NucNews - January 18, 2005 -------- NUCLEAR Listening for Atom Blasts, but Hearing Earthquakes By WILLIAM J. BROAD January 18, 2005 NY TIMES http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/18/science/18nuke.html?pagewanted=print&position= VIENNA - The two scientists from Djibouti came into the control room, their eyes wide with excitement. It was the heart, they were told, of the world's largest and most sensitive network for listening to the faint echoes of clandestine nuclear blasts. The scientists were in Vienna for their inaugural tour of the facility and said they were pleased to be among the network's newest members. Their monitoring station in Djibouti, they said, will proudly join the 89 countries, 140 stations and 268 experts that now sift through the seismic din of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions for telltale signs of nuclear testing. Members feed the network and in turn share its bounty, which they examine for the purposes of science and national security. "It's very good," Dr. Mohammad Jalludin, an official at the Research and Studies Center of Djibouti, said as he gazed about. "It is a good database for our geophysicists to work on, but also to contribute to the international objectives." The main job of the new network and its parent organization is to look for clandestine nuclear blasts and thus police a shaky global ban on the explosive tests that the United Nations adopted eight years ago. That may seem like an anachronism. But in fact, at least two countries - India and Pakistan - broke the ban, and two others - Iran and North Korea - have recently been identified as possibly preparing for nuclear tests. Many Western experts worry that the world is entering a second nuclear age centered on Asia. As the scientists from Djibouti suggested, the network is also a boon for nations seeking a better understanding of the planet's inner secrets: the whys of earthquakes and volcanoes, of how continents split and merge. Vibrations from natural seismic events travel vast distances and are picked up by the network's recording stations. A map of recent measurements shows the outline of the earth's main tectonic plates grinding past one another in endless waves of major and minor earthquakes, a discovery about the mobility of the earth's surface that originally took scientists decades to uncover. "We did in a few months what it took earth science 50 years to accomplish," Fil J. Filipkowski, a network officer, boasted in early December while giving a tour of the Vienna complex. "Just today, there's been 147 events," he said, peering intently at a computer monitor and pointing to a computerized map full of dots. "Currently, there's a series of seismic events in Indonesia, natural seismicity. It's keeping our analysts busy." Twenty-four days later, the sea west of Indonesia erupted in the giant earthquake and towering tsunami whose waves smashed coasts from Asia to Africa. It turned out that in a chance demonstration of its sensitivity, the network had picked up the first rumbling of seismic activity leading up to that quake. The network has grown fast since its birth in the late 1990's. It first achieved global coverage last year, officials said. The regular addition of new sensors is increasing the depth, sensitivity and diversity of the measurements, raising the odds that analysts here will be able to detect a covert nuclear blast. The current complement of roughly 140 stations is to become 321 later this decade. (A station can have more than one sensor.) This year's budget is $105 million, Daniela Rozgonova, a spokeswoman for the organization, said. Despite its youth, the network has already had several grim achievements. It detected the explosion of the space shuttle Columbia in early 2003, the collapse of the Russian submarine Kursk in 2000 and the shock waves from a series of Indian and Pakistani nuclear blasts in 1998. "It's like a watchdog," Mr. Filipkowski said of the network and its official symbol: an unblinking eye. The Bush administration opposes the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the international pact that established the network. Globally, the 1996 treaty remains unratified, and the Senate rejected it in 1999. American critics say it limits the military options of the United States, including the possibility of resuming the explosive testing of nuclear arms. Backers like it for the same reason. Despite reservations, the United States contributes about $20 million a year to the network's construction and operation, in part because American intelligence agencies are said to use it as an adjunct to their global monitoring activities. "All data have value," said an architect of American intelligence participation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the issue's political implications. The hunt for nuclear blasts is rooted in a stubborn fact of nuclear life: arms designers usually have to test their new creations to find and fix imperfections and to prove reliability. Thus, the ban works like a brake to slow or halt such advances as well as arms races among belligerents. The network's origins go back to the cold war when nations detonated thousands of nuclear warheads, mainly in underground blasts. The United States led in the development of such arms and in finding ways to monitor foreign tests, mainly by listening for the faint reverberations of shock waves that traveled through the air, the oceans and the rocky earth, sometimes over thousands of miles. In time, other countries sought to create their own ways to spy on the tests. After the end of the cold war, in 1996, the United Nations codified a de facto moratorium on the blasts in the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and began organizing an International Monitoring System to hunt for violators. Some parts of the international network drew on existing national sensors, so it began operating fairly soon after its birth. One worry of its architects was that nuclear hopefuls would keep tests small to conceal advances and would create hidden arsenals they could spring on unsuspecting foes. The Vienna body is known as the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization, its long title a testament to the treaty's political uncertainties. A huge picture in its foyer features a mushroom cloud looming near earth. Lodged high in a concrete tower at the Vienna International Center, the offices of the commission bristled during a visit with busy people. Analysts here are schooled in the art of distinguishing the signatures of earthquakes from those of nuclear blasts. Typically, the shock waves from nuclear explosions begin with a sharp spike as earth and rock are compressed violently. The signal then tends to become fuzzier as surface rumblings and shudders and after shocks create seismologic mayhem. With earthquakes, it is usually the opposite. A gentle jostling suddenly becomes much bigger and more violent. A challenge for analysts is that such distinctions tend to break down when the size of the disturbance under study is relatively small. In an overview briefing, Mr. Filipkowski said the surveillance system was eventually to have a total of 170 stations that detect underground shock waves, 11 that track undersea explosions, 80 that sniff the air for telltale radioactivity and 60 that listen for loud sounds in the atmosphere. The array of sensors is designed to detect nuclear blasts as small as one kiloton, or equal to 1,000 tons of high explosives. On instruments for detecting earthquakes, such a nuclear explosion would measure a magnitude of about 4, like a small tremor. The recent Indonesian quake had a magnitude of 9. On May 11, 1998, a little more than a year after the network began operating, the acid test came when its sensors near the Indian subcontinent picked up the unmistakable signature of a nuclear blast. "We got data from 11 stations," said Mr. Filipkowski. "It was a good start." He added that the sensitivity of the fledgling network was tested in 1998, 1999 and 2000. The experiments took place in Kazakhstan at an old mine shaft of what had previously been the Soviet Union's nuclear test site. Engineers stacked up 100 tons of high explosives - a millionth of what a big nuclear blast might unleash and one-tenth of the what the system was designed to minimally detect. Each time, he said, the network picked up the jolt. "So the system appears to be doing quite well even in its intermediate stages," Mr. Filipkowski said. "We're very hopeful that, from what we've seen, it will do what it's designed for." Late last month, its sensitivity to natural events was made clear when the network registered not only the colossal violence of big quake off Indonesia on Dec. 26 but, in the following two days, some 1,500 aftershocks. Mr. Filipkowski said the commission sent gathered data to nearly 700 users around the world, which will soon include the scientific group in Djibouti. Dr. David McCormack, head of seismology and nuclear monitoring at Natural Resources Canada, a government agency in Ottawa, said in a telephone interview that his ministry used the commission's data for a wide range of scientific studies. For instance, it was investigating whether the data could disclose the presence of large meteorites streaking over Canada. Dr. McCormack said it also was studying if the network could track volcanic eruptions in order to warn aircraft of clouds of ash, which can injure or shut down jet engines. He said two 747 aircraft each suffered $100 million in damage "and there are many more incidents every year that aren't as dramatic." Officials in Vienna stressed that the most important part of the network's activity is to make sure that no nation gets away with what is intended to be a secret nuclear test. "If anybody does it," said Ms. Rozgonova, "we'll know." -------- accidents and safety Double Security Requirement Placed on Radioactive Gauges WASHINGTON, DC, January 18, 2004 (ENS) http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2005/2005-01-18-09.asp#anchor3 Thefts of portable gauges containing radioactive material have become so commonplace that licensees will soon have to use "two independent physical controls" to secure the gauges against theft, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has announced. The agency is not concerned that the devices are being stolen for use in making a "dirty bomb" or for other terrorist purposes, but says the gauges pose a potential "health and safety risk" to the public. There are an estimated 22,000 to 25,000 portable gauges in the United States used to determine physical properties such as density and moisture content of soil, concrete and other materials. Licenses for these devices are most often issued to companies involved in road construction and maintenance. The gauges typically contain two encapsulated sources of radioactive material, which vary in the radioisotope used and its quantity. About 50 of these gauges are reported stolen each year, with the recovery rate less than 50 percent, the NRC says. More than two-thirds of the stolen gauges were taken from vehicles parked in the open; most of these were stored in a portable transportation case and secured with a metal chain to the open bed of a pickup truck. Too often, the agency says, thieves find the gauges in their bright yellow cases chained to the truck. They cut the chain and steal the gauge, worth about $6,000, which they then pawn. The NRC says that two acceptable controls might be securing the device inside a locked van or truck and secured to the vehicle with a steel cable. Or the gauge might be safely secured in a locked storage facility within a separate secured area in a warehouse. In a final rule published January 12 in the Federal Register, the NRC requires two independent physical controls for these gauges when they are not under the control and constant surveillance of the licensee. The NRC believes that increasing physical controls will deter thieves by making it more difficult to steal portable gauges. At a minimum, two controls would delay a thief and draw attention from bystanders that may prevent the theft, the agency said. Current NRC regulations require licensees to secure portable gauges in storage or maintain control and constant surveillance of the gauges when not in storage. Generally, the gauges are stored in a permanent storage location within a licensed facility. Sometimes, portable gauges are stored at a job site, a temporary storage location or on a vehicle. When being transported in a vehicle, a gauge is often placed in a transportation case and then secured in or onto the vehicle. The amount of radioactive material used in a portable gauge is small, and the material is encapsulated in stainless steel, the NRC says. Still, the theft of portable gauges poses a concern to public health and safety. "A stolen gauge poses a potential radiation hazard to individuals who may come into close contact with the source. It also poses an environmental concern if it is abandoned, inadvertently recycled or used inappropriately," the NRC says. Due to the quantity and characteristics of the radioactive material used, the NRC does not believe portable gauges pose a substantial national security risk for malevolent use such as in a “dirty bomb.” The agency says, "There is no discernible pattern to suggest that gauges are being stolen for terrorist purposes." But the agency says that loss of control of radioactive material still poses a potential health and safety risk to the public. The NRC says it is increasing this security requirement based on health and safety considerations rather than common defense and security concerns. The final rule becomes effective in early June, 180 days after publication. -------- africa Nigeria has no ambition to be nuclear power: Obasanjo ABUJA (AFP) Jan 18, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/2005/050118204854.jedb0cvy.html Nigeria has no ambition to become a nuclear power, President Olusegun Obasanjo said Tuesday when he met the head of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohammed El-Baradei, an official statement said. The west African nation's desire was to use all available sources of power for the improvement of the lives of Nigerians through the development of health facilities, effective and efficient water management, agriculture and other peaceful purposes, Obasanjo said. He said that Nigeria needed help from the IAEA to identify, locate, test and check radio-active material, especially in view of the danger it posed in the wrong hands, the statement said. He appealed to IAEA for help in training of personnel, the use of atomic energy for the eradication of mosquitoes and tse-tse flies. He also thanked the UN agency for its cooperation and support for the Centre for Energy, Research and Training, in northern Nigerian city of Zaria. Responding, El-Baradei, who arrived in Nigeria at the weekend to discuss with the Nigerian authorities radio-active and nuclear issues, said that his organisation's three major projects in Nigeria were in health, agriculture and management. He promised his agency's help in the eradication of tse-tse fly and mosquitoes in the country, the statement said. -------- britain BNFL's Italian job? 18 January 2005 Nuclear Engineering International http://www.neimagazine.com/story.asp?sectioncode=132&storyCode=2026220 It has been confirmed that Italy will consider reprocessing its spent fuel at BNFL’s Sellafield complex. Sogin, the state-owned company charged with handling Italy’s decommissioning responsibilities, has said that it will evaluate the possibility of temporarily exporting spent fuel to the UK for reprocessing but that no wastes would be left in the UK. Sogin’s statement came after reports in the UK’s Guardian newspaper claimed that “Italy is hoping to export 99% of its nuclear waste to the UK” and “contracts worth £200 million are on offer to reprocess the nuclear fuel, provided that UK keeps the waste and the plutonium and uranium that would be recovered.” Following the Italian authorities’ failed attempt to establish a waste store at Scanzano Jonico in late 2003, Sogin began to investigate alternative management strategies – the reprocessing of spent fuel among them. Italy hosts 350t of spent fuel from four shutdown reactors. According to the Guardian, BNFL told local groups near Sellafield that it had held informal talks with Italians in the summer of 2004, but there had been no formal approach. In December 2004 the Italian minister for trade and industry signed a decree that relieved Sogin of its former responsibility to keep the spent fuel in dry storage until an Italian repository is ready. A call for tenders is now under preparation. It is reported that one of the conditions would be that vitrified waste must be retained by the reprocessing country until a national repository is available in Italy or 20 years have passed. The UK Department of Trade and Industry has said that a public consultation would be held before any new reprocessing contracts were signed and that trade and industry minister Patricia Hewitt would have the final say. -------- china Chinese firms punished over Iran Iran says its nuclear programme is for generating electricity Tuesday, 18 January, 2005 BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4183717.stm The US has imposed sanctions on seven Chinese firms suspected of selling nuclear weapons technology to Iran. The penalties, which will remain in place for two years, include a ban on trading with, and receiving assistance from, the US government. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman dismissed the move, saying the "wanton launch of sanctions...without real evidence is not a wise choice". A company from Taiwan and one from North Korea are also affected. Iran has denied US accusations that it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons, insisting that its nuclear plans are for peaceful energy purposes. Two of the largest Chinese companies named by the US, China North Industry Corporation (Norinco) and China Great Wall Industry, have been repeatedly penalised for violating various export controls. Both have close ties to the Chinese army. The firms are being punished under the 2000 Iran Non-Proliferation Act, signed into law by then President Bill Clinton. China's oil needs Last June, a US congressional report said China was failing to curb the proliferation of missile technology, despite promises from the Chinese government. It suggested China's growing dependence on Middle East oil was the reason for this. The US has been putting increasing pressure on Iran over its nuclear programme and wants the United Nations Security Council to consider imposing sanctions. Last week, inspectors from the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), visited Parchin military base near Tehran, to see whether nuclear material had been tested there. In a television interview on Monday, US President George W Bush said he would not rule out military action. "I hope we can solve it diplomatically, but I won't ever take any option off the table," Mr Bush told NBC News. However, the US has dismissed claims by investigative reporter Seymour Hersh that US commandos have been carrying out covert operations inside Iran ahead of possible future military strikes. Iran avoided UN sanctions in November when it agreed to suspend uranium enrichment and all related activities. The European Union last week resumed trade talks with Iran, suspended for about 18 months. The other Chinese firms sanctioned by the US are: Beijing Alite Technologies, China Aero-Technology Import Export Corporation (CATIC), QC Chen, Wha Cheong Tai Company and Zibo Chemet Equipment Corporation. The Taiwanese firm is Ecoma Enterprise Company, and the North Korean firm is Paeksan Associated Corporation. SANCTIONED COMPANIES China North Industry Corporation China Great Wall Industry Beijing Alite Technologies China Aero-Technology Import Export Corporation QC Chen Wha Cheong Tai Company Zibo Chemet Equipment Corporation Ecoma Enterprise Company (Taiwan) Paeksan Associated Corporation (North Korea) -------- iran Bush won't rule out Iran action over nukes Tue Jan 18, 2005 05:56 AM GMT (Reuters) http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=655847 U.S. President George W. Bush says he will not rule out military action against Iran if that country is not more forthcoming about its suspected nuclear weapons programme. "I hope we can solve it diplomatically, but I will never take any option off the table," Bush said in an interview with NBC News when asked if he would rule out the potential for military action against Iran "if it continues to stonewall the international community about the existence of its nuclear weapons program." Iran denies it has been trying to make nuclear weapons and says its nuclear program is geared solely to producing electricity. Bush's comments followed Pentagon criticism on Monday of a published report that it was mounting reconnaissance missions inside Iran to identify potential nuclear and other targets. "The Iranian regime's apparent nuclear ambitions and its demonstrated support for terrorist organizations is a global challenge that deserves much more serious treatment than Seymour Hersh provides in the New Yorker article titled "The Coming Wars," the Pentagon's chief spokesman, Lawrence DiRita, said in a statement. Hersh's article, published on Sunday, was "so riddled with errors of fundamental fact that the credibility of his entire piece is destroyed," DiRita said. Hersh reported Bush had signed a series of top-secret findings and executive orders authorizing secret commando groups and other Special Forces military units to conduct covert operations against suspected terrorist targets in as many as 10 nations in the Middle East and South Asia. DiRita did not comment on that assertion. He said Hersh's sources fed him "rumour, innuendo, and assertions about meetings that never happened, programs that do not exist and statements by officials that were never made." Asked whether U.S. military forces had been conducting reconnaissance missions in Iran, Defence Department spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Barry Venable said, "We don't discuss missions, capabilities or activities of Special Operations forces." ---- Bush blocks Euro plan to woo Iran over nuclear freeze By Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor (Filed: 18/01/2005) UK Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/01/18/wiran18.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/01/18/ixportal.html America has hobbled an effort by Britain and other European countries to persuade Iran to freeze its nuclear programme. Senior officials said privately that the US would not offer economic or political concessions to woo Teheran. President George W Bush is trying to improve relations with Europe and will visit London and Brussels next month. But in private, American officials are furious at the European Union's "engagement" with Teheran. They say they will not co-operate with what they see as the dangerous policy of giving the regime "rewards for bad behaviour". The New Yorker magazine reported yesterday that teams of US special forces had infiltrated Iran to scout suspected weapons sites that would be targeted in future air strikes. Seymour Hersh, the magazine's award-winning journalist, quoted a US official as saying that after Afghanistan and Iraq "we're going to have the Iranian campaign". However, a senior US administration source said Mr Bush was unlikely to take any decisions on dealing with Iran for the next six months, while the issue was "blocked" by the European diplomatic initiative. Another well-placed US source said "military action is only the last resort after other options have been exhausted". He said Washington wanted first to exert pressure on Iran to halt its nuclear programme through an escalating series of diplomatic and economic sanctions at the United Nations Security Council. Iran is widely believed to be pursuing a secret programme to build a nuclear bomb. The nation says it only seeks to develop nuclear power to save its oil reserves. Under an agreement in November between Iran and Britain, France and Germany, Teheran was spared a referral to the security council after it agreed to suspend "voluntarily" the most sensitive parts of its nuclear programme: the enrichment of uranium and the reprocessing of plutonium. In return, the Europeans made a commitment to improve relations. Working groups met in Geneva yesterday to discuss three issues: Iran's nuclear programme; improved technological and economic co-operation; and "firm commitments on security issues". The EU has agreed to move ahead with co-operation even before an overall agreement is reached and has resumed talks on a trade pact with Iran. But many of the benefits that Teheran seeks - advanced technology, investment in its oil industry and greater international acceptance - can be provided only with US agreement. The Europeans hoped to entice the new Bush administration into the diplomatic process. American officials dismiss the idea out of hand. One said the European effort was "comical". Another said the Iranians would break out of whatever constraints the Europeans imposed. Washington believes that any concessions made by Teheran are temporary, and often imposed by their own technical problems. British officials admit their initiative is running into the sand. Without US support, the Europeans believe their initiative is doomed and it will be only a matter of time before the Iranians resume their nuclear activities. The US will not publicly denounce the initiative but appears content to watch it collapse. It then hopes to bring the issue to the security council. Britain says such a move would be pointless because any sanctions would be blocked by Russia and China. ---- UN nuclear inspectors want second crack at Parchin military site in Iran VIENNA (AFP) Jan 18, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/2005/050118171732.mdnmxznk.html UN nuclear inspectors want to return to the Parchin military site in Iran, after a first inspection last week of the facility where Washington charges Tehran is simulating testing of atomic weapons, a diplomat said Tuesday. "The International Atomic Energy Agency plans to go back to Parchin," the diplomat close to the Vienna-base IAEA told AFP, saying Iran had not yet granted permission for a second visit. The diplomat, who asked not to be named, said IAEA inspectors wanted to go to another part of the sprawling Parchin complex, which they had first visited last Thursday after months of asking Iran for access. But the diplomat said this was a routine part of a "process" and that "there is nothing like a fire." "There are a number of things the IAEA wants to clarify according to its plans," the diplomat said. Washington has voiced concern the Iranians may be testing high-explosive charges with an inert core of depleted uranium at Parchin, 30 kilometresmiles) southeast of Tehran, as a sort of dry test for how a bomb with fissile material would work. Tehran has strongly denied carrying out any nuclear-related work at the site, which has buildings housing testing equipment, flanked by bunkers where explosions are carried out. The IAEA has been investigating Iran for two years on US charges that the Islamic Republic is hiding nuclear weapons development. IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei has said there is no proof that Iran is hiding weapons work but that "the jury is still out." Allowing the Parchin inspection is a confidence-building measure by Iran which comes as it resumed talks last week in Brussels with the European Union on a trade accord, 18 months after negotiations were suspended due to concerns about Tehran's nuclear plans. The negotiations on a trade and cooperation agreement were restarted after Iran agreed to suspend uranium enrichment -- the crucial part of the nuclear fuel cycle which can also make material for atomic bombs -- in an accord thrashed out following intense pressure notably from the United States. The New Yorker magazine reported Monday that US commandos have been operating inside Iran since mid-2004 selecting suspected weapons sites for possible air strikes. New Yorker journalist Seymour Hersh said US hawks are convinced European negotiations with Iran will fail, and when they do, the United States will act -- possibly by mid-year. ElBaradei announced earlier this month that Iran had finally given the green light for his inspectors to probe Parchin after seeking access to the site since July. The inspectors are taking environmental samples to check for radiation. Results from the highly sensitive sampling, which can detect minuscule amounts of radioactive particles even if a site has been cleaned, are available after about a month of laboratory analysis. Iran had warned that it would not tolerate "spying" at the Parchin facility and would keep inspectors from entering buildings. But diplomats said UN inspectors had entered buildings last Thursday and expected to again in a second visit. US non-proliferation expert David Albright, of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security, told AFP that the IAEA may find no more than anti-tank work using depleted uranium rockets. But he said that even if the inspection did not find much it could still "create a precedent" for better access and "deter Iran from using the Parchin site since the presence of inspectors would remove that facility from the list of places where Iran can work on nuclear weapons." Iran said Sunday it was confident that UN inspectors would disprove US allegations that it is conducting secret nuclear weapons work, and said its negotiations with the Europeans were "on a good track". ---- Russia says no reason to doubt Iran's nuclear program MOSCOW (AFP) Jan 18, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/2005/050118161857.rfqdvgxa.html Russia said Tuesday it had no reason to doubt that Iran's nuclear program was peaceful in nature, one day after US President George W. Bush raised the possibility of attacking the Muslim state if it failed to come clean about its military ambitions. "I have no reason to believe that the situation will change from its current course and that the character of Iran's nuclear program will change," Interfax quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying on a visit to the northwestern town of Petrozavodsk. "Russia and Iran are leading a detailed dialogue, so that Iran's nuclear program remains exclusively peaceful in nature," Ivanov said. Russia is completing construction of Iran's first nuclear power reactor despite fears in the United States and Israel that the project could help the Islamic state develop nuclear warheads. Moscow has refused to supply nuclear fuel to the Bushehr plant until it wins a formal, written assurance from Iran that it would return all spent fuel for storage back to Russia -- a guarantee that Tehran has so far failed to provide. The material could theoretically be reprocessed through high-tech technology to make weapons-grade nuclear material. Bush, speaking to NBC television on Monday, said he would not rule out military action if the United States cannot persuade Iran to stop short of building a nuclear weapon. "I hope we can solve it diplomatically, but I won't ever take any option off the table," Bush told NBC. But Lavrov replied for Russia: "It is premature to talk before one has facts." The president was quizzed about Iran as The New Yorker magazine reported that US commandos have been operating inside Iran since mid-2004 selecting suspected weapons sites for possible air strikes. The Pentagon blasted the article as "riddled with errors." ---- No common ground with Iran regime, says Rice By Guy Dinmore in Washington Published: January 18 2005 16:38 http://news.ft.com/cms/s/bc44bdc2-696c-11d9-81e7-00000e2511c8.html The Bush administration's changing of the guard at the State Department was almost complete on Wednesday as Colin Powell bid an emotional farewell to his staff just as senators were wrapping up their grilling of Condoleezza Rice, the next secretary of state. Speaking of the foreign policy challenges ahead, Mr Powell said the focus was on persuading North Korea and Iran to take a “better way” and give up their nuclear weapons programme. Over at the Senate, Ms Rice was testifying that the Bush administration saw no common ground with the Islamic regime in Iran. In a last round of questioning before the Senate foreign relations committee voted 16-2 in favour of her nomination by George W. Bush as secretary of state, Ms Rice took a hard line on Iran. But she steered away from speaking about regime change. “The United States government has often, as the president said, supported regimes in the hope that they would bring stability,” she said. “And we've been in the Middle East, sometimes blind to the freedom deficit in the hope that they would bring stability. We're not going to do that any more.” Joseph Biden, the senior Democrat on the committee, said he voted for her with reluctance and hesitation, saying she had failed to level with the American people. Only Barbara Boxer, Californian senator, and John Kerry, the defeated presidential candidate, voted against. Ms Rice acknowledged that some bad decisions had been made over Iraq, but said history would judge the overall outcome. Under fire from Ms Boxer for a second day, Ms Rice effectively acknowledged that the US had made a mistake cutting deals with Saddam Hussein in the late 1980s when he had launched gas attacks on the Kurds. Ms Rice effectively ruled out the US taking the European approach of engaging Iran. Mr Biden pressed Ms Rice to say whether the US could reach an accord with Iran's clerical regime if it gave up nuclear weapons. “I'm not going to get into hypotheticals,” she answered, and said the US had to look at the “totality of the issue”, referring to the issues of terrorism and human rights. “Senator, what we have said to the Iranians is look at the Libyan example,” she said, arguing that Libya had decided to dismantle its weapons of mass destruction “without a promise of specific deals”. Senior officials from the UK, France and Germany are to visit Washington early next week to press the Bush administration to take a positive approach to the nuclear negotiations with Iran initiated by the EU. Ms Rice's confirmation by the full Senate, originally scheduled for Thursday, ran into a last-minute hitch on Wednesday evening when Senate Democrats, in a further sign of their begrudging support, requested more time to consider her nomination. While her confirmation is not in jeopardy, Senate leaders were considering postponement of the vote until next week. In the meantime, Mr Powell remains secretary. ---- Article on Iran Lacks Truth, Pentagon Says Reuters Tuesday, January 18, 2005; Page A12 http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A16426-2005Jan17?language=printer The Pentagon yesterday criticized a published article that said it is mounting reconnaissance missions inside Iran to identify potential nuclear and other targets. "The Iranian regime's apparent nuclear ambitions and its demonstrated support for terrorist organizations is a global challenge that deserves much more serious treatment than Seymour Hersh provides in the New Yorker article titled 'The Coming Wars,' " the Pentagon's chief spokesman, Lawrence T. DiRita, said in a statement. Hersh's article, published Sunday, was "so riddled with errors of fundamental fact that the credibility of his entire piece is destroyed," DiRita said. Hersh reported that President Bush had signed a series of top-secret findings and executive orders authorizing secret commando groups and other Special Forces military units to conduct covert operations against suspected terrorist targets in as many as 10 nations in the Middle East and South Asia. DiRita did not comment on that assertion. Instead, he said, Hersh's sources fed him "rumor, innuendo, and assertions about meetings that never happened, programs that do not exist and statements by officials that were never made." Asked whether U.S. military forces had been conducting reconnaissance missions in Iran, Lt. Col. Barry Venable, a Defense Department spokesman, said: "We don't discuss missions, capabilities or activities of Special Operations forces." -------- terrorism U.S. Pushes Ship Security Rules as Global Standard Tue Jan 18, 2005 02:02 PM ET By Mark Trevelyan, (Reuters) Security Correspondent http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7359061 BERLIN - The United States is pressing for wider global adoption of new shipping rules it enforced after the Sept. 11 attacks and which it believes have deterred potential terrorists, a senior official said Tuesday. "Terrorists are not just targeting the United States, they're targeting globalization and the global economy," said Keith Thomson, assistant commissioner in the Office of International Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security. "Collectively we must all do more to secure what goes into, and through, all ports of the world, and not just the United States," he told a conference on maritime security in Berlin. New standards imposed by Washington since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001 include a rule requiring shippers to supply U.S. authorities with details of U.S.-bound cargoes a full 24 hours before the goods are loaded at a foreign port. The data is fed to a National Targeting Center in Virginia, which combs it for risk factors like vague cargo descriptions, suspicious-looking transport routes, wrong addresses or dispatchers shipping to the United States for the first time. It can then ask the foreign port to investigate further. Thomson said Washington was in favor of all nations adopting the 24-hour rule, plus a common approach to risk management, information-sharing, inspections, and fast-track processing for companies that meet "best practice" security standards. He told Reuters that an initial draft framework containing these elements had been broadly endorsed by the World Customs Organization (WCO) last month and a revised draft should be ready for submission to the WCO council in June. IMMEDIATE SIGN-UP Countries could begin signing up as soon as it was approved. "It's likely that 10, 15, 20 countries who have the capacity to sign up will do so immediately" and others would follow over time, he said. Thomson also said he expected that this year about 10 more of the world's leading ports would join the Container Security Initiative (CSI), in which U.S. customs agents work alongside local counterparts at ports to identify high-risk cargoes. The scheme covers 34 ports, and Thomson said several of the new ones would be in Asia. He declined to name them, but a CSI Web site identifies Shanghai and Shenzhen in China, and Kaohsiung in Taiwan, as target ports. Despite the raft of initiatives, officials are haunted by the danger that a militant group could plant terrorists, a "dirty bomb" or even a nuclear device in one of some 9 million shipping containers unloaded at U.S. seaports each year. "The sum of all fears, and (thriller writer Tom) Clancy said it, is a nuke in the box," U.S. customs chief Robert C. Bonner said last week. "And a terrorist attack using a container to conceal a so-called dirty bomb ... could probably stop global trade in its tracks unless we have a maritime security system that can detect and deter such an attack." -------- u.s. nuc facilities Outgoing U.S. Energy Secretary Promotes Nuclear Power By J.R. Pegg WASHINGTON, DC, January 18, 2005 (ENS) http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2005/2005-01-18-10.asp Nuclear power offers the world the best means to meet the rising demand for energy without increasing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, according to outgoing U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. The expansion of nuclear power can bring nations greater energy independence, said Abraham, and help deal with some of the world’s “most pressing environmental challenges.” Abraham, speaking Friday to an international nuclear energy forum, said the global demand for energy will rise by some 60 percent by 2030. Without nuclear energy, this demand will largely be met through by coal, oil and natural gas, Abraham said, because other renewable energy sources are insufficient to meet the world’s needs. “This makes the prospect of rising energy prices and greater price volatility a major concern in the years ahead,” Abraham said. “And, as we know, fossil fuels – the way we use them now – cause pollution.” There is little doubt that jumpstarting the U.S. nuclear industry is a priority for the Bush administration. Although the nation’s 103 nuclear power plants produce 20 percent of U.S. electricity, it has been three decades since the last nuclear power plant was commissioned. U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham (Photo courtesy Eureka County ) “This is both astonishing and alarming,” Abraham said, “given the unique benefits that nuclear energy offers – benefits that no other major energy source available today can provide.” “Foremost among these benefits is the fact that nuclear power emits none of the pollutants associated with the burning of fossil fuels,” said Abraham, who added that nuclear power can supply electricity “with no greenhouse gas emissions.” Abraham said the primary reasons the industry’s growth has stalled are “cost considerations and political opposition.” The industry is wary of pressing forward because of regulatory uncertainty that “ stems from the belief that political opposition to nuclear energy could bring about costly rule changes and/or actions which significantly delay projects in such a fashion as to make project costs unacceptable,” according to the Energy Secretary. Abraham said three potential sites for new plants are currently under federal review and two industry groups are proceeding with the regulatory steps needed to move ahead with new plant designs. The administration is also working with Republicans in Congress and through the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to streamline licensing for new nuclear power plants. Critics contend the administration is misleading the public by presenting nuclear power as an environmentally friendly power source - given safety and security concerns along with the overriding problem of waste disposal. "Switching from dirty coal plants to dangerous nuclear power is like giving up smoking cigarettes and taking up crack,” said Dan Becker of the Sierra Club. Workers at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center, home to the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory's spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste programs. The facility specializes in spent nuclear fuel consolidation, special nuclear material repackaging, and treatment and disposal of high-level waste. (Photo courtesy INTEC) Abraham said the problems that have plagued the nuclear industry in the past - safety failures, ineffective regulation and poor management – have been addressed. “U.S. nuclear plants are safer today than they have ever been, and their safety performance continues to improve,” he said. Key to reenergizing the nuclear industry, Abraham said, is the administration’s progress on the construction of a repository for nuclear waste in Nevada’s Yucca Mountain. “Even the most ardent supporter of nuclear power understands that we must move forward in dealing with spent nuclear fuel,” he said. “Doing so will remove what has been a major impediment to the construction of new nuclear plants in this country.” The administration’s support of the Yucca Mountain repository has put the nation on “a clear plan to deal with high-level nuclear waste,” Abraham said. But he acknowledged that litigation has put Yucca Mountain’s timetable “in doubt” and many do not share his optimism for the project. The repository, some 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, has been hit with budget and litigation woes and is unlikely to be ready by 2010 as originally scheduled. Federal officials have raised an array of concerns about the project, including a finding that the manufactured storage containers in which the government plans to store nuclear waste at the facility will probably leak. Last July the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled the federal government’s 10,000 year federal safety requirement for the highly radioactive waste illegal and the state of Nevada has challenged the Energy Department’s transportation plan for nuclear waste shipments to the facility. The Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS), a Washington, DC organization critical of nuclear energy, warns that the January 6 train derailment in South Carolina that caused a mass evacuation and nine deaths "is a sober reminder of the perils of transporting toxic materials." The Hatch Nuclear Power Plant is located 11 miles north of Baxley, Georgia. (Photo courtesy NRC) "It also sends a clear warning to the U.S. Department of Energy, whose ill-advised plan would send high-level radioactive waste casks by rail and truck across the country from the nearby Savannah River nuclear site," said NIRS. Current plans call for the shipment of spent nuclear fuel and other highly radioactive material from 39 states to Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The waste remains a key environmental, public health and security concern for critics of the nuclear power, who note that the problem is one growing in scope and expense. As of 2003, nuclear reactors in the United States had generated some 54,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel - a figure predicted to double by 2035. "Putting high-level waste casks on our rails and roads is effectively a Mobile Chernobyl and exposes millions to the potentially catastrophic risks of severe transport accidents and even terrorist attacks on shipments," said Mary Olson, director of NIRS Southeast in Asheville, North Carolina. Abraham has said in the past that spent fuel in secure transit to a permanent repository is less susceptible to terrorist acts than spent fuel stranded at the temporary, stationary sites - many very close to major cities and waterways - where it now resides. Opponents say the nuclear industry would not exist – and will not grow – in the United States without massive subsidies. A key part of the equation is the Price Anderson Act, a 1957 amendment to the Atomic Energy Act that caps the cost of liability insurance coverage for any nuclear power plant accident. Critics say it skews the real cost of nuclear power and potentially leaves taxpayers liable for damages from a severe accident. It is still in effect for existing plants, but must be reauthorized for new plants – such reauthorization is included in the stalled energy bill, along with a slew of other incentives intended to revive the nuclear industry. Energy Secretary Abraham has resigned his position and will not serve in the second administration of President George W. Bush that begins on January 20. President Bush has nominated Deputy Secretary of Treasury Dr. Samuel Bodman to take his place. Bodman must be confirmed by the Senate before he can take over as energy secretary. A nomination hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is scheduled for January 19. -------- idaho Idaho Lab Seeks Public Input on Nuclear Reactor Cleanup IDAHO FALLS, Idaho, January 18, 2005 (ENS) http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2005/2005-01-18-09.asp#anchor4 The U.S. Department of Energy, in cooperation with the state of Idaho and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is seeking public comment on a proposal to prepare to decommission the Power Burst Facility reactor at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL). An Engineering Evaluation and Cost Analysis document, available for review at www.cleanup.inel.gov, describes two alternatives for preparation actions to decommission the Power Burst Facility reactor building. The Power Burst Facility reactor was built in 1972. It was used by INEEL scientists and engineers for experiments to determine the safe operating limits of reactor systems, until it was placed in standby mode in 1985. It was designed to simulate various kinds of imagined accidents caused by sudden increases in the operating power level of the reactor, and was the only reactor in the world capable of performing rapid changes in power level within milliseconds. DOE will perform the work under the Superfund as a non-time critical removal action. This action includes removing approximately two-thirds of the shielding lead from the structure. The lead will be re-used, recycled, or disposed. The proposal for phase one demolition evaluates two alternatives. The first alternative, used as a baseline for comparison and which is a requirement under the Superfund law, is no action other than the required surveillance and maintenance of the reactor facility. The second and preferred alternative includes removal and disposition of water from the reactor pool and vessel, and removal and disposal of the experiment test chamber, called the in-pile tube, from the reactor vessel. More shielding will be placed over the vessel once the water is removed. The Energy Department says the preferred alternative would reduce long term risk, minimizes short term worker risk and radiation exposure, is cost-effective, and provides a safe and stable condition that is environmentally sound as the agencies prepare for the decommissioning of the reactor in Phase 2. During the past year, workers with the Idaho Completion Project have successfully removed contaminated soils at the Power Burst Facility. These soils were taken to the INEEL Superfund Disposal Facility on-site for treatment and disposal. More than 72,500 tons of soil were hauled more than 105,000 miles without a safety incident. DOE reports. Written comments on DOE’s plan are welcome through January 23 online at www.cleanup.inel.gov or mailed to: Kathleen Hain, U.S. Department of Energy, P.O. Box 1625 MS 1222, Idaho Falls, Idaho 83415-1222 or email: hainke@doe.id.gov The document, as well as an electronic comment form, is available at cleanup.inel.gov. Public briefings on this project can be arranged by calling (208) 526-3183 or the INEEL’s toll-free number at (800) 708-2680. Detailed information is available in the Administrative Record file for the Power Burst Facility (Waste Area Group 5) online at: www.ar.inel.gov. -------- new jersey Exelon-PSEG merger opposed by NJPIRG; it cites safety concerns Published in the Asbury Park Press 1/18/05 By NICHOLAS CLUNN MANAHAWKIN BUREAU http://www.app.com/app/story/0,21625,1179089,00.html TRENTON -- Mishaps and poor decisions at nuclear reactors owned by the same company that runs the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey reflect a management attitude that puts profit before safety, a public advocacy group said Monday. Exelon, which owns Oyster Creek through its AmerGen subsidiary, fired an employee for challenging how the company stored its nuclear waste, according to one case highlighted by Suzanne Leta, a New Jersey Public Interest Group expert on energy issues. Company officials stand by the firing, said Exelon spokesman Craig Nesbit. Overall, Exelon has a strong safety record in an industry regulated more than most others, Nesbit said. "NJPIRG is real good about making hay out of all this because people don't understand it," he said. But Kymn Harvin, a former supervisor and whistle-blower at the three Public Service Electric and Gas Co. nuclear plants in Salem County, said residents around Oyster Creek should consider Leta's message. "Nuclear safety issues do not know county or state boundaries," Harvin said after the news conference at the Statehouse Annex. "My message is for people to fight for their safety. Don't rely on the utilities." NJPIRG's argument supported its opposition to a plan that would allow Oyster Creek, the nation's oldest commercial reactor, to stay open for another 20 years under a renewed license. Oyster Creek would close in 2009 without the extension. Leta called the news conference to encourage acting Gov. Codey and the state Board of Public Utilities to block a proposed merger between Exelon and Public Service Enterprise Group, PSE&G's parent. The new company would become the nation's largest utility if government regulators approve the deal. Exelon Electric & Gas, the proposed new company, would have 9 million customers in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Illinois. Company rebuts claims Leta told reporters that Exelon managers in 2001 fired Oscar Shirani, one of its safety inspectors at an Illinois office, for telling managers about design flaws in vessels used to store nuclear waste. At the Quad Cities Unit 1 nuclear plant in Illinois, she said, managers continued to generate electricity at a rate greater than previously produced even though the process caused vibrations that damaged steam pipes and other equipment. Nesbit downplayed Leta's examples. Regulators and labor boards, he said, have proved Shirani's worries about the storage containers were unwarranted. "He (Shirani) looks for new audiences, and he found a new audience in New Jersey," Nesbit said from his office in Illinois. "That's why he's making those claims there." Nesbit said the vibrations occurred away from the reactor and posed an insignificant safety risk. Problems associated with running a plant at a higher rate for the first time are common, he said. Leta also pointed to a 2003 strike over job cuts at Oyster Creek as evidence of Exelon putting profit before safety. Oyster Creek officials said they cut 20 jobs to keep the company competitive and efficient. State officials could not be reached for comment Monday. BPU President Jeanne M. Fox said last month that regulators will consider how the Exelon-PSEG merger will affect customers, rates, employees and system reliability. Churches also opposed The Rev. Christopher L. Miller, representing about 600 United Methodist churches in New Jersey and 15 other denominations in the New Jersey Council of Churches, cited the Bible in explaining why those groups oppose a license renewal for Oyster Creek. An extension for Oyster Creek would defy a Christian tenet requiring believers to care for "God's earth," Miller said. "We cannot put the lives of humanity at grave risk so that a corporation can multiply its economic wealth," he said. Nicholas Clunn: (609) 978-4597 or nclunn@app.com -------- new mexico NRC: Eunice, NM, depleted uranium plant waste 'low level' Source: AP Posted: 1/18/2005 http://www.krqe.com/environment/expanded.asp?RECORD_KEY%5BEnvironment%5D=ID&ID%5BEnvironment%5D=8253 ALBUQUERQUE -- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission concludes that depleted uranium from a proposed uranium factory near Eunice is low-level radioactive waste. Louisiana Energy Services wants to build a $1.2 billion facility to refine uranium for nuclear reactors. Two conservation groups which have intervened to protest the proposed plant. They challenged the company's strategy for disposing of waste from the enrichment process. State officials and others have raised concerns because the uranium enrichment process produces a type of waste that cannot be disposed of anywhere in the United States. One option would be for LES to turn it over to the US Department of Energy. The NRC says that's legal because the waste is low level. -------- MILITARY -------- business U.S. Punishes 8 Chinese Firms for Aiding Iran By DAVID E. SANGER January 18, 2005 NY Times http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/18/politics/18nukes.html?ei=5070&en=952485152669b071&ex=1106802000&pagewanted=print&position= WASHINGTON, Jan. 17 - The Bush administration imposed penalties this month against some of China's largest companies for aiding Iran's efforts to improve its ballistic missiles. The move is part of an effort by the White House and American intelligence agencies to identify and slow important elements of Iran's weapons programs. The White House made no public announcement of the penalties, and the State Department placed a one-page notice on page 133 of The Federal Register early this month listing eight Chinese companies affected. The notice kept classified the nature of the technology they had exported. Since the Federal Register announcement, the penalties have been noted on some Web sites that concentrate on China and proliferation issues. President Bush has repeatedly praised China for its help in seeking a diplomatic end to the North Korean nuclear standoff. Some officials in the administration speculated in the past week that the decision not to publicize the penalties might have been part of an effort not to jeopardize Chinese cooperation at a critical moment in the administration's effort to bring North Korea back to the negotiating table. China has repeatedly vowed to curb its sales of missile technology, starting with an agreement with the first Bush administration in 1992, and expanded with the Clinton administration in 2000. But two of the largest companies cited in the State Department's list, China Great Wall Industry Corporation and China North Industry Corporation, known as Norinco, have been repeatedly penalized for more than a decade; each is closely linked to the Chinese military. A third company on the penalties list, the China Aero-Technology Import and Export Corporation, or Catic, is one of the country's largest producers of military aircraft and was accused of diverting to military use sophisticated machine tools bought from McDonnell Douglas. Eighteen months ago, a senior State Department official, Paula A. DeSutter, referred to several of the companies as part of China's "serial proliferator problem," and told a Congressional commission on relations between the United States and China that although the Chinese government had often repeated its opposition to missile proliferation, "the reality has been quite different." In the 1990's, Republicans in Congress began a series of investigations into China's efforts to obtain American nuclear technology and to export missile and nuclear expertise to Pakistan, Iran and possibly other nations. At the time, they sharply criticized the Clinton administration, accusing it of playing down Chinese offenses. Bush administration officials, when asked about the penalties over the past week, said nothing was particularly notable about the latest violations and that no evidence suggested that China's leadership was aware of the sales. One senior American official said the transactions took place "within the past year or 18 months," or well after the last American penalties were announced on Chinese sales to Iran, in July 2003. American officials said the list of exports to Iran was classified, but they described them as high-performance metals and components that are banned under the Iran Nonproliferation Act of 2000 because they could aid the country's efforts to extend the range of its missile fleet. It was unclear whether some of the technology was "dual use," meaning that it could be used for civilian or military purposes. Iran's efforts to develop longer-distance missiles that are capable of ever larger payloads are increasingly of concern among intelligence officials. American officials have charged that Iran is trying to develop nuclear warheads, which its leadership denies. "We suspect that the Iranians also have the Chinese bomb design," a former senior American official said several months ago, referring to a design that Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani nuclear scientist, acquired from China, sold to Libya and was suspected of peddling elsewhere. "What everyone is looking for is the missile that matches up with the design." American intelligence agencies are focusing much energy, officials say, on identifying major sites for Iran's nuclear and missile programs. That information is collected, in part, to plan for possible military strikes, though President Bush has repeatedly said he is focusing on diplomacy to disarm Iran. Still, Mr. Bush has also repeatedly said he would never summarily rule out any option in a crisis. In an interview broadcast Monday night by NBC News, when asked about using military action in Iran, he said, "I hope we can solve it diplomatically, but I will never take any option off the table." In an article in The New Yorker this week, titled "The Coming Wars," Seymour M. Hersh reports that "the administration has been conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran at least since last summer." He continued: "Much of the focus is on the accumulation of intelligence and targeting information on Iranian nuclear, chemical and missile sites, both declared and suspected. The goal is to identify and isolate three dozen, and perhaps more, such targets that could be destroyed by precision strikes and short-term commando raids." Administration officials said intelligence agencies had long worked to identify those sites, but they denied that more consideration was being given to striking those sites. "That's not the plan," a senior official said. "In fact, a lot of energy is going into trying to keep the Israelis from getting ideas along those lines." For now, some of the American intelligence is being provided to the International Atomic Energy Agency to spur it to conduct investigations in Iran. Last week, inspectors visited one such military site, called Parchin, where the United States says work may be under way to develop a nuclear warhead. Although the agency took soil samples to determine whether nuclear materials had been present at the site, it has no jurisdiction over missile work, or any authority to enforce the Missile Technology Control Regime, a voluntary international agreement that regulates the sale of missile components and designs. Many of Iran's missiles are based on North Korean designs, and one North Korean company, Paeksan Associated Corporation, was penalized, with the eight Chinese companies. The penalties bar the companies from doing business with the United States government, and prevent them from obtaining export licenses allowing them to buy controlled technologies from American companies. Some of the penalized Chinese companies do little or no business with the United States, but Norinco, a maker of handguns and assault weapons, does millions of dollars of business here, and other companies are constantly in search of American technology. Some American businesses have argued that the penalties are often self-defeating, contributing to the huge trade gap with China but doing little to deter Chinese companies from exporting nuclear, chemical or missile technology to nuclear aspirants like Iran. A senior administration official, asked about the penalties, said Monday in an interview that the Chinese "are moving in the right direction generally" on proliferation and have stopped some exports to North Korea, including a chemical that could be used in reprocessing spent nuclear fuel into weapons. But the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the subject included intelligence matters, said that "while they are helping us on North Korea, they have not been as helpful on Iran," perhaps because of China's ever expanding need for oil and other energy sources. President Bush, the official said, was trying to make the point to Chinese officials that their companies "are not going to be able to sustain the patterns of trade needed for strong economic growth and continued inward investment" in China if they are repeatedly penalized for aiding Iran. But evidence is slight that previous penalties have seriously impeded the growth of the Chinese companies. In her testimony to the China commission, Ms. DeSutter, the senior State Department official, argued that Beijing's nonproliferation commitments of 1992, 1994, 1998, 2000 and, most recently, a specific set of export control rules issued by China in 2002 "occurred only under the imminent threat, or in response to the actual imposition, of sanctions." -------- china "String of pearls" military plan to protect China's oil: US report Jan 18, 2005 WASHINGTON (AFP) http://www.spacewar.com/2005/050118111727.edxbwxn8.html China is developing military bases and diplomatic ties from the Middle East to the South China Sea in order to protect its oil shipments and strategic interests, according to an internal report prepared for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, The Washington Times said Tuesday. "China is building strategic relationships along the sea lanes from the Middle East to the South China Sea in ways that suggest defensive and offensive positioning to protect China's energy interests, but also to serve broad security objectives," said the report, sponsored by the director of Net Assessment, who heads Mr. Rumsfeld's office on future-oriented strategies. The "string of pearls" strategy, as the report calls China's move, includes a new naval base under construction at the Pakistani port of Gwadar, naval bases in Myanmar, a military agreement with Cambodia, strengthening ties with Bangladesh and an ambitious plan under consideration to build a 20-billion-dollar canal in Thailand to bypass the Strait of Malacca. The activity has raised concerns at the Pentagon that China's military build-up, which is taking place faster than earlier estimates, is aimed to project force and undermine US and regional security. The report said China, by militarily controlling oil shipping sea lanes, could threaten ships, "thereby creating a climate of uncertainty about the safety of all ships on the high seas." "China... is looking not only to build a blue-water navy to control the sea lanes, but also to develop undersea mines and missile capabilities to deter the potential disruption of its energy supplies from potential threats, including the US Navy, especially in the case of a conflict with Taiwan," said the report produced by defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. -------- europe Minsk criticizes Condoleezza Rice remark on Belarus Jan 18 2005 (Interfax-West) http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/0/28.html?id_issue=10740527 MINSK. Jan 18 - The Belarussian Foreign Ministry has expressed displeasure with the fact that U.S. secretary of state nominee Condoleezza Rice mentioned Belarus among the countries she labeled as "outposts of tyranny" while speaking at Senate on Tuesday. "The mentioning of Belarus in Rice's statement shows that her vision of the situation in Belarus is unfortunately too far from reality now," spokesman for the Belarussian Foreign Ministry Andrei Savinykh told Interfax on Tuesday. "False stereotypes and prejudices are a bad foundation for pursuing an efficient policy in the sphere of relations between countries," he said. "Only a constructive dialog based on common sense and the existing realities will help normalize relations between our countries," Savinykh said. -------- pakistan / india India accuses Pakistan of firing across Kashmir line 1/18/2005 Associated Press http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-01-18-india-pakistan_x.htm NEW DELHI (AP) — India accused Pakistani soldiers Tuesday of firing mortar shells across the dividing line in Kashmir in the first violation of a 14-month cease-fire between the South Asian nuclear-armed rivals. The cease-fire was the longest since an insurgent campaign in the divided Himalayan province began in 1989. Both countries claim the mainly Muslim, former princely state in its entirety and have fought two wars over it. A senior army official said there were no casualties on the Indian side, and Indian troops had not retaliated. "It certainly is a violation of the cease-fire. This is the first time this has happened. We have exercised full restraint," Maj. Gen. Deepak Summanwar told the private NDTV news channel. "Seven to eight rounds of mortars were fired. All our patrols ... have been alerted." Pakistan army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, speaking in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, said he was not aware of the incident. The reports of firing came hours after another setback to the ties between the traditional South Asian rivals, which are now pursuing peace. Islamabad accused New Delhi of deliberately scuttling talks on a disputed dam that India is building on its side of Kashmir and appealed to the World Bank to help resolve the issue. Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan said the dispute will cast a "bad light" on the peace dialogue. For decades, India and Pakistan regularly fired at each other across the cease-fire line, killing soldiers and civilians and damaging homes and farmland. However, they agreed to a cease-fire in November 2003 along the disputed Kashmir frontier and international border. Indian military officials in Kashmir said Tuesday's firing may have been carried out to provide cover to a batch of Islamic militants crossing into the Indian side of Kashmir from the Pakistan-controlled part of the Himalayan region. Rebels based in Pakistan routinely cross over to India to wage attacks as part of their campaign to carve out a separate homeland or merge the Indian-controlled area into Pakistan. Five such rebels were killed Monday night in the mountainous Achhar sector, said B.D. Sharma, inspector general of the Border Security Force. India accuses Pakistan of allowing militants to train in camps on its territory and supporting attacks that kill civilians, police and soldiers. Pakistan denies the allegations. Nearly 66,000 people, mostly civilians, have died in the conflict. Military officials in Jammu, the winter capital of Jammu-Kashmir state, said the firing took place just north of Punch town, about 150 miles northwest of Jammu at the army's Durga Post. India and Pakistan are holding regular talks on a series of disputes that have haunted their relations since 1947, when British colonialists left the subcontinent and the new Islamic nation of Pakistan was carved out of Indian mainland. They have since fought three wars, two of them over their rival claims over Kashmir. -------- venezuela Rice: Venezuela's Chavez 'Very Deeply Troubling' January 18, 2005 (Reuters) http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/bush/articles/2005/01/18/rice_venezuelas_chavez_very_deeply_troubling/ WASHINGTON - Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice criticized Venezuelan populist leader Hugo Chavez on Tuesday for autocratic moves to stifle opposition in the major U.S. oil supplier. Rice reinforced a barrage of U.S. criticism of Chavez over the last few days as the Bush administration worries the firebrand nationalist has rejected its overtures to improve ties after the nations clashed over democracy last year. "We are very concerned about a democratically elected leader who governs in an illiberal way, and some of the steps he's taken against the media, against the opposition, I think are really very deeply troubling," Rice said at her Senate confirmation hearing. "We have a long and good history with Venezuela. I think it's extremely unfortunate that the Chavez government has not been constructive," she said. Chavez accuses Washington of supporting opponents seeking to oust him from office and says Washington has no credibility complaining of rights abuses in Venezuela because its soldiers tortured Iraqi prisoners after an "illegal" invasion. -------- POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE -------- courts / tribunals Lawsuit Filed in U.S. District Court in Reno Against George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JANUARY 18, 2005 Common Dreams CONTACT: Founders Freedom Defense Fund Doug Wallace 775-833-5010 http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0118-04.htm WASHINGTON -- January 18 -- A lawsuit was filed late Friday January 14th in the U.S. District Court in Reno, Nevada against President Bush and Vice President Cheney. The lawsuit alleges that both defendants have acted outside the scope of their job description in waging a war against Iraq. The complaint alleges that both defendants and others working within the White House and Defense Department have covertly implemented a white paper called “Rebuilding America’s Defenses” as presented by the Project for the New American Century or PNAC in September, 2000 two months before the murky elections of that year. Among the persons signing the paper were Richard Cheney and Jeb Bush. While the paper was published on the internet, implementation of it by the White House has been in secret. The thrust of the white paper calls for the complete domination of the globe by the US with wars against Iraq, Syria, and Iran, domination of outer space and of Cyberspace. It calls for an enlarged military to fight simultaneous wars. Security bases world wide with extensive constabulary forces posted to keep all nations subservient to US military and economic power. It also calls for nuclear rockets to be fired from Spy satellites to suppress any challenge to US global domination. The class action lawsuit filed by retired attorney and great-grandfather, Doug Wallace alleges that the defendants have violated their oaths of office in entering into a private treaty relating to International relations without approval of the Congress and have made a mockery of the Constitution under a false banner of a war on terrorism. The lawsuit seeks an injunction against further implementation of the PNAC plan without a 2/3 vote of the congress and a full disclosure to the American Public. It also names John Does 1-100 as defendants. The suit seeks restitution to the US Treasury from all Defendants of the cost of the war with Iraq and also seeks a ruling that since the deception about the war and execution of it was outside of their job descriptions they should all be individually liable to private persons injured as a result of their illegal conduct. To view Complaint go to www.dougwallace.com Under the circumstances, notice of support to the court would be appropriate (A printable copy is available at page 26 on website ). ---- High Court Sidesteps Guantanamo Bay Case Tuesday January 18, 2005 4:01 PM By GINA HOLLAND Associated Press Writer http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4740389,00.html WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court on Tuesday dodged a dispute over the government's plans to conduct military trials for Osama bin Laden's former driver and other foreign terror suspects, avoiding another clash over the president's powers. Justices were asked to decide if the Bush administration is trying to shortcut the rights of non-Americans facing trials at the Guantanamo Bay Navy base in Cuba. They declined, without comment. The court's intervention would have been unusual because an appeals court also is considering the issue and has scheduled arguments March 8. Lawyers for Salim Ahmed Hamdan - a Yemeni charged with conspiracy to commit war crimes, murder and terrorism - tried to speed things up by bypassing that court and filing the Supreme Court appeal. The Supreme Court dealt with several terrorism cases last year, and in a landmark decision held that the war on terror did not give the White House a ``blank check'' to detain people without legal rights. About 550 detainees from 40 countries are being held as enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay. So far only four detainees, including Hamdan, have been charged. The Bush administration had been accused by civil rights groups of doing too little to ensure the planned trials are fair. At issue in the latest case was the government's strategy in holding special military trials, in which defendants do not have the same rights as those in regular courts. A federal court judge had blocked the first trial and told the government to redo the plans to ensure defendants have more rights. Neal Katyal, one of Hamdan's attorneys, said the case is not just about the hundreds of people in Cuba who could face trials. ``This case will affect the well-being of Americans and other individuals from around the world who have been or may be captured in armed conflicts,'' Katyal wrote in a court filing. Bush administration lawyer Paul Clement, meanwhile, warned that the court could be prematurely making determinations ``affecting the exercise of the president's core commander in chief and foreign affairs authority.'' ``The concern for interference with military exigencies is only heightened here, where the military proceedings involve enforcement of the law of war in the midst of an ongoing armed conflict against an enemy force that is targeting civilians for mass death,'' Clement, the acting solicitor general, wrote in a filing. Human rights groups and hundreds of members of the British and European parliaments encouraged the court to make a special exception to hear the appeal even though the case is still pending in a lower court. Claude Stansbury, the attorney for the parliament members, said that the world is watching to see how the U.S. government and courts handle prosecutions. He said Hamdan's right to a speedy trial is in question after more than three years in prison, including prolonged solitary confinement. The government told the Supreme Court justices that Hamdan was bin Laden's personal driver and bodyguard, that he received terrorist training at an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan and that he delivered weapons to al-Qaida members. Hamdan's trial was approaching when U.S. District Judge James Robertson stepped in last November to block it. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit will hear Hamdan's case now, and justices could have another chance later this year to review the case. The case is Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 04-702. On the Net: Supreme Court: http://www.supremecourtus.gov/ -------- death penalty Schwarzenegger denies clemency for condemned killer 1/18/2005 The Associated Press http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-01-18-calif-execution_x.htm SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday turned back a plea for mercy for a convicted murderer, clearing the way for California's first execution in nearly three years. Donald Beardslee, 61, is scheduled to die by injection Wednesday at one minute past midnight for murdering two women in 1981 to avenge a soured $185 drug deal. "The state and federal courts have affirmed his conviction and death sentence, and nothing in his petition or the record of his case convinces me that he did not understand the gravity of his actions or that these heinous murders were wrong," Schwarzenegger said in his written denial. In his clemency petition, Beardslee's lawyers claimed he suffered from brain maladies when he killed Stacey Benjamin, 19, and Patty Geddling, 23. His two appeals before the Supreme Court included claims that the lethal injection he is due to receive at San Quentin State Prison constitutes cruel-and-unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment, and that jurors were unfairly influenced when they rendered the death verdict. The denied his appeals without comment. Prosecutors have said Beardslee, a machinist who was on parole for murdering a Missouri woman, was not a passive, unwitting dupe when he committed the murders, as his lawyers claimed. They claimed Beardslee helped with the murder plot and sent his roommate to get duct tape to bind the victims before they even arrived at his apartment. "We are not dealing here with a man who is so generally affected by his impairment that he cannot tell the difference between right and wrong," Schwarzenegger said. The governor also brushed aside a claim that Beardslee should be spared because he is the only one of the three people convicted in the murders who received a death sentence. The governor noted that Beardslee was the only one on parole at the time for another murder. Beardslee served seven years in Missouri for murdering Laura Griffin, whom he met at a St. Louis bar and killed the same evening. Schwarzenegger said mercy was not warranted simply because Beardslee behaved well in prison. During a clemency hearing last week, former San Quentin Warden Daniel Vasquez called for clemency because Beardslee had been a model inmate during his 21 years on death row and had contributed to the safety of guards and other prisoners. "I am not moved to mercy by the fact that Beardslee has been a model prisoner," the governor said. "I expect no less." The last execution in California came on Jan. 29, 2002, when Stephen Wayne Anderson was put to death for shooting an 81-year-old woman in 1980. California has had 10 executions since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1977. More than 600 men are on the state's death row. A year ago, 2 months after he took office, Schwarzenegger denied clemency to Kevin Cooper, convicted in the hacking deaths of four people in 1983. Cooper later won a stay of execution from a federal appeals court. -------- homeland security As Jan. 20 Nears, Terror Warnings Drop Faulty Intelligence, Dated Information Led to Cautions By Dan Eggen and Sari Horwitz Washington Post Staff Writers Tuesday, January 18, 2005; Page A01 http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A16499-2005Jan17?language=printer In April, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge announced that al Qaeda terrorists might strike during this week's presidential inauguration festivities in Washington. The warning was part of a drumbeat sounded by U.S. officials throughout 2004 that terrorists were seeking to launch attacks both during and after the election season. Nine months later, the threat level has been lowered, and Ridge, speaking at a news conference last week, said there is no evidence of a plot to disrupt President Bush's inauguration. Previous warnings, Ridge explained, stemmed from threat reports tied to the elections -- not to the inauguration more than two months later. "There is nothing that we've seen, not just today, but over the period of the preceding several weeks, that gives us any reason to even consider, at this point, raising the threat level," Ridge said. "Normally, it's an aggregation of information we receive that we conclude is credible over a period of time. But there's absolutely nothing out there that would suggest we should even think about it." The shift in rhetoric about the dangers posed by terrorists during the inauguration marks the latest retreat from last year's terrorism warnings, which, in retrospect, were based largely on faulty intelligence, dated information or -- as with the inauguration -- an educated guess. The change in posture also illustrates the extent to which sketchy scraps of wiretap information, interrogation reports and other intelligence, known colloquially as "chatter," form the basis for much of the government's analysis of the terrorism threat. It underscores a simmering political debate over whether last year's warnings were influenced by a presidential campaign in which national security figured prominently. A confidential seven-page threat assessment issued last week by the departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Justice said, "There is no credible information indicating that domestic or international terrorist groups are targeting the inauguration." But the assessment added that al Qaeda could make "a strategic decision to show that it has the ability to disrupt the American democratic process," according to a copy obtained by The Washington Post. Ridge and other officials say they have little choice but to err on the side of caution by effectively shutting down a broad swath of Washington Thursday. An estimated 100 square blocks of downtown will be off-limits to the public during inaugural festivities, and about 7,000 troops will be deployed. "It stands to reason if you're involved in law enforcement or security, that if you have one big event, at one spot, one platform where leaders from around the world are gathered at the same moment, it becomes an obvious target," said William H. Pickle, a former Secret Service official who is now Senate sergeant-at-arms. "Is it costly? Can it be overkill? Yes, but just imagine the ramifications and repercussions if something were to happen. . . . Law enforcement and security will always err on the side of safety, err on the side of doing something." The al Qaeda terrorist network, which carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, has rarely, if ever, timed its attacks to Western calendars, experts say. In addition, the invasion of Afghanistan and other military operations have crippled its ability to mount operations within the United States, while war-ravaged Iraq has emerged as both a haven and a magnet for would-be jihadists. But U.S. officials say that stringent security measures at the inauguration are necessary in light of repeated statements from Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders about their desire to attack U.S. political symbols and assassinate government officials. "After the Madrid attacks, there was a lot of buzz among jihadists that striking in the U.S. would be a logical next step," said Rand Corp. terrorism expert Bruce Hoffman, referring to the pre-election bombings of commuter trains in the Spanish capital in March. "You have information that seems to be compelling but not quite specific, so you prudently expand it a bit to include the inauguration. . . . It's easier to protect special events than to maintain one's vigilance on just, say, January 31st, which is an ordinary day in an ordinary week." Rohan Gunaratna, head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research in Singapore, said that jihadist groups remain a strategic threat to the United States in general and to Bush in particular. "Although suicide bombings are al Qaeda's hallmark, al Qaeda trained its members in assassination," Gunaratna said. But some government officials and outside experts contend that the revelations about the debatable evidence used to justify last year's warnings undermine the government's credibility. During the presidential campaign, a handful of Democrats, including former Vermont governor Howard Dean, raised questions about possible political motivations behind the recurring terror alerts and statements. "There is certainly the perception that the warning system has been too subjective and too subject to potential political influence," said Juliette N. Kayyem, head of the national security program at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and a Justice Department official in the Clinton administration. "It makes you wonder why they said it in the first place. . . . We were in the middle of a campaign in which emphasizing the risk of an attack was a major part of the Republican agenda, and everybody knew that." The warnings began shortly after the bombings in Madrid, which came four days before elections there and played a defining role in the defeat of the party of then-Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar. From the outset, homeland security officials described the threat as targeted at the entire "election process," from the political conventions through Election Day, the electoral college voting and the inauguration. Still, many in state and local homeland security agencies focused primarily on Election Day, one state homeland security official said. Even between key players such as Ridge and Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, there were sharp differences in interpreting the magnitude of the threat. That was demonstrated by a May news conference during which Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III took Ridge and others by surprise by warning of the dangers. Louder alarms were sounded on Aug. 1, when Ridge warned of a high risk of attack based on computer files seized during raids in Pakistan that indicated al Qaeda operatives were casing financial institutions in New York, New Jersey and Washington. Yet while authorities swiftly went public and raised terror warning levels for the three jurisdictions, analysts behind the scenes soon lessened the significance of the finds. The casing information had been compiled before the 2001 attacks, and other information came only from the Internet. The investigation led to arrests of suspected militants in Britain, but they are now thought to have been targeting London Heathrow Airport rather than U.S. sites. In addition, a key CIA informer, whose information earlier in the year helped raise the alarms, turned out to be lying, numerous intelligence sources have said. Analysis of the 2004 threat data continues, with the latest findings sent out by the FBI and the Homeland Security Department as recently as last week. Homeland Security has altered the way it interprets and disseminates "chatter," according to several officials. "This is the great challenge that DHS faces and the entire national community faces," said Virginia homeland security adviser George W. Foresman. "You have to make some sort of intuitive judgment about information . . . It would be nice to be able to have three or four weeks to do analysis work and make a decision, but we're not in that environment." Many U.S. security agencies have collectively concluded that the human and political consequences of underreacting are greater than overreacting. "It's always easier to tighten things up on Day One and then loosen them later, than to have the data and then make a decision to tighten three weeks later," Foresman said. "It's easier to second-guess you then." Federal intelligence and law enforcement officials describe "chatter" as information from a multitude of sources, including intercepted phone conversations, e-mail exchanges, new and old informers, radio and walkie-talkie transmissions, and tips that come by letter, e-mail and telephone. Much, and perhaps most, of the information turns out to be inconclusive or wrong. "I wish this was a perfect science where we went into a room, put on our lab coats, figured out an algorithm and then a plan of action," said Assistant FBI Director Michael A. Mason, who heads the Washington field office. "But this is not an exact science. It is not that pat." Michael E. Rolince, who oversees counterterrorism and counterintelligence in Mason's office, said, "I would not use chatter as the sole indicator by which we raise and lower the threat level. I worry when chatter is high, low or in-between." Another federal official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that a key component of chatter is interviews with prisoners in U.S. military custody at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and elsewhere. But that information has gone stale, he said. "The debriefing of prisoners is not giving new information," the official said. "They've been in captivity too long, and the information is old." D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey said he is not sure exactly what changed in the intelligence-gathering process since last spring. "I don't know what specifically changed, but with intel you are constantly trying to verify its credibility as it comes in," Ramsey said. "As time goes on and they have a chance to analyze the information closer, things change." But Ramsey said that police and federal agents are already doing about as much as they can about security, even without a specific threat to the inauguration. U.S. Capitol Police Chief Terrance W. Gainer said that with most of central Washington near the Mall and the Capitol closed to vehicles, it would be extremely difficult for a terrorist with a truck bomb to get near the Capitol or the president. But other security measures, including the large number of undercover and uniformed officers, are necessary because of the fear that a suicide bomber could get close to checkpoints. Staff writers Spencer S. Hsu and John Mintz and researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report. ---- Caterers scramble to work around inaugural security January 18, 2005 By Donna De Marco THE WASHINGTON TIMES http://www.washtimes.com/business/20050117-115547-7124r.htm The presidential inauguration's extensive security measures have become a logistical nightmare for caterers serving parties for the city's elite along the parade route Thursday. Because of heightened security, deliveries must stop at 7 p.m. tomorrow, compared with 6 a.m. the day of the inauguration as in past years. That means caterers must deliver all of their food to the office buildings and store it overnight in rented refrigerators, on massive pounds of dry ice, and in borrowed space at nearby restaurants. "We're scrambling to make everything work," said Jeff Judy, one of the owners of Federal City Caterers. "It's not easy." Still, caterers have to pull off top-notch feasts serving Washington's power brokers, political heavyweights and corporate bigwigs as they dine and schmooze in offices overlooking the parade route — ideal locations for those not attending the actual inaugural festivities outside. The caterers have to be certain that the beef tenderloin is safe and that the mini quiches don't spoil. Some caterers are eliminating breakfast party staples, like gourmet omelettes. "All these major corporations are entertaining congressmen and anyone they can lasso in — they want to bring as much power into their event as possible," said Steve Jerrick, general manager at Sara McGregor's Capitol Catering in Alexandria. "You don't want these people getting sick." Sara McGregor's Capitol Catering has rented six massive refrigerators from Signature Special Event Services in Frederick to accommodate its four fetes ranging from 200 to 1,200 partygoers in buildings along Pennsylvania Avenue. The company two weeks ago reserved the refrigerators, each of which is about three times the size of a residential refrigerator, in anticipation of the extensive security. But other caterers didn't plan that far ahead. Signature Special Event Services started receiving calls last week from frantic caterers. "Everyone needs additional refrigeration," said Cris Leatherwood, general manager. "We've been tapped out for a few days." The company's 30 mega, three-door rental refrigerators on wheels are sold out. Capitol Catering will use 600 pounds to 700 pounds of dry ice, as well. It will be packed in 40, 6-foot-tall stainless-steel carts, transforming them into makeshift refrigerators. Capitol Catering also is parking refrigerated trucks outside the restricted parking areas near McPherson Square, and is wheeling food down the street. Mr. Jerrick says his staff will be at a security checkpoint at 5 a.m. Thursday to cart the food to a nearby office building. The delivery restrictions likely will result in traffic jams at loading docks tomorrow night. In many cases, different companies are catering different parties in the same building. Much of the equipment and party supplies already have been delivered and are being stored at the offices. But the food has to be prepared as late as possible. "Secret Service and Homeland Security are really making it tight on us this year," said Paul Watts, vice president of operations for RSVP Catering. "This goes against our grain to do something so far ahead. There's a freshness factor." The caterers have had to adjust menus, eliminating or paring down the selection of cold foods. RSVP Catering, for instance, is not offering omelette stations and has cut back on dairy products. The Fairfax catering company is handling six parties on Pennsylvania Avenue and has rented seven refrigerators from Rent-A-Center to keep the food from spoiling. To keep the ice for drinks frozen, the company is spreading about 200 pounds of dry ice among six stainless-steel carts, each of which will hold about 200 pounds of regular ice. Mr. Watts said the most hectic part — figuring out how to store all the food — is finished. "Right now, I have to put together a plan to keep my people fresh," he said. "We're going to be putting in some hellacious hours." Occasions Caterers will store food at restaurants and delis in the buildings where the company will be catering events. Officials at the D.C. caterer, which is handling 12 parties to 14 parties that day, secured deals with the restaurants last week after they realized security was not going to be relaxed. Occasions Caterers did not have to rent additional refrigerators and doesn't plan on storing food on dry ice, said co-owner Mark Michael. The company will have a stash of party basics such as cups and plates in storage along the parade route in case items run out, Mr. Michael said. -------- police From Across U.S., 2,000 Police Officers Volunteer for Duty By Del Quentin Wilber Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, January 18, 2005; Page B01 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16378-2005Jan17.html Roughly 2,000 out-of-town police officers begin arriving in Washington today to aid authorities at Thursday's inauguration, the largest group of reinforcements ever brought in for the swearing-in. The officers are coming from 85 law enforcement agencies, large and small, including volunteers from Los Angeles; Seattle; Charleston, W.Va.; and Burleson County, Tex. Most will be stationed Thursday on Pennsylvania Avenue NW, protecting the inaugural parade, or at other high-profile events. Authorities traditionally seek help from outside agencies for the inauguration. But this time, the security demands were heightened because this is the first inauguration since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The outside officers will join about 4,000 personnel from the D.C. police force, U.S. Capitol Police, U.S. Park Police and other area agencies -- forming an unprecedented security net. The plea for assistance went out in a letter to many agencies shortly after the November elections, and generated heavy interest. The District is picking up the tab for the officers but hopes for reimbursement by the federal government. "There is no way to provide for security in this post-9/11 world without bringing in these outside agencies," said D.C. police Capt. Jeffrey Harold, who is helping oversee many of the District's security preparations. "We couldn't get the job done if they weren't here." Most of the outside officers have received training with crowds and protesters from their local departments. That experience is important, because thousands of demonstrators will converge near the Capitol and parade on Thursday. D.C. police will give the outside officers a briefing and training session about local laws and how to handle trouble, officials said. The outside officers will wear the uniforms of their home departments. They will work in groups led by D.C. police supervisors, so the security follows a clear chain of command. The out-of-towners will be deputized by the U.S. Marshals Service, giving them authority to take emergency action and make arrests. D.C. police officials said outside officers will not make arrests, leaving that to local law enforcement, which will be close by. "They are here for security," Harold said of the outside officers. "If an arrest has to be made, we will try to keep them out of it." As they prepared to head to Washington, officials with the outside departments said it was an honor to participate in such a high-profile and historic event. Some said they felt obligated to do their part, especially in the age of terrorism. "No agency can do these things alone," said Jim Turley, police chief in Albany, N.Y. "It makes sense for public safety to pitch in and help out." The Charleston police force was "happy to be invited," said Lt. Lex Williamson. "The guys were very surprised to get an opportunity to go." Other police officials said they viewed the inauguration as a way to learn more about security in a high-threat environment. They said the experience is free training. "This is a great training opportunity," said police Sgt. Brian Schmautz of Portland, Ore. "It would cost us thousands of thousands of dollars to do this normally. How often do you get a chance to go to a place where there are so many people with so many different opinions who are all going to be energized about what they believe?" As in the past, many local agencies also are lending support, including police from Arlington, Fairfax, Montgomery, Prince George's and Howard counties, according to a list provided by the D.C. and Park Police forces. Other departments -- although not affiliated with the official inaugural festivities downtown -- will have their own special patrols. For example, teams of bomb-sniffing dogs from the Maryland Transportation Authority Police will inspect and patrol MARC commuter trains traveling from Maryland to the District on Thursday, authorities said. "When you start talking about anything dealing with the president or federal government, it brings a new twist to things," said Sgt. Kevin Anderson of the transportation force's dog squads. "This is our business. This is the inauguration of the number one leader of democracy for the whole world." -------- prisons / prisoners Terror detainees and America's gulag January 18, 2005 By Cathryn J. Prince Christian Science Monitor http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0118/p09s01-coop.html WESTON, CONN. – The Defense Department's proposal could very well be a lost chapter out of George Orwell's timeless novel "1984": potential lifetime sentences for the hundreds of people now in military and CIA custody at a prison yet to be built outside the US, and thus beyond the reach of its constitutional protections on due process. In keeping with the Orwellian overtones for the suggested prison, the Bush administration has even drummed up a name: Camp 6. The name echoes the novel's notorious Room 101, where prisoners suffered punishment in the form of their worst fears. But, alas, this is not fiction. This is the new reality as envisioned in this second term of President Bush. The Defense Department's plan would apply to the approximately 500 prisoners (let us dispense with the "detainees" euphemism right now), in Guantánamo Bay. This proposal will also extend to those who may be captured during future counterterrorism operations. Who are these prisoners? They are men who have outlived their usefulness as intelligence sources and against whom the government lacks sufficient evidence to charge them in courts. The government will not turn these prisoners over to US courts and will not let them face a military tribunal. All the while, the government demands that American citizens take it on good faith that these prisoners are too dangerous to ever be freed. Of course, many of them might indeed be guilty of terrorist acts, or of aiding in terrorist acts. However, under the rules set forth, these prisoners are guilty first, and will never have an opportunity to prove otherwise. The proposal outlines the transfer of large numbers of Afghan, Saudi, and Yemeni inmates from the Guantánamo Bay detention center into new US-built prisons located in other countries. And it won't be in Canada, that's for sure. The prisons are likely to be in countries where torture can be administered without legal consequence. Although prominent Republican lawmakers such as Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, chairman of the Foreign relations committee, are opposed to this idea, implementation remains a strong possibility. At this moment, the Defense Department plans to ask Congress for $25 million to build a new prison. The government insists these inmates will enjoy more comfort and freedom than they do now and will even have the chance to socialize with fellow inmates. Tea parties and kaffeeklatsches? Don't bet on it. Given the president's record, this course of action shouldn't surprise anyone. Appall, yes, but not surprise. After all, this is the administration that has proposed Alberto Gonzales - who advised the administration on how to circumvent prohibitions against torture - as attorney general. And the appointment is widely presumed to be a step toward sending Mr. Gonzales to the Supreme Court. This is the administration that clings to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld despite the fact that the torture scandal at Abu Ghraib happened on his watch. This is the kind of conduct that was practiced in the Soviet Union's Lubiyanka prison, where people were held interminably without ever facing their accusers. Indeed, it is the kind of treatment often doled out in Saddam Hussein's palace of punishment - Abu Ghraib prison. Look at Britain during the heaviest period of its conflict with the IRA. The 1993 movie "In the Name of the Father" shone the spotlight on the deplorable practice of closing suspected terrorists behind bars with no chance of going before a judge. There is also the 1982 movie "Missing," about an American journalist kidnapped in Chile because he is seen as a threat to the government. Both films were based on true stories about places where prisoners were thrown into the black hole of injustice, never to be heard from again. Yes, the war on terror requires resolve in the face of a stateless enemy. It means vigilance and going after that enemy with every resource Americans can muster. But it doesn't mean turning our backs on the law. The only reason the administration has been able to sidestep due process is that these prisoners aren't US citizens. This proposed policy is unpardonable not only because it robs potentially innocent people of the chance to stand before justice; it potentially robs America of its right to call itself a just nation. The Bush administration has essentially thrown its precious rule of law out the window and let it land on the Constitution with a thud. • Cathryn J. Prince, a freelance writer, is author of 'Shot from the Sky: American POWs in Switzerland.' -------- terrorism FBI says man threatens to blow up van near White House 1/18/2005 The Associated Press http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-01-18-suspicious-van_x.htm WASHINGTON (AP) — A man upset over custody of his child threatened to blow up his van a block from the White House on Tuesday, prompting a standoff with police, the FBI said. Portions of several streets were closed, creating traffic gridlock in downtown Washington. A motorcade carrying President Bush was diverted to a different White House entrance. Bush was returning from a speech elsewhere in the city. Debra Weierman, spokeswoman for the FBI's Washington field office, said the man claimed to have 15 gallons of gasoline. He said he would "blow it up if he doesn't get his child back," she said. Police attempted to negotiate with the man, whose name was not disclosed. His red van has Michigan license plates. The standoff began at about 3:30 p.m. at the corner of 15th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, along the parade route that Bush will travel after his inauguration Thursday. Nearby buildings were evacuated as a precaution and police moved in vehicles to block the van but continued talking to the man into the evening, said Sgt. Joe Gentile of the District of Columbia's Metropolitan Police Department. -------- POLITICS -------- propaganda wars Bush says US does not have a credibility problem after Iraq Tue Jan 18, 2005 Politics - AFP http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/afp/20050118/pl_afp/usbushiranrussia WASHINGTON (AFP) - President George W. Bush said the United States had not lost credibility after issuing poor assessments about Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction and that he is looking forward to meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin next month. In an interview with ABC television, Bush was asked if, after he erroneously claimed Iraq harbored banned weapons, the world would believe Washington's claims if it depicted another country in a similar way. "Obviously, you know, if we were to make a case that the world needs to act in concert with another country, we'd want to be very careful about that which we presented. But, I think people recognized how bad a person Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) was," Bush said. Despite the fruitless US search for WMD stockpiles in Iraq, Bush said Saddam "had the capability of making the weapons, in other words, he was still a dangerous man." He said he still would have made the decision to go to war against Saddam's regime knowing what he knows today. In a separate interview with NBC television on Monday, Bush said he would not rule out military action if the United States cannot persuade Iran to stop short of building a nuclear weapon. "I hope we can solve it diplomatically, but I won't ever take any option off the table," Bush told NBC. The president was quizzed about Iran as The New Yorker magazine reported that US commandos have been operating inside Iran since mid-2004 selecting suspected weapons sites for possible air strikes. The Pentagon (news - web sites) blasted the article as "riddled with errors." Bush also told ABC television that he wants to use a February summit to further size up Russian President Vladimir Putin, and to remind the Russian leader about Western values of democracy. "Obviously, he's made some decisions that, that I need to talk to him about. But my hope is that he still has this notion, this concept, that the Western values of democracy are very important for the future of his country," Bush said. "I'm looking forward to meeting with him in the Slovak Republic to continue looking in his eyes. I believe that Vladimir understands that a Western-leaning Russia is in his best interests," he said. Bush echoed an earlier assessment he made of Putin, also in Slovakia, in 2001: "I looked the man in the eye, I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy." -------- us politics Republican Majority Won't Translate into Automatic Wins PBS NewsHour Jan. 18, 2005 http://www.pbs.org/newshour/inauguration2005/congress.html Despite holding one of the largest Republican majorities in more than 50 years, the 109th Congress poses some major political challenges to President Bush as he tries to move his second-term agenda through both the House and Senate. "[W]hen you win, there is a feeling that the people have spoken and embraced your point of view, and that's what I intend to tell the Congress, that I made it clear what I intend to do as the president ... and the people made it clear what they wanted, now let's work together," the president said after his re-election in November. The U.S. CapitolRepublicans hold a 55-44 advantage in the Senate and outnumber Democrats 232-201 in the House. There is one independent in each chamber and both generally vote with the Democrats. It would seem President Bush is well positioned to move his legislative agenda forward, but analysts warn it may be more difficult than it appears. The Economist warned that if the president pushes issues too divisive or simply too hard, he "could unify the Democrats and strain parts of his Republican alliance." Much of the debate over policy may occur within the Republican ranks. And for a party once known for its discipline, some fractures have begun to appear. Some legislators in the president's own party are beginning to criticize the administration's handling of certain issues like the budget deficit and the war in Iraq. The president has already had a taste of what it means to face opposition from within his own party. Following his reelection, President Bush urged a lame duck session of Congress to adopt the sweeping intelligence reform proposal generated largely by the independent investigation into the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington. Despite the fact that the bill appeared to have the votes to pass both the House and Senate, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., refused to bring the bill to the floor, saying he wanted the bill to have the support of a majority of the House Republicans before he would allow a vote. President Bush expressed surprise when the bill was not brought to a final vote. "I was disappointed that the bill didn't pass. I thought it was going to pass up until the last minute," Mr. Bush told reporters. Democrats denounced the decision, saying it was allowing elements within the Republican caucus to trump the desire of the majority of the whole house. "We say to Speaker Hastert a rule that says 26 percent shall always govern, that you need a majority of the majority, doesn't make much sense in a democracy," Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said at the time. In the end, bill sponsors, with the blessing of the White House, rewrote sections of the bill to address the concerns of one of the two main opponents in the House, Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif. The revised bill, finally allowed a vote on the House floor, passed the House 337-75 and the Senate 89-2. According to former members of Congress, the lengthy and, at times, heated negotiations between Republican members of the House and the White House are a harbinger of debates to come. "Let me predict this is the model for the next two years," former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., told the NewsHour. "The president is going to have to patiently, calmly, steadily negotiate, go to the country, negotiate, go to the country, but he'll get a lot done if he follows this kind of pattern." While the Republicans are developing strategies to find compromise within their ranks, the Democrats have their own plan for the new Congress. In a January interview, new Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., laid out a Democratic agenda. "We have a number of progressive ideas that I think are important," Reid said. "We believe that health insurance is something that people should have. I think we need to make prescription drugs more affordable, protect Social Security and be concerned about education." Reid has also said the United States must win the war in Iraq and get the budget deficit under control. Many of these Democratic priorities ostensibly match the president's. But in detail and in approach the parties remain far apart on many of the major issues. The House of RepresentativesThe parties are divided, for example, on Social Security reform, which will likely be the president's first initiative. Mr. Bush has said the system is in a "crisis" and allowing younger workers to invest some of their Social Security funds in private accounts is one way to help fix it. The president has said retirees and older workers will be able to stay with the current program. Democrats, on the other hand, have said Social Security is not in crisis and have accused the president of trying to scare the public. Reid said private accounts are an attempt to give Social Security money "to fat cats on Wall Street," and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Said private accounts are "risky" and will lead to benefit cuts. Debating a 'Nuclear Option' for Judicial Nominee Votes Another point of high contention is Senate consideration of judicial nominees. During the president's first term, the Democrats blocked 10 of Mr. Bush's judicial appointments by either filibustering or threatening to filibuster the nominations. Republicans have said that the blocking of judges by filibuster is unconstitutional and therefore unacceptable as a political tactic. Democrats counter that the filibuster has long been a hallmark of Senate procedure and is rooted in the tradition of unlimited debate in the chamber. Democrats have also pointed that they have blocked only 10 of around 220 of the president's nominees, accusing the GOP of blowing the issue out of proportion. Still, congressional Republicans and the White House may consider the issue important enough to escalate the fight. The president reportedly plans to re-nominate some of the rejected judges, and GOP legislative leaders have reportedly considered what has been dubbed the "nuclear option": Vice President Dick Cheney, the president of the Senate, would declare the practice of filibustering judges unconstitutional and the GOP caucus in the Senate would vote to uphold his ruling. The GOP leadership could also simply vote to change the body's rules so that unlimited debate would not apply to judicial nominees. "[I]f my Democratic colleagues continue to filibuster judicial nominees, the Senate will face this choice: fail to do its constitutional duty, or reform itself, restore its traditions, and do what the Framers intended. Right now, we cannot be certain judicial filibusters will cease," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., Said on the Senate floor on Jan. 4. Frist went on to say he reserves the right to modify Senate rules and limit debate on judicial nominees. Democrats have warned that if Republicans try to use the "nuclear option" they will retaliate and use every means available to bring all Senate work to a halt. Although the use of a filibuster to block judges is rare and fairly recent, the fight over nominees goes back to the Reagan administration and both sides through the years have used procedural methods to ensure that the other party's nominees would not receive an up or down vote. A House and Senate Divided Congressional historians have remarked that the national legislature hasn't been this divided in nearly a century, a fact that could mean the president will face a gridlocked Congress just when he seeks broad support for his second term agenda. Time magazine reported recently that Illinois GOP Rep. Ray LaHood had to cancel a planned retreat designed to foster bipartisan cooperation. The retreat has been convened at the beginning of each Congress since 1997. This year, not enough legislators were interested. "There are just a lot of hard feelings right now," LaHood told Time. "The well has been poisoned." -- Compiled for the Online NewsHour by Jason Manning -------- ACTIVISTS First signs of protest in world's top secret state 18/01/2005 Telegraph (UK) http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/01/18/wkor18.xml The first known visual evidence of dissent within the world's most secretive state emerged yesterday when video footage taken in a North Korean factory showed a portrait of the dictator, Kim Jong-il, defaced with graffiti demanding freedom and democracy. The 35-minute video clip, said to have been taken in November, was posted on the website of an opposition group based in South Korea. It shows a poster of Kim scrawled over with the words: "Down with Kim Jong-il. Let's all rise to drive out the dictatorial regime.'' Still frames captured from the clip and a partial transcript were made available by the Network for North Korean Democracy and Human Rights, a group of defectors and refugees who have settled in the South. According to another opposition group in South Korea, the footage was taken in the north-eastern border city of Hoeryong and was passed to activists in China. The Citizens' Coalition for Human Rights of Abductees and North Korean Refugees, based in Seoul, said the act of dissent against the paranoid leadership of the totalitarian state and its broadcast abroad suggested the first signs of an attempt to forge a domestic movement against Kim. Such an act would be considered a grave crime in the North and would mean a death sentence without trial for the perpetrator, said Do Hee-youn, who heads the group. "It's no ordinary group of people who took this video," he told Reuters news agency. The video, which also shows street scenes outside the factory, is accompanied by the voice of a narrator. "The gentle and ordinary people of North Korea need a new leader," a male voice says. "There is a great potential for democracy in this country." Kim inherited the leadership of the world's most reclusive communist state in 1994 on the death of his father, Kim Il-sung.