Archive By Date | Today's Links to Search By
Activists' News | Nuclear | Depleted Uranium | Military | Police
Alternative Energy Etc. | From Subscribers
NUCLEAR
National Uranium Enrichment Facility Comment Period Extended
From power programme to bomb, in a few steps
Australia eyeing possible uranium deal with China
Every day's a battle for sick troops
600 New homes for Llanishen
C.I.A. Says Pakistani Network Aided Iran's Nuclear Program
Buying time
If Iran goes nuclear
Iran suspends uranium enrichment and opens way to fresh nuclear deal
Iran sticks by belief that nuclear arms unIslamic: minister
Bush wants proof from Iran
The west's truce with Iran buys time for both sides, but spectre of
U.N. Official Says Iranians Seem to Curb Atom Activity
Iran Says It Has Halted Uranium Enrichment
Iran Rules Out Complete Nuclear Dismantling
Israel's Dimona nuclear plant is safe: Sharon
Japan edges closer to N Korea sanctions
Japan Nuclear Plant Reaches Safety Pact to Start Uranium Tests
CIA Says Iran, Qaeda Pursued Nuclear Weapons
Congress jettisons nuclear bomb funds
Funds for Atomic Bomb Research Cut From Spending Bill
Nuclear Weapons Money Is Cut From Spending Bill
Allard wants GAO review of Flats cleanup
US Delays Plan to Seek Permit for Nuclear Waste Site
DOE says it won't get Yucca Mountain application in by Dec. 31
In Deal, Aide to Reid To Be Named to NRC
Yucca Foe's Aide Gets Nuclear Panel Post
Sound science on Yucca disposal
MILITARY
Fighting Erupts in West Sudan Despite Accord
China urges EU not to place obstacles in relations by keeping arms ban
Britain Proposes National ID Cards; Critics See a Political Ploy
Queen gives biometric ID cards the green light
Boeing, EADS Likely to Make Tanker Bids
Bush Stops in Colombia, Pledges Aid for Drug War
Bush Praises Colombia's Battle Vs. Drugs
Ukraine on the 'brink of civil conflict'
U.S., Iraqis Sweep Through 'Triangle of Death'
Iraq's Forbidding 'Triangle of Death'
Iraqis Get Lesson in Bureaucracy Senior Executives Share Knowledge
U.S. Starts New Offensive South of Baghdad
Arafat kin blames Israel
Powell: Israel to Cooperate On Vote Palestinians Have Cited Obstacles
An Israeli Hawk Accepts the President's Invitation
U.S. and Iraqi Government Call for Support From Arab Nations
Plutonium stash starts Siberian panic
Big Spending Bill Makes a Winner of Mars Program but Many Losers Elsewhere
C.I.A. Says Pakistani Network Aided Iran's Nuclear Program
Dangerous testing went beyond vets to orphans, prisoners
POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE
ID CARDS BILL WILL BACKFIRE - OATEN
U.S. Launches Drive to Urge Emergency Plans
Intelligence Deal Remains Elusive
Area Immigration Booming Census Finds Steady Flow Despite Economy, 9/11
More Visas For Foreign Workers Quota Raised to Fill High-Tech Jobs
New Scrutiny At Border Posts Draws Criticism
POLITICS
Spending Bill Held Up by Tax Provision
Queens' speech: The politics of fear
House members ready to contest election if 1 Sen will join in
Thousands of Ukrainians Refuse to Accept Election Results
Widespread Vote Fraud Is Alleged In Ukraine
ENERGY
Portland, Maine, Laundry Uses Solar Energy; Other Firms Go Green, Too
Professor Goodstein discusses lowering oil reserves
ACTIVISTS
Kiev a sea of orange as opposition protests against government win
The People Judge Bush
Suit Filed in GOP Convention Arrests
Violence in Darfur Inspires Surge In Student Activism
-------- NUCLEAR
National Uranium Enrichment Facility Comment Period Extended
November 23, 2004
WASHINGTON, DC, (ENS)
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/nov2004/2004-11-23-09.asp#anchor4
Louisiana Energy Services has submitted a license application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to construct, operate, and decommission a gas centrifuge uranium enrichment facility near Eunice, New Mexico, in Lea County.
The proposed facility, called the National Enrichment Facility (NEF), would produce enriched uranium-235 by the gas centrifuge process. The enriched uranium would be used in commercial nuclear power plants.
Enrichment is the process of increasing the concentration of the naturally occurring and fissionable uranium-235 isotope. Uranium ore usually contains about 0.72 weight percent uranium-235. In order to be useful in nuclear power plants as fuel for electricity generation, the uranium must be enriched up to five weight percent.
If the license is approved, facility construction would be scheduled to begin in 2006 and continued for 8 years through 2013. The proposed NEF operation would begin in 2008 with initial production beginning in 2008. Peak production would be achieved in 2013. Operations would continue at peak production until nine years before the license expires, at which time decommissioning activities would be phased in with completion by 2036.
Currently, the only uranium enrichment facility in operation in the United States is located in Paducah, Kentucky, imposing "reliability risks for the supply of domestically generated enriched uranium," according to the NRC in its Draft Environmental Impact Statement (Draft EIS).
The environmental impacts from the proposed enrichment facility are generally "small" to "moderate" and would be mitigated by methods described in the Draft EIS.
The most severe accident would be the release of uranium hexafluoride caused by rupturing an overfilled and/or overheated cylinder, which the NRC says "could incur a collective population dose of 120 person-sieverts (12,000 person-rem) and seven latent cancer fatalities." That means seven people would be likely to eventually get cancer.
"The proposed NEF design would reduce the likelihood of this event by using redundant heater controller trips," the NRC says.
There are no existing surface water resources to contaminate. The NRC says retention basins such as the Treated Effluent Evaporative Basin and the Uranium Byproduct Cylinder Storage Pad Stormwater Retention Basin would be lined "to minimize infiltration of water into the subsurface."
The underlying Santa Rosa aquifer is located about 340 meters (1,115 feet) below the ground surface, and the NRC says no local assessment of the effect of the enrichment facility on the aquifer has been done because it is considered too deep and the overlying clay too thick to permit contamination.
The 480 page Draft EIS is available on the NRC website at: http://www.nrc.gov/materials/fuel-cycle-fac/ml042510184.pdf
The Commission has extended until December 18 the public comment period because of the temporary unavailability of the agency's public document library on its website.
The original public comment period began September 17 and was to expire November 6. However, the NRC initiated a security review October 25 of publicly available documents to ensure that potentially sensitive information is removed from the agency's site. Documents are being restored in stages as they are screened for sensitive information.
"The NRC remains committed to being an open regulatory agency," said Daniel Gillen, acting director of NRC's Division of Waste Management and Environmental Protection. "Extending the public comment period is appropriate to allow members of the public to have time for access to relevant documents while developing their comments on the draft environmental impact statement."
Public comments should be postmarked by December 18 and submitted to the Chief, Rules Review and Directives Branch, Mail Stop T6-D59, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C. 20555-0001. Please note docket number 70-3103. Comments may also be submitted by e-mail to nrcrep@nrc.gov, or by fax to 301-415-5397, attention Anna Bradford.
--------
From power programme to bomb, in a few steps
Civil reactor yields materials and technology
The Guardian
Tim Radford, science editor
November 23, 2004
http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,12858,1357516,00.html
Ultimately, all you need for a nuclear weapons programme is an up-and-running civil nuclear power programme. The slide from mushroom-shaped light bulb to mushroom-shaped cloud could be alarmingly easy, according to nuclear experts.
Peaceful nuclear reactors make plutonium as a kind of ash, once they start to burn enriched uranium. A nuclear warhead can be made with as little as 3kg (6.6lbs) of plutonium. The world's peaceful nuclear reactors make about 160 tonnes of the stuff every year.
Or you could make a bomb with highly enriched uranium. This is a bit more demanding because it requires more technology and more time and investment. Uranium is a "heavy" element - so heavy as to be unstable. It is also distributed throughout the planet's crust. But it also occurs in natural concentrations of ores in several continents.
Most of the world's uranium is in the form of uranium-238, which is highly stable. Mixed in with this is a small proportion of uranium-235, which is highly fissile. Civil nuclear engineers have been "enriching" the mix - that is, concentrating the proportion of uranium 235 - using centrifuges, to separate the different weights of uranium. They have been doing so for more than 50 years, to start the critical reactions that provide the heat that gets the turbines spinning to keep the lights on all over Europe and the US.
But a civil nuclear reactor should just burn quietly on or go out. The whole point about a bomb is that it should release all its energy in a split second. So a uranium-based bomb would require far greater concentrations of uranium-235.
And that, said Frank Barnaby - former Aldermaston scien tist and once director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute - would require thousands of centrifuges. This means more investment in telltale hardware, and a few additional skills, but these can be arranged.
"If you have a nuclear power programme, you have the fissile materials. You have to reprocess, but that's a chemical step. Once you start a peaceful programme, it becomes indistinguishable from a military one," Dr Barnaby said.
Wyn Bowen, of King's College London, and a former UN weapons inspector in Iraq, agreed. "There are hurdles," he said. "But I think if you have mastered the ability to boost materials for a power programme, then you are very much home and dry."
An atomic bomb is, in effect, a very dense lump of fissile material suddenly made even more dense. A ball of plutonium goes supercritical if you fire a high explosive charge around it, compressing it to much greater density. Two lumps of highly enriched uranium will turn from dead weight into a blinding flash if you slam them together with high-explosive charges. The technology relies on sophisticated electronics, but they are now available everywhere.
"A country with nuclear technology is also almost certain to have explosive technology, and electronics are pretty pervasive. So really it is the level of industrialisation that is important," said Dr Barnaby. "If you have demonstrated a peaceful nuclear technology, you have demonstrated that you have got that level."
In 1995, Iran signed $940m in contracts with the Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy to complete a commercial nuclear power plant, and instantly became part of the nuclear weapons proliferation puzzle. Why, the experts began to ask, would Iran, a nation with huge supplies of natural gas, commit itself to an expensive nuclear power programme that could not possibly generate electricity as cheaply as its natural gas programme - unless of course the real plan was to gain the capability to make its own nuclear weapons.
-------- australia
Australia eyeing possible uranium deal with China
AP, Canberra
Nov 23, 2004
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/11/23/2003212228
Australia is considering uranium exports to China and has begun discussions with Beijing on whether it can commit to Australian rules that the product not be used for military purposes, the government said yesterday.
Australian mining company WMC Resources LTD is pushing for the exports to develop its Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine in southern Australia, which produces 8 percent of the world's uranium while holding 33 percent of the global reserves.
China currently cannot legally receive Australian uranium exports, and the government must negotiate Beijing's commitment to adhere to strict controls barring the uranium for atomic bombs, depleted-uranium weapons or the propulsion of warships.
Ratifying such a pact could take several months or years.
The talks, which began at the request of WMC, are at an early stage, said a spokesman for Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.
"We'll only do this where a suitable agreement is in place," spokesman Chris Kenny said.
Australian nuclear nonproliferation officials are involved in the talks with Beijing about whether it can meet Australia's export conditions, a Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesman said.
"It's explaining the process Australia requires for uranium sales, and uranium is only sold under a strict regime of bilateral nuclear safeguards agreements," the spokesman said on customary condition of anonymity.
"I wouldn't want to say that these specific negotiations could be negotiated within a period of months because we don't know what issues China may raise and we don't know to what extent they would agree to a standard text of an agreement," the spokesman said. "We don't have any feel for that at this stage."
Any agreement with China would be scrutinized by Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Treaties.
-------- depleted uranium
Every day's a battle for sick troops
Scotsman.com
Julia Horton
23 Nov 2004
http://news.scotsman.com/features.cfm?id=1347792004
AT first glance David Beaton's home looks much like any other in a Lothian village. A few ornaments - two dogs and a horse - are arranged above the fireplace in the lounge. There is a stereo playing near the door with an old heavy metal record propped up against it.
But while the room feels homely enough, one thing is missing.
There are no family photographs. In fact there are no photographs at all. On the kitchen table, among some fruit and a packet of cigarettes, lies the only obvious - and unintended - clue to their absence. It is a printout of an article about Gulf War Syndrome.
Father-of-three Beaton has been forced to move into the house in Easthouses outside Dalkeith following the breakdown of his marriage. He blames the split solely on the fact that he developed the crippling illness after serving in the RAF in the first Gulf War.
Last week, an independent inquiry ruled that the controversial syndrome is real - following years of fighting by the 6000 Gulf War veterans in Britain, including Beaton, who say they developed GWS after being exposed to a multitude of toxins designed to protect them from biological and chemical attack.
The landmark ruling comes too late to save Beaton's marriage. But the 35-year-old hopes that it will save countless other military men and women from going through the same hell - or even worse torments - which he and so many of his former colleagues in the armed forces have suffered.
Speaking about his estranged wife, May, who lives in what was the family home in Edinburgh, Beaton, says: "Due to my illness, me and the missus did separate, about a year ago. The marriage started going downhill because I was suffering from sleepless nights, agonising joint pains, mood swings, because of my illness.
"I didn't always know what was happening, because of the mental and physical effects of the syndrome. My marriage just disintegrated."
Breaking off and looking around his new home, he explains: "I only moved here in August, I haven't unpacked everything yet, a lot of my photographs are still in the garage."
Commenting on last week's ruling from Lord Lloyd of Berwick's inquiry, he adds: "It [the ruling] is helping us [veterans with GWS] because at the end of the day what we want is recognition of our illness.
"I would say that was more important [than compensation]. The main thing for all the veterans is to get that recognition, because the longer it goes on the longer people are suffering and dying and the longer their lives are being ruined like mine was."
Understandably, he is angered by the way the syndrome destroyed his own life, adding: "I do feel angry and there are more in my situation who are probably a lot worse off.
"When you join up you accept that you are going to have to go to war, and you might get injured or shot or blown up.
"What you don't accept is that you will be injected with a lot of different viruses which you know nothing about, working with explosives which are tipped with depleted uranium in an atmosphere where they [commanders] say you should ignore alarms [warnings of dangerous levels of chemical and biological agents] because they are faulty, and you don't have the correct protective equipment."
Beaton's eldest daughter, Angela, who lives with him, is now 19 - about the same age as her father was when he joined the RAF as a weapons technician.
Asked if he thought the military would offer him a glamorous, exciting career he agrees, saying: "I suppose I did. Wearing the uniform, being proud to serve my country. I wanted a military life.
"As a weapons technician I worked with everything from small weapons like rifles to large explosives like sidewinders and missiles in bomb dumps. My job included loading up aircraft with weapons, refuelling them, strapping the pilots in [before they went off on bombing missions], and decontaminating the aircraft when they came back."
That was around 1988, when Beaton was assigned to RAF Lossiemouth. When the call came to fight in the first Gulf War he was based at RAF Bruggen in Germany. The bombing squadron was the first to be sent out to the Gulf, serving there from around August 1990 to May 1991.
Beaton remembers being given a host of injections which he says he took without objecting: "You did not argue, you just did what you were told. You had your apprehensions, but going to war was your purpose, that was why you were there."
Beaton and his squadron were stationed in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain during the fighting. He recalls being ordered to ignore basic safety precautions while being exposed to deadly toxins as he loaded and cleaned planes.
"The tents were sprayed with pesticides, we were using unlabelled decontaminants [to clean the planes] and we were not wearing full individual protective equipment.
"There were detectors the size of jerry cans at the perimeter of the airbase to monitor for chemical and biological agents. But when the alarms went off we were told to ignore them because they were faulty.
"The first few times you masked up, but after that you stopped bothering because you were being told not to because they were not working properly.
"We would be cleaning aircraft without full protective gear, without masks, and offloading shells which were tipped with depleted uranium. We should have been wearing all of the protective equipment. But you did not really worry at the time. You just did your job."
After serving in the Gulf, Beaton was posted back to Germany for a few weeks. During his time off he visited his then-girlfriend, May, whom he proposed to soon afterwards.
The couple married in August 1991 on the Isle of Skye, where Beaton grew up. But over the following months he began to suffer from problems sleeping, moodiness and painful joints.
It was his wife who first realised something was seriously wrong, but for years Beaton tried to ignore his symptoms, such was his determination to continue his RAF career.
However, his condition got worse and worse. Visits to RAF medics failed to bring any clear diagnosis, but when he applied to extend his service with the RAF he was refused.
"They put me down as 'non-applicable'. That did not explain anything.
"I still did not know much about Gulf War Syndrome then because we were not allowed to talk to groups like the war veterans' associations. They [the RAF] must have known something more."
Beaton was left with no choice but to leave the forces in 1997, after which he moved from job to job, including a spell at a bakers. But his working life was marred by "the stigma that goes with the illness".
He returned with his family to Edinburgh in 1999 to be nearer his wife's parents. But Beaton's condition continued to deteriorate and eventually he separated from his wife.
Because of the effects of GWS, which include chronic fatigue, he finds it hard to recall exactly when he was diagnosed or where. He was also diagnosed with ME and depression.
Now he volunteers as area co-ordinator for Scotland at the National Gulf Veterans and Families Association, as well as doing voluntary work helping re-home dogs with behavioural problems.
Of the 6000 veterans like Beaton thought to have GWS in Britain, around 2000 are believed to live in Scotland, some 1400 of whom are estimated to live in the Lothians.
Their problems have included cancers, motor neurone disease, chronic fatigue, skin rashes, post-traumatic stress and aching joints.
WHILE last week's ruling is welcome news, the MoD is still refusing to concede that the syndrome is real. Veterans believe its reluctance is linked to the likely multi-million-pound compensation claims which would follow such an admission.
A spokesman for the National Gulf Veterans and Families Association says: "Compensation? An official admission by the MoD that GWS exists? An apology? We need all those things... [but] the MoD don't want to pay out what they know is going to cost them a lot of money."
Asked whether the ministry would finally recognise GWS, an MoD spokesman stands firm, saying: "At the moment we are still going over Lord Lloyd's report. So in that respect, we cannot pass an answer - a balanced answer - until we get through this extensive report.
"After all, it has only been three working days [November 17] since the inquiry came out. We will, though, reply in due course."
Which leaves veterans like Beaton little choice but to fight on.
Legacy of illness for war veterans
GULF War Syndrome is the collective name given to a range of health problems blamed by veterans on their exposure to toxins during the first Gulf War.
The problems include cancers, motor neurone disease, chronic fatigue, skin rashes, traumatic stress, depression and aching joints.
They have been put down to a combination of causes, ironically including multiple injections of vaccines given to servicemen and women to protect them from harm.
The syndrome has also been linked to the use of organophosphate pesticides to spray tents, low-level exposure to nerve gas and the inhalation of depleted uranium dust.
The Ministry of Defence has consistently refused to recognise that the syndrome even exists.
But last week an independent inquiry into Gulf War illnesses ruled that the syndrome was real.
The inquiry, headed by Lord Lloyd of Berwick, called on the MoD to accept that thousands of veterans had suffered ill health as a result of the 1991 conflict. In a report he said there was "every reason" to accept the existence of a "Gulf War syndrome", and said the MoD should now set up a special fund to pay compensation.
Gulf war veterans believe that the findings of the Lloyd Inquiry were better than they had hoped for and have called on the MoD to accept its findings. The inquiry was set up at the request of Labour peer Lord Morris of Manchester, parliamentary adviser to the Royal British Legion, after the MoD refused an official inquiry. About 6000 veterans, including around 1400 from the Lothians, are believed to be suffering from the syndrome.
-----
600 New homes for Llanishen
South Wales Echo
Phillip Nifield,
Nov 23 2004
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/1500ichomes/0100newsandfeatures/tm_objectid=14904349&method=full&siteid=50082&headline=600-new-homes-for-llanishen-name_page.html
TWO huge housing developments are on their way to north Cardiff.
Cardiff council has approved two separate schemes drawn up by national house-builders Bellway and Persimmon and the Defence Estates which could see more than 600 properties built in the busy Ty Glas Road area of Llanishen.
At the former Atomic Weapons Establishment site in Caerphilly Road between 330 and 350 homes are proposed.
The scheme also sees the widening of Caerphilly Road to create a second south-bound lane.
During 2002 and last year work was carried out to remove contaminants on the site, including depleted uranium, beryllium and heavy metals.
Chief traffic officer Chris Pike said that the proposed improvements to a section of Caerphilly Road involved widening works to provide two lanes in either direction. Traffic signals are also proposed on Caerphilly Road opposite Waun-y-Groes Road.
Another 300 apartments, town houses and two industrial buildings are planned on the former Selco builder's merchants next to the AWE complex.
Both schemes have been backed by Cardiff's planning committee.
Andrew Williams, one of the leaders of the campaign against bus lanes along the A469 Caerphilly Road, said: "The developments will lead to more traffic being squeezed on to what is already over-stretched road at peak times.
"I don't think the limited widening will have any impact on traffic flows and will really only allow access in and out of the AWE."
Llanishen councillor Jon Burns said: "The use of a brownfield field for housing development is certainly much more preferable than building on the Llanishen reservoir site.
"But I do have concerns about the impact of extar traffic on what is an already a busy area."
-------- india / pakistan
C.I.A. Says Pakistani Network Aided Iran's Nuclear Program
November 23, 2004
By DOUGLAS JEHL
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/23/international/middleeast/24weaponsCND.html?pagewanted=all&position=
WASHINGTON, Nov. 23 - A new report from the Central Intelligence Agency says that the Pakistani arms trafficking network led by A. Q. Khan provided Iran's nuclear program with "significant assistance," including the designs for "advanced and efficient" weapons components.
The unclassified version of report, posted today on the agency's Web site (www.cia.gov), does not explicitly say whether Mr. Khan's network had sold Iran complete plans for building a warhead, the network is known to have done with Libya and perhaps North Korea. But it suggests that American intelligence agencies now believe that the bomb-making designs provided by Mr. Khan's network to Iran in the 1990's were more significant than the United States government has previously disclosed.
In a recent closed-door speech to a private group, George J. Tenet, the former director of central intelligence, described Mr. Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, as "at least as dangerous as Osama bin Laden" because of his role in providing nuclear technology to other countries. A tape recording of the speech was provided to The New York Times.
Until now, in discussing Iran's nuclear program, American officials have publicly referred only to the Khan network's role in supplying designs for older Pakistani centrifuges used to enrich uranium. But American officials have also suspected that the Khan network provided Iran with a warhead design. The C.I.A. report is the first to assert that the designs provided to Iran also included those for weapons "components."
The C.I.A. report to Congress is an annual update, required by law, on countries' acquisition of illicit weapons technology. The posting of the unclassified version on the agency's Web site today comes two days before a meeting in Vienna of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear monitoring group, is to review the status of Iran's weapons program.
"The Report to Congress on the Acquisition of Technology Relating to Weapons of Mass Destruction and Advanced Conventional Munitions" is the first to be issued by the agency since last November. Its focus is the six-month period from July to December 2003, but it also discusses broader trends.
It does not mention what Secretary of State Colin L. Powell described last week as new intelligence about Iran's nuclear program, linking the country's missile program to its effort to find a way to deliver atomic weapons.
The report says the agency remains convinced that Iran is pursuing a clandestine weapons program, despite claims to the contrary by the Tehran government. It says that Iran's stated willingness with the I.A.E.A. is likely to prevent the Tehran government from using its declared nuclear sites to produce weapons, but warns that Iran could nevertheless use covert facilities for those purposes.
The warhead design provided to Libya by the Khan network was for an aging, crude Chinese model. Such a design would nevertheless provide Iran with important assistance in what American officials say is its quest to develop nuclear weapons, a goal they say the Tehran government could reach in the next several years.
The C.I.A. began to infiltrate Mr. Khan's network beginning in the late 1990's, according to the account Mr. Tenet is now spelling out in his speeches. That operation led to the unraveling of the Khan network's ties to Libya and the unmasking last year of Libya's illicit weapons program.
Mr. Khan remains in Pakistan, where he was pardoned last year by President Pervez Musharraf. Libya turned over the design to the United States early this year, and it is now being examined at the Department of Energy, the custodian of the American nuclear arsenal.
But American intelligence agencies are still pursuing questions about the extent of the role the Khan network played in providing assistance to North Korea, Iran and perhaps other customers. A recent report by the I.A.E.A. has noted "several common elements" between Iran's nuclear program and Libya's, which is being dismantled.
Mr. Khan directed Pakistan's uranium enrichment program for 25 years. His role as an illicit supplier of nuclear technology had been widely rumored, but was made public only late last year, when the United States and Britain reached an agreement with Libya that made public the extent of that government's weapons program.
In recent paid speeches, Mr. Tenet has provided new details about the C.I.A.'s role in unraveling the Khan network, according to people who have heard them. The speeches to private groups have been delivered on ground rules that they remain off the record, but a tape recording of remarks he made at a session in Georgia in September was provided to The Times by a person who was there.
In that speech, Mr. Tenet said that the C.I.A.'s role had stretched back to 1997, and that he had kept it secret within the government from everyone but President Bill Clinton and President Bush. Describing a "hidden network that stretched across three continents," Mr. Tenet said of Mr. Khan: "Working with British colleagues, we pieced together his subsidiaries, his clients, his front companies, his finances and manufacturing plants. We were inside his residence, inside his facilities, inside his rooms. We were everywhere these people were."
Mr. Tenet called the agency's role "one of the greatest success stories nobody ever talks about."
A classified version of the C.I.A. report has been provided to Congressional intelligence committees, administration officials said. The unclassified version that was made public today refers only obliquely to several sensitive subjects, including what American officials believe has been North Korea's recent success in building as many as a half-dozen additional nuclear weapons from plutonium extracted from spent fuel rods.
The unclassified report notes only that North Korea announced publicly in October 2003 that it was using the plutonium "for increasing the size of its nuclear deterrent forces."
The document restates long-standing concerns that outside experts, including a Pakistani nuclear engineer, may have provided assistance to the Qaeda terrorist organization as part of its quest to acquire nuclear weapons. "One of our highest concerns is Al Qaeda's stated readiness to attempt unconventional attacks against us," says the report, by the agency's Weapons, Intelligence, Nonproliferation and Arms Control Center.
-------- iran
Buying time
The West's truce with Iran is a positive step, but the threats posed by nuclear proliferation remain serious.
By Ian Traynor
Nov. 23, 2004
Salon
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/11/23/nonproliferation/index_np.html
Iran's decision to freeze the enrichment of uranium, implemented Monday under intense international pressure, appears to have stalled for the time being the mullahs' moves toward obtaining the key ingredient for a nuclear bomb.
The truce in the 18-month dispute between Iran and the West buys time for both sides -- for Iran to perfect its techniques in readiness for switching the machines back on should its pact with the E.U. break down, and for the nuclear inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency and Western governments to keep probing the Iranian operations and learn more about a 20-year-old program.
The threat of nuclear weapons spreading to hostile regimes is one of the most formidable challenges confronting President Bush as he enters his second and final term. While Bush went to war in Iraq to destroy, among other aims, a nuclear weapons program that had already been destroyed, more advanced nuclear programs have been making headway elsewhere.
-----
If Iran goes nuclear ... Bush softens his rhetoric as new intelligence indicates Iran is accelerating nuclear pursuit.
Christian Science Monitor
By Howard LaFranchi
November 23, 2004
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1123/p01s01-usfp.html
WASHINGTON - As recently as April, President Bush said it would be "intolerable" for Iran to possess a nuclear weapon.
Since then problems in Iraq and the presidential campaign have pried attention away from Iran's nuclear ambitions. But now the spotlight is back, intensified by new intelligence suggesting Iran is accelerating its nuclear work. Yet Mr. Bush's recent rhetoric on the topic has been nuanced - gone is the word "intolerable." The shift may suggest two things: first, a realization that diplomatic options are limited, and second, a realization that Iran has tremendous means of influencing events in Iraq.
Despite those factors, the prospect of Iran possessing a nuclear weapon is cause for concern on several fronts, from the role that Iran's Islamic regime sees for itself in the Muslim world and the specific threat it poses to Israel, to the crucial place it holds as a global oil power. But perhaps the greatest risk is how an Iran declaring itself a nuclear power would almost certainly set off a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.
"We need to be much more worried than we have been that what we do with Iran will be a model for others," says Henry Sokolski, executive director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center in Washington. "The real problem of Iran is how it sets an example for others to follow in the region."
An "overtly" nuclear Iran could result in a "large nuclear crowd in the Middle East," Mr. Sokolski says: Israel would go public with the nuclear armament it has been mum about, which in turn would put tremendous pressure on Egypt to stand shoulder to shoulder in the nuclear club. Syria, Algeria, Saudi Arabia - which would feel threatened by Iran's new status - would also feel pressed to ratchet up what are assumed to be varying existing programs.
The potential impact on Israel is also key. "Right at the top I'd put what I'd call the Israel issue," says Daniel Brumberg, an Iran and Middle East expert at Georgetown University in Washington. "If Iran has an effective nuclear deterrent, its allies, particularly Hizbullah, might feel emboldened and that they have the cover to pursue a more hostile approach to Israel."
Most experts believe Iran is at least three years from actually possessing a nuclear weapon, although some believe it could get there sooner if it focused on plutonium separation rather than uranium enrichment. Another possibility is that it possesses materials and facilities the international community doesn't know about, which could also telescope that prognostication to a shorter point in the distance.
Either way, the time for heading off Iran's nuclearization is fleeting, experts say, which is one reason the issue has resurfaced. On Thursday the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is scheduled to take up Iran's case and decide whether to refer it to the Security Council - one reason Bush last week returned his attention to Iran and what he has called the problem of the world's worst regimes possessing the world's deadliest weapons.
Few observers expect the IAEA to send the Iran case to the Security Council at this point, with several European countries having just concluded an agreement with Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment programs while international assistance is negotiated.
On the heels of that agreement last week, Iran announced Monday it had frozen its uranium enrichment program. But the seeds of a breakdown appeared already sown in the deal, with Iran saying the freeze would be "brief" and tied to the Europeans' making good on promises of economic assistance, while the Europeans insisted on a "sustained" freeze before other elements of the deal would set in.
In any event, the Bush administration remains deeply skeptical of the prospects for the European plan to derail Iran's nuclear ambitions. One reason is that over recent years Iran's nuclear program has become tightly bound with national pride, thus making it all the more difficult for a regime - particularly one whose popularity is already on the wane - to give it up.
"It doesn't matter what faction it is, from the radical religious conservatives to the left, there's a consensus that Iran has a right to pursue the nuclear fuel cycle, and that indeed it has a right to develop nuclear weapons if it chooses," says Mr. Brumberg. "It's something that unites the country, so in a time of deepening divisions it's not something that anyone wants to renounce."
Ray Takeyh, an Iran expert at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, says the Iranians are not yet on a par with Pakistanis: "In Karachi you see clocks in the form of a nuclear warhead." But he says polls show as many as 80 percent of Iranians supporting the country's nuclear ambitions, underscoring how difficult securing an agreement from Iran may be.
Still, experts like Mr. Takeyh say it is the "exceptionalism" of the bomb landing in the hands of such an "unpredictable, unstable, and aggressive regime" that makes Iran "a nearly existential threat."
Some experts hold out the hope that Iran, if it became a nuclear power, could yet evolve in somewhat the same way India has- from a one-time international agitator to a nuclear power taking its position seriously and demonstrating stronger interests in regional stability.
That Iran has not caused all the trouble in next-door Iraq that it is assumed it could have is one factor cited in support of Iran's potential for evolving into a responsible actor. Maybe Iran would not use its nuclear status to try to drive up oil prices, or to husband a more radical Palestinian future, some observers suggest.
But even that would not address the risks posed by nuclear proliferation in perhaps the world's least stable region. As nonproliferation expert Sokolski says, the world is opening a can of worms if it allows countries the right, as Iran is claiming, to enrich uranium while claiming its ambitions are peaceful. The message to other nuclear wannabes would be clear.
The problem of everyone "becoming nuclear ready," Sokolski says, is that "maybe it's not quite the bomb, but it's within a screwdriver turn of it."
-----
Iran suspends uranium enrichment and opens way to fresh nuclear deal with EU
independent.co.uk
By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
23 November 2004
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=585774
A claim by Iran that it has suspended uranium enrichment appears to open a three-month window for a compromise over what it insists is its peaceful atomic energy programme. But the US remains convinced that Tehran remains determined to develop nuclear weapons.
The suspension was announced yesterday by Iranian state radio, as what it called a "confidence-building" move, before negotiations resume on a long-term deal between Iran and the European Union.
"I think pretty much everything has been stopped," Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said. IAEA inspectors will verify the shut-down so that it can be formally ratified by an IAEA board meeting in Vienna on Thursday.
What happens thereafter largely depends on the EU and the as yet unspecified economic and political co-operation deal it has promised Tehran, which is also expected to offer EU help with civil nuclear technology.
Kamal Kharrazi, the Foreign Minister, said: "After three months we will evaluate," stressing that the goal was an agreement with the EU "that convinces them we are not planning a bomb, but that will permit Iran to develop nuclear power for peaceful purposes". Hard-liners have accused the government of sacrificing the country's interests. Washington, however, is convinced that the entire exercise is being used by Iran as a smokescreen. Only reluctantly has the US dropped its demand for Iran to be brought before the UN Security Council, which could impose sanctions.
At theAsia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) summit in Chile, President George Bush left no doubt that preventing nuclear proliferation was his top foreign policy for the second term, taking direct aim at North Korea and Iran. US suspicions have been given extra edge by recent events - ranging from claims that the Iranian regime was operating a secret enrichment facility in Tehran, to the admission that it had already produced hexafluoride gas used in the enrichment process.
Mr Kharrazi has flatly denied that Iran had bought weapons-grade uranium abroad - a claim advanced by an opposition exile group - or that it was developing a missile to carry a nuclear warhead, as alleged last week by General Colin Powell, the outgoing Secretary of State.
The US information appears to be based on a single uncorroborated source, but General Powell is not backing down. "I stick by it," he said yesterday.
The EU deal was reached after talks in Paris between officials from Britain, France, Germany and Iran.
Tehran insists it is entitled to pursue peaceful atomic energy under the Non-Proliferation Treaty, of which it is a signatory.
-----
Iran sticks by belief that nuclear arms unIslamic: minister
BRUSSELS (AFP)
Nov 23, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041123191005.hroohbn9.html
Iranian deputy foreign minister Gholamali Khoshrou denied Tuesday that his country's top leaders were at odds over whether nuclear weapons were un-Islamic, insisting that it will "never" make the bomb.
Addressing the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee, Khoshrou also said that the Islamic republic was wholly committed to a suspension of its uranium enrichment drive despite US "propaganda" to the contrary.
Asked by lawmakers to clarify whether former president and top regime cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani believed that Islam permitted Iran to make atomic weapons as a deterrent to Israel, the minister said there was no basis to this.
"Those quotes are out of context. This is not the position of Iran," Khoshrou said.
"The highest authority in Iran, Ayatollah (Ali) Khamenei, has reiterated on several occasions his religious verdict on the prohibition of producing, stockpiling and using nuclear weapons," he said.
"We have never been after the atomic bomb. We don't believe in that, in accordance with our religious belief. It has never been an option for Iran and never will it be."
Iran said Monday it was implementing a hard-fought deal with the European Union to suspend uranium enrichment in return for the promise of enhanced trade and political ties.
The United States accuses Iran of using a civilian atomic energy programme to secretly develop nuclear weapons, a charge vehemently denied by Tehran.
At the weekend during a visit to Israel, US Secretary of State Colin Powell reiterated accusations that Iran is seeking to adapt its missiles to carry nuclear warheads.
"We are not terrified by American propaganda that Iran is doing this or that," Khoshrou said.
"But everyone knows that Israel has nuclear capability. Israel's missiles would hurt anybody in the region. No concern is raised about that," he added.
-----
Bush wants proof from Iran
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
By James Lakely
November 23, 2004
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20041122-115430-7285r.htm
CARTAGENA, Colombia - President Bush yesterday called for independent verification of Iran's claim that it has stopped enriching uranium that could be used in the development of a nuclear weapon.
"Well, let's say, I hope it's true," Mr. Bush said in a joint press conference with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. "And I think the definition of truth is the willingness for the Iranian regime to allow for verification.
"You know, they have said some things in the past," he added warily. "And it's very important for them to verify and earn the trust of those of us who are worried about them developing a nuclear weapon."
The State Department was equally skeptical.
"This is a situation we've been in before, where Iran has said that it would suspend, and then subsequently went on to renege on those commitments," said State Department spokesman Adam Ereli. "So obviously, our interest is seeing not what they say, but what they actually do."
The United States will reserve judgment until the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) verifies Iran's claim, which comes in the wake of an agreement that Tehran reached earlier this month with Germany, France and Britain. The IAEA has a team of inspectors in Iran.
"Nations around the world understand the dangers of the Iranian government having a nuclear weapon," Mr. Bush said. "And so it looks like there is some progress.
"But to determine whether or not the progress is real, there must be verification," he added. "And we look forward to seeing that verification."
Iran's announcement yesterday that it had suspended enrichment of uranium was widely viewed as an attempt to avoid being referred to the U.N. Security Council by the IAEA, the world body's nuclear watchdog. Still, the claim was taken at face value by IAEA Director Mohamed ElBaradei.
"I think pretty much everything has come to a halt right now, so we are just trying to make sure that everything has been stopped," Mr. ElBaradei told reporters. "Hopefully by Thursday, I should be able to report that we've verified the suspension."
If the suspension turns out to be bogus, Western condemnation would be swift.
"If there is a failure by Iran to meet its obligations, then Britain, and also Germany and France, reserve our collective right to refer the matter to the Security Council," said British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.
Also at yesterday's press conference, Mr. Bush said he would ask Congress to continue sending billions in U.S. aid to help Colombia fight the illegal drug trade through a program called Plan Colombia.
"Since the year 2000, when we began Plan Colombia, the United States has provided more than $3 billion in vital aid," he said. "Plan Colombia enjoys wide bipartisan support in my country, and next year, I will ask our Congress to renew its support so that this courageous nation can win its war against narcoterrorists."
Mr. Bush added the stop in Colombia at the suggestion of Mr. Uribe, one of the few conservative leaders in a largely anti-Bush Latin America and a man who was among the first foreign leaders to send his congratulations on the president's re-election.
•Bill Sammon in Washington contributed to this report.
-----
The west's truce with Iran buys time for both sides, but spectre of proliferation remains Non-aligned countries still seek the bomb
The Guardian
Ian Traynor
November 23, 2004
http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,12858,1357382,00.html
Iran's decision to freeze the enrichment of uranium, implemented yesterday under intense international pressure, appears to have stalled for the time being the mullahs' moves towards obtaining the key ingredient for a nuclear bomb.
The truce in the 18-month dispute between Iran and the west buys time for both sides -for Iran to perfect its techniques in readiness for switching the machines back on should its pact with the EU break down, and for the nuclear inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency and western governments to keep probing the Iranian operations and learn more about a 20-year-old programme.
The threat of nuclear weapons spreading to hostile regimes is one of the most formidable challenges confronting President George Bush as he enters his second and final term. While Mr Bush went to war in Iraq to destroy, among other aims, a nuclear weapons programme that had already been destroyed, more advanced nuclear programmes have been making headway elsewhere.
From the dusty Iranian towns of Isfahan and Natanz to the poorly guarded stockpiles of plutonium and uranium scattered across Russia, from the closed complexes in North Korea to the military laboratories outside Islamabad which a rogue Pakistani engineer turned into the offices of the world's first private nuclear shopping mall, the risks and threats posed by nuclear proliferation are now palpable.
"Nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism represent the single most important threat to US and global security," Mohammed ElBaradei, the IAEA chief, said in a speech this month at Stanford University in California. Apart from the problem of securing Russia's colossal nuclear stockpiles - 600 tons of bomb-grade uranium and plutonium held in warehouses, more than three quarters of it not properly secured, according to the US Department of Energy - three other nuclear crises erupted on Mr Bush's watch.
These are: North Korea's decision last year to abrogate the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT), kick out the IAEA inspectors and pursue the bomb; 18 years of secret Iranian nuclear programmes uncovered only last year; the revelations this year that the disgraced Pakistani engineer, Abdul Qadir Khan, was running a private network peddling nuclear technologyand warhead designs for cash to at least three customers, Libya, Iran, and North Korea.
But Colonel Muammar Gadafy was persuaded to renounce his nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction programmes - a rare event. The sole precedent is South Africa where democracy in the early 1990s brought surrender of the apartheid regime's nuclear weapons programme.
There are eight nuclear powers - the UN security council's Big Five - the US, Russia, China, Britain and France - plus India, Pakistan, and Israel. The last three have not signed the NPT, the fundamental international instrument regulating nuclear weapons. More than 30 years old, the NPT is widely regarded as having surpassed expectations in containing the spread of the bomb.
"Thirty years ago people thought there would be 30 [nuclear] weapons states by now. There are eight," said John Ritch, a former Clinton administration nuclear control official who now heads the World Nuclear Association. "The NPT has been an enormous success."
But given globalisation and modern information and technology flows, the NPT is fraying at the edges. It comes up for review next year amid tremendous international infighting behind the scenes. North Korea's abrupt abrogation of the treaty last year with impunity exposed one of the treaty's weaknesses and set a troubling precedent.
Experts and diplomats fear that countries as diverse as Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Algeria or Nigeria could launch weapons programmes if proliferation is allowed to flourish. In the attempt to get to grips with the problem, the Bush administration is relying on tougher international policing and powers of interdiction as well as seeking to ban the production of fissile material for nuclear bombs - a fissile materials cutoff treaty (FMCT) that would be internationally binding.
President Bush's special envoy on nuclear non-proliferation, Jackie Sanders, told a UN meeting last month that agreement on the moratorium, however, was getting bogged down in arguments about verification.
Many countries, including Iran, are against the US proposals and suspect Washington is seeking to curb their rights, enshrined in the NPT, to manufacture their own nuclear fuel and enrich their own uranium. Nuclear fuel for power generation can be made into bomb-grade material in months.
Many of the big non-aligned countries, such as South Africa, Malaysia and Brazil, discreetly support the Iranians in their nuclear dispute with the west because they fear that they will be next in line if Iran is forced to abandon uranium enrichment, legal under international law.
The governments of Sweden, South Africa, New Zealand, Ireland, Brazil, Mexico and Egypt - the so-called New Agenda Coalition - last month took the US to task, arguing that Washington's campaign to clamp down on the spread of nuclear weapons would be counter-productive unless the nuclear powers themselves moved decisively towards disarmament.
Dr ElBaradei has appointed a committee of experts to come up with other proposals. They are to report next spring. He has been campaigning in recent months for much tighter and more formal controls. He is also seeking to internationalise the supply of nuclear fuel for peaceful purposes by proposing the fuel be stored in a depository under multilateral control. The fuel would then be useless for weapons purposes.
But the Bush administration appears allergic to the notion of "multilateral" and the established weapons states would balk at having their nuclear supplies controlled by a UN-style body. "We have come to a fork in the road," said Dr ElBaradei this month. "Either there must be a demonstrated commitment to move towards nuclear disarmament, or we should resign ourselves to the fact that other countries will pursue a more dangerous parity through proliferation."
There are other, relatively new risks - nuclear terrorism, dirty bombs or conventional explosive laced with radioactive materials, nuclear theft and nuclear trafficking.
In the past decade there have been more than 600 confirmed incidents of trafficking in radioactive materials, with the annual figures continuing to rise. Most entail low-level radioactive devices, but experts and officials believe it is merely a matter of time until conventional terrorist explosives hit a nuclear facility or a dirty bomb causes panic in a major western city.
--------
U.N. Official Says Iranians Seem to Curb Atom Activity
November 23, 2004
By ELAINE SCIOLINO
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/23/international/middleeast/23iran.html?pagewanted=all
PARIS, Nov. 22 - Iran appears to have frozen major nuclear activities in an effort to persuade the world that it does not intend to build nuclear bombs, the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency said Monday.
"I think pretty much everything has come to a halt right now, so we are just trying to make sure that everything has been stopped," Mohamed ElBaradei, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told reporters in Vienna.
He added that operations at the Isfahan uranium conversion facility in Iran had now ended, and that the agency was in the process of applying seals to shut down operations at the country's facilities.
Dr. ElBaradei also said the atomic energy agency "hopefully" would be able to verify that Iran was honoring its commitments to freeze its uranium enrichment activities by the time the agency's 35-nation governing board begins meetings with Iran in Vienna on Thursday about how to deal with the nuclear program.
If Iran has indeed suspended those activities, it may make it harder for the United States to win a tough United Nations resolution that would perhaps entail an automatic referral of Iran to the Security Council for censure or even sanctions.
A draft resolution circulating in Vienna for consideration by the governing board calls only for Iran to be reported immediately to the International Atomic Energy Agency if it does not fully carry out the suspension or if it prevents the agency from monitoring its activities.
But Dr. ElBaradei also disclosed Monday that Iran had recently produced two tons of uranium hexafluoride, a gas whose production is a crucial step in making fuel for atom bombs and civilian nuclear reactors.
The agency uncovered evidence last week that Iran had mastered the technique of making the gas and apparently had sped up production at its vast uranium conversion facility in Isfahan. But Dr. ElBaradei's disclosure was the first public confirmation that it had produced large quantities of the gas.
The production of uranium hexafluoride does not violate an agreement Iran reached Nov. 15 with France, Germany, Britain and the European Union to suspend its uranium enrichment activities in exchange for potential rewards. That is because the deadline Iran set for carrying out the deal, known as the Paris Agreement because it was negotiated here, came into effect only on Monday.
But the disclosure was unsettling. The Bush administration, which has threatened to refer Iran to the Security Council for possible censure or sanctions because of its nuclear program, seized on it as an indication that Iran could not be trusted.
At a foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels on Monday, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw of Britain said the Iran issue might still be referred to the Security Council for possible punitive action if Tehran reneged on the deal. "If there is a failure by Iran to meet its obligations, then Britain, and also Germany and France reserve our collective right to refer the matter to the Security Council," Mr. Straw said.
Other European officials suggested that Iran, which was reluctant to agree to the freeze on activities it insists are for peaceful purposes, was determined to prove to the world its technological mastery. Despite claims last week by Iranian leaders, including President Mohammad Khatami, that the agreement was a "great success," it has been harshly criticized at home by hard-line members of Parliament and in newspaper editorials as a sign of Iranian capitulation to the West.
Hussein Mousavian, the chief Iranian negotiator in the Paris talks, tried to quell the criticism by saying last week that the agreement was approved by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's spiritual leader and most powerful official.
In Tehran on Monday, there was only a brief report on state-run radio and television announcing that Iran had suspended uranium enrichment and all related activities. "To build confidence, and in line with implementing the Paris Agreement, Iran suspended uranium enrichment," the radio report said.
After the meetings this week, the Europeans are to begin negotiations spelled out in the agreement for possible incentives to Iran if it continues to suspend its enrichment activities.
Dr. ElBaradei was also asked Monday about accusations last week by an Iranian opposition group that Iran was running a secret uranium enrichment program at a Defense Ministry site in the Lavizan district of Tehran. The accusations were made by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the political front of the People's Mujahedeen, an opposition group labeled as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.
Dr. ElBaradei made no effort to hide his impatience with such reports. "We follow every credible source of information," he said. "There's a big difference between doing robust verification and harassing a country."
Bringing U.S. and Iran Together By THE NEW YORK TIMES
SHARM EL SHEIK, Egypt, Nov. 22 - In a bit of diplomatic gamesmanship apparently aimed at opening a dinner-table dialogue between the United States and Iran, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi of Iran were seated next to each other Monday night at the opening dinner of an international conference here.
But the seating, arranged by the Egyptian hosts, did not appear to break much ice. According to a senior State Department official, the two engaged in "polite dinner conversation" only, with no indication of discussion of differences over Iraq and Iran's nuclear program.
--------
Iran Says It Has Halted Uranium Enrichment
November 23, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Nuclear-Agency-Iran.html
VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- Iran said Monday it has frozen all uranium enrichment programs, weakening a U.S. effort to refer Tehran's suspect nuclear activities to the U.N. Security Council. President Bush said he hoped the statement is true but ``there must be verification.''
Iran's claim was welcomed by Europe and cautiously endorsed by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. atomic watchdog agency. But even if verified by the IAEA, such a freeze falls short of European and U.S. hopes of an Iranian commitment to scrap enrichment ambitions.
Iran has said suspension will be only temporary and insists that it has the ultimate right to enrich uranium. It dismisses U.S. assertions that it wants to use the technology to make weapons, saying it is interested only in generating nuclear power.
And Tehran's announcement of a start to suspension came only after it had already converted a few tons of raw uranium into the gas used as feedstock for enrichment. While not prohibited from doing so until Monday -- when the freeze took effect -- conversion continued until shortly before the deadline, raising doubts about Iran's interest in dispelling international concerns.
``Iran suspended uranium enrichment (and related activities) as of today,'' Iranian state radio said Monday. In Vienna, home to the IAEA, agency head Mohamed ElBaradei told reporters: ``I think pretty much everything has come to a halt.''
Bush said Iran must ``earn the trust of those of us who are worried about them developing a nuclear weapon.''
``Let's say I hope it's true,'' Bush said at a news conference in Cartegena, Colombia. But, he added, ``I think the definition of truth is the willingness of the Iranian regime to allow for verification.''
ElBaradei said he expected to have a definitive ruling by Thursday on whether Iran had honored its pledge to stop all activities covered by the freeze, among them producing the uranium hexafluoride gas that can be enriched either to low-grade nuclear fuel or high-level weapons grade uranium used for the core of warheads.
Britain -- a key negotiator of the Nov. 7 deal that promises Iran technical and political support from the European Union in exchange for the suspension -- cautiously welcomed the move while making clear it would watch closely for its implementation.
``Clearly the important thing is that on the one hand Iran is showing signs of compliance,'' said the office of Prime Minister Tony Blair. ``But equally the important thing is that it does so.''
Still, the suspension -- if verified by IAEA inspectors -- will take the wind out of a U.S. push to have Iran referred to the Security Council, a goal the Americans have pursued since the start more than a year ago of an agency probe into suspect Iranian dual-use nuclear activities.
The suspension was clearly timed to the start Thursday of a 35-nation IAEA board meeting and met a key demand of the last board meeting in September. It thus deprived the Americans of arguing that Tehran was defying the U.N. agency.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw warned that if Iran reneges on the deal, the European Union ``reserves the right'' to seek U.N. sanctions against the country.
Still, that option seemed far away Monday, judging from an EU draft resolution on Iran to be presented to the board.
The confidential draft -- as excerpted to The Associated Press by a senior EU diplomat -- did not go beyond requesting that ElBaradei monitor the implementation of the suspension and ``report immediately to the board'' if the freeze is not implemented.
The draft would likely undergo modifications, he said. The Americans in particular would be looking to toughen up the language, said the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Another senior EU diplomat, however, said the Europeans had little wiggle room because language that is too direct could alienate the Iranians and lead them to resume enrichment.
Analysts said the Americans would have to settle for less than referral.
``This will virtually undermine U.S. efforts to move the Iran nuclear file from the IAEA board to the Security Council,'' said Shannon Kile, who follows nuclear issues for Sweden's Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
While not prohibited from enrichment under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Iran has been under intense pressure to agree to at least a freeze -- if not to scrap its program -- as a way of reducing international suspicions.
ElBaradei, the U.N. agency head, said Monday he believed the Iranians processed about two tons of raw uranium into the gas in the period leading up to Monday's suspension deadline.
A diplomat with nuclear expertise said that amount would be about a quarter of the quantity needed to produce the more than 50 pounds of weapons-grade uranium for one small nuclear weapon.
Associated Press writers Matt Moore in Stockholm and Ali Akbar Dareini in Tehran contributed to this report.
On the Net:
IAEA: http://www.iaea.org
--------
Iran Rules Out Complete Nuclear Dismantling
November 23, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-nuclear-iran.html
BEIJING (Reuters) - Iran will never be prepared to dismantle its nuclear program entirely but remains committed to the non-proliferation treaty (NPT), its chief delegate to the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Wednesday.
The United States, which branded Iran as part of an ``axis of evil'' along with North Korea and pre-war Iraq, accuses Iran of using its nuclear power program as a front to build a bomb. Tehran rejects the claim.
``Definitely, Iran will never be prepared for dismantling. This is out of the question and out of negotiation,'' Hossein Mousavian told a news conference in Beijing.
``Americans also have no right to raise something like this,'' he said, adding that Iran had never used its nuclear power program for weapons production.
On Monday, Iran said it had kept a promise it made to the European Union last week by freezing its entire uranium enrichment program and the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, gave a cautious confirmation.
Iran made a similar promise in October 2003 but never fully suspended its enrichment program.
France, Britain and Germany, which spearheaded an EU offer of incentives if Iran suspended its uranium enrichment program, circulated a draft resolution that diplomats at the United Nations said was unacceptable to both Washington and Tehran.
Washington sees it as too weak and wants to include an ``automatic trigger'' which makes it clear that resuming any activities related to enrichment -- a process of purifying uranium to fuel power plants or make weapons -- would spark a referral to the U.N. Security Council and possibly sanctions.
The draft is to be submitted to the board of governors of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, in Vienna on Thursday, where Mousavian was headed from Beijing.
If the United States pushed for the issue to be addressed in the U.N. Security Council, Washington would find itself alone, Mousavian said.
``I think Americans, they see not much room to oppose the present process of cooperation between Iran and the EU,'' he said at the end of a visit to the Chinese capital.
``And even if this time they raise the urgency of referral of the case to the United Nations Security Council I believe again they would be isolated,'' he said.
Iran's suspension of activities that could be used to make a nuclear weapon was a gesture of goodwill, Mousavian said, and Iran was serious about its commitment to use its nuclear programs for peaceful purposes.
``Iran would be prepared for full cooperation, comprehensive cooperation in the framework of NPT safeguards and protocols, active, proactive cooperation with IAEA, transparency as much as protocol and safeguards and the NPT requests,'' he said.
Asked if a formula such as the six-party talks to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis could be applied to Iran, Mousavian said the two cases were very different.
``I believe we have a very different situation. North Korea possesses nuclear bombs. Everybody knows that Iran not only does not possess any nuclear bombs, Iranian nuclear activities have never had diversion also,'' he said.
North Korea had withdrawn from the NPT, while Iran was committed to it, he said.
-------- israel
Israel's Dimona nuclear plant is safe: Sharon
JERUSALEM (AFP)
Nov 23, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041123112226.ped56s2r.html
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has insisted that the country's controversial Dimona nuclear reactor, which has been operating for the past 40 years, is safe, media reports said on Tuesday.
"The Dimona reactor is relatively small and safe", Sharon told MPs on Monday during a closed door session of parliament's foreign affairs and defence committee.
Sharon also ruled out the possibility of foreign experts coming to carry out independent safety checks on the reactor which was built with French aid at the begining of the 1950s.
"Israel possesses the means of assuring the maintenance and of carrying out its own inspections. Foreign assistance is not necessary," he added.
There have been a number of calls for the closure of the plant in the southern Negev desert, with campaigners arguing that the life span of such reactors is 40 years.
Israel has never publicly acknowledged that it maintains a nuclear arsenal but foreign experts say it has used its reactor at Dimona to produce between 100 and 200 nuclear warheads.
Israel is not a signatory of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treatyand, to the anger of its Arab neighbours, refuses to submit its nuclear facilities to inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency
-------- japan
Japan edges closer to N Korea sanctions
Asia Times
By J Sean Curtin
Nov 23, 2004
http://atimes.com/atimes/Japan/FK23Dh01.html
Intense media coverage of the North Korean abduction issue has generated unprecedented levels of public anger in Japan and is threatening to derail Tokyo's cautious approach toward Pyongyang. Momentum is rapidly building for the withholding of food aid and the imposition of economic sanctions on the Stalinist state. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is resolutely trying to pursue a pragmatic approach with his unpredictable neighbor, but calls for tougher action are becoming so loud they are getting hard to ignore. Nuclear-nascent North Korea has warned that it would treat any form of sanctions as a declaration of war.
Despite the immense diplomatic risks and potential dangers, signs are emerging that Tokyo is being inexorably pushed toward shifting its policy. Both countries now find themselves caught in a dilemma, whatever course either of them takes, bilateral relations seem destined to deteriorate.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, North Korean agents abducted an undetermined number of Japanese nationals; Tokyo currently officially recognizes 15 victims, and most of their fates have yet to be determined, to Tokyo's satisfaction. They are believed to have been kidnapped in order to teach Pyongyang agents Japanese language, idioms and customs.
The fundamental problem is that the Japanese public does not believe Pyongyang's accounts about the missing citizens. In fact, the more snippets of information North Korea provides, the less Pyongyang is believed, and the more difficult it becomes for Tokyo to maintain a moderate line.
Early this year Japanese lawmakers approved a bill enabling the government to impose economic sanctions on any country considered a threat to Japan's security, meaning North Korea. The bill amends the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Control Law and would allow Tokyo to halt trade, block cash remittances to North Korea and even halt ferry service.
Many ordinary Japanese, who usually have little interest in foreign affairs, are passionate about the abduction issue and fervently believe the time has come to initiate such action. It is difficult to describe the sheer strength of public feeling on this issue, which cuts across all ages.
Worker Takahiro Kitamura expresses a very widely held view. He told Asia Times Online, "We have repeatedly asked them to give us the facts, but all they are giving us are poor-quality lies. They are adding to the pain of the abductee families and insulting the Japanese people. We have simply had enough of this, we just cannot trust anything they say. Put sanctions on them. Maybe then they will start telling the truth."
Yuko Usui, a young nurse, is typical of many people who have been deeply moved by the plight of the abductee families. She says, "All they want is to know what happened to their loved ones. They have suffered so terribly, I feel like crying with them and sometimes I do. All they want is the truth and that is the only thing North Korea will not give them."
Noriko Kurihara, a young businesswoman, makes another commonly heard observation. "They are giving us the same kind of crazy propaganda they feed their own people and expect us to believe it," she says. "Do they think Japanese people are stupid? We have scientists who can easily detect their faked evidence, so why do they keep producing it? " She adds, "Maybe in a country like that there is no difference between fact and fiction."
The press and leading lawmakers also articulate this public sentiment. In a recent editorial, the Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's most popular daily newspaper, wrote, "North Korea's explanations are full of contradictions, and according to the results of a recent poll conducted by the Yomiuri Shimbun, more than 80% of voters do not believe that Pyongyang conducted a serious investigation into the fate of the Japanese abductees ... Japan also must increase pressure on North Korea by being ready to impose economic sanctions on the country whenever it gives us unconvincing explanations."
To successfully resolve the abduction issue, the habitually secretive state must provide comprehensive and verifiable information on the fates of the missing Japanese citizens who it admits to abducting during the 1970s and 80s.
Pyongyang says it has repatriated the five surviving abductees and that the remainder are dead. However, the scant information it has so far provided to substantiate its claims has frequently proven to be contradictory, untrustworthy or simply fabricated.
The latest example of Pyongyang's duplicity is the photographs it recently presented to Tokyo of the purportedly deceased abductee Megumi Yokota, who was kidnapped in 1977 at the age of 13. It is now believed that one of the three photos, which it is claimed were taken of the young woman while she endured captivity, may be a composite, doctored to hide a scene or a person in the original picture. This is the latest in a whole series of highly damaging revelations and has only entrenched the public's extremely deep mistrust of anything North Korea says and intensified demands for economic sanctions.
The abductees' families, especially Shigeru and Sakie Yokota, the parents of missing Megumi Yokota, have also been phenomenally effective in exposing the numerous flaws in Pyongyang's evidence, completely demolishing its already rock-bottom credibility. The Yokotas are currently appearing at venues up and down the country demanding that sanctions be imposed. After the visit of a Japanese delegation, Pyongyang sent back what it said were the ashes of Megumi and another person for DNA analysis.
Japan appears to have reached the stage where virtually nobody believes anything Pyongyang says. Influential political figures such as Shinzo Abe and Takeo Hiranuma, both leading candidates to succeed Koizumi, are also vigorously calling for sanctions. The major opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan, has also adopted an aggressive stance, significantly adding to the gathering momentum for imposing sanctions.
Senior diplomats are urging caution, warning that at this stage sanctions or the withholding of a scheduled 250,000 tons of humanitarian food aid would exacerbate the situation, extinguish any hope of finding out what happened to the missing abductees, jeopardize the six-party talks on halting North Korea's nuclear program and trigger a potential catastrophe in which tens of thousands of North Koreans might starve to death, destabilizing the region and prompting the unpredictable regime to take dangerous actions.
A Japanese diplomat, who did not wish to be named, told Asia Times Online, "Our experience in dealing with this awkward regime indicates that the imposition of even limited sanctions at this juncture would most probably be very counterproductive and hinder both our short-term and long-term objectives and make it harder to conduct any productive negotiations in the future."
While diplomatic logic dictates that economic sanctions would not be effective or advisable, public opinion is threatening to overturn this policy. It is becoming increasingly difficult for Koizumi to maintain his steady pragmatic course. In the last few days, the situation has reached an almost critical point, and it is becoming difficult to predict exactly what will happen next.
At the weekend's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum summit in Chile, Koizumi raised the abduction issue, calling for help in resolving it: "We want to continue to request support from APEC on this matter." He also said Tokyo would continue to urge North Korea to halt its nuclear development program.
The prime minister appears reluctant to abandon his carefully calculated approach. However, unless North Korea suddenly becomes more forthcoming or the media tones down its strident anti-Pyongyang rhetoric, Koizumi may have little alternative than to adopt much tougher tactics.
A week ago, sanctions seemed highly improbable, now they seem like a real possibility. This is a development that is worrying for the leadership in both countries, and alarmingly, neither is fully in charge of the forces driving the debate.
J Sean Curtin is a GLOCOM fellow at the Tokyo-based Japanese Institute of Global Communications.
-----
Japan Nuclear Plant Reaches Safety Pact to Start Uranium Tests
By Kyodo News International
November 23, 2004
http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=436
AOMORI, Japan - The operator of the new Rokkasho nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Aomori Prefecture concluded a safety agreement with the local and prefectural governments on Monday and is expected to begin experiments using uranium possibly by year-end, officials of the local governments said.
The agreement was reached after a government panel reviewing Japan's long-term nuclear energy plan said in a recent report that Japan will stick to the current policy of reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rather than burying it, effectively giving the green light for the plan to begin operations at the Rokkasho plant.
The agreement was reached among the Aomori prefectural government, the Rokkasho village government and Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd.
In October, debate on the current policy of reprocessing spent fuel was heated by an estimate by a subcommittee of the Atomic Energy Commission of Japan that reprocessing is 1.5 times to 1.6 times more expensive than burial disposal.
The Rokkasho plant is scheduled to begin full-fledged operations in July 2006 and has begun accepting spent nuclear fuel from power plants for storage.
-------- terrorism
CIA Says Iran, Qaeda Pursued Nuclear Weapons
November 23, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-security-wmd.html
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iran ``vigorously'' pursued programs to produce nuclear, chemical and biological weapons during the latter part of 2003 and was working to improve delivery systems, a CIA report said on Tuesday.
Al Qaeda was also engaged in rudimentary nuclear research, the CIA said, and the network's stated willingness to launch an unconventional attack was a major concern.
The unclassified semi-annual report to Congress on the acquisition of technology relating to weapons of mass destruction from July 1 through Dec. 31, 2003, was posted on the intelligence agency's Web site www.cia.gov.
``Iran's nuclear program received significant assistance in the past from the proliferation network headed by Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan,'' the CIA report said.
Khan's network provided Iran with designs for Pakistan's older centrifuges and for more advanced and efficient models, and components, the report said.
Iran was trying to improve delivery systems and sought foreign materials, training and equipment from Russia, China, North Korea, and Europe, it said.
Last week Iran denied allegations by an exiled opposition group that it obtained weapons-grade uranium and a nuclear bomb design from Khan, the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb.
The United States believes Iran has been pursuing a secret nuclear weapons program and has tried to convince the international community of those concerns.
TERRORISM THREAT HIGH
``One of our highest concerns is al Qaeda's stated readiness to attempt unconventional attacks against us,'' the report said. Osama bin Laden and other leaders have said it was al Qaeda's religious duty to acquire nuclear weapons, the CIA said.
Documents recovered in Afghanistan showed that al Qaeda ``was engaged in rudimentary nuclear research, although the extent of its indigenous program is unclear,'' it said.
Pakistani nuclear engineer Bashir al-Din Mahmood, who reportedly met with bin Laden, ``may have provided some assistance to al Qaeda's program,'' the report said.
``In addition, we are alert to the very real possibility that al Qaeda or other terrorist groups might also try to launch conventional attacks against the chemical or nuclear industrial infrastructure of the United States to cause panic and economic disruption,'' the CIA report said.
Several groups associated with al Qaeda planned attacks in Europe with easily produced chemicals and toxins best suited to assassination and small-scale scenarios, the CIA said.
Documents recovered in Afghanistan show al Qaeda has crude procedures for making mustard agent, sarin, and VX nerve agent, and had conducted research on biological agents. ``We believe al Qaeda's BW (biological warfare) program is primarily focused on anthrax for mass casualty attacks,'' the report said.
The CIA report also said that information from 2003 detailed the construction of a ``terrorist cyanide-based chemical weapon'' that could be made with easily available items and required little training to assemble and deploy.
``Such a device could produce a lethal concentration of poisonous gases in an enclosed area,'' the CIA said.
The proliferation behavior of Chinese companies remained of ``great concern'' but China had taken some positive steps, the report said. In September 2003, China stopped a shipment of chemicals at the China-North Korea border that could have been used in North Korea's nuclear program, the report said.
North Korea had approached Western European entities for assistance with its uranium enrichment program, and ``a shipment of aluminum tubing -- enough for 4,000 centrifuge tubes -- was halted by German authorities,'' the report said.
-------- u.s. nuc weapons
Congress jettisons nuclear bomb funds
President touted bunker buster as vital to U.S. security
San Francisco Chronicle
James Sterngold
November 23, 2004
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/11/23/MNGSPA04NG1.DTL
Congress, in a surprising blow to the Bush administration's nuclear weapons ambitions, has eliminated funding for two major bomb research programs, including a so-called bunker buster that the president had said was essential to the country's security.
Relatively small amounts of money are involved -- tens of millions of dollars -- and the new weapons-research programs could be revived in later years. But the cuts agreed to by the House and the Senate, in which influential Republicans joined with Democratic opponents of the programs, amounted to a rejection of a major part of Bush's nuclear defense strategy.
"This has always been a hard sell," said David Smith, the chief operating officer of the National Institute for Public Policy, a conservative-leaning think tank that formulated what became the president's basic weapons strategy in 2000 and that placed many of its members in the administration. "The problem is the public -- and the Congress reflects this -- just doesn't understand the role of nuclear weapons in the post-Cold War world.
"We just don't seem to be able to turn the corner even on researching what's doable with new kinds of weapons. Bumper stickers aren't going to accomplish some of the missions this country is going to face."
Opponents of the new programs were ecstatic.
"This responsible decision demonstrates the growing bipartisan concern and distrust of the Bush administration's irresponsible and risky nuclear policy," Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Walnut Creek, said in a statement after the appropriations bill was passed last weekend.
"The administration is using the war on terrorism as a flimsy excuse to find new uses for existing nuclear weapons and new nuclear weapons -- weapons that the Pentagon hasn't even officially asked for."
Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, a Washington-based group that advocates arms reductions, called the vote "a surprising and welcome rebuke of the administration's nuclear programs. It shows that not only are Democrats convinced, but key Republicans are convinced we don't need new nuclear weapons capabilities."
Overall nuclear weapons-related spending, most of which will be used to maintain the current stockpile of more than 10,000 warheads, will rise in fiscal 2005 to slightly more than $6.52 billion, up nearly $300 million from fiscal 2004.
But under the appropriations bill passed Saturday, funding for research into what is called the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator -- a bomb that would burrow deep into the earth and destroy buried targets, such as enemy bunkers - - was completely eliminated. The White House had sought $27.6 million, up from $7.5 million last year.
In addition, $9 million that Bush had requested for research into new kinds of advanced weapons concepts was denied. Instead, the same amount of money was placed into a program to ensure the reliability of existing warheads.
And Congress slashed the White House's request for funding of design work on a new factory for producing plutonium "pits," the radioactive cores of warheads, from a requested $30 million to $7 million. In addition, Congress insisted that none of the money could be used for work on choosing the site of the proposed plant, to be called the Modern Pit Facility.
The National Nuclear Security Administration, the agency that oversees the weapons programs, was clearly frustrated, but officials there said it was not clear if the appropriations meant the programs would be shut down completely.
"It means we don't know yet what will happen," said Bryan Wilkes, an agency spokesman. "It's too early to tell. While we are disappointed that Congress did not support some of our programs, we will be looking at what else we can do."
The architect of the rebuke was the Republican chairman of the House's Energy and Water Appropriations subcommittee, Rep. David Hobson of Ohio.
He reduced the administration's funding requests last year but fought even harder this year. He has explained in interviews that he sees some of the weapons programs as unnecessary and counterproductive at a time when the United States is trying to persuade other countries to shut down nuclear weapons efforts.
"He felt very strongly about this, and he won this particular round. The U.S. has about 10,000 warheads in the stockpile already. To him, that number is enough," said Hobson's press secretary, Sara Perkins.
But total weapons-related spending rose, and some programs received a larger appropriation than the president had requested. These included a new chemistry and metallurgy research center at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and a microelectronics research program at the Sandia National Laboratories.
Supporters of the White House's efforts to create a new generation of warheads for the new security threats the country faces were undaunted.
"This will come up again and again and again," Smith said.
How successful such efforts will be remains to be seen. Hobson told the Washington Post that the rejection was "a clear signal from Congress" and that any attempt to revive the funding in next year's budget "would get the same reaction."
E-mail James Sterngold at jsterngold@sfchronicle.com.
--------
Funds for Atomic Bomb Research Cut From Spending Bill
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 23, 2004; Page A06
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5554-2004Nov22.html
Congress has eliminated the financing of research supported by President Bush into a new generation of nuclear weapons, including investigations into low-yield atomic bombs and an earth-penetrating warhead that could destroy weapons bunkers deep underground.
The Bush administration called in 2002 for exploring new nuclear weapons that could deter a wide range of threats, including possible development of a warhead that could go after hardened, deeply buried targets, or lower-power bombs that could be used to destroy chemical or biological stockpiles without contaminating a wide area.
But research on those programs was dropped from the $388 billion government-wide spending bill adopted Saturday, a rare instance in which the Republican-controlled Congress has gone against the president. The move slowly came to light over the weekend as details of the extensive measure became clear.
Dropping the programs was praised by arms-control advocates and some members of Congress who tried unsuccessfully for several years to kill them. These opponents argued that such research by the United States could trigger a new arms race, and that the existence of lower-yield weapons -- sometimes called "mini-nukes" -- would ultimately increase the likelihood of war.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) described Saturday's result as "a consequential victory for those of us who believe the United States sends the wrong signal to the rest of the world by reopening the nuclear door."
President Bush's fiscal 2005 budget contained $27 million to continue research on modifying two existing warheads for the earth-penetrator, or "bunker-buster," role, and it projected nearly $500 million over the next five years should a weapon be approved.
While Feinstein and other Democrats had failed earlier this year to bar authorization of the program, it was a Republican, Rep. David L. Hobson of Ohio, who lead the successful effort to keep the programs out of the omnibus appropriations bill adopted Saturday. Hobson, chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on energy and water development, oversaw dropping the money from an appropriations bill in June, and House-Senate conferees accepted that action in Saturday's bill.
The Bush administration, Hobson said yesterday, "should read this as a clear signal from Congress" that any attempt to revive the funding in next year's budget "would get the same reaction." He added that he had not heard any threat of a veto and "nobody has come to me and said we can't have this."
The action caught the administration by surprise. A spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration, which runs the nuclear weapons programs and the national nuclear laboratories, said the matter was under study.
"We are disappointed Congress has not followed the administration's request in several areas, and we will assess what we will do down the road," said Bryan Wilkes, the security agency's spokesman. He added that it was too early to talk about what will be in the fiscal 2006 budget that will go to Congress in January.
Also cut from the nuclear program was $7 million for selecting a site for a $4 billion facility that would build what are called plutonium pits, the nuclear triggers for thermonuclear warheads. Arms-control advocates had opposed the facility, arguing that with a sharp 50 percent reduction in the U.S. nuclear stockpile, a small facility operating now at Los Alamos National Laboratory could produce enough pits for the U.S. arsenal.
Hobson said he decided the research money should be deleted after visits over the past two years with scientists and managers at the nuclear labs and test sites, and after watching steps being taken by the administration to cut the nuclear stockpile and designate "smart" conventional weapons for tasks once assigned to atomic warheads.
He said that the $9 million Bush request to study ideas for new low-yield weapons had been redirected into studies of "current technologies to make existing warheads more robust and easier to maintain without more testing." Hobson added he had been against developing smaller-yield weapons "that someone might use," and instead wants the nuclear labs to employ modern technology to make "more reliable replacements" for the current warheads.
Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.), whose attempt to cut the new nuclear weapons program authorization in past years had failed, described what had occurred as a reversal of "the Bush administration's dangerous disregard for nuclear nonproliferation."
She noted the "growing bipartisan concern and distrust" of the administration's nuclear policies and commended Hobson "for recognizing the need to halt spending for nuclear 'bunker busters' and an arsenal of new nuclear weapons."
Hobson also received praise from Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, who said the Ohio legislator "has shown enormous courage to break ranks with the White House and apply common sense on its excessive and extreme nuclear proposals."
Kimball warned the administration to "carefully consider whether it will try to revive its controversial nuclear weapons research programs."
--------
Nuclear Weapons Money Is Cut From Spending Bill
November 23, 2004
By MATTHEW L. WALD
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/23/politics/23nuke.html
WASHINGTON, Nov. 22 - The giant spending bill that Congress passed on Saturday eliminated money for developing new nuclear weapons, including one that would be used to destroy underground bunkers. It also deeply cut the Bush administration's request for money for a new factory to make the triggers for nuclear bombs.
One of the projects eliminated was the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, widely known as the bunker buster; the administration had wanted $27.6 million for the program.
If a bomb penetrates into the earth by a few feet before detonating, much of its energy is transferred into the soil, forming a shock wave that can destroy underground structures, experts say. For years, military planners have discussed a need for such a weapon, which could wipe out underground factories or command centers. But critics argued that developing such weapons would push the United States closer to stepping across the nuclear threshold for the first time since 1945, that intelligence was not good enough to assure that the Pentagon would know where to use the weapons, and that even if such weapons were used, they might not work.
Another program that was cut back was the advanced concepts initiative, which was also apparently for new weapons, although details were not made public. It was also supposed to provide meaningful work for young weapons designers after years of the United States' relying on old designs, nuclear experts said.
Instead, Congress gave the Energy Department the amount it had requested, $9 million, but told it to use the money for modifying existing weapons to keep them reliable, an aide to the House Appropriations Committee said.
Representative David L. Hobson, the Ohio Republican who is the chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, said in a speech in August to a symposium on post-cold-war nuclear strategy that he saw the administration's call for research on the new bombs and the earth penetrator, along with a proposal to shorten the lead time required to resume nuclear testing, as "very provocative and overly aggressive policies that undermine our moral authority to argue that other nations should forgo nuclear weapons.''
"We cannot advocate for nuclear nonproliferation around the globe and pursue more useable nuclear weapons options at home,'' Mr. Hobson said at the symposium, which was sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment.
The Senate was friendlier to the Energy Department's budget request but in a closed negotiating session to reconcile the two measures, Mr. Hobson's position prevailed.
Representative Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, and a sponsor of amendments in 2002, 2003 and this year to kill the bunker buster, proclaimed the cut as "the biggest victory that arms control advocates in Congress have had since 1992,'' when limits were put on nuclear testing. All of Mr. Markey's amendments failed, but the votes were increasingly close, the last one 214 to 204.
The Modern Pit Facility, which would replace the old Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant for building the triggers of nuclear weapons, got $7 million in the bill; the administration had asked for $20 million. The action will delay a decision on where to build the factory, according to the National Nuclear Security Administration, the part of the Energy Department that is in charge of nuclear weapons.
Bryan Wilkes, a spokesman for the Energy Department, said the department was still studying the appropriations bill.
"Over all, Congress has supported the N.N.S.A.'s programs,'' Mr. Wilkes said. "While we are disappointed Congress did not follow the administration's requests in several areas, we'll have to take a long look and see what we're going to do down the line.''
-------- u.s. nuc facilities
-------- colorado
Allard wants GAO review of Flats cleanup
Denver Post
By Kim McGuire
November 23, 2004
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2552102,00.html
Colorado Sen. Wayne Allard has asked the Government Accountability Office for a third review of the $7.2 billion cleanup at the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant.
"We need independent assurance that the cleanup is on time, on budget and that the site meets the stringent environmental standards outlined for the contractor when the project began," said Allard, chairman of the Senate Armed Services panel's Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, which oversees Department of Energy nuclear-cleanup projects.
Specifically, the Loveland Republican has asked the congressional research office to assess whether the job will be done by 2006 and meet all requirements of the original cleanup agreement.
Allard also wants the office to evaluate whether the cleanup will be sufficient to protect human health and the environment after it becomes a national wildlife refuge.
For four decades, until an FBI raid shut it down for safety violations in 1989, Rocky Flats built plutonium triggers for more than 70,000 nuclear warheads.
Consequently, portions of the sprawling site between Boulder and Golden were contaminated with radioactive elements.
Allard has twice before requested that the GAO assess the Rocky Flats closure plan. Those two assessments primarily focused on the cleanup's pace and budget.
"We welcome this review and will cooperate in any way we can," said Karen Lutz, a spokeswoman for the Department of Energy.
The Rocky Flats cleanup is overseen by several federal and state agencies and monitored by several other groups.
"Bringing in a third party to report on matters that relate to the budget and the technical side of things should always be part of the process," said David Abelson, executive director of the Rocky Flats Coalition of Governments.
Staff writer Kim McGuire can be reached at 303-820-1240 or kmcguire@denverpost.com.
-------- nevada
US Delays Plan to Seek Permit for Nuclear Waste Site
Reuters
By Chris Baltimore
November 23, 2004
http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=441
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration on Monday delayed its plan to file an application to build a nuclear waste dump in the Nevada desert, citing an unresolved court case and budget questions.
The Energy Department had planned to apply to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by the end of December for a permit to build a massive underground storage depot beneath Yucca Mountain about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
"We're revising that original goal," Energy Department spokesman Joseph Davis said. "We don't anticipate significant delays, even though we have not nailed down a hard date."
The administration wants to open the repository in 2010, but recent delays call into question the timetable for the plan to store 77,000 tons of waste from 103 U.S. nuclear power reactors.
"Everything hasn't gone according to plan," Davis said. "There are some outstanding issues we've got to deal with."
The department must weigh a court decision ordering it to prevent radiation leaks for more than 10,000 years, as well as budget constraints, Davis said.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in July rejected Nevada's attempt to block the plan on constitutional grounds.
But the court also said the administration wrongly ignored a recommendation from the National Academy of Sciences to ensure safety from leaks for well beyond 10,000 years. Radioactive releases could peak in 300,000 years and the administration must assure safeguards on that scale, it said.
There are also budget concerns.
Some opponents of Yucca in Congress, including new Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, have tried to choke the project through the appropriations process.
Congress on Saturday approved a $388 billion spending bill for federal government programs that set aside $577 million to fund Yucca, equal to current levels but short of the $880 million sought by the Energy Department.
Spent fuel from the nation's nuclear plants -- which suppklies about 20 percent of U.S. electricity -- is piling up, with over 50,000 tons of it stored at over 100 temporary locations in 39 states.
-----
DOE says it won't get Yucca Mountain application in by Dec. 31
Associated Press
November 23, 2004
http://www.kesq.com/Global/story.asp?S=2600956
LAS VEGAS Word out of Washington this morning that the Energy Department WON'T meet its goal of getting an application for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump filed by the end of the year after all. The Las Vegas Sun reports that Margaret Chu -- the D-O-E official who oversees the project -- told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission at a meeting today that the department's revising its schedule.
Chu didn't give a new time frame for submitting a license application, but says she doesn't expect long delays.
It's not clear if that means the D-O-E will still try to meet its goal of opening the national nuclear repository by 2010.
The Energy Department wants to entomb 77-thousand tons of the nation's most radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain -- 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
The N-R-C is the agency that'll have to decide whether to issue an operating license.
--------
In Deal, Aide to Reid To Be Named to NRC
Nevada Senator Opposes Waste Site
By H. Josef Hebert
Associated Press
Tuesday, November 23, 2004; Page A27
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5557-2004Nov22.html
In a deal to let 175 of President Bush's nominees take office, an adviser to new Democratic leader Harry M. Reid, the Senate's staunchest opponent of a nuclear waste dump in his home state of Nevada, will be named to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
For months Senate Republicans had refused to take up, or even hold a hearing, on the nomination of Gregory Jaczko, Reid's adviser on nuclear issues.
In turn, Reid, who has pledged to try to kill the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, had blocked the Bush nominations.
In negotiations just before Congress recessed during the weekend, an agreement was worked out: The White House promised Jaczko would be appointed to a limited two-year term while Congress was in recess, and Reid lifted his hold on the package of Bush nominations, which then zipped through the Senate.
Also, it was agreed that a Republican nominee to the NRC, retired Navy Vice Adm. Albert H. Konetzni Jr., would be put on the commission and probably would become its chairman late next year.
The White House already had sent Konetzni's nomination to the Senate this month, hoping to resolve an impasse that had kept the president's nominations in congressional limbo. Among them were senior positions across the executive branch and at such entities as Amtrak, the Social Security Administration and the judiciary.
Some Republicans and executives in the nuclear industry had opposed Jaczko's nomination bitterly, fearing that he would work to further Reid's desire to kill the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project.
The NRC is expected to begin considering a license for the facility next year. Under the compromise reached on the commission's nominations, Jaczko agreed not to participate in matters related to Yucca Mountain for the first year of his two-year term.
The licensing process is expected to take at least three years once an application is received from the Energy Department next year.
Margaret Chu, director of the Energy Department office that heads the Yucca program, recently informed regulators that the department will not meet a Dec. 31 target to submit a license application, officials said yesterday. It had been widely believed the target would be missed because of financing problems and adverse court decisions involving radiation standards.
Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.), who opposed Jaczko's nomination, said he was comfortable with the arrangement after the White House assured him Jaczko would not be renominated by Bush after his two years on the commission.
A Reid spokeswoman, Tessa Hafen, said that the agreement "in no way prohibits [Jaczko] from being renominated."
By law, three of the five NRC commissioners must be of the same party as the president. The commission currently has two Republicans and one Democratic member.
Jaczko, a physicist who joined Reid's staff in 2001 as a nuclear adviser, did not return telephone calls to his office yesterday.
"Greg is eminently qualified to serve as a commissioner," Reid said in a statement. "He is a scientist first and has the background and experience necessary to evaluate information objectively."
Domenici and 15 other Republican senators informed Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) that it would be impossible to confirm Jaczko without senators first having the opportunity to question him at a formal hearing.
"A nominee as controversial as Greg Jaczko will not be confirmed . . . for the sake of political expedience," Domenici said.
An appointment to a post while Congress is in recess does not require Senate confirmation but is good for only the length of the congressional session, which is two years. A normal NRC appointment is for five years.
On the Net:
Nuclear Regulatory Commission: http://www.nrc.gov
Yucca Mountain Project: http://www.ymp.gov
Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management: http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste
-------- us nuc waste
Yucca Foe's Aide Gets Nuclear Panel Post
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
November 23, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Yucca-Appointments.html
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apwashington_story.asp?category=1153&slug=Yucca%20Appointments
WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a deal to let 175 of President Bush's nominees take office, an adviser to new Democratic leader Harry Reid, the Senate's staunchest opponent of a nuclear waste dump in Nevada, will be named to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
For months Senate Republicans had refused to take up, or even hold a hearing, on the nomination of Gregory Jaczko, Reid's adviser on nuclear issues.
In turn, Reid, who has pledged to try to kill the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, had blocked the Bush nominations.
In negotiations just before Congress recessed during the weekend, an agreement was worked out: the White House promised Jaczko would be appointed to a limited two-year term while Congress was in recess, and Reid lifted his hold on the package of Bush nominations, which zipped through the Senate.
Also, it was agreed that a Republican nominee to the NRC, retired Navy Vice Admiral Albert H. Konetzni, would be put on the commission and probably would become its chairman late next year.
The White House already had sent Konetzni's nomination to the Senate this month hoping to resolve an impasse that had kept the president's nominations in congressional limbo. Among them were senior positions across the executive branch and at such entities as Amtrak, the Social Security Administration and the judiciary.
Some Republicans and executives in the nuclear industry had opposed Jaczko's nomination bitterly, fearing that he would work to further Reid's desire to kill the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project.
The NRC is expected to begin considering a license for the facility next year. Under the compromise reached on the NRC nominations, Jaczko agreed not to participate in any Yucca Mountain related matters for the first year of his two-year term.
The licensing process is expected to take at least three years once an application is received from the Energy Department next year. Margaret Chu, director of the DOE office that heads the Yucca program, recently informed regulators the department would not meet a Dec. 31 target to submit a license application, officials said Monday. It had been widely believed the target would be missed because of financing problems and adverse court decisions involving radiation standards.
Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., who opposed Jaczko's nomination, said he was comfortable with the arrangement after, he said, the White House assured him Jaczko would not be renominated by the president after his two years.
A Reid spokeswoman, Tessa Hafen, said that the agreement ``in no way prohibits (Jaczko) from being renominated.''
By law three of the five commissioners at the NRC must be of the same party as the president. The commission currently has two Republican and one Democratic member.
Jaczko, a physicist who joined Reid's staff in 2001 as a nuclear adviser, did not return telephone calls to his office Monday.
``Greg is eminently qualified to serve as a commissioner. He is a scientist first and has the background and experience necessary to evaluate information objectively,'' Reid said in a statement.
Domenici and 15 other Republican senators informed Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist that it would be impossible to confirm Jaczko without senators first having the opportunity to question him at a formal hearing.
``A nominee as controversial as Greg Jaczko will not be confirmed ... for the sake of political expedience,'' said Domenici. An appointment to a post while Congress is in recess does not require Senate confirmation but is good for only the length of the congressional session, which is two years. A normal NRC appointment is for five years.
On the Net:
Nuclear Regulatory Commission: http://www.nrc.gov
Yucca Mountain Project: http://www.ymp.gov
Office of Civilian Radioactive Wase Management: http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste
NIRS: http://www.nirs.org
---------
[ To reply - mailto:letters@washingtontimes.com ]
Sound science on Yucca disposal
November 23, 2004
Washington Times
Letters to the Editor
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20041122-095743-4248r.htm
It is remarkable how much progress has been made at Yucca Mountain, given that the anti-nuclear power lobby is bent on stopping anything that might encourage the safe use of nuclear energy and plays up worst-case scenarios involving waste disposal at Yucca ("Yucca's energy role," Editorial, Saturday).
The sound science and engineering progress attests to the appropriateness of the original choice of Yucca Mountain. Those who have visited the site are struck by the physical isolation of its location, with the almost total lack of water to disperse already hard-to-dissolve wastes.
This is an appropriate place to hold hazardous materials, such as nuclear waste, given that the Nevada test site, where for years nuclear weapons were detonated, is adjacent to the site. Finally, if innovative and economic uses of spent nuclear fuel are identified, the current plan is to have the wastes retrievable for at least 50 years.
Through their votes and with their elected representatives in Congress, the people of this country said they are interested in cleaner power that is not excessively priced, and that nuclear energy is certainly one of the best alternatives available.
MIKE CORRADINI
Chair Department of Engineering Physics University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, Wis.
-------- MILITARY
-------- africa
Fighting Erupts in West Sudan Despite Accord
November 23, 2004
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/23/international/africa/23sudan.html?pagewanted=all
KHARTOUM, Sudan, Nov. 22 - Less than two weeks after the Sudanese government and rebels reached a partial agreement aimed at ending the conflict in Darfur, two clashes in that western Sudan region early Monday left at least 25 people dead and forced the evacuation of aid workers.
Jan Pronk, the top United Nations envoy for Sudan, said 15 to 20 police officers had been killed when rebels of the Sudan Liberation Army carried out a dawn attack on the town of Tawila in northern Darfur. Six civilians were killed, the United Nations mission said. African Union peacekeeping troops rescued 45 aid workers from the town by helicopter.
Mr. Pronk said in an interview here late Monday that Sudanese warplanes responded to the attack by circling overhead, but that reports of aerial bombings, which would be a violation of the recent accord, had not been confirmed by African Union troops investigating the incident.
Save the Children U.K., one of the relief groups whose staff members were evacuated from Tawila, said government warplanes had dropped at least one bomb about 50 yards from one of its feeding centers.
"I am afraid the government feels compelled not only to defend itself but to regain ground with violence," Mr. Pronk said, adding that he had already urged the government to refrain from bombing, spare civilians and instruct its allied militias to do the same.
A second attack took place at Kalma, a teeming displaced people's camp near the southern Darfur city of Nyala. A United Nations official said initial reports indicated that rebels had struck a police post inside the camp, killing at least four officers and wounding three civilians.
Reuters quoted Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail as saying that the police were attacked by a group of 10 rebels. Which of the three rebel forces operating in Darfur might have been responsible was unclear.
The two incidents, part of a steady increase in violence in the past several weeks, took place despite a promised détente by both sides and the threat of United Nations sanctions.
In talks sponsored by the African Union in Abuja, Nigeria, the government and its rebel foes agreed Nov. 9 to disclose the locations and numbers of their troops and to allow access for aid groups. The accord also obliged the government to cease aerial bombings but said its warplanes could fly over government territory.
Though it was unclear Monday night whether the government had violated that part of the agreement, United Nations officials said there was no doubt that the rebels had broken their side of the deal.
Mr. Pronk said a leader of the Sudan Liberation Army had denied his forces' involvement in the Tawila attack.
Tension between Arab nomads and local farmers had been simmering for years in Darfur, mostly over land and water rights. By early last year, an armed insurgency emerged. It was met with crushing force from government troops and allied Arab militias. Some 1.6 million people have been left homeless by the fighting.
-------- arms
China urges EU not to place obstacles in relations by keeping arms ban
BEIJING (AFP)
Nov 23, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041123092658.vmo33brf.html
China Tuesday urged the European Union not to create obstacles to the future development of relations and repeated its call for a 15-year-old arms embargo to be lifted at a bilateral summit next month.
"We hope the European Union will pursue this issue from the overall picture of China-Europe relations," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue told a regular press briefing when asked about the arms embargo.
"(We hope it will) do more things that are conducive towards the all-round development of our relations rather than creating unfavourable issues," she said.
The spokesman urged the EU to make a "wise decision" as soon as possible.
Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, said Monday that Europe's message to Beijing at a December 8 China-EU summit would be upbeat.
However, he insisted that human rights concerns must still be met before the arms ban can be lifted.
Zhang declined to comment on whether the expected early release of prominent dissident Liu Jingsheng this week was a gesture to demonstrate an improvement on human rights issues in China.
Liu's mother said the democracy campaigner would be released from a 15-year jail sentence on Saturday, two-and-half years early.
The EU embargo was imposed on China after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, but some EU states -- notably France and Germany -- argue that it is outdated.
-------- britain
Britain Proposes National ID Cards; Critics See a Political Ploy
November 23, 2004
By ALAN COWELL
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/23/international/europe/23cnd-britain.html?pagewanted=all
LONDON, Nov. 23 - Invoking a global threat of terrorism, the British government announced plans today to introduce national identity cards for the first time since the Second World War. An opposition legislator responded that the government wanted to create a "climate of fear" in advance of elections expected next year.
The proposal was included in a list of 37 draft laws outlined by Queen Elizabeth II on behalf of the government at the ceremonial opening of Parliament, an event conducted with pomp from the golden Royal Throne in the House of Lords. While the queen, Britain's head of state, traditionally summarizes proposed legislation, the list is actually drawn up by government ministers.
The most contentious law related to a plan to begin introducing a national identity card in 2008, a measure the government asserts is needed to fight terrorism and organized crime, among other ills. In her speech, the queen said Britons "live in a time of global uncertainty with an increased threat from international terrorism and organized crime."
Speaking later, Prime Minister Tony Blair said, "With terrorism, illegal immigration and organized crime operating with so much greater sophistication, identity cards in my judgment are long overdue."
But opposition conservatives and liberal democrats assailed the plans as an effort to raise levels of fear in Britain in the hope of winning votes at elections, possibly next May. Today's announcement of a legislative program may, in fact, be the last of its kind before the election, whose date has not been formally announced.
A spokesman for the opposition Liberal Democrats, Mark Oaten, said the government hoped to create a "climate of fear" through measures to combat terrorism and crime. The government also announced other security-related moves today, including proposals for new counterterrorism legislation and for a new police unit akin to the F.B.I. in the United States.
A Conservative spokesman, Liam Fox, said, "It is clear that they are trying to raise the fears from terrorism in the country at the present time."
Britain ceased issuing national identity documents to its citizens 52 years ago, after the Second World War.
But identity cards have become commonplace in many parts of continental Europe, supplanting passports for cross-border travel within much of the European Union. In Britain, opponents argue that their use will infringe on civil rights, since they will be accompanied by a national database containing information about everyone living in Britain. The cards are expected to include personal information like names and addresses coupled with so-called biometrics like computerized fingerprint records.
Outside Parliament today, protesters accused the government of mounting what one demonstrator, Mark Littlewood, called "an enormous threat to privacy and liberty."
Protesters brandished a rubber stamp in the form of a supermarket bar code, saying the government plans for a database were "the moral equivalent of bar-coding the entire population."
The identity cards are likely to be introduced beginning around 2008, when Britons applying for a new passport will be required to obtain an identity card at the same time for a combined cost of $160. The government plans to make the cards compulsory at a later date. Initially, the government suggested that an identity card would be used primarily to prevent misuse of free public services like the National Health Service. But the argument now is that the cards will protect British freedoms against an array of perils that include terrorism and people smuggling.
"In the end, people have to be safe to enjoy their liberty," said Peter Hain, a senior government figure.
--------
Queen gives biometric ID cards the green light
November 23, 2004
Andy McCue,
Special to CNET News.com
http://www.nytimes.com/cnet/CNET_2100-7349_3-5464556.html
Legislation for national identity cards and the setting-up of a British version of the FBI were the key planks of the Queen's Speech on Tuesday, which promised "security for all."
Both were widely expected to be included in the speech, which sets out the legislative agenda for the upcoming session of the U.K. Parliament. The speech is read by the Queen but written by the government, which will now push both pieces of legislation through Parliament before the next general election. Speaking in the House of Lords, the Queen said: "My government recognizes that we live in a time of global uncertainty, with an increased threat from international terrorism and organized crime. Measures to extend opportunity will be accompanied by legislation to increase security for all."
The ID card scheme proposed by the Home Office entails the introduction by 2008 of a stand-alone ID card containing biometric information such as iris scans, fingerprints and a facial scan. The 15-pound ($28) card will be mandatory and will be issued alongside all new and renewed passports, the cost of which will also rise to 85 pounds ($159).
More significantly, the National Identity Register--a vast database of information on U.K. citizens--will be created to underpin the ID card scheme.
The government also formally announced its intention to introduce legislation to establish the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), which has been compared to the FBI. The U.K.'s computer crime squad, the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit, will be one of the law enforcement agencies that will play a role in SOCA.
The $5.6 billion ID card scheme has sparked concern among technology industry experts about the pace and scale of such a high-profile and costly project, which would be the biggest IT project ever undertaken by the government.
Mark Blowers, a senior research director at the Butler Group, an analyst firm, said there are still significant questions about the rejection rates and read accuracy of some biometric technologies.
"There are still a number of issues which have the potential to derail (the government's) plans to tackle crime and terrorism," he said in a statement.
Andy McCue of Silicon.com reported from London.
-------- business
Boeing, EADS Likely to Make Tanker Bids
By Renae Merle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 23, 2004; Page E01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6154-2004Nov22.html
The Pentagon will hold a competition to replace its aging fleet of refueling tankers, potentially pitting aerospace giant Boeing Co. against its European rival in a multibillion-dollar military competition.
The Air Force originally wanted to lease, then buy the planes from Chicago-based Boeing, but strong opposition from the Senate Armed Services Committee and an ethics scandal at Boeing ultimately prompted Congress to block the proposal.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is expected to decide early next year how the Air Force should go about replacing the planes, which are on average 40 years old. The possible avenues include building an entirely new plane, turning used commercial aircraft into tankers or modernizing the current fleet.
"Let me be clear: After we have selected an appropriate alternative, we intend to require competition," Paul D. Wolfowitz, deputy secretary of defense, said in a Nov. 19 letter to Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The original proposal, which has spurred federal and congressional investigations, was derailed last December after Boeing fired former Air Force procurement official Darleen A. Druyun for accepting a position with the company while still overseeing Boeing contracts at the Air Force.
By requiring a competition, the Pentagon raises the prospect of a transatlantic fight to build the planes. European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co., which owns Airbus, is testing an $80 million technology that would make its tankers compatible with U.S. military planes. "We will team with a major American partner, expand our industrial footprint in the United States, employ American workers and pledge to offer the finest military capability for the United States Air Force at the best value to our taxpayers," Ralph D. Crosby Jr., EADS North America's chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.
EADS won a competition against Boeing in April to build a refueling tanker for Australia.
Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp. are considered the most likely partners for EADS, but so far only Northrop has said it would consider such a partnership. Lockheed has declined to discuss whether it would team with EADS.
Any bid from EADS, which has headquarters in Paris and Munich, is expected to stir strong opposition. An EADS proposal would open "the door to the outsourcing of quality American jobs and the outsourcing of our national defense," said Sen. Patty Murray, (D-Wash.), who counts many Boeing employees among her constituents. "It remains in our nation's interest to build these planes and it remains in our nation's interest to build them here, not in France."
Boeing has played down any threat from EADS. "We respect the Department's position and look forward to the competition," Boeing spokesman Doug Kennett said in a statement. The company has already won tanker competitions in Italy and Japan and has 50 years of experience building this type of aircraft, he said.
-------- colombia
Bush Stops in Colombia, Pledges Aid for Drug War
By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 23, 2004; Page A23
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A4754-2004Nov22?language=printer
CARTAGENA, Colombia, Nov. 22 -- President Bush pledged more funding to support Colombia's fight against drugs and violence during a visit Monday to the world's cocaine capital, telling Colombia's president that his success in defeating cocaine traffickers was essential for U.S. security.
Bush met with Alvaro Uribe, the president, during a four-hour stopover in this resort city on the Caribbean coast, protected by 15,000 troops, two submarines and an array of battleships, combat helicopters and warplanes.
Uribe is the most forcefully pro-Bush leader in the hemisphere, and the American president's visit was designed to showcase the benefits of talking tough on terrorism and being a friend of the United States. The U.S. government has sent more than $3 billion to Colombia since 2000, mostly in military aid and training, despite continuing questions about the human rights practices of the country's armed forces.
Much of the money goes to fumigating fields of coca and opium, but Uribe is also able to use the funds for his continuing battle against Marxist guerrillas, who have been entrenched in the country for 40 years. The U.S. government has labeled two major guerrilla groups and a right-wing paramilitary force that is closely allied with Colombia's military as terrorist organizations.
"I'm proud to be with my friend, President Uribe. El es mi amigo," Bush said at a seaside news conference, with Uribe at his side. "President Uribe and the Colombian people are dedicated to the triumph of democracy and the rule of law against the forces of violence. And the United States stands with you."
Bush said that next year, when the aid is scheduled to expire, he "will ask our Congress to renew its support so that this courageous nation can win its war against narco-terrorists."
Some Democrats oppose continuing the aid to Colombia because of questions about the military's human rights record. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said he warned Uribe during a meeting in September that he had "to keep his eye on human rights and civil rights, to make sure he is cracking down in a way that is consistent with international human rights standards."
Bush, 58, and Uribe, 52, have maintained a close relationship since Uribe's inauguration in August 2002, which was disrupted when guerrillas used mortars to attack the presidential palace, killing 21 people. In an Oval Office visit the following month, Bush called Uribe a "friend of freedom."
Bush never made it into the historic walled part of Cartagena, founded by Spanish colonists as a fort against pirate raids. He held his events on a navy base and at the presidential guesthouse on an island. His motorcade passed shanties with children staring from behind iron fences, and rows of riot police and heavily armed soldiers along the Caribbean shore.
Administration officials said the visit was largely symbolic. During such events, Bush often allows two questions from the White House press corps and two questions from the reporters who cover the foreign leader next to him.
After the customary four questions, Uribe -- who was dripping with sweat -- wanted to take more. But Bush cut it off, saying, "Plenty," and the two left the stage.
Bush rarely visits or interacts with anyone besides government officials on his foreign trips, but to spread goodwill in Colombia, he appeared with 17 youngsters and Orlando Cabrera, a Colombian native who started at shortstop for the World Series champion Boston Red Sox. "Hola," Bush said has he greeted the youngsters.
U.S. government figures show that Colombia now produces about 90 percent of the cocaine and about half the heroin consumed in the United States.
The U.S. Embassy in Bogota said more than 30,000 well-financed, well-armed "terrorists" operate in the country. Colombia is plagued by violent groups, including anti-government insurgents, paramilitary squads and drug trafficking gangs.
"The drug traffickers who practice violence and intimidation in this country send their addictive and deadly products to the United States," Bush said at the news conference with Uribe. "Defeating them is vital to the safety of our peoples and to the stability of this hemisphere."
After Bush had headed back to the airport, Uribe stopped by the press center in his own motorcade and said the U.S. president had not offered to increase the rate of funding. "No, not an increase -- an extension of the time to help Colombia overcome this problem of terrorism," Uribe said.
Donning a Red Sox cap, Uribe was asked why Bush receives so much criticism from other foreign leaders. He answered by saying, "Today is a day for positive comments, for positive answers, for hope. Colombia needs to create a permanent moment for hope."
Bush was on his way home from the Chilean capital, Santiago, where he attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting, which aides described as part of an effort to court Latin American leaders who have felt snubbed during his first term. Bush once promised to make hemispheric issues a priority, but he turned his attention elsewhere after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and the Pentagon.
Bush praised Uribe as a leader who had gotten "results" in combating crime and violence. He said that since Uribe took office, kidnappings were down significantly, terrorist attacks and homicides had declined and cocaine seizures were up.
Bush shrugged off a question about several incidents this weekend in Santiago, where he intervened in a scuffle between a Secret Service agent and a Chilean security detail, and a large formal dinner was reduced to 12 people because of U.S. security concerns.
"Look, we had a fabulous dinner last night," Bush said. "I thought the visit was a spectacular visit, and I appreciated the hospitality of our Chilean friends."
Bush later flew to Texas for the Thanksgiving holiday.
--------
Bush Praises Colombia's Battle Vs. Drugs
November 23, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Bush.html
CARTAGENA, Colombia (AP) -- Under a security web of warplanes, ships and 15,000 troops, President Bush praised Colombia's battle against drugs and Marxist guerrillas Monday and pledged to keep U.S. aid flowing so ``this courageous nation can win its war against narcoterrorists.''
In a country that is the world's largest producer of cocaine and a major supplier of heroin, Bush said President Alvaro Uribe is achieving results with a massive aerial fumigation program against coca -- the main ingredient in cocaine -- and an aggressive military buildup against insurgents, who fund themselves through drug trafficking, kidnapping and extortion.
``The number of acres under cultivation are down significantly,'' Bush said, standing with Uribe in shirt sleeves at seaside lecterns. ``The number of arrests are up. The number of murders is down. In other words, this man's plan is working.''
Uribe said Colombia is winning the fight, but has not yet won. ``We have made progress but the serpent is still alive,'' Uribe said.
Bush's pledge reaffirms U.S. commitments to a $3.3 billion, five-year military aid program known as Plan Colombia. Bush said the plan launched in August 2000 enjoys widespread support in Congress and that he would work with lawmakers to keep it funded. Without mentioning a specific figure, Bush said he would seek enough funds to make the plan effective.
Bush left Cartagena for his Texas ranch to spend the Thanksgiving holiday, arriving in early evening. At Uribe's urging, he stopped off in this Caribbean seaport city after attending a summit in Chile of 21 Pacific Rim leaders. Security was tight.
U.S. Navy commandoes, toting assault rifles and peering through binoculars, patrolled the Caribbean in rubber boats where submarines and ships already plied the waters. Warplanes and helicopters provided air cover while 15,000 Colombian security forces were deployed around the city for Bush's brief stay.
Bush was here to strengthen relations in Latin America, but he also responded to news from Iran, which claimed it had frozen all uranium enrichment activities. The United States believes Iran is developing nuclear weapons. Sounding skeptical about Iran's claim, Bush said, ``Well, let's say I hope it's true.''
But unwilling to take Iran's word, Bush said, Iran must allow for verification of its claims. ``I think the definition of truth is the willingness for the Iranian regime to allow for verification,'' the president said.
Since Uribe came to power two years ago, Plan Colombia has helped jail scores of traffickers and reduce the coca crop by 20 percent for two years in a row, according to the White House.
And the battle against rebel groups -- the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by its Spanish acronym FARC, and the National Liberation Army, known as the ELN -- is being expanded from the capital of Bogota to more rural areas. Still, the efforts have still failed to visibly reduce cocaine production or keep it off U.S. streets. And the 40-year-old insurgency continues to claim an estimated 3,500 lives every year.
Bush said the outcome of the battle was critical to security in both nations.
``The drug traffickers who practice violence and intimidation in this country send their addictive and deadly products to the United States,'' Bush said. ``Defeating them is vital to the safety of our peoples and to the stability of this hemisphere.''
While in Cartagena, Bush met with Orlando Cabrera, a Colombian native who plays for the world champion Boston Red Sox, and shook hands with more than a dozen elementary school-aged baseball players.
One of the youngsters presented Bush with jersey emblazoned with Cabrera's No. 44.
``He just missed it by one number,'' joked Bush, the 43rd president of the United States.
-------- europe
Ukraine on the 'brink of civil conflict'
aljazeera
23 November 2004
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/0D0E3AA1-30F0-488E-A7B3-7BA50DFF9CFD.htm
Ukraine has plunged deeper into turmoil with the losing candidate in the presidential election reading the oath of office in parliament while some 200,000 supporters outside demanded the government admit it had cheated.
Opposition and West-leaning candidate Viktor Yushchenko, who called hundreds of thousands of protesters into the streets, told parliament on Tuesday that Ukraine "is on the brink of civil conflict".
He accused the outgoing president and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich of responsibility for electoral fraud which produced the results that have Yanukovich poised to be named president.
Supporters prompted Yushchenko to read the oath of office after the conclusion of a tumultuous session of parliament that was boycotted by Yanukovich allies.
Oath
He read the oath with his hand on a Bible, opened a window in the parliament building and addressed a sea of supporters outside who have turned out for a second day of raucous protest, which has the centre of the capital seething with anger.
Yushchenko read the oath of office in parliament
Speaker after speaker stepped up to the microphone in Kiev's Independence Square to defiantly pledge loyalty to Yushchenko.
"We are fighting for democracy and we will win," declared Ihor Ostash, an opposition parliamentary deputy, draped like others in the orange campaign colours of Yushchenko's camp.
The parliamentary session ended without taking any decision on the aftermath of the poll.
"We are sliding towards the abyss. It is amoral and criminal to pretend nothing is happening in the country," parliamentary speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn told deputies at the debate's start.
Warning
With passions running high against the background of a warning on Monday from security forces that they would crush unrest quickly and firmly, the political split could turn violent.
Yanukovich, who has been congratulated by his most powerful backer, Russian President Vladimir Putin, has not declared victory. But he virtually assumed the mantle of president on Monday by appearing on television beside the national flag to denounce Yushchenko and his supporters.
"We are sliding towards the abyss. It is amoral and criminal to pretend nothing is happening in the country"
Volodymyr Lytvyn, Ukrainian parliamentary speaker
Banners in the sea of protesters included the Georgian red and white flag - a reminder that 23 November was the first anniversary of Georgia's mass "rose revolution" that toppled veteran leader Eduard Shevardnadze and elected a pro-Westerner.
But it was uncertain if Ukraine's liberals could force similar changes.
Protesters, breaking off from sipping soup from vacuum flasks, burst into sporadic chants of "Yushchenko, Yushchenko".
The election gave Ukrainians a stark choice. Yanukovich sees closer ties with Russia as the key to prosperity, while his rival calls for gradual integration with the West.
It also underlined the divide between the nationalist west and the industrial Russian-speaking east that backed Yanukovich.
-------- iraq
U.S., Iraqis Sweep Through 'Triangle of Death'
November 23, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-iraq-raids.html
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops and police commandos swept through a cluster of lawless towns southwest of Baghdad on Tuesday, in a new offensive against Sunni Muslim insurgents.
The raids by 5,000 American, Iraqi and some British troops, in what has become popularly known as the ``triangle of death,'' comes two weeks after U.S.-led forces stormed the western Sunni city of Falluja and routed rebels there.
The U.S. military said Operation Plymouth Rock began in the town of Jabala but is planned to reach across the Sunni area southwest of Baghdad, where rebels have banished police and rule the streets.
Guerrilla and bandit attacks in the area, which straddles major highways between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, have threatened to cut Iraq in half by making travel between Baghdad and the Shi'ite Muslim south dangerous.
``The latest offensive...follows the swift seizure of the restive city of Falluja, where terrorists and insurgents suffered significant losses and the elimination of a key sanctuary,'' the U.S. Marines said in a statement.
``The joint Iraqi-U.S. force captured 32 suspected insurgents, including a number of high-interest individuals, in a series of early morning raids.''
Violence in Sunni areas has surged since the start on Nov. 8 of the Falluja assault, which drew condemnation from some Sunni political groups and clerics who have threatened to boycott a Jan. 30 election in protest.
Long the main power in Iraqi politics, the 20-percent Sunni Arab minority fears domination by the 60-percent Shi'ite majority. Many Shi'ites have been particularly angered by attacks on Shi'ite pilgrims passing through the area southwest of Baghdad to the holy cities of Najaf and Kerbala.
The Sunni area east of the Euphrates river is one of the most dangerous in the country for Iraqi security forces who are routinely stopped and killed, their bloated bodies washing up on the fertile banks virtually daily.
Insurgents and bandits who stalk the main highway linking Baghdad to the Shi'ite south have turned it into a no-go area, attacking Iraqis they suspect of working with U.S.-led forces or foreign firms, and killing or kidnapping foreigners, including two French journalists snatched in August.
CUTTING OFF REBELS
The U.S. military said it was trying to cut lines of communication between rebels in the western Falluja area, Baghdad and the province of Babylon, southwest of the capital.
``In the past three weeks, Iraqi security forces and Marines have rounded up nearly 250 insurgents,'' it said referring to the area of the present offensive.
``Since the joint force began operating together in mid-August, more than 600...have been taken out of action.''
Iraqi security forces arrested 47 gunmen on Tuesday in raids in Jabala, Hilla, Mahaweel, Iskandariya and Haswa, Babylon province's police department said.
Some of the detainees are accused of passing information on the whereabouts of Iraqi security forces to insurgents in nearby Latifiya, helping them ambush passing police and National Guard.
Iraq's Defense Minister Hazim Shaalan told the London-based al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper on Tuesday that Iraqi security forces would focus on crushing rebels in their stronghold southwest of Baghdad then move onto the capital itself.
The government had few means at its disposal to protect under equipped police and Guards from attack, he said.
Iraq's fledgling security forces bear the brunt of attacks by insurgents bent on overthrowing the U.S.-backed government.
Police have become such targets that many switch their uniforms for civilian clothes before going home at night, while National Guards don balaclavas with their uniforms and keep their jobs secret from neighbors for fear of reprisals.
Near Latifiya on Saturday, a Reuters reporter saw two Guards and a policeman, whose uniforms were hidden in their car, hauled out of the vehicle at a guerrilla roadblock and summarily shot.
--------
Iraq's Forbidding 'Triangle of Death'
South of Baghdad, a Brutal Sunni Insurgency Holds Sway
By Anthony Shadid
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, November 23, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A5710-2004Nov22?language=printer
BAGHDAD, Nov. 22 -- For Hassan Abu Mohammed, the trip from Baghdad to the sacred Shiite Muslim city of Karbala was ritual, started by his grandfather and adopted by his father. Each week during the holy month of Ramadan, he loaded a car with enough chicken, rice, lentil soup and kibbe, a dish of ground lamb and bulgur wheat, to feed at least 150 people.
The tradition brought blessings, he said.
Ramadan has ended, and these days, he said, he would need more than faith to set out on a road that is probably the most perilous in a perilous country, traversing a lawless, seething region he and others have nicknamed "the Triangle of Death." At the thought of another journey, Abu Mohammed, a cheerful man with a beefy face, shook his head and threw out his arms. His eyes grew wide. "Fear," he said, was the reason to stay put. "If a car passes through there, it will burn. I'm not ready to give my soul to them."
As the offensive against Fallujah ends, U.S. military commanders have begun turning their attention to other restive regions of Iraq, where an insurgency in Sunni Muslim-dominated areas has proved resilient, possibly endangering nationwide elections scheduled for Jan. 30. The land immediately south of Baghdad, shared uneasily between a Sunni minority and the Shiite majority, is among the most treacherous, a swath of territory where residents say insurgents have imposed draconian Islamic law, offered bounties for the killings of police, National Guardsmen, Shiite pilgrims and foreigners, and carried out summary executions in the street.
Police don civilian clothes when they pass through the flat landscape of date palms and eucalyptus trees, intersected by canals fed from the Euphrates River and crossed by roads leading to the sacred cities of Najaf and Karbala. Stoking sectarian tension, Shiite militiamen and armed tribesmen have threatened to avenge the deaths on their own terms. U.S. military commanders have made taming the region a priority and are drawing up plans to send in Army armored units.
"It's an area with a real mix of bad guys -- thugs and criminals as well as terrorists," a senior officer at the U.S. military headquarters in Baghdad said. "The terrorists move in and out along . . . lines that stretch in all directions."
The land unfolds west from the Euphrates. At the top of the triangle is Mahmudiyah, a town of low-slung, ocher-colored buildings. To the west is Yusufiyah. At the southern end is Iskandariyah. In between is Latifiyah, acknowledged as the most dangerous of the towns. Men in checkered red head scarves or balaclavas, usually with AK-47 assault rifles, set up checkpoints daily, sometimes by blocking a street with a car, residents say. At one point, they blew up a bridge over a canal to divert traffic and make cars easier prey.
An Iraqi reporter who passed through Latifiyah last week said armed assailants had stopped a police car, killed the four men inside, then set fire to the vehicle. When he drove through the next day, the car and charred corpses were still there. On Nov. 4, at least 12 National Guardsmen were abducted and killed. A month earlier, nine policemen died in an ambush there.
Heeding warnings, policemen have resigned, some of them publicizing their decision by posting their names on mosque walls, residents said. Rumors have swirled through the town of insurgents offering bounties: $1,000 for a policeman, $2,000 for a member of the National Guard, $10,000 for an Iraqi journalist or translator and even more for a foreigner. It was along the road to Najaf that two French journalists disappeared Aug. 20. The men, Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, are still missing.
"Who knows when they'll attack?" Abu Mohammed said.
He has had close calls twice. Nearing one checkpoint, his driver spotted armed insurgents and turned back to Karbala. At another checkpoint, the driver quickly took down the popular posters of Shiite saints that adorn the windows of many vans plying the road. The driver then put in a tape celebrating the Sunni insurgency in Fallujah, chants set to a drum.
"Bravo to the people of Fallujah and the bullets that support them," one of the songs goes.
Hearing the tape, the insurgent waved them through, he said.
"Go, my uncle," Abu Mohammed recalled a bearded gunman saying, using an Arabic term of endearment.
In the poor streets of the sprawling Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, where thousands once made the two-hour trip to the shrine cities, drivers of minivans, taxis and small buses sat idly last week, waiting for passengers and pilgrims.
"Everyone's scared of Latifiyah," said Rahman Abdullah, 35, as he dragged on a cigarette.
In the past, during the annual three-day Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, Abdullah made 10 trips to Najaf or Karbala. This year, Abdullah made three trips during Eid last week, and his white minivan was usually half-empty. "It used to be that before you would finish your tea, the van was already full," Abdullah said, standing on a buckling sidewalk. "Now all you do is sit and drink tea -- today, tomorrow and then the next day."
A particularly militant strain of Sunni Islam within the insurgency, Wahhabism, has chilled many Shiites. To the most ardent of the insurgents, Shiites are heretics, even apostates, for the prominence they give Ali, the prophet Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law, who Shiites, unlike Sunnis, believe was Muhammad's divinely sanctioned heir. Under Islamic law, apostasy carries the death penalty.
Each driver had a story: Abdullah was following a van carrying a coffin that was stopped at a checkpoint last month, destined for the vast Shiite cemetery in Najaf. The men at the checkpoint tossed the body on the street, doused it with gasoline and set fire to it, he said.
Assad Qassim, another driver, nodded in agreement. He was following another van stopped by seven gunmen. They forced the young men to get out, then ordered them to insult Ali. Two men refused, he said, and were bundled off and apparently killed.
"They act according to their own religious edict: If you kill a Shiite, you go to paradise," he said.
"It's like they're bringing chickens from the market and slaughtering them," said another driver, Haider Abdel-Zahra.
In a country where rumors often serve as news, accounts come up in conversation after conversation. Whatever their truth, they are believed. Last week, residents traded stories about a young man with long hair who was forced into a car by insurgents. His body showed up at his father's house a few days later, with a gunshot to the chest and some of his hair pulled from his scalp. A letter left on top of his corpse warned that death was the fate of those who disobey Islamic injunctions. Residents also spoke of a woman whose body was left in the street. Though she was wearing a veil, they said, she was apparently killed for wearing pants, which some deem un-Islamic.
In several Shiite mosques, prayer leaders have denounced the killings in their sermons, and the bloodshed has unleashed fears of sectarian strife. The Mahdi Army militia of the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr is said to be operating in the region, and tribesmen whose relatives were among the 12 National Guard members killed by the insurgents rampaged through the area this month, burning four homes, residents said. In the southern city of Basra, a group calling itself the Brigades of Fury was formed this month, ostensibly to help protect pilgrims, the Arabic-language newspaper Al-Hayat reported.
"Who hurts me, I hurt them," Abu Mohammed said, his words as much a lament as a threat.
Staff writer Bradley Graham, special correspondent Bassam Sebti in Baghdad and special correspondent Saad Sarhan in Najaf contributed to this report.
--------
Iraqis Get Lesson in Bureaucracy Senior Executives Share Knowledge
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 23, 2004; Page A27
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5363-2004Nov22.html
The men and women with smiles on their faces and drinks in their hands had come a long way for dinner -- all the way from Iraq, in fact.
The 35 Iraqi government bureaucrats mingled for 45 minutes with their hosts and counterparts from the Senior Executives Association, which represents senior U.S. government managers, before sitting down to dinner together Thursday evening in the skyroom of the Hotel Washington.
The meal came near the end of a two-week stay in the United States for the Iraqis, an excursion arranged by the Commerce Department to provide the Iraqis training on trade and investment issues. The visitors, who hail from 13 government ministries, heard speakers from U.S. agencies and private-sector firms, and took field trips to Capitol Hill, the new Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria and elsewhere.
It was all done with the belief on both sides that if Iraq is able to emerge from this period of civil strife, chaos and killing, a knowledgeable and well-trained civil service will be needed to help run the country and lead it back into the international community.
"There is a little trade and investment going on [right now], but, frankly, from reading the newspaper, one wouldn't know it," said Eleanor Roberts Lewis, chief counsel for international commerce at Commerce. "But they and we can only operate on the presumption that at some point in the future the situation will be more stabilized, and what they are doing is preparing themselves for what to do at that point."
The leader of the Iraqi delegation, Ahmad F.J. Mukhtar, director general of the foreign economic relations department in the Ministry of Trade, said most members of his group served in Saddam Hussein's government as mid- to low-level bureaucrats.
"We were not given senior posts because we were not part of the old regime," said Mukhtar, who worked as an information technology manager for the past 19 years. "Most of the people here are technocrats. They are not politicians. They do not belong to political groups."
Mukhtar said Iraq has very low tariffs on imports and almost no restrictions on exports and is trying hard to build an open economy. He said the country wants to prove that eventually it should be welcomed into organizations such as the World Trade Organization, which granted Iraq observer status in February, the first step toward full membership .
Part of that journey depends on Iraqi government workers getting a taste of how the world works and networking with civil servants in other countries, he said.
"We wanted them to get to know and get in contact with their counterparts in the United States and different parts of the world so that they get to know each other and can communicate," Mukhtar said. "Iraq has been away for 35 years. Most of the people here have never been abroad."
The Iraqis flew back home last weekend with practical knowledge as well as new contacts. Mukhtar, for instance, turned to an American colleague the other evening and said that, because of the trip, he had decided to recommend that various Iraqi ministries form panels of outside experts to consult on major policy initiatives.
Abdul Hadi K. Abid, the head of private-sector development for the trade ministry, said a big challenge is changing the mind-set of ordinary citizens who grew accustomed to life under a command economy in which the changing whims of the ruler had the force of law.
"For example, dealing in foreign currency: One day it's a crime where they cut your hand or your ear for it, and the next day it was perfectly legal," Abid said.
By publishing a monthly magazine called Iraqi Trade and through other efforts, Abid said he is trying to promote public debate on market economics and raise issues such as transparency in government policymaking.
Of the violence in Iraq, Abid said, "We hope that this is a passing phase, and we hope that we can control it."
Carol A. Bonosaro, president of the senior executives group, said the members of her organization were happy to reach out to their counterparts who are struggling against extraordinary circumstances to get their country on the right track.
"This evening, while it's primarily social, it also is an opportunity to talk with them and to make an initial connection that hopefully over time we can build on, so that they know that there are career executives here who are . . . willing to be of help," she said.
--------
U.S. Starts New Offensive South of Baghdad
November 23, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iraq.html?oref=login&pagewanted=all&position=
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Some 5,000 U.S. Marines, British troops and Iraqi commandos launched raids and arrested suspected insurgents Tuesday in a new offensive aimed at clearing a swath of insurgent hotbeds south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.
In other violence, masked gunmen assassinated a Sunni cleric north of Baghdad -- the second such killing in as many days -- and insurgents hit a U.S. convoy with a roadside bomb near the central Iraq city of Samarra, prompting the Americans to open fire, killing an Iraqi, hospital officials said.
The new offensive was the third large-scale military assault this month aimed at suppressing Iraq's persistent insurgency ahead of crucial elections set for Jan. 30.
The region of dusty, small towns south of the capital has become known as the ``triangle of death'' for the frequent attacks by car bombs, rockets, and small arms on U.S. and Iraqi forces there and for frequent ambushes on travellers.
The military said violence has surged in the area in recent weeks in an apparent attempt to divert attention away from the U.S. assault on Fallujah.
The joint operation kicked off with early morning raids in the town of Jabella, 50 miles south of Baghdad, netting 32 suspected insurgents, the U.S. military said in a statement. U.S. and Iraqi forces were conducting house-to-house searches and vehicle checkpoints.
In the past three weeks, Iraqi troops and Marines have detained nearly 250 insurgents, the statement said.
They have been aided by British forces from the 1st Battalion of the Black Watch Regiment, who were brought to the area from southern Basra to aid U.S. forces in closing off militant escape routes between Baghdad, Babil province to the south and Anbar province to the west.
The massive Fallujah invasion -- involving some 10,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops -- has left the former guerrilla stronghold mostly in U.S. hands, though fighting with pockets of gunmen has been going on for days, the military has said. More than 50 U.S. servicemembers were killed and more than 400 wounded in the operation.
Earlier this month, the northern city of Mosul witnessed a mass insurgent uprising in apparent support of Fallujah's guerrillas. Some 2,400 U.S. troops were sent in to retake control over western parts of the city.
The slain Sunni cleric, Sheik Ghalib Ali al-Zuhairi, was shot as he left a mosque in the town of Muqdadiyah, 60 miles north of Baghdad, said police Col. Raisan Hussein.
Al-Zuhairi was a member of the Association of Muslim Scholars, an influential group that has called for a boycott of nationwide elections.
A day earlier, gunmen assassinated another prominent Sunni cleric in the northern city of Mosul -- Sheik Faidh Mohamed Amin al-Faidhi, who was the brother of the group's spokesman. It as unclear whether the two attacks were related.
Meanwhile, a top aide to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr accused the government of violating terms of the August agreement that ended an uprising by al-Sadr's followers in Najaf.
Ali Smeisim, al-Sadr's top political adviser, made no explicit threats as he leveled his allegations at a Baghdad news conference. But his remarks raised the possibility of a new confrontation between the government and al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, which rose up against the Americans and their Iraqi allies in April and August.
Smeisim said the government has broken a promise in the August agreement not to arrest members of al-Sadr's movement and to release most of them from detention.
``The government, however, started pursuing them and their numbers in prisons have doubled,'' Smeisim said. ``Iraqi police arrested 160 al-Sadr loyalists in Najaf four days ago.''
Smeisim also accused the government of conspiring with two major Shiite parties, Dawa and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, to marginalize al-Sadr's movement and prevent its clerics from speaking in mosques.
Trouble from al-Sadr's armed followers would further complicate the security situation ahead of the January vote.
The United States is eager for the election go ahead as planned, hoping that an elected government widely accepted by the Iraqi people will take the steam out of the insurgency still raging in Sunni areas of central, western and northern Iraq as well as the capital.
But a boycott by Sunni Arabs -- who make up an estimated 20 percent of the nearly 26 million population -- could deprive the new government of legitimacy. The majority Shiites, believed to form 60 percent of the population, strongly support elections.
Still, Iraq's interim prime minister expressed confidence Monday that the election will succeed. Ayad Allawi said he believed that only ``a very small minority'' would abstain during the election.
As the election approaches, U.S. commanders in Iraq probably will expand their troops by several thousand. Army units slated to depart are also being held back until after the election. There are now about 138,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.
In Egypt, where 20 nations have gathered for an international conference on Iraq, members have committed themselves to supporting the U.S.-backed Iraqi interim government and its war against insurgents.
The gathering, which included many who had opposed the war, represented hard-won acknowledgment of the need for international cooperation to deal with its consequences.
In other developments:
-- In northern Kirkuk, an ethnic Kurdish contractor who worked with U.S. forces was kidnapped from his home by gunmen, police said.
-- A gunbattle between police and rebels south of Baghdad in the central Iraqi town of Mahaweel left one fighter dead, police said.
-- The U.S. Embassy said a Monday that bomb was discovered on a commercial flight inside Iraq. No further details were released and the statement did not say whether the affected flight had arrived or was preparing to depart. Aircraft flying into and out of Baghdad have been fired on frequently by insurgents.
-- The first independent aid convoy to enter Fallujah had to turn back before delivering any assistance because of security concerns, the Red Cross said Tuesday.
-------- israel / palestine
Arafat kin blames Israel
ASSOCIATED PRESS
By Lara Sukhtian
November 23, 2004
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20041122-104253-6645r.htm
PARIS - Armed with Yasser Arafat's weighty medical dossier, his nephew blamed Israel for the Palestinian leader's death and refused yesterday to squelch rumors of poisoning - even though he acknowledged that doctors found no known poison.
Nasser al-Kidwa, who is also the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, said the files are inconclusive on the cause of Mr. Arafat's death, but, "I believe the Israeli authorities are largely responsible for what happened."
His accusation, at a Paris press conference two hours after French authorities gave him the files despite objections from Mr. Arafat's widow, could inflame suspicions among Palestinians that Israel was somehow to blame - if only by confining Arafat to his West Bank headquarters for the last three years of his life, as Mr. al-Kidwa asserted.
He said he had no doubts that Arafat's still undisclosed illness was "connected to the conditions that the late president was living and suffering from. ... This is a principal part of the issue."
The nephew acknowledged that he had not yet read the 558-page file, plus X-rays, that he said would be provided to Palestinian leaders. They have promised to disclose the cause of Mr. Arafat's death and have formed an inquiry committee that includes doctors who treated him before he was flown to a Paris-area military hospital, where he died Nov. 11 at age 75.
Mr. al-Kidwa said toxicology tests were conducted during Mr. Arafat's two-week stay in France but "no poisons known to doctors were found." He did not, however, categorically rule out poisoning.
"This possibility could not be excluded," he said. "We are not excluding that but we are not asserting that, because asserting that requires proof and we do not have the proof that suggests there was poison."
He promised that the Palestinian Authority would study the file to try to determine a cause of death, but also cautioned patience.
"For the French authorities, medically, the file was considered closed. For us, and because of the lack of a clear diagnosis, a question mark remains. And personally, I believe that it will remain there for some time to come," Mr. al-Kidwa said.
French doctors had disclosed before his death that Mr. Arafat had a high white blood cell count as well as a low count of platelets, a substance that aids in blood clotting. The doctors also said leukemia had been ruled out and that he was in a coma. Palestinian officials said he had a brain hemorrhage shortly before he died.
That is consistent with a variety of illnesses from pneumonia to cancer. Mr. Arafat had been in poor health for years before France flew him here Oct. 29 for treatment after his condition deteriorated.
Farouk Kaddoumi, the new head of the Palestine Liberation Organization's mainstream Fatah faction, repeated his belief that Mr. Arafat was poisoned. Speaking in Beirut, Mr. Kaddoumi said all symptoms, treatments and medical tests had eliminated all possible ailments from which he might have died .
"Why, then, the low platelets count? There is no reason except poisoning," he said.
-----
Powell: Israel to Cooperate On Vote Palestinians Have Cited Obstacles
By Robin Wright and Molly Moore
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, November 23, 2004; Page A23
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3602-2004Nov22.html
JERUSALEM, Nov. 22 -- Colin L. Powell, making his final trip as secretary of state to a region where his efforts to advance the peace process have been repeatedly frustrated, said Monday that he had won Israel's agreement to permit freedom of movement for Palestinians when they hold elections for a successor to Yasser Arafat in January.
Powell said he was pleased with the renewed "level of coordination and cooperation" between Israelis and Palestinians in recent days.
"The Israeli authorities said to me . . . they will do everything that they can to permit freedom of movement and access for candidates as well as for voters on election day, and both sides seem confident that they'll be able to work out a solution," Powell told reporters during a stop in the West Bank city of Jericho to visit a voter registration station.
He said cooperation between Israel and the Palestinians this month on Arafat's funeral and security during the emotional outpouring was "indicative of what can be achieved in the months ahead" during the election and Israel's planned disengagement from the Gaza Strip next summer.
Israeli and Palestinian officials will meet soon to discuss specific Palestinian needs to facilitate the election of a Palestinian Authority president on Jan. 9, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told a parliamentary security committee Monday. U.S. officials have said they hope the vote will be a turning point for the stalled "road map" peace process.
Powell said he had also won agreement from Israel to find a way to allow Palestinians living in East Jerusalem to vote. Israeli officials, who initially ruled out permitting residents of the Israeli-annexed, Palestinian-populated area to participate in the election, now say East Jerusalem residents will be allowed to cast mail-in ballots.
After meeting with Sharon and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, Powell told Israel's Channel 1 television that Israeli officials had demonstrated a "very forthcoming and flexible attitude."
Palestinians have complained that Israeli checkpoints had blocked many people from registering to vote and complicated the efforts of many more. At the voter registration office in Jericho, where he met with election officials and six registered voters, Powell was told that about 1.7 million Palestinians had registered so far.
In his first trip to Israel in almost 18 months, Powell also pressed the Palestinians to crack down on extremists and begin political reform, two key prerequisites to resuming negotiations under the road map, which President Bush formally launched during summits with Arab and Israeli leaders in June 2003.
At a news conference with Shalom, Powell said peace would only be reached with "a Palestinian state that does not in any way harbor terrorism, does not cause incitement to exist for terrorism, a state that has solid democratic institutions, that is working side by side with Israel in the cause of peace."
In Jericho, Powell met with Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, acting President Rawhi Fattouh and former prime minister Mahmoud Abbas, who became leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization after Arafat's death and is widely seen as the favorite in the January election to select Arafat's successor as president of the Palestinian Authority. Powell told Israeli television that he had seen a "new attitude" among the Palestinian leadership.
Powell said that when he returns to Washington, the State Department will ask Congress to approve new direct aid to the Palestinian Authority to help pay election costs. "I think we can make a pretty good case that this is the time to assist the Palestinians as they go forward," Powell said.
Afterward, Palestinian officials said they were encouraged by U.S. support -- and got the message about security.
"I've seen American determination that they will stand shoulder to shoulder with us in order to ensure free and fair presidential elections," said Saeb Erekat, cabinet minister and chief negotiator, who attended the meeting.
"He also gave us a clear-cut message of our obligations on security, that we should have zero tolerance to anybody who uses violence," Erekat added.
Israeli officials played down Powell's visit, portraying it as a largely ceremonial farewell, although issues of substance were discussed.
--------
An Israeli Hawk Accepts the President's Invitation
By Dana Milbank
Tuesday, November 23, 2004
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5556-2004Nov22.html
Those looking for clues about President Bush's second-term policy for the Middle East might be interested to know that, nine days after his reelection victory, the president summoned to the White House an Israeli politician so hawkish that he has accused Ariel Sharon of being soft on the Palestinians.
Bush met for more than an hour on Nov. 11 with Natan Sharansky, the former Soviet dissident now known as a far-right member of the Israeli cabinet. Joined by Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr., incoming national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley and administration Mideast specialist Elliot Abrams, Bush told Sharansky that he was reading the Israeli's new book, "The Case for Democracy," and wanted to know more. Sharansky, with co-author Ron Dermer, had a separate meeting with Condoleezza Rice, later chosen by Bush to be the next secretary of state.
Sharansky made waves this spring when he rallied with Jewish settlers to oppose the Likud prime minister's plan for a unilateral pullout from Gaza -- a plan that Bush had endorsed. Sharansky, head of a Russian immigrant political party, said Sharon's plan, though supported by a number of Likud hard-liners, would be "encouraging more terror." A figure who has previously railed against the "illusions of Oslo" and described that famous accord as "one-sided concessions," Sharansky resigned in 2000 from Ehud Barak's government over the Labor prime minister's plan to attend a peace summit in Washington.
"He's been suffering in the political wilderness in Israel with these ideas for some time," Dermer said of his co-author. But when it came to Bush, Dermer said, "I didn't see a lot of daylight between them."
Sharansky's ideas are clear: no concessions, funds or legitimacy for the Palestinians unless they adopt democracy, but a modern-day Marshall Plan for the Palestinians if they embrace democratic ways. The same hard line that worked for Ronald Reagan against the Soviet Union, Sharansky argues in his book, would work for Israel against the Palestinians.
In his book, Sharansky echoes many of Bush's favorite lines, talking of the need for "moral clarity" in fighting evil. Likening the fight against terrorism to the struggle with Nazism and communism, he described a world "divided between those who are prepared to confront evil and those who are willing to appease it" -- a common Bush dichotomy. "I am convinced that all peoples desire to be free," Sharansky writes. "I am convinced that freedom anywhere will make the world safer everywhere. And I am convinced that democratic nations, led by the United States, have a critical role to play in expanding freedom around the globe."
Just as Bush justifies the Iraq war by talking of it as a catalyst for democratization in the Middle East, Sharansky argues that while dictators keep power by spreading fear and hatred, democracies are inherently peaceful. "When a free people governs itself, the chances of a war being fought against other free peoples is removed almost entirely," he writes.
Sharansky had previously met with Rice and Vice President Cheney, but Dermer said this was his first meeting with Bush as president. Still, the book is flattering of Bush's leadership. While accusing then-President Jimmy Carter, who championed Sharansky's cause during his Gulag days, of having "blind sympathy" and "trust for dictators," the Israeli praised a Bush speech on the Middle East as "almost too good to be true," saying: "President Bush turned his back on Yasser Arafat's dictatorship once and for all." As previously noted in this space, that Bush speech lifted many of Sharansky's ideas.
Sharansky's publisher, Peter Osnos of Public Affairs, gave galleys of the book to Tom Bernstein, a former partner of Bush in the Texas Rangers, who forwarded the galleys to the president. A few weeks later, Sharansky got his White House invitation. The warmth for the dissident is nothing new: Sharansky, who spent nine years in Soviet prisons before Reagan secured his release, has long been a cause celebre for the administration's neoconservative hard-liners.
Dermer points out that Sharansky is different from other Israeli hawks because he is willing to engage the Palestinians in talks and give them land under certain conditions. Arafat's death, which came just before the Bush-Sharansky meeting, and the approaching Palestinian elections could provide those conditions. "This creates an opportunity," Dermer said, but he warned that his co-author "is somebody who constantly lowers expectations" -- yet another thing the dissident and the president have in common.
R does not stand for "revealing."
"Alberto R. Gonzales -- the White House declined to release his middle name, saying that Mr. Gonzales prefers the initial -- was born on Aug. 4, 1955." -- From a profile of the secretive attorney general nominee in the New York Times, Nov. 11.
Gonzales's marriage, divorce, real estate, professional, voter and driver records and his Air Force Academy yearbook all list his middle name only as "R."
-------- mideast
U.S. and Iraqi Government Call for Support From Arab Nations
November 23, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iraq-Conference.html?hp&ex=1101272400&en=721f25bb3b15e63b&ei=5094&partner=homepage
SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt (AP) -- Iraq told an international conference Tuesday that U.S.-led military operations in the war-ravaged country are essential to allowing all people to vote in January national elections. And it received broad global support in the process.
World leaders also discussed the upcoming Palestinian elections on the side of the conference, with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan saying the Jan. 9 polls provided an opportunity to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
But Iraq took center stage, with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari telling the conference that security was the key concern in staging his country's Jan. 30 elections. He also defended the American-led multinational force in Iraq, which is widely seen in the Arab world as an army of occupation.
``The contribution of the multinational force is essential to help secure necessary conditions for voting and to support our security forces in stabilizing the country,'' Zebari said.
Zebari addressed representatives of 20 nations, including Iraq's six neighbors, and bodies such as the Group of Eight, the European Union and the Arab League, who came to this Red Sea resort to discuss Iraq's future. The two-day conference, which ended Tuesday, was attended by states that had opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq but now recognize the need to contribute to its reconstruction.
``We must guarantee that all sectors of the Iraqi electorate have an equal chance to cast their vote -- free from intimidation, terror and fear spread by an extreme minority,'' Zebari said of this month's campaign waged against insurgents in Iraqi cities such as Fallujah and Mosul.
``The campaign in Fallujah was a difficult decision, taken after extensive negotiations, but the last course of action after all peaceful and political avenues of dialogue had been exhausted.''
The conference rebuffed calls from France and some Arab states to set a deadline for withdrawing the U.S.-led forces. But the final communique, which was approved unanimously, said pointedly that their mandate was ``not open-ended.''
The communique condemned ``all acts of terrorism in Iraq,'' referring particularly to the kidnappings and assassinations of foreign and Iraqi civilians, aid workers, diplomats and journalists. It urged the interim government to deal firmly with terrorists, but also to avoid hurting civilians.
Iran and Syria, two loud opponents of the war and fierce American critics, attacked the U.S.-led campaign against insurgents. Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa said while his government condemns terrorism, ``we cannot overemphasize the need to refrain from shelling civilians, destroying cities and killing innocent people.''
Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi called on foreign troops to leave Iraq ``if not before the end of 2005, at least by the end of 2005.''
``As long as Americans and other coalition forces are present in Iraq, there will be enough excuses and pretexts for those who are resisting in Iraq'' to continue, Kharrazi told reporters after the conference.
Earlier, he also condemned insurgent attacks, saying ``such acts will help prolong the presence of foreign troops in Iraq.''
Kharrazi added that Iraqis must maintain their own security and ``should be supported in developing its national security.''
Conference host, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, said the attempt to achieve peace in Iraq could not be separated from efforts to achieve peace in the Arab-Israeli dispute.
Shortly before, U.N. chief Annan had a working breakfast with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. Annan told reporters the conversation was dominated by the Palestinian Authority presidential elections to replace the late Yasser Arafat.
Powell had spoken with Israeli and Palestinian leaders before arriving in Sharm el-Sheik. The Israelis told him they would facilitate the Palestinian elections by easing travel restrictions.
``We are all encouraged,'' Annan said. ``There is an opportunity to move ahead with the road map,'' he added, referring to the peace plan sponsored by the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia.
``We believe the Israeli government is also ready.''
The conference's final communique urged Iraq's interim government to convene a meeting of all peaceful factions to encourage broader participation in the Jan. 30 elections.
Bahrain told the conference it was willing to host such a meeting. Zebari told reporters his government had not yet considered the proposal.
``In principle, there is no objection. However, we believe that the best place to hold a reconciliation meeting is in the capital Baghdad,'' Zebari said.
Iraq had pressed neighboring states to tighten their borders against the infiltration of insurgents and to share information about groups supporting the militants. Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi told the AP on Monday that neighboring countries had not pulled their weight against the insurgency.
Powell told reporters he discussed the issue with his Syrian counterpart, and that Washington would provide Damascus with information that should be pursued.
``The Syrians have taken some steps recently, but we think there's a lot more they can do,'' Powell said.
The final communique called on the neighboring states to ``intensify cooperation'' to control Iraq's borders.
-------- russia / chechnya
Plutonium stash starts Siberian panic
The New York Times
By C. J. Chivers
November 23, 2004
http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file=/articles/2004/11/23/news/russia.html
ZMEINOGORSK, Russia The gun buyback program in this old Siberian mining town works like similar programs anywhere else.
There is a kitty of money. The local police put announcements in the newspaper, notifying residents that they will grant amnesty and pay small sums - in this case up to about $17.25 in rubles - to anyone who turns in an unregistered gun.
Then they wait at the station for the usual trickle of tired or inherited hunting guns. Usually they get shotguns (about 10 in the past six months). Sometimes they get boxes of ammunition. Often they receive weapons in such disrepair that they can no longer be fired.
Nothing in their experience, in other words, prepared them for the appearance of Leonid Grigorov, one of the stranger pack rats the world has ever known, who turned up at the police station last month in search of his $17.25.
"I have plutonium," he said.
So began a madcap chapter in the history of Zmeinogorsk, population 14,000, and in the life of Grigorov, who is learning that amnesty for weapons does not extend to Russians who store radioactive isotopes at home.
Grigorov, 58, a retired laboratory technician, had kept nine tablet-shaped bits of radioactive isotopes in his garage since 1996. In Russia, where it is a reliable news media chestnut that fuel for a nuclear or a radiological bomb is loose and/or unsecured, poisoning residents and tempting black marketeers, Grigorov's cache ignited a small wave of hysteria.
The police were alarmed, of course.
Grigorov, who wears square-framed glasses and a dark fur hat, assured the police that his collection included industrial plutonium, not weapons-grade plutonium. But police officers are not physicists, and "plutonium" is a word with frightening connotations, invoking thoughts of hot fuel for reactors or mushroom clouds.
The authorities quickly seized the isotopes and locked them away. Grigorov was helpful, an investigator at the prosecutor's office said; he placed the radioactive material in a yellowish-green lead cylinder on his porch.
Soon, the official certificates inside the cylinder told them that it held three tablets of cadmium 109, two of an isotope of iron, and four of plutonium 238. And they learned that just as Grigorov had insisted, plutonium 238 is not weapons-grade. (Bomb fuel is a different plutonium isotope.)
Moreover, after having a local physicist test the radiation emitted when the lead cylinder was opened, they learned that the isotopes were too weak to be of much threat in a dirty bomb, which theoretically could be made by dispersing radioactive isotopes with a conventional blast.
The case was all but closed.
Police interviews with Grigorov and former mine supervisors filled in the last level of detail: The isotopes had been components of a standard technical instrument, similar to an X-ray machine, that Grigorov had used to analyze ore at the now-defunct mining laboratory where he had been employed.
Grigorov claimed to have found them abandoned after the laboratory closed in the mid-1990s and decided to safeguard them himself in their original lead sleeve.
Mikhail Filippovich, Zmeinogorsk's mayor, described the decision in a sadly noble way. "During privatization, everybody got what he got, and Leonid got a container with some isotopes in it," he said. "It was not the most successful acquisition."
"But we are thankful for this," he added, "because thanks to him the isotopes did not get into any other hands."
Because Grigorov risked a criminal charge for illegal storage of radioactive substances, and a potential jail sentence of two years, the authorities filed reports to their regional bosses in Barnaul. They noted that the pack rat remained perplexed and incorrigible.
"He simply couldn't understand why he wasn't given any money," said Captain Dmitri Boiko, the deputy police chief.
But as the case drew near its end, it grew stranger still. Someone in Barnaul, who knew only a sketch of the case, leaked inaccurate information about it, the police here say. Within hours their detective work was for naught.
Russian news agencies, radio stations, newspapers and television stations reported that weapons-grade plutonium had been discovered in a garage in Siberia. The reports provoked swift denunciations. Nikolai Shingaryov, spokesman for Russia's Federal Atomic Energy Agency, insisted that Russia had not lost custody of any plutonium bomb fuel. "What has been written absolutely doesn't correspond to what is there," he said in a telephone interview.
This opinion corresponds with the understanding of the case at the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration, in Washington, which has helped Russia secure 900 radiological sources in recent years.
Paul Longsworth, deputy administrator of the agency, said that while the incident did not involve U.S. help, because the radiation level of Grigorov's plutonium tablets was well below the threshold of what the agency considers threatening, it carried larger meanings.
"While it is a humorous story on one level, it does indicate that there are sources out there that are unsecured," he said in a telephone interview. "It does indicate why we are doing what we are doing."
Boiko, the deputy police chief, mused that in the end he hoped there would be leniency for the ailing mine technician who gave Russia a brief but unfounded scare. "He is a normal guy," he said. "Quiet, balanced, competent in his sphere. I personally think that this case will just be stopped."
-------- space
Big Spending Bill Makes a Winner of Mars Program but Many Losers Elsewhere
November 23, 2004
The New York Times
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE and DAVID E. ROSENBAUM
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/23/politics/23spend.html?pagewanted=all&position=
WASHINGTON, Nov. 22 - President Bush uttered hardly a word during his re-election campaign about his proposal to send a man to Mars, but the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and its moon-to-Mars program were big winners in the $388 billion spending bill that Congress approved over the weekend.
In fact, NASA was such a priority that the increase of $822 million to its budget prompted deeper cuts in other agencies.
Before the NASA increase, the spending bill already provided for an across-the-board cut, for each domestic agency, of 0.75 percent from what Congress had planned to spend in the new fiscal year, budget aides said. Once the NASA money was added, the across-the-board cuts were raised to 0.8 percent.
The president had actually asked for $44 million more for NASA than Congress gave him. But in broad outlines, the bill, which brought together nine appropriations measures that Congress failed to pass before the Nov. 2 election, adhered largely to Mr. Bush's wishes.
Details of the 1,690-page bill, which was rushed to passage over the weekend, were only beginning to come to light on Monday. Some agencies, like the Federal Bureau of Investigation, received more than the White House had wanted. Others, like the Internal Revenue Service, wound up with substantially less.
In the end, administration and Congressional budget analysts expect, domestic discretionary spending will increase about 1 percent in the 2005 fiscal year, which began on Oct. 1, and will decline slightly after adjusting for inflation. The effect of inflation is concrete, because Congress approved a 3.5 percent pay increase for federal employees. That is likely to mean additional cuts in programs for labor-intensive agencies, like the I.R.S. and the Environmental Protection Agency.
But for all the intense fighting over specific agencies and programs, the most striking feature of the new bill is how little it affects the budget deficit, which climbed to $412 billion in 2004. Mr. Bush promised during the campaign to cut the federal deficit in half by the end of his term.
More than 80 percent of the budget was shielded from cuts. Two-thirds of the $2.4 trillion budget is in mandatory spending that includes interest payments on the national debt and financing of entitlement benefits like Social Security and Medicare. An additional 20 percent is consumed by spending on the military and domestic security.
The total amount approved for all discretionary programs, including the military and domestic security, is to be about $891 billion, some 4 percent higher than in 2004.
Military spending is likely to climb by well over 10 percent in 2005, to more than $500 billion, if war costs for Iraq are included.
In discretionary domestic spending, Congress made some substantial increases, like allocating a total of $2.3 billion for the global fight against H.I.V. and AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. This is $99 million more than the president requested and $690 million more than last year.
Another significant allocation was $403 million in humanitarian and refugee assistance for Sudan, including $93 million as an emergency appropriation. Congress had already provided $95 million earlier this year.
Health Programs
For the National Institutes of Health, whose budget doubled from 1998 to 2003, Congress approved an increase of 2.1 percent, to $28.4 billion. That is the smallest percentage increase in more than 15 years, Congressional aides said. The institutes finance a wide range of biomedical research.
Anthony J. Mazzaschi, senior associate vice president of the Association of American Medical Colleges, said, "That's a lot of money, but it's a little disappointing given what the president requested," which was an increase of 2.7 percent.
Community health centers, a high priority for President Bush, will receive $1.7 billion, an increase of $130 million from 2004. Congressional aides said that was not only less than what the House and the Senate had originally wanted but also less than the president had requested.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will receive $4.5 billion, an increase of about 4 percent over last year and more than the president requested.
The bill provides $105 million for abstinence education programs, an increase of $29 million over the 2004 level.
Low-Income Assistance
Advocates of more federal aid for the poor had hoped Congress would reallocate to the state children's health insurance program $1 billion that for one reason or another went unspent in the last fiscal year.
But the bill did not provide for the reallocation. As a consequence, enrollment in the program, for low-income children, may drop by as many as 200,000 children nationwide, according to calculations by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a research institute that advocates more spending on antipoverty programs.
Nutrition aid for poor families and rental assistance for the poor received modest increases in allotments, but some other programs for the poor were cut.
The nutrition program for women, infants and children, called WIC, received its largest budget ever, $5.2 billion, up from $4.6 billion in the last fiscal year. Experts said this should be sufficient to serve the eight million families that are expected to apply for aid.
Congress approved $20 billion, about $1.5 billion more than Mr. Bush requested and almost $1 billion more than last year, for the Section 8 housing program, which helps poor people meet their rent payments and is the government's largest housing program.
The lawmakers did not accept the administration's proposal to convert the program into a block grant to states with a $1 billion cut in financing.
Several smaller housing programs for the poor were cut somewhat, including those for public housing, housing for people with disabilities, housing for the elderly and homeless assistance grants.
The Low-Income Housing Energy Assistance Program was allocated an increase of more than 15 percent, to $2.2 billion this year from $1.9 billion last year. But the increase in the program, which helps poor people meet their winter home-heating costs, lags far behind increases in fuel prices. Heating oil is expected to be 38 percent more expensive this winter than last, and overall fuel costs for heating are expected to be 24 percent more.
Head Start, which provides a wide range of services to preschool children, will receive $6.8 billion, about 1 percent more than last year.
Agriculture
The new budget cuts more than $1 billion from agricultural conservation and rural development programs that were part of the 2002 farm bill. But lawmakers left intact the program that is estimated to pay $16.4 billion in subsidies to farmers to grow basic crops like corn and wheat. That program has been criticized as favoring the nation's wealthiest farmers and agribusinesses, and is being challenged under international trade laws.
In a reflection of a growing need among the working poor, demonstrated in lengthening lines at food banks and pantries, Congress approved an increase of nearly $1.5 billion in the food stamp program.
Among the biggest cuts in conservation programs were $142 million taken from the program to protect wetlands and a $38 million reduction that pared by nearly half a program to protect wildlife habitat.
"The subsidies are an important safety net, but we are disappointed in cuts to conservation programs," said Matthew Hartwig, an aide to Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee.
Environment
Congress cut spending for the Environmental Protection Agency. The biggest cut is to the fund that helps state and local governments maintain water-quality programs; Congress provided more money than the president had asked for, but 20 percent below last year's level.
The bill also rejected a proposal from the Senate to spend $30 million to help communities meet new standards for arsenic in drinking water.
Congress included language that will allow snowmobilers to continue to ride in Yellowstone National Park this winter. Ever since the Clinton administration tried to ban snowmobiles in the park, there have been a flurry of rulings and vast confusion over the policy, prompting a decline in snowmobilers there and resulting pain for local businesses.
Senator Conrad Burns, Republican of Montana, wanted to assure snowmobilers and the businesses that even if new rulings were issued, the park would still allow up to 720 snowmobilers a day, as long as they traveled with commercial guides and their machines met the latest standards for air pollution. The language affects only the 2004-5 winter season.
Congress refused to divert money to one of the White House's priorities on so-called clean coal, FuturGen, a coal-fired power plant that would produce zero emissions.
The bill provides financing for a Flight 93 National Memorial, in Pennsylvania, where one of the hijacked planes crashed on Sept. 11, 2001.
It also extends by 10 years the federal government's authority to charge fees on Park Service and Forest Service land. A demonstration project is now under way in which such fees are charged, but critics, including many Republicans, have questioned them and how the proceeds are spent.
Congress rejected a proposal that would have allowed the Environmental Protection Agency to approve pesticides without having to consider their effect on endangered species.
Education
The bill puts the brakes on large increases for high-poverty schools and disabled children that marked the first Bush term and were part of the president's signature education initiative, the No Child Left Behind Act.
Spending on poverty-stricken schools, which had been increasing by roughly $1 billion a year during Mr. Bush's first term, will rise by only $400 million this year. Federal financing of special education, which covers more than 6.5 million disabled children, will increase by $520 million, which is $480 million less than the president requested.
The bill leaves the maximum Pell grant unchanged, at $4,050; a $355 million increase in spending that Congress approved will go to cover an existing shortfall in the Pell program.
In addition, the bill dropped a provision that would have barred the Education Department from revising a formula for calculating financial assistance. As a result, nearly 100,000 fewer students will receive Pell grants, according to the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, which was created by Congress to advise it on student aid.
Government Waste
While overall spending was kept in check, citizens' watchdog groups said the bill included millions of dollars' worth of pet projects for individual lawmakers.
The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste cited a lengthy list of such items, including $1.5 million for a demonstration project to transport naturally chilled water from Lake Ontario to Lake Onondaga; $500,000 for the Kincaid Park Soccer and Nordic Ski Center in Anchorage; $250,000 for the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville; $80,000 for the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center in San Diego; and $75,000 for the Paper Industry International Hall of Fame in Appleton, Wis.
Reporting for this article was contributed by Edmund L. Andrews, Elizabeth Becker, Robert Pear and Diana Jean Schemo.
-------- spies
C.I.A. Says Pakistani Network Aided Iran's Nuclear Program
The New York Times
By DOUGLAS JEHL
November 23, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/23/international/middleeast/24weaponsCND.html?pagewanted=1&ei=1&en=e9c7dbae0409bcf0&ex=1102260681
WASHINGTON, Nov. 23 - A new report from the Central Intelligence Agency says that the Pakistani arms trafficking network led by A. Q. Khan provided Iran's nuclear program with "significant assistance," including the designs for "advanced and efficient" weapons components.
The unclassified version of report, posted today on the agency's Web site (www.cia.gov), does not explicitly say whether Mr. Khan's network had sold Iran complete plans for building a warhead, the network is known to have done with Libya and perhaps North Korea. But it suggests that American intelligence agencies now believe that the bomb-making designs provided by Mr. Khan's network to Iran in the 1990's were more significant than the United States government has previously disclosed.
In a recent closed-door speech to a private group, George J. Tenet, the former director of central intelligence, described Mr. Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, as "at least as dangerous as Osama bin Laden" because of his role in providing nuclear technology to other countries. A tape recording of the speech was provided to The New York Times.
Until now, in discussing Iran's nuclear program, American officials have publicly referred only to the Khan network's role in supplying designs for older Pakistani centrifuges used to enrich uranium. But American officials have also suspected that the Khan network provided Iran with a warhead design. The C.I.A. report is the first to assert that the designs provided to Iran also included those for weapons "components."
The C.I.A. report to Congress is an annual update, required by law, on countries' acquisition of illicit weapons technology. The posting of the unclassified version on the agency's Web site today comes two days before a meeting in Vienna of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear monitoring group, is to review the status of Iran's weapons program.
"The Report to Congress on the Acquisition of Technology Relating to Weapons of Mass Destruction and Advanced Conventional Munitions" is the first to be issued by the agency since last November. Its focus is the six-month period from July to December 2003, but it also discusses broader trends.
It does not mention what Secretary of State Colin L. Powell described last week as new intelligence about Iran's nuclear program, linking the country's missile program to its effort to find a way to deliver atomic weapons.
The report says the agency remains convinced that Iran is pursuing a clandestine weapons program, despite claims to the contrary by the Tehran government. It says that Iran's stated willingness with the I.A.E.A. is likely to prevent the Tehran government from using its declared nuclear sites to produce weapons, but warns that Iran could nevertheless use covert facilities for those purposes.
The warhead design provided to Libya by the Khan network was for an aging, crude Chinese model. Such a design would nevertheless provide Iran with important assistance in what American officials say is its quest to develop nuclear weapons, a goal they say the Tehran government could reach in the next several years.
The C.I.A. began to infiltrate Mr. Khan's network beginning in the late 1990's, according to the account Mr. Tenet is now spelling out in his speeches. That operation led to the unraveling of the Khan network's ties to Libya and the unmasking last year of Libya's illicit weapons program.
Mr. Khan remains in Pakistan, where he was pardoned last year by President Pervez Musharraf. Libya turned over the design to the United States early this year, and it is now being examined at the Department of Energy, the custodian of the American nuclear arsenal.
But American intelligence agencies are still pursuing questions about the extent of the role the Khan network played in providing assistance to North Korea, Iran and perhaps other customers. A recent report by the I.A.E.A. has noted "several common elements" between Iran's nuclear program and Libya's, which is being dismantled.
Mr. Khan directed Pakistan's uranium enrichment program for 25 years. His role as an illicit supplier of nuclear technology had been widely rumored, but was made public only late last year, when the United States and Britain reached an agreement with Libya that made public the extent of that government's weapons program.
In recent paid speeches, Mr. Tenet has provided new details about the C.I.A.'s role in unraveling the Khan network, according to people who have heard them. The speeches to private groups have been delivered on ground rules that they remain off the record, but a tape recording of remarks he made at a session in Georgia in September was provided to The Times by a person who was there.
In that speech, Mr. Tenet said that the C.I.A.'s role had stretched back to 1997, and that he had kept it secret within the government from everyone but President Bill Clinton and President Bush. Describing a "hidden network that stretched across three continents," Mr. Tenet said of Mr. Khan: "Working with British colleagues, we pieced together his subsidiaries, his clients, his front companies, his finances and manufacturing plants. We were inside his residence, inside his facilities, inside his rooms. We were everywhere these people were."
Mr. Tenet called the agency's role "one of the greatest success stories nobody ever talks about."
A classified version of the C.I.A. report has been provided to Congressional intelligence committees, administration officials said. The unclassified version that was made public today refers only obliquely to several sensitive subjects, including what American officials believe has been North Korea's recent success in building as many as a half-dozen additional nuclear weapons from plutonium extracted from spent fuel rods.
The unclassified report notes only that North Korea announced publicly in October 2003 that it was using the plutonium "for increasing the size of its nuclear deterrent forces."
The document restates long-standing concerns that outside experts, including a Pakistani nuclear engineer, may have provided assistance to the Qaeda terrorist organization as part of its quest to acquire nuclear weapons. "One of our highest concerns is Al Qaeda's stated readiness to attempt unconventional attacks against us," says the report, by the agency's Weapons, Intelligence, Nonproliferation and Arms Control Center.
-------- us
Dangerous testing went beyond vets to orphans, prisoners
Knight Ridder Newspapers
BY DAVID ZEMAN
Nov 23, 2004
http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/nation/10253476.htm
DETROIT - (KRT) - In February 1953, the Pentagon issued tough new rules to protect people who took part in experiments. Military researchers were required to warn volunteers of the dangers involved and have them confirm in writing that they were not coerced.
The directive was blunt, uncompromising and humane.
And two months later, it was gutted.
In April 1953, the military helped the CIA launch a Cold War program known as MKULTRA, in which unsuspecting servicemen and civilians were given LSD and other psychedelic drugs to study their use as truth serums.
This cycle of government deception continued well into the 1970s, with thousands of Americans exposed to nuclear radiation, plutonium injections, chemical sprays from airplanes, open-air nerve agents and mescaline in secret tests.
The tests flouted the principle of informed consent in the Nuremberg Code, drafted after the Nazi war-crimes trials in 1947 as an ethical standard for human experimentation.
Sometimes the victims were military personnel. Often they were from society's most vulnerable populations: mentally ill people, prison inmates, poor or illiterate people, pregnant women, children who were retarded or orphaned, drug addicts or prostitutes.
"You've got to ask yourself, how did these scientists sleep at night?" said David Rothman, director of the Center for the Study of Society and Medicine at Columbia University and an expert on the history of human research.
The scientists slept, said expert Jonathan Moreno, by convincing themselves that their tests ultimately would save lives.
"They came to view their work as a patriotic thing to do," said Moreno, director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics at the University of Virginia and author of "Undue Risk: Secret State Experiments on Humans." "And they came to think that the volunteers knew what was going on, even if they didn't know all the details."
The Cold War tests mimicked many of the elements of the World War II chemical experiments. The soldiers exposed to LSD, for instance, were lured with promises of liberty passes and a guarantee that they could avoid guard or kitchen duty if they remained silent.
During the Cold War, however, the CIA largely funded the tests. The spy agency was feverishly studying mind-control techniques amid reports that captured U.S. troops were being brainwashed in the Korean War and that Soviet and Chinese scientists were testing truth serums.
In the U.S. tests, Americans were surreptitiously given the hallucinogens LSD or mescaline; PCP (angel dust), a highly addictive anesthetic that can cause delusions and mood swings, or BZ, a hallucinogenic incapacitating agent. Many of the people tested suffered hallucinations, flashbacks and permanent personality changes. In one notorious case, a CIA operative slipped LSD into the after-dinner drink of Army biochemist Frank Olson in 1953. He grew increasingly agitated and paranoid. So the CIA shipped Olson to New York City to see a doctor. In the predawn hours of Nov. 19, 1953, Olson crashed through his 10th-floor hotel window onto 7th Avenue below. His death was ruled a suicide.
Olson's family did not learn that he was given LSD until 1975. Relatives eventually received a $750,000 settlement and an Oval Office apology from President Gerald Ford. They continue to assert Olson was pushed to his death, a charge the CIA has denied.
The agency destroyed its MKULTRA records in 1972.
During the Cold War, the government also exposed tens of thousands of U.S. servicemen to radiation in tests designed to gauge troop readiness during nuclear attack. Recruits were positioned within a mile or so of a nuclear detonation and told to cover their eyes. They reported that even with their eyes shut they could "see the bones in their forearms at the moment of the explosion."
They were never warned of the long-term dangers of radiation exposure. Indeed, most were not classified as research volunteers; they were soldiers engaged in training exercises, according to Moreno.
Studies later linked the "atomic soldier" tests with inoperable cancer or leukemia.
Government research abuse was not confined to the military.
In the 1960s and early 1970s, a series of scandals in academic and government research studies on institutionalized patients with mental illness, orphaned children, and the impoverished sparked outrage, most notably in 1972 when the Tuskegee syphilis study was exposed. In that case, government scientists deliberately withheld penicillin from illiterate black men for decades to study the course of the disease.
"There was a kind of vague understanding among researchers that anyone being taken care of in a charitable institution had a moral obligation to give something back to society," Moreno said.
The scandals produced wide-ranging reforms in federally funded testing, including the requirement of independent peer review.
In 1976, Ford signed an executive order banning intelligence agencies from using humans in drug experiments without their informed, written consent. Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan later expanded the order to all human tests.
"What went on back in the 1950s and `60s could not go on now," Rothman said. "Are there aberrations? Yes. Are there guys who approach or cross the line? Yes. But you cannot now infect mentally retarded children in institutions with hepatitis to study it; it can't be done. In the war against disease, the lines are much more clearly drawn."
-------- POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE
ID CARDS BILL WILL BACKFIRE - OATEN
libdems.org.uk
23/11/2004
http://www.libdems.org.uk/index.cfm/page.homepage/section.home/article.7836
Responding to the Queen's Speech, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Mark Oaten MP, said:
"The introduction of ID cards would mark a major shift in British society. David Blunkett is relying on a climate of fear to push through a scheme which will not guarantee our security.
"In reality, ID cards are likely to give rise to discrimination through increased identity checks against ethnic minorities suspected of being terrorists or illegal immigrants.
"The cost of the scheme will run into billions and the government would do far better to spend the money on police and intelligence services.
"When the public are faced with the prospect of handing over money and turning up for photos and fingerprints, this whole project could backfire.
"We recognise that difficult times call for difficult measures. We will continue to oppose the holding of terrorist suspects without trial in Belmarsh, but urge the government to find ways of bringing these individuals to trial. We would support a move to allow phone tap evidence to be heard in court as a means of prosecuting these individuals.
"The establishment of a Serious Organised Crime Agency is a welcome recognition that crime has become more complex, specialised and international than ever before. It is a pity that the government has not taken the step of creating a dedicated border agency to ensure the highest level of security at our ports and airports.
"Given the likely date of the election, the Home Offiice's programme of legislation is unrealistic. With ten Home Office-related Bills and only a dozen weeks to discuss them, the government are clearly trying to sound tough when they know they can't deliver."
-------- homeland security / national intelligence
U.S. Launches Drive to Urge Emergency Plans
Associated Press
Tuesday, November 23, 2004; Page A02
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5550-2004Nov22.html
The Department of Homeland Security is reminding families to develop a contingency plan in case of a terrorist attack or other emergency with a new wave of public service announcements.
"The message is simple: Everyone should have a plan," Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said yesterday. "I hope these ads will encourage parents to take a little time to sit down and map out their family emergency plan today."
The TV, radio, outdoor and Internet ads are part of the department's ongoing "Ready" campaign -- "Listo" in Spanish -- which debuted in February 2003 to increase Americans' basic preparedness for a catastrophic event, including natural disasters.
They ask people to do three things: Get an emergency supply kit, make a family emergency plan, and stay informed about types of emergencies that could occur and the appropriate responses.
In the ads, children ask their parents questions about emergency plans: "How do we keep in touch with each other if the phones don't work?" "If we can't make it home, who will pick us up?" "Shouldn't we pick a place to meet?"
More information on emergency preparedness is available on the department's Ready.gov and Listo.gov Web sites, and on a toll-free phone line, 800-BE READY (800-237-3239), in English and Spanish.
The ads were developed with the Ad Council and created free of charge by the advertising agency BBDO Worldwide. They were unveiled at an event hosted by the National Cable & Telecommunications Association and the National Association of Broadcasters.
--------
Intelligence Deal Remains Elusive
Lawmakers See Slim Chance for Passage in December Session
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 23, 2004; Page A09
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5739-2004Nov22.html
Key legislators on opposite sides of the deadlocked effort to reorganize the nation's intelligence community said yesterday that they will not compromise their positions to give Congress a chance to pass the measure at a special two-day session early next month.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee and the chief Senate conferee, said yesterday, "I don't see a reopening of the issues in conference. We've compromised as much as we can."
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.): "It's time to draw a deep breath."
Collins, who said she had consulted with colleagues and White House staff, said it would take some "commitments or side agreement," perhaps worked out by the White House, to help get over the roadblocks presented by two Republican House chairmen. Their objections led House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) to pull from consideration Saturday a compromise bill to reorganize the nation's system for gathering and analyzing intelligence.
"The bill is not dead, but it is in trouble," Collins said, adding she sees only "a small chance it could pass in December."
Hastert withdrew the bill after House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) and Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, voiced their strong objections to the legislation at a closed meeting Saturday of Republican House members. The bill would create a director of national intelligence to manage the CIA and 14 other agencies of the U.S. intelligence community, and a national counterterrorism center to coordinate analysis and develop strategic plans to fight terrorists at home and abroad.
Hunter objected to provisions that he said would give the new director authority over Pentagon intelligence collection agencies, saying that would interfere with the defense secretary's ability to support the military in combat. Sensenbrenner added to the bill controversial provisions that would have made it easier to deport immigrant suspects and deny driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants. Those measures drew criticism from civil liberties groups and were opposed by some senators because they had not been the subject of hearings.
Yesterday, Sensenbrenner said it would be more difficult to get a deal because of personal criticism directed at him and Hunter by senators on Sunday's television talk shows.
"It'll be tougher now because the well got even more poisoned by the senators and their supporters thoroughly criticizing Duncan Hunter and myself by name on the talking head shows yesterday," Sensenbrenner told the Associated Press.
Hunter said yesterday, "It's time to draw a deep breath." He said he expected consultations to begin after the Thanksgiving holiday and before Dec. 6, the date set for members to return to Washington for a vote if a new agreement can be reached.
In the interim, the House chairman said, he believed the Senate conferees should expand their negotiating group to include both Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), chairman of both the Senate Appropriations Committee and its defense subcommittee. "If they include the Senate defense leadership there is a good chance we can solve this quickly," Hunter said.
Collins reacted negatively to Hunter's proposal, saying, "I don't see that doing any good. We added some of their recommendations and defeated others."
If no agreement is reached in the next two weeks, the debate will move into the new year with a new Congress. Lawmakers said deliberations next year toward a reform bill would be influenced -- and prospects for passage perhaps enhanced -- by the fact that a presidential commission, appointed in February, is due to report on its investigation into the performance of the CIA and other intelligence agencies.
Headed by Judge Laurence H. Silberman and former senator Charles S. Robb (D-Va.), the group has been looking broadly at intelligence operations. The review includes both the failures to thwart the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and accurately assess Saddam Hussein's arms programs, and successes such as persuading Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi to give up his efforts toward weapons of mass destruction and halting the nuclear proliferation black market being operated by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a member of the presidential commission, said yesterday that the group, whose final report is due in March, would begin formulating its specific recommendations for intelligence reform in January. McCain said many of his tentative findings are in line with those of the Sept. 11 commission and the Senate intelligence committee, which sharply criticized "groupthink" among intelligence agencies when it came to Iraq.
Hunter said yesterday that he expected a reform bill to pass, whether it was in December or next year. Collins said she thought the president's commission "was another source of momentum, but I don't yet want to push it over to next year."
-------- immigration / refugees
Area Immigration Booming Census Finds Steady Flow Despite Economy, 9/11
By D'Vera Cohn
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 23, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A5743-2004Nov22?language=printer
More than 34 million immigrants now live in the United States, 10 million of them illegally, according to recent census numbers that show big gains in local and national foreign-born populations
The Washington-Baltimore area, which has the strongest metropolitan economy in the nation, now has nearly 1.3 million immigrants, an increase of 379,000 since 2000, according to a report to be released today by the Center for Immigration Studies.
The flow of people into the country has continued at a significant pace despite an economic slowdown, which traditionally discourages migration, and despite restrictions on immigration and more stringent security in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001.
"This data seems to suggest you have an ongoing level of new entries which is pretty substantial," said Roberto Suro, director of the Pew Hispanic Center, which studies Latino demographics. "It seems to be impervious to the federal government's efforts to control the border."
The continuously booming immigrant population is reviving some urban areas and producing record demand for English classes. It is also increasing the ranks of the uninsured, fueling the debate over granting driver's licenses to illegal immigrants and provoking complaints when residents notice day laborers congregating in their neighborhoods.
How to manage the growing population of illegal immigrants also is a political dilemma. Over the weekend, President Bush promised to revive a controversial proposal to let some undocumented workers get jobs but not citizenship -- an idea that draws fire from liberals and conservatives.
Immigrants now make up 12 percent of the U.S. household population, up from 11 percent in 2000, according to the new report, which is based on a Census Bureau survey taken in March. The number of illegal immigrants has grown by about 2 million since 2000, said the report by the center, which favors restrictions on new arrivals.
The center's estimates of the illegal immigrant population are close to those of Jeffrey S. Passel, an Urban Institute demographer who is an expert on unauthorized migration. The census survey indicates there were 9.1 million illegal immigrants in March, but it undercounted by 10 percent, according to the center's demographer, Steven A. Camarota.
Passel said yesterday that he believes there were 9.8 million unauthorized immigrants in 2003, and the number has grown to 10 million since then.
A spokesman for the federal Department of Homeland Security said the government estimates that more than 8 million immigrants are in the United States illegally, with increases of 300,000 to 350,000 people a year.
Passel co-authored an Urban Institute report on undocumented immigrants this year that said more than two-thirds live in six states -- California, Texas, Florida, Illinois, New York and New Jersey. It estimated that 175,000 to 200,000 live in Virginia, 120,000 to 150,000 in Maryland, and 25,000 to 50,000 live in the District.
Those numbers include people who cross the border illegally, people who overstay legal visas and a small number of people who are awaiting permanent visas, such as Central Americans eligible for a special legalization program and people who have applied for asylum.
In southern Fairfax County, where a booming immigrant population lives in the Mount Vernon Route 1 corridor, the newest arrivals include middle-class people from Argentina, Bolivia and other South American countries with poor economies. Many were professional people in their home countries who came here on tourist visas and compete for low-paying jobs such as babysitters, construction workers, house cleaners and landscapers.
At Good Shepherd Catholic Church, these middle-class urbanites are a contrast to rural immigrants from Central America already in the congregation. Although the new arrivals have hard lives, "there are more parallels from their society to ours, so it's probably a little easier to assimilate," said Leah Tenorio, director of Hispanic ministry for Good Shepherd.
Southern Fairfax County has had such dramatic growth in its immigrant populations that a new organization called Progreso Hispano was formed three years ago to offer English classes, legal help and advocacy for legal and illegal immigrants who otherwise had to travel to Arlington County. "There's a lot of fraud going on, and they [undocumented immigrants] are being taken advantage of," said Progreso Hispano's executive director, Lupe Hittle-Durante. "There are companies that say they will help with people applying for residency, and they take these people's money and nothing happens as a result."
Nationally, immigration growth may have dropped slightly since 2002, according to Passel and University of Michigan demographer William H. Frey. Passel said his numbers indicate that immigration peaked in the late 1990s through 2002, then receded to the sizable levels of the mid-1990s, when "a bit over a million" people a year arrived. Those who come on temporary visas, such as short-term work permits, account for a disproportionate share of the decline, he said. "Overall, I'd say there is a downward pull for immigrants since 2002, due to both post-9/11 enforcement and fewer available jobs, a double-barreled effect," said Frey, who did his own analysis of census figures.
Camarota, who argues that immigration once was linked to the business cycle but no longer appears to be, said what is "still striking is you did not see the big fall-off that you might have expected given September 11 and immigrant unemployment," which rose since then. "It's still been a heck of a lot of people who came just since 2000," he said.
Analysts say that because most legal immigrants come to the United States on family visas, they are not likely to stay home because of economic troubles here. "I don't think the increases are surprising given family and social networks across borders," said Audrey Singer, immigration fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Tighter border controls also might be keeping some immigrants in the United States who do not want to risk going home and trying to return later, analysts say.
The Washington-Baltimore area remains a strong center of immigration, attracting both new immigrants and foreign-born residents who relocate from other urban areas. The region draws many well-off immigrants, but controversies have erupted in several communities -- lately, Prince William County -- over groups of day laborers waiting for work.
Enrollment in English classes is brimming at the Chinatown Service Center in the District, where Juanita Chan's Sunday afternoon class practiced pronunciation drills in an upstairs classroom at Mount Vernon United Methodist Church. Most are here legally, sponsored by relatives or employers.
One student, Cui Bao Zhen, 28, came from Guangdong Province in southern China last year with her 5-year-old daughter and her husband, a chef. Speaking through a translator, she said that among the reasons she likes living here is that she does not have to pay school fees for her daughter, as she would in China.
Hong Jun Xu, 28, moved to Chinatown in April from the same province, with his wife and 7-year-old son. He arrived on a permanent work visa as a chef and hopes to save enough money to move his family to the suburbs. What he appreciates most about living in the United States, he said through a translator, is "more freedom."
He does not have much time to practice English, but he said he knows that it is his ticket to success. "If I know English," he said, "I can do a lot of things."
Staff writer Mary Beth Sheridan contributed to this report.
--------
More Visas For Foreign Workers Quota Raised to Fill High-Tech Jobs
Associated Press
Tuesday, November 23, 2004; Page A19
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6204-2004Nov22.html
Congress is letting employers hire 20,000 more foreign high-tech workers under a special visa program after businesses reached the annual ceiling on the first day of the government's fiscal year.
Businesses are limited to hiring no more than 65,000 workers annually through the H-1B visa program. They reached that figure in one day, Oct. 1, and immediately began saying they would lose talented university graduates and potential employees to competitors overseas.
In response, as part of the $388 billion spending bill passed over the weekend and awaiting President Bush's signature, Congress is exempting from the limit 20,000 foreign students with master's or higher degrees from U.S. universities.
"This is a critical talent pool that American taxpayers have helped to educate," said Sandra Boyd, who chairs Compete America, a coalition that lobbied for the exemptions. "It's counterproductive to educate these students and then force them abroad to compete against us."
The coalition includes companies such as Microsoft, Texas Instruments, Hewlett-Packard and Motorola.
For example, of the 424 students who earned master's degrees in engineering at the University of Texas at Austin last year, 228 were foreign students; of the 135 who earned doctorates in engineering, 81 were foreigners, Boyd said.
Dan Kane, a spokesman for the Homeland Security Department's Citizenship and Immigration Services bureau, said the exemptions for foreign students will be applicable this year. Rep. Lamar S. Smith (R-Tex.) and Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) led the effort to include them in the spending bill.
Kane said his agency will release details on how employers can apply for visas made available after Bush signs the bill, he said.
The popular H-1B visas are granted to foreigners in specialty professions such as architecture, engineering, medicine, biotechnology and computer programming. Under the program, employers must pay foreign workers the prevailing wage for their job fields and show that qualified U.S. workers are not being passed over.
Unions and other critics say the program allows businesses to fill jobs with cheaper foreign labor. Those who use the program say they cannot find enough Americans with the necessary math, science and engineering skills.
In addition, Congress doubled H-1B visa application fees from $1,000 to $2,000. Small businesses with fewer than 25 employees pay fees totaling $1,250 for each application. The legislation also expands the authority of the Labor Department to investigate employers.
On a separate visa issue, Congress tightened rules for using L-1 visas, which allow companies to transfer employees from overseas offices to U.S. offices while paying the employees their home-country wages. Lawmakers had been suspicious that abuse in the program was putting Americans out of work.
--------
New Scrutiny At Border Posts Draws Criticism
By Doug Struck and Kevin Sullivan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, November 23, 2004; Page A23
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A5669-2004Nov22?language=printer
PORT HURON, Mich. -- Andrea Schnekenburger pressed her two index fingers on a scanning pad at the U.S. border last Thursday, becoming one of the first travelers to submit such data to a vast new bank of fingerprints and photographs that will be taken of millions of people who cross land borders to enter the United States.
"At least they didn't use ink," said Schnekenburger, 42, a German resident of Canada en route to a U.S. business appointment. "It was easier than I thought." This week, three U.S. border crossings -- one from Canada, at Port Huron, and two from Mexico, at Laredo, Tex., and Douglas, Ariz. -- launched a program run by the Department of Homeland Security to collect fingerprints and photos at U.S. borders. It will be expanded to the 50 busiest crossings by the end of next month, U.S. officials said.
The requirements will not apply to U.S. or Canadian citizens or to travelers under age 14 or over 79. There are also exceptions for Mexicans with special border-crossing cards known as laser visas, according to Homeland Security officials.
This means that only 3 percent of an estimated 108 million people who enter the United States at legal land checkpoints each year will be affected, they said, while the program will increase security for the United States, catch criminals and speed up processing at the border by computerizing some functions.
But groups in Canada and Mexico complain that the new process will collect an Orwellian databank of personal information on law-abiding visitors, will unfairly target racial groups, might slow the border-crossing process and is unlikely to ever stop a terrorist from coming into the country.
Mexican critics say the program is another step toward making the borders in America "a dividing line" and a sign of "distrust" of Mexicans. Canadian critics say files created on thousands of their residents will "criminalize" the border process.
Schnekenburger reflects that ambivalence, saying her opinion was divided.
"I kind of felt it was an invasion of my privacy, but on the other hand, I can see the point of it," she said after entering the Customs and Border Protection office on the U.S. side of the soaring Blue Water Bridge that connects to Canada 60 miles north of Detroit.
Those who cross the bridge and have no Canadian passport, like Schnekenburger, are directed into a building where an agent with a tiny camera takes digital photos of them and scans their index fingers.
The system began operating at 130 U.S. airports and seaports in January, and fingerprints and photos already are required as part of the application for anyone needing a visa. But this expansion to land crossings particularly affects the busy daily commerce across the borders of the country's only contiguous neighbors.
Canadian passport holders and Mexicans who work in the United States and have a laser visa card, which already carries the bearer's photo and fingerprint, are now exempt from the program. But U.S. officials have sent mixed signals about whether the data collection eventually will include everyone.
Critics in Canada say the exclusions mean the program unfairly targets an estimated 1 million Canadian residents who are classified as "landed immigrants" or permanent residents who have not obtained a Canadian passport.
"There are a high number of landed immigrants who are from [nonwhite] racial backgrounds," said Margaret Parson, executive director of the African Canadian Legal Clinic in Toronto. "This labels them as potential terrorists."
"Any government has a right to apply security measures. But this is tantamount to racial profiling," said Audrey Jamal, executive director of the Canadian Arab Federation, which speaks in behalf of 500,000 Canadian Arabs. "Security policies should not target one ethnic group over another, nor erode civil liberties. Our community is feeling tremendously targeted."
Other critics question the security value of such a system. Last month, Rep. Jim Turner (D-Tex.) publicized a Stanford University study that said matching two fingerprints with an existing database works only 53 percent of the time. And critics in Canada say potential terrorist groups are not going to use operatives whose fingerprints already are known to the United States.
"This is not a measure to make America safer," said Sharri Aiken, an immigration law professor at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario. "The people who are responsible for these kinds of attacks have no prior record. They aren't known to authorities, for the most part, and would likely come up absolutely clean in a biometric scan.
"Fingerprinting will not make any Americans any safer and represents an overzealous criminalization of the border."
Robert Mocny, deputy director of the US-VISIT program in Washington, part of the Homeland Security Department, disputes allegations that the program is racially discriminatory and insists that the data collected are protected by U.S. privacy laws. He said the new program was "not sold only as an anti-terrorist program. It is a multifaceted program" to modernize border procedures and "strengthen the immigration system."
Homeland Security officials acknowledged that the system would not stop a potential terrorist with no record. But they say it will be a useful law enforcement tool.
"Our concern is with the safety of the American public and those visiting the United States," said David Dusellier, manager at the Port Huron entry point. "This will allow us to capture information on persons coming in, and if there were an event, we will have information in the system so that law enforcement can identify and capture them."
The new system also will enable customs agents to catch those using someone else's passport more easily, by instantly comparing their picture at the border with photos taken for previous visa applications, Dusellier said. Eventually, he said, it might be extended to people leaving the country, "to ensure that those people who come into the United States go back out again and don't overstay beyond the legal limits."
The program, with the touristy acronym US-VISIT -- for Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology -- was approved by Congress to try to identify those who overstay their visa limits. But so far there is no check when leaving the United States by land. Most land borders do not have the physical facilities on exit, officials said.
"That's our next challenge," Mocny said. For now, Homeland Security officials instead tout the program's potential to catch incoming persons linked to other crimes.
"We have done a remarkable job of working with the FBI to get fingerprints of criminals who are foreign nationals," Mocny said. He said arrests at airports as a result of the program "point to a demonstrable increase in security."
Both the Mexican and Canadian borders have considerable daily shuttling of trucks and workers, and critics say the new process will exacerbate delays.
"This program could turn what has traditionally been a bottleneck into a complete blockage," said Rafael Fernandez de Castro, a leading international relations specialist in Mexico City. He said the United States has to worry about security, but "this could be truly terrible. The border, instead of being a connecting bridge, is becoming a dividing line."
Omar Bazan Flores, a Mexican federal congressman who represents the border state of Chihuahua, said the new security program "shows a measure of distrust" of Mexicans. He said the measure "is obviously going to be detrimental to Mexicans, because of the longer waits and more intense questioning of those who want to cross the border."
Border officials insist the new procedures will take little time to complete.
"Legitimate travelers should spend five minutes in here and be on down the road," Dusellier said. "This is going to be quicker, and make their travel a lot more expedited."
Sullivan reported from Mexico City. Researcher Bart Beeson in Mexico City contributed to this report.
-------- POLITICS
-------- budget
Spending Bill Held Up by Tax Provision
Measure Lets Panels Examine Returns; Repeal Is Planned
By Dan Morgan and Helen Dewar
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, November 23, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A5738-2004Nov22?language=printer
A $388 billion government-wide spending bill, passed by Congress on Saturday, was stranded on Capitol Hill yesterday, its trip to the White House on hold as embarrassed Republicans prepared to repeal a provision that could give the Appropriations committees the right to examine the tax returns of Americans.
Top GOP lawmakers disavowed the provision, expressed surprise that it was in the bill, and blamed both the Internal Revenue Service and congressional staffs for incorporating it into the omnibus spending package funding domestic departments in 2005.
But Democrats -- and some Republicans -- charged that the incident highlighted the deterioration of a budget-writing system that is prey to such incidents. Unable to agree on how much to spend on basic governmental services, they say, House and Senate GOP leaders increasingly are resorting to a secretive process that leaves the public and most members of Congress ignorant of the content of huge spending bills until hours before a final vote.
At a news conference denouncing this closed-door process, Sen. Kent Conrad (N.D.), ranking Democrat on the Budget Committee, warned that "something really seriously bad is going to happen if we let this continue." He quoted a Republican, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.): "This process is broken."
Republicans hope to finally quell the uproar over the provision tomorrow, when the House is set to approve a resolution repealing it. The Senate took that action on Saturday, after Senate leaders promised that the omnibus spending bill on which the provision was riding would not be sent to the president for his signature until both houses had repealed it.
The provision, added to the spending package of more than 3,000 pages last Thursday, would give staffers of the House and Senate Appropriations committees similar powers to enter IRS facilities and examine tax returns as are now available to the tax-writing committees of the two chambers.
But the provision appeared to some lawmakers to expressly set aside privacy safeguards, which mandate criminal penalties for those divulging individual tax information. Members of both parties charged this could breach the confidentiality of returns.
House officials said the language was intended only to allow staffers to enter IRS facilities where returns were being processed, to oversee how taxpayer money was being used. Such full access is now denied by the IRS, they said, because of the chance a congressional aide might inadvertently see a return.
The provision, House sources said, was drafted by the IRS and inserted into the bill by lower-level House staffers. Senior House and Senate Republicans said they never saw it until the bill appeared on the floor, and yesterday IRS spokesman Terry Lemons said the IRS commissioner "was unaware of the provision until after it was already approved" and "strongly supports it being deleted from the final bill."
On Saturday, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) referred to the provision as the "Istook amendment," and congressional aides said it had been inserted at the request of Rep. Ernest J. Istook Jr. (R-Okla.), who chairs the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the IRS.
But yesterday Istook said in a written statement that he had been left in the dark about the provision: "I didn't write it; I didn't approve it; I wasn't even consulted. My name shouldn't be associated with it because I had nothing to do with it."
Micah Leydorf, Istook's spokeswoman, said she understood the language was added by the full Appropriations Committee staff or by Istook's subcommittee staff at the direction of staffers for the full committee.
"We have a problem with how bills like this are put together," Istook acknowledged. "The subcommittee chairman should never be bypassed like I was in this case."
He added that "honest mistakes were made but there's no conspiracy."
But some top Republicans were less charitable. Speaking on the Senate floor Saturday, Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), who chairs the tax-writing Finance Committee, called the provision an "outrage" and said it will "bring us back to the doorsteps of the days of Nixon, Truman and similar dark periods in our tax history when tax return information was used as a club against political enemies."
"It's simply representative of the way Congress is now operating," said Allen Schick, a professor of public policy at the University of Maryland. "It shows on the one hand how easy it is to put something in [an omnibus bill] without anybody else knowing about it." Although this may look particularly egregious, he said, the giant bill also contains hundreds of other provisions that could not be enacted into law if they were offered as single bills requiring full debate and scrutiny in both houses.
Such huge bills, lawmakers acknowledge, represent a breakdown of the normal budget process. For the second time in three years, House and Senate Republicans, bitterly divided over the level of domestic spending, failed to agree on a budget blueprint, as required by law.
The impasse forced delays in drafting many of the spending bills, and when Congress returned last week from its election recess, it had yet to complete nine of the 13 annual appropriations bills. Seven of the spending bills had never been to the Senate floor for debate, one had never been to the House floor, and one funding the nation's nuclear weapons programs and Army Corps of Engineers water projects was still in a Senate subcommittee.
To overcome this problem, GOP leaders crammed all the remaining legislation into a single omnibus package that, under congressional rules, could not be amended.
It contained all the unfinished spending bills, along with three other pieces of major legislation -- the Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act, the Snake River Water Rights Act, and the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act.
Along with those measures, lawmakers and staffs added thousands of local projects benefiting home states and districts. Also included in the final bill was a major provision barring states from enforcing laws that require health care providers, hospitals, HMOs or insurers to pay for, provide or give referrals for abortion.
But when the measure was rushed to the floors of the two chambers Saturday, few members had read it. Lawmakers absent from the Capitol for weeks while campaigning for reelection returned for a brief lame-duck session to complete the work of the 108th Congress.
The secretive process, Schick noted, gives GOP leaders enormous power to add provisions that they or special interests might want, and to delete provisions that GOP factions or the White House find objectionable.
Frist, for example, ordered negotiators to accept the abortion provision, even though it had never gone to the Senate floor and was only in the House-passed version of the bill covering health appropriations. Senate opponents agreed not to block its consideration after Frist promised to schedule a vote soon on a bill drafted by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) to repeal the provision.
GOP leaders also deleted provisions on overtime regulations and the outsourcing of government jobs despite support in both houses.
"It's not transparent, and it's a breakdown of legislative order," Schick said.
Staff writer Jonathan Weisman contributed to this report.
-------- propaganda wars
Queens' speech: The politics of fear
independent.co.uk
By Nigel Morris
23 November 2004
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=585794
TERROR
Proposal: Draft Bill in the New Year will propose juryless anti-terror trials, use of wiretap evidence in courts and civil orders for people suspected of "acts preparatory to terrorism" such as raising cash.
Government says: Although he has strongly denied that the next election will be fought on the "politics of fear'', David Blunkett has also warned al-Qa'ida is "on our doorstep and threatening our lives". He says ministers are trying "to square an impossible circle" by attempting to adapt the legal system to protect Britain against new threats without eroding basic human rights.
CRITICS SAY: A time of increased public fear is the wrong time to be pushing through draconian measures that undermine fundamental freedoms. Many critics accuse Mr Blunkett of exploiting fears of an attack to justify them. The use of wiretaps may be widely welcomed but the Law Society says judge-only trials is an "unacceptable erosion" of citizens' rights to be tried by peers. Civil liberties groups worry innocent people could be stigmatised - and threatened - as the burden of proof in civil orders is lower than in criminal prosecutions.
CRIME
Proposal: Setting up in April the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca), a "British FBI", with 5,000 officers to tackle drug smuggling, people trafficking and money laundering. Extra powers for police and community officers in Police & Criminal Evidence Act (Pace).
THE Government says: Ministers argue that organised crime costs the country Ł40bn a year and needs a new approach to combat it. Bringing together such diverse organisations as the National Crime Squad, Special Branch and Serious Fraud Office is likely to reduce risk of turf wars.
CRITICS SAY: The Government has been urged to ensure the new agency is properly accountable and that complaints can be handled. The Association of Chief Police Officers has warned of the danger of self-defeating conflict with local forces jealous of Soca. The Government's reliance on community support officers has proved controversial, with the Tories calling for the cash to be spent on "proper" police. Critics say the overhaul of Pace could be used by police to take fingerprints at the roadside.
DRUGS
Proposal: New police powers to test for drugs upon arrest, rather than charge, and for a broader range of offences. Users could be prosecuted if drugs are found in their bloodstream. Crackdown to be balanced by improved facilities for treatment.
THE Government says: With figures on Thursday expected to reveal an increase in the use of class-A drugs, Tony Blair has argued that tackling drug addiction is crucial for bringing down crime rates and improving neighbourhoods.
CRITICS SAY: Opponents worry that ministers are preparing to throw the net too wide in an attempt to gain tough headlines. Gareth Crossman, director of Liberty, says: "Many, many people who take drugs aren't in fact committing any offence other than taking them. This would make it more likely they will be caught up in the criminal justice system and criminalised. Where is the public interest in that?"
ID CARDS
Proposal: National identity cards will be devised with unique biometric identifiers, along with the database to underpin them. Will be rolled out from 2008 as people apply for passports and driving licences; they could become compulsory by 2010-12.
Government says: David Blunkett argues the scheme will help fight terrorism (35 per cent of terrorists use multiple identities), crime, illegal immigration and fraudulent claims on public services. He insists "robust" safeguards are built in to prevent abuse. But the Home Secretary acknowledges it is a major challenge, admitting he would "certainly be remembered as one of the biggest political failures that Britain has ever produced" it it were not to work.
Critics say: Mr Blunkett has faced accusations he is using the threat of terrorism to give impetus to his pet project. Many Labour MPs - including cabinet members - are worried about giving the state too much power; the Commission for Racial Equality has warned that ID Cards could inflame racial tensions. Critics point out that an identity system was in operation at the scene of the Madrid bombings.
BEHAVIOUR
Proposal: Town and parish councils empowered to let staff issue on-the-spot fines of between Ł30 and Ł100 for dog-fouling, littering, vandalism, making excessive night-time noise, fly-posting and throwing fireworks.
THE Government says: Antisocial behaviour is the biggest issue for voters. Tony Blair said recently: "For too long, the selfish minority have had it all their own way. That is changing." The Prime Minister is so preoccupied with antisocial behaviour that Labour has produced a succession of Bills in recent years. He can, however, point to evidence that the concept of anti-social behaviour orders (Asbos) is beginning to take root.
Critics say: Penal reformers believe Asbos force youngsters into custody for breaching them and argue that they do not address the root causes of offending behaviour. The Rethinking Crime and Punishment think-tank has said: "The disproportionate emphasis placed by the Government on bans, injunctions and public identification threatens to create outlaws, who have less and less incentive to conform."
-------- us politics
House members ready to contest election if 1 Sen will join in
Nov-23-04
Democratic Underground
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x73567
This is from an email sent out by Congressional Candidate Mike Byron. Apparently, the House Dems are ready to contest the election if one Senator will join in. SO PLEASE CONTACT YOUR SENATOR AND ASK THEM TO CONTEST THE ELECTION. Also, please keep this kicked.
FYI,
Last week I requested that Cong. Bob Filner join in with other members of Congress in requesting an investigation by the General Accounting Office of apparent voting irregularities and discrepancies arising from the Nov. 2nd election. In agreeing to take this action, I received the below reply from his Campaign Manager Frank Salazar on the Congressman's behalf. Note this excerpt (quoting Cong. Barbara Lee) from that reply:
"One senator and one House Representative are required to contest an election result prior to inauguration.
But, certainly, the more Congresspeople the merrier. The questions remains, however, which, if any, Senator will stand up for democracy? Will it be Barbara Boxer, the so-called 3rd-most vote getter in the 2004 election? Or will we have another terrible scene like the one from Fahrenheit 911 where not one Senator will contest?"
Perhaps WE should be asking Sen Boxer to be that Senator. Particularly if clear evidence of voting misconduct in Ohio, Florida, or any other states arises. There is already, sufficient evidence of massive interference with the Ohio election http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/89... to meet this standard. Also Bev Harris of blackboxvoting.org has uncovered significant physical evidence of vote stealing in Florida (see http://www.blackboxvoting.org for details).
In conjunction with the several statistical studies showing massive and astronomically improbable irregularities in reported vote totals and their divergences from scientifically valid exit polls (see http://onlinejournal.com/evoting/112004Waldman/112004wa... for a concise summary) it is clear that something is very seriously amiss with respect to the reported results of (s)election 2004...
I thank Cong. Filner for standing up bravely for our democracy, and think that as soon as we can see the totality of credible, specific evidence that is uncovered, that we should unleash a letter, e-mail, phone and fax, campaign to request Sen. Boxer to join with members of the House (see Cong. Barbara Lee's letter just below Cong. Filner's below appended reply to my query) in contesting the suspect election results on Jan 6th. As this investigation may take some time Bush's inauguration as "President" will have to be canceled pending the outcome of the investigation...as is appropriate in a lawful, Constitution abiding society.
Please forward.
Mike Byron
From: Bob Filner for Congress <mailto:info@bobfilnerforcongress.com > Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 2004 10:31 AM To: Mike Byron Subject: 14 House Dems Demand GAO Election Probe (FILNER)
November 23, 2004
14 House Dems Demand GAO Election Probe
A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION by Matthew Cardinale
Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) has asked to become the 14th signatory of the GAO letter demanding an investigation in electronic voting. This information was confirmed by a staffer, Theresa, in the U.S. House Judiciary Office, on November 22, 2004.
As of this writing, Schakowsky's signature has not been submitted to the GAO.
However, the GAO has received letters of concern with 13 signatories thus far:
John Conyers (D-MI)
Jerrold Nadler (D-NY)
Robert Wexler (D-FL)
Robert Scott (D-GA)
Melvin Watt (D-NC)
Rush Holt (D-NJ)
Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)
Louise Slaughter (D-NY)
George Miller (D-CA)
John Olver (D-MA)
Bob Filner (D-CA)
Gregory Meeks (D-NY)
Barbara Lee (D-CA)
Plus
Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)
Also, Congressman Barbara Lee of California issued the following statement on November 15th:
"The right to vote and the right to have our votes counted are both fundamental to our democratic system of government," said Lee.
"As elected representatives of the people, we hold a sacred responsibility to every voter across this nation to ensure that their vote is counted and recorded properly. We cannot, and we should not accept any flaws in our election process."
Julie Nickson, press secretary for Barbara Lee, added, "She signed it because she was aware of the situation. We got some phone calls from constituents."
The letter, or set of letters, is addressed to The Honorable David M. Walker, Comptroller General of the United States, General Accountability Office.
The first letter begins, "We write with an urgent request that the GAO immediately undertake an investigation of the efficacy of voting machines and new technologies used in the 2004 election, how election officials responded to the difficulties they encountered, and what we can do in the future to improve our election systems and administration."
Particular concerns brought up are:
-The almost 4,000 votes awarded to Bush in Columbus, Ohio, reported by the AP, which was only noticeable because more votes were recorded in the precinct than there were registered voters.
-Votes lost on a local initiative in Florida because the computer could only store so many votes.
-Apx. 4,500 votes lost in one North Carolina county.
-A glitch in San Francisco computers which caused many votes to be uncounted.
-Florida's anomalous results where only districts with touch screen voting had disproportionate votes for Bush than expected. This analysis has since been duplicated by a UC Berkeley professor and others.
-AP reports in Florida and Ohio of voters who stated when using touchscreens, when they selected "John Kerry," that instead "George Bush" would appear on the screen.
-Long lines in urban Ohio areas, to the point where voters left in frustration after 8 or so hours. But that's not all. The second letter, dated, November 8th, reported additional incidents.
-3,000 phantom votes were added by a Nebraska "vote tabulator" which doubled the votes.
-22,000 North Carolina votes which later had to be added because the computer initially discarded them due to system overload.
-21 voting machines in Broward County, Florida, malfunctioned, eliminating prior votes that had been cast on them in this most-Democratic county in the state.
-Warren County, Ohio's, bogus refusal allow independent monitoring of vote counting based on a terrorist incident which turned out later to not exist.
-Malfunctioning vote cassettes in Palm Beach, FL.
-Boxes of absentee votes discovered after the election in a Broward County election office.
Notably, nine (9) out of the current 14 supporters are members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC). They are Barbara Lee (who is a leader of the Caucus), along with John Conyers, Jerold Nadler, Melvin Watt, Tammy Baldin, George Miller, John Olver, Bob Filner, and Jan Schakowsky. According to the CPC website, there are currently 55 congressional members on the Progressive Caucus. For a list of members, see: http://bernie.house.gov/pc/members.asp
One notable Progressive Caucus member who has not signed on is House Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who is also the current House Minority Leader.
Another curious absence is Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), former presidential candidate, who otherwise is taking a prominent role in the Ohio voter testimony hearings currently taking place.
Most mainstream media accounts actually still list there being 3 signatories, but that was only the first, original letter. CBS and others have been reporting 6 signatories.
But, don't be sad. America isn't so far into hell in a handbasket that we couldn't come up with more than 6 Representatives. We now have 14.
The chronology has been as follows. First, Congressman Conyers, Wexler, and Nadler wrote a letter to the GAO on November 5. This letter is available at: http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/gaoinvestvote2...
The names of Scott, Watt, and Holt, were added in a second letter sent November 8, which outlined additional voting problems as well as increased the number of congressional signatures to six (6). This letter is available at: http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/gaoinvestvote2...
On November 17, two additional letters were sent. First, a letter adding the signatures of Tammy Baldwin, Louise Slaughter, and George Miller, was sent, increasing the number of signatures to nine (9). A copy of this letter is available at: http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/gaoinvestvote2...
A second letter dated November 17--fourth letter overall--was sent to the GAO which added John Olner, Bob Filner, Gregory Meeks, and Barbara Lee.
This brought the number of signatures to thirteen (13). Which, adding today's announcement by Schakowsky, brings the total to fourteen (14) signatures. A scanned copy of the second letter from November 17th is available at: http://www.house.gov/lee/releases/04nov15.htm
One senator and one House Representative are required to contest an election result prior to inauguration.
But, certainly, the more Congresspeople the merrier. The questions remains, however, which, if any, Senator will stand up for democracy? Will it be Barbara Boxer, the so-called 3rd-most vote getter in the 2004 election? Or will we have another terrible scene like the one from Fahrenheit 911 where not one Senator will contest?
Only time will tell, but my guess is that the progressive community has done so much organizing in the past four years that, even if there isn't a change in the election outcome, there will at least be some serious hearings and reform legislation to mend and improve our flawed, flawed process.
http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/04/11/con04514.ht...
Frank G. Salazar
Campaign Manager
Bob Filner for Congress-Fighting for Us!
619-425-1998 office
619-425-1986 fax
-------- voting
Thousands of Ukrainians Refuse to Accept Election Results
November 23, 2004
By C. J. CHIVERS
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/23/international/europe/23CND-UKRA.html?ei=5094&en=824922d4036ac304&hp=&ex=1101272400&partner=homepage&pagewanted=all&position=
KIEV, Ukraine, Nov. 23 - Mass demonstrations against the preliminary count of the presidential election in Ukraine expanded today in the capital, as the opposition candidate and official loser, Viktor A. Yushchenko, declared himself the winner and tried without success to force the Parliament to invalidate the official results.
Mr. Yushchenko's supporters swarmed through the streets, staging simultaneous and highly organized rallies at both Independence Square and at the entrance to the Supreme Rada, Ukraine's 450-seat Parliament.
Their numbers were visibly larger than the day before, when tens of thousands of demonstrators chanted slogans against the government; newly arrived demonstrators said they had come to the capital from outlying regions to support the opposition at a critical time.
With regions declaring allegiance to both the official loser and the official winner, the country remained deeply split, and the government in the capital came to a near standstill. The lights of the presidential administration building were dimmed.
A senior Western diplomat also said there were indications that Ukraine's military, intelligence and law enforcement bodies might decline to take sides in the political crisis.
Prime Minister Viktor F. Yanukovich, the official winner of the race, according to the Central Election Commission's preliminary count, kept a low profile during the day, as did Leonid D. Kuchma, the outgoing president and Mr. Yanukovich's chief patron.
Late in the day Mr. Kuchma's press service released a statement saying that the president had spoken with Jan Peter Balkenende, the Dutch prime minister, and warned that "political issues must not be solved in the street" and that Mr. Kuchma was recommending consultations between the two candidates to try to settle their dispute.
And Lech Walesa, the Nobel laureate and former leader of the Solidarity movement in Poland, was expected to arrive in Kiev to try to mediate the candidate's differences at Mr. Yushchenko's invitation, according to Mr. Yushchenko's staff. Mr. Walesa urged the opposition to "to use peaceful methods to lower the risks of a possible tragedy," according to Agence France-Presse.
The police presence in Kiev remained light, although buses with uniformed security officers, some wearing riot gear, were parked on alert near the city's center.
A senior Western diplomat here, speaking on condition of anonymity, portrayed the Ukrainian leadership as at an impasse, stung by public and diplomatic reaction against a presidential runoff widely seen as rigged and unsure of how best to react against the growing mass protests.
The diplomat also said that he had credible reports that the police, the army and even the Ukraine's successor to the KGB, might be unwilling to put down the demonstrators by force. His assessment suggested a deep division at the most senior ranks of the Ukrainian government
"You have a government which in my opinion does not know what to do," the diplomat said.
He said that "two red lines" had been communicated to President Kuchma. First, he said, that the Ukrainian government was to use no violence against the protesters, and second, that it was to take no step to validate the election. Mr. Yanukovich has not yet officially been declared the president-elect.
The diplomat also suggested that Ukraine risked a degree of diplomatic isolation if it continued the course it apparently attempted at the runoff on Sunday. The preliminary results from the government gave the prime minister roughly a three-point lead; prominent Western election observers reported widespread and systematic abuse in the prime minister's favor, including changes to the voting lists, multiple voting, and the use of state resources to Mr. Yanukovich's advantage.
"You are talking about many countries putting Ukraine at a certain distance if this turns out to be the results of the election," he said, describing Mr. Yanukovich as "a very suspicious winner, as the results reflect all kinds of abuse."
The pressure on Mr. Kuchma appeared to be extraordinary. At issue were not just the direction of his country - Mr. Yushchenko has pledged to steer it westward, toward Europe, while Mr. Yanukovich has vowed to further tighten the nation's strong ties with Russia - but also his legacy, already tarnished by allegations of corruption, illegal arms dealing and state support for political violence.
Even one-time friends in the West were speaking sternly against him.
The diplomat noted that United States Senator Richard G. Lugar, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a legislator who had worked closely and cooperatively with Mr. Kuchma on nuclear non-proliferation issues over the years, had publicly asked the Ukrainian president to ensure that the elections were fair.
"President Kuchma, even at this late stage, has both the responsibility to review all of this and to take decisive action," Mr. Lugar had said Monday in Kiev.
With the situation uncertain and highly fluid, Mr. Yuschenko appeard to be driving for symbolic stature.
In an unofficial meeting of the Supreme Rada, Mr. Yushchenko placed his hand upon a Bible and read the oath of office, a gesture without legal standing but of clear significance to his supporters massed outside and those who watched on the live television broadcast throughout Ukraine.
The session at the Supreme Rada had been an attempt by the opposition campaign to muster the votes to have the Parliament declare no confidence in the official vote count, but it was boycotted by supporters for Mr. Kuchma and Mr. Yanukovich. Only 191 members were present, short of the necessary quorum.
The senior Western diplomat said that in order to reach a quorum and convene a special session of the Parliament, Mr. Yushchenko would need the support of the Communist Party, which so far has refused to take sides. Both sides were courting them, so far without visible effect.
"The Communists determine whether or not there is a special session," the diplomat said.
As the battle for perceptions intensified, Mr. Yanukovich's campaign said it expected to make a statement during the night in which the prime minister would declare victory and call himself the president-elect. Both sides also grappled to show popular backing.
The regional government of Donetsk, an eastern region where Mr. Yanukovich draws much of his support and from where many of Mr. Kuchma's government officials hail, passed a resolution denouncing the protests and noting "the complete and irrevocable victory of Yanukovich."
Almost simultaneously, the western Ukrainian region of Lviv declared opposition and recognized Mr. Yushchenko as president, a gesture of support similar to those issued by governments in four other cities, including Kiev, that have not recognized the official results, instead backing Mr. Yushchenko.
In the heart of the demonstration, a growing tent city near Independence Square, organizers said they would continue to protest indefinitely, but only by peaceful means.
"Our main principle is non-violence," said Mariana Savitska, a spokeswoman for an unregistered youth movement that has been calling demonstrators out and providing them food, warm clothing and tents.
She then made reference to the suffering of Ukraine under Soviet rule, when artificial famine, orchestrated to bring the countryside to heel, exterminated huge areas of the countryside.
"During the Soviet period more than 10 million Ukrainians perished," she said. "This is quite enough."
--------
Widespread Vote Fraud Is Alleged In Ukraine
By Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, November 23, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A3591-2004Nov22?language=printer
KIEV, Ukraine. Nov. 22 -- Tens of thousands of demonstrators converged on Independence Square in the Ukrainian capital Monday after election monitors charged widespread fraud in the presidential runoff election, apparently won by the Moscow-backed prime minister, Viktor Yanukovych.
With 99.33 percent of the vote counted, Yanukovych won 49.42 percent of the vote compared with 46.3 percent for his opponent, Viktor Yushchenko, according to the Central Elections Commission. Exit polls in the balloting initially indicated that Yushchenko would win by a wide margin.
As a crowd of at least 100,000 gathered in Kiev Monday night despite freezing temperatures, Yushchenko called for civil resistance.
"A terrible evil is going on," Yushchenko told his supporters, many of whom waved orange flags or wore orange scarves, signifying their support for his campaign. "From all parts of Ukraine, on carts, cars, planes and trains, tens of thousands of people are on their way here. Our action is only beginning."
A crowd of about 1,000 mostly young supporters remained in the square overnight, some of them in tents. Yushchenko called for a rally at the parliament building on Tuesday morning.
There also were reports that supporters of Yanukovych were traveling to the capital from his strongholds in southern and eastern Ukraine for counter-demonstrations.
Yanukovych stopped short of declaring victory Monday. "I would like to thank everyone who voted for me," he said, noting that he was speaking as a candidate, not as the victor. "We don't have the final results yet. I am sure you all want peace and stability.
"I would like to address opposition supporters and voters," he said. "I respect your choice and your right to vote, and I can assure you that we will find a place for your representatives."
Yushchenko, 50, a former prime minister and central banker, is considered a reformer in this country of 48 million, favoring closer cooperation with NATO and the European Union. Yanukovych, 54, has received strong support from President Vladimir Putin of Russia, whose spokesman issued a statement Monday from Brazil, congratulating Yanukovych on winning the presidency, although the result has not been declared.
Responding to the threat of unrest, the Interior Ministry and the security services issued a joint statement saying they were watching the demonstrations for signs of trouble. "We want to assure everyone that in the event of any threat to constitutional order, and the security of our citizens, we are prepared to put an end quickly and firmly to any lawlessness," their communique said.
International monitors identified a series of election abuses. In Donetsk, for instance, they reported unusually high turnouts in areas that favored Yanukovych -- as high as 96 percent of registered voters, compared with a 65.8 percent turnout three weeks ago for the first round of balloting.
Observers also said state workers were forced to apply for absentee ballots from their managers and that the filled-in ballots were collected at their places of work. Students were coerced to vote by their professors and deans, according to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. At a news conference, the monitors said there were too many violations for them to enumerate.
"The second round did not meet a considerable number of standards of the OSCE and the European Council for democratic elections," said Bruce George, a Briton who is the observer mission chief for the OSCE, which called for a review of the vote by Ukrainian authorities.
In Washington, the State Department called on Ukraine's government to investigate the fraud allegations or risk a changed relationship with the United States. "Quick action on the part of the government of Ukraine is required," said J. Adam Ereli, a department spokesman.
A number of Ukrainian city councils protested the results. The Kiev city council said that parliament should not accept the election result, but the city councils in Lviv, Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk went further, saying they would recognize Yushchenko as the legally elected president.
Parliament was expected to debate the election results Tuesday, and the Yushchenko campaign was considering filing suits with the country's Supreme Court, which has demonstrated its independence from the government in a number of rulings during the campaign. A senior foreign diplomat said Monday that Yushchenko had been consulting with embassy personnel stationed in Kiev to consider his strategy.
Yushchenko supporters insisted they would confront the government. A Yushchenko political ally, Yulia Tymoshenko, advocated a general strike. "Stop working, stop learning, make it all stop," she said.
"Do you know what happened to Milosevic? The same thing here," said Oleksiy Radynski, 20, a student protesting at Independence Square, referring to the popular revolt against the former Yugoslav president. "We will frighten this government and show them they can't steal our votes."
Yanukovych supporters were also adamant. "They lost, those fools and idiots," said Valentin Baranov, 72. "Yanukovych is our president. These protests are not honest."
Observers from a number of countries of the former Soviet Union, including Russia, where the Kremlin has openly backed Yanukovych, said there were some abuses, but they concluded that the abuses were not critical to the outcome.
"The opposition will try to create a second power center involving parliament and the streets," said Gleb Pavlovsky, a Kremlin political consultant and Yanukovych adviser, in an interview with the Russian news agency Interfax. "This is typical revolutionary tactics."
The White House's special envoy to Ukraine, Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), called on the outgoing president, Leonid Kuchma, to step in and review the election process.
-------- ENERGY
-------- alternative energy
Portland, Maine, Laundry Uses Solar Energy; Other Firms Go Green, Too
Portland Press Herald
By Felix Doligosa Jr.
November 23, 2004
http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=442
PORTLAND, Me. - The temperature dipped into the 30s and gray clouds swarmed high in the sky one recent afternoon, but the few hours of sunlight that peeked through were sufficient to generate enough hot water for a busy night at the Washboard Laundry.
The Portland-based laundry uses solar panels on its roof to heat a 300-gallon tub of water, aiding a natural-gas heater in warming water. The solar heater reduces the gas bill by an estimated 65 percent. "The sun can keep up with our consumption," said Jason Wentworth, Washboard's owner. "It's a very efficient match."
Wentworth is not the only one matching environmental concerns with business smarts. An increasing number of Maine companies are saving money while watching out for the environment.
"Companies are becoming smarter," said Julie Churchill of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. "More companies, universities are coming to the plate. We are getting more applications from companies looking to participate in our environmental programs."
It's a national trend. Companies big and small have begun to pay close attention to environmental concerns: Starbucks rewards coffee suppliers who treat their land with less chemicals. Staples purchases recycled products and promotes recycling days where customers can turn in their used inkjet cartridges.
In Maine, the DEP recently honored 18 companies for helping to protect the environment, a major increase over the two recognized in 1993, said Churchill.
"Society has become more socially responsible, and industry customers are looking at environmental-friendly products," she said.
It pays to be environmentally conscious because some companies refuse to work with others if they do not meet certain environmental standards, said Dick Hall, environmental manager at National Semiconductor Corp.
"A number of customers such as Nokia would not work with us unless we had a compliant environmental management system," said Hall.
California-based National Semiconductor has a fabrication plant in South Portland that employs about 650 people. The company was one of the businesses recently recognized by the DEP.
National has plans for reducing its pollution by 30 percent. The company also started cutting its energy by making its steam-based heating system more efficient. National fixed leaks in the system, which, in turn, reduced oil and natural gas used to heat its plant. Last year, the repairs saved 173,162 gallons of fuel oil, or $138,529, for the company.
In addition to saving money, said Hall, making the plants more environmentally friendly is good corporate stewardship. That intangible is becoming increasingly linked to a company's market performance.
"The stock market looks unfavorably on companies doing the wrong thing," he said. "You don't want to be on the front page of the paper for doing the wrong thing."
At General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products in Saco, the company has reduced the hazardous chemicals used to make the military's weapons. The company, a subsidiary of Virginia-based General Dynamics, makes a variety of gun systems for aircraft and tanks.
The company started using porous pots to reduce impurities in chrome for its weapon production. The porous pot uses an electrical treatment that recovers reusable chrome. The company reduced chrome-based waste by 95 percent last year, said Scott Belanger, senior environment health and safety specialist.
The extra money spent on the pots and time spent cleaning the chrome are worth it, said Belanger.
"It's cost effective by saving on liabilities for handling the chrome," Belanger said. "It's a smart business cycle."
Naval shipbuilder Bath Iron Works has had a major environmental plan in place since 2002. BIW, also a subsidiary of General Dynamics, signed up with a DEP program to improve the environment by reducing a specific amount of waste by 2006. As part of the program, BIW separates used solvent from paint waste and distills it. The recovered solvent is then reused to clean painting equipment.
The shipyard recovered more than 4,400 gallons of solvent last year. In another aspect of the program, the company said it reduced solid waste by 10 percent and hazardous waste by 16 percent last year.
"Our philosophy is that what is good for the environment is good for our business," said Jim DeMartini, spokesman for BIW.
Not all companies are so lucky in getting fast returns on their green initiatives. Wentworth, the laundry owner, spent more than $6,000 for his solar water heater and doesn't expect to pay it off for five more years. To shave costs, he put the heater together himself.
"You can look at the hard dollar terms and see how much did we spend and how much will we save," Wentworth said. "I think the calculations have to go beyond that and look at the environmental impact. I want to be an example in finding less destructive ways to live on the earth."
-------- energy
Professor Goodstein discusses lowering oil reserves
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
23/11/2004
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2004/s1249211.htm
TV PROGRAM TRANSCRIPT Reporter: Tony Jones
TONY JONES: Now to tonight's guest - David Goodstein is professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology or Caltech.
In his latest book, 'Out of Gas' - the End of the Age of Oil', he explores the consequences of oil reserves getting lower and lower in the coming decades.
Professor Goodstein joined us from San Francisco.
David Goodstein, thanks for joining us.
PROFESSOR DAVID GOODSTEIN, AUTHOR 'OUT OF GAS': Thank you.
TONY JONES: Your most alarming statement you make in your book is that civilisation as we know it will come to an end before the end of this century when we run out of fuel?
PROFESSOR DAVID GOODSTEIN: Yes, that is, it's meant to be alarming, it's meant to alarm people, to wake people up and help prevent that from happening.
TONY JONES: So, how long do you reckon we've got in reality?
PROFESSOR DAVID GOODSTEIN: Well, that's not an easy question to answer.
PROFESSOR DAVID GOODSTEIN: We will probably have an oil crisis reasonably soon.
It may have already begun.
We are much too close to the situation to know for sure.
The information we're given is much too undependable for us to know for sure.
It might not actually happen until later this decade or even in the next decade.
Those differences are very important to us because we would like to go on living the comfortable lives we lead.
But on the long scale of human history 10 or 20 years is absolutely negligible.
So we will have a oil crisis.
There are other fossil fuels that can be made a substitute for oil, at a price.
So we might be able to muddle on for a while , though a much more likely scenario is that we will have resource wars and other terrible things happening.
But it is possible we'll be able to muddle on for a while, even turning to coal, for example, which can be liquified and used as a substitute for oil and which is in very large supply.
But if we do all that, for one thing we will do an unpredictable amount of damage to our climate, and for another thing it's my guess that we would start running out of coal.
Let us say we would reach the point where we're depleting the resource faster than we can develop new sources probably in the this century.
TONY JONES: This is one of the interesting things because people tend to think that coal and natural gas are available in virtually infinite quantities.
If oil runs out you can turn to them.
What you're saying is all fossil fuels are finite?
PROFESSOR DAVID GOODSTEIN: All fossil fuels are finite.
We don't have a very clear idea of how much there is for the various resources.
The historical peak in oil discovery worldwide occurred around 1960, discoveries have been declining ever since.
The historic peak and natural gas discoveries occurred in the 1970s and so the maximum for natural gas production probably is only 10 years or so behind that for oil.
We seem to make hundreds to thousands of years estimates at the present rate of extraction but that's completely unrealistic because we use twice as much energy now from oil as we do for coal.
If you're going to mine coal to substitute for the oil you have to mine it much faster, the conversion process is inefficient, the world's population is increasing.
the poorer parts of the world want to be more like us and use more energy and finally, we will run out of, we will be in trouble with coal not when we mine the last tonne, but when we reach the peak production which is about the halfway point.
TONY JONES: We've just heard about Hubbard's peak and the speculation that we passed the point of no return.
How does anyone know for sure that we're actually past that point?
PROFESSOR DAVID GOODSTEIN: We can't know for sure.
I've always thought that we will know that the peak has occurred when Saudi Arabia maxes out, when it reaches its peak in production.
The Saudis claim they will be able to increase their production by a million barrels a day in a relatively short period of time.
That promise has not yet been kept.
We don't know whether it's true.
If you look at the history of what's called proved oil reserves.
The proved reserves of oil in the OPEC organisation of petroleum exporting countries, increased by 300 to 400 billion barrels in the late 1980s.
There were no important discoveries of oil during that period.
What happened instead was that OPEC changed its quota system how much oil each country could pump based on in part its claimed reserves and the claimed reserves just appeared out of nowhere by magic.
So half the world's proved reserves may be an illusion and the information we're given is so undependable we really just can't say.
TONY JONES: Do you believe oil companies have lied about this?
PROFESSOR DAVID GOODSTEIN: We know that Royal Dutch Shell did because they were audited by the SEC, by an external auditor an independent auditor forced to reduce their estimated reserves by 20 per cent.
That sent shock waves through the entire oil industry.
But 90 per cent of the proved reserves are held by countries, not by companies and nobody ordered the Saudi books.
TONY JONES: Have we really discovered all the remaining great oilfields though.
We know for example geologists claim there is a great lake of oil under Antarctica?
PROFESSOR DAVID GOODSTEIN: The people who would like to believe that the Hubbard's peak is further away than some of us fear, believe that we may make great discoveries in the deep oceans and the Antarctic, as you say, and central and northern Siberia and so on.
I think they're grasping at straws.
Two-thirds of the world's oil reserves are in the Middle East the Persian Gulf.
That's 10 times as much as a Africa, ten times as much as the Middle East, ten times as much as in the former Soviet Union.
There are no other important players in the game.
We recently saw a spike because there were a couple of storms in the Gulf of Mexico.
Just think of what's going to happen when the Saudi regime collapses.
TONY JONES: As we know, many scientists are convinced that global warming is happening so fast that if we don't stop burning fossil feel fuels the earth will reach within 30 years a catastrophic tipping point.
Are you saying that effectively we're going to run out of fossil fuels before we destroy the environment?
PROFESSOR DAVID GOODSTEIN: There are some people who see that as the silver lining in the cloud.
We'll reach Hubbard's peak and have to reduce our burning of fossil fuels and that will keep us from damaging doing irreversible damage to the planet.
It seems to me that's like hoping that the patient will have a fatal heart attack to save him from dying of cancer.
It's not the way I think we ought to do things.
TONY JONES: Professor James Lovelock who's called by many the father of the environmental movement says "the industry world must now embrace nuclear power as the only viable alternative to oil and other fossil fuels".
What do you say to that argument?
PROFESSOR DAVID GOODSTEIN: It depends on what kind of nuclear power you mean.
If you mean the kind of conventional power that we use for power in the United States, burning uranium 235, which is a rare isotope of uranium, there are a couple of problems.
One of them is you would have to build 10,000 of the largest power plants that are feasible by engineering standards in order to replace the 10 terrawatts of fossil fuel we're burning today.
10,000 nuclear plants of the largest kind possible - that's a staggering amount and if you did that, the known reserves of uranium would last for 10 to 20 years at that burn rate.
So, it's at best a bridging technology.
If you're talking about nuclear fusion, then in the long range the fuel is almost limitless but it's been 25 years away for the past 50 years and it's still 25 years away.
It has been said of nuclear fusion and also shell oil which is one of the possible fossil fuels that they are the energy sources of the future and always will be.
TONY JONES: So, with nuclear power, even if we could build those 10,000 nuclear power plants presumably right around the world it would only be a temporary thing?
PROFESSOR DAVID GOODSTEIN: It would only be a temporary fix.
You can use the rest of the uranium to breed plutonium 239 then we'd have at least 100 times as much fuel to use.
But that means you're making plutonium, which is an extremely dangerous thing to do in the dangerous world that we live in.
TONY JONES: So, what do you say then to the arguments of the Professor Lovelock and others, who say that nuclear power is the only alternative to avoid reaching the fatal tipping point?
PROFESSOR DAVID GOODSTEIN: I agree with them.
I think that we must make use of all possible alternatives to fossil fuels, nuclear power included.
I'm just trying to stress that it's not the magic bullet that will by itself save us from our problems, but I certainly think we have to use it.
TONY JONES: There is one other alternative we should be talking about and that is hydrogen as fuel for future motor cars.
What do you think of the hydrogen alternative?
PROFESSOR DAVID GOODSTEIN: Hydrogen is made from fossil fuel.
It is not a substitute for fossil fuels.
It's just a way of conveying energy.
It is not a source of energy.
The economics today are if you make hydrogen by burning fossil fuel to generate electricity and then electrolyse water to make the hydrogen, it will require somewhere between three and six gallons of gasoline to make enough hydrogen to replace one gallon of gasoline.
So, a hydrogen economy doesn't solve anything really.
In the long-term future if you had plenty of fusion power available, stationary power, and the only problem was to make it mobile to serve for transportation then making hydrogen might make sense.
TONY JONES: So, what you're saying is that right now, making hydrogen could actually create more global warming than we're seeing at the moment?
PROFESSOR DAVID GOODSTEIN: Yes, unless you make it from renewable sources such as solar energy or atomic energy.
TONY JONES: You were pointing out, and I think this is one of your major points - there is no magic bullet.
So, presumably we have to combine our efforts using what we have - solar power, wind power, tidal power in combinations unlike anything we have seen before.
Is that feasible though, would any politicians agree to make such great changes?
PROFESSOR DAVID GOODSTEIN: Well, we went through a presidential election in the US in which neither party mentioned anything having to do with this problem, which I think is the most important problem of our era.
Politicians do not want to touch this subject.
Any politician who tells Americans that they'll have to give up their SUVs has committed political suicide.
But it does seem to me that a courageous and visionary politician could say to us, "by burning fossil fuels we're putting ourselves at the mercy of some very nasty and unstable parts of the world and we're also endangering the climate of our planet.
For the sake of our children and grandchildren we simply must learn to kick the fossil fuel habit."
If that kind of challenge were given to our scientists and engineers I think we could do it.
TONY JONES: But as you say, the vision our political leaders is usually constricted to the three or four years of their electoral cycles.
How long would be it be before the crisis reaches the point where great powers have no choice but to a make radical decisions?
PROFESSOR DAVID GOODSTEIN: It's impossible to guess.
Everything we read about in the papers every day suggests that the worldwide system for production and distribution of oil is stretched to the breaking point.
That certainly is a symptom one would expect if we have already reached the peak.
But the fact we have a symptom doesn't mean we have already reached the peak, it's just an indication.
As I say, we are too close to the situation.
The information we get is far too undependable for us to say.
I can not predict how soon it will happen.
But it will happen and when it happens there will be a huge price shock in the cost of gasoline at the pump, in the cost of everything that has to be transported and not insignificantly, in the cost of all petrochemicals.
There are 6.4 billion people living on the planet today.
Most of them reasonably well-fed as a result of what was called the 'green revolution' in the second half of the 20th Century.
That consisted in a very large part of fertilising land using that using petrochemical-based fertilisers.
So, that stuff is pretty valuable.
I don't think we can sustain the population we have today, much less what we'll have in 20 or 50 years without petrochemical fertilisers.
TONY JONES: Just looking around the world, do you see any political leaders who appears to understand the full extent of this crisis?
PROFESSOR DAVID GOODSTEIN: If there is one I have not met him or her yet.
TONY JONES: All right.
Let's try, if we can, to end on a positive note.
Are you confident that human ingenuity, scientific ingenuity will in the end find a way out of this problem?
PROFESSOR DAVID GOODSTEIN: I'm hopeful, not confident.
TONY JONES: Professor David Goodstein, let's hope we have better news for our children and grandchildren than you're predicting.
We thank you though, for joining us.
PROFESSOR DAVID GOODSTEIN: Okay.
-------- ACTIVISTS
Kiev a sea of orange as opposition protests against government win
The News International
November 23, 2004
http://jang.com.pk/thenews/nov2004-daily/23-11-2004/world/w1.htm
KIEV: Tens of thousands of Ukrainian protesters gathered into the night Monday, taking over Kiev's central square and turning it into a defiant sea of orange flags while denouncing results of an election that handed a bitterly disputed victory to the pro-Russia prime minister.
Car horns honked in protest across the Ukrainian capital as people crowded into Kiev's landmark Independence Square, where the opposition had set up a stage where pro-Western opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko appeared to roars of adulation.
Organizers said they would keep hold of the city until parliament annuls the election's results, the crowds being entertained in the meantime by an all night rock concert.
They were especially thrilled when news filtered in that the Kiev city council - along with two other cities - has refused to recognize the election results as valid.
Everywhere the protestors displayed the opposition's orange colour - they waved orange flags, wore orange scarves, tied orange ribbons to their lapels, the night lit up by orange flood lights just a stretch away from the parliament and presidential administration buildings.
"Yushchenko president!" they chanted. "Shame on the government!"
"We are launching an organised movement of civil resistance. The campaign is only just beginning. Don't leave Independence Square until victory," Yushchenko said to deafening cheers from the crowd.
But underlining the polarized state of Ukrainian politics, a counter-demonstration with Russian flags was staged in the pro-Moscow Black Sea city of Simferopol, were tens of thousands celebrated Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich's declared victory.
So far, only Russian parliament speaker Boris Gryzlov has congratulated Yanukovich with the result, condemning the Kiev demonstrations as a farce.
But despite rumblings from Moscow, the Kiev square was a seething mass as old and young, parents with children on their shoulders jostling for a view of their champion Yushchenko.
A huge yellow banner of the youth movement Pore (It is Time), which is hoping to follow the example of peaceful revolutions in fellow ex-Soviet Georgia last year and Serbia in 2000, fluttered above the square.
Yushchenko ally Yulia Timoshenko called for a general strike. "We cannot work and study in a country whose government is ready to violate it," she said.
Security was tight around the capital, with special riot forces standing guard around the central election commission and the presidency, a stone's throw from Independence Square. Russian liberal opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister who has been sidelined from political life under the authoritarian rule of President Vladimir Putin, helped fire up the crowd.
He appeared on the stage to say that he had come "to support my friend Yushchenko, and so you know that not all of Russia supports Yanukovich."
Russian President Vladimir Putin twice visited Ukraine in the run-up to the election and gave his public support to the pro-Kremlin prime minister.
"We need freedom and democracy in Ukraine, we need freedom and democracy in Russia. We must stand up not only for your freedom but for our freedom," Nemtsov said to cheers.
The opposition had set up 27 tents, one for each region of Ukraine, in Independence Square to carry out a parallel vote count.
The voting results arrived in a trickle from midnight, and the tents were not heated despite freezing winter temperatures, but students and young volunteers were happy to be "at the centre of events."
"It's an historic moment that I will one day tell my children about. I am happy to see the results with my own eyes. They are so different to what the state television tells us", said student Yulia Klech, who was counting votes from Kiev.
Despite the enthusiasm, there was also foreboding. "The government is ready for anything, even to spill blood," journalist Viktor Varnitsky said.
With votes counted from 99.14 percent of polling stations pro-Russia Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich secured 49.42 percent of the vote, compared with 46.69 of Yushchenko, the central electoral commission said.
-----
The People Judge Bush
wrmea.com
November 2004
http://www.wrmea.com/archives/November_2004/0411082.html
ACTIVISTS FROM around the world convened at New York City's Martin Luther King, Jr. High School on Aug. 26 for the Iraq War Crimes Tribunal. The New York meeting was one of a series of such tribunals, held in places as diverse as Kyoto, Istanbul and Belgium, to hear witnesses' accusations that the current U.S. administration has committed war crimes in pursuit of its Middle East policy, specifically with regard to Iraq. An earlier tribunal collected evidence of alleged war crimes committed by the Bush administration in Afghanistan. The current series will culminate in a tribunal in Istanbul, Turkey in 2005.
Based on an indictment written by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, founding member of the International Action Center (IAC), the tribunal accuses President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Attorney General John Ashcroft, Gen. Tommy Franks, and his successors as commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, and George Tenet, L. Paul Bremer, and John Negroponte, as well as others, with 19 war crimes.
In summary, the charges are: 1. waging a war of aggression; 2. using excessive force; 3. using illegal weapons; 4. using assassinations, executions, kidnappings, and torture; 5. using mercenaries; 6. destroying civilian infrastructure; 7. encouraging internal (Iraqi) conflict; 8. maintaining a criminal occupation; 9. shutting out the United Nations through unilateral action; 10. systematically defying and undermining international law; 11. manifesting commitment to world domination by directing a coup d'état in Haiti; 12. threatening the sovereignty of nations by threatening similar actions in Cuba, Iran, North Korea, the Philippines, Sudan, Syria, and Venezuela, and supporting Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine; 13. destroying Iraqi sovereignty by imposing a U.S.-chosen government in Iraq; 14. usurping the war powers of the U.S. Congress; 15. weakening human rights and the U.S. Bill of Rights through illegal arrests and detentions; 16. illegally detaining foreign nationals at Guantanamo Bay against international law and Cuba's will; 17. encouraging war profiteering; 18. censoring the press; and 19. carrying out the above for the purpose of controlling and exploiting Iraq and other nations through military and economic force.
These acts, Clark points out, are in contravention of the Nuremberg principals, the United Nations charter, international law, and the Constitution of the United States.
Various panels ran concurrently on such topics as the struggle against war and occupation, the planning and preparation for wars in the Middle East and Africa, East Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean, the targeting of civilians and infrastructure in Iraq, illegal detentions, torture and mass repression, the use of illegal weapons, U.S. soldiers' rights to refuse illegal orders, the domestic cost of the war, and the rights of a people to self-determination and resistance.
A number of distinguished speakers added their voices to the panels. Testifying in the panel on civilian targeting were Maria Penarroya and Javier Barandiaran of Spain and the Basque country, respectively, both of whom witnessed the 2003 "shock and awe" bombing of Baghdad, and Jo Wilding of Britain, who witnessed the siege of Fallujah. Dr. Hans Rothe, a British kidney specialist who treated soldiers for depleted uranium (DU) poisoning, spoke on the panel about illegal weapons. Attorney Lynne Stewart, under indictment for her defense of "The Blind Sheikh," the Egyptian implicated in the first World Trade Center bombings in 1992, spoke against illegal detentions, torture and mass repression, while Fernando Suarez, Michael Hoffman and Maritza Castillo talked about the GI struggle. Suarez is an anti-war activist whose son, Jesus, was killed in Iraq, and Castillo's son, Camilo Mejia, is a war resister in jail for desertion. Hoffman is the founder of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). South African poet and anti-apartheid activist Professor Dennis Brutus, once imprisoned on Robben Island with Nelson Mandela, talked about self-determination and the right of resistance on the GI panel.
The panel on preparing for wars in the Middle East and Africa focused on U.S. support for Israel's occupation of Palestine, the U.S. occupation of Iraq, and the looming possibility of U.S. intervention in the Sudan. Palestinian artist Samia Halaby gave a brief history of the Israeli occupation and its support by the West, including U.S. support that continues today. This writer spoke about the concrete ways the U.S. supports Israel, in both foreign and domestic policies. Palestinian lawyer and Al Awda organizer Lamis Deek discussed issues and precedents under international and U.S. law, and how they pertained to Palestine; Kadouri al Kaysi of the Committee in Support of the Iraqi People discussed crimes in Iraq; and the IAC's John Parker pointed out hidden U.S. agendas in the drive to label Sudan as genocidal of its own people.
The evening plenary featured a number of people known for their struggles for civil rights, as well as international groups reporting on their own tribunals and actions. In addition to many already mentioned, Gerry Condon, who conscientiously refused orders to fight in Vietnam and who now counsels Iraq refusers, added his thoughts on the right to refuse illegal orders, and Iraqi-French filmmaker Hana Al Bayaty spoke on the occupation. Her film "On Democracy in Iraq" was screened.
Akira Maeda, professor of criminal law at Tokyo Zokei University, discussed Japan's tribunal on Iraq, as well as its previous tribunal on war crimes committed in Afghanistan by the Bush administration, and Japanese concerns (as the only people ever to withstand a nuclear assault) with DU. Manik Mukherjee of the All-India Anti-Imperialist Front that successfully opposed Indian troop deployment to Iraq also spoke. Former Attorney General Clark concluded by outlining and explaining the legal and moral issues of war crimes involved, urging accountability for the Bush administration. A number of papers presented at the conference are available online, as is the full indictment, at <www.PeopleJudgeBush.org>.
-Sara Powell
--
ANERA Offers Hope
American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA) held its annual fund-raising dinner Sept. 17 at the Omni-Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC. The evening opened with a silent auction at which items including ceramics, jewelry, books, clothing, artwork and other collectibles were sold to the highest bidder. Profits from the auction helped raise funds for refugees.
ANERA later honored three of its most valued benefactors, including Hasib J. Sabbagh and Said T. Khoury, founders of Consolidated Contractors Group of Companies (CCC), and the Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB).
"We urgently need to move from destruction to construction," Khoury told the more than 400 assembled guests. CCC is involved in construction, engineering, development, and investment in the Middle East for that very reason.
ANERA currently is working on three new unusual projects, one of which is to help provide medical material for CMMB. Another is constructing information technology centers in several Palestinian cities, including the Said Khoury IT Center at al-Quds University and the Sabbagh IT Center at the Arab American University of Jenin. The third project is called Milk for Peace with Us, which addresses malnutrition in young children and provides milk for pre-school children. This project currently reaches an estimated 2,500 children, and hopes to reach 10,000 children this year.
The evening's honored speaker, Ambassador Edward W. Gnehm, decried a "lack of leadership in Israel, Palestine and the U.S." In his first public appearance since his retirement, Gnehm noted that the most effective communication between the U.S. and the Arab world is done through actions, rather than words. Although the United States must secure itself, he went on to say, it should continue to welcome people from other countries, either through student visas or as tourists, and generally have "a positive view globally."
The dinner's theme was hope: Hope that one day there will be peace instead of undernourished children. Ambassador Gnehm has that hope, he said, and ANERA and its honored benefactors provide the road to that hope.
-Shereen Kandil
--------
Suit Filed in GOP Convention Arrests
N.Y. Police Accused of Overstepping Bounds, Detaining Bystanders
By Michelle Garcia
The Washington Post
Tuesday, November 23, 2004; Page A03
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5552-2004Nov22.html
NEW YORK, Nov. 22 -- Twenty-three people filed a lawsuit Monday in federal court here, saying New York city officials violated their constitutional rights by orchestrating massive arrests and detentions to sweep up political dissenters during the Republican National Convention in August.
The lawsuit seeks to represent all of the nearly 2,000 people arrested during the convention. Police later lodged charges against the demonstrators that were the equivalent of traffic tickets.
The lawsuit asks that a federal judge issue a permanent ban on mass arrests as a means of crowd control during political demonstrations. Lawyers said police officers denied detainees access to legal representation and medicine, and subjected them to verbal abuse.
The demonstrators are also demanding that the city pay unspecified monetary damages.
"It is a bedrock principle of our democracy that the police cannot simply sweep the streets because they find protest inconvenient or embarrassing because the RNC was in town," said lawyer Jonathan Moore, who filed the lawsuit with the National Lawyers Guild. "Our Constitution guarantees treatment better than chain-link fences, razor wire, isolation from family and legal counsel, and armed guards at the ready."
City police officials dismissed the accusations. "Those who broke the law are still complaining that they were inconvenienced by [their] arrest, and their advocates continue to make false allegations about conditions" of their detainment, said Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne.
Monday's action was the latest in a flurry of lawsuits filed against city agencies because of police action during the Republican National Convention. State Supreme Court Judge John Cataldo held the city in contempt for not abiding by a court-ordered deadline to process detainees. The city has appealed.
Last month the American Civil Liberties Union filed two lawsuits accusing the city of conducting illegal arrests, illegally fingerprinting detainees and excessive detention.
Many civil liberties lawyers say that police in a number of cities appear to have adopted a tactic of preemptive arrests. In Seattle, police arrested hundreds of protesters during a meeting of the World Trade Organization in 1999. Demonstrators sued, and Seattle officials later reached an out-of-court settlement.
In Washington, police arrested hundreds of protesters during the 2002 meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. City officials have since settled one case brought by three art students who say they were arrested even though they were innocent bystanders.
In the New York City cases, the plaintiffs include a paralegal, a 16-year-old student and a woman arrested on her way to buy ice cream.
Elizabeth Fleischman, a former vice president at Morgan Stanley, was riding with a group of bicycle protesters through Manhattan when she was arrested. She said her group followed the route specified by the police. "It was another tragedy in this city," said Fleischman, who survived the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center.
The Washington Post examined the police tactics and a number of the arrests in September. The Post found many examples in which police officers arrested demonstrators who were marching peacefully and lawfully.
In other instances, police arrested bystanders who were unconnected to the demonstrations. Numerous people held at Pier 57, a former bus depot, reported developing respiratory and skin conditions during their detention.
-------
Violence in Darfur Inspires Surge In Student Activism
By Valerie Strauss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 23, 2004; Page A08
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5364-2004Nov22.html
Lisa Rogoff was an intern at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum during the summer when the horrible details about the genocide unfolding in the Darfur region of Sudan compelled her to do something.
The 22-year-old Rogoff, a Colgate University graduate whose family lost members in Hitler's extermination of 6 million Jews during World War II, decided it was time to educate U.S. college students about Darfur and, hopefully, spur them into social action. The museum built to bear witness to the Holocaust was the perfect spot from which to launch her effort, she concluded.
So with help from the museum's Committee on Conscience, Rogoff invited dozens of college students from the Washington area to the museum in September for a night of learning about Darfur. She hoped to interest a few of them in the cause. The reaction, she said, was overwhelming.
Students at Georgetown University quickly formed an organization called STAND, an acronym for Students Taking Action Now: Darfur. And Rogoff helped counterparts at colleges throughout the country start groups to raise awareness, support relief efforts and lobby policymakers.
Now, Rogoff said, 35 campuses have STAND organizations, and thousands of students are spending extracurricular hours learning and educating others about a human disaster happening in Africa a decade after an estimated 800,000 people were slaughtered in Rwanda in 1994 while the world watched.
"The whole model [of STAND] is an informal classroom," said Nate Wright, 21, a Georgetown junior who helped organize the group. "We do everything we can to learn about the subject, and then we export the knowledge we've gained to other students."
Group members assign themselves research projects -- refugee issues, for example -- and work at tables that provide information about the crisis in Darfur. United Nations officials estimate that the death toll in the western Sudanese province has reached at least 70,000, in a region where rebels have been battling government troops and Arab militiamen for nearly two years.
"I have never seen college students be this active on anything," Rogoff said. "I don't know how they go to class because they do so much."
Speakers are invited to address different aspects of the situation, and STAND members are doing other activities to raise awareness and funds to help with humanitarian relief. These steps include a "luxury fast," in which students were asked to abstain for one night from something they enjoyed, such as buying clothes or going out to dinner, and to donate the money they would have spent to help refugees.
They also write letters to U.S. government officials, urging the Bush administration and Congress to take whatever action is necessary to stop the tragedy.
The activism spurred by Darfur is part of a long tradition of student involvement in social causes in the United States. Although some surveys show that student activism has declined significantly since the 1960s, sociologist Todd Gitlin, a professor at Columbia University, noted that the '60s were the exception. "If you look at the great broad reach of the last century, passivity, apathy, tranquillity and low-level anxiety are the norm," he said.
The situation in Darfur takes its place as an issue on U.S. campuses at a time when much of the energy stirred up over the 2004 presidential election is looking for direction, students say. Researchers on student activism said that humanitarian crises often have special resonance, attracting involvement from people who are normally uninvolved.
"The idea of 'never again' is important," said Julia Kramer, 22, a senior at George Washington University who has helped start a STAND chapter there. It is the first time she has been involved in anything of the sort.
"We said 'never again' after the Holocaust. And then after Rwanda. We have to keep trying to stop it, and the only way you can do that is get educated about it," Kramer said.
Students and professors say such activism is a valuable extension of the classroom. Being involved in the Darfur issue helps students bridge the gap between the theories they learn in class and the real world, said Martha Heinemann, 21, a Georgetown senior and a coordinator of its STAND group.
Heinemann said students who learn about international policy and law in classes see that policy "doesn't happen in a vacuum." She also said that student-led initiatives have, in the past, been successful in changing conditions throughout the world.
In the late 1990s, student protests demanding that universities stop buying products made in sweatshops were successful in winning new codes of business practice.
"The Darfur people are having a brilliant educational experience as they come to understand what is taking place in the Sudan," Gitlin said. "And they feel a kind of urgency and a need to know that is far more compelling than the normal sort of casual interest, than most of their educational choices."
Ellen Ritchie, a Hackworth Fellow last year at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University in California, did a research paper on student activism.
She found that student activists were nearly twice as likely as non-activists to be involved in community service and pursue independent studies.
"I feel a major part of the education I got from being at Santa Clara was outside the classroom, being involved in other issues," said Ritchie, 22, who works for a nonprofit group in San Francisco.
Rogoff now works full time at the Holocaust museum as university outreach coordinator for the Committee on Conscience, a standing group of the museum's trustees.
The Holocaust museum, which opened in 1993, is becoming more involved in efforts to stop the genocide in Darfur, according to Jerry Fowler, staff director of the Committee on Conscience.
The museum issued its first "genocide alert" about Darfur during the summer and has established a Web site -- www.ushmm.org/conscience/sudan/darfur -- to help further education efforts.
"Rwanda happened with the knowledge of the Holocaust, and this is happening with the knowledge of Rwanda," Rogoff said. "It keeps happening, and until it stops, we have to keep fighting it."
-------
------- OneList (submissions from subscribers)
------- Depleted Uranium Keeps On Killing!
-----------
Posted
without profit or payment for research and educational
purposes only,
in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107.