NucNews - March 5, 2005 -------- NUCLEAR -------- depleted uranium Global Killers Mar 05, 2005 By Albert M. Jabara http://www.jihadunspun.com/intheatre_internal.php?article=101859&list=/home.php You are just about to read two poems dedicated to the innocent war victims; those who were murdered in cold blood in Washington and New York, in Palestine, in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Beslan and in every other region around the globe. Needles to say, the world is fraught with fear and anger. Frazzled countries raise white flags to escape being fragmented into human crumbs by United States war machines. George W. Bush and his lieutenants will walk free, unless the American people bring them to justice. It obvious, the majority of Americans were tricked and deceived; they were made to believe America is fighting terrorism; they were not told about America’s long criminal history. Hitler’s ideology was never eradicated. Neocons and Zionists continue to hold dear to their hearts Hitler’s greed and “world control” dreams. Ariel Sharon has so much blood on his hands; there isn’t a sea big enough to wash them clean. The irony here, Israelis can’t decide whether they want peace or war. I understand the grief and pain they endure when they lose loved ones. My question is: Does Ariel Sharon and his formidable army understand their daily killing escapade of unarmed Palestinians? Judaism in its sanctity and spirit guards over Palestinians more than it guards over Sharon and his followers. Judaism denounces the murder and terrorism inflected on Palestinians; it denounces the fragmentation of a beautiful and holy religion by Sharon and his troops. Let us all hope the majority of Jews do not abandon Judaism and follow George W. Bush’s new Church. Toni Blair was raised to be a killer. He stretches his lies so much you can’t find their ends. He justifies the war in Iraq while a sea of blood is gushing. If he is able to sleep at night; then he is one hell of a killer. Killers of this caliber are devoid of human emotion. A promise in a rock to shed tears over children murder has a better chance of coming through than seeing Blair touched by any small amount of remorse or sadness. Britons are unlike Americans; they are globally educated; they know the true and legitimate causes behind resistance fighters in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and Chechnya. Britons are governed by a leadership that does not care for them. Toni Blair has turned Great Britain into a U.S. colony to ensure America’s inevitable fall does not crash alone. This is the kind of loyalty you find amongst mafia warlords. Vladimir Putin and his army have murdered over 100,000 Chechens. He has finally formed a bond with Bush and Sharon. No one needs to guess! Global killing of Arab and Moslem children will increase. Russia has more to lose than gain by becoming an official terror member of George W. Bush and Ariel Sharon’s slaughter house club. Russia is better advised to recuperate from its recent crash so it does not become another U.S. puppet. Vladimir Putin will bring Russia further down from its current fall on its knees to land flat on its belly. I pay a particular respect to the mothers of nearly 1-million Iraqi children, 42,000 Chechen children, 100,000 Afghani children, and more than 100,000 Palestinian children. These helpless youngsters have either died by Israeli, American or Russian’s bullets or never made it beyond age 10 due to biological, chemical or depleted uranium deaths. We are all guilty for not doing enough to stop these incredible murders. Americans, Israelis and Russians do not support cold murders. They support their leaders based on the fabricated causes for unnecessary wars. They support their leaders who keep instilling fear of terrorism in them. Americans, Israelis and Russians need to be told the truth. The truth can be told or written about by honest, honorable and decent humans. Each and every one of us bears some guilt for the murder of innocent children and for the destruction of family lives. If you cannot recognize this message, just think of a deadly disease that hit every corner of the globe and you and I have the cure. Withholding cure for any deadly disease is a crime of highest degree. We have the means to stop global children killers like George W. Bush, Ariel Sharon, Vladimir Putin and Toni Blair. We need to keep illuminating and enlarging the truth until a blind person can see it. We go about our lives as though there is nothing going on in the world. U.S., Israel and their accomplices possess a permanent hunting license to hunt Moslem and Arab children. My God, whatever happened to decency and mercy? The following two poems attempt to illuminate the truth, the foreseen human tragedy predicted to bring more grief and sorrow to most people regardless of faith or race. Just remember, global killers will get to your children and mine sooner or later. Islam Part Nine 9/11 tragedy shocked the world; It shocked me too. My generous sorrow Poured tears I never stopped pouring Since I was seven years old When Palestine was hijacked. Then Lebanon, my place of birth, Was turned into a death factory: Enemies mutilated bodies From sunrise to sunrise. Death tired out; they did not. They have not stopped! Fighter jets made with oil dollars Drop U.S. bombs On Iraqi children. Arab leaders build pillars In school yards Filled with gunpowder. Moslem children die under rubles. Arab leaders receive queues From their masters. Bleat is the only sound they make. They live on a thin line of fear. Energy evaporates under heat. Each day they live drops one number: “Count Down,” the famous phrase Glazed with superficial truth Sets the stage for assassination or war. Each Arab leader Wears a timed bomb made in U.S.A. Such a bomb ticks in rhythm With the targeted heart. Arab leaders, cockroaches, Call’em what you like. They wrote their prescription. Slow or sudden death, The choice is not theirs. Iraq is a pile of ashes. Arab freaks cover their nostrils. Death odor reminds them of treason. The rest of the world complains About escalating oil prices. Murdered Iraqis and Palestinians Don’t factor into living cost. A Moslem’s life is cheaper than a dime, Did Zionists and Neocons think Their slaughter house would be this large? They knew killing Arabs and Muslims Is an economic gain - - They never thought A majority of Arabs and Muslims Is a basket of polluted genes. Americans inflate dreams with dreams. They swallow poisoned metaphors Orated by elected leaders. Poisoned metaphors Work on Americans like LSD in the sixties. To make matters worse, The print media turns these metaphors Into “Head Line News.” Fox and CNN Boys turn on their brain wash tab And shower viewers with staled fictions. Desperate hypocrites Believe guilt heals with guilt. Americans gotten used to lies, Truth is just a blank line. More disturbing than this, America sits on a thin edge, Ready for the big fall. Yes Zionists and rich Arabs Built America with fragile walls And gave it a brain Smaller than an ant’s brain. The last time I checked history, I found encyclopedias of war crimes Authored by America and Israel. Four decades of murder frenzy Left Moslems and Arabs tormented: 7 million Palestinians, displaced or killed; Egypt and Syria Buried 1 million civilians and soldiers; 1 million Lebanese live with death scars; 1.5 million Iraqis killed; 1 million Iranians killed; 1 million Afghanis died from bullets or hunger. Americans can’t see or hear The real world; They are drugged, doped Or just plain dumb. George W. Bush tells them lies; He covers up his lies with lies; They believe him. The U.S. is determined to fight until the last Yankee. If the world can’t become America, American is going to drop nukes And smoke humanity out. George W. Bush has infested America With a thirst for human blood. Zionists stab America And point the finger at Arabs and Muslims. They hide the truth Inside bundles of dollars Supplied by Rich Arabs, The ones who fuel fire And pour it on Islam - - The ones who sold Arabia For the price of a desert mule. Donkeys in long ropes Belong in a U.S. zoo. Islam Part Ten Iraq! I could write you a poem With my aching tears. Aching tears don’t repair scars. I must place my blood on my palm Regardless of my old age. Young Iraqi boys fight like lions, Iraq’s neighbors watch soccer. Iraq’s puppets Fire American weapons; They kill Iraqis In vengeance for dead U.S. soldiers. Iraq! I’ve built cuts and bruises Around my heart to feel your pain Until you’re free. I wish I could be there with you. My back can still take a bomb or two. I’d rather bleed to death And not see you bleed. My last hope is I die for you… Burry me in Baghdad, In Fallujah, In Najaf, In Sammarra, In Ramadi; Burry me Inside every grain of your soil. Iraq, you fell to your feet before. Each time you pursed out from your wounds Before your enemies dug their heels. They all fled like wild creeps. George deceived you: He entered your home From the back door. He paraded your prisoners Like sick dogs; He raped your daughters and mothers; He disintegrated your pride; He dismantled your joints; He severed your heart from your soul; He bombed your mosques and libraries; He robbed your galleries and museums; He stained your earth; He polluted your air; He poisoned your water; He spoiled your food; Every drop of blood George spilled Will clot his brain And sicken his heart. His nights shall become dreams Of Hell Fire. His subhuman followers Shall be reduced to talking pigs. George commits war crimes, Victims return on flights of hurricanes and storms; In seconds they sweep What B52 carpet-bomb in days. Hurricanes, Charlie and Frances invaded Florida. Iraq is holding on its last breath. Najaf, Fallujah, Sammara and Baghdad Cannot dig enough graves Under hails of U.S. bombs. Is God giving us a sign? Could this be just a mild warning For the worse is yet to come? Hurricanes, Charlie and Frances Ruined millions of homes; Nearly 6-million homeless Join their Iraqi peers. George W. Bush claimed God is on his side. Believe George or God, The choice is yours. Islam weeps when humanity bleeds. Hurricanes and U.S. Zionists Are enemies at war: Hurricane warriors defend humanity; Zionist killers kill Arabs and Muslims. America and Israel reduced Palestine To concentration camps. Hitler giggles in his grave, His grandchildren carry his name. Today they murder Afghanis and Iraqis; Tomorrow they will bomb Iran and Syria. Israelis, Palestinians, Afghanis and Iraqis Prepare more cemeteries; United States ships coffins free of charge. Copyright © 2004 By Albert M. Jabara. Published by Jihad Unspun. All rights are reserved. More articles and poems by Canadian author and poet Albert Jabara are available at http://www.jihadunspun.com/columns/Jabara/index.htm -------- europe Hitler won atomic bomb race, but couldn't drop it By Ernest Gill in Hamburg March 5, 2005 Sydney Morning Herald Deutsche Presse-Agentur http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news2/smh55.html Adolf Hitler had the atom bomb first but it was too primitive and ungainly for aerial deployment, says a new book that indicates the race to split the atom was much closer than is believed. Nazi scientists carried out tests of what would now be called a dirty nuclear device in the waning days of World War II, writes Rainer Karlsch, a German historian, in his book Hitler's Bomb, to be be published this month. Concentration camp inmates were used as human guinea pigs and "several hundred" died in the tests, conducted on the Baltic Sea island of Rugen and at an inland test in wooded hill country about 100 kilometres south of Berlin in 1944 and early 1945. Karlsch, 47, author of a number of books on Cold War espionage and the nuclear arms race, supports his findings on what his publishers call hitherto unpublished documents, scientific reports and blueprints. A US historian, Mark Walker, an expert on the Third Reich's atomic weapons program, lent his support to Karlsch's claims on Thursday. "I consider the arguments very convincing," he said. However, Hitler's atomic weapon did not approach the devastating potential of the US bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, said Professor Walker, a history professor at Union College in Schenectady, New York state. He said the weapon secretly developed and tested by Nazi scientists was more comparable to a dirty bomb, nuclear material encased in explosives. Professor Walker praised Karlsch for writing "a whole new chapter" on Hitler's search for the "wonder weapon". Hitler's claims that his scientists were working on the "wonder weapon" have been dismissed as the rantings of a desperate and deranged man. But Karlsch's book lends credence to the possibility that Hitler may have been closer to getting his hands on that weapon than anyone has previously believed. It was known that German scientists had carried out heavy-water experiments in an attempt to split the atom, using research facilities in Norway and elsewhere. But it was widely believed that Nazi scientists had been hampered by a lack of pure-grade uranium, which was almost non-existent outside North America and Africa. It was also surmised that Hitler had favoured conventional weapons over nuclear arms because his limited grasp of strategic warfare prevented him from seeing the ramifications of nuclear capability. It was believed that he had discouraged development of the atom bomb. But Karlsch says he found documented proof of the existence of a nuclear reactor and nuclear weapons testing sites. His publishers, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, said his work was based on four years of painstaking research and interviews with independent historians. Among the most compelling pieces of evidence is a 1941 patent draft for a plutonium bomb, said Markus Desaga, a spokesman for the publisher. "He also based his research on contemporary research reports, construction blueprints, aerial surveillance photos, notebooks of some of the scientists involved as well as espionage reports by US and Soviet agents," Mr Desaga said. "He also based his findings on radiation measurements and soil analysis." -------- iran ‘Iran nukes may invite attack by other regional power’ March 5, 2005 Hi Pakistan http://www.hipakistan.com/en/detail.php?newsId=en76463&F_catID=&f_type=source 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. -------- iraq / inspections Ninety dangerous sites looted in Iraq No weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq Saturday 05 March 2005, Reuters http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/4211DC62-957F-489E-9D8D-5B1FA2DEC979.htm About 90 sites in Iraq that the United Nations had monitored for unconventional arms materials have been razed or looted since the US intervention, according to a new UN inspection report. The UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), created to track Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, based its conclusion in a Friday report on satellite imagery from sites with material that had weapons potential. Repairs and new construction have begun at 10 of the 90 sites, said the report to the UN Security Council from Demetrius Perricos, the chief weapons inspector. UNMOVIC, using photographs and serial numbers, previously reported that the looting of unguarded sites resulted in missile engines turning up among scrap in the Dutch port Rotterdam as well as in Jordan. Destroyed in the bombing But the new report gave more comprehensive figures on how many of the unguarded sites were looted or destroyed in bombing during the US invasion of Iraq two years ago. Before they left Iraq, UN inspectors had examined 411 sites, the report said. After the war, they examined 353 sites and determined that 70 of them were "subjected to varying degrees of bomb damage." "The continuing examination of the imagery has revealed that approximately 90 of the total 353 sites analysed containing material of relevance have been stripped and/or razed," Perricos said in the report. "The continuing examination of the imagery has revealed that approximately 90 of the total 353 sites analysed containing material of relevance have been stripped and/or razed" UN report UN inspectors were in Iraq between 1991 and 1998 searching for and destroying nuclear, biological and chemical arms and materials as well as long-range missiles after the first US-led Gulf war that drove Baghdad's troops from Kuwait. Saddam Hussein's government let the UN inspectors back in late 2002 after a US war threat. But the United States refused to allow them to return after the March 2003 invasion. The Security Council will discuss the report on Tuesday amid continuing questions over the future of the agency. Council members since the end of the war have pressed American and British officials to utilise UNMOVIC's vast research and allow the inspectors to complete monitoring work. US reaction The United States said it did not want to take up the issue until its own searches ended, first led by David Kaye, a former International Atomic Energy Agency official, and then Charles Duelfer, also a former UN inspector. But there are indications Washington now wants to discuss closing down UNMOVIC. Friday's report also said the UN inspectors agreed with Duelfer, whose CIA-organised Iraq Survey group had expressed concern about biological materials that were unaccounted for since 1991. Duelfer's report in October said his inspection group found no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, President George Bush's main reason for the invasion. -------- israel Why Israel Really Fears Iranian Nukes, Part Three by Roger Howard March 5, 2005 http://www.antiwar.com/orig/howard.php?articleid=5076 Western rhetoric about the prospect of an Iranian nuclear bomb is typically full of references to "security," "destabilization" and "a terrorist regime" that sound compelling and alarming. But because such terms are closely examined only rarely, they not only deflect from any meaningful assessment of the Iranian issue but also readily disguise the true motives of those who use them. Of course any country's development of a nuclear warhead is always a very serious business that the outside world has a duty to prevent, but much of this talk about an Iranian bomb nonetheless hides a great deal of political calculation. Israel's concern about such a warhead, for example, is not just based on narrowly military considerations because, as Part I and Part II of this essay argued, Israel also knows that an Iranian bomb could make a political bargaining chip capable of extracting painful Israeli concessions, and would also demand much greater defense expenditure that Washington would have to subsidize. There is at least one other respect in which an Iranian nuclear arsenal could conceivably threaten Israel's political interests. For while Iran's bid to develop nuclear arms could perhaps herald a military confrontation with the United States, their acquisition would be much more likely to lead to a new diplomatic rapprochement – a quarter century after the rupture of relations – that would tempt Washington to focus on Iran's nuclear challenge at the expense of Israel's own perceived interests. Israel's chief concern in this regard would be that Washington would drop its insistence that any such diplomatic accord is dependent upon Tehran ending its alleged support for the Middle Eastern terror groups such as Islamic Jihad and Hamas that orchestrate violence against Israeli citizens. Although the nature and scale of any such Iranian "support" is far from certain, Israel's politicians and generals have long alleged that Palestinian violence does not have indigenous causes but is instead orchestrated by foreign influences: ever since the first intifada broke out in October 1987, when defence minister Yitzhak Rabin blamed the unrest on outside intervention, notably Iranian, Israel has consistently claimed that this external "sponsorship" lies at the heart of Palestinian disquiet. Washington has hitherto strongly echoed Israel's concern about the Middle Eastern "terrorist network" allegedly run by an Iranian regime that was described in the State Department's 2003 edition of Patterns of Global Terrorism as the world's "most active sponsor of state terrorism." But the development of an Iranian bomb could prompt the US to decide that such sponsorship is of more peripheral concern to American interests than cooperation with a nuclear state that is strategically placed alongside the Gulf Straits and which borders two countries, Iraq and Afghanistan, whose stability the US is most anxious to ensure. There are several reasons why Iran's acquisition of nuclear arms could quickly prompt such a diplomatic initiative. Just as during the Cold War special "hotlines" were established between rival superpower capitals, and the SALT negotiations struck two-way deals on reducing the size and scale of nuclear arms, so would initiating diplomatic contact with Iran be an obvious opening move to reduce mistrust and misunderstanding. The same considerations explain the willingness of the US to enter new rounds of talks with North Korea after October 2002, when the Pyongyang regime restarted a mothballed nuclear power station, expelled international weapons inspectors and announced its intention to withdraw from the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NNPT). It is clear, then, that Tehran's acquisition of a nuclear device would have an enormous political fallout that dramatically change the political map of the Middle East to Israel's disadvantage. Not surprising, then, that Israeli leaders have expressed such concern. -------- japan Japan rejects EU call for high-level nuclear talks 05.03.05 - REUTERS http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10113712 TOKYO - Japan has rejected an EU proposal to hold high-level political talks to resolve a simmering dispute over a project to build the world's first nuclear fusion reactor. "High-level political talks would be fruitless. If we were to hold such talks forcibly, we would only reach a deadlock," Satoru Ohtake, director of fusion energy at the Science and Technology Ministry, told Reuters. In Brussels on Thursday, the European Union said it had called on Japan to hold such discussions to resolve a dispute on where the world's first nuclear fusion reactor should be built. Six partners are involved in the quest to construct the first fusion reactor -- the EU, Japan, China, the United States, Russia and South Korea. The EU and Japan are competing to have it built on their territory. Japan's close security ally, the United States, as well as South Korea have supported building the reactor in Rokkasho, a Japanese fishing village, but EU sources believe they would back Cadarache, France, if Tokyo stepped aside. The EU, which wants to build it in Cadarache, has indicated it would press ahead without Japan if it persists in its bid. But the 25-nation bloc would prefer to have all partners on board to fund the 10 billion euro ($18.24 billion) project, known as ITER. "The EU has spared no effort and has made an offer to Japan that in all respects is comparable to the Japanese proposal," Research Commissioner Janez Potocnik said on Thursday, adding the EU's offer included procurement of key systems from Japanese industry. "Technical discussion has now gone as far as it can. I have proposed to our Japanese partners to sit together and find an acceptable compromise at a high political level," he said. But Ohtake said technical discussions were far from over. "Technical discussions have not been completed yet. We must continue the discussions," he said. Ohtake also said Japan's proposal made in September was superior to its EU counterpart. "Japan's proposal is better, and it is clearer in many ways than the EU proposal," he said, without elaborating on the Japanese offer. An official in Rokkasho, a remote scenic village in northern Japan, said local authorities and residents were eager to host the project. "We want to bring the project to Rokkasho village. We want to build an international village," said Yukio Tanaka, an official at the planning division at the Rokkasho village office. "We are hoping that our village will become an energy base." Rokkasho is home to storage facilities for low-level and high-level radioactive waste and uranium enrichment. A nuclear reprocessing facility is being built in the village. Of the total population of 12,000 in the village, about 40 per cent were engaged in work related to nuclear facilities, Tanaka said. Nuclear fusion has been touted as a long-term solution to the world's energy problems, as it would be low on pollution and use sea water as fuel. But 50 years of research have so far failed to produce a commercially viable fusion reactor. Construction of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is forecast to cost some 4.6 billion euros over 10 years. The EU intends to cover 40 per cent of that from its budget while France has proposed doubling its contribution to 20 per cent of the costs. Including a development phase, the ITER project is forecast to last 30 years at an overall cost of 10 billion euros. -------- russia Russia Refutes Reports of U.S. Inspections at Nuclear Sites Created: 05.03.2005 MosNews http://www.mosnews.com/news/2005/03/05/noinspections.shtml Russia’s Defense Ministry on Saturday officially refuted a report circulated by Russian media that U.S. inspectors will be allowed to enter Russian nuclear sites, the RIA-Novosti news agency reports. The ministry’s Information and Public Relations department issued the statement in which it dismissed all the allegations as completely groundless. The head of Russia’s General Staff, Yuri Baluyevsky, recently said that “small nuclear weapons could soon fall out of control of the nuclear powers and become accessible in the world”. Some analysts have alleged that such a statement could mean that U.S. inspections of Russian nuclear sites could receive a broader status. “Such a statement allegedly made by the head of the General Staff does not correspond to what he really said on March 1,” the ministry’s statement reads. -------- u.s. nuc facilities -------- missouri Springfield Missouri CU panel not ruling out nuclear energy Power-supply task force will consider a range of options as Springfield looks for more electricity. By Wes Johnson Springfield, MO News-Leader staff Saturday, March 5, 2005 http://www.news-leader.com/today/20050305-CUpanelnotrulin.html Nuclear power could become an option as a growing Springfield searches for more electricity. The co-chair of the newly empaneled Power Supply Community Task Force says that nuclear is an option that ought to be considered. Carol Williamson said the 17-member group will look at a range of options before making a recommendation to Springfield City Utilities in mid-July. Williamson and co-chair Jack Stack sent all the members a list of energy topics they intend to cover, including coal, solar, wind, conservation and renewables such as biomass and methane. Buying electricity from the nation's power grid and partnering with another utility to obtain more power aren't on the list. However, Williamson said the task force likely will discuss those options for which specific discussion dates have been set, as well as nuclear energy. "I think we should look at nuclear," Williamson said. "We should be open to all possibilities out there." Missouri has one nuclear power plant at Fulton that produces 13 percent of the state's electricity. The last nuclear power plant to come online in the United States is at Watts Bar, Tenn. It began generating electricity in June 1996, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute. Nationwide, there are 103 nuclear reactors producing electricity in 31 states. The CU board of directors asked Mayor Tom Carlson and Greene County Presiding Commissioner Dave Coonrod to appoint the energy task force. In announcing the task force members, Coonrod and Carlson said the group's charge is to "study power-supply issues and recommend a solution, and potential alternatives, that provide reliable, cost-effective and environmentally sensitive electricity that will be supported by the community." Fifteen people representing a variety of community interests were initially appointed. Coonrod and Carlson later added two more members — CoxHealth chief operating officer Norb Bagley and Rita Needham, executive director of the Southwest Area Manufacturers Association. CoxHealth is one of the major electricity users in Springfield. Bagley said he's approaching the task force with an open mind. "Nuclear power? I can't answer that yet," Bagley said. "I don't know if it's on the table to be discussed or not. I assume members of the task force will have some questions about it." Bagley said the task force's mission is an important one for Springfield. "Absolutely," he said. "This is driven by population growth and development. If we're going to continue to grow and prosper, we'll need to deal with this issue." Needham was rejected twice as a task force appointee but pressed her case to become a member so smaller manufacturers will have a voice on the power-supply issue. Along with renewable energy sources, she said she hoped the task force would consider partnerships with other utilities or buying power from elsewhere as an alternative to building a new coal-fired power plant. "At least we're going to have a dialogue on this," Needham said. -------- MILITARY -------- arms Saudis Break New Ground Eyeing Russian Weapons by Thalif Deen Inter Press Service March 5, 2005 http://www.antiwar.com/ips/deen.php?articleid=5077 UNITED NATIONS – Saudi Arabia, a traditionally authoritarian regime that recently held the first Western-style local elections in its 73-year history, is trying to break new ground by turning to Russia for arms purchases. As one of the world's biggest single weapons buyers, the family-run kingdom has militarily depended on the United States, which has supplied over 80 billion dollars in arms since 1950. According to the Russian news agency Itar-Tass, Moscow is now getting ready to clinch its "first major defense contract" with Saudi Arabia, a fervently Islamic and avowedly anti-Communist and pro-Western country. The Saudi decision to diversify its sources of weaponry comes at a time when Washington has downgraded its military relationship by relocating over 6,000 U.S. troops, from Saudi Arabia to neighboring Qatar. "There are clear strains in the U.S.-Saudi relationship," says Natalie J. Goldring, executive director of the Security Studies Program at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. "But this story is likely to be more important politically than militarily. The Saudi military is dependent on the United States for its core weapons, as well as for critically important spare parts and training," Goldring told IPS. Tom Baranauskas, a military analyst covering the Middle East at the Connecticut-based Forecast International, told IPS that the six Arab nations comprising the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), namely Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), are increasingly buying Russian equipment such as missile air defense systems. There is a major emphasis now on integrating command and control for these states – especially air defense – to counter Iran, he said. "The deal with Russia thus could be GCC-related, with the Saudis moving toward commonality with air defense systems such as the S-300s being procured by the UAE," Baranauskas said. He pointed out that there is also an ongoing major Saudi procurement program worth about 900 million dollars to reequip the country's National Guard. This includes negotiations to buy some 1,000 U.S. armored vehicles and 200 Spanish BMR-600 armored personnel carries (APCs), at a value of about 440 million dollars. "As far as I know, this deal has not been finalized, and I could definitely see the Saudis buying Russian armored cars, especially for a paramilitary force like the National Guard. However, this modernization program may be relying to some extent on U.S. assistance funds, which would make procuring Russian equipment problematic," he added. The National Guard's modernization program also includes artillery, for which a contractor has not yet been selected, and the Army is looking at several options for expanding its self-propelled artillery fleet, he said. Sergei Chemezov, director general of the Russian state-owned Rosoboronexport, was quoted as saying that the proposed deal with Saudi Arabia was part of its strategy to diversify Russia's arms buyers, away from China and India. Both countries are major buyers of Russian weapons systems. In 2004, Russia sold unspecified quantities of armored trucks to Riyadh. But current negotiations are said to involve the sale of "lethal equipment", including aircraft, battle tanks and air defense systems, according to Middle East Newsline based in Abu Dhabi. Russia already sells arms to several Middle Eastern nations, including Iran, Kuwait, Yemen and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). When Kuwait, another major buyer of U.S. arms, decided to diversify its purchases by buying 600 million to 800 million dollars worth of military equipment from Russia back in 1994, Washington expressed strong reservations. The U.S. State Department said it placed a premium on "interoperability of weapons systems for maximum efficiency and capability." A mix of Russian and American weapons would undermine this, it warned. Despite price fluctuations in the world oil market, Saudi Arabia has maintained an average annual military budget of over 19 billion dollars. But skyrocketing oil prices – rising from about 40 dollars per barrel in 2004 to a high of 55 dollars last week – could trigger an increase in arms purchases by the kingdom. Goldring told IPS that Russia's willingness to supply weapons to Saudi Arabia is not a new phenomenon. "To date, however, their desire to sell has far outweighed their actual success," she added. There has been significant press attention to supposed Russian inroads in the Middle Eastern arms bazaar. However, the United States remains the region's dominant supplier, Goldring said. In recent years, for example, Russia's chief customers in the region have been Algeria, the UAE and Yemen, each accounting for roughly 400 million dollars in weapons agreements over a four-year period, according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS) in Washington, which tracks U.S. weapons sales overseas. By contrast, during the same period, the United States reached agreements to sell 7.1 billion dollars worth of weapons to the UAE, 6.2 billion dollars to Egypt, 5.1 billion dollars to Israel, and 2.7 billion dollars to Saudi Arabia. Goldring said the United States continues to dominate the international weapons trade, as well as weapons sales to the Middle East region. In recent years, according to CRS, the United States has accounted for more than 75 percent of arms sales agreements to the region, while the Russians have been limited to less than 10 percent of that market. "I expect the United States to continue to dominate weapons sales to the region for the foreseeable future," Goldring said. But she pointed out that Russia has substantial financial and political incentives to broaden and deepen its access to international weapons markets. China and India account for a reported 75-80 percent of Russia's recent weapons sales. "In the end, however, this fight over market share obscures the most important issue. The United States and the other major weapons suppliers continue to exercise little restraint in selling advanced weapons to the highest bidder," Goldring added. ---- Pentagon gun will inflict pain from mile away By Andrew Buncombe in Washington 05 March 2005 Independent (UK) http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=616973 The Pentagon is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to develop a new "energy pulse" weapon that can deliver a jolt of excruciating pain from more than a mile away. Researchers have expressed outrage that work used to control pain is now being used to develop such a weapon. The weapons involve Pulsed Energy Projectiles (PEPs), which fire a laser pulse that in turn generates a burst of expanding plasma when it hits something solid. It can cause temporary paralysis and knock a person off their feet. But documents uncovered by the Sunshine Project, a biotechnology watchdog, also reveal that the same technology could be used to kill a person. One document, a contract between the Office of Naval Research and the University of Florida in Gainesville, where the research is being carried out, is headlined "Sensory consequences of electromagnetic pulses emitted by laser-induced plasmas". It says: "At their current stage of development, each system has lethal and non-lethal capacities ... Our research will examine the feasibility of PEP as a new generation non-lethal weapon." A 2003 review of non-lethal weapons by the US Naval Studies Board, which advises the Navy and Marine Corps, said PEPs produced "pain and temporary paralysis" in tests on animals. The $500,000 (£260,000) study looks to optimise this effect and discover how to generate a pulse which triggers pain nerves without damaging tissue. The contract adds: "Pain is a primary component of all non-lethal weapons." But researchers have expressed outrage that work originally done to help relieve pain was being used to produce such a weapon. Andrew Rice, a consultant in pain medicine at Chelsea and Westminster hospital in London, told New Scientist magazine: "Even if the use of severe pain can be justified as a restraining measure, which I do not believe it can, the long-term physical and psychological effects are unknown." -------- business Boeing Cleared To Bid on Launches By Renae Merle Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, March 5, 2005; Page E01 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8571-2005Mar4.html The Air Force lifted the 20-month suspension of Boeing Co.'s satellite launch business yesterday, clearing the way for the aerospace giant to compete again for rocket launching contracts worth billions of dollars. The suspension, the longest for a major contractor, stemmed from an Air Force investigation in 2003 that found Chicago-based Boeing had acquired thousands of pages of Lockheed Martin Corp. documents during a 1998 competition to launch weather, spy and communications satellites. In addition to the suspension, the Air Force transferred seven rocket launches, worth about $1 billion, to Lockheed. "We hope that everyone who does business with the Air Force takes note of this case and is reminded that we tackle ethical breaches very seriously and will not hesitate to impose significant sanctions when necessary," said Peter B. Teets, the acting secretary of the Air Force. Teets said he didn't know how much potential government work Boeing, the Pentagon's second-largest contractor, missed during the suspension. In at least one case, the Air Force waived the suspension and awarded the company a contract. Boeing blamed the layoff of 84 employees at its rocket launch assembly facility in Decatur, Ala., on the loss of business during the suspension. "It shows more about Boeing's claim to be indispensable than Boeing's claim to be reformed," said Charles Tiefer, professor of government contracting at the University of Baltimore Law School. "When you blacklist Boeing, you're not getting competition." Boeing agreed to reimburse the Air Force the $1.9 million it cost to investigate the matter and to hire a "special compliance officer" to monitor its compliance with ethics rules. The officer, retired Gen. George T. Babbitt, the former commander of Air Force Material Command, has been at the company since last year. He will be supported by a staff from BearingPoint Inc., the Air Force said. "We have worked hard over the past 20 months to restore the trust and confidence of our customer, and we are grateful that we have reached this point," the company said in a statement. The suspension was originally expected to last 60 to 90 days. But it was repeatedly extended as the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles turned up more evidence, including that Boeing may have also used stolen Lockheed documents to win NASA contracts. Teets said he also waited to lift the suspension until after the latest sentencing in another Boeing contracting scandal, one involving Air Force procurement official Darleen A. Druyun. Druyun is serving a nine-month prison sentence after admitting taking a job with Boeing while still overseeing its work and giving the company preferential treatment for years before that. Former Boeing chief financial officer Michael M. Sears was sentenced last month to four months in prison for illegally recruiting Druyun. The company is still in litigation with Lockheed over the rocket launches, and federal prosecutors in Los Angeles still are investigating the case. If the investigation finds new evidence, or if Boeing is indicted, the suspension could be reinstated, the Air Force said. -------- prisoners of war Army releases 1,200 pages of documents in prison abuse scandal Associated Press 3/5/2005 http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-03-05-prison-abuse_x.htm WASHINGTON (AP) — Videos from Iraq compiled by a Florida National Guardsman and called "Ramadi Madness" appeared to show one soldier kicking a wounded, cuffed prisoner and another striking a detainee with a rifle butt, yet Army investigators found no cause to charge anyone with abuse, according to Army documents released Friday. The videos were described in 1,200 pages of documents released by the Army Friday in response to a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union, which is seeking information on prisoner abuse in Iraq. Previously, the military had been providing the documents to the ACLU, which in turn has made them public, but on Friday provided copies to the news media as well. Army officials said the documents summarized 13 investigations, none of which resulted in abuse charges. A number were closed due to insufficient evidence. The Army, which says it is committed to finding and correcting problems in prison operations, has so far released the results of 129 investigations to the ACLU. Jameel Jaffer, an attorney with the ACLU, called the Army documents "further evidence that abuse of detainees was widespread in Iraq and Afghanistan. In some small number of cases, low-ranking soldiers have been punished. In light of the hundreds of abuses we now know to have taken place, it's increasingly difficult to understand why no senior official, civilian or military, has been held accountable." The ACLU, along with Human Rights First, sued Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld this week in connection with some alleged abuses of prisoners. The "Ramadi Madness" video was a compilation of recordings taken of the actions of B Company, 1st Battalion, 124th Infantry Regiment, a unit of the Florida National Guard that was in Iraq in 2003 and early 2004, according to the investigation documents. The company is based in West Palm Beach. The video led to disciplinary action, the company's commander, Maj. Joseph Lyon, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He would not specify who was disciplined or the extent of the discipline. "The video is definitely inappropriate," Lyon said. "However, we were still in a very tight situation, a stressful situation. ... Until you've lived that, it's very difficult for anyone to play armchair quarterback. You can think you're going to act a certain way, but until you're in that certain situation, you don't know." The investigation began after a civilian public affairs officer in Florida saw some of the video while other soldiers were watching it. The video itself was not released. Investigation documents describe efforts to prevent it from being leaked to the news media. The investigation found that '"Ramadi Madness' contained footage of inappropriate rather than criminal behavior," according to a summary of the investigation, dated Dec. 28, 2004. Ramadi is a restive city in Iraq's Sunni Triangle. According to investigators, one part of the video showed an Iraqi lying on the ground, handcuffed and moaning, when a soldier kicked him. The prisoner had been shot through the abdomen because he raised a gun toward American soldiers during a raid, investigators said. Investigators found one soldier, whose name was blacked out from the documents, who acknowledged he looked like the one in the video, although his face was obscured. The soldier said he didn't remember kicking the Iraqi. The fate of the detainee is unclear; several officers said they didn't believe the kick constituted an assault. Another section of the video appeared to show a soldier hitting a cuffed Iraqi in the head with a rifle butt during an interrogation, according to the civilian who first reported it. However, one soldier told interrogators that this was a staged image, and the Iraqi was not actually hit with the rifle. The soldier said the Iraqi, a juvenile, had been detained for throwing rocks at a U.S. military convoy and was later released. A third showed one soldier manipulating a dead Iraqi, shot while trying to run a checkpoint in a truck, to make it appear the man waved to the camera. The soldier said he only positioned the body so other U.S. personnel could remove it. He also said there was a missile in the truck. Other investigations included in the Army documents involve other units in Iraq. They include: • An Iraqi said he was beaten against a Bradley infantry carrier by two soldiers after being detained. Medics said he had a seizure. The case was closed for insufficient evidence. • An investigation into allegations of rape and other abuses in Iraq by soldiers in the 3rd Infantry Division, which were recounted in a Playboy article. The investigation could not validate the allegations in the article. • A former soldier was charged with making a false official statement after alleging some of his comrades stole from Iraqis at vehicle checkpoints in Iraq. • A civilian with the organization searching for weapons of mass destruction alleged a U.S. military prison guard at Baghdad International Airport forced a detainee to drink his own urine. The investigation could not prove this happened. • Investigations into shootings during riots at prisons. In each case, the shooting was found to be justified. -------- russia China Postpones Talks on Joint Military Exercises With Russia Created: 05.03.2005 MosNews http://www.mosnews.com/news/2005/03/05/russchinamilitary.shtml Russia and China have postponed talks on planned joint military exercises, a Russian Defence Ministry source said on Friday, March 4. The talks were due to be held in Moscow on March 1-5, but China asked that they be delayed “for technical reasons”, the source told Interfax-Military News Agency. The source said the Commonwealth 2005 exercises, which were due to be held on the Yellow Sea coast in China in August and September 2005, might also be postponed. “But this circumstance is envisaged by the plan for the organization of the exercises, where the parties said they might be put off until October this year,” he said. The first round of talks was held in February when the sides agreed to hold joint exercises during the Russian defence minister’s visit to China in December 2004. -------- space Debris is Shuttle's Biggest Threat By John Kelly Florida Today posted: 05 March 2005 http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/050305_shuttle_debris.html CAPE CANAVERAL - Tiny rocks, paint flecks and other fragments of junk whizzing around the Earth pose the greatest threat to the shuttles and the astronauts on board, according to the preliminary results of a new NASA risk study. Engineers and scientists long have known the stuff pounding the shuttle as it flies through space can do catastrophic damage. Until now, few put space debris on the same level as the dangers seen during the shuttle's treacherous launch or its fiery plunge back through the atmosphere to land. The internal risk assessment, still under review by the agency's experts, says space debris hitting different parts of the orbiter accounts for 11 of the 20 problems most likely to cause the loss of another shuttle and crew. Overall, space debris accounts for half of the catastrophic risk on any flight. NASA would not comment on the study, saying it is incomplete. The agency also would not permit interviews with people who've worked for more than five years on the study, even though the officials have made multiple presentations about the preliminary results at industry events. "We don't comment on things that are not done," said Melissa Mathews, a spokeswoman at the agency's headquarters in Washington. Orbiting backward NASA is taking action, however, to protect the shuttles and astronaut crews. In response to concerns raised by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, shuttle managers are expanding steps they've always taken to shield the orbiter's most vulnerable parts as best as they can.The shuttle will continue to orbit, as much as possible, in a backward position that keeps delicate parts such as its heat shield and windows guarded against direct impacts. One new tactic will be, after the shuttle docks at the International Space Station, flipping the two connected spacecraft around so the better-armored station shields the orbiter. New in-space shuttle inspections also will help detect debris damage. As heat shield tiles wear out, Kennedy Space Center workers are replacing them with sturdier ones. Debris-detecting sensors now being installed in the front edges of the shuttle's wings could someday also be added to cover more of the heat shield. "It's a serious threat, but they're doing a lot of things to reduce the risk. They're flying evasive maneuvers all the time with the shuttle," said Patricia Rieff of the Rice University's Space Institute. The U.S. military tracks about 9,000 big pieces of debris orbiting the Earth. Small pieces, such as micrometeorites or paint specks chipped off old rocket segments or satellites, can't be seen. The shuttle and the debris are zipping around the Earth as fast as six miles per second, making collisions with even the tiniest fragments potentially lethal. The Air Force warns Houston's mission control if something big is headed at the orbiter. That gives a shuttle commander time to maneuver out of the way. Smaller debris regularly hits the orbiter. Something half the size of what the military tracks can punch a hole in the hull or the heat shield. Pieces far smaller -- say, the size of a dime -- can chip or crack windows or, worse, rip through a spacewalking astronaut's spacesuit. In 1997, the National Research Council warned the shuttle program to devote more attention to the danger. "NASA appears to have put much less effort into understanding and reducing the risk than other comparable risks (such as the risk of catastrophic failure of the space shuttle main engine)," the report said. The authors, who included former astronauts and space vehicle engineers, recommended NASA do more to study the risk, avoid it and strengthen the orbiter. High risk The 2003 shuttle risk assessment is the first to incorporate the threat from orbital debris. The results: the likelihood of space junk bringing down the shuttle is far greater than widely feared failures of the powerful main engines, explosive solid rocket boosters or brittle heat-shield components.The new assessment indicates about half of the risk of disaster on any given shuttle mission involves space debris hitting the orbiter and, consequently, damaging some component needed to keep the crew alive in space or safely return them to the Earth. Past risk assessments attributed most risk to thousands of possible mishaps during the first nine minutes of a flight: the fraction of time it takes to go from a standstill on the launch pad to the 20,000-plus mph necessary to escape the grip of Earth's gravity. This study says space debris hits on different spots on the wing flaps are the two most likely catastrophic failures. Damage could render an elevon, or wing flap, unable to steer and slow the orbiter as it plummets through the atmosphere. Without them, the orbiter could burn up, rip apart or veer far off the planned landing course. Ten other space debris failure modes involve space junk damaging the heat shield. Investigators initially suspected orbital debris might have caused Columbia's destruction. Forensic evidence later showed the shuttle burned up because of a hole in its heat shield in the same spot where a piece of foam insulation slammed into the wing during the shuttle's launch. Still, the possibility alarmed the investigators enough to recommend that NASA make the shuttle at least as safe as the International Space Station when it comes to surviving hits by space junk. NASA correctly points out, however, that the station was built to higher standards because it is more exposed. It stays in space permanently compared with the relatively small number of days that shuttles are in space in a given year. NASA says it's trying to decrease the odds of a space debris disaster from about 1 in 200 to 1 in 600. Achieving the same strength as the space station is not likely. The changes necessary wouldn't be finished before the shuttle's planned retirement in 2010. -------- us 'Friendly fire' incidents increase March 05, 2005 By Sharon Behn THE WASHINGTON TIMES http://www.washtimes.com/world/20050304-095507-2325r.htm Friendly fire incidents by the U.S. military against coalition members trying to blend in with the local Iraqi population have increased dramatically over the past few months, according to security sources in Baghdad. The situation has been described as "critical" by one of the private security companies taking the lead in trying to rectify the problem. Yesterday's incident in which U.S. troops opened fire on a vehicle carrying just-released Italian journalist and kidnap victim Giuliana Sgrena, wounding her and killing the Italian secret service agent that negotiated her release, was just the latest in a series of fatal mistakes. In one incident in December, two vehicle convoys were fired upon by U.S. military forces at checkpoints as they headed toward the Baghdad International Airport. On the way back, they were fired on again. In another case, a Hummer tried to take out a Mercedes. Details of that incident were not made available. Security companies, frequently the target of terrorist attacks, now regularly travel heavily armed with their clients in beat-up cars or armor-fitted sedans so as to not attract attention. Some security experts say that the number of incidents -- which have left both dead and wounded -- could be due to the recent changeover of troops. Some of the forces scheduled to leave are so eager to go home that they fire on anything seen as a potential threat. Some of those arriving are nervous and still green -- and also shoot at any vehicle or person seen as a possible threat. Coalition forces, one company representative said in an e-mail, "must be briefed to exert greater discipline as per the Rules for the Use of Force." Cars traveling along a five-mile stretch of highway that crosses the capital and slices its way over to the airport are repeatedly attacked by gun-toting terrorists or hit with roadside bombs. Although the number of the "blue-on-blue" friendly fire incidents is not public, it is high enough that security companies responsible for ferrying around officials and those working on Iraq reconstruction have called on the military to come up with a solution. Ideas such as marking security cars or having special lines of communication have not worked -- the former because the terrorists would very quickly catch on, the latter because of the logistical nightmare of trying to coordinate the hundreds of security vehicles that zip through the main cities every day. As it is, if there are convoys of cars planning to visit a work site or offices, those involved will normally give the military a heads-up so they do not get shot up at any military checkpoints. The military appeared stumped by the problem when it was pointed out to them three months ago. "Going out low profile is a really bad idea now. Please give me some ideas for near and far recognition. If I were a contractor, I would come up with something the troops could readily identify," one colonel said. "The problem will be that the bad guys will figure it out and mimic it. Not sure what the solution here is." Some personal security detail vehicles now use a simple system of a neon-colored sign propped up against the windshield when approaching military checkpoints -- then whip it away when they leave. -------- POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE -------- drug war U.S. Report Warns of Afghan Drug State By Arshad Mohammed Reuters Saturday, March 5, 2005; Page A14 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8878-2005Mar4.html Heroin production in Afghanistan represents "an enormous threat to world stability," and the country is "on the verge of becoming a narcotics state," the State Department said in a report released yesterday. Despite steps by the Afghan government and foreign donors, the U.S. International Narcotics Control Strategy Report said that the Afghan "narcotics situation continues to worsen" more than three years after U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban government. The report said Colombia has made "impressive progress" against the drug trade but remains a major producer, and that traffickers continue to move drugs through Peru -- the second-largest cocaine producer, after Colombia. The most dramatic conclusions in the report, an annual survey of the world drug trade, were about Afghanistan, where it praised President Hamid Karzai's efforts but said Afghan poppy cultivation more than tripled last year. "Afghanistan's illicit opium/heroin production can be viewed, for all practical purposes, as the rough equivalent of world illicit heroin production, and it represents an enormous threat to world stability," it said. The area devoted to poppy cultivation in Afghanistan rose to 510,756 acres last year from 150,731 acres in 2003. Citing International Monetary Fund estimates that drugs account for 40 percent to 60 percent of the Afghan economy, the report added: "Afghanistan is on the verge of becoming a narcotics state." The report said Afghan political conditions improved last year, but "criminal financiers and narcotics traffickers in and outside of Afghanistan take advantage of the ongoing instability." The report provides the backdrop against which the U.S. government in September will decide which countries belong on the U.S. list of "major" drug-trafficking and drug-producing states. The Bush administration will also then decide which nations "failed demonstrably to make substantial efforts" during the previous year to respect international agreements and U.S. legal requirements on counter-narcotics, leaving them vulnerable to losing some U.S. aid. -------- ACTIVISTS "FOR WE ARE ALL DOWNWIND" Hawaii Conference Features Nuclear Survivors Barbara Grace Ripple, March 5, 2005 From: Raulmax@aol.com Light showers fell on Honolulu as survivors of nuclear radiation and their supporters gathered at Harris United Methodist Church on Saturday, March 5. Welcome and blessing was given by the Rev. Gary Barbaree. The all-day event, hosted by the members of Harris UMC, culminated ten days of emotion, tears and anguish, as survivors from as far as Chernobyl (actual Ukrainian spelling "Chornobyl") in the Ukraine, Vieques in Puerto Rico, Olongapo City in the Philippines, Okinawa, Guam, New Mexico and Hawaii gathered first on the atoll of Majuro in the Marshall Islands for the 51st commemoration of the Bravo hydrogen bomb test, and then on to Honolulu for an international conference entitled "Our Land is Our Life." The languages spoken were different, and many needed interpreters to help tell their stories. The stories were also different, but with a common thread: the physical, emotional, and spiritual damage caused by nuclear testing and nuclear accidents. The Conference, co-sponsored by the U.S.-Japan Committee for Racial Justice and ERUB, a grass-roots support group of survivors from the bombed atolls of Enewetak, Rongelap, Utrik and Bikini, included a video of the March 1 remembrance of the 15 megaton Bravo detonation, 100 times as powerful as each of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Because the survivors were not allowed to speak at the official government conference in Majuro, they held their own well-attended conference in front of the office of the Mayor of Rongelap. The stories told at Harris UMC of the devastation caused by exposure to nuclear fall-out and radiation were shocking. Dr. Lyudmyla Porokhnyak, a Ukrainian physician and medical director of the Ukrainian non-profit organization "Zhinocha Hromada" (translation: Women's Society), who lived five miles downwind of the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster, spoke of 3.5 million people (including 1.5 million children) affected by the fall-out, and said that there are still 1.5 million people living in areas contaminated by the radiation. Chromosome damage increased seven fold and birth defects doubled; there has also been a marked increase in thyroid cancer and other endocrine disorders, infertility, brain function and nervous system disorders since the accident. A respected community leader in Kyiv (Kiev), Dr. Porokhnyak has worked directly with Chornobyl evacuees and survivors. Dr. Porokhnyak also spoke of hope as she addressed the other survivors through her translator. She has served as the president of a support group working to provide treatment for children suffering from thyroid cancer. Her own son is a thyroid cancer survivor. "Celebrate that life does continue! We are one unified fist; we will fight back against these tragedies. We will make every effort to make a difference." Maza Atarri, former mayor of Utrik atoll in the Marshall Islands, was a seven year old boy when the first of 67 nuclear tests were done on the atolls of these islands in Micronesia. Three days after the first bomb was dropped, the residents of Utrik were moved to Kwajalein atoll, where they were given injections and medications, and told to bathe in the lagoon twice a day to avoid radiation poisoning. Three months later, the Navy returned the people to Utrik, and they were told they could live normally and eat the food, although the leaves had turned yellow. Later they were advised not to eat the local food (chickens, pigs, fruit, taro). Mr. Atarri, his brother and his sister all suffer from thyroid cancer. His children and grandchildren have many strange illnesses. Program 177 which provided health care for those contaminated by the nuclear tests and their families has been discontinued by the United States government. "Please help us as we give one voice in asking for support," was the plea of this now elderly gentleman. The people of the Marshall Islands do not have U.S. citizenship and therefore have no voice or vote with the United States government. The unanswered questions about exposure to nuclear radiation were further offered by Charlie Clark, 78, retired submariner and former officer in the U.S. Navy, who told of being onboard the first ship to enter Nagasaki following the U.S. drop of the nuclear bomb on that city. He will never forget the devastation of lives and property that he saw in that once beautiful city which was leveled by the bomb. Even more, his body will not let him forget. Mr. Clark has had more than 150 surgeries on his face for skin cancers and other effects of the radiation to which he was exposed. He continues to have more surgeries, and reconstructions. He lost the vision in his right eye and hearing in both years. One day, his teeth, with no blood or pulling, simply "fell out." Ask your doctor about the effects of ionized radiation," he urged. The federal government has not acknowledged that those on his ship were exposed to radiation. "The government said, 'no radiation,' and therefore no entitlement" to services. Forced to sign an agreement to remain silent for fifty years, Mr. Clark now speaks of the horror and his pain. One daughter has lupus, another daughter was born with internal organs malformed and is sterile, a granddaughter has a rare skin disorder. A question often asked is "What do these survivors want?" The answers that came from each group were similar: understanding, respect, integrity. The survivors want people and their governments to understand the tremendous responsibility and the consequences that come with the use of nuclear power. They want to be known as persons who have suffered a great deal and yet are a people with hope and worth and who deserve to be listened to and treated with respect. They want their governments to be honest and fair, and to compensate for medical treatments, loss of homeland, loss of livelihood. Most of all, they want an acknowledgment that damage has been done, and an apology from those responsible. The survivors who attended the international conference, "Our Land is Our Life" honoring the 51st anniversary of Nuclear Survivors Day, March 1, prepared and signed a document of Conference Resolutions. In addition to asking that studies continue on long-term effects of exposure to radioactive fallout and sustained exposure to high-level and low-level radiation, and including education and training in assistance for the psychological impact of natural or human-made disasters, the survivors "demand that public hearings on the Change of Circumstances Petition be held both in Majuro, Republic of the Marshall Islands, and in Washington, DC, and that representatives of the Non-Governmental Organization ERUB (Enewetak, Rongelap, Utrik & Bikini) be allowed to testify." The day concluded appropriately with prayers, songs and dances from each of the areas represented by survivors. Different cultures, different languages, different experiences...but all sharing a love of their land and a desire to leave the land, the air and the oceans clean and safe for those who will follow. To learn more: Where and what are the Marshall Islands? http://www.rmiembassyus.org View the petition for Change of Circumstances: http://www.rmiembassyus.org Click on "nuclear" then click on "petition" Resource on the nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands? See Beverly Deepe Keever's new book, News Zero: The New York Times and the Bomb. A preview of this book can be found online at http://www.nuclearfiles.org/kinuclearweapons/25_keever_suffering-secrecy-exile.htm , or Google "Beverly Deepe Keever." She's a professor at the University of Hawaii. What can be done? 1) Contact your senators and representative and ask that the Marshall Islands' Petition for Change of Circumstances be passed; 2) Demand that our government not continue to "protect us" from the truth about hazards of nuclear radiation. 3) Work for peace and a nuclear-free Pacific.