NucNews November 5, 2006 -------- NUCLEAR The Z-machine takes another step towards fusion 11/05/06 POE News http://www.poe-news.com/stories.php?poeurlid=65671 Sandia's Z machine, by creating pressures more than 10 million times that of the atmosphere at sea level, has turned a diamond sheet into a pool of liquid. The object of the experiment was to better understand the characteristics of diamond under the extreme pressure it would face when used as a capsule for a BB-sized pellet intended to fuel a nuclear fusion reaction. -------- australia W. Australian Govt says PM's support for nuclear energy 'bizarre' Sunday, November 5, 2006 Australia Broadcasting http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200611/s1781408.htm Western Australia Energy Minister Fran Logan has described Prime Minister John Howard's push toward nuclear energy in Australia as "bizarre". Mr Howard told a Liberal conference in Queensland yesterday that Australia would be foolish to ignore nuclear power production. The Federal Government's nuclear energy task force has found a nuclear power industry could be commercially viable within 15 years. Mr Logan says Australia does not need nuclear power. "It is a ridiculous argument for a country like Australia, which is the largest exporter of coal in the world," she said. "Here in Western Australia we've got some of the largest gas reserves and 120 years worth of coal. "That we should even consider nuclear, I mean the whole argument is just bizarre." He rejects Mr Howard's assertion that Australian attitudes to nuclear power are changing. Mr Logan says the costs involved in building and decommissioning nuclear plants outweighs any economic benefit. "What John Howard should do is actually talk to his counterpart in the UK Tony Blair and the Minister for Energy in the UK and talk to them about the cost of decommissioning six and seven nuclear power stations that's going on in the UK at the moment - it runs into the hundred of billions of pounds," he said. ---- Nuclear power a 'cop out': Beazley November 05, 2006 Australia Courier Mail http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,,20704866-1702,00.html?from=rss FEDERAL Opposition Leader Kim Beazley has stepped up his attack on the Government over its nuclear ambitions, with a warning that his own electorate in Perth could be an ideal site for a nuclear reactor. A Federal Government task force this week said nuclear energy could become a viable industry in Australia within 15 years. Prime Minister John Howard this week said he expected nuclear power would play a role in Australia's energy future, as it already does in much of Europe and the United States. Mr Beazley today said Perth could not operate off an eastern states grid and a reactor would therefore have to be built in the city if Australia embraces a nuclear future. "I know darn well as the member for Brand that where you locate nuclear facilities normally, the proximity to the city, the proximity to water, you will want to dump that facility right in my electorate and I won't be having a bit of it," he said. Mr Beazley said nuclear technology was a "1960s technology" and Australia should focus on renewable energy. "If John Howard goes down the nuclear road it will be both dangerous to this country and a cop out," he said. "We must not send that signal to this region that that is the way we intend to go. "It's a security issue, not simply an environmental issue." -------- britain Nuclear-free Scotland 'will hurt UK' EDDIE BARNES AND MARK HOWARTH (ebarnes@scotlandonsunday.com) Sun 5 Nov 2006 The Scotsman http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1638932006 SCOTLAND's refusal to build a new generation of nuclear power stations will ruin Britain's bid to cut greenhouse gases. A report commissioned for London mayor Ken Livingstone warns that if Scotland's two nuclear stations are not replaced, the UK will be forced to build gas-powered stations to compensate. As a result, carbon emissions will increase, preventing Britain from meeting its commitment to cut global warming. The warning was seized on by pro-nuclear campaigners last night as a wake-up call to the Scottish Executive, which is refusing to countenance new stations until the question of nuclear waste has been settled. Scotland's nuclear energy is a massively important part of Britain's national grid, feeding about half of Scotland's electricity needs and supplying energy to England and Northern Ireland. But Scotland's stations, at Hunterston and Torness, are coming to their end of their lives and a decision must soon be made on replacing them. Prime Minister Tony Blair has enthusiastically backed nuclear as a reliable and carbon-free energy source in the current Energy Review, which will decide the future of Britain's electricity needs. But First Minister Jack McConnell has refused to follow suit. Ministers claim massive investment in renewable energy will meet Scotland's needs - with 40% coming from renewable sources by 2020. However, the report, written by Large & Associated Consultant Engineers, concludes that such a hope is in vain. It declares: "The policy of the Scottish Parliament may well preclude new-build NPPs [nuclear power plants] in Scotland, or it may choose only to permit a new generating capacity proportionate to its electricity consumption demand ... If so, [it] ... could jeopardise the UK's carbon-free treaty obligations." Report author John Large added: "If Scotland said no to another nuclear power plant, it would effectively be a Scottish veto on the Energy Review. The UK would not be able to meet its commitments under the Kyoto treaty." He said the consequences could be deeply damaging: "Westminster might then say that it is in the strategic interests of the UK to have a nuclear power plant and impose it on Scotland." The findings were welcomed by pro-nuclear Scottish Labour MPs last night. Michael Connerty said: "We have gone from 29% of our energy coming from nuclear and are heading to 7%. There is no indication that renewables can fill that gap." But sources in the nuclear industry warn that such is the lack of political will, energy firms may decide not to invest in new stations here. A Friends of the Earth Scotland spokesman countered: "The Sustainable Development Commission showed we can reduce carbon emissions and meet energy needs without nuclear." -------- depleted uranium Depleted Uranium Haunts Kosovo and Iraq by Scott Peterson Global Research, November 5, 2006 Middle East Report http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=PET20061105&articleId=3715 Iraq and Kosovo may be thousands of miles apart, but they share the dubious distinction of contamination with radioactive residue from depleted uranium (DU) bullets used in American air strikes. After several years of silence, US officials finally admitted that 340 tons of DU were fired during the Gulf war. In Kosovo, American delays in providing details of quantities and target points have frustrated international efforts to assess health risks. Despite repeated requests, NATO waited almost a full year after the start of bombing in March 1999 to say that 31,000 DU bullets--a fraction of the number fired in Iraq--were fired by A-10 "tankbuster" aircraft over Kosovo. A Belgrade report published this April estimates that about 50,000 DU bullets had been used in parts of Serbia and Montenegro as well as Kosovo. Evidence is plentiful on the ground that DU was used in heavily populated areas, and that civilians and returning refugees were never warned of the danger. The high-density bullet is made of low-level radioactive waste left over from manufacturing nuclear fuel and bombs. DU bullets were designed in the 1970s to defeat top-line Soviet tanks. Some 20 nations now keep the world's best armor-piercing rounds in their arsenals. First used in combat during the Gulf war, they proved to be unmatched tank slayers. (A Pentagon official points to one other benefit: the US can give away its 1.2 billion pound stockpile of radioactive waste to weapons manufacturers.) When DU smashes into a hard target, it pulverizes into breathable dust that remains radioactive for 4.5 billion years. American nuclear scientists have found that DU dust can travel at least 26 miles. Scientists of the National Institute for Health Protection in Macedonia detected eight times higher than normal levels of alpha radiation--the primary type emitted by DU--in the air during the air war. Yugoslav soldiers have found DU rounds in Bujanovic in the south, and a Swiss-led international team found "serious radioactivity" when it dug up many rounds at a radio tower near Vranje. Despite predicting that "every future battlefield will be contaminated" with DU, the Pentagon asserts that DU risk is minimal. But training materials developed in the 1990s require full protective gear and masks in contaminated areas, in line with Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) rules. The US military requires an NRC license to handle the smallest amount of the restricted material. A US Army-commissioned health report issued just days before the Gulf war noted that radiation is linked with cancer and said that "no dose [of DU] is so low that the probability of effect is zero." Still, the Pentagon argues that "residual DU from battlefields in Kosovo does not pose a significant risk to human health." US soldiers partly ascribe Gulf war syndrome to DU exposure. British troops deployed in Kosovo are suing their defense ministry for ailments they attribute to DU. The UN refugee agency in Kosovo now includes papers in personnel files to note work in potentially DU-contaminated areas. In Kosovo, Western de-mining groups were told by NATO to "exercise caution" and not to climb on destroyed armored vehicles. Last October Col. Eric Daxon, the US Army's top radiological expert, said: "The best thing I can tell anybody about entering a contaminated vehicle or damaged vehicle is: 'Don't do it. It is a dangerous place to be.'" But that message never got through to hundreds of thousands of Kosovar Albanians, in whose name the Kosovo campaign was fought, and whose DU exposure could be highest. Rexh Himaj, a mechanic who lost most of his tools during the conflict, didn't think twice about salvaging parts from destroyed Serbian vehicles. Like thousands of returning refugees, he was just glad to get back to work. But the concrete surface of a Serbian military base on the west side of Djakovica where I found him working was pockmarked with DU hits, as was the nearby road. The ground was littered with spent aluminum shell casings that are unique to 30 mm DU bullets. A boy climbed on a burned-out armored vehicle, then jumped off and kicked at a shell casing. "Now I know it's dangerous, but that is a risk I've got to take," said Himaj, when the telltale casings are explained. His hands were greasy-black with work. "If [the Americans] didn't use this stuff, then we might still have Serbs here. On the other hand...I hope they clean it up." But cleanup is virtually impossible. One US Defense Department report lists eight soil decontamination techniques, including multiple nitric acid washes, but "in no case did the achieved separation suffice to allow unrestricted disposal." A confidential preliminary UN report leaked in May 1999, as the bombing continued, did not mince words: "This type of ammunition is nuclear waste, and its use is very dangerous and harmful," it said. After NATO released its figures, the UN recommended that "measures should be taken to prevent access." For Kosovars, like Iraqis, such warnings may be too late. Scott Peterson covers the Middle East for the Christian Science Monitor. For comprehensive coverage of depleted uranium, visit ---- Depleted Uranium Radiation Threatens Canadian Troops in Afghanistan Global Research, November 5, 2006 Toronto Star http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20061105&articleId=3704 Saving troops from a deadly, invisible enemy Plastic instruments worn around neck warn of radiation Toronto Star Oct. 30, 2006. 01:00 AM BRUCE CAMPION-SMITH OTTAWA—In addition to their flak jackets, rifles and helmets, Canada's troops in Afghanistan are carrying another little known piece of protective equipment: radiation meters. It's a reminder that amid the threat of suicide bombers and rocket-propelled grenades, the soldiers face a more insidious, and invisible, concern on the battlefield. For their six-month tours of duty, soldiers wear the plastic dosimeters around their necks next to their dog tags to measure any "chance encounter" with gamma and X-ray radiation during patrols outside the base. "It's a protective measure to ensure the safety and the health of the troops," said Chris Knowlton, the environmental health and safety officer for the Canadian Expeditionary Force, the military branch that looks after overseas operations. Knowlton says the dosimeters are worn to protect troops against a threat that first arrived in the war-torn country a quarter-century ago. Old Soviet military gear now litters the landscape in Afghanistan, remnants of that country's invasion and occupation. And some of that equipment contains radium, a radioactive substance once used for the glow-in-the-dark dials. "The one consideration that we looked at was the fact there could be ex-Soviet dials floating around," Knowlton said. "Nothing sits around for very long so any of the damaged or destroyed vehicles get scavenged. "There have been examples out there where people have dispersed radioactive and contaminated things not knowing what they're doing." But some question whether there's a more recent radiation worry lingering on the Afghan battlefield — depleted uranium found in modern-day weapons and armour. Depleted uranium is what is left over after the more radioactive elements have been removed to make enriched uranium. This heavy, dense metal is prized by the military. The U.S. says it uses depleted uranium for some of its munitions, armour and armour-piercing projectiles. "DU's high density, self-sharpening qualities and the fact that it is easily combustible make its projectiles capable of readily penetrating armour," according to one U.S. Army fact sheet. While military fact sheets downplay the risks of depleted uranium because of its low radioactivity, excessive exposures can damage the kidneys. "Depleted uranium is only one of many potentially hazardous substances that soldiers may be exposed to during deployment and combat operations," the U.S. fact sheet said. Depleted uranium saw large-scale use during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, sparking some worries that it was responsible for the mysterious illnesses suffered by some U.S. veterans. It was used again during NATO's bombing of the Balkans in the mid-1990s. That's when Canadians — who served an extended tour there — were first equipped with dosimeters. "For the Balkans and as well Afghanistan, it's more the chance encounter ... like a rogue source or a device that contains radiation," Knowlton said, adding dosimeters are now a "routine force protection measure." NATO was put on the offensive in 2001 after media reports linked the use of depleted uranium ammunition in Kosovo and Bosnia with the possibility of a higher incidence of leukemia and other cancers among some allied troops and local residents. "To date, the scientific and medical research continues to disprove any link between depleted uranium and the reported negative health effects," according to a NATO statement. The Americans and British have denied using depleted uranium weapons in Afghanistan. Canada says it eliminated depleted uranium munitions from its stockpile in 1998, in part because of the logistical challenges of storing the material, since it required special precautions. Knowlton said he doesn't see a significant radiation risk for the 2,500 Canadian troops now serving in southern Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, the dosimeters have all come back with no excessive exposure measured — except for two, he said. "We followed up and it was because it was accidentally passed through a baggage X-ray." ---- Low Intensity Nuclear War - NATO War Crimes in the Balkans by Michel Chossudovsky Global Research, November 5, 2006 - 2001-03-15 http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=CHO20061105&articleId=3716 Editorial Note This article was originally published by Telepolis (Germany) on 15 March 2001 and by Global Research on 20 August 2002. We are posting this text with a view to establishing the record of US-NATO war crimes in Kosovo. This initial report published in early 2001 is presented in the context of recent and ongoing findings on the impacts of depleted uranium radiation in Iraq, the Balkans and Afghanistan. The comparative study of these three war theaters is crucial in establishing the broader record of US-NATO war crimes. Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, 5 November 2006 The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) convey the illusion (contrary to scientific evidence) that the health risks of depleted uranium can easily be dealt with by cordoning off and "cleaning up" the "affected areas" targeted by the US Air Force's A-10 "anti-tank killers." What they fail to mention is that the radioactive dust has already spread beyond the 72 "identified target sites" in Kosovo. Most of the villages and cities including Pristina, Prizren and Pec lie within less than 20 km. of these sites, confirming that the whole province is contaminated, putting not only "peacekeepers" but the entire civilian population at risk. The death from leukemia of eight Italian peacekeepers stationed in Bosnia and Kosovo sparked an uproar in the Italian Parliament, following the leaking of a secret military document to the Italian newspaper La Republicca. In Portugal, the Defense Ministry was also involved in what amounted to a deliberate camouflage of "the cause of death" of Portuguese peacekeeper Corporal Hugo Paulino. "'Citing "herpes of the brain', the army refused to allow his family to commission a postmortem examination."1 Amidst mounting political pressure, Defense Minister Julio Castro Caldas advised NATO Headquarters in November that he was withdrawing Portuguese troops from Kosovo: "They were not, he said, going to become uranium meat". 2 As the number of cancer cases among Balkans "peacekeepers" rises, NATO's cover-up has started to fracture. Several European governments have been obliged to publicly acknowledge the "alleged health risks" of depleted uranium (DU) shells used by the US Air Force in NATO's 78-day war against Yugoslavia. The Western media points to an apparent "split" within the military alliance. In fact there was no "division" or disagreement between Washington and its European allies until the scandal broke through the gilded surface. Italy, Portugal, France and Belgium were fully aware that DU weapons were being used. The health impacts --including mountains of scientific reports-- were known and available to European governments. Italy participated in the scheduling of the A-10 "anti-tank killer" raids (carrying DU shells) out of its Aviano and Gioia del Colle air force bases. The Italian Defense Ministry knew what was happening at military bases under its jurisdiction. Washington's European partners in NATO including Britain, France, Turkey, Greece have DU weapons in their arsenals. Canada is one of the main suppliers of depleted uranium. NATO countries share full responsibility for the use of weapons banned by the Geneva and Hague conventions and the 1945 Nuremberg Charter on war crimes. 3 Since the Gulf War, Washington launched a "cover-up" on the health impacts of DU toxic radiation known as the "Gulf War Syndrome", with the tacit endorsement of its NATO partners. While NATO had until recently denied using DU shells in the 1999 war against Yugoslavia, it now admits that although it did use DU ammunition, the shells "have negligible radioactivity...and [a]ny resulting debris posing any significant risk dissipates soon after the impact." 4 While casually denying "any connection between illness and exposure to depleted uranium", the Pentagon nonetheless concedes --in an ambiguous statement-- that "the main danger posed by depleted uranium occurs if it is inhaled." 5 And who inhales the radioactive dust, which has spread across the Land? The shrouded statements from European governments convey the uncomfortable illusion that only peacekeepers "might be at risk", --i.e. radioactive particles are only inhaled by military personnel and expatriate civilians, as if nobody else in the Balkans were affected. The impacts on local civilians are not mentioned. In docile complicity, a new media consensus has unfolded: the mainstream press concurs without further scrutiny that only "peace-keepers" breathe the air. "But what about everybody else."6 In Kosovo some 2 million civilian men, women and children have been exposed to the radioactive fallout since the beginning of the bombing in March 1999. In the Balkans, more than 20 million people are potentially at risk: "The risk in Kosovo and elsewhere in the Balkans is augmented by the uncertainty of where DU was dropped in whatever form and what winds and surface water movements spread it further. Working the fields, walking about, just being there, touching objects, breathing and drinking water are all risky. A British expert predicted that thousands of people in the Balkans will get sick of DU. The radioactive and toxic DU-oxides don't disintegrate. They are practically permanent." 7 Keep in mind that the heavily armed "peacekeepers" together with United Nations staff and civilian personnel of "humanitarian" organisations entered Kosovo in June 1999. The spread of radioactive dust from DU, however, started on "day one" of the 78 day bombing of Yugoslavia. With the exception of NATO Special Forces --who were assisting the KLA on the ground-- NATO military personnel was not present on the battlefield. In other words, there was no radioactive exposure to NATO troops during a "push button" air war, which the Alliance forces waged from the high skies. Yugoslav civilians are, therefore, at much greater risk because they were exposed to radioactive fallout throughout the bombings as well in the wake of the war. Yet the official communiquŽs suggest that only KFOR troops and expatriate civilians "might be at risk" implying that local civilians simply do not matter. Only servicemen and expatriate personnel have been screened for radiation levels. Childhood Cancers The first signs of radiation on children, including herpes on the mouth and skin rashes on the back and ankles have been observed in Kosovo.8 In Northern Kosovo --the area least affected by DU shells (see Map ) -- 160 people are being treated for cancer.9 The number of leukemia cases in Northern Kosovo has increased by 200 percent since NATO's air campaign, and children have been born with deformities.10 This information regarding civilian victims --which the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) has been careful not to reveal--- refutes NATO's main "assumption" that radioactive dust does not spread beyond the target sites, most of which are in the Southwestern and Southern regions close to the Albanian and Macedonian borders. These findings are consistent with those from Iraq, where the use of depleted uranium weapons during the 1991 Gulf War resulted in "increases in childhood cancers and leukemia, Hodgkin's disease, lymphomas, and increases in congenital diseases and deformities in foetuses, along with limb reductional abnormalities and increases in genetic abnormalities throughout Iraq.Ó11 Pediatric examinations on Iraqi children confirm that: "childhood leukemia has risen 600% in the areas [of Iraq] where DU was used. Stillbirths, births or abortion of fetuses with monstrous abnormalities, and other cancers in children born since [the Gulf War in] 1991 have also been found." 12 Cover-up The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have tacitly accepted NATO-Pentagon assumptions concerning the health impacts of depleted uranium. When UNEP conducted its first assessment of DU radiation in Kosovo in 1999, NATO refused to provide the mission with maps indicating the locations of "affected areas" (points of impact where DU shells had fallen). On the pretext that "there was insufficient data available to comprehensively address the issue of the impacts of depleted uranium ordnance," UNEP produced an inconclusive and noncommittal "desk study" which was appended to the 1999 Balkans Task Force Report (BTF) on the environmental impacts of the War. 13 UNEP's desk study pointed to the "possible use of DU" thereby implying that it was still unsure as to whether DU shells had actually been used. UNEP's evasiveness -claiming lack of sufficient data-- contributed, in the wake of the bombings, to temporarily dissipating public concern. More generally, the UNEP-UNCHS Balkans Task Force report tends to downplay the seriousness of the environmental catastrophe triggered by NATO. Amply documented, the catastrophe was the deliberate result of military planning.14 NATO maps (indicating where DU shells had been targeted) were not required for UNEP and the WHO to conduct an investigation on the health impacts of depleted uranium radiation. A study of this nature --inevitably requiring a team of medical specialists in pediatrics and cancer working in liaison with experts on toxic radiation-- was never carried out. In fact, UNEP's stated "scientific" assumption precluded from the outset a meaningful assessment of the health impacts. According to UNEP: "the effects of DU are mainly localized in the places DU has been used and the affected areas are likely to be small". 15 See the 1999 desk study, op. cit.) This proposition (which is presented without scientific proof) is shared by UNEP's sister organization, the WHO: "You would have to be very close to a damaged tank and be there within seconds of it being hit...These soldiers were very unlikely to have been exposed.'' 16 These statements by UN bodies (quoted by NATO and the Pentagon to justify the use of DU weapons) are part and parcel of the camouflage. They convey the illusion that the health risks to peacekeepers and local civilians can easily be dealt with by cordoning off and "cleaning up" the "targeted areas." The WHO has warned, in this regard, that depleted uranium could affect children playing in these areas "because children... tend to pick up pieces of dirt or put their toys in their mouth."17 What the WHO fails to acknowledge is that the radioactive dust has already spread beyond the affected areas, implying that children throughout Kosovo are at risk. This tacit complicity of specialized agencies of the UN is yet another symptom of the deterioration of the United Nations system, which now plays an underhand role in covering up NATO war crimes. Since the Gulf War, the WHO has been instrumental in blocking a meaningful investigation of the health impacts of depleted uranium radiation on Iraqi children, claiming "it had no data to conduct an in-depth investigation" 18 UNEP and NATO Working Hand in Glove Amidst the public outcry and mounting evidence of cancer among Balkans military personnel, UNEP conducted a second assessment in November 2000 which included field measurements of beta and gamma particle radiations in 11 so-called "affected areas" of Kosovo.19 Despite NATO's earlier refusal to collaborate with UNEP, the two organizations are currently working hand in glove. The composition of the mission was established in consultation with NATO. The representative from Greenpeace (involved in the 1999 study) had been dumped. NATO maps were readily available; the investigation was to focus narrowly on the collection of soil, water samples, etc. in 11 selected sites ("affected areas") out of a total of some 72 sites within Kosovo (see NATO map below, at http://balkans.unep.ch/du/targetmap.html ). The broader health issues were not part of the mission's terms of reference. The two medical researchers dispatched by the WHO in 1999 (as part of the desk study mission) had been replaced with experts from the US Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine (see http://chppm-www.apgea.army.mil/default.htm) and AC Laboratorium Spiez (ACLS), a division of the Swiss Defense Procurement Agency. AC Laboratorium Spiez (ACLS) has actively collaborated in chemical weapons inspections in Iraq. Under the disguise of Swiss neutrality, ACLS constitutes an informal mouthpiece for NATO. ACLS has been on contract with NATO's "Partnership for Peace" financed by the Swiss government's contribution to the PfP.20 Although the November mission was still under UNEP auspices, the Swiss government was funding most of fieldwork with ACLS --a division of the Swiss military-- playing a central role. The mission --integrated by representatives linked to the Military establishment-- was working on the premise (amply reviewed on ACLS's web page) that DU radioactive dust does not (under any circumstances) travel beyond the "point of release." 21 The results of the report to be published in March 2001 are a foregone conclusion. They focus on radiation levels in the immediate vicinity of the target sites . According to the mission's "back to office report" (January 2001): "... [A]lready at this stage the Team can conclude that at some of the DU locations, the radiation level is slightly higher above normal at very limited spots. It would therefore be an unnecessary risk to the population to be in direct contact with any remnants of DU ammunition or with the spots where these have been found." 22 Double Standards If radioactivity were confined to so-called "very limited spots", why then have KFOR troops been instructed by their governments "not to eat local produce... have drinking water flown in ...and that clothes must be destroyed on departure and vehicles decontaminated."23 According to Paul Sullivan, executive director of the National Gulf War Resource Center, depleted uranium in Yugoslavia could affect "agricultural areas, places where livestock graze and where crops are grown, thereby introducing the specter of possible contamination of the food chain." (In November 2000, Gulf War veterans affected by DU launched a class action law-suit against the US government). Contamination Over A Large Geographical Area According to NATO sources (communicated to UNEP), some 112 sites in Yugoslavia (of which 72 are in Kosovo) were targeted during the war with depleted uranium antitank shells. Between 30,000 and 50,000 DU shells were fired. Scientific evidence amply confirms that the DU radioactive aerosol spreads from "the point of release" over a large geographical area suggesting that large parts of the province of Kosovo are contaminated. "[R]adioactive derivatives can linger in the air for months... ''Just one particle in the lungs is enough... a single particle could travel to the lymph nodes, where the radioactivity would lower the body's defenses against lymphomas and leukemia'' 24 According to World renowned radiologist Dr. Rosalie Bertell: When used in war, the depleted uranium (DU) bursts into flame [and] releasing a deadly radioactive aerosol of uranium, unlike anything seen before. It can kill everyone in a tank. This ceramic aerosol is much lighter than uranium dust. It can travel in air tens of kilometres from the point of release, or be stirred up in dust and resuspended in air with wind or human movement. It is very small and can be breathed in by anyone: a baby, pregnant woman, the elderly, the sick. This radioactive ceramic can stay deep in the lungs for years, irradiating the tissue with powerful alpha particles within about a 30 micron sphere, causing emphysema and/or fibrosis. The ceramic can also be swallowed and do damage to the gastro-intestinal tract. In time, it penetrates the lung tissue and enters into the blood stream. ...It can also initiate cancer or promote cancers which have been initiated by other carcinogens". 25 The targeted sites within Kosovo (see NATO map at http://balkans.unep.ch/du/targetmap.html) although concentrated on the South-western border are scattered throughout the province. Most of the villages and cities including Pristina, Prizren and Pec lie within less than 20 km. of the 72 DU target sites confirming that the entire province is contaminated. Nato War Crimes The bombing of Yugoslavia is best described as a "low intensity nuclear war" using toxic radioactive shells and missiles. Amply documented, the radioactive fall-out potentially puts millions of people at risk throughout the Balkans. In March 1999, NATO launched the air raids invoking broad humanitarian principles and ideals. NATO had "come to the rescue" of ethnic Albanian Kosovars on the grounds they were being massacred by Serb forces. The forensic reports by the FBI and Europol confirm that the massacres did not occur. In a cruel irony, Albanian Kosovar civilians are among the main victims of DU radiation. To maintain the cover-up, NATO is now prepared to reveal a small fraction of the truth. The military Alliance --in liaison with NATO member governments-- wants at all cost to maintain the focus on "peacekeepers" and keep local civilians out of the picture, because if the entire truth gets out, then people might start asking questions such as "how is it that the Kosovar Albanians, the people we were supposed to rescue are now the victims?" In both Bosnia and Kosovo, the UN has been careful not to record cancer cases among civilians. The narrow focus on "peacekeepers" is part of the cover-up. It distracts public opinion from the broader issue of civilian victims. The primary victims of DU weapons are children, making their use a "war crime against children." The use of depleted uranium munitions is only one among several NATO crimes against humanity committed in Iraq and the Balkans According to official records, some 1800 Balkans peacekeepers (Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo) suffer from health ailments related to DU radiation.26. Assuming the same level of risk (as a percentage of population), the numbers of civilians throughout former Yugoslavia affected by DU radiation would be in the tens of thousands. British scientist Roger Coghill suggests, in this regard, that "throughout the Balkan region, there will be an extra 10,150 deaths from cancer because of the use of DU. That will include local people, K-FOR personnel, aid workers, everyone."27 Moreover, according to a report published in Athens during the War, the impacts of depleted uranium are likely to extend beyond the Balkans. Albania, and Macedonia but also Greece, Italy, Austria and Hungary face a potential threat to human health as a result of the use of radioactive depleted uranium shells during the 1999 War. While no overall data on civilian deaths have been recorded, partial evidence confirms that a large numbers of civilians have already died as result of DU radiation since the war in Bosnia: "DU radiation and an apparent use of defoliants by US/NATO troops against Serbian land and population [in Bosnia], have caused many birth defects among babies born after the US/NATO bombing and occupation; the magnitude of this problem has stunned Serbian medical experts and panicked the population." 28 A recent account points to several hundred deaths of civilians solely in one Bosnian village: The village is empty, the cemetery full. Soon there will be no more room for the dead. Among refugee families who moved to Bratunac from Hadzici [in the outskirts of Sarajevo] there is a hardly a household not cloaked in mourning...On them are fresh wreaths, some with flowers that have not yet wilted. On the crosses the years of death 1998, 1999, 2000 and the grave of a 20 year-old woman at the end of the rows. She died a few days ago... No one could even imagine that in only one or two years the part of the cemetery set aside for civilians would be doubly full... It happens often that one of the natives of Hadzici will suddenly die. Or they will go to see the doctor in Belgrade and when they come back their relatives will tell us that they are dying of cancer... [C]hief doctor Slavica Jovanovic...conducted an investigation and proved that in 1998 the mortality rate far exceeded the birth rate. She showed that it wasn't just a question of fate but something far more serious... 'Zoran Stankovic, the renowned pathologist from the Military Medical Academy (VMA) determined that over 200 of his patients from this area died of cancer, most probably due to the effects of depleted uranium in dropped NATO bombs five years ago. But someone quickly silenced the public and everything was hushed up. 'You see, our cemetery is full of fresh graves while the people from Vinca [Nuclear Institute] claim that uranium isn't dangerous. What other kind of evidence do you need if people are dying?...' The refugees from Hadzici arrived in Bratunac in a sizeable number. There were almost 5,000 of them. There were 1,000 just in the collective centers. Now, says Zelenovic, 'there are about 600 of them left. And they certainly had nowhere else to go' ... Someone dies of cancer every third day; there is no more room in the cemeteries."29 -------- iran U.N. inspectors visit Iran enrichment cascades Sun Nov 5, 2006 (Reuters) http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061105/wl_nm/nuclear_iran_inspectors_dc TEHRAN - A group of U.N. nuclear watchdog inspectors has visited Iran's second network of centrifuges at its Natanz uranium enrichment facility, the official IRNA news agency quoted an official as saying on Sunday. Despite U.N. Security Council demands that it halt nuclear fuel production work, Iran announced last month that it had started up a second group of 164 centrifuges, which spin at supersonic speeds to enrich uranium. The networks of centrifuges are known as cascades. Iran says Natanz will eventually house tens of thousands of the machines but that it will only use them to enrich uranium to a level suitable for use in atomic power reactors and not to the much higher level needed to make atom bombs. "They have visited the second cascade and the Isfahan uranium conversion facility," the unnamed official told IRNA. The inspectors who arrived in Iran on Friday will stay in the country for four days to collect information for International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei's November report to the watchdog, IRNA said. "Their activities in Iran are based on the (nuclear) Non-Proliferation Treaty and the IAEA's safeguards," the official said, calling the visit a routine part of Iran's commitment to international treaties. Iran ended snap inspections of its nuclear facilities in February after its case was referred to the Security Council. The United States is pushing the council to toughen a draft resolution drawn up by Britain, France and Germany for sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. Russia and China, both veto-holding members of the council, want extensive changes to soften and shorten the resolution. Iran insists sanctions will not deter it and has threatened to take counter measures, such as curtailing IAEA inspections altogether, if the Security Council does take action against it. "There is no legal ground to suspend uranium enrichment ... Iran will act proportionally when the resolution is passed," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said in a weekly news conference on Sunday. Experts say Iran would need thousands of centrifuges spinning non-stop for months to produce enough highly enriched uranium for one atom bomb. Iran says it will install 3,000 centrifuges by March 2007. -------- iraq GOP Rep. Faults White House on Iraq Site The Associated Press Sunday, November 5, 2006; 3:11 PM http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/05/AR2006110500458_pf.html WASHINGTON -- House Intelligence Chairman Peter Hoekstra criticized the Bush administration on Sunday for its handling of a trove of once-secret documents from Saddam Hussein's covert nuclear program disclosed on a federal Web site. Hoekstra, R-Mich., complained the U.S. intelligence community hadn't properly declassified the documents. "Well, you know, we have a process in place. It looks like they screwed up," he said on CNN's "Late Edition." President Bush's director of national intelligence, John Negroponte, ordered the documents posted on the site last March, at the request of Republicans in Congress who wanted to show Saddam was a real threat. Scientists at a federal lab raised concerns that the site, as a repository for millions of pages the U.S. government found in Iraq the past 15 years, held sensitive nuclear information. Negroponte abruptly shut the site down Thursday night after The New York Times contacted his office for an article published Friday. His office began reviewing the consequences, including who accessed the documents. Four Democratic senators demanded he also tell them why and how the site began, what role members of Congress played and whether the administration ignored U.S. intelligence officials' concerns. "How valuable that information was, I really don't know," Hoekstra said. "Now we release _ or they inadvertently release some of these documents and they show that the Iraqi program may be much further along than anybody ever anticipated." Hoekstra said his committee would review the documents to determine the former Iraqi leader's goals and capabilities before the war in 2003. -------- japan Nuclear debate splits Japanese lawmakers By HIROKO TABUCHI, Associated Press Writer Sun Nov 5, 2006 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061105/ap_on_re_as/japan_nuclear_weapons http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Japan-Nuclear-Weapons.html?pagewanted=print TOKYO - Top Japanese lawmakers squabbled Sunday over whether to debate acquiring nuclear weapons as a deterrent against North Korea, exposing widening cracks within Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling party. Several leading party politicians have proposed that Japan should at least discuss acquiring nuclear weapons after Pyongyang's Oct. 9 nuclear test — raising fears of a nuclear arms race in Asia and provoking a widespread backlash, even from within the ruling party. Shoichi Nakagawa, policy chief of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, reiterated his stance that the nuclear option should be debated. "There must be debate on contingencies, including what to do when a nuclear weapon comes flying (from North Korea)," Nakagawa said on a Fuji TV talk show. But the party's strategy chief, Toshihiro Nikai, berated Nakagawa, telling public broadcaster NHK that Japan was committed to its postwar principles of not possessing, developing or allowing nuclear weapons on its soil. "Japan is built on those principles ... and has finally begun to be seen as a pacifist country," Nikai said. "But repeated remarks by top officials can invite misunderstandings." Prime Minister Abe has repeatedly insisted his party won't stray from its long-standing non-nuclear principles, but hasn't been able to bring hawks like Nakagawa and Foreign Minister Taro Aso in line with that policy. That has raised doubts about Abe's ability to keep his lieutenants in check. "Abe's Cabinet is obviously divided on this issue," lawmaker Yoshiaki Takaki of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan told NHK. "These are grave remarks and cannot be overlooked." Possession of nuclear weapons is a sensitive political issue in Japan, which became the only country to suffer a nuclear attack when U.S. atomic bombs were dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. -------- korea Pentagon targets Kim’s nuclear sites Sarah Baxter, Washington UK Times, November 05, 2006 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2437937,00.html THE Pentagon is speeding up plans for possible military strikes on North Korea’s nuclear programme as concern mounts that Arab states are also looking to acquire nuclear technology. US defence officials said detailed planning was under way for precision strikes on nuclear facilities such as the North Korean plutonium reprocessing plant at Yongbyon. The plant is thought to have supplied the plutonium fuel used in an underground nuclear test carried out by Kim Jong-il’s pariah regime on October 9. A Pentagon official said “various military options” for halting North Korea’s nuclear programme were under consideration. “Other than nuclear strikes, which are considered excessive, there are several options now in place. Planning has been accelerated,” the official told The Washington Times. According to defence sources, one option includes strikes on Yongbyon by Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from submarines or ships. Precision-guided bombs and missiles could also be delivered by B-52 or B-2 stealth bombers. Navy Seals and other commandos would be deployed inside North Korea to help blow up facilities such as Yongbyon. It is believed such an operation could set back Kim’s nuclear programme by 10 years. The plans emerged as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) revealed that Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Saudi Arabia are seeking to join the nuclear club of nations. Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates were also said to have expressed interest. The Arab countries claim to be interested in developing civilian nuclear power, which they are entitled to do under international law. But Iran and North Korea have increased concern that assistance with peaceful nuclear know-how can be used to boost covert nuclear weapons programmes. Michael Rubin, an expert on the Middle East at the neoconservative American Enterprise Institute in Washington, said: “Iran and North Korea have shown that non-compliance equals reward.” The United Nations Security Council is still wrangling over Russian opposition to mild sanctions against Iran, even though President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is defiantly proceeding with Tehran’s nuclear enrichment programme. The threat of a nuclear- armed Iran is encouraging apprehensive Arab states to reverse their support for a nuclear-free Middle East and develop atomic technology. In oil-rich countries such as Saudi Arabia, the benefits of a civilian nuclear power programme may be hard to fathom. David Albright, a nuclear proliferation expert at the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, said: “With Iran moving forward with its nuclear programme, it is difficult for the IAEA to say to other nations, ‘No, you can’t have it’, and the United States is not able to stop it.” According to Rubin, America is partly responsible for the rush to acquire civilian nuclear energy. The US has been encouraging developing nations to embrace nuclear power under the global nuclear energy partnership (GNEP), launched by the State Department in February. Robert Joseph, US undersecretary for arms control and international security, said the GNEP aimed to promote clean, renewable energy while maintaining strict controls on non-proliferation. “We think that would help us to envision a future where we can bring the benefits of nuclear power to the developing world,” he said. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said last week that America had no objection to Egypt’s nuclear programme. And President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen also recently announced plans to generate nuclear power in co-operation with America. But Rubin warned: “The idea that we can keep making concessions to nuclear proliferation and that it won’t spread is a fantasy. If you cannot answer the question, ‘Who is going to be in charge of these countries in 10 years’ time?’ it is idiotic to help them develop these programmes.” Once a country acquires nuclear weapons, it becomes difficult to threaten militarily. McCormack said of North Korea “In terms of the military and the Pentagon, planners plan. But the president has made very, very clear that we are committed to finding a diplomatic solution to the current issues before us.” North Korea agreed last week to return to international disarmament negotiations under pressure from China and UN sanctions. But it also called Japanese officials “political imbeciles” for claiming they would not allow Pyongyang to remain a nuclear power. A senior US defence official said America was committed to protecting South Korea and Japan from North Korean aggression, if necessary by using US nuclear weapons. “We will resort to whatever force levels we need to have,” the official said. “That nuclear deterrence is in place.” -------- u.s. nuc facilities -------- nevada DOE adds Yucca Mountain info session amid state complaints LAS VEGAS (AP) November 5, 2006 http://www.tahoebonanza.com/article/20061105/Nevada/111050043 The federal Energy Department on Tuesday scheduled another public meeting on revised plans for a radioactive waste dump in Nevada, while state officials and anti-nuclear advocates complained a first meeting was not informative. "There was not enough detail to offer an intelligent comment," Martin Malsch, a Vienna, Va.-based lawyer who represents Nevada, said of a meeting Monday in Washington, D.C. "Nobody could have a way to know whether they would be affected or not." An Energy Department spokesman called the meetings "listening sessions," to collect comments for environmental studies on waste-handling at Yucca Mountain and building a railroad to the site through Lyon, Mineral and Esmeralda counties. "If someone believes there is not enough information, they should make that one of the comments," said Allen Benson, Energy Department and Yucca Mountain project spokesman in Las Vegas. "We believe we are providing adequate and sufficient information for people to give the kind of input we need to complete these environmental assessments." Meetings were set this week in Amargosa Valley and Las Vegas, followed by sessions later this month in Caliente, Goldfield, Haw.thorne, Fallon. A Nov. 27 meeting has been added in Reno. The environmental reports are due out next year, Benson said. Kevin Kamps, spokesman for the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, a Washington, D.C.-based watch.dog group, complained that information at the Washington meeting was "scattered." "We can't talk to each other, we can't hear from each other about concerns," Kamps told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "It think it is by design." The Energy Department announced earlier this month it was reconsidering building a rail line through western Nevada to Yucca site, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The north-south route dubbed the Mina Corridor had been studied in the 1990s but shelved after the Walker River Paiute Indians refused access to their reservation. The tribe reconsidered this year. The Energy Department had said it favored plans to build a longer east-west rail line from Caliente, near the Utah border, across rural Nevada to the nuclear dump site. The cost of the so-called Caliente Corridor route has been estimated at $2 billion. There currently is no rail line to the Yucca site, which Congress and the Bush administration picked in 2002 as the place to entomb 77,000 tons of radioactive waste now being stored at nuclear reactors in 39 states. The project has been stalled by funding shortfalls and questions about quality control during site selection. -------- utah Nuclear bombshell to hit Utah November 5, 2006 St George UT Spectrum http://www.thespectrum.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006611050331 Assistant Attorney General Laura Lockhart dropped something of a nuclear bombshell at the October Radiation Control Board meeting. Earlier in the meeting staff from the Division of Radiation Control - the chief regulatory authority over radioactive matters in the state - made presentations about two topics: The historical growth of the EnergySolutions (formerly Envirocare) nuclear waste dump in Tooele County and a brand new proposal to allow the waste dump to grow again by merging two of its existing waste cells into a new mega-landfill reaching nearly eight stories tall. If approved, the expansion would further enlarge the largest commercial radioactive waste dump in the country and mark the fourth time the Division has allowed EnergySolutions to expand radioactive waste disposal in Utah. Moreover, it would increase EnergySolutions' capacity for nuclear waste to over 13 million cubic yards - more than 5 times its original permitted size of 2.2 million cubic yards. The original size is relevant because a 1990 law says that when a radioactive waste facility wants to grow by more than 50 percent over its 1990 size, the Legislature and the governor have to sign off on the move. That law has not been enforced, with the result that the dump has grown a whopping 400 percent. At the board meeting, Assistant Attorney General Laura Lockhart explained this apparent disregard for the law by saying something like this: While the Division is legally required to enforce the 50 percent law, it has never been applied to any licensing decision. The 50 percent law provides a sensible built-in control mechanism where elected officials - not regulators - give the final go-ahead for a significant nuclear waste dump expansion. But the Legislature and the governor are not restricted to the how question; they can ask the far more important question of should more dumping be allowed and is that something that benefits the state. By a commonsense reading of the law, that question should have been applied to every major expansion at the EnergySolutions facility since 1992, and wasn't. And that's using the Division's own analysis. Although it's against federal law to dispose of radioactive waste on private land, Envirocare was granted a special exemption by former state radiation chief Larry Anderson, who later revealed he had accepted more than $600,000 in gold coins, real estate, and cash payments wired to a Swiss bank account from former dump owner Khosrow Semnani. So one must ask the question: Had a bribery/extortion scandal not laid the foundation, and had regulators not repeatedly ignored the 50 percent law, would Utah today have the distinction of being home to the largest commercial radioactive waste dump in the nation? And that leads to a final question: What is the remedy to everyday Utahns across the state? Well, if you ask the Radiation Control Board, which oversees the Division and its decisions, the answer seems to be: Nothing. We think the people of Utah deserve better. Here are three measures that can help: # No more unchecked growth at EnergySolutions. The question shouldn't be "Is it possible?" but rather "Is it right?" for Utah to play host to an ever-expanding nuclear waste dump. # Free, searchable, online access to nuclear waste dump applications, amendments, reports, and Board meeting transcripts. Currently, there is very little information available to the public through the Division's Web site. And if the regulators aren't going to enforce the law, then watchdog groups like HEAL Utah and the general public need every advantage in overseeing what state regulators do. # Stop the revolving door between regulatory agencies and the industries they oversee. In the past, Khosrow Semnani offered a $15,000 loan guarantee to a former Radiation Control Board member. And former regulators have gone on to have careers at Envirocare. The nuclear bombshell has been dropped, and the fallout is on its way. Christopher Thomas is Policy Director at HEAL Utah. HEAL Utah is a non-profit organization engaging citizens in the effort to protect public health from nuclear and toxic waste. -------- us nuc waste Army, industry working on details of uranium transport Sunday, November 5, 2006 6:16 PM CST in News By Aaron Sadler The NW Arkansas Morning News http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2006/11/05/news/110606dcsequoyahfuels.txt WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Army and a defunct Sequoyah County industry are expected to iron out details as early as next week on a plan to move more than 1 million pounds of depleted uranium away from the site near Gore, Okla. About 1,200 sealed drums of processed uranium have sat on Sequoyah Fuels' property since 1993, remnants of a project to manufacture anti-tank ammunition for the Army. A provision in the 2007 defense authorization bill that Congress passed on Sept. 30 requires the Army to move the drums of toxic material away from the uranium conversion facility by March 31. President Bush signed the bill into law two weeks ago. An Army spokeswoman Thursday said initial plans for moving the uranium will be made next week. The actual move should take place in January or February, she said. Sequoyah Fuels president John Ellis said his company just Wednesday notified the Army it agreed to waive any liability claims regarding transport of the material, a requirement in the bill. He now awaits word from the military. "I'm assuming they will contact us and we will proceed to make arrangements to work with them or for them; but, at this point in time, I don't know what that approach is going to be," he said. Sequoyah Fuels at its peak had 325 employees on a 700-acre site in western Sequoyah County. It has not been operational since 1993, after an incident a year earlier that contaminated parts of the property and damaged soil and groundwater in the area. Ellis said the company now has six employees as it works with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to clean up the plant. He said moving the uranium is a small part of decommissioning the site. He expects federal approval within a year to tear down possibly hazardous buildings, remove potentially tainted soil and groundwater and place the material in an underground storage cell. That process will take up to five years. At that point, the company will transfer the site to the Department of Energy, Ellis said. He estimated moving the uranium will require about 50 truckloads and that the only possible places for the waste are the Nevada Test Site and a spot in Utah. The test site, in rural Nevada, was the site of U.S. nuclear tests until 1992. The Utah location is a commercial radioactive waste disposal site near Salt Lake City. The Army said the mode of transportation, whether rail or truck, and the site for relocation have not been determined. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., and Rep. Dan Boren, D-Muskogee (Okla.), brokered an agreement to place a provision for moving the uranium in the defense bill. A Boren spokesman said Thursday that the onus was on the Army and the industry to flesh out details of the transport. Ellis said earlier this year he would recommend his company take care of the loading and preparation of the waste. He speculated that a private company would be hired to move the material at the Army's expense. -------- MILITARY -------- asia More street protests planned to force out Taiwan's president in corruption scandal Updated 11/5/2006 (AP) http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-11-04-taiwan_x.htm TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan's president on Sunday refused to resign and denied prosecutors' allegations that he and his wife embezzled public money — a claim that might feed growing anger against the unpopular leader and fire up a new campaign to recall him. After avoiding the public for two days, President Chen Shui-bian said in a televised prime-time speech that the corruption accusations were painful and felt like a "political death sentence." "How can Chen Shui-bian be that kind of person, collecting false invoices to embezzle money?" he said in an hourlong address from the Presidential Office. "Saying that I am corrupt is too heavy a burden for me to bear," he said, adding he would only quit if convicted by a judge. The president and his family have been dogged by corruption rumors for months, but the latest scandal blew up on Friday when prosecutors indicted first lady Wu Shu-chen on embezzlement, forgery and perjury charges. Wu was accused of taking 14.8 million New Taiwan dollars (US$450,000; euro350,000) from a special diplomacy fund between 2002 and 2006, prosecutors said. The prosecutors also said there was evidence Chen was involved, but presidents are immune to such charges while in office. On Sunday, Chen said, "The NT$14.8 million, we absolutely did not put this in our own pockets." He also complained that the regulations for the special diplomatic fund are "very confusing and difficult to follow." He then launched into a long, technical explanation about how the fund works, and argued that the rules for using it needed to be more flexible. The graft allegations have re-energized an opposition campaign to topple Chen, who has served for six rocky years and has 18 months left in his term. Thousands of protesters marched in the streets this weekend in Taiwan's two biggest cities. They honked air horns and carried signs saying, "End Corruption." Protester Peter Huang, a businessman, said in Taipei that the president must quit immediately. "Chen had better admit his errors. The longer he tries to hang on, the more catastrophic his outcome will be," he said. Opposition lawmakers on Monday planned to launch their third attempt to recall Chen. They made a similar attempt in June and in October, but failed to muster the required two-thirds majority. The opposition is hoping that ruling party lawmakers will begin defecting to their cause and give them enough votes to pass the recall measure in late November. If the proposal passes, it would set up an island-wide referendum to determine Chen's fate. Already, the small pro-Chen Taiwan Solidarity Union announced its 12 lawmakers would be encouraged to vote for the recall measure. Chen's fate is in the hands of his Democratic Progressive Party, said Philip Yang, a political scientist at the elite National Taiwan University in Taipei. "The party leadership has to decide whether they will allow DPP members to vote individually on the recall," Yang said. "If you allow them to vote individually there will be defectors." A big concern for DPP lawmakers is that sticking with Chen could cost the party dearly in legislative and presidential polls in late 2007 and early 2008, respectively, Yang said. One senior DPP lawmaker, Lin Cho-shui, said in a speech Sunday that he was disillusioned with Chen and unsatisfied with how the party has dealt with the latest allegations. "As a DPP member, I feel like I've lost face," he said. The opposition made new appeals to ruling party members to dump Chen and support the recall. "In any other country, if a president is found to be involved in a corruption scandal, he would tender his resignation without prodding," said Ma Ying-jeou, the leader of the Nationalists, the biggest opposition party. "The DPP has made contributions to Taiwan's democracy," Ma added. "If they move to clear their own house, they would still have a future. We don't want to see the DPP sinking into history." -------- war crimes Saddam sentenced to death by hanging Clashes, celebratory gunfire greet guilty verdict; Talabani says trial was fair The Associated Press Nov 5, 2006 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15567363/ BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's High Tribunal on Sunday found Saddam Hussein guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced him to hang for the 1982 killing of 148 Shiites in the city of Dujail. The visibly shaken former leader shouted "God is great!" Saddam's half brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, head of the former Revolutionary Court, were sentenced to join Saddam on the gallows for the Dujail killings after an unsuccessful assassination attempt during a Saddam visit to the city 35 miles north of Baghdad. The death sentences automatically go to a nine-judge appeals panel which has unlimited time to review the case. If the verdicts and sentences are upheld, the executions must be carried out within 30 days. Chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi told reporters that the Anfal trial now in progress for Saddam and others alleged role in gassing and killing Kurds would continue while the appeals process is underway. But if the appellate judges uphold the death sentence, the Anfal proceedings and other cases would be halted and Saddam hanged. Al-Moussawi said Saddam would be hanged if the sentence were upheld, despite his demand that he be shot by a firing squad. A court official told The Associated Press that the appeals process was likely to take three to four weeks once the formal paperwork was submitted. Clashes, celebrations Clashes immediately broke out in north Baghdad's heavily Sunni Azamiyah district where police were battling men with machine guns. At least seven mortar shells slammed to earth around the Abu Hanifa mosque, the holiest Sunni shrine in the capital. There was no immediate word on casualties. Celebratory gunfire rang out elsewhere in Baghdad, and the people in Sadr City, the capital's Shiite slum, celebrated in the streets, calling out "Where are you Saddam? We want to fight you." Breathing heavily as he ran along the streets, 35-year-old Abu Sinan said, "This is an unprecedented feeling of happiness...nothing matches it, no festival nor marriage nor birth matches it. The verdict says Saddam must pay the price for murdering tens of thousands of Iraqis." A jubilant crowd of young men carried pictures of radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and handed out candy to children. In Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, 1,000 people defied the curfew and carried pictures of the city's favorite son through the streets. Some declared the court a product of the U.S. "occupation forces" and decried the verdict. "By our souls, by our blood we sacrifice for you Saddam" and "Saddam, your name shakes America." People were celebrating in the streets of Dujail, a Tigris River city of 84,000, as the verdict was read. They burned pictures of their former tormentor. Celebratory gunfire also rang out in Kurdish neighborhoods across the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, where taxi driver Khatab Ahmed sat on a mattress in his living room to watch trial coverage with his wife and six children. "Thank God I lived to see the day when the criminals received their punishment," the 40-year-old exclaimed on hearing of Saddam's death sentence. His brother and uncle were arrested by Saddam's security forces in the 1980s and disappeared forever. Two cousins died in a 1991 Kurdish uprising. ‘Trial was fair,’ Talabani says in Paris Iraq’s president said Sunday that the trial against the ousted Iraqi leader was fair. But Jalal Talabani would not comment on the guilty verdict or death sentence for fear it could inflame tensions in his volatile nation. “I think the trial was fair,” the president told The Associated Press at his Paris hotel, where he watched the proceedings live on television. “Those people had the full right to say what they intended.” Talabani has opposed the death penalty in the past, but found a way around it by deputizing a vice president to sign an execution order on his behalf — a substitute that has been legally accepted. Talabani, a Sunni Kurd who once took up arms against Saddam and was elected president in April 2005, would not comment Sunday about the use of the death penalty, saying he would make his position known after all the legal proceedings were exhausted. “I must respect the independence of the Iraqi judiciary,” Talabani said. “Until the end I must be silent ... because my comments could affect the situation.” Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari was more outspoken about the verdict. “This was the only reasonable outcome,” he told AP, calling Sunday “a historic day” that would bring closure to Iraq’s relations with its former leader. “It’s a victory for the victims of Saddam,” he said. 'An opportunity to unite' The United States Embassy immediately issued a statement under the name of Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, who said the verdicts "demonstrate the commitment of the Iraqi people to hold them (Saddam and his co-defendants) accountable." "Although the Iraqis may face difficult days in the coming weeks, closing the book on Saddam and his regime is an opportunity to unite and build a better future," Khalilzad said. Saddam's chief lawyer Khalil al-Dulaim told AP his client called on Iraqis to reject the sectarian violence ripping the country apart and to "not take revenge" on U.S. invaders. "The message from President Saddam to his people came during a meeting in Baghdad this morning, just before the so-called Iraqi court issued its verdict in his trial," al-Dulaimi said. British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett praised the verdict by an Iraqi court. “The evidence against him has been heard in full court, it has been tested in full court, and their verdict has been given in a court of the people against whom his crimes were committed,” she said. After the verdict was read, a trembling Saddam yelled out, "Long live the people, and death to their enemies. Long live the glorious nation, and death to its enemies!" Other verdicts follow He initially refused Chief Judge Raouf Adbul-Rahman's order to rise to hear the verdict and sentence. Two bailiffs lifted Saddam to his feet, and he remained standing but turned to one guard, telling him to stop twisting his arm. Former Vice President and Saddam deputy Taha Yassin Ramadan was sentenced to life in prison. Three defendants were sentenced to 15 years in prison for torture and premeditated murder. Abdullah Kazim Ruwayyid and his son Mizhar Abdullah Ruwayyid were party officials Dujail, along with Ali Dayih Ali. They were believed responsible for the Dujail arrests. Mohammed Azawi Ali, a former Dujail Baath Party official, was acquitted for lack of evidence and immediately freed. Before the trial began, one of Saddam's lawyers, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, was ejected from the courtroom after handing the judge a memorandum in which he called the Saddam trial a "travesty." Abdul-Rahman pointed to Clark and said in English, "Get out." 'A lot of incriminating evidence' The trial proceedings were shown on Iraqi and pan-Arab satellite television channels with a 20-minute delay. Ahead of the verdicts, several channels aired documentaries about Saddam's crackdowns on Kurds and Shiites. They also aired videotape of mass graves being uncovered after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Al-Masai television, run by the prominent Shiite Dawa party, played solemn music as it scrolled through snapshots of Iraqis who went missing under Saddam's 23-year rule. Another Shiite channel, al-Furat, aired archive footage of Saddam from the 1980s proclaiming, "Everyone stands against the revolution, whether they are 100 or 2,000 or 10,000, I will chop their heads off and this doesn't shake a hair of me at all." U.S. officials associated with the tribunal said Saddam's repeated courtroom outbursts during the nine-month trial may have played a key part in his conviction. They cited his admission in a March 1 hearing that he had ordered the trial of 148 Shiites who were eventually executed, insisting that doing so was legal because they were suspected in an assassination attempt against him. "Where is the crime? Where is the crime?" he asked, standing before the panel of five judges. Damning decree Later in the same session, he argued that his co-defendants must be released and that because he was in charge, he alone must be tried. His outburst came a day after the prosecution presented a presidential decree with a signature they said was Saddam's approving death sentences for the 148 Shiites, their most direct evidence against him. About 50 of those sentenced by "The Revolutionary Court" died during interrogation before they could go to the gallows. Some of those hanged were juveniles. "Every time they (defendants) rose and spoke, they provided a lot of incriminating evidence," said one of the U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. "Saddam thought he had all the right answers, when in fact he was helping the court establish "command responsibility." Under Saddam, Iraq's large bureaucracy showed consistent tendency to document government orders, policies and minutes of meetings. That, according to the U.S. officials, helped the prosecution produce more than 30 documents that clearly established the chain of command under Saddam. One document gave the names of every one from Dujail banished to a desert detention camp in southern Iraq. Another, prepared by a close Saddam aide, gave the president a blow-by-blow account of the punitive measures taken against the people of Dujail following the failed attempt on Saddam's life. Trial mirrored turmoil of Iraq Saddam's trial had from the outset appeared to reflect the turmoil and violence prevailing in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion toppled the former president. One of Saddam's lawyers was assassinated the day after the trial's opening session on Oct. 19, last year. Two more were later assassinated and a fourth one fled the country. In January, chief judge Rizgar Amin, a Kurd, resigned after complaints by Shiite politicians that he had failed to keep control of court proceedings. He, in turn, complained of political interference in the trial. Another Kurd, Raouf Abdul-Rahman, replaced Amin. Hearings were frequently disrupted by outbursts from Saddam and Ibrahim, with the two raging against what they said was the illegitimacy of the court, their bad treatment in the U.S.-run facility where they are being held and the lack of protection of their defense attorneys. The defense lawyers contributed to the chaos in the courtroom by staging several boycotts. ---- Saddam urges Iraqis not to take revenge on U.S. Former leader urges countrymen to 'unify in face of' strife, his lawyer says Nov 5, 2006 Associated Press http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15570667/ AMMAN, Jordan - Saddam Hussein urged Iraqis on Sunday to reject the sectarian violence ripping his country apart and to "not take revenge" on U.S. invaders, his chief lawyer said after the ousted leader was sentenced to death. "The message from President Saddam to his people came during a meeting in Baghdad this morning, just before the so-called Iraqi court issued its verdict in his trial," Khalil al-Dulaimi told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Baghdad. "His message to the Iraqi people was 'pardon and do not take revenge on the invading nations and their people'," al-Dulaimi said, quoting Saddam. "The president also asked his countrymen to 'unify in the face of sectarian strife'," the lawyer added. Saddam and two other men on Sunday were convicted and sentenced to death by hanging for war crimes in the 1982 killings of 148 people in the town of Dujail. The former Iraqi leader shouted out in the court, condemning what he called the occupation of Iraq by U.S.-and British-led coalition forces. 'The trial was politically motivated' Al-Dulaimi said Saddam "knew that he would be sentenced to death and wanted me to pass on this message to the Iraqi people and to the whole world after the verdict was announced." "The president said that 'Saddam Hussein won't be defeated. It's the men of Persia and those of the United States who will be'," al-Dulaimi said. "He said the people will remain strong and steadfast." Al-Dulaimi condemned Saddam's trial as a "farce," alleging that the verdict was pre-planned, unfair and null and said defense attorneys planned to appeal the verdict within 30 days, as Iraqi law stipulates. "Since day one, we said the trial was politically motivated 100 percent and that it's completely illegal," he said. "The defense voice was not allowed to be heard at all." Saddam's lawyer also claimed that the security situation in Baghdad after the verdict was "very dangerous." "Iranian intelligence and U.S. invaders are patrolling around. There's nobody else on the streets," al-Dulaimi said. "The people, around 7 million Iraqis, have been kicked out of their homes, the streets are all sealed off; Baghdad looks like a ghost town," he said. -------- POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE FBI willing to go undercover in Congress if necessary By Greg Gordon McClatchy Newspapers (MCT) Sun, Nov. 05, 2006 http://www.thestate.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/15937930.htm WASHINGTON - The new chief of the FBI's Criminal Division, which is swamped with public corruption cases, says the bureau is ramping up its ability to catch crooked politicians and might run an undercover sting on Congress. Assistant FBI Director James Burrus called the bureau's public corruption program "a sleeping giant that we've awoken," and predicted the nation will see continued emphasis in that area "for many, many, many years to come." So much evidence of wrongdoing is surfacing in the nation's capital that Burrus recently committed to adding a fourth 15- to 20-member public corruption squad to the FBI's Washington field office. In the past year, former Republican Reps. Duke Cunningham and Bob Ney have pleaded guilty to corruption charges. FBI agents are investigating about a dozen other members of Congress, including as many as three senators. The Justice Department also is expected to begin seeking indictments soon after a massive FBI investigation of the Alaska Legislature. If conditions warrant, Burrus said, he wouldn't balk at urging an undercover sting like the famed Abscam operation in the late 1970s in which a U.S. senator and six House members agreed on camera to take bribes from FBI agents posing as Arab sheikhs. "We look for those opportunities a lot," Burrus said, using words rarely heard at the bureau over the last quarter century. "I would do it on Capitol Hill. I would do it in any state legislature. ... If we could do an undercover operation, and it would get me better evidence, I'd do it in a second." Philip Heymann, who oversaw the Abscam investigation as chief of the Justice Department's Criminal Division during the Carter administration, expressed surprise to learn of the FBI's willingness to attempt another congressional sting after the outcry from Capitol Hill over Abscam. "It shows courage at the FBI," said Heymann, now a criminal law professor at Harvard University. He said he concluded, after watching a recent public television documentary and listening to experts, that "there is more corruption (on Capitol Hill) than I ever thought imaginable" and that a single FBI sting "might result in very large numbers of prosecutions." But even without an undercover operation, Heymann and other observers say they have been pleased with the GOP-controlled Justice Department's willingness to pursue old-fashioned investigations, even if they hurt congressional Republicans in Tuesday's elections. Nationally over the last year, 600 agents worked 2,200 public corruption cases, resulting in 650 arrests, 1,000 indictments and 800 convictions, Burrus said. FBI Director Robert Mueller, who listed public corruption as his top criminal investigative priority when he shifted the FBI's focus to terrorism in 2002, said last month that the surge in convictions "sends the message that public corruption will not be tolerated." Despite the realignment, the number of agents working on public corruption has remained constant. Burrus argued that the FBI is "uniquely qualified" to handle such cases, pointing to the bureau's political independence, exemplified by Mueller's 10-year term. Burrus said that Alice Fisher, the politically appointed chief of the Justice Department's Criminal Division with whom he confers weekly, also has "an aggressive attitude" about pursuing public officials. "Operation Rainmaker," the FBI's broad investigation of a Washington lobbying ring, has already led to a handful of convictions, including Ney's guilty plea last month. The inquiry was one reason for the resignation last year of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, who also faces state campaign finance charges. Other investigations seem to be sprouting everywhere. But Reid Weingarten, a former Abscam prosecutor who now is a high-profile Washington criminal defense lawyer, said he would bet that the flurry of congressional cases has resulted from evidence "falling in their (investigators') laps," rather than a programmed FBI hunt for corruption. The FBI does appear to be stepping up its use of electronic surveillance and has conducted stings of state politicians. Bureau agents secretly taped Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., before finding $90,000 in his freezer during a raid last May. Cell phones were wiretapped for four months in an investigation of Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., government sources say. In "Operation Tennessee Waltz," 10 Tennessee state officials, including five current and former legislators, have been prosecuted in a scheme in which hidden cameras whirred as FBI undercover agents offered payoffs in return for help for a dummy company. Burrus said some targeted Tennessee legislators were moving so quickly that "we were actually having to discuss how we were going to slow it down" so that bills aiding the phony firm didn't become law. A separate undercover inquiry led to the indictment of three members of San Diego's city council. In Alaska, the FBI has more than doubled its manpower in a sweeping investigation of allegations that an oil industry services company bribed state legislators, people familiar with the inquiry said. On Aug. 31 and Sept. 1, the FBI conducted two dozen raids and searched the office of state Sen. Ben Stevens, son of U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. Burrus declined to discuss any investigation, but said the FBI will focus on more state capitals over the next year, "because we have seen a trend in cases that leads us to believe there's more out there." When he arrived as deputy chief of the criminal division in 2004, he said, field offices frequently told him they had "no idea" how to pursue public corruption leads. Since then, he said, agents in about 30 of the bureau's 56 field offices have been trained. FBI agents in Washington have studied congressional activities that might invite bribes, such as hard-to-trace "earmarks" in which members appropriate money for pet projects, often keeping their involvement off the public record. "Public corruption cases have to be fished out," he said, noting that crooked politicians tend to do secret deals with one other person and often try to disguise their actions as "for the public's good." Controversial new legal theories are also helping prosecutors bring cases in which they can't prove outright briberies. A vaguely written, 28-word 1988 law, for example, makes it a fraud for a politician to deprive taxpayers of his "honest services." It was among the charges lodged against Cunningham, Ney, former lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the San Diego councilmen. Burrus said the FBI has to prove "that this person engaged in the activities specifically to receive this stream of benefits and knew that stream of benefits would stop if he did not support these particular projects." -------- OTHER -------- environment As thousands march to halt climate change . car industry admits it can't meet green pledges By Torcuil Crichton in London Sunday Herald - 05 November 2006 http://www.sundayherald.com/58936 The two polar bears had only taken a few steps into the crowd when they were greeted by one of Trafalgar Square’s resident drunks. Rapidly adjusting to the concept of climate change, the tramp shook the bears warmly by the paw, as if meeting an Arctic mammal in central London was a perfectly normal occurrence, which, if we don’t put the brakes on global warming, it soon might be. The Greenpeace activists in the bear outfits, the tramp and 22,000 other optimistic people rallied yesterday calling for a halt to climate change. Cynics argue King Canute tried it first. Nature itself sought to diminish their efforts, parading an unnaturally hot November day. The plane trees on either side of the square showed no autumnal tinge; nor was there a breeze to shed their leaves. Climate change, its causes and effects, were all around. The bleaching vapour trails of passenger jets marked the blue sky above London. Whenever one of the carbon-burning behemoths lined up for Heathrow it was booed by a crowd that, all as one, felt it had the power to halt aircraft pollution and save the planet. That was the point, of course: to show it is possible to take action on climate change, collectively and individually. The “I Count” rally took place on the eve of global climate talks in Nairobi this week and in the wake of the Stern review, which warns that global warming could shrink the world economy by 20%. Trafalgar Square has seen bigger demonstrations. A cyclists’ protest wheeled in early, via Downing Street. Others took less conventional transport. Matt Springs canoed down the Thames from Oxford to the rally. He set off on Thursday and walked the last bit. Jan Muller, who surfs the sea off Hastings, turned up in his wet suit with his daughters, Nastassya and Matamoana, whose name means “to gaze out over the oceans” in Tongan. “Their mother is from Tonga and rising sea levels is a real issue for low-lying islands,” said Muller, who sees a global problem with local solutions. “We can do little things, change to a green energy supplier, switch off the car while outside the shops,” he said. “We don’t need to go crazy, just do what we can.” Rose Barnett had difficulty persuading her Milton Keynes neighbour that it was worth coming along. “He said it was all codswallop, with China and India carrying on polluting,” said the retired Open University employee. “But I say you have to start somewhere,” she said. Lots of revolutions begin with small numbers of people doing things differently. Yesterday it was members of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the Women’s Institute, churches and third world charities marching behind the banner of change. “In developing countries climate change already has a massive effect on poor people, on water supplies and crops,” said Andy Atkins of Tearfund, explaining why the Christian charity was involved. “Also, we need our UK supporters to reduce our own carbon emissions and persuade the government to take action.” A power failure cut some speeches short, but that’s the kind of thing we’ll get used to in an energy-starved world. The PA system came back on for that old double act, an actress and a bishop. Miranda Richardson and the words “turn off” do not usually run together, but she urged the crowd to do just that. Turn off lights, turn off the car. “We can’t leave this to everyone else. Every day we can all make a difference,” she said. It was a theme taken up by the bishop of Liverpool. “Seas are filled by mighty rivers and small drops of rain,” he said quoting a proverb from China, where they open a new coal-fired power station every 10 days. “We cannot lecture China when we do not have our own house in order,” said the right reverend James Stuart Jones. “We are all guilty of personal hypocrisy on this issue.” For KT Tunstall, the Scottish troubadour, it was a more straight forward matter. “I didn’t think twice about doing this,” said Tunstall before going onstage. “I grew up in a beautiful part of the country, the East Neuk of Fife. I love the sea and the outdoors and I want my kids to be able to do that, and their kids. We’re caught in a spot where that might not happen so it’s important to raise awareness. A rally in London is always special, it’s empowering and it does make a difference, it makes govern ment realise that people are aware.” Landseer’s bronze lions, impassive on their plinths below Nelson’s Column, have seen it all before but I swear one of them arched an eyebrow when Tunstall rocked out her impressive version of the Jackson Five’s hit I Want You Back. She sang: “Oh baby give me one more chance, to show that I love you.” Which, I suppose, is what everyone in Trafalgar Square yesterday was asking of our planet. ---- Can we really save the planet? 05 November 2006 UK Sunday Herald http://www.sundayherald.com/58905 Environment editor Rob Edwards asks whether capitalism can deliver on the imperatives of the Stern climate review Something shifted last week. One of the world’s leading economists put a cost on the climate chaos being caused by pollution, and everyone sat up and started to take notice. With the publication of Sir Nicholas Stern’s review of the economics of climate change, the argument suddenly seems to have got serious. It’s no longer just scientists and environmentalists worried about humanity who are demanding urgent action, it’s bankers worried about the bottom line. Stern, a government adviser who was chief economist at the World Bank, was commissioned by chancellor Gordon Brown to investigate the economic impact of global warming. His 700-page report, published last Monday, unequivocally accepted that it will cause floods, droughts and storms around the globe, putting millions of lives at risk. Crucially, what he then did was to translate that into terms capitalists can understand. As much as 20% of the world's economy, as measured by annual gross domestic product (GDP), could be damaged, he argued. That would mean disruption to people’s lives on a scale similar to that caused by two world wars and an economic depression last century, hurting the poorest countries most. Stern suggested that this could be avoided by spending only 1% of global GDP a year on combating climate change now. But will the money men and women do enough to save the planet? Can we trust them to make sure the world curbs its climate-wrecking emissions of greenhouse gases? Does Stern go far enough – or, as some experts are now arguing, are the risks of planetary disaster still too high? Such questions have never been more important. Tomorrow, governments begin vital negotiations in Nairobi, Kenya, on how to cut pollution after 2012, when the first phase of the Kyoto climate change treaty is due to end. Many fear progress will be painfully slow. Yesterday, protesters gathered in London and elsewhere to put pressure on their governments to move faster. According to Hans Verolme, director of WWF’s international climate campaign, the window of opportunity for preventing dangerous climate change is rapidly closing. “Ministers need to chart a course for deeper emission cuts,” he said. “We must work together to develop a safer, cleaner and more energy-efficient world.” THE INTERNATIONAL POLLUTERS The latest figures compiled by the United Nations show that emissions of greenhouses gases such as carbon dioxide from the world’s two biggest polluters, the US and China, are rapidly rising (see graphic). Emissions from other major economies like Japan, Canada, Italy, Australia, Spain, India and Brazil are also increasing, with Turkey registering a record rise of 73% between 1990 and 2004. Even countries where emissions have declined since 1990 can’t really claim that it was as a result of their attempts to curb climate pollution. The falls in Russia and Germany were caused by the closure of heavy industries after the collapse of the former Soviet Union, while the UK’s 14% cut was mostly due to the running down of the coal and manufacturing industries, including the closure of the Ravenscraig steelworks in 1992. Although the total amount of pollution from all industrialised countries dropped between 1990 and 2000, it has steadily risen in the years since. According to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, emissions from 23 countries declined prior to 2000, but only seven countries have recorded decreases since. In the UK, environmentalists say carbon dioxide emissions have increased by more than 4% since 1997, under Tony Blair’s leadership. Dr Richard Dixon, the director of WWF Scotland, criticised the Labour government for failing to meet its own 20% target for reducing emissions. “The UK’s recent record on actually reducing emissions has been poor,” he said. “But with Stern there is clearly a new political impetus to actually get something done.” The scale of the problem posed by the fast-growing economies of China, India and other developing countries will be highlighted in another report due out this week. On Tuesday, the International Energy Agency (IEA) will unveil its latest energy forecasts in London. They are likely to make grim reading for anyone who still believes in business as usual. Without government intervention, the world energy market is heading for a fall. Primary energy demand could jump by more than 50% by 2030, leading to a similar increase in carbon dioxide emissions, mostly from new coal-fired power stations in China and India. China is on track to overtake the US as the biggest climate polluter before 2010. That could lead to runaway climate chaos, plus the risk of sudden supply disruptions and price shocks. So appalled at the prospect is the IEA, which represents the industrialised nations, that it looks likely to propose a radical shift in favour of boosting energy efficiency and renewables. More predictably, it will also promote nuclear power. The energy dilemmas raised by the IEA, traditionally a very conservative organisation, echo the fundamental shift in establishment thinking epitomised by the Stern report. But neither report really explains how the world is meant to overcome the entrenched vested interests that cause climate pollution, and the political contradictions they create. THE INdustRial POLLUTERS Last week the oil industry won the backing of the Department of Trade and Industry for a major push to open up the so-called Atlantic Frontier, west of the Shetlands, for oil and gas exploitation. Five leading oil corporations – BP, Exxon, Chevron, Total and Dong – met officials in London to discuss how best to extract the four billion barrels of oil the area could contain, without apparently worry ing about the pollution it would cause. Similarly the aviation industry, one of the fastest-growing sources of greenhouse gases, is lobbying for a huge growth in the UK’s airport capacity. The number of flights is expected to treble by 2030, the industry says, so major expansions are required at airports across the country, including Glasgow, Prestwick and Edinburgh. And the car industry has admitted it will fail to meet its voluntary target to cut carbon dioxide emissions from new cars to 140 grams a kilometre by 2008. This has promp ted the Euro pean environment commissioner, Stavros Dimas, to propose legally binding targets to force the industry to act. “Transport is probably the biggest challenge the government faces,” said WWF Scotland’s Dixon. “Emissions from cars and planes are growing faster than in any other sector, yet politicians propose only the weakest measures, having long ago given up on the really effective remedy of fuel taxes.” Stuart Hay, head of research at Friends of the Earth Scotland, urged ministers to reverse the uncontrolled expansion of the airline industry. “We also need to stop relying on voluntary action by industries such as motor manufacturers, and instead put in place tougher fiscal and regulatory measures so that promises to reduce emissions are actually delivered,” he said. “Everyone in the West will have to radically change their lifestyles so they use far less energy. This means changes to our tax regime, so that the polluter really pays and green lifestyles are rewarded.” WILL ANYTHING CHANGE? Though most climate experts welcome Stern as a step forward, many are concerned that the economist may be being too timid. His plea for 1% of GDP to be invested in reducing global warming is aimed at stabilising concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at around 500 to 550 parts per million (ppm). Before the industrial revolution levels were at 280ppm. They are now at 430ppm and rising at 2ppm a year. Scientists, however, say that allowing concentrations to rise above 500ppm greatly increases the chances of pollution feedback loops that could trigger unstoppable and potentially catas trophic alterations in weather patterns. The Amazon rainforest could die back, the permafrost in Siberia could start melting or the Scottish peatlands could dry out – all of which would release large amounts of greenhouse gases. Stern’s own figures show that keeping greenhouse gas concentrations below 550ppm gives humanity no more than a 10% chance of restricting the average temperature rise to below 2?C . Keeping the rise to less than 2?C is seen by many scientists, and the European Union, as essential to preventing a global catastrophe. It would be much safer, scientists argue, to aim at keeping greenhouse gas concentrations below 450ppm. But Stern has dismissed this target as unrealistic. It is “almost out of reach, given that we are likely to reach this level in 10 years”, he said. Climate campaigners, however, argue that we have no choice but to try, because it may be the only way to save the planet. Stern’s target is too high, according to climate author Mark Lynas. “It is rather like playing Russian roulette with four out of the five chambers loaded,” he said. “The odds are not just silly, but suicidal.” -------- genetics 'GM food is answer to poverty and hunger' By Rob Edwards, Environment Editor Sunday Herald, November 5, 2006 http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.1089959.0.gm_food_is_answer_to_poverty_and_hunger.php PEOPLE ARE being urged by Scotland's new chief scientific adviser to embrace genetically modified (GM) food as an answer to poverty, hunger and toxic pollution. Professor Anne Glover, herself a genetic engineer, is urging consumers to ignore labels like "Frankenstein foods" because they are misleading and damaging. The potential benefits of GM crops are "huge", she says, and the risks "extremely small". But her enthusiasm for GM food has infuriated environmentalists, who fear she could exert an important influence on Scottish ministers. They argue GM crops are "potentially dangerous" and point out that they have been widely rejected by the public and supermarkets. Glover, a molecular biologist from the University of Aberdeen, was appointed chief scientific adviser earlier this year by Nicol Stephen, the deputy first minister. She is an expert on microbes and has genetically engineered bacteria to glow in the dark. She has taken luminescence genes from deep sea organisms and transplanted them into soil bacteria. The healthier the soil, the brighter the bacteria glow, making it possible to use them as biological sensors for measuring environmental contamination. It's that research which informs Glover's view of GM foods. "I'm absolutely in favour of genetic manipulation carried out under appropriate guidelines," she told the Sunday Herald. GM food could help end poverty and hunger in the world, as well as reducing farmers' use of hazardous pesticides, she said. "I think GM crops might well be able to help us in addressing some of these issues." Crops could be engineered to resist drought, or to have a higher nutritional value, she argued. They could also be developed to produce biofuels to use as a renewable fuel for vehicles. Blight-resistant GM potatoes being trialed in England could help Scotland's potato market, she suggested. GM crops could also deliver cheaper foods with longer shelf lives. "They have a significant amount to offer, globally, in terms of how they could be used to better produce crops under difficult conditions and to reduce the amount of chemicals used in agriculture," Glover said. The public debates that had so far taken place had been "really poorly informed", she added. "There's an astonishing lack of knowledge about genetic modification." Glover also said that she didn't understand why people were prepared to eat fast food that was high in fat and preservatives known to be bad for health, but were worried about GM. Glover was particularly concerned about the widespread use of the term "Frankenstein foods" to describe GM products. "That's really unhelpful," she said. "We need to learn from what's happened over GM foods to ensure that we don't allow developing new technologies to be hijacked by phrases which are all to do with headline-grabbing and nothing to do with reality." But her views were fiercely rejected by the Soil Association, which promotes and certifies organic food. "There is no evidence whatever that Scottish consumers want GM products in their food supplies," said Hugh Raven, the association's director in Scotland. "If the Scottish Executive's advisers can't grasp that in a democracy it's not very clever to foist potentially dangerous new technologies onto reluctant consumers, God help us all." Raven pointed out that several studies had raised questions about the safety of GM organisms for human consumption. Some showed that modified genes could transfer into bacteria in the human gut. Scottish ministers have postponed a long-promised consultation on the "coexistence" arrangements under which GM crops might be grown north of the Border until next summer. No GM crops have been grown in Scotland since trials of GM oil seed rape ended in 2003. The Scottish Greens' environment speaker, Mark Ruskell MSP, has proposed a bill to Holyrood to make GM companies strictly liable for any economic damage caused by contamination from GM crop trials and commercialisation. "I think the professor needs to wake up to the reality of GM crops and to the basics of plant biology. Once the GM genie is out the bottle, there is no going back," Ruskell said. "She only needs to look to Canada where farming businesses have been left crippled after their crops have become contaminated. Given that GM crops would ruin the Scottish agriculture industry, I'm at a loss as to why the government's chief scientific adviser is determined to push this agenda." Glover, however, stressed that scientists should not impose GM onto an unwilling public. They should explain the benefits, leaving it up to people and politicians to decided what they wanted.