NucNews August 12, 2006 -------- NUCLEAR -------- depleted uranium Uranium: OIF Soldiers Sue US Army Sat Aug 12, 2006 AP http://scoop.epluribusmedia.org/story/2006/8/12/20193/8574 Depleted uranium is the garbage left from producing enriched uranium for nuclear weapons and energy plants. It is 60 percent as radioactive as natural uranium. The U.S. has an estimated 1.5 billion pounds of it, sitting in hazardous waste storage sites across the country. Meaning it is plentiful and cheap as well as highly effective. [Herbert] Reed says he unknowingly breathed DU dust while living with his unit in Samawah, Iraq. He was med-evaced out in July 2003, nearly unable to walk because of lightning-strike pains from herniated discs in his spine. Then began a strange series of symptoms he'd never experienced in his previously healthy life. At Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C, he ran into a buddy from his unit. And another, and another, and in the tedium of hospital life between doctor visits and the dispensing of meds, they began to talk. "We all had migraines. We all felt sick," Reed says. "The doctors said, 'It's all in your head.'" ---- Is an armament sickening U.S. soldiers? Updated 8/12/2006 Associated Press http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-08-12-radiation-soldiers_x.htm NEW YORK (AP) — It takes at least 10 minutes and a large glass of orange juice to wash down all the pills — morphine, methadone, a muscle relaxant, an antidepressant, a stool softener. Viagra for sexual dysfunction. Valium for his nerves. Four hours later, Herbert Reed will swallow another 15 mg of morphine to cut the pain clenching every part of his body. He will do it twice more before the day is done. Since he left a bombed-out train depot in Iraq, his gums bleed. There is more blood in his urine, and still more in his stool. Bright light hurts his eyes. A tumor has been removed from his thyroid. Rashes erupt everywhere, itching so badly they seem to live inside his skin. Migraines cleave his skull. His joints ache, grating like door hinges in need of oil. There is something massively wrong with Herbert Reed, though no one is sure what it is. He believes he knows the cause, but he cannot convince anyone caring for him that the military's new favorite weapon has made him terrifyingly sick. In the sprawling bureaucracy of the Department of Veterans Affairs, he has many caretakers. An internist, a neurologist, a pain-management specialist, a psychologist, an orthopedic surgeon and a dermatologist. He cannot function without his stupefying arsenal of medications, but they exact a high price. "I'm just a zombie walking around," he says. Reed believes depleted uranium has contaminated him and his life. He now walks point in a vitriolic war over the Pentagon's arsenal of it — thousands of shells and hundreds of tanks coated with the metal that is radioactive, chemically toxic, and nearly twice as dense as lead. A shell coated with depleted uranium pierces a tank like a hot knife through butter, exploding on impact into a charring inferno. As tank armor, it repels artillery assaults. It also leaves behind a fine radioactive dust with a half-life of 4.5 billion years. Depleted uranium is the garbage left from producing enriched uranium for nuclear weapons and energy plants. It is 60% as radioactive as natural uranium. The U.S. has an estimated 1.5 billion pounds of it, sitting in hazardous waste storage sites across the country. Meaning it is plentiful and cheap as well as highly effective. Reed says he unknowingly breathed DU dust while living with his unit in Samawah, Iraq. He was med-evaced out in July 2003, nearly unable to walk because of lightning-strike pains from herniated discs in his spine. Then began a strange series of symptoms he'd never experienced in his previously healthy life. At Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C, he ran into a buddy from his unit. And another, and another, and in the tedium of hospital life between doctor visits and the dispensing of meds, they began to talk. "We all had migraines. We all felt sick," Reed says. "The doctors said, 'It's all in your head.' " Then the medic from their unit showed up. He too, was suffering. That made eight sick soldiers from the 442nd Military Police, an Army National Guard unit made up of mostly cops and correctional officers from the New York area. But the medic knew something the others didn't. Dutch marines had taken over the abandoned train depot dubbed Camp Smitty, which was surrounded by tank skeletons, unexploded ordnance and shell casings. They'd brought radiation-detection devices. The readings were so hot, the Dutch set up camp in the middle of the desert rather than live in the station ruins. "We got on the Internet," Reed said, "and we started researching depleted uranium." Then they contacted The New York Daily News, which paid for sophisticated urine tests available only overseas. Then they hired a lawyer. Reed, Gerard Matthew, Raymond Ramos, Hector Vega, Augustin Matos, Anthony Yonnone, Jerry Ojeda and Anthony Phillip all have depleted uranium in their urine, according to tests done in December 2003, while they bounced for months between Walter Reed and New Jersey's Fort Dix medical center, seeking relief that never came. The analyses were done in Germany, by a Frankfurt professor who developed a depleted uranium test with Randall Parrish, a professor of isotope geology at the University of Leicester in Britain. The veterans, using their positive results as evidence, have sued the U.S. Army, claiming officials knew the hazards of depleted uranium, but concealed the risks. The Department of Defense says depleted uranium is powerful and safe, and not that worrisome. Four of the highest-registering samples from Frankfurt were sent to the VA. Those results were negative, Reed said. "Their test just isn't as sophisticated," he said. "And when we first asked to be tested, they told us there wasn't one. They've lied to us all along." The VA's testing methodology is safe and accurate, the agency says. More than 2,100 soldiers from the current war have asked to be tested; only 8 had DU in their urine, the VA said. The term depleted uranium is linguistically radioactive. Simply uttering the words can prompt a reaction akin to preaching atheism at tent revival. Heads shake, eyes roll, opinions are yelled from all sides. "The Department of Defense takes the position that you can eat it for breakfast and it poses no threat at all," said Steve Robinson of the National Gulf War Resource Center, which helps veterans with various problems, including navigating the labyrinth of VA health care. "Then you have far-left groups that ... declare it a crime against humanity." Several countries use it as weaponry, including Britain, which fired it during the 2003 Iraq invasion. An estimated 286 tons of DU munitions were fired by the U.S. in Iraq and Kuwait in 1991. An estimated 130 tons were shot toppling Saddam Hussein. Depleted uranium can enter the human body by inhalation, the most dangerous method; by ingesting contaminated food or eating with contaminated hands; by getting dust or debris in an open wound, or by being struck by shrapnel, which often is not removed because doing so would be more dangerous than leaving it. Inhaled, it can lodge in the lungs. As with imbedded shrapnel, this is doubly dangerous — not only are the particles themselves physically destructive, they emit radiation. A moderate voice on the divisive DU spectrum belongs to Dan Fahey, a doctoral student at the University of California at Berkeley, who has studied the issue for years and also served in the Gulf War before leaving the military as a conscientious objector. "I've been working on this since '93 and I've just given up hope," he said. "I've spoken to successive federal committees and elected officials ... who then side with the Pentagon. Nothing changes." At the other end are a collection of conspiracy-theorists and Internet proselytizers who say using such weapons constitutes genocide. Two of the most vocal opponents recently suggested that a depleted-uranium missile, not a hijacked jetliner, struck the Pentagon in 2001. "The bottom line is it's more hazardous than the Pentagon admits," Fahey said, "but it's not as hazardous as the hard-line activist groups say it is. And there's a real dearth of information about how DU affects humans." There are several studies on how it affects animals, though their results are not, of course, directly applicable to humans. Military research on mice shows that depleted uranium can enter the bloodstream and come to rest in bones, the brain, kidneys and lymph nodes. Other research in rats shows that DU can result in cancerous tumors and genetic mutations, and pass from mother to unborn child, resulting in birth defects. Iraqi doctors reported significant increases in birth defects and childhood cancers after the 1991 invasion. Iraqi authorities "found that uranium, which affected the blood cells, had a serious impact on health: The number of cases of leukemia had increased considerably, as had the incidence of fetal deformities," the U.N. reported. Depleted uranium can also contaminate soil and water, and coat buildings with radioactive dust, which can by carried by wind and sandstorms. In 2005, the U.N. Environmental Program identified 311 polluted sites in Iraq. Cleaning them will take at least $40 million and several years, the agency said. Nothing can start until the fighting stops. Fifteen years after it was first used in battle, there is only one U.S. government study monitoring veterans exposed to depleted uranium. Number of soldiers in the survey: 32. Number of soldiers in both Iraq wars: more than 900,000. The study group's size is controversial — far too small, say experts including Fahey — and so are the findings of the voluntary, Baltimore-based study. It has found "no clinically significant" health effects from depleted uranium exposure in the study subjects, according to its researchers. Critics say the VA has downplayed participants' health problems, including not reporting one soldier who developed cancer, and another who developed a bone tumor. So for now, depleted uranium falls into the quagmire of Gulf War Syndrome, from which no treatment has emerged despite the government's spending of at least $300 million. About 30% of the 700,000 men and women who served in the first Gulf War still suffer a baffling array of symptoms very similar to those reported by Reed's unit. Depleted uranium has long been suspected as a possible contributor to Gulf War Syndrome, and in the mid-90s, veterans helped push the military into tracking soldiers exposed to it. But for all their efforts, what they got in the end was a questionnaire dispensed to homeward-bound soldiers asking about mental health, nightmares, losing control, exposure to dangerous and radioactive chemicals. But, the veterans persisted, how would soldiers know they'd been exposed? Radiation is invisible, tasteless, and has no smell. And what exhausted, homesick, war-addled soldier would check a box that would only send him or her to a military medical center to be poked and prodded and questioned and tested? It will take years to determine how depleted uranium affected soldiers from this war. After Vietnam, veterans, in numbers that grew with the passage of time, complained of joint aches, night sweats, bloody feces, migraine headaches, unexplained rashes and violent behavior; some developed cancers. It took more than 25 years for the Pentagon to acknowledge that Agent Orange — a corrosive defoliant used to melt the jungles of Vietnam and flush out the enemy — was linked to those sufferings. It took 40 years for the military to compensate sick World War II vets exposed to massive blasts of radiation during tests of the atomic bomb. In 2002, Congress voted to not let that happen again. It established the Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses — comprised of scientists, physicians and veterans advocates. It reports to the secretary of Veterans Affairs. Its mandate is to judge all research and all efforts to treat Gulf War Syndrome patients against a single standard: Have sick soldiers been made better? The answer, according to the committee, is no. "Regrettably, after four years of operation neither the Committee nor (the) VA can report progress toward this goal," stated its December 2005 report. "Research has not produced effective treatments for these conditions nor shown that existing treatments are significantly effective." And so time marches on, as do soldiers going to, and returning from, the deserts of Iraq. Herbert Reed is an imposing man, broad shouldered and tall. He strides into the VA Medical Center in the Bronx with the presence of a cop or a soldier. Since the Vietnam War, he has been both. His hair is perfect, his shirt spotless, his jeans sharply creased. But there is something wrong, a niggling imperfection made more noticeable by a bearing so disciplined. It is a limp — more like a hitch in his get-along. It is the only sign, albeit a tiny one, that he is extremely sick. Even sleep offers no release. He dreams of gunfire and bombs and soldiers who scream for help. No matter how hard he tries, he never gets there in time. At 54, he is a veteran of two wars and a 20-year veteran of the New York Police Department, where he last served as an assistant warden at the Riker's Island prison. He was in perfect health, he says, before being deployed to Iraq. According to military guidelines, he should have heard the words depleted uranium long before he ended up at Walter Reed. He should have been trained about its dangers, and how to avoid prolonged exposure to its toxicity and radioactivity. He says he didn't get anything of the kind. Neither did other reservists and National Guard soldiers called up for the current war, according to veterans' groups. Reed and the seven brothers from his unit hate what has happened to them, and they speak of it at public seminars and in politicians' offices. It is something no VA doctor can explain; something that leaves them feeling like so many spent shell rounds, kicked to the side of battle. But for every outspoken soldier like them, there are silent veterans like Raphael Naboa, an Army artillery scout who served 11 months in the northern Sunni Triangle, only to come home and fall apart. Some days he feels fine. "Some days I can't get out of bed," he said from his home in Colorado. Now 29, he's had growths removed from his brain. He has suffered a small stroke — one morning he was shaving, having put down the razor to rinse his face. In that moment, he blacked out and pitched over. "Just as quickly as I lost consciousness, I regained it," he said. "Except I couldn't move the right side of my body." After about 15 minutes, the paralysis ebbed. He has mentioned depleted uranium to his VA doctors, who say he suffers from a series of "non-related conditions." He knows he was exposed to DU. "A lot of guys went trophy-hunting, grabbing bayonets, helmets, stuff that was in the vehicles that were destroyed by depleted uranium. My guys were rooting around in it. I was trying to get them out of the vehicles." No one in the military talked to him about depleted uranium, he said. His knowledge, like Reed's, is self-taught from the Internet. Unlike Reed, he has not gone to war over it. He doesn't feel up to the fight. There is no known cure for what ails him, and so no possible victory in battle. He'd really just like to feel normal again. And he knows of others who feel the same. "I was an artillery scout, these are folks who are in pretty good shape. Your Rangers, your Special Forces guys, they're in as good as shape as a professional athlete. "Then we come back and we're all sick." They feel like men who once were warriors and now are old before their time, with no hope for relief from a multitude of miseries that has no name. ---- Israel’s War Crimes: NGOs Need to Get a Clue Kurt Nimmo August 12, 2006 UrukNet http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m25710&l=i&size=1&hd=0 More useless hand-wringing from the humanitarian NGOs. "Humanitarian agencies sought ways to get aid to an estimated 100,000 people trapped in southern Lebanon on Friday and the mayor of Tyre said the port city could run out of food in two days," reports ABC News. "United Nations and other convoys have been unable to deliver supplies to the region since an Israeli air strike destroyed the last bridge across the Litani river on Monday." It is interesting to note that these humanitarian organizations refuse to admit the obvious and act upon it—Israel and its patron, the United States, are criminal organizations and unless there is political consciousness realizing this fact and political action on the part of the NGOs and, indeed, millions of citizens in these countries, nothing will change. Remarkably, International Committee of the Red Cross chief Jakob Kellenberger wasted a whole lot of precious time playing pattycakes in Jerusalem, attempting to convince the racist settler state to stop killing innocents in Lebanon. In other words, the good Mr. Kellenberger is a dupe for the Zionists, who have no intention of letting up on their diabolical ethnic cleansing and slaughtering of babies and grandmothers in Lebanon with depleted uranium and other illegal weapons. Kellenberger should refuse to talk with the Jabotinskyites and instead talk about organizing an economic boycott of the country. "The U.N. World Food Program, overseeing logistics for U.N. agencies, said a 15-truck convoy to the eastern town of Baalbek halted at the city of Zahle due to shelling on the road ahead," ABC News continues. "It also received Israeli clearance for convoys to Nabatiyeh, a town north of the Litani, but could not reach Tyre, the biggest city south of the river, or border villages." As we know, Israel not only purposely shells roads, preventing humanitarian assistance, but also targets ambulances and fleeing refugees, scurrilous war crimes all. It is all part of the Master Plan of "reshaping" the Arab and Muslim Middle East by way of mass murder and starvation, crimes reminiscent of the Nazis. In the short term, this plan includes ethnically cleansing southern Lebanon to the Litani and annexing hundreds of squares miles, much of it prime agriculture real estate and the crown jewel, the fresh water of the Litani River, a resource Israel sorely needs and has conspired to steal for decades. Israel, driven insane by its own hubris and racist religious precepts, fully intends to clear all Arabs, both Muslim and Christian, from this snatched "security zone," an objective only its demented leaders and military strategists believe can be accomplished. Hezbollah, an entirely legal resistance movement (minus its ill-advised rocketing of Israel), knows differently. Hezbollah understands from personal experience that people will resist occupation and slowly, methodically take out brutal occupiers one troop at a time, as the Vietnamese and Algerians did before them. "It is now clear that Israel’s control over the occupied territories is, and has all along been intended to be, a drive to assert exclusive Jewish control, taming the Palestinians into submission and squeezing them into ever smaller, more disconnected segments of land or, failing that, forcing them to leave Palestine altogether," write Kathleen and Bill Christison. "It is totally obvious to anyone who spends time on the ground in Palestine-Israel that the animating force behind the policies of the present and all past Israeli governments in Israel and in the occupied West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem has always been a determination to assure the predominance of Jews over Palestinians. Such policies can only be described as racist, and we should stop trying any longer to avoid the word." Or for that matter, the predominance of Jews over Lebanese Arabs. Like a dim-witted fool who continually makes the same mistake over and over again, the ICRC and other humanitarian organizations seem dedicated to not solving the problem in Lebanon and Palestine, avoiding the obvious—Israel and its patron the United States are renegade, criminal nations and should be criticized at every turn, boycotted, shunned, and denounced. Otherwise, the insanity will go on indefinitely. Or until Newt Gingrich and the perfidious neocons realize their World War Three. On that day, as the nukes fly and the planet begins its descent into irreparable damage, it will be too late to save not only the Lebanese, but humankind as a whole. -------- india 'India on the right track' Interview with Dr. Georges Vendryes, French nuclear scientist. T.S. SUBRAMANIAN August 12, 2006 The Hindu Frontline http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/stories/20060825001508600.htm IN the past one year, breeder reactors have come into sharp focus in India following the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal. The country had taken a firm stand in its negotiations with the United States that it would not put its breeder reactors under International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) safeguards. Earlier, there was intense debate in India whether it was wise to go in for breeder reactors. Right now, a 13 MWe Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) is operational at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) at Kalpakkam. A 500 MWe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor is also under construction here. The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) plans to build four more FBTRs of 500 MWe capacity each before 2020. The IGCAR is responsible for designing and developing breeders in India. In an interview to Frontline on July 18 at Mamallapuram (Mahabalipuram), eminent French nuclear scientist Dr. Georges Vendryes, the father of breeder reactors, asserted that India's policy of developing breeders was "quite right". This was his third visit to India. Dr. Vendryes began his career as a nuclear physicist under Prof. Frederic Joliot-Curie at the "Synthese Atomique" Laboratory, France, in 1948. Between 1952 and 1970, he held various positions in the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). He took over as Director of Nuclear Reactors' Research and Development, CEA in 1971 and became vice-president, Industrial Nuclear Applications, CEA, in 1974. At present he is its Honorary Executive Vice-President. He has made outstanding contributions in research on nuclear energy, especially in the area of fast breeder reactor technology. He has received several awards and honours from organisations and countries including Germany, the U.S., Japan and China. It was during the United Nations Conference on Science and Technology Development in 1979 that Dr. Vendryes, after hearing Walter Zinn of the Argonne National Laboratory, U.S., speak about the promise of breeder reactors, said to himself, "We have to develop breeders." From then on, he worked with passion and determination on the CEA's breeder programme and became a proponent of sodium-cooled fast breeder reactor technology. Excerpts from the interview: At an Indo-French seminar in 1992, eminent French nuclear scientist Dr. Bertrand Goldschmidt observed that in nuclear matters, India and France were prepared to flirt with each other but not really go to bed. Do you think it is time India and France stopped flirting and went to bed? We had in the past wonderful cooperation which, unfortunately, was interrupted in the mid-1970s for reasons you know well. I hope that in the future, possibly within one or two years, new conditions will arise that will open up opportunities for the renewal of our cooperation. I am looking forward to such cooperation taking place again. France stepped in to supply enriched uranium for the Tarapur reactors when the U.S. reneged on its contract after Pokhran I. Why didn't the Indo-French collaboration in nuclear matters take off from there? Did it fail to firm up because France was insisting that India should sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty? We made that gesture (of supplying enriched uranium to Tarapur-1 and 2 reactors) because we wanted to show our goodwill to India but when France signed the NPT in 1992, conditions became more and more difficult for continuing the close cooperation. In your speech today, you said the Indian nuclear industry suffered from isolation, and that you hoped that with the recent visits of U.S. President George W. Bush and French President Jacques Chirac to India, "the present unwanted situation will soon terminate". France wants to build four reactors at Jaitapur, a coastal site in Maharashtra. I have to tell you that I am here to express my own personal opinion, and that I am not at all here as a representative of the French government or the CEA or the French industry. I am not at all involved [with them] because I retired many years ago. I am not at all involved in the discussions, which are taking place right now between the Indian and the French governments. I do not know the details at all. So I cannot make any comments on that. The only thing I can say is that I personally hope that these discussions will have a satisfactory outcome, satisfactory to both sides, and this will make it possible to renew some sort of collaboration in the future. You are the father of the breeder reactor. This is too much! You were the architect of the SuperPhenix breeder reactor in France. You said at Kalpakkam today that the "Hanuman jump" that the DAE was making from the 13 MWe FBTR to the 500 MWe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) under construction at Kalpakkam was "a bold one". Do you think India is on the right path in the matter of breeder reactors? Oh, yes. Definitely so. This policy, this decision to develop fast breeder reactors in India, was made early, at the time of Homi Bhabha, a few years after India became independent. I think this policy is quite right. I can only approve it. It is a good way to develop nuclear energy first by using thermal reactors to produce plutonium, and then using the plutonium with depleted natural uranium to produce more plutonium in the fast breeder reactors. This is a logical way to proceed. I approve it fully. My point is that it so happens right now that the number of countries that are active in fast breeders has unfortunately decreased very much. The French government made a very bad decision to shut down the SuperPhenix and this means that there will be an interruption of several years in fast breeders' development in France. Now only Russia, Japan, China and India have an active interest in fast breeders. That means when India is building its PFBR, it is somewhat alone in the world. It cannot benefit from the exchanges with many other countries because other countries do not at present, unfortunately, develop fast breeder reactors. The fact that you are alone makes your work more difficult, very challenging, and in my opinion, this is the reason why you have to proceed with extreme cautiousness. This does not mean that you are wrong in going that way. Not at all. But you have to go that way with great caution in order to be sure that you will arrive at your goal. Why did the French government shut down the SuperPhenix? For political reasons, which have nothing to do with technical or economic reasons. It was because the Green Party made an electoral pact with the Socialists that the latter should shut down the SuperPhenix (if their alliance came to power). Unfortunately, this is what happened in 1997. It was a very unfortunate decision. It is a major mistake. Well, we have to live with it. Do you think that fast breeder reactors will get a fresh lease of life in France? Yes, I am sure that fast breeder reactors will be developed in France and other countries as well in future because you cannot imagine long-term use of nuclear energy without breeders. Breeder reactors are really the ultimate goal of nuclear energy from fission. Why is Russia pressing ahead with breeders now? The Japanese went ahead with breeders too but had a problem with the Monju reactor. The Japanese had a leak of sodium [from Monju]. As a consequence, Monju remained shut down for many years. But recently, after a series of safety inquiries, the Japanese government decided to repair the damage and start the reactor again. So, maybe in two years from now, Monju will operate. The Russians are operating a 600 MWe fast breeder reactor. They have said that they will build a bigger one, of 800 MWe capacity, at the same location. In France, President Chirac instructed the CEA early this year to start preliminary studies on an advanced reactor, which is indeed a breeder. I think that within a couple of years, the design of this new reactor will be completed; the objective is to put this reactor into service in 2020. You spoke about how India overcame several obstacles after it conducted its first nuclear test at Pokhran in 1974. The Nuclear Suppliers' Group asked its members not to sell light water reactors to India because India was not a signatory to the NPT. So do you think that these embargoes, sanctions and technology denial regimes work? I cannot make any comments on that because this is a highly political question. Again, I cannot make comments on French government policy. High-level discussions are going on between France and India, and India and the United States. I firmly hope that within a few years, India will again find its due place in the mainstream of international nuclear community and get out of its isolation, which was pitiful. How do you battle the propaganda that fish are killed by the coolant waters let into the sea? There is no more controversy about this problem. I cannot exactly tell you why it died down. Anti-nuclear movements always raise problems, which are based on false statements. But there comes a time when the truth is revealed. In the wake of the Chernobyl accident, do you think nuclear energy can really come back? Yes, definitely. British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced recently that his government was in favour of a renewal of nuclear energy there. In many countries, there is interest in nuclear energy. Do you know that Finland, for instance, ordered an advanced light water reactor from France two years ago? It is of 1,500 MWe capacity. Possibly, they will discuss more reactors. This is not decided but it is under discussion in Finland. How many reactors does France have? Fifty-eight. All are light water reactors except for Phenix, which is a small breeder reactor and is, by the way, the oldest nuclear reactor operating in France. It started operating in 1974 and is still operating. Phenix has a capacity of 200 MWe. Why is China showing so much of interest in nuclear power? Why are you surprised that China is interested in nuclear reactors? China is in the same situation as India. They have tremendous energy needs. It is normal that they believe nuclear energy can contribute to the generation of electricity in future. They are making decisions similar to those India has made. But China has enough coal. They have possibly more coal than you have. But the coal deposits in China are located in the northwestern parts of the country. Transportation of coal in a country that is very big is not easy. Similar is the case in India. Do you predict a bright future for India in building breeder reactors, thorium reactors and so on? You are definitely on the right path. I admire what you have done. I admire what you are preparing to do. You are on the right track. -------- iran Iran Does Need Nuclear Energy By Safa Haeri Posted Saturday, August 12, 2006 (IPS) http://www.iran-press-service.com/ips/articles-2006/august2006/iran_nuclear_12806.shtml Editor's note: Iran Press Service apologise to Professor Assadi, to Washinton Prism and to its readers for an unfortunate mis-translation between "technology" and "energy". Paris, 12 Aug. (IPS) As leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran are insisting on their nuclear projects, including the highly controversial activity of enriching uranium, a respected professor on economy said Iran does need atomic energy. High ranking Iranian officials, especially the leader of the regime Ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i and his hard line, fundamentalist president Mahmoud Ahmadi Nezhad to name two of them insists that nuclear technology is the “future of the nation” and have transformed the issue into a national pride, an effort that so far has failed to convince the great majority of the Iranians. In their argumentation, they argue that both oil, an energy that Iran is one of the world’s largest producers, and natural gas, which Iran has the second largest reserves after Russia are “finishable” while nuclear energy is for ever. After one hundred years of oil industry, we still are dependent on the westerners. But Professor Jamshid Asadi, who teaches economics at the American University of Paris, told the last issue of the Washington-based “Washington Prism” that in his view, Iran does not need nuclear energy. “So far, some 1.500 tons of uranium ore has been discovered in Iran and in the best of situations, we might have ten times more than that amount in reserve. Considering that the consumption of a plant like the one under construction in Booshehr is more than 200 tons per year, this means that the reserves discovered so far are sufficient to run that plant for seven years and the estimated reserves would keep it on steam for seventy years”, Mr. Asadi pointed out. He was referring to the 1.000 megawatts nuclear powered electricity plant which is under construction in the city port of Booshehr on the Persian Gulf wit the help of Russia. The project that should have been finished in 2003 at a price tag of 600 millions US Dolllars has cost Iran more than eight hundreds millions and it is not certain it would start working by this year, as promised by the Russian builders. Iran says it is planning to build at least six other nuclear powered stations like the one in Booshehr and it is for this reason that it wants to be self sufficient in the full nuclear cycle. While Tehran insists that its nuclear projects are for civilian purposes, mostly producing electricity, many countries, above all the United States and Israel suspects Iranian ruling ayatollahs of preparing secretly nuclear weapons and to default the Iranians, the European Union, backed by the United States, offered Iran a package that included enriching uranium to a degree good for civilian use, participation in the construction of new plants and all the necessary fuel. Tehran rejected the offer and keeps and ambivalent posture about a Russian project, supported by the EU, to enrich uranium for Iranian nuclear plants in Russia. Tehran is rejecting all the offers saying one can not sleep on foreign promises. “What if suddenly, for any reason, foreign suppliers of enriched uranium decided not to deliver the good?” In a recent trip to Tehran, Herr Joscka Fischer, former Vice German Chancellor and Foreign Affairs minister bluntly told the Iranians that the international community does not trust them because “if your aim in nuclear technology is really for civilian uses, then why go for enriching uranium to degrees far above the 3,5 per cent needed for such projects?”. , the Iranian leaders argue that nuclear technology is a “mother industry” “The problem is that world reserves for uranium ore is fast depleted. In other words, in a few years, Iran would not be able to satisfy its needs in uranium fuel for it’s nuclear plants in the international market. In addition, while the price of yellow cake, the ore for making uranium, in the international market in 2006 is around 40 US Dollars per kilogramme, cost of producing the same amount in Iran is at least double”, he observed, adding that “Taking in account our oil and gas reserves, “without counting those in the Caspian Sea”, we have enough reserves for more than 319 years, the tow sources combined”. To justify their insistence on becoming a nuclear energy power, the Iranian leaders argue that nuclear technology is a “mother industry” needed for the economic and industrial development of the nation. “This is a wrong argument, for the simple reason that not only it is very difficult to master such a complex and complicated technology, but just think that after one hundred years of oil industry, we still are dependent on the western technologies. Is it not better to think about mastering the oil and gas industries that are plenty, more economic, easier to use and much safer?” he asked. In his view, the reason Iranian clerical leaders are insisting on the nuclear technology is “simply because they are determined to produce nuclear weapons as a mean to secure their survival”. -------- korea New Cracks in Nuclear Containment Both Koreas Raise Risks of an Arms Race By Peter Grier Staff Writer Christian Science Monitor. Saturday, August 12, 2006 Seoul Times http://theseoultimes.com/ST/?url=/ST/db/read.php?idx=1019 WASHINGTON — North Korea might test a nuclear weapon in the near future, though it apparently didn't explode one over the weekend. Iran is forging ahead with nuclear activities despite objections from much of the rest of the world. South Korea, it turns out, produced some fissile material a few years ago. The Seoul government didn't know what was going on — or so it says. The global effort to curb nuclear proliferation may now be facing some of its most daunting challenges in years. Taken separately, the news items above are bad enough. But some experts worry that, added together, they might spiral into a whole more dangerous than the sum of its parts. That's because a few serious cracks could conceivably shatter long-held international taboos against acquiring an atomic arsenal. Even one overt new nuclear nation might produce others, as rivals and neighbors rush to arm themselves defensively. But this outcome isn't necessarily inevitable. Today, the number of states with a nuclear weapon remains the same as 15 years ago, points out Matthew Bunn, a nuclear expert at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. "If we work hard and patch up these holes in the [nonproliferation] regime ... we still have a chance to be at the same place 15 years from now," says Mr. Bunn. The case against North Korea Still, September has so far been a daunting month for nuclear revelations — bad enough to make the issue a live one for the presidential campaign. Senator John Kerry said Sunday that by focusing on Iraq, Bush administration officials have "taken their eye off the real ball" and allowed nuclear threats to develop. Bush officials denied the charge — and said that this is one area where they are working with the international community to try to develop multilateral solutions. For instance, the US isn't alone in confronting North Korea, said Secretary of State Colin Powell in a broadcast interview: "It's North Korea versus all of its neighbors, which have no interest in seeing North Korea with a nuclear weapon." North Korea remains perhaps the most acute proliferation concern for US officials and experts outside government. Last weekend, reports that Pyongyang might be preparing to test a nuclear device coincided with the inexplicable appearance of a mushroom cloud in North Korea, near the border with China. By all accounts the cloud was the result of a non-nuclear explosion, the cause of which isn't yet clear. But if nothing else, the incident reminded the world of North Korea's self-proclaimed steady nuclear progress. US intelligence estimates hold that North Korea now has enough fissile material for six to eight nuclear devices. That's enough of a stockpile to use some in a design experiment, say experts — meaning it's entirely possible that a real mushroom cloud will appear somewhere over the secretive nation in the next few years. "I think it is a real possibility they will carry out a test," says Bunn. "Of course it would be completely insane on their part — they may think it may lead the US to bargain with them, but it would most certainly have the opposite result." How the 'nuclear club' could grow An overtly nuclear North Korea might not spark a regional arms race right away. But if Japan and South Korea saw no progress in containing the threat within a relatively short period of time, they, too, might decide it would be safer to be in the nuclear club than out. And if Japan and South Korea move, Taiwan might not be far behind. Meanwhile, the international community on Monday was struggling with how to deal with Iran's nascent nuclear activities. Among the key aims of the US and European allies is to get Iran to fully give up nuclear enrichment activities, which it has so far refused to do, saying they are related only to a nuclear power program. The US wants the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to set a November deadline for action. If Iran didn't comply, it would be hauled before the UN Security Council for possible sanctions. Europe has moved closer to the US view recently, though the US still wants a more automatic "trigger" for action than many of its allies. The fact that Iran is far more wily in geopolitics than North Korea or Iraq may make it a difficult opponent for the US on this issue, note some experts. "I think there's a bit of a stalemate, but there's room for progress," says Paul Kerr, a non- proliferation analyst at the Arms Control Association. "The Iranians seem to be probing to see what they can get away with." In this context, South Korea's newly revealed nuclear activities, including production of 300 pounds of uranium metal in the '80s and creation of a small amount of highly enriched uranium in 2000, gave potential proliferators a rhetorical advantage, at the very least. North Korea has already used the admission to try and justify its own activities. On Monday, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said South Korea's admissions were of "serious concern." A fuller IAEA report on the matter should be forthcoming by November, he said. A broad but critical agenda Can the cracks in the nonproliferation dike be plugged? Possibly, say experts. The US could make the issue one of higher visibility, and commit more money to programs designed to secure existing stocks of nuclear materials, says the Arms Control Association's Mr. Kerr. Bunn of Harvard, for his part, says the US should tackle the nuclear programs of hostile states with more adroit diplo- macy. Then it should redouble efforts to secure fissile stockpiles, and roll up any black-market nuclear networks, such as the one headed by rogue Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan. Next on Bunn's list is establishment of a robust international inspection regime to make sure controls stay in place. And the US might have to accept limits on its own arsenal, he says, such as a cap on development of new warhead designs. "This a very broad agenda," says Bunn, "and it's very crucial, partly because the review conference [of the Non Proliferation Treaty] is coming up in early 2005, right after either a new President takes office or President Bush takes up his second term." -------- pakistan Pakistan close to N-deal with China Saturday, August 12, 2006 South Asian Media http://www.southasianmedia.net/index_story.cfm?id=316779&category=Frontend&Country=PAKISTAN ISLAMABAD-Pakistan and China are close to ink the landmark accord on nuclear energy cooperation, under which Islamabad will acquire six reactors of 300 megawatts each. “Negotiations on nuclear energy cooperation between Pakistan and China are in final stages and the deal is most likely to be reached at during the forthcoming visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao in November, this year,” said an official here on Friday. He said Pakistan also wanted to acquire a nuclear power reactor of 600 megawatts from China but the Chinese have just started using its first such reactors hence its provision to Pakistan would take some time. The nuclear energy cooperation deal with China has brought great solace to Pakistan, as the United States is not willing to extend such cooperation to Islamabad despite the months’ long talks between the allied nations in war on terror. With Chinese cooperation, Pak would build six new nuclear reactors in next 10 years having capacity of 2,000 megawatts, the official said. This was part of Pak’s plan to increase the capacity of N-power generation to over 8,000 megawatts by 2025, he added. China has already helped Pak build a nuclear reactor of 350 megawatts at Chashma near and it was currently building one more at the same place with the same capacity. -------- MILITARY -------- israel / palestine Israel steps up attacks after cease-fire deal Strikes on Lebanon persist as officials race to turn resolution into action August 12, 2006 Associated Press http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14315126/ BEIRUT, Lebanon - Israeli warplanes launched wide-ranging airstrikes and sent commandos into the Hezbollah heartland Saturday as officials raced to turn a U.N. cease-fire blueprint into action. The raids killed at least 15 people in one village and blasted a highway near the last open border crossing to Syria. Israel appeared ready to keep up a full-scale campaign until the U.N. plan works its way through political chambers. Lebanese officials have signaled that formal backing could come Saturday. Israel could give its approval Sunday. Then another tense phase would begin: trying to rapidly mobilize a credible peacekeeping force combining beefed-up U.N. troops alongside Lebanese units. The contingent, which could number around 30,000 soldiers, would stand between Israel and the Hezbollah militia. Israel’s army chief, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, said Israel has nearly tripled the number of forces in Lebanon and expects to fight for another week despite the cease-fire deal. He said Israeli forces — apparently about 30,0000 now — would stay in Lebanon until an international force arrives. Israel has demanded an airtight buffer zone and wonders if U.N. and Lebanese forces are up for the task. A small U.N. military presence — now about 2,000 soldiers — have been in Hezbollah-controlled southern Lebanon since 1978 and have been overwhelmed by the Islamic group’s rising power, aided by Iran and Syria. No halt in fighting Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice specifically cited Hezbollah’s two sponsors in a statement Friday for all parties to “respect the sovereignty of the Lebanese government and the will of the international community.” But the resolution, approved 15-0 in the U.N. Security Council, did nothing to immediately halt the fighting that erupted exactly a month ago and has claimed more than 800 lives. Israeli missiles slammed into the southern Lebanon village of Rachaf, about 10 miles from the Israeli border, killing at least 15 civilians, security officials said. Israeli ground forces also fanned out across southern Lebanon hunting for Hezbollah rocket batteries that have fired unending salvos across the border. Three people were also killed in strikes on Kharayeb, and a Lebanese soldier was killed in an air raid near an army base in the Bekaa Valley, officials said. In Sidon, a coastal city between Beirut and the Israeli border, Israeli bombs destroyed a power plant. Farther south, another power facility was hit near Tyre, knocking out electricity to the port, police said. On Lebanon’s northern frontier, Israeli airstrikes hit the highway leading to the Arida border crossing about a mile from the Mediterranean coast. It’s the last official border post open for humanitarian convoys and civilians fleeing the country. The highway was impassable, but drivers tried to maneuver through ruts and ditches. The only other exits from Lebanon are rugged pathways and back roads through deserts or mountains. Israel seeks to block supply routes for Hezbollah and disrupt their mobility and has warned it would target any vehicles on the roads in southern Lebanon and along other main highways. Deadly move Trying any movement — even under the umbrella of U.N. forces — can prove deadly. On Friday, an Israeli aircraft fired on a convoy of more than 600 civilian vehicles and others carrying 350 Lebanese police and soldiers who left the Israeli-occupied town on Marjayoun in southeast Lebanon. Police said four people were killed — three civilians and an army recruit — and 28 injured. The mayor of Marjayoun, Fuad Hamra, placed the death toll at six. Israel said the U.N. troops asked permission to lead the convoy, but it was denied. Previous groups were given permission and traveled unharmed, the Israeli military said. Fighting continued in Hezbollah-held areas around Marjayoun, a strategic hub overlooking valleys used as Hezbollah rocket bases. Israeli commando units and guerrillas engaged in close combat in a valley near El-Ghandourieh, about 10 miles southwest of Marjayoun, according to Lebanese security officials. Other Israeli ground forces, backed by aircraft and drones, met stiff resistance as they tried to reach the Litani River, about 20 miles north of the border. Israeli military correspondents reported at least 30 Hezbollah fighters were killed in the advance and Israeli forces suffered casualties, but specific figures were not immediately given. The Litani is seen by Israel as a crucial boundary in its attempt to push back Hezbollah. Israel has repeatedly insisted that the proposed peacekeeping force cannot allow Hezbollah weapons south of the river. But it will be nearly impossible to rid south Lebanon of the Islamic guerrillas, who are now in the Lebanese Cabinet and run clinics and other charities that are considered essential in rebuilding the region. Their ability to withstand the Israeli military assault has also made Hezbollah heroes across the Arab and Islamic worlds. The ongoing clashes have killed more than 800 people — including at least 755 Lebanese and 123 Israelis. -------- mideast Lebanese speak out on the Web By Adoree Kim THE WASHINGTON TIMES August 12, 2006 http://washtimes.com/functions/print.php?StoryID=20060811-101403-3176r Web logs, or "blogs," have become popular with computer-savvy Lebanese looking to express their anger and grief over the monthlong war between Hezbollah and Israel. The blogs range from furious rants against Israel and the United States to sentimental pessimism for their war-battered nation, which only recently held elections that were hailed as a model for emerging democracies in the Arab world. One Web site, "Electronic Lebanon," features a blog entry titled: "War is becoming a way of life," written by artist Zena el-Khalil from Beirut. "Blogging is a means of survival," Mrs. el-Khalil, 30, told The Washington Times by telephone yesterday. "It is my way of letting my friends and other people abroad know more about my situation here. ... I am able to say things that politicians and reporters cannot talk about," she said. Mrs. el-Khalil began writing e-mails to her friends and family the first night of Israeli air strikes. She soon realized that communicating by blogging would be easier because there was an electricity shortage and she would only have to be online for a few minutes to post her updates. "They say that history is written by the winners. In this war, there are no winners, but we can at least know that we did our best to document it so that the world does not forget," Mrs. el-Khalil said. Other blogs engage in political exhortations, such as urging Lebanese nationalists to take action. "We stress and add the urgent need TO ACT," writes Moussa Bashir from Beirut on his blog called UrShalim. A blogger who calls himself Zadigvoltaire accuses Israel and the United States of indifference over the July 30 bombing in Qana, in which 28 civilians died, including 16 children. "Poor Israel, Poor Israelis. ... They can make a mistake and kill tens of children and apologize and the U.S. quickly forgives them. ... Lebanese children are Hezbollah supporters that should die for the new and democratic Middle East that George Bush has promised the world," Zadigvoltaire wrote sarcastically in his "Beirut Notes" blog. The same writer is just as furious at Hezbollah and its leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, for starting the war. "Get out of Lebanon Hassan and take your ideology of death and hate with you," Zadigvoltaire wrote. "Go to heaven and let us live in the pro-American hell in peace and prosperity like many other places in the Middle East and Asia." Not all Lebanese bloggers write of doom. "I have never seen so much unity in Lebanon as I've seen in this war. ... People are actually SMILING at each other at supermarkets and on intersections, and opening their houses for complete strangers," wrote another blogger, who calls himself Fadi. -------- POLITICS -------- propaganda wars Israel's secret weapon: good old rude leaflets Martin Chulov, Beirut 12 aug 06 The Australian http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,20098980,00.html THEIR messages are foreboding, their delivery hi-tech, but the Israeli military's most powerful propaganda tool relies on tenets proven over centuries. At lest twice a week since the war began, warplanes have dropped canisters dispersing leaflets with messages for Hezbollah members and Lebanese civilians. They flutter into towns and cities, where people rush to collect them. Locals flock to read the leaflets, all written in perfect colloquial Arabic, but without many of the niceties of regular correspondence. The Israelis, for example refer to Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, simply as "Hassan" - quite a slight in the Arab world, where religious standing, age, and privilege all command respect. They are no more polite to his chieftains, giving them the first-name treatment and scorning their public absence since the fighting erupted. A green leaflet that floated to earth in week one of the war was addressed to "all members and supporters of Hezbollah". It read: "Hassan claims that the leadership of the party is still functioning normally, but why do no leaders appear in person in public, preferring instead to put up their posters in the streets of Beirut? "Where is Naeem Qassim? Where is Ibrahim Ameen Al Sayyed? Where is Hashim Safa El Deen?", it asked referring to the senior Hezbollah leadership. "Hassan thinks that only one or two rocket propelling platforms have been destroyed. If Hassan would look out of his cave once he will be surprised to discover that many rocket launchers and operators were hit. In his last speech Hassan attacked Arab leaders and ignored the existence of the international community. "Is this what you want for Lebanon? An isolated and besieged country under the mercy of Syria and Iran? "The only truth in what he said is that this is only the beginning. Signed: State of Israel." One week later came a second piece of provocation, this time addressed to "all Lebanese citizens". "Why did Hassan attack the state of Israel? Is it to liberate Lebanese detainees from Israeli jails? "Hassan could have secured their release a long time ago through negotiations without bringing ruin to Lebanon. Hassan is playing with fire and here is Lebanon burning. Hassan has bet your future and here you are paying the price." Showing no mercy for its mortal enemy, Israeli jets quickly dropped a follow-up, depicting Nasrallah in a cartoon as an overlord, standing behind a shield of three Lebanese civilians. The caption was a well-known Arabic metaphor: "The guardian is the thief." The leaflets are put together by a psychological operations unit in the Israeli Defence Forces, tasked with making decisive hits on enemy morale. Throughout the ages, warfare has relied on debilitating opponents psychologically, and Israel has decided that the best way to do so this time is to demythologise Nasrallah in the eyes of Hezbollah members and civilians. Instead of a cleric, he is cast as a commoner. They also pitch him as a coward, instead of a righteous man, and as a narcissist - not a revolutionary. Yesterday, the latest attack on Nasrallah's character, aimed again at Hezbollah members, dropped to earth in the southern city of Tyre. "Do you think the battlefield looks like the propaganda scenes shown on Al Manar channel, where you can run to the high ground at the blink of an eye? "Did you have faith in your leaders who told you that what is in front of you is nothing but a spider's web that will tear before you? "They have lied to you all these years and are lying to you now. You know well that you have been sent like lambs to the slaughter without any training or preparation. You know that the assurances of your leaders are not enough for a unified stand against well-trained soldiers defending their nation, people and home. "You are but opportunists and the Lebanese people support you. Run as far away as you can and save yourselves." -------- ACTIVISTS Protesters host barbecue for Crawford Posted 8/12/2006 (AP) http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-08-12-crawford-protest_x.htm CRAWFORD, Texas — War protesters extended the olive branch to their new neighbors in President Bush's adopted hometown by hosting a barbecue Saturday — and a few even showed up. "You can have a dialogue, but you'll never agree," said Valerie Duty, a staunch Bush supporter who wore a "This is Bush country, by George!" T-shirt. "Both sides do agree about bringing the troops home safely. The difference is the way we go about that." Locals have been angry since a man bought five acres last month on behalf of peace activist Cindy Sheehan, who said no one in the area would have sold her any property. Anti-war demonstrator Jim Goodnow said he was glad some area residents — roughly half a dozen — visited the new protest site. "If we can get away from the name calling and see each other as Americans, that will be how we can heal this nation," Goodnow said. Sheehan first came to Crawford a year ago, refusing to leave until Bush talked to her about the war that claimed her soldier son Casey's life in 2004. Her 26-day vigil during Bush's August 2005 ranch vacation attracted more than 10,000 demonstrators. On Saturday, a week into the group's summer protest, nearly 150 people attended the barbecue under a large tent filled with banners that read "A mother's loss, a nation's pain." But Sheehan was absent. She was to spend a second night in a hospital in nearby Waco after a minor gynecological procedure and treatment for dehydration. Sheehan was listed in stable condition Saturday at Providence Health Center in Waco. She said her spirits were lifted upon hearing news that those at the camp, even some locals who dropped by, signed a card for her. "That makes me feel really good," Sheehan, 49, told the Associated Press on Saturday. "Physically I don't feel better than I did yesterday, but at least I'm here and resting." Sheehan bought the property near downtown Crawford, about seven miles from Bush's ranch, so the group would have a place to protest when the president was at his ranch. The group can no longer camp in ditches since county leaders banned roadside parking and camping last fall. The anti-war protest is to continue through Sept. 3, though Bush's 10-day ranch vacation is to end Sunday. ---- Japanese protest war shrine a 2nd day HANS GREIMEL Associated Press Sat, Aug. 12, 2006 http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/world/15260387.htm TOKYO - Protesters marched for a second straight day Saturday to rally against a war shrine that critics say glorifies Japan's military conquests, demonstrating as emotions build before the Tuesday anniversary of the Japanese surrender in World War II. Holding candles and enlarged photos of Japanese war atrocities, about 200 demonstrators chanted for Japan to repent more sincerely for its invasions and occupation of Asian lands in the 20th century. The rally followed a similar candlelight vigil Friday and comes amid mounting expectations that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will make another pilgrimage to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine on Tuesday, a sensitive date marking the end of World War II in Asia. Such a visit would probably be Koizumi's last as prime minister before stepping down next month, and would likely worsen already strained relations with Asian neighbors such as China and South Korea that have repeatedly condemned the trips. "Koizumi don't go!" chanted the demonstrators, who included Japanese, South Koreans and Taiwanese. Some carried placards saying "No War! No Yasukuni!" A contingent of about 50 Chinese protesters hoisted grainy black and white photos of Japanese wartime brutalities such as the beheading of captives. Some demonstrators urged the destruction of Yasukuni, while others wanted the shrine to remove names of relatives who have been enshrined there among 2.5 million war dead and 14 executed war criminals who guided Japan's conquests. "They didn't even ask the family members if we would agree," complained Lee Hee Ja, a 63-year-old South Korean whose father was drafted into the Japanese Imperial Army in 1943 and was killed in China two years later. Today he is among the martyrs honored at Yasukuni despite Lee's repeated requests that the shrine "free his soul." She is currently a plaintiff in a lawsuit against Yasukuni demanding that her father's name be stricken. The protests will build to another candlelight rally Monday night that organizers hope will attract thousands. Koizumi has given repeated hints that he will pray at Yasukuni on Tuesday. While that would be his sixth visit since becoming prime minister in 2001, he has never gone on Aug. 15. Koizumi insists his pilgrimages reaffirm Japan's commitment to peace and console the souls for those who died for the country. But the shrine played a high-profile role in promoting wartime nationalism, with Japanese soldiers commonly pledging to fight to the death with the promise to "meet at Yasukuni." It also hosts a museum attempting to justify Japan's militarist past. "It is a war shrine, not a peace shrine," demonstrator Yeonghwan Kim said. "I find it ironic that Koizumi says he goes there to pray for peace. It's just another symbol that Japan is back on the road to militarism."