NucNews January 16, 2006 -------- NUCLEAR -------- depleted uranium Nuclear War: Depleted Uranium Jack's "Straight-Speak" January 16, 2006 Uruk.net http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m19690&l=i&size=1&hd=0 Photo of DU baby: http://www.uruknet.info/pic.php?f=du-baby19.jpg There are two essays/reports by Leuren Moret on Depleted Uranium in this post. Both are as important reading as anything I have come across. The use of, and continued use of depleted uranium weapons-bombs, missiles and bullets-is nuclear war in no uncertain of terms. And those within our government and Department of War know this, also in no uncertain of terms. In 1964 this government and War Hawks knew what Agent Orange usage in Vietnam would do to human beings-poison and kill them-not to mention salting the earth. They also are well aware of what they are doing with using Depleted Uranium Weapons. Lies, deceptions and constant cover-up are the order of the day by the White House, Congress, the Courts, the Veterans Administration, the Department of War and the Pentagon on just how dangerous and harmful depleted uranium is. In the meantime the unwillingness of the so-called leadership of this nation to even properly test those that have been to Iraq and Afghanistan continues. And at the very same time, James Mueller, National Commander-In-Chief of the Veterans of Foreign Wars announces that veterans, in order to help Bush & Co. with the nation economic disaster he/they created with their War of Aggression in Iraq, wants veterans to give up what little they have fought for all these years. When you consider the toll depleted uranium alone is going to take, Mueller's statement is all the more absurd and a betrayal of all veterans. -- Jack ............................................................... "Terrell E. Arnold, who has been responsible for training our most senior and most promising military officers as chairman of the Department of International Studies at the U.S. National War College in Washington, reports that Coalition dead and wounded may actually be twice what the US government admits and that, including the effects of our use of depleted uranium and other toxic weapons, "a long-term casualty rate for American forces of 40-50 percent appears realistic."" Leuren Moret Depleted uranium: Dirty bombs, dirty missiles, dirty bullets A death sentence here and abroad By: Leuren Moret http://www.sfbayview.com/081804/Depleteduranium081804.shtml "Military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy." - Henry Kissinger, quoted in "Kiss the Boys Goodbye: How the United States Betrayed Its Own POW's in Vietnam" Vietnam was a chemical war for oil, permanently contaminating large regions and countries downriver with Agent Orange, and environmentally the most devastating war in world history. But since 1991, the U.S. has staged four nuclear wars using depleted uranium weaponry, which, like Agent Orange, meets the U.S. government definition of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Vast regions in the Middle East and Central Asia have been permanently contaminated with radiation. And what about our soldiers? Terry Jemison of the Department of Veterans Affairs reported this week to the American Free Press that "Gulf-era veterans" now on medical disability since 1991 number 518,739, with only 7,035 reported wounded in Iraq in that same 14-year period. This week the American Free Press dropped a "dirty bomb" on the Pentagon by reporting that eight out of 20 men who served in one unit in the 2003 U.S. military offensive in Iraq now have malignancies. That means that 40 percent of the soldiers in that unit have developed malignancies in just 16 months. Since these soldiers were exposed to vaccines and depleted uranium (DU) only, this is strong evidence for researchers and scientists working on this issue, that DU is the definitive cause of Gulf War Syndrome. Vaccines are not known to cause cancer. One of the first published researchers on Gulf War Syndrome, who also served in 1991 in Iraq, Dr. Andras Korényi-Both, is in agreement with Barbara Goodno from the Department of Defense's Deployment Health Support Directorate, that in this war soldiers were not exposed to chemicals, pesticides, bioagents or other suspect causes this time to confuse the issue. This powerful new evidence is blowing holes in the cover-up perpetrated by the Pentagon and three presidential administrations ever since DU was first used in 1991 in the Persian Gulf War. Fourteen years after the introduction of DU on the battlefield in 1991, the long-term effects have revealed that DU is a death sentence and very nasty stuff. Scientists studying the biological effects of uranium in the 1960s reported that it targets the DNA. Marion Fulk, a nuclear physical chemist retired from the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab and formerly involved with the Manhattan Project, interprets the new and rapid malignancies in soldiers from the 2003 war as "spectacular ... and a matter of concern." This evidence shows that of the three effects which DU has on biological systems - radiation, chemical and particulate - the particulate effect from nano-size particles is the most dominant one immediately after exposure and targets the Master Code in the DNA. This is bad news, but it explains why DU causes a myriad of diseases which are difficult to define. In simple words, DU "trashes the body." When asked if the main purpose for using it was for destroying things and killing people, Fulk was more specific: "I would say that it is the perfect weapon for killing lots of people." Soldiers developing malignancies so quickly since 2003 can be expected to develop multiple cancers from independent causes. This phenomenon has been reported by doctors in hospitals treating civilians following NATO bombing with DU in Yugoslavia in 1998-1999 and the U.S. military invasion of Iraq using DU for the first time in 1991. Medical experts report that this phenomenon of multiple malignancies from unrelated causes has been unknown until now and is a new syndrome associated with internal DU exposure. Just 467 U.S. personnel were wounded in the three-week Persian Gulf War in 1990-1991. Out of 580,400 soldiers who served in Gulf War I, 11,000 are dead, and by 2000 there were 325,000 on permanent medical disability. This astounding number of disabled vets means that a decade later, 56 percent of those soldiers who served now have medical problems. The number of disabled vets reported up to 2000 has been increasing by 43,000 every year. Brad Flohr of the Department of Veterans Affairs told American Free Press that he believes there are more disabled vets now than even after World War II. They brought it home Not only were soldiers exposed to DU on and off the battlefields, but they brought it home. DU in the semen of soldiers internally contaminated their wives, partners and girlfriends. Tragically, some women in their 20s and 30s who were sexual partners of exposed soldiers developed endometriosis and were forced to have hysterectomies because of health problems. In a group of 251 soldiers from a study group in Mississippi who had all had normal babies before the Gulf War, 67 percent of their post-war babies were born with severe birth defects. They were born with missing legs, arms, organs or eyes or had immune system and blood diseases. In some veterans' families now, the only normal or healthy members of the family are the children born before the war. The Department of Veterans Affairs has stated that they do not keep records of birth defects occurring in families of veterans. How did they hide it? Before a new weapons system can be used, it must be fully tested. The blueprint for depleted uranium weapons is a 1943 declassified document from the Manhattan Project. Harvard President and physicist James B. Conant, who developed poison gas in World War I, was brought into the Manhattan Project by the father of presidential candidate John Kerry. Kerry's father served at a high level in the Manhattan Project and was a CIA agent. Conant was chair of the S-1 Poison Gas Committee, which recommended developing poison gas weapons from the radioactive trash of the atomic bomb project in World War II. At that time, it was known that radioactive materials dispersed in bombs from the air, from land vehicles or on the battlefield produced very fine radioactive dust which would penetrate all protective clothing, any gas mask or filter or the skin. By contaminating the lungs and blood, it could kill or cause illness very quickly. They also recommended it as a permanent terrain contaminant, which could be used to destroy populations by contaminating water supplies and agricultural land with the radioactive dust. The first DU weapons system was developed for the Navy in 1968, and DU weapons were given to and used by Israel in 1973 under U.S. supervision in the Yom Kippur war against the Arabs. The Phalanx weapons system, using DU, was tested on the USS Bigelow out of Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in 1977, and DU weapons have been sold by the U.S. to 29 countries. Military research report summaries detail the testing of DU from 1974-1999 at military testing grounds, bombing and gunnery ranges and at civilian labs under contract. Today 42 states are contaminated with DU from manufacture, testing and deployment. Women living around these facilities have reported increases in endometriosis, birth defects in babies, leukemia in children and cancers and other diseases in adults. Thousands of tons of DU weapons tested for decades by the Navy on four bombing and gunnery ranges around Fallon, Nevada, is no doubt the cause of the fastest growing leukemia cluster in the U.S. over the past decade. The military denies that DU is the cause. The medical profession has been active in the cover-up - just as they were in hiding the effects from the American public - of low level radiation from atmospheric testing and nuclear power plants. A medical doctor in Northern California reported being trained by the Pentagon with other doctors, months before the 2003 war started, to diagnose and treat soldiers returning from the 2003 war for mental problems only. Medical professionals in hospitals and facilities treating returning soldiers were threatened with $10,000 fines if they talked about the soldiers or their medical problems. They were also threatened with jail. Reporters have also been prevented access to more than 14,000 medically evacuated soldiers flown nightly since the 2003 war in C-150s from Germany who are brought to Walter Reed Hospital near Washington, D.C. Dr. Robert Gould, former president of the Bay Area chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), has contacted three medical doctors since February 2004, after I had been invited to speak about DU. Dr. Katharine Thomasson, president of the Oregon chapter of the PSR, informed me that Dr. Gould had contacted her and tried to convince her to cancel her invitation for me to speak about DU at Portland State University on April 12. Although I was able to do a presentation, Dr. Thomasson told me I could only talk about DU in Oregon "and nothing overseas ... nothing political." Dr. Gould also contacted and discouraged Dr. Ross Wilcox in Toronto, Canada, from inviting me to speak to Physicians for Global Survival (PGS), the Canadian equivalent of PSR, several months later. When that didn't work, he contacted Dr. Allan Connoly, the Canadian national president of PGS, who was able to cancel my invitation and nearly succeeded in preventing Dr. Wilcox, his own member, from showing photos and presenting details on civilians suffering from DU exposure and cancer provided to him by doctors in southern Iraq. Dr. Janette Sherman, a former and long-standing member of PSR, reported that she finally quit some time after being invited to lunch by a new PSR executive administrator. After the woman had pumped Dr. Sherman for information all through lunch about her position on key issues, the woman informed Dr. Sherman that her last job had been with the CIA. How was the truth about DU hidden from military personnel serving in successive DU wars? Before his tragic death, Sen. Paul Wellstone informed Joyce Riley, R.N., B.S.N., executive director of the American Gulf War Veterans Association, that 95 percent of Gulf War veterans had been recycled out of the military by 1995. Any of those continuing in military service were isolated from each other, preventing critical information being transferred to new troops. The "next DU war" had already been planned, and those planning it wanted "no skunk at the garden party." The US has a dirty (DU) little (CIA) secret A new book just published at the American Free Press by Michael Collins Piper, "The High Priests of War: The Secret History of How America's Neo-Conservative Trotskyites Came to Power and Orchestrated the War Against Iraq as the First Step in Their Drive for Global Empire," details the early plans for a war against the Arab world by Henry Kissinger and the neo-cons in the late 1960s and early 1970s. That just happens to coincide with getting the DU "show on the road" and the oil crisis in the Middle East, which caused concern not only to President Nixon. The British had been plotting and scheming for control of the oil in Iraq for decades since first using poison gas on the Iraqis and Kurds in 1912. The book details the creation of the neo-cons by their "godfather" and Trotsky lover Irving Kristol, who pushed for a "war against terrorism" long before 9/11 and was lavishly funded for years by the CIA. His son, William Kristol, is one of the most influential men in the United States. Both are public relations men for the Israeli lobby's neo-conservative network, with strong ties to Rupert Murdoch. Kissinger also has ties to this network and the Carlyle Group, who, one could say, have facilitated these omnicidal wars beginning from the time former President Bush took office. It would be easy to say that we are recycling World Wars I and II, with the same faces. When I asked Vietnam Special Ops Green Beret Capt. John McCarthy, who could have devised this omnicidal plan to use DU to destroy the genetic code and genetic future of large populations of Arabs and Moslems in the Middle East and Central Asia - just coincidentally the areas where most of the world's oil deposits are located - he replied: "It has all the handprints of Henry Kissinger." In Zbignew Brzezinski's book "The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives," the map of the Eurasian chessboard includes four regions strategic to U.S. foreign policy. The "South" region corresponds precisely to the regions now contaminated permanently with radiation from U.S. bombs, missiles and bullets made with thousands of tons of DU. A Japanese professor, Dr. K. Yagasaki, has calculated that 800 tons of DU is the atomicity equivalent of 83,000 Nagasaki bombs. The U.S. has used more DU since 1991 than the atomicity equivalent of 400,000 Nagasaki bombs. Four nuclear wars indeed, and 10 times the amount of radiation released into the atmosphere from atmospheric testing! No wonder our soldiers, their families and the people of the Middle East, Yugoslavia and Central Asia are sick. But as Henry Kissinger said after Vietnam when our soldiers came home ill from Agent Orange, "Military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used for foreign policy." Unfortunately, more and more of those soldiers are men and women with brown skin. And unfortunately, the DU radioactive dust will be carried around the world and deposited in our environments just as the "smog of war" from the 1991 Gulf War was found in deposits in South America, the Himalayas and Hawaii. In June 2003, the World Health Organization announced in a press release that global cancer rates will increase 50 percent by 2020. What else do they know that they aren't telling us? I know that depleted uranium is a death sentence ... for all of us. We will all die in silent ways. To learn more Sources used in this story that readers are encouraged to consult: American Free Press four-part series on DU by Christopher Bollyn. Part I: "Depleted Uranium: U.S. Commits War Crime Against Iraq, Humanity," http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/depleted_uranium.html Part II: "Cancer Epidemic Caused by U.S. WMD: MD Says Depleted Uranium Definitively http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/cancer_epidemic_.html Part III: "DU Syndrome Stricken Vets Denied Care: Pentagon Hides DU Dangers to Deny Medical Care to Vets", http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/du_syndrome.html Part IV: "Pentagon Brass Suppresses Truth About Toxic Weapons: Poisonous Uranium Munitions Threaten World", http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/pentagon_brass.html August 2004 World Affairs Journal. Leuren Moret: "Depleted Uranium: The Trojan Horse of Nuclear War," http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2004/DU-Trojan-Horse1jul04.htm August 2004 Coastal Post Online. Carol Sterrit: "Marin Depleted Uranium Resolution Heats Up - GI's Will Come Home To A Slow Death," http://www.coastalpost.com/04/08/01.htm World Depleted Uranium Weapons Conference, Hamburg, Germany, October 16-19, 2004: http://www.uraniumweaponsconference.de/speakers.htm International Criminal Tribunal for Afghanistan. Written opinion of Judge Niloufer Baghwat: http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2004/Afghanistan-Criminal-Tribunal10mar04.htm "Discounted Casualties: The Human Cost of Nuclear War" by Akira Tashiro, foreword by Leuren Moret, http://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/abom/uran/index_e.html ................................................. Depleted Uranium:The Trojan Horse of Nuclear War Leuren Moret / World Affairs - The Journal of International Issues 1Jul2004 Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) The use of depleted uranium weaponry by the United States, defying all international treaties, will slowly annihilate all species on earth including the human species, and yet this country continues to do so with full knowledge of its destructive potential. (Leuren Moret) Since 1991, the United States has staged four wars using depleted uranium weaponry, illegal under all international treaties, conventions and agreements, as well as under the US military law. The continued use of this illegal radioactive weaponry, which has already contaminated vast regions with low level radiation and will contaminate other parts of the world over time, is indeed a world affair and an international issue. The deeper purpose is revealed by comparing regions now contaminated with depleted uranium - from Egypt, the Middle East, Central Asia and the northern half of India - to the US geostrategic imperatives described in Zbigniew Brzezinski's 1997 book The Grand Chessboard. The Full Report Is Here: http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2004/DU-Trojan-Horse1jul04.htm Leuren Moret is a geoscientist who has worked around the world on radiation issues, educating citizens, the media, members of parliaments and Congress and other officials. She became a whistleblower in 1991 at the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab after experiencing major science fraud on the Yucca Mountain Project. An environmental commissioner in the City of Berkeley, she can be reached at leurenmoret@yahoo.com. .......................................... Also See: Iraq: Depleted Uranium aka Baghdad Boils?! http://jack-dalton.blogspot.com/2005/12/iraq-depleted-uranium-aka-baghdad.htmlspan> :: Article nr. 19690 sent on 17-jan-2006 03:11 ECT :: The address of this page is : www.uruknet.info?p=19690 :: The incoming address of this article is : jack-dalton.blogspot.com/2006/01/nuclear-war-depleted-uranium.html -------- europe German Minister Criticises Nuclear Reactor Safety REUTERS GERMANY: January 16, 2006 http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/34501/story.htm BERLIN - Germany's atomic power stations have significant safety failings and supervisory structures need overhauling, Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said in an interview with the weekly Der Spiegel. "Safety management in German facilities shows considerable defects," Gabriel said. "It's always said that we have the safest atomic power stations. That may be true for the technology in the newest generation but not for the older ones," he said. He said the Biblis A and B reactors in the western state of Hesse showed particular defects, such as lacking a facility to allow the reactor to be controlled externally in case of emergency. Gabriel's comments come amid a growing debate in Germany over the future of its nuclear power stations, due to be gradually phased out under plans laid down by the previous government of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. The argument has pitted Social Democrats like Gabriel, who want to stick to the phase-out plans, against conservatives like Hesse state premier Roland Koch who have called for the runtimes to be extended given high oil prices and potential threats to other energy sources like natural gas. The coalition government of Social Democrats and conservatives led by Angela Merkel has pledged to maintain the phase-out plans, despite conservative objections. Gabriel said he would review supervision of the plants, and had asked the International Atomic Energy Agency to send an expert team to Germany. "I want an independent review of the structure and standards of our supervisory practice so that I can say afterwards whether and what can improve in this area. ---- German Environ Min asserts rule over nuclear plants 01/16/06 09:54 (Reuters) http://channels.netscape.com/tech/story.jsp?floc=ne-sci-8-l8&flok=FF-RTO-romta&idq=/ff/story/0002%2F20060116%2F0955398264.htm&sc=romta FRANKFURT - German nuclear plants that want to prolong operations beyond a national phase-out plan will need approval from the environment ministry, its chief Sigmar Gabriel said on Monday. Debate has been renewed over the future of Germany's 17 nuclear power stations beyond their allocated operational lifetimes. They produce a third of its electricity but must be phased out by the early 2020s. Pro-nuclear advocates have suggested that the conservative chancellery might allow some flexibility during the new coalition government's four-year term, pitting it against Social Democrat Gabriel, who wants to stick to the phase-out plan. "Switching remaining production volumes from a young plant to an older plant is only envisaged as an exception...," Gabriel was quoted as saying in an environment ministry statement. "Under nuclear law, such a case needs the explicit approval of the environment minister," he added. Citing economic need, the pro-nuclear lobby argues that old plants such as utility RWE's 20-year old Biblis A, which under the deal must close in 2008, could buy time by borrowing remaining production quotas from RWE's younger plants. Gabriel said such a transfer would only be possible if the operators could prove that safety was not being compromised. A transfer from old plants closing early to younger ones will be allowed as it minimizes safety risks. Conservative economics minister Michael Glos at the weekend pleaded with the SPD to change its mind over nuclear energy, which is regaining popularity worldwide as an alternative to expensive oil and highly CO2-emitting coal. "It's no good if we go ahead and switch off safe nuclear plants...and increase our energy prices that way," Glos said on German television. Chancellor Angela Merkel plans an energy summit on the issue, which observers say is most likely now to take place in early April. -------- india India upset by Iranian nuclear official's comments Nilova Roy Chaudhury New Delhi, January 16, 2006 Hindustan Times http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1600359,001301970000.htm The gloves are off. Or so it seemed on Monday when the Iranian National Security Adviser, Ali Larijani, sought to make an example of India's nuclear status as international double standards. India promptly hit back saying it regretted the reference. The spokesman for the Ministry of External Affairs, Navtej Sarna, said, "We have consistently maintained that it is a State's sovereign right to enter into treaties and international agreements. Every State must fully comply with its international obligations and commitments and in a transparent manner. This is perhaps the first clear reference to the lack of transparency in Iran's nuclear programme. "India," Sarna said, "is a responsible nuclear weapon State and has always been in compliance with its obligations under international treaties and agreements." "We regret this reference to India," Sarna said frostily, indicating that the gloves were off. Larijani was quoted as saying that the Americans did not trust Iran's nuclear programme because they fear that 10 years hence, Tehran could develop nuclear weapons. But, in a statement that raised New Delhi's hackles, "compare that to India," Larijani said, in response to a question about why Iran is not trusted. "It (India) does have nuclear weapons but they have extensive relations in the nuclear field. This dual standard is detrimental to international security," Larijani said. "Why should the world turn international right into a debate about intentions?" Larijani said. ---- Desperate for a nuclear deal By Bharat Karnad, January 16, 2006 Asian Age http://www.asianage.com/main.asp?layout=2&cat1=6&cat2=42&newsid=203327&RF=DefaultMain With the state visit by President George W. Bush looming, the Congress Party-led coalition government seems to be getting increasingly desperate to obtain a deal, any nuclear deal, as long as there is some paper for the US leader and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to sign. And, apparently, US under-secretary of state Nicholas Burns' trip offers a last-gasp chance to firm up this transaction. That this will "transform Indo-US relations and consolidate India's standing as one of the world's major powers" as a media trumpeter breathlessly put it, is doubtful. What it is guaranteed to do, however, is begin firming up India's reputation as a tamed nuclear outlier state, one shorn off its Samson's locks of options and therefore denuded of its political and military leverage. Ideally, India should be able to fully safeguard both its sources of civilian nuclear energy and its freedom to design and develop its nuclear arsenal and weapons-mix to any qualitative and quantitative specifications necessary to enable it to deal with any conceivable crisis or contingency in the future. But assessments of the future are notoriously tricky. Because these are dogged by uncertainty and risk, it requires a country like India to exercise abundant caution, especially when it comes to negotiating deals, like the one the July 18 Joint Statement promises, which will limit the country's strategic choices. At the heart of the arguments supportive of a deal is the belief entirely unsupported by empirical evidence, that India does not require a meaningful deterrent, that a minimally-sized and basic quality of weapons inventory will do. Innocent of the manifold military and political utility of impressive thermonuclear forces or the need to feature tested and proven high-yield, long reach, armaments in the nuclear arsenal and unwilling to factor in the policies of continuous upgradation of strategic forces underway in the US, Russia and China, these worthies are apparently banking on Washington to come to India's aid in an emergency beyond the capacity of the latter's small nuclear arms inventory to handle. The certain end-state of India as a security dependency of the United States is sought to be papered over by references to the nuclear civilian technology benefits the country is supposedly set to derive. But if augmenting the nuclear sources of electricity generation is the Indian government's paramount concern, it is not clear why the deal with the US is needed. For one thing, there is no real shortage of natural uranium as is propagated by official circles. India's publicly touted reserves of uranium worth 10,000 MW equivalent actually do not take into account the "rich" veins of ore with 6-7% uranium content available in Meghalaya and in Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh. The government, however, has made no effort whatsoever under enabling provisions of the law to clear out the environmental opposition from the sites and to let the Atomic Minerals Division in Hyderabad get on with the business of mining the ore found at these locations. Indeed, environmental worries can be got around by having the mined ore trucked to processing plants. Further, even in the depleted uranium mines in Jadugoda, over 30% of the extractable ore has been left unmined owing to the fact that it forms the columns around which the mineral has been dug out. These ore-pillars can be replaced by columns of concrete. Advanced extraction technologies enable supposedly exhausted mines and oil-fields to once again become productive. It all depends on the current international price of the natural resource. Thus, because of high oil prices, ONGC, for instance, has found it economical to pump out residual oil from the fields in Digboi and elsewhere in Assam by investing some Rs 3,300 crores. With the price of natural uranium or "yellow cake" sky-rocketing - it has increased by some 300% in just the last couple of years - extraction of uranium from poor quality ore or even sea-water now makes economic sense. If natural uranium from abroad is not critically needed to fuel the country's indigenous nuclear energy programme, then let us examine the case for accessing foreign nuclear reactor technology. The US civilian nuclear industry has been in the doldrums for the last 30-35 years with not a single new plant being built in this period. The one new design - Westinghouse 1000 type - Westinghouse Company of America has developed is not yet certified by the US Atomic Energy Commission, meaning India accepts all the safety and other risks in case New Delhi gives in to the arm-twisting and as part of the bargain to get the total deal approved by the US Congress, agrees to buy several of these reactors. Should such certification be expedited, India will thereafter face the threat of a cut-off in fuel supplies. It will be Tarapur all over again except this time it will be the Indian taxpayer's money that will be invested in these plants rendered inoperable owing to lack of enriched uranium fuel supply. France and Russia will not be any more lenient in insisting that India keep to the non-proliferation straight and narrow, any departure from which, like the resumption of testing, will immediately bring down sanctions. Would it not be better, under the circumstances, for India to put its money and diplomatic and commercial effort into constructing more of the Trombay-designed and developed INDU heavy water moderated natural uranium reactors here in India and to sell these reactors to energy-deficient countries abroad, thereby cultivating an external market for indigenous reactor technology and generating both funds to amortise the investments made in this sector over the last 50-odd years and revenues for the Indian civilian nuclear industry? Dr Anil Kakodkar, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, could have informed the PM about natural uranium sufficiency and the dangers of buying sensitive technologies abroad. Not only did he fail to do that, he has shown himself to be too weak to protect the integrity of the nuclear energy programme he heads by agreeing to a "separation plan." The Indian nuclear scientists are uniformly against any separation of civilian and military use facilities, materials and manpower because, unlike in other weapon states, in India, owing to the weapons capability being an offshoot of the broad-based civilian nuclear energy programme, these two functions and missions are wholly integrated and inseparable. The point to make is that rather than looking to foreign sources for uranium supply or for nuclear power plants as last resort, the Congress government is reaching for foreign uranium supply and foreign reactors as the preferred policy at the expense of national security, strategic independence, and autonomy of the country's nuclear programme. In the event, this course of action makes no sense and is inherently unjustifiable. Particularly when, as a Planning Commission study has concluded, the projected production of electricity from the country's hugely augmented civilian power sector is expected to account for only 6% of all electricity produced in 2020. The growing unease in official circles is also because of the unexpectedly strong resistance to this deal here as also in the US. With the US Congressional approval difficult at best, the Manmohan Singh regime is clearing an own escape route for itself. It has over the last few weeks changed its stance from initially accepting the American premise that all civilian nuclear power plants would go into the civilian net and under international safeguards - to wit foreign secretary Shyam Saran's speech to IDSA - to now when, a number of these dual-use power plants able to output weapon-use plutonium and tritium for boosted fission and thermonuclear armaments along with all of the breeder programme are sought to be kept within the military ambit. Then again, given the generally weak-kneed posture of the Indian government, this may only be the initial position that will be negotiated away once the American team piles on the pressure and warns of Washington's having to rethink its policy of helping India become "a major power," etc. But according to a stalwart nuclear engineer brought into the loop after criticism that no technically competent person was involved in the negotiations, any insistence by the US that all nuclear power plants be sequestered only for civilian use, would be a "deal breaker." But whether the phrase "deal breaker" merely denotes a hollow threat will soon become evident. With the non-proliferation lobby in Washington too drawing its own red-lines - witness the visiting US Senator John Kerry's statement that it is better to have three-quarters of the Indian nuclear programme in the safeguards net than not to have any of it subject to international monitoring and inspection - the Prime Minister may soon be facing a serious dilemma. Whether President Bush will be able to get the US Congress to okay the deal or not, Dr Manmohan Singh will find getting Parliament to accept it a politically Herculean task. Among his coalition partners, with the election campaign soon getting underway in West Bengal, the Left parties' ideological opposition to having truck with "imperialist" America will grow more vociferous. The Samajwadi Party is stirring things up for a fight and, thanks to an apparently dim-witted law minister, the Bofors bribes controversy is revived, providing the Bharatiya Janata Party combine with the heavy artillery to keep the ruling coalition distracted and on the defensive. Bharat Karnad is Professor in National Security Studies at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi -------- iran Iran Sets Aside $215M for Nuclear Plants Mon Jan 16, 8:15 AM ET Associated Press http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060116/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_nuclear TEHRAN, Iran - Iran has allocated the equivalent of $215 million for the construction of what would be its second and third nuclear power plants, state radio reported Monday. The report did not give the location of the new reactors, but last month Iran said it planned to build new plants in the southern Iranian provinces of Khuzestan and Bushehr. Iran's first reactor has been built at Bushehr with Russian assistance. "Some 1,940 billion rials have been allocated for the building of two nuclear power plants in the draft budget bill for the next Iranian year," the head of Iran's Management and Planning Organization, Farhad Rahbar, told Tehran radio. The U.S. dollar trades at about 9,000 rials on the open market, and the Iranian new year begins March 21. Iran plans to build 20 more nuclear plants, and Russia has offered to build some of them. Iran is under increasing international pressure over its nuclear program as it insists on controlling the whole fuel cycle - from mining uranium to enriching it to the point where it can be used in reactors. The West objects to Iran's enriching uranium as the process can be used to produce material for nuclear bombs. The United States accuses Iran of trying secretly to build nuclear weapons - a charge Iran denies. Britain, France and Germany, with U.S. backing, have been trying to persuade Iran to import nuclear fuel, but Iran has rejected this. -------- u.s. nuc facilities -------- alabama Leaking seal prompts shutdown of Browns Ferry reactor January 16, 2006 Associated Press http://www.wmcstations.com/Global/story.asp?S=4379489 ATHENS, Ala. A leaky seal forced the shutdown of one of the two operating reactors at the T-V-A's Browns Ferry nuclear plant near Athens, Alabama. It happened Sunday afternoon when operators found a seal problem on pumps that guide coolant through the reactor to generate steam. Ken Clark with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Atlanta said an initial report indicated there was no damage to the pumps, only the seal. T-V-A is spending nearly two (b) billion dollars to restart a third reactor next year. The Unit One reactor was shut down in 1985 amid safety concerns. T-V-A declined to estimate how long repairs would take. -------- MILITARY -------- philippines War games in Sulu to go on, say Army officials Jan 16, 2006 Philippines Inquirer http://news.inq7.net/breaking/index.php?index=2&story_id=63104 ZAMBOANGA CITY -- Despite protests over the holding of war exercises in Sulu province, officials of the US Armed Forces and the Armed Forces of the Philippines were determined to push through with it next month. US Army Lieutenant Colonel Mark Zimmer, public affairs officer of the Joint Special Operation Task Force Philippines (JSOTFP), told the Inquirer that about 250 US personnel were expected to arrive in Sulu before the scheduled Balikatan in February. "Some of them have arrived and doing some assessment, transacting for food and meeting local officials," Zimmer said. The Balikatan is scheduled to open on Feb. 20, Zimmer said. But Brigadier General Benjamin Dolorfino, Southern Command's deputy commander for operation, said the activity will officially start on Feb. 6. "This Balikatan is purely a civil military activity that will last for two weeks," Zimmer said. work and this will only last for a month." American troops, Zimmer said, might stay in Sulu for two months "because packing up equipment entails time." But Jolo Councilor Temojen Tulawie said the Americans were simply exploiting the word humanitarian mission for their "hidden agenda in Sulu." Tulawie also expressed fears about the possible abuses and exploitation that US troops might commit on Muslim women, "since not all soldiers are well disciplined, there will be one or two bad eggs in the basket." But Zimmer said they were overwhelmed with the "warm reception of the people of Sulu and we will not go there if we are not welcome." Julie S. Alipala, PDI Mindanao Bureau Dolorfino, on the other hand, said "no war games will be done in this Balikatan, only humanitarian -------- POLITICS -------- us politics Gore assails domestic wiretapping program 1/16/2006 (AP) http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-01-16-gore-domestic-spying_x.htm WASHINGTON - Former Vice President Al Gore asserted Monday that President Bush "repeatedly and persistently" broke the law by eavesdropping on Americans without a court warrant and called for a federal investigation of the practice. Speaking on Martin Luther King Jr.'s national holiday, the man who lost the 2000 presidential election to Bush only after a ruling by the Supreme Court on a recount in Florida, called Bush's warrantless surveillance program "a threat to the very structure of our government." Gore charged that the program has ignored the checks and balances of the courts and Congress. (Related story: Americans honor Martin Luther King) Gore said that Bush's actions - which the president has defended as indispensable in the war against terrorism - represented a "direct assault" on the special federal court that considers, and decides whether to authorize, administration requests to eavesdrop on Americans. Gore said the concerns are especially important on King's birthday because the slain civil rights leader was among thousands of Americans whose private communications were intercepted by the U.S. government. King, as a foremost civil rights activist in the 1950s and 60s, had his telephone conversations wiretapped by the FBI, which kept a file on him. Gore said that there is still much to learn about the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program: "What we do know about this pervasive wiretapping virtually compels the conclusion that the president of the United States has been breaking the law repeatedly and persistently," he maintained. Bush has pointed to a congressional resolution passed after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, that authorized him to use force in the fight against terrorism as allowing him to order the program. The program authorized eavesdropping of international phone calls and e-mails of people deemed a terror risk. Gore was repeatedly interrupted by applause Monday as he spoke to the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy and the Liberty Coalition, two organizations that expressed concern with the legality of the surveillance program. Gore, also a former member of the Senate from Tennessee, proposed that a special counsel be appointed by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to investigate whether there have been violations of the law. Referring to reports that private telecommunications companies have provided the Bush administration with access to private information on Americans, Gore said any company that did so should immediately end its complicity in the program. ---- The American Constitution Society & The Liberty Coalition Major Address: Monday, January 16 at 12 p.m. AL GORE TO WARN OF THREAT TO CONSTITUTION FROM PRESIDENT'S ACTIONS Wake-Up Call for Legislative, Judicial Branches: Wiretap Policy Only Latest Extension of Unchecked Executive Power Introduction by Former Rep. Bob Barr highlights breadth of ideological concern over abuse of executive power. What: Major address by Al Gore When: Monday, January 16 at 12 p.m. (doors open at 10:30 a.m.) Where: DAR Constitution Hall, 1776 D Street, NW Former Vice President Al Gore will deliver a major address Monday on the threat posed by policies of the Bush Administration to the Constitution and the checks and balances it created. The speech will specifically point to domestic wiretapping and torture as examples of the administration's efforts to extend executive power beyond Congressional direction and judicial review. The Vice President will make the case that the country-including the legislative and judicial branches and all Americans-must act now to defend the systems put into place by the country's founders to curb executive power or risk permanent and irreversible damage to the Constitution. The extent of bipartisan concern over these issues is highlighted by former Republican Rep. Bob Barr's introduction of the Vice President and by the organizations cosponsoring the speech. The Liberty Coalition brings together ideologically diverse organizations across the political spectrum, including liberal and conservative groups, to preserve the Bill of Rights, personal autonomy and individual privacy. The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACS) is one of the nation's leading progressive legal organizations. Founded in 2001, ACS works to ensure that the fundamental principles of human dignity, individual rights and liberties, genuine equality, and access to justice are in their rightful, central place in American law. -------- ENERGY -------- alternative energy North Dakota to House Hydrogen Refueling Station January 16, 2006 By Associated Press http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=9663 MINOT, N.D. - North Dakota State University's North Central Research Center, Basin Electric Power Cooperative and other partners are planning a station here to refuel hydrogen-powered vehicles using wind power. North Central Research Extension Director Jay Fisher said the electrolyzer-based refueling station will be on research center property south of Minot. Ontario-based Hydrogenics Corp., which is providing the equipment, said the project is expected to be operating later this year. The electrolyzer process, powered by the wind, puts electricity into water and splits it into hydrogen and oxygen, Hydrogenics spokeswoman Jane Dalziel said. The hydrogen then can be used for fuel, she said. "From stem to stern, it's a clean process," she said. "We're ready to go," Fisher said. "This is the spot -- Minot, N.D. This is where it (research) is going to be done. This is a great fit for us because agriculture uses a lot of energy and produces a lot of energy. Research is what we do." Basin Electric owns two wind turbines south of Minot along U.S. 83. Fisher said the research center got involved in the project because of its location between the wind turbines and because of the research aspect of it. "Right now, we have an issue in North Dakota storing and transmitting the wind power we produce," he said. "Our transmission grids just aren't large enough. We need to find a way to store that excess energy." The Minot center is getting a hydrogen-powered forklift, Fisher said, and the technology is available to operate other hydrogen-fueled vehicles, even city buses. The project was sponsored by the federal Energy Department and announced by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., its organizers said. Basin spokesman Daryl Hill said the next step will be evaluating what types of vehicles to use at the station. The electrolyzer is about the size of a room, Dalziel said. Other refueling stations have been opened around the world, but hydrogen technology is still in its early stage, she said. "This is an opportunity to show the practicality of hydrogen as a fuel," she said. "It's pretty new," Dalziel said. "The one at Minot is definitely on the leading edge." ---- Quest for alternate fuels now a top priority With the price of gas and oil fluctuating wildly and growing fears about supplies, state officials are seriously looking at alternative fuel sources. BY DAVID ROYSE Associated Press Writer Mon, Jan. 16, 2006 http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/13634983.htm TALLAHASSEE - Gov. Jeb Bush has been talking about burning sugar cane waste. In a few Florida counties, they're using the methane produced by rotting garbage in landfills. And Progress Energy and Florida Power & Light are both planning to increase production of nuclear power. Most of Florida's electricity is generated from natural gas. But the shock of last year's huge run-up in prices, and the interruption of gas supplies after Hurricane Katrina has Bush and other state officials urgently trying to find different ways to make electricity. ''I would expect you won't see very many new natural gas-fired plants in Florida in the foreseeable future,'' said Brian Youngberg, a senior utilities analyst who covers the two biggest Florida electric companies for Edward Jones. ``The state focus on natural gas may have made sense when it was a lot cheaper. . . . But the problem is when you put all your eggs in one basket.'' BUSH AGREES The governor thinks so too. Bush said the price increases, which were spurred by worldwide demand but exacerbated by hurricanes that disrupted production in the Gulf of Mexico, made it clear the state needs to rely on it less. ''We need diversity of supply,'' Bush said last month addressing an energy summit on the future of Florida's electric supply. Bush said conservation is a key part of the solution too, and is doing what he can. Last year he ordered state buildings to dim the lights and turn down the air conditioning to help save electricity. He's also proposing incentives for alternative fuel production. The power companies don't need the government to tell them to consider other fuels. They hear from their customers, who are getting stuck with higher bills for gas generation. FPL customers for example, will see their bills go up nearly 20 percent on average -- about $17 a month -- this year because of higher fuel costs. Progress Energy cited the cost of natural gas in saying it may build a new nuclear plant in Central Florida, and FPL president Armando Olivera recently said his company would be better off with more nuclear and coal plants. If a new nuclear plant is built, it would be the first in Florida since 1983. Currently, 38 percent of FPL's power is created from natural gas, compared to 21 percent from nuclear plants, 18 percent from oil and just 6 percent from coal. Jeff Lyash, vice president of energy development at Progress, said nuclear fuel is the cheapest of all. But nuclear plants take much longer and are much more expensive to build. NUCLEAR FEARS But many Americans still fear nuclear energy, although no deaths have been directly linked to any nuclear plant accidents in this country. The environmental group Greenpeace calls the idea of ''safe'' nuclear power a myth. ''One of the biggest problems facing the nuclear industry is what to do with the radioactive waste generated in a nuclear reactor,'' Greenpeace said in a recent policy statement. And coal has a reputation as an old dirty fuel. A plan by the city of Tallahassee to join in a plan to build a new coal plant in a neighboring county recently ran into heavy opposition, although the city's participation in the plan was eventually approved. Both coal and nuclear power are getting new looks, especially since coal now burns cleaner. ---- Snow Details US Tax Breaks for Hybrid Cars USA: January 16, 2006 REUTERS NEWS SERVICE Story by Glenn Somerville http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/34500/story.htm DETROIT - US Treasury Secretary John Snow, aiming to boost the ailing domestic auto industry and encourage conservation, on Friday outlined details of proposed tax breaks for people who buy gasoline-electric vehicles. At a Ford Motor Co. research center in Detroit, Snow discussed tax policy changes that would give people who buy or lease increasingly popular hybrid cars and trucks a tax credit of up to $3,400. "Development and use of hybrid vehicles is a key step toward reducing gasoline consumption, emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions," Snow said in a statement. The credit was initially announced in Washington as part of an energy bill signed into law in August but it applies to vehicles that were put into service after Jan. 1. If an individual or a business bought more than one vehicle, each would be eligible for the tax credit. The credit could also apply to vehicles that use other alternative-fuel technology, such as fuel cells that convert chemical energy into electricity, though that is less commonly available than hybrids. As big carmakers like Ford and General Motors Corp. struggle to cope with high health care costs and pensions while foreign producers steadily take market share, any tax break that potentially helps sales is eagerly sought by Detroit. Choosing Detroit to highlight the tax credits reflects its continuing status as the United States' "motor city," but the industry's glamour has faded as layoffs mount and carmakers restructure to try to compete with foreign producers. Snow was asked at a press conference whether Washington has some obligation to help auto companies handle their surging costs, perhaps through some type of bailout. "Auto companies are a lot better than the federal government at working through cost structure issues," Snow replied. "There's not an awful lot of expertise on management of auto issues in Washington DC," he added. GM is cutting jobs and closing plants in the United States and Canada in a bid to save $7 billion by the end of 2006. Ford also plans to close plants and cut jobs as part of a restructuring announcement to be made next week. The tax credits will be phased out for each manufacturer once that company has sold 60,000 eligible vehicles. Snow earlier toured the Detroit auto show, a showpiece for new models and "concept cars" from carmakers around the world, including, for the first time, China. Ford has been making a push to increase its presence in the hybrid market. The company is aiming to raise its global production of more fuel-efficient vehicles tenfold to 250,000 a year by 2010 and wants to double its hybrid vehicle team even as it is laying off staff in other departments. Ford currently offers two hybrid models, the Escape and the Mercury Mariner, but the fastest-selling hybrid has been Toyota Motor Corp.'s Prius. Overall, there were eight hybrid models on offer to US buyers in 2004, when 87,000 of the cars were sold, according to market analysis firm J.D. Power and Associates. Last year, 11 models were on offer, it said. One of Treasury's roles is the nation's tax collector. Ahead of the mid-April deadline for filing personal income tax returns for 2005, Snow likely will have several announcements about tax breaks for businesses and individuals. (Additional reporting by Kevin Krolicki and Poornima Gupta in Detroit) -------- OTHER -------- health Curried Cauliflower Effective Against Prostate Cancer January 16, 2006 RUTGERS, New Jersey, (ENS) http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2006/2006-01-16-01.asp Turmeric, the mild spice that gives curry its deep yellow color, appears to have good potential for the treatment and prevention of prostate cancer, particularly when combined with certain vegetables, Rutgers University scientists have discovered. The scientists tested turmeric, also known as curcumin, along with phenethyl isothiocyanate (PEITC), a naturally occurring substance particularly abundant in a group of vegetables including broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi turnips, and watercress. "The bottom line is that PEITC and curcumin, alone or in combination, demonstrate significant cancer-preventive qualities in laboratory mice, and the combination of PEITC and curcumin could be effective in treating established prostate cancers," said Ah-Ng Tony Kong, a professor of pharmaceutics at Rutgers. The discovery was announced in the January 15 issue of the journal "Cancer Research" by Kong and his colleagues at Rutgers' Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy. Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in men in the United States, with a half-million new cases appearing each year. The incidence and mortality of prostate cancer have not decreased in past decades despite tremendous efforts and resources devoted to treatment. This is because advanced prostate cancer cells are barely responsive even to high concentrations of chemotherapeutic agents or radiotherapy. The authors observed that by comparison to the high incidence of prostate cancer in the United States, the incidence of this disease is low in India where people eat large amounts of plant foods rich in phytochemicals - nonnutritive plant chemicals that have protective or disease-preventive properties. As a result, the scientists have been investigating intervention options based on compounds found in edible and medicinal plants. They have had some success, and a majority of patients with prostate cancer are now combining the conventional therapies with these compounds as alternative, supplementary or complementary medications. For Kong's study, researchers used mice bred so that their immune systems would not reject foreign biological material. They injected the mice with cells from human prostate cancer cell lines to grow tumors against which the compounds could be tested. "Despite convincing data from laboratory cell cultures, we knew little about how PEITC and curcumin would perform in live animals, especially on prostate cancer," Kong said. "So we undertook this study to evaluate how effective PEITC and curcumin might be - individually and in combination - to prevent and possibly treat prostate cancer." The researchers injected the mice with curcumin or PEITC, alone or in combination, three times a week for four weeks, beginning a day before the introduction of the prostate cancer cells. They found the injections "significantly retarded" the growth of cancerous tumors. Using PEITC and curcumin in tandem produced even stronger effects. The group then evaluated the therapeutic potential of curcumin and PEITC in mice with well-established tumors, and the results showed that PEITC or curcumin alone had little effect. But when curcumin and PEITC were given in tandem, tumor growth was "significantly reduced." The paper, "Combined Inhibitory Effects of Curcumin and Phenethyl Isothiocyanate on the Growth of Human PC-3 Prostate Xenografts in Immunodeficient Mice," is available at cancerres.aacrjournals.org. The authors are Tin Oo Khor, Young-Sam Keum, Wen Lin, Jung-Hwan Kim, Rong Hu, Guoxiang Shen, Changjiang Xu, Avanthika Gopalakrishnan, Bandaru Reddy, Xi Zheng, AllanConney and Ah-Ng Tony Kong, all from Rutgers. -------- ACTIVISTS Whaling Protest: Greenpeacer Knocked Overboard, Sea Shepherd Out of Fuel SOUTHERN OCEAN, January 16, 2006 (ENS) http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2006/2006-01-16-03.asp A Greenpeace activist was dragged into the sea by a Japanese whaler's harpoon line late Saturday, the group says. The Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise has been chasing the Japanese whaling fleet in tandem with the Sea Shepherd vessel Farley Mowat to prevent the Japanese whalers from killing whales in the Antarctic Sanctuary. At 6 pm local time, three activists in a Greenpeace inflatable were defending a minke whale from the harpoonist on the Yushin Maru No2 when a harpoon was shot over the heads of the activists. It struck and killed the whale almost instantly as the grenade tipped harpoon exploded. But the harpoon line got stuck on the steering controls of the inflatable, trapping the boat between the dead whale and the catcher ship. As the harpoon line tightened, the boat's driver, Canadian activist Texas Joe Constantine was thrown overboard. Dressed in a survival suit, Constantine drifted in the icy waters red with the blood of the minke whale for several minutes. As the inflatable turned around, it was able to collect Constantine. "We were out defending the whales. We have been out there for about an hour. I was driving our boat and we were in a good position and the whaler fired its harpoon," said Constantine. "All of a sudden the harpoon line came down on us trapping us between the whale and the catcher. The line came tight at that point and threw me from the boat into the water. It was a few minutes before our boat was able to come over and pick me up out of the water." Greenpeace Australia Pacific CEO Steve Shallhorn says the incident highlights the need for more pressure on the Japanese government to recall their whaling fleet. "It's way past time for [Prime Minister] John Howard and the world's anti-whaling nations to demand that Japan gets its whaling fleet out of the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary," said Shallhorn. Greenpeace will keep up our intervention, but it will take strong international pressure to make Japan honor the International Whaling Commission ban on whaling in this sanctuary," said Shallhorn, who has just taken the Greenpeace Australia Pacific leadership after a stint with Greenpeace Japan. The Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) in Tokyo accused Greenpeace of taking increasing risks to harass the whaling fleet and keep their campaign in the news in New Zealand and Australia. ICR Director General Dr. Hiroshi Hatanaka said in a statement Sunday from his office in Tokyo that Greenpeace put an inflatable Zodiac "dangerously close" to the bow of the whaling vessel at the time a Japanese harpooner shot a minke whale. "Our harpooner had a clear shot and took it. The strike was perfect and the whale was killed instantly," he said. "The fact that the rope fell onto their inflatable and one of the activists fell into the water is entirely their fault." "Fortunately the minke whale was killed instantly," the ICR said, "otherwise both inflatable and activists could have been dragged underwater by the whale, with possible fatal consequences. With their supply of fuel running out, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat has been forced to leave the Southern Ocean and stop its month-long chase of the Japanese whaling fleet undertaken in tandem, although not in cooperation with the Greenpeace vessel. "We are disappointed to have to leave, but we now have no alternative as we no longer have the fuel resources to stay. We have over stretched our fuel and now have just enough to reach the nearest port," said Captain Paul Watson. Sea Shepherd had made arrangements to refuel from a tanker near the French Kerguelen Islands but the delivery was cancelled. No reason was given. The Japanese whaling fleet refueled from a tanker inside the Antarctic Treaty Zone. Watson says that action was an illegal violation of the Antarctic Treaty Zone. "The Sea Shepherd ship does not have that luxury of operating in violation of the Antarctic Treaty," he said, "and would not do so regardless." "We have spent 40 days at sea and during that time we have chased the Japanese fleet from 175 degrees east to 65 degrees east, a distance of over 4,000 kilometers," said Watson. "We cannot match their speed, so it has been a case of catching up and forcing them to run, then catching up with them again. They run every time they see us and overall we have been able to keep them from killing whales for over 15 days in total." "We wish the Greenpeace crew the best of luck in their efforts to protest the illegal whaling activities of the Japanese fleet. They have done an excellent job in exposing the crimes of the whalers to the public," said Captain Watson from the Farley Mowat which is now en route north. It will take the Farley Mowat 10 days to reach the nearest port for refueling. "We pushed it as far as we possibly could," said 1st Officer Alex Cornelissen of the Netherlands. "If we don't run into any extreme weather we should have just enough fuel to make land." The weather in the area now is foggy with light snow. While the Japanese Institute for Cetacean Research says their whaling entirely legal, Greenpeace and the Sea Shepherd say the hunt is nothing more than commercial whaling in disguise. After the whales have been measured and weighed by the scientists, the whales are cut up and boxed for market. Sea Shepherd is committed to shutting down the 17 year Japanese program that includes plans for the whalers to slaughter over 18,000 minke whales and hundreds of endangered fin and humpback whales. "This year we have kept them on the run and they ran from us like cowards," Watson said. "We intimidated them. We knew we could not outrun them; we were limited to chasing them. Next year it is our plan to return with a ship that can match the speed of the Nisshin Maru. If we can keep up with the outlaw whalers, we should be able to prevent them from killing whales every day." In spite of international protest and repeated calls from the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to stop its annual whale hunt, the Fisheries Agency of Japan claims it is conducting a legal scientific research program. ICR head Hatanaka said in a statement today, "Our research is perfectly legal in every aspect referred to by anti-whaling opponents and scientifically necessary to ensure the best decisions can be made for sustainable resource management." Hatanka claims that the Japanese whaling fleet is operating under a permit issued by the Japanese government based on its right under Article VIII of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW), which reads, "Notwithstanding anything contained in this Convention any Contracting Government may grant to any of its nationals a special permit authorizing that national to kill, take and treat whales for purposes of scientific research subject to such restrictions as to number and subject to such other conditions as the Contracting Government thinks fit, and the killing, taking, and treating of whales in accordance with the provisions of this Article shall be exempt from the operation of this Convention." Hatanaka said, "The fact that Article VIII begins and ends by categorically stating absolutely nothing in the ICRW or its Schedule affects research carried out under this provision. This means that the current moratorium on commercial whaling, which in our view expired in 1990, and the Southern Ocean Sanctuary provide no legal basis on which to stop this research." Hatanaka further claims that the permit issued by the Japanese government is in compliance with the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and that "nothing in the CITES is violated." In Canberra, Australian Environment Minister Senator Ian Campbell said today, "My own strong feeling is that if the activities of protestors become not sensible, then it risks putting what we're both trying to achieve - Greenpeace and the Australian government - backwards. "I don't think people are going to have respect for tactics that are going to put human life at risk. You don't want to bring the whole cause of whale conservation into disrepute," Campbell said. Leader of the Australian Greens, Senator Bob Brown, said in Hobart today, "Environment Minister Ian Campbell's call for the activities of whaling protesters to avoid becoming 'not sensible' is ludicrous in light of the Minister's failure to do anything meaningful for the whales." Campbell said, "I know the Australian government has made our views on whale conservation very, very clear to the extent that we have on many occasions aggravated the Japanese which I... you know, on this issue I have no reservation in doing." "But I think what is important," said Campbell, "is that we maintain our focus on the main game and that is that whaling will come to an end when the people of Norway and the people of Japan tell their governments unequivocally that the slaughter of whales, that the cold blooded destruction of whales needs to come to an end." "Australians are outraged by the whaling and want government action," Senator Brown said. "But, sensing that, the minister implies it is not the business of Australians but is up to the people of Norway and Japan." The Greenpeace vessel Arctic Sunrise was involved in the collision with the Japanese whale processing ship Nisshin Maru last Sunday, putting a 1.5 meter (five foot) dent in the Sunrise's bow and bending its forward mast. Greenpeace says it was rammed by the Nisshin Maru, while the ICR says the Greenpeace vessel was the one that did the ramming. Japan has warned it may send armed aircraft to defend its whaling ships in the Southern Ocean if clashes with protest boats escalate. In addition, Japan says it may ask Australia to take action against protesters. In New Zealand, the escalating conflict prompted a Green Party call last week for New Zealand to send a frigate to Antarctica in a monitoring role - an action the government ruled out. Because of the protest, Japan may catch fewer whales than it had planned for the season, head of the whaling section at the Japan Fisheries Ministry Hideki Moronuki said last week. --- Missile deaths unite Pakistan anti-US groups in outrage By Farhan Bokhari in Peshawar and Jo Johnson in New Delhi Published: January 16 2006 02:00 Financial Times http://news.ft.com/cms/s/95804914-8634-11da-bee0-0000779e2340.html General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's pro-US military ruler, faces nationwide eruptions of anger towards the US after at least 18 people were killed by missiles reportedly fired by a CIA-operated drone near the Afghan border. Yesterday, at least 10,000 protesters from liberal and Islamic political groups, in a rare gesture of solidarity, joined an anti-US protest in Karachi, the southern port city, while smaller protests were reported across Pakistan, fuelling fears of a new wave of anti-US sentiment in the south Asian country. Leaders of the MuttahidaMajlis e Amal (MMA) - Pakistan's opposition Islamicalliance - said they planned an anti-government campaign that would unite opposition parties on a common, anti-US platform. The attack on Pakistani soil, apparently aimed at the senior leadership of al-Qaeda, is a political setback to Gen Musharraf, an increasingly isolated supporter of Washington's "war on terror", who appears to have been taken off-guard by news of the strike. Gen Musharraf did not criticise the US directly for the attack during a speech on Saturday, leaving it to the foreign ministry to protest, but warned that aiding militants was dangerous. "If we harbour foreign terrorists, those who carry out bomb blasts throughout the world, then remember that our future is not good," he said. Pakistan's foreign ministry condemned the loss of innocent lives. The diplomatic fall-out is expected to overshadow a scheduled visit to Washington by Shaukat Aziz, Pakistani prime minister, on Thursday. The US has made no comment on the attack, which missed its suspected principal target, Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's second-in-command. Mr Zawahiri, an Egyptian doctor by training, has eluded capture in spite of a US offer of $25m (€21m, £14m) for information leading to his arrest - an amount equal to that offered for the capture of Osama bin Laden. On Saturday, the al-Arabiya satellite television said Mr Zawahiri was alive, quoting an al-Qaeda source. Pakistani officials yesterday said Mr bin Laden's deputy was nowhere near the site of the strike. At least 60,000 Pakistani troops have been deployed to block members of al-Qaeda and the former Afghan Taliban regime from fleeing operations by US and Afghan troops. Pakistan has not granted US forces in Afghanistan the right to cross the border. The killings are likely to strain relations between the two countries, which have worked together closely since Pakistan turned its back on the Taliban in 2001 and pledged support to the US-led war on terrorism. Sheikh Rashid Ahmed,Pakistan's information minister, told a news conference in Islamabad that the government wanted "to assure the people we will not allow such incidents to recur". ---- Eleven arrested in anti-VY protest By Kathryn Casa | Vermont Guardian Posted January 16, 2006 http://www.vermontguardian.com/local/012006/VYArrests.shtml BRATTLEBORO - Police arrested 11 anti-nuclear protesters, including a veteran and a nurse, on charges of trespassing Monday at Vermont Yankee headquarters. The 11 were part of a larger group of more than 100 people from three states who turned out for what organizers promise will be monthly demonstrations against a proposed 20 percent power increase at the aging Vernon reactor. Organizer Deb Katz of the Massachusetts chapter of the Citizens Awareness Network said the number of protesters has increased with each event, from 45 in November, to more than 70 last month. "They're coming out here because no government is listening to them," said Katz, a resident of Shelburne Falls, MA. The NRC staff has recommended approval of the uprate, and earlier this month a key advisory panel also gave the plan a thumbs up. Police have arrested activists at each of the three events. State's Attorney Dan Davis dropped trespass charges against the first group following their arraignments, and activists said Brattleboro Policed had failed to file charges in Windham District Court last week when the second group of protesters showed up for their arraignments. "Uranium is a natural disaster at every stage: from mining, creating cancer epidemics on native lands; to refining, creating a military weapon known as depleted uranium ... to power production, where waste products are permanently hazardous," Persian Gulf veteran Eric Wasileski, of Ervine, MA, told the protesters Monday, shortly before he was hauled away in handcuffs by Brattleboro police. Jackie Dauphinais, 23, a registered nurse from Florence, MA., said she was risking arrest to highlight radiation and health concerns. "I am concerned about the health of our environment and the people in their community and surrounding communities," she said. Dauphinais was the first protester arrested as she and 10 others crowded into the doorway of Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee (ENVY) headquarters on Old Ferry Road. The second set of double doors was locked, keeping the protesters out of the lobby, where a stony-faced security guard appeared to ignore them. Across the street, demonstrators sang "We Shall Overcome," substituting the words "We shall shut it down," invoking the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on the holiday commemorating the slain civil rights leader's birthday. The holiday meant families with children, who had the day off from work and school, were able to attend the demonstration. Most the protesters at earlier demonstrations were elderly and retired people. As children frolicked in the snow Monday, adults held signs opposing the uprate and supporting renewable energy sources. One sign urged people to call the Vermont Public Service Board, which has yet to decide whether the NRC inspection of Vermont Yankee has met the board's requirement of an independent engineering assessment. The board has issued conditional approval of the uprate, pending that decision. Others criticized the NRC for defaulting on its mandate to protect the public. NRC Spokesman Neil Sheehan strongly disagreed with those allegations. "Our reactor oversight process is designed to ensure plant safety is carefully monitored through a combination of inspection findings and performance indicators," Sheehan said in an e-mail to the Vermont Guardian. Resident NRC inspectors help the agency keep close tabs on any safety-significant issues, he added. "Should we identify any safety concerns, our approach is to intervene early on, before these problems rise to a level where they could pose a hazard to the public." Vermont Yankee spokesman Rob Williams did not respond to a request for comment on the protest.