NucNews November 15, 2006 -------- NUCLEAR -------- depleted uranium Ten Reasons to Impeach George Bush and Dick Cheney 15 November 2006 http://oraclesyndicate.twoday.net/stories/2936867/ http://www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/88 I ask Congress to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney for the following reasons: 1. Violating the United Nations Charter by launching an illegal "War of Aggression" against Iraq without cause, using fraud to sell the war to Congress and the public, misusing government funds to begin bombing without Congressional authorization, and subjecting our military personnel to unnecessary harm, debilitating injuries, and deaths. 2. Violating U.S. and international law by authorizing the torture of thousands of captives, resulting in dozens of deaths, and keeping prisoners hidden from the International Committee of the Red Cross. 3. Violating the Constitution by arbitrarily detaining Americans, legal residents, and non-Americans, without due process, without charge, and without access to counsel. 4. Violating the Geneva Conventions by targeting civilians, journalists, hospitals, and ambulances, and using illegal weapons, including white phosphorous, depleted uranium, and a new type of napalm. 5.Violating U.S. law and the Constitution through widespread wiretapping of the phone calls and emails of Americans without a warrant. 6. Violating the Constitution by using "signing statements" to defy hundreds of laws passed by Congress. 7. Violating U.S. and state law by obstructing honest elections in 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006. 8.Violating U.S. law by using paid propaganda and disinformation, selectively and misleadingly leaking classified information, and exposing the identity of a covert CIA operative working on sensitive WMD proliferation for political retribution. 9. Subverting the Constitution and abusing Presidential power by asserting a "Unitary Executive Theory" giving unlimited powers to the President, by obstructing efforts by Congress and the Courts to review and restrict Presidential actions, and by promoting and signing legislation negating the Bill of Rights and the Writ of Habeas Corpus. 10. Gross negligence in failing to assist New Orleans residents after Hurricane Katrina, in ignoring urgent warnings of an Al Qaeda attack prior to Sept. 11, 2001, and in increasing air pollution causing global warming. -------- europe Czech power plant faces two month shut down Nov 15, 2006 PRAGUE, Nov 15 (AFP) http://www.spacewar.com/2006/061115162522.jqpqdpe0.html The first reactor of the Czech nuclear power station at Temelin will be shut down for two months in early 2007 following problems with fuel performance, a plant official said on Wednesday. "We need to change a part of the fuel casings in order to limit geometric alterations," said Jiri Borovec, production director at the Czech electricity company (CEZ), which runs the plant in the southwest. Temelin's two reactors are now both facing technical problems with their fuel mechanisms, with some of the casings for fuel rods deforming in the first reactor and a failure of waterproofing in the second. The unscheduled shutdown of Temelin's first reactor will last 55 days, Borovec said, adding that it will not reduce the nuclear site's safety. The news will be "markedly negative for stakeholders" of CEZ, Global Brokers analyst Tomas Kanka said in Prague on Wednesday. He added that the shutdown could cost 12 million koruna (427,250 euros or 316,592 dollars) per day. The Temelin plant has encountered a series of problems that have caused it to shut down its reactors since it came into service in October 2000, notably in its secondary non-nuclear circuit. Environmentalists from Austria, where all nuclear plants were closed in 1978, have strongly objected to the Temelin reactors which are situated 60 kilometres (40 miles) from its border. Protests have centred on environment and safety fears. Construction at Temelin started in 1987. The initial plan included four thousand-watt Soviet reactors, but was cut back to two after the end of the Communist regime in 1999. CEZ (Ceske Energeticke Zavody) announced the same day in Prague that in the first nine months of 2006 it made net earnings of 22.02 billion koruna (785 million euros or 1.005 billion dollars) against 14.58 billion koruna (520 million euros or 665 million dollars) for the same period in 2005. -------- japan China urges Japan to be 'responsible' on nuclear arms Nov 15, 2006 Agence France-Presse http://www.spacewar.com/2006/061115130358.o1l9179q.html China on Wednesday urged Japan to adopt a "responsible attitude" towards safeguarding regional peace after its neighbour said it should be allowed to possess nuclear arms for self-defense. "We hope the Japanese side will stick to its 'three non-nuclear principles' and adopt a responsible attitude in safeguarding regional peace and stability," official media quoted the foreign ministry as saying. China hopes Japan, as a signatory of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), will seriously carry out its obligations, the ministry said. Japan's cabinet on Tuesday reiterated its stance that Japan has the legal right to nuclear weapons even though it will not pursue the option. "Purely from a theoretical viewpoint, the possession of a necessary minimum of nuclear weapons does not necessarily mean that it violates Article 9 of the constitution," said a statement approved by the cabinet. The article bans the use of force in solving international disputes. China, which still harbors painful memories of Japan's atrocities in World War II, is wary about signs of the revival of Japanese militarism. North Korea's October 9 nuclear test has triggered concerns that Japan, South Korea and even Taiwan could develop atom bombs if the international community fails to persuade Pyongyang to scrap its nuclear programs. Japan's statement, issued in response to a question from a parliament member, however said that the cabinet "does not have the intention of discussing the need to review the non-nuclear principles." The "three non-nuclear principles", which state that Japan would not produce, possess or allow the entry into its territory of nuclear weapons, were approved by Japan's parliament in November 1971. New Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has supported a larger military role for Japan including rewriting the US-imposed 1947 pacifist constitution -- a move that has worried China. Parties to the NPT aim to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. -------- korea U.S. scientist: N. Korea has fuel for as many as 9 nuclear bombs Posted 11/15/2006 (AP) http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-11-15-us-nkorea-nuclear_x.htm WASHINGTON — An American nuclear scientist who toured North Korea this month said Wednesday he believes the North has enough fuel for as many as nine nuclear weapons and the capacity to make about one bomb's worth of fuel a year. Siegfried Hecker, a former director of the Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory who met with chief North Korean nuclear scientists during his Oct. 31-Nov. 4 visit, said that while he learned no technical details about Pyongyang's Oct. 9 nuclear test, officials indicated the test was "fully successful." He said that he and the small group of former U.S. officials who made the trip noticed a palpable sense of national pride about the test among the North Koreans they met. Hecker, who based his observations on meetings with the director of the North's five-megawatt Yongbyon nuclear facility and with nuclear specialists in China, said the North Korean nuclear test was most likely "at least partially successful," but the country probably was "still a long way from having a missile-capable nuclear design." Shortly after the test, U.S. officials confirmed that North Korea had tested a nuclear device, noting an explosion smaller than a kiloton, or the force produced by 1,000 tons of TNT. That was smaller than many experts had expected. U.S. intelligence also concluded that the North Korean device probably used plutonium, as opposed to uranium. Hecker said the Yongbyon director told him the test was a plutonium bomb. Hecker said he believed from his meetings that construction on a much larger nuclear reactor, which would increase the North's nuclear production tenfold, "seems to have been pushed down the road for a number of technical reasons." He said the smaller reactor, while not very good for producing electricity, "is very good for producing bomb-grade plutonium." That reactor is operating currently with restrictions because of "some technical limitations," but it has been producing about a bomb's worth of plutonium a year and is likely to produce at most that amount over the next couple of years, he said. The United States knows very little about the North's nuclear stockpile or its nuclear strategy, Hecker said. It appeared to him, he said, that the officials the group met with had given very little thought to strategy or to an appreciation of the safety and security responsibilities and risks associated with being a nuclear weapons power. -------- u.s. nuc weapons Doubts cast on need for new nukes Study finds plutonium may last twice as long as expected James Sterngold, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer Wednesday, November 15, 2006 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/11/15/MNGO4MCVVH1.DTL&type=politics A highly anticipated government study has found that radioactive plutonium, which provides the immense explosive force in nuclear weapons, has a useful lifespan far longer than previously estimated, potentially undermining part of the Bush administration's argument for manufacturing a new generation of warheads. The study, mandated by Congress and conducted by scientists at the Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore national weapons laboratories, is scheduled for release in the next few weeks. Scientists and government officials familiar with its findings said the report's authors have about doubled the previous estimates of the time plutonium remains potent as a weapons fuel, to 90 years, at a minimum, and perhaps much longer. The previous estimate was a 45-to-60 years minimum life. The findings are highly technical, several experts said, but they could inspire a tough debate on the Bush administration's aggressive push to scrap the existing stockpile of more than 5,000 warheads -- on the grounds that they are aging and growing less reliable -- and to spend tens of billions of dollars producing new generations of nuclear weapons. Bush's new program -- the Reliable Replacement Warhead program, or RRW -- already is in the design phase. The National Nuclear Security Administration, the Energy Department agency responsible for maintenance, security and performance of U.S. nuclear weapons, has been pushing to move on to engineering studies, and then to rebuild the entire complex for manufacturing warheads, which was partly dismantled after the Cold War. Questions about the aging of plutonium, a rare, manmade substance, have been cited by agency officials as one of the reasons older weapons could not be relied on. But the new study suggests that aging is not likely to be a concern for decades. "They've been running with RRW like you wouldn't believe," Rep. David Hobson, R-Ohio, chairman of the House subcommittee on water and energy appropriations, which oversees annual spending on nuclear weapons work, said of the National Nuclear Security Administration and the weapons design laboratories. "They see this as a big pot of money to get into. This shows we can take a breather for a while." Hobson said that the government's weapons experts had been "panicked" about the claimed deterioration of plutonium and other aspects of the old warheads, some of which are now more than 20 years old, and had tried to rush Congress into paying for a massive new weapons production complex at a total cost that could run to the hundreds of billions of dollars. "If we'd have listened to the NNSA, we'd have spent billions of dollars" on a new facility for producing the plutonium core components, called pits, Hobson said. "This study should now give us some time to reassess and think about where we are going." One scientist who asked that his name be withheld and who has followed the plutonium aging studies said, "There are still some technical questions and things we don't completely understand, but it's pretty clear that the plutonium is just not a concern for a long, long time." When the Cold War ended, the U.S. government still had more than 10,000 nuclear weapons, but it shut down some parts of the weapons production complex and stopped underground testing. It also ramped up a large program, called stockpile stewardship, under which it spends billions of dollars every year maintaining, refurbishing and studying the existing weapons. The stewardship program has been regarded as an enormous success, keeping the stockpile of thermonuclear weapons in what experts say is perfect working order. Most experts agree that if there is a weak link in the reliability of the U.S. arsenal, it is not the bombs themselves -- each of which is far more powerful than the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II -- but the missiles and bombers that would deliver the warheads to their targets. Bob Peurifoy, a scientist who spent decades developing nuclear warheads at the Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico, said that more warheads have been damaged by faulty forklift handling or other accidents than from unexpected deterioration of components, and he said concerns over the aging of plutonium had been wildly overblown. He described the concerns over rapid aging as an attempt by the Bush administration to force Congress to finance a renaissance for the nuclear complex, even though there is little military need for the weapons. "The current stockpile is healthy and it is showing no near-term aging," said Peurifoy. "It has been well built and well maintained." Senior government officials confirm every year that the weapons are almost 100 percent reliable and safe. A number of reports have stated that most weapons, and especially the plutonium used in them, have been found to be almost pristine many years after they had been produced. Two weapons scientists, Joseph Martz and Adam Schwartz, wrote an article for a technical publication in 2003, saying, "Experience from stockpile surveillance programs reflects this point: Pits have remained remarkably pristine and free of corrosion, especially since the adoption of modern cleaning and sealing methods." In the post-Cold War years, the United States has been focusing on disarmament and preventing other countries from obtaining nuclear weapons technology, especially North Korea and Iran. But the Bush administration has argued from the time it came into office that the nation needed new types of nuclear weapons, such as powerful bunker busters to destroy deeply buried targets. The administration has conceded that it has no actual targets in mind, but contends that the U.S. simply needs new capabilities in case threats emerge in the future. After Congress rejected that proposal as unnecessary, the administration followed up with the RRW -- an ambitious new program that would scrap all the existing weapons over the next several decades, and construct an entirely new manufacturing complex, and then build all new weapons. The Congress has provided a low level of initial funding for the RRW program, writing into the legislation that the new weapons had to be reliable without new underground testing, and that they could not add any new military capabilities. The administration has argued that the old weapons, which use a number of sensitive radioactive materials, were never meant to remain stockpiled for decades. The plutonium, which is fashioned into hollow spheres known as pits, has been a particular concern because of uncertainties over the deterioration of this unusual metal over time. "We know that plutonium pits have a limited lifetime," Bryan Wilkes, the spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the weapons complex, said in comments to the Las Vegas Sun in 2002. If the aging pits in the warheads were not replaced, Wilkes said, "we could wake up and find out half our stockpile is gone to waste." Wilkes would not comment on the contents of the aging-plutonium report, but said Tuesday that it would be released by year's end. Congress had mandated that the report be delivered by the end of October. Thomas D'Agostino, deputy administrator of the NNSA, said in testimony before the House Armed Services Committee in April that the overall aim was to "restore us to a level of capability comparable to what we had during the Cold War." Under the Moscow Treaty with Russia, the United States has promised to reduce the number of deployed warheads to 2,200 or fewer by the year 2012. What the Bush administration has proposed is creating a smaller stockpile with warheads that are more reliable, safer and easier to produce. Also, the administration has said it wants to have the ability to quickly expand weapons production again if needed, even though there is no current threat that would require such production. Philip Coyle, who spent decades as a senior weapons scientist at the government labs and is now a senior adviser to the Center for Defense Information, a Washington research institute, said he believed there were valid reasons for at least considering production of new weapons in the future, but that the supposed deterioration of plutonium should not be a rationale. "While no one would expect plutonium or any other metal to last forever, it appears that properly alloyed plutonium is a remarkably robust material, and under carefully controlled conditions can have a lifetime of decades," he said. "Based on what we know today, the aging of plutonium metal, per se, is not sufficient justification for the near-term development and production of a new class of U.S. nuclear weapons." Hobson, who will turn over chairmanship of his subcommittee to a Democrat in January, said he believed that the government wanted to rush Congress into a decision to boost budgets and avoid cutbacks. "They have their own agenda to get us to send more money," Hobson said. E-mail James Sterngold at jsterngold@sfchronicle.com. -------- u.s. nuc facilities -------- north carolina Progress wants to relicense nuke plant The Charlotte Observer November 15, 2006 http://www.topix.net/content/kri/2064916558050654067735491882920025858032 This plant is too dangerous, and nuclear power is inherently too dangerous. Progress Energy applied for a nuclear license extension Tuesday to continue operating the Shearon Harris plant in southwestern Wake County for an additional 20 years. The Raleigh utility's relicensing application sets the stage for a two-year review during which nuclear critics hope to turn Shearon Harris into the nation's first nuclear plant to fail to win a license renewal. Progress Energy officials say the Shearon Harris plant is needed to meet growing energy demand. The company won a license extension for its Brunswick plant near Wilmington this summer, and relicensed the H.B. Robinson plant in South Carolina two years ago. The Harris plant's license is scheduled to expire in 2026. The license extension would allow Progress Energy to operate the plant through 2046. The license renewal process is expected to take between 22 and 30 months. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold at least five public meetings near the site of the nuclear plant. The first meeting could be as early as next month. The N.C. Waste Reduction and Awareness Network in Durham and the Nuclear Information and Resource Service in Maryland have vowed to challenge the Shearon Harris application. N.C. WARN alleges problems in such areas as fire safety, backup cooling, emergency planning and on-site security. The group has called Shearon Harris one of the most unsafe nuclear plants in the country, a claim disputed by Progress Energy and the NRC. 'Our primary goal is to persuade Progress Energy or the regulatory agency to require correction of these various safety and security problems,' said Jim Warren, director of N.C. WARN. 'This plant is too dangerous, and nuclear power is inherently too dangerous.' N.C. WARN has been emboldened by coalitions in three states that are opposing nuclear plant relicensing applications in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Vermont. The opponents in those states include attorneys general and state environmental agencies. -------- vermont VY radiation limits are under review By BOB AUDETTE, Special to the Reformer Brattleboro Reformer Wednesday, November 15, 2006 http://www.reformer.com/localnews/ci_4661484?source=email BRATTLEBORO -- In 2005, the Department of Health told the public that radiation limits set by the state had been exceeded in the last quarter of 2004 at Vermont Yankee's fence line. The announcement led to a discussion between Entergy and the state on how each measures dose limits and just exactly what they are measuring. "We have a bit of a dilemma regarding this investigation," said Bill Irwin, the chief of Vermont's Radiological Health Program. "The state measures the dose one way and the plant measures it a different way. That's why Oak Ridge was brought in -- to look at all the details." A report is expected soon from Oak Ridge University Associates, a consortium of 88 colleges and universities that specializes in worker and public health, science education and scientific review programs. On Thursday night, at 7 p.m., at the American Legion hall on Linden Street, Irwin will discuss the progress of that partnership, and will also talk about site boundary dose limits at Vermont Yankee. Irwin said he will also be talking about other aspects of the state's radiological health program, including medical radiation, radon and emergency preparedness. He was asked by Windham Regional Commission to come to town to discuss the different aspects of the program. "There have been a lot of questions and discussion about radiation from the plant and at the fence line, some raised by us," said WRC Executive Director Jim Matteau, in a press release announcing the meeting. "The state has a comprehensive program that may not be fully understood at the local level, and this will be an opportunity for people to learn about the program, ask questions and raise concerns." In 2004, the state got a reading of 24.9 millirems. The limit set by the Department of Health is 20, which is 5 millirems below the federal limit. Irwin said the state has been monitoring the power plant since it opened for business in the early 1970s. Vermont publishes an annual report on the measurements it takes "to evaluate the public health and environmental impacts of Vermont Yankee," said Irwin. "The regulations require that when Vermont Yankee goes over the limit, an investigation is undertaken," said Irwin. "That's what we've been dong for the last year, evaluating not only if they went over, but also how we can know for certain whether they have gone over the limit." He said working with Vermont Yankee and Oak Ridge, they are "looking at the site boundary doses of the past and dose limits we currently have and evaluating the effectiveness of the Vermont Yankee and Vermont Department of Health efforts to measure doses and to deal with doses that are approaching state limits." "And then we will focus very closely on the specific things we do for Vermont Yankee," said Irwin, which he called "the most recognized source of radiological health hazards in the state." Irwin said the presentation has been called, in part, to reassure residents that "Vermont is vigilant and its residents are well protected." Representatives from Vermont Emergency Management (VEM) Radiological Emergency Response Program, which is now based in Brattleboro, and the Vermont Department of Public Service, will also be on hand to solicit questions and topics for four public meetings it is sponsoring in 2007. "It was disturbing to many of us that Vermont Yankee was caught exceeding the limit," said Sally Shaw, the outreach coordinator for anti-nuclear group New England Coalition. More disturbing, it came to light that they were not even measuring the dose limits at the fence line, merely calculating the limits." She said she was looking forward to Thursday's meeting because "people need answers," but she added, "They need to be skeptical about the answers they get." Rob Williams, spokesman for Vermont Yankee, said Entergy representatives would be present, but only in an "information-gathering" capacity. -------- MILITARY -------- landmines Landmines a hidden horror in Colombia Wednesday November 15, 2006 http://au.news.yahoo.com/061115/2/11fhd.html Colombia registered the highest number of victims of anti-personnel mines in the world last year. The Landmine Monitor Report, complied by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, reported 7,328 victims worldwide in 2005, although experts believe the figure is higher. In Colombia, home-made mines crafted from tin cans and containers, hidden in trees, rivers and buried on pathways, killed or wounded 1,100 people last year, according to the Landmine Monitor. Colombia's government reported another 952 victims by November 1 this year - 204 killed and 748 wounded. More than half of Colombia's victims are soldiers. But in rural hamlets like those in Antioquia department in northwestern Colombia children have been crippled working in fields, farmers maimed bringing in cattle and families wounded as they flee recent combat or threats. An empty beer bottle and a detonator crafted from a medical syringe were all Colombian rebels needed to make the landmine that ended Andres Restrepo's army career at age 23. When the explosive shredded his leg earlier this year, Restrepo became one of about three Colombians maimed by mines every day - a statistic that makes his country the world's leader in mine victims. "I was No. 17 in the patrol. Sixteen of my comrades passed over that mine and didn't set it off... I was one of the last and stepped on it," Restrepo said at a military hospital in Medellin. "I was lucky... It could have been worse considering what a mine can do." Violence from Colombia's conflict has decreased as President Alvaro Uribe leads a US-backed campaign to curb a four-decade rebel insurgency and to attack the cocaine trade even as he faces criticism over rights abuses by his troops. Fighting still kills or displaces thousands each year and across Colombia, poor farmers, children and soldiers are losing limbs to improvised mines left mostly in rural areas by the country's Marxist FARC guerrillas, according to officials. Ending Colombia's mine tragedy is complicated by the fighting, experts say, as rebels keep sowing mines to halt the advance of soldiers in their cat-and-mouse chase though country's plains, mountains and jungles. "An ongoing conflict means that everyday somewhere in the country mines are being laid," said Alvaro Jimenez with the Colombia Campaign Against Landmines. "Who will invest in cleaning them up without the certainty no-one will sow more?" Near Medellin, in Antioquia department, troops and tanks are stationed in the green hills around the hamlet of San Lorenzo, a reminder of Uribe's campaign to take back the country from the rebels since his first 2002 election. But the army can do little to help residents like Maria Giraldo, whose two sons both lost limbs to mines or 11-year-old Diego Clavijo, maimed while hunting with his father. Near where Clavijo plays soccer on a prosthetic leg, Julio Ernesto Cuevo, 66, sits in a sweltering hut rubbing the bared, raw stump below his knee, now unable to provide for relatives after a mine blast last year. "Really we don't have any idea how many people die in the mountains, victims of a mine accident, and are just buried right there," said Rocio Pineda, rights director at the Antioquia governor's office. More than three quarters of the world's governments have signed up to a treaty banning anti-personnel mines, dramatically reducing their use. Armed groups such as Colombia's rebels are now the major culprits. Exploratory talks with Colombia's second largest rebel group, the National Liberation Army, and a peace deal that demobilized right-wing paramilitaries could lead to those groups helping clear mines they laid. Uribe, a US-trained lawyer, has received millions in US aid to fight the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the largest rebel group, which took up arms in the 1960s to fight against inequalities in Colombia. It is branded as a drug-trafficking terrorist group by Washington. Government troops are now exposed to mines the rebels increasingly use as a defense. At Medellin's military hospital, Captain Fabiola Benitize said around 180 army mine victims have passed through her treatment center this year just from Antioquia province and surrounding regions. More than 40 became amputees. Around the small clinic, soldiers lifted weights on stumps of ruined legs; others practiced walking on wooden feet that would eventually be replaced by prosthetics. One struggled with his leg swollen like a balloon inside in a metal frame. Anti-mine activists say the helicopter rescues and medical attention for soldiers contrast with the struggle civilians face, despite laws meant to help them. Some receive no long-term treatment; others are caught up in red tape. Jhon Giraldo fled with his family from their farm in Antioquia department after they received threats from an armed group. In the mountains, he stepped on a mine that destroyed his foot just days from his 13th birthday. Now his family struggles to get by in one of the cinderblock slums on the hillsides around Medellin, where he and 14 family members live on his sister's salary. All he wants is to finish school and get a job. -------- pakistan / india Nato planes violate Pak airspace Bombings of border towns ignite forest fire By Shah Murad Baig Wednesday, November 15, 2006 http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=3726 CHITRAL: The Afghanistan-based Nato forces on Tuesday violated Pakistan’s airspace and dropped bombs on two border towns of Arandu that caused huge fire in the dense forests of the area. Residents of Chitral’s border town of Arandu informed The News that Nato planes intruded into Pakistani territory from the neighbouring Nooristan province of Afghanistan several times where an operation against al-Qaeda and Taliban has been going on since few days. According to the residents, the Nato aircraft targeted two villages, Daroshot and Azo. There was no casualty but the bombing caused a huge fire in the dense forests of the area. Nazim UC Arandu Sher Muhammad told this scribe that precious forests in the two border villages have been burnt by the fire causing losses of millions of rupees and created panic among the dwellers of the border villages. He demanded of the Pakistan government to lodge a strong protest over its airspace violation by the coalition forces. -------- POLITICS -------- corruption Battle Brewing in Congress as Bush Admin Seeks Closure of Iraq Reconstruction Corruption Monitor Wednesday, November 15th, 2006 Democracy Now! http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/15/1459249 A new battle is brewing in Congress over how the US government monitors the billions of dollars it spends on the reconstruction of Iraq. The Bush administration and leading Congressional Republicans are trying to close the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. The special agency has uncovered several cases of waste and abuse, and has helped indict several American officials on charges of corruption. The termination order comes in an obscure provision attached to last month's defense authorization bill. It says the Inspector General's office must close on October 1st of next year. The language was inserted by Congressmember Duncan Hunter, a California Republican who currently leads the House Armed Services Committee. Starting next week, Democrats say they will introduce new legislation to restore the agency's authority and keep its investigations on track. -Antonia Juhasz, author of "The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time." AMY GOODMAN: Antonia Juhasz is with us now. She’s author of The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time. She joins us from a studio in San Francisco. Welcome to Democracy Now!, Antonia. ANTONIA JUHASZ: Good morning. Thanks for having me, Amy. AMY GOODMAN: So, Congress passed a bill that would close the one monitor of reconstruction in Iraq. ANTONIA JUHASZ: Yes, unfortunately. But on the other side, quite fortunately, because of the Democrats taking the House and the Senate, I think the Special Inspector General has been saved. There's been a wonderful public outroar and resistance to this move by the Republicans. As you said, essentially snuck into a bill was this early termination date, just as the Special Inspector General was really ramping up his investigations finally, finally naming corporations, canceling contracts, as you say, actually achieving convictions for fraud, waste and abuse, naming Halliburton, Bechtel, Parsons. The list goes on and on. I guess not surprising that the Republicans then chose to try and shut down this office. But I think the Democrats have saved it. As you say, the bill will be introduced next week. It has broad, actually bipartisan, support. But it's only, at this point, to extend the office through potentially 2008. And just to put in really quickly, while the amount of money the Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund, US taxpayer money for reconstruction, has been obligated -- that's about $34 billon -- many, many of the contracts that are on the ground being done by US companies actually carry end dates in 2007, 2008, some even longer. I certainly advocate ending those contracts sooner. But in any case, the Special Inspector General has to be able to stay working on the ground until all of this money is accounted for and all of the companies are held to account. AMY GOODMAN: Antonia, you’ve just written a piece, “Bechtel Bails on Iraq.” They left Iraq. Talk about the significance. ANTONIA JUHASZ: Yeah, and actually, I didn't choose the title. So I would want to fix that. I have been part of movements of people, since before the war began, who have been calling for Bechtel to leave Iraq. So we’re quite glad that last Tuesday they finally announced that they were leaving Iraq, after receiving $2.4 billion of work, after receiving, before the war began, a quiet secret request for their proposal to do their work in Iraq. And now, they’re finally leaving. Thank goodness. That's good. The bad news is that they’re leaving with their money, and they have not remotely accomplished the work that they were given. And it was vitally critical work. Bechtel had one of the early most broad contracts for the basic services, the one thing that actually the US government was supposed to do as an occupier, rebuild basic services: water, electricity, healthcare, roads. All of this fell into Bechtel’s rubric of their contract. None of this is done. None of this has been done even close to how it was contractually obligated to be done, nor morally what we should have accomplished. And yet, Bechtel is leaving with their cash in hand. AMY GOODMAN: What did they do, though, some of their claims? And do you think that they should be investigated, held accountable, and in what way? One of the things you write about is even the limited oversight allowing us to debunk claims by Bechtel. For example, the company reporting it rebuilt war-damaged bridges on key highways, but the Inspector General's October report to Congress finds no bridge or expressway projects have been completed in Iraq. ANTONIA JUHASZ: Yeah, unfortunately, the Special Inspector General is finally focusing on Bechtel more comprehensively, but at this moment, it's almost impossible to assess what, project by project, Bechtel has done on the ground. It's actually almost impossible to assess that for any company, any US company, because the Special Inspector General, for all the great work that it’s starting to do, of over 1,300 projects that the US has begun in Iraq, only 65 have been assessed in a very close way by the Special Inspector General. Because of the failures that the Special Inspector General found last quarter, in particular on a Bechtel project for a critical maternal and child health hospital that was supposed to be built by Bechtel and wasn’t built -- and to get back to what they claimed and what the Special Inspector General claimed, Bechtel -- actually, Bechtel hasn't said anything publicly themselves. I’m basing all of my assessment on what Bechtel is saying, based on a San Francisco Chronicle article, where the reporter got to interview Bechtel. Bechtel hasn’t come forward with what they have or haven’t done. But they said that, for example, they did not complete this Basra hospital, because of, quote, “security concerns,” where the Special Inspector General was quite clear that Bechtel was dropped from their contract, because, one, they had misrepresented their progress to the US government; two, they had gone a year and a half over schedule and $90 million over budget. So they were dropped. We know that that took place. We know, as you say, that they didn't finish projects that they said they did in fact finish. So, hopefully, this new audit that the Special Inspector General has begun of Bechtel, all of its contracts, will expose all of their failure. And we can get some sense of that by the fact that, as I said, the areas that they were contracted to work on -- for example, electricity. The most recent report shows that -- AMY GOODMAN: Antonia, we just have 20 seconds, but I want to ask: Congressmember Henry Waxman has said that they will be investigating the amount of money that’s gone into Iraq, war profiteering. Nancy Pelosi has said the power that the Democrats will now have is called subpoena power. In ten seconds, $2.5-almost billion Bechtel has had, Halliburton -- what do you think has to happen for the accounting to take place? ANTONIA JUHASZ: There has to be a full audit, but then the demand has to be made that they must return all of their misspent funds, period. Existing contracts have to be cancelled, period. And third, the money must immediately go to Iraqi companies and Iraqi workers to end the US corporate occupation of Iraq, as well as the military occupation. AMY GOODMAN: Antonia Juhasz, I want to thank you for being with us. Her book is The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time. -------- ENERGY Nuclear Power Concerns Cloud US Emissions Benefits Story by Timothy Gardner REUTERS US: November 15, 2006 http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/38983/story.htm NEW YORK - Nuclear power may help the United States cut greenhouse gas emissions one day, experts said, but the industry first must overcome high costs and concern about potential accidents. Advocates have pumped nuclear power as a safe alternative to fossil fuels as concerns about global warming increase. But the 1979 Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania that required an emergency evacuation of the surrounding area -- and a clean up that cost nearly US$1 billion -- still haunts the industry. The scare prompted companies to scrap billion-dollar plants that never provided power. "I'm cautiously optimistic on nuclear, but public opinion turns on a dime," said Jim Rogers, chief executive of Duke Energy, which is considering building nuclear plants in North and South Carolina. "One bad event anywhere in the world could impact the future of nuclear," he told reporters at an energy conference. Other obstacles include high start-up costs of between US$2 billion and US$4 billion per new plant, and nuclear waste. Ernie Moniz, co-chair of the physics department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said nuclear power could be a top low-emissions solution, but safe disposal of nuclear waste must be ironed out. Nevertheless, companies are forging ahead with plans to build or provide services to new plants. The 2005 US energy bill offered loan guarantees and other incentives for building new nuclear plants but investors are cautious, said Dan Reicher, president of New Energy Capital, and former US Assistant Secretary for Energy. "There is some interest on Wall Street, but I would not consider it deep and broad," he said. Unless about 50 new nuclear plants are built in coming decades, nuclear could lose its current 20 percent slice of the power produced in the United States, according to the the Nuclear Industry Institute. The US Department of Energy aims to have about 25 new nuclear plants built by 2020. Duke and 11 other companies have begun the permitting process for 31 new US nuclear plants. General Electric Co. and Japan's Hitachi Ltd. said on Monday they will pool their nuclear power businesses in part to build new plants. A private equity analyst on Wall Street said US loan guarantees could help ensure construction of six new nuclear units, or about 6,000 megawatts of capacity, in the next decade. But she said the lengthy permitting and construction process for nuclear could mean it would be a long time before investors see a return. Reicher said that in a decade the US could have one or two new nuclear power plants. In comparison, he said wind power farms of up to 300 megawatts take only 18 months to build. -------- OTHER -------- health Agent Orange Harmed Sexual Health of Male Vietnam Vets November 15, 2006 DALLAS, Texas, (ENS) http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/nov2006/2006-11-15-03.asp A toxic chemical contained in the herbicide Agent Orange affects male reproductive health by limiting the growth of the prostate gland and lowering testosterone levels, researchers have found in a study of more than 2,000 Vietnam War Air Force veterans. Published in the November issue of the journal "Environmental Health Perspectives," the study indicates that exposure to TCDD, the most toxic of the dioxin family of chemicals contained in Agent Orange, may disturb the male endocrine and reproductive systems in several ways. "Until now, we did not have very good evidence whether or not dioxins affect the human reproductive system," said Dr. Amit Gupta, a urologist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and the study's lead author. "Now we know that there is a link between dioxins and the human prostate leading us to speculate that dioxins might be decreasing the growth of the prostate in humans like they do in animals," he said. Agent Orange is an herbicide that was developed for military use in Vietnam to deny cover and concealment to enemies of the United States and its allies. The researchers found that veterans exposed to dioxin had lower incidence rates of benign prostate hyperplasia, BPH, a disease that is caused by an enlargement of the prostate. Patients must strain to pass urine and they urinate frequently. BPH can lead to complications such as an inability to urinate and urinary tract infection. Although the study found fewer incidences of disease, Dr. Gupta cautioned that the finding should not be interpreted as a positive result. "It may be construed that a decrease in the risk of BPH is not a harmful effect, but the larger picture is that dioxins are affecting the normal growth and development of the reproductive system," he said. "Several effective treatments are available for BPH," Dr. Gupta said, "and thus reduction of BPH by a toxic compound is not a desirable effect." Dr. Claus Roehrborn, professor and chairman of urology at UT Southwestern and a study author, said, "We know that dioxin causes many endocrine disturbances in the human body. The study indirectly proves that BPH is an endocrine disorder." The study was based on data from the Air Force Health Study, an epidemiologic study of more than 2,000 Air Force veterans who were responsible for spraying herbicides, including Agent Orange, during the Vietnam War. This group is called the Ranch Hand group because the spray program was called Operation Ranch Hand. A comparison group was made up of veterans who served in Southeast Asia during the same time period, 1962-1971, but were not involved in the spraying program and so were exposed to dioxins at levels equivalent to the general population. The veterans were interviewed and underwent physical examinations and lab tests during six examination cycles. The first cycle was conducted in 1982, so the veterans were followed for more than 20 years. "We found that the risk of developing BPH decreased with increasing exposure to dioxins in the comparison group," said Dr. Arnold Schecter, professor of environmental sciences at the UT School of Public Health Regional Campus at Dallas and a study author. "The risk of developing BPH was 24 percent lower in the group with the highest dioxin levels compared to the group with the lowest levels. In the Ranch Hand group, the risk of BPH tended to decrease with increased exposure to dioxins, but at extremely high exposure levels there was a tendency for the risk to increase." The study shows that higher dioxin exposure is associated with decreased testosterone levels, Dr. Gupta said. "It is known that lower testosterone levels are associated with decreased sexual function, decreased muscle mass and strength, infertility, increased fatigue, depression and reduced bone density," Dr. Gupta said. "However, we could not conclude from this study that dioxin exposure did lead to any of these adverse affects in the veterans in the study." There has been a rise in disorders of the male reproductive tract over the past several decades, including a decrease in sperm production by almost 50 percent. Scientists also have found a four-fold increase in testicular cancer, and increases in the incidence of undescended testes and abnormality of the urethra. The reason for this increase is not known, but it is thought that these disorders might be caused by environmental chemicals that are estrogenic and have endocrine disrupting effects, Dr. Gupta said. Dioxins are among the most toxic substances known and are thought to be partially responsible for this increase in male reproductive tract disorders. They are formed as byproducts of processes such as incineration, smelting, paper and pulp manufacturing and pesticide and herbicide production. Humans are exposed to these chemicals primarily through consumption of animal fat and dairy products. Babies are exposed to the highest levels of dioxins through breast milk. Dioxins are eliminated extremely slowly from the body and they tend to stay in the body for up to several decades after exposure. Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange have suffered serious and life-threatening conditions. The Department of Veterans Affairs recognizes prostate cancer, respiratory cancers, multiple myeloma, Type II diabetes, Hodgkins disease, non-Hodgkins lymphoma and spina bifida as among the diseases resulting from exposure to the herbicide. The study points out the necessity to conduct additional environmental studies of the impact of dioxins and other toxins on the male reproductive system, the authors say. Previous research was largely based on animal models. -------- ACTIVISTS Pack the Courtroom for the Pentagon 5! Wednesday, November 15 2006 Infoshop News Contributed by: Anonymous http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=2006111510022687 On Friday at 9:00am the Pentagon Five will have their initial court appearance at the US District Court in Alexandria, VA. On September 9th, 2006 four Iraq veterans and an anarchist activist were arrested whille taking a tour of the Pentagon for allegedly passing out fliers on depleted uranium. The five are being charged with "Posting of Materials" and "Disobeying a Lawful Order" and could be facing a $6,000 fine and six months in federal prison. PACK THE COURTROOM in solidarity with the Pentagon 5, show the government that we are outraged at the complete erosion of our civil liberties. 9:00am 401 Courthouse Square Alexandria, Va 2231-5798 Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting On September 9th, 2006 four Iraq veterans and an anarchist activist were arrested whille taking a tour of the Pentagon for allegedly passing out fliers on depleted uranium. The five are being charged with "Posting of Materials" and "Disobeying a Lawful Order" and could be facing a $6,000 fine and six months in federal prison. PACK THE COURTROOM in solidarity with the Pentagon 5, show the government that we are outraged at the complete erosion of our civil liberties.