NucNews - December 9, 2004 -------- NUCLEAR Nuclear Fusion Experiment Engages MIT, Columbia Researchers CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, December 9, 2004 (ENS) http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/dec2004/2004-12-09-09.asp#anchor7 Nuclear fusion is the energy source of the sun and stars. At high temperature and pressure, light elements like hydrogen are fused together to make heavier elements, such as helium, in a process that releases large amounts of energy. Now researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Columbia University are collaborating in a unique experiment - the Levitated Dipole Experiment (LDX) - that will test whether nature's way of confining high temperature gas might lead to nuclear fusion as a new source of energy for the world. First results from the LDX project were presented at a meeting of the American Physical Society the week of November 15. Scientists and students described more than 100 plasma discharges created within the new device, each lasting from five to 10 seconds. X-ray spectroscopy and visible photography recorded spectacular images of the hot, confined plasma and of the dynamics of matter confined by strong magnetic force fields. The primary confining fields are strong magnetic fields from a half-ton superconducting ring inside a huge vessel that looks like a spaceship. This ring will ultimately be levitated within a large vacuum chamber. A second superconducting magnet located above the vacuum chamber provides the force necessary to support the weight of the floating coil. The resulting force field resembles the fields of the magnetized planets, such as Earth and Jupiter. Satellites have observed how these fields can confine plasma at hundreds of millions of degrees. Scientists using the LDX experiment will conduct basic studies of confined high-temperature matter and investigate whether the plasma may someday be used to produce fusion energy on Earth. Fusion energy is advantageous because its hydrogen fuel is practically limitless and the resulting energy would be clean and would not contribute to global warming as does the burning of fossil fuels. The LDX research team is led by Jay Kesner, senior scientist at MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center and Michael Mauel, a professor of applied physics at Columbia University. The work is sponsored by the Department of Energy's Office of Fusion Energy Sciences. -------- britain Nuclear chocolate scare revealed BBC 9 December, 2004 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/cumbria/4081135.stm Tonnes of chocolate were destroyed almost 50 years ago amid fears it could have been contaminated in a nuclear accident in Cumbria, it has emerged. Rowntree thought a consignment of its chocolate crumb had been affected by a fire at a reactor at the Windscale plant, now Sellafield, in 1957. Milk from 200 miles around was banned for four days after it was contaminated with iodine 131, a short-lived isotope. The incident was revealed in response to a parliamentary question. A record in the files of the UK atomic energy authority has shown Rowntree was also concerned about the safety of produce from its factory in nearby Egremont. Energy Minister Mike O'Brien said Rowntree wanted compensation from the government for 90 tonnes of chocolate made in the days following the fire. It was refused after authorities insisted that the crumb was "completely safe for consumption" because of the short half-life of the contaminating isotope. After months of negotiations, Rowntree accepted the verdict but insisted it wanted the chocolate destroyed "in the interest of customer relations and commercial prudence". -------- europe Nuclear waste languishes Three years after an expert committee urged the building of a new central repository for Norway's most dangerous nuclear waste radioactive material is being stored behind garage doors. Aftenposten 10 Dec 2004 http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article928998.ece After 50 years of operation, four research reactors at Kjeller and Halden have produced 16 tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste - chiefly uranium fuel - and 10.1 kilograms of plutonium. This was poses an extreme potential health hazard for thousands of years and an extra security risk as an attraction for terrorists seeking radioactive material for a so-called 'dirty bomb'. Storehouses for low and medium level nuclear waste are built, but no facility exists for securing the most dangerous waste. "We believe it is completely indefensible to have highly radioactive fuel rods stored under reprehensible conditions in the middle of a built-up area," said Erik Martiniussen of environmental group Bellona. "In the center of the city of Halden there are over 10 tons of highly radioactive waste. To get to one of these storage points all you need to do is pass a thin garage door made of aluminum," Martiniussen said. The PST (Norwegian Police Security Service) have carried out a security assessment of the Kjeller and Halden facilities but refused to disclose how they were finally rated. In September 2003 the International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA carried out a ten-day long inspection of the nuclear facilities at Kjeller and Halden and eventually issued strong criticism of the lack physical security. Consultant Heide M. Eidet at the Ministry of Trade and Industry agreed with Bellona that improvements were coming slowly but denied that they were dawdling. Eidet said the matter required careful investigation and that they expected to complete the second phase of preparations in the course of the next two to three years. "Afterwards the issue will likely go to political treatment where it will probably take a lot of time to discuss where storage should be placed," Eidet said. Aftenposten's Norwegian reporter Jan Gunnar Furuly Aftenposten English Web Desk mailto:jan.gunnar.furuly@aftenposten.no Jonathan Tisdall mailto:jonathan.tisdall@aftenposten.no http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article928998.ece -------- india / pakistan Pakistan to let IAEA question Khan By Roula Khalaf in Vienna and Farhan Bokhari in Islamabad Published: December 9 2004 19:32 Financial Times Pakistan is expected to allow United Nations nuclear investigators to put questions in writing to Abdel Qadeer Khan, the scientist at the centre of an illegal smuggling network that supplied nuclear materials and expertise to at least three countries, according to western diplomats. Such indirect access would fall short of the face-to-face interviews the International Atomic Energy Agency has been seeking but it could still prove an important step in the agency's efforts to untangle the network of manufacturers and middleman that supplied sensitive machinery and know-how to Libya, Iran, North Korea and perhaps others. Western diplomats familiar with the investigation into the illicit network said the IAEA was also making progress towards gaining access to Mr Khan's key associate, Bukhari Sayed Abu Tahir, the Dubai-based businessman who is in custody in Kuala Lumpur. Mr Abu Tahir has been held under a security act that prevents all contact with him. But investigators are now expecting to be allowed to see him. The Pakistani government pardoned Mr Khan earlier this year and has refused to allow foreign investigators to interview him directly. The lack of direct access means Pakistan can screen Mr Khan's answers, allowing it to protect any officials with knowledge of his illicit activities and prevent the release of important information that could help the investigation. In Islamabad, a foreign ministry spokesman maintained that Pakistan's position had not changed and that the ministry was not aware of any request for written questions to be submitted to Mr Khan. "Investigations in this case will only be done by Pakistanis. No outside agency or person will have access to Dr Khan," he said. Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the IAEA, said his agency had agreed "modalities" with Pakistan that should enable it to receive information from Mr Khan, but he refused to be drawn on their nature. He said his agency was in talks with the Malaysian government on access to Mr Abu Tahir. "It's a complicated issue," he said, referring to Mr Khan's case. "There are legal impediments so we have to work through governments involved and governments have been quite co-operative." UN investigators are hoping these two key figures might provide information on customers of the illegal network that have not declared their nuclear programmes. "It's important for us to know who else got equipment and whether there are undeclared programmes," Mr ElBaradei said. Libya, which abandoned its nuclear weapons ambitions a year ago, obtained designs for a nuclear weapon from the Khan-Tahir network. The Chinese originated blueprints are now in the US. The IAEA wants to know whether Iran and North Korea might have made a similar purchase. -------- iran Powell urges close eye on Iranian nuclear activities PARIS (AFP) Dec 09, 2004 http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041209180757.kfnwklze.html US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Thursday that the international community must keep a close eye on Iran's nuclear activities to ensure it does not violate a hard-won deal to suspend uranium enrichment. He told French television that while the United States accepted the accord struck by Iran and the European Union, it would not drop its guard. "We are concerned it is only a suspension and a suspension can be revoked," he said on France 3 television in an interview from Brussels. "And so we believe Iran has been moving toward the development of a nuclear weapon, and that concerns us." Under the deal, hammered out last month after lengthy talks between Tehran and Europe's so-called "big three" of Britain, France and Germany, Iran agreed to suspend uranium enrichment -- a key stage in the nuclear fuel cycle -- and allow inspections of its atomic sites. In return, Iran was promised wide-ranging rewards by the European trio who would like the freeze to become permanent. At the same time, the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, also agreed not to refer Iran to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions. Iran claims its nuclear programme is a peaceful, civilian effort and denies Washington's allegations that it is secretly developing nuclear weapons. Powell recalled that Iran had previously agreed to suspend enrichment only to resume the process. "Now we have a new agreement with the European Union," he said. "That's all well and good. But we should never take our eye off this problem." In separate remarks in Brussels on the sidelines of a NATO meeting, Powell said he hoped international pressure would oblige Iran to make its suspension permanent. "I hope... the spotlight and heat lamp that have been put on Iran will make it difficult for them to move forward with this programme. "Hopefully theyll come to the realisation that the international community will do everything to keep such a programme from achieving a level of success, meaning the development of a nuclear weapon," he told a news conference. Uranium enrichment is a process used to make fuel for nuclear reactors but also, in a highly enriched form, the explosive core of atomic bombs. Iran has pledged to maintain its suspension while the negotiations with the EU are in progress. More talks are scheduled on Monday, diplomatic sources in Brussels said. -------- japan Japan To Exempt Joint Missile Development With US From Arms Ban: Reports Tokyo (AFP) Dec 09, 2004 http://www.spacedaily.com/news/missiles-04zzzj.html Japan decided Thursday to exempt joint missile development with the United States from its longstanding ban on arms exports, press reports said. The change was approved by the government and ruling coalition and will be announced on Friday after being rubber-stamped by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's cabinet, the reports said. In a statement the government will vow to maintain its prudent stance on the ban to maintain the ideal of being a "pacifist nation," the Asahi Shimbun and Tokyo Shimbun newspapers said in their evening editions. But the new policy will exempt from the ban a joint missile defence system under study by Japan and the United States subject to "strict control," the reports said. The government will also examine on a case-by-case basis the possible exemption from the ban of other weapons to be jointly developed by the two allies or to be used to fight terrorism and sea piracy, according to the statement published in the dailies. No officials were immediately available to comment on the reports. Japan and the United States have been engaged in joint technological research on a missile defence system since 1999, a year after North Korea fired a suspected ballistic missile over Japan into the Pacific. Under the exemption, Japan would be able to export parts of missiles to be built for intercepting incoming ballistic missiles The review of the ban, which has been in place since 1967, will be announced along with Japan's new basic defense strategy, a set of guidelines which serve as a basis for defence planners. The ban has been part of Japan's pacifist posture since its defeat in World War II. Japan has adhered to a defense-only security policy as the US-inspired war-renouncing constitution of 1947 bans the use of force in settling international disputes. The country on Thursday extended the deployment in Iraq of its military, known as the Self-Defense Forces, which is on a non-combat reconstruction mission. -------- missile defense Defense shield's first phase: VAFB readies missile interceptors Military expects to refine system through more tests 12/9/04 By SCOTT HADLY SANTA BARBARA NEWS-PRESS SENIOR WRITER http://news.newspress.com/topsports/120904defense.htm On a remote, windswept plain at the north end of Vandenberg Air Force Base on Friday, teams of workers will carefully lower two five-story-tall, $30 million missile interceptors into specially retrofitted silos. The 60-ton rockets packed with solid oxygen and powdered metal fuel are tipped with two refrigerator-sized "kill vehicles" that will -- theoretically -- be ready to smash into an incoming ballistic missile at 15,000 mph within 30 minutes of a launch. The two interceptors at Vandenberg will join six others placed in silos at Fort Greely in Alaska over the summer to make up the nation's first rudimentary missile defense shield. The military says it's a first step to more robust protection from missiles launched against the United States. In the coming years, planners hope to add more components to the system and improve its reliability. Although critics point out that tests of the system have had mixed results at best -- in three of the eight tests, the interceptors missed the target, while the other five were highly orchestrated -- supporters say the system at least provides some protection that could counter a limited missile attack. It's only a beginning, but it makes the country safer, said Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Simi Valley. "There's no question we live in a dangerous world today," he said. With North Korea getting closer to being able to launch a long-range missile that could reach the Western United States, it's important to deploy the system now. "It's not the time to fine-tune and sit back until it's 100 percent fail-safe," said Mr. Gallegly, who added that he had great confidence the military will keep improving the system. Critics of the system, a cornerstone of the Bush administration's defense strategy, have called it an astronomically expensive "shield of dreams." "I am deeply concerned with this administration's rush to deploy an unproven national missile defense system," said Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara. "We have to spend our defense and anti-terror dollars wisely. It is irresponsible to send our troops to Iraq without sufficient equipment, including body armor, and to leave our ports largely unprotected while paying for an unproven missile defense system." The system has cost more than $10.2 billion this year, but proponents point out that it's only a fraction of the $460 billion defense budget. But the expense is hundreds of times more than what the U.S. is spending on port security, for instance. The interceptors will not address more unconventional threats such as those posed by the terrorists who attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, using hijacked commercial aircraft. Other potential scenarios include smuggling small nuclear devices into U.S. ports or along the borders. The deployment of the interceptors in Alaska and Vandenberg allows for ongoing testing. For people living around the base, the placement of the interceptors in old Peacemaker and Minuteman silos will result in very little outward change. The Air Force and the Missile Defense Agency will continue to fire off missiles to test the interceptor system. As recently as June, a missile fired from Vandenberg was used to test the targeting and tracking systems that are part of the missile defense shield. This first phase is actually more focused on testing, military planners said. The Alaska interceptors are part of a "test bed" that could be used to thwart an attack but is primarily meant for honing the technology. At Vandenberg, two other retrofitted silos will ultimately be used for testing and to house interceptors. Critics say this shows the current system's unreliability. The missile shield, which has cost $20 billion in the past four years, isn't ready for deployment and gives people a false sense of security, they say. The Union of Concerned Scientists, a group frequently critical of the Bush administration, called the idea that the current defense system could knock out enemy missile attacks "irresponsible exaggerations." In May, the group submitted a detailed technical report to Congress saying deployment of interceptors "will have no demonstrated defensive capability and will be ineffective against a real attack by long-range ballistic missiles." "This program is not ready for prime time. It offers us little to no real protection or defense," said Jon Rainwater, executive director of California Peace Action, another group critical of the program. "But the real problem is that it wastes billions of dollars on the wrong threat. The Bush administration has stubbornly clung to a pre-9/11 worldview. They are focusing precious resources on the unlikely threat of long-range ballistic missiles while programs to protect against the much greater threat of a terrorist attack remain under funded." Ultimately, some military planners hope to see the eight interceptors augmented by hundreds of others as well as air- and space-based lasers and an array of space-, sea- and land-based radar to detect hostile launches and track incoming missiles. The intent is to establish an overlapping "layered defense" that could knock down hostile ICBMs. -------- u.s. nuc facilities NRC APPROVES EVALUATION METHOD FOR ANALYZING REACTOR CONTAINMENT SUMP PERFORMANCE NRC NEWS U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION December 9, 2004 http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/news/2004/04-157.html Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov www.nrc.gov No. 04-157 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has approved an evaluation method for all operators of pressurized-water reactors (PWR) to use in analyzing containment sumps, part of a safety-related water recirculation system in nuclear power plants. Operating experience at boiling water reactors (the other type of commercial U.S. nuclear power plant), as well as recent research, has indicated debris from certain pipe-break accidents inside a containment building could potentially block PWR sumps beyond what the original design could accommodate. NRC staff have concluded this issue is not an immediate safety concern, but the potential for greater sump blockage warrants plant-specific analyses to determine what actions, if any, are needed. “Individual plants can now use this analysis method to definitively determine how their sumps would perform under accident conditions,” said Suzanne Black, Director of the Division of Systems Safety and Analysis in the NRC’s Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. “The plants will use the results to identify any modifications needed to ensure their core-cooling systems operate properly.” The NRC asked for the evaluations Sept. 14 through a Generic Letter, one of several methods the NRC has for communicating with the nuclear industry. PWR operators now have until March 7, 2005, to: -- Describe the method to be used in evaluating the long-term core-cooling systems, as well as the anticipated completion date for the evaluation, and; -- Describe how the interior of each PWR containment building will be examined during the evaluation, as well as the anticipated completion date for the examination, or justify why no such examination is needed; By Sept. 1, 2005, PWR operators must: -- Confirm that the Emergency Core Cooling System and Containment Spray System comply with NRC regulations, or will do so, including a description of the plant’s configuration once all modifications are finished, and; -- Provide a schedule for all corrective actions to be taken, starting no later than April 1, 2006, and finishing by Dec. 31, 2007. The evaluation methodology is available on the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/ops-experience/pwr-sump-performance.html. The Web page also outlines NRC staff activities on the PWR containment sump issue. Help in obtaining NRC documents is available from the NRC’s Public Document Room at 800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737. ----- Group to file license request for new US nuclear plant in 2008 Washington (Platts)--9Dec2004 http://www.platts.com/HOME/News/8197230.xml?p=HOME/News&S=n A consortium of nine nuclear utilities and two reactor vendors plans to file with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2008 at least one combined construction and operating license (COL), the group told the agency this week. The Dec 7 letter from Marilyn Kray, president of NuStart Energy Development LLC, to William Beckner, NRC's director of new, research and test reactors, marked the first formal industry commitment to seek a COL for a new power reactor. NuStart anticipates starting preapplication discussions with NRC in early 2007, Kray said. NuStart, comprised of nine utilities and reactor vendors General Electric (GE) and Westinghouse Electric Co, likely will develop applications for both GE's SBWR and Westinghouse's AP1000 reactor designs and then decide whether to proceed with one or both applications, a source said today. A Dominion-led consortium has yet to decide whether it will file an application, a Dominion spokesman said. -------- california Diablo waste storage project appeal denied By April Charlton - Lompoc Record Staff Writer 12/9/04 http://www.lompocrecord.com/articles/2004/12/09/news/news18.txt A controversial plan to store highly toxic spent radioactive nuclear fuel rods behind Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant cleared its last regulatory hurdle Wednesday. The California Coastal Commission, meeting in San Francisco, unanimously paved the way for Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to construct and operate an above-ground nuclear waste storage facility at Diablo, located on the coast north of Avila Beach. "It was an interesting decision," said Rochelle Becker, spokeswoman for Mothers for Peace, which along with the Santa Lucia Chapter of the Sierra Club, filed an appeal of the San Luis Obispo County Planning Commission's approval of the project. The appeal was denied by the county Board of Supervisors and subsequently filed with the Coastal Commission. The appeal dealt mainly with safety issues associated with the project - a potential for terrorist attacks, unknown seismic risks at the plant and the lack of a permanent storage facility for spent radioactive fuel anywhere in the United States. Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada has yet to come online and the opening of the facility is still uncertain. Becker said the commission agreed it had conflicting information from seismic experts but chose to side with PG&E's experts and wouldn't hold off making the decision until its next meeting. "It was just amazing," Becker added. Highly radioactive spent plutonium fuel rods from the plant will be stored in 16-foot-tall stainless steel and concrete casks measuring 8 feet across, which will be on the hillside behind the plant's twin reactors. Staff writer April Charlton can be reached at 489-4206, Ext. 5016, or acharlton@pulitzer.net. The dry-cask, spent-fuel storage project consists of constructing seven flat 7.5-foot-thick concrete pads that can store up to 140 casks and help extend the life of the plant for at least another 20 years. PG&E proposed the dry-cask storage plan because Diablo will be out of spent fuel storage space by 2006 unless it reracks the plant's two existing storage pools. The plant is licensed to operate until 2025, according to PG&E spokesman Jeff Lewis. Officials from PG&E couldn't be reached for comment on the decision. But earlier this week, Lewis said the dry-cask storage facility at Diablo will be temporary until the spent-fuel rods can be transferred to a permanent storage site. In addition to approving a coastal development permit for the project, the commission also followed its staff's recommendation that PG&E has to provide more public access to the coastline north of the plant. Staff recommended that PG&E open a three mile-stretch of the coast north of Diablo because the project will likely result in a permanent loss of access to the coastline at the plant site because no permanent nuclear waste disposal site exists. Tom Luster, Coastal Commission project manager for the Diablo project, said the commission gave direction to PG&E to convene a locally based task force that will take an inventory of the environmental resources on the three-mile stretch. The task force will consist of various agencies, nonprofit organizations and county residents. But that's no comfort to Becker and her colleagues. "Our feeling is that, what if people in Nevada decided to tell the Department of Energy it's OK to build a nuclear waste dump in our backyard if we're given public access to climb Yucca Mountain?" she said. "We see it as the same analogy. We've been given access to a nuclear waste site; lucky us." PG&E plans to start construction next year and have the project ready for implementation by 2007, according to Lewis. The spent fuel rods would be moved from inside the plant to the storage casks over a two- to three-year period. Staff writer April Charlton can be reached at 489-4206, Ext. 5016, or acharlton@pulitzer.net. -------- idaho Group questions plutonium plan The Jackson Hole Zone December 09, 2004 http://www.jhzone.com/viewinfo.cfm?ObjectID=B12E3398-E7D2-41DE-89C47F59B1D84849 A longtime nuclear watchdog group is questioning a federal plan to move the production, purification and encapsulation of plutonium-238 to an Idaho lab 100 miles west of Jackson. Plutonium-238 usually is used as a heat source in power systems, which are essentially long-lived nuclear batteries. Pure plutonium-238 creates too much heat to build a stable nuclear weapon and is many times more radioactive than weapons-grade plutonium. "Even one particle of [pu-238], if lodged in your lung, could cause cancer," said Jeremy Maxand, executive director of the Snake River Alliance, a Boise, Idaho-based nuclear watchdog group. Maxand said his group is not convinced that the U.S. Department of Energy’s existing system for containing potential airborne pollution is robust enough to protect people and the environment. The proposed facilities would be upwind of Jackson Hole and Yellowstone National Park. DOE typically uses high-efficiency particulate air filters, or HEPA filters, to cleanse the air before venting it from buildings that house nuclear activities. Maxand argues that the ability of HEPA filters to contain plutonium particles, particularly in the instance of a fire or human error, remains unclear. Moreover, a June 8, 1999 letter from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board raised concerns about a "significant degradation" in the infrastructure supporting the HEPA filter program. "Confinement viability demands high dependability of these filters," states the letter signed by board Chairman John T. Conway. The letter accompanies a technical report that identified weaknesses in procurement, testing, application and use of HEPA filters. "These weaknesses support the conclusion that confinement ventilation systems at some DOE facilities may be vulnerable to failure when most needed," the report states. DOE officials said they would respond to questions and concerns about the proposed plutonium consolidation plan during a meeting tonight at the Jackson Hole Middle School. The meeting begins at 7 p.m. with an opportunity for informal discussions with DOE staff, followed by a brief presentation and a formal public comment period. DOE will use those comments to define the scope of an environmental study of the proposal. DOE wants to move the production, purification and encapsulation of plutonium-238 to the Idaho National Laboratory – a new lab that will form in February when the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory merges with Argonne National Laboratory-West. Consolidating the plutonium program in a secure location would enhance national security, according to Timothy Frazier, document manager for DOE’s Office of Space and Defense Power Systems. Currently, the activities are dispersed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and Argonne. "The material is now transported quite a distance across the roads in the United States," Frazier said last week. "The miles the material will be shipped will essentially go to zero if the proposal [to consolidate] goes through." DOE had planned to make Oak Ridge the new plutonium-238 production site, but the government changed course after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. DOE officials say the Idaho lab is a more secure site for such sensitive materials. Idaho would become the hub for building radioisotope power systems. That includes radioisotope thermoelectric generators, which transform heat from decaying plutonium pellets into electricity. That current would run science instruments, computers and flight systems in deep space where other power sources will not work. ----- INEEL's plutonium plans draw skeptics ... Some residents worry about plutonium production being consolidated in Idaho Originally published Thursday, December 9, 2004 The Associated Press http://www.magicvalley.com/home/archives/index.asp?DateID=12/9/2004&StoryID=13195&theDB=local_state_news&theIMG=LOCAL_STATE_NEWS IDAHO FALLS -- Residents are wary of a Department of Energy plan to start producing plutonium-238 at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. "Aren't you giving Idaho the dirty part of it?" Paul Bacca asked energy department representatives this week at the first of seven public meetings to be held on the matter in Idaho, Wyoming, New Mexico, Tennessee and Washington, D.C. The batteries that use plutonium-238 to power space travel are already assembled in Idaho, at Argonne-West. But production and isolation of the nuclear fuel is currently done at laboratories in South Carolina, Tennessee and New Mexico. The Department of Energy wants to consolidate the operations in Idaho to save on costs and eliminate security issues involved in transporting nuclear power across roughly 8,000 miles. But Bacca, a former Argonne National Laboratory-West worker who researched plutonium, questioned the benefit on contaminating another building when the facility that the energy department now uses will be functional for 20 or 30 years. Tim Frazier, who oversees the energy department's radioisotope power systems project, agreed that the production and isolation of plutonium-238 creates the most nuclear waste. "The least dirty parts are already out there," at Argonne National Laboratory-West, he said. "The other parts of the process are dirty by nature." If the project is consolidated in Idaho, the energy department has said it will build a new $230 million processing facility. That would be a unique opportunity for the program, which so far has moved into existing buildings, Frazier said. Other residents said they worry that if the local laboratory gets the plutonium operation, it could be excluded from getting other energy department programs in the future. Some also fear the operation would take up too much space in the Advanced Test Reactor to allow for the current production of medical isotopes. But two people at the meeting voiced support for moving plutonium production to Idaho because of its importance to space exploration. "When I heard the DOE wanted to move the plutonium-238 program to Idaho, I said 'Whoopee,' because I knew exactly what those (space batteries) did," said Nick Nichols, an amateur astronomer and a former INEEL communications manager. Meeting tonight A public meeting on proposed plutonium production at INEEL will be held from 7 to 9:30 p.m. today in the Twin Falls B Meeting Room of the Shilo Inn, located at 1586 Blue Lakes Blvd. Here's some other helpful information on how to offer your comments: * The public comment period ends Jan. 31, 2005. * Contact: Timothy A. Frazier, program director of radioisotope power systems for the DOE. * By phone: (301) 903-9420. * By fax: (800) 919-3765. * By e-mail: ConsolidationEIS@nuclear.energy.gov. * By mail: NE-50/Germantown Building, Office of Space and Defense Power Systems, Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology, U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Ave. S.W., Washington, D.C. 20585-1290 * For more information: Visit the DOE's Web site at http://ConsolidationEIS.doe.gov -------- new jersey Nuclear plant sirens defended Published in the Asbury Park Press MANAHAWKIN BUREAU 12/09/04 By NICHOLAS CLUNN: (609) 978-4597 or nclunn@app.com http://www.app.com/app/story/0,21625,1137793,00.html An assemblyman's suggestion to remove the emergency sirens around the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant and replace them with a telephone alert system to warn residents of an emergency at the reactor would be a mistake, according to a county emergency management official. Wayne Rupert, a deputy emergency management coordinator for Ocean County, said it would make sense for authorities to use a reverse 911 system during minor emergencies, such as if drinking water became contaminated or a violent storm was approaching, but that system would not sufficiently protect the public from a radioactive release at the Lacey reactor. But Assemblyman Robert M. Gordon, D-Bergen, a former emergency management consultant to New Jersey towns, maintained yesterday his belief that plant owner AmerGen should seriously consider using the so-called reverse 911, an automated telephone system used by law enforcement to disseminate urgent public safety information. Recent improvements to reverse 911 have increased the number of calls that authorities can make using the system, Gordon said. In addition, only some residents near the reactor would need to be alerted to a radiological release since plumes travel with the wind, reducing the necessary number of immediate calls, he said. But Rupert said speed is his main concern with using reverse 911 during a plant emergency. The reverse 911 system in Stafford would take nine hours to reach the town's entire population of 24,000, according to township figures. During a special public hearing about Oyster Creek last week, Gordon said he was aghast that AmerGen relied on sirens, which he later described as "Cold War-era technology." The remarks by Gordon about how authorities would disseminate instructions to residents living within 10 miles of the country's oldest commercial reactor was a concern that has garnered little attention during recent discussions about the facility's future. An AmerGen plan to extend Oyster Creek's operations by seeking a 20-year license renewal from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission has ignited a passionate debate about whether the plant is safe enough to run after its current license expires in 2009. In case of an accident at Oyster Creek requiring public notification, New Jersey State Police would activate 42 sirens within a 10-mile radius of the reactor, an area emergency planners call the "emergency preparedness zone." The sirens are meant to alert people to find broadcast outlets that carry instructions, which could direct them to evacuate or find shelter. There are about 125,000 year-round residents in the radius. During the summer, there are about 188,000, according to the State Police Office of Emergency Management. Reverse 911, Gordon said, could more effectively tell the public how to react to an emergency. With a few computer key stokes, authorities could send different prerecorded messages to different sections within the emergency zone, he said. Post-call reports detailing which numbers did not receive messages would enable police to pinpoint homes that need instructions delivered in person. "You can't convey any type of information through a siren," Gordon said. Most of the nation's 103 commercial reactors have siren systems in place to alert residents, said Thelma Wiggins, a spokeswoman at the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. Industry officials believe sirens could accomplish their purpose and there are no plans to abolish the system for another, she said. Authorities in the United States have not had to activate a public alert system due to a reactor accident. --------- Nuke plant hearing heats up Published in the December 9, 2004 NJ TimesBeacon By JESSICA STENSTROM Staff Writer http://www.timesbeacon.com/story/0,21731,1138222,00.html BRICK -- The question of whether the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station's operating license should be extended was debated Dec. 2 in Brick at a meeting of the Assembly Environment and Solid Waste Committee. "Those of us who represent those areas, which are at great risk if a disaster were to occur at the plant, have a responsibility to make sure the question of whether to renew the facility's license or not is considered very carefully," said Assemblyman Michael J. Panter, D-Monmouth, vice chair of the committee, who noted that all of Monmouth and Ocean counties, and almost all of Mercer County, are located with a 50-mile radius of Oyster Creek. The Dec. 2 committee meeting focused on the possible 20-year extension of the license of the plant located in Lacey and was billed as the first of many public hearings. Panter will host another open meeting with residents at 7 p.m. Dec. 9 regarding Oyster Creek and the possible license renewal at Seabrook Village, located at 3000 Essex Road in Tinton Falls. Panter said though the final decision of whether to extend the license of the plant was a federal decision made by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, it is his intention to urge acting Gov. Richard Codey to "use the full legal, regulatory and other resources at New Jersey's disposal to support New Jersey's position" on the relicensing. Codey has not taken a position on the relicensing issue although his predecessor, former Gov. James E. McGreevey, had called for the plant's closure when its license expires in April 2009. In October, Rep. H. James Saxton, R-N.J., also said he would not support the plant's relicensing unless the National Academy of Sciences provided an independent assessment of safety performance at Oyster Creek along with recommendations for relicensing conditions. People from all over the state packed the auditorium of the Brick Civic Plaza, some in support of and others opposing the relicensing. William Levis, vice president of Mid-Atlantic Operations Exelon Nuclear and AmerGen, the company that operates the plant, testified that Oyster Creek is a safe plant and its license should be renewed. He noted that $1.2 billion has been invested since the plant was first brought on line in 1969, adding that an additional $500 million is projected to be spent over the 20-year license renewal period. "This investment has resulted and continues to result in improved operating performance for Oyster Creek," said Levis. Levis said the plant can continue to play an important role in providing reliable and economic supplies of electricity, employing more than 500 people in good-paying jobs and reducing the need for new and potentially more polluting sources of energy. He also tried to allay concerns about a potential terrorist attack on the plant. "Oyster Creek has recently completed significant security upgrades at a cost of more than $20 million, meeting the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's October deadline for enhanced improvements for defense against potential terrorist attacks," Levis said. Concerns about terrorism, however, were a recurring theme from opponents of the plant. "Terrorism was never contemplated in the Oyster Creek design where hundreds of tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste is stored in a storage pond literally perched on the roof of the reactor building, vulnerable to aircraft attack," said Paul Gunter, director of the Reactor Watchdog Project with the Washington, D.C.-based Nuclear Information and Resource Service, in a press release handed out at the start of the meeting. Suzanne Leta, energy associate with the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group, a group opposing the renewal, said there were three primary reasons they think Oyster Creek must be closed: the plant's outdated design, the threefold increase in the area's population and the difficulties in any evacuation. "The bottom line is this. Oyster Creek's current operation poses an unnecessary risk to more than half a million New Jersey residents. Exelon Corporation's desire to keep the plant open an additional 20 years is simply irresponsible," said Leta. Brick Mayor Joseph C. Scarpelli, an outspoken opponent of renewing the nuclear plant's license, said a major issue for him is the age of the plant. He said it is the oldest nuclear plant operating in the nation. -------- utah Nuclear industry doesn't back temporary Utah storage Safety issue: A top lobbyist says it would be best to move fuel to Yucca By Christopher Smith The Salt Lake Tribune 12/09/2004 http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_2484043 WASHINGTON - A top nuclear utility lobbyist said most of the industry does not support temporarily storing spent radioactive fuel rods at a proposed Utah site and is solely focused on getting Nevada's Yucca Mountain waste repository opened. "We'd like to move the fuel once to where it's going to stay," Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) Vice President John Kane said Wednesday when asked whether nuclear power plant owners and operators support Private Fuel Storage's proposal to build an interim storage site on the Skull Valley Reservation of the Goshute Indian Tribe. "We're not taking any of these options off the table, [but] our goal, clearly, is to get Yucca in operation," Kane told reporters during a briefing on nuclear issues in the next Congress. A consortium of eight utilities, several of which are members of the NEI, has applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to license the Utah facility to hold casks of waste from Eastern reactors for up to 40 years. Once Yucca begins accepting waste, the plan calls for casks held at the Utah dump to be transported to Nevada. The NEI's reluctance to back the PFS temporary storage proposal reflects the industry's political strategy to fight one battle at a time. And the priority for nuclear power plant operators is to get the delayed Yucca Mountain project into the federal licensing process next year. "You want to keep moving on Yucca Mountain," said Marvin Fertel, NEI's chief nuclear officer. "If Yucca's found not to be acceptable, then you've got to do another site, but so far it has passed all the site suitability reviews and it ought to enter the licensing process." On power plant operators' interest in locating old fuel rods now stored on-site to a temporary holding pen, Fertel said: "There's a belief in our industry that you don't handle spent fuel more often than you need to." PFS spokesperson Sue Martin said the company shares that belief and strongly supports completion of Yucca Mountain, but must face political reality. "The fact of the matter is Yucca Mountain is later and it's likely to be later, and our member utilities can't continue to wait," she said. "We're just as driven as everybody else in the industry to make sure Yucca Mountain gets done, because that's what all of the PFS member utility ratepayers have been paying for." Because the PFS proposal to federal regulators would only allow a maximum of 40,000 tons to be stored above-ground for up to four decades, NEI officials said it would not be a viable alternative to the permanent underground repository at Yucca Mountain should the Nevada project fail to open. Its original completion target was 1998, but that has now been pushed back to at least 2010. The discussion came the same day a national bipartisan commission on energy policy recommended that Congress and the Bush administration "move expeditiously to establish a project for centralized, interim, engineered storage of spent fuel at no fewer than two U.S. locations, as a complement and interim back-up" to Yucca Mountain. -------- Goodbye, Yucca; hello, Utah? If plan for Nevada N-storage fails, Tooele may be a target By Jerry Spangler E-mail: spang@desnews.com Thursday, December 9, 2004 Deseret Morning News WASHINGTON — Delays in opening a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain are forcing atomic energy producers to consider interim storage sites — like the one proposed on Goshute tribal lands in Utah's Skull Valley — for the spent fuel rods piling up around the country. "I don't think we would take anything off the table," said John Kane, head of governmental affairs for the Nuclear Energy Institute, the powerful lobbying arm of the industry. That "anything" would include the plan by Private Fuel Storage, a consortium of NEI utilities, to build an above-ground storage site in Tooele County where the waste could stay up to 40 years before moving on to Yucca Mountain. At a news media luncheon Wednesday, NEI officials insisted time and again their priority is getting Yucca Mountain funded and operational. Despite growing concerns that it will not open until 2010 or later, officials said they have no real contingency plan. Waste will likely continue to accumulate at nuclear power plants in deep-water ponds or in dry casks — both temporary solutions. Or it could be shipped to a temporary holding facility at Yucca or to some other site. But if the Yucca plan falls apart — and there is growing sentiment on Capitol Hill that it might — the nuclear industry would be between a rock and a hard place. With space for temporary on-site storage running out, the industry and its government overseers would have to start over the process of finding a suitable facility, a task that would take up to a decade or more. "If Yucca is found not to be acceptable, we have to find another site," said Marvin Fertel, NEI senior vice president. Officially, NEI does not support the Goshute interim storage plan, and officials insist the safest way to address the waste problem is to ship it once from the power plant to a permanent storage site and bury it far underground. "We're focused on Yucca Mountain, not interim storage," Kane said. If the industry can solve that pesky waste problem — "and it's the government's responsibility to develop a permanent waste site" — then the future is bright for nuclear power. With support from key legislative leaders and the White House, the industry is poised to start constructing an entire new "fleet" of nuclear power plants to help meet the nation's growing power needs. The nation's power consumption is expected to increase by a third by 2020. The industry, which sees growing public support for clean energy such as nuclear power, plans to proceed with the new construction despite the lack of a permanent waste storage solution. Of course, more nuclear power plants mean more waste. Kane and Fertel both said they hope that Nevada's fierce opposition to Yucca Mountain will soften and that officials there will engage in constructive dialogue. That isn't likely. Sen. Harry Reid, the new Democratic leader of the Senate, is unequivocal in his opposition and has pledged to do everything he can to block it. And the more Reid and others can delay Yucca Mountain, the more attractive interim storage sites such as Tooele County will become. Still, "We're open to any solution," Kane said. -------- us nuc waste Nuclear Plants to Store Spent Fuel Dry for 40 Years WASHINGTON, DC, December 9, 2004 (ENS) http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/dec2004/2004-12-09-09.asp#anchor2 The first 40 year license for dry cask storage of spent nuclear fuel has been approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The agency has followed a rule that limits such storage licenses to 20 year terms, but the NRC said that since a permanent nuclear waste repository is still not operational, it will explore potential rulemaking to change the license duration in NRC regulations. On Wednesday, the NRC authorized a 40 year license renewal to Dominion Generation for its dry cask independent spent nuclear fuel storage installation at the Surry nuclear power plant in Surry, Virginia, after appropriate license conditions are developed. “We are confident that casks meeting NRC’s strict standards will be able to store spent fuel safely over an extended period,” said Larry Camper, deputy director of the NRC’s Spent Fuel Project Office. “Even so, the license conditions and our inspections of the facility will ensure that the effects of aging do not degrade the casks’ ability to protect the public and the environment.” In approving the new license for a duration of 40 years, the Commission approved granting Dominion an exemption from NRC regulations that specify a 20 year license term. Surry was the first commercial nuclear plant to be licensed by the NRC to operate an independent spent fuel storage installation. Its license, issued in 1986, expires next year. The Commission also directed the staff to approve the same exemption in its ongoing review of the license renewal application of Progress Energy for its dry cask spent fuel storage installation at the H.B. Robinson nuclear plant in South Carolina. There are now 30 such dry cask storage installations in the United States. Typically, spent fuel is moved into dry casks after cooling at least five years in pools of water. Surry’s spent fuel pools are at capacity, making continued use of dry cask storage essential if the plant’s two reactors are to continue to operate to the end of their current operating licenses in 2032 and 2033. The NRC continues to view dry casks as an interim or temporary storage method for spent nuclear fuel until a permanent repository for high-level nuclear waste is available. The Commission found in 1990 as part of its revised Waste Confidence Decision that spent fuel could be safely stored in spent fuel pools or dry casks without significant environmental impact for at least 100 years. The Commission reaffirmed its finding in 1999. The original 20 year license period was a policy decision by the Commission at a time when the Department of Energy was expected to begin receiving spent fuel for disposal in a repository by 1998. The most current estimates predict that the Yucca Mountain repository will not be ready to receive waste until 2015. Given the need for continued interim storage of spent fuel until a repository is available, the Commission approved granting Dominion’s request for an exemption from the 20 year limit. Progress Energy requested a similar exemption in its February 2004 application to renew the license of the H.B. Robinson storage installation. -------- Goodbye, Yucca; hello, Utah? If plan for Nevada N-storage fails, Tooele may be a target Deseret Morning News By Jerry Spangler December 9, 2004 http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,595111039,00.html WASHINGTON — Delays in opening a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain are forcing atomic energy producers to consider interim storage sites — like the one proposed on Goshute tribal lands in Utah's Skull Valley — for the spent fuel rods piling up around the country. "I don't think we would take anything off the table," said John Kane, head of governmental affairs for the Nuclear Energy Institute, the powerful lobbying arm of the industry. That "anything" would include the plan by Private Fuel Storage, a consortium of NEI utilities, to build an above-ground storage site in Tooele County where the waste could stay up to 40 years before moving on to Yucca Mountain. At a news media luncheon Wednesday, NEI officials insisted time and again their priority is getting Yucca Mountain funded and operational. Despite growing concerns that it will not open until 2010 or later, officials said they have no real contingency plan. Waste will likely continue to accumulate at nuclear power plants in deep-water ponds or in dry casks — both temporary solutions. Or it could be shipped to a temporary holding facility at Yucca or to some other site. But if the Yucca plan falls apart — and there is growing sentiment on Capitol Hill that it might — the nuclear industry would be between a rock and a hard place. With space for temporary on-site storage running out, the industry and its government overseers would have to start over the process of finding a suitable facility, a task that would take up to a decade or more. "If Yucca is found not to be acceptable, we have to find another site," said Marvin Fertel, NEI senior vice president. Officially, NEI does not support the Goshute interim storage plan, and officials insist the safest way to address the waste problem is to ship it once from the power plant to a permanent storage site and bury it far underground. "We're focused on Yucca Mountain, not interim storage," Kane said. If the industry can solve that pesky waste problem — "and it's the government's responsibility to develop a permanent waste site" — then the future is bright for nuclear power. With support from key legislative leaders and the White House, the industry is poised to start constructing an entire new "fleet" of nuclear power plants to help meet the nation's growing power needs. The nation's power consumption is expected to increase by a third by 2020. The industry, which sees growing public support for clean energy such as nuclear power, plans to proceed with the new construction despite the lack of a permanent waste storage solution. Of course, more nuclear power plants mean more waste. Kane and Fertel both said they hope that Nevada's fierce opposition to Yucca Mountain will soften and that officials there will engage in constructive dialogue. That isn't likely. Sen. Harry Reid, the new Democratic leader of the Senate, is unequivocal in his opposition and has pledged to do everything he can to block it. And the more Reid and others can delay Yucca Mountain, the more attractive interim storage sites such as Tooele County will become. Still, "We're open to any solution," Kane said. -------- MILITARY Report: Women often first casualties of war December 09, 2004 By Olivier Lucazeau AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE http://www.washtimes.com/world/20041208-095907-6699r.htm LONDON — Raped, treated as the sexual spoils of war or slain by indiscriminate bombings, women too often are the first victims of conflict, Amnesty International charged yesterday in a report demanding legal redress. The London-based human rights group called for action by the International Criminal Court to halt violence against women. "Patterns of violence against women in conflict do not arise 'naturally,' but are ordered, condoned or tolerated as a result of political calculations," Amnesty Secretary-General Irene Khan said in introducing the 120-page report on women in war. Not only are women "considered as the legitimate booty of victorious army," the report said, but "the use of rape as a weapon of war is perhaps the most notorious and brutal way in which conflicts impact on women." Miss Khan — the first woman, the first Asian and the first Muslim to head Amnesty International — told Agence France-Presse: "It's quite interesting to see that women's rights have been used as justification for military intervention, in the cases of both Iraq and Afghanistan." But, she added, "On the ground, the situation changes very little in favor of women ... In the case of Afghanistan, we have seen no improvement. "Warlords are occupying parts of the territory and see women as commodities for trading, to settle land dispute. Abductions and forced marriages are about as bad, if not worse, than at any time in Afghan history." Even where women are not targeted, they are the main victims of so-called "collateral damage," whether caused by "precision" bombing or land mines, the report said. "In Iraq in 2003, U.S. forces reportedly used more than 10,500 cluster munitions containing at least 1.8 million bomblets. An average failure rate of 5 percent would mean that about 90,000 unexploded munitions are now on Iraqi soil." The report urged the International Criminal Court to "pick up and prosecute one or two high-profile cases because that will send the message that violence against women cannot continue in such an impunity, which is the norm today." The court, headquartered at The Hague, began operating in July 2002 and is mandated to try genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Miss Khan acknowledged that progress would be tough, but said she hoped the report would generate pressure for change. "Women and children make up 80 percent of the world's 40 million refugees, but they have no voice and injustices go unpunished," she said. The report details widespread rape in conflicts around the world, including the Darfur region of Sudan, Colombia, Nepal, Chechnya, India and, this year, in the tiny Pacific territory of the Solomon Islands. Tens of thousands of women and young girls were raped during the conflicts sweeping the Democratic Republic of the Congo. "Ten years on from the genocide in Rwanda, where violence against women was a central element of the strategy to eliminate a particular ethnic group, little or nothing seems to have been learned about how to prevent such horrors," the report said. -------- africa French-led west African military exercise ends under shadow of Ivory Coast ABOMEY, Benin (AFP) Dec 09, 2004 http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041209171658.6bz4oezv.html A French-led exercise to train west African troops to keep the peace in their troubled region came to an end on Thursday amid ongoing concerns about the future of a real-life mission in Ivory Coast. The Recamp IV training exercise brought soldiers from the Economic Community of West African States together with troops from France, Europe and North America to share expertise in coping with wars and humanitarian disasters. But as invited dignitaries including President Mathieu Kerekou of Benin and France's Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie attended a closing ceremony in the southern Beninois town of Abomey, many thoughts were on the peacekeepers striving to stave off disaster in nearby Ivory Coast. "I hope that the page will turn and that the Ivorian parties -- the government and the rebels -- will understand that that there is no military solution to the crisis in Ivory Coast, only a political solution," Alliot-Marie told reporters ahead of the parade. The Recamp programme is a practical expression of the close military ties which France has maintained with many of its former African colonies, such as Ivory Coast, which was one seen as the most stable and successful country in post-independence west Africa. The links being celebrated in Benin this week broke down dramatically in Ivory Coast last month, after government forces bombed French peacekeepers policing the frontline between loyalist and rebel forces and France responded by destroying its former ally's airforce. In the subsequent outpouring of Ivorian anger French expatriates were targeted by pro-government mobs and peacekeepers clashed with rioters and loyalist forces in the streets and airport of Abidjan. A measure of calm has now returned, and France is putting its faith in a renewed round of international mediation to persuade President Laurent Gbagbo's government to rejoin a faltering peace process. Alliot-Marie underlined that "a military solution would fall heaviest on the civilian population and risk plunging the whole sub-region into generalised instability." More than 1,600 soldiers from the 15 ECOWAS states took part in the Recamp exercise, alongside troops from France, the United States, Canada, Argentina and several European countries. Ivory Coast sent some staff officers, but no frontline troops took part in the training. France has some 5,000 soldiers serving in Ivory Coast alongside a similar United Nations peacekeeping mission, which includes many west African troops from the countries represented at Recamp. West Africans are also serving in UN and African Union missions in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Sudan. -------- arms The other news Rumsfeld made US arms sales to India and Pakistan are the third rail of South Asian diplomacy. csmonitor.com By Jim Bencivenga December 9, 2004 http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1209/dailyUpdate.html Most US media covered US Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's town-hall discussion with US troops about aging vehicles that lacked armor for protection against roadside bombs. But he also made news in India on Wednesday where he grappled with the complicated and geopolitically sensitive issue of American weapons sales to nuclear-armed Pakistan and India. Mr. Rumsfeld's goal for visiting India was to build stronger defense ties with the world's largest democracy, reports the BBC. By making India "a key destination of his first foreign foray in the second stint of the Bush Administration," he signaled "that the two countries were ready to transform relations into practical steps by saying that Washington wanted the defense ties to be further 'knitted' together," reports IndiaExpress. Cooperation on space and nuclear technology and the sale of the Patriot missile for anti-missile defense were also on the agenda for the visit. The Times of India reports that: The US is keen to take ongoing military cooperation with India to the next level by expanding the size and scope of bilateral defense exercises, supply of military wares, and other exchanges. But just hours before Rumsfeld's arrival, Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh, in an address to the Indian parliament, pointedly expressed his country's displeasure at the prospect of US arms sales to Pakistan, reports the BBC. 'We have pointed out that the supply of arms to Pakistan at a time when the India-Pakistan dialogue is at a sensitive stage, would have a negative impact," Mr. Singh told the lower house. Officially, Rumsfeld did not respond to Mr. Singh's warning and he "did not mention anything about America's decision to supply $1.5 billion worth of arms to Pakistan over the next five years," says the Times. He did say that the US has yet to make a decision on the sale of F-16s to Pakistan and that the Congress must assess the move, along with sales of surveillance aircraft and anti-tank missiles. If this were not enough to test the former college wrestling champion's diplomatic skills, Rumsfeld was also greeted by the news that Pakistan had test-fired a medium-range missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and hitting targets up to 420 miles away, reports The Gulf Daily News. The missile was launched from an undisclosed location, a military spokesman said. Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf, on a visit in France when the missile was tested, told journalists "We know they are a nuclear power and they know we are. We inform each other when there are missile tests," reports Gulf Daily News. Mr. Musharraf touted recent "confidence-building measures," between his country and India. "Pakistan's policy is based on minimum defensive deterrence," Gulf Daily News quotes him as saying. And while Rumsfeld was discussing weapons sales in India, Musharraf was discussing weapons purchases, specifically Mirage fighter jets with French President Jacques Chirac, reports the Dawn, a Pakistan-based online newspaper. 'President Chirac agreed to support Pakistan's case for free market access in the European Union,' the president told newsmen after two hours of talks at the Elysee Palace. During the talks, President Musharraf said, he discussed the purchase of French aircraft, adding that Pakistan was looking for avionics, electronic warfare equipment and collaboration in other defence fields with France. The US has already signed off on supplying eight new P3C Orion long-range anti-submarine aircraft to Pakistan plus more than 2000 TOW-2A anti-armor guided missiles. It will deliver new generation radar systems, and upgrade old P3C Orions already with the Pakistan Navy and provide other spare parts, reports the Times. The Indian Navy seeks to purchase similar P3C and TOW-2A missiles. Reflecting the complex and highly charged diplomatic maneuverings in the region, the Times of India in its lead editorial on Thursday urged India's military leadership to continue discussions on arms sales with the US, especially anti-missile defense: The offer to India should evoke interest among those involved in nuclear command and control. India is pledged to no-first use. Hence, this country would be keen to shield its ultimate decision-making authority from a bolt-from-the-blue nuclear strike, either through missiles or low-level penetration aerial strike. It may be recalled that in the anti-ballistic missile treaty of 1972, both sides agreed to have two missile defence sites each, one for the national command authority and the other for a missile field. Meanwhile, negotiations between India and Pakistan on the mundane but not inconsequential matter of bus routes between their countries stalled over proper documentation for Kashmiris, reports Calcutta's The Telegraph. Pakistan did not want Kashmiris traveling to Pakistan required to use an Indian passport, thereby suggesting the disputed territory was part of India proper. The bilateral talks are considered a bellwether not only on the status of Kashmir but on relations between the two nuclear powers who have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir since independence from Britain in 1947, says the Telegraph. That the two countries did not release separate statements blaming the other for failure to reach an agreement speaks volumes of their restraint and the desire to keep the dialogue - conducted in a 'frank, cordial and constructive atmosphere' - going. In the past, a slanging match would have ensued at the end of failed negotiations. Pakistan and India are in the midst of a peace process that has struggled to gather momentum since a change in government in New Delhi earlier this year, reports Reuters. -------- business Halliburton's Iraq Contracts Now Worth over $10 Billion Rep. Henry A. Waxman Ranking Minority Member Committee on Government Reform U.S. House of Representatives December 9, 2004 http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/121004A.shtml Fact Sheet The value of Halliburton's Iraq contracts has crossed the $10 billion threshold. Halliburton has now received $8.3 billion in Iraq work under its LOGCAP troop support contract and $2.5 billion under its no-bid Restore Iraqi Oil (RIO) contract, a total of $10.8 billion. The mounting value of the contracts has been accompanied by a growing list of concerns about Halliburton's performance. Over the last year, government auditors have issued at least nine reports criticizing Halliburton's Iraq work, and there are multiple criminal investigations into overcharging and kickbacks involving Halliburton's contracts. Former Halliburton employees have testified before Congress about egregious instances of over billing. Despite these concerns, the Bush Administration continues to reject the recommendations of its auditors that 15% of Halliburton's LOGCAP reimbursements be withheld until the company can provide better substantiation for its charges. Value of the Contracts Halliburton has several major contracts in Iraq. The largest, called the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP), is a cost-plus contract to provide support services to the troops. As of December 2, 2004, the value of Halliburton's Iraq task orders under LOGCAP was $8.26 billion. (1) The second largest Halliburton contract is the cost-plus RIO contract to restore and operate Iraq's oil infrastructure, which Halliburton was awarded on a no-bid basis in March 2003. The value of the work Halliburton performed under this contract is $2.51 billion. (2) The combined value of these two contracts is $10.77 billion. This is significantly more than any other contractor has been awarded in Iraq. For example, the maximum value of Bechtel's Iraq infrastructure contracts is $2.8 billion. Halliburton will reap profits of between $133 million and $424 million on its two contracts. (3) The actual value of Halliburton's Iraq contracts is likely higher than $10.77 billion. In January 2004, Halliburton received a follow-on oil contract for southern Iraq worth up to $1.2 billion. The Administration has not disclosed the value of the work given to Halliburton under this contract. Investigations and Audits At the same time that the value of Halliburton's contracts is increasing, auditors are finding extensive problems with Halliburton's billings, and criminal investigations of Halliburton and its employees continue. Auditors from the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA), the Government Accountability Office (GAO), and the Coalition Provisional Authority Inspector General (CPA IG) have repeatedly and consistently criticized multiple aspects of Halliburton's activities in Iraq. In nine different reports, these government auditors have found widespread, systemic problems with almost every aspect of Halliburton's work in Iraq, from cost estimation and billing systems to cost control and subcontract management. Key findings from these audits include the following: * In December 2003, a DCAA draft audit reported that Halliburton overcharged the Defense Department by $61 million to import gasoline into Iraq from Kuwait through September 30, 2003. (4) * On December 31, 2003, a DCAA "Flash Report" audit found "significant" and "systemic" deficiencies in the way Halliburton estimates and validates costs. According to the DCAA audit, Halliburton repeatedly violated the Federal Acquisition Regulation and submitted a $2.7 billion proposal that "did not contain current, accurate, and complete data regarding subcontract costs." (5) * On January 13, 2004, DCAA concluded that Halliburton's deficiencies "bring into question [Halliburton's] ability to consistently produce well-supported proposals that are acceptable as a basis for negotiation of fair and reasonable prices," and it urged the Corps of Engineers to "contact us to ascertain the status of [Halliburton's] estimating system prior to entering into future negotiations." (6) * In a May 13, 2004, audit, DCAA reported "several deficiencies" in Halliburton's billing system that resulted in billings to the government that "are not prepared in accordance with applicable laws and regulations and contract terms." DCAA also found "system deficiencies resulting in material invoicing misstatements that are not prevented, detected and/ or corrected in a timely manner." The report emphasized Halliburton's inadequate controls over subcontract billings. The auditors "identified inadequate or nonexistent policies and procedures for notifying the government of potential significant subcontract problems that impact delivery, quality, and price" and determined that Halliburton "does not monitor the ongoing physical progress of subcontracts or the related costs and billings." (7) * On June 25, 2004, the CPA IG found that, as a result of poor oversight, Halliburton charged U. S. taxpayers for unauthorized and unnecessary expenses at the Kuwait Hilton Hotel. According to the IG, the overcharges would have amounted to $3.6 million per year. (8) * A July 26, 2004, CPA IG audit report found that Halliburton "did not effectively manage government property" and that the company's property records "were not sufficiently accurate or available to properly account for CPA property items." The IG "projected that property valued at more than $18.6 million was not accurately accounted for or was missing." (9) * In July 2004, GAO found ineffective planning, inadequate cost control, and insufficient training of contract management officials under LOGCAP in Iraq. GAO reported that, when Halliburton acted as a middleman for the operation of dining halls, costs were over 40% higher. (10) * In an August 16, 2004, memorandum, DCAA "identified significant unsupported costs" submitted by KBR, a Halliburton subsidiary, and found "numerous, systemic issues . . . with KBR's estimates." According to DCAA, "while contingency issues may have had an impact during the earlier stages of the procurements, clearly, the contractor should have adequate supporting data by now." When DCAA examined seven LOGCAP task orders with a combined proposed value of $4.33 billion, auditors identified unsupported costs totaling $1.82 billion. (11) * On November 23, 2004, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (formerly the CPA IG) examined a $569 million LOGCAP task order and found that Halliburton "did not provide . . . sufficiently detailed cost data to evaluate overall project costs or to determine whether specific costs for services performed were reasonable." The IG concluded that the Army "did not receive sufficient or reliable cost information to effectively manage" the task order. (12) Multiple criminal investigations of Halliburton's Iraq contracts are also ongoing. The Justice Department is investigating Halliburton's admission that two of its employees received up to $6.3 million in kickbacks to steer LOGCAP subcontracts to a Kuwaiti contractor. (13) The Defense Department Inspector General, the FBI, and the Justice Department are investigating allegations of fraud and overcharging for gasoline under the RIO contract. (14) Disclosures by Former Employees and Independent Experts The concerns expressed by government auditors have been corroborated by the testimony of former Halliburton employees. Over the past year, six former employees came forward publicly to provide Congress with information about egregious overcharges by Halliburton. Others have contacted congressional staff privately to echo these concerns. For example: * Marie deYoung, a Halliburton logistics specialist, testified about subcontracts under which Halliburton paid $45 per case of soda and $100 per 15-pound bag of laundry. Ms. deYoung also disclosed that Halliburton did not comply with the Army's request to move Halliburton employees from a five-star hotel in Kuwait, where it cost taxpayers approximately $10,000 per day to house the employees, into air-conditioned tent facilities, which would have cost taxpayers under $600 per day. (15) * Henry Bunting, a Halliburton procurement officer, described how he and other buyers were instructed to split large purchase orders into multiple purchase orders below $2,500 in order to avoid the requirement to solicit multiple bids. Supervisors routinely told the employees responsible for purchasing: "Don't worry about price. It's cost-plus." (16) * David Wilson, a convoy commander for Halliburton, and James Warren, a Halliburton truck driver, testified that brand new $85,000 Halliburton trucks were abandoned or "torched" if they got a flat tire or experienced minor mechanical problems. Mr. Warren brought these and other concerns to the personal attention of Randy Harl, the president and CEO of KBR. He was fired a few weeks later. (17) * Mike West, a Halliburton labor foreman, described how he and other Halliburton employees spent weeks in Iraq with virtually nothing to do, but were instructed to bill 12-hour days for 7 days a week on their timesheets. In addition, his superior directed him to buy unnecessary equipment, telling him: "Don't worry about it. It's a cost-plus-plus contract." (18) Similarly, independent experts have criticized Halliburton's inflated gasoline prices under the RIO contract. Phil Verleger, a California oil economist and the president of a consulting firm, said of Halliburton's price: "It's as if they put the gasoline on the Queen Mary and take it around the globe before they deliver it." (19) Jeffrey Jones, until recently the Director of the Defense Energy Support Center, stated: "I can't construct a price that high." (20) Another expert, who asked that his identity not be disclosed, characterized Halliburton's prices as "highway robbery." Failure To Withhold Funds Reflecting the growing problems with Halliburton's Iraq contracts, government auditors have recommended that the Army begin to withhold partial payment to Halliburton under LOGCAP as required by the Federal Acquisition Regulation. On August 16, 2004, DCAA strongly encouraged the Army to begin withholding 15% of Halliburton's reimbursements, stating, "It is clear to us KBR will not provide an adequate proposal until there is a consequence." (21) On November 23, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction supported this recommendation with respect to the $569 million LOGCAP task order it attempted to audit. (22) Instead of following the advice of these independent auditors, the Army has refused to withhold payments for the last eight months. To the contrary, the Army has given Halliburton multiple extensions to provide the adequate cost estimates and supporting data needed to finalize the terms of the contract. Notes (1) U. S. Army Field Support Command, Media Spreadsheet for AFSC LOGCAP (Dec. 2, 2004). (2) U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, Frequently Asked Questions: Engineer Support to Operation Iraqi Freedom (Oct. 7, 2004). (3) Under Halliburton's cost-plus contracts, the government reimburses the company for its actual costs and then pays an additional fee. For LOGCAP, Halliburton receives a base fee of 1% of its costs and an additional award fee of up to 2%. This yields a profit range of $83 million to $248 million. For RIO, Halliburton's base fee is 2% of its costs and its additional award fee is up to 5%. This yields a profit range of $50 million to $176 million. (4) Department of Defense, DOD News Briefing (Dec. 11, 2003). The minority staff of the House Government Reform Committee later determined that the total overpayment to Halliburton through April 1, 2004, was $167 million. See Minority Staff, Committee on Government Reform, Halliburton's Gasoline Overcharges (July 21, 2004). (5) Defense Contract Audit Agency, Audit Report No. 3311-2004K24020001 (Dec. 31, 2003). (6) Defense Contract Audit Agency, Status of Brown & Root Services (BRS) Estimating System Internal Controls (Jan. 13, 2004). (7) Defense Contract Audit Agency, Audit Report No. 3311-2002K11010001 (May 13, 2004). (8) Coalition Provisional Authority Inspector General, Federal Deployment Center Forward Operations at the Kuwait Hilton (June 25, 2004). (9) Coalition Provisional Authority Inspector General, Audit of the Accountability and Control of Material Assets of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad (July 26, 2004). (10) Government Accountability Office, DOD's Extensive Use of Logistics Support Contracts Requires Strengthened Oversight (July 2004). (11) Memorandum from Defense Contract Audit Agency to U. S. Army Field Support Command (Aug. 16, 2004). (12) Memorandum from Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, Task Order 0044 of the Logistics Civilian Augmentation Program III Contract (Nov. 23, 2004). (13) House Committee on Government Reform, Hearings on Unprecedented Challenges: Contracting and the Rebuilding of Iraq (June 15, 2004). (14) Letter from John R. Crane, Assistant Inspector General, Department of Defense, to Rep. Henry A. Waxman (June 30, 2004); FBI Investigating Contracts with Halliburton, New York Times (Oct. 29, 2004). (15) House Committee on Government Reform, Hearings on Contracting and the Rebuilding of Iraq: Part IV, 108th Cong. (July 22, 2004). (16) Senate Democratic Policy Committee, Hearings on Iraq Contracting Abuses (Feb. 13, 2004). (17) House Committee on Government Reform, supra note 15. (18) Statement of Mike West (June 6, 2004). (19) The High Price of Gasoline for Iraq, NBC News (Nov. 5, 2003). (20) Army Eyes Halliburton Import Role in Iraq, Associated Press (Nov. 5, 2003). (21) Defense Contract Audit Agency memorandum, supra note 11. (22) Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction memorandum, supra note 12. This table describes, to the penny, the profits reaped by Halliburton under the LOGCAP contracts for Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and other unnamed expenditures. The number at the bottom reads $9,073,560,035...that is 'billion' with a 'B.' -------- Poor Salvadorans Chase the 'Iraqi Dream' U.S. Security Firms Find Eager Recruits Among Former Soldiers, Police Officers Washington Post By Kevin Sullivan December 9, 2004 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49592-2004Dec8.html SAN SALVADOR -- Juan Nerio, a 44-year-old mason's assistant, was sick of living in a mud hut on the side of a volcano. When he heard that an American company was offering six times his $200 monthly wage, he signed up. Six weeks later he found himself holding an AK-47 assault rifle and guarding a U.S. diplomatic complex in Iraq. "No one could possibly earn so much in our country," said Nerio, who returned to El Salvador two weeks ago after a hernia forced him to reluctantly give up his $1,240-a-month job in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. "With that kind of money, I thought I could make my family's life a little easier." Like Nerio, hundreds of Salvadoran men, and even a few women, are jumping at the chance to pursue what the news media here call the "Iraqi Dream." With the U.S. military unable to meet security needs in Iraq, private U.S. firms are now providing thousands of armed guards for diplomatic installations, oil wells, businesses and contractors there. These firms are aggressively recruiting in El Salvador, a member of the U.S.-led military coalition in Iraq, viewing it as an ideal source of guards. The country has low wages, high unemployment and a large pool of men with military or police experience -- many of whom were U.S.-trained -- from the 12-year civil war that ended in 1992. But the heavy recruitment campaign -- through newspaper ads that offer salaries of as much as $3,600 a month -- has raised concerns among human rights officials, who say they believe the companies are exploiting the poor. "This is the equivalent of a poverty draft," said Geoff Thale of the Washington Office on Latin America, a rights and policy group, speaking from his office in Washington. "The United States is unwilling to draft people, so they are recruiting people from poor countries to be cannon fodder for us. And if they are killed or injured, there will be no political consequences in the United States." Beatrice Alamani de Carrillo, El Salvador's independent human rights ombudsman, said the security companies were "playing with the desperation of people who have no other options." She said that if any of the Salvadorans were kidnapped, "our country is not in a position to negotiate their release." She said she was especially concerned about under-trained women going to Iraq. Many of the Salvadorans, including Nerio, have been recruited by Triple Canopy, a U.S. firm. According to Salvadoran news reports, a group of 30 men and six women hired by the company left for Iraq in late November. Many are former soldiers and special forces members; others have far less training. Nerio served in the Salvadoran army for two years more than 20 years ago. Several recruits said in interviews that the jobs appealed to them because opportunities to emigrate to the United States had been severely cut back by tightened immigration rules and border controls. More than a million Salvadorans emigrated to the United States during or after the civil war. Some also said they hoped their service in Iraq would earn them some gratitude from U.S. officials -- perhaps in the form of a work visa when they returned. "I never thought I had a chance to go to the United States before," said Nerio, a grandfather of six, standing in his tiny home amid groves of mangoes and papayas. "Now they will see that I have experience in Iraq, so this might be my opportunity." Officials from two U.S.-based security firms working in El Salvador said they never told recruits that service in Iraq would improve their chances of getting a visa. James W. Herman, the U.S. consul general in El Salvador, said service as a private security guard in Iraq was irrelevant to visa applications. Joe Mayo, a spokesman for Triple Canopy, declined to say exactly how many people the company was sending to Iraq, but he said local news media estimates of about 175 recruits were about right. Mayo said the firm made clear that the jobs were dangerous. He said the company was providing a needed service to the U.S. government and private companies in Iraq. "It's a free world and a free economy," said Mayo, who spoke from his company's headquarters in Lincolnshire, Ill. "We're not grabbing people and making them go." Between 3,000 and 6,000 non-Iraqi security guards are currently working in Iraq, according to Doug Brooks of the International Peace Operations Association in Washington, which monitors the private security industry. He said about one-third are former special operations soldiers, mainly from the United States and Britain. The rest are men and women with some military experience recruited from about a dozen countries, especially El Salvador, Fiji, Nepal, Chile and India. Brooks said the U.S. and British guards make as much as $700 a day for jobs requiring the highest skills, such as protecting high-profile diplomats and business executives. The others make an average of about $1,200 a month, generally for standing guard at military or civilian sites. Over the past few weeks, lines of applicants have formed every morning outside George's, a karaoke restaurant next to a fancy shopping mall in San Salvador. They were responding to newspaper ads placed by George Nayor, the restaurant owner, who described himself as a U.S. citizen and the local representative of a Washington-based security company. Nayor's ads do not name the firm. He also declined to identify it or other company officials, saying they did not want publicity. Despite the lack of details, he said, his cell phone has been ringing so frequently with queries that he barely has had time to brush his teeth. "This is the future of global security," said Nayor, who has accepted applications from 300 Salvadorans and hopes to sign up at least 1,000 by May. He said the first 12 to 24 would go to Iraq this month, and that his company would soon begin recruiting in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Colombia, Chile and other Latin American countries where many people have military experience. One recent morning, the first group of applicants to arrive at George's included two members of the Salvadoran army's special forces, who spent seven months in Iraq earlier this year as part of a 380-member military unit in the U.S.-led coalition. "You could sweat your whole life and never make this much money," said Mario Antonio Sanchez, 32, a special forces sergeant who said he earned $280 a month. Sanchez said that if he was accepted, he would quit the army and sign a six-month contract for at least $2,400 a month. "In our country everybody is just trying to survive. We do this because we need to," he said. Domingo Hector Navarro Lopez, 39, spent 13 years in the Salvadoran military. He said he was tired of trying to get by on his $158-a-month salary as a security guard. After his wartime experience in his own country, he said, he was not frightened by all the violence in Iraq. "I thank God for this opportunity to go to Iraq," he said, waiting for his interview with Nayor. Nerio already speaks nostalgically about Iraq. Gazing at a snapshot of himself with fellow Salvadoran guards on the banks of the Euphrates River, he said he wished he were still there. Back home in his mud-brick hut on the slopes of the San Salvador volcano, with no running water and a single electrical wire keeping a couple of light bulbs burning, he said he had no idea how he would pay for his hernia operation. He would like to go to the United States to work, but said he fears that his best shot at a better life may have been in Iraq. "That was my only chance," he said. Special correspondent Michelle Garcia in New York City contributed to this report. -------- iraq UN clears $2.9b in Gulf War claims Aljazeera.Net 09 December 2004 http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/206504D4-0D98-429E-A795-129426B0C239.htm Huge sums were sought by Iraq's neighbours to restore coastlines The United Nations has approved payment of $2.9 billion to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia for environmental projects to clean up oil lakes and other pollution from Iraq's 1990-1991 occupation of Kuwait, a spokesman said. But the UN Compensation Commission, whose governing council ended three days of talks on Thursday, rejected the rest of the $23 billion in claims submitted by six countries - Kuwait, Iran, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey. "The total approved was $2.9 billion. Of that $2.28 billion went to Kuwait and $625 million to Saudi Arabia," plus $188,000 to Iran, said UNCC spokesman Joe Sills after the decision was taken at closed-door talks in Geneva. Public health Iraq's neighbours have asked for a total $87 billion to clean up oil lakes, restore coastlines and fish stocks, and deal with public health problems dating back to the occupation of Kuwait and the 1991 Gulf War. The UNCC, which receives 5% of the revenue from Iraq's oil exports to settle compensation claims, will decide on the rest of the claims at its June session. Its share of Iraqi oil exports was $800 million in 2003. It has received claims for $350 billion from individuals, companies and governments, has approved payment of some $51.8 billion and paid out nearly $18.8 billion. --- General: Fallujah Almost Cleared of Arms Associated Press Writer By KATARINA KRATOVAC, Dec 9, 2004 http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=736&e=7&u=/ap/20041209/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_fallujah FALLUJAH, Iraq - U.S. Marines have almost completely cleared this former insurgent stronghold of insurgents and weapons, setting the stage for the return of the civilian population ahead of next month's elections, a senior commander said Thursday. Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler, who commands the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said that 97 percent of Fallujah's more than 20,000 buildings "have been swept for the third and hopefully, final time." "We've removed all the ordnance, it's free of any insurgents and any improvised explosive devices or booby traps that might have been left behind," Sattler said. Sattler said Marines killed seven rebel fighters inside Fallujah with an airstrike two nights ago, after the men gathered in an alleged attempt to reconstitute an insurgent cell. U.S. and Iraqi forces in November recaptured this city 40 miles west of Baghdad from the hands of guerrillas who had used it as a base to launch attacks across Iraq (news - web sites). The U.S. military claims that 1,200 insurgents and about 2,000 suspects were captured in the weeklong battle. No civilian casualty figures have been released. At least 54 U.S. troops died in the operation, along with eight Iraqi soldiers. Marines have collected 450 bodies in the city, Sattler said. Although foreign fighters were believed to be among them, most were so badly decomposed it was impossible to determine their identities. Of about 2,000 people initially detained, 58 were foreigners, Sattler said, without providing details of their nationalities. "They were pretty disillusioned with the whole bill of goods they were sold as far as being jihadists," Sattler said. About 1,300 detainees were released since then, he said. Most were Fallujah residents who were picked up because they were of military age. Sattler also announced that Iraqi forces in Fallujah will be boosted by two more battalions, bringing to eight the number of units there. Three Marine battalions will stay on until Iraqi forces are capable of controlling the city on their own. Sattler cited the Iraqi commander of Fallujah, Lt. Gen. Abdul Khadar, as saying he would like to start bringing some of the 250,000 displaced people back by Dec. 24. By then, measures will be in place to guard against insurgents slipping back into the city, Sattler said. Initially, only heads of households would be allowed to come to inspect their property and file damage claims. Resettlement will take place district by district, beginning with the northern half of Fallujah. Five checkpoints have been set up as only entrances into Fallujah, with the roads south of the city blocked by sand berms. All men of military age will be processed using a central database. They will be photographed, fingerprinted and have their iris scans taken before being issued ID cards, Sattler said. The entire process should take about 10 minutes per person, he added. About 40 processing stations will be in place to avoid long queues. The system has been used for several months in other parts of Iraq, mostly to catalogue detainees, Sattler said. Buses would take the men into the city as no private cars will be allowed as a precaution against car bombs. "Our goal is that anyone who is of age and eligible to register, to get them registered and create an environment so that those who do want to vote can do so in a secure environment," Sattler said. "We have a long way to go and a short time to get there but it can be done, that's the bottom line." ----- Town Reflects Rising Sabotage in Iraq 'Whatever We Build, They Are Going to Destroy,' Politician Says Washington Post By Josh White December 9, 2004 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49634-2004Dec8.html ABU GHRAIB, Iraq -- On the main road through this dusty and downtrodden community lies a compound designed to host a municipal center with local government offices, a building for council meetings, a firehouse and a library with a playground surrounded by cartoon-adorned walls. But the front wall of the meeting facility is gone, with a pickup truck's chassis and axles jutting haphazardly out of a gaping hole littered with brick. The municipal offices are covered in broken glass and pieces of the ceiling. The walls are streaked with bloody handprints that trail toward the front gate, where the dirt is still charred in large streaks. The firehouse and library have been empty for weeks. This is the site, about 10 miles west of Baghdad, where seven Iraqi civilians and an American soldier were killed in a massive suicide bomb blast last month. U.S. Army officers and local Iraqi officials said it was a symbol of an intensifying campaign by insurgents to attack public works projects and Iraqis who work with or seek help from the U.S.-led occupation. These attacks have included the looting of a refurbished youth center, the razing of an economic development office, and the kidnappings and killings of town council members. Iraqi police and National Guardsmen have received frequent death threats; some were shot in the head as they walked home from work, and others were beheaded by insurgents after warning letters were left at their homes. "They are very effective at intimidation," a local Iraqi politician said in an interview at a secure U.S. military civil affairs center, speaking on condition of anonymity because he, his family and his colleagues have been told they would be killed if he cooperated with reconstruction efforts. "This is their new strategy. Whatever we build, they are going to destroy. If a project is under the aid of the Americans, they are going to destroy it. The terrorists don't want Iraq to be under control, they don't want the people of Iraq to be at peace." While attacks on U.S. soldiers remain fairly random and opportunistic here, insurgent fighters are targeting places that Iraqis rely on for assistance, frustrating politicians, police and U.S. Army officers. "They want to demonstrate that the government is not successful, and they want to create a climate of fear," said Army Col. Mark A. Milley, whose 2nd Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division is pouring millions of dollars into rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure. "These are very serious people out there. There is no enemy as coldblooded and vicious as this enemy." In recent weeks, insurgents have killed five members of the town council and have kidnapped two others. One of the hostages, a woman, is presumed dead. The other might have been beheaded, authorities suspect, based on telephone calls to her family. Eight members of an Iraqi National Guard post in the region have been killed in the past seven months, including one who was recently beheaded and another who was shot twice in the left eye as he left work this week. They were killed after receiving red form letters from extremists calling themselves the Company of Death. The battalion commander said he has had his life threatened 34 times, including six assassination attempts in the past 10 days. U.S. military officials say such attacks are increasing. Maj. John Allred, 38, of Atlanta, executive officer of the 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, which patrols the Abu Ghraib area, said: "Anything we're involved with, they want to see it fail. Anyone involved with us, they want to kill." Maj. Russ Harper, 40, of Atlanta, is coordinating civil affairs projects for the 2nd Battalion in Abu Ghraib, where he says improvement projects worth $10 million have been undertaken in the past nine months. But during that period, five major projects have been sabotaged, contractors have been killed or driven from work by threats, and Iraqis have become more reluctant to help because of fear. "If it's just an open thing they [insurgents] can get to, contractors risk death. They can blow up the project," Harper said. "We can try to be low-profile, but they still attack. Unfortunately, the terrorists have been pretty successful here." Standing amid the chunks of concrete and plaster that were to be a local business center aimed at boosting economic activity and assisting job-seekers, Harper shook his head at what could have been. The building, a few hundred yards from a bustling market on one of the main streets, was renovated for $72,000 and finished in late August. Three days after contractors applied a fresh coat of blue paint to the walls, a group stormed in late at night and detonated explosives, felling most of the structure. It is now a shell, its few remaining rooms charred and pockmarked. Water from broken pipes trickles through the wreckage. "Of course it's frustrating, in part because it is a waste of U.S. resources, but these idiots are hurting the Iraqis, they're hurting their fellow people," Harper said. Abu Ghraib prison, the scene of prisoner abuse by U.S. forces that was disclosed earlier this year, is located outside the town, farther west of Baghdad. An afternoon tour of the town highlighted many of the difficulties. The vacant lots and dirt streets in the First of March neighborhood -- a slum of squatters, stray dogs, lean-tos and half-finished buildings -- are flooded with water and raw sewage because a contractor refused to finish work on the sewer lines after he was kidnapped and later released for ransom. At the Abu Ghraib youth center -- which Harper called his "crown jewel project" following a $200,000 renovation -- nearly two dozen new computers and 20 air-conditioning units were looted four weeks ago. Insurgents then tried to set the large facility on fire. They also set a booby trap using a surface-to-air missile, but U.S. forces were able to defuse it. Despite the sabotage, troops continue to go into the neighborhoods and try to determine what citizens need. On a patrol this week, 1st Lt. Tom Overmyer, 34, of Brockport, N.Y., ordered his mortar platoon of the 14th Infantry Regiment to dismount from their armored Humvees. The soldiers walked through a collection of narrow streets adjoining the highway so Overmyer could talk with residents. Iraqi children streamed out of their houses asking for candy as their fathers gathered on a corner to talk about connecting their homes to running water. "No one came in here before us, and that's a shame," said Overmyer, who drew a small crowd on his second visit in three days. The neighborhood is hostile; rocket-propelled grenades are often fired from these streets, aimed at U.S. convoys that travel the highway. "They say their trash isn't being picked up, they need fuel and water." Where the reconstruction efforts appear to be effective is at two college campuses in western Baghdad -- the nation's agricultural and veterinary schools -- where millions of dollars are being invested for the first time in decades. The schools, located in guarded compounds, show vibrant activity, with students strolling courtyards in the cool December breeze as exams approach. But with their new computers and furnishings, and athletic facilities under construction, the school leaders are facing threats as well. "It's difficult to do anything now, but we have a good hope in the future," said Majid Nassir, assistant dean at the Baghdad College of Veterinary Medicine and a local council member in Baghdad's Rashid neighborhood. He said his life was threatened this week when a note was slipped under his door warning him not to consort with the Americans. He now travels with armed guards. "All the people are waiting for the settlement of peace," he said. -------- israel / palestine The Carnivores and the Ivy League Apologist The Voices of Sharon's Little Helpers By PAUL de ROOIJ December 9, 2004 Counterpunch http://www.counterpunch.org/rooij12092004.html Ariel Sharon is surrounded by a coterie of "advisors" who step in to develop, perfect and sell plans for the continued and inexorable dispossession of the Palestinians. What is surprising is that these advisors, the intellectual progenitors of continuing mass crimes, are an outspoken bunch; they don't shy away from revealing their latest fiendish plans or their true intent. There is no need for conspiracy theories; their intent and plans are out in the open. Despite lame denials by the Israeli government or their media surrogates, the public pronouncements of these latter day Dr. Strangeloves reveal the plans they have in store for the Palestinians, Iraqis, and for that matter, the United States. It is therefore instructive to analyze their latest statements. Dovi For the past few years, Dov Weisglass has been frequently in touch with Condoleezza Rice, the next Secretary of State, and they are even on an affectionate first name basis. Condi calls him "Dovi", and it would be rather quaint were it not for the issues they must have discussed. Furthermore, Dovi is doing the thinking for Sharon these days, and so, Dovi's public pronouncements assume canonical status. On Oct. 6, 2004, Ari Shavit interviewed Dov Weisglass for Haaretz [1]. Any article by Shavit, "a loyal mouthpiece of any leader in power"[2], should alert one that these were not meant to be ordinary ruminations by a key political advisor. In fact, Dovi's revelations were shocking because they exposed the pretense that the US still supported the "road map", or realize Bush's "vision" of a Palestinians state. Dovi's brutal pronouncements made it clear that there was no longer any prospect for a negotiated solution. "The significance of our disengagement plan is the freezing of the peace process. It supplies the formaldehyde necessary so there is no political process with the Palestinians." -- Ha'aretz, Oct. 6, 2004. Dovi's apt use of "formaldehyde", the morticians' essential fluid, was revelatory. While morticians are concerned with masking the unpleasant sight of death, Dovi, a grand mortician, seeks to push a stake through the heart of the already dead negotiations. He continues: "The significance of the disengagement plan is the freezing of the peace process. And when you freeze that process, you prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, and you prevent a discussion on the refugees, the borders and Jerusalem. Effectively, this whole package called the Palestinian state, with all that it entails, has been removed indefinitely from our agenda. And all this with authority and permission. All with a presidential blessing and the ratification of both houses of Congress." "What I effectively agreed to with the Americans [in talks leading to Bush's endorsement of disengagement] was that part of the settlements would not be dealt with at all, and the rest will not be dealt with until the Palestinians turn into Finns." -- Ha'aretz, Oct. 6, 2004. Just in case the previous shocking statement was not blatant enough, Dovi spells it out clearly for an American audience--always a bit interpretation-challenged. With US official connivance, the Israelis are blocking meaningful negotiations indefinitely. Some further context is necessary to understand these statements. The Haaretz interview was published about a month before the US elections, a date that ranks in the Israeli calendar as super Xmas. While during other election years Israeli politicians would be busy drawing up wish lists of goodies like F16s, loan guarantees, loan forgiveness, this year with the Americans fighting Israel's war in Iraq, such demands would be construed as a bit too crass. This year Dovi had only one item on his list: he wanted US agreement to terminate negotiations forever [3]. By making such a radical demand, Dovi was daring any US politician to object in the middle of an election campaign, and of course, no US politician did. Yet again, the failure of the US government to protest indicated that it would neither confront Israel nor encourage negotiations. So much for the self-designated "honest broker" label. One must also remember the April 14, 2004 Washington meeting where Bush blessed Israel's so-called disengagement plan. Prior to his departure to Washington, Sharon waited on the airport tarmac in Tel Aviv until a deal could be struck on his terms. Surely during this unnerving wait Dovi must have been talking to Condi. Within an hour the US government capitulated giving Sharon everything on his wish list, i.e., anointing the "disengagement plan". So, what more would they want? Dovi's revealing statements provide the answer: embalming the negotiations with the Palestinians, implying that annexation of the West Bank could continue apace, the construction of the wall would continue, and the creation of two Bantustan-prisons would be unilaterally imposed. When on May 19, 2004 an AIPAC audience applauded president Bush's statement about his vision for a "viable Palestinian state", this revealed exactly what is intended: an open air concentration camp will be imposed [4]. Dovi's statements and their implicit endorsement by the US will create a few public relations complications. For years, Israel refused to enter into negotiations because supposedly there was "no one to negotiate with". Now, after Dovi's revelations we know that no matter who represents the Palestinians, the Israelis will sabotage negotiations. In the past, they played along with the "road map" charade, especially if such a gambit would force the Palestine "Authority" to repress its own people, but now even this pretense will be dispensed with. Arafat could now be dispensed with too; and he proved to have had a timely death. All the appearances and US assurances that the Quartet "road map" negotiations would culminate in a Palestinian state were clearly undermined. The US will once again bear some consequences for this, but never mind. Zionism for Carnivores Arnon Soffer, a professor of geography/demography at Haifa University, is another of Sharon's advisors, advisor to the army's top brass, and is reputed to be the "intellectual father of the disengagement plan". In addition, Soffer is also known as a demographic prophet and someone who considers that the "Palestinian womb is a biological weapon". Taking as much land with as few Palestinians has been a key preoccupation of demographers in Israel and those drawing the path of the wall. This means that a recent Jerusalem Post interview with Soffer is of particular importance. Soffer provided some brutal and revealing answers [5]: Ruthie Blum: How will the region look the day after unilateral separation? Arnon Soffer: The Palestinians will bombard us with artillery fire--and we will have to retaliate. But at least the war will be at the fence--not in kindergartens in Tel Aviv and Haifa. RB: Will Israel be prepared to fight this war? AS: First of all, the fence is not built like the Berlin Wall. It's a fence that we will be guarding on either side. Instead of entering Gaza, the way we did last week, we will tell the Palestinians that if a single missile is fired over the fence, we will fire 10 in response. And women and children will be killed, and houses will be destroyed. After the fifth such incident, Palestinian mothers won't allow their husbands to shoot Kassams, because they will know what's waiting for them. Second of all, when 2.5 million people live in a closed-off Gaza, it's going to be a human catastrophe. Those people will become even bigger animals than they are today, with the aid of an insane fundamentalist Islam. The pressure at the border will be awful. It's going to be a terrible war. So, if we want to remain alive, we will have to kill and kill and kill. All day, every day. RB: While CNN has its cameras at the wall? AS: If we don't kill, we will cease to exist. The only thing that concerns me is how to ensure that the boys and men who are going to have to do the killing will be able to return home to their families and be normal human beings. RB: What will the end result of all this killing be? AS: The Palestinians will be forced to realize that demography is no longer significant, because we're here and they're there. And then they will begin to ask for "conflict management" talks--not that dirty word "peace." Peace is a word for believers, and I have no tolerance for believers--neither those who wear yarmulkes nor those who pray to the God of peace. [] Both are dangerous. Unilateral separation doesn't guarantee "peace"--it guarantees a Zionist-Jewish state with an overwhelming majority of Jews; it guarantees the kind of safety that will return tourists to the country; and it guarantees one other important thing. Between 1948 and 1967, the fence was a fence, and 400,000 people left the West Bank voluntarily. This is what will happen after separation. If a Palestinian cannot come into Tel Aviv for work, he will look in Iraq, or Kuwait, or London. I believe that there will be movement out of the area. It would be difficult to find a clearer exposition of what the Palestinians can expect, and what type of society Israel will become. It also becomes clear why Dovi was so determined to remove any prospect of negotiations, i.e., he sought to forestall any externally imposed solution. He knew that any intervention by a World Court or any assertion of the Palestinian right not to be expelled would interfere with Soffer's plans. Besides, "peace" is for the moist eyed liberals, and not for hard-nosed realists. Drang nach East [6] Zionist plans are not confined within the borders of Israel and the occupied territories, but they extend broadly into the region. Strong Arab nations operating with a unified voice would be able to stand up to Israel. In the Zionist calculus, to avoid the possibility of resistance, the countries in the region have to be brought to their knees, and included in an Israeli controlled sphere of influence. In this scenario, countries with large armies and with a potential to interfere have to be demolished. Arab nationalists who seek to forge unity or to develop the area have to be undermined, and in their place, atavistic Islamic religious forces have to be fostered. Weaken, divide and rule. Does this sound far-fetched? One only has to read Oded Yinon's ruminations [7]: Iraq, rich in oil on the one hand and internally torn on the other, is guaranteed as a candidate for Israel's targets. Its dissolution is even more important for us than that of Syria. Iraq is stronger than Syria. In the short run it is Iraqi power which constitutes the greatest threat to Israel. An Iraqi-Iranian war will tear Iraq apart and cause its downfall at home even before it is able to organize a struggle on a wide front against us. Every kind of inter-Arab confrontation will assist us in the short run and will shorten the way to the more important aim of breaking up Iraq into denominations as in Syria and in Lebanon. In Iraq, a division into provinces along ethnic/religious lines as in Syria during Ottoman times is possible. So, three (or more) states will exist around the three major cities: Basra, Baghdad and Mosul, and Shiite areas in the south will separate from the Sunni and Kurdish north. Oded Yinon was formerly a senior Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry official. Although not currently one of Sharon's advisors, his comments made in 1982 have a prescient ring to them. One can find recent expositions of the same plan, and all indicate that the United States is currently fighting Israel's wars. Creating an Israeli sphere of influence in the area is emerging as a key motive behind the latest US-Iraq war [8]. Jamboree of the Carnivores Every year a conference in Herzliya attracts Israeli state planners, think-tankers, and cheerleaders. It is a jamboree for the carnivores; Zionists of a vegetarian stripe need not apply. Here, plans are made on how Palestinians can be further dispossessed, how to handle the propaganda, or reveal the latest sadistic fantasy. Plans for the entire region are also proposed and discussed. Out in the open one can hear what the likes of Soffer, Dovi and Yinon are currently proposing. Of course, these plans are not presented in "Western" media; here one will continue hearing about Israel's peaceful intent, and the "only democracy in the Middle East". Also present in Herzliya are wannabe advisors, and the only way for them to be noticed is to present ever more extreme plans. There is a dynamic among these operators to propose plans that veer ever more to the right. Whereas the likes of Soffer would have seemed extreme twenty years ago, now his position is centrist. Today's extremists may become the common ground in a few years time. The Ivy League Apologist One of the attendees at the 2003 Herzliya conference was Alan Dershowitz, the Harvard Law School professor and legal contortionist extraordinaire. He has a bit of a misplaced liberal reputation since he is keen to justify torture, compulsory ID cards, and overturning international law. Dershowitz is always eager to dispense advice, and it is of interest to listen to his ruminations at the conference. "We have a joint project between Israel and the US, which lawyers must lead. Our project is to propose new rules of international law. Israelis are obliged to follow the rules of law in the democracy called Israel, as I am within the US. Your moral obligation to comply with international law is voluntary. You are not represented in the making or implementing of those laws. International law lives or dies by its credibility, not by the democracy by which it has been constructed. I am suggesting the change of the rule of law. Democracy should not have to justify its actions and show how the rule of human rights has become a weapon in promoting human wrongs... You are the lab for that process. You are contributing greatly. Do not allow the world to bully you into believing that you are the human rights violators..." -- Alan Dershowitz, Dec. 2003. [9] To implement plans like those advocated by Soffer requires perpetrating crimes against humanity, and this obviously clashes with international law. The legal profession in Israel has long justified Israel's actions by contorted arguments as those made by Dershowitz [10]. Israeli lawyers have always been selective on which laws apply to it, and of course, the core humanitarian law has been excluded. Furthermore, it will use bits of law that are useful for its purposes, e.g., British Mandate period military law, or Jordanian law, and if all else fails specific military orders are passed [11]. The veneer of legality is kept, but, as the recent International Court of Justice ruling pertaining to the wall indicates, it is increasingly difficult for them to cover up the mass crimes that the Zionist project requires. Dershowitz recommendation: don't worry about it and ignore international law. The same argument will be made for US actions in the war in Iraq, the torture of Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib prisoners, the US military deaths squads, the use of depleted uranium munitions, etc. The Consequences The consequences of the Zionist project are stark and they are clear for all involved. The Palestinians are at the receiving end of a genocidal plan. Of course, any act of resistance will elicit hollers about "terrorism", and they can expect to be blamed for the cruelty dispensed to them by the Israelis. Negotiations will amount to "conflict management" between military rulers and Palestinian collaborators. Israelis must decide if they want to become a nation of prison wardens, a fate that awaits them, their children, and their grandchildren. A permanent state of simmering war is very costly, and is only tenable thanks to America's largesse and diplomatic cover. The Zionist project also entails interfering in all the countries in the area. This project raises further questions about what type of society it wants to become, and whether the US will continue supporting them. Israel cannot escape the consequences of a fundamentally unjust system; while this persists there will be continued strife, and all aspects of its society will be grotesquely distorted [12]. The costs for the United States are also high and the implications stark. The US is expected to continue funding Israel in ever increasing amounts, without a peep of gratitude from the recipient. The US also has to tarnish its international reputation by having to cover for Israel. And now the US has to pay a cost in blood; the war in Iraq is another contribution to Israel. Are Iran, Syria, next? The US's relation with Israel is also having distorting effects on American society. The fact that AIPAC is the most powerful lobby (aka, "the Lobby") in Washington and that most politicians genuflect when the word Israel is mentioned indicates that the US political system may not represent the interests of the American people. Certainly, US foreign policy is not open to democratic debate, and currently it is the exclusive preserve of an unaccountable and reactionary elite. The debate about the US's place in the world and hence what type of society it wants to become must urgently be brought out into the open. A simple issue must be addressed: whose interests is US foreign policy supposed to foster, and is it in the US's interests to support a malevolent apartheid state in the Middle East? Pariah state and ideology In the 1990s, the United Nations attempted to condemn Zionism as a racist ideology. Alas, with US connivance and massive manipulation, this mild UN rebuke was not adopted. However, the manifest sadism to which Palestinians have been subjected indicates that there is a much deeper and serious objection to this ideology, i.e., the Zionist project, is inherently genocidal, and the plans of Sharon's advisors and Israel's history of ethnic cleansing make this abundantly clear. Zionism has to be considered a pariah ideology. Furthermore, the combination of pernicious ideologues with a dangerous war criminal requires that we treat Israel as a pariah state. Endnotes [1] Ari Shavit, Top PM aide: Gaza plan aims to freeze the peace process, Haaretz, Oct. 6, 2004. [2] Ran HaCohen Mid-Eastern Terms, DissidentVoice, June 19, 2003. [3] In reality, Israel received quite a few more goodies this year. First, an increase in aid and forgiven loans. Second, it also received thousands of J-Dam bombs, the type that could demolish Iran's nuclear power plants. NB: This comes after the delivery of more than 100 special F16s capable of flying all the way to Iran. [4] Bush's policy speech in front of AIPAC in 2004 was frequently interrupted by applause. It is curious that the word "viable" elicited applause. Key words and phrases are used that have a special meaning for US officials and this crowd. Analyzing where the AIPAC audience applauded will reveal the true meaning of many such terms. [5] Ruthie Blum, "ONE on ONE: It's the demography, stupid", Jerusalem Post, May 10, 2004. [6] Nazi ideologues referred to the national imperative for expansion towards the Eastern Europe as "drang nach Osten". [7] Oded Yinon, "Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties" Feb. 1982. Available online here: [http://www.corkpsc.org/db.php?aid=5345] This essay originally appeared in Hebrew in Kivunim (Directions), A Journal for Judaism and Zionism; February 1982. The Department of Publicity/The World Zionist Organization in Jerusalem publishes the journal. Yinon's article was translated by Dr. Israel Shahak and appeared in his Translations of the Hebrew press. Invariably statements about plans are more elaborate and open when written in Hebrew; it is also rare to see them translated in their entirety into English. NB: One could easily imagine the hysterics and indignation if any Arab ideologue were to publish designs for the region that would include an emasculated Israel. However, when Israeli ideologues discuss subjugating the region to its interest, then this is considered par for the course. [8] It is wrong to suggest that there is a single motive for wars. It is when there is a confluence of interests in fostering wars that opinion can be mobilized in favor of a war. Control of oil, armaments, post-war slices of the cake, all have constituencies who favored the war. The centrality of the Israeli motivation is made clear by the statement by the main actors pushing the war. See also Kathleen and Bill Christison's "Too Many Smoking Guns to Ignore: Israel, American Jews, and the War on Iraq", CounterPunch, January 25, 2003. [9] Quoted in Azmi Bishara, "Chutzpah: an avoidance strategy", Al Ahram, Dec. 25, 2003, Issue 670. [http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/print/2003/670/op41.htm], [10] Azmi Bishara observes that Dershowitz isn't stating anything new. What is reassuring to the Israeli legal profession is that even a Harvard professor is telling them to go on doing what they do at present, i.e., flout international law. [11] A good account of the legal sophistry can be found in Raja Shehadeh's Occupier's Law, IPS, 1985. Alternatively, Lisa Hajjar's Courting Conflict: The Israeli Military Court System in the West Bank and Gaza, University of California Press, 2005. [12] Take one example: the construction of the wall is Israel's largest infrastructure project. It will cost billions. Are they spending all this money and effort to imprison another people? The wall is compounding the unjust situation, and thus making matters worse. Paul de Rooij is a writer living in London. He can be reached at proox@hotmail.com (NB: all emails with attachments will be automatically deleted.) -------- japan Japan extends mission in Iraq Aljazeera.Net 09 December 2004 http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/1374FB88-F133-451A-BB47-CBFEC1ED4A2B.htm Japan has approved an extension of its troop deployment in Iraq for up to a year, a decision opposed by most voters, who want to end the nation's riskiest military mission since the second world war. The extension was approved on Thursday at a meeting of government and ruling party officials, Liberal Democratic Party executive Toranosuke Katayama said. The cabinet was to meet later in the day to sign off on the decision. Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, a close ally of US President George Bush, has expended considerable political capital to support the US-led war in Iraq and sent about 550 troops to the southern Iraqi city of Samawa. Pacifist constitution The mandate for the current one-year deployment expires on 14 December. Critics say the mission violates Japan's pacifist constitution, even though the military personnel are engaged solely in rebuilding and humanitarian work. Koizumi's government has been studying an overhaul of the pacifist constitution, with the Iraq deployment seen by analysts as a signal that Tokyo ants a more active role in world affairs. But opposition leaders want the troops to return after the current deployment ends, and a Nihon Keizai newspaper poll last month said 61% of Japanese oppose extending the mission due mostly to concern for the troops' safety. ----- Japan Defense Plan Shifts Pacifist Stance Associated Press By NATALIE OBIKO PEARSON Dec 10, 2004 http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/J/JAPAN_DEFENSE_PLAN?SITE=DCTMS&SECTION=HOME TOKYO (AP) -- Japan adopted new defense guidelines Friday, including the relaxation of an arms-export ban that will facilitate missile security with Washington, another sign of Tokyo's move away from its postwar pacifism in favor of greater military cooperation with its top ally. The new plan marked the most significant overhaul of the country's defense policy in a decade - a period during which Tokyo has tried to increase security cooperation with the United States - and comes a day after the pro-U.S. government voted to keep Japanese troops in Iraq on a humanitarian mission for another year past its Dec. 14 deadline. "This is about ensuring security and dealing with new threats as the times change," Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters after the new plan was unveiled. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said the government would ease Japan's ban on exporting weapons to other countries in order to pursue a missile defense program with Washington for security purposes. The plan called for the easing, citing modern security threats, including North Korean missiles, China's military buildup and terrorism. Japan has maintained the arms export ban since 1976 in deference to its pacifist constitution, unchanged since it was written by U.S. occupation forces after World War II. The constitution renounces war and the use of force in settling international disputes. Yet Koizumi has stirred debate about constitutional reform. He has backed an increasingly high-profile role for Japan's military and closer security cooperation with Washington, which maintains 50,000 troops here under a security treaty. Under his administration, Japan has 1,000 troops in Iraq and neighboring countries engaged in non-combat reconstruction work - the postwar military's largest and most dangerous overseas operation. Earlier, in 2001, Koizumi responded to the U.S. "war on terror" by pushing through legislation to allow the navy to provide logistical support to forces in Afghanistan. Critics have said such efforts are chipping away at the pacifist society Japan has built since its destruction in World War II. The new guidelines played down such fears, reiterating that Japan's military was not going on the offensive. "Our country, under our constitution, will adhere exclusively to self-defense," the report said. "Following our policy of not becoming a major military power that would pose a threat to other countries, we will secure civilian control." The plan, approved in a Cabinet meeting, also vowed to maintain the country's policy of not making or possessing nuclear weapons. Japan is the only country to have been attacked with nuclear weapons, when the United States twice hit the country in 1945. The revisions threaten to alarm Asian neighbors, who suffered under Japan's expansionist policies earlier last century. Both China and North Korea were singled out as regional security concerns in the outline, which covers from 2005 to 2014. China's efforts to build up and modernize its military, as well as its expanded range of naval activities, have been closely monitored by Japan. Tensions between the two Asian powerhouse