NucNews - December 1, 2004 -------- NUCLEAR -------- accidents and safety New paper on cancer rates in Belarus confirms LLRC's predictions From: Richard Bramhall Date: Wed Dec 1, 2004 0:43pm Subject: Radiation risks: When will they ever learn? The Swiss Medical Weekly has published findings from the Clinical Institute of Radiation Medicine and Endocrinology Research, Minsk, Belarus showing a 40% increase in cancer between 1990 and 2000. The researchers used data from the National Cancer Registry, established in 1973. They compared the post Chernobyl period with rates before the accident on April 26, 1986. Relative Risks all have high statistical significance. Increases in the various oblasts (regions) were: Brest 33% Vitebsk 38% Gomel 52% Grodno 44% Minsk 49% Mogilev 32% Minsk city 18% all Belarus 40% The authors note that increases in breast cancer are happening earlier in populations in the more highly contaminated regions (Gomel and Mogilev) than in less contaminated Vitebsk. This dose related difference in the time lag for radiation-induced cancers is known from other studies and is most marked for breast cancer. In 2001 Chris Busby reported to the Belarus government that cancer would increase by 125% over the lifetimes of the exposed population (www.llrc.org/belarus.htm). Now, 18 years after the accident, 40% of that increase is apparent. The view of conventional radiation protection "experts", however, is that very little if any cancer has resulted or will result from the fallout. This was expressed, for example, in 2000 by a United Nations committee: "Apart from the substantial increase in thyroid cancer after childhood exposure observed in Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine there is no evidence of a major public health impact related to ionising radiation 14 years after the Chernobyl accident. No increases in overall cancer incidence or mortality that could be associated with radiation exposure have been observed. The risk of leukaemia, one of the most sensitive indicators of radiation exposure, has not been found to be elevated even in the accident recovery operation workers or in children. There is no scientific proof of an increase in non-malignant disorders related to ionising radiation. ... For the most part [the public] were exposed to radiation levels comparable to or a few times higher than the natural background levels. Lives have been disrupted by the Chernobyl accident but from the radiological point of view, based on the assessment of this Annex, generally positive prospects for the future health of most individuals should prevail." UNSCEAR (2000) United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation. Sources and Effects of Ionising Radiation 2000. UN General Assembly, with Scientific Annexes. United Nations New York. Annex J Final Summary For evidence of increases in non-malignant disorders see http://www.llrc.org/chernobyl.htm - summaries of 100 papers from the affected territories. The Belarus paper is freely available for download as a pdf:- http://www.smw.ch/pdf200x/2004/43/smw-10221.pdf We have sent you this email circular because you are on our database of people who are concerned about low level radiation and health. If you do not want to receive information from us please reply, putting "remove from LLRC" in the subject line. Richard Bramhall Low Level Radiation Campaign bramhall@llrc.org The Knoll, Montpellier Park Llandrindod Wells, Powys LD1 5LW U.K. +44(0)1597 824771 07887 942043 -------- depleted uranium Piketon plant looks to start new legacy Plans to convert uranium waste in action chillicothegazette By Daniel Prazer, Dprazer@nncogannett.Com December 1, 2004 http://www..com/news/stories/20041201/localnews/1677961.html PIKETON -- Inside the Piketon uranium enrichment plant's Perimeter Road lies a 50-year legacy of work that helped win the Cold War and power naval ships and homes across the nation. But there's another legacy officials plan to erase within the decade. In acres of yards, there are thousands of massive steel cylinders full of depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF-6) -- essentially the leftovers from the years of enrichment activities that went on in Piketon -- that should start disappearing once a new plant to convert their contents into a more stable form is operating. Right now, though, they're stacked two high, and most weigh about 14 tons, requiring an 80,000-pound machine to move them. Some of their contents date back to the start of operations at the plant in the 1950s, and the Department of Energy is in the process of shipping nearly 6,000 more of them to Piketon from a facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn. They've been moving up on trucks at the rate of about 20 cylinders a day, growing the massive cylinder yards a little at a time. They'll ultimately number near 25,000. Exploring the process In July, a cadre of congressmen and Department of Energy officials broke ground on a plant with a sole purpose of converting these nuclear leftovers -- called tails by those in the field -- into a more stable form. It would be chemically split into uranium oxide and hydrofluoric acid, said John Shine, the Department of Energy's DUF-6 Portsmouth project manager. "This conversion plant really is the missing piece of getting the uranium that comes out of the ground back into the ground that wasn't usable in the reactor," Shine said. Once the conversion plant has processed the tails, the uranium oxide would be put back into the cylinders, and the whole package sent to a long-term storage facility for burial; it would be classified as low-level waste, Shine said, similar to some wastes created by radiology departments at hospitals. The hydrofluoric acid has a commercial value -- it's used for etching glass, among other things -- and would be sold to the chemical industry. The DUF-6 itself doesn't pose a serious radiological hazard, Shine said, but a chemical one. Hydrofluoric acid can damage mucous membranes, but if the cylinder should have a breach, the DUF-6 would chemically react with the air and seal the hole itself, he said. "We're working really hard to get this conversion plant built on time and at cost and to get this hazard out of here," Shine said. "The hazard will no longer be here," he said. "The thing that keeps the hazard maintained is a program of surveillance and maintenance." Right now, the cylinders are subject to a rigorous inspection regimen, and cylinders that show signs of wear are replaced. But that's getting to be less cost-effective, said Mike Eversole, project superintendent and facility manager for the cylinder yard for Bechtel-Jacobs Company. The conversion plant, in addition to handling the legacy waste sitting outside, will employ 140 to 150 full-time employees, Eversole said. "It will run 24/7/365," he said. But even at that pace, Shine said it will take 18 years to work through the cylinder yards. Security first But what about these 20 cylinders a day rolling along roads through Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio? They haven't been running lately. In fact, Bechtel-Jacobs, which is listed as the shipper and receiver on these moves, has been working with the Department of Transportation to come to an agreement on shipping terms, said Haylen Philpot, Bechtel-Jacobs' facility manager for the cylinder yards at the Oak Ridge East Tennessee Technology Plant. "Starting October 1, the U.S. Department of Transportation has adopted what formerly was the international shipping rules, which means if you were shipping over 100 grams of UF-6 which is not very much material, then you have to have a package that meets a thermal test as well as a drop test," he said. Uranium starts the enrichment process as UF-6, and once a large enough percentage of the usable isotopes are extracted where it's not economical to continue, it's considered depleted -- DUF-6. Before a cylinder is even moved, it goes through a series of inspections. The first is done in the cylinder yard, Philpot said, "to ensure that they don't have a breech and, furthermore, they're safe to handle." Then they're moved to a staging area, where a certified independent inspector does another round before they're moved onto a trailer and inspected again. Once on a trailer -- and secured with four chains and three straps each, according to Shine -- the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency inspects the vehicle, and counterparts in Kentucky and Ohio take their turn when the trucks enter the state, said Jim Kopotic, the Department of Energy's remedial action team leader at East Tennessee Technology Park. "There's all this independent inspection going on prior to those vehicles actually being dispatched and hitting the road to Piketon, " Kopotic said. The trucks themselves go though a series of inspections, Philpot said, but the drivers aren't exempt. Besides having to be naturally-born American citizens, they go through a series of background checks and are approved by all three states. "There's a certain age that they have to be to drive these type of shipments, and I think it is 25, and then they have to have HAZMAT training beyond their commercial driver's licenses," Philpot said. Each shipment is tracked by satellite to make sure it stays on course, and all the first-responders along the routes -- which the Department of Energy wouldn't disclose for security reasons -- have access to this data and have been specially trained to deal with an accident involving one of these trucks, Kapotic said. "In the event that there were an incident, they would be aware of that almost immediately because they are tracking the trucks, and in addition to that there are prescribed conditions," he said. "It's not like they're ... just driving of into the dark and nobody knows where they are until they're in Portsmouth." ----- An Apology to the Iraqi People Islam Online By Larry E. Park 01/12/2004 http://www.islamonline.net/english/In_Depth/Iraq_Aftermath/2004/12/article_01.shtml This is an apology to the Iraqi people from a hospital medic who cared for some of the most severely injured men, women, children, and babies from both sides of the Vietnam conflict. I held the dead of war in my arms and I understand war’s catastrophic toll in the present and the impact it will have on future generations. This is my personal sobering apology, and it may or may not reflect some of the feelings of the other 49 percent of Americans who voted against unjustified aggression. I feel shame and outrage when I watch on TV and read reports of unimaginable acts against humanity in Iraq. You are witnessing these horrific acts of violence and human debasement up close, which is probably filling your heart with hate and anger towards Americans. I’m sorry and I understand. I feel shame that I did not raise my voice in dissent prior to this horrific conflict between cultures. I survived Vietnam with full understanding of what a guerilla war means and the futility of large, noisy, highly visible armies attempting to subjugate citizens by force instead of winning hearts and minds over to a more positive pursuit of happiness. I feel shame that I did not raise my voice in dissent prior to this horrific conflict between cultures. With a great sense of doom, I have watched the events over the past three years as a complacent bystander, not knowing how to make a difference in public opinion. I was silent, not exercising my freedom of speech or finding creative means to make my voice against unjustified death and destruction heard effectively. I made a mistake in judgment and action. I knew better. I am very sad about what is happening in Iraq to the families, their homes, schools, hospitals, shops, and places where they work to support their families. I apologize for not defending your right to choose how you live and what style of leadership you support. I understood that my leaders, prompted by public opinion, had to deliver visible signs of revenge against Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, and most of the world seemed to support that conflict, but when I woke up one morning to the specter of my countrymen invading Iraq to make a regime change, I squirmed with discomfort. I, like you and most of the world, held the motivations of the United States to be suspect and driven by self-interests in oil. Rhetoric about freeing the Iraqi people from an oppressive regime seemed righteously hollow, and a revolution against Saddam Hussein’s entrenched regime and all its supporters was not ours to wage. The DU we use is our weapon of mass destruction and I am downcast and ashamed. I apologize for our arrogance in thinking we knew what the best course of social/political direction for Iraq was—and then we intervened militarily in such a destabilizing and catastrophic manner. Our vision of the future is not yours, and you must decide how you will help each other achieve and maintain basic freedom and happiness. I apologize for denying knowledge of your basic beliefs and belittling your ancient core cultural values; and from your perspective, I understand why we are the barbarians on your land. Freedom is not a gift; it is a choice requiring daily action to reaffirm long-term goals and guide one in the pursuit of happiness. Your people are in the midst of personal and national conflict revolving around differences in opinion on how to equitably achieve goals within the context of your many subcultures. Intervention by outsiders has made the process more complex. I apologize! Freedom from greed and uncontrolled material, selfish interests can only be acquired by a heart focused on the more important desire for pleasant human relationships. Freedom’s seed is planted in one heart at a time; and each of us on the planet has the ability to shape our own sense of personal freedom. I am sad that we chose force and destruction instead of kindness. I am ashamed of our recent example of democracy in the presidential race for power. If we are attempting to persuade you to adopt our form of democracy, then I am less than proud on how we spent billions to get out the vote and prompt individuals to exercise freedom of choice. Decisions seemed to be made based on whether or not a candidate hunts innocent winged creatures for sport, or who tells the most convincing lies and makes the best promises that we all know can’t be kept—like “Independence from foreign oil.” From your perspective, I understand why we are the barbarians on your land. A campaign pledge to establish a Presidential Commission to explore what compels our enemies to make plans to destroy person and property might be a better basis for casting a vote. It’s Biblical to seek your neighbor out before sunset of each day when you sense he is unhappy with you for some reason. Unresolved conflicts lead to a war of terror. America has long enjoyed beautiful sunsets without responsibly resolving issues with its neighbors. This unfinished daily business has ruined the view of the daily rising sun; and boasting about our ability and resolve to preserve our selfish way of life—which consumes an inequitable share of the earth’s limited resources—is not a good way to start negotiations. I have seen the consequences of war and revenge, and it is not pretty. History is replete with stories of rape, pillaging, burning, and destruction of person and property; and within the last ten years starting with the Gulf war, Desert Storm, we the United States of America introduced weapons of mass environmental and genetic destruction. I am ashamed of my ignorance about my government using depleted radioactive uranium munitions in Iraq. Looking for the splinter of WMD in the enemy’s eye while being blinded by the railroad tie poisoned by depleted uranium sticking out of our heads must make us appear really outrageous in the eyes not afflicted around the globe. Being a responsible citizen and taking a stand on issues that will affect the only planet we have is hard work—even though now the sand in my eyes in retrospect did not hurt as much as the knowledge I have gained about my country’s use of depleted uranium. I am outraged at the possibility of my tax dollars contributing to the use of depleted uranium in munitions which might cause alterations in the genes of humans and plants. This is our weapon of mass destruction and I am downcast and ashamed. If one believes in a Creator God called Allah, who loves the Biblical people of Iraq so much that He buried some of the world’s richest oil reserves below their barren deserts, then one would have to believe that He planned to care for their needs. I apologize for being so selfish and wanting more than most families in Iraq have. Poverty in such an oil-rich land, where many of its inhabitants want for the basics, can only be understood in the light of mismanagement and the greed of its ruling class. As an American I am ashamed to admit that even though our wealth is accumulated differently, we too have large numbers of disadvantaged and impoverished families. Those who have more always use overt or covert methods to suppress those who have less; and when the status quo is upset, many are willing to fight to the death to regain their previous advantages and social standing. I apologize for being so selfish and wanting more than most families in Iraq have. Right or wrong, I apologize for the manner in which my country has upset the balance of power in Iraq. If the God known as Allah, Father, and Yahweh exercised any control over the distribution of natural resources over the face of the planet, then one would have to conclude that He has forced all the inhabitants on earth to be interdependent in the struggle to survive. Trading relationships based on the need for energy has propelled us out of the agrarian subsistence farming cultures of ages past and it seems quite obvious that the Gods have favored countries other than the US with an abundant supply of this liquid black gold. Our use, allocation, and distribution of the planet’s limited resources, and how we manage the products of an industrialized world, demand cooperation and interdependence. Our mutual survival depends on successfully building and maintaining these relationships in an atmosphere of trust and hope. I feel ashamed by the darkness spread throughout your land by the American invasion. I am outraged at the visible destruction of your mosques, hospitals, schools, homes, and infrastructure in our zeal to root out those who are attempting to protect their families and way of life. I am very sad when I think about how hard it will be, and how long it will take your people, to rebuild their homes. Iraqis buried in mass graves will be remembered longer by their families than the visible reconstruction of your cities. I feel intensely sad about the mess your people find themselves in when the sun rises every day, and I apologize for not attempting to convince leaders of my country to pursue a more positive course of helpful interdependence. God challenges us to mature, abandon the tempestuous, undisciplined behavior of adolescence, and learn how to be kind to our neighbors at home and abroad. I mourn for all the families around the globe forever changed and damaged by conflicts that diminish their sense of hope. I feel ashamed by the darkness spread throughout your land by the American invasion, and my hope for the future is that countries of such diverse cultural beliefs could at least agree to search for ways to be mutually beneficial and cordially interdependent without devastating conflict and long-term damage to the environment. I carried a typewriter to Vietnam—not a gun—and instead of killing humans, I planted flowers and was awarded a Bronze Star medal for extending hope to others. I’ve seen the desert bloom and I fervently wish that the Iraqi people, in the darkness of wartime death, can find their way into the hopeful light of flowers once again blooming in springtime. I feel immensely sad that the leaders of my country seem not to remember the lessons learned by those who served in Vietnam and I apologize. “I’m sorry! I am very sorry! Mommy, I won’t do it again! Please mommy, stop whipping me! I’m really sorry!” Those are the words screamed out by a young boy while receiving a harsh whipping. I’m whipped! I wish I could speak for the leaders of my country and tell you, “Yes, we made a mistake and we won’t do it again in your country or anywhere else on the planet ever again.” They will have to speak for themselves and answer to the reality of history, not their dreams. Apologetically, Larry E. Park TheDreamer@OceansRest.com -------- International weapons conventions in Iran, Iraq axisoflogic.com By Dahr Jamail's Dec 1, 2004 http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_14110.shtml In no less than hundreds of articles over the past few weeks, our press has tirelessly reported on Iran’s uranium enrichment program, or rather—in characteristic shorthand—on “Iran’s efforts to develop the capability to make nuclear weapons” (Foreign Affairs, 11/24). Early on the morning of the November 29th, however, in “Iran Backs Away From a Demand on A-Bomb Fuel,” the New York Times announced that a settlement between Iran and Britain, France, and Germany (EU-3) had been reached: Iranians had agreed to suspend all research on uranium enrichment. One hopes that with this agreement, daily scrutiny of hypothetical Iranian weapons might also give way to some observations of actual American weapons being deployed nearby. For by many accounts, the use of unconventional weapons has likely been a US pastime in “The War on Terror” during even its most recent episodes. Dahr Jamail of Inter Press News Service has recorded Fallujan experiences of poison gas and bombs that “exploded into large fires that burnt the skin even when water was thrown on the burns”—a trademark of napalm and phosphorus bombs. Though many Americans will no doubt say such claims are dubious, they have reason to: no outside medical personnel or observers have yet been allowed into Fallujah to even allow for further discussion of the matter. Less dubious is the continued use of depleted uranium munitions, which as Vishnu Bhagwat, former Indian Chief of Naval Staff, has written amounted in 2003 alone to the equivalent of nearly 250,000 Nagasaki bombs. But depleted uranium is nothing new, having been used extensively in southern Iraq during the first Gulf War. The Department of Environmental Engineering at the University of Baghdad has accordingly measured radiation levels in and near the city of Basra to range from hundreds to thousands of times the normal levels. Dr. Jawad Kadhim Al-Ali, Director of the Oncology Center in Basra, has theorized depleted uranium as a reason that the death rate from cancers in Basra has now reached 19 times that of 1988. It was also in Basra that a previous study led by Dr. Alim Yacoup found the incidence of leukaemia among children to have doubled between 1990 and 1999. Perhaps it is such reports that have led Dr. Asaf Durakovic, the nuclear-medicine expert of the Veterans’ Administration, to characterize DU as a “threat to humanity.” According to an oft cited August 2002 UN report, the use of DU munitions breaches the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UN Charter, the Genocide Convention, the Convention against Torture, the four Geneva Conventions of 1949, the Conventional Weapons Convention of 1980, and the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907. In relation to the situation in Iran, one is reminded of the saying that history is written by the victors: while the New York Times writes of Iran’s “long history of concealment” in its relation to international weapons conventions, there is little need for such concealment by United States Government for its violations of such conventions as they go almost entirely unreported. This double standard at work in the application of such conventions is emphasized by a closer look at the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the basis for the present attention on Iran. Article 4(1) says that “Nothing in this Treaty shall be interpreted as affecting the inalienable right of all the Parties to the Treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes”; Article 4(2) says that “All the Parties to the Treaty undertake to facilitate, and have the right to participate in, the fullest possible exchange of equipment, materials and scientific and technological information for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy,” it goes on, “with due consideration for the needs of the developing areas of the world.” It would seem that the United States, rather than Iran, would be bound by the terms of the treaty, which obligate it—as a signer—to undertake to facilitate the fullest possible exchange of equipment, materials, and so forth to Iran, one such developing country of the world. According to the aforementioned New York Times article, like all other coverage of the standoff in this country, such an exchange was of course not a right, much less a possibility. That right was instead Iran’s “demand,” one that last week “came in two letters to the International Atomic Energy Agency from Iran's atomic energy agency, whose hard-liners oppose any concessions to outsiders.” But as these hard-liners, like other Iranians, have apparently conceded to their US and European watch dogs, the question arises with regard to Iraq, where any comparable watch dogs can be found to concede to. Principle two of the Nuremburg Tribunal tells us that “the fact that internal law does not impose a penalty for an act which constitutes a crime under international law does not relieve the person who committed the act from responsibility under international law.” A dying hope of Iraqis today would not be so ambitious as to imagine respite in the face of our longstanding war crimes, but instead an interruption of the silence that sanctions them. Posted by Omar_Khan at November 29, 2004 05:49 AM http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/covering_iraq/archives//000140.php -------- europe EU Eyes British Nuclear Decommissioning - Greenpeace REUTERS NEWS SERVICE December 1, 2004 http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/28370/newsDate/1-Dec-2004/story.htm BRUSSELS - Brussels is poised to vet Britain's plan for a state-owned nuclear decommissoning body to ensure it won't break European Union prohibitions on state aid, environmental group Greenpeace said on Tuesday. But Britain was adamant its proposed Nuclear Decommissioning Agency (NDA) would not contravene EU rules, and said it would ensure the agency had the funds needed to dismantle power stations and clean up the country's nuclear liabilities. Greenpeace said it expected the EU executive Commission to open a formal investigation on Wednesday into the agency, which will from next April assume all the assets and liabilities of state-owned nuclear firm British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL). "On 1st April, 2005, all of British Nuclear Fuel's assets -- including reprocessing and fuel fabrication plants, the Magnox reactors and the Drigg radioactive waste dump -- are due to be transferred to the ownership of the NDA," the organisation said in a statement. "It is the transfer of assets from BNFL to the NDA, and how commercial operations may be helped by state aid, which will be main focus of the (Commission) investigation," Greenpeace said. Commission spokesman Jonathan Todd confirmed the matter was on the agenda for Wednesday's Commission meeting, but declined to give further details. With certain exceptions, EU law forbids state aid -- government subsidies to companies or other preferential treatment -- on the grounds that it distorts competition and the free flow of goods and services in the 25-nation bloc. A spokeswoman for Britain's Department of Trade and Industry said the government would avoid state aid issues by ensuring that only existing decommissioning funds were used for the agency and no benefit was conferred on BNFL. "The government supports state aid rules and accepts Commission responsibilities under them," said spokeswoman Eurwen Thomas. "We won't be surprised if an investigation is launched," Thomas added. "(The) government is ready for this and is preparing interim arrangements to ensure the NDA can start its essential decommissioning work as planned on 1 April 2005." Britain's biggest power producer, the debt-laden British Energy, will also turn over its funds for decommissioning to the agency. But because its power stations are newer, the agency will not have to decommission British Energy plants for years. Spokesmen for BNFL and British Energy declined to comment on the Greenpeace report. Greenpeace said it expected the inquiry to take 9-12 months. Story by Quentin Webb -------- EU, Japan call for dialogue amid row on breakthrough nuclear project TOKYO (AFP) Dec 01, 2004 http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041201114719.1b37pgiw.html The European Union and Japan each called Wednesday for dialogue among the six partners on a multibillion-dollar nuclear energy project amid a deepening row over whether Japan or France will host the site. The EU, whose bid is backed by Russia and China, has threatened to go it alone on the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) unless a deal is sealed with Japan, which is supported by the United States and South Korea. Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said the EU stance was "regrettable" as it would lead to "duplicated and redundant financing" of the project. "All six countries must work together on the ITER project because of its technological difficulties," Machimura told reporters at a function marking EU-Japan people-to-people exchanges. "Having two sites isn't a good solution. That's why we are hoping for a division of work so we can share" the project, Machimura said. Ambassador Bernhard Zepter, head of the European Commission in Japan, also called for dialogue. "We have an obvious interest in working together because we face problems of energy resources in common," said Zepter, who is German. ITER, whose budget is expected to be some 10 billion euros (13 billion dollars) over the next 30 years, would emulate the sun's nuclear fusion in the hope of generating inexhaustible supplies of electricity. The site to be built in Cadarache, France or Rokkasho-mura, Japan is not expected to generate energy before 2050. The European Union has mulled a scenario of offering Japan a new international scientific computing centre as compensation if Japan did not host ITER. Japan has also said it is ready to discuss compromises. -------- india / pakistan India to clinch French sub deal early next year: naval chief The News International December 01, 2004 http://jang.com.pk/thenews/dec2004-daily/01-12-2004/world/w3.htm NEW DELHI: The Indian government is likely to give final approval early next year to a two billion euro (2.5 billion dollar) deal with a French firm for the building of six Scorpene submarines, the naval chief said Tuesday. Admiral Arun Prakash said the deal has been cleared by the defence and finance ministries and was awaiting final approval of the security cabinet, India’s highest strategic decision-making body headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. "We hope to get this cleared in 2005 because restoration of our submarine building capacity is our top priority," Prakash said, describing the Scorpenes deal as a "much-delayed project." Highly placed Indian sources told AFP the Scorpene deal was likely to be on the agenda of the security cabinet next February. Other Indian sources said French state-owned shipbuilder Naval Constructions Directorate (DCN) would transfer technology to New Delhi, which would then build the six 1,600-tonne submarines in India. The vessels, although diesel-powered, could be adapted to fit a nuclear power unit, which matches India’s long-term defence strategy. Prakash said the construction of the Scorpenes was part of the navy’s ambitious plans to induct a Soviet-era aircraft carrier, build a similar vessel here and acquire 19 other warships now under construction at various Indian shipyards. He said the Indian navy had this year inducted three frigate-class ships — one of them of Russian origin — and two fast attack vessels in its fleet of warships. Prakash also said the Russian aircraft carrier, Admiral Gorshkov, would be refurbished and handed over to the Indian navy on schedule by 2008. Gorshkov, which joined the Soviet forces 18 years ago, would fill the vacuum left by the 1997 scrapping of India’s first aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, which had been in service since 1961. The delivery will coincide with the mothballing of India’s remaining aircraft carrier, INS Viraat, four years later. The admiral said the November 7 test firing of a nuclear-capable missile from on-board a frigate offered India’s 137-ship navy a new dimension in strategic warfare -------- iran Rep. Markey, Shays on Iranian nukes townonline.com December 1, 2004 http://www2.townonline.com/winchester/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=136573 U.S. Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., co-chairman of the Bipartisan Task Force on Non-proliferation and a senior Democratic member of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, and Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., co-chairman of the Bipartisan Task Force on Non-proliferation and Vice-Chairman of the Committee on Government Reform, today will host two prominent experts on the Iranian nuclear program in a panel discussion about the probability and implications of an Iranian nuclear weapon state. The Task Force meeting is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. in Room 2247 of the Rayburn House Office building and is open to the public. "A nuclear Iran is dangerously close," said Rep. Markey. "While the recent deal between the European Union and Iran is a step in the right direction, Iranian officials still insist on the right to enrich uranium and speak of the EU deal as temporary. We need make sure the enrichment suspension is permanent." Iran has signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, but in 2002 an Iranian resistance group helped expose Iran's undeclared nuclear activities, which included uranium enrichment, heavy water production and efforts to separate plutonium. Despite an agreement reached in November 2003 with the EU, Iran has continued centrifuge-related activities. This week, Iran once again agreed to suspend uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities. This time the agreement includes specific language on suspending centrifuge-related activities. Iran's commitment to this recent agreement remains unclear, with statements by Hassan Rowhani, Iran's chief negotiator on nuclear issues, declaring uranium enrichment "Iran's right," adding "Iran will never give up its right to enrich uranium." Iran's claim of peaceful nuclear energy is deeply suspect, given it has 10 percent of the world's oil reserves and 20 percent of the world's natural gas reserves. Appearing at briefing last week were two well-known experts on the Iranian nuclear program: David Albright and Dr. Kenneth Pollack. Mr. Albright is president of the Institute for Science and International Studies and has written numerous assessments on secret nuclear programs throughout the world, including work with the IAEA in Iraq during the mid-1990s. Dr. Pollack is Director of Research at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy, Brookings Institution. He is the best selling author of The Threatening Storm and most recently of The Persian Puzzle. He also served as a CIA military analyst for Iraq-Iran from 1988-1995. "During the recent presidential campaign, both President Bush and Senator Kerry agreed that nuclear proliferation represented the gravest threat facing America's security," said Markey. "Now it's time to consider how best to address this threat. A clear, effective policy on Iran and North Korea should be one of the Administration's top non-proliferation priorities," Rep. Markey concluded. Torture provisions removed Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., released the following statement last week regarding the status of the torture provisions in the 9/11 intelligence reform bill: "I am very pleased that after vigorous opposition was mounted against the torture provisions in the 9/11 bill, House and Senate negotiators decided to remove controversial immigration provisions from the bill that included language that would facilitate the outsourcing of torture," Rep. Markey said. Sections 3032 and 3033 of H.R.10, the House-passed version of the bill, would have legitimized "extraordinary rendition" - the practice of sending detained aliens to other nations where they are likely to face interrogation under torture. "I have long fought to stop the practice of outsourcing torture," Rep. Markey added. "This is a great victory for human and civil rights and a great victory for the 9/11 families and the 9/11 Commission. While House Republicans did not allow a vote on the conference report, the message is clear: we will not stand for torture in our name." "The fight is not over. I am hopeful that we will pass the intelligence bill when Congress returns in December. I will oppose any attempt to restore the torture outsourcing language to the bill." The U.S. government still practices extraordinary rendition. Former CIA Director George Tenet testified before Congress that 70 terrorist suspects had been "rendered" prior to Sept. 11, and press reports indicate that the CIA has continued the practice since that time. Last summer, Rep. Markey introduced H.R. 4674, legislation to stop extraordinary rendition. During consideration of the intelligence reform bill, House Republicans inserted provisions into the bill to legitimize the practice. For more information on Rep. Markey's work to end extraordinary rendition, please visit: http://www.house.gov/markey/human_rights.htm. ----- Kowtowing to Tehran washtimes December 01, 2004 http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20041130-084445-8910r.htm In the latest sign that Washington and its European allies have failed to persuade Iran to end its nuclear weapons programs, the International Atomic Energy Agency on Monday passed a watered-down resolution that is likely to encourage more defiance from the ruling mullahs. At a meeting in Vienna, the IAEA board of governors approved a resolution that "welcomes the fact that Iran has decided to continue and extend its suspension of all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities." The resolution also capitulates to Iran on a major point: its insistence that it is not legally required to freeze its uranium enrichment efforts. It refers to Iran's suspension as "a voluntary confidence building measure, not a legal obligation." The IAEA resolution fell short of what Washington was seeking: a binding commitment that Iran will end its nuclear weapons programs and referral of the matter to the U.N. Security Council if the regime fails to do so. But State Department spokesman Richard Boucher tried to put the best face on things, stating that Washington "went along with the resolution" because it believes that Iran will eventually violate it, and that this can serve to trigger further action. Iran has a very different view. The resolution was "a definite defeat for our enemies who wanted to pressure Iran by sending its case to the U.N. Security Council," said Iranian President Mohammed Khatami. The New York Times reported that Iranian officials toasted approval of the resolution with the French ambassador to the IAEA at his residence. The resolution is just the latest example of a lengthy, embarrassing ritual that has become commonplace since the IAEA began investigating Iran last year. IAEA inspectors periodically visit suspect Iranian sites. Every few months, the IAEA board gets together and passes a resolution criticizing Iran's cheating and concealment activities, and the European Union 3 — Britain, France and Germany — announces that Iran has agreed to change its behavior. Months later, the world learns that Iran has continued to cheat and misinterpret the treaty. Indeed, Iran's failures to come clean about its nuclear activities have repeatedly been documented by the IAEA — as recently as Monday. Iran has successfully been buying time while advancing its weapons research and development. Appeasement has had the predictable effect of emboldening Tehran to take a much more aggressive posture in the region, which includes financing Hezbollah and Hamas terrorism in Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza and the terrorist insurgency in Iraq. The current situation is probably a picnic compared to what will happen should Iran develop nuclear weapons. ----- Tehran calls deal on uranium a win ASSOCIATED PRESS By Ali Akbar Dareini December 01, 2004 http://www.washtimes.com/world/20041130-100136-1435r.htm TEHRAN — Iran yesterday claimed victory in its nuclear dispute, saying it has isolated the United States while preserving its right to enrich uranium. Iran said it has not abandoned its right to purify uranium, despite U.S. pressure, noting that the agreement it struck this week with the U.N. nuclear agency will only halt processing for several months. Speaking to reporters, Iran's top nuclear official, Hasan Rowhani, hailed the resolution passed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Monday that authorizes the watchdog agency's chief, Mohamed ElBaradei, to monitor Iran's commitment to freeze uranium-enrichment activities. Such enrichment can produce either low-grade fuel for nuclear reactors or the raw material for atomic weapons. -------- korea IAEA ruling on S Korea disgusts North Reuters December 1, 2004 http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200412/s1255951.htm North Korea is disgusted by the UN nuclear watchdog report into secret South Korean atomic tests and wants to discuss the subject first if talks on its own nuclear plans restart, its Foreign Ministry says. The board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has rebuked South Korea but stopped short of referring the case to the UN Security Council, for now. "A scrutiny into the IAEA's course of inspection and the meeting of its board of governors prompted us to conclude that the US and the IAEA are going to hush up the secret nuclear-related experiments of South Korea the way they think fit," a ministry spokesman told the official KCNA news agency. The spokesman, in the North's first official reaction to the IAEA's findings, says the UN watchdog has praised the South's cooperation and is protecting the country. "We cannot but feel disgust at it and heighten vigilance against it," the North Korean spokesman said. The official says the United States has also played down the South's tests. The IAEA report says that scientists enriched a tiny amount of uranium in 2000 to a level close to what would be useable in an atomic weapon, contradicting denials by South Korea. South Korean scientists also separated a tiny amount of bomb-grade plutonium in 1982 without notifying the IAEA. "If the IAEA does not settle the secret nuclear experiments of South Korea in an understandable manner, this issue will stand out as the most important issue at the six-party talks pending a top priority discussion," the North's spokesman said. He is referring to stalled talks on North Korea's nuclear programs involving the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States. "It is quite natural for the six-party talks to discuss this issue before the nuclear issue between the DPRK and the US," the official said. "It is illogical for the DPRK to unilaterally dismantle its nuclear deterrent force unless the secret nuclear-related experiments of South Korea are thoroughly probed." The official accuses the United States of double standards. "The US attitude toward this case stands out in sharp contrast to its persistent pressure upon the DPRK to admit the non-existent uranium enrichment program," he said. -------- N. Korea Holds Nuke Crisis Bargaining Chip By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS December 1, 2004 Filed at 3:09 a.m. ET http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-US-North-Korea-Nuclear.html?pagewanted=print&position= NEW YORK (AP) -- North Korea is holding South Korean construction cranes, bulldozers, road graders, dump trucks and almost 200 cars hostage at the site of a suspended power plant project as a bargaining chip in the international standoff over its bid to develop nuclear weapons. The South Korean companies that own the construction equipment are dismayed since North Korea has refused to back down on demands for compensation for the suspension of the power-plant program. The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO), the New York-based consortium set up to build safe power plants in North Korea in exchange for Pyongyang's agreement to dismantle its weapons program, says no progress has been made on the impasse. Construction of two 1,000-megawatt light-water reactors to replace North Korea's Russian-model, plutonium-producing nuclear plants was suspended in 2003 after the United States raised suspicions that Pyongyang also concealed a secret program to enrich uranium to weapons grade. The freeze on the nuclear plant project was extended last week for another year, effective Dec. 1, by KEDO, which is led by the United States, Japan, South Korea, and the European Union. The Bush administration has been contending that the project has ``no future,'' as the State Department said a year ago. South Korea and Japan, which are most heavily invested in construction of the $4.6 billion nuclear plant project about 125 miles north of the 38th parallel on North Korea's east coast near Sinpo, hope to keep it on the table to entice North Korea back into disarmament talks. KEDO's extension of the freeze noted that ``the future of the project will be assessed and decided by the Executive Board before the expiration of the suspension period,'' suggesting it will be revived or killed based on North Korea's willingness to rejoin disarmament talks in coming months. But in the meantime, North Korea has barred the removal of 93 pieces of heavy construction equipment, including three cranes, plus bulldozers, steam shovels, dump trucks, road graders and forklifts, and about 190 South Korean cars and some buses from the site at Kumho, demanding that the United States pay unspecified ``compensation'' for the suspension of the program. Pyongyang has threatened to go in and seize the equipment along with computers, office equipment and any technical documents still on the site, but has made no move to do so. KEDO's executive director, Charles Kartman, raised the issue in talks with North Korea prior to the consortium's announcement Nov. 26 of the extension of the freeze on construction. KEDO spokesman Brian Kremer confirmed on Monday that no progress has been made recently on breaking the impasse, but added, ``We're certainly hopeful that KEDO can resolve this issue.'' The South Korean companies with the most equipment at stake are Hyundai, Doosan, Daewoo and Dong-ah, which subcontracted with Korean Electric Power Co. to provide construction work. A spokesman for the four major Korean subcontractors, speaking in Seoul on condition of anonymity, said the seized equipment amounted to a major loss and said the situation was ``awkward'' for the construction consortium since they had not been compensated for it. Their equipment had been shipped from South Korea directly to a port at Kumo, avoiding the difficulty of negotiating road access through the almost hermetically sealed North Korea. KEDO is continuing to pay leasing fees to the South Korean companies ``for equipment that is not being used. We have a budget that we have to live within,'' Kremer said. The reduced KEDO staff at the Kumho site is maintaining the partially built project and caring for the equipment and vehicles. Associated Press writer Soo-jeong Lee in Seoul, South Korea contributed to this report. On the Web: the Korean Peninsula Energy Organization, including its 2003 annual report: www.kedo.org http://www.kedo.org -------- missile defense Canadian PM hedges on Bush request to join missile defense HALIFAX, Canada (AFP) Dec 01, 2004 http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041201182953.6rlw7lez.html Canada's Prime Minister Paul Martin Wednesday hedged his bets on joining the US anti-missile shield, after President George W. Bush upped pressure on a system opposed by a slim majority of Canadians. Martin told reporters he was not surprised that Bush had brought up the national missile defense system during their talks in Ottawa Tuesday -- despite expectations in Canada the issue was not on the agenda. "Whatever we decide," said Martin, "it will be in Canada's interests. We are a sovereign nation and we will make our own decisions on our air space. "But we are opposed to the weaponisation of space," Martin said, minutes after seeing Bush leave for Washington after an overnight visit to Ottawa, and a sidetrip to Canada's Atlantic coast. That formulation has been Canada's consistent position on the issue, as Martin's minority government tries to figure out how to handle what is a political hot potato. Many experts believe a Canadian decision not to take part in the system could scupper the North American Aerospace Defence Agreement (NORAD) with Washington, and make Canada blind to any threats entering its airspace. Bush said on Tuesday he and Martin had "talked about the future of NORAD and how that organization can best meet emerging threats and safeguard our continent against attack from ballistic missiles." That comment ignited a minor media storm and exposed Martin to attack from political opponents, especially the left-wing New Democratic Party. An opinion poll by CBC last week suggested that 52 percent of Canadians were opposed to the missile shield. Martin was also vague about what, if any, role Canada might play in next month's crucial election in Iraq, after reports last week said Canada could please Washington by helping to set up and monitor the polls. -------- u.s. nuc weapons The 2004 election shifts the nuclear corridor to New Mexico and Texas San Francisco Bay View by Leuren Moret 12/1/04 http://www.sfbayview.com/120104/nuclearcorridor120104.shtml “Some people say Domenici is a sucker for big science. And they may be right.” – Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., when asked at a press conference in August 2004 if his vigorous support for his state’s Los Alamos National Laboratory had helped create a culture of complacency that contributed to last month’s security and safety lapses, in Science, vol. 305, Aug. 20, 2004, p. 1103 The continuation of a misguided and obsolete nuclear weapons and nuclear energy policy is guaranteed by a second Bush term and Republicans gaining more U.S. Senate seats. A planned New Mexico-Texas nuclear corridor (see “The 2004 Election” in References below) can be expected to move forward with new energy and funding. The University of Texas and Texas A&M are likely partners in not only nuclear weapons research and development, but they will be involved with the development of bioweapons as well. Three of the eight primary sites for the nuclear weapons program are located in New Mexico and Texas at Los Alamos, Sandia and Pantex. Plans are underway for a new facility near Eunice, New Mexico, for a privately run uranium enrichment facility and a “low-level” nuclear waste dump nearby in Andrews County, Texas. A new “modern” pit facility – for producing plutonium pits – planned at a site such as Los Alamos, Pantex or the Waste Isolation Pilot Program (WIPP) near Carlsbad was recently defeated in Congress. This nuclear corridor will expand with other weapons systems development and increase the need for security and more involvement with Homeland Security and border issues. Homeland Security funds will flow into local universities, and the border will become a test zone for biometrics technologies. Surveillance, control and security technologies are a necessity for the secret research and development in the area, and they are the mandate of Homeland Security. The citizens in West Texas and Eastern New Mexico, poor regions of both states, will offer little resistance as new jobs and development in the region offer a better living. This has been a pattern for decades throughout the nuclear weapons program. A broken promise “It's time to place the blame for high oil prices where it belongs — on the lack of progress in energy technology.” - Michael Mandel, chief economist, Business Week, Aug. 2, 2004 The only problem with this planned nuclear renaissance is that it holds a broken promise and false hope of better security and cheap energy for the United States. It is just another pork barrel project and misguided effort, which reflects the inability of the U.S. to embrace, develop and promote alternative energy sources. The truth is that nuclear weapons and conventional strategic military power are obsolete. Scalar electromagnetic weapons (see “Scalar Weapons”) were developed in Russia in the middle of the last century and are now held by at least five countries. The powerful electromagnetic pulse they release can quickly “dud” all nuclear weapons in the U.S. arsenal and fry the highly centralized electronic grid of the U.S. in 10 minutes. This would destroy the U.S. economy. There have already been terrorist attempts by the Japanese Aum Shinrikyo Buddhist sect to use them against the U.S. (see “Tesla Doom Weapons”). In addition, the Russian 3M-82 Moskit anti-ship cruise missile, called the SS-N-22 Sunburn by NATO, is a weapon that the U.S. Navy currently has no defense against (see “The Sunburn”). It has been called “the most lethal missile in the world today,” and Russia has sold them to India, China, Viet Nam, Cuba and Iran. The Sunburn can deliver a 200-300 kiloton nuclear payload, or a 750 pound conventional warhead, at three times the speed of sound (Mach 3) as low as 9 feet off the ground, making it invisible to radar. And it can elude enemy defenses with violent end maneuvers. It was designed to defeat the U.S. Aegis radar defense system. This missile has made the U.S. Navy obsolete and sitting ducks in any conflict where the Sunburn missile is utilized. China demonstrated this missile in full view of the multinational naval forces during exercises “masterminded” by the U.S. military in the Pacific last summer to demonstrate our superior military power. Instead, it played out as a military standoff. References “The 2004 Election and the New Mexico-Texas Nuclear Corridor” by Stefan Wray, Nov. 3, 2004, http://www.iconmedia.org. Scalar weapons: “Fer de Lance,” Bearden's book about scalar weapons, http://www.cheniere.org/books/ferdelance/index.html; “Scalar Wars: The Brave New World of Scalar Electromagnetics,” http://www.prahlad.org/pub/bearden/scalar_wars.htm. Some other articles on scalar topics: http://prahlad.org/pub/bearden/index.htm. “Tesla Doom Weapons and Aum Shinrikyo” by David Guyatt (1997), http://www.deepblacklies.co.uk/doom_weapons_1.htm. “The Sunburn - Iran's Awesome Nuclear Anti-Ship Missile, The Weapon That Could Defeat the US in the Gulf” by Mark Gaffney, Nov. 2, 2004, http://www.rense.com/general59/theSunburniransawesome.htm. “Congressman Seek Resolution to Halt Russian Missile Sales to China,” Federation of American Scientists, March 28, 2000, http://www.fas.org/news/taiwan/2000/e-03-28-00-11.htm, http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/missile/row/moskit.htm. To read Parts 1 through 7 of this series, go to http://www.sfbayview.com/091504/ucregents091504.shtml, http://www.sfbayview.com/092204/nuclearweapons092204.shtml, http://www.sfbayview.com/092904/nuclearweapons2092904.shtml, http://www.sfbayview.com/100604/nuclearweapons100604.shtml, http://www.sfbayview.com/101304/nuclearweapons101304.shtml, http://www.sfbayview.com/110304/ucregents110304.shtml and http://www.sfbayview.com/112404/ucregents112404.shtml. Leuren Moret, a geoscientist who worked at the Livermore nuclear weapons lab where she became a whistleblower in 1991, has survived 13 years of retaliation from the Livermore Lab and the University of California and has lived firsthand the experiences of Karen Silkwood. A radiation specialist, she works around the world educating citizens, the media and lawmakers about the impact of radiation globally on the health of the public and the environment. She assisted with Al-Jazeera’s recent report on depleted uranium weapons which quickly became one of the most read articles produced by the website. “DU: Washington’s Secret Nuclear War” can be read at http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2004/DU-Secret-Nuclear-War14sep04.htm. She is an independent scientist and an environmental commissioner for the City of Berkeley and can be reached at leurenmoret@yahoo.com. -------- california Nuclear generator at San Onofre remains off line due to tiny cracks in water heaters Associated Press Dec. 01, 2004 http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/10312345.htm SAN ONOFRE, Calif. - A 1,100-megawatt nuclear generator at the San Onofre power plant will remain off line after engineers discovered tiny cracks in its water heaters, according to a newspaper report. The North County Times reported Wednesday that microscopic cracks were found during an inspection of about 30 water heaters attached to Unit 3's pressurizers. The heaters keep the nuclear reactor's coolant at a constant 2,200 pounds per square inch and make sure the water inside the reactor's core does not boil. Unit 3 was shut down Sept. 26 for a 55-day refueling and was scheduled to return to service Nov. 21. Plant managers, however, said it likely will remain off line until early January. "Right now we are in the process of replacing those heaters," plant spokesman Ray Golden said. Refueling work at the plant has stopped and crews have temporarily resealed the reactor's core. New fuel cannot be added until the heater work is complete. Unit 3 was scheduled for repairs during its next refueling outage in 2006, but Southern California Edison decided to get the work done early even though the cracks were not yet large enough to leak water, Golden said. SoCal Edison is San Onofre's majority owner. It will cost nearly $7 million to replace the heaters, he said. The cracks do not pose an immediate safety risk because they are so small, said Clyde Osterholtz, senior resident plant inspector for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. "They have found very early signs," Osterholtz told the newspaper. "These are cracks you can't even see with the naked eye." The plant's two steam generators also are cracking, forcing San Onofre officials to propose replacing them at an estimated cost of $600 million. -------- new mexico U.S. Gives Business Role in Los Alamos Bid By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: December 1, 2004 Filed at 6:45 p.m. ET http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Los-Alamos-Contract.html WASHINGTON (AP) -- Stung by security lapses at a leading nuclear weapons laboratory, the government will consider business and management ability as much as scientific expertise when selecting a new manager for the facility. The Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration released a draft request for proposals Wednesday as it prepares for the first competition to run New Mexico's Los Alamos National Laboratory. Los Alamos has been managed by the University of California since the lab's creation as a top-secret World War II project to develop the atomic bomb. But problems, including missing computer drives and sloppy fiscal procedures, led the department for the first time to call for an open bidding process last year. The new contractor will take over when the university's current contract expires at the ending of September. The school has not decided whether to bid to continue managing the lab. ``The vision is we want world-class science, enabled by excellent operations, and really, really good business management,'' said Tyler Przybylek, chairman of the board of National Nuclear Security Administration officials who will evaluate proposals. The agency will collect comments from prospective applicants, community members and others for 30 days before issuing a final request for proposals. Applicants will then have 60 days to submit their proposals. The agency plans to select a contractor next summer to begin work on Oct. 1. The new contract will cover five years, with possible extensions for 15 years more. Recent problems at the lab include the shutdown of most operations in July following the disclosure that two disks believed to contain classified information were missing. Most lab activities have since resumed. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has encouraged the University of California to seek to retain its contract. Other possible bidders include the University of Texas and Texas A&M. Federal officials also will seek bids on the two other labs that the University of California manages, the Lawrence Livermore nuclear weapons lab and the nonweapons Lawrence Berkeley lab. The school's Lawrence Livermore contract also expires at the end of September, but the Energy Department plans to extend it. Associated Press writer Leslie Hoffman in Albuquerque, N.M., contributed to this report. -------- us nuc waste Congress resolves Yucca funding dispute Counties can use DOE grants to take part in licensing for project Las Vegas Review-Journal By STEVE TETREAULT December 01, 2004 http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2004/Dec-01-Wed-2004/news/25381673.html WASHINGTON -- A dispute over how Nevada counties can spend federal money on Yucca Mountain has been resolved by Congress in favor of the counties, officials said this week. A year-end spending bill that lawmakers passed Nov. 20 makes clear that local governments can use Energy Department grants to take part in licensing for the proposed nuclear waste repository, they said. Clark County commissioners protested after DOE issued new grant guidelines in August. One directive disallowed use of grant money for activities such as loading pertinent research into an electronic database being built for Yucca Mountain license hearings. County leaders said the rules would restrict their ability to fully participate in upcoming hearings before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. A provision that reverses the directive was proposed by Clark County officials and was inserted into the bill by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., according to Capitol Hill officials. Abigail Johnson, a nuclear waste consultant to Eureka County, said the problem appears to be solved for now. "It provides the specific language that answers the questions that had come up over how we can use our oversight funds," she said. Reid aides said the provision will need to be renewed each year. Nine Nevada counties and Inyo County in California shared $4 million this year and are being given $8 million during fiscal 2005 to monitor DOE's work at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, and to study the planned repository's potential impacts on their residents. Clark County's allocation for 2005 is expected to be about $2 million. Yucca Mountain hearings will be conducted in a triallike format before an NRC administrative panel. DOE officials said their August guidelines were based on their reading of a law that prohibits the counties from spending federal money on repository "litigation." Energy Department spokesman Allen Benson said DOE welcomed the instructions from Congress. "Congress has for many years provided us guidance as well as the state and the (counties) on how the funds should be spent," Benson said. "Now we have congressional direction, which helps all of us." ----- State finds change in repository's quality control Las Vegas Review-Journal By STEVE TETREAULT December 01, 2004 http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2004/Dec-01-Wed-2004/news/25382261.html WASHINGTON -- Attorneys for the state of Nevada say they have found another weapon to deploy against the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. State officials are focusing on an Energy Department decision this summer to delete structural supports for the repository's underground tunnels from a list of features requiring the strictest quality assurance controls. The supports consist of rock bolts and steel beams that hold up repository walls and ceilings and add a layer of protection for canisters of highly radioactive spent fuel that would be stored within the tunnels. DOE officials removed the tunnel supports from a "Q list" of Yucca systems that are considered important to prevent radiation from escaping the mountain and entering the environment. Because they deal with deadly radiation, systems on the "Q list" also require the most stringent quality assurance rules, including pain-staking documentation and detailed reviews. Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, said DOE "is obviously trying to minimize the number of areas that (quality assurance) has a role to play. I don't think they can fully comply with QA requirements, so they are trying to eliminate them." The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Government Accountability Office have criticized the rigor of the Yucca Mountain quality assurance in reports this year, prompting DOE and contractor managers to increase their attention to that program. Allen Benson, an Energy Department spokesman, said in an e-mail the tunnel supports are not on the Q list "because other engineered systems provide for radiological protection." DOE plans to install titanium drip shields over waste canisters within the tunnels and to store the radioactive material in special alloy containers scientists believe will be corrosion-resistant. Joe Egan, a Virginia attorney who leads a legal team challenging the Yucca Mountain Project for Nevada, charged DOE "is cutting corners one more time." Egan said Nevada will file a formal contention on the tunnel supports during repository license hearings. "They are making an incorrect determination that the tunnel supports are not important to safety, and we don't believe that is the case," he said. ----- Richardson Says Uranium Waste Can't Stay in N.M. The Associated Press December 1, 2004 http://www.abqjournal.com/news/state/apnuke12-01-04.htm SANTA FE — Gov. Bill Richardson says he will not support a proposed nuclear fuel factory near Eunice until the federal government guarantees that no radioactive waste from the facility would remain in New Mexico. His decision means the state will not act on a groundwater discharge permit that Louisiana Energy Services would need to operate the factory. LES has proposed building the $1.2 billion uranium enrichment facility five miles east of Eunice to produce fuel for nuclear reactors. The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which must license the factory, is considering LES's application. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., has said a measure he sponsored would ensure that waste from the factory would be sent outside of New Mexico. He added the legislation to a massive spending bill approved by Congress. "Senator Domenici had good intentions, but the language is inadequate and doesn't fix the problem," Richardson said Tuesday. Richardson said he will withhold his support of the project until Congress passes other language that specifies the waste would be removed from New Mexico or until the federal commission issues LES an operating permit that contains binding language to that effect. "What I am seeking is either very strong language in the license that precludes the waste being stored in New Mexico or very strong language in an appropriations bill next year," Richardson said. He also said his office is talking to state Attorney General Patricia Madrid about a joint effort concerning the LES project. He declined to say what they are considering. The state Environment Department and the attorney general's office have been rebuffed by the commission's licensing board in efforts to raise concerns about the factory, including the licensing process about waste disposal. Domenici said Monday his staff was aware that Richardson would have concerns about the provision Congress has passed. Domenici said he remains committed to working with Richardson to include language concerning waste disposal in the federal license for the factory. Marshall Cohen, an LES spokesman, said Tuesday that the company remains confident that it will be able to satisfy Richardson's concerns. The company believes that the language in Domenici's measure is a good first step, Cohen said. LES has begun discussions with Richardson's staff about other language that could be included in the federal permit, Cohen said. Richardson "has had his concerns for a while, and we understand that," Cohen said. "And we're looking for a combination of ways — the statutory language that was in the bill, plus the licensing language — and we'll work with his office very closely to do that." Cohen said LES expects private industry would build a factory in the United States to process the depleted uranium to make it safe for disposal. No such facility exists in the country today. The U.S. Department of Energy has hundreds of thousands of tons of similar waste stockpiled at uranium-enrichment factories in Kentucky and Ohio. The DOE plans to build its own waste-treatment factories to handle its backlog. Ohio officials have opposed the prospect of taking waste from the proposed LES factory. New Mexico Environment Secretary Ron Curry said Tuesday his office has received a groundwater discharge permit application from LES. The permit application is not yet deemed complete, he said. Curry said that before his office can consider processing the permit, it must know how long waste from the factory would remain on site. That won't be clear until the federal licensing process is complete, he said. Once the permit application is deemed complete, it would go through a public-hearing process, Curry said. -------- Justice Department to try and overturn initiative barring more Hanford waste By SHANNON DININNY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Wednesday, December 1, 2004 http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/201842_hanford01.html YAKIMA -- The federal government plans to ask a judge to overturn a Washington state initiative that bars the U.S. Department of Energy from sending more nuclear waste to the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. Last month, Washington voters overwhelmingly approved Initiative 297, which blocks the Energy Department from sending more waste to south-central Washington's Hanford site until all the existing waste there is cleaned up. The measure is scheduled to take effect tomorrow. The Justice Department planned to seek a temporary restraining order today in federal court in Yakima to keep the initiative from becoming law, according to a government official familiar with the case. The government also planned to challenge the constitutionality of the initiative on the grounds that it violates federal laws governing nuclear waste and interstate commerce, the official said. The 586-square-mile Hanford reservation was created in World War II as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb. It remains the most contaminated site in the nation, with cleanup costs expected to total $50 billion to $60 billion. At issue are the federal government's plans for disposing of waste from World War II- and Cold War-era nuclear weapons production nationwide. The Energy Department chose Hanford to dispose of some mildly radioactive waste and mixed low-level waste, which is laced with chemicals. The site also would serve as a packaging center for some transuranic waste -- plutonium-contaminated rags, tools and other discarded items -- before it is shipped elsewhere for long-term disposal. Transuranic waste is highly radioactive and can take thousands of years or more to decay to safe levels. In 2003, Washington state filed a lawsuit to block waste shipments from entering the state, fearing Hanford would become a radioactive waste dump. The Energy Department voluntarily suspended the shipments after the lawsuit was filed, but the case remains in federal court. Energy Department officials have said the site's most dangerous waste will be shipped out of state. Of the 405 million curies of radioactivity at Hanford, about 374 million curies will be sent to other states for long-term disposal. Hanford already is home to 53 million gallons of highly radioactive liquid, sludge and salt cake stored in 177 underground tanks. The Energy Department aims to bury much of that waste in a nuclear waste repository in Nevada. Another 75,000 55-gallon drums of transuranic, radioactive and hazardous waste also are buried at Hanford. The roughly $1 million cost of the initiative was largely funded by its sponsor, Heart of America Northwest, a Hanford watchdog group that contends the initiative will withstand any court challenges. "Plenty of legal experts have looked at it and said we have the authority to do this," said Gerald Pollet, executive director of Heart of America Northwest. "We had hoped that the Department of Energy would try to work with the state instead of wasting money and effort fighting in court." A citizens petition sent the initiative to the Legislature early this year. Lawmakers declined to act on it, sending the measure to the November ballot. Washington state voters approved it Nov. 2 by a more than 2-to-1 ratio. ---- DOE likely to challenge Hanford waste initiative tri-cityherald December 1st, 2004 By Annette Cary http://www.tri-cityherald.com/tch/local/story/5859163p-5774584c.html The state of Washington on Tuesday declared Initiative 297 had officially passed, but whether it blocks shipments of radioactive waste to Hanford is yet to be seen. The state expects the federal government to file suit today, challenging the legality of the initiative. It takes effect Thursday unless the court intervenes. In addition, the federal government already has filed motions to halt rulings or agreements in federal court that now prevent it from sending certain types of waste to Hanford. The initiative, passed by voters Nov. 2 in every county of the state except Benton and Franklin, would stop shipments of waste to Hanford until waste already there is cleaned up. Hanford is extensively contaminated from the past production of plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program. However, court proceedings already have temporarily stopped most waste from being sent to Hanford. The court temporarily barred the Department of Energy from sending transuranic waste -- usually waste contaminated with plutonium -- to Hanford in May 2003. When the state moved five months ago to prevent DOE from sending low-level radioactive waste and low-level waste mixed with hazardous chemicals to Hanford, DOE agreed to a temporarily halt of shipments. Now the federal government is asking the court's permission to resume shipments of transuranic and low-level waste. On Feb. 3, federal Judge Alan McDonald in Yakima will hear the state's arguments asking that the temporary ban on importing low-level waste to Hanford be expanded. He also will hear federal arguments asking that the ban be dropped. Low-level waste includes debris such as radioactively contaminated rubble from old buildings used in nuclear processing. Until the February court hearing and McDonald's decision, the ban on importing low-level waste to Hanford remains in effect. "The court will endeavor to determine the motion as soon as possible following the hearing, but it must be kept in mind that the issues are weighty and complex," McDonald wrote in a court order Monday. The state believes an environmental study released earlier this year by the federal government did not provide a full accounting of the basis for selecting Hanford as the disposal site for nuclear waste produced elsewhere in the nation. After the study was completed, DOE issued a decision in June committing to sending no more than 82,000 cubic meters of low-level and low-level waste mixed with chemicals to Hanford. That's about a quarter of the amount of waste DOE needs to dispose of throughout its nationwide nuclear complex. The state also believes the DOE environmental study did not do an adequate analysis of the risk posed by ground water contamination at Hanford. DOE is arguing that its study was thorough and included a detailed discussion of ground water. Limits on waste shipments addressed state concerns, it said. It has asked the court to consider the national interest in the comprehensive management of nuclear waste, not just the concerns of the state of Washington. Further delays in shipments will harm other DOE sites throughout the nation that face their own obligations to dispose of waste, according to DOE. Under DOE's plan for nuclear waste from the weapons program, low-level waste would be sent to Hanford from other sites, but Hanford's high-level waste would be sent to Yucca Mountain, Nev., for disposal. The federal government also believes that its environmental study should answer the court's concerns that led it to temporarily bar the shipment of transuranic waste to the site. The study included information on the impacts of storing transuranic waste at Hanford and transportation risks, according to the federal government. The state has yet to file a response to that argument. But David Mears, the senior assistant attorney general for Washington, said the state does not believe all its concerns about transuranic waste shipments to Hanford have been addressed. Among the state's concerns is that some of the transuranic waste would be stranded at Hanford after it is treated there. DOE intends to dispose of the transuranic waste in an underground repository near Carlsbad, N.M., but the state believes DOE has not received permission to send the waste there. McDonald will consider arguments on the transuranic waste issue Jan. 11. ----- U.S. wants Wash. nuclear waste ban tossed By SHANNON DININNY ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER Wednesday, December 1, 2004 http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apwashington_story.asp?category=1152&slug=Hanford%20Initiative&dpfrom=th YAKIMA, Wash. -- The government Wednesday asked a judge to overturn a "draconian" state initiative barring the Energy Department from sending radioactive waste from other states to the Hanford nuclear site until waste already there is cleaned up. In court papers, the Justice Department warned some cleanup would stop and workers would be idled if Initiative 297 takes effect Thursday. It asked for a temporary restraining order; a hearing was set for Thursday morning. The government said projects that don't require permits under current law may need them under the initiative, which voters approved last month. "All this will result in harm to health and the environment," the government's court papers said. "Moreover, efforts to comply with the draconian provisions of I-297 will cost millions of dollars - which will not be recoverable if, and when, I-297 is ultimately determined to be unconstitutional." The Justice Department claims the measure violates federal laws governing interstate commerce and nuclear waste. Hanford, a federal site, is immune from state regulation, the government argued. David Mears, senior assistant attorney general for Washington state, said the state will vigorously defend the initiative. An attorney for Hanford watchdog group Heart of America Northwest, sponsor of the initiative, reserved comment until after Thursday's hearing. At issue are the federal government's plans to dispose waste from World War II and Cold War-era nuclear weapons production nationwide. The Energy Department chose Hanford to dispose of some mildly radioactive waste and mixed low-level waste, which is laced with chemicals. The site also would serve as a packaging center for some highly radioactive waste before it is shipped elsewhere for long-term disposal. In 2003, Washington sued to block waste shipments from entering the state, fearing Hanford would become a radioactive waste dump. The Energy Department voluntarily suspended the shipments after the lawsuit was filed, but the case remains in federal court. -------- Justice Department to Fight Hanford Initiative in Court Associated Press By Shannon Dininny December 01, 2004 http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=500 YAKIMA, Wash. - The government plans to ask a judge to overturn a Washington state initiative that bars the Energy Department from sending radioactive waste from other states to the Hanford nuclear site until waste already there is cleaned up. The measure is scheduled to take effect Dec. 2. The Justice Department planned to seek a temporary restraining order Wednesday to keep the initiative from becoming law, The Associated Press learned from a government official familiar with the case who spoke on condition of anonymity. The government also planned to challenge the constitutionality of the initiative on the grounds it violates federal laws governing nuclear waste and interstate commerce, the official said. The 586-square-mile Hanford reservation was created in World War II as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb. It remains the most contaminated site in the nation, with cleanup costs expected to total $50 billion to $60 billion. At issue are the federal government's plans for disposing of waste from World War II and Cold War-era nuclear weapons production nationwide. The Energy Department chose Hanford to dispose of some mildly radioactive waste and mixed low-level waste, which is laced with chemicals. The site also would serve as a packaging center for some highly radioactive waste -- plutonium-contaminated rags, tools and other discarded items -- before it is shipped elsewhere for long-term disposal. In 2003, Washington state sued to block waste shipments from entering the state, fearing Hanford would become a radioactive waste dump. The Energy Department voluntarily suspended the shipments after the lawsuit was filed, but the case remains in federal court. -------- MILITARY -------- africa Congo on war footing amid claims of attack by Rwandan troops Scotsman.com MARGARET NEIGHBOUR 1 Dec 2004 http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1376272004 THE Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) yesterday said it was on "a war footing" after it was attacked by troops from neighbouring Rwanda. United Nations officials said they were investigating claims Rwandan forces had crossed the border into the east of the DRC and fought with militia there. The reports of fighting come days after the Rwandan government threatened to attack Hutu fighters based in the DRC if the DRC government and UN forces fail to disarm the rebels, some of whom took part in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide. Yesterday the Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, told members of parliament in the Rwandan capital of Kigali that his forces "might" already be in east Congo, in pursuit of Rwandan Hutu rebels sheltering there. "We are on a war footing," said Mbusa Nyamwisi, a DRC cabinet minister, speaking from the eastern city of Beni, adding there was fighting nearby. "We are being attacked by the Rwandan troops." Neither the UN nor any other independent observer has verified the alleged Rwandan incursions or fighting. Lawless east DRC is home to numerous, rival militias, with frequent clashes in the remote bush there. Additionally, residents there frequently blame Rwandan troops for clashes involving Rwanda-allied rebels and other forces. Local officials, Congolese commanders, priests and other community leaders yesterday reported clashes in the area, in reports to both UN officials and to journalists. Villagers reaching Beni told authorities that communities north of Goma, near Congo’s border with Rwanda, had been attacked, with at least three villages burned, Mr Nyamwisi said. The displaced reported 15 people killed at one village, Ikobo, Mr Nyamwisi said. He claimed two brigades of Rwandan troops were fighting alongside Congolese rebel allies from DRC’s 1998-2002 war. The Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda (FDLR) rebels say Rwandan troops have crossed into DRC’s North Kivu province in the area of Bunagama and Kibumba in recent days in order to seize the mineral-rich east of Africa’s third biggest country. Congo officials said on Monday that their president, Laurent Kabila, was sending up to 10,000 soldiers to North Kivu to prevent the rebels and Rwandan forces from launching cross-border attacks. Relief experts say any new war in the DRC would deepen an existing humanitarian disaster in the east. The UN estimates 3.3 million people, a third of them children, in east DRC are beyond the reach of relief groups and prey to armed groups. It has been advocating voluntary disarmament of the rebels and its Security Council has urged Rwanda not to invade. -------- arms Report: Raytheon 'heat beam' weapon ready for Iraq Boston Business Journal 12 01 04 http://boston.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2004/11/29/daily30.html Government defense giant Raytheon Co. has developed the first nonlethal weapon that fires a heat beam to repel enemies and reduces the chance of innocent civilians being shot, a Pentagon official said. Raytheon, the world's largest missile maker, delivered a prototype to the U.S. military last month. The product is expected to be evaluated from February through June to determine whether to equip U.S. forces with it, Colonel David Karcher, director of the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate, told Bloomberg Business News. With U.S. casualties in Iraq rising, expectations are growing that Raytheon's weapon, called the Active Denial System, could be sent to Iraq in the next year, according to Charles "Sid'' Heal, commander of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. A former Marine, Heal headed nonlethal-weapons training for the U.S. military in Somalia in 1995 and advised Raytheon on the beam's development. "It's there, it's ready,'' said Heal, who has felt the weapon's beam and compares it to having a hot iron placed on the skin. "It will likely be in Iraq in the next 12 months. They are very, very close.'' The weapon, mounted on a Humvee vehicle, projects a "focused, speed-of-light millimeter wave energy beam to induce an intolerable heating sensation,'' according to a U.S. Air Force fact sheet. The energy penetrates less than 1/64 of an inch into the skin and the sensation ceases when the target moves out of the beam. The weapon could be used for crowd control and is effective beyond the range of bullets fired by small arms, Karcher said. The effective range of an AK-47 assault rifle is as far as 273 yards, while an M16A2 rifle has a range of 400 meters. The primary benefit would be protecting U.S. troops, Heal said. The weapon would also limit deaths of noncombatants, he said. "This forces your adversary to declare intentions,'' Heal said. "U.S. forces get killed because they are reluctant to shoot. It happens in Iraq every day." "This is where the future is going,'' Raytheon Chief Executive William Swanson, 55, said at a conference in Tucson, Ariz., where he introduced the weapon to investors Wednesday. "This is the ability to protect our troops, and we're talking about the speed of light.'' Raytheon is two years into a four-year, $40 million development contract, Karcher said. How soon the weapon is deployed will depend on the military's interest, and while the technology may be ready, troops must also be trained on it and engagement rules must be decided by a four-star general, he said. Heal said the military version would cost about $1 million, and the U.S. military could require many. Karcher said the first prototype cost about $10 million. Heal told Bloomberg Business News that Raytheon could expand the market by selling a smaller version to law-enforcement agencies. The company is working on a smaller, tripod-mounted version for police forces, and the price would have to come down to a few hundred thousand dollars each to be affordable, he said. -------- britain Britain ups funding for Iraq, Afghanistan forces LONDON (AFP) Dec 01, 2004 http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041201155753.p58r1z9b.html Britain's military will get an extra 520 million pounds (753 million euros, one billion dollars) to fund its operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown said Wednesday. The additional funds, announced in parliament, brings the expenditures for Britain's role in the two countries to nearly five billion pounds, of which 4.4 billion pounds have already been spent. Overall, Brown added, the Ministry of Defence budget would rise from 29.7 billion pounds this year to 33.4 billion pounds in the 2007-2008 fiscal year. "I can tell the House (of Commons) today that I am setting aside in the special reserve a further 520 million pounds for this year, raising the provision overall to almost five billion pounds," he said. Britain joined the United States in launching the March 2003 war in Iraq, and currently maintains 8,500 troops in the country. It also has 860 soldiers participating in all its Afghanistan operations, which include the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) deployed around the capital Kabul as well as provincial reconstruction teams. -------- europe Del Ponte expected in Bosnia as NATO hands over to EU SARAJEVO (AFP) Dec 01, 2004 http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041201172000.ihkdjlho.html Chief UN war crimes prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, is expected Thursday to press the British commander of a new EU peacekeeping force in Bosnia to step up the hunt for war crimes fugitives, a spokeswoman said. Del Ponte is due to meet EU force (EUFOR) commander General David Leakey in Bosnia on Thursday, the day NATO hands over peacekeeping duties to the nascent EU force. Her spokeswoman, Florence Hartmann, told AFP Del Ponte would call for greater efforts to nab the two most wanted Balkan war crimes fugitives, Bosnian Serb wartime leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic. She would strees the need for "tight cooperation between the international forces present in Bosnia and local authorities in order to end the evasion of justice that has been going on for nine years," Hartmann said. The 7,000-strong EUFOR is to take over peacekeeping from NATO's SFOR, nine years after the country's 1992-95 war, at a ceremony which will be attended by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and NATO head Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. Del Ponte is also due to meet the international community's high representative in Bosnia, Paddy Ashdown, as well as NATO commanders. NATO's mission is generally seen as successful in keeping the peace, but it has failed in repeated attempts to track down war crimes suspects. Del Ponte has been highly critical of what she calls NATO's lack of political will to bring the perpetrators of some of Europe's worst atrocities since World War II to justice. Bosnian Serb authorities have yet to arrest a single war crimes suspect since the end of the conflict. Del Ponte reported to the UN Security Council on the situation last week, complaining that top war crimes suspects were being protected by allies in the former Yugoslav republics of Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia-Montenegro. -------- iraq Saddam 'raided UN arms sites for suicide attacks' independent.co.uk By Patrick Cockburn in Baghdad 01 December 2004 http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=588471 As American forces closed in on Baghdad last year, senior members of Saddam Hussein's government devised a plan to send suicide bombers in vehicles packed with devastating high-energy explosives that were under UN safeguards. The disappearance of the explosive, known as HMX (high melting explosives), in mysterious circumstances at the end of the war caused a few nasty moments for President George Bush's presidential election campaign last month. A letter to Saddam from Dr Naji Sabri, the Iraqi Foreign Minister, five days before the fall of Baghdad, suggests taking the HMX from underground bunkers, where it had been kept under seal by the International Atomic Energy Agency, and giving it to suicide bombers. He wrote: "It is possible to increase the explosive power of the suicide-driven cars by using the highly explosive material [HMX] which is sealed by the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] and stored in the warehouses of the Military Industry Departments." The Iraqi regime took credit for several suicide bombs towards the end of the war. After the fall of Saddam, one of the worst attacks - which killed 22 UN workers and the special envoy, Sergio Vieira de Mello, in August 2003 - had an explosive force that could only have come from military grade explosives. The disappearance of 350 tons of explosives, including 191 tons of HMX, at the time of the war in April last year became a crucial issue in the last weeks of the US presidential election campaign. John Kerry portrayed the failure to secure the explosives, which could have been used to kill US soldiers, as a symbol of Mr Bush's incompetence in Iraq. It now appears that senior officials in the Iraqi government were discussing the removal of the HMX before the fall of Saddam. The letter from Dr Sabri, obtained by The Independent, was sent on 4 April 2003 as US tanks were advancing on Baghdad. It said that the world was getting the impression that Iraqi civilians were co-operating with American soldiers. Dr Sabri suggested that the best way of preventing US troops getting too close to Iraqi civilians was "to target their vehicle checkpoints with suicide operations by civilian vehicles in order to make the savage Americans realise that their contact with Iraqi civilians is as dangerous as facing them on the battlefield". In the last weeks of the US presidential campaign, the Iraqi interim government told the IAEA that the explosives had disappeared from the Al-Qaqaa facility south of Baghdad. The materials were believed to have disappeared after the fall of Baghdad on 9 April because of the failure of US troops to secure them. The mystery of what happened to the explosives may now be partly resolved by Dr Sabri's letter. Because of the special nature of the explosives, the IAEA had placed them under seal in storage bunkers before the war. The foreign ministry would have known what was stored there because it dealt with the IAEA and its monitors. There is no proof that the Iraqi presidency acted on the suggestion but there were a number of suicide bomb attacks on US checkpoints at the time. American soldiers now open fire on any car coming towards them that they deem suspicious. Many civilians have been killed. The letter was given to The Independent by Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi Foreign Minister, in Baghdad yesterday. He said it was found in the ministry's archives. There is no reason to doubt its authenticity. The interim Iraqi government may have known about it for some time but was nervous about releasing it at a moment when it might be accused of intervening in the US presidential election. The letter, marked "confidential and immediate", was sent to Saddam's all-powerful secretary, Abed Hamoud. Advice on making an unconventional military attack might have been expected from the security services. But it may have been that Dr Sabri, unsure about how long the war would last, wanted to show his his loyalty to Saddam. He fled Iraq and lives in Doha, the Qatari capital. -------- israel / palestine Budget row endangers Sharon's coalition Reuters December 1, 2004 http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200412/s1255129.htm Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's shaky coalition faces collapse in a row over the 2005 Budget, raising the prospect of early elections that would endanger his plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip. His largest partner, the secular Shinui Party, has ignited the crisis by saying it would oppose the 2005 Budget at its first reading in Parliament. Mr Sharon's aides say that he would dismiss Shinui if it defies him in the vote. Without Shinui, Mr Sharon would have to bring in the centre-left Labour Party - an option opposed by rebels in his right-wing Likud party - or face a snap election. "If all these efforts fail then we will have no choice but to go for early elections," Uzi Arad, an adviser to Mr Sharon, said. An election almost two years ahead of schedule could lead to an indefinite delay in his plan to "disengage" from conflict with the Palestinians by evacuating all 21 Jewish settlements in occupied Gaza and four of 120 in the West Bank in 2005. "Elections now would endanger the economic and political stability of the state of Israel," Mr Sharon said. But he has not retreated from his threat to eject Shinui if it carries out its threat to reject the Budget in anger at his promise of 290 million shekels ($US64 million) for a religious party in exchange for votes needed to pass the budget bill. Political analysts see Shinui's unyielding stance as a sign that the party, anticipating early elections, does not want to alienate secular supporters by turning a blind eye to what some are calling "bribing" of ultra-Orthodox lawmakers for votes. The Government must pass the Budget by March 31 or resign, but has run into opposition over cuts in social spending. -------- Palestinian violinist slams claim troops didn't force him to play Haaretz By Akiva Eldar December 01, 2004 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/508154.html A Palestinian man photographed playing his violin at the Beit Iba checkpoint near Nablus in the West Bank earlier this month on Tuesday rejected the Israel Defense Forces' claims that he played of his own accord. The findings of an IDF probe into the November 9 incident was presented Tuesday to the head of the IDF's Central Command, Moshe Kaplinksy and showed that the man, Wissam Tayam, was asked by soldiers at the checkpoint to open the violin case for inspection, and began playing, even though he was not asked to do so. After a few seconds, the Civil Administration's officer at the checkpoint asked Tayam to stop playing, the report states. Kaplinsky said Tuesday in response to the findings of the report that the soldiers had shown a lack of sensitivity, but not a lack of respect toward the Palestinian, nor did they intend to ridicule him. The incident was filmed by Horit Herman-Peled, a volunteer for the women's human rights organization Machsom Watch, and reported by Haaretz for the first time last week. The 28-year-old resident of the Farah refugee camp in the northern West Bank studies music at Al Najath University. "I did not offer them to play," he told Haaretz on Tuesday. "They asked me to open the case and show them the instrument, which was fine by me. But then they asked me to play; I did not offer to play. That does not sound logical. They asked me to play something sad, to match their mood. "I felt humiliated," Tayam said Tuesday. "I always identified with the Jews who suffered in Europe [at the time of the Nazis] and after that they come and do the same thing to us." When asked if perhaps the soldiers wanted him to play to ensure that the violin was not booby-trapped or contained explosives, Tayam said, "it doesn't make sense that they thought there were explosives in the violin. If they thought that, they would have made me move some distance from them [before playing], fearing I might blow up. I do not understand why they forced me to play. Most of the soldiers at the checkpoint know me, as I work there twice a week. The problems arise when new soldiers come." The IDF's probe was based partly on testimony given by another Machsom Watch volunteer, Rachel Bar-Or, who witnessed the incident. She told Haaretz on Tuesday that she gave the IDF her testimony before she learned that Tayam vigorously denies playing voluntarily for the soldiers. She said that until she read the violinist's account of the incident in the press, she was more than prepared to believe the soldiers' version of events at the checkpoint. "When I found out that the Palestinian was denying [their story], I had no reason to prefer the IDF?s version of events over his." She said that she and the other volunteers at the checkpoint did not hear the exchange between the soldiers and the violinist, and in addition, the conversation was held in Arabic, which none of the volunteers understand. Another volunteer, Neta Efroni, also claims that the volunteers did not hear the exchange between the Palestinian and the soldiers. Wissam Tayam playing his violin at the Beit Iba checkpoint outside Nablus. The army called the incident 'insensitive.' (Horit Herman-Peled) ----- Grandmothers on Guard At checkpoints in the West Bank, Israeli women are monitoring how the soldiers treat Palestinians. Foundation for National Progress By Joshua Hammer November/December 2004 Issue He Huwwara checkpoint just south of Nablus simmers with routine misery on a sweltering August afternoon. A long line of Palestinians wait to enter the West Bank’s largest city as Israeli troops regard them, stone-faced, from behind a barrier of concrete blocks and sandbags. The troops let the women and children through, but send those Palestinians who’ve not been granted travel permits -- almost all young men -- to a fenced-off detention area topped by a corrugated iron roof. The jora, or pit, is a West Bank purgatory: a pen where Palestinians often languish for hours until they have been cleared by Israel’s internal security arm, the Shin Bet. Amid the jora’s sea of men, an elderly woman hobbles around. Frail and sweating, her head draped in a gray hijab, the woman appeals to the soldiers. Proffering a tattered medical receipt, she explains that her son Mohammed, 25, managed to sneak out of Nablus without a travel permit to accompany her to the doctor in Ramallah. On their way home, he was detained, and she won’t leave without him, even though her doctor ordered her to stay out of the heat. Suddenly, two middle-aged Israeli women walk past the barricade, attracting a mix of curious and hostile glances from the soldiers. Wearing floppy sun hats, khakis, and tennis shoes, Menucha Moravitz, 54, and Roni Klein, 55, look more suited to brunch at a beachfront café in fashionable north Tel Aviv than to this dust-choked bottleneck deep inside the West Bank. Moravitz, a sociology teacher at Open University in Tel Aviv, listens to the woman’s complaint. “This is absurd,” Moravitz says. “The soldiers have a list of wanted men, but they don’t even bother to check it. It’s easier to put young men in the holding pen for hours and deal with them when they get around to it.” She walks toward a swarthy Israeli soldier at the barricade. “I know this soldier,” she mutters. “I met him two weeks ago. He’s not nice at all.” Moravitz begs the soldier to speed up Mohammed’s clearance, but he remains unmoved. “If we’re lenient and allow him through, tomorrow all of them will come with their mothers,” he says with a shrug. For nearly two years, Moravitz has periodically commuted from her comfortable Israeli suburb of Ramat Gan across the Green Line to military checkpoints within the West Bank. Visiting these junctions of Israeli suspicion and Palestinian resentment is an activity that most Israelis would find incomprehensible. But as conditions in the occupied territories have deteriorated, more and more women like Moravitz -- middle-aged, with a liberal or leftist background and time on their hands -- are joining the ranks of Machsom (Checkpoint) Watch. Founded in 2001 by three veteran women peace activists, the group’s volunteer monitors now number more than 400, and their meticulously detailed reports of checkpoint abuses -- published daily on its website -- have become required reading for both the media and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). According to B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights watchdog group, there are more than 40 manned checkpoints inside the West Bank -- forbidding barricades designed to regulate the movement of Palestinians between their towns and villages. Israel maintains that such internal barriers are vital to its security, crippling the ability of Palestinian militant networks to communicate, and preventing the smuggling of suicide bombs into Israel. (The completion of Israel’s 425-mile-long security wall, due by the end of 2004, should eliminate the need for many checkpoints, military spokespeople say.) But human rights groups charge the checkpoints are a gratuitous form of humiliation, and that Israel’s severe restrictions on movement -- such as the routine denial of permits to young Palestinian men -- amount to collective punishment that goes far beyond security concerns. “If they would just check people to make sure they’re not carrying bombs, we wouldn’t object,” says Adi Dagan, a Machsom Watch spokeswoman. “The problem is that the barriers serve as limitations on movement, and have a drastic effect on lives of Palestinians. Palestinians don’t get to university, to work, to hospitals -- the checkpoints totally disrupt civil life.” Machsom Watch has exposed a pattern of abuses at the checkpoints that the group says feeds the rage that leads to the terrorism they’re supposed to prevent. In late July, for example, a 26-year-old university student named Muhammad Cana’an was kicked, beaten, and shot in the arm by an Israeli soldier, apparently without provocation, at a checkpoint near Nablus. After Machsom Watch witnesses reported the incident to the media and the IDF, the soldier was taken into custody -- one of the few times since the start of the Al Aqsa Intifada, in September 2000, that the army has taken action against one of its own. Two days later, several Machsom Watch women near Qalandiya checkpoint outside Ramallah reported that troops had stoned and smashed the windows of a Palestinian taxi. The army, under pressure from the group, imprisoned two of the soldiers -- one for 56 days, the other for 42. “I think they’re doing a terrific service,” said one Israeli reservist officer who asked not to be identified. “We’re a bunch of fascist bastards. The only thing that stops us from looking totally criminal is that the other side is even worse than we are.” Even the IDF brass has come to regard Machsom Watch with grudging acceptance. Soldiers are under orders not to interfere with their activities -- the IDF recognizes that there’s little to be gained from confronting Israeli grandmothers -- the group’s leaders meet with top military officers, and, partly because of Machsom Watch pressure, the IDF recently established a hotline so people can report humanitarian emergencies at checkpoints. “We appreciate what they’re doing. They’re trying to help,” insists Captain Jacob Dallal, an IDF spokesman. “At the same time, they’re not completely aware of the constraints, alerts, and procedures that the soldiers have to work under.” Not everyone in Israel speaks of Machsom Watch so evenhandedly. Nadia Metar, cochair of the Women in Green, an extreme right-wing group, says that Machsom Watch is a group of “fifth columnists who collaborate with the Arab enemy.” Female Jewish settlers are mounting a campaign of harassment of Machsom Watch volunteers at the checkpoints. Monitors have been slapped, punched, and threatened in recent months. In each case, they say, Israeli police and soldiers have stood by and done nothing. In May 2004, two male settlers beat up the Arab-Israeli driver of the van that shuttles the women to the checkpoints and knocked out his false teeth. Daniella Weiss, the mayor of Kedumim, part of a cluster of ideologically hardline settlements near Nablus, admits organizing attacks and says she will carry out more. “I make a lot of effort to stop their activities,” Weiss said. “By their protest, they endanger the lives of people in Israel. There’s no doubt that the soldiers, under the pressure of being watched, sometimes let cars go unchecked, they let people go unchecked.” Weiss, who says the group’s tactics imply the presence of soldiers and settlers in the West Bank “is an occupation, not liberation,” says she’s determined to put them out of business. Asked if she was advocating more violence against Machsom Watch, Weiss replied, “Yes, indeed.” Nursing her cappuccino in a somewhat seedy Tel Aviv café, Yehudit Keshet, a cofounder of Machsom Watch, vows to stand up to Weiss’ threats. “She is trying to frighten us and stop us from doing our work, but she won’t succeed,” says the 61-year-old, who has the pleasantly tousled look of an NYU professor between classes. “Of course I have a desire to punch them in the mouth, but it’s not productive,” she says. “It’s better just to ignore them, to say, ‘You’re meaningless. You are nothing to us.’” -------- landmines Retired generals speak out against landmines at Nairobi conference NAIROBI (AFP) Dec 01, 2004 http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041201142353.p0o8hwks.html Among the champions of an international landmine ban attending a major conference in Nairobi this week was a group of former generals from several countries who Wednesday said the deadly devices offered a false sense of security and were of little military value. Currently, Russia, Nepal, Georgia and Myanmar (Burma) are the only governments known to have used landmines since May 2003, according to the 2004 edition of the Landmine Monitor, published by International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL). "We urge those governments to reconsider using landmines because of the horrific humanitarian disaster," retired US General Robert Gard, 76, a veteran of the wars his country fought in Korea and Vietnam, told AFP. While much of US military policy is in keeping with the spirit of an international treaty banning the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of landmines, the United States is not among the 144 state parties to the so-called Ottawa Convention. The Nairobi meeting was convened to review progress made since the convention came into force in 1999 and to chart the road ahead. "They no longer serve any military purpose, but also offer a false sense of security," Gard said shortly after addressing a press conference. Gard explained that during the Korean war (1950-1953), landmines left behind by US troops near what is now a buffer zone between North and South Korea killed 50 Australian soldiers. In late 1960s, Vietcong guerrillas cleared landmines planted by US marines in Vietnam and used them as booby-traps against American troops. "We lost several men because of our mines," said Gard, pointing out: "In the past, mines planned by US troops around its naval base in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba claimed 23 lives -- 18 US marines and five Cuban civilians," he said. "An anti-personnel carrier (APC) landmine is a constantly loaded weapon that can kill anybody at anytime. It is an indiscriminate and hidden killer," former Ukrainian army artillery commander Lieutenant General Tereshenko Volodimyr said at a news conference. "Basic improvements in military weapons and equipment, ranging from more and better automatic weapons and greater use of protected vehicles to basic sensor suites, have rendered anti-personnel mines redundant," said a statement jointly issued by retired generals from Canada, Argentina, Kenya, Jordan, the Ukraine and the United States. -------- nato NATO to maintain troop strength in fragile Kosovo BRUSSELS (AFP) Dec 01, 2004 http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041201171300.zl1h40s4.html NATO is to maintain its current troop level in Kosovo next year to ensure stability in the fragile Serbian province, which was wracked by inter-ethnic violence in March, an official said Wednesday. The decision to keep the KFOR mission at its current strength of 17,500 was taken by ambassadors at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's top decision-making body, the North Atlantic Council, said the official. The head of the UN mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), Soren Jessen-Petersen, underlined the need for a continued strong military presence in New York earlier this week. "We are entering a crucial phase in Kosovo and it is more than ever essential that we closely synchronise our political strategy with the right level of military preparedness and ability to respond," he said in a report to the UN Security Council. KFOR was widely criticized for not being able to keep a lid on anti-Serb violence which erupted in March, leaving 19 people dead and more than 900 injured, while 29 Orthodox churches and over 900 Serb houses were destroyed. "We had difficulties in coping with that... but we're in better shape now," said the official. NATO rushed in reinforcements at the time, and did so again to ensure security for October elections, bringing KFOR to over 19,000 troops. Kosovo has been under UN and NATO control since 1999 after the NATO alliance launched a bombing campaign to end former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic's crackdown on ethnic Albanians in the province. Wednesday's decision, taken at the level of ambassadors from the 26-member organization, is to due to be formally approved next week at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels. -------- prisoners of war US Army generals told of prisoner abuse before Abu Ghraib photos: report WASHINGTON (AFP) Dec 01, 2004 http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041201163523.o3d0yzze.html A confidential report to a top general in Iraq raised concerns over abuse of prisoners by members of a joint special operations-CIA task force before the Abu Ghraib scandal broke, a Pentagon spokesman confirmed Wednesday. The report by retired colonel Stuart Herrington found that members of Task Force 121 had been abusing detainees throughout Iraq and had been using a secret interrogation facility to hide their activities, The Washington Post reported. "Detainees captured by TF 121 have shown injuries that caused examining medical personnel to note that 'detainee shows signs of having been beaten,'" Herrington said in his 13-page report obtained by the Post. "It seems clear that TF 121 needs to be reined in with respect to its treatment of detainees," he concluded. The report was sent to Major General Barbara Fast, the top intelligence officer in Iraq, on December 12, about a month before detainee abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison was exposed in an investigation by Major General Antonio Taguba. "It obviously raises the some of the same issues we raised in several of the looks we've taken," Pentagon spokesman Lawrence DiRita said. "We had heard from commanders who said they were concerned about how the (Abu Ghraib) prison was being run," he said, adding that those concerns extended beyond organizational issues to prisoner abuse. DiRita stressed, however, that the commanders' concerns came to light only later in investigations set in motion by the Abu Ghraib scandal. He said he did not know how far up the chain of command the Herrington report went or whether Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the US commander in Iraq, had seen it. The Herrington report was cited in an as yet unreleased investigation by Vice Admiral Albert Church, the Navy's inspector general who has been examining detainee operations across the military, he said. The Church report, a draft of which is under review at the Pentagon, will probably not be made public for several weeks, DiRita said. News of the Herrington report, which indicates that detainee abuse in Iraq was not confined to the Abu Ghraib prison, comes a day after a New York Times article on a confidential Red Cross report alleging that prisoner abuse at the US military facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was tantamount to torture. The US government on Tuesday strongly denied the accusations of prisoner abuse at Guantanamo. In his report, Herrington said a US officer in charge of interrogation in Iraq told him that detainees brought in by TF 121 showed signs of having been beaten, and that when asked if he had informed his superiors was told: "Everyone knows about it." Herrington also noted in his report that the abuse of detainees and the practice of arresting thousands of people with no connection to the Iraq war was not making friends of the Iraqis. "Between the losers and dead end elements from the former regime and foreign fighters, there are enough people in Iraq who already don't like us," Herrington wrote. "Adding to these numbers by conducting sweep operations ... is counterproductive to the Coalition's efforts to win the cooperation of the Iraqi citizenry. "Similarly, mistreatment of captives as has been reported to me and our team is unacceptable, and bound to be known by the population." Herrington also found that US soldiers sometimes arrested family members when a person targeted for detention was not at home. The relatives were released when the suspect turned himself in, Herrington said adding that the practice "has a 'hostage' feel to it." ----- Pentagon, analysts hit anti-U.S. bias at Red Cross THE WASHINGTON TIMES By Rowan Scarborough December 01, 2004 http://www.washtimes.com/national/20041201-122434-2465r.htm The International Committee of the Red Cross is breaking with tradition by publicly criticizing the United States for the way it handles terror suspects, say Pentagon officials and outside experts. On at least two occasions in recent months, the ICRC overtly criticized the Bush administration for detaining suspected Taliban and al Qaeda fighters without giving them access to judicial proceedings. The administration has deemed them "enemy combatants" and not members of a formal military organization that would give them the rights of prisoners of war. And yesterday, the New York Times reported on what it said was a Red Cross confidential report detailing the purported abuse of detainees at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A Pentagon spokesman issued a statement denying that its personnel mistreat or torture inmates at Guantanamo, where the United States is holding 550 suspected al Qaeda and Taliban members. Andrew Apostolou, vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said he cannot recall the European-based ICRC ever criticizing other governments, including the regime of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, so harshly. "The problem is they are applying a double standard to the U.S.," said Mr. Apostolou, whose think tank conducts research on the war on terror. "The fact of life is they never undertook these sorts of activities in the recent past against flagrant human rights violators." A Pentagon adviser, who asked not to be named, said in his dealings with the Red Cross, there is always an attitude that "al Qaeda had a moral equivalence to the United States. They didn't trust anything we said." Asked whether there is a belief inside the Pentagon that the ICRC harbors an anti-U.S. bias, the official answered, "Absolutely." The ICRC says it follows a practice of submitting confidential reports so as not to offend the government from which it is seeking better treatment of prisoners. But conservatives see a different pattern when it comes to how the ICRC comments on U.S.-held prisoners in Iraq and terrorists. Some reports have leaked to the press, although the Red Cross denies that it released them. In other cases, the organization has issued public statements lambasting the United States. Mr. Apostolou said the Red Cross is getting pressure from more publicity oriented human rights groups to pummel Washington. And, he said, there is a mantra within some of these organizations that says, "Al Qaeda is weaker than the United States, ergo al Qaeda must be the aggrieved party. ... I think since September 11, human rights groups have been very hostile to what the U.S. has been doing." Frank J. Gaffney, a senior Pentagon official in the Reagan administration who is president of the Center for Security Policy, noted the irony of the ICRC pushing for the rights of al Qaeda terrorists when the Red Cross' mission is to safeguard civilians in time of war. "I find it not only extraordinary, but deeply reprehensible that the ICRC is engaged in this kind of effort to protect and promote the interest of people who clearly have no interest in the fate of civilians," Mr. Gaffney said. "The International Committee of the Red Cross has become, I believe, an agitation operation against American interest for some time, and it should hardly come as a surprise to anyone who has followed their work that they are hostile, if not downright contemptuous, of American security concerns and requirements." Amanda Williamson, spokeswoman for the ICRC's Washington regional delegation, said the organization stays neutral. "I would say one of our guiding principles is neutrality," Ms. Williamson said. "We stay out of politics. We don't pick sides." The Geneva-based ICRC is run by a team of Swiss government employees, former diplomats, lawyers and human rights workers. It is charged with safeguarding Geneva Convention rules for the treatment of detainees and maintains a staff of more than 10,000 in 72 countries. The president since 2000 is Jakob Kellenberger, who holds a doctorate from the University of Zurich and is former Swiss secretary of state for foreign affairs. The director of operations is Pierre Kraehenbuehl, a career field investigator. The Washington regional office, which sends inspection teams to Guantanamo, is directed by Geoff Loane, who most recently headed the Belgrade delegation. Ms. Williamson said the Washington office dispatches a team to Guantanamo every six weeks. It comes after what she called "three golden rules": meeting with each detainee in private, completely inspecting the facility and relaying any messages from detainees to his family. After each round, the team sits down with the camp commander to go over its findings. The military denies any mistreatment and warns that some detainees tell lies. "We did not bring hundreds of innocent civilians off the battlefield," Army Brig. Gen. Jay Hood, who commands the Guantanamo facility, told the Associated Press. "If you listen to every story, I think you'll hear a common drumbeat of this person who tells you he was a rug merchant or whatnot. I think it's all part of a deliberate effort to mislead and to deceive." Some released detainees have gone back to the battlefield in Afghanistan to try to kill Americans and their allies, the Pentagon says. -------- US torture at Guantanamo 'increasingly repressive' independent.co.uk By Andrew Buncombe in Washington 01 December 2004 http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=588470 The Red Cross has accused President George Bush's administration of overseeing the intentional physical and psychological torture of prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay. It also accused doctors and medics of liaising with interrogators in what was a "flagrant violation of medical ethics". In an extraordinary confidential report to the US authorities, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said the military guards and interrogators at the prison deliberately used psychological and physical coercion that was "tantamount to torture". It said the treatment it had witnessed had been increasingly "refined and repressive". The report by the Red Cross - the only independent organisation permitted to visit the prisoners - was written after a visit by its inspection team in June. It said it discovered a system designed to break the will of the 550 prisoners - four of them British citizens - through "humiliating acts, solitary confinement, temperature extremes [and] use of forced positions". It added: "The construction of such a system whose stated purpose is the production of intelligence cannot be considered other than an intentional system of cruel, unusual and degrading treatment and a form of torture." The ICRC refused to confirm the authenticity of the report yesterday, the contents of which were reported by the New York Times. While the organisation previously criticised the treatment of prisoners at the camp, it said it could only ensure its continued access to such prisoners around the world by insisting its comments remained private. "The contents of the ICRC's representations and reports are confidential and for the exclusive attention of the relevant detaining authorities," it said in a statement. "The ICRC uses its exchanges with governments to make clear its concerns and recommendations regarding the situation in places of detention and to demand changes when necessary. Guantanamo Bay is no exception." But while the report is remarkable for the force of its language, the allegations it makes are not new. Earlier this year, four British prisoners who had been released without charge from the jail after more than two years, compiled a detailed report that alleged inmates were subjected to a regime of Abu Ghraib-style torture, abuse and sexual humiliation. Louise Christian, a London-based lawyer who represents two of the four Britons still being held, said last night: "I welcome this report but I wish it had come earlier. I know that Martin Mubanga [one of the prisoners] has complained of torture and I know that Feroz Abbasi [another prisoner] says he has been tortured and subjected to religious and sexual humiliation. All these stories are very consistent with one another." She added: "I hope the US government will stand up and take some notice. This is a scandal that will not go away." The ICRC report also alleges doctors have been assisting interrogators by providing them with information about the mental health of inmates and their vulnerabilities. The Britons released in March claimed that the treatment carried out was carefully choreographed to have maximum impact. Michael Ratner, director of the New York-based Centre for Constitutional Rights, a non-profit group which has filed various lawsuits on behalf of prisoners, said: "This report is remarkable ... [What is happening] is a serious violation of international criminal law. Larry Di Rita, a spokesman for the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said that the Red Cross officials had "made their view known". "It's their point of view [but it is not shared by the administration]," he said. ----- US Downplays Report on Guantanamo Prisoner Abuse (Inter Press Service) by Jim Lobe December 1, 2004 http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=4090 U.S. officials Tuesday insisted that detainees held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been treated "humanely," despite a Red Cross report that concluded interrogators were using psychological and physical techniques that were "tantamount to torture." "We strongly disagree with any characterization that suggests the way detainees are being treated is inconsistent with the policies the president has outlined," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan, who insisted that the Bush administration takes the Red Cross' concerns seriously. "We certainly don't think it's torture," Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told an audience in Indianapolis a short time later. "Let's not forget the kind of people we have down there," he added. "These are the people that don't know any moral values." But human rights groups said the latest disclosure, which was featured in a front-page New York Times story Tuesday, should cause renewed alarms over U.S. detention and interrogation practices, bolstering their long-standing calls for a comprehensive independent investigation. The allegation was made in a confidential report sent to U.S. officials last July by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Noting that the ICRC report covered practices that continued after the disclosure of prisoner abuse by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in April, Deborah Pearlstein of Human Rights First (HRF) said the information was particularly worrisome. "It tells us two things," she said, "that the abuse at Abu Ghraib was only a small piece of a much larger, systematic failure to uphold U.S. and international laws against torture, and that even after that abuse was revealed and condemned as unlawful and immoral by leaders of both political parties, the government failed to act on its moral certainty." According to a memo based on the ICRC report that was obtained by the Times, U.S. detention and interrogation operations at Guantanamo Bay "cannot be considered other than an intentional system of cruel, unusual, and degrading treatment and a form of torture." Among the report's findings, the Red Cross, which is able to carry out the visits in exchange for maintaining confidentiality, described the participation of physicians and other medical staff in providing information about detainees' mental health and their weaknesses to interrogators, as well as the use of "humiliating acts, solitary confinement, temperature extremes, use of forced positions," exposure to loud and continuous noise, and beatings. The report, according to the Times, was received in July and distributed to lawyers at the White House, the Pentagon, and the State Department, as well as the commander of the detention facility at Guantanamo, Gen. Jay Hood. The newspaper said it had recently obtained the memo that quotes the report's major findings at length. According to the Times, ICRC investigators who visited Guantanamo in June found a system carefully designed to break the will of prisoners held there. They also reported the techniques were "more refined and repressive" than those they had learned about during previous visits. The ICRC team report