NucNews - January 5, 2005 -------- NUCLEAR -------- asia CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION TO VISIT RUSSIA, NORTH KOREA, SOUTH KOREA, CHINA AND JAPAN WASHINGTON, January 5, 2005 (RIA Novosti's Arkady Orlov) http://en.rian.ru/rian/index.cfm?prd_id=160&msg_id=5281713&startrow=1&date=2005-01-05&do_alert=0 A Congressional delegation headed by Kurt Weldon (Rep.) is to visit Russia, North Korea and other countries involved in six-sided talks on the North Korean nuclear problem next week. This was disclosed to RIA Novosti by Weldon's assistant. In her words, the delegation will comprise five other House members, as well as two staff members. The delegation plans to leave Washington January 9, arriving in Moscow January 10. Its members are to negotiate with top State Duma officials and other persons in the Russian capital. The Congressional delegation headed by Weldon plans to fly over from Moscow to Pyongyang on Tuesday. The delegation's members would also like to visit South Korea, China and Japan. The delegation plans to visit Southeast Asian regions that were devastated by a tsunami, subsequently leaving for the United States. The concerned parties launched talks to settle the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula last summer; however, Pyongyang unilaterally broke off such talks in September 2004. Official Pyongyang said back then that Seoul's admission had created a serious barrier in the way of a possible accord. Moreover, North Korean representatives do not intend to negotiate until this issue is clarified completely. Previous attempts to strike a deal led nowhere. Nonetheless, experts believed that the negotiating process was just about the only method for settling nuclear issues in relations with Pyongyang. South Korean authorities reported in early September that experiments involving plutonium and uranium had taken place in the country throughout the 1980s and in 2000, as well. Those experiments involved small amounts of uranium and plutonium; consequently, the results of such experiments could not be used for military purposes. The Korean nuclear-energy institute conducted such experiments on a reactor that was subsequently dismantled. Seoul was criticized by Washington and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), after making this revelation. For their own part, South Korean authorities began to investigate this matter. -------- europe Italy 'to export nuclear waste to UK' Paul Brown and Rob Evans Wednesday January 5, 2005 The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1383395,00.html Italy is hoping to export 99% of its nuclear waste to the UK after public demonstrations made it impossible to find a suitable site on Italian soil. The Italian government has 235 tonnes of spent fuel from the country's long decommissioned reactors in deteriorating stores. Contracts worth £200m are on offer to British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) at Cumbria to reprocess the nuclear fuel, provided the UK keeps the waste and the plutonium and uranium that would be recovered. The Italian nuclear industry was shut down after the Chernobyl disaster. The Department of Trade and Industry cleared the way for the import of nuclear fuel and retention of overseas nuclear waste in Britain a week before Christmas, when rules insisting that waste should be returned to the country of origin were relaxed. The government said retaining waste from half a dozen customers of BNFL would increase the revenue of the state-owned company by £680m, and this would go towards the £2bn a year clean-up costs. Any plan to import waste from Italy is bound to be controversial because the UK has failed to find its own depository for waste and is not expected to have one for another 30 years. The government says that importing spent fuel for reprocessing and keeping the waste only adds a few per cent to the UK's waste that is already stored at sites round the country. The department said yesterday that it had had no formal contact with the Italians over the proposed contract. A public consultation would be held before any new contracts were signed, and Patricia Hewitt, the trade and industry secretary, would make a final decision. BNFL, which has told local groups in Cumbria that it had informal talks with the Italians in the summer, said yesterday that there had been no formal approach. A decree allowing the export of waste was signed in Italy last month. Sogin, the Italian government organisation charged with dealing with the country's nuclear legacy, has said it will approach the UK next month when the decree becomes law. The Guardian, meanwhile, is challenging the government's refusal to publish details of its contracts allowing Italy to send nuclear waste to Britain. The DTI has claimed the information was too "sensitive" and would embarrass the Italian government. Now the newspaper has submitted a request under the Freedom of Information Act which requires the DTI to respond within 20 working days. -------- iran Iran OKs Access to Suspected Nuclear Site By GEORGE JAHN Associated Press Writer Jan 5, 2:33 PM EST http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/N/NUCLEAR_AGENCY_IRAN?SITE=DCTMS&SECTION=HOME VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- Iran has agreed to grant access to a military site the United States links to a secret nuclear weapons program and the first U.N. inspectors could arrive "within days," the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said Wednesday. In an interview with The Associated Press, Mohamed ElBaradei also criticized reported U.S. bugging of his phone conversations, saying such actions cripple his agency's ability to act independently of national agendas. And in comments sure to annoy the United States, which insists Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons, ElBaradei suggested the time was approaching to wind down 2 1/2 years of intense focus on Iran's activities and treat Tehran as just another IAEA member. The U.N. nuclear watchdog agency has been pressing Tehran for months to be allowed to inspect the Parchin military complex, used by the Iranians to research, develop and produce ammunition, missiles and high explosives. On Wednesday, he said IAEA experts could be in Parchin "within days or weeks." In leaks to media last year, U.S. intelligence officials said that a specially secured site on the Parchin complex, 20 miles southeast of Tehran, may be used in research on making high-explosive components for use in nuclear weapons. The IAEA has not found any firm evidence to challenge Iranian assertions that its military is not involved nuclear activities. But an IAEA report in October expressed concern about published intelligence and media reports "relating to dual use equipment and materials which have applications ... in the nuclear military area." Diplomats accredited to the agency said that phrasing alluded to Parchin. Iran has been the main focus of the IAEA since mid-2002, after revelations of two secret nuclear facilities - a uranium enrichment plant at Natanz and a heavy water production plant near Arak. That led to a subsequent IAEA investigation of what turned out to be nearly two decades of covert nuclear activities, including suspicious "dual use" experiments that can be linked to weapons programs and a large-scale uranium enrichment program. As part of his probe, ElBaradei has produced a series of reports detailing the progress of investigations for guidance by the IAEA board on deciding what to do about Iran's nuclear activities. But he has stopped short of declaring Tehran in breach of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. That has fed U.S. frustrations. Insisting that Iran has violated the treaty, Washington repeatedly has urged the board to ask the U.N. Security Council to take Tehran to task. Senior U.S. officials have blamed ElBaradei for the board's refusal to do so, suggesting he is too soft on Iran and that they will fight his efforts to gain re-election this year for a third term as IAEA head. As part of U.S. efforts to oust ElBaradei, his telephone conversations were allegedly bugged in what media recently reported were attempts to prove favoritism toward Iran. ElBaradei said any such action "interferes with my basic human right to privacy - but more importantly it interferes in our ability to work in an independent manner." He said he will "continue to keep the board updated" on Iran. But he told the AP he may not produce a new report on Tehran's nuclear activities for the next board meeting in March, adding that he hoped to reduce the Iran file to "routine reporting" over the next six months. Such steps would effectively suggest the probe of Tehran's nuclear activities was no longer important enough to warrant special consideration. ElBaradei's agency was monitoring an Iranian commitment made in November to suspend uranium enrichment activities that could be used to make the core for nuclear weapons. He said Wednesday that agreement had not been violated. ElBaradei declined to comment directly on reports that Egyptian scientists experimented with small amounts of uranium compounds that could be used in a nuclear weapons program. But he suggested his agency did not view Egypt as violating the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, saying "any (such) proliferation concern or any implication of a weapons program" would be reported to the IAEA board of governors. Egypt's government rejected claims it has been pursuing a weapons program, saying its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. On the Net: http://www.iaea.org ---- Iran Nuclear Fuel Deal Stalled Over Fee-Russia Story by Melissa Akin REUTERS UK: January 5, 2004 http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/28798/story.htm LONDON - A deal that would clear the way for Iran to start up its Russian-built Bushehr nuclear power plant has been delayed over Moscow's fee for taking back Russian-made spent fuel, Russia's nuclear chief said on Tuesday. "We have told them they have to pay for spent fuel, just like fresh fuel," Alexander Rumyantsev, head of Russia's Atomic Energy Agency, told Reuters after an informal meeting with US Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. Rumyantsev on Tuesday rejected earlier reports that said the Iran agreement could be signed as early as January, adding Russia and Iran had until mid-year to finalise the agreement. Russia's civilian nuclear industry has commercial agreements to re-import and dispose of spent fuel sold to foreign clients, mostly ex-Soviet bloc states with Moscow-built nuclear power plants. With Iran accused by the United States of seeking nuclear weapons, Russia and Iran have promised the United States they will sign a deal to remove spent fuel from Iran before the Bushehr plant is switched on. Washington wants to prevent the potential use of spent fuel in a bomb. It has urged Moscow to scrap the Bushehr project entirely as a proliferation risk. Some diplomats say Russia is stalling on the spent-fuel re-import deal with Iran to keep Washington friendly while hedging its bets with the Islamic Republic. The agreement must be signed in time to start shipping fresh fuel to Iran for the scheduled launch of Bushehr in early 2006, Rumyantsev said. Some legal hurdles, included possible successors to the two countries' agents, Russian nuclear fuel producer TVEL and the Iranian Atomic Energy Agency, and the pricing of Russia's re-import services, had been dealt with, he said. Rumyantsev said the final cost to Iran would be based on future market rates. If the station is switched on according to schedule, the first batch of spent fuel would return to Russia in 10-12 years time, he said. ---- UN nuclear watchdog to visit Iran's Parchin military site VIENNA (AFP) Jan 05, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/2005/050105172850.r7nuzqtd.html Ending a lengthy standoff, UN inspectors are to visit an Iranian military facility where the United States charges that Tehran is simulating testing of atomic weapons, UN atomic energy chief Mohamed ElBaradei said Wednesday. "We expect to visit Parchin within the next days or a few weeks," ElBaradei told AFP, referring to the huge complex 30 kilometres (19 miles) southeast of Tehran. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headed by ElBaradei has been seeking access to Parchin since July. Tehran has strongly denied carrying out any nuclear-related work at the site. A senior US official told AFP that the Iranians may be working on testing "high-explosive shaped charges with an inert core of depleted uranium" at Parchin as a sort of dry test for how a bomb with fissile material would work. Iran maintains that its nuclear program is strictly civilian and peaceful and that it is not developing atomic weapons. But the United States wants the IAEA to take Iran to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions for what Washington says is a covert nuclear weapons program. ElBaradei says the "jury is still out" on whether Tehran's program is peaceful or not. Parchin is an example of a so-called "transparency visit," where the IAEA is going beyond its mandate under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treatyto check to see if nuclear materials have been diverted away from peaceful use. There could very well be no nuclear material at Parchin, since the concern there is of weapons simulation testing. The other problem is that Parchin is a military site, to which access is more difficult. Still, ElBaradei said that where there is suspicion of weapons work, there is also a suspicion of nuclear materials, the "choking point" for development of weapons. "If you do not have nuclear materials, you do not have a nuclear weapon," he said. ElBaradei also said Iran is so far honoring its pledge to suspend uranium enrichment, and should finish processing the raw uranium it was allowed to do by February. Iran is making a uranium powder that is a key first step in the enrichment process that can make nuclear weapons but it is not in violation of a nuclear freeze agreed with the European Union. Iran and the EU embarked in December on negotiations towards a long-term agreement to give Tehran trade, technology and security aid and guarantees in return for it taking steps, such as suspending enrichment, to reassure the international community that its nuclear program is strictly peaceful. In other comments, ElBaradei warned the United States against spying on the IAEA, saying it would be a blow to "multilateralism and the United Nations system as we know it." The Washington Post reported in December that US President George W. Bush's administration had listened in on phone calls between ElBaradei and Iranian diplomats, seeking ammunition to oust him as head of the IAEA. The United States wants ElBaradei to be replaced at the Vienna-based agency believing he is not being tough enough on Iran, diplomats said. ElBaradei said he had only read the press reports and knew no more about the reported eavesdroping but "if you tamper with our independence, you really tamper with the whole fabric of multilaterialism and the United Nations system as we know it." Questioned about reports that the IAEA is looking into exploratory moves by Egypt on making nuclear fuel that could be used for atomic bombs, ElBaradei said people should be careful to distinguish between what can be technical failures to comply with international safeguards and actual weapons programs. "Should we discover at any time that there is a proliferation concern or implications of a weapons program, we will obviously promptly report this to the board," he said, referring to the IAEA's board of governors while refusing to comment specifically on Egypt. -------- israel Israeli TV to show video of nuclear site By Dan Williams in Jerusalem January 5, 2005 Reuters http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Israeli-TV-to-show-video-of-nuclear-site/2005/01/04/1104832108596.html?oneclick=true Israel has released the first footage of its Dimona nuclear plant, in an apparent attempt to promote a positive image of what is believed to be an atomic bomb factory. The first published images of Dimona, snapped secretly by the technician turned activist Mordechai Vanunu in the 1980s, led experts to conclude that the Jewish state had nuclear bombs. Israel's Channel 10 television said its tape of the plant, to be shown on Friday, showed technicians in various non-military activities - mingling on the lawn, inspecting lab equipment and lecturing at an "atomic school" for disadvantaged youths. The privately owned station did not say how it obtained the footage, but noted it had been cleared by military censors who had for decades banned journalists from the desert site. "A lot has been written and said about Dimona, almost all of it negative and critical," a senior Channel 10 staff member said. "We were happy to discover that there are positive things there too - such as high-schoolers learning in the most secretive place in the country." AdvertisementAdvertisement Keen to ward off regional foes while avoiding an arms race, Israel maintains a "strategic ambiguity" over a nuclear arsenal assumed to be the world's sixth-largest, neither confirming nor denying it exists. Mr Vanunu was jailed for treason after he gave the pictures and a tell-all interview to the British newspaper The Sunday Times in 1986. Last July, Israel's Atomic Energy Commission set up a website calling Dimona a research plant dedicated to "expanding and deepening basic knowledge of nuclear science". The UN nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, has been pressing Israel to discuss regional disarmament, but it rules out change in its nuclear policy before there is peace with its neighbours. -------- korea ElBaradei Says N.Korea Nuke Crisis Getting Worse Wed Jan 5, 2005 10:34 AM ET By Louis Charbonneau (Reuters) http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=7245015 VIENNA - The crisis caused by North Korea's refusal to abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions is deepening and needs to be resolved as soon as possible, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said Wednesday. "This has been a pending issue for 12 years, and frankly it is getting worse," International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei told Reuters in an interview. "We need to address the whole question and bring it to a resolution," he said. "I would certainly hope that by the end of the year we should be there." Communist North Korea has been locked in a stand-off with its neighbors and the United States over its nuclear program since 2002. Pyongyang has refused to return to six-country talks on dismantling its nuclear programs unless Washington drops what the North says is a "hostile policy." ElBaradei said he hoped 2005 would see a return of IAEA inspectors to North Korea to conduct rigorous inspections that would provide guarantees to the world that all North Korean nuclear facilities and activities are under U.N. safeguards. The IAEA team was expelled on Dec. 31, 2002 and has not been allowed to return. Since that time, North Korea has produced enough plutonium for half a dozen nuclear weapons, the IAEA and a number of security think-tanks estimate. "I would like to see the six-party talks restarted as early as possible," ElBaradei said. "I'd like to see by the end of the year a package agreement that takes care of the nuclear activities in North Korea and makes sure it is all under irreversible verification, that their security concerns are taken care and their humanitarian needs addressed." The participants in the six-party talks are the United States, China, Russia, Japan and North and South Korea. The United States listed North Korea, Iran and pre-war Iraq as an "axis of evil" determined to acquire weapons of mass destruction. Washington has also accused Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons under cover of a civilian atomic energy program. But ElBaradei said it was North Korea, not Iran, that posed the greatest nuclear threat to the world. "I hope we can start to move on the Korean issue, which is the number one proliferation threat we are facing," he said. Asked if the fact North Korea is widely believed to possess several nuclear weapons changed anything, ElBaradei said it did not. "It makes it more urgent, but it doesn't change things. South Africa had nuclear weapons and they dismantled their program. So it's an issue we are capable of dealing with once there's an agreement," he said. -------- russia 'Loose nukes' fear spurs US-Russia action Wednesday, 5 January, 2005 By Gordon Corera BBC security correspondent http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4149153.stm Just days before Christmas, a secret flight took off from the Czech Republic heading for Russia. The US is anxious to help Russia in its efforts to recover the material Until it touched down amid tight security, the details of the flight were kept highly classified for fear of terrorists intercepting the cargo - four specialised transport canisters containing 6kg of highly enriched uranium which could be used for nuclear weapons. The flight marked a further step in an increasingly aggressive programme to secure nuclear material by Russia and the US amid continuing fears that gaining nuclear material is a priority for al-Qaeda. If terrorists managed to get hold of fissile material the consequences would be devastating Russian atomic agency chief Aleksandr Rumyantsev Meeting in London on 4 January were the two top officials involved in the US-Russian efforts - US Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham and Director of the Russian Federal Atomy Energy Agency Aleksandr Rumyantsev. They told the BBC news website that they were accelerating their protection programme and expanding the scope of co-operation between their two countries to try to ensure that no nuclear material could fall into the wrong hands. "If terrorists somehow managed to get hold of fissile material then the consequences would be devastating," Mr Rumyantsev said. And he warned that even if the number of casualties was low, the psychological impact of something like a dirty bomb would compare with the impact Chernobyl had on the Russian psyche. Long-standing target After the end of the Cold War, the biggest concern was so-called "loose nukes" in the former Soviet Union where there were more than 27,000 nuclear weapons. The fear was that poorly secured nuclear weapons could be stolen by criminals or terrorists. Spencer Abraham was in London to meet Russian officials Since then major efforts have been undertaken jointly by the US and Russia to try to prevent this by destroying weapons and improving security at sites. But while securing such weapons remains a priority, there is now increased concern that nuclear materials rather than a fully developed weapon might become the target for terrorists. Al-Qaeda's desire to get hold of nuclear material is longstanding and was recognised by British intelligence at least as early as 1998, although some of Osama Bin Laden's early attempts to secure such material proved amateurish and unsuccessful. However, recent reports suggest Osama Bin Laden's desire to get hold of some kind of nuclear material is undimmed, and concern will only have been heightened by news that in 2003, he sought and received approval from a Saudi cleric for the use of a nuclear weapon against the US. As well as the Czech flight, there have also been deals with Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Libya and Uzbekistan to return materials from reactors However, most experts believe that a dirty bomb - involving the dispersal of radiological material by an explosion - is a far more plausible threat than the detonation of a nuclear warhead. The former requires far less technical know-how, merely the combination of a traditional bomb with whatever material terrorists can lay their hands on. To counter this, the US and Russia are placing a growing emphasis on a "global clearout" that reaches beyond the two nations and beyond just nuclear weapons by covering things like nuclear fuel held at research reactors in third countries. So far, as well as the 22 December Czech flight, there have also been deals with Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Libya and Uzbekistan to return materials from reactors back to either the US or Russia where the technology was developed. "The significance of this can't be overestimated," Spencer Abraham told the BBC news website. Changing threat The task, though, is huge - more than 100 research reactors around the world run on weapons grade highly enriched uranium and the hope is to convert many of them to use lower enriched uranium fuel which is less dangerous. America's Global Threat Reduction Initiative aims to remove or secure all high risk nuclear and radiological materials around the world but one of the biggest tasks is simply trying to make an inventory of what materials are out there. The close co-operation between the US and Russia and between Mr Abraham and Mr Rumyantsev has achieved much, but for those worried about nuclear proliferation and terrorism, the biggest challenge may come not from Russia, but from states which have more recently sought or achieved nuclear capability. These would include Pakistan, where some scientists are thought to have been in contact with al-Qaeda, and also North Korea, where there are long-standing concerns about the passing on of technology. As more states try to acquire nuclear weapons, the challenge to stop nuclear materials falling into the wrong hands is likely to grow more and more demanding. -------- treaties US Plans Tidal Wave of Nuclear Proliferation by Ira Chernus Published on Wednesday, January 5, 2005 by CommonDreams.org http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0105-24.htm There’s another tsunami coming -- a tidal wave of nuclear proliferation. This one is human-made. So it can be prevented, if enough people know about in time. We do have an early warning system: the news media. When it comes to nuclear proliferation, though, our warning system is pretty much out of commission. We are nearly as defenseless as last week’s tsunami victims. Oh, we do spend U.S. tax dollars to warn the world of the nuclear danger. On December 27, the Voice of America broadcast news of a UN report on proliferation: the international community "is approaching a point at which the erosion of the non-proliferation regime could become irreversible and result in a cascade of proliferation." At least 40 nations have the technology to build nuclear weapons at relatively short notice. But the VOA only mentions two of those nations as dangers: Iran and North Korea. What about the other 38? Apparently, in this age of a “what-me-worry” president, we just aren’t supposed to worry. At the tail end of its news item, the VOA adds this: “Nuclear issues will be discussed next year in New York, during the review of the Non-Proliferation Treaty -- the legal cornerstone of non-proliferation efforts. Under terms of the pact, non-nuclear states are bound not to acquire nuclear weapons while the five declared nuclear states (the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia) pledge to disarm. The four-week session in May will bring the 187 signatories together to debate whether the treaty needs to be revised and strengthened to meet the nuclear challenges in the years ahead.” But neither the VOA, nor any U.S. news media, have reported the important news about that meeting in May: the Bush administration is going to New York not to strengthen the NPT, but to destroy it. Do you want to know why? You could study every news outlet in the USA and not get an answer. You have to go to Japan, where the Kyodo News Agency reported a few days ago: “The United States plans to suggest that a 2005 international conference to review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty should invalidate a document adopted at a 2000 meeting in which five nuclear powers committed to an ‘unequivocal undertaking’ to a nuclear-free world, according to U.S. government and congressional sources.” In other words, the U.S. wants to scrap the very heart of the NPT, the deal that says if all you non-nuclear nations stay that way, we nuclear nations will move steadily toward getting rid of our nukes. If the treaty were permanent, we’d be stuck with that deal. That’s why the U.S., under the Clinton administration, insisted that the treaty be reviewed and subject to change every five years. Now the Bushies are planning, not merely to change it, but to make it meaningless. They want to tell all the non-nuclear states: “Y’all must stay non-nuclear, but we’ll have as many nukes as we want. We’ll make new nukes but keep the old. And if you don’t like it, just take a good look at Iraq, because you could be next.” According to the Kyodo News Agency report, this makes perfect sense in Bush-logic: “A U.S. government official described the final accord adopted during the 2000 NPT review conference as a ‘simply historical document’ and pointed out the need to adopt a new document reflecting drastic changes in international security conditions, including the Sept 11 terrorist attacks in 2001.” The NPT is an international treaty signed by the president and ratified by the Senate. Most of us thought that made it law. How silly of us. It’s not “a binding guideline or anything like that," the anonymous official explained. The idea that the U.S. should move toward nuclear disarmament is now “outdated,” so it must go. “A congressional source also pointed out that an article in the NPT which requires nuclear powers to make a serious commitment to disarmament was created against the backdrop of a nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War,” the Japanese article continues. Now that no other country has nuclear capability even remotely close to ours, why should we let all those little countries tell us what nukes we can or cannot have? When George W. was planning the invasion of Afghanistan, he reportedly said: “At some point, we may be the only ones left [in the coalition]. That’s okay with me. We are America.” No doubt his attitude about nukes is pretty much the same. Administration policy now authorizes preemptive nuclear attack against nations that it says are close to acquiring nuclear weapons. No proof needed. Suspicion is good enough. And if the rest of the world is outraged, well, screw ‘em. We are America. All this fits the Bush pattern of nuclear irresponsibility, which Lawrence Korb recently described in the Boston Globe. In the last four years, the U.S. withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, kept the Senate from ratifying the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, refused to commit itself to halting future tests, and began work on two new nuclear weapons. The U.S. now spends nearly $7 billion a year for nuclear research and upgrading US nuclear capabilities, and the spending curve keeps rising. But if the administration demands this radical change to the NPT, it will take nuclear irresponsibility to a new level, because it will effectively destroy the Treaty. If the U.S. won’t even pay lip service to the idea of a non-nuclear world, why should Iran, North Korea, or any other nation renounce their right to have their own nukes? If the U.S. is boosting its own nuclear program, why shouldn’t others follow suit? The only reason the Bushies will give them is fear of U.S. attack. That takes away the last fig-leaf of moral justification from U.S. non-proliferation efforts. It turns the world into a schoolyard where the U.S. is the reigning bully, ruling by nuclear intimidation alone. Our news media keep telling us that it’s only Iran and North Korea we need worry about. But any country can be added to the “axis of evil” list. The British press is now reporting that Egypt has done nuclear weapons research too. As long as the Egyptians are “good guys,” we won’t hear much about that in the U.S. media. But if the Egyptians step out of line, they could easily end up part of the “axis.” The message coming from the Bush administration and the U.S. media is clear. It’s not about the danger of weapons of mass destruction. It’s about using the fear of that danger, along with our own growing nuclear arsenal, as a club to rule the schoolyard roost. Iran and North Korea are already showing quite effectively that the schoolyard bully approach won’t work. Either all nations make the same commitment to a nuclear-free world, or we end up where the UN report sees us going: “the erosion of the non-proliferation regime could become irreversible and result in a cascade of proliferation." Which route is safer for America? It should be a no-brainer. Unfortunately, we face four more years of a scarecrow administration with no brain. May 1, as the NPT meeting in New York begins, will be a day for massive demonstrations to warn the wold of the coming nuclear tidal wave. It will be a day to say “No” to Bush’s brainless nuclear bully approach and “Yes” to a nuclear-free world. It’s not too early to begin sounding the alarm. Those of us who care about the safety of America and the world can’t wait for the mainstream news media to do it. We have to take care of that business ourselves. Ira Chernus is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder and author of American Nonviolence: The History of an Idea. He can be reached at chernus@colorado.edu ---- [To respond - mailto:letters@washingtontimes.com ] Progress on proliferation January 03, 2005 Washington Times http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20050102-090728-1997r.htm On Dec. 19, 2003, just five days after former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was pulled from a spider hole by American soldiers, President Bush made another noteworthy announcement about another rogue-state dictator: that Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi had decided to end his nuclear-, chemical- and biological-weapons programs. One major factor in Col. Gadhafi's decision was the Proliferation Security Initiative, an effort begun by the Bush administration in May 2003 to interdict shipments of weapons of mass destruction and related components around the world. Clearly, Col. Gadhafi concluded that continuing with his weapons of mass destruction programs would jeopardize his continued rule by incurring Washington's wrath, and he has cited his desire not to be driven from power like Saddam as reason for getting out of the WMD business. But PSI's success no doubt played a very important role as well. On Oct. 4, 2003, an American warship forced the BBC China, a German-flagged vessel travelling to Libya, to divert to Italy. Investigators found uranium-enrichment equipment bound for Libya on that ship. The discovery of the covert Libyan nuclear program led to the uncovering of the nuclear-weapons supplier network headed by Abdul Qadeer Khan of Pakistan. Several months later, Mr. Khan went on television to confess how his network supplied illicit material to such nations as Libya, North Korea and Iran in exchange for missile technology and money. In announcing Col. Gadhafi's decision to end his WMD programs, Mr. Bush alluded to the role that PSI now plays in interdicting WMD-related items in transit. The president cited it as an important component of strategy "by the United States and our allies" that has "sent an unmistakable message to regimes that seek or possess weapons of mass destruction. Those weapons do not bring influence or prestige. They bring isolation and otherwise unwelcome consequences." The president added: "Another message should be equally clear: Leaders who abandon the pursuit of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, and the means to deliver them, will find an open path to better relations with the United States and other free nations." Core participants in PSI include the governments of the United States, Australia, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain and Thailand. Three other core participants are Russia, France and Germany — staunch opponents of the war in Iraq. A United Nations report has endorsed PSI. Altogether, 60 nations are supporting the principals of PSI. Perhaps the most energetic advocate is Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John Bolton. Mr. Bolton has been characteristically blunt in explaining what PSI will and will not do. In an interview with Arms Control Today, Mr. Bolton was asked if PSI would go beyond targeting rogue states, and would go after friendly countries like Israel, India and Pakistan. "There are unquestionably states that are not within existing treaty regimes that possess weapons of mass destruction legitimately. We're not trying to have a policy that attempts to cover each and every one of those circumstances," Mr. Bolton replied. "What we're worried about are the rogue states [such as Iran and North Korea] and terrorist groups that pose the most immediate threat." With PSI, the administration has its priorities straight. -------- u.n. World needs to limit making of nuclear fuel - UN watchdog chief VIENNA (AFP) Jan 05, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/2005/050105173334.lcdsk13d.html http://finance.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,11865435%255E31037,00.html The world cannot continue allowing countries to develop the ability to make nuclear fuel that can be used to make atomic bombs, UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei told AFP Wednesday. "We just cannot continue business as usual that every country can build its own factories for separating plutonium or enriching uranium. "Then we are really talking about 30, 40 countries sitting on the fence with a nuclear weapons capability that could be converted into a nuclear weapon in a matter of months," ElBaradei said. He said the international regime mandated by the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is facing a "major challenge" as countries like Iran acquire nuclear fuel cycle capabilities in what are ostensibly peaceful, power-generating programs. The problem is that the same technology used to make fuel for nuclear reactors can also be used to manufacture the explosive material for atomic bombs. This leaves countries free to pull out of the NPT and develop weapons, as North Korea has apparently done. ElBaradei said that "nuclear weapons are still looked at as a weapon of choice" which countries want to obtain in order to have international clout and to protect themselves in their regions. ElBaradei said "we just need to take the bull by the horns and address these issues," noting that he would bring this up at an NPT review conference to be held in New York in May. The UN atomic watchdog chief said: "We need to make sure that we create a global security system that does not depend on nuclear weapons. We need to make sure that the technology is contained, controlled much better than we have it now." ElBaradei said his International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) must have "the required authority to be able to detect early on any efforts for proliferation" by making the additional protocol to the NPT that allows for tougher inspections the "standard for verification." But even this was not perfect. "I would like to show our strengths but also our limitations. I do not like to mislead people into believing that we are the ones who can do it all," he said, pointing out that the IAEA's mandate is to make sure that nuclear materials are not being diverted to make weapons. "If a country is doing computer studies on simulation for a nuclear test and if I am not able to discover that, don't come to me and say you have failed, because my mandate is very much linked to nuclear materials. "While I can show a program through nuclear materials, I cannot stop countries from doing preparatory work independent of nuclear materials," ElBaradei said. He said he was building on lessons learned in verifying nuclear programs in Iraq, North Korea, Iran and Libya. One lesson was that security issues must be addressed, as is happening with six-party talks with North Korea and with the EU's efforts to get Iran to permanently abandon uranium fuel enrichment. "In addition to fixing loopholes in the non-proliferation system, you need to address the security concerns (of countries) which continue to be the driver behind the effort to develop nuclear weapons," ElBaradei said. "There is a need for a structural adjustment to the system. I don't think you can just think around the edges." He said he would propose a moratorium on countries developing the nuclear fuel cycle in return for their getting guarantees of delivery of nuclear fuel for peaceful production of electricity. This moratorium would be for "five years until we develop a better system," ElBaradei said. -------- u.s. nuc facilities Bush retaps Reid science aide for NRC By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU Wednesday, January 05, 2005 Las Vegas Review-Journal http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/Jan-05-Wed-2005/news/25602585.html WASHINGTON -- President Bush on Tuesday renominated an aide to Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., to become a leader at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a step toward fulfilling a deal reached last fall. Gregory B. Jaczko's name was submitted to the Senate to fill a vacancy on the five-member federal board that regulates the nuclear power industry and the handling of nuclear materials and waste. Jaczko, 34, is Reid's science aide and his principal adviser on the Yucca Mountain Project, which the Nevada senator has tried to kill using his Senate influence. A physicist, Jaczko was to join the NRC board last year, but his confirmation was blocked by Republicans following strong objections from the nuclear power industry. Industry officials contend Jaczko will be biased against the proposed Nevada nuclear waste repository while he is at the agency. Reid said Jaczko is qualified and would be fair. Responding to Republican opposition to Jaczko last year, Reid blocked dozens of Bush nominees for federal posts, an impasse that persisted until the final night of the session. Then, the White House and Reid reached a deal where Bush would use his executive powers to appoint Jaczko to a two-year NRC term if Reid allowed the other nominees to pass the Senate. A Senate lawyer who works for Reid said the renomination was part of a formal procedure that would allow Bush to place Jaczko at the NRC as a "recess appointment" when the Senate is out of session. Also Tuesday, Albert Henry Konetzni of New York was nominated to fill a second vacancy at the NRC. The White House agreement with Reid was that Konetzni, a Republican, and Jaczko would be appointed simultaneously. -------- arizona Palo Verde may face fines for safety violations Max Jarman The Arizona Republic Jan. 5, 2005 06:15 PM http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0105paloverde-ON.html Arizona Public Service Co. faces possible fines and heightened regulatory scrutiny from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which said the power company failed to properly maintain a key safety system at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station. The results of a four-month-long investigation, released Wednesday, cited four safety violations related to the emergency cooling systems for three nuclear reactors at the plant, which APS operates west of Phoenix. The NRC noted that the violations have been corrected and do not represent a current safety concern. APS said its own tests have found the condition of the back-up cooling system did not pose a significant safety risk. The utility will present its case at the hearing Jan. 27 at the NRC's regional headquarters in Arlington, Texas. "We have test data in hand and we believe that data will mitigate the NRC's findings," APS spokesman Jim McDonald said. While two of the violations posed minimal safety risks, two might have compromised the plant's ability to keep its reactors cool during an emergency, the report said. Those two violations could lead to fines and other penalties. The agency said it would wait until after hearing APS's response to determine the extent of the penalties. NRC spokesman Victor Dricks said the findings don't show that the plant was being operated in an unsafe fashion, only that the safety margins had been diminished. At issue are pipes that deliver emergency cooling water to the plant's reactor vessels in the event of a breakdown of the primary cooling system. Commission inspectors found the pipes dry, instead of filled with water as prescribed by NRC maintenance procedures. The NRC contends APS made a decision in 1992 not to maintain water in the lines. The agency expressed concerns that the air in the lines could cause pumps to malfunction during an emergency start up. "Essentially they have been operating for more than 20 years with a degraded emergency cooling system," Dricks said. McDonald said the utility's tests show that the dry pipes did not affect the operation of the pumps. The reactors are contained in large vats of water that is circulated to maintain a constant temperature. If that system fails water is pumped into the tank from an outside source to maintain the temperature. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission sent an investigation tem to Palo Verde in August to determine if the condition of the pipes presented a significant safety risk. It was the fourth time since the first of the year that the agency had sent a special investigative team to the Palo Verde. A simultaneous investigation looked into a June 14 power surge in the West Valley that shut down the plant's three reactors. Investigators also probed a steam generator leak in February, and in May they investigated allegations of an erosion of a "culture of safety" because of what was called a disconnect between management and workers. The three other probes did not result in penalties or fines. The June 14 incident was one of five unplanned outages at Palo Verde that caught regulators' eyes in 2004. Three of the events involved radiation leaks. At the time regulators acknowledged there had been an unusually high number of problems at Palo Verde, but that they believed they were unrelated and not indicative of a pattern of neglect or faulty procedures. Next week APS is expected to release the results of the investigations it commissioned into the June 14 power surge and July fires at its Westwing and Deer Valley electric substations that compromised Valley power supplies. -------- california The Bay Area's Nuclear Legacy Gregory Dicum, Special to SF Gate Wednesday, January 5, 2005 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2005/01/05/gree.DTL With the dawn of a second Bush Jr. administration, there is talk of renewed nuclear testing and development of new nuclear reactors. (Indeed, the licensing process has already begun.) Advocates suggest that these things are safe and necessary, but here in the Bay Area, we have six decades of experience on the nuclear front lines and an ongoing legacy to show for it -- one we all live with daily, whether we like or not. Before we ramp up another nuclear age, a quick look at the hangover from the last one might serve as a cautionary tale. The Bay Area is one of the worldwide centers of the shadowy nuclear story -- there is far more weapons-grade radioactive material here than in the "axis of evil" countries combined, and nearly 50,000 people in the Bay Area are thought to be dependent on the nuclear-weapons economy in one way or another. If the Bay Area were a rogue nation, we'd be very scary indeed. Although other, more remote parts of the country suffered far more blatant effects (as in, for example, the radioactivity from more than 900 nuclear explosions in Nevada, or the devastation at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the most contaminated place in North America), the Bay Area's status as a major military port and high-tech center made this one of the most active urban regions in America's nuclear history. During the Cold War, dozens of reactors and hundreds of nuclear warheads resided here at military facilities. Nuclear ships were maintained -- and occasionally got into trouble -- here: a nuclear sub once sank at Mare Island, leaking radiation into the Napa River, and a nuclear aircraft carrier ran aground in Alameda, with similar results. As a result of these and countless other accidents, the Bay Area is aglow with plutonium and other radioisotopes from decades of nuclear activities. Never occurring naturally, plutonium is the most irremediably threatening substance we have ever conjured. Not just extremely radioactive -- an invisible particle lodged in a lung or bone is likely to cause cancer -- plutonium catches fire if it is exposed to air, and it sticks to almost anything it touches, turning processing and handling equipment into dangerous waste as well. And it lies in shallow burials around the region, in the Bay's sediment and on the ocean floor, quietly putting us at risk. It is notoriously difficult to quantify the effects of these contaminants on our lives and to identify cancers and other ailments that can be attributed to them specifically. Cancers caused by radiation take years to show up, and, in the meantime, dozens of other factors can play a role. But current thinking suggests that even small doses can contribute to increased cancer risk. And in a few hot spots around the region, the doses are anything but small. The Bay Area was at the very center of America's nuclear-weapons industry. Parts of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 were shipped to the South Pacific from here. And, just a few months later, 14 ships badly contaminated with radiation from the first postwar nuclear tests, at Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific, were towed to the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard for decontamination. Partly as a result, Hunters Point, parts of which are finally being cleaned up enough to hand over to the City 60 years later, is not just a Superfund site, it's on the National Priorities List -- among the worst of the worst. The radioactive fleet was variously cleaned up and refurbished, blown up, scrapped or, in the case of the aircraft carrier Independence, turned into a floating lab. As part of the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory -- until 1969, the U.S. Navy's largest radiation lab, based in an ominously windowless building that still stands at Hunters Point -- the Independence was the site of years of radiologically dirty experiments aimed at finding out what happens when materials, equipment and animals are exposed to radiation. In 1951, the ship was declared too radioactive to decontaminate and was towed out past the Farallon Islands and bombed until it sank. It lies beneath the waves in odious company: almost 50,000 drums of radioactive waste are scattered on the seafloor just 25 miles out from the Golden Gate. Ten times larger than the City, this is the largest offshore nuclear dump in the United States, yet it's not clear exactly what is in the drums, or who precisely put them all there. In the 1990s, scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey found that the drums are leaking radioactivity into the ocean. Some may have been spilling from the start -- sailors involved in dumping operations have reported shooting floating drums with rifles to make them sink -- and, as the rest age, they are falling apart. This callousness seems shocking to us today, especially because much of this waste was dumped by the very agencies studying just how dangerous radioactive materials can be. Record keeping was so slipshod that two years ago, as part of the Hunters Point cleanup, the Navy put ads in local newspapers asking former workers to come forward and tell it what had happened to nuclear and chemical waste there. The military honestly doesn't know. And the carelessness at Hunters Point is not a thing of the past. The ongoing cleanup, mired in the sort of development politics and corruption San Francisco is famous for, has seen, among other things, widespread inappropriate treatment of dangerous waste on the site and contamination of surrounding neighborhoods with toxic waste as soil was removed in open trucks. Nonetheless, in December 2004, the first part of the handover from the Navy to San Francisco became official: the 86-acre Parcel A at Hunters Point now belongs to the City. (The other five parcels should be transferred over the next decade.) This spring, a developer that seems to specialize in building housing on toxic sites will begin construction of 1,600 homes at Hunters Point. Whether or not this site contains residual contamination -- predictably, it depends who you ask -- it is right next to the much more heavily contaminated sites still being remediated at the former shipyard. In part because of this contamination, the surrounding area already has the highest infant-mortality rate in the state and abnormally high rates of asthma, cancer and other diseases. Hunters Point residents are the ongoing victims of the Cold War, when government priorities lay elsewhere. Back then, Soviet bombers prowled just 25 miles off the coast, ready to swoop in at a moment's notice and turn the Bay Area into a smoking heap of rubble. Sometimes it seemed that the only thing holding them at bay were the nuclear-tipped Nike missiles ringing the Bay Area. (There were once 300 of these installations throughout the country -- a dozen in the Bay Area alone -- but, since the 1970s, the battery at Marin County's Fort Barry, maintained as a museum by the U.S. Park Service, has been the only remaining glimpse of this haunting chapter of America's history. Visit it, and remember that there was a time when it seemed like a good idea to put up a wall of nuclear explosions just upwind of our homes.) Although the Cold War is just a chilling memory, the lingering effects of radiation are going to be with us for a long time to come. Plutonium's half-life is 24,000 years, and management plans call for it to be secured for ten times that long -- nearly 35 times longer than all of recorded history. Nuclear cleanup remains one of the federal government's largest liabilities, and long-term projected costs exceed by far the price of, among other things, the war in Iraq. Until the early 1990s, the Concord Naval Air Station was one of the U.S. military's largest storage depots for nuclear weapons (and the site of what some believe was the world's first nuclear explosion), so it is no surprise that the place is horribly contaminated. But this fact also makes it the perfect spot to receive nuclear waste from around the world. Starting with a 1998 shipment of used uranium fuel rods from South Korea and Indonesia, Concord is slated to receive five shipments by 2009. Although this activity is cause for great concern -- after all, this mortally dangerous material is floated in under the Golden Gate Bridge and past the homes of millions of people before it reaches Concord -- it is also an indication of a hopeful new maturity in dealing with this worldwide danger. Under Atoms for Peace, an Eisenhower-era boondoggle that encouraged poor countries to develop nuclear-power plants, the United States was obligated to repatriate spent fuel. (Atoms for Peace also served to line the pockets of U.S. military contractors, create the false impression that nuclear reactors are a viable civilian power source, saddle poor countries with debt and lay the groundwork for the proliferation of nuclear weapons.) But later, as public opinion turned against nuclear power in the 1980s, the United States shirked on its duty to accept the waste -- after all, we already have more than 100 civilian nuclear rectors and nowhere to put our own high-level waste. But by the late 1990s, it dawned on us that it is better to have the waste come back to our shores in sealed containers than as an uninvited nuclear bomb. We may at long last be facing up to the mess we have made. Which is why it is disturbing that the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is being ramped up again. Founded in 1952 to design hydrogen bombs, the Lawrence Livermore Lab is one of the world's premier sources for elegantly bad ideas. It's the kind of place that, if it weren't in our back yard, would be visible in grainy satellite images on CNN as talking heads gravely intone about the projects under way there. Like Hunters Point, the lab is a Superfund site. In the past, it has leaked radiation into the surrounding area at least 30 times, including a plutonium leak straight into city sewers for three weeks straight, two of the largest releases of radioactive hydrogen in U.S. history and a 1999 fire in which uranium-contaminated waste was set ablaze. Right there, just off Interstate 580, at the center of a local cancer cluster, lies enough weapons-grade plutonium to make hundreds of nuclear bombs. Today, the workshop that brought us the mini H-bomb, neutron-bomb howitzer shells and a scheme to mine natural gas with atom bombs is responsible for maintaining the nation's nuclear weapons. And it is being expanded to include a biowarfare lab and relicensed to double the amount of plutonium kept there. (So far, local activists have managed to prevent a plan to develop new nuclear weapons at the lab.) Here in the Bay Area, we don't have any working civilian power reactors, just a pair of smaller research reactors in the East Bay: one in San Ramon that defense contractor Aerotest uses to analyze advanced materials and another at the General Electric facility in Vallecitos, just a few miles from Pleasanton. General Electric is one of the pillars of the reactor- and bomb-making establishment, and, in a brilliant business move, it has become one of the key players in decommissioning old nuclear bombs and facilities as well. The site of the world's first private nuclear reactor, Vallecitos is also the location of the largest nuclear-waste pile in the Bay Area. Hundreds of pounds of intensely radioactive waste are stored partly buried in a hillside within miles of hundreds of thousands of people. (Just a few hundred lived there in the 1940s, when the site was selected.) Several times a year, shipments of contaminated equipment or parts from around the world arrive at the facility's gates after passing thorough the quiet bedroom communities of Alameda County. Indeed, it's one of the largest destinations of highly radioactive material in the western United States. Our nuclear legacy should serve as a counterbalance to any renewed nuclear pretensions we might have. This particular skeleton in our environmental closet is always going to be with us, and the last thing we want to do is add to it, tempting though it may sometimes seem. With the growing urgency for a transition from fossil fuels, carbon-neutral hydrogen is often seen as one solution. But the energy to create this hydrogen may very well be nuclear. Fears of a dangerous world likewise prompt occasional calls for a reconfigured nuclear arsenal. But if the experience of the Bay Area is anything to go by, all we'd be doing is hurting ourselves. Gregory Dicum, author of Window Seat: Reading the Landscape from the Air, writes about the natural world from San Francisco. A forester by training, Gregory has worked at the front lines of some of the world's most urgent environmental crises. -------- colorado Bill would warn Rocky Flats visitors of dangers Steven K. Paulson The Associated Press Wednesday, January 05, 2005 - http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%7E61%7E2636327,00.html A newly elected Colorado state legislator who led a grand jury investigation of the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons factory said today he will introduce a bill requiring managers of the site to warn visitors of potential dangers once it is converted to a wildlife refuge. Rep. Wes McKinley, D-Walsh, was the foreman of a federal grand jury that tried to indict private and federal officials over contamination at the site in 1992, but prosecutors settled the case with plea bargains. "People do have a right to make a choice. There are a lot of dangerous activities like horseback riding and rafting and people do it, but they know it's dangerous before they do it. I don't think anyone should go out there," McKinley said. McKinley, who was elected in November, said his bill would require visitors to the wildlife refuge to sign a statement acknowledging they had been warned about the potential dangers. He said the federal government has lied about the extent of contamination at the site and that schoolchildren especially should not visit the facility. Spokesmen for Kaiser-Hill Corp., which is handling the cleanup, and the Department of Energy, which oversees the site, did not immediately return phone calls. Federal officials have proposed allowing hiking, cycling, horseback riding and other activities on 16 miles of trails at Rocky Flats once it is converted to a refuge by 2008. A $7 billion cleanup of the 6,420-acre site west of Denver is scheduled to be complete in 2006. Rocky Flats made plutonium triggers for nuclear warheads until 1992, when it was shut down because of safety concerns and because of the end of the Cold War. ---- New lawmaker begins job with his eye on Rocky Flats By Peggy Lowe, Rocky Mountain News January 5, 2005 http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/legislature/article/0,1299,DRMN_37_3446031,00.html The Colorado cowboy who became a folk hero as foreman of the Rocky Flats runaway grand jury is now a state legislator. And he's itching for a fight. Wes McKinley's first item of business is a plan that he says will educate people about the dangers that linger at the 6,500-acre former nuclear-weapons plant in Jefferson County. McKinley will announce his intention today to introduce a bill that would require people to be warned of the dangers of plutonium exposure if they visit the site, which is set to become a wildlife refuge in about seven years. Under McKinley's plan, visitors would then have to sign a consent form saying they are aware of the potential risks. "Protect the children of Colorado, that's what we want to do. That's what the government's job is, the protector of the population and children," McKinley said. "We don't think (the Rocky Flats site is) safe, and we're bringing attention to that." McKinley, elected in November to the Colorado House as a Democrat from the Plains, will be joined at a Capitol news conference today by Jon Lipsky, a former FBI agent who tried to tell Congress about the Rocky Flats grand jury. McKinley was the foreman of the grand jury that investigated the nuclear-weapons plant from 1989 to 1991. The panel wanted to indict individuals at the Department of Energy and Rockwell International, which ran the plant. But former U.S. Attorney Mike Norton refused to indict officials and reached a plea agreement in which Rockwell agreed to pay an $18.5 million fine. Members of the grand jury have tried to tell the story, but a federal judge denied their request in March, saying grand jury proceedings are secret. Last year, McKinley published a book, The Ambushed Grand Jury, which accuses the government of lying and covering up environmental crimes at the site. McKinley said he wants signs or even a video that will describe to refuge visitors the fact that nuclear weapons were made on the site and that exposure to plutonium can cause cancer. People sign such consent forms when they do other dangerous activities, such as skydiving or horseback riding, McKinley said. Information on the plant's legacy would be easy to incorporate with other educational plans for the refuge, he said. "If we're going to be an educational thing, we should inform," McKinley said. "We don't even allow lead in our paint because that's dangerous to our children. Plutonium is much more dangerous than lead." lowep@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5482 ---- Rocky Flats refuge visitors will be warned of nuclear past STEVEN PAULSON the associated press January 5, 2005 http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20050105/NEWS/50105006 DENVER — A newly elected state legislator who led a grand jury investigation of the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant said Wednesday he will introduce a bill requiring managers of the site to warn visitors of the potential dangers once it is converted to a wildlife refuge. Rep. Wes McKinley, D-Walsh, was the foreman of a federal grand jury that tried to indict private and federal officials over contamination at the site in 1992, but prosecutors settled the case with plea bargains. “People do have a right to make a choice. There are a lot of dangerous activities like horseback riding and rafting and people do it, but they know it’s dangerous before they do it. I don’t think anyone should go out there,” McKinley said. McKinley, who was elected in November, said his bill would require visitors to the wildlife refuge to sign a statement acknowledging they had been warned about the potential dangers. He said the federal government has lied about the extent of contamination at the site and that schoolchildren especially should not visit the facility. Spokesmen for Kaiser-Hill Corp., which is handling the cleanup, and the Department of Energy, which oversees the site, did not immediately return phone calls. Federal officials have proposed allowing hiking, cycling, horseback riding and other activities on 16 miles of trails at Rocky Flats once it is converted to a refuge by 2008. A $7 billion cleanup of the 6,420-acre site west of Denver is scheduled to be complete in 2006. Rocky Flats made plutonium triggers for nuclear warheads until 1992, when it was shut down because of safety concerns and because of the end of the Cold War. ---- Contractor: Rocky Flats Retaining Ponds Contaminated Jan 5, 2005 5:25 pm US/Mountain (AP) http://news4colorado.com/localnews/local_story_005192646.html GOLDEN, Colo. - Water in retaining ponds designed to block water from the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plants from flowing downstream is contaminated with levels of radioactivity higher than allowed, the cleanup contractor said. The radioactivity stems from the plutonium derivative americum and is thought to have come from the buried remains of Building 771, where plutonium was processed into triggers for nuclear bombs, officials at cleanup contractor Kaiser-Hill Co. said Monday. No water from the ponds has been released downstream on Walnut Creek, which flows into Broomfield's Great Western Reservoir, since the contamination was discovered in early November, Kaiser-Hill officials said. The creek is not a direct source of drinking water. The ponds have a capacity of about 44 million gallons. They are now holding about 25 million gallons and are expected to fill in about two months, said John Rampe, a scientist with the Energy Department, which is overseeing the site's cleanup. No water will be released from the ponds until it meets cleanup standards, said Steven Gunderson, the state health department's Rocky Flats cleanup coordinator. The cleanup is scheduled to be completed in 2006, and the site is to become a wildlife refuge. Testing by Kaiser-Hill and the Colorado health department revealed levels of americum about four times the limit of 0.15 picocuries per liter established in the cleanup agreement. Traces of plutonium also were found. According to Environmental Protection Agency estimates, the 30-year cancer risk for somebody who drinks two liters per day of water with 0.15 picocuries per liter of radiation increases by one per million. Kaiser-Hill workers traced the contamination to one of six lines draining water from an area where Building 771 once stood. The building was considered the most dangerous in America at one time for its extremely high radiation levels. The contamination might have come from water sprayed to reduce dust during demolition of Building 771 in July, said David Shelton, Kaiser-Hill's vice president for environmental systems and stewardship. On Wednesday, a former FBI agent who led a raid on Rocky Flats offices in 1989 is expected to hold a news conference to discuss information given to a grand jury that investigated alleged environmental crimes at the site. The agent, Jon Lipsky, declined comment Tuesday. Lipsky has said a citizens' group report alleging dangerous gaps in the cleanup was correct, but he had been muzzled by the FBI. He retired last year. He is scheduled to appear with state Rep.-elect Wes McKinley, D-Walsh, who was foreman of the grand jury and has fought unsuccessfully to unseal investigation documents from its work. The Justice Department declined to issue any indictments after the investigation ended in 1992. Also this week, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists published an article by activist LeRoy Moore arguing the Rocky Flats cleanup will leave dangerous contamination under the planned wildlife refuge. Moore, a consultant with the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center in Boulder, said all contamination should be removed before the conversion to a refuge. "To allow high levels of it to remain in the site's soil, which will likely be stirred up by humans and animals in the long term, demonstrates a wanton disregard for the well-being of unsuspecting future generations," Moore wrote. The Energy Department has defended the cleanup. "This community is getting a very safe, protective and conservative cleanup that far exceeds what the law requires," said agency spokeswoman Karen Lutz. ---- Rocky Flats accusation Ex-FBI investigator among group that says public is being misled about danger By Ann Imse, Rocky Mountain News January 5, 2005 http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_3446110,00.html The long-muzzled FBI agent who led the 1989 raid on the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant is accusing federal prosecutors of obstructing that investigation and misleading the public on the danger of radioactive dumping there. Jon Lipsky, who retired from the FBI last Friday, accuses the Justice and Energy departments of "potential criminal acts" in preventing a thorough investigation, which ended in a plea bargain in 1992. He and others involved in that probe say in a memo posted on the Internet that the deception "should result in extreme skepticism about current government assurances that the cleanup of dangerous contamination at Rocky Flats is protective of the public health." Lipsky will appear at a news conference today to talk about his allegations. Energy officials said the $7 billion cleanup is thorough, and a former federal prosecutor defended the handling of the case. In 1989, the FBI raided the Department of Energy atom bomb plant at Rocky Flats, which had been ignoring pollution laws on the grounds of national security. The raid was the first ever by the FBI on a sister U.S. government agency and led to a three-year grand jury investigation. But the Justice Department rejected what grand jurors considered to be evidence of serious environmental crimes of dumping and burning radioactive and toxic waste. A plea bargain allowed Rockwell International, which ran the plant for the DOE, to pay $18.5 million in fines. No individual was charged with a crime. Retired FBI agent Lipsky is joined in his allegations by Rocky Flats grand jury foreman Wes McKinley, a newly elected Colorado state legislator; former Rocky Flats worker Jacque Brever; and their attorney, Caron Balkany. The four posted a memo detailing their allegations on the Web site www.ambushedgrand jury.com, where McKinley and Balkany promote their book on the case. They are calling for a congressional investigation. The grand jury report with the evidence remains secret. But the group's memo says midnight burning of toxic waste really did occur and that officials did not tell the truth about a plutonium incinerator or dumping of radioactive waste. The memo claims that deception has interfered with the cleanup and endangers people who will roam the site after it is converted to a wildlife refuge. Department of Energy spokeswoman Karen Lutz said the site has been thoroughly tested and that all contamination is being cleaned up according to law. "Every aspect of this cleanup has been under a microscope," she said. Mike Norton, the former U.S. attorney who handled the plea bargain between the Justice Department and Rockwell, said, "It is beyond imagination that anybody covered anything up" given the hundreds of people involved in the investigation. Generally, Lipsky and his colleagues contend that Energy officials and their contractors dumped radioactive and toxic waste at the plant for years and lied about it so they could build more atom bombs. Specifically, the memo says the Building 771 incinerator was used to burn toxic waste when it was supposed to be closed down - even though the plea bargain said no such evidence was found. The memo says the Justice Department should have filed charges for operating that incinerator without a permit and illegally storing the radioactive ash. Norton disagreed that there was "proof positive" of that incinerator burning illegally. The memo also alleged the Justice Department misled the public in stating Rocky Flats contractor Rockwell did not cause substantial physiological harm. It says Rocky Flats sprayed radioactive and toxic waste over a large area called the East Spray Fields, and this seeped into groundwater and drinking water. However, the DOE's Lutz said the entire area was tested and came back with such extremely low levels of contamination that it did not require cleanup. Years later, officials found radioactive contamination in Great Western Reservoir and Standley Lake, which contain drinking water. Great Western was closed, and Standley Lake's plutonium is considered safely buried in the sediment. Lutz said the amount of radioactivity in the reservoirs was found to be well under legal limits. Norton noted that the decision on charges in the case was made by numerous officials in the Justice Department. "I don't know of any outstanding issue that wasn't resolved," he added. "What we concluded at the time is what we believed at the time." Allegations of obstruction An ex-FBI agent, the head of the Rocky Flats grand jury and others said the Justice Department: • Restricted the FBI investigation at Rocky Flats and did not file charges for the most serious crimes found. • Denied the public was harmed, even though radioactive and hazardous waste contaminated ground- and drinking water. • Ignored evidence and did not file charges that Rocky Flats illegally stored radioactive incinerator ash. • Obstructed a special grand jury, Congress and an FBI agent, and lied to the court and the public about the extent of the contamination and government crimes at Rocky Flats. Source: www.ambushedgrandjury.com imsea@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5438 -------- iowa Alliant To Auction Duane Arnold Nuclear Plant Wednesday January 5, 2:45 PM EST Dow Jones Newswires 01-05-05 1445ET http://money.iwon.com/jsp/nw/nwdt_rt.jsp?cat=USMARKET&src=704&feed=dji§ion=news&news_id=dji-00083920050105&date=20050105&alias=/alias/money/cm/nw PALO, Iowa (AP)--Alliant Energy (LNT) plans to hold an auction to sell Iowa's only nuclear plower plant. Alliant-subsidiary Interstate Power and Light's President Tom Aller said Alliant hopes to begin the closed-bid process soon for its 70% stake in the Duane Arnold Energy Center near Palo and complete it within a year. The remainder of the plant is owned by Central Iowa Power Cooperative (20%) and Corn Belt Power Cooperative (10%). State law doesn't require the Iowa Utility Board to approve the sale but does allow it to object, Aller said. Alliant said two weeks ago that it would seek a buyer interested in renewing the plant's license rather than seek renewal itself when the license expires in 2014. -------- south carolina Low-level radiation rolls out of reactor Posted Wednesday, January 5, 2005 - 11:54 pm By Anna Simon CLEMSON BUREAU asimon@greenvillenews.com http://greenvilleonline.com/news/2005/01/05/2005010556230.htm SENECA — Low-level fixed contamination was found on metal heavy lifting equipment that was used during steam generator replacement at Oconee Nuclear Station. Duke Power and Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokespersons said it posed no health or safety danger to workers or the public, however a nuclear watchdog organization spokesman called it "unneeded radiation exposure" with potential to cause some harm. Here in the Upstate, Seneca resident Curtis White, an associate professor of agriculture and biological engineering at Clemson, said, "nobody really wants to have that stuff near them, but we all want the benefit of it. There are little or no threats I'm aware of." Michael Mariotte, executive director of the Washington D.C. - based Nuclear Information Resource Service, said contamination leaves plants "often enough to be discouraging" and is an ongoing concern. "It doesn't mean it's going to cause mass illness, but even those kinds of levels have the potential to cause some harm," Mariotte said. Workers at an Arkansas nuclear plant found contamination on equipment last used to replace the steam generator in Oconee's Unit 3, which went back to full power Wednesday after a refueling and maintenance outage, said Oconee spokeswoman Dayle Stewart. Contamination also was found on equipment that had gone back to the contractor in Texas, Stewart said. The contamination was "a very small fraction of a typical dental X-ray, so there was never any safety threat to the workers or the public," Stewart said. "We take it very seriously and are doing a detailed investigation of our processes to insure that this does not occur again in the future." The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will inspect Oconee to find out what happened and if it could have been prevented, but no disciplinary action is being considered at this point, said commission spokesman Ken Clark. "This kind of thing does happen from time to time. It is not a major health or safety concern," Clark said. -------- washington DOE gets waste separation proposal This story was published Wednesday, January 5th, 2005 By Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald staff writer http://www.tri-cityherald.com/tch/business/story/5981786p-5882640c.html Archimedes Technology Group has submitted an unsolicited proposal to the Department of Energy to develop a plan for a new waste separations technology to dramatically reduce the volume of high-level radioactive waste needing treatment at Hanford. Archimedes, of San Diego, was founded six years ago to develop a better way to separate high-level radioactive waste from mixtures of waste left from the production of plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program. For its unsolicited proposal, Archimedes has teamed with two companies with experience deploying or operating technologies on DOE projects. Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. would design the facility to filter waste, and BWXT Services Inc., a subsidiary of McDermott International Inc., would operate it. The proposal calls for DOE and the Archimedes team to share the cost over 15 months of tailoring the technology to Hanford waste and doing additional concept design work, said John Wagoner, Archimedes vice president for nuclear programs. Wagoner is a former Hanford manager for DOE. The results should give DOE more information to consider whether the technology is workable and practical. Archimedes believes a plant based on the new waste separations technology could be built at Hanford and commissioned by 2008. DOE already has begun construction on a $5.7 billion vitrification plant it expects to begin turning waste from Hanford's underground tanks into a stable glass form in 2011. The tanks hold 53 million gallons of radioactive and chemical waste left from separating plutonium from fuel irradiated in Hanford reactors. DOE plans to separate high-level waste from the rest of the mixture and turn it into glass logs for permanent burial at Yucca Mountain, Nev. The remaining low-activity waste would be treated and buried at Hanford at far less cost. Archimedes' goal is to significantly reduce the volume of high-level radioactive waste by doing a more thorough job of removing extraneous materials from waste. Rather than a chemical separation process, it would manipulate waste with electrical and magnetic currents to separate the waste based on atomic weight. Because most of the radioactive elements in the tank waste are heavy, separating Hanford high-level radioactive sludge by atomic mass would isolate 99.9 percent of the radioactivity in 25 percent of the sludge, according to Archimedes. That could save $8 billion to $25 billion over the life of the vitrification plant, according to a study it commissioned from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. But Archimedes must convince DOE that what's now a promising technology would transfer to an operating and efficient industrial plant in time for DOE to meet regulatory deadlines to start turning high-level radioactive waste into glass. Jacobs and BWXT Services have experience designing and operating complex and first-of-a-kind chemical process plants involving nuclear materials, according to a statement from the team of companies. "The development of our teaming agreement with BWXS and Jacobs is an important milestone in Archimedes' development as we transition to commercial deployment of our technology," said John Gilleland, chief executive of Archimedes, in a prepared statement. BWXT Services of Lynchburg, Va., also called BWXS, has more than 11,000 employees and manages nuclear and national security production facilities. Jacobs Engineering Group, based in California, has more than 35,000 employees and is one of the largest professional services firms in the United States. Archimedes says it has the largest private technology development program in the history of DOE's environmental management program with an investment of more than $100 million. It has a filter in California to demonstrate the commercial viability of its technology on the industrial scale. Archimedes also has submitted a proposal for a DOE solicitation issued in July for new technologies to enhance tank waste processing. DOE has $1.5 million set aside for one or more awards. Wagoner declined to release the cost of the 15 months of work proposed in its unsolicited proposal to DOE. -------- MILITARY -------- africa Sudanese army begins to absorb southern militias KHARTOUM (AFP) Jan 05, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/2005/050105153903.w2cnnsgl.html Sudan began integrating southern militias into the ranks of its armed forces Wednesday, fearing that their presence in parts of south could undermine the prospects for real peace in the country. The process got underway with the integration of 182 officers and soldiers from the pro-government South Sudan Defense Forces in a ceremony in Khartoum, which included the taking of the oath of allegiance. Many of them got promotions, with a few becoming generals. The SSDF splintered from the rebel Sudan Peoples' Liberation Movement in the mid-1990s and was later recruited and armed by the government to fight alongside its regular forces against the SPLM. The move toward integration was "in the context of the new situation created by the peace agreement," Sudanese Defense Minister Bekri Hassan Salih said during the ceremony. Khartoum and the SPLM are to sign a peace agreement on Sunday in the Kenyan capital Nairobi to end Africa's longest-running conflict, after two years of intensive negotiations. The 21-year war left an estimated 1.5 million people dead, most of them from disease and starvation, and displaced four million. It erupted in 1983 when the southern rebels rose up against Khartoum to end Arab and Muslim domination and marginalisation of the black, animist or Christian south. SSDF commander Paulino Matep also addressed the event, telling the officers to "defend the peace agreement and its provisions." Under the protocol, there will be only two armies in Sudan during a six-year interim period agreed to by the government and the SPLM. It calls on the various militias that emerged in the south, many of them SPLM splinter groups, either to join the army or the SPLM within a year of the signing of a final peace deal. --------- Burundi creates truth and reconciliation commission BUJUMBURA (AFP) Jan 05, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/2005/050105150853.reulz160.html Burundi's long-awaited National Truth and Reconciliation Commission (NTRC) aimed at providing a measure of justice to those harmed during the central African nation's decades of war, has finally been established, the presidency said Wednesday. "President Domitien Ndayizeye has just promologated the law that creates the NTRC," presidential spokesman Pancrace Cimpaye said. The commission is charged with "establishing the truth about acts of violence committed during the cyclical conflicts that have plagued Burundi since July 1, 1962, the day of independence, establish and identify those responsible, and identify the victims," the law says. In the course of its probe, the panel will also propose measures to promote reconciliation, as well as decide upon restitution and other compensation to victims and those who lost property. It will also clarify Burundi's post-independence history to fully educate the country's people about their past, according to the law. Burundi's two principle ethnic groups, the Hutus and the Tutsis, have vastly different accounts of the country's history with each accusing each other of genocide. Inter-ethnic conflicts have killed hundreds of thousands of people in Burundi since it won independence from Belgium 42 years ago. The last one, which began in 1993 between the minority Tutsi-led army and Hutu rebels, has killed more than 300,000, mainly civilians. No one has yet been brought to justice for any alleged crimes committed during any of the conflicts nor has any judicial body been tasked with investigating atrocities. A peace accord, signed between the government and the Hutu and Tutsi political opposition in August 2000 in the Tanzanian city of Arusha, seeks an equitable division of power but has not been agreed to by Hutu rebel groups. The truth and reconciliation commission was one of the main points of the Arusha accord which had called for it to be created in 2002, but at the time not all parties were willing to see it happen. "This time this is it, the NTRC exists and its members will be named very quickly," Cimpaye told AFP. The 25-member commission, which has a two-year mandate, is to be appointed by the president with the approval of National Assembly and Senate after consulations with the government, according to the law. The panel will have "large powers to investigate" and the ability to subpoena witnesses to testify before it under penalty of law, the legislation says. Those refusing to testify can be punished by up to two years in prison and fined between 10,000 and 100,000 Burundi francs (nine to 90 dollars, 6.5 to 65 euros). "This is an important step on the road to reconcilation after a long period without justice," said Pie Ntakarutimana, an official from one of Burundi's main human rights groups, Iteka. "We must now find men and women to take on this heavy task, which will measure the government's desire to shine light on the dark pages of Burundi's history," he said. -------- arms US agrees to sell Hellfire missiles to Taiwan TAIPEI (AFP) Jan 05, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/2005/050105162546.ckq2ao0c.html The United States has agreed to sell air-to-ground Hellfire missiles worth 50 million US dollars to Taiwan, US defense giant Lockheed Martin Corporation said Wednesday, a move expected to rile rival China. "The US Army has executed a letter of agreement with Taiwan, setting the stage for the sale of more than 400 AGM-114M blast-fragmentation Hellfire rounds under a foreign military sales contract," the company said in a statement. It would take the company about six months to produce the Hellfire missiles ordered by Taiwan. The missiles will be mounted on Taiwan's Super Cobra AH-1W attack and OH-58D Kiowa Warrior scout helicopters. In line with its practice of not commenting on arms purchase, Taiwan's defense ministry declined to comment. "Hellfire's lethality and combat-proven performance, coupled with its precision-strike capability, provides the Taiwanese armed forces with the best air-to-ground weapon system in the world," said Mark Stenger of Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Orlando. "In Afghanistan and Iraq, Hellfire not only proved to be superior against buildings, but was extremely effective against ships, light armor and urban targets." Taiwan's decision to purchase Hellfire ensures its military's interoperability with US armed forces deployed worldwide, the company said. Despite Washington switching its diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, the United States has remained the leading arms supplier to the island which Beijing regards as part of its territory awaiting to be reunified by force if necessary. China and Taiwan split in 1949 at the end of a civil war. ---- Czech government stiffens arms sales restrictions PRAGUE (AFP) Jan 05, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/2005/050105184814.b6hcvlre.html The Czech government Wednesday approved changes in the law which would stricter control arms sales while making such trade more transparent, in response to domestic pressure. The government spokeswoman said the global situation had changed since the existing law was passed in 1994, making modifications essential. "Changes were needed to bring Czech law into line with that of the European Union," Vera Duskova told AFP. The Czech Republic joined the EU last May. The country, along with other governments in central Europe, has been under pressure from non-governmental organisations to crack down on arms sales. Under the amended law, state organisations will have to regularly compile current lists of military material and better inform about reasons for refusing licences. The law also envisages compiling a list of countries to which arms exports are strictly banned. Cooperation between the National Safety Office and the Minister of Industry and Trade would also be more clearly defined. Under the communist regime when the Czech Republic and Slovakia were united Czechoslovakia sold arms to the Middle East and the developing world. International pressure to crack down on illegal arms sales has increased since the September 11 attacks on the United States. Human Rights Watch has highlighted the absence of checks preventing weapons reaching unauthorised destinations, authorised arms transfers to destinations where weapons fueled human right abuses and armed conflict and poor enforcement of embargoes and punishments. The changes to the law must now be approved by the Czech parliament before taking effect. -------- un Balancing power on U.N. Security Council January 05, 2005 Washington Times Letters to the Editor http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20050104-085751-6622r.htm Frank Gaffney Jr.'s "False friends" (Commentary, Dec. 28) raised a concern that has been percolating in my mind since the French and German anti-American campaign that preceded the Iraq war. During the past several years, the European Union has acted as a single government in accordance with its objectives. This has affected its internal administration of society and its collective relationship with the outside world. In the former, the member states must relinquish power as the new central authority assumes its dominance. In the latter, when it comes to international relations, the member states maintain their ambassadors, their treaties (selectively) and their seats in the U.N. Security Council and General Assembly. At present, the European Union has two permanent seats and an occasional rotating seat on the Security Council. There is talk of giving Germany a permanent seat. The French and German governments have proved themselves feckless in terms of defending freedom but quiet adroit at manipulating international institutions. My position is that a united Europe should get one seat at the U.N. Security Council. The current French seat ought to be given to the Japanese. This would provide a more rational and balanced council that is willing and able to defend freedom. ANDREW MOSKOWITZ Seattle -------- us Pentagon Scales Back Arms Plans Current Needs Outweigh Advances in Technology By Jonathan Weisman and Renae Merle Washington Post Staff Writers Wednesday, January 5, 2005; Page A01 http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A48425-2005Jan4?language=printer Rising war costs and a stubborn budget deficit have forced the Pentagon to propose billions of dollars in cuts to advanced weapons systems, as the military refocuses spending from its vision of a transformed fighting force to the more down-to-earth needs of its ground troops. An internal defense budget document for fiscal 2006 shows a vivid shift of emphasis from procuring the weapons of the future to fighting the wars of the present, numerous defense analysts said yesterday. The Air Force and the Navy -- once favored by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld -- would have to sacrifice some of their high-tech weapons development for the humble needs of the Army, such as tank treads and armor. "The Air Force and the Navy are paying the bills to fix the Army's shortfall in resources," said Loren B. Thompson, defense industry analyst with the Lexington Institute. The internal budget document, approved by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz and leaked to reporters over the weekend, shows deep cuts to weapons programs once seen as the future of the military, including an Air Force advanced fighter plane, a stealthy Navy destroyer, a fleet of modernized transport aircraft and the next generation of nuclear submarines. Even President Bush's prized missile defense program would be trimmed by $5 billion. In all, cuts over six years would total $55 billion, mostly from the Navy and the Air Force. In contrast, Army ground forces, which Rumsfeld had once hoped to reduce and de-emphasize, would receive an additional $25 billion through 2011. Those funds would be dedicated to an ongoing Army initiative to break down its large divisions into smaller, "modular" brigades that would be more mobile and flexible. With the cutbacks and additions, the Pentagon would trim $30 billion over the next six years from its original $89 billion defense buildup, according to the budget document, which was first reported in InsideDefense.com. The total military budget is still likely to exceed the 2005 level. At the same time, the White House is preparing an emergency spending bill to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that could total between $80 billion and $100 billion, congressional defense aides say. White House officials last year informed all federal agencies and departments, including the Defense Department, that they would have to contribute to the president's effort to cut the budget deficit in half, as Bush has pledged, according to Chad Kolton, a spokesman for the White House budget office. At the same time, emergency requests for the war in Iraq have steadily escalated in each of the past three years. "No one had anticipated that the cost of Iraq would continue to grow like [this]," said Dov S. Zakheim, an original member of Rumsfeld's team who retired as Pentagon comptroller last year. Now, he said, "clearly they are concerned about the deficit on one hand and Iraq on the other." "They've suddenly realized the war in Iraq and the deficit require them to make tough choices on the defense budget," said Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), a member of the Armed Services Committee. The internal document presents the changes the Defense Department would like to see in its long-term budget, recommendations that will now be used to draft the actual defense request for 2006 through 2010. Kolton cautioned that final decisions on the president's 2006 budget request are still about two weeks away. Some of the cuts would fall on programs long questioned by Rumsfeld. The F/A-22 Raptor fighter jet, which critics have labeled a Cold War relic, is slated for a $10.4 billion cut through 2011. The cut would cost the Air Force 96 advanced fighters. The Air Force originally proposed scaling back the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter instead but was overruled by Pentagon insiders close to Rumsfeld, Thompson said. "The administration is using the budget pressures as a pretext to force its priorities on the military services," he said. Submarines, also slated for cuts, have never been Rumsfeld favorites. Under the plan, the Navy would lose three advanced Virginia-class nuclear submarines, saving $5.3 billion. But other programs on the chopping block have been defended by the military services as vital to Rumsfeld's vision of a lighter, more agile military. The Marine Corps would lose nearly $1.2 billion for its V-22 Osprey vertical-lift aircraft. The Navy would lose two of its DD(X) destroyers, once billed by the Navy as its "pathway to transformation," saving $2.5 billion. A restructured missile defense program, once the top defense priority of the administration, would be cut by $5 billion. And the Navy would lose 63 next-generation C-130 transport planes, at a savings of $4.9 billion. Some of cuts appear to be a prudent acceptance of reality, said Robert Work, a senior defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. The Navy's fleet of surface ships and submarines is unchallenged, he said. Some defense experts have raised alarm bells about China's intention to ramp up its submarine fleet, but for now, China's four nuclear submarines and 53 conventional subs -- many of them decrepit -- are no match for the Navy's 58 nuclear submarines, he said. Michael E. O'Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said the proposed cuts reflect a more seasoned Pentagon leadership that is ready to tackle the political difficulty of canceling or reducing expensive, prized weapons programs. "The Bush administration has ingratiated itself with parts of the defense community" and is publicly considered strong on defense, he said. "That makes it easier for [Bush] to argue that we have to do some things differently. They have created the sort of legitimacy necessary to make these arguments and have people take them seriously." But other defense experts say the budget request appears to lack any coherent vision. An extensive defense buildup has pushed military spending from $291 billion in 2001 to $437 billion in 2004, but it has yet to fundamentally replace the aging weaponry of the military services, said Andrew F. Krepinevich, the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments' executive director. Cutting future weapons purchases now would lock in what he called "a hollow buildup." "If this is transformation, it's reactive transformation," he said. "What are these cuts saying beyond 'We've got a budget problem' ?" Without doubt, Rumsfeld will face political challenges to his request. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John W. Warner (R-Va.) has singled out a proposal to retire one of the Navy's aircraft carriers. Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine), whose district includes giant shipmaker Bath Iron Works, went further. "It's truly mystifying and disturbing," she said. "What is their vision of the future that would suggest that America could live with a much-reduced Navy? We couldn't even anticipate where we are today . . . let alone looking 10 or 20 years down the road." But, ultimately, Congress may have little choice but to go along, said Gordon Adams, a George Washington University defense expert who helped craft defense budgets for the Clinton White House. The Sept. 11, 2001, attacks had produced a surge in spending for war and weapons, obscuring an earlier fight between Rumsfeld and the uniformed services over funding priorities. But the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have dragged on far longer -- and proved far more expensive -- than anticipated. Likewise, the burgeoning budget deficit -- which totaled a record $413 billion in 2004 -- has put pressure on the entire federal government. Now, Adams said, Rumsfeld will no longer be able to "have his budgetary cake and eat it, too." ---- RESERVE 'BROKEN' BY ITS BURDEN In a memo to Army brass, its leader says overseas demands, dysfunctional policies pose a 'grave danger' BY TOM BOWMAN THE BALTIMORE SUN January 5, 2005 http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usrese054104615jan05,0,4971784,print.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-headlines WASHINGTON - The Army Reserve, a force of some 200,000 part-time soldiers who provide key support in Iraq and Afghanistan with medics, engineers and truck drivers, "is rapidly degenerating into a 'broken' force," its top general has told senior Army leaders. Lt. Gen. James R. "Ron" Helmly, the chief of the Army Reserve, in a blunt and detailed memo, cited the demands of overseas commitments and the unwillingness of Army and Pentagon officials to change "dysfunctional" policies that are hampering the Army Reserve on issues ranging from training and extension of service time to the mobilization of his soldiers. The Dec. 20 memo, obtained by The Sun, said that in meeting "current demands" of Iraq and Afghanistan, the Reserve is in "grave danger" of being unable to meet other missions in Pentagon contingency plans or help with domestic emergencies "and is rapidly degenerating into a 'broken force.'" "The purpose of this memorandum is to inform you of the Army Reserve's inability to meet mission requirements" in Iraq and Afghanistan "and to reset and regenerate its forces for follow-on and future missions," Helmly wrote in the eight-page memo sent through Army channels for the Army's chief of staff, Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker. "I do not wish to sound alarmist. I do wish to send a clear, distinctive signal of deepening concern." Interviewed yesterday at the Pentagon, Helmly said, "I stand by the memorandum. Is there frustration? Absolutely. Is the frustration beyond control? No." The memo was designed as a frank exchange with Army leaders in advance of upcoming congressional hearings, said Helmly, adding that he planned to press ahead with changes for the long-term health of the Army Reserve. Helmly would not discuss the specific officials who declined to support policy changes, though he said in one instance political pressure from Congress led to a roadblock. A senior Army official, who requested anonymity, said yesterday that unexpected troop requirements in Iraq led to the problems outlined by Helmly. The active duty forces needed there continually rose over the past year, requiring an increased number of Reserve soldiers to provide support. The official said some policies would have to change. The 150,000 U.S. troops now in Iraq include about 30,000 Army Reserve soldiers serving in Iraq and Kuwait. ---- U.S. Army Sergeant May Refuse Re-Deployment To Iraq 01/05/05 By Robert S. Finnegan Information Clearing House Managing Editor, Southeast Asia News http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article7623.htm Ft. Stewart Georgia, “Rock of the Marne” -- This morning Sergeant Kevin Benderman, U.S. Army awoke to face what will probably be one of the most important decisions of his life: whether or not to accept or refuse re-deployment to Iraq to participate in a war that has been increasingly questioned by the American public, and the world. A war that has been ruled illegal by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and has come under increasing fire from both Republicans and Democrats alike who share the same concerns as Sergeant Benderman and the U.N. Secretary General. While conscious of the fact that this single action could be the opening salvo of a war pitting an increasingly disgruntled military against the Bush administration over issues such as “stop-loss,” questionable operations, equipment failures and casualties in Iraq and the possibility of facing severe penalties under the Uniform Code of Military Justice for his actions, Benderman remains firm in his resolve to do something about it, and to do it now. “I have both a professional and a moral obligation to call into question why we are still in Iraq after accomplishing the mission – in President Bush’s words – of deposing Saddam, and why U.S. military personnel are increasingly killing non-combatants. On my last deployment in Iraq elements of my unit were instructed by a Captain to fire on children throwing rocks at us.” This is not what he signed up for, Benderman said. Both Benderman, 40, and his wife Monica realize the possible ramifications of his stand. “We have no other choice,” Benderman’s wife said. “This is what we have to do, I have always told my children that the right thing is the most important thing, and doing it is the only thing that allows you to keep your integrity, regardless of the consequences.” Their actions are only reflecting their core beliefs she said. Benderman’s feelings on the war run deep, and were primarily influenced by his experiences during a previous deployment to Iraq from March through September 2003. “The people that we are fighting now, are for the most part people like you and me, people that are defending themselves against a superior military force and fighting to keep that which is rightfully theirs” he said. Benderman also stated that the Iraqi people have the right to choose their own form of government, “just like we did in America after the revolution.” He says that he is proud of his service to his country, but takes no pride in what is happening in Iraq now. In addition, Benderman states that while he signed a contract with the military to ‘defend the Constitution of the United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic,’ he says now that “I am ashamed to be associated with this mess, and I certainly did not join the Army to kill women, children and old men. I just don’t see how these innocent people could be a threat to the constitution of the United States: an American soldier should not be ashamed of what they do.” Benderman has a flawless military record and a list of meritorious awards. As for his combat experience in Iraq, Benderman says that he believes that those who have not experienced war are those who beat the war drums the loudest. “Has the video game mentality so pervaded our country that this is how we base our decisions on war? Some of the younger guys were totally out of touch with reality in that respect, and I had to repeatedly tell them to keep their heads down because there are no restart buttons on reality,” he said. Benderman sincerely believes that the U.S. has lost its way in Iraq and that the best way to avoid creating more terrorists in the world at this time is to bring our soldiers home from Iraq and to let Iraqis sort out without interference the type of government they prefer. “We did it for ourselves during the American Revolution and now it is time to let the people of Iraq do it for themselves,” he said. Sergeant Benderman is scheduled to undergo a psychiatric evaluation at Ft. Stewart Georgia this afternoon after submitting a request for Conscientious Objector Status from the Army. U.S. Army Public Affairs Officer Lt. Colonel Kent declined comment for this article citing privacy, and adding that “typically, these are administrative actions we cannot comment on.” Southeast Asia News Managing Editor Robert S. Finnegan is an internationally published investigative reporter. He may be reached at seanews1@yahoo.com ---- US agrees to sell Hellfire missiles to Taiwan TAIPEI (AFP) Jan 05, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/2005/050105162546.7p3ev2s6.html The United States has agreed to sell air-to-ground Hellfire missiles worth 50 million US dollars to Taiwan, US defense giant Lockheed Martin Corporation said Wednesday, a move expected to rile rival China. "The US Army has executed a letter of agreement with Taiwan, setting the stage for the sale of more than 400 AGM-114M blast-fragmentation Hellfire rounds under a foreign military sales contract," the company said in a statement. It would take the company about six months to produce the Hellfire missiles ordered by Taiwan. The missiles will be mounted on Taiwan's Super Cobra AH-1W attack and OH-58D Kiowa Warrior scout helicopters. In line with its practice of not commenting on arms purchase, Taiwan's defense ministry declined to comment. "Hellfire's lethality and combat-proven performance, coupled with its precision-strike capability, provides the Taiwanese armed forces with the best air-to-ground weapon system in the world," said Mark Stenger of Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Orlando. "In Afghanistan and Iraq, Hellfire not only proved to be superior against buildings, but was extremely effective against ships, light armor and urban targets." Taiwan's decision to purchase Hellfire ensures its military's interoperability with US armed forces deployed worldwide, the company said. Despite Washington switching its diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, the United States has remained the leading arms supplier to the island which Beijing regards as part of its territory awaiting to be reunified by force if necessary. China and Taiwan split in 1949 at the end of a civil war. --- Retired US General on Alberto Gonzales: "He Has Endangered Our Soldiers" Wednesday, January 5th, 2005 Democracy Now http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/05/152208 As the Senate prepares for confirmation hearings on White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales as the next attorney general, we speak with retired Brigadier General James Cullen - one of 12 retired Admirals and Generals who are calling on the Judiciary Committee to scrutinize Gonzales' role in setting the stage for U.S. torture of detainees at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. [includes rush transcript] The Senate Judiciary Committee will begin hearings tomorrow on the confirmation of White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales as the next attorney general of the United States. Central to the hearings will be Gonzales" role in paving the legal groundwork that led to the torture of detainees at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. In a highly controversial January 2002 memo, Gonzales wrote that the war on terror "renders obsolete [the Geneva Convention's] strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions." In August 2002, a Justice Department memo sought by Gonzales contended the president has "commander-in-chief authority" to order torture and proposed potential legal defenses for U.S. officials who may be accused of torture. The memo also argued that physical abuse of prisoners was torture only if it was "of an intensity akin to...serious physical injury such as death or organ failure," and mental abuse was torture only if it caused "lasting psychological harm." The confirmation hearings have become even more controversial in the wake of a new Justice Department memo released just last Thursday revising the August 2002 memo to significantly broaden the definition of torture for which individuals could be prosecuted. The hearings may also become more contentious because the White House has refused to provide copies of the memos to the Judiciary Committee. Sen. Democrat Richard Durbin of Illinois told the Associated Press "We go into the hearing with some knowledge of what has occurred...but without the hard evidence that will either exonerate or implicate Judge Gonzales in this policy." On Monday, a dozen retired generals and admirals, including former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General John Shalikashvili released a letter to the Judiciary Committee noting that Gonzales" recommendations "fostered greater animosity toward the United States, undermined our intelligence gathering efforts, and added to the risks facing our troops serving around the world." * Brigadier General James Cullen (Ret), among 12 retired Admirals and Generals who yesterday released a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee urging Members to closely examine Attorney General nominee Alberto Gonzales role in setting U.S. policy on torture. Mr. Gonzales confirmation hearings begin January 6, 2005. Cullen last served as the Chief Judge of the U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals. He currently practices law in New York City. RUSH TRANSCRIPT This transcript is available free of charge, however donations help us provide closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing on our TV broadcast. Thank you for your generous contribution. Donate - $25, $50, $100, more... AMY GOODMAN: One of those who signed that letter is Brigadier General James Cullen. He joins us in the studio now. Welcome to Democracy Now! JAMES CULLEN: Thank you. AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the origins of this letter, quite unusual. A dozen retired admirals and generals writing this letter to the Judiciary Committee challenging the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General. JAMES CULLEN: I would describe the letter as almost unprecedented in terms of the number of retired generals and admirals who have joined in it, and also the level of concern. I think it arises from all of our shared concern about the impact of Mr. Gonzales's memo and the progeny of other memos that it spawned, including the one from Mr. Bybee, which you just quoted from. The impact on our soldiers, both in present conflicts and in future conflicts. For us, Mr. Gonzales's position wrote the brief for the enemy on justifying maltreatment of American servicemen and servicewomen. Even in World War II, when the threat to America was far greater, and before we even had the present form of the Geneva Conventions, we abided by common international understanding on the proper custody and care of prisoners of war. General Eisenhower was adamant about that. He did not want to give the Nazis, who were hardly nice fellows, an excuse to abuse our prisoners. In general, it worked. We took care of the German and Italian prisoners of war, and generally, the Germans took care of the American prisoners of war appropriately. The current philosophy of Mr. Gonzales and the political lawyers within the administration is that somehow we are involved in a new war that justifies a departure from these past practices. We reject that kind of analysis. AMY GOODMAN: Why? JAMES CULLEN: The current conflict is one of insurgency. This is not the first insurgency we have fought. Anyone who managed to stay awake during a high school history class can recount any number of insurgencies that we have fought. Even during our own Civil War, we adopted and followed the Lieber Code, a professor at Columbia wrote out some rules of war, and it was followed by the Union armies and later on by the Confederate armies. So, there has always been a recognition that there are some rules that are inviolate. We bring that forward. The threats to our nation today, while serious and while people were killed, and I was just three blocks from the World Trade Center when the planes struck, I saw firsthand the devastation, nevertheless, in the world view, in our view of history, the threat to today, while very serious, doesn't outweigh the threat in World War II nor indeed in our own Civil War or in other conflicts that we’ve been in. The need to afford protection to prisoners of war, the need to follow norms of international law in figuring out who is who among those people detained, categorizing them and treating them in accordance with international law remains as valid and as serious today as it has in bygone conflicts. AMY GOODMAN: We're speaking to retired Brigadier General Jim Cullen who joined with other retired generals and admirals in an unprecedented letter to the Judiciary Committee challenging the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales. We'll be back with him in just a minute. [break] AMY GOODMAN: The guest is Brigadier General James Cullen, who joined with other retired generals and admirals to write a letter to the Judiciary Committee, which will begin hearings on Thursday on Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General of the United States, challenging that nomination, and confirmation. Vanity Fair, in the latest issue, has a piece where they say that the sexual and physical abuse of Iraqi prisoners continued at least three months after the Abu Ghraib scandal broke. Your response. JAMES CULLEN: Well, there certainly have been reports, verifiable reports, that the wrongdoing continued. It is our contention that these kind of events don't happen. They're just not isolated events. In the military, people don't go off on their own and do these kind of things. You will have individual acts of wrongdoing just like you do in the civilian community, but once you begin to see patterns, and particularly patterns of continuing misconduct, somebody believes that they have authority to do that. Now, even though Mr. Gonzales, I’m sure, never felt he was authorizing the wrongdoing to the extent that it has been revealed, at that level, you must believe at a policy level, when you put in motion, and you put out there memos of the type that he both authored and vided, you have to bear the harvest of what you are sowing. AMY GOODMAN: The Washington Post today and the New York Times have major pieces. The New York Times saying that Alberto Gonzales intervened directly with Justice Department lawyers in 2002 to obtain a legal ruling on the extent of the president's authority to permit extreme interrogation practices in the name of national security. The Washington Post saying “In March 2002, U.S. elation at the capture of the Al Qaeda operations chief Abu Zubaida was turning to frustration as he refused to bend to CIA interrogation. But agency officers determined to wring more from Abu Zubaida through threatening interrogations worried about violating international prescriptions on torture, they asked for a legal review – the first ever by the government - on how much pain and suffering a U.S. intelligence officer could inflict on a prisoner without violating a 1994 law that imposes severe penalties including life imprisonment and execution on convicted torturers. The Justice Department's office of legal counsel took up the task, and at least twice during the drafting, top administration officials were briefed on the results. White House counsel Alberto Gonzales chaired the meetings on the issue, which included detailed descriptions of the interrogation techniques. Such as “water boarding,” a technique intended to make detainees feel as if they are drowning. He raised no objections, and without consulting military and State Department experts in the laws of torture and war, approved an August 2002 memo that gave CIA interrogators the legal blessings they sought.” JAMES CULLEN: Well, I’d like to pick up on one point in particular. At no time within my knowledge did Mr. Gonzales or the other political lawyers within the administration, who were concerned with these matters, approach the judge advocate generals of the different services. They knew what the answers were going to be. The judge advocates would never approve these kinds of either departures from the Geneva Convention or carrying out torture to this extent. AMY GOODMAN: You're talking about lawyers within the military. JAMES CULLEN: Military lawyers. Exactly. The uniformed lawyers in contrast to the political lawyers. The general counsel, for example of the Department of Defense never took objection, either, as Mr. Gonzales took no objection. They didn't put on the brakes when they needed to. AMY GOODMAN: You mentioned Bybee, the attorney within the Justice Department. What were the memos he was responsible for? He has since been elevated in the Bush administration to be a judge. Now, Alberto Gonzales, also directly involved with these memos, has been nominated, so has been elevated under the Bush administration. They want him to be Attorney General. JAMES CULLEN: Well, I just think that -- and I might add that Mr. Haynes, the Department of Defense general counsel, apparently is also being nominated to be a judge, as a reward for going along with this whole pattern of conduct that's going to cause us so much problems in the past. I point out that while we are engaged with a very dangerous enemy, nevertheless, it is the enemy. And I look back in history, how many of our prisoners refused to give up information to their captors. They acted honorably under terrible conditions in Vietnam, Korea and even in World War II. Now, are we going to write as I think we have, a brief for the enemy to say, well, you justified torturing people, now the same rule applies to us. The old golden rule of torture. I think this is the real tragedy of what the policy of Mr. Gonzales has spawned. AMY GOODMAN: Do you think that the beheadings in Iraq, where those that were beheaded, people like Nick Berg, were put in orange jumpsuits before they were beheaded as people held by the U.S. are held in orange jumpsuits, are a reaction to what has come out around the torture? JAMES CULLEN: Well, It's very hard for me to speculate about what is in the minds of the crazies, and certainly, those kinds of acts - we have never beheaded anybody. We have never carried out acts of that nature, so we're dealing with people who are themselves operating outside of the rule of law. Now, if they fall into our hands, the people who have committed heinous acts of that nature, we can deal with them appropriately within the military criminal justice system. But unfortunately, Mr. Gonzales and others seem not to care too much about the rule of law. AMY GOODMAN: Do you have faith that the Democrats in the Senate Judiciary Committee will ask the kinds of questions you are in your letter, do you believe the Geneva Conventions apply to all of these captured by the U.S. authorities in Afghanistan and Iraq, could you support affording the international committee and the Red Cross access to all detainees in custody, do you believe that the CIA and other government intelligence agencies are bound by same laws and restrictions that constrain the operations of the U.S. armed Forces, et cetera, the questions that you raise in this letter? JAMES CULLEN: Unfortunately, I’m not confident. I read a statement by Mr. Schumer the other day that suggested that it’s a much lower standard for the appointment of an Attorney General, and that the president really ought to be given leeway in whoever is appointed as Attorney General, even though the Attorney General is the chief law enforcement officer of this country, and one would hope that a person given such enormous responsibility has good judgment. But Senator Schumer seems not to be that deeply concerned about it, and I regret that, even though I have respect for him and for the other senators, including Senator Specter. I would hope they get into these issues. AMY GOODMAN: Where do you go from here? Will you be at the hearings? JAMES CULLEN: No, I will not be, but one of the other signatories to the letter, Admiral John Hudson, who is the retired Navy judge advocate general, I believe, will be testifying. AMY GOODMAN: So, do you believe that Alberto Gonzales has endangered U.S. troops? JAMES CULLEN: I think that he has. Not intentionally, but certainly the policy that he has put in place has endangered our soldiers. AMY GOODMAN: Brigadier General Jim Cullen, joining us in our studio. Signed a letter along with a dozen retired admirals and generals. Brigadier General David Brahms, Brigadier General James Cullen in our studio, Brigadier General Evelyn Foote, Lieutenant General Robert Gard, Vice Admiral Lee Gunn, Admiral Don Guter, General Joseph Hoar, Rear Admiral John Hutson, Lieutenant General Claudia Kennedy, General Merrill McPeak, as well as General John Shalikashvili, the former chair of the joint chiefs of staff, and others, signing the letter that has been sent to the Judiciary Committee, challenging the confirmation of Gonzales as Attorney General. Thank you for being with us. JAMES CULLEN: Thank you. To purchase an audio or video copy of this entire program, click here for our new online ordering or call 1 (800) 881-2359. ---- Military doctor's Iraq Web diary shut down By Matthew P. Blanchard Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Writer January 5, 2005 http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news2/philly4.html A Bucks County military doctor serving in Iraq says he was forced to shut down his Internet war diary last week after Army officials decided his gripping accounts of frontline medicine constituted a breach of Army regulations. Maj. Michael Cohen, a doctor with the 67th Combat Support Hospital unit, had chronicled the bloody aftermath of the Dec. 21 mess-hall bombing in Mosul that killed 22. That account and 12 months of other postings on his Web log, www.67cshdocs.com, were replaced with a short notice: "Levels above me have ordered, yes ORDERED, me to shut down this Web site. They cite that the information contained in these pages violates several Army Regulations," Cohen wrote, adding that he disagreed with the ban. Military blogs have grown numerous since the invasion of Iraq, often providing a closer account of the war than traditional media. But such "milblogs" present a problem for military brass because the diaries are available to anyone with Internet access, including insurgents. Lt. Col. Steven Boylan, a spokesman for coalition forces in Iraq, said the Pentagon allows blogging so long as authors do not disrupt discipline in their units, make statements on behalf of commanders or the Army as a whole, or reveal operational details that could aid attackers. "Sometimes a blog might contain subtle nuances from which you can put together a complete picture of our operations, which insurgents can use to attack us," Boylan said. He said he was not aware of any bloggers facing court martial or other serious discipline. He could not confirm the investigation into Cohen's blog, saying it would likely be handled by field commanders in Mosul. "We definitely don't want to impinge upon somebody's free speech. We're out here defending that. But it can cross a line," Boylan said. Cohen, 35, grew up in the Council Rock School District. Reached by e-mail yesterday, he said that he had shut down the site after receiving a written warning but that he had not been told how his blog had offended his superiors. Cohen was chief emergency room doctor when the Mosul bombing happened. His postings chronicled life in a modern MASH unit, treating U.S. Stryker brigade troops and wounded Iraqi insurgents alike, and they were popular. Since the blog went offline last week, Cohen said, he has received 150 e-mails from people urging him to put the site back up. -------- POLICE -------- homeland security / national intelligence Single homeland security oversight panel OK'd By Shaun Waterman UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL Published January 5, 2005 http://www.washingtontimes.com/functions/print.php?StoryID=20050104-102723-8916r The U.S. House of Representatives yesterday made changes in its rules for the coming session of Congress, establishing one permanent committee to oversee the Department of Homeland Security. But within hours of the vote, lawmakers were locked in meetings with congressional officials, haggling over the details of the new committee's jurisdiction, and critics derided the new arrangement as a mess. "It is the clear will and mandate of this Congress that there should be a single body to oversee the entire department," said Rep. Curt Weldon, Pennsylvania Republican, who called the change "historic." The temporary Homeland Security Committee set up by lawmakers in the last session shared its jurisdiction with many other panels -- a legacy of the department's origin as almost two dozen separate federal agencies. The arrangement frustrated lawmakers and department officials, and was criticized by the September 11 commission, which said a single committee was essential to the nation's security. But the rules package that passed by a 220-195 party-line vote yesterday leaves significant gray areas in the scope of the committee's authority. Facing down a threatened rebellion from powerful committee chairmen opposed to the changes, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, Illinois Republican, brokered a deal that some say leaves the new committee's jurisdiction with too many fuzzy edges. For instance, according to a document produced by the House leadership to accompany the rules package, the committee's jurisdiction over first responders applies "only as they relate to acts of terrorism." Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, New York Democrat and an advocate of the September 11 commission reforms, said: "Homeland security oversight is still a confusing mess." Even some supporters of the new arrangements said it represented only "a step" toward fulfilling Congress' "constitutional responsibility" to oversee the nation's national security agencies. "There is a lot of uncertainty there," agreed Mr. Weldon. Other gray areas under discussion include the relationship between the authorities of the Homeland Security Committee over transportation security, and those of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee over safety. Transportation and Infrastructure Committee staff said that the close relationship between safety and security kept their "foot in the door" of the department. Mr. Weldon said the "convoluted process" involved in such arrangements would make it more difficult to legislate for a better national response to terror attacks and other disasters. "Both the major grant packages for first responders that I have got through in the last four years ... had to [become law] as amendments to the defense appropriations bill," he said. Asked whether he would expect a more straightforward passage for such legislation under the new structure, Mr. Weldon said: "That is exactly the question." -------- justice Retired US General on Alberto Gonzales: "He Has Endangered Our Soldiers" Wednesday, January 5th, 2005 Democracy Now http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/05/152208 As the Senate prepares for confirmation hearings on White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales as the next attorney general, we speak with retired Brigadier General James Cullen - one of 12 retired Admirals and Generals who are calling on the Judiciary Committee to scrutinize Gonzales' role in setting the stage for U.S. torture of detainees at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. [includes rush transcript] -- The Senate Judiciary Committee will begin hearings tomorrow on the confirmation of White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales as the next attorney general of the United States. Central to the hearings will be Gonzales" role in paving the legal groundwork that led to the torture of detainees at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. In a highly controversial January 2002 memo, Gonzales wrote that the war on terror "renders obsolete [the Geneva Convention's] strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions." In August 2002, a Justice Department memo sought by Gonzales contended the president has "commander-in-chief authority" to order torture and proposed potential legal defenses for U.S. officials who may be accused of torture. The memo also argued that physical abuse of prisoners was torture only if it was "of an intensity akin to...serious physical injury such as death or organ failure," and mental abuse was torture only if it caused "lasting psychological harm." The confirmation hearings have become even more controversial in the wake of a new Justice Department memo released just last Thursday revising the August 2002 memo to significantly broaden the definition of torture for which individuals could be prosecuted. The hearings may also become more contentious because the White House has refused to provide copies of the memos to the Judiciary Committee. Sen. Democrat Richard Durbin of Illinois told the Associated Press "We go into the hearing with some knowledge of what has occurred...but without the hard evidence that will either exonerate or implicate Judge Gonzales in this policy." On Monday, a dozen retired generals and admirals, including former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General John Shalikashvili released a letter to the Judiciary Committee noting that Gonzales" recommendations "fostered greater animosity toward the United States, undermined our intelligence gathering efforts, and added to the risks facing our troops serving around the world." Brigadier General James Cullen (Ret), among 12 retired Admirals and Generals who yesterday released a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee urging Members to closely examine Attorney General nominee Alberto Gonzales role in setting U.S. policy on torture. Mr. Gonzales confirmation hearings begin January 6, 2005. Cullen last served as the Chief Judge of the U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals. He currently practices law in New York City. -- AMY GOODMAN: One of those who signed that letter is Brigadier General James Cullen. He joins us in the studio now. Welcome to Democracy Now! JAMES CULLEN: Thank you. AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the origins of this letter, quite unusual. A dozen retired admirals and generals writing this letter to the Judiciary Committee challenging the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General. JAMES CULLEN: I would describe the letter as almost unprecedented in terms of the number of retired generals and admirals who have joined in it, and also the level of concern. I think it arises from all of our shared concern about the impact of Mr. Gonzales's memo and the progeny of other memos that it spawned, including the one from Mr. Bybee, which you just quoted from. The impact on our soldiers, both in present conflicts and in future conflicts. For us, Mr. Gonzales's position wrote the brief for the enemy on justifying maltreatment of American servicemen and servicewomen. Even in World War II, when the threat to America was far greater, and before we even had the present form of the Geneva Conventions, we abided by common international understanding on the proper custody and care of prisoners of war. General Eisenhower was adamant about that. He did not want to give the Nazis, who were hardly nice fellows, an excuse to abuse our prisoners. In general, it worked. We took care of the German and Italian prisoners of war, and generally, the Germans took care of the American prisoners of war appropriately. The current philosophy of Mr. Gonzales and the political lawyers within the administration is that somehow we are involved in a new war that justifies a departure from these past practices. We reject that kind of analysis. AMY GOODMAN: Why? JAMES CULLEN: The current conflict is one of insurgency. This is not the first insurgency we have fought. Anyone who managed to stay awake during a high school history class can recount any number of insurgencies that we have fought. Even during our own Civil War, we adopted and followed the Lieber Code, a professor at Columbia wrote out some rules of war, and it was followed by the Union armies and later on by the Confederate armies. So, there has always been a recognition that there are some rules that are inviolate. We bring that forward. The threats to our nation today, while serious and while people were killed, and I was just three blocks from the World Trade Center when the planes struck, I saw firsthand the devastation, nevertheless, in the world view, in our view of history, the threat to today, while very serious, doesn't outweigh the threat in World War II nor indeed in our own Civil War or in other conflicts that we’ve been in. The need to afford protection to prisoners of war, the need to follow norms of international law in figuring out who is who among those people detained, categorizing them and treating them in accordance with international law remains as valid and as serious today as it has in bygone conflicts. AMY GOODMAN: We're speaking to retired Brigadier General Jim Cullen who joined with other retired generals and admirals in an unprecedented letter to the Judiciary Committee challenging the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales. We'll be back with him in just a minute. [break] AMY GOODMAN: The guest is Brigadier General James Cullen, who joined with other retired generals and admirals to write a letter to the Judiciary Committee, which will begin hearings on Thursday on Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General of the United States, challenging that nomination, and confirmation. Vanity Fair, in the latest issue, has a piece where they say that the sexual and physical abuse of Iraqi prisoners continued at least three months after the Abu Ghraib scandal broke. Your response. JAMES CULLEN: Well, there certainly have been reports, verifiable reports, that the wrongdoing continued. It is our contention that these kind of events don't happen. They're just not isolated events. In the military, people don't go off on their own and do these kind of things. You will have individual acts of wrongdoing just like you do in the civilian community, but once you begin to see patterns, and particularly patterns of continuing misconduct, somebody believes that they have authority to do that. Now, even though Mr. Gonzales, I’m sure, never felt he was authorizing the wrongdoing to the extent that it has been revealed, at that level, you must believe at a policy level, when you put in motion, and you put out there memos of the type that he both authored and vided, you have to bear the harvest of what you are sowing. AMY GOODMAN: The Washington Post today and the New York Times have major pieces. The New York Times saying that Alberto Gonzales intervened directly with Justice Department lawyers in 2002 to obtain a legal ruling on the extent of the president's authority to permit extreme interrogation practices in the name of national security. The Washington Post saying “In March 2002, U.S. elation at the capture of the Al Qaeda operations chief Abu Zubaida was turning to frustration as he refused to bend to CIA interrogation. But agency officers determined to wring more from Abu Zubaida through threatening interrogations worried about violating international prescriptions on torture, they asked for a legal review – the first ever by the government - on how much pain and suffering a U.S. intelligence officer could inflict on a prisoner without violating a 1994 law that imposes severe penalties including life imprisonment and execution on convicted torturers. The Justice Department's office of legal counsel took up the task, and at least twice during the drafting, top administration officials were briefed on the results. White House counsel Alberto Gonzales chaired the meetings on the issue, which included detailed descriptions of the interrogation techniques. Such as “water boarding,” a technique intended to make detainees feel as if they are drowning. He raised no objections, and without consulting military and State Department experts in the laws of torture and war, approved an August 2002 memo that gave CIA interrogators the legal blessings they sought.” JAMES CULLEN: Well, I’d like to pick up on one point in particular. At no time within my knowledge did Mr. Gonzales or the other political lawyers within the administration, who were concerned with these matters, approach the judge advocate generals of the different services. They knew what the answers were going to be. The judge advocates would never approve these kinds of either departures from the Geneva Convention or carrying out torture to this extent. AMY GOODMAN: You're talking about lawyers within the military. JAMES CULLEN: Military lawyers. Exactly. The uniformed lawyers in contrast to the political lawyers. The general counsel, for example of the Department of Defense never took objection, either, as Mr. Gonzales took no objection. They didn't put on the brakes when they needed to. AMY GOODMAN: You mentioned Bybee, the attorney within the Justice Department. What were the memos he was responsible for? He has since been elevated in the Bush administration to be a judge. Now, Alberto Gonzales, also directly involved with these memos, has been nominated, so has been elevated under the Bush administration. They want him to be Attorney General. JAMES CULLEN: Well, I just think that -- and I might add that Mr. Haynes, the Department of Defense general counsel, apparently is also being nominated to be a judge, as a reward for going along with this whole pattern of conduct that's going to cause us so much problems in the past. I point out that while we are engaged with a very dangerous enemy, nevertheless, it is the enemy. And I look back in history, how many of our prisoners refused to give up information to their captors. They acted honorably under terrible conditions in Vietnam, Korea and even in World War II. Now, are we going to write as I think we have, a brief for the enemy to say, well, you justified torturing people, now the same rule applies to us. The old golden rule of torture. I think this is the real tragedy of what the policy of Mr. Gonzales has spawned. AMY GOODMAN: Do you think that the beheadings in Iraq, where those that were beheaded, people like Nick Berg, were put in orange jumpsuits before they were beheaded as people held by the U.S. are held in orange jumpsuits, are a reaction to what has come out around the torture? JAMES CULLEN: Well, It's very hard for me to speculate about what is in the minds of the crazies, and certainly, those kinds of acts - we have never beheaded anybody. We have never carried out acts of that nature, so we're dealing with people who are themselves operating outside of the rule of law. Now, if they fall into our hands, the people who have committed heinous acts of that nature, we can deal with them appropriately within the military criminal justice system. But unfortunately, Mr. Gonzales and others seem not to care too much about the rule of law. AMY GOODMAN: Do you have faith that the Democrats in the Senate Judiciary Committee will ask the kinds of questions you are in your letter, do you believe the Geneva Conventions apply to all of these captured by the U.S. authorities in Afghanistan and Iraq, could you support affording the international committee and the Red Cross access to all detainees in custody, do you believe that the CIA and other government intelligence agencies are bound by same laws and restrictions that constrain the operations of the U.S. armed Forces, et cetera, the questions that you raise in this letter? JAMES CULLEN: Unfortunately, I’m not confident. I read a statement by Mr. Schumer the other day that suggested that it’s a much lower standard for the appointment of an Attorney General, and that the president really ought to be given leeway in whoever is appointed as Attorney General, even though the Attorney General is the chief law enforcement officer of this country, and one would hope that a person given such enormous responsibility has good judgment. But Senator Schumer seems not to be that deeply concerned about it, and I regret that, even though I have respect for him and for the other senators, including Senator Specter. I would hope they get into these issues. AMY GOODMAN: Where do you go from here? Will you be at the hearings? JAMES CULLEN: No, I will not be, but one of the other signatories to the letter, Admiral John Hudson, who is the retired Navy judge advocate general, I believe, will be testifying. AMY GOODMAN: So, do you believe that Alberto Gonzales has endangered U.S. troops? JAMES CULLEN: I think that he has. Not intentionally, but certainly the policy that he has put in place has endangered our soldiers. AMY GOODMAN: Brigadier General Jim Cullen, joining us in our studio. Signed a letter along with a dozen retired admirals and generals. Brigadier General David Brahms, Brigadier General James Cullen in our studio, Brigadier General Evelyn Foote, Lieutenant General Robert Gard, Vice Admiral Lee Gunn, Admiral Don Guter, General Joseph Hoar, Rear Admiral John Hutson, Lieutenant General Claudia Kennedy, General Merrill McPeak, as well as General John Shalikashvili, the former chair of the joint chiefs of staff, and others, signing the letter that has been sent to the Judiciary Committee, challenging the confirmation of Gonzales as Attorney General. Thank you for being with us. JAMES CULLEN: Thank you. -------- torture Ethiopian torture suspect arrested in Ga. 1/5/2005 Associated Press http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-01-04-torture_x.htm ATLANTA (AP) — An Ethiopian immigrant suspected of torturing and murdering dissidents in a military dictatorship in Ethiopia during the 1970s was arrested Tuesday by federal agents and faces deportation. Kelbessa Negewo, 54, remains in federal custody and will face a deportation hearing before an immigration judge in the next several weeks, said Ken Smith, special agent of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security. He was taken into custody in the Atlanta suburb of Union City. He faces life in prison in his former homeland, where he was convicted in absentia. He was also the target of a civil case in the early 1990s. Negewo's wife, Athana Negussie, said she and her husband were sleeping when federal agents knocked on the door, "handcuffed him and took him away." Negussie said her husband does not have an attorney but claimed he is innocent. Negewo fled to the United States in 1988 after being released from prison in Ethiopia and eventually became a U.S. citizen. Negewo renounced his citizenship in October after the government moved to strip him of it, and that opened the door for the arrest and deportation proceedings, Smith said. No federal charges are planned against him, he said. Officials allege that during the 1970s, Negewo was part of a military dictatorship that ruled Ethiopia. They say that in his role as chairman of a special government unit, he was responsible for having numerous civilians — mostly students — incarcerated, tortured and executed by firing squad. Homeland security officials say Negewo lied about his human rights violations to obtain U.S. citizenship. In April 2002, the Ethiopian government convicted Negewo in absentia of human rights violations including torture and 13 killings. He was later sentenced to life in prison. In 1993, a U.S. district judge ordered Negewo to pay $1.5 million to three women who testified that he tortured them during Ethiopia's "Red Terror" campaign of 1977-78. The women said they were stripped, hung upside down from a pole and beaten. One of the three had recognized Negewo when both worked at an Atlanta hotel. Negewo denied the charges and claimed he didn't know the women, while accusing them of belonging to a violent political group. Negewo came to this country under political asylum and pointed out that he himself had been imprisoned after falling out with the regime. Smith said the U.S. government made a mistake in 1995 when it granted Negewo citizenship while knowing of his past. "That significantly complicated his removal from the United States," Smith said. Negewo remained in custody at an undisclosed location Negussie said her husband of eight years "didn't kill people. He's honest person. They just accused him. I know him." "I don't know what to do. I have a 4-year-old daughter. I don't have any money. I'm going to kill myself. What can I do?" she said. -------- POLITICS -------- voting Preserving Democracy: What Went Wrong in Ohio Status Report of the House Judiciary Committee Democratic Staff Wednesday 05 January 2005 http://www.truthout.org/docs_05/010605Y.shtml http://truthout.org/Conyersreport.pdf Executive Summary Representative John Conyers, Jr., the Ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, asked the Democratic staff to conduct an investigation into irregularities reported in the Ohio presidential election and to prepare a Status Report concerning the same prior to the Joint Meeting of Congress scheduled for January 6, 2005, to receive and consider the votes of the electoral college for president. The following Report includes a brief chronology of the events; summarizes the relevant background law; provides detailed findings (including factual findings and legal analysis); and describes various recommendations for acting on this Report going forward. We have found numerous, serious election irregularities in the Ohio presidential election, which resulted in a significant disenfranchisement of voters. Cumulatively, these irregularities, which affected hundreds of thousand of votes and voters in Ohio, raise grave doubts regarding whether it can be said the Ohio electors selected on December 13, 2004, were chosen in a manner that conforms to Ohio law, let alone federal requirements and constitutional standards. This report, therefore, makes three recommendations: (1) consistent with the requirements of the United States Constitution concerning the counting of electoral votes by Congress and Federal law implementing these requirements, there are ample grounds for challenging the electors from the State of Ohio; (2) Congress should engage in further hearings into the widespread irregularities reported in Ohio; we believe the problems are serious enough to warrant the appointment of a joint select Committee of the House and Senate to investigate and report back to the Members; and (3) Congress needs to enact election reform to restore our people's trust in our democracy. These changes should include putting in place more specific federal protections for federal elections, particularly in the areas of audit capability for electronic voting machines and casting and counting of provisional ballots, as well as other needed changes to federal and state election laws. With regards to our factual finding, in brief, we find that there were massive and unprecedented voter irregularities and anomalies in Ohio. In many cases these irregularities were caused by intentional misconduct and illegal behavior, much of it involving Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, the co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Ohio. First, in the run up to election day, the following actions by Mr. Blackwell, the Republican Party and election officials disenfranchised hundreds of thousands of Ohio citizens, predominantly minority and Democratic voters: * The misallocation of voting machines led to unprecedented long lines that disenfranchised scores, if not hundreds of thousands, of predominantly minority and Democratic voters. This was illustrated by the fact that the Washington Post reported that in Franklin County, "27 of the 30 wards with the most machines per registered voter showed majorities for Bush. At the other end of the spectrum, six of the seven wards with the fewest machines delivered large margins for Kerry." (See Powell and Slevin, supra). Among other things, the conscious failure to provide sufficient voting machinery violates the Ohio Revised Code which requires the Boards of Elections to "provide adequate facilities at each polling place for conducting the election." * Mr. Blackwell's decision to restrict provisional ballots resulted in the disenfranchisement of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of voters, again predominantly minority and Democratic voters. Mr. Blackwell's decision departed from past Ohio law on provisional ballots, and there is no evidence that a broader construction would have led to any significant disruption at the polling places, and did not do so in other states. * Mr. Blackwell's widely reviled decision to reject voter registration applications based on paper weight may have resulted in thousands of new voters not being registered in time for the 2004 election. * The Ohio Republican Party's decision to engage in preelection "caging" tactics, selectively targeting 35,000 predominantly minority voters for intimidation had a negative impact on voter turnout. The Third Circuit found these activities to be illegal and in direct violation of consent decrees barring the Republican Party from targeting minority voters for poll challenges. * The Ohio Republican Party's decision to utilize thousands of partisan challengers concentrated in minority and Democratic areas likely disenfranchised tens of thousands of legal voters, who were not only intimidated, but became discouraged by the long lines. Shockingly, these disruptions were publicly predicted and acknowledged by Republican officials: Mark Weaver, a lawyer for the Ohio Republican Party, admitted the challenges "can't help but create chaos, longer lines and frustration." * Mr. Blackwell's decision to prevent voters who requested absentee ballots but did not receive them on a timely basis from being able to receive provisional ballots 6 likely disenfranchised thousands, if not tens of thousands, of voters, particularly seniors. A federal court found Mr. Blackwell's order to be illegal and in violation of HAVA. Second, on election day, there were numerous unexplained anomalies and irregularities involving hundreds of thousands of votes that have yet to be accounted for: * There were widespread instances of intimidation and misinformation in violation of the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1968, Equal Protection, Due Process and the Ohio right to vote. Mr. Blackwell's apparent failure to institute a single investigation into these many serious allegations represents a violation of his statutory duty under Ohio law to investigate election irregularities. * We learned of improper purging and other registration errors by election officials that likely disenfranchised tens of thousands of voters statewide. The Greater Cleveland Voter Registration Coalition projects that in Cuyahoga County alone over 10,000 Ohio citizens lost their right to vote as a result of official registration errors. * There were 93,000 spoiled ballots where no vote was cast for president, the vast majority of which have yet to be inspected. The problem was particularly acute in two precincts in Montgomery County which had an undervote rate of over 25% each - accounting for nearly 6,000 voters who stood in line to vote, but purportedly declined to vote for president. * There were numerous, significant unexplained irregularities in other counties throughout the state: (i) in Mahoning county at least 25 electronic machines transferred an unknown number of Kerry votes to the Bush column; (ii) Warren County locked out public observers from vote counting citing an FBI warning about a potential terrorist threat, yet the FBI states that it issued no such warning; (iii) the voting records of Perry county show significantly more votes than voters in some precincts, significantly less ballots than voters in other precincts, and voters casting more than one ballot; (iv) in Butler county a down ballot and underfunded Democratic State Supreme Court candidate implausibly received more votes than the best funded Democratic Presidential candidate in history; (v) in Cuyahoga county, poll worker error may have led to little known thirdparty candidates receiving twenty times more votes than such candidates had ever received in otherwise reliably Democratic leaning areas; (vi) in Miami county, voter turnout was an improbable and highly suspect 98.55 percent, and after 100 percent of the precincts were reported, an additional 19,000 extra votes were recorded for President Bush. Third, in the post-election period we learned of numerous irregularities in tallying provisional ballots and conducting and completing the recount that disenfanchised thousands of voters and call the entire recount procedure into question (as of this date the recount is still not complete): * Mr. Blackwell's failure to articulate clear and consistent standards for the counting of provisional ballots resulted in the loss of thousands of predominantly minority votes. In Cuyahoga County alone, the lack of guidance and the ultimate narrow and arbitrary review standards significantly contributed to the fact that 8,099 out of 24,472 provisional ballots were ruled invalid, the highest proportion in the state. * Mr. Blackwell's failure to issue specific standards for the recount contributed to a lack of uniformity in violation of both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clauses. We found innumerable irregularities in the recount in violation of Ohio law, including (i) counties which did not randomly select the precinct samples; (ii) counties which did not conduct a full hand court after the 3% hand and machine counts did not match; (iii) counties which allowed for irregular marking of ballots and failed to secure and store ballots and machinery; and (iv) counties which prevented witnesses for candidates from observing the various aspects of the recount. * The voting computer company Triad has essentially admitted that it engaged in a course of behavior during the recount in numerous counties to provide "cheat sheets" to those counting the ballots. The cheat sheets informed election officials how many votes they should find for each candidate, and how many over and under votes they should calculate to match the machine count. In that way, they could avoid doing a full county-wide hand recount mandated by state law. -------- ENERGY -------- alternative energy World Bank Chooses Wind Power for DC Headquarters WASHINGTON, DC, January 5, 2004 (ENS) http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2005/2005-01-05-09.asp#anchor4 The World Bank will purchase renewable energy for all of its electricity usage at its Washington, DC office from WindCurrent, a Maryland based company that sells wind power to the mid-Atlantic power grid. This purchase will represent enough electricity to power almost 8,000 average homes for a year, and is equivalent to eliminating the carbon dioxide emissions of more than 10,000 cars for a year or planting roughly 15,000 acres of trees, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) figures. Produced using conventional electricity sources, including coal and gas, this would have generated an estimated almost 60,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions. The Bank will purchase 85,000,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) annually of renewable energy certificates (RECs) which are allocated for each unit of power from a renewable energy power plant such as a wind farm. "Wind power creates none of the hazardous emissions or mercury pollution that is associated with producing electricity from burning coal," said Jim Maguire, the founder of WindCurrent, a Baltimore company. "The World Bank is serving as a role model for other organizations who want to be environmentally responsible." As a result of this investment, wind power from the mid-Atlantic region and the Midwest will be supplied to the power grid, replacing electricity generated from less environmentally friendly sources. This commitment to renewable energy is part of an overall Greening Program by the Bank's General Services Department to focus on sustainable development within the organization, promoting waste management, environmentally and socially responsible procurement practices and energy conservation. "Using renewable power will reduce our office's environmental footprint, increase demand locally, and set an example for other institutions in the Washington area and globally that using alternative energy is a sound and important choice," said General Services Department Director Van Pulley. The move qualifies the Bank for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Green Power Leadership Club, a voluntary program that supports and recognizes outstanding green power purchasers. The Bank becomes the fourth largest purchaser in the program.