NucNews August 25, 2006 -------- NUCLEAR -------- depleted uranium Bill for depleted uranium screening passes California Senate by Rebecca S. Bender, 8/25/2006 Eureka, CA, Reporter http://www.eurekareporter.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?ArticleID=14280 California veterans and members of the U.S. Armed Forces are one signature away from having mandated access to health screenings to determine their exposure to depleted uranium. SB 1720, the Veterans’ Health and Safety Act of 2006, passed with the unanimous approval of the state Senate on Wednesday and is headed to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s desk. The bill, which establishes outreach programs as well as screening tests for veterans, was introduced by state Sen. Wes Chesbro (D-Arcata) in February of this year. It passed the state Assembly with a 61-13 vote on Tuesday. “We feel it’s going to be a great benefit to the many veterans who have been unknowingly exposed,” local Veterans for Peace member Steve Sottong said Thursday. “We’re extremely pleased and very hopeful that the governor will sign it.” “We’re very excited, because people up here in the far north started this bill,” VFP member Fred Hummel added. “And it’s great to know that we have representatives up here who will go to bat for us.” Chesbro worked closely with the VFP Humboldt Bay Chapter 56 in developing the bill, Hummel observed. The effort has gained national attention and support from other veterans’ groups, including the American Legion and Vietnam Veterans of America. Recognizing the Armed Forces’ extensive use of depleted uranium in both munitions and armor since the first Gulf War and the health risks associated with it — including lung and kidney damage, cancer and genetic mutations — the bill extends screenings to all service members who were in an area where depleted uranium was known to be used or that was designated as a combat zone by the U.S. president after 1990. The purpose, it states, “is to safeguard the health of California’s veterans by assisting them in obtaining federal treatment services, including best practice health screening tests capable of detecting low levels of depleted uranium.” An outreach effort will be implemented through the California Department of Veterans Affairs and will include information on veterans’ possible exposure to depleted uranium, the associated health risks and available federal screening services. “These people have served their country, they’ve served well, and they deserve better than to be left without better health notification to what they’ve been exposed to,” Sottong said. If the bill becomes law, Hummel said, VFP’s next move will be to work with the Department of Veterans Affairs to ensure that the mandated outreach efforts are effective and meaningful. The original text of the bill had a provision for an annual report to legislative committees on the efficacy of the military’s pre- and post-deployment training on depleted uranium exposure, but that clause was removed from the final version. Sottong observed that removing the clause and other minor revisions that minimized the cost associated with the bill made it likely that Schwarzenegger would sign it. “It seems to be a bill that pretty much everybody can get behind,” Sottong noted. “We hope California can become a model for other states on this.” -------- europe Swedish Nuclear Inspectorate (SKI) comment the Forsmark event Friday, August 25, 2006 World Nuclear Association http://world-nuclear.blogspot.com/2006/08/swedish-nuclear-inspectorate-ski.html After receiving a 50-page report from Forsmark nuclear power plant, the Swedish Nuclear Inspectorate made following comments in a press statement on August 24, 2006: “The event at Forsmark was not heading towards a meltdown, there has been no release of radioactivity to the environment and a sufficient number of safety systems were working.” The final INES classifaction of the event is 2. What SKI considered serious about this was that some safety systems were not sufficiently technically separated, something that now has been addressed at the power plants. Forsmark and Oskarshamn are now awaiting permission from SKI to restart the four reactors. The inspectorate will not comment on when this is likely to happen, but judging by prices on the Nordic power exchenge, market actors believe they will be back online sometime next week. The reason this particular event got extensive global attention was initiated by careless use of terms like "meltdown" and "Chernobyl" by a self-proclaimed nuclear expert and Swedish sensationalistic media. -------- iran Iran rejects 'language of force' over nuclear programme TEHRAN (AFP) Aug 25, 2006 http://www.spacewar.com/2006/060825123417.twep39ns.html Iran is ready for unconditional talks over its nuclear programme but rejects the West's "language of force" over the issue, one of the Islamic republic's religious leaders said Friday. Iran also said that it would soon announce new nuclear successes in its quest for nuclear power that the West fears is aimed at acquiring atomic weapons. "Iran is favourable toward negotiations that are just, logical and without preconditions, but refuses the language of force," Ahmad Khatami said in a Friday sermon broadcast on state radio. "Using the language of force with Iran is a foolish and clumsy attitude," said Khatami, who is a member of Iran's Assembly of Experts, which supervises the work of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The United States and other world powers have reacted coolly to Iran's response to a package of incentives offered by the five permanent Security Council members and Germany in return for a moratorium on sensitive uranium activities. "During the war in Lebanon, the Security Council showed that it acted as the United States' valet ... We advise Russia and China not to fall into the Americans' trap," he said. Government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham also announced that Iran would soon unveil some fresh successes in its nuclear programme. "In the nuclear domain, we have made progress and obtained new scientific successes which will be announced soon," government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham said, also during Friday prayers, without elaborating. Iran said on Wednesday that it would soon announce an atomic breakthrough. "This great scientific achievement is the fruit of a long-term research project ... It will be formally announced by a top official," the semi-official Mehr agency had quoted an informed source as saying. "The announcement will highlight Iran's mastery of different areas in nuclear science and will reinforce Iran's position as a nuclear country," the report said. Amid a fanfare of publicity, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced in April that Iran had successfully enriched uranium to 3.5 percent and mastered the nuclear fuel cycle. Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said on Friday that sanctions against Iran after its response to the world powers' demand to freeze uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities was as yet "premature". Iran is suspected by the West of trying to build nuclear weapons under cover of a civilian nuclear power program. Tehran has consistently rejected this suspicion and has insisted it has the right to its own nuclear power program. France meanwhile said that "technical contacts" could take place with Iran in the coming days in a bid to clarify some aspects of its response to the international offer. "It is not ruled out that, perhaps, technical contacts could be established with the Iranians," foreign ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said. "It is a possibility in the coming days, if we believe it is seen as useful on both sides. There could be technical contacts to clarify certain aspects of the dossier sent by the Iranians," he told a press briefing. French President Jacques Chirac earlier Friday said he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed that Tehran's response was "ambiguous". The Iranian response "is a bit ambiguous ... especially on the means of the eventual suspension of the sensitive activities that was requested by the international community," he said, referring to uranium enrichment. -------- israel German sub delivery postponed By YAAKOV KATZ AND AP Aug. 25, 2006 http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1154525945057&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull Two new submarines which Israel would receive under a deal it signed with Germany last month, will only start being delivered in 2010, German government spokesman Thomas Steg said Friday. Steg added that the submarines would not be equipped to fire nuclear weapons. A German defense official said, however, that it was possible that Israel would make structural changes to the vessels upon delivery and would widen the missile launchers aboard, allowing for the installation of cruise missiles. According to foreign reports, Israel has cruise missiles that are capable of carrying nuclear warheads. Last week, The Jerusalem Post revealed that Israel had signed a deal with Germany on July 6 according to which it would receive two Dolphin-class submarines in addition to the three the Navy already has. According to the details obtained by the Post, Israel will purchase the two Dolphins, manufactured by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG, for $1.27 billion, a third of which will be financed by the German government. "The delivery of these two Dolphin class submarines is foreseen for 2010, not earlier, according to current planning," and therefore the vessels have "no relevance" to the current conflict in the Middle East, Steg said. Some members of the German opposition have criticized the deal, citing the risk that the submarines might be used to carry nuclear weapons. Israel has never confirmed or denied that it has such weapons. "The submarines will not... be built and equipped for the firing of nuclear weapons, but are designed for the conduct of conventional war," said Steg. Asked if Germany wanted assurances from Israel on that point, he said: "We have no mistrust and no suspicion toward our Israeli partner." -------- japan Japan report confirms nuclear activity in North Korea AP Friday, August 25, 2006 http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20060824T200000-0500_111880_OBS_JAPAN_REPORT_CONFIRMS_NUCLEAR_ACTIVITY_IN_NORTH_KOREA_.asp TOKYO, Japan (AP) - Japan has boosted surveillance of North Korea after seeing vehicles entering and leaving a suspected nuclear test site but does not know whether a test is imminent, a news report said yesterday. The vehicles have been seen in recent days at what is thought to be a nuclear testing site in the northeast of North Korea, Kyodo News agency reported, citing an unnamed government official. It was unclear whether any nuclear tests by the North were imminent, but Japan is closely monitoring the situation, the official was quoted as saying. The Japanese Foreign Ministry said Tokyo had boosted surveillance of the area and would continue to closely analyse intelligence, but said the government would not discuss specifics because of the sensitivity of the matter. Defense officials also refused to confirm the Kyodo report. American media reported last week that US officials were monitoring potentially suspicious activity at a suspected underground nuclear site. The report sent diplomats in the region scrambling to avert a possible test and get the North to return to multinational talks on its nuclear ambitions, which have stalled since November. South Korea on Wednesday warned North Korea not to conduct a nuclear weapons test, saying it would further isolate the communist regime, while countries launched new efforts to persuade the North to resume stalled disarmament talks. ---- Japan executives arrested over weapons-linked exports TOKYO (AFP) Aug 25, 2006 http://www.spacewar.com/2006/060825122658.1rp7d3ri.html Japanese police said Friday they had arrested five executives of a major precision instrument maker on suspicion of illegally exporting devices that can be used in the construction of nuclear weapons. Mitutoyo Corp allegedly exported two measuring devices to Malaysia in 2001 without a license, officials at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department said. The five arrested include Mitutoyo president Kazusaku Tezuka, vice chairman Norio Takatsuji and executive director Hideyo Chikugo. One of the gauges is believed to have ended up in Libya and was found by inspectors from the UN nuclear agency after the former pariah state in 2003 renounced its program to build weapons of mass destruction Police suspect that Mitutoyo also illegally exported devices to Iran through an Iranian trading company with offices in Tokyo, the Kyodo news agency quoted unnamed police sources as saying. Mitutoyo chairman Toshihide Numata apologized at a news conference for causing the trouble. "I believe we have complied with the law," he said. "But I am regretful to see what has happened." The company also said in a statement that it did not yet fully understood the charges against its employees. Export of such devices requires authorization by the Japanese minister for economy and trade because of their potential application for military use. Police raided Mitutoyo's head office in Kawasaki, west of Tokyo Friday. The head office and plants of Mitutoyo had already been searched in February over allegations that the company exported one three-dimensional (3D) gauge each to China and Thailand without Japanese government clearance. -------- u.s. nuc weapons Veterans exposed to atomic radiation lose court ruling By Michael Doyle Fri, Aug. 25, 2006 McClatchy Newspapers http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/15363408.htm WASHINGTON - Radiation exposure took Alice Broudy's husband a generation ago. This week, a court ruling sliced away at her bid for redress. In a quiet ruling that nonetheless resonates nationwide, a federal appellate court rejected efforts by Broudy and others seeking claims on behalf of "atomic veterans." The same court simultaneously rejected bids by other veterans exposed to biological and chemical agents. Taken together, the dual rulings by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals will likely impede many veterans hoping for compensation. At the very least, it will complicate future claims. "It's a significant ruling," Washington-based attorney David Cynamon, who represented veterans in both cases, said Friday. "Unfortunately, it's a significantly bad ruling." A Department of Veterans Affairs spokesman couldn't be reached to comment. Broudy, a resident of California's Orange County, has long been seeking full compensation for the death of her husband, a Marine major who was repeatedly exposed to radiation. She has company. George Woodward, who lives north of Wichita, Kan., in the town of Miltonvale, was exposed to radiation during a 1955 test blast. Kathy Jacobovitch, a resident of Vashon Island, Wash., lost her father through exposure to contaminated ships in Puget Sound. Ernest Kirchmann, a 62-year-old Navy veteran who lives south of Minneapolis in tiny West Concord, who's filed a separate lawsuit, was exposed during a 1964 nuclear submarine accident. "It isn't just my personal case," Broudy said Friday. "It's the entire veterans community. It makes me so angry." Broudy married her husband, Charles, in 1948. Three years earlier, he'd walked the war-poisoned streets of Nagasaki. Within a decade, he was facing radiation in the Nevada desert. He died of lymphatic cancer in 1977. Though she has since received partial compensation, Broudy has been confronting the federal government for more. She has now lost three separate lawsuits. "This closes the door," Cynamon said of the latest appellate court ruling, which was issued Wednesday. "It will make it very difficult, if not impossible, for individuals who are victimized by government cover-ups." All told, an estimated 220,000 U.S. soldiers were allegedly exposed to radiation in the 1940s and 1950s. Some, such as William Yurdyga of Sacramento, Calif., claimed in an earlier lawsuit that they were exposed following the Hiroshima or Nagasaki atomic blast. Others claimed exposure during Cold War testing. The three-member appellate panel wasn't ruling on whether the atomic veterans deserve compensation. A 1988 law provides that. To succeed, though, veterans must prove they were present at a radioactive site and that they contracted a radiation-related illness or were exposed to a cancer-causing radiation level. Required military test records can be elusive. A 1973 fire destroyed many veterans' records, and veterans consider alternative "dose reconstruction" estimates inaccurate. "You send a Freedom of Information Act request," Broudy said, "and you wait and you wait and you wait, and then maybe you get a piece of it, or you get nothing at all because they say it's classified." The latest lawsuit sought to force Pentagon officials to release all relevant records. In the opinion written by Appellate Judge Thomas Griffith, appointed by President Bush last year, the court panel agreed unanimously that atomic veterans couldn't compel a massive release of all the Pentagon's relevant documents. Instead, individual veterans must file individual claims. If the Pentagon is "covering up records of medical tests that describe the amount of radiation to which these veterans were exposed, FOIA (the Freedom of Information Act) provides a potential remedy," Griffith wrote. A new study by Melinda Podgor for the Elder Law Journal found that 18,275 atomic veterans had filed for compensation as of October 2004. Only 1,875 claims were granted. On a separate but related legal track, veterans such as Columbia, S.C., resident John Goricki and Homestead, Fla., resident Richard B. Holmes were pursuing claims following exposure during the Shipboard Hazard and Defense project of the 1950s and 1960s. Project SHAD allegedly exposed up to 10,000 soldiers and sailors to biological and chemical agents. Like the atomic veterans, SHAD survivors claim that the Pentagon clings to secret information. Like the atomic veterans, they couldn't persuade the appellate court to order the release of all relevant documents. The veterans "can still seek, through FOIA, the documents they believe they need to pursue their benefits claims," the appellate panel ruled. -------- u.s. nuc facilities -------- georgia Lost fuel rods strengthen nuclear power foes' case Atlanta Business Chronicle - August 25, 2006 by Justin Rubner Staff Writer http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2006/08/28/story9.html As Southern Co. prepares to build its first new nuclear reactor in 30 years, the utility giant will face a litany of opposition, from the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy to the Union of Concerned Scientists. In those groups' arsenal comes Southern Nuclear's Aug. 21 admission that it has finished its investigation into the whereabouts of 5.7 feet of deadly, radioactive fuel rod pieces, believed to have been lost sometime in the 1980s at the Edwin Hatch plant near Baxley, Ga. After a grueling investigation, Southern Nuclear concluded that 1.5 feet still remained unaccounted for. -------- ohio Proposal to Test Spent Nuke Waste Piketon could be the site of such testing. Friday, August 25, 2006 Clear Channel Broadcasting http://www.wchiam.com/cc-common/mainheadlines2.html?feed=106759&article=740935 Federal land near Piketon could become a testing grounds for new ways of recycling nuclear waste. A southern Ohio group has applied to the U-S Department of Energy for a grant of up to five (M) million dollars to study if the Pike County site is best. There were 41 other applicants as of Friday. The proposal would be to replace the old Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, which produced enriched uranium for 50 years. In its place, the Energy Department would test technology for re-using spent nuclear fuel rods. The plant could mean five-thousand jobs for a county with a double-digit unemployment rate. But county development director Jennifer Chandler said she doesn't know if it's worth the risk of bringing new radioactive material to the area. -------- MILITARY -------- arms Russia denies Hezbollah arms link Friday, 25 August 2006 BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5284938.stm The Russian Defence Minister, Sergei Ivanov, has denied Israeli claims that Hezbollah has modern Russian weapons. Israel says that Russian anti-tank weapons delivered to the Syrian army have been passed on to Hezbollah. Mr Ivanov said this was complete nonsense, adding that the weapons being used by Hezbollah were not up to date. He also repeated Russia's position on Iran, saying that any talks of imposing sanctions over its nuclear programme were premature and unhelpful. 'Laughable' The minister's comments during a visit to Russia's far east were in response to Israeli allegations that Hezbollah had used Russian state-of-the-art Kornet anti-tank system in the recent fighting in Lebanon. Last week Israeli officials said they had provided Moscow with proof that Hezbollah had been supplied with Russian weapons delivered to the Syrian Army. Mr Ivanov said that it was "laughable" to call the anti-tank weapons he understood to have been used by Hezbollah modern. He added that Moscow had not decided yet whether to send troops to Lebanon as part of the international peacekeeping force. 'Premature talk' The defence minister also reiterated Russia's view on Iran's uranium enrichment programme. He said that any talk of sanctions was premature and not worthwhile. He said Russia would continue to press for a negotiated solution to the dispute. The United States has said Iran's response to a package of incentives aimed at persuading it to curb its nuclear programme fell short of what was required by the United Nation Security Council. -------- israel / palestine Inquiry Opened Into Israeli Use of U.S. Bombs By DAVID S. CLOUD New York Times August 25, 2006 http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/sf/nyt8_25_06_2.htm WASHINGTON, Aug. 24 — The State Department is investigating whether Israel’s use of American-made cluster bombs in southern Lebanon violated secret agreements with the United States that restrict when it can employ such weapons, two officials said. The investigation by the department’s Office of Defense Trade Controls began this week, after reports that three types of American cluster munitions, anti-personnel weapons that spray bomblets over a wide area, have been found in many areas of southern Lebanon and were responsible for civilian casualties. Gonzalo Gallegos, a State Department spokesman, said, “We have heard the allegations that these munitions were used, and we are seeking more information.” He declined to comment further. Several current and former officials said that they doubted the investigation would lead to sanctions against Israel but that the decision to proceed with it might be intended to help the Bush administration ease criticism from Arab governments and commentators over its support of Israel’s military operations. The investigation has not been publicly announced; the State Department confirmed it in response to questions. In addition to investigating use of the weapons in southern Lebanon, the State Department has held up a shipment of M-26 artillery rockets, a cluster weapon, that Israel sought during the conflict, the officials said. The inquiry is likely to focus on whether Israel properly informed the United States about its use of the weapons and whether targets were strictly military. So far, the State Department is relying on reports from United Nations personnel and nongovernmental organizations in southern Lebanon, the officials said. David Siegel, a spokesman for the Israeli Embassy, said, “We have not been informed about any such inquiry, and when we are we would be happy to respond.” Officials were granted anonymity to discuss the investigation because it involves sensitive diplomatic issues and agreements that have been kept secret for years. The agreements that govern Israel’s use of American cluster munitions go back to the 1970’s, when the first sales of the weapons occurred, but the details of them have never been publicly confirmed. The first one was signed in 1976 and later reaffirmed in 1978 after an Israeli incursion into Lebanon. News accounts over the years have said that they require that the munitions be used only against organized Arab armies and clearly defined military targets under conditions similar to the Arab-Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973. A Congressional investigation after Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon found that Israel had used the weapons against civilian areas in violation of the agreements. In response, the Reagan administration imposed a six-year ban on further sales of cluster weapons to Israel. Israeli officials acknowledged soon after their offensive began last month that they were using cluster munitions against rocket sites and other military targets. While Hezbollah positions were frequently hidden in civilian areas, Israeli officials said their intention was to use cluster bombs in open terrain. Bush administration officials warned Israel to avoid civilian casualties, but they have lodged no public protests against its use of cluster weapons. American officials say it has not been not clear whether the weapons, which are also employed by the United States military, were being used against civilian areas and had been supplied by the United States. Israel also makes its own types of cluster weapons. But a report released Wednesday by the United Nations Mine Action Coordination Center, which has personnel in Lebanon searching for unexploded ordnance, said it had found unexploded bomblets, including hundreds of American types, in 249 locations south of the Litani River. The report said American munitions found included 559 M-42’s, an anti-personnel bomblet used in 105-millimeter artillery shells; 663 M-77’s, a submunition found in M-26 rockets; and 5 BLU-63’s, a bomblet found in the CBU-26 cluster bomb. Also found were 608 M-85’s, an Israeli-made submunition. The unexploded submunitions being found in Lebanon are probably only a fraction of the total number dropped. Cluster munitions can contain dozens or even hundreds of submunitions designed to explode as they scatter around a wide area. They are very effective against rocket-launcher units or ground troops. The Lebanese government has reported that the conflict killed 1,183 people and wounded 4,054, most of them civilians. The United Nations reported this week that the number of civilian casualties in Lebanon from cluster munitions, land mines and unexploded bombs stood at 30 injured and eight killed. Dozen of Israelis were killed and hundreds wounded in attacks by Hezbollah rockets, some of which were loaded with ball bearings to maximize their lethality. Officials say it is unlikely that Israel will be found to have violated a separate agreement, the Arms Export Control Act, which requires foreign governments that receive American weapons to use them for legitimate self-defense. Proving that Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah did not constitute self-defense would be difficult, especially in view of President Bush’s publicly announced support for Israel’s action after Hezbollah fighters attacked across the border, the officials said. Even if Israel is found to have violated the classified agreement covering cluster bombs, it is not clear what actions the United States might take. In 1982, delivery of cluster-bomb shells to Israel was suspended a month after Israel invaded Lebanon after the Reagan administration determined that Israel “may” have used them against civilian areas. But the decision to impose what amounted to a indefinite moratorium was made under pressure from Congress, which conducted a long investigation of the issue. Israel and the United States reaffirmed restrictions on the use of cluster munitions in 1988, and the Reagan administration lifted the moratorium. ---- Israel appoints coordinator of possible war with Iran: newspaper Aug 25, 2006 Deutsche Presse-Agentur http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/article_1194500.php/Israel_appoints_coordinator_of_possible_war_with_Iran_newspaper Tel Aviv - Israeli Army Chief of Staff Dan Halutz has appointed a top Israeli officer to be in charge of preparing a possible war with Iran, the Ha'aretz daily reported Friday, quoting a security official. Air Force Commander Eliezer Shkedy is to manage Israel's armed forces if war breaks out and is responsible for preparing battle plans, the daily said. The paper pointed out that the appointment was made before this summer's crisis with Lebanon, which has led many Israelis to accuse their political and military leadership of having failed to prepare adequately for the possibility of another war in Lebanon. The security official told Ha'aretz that the appointment was an implementation of lessons from the 1991 Gulf War, during which the Israeli army did not have a 'campaign manager' for Iraq. Instead, the Israel Air Force, the ground forces and the intelligence agencies each operated within their own areas of responsibility without having a single coordinator linking them. According to Ha'aretz, Major General Shkedy is to be in charge of all conflicts with 'countries not bordering Israel,' which effectively means both Iraq and Iran. An army spokeswoman would not confirm or deny the report, saying the army does not disclose information on its operational tactics. ---- BOMB THREAT FEATURE-Cluster bombs lie in wait for Lebanese children 25 Aug 2006 01:08:00 GMT Source: Reuters By Alistair Lyon, Special Correspondent (Reuters) http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L24468429.htm BINT JBEIL, Lebanon, - Like a small black football, it lies in the dirt not far from Haitham Daaboul's front door in the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil. It looks innocuous, but a careless kick from a passing child would detonate this cluster bomb, one of thousands of unexploded devices Israel scattered over the towns, villages and hillsides of south Lebanon during its 34-day war with Hizbollah fighters. The bomblets can maim or kill. In war time, they might hit guerrillas firing rockets. Now with a shaky truce in force, they lie where they fell, creating random minefields over wide areas. "We can't let the children go outside. There are many cluster bombs in the streets," said Daaboul's wife Nadia. "We've told them to be frightened of things shaped like a ball, a plate, anything, even stones in the street," she said. "It's a real pain. The children are asking 'how can we live like this? When can we go out? When can we have a normal life?'" The Daabouls and their four children are living with a score of relatives in a house they rented after returning to the shattered town after an Aug. 14 truce halted fighting. Bint Jbeil saw some of the fiercest battles of the war, forcing almost all the townsfolk to flee. The Daaboul family odyssey took them from one makeshift shelter to another around the southern city of Tyre and eventually to Beirut. "Their life has changed," Nadia, a slim 28-year-old woman in a headscarf, said of her children. "They used to wander all over Bint Jbeil -- to the market, the playground, their grandfather's house. Now they are caged in. SHELL ON BALCONY Down the street, an unexploded shell lies on the balcony of a building overlooking a bombed stadium -- it's hard to imagine how Bint Jbeil's 4,000 people can pick up their lives while so many deadly leftovers from the war carpet the landscape. Children are at particular risk from cluster bombs, such as the one that was lying in wait for 10-year-old Hassan Tahini and his cousin in the border village of Aita al-Shaab. "We were walking without paying attention, we saw something, but we didn't know it was a bomb," said Tahini from his hospital bed in Tyre. "We saw a little bit of it sticking out of the earth. We said to ourselves, 'it's a toy, so what?' "We trod on it. It exploded and we flew two or three metres through the air," he said. "God saved me." Tahini spent two days in intensive care at Tyre's Jebel Amel hospital, along with his 12-year-old cousin Sikni, with multiple wounds to his small intestine, liver and stomach. Both will survive, said Nasser Farran, the surgeon who has treated them and a dozen other recent cluster bomb victims. The United Nations has confirmed 249 Israeli cluster bomb strikes across south Lebanon and says the bomblets have killed eight people and wounded at least 38 since the truce. "It's a huge problem," said Tekimiti Gilbert, operations chief of the U.N. Mine Action Coordination Centre in Lebanon. He said he had "no doubt" that Israel's use of cluster bombs violated international law which bans the use of such munitions in civilian areas. Israel denies using the weapons illegally and accuses Hizbollah of firing rockets into Israel from towns and villages. NERVES IN PIECES The five-week war claimed 1,200 lives, mostly civilians, in Lebanon. At least 157 Israelis, mainly soldiers, were killed. In Bint Jbeil, Nadia chain-smokes and says her nerves are shot trying to deal with cooped-up children 24 hours a day. "Every time a plane goes over, the children are afraid. At any sound, they jump. They aren't sleeping at night," she said. On the cement floor of a dark room, some of the younger boys play listlessly with toy guns, planes and rockets. The stresses of war on families like the Daabouls are replicated among thousands of civilians in south Lebanon. Among aid groups trying to respond is Save The Children, which plans to launch programmes soon to teach children about the dangers of cluster bombs and other unexploded ordnance. "We also want to set up safe spaces where children can play, paint, do drama or sing," said Ribka Amsalu, the group's emergency health adviser in Tyre. "It's a way for them to express themselves and their emotions, and to be children." Save The Children can also provide school materials to enable formal education to continue even where school buildings have been physically destroyed, Amsalu said. The three-storey school that the Daaboul's 12-year-old daughter Zainab used to attend on the outskirts of Bint Jbeil is a ruined shell, with all its walls torn away, revealing desks and chairs still laid out in rows in a third-floor classroom. Daaboul's music store was pulverised by Israeli bombing, like the rest of Bint Jbeil's market area, now a wasteland of flattened buildings, broken masonry and twisted steel. The 37-year-old shopkeeper's home fared a bit better. Clothes spill from a collapsed washing machine hit by shrapnel, but plates and glasses lie intact on kitchen shelves. Dust and debris below a hole gouged in the roof cover teddy bears and furniture. The television set has survived. So has the framed photo of a youthful Daaboul as a Lebanese army conscript. "The house can be repaired, but if we can't finish it before winter we'll have to rent something in Beirut," his wife said. -------- POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE -------- homeland security / national intelligence An official secrets act might keep Congress in the dark Legislation aimed at criminalizing the disclosure of classified information is a threat not only to whistle blowers and the press but to Congress’s exercise of its own oversight function as well. By Nick Schwellenbach schwellenbach@niemanwatchdog.org COMMENTARY | August 25, 2006 http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=background.view&backgroundid=00121 Though the Cold War saw a formidable spy apparatus marshaled against the United States (and one greater than anything al Qaeda could hope to develop), even in those vexing days our elected representatives consistently chose not to emulate one of the British government's more dubious contributions to jurisprudence: The Official Secrets Act. Originally passed by Parliament in 1911 and radically revised in 1989—the same year, ironically, as the Berlin Wall's crumbling heralded the hyper-secretive Soviet system's inevitable collapse—the Official Secrets Act is notable not merely for its expansive definition of "official secrets." The British law does not allow for circumstances when the disclosure of such secrets may be in the public interest and anyone in or out of government who discloses such secrets may be subject to criminal penalty. America has contemplated such a law before, yet with starkly different results. When considering the Espionage Act of 1917 during World War I, Congress refused to give the President blanket authority to prohibit publication of classified information by criminalizing its disclosure during wartime. In 1957, Senator Norris Cotton (R-New Hampshire) championed a proposal to make unauthorized disclosures of classified information a crime. Again Congress refused. It was nearly a half-century later when Senator Richard Shelby (R-Alabama) resurrected this heavy-handed idea—this time, with near-success. Then as now, under existing law only the unauthorized transmission of a narrow band of secrets—like cryptography methods and the identities of covert agents—come with criminal penalties. But in 2000, Senator Shelby presided over the quiet movement through Congress of a bill that would have criminalized the unauthorized disclosure of any classified information to the media and others. The bill passed—but died with a stroke of then-President Clinton's veto pen. Still enamored of the idea, Shelby reintroduced the bill again in 2001. Even in the wake of 9/11, no less an authority than then-Attorney General John Ashcroft told Shelby that his legislation was unnecessary, thus ending Shelby’s attempts to foist a dubious English legal import onto existing American law. But on August 2, the possibility of an American Official Secrets Act reared its head once again. This time, it was sprung by Senator Christopher Bond (R-Missouri). Wrapped in the deceptively benign title, "A bill to prohibit the unauthorized disclosure of classified information," Bond’s legislation is identical to Shelby’s. If ever there was a piece of legislation crying out for withdrawal, this is it. Intolerably broad and unneeded, it would deprive Congress and the public of critical information they should know by chilling disclosures of wrongdoing to the press. For many, Bond’s legislation sounds reasonable. Shouldn’t “unauthorized” disclosures of information that could damage the United States be a crime? It is not so simple. The First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech and a free press presents a formidable barrier to such a sweeping law. When Congress made it a felony to reveal the identities of covert CIA officers in 1982, this law met a constitutional test because it only narrowly interfered with the First Amendment and its role in securing free political discussion. As noted by National Security Archive director Thomas Blanton, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, then a law professor, testified before Congress, “The necessity of this particular, narrow category of disclosure [the identities of covert agents] to the free and open political debate which the First Amendment is intended primarily to assure” is “negligible.” By contrast, according to a recent Congressional Research Service report, “a statute that relies solely on the Executive’s classification of information to determine the need for its protection might be contested as overbroad.” Bond’s Official Secrets Act does not require that the information even be classified for its disclosure to be a crime. As long as someone with official access to government information “has reason to believe” that information might be classified and discloses it, Bond would have that person subject to arrest and prosecution. Yet the Senator fails to enumerate any requirements that classified information be clearly marked to indicate its status, thus giving employees notice of their responsibilities. This law would invite abuse by wrongdoers in the executive branch who could prevent embarrassing or illegal activity from being discovered by classifying evidence of it after the fact and then prosecuting employees who bring it to light. One could argue that if the secrets that truly needed to be protected from public disclosure were the only ones classified, Senator Bond’s legislation could be considered reasonable. But this is clearly not the case. In 2004, Carol Haave, then-deputy undersecretary of defense for counterintelligence and security, testified that roughly 50 percent of classified information needn't be classified at all. Over the last five years, the number of Executive branch decisions to classify items has exceeded even the Cold War heights of secrecy in the early 1980s. Indeed, Peter L. Galison, a Harvard historian of science, has calculated that “the classified universe is, as best I can estimate, on the order of five to ten times larger than the open literature that finds its way to our libraries.” While certainly some information, if leaked, could harm national security, the overheated rhetoric thrown around—such as Commentary magazine editor Gabriel Schoenfeld's exhortation that "failure to prosecute the [New York] Times [for its disclosure of the National Security Agency warrantless domestic surveillance program] would be a blow to the rule of law and bad for the war on terrorism"—should give way to the examination of real-world examples. Case in point: Many—including former CIA director Porter Goss and Schoenfeld himself—have argued that the Washington Times and other media outlets tipped Osama bin Laden off to U.S. eavesdropping of his satellite phone. This charge has been soundly refuted. First, bin Laden advertised his use of a satellite phone to Time magazine in 1996; that he had such a phone was no secret and certainly not a leak. Secondly, the Al Qaeda leader did not cease using his phone until the day after American cruise missiles rained down on his Afghan bases in response to the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. Such basic reportage aside, press disclosures of classified information have overwhelmingly been in the public interest, and have led to a reexamination of government policies and actions. Had Bond’s law been in effect, Americans might never have learned about egregious acts: human rights abuses like the My Lai massacre; the secret government history of the Vietnam War known as the Pentagon Papers; Pentagon lies about multi-billion dollar weapon system cost overruns and test failures; Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse; the Iran-Contra operation where our government sold weapons to Iran during the 1980s; and security breaches leaving nuclear facilities vulnerable to terrorists. Some believe that Congress can check the executive on its own without the press working to inform the public. History, however, does not support this contention. There are numerous cases where Congress has only been informed of at least dubious, if not unconstitutional and illegal, Executive branch machinations by the media. For example, contrary to the National Security Act of 1947, the full congressional intelligence committees, including staffers whose expertise is crucial in achieving informed oversight, were not briefed on the NSA warrantless domestic surveillance—an intelligence collection program rather than a highly sensitive covert action—until it was exposed by the New York Times. Revelations by the New Yorker and Washington Post of secret findings and executive orders by President Bush authorizing covert operations overseas run by the Pentagon, rather than the CIA, generated concern by Republican Senator Pat Roberts (Kansas), chairman of the Senate intelligence committee. Roberts said he was concerned that even as a member of the “Gang of Eight”—the handful of lawmakers who are supposed to be informed of covert operations in lieu of the full intelligence committees—he was not informed. Again the press spurred Congress to action in the face of the Executive’s attempt to evade accountability. Roberts told the Kansas City Star that if he was being left out of the loop, “That would be a problem, that will be a big problem…He (the president) has an obligation. We will be making inquiries.” And then there is the fact that the Congressional intelligence committees themselves were created as a result of Congressional investigations sparked by press disclosures in the mid-1970s of massive intelligence operations targeted against American citizens. After a cursory review of this history, it should come as no surprise that although numerous laws require that Congress be kept in the loop by the Executive branch, our lawmakers and overseers have consistently not been briefed by the White House. The current administration’s penchant for “signing statements”—the President’s official interpretation of the legislation he signs into law—that assert that the President may choose to flout the law and ignore Congress makes this clear. And in proposed intelligence reform language submitted by the President in 2004, in response to the 9/11 Commission report—and contrary to their recommendations—the administration sought exemptions from informing Congress about intelligence operations. Given this administration’s callous disrespect for even a Congress dominated by the President’s own party, the legislative branch should not seek to chill disclosures to the press. The press can be a valuable guide for Congress in its vital but little exercised oversight role. A valuable guide that is, only if Congress does not criminalize disclosures of classified information that are in the public interest, while protecting secrets that could actually harm national security. It is ironic that while Congress should be thankful to the press for greasing the wheels of our constitutional system, some lawmakers are seeking to sharply reduce their own ability to defend democracy and the public interest, and leave out in the cold those conscientious government employees who want to expose government malfeasance. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once wrote, "Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding." This astute observation is a warning that even the best intentioned measures to defend freedom can contain the seeds of its—and our—demise. Will we heed it? Nick Schwellenbach is a reporter-researcher for the Nieman Watchdog Project. He is also an investigator and blog editor at the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), an investigative non-profit organization in Washington, DC. E-mail: schwellenbach@niemanwatchdog.org Secrets Act Posted by john mccarthy - http//johnmccarthy90066.tripod.com 09/02/2006, 11:00 AM Information in the following sites reflects the dangers of denying members of congress and the senate of information bearing on the foreign policies directed by the president and blatantly ignored by the NSC with disastrous results. http://johnmccarthy90066.tripod.com/id48.html ... http://www.geocities.com/larryjodaniel/17.html ... Bests, John McCarthy -------- homeless Attacks on homeless up, activists say Posted 8/25/2006 By Beth Rucker, Associated Press http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-08-25-homeless-attacks_x.htm NASHVILLE — Tara Cole, who had been living on the streets of Nashville for more than three years, spent her last night alive sleeping on a boat ramp along the Cumberland River. She was killed in the early hours of Aug. 11, when two males pushed her into the river, according to witnesses. Other homeless people couldn't save her. "She was one person, but it terrorized the whole homeless population," said Howard Allen, a homeless man who helped organize a nightly vigil for Cole. Police said a body pulled from the river this week is likely Cole, and two men were arrested Thursday and charged with her homicide in what authorities said was an unprovoked attack. Homeless advocates say such violence is on the rise across the nation. Often the attackers are teenagers or young adults who are more affluent than their victims, experts say. A 2005 report by the National Coalition for the Homeless showed 86 violent attacks on homeless people in 2005 compared with 60 in 1999. Those numbers are likely low because they only reflect attacks that have been documented in public records, said Michael Stoops, executive director of the Washington-based coalition. Stoops said that in the 1980s attacks appeared to plague only big cities on the East Coast and West Coast. Now, the coalition has documented incidents in 165 cities nationwide, 42 states and Puerto Rico. "I think they do it for thrills. I think they think they can get away with it, that the homeless won't fight back, that no one will care, that the police won't pay any attention to them," Stoops said. In Fort Lauderdale, a teenager beat a homeless man to death and pelted his body with paintballs in January. Another homeless man was beat to death in March in Orlando, and five juveniles have been arrested in the case. In February, the National Coalition for the Homeless asked the U.S. Government Accountability Office to conduct a study of violence against the homeless, though the GAO has not responded, Stoops said. The increase in violence may be loosely linked to the increasing popularity of so-called "Bumfights" videos and imitation videos which show homeless people fighting one another and performing dangerous stunts, he said. Four producers of the "Bumfights" videos pleaded guilty in June 2003 to charges of conspiracy to stage an illegal fight for their videos. And a 20-year-old man in Los Angeles has been convicted for beating two homeless men with a baseball bat in August 2005 after watching a "Bumfights" video. Internet site Bumfights.com, which sells the videos, says their purpose is to call attention to poverty and violence. "Please do not miss the point of these videos! Educate yourself. Help those who are less fortunate. Spread love not hate," the website says. Not all heed the warning. The website includes one viewer commenting, "Let the idiots kill each other for my amusement." No one responded to an Associated Press e-mail to Bumfights.com seeking comment for this story. In cases where the perpetrator of attacks on homeless people is known, 76% are people 25 or younger, Stoops said. About 80% of attackers are white, he said. "This might give an immature or drunk or high young adult encouragement to attack homeless people," Stoops said. "Were they to do this to any other minority group, there would be a national outcry." In Nashville, Police Commander Andy Garrett said there was no reason for panic, pointing out that violence among homeless people in his city is more common than random violence against them. "Have we had a person hit a homeless person before? Yes. Does there appear to be a pattern? No, thankfully," he said. Tara Cole's mother, Pearl, said she believes her daughter — a bright, free spirit who loved music and wanted to record in Nashville and who was so fond of animals she wouldn't kill spiders — didn't die in vain. "Everyone who met her knew that something was different about her," she said. "She did have an impact on those around her. I know something goodwill come of this."