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NUCLEAR
Europe battles to host new reactor
Nuclear project talks end in Vienna without agreement
Nuclear Waste Shipment Arrives in Germany
Nuclear waste reaches German site
France to Begin Production of New Missiles
Iran Says Can Mass Produce Medium - Range Missiles
UN Awaits Iran Uranium Suspension Letter-Diplomats
Iran Claims Draft Accord With Europe on Uranium
Nuclear Regulatory Commission Seeks Public Input
Idaho Residents Seek Compensation for Nuclear Tests
Battelle wins 10 year, $4.8 billion to run government lab in Idaho
BWXT and Battelle Energy Alliance Members Win Idaho National Laboratory
Lawmakers approve funds to continue Yucca fight
Three Settle With Irradiating Plant
Vermont Nuclear Plant Power Increase Prompts Public Concern
MILITARY
West African state edges near to civil war again
Ivoirian Throngs Assemble to Shield President From the French
7 Said Killed in Ivory Coast Violence
Halliburton, the Second-Term Curse?
Lockheed CEO Sees a World of Potential
Air Force Seeks Contract Reviews
US official leading Iraq WMD hunt narrowly escapes suicide bombing
'Scores of civilians' killed in Falluja
U.S. and Iraqi Troops Push Into Fallujah
In Hideout, Foreign Arabs Share Vision of 'Martyrdom'
Rumsfeld Says Fallujah Attack Won't Go Halfway
Wild Firefights as U.S. Soldiers Swarm Northern Edge of City
Urban Warfare Deals Harsh Challenge to Troops
U.S. ground forces hit Fallujah
Allawi includes Fallujah strike in war on terror
Arafat's Major Organs Still Functioning, Aide Says
Sharon Weathers Showdown Over Gaza Withdrawal
CIA Officer Criticizes Agency's Handling of Bin Laden
POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE
Judge Says Detainees' Trials Are Unlawful
Judge Halts War-Crime Trial at Guantánamo
House Committee Is Cool to Senate Offer on Intelligence
Concession Breaks Impasse on Bill to Create Spy Post
Korean Air Stun Guns Approved
Disappointed Americans swarm Canada's immigration Web site
POLITICS
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man:
ENERGY
Favorable Report on Mass. Wind Farm
-------- NUCLEAR
-------- europe
Europe battles to host new reactor
Aljazeera.Net
09 November 2004
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/F8DF8176-DD29-4F59-B356-98A836EFB3DC.htm
The European Union has warned it may go ahead and build the world's first nuclear fusion reactor with whatever partners it can find if there is no global deal to base the project in France.
European Commission research spokesman Fabio Fabbi said the EU hoped a deal would be clinched in Vienna on Tuesday to build the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) at Cadarache, near Marseille, rather than at a rival site in Japan.
The reactor's costs are estimated at $12 billion.
"Our priority is to get an agreement with the largest number of participants and if possible with all six partners."
The partners would be the EU, the United States, Russia, China, Japan and South Korea.
"If there is no agreement, we'll have to think over how we go ahead with a maximum number of partners who want to participate," he said.
EU research and industry ministers are due to discuss how to move forward at a meeting on 25-26 November and the commission will recommend a course of action depending on the outcome of the Vienna talks, Fabbi said.
An EU source on Monday said that Cadarache was set to win the contest because Japan had signalled it would drop its bid in return for compensation.
But an official at the Japanese Science and Technology Ministry said Tokyo had not ended its bid to host the project.
Nuclear fusion has been touted as a long-term solution to the world's energy problems, as it produces low pollution and uses limitless sea water as fuel. The idea is to replicate the way the sun generates energy.
Fusion involves fusing atoms together, as opposed to today's nuclear reactors and weapons, which produce energy by splitting atoms apart.
However, 50 years of research have failed to produce a commercially viable fusion reactor.
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Nuclear project talks end in Vienna without agreement
(AFP)
Nov 9, 2004
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20041109/sc_afp/science_energy_iter_eu_041109182113
VIENNA - The latest round of six-party talks on a revolutionary nuclear energy project ended in Vienna with the parties failing to decide on whether it will be located in France or Japan.
Satoru Ohtake, in charge of nuclear fusion at the Japanese science and technology ministry, said: "We did not reach an agreement ... but the discussions were not aiming at choosing a site".
In Brussels, the European Union (news - web sites) had said Tuesday it was prepared to forge ahead with the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) if negotiations with Japan and other backers on where to locate it broke down.
"Our basis for negotiations is to locate ITER at Cadarache (in France) and we hope to achieve that," European Commission (news - web sites) spokesman Fabio Fabbi told reporters.
The two candidates to host ITER are Cadarache in southern France and Rokkasho-mura in northern Japan.
Officials from the EU's executive and Japan met to discuss the ITER site at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna on Monday.
Another meeting was being held in Vienna on Tuesday bringing in the other ITER project partners: the United States and South Korea (news - web sites) -- which support the Japanese bid -- plus Russia and China, which back the EU bid.
Japan is adamant that it still wants to host the ITER project, questioning the EU's optimism that France will be chosen by the project's backers.
"The Japanese have not changed their position," the source in Vienna said.
ITER is a test bed for what is being billed as a clean, safe, inexhaustible energy source of the future. The project, emulating the sun's nuclear fusion, is not expected to generate electricity before 2050.
The ITER budget is projected to be 10 billion euros (13 billion dollars) over the next 30 years, including 4.7 billion euros to build the reactor. The EU plans to finance 40 percent of the total.
The European Commission is to make a proposal November 26 on the EU's position on the ITER project.
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Nuclear Waste Shipment Arrives in Germany
November 09, 2004
By Juergen Voges,
Associated Press
http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=335
DANNENBERG, Germany - A shipment of nuclear waste arrived Tuesday at a disputed storage site in northern Germany, completing a journey that was marred by the death of an anti-nuclear protester in France.
Police removed about 400 protesters who staged sit-ins on the two roads to the site at Gorleben early Tuesday morning, clearing the way for a convoy of trucks to carry the waste from a rail terminal in the nearby town of Dannenberg.
The shipment set off late Saturday from a reprocessing plant at La Hague in northwestern France. On Sunday, a 21-year-old French protester died on his way to a hospital after being run over by the train in eastern France.
The train was greeted by muted protests Monday as it rolled across Germany toward Dannenberg, southeast of Hamburg.
About 2,000 activists carrying candles and black flags remembered the French protester, Sebastien Briat, at a memorial event near Dannenberg, while local residents tied black ribbons to their tractors as they blocked roads.
Spent fuel from Germany's nuclear power plants is sent to France and Britain for reprocessing under contracts that oblige Germany to take back the waste. Gorleben has been a traditional focus of anti-nuclear protests, and shipments in recent years have often led to clashes between thousands of demonstrators and police.
Activists argue that neither the waste containers nor the Gorleben site _ currently a temporary storage facility _ are safe. The waste is stored in a warehouse near a disused salt mine that an earlier government decided was suitable as a permanent underground storage site.
The protest movement has faded somewhat since the German government embarked last year on plans to phase out nuclear power, but activists complain that the two-decade timetable for closing Germany's 19 nuclear plants is too slow.
Source: Associated Press
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Nuclear waste reaches German site
bbc.co.uk
9 November, 2004
http://news./2/hi/europe/3995091.stm
A controversial shipment of nuclear waste has arrived at Germany's Gorleben storage site after a journey marred by the death of a French environmentalist.
Thousands of protesters along the route forced the rail convoy of 12 containers to stop repeatedly before arriving at the site early on Tuesday.
The shipment of spent fuel rods left La Hague reprocessing plant in Valognes, northwestern France, on Saturday.
A protester died after being hit by the train in eastern France.
The 21-year-old had chained himself to the track before the train passed near the town of Avricourt, eastern France.
Anti-nuclear protesters say the containers holding 175 metric tons of atomic waste are unsafe.
Under agreements with Britain and France, Germany sends nuclear waste for reprocessing in both countries but is obliged to take back the resulting waste.
Police removed about 400 protesters who staged sit-ins on the two roads to the site at Gorleben early on Tuesday.
An estimated 11,000 German police officers were deployed to guard the cargo - the seventh to be returned to Germany since 1996.
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France to Begin Production of New Missiles
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
November 9, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-France-EADS-Missiles.html
PARIS (AP) -- The French government on Tuesday announced a 1.2 billion euro ($1.55 billion) contract for the production of nuclear missiles by European Aerospace and Defense Co.
Bruno Roy, spokesman for the Defense Ministry's procurement arm, said the long-standing deal with EADS to equip four nuclear submarines with the next generation of nuclear missiles would move into its production phase ``by the end of this year.''
France has already spent 5 billion euros ($6.5 billion) developing the M51 missile and an abandoned earlier version, with EADS as prime contractor.
The contract announced Tuesday is for a first batch of an undisclosed number of missiles that are set to go into service by 2010, Roy said.
-------- iran
Iran Says Can Mass Produce Medium - Range Missiles
By REUTERS
November 9, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-iran-missile.html
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said on Tuesday it was now able to make large numbers of its medium-range Shahab-3 ballistic missile, which defense experts say is capable of hitting Israel or U.S. bases in the Gulf.
``We have the capability to mass-produce Shahab-3 missiles,'' Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani told reporters at a defense industry building inauguration.
He joked that Iran could now produce the missiles like its auto industry churns out the country's best-selling car, the Paykan. His comments, reported on several local news agencies, were confirmed by the Defense Ministry.
Iran first deployed the Shahab-3 to its Revolutionary Guards in 2003, Around six of the missiles, bearing slogans vowing to ``Wipe Israel from the face of the earth'' have been seen together at military parades since then.
Officials have repeatedly said in recent months they could use Shahab-3 to strike back at Israel should it try to attack its nuclear facilities.
Israel and the United States accuse Iran of developing nuclear warheads to deliver with the Shahab-3 but Iran says its atomic plants are solely for generating electricity.
Asked about Shamkhani's comments on the mass production of missiles, an Israeli security source said: ``We expected this development, and have deployed accordingly.''
He was referring to Israel's Arrow II missile-killer, designed to counter threats like the Shahab-3.
Iran recently announced it had improved Shahab-3's accuracy and increased its range to 1,250 miles.
That potentially brought parts of southern Europe within Iran's reach. But Shamkhani said the increased range was merely so that Iran, a country three times the size of France, could launch the missile from anywhere within its own borders.
``The change in Shahab-3's range is based on this concept, not to threaten a certain country,'' he said.
He also denied accusations that Iran is developing a long-range missile with a range of up to 2,500 miles.
``This is what the Israelis say,'' Shamkhani said. ``They want to imply that we are seeking to threaten Europe, but we don't feel any threat from Europe.''
``If we had invested in this we wouldn't be worried about saying so. In the past seven years we have been very transparent about announcing our missile capability,'' he said.
Iran insists the Shahab-3 is purely a deterrent and Shamkhani played down the likelihood that Iran's nuclear plants would ever come under attack.
``I say with confidence that there is no possibility for such an attack. If such an attack happens its negative consequences for the attacker would be greater that the advantages.''
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UN Awaits Iran Uranium Suspension Letter-Diplomats
(Reuters)
By Louis Charbonneau
Nov 9, 2004
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=KXTACGPGX12KECRBAELCFEY?type=topNews&storyID=6762477
VIENNA - Iran must tell the United Nations nuclear watchdog in writing that it will suspend its uranium enrichment program from a specific date to help it avoid sanctions, Western diplomats said on Tuesday.
France, Britain and Germany reached a tentative deal with Tehran on freezing enrichment activities during talks in Paris over the weekend. Diplomats close to the talks said the deal should be formally announced on Tuesday or Wednesday.
"Iran needs to send a letter to the (International Atomic Energy Agency) stating that it will suspend enrichment on such-and-such a date," a Western diplomat who follows the IAEA in Vienna told Reuters.
"Iran has been told that the IAEA needs this letter by tomorrow (Wednesday) if it is going to be in the report," the diplomat said, referring to IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei's progress report on Iran inspections.
Several Vienna-based diplomats said ElBaradei had promised Tehran a positive report if a series of talks between the European Union's "big three" states aimed at freezing Iran's controversial uranium enrichment program went well.
The combination of a positive IAEA report and verified suspension of all activities related to uranium enrichment, a process of purifying fuel for use in nuclear power plants or weapons, would guarantee that Iran would escape a referral to the U.N. Security Council this month, diplomats say.
It would also give British Prime Minister Tony Blair a positive message to take to talks with re-elected President Bush on Thursday and Friday. That would strengthen Europe's hand in urging the United States to engage with Iran.
Washington, which accuses Iran of developing nuclear weapons under cover of an atomic energy program, wants Tehran reported to the U.N. Security Council for hiding its enrichment program for 18 years. Iran denies wanting nuclear weapons.
DON QUIXOTE
One European diplomat close to the negotiations said there had been a flow of exchanges between the three EU capitals and Tehran since the latest round of talks ended on Saturday.
Among issues still being discussed were the wording of the duration of the suspension and the scope of activities to be halted while Iran and the EU open talks on a wide range of political and economic benefits
Another EU diplomat said if Iran accepted the deal, the United States would be unlikely to push for the IAEA board to refer the Iranian program to the Security Council on Nov. 25.
"The U.S. is quote aware of the odds of getting a referral if we have an agreement. It won't play Don Quixote," he said.
In Washington, White House Spokesman Scot McClellan said Iran needs to "fully comply with its international commitments."
"If they do not comply, we think that it is a matter that needs to be taken up at the next meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency later this month and referred to the Security Council," McClellan said.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told parliament he hoped Tehran would agree to the deal.
The Europeans aim to move from a suspension to a termination of Iran's enrichment ability, but Tehran has ruled out anything but a temporary halt.
Once a start date for the suspension has been set, the IAEA will send inspectors to all sites linked to Iran's enrichment program to verify implementation of the freeze.
"The IAEA would need to have people in place the day they begin the suspension," said one diplomat.
Verification of the suspension could come very quickly, though the installation of monitoring cameras and sealing of equipment and facilities would take some time, diplomats said. (Additional reporting by Paul Hughes in Tehran and Paul Taylor in Brussels)
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Iran Claims Draft Accord With Europe on Uranium
November 9, 2004
By ELAINE SCIOLINO
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/09/international/middleeast/09iran.html?pagewanted=all
PARIS, Nov. 8 - Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi of Iran on Monday praised the outcome of weekend talks with European negotiators, saying that a preliminary agreement had been reached to suspend Iran's production of enriched uranium immediately. But he emphasized that any suspension would be only temporary.
"We hope that the deal between Iran and Europeans can be finalized and create necessary confidence," Mr. Kharrazi said of the 22 hours of difficult negotiations in Paris on Friday and Saturday between an Iranian delegation and senior officials of France, Germany, Britain and the European Union.
But, he added, "The talk is about continuing the suspension for a short period to build confidence."
Paradoxically, Mr. Kharrazi and his negotiator in Paris, Hussein Mousavian, were more optimistic in public than the Europeans in describing the negotiations. The two Iranians described the result as a "preliminary agreement," while all of the European participants said only that "considerable progress" had been made toward a "preliminary agreement."
That seems to indicate the desire of the Iranian officials to push the agreement through Iran's murky political leadership, where agreement is universal that Iran has the right to produce enriched uranium and must not agree to a permanent ban.
Mr. Kharrazi's comments in Tehran to state-run television underscored the fact that the Europeans had given in on the issue of whether Iran's suspension of uranium enrichment would be permanent, European officials said. But the Europeans also resisted Iran's demand that the suspension last only six months, the officials added.
Instead, the suspension will continue only as long as Iran and the Europeans are involved in negotiations for a comprehensive package of rewards for Iran in exchange for a suspension of its production of enriched uranium, which can be used in civilian and military nuclear programs.
The Iranian side is studying a draft agreement that was discussed over the weekend, and European officials said areas of disagreement between the two sides remained when the talks broke up.
But the Iranians have made clear in public statements before and after the negotiations that they want a deal.
If a deal is in place by the time the 35 countries that make up the leadership of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency, meet Nov. 25 in Vienna, it will block a move by the United States to send the Iran problem to the Security Council for possible penalties.
In Brussels on Monday, Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign policy chief, said an agreement would make referring Iran to the Security Council unnecessary. "I think if we get an agreement we will not see any reason why,'' he told Reuters.
In Australia on Monday, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, called the agreement "a step in the right direction," adding that he hoped that a deal would be completed in "the next few days" and that it would lead Iran to suspend its nuclear enrichment and reprocessing programs.
Mr. Kharrazi's call for the need to "build confidence" is code for the Iranian demand that it be given a package of rewards as proof that it is not suspending its enrichment program and getting nothing in return.
Among the incentives proposed to Iran by the Europeans were the reaffirmation of Iran's right to a nuclear energy program for peaceful purposes; support in Iran's acquisition of a light water research reactor; resumption of talks on a trade agreement between the European Union and Iran; support for Iran's membership in the World Trade Organization; continuation of a policy defining as a terrorist organization the Iranian opposition group known as Mujahedeen Khalq ; access to imported nuclear fuel at market prices for Iran's reactors; and help with regional security concerns, including combating drug trafficking.
In Iran on Monday, the hard-line daily Jomhuri-e-Eslami denounced the talks on its front page and criticized the Iranian negotiators who conducted them.
"Despite the fact that the Europeans cannot be trusted has been proven to all, unfortunately these people have again reached agreement with these three traitor European countries," the newspaper said.
In October 2003, Iran and the same three of European countries reached agreement in Tehran for Iran to suspend uranium enrichment and to accept stricter international inspections of its nuclear sites. But Iran violated the agreement this year, charging that the Europeans had reneged on their promises of economic and political incentives.
-------- u.s. nuc facilities
Nuclear Regulatory Commission Seeks Public Input
November 9, 2004
WASHINGTON, DC, (ENS)
http://ens-newswire.com/ens/nov2004/2004-11-09-09.asp#anchor4
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is seeking comment from members of the public on the implementation of the Reactor Oversight Process (ROP), which the agency created five years ago to improve its inspection and enforcement programs for commercial nuclear power plants.
Each year the NRC seeks feedback to help the agency continue to improve its regulatory approach. In particular, the NRC would like the public's answers to a list of 20 questions relating to the Reactor Oversight Process.
The agency wants to know if the information in the inspection reports is useful to you?
"Is the ROP understandable and meaningful, and are the processes, procedures and products clear and written in plain English?" the NRC asks.
And the agency wants to know if the public has had enough opportunity to participate in the Reactor Oversight Process and provide input and comments.
All 20 questions are contained in the Federal Register notice of the request for comment, which was published November 1. The notice is available by clicking here.
Comments are welcome through December 16. Comments may be e-mailed to nrcrep@nrc.gov or mailed to Chief, Rules and Directives Branch, Office of Administration, Mail Stop T-6D59, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C., 20555-0001.
-------- idaho
Idaho Residents Seek Compensation for Nuclear Tests
November 9, 2004
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
Story by Martin Johncox
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/28057/story.htm
BOISE, Idaho - Dozens of Idaho residents who claim nuclear tests conducted during the 1950s made them sick asked a panel of scientists on the weekend to recommend that the U.S. government compensate them.
The group, who call themselves "the downwinders" in reference to the toxic clouds that the wind carried their way from test sites in Nevada, described how radioactive waste coated their farms and towns 50 years ago. They said they believe it caused many of them to get cancer.
"My father remembers fallout on the grass like dew. We were exposed to radiation for the national security interests of the United States," said Shari Garmon, 52, who survived thyroid cancer but has contracted breast, bone and liver cancer.
The U.S. government tested nuclear bombs in the Nevada desert during the Cold War through a series of 90 above-ground tests from 1951 to 1962. Wind blew radioactive clouds hundreds of miles to the north and east, coating crops and pastures. The downwinders say residents who ate those crops and drank local cow's milk risked bone, thyroid, gall bladder and other cancers. They argue young children were especially vulnerable because they drank more milk and had smaller thyroids.
Garmon said her fate was decided on June 5, 1952, when the government conducted one of its nuclear tests. Garmon was less than six months old. According to National Cancer Institute estimates, Garmon received the equivalent of 10,000 chest X-rays, or about as much radiation as a person would naturally receive in 750 years, on that single day.
In 1990, the U.S. Congress passed the Radiation Compensation Exposure Act (RECRA) to compensate cancer victims presumed to be injured by testing from nuclear bombs. That measure was expanded in 2000. Now, people in 21 counties in Utah, Nevada and Arizona who have contracted any of 19 cancers can receive $50,000 if they prove they lived in affected areas at the time of the testing.
Residents of Idaho, however, were not covered by the law. The National Academy of Sciences is now reviewing their claims and preparing a recommendation to Congress on whether to expand the law further to include Idaho.
"Our government knew about the harmful effects and planned to inflict this on us without our consent," said Jeannie Purkhart, who said many of her family members have had cancer and thyroid problems. "At age 17, surgeons removed my stomach, spleen and pancreas, which were ensnared in a massive tumor. I undergo surgery every four years to remove the advancing cancer."
Along with testimony from the downwinders, the National Academy of Sciences will weigh scientific studies and historical records to make a recommendation to Congress by June.
Members of Idaho's congressional delegation, who have been criticized for being slow to act and take up the cause of the downwinders, also attended the meeting.
Some critics claim the scientific studies linking the nuclear testing to cancer in many Idaho residents are inconclusive and suggest other people who were exposed to far higher doses of radiation never developed cancer.
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Battelle wins 10 year, $4.8 billion to run government lab in Idaho
ASSOCIATED PRESS
By BOB FICK
November 9, 2004
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/aplocal_story.asp?category=6420&slug=Battelle%20Contract
The federal government on Tuesday awarded a 10-year, $4.8 billion contract to the Battelle Energy Alliance LLC to run the research operations at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory.
The group, which is led by Battelle Memorial Institute, a nonprofit organization based in Columbus, Ohio, won the contract over three other bidders including existing lab contractor Bechtel Corp. The alliance also includes Boise-based Washington Group International Inc., Lynchburg, Va.-based BWX Technologies Inc. and three research institutes.
In a news release, Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham said the alliance would help develop the lab into "the Nation's command center for advanced civilian nuclear technology research and development."
Battelle and its partners will take over from Bechtel on Feb. 1, the same day the facility shortens its name to the Idaho National Laboratory.
The lab employs 7,000 people.
Battelle currently manages the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Washington state, and in conjunction with other partners it operates the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado.
Washington Group International currently has prime contracts at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico and the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York.
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BWXT and Battelle Energy Alliance Members Win Idaho National Laboratory Contract
(BUSINESS WIRE)
Nov. 9, 2004
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20041109006195&newsLang=en
NEW ORLEANS - McDermott International, Inc. (NYSE:MDR) ("McDermott") announced today that the U.S. Department of Energy ("DOE") has awarded the Battelle Energy Alliance ("BEA"), of which BWX Technologies, Inc. ("BWXT") is a member, a contract valued at $6.5 billion to operate the Idaho National Laboratory ("INL") in eastern Idaho. The new contract has a base term of ten years with the option for an additional five years. The Laboratory has been designated as the DOE's hub for the development of advanced nuclear power technologies.
In addition to BWXT, the BEA team is composed of Battelle -- the prime contractor, Washington Group International, the Electric Power Research Institute and an alliance of university collaborators. The national university consortium, to be led by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), also includes such nuclear engineering universities as New Mexico, North Carolina State, Ohio State and Oregon State, in addition to a regional collaboration with major Idaho institutions of higher learning -- Boise State, Idaho State and the University of Idaho.
"BWXT is excited to continue its long-term relationship with the Idaho National Laboratory, especially in this critical time period, when our efforts can contribute so much to the future success of the Lab and the future of nuclear energy," said John Fees, president & chief operating officer of BWXT. "We are committed to working closely with the team members, the Lab employees and the community to achieve the vision that the Department of Energy has developed with congressional and industry leaders."
BWXT's involvement at INL dates back over 50 years with design activities for the Navy's Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) facility. In 1991, the Army selected BWXT to manage and operate the Specific Manufacturing Capability facility producing depleted uranium armor and ordnance for the U.S. Army. In 1994, BWXT joined the Lockheed Martin team providing management services for Idaho Nuclear Technology Engineering Center (INTEC), the Protective Services Directorate and the Applied Engineering and Development Laboratory (AEDL). Since 1999, INL has been operated for the DOE by Bechtel BWXT Idaho, LLC.
BWXT, a wholly owned and operated subsidiary of McDermott, is headquartered in Lynchburg, Va., and supplies nuclear operations services and products to the U.S. government and commercial clients. With more than 11,000 employees nationwide, BWXT manages complex, high-consequence nuclear and national security production facilities and is a principal supplier of nuclear components and advanced energy products.
McDermott International, Inc. is a leading worldwide energy services company. The Company's subsidiaries provide engineering, fabrication, installation, procurement, research, manufacturing, environmental systems, project management and facility management services to a variety of customers in the energy and power industries, including the U.S. Department of Energy. Additional information on McDermott can be obtained at www.mcdermott.com.
In accordance with the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, McDermott International, Inc. cautions that statements in this press release which are forward-looking and provide other than historical information involve risks and uncertainties that may impact McDermott's actual results of operations. The forward-looking statements in this press release include, among other things, statements about the proposed term and value associated with the Idaho National Laboratory contract awarded by the Department of Energy. Although McDermott's management believes that the expectations reflected in those forward-looking statements are reasonable, McDermott can give no assurance that those expectations will prove to have been correct. Those statements are made based on various underlying assumptions and are subject to numerous uncertainties and risks. If one or more of these risks materialize, or if underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those expected. For a more complete discussion of these risk factors, please see McDermott's annual report for the year ended Dec. 31, 2003, and its 2004 quarterly reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
-------- nevada
Lawmakers approve funds to continue Yucca fight
REVIEW-JOURNAL
By SEAN WHALEY
November 09, 2004
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2004/Nov-09-Tue-2004/news/25210219.html
CARSON CITY -- Lawmakers on Monday approved spending $1.75 million to continue the state's efforts to fight construction of a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.
The request for $1.1 million for the Agency for Nuclear Projects and $650,000 for the attorney general's office for outside legal assistance was approved by the Legislature's Interim Finance Committee, which makes budget decisions when the Legislature is not in session.
Bob Loux, executive director of the Agency for Nuclear Projects, said the additional funding from the Legislature's contingency fund is needed now and cannot wait until the Legislature convenes in February.
The U.S. Department of Energy has indicated it plans to file a licensing application for Yucca Mountain with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in December, and the state has to be ready with its experts and legal advisers, he said.
Loux said the money could be returned to the state if a federal budget that includes money for Nevada's Yucca Mountain scientific work is approved.
Only the $1.1 million requested by Loux is new money. The $650,000 for the attorney general's office will come from a $1 million appropriation made by the 2003 Legislature that had reverted to the state general fund when it was not spent quickly enough.
The Nuclear Projects Agency has relied on federal support for its fight against Yucca Mountain, but Congress allocated only $1 million for fiscal 2004, far less than the $2.5 million anticipated. And with a federal budget stalemate this fiscal year, no funding is yet available. The new federal fiscal year began Oct. 1.
Attorney General Brian Sandoval has sued the Energy Department for more government funding for its efforts against Yucca Mountain. That case is scheduled to be heard by a panel of federal judges in Washington on Jan. 10.
Guinn and most Nevada political leaders oppose plans by the DOE to bury 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste at the site 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
-------- pennsylvania
Three Settle With Irradiating Plant
November 9, 2004
Associated Press
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=Irradiation%20Opposition
QUAKERTOWN, Pa. -- The operator of a plant that uses radiation to kill bacteria in foods and other products has agreed to make safety improvements in a settlement with three people who challenged its operating license.
Under the agreement, CFC Logistics will make two changes to its nuclear irradiator, which can be used to sterilize anything from meat to medical supplies. In return, petitioners Tom and Kelly Helt and Andrew Ford agreed to drop all legal action.
"I think the petitioners are happy because they see that we are willing to build in even more safety redundancies than we already have in order to make them more comfortable with our operation," said Jim Wood, president of CFC.
About a dozen other petitioners, as well as members of Concerned Citizens of Milford, the group that organized opposition to the irradiator in early 2003, did not sign the settlement. Max Geisler, a spokesman for Concerned Citizens, said it is too soon to know what his group will do.
The CFC irradiator received a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license last year. Like most of the 50 or so irradiators in the United States, the facility uses radioactive cobalt 60.
CFC and others say the irradiators are safe, but some consumer groups argue that the radioactive material could cause cancer and or get into the wrong hands for a radioactive "dirty bomb."
The government has long allowed irradiation of wheat and flour, to discourage pests, and of potatoes, to retard sprouting. Spices, pork, poultry and produce were approved for irradiation in 1985; beef was approved in 1997, and eggs in 2000.
On the Net:
CFC Logistics: http://www.cfclogistics.com/
Nuclear Regulatory Commission: http://www.nrc.gov/
-------- vermont
Vermont Nuclear Plant Power Increase Prompts Public Concern
VERNON, Vermont, (ENS)
November 9, 2004
http://ens-newswire.com/ens/nov2004/2004-11-09-09.asp#anchor3
Nuclear inspectors evaluating the 32 year old Vermont Yankee nuclear power station (VYNPS) for a 20 percent increase in power have decided that the aging plant can handle the additional strain of producing more power.
In a letter Friday to Vermont Yankee Site Vice President Jay Thayer of Entergy Nuclear Operations, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said, "Overall, the team found that the components and systems reviewed would be capable of performing their intended safety functions and that you have implemented sufficient design controls for engineering work conducted at VYNPS, including your EPU [extended power uprate] request. "
However, wrote Wayne Lanning, Director of NRC's Division of Reactor Safety, "the team identified eight findings of very low safety significance. None of the identified findings resulted in system inoperability, but several of the findings relate to specific degraded conditions and deficiencies in the design control processes used at VYNPS to ensure that the facility remains within its licensed and analyzed design envelope."
Lanning said the NRC inspectors would require additional information on these issues may be required to supplement the power uprate license amendment request.
The NRC had planned to conduct a public exit meeting to discuss the results of the inspection today, but such a large crowd was expected that the hall originally intended for the meeting became too small.
Concerns about a large crowd at the evening meeting prompted Vernon town officials to contact the NRC on Thursday. Initially, efforts were made to find another venue. But by Thursday afternoon, NRC officials decided to hold the meetings as scheduled, without allowing the public or press to attend.
The decision to close the meetings drew criticism from the anti-nuclear group the New England Coalition and from Vermont Senator Jim Jeffords, an Independent.
The Coalition says, "Entergy VY (ENVY) has deceived the public and state regulators so many times that they cannot be trusted to tell the truth about safety issues. State and citizen participation in the assessment process is the surest way to guarantee public safety."
NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan told the "Brattleboro Reformer" that the agency abandoned the idea of holding a private meeting after talking with all of the parties concerned.
The meeting has been postponed until further notice while a larger hall is found, the NRC said.
See the Vermont Yankee inspection results online at: http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/plant-specific-items/vermont-yankee-issues.html
-------- MILITARY
-------- africa
West African state edges near to civil war again
November 09, 2004
By Gus Constantine
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20041108-102119-1756r.htm
Ivory Coast, once an oasis of stability in coup-ridden West Africa, stood at the brink of renewed civil war yesterday as French armored vehicles surrounded President Laurent Gbagbo's home and struggled to curb anti-French rioting in the streets of Abidjan.
Rebels based in the north demanded the president's resignation, while thousands of Gbagbo supporters marched to the president's home to defend him. The French denied they intended to oust the president.
Protesters chanted against the French, yelling, "The whites don't like the blacks, but we don't care." Some signs declared, "Ivory Coast is a sovereign state."
France has about 4,000 peacekeepers in Ivory Coast, while the United Nations contributes a 6,000-member contingent.
From their base in Bouake, rebels who have already created a de facto division of the country since 2002 demanded Mr. Gbagbo's resignation "to secure stability" and the honoring of recent agreements to open up the political process and resolve issues of land ownership.
The crisis was brought to a head Saturday when government planes struck at northern targets in an attempt to end the rebellion by force, in effect tearing up a cease-fire negotiated last year. In the process, nine French peacekeepers and a U.S. civilian were killed.
French warplanes immediately struck back, destroying two planes based in the capital, Yamoussoukro.
The weekend of unrest by machete-waving mobs confronting French troops has left more than 500 people wounded, a Red Cross official said. Two Abidjan hospitals told the Associated Press they handled a total of five dead and 250 wounded in yesterday's violence alone, with at least three killed by gunshots.
Mr. Gbagbo yesterday was reported to be in negotiations with French officials on how to resolve his unintended confrontation with his principal European ally.
Franck Mamadou Bamba of the Ivorian Embassy in Washington said the government had struck at northern rebel forces in order to break a "vicious circle of no war, no peace" and that one of the warplanes "mistakenly hit a group of French soldiers."
Mr. Bamba said the French had subsequently attacked civilian and military aircraft, fired on protesters and seized control of the international airport.
In the rebel stronghold of Bouake, spokesman Sidiki Konate said: "Only the removal of Laurent Gbagbo from power will restore calm to political business, allow the transition to succeed and the ... peace accord to be implemented."
The peace accord was intended to resolve the issue under which the Gbagbo regime, like its two predecessors, sought to exclude rivals from power by questioning their Ivorian nationality.
Alessane Outtara, a former premier, has been the principal target of this exclusion campaign. A law was passed during the rule of former Prime Minister Henri-Conan Bedie under which Mr. Outtara could not compete for the presidency because his father was believed to have been a national of Burkina Faso and not an Ivorian.
"The founding father of Ivory Coast, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, held the country together for 33 years until his death in 1993 by practicing the politics of inclusion," said Mori Diane, an American businessman of West African descent.
"After he died, his three successors all have sought to exclude key Ivorians from power, which is what brought on today's confrontation."
•This article is based in part on wire service reports.
--------
Ivoirian Throngs Assemble to Shield President From the French
November 9, 2004
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/09/international/africa/09ivory.html?pagewanted=all
DAKAR, Senegal, Nov. 8 - French and Ivory Coast military commanders appealed for calm Monday in Abidjan, as government supporters, whipped into a frenzy by reports that French tanks were assembling near the home of President Laurent Gbagbo, gathered by the thousands to form a human shield around their leader's neighborhood.
French soldiers fired in the air to disperse the crowds, and helicopters hovered overhead, witnesses and news agency reports from Abidjan said. For much of the day, as state-run radio urged government supporters to protect the president from French action, angry mobs ran through the streets taking aim at French citizens and anyone else mistaken as French.
France took pains to say it had no intention of deposing Mr. Gbagbo (pronounced BAG-bo). The spokesman for the French peacekeeping force in Ivory Coast, Col. Henri Aussavy, insisted that his troops had not surrounded the president's residence. "We have absolutely no tanks in front of his residence," he said by telephone from Abidjan.
The spokesman for the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Abidjan said 750 foreigners, mostly French, were taking shelter in the United Nations compound there. Hundreds of others sought safety at the French military base.
By the end of the day, French and Ivoirian military officials said, some of the protesters had begun streaming back home. But the streets were far from calm.
In New York, France pushed for swift action by the United Nations Security Council to impose sanctions, including an arms embargo and travel bans for individuals who violated an international cease-fire in Ivory Coast. China asked for more time to decide whether to support immediate sanctions or try to negotiate a grace period to measure compliance before sanctions take hold.
The Council is scheduled to meet Tuesday to discuss the violence in Ivory Coast. The African Union is expected to send South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, to seek a political solution. Meanwhile, United Nations agencies drew up plans to evacuate nonessential staff.
The anti-French violence erupted Saturday after an air raid by Ivorian warplanes killed nine French peacekeepers and France retaliated by destroying most of the country's air assets, including the two Sukhoi attack jets used in the bombing.
The attacks against the French military base followed two days of heavy bombing by government warplanes against rebel-held towns in the north and signaled the total collapse of an 18-month-old French-brokered cease-fire between Mr. Gbagbo's government and his rebel foes.
"We flirted with catastrophe," Ivory Coast's army chief of staff, Gen. Mathias Doué, said after meeting with French and United Nations commanders, according to Reuters. "We are calling on all for calm and asking for everything to be done as soon as possible so normal life can resume."
The crisis in Ivory Coast, the world's largest cocoa producer, prompted a sudden rise in world cocoa prices by more than 9 percent on Monday, the largest gain in five years. About 40 percent of the world's cocoa comes from the West African country, going into chocolate made by Nestlé and Cargill.
The International Committee of the Red Cross estimated that more than 500 people, an overwhelming majority of them Ivoirians, had been wounded in Abidjan alone since Thursday, when government forces broke the cease-fire and began an all-out offensive in rebel-held territory. There have been no reports of foreign casualties.
The resumption of military action in Ivory Coast does not bode well for a region whose porous borders have for years circulated guns and gunmen from one country to the next. For more than a decade, a cycle of revenge and greed has led government leaders and their insurgent foes to provoke rebellions in one another's countries. Of particular concern now is the fragile peace secured not long ago in neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone. In Guinea, to the north, peace is also precarious.
Warren Hoge contributed reporting from the United Nations for this article.
--------
7 Said Killed in Ivory Coast Violence
November 9, 2004
By PARFAIT KOUASSI
Associated Press Writer
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IVORY_COAST?SITE=DCTMS&SECTION=HOME
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) -- Ivory Coast security forces fired on armed attackers Tuesday as thousands of angry government loyalists massed outside a French evacuation post for foreigners, reportedly killing seven people and wounding 200 in violence pitting France against its former prize colony.
Denying any responsibility, France's military said loyalist demonstrators opened fire as a French convoy left the post, and Ivorian security forces returned fire.
The bloodletting erupted at a onetime luxury hotel French forces have commandeered as an evacuation center for 1,300 French and other foreigners rescued from rampages across the commercial capital, Abidjan.
An Associated Press photographer saw the bodies of three demonstrators outside a hospital, their bodies draped in Ivorian flags.
The chaos in Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa producer and West Africa's former economic powerhouse, broke out Saturday when Ivory Coast warplanes killed nine French peacekeepers and an American aid worker in an airstrike on the rebel-held north.
France wiped out the nation's air force on the tarmac in retaliation, sparking anti-French rampages by thousands in the fiercely nationalist south.
The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday gave wide support to a resolution that would impose sanctions against Ivory Coast if the country's government and rebels don't return to a peace process by the beginning of December, diplomats said.
"It's much more effective if you hold a gun to their head, rather than pull the trigger," Pakistan's U.N. Ambassador Munir Akram said.
The French set up their evacuation center Monday a few hundred yards from the home of President Laurent Gbagbo, and the site has become a flashpoint for violence.
Ivory Coast's U.N. ambassador lashed out at France on Tuesday for destroying the country's tiny air force in retaliation for the deaths of nine French soldiers, saying the move robbed the military of its one advantage over rebel forces.
"The paternalistic attitude of our good friends from France is creating the problems," Philippe Djangone-Bi said at the United Nations. "It is the French policy which creates chaos."
Abidjan's Cocody Hospital received seven dead and more than 200 wounded, said Dr. Sie Podipte, the emergency room chief.
Four days of confrontations have killed at least 20 other people, wounded 700 and shut down cocoa exports from the world's largest producer.
On Tuesday, stunned protesters filled the hospital, and survivors lay out the bodies of some of the dead. A woman lay on the ground, screaming.
South African President Thabo Mbeki, sent by the 54-nation African Union to find a political solution to the crisis, said before Tuesday's shooting that Gbagbo had recommitted to carrying out tension-easing measures agreed to in past accords in the country's 2-year-old civil war.
On Monday, Ivory Coast and French generals called on protesters to go home after state radio and TV had urged them to mass at Gbagbo's home and a nearby broadcast center.
French leaders have said they hold Gbagbo - installed by his supporters in 2000 after an aborted vote count in presidential elections - responsible for Saturday's airstrike and subsequent anti-foreigner rampages.
U.N. Security Council diplomats weighed a French-backed draft resolution for an arms embargo of Ivory Coast and a travel ban and asset freeze of those blocking peace, violating human rights and preventing the disarmament of combatants. China was balking at the measures, diplomats said.
France has 4,000 peacekeepers in Ivory Coast, where a civil war launched in September 2002 has left the country split between rebel north and loyalist south. About 6,000 U.N. troops are also deployed in a buffer zone.
Saturday's bombing came on the third day of Ivory Coast airstrikes on rebel positions, breaking a more than year-old cease-fire.
France also said Tuesday it was readying aircraft for any evacuations, and Spain sent an airplane for any of its nationals who wanted to leave.
Violence also was reported in the central town of Gagnoa, with loyalists clashing with people of other tribes, leaving several dead and wounded, a city official said.
Associated Press photographer Schalk van Zuydam, APTN cameraman Romuald Luyindula Mbundani and AP writer Pauline Bax in Abidjan contributed to this report.
-------- business
Halliburton, the Second-Term Curse?
By Dana Milbank
Tuesday, November 9, 2004; Page A25
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35234-2004Nov8.html
The White House's Halliburton Honeymoon is already history.
Only two days after President Bush declared victory in his quest for a second term, the company once run by Vice President Cheney dropped a political bomb.
In a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, the oil services company said that the Justice Department expanded its investigation into Halliburton, that government probes have found that bribes may have been made in Nigeria and that A. Jack Stanley, a former senior executive, may have been involved.
The latest news about alleged shenanigans at Halliburton, some of which may have occurred on Cheney's watch, serves as a timely warning for the Bush administration: Second terms are often beset by scandal. President Bill Clinton was impeached in the Monica S. Lewinsky affair. President Ronald Reagan endured the Iran-contra scandal. And President Richard M. Nixon had Watergate.
Bush could defy the second-term curse, of course. And, with Congress in friendly hands and with the demise of the independent counsel statute, he has advantages his predecessors did not. But there are several investigations and simmering controversies that were held off until after the election -- and that could present trouble for the president as they resurface.
After last week's drubbing, the president's opponents have begun to seek solace in scandal. "At some point in the next four years there will be a great scandal that will make Watergate look like a fraternity prank," an article on the left-wing Web site Salon predicted yesterday.
That's a bit of a stretch. But there are certainly plenty of thorny matters awaiting resolution: the probe into the leak of a CIA operative's employment; reports and lawsuits stemming from the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib; probes into prewar intelligence in Iraq and the White House's use of it; and FBI investigations into how sensitive intelligence wound up in the hands of Israelis and Iranians.
Even the chief investigator faces investigation. The Justice Department's Public Integrity Section is examining whether Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, when he served in the Senate, violated criminal campaign funding laws or federal disclosure laws relating to the transfer of a mailing list to his campaign committee.
Halliburton gets the prize for being the first to reassert itself since the election. Its SEC filing Friday disclosed more trouble related to investigations by the SEC, Justice, a French magistrate and Nigerian officials into whether a consortium including Halliburton paid $180 million in bribes to Nigerian officials involving a gas plant from 1995 to 2002. Cheney ran the company from 1995 to 2000, and Halliburton bought the unit involved in the consortium in 1998.
That followed by little more than a week the last bad news about Halliburton: that the FBI expanded a probe into charges of contract irregularities by Halliburton in Iraq and Kuwait. Lawyers for a Pentagon official said the FBI requested an interview with her over her complaints that the Army gave a Halliburton unit preferential treatment when granting it a $7 billion contract to restore Iraq's oil fields.
Halliburton also told shareholders that the Justice Department is examining whether operations in Iran by a subsidiary violated U.S. sanctions. The company received a grand jury subpoena in July and produced documents in September.
Also proceeding is special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald's probe into the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's employment to columnist Robert D. Novak. Novak said his sources were two senior administration officials. According to people involved in the inquiry, Fitzgerald has learned the identity of at least one person who allegedly was involved in leaking Plame's name, but he has not made that information public.
The FBI, for its part, is probing whether Lawrence A. Franklin, a Pentagon official, passed to Israel, by way of a pro-Israel lobbying group, classified intelligence about Iran. That examination follows another FBI probe that began in the spring into Iraqi figure Ahmed Chalabi, a former Pentagon ally who may have compromised U.S. intelligence by leaking sensitive information to Iran.
Investigations into the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq -- though largely exhausted in Bush's first term -- will have an encore in the second term. The Senate intelligence committee earlier this year voted to expand its investigation of prewar intelligence to the sensitive subject of how policymakers used the data; the new Senate, with more Republican members, may reconsider that choice. Also continuing is an FBI probe into the forged documents showing Iraq was seeking to buy nuclear material from Niger. Meantime, a commission appointed by Bush related to the Iraq intelligence is scheduled to report by March 31.
Speaking of deadlines, a report that may be the last word on the Abu Ghraib torture scandal is due in the next several weeks. Navy Vice Adm. Albert "Tom" Church has been probing interrogation practices throughout Iraq and Afghanistan.
If that doesn't resolve the matter, there is also a CIA report on the subject, potentially dozens of court-martial proceedings and a passel of civil cases -- a veritable full-employment plan for government lawyers and investigators.
Staff writer Walter Pincus contributed to this report.
--------
Lockheed CEO Sees a World of Potential
As Military Priorities Shift, Leader Eyes Partnerships
By Renae Merle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 9, 2004; Page E01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A35538-2004Nov8?language=printer
The A-10 Thunderbolt II, an aging fighter jet with a bubble-shaped nose, sits on the tarmac at Lockheed Martin Corp.'s site in rural Owego, N.Y. The plane has a bandage of green tape on one side and a loose panel near the front.
"Six-ninety-nine," says Robert J. Stevens, Lockheed's chief executive, pointing at a number on the nose. "I built that! Tell me that isn't a beautiful plane."
Stevens has come a long way from Fairchild Republic Co., where he helped build A-10s, nicknamed Warthogs for their ungainly appearance, more than 30 years ago. Named Lockheed's top executive in August, Stevens now presides over the biggest defense contractor in the world at a time of shifting military priorities and precarious defense budgets.
The Warthog has come a long way, too. Originally designed to destroy Soviet tanks, it is now packed with high-tech electronics provided by Bethesda-based Lockheed.
For Stevens, 52, the Warthog's evolution symbolizes Lockheed's shift from its role as just a maker of aircraft to a diversified company developing the information technology needed to wage modern warfare. The aircraft, which was to be retired a decade ago, is less important than the high-tech electronics it carries, he says. Now the Warthog is having a second life that could last an additional 20 years.
"People said at the time the A-10 was a waste of money. Now it does all kinds of things it was not intended to do," Stevens said. "There is no greater sense of security [for a soldier] than having an A-10 coming over the horizon."
Stevens faces the task of continuing Lockheed's push into high-tech defense projects, a strategy industry analysts say some competitors have been quicker to adopt, and smoothly integrating the company's disparate operations. Over the next few years he also will face the likelihood of cuts in defense spending that could slow development of large-scale programs.
Stevens's management philosophy has roots in his early experiences at Fairchild, a onetime defense giant that ran into financial trouble in the late 1980s. Stevens had worked his way up over many years from a second-shift floor supervisor to program manager. When the firm faced financial difficulties, he was forced to fire hundreds of employees. "That is an important thing for a young manager not to loose sight of," he said. "It's a defining experience."
It's an experience that helps explain Stevens's strategy at Lockheed. "The work that you do here is . . . regarded as a national resource," he recently told nearly at 1,000 employees packed onto a production floor in Syracuse, N.Y., where the company develops military radars and sensors. "In the same breath, and at the same time, Lockheed Martin is also appropriately regarded as an economic enterprise. And frankly our future is going to be determined by how well we keep these two concepts alive and balanced."
One of Stevens's chief challenges will be protecting the company's marquee programs from budget cuts. The Pentagon's budget has grown substantially since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, but the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are eventually expected to start sapping money from expensive long-term projects, like Lockheed's F/A-22 Raptor and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. "We believe the defense budget is likely to come under increasing pressure due to Iraq and the budget deficit," David Strauss, defense analyst with UBS Investment Research, said in a recent research note.
Stevens seems unfazed by the predictions. The average F-15 Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon are 30 years old and have been used more rigorously since the Sept. 11 attacks, including patrolling the skies domestically, he said recently. "These fleets are aging and need to be replaced," Stevens said. "We think there will be sustained demand for the technology we have in the F/A-22 and F-35."
But the questions about the F/A-22, which is scheduled to replace the F-15 made by Lockheed rival Boeing Co., are more complicated. Some critics wonder whether the F/A-22, which will cost more than $130 million each, is needed given the low-tech conflicts the military is currently fighting. "There is nothing wrong with the word 'overmatch,' " Stevens said.
Stevens has taken the helm as Lockheed continues to battle chief rival Boeing in court. Last year, Boeing admitted that a few of its employees had obtained Lockheed's proprietary information during a rocket launch competition, leading the Air Force to punish the firm. Lockheed sued.
Adding to the complicated relationship, former Air Force procurement official Darlene A. Druyun admitted last month giving Boeing preferential treatment. In one competition Boeing was favored over Lockheed in a bid to upgrade the electronics on the C-130 Hercules transport plane.
Lockheed and other competitors are protesting the C-130 contract. Stevens told employees the company filed its protest in order to get a full accounting of Druyun's actions.
In the close-knit defense industry, where companies compete one day and then cooperate on billion-dollar programs the next, these types of scuffles are unusual. Lockheed has a "professional relationship with Boeing," Stevens said.
"In our business we compete and we cooperate," he said before adding: "You don't see Ford and Chrysler competing on one day and cooperating on the other."
Stevens is also mindful to keep Lockheed out of similar trouble. In speeches to employees, he stresses: "There is nothing that would take the operating momentum away from our company today, to distract us from doing all the things that we need to do, as sure as a violation of ethics and integrity and business conduct."
Stevens follows two chief executives who are legends in the industry -- Vance D. Coffman and Norman R. Augustine. For his part, Stevens will concentrate on the nuts and bolts of management. He acknowledges that his rise to top executive "comes with a good amount of luck, good fortune on my part."
"I wouldn't overestimate the value one person brings, notably me," he said. "It's all about the team."
Stevens has developed a reputation as a straight shooter who imposed financial discipline when Lockheed most needed it. A former Marine, he has an intense but personable manner that includes a penchant for one-liners. At a recent meeting of employees at Lockheed's office in Syracuse, he was questioned about the strain on the staff since the firm won several new defense contracts. Stevens paused briefly, then quipped, "I think the bring-a-neighbor-to-work program probably wouldn't work."
That style won him praise early in his career. As an executive at Loral Systems Manufacturing Co., he gained the loyalty of subordinates. "He could wring efficiency out of them because they liked him," said Bernard L. Schwartz, chairman and chief executive of Loral Space & Communications Ltd.
Stevens gained prominence at Lockheed in 1999 when as chief financial officer he helped steer the defense giant out of trouble after nearly 20 acquisitions in less than 10 years had left it debt-ridden. He led an internal review that prompted a consolidation of operations, which resulted in 2,800 job cuts and a savings of $200 million. His detailed and frank reports on the company's financial health to Wall Street gained praise among investors, who had abandoned the stock.
"The company had lost sight of blocking and tackling. . . . We lost programs. We had rockets blow up," said former Lockheed chief and current board member Augustine. "The solution to those problems was one word, 'discipline,' and he brought the discipline the company really needed."
Stevens says he has no drastic changes planned for Lockheed. He will focus on initiatives he began as chief financial officer and as chief operating officer. "A company that has a production cycle measured in decades doesn't change direction on a dime. It's an evolutionary change," he said.
He is chairman of a diversity council established three years ago that recommended that short lists for executive positions be required to include a minority candidate. The top priority, he says, is to successfully complete programs as well as attract talented employees. Soon after assuming the chief executive position, Stevens began focusing on a new measurement tool for a program's success: return on investment capital. Soon executives' bonuses will be partly based on the measurement.
Stevens's tenure is likely to be marked by a continued focus on building international partnerships with foreign firms. But those partnerships can be tricky given a reluctance among some members of Congress to share technology with overseas companies and concerns about domestic suppliers losing jobs. Lockheed is currently at the center of a high-profile competition with Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. to build a new presidential helicopter. The battle has stirred international debate since Lockheed is depending on a platform designed by a European firm, AugustaWestland.
Lockheed will not back down from its strategy, Stevens said, adding that he wants Lockheed to be known as the American partner of choice to foreign defense firms. "We see the world as being connected -- connected by financial, trade and security interests," he said. "We think some level of international relationship stimulates those jobs" here.
--------
Air Force Seeks Contract Reviews
By Renae Merle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 9, 2004; Page E01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35534-2004Nov8.html
The Air Force has asked the Department of Defense to lead a review of contracts awarded by a former procurement official who has admitted giving Boeing Co. preferential treatment, expanding an investigation into ethical lapses in the granting of projects.
Darleen A. Druyun was sentenced to nine months in federal prison Oct. 1 after admitting she gave Chicago-based Boeing preferential treatment for years because she felt indebted to the firm for its hiring of her daughter and son-in-law. Druyun accepted a position as a Boeing vice president after retiring from the Air Force. Boeing has said it was not aware of receiving any preferential treatment.
As part of the wider review, the Defense Science Board, a Pentagon advisory group, is expected to review the Air Force's procurement system and possibly those of the other services as well, said Marvin Sambur, the Air Force acquisition chief. The Government Accountability Office has been asked to settle protests filed on behalf of Boeing competitors following Druyun's admissions of preferential treatment on a C-130 modernization contract.
Sambur said he made the requests of Michael W. Wynne, the Pentagon's acting acquisition chief, earlier this month. "The problem is that it's very difficult from a perception point of view for us to say we're completely clean given that she's made these admissions," he said. "So we're in a no-win position as an evaluator."
During nine years as the Air Force's deputy acquisition chief, a number two position, Druyun often operated without supervision and served as the final authority on eleven contracts worth more than $30 billion. Of those contracts, five either were awarded to Boeing alone or split between Boeing and others, according to an Air Force document.
"We're looking to see if there are any decisions that she made that people disagreed with, and she didn't allow that disagreement to be known," said Sambur, who was Druyun's boss. "Were there any cases where she took an evaluation from the . . . advisory group and changed it?"
The Air Force made significant changes to the acquisition system after Druyun resigned in November 2002, he said. Senior civilian officials are now on rotation and not allowed to stay in the same position for several years, said Sambur. Druyun was in her position for nine years. That position has now been eliminated, and most competitions are decided by lower-level program executives, Sambur said. Druyun also used to make all decisions about bonuses paid to contractors, but those decisions are now made by program managers based on objective standards, he said.
"It seemed to me that all of the contracting decisions were being made out of her office, and that wasn't right," Sambur said.
The changes were made before Druyun admitted steering work to Boeing and the Air Force now wants to ensure that they went far enough, Sambur said. The Air Force wants to "see that if we have changed the procurement system sufficiently so that we won't have this Achilles heel in which an individual can abuse her power," he said.
Wynne is expected to expand the review to the other services, including the Navy and Army, perhaps establishing uniform practices throughout the agency. The Department of Defense "is looking at a number of options to ensure that transparent processes take place in all aspects of contracting," a department representative said.
The Air Force also wants the GAO to rule on protests filed by Boeing's competitors on a $4 billion contract to upgrade the electronics on the C-130 transport plane. Druyun admitted that an objective source may not have selected Boeing for the contract.
Lockheed Martin Corp. and BAE Systems PLC filed protests with the Air Force last month. Spokesmen for both companies said yesterday they would re-file the protests with the GAO. The other competitor, Raytheon Co., sold the business unit that competed for the contract to L-3 Communications, which has also filed a protest. An L-3 representative said it could not comment on protests.
"When we found out the things she admitted to, it was a tremendous blow to everybody here," Sambur said. "Integrity is thought of as so sacred within the Air Force."
-------- iraq
US official leading Iraq WMD hunt narrowly escapes suicide bombing: report
(AFP)
Nov 9, 2004
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?ID=33289
WASHINGTON, - The US official leading Washington's hunt for Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction narrowly escaped being killed by a suicide bomber this week, although the bomber killed two security guards in his security convoy, according to CBS News Tuesday.
CBS said Charles Duelfer, leading the US hunt for Iraq's WMD, was travelling in a convoy on Monday between Baghdad and the international airport when a suicide bomber in a car tried to ram his convoy.
"Duelfer was travelling in the second vehicle of a four vehicle convoy," it said, adding that the suicide bomber's car "was cut off by the security guards who were following in a chase car."
"Killed two in chase car ... destroys my car. Where do they get so may people who want to kill themselves?" Duelfer said in an e-mail to CBS.
AFP on Monday reported that two vehicles were destroyed in an explosion on the main road to the international.
-----
'Scores of civilians' killed in Falluja
Reuters
Tuesday 09 November 2004
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/813419D5-CC95-4505-9367-05140111C618.htm
Muhammad Abbud said he watched his nine-year-old son bleed to death at their Falluja home, unable to take him to hospital as fighting raged in the streets and bombs rained down on the Iraqi city.
In the midst of a US onslaught and hemmed in by a round-the-clock curfew, he said he had little choice but to bury his eldest son, Ghaith, in the garden.
"My son got shrapnel in his stomach when our house was hit at dawn, but we couldn't take him for treatment," said Abbud, a teacher. "We buried him in the garden because it was too dangerous to go out. We did not know how long the fighting would last."
Residents say scores of civilians have been killed or wounded in 24 hours of fighting since US-led forces pushed deep into the city on Monday evening.
Doctors said people brought in at least 15 dead civilians at the main clinic in Falluja on Monday. By Tuesday, there were no clinics open, residents said, and no way to count casualties.
Medical supplies low
US and Iraqi forces seized control of the city's main hospital, across the Euphrates river from Falluja proper, hours before the onslaught began.
Overnight US bombardments hit a clinic inside the Sunni Muslim city, killing doctors, nurses and patients, residents said. US military authorities denied the reports.
Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said troops detained 38 fighters entrenched at Falluja hospital and accused doctors there of exaggerating civilian casualties.
Sami al-Jumaili, a doctor at Falluja hospital, said the city was running out of medical supplies.
"There is not a single surgeon in Falluja. We had one ambulance hit by US fire and a doctor wounded. There are scores of injured civilians in their homes who we can't move," he said by telephone from a house where he had gone to help the wounded.
"A 13-year-old child just died in my hands."
ICRC voices concern
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Tuesday that it was extremely worried about the fate of people wounded in the battle for control of the Iraqi city of Falluja.
"The ICRC urges the belligerents to ensure that all those in need of such care - whether friend or foe - be given access to medical facilities and that medical personnel and vehicles can function without hindrance at all times," a statement said.
The organisation said it was "deeply concerned about reports that the injured cannot receive adequate medical care".
Families flee
Weekend air raids destroyed a clinic funded by an Islamic relief organisation in the centre of Falluja and a nearby warehouse used to store medical supplies, witnesses said.
Residents say there is no power and food supplies are running low Many families fled the city of 300,000 long before the offensive began. An official from a Sunni Muslim group with links to some fighters in Falluja said on Monday only about 60,000 people remained.
Residents say they have no power and are using kerosene lamps at night. They say they keep to ground floors for safety. Food shops have been closed for six days.
"My kids are hysterical with fear," said Farhan Salih. "They are traumatised by the sound but there is nowhere to take them."
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Monday he did not foresee large numbers of civilian casualties in the assault, saying US forces were disciplined and precise.
Those words were of little comfort to the Abbud family, sitting in a house damaged by the bomb that killed their child.
"We just bandaged his stomach and gave him water, but he was losing a lot of blood. He died this afternoon," said Abbud.
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U.S. and Iraqi Troops Push Into Fallujah
Insurgents Dig In; Armored Vehicles Scale Dirt Barriers
By Jackie Spinner and Karl Vick
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, November 9, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A33546-2004Nov8?language=printer
NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq, Nov. 8 -- Thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops pushed into the insurgent-held city of Fallujah just after sunset Monday in the largest military operation in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion last year.
U.S. Marine and Army units entered Fallujah from the north, their armored vehicles crawling over huge dirt mounds that insurgents built around the city. Fighters could be seen digging positions as the U.S. forces moved forward.
Since a siege of the city of 300,000 people by U.S. Marines was called off in April, insurgents have controlled it. Located in the Sunni Triangle area west of Baghdad, Fallujah has been described by U.S. and Iraqi officials as a hub for the campaign of violence aimed at destabilizing Iraq's interim government and driving foreign military forces from the country.
In Washington, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld vowed that the assault on Fallujah would not be called off this time. "I cannot imagine that it would stop without being completed," Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon news conference.
Army commanders said their troops encountered some resistance in the first hours of the battle, which began about 7 p.m. local time (11 a.m. EST). Soldiers and Marines left their armored vehicles to fight in the streets and clear buildings where insurgents were believed to be hiding.
Commanders said the American armored units will be followed by Iraqi forces, who will be largely responsible for clearing and securing parts of the city. The heaviest fighting, they said, is expected in the Jolan neighborhood and in industrial areas.
The Iraqis will also be responsible for engaging insurgents around mosques and other sensitive sites, the military said. Witnesses said U.S. fighter jets bombed three mosques in Fallujah on Monday. Military commanders said insurgents had been seen moving weapons into the mosques in recent days.
No information on casualties was immediately available Monday night. Radio transmissions indicated few American troops were wounded in the first five hours of fighting; Iraqi casualties could not be determined.
Residents reported that a Saudi national known as Abu Waleed Saudi, a senior military aide to insurgent leader Abu Musab Zarqawi's, was killed in fighting west of Fallujah.
As the battle escalated in the city, several explosions echoed through Baghdad, 35 miles to the east. Two car bombs detonated outside churches in the capital's southern section, news services reported. Several hours later, mortar shells hit outside the hospital where wounded survivors of the church bombings had been taken, apparently targeting Iraqi police and National Guardsmen maintaining order outside the emergency room. At least six people were reported killed in the attacks.
In separate violence, a U.S. soldier was killed by small-arms fire while on patrol in eastern Baghdad and a member of Britain's Black Watch battle group was killed when a roadside bomb tore the wheels off an armored vehicle south of the capital.
A few hours before the launch of the assault on Fallujah, called Operation Phantom Fury, interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi visited Iraqi troops at their training base outside the city.
"The people of Fallujah have been taken hostage . . . and you need to free them from their grip," Allawi told the soldiers. "Your job is to arrest the killers, but if you kill them, then so be it."
"May they go to hell," the soldiers shouted. "To hell will they go," Allawi replied.
Allawi imposed a 24-hour curfew on Fallujah and nearby Ramadi starting at 6 p.m. and banned weapons in the two cities. He also closed border crossings with Syria and Jordan and shuttered Baghdad's international airport for 48 hours.
The border closing, which does not apply to overland food shipments, was intended to prevent foreign guerrillas from moving into Iraq and joining the insurgency. U.S. and Iraqi officials have described the insurgent force in Fallujah as a mixture of Iraqi and foreign guerrillas numbering as many as 3,000.
The Association of Muslim Scholars, which represents Iraq's 3,000 Sunni Muslim clerics and supports the insurgency, warned Iraqi soldiers against taking part in the offensive. In a statement, the group urged Iraqis against "being deceived that you are fighting terrorists from outside the country, because by God you are fighting the townspeople and targeting its men, women and children, and history will record every drop of blood you spill in oppressing the people of your nation."
Recent visitors to Fallujah have said it is largely empty of women, children and the elderly, but that a large majority of the military-age men who remain are "sons of Fallujah." Allawi brushed aside the notion that most of the insurgents in the city are Iraqis.
"I think there is a misperception," Allawi told reporters. "There is a division between the Iraqi people and the terrorists. We are after the terrorists. We are not after anybody else."
Recalling the massacre of 49 Iraqi National Guard recruits over the Oct. 23-24 weekend by a group led by Zarqawi, Allawi declared: "They say they are targeting multinational forces. They are killing and massacring the Iraqi people!"
"They think that Iraq now is weak, but I warn them from this place that the time of action has begun, and I will never allow anyone to inflict harm on the Iraqi people, whether they are foreign terrorists or the mercenaries of Saddam Hussein."
The prime minister said emergency powers that his government invoked on Sunday would be used selectively to target other cities where insurgents hold sway. "We are going to confront all the hotbeds in Iraq and get rid of all the terrorists," he said.
In interviews Monday, several Iraqis said they welcomed the government's hard line, calling the imposition of emergency powers long overdue.
"This law should be implemented in a tough, firm way, because there is a certain softness in this government," said Wadhah Jarrah, 60, a lawyer. "Why aren't those who kill police and National Guardsmen in cold blood tried and hanged?"
Sundis Abdallah, 52, a government employee, said: "This law is our last hope to achieve security. . . . These are the forces that are supposed to protect us. If they are killed, then who will protect the people, the state, the children? Criminals should be dealt with firmly so that the rest of the state can go forward."
But at his cigarette stand in Baghdad's Karrada district, Munaf Jabbar wondered what all the fuss was about.
"We have been living in emergency since this government was formed," he said. "Let them not deceive themselves. Imposing a curfew? It is already imposed. If you go out at 8 or 9 at night, you won't find anybody in the street."
In the hours before troops advanced on Fallujah, U.S. warplanes and gunships dropped bombs and fired artillery rounds into the city, targeting insurgents' defensive positions and blowing up booby traps intended to stall the offensive. The air assault lit the city in a giant explosion of orange, followed by the white twinkle of falling embers.
"Basically there's a lot of stuff blowing up right now," said Lt. Todd Hildebrant, 28, of Grafton, Mass., who was one of several soldiers from Task Force 2-2 of the Army's 1st Infantry Division watching the fireworks from their operations center outside the city.
Military commanders said the advance from the north was intended to surprise the insurgents, who they believe were expecting an assault from the west, a relatively quiet part of the city that U.S. forces easily took on Sunday night.
U.S. and Iraqi forces stormed Fallujah General Hospital late Sunday night without firing a shot, said 1st Lt. Lyle Gilbert, a spokesman for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. But when insurgents fired rockets at the building, and when the Marines securing nearby bridges tried to push forward slightly, insurgents launched a counteroffensive that resulted in a five-hour gun battle, witnesses said.
Col. John R. Ballard, commander of the Marine 4th Civil Affairs Group, based in Washington, said the military had been planning for weeks to secure the hospital as a prelude to a potential battle.
"We've surrounded it to protect it," Ballard said. "The key word here is to protect."
Rafe Hyad, the hospital's general manager, said U.S. forces locked him in a room after breaking down the doors.
They "ordered me not to go out," he said. "They searched all the rooms, asking for the reason why every one of the patients is here. We have a lot of pregnant women and premature children in the hospital."
Witnesses said U.S. airstrikes hit another hospital that had been established about three months ago by the former president of the United Arab Emirates.
Vick reported from Baghdad. Special correspondents Omar Fekeiki near Fallujah and Khalid Jaffar and Bassam Sebti in Baghdad contributed to this report.
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In Hideout, Foreign Arabs Share Vision of 'Martyrdom'
By Ghaith Abdul-Ahad
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, November 9, 2004
FALLUJAH, Iraq -- In a small safe house in Fallujah, one of many in a town deserted by its residents, a dozen fighters sat on the floor of a half-lit room.
Behind them and against the wall were metal pipes -- makeshift rocket launchers. Mortar and artillery shells, ammunition belts and explosives lay scattered on the floor.
Legs crossed and arms stretched, the fighters scooped rice and beans with their fingers from a communal plate, ending a long day of fasting during the holy month of Ramadan as explosions rocked the city.
This was the scene two days before the massive assault on the city that began Monday, and the men were its target, a dozen of them in sneakers, tracksuits and beards, preaching jihad and the virtues of martyrdom. They were volunteers in the army of Monotheism and Jihad, the organization headed by Abu Musab Zarqawi, an elusive Jordanian who Iraqi and U.S. officials have said turned Fallujah into a terrorist refuge.
Dressed alike, the men were as different as their accents, a new generation of the jihad diaspora, arriving in Fallujah from all over the Arab world: five Saudis, three Tunisians, a Yemeni. Only three were Iraqis.
"I had a vision yesterday that tomorrow I would finally be granted the martyrdom," said the latest arrival, a thin man in his early twenties. He had come from his home in Saudi Arabia just a week ago.
"This is not fair," replied the Yemeni, making a joke. "I have been here for months now."
"Don't worry, Abu Hafsa," said one of the Tunisians, heavyset and talkative. "It is either victory or martyrdom, and both are great honors."
Outside, artillery shells rocked the low-slung buildings of a city that has been a symbol of violence to one part of the world and a beacon of resistance to another. The men were gathered in a simple, unfurnished house in the neighborhood of Jolan. Located in the northwest of Fallujah, it is one of the districts that U.S. armor entered two days later, when the battle finally began.
The chunky Tunisian, Abu Usama, started telling a story.
"A friend was injured in an attack," he said. "They took him to the hospital. When he opened his eyes he saw a beautiful woman. He cheered and thanked God that he had finally become a martyr and was granted one of the divine virgins.
"But then he realized that he was still alive and started crying."
That was how they talked of death, not fearfully but in happy anticipation. Death, the young men said, is nothing but the award they awaited. Waiting for the onslaught of American armor, they exchanged Koranic verses and sayings of the prophet Muhammad, divine poetry about the beauty of martyrdom.
"Even if your body was totally torn out, all that you will feel is a slight itch," said one Iraqi fighter. He was young enough that his weight looked like baby fat. He was dressed entirely in black.
"There was this young man who drove a car into an American checkpoint," he went on. "He killed lots of Americans. They found his body after three days with a little scratch on his face, though his car has totally melted in the attack."
Abu Yassir, short and heavily built, a middle-aged Iraqi with a gray beard, arrived late in the meal. He was the "emir," or commander, of the group, one of scores of such bands positioned around the city by Zarqawi's lieutenants. A more experienced fighter than the volunteers, Abu Yassir looked after the others as a father, paying for their meal, and delighting his young charges by delivering dessert: a bag of bananas.
As in most other units in Zarqawi's group, most of the commanders are Iraqis from Fallujah. They had military training in the army or security services of the government of former president Saddam Hussein. The Arab volunteers, who showed up with more eagerness than training, appear to be serving as the foot soldiers.
The hierarchy inverts the assumptions about al Qaeda in Iraq, as Zarqawi renamed his group after recently pledging fealty to Osama bin Laden, according to postings on a Web site. The group has come to represent the infusion of foreign fighters into Iraq, and in Fallujah two days before the battle such Arabs appeared to account for a substantial proportion of the fighters.
Zarqawi gives the group an international cast. But the Jordanian is famously elusive, and almost no one in Fallujah believed he was in the city this week. U.S. commanders agreed, and announced they had set their sights on his top commander, a "son of Fallujah," Omar Hadid.
Hadid represented Zarqawi's group on the mujaheddin shura, the council of holy warriors that has governed Fallujah since April, and represented the many homegrown units that organized themselves and fought independently of Zarqawi's group.
He showed up at the house the night before. The shelling was extraordinarily heavy, hour after hour of thunderous roars. A house down the street was hit and burned through the night. The fighters rushed out of their safe house and were standing on the dusty lane when a white sedan roared up, headlights off.
Hadid jumped out of the passenger seat.
"Is everyone all right?" he asked. "Take care."
Then he was gone. A kind of hum shot through the cluster of fighters, the rise in morale a visible thing. "Was that Abu Abdullah?" they asked one another, referring to the chief by his nom de guerre.
"We are not vicious bloodthirsty people, but we will kill anyone who cooperates with Americans," Abu Yassir declared the next day.
The meal was over. Most of the men had gone outside, carrying their Kalashnikovs to the bunkers and ditches that run throughout the neighborhood. One stayed inside. He was chanting from the Koran.
"All over Iraq is a battlefield and we will kill the Americans anywhere," the emir went on. "The resistance won't collapse by the death of the emir. Someone will come up and take his position.
"We don't know about ideologies," he added. "We have one goal: Liberate our countries from the Americans."
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Rumsfeld Says Fallujah Attack Won't Go Halfway
Unlike in April, Effort Has Iraqi Government's Support
By Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 9, 2004; Page A24
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34414-2004Nov8.html
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld declared yesterday that the military assault on the Iraqi city of Fallujah would be carried through to completion, unlike the U.S. Marine operation in April that was aborted after several days.
"I cannot imagine that it would stop without being completed," Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon news conference.
Pressed on the possibility that interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi might halt the offensive, Rumsfeld said he would be "amazed" if that happened. He said the Iraqi leader had been involved in extensive discussions on whether to proceed. "The decision to go included the decision to finish and to finish together," Rumsfeld said.
The U.S. military's previous attempt to clear Fallujah of insurgents has become a source of some contention within the Pentagon. The operation ended abruptly amid reports that hundreds of Iraqi civilians had been killed. Control was turned over to a security force made up of former Iraqi soldiers, who then failed to combat the militants.
Marine Lt. Gen. James Conway, who commanded the operation at the time, caused a stir in September when he told reporters that he had opposed the assault and the subsequent decision to withdraw from the city. Some senior U.S. authorities who served in Iraq have blamed the White House for the decisions both to attack and to withdraw.
Rumsfeld disputed that account yesterday, placing responsibility with U.S. military leaders in Baghdad, then led by Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, and with L. Paul Bremer, the chief U.S. administrator at the time. He noted that a number of members of the Iraqi Governing Council had opposed the operation, as had U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi.
This time, the situation going into Fallujah is markedly different. Most notably, the Iraqi council is gone, replaced by Allawi and his interim government, which has appeared supportive of military action after trying unsuccessfully to strike a political deal with Fallujah representatives.
"That's the big difference between now and the last time that we did an operation in Fallujah -- is the fact that the Iraqis are in charge and they are trying very hard to pull all of the Iraqis into the political process," said Army Gen. George Casey, who has succeeded Sanchez as the top U.S. commander in Iraq.
Speaking by phone from Baghdad to journalists at the Pentagon, Casey predicted yesterday that the fight in Fallujah against an estimated 3,000 insurgents will be "a tough one." Although some militants had moved out of the city in anticipation of the offensive, he said, others had moved in.
"It's constantly changing, but I do believe that some of the key leaders will stay there and will fight with their soldiers," the general said.
He said the insurgents had lined the streets of Fallujah with car bombs and makeshift explosive devices as their "weapons of choice." They have erected "an outer crust" of defenses, he said, but are expected to retreat into the center of the city before making a last stand.
Although thousands of Fallujah's civilian residents have fled, as many as half -- or about 100,000 -- may still be in the city, Casey said. The U.S. Marine assault last spring was widely criticized for radicalizing an already restive city, prompting many residents to support the insurgents.
Asked about the danger of winning the battle for Fallujah but losing the war of public opinion, Rumsfeld expressed confidence that the discipline of U.S. troops would prevent "large numbers of civilians killed." He also noted that the state of emergency decree issued Sunday by Allawi's government instructed civilians on ways to reduce their exposure.
"Innocent civilians in that city have all the guidance they need as to how they can avoid getting into trouble," he said.
In an effort to offset some of the damage from the military assault, Iraqi authorities have drawn up plans to funnel humanitarian, medical and reconstruction support into Fallujah once the fighting stops, Casey said.
The roughly 2,500 Iraqi troops participating with the U.S. force of about 10,000 Marines and Army soldiers constitute a larger Iraqi contingent than took part in earlier military actions against insurgent strongholds in Najaf and Samarra. Their performance is being closely watched as a measure of an intensified U.S. program to train and equip Iraqi security forces.
Casey said he has received reports of some Iraqi troops "not making the movement to Fallujah." But he gave no numbers and attributed the no-shows to soldiers failing to return from regularly scheduled leaves. "It didn't have an impact on our plan," he said.
Although the Fallujah operation is aimed at eliminating what U.S. military officials have referred to repeatedly as the most troublesome insurgent safe haven in Iraq, Rumsfeld declined yesterday to call the offensive a final showdown, suggesting that squelching the insurgency is sure to involve more battles.
"I wouldn't use the word 'final,' " he said. "I think it's a tough business, and I think it's going to take time."
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Wild Firefights as U.S. Soldiers Swarm Northern Edge of City
November 9, 2004
The New York Times
By DEXTER FILKINS and JAMES GLANZ
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/09/international/middleeast/09cnd-fall.html?ei=5094&en=df391715d4b0c7f3&hp=&ex=1100062800&partner=homepage?hp&pagewanted=all&position=
FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 9 - American forces pushed deeper into Falluja today after battling through the deadly streets and twisting alleyways of this rebel-held city.
American marines and soldiers advanced after swarming into the city from the northern edge on Monday night, setting off a wild firefight after weeks of bombings by American airplanes.
The advance marked the beginning of the main assault on Falluja, expected to be the most significant battle since the fall of Baghdad 19 months ago.
Most of the 6,500 American troops and 2,000 Iraqi soldiers went over a railroad embankment at six separate points, military officials said, aiming to clear out insurgents one house at a time and eventually take several large public buildings in the heart of the city.
The United States military said the operation was going ``smoothly'' and reported lighter-than-expected resistance in Jolan, a Sunni-militant held warren of alleyways in northeastern Falluja where the assault began.
The Associated Press reported that residents said heavy street clashes were raging in the northern sectors of the city amid fierce bursts of gunfire. Witnesses told the A.P. that at least two American tanks were engulfed in flames. There was no confirmation of casualties.
It was also reported that a Kiowa helicopter flying over southeast Falluja took groundfire, injuring the pilot, but he managed to return to the United States base. By midday, American troops had made their way to the central highway in the heart of the city.The drive into Falluja's downtown came after the interim Iraqi prime minister, Ayad Allawi, gave formal authority to the American-led troops to start the assault. American and Iraqi officials have said elections planned for the end of January would be imperiled if Falluja and other cities in the Sunni Muslim heartland remained in the hands of the rebels.
The invasion is a calculated risk by the Americans, who had to withdraw during a previous fight for the city in April after unconfirmed reports of heavy civilian casualties sparked outrage among both Sunni and Shiite Iraqis. But they and the Iraqis say they have no choice but to try again to reclaim the city, which has been controlled by the insurgents since early May.
"They'll try to pull us into the city," said Col. Craig Tucker, a marine who was in charge of a major unit called a regimental combat team. "They'll win if it's bloody; we'll win if we minimize civilian casualties."
Hundreds or thousands of insurgents met the American attack, sometimes contesting every inch of the advance and sometimes melting back into the darkened houses of the city they have held for more than six months.
Fire from rockets, mortars and assault rifles would lash out at the Americans from seemingly deserted buildings until heavy return fire destroyed them one by one, leaving only smoking ruins. Then the firing would start from another direction.
Amid the blasts and roar of the battle, loudspeakers at mosques throughout the city were blaring, "Prepare for jihad!" and "God is great!" American commanders appeared to avoid striking the mosques.
The number of insurgents in the city is estimated at 3,000, although some guerrillas, terrorist fighters and their leaders escaped the city before the attack. American military officials estimated that of a usual population of 300,000, 70 percent to 90 percent of civilians had fled.
In the Askari and Jeghaifi neighborhoods in the northeastern part of the city, American troops were already seen in the streets by around 8 p.m. Monday, said an insurgent who identified himself as Abu Mustafa in a telephone conversation. He said insurgent forces were staying fluid, moving around the city to reinforce spots as they were attacked by the Americans.
By 1 a.m. Tuesday, American troops assigned to those same northeastern neighborhoods had advanced the farthest in the operation - about 800 yards into the city, military officials said. But some of the units farther to the west, under heavy fire and picking their way through abandoned vehicles, rubble and barbed wire, took hours to advance past a single line of houses. Later in the morning, other units continued to advance closer to the center of the city.
Seven members of the invading force were reported wounded: four were hurt when their vehicle flipped over, and three more when a mortar shell landed near them. Two marines drowned when the bulldozer they were driving next to the Euphrates River overturned Monday afternoon.
About 2,000 members of Iraqi security forces are fighting with the Americans, and it was too early to assess how well they were performing. Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top American commander in Iraq, said he anticipated that they would do well, but he acknowledged that some of the Iraqis - how many is uncertain - had failed to show up for the operation.
"Some of these soldiers were on leave and just failed to return, but it did not have a significant impact on our plan," he said.
In Baghdad on Monday, Dr. Allawi announced that he had given the go-ahead for the operation. "I have given my authority to the multinational forces," he said at a news conference inside the fortified compound housing the headquarters of the interim Iraqi government. "We are determined to clean Falluja of terrorists."
Dr. Allawi's announcement came after a night of intense fighting on the western edge of Falluja. The prime minister said 38 rebels had been captured in the initial assault on Sunday, on the main hospital and two bridges over the Euphrates River. Four foreign fighters - two Moroccans and two non-Iraqi Arabs - were arrested, he added.
That fight had seemed to be over late Sunday night, but around dawn on Monday the insurgents attacked again, provoking a firefight that lasted hours before the outgunned insurgents withdrew.
Just before the marines began to push south into Falluja, the American bombardment intensified, and heavy artillery could be heard pounding positions in or near the city every few minutes. An entire apartment complex was ground to rubble. A train station was obliterated in a hail of 2,000-pound bombs. All electrical power in the city was cut off about 5 p.m.
General Casey said Monday that his forces had been expecting the insurgents to put up a fight. He predicted that they would probably fall back from an outer ring of defenses and retreat toward the city center, leaving a minefield of improvised explosives to slow the progress of American and Iraqi soldiers.
"What we have generally seen is there's an outer crust of the defense, and then our estimates tell us that they will probably fall back toward the center of the city, where there will be probably a major confrontation," General Casey told journalists at the Pentagon by telephone from his headquarters in Baghdad.
Shortly before the invasion began, Col. Michael D. Formica, the Army commander responsible for cutting off access to the city, seemed jubilant as he congratulated his commanders in a radio conference call. "We're going to see a great attack tonight as we set this country on a path to liberty," he said.
The invasion actually began 26 hours before the troops charged over the embankment. Beginning Sunday afternoon, Colonel Formica's battalions moved into position, forming an impenetrable chain around the city.
A Falluja resident who tried entering the city on Monday said he had found no way through the seal. The resident said the situation was much different from the situation in April, when Americans battled the Falluja insurgents before withdrawing and when there were many gaps that gun runners could exploit to keep the insurgents supplied.
In Baghdad, Dr. Allawi unveiled the first measures of the 60-day state of emergency that he declared Sunday. He said that Baghdad's international airport would be closed for 48 hours and that the borders with Syria and Jordan would be sealed indefinitely except to allow trucks carrying food and emergency supplies.
All roads running in and out of Falluja and the provincial capital of Ramadi, 30 miles to the west, have been shut down, he said, and a round-the-clock curfew was imposed on the two cities starting at 6 p.m. on Monday. Residents have been banned from carrying weapons.
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IN THE STREETS
Urban Warfare Deals Harsh Challenge to Troops
November 9, 2004
By DEXTER FILKINS
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/09/international/middleeast/09scene.html
FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 8 - The two marines were pinned down on a roof on Monday, pressing themselves against a low, crumbling wall as insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades at them from a building near the middle of town.
Hours before, they had clambered over a railroad embankment - a berm, to the engineering-minded - and started their advance into this rebel-held city.
Commanders called in artillery fire on the building where the grenades were emerging, their tails spitting and glowing like sparklers across the sky. But the artillery only flattened the building next door to the one occupied by the insurgents.
"This is crazy," one of the marines said. "Yeah," his buddy said, "and we've only taken one house."
This is urban warfare, where the technological advantages of the American military can be nullified, at least for a few terrifying hours, by a few determined fighters in a warehouse or an abandoned home.
During the night, the insurgents fired off brilliant red and blue flares, blinding the Americans' sensitive night-vision equipment, and slipped quickly from house to house in hopes of confusing the artillery spotters.
For hours, they succeeded, pinning down perhaps 150 marines led by Capt. Read Omohundro, a strapping graduate of Texas A&M who has a habit of walking around upright during bursts of mortar and grenade fire while everyone else is hugging an outcropping of concrete.
Even the captain concedes that this is nothing like a fight in the open desert, where the Americans are always fated to win, quickly. "The challenge is that the battlefield is three-dimensional," he said. "Not only do you have to look in front of you and behind you, but also above you and below you, even subterranean.''
This night would become a textbook illustration of those complexities. Captain Omohundro's unit started rolling toward the berm in armored personnel carriers from an encampment about a mile north about 7 p.m. He was supposed to meet up there with another outfit, but it had gotten lost.
Finally he found it, and his men started their part of the invasion by firing a 200-yard cord containing 1,800 pounds of explosive southward from the berm, toward downtown Falluja. The marines worried that their way into the city had been mined. But when the charge exploded, it also set off any mines in a narrow path around it.
That tactic worked, but when the marines climbed the berm in pitch blackness and went over, they discovered rocky ground with rusty junk littering the way - a typical railroad district on the edge of town. They worked their way toward their first objectives, a small traffic circle, and beyond that, the first buildings of the city.
But the marines were getting shelled even before they went over the berm. The area exploded with sporadic gunfire, rocket-propelled grenade rounds and mortars. The advance bogged down as spotters tried to locate pockets of insurgents and wipe them out with the big guns.
For a time, this frightening urban battlefield became a pulsing cacophony of strange and deadly sounds. The mosques in the city broadcast calls to jihad through their speakers. F-18's fired 3,000 rounds a minute in bursts that sounded oddly like burps. AC-130 gunships droned overhead, their big cannons going thunk, thunk as they found targets.
Perhaps strangest of all, the American troops brought in their own "psyops" trucks - for psychological operations - and blared sounds that created a nightmarish duet with the mosques: old AC/DC songs, something that sounded like a sonar ping, the cavalry charge.
Captain Omohundro did not like sitting still in this theater of doom, and for good reason. "My biggest fear is staying in the same place for too long," he said. "Then they'll pinpoint us and start firing."
Eventually the artillery found the house that had been spitting the grenades and flattened that one, too. An AC-130 passed overhead but decided that the threat had been annihilated along with the building.
Then the shooting started again, from some other window among the cracked streets and twisted alleyways of Falluja.
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U.S. ground forces hit Fallujah
November 09, 2004
By Jim Krane
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20041109-122801-7776r.htm
NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq -- U.S. Army and Marine units pushed into the center of Fallujah on Tuesday, fighting with bands of guerrillas in the streets and searching house to house in a powerful advance on the second day of a major offensive to retake the insurgent stronghold.
A total of 16 Americans have been killed in the past two days across Iraq - including three killed in Fallujah combat on Tuesday, two killed by mortars near the northern city of Mosul and 11 others who died Monday, most of them as guerrillas launched a wave of attacks in Baghdad and southwest of Fallujah.
The 11 deaths were the highest one-day U.S. toll in more than six months.
As fighting raged in Fallujah, Prime Minister Ayad Allawi declared a nighttime curfew in Baghdad and its surroundings - the first curfew in the capital for a year - a day after a string of insurgent attacks in the city killed nine Iraqis and wounded more than 80.
Several heavy explosions hit central Baghdad Tuesday after nightfall, followed by the rattle of small arms fire.
Anger over the assault on the mainly Sunni Muslim city of Fallujah grew among Iraq's Sunni minority, and voices abroad - including the United Nations' refugee agency and the Red Cross - expressed fears over civilians' safety.
An influential group of Iraqi Sunni clerics called for a boycott of the election. The vote is being held "over the corpses of those killed in Fallujah," said Harith al-Dhari, director of the Association of Muslim Clerics.
If Sunnis refuse to vote on a large scale, it could wreck the legitimacy of the election, seen as vital in Iraq's move to democracy.
An estimated 6,000 U.S. troops and 2,000 allied Iraqi soldiers invaded the city from the north Monday night in a quick, powerful start to an offensive aimed at re-establishing government control ahead of the elections. The guerrillas fought off a bloody Marine offensive against the city in April.
On Tuesday, heavy street clashes were raging in Fallujah's northern neighborhoods. By midday, U.S. armored units had made their way to the highway running east-west through the city's center and crossed over into the southern part of Fallujah, a major milestone.
The military reported lighter-than-expected resistance in Jolan, a warren of alleyways in northwestern Fallujah where guerillas were believed to be at their strongest.
That could be a sign that insurgents left the city before the operation started or that the troops have not yet reached the center location to which the resistance has fallen back, Pentagon officials said in Washington.
U.S. officers said few civilians were trying to flee the city Tuesday. They said the bulk of the population of 200,000-300,000 left before the fighting and the rest were hunkered down because of a 24-hour curfew. U.S. troops were preventing most people from leaving, except in emergency cases. One funeral procession was allowed out of the city, U.S. officers said.
Before the Monday night attack, the U.S. military reported 42 insurgents killed, while Fallujah doctors reported 12 people dead. But since then, there has not been word of the Iraqi death toll.
U.S. forces cut off electricity to the city. Residents said they were without running water and were worried about food shortages because most shops in the city have been closed for the past two days.
"The north of the city is in flames. I can also see fire and smoke ... Fallujah has become like hell," Fadril al-Badrani, a resident in the center of Fallujah, said Monday night amid a heavy air and artillery barrage. He said hundreds of houses had been destroyed.
Allawi called on Fallujah's fighters to lay down their weapons to spare the city and allow government forces to take control, "The political solution is possible even if military operations are ongoing," his spokesman said.
The Fallujah campaign has seen five deaths reported by the U.S. military: three troops killed and 14 wounded on Tuesday, and two Marines who died in a bulldozer accident Monday.
In Fallujah's urban battles Tuesday, small bands of guerrillas - fewer than 20 - were engaging U.S. troops, then falling back in the face of overwhelming fire from American tanks, 20mm cannons and heavy machine guns, said Time magazine reporter Michael Ware, embedded with troops. Ware reported that there appeared to be no civilians in the area he was in.
On one thoroughfare in the city, U.S. troops traded fire with gunmen holed up in a row of houses about 100 yards away. An American gunner on an armored vehicle let loose with his machine gun, grinding the upper part of a small building to rubble.
Elsewhere, witnesses reported seeing at least two American tanks engulfed in flames. A Kiowa helicopter flying over southeast Fallujah took groundfire, injuring the pilot, but he managed to return to the U.S. base.
The once constant artillery barrages were halted, since so many troops were inside the city. U.S. and Iraqi forces surrounded a mosque inside the city that was used as arms depot and insurgent meeting point, the BBC reported.
Col. Michael Formica, commander of the 1st Cavalry Division's 2nd Brigade, said Tuesday that a security cordon around the city will be tightened to ensure insurgents dressed in civilian clothing don't slip out.
"As we tighten the noose around (the enemy), he will move to escape to fight another day. I do not want these guys to get out of here. I want them killed or captured as they flee," he said.
Guerrilla violence continued elsewhere. Hundreds of militants swarmed the streets of Ramadi, another insurgent stronghold 70 miles west of Baghdad. Gunfire rang out in the city center, and a destroyed car smeared with blood was seen.
Some 10,000-15,000 U.S. troops have surrounded Fallujah, along with allies Iraqi forces, according to the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey. Commanders estimate around 3,000 Sunni fighters are in Fallujah, perhaps around 20 percent of them foreign Islamic militants.
The question of casualties is a major factor in the offensive. Reports of hundreds of people killed during the Marine offensive in April outraged Iraqis and forced the Marines to pull back - allowing guerrillas to only strengthen their hold on the city.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld insisted Monday, "There aren't going to be large numbers of civilians killed and certainly not by U.S. forces."
Allawi's government has also taken a prominent role in defending the assault - for which the prime minister gave the green light.
Still, it risks alienating Iraqis - particularly among the Sunni Arab minority. Industry Minister Hajim Al-Hassani, of the mainly Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party, quit the government Tuesday in protest.
Russia's Foreign Ministry warned that the attack could hurt the January election, saying the government is "concerned that the actions in this region not worsen the conditions in Iraq as a whole"
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said he hoped the violence "ends fast," adding that he was in touch with Iraqi officials. "No one can ever accept the way civilians are struck in Fallujah," he told reporters.
The U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday that it was "extremely concerned" about tens of thousands of people who fled ahead of the Fallujah fighting - many of them now living in tents.
And the International Committee of the Red cross said it was "very worried" that some wounded Iraqis have been unable to receive medical care because of the fighting.
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Allawi includes Fallujah strike in war on terror
November 09, 2004
By Maria Cedrell
SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20041109-122813-5832r.htm
AMMAN, Jordan - The assault on Fallujah that began yesterday must be seen as a critical part of the worldwide war on terror, Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi says.
"This is a war that we are waging on behalf of the civilized nations around the world," he said in an interview conducted for The Washington Times. "The rule of law must prevail, and there's no other way forward."
Although he admitted that some of the fighters resisting U.S. and Iraqi forces in the country are loyalists from the regime of deposed dictator Saddam Hussein, Mr. Allawi argued that the conflict was being fueled by "evil forces" from outside Iraq.
He announced that 167 foreign fighters had been arrested in Fallujah, Samarra and Mosul, and an additional 109 had been killed.
"They are in custody of Iraq authorities and will be brought to justice very shortly," he said during a recent visit to Amman, Jordan.
He warned that failure to deal with the foreign infiltrators in Fallujah would lead to the spread of terror worldwide.
"These foreign infiltrators were aiming first to destabilize Iraq, and then they would aim to destabilize the region, then the world - including the United States and Latin America - so we are going after them," he said.
But Mr. Allawi said Iraq's interim government would not rely solely on military means to quell the uprising.
"We have laid down some serious plans for the turbulent areas in Iraq, which is really a combination of reaching out to the various people involved on the fringes of the so-called insurgency and also to be ready to respond," he said.
"We think these plans will work; we are sure they will work."
Mr. Allawi said the assault on Fallujah would ensure that the "rule of law must prevail" in Iraq.
He insisted that strenuous efforts had been made to avoid a total assault on the city and that he had spent many hours negotiating with representatives of the city.
"The people asked us to help. I had been meeting tribal and important figures from west Iraq, and all of them want us to take action and we are taking action," he said.
In Baghdad yesterday, a tribal elder from Fallujah said most of the city's residents opposed the presence of foreign fighters, but complained that the Allawi government had not allowed the locals enough time to drive the foreigners out.
"We needed more time and weapons to take out all these mujahideen," Sheik Ali Abdullah told The Washington Times by telephone. He said the foreign fighters - mainly Lebanese, Palestinian, Syrian and Pakistani - had been able to achieve a degree of control through payments to unemployed citizens.
He warned that the battle for Fallujah would lead to severe casualties and would "spread to all of Iraq and the Middle East."
With government support and arms, he said, the locals could have driven out the foreign terrorists. He said the top terrorist on the U.S. wanted list, Abu Musab Zarqawi, had long since left the city.
Mr. Allawi said he had responded to such pleas with a stark offer: "We told them: Get the terrorists to surrender or drive them out - or we go in."
The prime minister also maintained that most of the country is stable. He was particularly pleased with the return to normality in the Shi'ite shrine city of Najaf and the pacification of the capital's Sadr City slum.
He particularly hailed the success of an arms-purchasing campaign in Sadr City.
"We bought a remarkable number of weapons, heavy artillery, even surface-to-air and surface-to-surface missiles, that had been looted from the military and some purchased abroad," he said, adding that more than 5,000 mines had been surrendered.
"Now you can go there and walk - you can have coffee in cafes at 11 p.m. So progress has been made in some areas that a month ago were hot and red and now are much better," Mr. Allawi said.
Asked about the role of the United States, he said it was the "only superpower in the world."
He said America was "a stabilizing force ... and we need the U.S. to continue to be engaged in a constructive dialogue with us."
But he also said Iraq must forge ties with other countries and not rely exclusively on U.S. backing.
"We want to get along with the international community and be part of it," he said.
•Distributed by World News & Features.
-------- israel / palestine
Arafat's Major Organs Still Functioning, Aide Says
November 9, 2004
The New York Times
By ELAINE SCIOLINO STEVEN ERLANGER
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/09/international/middleeast/09cnd-mide.html?oref=login&pagewanted=all&position=
PARIS, Nov. 9 - The Palestinian leader, Yasir Arafat, is in a deep coma but his major organs are still working and those around him have ruled out the option of taking him off life support systems, a Palestinian minister said today.
"The president is very ill," the minister, Nabil Shaath, said at a news conference in France where he was among a delegation that spoke to the doctors at Mr. Arafat's hospital today. He reiterated a doctor's comments from earlier in the day that the condition of Mr. Arafat, 75, had deteriorated overnight.
"His brain, his heart and his lungs still function and he is alive," Mr. Shaath said.
He spoke late in the day, after Christian Estripeau, the chief doctor, said Mr. Arafat's coma had deepened and was a " significant step toward an evolution whose prognosis cannot be determined."
The hospital later put ou