50-50," Mousavian said.
In two rounds of talks in Vienna, Austria, the Europeans offered Iran a trade deal and peaceful nuclear technology - including a light-water research reactor - in return for assurances Iran would indefinitely stop enriching uranium. Mousavian said a third round of talks is planned, but not yet scheduled.
"We have rejected two possibilities: cessation and unlimited suspension," he said. "We told the Europeans if your target is cessation, it will be impossible. But we are flexible if your proposal is balanced."
"The package should define a timetable," he said.
Mousavian indicated Iran is willing to consider a moratorium on building more nuclear facilities, which it would need to produce enough fuel for additional power plants. Iran already has facilities in Isfahan and Natanz, but Iranian officials say that at full capacity they would only be able to supply one power plant.
"It will take a minimum of five years for Iran to provide fuel for one nuclear power plant," Mousavian said. "If they guarantee nuclear fuel, we would welcome it. It will be the best guarantee not to go for expansion."
Uranium enriched to a low level can be used to produce nuclear fuel. If enriched further it can be used to make nuclear weapons.
Iran is not prohibited from enriching uranium under its obligations to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty but faces growing international pressure to suspend such activities as a good-faith gesture.
Iran, which repeatedly has refused to give up its nuclear program, last year suspended actual uranium enrichment. However, Tehran has rejected demands that it stop all other activities related to enrichment, such as building centrifuges.
-------- iraq / inspections
WEAPONS
2nd Site With U.N.-Sealed Arms Was Looted, Inspectors Report
October 31, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/31/international/middleeast/31chemical.html?pagewanted=all
Looters overran an Iraqi complex last year where a bunker holding old chemical weapons was sealed by United Nations monitors, American arms inspectors have reported.
The American inspectors say all of the sealed structures at the Muthanna site, 35 miles northwest of Baghdad, were broken into. But it is unknown if usable chemical warheads were in the bunker, what may have been taken and by whom.
"Clearly, there's a potential concern, but we're unable to estimate the relative level of it because we don't know the condition of the things inside the bunker," said Ewen Buchanan, spokesman for the United Nations arms inspection agency, whose specialists have been barred from Iraq since the invasion.
In a lengthy Oct. 6 report summarizing a fruitless search for banned weapons in Iraq, the inspectors known as the Iraq Survey Group disclosed that widespread looting occurred at Muthanna after the fall of the Iraqi capital in April 2003.
An annex of the 985-page report said every United Nations-sealed location at the desert installation had been breached in the looting spree, and "materials and equipment were removed."
Bunker 2 at Muthanna State Establishment, once Iraq's central chemical weapons production site, was put under the control of the United Nations in early 1991 after it was damaged by an American bomb in the Persian Gulf war. At the time, Iraq said 2,500 sarin-filled artillery rockets had been stored there.
The United Nations teams sealed the bunker with brick and reinforced concrete, rather than immediately attempt the risky job of clearing weapons or remnants from under a collapsed roof and neutralizing them.
A C.I.A. analysis hypothesized in 1999 that all the sarin must have been destroyed by fire. But a United States General Accounting Office review last June questioned that analysis, and the United Nations, whose teams were there, said the extent of destruction was never determined.
One chemical weapons expert said even old, weakened nerve agents - in this case sarin - could be a threat to unprotected civilians.
The weapons involved would be pre-1991 artillery rockets filled with sarin, or their damaged remnants - weapons that were openly declared by Iraq and were under United Nations control until security fell apart with the American attack.
--------
MISSING EXPLOSIVES
At Denuded Weapons Site, a New Menacing Presence
October 31, 2004
By JAMES GLANZ
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/31/international/middleeast/31site.html?pagewanted=all
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 30 - More than a year and a half after hundreds of tons of powerful explosives vanished at Al Qaqaa, the former weapons facility, the scene on Saturday was of a ransacked and largely denuded moonscape, ruled by the mujahedeen.
They appeared to be in at least temporary control of the sprawling site, setting up checkpoints, conducting surveillance and even detaining visitors who did not suit the fighters' inscrutable purposes.
On Saturday, two British armored vehicles patrolled the distant fringes.
Fresh trenches and earthen berms surrounded clusters of gutted bunkers that once contained the explosives - possibly in an attempt by the American and Iraqi governments to keep away outsiders as they begin inquiries into the disappearance of the materials, as detected by the Iraqi government and international investigators.
But it was the men wearing the filigreed headcloths and nurturing a hatred of Westerners who were running the place on Saturday. Two employees of The New York Times drove over the berms in an all-terrain vehicle, but were questioned by a mujahedeen scout who suddenly arrived at the place where they were taking the first known pictures of the gutted bunkers - their metal doors torn off and stolen, their dark bellies empty - since soon after the invasion began early last year.
The scout drove off, but as the two employees, both Iraqis, left Al Qaqaa, they encountered a mujahedeen checkpoint at a river crossing. The employees, Q. Mizher and a companion who asked not to be identified, were blindfolded, then searched, and driven to a safe house in the surrounding desert where they were interrogated for more than two hours. Their captors wanted to know whether Mr. Mizher was working for the British troops who had recently entered the area from the south.
If they were working for the troops, Mr. Mizher was told, they would be killed. If they were not helping the British, they had nothing to fear.
Mr. Mizher repeatedly assured his captors, truthfully, that he was an Iraqi journalist who had come to take pictures of the site and see the place where the explosives had once been secreted away. Eventually, he persuaded them. Both employees are now safe in Baghdad.
The site itself was largely a wasteland in the open desert, with only a few corroded signs bearing the word "explosives" and the name of the facility in Arabic to show that this had once been one of the most fearsome ammunition dumps in Saddam Hussein's arsenal.
"It's like the end of the world," Mr. Mizher's companion said later of the mostly abandoned landscape. "There is no humanity."
When he stood among the clusters of bunkers, Mr. Mizher said, he felt the weight of dead silence, pierced now and then only by the screech of a desert bird winging overhead. The outline of a grinning Saddam Hussein had been sketched on a wall in a half-destroyed building.
In one place, a handful of looters were still working under the watchful eyes of the mujahedeen. Nothing of much value was left except for the metal reinforcing bars inside some of the crumbling concrete walls of buildings around the bunkers. So the looters tugged at those and carried them off.
There was no sign of any remaining explosives. The insides of the bunkers were picked clean. The complex was arranged in eight great clusters of seven bunkers each. Mr. Mizher visited three of those clusters, where a total of four bunkers had contained sealed containers of high-density explosives, according to confidential records kept by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
In the confusion of the desert's geography, Mr. Mizher was not able to pinpoint the four specific bunkers that had contained the powerful explosives, but the bunkers were all similar in their appearance and size.
The first sign of trouble came when the mujahedeen scout pulled up in a truck and asked what Mr. Mizher was up to.
He decided to leave immediately, but it was already too late: six or seven mujahedeen were waiting at a riverbed crossing. All but one of them were masked, their headcloths wrapped menacingly across their faces.
The British armored vehicles were nowhere to be found. Mr. Mizher and his companion were taken, blindfolded, to the safe house and relentlessly questioned by what appeared to be a higher-ranking mujahedeen officer.
This man had served in the Iraqi Army - fortunately for Mr. Mizher, who had been a captain in the army himself. He mentioned the names of several former high-ranking army officers in the area of Al Qaqaa, and the mujahedeen seemed to soften.
After they had checked his cameras, phones, identification and vehicle registration and satisfied themselves with the interrogation, the mujahedeen drove both employees back to a place near the fjord and let them go.
The mujahedeen never said why Al Qaqaa was still so important to them. They simply melted away into the desert.
--------
377 tons small part of absent Iraq explosives
Missing prewar stockpiles may total 250,000 tons
Oct. 31, 2004
The Associated Press
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6376212/
VIENNA, Austria - From the deserts of the south and west to the outskirts of Baghdad, Iraq is awash in weapons sites - some large, others small; some guarded, others not. Even after the U.S. military secured some 400,000 tons of munitions, as many as 250,000 tons remain unaccounted for.
Attention has focused on the al-Qaqaa site south of Baghdad, where 377 tons of explosives are believed to have gone missing - becoming a heated issue in the final days of the U.S. presidential campaign.
But with the names of other sites popping up everywhere - al-Mahaweel, Baqouba, Ukhaider, Qaim - experts say the al-Qaqaa stash is only a tiny fraction of what's buried in the sands of Iraq.
"There is something truly absurd about focusing on 377 tons," said Anthony Cordesman, a defense analyst and Iraq expert with the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. He contends Iraq's prewar stockpiles "were probably in excess of 650,000 tons."
Underscoring the depth of Iraq's militarization before the March 2003 invasion, the Pentagon says U.S.-led forces have destroyed 240,000 tons of munitions and have secured another 160,000 tons that is awaiting destruction.
A nation 'awash in weapons' Through mid-September, coalition forces inspected and cleared more than 10,000 caches of weapons, U.S. arms hunter Charles Duelfer said in a recent report. But up to 250,000 tons remain unaccounted for, according to military estimates, much of it in small stashes scattered around the country.
"I caution that there is a lot that we probably don't know about, because this was a country, as the inspectors acknowledged, that was awash in weapons," Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita said Friday in Washington.
The 377 tons that Iraq says vanished from Al-Qaqaa sometime after the April 9, 2003 fall of Baghdad represents just "one 1,000th of the material that we are aware of," Di Rita said.
The Bush administration has touted the thousands of tons of explosives it did find after the March 2003 invasion as a sign of success, and officials argue that U.S. forces pushing to Baghdad to topple Saddam Hussein could not stop to secure every cache.
Critics, however, say war planners should have committed more troops to the task of securing sites or let U.N. inspectors back to help.
In insurgents' hands? The debate is sharpened by the possibility that whatever munitions unsecured may since have fallen into the hands of Iraqi insurgents leading a bloody campaign of bombings and attacks on U.S. forces since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Among the sites that don't appear to have been secured was a cache of hundreds of surface-to-surface warheads at the 2nd Military College in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. Each warhead is believed to have contained 57 pounds of high explosives.
Peter Bouckaert, who heads the emergency team for New York-based Human Rights Watch, told The Associated Press he was shown a room "stacked to the roof" with the warheads on May 9, 2003. He said he gave U.S. officials in Baghdad the exact GPS coordinates for the site, but that it was still not secured when he left the area 10 days later.
"Looting was taking place by a lot of armed men with Kalashnikovs and rocket-propelled grenades," Bouckaert said Saturday in a telephone interview from South Africa.
"Everyone's focused on Al-Qaqaa, when what was at the military college could keep a guerrilla group in business for a long time creating the kinds of bombs that are being used in suicide attacks every day," he said.
What about Ukhaider? Another prominent site is an ammunition storage area at Ukhaider, 75 miles south of Baghdad, where U.N. inspectors found 11 empty chemical warheads in "excellent" condition in January 2003.
Two U.S. aid workers reported looting at Ukhaider in October 2003, but were told the U.S. military didn't have enough troops to seal the site, The Oregonian reported Friday.
David Albright, a former U.N. inspector, said the sheer volume of weapons stored across Iraq should have prompted the United States to invite inspectors back to check on key sites such as Al-Qaqaa.
Instead, he told the AP, "there was a lot of arrogance" on the part of U.S. officials who rebuffed the International Atomic Energy Agency's repeated requests to resume general inspections.
IAEA inspectors pulled out of Iraq on March 16, 2003, a few days before the invasion. They since have been allowed to return only twice, both times to check on the Tuwaitha nuclear complex, the U.N. agency's main concern in Iraq. They have not been back to Al-Qaqaa.
Focus on HMX The IAEA, which informed the U.N. Security Council about the missing explosives last week, says Al-Qaqaa is important because it was the main storage site for HMX, which can be used in plastic explosives but also in ignitors for a nuclear weapon.
Al-Qaqaa also contained large stores of RDX and PETN, but the U.N. nuclear agency's main concern was the HMX. Although the IAEA said Saddam's nuclear program was in disarray before the war and there was no evidence that Iraq had revived efforts to build atomic weaponry, the agency placed the material under seal as a precaution.
It remains unclear whether U.S.-led forces attempted to secure the vast site, which the Iraqis say was looted "due to a lack of security" after Saddam's fall. The White House contends the material may have been removed before American troops arrived in the area.
Army Maj. Austin Pearson said his team removed 250 tons of munitions, including plastic explosives, from Al-Qaqaa on April 13, 2003. But those munitions were not under IAEA seal as the missing high-grade explosives were, and the Pentagon was unable to say definitively that they were part of the missing 377 tons.
Cordesman thinks the Pentagon is taking a bad rap on Al-Qaqaa. U.S. forces' main task at the time, he contends, was to advance swiftly on Baghdad.
"There was little military point in securing this particular site during a period the U.S. was rushing forward with limited forward-deployed strength to seize Baghdad before Saddam's forces had any chance to regroup," he said.
-------- latinamerica
If Brazil Wants to Scare the World, It's Succeeding
nytimes
By LARRY ROHTER
October 31, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/31/weekinreview/31roht.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5006&en=fcb34e44ec7a1af7&ex=1099976400&partner=ALTAVISTA1
RIO de JANEIRO - Throughout the world, Brazil has long had an image as a land of soccer and samba, inhabited by a friendly, easy-going people. So why is it locked in a dispute with the International Atomic Energy Agency, accused by American and other nuclear experts of being a nuclear scofflaw whose actions aid rogue states like North Korea and Iran?
Ever since it began observing the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 1997, Brazil has resisted allowing international inspectors full access to a secretive uranium enrichment plant 100 miles from here. This month, Science magazine sharpened the controversy with an article saying the installation will give Brazil the "breakout capability" to produce enough fissionable material for six nuclear warheads a year, a claim Brazil's government dismissed as fantasy.
Though the military dictatorship that ruled until 1985 had a clandestine nuclear arms program, no one is saying Brazil is trying to build an atomic bomb now. Rather, the concern is that it could export uranium enriched here, or technology, and that such exports could end up in the hands of rogue states or terrorists. International experts worry about Brazil's export controls, and its history. In the 1980's, it secretly sent Iraq uranium and technical assistance.
To outsiders, Brazil's resistance to inspections doesn't make sense. The world is awash in processed uranium, the nuclear program here has consumed more than $1 billion that could have cut widespread poverty, and Brazil's secrecy has only raised suspicions about its trustworthiness and ultimate intentions, the argument goes.
"I don't see how this should be one of their major preoccupations," said James Goodby, who was the Clinton administration's chief negotiator on nuclear proliferation issues. "Don't they at least worry what the rest of Latin America, especially the Argentines, think of this?"
Among Brazilians, however, the government's assertiveness, like the nuclear program itself, has proved quite popular. Though an American ambassador here once described Brazil as "a country that punches under its weight," the nuclearissue seems to have awakened latent pugnacity, and insecurities.
Writing in the 1950's, the playwright Nelson Rodrigues saw his countrymen as afflicted with a sense of inferiority, and he coined a phrase that Brazilians now use to describe it: "the mongrel complex." Brazil has always aspired to be taken seriously as a world power by the heavyweights, and so it pains Brazilians that world leaders could confuse their country with Bolivia, as Ronald Reagan once did, or dismiss a nation so large - it has 180 million people - as "not a serious country," as Charles de Gaulle did.
Whether coincidence or not, the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has launched an advertising campaign to build national self-esteem even as it stands tough on the nuclear issue. He has also stepped up Brazil's campaign for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, leading the daily O Estado de São Paulo to report that Brazil wants to use its nuclear prowess to raise its profile in world affairs.
"What we're seeing are the same ideas of exaggerated nationalism that we have been through so many times before here, the belief that we are going to be a great power and all of that," said José Goldemberg, a physicist who as minister of science and technology in the early 1990's forced an end to the Brazilian military's secret nuclear weapons program. That deep-seated conviction, he added, "leads to a disproportionate response" and what he called "the chauvinist attitude that nobody can come in here."
Resistance to inspections may also be linked to a widespread belief here that an international conspiracy to keep Brazil from becoming a great power is the only thing holding the country back. A whole literature on that subject has led some Brazilians to argue that the International Atomic Energy Agency, despite its record of impartiality elsewhere, is intent on robbing Brazil of a valuable technological secret.
"Why are the Brazilians hiding both the casing and the rotors of their centrifuges?" wonders Henry D. Sokolski, a former Defense Department official who is now executive director of the Washington-based Nonproliferation Policy Education Center. "Their stated reason, the idea that the I.A.E.A. can't be trusted, is incredibly insulting and downright loopy."
For all of Brazil's concerns about being considered a lightweight, it has recorded some notable technological and scientific achievements. Embraer is the world's third largest aircraft manufacturer, a university consortium in São Paulo has become one of the world's leading centers of genome research, and agricultural researchers have developed significant new crop varieties.
But in a land so hungry for respect, that is not enough. The uranium enrichment plant in Resende has been sold to the public as a triumph of "technology that is 100 percent Brazilian," in the words of the minister of science and technology, Eduardo Campos.
Foreign experts say that claim is not true. In the past, Brazil made similar statements about its space program, trying to hide the role of French and Russian technology obtained through exchange programs or on the international black market.
"There is foreign assistance, and they carefully mislead people or spin it in such a way that it fits their definition of what indigenous means," said David Albright, a physicist and former nuclear inspector who is president of the Institute for Science and International Security. "We know the Germans helped them make an earlier model of centrifuge, and we think the Germans provided them the technology on how to work with carbon fiber centrifuges."
Doubts have also been raised about just how innovative Brazil's centrifuge process is. They focus on a type of magnetic coil that supposedly makes Brazilian centrifuges more efficient and durable than other nations'. The government has insisted on blocking these from inspectors' view.
But "these claims of a need to protect industrial secrets are exaggerated, since this technology is used routinely in other applications in other parts of the world," Dr. Goldemberg said. "National pride is involved here, but I don't know if that is worth arousing the suspicion of the rest of the world."
The situation has been complicated by Brazil's apparent desire to deal with the outside world under principles that routinely govern relationships here. In the simplest terms, Brazil is arguing that it deserves a wink-and-a-nod exemption from full inspection because Brazilians are nice people, unlike those nasty North Koreans or Iranians.
Brazilian society functions on the basis of what is known as "jeitinho," a notion that all formal laws and rules can be maneuvered around if one is clever or charming enough. Of course, the more powerful you are, the better your chances of getting around cumbersome procedures by "driblando," the verb Brazilians use to describe a soccer player's adroitness with the ball.
After inspectors were finally granted partial access to the Resende plant this month, there were predictions that the standoff would soon be overcome by some jeitinho. Most likely it will. But even so, foreign experts expect another confrontation over inspections in the coming years, this one involving the navy's decades-old campaign to build a nuclear-powered submarine.
"Submarines are not subject to the safeguards regimen, that's my view of things," said Roberto Abdenur, who became Brazil's ambassador to the United States early this year after being his country's representative at the International Atomic Energy Agency. "Brazil will always respect its obligations, but, like any other member state, we also insist on our right to protect our technological secrets."
-------- u.s. nuc facilities
-------- new york
Cleanup project to begin at Knolls Laboratory
Capital News 9
10/31/2004
http://www.capitalnews9.com/content/headlines/?ArID=102048&SecID=33
Contractors will soon begin dismantling one of the buildings at Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory in Niskayuna as an early part in the cleanup of low-level nuclear contamination at the site.
The U.S. Department of Energy is expected to spend up to $240 million on the entire cleanup project. Officials said work should be completed by 2014.
The part of the facility being dismantled researched ways of recovering uranium and plutonium from spent nuclear fuel. Those operations ended in 1953.
The cleanup is part of a federal initiative to deal with the environmental problems associated with the nuclear arms buildup during the Cold War.
Contractors will soon start work on the clean up of low-level nuclear contamination at Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory in Niskayuna. State and federal officials have said the contaminated areas pose no imminent danger to human health or the environment.
Research at Knolls is now focused on nuclear naval propulsion. The lab, now owned by Lockheed Martin, currently employs more than 2,600.
-------- MILITARY
-------- afghanistan
Afghan militants threaten to kill three U.N. workers
October 31, 2004
By Stephen Graham
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20041030-113724-9426r.htm
KABUL, Afghanistan - Taliban-linked militants threatened yesterday to execute three foreign U.N. workers kidnapped in Kabul unless British troops withdraw from Afghanistan and Afghan prisoners are freed from custody at the U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Armed men kidnapped the three - Annetta Flanigan of Northern Ireland, Philippine diplomat Angelito Nayan and Shqipe Habibi of Kosovo - in Kabul on Thursday, stirring fears that Afghan militants were copying the bloody tactics of their Iraqi counterparts.
A spokesman for the Taliban splinter group Jaish-al Muslimeen, or Army of Muslims, said video of the hostages, all of whom were working on Afghanistan's landmark presidential election, would be sent to an Arab television channel "in two or three days."
"If these countries don't agree to our demands, we will do the same thing as the mujahideen are doing in Iraq," Ishaq Manzoor told the Associated Press by satellite telephone.
"We may kill them if we could not get a positive response," he said, adding that he was speaking from near the Afghan-Pakistan border.
In the clearest indication that the claim of responsibility could be genuine, a Western official in Kabul said British officials and relatives had identified one of several 16-digit ID numbers supplied by the group as fitting Miss Flanigan's credit card.
"It's definitely hers," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Naveed Moez, an Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman, also said government sources had "confirmed" Jaish-al Muslimeen's claim of responsibility, but didn't elaborate.
Other Afghan officials, however, said it was still not clear whether militants, renegade warlords or criminals were responsible.
"We don't know exactly who they are," President Hamid Karzai said yesterday after meeting with NATO commanders in Kabul. "Let's hope the U.N. workers are safe and sound, and we are working very hard to bring them back to their families."
NATO and U.S. troops and Afghan security forces have mounted extra patrols and roadblocks in and around Kabul since the election workers were forced from their clearly marked U.N. car into a black sport utility vehicle on a busy street.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair did not immediately comment on the demand that Britain withdraw its 1,700 troops from the NATO force in Afghanistan. British soldiers serve under U.S. commanders hunting Taliban and al Qaeda militants mainly in the south and east of the country.
Police detained seven suspects for questioning Friday, but said they had found no links to the abductions. Three of the suspects picked up in the Kabul area were armed and wore military uniforms - matching witness descriptions of the kidnappers.
Officials say the kidnappers' vehicle was seen heading toward Paghman, a valley west of Kabul with a reputation for banditry, but one suggested that the victims might still be in Kabul.
Aid-agency staffs have been ordered to restrict all but essential movements around Kabul.
--------
KIDNAPPINGS
Afghan Militants Release Video of Hostages
November 1, 2004
By CARLOTTA GALL
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/01/international/asia/01afghan.html
KABUL, Afghanistan, Oct. 31 - Militants holding three foreign United Nations staff members in Afghanistan released a videotape on Sunday showing their hostages, and they said the three would be killed if demands for the release of prisoners and the withdrawal of foreign troops were not met by noon Wednesday.
The video, delivered to the Arab news network Al Jazeera and broadcast Sunday morning, was the strongest indication yet that the group Jaish-e-Muslimeen, or Army of Muslims, was holding the hostages as it has claimed, and was adopting the media-oriented tactics of kidnapping groups in Iraq.
The three hostages - Angelito Nayan, a Filipino diplomat, and two women who are election workers, Annetta Flanigan from Northern Ireland and Shqipe Hebibi from Kosovo - were seized Thursday from their car on a busy street in Kabul. They appeared unharmed but drawn in the video, sitting together against a wall. They were guarded by a militant with a black-and-white checkered scarf wrapped around his face.
Leaders of Jaish-e-Muslimeen issued their conditions in telephone calls to news agencies on Sunday. They demanded that the United Nations and the United States and other foreign nations withdraw their forces from Afghanistan, that all of their Muslim prisoners in Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, be released and that military and police operations to find the hostages and their captors be halted.
"The U.N. should leave Afghanistan, and it should call Britain and America's meddling in Afghanistan illegal," the leader of the group, Akbar Agha, 47, told Reuters.
He demanded that Kosovo and Britain withdraw their forces from Afghanistan. "Those who have no military involvement in Afghanistan, like the Philippines, must call Britain and America's meddling in Afghanistan illegal and must stop its contributions through the U.N. for America and Britain's activities," he said.
He also called for the release of all Muslim prisoners in Afghanistan and Cuba, "be they Taliban or Al Qaeda."
Kosovo, a province of Serbia, is under United Nations administration, and it has no troops in Afghanistan. Britain has 1,700 troops here, most of whom are part of the peacekeeping force that is based in Kabul, the capital, and two northern cities.
The United Nations spokesman in Afghanistan, Manoel de Almeida e Silva, confirmed that the three hostages shown in the video were the three United Nations employees abducted Thursday in Kabul, and he appealed for their release.
"We can confirm that the video shows our colleagues, Annetta, Lito and Shqipe,'' he said. "We are relieved that they appear to be unharmed. We call for their safe and immediate release."
At an earlier news briefing, he said: "We miss them. And like their friends and families, we worry about them, about their medical and physical conditions and about their emotional well-being."
"They come from faraway lands with habits, cultures and traditions that are very diverse. But they have at least one thing in common - their commitment to serve people who can benefit from their knowledge and expertise. This is why they volunteered to come and work in Afghanistan."
The leaders of Jaish-e-Muslimeen are known to be former Taliban commanders and are thought to be living in Pakistan, where they first contacted journalists to claim responsibility for the kidnappings. But the Afghan police and intelligence agents are concentrating their investigation on Paghman, a rural area west of Kabul, and they say that a group with criminal links was probably responsible for the abduction and may still be holding the hostages.
"We don't think they are far from Kabul," an Interior Ministry spokesman, Lutfullah Mashal, said of the hostages. "We don't think that they are out of the country. Probably some terrorists are involved in this, but I should say that the one kidnapper that we saw on television was most likely neither a Talib nor a member of Al Qaeda."
Jaish-e-Muslimeen is a breakaway group of the Taliban that shares the same aims as that militant religious movement but has adopted different tactics, said Rahimullah Yusufzai, a Pakistani journalist who spoke to Mr. Agha recently. The group is opposed to President Hamid Karzai and the election process, wants foreign troops out of Afghanistan and wants a government led by the mujahedeen fighters and guided by Shariah law, the legal code of Islam, he said.
-------- africa
100 Are Reported Killed In Violence in Somalia
Breakaway Region Rejects New Leader
Reuters
By Hussein Ali Nur
Sunday, October 31, 2004; Page A24
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12517-2004Oct30.html
HARGEYSA, Somalia, Oct. 30 -- About 100 people were reported killed on Saturday in fighting between Puntland and the rival Somali territory of Somaliland. The hostilities erupted after Puntland's leader was elected president in a new effort to reunite Somalia under a national government.
Abdullahi Yusuf has pledged to work peacefully with breakaway Somaliland as he tries to restore order to Somalia, which descended into anarchy in 1991 following the overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
But his election on Oct. 10 alarmed Somaliland, which declared full independence from Somalia in 1991. Many people in Somaliland view Yusuf as a serious foe because he was the leader of Puntland, a neighboring autonomous territory that has land disputes with Somaliland.
Somaliland authorities warned Yusuf on Oct. 12 against any attempted aggression and said they were on alert against any move to bring Somaliland back into Somalia.
"Full mobilization of our soldiers is going on and will continue until Abdullahi Yusuf's forces leave our territory," a spokesman for the Somaliland president said on Saturday, adding that fighting had stopped because of heavy rains.
A spokesman for Somaliland's Defense Office said the death toll from the fighting, which erupted on Friday at the village of Adi-Addeye, about 20 miles north of Las Anod, had risen to 109.
It was not immediately clear whether that figure referred to combat casualties or civilians or both. The spokesman said nine Somaliland soldiers were killed in the fighting.
Puntland and Somaliland have fought sporadic clashes for years over the ownership of several eastern areas of Somaliland claimed by Puntland's leaders on the basis of ethnicity. Las Anod has been a flash point during previous fighting.
Matt Bryden, a senior analyst with the policy research organization International Crisis Group, said Yusuf's elevation to the presidency had heightened tensions between the two territories. "It is probably going to get worse unless dialogue is started," he said.
Yusuf was elected head of state by Somali lawmakers after two years of intermittent peace talks, held in Kenya because of insecurity at home. He has not yet been able to return to Somalia because of the continued chaos there, and has asked the African Union to send 20,000 peacekeepers to disarm the militias that control much of the failed state.
"The president is very much concerned about the unfortunate clashes that happened yesterday which caused heavy losses of life and property," the head of Somalia's presidential press service, Yusuf Mohamed Ismail, told reporters in Nairobi.
Ismail said Yusuf wanted an international fact-finding mission to establish the cause of the fighting and facilitate a cease-fire.
Yusuf said in a letter sent to neighboring states and the United Nations on Friday that Puntland had told him Somaliland was waging "an all-out war."
-------
Algeria marks 50th anniversary of launching independence war
ALGIERS (AFP)
Oct 31, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041031110936.wsuicgqm.html
Fifty years ago Monday, Algerian nationalists sparked what was to become one of the African continent's bloodiest independence wars with a series of some 60 nearly simultaneous explosions and attacks that left a dozen people dead.
Their meticulously planned surprise operation targetted symbols of French rule such as police stations, municipal buildings, bridges and electrical facilities, stunning the colonial authorities only months after France lost Indochina at Dien Bien Phu.
It would take the French political class nearly nine more blood-soaked years to grasp the amplitude of the rebellion, and to break ranks with proponents of an eternal French Algeria.
The National Liberation Front (FLN), announcing in Cairo its intent to wrest independence from France after 132 years under its rule, was immediately embraced by charismatic Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser, at a time when European colonial powers, weakened by World War II, faced a wave of nationalism encouraged by the defeat of Nazi totalitarianism.
The newborn United Nations, one of whose founding principles was the right to self-determination, became an effective pulpit for emancipation movements across the world, egged on by the Soviet Union's Marxist ideology.
Although the FLN leadership had been previously unknown, it was clear to the vast majority of Algerians and to the French secret service that they had been laying plans for many long months.
Of the inner circle, three were operating from Cairo, including two who are still alive today, opposition figure Hocine Ait Ahmed and former president Ahmed Ben Bella.
The effects of the conflict -- not even recognized by France as a war until 1999 -- were soon felt. Thousands of French youths, many of them opposed to the war, were sent to the Algerian mountains to fight the rebels.
The conflict helped bring down the Fourth Republic in 1958, and general Charles de Gaulle was recalled from retirement to save French Algeria, only to soon realize that independence was the only logical outcome.
Negotiations finally led to a ceasefire in March 1962, followed by independence on July 5.
Algerian historians have estimated the death toll among Algerians at 1.5 million, while others have placed it between 200,000 and 500,000, while the French counted more than 27,000 dead soldiers, nearly 2,300 civilian dead and nearly 3,000 missing.
Deep scars remain from the war, especially among Algerians and "pieds noirs" -- the French colonists who fled Algeria en masse at independence.
Revelations of exactions committed during the war including the use of torture by French soldiers still haunt people on both sides of the Mediterranean, while some legal investigations remain unresolved to this day.
Nevertheless, bilateral relations have gradually begun to transcend the pain of the past. French President Jacques Chirac and his Algerian counterpart Abdelaziz Bouteflika agreed last year to set up a "special partnership", and they plan to sign a friendship treaty next year to boost cooperation, including in the military sphere.
At the approach of the anniversary, a wide range of events have been launched in Algeria, and the French media are giving it extensive coverage.
Historical lectures, film festivals, commemorations and tributes to key figures in the independence fight have been planned in Algiers and other cities.
-------- asia
Army Tactics Anger Thai Muslims
Military's Response to Southern Insurgency Draws Accusations of Brutality
By Alan Sipress
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, October 31, 2004; Page A24
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A12518-2004Oct30?language=printer
PONDOK HUMULANAH, Thailand -- Razee Dorloh, 22, left his house built on stilts near the riverbank on Monday morning without a word, his family recounted. He headed for the district police station to join a protest against the detention of six men for allegedly supporting a Muslim insurgency.
The last time Razee's brother, Nasae, saw the young man alive, Thai soldiers had opened fire on the estimated 2,000 demonstrators. "At the sound of shooting, everyone dropped to the ground. That's when I lost sight of Razee," said Nasae Dorloh, 30.
About 1,000 people were arrested at the protest, and 78 died when they were suffocated or crushed after being forced to lie atop one another in trucks on a five-hour drive to a military base. Razee's battered and bruised body was found by his family at the base in the town of Pattani the following day.
These deaths, along with those of six people shot and killed in the crowd, are among more than 440 this year in a wave of attacks by Muslim insurgents and an aggressive response by military forces in southern Thailand. The violence has stoked the anger of people in three southern Muslim provinces who have long complained of harsh tactics and discrimination by the government in Bangkok, about 750 miles to the north.
"Even before this week, we felt that people in this area were treated badly and unfairly compared to other parts of the country," said Razee's sister, Zubaidah Dorloh, 37, a white head scarf draped loosely over her head. "Now people are even more upset with how the army treats them."
On Friday, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra announced an inquiry into the killings and expressed regret for the violence. "I will set up an independent commission to investigate the incident with the aim of bringing wrongdoers to justice," he said in a speech on national television. Meanwhile, most of the detainees were released Saturday, the Associated Press reported.
Thaksin has been criticized by local organizations and human rights groups for heavy-handed actions in his response to violence in the Muslim portion of this predominantly Buddhist country.
Muslims in the southern provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat charged that the government denied them employment and education opportunities. Separatists battled the central government in the 1970s and 1980s, but the region, part of a Muslim kingdom annexed by Thailand in 1902, had been largely calm in recent years.
'We Live in Fear'
Until this year, the Dorlohs said, they had led a tranquil life in Pondok Humulanah, a village of 30 families concealed amid the coconut palms on the banks of the languid Narathiwat River. Villagers worked hard but made a reasonable living in construction and fishing, and by smuggling fruit, rice and clothes across the nearby Malaysian border.
In early January, unidentified attackers raided a Thai army camp in Narathiwat province, killing four soldiers and capturing 300 weapons. Thaksin responded by declaring martial law and sending more forces to the south.
Muslim insurgents pressed their campaign of shootings and machete attacks, primarily targeting police, teachers and Buddhist monks. Thai security forces responded with increasingly aggressive tactics that drew accusations of brutality from local residents.
"Since January, everything has been different," Zubaidah said. "We live in fear."
Seated on woven mats spread out on their porch, the Dorlohs recited a list of grievances against the security forces, accusing them of abducting and killing Muslim teachers. They also complained that soldiers at times barred residents from leaving the village to work.
After a policeman was shot and killed in front of a school about a month ago, soldiers swept through Pondok Humulanah, searching each house for militants and weapons. Two youths were arrested, but later released.
"When the soldiers went away, we couldn't sleep at all that night because we were so scared the army would kill us or plant weapons here to make us a scapegoat or take one of our boys," said Jawahae Dorloh, 33, another sister.
A Mass Arrest
Razee was the youngest of nine brothers and sisters living in several airy, wood-plank homes along the river. His family said he shared their sense of injustice but took little interest in politics.
A skinny man with short wavy hair, Razee was a recent graduate of a Muslim high school and worked for a brother-in-law in the construction business. He was an observant Muslim who snapped to attention when he heard the call to prayer coming from the village's whitewashed mosque, his family recalled. But photographs from a summer outing with friends reveal a lighter side. In one, he poses on the beach in a baseball cap and sunglasses; in another he dons a plaid hat.
After losing sight of Razee at the demonstration in Tak Bai, south of Pattani, his older brothers, Nasae and Ibrahim, said they watched from behind a wall as Thai troops charged into the crowd, arresting the men.
Over the next two hours, Nasae and Ibrahim said, soldiers stripped the protesters of their shirts, using them to bind their hands behind them. The men were kicked, pummeled with rifle butts and, in some cases, made to crawl across the pavement.
"Then they brought them one by one and shoved them into the back of army trucks like they were loading animals," said Ibrahim, 35, a grocery store employee.
The troops put about 1,200 men into waiting army trucks, stacking them four deep, according to a sweetbread seller in the market who witnessed the process. The truck beds were sealed with green tarpaulin for the drive to the army camp in Pattani.
One of Razee's fellow demonstrators, Azaha Lulae, 22, recounted being forced to lie on top of another man with at least two more layers of people above him. He heard others gasping for air.
"Imagine a plastic bag being put over your head," Lulae said, describing the ordeal from a hospital bed in Pattani. "Some people begged the soldiers, but the more you begged, the more they stepped on you." He recalled the soldiers taunting their prisoners, "If you want to die, we can deliver that for you."
When Razee did not come home Monday evening, his brothers returned to Tak Bai to search for him. They found only his red motorbike.
After a sleepless night, eight family members boarded a pair of pickup trucks to search for him in Pattani. Other villagers went with them.
An officer at the camp made them wait for two hours, then returned with a partial list of the dead, including Razee's name.
Zubaidah collapsed and began to weep. "We were shocked and stunned," she recalled. "We felt so helpless."
Razee's brothers retrieved his body. They said his head was disfigured and covered with dried blood. His mouth was bloodied, his neck badly scraped and his chest swollen by bruises. They brought the body home.
"So many innocent youths were killed," said Nasae, a fish trader. "It makes us angrier and angrier. It's going to be harder and harder to solve this problem."
Unending Violence
Relations between the Muslim and Buddhist communities were already tense in this region. After the deaths this week, businessmen and professionals have been buying guns and armoring their vehicles with steel plates, according to Panitan Wattanayagorn, a security analyst at Chulalongkorn University.
Religious leaders and security experts said they feared further violence. A bomb exploded Thursday outside a bar in a border town, killing three people and wounding about 20 others. Two bombs killed a policeman and wounded 19 people Friday morning at a crowded food stall in neighboring Yala province. Authorities defused a large bomb that had been set to explode near a Buddhist temple in a Narathiwat market at a time when monks were scheduled to be there collecting alms.
Analysts, including Panitan, warned that the deaths on Monday could strengthen an evolving alliance between younger Muslim radicals and older separatist groups, which have remained largely quiet in recent years.
Razee's brothers consulted religious leaders at the mosque in Pondok Humulanah and decided not to bathe the corpse, as is standard Muslim practice, or to recite the usual funeral prayers.
Instead, shortly before midnight Tuesday, they wrapped the body in a plain white cloth and quietly lowered it into a sandy grave near the gate of the village cemetery alongside another 22-year-old, who had been shot during the demonstration. This simple rite, they explained, is reserved for Muslims who die as martyrs for their religion.
Special correspondent Somporn Panyastianpong contributed to this report.
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Three-day protest to block Taiwan's special defense budget begins
TAIPEI (AFP)
Oct 31, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041031105047.9n0whdgs.html
Protestors began a three-day sit-in outside Taiwan's parliament Sunday in a bid to prevent lawmakers from approving the government's 18 billion US dollar special defense budget.
About 30 college professors and democracy activists placed themselves outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei and chanted slogans such as "Reject the special military budget."
They want the government to postpone screening of the budget until after November 2 presidential elections in the United States and Taiwan's December parliamentary polls.
But the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) may ask parliament's defense committee to place the issue on its discussion agenda this week or even push for a vote for a second reading, protestors said.
"DPP legislators have been asked to prepare for a vote," protest spokesman Kuo Chung-i told AFP.
"The DPP government felt it must be in a hurry as it has felt the pressure from the US government and arms suppliers," he added.
The party, which does not have majority in the parliament, declined to comment on the remarks.
In June cabinet approved a special budget of 610.8 billion Taiwan dollars (18.2 billion US) to purchase weaponry from Washington over a 15-year period starting in 2005.
The arms package, pending final approval in parliament, includes eight diesel-powered submarines, a modified version of the Patriot anti-missile system and a fleet of anti-submarine aircraft.
It has stirred heated debate on the island with critics saying the spending would further provoke rival China and heighten cross-strait tensions.
The government says the arms deal is aimed at strengthening the island's defences against growing military threats from Beijing, which claims sovereignty over Taipei.
China has repeatedly vowed to wage war against Taiwan should it seek formal independence.
In another protest Sunday, a group of candidates in the upcoming parliamentary elections clashed with police after demanding the removal of politicians they regard as close to the late Chiang Kai-shek whose party ruled Taiwan until 2000.
Candidates of the Taiwan Solidarity Union held a rally in southern Kaohsiung city where they also demanded that the name of the island be altered to "Taiwan" rather than the present "Republic of China".
No one was injured in the clash.
Chiang and his army fled to the island in 1949 after being defeated by communist forces in China. He died in 1975 but the Kuomintang group he led continued to rule the island until 2000 when the pro-independence Democratic Progressive PartyTaiwan's won election.
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Looters overran sensitive Iraq desert site;
U.N.-sealed chemical arms at risk
The Associated Press
By Charles J. Hanley,
October 31, 2004
http://www.thesunlink.com/bsun/nw_international/article/0,2403,BSUN_19092_3293323,00.html
Looters unleashed last year by the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq overran a sprawling desert complex where a bunker sealed by U.N. monitors held old chemical weapons, American arms inspectors report.
Charles Duelfer's arms teams say all U.N.-sealed structures at the Muthanna site were broken into. If the so-called Bunker 2 was breached and looted, it would be the second recent case of restricted weapons at risk of falling into militants' hands.
Officials are unsure whether this latest episode points to a threat of chemical attack, since it isn't known if usable chemical warheads were in the bunker, what may have been taken and by whom.
"Clearly, there's a potential concern, but we're unable to estimate the relative level of it because we don't know the condition of the things inside the bunker," said Ewen Buchanan, spokesman for the U.N. arms inspection agency in New York, whose specialists have been barred from Iraq since the invasion.
Chief arms hunter Duelfer told The Associated Press by e-mail Friday from Iraq that he was unaware of "anything of importance" looted from the chemical weapons complex. The report his Iraq Survey Group issued on Oct. 6 said, however, that it couldn't vouch for the fate of old munitions at Muthanna.
One chemical weapons expert said even old, weakened nerve agents - in this case sarin - could be a threat to unprotected civilians.
The weapons involved would be pre-1991 artillery rockets filled with sarin, or their damaged remnants - weapons that were openly declared by Iraq and were under U.N. control until security fell apart with the U.S. attack. They are not concealed arms of the kind President Bush claimed Iraq had, but which were never found.
In its Oct. 6 report, summarizing a fruitless search for banned weapons in Iraq, Duelfer's group disclosed that widespread looting occurred at Muthanna, 35 miles northwest of Baghdad, in the aftermath of the fall of the Iraqi capital in April 2003.
A little-noted annex of the 985-page report said every U.N.-sealed location at the desert installation had been breached in the looting spree, and "materials and equipment were removed."
Bunker 2 at Muthanna State Establishment, once Iraq's central chemical weapons production site, was put under U.N. inspectors' control in early 1991 after it was heavily damaged by a U.S. precision bomb in the first Gulf War. At the time, Iraq said 2,500 sarin-filled artillery rockets had been stored there.
The U.N. teams sealed up the bunker with brick and reinforced concrete, rather than immediately attempt the risky job of clearing weapons or remnants from under a collapsed roof and neutralizing them.
A CIA analysis, not done on site, hypothesized in 1999 that all the sarin must have been destroyed by fire. But a U.S. General Accounting Office review last June questioned that analysis, and the United Nations, whose teams were there, said the extent of destruction was never determined.
The looting at Muthanna, a 35-square-mile complex in the heart of the embattled "Sunni Triangle," is the latest example of how sensitive Iraqi sites - previously under U.N. oversight - were exposed to potential plundering by militants or random looters in Iraq's wartime chaos.
Last Monday, U.N. officials confirmed that almost 380 tons of sophisticated explosives - also under U.N. seal - had disappeared from a military-industrial site south of Baghdad, a location left unsecured by U.S. troops advancing to Baghdad in April 2003.
Thousands of tons of other munitions are also unaccounted for across Iraq. The issue has become a flashpoint in the U.S. presidential race.
Buchanan said a U.N. team inspected the sealed Muthanna bunker on Dec. 4, 2002, and inspectors continued to visit Muthanna up to March 14, 2003, although they did not view the bunker that day. Four days later, on the eve of the U.S. invasion, the U.N. monitors had to leave Iraq.
As for when the sealed bunker may have been breached, the report said, "The facilities at the southern section"- the bunker area -"were removed by unknown entities between April and June 2003." It didn't elaborate, but presumably the first U.S. search teams arrived at Muthanna in June and discovered the looting.
"The (Iraq Survey Group) is unable to unambiguously determine the complete fate of old munitions, materials and chemicals produced and stored there," the Duelfer report said.
The three-week-old report also said, without elaboration, that chemical munitions "are still stored there" and that warheads, apparently not filled with chemical agent, "are still being looted."
In a brief e-mail responding to AP questions on Friday, however, Duelfer said his inspectors "never found anything of importance looted from the cruciform bunkers," Muthanna's huge cross-shaped storage bunkers. He also said piles of sand dumped onto bunker contents in the past were a deterrent to theft.
The group's formal report, on the other hand, indicated the Americans don't know what may have been taken from the sarin-warhead or other bunkers. "The bunkers' contents have yet to be confirmed," said the 24-page annex, whose photographs show bricked-up entrances breached by man-sized holes.
The report also said unspecified bunkers tested positive for the presence of chemical weapons agents.
Duelfer, an ex-U.N. inspector and now CIA adviser, told the AP the Muthanna site, 30 miles north of the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, is currently being "monitored" by the U.S. military.
In a quarterly report to the U.N. Security Council on Aug. 27, six weeks before Duelfer's disclosures, U.N. inspectors had called attention to Muthanna's sealed bunker, and said 16 other sealed structures and areas there "contained potentially hazardous items and material." Buchanan said those include toxic chemicals and waste, but not chemical weapons agents.
Nerve agents like sarin can cause convulsions, paralysis and respiratory failure. Their potency degrades over time, but "even with degradation, the weapons may be dangerous even if there's half as much nerve agent now as before," said British chemical weapons expert Richard Guthrie.
Guthrie, of Sweden's Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, said weakened sarin might be useless against military units in the field, but still be a threat to unprotected civilians in confined spaces.
The Muthanna complex, in desolate flatlands populated by Bedouin camel herders, produced huge amounts of nerve agents and the blister agent mustard in the 1980s, when the weapons were used against Iranian troops and rebellious Iraqi civilians during the Iran-Iraq War.
Under U.N. resolutions banning Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, the U.N. inspectors who moved in after the 1991 Gulf War oversaw destruction of 22,000 chemical weapons at Muthanna by 1998, when they withdrew from Iraq in a dispute over access and CIA infiltration of the U.N. operation.
When U.N. inspectors returned after four years, Muthanna's sealed locations appeared not to have been tampered with, Buchanan said.
-------- iraq
Suicide Attack Kills 8 Marines Near Baghdad
October 31, 2004
By EDWARD WONG
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/31/international/middleeast/31iraq.html?ei=5094&en=d7de39f2a5f5eb16&hp=&ex=1099195200&partner=homepage&pagewanted=all&position=
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 30 - Eight marines were killed and nine others wounded west of the capital on Saturday when a suicide car bomb rammed into their convoy, military officials said, making it the deadliest day for the American forces in half a year.
Here in Baghdad, insurgents staged their first major assault on a news media organization by detonating a car bomb outside the o