NucNews - March 3, 2005 -------- NUCLEAR Calif. patient triggers nuclear-material detector 3/3/2005 9:05 PM (AP) http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-03-03-nuke-alert_x.htm?csp=34 ESCONDIDO, Calif. — A man who recently had received radiation treatment for a medical condition set off a nuclear alert detector on a fire engine, prompting police to close down a roadway in Escondido while authorities searched for a nuclear weapon. The Rancho Santa Fe Fire Protection District engine crew's radiation monitor sounded Tuesday when the man and his friend walked past the crew on their way to fill a gas can. The Nuke Alert monitor sounded again as the men walked back to their vehicle. Firefighters notified the San Diego County Sheriff's Department after they drove by the men's vehicle and the monitor sounded a third time. Sheriff's deputies pulled over the driver and detained him and his passenger for about one hour while they confirmed that the man was not carrying a nuclear weapon and that he had received radiation treatment, according to Sgt. Robert Healey. The man was described as a Valley Center resident in his late 40s or early 50s. His name and medical condition were not released. The radiation monitor was purchased with Homeland Defense Department grant money and is used 24 hours a day on each fire truck in the Rancho Santa Fe Fire Protection District, according to Capt. Dale Mosby. -------- accidents and safety Kepco admits negligence, not fault, in fatal reactor pipe blast By ERIC JOHNSTON Staff writer Thursday, March 3, 2005 The Japan Times: March 3, 2005 http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20050303a4.htm OSAKA -- Kansai Electric Power Co. admitted it failed to inspect a secondary cooling pipe that ruptured in August, killing five workers at its Mihama Nuclear Power Plant, in a report released by the utility Tuesday. But the report stops short of saying Kepco was responsible for the accident in Fukui Prefecture, simply saying that poor communications between subcontractors and Kepco employees was a contributing cause. The five who were scalded to death and the six who were injured as a result of the Aug. 9 accident at the No. 3 reactor were employees of Nihon Arm Co., a Kepco subsidiary. The report says Nihon Arm and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., which were in charge of inspecting secondary cooling pipes at the reactor, submitted to Kepco a checklist of items to be inspected. But for reasons that remain unclear, 42 items were omitted. These omissions included the pipe that ruptured. It was later revealed the pipe had never been inspected since the reactor started up in 1976. "The list could have been revised" to include the omissions, Kepco President Yosaku Fujii told a news conference Tuesday evening. "The accident was the result of human negligence." Kepco's report was submitted to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, which is compiling its own report on the accident, the day it was released. Since the accident, Fujii has faced calls to resign, but he said Tuesday he would wait until after the agency's report is released later this month before making any decisions. However, Kepco sources said that if the agency judges Kepco harshly, Fujii would probably be forced to resign. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries also apologized for the omission of the 42 items from the inspection list, but stopped short of taking responsibility for the accident, saying it would also wait for the agency's final report. Antinuclear activists said Kepco's report was vague about the utility's role in the accident. "My impression is that the question of who was ultimately responsible for the accident and the negligence that lead to the accident, was not clearly addressed," said Hideyuki Koyama, a spokesman for Osaka-based Mihama no Kai. Nor were Mihama officials satisfied with the report. "It's true there are concerns the report is too vague on Kepco's responsibility," said Hiroaki Hikose of the town office. "There are also concerns about ensuring such an accident does not happen again, which have to be addressed not just by Kepco but also by Mihama, the prefecture, and, ultimately, the central government." -------- iran Iran bars inspectors from some key sites Thursday, March 03, 2005 George Jahn Associated Press http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1109850958149210.xml Vienna, Austria- Iran on Wednesday declared some sites off-limits to U.N. nuclear inspectors, saying it fears that information they gather could be leaked and help those planning a possible strike on its military installations. Meanwhile, the United States, which has not ruled out such an attack on Iran, urged the U.N. Security Council to take action against Tehran. It said the country is "cynically" pursuing nuclear arms while hiding its intentions from the world. Jackie Sanders, chief U.S. delegate to the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N nuclear watchdog, made the comments in response to an update on Iran's nuclear record after more than two years of examination by the agency. Sanders called the IAEA update a "startling list of Iranian attempts to hide and mislead and delay the work" of agency experts, and urged other countries to support a U.S. drive to have Iran referred to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions. Iran's refusal to grant IAEA inspectors renewed access to the Parchin military site after an initial, severely restricted visit last month was one of the issues raised by the agency's review. The United States says Iran may be testing high-explosive components for nuclear weapons, using an inert core of depleted uranium at Parchin as a dry run for a bomb that would use fissile material. The IAEA says it has found no firm evidence that Iran's nuclear program is intended for anything other than peacefully generating electricity. The agency also has not been able to support U.S. assertions that nearly 20 years of covert nuclear programs discovered more than two years ago were aimed at making nuclear weapons. Iran says these programs, too, were intended to generate electricity. Iranian chief delegate Sirous Nasseri noted Wednesday that his country was not obligated to allow any access to sites like Parchin, which are not part of the agency's purview. Worries about "confidentiality of information" gathered on such visits "are more intense in view of potential threats of military strikes against facilities visited by [the] agency," he said. While describing fears that the United States was getting ready for an attack as "ridiculous," President Bush has refused to rule it out completely as a long-term possibility, saying last week that "all options are on the table." ---- U.S. sees deceit in Iran’s nuke claims By ANDREA DUDIKOVA, The Associated Press Published: Thursday, Mar. 3, 2005 http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050303/NEWS03/50303008/-1/news VIENNA, Austria – The United States accused Iran on Wednesday of “cynically” pursuing nuclear weapons, saying Tehran’s claims that its aims were peaceful constituted willful deceit and required action by the U.N. Security Council. Jackie Sanders, chief U.S. delegate to the International Atomic Energy Agency board of governors, also urged North Korea to scrap its nuclear weapons program and resume negotiations. She pushed Pyongyang to commit to a “verifiable and irreversible end” to its nuclear program and to return to six-party talks. North Korea “needs to make a strategic choice to step off the dangerous path it has set for itself,” Sanders said as the 35-member IAEA board sought agreement on a statement urging the North to return to negotiations and end nuclear threats. Sanders’ comments were in response to an agency update on Tehran’s nuclear record after more than two years of examination. IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei said the “ball is very much in Iran’s court to come clean” by cooperating with the agency to clear away lingering suspicions of possible nuclear weapons ambitions. Sanders characterized the IAEA report as a “startling list of Iranian attempts to hide and mislead and delay the work” of agency experts probing the country’s nuclear activities. “The IAEA is still not able to provide assurances that Iran is not pursuing clandestine activities at undeclared locations,” Sanders declared. Tehran, she said, was guilty of “cynically” manipulating the Nonproliferation Treaty and related programs “in the pursuit of nuclear weapons.” In urging support for the U.S. drive for referral of Iran to the U.N. Security Council where it could face sanctions – which past board meetings have refused to do – Sanders said, “the board has a statutory obligation to so.” The IAEA review noted that while Iran allowed inspectors an initial Parchin military complex visit in mid-January, the experts’ visits were limited to one site and only five buildings on that site. A new request to revisit another part of the site was refused by Iran on Sunday, the report added. The United States alleges that Iran may be testing high-explosive components for nuclear weapons, using an inert core of depleted uranium at Parchin as a dry run for a bomb that would use fissile material. Iran asserts that its military is not involved in nuclear activities, and the IAEA has found no firm evidence to the contrary. ---- Iran Wants to Break U.N. Seals and Test Nuclear-Related Equipment, Diplomats Say March 3, 2005 Global Security Newswire http://www.nti.org/d_newswire/issues/2005_3_4.html#2CC96481 Iran wants to test nuclear-related equipment that has been placed under U.N. seals, Western diplomats familiar with talks between Tehran and the European powers said yesterday (see GSN, March 3). “Iran wants to expand quality control checks and maintenance of ‘nonessential’ enrichment centrifuge parts to ‘essential’ centrifuge parts that have been sealed by the [International Atomic Energy Agency] under the [uranium enrichment] suspension,” one diplomat told Reuters. A diplomat close to the U.N. nuclear watchdog confirmed the Iranian request. “This is clearly a violation of the spirit of the suspension agreement,” said another diplomat, who added that the Europeans had said the demand was unacceptable (Louis Charbonneau, Reuters, March 3). U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday pressed the agency to investigate reports that Iran is using reinforced underground tunnels to store nuclear equipment, the Associated Press reported. Rice added that Iran has not yet shown interest in a European offer of economic incentives in exchange for Tehran halting the program (Barry Schweid, Associated Press, March 3). Washington is trying to define the actions that Tehran should to take to move from a “suspension” of its nuclear program to a full “cessation,” U.S. and European Union officials told the New York Times. “The important thing is that we agree with the Europeans that we have to turn the current suspension of their nuclear activities into a full cessation,” said a senior State Department official. The discussions between Washington and the EU would probably lead in the coming weeks to an agreement that would form the basis of an Iran policy, the official added. “We are working with our friends to make sure not only the world hears that but that the negotiating strategy achieves the objective of pointing out where the guilt needs to be, as well as achieving the objective of no nuclear weapons,” he added (Steven Weisman, New York Times, March 4). Vice President Dick Cheney, the Defense Department and top congressional Republicans have expressed skepticism about the incentives deal, the Washington Post reported. They worry that the European nations would not support punitive action against Iran if the plan fails, officials said. “The fear is that there’ll be a windup but no pitch,” a congressional source said. “Whatever support we’re getting from Europe may be soft and, while the rhetoric is good, there won’t be any follow-through. They’ll speak all the right words, but at the end of the day the only thing they’d do is hold our coat” (Robin Wright, Washington Post, March 4). Iran would not consider membership in the World Trade Organization an incentive during nuclear negotiations, said Commerce Minister Mohammad Shariatmadari said, Agence France-Presse reported. “Whether the United States and Europe accept it or not, this is not a favor to Iran and they cannot demand something from Iran in return,” he said. He added that the United States and the EU would actually benefit from Iran’s admission to the organization, as that would give them “freer access” to the Iranian market. Iran “is not very willing to join the WTO under the current circumstances,” he said (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, March 4). Iranian nuclear negotiator Hossein Mousavian yesterday accused the International Atomic Energy Agency of leaking Iran’s nuclear secrets, the Financial Times reported. “The basic shortcoming of the IAEA is that it has not been able to keep Iran’s secrets,” Mousavian said. He also warned France, Germany and the United Kingdom that Tehran would abandon talks unless they yielded “tangible progress,” according to the Times (Smyth/Fidler/Dinmore, Financial Times, March 3). ---- Iran pouring foundation for heavy-water nuclear reactor - diplomats VIENNA (AFP) Mar 03, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/2005/050303142132.l3n7o82m.html Iran is pouring the concrete foundation for a heavy-water nuclear reactor which can make weapons-grade plutonium and which the UN atomic agency had asked it not to build, diplomats said Thursday. The work at a 40-megawatt reactor at Arak, southwest of Tehran, began in September, just after the UN atomic agency had asked Iran to refrain from building the reactor as a "confidence-building measure" that it does not seek to make nuclear weapons, a diplomat who asked not to be named told AFP. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) deputy director Pierre Goldschmidt said Tuesday that Iran was pressing ahead with work on the Arak reactor but he gave no details on how far the work had progressed. Goldschmidt said IAEA inspectors had not visited the site since the agency's board of governors adopted the resolution on September 18 calling on Iran "voluntarily to reconsider its decision to start construction of a research reactor moderated by heavy water." Diplomats said the source for their information on Arak was satellite photographs. "The Iranians have clearly begun working on the foundations," a diplomat said. Goldschmidt's comments came as Iran was taken to task for lack of cooperation with the IAEA at a meeting in Vienna this week of the agency's governing board. US delegation chief Jackie Sanders said: "There remain an alarming number of unresolved questions about Iran's nuclear program." Iran has said it wants to use the heavy-water reactor, which takes natural uranium oxide as fuel, to make medical isotopes. But the IAEA is concerned about the proliferation risk as the reactor could produce 8-10 kilograms of plutonium per year, enough to make at least one nuclear bomb. In Tehran on Tuesday, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Hassan Rowhani said Iran was working hard on Arak in order to advance its nuclear program, despite having agreed with the European Union to suspend uranium enrichment activities. "We have a lot of things to do, especially to complete the heavy water reactor in Arak and other things in order to reach the point where we can resume enrichment," Rowhani said on state television. The construction of the reactor could be completed by 2009. Iran has rejected an offer from the European Union to help it get a light-water research reactor in exchange for giving up its heavy-water project. Foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said on February 13: "We welcome such proposals but we will not under any circumstances replace our heavy-water research reactor." EU negotiators Britain, France and Germany are trying to convince Iran to dismantle an enrichment programme which the United States says is part of a covert atomic weapons development, in return for economic and political rewards. Diplomats said EU negotiators have offered to send a mission to help Tehran obtain a light-water research reactor in what would be the first concrete move towards rewarding it for abandoning uranium enrichment. But Tehran's stance on the Arak reactor is likely to complicate the European task amid an escalating war of words between Iran and the United States over the Islamic regime's nuclear activities. The Europeans say they cannot understand why Iran would want a plutonium-producing heavy water reactor when its whole enrichment programme is based on uranium. Enrichment uses centrifuges to refine out what can be uranium reactor fuel but also the explosive core of atom bombs. Atom bombs can be made from either plutonium or uranium. Iran insists its nuclear programme is purely for civilian energy needs. ---- Iran complains to IAEA over leaks in nuclear investigation VIENNA (AFP) Mar 03, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/2005/050303141524.zjyj8z4r.html Iran has sent a letter to the UN atomic agency complaining of leaks to the press in its investigation of Tehran's alleged nuclear weapons program, diplomats said Thursday. They did not give details of the letter but said its subject matter was the same as comments made by Iranian representative Cyrus Nasseri at a meeting in Vienna this week of the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) 35-nation board of governors. One diplomat said the letter was sent shortly after Nasseri spoke to the board on Tuesday. "Confidentiality of information has, despite our repeated requests and all efforts of the (IAEA) Director General, almost never been maintained," Nasseri told the board, according to a text of his comments released to the press. "Concerns on this issue are more intense in view of potential threats of military strikes against safeguarded and other facilities visited by the agency in Iran," Nasseri said, in an apparent reference to the United States. Iran has refused to let IAEA inspectors follow up on a first visit to the Parchin military facility, where Washington charges Tehran is simulating testing of atomic weapons, the IAEA had said Tuesday. Nasseri told reporters that when such sensitive areas are visited "information becomes available to the agency that can also be of high value to others, including those who may not have the best of intentions," an apparent reference to the United States, which charges that Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons and has not ruled out an attack on the Islamic Republic. Nasseri said such information "almost immediately appears in the media." "The notions of a threat of attacks against Iran's safeguarded and other facilities by a major nuclear weapons state are still there," Nasseri said. Given this, "we need to make sure the information provided to the agency remains fully intact and does not disseminate and spread around," Nasseri said. He also said reported eavesdropping by the United States on IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei left Iran wondering "how many outsiders are continuously monitoring discussion taking place within the agency." ---- UN agency blasts Iran on cooperation but eyes are on EU-Iran nuclear talks VIENNA (AFP) Mar 03, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/2005/050303132153.pz31dujs.html Iran was taken to task for lack of cooperation with international nuclear investigations at a UN atomic agency meeting which wrapped up Thursday but room was left for EU-Iran talks that seek guarantees Tehran is not developing atomic weapons. For the first time since the International Atomic Energy Agency began in February 2003 an investigation of Iran's nuclear program, the IAEA's board of governors did not adopt either a formal statement or resolution on the matter at what are regular meetings at the agency's headquarters in Vienna. Diplomats said this was at least in part because the initiative has passed to talks taking place between the European Union and Iran to get Tehran to abandon uranium enrichment in return for trade and security benefits. The United States has until now taken a more confrontational approach, trying to get the IAEA to bring Iran before the UN Security Council for possible sanctions. EU-Iran talks resume in Geneva next week, with Washington possibly ready to sign on to the European initiative by helping the EU offer credible bonuses, such as helping Tehran join the World Trade Organization (WTO) or modernize its civil aviation fleet. At the board meeting, however, the United States and the EU both criticized Iran for late reporting on sensitive issues and failing to give IAEA inspectors the access they needed to crucial places. US ambassador Jackie Sanders told the 35-nation board that Iran had continued to deny IAEA inspectors "the transparency and cooperation they need to perform their duties" and that Tehran was "cynically" manipulating "the nuclear nonproliferation regime in the pursuit of nuclear weapons." Sanders, who is based in Geneva but headed the US delegation here, said on Wednesday that "there remain an alarming number of unresolved questions about Iran's nuclear program." Among them are why the Islamic Republic is building a nuclear reactor that can make weapons-grade plutonium and why Iran was late in reporting on construction of "deep tunnels for storage of nuclear material" at a site that carries out the first stages of uranium enrichment. Diplomats told AFP Thursday that the concrete foundatioin was already being poured for the heavy-water reactor at Arak, southwest of Tehran. Enrichment uses centrifuges to refine out what can be reactor fuel but also the explosive core of atom bombs. Sanders said the IAEA cannot put off "forever" bringing Iran before the Security Council, something the United States has been seeking for almost two years as it says Tehran is in clear violation of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Diplomats said this may come up at the next IAEA board meeting in June if the European initiative falters. Britain, France and Germany, which lead the EU talks and have convinced Iran to agree to a temporary enrichment suspension, joined in the US worry over Iranian failures to report fully, telling the board that "Iran has carried out operations of cleaning and quality control on certain centrifuge components, which has caused us serious concern." The European trio said they understood the suspension "as a voluntary commitment to suspend all, meaning each and every, enrichment related activity, without exception. We urge Iran to keep to this voluntary commitment." Iran says its suspension is temporary since the NPT gives it the right to exploit the nuclear fuel cycle for peaceful purposes and that it has corrected all reporting failures. In Tehran, a senior Iranian nuclear official said Thursday that Washington was easing its stance and coming around to supporting Europe's diplomatic efforts to settle the dispute. "We can clearly detect a turning point in the policy of the Americans," Hossein Mussavian, spokesman for Iran's nuclear negotiating team, told state television. A senior US State Department official said the United States had promised an early answer to new European proposals for persuading Iran to renounce suspect nuclear activities. The United States, which had initially kept a distance from the negotiations between the so-called EU-3 and Iran, signalled Monday it was now studying ways of boosting its support. ---- Bush Edges Toward Europe in Iran Shift Thu Mar 3, 5:31 PM ET Politics - Reuters By Steve Holland http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=615&e=1&u=/nm/20050303/pl_nm/nuclear_iran_bush_dc WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush on Thursday edged toward backing Europe in offering incentives to Iran to forswear nuclear weapons in what would represent a major shift in strategy toward an arch-foe. "We want to help make sure the process goes forward and we're looking at ways to help move the process forward. The guilty party is Iran," Bush told reporters. With U.S.-European talks close to agreement, Bush discussed Iran in the Oval Office with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who met on Tuesday in London with foreign ministers of the three nations handling European negotiations with Iran -- Britain, France and Germany. U.S. officials said under the new strategy, the United States would not block Iran as it seeks to start the process of joining the World Trade Organization, and would not stand in the way of European allies if they want to sell Tehran parts for civilian aircraft. In exchange for not standing in the way of the incentives, the United States would insist that Iran abandon uranium enrichment, a demand Tehran so far has refused to accept. Bush also was considering slightly easing U.S. sanctions law to permit American non-governmental groups to operate in Iran, congressional and diplomatic sources told Reuters. This would be in line with Bush's desire to draw a distinction between Iran's government and its predominantly young population, which America wants to cultivate. Some U.S. officials believe offering incentives will strengthen the international community's hand by providing a united front for punitive measures, such as U.N. sanctions, if the incentives do not work. NUCLEAR BOMB Rice told reporters at the State Department the negotiations would expose whether Iran is prepared to end the West's suspicions that it is pursuing a nuclear bomb. "We believe that the EU negotiations are leading in the right direction because what they are doing is they are confronting Iran with a choice about whether it is prepared to give the international community the kind of confidence it needs about Iranian activities," the top U.S. diplomat said. Bush said Washington was working with its European allies to ensure that "the negotiating strategy achieves the objective of pointing out where guilt needs to be as well as achieving the objective of no nuclear weapon." White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush had not made a final decision. He declined to discuss any details. An announcement of the president's strategy was unlikely on Thursday but could come this week, U.S. officials said. Supporting Europe on the incentives would mark a significant shift in strategy for Bush, who has been reluctant to consider them before to avoid being seen as rewarding Iran for bad behavior. During his first term Bush branded Iran part of an "axis of evil," along with North Korea and Saddam Hussein's Iraq. And Tehran has been an antagonist of Washington since the 1979 Iranian revolution and the seizure that year of more than 60 hostages in the U.S. Embassy in a crisis that lasted 444 days. Bush has talked of taking Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions on the nuclear issue, and officials believe that still may be necessary depending on how Iran responds. The United States accuses Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons under cover of its civil nuclear program. Iran denies this, saying its nuclear program is peaceful and aims to produce power for its growing population. It can take years of negotiations for a country to enter the WTO. Iran could be granted observer status, a stepping stone to full accession. (Additional reporting by Saul Hudson, Tabassum Zakaria and Carol Giacomo) ---- Iran nukes may invite attack by other regional power’ Tehran threatens to target US troops in Iraq, Afghanistan; pressure mounts on N-plan Thursday March 03, 2005 News International, Pakistan http://jang.com.pk/thenews/mar2005-daily/03-03-2005/main/main5.htm WASHINGTON: A top US military commander warned on Wednesday that Iran may invite attack by another regional power if it succeeds in developing nuclear weapons. General John Abizaid, head of the US Central Command, told members of Congress he was surprised the Iranian military had not given more thought to the strategic consequences of acquiring nuclear weapons. "I would think it would not be a good idea to develop a weapon because it puts you behind the rest of the powers, it assumes all the powers in the region -- not the United States, but the powers in the region -- can accept the fact that you'll be nuclear armed," he said. "You have to ask the question whether or not achieving a nuclear weapon doesn't invite attack by one of the regional powers," he said, adding "And so the question for a military person should be is a nuclear armed Iran more stable or less stable in the regional context. And it's my view that it is less stable." Abizaid mentioned no regional power by name, but Vice-President Dick Cheney warned earlier this year that Israel might strike to shut down Iran's nuclear program. Iran's money would be better spent on conventional means of offsetting superior US forces in the region, he said. "I think they have to understand our long-term presence in the region, once stability is achieved in Iraq and Afghanistan, is bound to go down," he said. A report said on Wednesday that the head of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards has warned that 190,000 US troops stationed close to the Islamic republic could be targeted if Iran were attacked. "More than 190,000 members of American forces are scattered in Afghanistan and Iraq. If the US carries out its threats against Iran, they must know that all these forces will be within our reach," Yahya Rahim Safavi told the ultra-hardline Ya Lessarat newspaper. "The US and the Zionist regime (Israel) do not have the power to confront us and we will hand them bone-breaking blows," Safavi said, adding that "Iraq is getting more unsafe everyday for America" anyway. Meanwhile, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Hassan Rowhani said the United States does not have the military capacity to attack Iran and is not likely to commit such an error because the price would be too high,. "These threats have always existed," he said in an interview on state satellite television. "I do not think the United States has the capacity to attack Iran," he said, adding: "They will not commit such a strategic error because they know the price will be very high." The official said such an attack would also create a lot of problems for both Washington and its ally Israel. On negotiations with France, Britain and Germany trying to persuade Iran to abandon a uranium enrichment programme, the Iranian negotiator said his country was "prepared for all eventualities, either the failure or the success of the negotiations." Rowhani, who is also secretary of the country's Supreme National Security Council, said Iran wanted the nuclear issue wrapped up in time for the June session of the UN nuclear watchdog. He said Iran could continue its current suspension of uranium enrichment until June even in the absence of any progress in the negotiations with the European Union countries. "We want our case to be put on the agenda at the June meeting," he said, adding "If the agency acts properly, the matter will be closed for good." He said Iran did not fear its case being put before the UN Security Council, as the US wishes, although it would prefer that this did not happen. Also, a senior Iranian envoy told a 35-nation meeting on Wednesday that his country feared leaked information the inspectors gather could help those planning a possible military strike. And, the United States accused Iran on Wednesday of "cynically" pursuing nuclear weapons, saying Tehran's claims that its aims were peaceful constituted wilful deceit of the world and required action by the UN Security Council. Iran's refusal to grant IAEA inspectors renewed access to the Parchin military site after an initial severely restricted visit last month was one of the issues raised by the International Atomic Energy Agency's review. Iranian chief delegate Sirous Nasseri noted that his country was not obligated to allow any access to sites like Parchin, which are not part of the agency's purview. Worries about "confidentiality of information" gathered on such visits "are more intense in view of potential threats of military strikes against ... facilities visited by (the) agency," he said. Jackie Sanders, chief US delegate to the IAEA board of governors, called an IAEA report a "startling list of Iranian attempts to hide and mislead and delay the work" of agency experts. "The IAEA is still not able to provide assurances that Iran is not pursuing clandestine activities at undeclared locations," Sanders declared. Tehran, she said, was guilty of "cynically" manipulating the Non-proliferation Treaty and related programmes "in the pursuit of nuclear weapons." She urged support for the US drive to have Iran referred to the UN Security Council.Iran must come clean on nuclear questions, UN atomic agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei said on Wednesday. ElBaradei said Tehran must carry out "transparency" measures that allow widespread visits by IAEA inspectors beyond what is required under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). "The ball is very much in Iran's court to come clean through absolute transparency measures and cooperation with the agency," he said. Germany, France and Britain also joined the United States and the IAEA in calling on Iran to show more transparency regarding its nuclear activities. The three European Union countries, which have been negotiating with Iran to stop its uranium enrichment programme in exchange for trade and security benefits, issued a joint statement to the IAEA board in Vienna. ---- Entire Bushehr.project under IAEA control, says Russian FM London, March 3, IRNA http://www.irna.ir/?SAB=OK&LANG=EN&PART=_NEWS&TYPE=HE&id=20050303162607 Iran`s nuclear reactor in Bushehr poses no risks to peace in the Middle East and Moscow has received no protests from the west about its assistance on the project, says Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov. "IAEA is the monitoring mechanism for everything we do in Iran in the area of nuclear power plant. The entire project is under IAEA control," Lavrov said. Russia had "discussed it with our friends, with my colleagues in the US, France, the UK and Germany. They fully understand what we are doing in Iran. They don`t have any complaints about it," he said in an interview Wednesday with the BBC`s Newsnight programme. Last weekend, Moscow completed the signing of an agreement with Tehran to supply fuel to new nuclear reactor in Bushehr, which is expected to be the first to come on stream in Iran. "It has nothing to do with the Middle East peace process," the foreign minister said when asked whether Russian`s nuclear cooperation with promoted the interests of peace. He said it had to do with two things, namely "our relations with Iran" and in the country`s "legitimate interest in having energy supplies." "It also has to do with (the) non-proliferation regime," Lavrov said. "The non-proliferation regime was not violated," he said. Under Article IV of the 1987 Non-Proliferation Treaty, all signatory countries have the inalienable right "to develop research, production, and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, without discrimination." It also reaffirms that all parties "undertake to facilitate and have the right to participate in the fullest possible exchange of equipment, materials and scientific and technological information for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy." The aim is to preclude any inhibition of a country`s right to peaceful nuclear technologies as long as the technology is not used to produce nuclear weapons. Under the agreement with Russia, Iran is to return spent nuclear fuel rods from the reactor as a safeguard to banish fears that Iran might misuse the rods to build nuclear weapons. In a separate concern, Iran is currently involved in negotiations with Britain, France and Germany to reach a long-term agreement on its nuclear programme and is mainly centered on the country`s right under the NPT to enrich its own uranium. -------- japan EU presses Japan to compromise on nuclear project Thu Mar 3, 1:52 PM ET Asia - AFP http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050303/wl_asia_afp/scienceenergyiter_050303185209 BRUSSELS (AFP) - The European Union (news - web sites) is pressing Japan to consider a "high political level" compromise to resolve a standoff over who will host a revolutionary nuclear reactor project, a key EU official said. But Japan has not yet responded to the suggestion to end the row over the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), which has been billed as a test bed for a safe and inexhaustible energy source for the future. "The EU has spared no effort and has made an offer to Japan that in all respects is comparable to the Japanese proposal," said EU research commissioner Janez Potocnik, "I have proposed to our Japanese partners to sit together and find an acceptable compromise at a high political level. For the sake of fusion development. This suggestion has not yet been taken up." Japan and France are vying to host the multi-billion dollar project, one of the most exciting ventures in international science. But talks among the six parties involved are deadlocked: the United States and South Korea (news - web sites) support Japan's offer to build ITER in Rokkasho-mura, a northern Japanese village near the Pacific Ocean, while the EU, China and Russia back France's bid for it to be based in Cadarache, southern France. ITER, which would emulate the sun's nuclear fusion, is not expected to generate inexhaustible supplies of electricity before 2050. The budget for ITER is projected to be 10 billion euros (13 billion dollars) over the next 30 years, including 4.7 billion euros to build the reactor alone. -------- korea North Korea ends missile-test moratorium, raising nuclear stakes SEOUL (AFP) Mar 03, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/2005/050303133800.4q8ekjhs.html North Korea Thursday ended a self-imposed moratorium on testing long-range missiles and said "hostile" US policy was forcing it to develop its nuclear arsenal, prompting immediate condemnation from Japan. The moratorium was announced in September 1999 -- one year after it sparked global concern by test-launching a missile over Japan. North Korea said it was agreed when dialogue was under way with the former US administration of Bill Clinton. It said current US President George W. Bush had cut off talks when he took office in 2001, making the moratorium invalid. "Accordingly, we are not bound to the moratorium on the missile launch at present," said a 5,000-word foreign ministry statement explaining why North Korea is boycotting new six-nation talks on its nuclear weapons programs. "As everybody knows, the US hostile policy toward (North Korea) compels it to bolster its self-defensive nuclear arsenal," said the statement carried by the official KCNA news agency. The announcement came a day after North Korea, a self-proclaimed atomic power, demanded the US apologise for calling it part of an "axis of evil" and one of the "outposts of tyranny" before it would return to the talks. Japan, which neighbours North Korea across the East Sea (Sea of Japan), quickly condemned the latest statement. "North Korea is trying to raise the stakes by stirring tension ahead of the six-way nuclear talks," an official in the foreign ministry's Northeast Asia division told AFP on condition of anonymity. "It is unproductive," he said. "Japan, South Korea and the United States continue to work toward a resumption of six-way talks without any conditions." The latest North Korean bombshell -- which on February 10 announced it was pulling out of the talks indefinitely and had manufactured nuclear weapons -- came as diplomacy continued to bring it back to the table. China's top nuclear envoy, Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, and US Ambassador to Seoul Christopher Hill, who heads Washington's negotiating team to the talks, met at the US embassy in Seoul. US officials refused to give details on the meeting but Hill later told a seminar that the United States would only address North Korean demands at the negotiating table. "We will be prepared and we have been prepared to deal with any questions and deal with the DPRK (North Korea), but at the table," he said at a seminar. The UN's atomic agency Thursday also urged Pyongyang back to nuclear talks. In a statement adopted by consensus, the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) 35-nation board of governors "expressed its serious concern" at North Korea's decision to abandon the six-way talks. The statement "urged particularly the DPRK to agree to the resumption of the six-party talks... without preconditions." The State Department brushed off the demand for an apology for Bush's 2002 description of North Korea as part of an "axis of evil" and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's comment in January that it was one of the world's "outposts of tyranny". US officials say North Korea's missile program poses a serious threat to the United States and its allies. North Korea's missile launch in 1998 prompted Japan to begin researching missile defense. South Korea's intelligence agency says North Korea is developing rocket engines for its Taepodong-2 missile with a range of 6,700 kilometersmiles), which would be capable of hitting the US state of Hawaii. However it says North Korea lacks the technology to launch a nuclear-tipped missile. CIA Director Porter Goss told the US Congress last month that nuclear-armed North Korea could resume missile tests anytime and that it has active biological and chemical weapons programs. The nuclear standoff erupted in October 2002 when the United States accused North Korea of operating a program based on highly enriched uranium. Pyongyang denied that charge but restarted a plutonium-based program frozen under a 1994 arms control agreement. The two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia, have met three times since 2003, with the last round held in June. North Korea boycotted a fourth round scheduled for last September, citing "hostile" US policy. ---- UN atomic agency calls on North Korea to return to nuclear six-party talks VIENNA (AFP) Mar 03, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/2005/050303165732.cci1uzwt.html The UN atomic agency called Thursday on North Korea to return to six-party talks on its nuclear program, even as Pyongyang ended a self-imposed moratorium on testing long-range missiles and said "hostile" US policy was forcing it to make nuclear weapons. In a statement adopted by consensus, the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) 35-nation board of governors "expressed its serious concern" over North Korea's announcement February 10 "that it would suspend its participation in the six-party talks for an indefinite period, and that it had manufactured nuclear weapons." North Korea upped the ante on Thursday. It said the moratorium on testing long-range missiles it had agreed to in September 1999 when Bill Clinton was US president was rendered invalid by George W. Bush cutting off bilateral talks on missiles when he took office in 2001. The announcement came a day after North Korea, a self-proclaimed atomic power, demanded the United States apologise for calling it part of an "axis of evil" and one of the "outposts of tyranny" before it would return to the talks. The United States on Thursday criticized North Korea's decision to end its missile-testing moratorium, saying the move threatened regional stability and deepened Pyongyang's isolation. "This is not helpful. It does not serve North Korea's interests and the interest of peace and stability in the region," said a State Department official, who asked not to be named. The IAEA said in its statement Thursday that it "strongly encouraged all the parties concerned to redouble their efforts to facilitate an early resumption of the six-party talks with a view to achieving a peaceful resolution of the DPRK (North Korea) nuclear issue," according to a copy of the text given to the press. The statement "urged particularly the DPRK to agree to the resumption of the six-party talks... without preconditions." It also "urged the DPRK to completely dismantle any nuclear weapons program under credible international verification." The board "emphasized the importance of continued dialogue to achieve a peaceful and comprehensive resolution of the DPRK nuclear issue and attached great importance to the crucial role played by the six party talks in this regard." The statement was written by the five nations on the IAEA board which are involved in the six-party talks -- China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States, diplomats said. IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei had Monday said North Korea's declaration that it has nuclear weapons "is a matter of the utmost concern and has serious security implications and highlights yet again the importance and the urgency of finding a diplomatic solution through dialogue." North Korea kicked IAEA inspectors out in December 2002 and withdrew from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) the following month. US officials say North Korea's missile program poses a serious threat to the United States and its allies. North Korea's missile launch in 1998 over Japan prompted Japan to begin researching missile defense. South Korea's intelligence agency says North Korea is developing rocket engines for its Taepodong-2 missile with a range of 6,700 kilometersmiles), which would be capable of hitting the US state of Hawaii. However it says North Korea lacks the technology to launch a nuclear-tipped missile. The nuclear standoff erupted in October 2002 when the United States accused North Korea of operating a program based on highly enriched uranium. Pyongyang denied that charge but restarted a plutonium-based program frozen under a 1994 arms control agreement. The two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia, have met three times since 2003, with the last round held in June. North Korea boycotted a fourth round scheduled for last September, citing "hostile" US policy. -------- russia Uranium prices on the rise, but will its deficit threaten Russia nuke market? According to experts, the world market value of uranium may grow by 20 percent, according to predictions made in January by the International Nuclear, Inc consulting firm and confirmed by representatives of the Russian nuclear industry. Bellona Vladislav Nikiforov, 2005-03-03 14:49 http://www.bellona.no/en/international/russia/nuke_industry/37251.html As predicted by the American consulting firm International Nuclear, Inc. (iNi), mining companies are having difficulties meeting the increased demand for fuel by nuclear power plants, which produce approximately one sixth of the electricity used in the world today. In the last two years, the contracted price at which energy companies purchase uranium has more than doubled—from $24.20 per kilogram to $55 per kilogram. The prices for long-term contracts in January of this year have already reached prices as high as $63 to 65 per kilogram. Consultants at iNi have predicted that uranium prices will hover between $50 and $75per kilogram until the year 2025. “The prognosis for the contract price of uranium being set above $66 per kilogram isn’t without basis,” said iNi head Dustin Gerrow, according to the Bloomberg news agency. Gerrow is certain that current fears about a potential deficit of uranium on world markets is a result of the projected plans for the construction of new reactors by China, India, and Russia. According to Gerrow’s evaluation, the deficit of uranium on world markets will become apparent beginning in 2006 and grow through 2010, as reported by the Russian Daily Kommersant. However it is necessary to point out that Gerrow ignored the fact that by 2010 a portion of the reactors operating in Europe and Russia will have been decommissioned. Currently, at total of 439 nuclear reactors are operating worldwide in 31 countries. In the United States, nuclear energy provides for 20 percent of all electricity produced. France depends on 78 percent for its electricity and Russia, 16 percent. Western Russia, however, gets 40 percent of its electricity from nuclear power plants. Another reason for elevated uranium demand, according to the iNi report, is the increase in the capacity of currently operating reactors after modernization—as has occurred in Spain, Finland, and Switzerland—and the increase in efficiency of the fuel cycle of reactors, both of which lead to increased uranium use. The rift between uranium demand and supply The rift between uranium mining and the needs of nuclear power plants has been stable for the last decade at around 40-45 percent. According to iNi data, between 1985 and 2003 commercial reserves of uranium in the world diminished by 50 percent. Only 55 percent of the uranium consumed in 2003 had been mined that year. However, uranium reserves—the primary reason that the deficit has gone unnoticed until now—are being depleted with every passing year. At the same time, 87 percent of the world uranium supply is controlled by seven countries. More than half of the world’s uranium deposits are located in Canada and Australia, whereas Russia stands in fifth place after Kazakhstan and Niger. In order to keep its niche in the market, Russia needs to develop new uranium deposits. According to experts, Russia currently supplies as much as 40 percent of the uranium on global markets. Excluding the Russian-American agreement on high and low enriched uranium—the so called “Megatons to Megawatts programme under which Russia supplies down-blended weapons-grade uranium to the US commercial nuclear power market—Russia supplies about 30 percent of the world’s uranium. “Rosatom is currently analysing very seriously our uranium reserves and the potential locations of new deposits, and we are seeking with particular attention to ensure a decisive increase in output at currently known deposits and to conduct new geological surveys. The agency’s budget has set aside tens of millions of rubles for that purpose,” said Alexander Rumyantsev, the head of Russia’s Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom), to Kommersant. “Russia may have to face the very real possibility of a deficit within 20 to 30 years if no new geological surveys are made now. In order to avert such problems, we are taking determined steps today.” Stanislav Golovinsky, vice-president of Russia nuclear fuel production giant “TVEL,” argues that the uranium deficit does not threaten Russia. “Today our supply is secured primarily by the Priargunsky production facility and two other firms. Plus, we use reserves that we have stored,” said Golovinsky in an interview with Kommersant. “At the same time, we are increasing our reserves by discovering new deposits – having invested 51.5 million rubles in geological investigation in 2004, we mined 3.2 thousand tonnes of uranium and discovered new deposits amounting to 3.5 thousand tonnes. In our plans for 2005, we intend to investigate at least as intensively as in 2004. We are working in accordance with the rules, which demand that stored reserves increase at least much as what is mined.” According to Golovinsky, “the concentration of uranium in Canadian underground mines is 100 times higher than the concentration at the Priargunsky facility. Accordingly, in order to get the same quantity of uranium, we have to mine 100 times more.” Only in the case of a substantial increase of uranium prices can uranium production in Russia become economically viable. The sale of current uranium reserves, however, is a very profitable business, insofar as that uranium is left over from the Soviet Union, meaning that its production doesn’t cost the current nuclear industry a penny. But these reserves are limited. Russia increases exports without considering the possibility of a uranium deficit Apparently disregarding the possibility of a uranium deficit, Russia is increasing its export of uranium. On the whole, Russian uranium exports in 2004 increased by 5 percent over exports in 2003. Last year TekhSnabEksport—or Tenex, Russia’s nuclear fuel exporting giant—began shipping to Mexico and Brazil in partnership with the German company Nukem. Furthermore, Russia is continuing shipments to Japan—last year Tenex signed several more contracts with Japanese energy companies. Tenex General Director Vladimir Smirnov, said: “Our strategic goal for the next five years is to acquire 30 percent of the Japanese market share, which fully corresponds to the strategy of Japanese energy companies—they are currently seeking to diversify their supply base,” Smirnov said in an interview with Kommersant. “We also began supplying to South Africa, where, truthfully, there is only one nuclear power plant. But South Africa fits in that category of markets where Russia’s presence is particularly important. The only such market that we have not penetrated is that of Taiwan, and that is for political reasons.” Theoretically the problem of uranium shortage for production of fresh nuclear fuel could have been decided through the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel or through using MOX fuel, in which weapons grade plutonium oxide is mixed with uranium oxide. However, those solutions are expensive and present a danger to the environment as well as to Russian and western nonproliferation goals. Therefore, for the time being, Russia is counting on mining its existing uranium deposits, and on the less likely prospect of finding new ones. -------- MILITARY -------- arms U.S. insists on arms ban for China Powered by Ultralingua Thursday, March 3, 2005 By Thom Shanker and David E. Sanger The New York Times http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/03/02/news/china.html WASHINGTON Senior members of U.S. Congress, from both the Democratic and Republican political parties, emerged from a meeting with President George W. Bush warning Europe that if it lifts its ban on weapons sales to China, the United States may retaliate with severe restrictions on technology sales to European companies. The warning came Tuesday after Bush, on his trip to Europe last week, twice cautioned the Europeans not to lift the restrictions, in place for 15 years. His insistence was based, at least in part, on a new U.S. intelligence assessment that Beijing is rapidly becoming better equipped to carry out a sophisticated invasion of Taiwan and to counter any effort by the United States to react to such an attack, administration officials said. After the White House meeting on Tuesday, Senator Richard Lugar, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said that if the ban is lifted - as Europeans leaders have said they plan to do in coming months - Congress could react with "a prohibition on a great number of technical skills and materials, or products, being available to Europeans." The Democratic Party senator, Joseph Biden Jr., called a lifting of the ban "a nonstarter with Congress." The statement reinforced warnings that Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have made in meetings with Europeans over the past several weeks: that the weapons sales would amount to a transfer of even more sophisticated military technology to China. But European officials said that the concerns were overstated, and that they were considering a compromise proposal that would keep advanced technologies from being exported. Pentagon officials said the biggest concern was the technology itself, including radar and battlefield communication systems that could take China's rapid military buildup to a new level. The U.S. officials have begun discussing how such technology would give China an increased ability to intimidate Taiwan, which China considers a renegade province, with the threat of invasion if it moves too aggressively toward independence. The discussion comes as Congress takes up Bush's new spending proposals, which devote the majority of supplemental funding to land forces and the war in Iraq, while missions related to perceived threats from China fall mainly to the navy and air force. Some experts are concerned about China's rapid growth as a military power in the Pacific, at a time when U.S. attention is focused on the Middle East. The new intelligence reports indicate that, since Bush came to office, China has raced ahead with one of the most ambitious military buildups in the world: including 13 new attack submarines and 23 new amphibious assault ships that could ferry tanks, armored vehicles and troops across the 160 kilometers, or 100 miles, to Taiwan. "Their amphibious assault shipbuilding alone equals the entire U.S. Navy shipbuilding since 2002," a intelligence official said. The official said that Chinese military purchases abroad and domestic production of ships and warplanes "definitely represents a significant increase in overall capacity." At the same time, any advances in radar and communications ability would improve how rapidly and effectively those ships and planes could support an invasion or counter U.S. moves in the region. European political leaders argued that the sanctions had been placed to punish China because of its killing of pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square 16 years ago. Now that a new generation of leaders has taken over in Beijing, they said, the specific cause of the sanctions has been removed. In contrast, Japan has sided with the United States in seeing a growing Chinese threat to Taiwan, publicly inserting these concerns for the first time into a joint security statement. The latest intelligence reports give the fullest sense to date of what China has actually fielded in the past several years, and how, as the CIA director, Porter Goss, told Congress, the weaponry could "tilt the balance of power in the Taiwan Strait." One intelligence official noted that, in trying to build up its military, China has tried to fill gaps that had been identified in a range of Pentagon reports and public U.S. intelligence estimates. China's growing submarine fleet, for instance, which includes new nuclear- and conventional-powered vessels, helps China patch a major vulnerability: an inability until now to control the Taiwan Strait. This larger submarine fleet, even if less effective than its U.S. counterpart, would vastly complicate any effort by Washington to intervene. In a written statement on "Current and Projected National Security Threats to the United States," submitted to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in February, Vice Admiral Lowell Jacoby, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, discussed an even broader nature of the Pentagon's concern. "In addition to key Taiwanese military and civilian facilities," Jacoby said, "Chinese missiles will be capable of targeting U.S. and allied military installations in the region to either deter outside intervention in a Taiwan crisis or attack those installations if deterrent efforts fail." Jacoby, in unclassified testimony, predicted that by 2015, the number of Chinese nuclear warheads "capable of targeting the continental United States will increase several-fold." For now, though, China's capabilities are not considered a threat to the U.S. mainland. China still lacks an oceangoing navy that could rival America's presence in the Pacific, while America has no lack of nuclear missiles that can strike China from land or from submarines. Experts also said it was clear that China would be able to proceed with its modernization plans with or without European weapons. ---- Saddam's arms dealer awaits fate while selling wine in Chilean countryside By Tyler Bridges Knight Ridder Newspapers Thu, Mar. 03, 2005 http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/11043861.htm SANTA CRUZ, Chile - Carlos Cardoen smiled, swished the sour cherry liqueur in his goblet and downed it in one swallow. He used to be known as one of the world's most notorious merchants of death, a "black widow spider" who made cluster bombs for Saddam Hussein during the Iraq-Iran war in the 1980s. He even hung Saddam's portrait in a place of honor in a Santiago factory. Now, however, Cardoen is making wine and fine liqueur in Chile's Colchagua Valley, hoping it will become a popular destination someday for wine lovers worldwide. Still wanted in the United States on weapons charges, Cardoen said he'd given up arms dealing in favor of promoting tourism and the grape. "We're trying to produce enough attractions so we can have the equivalent of the Napa Valley," Cardoen said as he showed off plans for his winery, which is already harvesting grapes even before he completes it. "This is where I have my heart. This is where I have my soul." The charges still pending against him in Miami are unfair, he said, and prevent him from seeking treatment in the United States for recently diagnosed colon cancer. "I have suffered 15 years of being harassed by the United States without a trial," Cardoen said, his sunny perspective briefly turning dark. "It is 99 percent political. It was my bad luck he became the guy he became." The "he" is Saddam, who proved to be Cardoen's most receptive customer while Iraq fought Iran. Cardoen manufactured cluster bombs, which contained hundreds of tiny bomblets in one big bomb that shredded everything over a wide area. This weapon was effective for Saddam because it reduced the need for his relatively unskilled air force to precisely target Iran's troops. Unlike most arms dealers, Cardoen didn't hide from the news media. He said that if General Motors and Fiat could make weapons, so could he, and he openly thanked Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., for sponsoring measures in the mid-1970s that prohibited the United States from selling arms to Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. The prohibition prompted Chilean authorities to ask Cardoen, who owned a mining company after getting a Ph.D. in metallurgical engineering from the University of Utah, to try his hand. Two weeks later, he'd produced his first bomb. After the Iraq-Iran war began in 1980, Cardoen won a contract to sell cluster bombs and other weapons to Iraq. He said he could produce technologically simple weapons at a lower price to win business that might have gone to the traditional big arms makers in the United States and Europe. "He was very frank and well-informed on the subjects we talked about," Cardoen said of his one meeting with Saddam in the early 1980s. In all, Cardoen sold 29,000 cluster bombs to Iraq, generating anywhere from $200 million to $400 million in sales, according to news accounts at the time. The business came to a shuddering stop in 1990 when Iraq invaded Kuwait, a Western ally, and Chile honored the embargo against Iraq. By then, Cardoen was building a plant in Iraq to produce fuses for bombs, rockets and artillery shells. "Saddam owes me $50 million," Cardoen said. "He was totally misinformed about the surrounding world. He made such stupid decisions, such as invading Kuwait." In 1993, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami indicted Cardoen on charges that he imported zirconium from the United States for use in manufacturing cluster bombs when he'd said he'd use the metal for mining. Then and now, Cardoen said U.S. officials unofficially approved of his sales since they didn't want Iran under the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to win the war. Documents surfaced at the time showing that U.S. agencies knew that Cardoen was manufacturing cluster bombs for Iraq when he purchased the zirconium. The case has never advanced. Cardoen has refused to go to the United States to be tried, and U.S. authorities can't extradite him from Chile. He's turned his attention to transforming the Colchagua Valley, which is 2-{ hours southwest of Santiago, the capital. He built the area's finest hotel, which he recently doubled in size to 85 rooms, and an adjoining museum that houses everything from his collection of pre-Columbian jewelry to his 14 antique vehicles and the 50-million-year-old jaw of a giant shark. He's established a small tasting room for 20 types of liqueurs made from an old tradition that he said had been lost, and he played a leading role in creating a steam engine-powered "wine train" - modeled on one in Napa - that provides lunch, an on-board wine tasting and a visit to a winery every Saturday for $80 per person. Mention his name to most Chileans, and they note the recent news that he was diagnosed with colon cancer. Cardoen insisted that this development wouldn't slow him down, and despite chemotherapy he remains a handsome man at 62, with a healthy tan and graying temples, and he moves about normally. The weapons charges dog him, however. Last year, he was forced to sell the Tarapaca winery in Chile after U.S. distributors learned of his past activities and stopped buying his wine. The new winery, Vina Santa Cruz, will export to Europe, he said. In recent years, Chile's wines have become favorites around the world. Cardoen rejected a suggestion that he's assisting the area where he grew up to make amends for the deaths caused by his bombs. The moral responsibility for his weapons, he said, "belongs to those who use them." In the meantime, his attorney in Miami, George Mahfood, is asking the U.S. Attorney's Office to dismiss the indictment on humanitarian grounds so Cardoen can seek cancer treatment in the United States. Even if that fails, Cardoen is convinced that he'll remain healthy enough to achieve his dreams. "There is so much to be done," he added, standing on a terrace of his hotel. "This will change the course of destiny of the whole area. That's why I have my heart here." -------- iraq Grim milestones mark passages in Iraqi conflict 3/3/2005 By Tom Raum, Associated Press http://www.boston.com/dailynews/062/wash/Grim_milestones_mark_passages_:.shtml WASHINGTON (AP) The conflict in Iraq can be told in numbers and milestones, from the more than 1,500 troops who now have died to the number of weapons of mass destruction found zero. Two American soldiers died in Baghdad of injuries from a roadside bomb and another was killed in Babil province south of Baghdad, the military said on Thursday. That brought to 1,502 the number of U.S. troops who have died since President Bush launched the invasion in March 2003, according to an AP count. There are other milestones, other important numbers, some reached, some soon to be, as the conflict in Iraq nears its third year. Roughly 60,000 National Guard and Reserve troops are deployed in Iraq. As of Wednesday, 300 had died there since the war began. May 1 will be the second anniversary of Bush's ''mission accomplished'' aircraft carrier speech in which he announced an end to major combat operations. The price tag is over $300 billion and climbing, including $81.9 more just requested from Congress. The money also covers operations in Afghanistan and the broader war on terror, but the bulk is for Iraq. When Lawrence Lindsey, then chairman of Bush's National Economic Council, predicted in September 2002 that the cost of war with Iraq could range from $100 billion to $200 billion, the White House openly contradicted him and said the figure was far too high. He was eased out in a shake-up of Bush's economic team. ''Americans need to take note of these sorts of milestones because it's a way to show respect for the sacrifices of troops and reassess strategy,'' said Michael O'Hanlon, a foreign policy analyst with the Brookings Institution. ''But I'm much more interested in trends,'' he added, citing indications pointing to the relative strength of the insurgency and whether violence is declining or increasing. On that, the signs are mixed. The top U.S. general in the region said that about 3,500 insurgents took part in election day violence in Iraq on Jan. 30, citing estimates from field commanders. Army Gen. John P. Abizaid suggested the failure to prevent millions of Iraqis from voting showed the insurgency was losing potency. ''They threw their whole force at us, we think, and yet they were unable to disrupt the elections because people wanted to vote,'' Abizaid told the Senate Armed Services Committee this week. But his comments came just a day after one of the biggest attacks by insurgents since the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in April 2003. A suicide car bombing in the town of Hillah killed at least 125 people, including dozens of recruits for Iraq's security forces. From Jan. 1 until Iraq's election day, 234 people were killed and 429 people were injured in at least 55 incidents, according to an AP count. Casualties rose in February, with 38 incidents resulting in at least 311 deaths and 433 injuries. Among Americans, the number of deaths in February fell to 58 from 107 in January, which was one of the worst months of the war. February's total was about in line with the total for most months. Meanwhile, the United States is losing some partners in its ''coalition of the willing.'' Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko announced this week that Ukraine would withdraw its 1,650-strong military contingent by October. Poland is withdrawing about a third of its 2,400 troops. Last year, Spain's new Socialist government withdrew its 1,300 troops. At the same time, Bush drew commitments during his visit to Europe last week from all 26 NATO countries for contributions to NATO's training of Iraqi security forces either inside or outside Iraq or in cash. Even harsh war critic France will send one officer to help mission coordination at NATO headquarters in Belgium and has separately offered to train 1,500 Iraqi military police in Qatar. More than half of Americans remain convinced of the importance of keeping U.S. troops in Iraq until the situation has stabilized, though polls suggest widespread doubts about the handling of the war and Iraq's prospects. An AP-Ipsos poll in February found that 42 percent approved of the president's handling of Iraq, while 57 percent disapproved. A slight majority in recent AP-Ipsos polling expressed doubts that a stable Iraq can be established. Another milestone will come the day Iraq's security forces are sufficiently trained and equipped to deal with the insurgency and to permit the United States to begin leaving. There have been conflicting reports on this, too. The administration says there are 140,000 ''trained and equipped'' Iraqi military, security and police officers. But Anthony Cordesman, a military expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, puts the number of Iraqi troops able to stand up to serious insurgent attack at fewer than 20,000. ''Everything we do in Iraq will fail unless we develop a convincing plan to create Iraqi forces'' able to defend their country without U.S. help, Cordesman said. Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, senior Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said some administration documents suggest that there are no more than about 40,000 trained Iraq forces and that they are lightly equipped. ''We've been given wildly different numbers of these security forces,'' Levin complained to Abizaid. ''Senator, the big question doesn't really have to do with numbers; the question has to do with institution building,'' Abizaid responded. ''I remind you ... that institution building takes a long time.'' ''I agree,'' Levin said. ''But we shouldn't kid ourselves as to how long it does take.'' EDITOR'S NOTE Tom Raum has covered national and international affairs for The Associated Press since 1973. -------- spies Justices Rule Spies Cannot Sue U.S. Over Deals 9 to 0 Decision Affirms Agencies' Leeway in Hiring Foreign Agents By Charles Lane Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, March 3, 2005; Page A03 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2258-2005Mar2.html Spies cannot sue the U.S. government for allegedly reneging on their espionage contracts, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday, in a decision that confirmed the latitude that intelligence agencies have traditionally claimed to recruit foreign agents beyond the normal margins of the law. By a vote of 9 to 0, the court dismissed a lawsuit by two former Soviet bloc diplomats who said the CIA induced them to betray their countries during the Cold War in return for a pledge of resettlement in the United States and a lifetime income -- then refused to live up to the deal without so much as a hearing after the U.S.-Soviet conflict ended. Writing for the court, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist said the applicable rule had been laid down in 1876, when the court threw out a suit by a former Union spy seeking his promised pay from the federal government. In that case, the court held that a suit to enforce an espionage contract is inconsistent with the mutual pledge of secrecy that forms a central condition of any such arrangement. The decision was a victory for the Bush administration, which had argued that anti-terrorism efforts could be hampered if case officers attempting to recruit intelligence sources had to worry about being sued every time they tried to cut a deal with a would-be spy or defector. It reversed a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which had ruled in 2003 that the two former diplomats, a married couple who sued as John and Jane Doe, should be allowed to proceed because they sought not merely to get paid but to enforce a constitutional right to a fair hearing. The government's interests could be protected by conducting all or part of the case behind closed doors, the 9th Circuit said. But yesterday, the Supreme Court said that the 9th Circuit was "quite wrong" and that the 1876 ruling, Totten v. United States, was a broad one, intended to forbid all claims against the government stemming from clandestine espionage agreements. "No matter the clothing in which alleged spies dress their claims," Rehnquist wrote, "Totten precludes judicial review in cases such as [the Does',] where success depends upon the existence of their secret espionage relationship with the Government." As for the possibility that leaks could be prevented by conducting a lawsuit in secret, or permitting the government to invoke a state-secrets privilege to prevent the disclosure of national security information, Rehnquist wrote that such measures "simply cannot provide the absolute protection we found necessary in enunciating the Totten rule." "The possibility that a suit may proceed and an espionage relationship may be revealed, if the state secrets privilege is found not to apply, is unacceptable," Rehnquist wrote. The opinion was the first by the ailing chief justice in any case argued since November, when he began sitting out oral arguments because of his battle with thyroid cancer. The case, Tenet v. Doe, No. 03-1395, was argued Jan. 11. ---- Goss Calls CIA Chief's Duties Overwhelming Associated Press Thursday, March 3, 2005; Page A26 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2366-2005Mar2.html SIMI VALLEY, Calif., March 2 -- In a rare public appearance Wednesday, CIA Director Porter J. Goss said he is overwhelmed by the many duties of his job, including devoting five hours a day to preparing for and delivering intelligence briefings to President Bush. "The jobs I'm being asked to do, the five hats that I wear, are too much for this mortal," Goss said. "I'm a little amazed at the workload." Goss praised Bush's choice for the new job of national intelligence director, John D. Negroponte. The career diplomat, who is expected to be confirmed by the Senate, will take over several of the duties assigned to Goss, including the presidential briefing. Goss, who has made few public comments beyond congressional testimony, also said the legislation creating the position of director of national intelligence left him unclear on his future role. "It's got a huge amount of ambiguity in it. I don't know by law what my direct relationship is with John Negroponte," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld or other top officials involved with intelligence, he said. "I hold him in the very highest regard," Goss said of Negroponte, noting that the two attended Yale University at the same time. "The intelligence community is going to be strengthened and unified and more effective than it has ever been." Goss's remarks came during an hour-long address at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, before an audience of more than 200 that included former first lady Nancy Reagan. -------- us GI deaths in Iraq top 1,500 3/3/2005 Associated Press http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2005-03-03-iraq_x.htm BAGHDAD (AP) — The number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq has topped 1,500, an Associated Press count showed Thursday after the military announced the deaths of three Americans, while car bombs targeting Iraqi security forces killed at least four people in separate attacks. Two suicide car bombs exploded outside the Interior Ministry in eastern Baghdad Thursday, killing at least two policemen and wounding five others, police Maj. Jabar Hassan said. Officials at nearby al-Kindi hospital said 15 people were injured in the blasts, part of the relentless wave of violence since the Jan. 30 elections. Another car bomb targeting a police convoy exploded in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of the capital, killing one Iraqi policeman and a civilian, the U.S. military said. Six police and 10 other civilians were also wounded. Amid the violence, interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi extended the state of emergency, first announced nearly four months ago, for another 30 days until the end of March. The order remains in effect throughout the country, except in northern Kurdish-run areas. The emergency decree includes a nighttime curfew and gives the government extra powers to make arrests without warrants and launch police and military operations when it deems necessary. The latest reported American deaths brought the toll to 1,502 since the United States launched the war in Iraq in March 2003, according to the AP count. The military said two U.S. troops died Wednesday in Baghdad of injuries suffered when a roadside bomb struck their vehicle. Another soldier was killed the same day in Babil province, part of an area known as the "Triangle of Death" because of the frequency of insurgent attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces. At least 1,140 Americans have died as a result of hostile action, according to the Defense Department. The figures include four military civilians. Since May 1, 2003, when President Bush declared that major combat operations in Iraq had ended, 1,364 U.S. military members have died, according to the AP count. That includes at least 1,030 deaths resulting from hostile action, the military said. The tally is based on Pentagon records and AP reporting from Iraq. The U.S. exit strategy is dependent on handing over responsibility for security to Iraq's fledgling army and police forces. Forming Iraq's first democratically elected coalition government is turning out to be a laborious process. The car bombers in Baghdad were trailing a police convoy that was trying to enter the Interior Ministry, Hassan said. Iraqi security forces opened fire on the vehicles and disabled them before they could arrive at a main checkpoint, said Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman, an Interior Ministry spokesman. Iraqi forces also killed one Iraqi man during clashes with gunmen in the northern city of Mosul, army Capt. Sabah Yassin said. Two soldiers were injured. Also in the north, insurgents blew up a gas pipeline that links Kirkuk to Dibis, about 20 miles away, said Col. Nozad Mohammad, a state oil security official in Kirkuk. Mohammad said the blast would cut gas production, but he could not say by how much. Talks aimed at forging a new coalition government faltered Wednesday over Kurdish demands for more land and concerns that the dominant Shiite alliance seeks to establish an Islamic state, delaying the planned first meeting of parliament. Shiite and Kurdish leaders, Iraq's new political powers, failed to reach agreement after two days of negotiations in the northern city of Irbil, with the clergy-backed candidate for prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, leaving with only half the deal he needed. The Shiite-led United Iraqi Alliance, which has 140 seats in the 275-member National Assembly, hopes to win backing from the 75 seats held by Kurdish political parties so it can muster the required two-thirds majority to insure control of top posts in the new government. Al-Jaafari indicated after the talks that the alliance was ready to accept a Kurdish demand that one of its leaders, Jalal Talabani, become president. However, he would not commit to other demands, including the expansion of Kurdish autonomous areas south to the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. Kurdish leaders have demanded constitutional guarantees for their northern regions, including self-rule and reversal of the "Arabization" of Kirkuk and other northern areas. Saddam relocated Iraqi Arabs to the region in a bid to secure the oil fields there. Politicians had hoped to convene the new parliament by Sunday. But Ali Faisal, of the Shiite Political Council, said the date was now postponed and that a new date had not been set. "The blocs failed to reach an understanding over the formation of the government," said Faisal, whose council is part of the United Iraqi Alliance. The Kurds, he added, were "the basis of the problem" in the negotiations. "The Kurds are wary about al-Jaafari's nomination to head the government. They are concerned that a strict Islamic government might be formed," Faisal said. "Negotiations and dialogue are ongoing." In another twist, alliance deputy and former Pentagon favorite Ahmad Chalabi was to meet Thursday with Allawi, whose party won 40 seats in the assembly. It was unclear why the meeting between the two rivals was taking place. Both are secular Shiites opposed to making Iraq an Islamic state. Concerns over a possible theocracy are especially pertinent because the main task of the new assembly will be to write a constitution. Elsewhere, Saddam Hussein's lead lawyer said Tuesday's shooting deaths of a judge and his lawyer son, both appointed to the Iraqi Special Tribunal to try the former Iraqi leader and his top henchmen, show the country remains too dangerous for such trials. The shootings marked the first time any legal staff working for the court have been killed. "I can't imagine how the court would begin," Ziad al-Khasawneh told the AP in Tokyo. "The streets are burning, the judges are killed. ... The advocates and the judge, they need a quiet area to read, to study, to discuss. It is impossible to make these things this year, or after this year." ---- Key Iraq wound: Brain trauma By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY 3/3/2005 http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-03-03-brain-trauma-lede_x.htm A growing number of U.S. troops whose body armor helped them survive bomb and rocket attacks are suffering brain damage as a result of the blasts. It's a type of injury some military doctors say has become the signature wound of the Iraq war. Known as traumatic brain injury, or TBI, the wound is of the sort that many soldiers in previous wars never lived long enough to suffer. The explosions often cause brain damage similar to "shaken-baby syndrome," says Warren Lux, a neurologist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. "You've got great body armor on, and you don't die," says Louis French, a neuropsychologist at Walter Reed. "But there's a whole other set of possible consequences. It's sort of like when they started putting airbags in cars and started seeing all these orthopedic injuries." (Related item: TBI gallery) The injury is often hard to recognize — for doctors, for families and for the troops themselves. Months after being hurt, many soldiers may look fully recovered, but their brain functions remain labored. "They struggle much more than you think just from talking to them, so there is that sort of hidden quality to it," Lux says. To identify cases of TBI, doctors at Walter Reed screened every arriving servicemember wounded in an explosion, along with those hurt in Iraq or Afghanistan in a vehicle accident or fall, or by a gunshot wound to the face, neck or head. They found TBI in about 60% of the cases. The largest group was 21-year-olds. (Related story: Survivors struggle to regain control) From January 2003 to this January, 437 cases of TBI were diagnosed among wounded soldiers at the Army hospital, Lux says. Slightly more than half had permanent brain damage. Similar TBI screening began in August at National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., near Washington. It showed 83% — or 97 wounded Marines and sailors — with temporary or permanent brain damage. Forty-seven cases of moderate to severe TBI were identified earlier in the year. The wound may come to characterize this war, much the way illnesses from Agent Orange typified the Vietnam War, doctors say. "The numbers make it a serious problem," Lux says. An explosion can cause the brain to move violently inside the skull. The shock wave from the blast can also damage brain tissue, Lux says. "The good news is that those people would have been dead" in earlier wars, says Deborah Warden, national director of the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center. "But now they're alive. And we need to help them." Symptoms of TBI vary. They include headaches, sensitivity to light or noise, behavioral changes, impaired memory and a loss in problem-solving abilities. In severe cases, victims must relearn how to walk and talk. "It's like being born again, literally," says Sgt. Edward "Ted" Wade, 27, a soldier with the 82nd Airborne Division who lost his right arm and suffered TBI in an explosion last year near Fallujah. Today, he sometimes struggles to formulate a thought, and his eyes blink repeatedly as he concentrates. -------- war crimes U.S. Threatens Bolivia in Effort to Secure Criminal Court Immunity Luis Bredow and Jim Shultz, Pacific News Service Mar 03, 2005 http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=40d8f93957008266edbc544c21df75be U.S. efforts to pressure countries to grant U.S. troops immunity from international court prosecutions appear to be backfiring in some Latin American nations. COCHABAMBA, Bolivia--The U.S. government is demanding that the Bolivian Congress approve an agreement that would grant immunity to U.S. troops and officials accused of human rights violations, exempting them from prosecution by the International Criminal Court. That effort, which includes a threat to withhold financial aid and access to free trade, seems to be backfiring. Bolivia is one of 139 nations that have signed the Treaty of Rome, which set up the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 1998. A respected Bolivian judge, Renee Blattmann, also sits as a member of the court. The treaty's goal, according to its Preamble, "is to establish an independent permanent International Criminal Court with jurisdiction over the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole." It was in the ICC that the former Serbian leader, Slobodan Milosevic, was tried for crimes against humanity. The United States, alongside China, Iraq, Libya and others, is one of just seven nations to vote against the treaty. Many believe that the war in Iraq and cases of U.S. torture have made the United States vulnerable to criminal charges of international human rights violations. The Bush administration has been pressing its opposition to the ICC. In 2002, the U.S. Congress approved the American Servicemembers Protection Act, which prohibits the United States from providing military aid to any nation that does not agree to grant U.S. soldiers and officials immunity from the ICC. Since then, the Bush administration has been pressuring poor countries worldwide to ratify bilateral immunity pacts with the United States, often under the threat of withholding aid. Government officials say that the United States has already secured more than 90 such agreements. At least 50 governments, however, have refused to cede to the U.S. demands. The new president of Uruguay recently announced that his government would refuse the U.S. request, declaring that his country honors its international agreements. The primary threat by the United States to countries like Bolivia has been to withhold military assistance, including discount prices on used military hardware such as tanks. Gary Fuller, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in La Paz, described the government's position as, "If countries aren't willing to protect our soldiers, why should we sell them equipment?" But the United States has just upped the ante, by adding the threat of withholding economic aid, a sanction included in an amendment approved by the U.S. Congress late last year. Human Rights Watch reports that U.S. diplomats have informally threatened economic sanctions for some time. The group says that an assistant secretary of state informed foreign ministers of Caribbean states that they would lose the benefits for hurricane relief if their governments did not sign immunity accords. "U.S. ambassadors have been acting like schoolyard bullies," wrote Richard Dicker, director of the International Justice program at Human Rights Watch, in a letter to then-U.S. Secretary of State Collin Powell. Some within the Bolivian government have pressed hard for the country to cede to the United States' request. The Bolivian minister of government, responding to charges that such a resolution was an affront to the nation's dignity, was quoted as saying, "You can't eat dignity." Last year the Bolivian Senate approved an immunity pact, creating a political uproar. The lower house has steadfastly refused. U.S. power is a major political flashpoint in Bolivia. The U.S. government is at the heart of the controversial war on drugs here, and U.S.-forced eradication of coca farms is an ongoing target of public protest and accusations of human rights abuses. Meanwhile, U.S. threats against Bolivia appear, for now, to be more gums than teeth. The economic sanctions just approved by the Congress specifically exempt counties covered by the anti-poverty Millennium Challenge program, which includes Bolivia. Bolivian government sources reported here earlier this month that the United States has privately threatened to keep Bolivia out of talks to form an Andean free trade pact with the United States if immunity is not approved. However, free trade pacts with the United States are no more popular among the Bolivian left than is U.S. military aid, and it is the Bolivian left that is the main stumbling block for approval. Evo Morales, the leader of the Socialist Party, who came in second by just two percent in the last presidential election and is a front-runner for 2007, has declared the U.S. sanctions "blackmail" and has threatened nationwide protests. President Carlos Mesa has said that the government would only approve an agreement for U.S. immunity if it were supported by the majority of the Bolivian people, something highly unlikely here. "Bolivia would be the only country in the world to agree to such a pact that also has a judge on the court," says Sacha Llorenti, president of Bolivia's National Human Rights Assembly. "We believe in the fundamental principles of international law. Honestly, we're not especially worried about what will be the pressure coming from the U.S." Luis Bredow is a veteran Bolivian journalist living in La Paz. Jim Shultz is the executive director of The Democracy Center (www.democracyctr.org) in Cochabamba. -------- POLITICS -------- us politics Bush wielding secrecy privilege to end suits National security cited against challenges to anti-terror tactics March 3, 2005 By Andrew Zajac Chicago Tribune Washington Bureau http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news2/trib7.html WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is aggressively wielding a rarely used executive power known as the state secrets privilege in an attempt to squash hard-hitting court challenges to its anti-terrorism campaign. How the White House is using this privilege, not a law but a series of legal precedents built on national security, disturbs some civil libertarians and open-government advocates because of its sweeping power. Judges almost never challenge the government's assertion of the privilege, and it can be fatal to a plaintiff's case. The government is invoking the privilege in an attempt to wipe out the heart of a lawsuit that seeks to examine rendition, the secretive and controversial practice of sending terror suspects to foreign countries where they might be tortured. Use of the secrets privilege also could eliminate a suit by a former FBI contract linguist who charges that the bureau bungled translations of terrorism intelligence before and after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The Bush administration is also using the secrets privilege to seek dismissal of a third case not related directly to terrorism. And the administration has invoked the privilege in less sweeping ways on several other occasions. The use of the state secrets privilege, critics say, is part of President Bush's forceful expansion of presidential secrecy, including a more restrictive approach to releasing documents under the Freedom of Information Act; limitations on the dissemination of presidential papers and curtailment of information on individuals rounded up in the war on terrorism. Justice Department spokesman Kevin Madden declined to discuss any active cases. But he said, "The state secrets privilege is [asserted] only after a careful determination that, were a secret disclosed, it would adversely affect national security." The secrets privilege is an especially powerful weapon because federal judges, reluctant to challenge the executive branch on national security, almost never refuse the government's claim to confidentiality. That is true even though a growing body of declassified documents suggests that in the past, at least, the privilege has been used to protect presidential power, not national secrets, according to Thomas Blanton, director of the National Security Archive at the George Washington University, which works to expand public access to government documents. There's even fresh evidence that the case leading to the Supreme Court's Reynolds decision, which enshrined the secrets privilege more than 50 years ago, may have been based more on concealing negligence than preserving national security. In claiming the state secrets privilege, "the government always overreaches," Blanton said. "It always misleads and in some cases it lies, because it believes its authority is at stake." That's not so, said Shannen Coffin, who oversaw state secrets litigation at the Justice Department from January 2002 until mid-2004. "I don't think that's even a remotely plausible claim," said Coffin, now in private practice. "It's an extremely important privilege and one the government takes extremely seriously." The Justice Department does not tally the government's use of the privilege. But according to a recent study, the U.S. has successfully asserted the secrets privilege at least 60 times since the early 1950s, and has been stymied only five times. No court access Unlike criminal prosecutions, where the law allows the disclosure of at least some secret information--for example, by allowing lawyers to view it in a restricted setting such as a judge's chambers--the secrets privilege keeps information completely out of court in civil cases. More striking than the number of cases is the breadth of some recent demands for secrecy, say lawyers familiar with government secrets litigation. For example, it would erase most of Maher Arar's suit over his seizure by U.S. officials in New York in 2002. Arar, a Canadian citizen who was born in Syria, said he was shackled and flown to Jordan and then Syria where he was abused and imprisoned for 10 months. His case is aimed at laying bare the arrangements between governments that underpin renditions, said David Cole, a professor at Georgetown University and one of Arar's lawyers. If the government succeeds "in invoking state secrets, they will make renditions immune from legal challenge in court," Cole said. Even attorneys fighting secrets claims acknowledge that the government needs to keep some information under wraps. But they argue that the demands for secrecy have gotten out of hand. "It's not that the privilege shouldn't exist. It's become too broad and abused with very little accountability imposed by the judiciary," said Mark Zaid, a Washington attorney who is handling two of the cases in which the government is seeking dismissal of most or all of a lawsuit. In one of those cases, Sibel Edmonds, a former FBI linguist, charged that she was fired in retaliation for questioning security lapses at the bureau. Last July, a Washington judge accepted the government argument and dismissed her complaint. Edmonds said she believes the Justice Department was concerned about potential liability in other suits. "If this stuff comes out, it will be used by 9/11 families and various defendants, detainees," she said, referring to lawsuits by the families of Sept. 11 victims and by those held without charges in the subsequent security sweeps. Edmonds testified Wednesday before Congress, telling a House subcommittee that the government seems "to be far more concerned with avoiding accountability than protecting our national security." In March 2004, another judge cited state secrets grounds in throwing out a racial discrimination suit brought by Jeffrey Sterling, a black ex-CIA agent, against his former employer. Sterling , 37, who worked in the agency's Near East and South Asia Division from 1993 until 2001, said the CIA wants to head off potential liability in its treatment of other black employees. "For the U.S. government to say that they can't defend themselves against me is asinine," said Sterling, who works as an insurance fraud investigator in St. Louis. A CIA spokesman declined to comment. Zaid said he has offered to allow the government to keep certain information in both cases secret, but the government lawyers insist on killing the cases. The cases of Edmonds and Sterling--plus a third involving Drug Enforcement Administration agent Richard Horn, whose suit against the CIA in 1994 for allegedly bugging his home also was quashed on state secrets grounds--are all before appeals courts. But the stakes are particularly high in the case of Arar. The computer engineer and father of two is one of an unknown number of foreigners under U.S. control who were sent to other countries in what critics say is an outsourcing of torture. Detention in Syria According to his suit, filed in New York in January 2004, Arar was detained at New York's Kennedy International Airport and interrogated about his links to terrorists, based apparently on his casual association with a terrorist suspect. Arar said he pleaded with his captors to send him back to Canada. Instead he was flown to Jordan and then to Syria, where, he said, he was beaten with an electric cable and otherwise brutalized over the next 10 months. Although the U.S. lists Syria as one of six state sponsors of terrorism, the two countries have cooperated from time to time in the war on terrorism. In October 2003, Arar was released and sent back to Canada. No country has charged him with a crime. "The only conclusion is they sent me there to be tortured and to extract information," he said. Arar's suit in American courts charges the U.S. with violating his civil, constitutional and human rights. In January the government filed papers asserting that disclosure of information to defend itself "would pose an exceptionally grave or serious risk to diplomatic relations and national security" and seeking dismissal of much of the suit. The district court has yet to rule. "What's being done in the name of the American people is not acceptable," Arar said. "I want judges to re-evaluate the post-9/11 strategy." In a federal appeals court in Philadelphia, meanwhile, Patricia Reynolds Herring wants judges to re-evaluate a suit she filed more than five decades ago that became the modern anchor for the state secrets privilege. In that case, the Supreme Court ruled that national security trumped grievances of citizens. It declared that the executive branch could assert a secrets privilege when "there is a reasonable danger that compulsion of the evidence will expose military matters which ... should not be divulged." The ruling meant that the Air Force did not have to produce an accident report on a 1948 crash of a B-29 testing secret electronic equipment. Reynolds' first husband, Robert Reynolds, was one of three civilian engineers killed. The current challenge began in 2003, after Herring and other plaintiffs' relatives obtained a copy of the accident report from a Web site selling declassified documents. They discovered that the engine fire that caused the plane to go down was linked to shoddy maintenance. The new suit alleges the government committed fraud by citing national security in refusing to release the report. The government counters that decisions made 50 years ago shouldn't be second-guessed because it's impossible "to understand how seemingly trivial information contained in these documents may have provided valuable intelligence to the nation's enemies." The new suit seeks a financial settlement and does not contest the government's right to a secrets privilege. But Herring said she hopes it will lead to a healthy skepticism. "I feel very strongly [the Reynolds] ruling was tainted," said Herring, 77, of Carmel, Ind. "My hope would be that people would be more wary and less trusting of anything that's told to them by the government. Everything is not a matter of protecting the national security." SECRETS POWER DATES TO 1800S The state secrets privilege is not explicitly authorized by the Constitution or Congress, but has been recognized by federal courts as an extension of the president's power since the early 19th Century. Used in civil litigation, it allows the government to ask a court to keep certain information secret, on grounds of national security, even if that means dismissing the case. The modern foundation for the privilege is the Supreme Court's 1953 Reynolds decision, which tries to strike a balance between the rights of judges to review evidence and need of the executive branch to keep secrets. "It's a balancing test where the court doesn't want to reveal national secrets; at the same time, it doesn't want the executive to use the privilege as a case killer," said Jill Hasday, who teaches national security law at Vanderbilt University. In general, Hasday said, "the court is very deferential. If the executive says it's a secret, the court basically buys it." -- Andrew Zajac ---- Silent Cal [Coolidge]'s Lesson By Richard Cohen Thursday, March 3, 2005 Washington Post; Page A25 http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A2709-2005Mar2?language=printer Under some unwritten rule, all modern presidents must pay homage to a like-minded predecessor. A picture is hung in the Oval Office. A bust is placed on the presidential desk. Bill Clinton, you will remember, made his pilgrimage up the Hudson to the Hyde Park estate of Franklin D. Roosevelt. George W. Bush, in the estimation of others (if not himself), is another William McKinley, the president who transformed the GOP and made it dominant until the New Deal almost made it obsolete. Nobody, though, mentions Calvin Coolidge. Yet Silent Cal, a president of great and warranted self-effacement, is precisely the predecessor Bush should have turned to when, for reasons not yet clear, he decided that Social Security is in crisis and only personal investment accounts could save it. Think again, Cal would have said. As a talker, Coolidge might not have been much. But as a writer, he made a certain amount of sense. After leaving office, in fact, he wrote a magazine article explaining why he had not sought reelection. "It is difficult for men in high office to avoid the malady of self-delusion," Coolidge wrote. "They are always surrounded by worshipers. They are constantly, and for the most part sincerely, assured of their greatness. They live in an artificial atmosphere of adulation and exaltation which sooner or later impairs their judgment." There you have it: Social Security reform. Probably because he was such a rock-ribbed isolationist, Coolidge did not mention how foreign policy can addle the presidential brain. It is in that area, of course, that a president is nearly supreme. It is an odd paradox of our times, but Bush may well have found it easier to take our nation to war for the wrong reasons than to monkey with Social Security for any reason. Saddam Hussein in his jail cell would go nuts trying to figure it out. And yet it is the case. In fact, it is both cases. The move toward war in Iraq not only seemed to come from nowhere, it did come from nowhere. Early on, there were people in the highest reaches of the government who simply could not take the possibility seriously. Colin Powell is said to have been one. I know of others -- and when I called one of them not long after Sept. 11, he marveled at it all: Where was all this Iraq stuff coming from? For our purposes today, the answer is immaterial. Suffice it to say that if a president wants war, he will get it. All he needs is a soft kiss from a supine Congress and the constant eruption of war whoops from the news media, including usually sagacious commentators such as myself. But should that very same president want to mess with Social Security, he will be valiantly fought by a quivering army on a daily aspirin regimen. Mostly Bush forgot to make a case for his proposed reforms. What's amazing is that the White House insists he did. It will point you to statements Bush made as early as 1978 that Social Security "will be bust in 10 years unless there are some changes" and equally strong statements made since. But while Bush did mention Social Security in the recent presidential campaign, he never did so with any specificity. A lot was discussed in that campaign -- Iraq, budget deficits and, of course, John Kerry's purported flip-flopping -- but not personal investment accounts. Bush did virtually nothing to prepare the nation for what was coming. Here we get to Coolidge. In the throes of second-term ecstasy, Bush clearly thought that if he could take the country to war with little reason, he could change Social Security with even less. He was deceived by Iraq. But that war had been preceded by others, Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf War. Hussein was a well-established monster and enemy. All it took was a little exaggeration to make the case. Social Security is a different matter. It seems to work. It needs to be recalibrated, sure, but it is not in "crisis." Bush should have planted a bust of Coolidge on his desk and thought of him before attempting to take the nation where it does not seem to want to go. Instead, in his mind at least, the president chose a different model: himself. That's what Coolidge would have called "the malady of self-delusion" -- a political disorder presidents inherit from themselves. -------- OTHER -------- environment Looser Environmental Restrictions on Military Sought by Bush March 03, 2005 By John Heilprin, Associated Press http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=7249 WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is asking Congress to amend three environmental laws to reduce their impact on military ranges after failing to win the changes last year. Administration officials circulated among federal agencies their proposed language for changing the laws in a Jan. 6 document obtained by The Associated Press. The language calls for the same changes that stalled in Congress last year. Defense Department officials want the Clean Air Act amended so that any additional air pollution from training exercises wouldn't have to be counted for three years in the state plans for meeting federal air quality standards. The document says that under the current law "it is becoming increasingly difficult to base military aircraft near developed areas." Other changes sought are in the Superfund and the Solid Waste Disposal Act. The Pentagon opposes having to remove unexploded ordnance from its operational ranges. It also wants to delay cleanups until after contamination spreads beyond military boundaries. Pentagon spokesman Glenn Flood said the White House Office of Management and Budget was taking the lead on the three requests. "It's not in our hands," he said Wednesday. OMB officials had no immediate comment. The Pentagon spends about $4 billion yearly on military environmental programs. The Defense Department has worked with the Environmental Protection Agency to make the requests more palatable to lawmakers. House Republicans want more details from the Pentagon before making a commitment to act on the administration's latest request, said GOP aides, speaking on condition of anonymity. Environmentalists continue to oppose the requests. "They would allow the Pentagon to pollute our air and our drinking water and neither the states nor local communities would have any recourse," said Karen Wayland, legislative director of Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group. Since 2002, the Bush administration has sought more flexibility in complying with environmental laws, claiming the restrictions are compromising training and readiness. Congress initially rejected most of the Pentagon request after investigators found little to support those claims. However, it did temporarily waive a law protecting migratory birds and eased restrictions for land conservation and transfer of surplus property in 2002. A year later, Congress amended the Endangered Species Act to require that less land be set aside for species habitat on military bases. The Marine Mammal Protection Act was also changed to lower the threshold on "harassment" of a marine mammal to allow the Navy greater use of sonar technology. -------- ACTIVISTS Nun won't pay, may do more time By Alicia Caldwell Denver Post Staff Writer Thursday, March 03, 2005 - http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%257E53%257E2741617,00.html The protest isn't over for Jackie Marie Hudson. She is one of three Roman Catholic nuns who went to prison for civil disobedience at a Weld County Minuteman missile site. Sentenced to 30 months in prison, she will be released Friday. And although a court has ordered her to pay $3,080 in restitution, she has said she will refuse, according to friends and fellow activists. It's an act of defiance that could send the 70-year-old nun back to federal prison. "She acted on reasons of conscience," said Glen Milner, an activist from Washington state who is close to Hudson. "To ask her to pay this money to the U.S. Air Force, some of which they'll probably use in some way to support the weapons she protested, that's cruel and unusual punishment." The nuns became the focus of international attention in 2002 when they cut two gate chains, walked onto a U.S. missile site northeast of Greeley and drew crosses with their blood on the 110-ton silo lid. They were protesting the country's nuclear buildup. The nuns, who belong to the Dominican order, were convicted on charges of destroying federal property and obstructing national defense. Fellow protesters Carol Gilbert and Ardeth Platte got federal prison terms of 33 and 41 months respectively. Appeals of convictions for all three nuns are pending in the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Denver. Walter Gerash, a Denver civil rights lawyer who has represented Hudson, said that although it's possible U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn will send Hudson back to prison, he hopes it won't come to that. The alternative restitution being proposed by Hudson and her supporters should satisfy the judge, Gerash said. They are donating time and money to causes they consider worthy and keeping track of the donations, which thus far total $112,000. "I think he will (accept the alternative)," Gerash said. "She has no money. She's a nun. She's not obligated to raise money to pay." Dick Weatherbee, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, said his office is charged with collecting the restitution. He said he would have to research the exact wording in the judge's order before determining how and when his office might take action. But he said that at some point, if restitution were not paid, the matter would be taken before a judge. "Obviously, enforcement of orders of the court is something we take very seriously," Weatherbee said. "There should be no reason for these folks not to be held accountable." In letters posted on a website - www.jonahhouse.org - devoted to nonviolence and religious activism, Hudson explained why she and the other nuns would refuse to pay restitution. "We have refused to pay money to this morally bereft government which presently spends over ONE BILLION dollars a day to slaughter or in planning the slaughter of millions of innocent persons," she wrote. "I am complicit enough by claiming citizenship in this nation." Instead, Hudson, who is being held in a federal prison in Victorville, Calif., asked supporters to account for the donations of time and money they have made to various organizations. Sue Ablao, a close friend from Washington state who has kept in constant contact with Hudson, said some of the donations include volunteer work at a homeless shelter and monetary donations to peace organizations. One family foundation, she said, gave $20,000 to an international peace foundation in honor of the nuns. However, Ablao, who said she has known Hudson for decades, said she isn't holding out hope that the donations will satisfy the restitution requirement levied against the three women. The other nuns also are scheduled to be released from prison soon, Gilbert in May and Platte in December, Ablao said. They, too, have talked of not paying restitution, Ablao said. "They refuse to support this death machine," she said. Staff writer Alicia Caldwell can be reached at 303-820-1930 or acaldwell@denverpost.com. ---- II Captive Audience: In Federal Prison, Stewart Caters To a New Crowd; Inmates Say She Gave Guidance On Sentencing, Weaving; Letters Typed at 6 a.m.; A Potluck Going-Away Party Laurie P. Cohen. Wall Street Journal. Mar 3, 2005. pg. A.1 (c) 2005. http://online.wsj.com/public/us ALDERSON, W.Va. -- On a recent morning in the dining hall at the federal prison camp here, Martha Stewart listened, banana in hand, as two inmates told her of the assets they had to forfeit before serving lengthy sentences. A frustrated Ms. Stewart pounded her banana on the table, an inmate recalls. Susan C. Spry, serving a 12-year, seven-month sentence for possession of methamphetamine, says she blurted: "Martha, you're bruising your banana!" She says Ms. Stewart responded: "I just hate these sentencing guidelines." Martha Stewart built a lucrative empire upon her ability to cater to millions of women seeking domestic perfection. For the past five months, she has tapped into an entirely different group of women, becoming an adviser and confidante to her fellow inmates at Alderson prison camp. Ms. Stewart, who will be released to home confinement as soon as tomorrow, has given inmates guidance on sentencing, led yoga sessions and offered pointers to a prison weaving class. Last month, Ms. Stewart kicked off an eight-week seminar, organized by inmates, entitled "Empowerment for Women." Her lecture topic for the overflow crowd: "What's Hot and What's Not" in starting a business. "She's been trying hard to keep up morale" for women who have little to look forward to, Ms. Spry says. In letters written to this reporter from prison, Ms. Stewart, 63 years old, discussed the plights of her fellow inmates, many of whom, she says, are "perfectly nice 'neighbors next door.'" Among those she came to know: a nun convicted of sabotaging a Colorado missile site, North Carolina's ex-agriculture commissioner who admitted accepting bribes, and a psychologist serving time for Medicaid fraud. Ms. Stewart, who was convicted of lying to prosecutors about a stock sale, initially didn't hit it off with everyone. Ms. Spry says she had a spat with Ms. Stewart early on. Both were assigned to create floral arrangements for a memorial service for a corrections officer who died soon after Ms. Stewart's Oct. 6 arrival. "Right away, she got really bossy," recalls Ms. Spry, 54, "saying: 'Go get this and go get that.'" Ms. Spry says she did as told and Ms. Stewart fashioned a "beautiful" topiary, trimmed with pampas grass. But afterward, she decided to avoid Ms. Stewart. Days later, Ms. Stewart asked Ms. Spry what was wrong -- and then apologized, Ms. Spry says, leading to their friendship. There have been lingering tensions. Some inmates resent what they call preferential treatment: Unlike other prisoners, Ms. Stewart never has had to do "hard time" in an Alderson housing unit with little privacy. Instead, she has been housed from the start in the "cottages," which are like a dormitory. A spokesman for Alderson says he can't comment on where inmates are housed or why. Ms. Stewart's tenure at Alderson has coincided with budget constraints in the nation's federal prisons. Alderson, the first U.S. federal prison for women, was co-founded by Eleanor Roosevelt in 1927. The 95-acre facility, which houses nearly 1,000 inmates, has been hit in recent months with cutbacks. Milk, served three times a day until early last month, is now available only at breakfast. Food has been cut "very insensitively," Ms. Stewart said in a recent letter, as have magazines that "can only help education." During her stay, Ms. Stewart, perhaps the nation's most famous federal convict, has become interested in prison and sentencing reform. After a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in January that rendered mandatory sentencing guidelines unconstitutional, she wrote that she worried her fellow inmates would sink into a "severe depression" if courts fail to grant them shorter sentences. Her empathy for the women she soon will leave has brought her into conflict with some of her corporate advisers, according to people involved: They want the public to forget she is a convicted felon and have counseled her to talk only about future plans. Her time soon will be filled with business commitments, including a spinoff of the TV show, "The Apprentice." A number of Alderson's inmates hope she will ignore advice to distance herself from the prison. "She gives credence to the injustices here, for if someone like her can say it, people will figure it must be true," says psychologist Denise Braxtonbrown-Smith, 47, who is serving a seven-year, three-month sentence for Medicaid fraud. In a letter, Ms. Stewart says: "I am not an advocate of no punishment for serious crimes, but I am an advocate of short sentences for first-time offenders." Ms. Stewart says she has learned harsh sentences don't lead to "seeing the light." Her interest comes as more women are going to prison. Since 1995, the annual growth rate of the female inmate population has averaged 5%, compared with a 3.3% increase for men, according to a Justice Department report. At year-end 2003, there were 101,179 women and nearly 1.4 million men in state and federal prisons. Tougher drug laws have fueled much of the increase in the female prison population. Other offenses for which women are often convicted are nonviolent. For example, 21% of all women sentenced to federal prison in 2002 were sent there for fraud, compared with 3.5% of men, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Women are more likely than men to be first-time offenders, and female inmates tend to be older than male counterparts. The majority of sentenced women are mothers. Federal guidelines urge "gender equality" in sentencing. Federal appeals courts have, for instance, ruled that single motherhood by itself isn't extraordinary and can't be considered at sentencing. Alderson is set atop a hill and looks much like a college campus, with brick dormitory-style buildings. There are no metal fences surrounding the camp. Alderson spokesman Sam Adams says escape isn't a risk because "there's really nowhere to go around here." The facility is difficult to reach for the families of inmates, many of whom are indigent. The nearest train line is 22 miles away; the nearest bus depot, 17 miles. A taxi ride from either place costs more than $20. Alderson prison wasn't Ms. Stewart's first choice. "I had hoped to be designated to a facility closer to my family and more accessible to my appellate attorneys," Ms. Stewart said in a statement issued in September. Unlike most inmates, visitation hasn't been a problem for Ms. Stewart's friends and family. Visitors reach her by flying in private aircraft to the Greenbrier Valley Airport, a small airport in Lewisburg, and then driving for 30 minutes. Inmates at Alderson typically spend a year in "The Range," a two- story brick building that accommodates 500 women in units without doors, known as "cubes." There are bunk beds, lockers and large shower rooms. Other well-connected inmates have been sent there. Meg Scott Phipps -- the former North Carolina agriculture commissioner and the daughter and granddaughter of former governors -- spent 11 months in the Range, before moving to a cottage this year. Mrs. Phipps, 49, is serving a 46-month sentence for accepting bribes and won't be released before August 2007. She has two children, ages 13 and 15. She says she misses seeing "their band practices and plays and taking them to school." Ms. Stewart, by contrast, resided in the dorm-style cottages from the start. She shared her room with 33-year-old Kimberly Renee Bennett, convicted of selling cocaine. Their room, with a door, has more privacy. There are bathtubs and shower stalls down the hall. "She gets preferential treatment," says Mona Lisa Gaffney, who says that has made some inmates "resentful." Still, Ms. Stewart went out of her way to try to fit in at Alderson, says Ms. Gaffney, serving a 17- year, five-month sentence after a jury convicted her of conspiring to smuggle heroin into a prison for her incarcerated brother and for bribery and witness tampering. After her arrival, Ms. Stewart obliged many requests from prisoners to have their pictures taken with her, inmates say. She led yoga sessions and gave pointers to the weaving class Ms. Gaffney attends. "Martha realizes everybody isn't monstrous here," says Ms. Gaffney. Starting her days in the prison's library at 6 a.m., Ms. Stewart typed letters on a manual typewriter, which she sent to her assistant in Connecticut. The letters were then re-typed and e-mailed. "In this modern e-mail age, a message from me takes anywhere from 3 to 7 days to be sent," Ms. Stewart wrote. While she discussed her experiences in prison in her letters, Ms. Stewart's lawyers declined to make her available for an interview. Thus, accounts given by fellow inmates couldn't be confirmed with Ms. Stewart. In certain respects, Ms. Stewart has been treated the same as other inmates. She has worn the same prison khakis and sneakers. And she didn't get the job she sought: Ms. Stewart requested work in the kitchen. Instead, she was assigned to clean the administration building several hours a day, earning $5.25 a month, the prison's lowest pay grade. Inmates say Ms. Stewart's presence at Alderson has helped them. They say corrections officers are nicer, for one thing. "They've mellowed out a little since she arrived," says Audrey Dean McGirt, who is serving a 15-year, eight-month sentence for money laundering and conspiracy to distribute marijuana and cocaine. "They're more respectful and almost treat us like we're human now." She fears that may change once Ms. Stewart leaves. The Alderson spokesman declined to comment. For Valentine's Day, Ms. Stewart baked Ms. Spry apples in her cottage's microwave oven. "It was the first Valentine's Day gift I got in years," Ms. Spry says. Ms. Stewart also has promised Ms. Spry that she would "never have to be homeless because I could come work as a gardener on her farm when I get out," Ms. Spry says. At Christmas, Ms. Spry says she got a letter from her estranged sister, Virginia Fernandez, the first communication in a long time. "She wanted to know what it was like being here with Martha," says Ms. Spry, who shared the letter with Ms. Stewart. Ms. Stewart wrote to Ms. Spry's sister, proposing a "sisters reunion" that would include visits on the same day from Ms. Fernandez and Ms. Stewart's own sister. Ms. Fernandez says she declined because she was "busy at work." She also told Ms. Spry she didn't believe Ms. Stewart drafted the letter, saying she thought it was "a joke" Ms. Spry played on her. Reached at her home in Saginaw, Minn., Ms. Fernandez, a dental assistant, says she now believes Ms. Stewart wrote the letter. "I'm sure you get close when you're in a place like that," she says, adding the two women have much in common because Ms. Spry has long tended the prison administration building's garden. Ms. Stewart has contributed to the prison community in other ways. She donated linens, comforters, pillows and towels to the Alderson Hospitality House, a private Victorian home that offers food and lodging to defendants' relatives for small donations or for free if they are indigent. "We're feverishly trying to paint the rooms to match the linens," says Hillary Benish, who runs the home with her husband. Inmates say Ms. Stewart has also made small monetary contributions to their hometown churches for drug-treatment programs. And she has paid for some inmates' magazine subscriptions. Ms. Stewart has lost weight since her arrival, according to her friends. "The food has deteriorated very, very badly since I arrived," Ms. Stewart wrote recently. Now, dry cereal, once available daily, is served only on Saturdays. Instead, prisoners get French toast, waffles and processed meat for breakfast. At lunch and dinner, the salad bar has been eliminated and inmates are given a serving of lettuce. "It's the honeymoon salad – lettuce alone," jokes Mrs. Phipps, the former North Carolina agriculture commissioner who pleaded guilty in November 2003 to taking bribes from carnival operators. Mr. Adams, Alderson's spokesman, says budget crunches have affected all federal prisons. While Alderson has made adjustments to its menu, he says, "we are still operating within dietary guidelines" prescribed by the Bureau of Prisons. Ms. Stewart recounts in her letters being struck by the level of medical care in prison. Recently, she says, a 44-year-old inmate with breast lumps had one breast removed at a local hospital and was returned to Alderson three days later, to rest in her unsterile cottage room. The woman was in "agony" and sent two weeks later to a medical prison in Carswell, Texas, Ms. Stewart says. The Alderson spokesman says the prison "had a case similar to that," but he can't release medical information. Ms. Stewart says she was unable to get a prescription filled. Mrs. Phipps says she waited more than three hours in the prison's medical unit after her eyeglasses broke, only to be told she would have to fill out a form and wait several weeks for new glasses. Dr. Braxtonbrown-Smith says she couldn't get medicine to treat a fungal infection in her feet. Alderson is trying to hire another doctor, in addition to the one already on staff, the spokesman says. He says the prison is trying not to cut health care "because lives are at stake." In one letter, Ms. Stewart wrote: "The judges, the lawyers and the prosecutors do not really know what it's like" to be incarcerated. "They do not know that time passes slowly, there are no good educational opportunities, there is little of value with which to pass the time." She also lamented the hardship placed on families by lengthy prison sentences. "Burdens are placed on parents and grandparents and often children are placed in foster homes," she wrote "The disrupted families suffer dreadfully." In light of the Supreme Court's ruling, a number of Alderson inmates have filed petitions to get their cases reconsidered. "People were running up and down the hall cheering" on Jan. 12, the day the Supreme Court struck down the constitutionality of mandatory sentencing guidelines, says Dr. Braxtonbrown-Smith, whose own petition has been stayed. Ms. Stewart, she says, "has passed along whatever information she found out from her lawyers and has been galvanizing in terms of encouragement and exhortation to action." Among those who applauded was Ms. Gaffney, who has been in prison since 1997 and isn't due to be released before 2012. She says Jan. 12 marked the first day she began to emerge from "years of depression." Two weeks ago, she says wrote a letter to the Alexandria, Va., judge who sentenced her. "It gave me a ray of hope," says Ms. Gaffney, who has lost both custody and track of her twin 15-year-old sons in recent years. But as Ms. Stewart predicted, many whose spirits were raised have become depressed again as they have learned that courts are unlikely to re-open plea bargains, in which defendants are required to waive appeals. "Most women are disappointed now," says Mrs. Phipps, the former agriculture commissioner, who was also a lawyer, judge and prosecutor before being sent to prison. "And most are realistic." On Tuesday night, Mrs. Phipps hosted a potluck dinner party to celebrate Ms. Stewart's impending release. Inmates are allowed to make dishes that can be prepared in a microwave or a refrigerator, using ingredients purchased at the prison commissary. Mrs. Phipps made a pineapple cheesecake."She's fit in very well here," Mrs. Phipps says.