NucNews October 26, 2006 -------- NUCLEAR -------- accidents and safety NUCLEAR TRAIN SCARE 26 October 2006 Sunderland, UK, Echo http://www.sunderland-echo.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=1107&ArticleID=1842873 SUNDERLAND train station was closed yesterday after a train carrying nuclear waste broke down. The station was evacuated by fire crews after smoke was seen coming from the train. An axle on the train, bound for Sellafield reprocessing plant, had overheated. British Transport Police said there was no danger to the public at any time. * Full story below http://www.sunderland-echo.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=1107&ArticleID=1844446 NUCLEAR ALERT AT STATION TRANSPORT bosses demanded answers after a train carrying nuclear waste broke down in Sunderland city centre. The city’s central station was evacuated after the train, carrying two nuclear flasks from Hartlepool to Sellafield reprocessing plant, ground to a halt when an axle overheated. Fire crews evacuated the station after smoke was seen pouring from the train and the four-hour delay yesterday hit hundreds of passengers on both rail and Metro services. Coun Joe Lawson, who deals with transport on Sunderland’s ruling Cabinet, admitted he knew nothing of the weekly shipments, which pass through Seaham and the city. He said: “I wasn’t aware that there were cargoes of spent, nuclear fuel going through the station. I have got questions and they are top of my agenda today.” Turn to Page 2 I would hope that if such things are going though the station, that the emergency planning unit would at least be aware of it.” British Transport Police said the nuclear load did not pose a danger and the station was evacuated at 2.30pm because of fumes from the axle. The train is operated by Direct Rail Services, a freight operating company created by British Nuclear Fuels Limited. Julie Richardson, 35, a financial advisor from County Durham, was one of the many people left stranded in the chaos. The mum-of-one had been out Christmas shopping with her 22-month-old daughter Holly, mum Jean Lovell, 60, from South Shields and sister Joanne Wallbank, 38, from Hebburn with her two children Billie-Jean, 6, and Amy, two-and-a-half. “It was just a nightmare – it took me three hours to get home,” she said. “There was such a lack of communication and a lack of sympathy – it just seemed like they weren’t bothered. It was a complete joke.” The train continued its journey after being repaired and the station was reopened at about 6.30pm. Metro services were delayed for 90 minutes. A British Transport Police spokeswoman said: “It appears the train failed after an axle overhead. This is a relatively common fault known as a hot box. “The fire brigade ordered a precautionary evacuation of the station due to diesel fumes. At no time was there any danger to the integrity of the load.” A Direct Rail Services spokesman said that all used nuclear fuel was transported in heavily shielded, purpose built flasks. Each is constructed from forged steel, more than 30cm thick, and typically weighs more than 50 tonnes. The spokesman said: “The nuclear industry uses rail as the primary mode of transport. “The load remained secure and in no danger at any time. Operational procedures to safely move the train are now being activated.” Greenpeace nuclear campaigner Sarah North said: “Trains carrying radioactive waste trundle through the UK’s villages, towns and cities every week - and we think the public has a right to know.” -------- asia Russian-Kazakh JV to mine first ton of uranium in early Dec. 26/ 10/ 2006 (RIA Novosti) http://en.rian.ru/russia/20061026/55149837.html MOSCOW, October 26 - A Russian-Kazakh joint venture will mine its first metric ton of uranium in Kazakhstan in the first week of December, Russia's nuclear chief said Thursday. The joint venture was set up in 2004 and is exploring a uranium ore deposit with estimated reserves of 19,000 metric tons of uranium in Zarechnoye, near the border with Central Asian neighbors Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. "In early December, we are going to celebrate the production of the first ton of uranium at the Zarechnoye JV," said Sergei Kiriyenko, head of the Federal Atomic Energy Agency. Techsnabexport, Russia's state-controlled uranium supplier and a provider of uranium enrichment services, holds a 49.33% stake in the joint venture. Kiriyenko said earlier that Russia, which accounts for 8% of the world's uranium output, should replace its non-renewable gas resources with nuclear energy. Russia's reserves of coal and natural gas will be depleted in 50 years, and in response Russia is planning to expand its nuclear energy sector and meet 60-70% of its uranium demand domestically by 2015. He said that uranium production was not profitable earlier in Russia, when the average price for one kilogram was $40. However, with the price now at $100 per kilogram, production has become profitable. Kiriyenko said Russia intends to extend its cooperation with all uranium-producing countries. He said that in Soviet times, Russia produced a considerable amount of uranium for military purposes, which could last the country for many decades. But he added that the current increase in uranium production was necessary for the full-scale development of Russia's nuclear sector. -------- britain The Green Party & Greenpeace to take legal action against the British government October 26, 2006 Green Politics http://ecostreet.com/blog/?cat=26 This press release from the Green Party is a little more than a week old, but I wanted to share it anyway. GREEN PARTY JOINS FORCES WITH GREENPEACE TO LAUNCH LEGAL CHALLENGE AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT We’re taking legal action against the government for deciding to support nuclear power without full public consultation. During the 2006 energy review, many people suspected that Blair had already decided to build new nuclear reactors. As the chairman of the Trade and Industry Committee said, the Energy Review was “a rubber- stamping exercise for a decision [to build new nuclear power stations] the Prime Minister took some time ago.” Three years ago, the government promised that “Before any decision to proceed with the building of new nuclear power stations, there would need to be the fullest public consultation and the publication of a white paper.” The government failed to carry out this full public consultation. Consultees weren’t given substantial information on, for example, how radioactive waste would be managed, siting reports, the proposed design of the reactors or how much they would cost. The Energy Review utterly failed to consult on these issues before the Prime Minister made his decision. Green Party Principal Speaker Keith Taylor comments: “Nuclear power is enormously expensive and dangerous, and an issue of huge public concern. For the government to bring it in via the backdoor is appalling, and risks the lives of generations to come. That is why we are asking the High Court to intervene.” Sarah North, head of Greenpeace’s nuclear campaign, explains: “This summer the government said it will support nuclear new build. This is a change in policy which they promised they would not make without the fullest public consultation and a White Paper. Filing papers at the High Court will probably lead to a full judicial review. If the court quashes the government’s decision that the UK needs nuclear energy, it could force the government to go back and carry out a genuine public consultation - one that actually addresses issues relating to building new nuclear reactors comprehensively. We’re not alone in thinking the review was a farce. The Sustainable Development Commission said: “Our Energy Challenge offers no information whatsoever on what any new nuclear programme might look like& people are being asked to comment on the potential contribution of a new nuclear programme without any of the key aspects (regarding reactor design, cost, waste management, liability issues, and so on) having been addressed.” The House of Commons Trade and Industry Committee were concerned “about the manner in which this Energy Review has been conducted. Throughout the process, the Government has hinted strongly that it has already made its mind up on nuclear power. The last review took three years to complete, yet this one has been conducted in the space of six months. & What is more, it is clear to us that the outcome of the Energy Review has largely been determined before adequate consideration could possibly have been taken of important evidence that should inform the Government’s policy decision.” And The House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee said: “The nature of the current Energy Review is unclear-whether it is specifically fulfilling the Prime Minister’s desire to make a decision on nuclear, whether it is a review of electricity generating policy, whether it is a wider review of progress against the Energy White Paper, or whether it is reopening the broad policy debate which the White Paper itself encompassed. We are also concerned that it does not appear to have resulted from a due process of monitoring and accountability, and that the process by which it is being conducted appears far less structured and transparent than the process by which the White Paper itself was reached”. ---- UK nuclear cleanup to cost $122 billion Thu Oct 26, 2006 (Reuters) http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061026/sc_nm/nuclear_britain_dc_1 LONDON - Britain's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, set up in April 2005 to oversee the dismantling of old nuclear power stations, said on Thursday it would cost 65 billion pounds ($122 billion) to clean up civil nuclear sites. "The latest version of our lifetime plans -- which detail the commercial operations, decommissioning and clean up programmes of our 20 sites -- now show a total cost of 64.8 billion pounds, a net increase of 2.1 billion pounds," it said in a statement. The NDA said the increase was due to an "improved understanding" of the costs involved in cleaning up the nuclear reprocessing plant Sellafield. The NDA also said that current plans submitted by contractors had weaknesses that could lead to substantial changes in clean-up costs. "For example, our sites do not currently assess risk and allocate contingency on a consistent basis," the NDA said in its annual report. "These weaknesses could lead to substantial amendments in the costs and schedule of work." Britain's nuclear decommissioning sector is currently dominated by British Nuclear Group (BNG). The government is planning to split up the state-owned company, which is the NDA's principal customer, in a four-part sale. U.S. engineering and construction company Fluor Corp has made an offer of 400 million pounds for BNG, depending on contracts. EnergySolutions, a U.S. private equity-backed firm previously called Envirocare, has since said it could top Fluor's offer and believes BNG would be worth more if broken up. ---- Nuclear waste to go underground 26/10/2006 News Wales http://www.newswales.co.uk/?section=Environment&F=1&id=9699 Wales Assembly Minister for Environment Carwyn Jones said it is planned to bury radioactive waste underground but "we are not seeking to impose it on any community." Plans for the long-term management of higher-activity radioactive waste were announced by the UK Government and devolved administrations in Wales and Scotland this week. Higher activity waste, which includes waste from the nuclear and medical industries, military uses and academic research, will be managed in the long term through geological disposal. Geological disposal is a long-term management option involving placing radioactive waste in an engineered repository at between 200 and 1000 metres underground where the geology (rock structure) provides a barrier against the escape of radioactivity. Until geological disposal facilities are available, there will be a continuing need for safe and secure interim storage. Carwyn Jones said: "We are committed to taking forward this important task to ensure the safe and secure management of our radioactive waste. "We are not seeking to impose radioactive waste on any community. I am determined that the new approach for selecting sites will be carried out from the beginning in an open, transparent way with appropriate opportunity for public and stakeholder, as well as expert community, involvement," he said. Planning and development of geological disposal will be based on four pillars: The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority acting as a strong, effective implementing organisation with clear responsibilities and accountabilities; Strong independent regulation by the statutory regulators: the Health and Safety Executive, the environment agencies and the Office for Civil Nuclear Security; Independent scrutiny and advice to Government by a successor body, built on CoRWM principles; Open and transparent partnerships with potential host communities for disposal facilities. Announcing the decision in Parliament, Environment Secretary David Miliband said a strong, effective organisation was now needed to implement the policy. He said: "We have decided that responsibility for securing geological disposal of waste should fall to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, so as to create one organisation able to take a view across all stages of waste management. "Their support is of major importance, as strong independent regulation is key both to ensuring the safety of people and the environment and securing confidence and trust in the delivery arrangements," Mr Miliband added. Mr Miliband said the UK Government and the devolved administrations would discuss with stakeholders how a partnership arrangement could work in practice, and invited any local authority or group of local authorities who wanted to be involved to take part in that discussion. ---- Nuclear Waste Disposal October 26, 2006 By Tim Worstall http://timworstall.typepad.com/timworstall/2006/10/nuclear_waste_d.html The Boy Mili does mean well I'm sure but he inevitably gets things wrong. Local councils will be invited to volunteer to have an underground nuclear dump sited in their area in return for multi-million pound investment by the Government, David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, said yesterday. Sigh. A multi-million pound investment by this lot is a debit, not a credit, to the life of an area. But the basic idea of offering a bribe is sound. It's just that it should be to the people of the area, not some level of government and not in the form of 'investment'. Cold hard cash please. So you want to stick the waste under some village in Swaledale or something? There's 100 people living there? £ 500,000 each and away we go. Be a damn site cheaper and a great deal fairer too. -------- business Alstom to expand manufacturing units, eyeing nuclear business New Delhi, Oct 26, 2006 (PTI) http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/holnus/006200610261611.htm French power equipment supplier Alstom today, said it will expand its manufacturing facilities in India, to meet the growing demand in thermal and hydro projects and is eyeing emerging opportunities in the nuclear power sector. "India is a key market for Alstom. We are expanding our plants at Durgapur, Shahabad and Vadodara to meet rising demand," Phillipe Joubert, President of Alstom's power division worldwide, told reporters here. The company would be expanding its existing facilities but had no plans to set up a greenfield unit, he said. Joubert, however, declined to commit any investment figures. Alstom, which has a tie-up with state-run Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd for 800 MW supercritical boilers, would manufacture some components for these units at Durgapur and Shahabad plants, he said. BHEL's Trichy plant would also be making these boilers under the technology transfer agreement spanning 15 years. Asked whether Alstom was also in talks with power generation major NTPC Ltd, which has recently forayed into equipment manufacture, Joubert replied in the negative. The French equipment giant, which has a listed subsidiary in the country Alstom Projects India Ltd, is also looking at the opportunities in the nuclear power sector in anticipation of the India-US civilian nuclear cooperation agreement. Joubert said the company have had discussions with state-owned Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd for equipment supply. "We do not supply reactors, but other conventional parts of a nuclear plant. We are looking at it," he said. APIL currently has an order book of Rs 2,100 crore, most of which is for hydroelectric projects, and is expecting a revenue of about Rs 1,000 crore this fiscal. -------- depleted uranium THE SENATE MADE A PROMISE TO VETERANS. WHAT HAPPENED? Written by ReformNY Thursday, 26 October 2006 http://www.amhersttimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3171&Itemid=27 Thanks to a tip from a Veterans for Peace member, we have learned that a bill designed to provide national guard members with treatment for the toxic effects of depleted uranium has inexplicably died, despite being passed by both the Assembly and Senate this June. The bill was introduced in January in the Assembly Veterans’ Affairs Committee and in March in the Senate Veterans, Homeland Security, and Military Affairs Committee. The Assembly substituted the Senate bill for its own, and both chambers passed the bill unanimously near the end of the session. The Assembly has a rule (Rule III, §9) that Assembly bills approved by both chambers must be transmitted to the Governor within forty-five days, regardless of when the bill was passed. (This is not to say that they actually follow this rule: research done for our last report on legislative rules showed that the rule wasn’t followed on at least 38 of the major bills we studied.) Unfortunately, the bill both houses passed originated in the Senate, and that body does not have a similar rule. Regardless of whether a timeframe is spelled out in the rules, though, it is hard to understand why this bill has not been sent to the Governor. Calling all Senators: why has this bill, with supposedly so much support in your chamber, not yet made it to the Governor? -------- europe Greenpeace Asks Romania Not To Build Nuclear Plants REUTERS ROMANIA: October 26, 2006 http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/38674/newsDate/26-Oct-2006/story.htm BUCHAREST - Environment group Greenpeace urged Romanian authorities on Wednesday not to build two new nuclear reactors for the Cernavoda plant because of greater risks in case of a terror attack. Bucking a trend in Europe, Romania plans to inaugurate its second reactor early in 2007 and has set a deadline for binding bids to build and operate a third and a fourth reactor for end-2006. "A major nuclear accident due to technical causes or following a terror attack will be devastating ... such as an accident at the Belene and Kozloduy plants in Bulgaria," Anamaria Bogdan, a spokeswsoman for Greenpeace in Romania, said in a statement. "Nuclear energy is one of the worst options to solve Romania's energy (needs)," Jan Haverkamp, an expert with Greenpeace was also quoted as saying. Works at Cernavoda plant, designed to have five reactors, began 30 years ago under the former communist regime. Construction stopped in 1990 when a survey revealed some of the equipment was in poor condition and the welding was faulty. The plant's first reactor went on stream in 1996 and accounts for more than 10 percent of the country's power generation. ---- Bulgarian nuclear shutdown worries Balkans EU demand for Sofia to shut Kozloduy reactors poses major headache for region short in energy supplies (Balkan Insight, 26 Oct 06) http://english.hotnews.ro/Bulgarian-nuclear-shutdown-worries-Balkans-articol_43666.htm Gjergj Bojaxhi, Albania’s deputy energy minister, suffers from back pain that gets worse when he sits. He walks around the office, hunching and wincing, absorbing the twinges as he speaks. But one word makes him stand up straight - Kozloduy. The towering chimneys of Kozloduy, a nuclear power plant, lie 300km from Albania in northern Bulgaria. But the distance is irrelevant in a Balkan energy market that was unified by a major treaty one year ago. Across the region, energy officials like Bojaxhi are keenly concerned by the imminent closure of two of the plant’s four Soviet-built reactors by December 31, the last day before Bulgaria joins the European Union. EU officials have made closure a precondition for accession. "It makes me nervous," said Bojaxhi. But the Albanian minister is not alone. Concern about the impact of the closure on the whole of Southeast Europe is widespread. Hungarian and Slovenian members of the European parliament issued an extraordinary eleventh-hour appeal to the European Commission, requesting a "temporary reprieve" for Kozloduy. There is concern also in Montenegro. "We were hoping they would delay the shutdown again and keep it open for another year," Srdjan Kovacevic, head of Montenegro’s electricity utility, EPCG, told the newspaper Vijesti. But a reprieve is most unlikely. Bulgaria’s nuclear plant faces the same fate as other outdated, Soviet-built facilities in other new EU member states, most notably Lithuania. The Baltic state’s massive Ignalina nuclear power station was taken off-line at great cost to the country before it could join the EU in 2004. Slovakia, a net exporter of energy in Eastern Europe, faces the same dilemma. It may turn into an importer if it closes Jasovske Bohunice, another old Soviet-made plant. The difference is that Kozloduy’s decommissioning threatens to have an impact on a larger set of countries in a region where energy resources are perilously low already. Albania has a particular problem. Last winter it struggled with daily power cuts lasting up to ten hours. This winter, Bojaxhi says the country must "pay any price" to maintain a better supply. As other countries feel the same way, experts expect energy prices to rise quickly once bidding for winter power supplies begins in earnest. Croatia and Albania will announce their bids in October 27, while Macedonia and Montenegro will buy electricity in November. As demand for electricity in the region rises by about five per cent annually, most countries, with the exception of Bulgaria, Romania and Bosnia, have turned into net importers already, or are about to. Those three countries have together poured more than 14 terawatt-hours, TWh, in the regional market in the past year. But they cannot fill the gap. "There is simply not enough electricity in the regional market anymore," said Atanasko Tunevski, director of Macedonia’s transmission operator MEPSO. The closure of Kozloduy III and IV will drain about 40 per cent of the pool of electricity that Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro and Kosovo use to cover their energy deficits, according to Platt’s, the industry newsletter. Other importers from Bulgaria, including Serbia and Croatia, could also feel an impact. Serbia has assured its winter imports from Bulgaria until February but Mijat Milosevic, a manager at Elektro-Privreda Srbije, said the country could still suffer as a result of unreliable Russian gas supplies if there is a cold winter. Bulgaria itself might have to import power after the two reactors shut down, as domestic consumption increases in line with economic growth. The country exported half of its 7.6 TWh production last year to Greece, while the rest was sold in the region. Utility officials across Southeast Europe predict prices to climb by at least 20 per cent from 0.05 euro per kilowatt-hour, KWh, to more than 0.06 euro. Officials in Kosovo and Macedonia say their prices may surpass 0.07 euro per KWh. MEPSO, which has been struggling financially, said it could cost the country at least 50 million euro more next year than this one. Some bids already exceed these price levels. Albania’s utility KESh has announced it is ready to pay up to 0.078 per euro KWh for supplies during the first quarter. This could means increases in household electricity bills. At the moment Montenegrins and Macedonians pay just over 3 cents of a euro per Kwh while Greece pays seven cents. This in turn is the lowest electricity price in the European Union. The EU average is more than ten cents a KWh. "If MEPSO buys for more, we will automatically increase the price," said Lence Karpuzoska, a spokeswoman with EVN, Macedonia’s distribution company. Wary of rising prices in the international market, energy utilities are searching for extra supplies closer to home. Tunevski, of Macedonia’s MEPSO, suggested Macedonia may attempt emergency refurbishment of the aged Negotino thermo-power station if the market price approaches 0.07 euro per KWh. But old plants such as the one at Negotino are in poor shape and are unreliable. The region is strewn with them, however. Albania’s last power station was built in 1986, and Montenegro’s in 1982. If utilities in the region lean too heavily on ageing facilities, "we will face even worse problems in domestic production later", said Tunevski. In the meantime, utilities may have to take out high-interest loans to pay for the imports at a time when governments are desperate to cut expenses. Customers will bear the cost of such loans, in the form of immediately raised electricity bills, or down the line. Many already cannot afford much power. Evgenia, aged 72, in Skopje, who lives on small pension in a country where pensions average 120 euro a month, says higher bills will be a big blow. "It is too expensive for me already," she said. The most obvious way out is a substitute supplier, and Romania aspires to fill this role. Romania boosted electricity exports 20 per cent in the first half of this year, to 2.9TWh, and with a new nuclear reactor due to reach full capacity by next summer, it could plug part of the supply hole left by Kozloduy. However, next summer is too late for this winter, when electricity demand will peak, especially if it is dry and cold, as it has been at least three times in the last ten years. By Altin Raxhimi in Tirana and BIRN teams in Sofia, Skopje, Sarajevo, Pristina, Belgrade and Podgorica -------- india India seeks review of nuclear energy policies Thursday, 26 October 2006 http://www.nerve.in/news:25350016723 "'Minimizing the vulnerability of poor farmers must be our collective priority. Reducing agricultural tariffs and subsidies is not enough: there must be exceptions to allow developing countries more space to pursue their pro-development strategies and policies aimed at protecting their poor,' Gandhi said." United Nations, Oct 26 - India seeks a fresh assessment of nuclear energy as a clean and safe source of energy to give developing countries the freedom to choose policies that best suit their energy needs, Indian delegate Rahul Gandhi said here. 'Developing countries must have the policy space to address their energy needs in light of their individual circumstances,' Gandhi said participating in a UN committee debate on Sustainable Development Wednesday. All significant energy sources - whether conventional or advanced fossil fuels based, or renewables, or civilian nuclear power - must remain in policy reckoning to address energy needs for sustainable development, he said, 'In particular, there needs to be a fresh assessment of nuclear energy, as a clean and safe source of energy.' Many developing countries, including India, still rely on traditional sources of energy for a significant part of their energy needs. However, traditional technologies are inefficient, insufficiently versatile and have major health, gender, and environmental impacts, Gandhi said. 'Energy is critical to development. In developing countries, a rapid increase in energy use per capita is imperative to realising national development goals and Millennium Development Goals,' he said. Noting that at the Johannesburg Summit, the international community had collectively agreed to significantly reduce the current loss of biological diversity by 2010, Gandhi stressed the importance of an international regime to protect and safeguard the equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of genetic resources and traditional knowledge. The international community has not lived up to its commitments for technology transfer he said putting critical technologies beyond the reach of developing countries because of prohibitive costs under the existing Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) regime. 'We need to revisit the IPRs regime to ensure that technologies necessary for pursuing the global imperative of sustainable development are placed in the limited public domain and made accessible to developing countries,' Gandhi said asserting that these regimes must represent the tradeoffs between innovator incentives and wider human societal imperatives. The international community should also explore the possibility of establishing a Clean Technology Acquisition Fund to enable developing countries to access critical technologies, he said as it would encourage the use of clean technologies, and significantly impact the realisation of sustainable development goals. As a result of globalisation, external factors contribute to the success or failure of developing countries to a greater extent than before, Gandhi said noting that developing countries are caught between intellectual property rights and trade regimes, as well as the conditionalities imposed by the World Bank and IMF, all of which erode their autonomy and flexibility. However, these countries need that autonomy and flexibility to evolve policies and strategies for economic growth and sustainable development, which is so critical to eradicating poverty and achieving Millennium Development Goals, he said. Expressing concern at the current impasse in the Doha round of trade negotiations, Gandhi noted that when agriculture was brought into multilateral trade negotiations, developing countries had clearly been given to understand that trade distorting agriculture subsidies would be phased out in a definite timeframe. However, gains expected from agricultural reform by developed countries continue to elude developing countries, he said. 'Minimizing the vulnerability of poor farmers must be our collective priority. Reducing agricultural tariffs and subsidies is not enough: there must be exceptions to allow developing countries more space to pursue their pro-development strategies and policies aimed at protecting their poor,' Gandhi said. Special and differential treatment for developing countries, to enable them to meet food security, livelihood security and rural development needs, remains a categorical imperative, he said. ---- U.S. tries to reassure India over nuclear deal Thu Oct 26, 2006 (Reuters) http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061026/pl_nm/nuclear_india_usa_dc_2 NEW DELHI- The United States has reassured India it would try its best to get a landmark nuclear deal approved by a "lame duck" session of Congress next month amid fears the agreement could be slipping away. The assurance was given by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice when she called India's new foreign minister, Pranab Mukherjee, late on Wednesday to congratulate him on being named to the position, an Indian official said on Thursday. "She said the administration was talking to senators and would do its best to get their approval in this session," the official said. The deal, which aims to overturn a three-decade U.S. ban on supply of nuclear fuel and equipment to energy-hungry India, has been stuck in the U.S. Senate after the chamber failed to vote on it in September due to disputes between the Republicans and the Democrats. Congress is due to sit for a "lame duck" session early next month after elections to both chambers. If the Senate does not pass it then, the deal will have to start a long and winding approval process in both chambers from scratch. Although Washington has said the deal, symbolic of the new friendship between the once-estranged democracies, enjoys bipartisan support, analysts are skeptical. They say if the Democrats win control of Congress as expected, they are unlikely to allow the passage of any significant legislation in a "lame duck" session. The deal has been dogged by controversy since it was first agreed in principal between Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in July 2005. The non-proliferation lobby in the United States says it gives away too much to India, which has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty and has conducted nuclear tests. Indian communists, the Hindu nationalist opposition party and some nuclear experts have also criticized it, saying Washington was seeking to curb India's nuclear program by imposing restrictions as part of the deal. Anil Kakodkar, head of India's Department of Atomic Energy, who initially opposed the deal but now supports it, said New Delhi would be forced to pursue alternative energy sources that may not be eco-friendly if the deal did not go through. His comments were made in Mumbai on Wednesday to the Press Trust of India. ---- Rahul makes strong pitch for N-energy in UN debate S Rajagopalan Washington, October 26, 2006 Hindustan Times http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1829891,0008.htm In a forceful articulation of India's case at the United Nations, Congress Member of Parliament Rahul Gandhi has highlighted the need for a fresh assessment of nuclear energy as a clean and safe source of energy. At a time when the Indo-US nuclear deal is still awaiting approval by the United States Congress, Gandhi told a United Nations committee meeting on Wednesday that developing countries like India must have the policy space to address their energy needs in the light of their individual circumstances. "All significant energy sources—whether conventional or advanced fossil fuels based, or renewables, or civilian nuclear power—must remain in policy reckoning to address energy needs for sustainable development," he said. He also sought to advance India's plea to establish a "Clean Technology Acquisition Fund" so as to help developing countries access critical technologies. Representing India in a United Nations committee debate on sustained development, Gandhi said modern renewable energy and energy-efficient technologies remain expensive for developing countries. "Institutions in industrialised and developing countries can share technologies resulting from collaborative research and development (R&D). We believe that this is an important and promising but unutilised area in partnerships for sustainable development," he said. Pointing out that the international community has not lived up to its commitments since the 1992 Rio de Janeiro meet, he said critical technologies are beyond the reach of developing countries because of prohibitive costs under the existing Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) regime. "Intellectual Property Rights regime must represent the trade-offs between innovator incentives and wide human societal imperatives," he said and spoke of the need to revisit the Intellectual Property Rights regime to ensure that technologies necessary for sustainable development are made accessible to developing countries. He also voiced India's acute concern over the current impasse in the Doha round of trade negotiations. When agriculture was brought into multilateral negotiations, developing countries were given to understand that the trade distorting farm subsidies would be phased out within a definite timeframe. But the expected gains continue to elude these countries, he said. Email S Rajagopalan: srajagopalan123@gmail.com -------- iran Iran's Bushehr Nuclear Plant Exempted In UN Sanctions Draft by Staff Writers United Nations (AFP) Oct 26, 2006 http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Iran_Bushehr_Nuclear_Plant_Exempted_In_UN_Sanctions_Draft_999.html The Russian-built Bushehr nuclear plant in Iran is specifically exempted from nuclear and missile-related sanctions against Tehran proposed by three European powers, according to their draft resolution seen here Thursday. The draft, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, was crafted by envoys of Britain, France and Germany in consultations with the United States and presented to their Russian and Chinese colleagues late Tuesday. It calls on UN member states to "take necessary measures to prevent the supply, sale or transfer directly or indirectly from their territories or by their nationals ... of all items, materials, equipment, goods and technology which could contribute to Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs." The states are also asked to take steps to bar "the provision to Iran of technical assistance or training, financial assistance, investment brokering or other services and the transfer of financial resources or services related to Iran's nuclear or ballistic missile programs." The text also provides for a freeze on assets related to Iran's nuclear and missile programs as well as travel bans on nuclear and weapons scientists involved in those programs. But in an apparent bid to mollify Moscow, the text specifically stresses that the proposed sanctions "shall not apply to supplies of items, materials, equipment, goods and technology, nor to the provision of technical assistance or training, financial assistance, investment, brokering or other services and the transfer of financial resources related to the construction Bushehr I, where these are being provided directly by the Russian federation." It also states that the travel bans "shall not apply where such travel, directly between Iran and the Russian Federation, is necessary for the construction of Bushehr I." Similarly, the assets freeze "shall not apply to funds, other financial assets or economic resources payable to the Russian Federation by Iran, related to the construction of Bushehr I," it noted. Last month, Russia and Iran officially agreed on a 12-month deadline for completing the controversial Bushehr project, despite earlier pressure from Tehran that the station be completed in half that time. Delays have plagued the project ever since the two countries entered into an initial agreement in 1995, with US officials pressing Russia to suspend the program. The Bushehr contract is worth about one billion dollars to Russia. Western powers suspect Iran is covertly trying to build nuclear weapons. But Tehran has repeatedly ignored UN Security Council demands that it halt uranium enrichment, a process which, if extended, can provide the raw material for a nuclear warhead. It insists that its nuclear program is peaceful and solely geared toward generating electricity. -------- korea Nuclear test inflates Korean condom sales Posted 10/26/2006 (AFP) http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2006-10-26-korea-sex_x.htm?csp=34 SEOUL — North Korea's nuclear test has boosted condom sales and bookings at South Korean "love" hotels," a newspaper said Thursday. Some experts told the Chuson newspaper the developments reflect widespread jitters over the Oct. 9 test, with many people seeking solace in sex. Convenience stores reported that condom sales rose by up to 28% in the week after the test, it said. Family Mart, a leading chain of convenience stores, sold 1,930 condoms every day compared to an daily average of 1,508 before Oct. 9, the newspaper said. Sales of instant noodles and fuel gas jumped 9.6% year-on-year during the Oct. 9 to Oct. 15 period — a sign that people are stockpiling, it said. Bookings at hotels have risen sharply, with pay-by-the-hour "love motels" in some business districts enjoying an exceptional flood of guests, according to an online hotel reservations site cited by the newspaper. "The desire to break away from normal life appeared to be increasing in our society in reaction to widespread concerns about North Korea's nuclear program," Dongkuk University professor Lee Yoon-Ho was quoted as saying. The test sparked international condemnation, strong UN sanctions against the reclusive regime and hiked tensions on the Korean peninsula. ---- S Korea makes first move to enforce UN sanctions on North SEOUL (AFP) Oct 26, 2006 http://www.spacewar.com/2006/061026110617.xi7c1uzw.html South Korea announced its first moves Thursday to enforce UN sanctions against North Korea as the leaders of China and France expressed serious concern over the communist state's landmark nuclear test. Seoul brushed off a threat of retaliation by Pyongyang to ban the entry of North Koreans linked to nuclear and other weapons programmes, saying it would faithfully fulfil its duties as a UN member. Lee Jong-Seok, head of the ministry responsible for inter-Korean relations, said existing laws would allow the government to control or prevent entry by anyone the UN sanctions committee names as subject to travel restrictions. He said Seoul was also tightening inspection of goods and materials shipped to North Korea, under the terms of the UN Security Council resolution imposed after Pyongyang's October 9 first ever atom bomb test. "Once the sanctions committee designates persons or organizations (with links to WMD programmes), the government will control the country's trade, investment, financial payments and fund remittances" to those entities, Lee said. The move came as visiting French President Jacques Chirac and President Hu Jintao of China, Pyongyang's closest ally, voiced "grave concern" at the test in a joint statement in Beijing. "This is contrary to the goal of the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and the efforts of the international community to strengthen the non-proliferation regime," they said. Meanwhile a leading think-tank reported a growing crisis of hunger that it said was being overshadowed by the dispute over Pyongyang's weapons drive. The International Crisis Group warned in a report that hunger was driving increasing numbers of North Koreans to risk their lives fleeing over the border to China, and urged Beijing to halt its policy of repatriating the refugees. The humanitarian challenge was "playing out almost invisibly as the world focuses on North Korea's nuclear programme", the Brussels-based group said. The ICG said China and South Korea were not putting maximum pressure on the North to scrap its nuclear programme because they feared a torrent of refugees if the economy collapsed. But it warned that even without the UN sanctions, "the perfect storm may be brewing for a return to famine in the North." The October 9 caused a global uproar with the UN Security Council issuing a resolution imposing economic sanctions aimed at reining in Pyongyang's weapons programme. The North is believed to have secured up to 50 kilograms of plutonium, enough to make six or seven nuclear weapons, according to a South Korean defence ministry report leaked to the media. The report, submitted to a meeting of top military commanders on October 10, a day after North Korea conducted its first nuclear test, said the communist state was now believed to be researching how to miniaturise warheads to fit them on missiles. Separately, US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said North Korea had given no indication it would return to stalled six-party talks, one of the key planks of the UN resolution. "The North Koreans haven't expressed an interest in having a dialogue with anyone really," Hill told reporters on the sidelines of a regional meeting in Fiji. "We've made very clear that if they come back to the (six-party) process, we're certainly prepared to talk to them directly," he said, when asked about calls for Washington to engage in direct dialogue with Kim Jong-Il's regime. North Korea pulled out of the six-nation talks in November last year in protest at financial sanctions imposed by Washington against Pyongyang for alleged money-laundering and counterfeiting. Japan, meanwhile, said it would not lift its own sanctions on North Korea until the communist state clearly abandoned its nuclear programme. Simply returning to multi-party negotiations was only a "starting point," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki, the government spokesman. North Korea "has to halt the nuclear development programmes in an evident way and respond to the voices of the international community over issues such as abductions." ---- North Korea May Have Up To 50 Kg Of Plutonium by Staff Writers Seoul (AFP) Oct 26, 2006 http://www.spacewar.com/reports/North_Korea_May_Have_Up_To_50_Kg_Of_Plutonium_999.html North Korea is believed to have secured up to 50 kilograms of plutonium, enough to make six or seven nuclear weapons, according to a defence ministry report leaked to the media Thursday. After its first nuclear test on October 9, the communist state is now believed to be researching how to miniaturise warheads to fit them on missiles, according to the report. "North Korea is believed to have extracted up to 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of plutonium," the defence ministry was quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying in the report. The North has extracted plutonium from spent fuel rods in nuclear reactors at its Yongbyon site. The report was submitted to a meeting of top military commanders on October 10, a day after North Korea conducted its first nuclear test which sparked international condemnation and United Nations sanctions. A defence ministry spokesman said he was checking the existence of such a report. Defence ministry authorities also told the October 10 meeting that nuclear bombs could be carried by North Korea's Ilyushin 28 jet bombers, according to Yonhap. North Korea deploys a total of 82 of the Soviet-designed aircraft at Uiju, 125 kilometers (78 miles) northwest of Pyongyang and at Jangjin, 130 kilometers northeast of the capital, the ministry said. The aim of the North's nuclear test was to compensate for its failure in test-firing a long-range missile in July and to press the United States to enter into negotiations, the ministry said. According to Yonhap, Seoul defence officials fear the test could spark a nuclear arms race in Northeast Asia, disturb the balance of power on the Korean pensinsula and intensify international sanctions against the North. Defence Minister Yoon Kwang-Ung said on October 13 that North Korea wa believed to be developing nuclear warheads for its missiles but needs "a few more years" before it can produce them. ---- Six-Party Talks Only Route For US Dialogue With North Korea Says Hill by Staff Writers Nadi (AFP) Oct 26, 2006 http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Six_Party_Talks_Only_Route_For_US_Dialogue_With_North_Korea_Says_Hill_999.html Stalled six-party talks had to restart for the US to talk to North Korea, following the isolated regime's nuclear test earlier this month, US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said Thursday. "The North Koreans haven't expressed an interest in having a dialogue with anyone really," Hill told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of Pacific Island Forum countries in Fiji. "We've made very clear that if they come back to the (six-party) process, we're certainly prepared to talk to them directly," he said. Hill was asked about calls for the US to engage in direct dialogue with Kim Jong-Il's regime following the October 9 declared nuclear test. But Hill said the six-party agreement was very important to the US, because it ensured a united stand by countries in the region over North Korea's nuclear ambitions. North Korea's nuclear test caused a global uproar with the UN Security Council issuing a resolution imposing economic sanctions aimed at curbing Pyongyang's weapons program. Threats by Pyongyang against South Korea over adopting sanctions imposed after the test flew in the face of Seoul's clear undertaking to follow the resolution "to the letter", said Hill, who has responsibility for East Asian and Pacific affairs. North Korea needed to understand UN Security Council resolutions were binding on everyone, he said. "North Korea needs to take some time to think about this, and get themselves back to the table and back to what the United Nations has demanded that it do," he said. North Korea pulled out of the six-nation talks in November last year in protest at financial sanctions imposed by Washington against Pyongyang for alleged money-laundering and counterfeiting. Aside from the US and North Korea, the other nations involved in the talks are China, South Korea, Japan and Russia. Returning to the talks is one of the key planks of the UN Security Council resolution imposed against North Korea for conducting its nuclear test. Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso said Wednesday his country should reopen the debate on whether to develop a nuclear weapon capability in light of the North Korean programme. "We need to discuss once again why Japan came to decide not to possess nuclear arms," Aso told a parliamentary foreign affairs committee. "On the assumption that North Korea really owns nuclear arms now, the situation in the Far East has changed drastically. "We should discuss if Japan can stay as it is." But Hill said Japan's non-nuclear policy remained intact. Hill recently travelled with US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice to Japan and South Korea, following the North Korean test. "We understand from the Japanese that they have had no change in their policy against developing, importing or using nuclear weapons, so there is no change in Japan," he said. "Proliferation of that kind is something we all need to be concerned about, it's one of the reasons why Secretary of State Rice wanted to get out there to assure our allies that the US is prepared to use all our deterrent capability if South Korea or Japan is threatened." ---- SKorea makes first move to enforce UN sanctions on North Seoul (AFP) Oct 26, 2006 http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Six_Party_Talks_Only_Route_For_US_Dialogue_With_North_Korea_Says_Hill_999.html South Korea announced its first moves Thursday to enforce UN sanctions against North Korea as the leaders of China and France expressed serious concern over the communist state's landmark nuclear test. Seoul brushed off a threat of retaliation by Pyongyang to ban the entry of North Koreans linked to nuclear and other weapons programmes, saying it would faithfully fulfil its duties as a UN member. Lee Jong-Seok, head of the ministry responsible for inter-Korean relations, said existing laws would allow the government to control or prevent entry by anyone the UN sanctions committee names as subject to travel restrictions. He said Seoul was also tightening inspection of goods and materials shipped to North Korea, under the terms of the UN Security Council resolution imposed after Pyongyang's October 9 first ever atom bomb test. "Once the sanctions committee designates persons or organizations (with links to WMD programmes), the government will control the country's trade, investment, financial payments and fund remittances" to those entities, Lee said. The move came as visiting French President Jacques Chirac and President Hu Jintao of China, Pyongyang's closest ally, voiced "grave concern" at the test in a joint statement in Beijing. "This is contrary to the goal of the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and the efforts of the international community to strengthen the non-proliferation regime," they said. Meanwhile a leading think-tank reported a growing crisis of hunger that it said was being overshadowed by the dispute over Pyongyang's weapons drive. The International Crisis Group warned in a report that hunger was driving increasing numbers of North Koreans to risk their lives fleeing over the border to China, and urged Beijing to halt its policy of repatriating the refugees. The humanitarian challenge was "playing out almost invisibly as the world focuses on North Korea's nuclear programme", the Brussels-based group said. The ICG said China and South Korea were not putting maximum pressure on the North to scrap its nuclear programme because they feared a torrent of refugees if the economy collapsed. But it warned that even without the UN sanctions, "the perfect storm may be brewing for a return to famine in the North." The October 9 caused a global uproar with the UN Security Council issuing a resolution imposing economic sanctions aimed at reining in Pyongyang's weapons programme. The North is believed to have secured up to 50 kilograms of plutonium, enough to make six or seven nuclear weapons, according to a South Korean defence ministry report leaked to the media. The report, submitted to a meeting of top military commanders on October 10, a day after North Korea conducted its first nuclear test, said the communist state was now believed to be researching how to miniaturise warheads to fit them on missiles. Separately, US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said North Korea had given no indication it would return to stalled six-party talks, one of the key planks of the UN resolution. "The North Koreans haven't expressed an interest in having a dialogue with anyone really," Hill told reporters on the sidelines of a regional meeting in Fiji. "We've made very clear that if they come back to the (six-party) process, we're certainly prepared to talk to them directly," he said, when asked about calls for Washington to engage in direct dialogue with Kim Jong-Il's regime. North Korea pulled out of the six-nation talks in November last year in protest at financial sanctions imposed by Washington against Pyongyang for alleged money-laundering and counterfeiting. Japan, meanwhile, said it would not lift its own sanctions on North Korea until the communist state clearly abandoned its nuclear programme. Simply returning to multi-party negotiations was only a "starting point," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki, the government spokesman. North Korea "has to halt the nuclear development programmes in an evident way and respond to the voices of the international community over issues such as abductions." -------- russia Russia, Kazakhstan to open uranium enrichment center MOSCOW (AFP) Oct 26, 2006 http://www.spacewar.com/2006/061026145241.x52j5t8w.html Russia and Kazakhstan are to open an international uranium enrichment center in Angarsk, eastern Siberia, the head of the Russian atomic energy agency Rosatom said Thursday. Rosatom chief Sergei Kirienko, speaking after a meeting with Kazakh Prime Minister Danial Akhmetov, said the facility would serve "not only our two countries but any country that wanted to develop civilian nuclear power." Rosatom said the center could begin producing enriched uranium some time next year. Russian President Vladimir Putin last January called for the creation of a network of internationally controlled enrichment centers and facilities for treating nuclear fuel in order to make nuclear energy available to developing countries without sparking a proliferation in nuclear weapons. US President George W. Bush has backed a similar plan. -------- space SPACE WAR Frida Berrigan. TomPaine.Com October 26, 2006 http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/10/26/space_war.php Lately, the Bush administration has been trying to play nice on the global stage—emphasizing collaboration with other countries on issues like nuclear proliferation and the “war on terror.” But the Bush administration’s obsession with domination and control keeps cropping up—most recently in its new space policy, the first new statement of U.S. objectives in outer space to be issued in 10 years. Released quietly on the Friday before Columbus Day, in a move designed to generate little or no media attention, the Bush administration’s new space policy can be summed up in three words: mine, mine, mine. The 10-page document lays out a policy focused on establishing, defending and enlarging U.S. control over space resources, arguing for “unhindered” U.S. rights in space that is actively hostile to the concept of collective security enshrined in the Outer Space Treaty of 1967. The opening asserts that “freedom of action in space is as important to the United States as air power and sea power.” Alongside earlier documents like the U.S. Space Command’s Vision for 2020 —which articulated a vision of “full spectrum dominance: and insisted that “space superiority is emerging as an essential element of battlefield success and future warfare”—this new policy can been interpreted as an opening shot in the race to militarize space. The Bush administration throws in some phrases in to its new policy to appeal to Star Trek fans and internationalists and to pacify those alarmed when an early draft of the report leaked to The New York Times last year sounded stridently bellicose. The United States “will seek to cooperate with other nations in the peaceful use of outer space” and “is committed to the exploration and use of outer space by all nations for peaceful purposes, and for the benefit of all humanity.” But these Kirk- and Picard-worthy sentiments are immediately contradicted when “peaceful purposes” is clarified to include “U.S. defense and intelligence related activities in pursuit of national interests.” Five of the seven United States policy goals mention “national security” and/or “defending our interests.” Three of the eight areas of space policy are related military uses of space—the national security space guidelines, space nuclear power and space-related security classification. However the guidelines for those three take up as much room as the five areas of civilian and commercial use of space resources. The space policy is clearest when it is explaining why international laws do not apply. For example the policy states that the administration: Will oppose the development of new legal regimes or other restrictions that seek to prohibit or limit U.S. access to or use of space. Proposed arms control agreements or restrictions must not impair the right of the U.S. to conduct research, development, testing and operation or other activities in space for U.S. national interest. Along with Israel, the United States has blocked passage of a United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for the “Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space,” since it was first introduced in 1981. Now, the United States can point to this new policy for justification when it is the lone vote against the resolution. Soon after the policy was released, Robert Luaces, U.S. Representative to the U.N. General Assembly on National Space Policy tried to reassure the world that the United States isn’t trying to weaponize space. He said : One, there is no arms race in space. Two; there is no prospect for one. Three; the U.S. will protect its access to and use of space. This statement is belied by U.S. military funding for space projects. According to the Government Accountability Office, Pentagon funding for military space operations will total $20 billion in 2007. Additionally, a Stimson Center comparison of U.S. and world spending found that the United States spends almost 90 percent of the total global spending on military-related activities in space. There is an arms race in space, but so far the United States is the only country in the running—devoting millions to systems like the Common Aero Vehicle, which is envisioned as a “hypersonic glide vehicle” to “dispense conventional weapons, sensors and payloads worldwide from and through space within one hour” of being fired. In 2007 the Common Aero was given $33.4 million in funding. The Air Force has requested another $165 million for Multiple Kill Vehicles, seen by some as the preferred interceptor for a space-based missile defense. Countless other systems are also being funded, like the “Space Test Bed,” which will be allocated $48 million in 2008 to “begin to exploit the natural advantages of space systems and integrate them” into the missile defense systems. Russia, China and India—which already have space interests—will try and catch up if the United States continues on the arc of militarizing space. Other countries that can’t compete in getting their own satellites and systems up in space will perfect methods of bringing ours down. As we militarize space, many of the space-dependent technologies and conveniences we take for granted—from weather reports to air traffic control, from cell phones to global shipping conveniences—will become vulnerable to attack. In the Center for Defense Information’s analysis of the policy—titled “Contrasts and Contradictions”—they observe that: by signaling to other nations that space is rapidly becoming a game of ‘every man for himself,’ rather than an environment that requires cooperation of all to ensure access by all, the U.S. undercuts 40 years of tradition that has kept competition in space to a dull roar and dampened drivers to conflict. Thus, space joins a catalog of other issues—from global warming and pandemics to nuclear proliferation and the arms trade—where the Bush administration has opted for a unilateralist market driven approach backed up by military superiority over an internationalist approach where collective security and mutual benefit are employed. The only way to win the space arms race is not to run it. And given that problems right here on earth are bedeviling U.S. and world leaders, striking out into the vast and uncharted regions of war in space seems like a very, very bad idea. Frida Berrigan is a senior research associate at the World Policy Institute's Arms Trade Resource Center. -------- terrorism Terrorism in the Nuclear Age By Peter Fedynsky Washington, DC 26 October 2006 Voice of America http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-10-26-voa27.cfm Nuclear materials have a wide range of characteristics. Enriched uranium or plutonium have awesome explosive potential. Cesium emits deadly radiation, while isotopes of some radioactive substances, such as thalium, can be safely injected into patients undergoing medical procedures. But as VOA's Peter Fedynsky reports, any kind of nuclear material in the hands of terrorists could have serious security implications. Last year, 91 nations signed the U.N. International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism. The convention prohibits individuals from possessing radioactive material with the intention of causing death or serious bodily injury. But some countries have weak nuclear safeguards. Paul Leventhal, founder of the non-governmental Nuclear Control Institute in Washington, DC says terrorists could exploit such weakness. "The states today that we're most worried about in terms of assisting terrorist organizations are Iran and North Korea. If they were able to acquire fissile material, not necessarily from the state apparatus itself, but one or two entrepreneurial physicists like A. Q. Khan of Pakistan, and I think you also have to include Pakistan also as a potential supplier of terrorist organizations." A.Q. Khan, or Abdul Qadeer Khan, is the developer of Pakistan's nuclear bomb. He is under house arrest in that nation for selling nuclear technology to North Korea and Iran. Pakistan denies any prior knowledge of the transfer, but Khan remains a national hero. A member of Pakistan's Cabinet, Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, said last year that the scientist would not be sent to a third country for prosecution. "Yes, we supplied Iran with the centrifuge system. Yes, Dr. Qadeer gave Iran this technology. But we are not going to hand over Dr. Qadeer to any one. We will not." A centrifuge is used in a costly and complicated industrial process to concentrate uranium as fuel for nuclear power plants. Further processing creates fissile material for bombs. Paul Leventhal of the Nuclear Control Institute says that kind of material is very difficult, but not impossible to obtain. "One can assume that a group would either have a very sophisticated operation to steal or otherwise acquire the material without the knowledge of a nation or a corporation, or they would have people on the inside." Leventhal says about five kilograms of enriched uranium or plutonium are needed for an atomic bomb. Ivan Oelrich, a physicist with the Federation of American Scientists, says that assembling a bomb is easier than obtaining the fissile material. "You need to have machinists, people who can do computer models and mechanics; people who can actually make the components of the bomb and operate machinery. Terrorists could also spread fear with a so-called "dirty bomb," in which radioactive material would be dispersed by conventional explosives. Physicist Ivan Oelrich says highly radioactive material would create a genuine physical threat, but it could also kill the terrorists before they had a chance to explode the device. He says low-grade radioactive contamination could spread psychological terror. "To be honest, the health dangers would be virtually zero. But, people would know, 'Oh, they've put radioactivity into the building, I'm not going to work there.' It might be that because of the reaction, you know, we're human beings and not always rational, and from [the] reaction of people you might have to abandon a building, not because it's actually dangerous, but because people think it is." Another example of nuclear terror would be an attack on a nuclear power plant, turning it, in effect, into a huge dirty bomb. But Ivan Oelrich says such facilities have numerous safeguards against that. "Nuclear containment vessels are supposed to be able to withstand a crash from an aircraft, for example. It's not going to be easy for a terrorist to disrupt the operation of a nuclear power plant. There is, or course, the question of somebody on the inside who wants to betray the plant. That's another question, but there are ways to deal with that -- two man rules, you have background security checks, etc." Given that benefits of nuclear technology are tied to the potential for nuclear terrorism, experts underscore the constant need for security. Some, such as Paul Leventhal of the Nuclear Control Institute, even call for development of alternative energy sources to avoid disaster at the hands of nuclear terrorists. -------- u.s. nuc facilities -------- new jersey Oyster Creek nuclear plant Potential target too dangerous Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 10/26/06 http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006610260439 A recent Press article reminded us that officials at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission believe the possibility of a terrorist attack doesn't have to be taken into account before issuing a license extension for the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant. This position seems contrary to the findings of the bipartisan 9/11 Commission, which stated that it was a "failure of imagination" that kept U.S. officials from anticipating the al-Qaida threat that took nearly 3,000 American lives. To not recognize a nuclear power plant as a potential terrorist target — especially one like Oyster Creek which keeps its highly radioactive spent fuel in an above-ground structure reportedly unable to withstand aircraft impacts or explosive forces — is to be guilty of that same failure of imagination. Co-chair of the 9/11 Commission, our former Gov. Thomas Kean, stated that "every expert with whom we spoke told us an attack of even greater magnitude is now possible and even probable." What bigger target is there than a vulnerable nuclear power plant in a densely populated area? If Exelon was willing to replace the current facility with a new state-of-the-art reactor and spent fuel storage system, many could support Oyster Creek's continued operation. It is not willing to do that. It is yet another reason among many, including the plant's poor maintenance and environmental records, that this aging nuclear power plant should be denied its extension and shut down. While Oyster Creek has served our area well for over 40 years, its time has passed. Its obsolete design and spent fuel storage method make it a constant danger to all of us. Tom Rapsas ISLAND HEIGHTS -------- new mexico FBI investigating possible security breach at Los Alamos lab LOS ANGELES (AFP) Oct 26, 2006 http://www.spacewar.com/2006/061026163546.urfbzfui.html FBI agents are investigating a possible breach of security at the Los Alamos National Laboratory that followed a drug bust in New Mexico, US officials said Thursday. Agent William Elwell of the FBI field office in Albuquerque said no arrests had yet been made but investigations were ongoing after the seizure of material from a home at a trailer park. "We are still analysing the material and at the moment all I can say is that we believe there are grounds for the investigation to continue," Elwell told AFP by telephone. "I can't comment on what we have discovered so far." The possible security breach at the nuclear weapons research centre came to light after Los Alamos police were called to a domestic disturbance on October 17 and found evidence of drug use. That led to execution of a search warrant which discovered materials believed to have come from the Los Alamos lab, where the atomic bomb was first developed by scientists during WWII. "During the course of the search, officers realized that some of the items seized appeared to belong to the Los Alamos National Laboratory," the Los Alamos County Police Department said in a statement. Local media reported the suspicious materials belonged to a data clerk at the lab, and said police unearthed three computer memory sticks in the raid. A separate FBI search warrant was carried out on October 20 but Elwell would not disclose what material federal investigators were looking at. Los Alamos officials quote by local media stressed that the search related to a former employee whose contract expired several weeks ago. A spokesman for the laboratory appeared to play down the significance of the employee's job in comments to The New Mexican newspaper. "It's clear this person was not a scientist," spokesman Kevin Roark said, declining to elaborate on the data or materials that may have been found. "I can't speak to the nature of the information or the materials. It's a matter of security." Los Alamos National Laboratory Director Michael Anastasio said in a statement Wednesday "we will take immediate and decisive action to address any safety and security issues. This matter is a reminder that constant vigilance by everyone is necessary to ensure a safe and secure Laboratory." It is not the first time that Los Alamos has been at the centre of a security alert. The most notorious recent case involved Taiwanese-American scientist Wen Ho-Lee, who was accused of stealing nuclear secrets for China. Investigators later dropped the original charges but Lee pleaded guilty to improperly handling classified data as part of a plea deal. Two years ago another security alert was sparked when it emerged that two computer disks containing sensitive information had gone missing. ---- Feds to investigate Los Alamos nuke lab after document leak Posted 10/26/2006 By Deborah Baker, Associated Press Writer http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-10-26-los-alamos-nuclear_x.htm Federal security officials and computer experts have been sent to Los Alamos National Laboratory to ensure directives at the nation's premier nuclear weapons lab are being followed in the wake of a possible security breach. The FBI was called in last week after police in northern New Mexico stumbled onto what appeared to be classified information from the lab while arresting a man at a mobile home for possession of drug paraphrenalia. The information was discovered on computer during a search for evidence of a drug business, said Los Alamos Police Sgt. Chuck Ney. He said police alerted the FBI to the documents, which appeared to contain classified material. The mobile home's owner, who wasn't home at the time, was listed as a former employee of one of the lab's subcontractors. Linton Brooks, head of the Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration, said Wednesday he was sending NNSA's chief of defense nuclear security to investigate, along with a team of computer specialists to ensure compliance with department directives at the lab. He said investigators want to find out how the latest possible security breach could occur despite "extraordinary efforts in the last three years to put strong security procedures in place" at Los Alamos and other weapons facilities. Los Alamos has a history of high-profile problems that have highlighted sloppy inventory control and security failures at the nuclear weapons lab. In 2000, nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee pleaded guilty to one count of mishandling computer files. In 2004, the lab was temporarily shut down after two computer disks were reported missing; it turned out they never existed and it was an inventory error. The lab was put under new management and the Energy Department began moving toward creating a diskless environment to prevent classified material from being carried out. "We intend to do everything possible to guard against any criminal activity, particularly where a breach of security may be involved," Lab Director Michael Anastasio said. Gov. Bill Richardson, a former energy secretary in the Clinton administration, noted the lab had made efforts to improve security but apparently not enough. "We need to plug the leaks, we need to beef up security," the governor said Wednesday. "This can't keep happening." FBI spokesman Bill Elwell in Albuquerque said the investigation is continuing and that he couldn't talk about the evidence seized from the home or the individuals connected to the case. The woman who owned the mobile home had worked for lab subcontractor Information Assets Management until about two weeks ago. A spokeswoman at Information Assets Management would say only that the woman "is not currently employed with us." The company helps organizations shift from paper-based files to electronic systems. The federal charge of unauthorized removal and retention of classified material is a misdemeanor that carries a maximum sentence of a year in prison and up to a $100,000 fine. ---- Nuclear lab's security scrutinized October 26, 2006 (CNN) http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/26/los.alamos/index.html?section=cnn_latest LOS ALAMOS, New Mexico -- Federal officials are examining security measures at a nuclear weapons laboratory after three computer memory sticks from the lab were found at a suspected methamphetamine lab, officials say. The FBI is analyzing the contents of the sticks to determine whether they contain classified information, according to law enforcement and government officials. Meanwhile, Linton Brooks, head of the Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration, said a team of computer specialists has been sent to the lab to ensure security directives implemented after earlier breaches are being followed, The Associated Press reported. "Security has always been a very serious matter at Los Alamos National Laboratory. But it's also a changing field," said Kevin Roark, a lab spokesman. "We're always adapting to new emerging threats." While the Los Alamos lab would not name the subcontractor suspected of removing the sticks from the lab, two law enforcement sources identified the employee as Jessica Quintana, 22. Quintana did archive work at Los Alamos lab, where she had been employed for several years, a government official said. Her job at the lab ended a few weeks ago, the official said. It was not clear if she was let go or if her contract ended. The FBI executed a search warrant Friday at her residence in a mobile home park in Los Alamos after being alerted by local police who had earlier searched the same location. Los Alamos police recovered the memory sticks along with a large amount of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia at a residence on October 17, Los Alamos County Police Chief Wayne D. Torpy said. "You could characterize it as a small meth lab," Torpy said about the residence. Police were searching the home as part of a separate investigation stemming from a domestic disturbance, according to Torpy. Justin Stone, 20, was arrested at the residence on an outstanding warrant for probation violation and was later booked on drug charges, Torpy said. Quintana is still part of the police's criminal investigation and could face drug charges. Stone, who is being held at the county jail, described Quintana as "easygoing" and "tenderhearted." Asked if he thought it was possible she could have traded classified information, he said, "No, not at all. ... She's not that type of person. "She likes to help people a lot, and I just, I couldn't see her doing that." Stone also said any information from Los Alamos National Laboratory would be "meaningless" to methamphetamine users. "I mean, for one, half the people who do meth don't even know how to spell the word plutonium." No arrests on federal charges have been made, FBI Albuquerque office spokesman Bill Elwell said. Security problems at the facility, which in addition to weapons research conducts a broad range of scientific inquiries, first came to light in 1995, when researcher Wen Ho Lee was accused of giving nuclear warhead data to China. After a five-year investigation, Lee pleaded guilty to a single count of mishandling classified information. Since then, other security breaches have made headlines and lab employees have drawn fire for failing to take security procedures seriously. In July 2004, 19 workers were placed on investigative leave after two computer disks containing classified information went missing. The security breach brought the lab to a standstill, and all employees were ordered to attend retraining sessions on facility security regulations. Two months later, four employees were fired and another resigned after it was discovered that classified electronic data had been removed from the facility. During World War II, Los Alamos was the principal location of the Manhattan Project, whose scientists developed the first atomic bomb. Later, the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, as it was then known, developed the first hydrogen bomb. -------- north carolina Duke Energy says nuclear plant costs to exceed $2B Triangle Business Journal October 26, 2006 http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2006/10/23/daily28.html?from_rss=1 Duke Energy Carolinas says the cost of building two 800-megawatt plants at Cliffside will cost more than the $2 billion originally forecast. The Cliffside plant is 55 miles west of Charlotte in Cleveland and Rutherford counties. Although the estimated increases have been filed confidentially with the North Carolina Utilities Commission, the public version of the filing doesn't disclose the amount. Duke's filing says the company didn't have to disclose the increases since only about 20 percent of the plants' construction costs has been bid. But the utility says "given the magnitude of the potential revisions to the cost estimate," it wanted to ensure that the commission had the latest available information. Spokesman Tom Williams says Duke will not publicly release the new figure at this time. Because the company is still in the bidding process, "We want to maintain our leverage as much as possible," he says. A disclosure could lead future bidders to increase their prices. The increases come from a general rise in construction costs. Duke's filing says the new projections are based on published pricing for power-plant equipment, higher commodity prices and the possibility of increased labor costs. Duke's filing reports "a trend of fewer bidders, higher prices, earlier payment schedules and longer delivery times." Duke's revision is also based on bids for the boiler, steam turbine and air-quality control system that are higher than the company projected. Duke also warns prices would probably go higher if the commission delays approval of the plants, as Attorney General Roy Cooper and some environmental and industrial groups have suggested. The subsidiary of Charlotte-based Duke Energy Corp. (NYSE:DUK) wants the commission to hold a hearing by Dec. 1 on the plants' costs. The first hearing on the plants was held in September, and Duke wants to revise the cost estimates it provided then. It wants to start construction by April 1. Duke Power provides electricity to western parts of the Triangle, including Durham and Orange counties, and has about 200 local employees. -------- MILITARY -------- africa Ethiopia denies excessive force used after protesters killed October 26, 2006 CNN/(AP) http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/10/26/ethiopia.human.rights.ap/index.html?section=cnn_latest ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - Ethiopia acknowledged Thursday security forces killed 193 civilians protesting election fraud last year, but insisted they did not use excessive force. The figure -- three times an earlier official toll -- had been revealed last week by a senior judge appointed to investigate the violence who had accused the government of trying to cover up the findings. The judge, Wolde-Michael Meshesha, a vice chairman of the inquiry board, fled Ethiopia last month. Two other team members, including the former chairman, have also fled Ethiopia fearing for their safety, Wolde-Michael said. In early July, shortly before completing the original report, the team held a vote and ruled eight to two that excessive force had been used. The vote and comments of the commission members were recorded on video, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press. "Unarmed protesters were shot, beaten and strangled to death," Wolde-Michael told AP on Thursday. "If that is not excessive force I do not know what is. The reason I and others left the country was because we would not change our original findings." Mekonnen Disasa, the newly appointed head of the inquiry board, was one of two members on the video who supported the government's actions and was the only member to appear before reporters Thursday to present its findings. He refused to take questions after his presentation, during which he said security forces used reasonable force to quell postelection disturbances. The new report did, however, say some human rights violations were made but did not elaborate on what those violations were. It also stated 30,000 people were arrested during the protesters. Six policemen were also killed, according to the 10-page report, bringing the overall death toll to 199 -- three times the official death toll of 66. "The measures that were taken by the security forces for stopping the violence that occurred was legal and essential on the basis of defending the new system of government as well protecting the country from endless violence," said the official report into the June and November 2005 killings. The prime minister and other officials said at the time demonstrators were trying to overthrow the government. Wolde-Michael had said the inquiry team came under intense pressure once the ruling party learned of its findings. Their offices were surrounded by security forces and the electricity was cut, he said. The team was summoned by the prime minister and told to reverse its findings, Wolde-Michael said. The unrest followed May 2005 parliamentary elections that gave Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front control of nearly two-thirds of parliament. Opposition parties said the election was rigged. U.S. and European election observers said the vote had been marred by irregularities. Since the vote, more than 100 opposition leaders, journalists and aid workers were charged with treason and attempted genocide in connection with the postelection violence. -------- arms U.N. OKs Study of Small-Arms Control Thursday, October 26, 2006 By EDWARD HARRIS, Associated Press Writer http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/10/26/international/i212557D34.DTL UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- A key United Nations committee on Thursday approved a resolution that could lead to an international treaty on small-arms control, a move hailed by gun-control advocates but opposed by the U.S. and gun-rights groups. The measure would begin studies of a possible treaty, and must be approved by the General Assembly, which is likely to take it up next month. Human-rights campaigners said such a treaty would go a long way toward keeping small arms out of conflict zones. Supporters of the U.N. action say such weapons can flow into conflict areas because of inconsistencies in current laws. The resolution said the lack of international standards in the arms trade "is a contributory factor to conflict, displacement of people, crime and terrorism." It asked Secretary-General Kofi Annan to authorize the establishment of a group of experts to look into "establishing common international standards for the import, export and transfer of conventional arms." The resolution was adopted by the General Assembly committee dealing with disarmament issues with 139 "yes" votes, 24 abstentions and one "no" vote, lodged by the U.S. "The only way for a global arms trade treaty to work is to have every country agree on a standard," said Richard Grenell, spokesman for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. "For us, that standard would be so far below what we are already required to do under U.S. law that we had to vote against it in order to maintain our higher standards." The National Rifle Association in the past has strongly opposed U.N. efforts at crafting a treaty to curb private ownership of small arms. The group has said such a treaty might embolden regimes that violate human rights to disarm their citizens and make popular uprisings against oppression impossible. But human-rights campaigners supporting the drive to regulate the arms trade welcomed the resolution's approval, though they said much work is left to be done before the final passage of any comprehensive compact. "Today, the world's governments have voted to end the scandal of the unregulated arms trade," said Jeremy Hobbs, director of Oxfam International. "Since the Control Arms campaign began three years ago, an estimated 1 million people have been killed by conventional weapons." The resolution asks Annan to seek the views of member states on a legally binding treaty and to establish a group of governmental experts from around the world starting in 2008 to examine the feasibility of a treaty. Campaigners behind the resolution said they hope any final treaty would compel countries to officially authorize all weapons transfers, stiffen compliance with previous treaties related to conventional weapons while prohibiting weapons transfers with countries likely to use the arms to violate their citizens' rights. -------- POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE -------- torture Cheney Appears to Confirm US Practices Waterboarding Thursday, October 26th, 2006 Democracy Now! Headlines http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/26/1341236 Vice President Dick Cheney has apparently confirmed US interrogators engage in water-boarding – an outlawed practice that creates the sensation of drowning. The admission came during an interview on a right-wing North Dakota radio program on Tuesday. Cheney said he agreed with a listener’s comment that terrorists should be dunked under water if it could save American lives. Cheney added: “that's been a very important tool that we've had to be able to secure the nation." A spokesperson denied Cheney had endorsed waterboarding and said he was referring to broad interrogation procedures. Water-boarding is barred under international treaties that prohibit torture. Report: German Intel Agents Witnessed US Torture In Germany, the magazine Stern is reporting German intelligence officials witnessed the torture of detainees at a secret US detention center in Bosnia just weeks after the 9/11 attacks. The development is the latest to contradict the German government’s assertion it only heard of the secret prisons after the story was exposed last year. A leaked intelligence report says the German agents watched an American interrogator beat a seventy-year old prisoner with repeated rifle butts to his head. The interrogator appeared proud of his actions. One of the Germans agents reported he felt as if he had witnessed a war crime, saying: "The Serbs ended up before the international court in The Hague for this kind of thing." ---- Confession that formed base of Iraq war was acquired under torture: journalist Thu Oct 26, 2006 LONDON (AFP) http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061027/wl_mideast_afp/usbritainiraqmilitary_061027002757 An Al-Qaeda terror suspect captured by the United States, who gave evidence of links between Iraq and the terror network, confessed after being tortured, a journalist told the BBC. Iban al Shakh al Libby told intelligence agents that he was close to Al-Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri and "understood an awful lot about the inner workings of Al-Qaeda," former FBI agent Jack Clonan told the broadcaster. Libby was tortured in an Egyptian prison, according to Stephen Grey, the author of the newly-released book "Ghost Plane" who investigated the secret US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) prisons that housed terror suspects around the world. US President George W. Bush confirmed the existence of the network of CIA holding facilities overseas during a September 6 speech defending controversial US interrogation practices. Libby was apparently taken to Cairo, Clonan told the broadcaster, after being captured in Afghanistan in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. "He (Libby) claims he was tortured in jail and that would be routine in Egyptian prisons," Grey said. "What he claimed most significantly was a connection between ... Al-Qaeda and the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein. This intelligence report made it all the way to the top, and was used by (former US secretary of state) Colin Powell as a key piece of justification ... for invading Iraq," he told the broadcaster. Powell claimed in a UN Security Council meeting in February 2003, weeks before a US-led coalition invaded Iraq, that the country under Saddam Hussein had provided weapons training to Al-Qaeda, saying he could "trace the story of a senior terrorist operative", whom Grey alleges is Libby. "At the time, the caveats to say this intelligence was extracted under torture were not provided," Grey said. Grey said that, after being held in Egypt, Libby was transferred to a secret CIA facility in Bagram, just north of Afghanistan's capital Kabul. The journalist said he had also met other people held in that facility who describe the torture that Libby faced at the CIA facility. Since then, "he disappeared", Grey said. "Like hundreds of other people arrested after September 11, he's vanished into a sort of netherworld of prisons where astonishingly, President Bush now says the prisons have emptied. -------- POLITICS -------- us politics Veteran Investigative Journalist Bob Parry on the Iran-Contra Scandal and the Perils of Reporting It Thursday, October 26th, 2006 Democracy Now! http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/26/1341249 Investigative journalist Robert Parry helped expose the Iran-Contra scandal in the 1980s while working as a reporter for the Associated Press and Newsweek. He joins us from Washington. [includes rush transcript] As we continue over coverage of Nicaragua, investigative journalist Robert Parry joins us now from Washington, D.C. In the 1980s he helped expose the Iran-Contra scandal while working as a reporter for the Associated Press and Newsweek. Robert Parry now runs the website Consortium News. - Robert Parry. Veteran investigative journalist and editor of the online ezine ConsortiumNews.com. For years he worked as an investigative reporter for both the Associated Press and Newsweek magazine. His reporting led to the exposure of the ‘Iran-Contra’ scandal. His books include “Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & ‘Project Truth’” and “Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq.” AMY GOODMAN: As we continue our coverage of Nicaragua, investigative journalist Robert Parry joins us now, also from Washington, D.C. In the 1980s, he helped expose the Iran-Contra scandal, while working as a reporter for the Associated Press and for Newsweek. Robert Parry now runs the website, consortiumnews.com. We welcome you to Democracy Now! ROBERT PARRY: Thanks, Amy. AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about Nicaragua now, 20 years later. In fact, if you were doing your reporting today, it looks like you’d be reporting on the very same people. ROBERT PARRY: Well, many of the same people, certainly. We haven’t seen a lot of change. And certainly the history that we covered back in the 1980s remains very relevant. The fear that was engendered through the Contra War is still very much alive in Nicaragua. JUAN GONZALEZ: And the visit of Oliver North, who has resurrected himself now as a talk-show host, could you talk a little bit, for those of our listeners who perhaps don’t recall or were a lot younger at the time, the role of Oliver North in the Nicaraguan civil war? ROBERT PARRY: Well, Oliver North was a very energetic, aggressive Marine officer. He was assigned to the National Security Council staff during the Reagan presidency. He became a kind of cult figure within the right, even sort of behind the scenes. He was the guy who was putting the muscle behind President Reagan's efforts in Nicaragua. First, even when the CIA was involved directly in the early part of the 1980s, North was one of the people that coordinated matters back with the White House to the -- in the field and with the CIA. He then, after the CIA was ordered to stop supporting the Contras by Congress, Oliver North took this program underground with President Reagan's approval and still really working with many of the intelligence people in the field, many of the CIA people were then suddenly working for him, at least coordinating through him up into the White House. So he became even more of a legend in Washington. He was a person who was able to pull together a number of these elements. He helped raise money for the Contras. He helped arrange for their weapons flows to go into them. All this, while the White House was denying it was doing it, remember. Congress was very much asleep at the switch. The House Intelligence Committee failed to follow up on some of the early reporting that we were doing and others were doing. So, North became increasingly a central figure and a controversial one. And then, when he was finally exposed for what he was up to in the fall of 1986, it was also shown that he was involved with the Iranian arms-for-hostage deal, since he also had as a portfolio the issue of terrorism. So he was working both the Iran side and the Central America side, and with the money funneling between the two, he was able to -- it gave birth to the Iran-Contra scandal, the fact that there was money coming from weapons sales to Iran that was then being sent to the Contras. But there are other money flows and other arrangements of weapons that he was also handling for the Contras. JUAN GONZALEZ: Wasn’t there some indication that he had more than a passing interest in drug trafficking, as well, in that area? ROBERT PARRY: Well, the Contras became involved in drug trafficking in the 1980s. It was done partly to help raise money for themselves. They were in a very unique position, working with the United States government on one side and then also becoming a way for South American drug dealers to move their supplies, their material, their contraband up into the United States. So, because the Contras became an intermediary for that, they also had some protection because they were working for the U.S. government, and the U.S. government was very hesitant to blow the whistle on them. So we now know, based on investigations that went on into the late 1990s, that many of the Contras, really dozens and dozens of them, were implicated in this way, and the U.S. government turned a blind eye, because it did not want the negative public relations that would have come from admitting that the drugs were being brought to the United States through the Contras. And Oliver North was one of the people who was aware of this problem and essentially didn’t do much about it. He was a person who -- he may have used it against some of the Contras he didn’t like, in terms of trying to expose them and embarrass them, but he allowed other elements of the Contra movement to go ahead with this program. AMY GOODMAN: Robert Parry, you attempted to expose the whole story. You wrote pieces that didn’t get published. You worked for AP, then you worked for Newsweek. In a nutshell, can you explain what you learned, how you ended up leaving AP, going to Newsweek, and even then, couldn’t do the kind of expose you felt needed to be done on the Iran-Contra scandal? ROBERT PARRY: Well, there was a lot of resistance to any of this kind of reporting in Washington at the time. The Reagan administration was extremely aggressive in going after journalists who were digging into these areas. These were extremely sensitive areas. They were both politically sensitive and legally sensitive. So it was hard for journalists to do this work. There were a number of journalists in the field in Central America, who were doing courageous work, people like Ray Bonner of the New York Times, who had been digging into the human rights problems in El Salvador, in particular. And he was -- his career was very badly damaged, and he was made a sort of an example of what happens to you if you go into these areas too aggressively. Some reporters said that they were warned off from going after the North story, because that was seen as a career-ender. At AP, we continued to push that. I was working with Brian Barger during some of this time and were able to find out an awful lot of information. The Miami Herald did some good work. So those stories were hard to get out, because the White House was denying much of it. There was a sense that we were perhaps taking AP into some dangerous territory. But I think most of our stories, in some form or another, did get out. Basically I left AP because after the Iran-Contra scandal finally broke, I was approached by Newsweek and offered a job there, and I felt, you know, there had been so much -- there was a lot of controversy with the stories inside the AP that I had been doing, so it just seemed like the right time to leave. So I went to Newsweek, but there I found the same kind of problems, perhaps even more so, where there were senior editors at Newsweek who did not want to see these stories pursued aggressively. And they were very happy to accept a kind of series of cover stories that were put out for the Iran-Contra scandal. In effect, after Oliver North was finally exposed in 1986 as having played the central role, the cover story became that it was essentially a rogue operation that he and a few men of zeal had been conducting. That wasn’t the case either. It had really been approved by President Reagan, deeply involved Vice President Bush, involved the Central Intelligence Agency, from the director, CIA director Casey, down to people in the field, station chiefs, Joe Fernandez, for instance, in Central America. So it was really -- it was still a government operation. It was just being done illegally. The problem was that both the Democrats and the Republicans did not really want that pursued too fully. There was a sense among the Democrats that they were happy to accept the cover stories, because otherwise they might have to impeach President Reagan, because President Reagan was doing much of what we're now seeing happening in this Bush administration, of going beyond the normal constitutional boundaries in trying to conduct wars, even when there are laws prohibiting these things, but still doing it anyway. And Congress didn’t want that fight. The Democrats really did not want that fight in the late 1980s, and so it never got fully pursued. And when Special Prosecutor Lawrence Walsh did take it further and broke through many of the cover stories, he was not well received for doing that. There was a tremendous feeling in Washington: just let it go. It’s old history. We have other things to worry about in the nation's capital. The Cold War was kind of an explanation for all this, and when the Cold War ended, there was a sense of “Let's just forget that old history.” JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, Bob, some of those key figures who were involved back then are still around, and now they’re in the new administration. And some of them -- Negroponte, Abrams -- could you talk about some of these folks and their role then and how they have now been resurrected once again in the Bush administration? ROBERT PARRY: Well, John Negroponte was, of course, ambassador to Honduras. He was a conservative. He had been a hardliner. He had been in Indochina during the Vietnam War. He had worked for Henry Kissinger. But he was considered more of a hardliner than Kissinger. And he helped put together the Contra movement, which was based in Honduras in those early years. And many of the early problems with the human rights violations -- the Contras were essentially going into Nicaragua and killing people. It was kind of a terrorist organization. They were committing torture. They were executing Nicaraguan civilian officials. They were torturing people. They were killing Nicaraguan soldiers they had captured. And this was all being done with the understanding and the protection of the U.S. embassy in Honduras, where John Negroponte was the ambassador. So he knew a great good deal about this. Exactly all the details, no one’s ever quite sorted that out, but he was certainly deeply involved. Elliott Abrams was at the State Department in those years. Elliott represented sort of the neoconservatives as they were sort of beginning to take shape in the early 1980s. And these were bright young guys who basically felt they were smarter than pretty much anybody else, and their idea was, how do you manipulate the American people to get them to support these kinds of operations. Many of them also had learned from the Vietnam era that you had to control the American population. So they developed these concepts they called “perception management.” And the idea was to manage the American people's perceptions about events, not tell them the truth necessarily, but exploit certain pieces of information and manufacture some propaganda and use it domestically to keep the American people in line. So that was sort of their thinking, and what they were contributing to this. They had a group at the State Department called the Public Diplomacy Office, and that office was headed by Otto Reich, another hardliner who went after the Washington press corps quite aggressively, tried to get people fired or reassigned if they were causing trouble. And those kinds of strategies did not die with Iran-Contra. They just continued. And when George W. Bush came into power, not only does many of the people come back, people like Elliott Abrams and John Negroponte, who’s now, of course, the Director of National Intelligence, but the concepts came back: the idea of exaggerating dangers, frightening the American people, managing their perceptions. And so, much of, not only the personnel, but the strategies have reappeared in this period of the new administration. AMY GOODMAN: John Bolton, was he involved? ROBERT PARRY: Well, John Bolton was around. He was not a person that I was dealing with directly. But many of these people were sort of credentialed during this period. They got jobs at sometimes low- or mid-level of the Reagan administration and then used that as a way to build their careers and move up, and they came back again -- some of the lower-level people came back in higher positions under George W. Bush. AMY GOODMAN: Bob Parry, finally, as you look today, 20 years later, back at the Iran-Contra scandal and the difficulty in getting word out about the scandal -- the New York Times holding onto the story. Ultimately it was the Reagan administration themselves, right around Thanksgiving 20 years ago, that admitted much of what happened, which certainly took out a lot of the investigating of it, because they were admitting it themselves. Do you make parallels for what’s happening today in journalism? ROBERT PARRY: Well, sure. I think there’s been a tendency not to be aggressive, and that was a big lesson learned in the 1980s. Many of the reporters who really pushed these stories and went after the hard news had their careers damaged, and many reporters who didn’t moved up. So you ended up with sort of a kind of a reverse Darwinianism, if you will, I mean, where the -- well, maybe not reverse, but it was the reporters that played ball got ahead, and they became the managing editors of today. So, there was a cultural change that occurred with the Washington press corps during that period, and that remains with us: this idea of not asking the hard questions, not pushing the edge of the envelope. And we saw that certainly during the run-up to the Iraq war, and we’ve seen it really continuing to today. AMY GOODMAN: Robert Parry, I want to thank you very much for being with us. ROBERT PARRY: Thank you. AMY GOODMAN: Veteran investigative journalist, started the first online investigative magazine at consortiumnews.com. I want to thank you for joining us, had worked for Associated Press and Newsweek, as well. -------- voting Election cliffhanger: Will it all work? Updated 10/26/2006 By Richard Wolf, USA TODAY http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-10-26-voting-machines_x.htm CLEVELAND — Jackie Baker has worked the polls here for 15 years, but this year is different. The electronic voting machines are new. The state law governing who can vote is new. Identification requirements are new, as are the many rules for handling those who don't meet them. Poll workers must take four-hour training courses and study two manuals totaling 137 pages. Then they take a test. Baker flunked. So did 26% of her colleagues. As America prepares to vote Nov. 7, the grueling preparations underway in places such as Cuyahoga County, Ohio, are being replicated in thousands of municipalities. New machines and voter databases intended to fix the problems that beset the 2000 presidential election must be in place this year. Many states and counties have rushed to meet the deadline — with unfortunate results. POLL RESULTS: A question of confidence Three in every 10 voting jurisdictions in the USA are using new equipment, up from 9% in 2004. More than 20 states are using paper trails for the first time, which produce printouts of voters' choices. Dozens of states have new voter registration and identification requirements. About 1.2 million poll workers and tens of thousands of technicians are still being trained to open the polls before daybreak, set up and maintain the machines, and work up to 15-hour shifts. "We're facing a huge problem as a nation," says Candice Hoke, director of the Center for Election Integrity at Cleveland State University. "We've made the entire election system overly complex and technologically vulnerable, and lowered public confidence in the legitimacy of the results." After presidential elections that brought attention to Florida's hanging chads in 2000 and Ohio's long lines in 2004, thousands of poll monitors, politicians and lawyers will be out in force this year, ready to cry foul — or file lawsuits. Democrats complained the loudest about the results in 2004, when Ohio tipped the election to President Bush. Their candidates for governor and senator are leading in polls this time, but they remain concerned that the votes must be counted fairly. "This is about trying to protect the integrity of the process," says Christopher Nance, Democratic Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones' expert on elections issues. Michael Vu knows the pressure is on. In May's primary here, poll workers were overwhelmed by new equipment, memory cards for machines were lost, printouts were mangled, and absentee ballots took six days to count. As a result, the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections director was in the news more than Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James. And the coverage was far less flattering. In the months since, Vu has presided over a revamping of the way Cuyahoga's 1 million registered voters will be treated Nov. 7. A county review panel that included Hoke issued more than 300 recommendations in July; Vu turned that into more than 800 tasks, including 147 deemed "mission critical" for November. About 7,000 poll workers are being trained to staff the county's 1,434 precincts; among them are 1,200 high school students who will serve as backups. Poll workers' pay has been raised $50, to $172.10. About 1,300 technicians who take eight-hour classes will get $250. Still, "there's a question out there as to whether or not this system will work," Vu says. Combining electronic machines and new laws with confused poll workers and voters, he says, creates "the largest social change management process in this country." Encoders and memory cards At the center of that process are people like Baker. Unemployed and living on disability benefits, the 45-year-old Cleveland resident has been a poll worker since the early 1990s, when the job paid $75. After failing the new test once, she returned last week for another four-hour training course, in which she learned about encoders and memory cards, printer modules and paper spindles, what form of ID is OK and which voters must cast "provisional" ballots. "It's not really hard," Baker insists. "If you work as a team, you'll come out a lot better." She passed the test this time. Following May's fiasco, the training courses were outsourced to Cuyahoga Community College, which has set up 15 sites throughout this sprawling county. Class sizes are limited to 18 students, who work in pairs at the new machines. A private instructor and a technician from equipment manufacturer Diebold run each session, under the watchful eye of a Board of Elections monitor. Baker's class runs 41/2 hours with one short break. At the end, students struggle to install the printers on the machines. After learning how to handle blind voters, one student asks what accommodations are made for the hearing-impaired. None, Diebold's Sherry Hendershot replies; they can see the ballot. Another asks if the rules could change before Election Day. The answer: absolutely. Instructor Van Williams, who teaches at the college, says he didn't work the polls as usual in May, when the new machines were first introduced. The pay, he says, wasn't worth the effort. And "everything that could go wrong did go wrong." Even with the new pay scale, "The people need to be committed to the cause," says Michael Devlin, a college vice president, "because you can make a hundred and seventy-two bucks easier than this." Upon learning what supplies and records go in the red bags, blue bags, red envelopes and black envelopes that poll workers must submit at day's end, and how to handle all the seals and labels, Josephine Lockett, 56, is shaken. "It is more than I thought it was going to be," the retired cashier says. Chuck Dietrich, who at 75 is closer to the average age (72) of poll workers nationally, wonders why punch cards were scrapped. "I don't see what was wrong with the old paper ballots," he says. "When you go into a bank or into a store, they tell you, 'We can't help you, the computers are down.' " Facing a 'double whammy' Many of the civic groups that have joined the effort to fix Cuyahoga's voting system fear similar computer problems next month. Norman Robbins of the Greater Cleveland Voter Coalition, a professor emeritus at Case Western Reserve University, blames it on the "double whammy" of new machines and new laws. "This stuff is an immature technology," he says. "I mean, if this was an airplane, would you get on it?" Ron Olson, a computer technician with the Citizens' Alliance for Secure Elections, prefers a different analogy. "How well did you drive a car the first time you drove it?" he asks. "You might not have killed anybody, but you made mistakes." Elections officials don't expect much better. Keith Cunningham, elections director in Allen County, Ohio, has a background in commercial printing. That, combined with his experience helping unravel what went wrong with the new paper trails in Cuyahoga in May, has made him dubious about November. Many of the computer tapes were damaged or blank because of poll workers' errors. "I've been putting paper through machines for a long time," he says. "I always tell my staff, 'Never walk away from a machine printing paper, because as soon as you walk away, it will jam.' " Computers and printers going down are among the last things worrying Cuyahoga County elections officials. The touch-screen machines, as well as new optical-scan machines used by other Ohio counties, were least to blame for the problems encountered in May. Despite widespread public skepticism about the new technology — a recent Princeton study claims the touch-screen machines can be easily hacked — elections experts agree that the bigger problems are caused by people. They start with Congress, which imposed deadlines under the 2002 Help America Vote Act that have proved difficult to meet. Then there are state officials, such as Ohio's General Assembly, which imposed a rash of new voter registration and identification requirements after the May primary. Judges haven't helped by tossing out some of those laws and keeping others. 'Who counts the paper trail?' And then there are the 1.2 million poll workers assigned to handle the new machines and interpret the new laws. Tom Hayes, who left his job as director of Ohio's Lottery Commission to help manage Cuyahoga's fall elections, says the mix of new technology and old bureaucracy can be brutal. That worries Jane Platten, who runs Cuyahoga's poll worker training and voter education programs. The walls of her office are adorned with huge sheets of paper listing "Items of Concern." Topping her list: getting thousands more people through training, because nearly 30% have been failing. Two-thirds of them are brand new to the process. With time running out, classes are likely to continue right up until Election Day. The job of a poll worker "used to be, 'Hi, my name is Jane Doe, and I'm here to vote,' " Platten says. Now the workers face "an electronic voting world" and rules so complicated, "you almost have to be a rocket scientist." To help, the county has produced a "Voter Identification Decision Tree" that's intended to simplify the process. It has 17 leaves. At public forums and education sessions, elections officials encounter a dubious electorate. William Clarence Marshall, 47, an actor and opera singer, suggests holding mock elections so that poll workers can practice. Joe DiDonato, 48, a research scientist at the Cleveland Clinic, tests a touch-screen machine and emerges doubtful. "I saw the paper trail, but who counts the paper trail?" he says. Victoria Lovegren, 55, a Case Western instructor, nearly bursts into tears at a public meeting here over her concern that voters won't know whether their electronic votes are counted. "If we don't have fair elections, we don't have a democracy," she says. In Columbus, the state capital, attorney Cliff Arnebeck hasn't quit contesting the 2004 presidential results in Ohio. A judge has ordered state officials to preserve the ballots. If Democrats take over Congress in the fall, Arnebeck would like to see hearings aimed at showing that ballots were manipulated to help President Bush win re-election. "We have to be on guard for this sort of thing in the current election," he says. Voters' volatility is understandable, says Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Ronald Adrine, who chaired the review panel that issued 313 recommendations after May's primary. He says he learned more about the voting process during the panel's two-month probe than in 25 years having his name on the ballot. "If I only knew what it takes to put on an election," Adrine says, "I would have been awestruck." PROBLEMS TROUBLE OFFICIALS Eleven days before voters go to the polls, problems from delayed absentee ballots to names being chopped off on voting machines are hampering elections officials. The problems are not unusual, officials say. But coming after a primary election season in which new electronic machines and state laws confounded poll workers, they are making officials nervous. The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners has withheld payments to equipment vendor Sequoia Voting Systems until the results are in. In Los Angeles County, officials will conduct a random audit of 5% of the machines used in early voting following questions about their security and accuracy. "It points to the increased agony being felt around the country by election administrators," says Kimball Brace of Election Data Systems. Among the problems: • In parts of Virginia and Texas, some candidates' names have been cut off on summary pages that confirm voters' selections. Democratic Senate challenger Jim Webb in Virginia is affected. In Austin, Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison appears as "Kay Bailey Hutch." • Absentee and provisional ballots have been slow to arrive in Maryland, California, Ohio and Arkansas, among other states. The delays could threaten officials' ability to get absentee ballots out on time or to have enough provisional ballots at polling places for voters whose registrations are contested. • Missouri has been shaken by the arrival of thousands of questionable voter registration cards. Many include bogus address changes that could cause some voters to be misinformed; others might have to cast provisional ballots rather than regular ones. The problems should not cause Americans to lose faith in the electoral process, says Paul DeGregorio, chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. "Our nation's voting equipment, election results and election officials can and should be trusted," he said this week. "The integrity of the system is not in the hands of hackers, professors, interest groups or politicians in Washington - it is managed by local election officials." Contributing: Wire reports -------- ENERGY -------- alternative energy Brazil Bus Firm Powers Fleet on Biofuels October 26, 2006 By Hellen Berger, Associated Press http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=11527 SAO PAULO, Brazil -- South America's largest city might be getting a bit greener. A bus company in Sao Paulo is now powering part of its fleet with a new mix of biofuels and diesel in an effort to curb emissions and reduce reliance on fossil fuels. The mix _ a blend of 30 percent biodiesel, 8 percent alcohol and 62 percent petroleum diesel _ will eventually be used by 1,900 buses, about a quarter of Sao Paulo's entire bus fleet, said Paulo Mendes, director of B100, which was created by the Itaim Paulista bus company to research alternative fuels. "We are worried about the environmental situation and about Brazil's dependency on international petroleum," Mendes said. The fuel was developed as part of joint effort between B100 and state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA, known as Petrobras. Brazil has been a leader in the development of biofuels, with ethanol providing about 17 percent of the country's fuel needs. Brazil also will start requiring that biodiesel be added to regular diesel at a rate of 2 percent in 2008. By the year 2013, trucks will have to run on 5 percent biodiesel.