NucNews December 2, 2006 -------- NUCLEAR -------- africa Dwindling Resources Force Africa to Mull Nuclear Power Sat, Dec 02, 2006 Iran Daily http://www.iran-daily.com/1385/2722/html/energy.htm#s192003 A tower of the NECSA (Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa) in Pretoria, South Africa (AFP File Photo) Depleting forests and coal reserves, compounded by the environmental cost of traditional energy sources, are forcing Africa to seriously consider going nuclear, experts say. “For the sake of humanity and the environment we should accept nature’s gift,“ South African energy analyst Andrew Kenny told a conference in Cape Town of scientists, businessmen, energy watchdogs and African government officials. But some warn that a lack of financing, a regulatory void and a dearth of specialist skills could impede Africa’s participation in the “nuclear renaissance“. “There are good reasons for certain African countries to be considering nuclear energy, but this does not mean they will be able to do it overnight,“ Alan McDonald from the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency told AFP Tuesday. Franklin Osaisai, director-general of Nigeria’s atomic energy commission, said Africa simply had to find the money for nuclear energy. “It is not affordable not to invest in energy. We found nuclear to be a viable option--an expensive initial investment but cheaper in the long-term,“ he said. Nigeria planned to start generating nuclear power in the next 10 to 12 years, Osaisai said. Several delegates mooted regional cooperation as a possible solution to many of the constraints facing the continent. These included harnessing South Africa’s existing regulatory framework and sharing infrastructure between countries. But McDonald said Africa did not feature strongly in IAEA projections for increased nuclear energy production. “Most of the additional plants being foreseen are in countries with established programs and existing, big plants. It is much easier to start a new plant when you have an established program ... and a skilled workforce.“ The construction cost of a nuclear power plant averages about one million euros per megawatt it produces. Nuclear energy was “definitely“ an affordable option for Africa, said Anne Renzi, deputy head of export finance at Areva, a global nuclear energy company. “It is a question of comparison. Each time the barrel price of petrol is more than 45 dollars, any nuclear project is competitive,“ she said. South Africa’s Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said Africa should tap its rich uranium resources rather than exporting them, adding that this would need “deliberate and calculated planning on the part of leaders of the continent.“ South Africa is the only African country with a nuclear power station, which produces about six percent of its electricity. It now wants to expand capacity by developing a pebble bed modular reactor. Several speakers told the conference that nuclear energy was a safe alternative. Kenny said there had only been one nuclear accident claiming more than five human lives, as opposed to 187 such accidents at coal-based power plants. He also said radiation was not a major problem in countries harnessing nuclear energy while coal, wood and paraffin fires caused death, disease and disability on a massive scale in Africa. -------- britain Two Others Test Positive for Radiation, British Officials Say By Mary Jordan and Sarah Delaney Washington Post Foreign Service Saturday, December 2, 2006; A08 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/01/AR2006120100481_pf.html LONDON, Dec. 1 -- The radioactive substance that killed former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko has contaminated his wife and an Italian security consultant he met the day he fell ill, British officials and a Litvinenko family friend said Friday. Officials said that neither was showing symptoms of poisoning from the substance, polonium-210. Although thousands of people have called hotlines worried about possible exposure, Mario Scaramella and Marina Litvinenko are the only two who have tested positive for the radiation since Litvinenko's mysterious death on Nov. 23. British authorities have detected traces of polonium-210 in at least 12 sites around London and on two British Airways jetliners. A third plane was returning to Moscow on Friday for checks. Investigators are trying to use those findings to determine where the poison came from and who transported it. Scaramella, who met with Litvinenko at a sushi restaurant on Nov. 1, was the more severely affected. Health officials said he had "significant" amounts of radiation in his body, and he was hospitalized Friday awaiting further tests this weekend. "He is currently well and shows no symptoms of radiation poisoning," Keith Patterson, a doctor at University College Hospital, told reporters outside the hospital Friday night. "Tests have detected polonium-210 in Mr. Scaramella's body, but at a considerably lower level than Mr. Litvinenko." Alex Goldfarb, a family friend of the Litvinenkos, said in an interview that Marina Litvinenko, 44, a ballet teacher, was told by doctors that "minuscule levels" of polonium-210 had been found in her urine. "For three days when he was home and vomiting, she was taking care of him," Goldfarb said. He said she was not particularly worried about her health, but noted that because the poison is "so unique, its long-term effects are not known." "The levels are not significant enough to result in any illness in the short term," the Health Protection Agency said in a statement that identified the contaminated person only as an "adult family member" of Litvinenko. It added, "The results are reassuring in that any increased risk in the long term is likely to be very small." Nick Priest, a British scientist and expert in polonium-210, said in an interview that "everyone has a different resistance to radiation." He said the worry is that it might cause "a depletion of bone marrow" and an increased risk of cancer. Litvinenko's unexplained death has created Cold War-like tensions between London and Moscow. Litvinenko was an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and his friends say that before his death he accused Putin of ordering his murder. The Kremlin has dismissed those allegations as "nonsense." In Moscow, a former KGB agent who met Litvinenko on Nov. 1 at the Millennium Hotel in Grosvenor Square, within sight of the U.S. Embassy, denied any involvement in Litvinenko's death. Scaramella said at a news conference in Rome last week that he showed Litvinenko e-mails during their meeting that warned their lives might be in danger. Sergio Rastrelli, a lawyer for Scaramella, was asked in a televised interview in Italy on Friday whether Scaramella was a witness or suspect in the case. "He is absolutely a witness, and now, unfortunately, he is also a person who has been offended by a crime committed by a third party." In Russia, human rights activists said a letter written by a former Russian intelligence agent claimed that the Federal Security Service, or FSB, had established death squads to kill Litvinenko and other critics of the Kremlin. "Back in 2002, I warned Litvinenko that they had formed a team to kill him," the letter said. Activists said the letter was written by Mikhail Trepashkin, a former officer of the KGB and its successor, the FSB. Trepashkin was sentenced to four years in prison in 2005 for divulging state secrets. Before his arrest, Trepashkin was investigating the possible role of the FSB in a series of apartment bombings in 1999 in which hundreds of people died -- a subject about which Litvinenko had written a book. Amnesty International and other human rights groups have said Trepashkin was jailed to prevent further investigation into the bombings. Police in Sussex, south of London, said they assisted Scotland Yard and the Health Protection Agency in an investigation at the Ashdown Park Hotel in East Sussex on Friday. British and Italian media said Scaramella had stayed at the hotel recently and that authorities were looking for traces of radiation. Matthew Long, deputy general manager at the Ashdown Park Hotel, said in an interview that police found "no evidence of radiation" after searching for hours. Long said the investigation was started because of concern that "we had a guest who might have been suffering from radiation." Pathologists in protective gear conducted a postmortem exam on Litvinenko's body Friday. Results are not expected to be announced for several days. The BBC reported that because of the radiation, his remains will be buried in a sealed coffin. Pat Troop, chief executive of the Health Protection Agency, said the risk to others who came into casual contact with Litvinenko remains negligible. Delaney reported from Rome. Correspondents Kevin Sullivan in London and Peter Finn in Moscow contributed to this report. ---- BA planes, passengers deemed safe from radiation December 2, 2006 (CNN) http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/12/02/uk.spywrap.0610/index.html LONDON, England -- Three British Airways planes, grounded while authorities examined them for traces of radiation, have been cleared to return to service, officials with Britain's Health Protection Agency said Saturday. Alexander Litvinenko, the former KGB spy who was poisoned with radioactive polonium-210, had flown aboard the planes. Health officials said none of the estimated 33,000 passengers and 3,000 crew members aboard the 221 trips flown by those jets since October 25 were believed to be a risk. As the inquiry into Litvinenko's death continued, pathologists took extreme precautions Friday performing his autopsy, the coroner's office reported. Because of the dangers posed by the isotope, radioactivity levels were being monitored and those involved in the autopsy at Royal London Hospital were wearing protective clothing. (Watch how polonium-210 kills Video) At the request of New Scotland Yard, the FBI was providing technical assistance, said Richard Kolko, FBI special agent. "This is common, as we often receive requests to assist our international partners," he said. Doctors completed the autopsy, but results won't be known until the criminal inquiry is complete. The former KGB spy, 43, died November 23, three weeks after claiming he had been poisoned. High doses of polonium were found in his body, and pathologists were trying to determine how the poison was ingested. The autopsy was attended by three pathologists -- one appointed by the British government; another preparing a report for defense attorneys, in case the death results in murder charges; and the third representing Litvinenko's family, said the office of coroner Dr. Andrew Reid. Last week, British officials confirmed that traces of radioactive material were found at Litvinenko's home and places where he ate and met others just before becoming sick. Before he died, Litvinenko -- a harsh critic of the Russian government -- accused the Kremlin of poisoning him. Russian officials have denied the charge. British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday in Jordan and asked for the Kremlin's cooperation in its investigation of the poisoning, said Paul Knott, a spokesman for the British Embassy in Moscow. The Russian foreign minister assured her that Russia is ready to help, said the diplomat. A spokesman for the Russian president had previously told CNN that Russia would cooperate in the investigation. A family source on Friday said Litvinenko's widow had tested positive for the isotope, though in levels thought too small to make her sick. "The levels are not significant enough to result in any illness in the short term, and the results are reassuring in that any increased risk in the long term is likely to be very small," Britain's Health Protection Agency said in a written statement. The agency has been testing urine samples from people who were in close contact with Litvinenko after he became ill on November 1. On Thursday, British Home Secretary John Reid said investigators had found traces of a radioactive material in 12 of 24 sites throughout London. The risk to public health is extremely low because polonium-210 must be ingested to be dangerous, Reid said. (Watch to see if you should worry about polonium-210 poisoning Video) Late Friday, the Associated Press reported a hotel in rural southeastern England had been evacuated as police and health workers carried out tests for polonium-210. Also Friday, the health agency said a "significant quantity" of the radioactive substance ingested by Litvinenko before his death has been found in a person who had "very close contact" with him. The HPA did not identify the person, but Italian Sen. Paolo Guzzanti confirmed that it was Italian security expert Mario Scaramella, who was one of the last people to meet with Litvinenko before he was hospitalized. Scaramella tested positive for polonium-210, according to media reports, making him the first person to do so since Litvinenko's death. Scaramella told The Associated Press Wednesday doctors had originally cleared him after tests. It is not known what prompted the new diagnosis, and Scaramella could not be reached for comment. Scaramella told Reuters last month he met with Litvinenko at the Itsu sushi bar November 1 to warn him that he had seen materials suggesting both men were on a hit list, and needed to take precautions. Gaidar probe Meanwhile, Irish police announced they were launching an investigation into the possible poisoning of Yegor Gaidar, architect of Russia's market reforms. (Full story) Gaidar, 50, became violently ill at a conference in Ireland and was rushed to a hospital there, but was said to be improving in a Moscow hospital. Another attendee at the conference said Friday that Gaidar was ill before he arrived in Ireland. -------- china China issues revised regulations on nuclear export controls Xinhua 2/12/2006 http://english.eastday.com/eastday/englishedition/nation/userobject1ai2481890.html China's State Council yesterday published revised regulations on nuclear export controls that give the government more control over the end use of exported nuclear technology. The new regulations, signed by Premier Wen Jiabao on Nov. 9, will take immediate effect. According to the revised version, the goal of the regulations is to enhance control over nuclear exports, prevent proliferation, guard against nuclear terrorism, safeguard national security and promote international cooperation in using nuclear energy peacefully. The new regulations add an article that requires the government of countries importing Chinese technology to guarantee they will seek Chinese government consent before attempting to enrich uranium to a level above 20 percent using the equipment provided by China. The new regulations also allow Chinese customs to require exporters to apply to the Ministry of Commerce for documents that demonstrate whether the export comes under the nuclear export controls. Since the mid-1990s, China has gradually set up a comprehensive legal system for export controls on nuclear, biological, chemical, missile and other sensitive items and technologies as well as all military products. The government has promulgated Regulations on the Control of Nuclear Exports, Regulations on the Export Control of Dual-Use Biological Agents, Regulations on the Export Control of Missiles and Missile-Related Items and Technologies, and Regulations on the Administration of Arms Export. The Foreign Trade Law, the Customs Law and the Criminal Law also provide a legal basis for China's non-proliferation export controls. The government has stepped up campaigns to publicize laws and regulations on export controls. -------- depleted uranium Stop Depleted Uranium Weapons by Christian Peacemakerr Teams ( cetchison@allegany.edu or RhoadsPrtg@aol.com ) Saturday Dec 2nd, 2006 3:56 PM http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/12/02/18334692.php Therefore, Christian Peacemaker Teams calls on: 1. Alliant Tech/ABL, Rocket Center, WV, to stop all DU manufacture as well as the shipping of all DU products..... Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) and our partners around the world call for an end to the manufacture of depleted uranium (DU) weapons and the deployment and use of DU in theaters of war and practice ranges. The United States and others have used DU munitions in the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, and currently in Iraq. This has left behind a documented legacy in the civilian populations, of cancers and birth defects due likely to both DU's toxicity as a heavy metal and the radioactivity of tiny DU particles that are inhaled or left in the soil to become part of the food chain. The biological half life (decay rate) of DU is 4.5 billion years. The high number of returning veterans who are sick and the deaths of nearly one in six of all US military personnel deployed to the Gulf in the last sixteen years also strongly point to the need to end the use of DU for the sake of our own troops. Congressional legislation mandating a comprehensive study of DU and its affects on US military and their offspring is most appropriate. Because of its ongoing and indiscriminate harm to civilians long after a war has ended, the United Nations and the Geneva Conventions declare DU to be an illegal weapon of mass destruction. The European Union and other human rights groups have called for a ban on any further use of DU weapons. Therefore, Christian Peacemaker Teams calls on: 1. Alliant Tech/ABL, Rocket Center, WV, to stop all DU manufacture as well as the shipping of all DU products; 2. all world militaries to stop using DU weapons; 3. all military personnel to refuse to load DU ammunition or use it in any of its forms; 4. the US. Defense Department and all manufacturers of DU products, to join with BAE Systems of Great Britain and the British Defense Ministry as they have stopped DU weapons production and stopped its use in war theaters and practice ranges; 5. the U.S. Army and Air Force to follow the lead of the U.S. Navy as it has stopped its use of DU weapons. If the Navy has recognized the dangers of DU's use, it follows that the other military services should also end their use of DU weapons. -------- russia Gaidar had 'no radiation poison' By Richard Galpin BBC News, Moscow Saturday, 2 December 2006 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6202884.stm The health authorities in Ireland say former Russian Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar has not been the victim of radiation poisoning. Mr Gaidar fell ill while attending a conference in Dublin last week. His daughter, Maria, said this week she believed her father had been the target of a political poisoning linked to the case of Alexander Litvinenko. Mr Litvinenko, a former Russian spy, died in London after being poisoned with radioactive element polonium-210. Although radiation has now been ruled out as a cause for Mr Gaidar's mysterious illness, his spokesman, Valery Natarov, told the BBC they were still waiting for the results of further tests carried out by doctors here in Moscow. 'Recovering well' Mr Natarov and members of Mr Gaidar's family remain concerned that he was contaminated by "an unnatural product," as they put it. They say there was sudden disruption to all his vital bodily functions which has not been explained so far. They expect the Russian doctors to announce their conclusions on Monday. Since flying back to Moscow, Mr Gaidar has apparently made a good recovery and could be released from hospital soon. The British embassy in Moscow issued a statement saying it believed there was no link between Mr Gaidar's case and that of Mr. Litvinenko. Mr Gaidar's daughter, Maria, was quick to make the connection and claim her father had been poisoned by people seeking to destabilise Russia. When pushed to define who she meant she said elements within the Russian security services and opponents of the government who are now living in exile abroad. Much now depends on the conclusions of the Russian doctors. -------- security For sale: Isotope used to kill ex-spy By KEAY DAVIDSON SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE Saturday, December 2, 2006 http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/294472_poison02.html It's one of the deadliest imaginable poisons, a radioactive substance about 100 billion times as deadly as cyanide -- and a Web site run by a physicist and flying saucer enthusiast offers to sell you a trace amount of it for $69 and send it via the U.S. Postal Service or UPS. Contrary to early news reports, polonium-210 -- the poison suspected in the death of an ex-Russian spy in England -- is not some exotic material available solely from nuclear labs. The isotope is available from firms that sell it for lawful and legitimate uses in industry, such as removing static electricity from machinery and photographic film. If ingested in large enough amounts, polonium-210 causes a hideous death. "This is not a way you'd want to die -- it's a very slow, painful death," said Kelly Classic, a radiation physicist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and the media liaison for the Health Physics Society, a national organization of experts on the health effects of radiation. Polonium is an "alpha emitter," which, when it decays, emits high-speed volleys of subatomic alpha particles -- each one made up of two protons and two neutrons bound together -- that rip apart DNA coils and bust up the cells in which they reside. An alpha particle "is huge on an atomic scale," Classic said. "If an electron was a piece of popcorn, the alpha particle (would be) like a bowling ball." Experts at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the nuclear weapons lab in Livermore, declined Monday to say how much polonium-210 would be needed to harm anyone. They said they were calculating how much would be needed -- but even if they knew the answer, they wouldn't reveal it publicly for ethical reasons. "In this day and age, we need to be extraordinarily careful about how to give out 'how-to' instructions," Livermore health physicist Gary Mansfield said. "We're not going to provide you a recipe to help the bad guys harm (people)." Polonium-210 is "approximately 100,000 million (100 billion) times more toxic than cyanide," according to "A Guide to the Elements, Second Edition," by Albert Stwertka, published in 2002 by Oxford University Press. The isotope has a short half-life of 138 days, which might make it difficult to trace after a relatively short time. Although the alpha particles can wreak devastating damage inside a cell, paradoxically they're too frail to break through human skin -- meaning that no one would be able to detect them escaping from the human body. In the United States, it is legal for vendors licensed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to sell small amounts of polonium-210 and other radioactive sources without the buyers having to receive special permission from the government. United Nuclear Scientific Equipment & Supplies of Sandia Park, N.M., will sell you a small amount of polonium-210 for $69 in a small, yellow, disk-shaped container. The firm offers a long list of available radioactive sources on its commercial Web site. United Nuclear is run by Bob Lazar, who attracted national attention when he claimed to have worked on crashed alien spaceships at a U.S. military base in Nevada called Area 51. In May, the Albuquerque Journal reported that agents from the U.S. Department of Justice raided Lazar's firm in 2003. Lazar claimed that federal government officials wanted his firm to stop selling chemicals that they said could be used to make explosives, the paper reported. ---- Polonium-210, Fiction and Fact by Gordon Prather December 2, 2006 Antiwar.com http://www.antiwar.com/prather/?articleid=10094 According to Seymour Hersh, in early 2004, John Bolton, who was then the Under-Secretary of State for Arms Control, privately conveyed to International Atomic Energy Agency officials his suspicions that Iran was conducting research – at Parchin, the center of Iran’s Defense Industries Organization – into "the intricately timed detonation of conventional explosives" needed for implosion-type nuclear weapons. But, even if Bolton’s suspicions were true, if no nuclear materials proscribed by the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons had been used in the alleged Iranian tests, then Iran would not have been in willful violation of its NPT-associated IAEA Safeguards agreement. In that case, what the Iranians had done or were doing at Parchin was literally none of the IAEA’s business. So, at a press conference held in Paris on 3 February, 2005, by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (a US State Department designated "terrorist organization") Mohammad Mohaddessin, the self-styled Chairman of their Foreign Affairs Committee, made certain specific charges about Iran’s ongoing nuclear programs. "Brigadier General Dr. Seyyed Ali Hosseini Tash, deputy Defense Minister, is the official in charge producing weapons of mass destruction in the Ministry of Defense. He is, among other things, responsible for producing the neutron initiator for the nuclear bomb. The production of Beryllium and polonium-210 is being carried out under the supervision of Hosseini Tash. He has all the capabilities of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization at his disposal. "By irradiating Bismuth metal, Iranians have succeeded in transmuting it into Polonium-210. Tehran has lied to the IAEA that it has not produced Polonium-210 in the past 12 years, since 1993. It has also failed to offer convincing explanation as to why it had produced Polonium-210 in the early 1990s. "Despite such denials, Tehran is now producing Polonium-210 at Lavizan II military site, which I first revealed in November. That site is affiliated with the Defense Ministry's Center for New Technology, headed by Dr. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who reports directly to Hosseini Tash. Dr. Fereidoon Abbasi is the deputy to Fakhrizadeh." Polonium-210 is a NPT proscribed nuclear material. Here’s why: From a formerly Top Secret description of the Soviet Union’s first implosion-type nuclear weapon – "Construction of the bomb: "The element 94 [Plutonium], without any uranium-235, is the active material of this bomb. The so-called initiator, namely a beryllium-polonium source of alpha particles, is inserted into the centre of a ball of plutonium. (The plutonium is surrounded by 50 pounds of tube-alloy [U-238],* which is the 'tamper.') "All this is placed in an aluminum shell of thickness 11 cm. This aluminum shell in turn is surrounded by a layer of the explosive 'pentalit' or Composition C (Composition B according to other information) with wall thickness 46 cm. "The casing of the bomb into which this explosive is inserted has an inner diameter of 140 cm. The total weight of the bomb including the pentalit, the casing, etc. is about 3 tonnes. "It is anticipated that the force of the bomb explosion will be equal to the explosive force of 5000 tonnes of TNT. (The efficiency is 5-6%.) The fission count equals 75 x 10exp24." Now, hardly anyone would use a PoBe initiator in a modern implosion-type nuke. Here’s why. Polonium-210 is produced in quantity by irradiating Bismuth with neutrons in a nuclear reactor. And if the reactor is IAEA Safeguarded, the Polonium-210 becomes subject to the IAEA Safeguards and Physical Security system. But the Polonium-210 half-life is only 138 days. Hence, if the nuke is not to be a dud, the Polonium-210 used to fabricate the PoBe initiator for a nuke needs to be produced a mere 10-12 months before the nuke is actually used. Now, at the time the NCRI official made the charges about Iran, as best the IAEA could determine – after more than a year of extremely intrusive on-the-ground inspections, conducted in conjunction with a full-scope Additional Protocol to Iran’s Safeguards Agreement – there was "no indication" that any nuclear materials proscribed by the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons had ever been produced for – much less diverted to – a "military purpose." Nevertheless, according to Hersh, in response to the NCRI allegations, in November of 2005, an IAEA inspection team was allowed to single out a specific site at Iran’s super-secret Defense Industries Organization, and then was granted access to a few buildings at that site. According to Hersh’s IAEA source, "We found no evidence of nuclear materials." That didn’t deter our erstwhile UN Ambassador, John Bolton, who seized on these allegations to strong-arm first the Brits-French-Germans (who were negotiating, allegedly on behalf of the European Union, a package of "objective guarantees" from Iran that its nuclear programs were strictly for peaceful purposes) into demanding that Iran suspend indefinitely all its uranium-enrichment activities. When Iran – understandably – concluded that such a demand was inconsistent with the terms of so-called Paris Accord, which constituted the basis for the negotiations, Iran resumed some of the IAEA Safeguarded uranium-enrichment activities it had voluntarily suspended more than two years before. Well, Bolton went Bonkers. He then strong-armed the IAEA Board of Governors – who were not involved in any way in the Paris Accord negotiations – into demanding that Iran re-suspend those Safeguarded uranium-enrichment activities, provide the IAEA Board information that under its Statute it had no right to request (much less "demand") and return to the Paris Accord negotiations. Ultimately, Bonkers Bolton even strong-armed the UN Security Council into passing UNSCR 1696, which "called" upon Iran to acquiesce to the IAEA Board’s demands. Or else. Or else what? Well, as of this writing, nothing much. Meanwhile, a large quantity of Polonium-210 – apparently produced within the past year at some un-safeguarded nuclear reactor – has been used to poison some former Russian spy in London. "According to Israel Inside, Leonid Nevzlin, former CEO of the oil giant Yukos and current chairman of the Diaspora Museum in Tel Aviv, said the former Russian spy had come to Israel in the weeks before his murder with classified documents on Yukos that might be damaging to Russian leaders. Nevzlin estimated that Litvinenko’s death had been connected with this information, which he had handed to London police investigators of the murder." Perhaps it isn’t significant, but most Russian nuclear reactors are subject to IAEA Safeguards. None of Israel’s are. -------- u.s. nuc facilities -------- connecticut Connecticut Yankee To Leave A Legacy Hartford Courant By GARY LIBOW December 02, 2006 http://www.topix.net/content/trb/0675708747412633237801116758092750293208 When the Connecticut Yankee nuclear power plant's physical decommissioning is completed this month, 1,000-plus spent nuclear fuel rods will remain in Haddam Neck stored in steel-reinforced concrete casks. It could be decades before the federal government removes the highly radioactive material. Meanwhile, there will be an advisory panel charged with monitoring the situation. The Connecticut Yankee Fuel Storage Advisory Committee will replace the Community Decommissioning Advisory Committee, which was established in 1997 to monitor decommissioning activities. The new nine-member advisory committee will be activated in January, charged with keeping the public informed about the storage facility and the status of efforts to remove the contaminated material. The group will also be responsible for investigating and responding to community concerns. Members of the old Community Decommissioning Advisory Committee have been invited to serve on the new commission, which is charged with meeting at least twice a year and serving as a liaison to Connecticut Yankee, the community and state and federal regulators. Under the panel's charter, Connecticut Yankee will be responsible for keeping the advisory panel updated periodically with relevant or significant developments. The core nine-member panel will be composed of representatives serving two-year terms. The charter says panel members should include representatives from the state Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, the 2nd Congressional District, and the district's state representative. The commission also includes the first selectman or designee from Haddam; a Haddam Neck resident, designated by the board of selectmen; residents of East Haddam and East Hampton; a member of the Citizens Awareness Network; and the president or designee of Connecticut Yankee or its successor. Connecticut Yankee ceased producing electricity in 1996. Contact Gary Libow at glibow@courant.com. -------- michigan Park at ex-nuke site on hold Funding request pulled, but idea not dead December 2, 2006 BY TINA LAM DETROIT, MI, FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061202/NEWS05/612020357/1007/NEWS The state Department of Natural Resources withdrew its request Friday for $3 million from a state public trust fund to help buy the former Big Rock nuclear plant site near Charlevoix for a park, an official said Friday. But the park idea isn't dead. The proposal had drawn criticism from environmental groups, who dubbed it Plutonium State Park and said the land has residual contamination from 35 years of operation, including a containment area with 441 highly radioactive spent fuel rods, which will stay there until at least 2020. "We're very comfortable we could offer this property for public use," said Mindy Koch, the department's resource management deputy. But the request was withdrawn because of lingering questions, Koch said. "We're certainly not shutting the door," she said. "We absolutely believe this property should be in public hands." In fact, Koch said, the DNR has a request for $3 million in federal funding pending before Congress. The department will apply for another $6 million from that program. The price of the 450 acres was pegged at $19.3 million earlier this week. Sam Washington, chairman of the trust fund board, said Friday the price was not certain. "We have a policy not to put public money out there in limbo since we don't know if they would need to come back to us for more," he said. The trust fund board had expected to vote Wednesday on the state request for $3 million. The DNR could come back next year and request money once the issues are resolved. Jackson-based Consumers Energy, which owns the land, will continue to work with groups who want to buy the site, spokesman Tim Petrovsky said. The plant closed in 1997. "It's really disappointing to hear," said Joanne Beemon, a Charlevoix resident and former anti-nuclear activist who supports the park concept. "I think some of the questions are valid and they will be answered." But others, including the Michigan Environmental Council, say the state has better options for trust fund dollars. The trust fund comes from state oil and gas royalties. "We're pleased that other deserving proposals -- ones without nuclear waste and liability issues -- will now have a better chance to get funded," said Hugh McDiarmid Jr., spokesman for the Michigan Environmental Council. Contact TINA LAM at 313-222-6421 or tlam@freepress.com. -------- new york Indian Point 2 resumes output By BRUCE GOLDING THE NY JOURNAL NEWS (Original publication: December 2, 2006) http://www.nyjournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061202/NEWS01/612020347/1214 BUCHANAN - The Indian Point 2 nuclear power plant was producing electricity again after its second unplanned shutdown in less than a month. Technicians turned the energy system back on about 12:10 a.m. yesterday after workers fixed a pipe that on Thursday was found leaking water and steam into the containment dome that houses the nuclear reactor, according to Entergy Nuclear Northeast, the company that owns Indian Point. "It was a very small leak that we could have actually fixed without shutting the plant down," Entergy spokesman Jim Steets said. "But we chose to take the conservative route and avoid radiation exposure for workers repairing the plant." The 33-year-old plant was approaching full power production at 12:30 p.m. yesterday, Steets said. The site's other working plant, Indian Point 3, remained in service during the outage. Last week, Entergy announced it would seek federal permission to keep producing atomic energy at Indian Point through 2035. Each plant generates 1,000 megawatts of electricity, which meets between 18 percent and 38 percent of the region's daily needs, according to Entergy. Indian Point 2 was shut down about 8:30 a.m. Thurday after discovery of the leak, which involved nonradioactive water used to make steam that spins the turbine that generates electricity. The leak, from a crack in a 1-inch steel alloy pipe, dripped water at the rate of about just under half a gallon an hour. Workers made the repair by cutting out the damaged section of pipe and welding in a replacement, the Entergy spokes-man said. This week's shutdown of Indian Point 2 was the second since Nov. 16, when an electrical conductor failed during a power surge. There were two other unplanned outages at each plant during the past year. Entergy also is dealing with the August 2005 discovery of dangerous radioactive materials in the groundwater under the site. The materials include strontium 90, an extremely hazardous kind of nuclear waste that can cause bone cancer and leukemia. Join the discussion on Indian Point in the "Issues in the Lower Hudson Valley" forum at LoHud.com. Reach Bruce Golding at bgolding@lohud.com or 914-694-5012. -------- MILITARY -------- iraq Baghdad says civilian deaths up 44 percent in November Compiled by Lebanon Daily Star staff Saturday, December 02, 2006 http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=77325 The number of Iraqi civilians killed in violence appears to have leapt by 44 percent in November from October, officials said Friday as powerful Iraqi Shiite leader Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim prepared to travel to the United States. -------- mideast Morocco to do away with compulsory army service Reuters Published: 02/12/2006 http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/06/12/02/10086704.html Rabat : Morocco is to scrap compulsory military service in a move analysts said on Thursday was aimed at blocking infiltration of the military by Islamists hatching an anti-monarchist plot. Morocco has been on alert over religious hardliners since 2003 when suicide bombings killed 45 people in Casablanca. Analysts said the security concerns had deepened since the discovery in August of a group, Ansar Al Mehdi (Mehdi Partisans), accused by government of planning to launch a holy war to establish a caliphate Islamic state. The group infiltrated the army and police to recruit at least nine of their members. -------- spies Meeting the Italian who lives as if he is in a Cold War spy novel By Peter Popham in Rome 02 December 2006 UK Independent http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2032665.ece I learnt yesterday that I belong to a select club: those who have been close enough to Mario Scaramella, the Italian KGB expert, since his now notorious lunch with Alexander Litvinenko at the Itsu sushi bar in London on 1 November, to require testing for radioactivity. Because yesterday, in the latest twist in the poisoning saga, the world learnt the Italian is contaminated with polonium-210. When I met him in the lobby of Rome's Termini station on 20 November, it was the first interview he had given to the Western press since being implicated in the Litvinenko case. He was clutching a large envelope with the name of a hospital in Rome printed on it. He had just returned, he said, from being tested for contamination by radioactive thallium. They had given him a clean bill of health. Did he even then have reason to believe that he was contaminated? If so, he wasn't letting on - and even yesterday, as news of his positive test became known, he said reassuringly from London that he was in the clear. He agreed to see me because I was the only British journalist who knew him personally. He was behind a story last year claiming the Soviets had laid 20 nuclear torpedoes on the seabed in the Bay of Naples. To follow the story up, I had lunch with him near the Pantheon in Rome. Meeting Scaramella is like walking into the pages of a Cold War thriller. This time, post Itsu, he showed me e-mails from an ex-KGB agent called Limarev warning that he and Litvinenko were in danger. This, he said, was the reason for meeting Litvinenko - only Limarev has denied sending them. Yesterday, in London, Scaramella said he was unable to return to Italy yet as there was "a problem". He may be away some time. -------- us From skies to streets, woman warriors face the enemy and change military landscape 12/2/2006 By Sharon Cohen, Associated Press http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-12-02-women-war_x.htm A goodwill mission to deliver kerosene heaters to Iraqi schools erupts into the fiery chaos of a roadside bombing — and Maj. Mary Prophit shields a comrade so he can rescue a critically burned Iraqi soldier. A convoy outside Baghdad is ambushed by machine-gun wielding Iraqi insurgents — and Spc. Ashley Pullen races down a road to save an injured sergeant. A Black Hawk helicopter is struck by a rocket-propelled grenade in Iraq — and co-pilot Tammy Duckworth, bloody and severely wounded, struggles to stay conscious until the damaged aircraft is down and her crew is safe. In Iraq and Afghanistan, women warriors are writing a new chapter in military history, serving by the tens of thousands, fending off enemy fire and taking on — and succeeding in — high-profile roles in the battlefield and the skies as never before. "The American public is beginning to realize that women are playing an equal part in this war and that they are facing the same risks," says Duckworth, who lost both legs in the 2004 insurgent attack. "This is the first time in our nation's history ... when it's normal to see female names as part of the war wounded or those killed in action." More than 155,000 women have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002, according to the Pentagon, nearly four times the number during the Persian Gulf War. Females now account for 15% of the active duty force. The number of women casualties — 68 dead and more than 430 injured — represents a tiny fraction of the total. Still, by one estimate, the deaths exceed the number of military women who lost their lives in Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf War combined. The public, long accustomed to seeing disabled male veterans and grieving widows clutching folded U.S. flags, has adjusted to a new set of somber images: women soldiers coming home with life-changing injuries and tearful farewells to mothers, wives and daughters. In just two weeks in September, bombs killed four military women in Iraq and Afghanistan. Among them: Sgt. 1st Class Merideth Howard, a 52-year-old former firefighter with a master's degree in marine biology, and 2nd Lt. Emily J.T. Perez, a 23-year-old West Point graduate of the "Class of 9-11" who played the clarinet, spoke fluent German, read the Bible daily and helped start an AIDS ministry at her church. There is no shared experience that binds together the women of war. Each has a different story, a reason why they're in uniform, an explanation of how their lives have changed. Some feel pressured to prove themselves as women. Others don't. Some never fire their weapons. Others engage in life-and-death battles. Some are professional soldiers. Others enlist for college money. A few are grandmothers; many more are in their 20s. Almost all serve anonymously, though a few have captured headlines back home. Former Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski made news as the highest-ranking officer punished in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. Jessica Lynch, the former prisoner of war, rocketed onto the nation's TV screens when she was portrayed as a guns-blazing, all-American heroine — a depiction she herself disavowed. But Lynch's job — Army supply clerk in a maintenance company — illustrates one of the realities of the war: No place is safe. As the insurgency took hold, that grew even more apparent. Front lines don't exist. Combat troops still face the heaviest losses and while women are mostly in support roles, a mortar or bomb can strike anywhere from a mess hall to a supply convoy. "My dad has friends who constantly tell him, 'Oh, your daughter's fine in Iraq. She's not in harm's way or she's not involved in combat,"' says Capt. Mary Caruso, who served two tours in Iraq, one as a platoon leader in the 194th Military Police Company. "I don't think the general public really sees what females are doing over there," she says. "We don't have a linear battlefield anymore. The enemy's everywhere." Women are barred from units assigned to direct ground combat — the infantry, armor and artillery, for example. While many remain in traditional jobs, such as health care, they've also served as translators and mechanics, commanded police companies and support battalions, flown jet fighters and attack helicopters. They've been heroes, too. In the Kentucky National Guard's 617th Military Police Company, Army Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester became the first woman since World War II to win the Silver Star for heroism. After a supply convoy was ambushed, she and others counterattacked, killing more than two dozen insurgents. Spc. Ashley Pullen, another member of the unit, received a Bronze Star for valor, risking her life to help save a wounded soldier in the same attack. In recommending her for a medal, her company commander praised her "incredible courage." "We now know women can hold their own, they're brave, they do have the physical and mental stamina to face combat-like situations," says retired Navy Capt. Lory Manning, director of the Women in the Military Project at the Women's Research and Education Institute in Washington, D.C. "We now know that men don't go to pieces and the American public doesn't go to pieces if women are killed. And we know that women, in fact, can defend men." Manning says that represents a change in perceptions. "I used to get a lot of guff that women can't do this, that women are weakening the military, women are feminizing the military — that's gone with the wind," she says. "The debate about whether they belong there seems to be over." Not quite. Though women are widely viewed as essential with the nation's fighting forces stretched thin and they perform jobs off-limits to men for cultural reasons — searching Iraqi females, for instance — the critics have not been silenced. "Engaging the enemy in this uncivilized thing we call war is a job for men, not women," Kate O'Beirne, a conservative pundit and Washington editor of the National Review, said in a radio interview this spring. She likened it to a man sending his wife or daughter to check out a possible home break-in. Martin van Creveld, a prominent military historian and Iraq war critic, argues the contribution of females in the conflict has been dramatically exaggerated. "They're not occupying any particularly important positions or fighting in the front ... If there were not a single woman (deployed), the war would be the same," he says. The Center for Military Readiness, a conservative think tank, contends that the Army has ignored its rules that prevent female soldiers from being in units that "physically collocate and remain with" ground combat troops. Elaine Donnelly, the center's president, says that creates the potential for romantic involvement, morale problems and physical hazards. A woman, she says, might not be strong enough to rescue a wounded male soldier. "All these social issues do matter," she says. "Cohesion is what lives depend on. It's all about survival. If you start causing doubts, you make the job more difficult or dangerous for everybody." Last year, some members of Congress tried to curb the role of women in combat zones, but retreated after running into opposition from the Pentagon and lawmakers from both parties. Capt. Christine Roney was tangled in the debate in 2004 when she was about to take command of a forward support company that would accompany a combat battalion. She says she was told several male captains fired off e-mails to members of Congress and the Center for Military Readiness opposing the move. One captain, she says, messaged one of her peers asking: "What are you guys doing sending a female over here?" When plans changed and a man was chosen to take command, Roney says she was disappointed at first, then reconsidered. "I probably did think having a female would have been disruptive in some sense," she says. "They might think they have to act differently with a woman." Roney, who ended up commanding a logistics company that conducted more than 500 missions in the streets of Baghdad, thinks gender walls will crumble as more women and men work together. "Sometimes," she says, "they need to get females in the unit to see they have some of the same abilities, the same competencies as the male soldiers." Some of that already has happened. Capt. Tara Stiles was a platoon leader in the 194th Military Police Company supporting the First Marine Expeditionary Force. "At first, they were kind of leery," she says. But after a few weeks "they'd rather have my platoon vs. one of the others led by males. .. They needed their backs covered and we were there. And vice versa." Stiles' company was commanded by Capt. Terri Dorn, who says she noticed some Marines were uncomfortable dealing with females, but she didn't detect resentment. "I never felt like someone was trying to tell me we're in the wrong place," she says. "It was, 'Oh my God, what do we do?' ... Really what you're doing is teaching that person how to deal with a female." Dorn says when men would tell her they'd never had a woman in their unit, she'd reply: "Don't think of them as females. Talk to them as soldiers." It was advice she, too, found useful. "I wasn't a female," she says. "I was a company commander." Dorn says some Iraqi military leaders proved a far bigger obstacle. There were those, she says, who refused to shake her hand. "It didn't hinder our conversation," she says. "It didn't hurt my feelings ... I proved myself by not allowing them NOT to speak with me." For decades there have been questions about men and women bunking in the same quarters and whether they could serve together without distractions. While problems such as sexual harassment and assault remain, some say that gender lines blur when lives are on the line. "Traditionally, the front is the most sexless place in the world. Behind the lines is where trouble happens," says Joshua Goldstein, a professor emeritus of international relations at American University and author of "War and Gender." Lt. Col. Cheri Provancha, who commanded a Stryker Brigade Support Battalion in Iraq with 700 soldiers, says she didn't detect a gender gap among her troops. "It didn't matter if you were male or female," she says. "You're going through the same thing as your buddy. That creates a bond." Provancha also says she has noticed firsthand how attitudes toward women have changed in her 23 years in the Army. "In the 1980s when a male soldier walks in the door, the expectation is they are competent. The woman on the other hand, it was 'I've got to see what you have before I give you that level of confidence,"' she says. "Now when I walk in the door, I feel like the guys do." But other officers say the military is far from having an even playing field. Janis Karpinski, who was demoted to colonel after the scandal at the Abu Ghraib prison, says she was a scapegoat — and she blames many of her problems on being a woman. When the prison conditions started unraveling, she says, "there was not a good ole boy network to support me. They wouldn't let me in. ... There was not a male commander to say, 'Hey, Janis, you better watch out.' Had I been a man, I would have been aware of it all along." Karpinski says the military is still regarded by many men in uniform — especially the older ones — as the "last bastion of male dominance and they're very reluctant to give up this turf to women." And yet, some see progress, partly because younger men are moving up in the ranks along with women. "Gender integration is not perfect by any stretch, but it's a heck of lot better than it was 30 years ago when women entered the military academy," says Mady Wechsler Segal, professor of sociology at the University of Maryland and an expert on the military. Women have a long history of military service going back to the Revolutionary War, when they sometimes disguised themselves as men to defend their country. Through the many wars, they've been spies and soldiers, nurses and pilots — and prisoners. Relatively few, however, have fallen from enemy fire. In World War I, for example, nearly 360 servicewomen died, mostly nurses stricken by influenza, according to the Women's Memorial Foundation. And in World War II, more than 330,000 women served both domestically and abroad, and more than 540 died, mostly from vehicle accidents, air crashes and illness, according to the foundation. Sixteen Army nurses died by enemy fire, the group says. In the Persian Gulf War, about two-thirds of the 15 women who died lost their lives in non-hostile incidents. (In Iraq and Afghanistan, more than a third of the deaths have been non-combat fatalities.) After the Gulf War, the Army opened thousands more jobs to women, including piloting attack and scout helicopters. Maj. Tammy Duckworth — who recently lost a bid for Congress — says when she joined the Illinois Army National Guard, she picked aviation because it was a combat position open to women. "I wanted to be treated equally to the males in my unit ... and I felt part of that was accepting the same kind of risks," she says. Early on, she says she adapted to being a woman in a man's world. "I tried to be one of the boys, to be tough or tougher," she says. But her attitude changed as she was promoted. "I knew I was a good enough officer on my own and I stopped trying to be extra-macho," she says. Besides, she adds, some of the guys were already teasing her that she had "ovaries of brass." But other women say they're mindful of being a minority and feel pressure — some of it self-imposed — to demonstrate their physical strength and their mental toughness so no one thinks they'll crumble when bullets start flying or bombs start exploding. Alicia Flores says she earned the respect of male comrades in the Army's 92nd Chemical Company by hauling bodies, cleaning up feces, doing everything men did. "I had a lot of guys look up to me and say, 'How could you be out here doing this?' " Flores says she was determined not to show weakness. "I saw a lot of guys break down," she says. "Most of the times I did a lot better than they did. ... I wasn't going to break down and cry. Crying wasn't going to get me anywhere. It was just going to get me dirtier." Aneta Urban stood out as the only women in her Marine police company during training in Camp Pendleton, Calif. She could feel all eyes on her. "When it's 100 guys and you're the only girl, it's like proving yourself every day," she says. "When you're doing rifle training, close combat training, they're looking at you a lot more closely. They're wondering: Can she do it? Can she handle it? You don't want to be laughed at." Two years later, when she was deployed, she felt she had measured up. "They knew they could depend on me," she says. "They knew I could pull my own weight. They knew they could trust me if something happened." Even so, Urban, a native of Poland who served as translator on a second tour, says she would never complain about "stupid girly issues" such as the lack of bathrooms. "We were under enough stress as it is ... without worrying about finding a place to go pee," she says. Some women say hygiene issues, whether it's going to the bathroom in a hole in the ground or not being able to wash your hair for a month, tend to be harder on females than men. Some find creative solutions. Maj. Mary Prophit, for instance, secured her own shower, trading a Benchmade knife in exchange. Prophit was part of a four-member Civil Affairs team and one of three women among a task force of 700. If that didn't set her apart, her age did. "I was old enough to be their mother," says the 42-year-old mother of three who is a library assistant in Glenoma, Wash. "I thought it was kind of cool." Despite two decades in the Army Reserve, Prophit says she felt internal pressures to be a good model. "I knew if I screwed up, someone would say, 'That's why we shouldn't have women in the military,"' she says. "I want to make sure that no one thinks the mission dragged on because I'm there." In January 2005, Prophit demonstrated her skills when the convoy she was in was attacked by a roadside bomb, ripping into the truck behind her that was carrying Iraqi soldiers. With ammunition exploding from the blazing truck, Prophit used her body as a shield so a medic could tend to one of the badly burned Iraqis. Later, she laid down fire at a mosque where insurgents were hiding. Prophit then propped up the critically wounded Iraqi with her body in the tight quarters of the Stryker armored vehicle, placed his head in her lap and tried to keep him conscious as they raced to the hospital. "My performance was a testament that women can be in combat," she says. But she draws a line. "I definitely don't think women should be in the infantry. It's not because they're not mentally strong enough or physically strong enough. If you mix genders, that alters the dynamic of the group." After the war ends, the military and Congress will evaluate these kinds of experiences and there will be renewed discussion about what combat is, but any changes will probably be incremental, not dramatic, says Manning, the military expert. For now, though, she says, "the public accepts that women are in the military, that there are going to be shootings, that they're going to be dying, and that's fine — with most people." -------- war crimes New Zealand cancels arrest warrant for Israeli general By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem 02 December 2006 UK Independent http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2032688.ece The former head of Israel's army continued unimpeded with a trip to New Zealand yesterday after the country's attorney general rescinded a warrant issued for his arrest to face allegations of war crimes. Moshe Yaalon, who was chief of staff until June last year, said that he was still in New Zealand despite the warrant for his arrest. The decision by the Auckland district court on Monday last week was overruled on Thursday by the New Zealand attorney general, Michael Cullen. General Yaalon told Israel's army radio yesterday: "I am continuing to travel in New Zealand. I did not run away from anywhere and I don't intend to run away." The petition sought General Yaalon's trial for his part in the assassination in Gaza of a leading Hamas figure, Salah Shehadeh, who was killed by a one-ton bomb dropped by the Israeli air force on his house in 2002. The bomb, which fell in a residential area, killed at least 14 civilians, including seven members of the Mattar family. A surviving member, Ra'ed Mattar, was named as one of the complainants. The legal move was the latest against senior Israeli security personnel made on behalf of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights and their London-based firm of solicitors, Hickman Rose, who said Palestinians were "devastated" by the attorney's decision. Major General Doron Almog, who recently completed an official military investigation into the conduct of the Lebanon war, flew back to Tel Aviv from London without leaving his aircraft in September last year when he was tipped off that he faced arrest because of a similar type of warrant. General Yaalon said yesterday: "I know there was an intention to file a suit against me. But I am glad New Zealand is one of the countries that implements the law the right way and does not allow people who want to make propaganda to use [the law] to attack people like us." Judge Avinash Deobhakta, who granted the original application, said it established a prima facie case against General Yaalon. In New Zealand the attorney general is required to authorise a prosecution but not the issue of an arrest warrant. Dr Cullen said that to his knowledge no government officials, MPs or ministers had met General Yaalon, and "there has been no contact at any level" between his office and the Israeli government or its embassy in Canberra. -------- POLITICS -------- us politics Is President Bush Sane? by Paul Craig Roberts Antiwar.com December 2, 2006 http://www.antiwar.com/roberts/?articleid=10093 Tens of millions of Americans want President George W. Bush to be impeached for the lies and deceit he used to launch an illegal war and for violating his oath of office to uphold the US Constitution. Millions of other Americans want Bush turned over to the war crimes tribunal at the Hague. The true fate that awaits Bush is psychiatric incarceration. The president of the United States is so deep into denial that he is no longer among the sane. Delusion still rules Bush three weeks after the American people repudiated him and his catastrophic war in elections that delivered both House and Senate to the Democrats in the hope that control over Congress would give the opposition party the strength to oppose the mad occupant of the White House. On November 28 Bush insisted that US troops would not be withdrawn from Iraq until he had completed his mission of building a stable Iraqi democracy capable of spreading democratic change in the Middle East. Bush made this astonishing statement the day after NBC News, a major television network, declared Iraq to be in the midst of a civil war, a judgment with which former Secretary of State Colin Powell concurs. The same day that Bush reaffirmed his commitment to building a stable Iraqi democracy, a secret US Marine Corps intelligence report was leaked. According to the Washington Post, the report concludes: "the social and political situation has deteriorated to a point that US and Iraqi troops are no longer capable of militarily defeating the insurgency in al-Anbar province." The Marine Corps intelligence report says that al-Qaeda is the "dominant organization of influence" in Anbar province, and is more important than local authorities, the Iraqi government and US troops "in its ability to control the day-to-day life of the average Sunni." Bush’s astonishing determination to deny Iraq reality was made the same day that the US-installed Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki and US puppet King Abdullah II of Jordan abruptly cancelled a meeting with Bush after Bush was already in route to Jordan on Air Force One. Bush could not meet with Maliki in Iraq, because violence in Baghdad is out of control. For security reasons, the US Secret Service would not allow President Bush to go to Iraq, where he is "building a stable democracy." Bush made his astonishing statement in the face of news leaks of the Iraq Study Group’s call for a withdrawal of all US combat forces from Iraq. The Iraq Study Group is led by Bush family operative James A. Baker, a former White House chief of staff, former Secretary of the Treasury, and former Secretary of State. Baker was tasked by father Bush to save the son. Apparently, son Bush hasn’t enough sanity to allow himself to be saved. Bush’s denial of Iraqi reality was made even as one of the most influential Iraqi Shi'ite leaders, Moqtada al-Sadr, is building an anti-US parliamentary alliance to demand the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. Maliki himself appears on the verge of desertion by his American sponsors. The White House has reportedly "lost confidence" in Maliki’s "ability to control violence." Fox "News" disinformation agency immediately began blaming Maliki for the defeat the US has suffered in Iraq. NY Governor Pataki told Fox "News" that "Maliki is not doing his job." Pataki claimed that US troops were doing "a great job." A number of other politicians and talking heads joined in the scapegoating of Maliki. No one explained how Maliki can be expected to save Iraq when US troops cannot provide enough security for the Iraqi government to go outside the heavily fortified "green zone" that occupies a small area of Baghdad. If the US Marines cannot control Anbar province, what chance is there for Maliki? What can Maliki do if the security provided by US troops is so bad that the president of the US cannot even visit the country? The only people in Iraq who are safe belong to al-Qaeda and the Sunni insurgents or are Shi'ite militia leaders such as al-Sadr. An American group, the Center for Constitutional Rights, has filed war crimes charges in Germany against former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. A number of former US attorneys believe President Bush and Vice President Cheney deserve the same. Bush has destroyed the entire social, political, and economic fabric of Iraq. Saddam Hussein sat on the lid of Pandora’s Box of sectarian antagonisms, but Bush has opened the lid. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians have been killed as "collateral damage" in Bush’s war to bring "stable democracy" to Iraq. Tens of thousands of Iraqi children have been orphaned and maimed. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have fled their country. The Middle East is aflame with hatred of America, and the ground is shaking under the feet of American puppet governments in the Middle East. US casualties (killed and wounded) number 25,000. And Bush has not had enough! What better proof of Bush’s insanity could there be? -------- ACTIVISTS Massive anti-government protests continue in Lebanon By TOM LASSETER McClatchy Newspapers Sat, Dec. 02, 2006 http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/16150090.htm BEIRUT, Lebanon - A siege on Lebanon's American-backed government continued Saturday with tens of thousands of demonstrators sympathetic to the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah militia and its allies packing downtown Beirut and calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and his cabinet. The demonstrators filled the roads surrounding the center of Beirut, where the prime minister's office is located, effectively shutting down the capital. Hezbollah gave every indication that it is prepared for the long haul: setting up long rows of tents, portable bathrooms and handing out cups of water and sandwiches. Groups of men tended charcoal pits to keep a regular supply for their hookah pipes. "We have a target, ending the government, and we must achieve it," said Mohammed Khalil, a Hezbollah representative who was sitting with a group of men, all monitoring their walkie-talkies. Asked if he expected the crowd to turn to violence, Khalil shrugged his shoulders and said, "it is up to them (Lebanese government troops), we want to demonstrate peacefully." Saniora's government, mostly Christians and Sunni Muslims, has showed no sign of acquiescing. While Lebanon is a sliver of a nation with a relatively small population of about 4 million, it has long been a battlefield for competing powers in the region. Between Beirut's glittering office buildings, there are still walls pocked by mortar shells, a reminder of the civil war that lasted from 1975 to 1990. As is true in many other parts of the Middle East, there is in Lebanon an underlying friction: Will the country follow the American model of governance - preferred by Saniora - in which secular administrations pursue free market economies and work toward accommodation with Israel, or will it pursue something closer to Syria and Iran - preferred by Hezbollah - nations that resist U.S. influence and actively oppose Israel. It is a question that shaped the comments of most Lebanese interviewed Saturday. Many of those at the demonstration spoke not only about ending Saniora's government, but also of countering U.S. influence. And pro-Saniora officials interviewed Saturday said that they are trying to resist Syrian and Iranian influence. Both sides agreed that there is potential for violence. "I don't think the government will resign. I think we are going to see hard times in this country," said Mohammed Kabani, a Sunni Muslim parliament member who backs Saniora. "Whenever you have people in the streets, you cannot disregard the possibility of violence." Leaning against a tent, and wearing a green ball cap, demonstration organizer Mohammed Marji said that the sooner the government resigns, the better. "Our prime minister is doing the bidding of the Americans ... he should leave as soon as possible," said Marji, a member of Amal, a Shiite organization aligned with Hezbollah. "If he doesn't, he will destroy this country, things will deteriorate badly." The protests are the latest in a round of standoffs between Lebanon's U.S.-backed government and Hezbollah and other supporters of the Syrian government. Syria was forced to withdraw its troops from Lebanon in 2005 after former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was killed in a massive bombing downtown. Anti-Syrian factions in Lebanon immediately blamed Syria for the killing and called for an international inquiry. More assassinations of anti-Syrian figures followed. Hezbollah's hand was strengthened in the Shiite community after a 34-day war with Israel this summer that ended in something of stalemate - counted by Hezbollah as a victory because it was able, with less advanced weaponry, to withstand Israel's missile and bombing strikes. Saniora, on the other hand, appeared ineffectual during the combat, pleading on TV - weeping at one point - for both sides to stop. Early last month, a White House spokesman said there was evidence that Syria and Iran were planning to overthrow Saniora's government. Hezbollah cabinet members and their allies had been protesting against Lebanese government plans to approve a United Nations tribunal to investigate Hariri's death. They also agitated for more cabinet seats, wanting the power to veto government action. When it became apparent they were not going to have their way, all five Hezbollah and Amal cabinet members resigned on Nov. 11, and about a week later, Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, called for street protests to bring down the government. After Nasrallah's call to action, Pierre Gemayel, a high-profile cabinet member who opposed Syria, was killed in a hail of gunfire in broad daylight. A protest of hundreds of thousands of Christians and Sunni Muslims followed, and late last month, the remaining 18 cabinet members of the original 24 approved the United Nations measure. On Friday, Hezbollah and its allies responded in kind, flooding Beirut's downtown streets and bringing the government and businesses to a standstill. At the demonstration Saturday, a set of loud speakers played recorded speeches by Hezbollah officials and their allies, and thousands of people waved their Lebanese flags and cheered. When Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's voice boomed out, "we will stand side by side," a roar went through the crowd that shook the air. Wandering through the crowd, a McClatchy reporter was approached by young men dressed in black who seemed very eager to discuss Hezbollah's merits. One of them, Fouad Assaf, explained: "During the war we fled our house and Hezbollah gave us food and money" Lebanese troops stood nearby, behind two rows of concertina wire and flanked by armored personnel carriers. Interviewed by phone later in the evening, Hezbollah parliament member Ali Mokdad said the demonstrations were only the beginning. "We have many plans for the future," Mokdad said. "This is just our first step. It has been planned out, day-by-day." ---- Anti-war activist wins reins of Liberal party in Canada convention BY BETH DUFF-BROWN, Associated Press, 12/02/2006 http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_4763101 MONTREAL - A former environment minister who criticized the prime minister for "blindly" committing forces to Afghanistan for years won leadership of Canada's Liberal Party on Saturday. Stephane Dion scored a surprise defeat of front-runner Michael Ignatieff, a scholar and human rights expert. Dion, environment minister under former Prime Minister Paul Martin and a strong supporter of the Kyoto Protocol to cut greenhouse gas emissions, came into the race in fourth place out of eight candidates. "The most exciting race in the history of our party is over; let's get ready for the election," Dion, 51, told the party convention moments after winning more than half the votes of the 5,000 delegates. Dion has attacked Prime Minister Stephen Harper for "blindly" committing Canadian Forces to Afghanistan until 2009. Some 2,300 Canadian troops are helping other NATO forces fight the Taliban in the south. "Canada has a prime minister who thinks that the United States is not only our ally, but also our model," Dion said in his speech Friday night. Ignatieff's opponents cited his early support of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, a highly unpopular war among Canadians. He initially argued the war was in the best interests of international security, but has since said President George W. Bush has made mistakes. Ignatieff also supported Canada's role in Afghanistan. Harper's Conservatives beat the Liberals in elections in January, unseating them after nearly 13 years in power. The stunning defeat left the party flailing, and delegates are now looking to the person who can rebuild the party and take back the House of Commons in the next elections, expected in 2007. Ignatieff, 59, had only returned to Canada last year, leaving his position as director of Harvard's Carr Center of Human Rights Policy to win his first seat in Parliament and stake his claim to the leadership position. He called on all Liberals in the convention hall to unanimously support Dion. "This is a day in which every Liberal in this room can feel deeply proud of the party we love," he said. "We have chosen a great leader. We have chosen a principled man, a man with vision, a man with courage." ---- 11 'antiwar grandmas' won't get jail By Joseph A. Gambardello Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Writer Sat, Dec. 02, 2006 http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/world/16145502.htm A judge dismissed charges yesterday against 11 antiwar grandmothers arrested in June for refusing to leave a Center City military recruiting station after trying to enlist to serve in Iraq. The women - including poet Sonia Sanchez and Lillian Willoughby, a 91-year-old wheelchair-bound Quaker from Deptford - faced up to 90 days in jail if convicted of defiant trespass. Municipal Court Judge Deborah Griffin dismissed the charge, saying the women were in a public place and did nothing except refuse a request to leave. The courtroom - packed with supporters and other defendants awaiting their own cases - erupted in applause when Griffin announced her decision. The judge silenced the crowd, saying "this is not television" and telling the supporters to take their celebration outside. They did. Before the hearing, about 75 people, including college students, rallied in support of the Granny Peace Brigade members outside the Community Court at 1401 Arch Street. Many wore shirts or carried signs that said, "We will not be silent." "The only way we'll get out of this terrible war is if people demand it," said Helen Evelev of Center City, one of the defendants. One of the protesters, Mary Frances Baugh, said it was the first time she had taken part in a rally against the war in Iraq. "Grandparents have earned the right to speak the truth," said Baugh, of Erie, who was visiting family in the city. "I can't stay home and rage. I had to get out to do something." The 11 women were arrested June 28 when they went to the Armed Forces Recruitment Center on Broad Street, offered to enlist to fight serve Iraq and refused to leave. Arguing that the women were engaged in constitutionally protected free speech, defense attorney Paul Messing noted they had caused no damage and quoted from a Pennsylvania Superior Court decision in another protester's case that quoted Thomas Jefferson saying, "a little rebellion now and then is a good thing." Three of the women, including Willoughby, spent a week in the federal Detention Center in 2004 after blocking the federal Courthouse in Center City shortly after the war started in 2003. See a slideshow of the Granny Peace Brigade at a rally outside the courthouse at http://go.philly.com/granny. Contact staff writer Joseph A. Gambardello at 215-854-2153 or jgambardello@phillynews.com. ---- Anti-war protester released after 24-hour jail sentence Saturday, December 02, 2006 - Bangor, Maine, Daily News By Toni-Lynn Robbins http://bangordailynews.com/news/t/news.aspx?articleid=143672&zoneid=500 BANGOR - A Stonington woman was released from Penobscot County Jail on Friday morning after serving a 24-hour jail sentence for her role in an anti-war protest held in September at U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe’s Bangor office. Nancy Hill, 53, was released from jail and met with a handful of awaiting friends just after 10 a.m. After initial hugs from her husband and friends, she made a statement proclaiming her "moral responsibility" to occupy the senator’s office in protest because "each of us Mainers are complicit to what is going on in Iraq." "It was such a void time," Hill said about her jail experience. "Incarceration is so punitive, they [the inmates] are all being forced to be useless." Hill was among 11 protesters who gathered at Snowe’s office in September, but unlike the rest, this was not her first brush with the law. In March 2003, Hill was one of 12 arrested at the Margaret Chase Smith Federal Building in Bangor. In that case, two went to trial and were sentenced to 10 hours of community service. Hill and the nine others pleaded no contest and had to perform 40 hours of community service or pay a $200 fine, which could be paid as a donation to the charity of their choice. Hill said she painted a homeless shelter for her community service last time. But Hill, after pleading guilty Thursday to her second criminal trespassing offense in 3rd District Court in Bangor, was not given the option of performing community service and refused to pay a fine. A typical fine for a second offense is between $400 and $500, said Assistant District Attorney Jim Aucoin, who prosecuted the case. The remaining 10 protesters from the September sit-in, though facing their first offense, also had earlier had a plea agreement for community service rejected by the court. On Thursday they pleaded not guilty and will go to trial on Jan. 9, according to defense attorney Lynne Williams. Richard Stander, who was arrested at the federal building in 2003 and showed up Friday to support Hill, said, "There has been a major shift in the policy of the courts, which now send peace activists to jail rather than performing community service." Stander said he feels civil disobedience, such as protesting, should be handled differently from a typical criminal trespass case. He also said community service should be an acceptable punishment for any criminal trespass crime, since it gives back to the community. Prosecutor Aucoin said Friday, "It is difficult to deal with these [such cases] because different judges do different things with them. Some see them as civil disobedience and others do not make the distinction from criminal trespass."