NucNews - December 19, 2004 -------- NUCLEAR Experts fear atomic genie is out of the bottle By JAMES STERNGOLD, San Francisco Chronicle Published: Sunday, Dec. 19, 2004 http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041219/OPINION04/112190003/-1/opinion The 3-decade-old system for preventing the spread of nuclear arms may be eroding irreversibly, experts warn. As the spread of technology for producing weapons fuel circulates among smaller powers, a quiet, low-scale arms race may be taking shape. Despite occasional positive news, there are numerous ill omens. European diplomats appeared to score a success last month by persuading Iran to freeze its programs for enriching uranium, the heart of nuclear bombs. But a range of specialists said the success could prove temporary because Iran still has the know-how to transform peaceful facilities for creating reactor fuel into weapons plants. And the Bush administration says Iran was hastily enriching a large amount of uranium before the freeze. Not only do Iran and North Korea have the capability to make the fuel, the experts warn, but so do several dozen other countries - from Brazil, Japan and South Korea to Turkey, Syria and Egypt. As a result, after decades of nonproliferation policies based on the idea that the global community could prevent the spread of nuclear weapons by controlling nuclear materials and technology, such containment strategies may no longer be possible, these experts agree. The concern is that legitimate facilities, built to develop what is called the “nuclear fuel cycle,” could be used to increase the concentrations of enriched uranium or for processing plutonium to make weapons-grade fuel. Not only is the technology for these processes widely available to countries rich and poor, but some of the equipment needed for the job, such as high-powered computers and precision machine tools, can now be purchased easily, experts say. “Even if you take this out of the context of North Korea and Iran, at this point you have a fundamental lack of faith in the system that secured us for the past 30 years,” said Jon Wolfsthal, a former U.S. nuclear inspector and now deputy director of the Nonproliferation Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “We are ending up in the exact world we were trying to avoid for the past 30 years. Nuclear weapons are increasingly available and valuable in international affairs, and the fuel cycle issue is making it worse.” Added David Smith, a former arms-control negotiator under the first President Bush and now chief operating officer of the National Institute for Public Policy, a conservative Washington think tank, “Maybe in some ideal world where the sky is a different color, maybe you can stop the spread, but in my world there are just too many competing interests, too much technology that is already out there. What you can do is make it more expensive, harder to do, to get the bad guys from obtaining nuclear weapons.” In a recent interview with The Chronicle, Mohamed El Baradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.-affiliated body that has tried to halt nuclear proliferation with its monitoring and inspection system, called the widely distributed facilities for developing the fuel cycle “latent bomb plants.” “The Nuclear Tipping Point: Why States Reconsider Their Nuclear Choices,” published recently by the Brookings Institution, examines in detail how many countries may be starting down this dangerous path. The book analyzes the situations in Egypt, Syria, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, looking at their incentives for turning fuel cycle or research plants into bomb plants. Peaceful uses of nuclear facilities include energy production, medicine and research. But both inside and outside the U.S. government, many experts now call ostensibly peaceful nuclear fuel facilities “virtual nuclear arsenals,” because those same programs can quickly become the heart of a weapons program. “I think the sense that things are not going well is shared by a lot of people because of these programs,” said David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, a leading Washington think tank on nuclear weapons issues. Albright calls himself an optimist, believing that inspections and persuasion can still prevent wider proliferation, but, he conceded, “we’ve reached a point where if we don’t solve some of these problems, it becomes overwhelming.” Some of these fuel cycle programs have been covert, and some in the open. Iran, for instance, had violated the terms of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty by concealing some aspects of its program to build a fuel cycle - a uranium enrichment facility. And some opponents of the fundamentalist regime have claimed the government is still hiding weapons facilities, though they have produced no evidence so far. But most of Iran’s efforts have been done legally, and the government has said that, under the deal with the Europeans, it would only suspend, not dismantle, its fuel cycle program. Iran says its nuclear facilities are intended only for peaceful purposes, but the Bush administration has generally insisted that the program has to be permanently shut down. It is unclear how much that would matter. Currently, nine countries - the United States, Russia, Britain, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea - possess, or are suspected of possessing, nuclear weapons. El Baradei said that within a decade or so, as many as 40 countries will have the ability to make fuel, and thus warheads. He suggested that, no matter the outcome of the deal with the Europeans, Iran has essentially crossed the nuclear weapons threshold. “Iran has developed every aspect of the fuel cycle. . . . I’m saying they have the know-how,” El Baradei said. --------- U.S., Russian nuclear missiles remain on hair-trigger alert Knight Ridder News December 19, 2004 - 1:49 am http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2004/12/19/build/world/65-russian-nukes.inc MOSCOW - Just after midnight, in a secret bunker outside Moscow, the warning sirens began to blare. A simple, ominous message flashed on the bunker's main control panel: Missile Attack! It was no drill. A Soviet satellite had detected five U.S. nuclear missiles inbound. The control computer ordered a counterstrike, but the bunker commander, a nerdy lieutenant colonel named Stanislav Petrov, acting on a hunch, overrode the computer and told his Kremlin superiors it was a false alarm. The Soviet brass quickly stood down their missiles, saving 100 million Americans from nuclear incineration. But what had the satellite really seen? Flashes of sunlight reflecting off some clouds over Minuteman silos in Montana. This brush with Armageddon happened more than two decades ago, but nuclear missiles are still on hair-trigger alert in Russia and the United States. Today, they may be even more vulnerable to an accidental or renegade launch than they were in Petrov's day. "The security of both nations should not be dependent on the heroic act or good judgment of a single individual,'' said Sam Nunn, the former senator from Georgia. Long active in anti-proliferation efforts such as the Nuclear Threat Initiative, Nunn is leading a campaign to persuade U.S. and Russian leaders to take their thousands of strategic nuclear warheads off hair-trigger alert, a status that remains in effect more than a decade after the Cold War ended. "The chances of a premeditated, deliberate nuclear attack have fallen dramatically,'' Nunn said in an interview with Knight Ridder. "But the chances of an accidental, mistaken or unauthorized nuclear attack might actually be increasing.'' In his 2000 election campaign, President Bush called the hair-trigger status "another unnecessary vestige of Cold War confrontation'' that creates "unacceptable risks.'' The first Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which took effect 10 years ago this month, doesn't address hair triggering. Nor does the Treaty of Moscow, which Bush signed with Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2002 to reduce the size of the U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear arsenals. Nunn believes the hair-trigger status has become "the most dangerous element of our force posture.'' A hair trigger means missiles are launched - either from land or sea - upon the warning of an attack. That is, within about 15 minutes of a confirmed warning. In theory, the assurance that a retaliatory attack would be launched before the missiles could be destroyed would deter either country from trying a nuclear sneak attack. "This is the logic of the Cold War - Mutual Assured Destruction,'' said Daniil O. Kobyakov, a nuclear expert at the PIR Center, a policy studies institute in Moscow. "Dealerting requires a change in rationale. There's still a certain inertia on both sides.'' Nunn and others see that inertia in the Bush administration's refusal to consider the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and its request - since defeated in the Senate - for about $500 million for research on a so-called "bunker buster'' nuclear weapon and low-yield "mini-nukes.'' Russia, too, has some Cold War inertia to overcome. Putin proudly announced last month that Russia was testing "the newest nuclear missile systems ... that other nuclear states do not have.'' He offered no further details about the weapons. A number of political analysts believe Putin's comments - which were unprepared remarks made to a group of senior commanders at the Ministry of Defense - were intended to boost military morale and for domestic political consumption. "I'm sure it was nothing surprising to the U.S.,'' said Kobyakov, noting that the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty obliges each side to provide technical data on any new nuclear weapons. Kobyakov and others believe Putin was probably referring to the Topol-M missile, which has long been in the Russian pipeline, and a sea-launched missile that's being developed. There are rumors in military circles in Moscow that the new missile could be maneuvered in flight, unlike current ballistic missiles, to foil the Bush administration's planned national missile defense system. One senior Russian general cryptically called it "a hypersonic flying vehicle.'' Government officials in both countries are keen to point out that they've stopped targeting each other with their nuclear missiles, although experts say this "detargeting'' is political hokum. The old targeting data and missile trajectories are stored in command computers, Kobyakov said. And missiles can be retargeted in a matter of seconds: A couple of mouse clicks on a computer would put Washington, Miami or Moscow back in the nuclear crosshairs. But it's the danger of accidental or maverick launches that most concerns atomic experts. That danger is heightened, in part, by the decrepit state of Russian defenses. "The Russian Early Warning System is essentially useless,'' said Theodore Postol, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an expert on early warning issues and technology. Holes in Russia's satellite and radar networks, Postol said, mean that U.S. submarines in the North Atlantic can strike Moscow with a two- or three-minute warning for the Russian capital. Launches from the North Pacific could hit the city with no warning at all. Postol also said a new Prognoz satellite warning system "may never be in place.'' Stanislav Petrov, the old bunker commander, the man who saved America back in 1983, nodded his head sadly when told of Postol's assessment. "That's right, not enough satellites,'' he said. "We never had enough.'' -------- depleted uranium ICC Probes UK’s War Crimes Charges in Iraq: Report December 19, 2004 Islam Online http://www.islamonline.org/English/News/2004-12/19/article06.shtml Chief prosecutor Ocampo described the charges as “one of the most significant” cases he has seen. CAIRO, December 19 (IslamOnline.net) – A few days after a landmark court ruling in favor of Iraqi civilians killed by British troops, the International Criminal Court is investigating charges that the British army perpetrated war crimes in the Arab country, reported a leading British newspaper on Sunday, December19 . Luis Moreno Ocampo, the chief prosecutor of The Hague-based ICC, said his office is giving “deserved weight” to the charges and is already gathering evidence to verify them, reported The Independent. He said his investigators will soon ask London, one of the main sponsors of the ICC, to explain its war strategy in Iraq. PeaceRights, a lawyers' group based at the University of Warwick, had submitted earlier in the year a dossier of war crimes committed by British soldiers in war-torn Iraq. Drafted by eight leading international law experts, it accuses the British forces of using cluster bombs and depleted uranium armor-piercing shells in Iraqi civilian areas. After the offensive on Iraq ended on April 9 last year, Iraqis began to complain about unexploded cluster bombs that still litter their cities. Eight weeks after Saddam Hussein’s ouster, unexploded cluster bombs, anti-tank mines and anti-personnel mines litter Iraq, The Observer had reported. Aid agencies said hundreds of civilians have already been maimed after tampering with unexploded cluster bombs. The victims are often young children scavenging for the valuable metal that encases the explosives. Depleted uranium (DU) used by the United States and its allies against Iraq has taken its toll on around120 , 000to140 , 000Iraqis, according to estimates by the Iraqi health ministry. In a letter, seen by The Independent, Ocampo described the charges as “one of the most significant” cases he has seen. -------- Debris removed from Starmet site Metal, drum remnants forwarded for analysis By Davis Bushnell, Boston Globe Correspondent | December 19, 2004 http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2004/12/19/debris_removed_from_starmet_site/ A cleanup crew spent the last two weeks removing metal debris and remnants of some 60 underground drums from a small area on the Starmet Corp. Superfund site in West Concord. Samples of the material, taken from a 150-by-200-foot area near a holding basin and cooling-water pond, have been sent to General Engineering Laboratory in Charleston, S.C., for analysis, said Bruce Thompson, Starmet project coordinator for De Maximis Inc. of Weatogue, Conn. The firm is conducting an investigation on how to clean up the 46-acre property off Route 62 for the five parties cited by the US Environmental Protection Agency in June 2003 for contaminating the site. In June 2001, the property went on the EPA's Superfund list, which designates hazardous-waste sites that pose a health risk. Starmet's predecessor company, Nuclear Metals Inc., made uranium-tipped bullets for the Army from 1970 to 1999. The material removed in recent days could be uranium dust and beryllium, a lightweight metallic element, Thompson said, emphasizing that monitors installed around the property's perimeter are indicating that no contaminants have been released into the air. Concord Deputy Fire Chief Chris Kelley and James West, a member of an activist group, praised the efforts of Thompson's firm. ''I'm impressed by De Maximis's professionalism," Kelley said, adding that his department has reviewed and made minor revisions to a comprehensive safety plan. West, a technical assistance coordinator for the Citizens Research and Environmental Watch group of Concord, said, ''Members of our group are really pleased that the buried material has been removed" without incident. Meanwhile, the state Department of Environmental Protection has set a Jan. 22 deadline for receiving proposals to remove more than 3,700 barrels of depleted uranium that are now being stored in Starmet buildings. The Army has agreed to pay for the removal of these barrels, which contain low levels of radioactive material. It probably will take six weeks to review the proposals and select a contractor, said Joseph Ferson, a spokesman for the state environmental agency. Work could begin in early April and last for several months, he said. Next spring, De Maximis is planning a second sampling phase, Thompson said. If everything goes according to schedule, an assessment of the risks to public health could start in the summer. The cleanup of the property is targeted to begin in 2008 or 2009, he said. Besides the Army, the other parties found responsible for contaminating the site are the US Department of Energy; Whittaker Corp. of Simi Valley, Calif.; Textron Inc. of Providence; and MONY Life Insurance Co. of New York City. -------- Bin Laden’s dirty bomb quest exposed Nick Fielding December 19, 2004 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1409055,00.html NEW evidence of Osama Bin Laden’s attempts to acquire radioactive material for a “dirty bomb” has been revealed by an aide to the Al-Qaeda leader. In a book to be published shortly, the insider shows that Bin Laden bowed to pressure from hawks within the terror group’s leadership to buy the material through supporters in Chechnya. He had initially been cautious about such a dramatic increase in its armoury. It is the first time that such a senior Al-Qaeda figure has revealed the internal tensions and debates within the group, and shows it was far less unified than had been thought. During the American bombardment of Tora Bora in Afghanistan where the leadership had fled in 2001, the book says, Al-Qaeda was hopelessly split and faith in Bin Laden declined. Bin Laden had also fallen out with Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader. Excerpts from the book appeared last week in a London-based Arabic newspaper and are believed to have been written by Abu Walid al-Misri, an Egyptian who spent years in Afghanistan where his son was killed fighting the Russians. Misri, who was with Bin Laden in Tora Bora, is thought to be one of Al-Qaeda’s leading theorists. When they fled Afghanistan, his book records, the organisation had been devastated by the death of Mohammed Atef, its military commander, killed by American bombing near Kandahar. Atef had been a leading hawk and chief advocate of obtaining weapons of mass destruction. He had wanted radioactive material to be stored on US territory for use in a fast and direct response to any aggression against Afghanistan. Bin Laden was more cautious, warning his followers that such a plan was “like a genie in a bottle” which could have untold consequences for Al-Qaeda. He was persuaded, however, by hardline supporters who argued that such weapons would give Al-Qaeda a powerful propaganda tool. They accepted that the organisation would never be able to make sophisticated weapons but only develop “primitive things” such as “dirty bombs” — where radioactive material is packed with explosives to spray a deadly cloud over an area. Atef was asked to contact Abu Khattab, a Saudi jihadist in Chechnya, in the belief that he could obtain materials from Russian nuclear facilities in the Caucasus. They never came. The Taliban, who according to Misri had “a considerable quantity of radioactive materials seized from smugglers”, failed to answer Al-Qaeda’s request. Instead, they sold most of it to Pakistan. As Afghanistan fell to coalition troops, Masri says, disquiet was growing about Bin Laden’s strategy. “It was a tragic example of an Islamic movement managed in an alarming and meaningless way. Everyone knew that their leader was leading them to the abyss.” The main criticism was that Bin Laden had substantially underestimated US determination to destroy his organisation. The Al-Qaeda leader had believed that the 9/11 attacks, coming after the East African embassy attacks and the attempted sinking of the USS Cole, would deter America from invading Afghanistan. Bin Laden had already fallen out with Mullah Omar, who had given him several warnings not to give interviews to the western media as a condition for staying in Afghanistan. Although Bin Laden had ignored them, Omar refused to hand him over to the Americans. Misri also criticises the growth in Al-Qaeda training camps, saying many of them were compromised by spies and that they lacked discipline. “The last months in the life of Al-Qaeda (in Afghanistan) were a tragic example of an Islamic movement being run in a terrible way,” he says. ----- UK 'war crimes' claims examined in The Hague By Severin Carrell UK Independent 19 December 2004 http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=594580 Claims that the UK has committed war crimes against Iraqi civilians are being examined by the International Criminal Court after complaints by a panel of legal experts. In a letter seen by The Independent on Sunday, the chief prosecutor of the ICC in The Hague has described the war crimes allegations as "one of the most significant" cases he has seen, and were being given "deserved weight" by his investigators. Luis Moreno Ocampo, the chief prosecutor, indicated that his office has now begun the formal process of gathering evidence about the claims and is now expected to ask the Government to explain its military strategy in Iraq. Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrats' foreign affairs spokesman, said the move would cause "profound concern" for the Government. Adam Price, the Plaid Cymru MP and one of the most prominent critics of the war, added: "This is a highly significant development." The allegations against the Government were submitted earlier this year by a lawyers' group called PeaceRights, based at the University of Warwick, in a dossier written by a panel of eight leading experts in international law. The panel alleged that Britain had illegally used cluster bombs in civilian areas and illegally targeted power stations, depriving civilians and hospitals of water supplies and electricity. They also allege that British use of depleted uranium armour-piercing shells was negligent. Sir Menzies said the decision to study the allegations was particularly worrying for Tony Blair's government because the UK had been one of the main driving forces behind setting up the ICC. "The UK's conduct of warfare will now be open to acute review, and British conduct and policy will be judged by higher standards than ever before," he said. -------- iran Russia may build seven more nuclear plants in Iran at US $ 10billion 19-12-2004, 07 :58 Mena Report http://www.menareport.com/en/business/178458 Head of the Russian Federation's Atomic Energy Agency Alexander Rumyantsev said on Saturday that Russia may construct seven other nuclear power plants in Iran. Speaking to Ria-Novosti news agency, he said the total cost of the projected power plants has been estimated at US $ 10billion. Iranian officials are currently studying the issue with Russia as well as some other countries, he pointed out. "We believe that Iran needs such nuclear capabilities for peaceful application of nuclear technology," he said. Russian nuclear technicians are now preparing themselves for the implementation of the project in Iran, he said. Russia is now constructing the first phase of the Bushehr nuclear power plant valued at over US $ 800million. The Bushehr nuclear power plant is to become operational by2006 . -------- israel Nobel laureate compares Israeli nuclear arms to gas chambers By The Associated Press Sun., December 19, 2004 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/516461.html Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire on Sunday compared Israel's alleged nuclear arsenal to Hitler's gas chambers and called on Israel to lift travel restrictions on nuclear whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu. Maguire, awarded the 1976 prize for her Northern Ireland peace campaign, was at the prison gates to welcome Vanunu when he was released in April after serving an 18-year sentence for disclosing Israel's nuclear secrets. "When I think about nuclear weapons, I've been to Auschwitz concentration camp," Maguire said during a joint press conference with Vanunu in Jerusalem. "Nuclear weapons are only gas chambers perfected... and for a people who know what gas chambers are, how can you even think of building perfect gas chambers?" Israeli foreign ministry officials were unavailable for comment. In the past, Israeli officials have expressed disgust at comparisons between Israel and the Nazis, who systematically murdered 6 million Jews during World War II in an attempt to wipe out all the Jews of Europe. Israel follows a policy of nuclear ambiguity, neither confirming nor denying it has nuclear arms. Since being freed from prison, Vanunu has been under rigid Israeli restrictions barring him from traveling abroad or speaking to foreigners, a prohibition he regularly flouts. Vanunu said at the press conference that he has become estranged from his biological family and wants to spend Christmas in St. Paul, Minnesota with his adoptive parents, peace activists Nick and Mary Eoloff. "I, as a Christian, am demanding from Israel, let me go and celebrate Christmas with my family and my friends around the world," he said. "They should give me my total freedom, I suffered 18 years in isolation in prison. They should not continue to punish me." -------- korea N. Korea Started Nuclear Reactor in February 2003 2004/12/19 (Yonhap) http://english.yna.co.kr/Engnews/20041219/301100000020041219224646E7.html SEOUL, Dec. 19 -- North Korea has operated a nuclear reactor to generate electricity at its Yongbyon nuclear plant since February 2003, informed sources said Sunday. On Thursday, a Vienna-based North Korean diplomat told a Japanese media organization that the communist country had started producing electricity at the plant. But the news is nothing new, they pointed out. -------- russia Man who prevented attack lives quietly Commander told bosses message was false alarm, later retired from military By Mark McDonald Washington Bureau Posted on Sun, Dec. 19, 2004 http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/nation/10452606.htm FRIAZINO, Russia | The man who saved America - and possibly the world - from a nuclear attack is living out his days on a small pension in a dank apartment in a suburb of Moscow. He has a bad stomach, varicose veins and a spotted dog named Jack the Ripper. Stanislav Petrov takes Jack for walks, makes a medicinal tea from herbs he picks in a nearby park and harangues his 34-year-old son about getting off the computer and finding a girlfriend. There was a time when Petrov, 65 and a widower, was almost larger than life. He was a privileged member of the Soviet Union's military elite, a lieutenant colonel on the fast track to a generalship. He was educated and trustworthy, and that's why he was in the commander's chair Sept. 26, 1983, the night the world nearly blew apart. Tensions were high: On Sept. 1, 1983, Soviet fighters shot down a Korean airliner, killing all 269 people aboard. Petrov was in charge of the secret bunker where a team of 120 technicians and military officers monitored the Soviet Union's early warning system. It was just after midnight when a new satellite array known as Oko, or The Eye, spotted five U.S. missiles heading toward Moscow. The Eye discerned they were Minuteman II nuclear missiles. Petrov's computer was demanding he follow the prescribed protocol and confirm an incoming attack to his superiors. A red light on the computer saying START! kept flashing at him. A message said: MISSILE ATTACK! Petrov wrote the emergency protocol, and he knew he should pick up the hot line at his desk to tell his military superiors the country was being attacked. He also knew the timeline was short. The senior political and military chiefs in the Kremlin would have 12 minutes or so to wake up, get to their phones, digest Petrov's information and decide on a counterattack. The son of a Soviet air force pilot from Vladivostok, Petrov had had a whiz-kid career as a military engineer trained in Kiev. He earned top honors in school, then joined the army and the Communist Party. Membership was the only way to have a full-throttled career in those days, and he was promoted right along. He landed a job working on the Soviets' first system of early warning satellites. In the Soviet era, there were few positions more high-tech, important or secret. As the alarms blared, 80 technicians and 40 military officers jumped up and looked toward Petrov's command post on a mezzanine overlooking the gymnasium-size control room. He shouted into an intercom for them to take their seats and attend to their work. "I was not sweating, but I felt very weak in my legs," Petrov said. "Like our Russian saying goes, I had legs of cotton. I was in a stupor, but then my feeling of duty took over." Petrov looked at the data coming from The Eye. Why only five missiles? That didn't fit with his training or logic. He knew that if the United States were going to launch a first strike, it would unleash hell, with hundreds of missiles. "Political relations with the United States couldn't have been any worse at the time," he said. "But to launch such an attack, one would have to be completely crazy." So Petrov called his superiors and reported that it was a false alarm. Personally, though, he wasn't sure. "Not 100 percent sure," he said. "Not even close to 100 percent." The next 15 minutes were unnerving. "Yes, terrifying," he said. "Most unpleasant." Soviet engineers eventually discovered that The Eye had sounded the alarm when it spotted what it thought was the engine flare from five U.S. missiles. The satellite really saw flashes of sunlight reflecting off some clouds over silos in Montana. A military panel investigated the incident, which was kept secret until 1993, and they found numerous other technical problems with The Eye. Computer-assembly technicians in Moldova were blamed. Thereafter, all satellite assemblies were done in Ukraine. No decorations or rewards have been given to the officers involved in the incident. Petrov, who went through the crisis with an intercom to his staff in one hand and the telephone to his bosses in the other, was reprimanded for not filling out his log book as events unfolded. He was denied further promotion, but Petrov denies that he was persecuted by his military bosses and Soviet political commissars. He said he continued to work command shifts in the bunker. Petrov left the military in 1984, moved to a technical division and retired in 1993 to care for his ailing wife. He said that when she died of a brain tumor, he "had to borrow the money to bury her properly." -------- terrorism The political uses of poison Correspondents Report - Sunday, 19 December , 2004 Reporter: Fran Kelly Australia Broadcasting http://www.abc.net.au/correspondents/content/2004/s1268249.htm HAMISH ROBERTSON: Last week, the Ukrainian Opposition leader, Viktor Yushchenko, demanded and won a new investigation into how he was poisoned in the months before the presidential elections. Mr Yushchenko almost died after ingesting one of the world's most toxic substances – Dioxin – which transformed his glamorous good looks into a grotesque parody of his former appearance, a kind of Dorian Gray with pockmarks. Viktor Yuschenko is convinced he was posioned by the Ukrainian authorities. He fell ill in September after dining with the head of Ukraine's security services, a social engagement which with hindsight may have been extremely unwise. There's a long history of political assassinations by poisoning in Eastern Europe, and perhaps the most famous was the murder of Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov in 1978, who was injected with the poison ricin while waiting at a London bus stop. Our Europe correspondent Fran Kelly has been speaking to espionage historian Nigel West about this dubious tradition. FRAN KELLY: Nigel West, the story of Victor Yuschenko's poisoning seems like something from another era. Is it really possible that Ukrainian security agents were responsible for his poisoning and almost death? NIGEL WEST: The answer is almost certainly yes. They have the background and the means – whether or not there has been the political power or willingness to exercise that threat is quite another matter. FRAN KELLY: In the case of Viktor Yuschenko, they believe it was dioxin poisoning. It seems an extreme measure to take. Is poisoning to get people out of the way an unusual technique for hired assassins? Is it something sort of at the edge of their repertoire or is it essential to it? NIGEL WEST: The general principle of assassination falls into just a few categories. Firstly, those assassinations where it is pretty obvious – that's the bomb and the bullet. Secondly, there is the concealed assassination, where it could be a helicopter crash or a road accident, where nobody is absolutely certain that an assassination has taken place. And then you have the assassination where it is unknown that an assassination has taken place – that is the administration of some kind of toxin or poison that is undetected in a forensic examination, and there are plenty of examples of those over the years – the use of prussic acid in gas form, for example, which mimics the symptoms of cardiac arrest, or the use of plutonium dust, which develops virulent cancers and kills people within a few months. FRAN KELLY: The plutonium dust, for instance, how was that used, and was that another Eastern European government using poisoning as a mechanism? NIGEL WEST: Yes. The plutonium dust was revealed to Western intelligence agencies – it had never been suspected – by a man called General Jan Potcheypa (phonetic) who had been the director of the Rumanian intelligence service. He defected with his family in 1977 and revealed this, and he also identified three of his service's victims who had worked for Radio Free Europe in Munich and had hitherto believed to have died natural deaths. The fact that plutonium dust was used of course indicates a degree of state sponsorship. Plutonium dust is not something that you can buy over the counter, and it is absolutely lethal, and in this particular case, or in these cases, the dust was placed surreptitiously into the desk, the work drawers, of the target, so that when they came in the morning, they opened their desk, the dust was invisible, it was revealed, ingested, and then would create the tumours. FRAN KELLY: Very James Bond-like. Is there a long list of these examples? I mean, we've heard of the Bulgarian defector being struck with what I think was a poison umbrella tip or something like that. These kind of spy story examples – what are the most high profile incidents we know of, of this kind of poisoning? NIGEL WEST: Well, probably the best documented and indeed Ukrainian case was the assassination of Stepan Bandera, who was the Ukrainian nationalist leader in Germany. Now, we are only aware that he didn't die of a massive coronary thrombosis because the hitman who assassinated him, a man called Bogdan Stashinsky, subsequently defected. And his instrument of choice was a very unusual weapon which crushed an ampule of prussic acid, turned it into gas form, and that fired into the face of the victim, left the victim dead within three seconds, but most interestingly in terms of an autopsy was that he showed all the signs of natural death – a massive coronary thrombosis. FRAN KELLY: Most of these cases we're talking about are now decades ago. Viktor Yushchenko is now, and I think that's why people are so surprised. Should we be so surprised? I mean, had this practice ceased, and is this a sign that it's restarting again? NIGEL WEST: This is a skill that is never going to go away. Once the genie is out of the box, the knowledge is going to be there, there will be people who will be aware of all of this, and of course the research is important, if only for use to develop antidotes. So, we shouldn't be surprised to that extent. The only thing that is odd about this particular case is the choice of dioxin, and of all the toxins around, dioxin is a sort of slightly odd accumulative poison to select for this particular purpose, and I guess that you could also say that it is a little bit surprising that this particular victim appears to have survived the attack. FRAN KELLY: So what does that tell you? That it perhaps wasn't the work of an experienced intelligence agent? NIGEL WEST: Well, the choice of dioxin is a very curious one, I mean, it is odd for a state sponsored organisation or a skilled individual to select that. It just may be that they didn't have the resources, didn't have the alternatives available, and that might indicate that it wasn't necessarily state sponsored but more freelance or renegade operation. FRAN KELLY: And with your experience and knowledge, were you surprised to hear of Victor Yushchenko's poisoning, and did it indicate to you that perhaps these practices are going to start occurring again? NIGEL WEST: Well, I hope they don't occur again, but it is certainly the case that of course these skills are available, they're around in Eastern Europe, and it would be quite surprising if the practice of the last 50 years, if not the last few centuries, was completely abandoned. I mean, it is a little tough, I think, to expect the new democracies to conform to everything in Western life within a matter of a few years. HAMISH ROBERTSON: The writer and espionage historian, Nigel West. -------- u.n. UN atomic agency in forefront of non-proliferation fight in 2004 VIENNA (AFP) Dec 19, 2004 http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041219034945.m2j22b48.html In a year 2004 that saw the very foundations of the world's non-proliferation regime tested, the UN atomic agency battled to ensure Iran was not developing nuclear weapons while trying in vain to get inspectors back into Iraq and North Korea. It was a high-profile year for International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, who campaigned for a strengthening of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) which mandates the IAEA's work verifying international atomic safeguards. The spotlight was on Iran, which the IAEA has been investigating for two years and which the United States has alleged was part of "an axis of evil" and hiding nuclear weapons development. Tehran denies the charge, saying its atomic program is a peaceful effort to develop nuclear power for electricity. But the IAEA documented in 2004 continuing gaps in Iran's reporting of its nuclear activities, including work on sophisticated centrifuges for enriching uranium, althoguh ElBaradei acknowledged the "jury is still out" on whether Tehran has a covert weapons program. The year began with the unraveling of a deal Britain, France and Germany, had struck with Iran to suspend uranium enrichment, a key part of the nuclear fuel cycle. The year ended with the confidence-building deal patched back together, and endorsed by the IAEA at a meeting of its 35-nation board of governors in Vienna in November. This left the European trio and Iran free to embark in December on negotiations on a long-term agreement setting out rewards for Tehran in return for a full suspension of uranium enrichment, the process which makes nuclear fuel for civilian power reactors, but which in a highly refined form could also be used as the explosive core of atomic bombs. But the United States, which lobbied unsuccessfully in 2004 for the IAEA to take Iran to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions, remained sceptical that Tehran was coming clean even if Washington, burdened by the ongoing insurgency in Iraq, took a back seat and gave the European negotiations a chance. Diplomats said however the talks could not succeed unless Washington eventually takes part, since Iran cannot get rewards such as joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) or receiving regional security guarantees without US support. In a sign of continuing concern about Iran's intentions, diplomats close to the IAEA said in December that Tehran was conducting secret high-energy neutron experiments, allegedly taking place under military supervision, that could be destined for civilian purposes or aimed at making nuclear weapons. ElBaradei also campaigned in 2004 to fix a loophole in the NPT which does not ban enriching uranium, for example. He said in March after talks with US President George W. Bush: "The important thing is to try to see how we can move the agenda of the non-proliferation regime forward." ElBaradei wants to eliminate the danger that nuclear fuel declared for peaceful uses could also be used to make atomic bombs by having a multilateral body make the fuel, rather than letting individual states do it. ElBaradei said in Geneva in October that tighter global controls on the export of nuclear material and technology must be included in a bolstered NPT up for debate in 2005, particularly after revelations about a nuclear smuggling network run by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb. ElBaradei also said no country should be allowed to bow out of the NPT "without clear consequences" before the UN Security Council. North Korea kicked out IAEA inspectors and withdrew from the NPT in 2003 after it revived the Yongbyon nuclear reactor, marking the first time any country has withdrawn from a multilateral arms control treaty. North Korea now claims it has made several atomic bombs. The IAEA wants to return its inspectors to North Korea and also to Iraq, where they have not been allowed since the US invasion in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein. The IAEA was more successful in 2004 in Libya, where it oversaw the nuclear side of Libya's dismantling of its weapons of mass destruction programs, under an agreement Tripoli reached in December 2003 with the US and Britain. Meanwhile, ElBaradei will be trying in 2005 to get a third four-year-term as IAEA chief, but the United States opposes this. ---- Powell confirms he told ElBaradei to quit Big News Network.com Sunday 19th December, 2004 http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=c9a6d3ce60a23a70 In an extraordinary admission U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell confirmed Friday he told the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency to step down. Powell says he told IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei last summer he should stand aside at the end of his second term. The U.S. this week publicly called for ElBaradei's removal and has even approached the Foreign Minister of close ally Australia, Alexander Downer, to stand against him. The U.S. is reportedly unhappy with ElBaradei's assessment of Iraq's weapons programes prior to the U.S.-led invasion of that country, and the progress of the UN weapons inspectors in Iraq, for which ElBaradei shared responsibility with then-chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix. The U.S. is also concerned ElBaradei is soft on Iran, a country that it appears to be seeking to involve in a conflict. Powell's admission is astonishing particularly in light of his own horrifically flawed, erroneous, and partly fraudulent assessment of Iraq's weapons programs which he delivered to the UN in the weeks leading up to the invasion. Powell's assessment, which is also credited with convincing the American public of the necessity of war, was later proved to be false in almost every respect. The targeting of ElBaradei almost simultaneously with calls by some U.S. lawmakers for the toppling of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, demonstrates a willingness by the administration to punish those that opposed its intervention in Iraq, notwithstanding that those that opposed the invasion have been totally vindicated, and the administration's case for war totally discredited. Powell, in an interview with The Associated Press this week however was quick to disconnect calls for ElBaradei's removal from the Iraq issue. He said it should not have come as a surprise when the State Department went public with its plan to remove ElBaradei. Powell and his deputy Richard Boucher on Monday said the sole U.S. reason for trying to remove ElBaradei was an informal agreement among some 14 countries that leaders of UN and other international bodies should serve no more than two terms. "We see no reason why this shouldn't be the case with the IAEA," Powell told The Associated Press. "And this shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. Dr. ElBaradei and I talked about this over the summer." Powell said the administration was unanimous in its view. There is little question that ElBaradei has done a thorough job largely reporting and assessing facts which have turned out to be far more accurate than it would appear some would have liked. ElBaradei's agency took one hour to establish a claim, peddled for months by the Bush administration and used by President Bush in his State of the Union speech, was fraudulent. At a time of heightened uncertainty in the world it is somewhat unsettling that a person of the capability and integrity of the Egyptian diplomat should be discarded as a measure of pay-back. Alexander Downer, the Australian Foreign Minister confirmed this week he was approached by the United States to compete with ElBaradei for his job. Downer said he would not stand against ElBaradei and threw his country's weight behind his retention. Powell said "a number of people had expressed interest" in succeeding ElBaradei in the U.N. post, but he did not identify them. Once everyone accepts the two-term rule, Powell said, "then I think you will generate candidates. People will say, 'Look, OK, the job is a possibility, it's open so I will offer myself as a candidate.'" "I know a number of individuals who feel that way," he told The Associated Press. Powell did not comment on the allegation that surfaced this week that the U.S. had been spying on ElBaradei and bugging his phone in an effort to obtain ammunition to use to obtain his ouster. Meantime China has joined a growing chorus of countries to support ElBaradei in his quest for a third term. "ElBaradei has done a lot of valuable work in leading the IAEA and safeguarded the function and credibility of the organisation's anti-proliferation efforts", Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told reporters in Beijing. "We are appreciative of his work and we support his seeking of a new term as Director-General of the IAEA", he said. Just as ElBaradei and Annan feel the effects of the unwritten, "You're either with us or against us" policy, three favorites of the administration, all intrically involved with the Iraq invasion, were publicly paraded as heroes this week. On Wednesday President Bush honored former CentCom commander General Tommy Franks, former CIA Director George Tenet, and the former head of the Iraq Provisional Authority Paul Bremmer, bestowing on each of them the presidential medal of freedom. At the same time the U.S. administration was undermining ElBaradei this week too it was reeling from the withdrawal of the nomination of former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik as secretary of homeland security. It appears Kerik's credentials weren't checked out closely enough. -------- UK secretly backs removal of nuclear chief By Clayton Hirst UK Independent 19 December 2004 http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=594476 The British government, while publicly supporting the efforts of Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the UN's nuclear watchdog, to stop Iran developing nuclear weapons, is secretly backing US plans to remove him. The US State Department and the CIA were last week reported to have tapped phone conversations with Iranian officials by Dr ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in an attempt to gather information that could discredit him. The Bush administration believes that Dr ElBaradei is taking too soft a line on Iran. In public Britain is closer to the IAEA position than Washington's: with Germany and France, it has led an EU initiative to persuade Iran to freeze its nuclear development. While the US refuses to rule out the use of force, the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, has described bombing Iran's facilities as "inconceivable". It had been assumed that Britain was also well-disposed towards Dr ElBaradei, who has said he plans to seek a third term next year as IAEA chief, but a well-placed Whitehall source revealed that officials had secretly backed US moves to replace him. The Foreign Office gave its support to the plan weeks ago, and the Department of Trade and Industry, in charge of Britain's nuclear regulation, was also behind the move, according to the source. Dr ElBaradei has angered Britain and the US by contradicting their claims that Iraq was seeking to reconstitute its nuclear programme. The Foreign Office refused to comment, but behind the scenes it is justifying its decision to back the Americans on a technicality known as the "Geneva rule". This says senior UN officials should serve no more than two terms, which would bring Dr ElBaradei's tenure to an end next summer. Some of the IAEA's 35 board members are understood to want the 62-year-old Egyptian to stay on for a third term. To prevent his re-election, the US, backed by Britain, need to obtain 12 votes against him. The Washington Post reported last week that the US campaign is being driven by John Bolton, the hardline under-secretary of state for arms control, adding that the Americans would like to see Alexander Downer, the Australian Foreign Minister, as the new IAEA chief. Mr Downer has acknowledged being approached about the job, but is thought to be unwilling to mount a direct challenge to Dr ElBaradei, who has worked for the IAEA for 20 years. The dozens of taps on his phone are not thought to have uncovered any evidence to use against him. A spokes-woman for the Vienna-based IAEA said she was not surprised that Dr ElBaradei's phone had been tapped, but refused to comment further. Tehran, however, has said "it does not matter" who heads the IAEA. "We are not co-operating with the people of the IAEA, but ... with an international agency," said Hassan Rowhani, of Iran's Supreme National Security Council. -------- u.s. nuc facilities -------- colorado Feds back visitor plan for future Flats refuge Sunday, December 19, 2004 Denver Post mailto:newsroom@denverpost.com http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2607032,00.html The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service endorsed a plan Friday that would let visitors roam 16 miles of trails across a scenic, wind-swept plateau that once housed the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant. A state health official said the 6,240-acre site will be safe for public use after a $7 billion cleanup of plutonium, but an activist disagreed. "It's really unwise to allow public recreation on a site that's still contaminated with some levels of plutonium and toxic materials," said LeRoy Moore of the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center. The cleanup of the site, set against the foothills northwest of Denver, is expected to be complete in 2006, and the refuge could open in 2008. Parts would remain off-limits because of buried wastes, but officials say the cleanup will remove surface contamination. Advertisement The Fish and Wildlife Service's draft management plan and environmental impact statement, released Friday, include four alternatives. The agency's preferred option includes hiking, cycling, horseback riding and some hunting. Most of the trails would use existing roads. A seasonally staffed visitor center, parking and developed overlooks would be constructed. The agency proposed removing unused roads, preserving the habitat of a federally protected mouse species and managing native plants, deer, elk and prairie dogs. The preferred option will likely become the final plan early next year unless some new and significant obstacle surfaces, said Mark Sattelberg, a Fish and Wildlife Service biologist at Rocky Flats. -------- MILITARY -------- britain Anti-war sentiment in Britain worsens army recruitment problem: report LONDON (AFP) Dec 19, 2004 http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041218233754.7fjbeo03.html Senior British army commanders believe popular opposition to the war in Iraq has worsened existing problems in recruiting young people for the armed forces, a newspaper reported Sunday. "The anti-war movement is exacerbating our recruitment problems," one senior source told the The Observer. "The effects have been particularly noticeable in Scotland, but are spreading to the north of England and we're beginning to see it as well in the west," according to the source who was not named. Senior officers also blame the recruitment crisis on social changes, including a more mobile workforce, greater access to further education and a change in the expectations of young people, The Observer said. However, they said it has been worsened by an anti-war movement led by parents who have lost sons in Iraq and supported by celebrities and political figures, according to The Observer. Other sources have reported parents refusing to sign consent forms for junior soldiers to sign up, the newspaper said. In some cases, local officials who have strong anti-war sentiments are also refusing permission for recruitment officers to put up stands at certain venues, it added. New figures reveal that the number of recruits joining Scotland's six regiments has fallen sharply this year, it said. Problems with recruitment was one of the reasons given to justify the controversial decision to merge Scotland's regiments into one super regiment, it said. Thousands of campaigners marched in the Scottish capital of Edinburgh to the protest the merger plans. A source in one of Scotland's regiments dismissed claims that there was a recruitment crisis. "Some of the regiments have had their recruitment targets halved by the Ministry of Defence as part of their plans to save money on wages and training," the source said. Another military source told the newspaper that he expected the anti-war movement to have a more significant impact on the Territorial Army, a force of volunteer reservists. "People join the Territorials for a hobby," he said, adding they don't expect to end up in Iraq and take casualties. -------- mideast Saudi de facto ruler to shun Gulf summit amid row over US trade deals MANAMA (AFP) Dec 19, 2004 http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041219163452.rjv2vspp.html Saudi Crown Prince and de facto ruler Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz will not attend the Gulf summit opening Monday, a Gulf official told AFP, amid differences between Riyadh and its partners over free trade deals with the United States. "Crown Prince Abdullah will not participate in the summit. The Saudi delegation will be headed by Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal," the official said requesting anonymity. He did not give the reason for the crown prince's boycott, but the news comes amid objections by Riyadh to a free trade accord signed in September between Bahrain and the United States. Other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, which apart from Bahrain and Saudi Arabia groups Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, plan to sign similar deals, which could further alienate Riyadh. However, Saudi Defense Minister Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz is to head Riyadh's delegation to the summit instead, officials said later Sunday. Sultan, who is number three in the Saudi hierarchy, will lead the oil-rich kingdom's delegation, said a Gulf official in Manama and a statement issued by the royal court in Riyadh. The Gulf official who earlier announced Abdullah's boycott to AFP, had said that Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal would lead the delegation. -------- russia / chechnya News Analysis: Putin Uses Power, and Loses Favor By STEVEN LEE MYERS NY TIMES Published: December 19, 2004 http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/19/international/europe/19putin.html MOSCOW, Dec. 18 - President Vladimir V. Putin's steady accretion of power over Russian business, as over politics and society, hit another obstacle, this time in a courthouse in faraway Houston. This is fast becoming a trend. The United States Bankruptcy Court acted to restrain Russia's gas monopoly and its potential lenders from taking part in the auctioning of Yukos Oil's main subsidiary. That ruling, on Thursday, will probably not save the oil company from its state-orchestrated annihilation. But by calling the auction's legality into question, the court delivered an unambiguous blow to Mr. Putin. It undercut his efforts to cast himself as a reform-minded democrat and laid bare, in a legal forum, widely held worries about the course Russia is taking under his presidency. For Mr. Putin - who for years projected an image as a steady, reliable partner to the world, authoritarian in aspects perhaps, but not reckless or openly hostile to the West's interests - this is the latest in a series of unusual missteps. Ever a pragmatic, careful tactician, he has stumbled repeatedly in recent months, finding his policies, even his instincts, out of step on an international stage that he not long ago navigated deftly. In Ukraine's recent election, Mr. Putin violated diplomatic norms by openly supporting the presidential candidate favoring closer ties to Russia and even campaigning on his behalf. When the election results were marred by allegations of fraud, Mr. Putin rushed, twice, to declare his support for the candidate, Prime Minister Viktor F. Yanukovich - only to watch angrily as Mr. Yanukovich's "victory" was challenged by his European counterparts and ultimately overturned by another legal institution, in this case, Ukraine's Supreme Court. Ukraine's election, the Yukos affair, even recent legal decisions in the United States and Britain to grant political asylum to leaders of Chechnya's separatist movement - all have in effect displayed the world's lack of confidence in Mr. Putin's policies, as well as Russia's judicial and law enforcement organs. And they have soured more than diplomatic relations. They have also raised questions about Russia's reliability as an ally, as a country in which to invest, as a member in good standing of the increasingly intertwined global market, one bound by certain minimal standards. Here in Russia, Mr. Putin's political popularity may not be at risk, because the Kremlin strictly controls not only state television, but also the legislature and most every institution that could conceivably amount to a base of opposition. But his recent stumblings filter through nevertheless, and from unusual public criticism to pointed derision in newspapers, the cracks in Mr. Putin's once rock-hard reputation appear to have widened. Stanislav A. Belkovsky, the president of the National Security Institute who not long ago was viewed as closely aligned with the Kremlin, has turned into an ardent critic, saying Mr. Putin's miscalculations in Ukraine and with Yukos are harming his standing as Russia's paramount leader. "Putin has no idea of legitimacy," Mr. Belkovsky said, speaking of his miscalculations in supporting Mr. Yanukovich, despite the questions about the legitimacy of the election results. "He does not consider legitimacy a social and political phenomenon." Mr. Putin's pointed public statements following the Ukraine debacle - in India, he denounced the foreign policy of President Bush, a man whose own re-election he championed - appeared to be, Mr. Belkovsky said, "the feelings of a weak person offended by someone." In the extreme, Russia could find itself more and more isolated in world business and diplomacy, despite Mr. Putin's effort to restore the country as an important player, if not the superpower the Soviet Union once was. In some ways, it is already happening. Olga V. Kryshtanovskaya, a scholar at the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, who has closely studied Mr. Putin and his aides, suggested that many of those around Mr. Putin "do not understand what the global world is," that Russia's role in international affairs also meant accepting the accepted rules of international affairs. The ruling in Houston - out of left field - exposed that. -------- us Democrats demand answers on troops' armor Updated 12/19/2004 4:05 PM (AP) http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-12-18-democrats-armor_x.htm CHICAGO — The incoming deputy leader of Senate Democrats demanded answers Saturday from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as to why U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan lack protective equipment for themselves and their vehicles. "We can, and we should, armor every Humvee and every truck our troops use in Iraq and Afghanistan," Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said in his party's weekly radio address. "No more excuses, no more delays. We can save hundreds of lives and prevent thousands of serious injuries." Congress has given the Bush administration all the defense spending it has requested, yet there are still 3,500 Humvees without protective armor and about 44,000 soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan without adequate body armor, Durbin said. "The Pentagon says the lack of protective equipment is a matter of 'logistics,'" Durbin said. "No, it's not. It's a matter of leadership." Durbin said Rumsfeld ignored warnings from top military experts that success in Iraq would require far more troops and that they were likely to meet strong resistance. "Those responsible for planning this war were not prepared for the reality on the ground, and many of our soldiers have paid the price," said Durbin, who will become the Senate's minority whip in the new Congress next month. Durbin said the "most valuable gift" America's troops received this holiday season may be a soldier's question to Rumsfeld at a town-hall meeting in Kuwait this month about why American soldiers in Kuwait and Iraq scavenge in junk piles for steel plates to protect their Humvees and trucks. "It's a question a lot of us have been asking for some time now," the senator said. "Secretary Rumsfeld, we have the Army we want. Now let's give them the equipment they need," he said. An increasing number of Republicans have joined Democrats in criticizing the lack of armor and other aspects of Rumsfeld's conduct of the war. The secretary, however, drew support Friday from the Senate's top two GOP officials, Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee and Whip Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. As Democratic whip, Durbin replaces Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, who was elevated to minority leader following Sen. Tom Daschle's loss in the November election. ---- White House pushes for cuts in Pentagon spending: report WASHINGTON (AFP) Dec 19, 2004 http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041219194839.uleuuroe.html The White House is pressing the Pentagon to rein in its spending, and is urging a reduction of tens of billions of dollars in the US military budget over the next several years, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. The Times reported that the US Defense Department is scrambling to find areas that can be cut, with the Air Force and Navy likely to lose as much as five billion dollars each in 2006. Sources told the daily that White House and Pentagon officials tangled last week over a proposed cut of 60 billion dollars over the next six years. The move would signal an end to the George W. Bush administration's massive defense buildup following the September 11, 2001 attacks, and comes just weeks before the president submits his 2006 budget to Congress. Treasury Secretary John Snow said the new budget would call for sizeable cuts, but declined to say which parts of government would be affected. "I don't want to forecast the new budget, which will be out soon, but there will be actual cuts in many programs as a result of this year's budget proposal," Snow told CNN. "I'm going to wait until we bring the budget out to have the details. But everything is being looked at and put under the microscope." The White House move to reduce Pentagon spending comes amid rising US budget deficits and growing costs for the Iraq war, currently at about 4.4 billion dollars a month. The cuts would not affect military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan however, which are financed by separate emergency allocations. The Pentagon reportedly is at work on the latest such supplemental war budget to present to the US Congress in 2005, which could total as much as 80 billion dollars, according to the daily. ---- Pentagon Pressed to Cut Its Budgets The post-9/11 defense buildup ends as the nation faces a soaring deficit The reductions won't affect operations in Iraq and Afghanistan By Mark Mazzetti Los Angeles Times Staff Writer December 19, 2004 http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news2/latimes458.html WASHINGTON — The White House is pressing Pentagon officials to cut tens of billions of dollars from their proposed budgets over the next several years, signaling that the Bush administration's massive defense buildup in the years following the Sept. 11 attacks is coming to an end. The White House move to rein in Pentagon spending — described by defense officials and outside experts monitoring the negotiations — comes as the nation faces rising budget deficits and growing costs for the Iraq war, currently about $4.4 billion a month. The Pentagon budget cuts will not affect spending on the war in Iraq and operations in Afghanistan, which are paid through separate emergency allocations. The Pentagon is preparing a supplemental war budget for 2005 that officials said could total $80 billion, up from $66 billion the previous year. If the Pentagon's emergency supplemental budget for 2005 is approved, Congress could end up authorizing nearly $500 billion for the Department of Defense for the fiscal year. Yet only weeks before President Bush submits his 2006 budget to Congress, the military services are scrambling to find areas that can be cut. The Air Force and Navy could be hit especially hard, with each branch possibly losing $4 billion to $5 billion in 2006, officials said. The Navy also controls the budget of the Marine Corps. Although the amount of the reductions has not been decided, officials at the Pentagon and the White House's Office of Management and Budget last week wrangled over a proposed cut of $60 billion over the next six years, according to a source familiar with the negotiations. The White House moves were not entirely unexpected. Defense officials said they had been planning for months for the likelihood that 2006 spending not directly related to the Iraq war could be scaled back. The Pentagon's budget for fiscal 2001, which began Oct. 1, 2000, was $310 billion. For fiscal 2002, which was approved before the Sept. 11 attacks, it was $317 billion, and in subsequent years, rose to $355 billion, $368 billion and $416 billion. These figures do not include supplemental appropriations for war-fighting efforts. In February, the Pentagon estimated it would need $424 billion for 2006 and $445 billion for 2007, not including supplemental funding. Officials say those figures could both end up shrinking by $10 billion and that similar cuts could occur in subsequent years. The buildup has meant big budget increases for the individual military services. The Department of the Navy has seen its budget rise 20% over the last three years to roughly $120 billion. The Air Force budget has had a similar increase. Those days are about to end. "We're not going to see the size of budgets that we've seen in the past," said one senior defense official. "We had already planned to tighten our belts this year." The budget cutting will not be easy, especially since the military services have spent months pouring over spreadsheets to assess their needs for the next fiscal year. "There's a sense that the buildup is really over, and that the cuts could be substantial going forward," said Andrew Krepinevich of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a defense think tank in Washington. "There stand to be some really big, tough choices that have to be made as we face the new budget realities." White House officials have not publicly discussed their specific plans for next year's Pentagon budgets, yet they have been warning that all branches of government will be expected to share the burden of spending restraint. "The deficit … is going to require some tough choices on the spending side," President Bush said Thursday in remarks at the White House's economic forum. "We're going to submit a tough budget, and I look forward to working with Congress on the tough budget." Bush said the annual growth in discretionary spending not related to defense or domestic secrurity had been reduced from 15% in 2001 to 1% in 2005. But he said more spending discipline was needed to begin confronting the budget deficit. With several expensive weapons systems in development and production at the Pentagon, the military services may have to reconsider the number of new jets, ships and helicopters that can be purchased over the next several years. Weapons systems that officials said could be scaled back were the Air Force's stealth F-22 fighter and the Navy's planned new fleet of submarines. Upon becoming Defense secretary in 2001, Donald H. Rumsfeld indicated he would seek cuts in many weapons systems first envisioned during the Cold War. During his tenure, the Army has killed the Crusader heavy artillery system and the Comanche reconnaissance helicopter program. Yet some critics have charged that the military services have thus far won most budget battles with Rumsfeld and protected their most prized weapons. But the insurgency in Iraq has forced war planners to keep far more troops in Iraq than they originally had expected, boosting the costs of military operations in the country and pressuring budget analysts at the Pentagon to seek cuts in future weaponry. "The Iraqi insurgents have managed to do what Don Rumsfeld in four years has not managed to do, which is bring about cutbacks in a lot of these Cold War-era weapons," said Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute, a think tank based in Arlington, Va. Some believe that the belt tightening may actually help Rumsfeld as he prepares for the Pentagon's 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review, or QDR, a top-to-bottom assessment that will chart the course for U.S. defense spending for the next four years. Smaller budgets could give Rumsfeld leverage in forcing the military services to make tough decisions about which weapons to keep and which to kill. "There are hard choices to make, so this could turn into the perfect storm if you really want something significant to come out of this QDR," Krepinevich said. Chad Kolton, a spokesman at the Office of Management and Budget, would not comment about the White House move to scale back the Pentagon's budgets. But Kolton pointed out that the Defense Department had received substantial budget increases for its personnel and weaponry since Bush came to office. "At this point, the budget is not finished yet. The president still has a lot of decisions to make," he said. * Times staff writer Warren Vieth in Washington contributed to this report -------- POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE -------- homeland security / national intelligence Tightest security ever planned for presidential inauguration 12/19/2004 (AP) http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-12-19-dc-inauguration_x.htm WASHINGTON — President Bush will be sworn in next month for a second term amid the tightest security in inaugural history, with police planning to search every one of the tens of thousands of people expected to line the parade route. Behind the scenes, thousands of specialized law enforcement and military personnel will stand ready to respond to any emergency. Security planners say they have seen no intelligence indicating terrorists will attempt to target the first inauguration since al-Qaeda's attack against the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. But authorities are preparing for the worst, even as they strive for as open and accessible an event as possible. "We are aware we are at war," said Terrance W. Gainer, police chief at the Capitol, where the ceremony will be held. "The whole world will truly be watching. We have to be on guard." The Jan. 20 inauguration is the latest in a string of major events highly symbolic of U.S. democracy — the Democratic and Republican party conventions last summer and the election itself in November. Counterterrorism officials have warned since spring that al-Qaeda operatives are interested in disrupting the democratic process. Inauguration Security Glance Important components of security preparations for President Bush's Jan. 20 inauguration: Enhanced security checkpoints at ceremony and along parade route. Each spectator to undergo a search, go through a metal detector, or both. More fencing and a wider buffer zone around parade route, with more streets closed. Use of bomb-sniffing dogs, chemical, biological and radiological sensors, and heightened aerial surveillance. About 40 agencies involved in security planning, led by Secret Service. Up to 4,000 military personnel available to assist or react to emergencies. Hundreds of specialized law enforcement personnel on standby, including FBI SWAT teams, evidence recovery technicians, bomb experts and hazardous material workers. To the millions watching the inauguration on television worldwide, the ceremony and parade will look much as it has in the past. But each person attending the swearing-in and parade will be subjected to a search by metal detectors, security personnel or both. And there will be more Washington streets closed and more security fencing than ever to create a large buffer zone. "We have it as well covered as it can possibly be," said Michael A. Mason, head of the FBI's Washington field office. The inauguration is designated a National Special Security Event, giving the Secret Service the lead among about 40 federal agencies involved in security planning and execution. A joint command center has been set up in suburban Virginia to enable top officials at these agencies to make quick, coordinated decisions in the event of an attack, violent protest or other problem. "We're going to work as a team," Secret Service spokesman Tom Mazur said. The extra security measures include bomb-sniffing dogs, sophisticated sensors to detect chemical, radiological or biological material, and expanded use of police helicopters and military aircraft. Thousands of police officers from the Washington suburbs and other cities will arrive to help with traffic, crowd control and other duties. More will be ready to respond behind the scenes. The FBI, for example, will have investigators, evidence technicians, hostage rescue teams, heavily armed SWAT personnel, hazardous materials experts and bomb technicians in place. "Our whole focus is a smooth operation if something does happen," Mason said. "We will be able to bring quite a robust force." The military will have a heightened security role. This inauguration is the first since creation of the Joint Force Headquarters-National Capital Region, set up after the Sept. 11 attacks to protect the Washington area. It includes all branches of the military. Based at Fort McNair, Va., the command has access to all manner of military assets, from fighter jets to military police to mobile medical units. As many as 4,000 troops will be available to provide assistance with the inauguration, said Army Col. Nelson McCouch. "Our role is, 'What do you need?' We will find the appropriate force to meet that requirement," McCouch said. Officials also are prepared for demonstrators, who have turned up in numerous past inaugurations. At Bush's first in 2000, there were egg-throwers. So far no mass demonstration is planned for next month, though some protesters are organizing a campaign to turn their backs on the president as his motorcade passes by. "We're not panicky about this at all," Gainer said. "It's usually more bluster than negative action. I hope people will protest peacefully." Overall, security planners said they have learned a great deal about how to prepare for the inauguration through their experience in dealing with other major events since the Sept. 11 attacks. Mason said there have been numerous "tabletop" exercises to consider various possibilities attended by officials from all the key agencies, something that did not always happen in the past. "It is in our minds to be as unobtrusive as possible and still get the mission accomplished," Mason said. "This is the people's event. That's what it's all about to me." ---- Group slams unwieldy security By Shaun Waterman UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL Published December 19, 2004 http://www.washingtontimes.com/functions/print.php?StoryID=20041219-124030-2838r The system for protecting government information is outdated and almost unworkable, according to a report prepared for the Department of Defense by a secretive scientific advisory panel. The panel, known as the Jason Group, reviewed the system used to classify sensitive government information at the request of the Office of Defense Research and Engineering in the Pentagon. The group concluded that the classification system is so unwieldy -- especially in battlefield situations -- that it's often bypassed altogether by frustrated military personnel and "ought to be radically changed." "Users," the report states, "see an overly rigid, out-of-date, bureaucratic structure of information classification ... and an individual clearance process that is glacially slow, and under which large numbers of fighting men and women are, in practical terms, unclearable." As a result, the report says, "underclassification of documents -- often quietly justified as necessary for ease in transporting documents between meeting sites -- is a well-known practice." For example, the report said, imagery from the top-secret Predator unmanned aerial-reconnaissance vehicle is unclassified, with troops relying on "an ad hoc system of operational practices" to protect it. "The current situation of out-of-date or operationally unimplementable rules, combined with widespread violation of those rules, is a bad place to be," the report concludes. J. William Leonard, the federal government's secrecy watchdog, agreed in broad terms with the report's critique. "I draw a vast distinction between the tactical military environment and the bureaucracy here in Washington," said Mr. Leonard, who runs the Information Security Oversight Office. Mr. Leonard said amendments to the classification system after September 11 have given more flexibility to agencies to share classified information -- even with people not authorized to see it -- under such emergency circumstances. But the report points out that this flexibility is very hard to calibrate. "In the present system, there is no way to turn up or down the knob that governs the trade-off between security and operational needs," he said. According to the report, the current system was devised in the 1940s and has remained basically unchanged since, despite the revolution in information technology. The Jason Group report concluded with a call for an updated system, one based on transactional risk, or the chance that any given transaction will be compromised, rather than on assigning a level of classification to a document based on the potential damage caused by disclosure. "It is obvious that the one-time display of a classified document on a (secure) computer terminal to a (cleared) individual -- which we can call 'soft access' -- is inherently less risky than providing that same individual with a paper copy of the same document -- 'hard access.' " But Mr. Leonard pointed out that the rules only tell agencies what they can classify, not what they must keep secret. Each government agency uses the rules as the basis for its own classification guidance. -------- ENERGY Little-known Russian company buys Yukos' core unit at auction Posted 12/19/2004 12:59 PM (AP) http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-12-19-yukos_x.htm MOSCOW — A little known Russian organization, Baikalfinansgroup, bought the core production unit of the troubled Yukos oil company at auction for $9.3 billion Sunday, gaining control of one of Russia's most prized oil assets. Virtually nothing is known about the winner except the fact that it is registered in the central Russian city of Tver. The auction of Yuganskneftegaz went ahead despite a U.S. court injunction, issued after Yukos — which supplies two percent of the world's oil — filed for bankruptcy in a last-ditch attempt to stop the sale. The second of two bidders, the state-controlled Gazpromneft company, had widely been expected to make the successful bid for Yuganskneftegaz. However, Gazpromneft's representatives didn't move when Baikalfinansgroup offered to pay $9.3 billion for the stock, just over the $8.8 billion starting price set by the government — far below what Yukos says the unit is worth. The Russian government ostensibly auctioned the unit to help pay off $28 billion in back taxes it says Yukos owes. The Western Siberian unit pumps 1 million barrels per day, or 60% of Yukos' total output. -------- OTHER -------- environment Abnormal Fish Found Closer to Washington Waste Suspected in Egg-Bearing Males By David A. Fahrenthold Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, December 19, 2004; Page C01 http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A10750-2004Dec18?language=printer Male fish that are growing eggs have been found in the Potomac River in Maryland, a federal scientist said last week -- indicating that a troubling pollution mystery in West Virginia has spread downstream toward Washington. Nine male smallmouth bass, taken from the Potomac about 60 miles from the District, were found to have developed eggs inside their sex organs, said Vicki S. Blazer, a scientist overseeing this research for the U.S. Geological Survey. News of the abnormal fish comes as authorities in West Virginia -- where the fish problem was first noticed in a Potomac tributary -- are investigating whether there is a link to higher rates of certain cancers in people there. In both places, authorities say the Potomac's problems are likely related to a class of common but little-understood pollutants. These are spewed out by sewage plants, feedlots and factories, and they apparently are able to interfere with the natural hormone systems that guide all animals' development. "It's certainly something to be concerned about," said Jim Cummins, director of living resources for the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin. "You don't want to see this kind of change in the biology." The abnormal Maryland fish were caught near Sharpsburg in Washington County. Blazer, who works at a federal fish lab in West Virginia, said she examined their tissues on slides last week. "They all have intersex," Blazer said, using the scientific term for a condition in which animals have both male and female elements. The same symptoms had previously been found about 170 miles farther upstream, in the South Branch of the Potomac in Hardy County, W.Va. Blazer and other scientists discovered the problem there last year as they sought a reason for a rash of mass fish deaths. Officials are still awaiting the results of water-quality testing that might point to a specific chemical behind the fish problems, Blazer said. "It certainly indicates something's going on," Blazer said of the new findings in Maryland. "But what, we don't know." U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service researchers are seeking money for a much larger study across the Potomac watershed. Similar problems have been found in other types of fish across the country, and scientists believe many of them are caused by pollutants called endocrine disruptors, which short-circuit animals' natural systems of hormone chemical messages. There turns out to be a vast universe of pollutants capable of driving a hormone system haywire. Some are hormones themselves -- human estrogen from women taking birth-control pills, which can pass through sewage plants untouched, or animal hormones washed downstream with manure. In Hardy County, officials were especially concerned about chicken waste from poultry farms. Others are hormone "mimics" -- industrial chemicals or factory byproducts which confuse the body because they are chemically similar to natural hormones. These pollutants are often found in very low concentrations, so until recently no equipment could detect them. But the first nationwide survey in 1999 and 2000 found hormones in about 37 percent of the streams tested. Many scientists are concerned that people, as well as other animals, might be affected. "It's not good news that there's something that feminizes male fish in your water," said Gina Solomon, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council. But the Environmental Protection Agency has not set standards for many of these pollutants. Because of this, many drinking-water plants make no special efforts to remove them. Washington area drinking-water providers said they did not believe that the pollutants presented a problem to their customers. "As more evidence shows up of other life forms changing, we need to look at the treatment process to make sure it protects the humans," said Tom Jacobus, general manager of the Washington Aqueduct, which supplies the District, Arlington County and Falls Church. "Right now, we think it does." But the new concerns about cancer in West Virginia underscore how much uncertainty still surrounds these chemicals. A recent survey of cancer in Hardy County -- where some residents get drinking water from the South Branch -- found rates of cancer of the liver, gallbladder, ovaries and uterus that were higher than the state average. All four cancers can in some cases grow faster in the presence of estrogen or chemicals that mimic it, cancer experts said. That potential hormone connection made researchers think of the area's abnormal bass. "It is at least theoretically possible that those two concepts are worth thinking about side-by-side," said Alan Ducatman, chairman of the Department of Community Medicine at West Virginia University. Scientists in West Virginia are quick to urge caution about their research. For one thing, no similar cancer rates have been discovered downstream in Maryland or Virginia. For another, the population of Hardy County is so small -- about 13,000 -- that it's a poor sample from which to discern cancer trends. What appears to be a higher-than-average rate of the disease could be a statistical fluke, scientists said. "It's not so much we've got answers," said Pat Colsher, director of a state cancer-data clearinghouse called the West Virginia Cancer Registry. "It's that we've got some questions." So far, the scientists' concerns have generated little public outcry in rural Hardy County, where many work in the poultry industry. Phoebe Heishman, publisher and editor of the weekly Moorefield Examiner newspaper, said that when people hear about the abnormal bass, "It's just like, 'So?' " "There's no way that we have drawn a direct line from fish to cancer," Heishman said. "Until that happens, there's no way that people are going to get upset about it." But a few people are worried. Jan Hawse, an employee at a middle school, said she was alarmed by news about the bass and switched from tap to bottled water. Hawse said she thinks about her father, Robert Hartman, who died five years ago of cancer that probably began in his gallbladder or bile duct. She wonders now whether something really is in the water. "If that is the case, then I'm afraid it's too late for me," Hawse said. "I've lived here too long." -------- health Poll: Majority of older Americans support medical marijuana 12/19/2004 2:35 PM (AP) http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2004-12-18-medical-marijuana_x.htm WASHINGTON — Nearly three-fourths of older Americans support legalizing marijuana for medical use, according to a poll done for the nation's largest advocacy group for seniors. More than half of those questioned said they believe marijuana has medical benefits, while a larger majority agreed the drug is addictive. AARP, with 35 million members, says it has no political position on medical marijuana and that its local branches have not chosen sides in the scores of state ballot initiatives on the issue in recent elections. But with medical marijuana at the center of a Supreme Court case to be decided next year, and nearly a dozen states with medical marijuana laws on their books, AARP decided to study the issue. "The use of medical marijuana applies to many older Americans who may benefit from cannabis," said Ed Dwyer, an editor at AARP The Magazine, which will discuss medical marijuana in its March/April issue appearing in late January. Among the 1,706 adults polled in AARP's random telephone survey in November, opinions varied along regional and generational lines and among the 30% of respondents who said they have smoked pot. AARP members represented 37% of respondents. Overall, 72% of respondents agreed "adults should be allowed to legally use marijuana for medical purposes if a physician recommends it." Those in the Northeast (79 percent) and West (82 percent) were more receptive to the idea than in the Midwest (67 percent) and Southwest (65 percent). In Southern states, 70% agreed with the statement. Though 69% of those age 70 and older said they support legal medical marijuana use, less than half agreed it has medical benefits. Seventy percent of respondents age 45-49 said they believe in the medical benefits of pot, as did 59% of those in the 50-69 age group. And while 74% of all people surveyed said pot is addictive, older respondents were more likely to think so: 83% of those 70 and older, compared with 61% of those aged 45-49. Generational lines also divided those who have smoked pot: Just 8% of those 70 and older admitted having lit up, compared with 58% of the 45-49 group, 37% of those between 50 and 59 and 15% of the 60-69 set. National polls in recent years have found majority support for allowing the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Last month, the Supreme Court heard arguments over whether federal agents can pursue sick people who use homegrown marijuana with their doctors' permission and their states' approval. The Bush administration has argued that allowing medical marijuana in California would undermine federal drug control programs, and that pot grown for medical use could end up on the illegal market and cross state lines. The AARP poll of adults age 45 and older was conducted Nov. 10-21 by International Communications Research of Media, Pa. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 2.5 percentage points. ------ ACTIVISTS Seymour Melman Dies; Fought Spending on Wars By Patricia Sullivan Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, December 19, 2004; Page C08 http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A10980-2004Dec18?language=printer Seymour Melman, 86, one of the first social critics to contend that excessive military spending has "depleted" the U.S. economy, diverting investment capital, scientific know-how and natural resources from sorely needed domestic improvements, died of an apparent aneurysm Dec. 16 at his home in New York. Mr. Melman, a retired Columbia University professor of industrial engineering and a consultant to companies and government agencies, for 40 years urged the United States to convert its military-based economy to focus its formidable economic energy on improving roads, schools, railroads and housing. In the early 1990s, at the end of the Cold War when a windfall "peace dividend" was expected, it seemed that Mr. Melman would finally have his wish. "There are times when it gives me no joy to be right," he told The Washington Post. "Now the results are visible. . . . It's a myth that military spending brings prosperity to all." He is considered the grandfather of the economic conversion movement, and the guru to the dozens of leftist activists who embraced the idea as a way to argue that disarmament can also make good economic sense. The author or editor of more than a dozen books, he opposed the war in Iraq -- he had been a speaker at a Vietnam War protest on Wall Street in 1970 -- and was co-chairman of the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy. He was chairman of the National Commission for Economic Conversion and Disarmament. Born in the Bronx, N.Y., he received a bachelor's degree from the College of the City of New York and a doctorate in economics from Columbia University. His marriage to JoAnne Medalie ended in divorce. He is survived by a brother. In the 1970s, he was spokesman for a group of Columbia faculty members who opposed the appointment of former secretary of state Henry A. Kissinger to a faculty position. Mr. Melman said in the 1990 Post interview that he remembered when he was in Calcutta years before and noticed how the educated middle class could ignore the horrible conditions of the poor. "I don't want it to be that way here," he said. "I live on Broadway near Columbia University, and there are more beggars on Broadway now than during the Great Depression."