NucNews - August 19, 2005


-------- NUCLEAR 


-------- accidents and safety

European Court of Human Rights Orders Russia to Pay $3600 to Chernobyl Rescue Worker

Created: 19.08.2005 Moscow News

http://www.mosnews.com/news/2005/08/19/chernobylets.shtml

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has passed a verdict in favor of Chernobyl rescue worker Igor Malinovsky and ordered Russian authorities to pay him $3600 in moral compensation for denial to grant him free apartment in accordance with the Russian law, Itar-Tass news agency reported.

Malinovsky, his wife and two daughters lost all the money they had saved to buy a flat in 1998 August economic meltdown. In 1999 officials of their homecity of Stary Oskol promised to find a flat for them. In 2003, as the problem remained unsolved, Malinovsky applied to the European Court. A year later he and four more Chernobyl veterans went on hunger strike to make authorities pay attention to their problems.

The apartments were bought for the money provided by local businessmen. However, the court in Strasbourg acknowledged two years later that the authorities failed to fulfill its obligations in time and ruled that the former rescue worker has a right for compensation.

Earlier this year two other men who like Malinovsky became invalid after taking part in the clean-up operation at the Chernobyl nuclear plant won a lawsuit in ECHR. Dmitry Gorokhov, 53, and Rostislav Rusyayev, 54, appealed to the Strasbourg court because they have not received any pension increases for radiation injuries despite the fact Russia issued the relevant decree in 2001.

The European court ruled that social security authorities in Russia have to pay $1,200 to each of the plaintiffs in non-pecuniary damages, for pain and loss of amenity.

The catastrophe at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine (then a part of the Soviet Union) on April 26, 1986 is widely regarded as the worst in the history of nuclear power generation. 30 people were killed immediately after the fourth reactor of the plant suffered a catastrophic steam explosion that resulted in a fire, a series of additional explosions, and a nuclear meltdown. Most of the workers who went inside the reactor after the accident had no protective equipment and that led to fatal radiation burns.

The explosion produced a plume of radioactive debris that drifted over parts of the western USSR, Eastern Europe, and Scandinavia. Large areas of the Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Russian republics of the USSR were contaminated, resulting in the evacuation and resettlement of roughly 200,000 people.

A concrete sarcophagus was erected over the plant later, but the area had already been severely polluted.



-------- australia

$1b uranium exports possible, says MP

Friday, August 19, 2005. 4:45pm (AEST) Agence France-Presse

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200508/s1441908.htm

The chairman of a parliamentary inquiry looking at the nation's uranium industry says Australia has the opportunity to double its uranium exports to $1 billion.

The Melbourne sitting of the House of Representatives Committee on Industry and Resources is hearing submissions from mining companies, conservation and industry groups.

Chairman Geoff Prosser says in an energy hungry world the attitude of the state governments to further uranium mining needs to be considered.

"It would seem a bit unusual that of course we've got mining in South Australia and the Territory when other states are not doing it," he said.

"I think that if the country has the view that we should export uranium, it would seem sensible that all states, if they wish to, participate in it."



-------- china 

Chinese radiation poisoning whistleblower 'detained': rights group

BEIJING (AFP) Aug 19, 2005

http://www.spacewar.com/2005/050819034642.uot8pbwo.html

A Chinese man who spoke to foreign reporters about severe radiation poisoning affecting local residents has been detained and accused of crimes related to state secrets, a rights group said Friday.

Sun Xiaodi, a former employee of the Gansu No. 792 Uranium Mine in northwestern China, met journalists on April 28 while he was in Beijing to petition authorities about what he said was serious pollution from the mine.

He said residents near and downstream of the plant suffered a high incidence of cancerous tumors, leukemia, birth defects, miscarriages and other afflictions.

A day after the meeting, Sun was bundled into an unmarked car near Beijings southern railway station and has not been heard from since, Human Rights in China (HRIC) said, citing numerous witnesses.

It said that later the same day several plainclothes police officers searched the Beijing home of a friend of Sun, whom they then took to a State Security Bureau office.

They reportedly told the friend that Sun was a "wanted criminal" and that he had committed a "very serious crime related to state secrets."

Police produced Suns cell phone, wallet, telephone diary and other personal belongings, the rights group said.

Suns daughter, Sun Haiyan, has inquired into her fathers whereabouts many times but has repeatedly been told by Beijing authorities that they know nothing, HRIC said.

The Beijing Public Security Bureau refused to comment Friday and the State Security Bureau could not be reached.

The No. 792 Uranium Mine in Gansu province's Diebu county was established under the State Nuclear Industry Department as one of Chinas most important sources of uranium.

But it was "closed as a matter of policy" in 2002 on the basis of mine-exhaustion.

After the closure, mine employees accused mining and Nuclear Industry Department officials of plundering employee and state assets and damaging the environment, but their complaints were ignored by the authorities, HRIC said.

Local medical workers report that nearly half of all deaths in the area are from some form of cancer, but patients case histories are routinely altered because of "state secrets" concerns, HRIC said.

Sun began reporting the health concerns to the Nuclear Industry Department in 1988. But instead of an official response, he was fired and his family was put under surveillance, the group said.

"HRIC condemns the unlawful abduction and secret detention of Sun Xiaodi, which violate both his Chinese constitutional rights and his human rights," the group said in a statement.

"HRIC calls on the Chinese authorities to immediately release Sun Xiaodi from custody, and as a matter of urgency to address the dangerous environmental contamination and severe health hazards to humans and animals near the No. 792 Uranium Mine."



<a name="du"></a>

-------- depleted uranium

New Paltz NY Conference highlights uranium danger

August 19, 2005 Middletown NY Record Online

http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2005/08/19/brf474.htm

   Gulf War veteran Melissa Sterry will be the featured speaker at a conference Saturday about the risks at home and abroad of the country's depleted uranium weapons.

   Sterry, who was stationed in Kuwait in 1992, calls such weaponry "a war on generations yet unborn." Sterry served in the National Guard, cleaning out and preparing tanks that had been part of the depleted uranium weapons program.

   While the Pentagon has denied that depleted uranium weapons, such as missiles, pose a health problem for American troops, Sterry feels otherwise. The session will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at New Paltz Village Hall. For more information, call 845-255-8285.

Jeremiah Horrigan 



-------- europe

Russia, Finland to discuss peaceful nuclear cooperation
	
14:10 19/ 08/ 2005 (RIA Novosti)

http://en.rian.ru/business/20050819/41189100.html

MOSCOW, August 19 - Russia and Finland will hold talks on security regulations and peaceful use of nuclear energy, the Russian government said Friday.

The government accepted the proposal of the Federal Service for the Supervision of the Environment, Technology and Nuclear Management to hold talks with Finland on these issues.

The proposal was coordinated with the Foreign Ministry and the Federal Agency for Nuclear Power.

----

Netherlands Expects to Extend Life of its Only Nuclear Plant

Aug. 19, 2005 (Bloomberg)
By Dale Crofts in Amsterdam <dcrofts@bloomberg.net>

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10001099&sid=a5kbfP5HdQGM&refer=energy

The Dutch government plans to let the country's sole nuclear-power plant operate for as long as 20 years after its planned decommissioning date, ending a decade-long debate on the facility's future as the country seeks new energy sources.

The government expects to sign an agreement in November with EPZ, owner of the 450-megawatt Borssele nuclear power station in the southwest Netherlands, that would extend the plant's life beyond the decommissioning scheduled for 2013, Deputy Minister for Environment Pieter van Geel said in an interview yesterday.

Three Dutch cabinets have reversed their predecessors' positions on whether the facility that supplies about 4 percent of the country's power needs should be shut down in 2013. The present government wants a contract that would preclude any future political flip-flopping, Van Geel said at his office in The Hague.

``What I want is an agreement based in private law, as we all know a new government can do what it wants,'' said Van Geel. ``If a new government has to pay a lot of money to break the agreement, they won't do it and won't discuss closing it again.''

The Netherlands, Western Europe's third-largest producer of natural gas, is looking for ways to supplement its energy supplies and slow the depletion of its gas fields, estimated to contain about a third of the proven gas reserves in the European Union. About 60 percent of the power consumed in the Netherlands comes from gas-fueled generators, according to EnergieNed, the association of Dutch power companies.

Renewable Investment

In return for allowing the plant to remain open, the Dutch government wants EPZ to invest in renewable-energy technology such as wind or solar power.

``In the end I think we will have an agreement that Borssele will be kept open for 10, 15 or 20 years,'' Van Geel said. ``In return, they will invest in renewable energy. It will be a package deal.''

A forced closure in 2013 may also require the government to pay the company's shareholders as much as 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) in compensation, because the facility could probably operate another 30 years, Van Geel said. The company is a joint venture of Essent NV, the Netherlands' largest energy company, and Delta NV, the country's fourth-largest utility.

``It's a facility with a lot of profit,'' Van Geel said. ``They have no financial problems, and we would have to pay for those profits.''

Policy Revisions

European countries are reviewing their policies on nuclear power as oil prices, which have increased about 34 percent in the last year and reached $67.10 a barrel on Aug. 12, push up costs for industry and other users.

Nuclear power also avoids the pollution that comes from coal- fired plants and the costs of carbon-dioxide allowances under the EU regime for reducing greenhouse gases that took effect this year.

Finland is building the first nuclear plant in Europe approved since 1986, and France plans a new $3.6 billion reactor. ``We need nuclear power in Europe for the next 40 years,'' Van Geel said. ``There is no alternative.''

The Netherlands, the EU's most densely populated member state, placed a moratorium on building any new nuclear plants in 1986 after the Chernobyl nuclear accident and closed down a nuclear plant at Dodewaard in 1997. Van Geel said he doesn't expecting any new reactors to be built in the country.



-------- iran

Iran not interested in nuclear arms - Khamenei

Fri Aug 19, 2005 6:29 AM ET (Reuters)

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticleSearch.aspx?storyID=124818+19-Aug-2005+RTRS&srch=nuclear

TEHRAN, Aug 19 - Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday reiterated that the Islamic state had no interest in atomic arms but would never halt its nuclear programme.

Addressing worshippers at Friday Prayers at Tehran University, Khamenei accused Western officials of misleading public opinion by suggesting that Iran was secretly building nuclear weapons.

"They talk as if Iran seeks nuclear weapons and that they oppose it," he said in a sermon broadcast live on state radio. "That is lie and they know it. They use it to deceive their own public opinion.

"There's no talk about nuclear weapons in Iran. We don't want nuclear weapons," he said.

"They make a propaganda lie about a global consensus against Iran," he added. "There is no global consensus against Iran and even if there was, our nation wouldn't abandon its rights."

Iran, which says its nuclear facilities will only be used to generate electricity, upped the ante in its nuclear standoff with the West earlier this month, resuming uranium conversion -- a preliminary step in the process to make fuel for nuclear reactors or bomb-grade nuclear explosive.

The board of the U.N.'s atomic watchdog has called on Iran to halt uranium conversion. Iran says it will not and insists it will soon resume the most sensitive part of the process -- uranium enrichment.

Displaying a grasp of technical issues, Khamenei said Iran wanted to enrich uranium to a grade useable in atomic reactors but not to the higher grade needed to make atom bombs.

"We want to produce the fuel for our power plants by ourselves, and they say don't.

"They say buy the fuel from us. What does that mean? It means we should stay dependent. They want the Iranian nation to stay dependent on the powers which produce nuclear power," he said.

The European Union has called on Iran to resume the suspension of nuclear fuel activities to build trust, a suggestion Khamenei rejected.

"I tell them now, you should do something to make us trust you," he said.

"The Europeans should not talk in a demanding tone. Today is not like the 19th century ... we are not afraid of anybody. We have the power to defend our rights and we will not give up our rights," he said. 

----

UN nuke agency to clear Iran on uranium charge, diplomats say

VIENNA (AFP) Aug 19, 2005

http://www.spacewar.com/2005/050819171448.f8ry2xoo.html

The UN nuclear agency has concluded that highly enriched uranium particles found in Iran were from imported equipment and not from Iran's own activities, diplomats said Friday.

The presence of the particles was a possible sign that Iran was working on enrichment techniques that could have produced weapons-grade fissile material.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has since February 2003 been investigating Iran on US charges that the Islamic Republic, which says its nuclear program is a peaceful effort to generate electricity, is secretely developing atomic weapons.

The latest finding "will be seen by those in favor of Iran as another checkmark in their column" to back up Tehran's rebuttals of the US charges, a diplomat close to the IAEA said.

The finding is to be included in an IAEA report September 3 on Iran's compliance with international nuclear safeguards.

The IAEA declined to comment.

At stake is whether the EU is to resume talks with Iran on getting guarantees that the Islamic Republic is not trying to make nuclear weapons. Failing this, the EU could ask the IAEA to bring Iran before the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.

The IAEA has for several months been carrying out sampling of uranium traces on centrifuge parts that Pakistan had shipped to the agency to comparethem with particles found on centrifuge parts Iran had acquired from the black market, allegedly from Pakistan.

"The conclusion shows the highly enriched uranium appears to emanate from Pakistan," the diplomat said.

But the diplomat said the results of tests on cases of low enriched uranium (LEU) contamination, which is below weapons-grade and are also being examined by the IAEA, were "murky" and that the "LEU issue will probably never be solved."

Another diplomat said the inability to resolve the LEU question meant that the investigation's results "don't prove Iran's story is true. They prove it is plausible."

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBarradei said on August 11 that while "all declared (nuclear) material in Iran is under verifiction . . . we still are not in a position to say that there is no undeclared materials or activities in Iran."

"The jury is still out," ElBaradei said, speaking after an emergency meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors, which called on Iran to suspend all fuel-cycle work and ordered the September 3 report.

Enriched uranium, refined by passing a uranium gas through a series, or cascade, of centrifuge machines, can be fuel for civilian nuclear power reactors or, in highly enriched form, be the raw material for atom bombs.

Independent laboratory sampling and examination of the contamination data by independent experts are now being carried out to confirm the IAEA results, in what the first diplomat described as "the final step of quality control."

The experts are expected in Vienna "at the end of the month," the diplomat said.

The question of HEU and LEU contamination found by IAEA inspectors at several sites in Iran is one of the two main remaining topics in the agency's investigation.

Little progress is expected to be reported in resolving the other main issue, that of Iran's work with advanced P-2 centrifuges that make the enrichment process easier.

The IAEA has expressed skepticism about Iran's claims to have done little work with the P-2's, since Tehran has had blueprints for them "from foreign sources" since 1995, according to an IAEA report last November.

The diplomat said the September 3 report will also say the agency has found little suspicious in Iran's work with plutonium.



-------- korea

Bush Appoints Special Envoy for N. Korea

By BARRY SCHWEID, AP Diplomatic Writer
Friday, August 19, 2005
 
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/08/19/national/w083853D83.DTL

(08-19) 11:02 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --

Backed by a $2 million budget, a former adviser to President Bush will take charge of a high-profile effort to advance human rights in North Korea, even as negotiations on the country's nuclear weapons program enter a critical stage.

The appointment Friday of Jay Lefkowitz, who helped shape domestic policy at the White House, frees Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill to concentrate on efforts to end the weapons program.

With talks in suspension, Hill and top diplomats in China, South Korea, Japan and Russia, are trying to finalize with North Korea a so-called statement of principles designed to set up another round of six-party negotiations.

Hill said this week that "if we can get through this," an agreement might be possible in late September or in October.

Human rights conditions in North Korea have been discussed periodically during the weapons negotiations, but have not been a central issue.

Meanwhile, the Bush administration has dealt separately with hunger in North Korea. In June, a U.S. donation of more than 50,000 tons of food was announced as a humanitarian decision unrelated to efforts to get Pyongyang to end its nuclear weapons program.

Lefkowitz, whose post was authorized by Congress, is unlikely to travel to Pyongyang in the absence of normal diplomatic relations. But he will talk to officials in Asia and Europe, participate in human rights conferences and might meet with North Koreans if they attend international meetings.

The Texas White House, announcing the appointment, said Lefkowitz "will increase awareness and promote efforts to improve the human rights of the long-suffering North Korean people."

The new post, special envoy on human rights in North Korea, will be set up at the State Department's bureau of democracy, human rights and labor.

As part of his job, Lefkowitz also will be responsible for expanding U.S.-financed Radio Free Asia broadcasts to the area.

Besides his past assignment as deputy assistant to President Bush for domestic policy, Lefkowitz has served on the U.S. delegation to the U.N. Human Rights Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, and the U.S. delegation to the International Conference on Anti-Semitism.

"His appointment will greatly enhance our efforts to encourage North Korea to accept and abide by internationally accepted human rights standards and norms," said the White House statement issued in Crawford, Texas, where Bush is on a monthlong vacation.

On the Net:

State Department:

CIA Factbook on North Korea:

http://www.state.gov

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/kn.html



-------- russia

Russia fights nuclear terror
Alexander Yakovenko

By Alexander Yakovenko
August 19, 2005
Friday, August 19, 2005

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=1967

MOSCOW -- The recent series of terrorist attacks have shown the terrorist threat has not diminished and victory over this evil is not within our grasp.

Worse still, the terrorists are using increasingly aggressive and treacherous tactics. Their goal is to claim as many civilian lives and do as much moral and psychological damage as possible in a bid to sow fear and panic in society.

Although we do not want to believe it, common sense says that terrorists will try to gain access to the world's most destructive instruments -- weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

Politicians, the military, diplomats, scientists and the law enforcement agencies and intelligence services know this. Like the general public, they all agree that terrorists and other criminals must be stopped from gaining access to WMD or their components (for example, components for creating a dirty bomb). This danger must not become a sword of Damocles hanging over mankind. We must preclude the use of WMD as means of blackmailing the international community or individual countries.

This calls for erecting an insurmountable barrier to prevent terrorists accessing WMD, which should rest on effective legislation and cooperation between all members of the broad counter-terrorism coalition.

It is evident that nuclear terrorism presents the biggest threat to security. Russia has always advocated comprehensive measures to strengthen the non-proliferation regime and efforts against nuclear terrorism. Important steps have recently been taken toward this goal. In 2004, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1540 designed to prevent "non-state actors" from acquiring WMD or their components. Russia was one of the initiators of the resolution.

Moscow also suggested that an International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism be drafted. The issues involved are so serious that negotiations over the draft convention lasted nearly eight years. An Ad Hoc Committee of the U.N. General Assembly completed work on the draft in April 2005. Russia is advocating early enforcement of the convention and has appealed to all states to sign it without delay.

This convention aims to improve the legal framework for the effective suppression and prevention of acts of nuclear terrorism and for relief work in the event of an attack. It aims to ensure the protection of civilian and military nuclear projects against terrorism and to preclude terrorist attacks using improvised nuclear devices. The convention stipulates that persons who commit acts of nuclear terrorism will be brought to justice on the basis of the "extradite or try" principle.

It is the first international anti-terrorist convention that is intended as a pro-active instrument to prevent terrorist attacks using nuclear materials or other radioactive substances. It is the first universal agreement aimed at preventing massively destructive terrorist attacks, and it increases scope for counter-terrorism cooperation within the framework of the United Nations, including an early harmonization of the draft Comprehensive Convention Against International Terrorism. To date, 13 counter-terrorism conventions have been adopted.

The world wants a better global nuclear safety regime. One of the cornerstones of the regime is the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material, which was adopted in 1979. In order that states can realize their inalienable right to develop and use nuclear energy for civilian purposes, in accordance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Charter of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), there must be an effective mechanism to deter the unlawful possession and use of nuclear material for criminal purposes. This is the objective of this particular convention.

A diplomatic conference was held in July this year to approve amendments to the Nuclear Materials Convention, which were designed to enhance the physical protection of nuclear material during storage, use and transportation within a state and to protect nuclear devices against subversive acts. Russia played an active role in the conference, during which considerable progress was made toward improved nuclear safety.

It was primarily thanks to a Chinese suggestion aimed at removing ambiguity from the key issue of the inadmissibility of the use of force against nuclear facilities that the participants agreed to the amendments.

The international community is determined to prevent acts of nuclear terrorism. This is evident from the involvement of not only the United Nations and its specialized agencies such as the International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA) but also other organizations, including the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), in efforts to tackle the problem.

In early July the main regular decision-making body of the OSCE, the Permanent Council, adopted Decision No. 683 Countering the Threat of Radioactive Sources, which was initiated and drafted by Russia and the United States. It obliges the 55 OSCE member states to make a political commitment to comply with the IAEA Code of Conduct on the Safety and Security of Radioactive Sources and the Guidance on the Import and Export of Radioactive Sources supplementary to it.

Thanks to the OSCE decision, the IAEA Code of Conduct will be extended to all of the organization's member states and, hopefully, this will reduce the potential threat of terrorists gaining access to radioactive sources. The decision also highlights constructive counter-terrorism cooperation between Russia and the United States.

Cooperation by members of the counter-terrorism coalition on the basis of the above conventions and other agreements will help prevent terrorist access to nuclear weapons and materials. Cooperation in this field has become a reality, as evidenced by the international Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) set up two years ago. Russia joined this initiative last year.

The international community, including the United States and Russia, have joined forces to reduce the risk of weapons of mass destruction falling into the hands of terrorists, illegal arms dealers or other persons acting in violation of non-proliferation regimes.

Over 60 countries have announced their support for the PSI, and the more members it has, the more effective it will be. The number of member states is growing, and 16 training exercises have been held under the initiative in the past two years. The PSI promotes compliance with the letter and spirit of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1540, which calls on all states to unite to prevent the illicit trafficking of WMD.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wrote in a joint article "Russia and the U.S. Against Nuclear Terrorism" that their countries had seen what dreadful atrocities terrorists could commit and that they must ensure that terrorists and their supporters would never gain access to WMD.

The International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism will be opened for signing on the first day of the UN Millennium + 5 Summit, which will begin in New York on September 14. Russia will be among the first to sign it.

(Alexander Yakovenko is deputy foreign minister of the Russian Federation. This article is reprinted by permission of the RIA Novosti news agency)

(United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.)



-------- u.s. nuc facilities


-------- georgia

Southern Nuclear mulls nuclear generation units at Vogtle

Friday August 19, 2005 Atlanta Business Chronicle 5:03 pm ET

http://biz.yahoo.com/bizj/050819/1153059.html?.v=1

Southern Nuclear Operating Co. has officially informed the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission it has selected Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plan to evaluate for possible future nuclear generating units.

Atlanta-based Southern Co. (NYSE: SO - News) said it will file in summer 2006 either an application for an Early Site Permit (ESP) at Vogtle or pre-Combined Operating License (COL) information that would ultimately become a part of a complete COL application.

Georgia Power, Oglethorpe Power Corp., the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia and the city of Dalton, Ga., own the Vogtle facility, which is close to the city of Waynesboro, Ga. near the South Carolina border. It is operated by Southern Nuclear for the co-owners.

Southern emphasized the notification does not mean the co-owners have decided to build a new unit at the Vogtle site.

"This is another step in the process necessary to obtain permits should the owners decide that a new nuclear unit is the best option for meeting the need for additional generation," Southern Co. said in a release.

In addition to these and other permits, Georgia Power would need certification approval of the Georgia Public Service Commission for any new generation resource. While the need for additional base load generation is not expected for several years, it takes many years to prepare the ESP and COL filings and go through the actual permitting process, Southern Co. said.



-------- nevada

Nevada's senators challenge latest nuclear waste transportation policy

By KEITH ROGERS
Friday, August 19, 2005
Las Vegas Review-Journal

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/Aug-19-Fri-2005/news/27073040.html

Nevada's senators sent a letter Wednesday to Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman criticizing his latest policy that calls for using dedicated trains to haul highly radioactive waste to the planned Yucca Mountain repository.

The policy "is another example of piecemeal decision-making on DOE's part," states the letter from Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev.

The senators noted that it's been more than 20 years since passage of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act and "DOE still has not prepared a comprehensive transportation plan."

Bodman on July 18 announced the policy to use "dedicated train service," meaning train service for one commodity.

Until then, transportation planners for the Energy Department had anticipated using general freight service for rail shipments that would bring much of the 77,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel and highly radioactive defense wastes to Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Reid and Ensign questioned the new policy's reference to security benefits, which says, "DOE shipments have been and will continue to be made securely using both DTS (dedicated train service) and general freight service."

The senators asked Bodman to explain the circumstances under which the Department of Energy would use general freight service instead of dedicated train service.

They also want to know how radiological risks to train crews, the general public and workers at marshalling yards were evaluated.

Their letter says one-third of the reactor sites where spent fuel is stored have no rail access. That means heavy haul trucks and even barges will have to be used.

"Will dedicated train service be used at these 24 sites? If so, please provide DOE's plans and timeline for providing the necessary infrastructure."

Bodman's press secretary, Craig Stevens, said Thursday that Bodman's office had not received the letter but once it arrives "we will review it and answer the senators.

"We remain committed to opening Yucca Mountain using the best science and technology available to ensure the safety and health of all citizens," Stevens said.

----

Yucca Mountain exposure
'SMALL' PERCENTAGE OF NUKE WASTE CANISTERS WILL LEAK

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
August 19, 2005

http://www.pahrumpvalleytimes.com/2005/08/19/news/yucca.html

LAS VEGAS - A small percentage of nuclear waste containers is expected to arrive at Yucca Mountain with undetected leaks and cracks, potentially exposing workers at the proposed repository to high levels of radioactive contamination, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Saturday.

Without special precautions, spent nuclear fuel contained in these damaged tubes could trigger chemical reactions when extracted from protective canisters in preparation for long-term storage, according to an Energy Department study obtained by the newspaper under the federal Freedom of Information Act.

Completed in March by the Energy Department and outside engineers, the study concluded the department had not fully evaluated the hazards associated with handling damaged fuel at the site, nor designed a process for effectively managing it.

"It is rather late in the day for these people to be thinking about this stuff," said Arjun Makhijani, a nuclear engineer and president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research. "It is truly astonishing that they have not thought about this issue thoroughly a quarter of a century after serious work on repositories began.'"

Earlier this year, DOE officials abandoned a 2010 opening date for the repository, saying it could be 2012 or later before Yucca Mountain could begin accepting nuclear waste. The government plans to bury 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste at the Yucca Mountain site, located in Nye County roughly 50 miles northeast of Pahrump, with a population of roughly 34,000 and growing, and 20 miles north and east, respectively, from Amargosa Valley and Beatty.

"There have been a lot of meetings on this,'' a DOE official wrote in an e-mail to the Review-Journal on condition of anonymity. "You are talking about design, and you can't have a license application without a design."

The tubes carrying the spent fuel are expected to arrive at Yucca Mountain at a rate of about 9,000 per year for 25 years. About 4 percent are expected to have varying degrees of damage, according to the study.

Most are expected to be identified through reactor records, but a small percentage, about 0.4 percent, are expected to have unknown or undetected damage that could allow the fuel to oxidize and possibly trigger a chemical reaction during the storage process.

Although machinery and robots would handle the tasks, workers would be present.

The study identified areas to research, including the rates at which fuel might degrade, the potential exposure risk for workers and the chances of a chemical reaction.

"The process for handling failed fuel in damaged fuel cans is not yet detailed in current design documents, and the related hazards have not yet been evaluated," the study said.

Among the options considered by DOE is the addition of pools at the repository to handle damaged fuel rods underwater, a process currently used at nuclear power plants, according to the Review-Journal.

Bob Loux, director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, said it appears DOE has overlooked an important safety issue.

DOE "has not thought through the issues of the surface operations, from what we've seen," said Loux, who coordinates Nevada's opposition to the repository. If DOE decides to install such pools, it would create questions about earthquake vulnerability, Loux said.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, a Yucca Mountain opponent, said the study proves the project is flawed and should not move forward.

"At no point while moving waste off site, to transportation to proposed storage, can DOE protect workers and communities from being exposed to dangerous levels of radiation," Reid said.



-------- new jersey

NRC holds public session in New Jersey

— Don Bennett
Published in the Ocean County, NJ, Observer 08/19/05

http://www.ocobserver.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050819/NEWS01/508190335/1002

LACEY — How the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission will decide whether to extend the operating license for the Oyster Creek nuclear generating plant will be aired at a public session at 7 p.m. Aug. 24 at Lacey Township High School.

AmerGen Energy Co. LLC, which operates the plant, has applied to extend the license for 20 years beyond the time it would otherwise expire, in 2009.

The renewal application is posted on the NRC Web site at www.nrc.gov and is available at the Lacey branch of the Ocean County Library on East Lacey Road. The relicensing process and how the public can participate will be spelled out at the Aug. 24 session.

----

No nuke plant referendum to appear on Nov. ballot

Published in the Ocean County, NJ, Observer 08/19/05
By DON BENNETT Staff Writer

http://www.ocobserver.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050819/NEWS01/508190334/1002

TOMS RIVER — The people who live near the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station will not be asked their view of its future in a November referendum.

Freeholder Director Joseph H. Vicari said there is no support for putting the issue on the ballot.

Ray Kalainikas of Manalapan suggested the plant's neighbors get to vote on the fate of the nation's oldest nuclear generating plant. Oyster Creek has generated electricity since 1969 and its current owners are trying to extend its life for 20 years beyond the 2009 expiration of its current operating license.

That decision will be made by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Freeholder John P. Kelly told Kalainikas the NRC is the only agency with the authority to extend or end the life of the plant in Lacey Township.

"A public question will not be the answer. I don't want to create false hope," Kelly said.

"I'd like to hear the will of the people expressed," Kalainikas insisted.

Vicari said he opposes the referendum.

Kelly agreed, saying the outcome of the vote would have "no teeth" since the decision would still be up to the NRC.

The freeholders have called for an independent review of the data the NRC will use to decide if the plant should continue to produce electricity by the National Academy of Science.

Jerry Beer of Mill Creek Road in Berkeley, who worked at Oyster Creek for 21 years before retiring, said "Oyster Creek is a wonderful way to make electric(ity), contrary to what the doomsayers say. Oyster Creek is a very safe place."

He urged the freeholders to listen to the plant's supporters and its opponents before taking a stand.

"Get the facts about Oyster Creek. The critics are relatively few in number," he said.

Ed Frydendahl, who lived in Lacey for 32 years before moving to Whiting, called the plant a "creepy old monster."

He said he is concerned about the lack of a "no fly" zone over the plant.

"You can't fly over Disneyland but you can fly over that plant," he charged.

Frydendahl also scored the evacuation plan that would respond to an accident or attack at the plant.

He said 103 buses are needed to move Lacey's students out of harm's way, but the district has only 43. Other buses would have to come from schools in the southern part of the county, he said. That means those drivers would have to drive toward the nuclear plant to get to Lacey.

"Not a chance," was Gary Black of Jackson's description of the evacuation plan.

He said the radiation risks at the plant will continue beyond 2009 whether it continues to generate power or not.

"The reactor is still radioactive. That will not change if it is closed," he said.

While Frydendahl suggested a cooling tower to ease the environmental impact of the plant on marine life, Black opposed it.

"We all knew it was there," when people made the choice to move near it, Black insisted.

Extending the Oyster Creek license means "20 more years of fish kills and worries over the estuary," Frydendahl charged.

Kelly said the freeholders have been "leaders in the request for an independent study" of the information the NRC will use to decide whether the plant lives or dies in 2009.

He said legislation introduced in Congress this year echoes concerns raised in a February, 2004 resolution adopted by the freeholders.

But he said he had questions about whether the legislation sponsored by Rep. Jim Saxton and U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine, will pass.

"The president has called for more, not less, nuclear energy," Kelly said.

Paula Gotsch, a leader in the movement to block the license extension, said Excelon representatives were asked recently to reinforce the roof over the fuel pool at the plant.

They also said they have the money to decommission the plant and restore the site.

Gotsch said a plant worker told her of a crack in the dry well wall that was welded in 2000 and wondered how the plant could continue to work safely for 24 more years.

Jeff Brown of Brick said he supports nuclear energy, but "thinks there are major problems with that plant."

He said it should be evaluated by today's standards.

There are none, he said, for the evacuation plan — nothing to measure it by.



-------- new york

Phone line flaw mutes Indian Pt. sirens again

By GREG CLARY
gclary@thejournalnews.com
THE NEW YORK JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: August 19, 2005)

http://www.nyjournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050819/NEWS02/508190341/1019/NEWS03

BUCHANAN — Westchester and Rockland county leaders want answers from Verizon and Indian Point officials about phone line problems that continued for the fourth day yesterday and have created gaps in the four-county emergency siren system at the nuclear power plants.

After Verizon restored service to the lines that allow the plant to communicate via computers with Westchester, Rockland, Putnam and Orange counties, the system again lost communications off and on early yesterday, said Susan Tolchin, chief spokeswoman for Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano.

"Andy is calling for a meeting with the head of Verizon, Entergy, (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) and the (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) to get to the bottom of this mess with the sirens," Tolchin said. "He's very angry that this can't be resolved and wants a meeting as soon as possible with the players who can make something happen."

Rockland County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef's office agreed with the request. "The county executive is fully supportive of the meeting and will offer to co-host it with Andy Spano so we can solve this very serious and ongoing problem," said C.J. Miller, Vanderhoef's spokeswoman.

Officials of Entergy Nuclear Northeast, the owner of the nuclear plants, said they would meet with the counties and others to review the problems and figure out better strategies for the future.

Adam Stiebeling, Putnam County's deputy emergency services commissioner, said the meeting was necessary but needed one more agency at the table.

"The state (Public Service Commission) should also be included," Stiebeling said. "The NRC oversees Indian Point, but the PSC oversees Verizon."

Verizon spokesman Cliff Lee said he was unaware of any problems yesterday, adding that his company would be "happy" to meet with the counties involved.

Jim Steets, an Entergy spokesman, said phone company and nuclear plant employees were working to "ensure that the phone system used to activate" the sirens operated satisfactorily and planned to meet today to go over "the sensitivity and the importance of these lines."

Entergy said the phone system may be periodically removed from service until the intermittent failures are fixed.

Tolchin said the phone lines worked sporadically Wednesday night into yesterday, with Orange County experiencing the latest round of difficulties. Those problems forced the system down between 1 and 3 a.m. yesterday.

Since the phone line problems began early Monday, Entergy has repeatedly said that Indian Point workers could sound the 156 sirens in the event of an emergency at the site and that the counties involved could do so using local radio frequencies.

The company agreed last month to investigate bolstering the siren system with a better backup and possibly replacing it entirely. That process has been estimated to take about two years, a schedule county officials in the 10-mile evacuation area around the plant want shortened considerably.

Putnam emergency officials said their radio frequencies were not functioning properly and as of yesterday afternoon Entergy workers had taken down a siren in the county to try to repair it.

Westchester officials said two sirens in the northern part of the county also were taken offline.



-------- north carolina

Nuclear firm hires Thurmond

The Associated Press
Fri, Aug. 19, 2005

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/local/12422023.htm

COLUMBIA - Former U.S. Attorney Strom Thurmond Jr. has been hired by the company that runs the Savannah River Site to help it retain a contract to run the former nuclear weapons plant.

Thurmond's job will be to let the Washington Group know what is going on in his hometown of Aiken, just miles from the site, company spokesman Jack Herrmann said.

"We like to get a fresh perspective on what's going on in the community, and Strom is very well-established in the community," Herrmann said. "We find him to be very candid and honest."

Washington Group's Westinghouse Savannah River Co. has run the nuclear waste storage facility near Aiken for the past 15 years without a lot of serious competition.

But with a contract that has been worth an estimated $1.5 billion a year expiring in September 2006, some challengers are stepping up, including Fluor Daniel, which has opened an Aiken office to pursue the contract.

"He's new to this area in terms of his career. I don't know how much he knows about it. I would suspect not a whole heck of a lot, but he might surprise me," said Dan Evans, project director of Fluor Daniel's Aiken office.

The only reason the Washington Group hired Thurmond is because of his name, said Bob Guild, an environmental lawyer and chairman of the S.C. chapter of the Sierra Club.

"Why do they want him? It's not for his nuclear engineering acumen, his environmental science skills or ability to advocate for clean and safe energy for South Carolina," Guild said. "He is being hired because of the presumption that he brings access to the movers and shakers that grease the skids of this decision-making process."

Thurmond, 32 and son of South Carolina's longtime U.S. senator, the late Strom Thurmond, did not return a phone call from The Associated Press on Thursday.

But the spokesman for the Washington Group disputed Thurmond's family ties got him the job.

"That's not why he's here. I don't know if that carries much weight anymore anyway," Herrmann said.



-------- washington

Changes needed at DOE, official says

Friday, August 19th, 2005
By Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald staff writer

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/tch/local/story/6832304p-6727616c.html

Changing the way the Department of Energy does business may not be pleasant in the short term, but it has to be done, said Clay Sell, DOE's new deputy energy secretary after his first tour of the Hanford nuclear reservation.

DOE has had a history of "over-optimism" when it comes to predicting the cost and schedule of huge environmental cleanup projects, he told the Tri-City Herald editorial board Thursday. He spent Wednesday touring the nuclear reservation and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland.

"That over-optimism furthers the reputation of the department that we don't know how to predict costs" or manage projects, he said.

But new Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman brings credibility and experience on large projects, Sell said.

"We're going to change the way we do things," starting with Hanford's $5.8 billion vitrification plant, he said.

DOE has not come up with a new cost and schedule for the construction of the plant, but Congress is expecting the cost may rise by billions and the schedule expand by years because of construction difficulties and a new seismic study that showed the design standard needs to be increased to protect against a severe earthquake.

The plant is planned to treat some of Hanford's worst waste, turning it into a stable glass form for permanent disposal. The nuclear reservation has 53 million gallons of the waste left from the past production of plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program.

"Failure is not an option," Sell said Wednesday after touring the vitrification plant. Although Congress will be upset about the increased price tag, DOE will have to make it, and the Office of Management and Budget will have to understand that the project is vital, he said.

The waste is held in underground tanks and, in the past, some of the waste has leaked and eventually could threaten the Columbia River. DOE is moving waste from older tanks to newer double-shell tanks to await treatment, but those newer tanks soon will be full and some of the waste will need to be treated before more of the older tanks can be emptied.

"We've got to figure out a way to be successful," he said. "We'd like to figure out a way to be successful at as little cost as possible."

As costs for the vitrification plant rise, money will have to be shifted to it from other projects, at Hanford and across the DOE complex, he said.

Construction already has slowed on key buildings at the plant, and DOE headquarters asked the DOE Hanford Office of River Protection to come up with a plan for the orderly halt of work that could be affected by the new seismic design standard.

In addition, more management of the construction project is being done from Washington, D.C. That was part of the reason for Sell's visit, a June visit by Bodman and a visit being planned by James Rispoli, who was sworn in last week as assistant secretary of energy for environmental management.

The shift of management decisions to Washington, D.C., is temporary until DOE figures out what went wrong on the project, Sell said.

"There's a tremendous amount of focus on this project" at DOE headquarters, Sell said. "It's in crisis."

DOE officials also want problems at the vitrification plant to be resolved to support President Bush's interest in increased reliance on nuclear energy.

"We are arguing for policies that support a nuclear sector," Sell said. "We need to successfully be able to build nuclear facilities."

Although the vitrification plant is tied to cleanup of nuclear weapons work rather than nuclear power production, it's the first major nuclear facility built in the United States in decades.

Sell also talked briefly about benefits for retired Hanford workers, many of whom had life insurance benefits reduced this summer.

DOE has to make changes to more closely reflect what's happening in the market, he said.

"We have to transition in a way that's true to previous discussions," he said, but added that making decisions will be painful."

Touring Hanford left him emotionally moved by efforts of Hanford workers to win World War II and the Cold War, he said.

Easily, the best part of the visit was a chance to see B Reactor, the world's first production reactor, said Sell, a history buff.

"I do think it should be saved," he said.

Although DOE officials have not had money to commit to the effort to save the reactor as a museum, they have left it standing at least temporarily while supporters work to save it.



-------- us nuc waste

More radioactive Yankee Rowe waste to pass through Vermont

By Kathryn Casa | Vermont Guardian
posted August 19, 2005

http://www.vermontguardian.com/local/0904/YankeeRowe.shtml

BRATTLEBORO — As much as 23 million pounds of tritium-laced construction waste could be trucked through southern Vermont within a stone’s throw of two elementary schools after Massachusetts regulators turned thumbs down on a request to leave the low-level radioactive material on site.

Officials of the shuttered Yankee Rowe nuclear power plant near Rowe, MA, had asked the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) for a “beneficial use determination” (BUD) permit, which proposed leaving in place building foundations and other underground structures of the reactor containment building, one of the few structures left standing at the site.

They also asked for permission to fill holes left by demolished foundations and other excavations with about 20 tons of concrete rubble from demolition of other structures at the site.

Yankee Rowe, the nation’s third-oldest nuclear power plant, began decommissioning in 1993. Late last year, officials there estimated there were about 1,000 shipments left before decommissioning was complete.

But in a July 29 decision, MassDEP said the proposal could complicate cleanup of soil and groundwater contamination. “MassDEP has concluded that the BUD approval to abandon-in-place subsurface structures and reuse concrete rubble as fill shall be limited to only those materials with no distinguishable plant-related radioactivity above background level,” said MassDEP Commissioner Robert W. Golledge, Jr.

“While the risk posed to the public by Yankee’s proposal may be low, tritium-contaminated rubble is low-level radioactive waste which cannot be left on site. Further interring the material on site may exacerbate or complicate the clean up of existing soil and groundwater contamination at the site,” he determined.

Tritium, a known carcinogen, is released in steam from commercial nuclear reactors and may leak into the underlying soil and ground water, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It has a half-life of about 12 years.

The EPA considers tritium one of the least dangerous radionuclides because it emits very weak radiation as it decays, and leaves the body relatively quickly.

But Diane D’Arrigo, a low-level radiation specialist with the Nuclear Information and Referral Service in Washington, said that when tritium enters the human body, “if it were to displace a hydrogen atom in our DNA we would have potential genetic damage.”

Because tritium is almost always found as a water contaminant, it goes directly into soft tissues and organs, according to the EPA.

Tritium “is very much something that can be taken up by the body,” D’Arrigo said. “It gives off beta emissions, so wherever it lodges it will give off radioactivity in that region.”

A National Academy of Sciences panel in June said that even very low doses of radiation pose a cancer risk over a person’s lifetime. “It is unlikely that there is a threshold [of radiation exposure] below which cancers are not induced,” the scientists stated.

Yankee Rowe spokeswoman Kelley Smith said that plant officials and Massachusetts state officials are in negotiations about how much of the 23.7 million pounds of concrete in the reactor support structure will have to be shipped out. That determination will be made after officials measure tritium background levels, she said.

MassDEP spokeswoman Elizabeth Stinehart said the process used to determine background levels is “still under development.”

Kelley said that if left in place, the tritium would result in exposure levels that exceed only those set by MassDEP, but would be within the limits set by both the Massachusetts Department of Health and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

According to NRC criteria, Kelley said, decommissioning plants must demonstrate that a hypothetical resident living on a reclaimed site would not be exposed to more than 25 millirems of radiation in addition to the 360 millirems that resident would receive during the course of a normal year. She said the increased dosage must take into account all possible pathways, including drinking water from a well drilled on the property, or drinking milk from a cow raised on the land.

Because Massachusetts restricts the transport of radioactive waste through various towns and on certain roadways, the concrete will be shipped north on Route 100 through Readsboro and Whitingham, VT, then east on Route 9, a windy highway that crosses Hogback Mountain and comes within yards of Marlboro Elementary School and the Academy School in West Brattleboro.

The trucks will connect to Interstate 91 at exit 2, where they will head south, eventually ending up at a rail line in Worcester, MA, where the waste is loaded onto railcars and transported to a nuclear waste facility in Utah, Smith said.

Yankee Rowe notifies the Vermont Department of Health in advance about the shipments, which in turn notifies Vermont State Police headquarters in Waterbury. But local emergency response officials have told the Vermont Guardian that they are not notified of the shipments.

State records showed that 250 shipments had passed through southern Vermont as of November 2004, the last time the Vermont Guardian requested the information. Current statistics were unavailable this week because the Vermont Department of Health Protection was moving.

Past shipments have contained low levels of the radioactive isotopes cobalt 60; nichol 63; iron 55; cesium 137; cesium 134; americium 241; CM-243; plutonium 238, 239, 241, 245; and depleted uranium said Carla White, Vermont’s senior radiological health specialist.

During the busiest demolition periods, about one truck per week has passed through southern Vermont, state records showed.

Marlboro School Board Chairwoman Lauren Poster said the elementary school has long been concerned with traffic on Route 9, which includes a passing lane in front of the school, where the speed limit is 50 miles per hour. She said traffic accidents and jack-knifed trucks are routine on the roadway during the winter months.

----

YUCCA MOUNTAIN PROJECT: Lobbyist focuses on reprocessing option

Nuclear industry emphasizes possible retrieval of spent fuel
By TONY BATT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Friday, August 19, 2005
Las Vegas Review-Journal

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/Aug-19-Fri-2005/news/27073282.html

WASHINGTON -- Nuclear waste may be retrieved from Yucca Mountain for up to 300 years after it is stored, the nuclear power industry's chief lobbyist said Thursday, adding that the development of reprocessing technology could make retrieval more likely.

Frank L. "Skip" Bowman, president of the Nuclear Energy Institute, said it is important for the Department of Energy to maintain the option of reprocessing spent nuclear fuel even though the United States hasn't done it since 1977.

"A lot of people have the image that the idea is to put this stuff in, close the door, walk away, and that's the end of it," said Bowman, a retired Navy admiral.

"Not true. That would be irresponsible, and it never has been the plan."

An environmental impact statement prepared by the Energy Department requires the DOE to maintain the ability to retrieve highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel from Yucca Mountain for at least 100 years and possibly for as long as 300 years, Bowman said.

Reprocessing allows spent nuclear fuel rods to be recycled through a chemical operation that separates useful fuel remaining in the rods from the waste.

Although reprocessing would not eliminate the need for a repository at Yucca Mountain, it could reduce the amount of waste stored there. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 calls for the mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas to store 77,000 tons of nuclear waste.

Bowman acknowledged that it would not be easy to revive reprocessing in the United States.

"Frankly, we've been out of (reprocessing) in this country for a long time, and we don't have the infrastructure now to step up to the plate and start doing it," Bowman said.

Bowman also acknowledged that plans to begin storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain by 2010 have slipped.

"For sure, there's not a drop-dead date, but we do have to see progress," Bowman said.

Bowman made his remarks at a news conference including six other energy lobbyists who discussed the energy bill signed by President Bush on Aug. 8 in Albuquerque, N.M.

The bill includes language supporting reprocessing but does not allocate money to develop the technology, according to an NEI spokesman.

Bob Loux, chief of Nevada's Nuclear Projects Agency, expressed skepticism about Bowman's remarks on reprocessing.

"I don't think anyone believes we can go into Yucca Mountain even 50 years after storage and retrieve this stuff," Loux said. "We're talking about internal temperatures above the boiling point of water with 100 percent humidity. It would be difficult for any robotic equipment to operate in that environment."

Loux criticized Bowman's call for legislation that would require Congress to direct all money from the federal nuclear waste fund to the Yucca Mountain repository.

"If the past is any indication, that is not going to happen," Loux said, referring to previous unsuccessful efforts to take the nuclear waste fund "off budget."

"Congress is not going to turn loose of the purse strings and oversight for this project, which needs more oversight than ever."



-------- MILITARY 

U.S. is watching Russia-China drill

The Associated Press
FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2005

http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file=/articles/2005/08/18/news/exercise.php

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii The new commander of the Pacific Fleet says the U.S. Navy is "very interested" in the first-ever joint military exercises China and Russia are holding over the next eight days on China's northeastern coast.
 
In an interview a month after assuming his post, the commander, Admiral Gary Roughead, said he would be watching to see what kind of equipment the two countries use and how they work together.
 
"We're very interested in the exercise, we're interested in the types of things that they'll do," Roughead said Wednesday. "We're interested in the complexity and the types of systems that they bring to bear."
 
The exercises started Thursday with strategic consultations between commanders and are to reach a peak next week with an amphibious and paratrooper landing on the Shandong Peninsula in the Yellow Sea.
 
About 10,000 troops are involved; most of them are Chinese and about 1,800 are Russians.
 
The admiral declined to say whether the United States would send ships of its own to monitor the exercises, saying only: "I don't talk about the specifics of our operations."
 
Roughead said he was curious how the two navies would operate and how they would command and control their forces. He added that he would also be looking at how they would "integrate in a combined way."
 
Analysts say the joint exercises are primarily an opportunity for Moscow to showcase Russian weaponry to Beijing, an active consumer of its military hardware. The two nations are also expected to use the opportunity to display their power.
 
Roughead, 54, takes command of the Pacific Fleet as the Pentagon is weighing whether to move an aircraft carrier to either Guam or Hawaii from the U.S. mainland and perhaps shifting more submarines to the region.
 
The U.S. military is eager to edge closer to potential hot spots in the Taiwan Strait or North Korea, and it wants to ensure that piracy and terrorism do not close down vital sea lanes used by some of the world's biggest trading nations.
 
"There's a growing sense in our country and military that our future is going to be very heavily tied to Asia," Roughead said. "The imperative of maintaining stability and the prosperity in the region will be the key to our security and prosperity in the future."
 
Roughead, who has spent five of the last 12 years in Pacific posts, said he had been watching as China has upgraded its military, taking note as its submarine patrols and surface ships have pushed beyond earlier areas of operation closer to its eastern coast. He said he was most curious about China's motives.
 
"Clearly they are modernizing very quickly," Roughead said. "They're acquiring and producing some very capable systems."
 
Last month, the Pentagon reported that China was building up its military for the long-term goal of projecting its power well beyond Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory. The annual survey said the Chinese military was buying new weapons systems, developing a new doctrine for modern warfare and improving training standards.
 
Last month, Admiral William Fallon, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, said that he did not see any nation posing a threat to China and that U.S. forces should not be interpreted as threatening Beijing.


-------- china

Russia and China join forces to challenge US dominance

By Andrew Osborn in Moscow
Published: 19 August 2005 UK Independent

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article306883.ece

Ten thousand Russian and Chinese troops were preparing to invade the Shandong Peninsula in the Yellow Sea yesterday in a first joint military exercise, seen as a reaction to US dominance of world affairs.

The eight-day exercise, called Peace Mission 2005, will use air, sea and land forces to simulate a mission stabilising a restive country, and marks a new friendly phase in a bilateral relationship that has often been characterised by open hostility.

Analysts have pointed to opportunistic reasons behind the new relationship, with China keen to buy Russian oil, gas and weaponry and Moscow keen to sell.

Both countries want to send a message to Washington that the world is no longer unipolar but bipolar and that the world's largest country (Russia) and the world's most populous country (China) have common interests.

From a practical point of view it is important that the two get along, since they share a 2,700-mile border.

Chinese workers have also started moving into Russia's under-populated Far East en masse, a phenomenon that clearly worries Moscow.

Speaking in the Russian far eastern port of Vladivostok yesterday, military top brass from both countries insisted that the exercise was not designed to threaten any third country.

"These manoeuvres do not have hostile intentions," said General Yuri Baluyevsky, the Russian army's chief of staff. "Our exercises do not threaten any one country and we will clearly stick by this principle."

Though the exercise will simulate an attack on a fictional restive country, Moscow and Beijing are keen to stress that they are rehearsing a peace-keeping mission that would be conducted under United Nations auspices.

The fictional scenario envisages an imaginary state engulfed in a wave of violence fuelled by "ethnic and religious differences". Both sides have spoken of the need to "fight against international terrorism, separatism and extremism," words that will give pause for thought to Taiwan and Chechnya respectively.

Russian media analysts have also speculated that Moscow is keen to send a signal to anyone thinking about launching a Ukraine-style velvet revolution that they should think again.

The aim of the 10,000-strong Russo-Chinese force taking part in Peace Mission 2005 is to "restore order" and quell a numerically superior enemy force of some 100,000.

They will do this by launching an amphibious and airborne assault, by launching cruise missiles from bombers and submarines and by deploying infantry units against "illegal armed formations" who will be "played" by Chinese troops.

In an inauguration ceremony for the exercises, the commanders of the general staffs of Russia and China laid wreaths at a Second World War memorial in Vladivostok.

The drills are beginning just days after commemorations across Asia of the 60th anniversary of Japan's defeat in the Pacific.

The generals repeatedly stressed at a news conference that the drills weren't intended to be a show of intimidation.

The exercise formally started yesterday but has three distinct phases; military-political consultations and operational planning, the delivery and deployment of force, and armed combat.

Washington has not sent observers, but will be watching closely all the same.

The exercise comes just days after the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, personally observed a naval exercise by the country's Northern Fleet.

Ten thousand Russian and Chinese troops were preparing to invade the Shandong Peninsula in the Yellow Sea yesterday in a first joint military exercise, seen as a reaction to US dominance of world affairs.

The eight-day exercise, called Peace Mission 2005, will use air, sea and land forces to simulate a mission stabilising a restive country, and marks a new friendly phase in a bilateral relationship that has often been characterised by open hostility.

Analysts have pointed to opportunistic reasons behind the new relationship, with China keen to buy Russian oil, gas and weaponry and Moscow keen to sell.

Both countries want to send a message to Washington that the world is no longer unipolar but bipolar and that the world's largest country (Russia) and the world's most populous country (China) have common interests.

From a practical point of view it is important that the two get along, since they share a 2,700-mile border.

Chinese workers have also started moving into Russia's under-populated Far East en masse, a phenomenon that clearly worries Moscow.

Speaking in the Russian far eastern port of Vladivostok yesterday, military top brass from both countries insisted that the exercise was not designed to threaten any third country.

"These manoeuvres do not have hostile intentions," said General Yuri Baluyevsky, the Russian army's chief of staff. "Our exercises do not threaten any one country and we will clearly stick by this principle."

Though the exercise will simulate an attack on a fictional restive country, Moscow and Beijing are keen to stress that they are rehearsing a peace-keeping mission that would be conducted under United Nations auspices.

The fictional scenario envisages an imaginary state engulfed in a wave of violence fuelled by "ethnic and religious differences". Both sides have spoken of the need to "fight against international terrorism, separatism and extremism," words that will give pause for thought to Taiwan and Chechnya respectively.

Russian media analysts have also speculated that Moscow is keen to send a signal to anyone thinking about launching a Ukraine-style velvet revolution that they should think again.

The aim of the 10,000-strong Russo-Chinese force taking part in Peace Mission 2005 is to "restore order" and quell a numerically superior enemy force of some 100,000.

They will do this by launching an amphibious and airborne assault, by launching cruise missiles from bombers and submarines and by deploying infantry units against "illegal armed formations" who will be "played" by Chinese troops.

In an inauguration ceremony for the exercises, the commanders of the general staffs of Russia and China laid wreaths at a Second World War memorial in Vladivostok.

The drills are beginning just days after commemorations across Asia of the 60th anniversary of Japan's defeat in the Pacific.

The generals repeatedly stressed at a news conference that the drills weren't intended to be a show of intimidation.

The exercise formally started yesterday but has three distinct phases; military-political consultations and operational planning, the delivery and deployment of force, and armed combat.

Washington has not sent observers, but will be watching closely all the same.

The exercise comes just days after the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, personally observed a naval exercise by the country's Northern Fleet.



-------- iran

Americans Would Back Sanctions, Not War, Against Iran

(Angus Reid Global Scan) August 19, 2005

http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm/fuseaction/viewItem/itemID/8587

Many adults in the United States would support a trade embargo against Iran, according to a poll by Rasmussen Reports. 58 per cent of respondents support the imposition of economic sanctions if the country refuses to stop developing nuclear capabilities.

Backing is considerably lower for a military intervention. Only 36 per cent of respondents would support using force against Iran in the event economic sanctions fail.

After being branded as part of an "axis of evil" by U.S. president George W. Bush in January 2002, Iran has contended that its nuclear program aims to produce energy, not weapons.

In his Feb. 2 State of the Union address, Bush said Iran "remains the world’s primary state sponsor of terror—pursuing nuclear weapons while depriving its people of the freedom they seek and deserve." On Feb. 3, Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dismissed the American president’s comments, saying, "Bush is the fifth U.S. president to want to uproot the Iranian nation and the Islamic Republic" adding that the country is "being attacked by the global tyrants."

In November 2004, the Iranian government announced a voluntary suspension of its uranium enrichment program following international pressure. Earlier this month, Iran resumed uranium conversion activities at the Isfahan facility.

In an Aug. 12 interview with Israel’s Channel One, Bush referred to the Iran situation, saying, "My latest information is that the Iranians refuse to comply with the demands of the free world, which is: do not in any way, shape or form have a program that could yield to a nuclear weapon. (...) Look, in all these instances we want diplomacy to work. And so we’re working feverishly on the diplomatic route. (...) As I say, all options are on the table. The use of force is the last option for any president."

Polling Data

Would you support the imposition of economic sanctions if Iran refuses to stop developing nuclear capabilities?

Yes 58%

No 19%

If those sanctions fail, would you support using military force against Iran?

Yes 36%

No 41%

Source: Rasmussen Reports
Methodology: Telephone interviews to 1,000 American adults, conducted on Aug. 15 and Aug. 16, 2005. Margin of error is 3 per cent.



-------- iraq

Republican Senator says Bush should meet with protesting mom
Hagel: Iraq growing more like Vietnam

Friday, August 19, 2005 (CNN) Posted: 0335 GMT (1135 HKT)

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/08/18/hagel.iraq/

WASHINGTON -- Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska on Thursday said the United States is "getting more and more bogged down" in Iraq and stood by his comments that the White House is disconnected from reality and losing the war.

The longer U.S. forces remain in Iraq, he said, the more it begins to resemble the Vietnam war.

Hagel mocked Vice President Dick Cheney's assertion in June that the insurgency in Iraq was in its "last throes," saying the U.S. death toll has risen amid insurgent attacks.

"Maybe the vice president can explain the increase in casualties we're taking," the Nebraskan told CNN.

"If that's winning, then he's got a different definition of winning than I do."

On Thursday, Cheney told a veterans group that "Iraq is a critical front in the war on terror, and victory there is critical to the future security of the U.S."

"Every man and woman who fights and sacrifices in this war is serving a just and noble cause," Cheney told the 73rd National Convention of the Military Order of the Purple Heart in Springfield, Missouri.

Hagel, an Army infantry squad leader during the Vietnam war, sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and supported the October 2002 resolution authorizing military action against Iraq.

But he said the United States risks losing more public support for the conflict amid a rising cost in blood and money.

"The casualties we're taking, the billion dollars a week we're putting in there, the kind of commitment we've got -- we're not going to be able to sustain it," he said.

Iraq and Vietnam still have more differences than similarities, he said, but "there is a parallel emerging."

"The longer we stay in Iraq, the more similarities will start to develop, meaning essentially that we are getting more and more bogged down, taking more and more casualties, more and more heated dissension and debate in the United States," Hagel said.

Hagel also did not back away from comments he made in June to U.S. News & World Report that "the White House is completely disconnected from reality" and "the reality is that we're losing in Iraq."

"It gives me no great pleasure to have said that and to say that now," he said Thursday.

He said the U.S. death toll has continued to rise "at a very significant rate -- more dead, more wounded, less electricity in Iraq, less oil being pumped in Iraq, more insurgent attacks, more insurgents coming across the border, more corruption in the government."

A total of 1,861 American troops have died in the war since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, including four who were killed Thursday by a roadside bomb in Samarra. (Full story)

Cheney said in June that the insurgency is "in the last throes," and he predicted that the fighting will end before the Bush administration leaves office. (Full story)

In the CNN interview Thursday, Hagel mentioned Cheney's comments about the insurgency and quickly added, "The facts speak for themselves."

Hagel did say he agrees with President Bush that the United States should not set a timetable for troop withdrawal, but he also predicted the United States would begin "withdrawing troops from Iraq next year."

"I don't like time frames because it gives the president no flexibility, and I think you always must have flexibility in these things and a judgment call by the president," he said.

Ultimately, he said, it's up to the Iraqis to control their nation's fate.

"That means they are either going to have to be in a position sometime next year to really step up in governing themselves, defending themselves, supporting themselves, or we can't continue to stay there indefinitely," Hagel said.

The next six months will be "very critical" in Iraq, he said.

"Not just the constitution writing, referendum, the election -- but also within that six months' period we're going to see whether the Iraqis are really going to be capable of defending themselves," he said.

On another Iraq-related issue, Hagel said Bush made the wrong decision by not meeting again with Cindy Sheehan, a mother of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq who has camped outside the president's Texas ranch. (Full story)

Sheehan "deserves some consideration, and I think that should have been done right from the beginning," Hagel said, noting that Bush did meet with her shortly after her son's death last year.

"I think the wise course of action, the compassionate course of action, the better course of action would have been to immediately invite her in to the ranch. It should have been done when this whole thing started. Listen to her." 

----

Why Casey Sheehan Was Killed

by Aaron Glantz, August 19, 2005 Antiwar.com

http://www.antiwar.com/glantz/?articleid=7001

Since President Bush won't meet with Cindy Sheehan to explain why her son Casey died in Iraq, I thought I would put forward the information I have. Like Army Specialist Casey Sheehan, I was in Baghdad's Sadr City on April 4, 2004.

I was there as an unembedded journalist. Unlike Casey Sheehan, I wasn't killed.

I had traveled to Sadr City to cover the Bush administration's undemocratic attack on the movement of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. It didn't matter that the cleric had millions of followers or that he was scion to an important political family with a history of standing up to tyranny. (His father was killed by Saddam's regime for fomenting revolution in 1999. His uncle, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Sadr, was killed for leading an insurrection against Ba'ath rule in 1980.)

It didn't matter that Sadr's forces were providing food aid to the poor, or organizing traffic patrol and garbage duty in an atmosphere with no basic services.

The problem for Bush and his Iraq administrator L. Paul Bremer was that Sadr was against American occupation. So he had to be dealt with. First his newspaper was closed. Then his top advisor was arrested. Then Bremer announced an unnamed judge was demanding Sadr be arrested on charges of murder.

"He's effectively attempting to establish his authority in place of the legitimate Iraqi government," Bremer told reporters. "We will not tolerate that."

That was the last straw. Until April 4, 2004, Moqtada al-Sadr had urged his followers to protest peacefully against American occupation. But the American assault lead him to urge his followers to "terrorize the enemy."

In the first 48 hours of fighting, Sadr's followers seized police stations and government buildings across the country, including the governor's office in Basra. At least 75 Iraqis and 10 American servicemen were killed, among them Army Specialist Casey Sheehan.

As an unembedded journalist, I saw only the Iraqi casualties (the U.S. casualties being taken away to military hospitals). My translator Waseem and I weaved through roads closed by American tanks until we arrived at Sadr City's al-Ubaidi hospital.

There, I interviewed 15-year-old Ali Hussein. He lay in the hospital – an American bullet lodged in his gut. He was barely able to lift his head, but he wanted to say a few words to the American reporter:

"I was standing in my doorway, and I was shot," he said. "I don't have anything to say to the Americans. It's just between them and God."

A few miles away at Baghdad's Mustansuriye University, hundreds of students marched through the center of campus. They chanted, "The dead want a brave people, so we won't follow the law of Bremer."

"We will act according to the situation that we face," said Wassam Mehdi Hussein, head of the Islamic Union of Iraqi Students standing by Sadr's declaration of jihad against the occupation. "We will use any means peaceful and violent."

Another Mustansuriye student, Ali Mohammed, noted the violence started when the American military closed Sadr's newspaper and arrested his top adviser.

"We don't want to fight the Americans," he told me. "We are very grateful to them. They are very dear to us because they released us from Saddam. But at the same time, we want them to do something for humanity. A lot of people are suffering from hunger and sitting at home having no work."

"These things make the situation bad, and then we turn to explosions. We want to respect them, and we want them to respect us."

A year on, such respect still isn't forthcoming – even to Americans like Cindy Sheehan, who deserve to know the truth about why their sons have been killed in Iraq.



-------- latin america

Rumsfeld Attacks Hugo Chavez

Friday, August 19th, 2005
Headlines Democracy Now!

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/19/1441247

Donald Rumsfeld is amplifying the US hostility against Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. On a visit to Peru, Rumsfeld said Chavez was guilty of "anti-social, destabilizing behavior" that threatened regional security. Rumsfeld also charged that Chavez and Cuban President Fidel Castro had interfered in the affairs of Bolivia. That country's president was brought down earlier this year in an indigenous-led revolt. Some analysts say that Rumsfeld's remarks show that the Bush administration is gearing up for an escalation in its hostility to the progressive movements that are growing in Latin America. Venezuela has regularly confronted Washington's interference in its affairs, recently threatening to cut off oil supplies to the US.



-------- POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE


-------- courts / tribunals

Roberts showed conservative stripes as White House lawyer

8/19/2005 3:25 PM (AP)

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-08-19-roberts-reagan_x.htm

WASHINGTON — As a young White House lawyer, Supreme Court nominee John Roberts cautioned against allowing President Reagan to say the United States was "the greatest nation God ever created," saying he feared it would lead to political ridicule.

In an Oct. 11 1984 memo, Roberts wrote that according to the Biblical book of Genesis, "God creates things like the heavens and the earth, and the birds and the fishes, but not nations."

"...The phrase strikes me as ill-advised and, particularly in light of the focus on the religion and politics issue, a likely candidate for the 'Reaganism of the Week," he wrote White House counsel Fred Fielding.

Roberts wrote his memo after reviewing remarks proposed for Reagan to make in a trip to Greenville, S.C. during his successful 1984 re-election campaign.

The memo was included in more than 50,000 pages of Reagan-era records released earlier this week, documents that show Roberts was a staunch defender of the conservative policies of the Reagan administration and a surprising critic of then-Chief Justice Warren Burger.

Roberts, nominated by President Bush to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, thought little of Burger's idea to add an additional court to the federal judiciary to help relieve the high court's workload.

"While some of the tales of woe emanating from the Court are enough to bring tears to the eyes, it is true that only Supreme Court justices and schoolchildren are expected to and do take the entire summer off," Roberts wrote on April 19, 1983, in a memo to Fielding, his boss at the time.

He went on to say: "The generally accepted notion that the Court can only hear roughly 150 cases a year gives the same sense of reassurance as the adjournment of the court in July, when we know the Constitution is safe for the summer."

Those words may return to haunt Roberts when he faces the Senate Judiciary Committee next month, where senators will question him on his ability and qualifications to sit on that court.

The memo and other materials made public Thursday by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., and the National Archives completed the disclosure of more than 50,000 pages that cover Roberts' tenure as a lawyer in the White House counsel's office from 1982-86.

Nearly 2,000 more pages from the same period have been withheld on national security or privacy grounds.

Additionally, over the persistent protests of Senate Democrats, the White House has refused to make available any of the records covering Roberts' later tenure as principal deputy solicitor general during the administration of President George H.W. Bush.

Representatives from seven liberal-leaning organizations Friday called on the White House to put out those documents, saying that what's been released so far has been troubling to them. Memoranda from his service as deputy solicitor general would "potentially say a great deal about Judge Roberts' views on important areas of the law" such as civil rights, abortion and the environment, among others, said Nan Aron, president of the Alliance for Justice.

Taken as a whole, the material released Thursday reinforced the well-established image of Roberts as a young lawyer whose views on abortion, affirmative action, school prayer and more were in harmony with the conservative president he served. In one memo, he referred favorably to efforts to "defund the left."

Democrats say they will question Roberts closely on those subjects and others at are beginning to mount an attempt to defeat his nomination.

"I have the ultimate step," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. "I can use all the parliamentary rules I have as a senator to stand up and fight for you."

The documents released Thursday recalled the battles of the Reagan era and underscored the breadth of the issues that crossed Roberts' desk.

Reviewing material for Reagan, he counseled the president against saying AIDS couldn't be transmitted through casual contact, writing that scientists at that time weren't completely certain. "I would not like to see the president reassuring the public on this point, only to find out he was wrong later," he wrote.

On other issues, Roberts:

• Disparaged state efforts to combat discrimination against women and wondered whether "encouraging homemakers to become lawyers contributes to the common good." (Related story: Roberts against women's act, for ID cards)

• Advised senior officials not to try to circumvent the will of Congress when it established a nationwide 55 mph speed limit.

• Struggled to define the line that Reagan and other officials should not cross in encouraging private help to the forces opposing the leftist Sandinista government of Nicaragua.

He also showed a wry sense of humor in some of the documents, as he took slight shots at people like Burger.

Burger wanted administration support for a new position called "Chancellor of the United States." Burger would choose the chancellor from the appellate court judges, and assist the chief justice in his nonjudicial functions.

Roberts called it "the silliest of the provisions" in the Court Improvement Act of 1983, in an Aug. 22, 1983, memo to Fielding.

He added: "The bill does not specify whether the Chancellor will wear a powdered wig." 



-------- homeland security / national intelligence

Most New York voters back subway searches

8/19/2005 1:07 PM (AP)
	
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-08-19-subwaysearches_x.htm

NEW YORK — A large majority of the city's registered voters support random bag searches of bus and subway passengers, according to a poll released Friday.

In a Quinnipiac University survey of 1,601 voters, 72% favored the searches while 25% opposed them. Support was solid among blacks, whites and Hispanics.

Random searches of packages and backpacks carried by people entering city subways began last month in the wake of the bomb attacks in London subways.

The searches have raised some questions about civil liberties, and most of those polled, 55% to 38%, said government security measures should not violate basic civil rights.

The 255 who considered themselves Republicans were an exception, with 60% of them agreeing that the government should take "all steps necessary to prevent additional acts of terrorism in the United States even if it means your basic civil liberties would be violated."

The 854 who consider themselves Democrats were 62% to 32% against that proposition. Independents also rejected violations of civil liberties, 54-39%.

"Even in a city touchy about civil rights, New Yorkers pick a bag search over the threat of being blown up," said Quinnipiac polling director Maurice Carroll. "But most voters don't want to give government too much power."

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Republican who frequently rides the subway, said on his weekly radio show Friday that the searches are an attempt at "making sure there are things going on that are unpredictable."

The telephone poll of 1,601 registered voters in New York City was conducted during the week that ended Monday. It has a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points for the overall poll, 3.5 percentage points for the Democratic segment and 6 percentage points for the Republican segment.



-------- POLITICS


-------- propaganda wars

Iraq weapons fear letter was 'buried'

By Marian Wilkinson National Security Editor
August 19, 2005 Sydney Morning Herald

http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news2/smh67.html

A letter written by a former senior Foreign Affairs officer setting out grave concerns over the hunt for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction after the war was withheld from a Senate inquiry, blocking efforts to investigate US pressures on Australian personnel in Iraq, according to a new report.

The five-page letter, written by a senior Australian weapons analyst, Dr John Gee, explained his resignation from the US-led Iraq Survey Group, the body charged with finding Iraq's WMD.

The letter was given to the offices of the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, and the Prime Minister, John Howard, in early 2004, just as the Australian and US governments were dealing with reports that no WMDs had been found in Iraq.

According to a Senate report released yesterday, no official in the Federal Government would provide information on Dr Gee's resignation or on the high-level meetings Dr Gee held with Mr Downer, the Defence Department or the Prime Minister's office at the time.

Dr Gee, who still works as a consultant to Australian intelligence, also declined to appear before the Senate inquiry or provide a copy of his resignation letter. The Senate inquiry into Duties of Australian Personnel in Iraq was prompted by revelations earlier this year by another former Australian weapons inspector, Rod Barton, about pressures from the CIA on the Iraq Survey Group and the abuse of Iraqi scientists under US interrogation.

Yesterday Mr Barton expressed disappointment that he was the only witness who agreed to give evidence to the inquiry: "It's a funny sort of democracy, it seems to me, where the truth is withheld. there are those in the Government that could have testified before the committee, in Foreign Affairs and Defence."

Mr Barton resigned from the Iraq Survey Group shortly before Dr Gee, after he witnessed pressure on the inspectors in Iraq to influence their interim findings. Mr Barton told the Howard Government about the pressure on the inspectors but it did not disclose either his or Dr Gee's resignation at the time.

"Making it known that the two most senior people Australia had in the Iraq Survey Group had quit within a few weeks of each other would have been embarrassing to everyone, to the Australian Government and to the Americans,"he told the Herald.

Significantly, the final report of the Iraq Survey Group confirmed that Iraq had no active WMD programs before the war, undermining the principal reason for the US led invasion.

Because no other witness agreed to appear, the Senate committee said it was unable to find sufficient evidence that the Iraq Survey Group was pressured over its interim findings.

"Mr Barton's evidence indicates that there were attempts to influence the ISG [Iraq Survey Group] but there is no corroborating evidence," the report concluded.

Mr Barton had also raised concerns with the Defence Department over his concerns that Iraq scientists under interrogation were being abused in a "softening-up" process. He specifically raised the case of Dr Mohammad al-Azmerli, who died while he was being held for interrogation in US custody.

Mr Barton had been told that Dr Azmerli had died of natural causes, but he later learnt an Iraqi autopsy found he had died of a blunt trauma inquiry. Mr Barton's allegations of abuse were kept confidential until he went public earlier this year. US military investigators had subsequently reopened an inquiry into the scientist's death.

The Senate report recommends that the Defence Department review procedures for briefing all Australian personnel operating overseas on its code of conduct and legal responsibilities; that they "must be made aware of their obligations with regard to human rights issues which includes their obligations to report any activity that seems illegal".


-------- voting

What They Did Last Fall

By PAUL KRUGMAN
August 19, 2005 NY TIMES

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/19/opinion/19krugman.html?pagewanted=print

By running for the U.S. Senate, Katherine Harris, Florida's former secretary of state, has stirred up some ugly memories. And that's a good thing, because those memories remain relevant. There was at least as much electoral malfeasance in 2004 as there was in 2000, even if it didn't change the outcome. And the next election may be worse.

In his recent book "Steal This Vote" - a very judicious work, despite its title - Andrew Gumbel, a U.S. correspondent for the British newspaper The Independent, provides the best overview I've seen of the 2000 Florida vote. And he documents the simple truth: "Al Gore won the 2000 presidential election."

Two different news media consortiums reviewed Florida's ballots; both found that a full manual recount would have given the election to Mr. Gore. This was true despite a host of efforts by state and local officials to suppress likely Gore votes, most notably Ms. Harris's "felon purge," which disenfranchised large numbers of valid voters.

But few Americans have heard these facts. Perhaps journalists have felt that it would be divisive to cast doubt on the Bush administration's legitimacy. If so, their tender concern for the nation's feelings has gone for naught: Cindy Sheehan's supporters are camped in Crawford, and America is more bitterly divided than ever.

Meanwhile, the whitewash of what happened in Florida in 2000 showed that election-tampering carries no penalty, and political operatives have acted accordingly. For example, in 2002 the Republican Party in New Hampshire hired a company to jam Democratic and union phone banks on Election Day.

And what about 2004?

Mr. Gumbel throws cold water on those who take the discrepancy between the exit polls and the final result as evidence of a stolen election. (I told you it's a judicious book.) He also seems, on first reading, to play down what happened in Ohio. But the theme of his book is that America has a long, bipartisan history of dirty elections.

He told me that he wasn't brushing off the serious problems in Ohio, but that "this is what American democracy typically looks like, especially in a presidential election in a battleground state that is controlled substantially by one party."

So what does U.S. democracy look like? There have been two Democratic reports on Ohio in 2004, one commissioned by Representative John Conyers Jr., the other by the Democratic National Committee.

The D.N.C. report is very cautious: "The purpose of this investigation," it declares, "was not to challenge or question the results of the election in any way." It says there is no evidence that votes were transferred away from John Kerry - but it does suggest that many potential Kerry votes were suppressed. Although the Conyers report is less cautious, it stops far short of claiming that the wrong candidate got Ohio's electoral votes.

But both reports show that votes were suppressed by long lines at polling places - lines caused by inadequate numbers of voting machines - and that these lines occurred disproportionately in areas likely to vote Democratic. Both reports also point to problems involving voters who were improperly forced to cast provisional votes, many of which were discarded.

The Conyers report goes further, highlighting the blatant partisanship of election officials. In particular, the behavior of Ohio's secretary of state, Kenneth Blackwell - who supervised the election while serving as co-chairman of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Ohio - makes Ms. Harris's actions in 2000 seem mild by comparison.

And then there are the election night stories. Warren County locked down its administration building and barred public observers from the vote-counting, citing an F.B.I. warning of a terrorist threat. But the F.B.I. later denied issuing any such warning. Miami County reported that voter turnout was an improbable 98.55 percent of registered voters. And so on.

We aren't going to rerun the last three elections. But what about the future?

Our current political leaders would suffer greatly if either house of Congress changed hands in 2006, or if the presidency changed hands in 2008. The lids would come off all the simmering scandals, from the selling of the Iraq war to profiteering by politically connected companies. The Republicans will be strongly tempted to make sure that they win those elections by any means necessary. And everything we've seen suggests that they will give in to that temptation.

E-mail: krugman@nytimes.com

Thomas L. Friedman is on vacation.



-------- ENERGY 

Can uranium supply the world's energy needs?

By Jon Nones
19 Aug 2005 at 11:33 AM Resource Investor

http://www.resourceinvestor.com/pebble.asp?relid=12177

An article by Graham Matthews examines this pertinent question. Here are a few excerpts:

    “Over the next 25 years, the world's population is expected to increase from the present six billion to approximately eight billion and has the potential to reach ten billion later this century. In response to this dramatic population increase, demand for energy will at least double by 2050.

    “With the rising concern about greenhouse gas emissions, governments and environmental groups are now looking at nuclear power as a solution to feed the world's growing power demands.

    “Currently, 17% of the world's energy is generated from nuclear power using uranium as fuel. One third of the uranium required to fuel these power plants comes from mines in Canada and another one quarter is sourced from Australia. The remaining supply (about half of the world's needs) comes from recycled nuclear warheads.

    “In fact, 10% of all electricity generated in the United States comes from these warheads. This above-ground stockpile is quickly being depleted thus new supplies of uranium must be found and mined to meet this need.”


-------- alternative energy

Enbridge, Suncor to Build Alberta Wind Power Plant

REUTERS CANADA: August 19, 2005

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/32113/story.htm

VANCOUVER - Enbridge Inc., a subsidiary of Suncor Energy Inc. and a unit of Spain's Acciona group have teamed up to build their second wind power plant in southern Alberta, the firms said Wednesday.

The C$60 million ($50 million), 30-megawatt Chin Chute wind project is expected to produce enough electricity to power 14,000 homes and comes at a time when Ottawa is urging greater use of non-polluting sources of energy.

The project will start being built next month near the town of Taber, some 266 km (165 miles) southeast of Calgary.

Enbridge, Canada's second largest energy pipeline company, will fund a third of the cost of the venture, which includes Suncor Energy Products and EHN Wind Power Canada as partners. Another 30 MW venture owned by the same consortium is based in the nearby town of Magrath.

EHN will be the operator of the project, which is expected to be in service late next year.

"We see alternative and renewable energies as something that need to be developed by traditional industries," Enbridge spokesman Bruce DeBaie said.

"It is part also of a growing and profitable product line for our company. It doesn't represent very much at this point but it is still economically viable," he added.

($US1=$1.21 Canadian)



-------- OTHER


-------- environment

Company Fined for Hazwaste Violations on Gila River Indian Reserve

SAN FRANCISCO, California, August 19, 2005 (ENS)

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/aug2005/2005-08-19-09.asp#anchor7

The U.S. EPA Pacific Southwest region has fined Romic Environmental Technologies $67,900 for multiple hazardous waste violations at its facility on the Gila River Indian Reservation in the Lone Butte Industrial Park in Chandler, Arizona.

The company corrected the violations and will also spend $100,800 on lifesaving equipment for the Gila River Indian Community Fire Department and air monitoring and meteorological equipment for the Gila River Indian Community Department of Environmental Quality.

"Proper waste management is critical, and the EPA is committed to ensure that companies handling hazardous waste comply with the law," said Jeff Scott, the EPA's Waste Management Division director for the Pacific Southwest region.

The Romic facility is a hazardous waste storage and treatment facility, primarily recycling solvents. Romic performs solvent recycling, blending, aerosol can processing, bulking, container crushing, and waste consolidation for off-site disposal.

During joint EPA and Gila River Indian Community inspections in February 2002, August 2002 and April 2003, inspectors discovered that Romic failed to properly operate, inspect, monitor and maintain records for the air emission control device, the closed-vent system and the hazardous waste storage tanks.

In addition, the company failed to properly mark, monitor, inspect, calibrate and maintain records for equipment that contains or contacts hazardous waste.

Romic stored ignitable wastes less than 50 feet from the property line and stored incompatible wastes next to each other, and in addition, failed to store hazardous waste in containers in good condition, and label and close hazardous waste containers.

The company also failed to conduct inspections and maintain complete inspection logs. 

----

Newmont Mining to Challenge Pollution Case

August 19, 2005 — By Associated Press

http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=8557

MANADO, Indonesia — The world's largest gold mining company will return to court Friday to defend itself against charges that it polluted a bay in Indonesia, sickening villagers who lived nearby.

Lawyers for Denver-based Newmont Mining Corp. are expected to argue that the investigation was flawed and that the law has been poorly applied.

The trial, which opened two weeks ago on Sulawesi Island, is being closely watched by business leaders who say a guilty verdict could set back Indonesia's improving foreign investment climate.

The government says the company's Indonesian subsidiary, Newmont Minahasa Raya, violated environmental laws by dumping millions of tons of mercury and arsenic-laced pollutants into the Buyat Bay, allegedly causing villagers to develop skin diseases and other illnesses.

It is holding that company's chief, American Richard Ness, accountable. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $68,000 if convicted.

Newmont has repeatedly said the charges are baseless, citing test data that found the bay was not polluted.

But its defense plea on Friday is expected to focus almost entirely on the legal flaws it says are in the 72-page indictment.

The company refused to discuss its legal strategy publicly this week. But in the past, it has said it would challenge the case against Ness, saying that such a challenge doesn't have a basis in Indonesia's environmental law.

It will also argue that authorities failed first to bring up the company on administrative charges -- as required by law -- and that police ignored evidence that favored the company.

Prosecutors are expect to respond to the Newmont plea in the coming weeks and a judge will rule by mid-September.



-------- ACTIVISTS


Crawford Vigil Is Not Over

Friday, August 19th, 2005 Democracy Now!

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/19/1441251

Exclusive Interview with Cindy Sheehan After Mother's Stroke: "I Want to Get Back As Soon As Possible"

Broadcasting on location from Crawford, Texas, Democracy Now! brings you the voices of military families and anti-war activists who are speaking out against the occupation of Iraq. Cindy Sheehan left Crawford last night to attend to her sick mother, but we caught up with her on her way out of Texas. [includes rush transcript] Cindy Sheehan had to leave Crawford temporarily after her mother suffered a stroke. She spoke with Democracy Now! in the airport on her way to Los Angeles. She said that also she left her vigil without meeting with President Bush, she said, "This Camp Casey movement is bigger than me. It's growing, it's bigger than any of us."

Cindy Sheehan went on, "I believe that it is my right and responsibility as an American to question our government when our government is wrong. I'm not one of the immature patriots who say my country right or wrong because my country is wrong now, and my country-the policies of my country are responsible for killing tens of thousands of innocent people, and I won't stand by and let that happen anymore."

    * Cindy Sheehan, her son Casey was killed in Iraq in April 2004. She is the co-founder of Gold Star Families for Peace.

RUSH TRANSCRIPT

JUAN GONZALEZ: We head now to Crawford, Texas, where Amy Goodman is reporting today from the grounds of Camp Casey, just down the road from President Bush's property. Well, Amy, I’m guessing Karl Rove didn't invite you in.

AMY GOODMAN: No, we're right outside the ranch, although we did drive down George W. Bush Highway to get here. We're at Camp Casey, Juan. It's just outside of President Bush's ranch, where he is vacationing now. We're somewhat near a Secret Service checkpoint, so the Secret Service is changing shift right now. Behind me people are waking up, about a hundred people slept here last night. The signs say that “Bush should speak to Cindy,” it says. Another just says “Welcome to Camp Casey.” Casey, of course, is Cindy Sheehan's son, Casey Sheehan, who died in Iraq, as she says on 04/04/04. That's [April] 4, 2004.

Last night, when we came into Ft. Worth – to Dallas/Ft. Worth airport, we actually crossed paths with Cindy. She was planning to stay here during the entire time that President Bush is vacationing, but yesterday afternoon she learned in a telephone call that her mother had suffered a stroke in Los Angeles, California, and so she and her sister Dee Dee dropped everything here, and they raced to Waco to the airport, flew off to the airport, where we were just coming in from New York, the Democracy Now! crew. We met her at her gate and sat down and had a conversation with Cindy to find out how she's doing, but also to find out what her plans are.

This is Cindy Sheehan, the woman who began it all here just a few weeks ago when she left a Veterans for Peace annual meeting in Dallas and headed to President Bush's ranch, asking if he would simply have a meeting with her. I asked her yesterday at the airport how her mother was.

      CINDY SHEEHAN: It’s too early to tell. She was still in the emergency room when we left, so we didn't get any messages from my brother, who is there with her right now. So, hopefully, the status hasn't changed since we last talked to him.

      AMY GOODMAN: What do you think it means for you to leave Crawford, for you to leave the ranch where President Bush is vacationing?

      CINDY SHEEHAN: Well, it's kind of ironic, because this morning I gave two interviews, one to Air America and one to “Nightline” early this morning. And I said, you know what, this Camp Casey movement is bigger than me. It's growing. It's bigger than any of us. And even if I had to leave today, it would keep on going. And if we leave August 31 without the President speaking to us, it's going to keep on. It's growing. It's organic. It's here, and nothing is going to stop it. And just because I’m gone, things will just carry on as normal. I want to get back as soon as possible, because I did say I would stay there until President Bush spoke with me until he left on August 31. I hope if he comes out and speaks to the other moms that they give him hell, though.

      AMY GOODMAN: How many other moms are there there of people who are in Iraq or who have died in Iraq?

      CINDY SHEEHAN: We have about six moms there. They're Gold Star moms. And there's probably -- I don't -- of women who have -- who have children over there right now, it's hard to tell. Maybe about the same or a little bit more.

      AMY GOODMAN: Your reaction to the more than 1,500 vigils that were held around the country on Wednesday night?

      CINDY SHEEHAN: It, to me, is just absolutely amazing and so gratifying that something I did – like, I was just a spark that just lit this fire, and it's blazing, and it's out of control now. Like I said, we don't need the spark anymore, and I am just -- I’m just so grateful that the universe chose me to be the spark, but also that America has responded. But I’m grateful and amazed, but I’m not surprised, because I have seen this coming.

      AMY GOODMAN: If you get this meeting with President Bush, what will you say to him?

      CINDY SHEEHAN: I want to ask him what was the noble cause that Casey and the others have died for, because he keeps on saying that they died for a noble cause, and I don't think a war of aggression against a nation that was no threat to the United States of America is a noble cause. And I’m not going to let him tell me about keeping America safe for freedom and democracy, because he told us before he invaded that it was about weapons of mass destruction and Saddam Hussein with some kind of a link to al Qaeda. And that's been proven wrong, and it's been proven wrong consistently, and the Downing Street memos prove that as early as July of 2002, they knew that that was wrong and they had to fabricate the intelligence to fit their policy of invading Iraq. And that means that my son's murder was premeditated.

      AMY GOODMAN: Where did your son die?

      CINDY SHEEHAN: He died in Sadr City, Baghdad, in an ambush on April 4, 2004.

      AMY GOODMAN: What was his understanding of why he was going there?

      CINDY SHEEHAN: He thought it was probably for oil, and he didn't want to go. He didn't agree that the President was using his troops wisely. And I begged him not to go, and he said, “Mom, I have to go. My buddies are going.” And if I had known that, you know, if I had known what was going to happen to him, I think I probably would have tried to force him into Canada or something, but, you know, he was an adult, and he thought it was his duty, and so I was as supportive as I could be. He was only there for five days, though, before he was killed.

      AMY GOODMAN: There is a major rightwing attack on you led by Bill O'Reilly, the Drudge Report. They call you a traitor. Your response?

      CINDY SHEEHAN: I believe that it is my right and responsibility as an American to question our government when our government is wrong. I’m not one of the immature patriots who say my country, right or wrong, because my country is wrong now, and my country -- the policies of my country are responsible for killing tens of thousands of innocent people, and I won't stand by and let that happen anymore. And I believe that anybody who tries to tell me that I don't have the right to say what I’m saying, they're unpatriotic, they're un-American, and their attacks are not going to stop me.

      AMY GOODMAN: Are you going to follow President Bush back to the White House? Are you going to follow him from now on?

      CINDY SHEEHAN: We're going to do a bus tour from Crawford to D.C. on the 31st, and it's going to -- we're going to take three buses through different parts of the country, going through different cities, picking up different people, and we're going to converge together on D.C. on September 24th for the big United for Peace and Justice rally. And I won't be able to be on those buses because I have commitments. My whole entire month of September is committed. And it was even before I decided to do this, so I’m going to be meeting up with everybody on September 24 in D.C. And then we'll see where we're going to go from there.

      AMY GOODMAN: Do you plan on taking up the same vigil in Lafayette Park outside the White House?

      CINDY SHEEHAN: There's a group of us planning on doing that. I won't, of course, be able to be there 24 hours a day forever, but it's going to be like a rotating vigil. And then when he goes back to Crawford, we'll go back to Crawford. 

AMY GOODMAN: That is Cindy Sheehan, she was speaking to us at Dallas/Ft. Worth Airport, as she caught the next plane to Los Angeles to see her ailing mother. Her mother had a stroke yesterday. She is 74 years old. Cindy Sheehan, co-founder of Gold Star Families for Peace, also founder of Camp Casey, named for her son, Casey Sheehan, who died April 4, 2004, in Iraq in Sadr City. 

----

Army Vet Ann Wright Running "Field Operations for Peace, Not War"

Friday, August 19th, 2005 Democracy Now!

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/19/1441254

Ann Wright spent 26 years in the U.S. Army and Army Reserves. She was a diplomat in the State Department for 15 years before resigning in March 2003, protesting the then-impending invasion of Iraq. [includes rush transcript] Longtime diplomat Ann Wright is running Camp Casey. She told Democracy Now! that in the past, "if you had planned to come to Crawford in the middle of the hot summer in August, no one would have come with you, if you had planned it. But spontaneously, we have now been here 11 days in the most intense heat that you can imagine of west Texas. Some of the most intense heat thunderstorms."

Ann White described the new site for Camp Casey on the property of one of Bush's neighbors. She said, "The neighbor of President Bush, a brave man here in Texas, who came to us and said, you have the right to free speech. We know that you are in the ditches. You should have a better facility than just the ditches."

    * Ann Wright, longtime U.S. diplomat and Army veteran. She is coordinating Camp Casey.

RUSH TRANSCRIPT

AMY GOODMAN: We're broadcasting live from Crawford, Texas, just outside President Bush's ranch, where he is vacationing now. More than a hundred people at this early hour have gathered, and more will come throughout the day, as they honor the dead and request that President Bush meet with the military mothers who have lost their children in Iraq. To the right of me here at Camp Casey are hundreds of crosses of young people who have died in Iraq. Our guest is Ann Wright. She's from Honolulu. She's an American diplomat who served the U.S. government for decades. She was the Deputy Chief of Mission in Afghanistan, reopened the mission in 2001; the Deputy Chief of Mission in Mongolia. It was there just before the invasion that Ann Wright said no and quit. And she joins us now. Welcome to Democracy Now!

ANN WRIGHT: Well, and welcome to Camp Casey, Amy, and Democracy Now!

AMY GOODMAN: Well, you're running this show almost like a military camp, in a sense. You have some experience.

ANN WRIGHT: Well, that's right. It's quite remarkable. You're almost setting up field operations, but field operations for peace, not war. And this, it’s been remarkable. We started with one car staying overnight, one tent, two tents, three tents. Now we have got -- I counted last night, we had 80 cars and about 40 tents that stayed the night here. And during the course of the day, we'll be having probably 300 to 400 people that will be coming through from all over the country to spend a couple of hours, maybe a day or two. It's a remarkable outpouring from America.

AMY GOODMAN: You came here with Cindy Sheehan?

ANN WRIGHT: That's right. She and I were both speaking at the Veterans for Peace conference in Dallas when she said she was so mad about President Bush saying that the war is a noble cause and people were dying for noble things, that she said, ‘I'm going to have to tell the President. I'm going to Crawford. Who wants to go?’ Well, overnight, we organized a convoy of ten vehicles, 70 people came up here, and we were met by 50 people that had heard on the internet that she was going to be up here. And we have been here ever since, from Saturday, 11-12 days ago, I don't know how long ago, but my back sleeping on the ground for twelve nights, I tell you, it's been a while.

AMY GOODMAN: Just behind you are hundreds of crosses. How many, actually?

ANN WRIGHT: There are 846 crosses that have been placed by Arlington West out of Los Angeles. It's only, you know, less than really, oh, a fourth of what the 1,800 and -- gosh, I don't even know how many now tragically have been killed, Americans killed. We have 500 of those were damaged a couple of nights ago when a single individual here from the Waco community drug a chain down the row of crosses, a chain from the back of his truck and knocked them down. We know that wasn't a sentiment of all of the people of Texas, at all. In fact, we had people that came out from Crawford to help set those crosses back up. But it does -- it's an indication of the division of America on this war itself. But all of these people that you see here, all of the 1,600 vigils that were held night before last all over America, I believe it's now the twelve encampments, the Camp Caseys all over America, the movement that Cindy has spearheaded but that is moving forward with all families that have suffered losses or all families that have service men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan right now. It's a movement of pressure on our government to stop this war.

AMY GOODMAN: You're staying in the ditches here along the road, but you're breaking camp and you're moving to some private property. Can you talk about the man who offered you his farm, the neighbor of President Bush?

ANN WRIGHT: The neighbor of President Bush, a brave man here in Texas, who came to us and said, ‘You have the right to free speech, and we know that you are in the ditches, and you should have a better facility than just the ditches. You need to,’ -- he said, ‘I want to offer you a piece of property that will get you out of this very dangerous road area.’ And actually, it's the most remarkable place in the world. It is right next to one of two Secret Service checkpoints. So we will have a protest that is right on the entrance to the Bush ranch. We told the Secret Service, ‘We know that you are concerned about this, but you don't have to be, because we come in peace and non-violence. We're not causing any trouble. All we want is that the servant of America, the President of America, speak to the people of America, those that are speaking in opposition to a major policy.’

AMY GOODMAN: The man who offered you his property did it almost as penance, because it was his, what, third cousin who opened -- well, who fired off his shotgun on his own property the other day?

ANN WRIGHT: Well, that’s -- I don't know if it was penance. I think he's really a free speech person, but it is an interesting thing that right over here, right beyond that truck is where a couple of days ago, one of his relatives fired, for dove season practice, fired a couple of shots in the air that, of course, concerned us. They weren't aimed at us. They were actually -- I guess it was aimed more at President's ranch, but it concerned the Secret Service and concerned us. But we understand the concern of all the property owners around here, because we have encamped in a very small place and have been forced into the ditches, so we have no place to operate. So, the traffic congestion is hard. It's difficult, but we're working as best we can to do, well, everything is being done in a legal fashion. We are in the ditches. We're not impinging on public property or private property.

AMY GOODMAN: Ann Wright, you reopened the U.S. mission in Afghanistan, December 2001. How does running that operation compare to here?

ANN WRIGHT: It’s quite similar. There we had an embassy that had not been in operation in twelve years. No one had lived in the embassy building or worked in it. We had one commode and one shower for 100 marines and five civilians, where here, we have the Peace House, where in the early days we had one shower and one commode for -- well, it's now up to during the day maybe 5-600 people that wander through -- not wander, they're coming here with a purpose. So it's -- they're all both under very difficult conditions, in a sense, combat conditions, but our combat goal is to end war, to end this war.

So we're suffering under the same types of situations of very difficult living conditions and environmental conditions. Afghanistan was very cold when we were there in December. Here in August, I mean, nobody -- you couldn't -- nobody -- if you had planned to come to Crawford in the middle of the hot summer in August, no one would have come with you, if you had planned it. But spontaneously, we have now been here eleven days in the most intense heat that you can imagine of West Texas, and some of the most intense thunderstorms. We have had three days of intense weather, of lightning, thunder --

AMY GOODMAN: But you're still here.

ANN WRIGHT: But we're still here, and we will stay. Cindy's needing to go home to be with her mother, Cindy and her sister Dee Dee. She's taking care of the family problems that she needs to, but when she left, she said, ‘You have got to continue the camp. We have got to continue.’ And, of course, we will. We have got Gold Star mothers that are here just like Cindy that are continuing the movement.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you very much, Ann Wright, for joining us. Ann Wright is the diplomat, one of the few, who quit right around the time of the invasion. 

----

Crawford Peace House Supports Camp Casey

Friday, August 19th, 2005 Democracy Now!

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/19/1442221

The activist community center, Crawford Peace House is hosting Camp Casey. We speak with Peace House spokesperson Hadi Jawad. [includes rush transcript] Hadi Jawad works for the Crawford Peace House, which was founded two and a half years ago. Jawad says the Peace House and efforts like Camp Casey are reaching out locally to residents of the conservative town of Crawford.

    * Hadi Jawad, Crawford Peace House

RUSH TRANSCRIPT

AMY GOODMAN: We wrap up today with Hadi Jawad. He is co-founder of the Crawford Peace House. When we came in last night, driving on George W. Bush Highway, we then went over to the Crawford Peace House. Welcome.

HADI JAWAD: Welcome to you. Thank you for coming to Crawford. We invited you about five months ago up in Dallas, if you remember. So really glad you are here.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, I'm glad to be back. Can you talk about the Peace House? Talk about this community that Crawford -- that the ranch resides in?

HADI JAWAD: It is remarkable, what's happening here in Crawford, Texas. Of course, we opened our doors about two-and-a-half years ago on Easter Sunday, 2002, and we told Cindy that we have been waiting all this time for you and everybody else to show up, and we are so glad they did. This is -- could be a pivotal moment in the direction of our country. She is encapsulating and voicing what millions of Americans have in their hearts. As your listeners know, 60% of Americans now have deep misgivings about the current administration's Iraq war policy, and Cindy has become the voice for that dissent and galvanizing millions around the country and around the world.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about this little piece of land in the world, Crawford, the place where President Bush bought this property to vacation and to call his second home; what the people of Crawford are like; their reception to you at the Peace House, which is here permanently, and to Camp Casey, that has just been set up?

HADI JAWAD: The President's ranch is about eight miles north of the city of Crawford, which a very, very small town, actually. This is a strongly, staunchly pro-Bush territory. When we first came here, and still to the day, the people of Crawford, and we have no doubt in our minds that this has created a big disruption in the lives of the people of Crawford, and we do everything we can to minimize the disruption that these folks face any time people like us come to Crawford.

In our opinion, the western White House, had it not been for the Crawford Peace House, would have been able to carry on their business without anybody offering any objections or ideas that are not in agreement with this administration's policy, so we felt imperative that we -- that somebody be here in Crawford to speak out when this administration speaks out.

We have tried to make inroads into the community in Crawford and around Crawford. We have made many overtures to the folks to come and sit down and break bread with us and dialogue with us and discuss with us the issues not only facing Americans, but people around the world. We have made many inroads, overtures to the clergy and said, you know, please, try to find -- we want to find out who you are. Please come and talk to us. Unfortunately, we have not had much success.

AMY GOODMAN: Although one local paper here did not endorse President Bush, and then you have this other paper called The Iconoclast in town.

HADI JAWAD: The Iconoclast catapulted to worldwide attention when it endorsed John Kerry in the last elections. I don't mean to indicate that there's nobody in this area that's not supportive. For example, we have Mr. Fred Mattlage, who is related to the gentleman who fired the shots, came to the Peace House three days ago and said that he was ashamed by the actions of his cousin. He brings shame not only to his family, but to all Texans, because this is not what Texas hospitality is all about, and offered us very graciously his land for Camp Casey to move to, which will be happening today, as you know. The whole camp is going to move to a new location, and in our opinion, it's an escalation from our point, because we will have semi-permanent quarters.

AMY GOODMAN: Hadi Jawad, thank you so much for being with us.

HADI JAWAD: Thank you, Amy.

AMY GOODMAN: Hadi Jawad is the co-founder of the Crawford Peace House. As we wrap up here today, this weekend, Lance Armstrong is coming to the ranch. He will be riding with President Bush on bicycles. He has also come out against the Iraq war, said the money would be better spent on, well, budgets like the National Cancer Institute. Yes, Lance Armstrong, a cancer survivor. On Saturday night, Steve Earle is going to come here and play, and on Sunday, Joan Baez will also be bringing the music to this community. And the events here just continue to evolve. Today a religious ceremony will take place, religious leaders of different faiths walking past the crosses of more than 800 service men and women who have died in Iraq.