NucNews August 23, 2006



-------- NUCLEAR 


-------- britain

BNFL set to sell nuclear clean-up business in parts to avoid delay

By Rebecca Bream
Published: August 23 2006 03:00 Financial Times

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/195b021e-3243-11db-ab06-0000779e2340.html

British Nuclear Fuels is planning to sell nuclear clean-up business British Nuclear Group in several parts following a dispute with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

As part of the government's gradual sale of its nuclear assets the state-owned BNFL wanted to sell BNG along with a potentially lucrative five-year contract to manage the Sellafield complex in Cumbria, the biggest and most contaminated nuclear site. The contract could be worth about £1bn a year and would have been important in determining the value of BNG.



-------- business

Potain MD 3200 Key to Recovering Chernobyl

8/23/2006 Construction Equipment Guide

http://www.constructionequipmentguide.com/story.asp?story=7392&headline=Potain

A Potain MD 3200 tower crane is the key lifting apparatus in use for the reinforcement of a collapsing wall at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, in the town of Pripyat, Ukraine.

The special application crane is instrumental in the reinforcement of the existing wall and roof of Nuclear Reactor Number 4, the location of a major accident 20 years ago.

Two large beams have been supporting the roof of the building but are resting on the structurally unsound west wall of Reactor 4. The MD 3200 is lifting steel elements to reinforce the wall.

On-site contractor and owner of the MD 3200 is UTEM, based in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.

The UTEM crane operators are located 328 ft. (100 m) from the reactor and operate the crane by remote control from an anti-radiation shelter.

A number of cameras attached to the crane allow the operators to monitor all lifting operations, while feedback screens show the precise position of the load.

The MD 3200 is able to travel to and from the power plant wall on a 49 ft. (15 m) wide, 328 ft. (100 m) long track.

The MD 3200 can handle a maximum load of 88 tons (80 t) when rigged with six falls of wire rope. It is fitted with 230 ft. (70 m) of jib and can handle 43 tons (39 t) at its jib end. It has a height under hook of 236 ft. (72 m) and is equipped with a 250 LCC 133 hoisting winch.

Gerard Vezant, sales director of special application cranes of MCG, said Potain’s special application cranes were the perfect choice for this sensitive project.

“To operate a tower crane of this size, from a remote location, and on such a sensitive project requires incredibly close control, both on the part of the operator and the crane,” he said. “The planning on this job has been particularly involved, which is understandable given the location. However, the MD 3200, together with the highly skilled team from UTEM, has performed brilliantly. This project is a real showcase for the engineering excellence of Potain and the talents of the UTEM engineers.”

Work began at the plant in June 2006 and will finish in December 2006, but the MD 3200 arrived on site in late 2005 in preparation for the job. The MD 3200 is the first MCG crane the company has bought.

The Chernobyl Power Station is 68 mi. (110 km) north of Kiev. The present concrete containment covering, called a sarcophagus, is not an effective permanent enclosure for the destroyed Reactor 4. Eventually, the plant will be covered with a new sarcophagus.



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

-------- depleted uranium

Local Iraq Vet Says He Has 'New' Agent Orange

WESH TV Orlando FL, August 23, 2006

http://www.wesh.com/news/9726959/detail.html
http://www.uruknet.info?p=26084

OCALA, Fla. -- Chuck Hubert of Ocala fought in Iraq, and he said he believes he is suffering from the "new" Agent Orange.

The government said it used millions of gallons of herbicides -- which was called Agent Orange -- in Vietnam between 1962 and 1971 to remove unwanted plant life that provided cover to enemy forces.

Returning veterans reported various health problems after they returned home, which they attributed to Agent Orange, WESH 2 News reported.

Hubert said he and thousands of others who have returned from the Iraq war are battling the effects of inhaling depleted uranium yet no one's listening.

"I just want answers. I mean simple answers," Hubert said.

What happened in the deserts of Iraq caused Hubert to fear for his life on American soil

"I'm only 33 years old. I want to live to see 70," he said.

As a medic aboard Blackhawks in 2003, Hubert was living his dream.

"I was going to be a lifer. I was going to stay in my 20," he said.

Dreams of a continued Army career turned to dust. Hubert was medically discharged, strange symptoms emerged and he was nauseated and dizzy all the time.

"That's when they determined I had Grave's Disease," he said.

"He's an expert supposedly on depleted uranium," his wife, Monica, said.

She has done plenty of research and found so many other families suffering from strange medical symptoms. They believe uranium that rubs off from bullets and even tanks triggers illnesses when it's inhaled.

"If a bullet is coated with depleted uranium it will pierce further. It will hit harder," Monica Hubert said.

The family said it wants to know if Chuck Hubert has the new Agent Orange and they want to know why the government won't test him.

"It could be as simple as trying to hide something," he said.

The Huberts said they hope someone will hear their cry for help.

Hubert works but can only perform certain duties because of his ongoing medical condition. The government pays some disability but he said it's not enough to support a family of five.

To comment on this story, send an e-mail to Kathy Marsh.
mailto:kathymarsh@hearst.com

----

Blog Lull & Depleted Uranium

08/23/2006 12:00 AM  (UAE)
Lebanese blogs: Gulf News Web Report

http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/06/08/23/10062153.html

http://urshalim.blogspot.com/

Putting the pieces together after the cease fire is taking time and effort. More than was anticipated. Hence the pause in blogging. Today Humpty Dumpty came to mind. Is any one in Beirut feeling a funny burning sensation on the face and in the eyes like me? Especially those who visit the suburbs? Could it just be the hot August weather?

Al-Akhbar [Ar] reported yesterday that a bomb hole (3m deep 10m wide) in Khiam was tested for nuclear radiation by Dr. Ibrahim Rashidi of the Lebanese University and Mohammad Kobeisi of the National Council for Scientific Research. The radiation level was very high according to both. Depleted uranium is suspected. Samples were taken for further testing to determine the type of radiation. Bernard Koushner (ex minister, France) was present according to Al-Akhbar. The article, written by Kamel Jaber, mentions suspicions of Khiam being hit by Tomahawk rockets.

A lot is going on in Lebanese politics in the aftermath of the bombing. Most are worth mentioning and/or discussing. Changes need to be made. In states-like Israel-officials are held responsible for their decisions and action. Right? At least this, should be done here too. 

----

Weapons Used and Targets Hit in Israeli Bombing Raids

by Leuren Moret
August 23, 2006
GlobalResearch.ca

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=MOR20060823&articleId=3052

The following maps of Lebanon (scroll down) indicate the amount of munitions used on targets, and what parts of the infrastructure were destroyed by Israeli military attacks.  

These maps are from official Lebanese government sources.

This data has been examined by Dr. Douglas Rocke, a specialist in DU ammunition and myself, specifically focussing on the spread of depleted uranium radiation resulting from the Israeli attacks on civlian targets, in densely populated areas.  

The following types of ammunition were used by Israeli forces:

* cluster bombs

* depleted uranium bombs - including an order during the war by Israel from the US for 100 more GBU-28 5000 lb. depleted uranium warhead bombs

* depleted uranium 105mm and 120mm tank rounds [Info from Major Doug Rokke which he saw in the news]

* missiles (probably DU)

* white phosphorous weapons

* Baccilus globigii - bioweapon which makes people vomit but does not result in death. (A military source said this was determined from color coding on the weapons)  This weapon was used in southern Lebanon and reported that it suddenly caused people to get sick.

* Reports from MDs treating the wounded describing new kinds of wounds never seen before which may be laser weapons. The US has them (classified) on the ABRAMS tanks. There were certainly Directed Energy Weapons. (DEW) used by Israel because shrunken bodies and other types of indicators were reported by Lebanese MDs, descriptions exactly like wounds etc. reported in Baghdad at the airport in 2003 and since.

* Toxic chemicals. Lebanese MDs working with the dead and wounded reported horrific new types of wounds and causes of death. In every war new weapons are tested and old weapons are dumped.



-------- europe

EU Energy Commissioner Backs Nuclear Power, to Aid Environment

By Stephen Voss, August 23, 2006 (Bloomberg)

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=ax5tfBNbBsw4

The European Commissioner for Energy promoted the use of nuclear power for electricity generation on the grounds it can provide the biggest reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases.

``We need to keep the choice of the nuclear option open for countries that want to generate electricity,'' the commissioner, Andris Piebalgs, said in a speech at a conference in Stavanger, Norway. ``Nuclear energy presents the largest carbon-free energy source in the EU.''

Europe will continue to rely on oil and gas as its main source of energy for ``decades to come,'' Pieblags said, although those fossil fuels emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, unlike nuclear power and renewable energy sources.

Nuclear power plants account for about 32 percent of the electricity produced in the EU. Uranium, the raw material for nuclear power, is distributed among countries that have ``less geopolitical risks'' than oil and gas-producing nations, he said.

Even with its benefits, ``the question of a renaissance of nuclear is premature'' without public support, and confidence in nuclear-waste disposal, Piebalgs said.

David Cairns, the U.K.'s parliamentary undersecretary of state at the Scotland office, said at the same conference a new generation of nuclear power plants could help the U.K. reduce carbon dioxide emissions, while acknowledging that the government needs to consider issues of ``waste, security and safety.''

Cairns added that any new power plants would be funded by companies, not the government.

To contact the reporters on this story: Stephen Voss in Stavanger, Norway at sev@bloomberg.net



-------- india 

India nuclear plant combed for armed intruders

Wednesday 23 August 2006 Gulf Daily News

http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=153455&Sn=WORL&IssueID=29156

NEW DELHI: Police yesterday searched a nuclear power plant in western India following reports by villagers that they had seen two men armed with automatic weapons entering the complex, police said.

The men were reportedly spotted outside the perimeter of the state-run Kakrapar nuclear facility, but inside a prohibited zone surrounding it, said Wartul Singh, a spokesman for a federal police force charged with protecting strategic installations.

"As of now we are ruling out the possibility that armed men got inside the plant," he said. "But we cannot take any chance so we are doing this combing operation."

Brijesh Kumar Jha, the superintendent of police for the Surat district of Gujarat state where the plant is located, said the facility had been sealed.

Surat is a diamond trading hub nearly 1,100km southwest of New Delhi.

The nuclear plant is surrounded by double layer fences and had additional electric fences and other security measures inside.

"I can assure you nothing will go wrong," said S K Jain, chairman of the state-run Nuclear Power Corporation.

"It is heavily guarded and under heavy surveillance." Paramilitary forces are helping local police search the complex, Jha said.

CNN-IBN said a special paramilitary force was brought in after the armed pair were spotted near the plant.

Press Trust of India news agency quoted Gujarat state Home Minister Amit Shah as saying that "no specific information about terrorists getting inside the complex has come to us."

Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said in July warned that Islamic militants based in Pakistan were targeting Indian nuclear, military and religious sites. Security agencies had received warnings earlier this month about possible militant attacks on power plants. 

----

India reserves right to nuclear tests

Posted 8/23/2006 (AP) 

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-08-23-india-nuclear_x.htm?csp=34

NEW DELHI — India's prime minister said Wednesday the country would retain its right to carry out future nuclear tests despite a civilian nuclear deal with the United States, a news report said.

"There is no scope for capping of our strategic (nuclear) program. It will be decided by the people, government and Parliament of the country and not by any outside power," Press Trust of India quoted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as saying in a statement in Parliament.

Singh and President Bush signed an agreement in July 2005 that would allow U.S. agencies and companies to sell India nuclear fuel and technology. In return, India would have to strengthen nuclear safeguards, allow international inspections of its civilian facilities, and separate its civilian and military nuclear programs.

On Wednesday, Singh said also said India would not give any commitment that goes beyond a unilateral moratorium on future nuclear tests.

If required by the circumstances, he said, India would have the sovereign right to take a decision on atomic tests in its national interest, PTI reported.

He also said India didn't favor a bilateral comprehensive test ban treaty with the United States. "This has been made unambiguously clear (to the U.S.)," PTI quoted him as saying.

After its controversial 1998 nuclear tests, India announced a unilateral moratorium on further tests and said it would use nuclear weapons only if attacked.

Singh's comments in Parliament came in response to criticism by Hindu nationalist opposition and leftist allies who say the government is succumbing to U.S. pressures that allegedly aim to cap India's independent nuclear program.

The opposition and communist allies sought assurances from Singh that India's nuclear program would not be curbed by what they describe as the shifting of goal posts by U.S. lawmakers.

The House of Representatives approved the deal last month but added stringent new clauses, including requiring annual certification on the use of the technology and fuel for peaceful purposes.

The Senate is expected to vote next month on the civilian nuclear plan. The vote will be followed by several other legislative and diplomatic steps before the treaty can be enforced.



-------- iran

Iran Ready for 'Serious' Nuclear Talks
Iran's Top Nuclear Negotiator Says Country Is Ready to Enter 'Serious Negotiations'

By ALI AKBAR
The Associated Press
August 23, 2006

http://abcnews.go.com/International/print?id=2342355

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's top nuclear negotiator said Tuesday that Tehran was ready to enter "serious negotiations" over its disputed nuclear program but did not say whether it was willing to suspend uranium enrichment the West's key demand.

The negotiator, Ali Larijani, hand-delivered Iran's response to a Western package of nuclear incentives aimed at persuading it to suspend enrichment. He gave the reply to ambassadors from Britain, China, Russia, France, Germany and Switzerland, state-run television said, without disclosing details.

"Iran is prepared as of Aug. 23 to enter serious negotiations" with the countries that proposed the package, state-run television quoted Larijani as telling the envoys.

Iranian officials close to the meeting said Iran offered a "new formula" to resolve the dispute as part of its formal response to the Western incentive package. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.

"Iran has provided a comprehensive response to everything said in the Western package. In addition, Iran, in its formal response, has asked some questions to be answered," one official said, without elaborating.

European Union officials declined to comment, saying they needed to study the Iranian offer.

State-run television said Iran's response meant Tehran was committed to its promises.

"Iran's response suggests Iran is committed to dialogue and its promises. ... It is in contrast with America's policy of unilateralism," the television said.

The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany in June offered Iran the package that aims to persuade Iran to roll back its nuclear program.

The United States is represented by Switzerland, which looks after U.S. interests in Tehran because it has not had diplomatic relations with Iran since 1979 when Muslim fundamentalists overran the U.S. Embassy.

Mohammed Saeedi, deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said in comments published Tuesday that Tehran's response would provide "an exceptional opportunity" for a return to the negotiating table for a compromise.

"Iran's response to the package is a comprehensive reply that can open the way for resumption of talks for a final agreement," Saeedi said.

Even so, Iran on Monday twice showed its determination to push ahead with its nuclear program, which continues under the possible threat of economic and diplomatic sanctions imposed by the U.N. Security Council if it does not halt uranium enrichment by Aug. 31.

It turned away International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors from an underground site meant to shelter its uranium enrichment program from attack and its top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, declared that Tehran will continue to pursue its nuclear activities.

Iran has rejected the resolution passed by the council last month as "illegal," saying a compromise can only emerge from talks.

Likewise, Saeedi's optimistic words Tuesday were tempered by his assessment of the proposed packaged as containing "serious ambiguities" that need to be clarified in talks.

The package does not mention the part of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty that affirms signatories' right to pursue nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, Saeedi said.

The United States and some of its Western allies accuse Iran of seeking nuclear weapons. Tehran has denied the charges saying its nuclear program is merely aimed at generating electricity, not bombs.

The Islamic republic has repeatedly said it will never give up its right to enrich uranium and produce nuclear fuel but has indicated it may temporarily suspend large-scale activities to ease tensions.

----

U.S. Threatens Sanctions Against Iran Over Nuke Issue

Wednesday, August 23rd, 2006
Headlines Democracy Now!

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/23/1413203

Iran has indicated it is willing to negotiate with Western nations over its nuclear program but Tehran gave no sign that it would freeze its uranium enrichment program. Tuesday marked the deadline for Iran to respond to a series of trade incentives offered by the United States and other countries.

    * John Bolton, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations: "...we've also made it clear that their unwillingness to give up their pursuit of nuclear weapons will result in our efforts in the Security Council to obtain economic sanctions against them. So the choice for two and a half months now has been with Iran and if in fact as we expect this is the definitive response today we'll know which path they've chosen."



-------- israel

Syria Calls for UN to Investigate Israel’s Nuke Program

Wednesday, August 23rd, 2006
Headlines Democracy Now!

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/23/1413203

Meanwhile Bashar Jaafari, Syria’s Ambassador to the United Nations, urged the international community to focus not on Iran’s nuclear program but Israel’s.

    * Bashar Jaafari: "What I know is that Israel, on a piece of land not exceeding 20,000 square kilometers, has eight nuclear centers capable of fabricating plutonium, uranium, everything necessary to fabricate nuclear bombs and everybody knows that Israel has at least 300 nuclear bombs. We should tackle what is priority first which is how to obligate Israel to join the NPT and how to put the Israeli nuclear facilities under international control, and how to stop the Israeli terrorist nuclear act in the area."

----

Germany announces plans to deliver two submarines to Israel

By The Associated Press
23/08/2006  	

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/754077.html

Germany plans to deliver two submarines to Israel, a German Defense Ministry spokesman said Wednesday.

German shipyard HDW signed a contract with Israeli authorities on July 6 to build the two submarines, the spokesman said on customary condition of anonymity.

The spokesman said the German government will finance about one-third of the construction cost, which has been estimated at $1.3 billion.

He provided no further details.

Israel's navy already has three Dolphin-class vessels delivered by HDW in 1999 and 2000, which are capable of carrying nuclear missiles.

Word of the deal first surfaced in November, when two German magazines reported that Berlin had agreed to sell Israel two submarines at a discounted rate.

Israel - which has neither confirmed nor denied reports that it possesses nuclear arms - has been expanding its military arsenal in light of Iran's nuclear program.

Iran insists it is developing only nuclear power plants, but Israel and the U.S. suspect its program is designed to produce nuclear weapons.



-------- korea

North Korea warned over nuclear tests
North Korea's military ambitions are worrying its neighbours

Wednesday 23 August 2006, Aljazeera

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D0B42A26-F2EE-4947-B104-066F688EC1E4.htm

A nuclear weapons test by North Korea would undermine non-proliferation efforts and further isolate the secretive communist state, South Korea says.

The warning comes amid speculation that North Korea is preparing to conduct such a test to prove it has working nuclear wepaons.

Ban Ki-moon, the South Korean foreign minister, told reporters in Seoul on Wednesday any test would create a "threatening situation that will shake the foundation of the global non-proliferation system and will further isolate the North".

He said a test was a real possibility and Seoul was closely monitoring developments in the North as well as sharing intelligence with its neighbours and allies.

Last week, America's ABC news quoted unnamed US officials as saying suspicious activities had been detected at P'unggye-yok, a possible underground test site in North Korea.

"It is the view of the intelligence community that a test is a real possibility," a senior US State Department official told the network.

Indications of a possible test cited by US officials included intensified vehicle activity at the site and the unloading of reels of cable that could be used to monitor an underground detonation.

However, even with advanced spy satellites, preparations for underground tests are hard to detect.

In 1998, for example, US intelligence agencies failed to detect any signs of nuclear tests by India and Pakistan.

North Korea has claimed it has nuclear weapons but has never provided any evidence of their existence.

Missile tests

US intelligence reports have previously said North Korea may have enough nuclear material to build a dozen or more bombs.

The Taepodong 2 is thought to be capable of hitting the US A succesful North Korean test would remove any doubt that it has nuclear weapons, although it remains far from clear whether it has managed to build a bomb in a deliverable form.

Last month North Korea conducted a series of missile tests including a test of its Taepodong 2 missile, thought to be capable of reaching the continental United States.

A demonstration of the North's nuclear capability would likely add to unease among its neighbours and, some officials say, could spark a regional arms race pushing South Korea and Japan to develop their own nuclear weapons.

Six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear programme have been stalled since November with Pyongyang refusing to return until Washington lifts the financial blacklisting for alleged counterfeiting and money laundering imposed on a bank where the communist regime held accounts.

South Korea and the United States have urged the North to return to the talks without conditions, saying the issue is unrelated to the nuclear talks, which also include China and Russia.



-------- latinamerica

Argentina to expand nuclear program

By BILL CORMIER, Associated Press Writer Wed Aug 23, 2006

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060824/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/argentina_nuclear_energy_1
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Argentina-Nuclear-Energy.html?_r=1&oref=login&pagewanted=print

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Argentina announced an ambitious plan Wednesday to expand its nuclear program to meet rising energy demands, including extending the life of existing plants and possibly resuming uranium mining.

At a Government House news conference, Planning Minister Julio de Vido said the plan calls for increasing the life span of the aging Atucha I and Embalse nuclear power plants and completing construction by 2010 on the long-stalled Atucha II plant.

Two decades of delays have hampered completion of the Atucha II project, located some 75 miles northwest of the capital of Buenos Aires.

The nearby Atucha I facility has been operating since the mid-1970s, in conjunction with the Embalse plant in central Argentina.

The planning minister was flanked by President Nestor Kirchner, who did not comment on the plan nor on a report by the leading newspaper Clarin saying the nuclear program could cost the government $3.5 billion over eight years.

"When this government took office in 2003, the nuclear energy sector was reactivating," De Vido said. "Today we come to establish a strategic plan for the Argentine nuclear energy sector for the coming years."

The program calls for large-scale power generation to meet fast-growing energy demands, amid careful regulation by national authorities. Among other steps, De Vido announced plans for "concrete steps" toward resumption of uranium mining.

De Vido did not comment on a Clarin report that Argentina might revive a uranium enrichment program shut down in 1983 due to budget constraints. Enrichment provides the fuel needed to operate such nuclear plants, but can also be a central to building nuclear weapons.

Argentina, one of the leading Latin American nations in nuclear power generation, has had to stave off potential energy shortfalls in recent years.

The move comes as Argentina and Brazil are seeking new energy sources to counter crude oil prices that have passed $70 a barrel, along with soaring prices in natural gas and other fuels.

Last May, Brazil inaugurated a uranium enrichment center capable of producing nuclear fuel. The center is expected to save South America's largest economy millions of dollars that the country now spends to enrich fuel at Urenco, the European enrichment consortium.

Both nations have stressed the strictly peaceful nature of their nuclear programs, given a backdrop of international pressure against Iran to halt expansion of its nuclear program. Washington has cautioned Iran that it will seek sanctions in the U.N. Security Council if Tehran does not step enriching uranium.



-------- u.s. nuc weapons

Top-secret information
Move on missile numbers is a mystery

August 23, 2006 Newsday

http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vppen234861496aug23,0,823172.story

A recent Pentagon decision to make the number of missiles the nation had in its Cold War nuclear arsenal classified information could be bureaucracy run amok. It could be reflexive cautiousness or just a snafu. But it is certainly silly secrecy.

How else to view the decision to black out in public documents the numbers of Minuteman and Titan II missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles the nation had all those many years ago? That wasn't even secret during the Cold War. The totals were revealed to the Soviet Union as the United States sought to maintain a balance of power with that communist superpower. In the 1960s and 1970s, U.S. Secretaries of Defense put them in public documents, according to a report from the National Security Archives.

So why the secrecy now? Apparently, no one's quite sure. We're "trying to figure out what the basis for that classification was," Pentagon spokesman Maj. Patrick Ryder said.

There are a lot of rules governing what should be classified, and some things do need to be secret. But Washington has an unhealthy obsession with keeping the public in the dark. So much material is classified that officials archiving it sometimes forsake page counts and measure by the cubic foot. So here's what someone decided the public shouldn't know: At the height of the Cold War, the nation had 1,000 Minuteman missiles, 54 Titan II missiles and 656 submarine-launched ballistic missiles. If it was OK for Soviets to know that then, it's OK for Americans to know it now. 



-------- MILITARY 


-------- canada

Liberal MP resigns post after comments about Hezbollah

Wed Aug 23, 2006 CBC

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/23082006/3/canada-liberal-mp-resigns-post-comments-hezbollah.html&printer=1

Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj has resigned as foreign affairs critic following his controversial remark that Canada should negotiate with Hezbollah, a group Canada considers a terrorist organization.

Bill Graham, the Liberals' interim leader, told reporters that Wrzesnewskyj tendered his resignation. Graham said that under the circumstances, he felt it was appropriate to accept it.

During a tour of the Middle East with NDP and Bloc colleagues, the Toronto MP was quoted as saying that Hezbollah should be taken off Canada's list of terrorist organizations.

He later denied making those remarks, insisting that he considers Hezbollah a terrorist organization.

But he said he was concerned Ottawa's list of terrorist groups doesn't differentiate between the militant and political wings of the party.

He said Canada's legislation should be amended to allow contact with the political arms of banned organizations.

All 10 leadership hopefuls condemned the remarks. Scott Brison and Carolyn Bennett said Wrzesnewskyj should no longer retain his post as a foreign affairs spokesman.



-------- israel / palestine 

Israel Shelves Plan to Pull Out Of Settlements In West Bank

By Doug Struck
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, August 23, 2006; A01

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/22/AR2006082201088_pf.html

JERUSALEM, Aug. 22 -- The Israeli government's plan to dismantle some Jewish settlements in the West Bank and redraw the country's borders is being shelved at least temporarily, a casualty of the war in Lebanon, government officials said.

The plan, which propelled Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to victory in March elections and was warmly endorsed by President Bush as a way of solving Israel's conflict with the Palestinians, is no longer a top priority, Olmert told his ministers last weekend, according to one of his advisers.

Instead, the government must spend its money and efforts in northern Israel to repair the damage from the war and strengthen the area in case fighting breaks out again, Olmert said.

"I've decided to invest most of my energy and the government's energy in rehabilitating the north," Olmert said Monday in the northern community of Kiryat Shemona.

"This is a national new priority. It takes precedence for the moment over realignment" of the settlements, Miri Eisin, an adviser to Olmert, said Tuesday. "At the moment there will be no withdrawal."

Even without the financial considerations, the plan for unilateral withdrawal from some settlements is dead, other political figures and analysts said. The seizure of Israeli soldiers and the renewed fighting in the Gaza Strip -- from which Israel withdrew last year -- and in southern Lebanon -- from which Israel withdrew in 2000 -- have left the Israeli public with little appetite for additional pullouts.

"It's not operative or realistically possible today," said Dan Schueftan, deputy director of national security studies at the University of Haifa and a proponent of the plan. But he predicted that "inevitably, we will have to come back to it."

Olmert's plan could have required the removal of about 70,000 of the estimated 250,000 West Bank settlers. The exact lines of the proposal were never made public, however, and some in his government talked of evacuating fewer settlers.

Now, "it's not relevant. It's not the right time to discuss the matter," the minister of immigrant absorption, Zeev Boim, a close Olmert associate, said through an aide Tuesday.

The plan has been at the center of political debate in Israel since last August, when then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon dismantled Jewish settlements in Gaza and pulled out the Israeli troops guarding them. Olmert, who became acting prime minister when Sharon suffered a debilitating stroke in December, won the elections in March and formed a government on the promise to extend the withdrawal to outlying Jewish settlements in the West Bank. He promised that if there was no agreement from the Palestinians, Israel would unilaterally set its own borders around the remaining settlements.

Olmert sought endorsement for the plan during trips to London and Washington, where Bush embraced it as filled with "bold ideas." As recently as 10 days ago, Bush asked Olmert in a phone conversation, "What about that plan you presented to me?" Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported.

But low-scale clashes with Palestinians inside the Gaza Strip intensified this year, and on June 25 an Israeli soldier was seized at an army border outpost by Palestinians who tunneled across from Gaza. Seventeen days later, two more Israeli soldiers were taken by Hezbollah militia fighters on the Lebanon border, and Israel found itself fighting on two fronts.

Critics said the attacks from southern Lebanon and Gaza showed it was folly to have abandoned those areas without a deal to ensure some authority remained there to curb attacks.

"I think that it is clear to everyone that the unilateral disengagement is a mistake," said Eli Yishai, minister of industry, trade and labor in Olmert's cabinet. "It's wrong to give up land unilaterally. It's clear to everyone that now it's canceled."

Scrapping the withdrawal plan brought mixed reaction from both sides of the long-running settlement controversy. Dror Etkes, director of the Peace Now Settlement Watch, said the government's plan for some withdrawals was better than no withdrawal. But "the reason they wanted to do it unilaterally is that they wanted to pay less" in terms of land, he said. "What they are willing to pay is something that not a single Palestinian was ready to buy."

Eventually, Etkes said, Israel will have to negotiate with the Palestinians. He said that process would inevitably result in removing far more settlements than Olmert's government proposed. "Every day that passes, Israel is intensifying the dilemma," Etkes said.

Avraham Diskin, a political scientist at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and a supporter of unilateral withdrawal, said the Gaza pullout was done "only with the stick and no carrots" and should have been accompanied by aid to the Palestinians.

"Unfortunately, there is not much room for negotiation right now," he said. "There's too much conflict."

Special correspondent Samuel Sockol contributed to this report.

----

Israel cluster bombed 170 sites in Lebanon

8/23/2006 Qatar Peninsula

http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=Gulf%2C+Middle+East+%26+Africa&month=August2006&file=World_News2006082322654.xml

TYRE, Lebanon • Israel dropped cluster bombs on at least 170 villages and other places in south Lebanon during its 34-day war with Hezbollah guerrillas, a senior United Nations de-mining official said yesterday.

The bomblets that failed to explode are now a deadly trap for civilians who stayed in the south or who fled and are now returning, some to find their homes or workplaces pounded to rubble by Israeli air strikes and artillery. The devices are known to have killed eight people and wounded at least 25, including several children, since a truce took hold on Aug. 14, said Tekimiti Gilbert, operations chief of the UN Mine Action Coordination Centre in Lebanon.

“Up to now there are 170 confirmed cluster bomb strikes in south Lebanon,” he said in the southern port of Tyre.

“It’s a huge problem. There are obvious dangers with children, people, cars. People are tripping over these things.” Gilbert said he had “no doubt” that Israel had deliberately hit built-up areas with cluster bombs, in violation of international law which states that such munitions must not be used in areas where there are civilians.

“These cluster bombs were dropped in the middle of villages,” he said. Israel denies using the weapons illegally and accuses Hezbollah of firing rockets into Israel from civilian areas. Gilbert said six assessment teams had been finding 30 new cluster bomb sites a day, mostly south of the Litani river, about 20km from Israel’s border. Large numbers had also been found further north, around Nabatiyeh and Hasbaya.

Gilbert said it could take “up to 12 months or more” to rid the south of the Israeli bomblets, some of which are designed to knock out tanks, others to kill or maim people over a wide area. Some are small, black and cylindrical, easy to overlook and to detonate. Others are round and can look like dusty rocks.

Gilbert said four clearance teams from Mines Advisory Group (MAG), a British non-governmental organisation, had already found and made safe more than 1,000 cluster bombs in the past six days—usually with controlled explosions. Another 13 clearance teams from MAG and a British firm will start work soon, along with two from Sweden. Lebanese army teams are also in action, as are Hezbollah members, Gilbert said. “Hezbollah have picked up a large number of these bombs and put them into boxes and got them away from the children.” “It’s not the approved method, but the risk is such that if something is not done, people will die,” Gilbert said. “You can’t fault them, they are putting their lives at risk,” he said, but added that while such unsystematic collection methods could clear the most visible cluster bombs, they could make it harder to find the less obvious ones.

Comparing the use of cluster bombs in other conflicts, Gilbert said that Iraq and Afghanistan were huge countries, so most bomblets had fallen in deserts or unoccupied areas. “But Lebanon is small and the south is even smaller. To have these cluster bombs dropped in such a small, confined space and in the numbers they have been used is lethal.”

Prepare for Iranian attack: Israel minister

Meanwhile, a cabinet minister and former Mossad spy warned yesterday Israel should prepare for a ballistic missile attack from arch enemy Iran. "Iran has threatened to attack us with its ballistic missiles and we should prepare behind our lines and civilians for such an attack," Pensioner Affairs Minister Rafi Eitan said in an interview broadcast by Israeli public radio. Eitan, a member of the security cabinet and a former spy for Mossad, the country's overseas intelligence agency, said the authorities needed to "refurbish or prepare numerous shelters."

The director of the prime minister's office told the mass-selling Yediot Aharonot newspaper that by next Sunday he intended to present Ehud Olmert with a series of proposals to prepare the homefront for any future war.

Raanan Dinur made the remarks during a tour of the north, which was pounded by more than 4,000 rockets fired by the Iranian-backed Shi'ite Hezbollah during Israel's 34-day day war in Lebanon, killing 41 Israeli civilians. One of Iran's top clerics warned last week that if the Islamic republic is attacked by the United States and Israel, it will retaliate with ballistic missile strikes against Tel Aviv. Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said Israel should be "wiped off the map" and called several times or the Jewish state to be moved somewhere else on the planet.

Iran is Israel's public enemy number one and has never recognised the Jewish state.



-------- landmines

Landmines and Unexploded Ordinances: Israel's Legacy in Southern Lebanon

Wednesday, August 23rd, 2006
Democracy Now!

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/23/1413214

Steve Goose, executive director of Human Right Watch's Arms Division discusses the leftover landmines in southern Lebanon from Israel's 18 year-occupation, new landmine legislation in Washington, the threat to civilians of unexploded cluster bombs and where it all fits into the framework of international law. [includes rush transcript] The recent list of casualties from unexploded Israeli ordinances also includes...Israeli troops. One Israeli soldier was killed and three others wounded in southern Lebanon on Wednesday when their tank drove over a land mine. Lebanese officials told the Associated Press that the soldiers had entered a minefield - one of the many leftover by the Israeli military after their troops withdrew south Lebanon in 2000, ending 18 years of occupation. Israel is required to provide maps for the minefields in Lebanon under the UN ceasefire resolution that ended the latest fighting.

    * Steve Goose, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Arms Division and a leading expert on land mines and cluster munitions.

RUSH TRANSCRIPT

AMY GOODMAN: Steve Goose joins us on the phone right now from Washington, D.C., executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Arms Division, a leading expert on landmines and cluster munitions. We welcome you to Democracy Now!

STEVE GOOSE: Good morning.

AMY GOODMAN: As you've listened to the reports from southern Lebanon, can you comment on landmines and cluster bombs there?

STEVE GOOSE: You've given a very strong and compelling report this morning on the problem of cluster munitions and other unexploded ordinance in Lebanon. The situation that we're seeing there is compelling testimony for why governments all around the world should no longer be using cluster munitions. Cluster munitions, along with landmines, are the weapons system -- the conventional weapons system that poses the greatest dangers to civilian populations. And it's time that governments just face up to the fact that these weapons shouldn't be used.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask about a bill introduced in the Senate this month that would block the Pentagon from beginning production of the first new landmines in nearly a decade. The bill was introduced by Senators Patrick Leahy and Arlen Specter and would bar production of landmines and other weapons that are so-called victim-activated. Can you talk about the significance of the legislation and what that means?

STEVE GOOSE: The legislation has sort of multiple purposes. One it’s just to move the U.S. closer to the community of nations that have already banned anti-personnel landmines. There's a 1997 treaty, the Mine Ban Treaty, that comprehensively prohibits the use, production, trade and stockpiling of anti-personnel mines. And there are now 151 countries that are party to that. The U.S. is one of the few that's not. It's the only NATO country, for example, that is not. And this is designed to try and move the U.S. closer to the rest of the world in rejecting completely this weapon.

But more particularly it's aimed at stopping a Pentagon plan to produce a new weapons system called the Spider, that while usually it is used in what's called command-detonated mode, where a soldier decides when to set the munition off, has a special feature that has been added, which would turn it into a standard anti-personnel mine, the kind of thing that’s already banned by so many other countries. And indeed this would then constitute the first time since 1997 that the U.S. would produce a weapon that qualifies as an anti-personnel mine.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you explain the difference -- landmines, cluster bombs -- what the international legislation is on this, where the U.S. stands on this?

STEVE GOOSE: Cluster bombs, cluster munitions and landmines have a lot of similarities. As I’ve mentioned before, the main one is the long-term threat that they both pose to civilians. The difference is that cluster bombs are designed to explode on impact. That's what they're supposed to do. They're problematic, even during attack, and let me come back to that point in a minute. But they're designed to explode on impact. When they don't, they leave behind large numbers of what are simply called hazardous duds. Dud sounds benign. It's not. They’re still live, and if you touch them or kick them or pick them up to play with, they're going to explode. They, in essence, become de facto landmines. That is what the vast majority of your report from southern Lebanon was all about. These duds that are left behind that act just like landmines, posing an indiscriminate danger to civilians.

There is no international legislation that deals specifically with the problem of cluster munitions. There are the general rules against using weapons against civilians that apply to cluster munitions. There's a protocol to something called the Convention on Conventional Weapons that deals somewhat with the cleanup side of the problem of cluster munitions, but there's nothing specific on the weapon. We've been pushing governments who are part of this Convention on Conventional Weapons to take up the issue directly and agree to a new protocol that would regulate or hopefully prohibit inaccurate and unreliable cluster munitions. This contrasts with the landmine situation, where we have had a treaty that entered into force in 1999 that the vast majority of the world has already signed onto, that comprehensively prohibits the weapon.

AMY GOODMAN: And where does the U.S. stand on that?

STEVE GOOSE: The U.S., with the Clinton administration, under strong pressure from the Pentagon, refused to sign that treaty in 1997 and has not joined it since. The Clinton administration established an objective of joining this year, of joining in 2006, and instructed the Pentagon to search for alternatives to the weapon.

The Bush administration undertook a review of that landmine policy and, very regrettably, decided not to join and in fact became the first nation to declare that it would never join. Even countries like China and Russia, who also haven't signed, have said that they eventually intend to join the treaty. But the U.S. has said that it wants to hold onto some of its high-tech anti-personnel mines indefinitely. So they put themselves really outside of the rest of the world with their approach on this issue.

And this search for alternatives paradoxically is what has led to this Spider system. Spider was supposed to be alternative have to anti-personnel mines, but the Pentagon, in its way, decided to add a feature that in fact turns it back into an anti-personnel mine.

AMY GOODMAN: Steve Goose, the recent list of casualties from unexploded Israeli ordinances also includes Israeli troops. One Israeli soldier was killed and three others wounded in southern Lebanon today, when their tank drove over a landmine. Lebanese officials told the Associated Press the soldiers had entered a minefield, one of the many leftover by the Israeli military after their troops withdrew from South Lebanon in 2000, at that time ending 18 years of occupation. Now, Israel's required to provide maps for the minefields in Lebanon under the UN Ceasefire Resolution that ended the latest fighting. Can you talk about the issue of landmines in Lebanon going back to 1982?

STEVE GOOSE: It goes back even farther than that. Landmines were used there in the conflict in the 1970s, as well. And it's not just Israel. All the parties who were fighting in the 1970s and ’80s in Lebanon laid landmines. And Israel did lay the majority of them and apparently continued to use them up until the withdrawal in 2000. It's a huge problem in Lebanon. I mean, their estimates are that some 400,000 to half a million landmines were laid. And there has been a fairly vigorous effort since 2000 to get those mines out of the ground. And they now think that there are still some 2,500 minefields.

That problem has now been exacerbated greatly by this recent conflict, not so much by landmines that have been laid. In fact, we don't know of any confirmed examples of Israel using mines in the most recent fighting, and there have only been a few spotty reports of Hezbollah laying landmines. But the overall problem of unexploded ordinance and explosive remnants of war has been exacerbated hugely by the cluster munitions, in particular, but also by the other kinds of unexploded ordinance that comes from using rockets and missiles and even grenades and other things, so that the efforts that were made to protect the population from these kind of dangers has now just been set back hugely.

AMY GOODMAN: Steve Goose of Human Rights Watch is our guest. Earlier this month, the New York Times reported the Bush administration was set to approve an Israeli request to speed delivery of missiles armed with cluster munitions. “The M-26 rockets carry hundreds of grenade-like bomblets that explode over a wide area. Israel said it needed them to strike Hezbollah missile launchers.” The U.S. halted the cluster bomb sales to Israel in 1982 -- that was under Reagan -- after use against civilians, but rescinded that ban in 1988. Where is the U.S. getting these munitions from, that they are sending to Israel, and can you comment on this?

STEVE GOOSE: Well, the U.S. produces -- different companies in the U.S. produce a wide variety of cluster munitions and the submunitions that they carry. Indeed, the U.S. has an inventory of nearly one billion submunitions. The numbers are staggering when you start talking about cluster munitions and the submunitions that they carry. We used to be completely overwhelmed by the notion of 200 million landmines out there. But when we start talking about cluster submunitions, we're talking about billions that are already in the stockpiles of more than 70 countries around the world. They haven't been used as extensively as mines, and that's why they're not as hot an issue, but the future dangers are huge.

Israel also produces large numbers of submunitions. They're one of the world's biggest producers, as well. But they wanted this particular system from the U.S. they had ordered a number of years ago, the multiple-launch rocket system, that, as you say, carries a staggering number of cluster munitions. And they wanted that delivery expedited. We came out very strongly against that, because of the predictable dangers that that would pose to civilian populations.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the companies that make these cluster bombs here in this country? The U.S. is the largest producer of cluster bombs?

STEVE GOOSE: Well, that's probably fair to say, although you never know what the arsenals are in places like Russia and China. So with that caveat, certainly the U.S. is one of the largest producers. And it's sort of the typical people who make these kind of munitions, a company like Textron or Alliant Techsystems. But there are many U.S. companies that are involved in the business.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you have any names of those companies?

STEVE GOOSE: Well, two of the biggest would be Textron and Alliant -- Textron in Massachusetts and Alliant Techsystems in Minnesota.

AMY GOODMAN: Alliant is one of the companies where Minneapolis peace activists have protested for years outside that company as a result of this. The legislation in Washington, how would it affect these companies? And how much support does it have? I mean, you've got a Republican and a Democrat, Leahy and Arlen Specter. Where do you expect it to go from here?

STEVE GOOSE: Well, it was just recently introduced, and they're still in the stage of gathering co-sponsors for the legislation. We think that there will be a very strong support for it. Indeed, when the landmine issue was before Congress during the Clinton administration, a majority of senators were in favor of the Clinton administration signing the Mine Ban Treaty. So there is, I think, a strong sentiment that the U.S. shouldn't be involved in this kind of activity.

Of course, we only have a short time left for Congress to deal with any issue before it finishes up this session. So we're in the process here of building awareness in the Congress. But ultimately, we think that the Pentagon will get the signal that Congress is opposed to this and that the American public is opposed to this, and, indeed, U.S. allies are opposed to this.

One of the points that we've tried to make is that all of the U.S. allies who are part of the Mine Ban Treaty -- as I say, that includes almost all of the E.U. and virtually all of NATO, and many other key U.S. allies are part of this -- and those who are part of the treaty cannot assist in any way with a prohibited act. That's one of the provisions of the Mine Ban Treaty, so that we already have a number of those who are part of the treaty saying that they would have to divest in any U.S. companies that are involved in the production of this Spider anti-personnel mine system. Norway has already made that ruling, for example, with their huge multibillion-dollar petroleum fund that they would have to no longer be involved in investments with companies that are part of this weapon. So it will create problems for the U.S., problems for U.S. companies, U.S. interoperability problems with its NATO allies. It's just a bad idea with no real benefit.

AMY GOODMAN: Steve Goose, I want to thank you very much for being with us. We'll link to Human Rights Watch website and your reports on this issue at democracynow.org. Steve Goose is executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Arms Division, leading expert on landmines and cluster munitions. 

----

Special Democracy Now! Report from Southern Lebanon: Ana Nogueira Investigates the Lasting Dangers of Unexploded Israeli Cluster Bombs

Wednesday, August 23rd, 2006 Democracy Now!

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/23/1413209

Israel dropped thousands of cluster bombs on at least 170 villages in southern Lebanon during its month-long war against Hezbollah. The bomblets that failed to explode are now a deadly trap for civilians. At least eight people have been killed and 25 wounded from the unexploded ordinances. Democracy Now!'s Ana Nogueira files a report from southern Lebanon. [includes rush transcript] Since a UN-brokered ceasefire came into effect nine days ago, tens of thousands of displaced Lebanese civilians have returned to their homes in southern Lebanon. While Israel's bombing of the south may have ended, it left a deadly legacy in its wake: unexploded cluster bombs. Israel dropped thousands of cluster bombs on at least one hundred and seventy villages in south Lebanon during its month-long war against Hezbollah. The bomblets that failed to explode are now a deadly trap for civilians.

Democracy Now's Ana Noguiera is in southern Lebanon. She filed this report:

    * Ana Nogueira reports from southern Lebanon

Ana reported after she filed this story that the number of casualties from unexploded ordinances has risen to eight people killed and at least 25 wounded.

For more on this story we speak with longtime peace activist Caoimhe Butterly. She is in southern Lebanon where she is helping with rebuilding efforts and working to raise awareness about leftover cluster bombs.

    * Caoimhe Butterly, longtime Irish peace activist. In the past two years she has spent time in Iraq, as well as in Southern Lebanon, much of that time with Palestinians displaced to Lebanon. She is currently working with a group of more than 400 activists and aid workers in Beirut to empower uprooted Lebanese citizens to rebuild the south of the country and parts of Beirut following the month-long Israeli assault.

RUSH TRANSCRIPT

AMY GOODMAN: Democracy Now!'s Ana Nogueira went to South Lebanon. She filed this report.

      ANA NOGUEIRA: When Bilal Beydoun returned to his village of Bint Jbeil one week after the ceasefire, he discovered the war not over.

      BILAL BEYDOUN: I found an unexploded bomb on my front porch and an unexploded missile on my back porch. And I don't know where I’m going to sleep tonight. I mean, I can't even go in my backyard, because the grass is high, and you just can't go back there. You don't know where you're going to step. Your next step might be your last step.

      ANA NOGUEIRA: The United Nations interim force in Lebanon estimates that Israel dropped approximately 150,000 bombs during the 34-day military offensive. Many of these remain unexploded, even as villagers return home to start clearing away the rubble. The large unexploded missiles, while extremely threatening, are easier to find. It is the estimated 15,000 cluster bomb munitions, each carrying anywhere from 80 to 600 small bomblets, that pose the most immediate threat. Mark Garlasco is the senior military analyst for Human Rights Watch.

      MARK GARLASCO: The use of submunitions here in Lebanon really is at a crisis point. We're seeing the contamination levels far higher than many areas during the Iraq war. Interestingly, though, we've also seen the exact same cluster bombs used here that were used in Iraq. And these same weapons were the main killers of civilians during the war in Iraq in 2003. We've seen dud rates from the American submunitions, which are not manufactured particularly well, on paper 14%, but in the field 30% to 40%. So the American stuff is much, much worse than the Israeli-manufactured, and primarily the Israelis have been using American weapons.

      ANA NOGUEIRA: 21 people have been injured and four killed from these unexploded ordinances in the weeks since the ceasefire took effect. In Nabatiya, an 11-year-old boy was killed after stepping on an unexploded bomb in front of his house. His father, running out to help him, stepped on another and died 72 hours later. Not even the hospital grounds, where many of these patients are being taken, are safe. Doctor Fouad Faha shows us around the hospital in Bint Jbeil, where we counted six visible unexploded devices, including a 500-pound missile in the backyard.

      DR. FOUAD FAHA: The day before yesterday, we had three kids who were playing with one of these bombs, and it exploded among them, and all of them got injured. One of them has all his intestines out. The other two girls were badly injured in their chest. We transferred them to Saida, because we didn’t finish -- the operation room wasn't really ready, because of what happens over here.

      ANA NOGUEIRA: Human Rights Watch says Israel could face legal action for their use of these types of munitions in civilian areas. Although the weapons are not themselves banned, the Geneva Conventions prohibits their use in civilian areas. This is Nadim Houry, head researcher of Human Rights Watch in Lebanon.

      NADIM HOURY: I mean, there are very serious legal ramifications. By using these cluster munitions in areas where there are civilians, Israel not only endangered people at the time of the attack, but they created minefields that villagers are coming back to today. And we have counted over 30 villages so far, where people are coming back to their homes to find unexploded ordinances in their living room, in their patios, on their rooftops, and in their cars. This is truly very dangerous, and it is a violation of the Geneva Conventions to do so.

      ANA NOGUEIRA: Andrew Gleeson of the Mine Action Group has been working to de-mine the region. He estimates it will take one year to 18 months for complete clearance of populated areas. But that does not include farms and fields, which are also littered with these bombs.

      ANDREW GLEESON: At the moment, we’re prioritizing people, houses and roads, and later we will target fields of agriculture that require clearance as well. The agricultural land is a concern for two reasons: one, people might go into the agricultural land without knowing there’s munitions there; and the second is, people may take the risk. We heard some tobacco fields are contaminated. It's harvesting time for tobacco fields, and that means people might go in and recover that tobacco and take the risk, because it's part of their economy.

      ANA NOGUEIRA: In every town, anxious citizens toured us around their homes, where so many of these bombs lied scattered amongst the ruins. They mark them off with stones and red spray paint in the hopes of avoiding more injuries.

      LEBANESE VILLAGER: You can’t walk in this area. You can see all the bombs around you. You might step on one of these. You can see it. Boom! Kill you.

      ANA NOGUEIRA: For Democracy Now!, this is Ana Nogueira with Jackson Allers in Lebanon.

AMY GOODMAN: Ana reported, after she filed the story, that the number of casualties from unexploded ordinances has risen to eight people killed and at least 25 wounded. For more on the story, we're joined by longtime peace activist Caoimhe Butterly. She's in southern Lebanon, where she's helping with rebuilding efforts and working to raise awareness about the leftover cluster bombs. We welcome you to Democracy Now!, Caoimhe Butterly.

CAOIMHE BUTTERLY: Good morning, Amy.

AMY GOODMAN: It's good to have you with us. Can you tell us about the situation there and exactly what you're doing?

CAOIMHE BUTTERLY: We’re presently based in a village called Aita al-Shaab, which is near to Bint Jbeil, which was sort of scene of some of the heaviest fighting during the invasion. I’m working with a sort of grassroots activist and volunteer network called Samidoun, which is based out of Beirut and comprises over 400 mainly volunteers, although we have sort of teams of doctors and engineers, etc., working with us.

And our main function at the moment in Aita al-Shaab is the distribution of aid and just trying to see that it's distributed sort of equally and fairly in surrounding villages, as well as doing workshops and sort of role-playing activities with children and with different both Lebanese and international groups who are trying to de-mine the area, in terms of raising awareness about the situation in terms of cluster bombs and just trying to teach children how to identify the different unexploded ordinances and to stay away from them and how to mark them, as well.

AMY GOODMAN: Caoimhe, we also have reports that an Israeli soldier was killed and three others wounded in southern Lebanon, when their tank drove over a landmine believed to have been placed there by the Israeli military before they pulled out in 2000.

CAOIMHE BUTTERLY: I mean, the situation in the south of Lebanon is, you know, that this policy of using ordinances, which are designed for maximum impact and maximum civilian deaths, that this is continuing, that when the Israelis left in 2000, that obviously there were thousands of landmines planted, and that this has made life impossibly difficult, but particularly for farmers, and that's something that a lot of families are saying, you know, that they've already lost the tobacco harvest this year, because they were under siege and unable to harvest their crops, but also, now fields are completely unsafe for them to enter into.

But a lot of these villages are compromised of subsistence farming families, you know, so this is again how people will probably be either wounded or killed, you know, of course, economically to harvest their crop and basically brave the dangers of the countryside, just littered with cluster bombs. The school that we're working out of, actually, with aid distribution, has a cluster bomb in one corner of it and three others on the roof. The roof is the only spot where you can get phone reception, you know, in the entire sort of village, so it’s -- that's one example. But there are, as mentioned in Ana’s report, cluster bombs in people's kitchens, living rooms, backyards, schools, etc., all over the place.

AMY GOODMAN: Caoimhe Butterly, you're particularly known for working with children, longtime peace activist, Irish peace activist. You spent five years working with refugees in Jenin. You were shot there by Israeli soldiers when you were trying to lead a group of Palestinian children to safety. Can you specifically talk about children right now and these unexploded ordinances, these unexploded bombs?

CAOIMHE BUTTERLY: I think what we've seen in a lot of the villages that we've been touring is, I mean, that there is -- it's hard to express really, I think, people's sentiments at the moment, but there is, Amy -- there’s this feeling of great pride. And I wouldn't call it a victory, but at least, you know, people having resisted, on all levels, I think, militarily and socially and politically, and sort of displaced people, you know, sort of braving the discomforts of being displaced, but that the fact that Lebanon was not reoccupied. But there is also a very crushed, traumatized sort of infrastructure and people. And we're seeing that more and more in children. I think like ten-and-up-year-olds are, you know, quite defiant and brave, and they sort of talk about having resisted the occupation or the invasion and occupation, but smaller children are just obviously traumatized.

There were three children wounded in Aita al-Shaab, which is the village where we're based, a few days ago. One of them was seriously wounded and is still in intensive care in Sour in Tyre. But it's something that the children are very aware of, you know, and I think the sort of vulnerability that has impacted on their life, you know, having seen their family members killed and their homes destroyed, etc., is further enhanced by their mothers telling them -- and their mothers are terrified, the mothers we speak to -- but really that no place is safe to play. And they know that, that every time they go out, that there is no safety.

The last few nights that we’ve spent in the village, there have been tanks moving up and down the borders. There's been drones and helicopters. And people are seeing this as deliberate psychological intimidation, as a way of really reminding them that they're being watched, that they're still not safe. And people are terrified. Samidoun, the group I’m working with, was also working with displaced people in Beirut, and some of the nights that we were there, whenever there was an explosion or a sonic boom sort of above the camp, there would be sort of screaming and fainting, and, you know, there’s this deep, deep trauma and a deep sense of vulnerability. But again, I mean, people have to get on with their lives, but the situation is pretty intolerable. There's no running water, no electricity, very basic sort of food stuff, in terms of aid getting in, you know, and the threat really of the Israelis either coming back in or gratuitously sort of targeting Aita al-Shaab or the villages on the border again.

AMY GOODMAN: Caoimhe Butterly, I want to thank you for joining us from southern Lebanon. Caoimhe Butterfly, longtime peace activist, has spent time in Iraq, a long time in West Bank, and now spending time in southern Lebanon working with children and refugees who have returned back to their homes. 



-------- us

Cost of Iraq war: $1,075 each

Aug. 23, 2006 (UPI)

http://washtimes.com/upi/20060823-051747-8542r.htm

The National Priorities Project has calculated the cost of the Iraq war by congressional district, city, state and even household.

      You owe $1,075.

      The NPP bills itself as a non-partisan, non-profit organization that uses government data to illustrate the impact of federal policies on local communities. It targets large ticket government programs and tax breaks -- mostly dear to Republicans -- for scrutiny, including tax breaks for the top 1 percent of earners, the cost of missile defense, maintaining a massive nuclear weapon arsenal, and the Iraq war.

      NPP bases its Iraq war calculations on a Congressional Research Service report from June, which totaled the war at $318.5 billion.

      "That is $2,844 for every American household or $1,075 for every American. The money (already spent or allocated) is being spent at a rate $10 million per hour and $244 million per day," according to NPP.

      NPP breaks down the cost by state by cross-referencing the amount of federal tax revenues collected there, accurate as of May 2005.

      California, the most populous state, has contributed more than $40 billion of that amount, with the notoriously liberal Bay Area contributing more than $10 billion. Los Angeles has contributed a similar amount. New York contributed $28 billion.

      Texas, the home state of U.S. President George W. Bush, has been tapped for $26 billion.

      Lightly populated Wyoming, home of Vice President Dick Cheney, contributed just $546 million. 

National Priorities Project: http://nationalpriorities.org/
http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182

----

New Poll: 61% Of Americans Oppose War

Wednesday, August 23rd, 2006
Headlines Democracy Now!

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/23/1413203

Meanwhile a new CNN poll has found opposition to the war in Iraq has reached a new high. 61 percent of Americans say they oppose it. Just 35 percent favor the war.



-------- ENERGY 

EnergyBiz Insider article "Shedding Load"

From: Glenn Carroll <atom.girl@mindspring.com>
Date: Wed Aug 23, 2006 3:08 pm

This article in EnergyBiz Insider on-line trade publication points in a positive direction from a utility perspective. ~ Glenn

Shedding Load

August 23, 2006 Energy Central

http://www.energycentral.com/site/about/AB_whatis.cfm

July 2006 was one of the hottest months in nearly a century. Electric grids were tested as temperatures soared into the upper 90s and triple digits from coast-to-coast. Power plants performed. And so did the transmission grid. But, a different type of energy form also helped to ensure the lights stayed on: demand response.

Instead of building costly and often contentious new power plants to meet the 100 or so hours a year when energy demand is highest, utilities are turning to their customers to reduce energy usage during these peak hours. Demand response is giving commercial and industrial concerns more insight into the energy that their facilities consume. By knowing this, they can run specific applications at times of the day that are more favorable to the utilities' rate structure.

"If you think about electricity consumption, 70-80 percent of it is consumed by commercial and industrial operators," says LeRoy Nosbaum, CEO of Itron, an advanced metering company based in Spokane, Washington. "These are very sophisticated users. If, during short supply, you are able to send theme a signal, they can be motivated to cut consumption. They all have things they can curtail or turn off, whether they are lights or processes. If those customers are willing to do that, they will get a price break."

The California Energy Commission credits demand response for avoiding the need to build 15,000 megawatts of new power plants since 1975. Similarly, ISO New England says that demand response programs would relieve congestion.  Specifically, it said that the reduction of 50 megawatts in a congested zone would improve reliability by 30 percent. The threat of rolling blackouts would therefore diminish.

Much like airlines offer passengers incentives to switch flights when one is overbooked, utilities are paying customers to reduce or shift their energy use to off-peak hours. Many commercial and industrial customers have flexibility as to when they use power. For example, agricultural customers can often adjust water pumping schedules without adversely affecting their operations. And even retail stores are participating by dimming sections of lights. Walk into a large grocery store in Oakland, Calif. and about half of the available lights are on.

That's why both utilities and regional transmission organizations are authorizing companies that specialize in demand response technologies to enlist customers willing to participate. In the old days, such enterprises might get on the phone and call up companies asking them to shift their power use for a rate break. Today, with the advent of the Internet, the process is more sophisticated.

"We have a 24-7 operation center that monitors and controls air conditioners, lights and on-site generation," says David Brewster, co-founder of EnerNOC in Boston, Mass. "With the push of a button and within 10 minutes, we can shed load. It's the functional equivalent of building a power plant."

New Incentives

In EnerNOC's case, the regional transmission operator or utility essentially pays it an insurance premium whether or not it is called upon to deliver capacity -- a shift in energy consumption that helps those entities lighten their load. In turn, the company installs the technologies at its customers' premises and sends them a check if they are called upon to adjust their usage and in essence be a "provider" for the aggregator.

In July, thermometers soared all along the Northeast. Demand response was called upon to cut demand, which allowed those systems to stay up and running, says Brewster. Indeed, ISO New England relies on those energy aggregators. The ISO has issued a request for proposal for 300 megawatts of emergency capacity just in southwest Connecticut. It has contracted with six suppliers for 260 megawatts that will come on line by 2007. Of that, about 20 percent is considered demand response resources.

Right now, energy saved through demand response programs is used for emergency capacity to make sure the lights always stay on. But the ultimate goal of ISO-NE is to reduce overall energy usage when the demand is highest.. To do this, it plans to hold an auction next year so that generators and demand response providers alike can bid their resources into the system, all deliverable by 2010.

State and local energy organizations are increasingly focused on technologies and programs that reduce summer strain on the grid. To address the growing pressure, the California Public Utility Commission issued an order this month for utilities to maximize demand response.

Along those lines, California has focused its incentives and building codes on energy technologies that eliminate the summer peak; specifically, the daytime demand of both residential and small commercial building air conditioning systems. During the summer months, air conditioners add tremendous stress on the grid as people try to cope with sustained high temperatures. One example: an add-on to a conventional air conditioning unit uses off-peak electricity to efficiently make and store ice at night that is used as a cooling device during the day.

"Air conditioners are the single largest contributor to California's peak power problem, accounting for greater than 50 percent of peak demand on hot summer days," says Marcie Edwards, general manager at Anaheim Public Utilities that implemented a device from Ice Energy that affixes to air conditioners.

Clearly, a need exists in some parts of the country for additional generation and transmission. In New England alone, more than 30 transmission projects are on the table. But not all such projects will get built and even if they do, they take time to implement. In any event, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission says that there won't be enough to relieve the expected congestion in the coming years.

Steps can be taken now to reduce energy consumption. New technologies are making this possible. And a forerunner in the effort is demand response. By sending users a signal to adjust their usage, utilities are ensuring they have enough power supplies while commercial and industrial consumers are saving money. State regulators understand the potential. Texas, for example, is working with utilities to find ways to monitor meters as often as hourly for commercial and industrial customers.

"There's an old saying, a kilowatt saved is more valuable than a kilowatt built," says Bill Carnahan, executive director of the Southern California Public Power Authority, an organization of municipal power agencies. Cutting power use now could delay the need to build new plants, he adds.

While volatile energy markets are motivating change, the transition toward time-of-use energy policies has been a long one. Simply, adapting new technologies is often costly and uncertain. But market forces along with Congressional mandates passed last year have given the idea a credence it has never had before.

http://www.energycentral.com/site/about/AB_whatis.cfm 

Posted for No New Nukes Y'all:
 
Glenn Carroll
Coordinator
NUCLEAR WATCH SOUTH
(aka GANE - Georgians Against Nuclear Energy)
P.O. Box 8574
Atlanta, GA 31106
PHONE/FAX: 404-378-4263
atom.girl@mindspring.com 

STOP PLUTONIUM! GANE ON THE WEB --
http://www.greenpeace.fr/stop-plutonium/en/20050301_en.php3 



-------- alternative energy

Hybrid Cars Will Pay for Themselves Over Time - Study

REUTERS US: August 23, 2006

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/37798/story.htm

DETROIT - Some hybrid cars will pay for the premium added to their sticker prices because of high gas prices and tax credits from the US government on the more fuel efficient vehicles, a study released on Tuesday shows.

Hybrid cars and trucks, which get improved mileage in city driving by running on a combination of gas and electric power, cost between US$1,200 and US$7,000 more than traditional versions of the same vehicles, according to auto Web site www.Edmunds.com.

But a fuel economy study by Edmunds.com showed that the scales were starting to tip in favor of hybrids. "High gas prices and generous tax credits now offset the high sales prices of some hybrids, assuming owners keep their hybrids for a few years," said Alex Rosten, an analyst with Edmunds.com.

The shift is significant because analysts have said that higher sticker prices were constraining hybrid sales.

Hybrids currently account for 1 percent of new car sales in the United States. But Japan's Toyota Motor Corp., the hybrid market leader, sees its annual hybrid sales topping 1 million units soon after 2010.

The consumer-focused Web site said that assuming vehicles were driven 15,000 miles per year and gas was priced at US$3 per gallon, owners of the Toyota Prius and Ford Motor Co.'s Escape Hybrid would break even within three years.

Buyers of the Saturn Vue Green Line from General Motors Corp., the Toyota Camry and the Civic Hybrid from Honda Motor Co. would break-even within six years, Edmunds.com said.

But federal tax credits for hybrid buyers are being phased out on the most popular models.

Under a provision of the tax code, buyers of a Toyota hybrid after Sept. 30 will only qualify for half of the tax credit for which they would have previously qualified.

Tax incentives will also be cut on other hybrids after auto makers sell 60,000 of the vehicles -- a sales threshold Toyota has reached.

The tax credit on Toyota and Lexus hybrids is scheduled to drop to 25 percent in April 2007 and then be eliminated in October 2007.

In another study released on Tuesday, auto industry tracking firm CSM Worldwide cited higher gas prices as one factor driving a shift toward more efficient six-speed transmissions.

CSM forecast that automatic six-speed transmissions would account for 60 percent of the US car and truck market by 2012, up from less than 5 percent today.

GM has already announced plans to shift to a new family of six-speed transmissions for upcoming models.

CSM said three-quarters of the new cars from GM, the world's No. 1 automaker, would feature the six-speed transmission by 2012.



-------- OTHER


-------- health

Experts Say Snail Venom May Have Benefits

August 23, 2006 — By Ed White, Associated Press

http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=11113

SALT LAKE CITY — Venom from an ocean snail may have benefits for people with addictions, depression and Parkinson's disease, University of Utah researchers reported Monday. They said they produced a synthetic version of the toxin that can block or stimulate receptors that release chemicals in the brain.

"A snail is a treasure chest. They have tens of thousands of compounds," said J. Michael McIntosh, professor or biology and psychiatry.

McIntosh, working with cone-snail researcher Baldomero "Toto" Olivera, found the synthetic version can latch onto a brain receptor that is commonly activated by nicotine during smoking.

Smoking releases dopamine, a chemical used as a "reward signal" by the brain, he explained.

The toxin studied by McIntosh fits certain brain receptors. As a result, it could be used to stimulate dopamine, which is lacking in people with neurological diseases, and serotonin and norepinephrine in people with mood disorders, he said.

It also could block receptors and help people who want to stop smoking or drinking, McIntosh said.

"The aim is to stimulate some receptors but not others," he said. The research shows benefits without using the "toxic properties of nicotine."

The work will be published Friday in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

McIntosh has a record of working with snail venom. His work as an undergraduate at the university led to Prialt, a drug that is injected into the spinal cord to treat severe pain. It is made by Elan Pharmaceuticals of Ireland.

"It turns out these snails are very sophisticated in the type of arsenal they've put together to hunt other organisms," McIntosh said.

Olivera, a biology professor, was out of the country and unavailable for comment. McIntosh said his colleague's interest in snails dates back to childhood in the Philippines, where he collected shells.

The snails in the research were collected by divers in the Philippines. The venom was extracted and shipped to Utah to make a synthetic version for testing on rat cells grown in frog eggs.

McIntosh predicted it could take 10 to 20 years to develop medicine based on the research, which was sponsored by the National Institutes of Health.