NucNews December 7, 2006 -------- NUCLEAR -------- australia Australian Panel Approves Uranium Deal with China REUTERS AUSTRALIA: December 7, 2006 http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/39371/story.htm CANBERRA - Australia will sell uranium to China from next year after a parliamentary committee approved an export deal on Wednesday with a call for tighter international safeguards. Australia, which holds 40 per cent of the world's recoverable uranium, reached agreement in April to begin exporting uranium to China in a deal that should double annual revenue from exports of the nuclear fuel to US$1 billion. Lawmakers on the parliamentary treaty committee, who needed to approve the deal, concluded it was in Australia's national interest. China is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, unlike India, which has tried, but so far failed, to win approval to buy Australian uranium. "The safeguards agreement offers adequate assurance that China will use Australian uranium and technology for peaceful purposes only," committee chairman Andrew Southcott said. China, with its huge population and buoyant economy, has a huge appetite for energy. It is banking on nuclear power to meet its needs and cut greenhouse emissions from fossil fuels. Despite its huge reserves, Australia accounts for only 23 percent of global uranium production, in part because of mining bans associated with fears over of the safety of nuclear waste and proliferation. The country currently exports uranium to 36 countries under strict conditions ensuring its peaceful use. Another parliamentary report on Monday called for the government to drop restrictions on uranium mining, saying fears about its safety were misplaced. Southcott's committee called for Australia to give more money and backing to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to strengthen on-site inspections in China. Committee members also called for inspection of conversion plants where uranium is enriched to be declared mandatory by the IAEA and the five declared nuclear weapons powers -- Britain, the United States, China, France and Russia. The deal with China will also pave the way for Australia to share civilian nuclear technology. ---- Australia to export uranium to China 2006-12-07 (Source: Shanghai Daily) http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-12/07/content_5448877.htm BEIJING, Dec. 7 -- Australia will sell uranium to China starting next year under an export deal approved yesterday by a parliamentary committee that ensured international safeguards would be met. Australia, which holds 40 percent of the world's recoverable uranium, reached agreement in April to begin exporting uranium to China, a move that should double annual revenue from exports of the nuclear fuel to 1 billion U.S. dollars. Lawmakers on the parliamentary treaty committee, who needed to approve the deal, concluded it was in Australia's national interest. China is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. "The safeguards agreement offers adequate assurance that China will use Australian uranium and technology for peaceful purposes only," committee Chairman Andrew Southcott said. Some experts expect China's nuclear power generating capacity to increase eightfold over the next 25 years. "Estimates available to the committee suggest that, at a current price of 100 dollars (78 dollars) a kilogram, with Australia selling an estimated 2,500 tons of uranium to China, this would earn Australia 250 million dollars a year," Southcott said. China, with a huge appetite for energy, is banking on nuclear power to meet its needs and cut greenhouse emissions from fossil fuels. Despite its huge reserves, Australia accounts for only 23 percent of global uranium production, in part because of mining bans associated with fears over the safety of nuclear waste and proliferation. -------- depleted uranium US and Israel targeting DNA in Gaza? Part 3 of 3: The DIME bomb, yet another genotoxic weapon By James Brooks Online Journal Contributing Writer Dec 7, 2006, 00:22 http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_1512.shtml The human genome: target or innocent bystander? Since early July, Israeli forces have been using a new weapon in the Gaza Strip that inflicts strange and deadly wounds. Doctors and medics say the unidentified device has significantly increased fatalities from Israel’s attacks. [1] [2] In the first two parts of this article, we reviewed evidence that Israel’s new weapon may be Dense Inert Metal Explosives (DIME), a “low collateral damage” weapon developed by the US Air Force. The DIME bomb’s “micro-shrapnel” is reportedly made of HMTA, a tungsten alloy that disrupts body biochemistry, damages the immune system, rapidly causes cancer, and attacks DNA (genotoxic). [3-9] The road to DIME DIME weapons are "spin-offs" from the military’s “bunker buster” research. Initially, “bunker busters” were made with depleted uranium (DU), which had already been used in armor-piercing bombs, bullets, and artillery shells. [10] The former director of the US Army’s Depleted Uranium project, Dr. Douglas Rokke, warns us that DU is an “illegal . . . radioactive toxic material,” the use of which “is absolutely unacceptable, and a crime against humanity.” [11] During Gulf War I, US forces deployed more than 300 tons of DU in Iraq. A few years later, more was dropped during Operation Desert Fox. Iraqi doctors reported alarming rises in the incidence of cancer, leukemia, and birth defects, in clusters closely correlated with US bombsites. Scientists found strong links between DU and Gulf War Syndrome, which is slowly killing thousands of veterans. [12-14] Despite the science, the vets, and the tragedies in Iraq, the US has stubbornly refused to end its use of DU. US-UK forces may have expended more than 2,000 additional tons of DU in Iraq since March 2003. Nowadays, however, commanders are supposed to warn GIs to avoid contact with the results of their work. [15] After the 2001-2002 bombing of Afghanistan, the Uranium Medical Research Centre (UMRC) found that the urine of Afghanis living near US bombing sites contained four to 20 times the normal level of non-depleted uranium (NDU). These unexpected results could not “be explained by . . . any known geological or other features in the area.” UMRC researchers were “shocked” that, “without exception, at every bombsite investigated, people are ill . . . [with] symptoms consistent with internal contamination by uranium.” [13] Their field results indicated that our weapons scientists had “progressed” beyond DU to NDU, a processed form of pure uranium that is even more toxic than the depleted form. The “slightly enriched” uranium reported from recent Israeli bombsites in Lebanon may possibly be NDU from modified GBU 28 ‘bunker busters’ supplied by the United States. [16] [17] Dual-purpose munitions Considering the scope of their destructive power, DU and NDU may be said to function as Dual-Purpose Munitions, like cluster bomblets that kill both tanks and people. As their exotic metallurgy “burns” through concrete and steel, DU and NDU bombs are converted to micron-sized particles that sicken and kill and murder the next generation in the womb. [18] [19] Agent Orange, an herbicide heavily used during the war on Vietnam, also performed two functions. It obliterated the ‘jungle cover hiding the Viet Cong’ while it ‘weakened the enemy’ with burns, illness, and death, and corrupted the DNA of hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese. The third generation of its disfigured and suffering victims is now being born. [20] [21] This madness seems to have begun during World War II, within the Manhattan Project that built the first atomic bomb. In a 1943 memo to Brigadier General L. R. Groves, three researchers proposed steps to develop “a gas warfare instrument” [of radioactive material, such as uranium] “ground into particles of microscopic size to form dust and smoke. . . . in this form it would be inhaled by personnel. The amount necessary to cause death to a person inhaling the material is extremely small. It has been estimated that one millionth of a gram accumulating in a person's body would be fatal. There are no known methods of treatment for such a casualty.” [22] The good doctors were concerned the Germans might be preparing such a weapon. They urged the Army to be ready to respond, or act, in kind. General Groves promptly followed their recommendations. The toxic HMTA “micro-shrapnel” spewed by DIME weapons appears to be the latest development in a long string of carcinogenic and genotoxic weapons developed and deployed by the US military. Return to Gaza: The mythology of murder Israel has denied using DIME weapons. Nonetheless, Israel’s military has used the occupied Palestinian territories as a weapons development zone for decades, testing bright ideas like depleted uranium and poison gases. It would not surprise us to find that it is now testing a weapon for the US Air Force on Palestinians in Gaza. [23] Unfortunately, the DIME hypothesis is the most plausible explanation for the grotesque effects of Israel’s new weapon. We can only pray that we have not witnessed the first experiment in the effects of embedded HMTA in human subjects. Still, DIME may not explain all of the evidence. For example, one of the metals found in victims’ wounds was copper. DIME bombs are not known to contain significant copper, but another US marvel, the Sensor Fuzed Weapon (SFW), sprays slugs of molten copper at its targets. Is Israel also testing the SFW? [24] [25] If DIME weapons are designed to reduce civilian casualties, why has Israel’s ‘mystery weapon’ increased the civilian death toll? Perhaps this question should be addressed to the advocates of Focused Lethality Munitions, and to the remote-control operators of Israel’s drone aircraft and their commanders and politicians. Although much remains unclear about Israel’s new weapon, a few devastating facts are indisputable: The weapon causes enormous and indiscriminate pain and suffering. It operates as both a chemical weapon and an anti-personnel explosive. At the very least, it is likely to induce heavy metal poisoning in its surviving victims. The weapon has significantly increased civilian mortality rates, in part because it inflicts virtually untreatable wounds. Despite this public parade of horrors, Israeli forces have continued to use this weapon against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip for nearly five months. “Whenever and wherever necessary” If the DIME hypothesis is confirmed, authorities will probably explain that it is a new class of weapon not regulated by international law. The truth is that existing conventions and treaties have already prohibited some of the most egregious effects of the new weapon. To cite one example, the bomb may be in direct violation of Protocol I of the 'Geneva Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons,' which "prohibits the use of any weapon the primary effect of which is to injure by fragments which in the human body escape detection by X-rays." [26] We will likely be told that DIME weapons provide a more “humane” way to fight “terrorism” by “reducing collateral damage” and “helping US troops win hearts and minds.” At the same time, we’ll be assured that the new weapon “packs quite a punch” and will “give our troops more options” to “take the battle to the enemy,” even if he is “hiding among civilians.” Whether Israel’s new weapon is the Air Force’s DIME bomb or another similarly dreadful invention, the horrors unfolding in Gaza make it clear that “Focused Lethality” is a blood-drenched lie. It promises only a deadlier form of indiscriminate warfare. US plans to explode payloads of cancer-causing genotoxic heavy metal powder “wherever and whenever necessary” may portend an escalation of a campaign currently limited to the vicinity of “hard targets” we attack with DU and NDU. Whatever we make of the intent behind these weapons, the result is chemical-genetic warfare. It cannot be allowed to continue. References 1) Gaza doctors say patients suffering mystery injuries after Israeli attacks, Rory McCarthy, The Guardian, 10/18/2006 2) Israel used chemical weapons in Lebanon and Gaza, Jean Shaoul, Centre for Research on Globalization/wsws.org, 10/24/2006 3) Abstract: Potential late health effects of depleted uranium and tungsten used in armor-piercing munitions: comparison of neoplastic transformation and genotoxicity with the known carcinogen nickel, Miller, AC, et al, PubMed, 11/26/2006 4) Neoplastic transformation of human osteoblast cells to the tumorigenic phenotype by heavy metal–tungsten alloy particles: induction of genotoxic effects, Miller, AC et al Carcinogenesis, Vol. 22, No. 1, 115-125, January 2001, Oxford University Press 5) Abstract: Carcinogenic Potential of Depleted Uranium and Tungsten Alloys, Alexandra C Miller, Ph. D., Department Of Defense, Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute (AFRRI) 6) Depleted uranium-catalyzed oxidative DNA damage: absence of significant alpha particle decay, Miller, AC et al, Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry, Issue 91, 2002 pp. 246– 252 7) Embedded Weapons-Grade Tungsten Alloy Shrapnel Rapidly Induces Metastatic High-Grade Rhabdomyosarcomas in F344 Rats, Kalinich et al, Environmental Health Perspectives Volume 113, Number 6, June 2005 8) Abstract: Effect of the militarily-relevant heavy metals, depleted uranium and heavy metal tungsten-alloy on gene expression in human liver carcinoma cells (HepG2), Miller, AC et al, SpringerLink/Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, 1/1/2004 9) Preconceptional paternal exposure to radiation or heavy metals like cadmium can induce cancer in unexposed offspring, Alexandra C. Miller, Rafael Rivas, Robert J. Merlot and Paul, Carcinogenesis 5: Environmental and Endogenous Carcinogens/Proc Amer Assoc Cancer Res, Volume 47, 2006 10) Cancer Worries for New U.S. Bombs, DefenseTech.org, 5/20/2006 11) Depleted Uranium and US-Israeli Bombs, Dr. Doug Rokke, PhD, Media Lens, 7/24/2006 12) Dirty Weapons - Casualties From Iraq War Will Mount, Chalmers Johnson, Pacific News Service, 5/3/2003 13) Uranium Radiation Levels in Afghanistan Not Attributable to Depleted Uranium, Centre for Research on Globalization - Middle East, 6/5/2003 14) Depleted Uranium Radioactive Contamination In Iraq: An Overview, Prof Souad N. Al-Azzawi, Centre for Research on Globalization - Middle East, 8/31/2006 15) Use of Depleted Uranium Weapons Lingers as Health Concern, Larry Johnson, Common Dreams, 8/4/2003 16) Further Evidence Of Enriched Uranium In The Air In Lebanon Following The Recent Conflict, Stop Uranium Wars/Pandora DU research Project, 11/22/2006 17) Mystery of Israel's secret uranium bomb, Robert Fisk, The Independent, 10/28/2006 18) The Real Dirty Bombs: Depleted Uranium, Christopher Bollyn, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, 8/6/2004 19) Depleted Uranium, Australian Peace Committee, 12/2/2006 20) Vietnam Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign 21) Agent Orange DNA injury confirmed in Vietnam veterans, Patrick Gower, New Zealand Herald, 7/29/2006 22) Memorandum to: Brigadier General L. R. Groves From: Drs. Conant, Compton, and Urey, Midfully.org/War Department, United States Engineer Office, Manhattan District, Oak Ridge Tennessee, 10/30/1943 23) The Israeli Poison Gas Attacks, James Brooks, Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel 24) CBU-97, Wikipedia 25) Textron Systems' Sensor Fuzed Weapon Production to Include Maritime Capability, Textron Systems Corporation, 8/10/2006 26) Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons . . . , United Nations: International Law, 10/10/1980 James Brooks serves as webmaster for Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel. He can be contacted at jamiedb@wildblue.net. -------- europe Lithuania wants Poland in nuclear project, Estonia, Latvia object VILNIUS (AFP) Dec 07, 2006 http://www.spacewar.com/2006/061207165038.9pnuum34.html Lithuanian Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas urged Poland on Thursday to join a Baltic project to build a new nuclear power plant on Lithuanian soil, while Estonia and Latvia objected to bringing new partners on board. "It is very important to us that Poland joins the project," Kirkilas said in an interview broadcast on privately owned Zinius radio, without going into detail about what role he envisaged for Poland in the construction of a new facility to replace Lithuania's ageing Ignalina nuclear power station. "We will be able to comment on that question Friday after a meeting of prime ministers of the Baltic states" in Vilnius, where energy will be high on the agenda, Kirkilas said. The leaders of the three Baltic states, which depend heavily on outside sources for their energy needs, backed in February the construction of a new nuclear facility to replace Ignalina, which uses reactors like the one that exploded at Chernobyl in 1986, provoking the world's worst nuclear disaster. In July, Kirkilas invited Poland to be part of the project to replace Ignalina, but last month Polish President Lech Kaczynski refused to commit his country. Officials in Latvia and Estonia voiced opposition to Poland coming on board, indicating that Friday's meeting in Vilnius could be turbulent. "We are happy with the cooperation of the project partners so far," Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said. "The involvement of new partners could take place if a consensus is reached by all parties," he added. Under the agreement signed by the Baltic prime ministers in February, the nuclear project would be managed equally by the energy companies of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Bringing in an additional partner requires consensual agreement among the three, according to the document. The aim of the new facility is to meet "the power needs of all three countries", the agreement says. Involving Poland "might cause a situation in which the production capacities of the new power station would be insufficient," warned Ansip. Latvian Foreign Minister Artis Pabriks hinted that the three countries were capable of carrying out the project themselves, and stressed it was vital to ending the region's energy isolation. "The Baltic countries have historically been isolated in energy terms. We support any project that could unify the Baltics with the EU," Pabriks told reporters in Riga. "Our national energy companies have done the calculations to assess the costs of the project. We are capable of doing this ourselves," he said. A feasibility study conducted by energy companies from the three Baltic states, which was approved by two Lithuanian parliamentary panels on Wednesday, said building the new nuclear plant would cost between 2.5 - 4.0 billion euros (3.15 - 5.0 billion dollars). The study determined that the new facility would not come onstream before 2015, leaving a six-year gap between the closure of Ignalina in 2009 and the inauguration of the new plant. During that time, the Baltic states, and especially Lithuania, which derives 80 percent of its electricity needs from the existing nuclear plant, will have to seek energy sources elsewhere. The Baltic states, which were Soviet Republics from the end of World War II until 1991, are all still heavily reliant on Russia for supplies of natural gas and oil, and their power grids remain linked to that of their former ruler, despite having joined the European Union in 2004. Poland, also a new EU member, and Lithuania will sign a deal Friday to link their power grids, while Estonia inaugurated this week an undersea cable linking its grid to that of Finland. Both deals are seen as steps towards loosening Moscow's energy grip on the Baltic states. ---- Temelin nuclear unit shutdown following false signal PRAGUE (AFP) Dec 07, 2006 http://www.spacewar.com/2006/061207155329.nn17yn4v.html The second unit of the controversial Czech nuclear reactor at Temelin was closed down on Thursday after a fault was signalled in the system supplying water to the electricity generation system, plant spokesman Milan Nebesar told AFP. A faulty signal was behind the automatic shutdown of the unit with no danger posed, Nebesar added. "It was a technical hitch," he explained, adding that the unit should be up and running normally Friday morning. Temelin is regularly the target of Austrian protests against the Czech nuclear plant sited around 60 kilometres (38 miles) from the Austrian border. It has been beset by frequent faults and problems but Czech authorities say it operates in line with European regulations. Austrian nuclear protesters blocked the border crossing at Wullowitz-Dolni Dvoriste for around six hours on Sunday. They threaten to organise more blockades of the border if the Austrian governement does not raise an official protest against Czech authorities' decision to give final building approval for the long operational Temelin plant, at the start of November. Protestors say the official move broke the Melk accord on power plant safety signed by the two countries in 2001 to try to mend relations poisoned by the Soviet-era designed unit which was built in 1987. -------- israel Traces of Israeli Uranium found in Lebanon Khiam bomb crater tests positive for uranium Global Research, December 7, 2006 The Daily Star http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20061207&articleId=4083 Tests carried out on samples taken from a bomb crater in the southern region of Khiam following the summer war with Israel showed the presence of uranium, Chris Busby, the British scientific secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk, told Environment and Development magazine for its December issue. "The analysis was accurate and showed the presence of depleted uranium," Busby said in a telephone interview with Environment Hotline, an environmental research team affiliated with the magazine. Busby said in late October that samples taken from a bomb crater in Khiam had been sent for analysis to the Harwell laboratory in Oxfordshire, southern England. He added, at the time, that "samples thrown up by Israeli bombs showed elevated radiation signatures resulting from a new experimental weapon used by Israel." "There is no way the signs of uranium found in Khiam were the result of natural or industrial materials ... Their only source is nuclear reactors," Busby said. The magazine says Busby's statements in October spurred the Lebanese Atomic Energy Commission to take more samples from Khiam for analysis. The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), which has been studying ecological damage in Lebanon after the war, had also sent another team to gather samples from Khiam, a statement said. "The results will be issued soon," it added. A team of 20 UNEP activists spent two weeks with their Lebanese counterparts at the beginning of October to evaluate the environmental impact of the month-long war. The team tested air, water and soil samples at 30 heavily bombed sites in Southern Lebanon and the suburbs of southern Beirut. The samples were sent to Switzerland for analysis. However, a statement issued in early November ruled out the presence of uranium. While a UNEP statement in November reassured the Lebanese that they were not in danger of exposure to radioactive materials, it called for further research on "the effects of using depleted uranium for military purposes." The UN results mirrored those of the National Council for Scientific Research, which also ruled out the presence of uranium in Lebanon. In a statement issued on October 20, the council said 50 samples taken from several war-torn areas had tested negative for depleted uranium in tests conducted at the Lebanese Atomic Energy Commission. The council and UNEP have both vowed to follow-up on the issue and conduct more tests, the magazine said. ---- Israelis piqued by Gates nuclear "confirmation" By Dan Williams Thu Dec 7, 2006 (Reuters) http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/nuclear_israel_gates_dc JERUSALEM - Robert Gates, the incoming U.S. secretary of defense, won plaudits in Washington this week for his candor on the Iraq war. Some Israelis were less pleased, however, to hear Gates mention with equal frankness what U.S. administrations have long avoided uttering in public -- that the Jewish state has the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal. To be fair, it was pretty oblique. During his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday, Gates speculated on why Iran might be seeking the means to build an atomic bomb. "They are surrounded by powers with nuclear weapons: Pakistan to their east, the Russians to the north, the Israelis to the west and us in the Persian Gulf," he said. The statement led Israeli news bulletins, with some pundits suggesting that former CIA chief Gates may have breached a U.S. "don't ask, don't tell" policy dating back to the late 1960s. "I haven't a clue why Gates made those remarks," Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, a member of Israel's security cabinet, said in a radio interview. A retired Israeli diplomat, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, called the testimony "quite unprecedented" and added: "I can only assume he (Gates) has yet to get to grips with the understandings that exist between us and the Americans." According to recently declassified documents cited by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists magazine, under President Richard Nixon the United States knew Israel had developed nuclear weapons but opted against insisting that its ally come clean on the capability and accept international regulation. Israel neither confirms nor denies having the bomb, as part of a "strategic ambiguity" policy that it says fends off numerically superior enemies while avoiding an arms race. By not declaring itself to be nuclear armed, Israel also skirts a U.S. ban on funding countries that proliferate weapons of mass destruction. It can thus enjoy more than $2 billion in annual military and other aid from Washington. DOUBLE-STANDARD SEEN This sanctioned reticence is a major irritant for Arabs and Iran, which see a double-standard in U.S. policy in the region. Former U.S. Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld was careful not to discuss the Israeli nuclear option explicitly. Pressed on it during a 2004 briefing, he said only that Israel had "arranged itself so it hasn't been put in the sea" by its foes. Though Gates replaces Rumsfeld as part of a move by President Bush to revitalize prospects for Iraq and a wider peace in the Middle East, no one has yet gone as far as to propose openly that Washington review Israel's open secret. "I am not aware of any change in U.S. policy on discussing Israel and its nuclear capability," said Stewart Tuttle, spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv. Shimon Peres, who helped found Israel's main atomic reactor in the 1950s -- officially for civilian use -- and is now deputy to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, sounded similarly unperturbed. "This announcement makes no fundamental difference," he told Israel Radio. "Whether or not Israel has nuclear weapons, the fact is that Israel is the only country threatened with destruction ... Israel is not threatening any country. Weapons do not fire themselves, people fire them." He was apparently referring to arch-foe Iran, whose President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for the elimination of the "Zionist regime" but denied his country seeks nuclear arms. ---- Israel to keep mum on nuclear weapons capacity JERUSALEM (AFP) Dec 07, 2006 http://www.spacewar.com/2006/061207124045.0bffcx9h.html Israel will continue to keep mum on whether it has atomic weapons, officials said Thursday after the incoming US defense secretary describedf the Jewish state as a nuclear power. "Israel won't say, or not say, whether we have nuclear weapons," Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres told public radio. "It suffices that one fears that we have them and that fear in itself constitutes an element of dissuasion." The Jewish state is widely considered to be the Middle East's sole nuclear armed power, but has never confirmed or denied the suspicions, and continues to campaign against arch-foe Iran's nuclear program. "Israel is the only country threatened with destruction. Israel does not threaten any other state," Peres said. "These statements change nothing fundamental," he said, referring to comments by Robert Gates Tuesday, a day before he was approved by the Senate to replace Donald Rumsfeld as defense secretary. During his confirmation hearing, Gates referred to Israel as one of the region's nuclear powers, along with Pakistan and Russia. Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, a member of Israel's influential security cabinet, also reaffirmed the need for Israel to maintain a "policy of ambiguity" in regard to the nuclear issue. "I have no idea why Gates made those remarks," he told public radio. "But we have to continue to stick to the policy of ambiguity, which has nothing but advantages as it contributes to our power of deterrence." Foreign experts estimate that Israel has up to 200 long-range nuclear warheads. Israel and the United States claim that Iran is covertly seeking to develop atomic weapons, an allegation repeatedly denied by Tehran which insists it wants only to generate energy. In a documentary aired on Israeli television in 2001, Peres said that France agreed in 1956 to provide Israel with "a nuclear capacity" as part of secret negotiations ahead of the invasion of Egypt known as the Suez crisis. Under the scheme, Britain, France and Israel colluded in an elaborate plan under which the Jewish state attacked Egypt, and France and Britain sent paratroopers to "separate the belligerents" but in practice to secure the canal. The failed offensive, aimed at seizing the Suez canal back from then Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser after he nationalized the strategic waterway, ended with the withdrawal of troops after the Soviet Union threatened to intervene. Thanks in part to French support, Israel launched a nuclear reactor at Dimona in the southern Negev desert in 1964. Its activities remain classified. Israel's nuclear program came to the international fore in 1986, when Mordechai Vanunu, a former technician at Dimona was kidnapped, covertly shipped back to the Jewish state, and jailed after lifting the lid on the inner workings of the plant to Britain's Sunday Times newspaper. He was released in 2004 after serving an 18-year term, but has been repeatedly banned from foreign travel. He became something of an international cause celebre during his time in prison, while widely reviled at home, in part for converting to Christianity shortly before he was seized. -------- japan Japan's former PM weighing nuke talks in NKorea: report TOKYO (AFP) Dec 07, 2006 http://www.spacewar.com/2006/061207013043.eduhpm6l.html Japan's former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi is weighing up a third visit to North Korea to persuade the Stalinist regime to give up its nuclear ambitions, public NHK broadcaster reported Thursday. "It's plausible to think about my visiting Pyongyang for the third time," Koizumi told parliament late Wednesday. "I want to realize the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, which is an absolute must, although I don't interfere with Prime Minister (Shinzo) Abe's policy management." Koizumi, who was prime minister until September when he was succeeded by Abe, visited North Korea in 2002 and again in 2004 for talks with its leader Kim Jong-Il. The first Koizumi-Kim summit in 2002 produced the Pyongyang Declaration in which they agreed to "comply with all related international agreements aimed at an overall resolution of the nuclear issues on the Korean Peninsula." "It's necessary to ensure that the Declaration is valid, and it's plausible to think about my visiting North Korea for the third time," Koizumi said, as quoted by NHK. "I want to revitalize the declaration, and I don't mind visiting Pyongyang for this end," he added. Koizumi said that dealing with North Korea required a two-front strategy of dialogue and pressure. "We can't abandon dialogue," NHK quoted him as saying. Pyongyang's missile launches in July and its atom bomb test on October 9 triggered global condemnation. Japan accused the North of violating the 2002 declaration and slapped sanctions against the impoverished country. -------- missile defense Ballistic Missile Defense: Israel's missile dilemma Both competing systems have problems Dec/7/2006 UPI By Martin Sieff UPI Senior News Analyst http://wpherald.com/articles/2460/1/Ballistic-Missile-Defense-Israels-missile-dilemma/Both-competing-systems-have-problems.html WASHINGTON -- Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin are fiercely competing for an Israeli order for very short range anti-ballistic missile defense systems. Israel desperately needs such a system. In its July-August operations against Hezbollah (the Iranian-backed Shiite Party of God) in Lebanon, the Israeli Army received a nasty surprise from the ability of Hezbollah to disrupt organized life throughout northern Israel as far south as the port city of Haifa with massive bombardments of Russian-designed Katyusha rockets. However, although the Israelis may have to choose between the competing Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman systems, so far they recognize development problems with both of them, All Headline News reported Nov. 30. Northrop Grumman's Skyguard was developed in conjunction with the U.S. Army and the Israeli Defense Forces, and was was expected to be the IDF's first choice. AHN reported that Skyguard "uses radars and a laser cannon to intercept incoming projectiles." However, AHN said. "Israel has suspended its participation in the project." AHN cited a Jerusalem Post report that late last month, Israeli defense officials even "refused to meet with Northrop Grumman representatives." "The point of contention appears to an inability to increased Skyguard's range to 6 miles," AHN said. "With its current range of only 1.8 miles, deploying Skyguard along Israel's entire northern border would be prohibitively expensive." That leaves Lockheed Martin's Sky Shield as the Israelis' alternative option. "Sky Shield uses a similar system of short-range radars but relies on a more conventional rapid-fire cannon to down enemy aircraft and missiles," AHN said." Originally developed as a defense against low-flying planes and helicopters, the American defense contractor says it has modified Sky Shield to be able to destroy rockets, mortars and artillery shells." According to AHN the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz has reported that "Sky Shield successfully destroyed a replica of a Palestinian-made Qassam rocket in a lab test recently. However, since the rocket was not in flight, there is still a lack of evidence whether or not Sky Shield can actually intercept incoming Qassams." How to stop the Qassams That is important for the Israelis as Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement that effectively runs the Gaza Strip, has lobbed hundreds of Qassams over the past year into Israeli territory over the Security Barrier, or wall, that former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon built to stop the easy entry of Palestinian suicide bombers into Israel. Key Israeli industrial facilities, including the major port of Ashdod and the new desalination plant at Ashkelon, are in range of those Qassams. According to AHN, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin both assess their competing systems as being available for full operational deployment in Israel within six months. The AHN report reveals a striking setback for the much touted and technically ambitious Skyguard program. Israel rejected considering Skyguard, a high-energy chemical laser system designed to destroy incoming artillery rockets and ballistic missiles. The system is a smaller version of what was previously called THEL, or "Tactical High Energy Laser." Israel dropped out of the project at the beginning of 2006 because it was so costly to develop, but did an abrupt U-turn after Hezbollah fired over 2,000 rockets into northern Israel during the brief summer war. The main problem with THEL/Skyguard was its much shorter range, as AHN reported. Each THEL system, including its radar and chemical laser, was supposed to cover 6 miles of border, not just 1.8 miles. As we have previously reported in BMD Focus, Pentagon critics and high tech BMD enthusiasts assailed the Pentagon for not pushing ahead more energetically with the THEL system over the past decade. It is certainly the case that up to the Hezbollah-Israel conflict, THEL funding remained very low relative to other BMD programs. Only about $300 million was allocated to it over the past decade, of which Israel provided about half. THEL/Skyguard's problem remains its short range. Sky Shield, as AHN noted, remains operationally untested against Qassams. It is far too early to write off either system, especially given the relatively meager resources that have so far been allocated to developing either of them. But time is not on the Israelis' side, and they may have to choose fast. -------- russia Russia to airlift bomb-grade uranium from Germany Thursday December 7, 2006 - REUTERS http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10414246 BERLIN - Russian experts will airlift 300kg of enriched uranium, much of it weapons-grade, from a Soviet-era nuclear research reactor in eastern Germany back to Russia, officials said today. "We cannot release the precise date due to security reasons," said a nuclear official in Germany acquainted with plans to remove 200kg of highly-enriched uranium (HEU) and 100kg of low-enriched uranium from the research reactor in Rossendorf, outside Dresden. The 200kg of HEU could theoretically fuel around 10 nuclear weapons if the material is pure enough, he said. The transport will be done by airplane and will take place before the end of the year, he added on condition of anonymity. A German government official confirmed what he said. The research reactor was built by the Soviet Union in the former communist East Germany, which ceased to exist after German reunification in 1990. The Rossendorf centre remains a key site for nuclear research. The transport of the uranium will likely face demonstrations by German anti-nuclear activitists, who often protest transports of nuclear waste and other materials across German territory. The recovery of the uranium is part of a joint US-Russian programme in cooperation with a UN nuclear watchdog called the Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI). Its aim is to find, secure and recover dangerous nuclear materials around the world to prevent them from falling into the hands of terrorists. In an August 2006 fact sheet, the US Department of Energy said the GTRI programme had secured more than 400 sites around the world containing enough radioactive material for 6000 "dirty bombs", crude explosives laced with nuclear material. The GTRI was launched in 2004. ---- Russia to create international nuclear fuel cycle center Xinhua December 07, 2006 http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200612/07/eng20061207_329391.html Russia will create an international nuclear fuel cycle services center with the help of France, a senior Russian nuclear official said here on Wednesday. "Russia will be ready to receive a mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 2008-2009," Konstantin Pulikovsky, the head of the Russian technical standards watchdog Rostekhnadzor, said in a meeting with a senior official of the French Atomic Energy Commission. "The key problem of today is spent nuclear fuel in Europe and Russia. I am ready to promote all approaches France has in order to resolve these issues," Pulikovsky said, according to Rostekhnadzor press service. Last week, the head of Russia's Federal Atomic Energy Agency, Sergei Kiriyenko, said formalities for converting the Angarsk nuclear plant into an international uranium enrichment center might be completed by Jan. 25, 2007, the Itar-Tass news agency reported. The Russian government has decided to exclude the Angarsk plant from the list of restricted areas, he said. "This is the first precedent in Russia ever. Ore-dressing plants have always been restricted areas. But the Angarsk is now open to inspectors of the IAEA and representatives of countries, which express the wish to cooperate with the international center, " Kiriyenko said. The initiative to open international centers, which would give third countries access to peaceful atomic energy technologies but prevent nuclear proliferation, was put forth by President Vladimir Putin, Kiriyenko said. -------- u.s. nuc facilities -------- arizona More problems turn up at nuclear Palo Verde power plant Mark Shaffer Dec. 7, 2006 Arizona Central http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1207biz-paloverde-ON.html http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/1208biz-paloverde1208.html The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Thursday deepened Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station's regulatory hole with preliminary findings that the nuclear plant had an inoperable emergency diesel generator at Unit 3 during September. A meeting will be held between NRC and Palo Verde officials in Arlington, Texas on Jan. 16 to discuss the agency's special inspections report. The stakes are expected to be high for the nation's largest nuclear power plant, located 50 miles west of downtown Phoenix. If the NRC finds that the violation is anything more serious than of low safety, so-called "green", significance, Palo Verde would sink to the level of the most heavily monitored nuclear power plant in the country with Perry in Ohio. That would likely entail millions of dollars of expenses because of increased regulatory scrutiny. The nuclear plant also could end up under the same microscope if the NRC finds anything more than a low-safety violation because of a bad chemical mix that plant workers placed in emergency spray cooling ponds between 1994 and earlier this year. Excessive amounts of zinc and phosphate had been mixed into the water to try to control erosion of safety components in pipes. But the chemical mix led to deposits on the tubes, increased insulation and incorrect heat transfer. A final report on the chemicals in the cooling ponds is expected before the end of the year, said Victor Dricks, an NRC spokesman. "Each of the findings of these inspections will be assessed independently," Dricks said. "But one more finding of anything but green will change the landscape for Palo Verde." Jim McDonald, a spokesman for Arizona Public Service Co., the largest stakeholder in Palo Verde, acknowledged that performance at the nuclear plant "hasn't been up to our high standards of the past and we're committed to changing that." Palo Verde already is one of the most monitored plants in the country by federal regulators. It is classified as a "degraded cornerstone" because of a "dry pipe" that was found during a 2004 inspection that had the potential to disrupt the flow of water to the core's emergency cooling system. According to the NRC's report, a federal investigations team was sent to the plant in early October to investigate failures in the emergency diesel generator on July 25 and Sept. 22 because of outputting voltage. Each of the three units at Palo Verde have two of the 5,500 kilowatt generators that provide standby power if the normal supply of power is lost. The NRC report noted that the generator was inoperable between Sept. 4 and Sept. 22 and that incorrect maintenance had been conducted on an electrical relay in the unit. "The licensee (Palo Verde) determined the root cause . . . .could be attributed to either plastic debris or oxide film buildup," according to the report. Reach the reporter at (602)444-8057. -------- MILITARY -------- iraq Oil for Sale: Why the Iraq Study Group is Calling for the Privatization of Iraq's Oil Industry Thursday, December 7th, 2006 Democracy Now! http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/07/1452236 Among its recommendations, the Iraq Study Group advised that Iraq privatize its oil industry and to open it up to international companies. Author and activist Antonia Juhasz writes "Put simply, the oil companies are trying to get what they were denied before the war or at anytime in modern Iraqi history: access to Iraq's oil under the ground." [includes rush transcript] * Antonia Juhasz, author and activist. Her latest book is "The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time," RUSH TRANSCRIPT AMY GOODMAN: The Iraq Study Group also recommended for Iraq to privatize its oil industry and to open it up to international companies. The author and activist, Antonia Juhasz, has been closely watching this aspect of the Iraq reconstruction process. She’s author of The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time. Antonia Juhasz, thanks for joining us in studio in San Francisco. Your response to the report, not talked about almost at all, the issue of privatization? ANTONIA JUHASZ: Yeah, absolutely. And good morning, Amy. It’s a completely radical proposal made straightforward in the Iraq Study Group report that the Iraqi national oil industry should be reorganized as a commercial enterprise. The proposal also says that, as you say, Iraq’s oil should be opened up to private foreign energy and companies. Also, another radical proposal: that all of Iraq’s oil revenues should be centralized in the central government. And the report calls for a US advisor to ensure that a new national oil law is passed in Iraq to make all of this possible and that the constitution of Iraq is amended to ensure that the central government gains control of Iraq’s oil revenues. All told, the report calls for privatization of Iraq’s oil, turning it over to private foreign corporate hands, putting all of the oil in the hands of the central government, and essentially, I would argue, extending the war in Iraq to ensure that US oil companies get what the Bush administration went in there for: control and greater access to Iraq's oil. AMY GOODMAN: Antonia Juhasz, let’s talk about the members of this Iraq Study Group. That might explain what their approach has been, particularly James Baker, the former Secretary of State, and also Lawrence Eagleburger. Talk about the two of them. ANTONIA JUHASZ: Both Baker and Eagleburger have spent their careers doing one of two things: working for the federal government or working in private enterprise taking advantage of the work that they did for the federal government. So, in particular, in this case, both Baker and Eagleburger were key participants throughout the ’80s and early 1990s of radically expanding US economic engagement with Saddam Hussein, with a very clear objective of gaining greater access for US corporations, particularly oil corporations, to Iraq's oil, and doing everything that they could to expand that access. Baker has his own private interest. His family is heavily invested in the oil industry, and also Baker Botts, his law firm, is one of the key law firms representing oil companies across the United States and their activities in the Middle East. And Lawrence Eagleburger was president of Kissinger Associates, which was one of the leading multinational advising firms for advising US companies who were trying to get contracts with Saddam Hussein and get work in Iraq. Now, these two members of the Iraq Study Group are joined by two additional members who are representatives of the Heritage Foundation, and the Heritage Foundation is one of the few US organizations that point-blank called for full privatization of Iraq's oil sector prior to the invasion of Iraq, as a stated goal of the invasion. And to call point-blank for full privatization, as I said, is truly radical. It’s actually a shift for the Bush administration, which has for the past about two years been working on a more sort of privatization-lite agenda, putting forward what are called production-sharing agreements in Iraq that would have the same outcome of privatization without calling it privatization. For the Iraq Study Group, which is supposed to be, you know, the meeting of the pragmatists, the sort of middle-ground group that’s going to help solve the war in Iraq, to put forward this incredibly radical proposal and to have nobody talk about it, to me, is fairly shocking and makes clear that still the Democrats, the Republicans, the media are afraid to talk about oil, but that oil, in my mind, still remains the lynchpin for the administration and for all those in the oil sector in the United States, Baker and Eagleburger counted among them, for why US troops are being committed and committed to stay. And the report says troops will stay until at least 2008 -- I think that is at a minimum -- to guarantee this oil access to US oil companies. AMY GOODMAN: Former Secretary of State James Baker in 2003 went to Rome, Moscow, London, first official trip since he joined the Bush administration as a point person on issues around Iraq in 2003, but remained a senior partner in the law firm, Baker Botts, which, among others, represents Halliburton, as well as the Saudi government, in the suit filed by family members who lost relatives in 9/11. Now, that’s the family members who lost their loved ones versus the Saudi government, and he was representing the Saudi government. ANTONIA JUHASZ: Yeah, he’s definitely had his allegiance spread, and it almost always, in the bottom line, has to do with oil. And as the public has been very clear in saying in its reports on Baker -- or rather, excuse me, the media -- that Baker is a pragmatist. He is a pragmatist. The Iraq Study Group report, page 1, chapter one, says that the reason why Iraq is a critical country in the Middle East, in the world and for the United States, is because it has the second-largest reserves of oil in the world. The report is very clear. The report is also very clear, however, that this isn’t a report where the recommendations can be picked and choosed. It says that all of the recommendations should be applied together as one proposal, that they shouldn’t be separated out. That means that the authors of the report are saying that oil, privatization of oil, and foreign corporate access to oil is as key as any other recommendation that they have made. And the report also says that the US government will withhold military, economic and political support of the Iraqi government, unless the recommendations are met. That’s a pretty straightforward statement. The US government will not provide any support to the al-Maliki government, unless it advances the changes to the Iraqi constitution and changes to Iraqi national law that essentially privatize Iraq’s oil. That is something for us in the antiwar movement to be very, very clear about, that this is their objective and that we have to, as I repeatedly say, not just call for the end of troops in Iraq, but make clear that the US corporate invasion cannot be progressed or continue, as well. AMY GOODMAN: Antonia Juhasz, I want to thank you very much for being with us, author of The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time, speaking to us from San Francisco. ---- Iraqi-American in Najaf: Al Qaeda Would Leave Iraq Upon U.S. Troop Withdrawal Thursday, December 7th, 2006 Democracy Now! http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/07/1452232 We get response on the Iraq Study Group report from Sami Rasouli, an Iraqi-American living in Najaf. Rasouli says if U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq, "The 1,300 al Qaeda members that the Iraq Study Group mentioned would leave and have no business in Iraq anymore. They are here to target American forces." [includes rush transcript] * Sami Rasouli, an Iraqi-American who grew up in Najaf. He left in the late 1970s and eventually moved to the United States. In November 2004, nearly 30 years after leaving Iraq, Sami returned home to help rebuild his country. He is currently a member of the Muslim Peacemakers Team in Najaf. RUSH TRANSCRIPT AMY GOODMAN: As we go now to Iraq, joining our discussion from the Iraqi city of Mosul is Sami Rasouli. He grew up in Najaf. He left in the 1970s, eventually moved to the United States. In November 2004, nearly 30 years after leaving Iraq, Sami Rasouli returned home to help rebuild his country. He’s currently a member of the Muslim Peacemakers Team in Mosul. Sami Rasouli, have you gotten a chance to hear what the report’s recommendations are and the response in Iraq right now? SAMI RASOULI: Yes, indeed. But before I start talking about this issue, I would like to make a little correction, that I’m situated in Najaf, not in Mosul. But I’ve been to Mosul and Northern Iraq, as well, the Southern area, too. But I’m speaking to you from Najaf right now. Well, please take in consideration that I’m talking as an American Iraqi, Muslim Arab. And when I view the study that the group came with, I see lots of flawed of seriousness in it. The study is targeting Iraq as a country and Iraqi people, but I don’t see participant as key players from Iraq Arab Muslim world participating, except there is a large number of Iraqis who came upon the invasion, when it took place almost four years ago. I don’t care, as, again, as Iraqi American Muslim Arab, about the formation of this study, whether there are Republicans or Democrats. We need an action. We need the policies, foreign policies, that the administration, over six decades, failed to address the Palestinian issues. In Iraq today, the disaster is a byproduct of serious failures that the US administration and the West committed when it comes to a biased standing position toward the state of Israel against the Palestinians. And I see also the study of Baker/Hamilton ignored largely to talk about the violations of human rights in Iraq, as well the international law that’s violated by the invasion of the US/UK and their coalition forces back in March 2003. There are mentioning for these four words -- international law and human rights -- when the study described some background of key participants -- Mr. Hamilton, probably Jordan, and the third, Baker, the third -- so ignoring the violations of the US forces in Iraq by military operations day after day for the last three years and a half or so, by storming houses, detaining innocent people, killing innocent people, women, children, bombing them from the air or from the land, building and peppering the Iraq cities, provinces, by checkpoint. And the study just waived this position of the occupying forces, waiving and not mentioning the key player in the violence that we are suffering in Iraq. The study mentioned al-Qaeda, the militia, Shia militia, and also named the Sunnis as Arab -- and ignored the Shia are Arab, too. So, when Bremer first came and was appointed as the US administrator, civil administrator, in Iraq, he announced the abolition of the Iraqi army and also the de-Baathification. I don’t know if the Baathists in Iraq are different than the Baathists in Syria. How could you ask al-Maliki to advance adequately in his national reconciliation? But the de-Baathification is still on, but at the same time, asking him to normalize his relationship with the neighboring country as Syria, which is ruled majorly by the Baath Party. We are not stupid here. We see facts that doesn’t match what the administration or its consultants, through this study, is telling them. I wish this study came first, before the invasion, and advised the administration what to do, not to come now to help the administration to get out as a way. Also, mentioning that al-Qaeda’s goal in Iraq, which they number it as 1,300, only 1,300, that’s facing 140,000 American troops, plus about 27,000 coalition troops. Only 1,300 that are troubling the US in Iraq, and therefore, the US President is not saving any chance to tell the whole world that the troops in Iraq to face the terrorists, al-Qaeda terrorists, which is 1,300. John Murtha mentioned that about a year ago, told a number about a thousand, but as we know, according to the intervention and the continuation of the US occupation in Iraq, the violence, the counter-occupation is growing in Iraq. And to ask the American troops to leave, it’s an Iraqi demand. More than 80% to 85% now, Iraqis asking the US to leave. Only people who are willing to have the US forces staying here, who ask the UN to extend Resolution 1546 for another year to stay, which is a puppet government of Iraq. I mean, there are lots of flaws in this study, and I wish the study also took the advantage of their effort to advise the President and his administration not to attack Iran and Syria. It’s good they mentioned to talk to Syria and Iran. As an Iraqi American, globally thinking, also I would like the administration to talk to North Korea, as well, to reduce the violence and possible wars to take place against humanity. AMY GOODMAN: Sami Rasouli, I wanted to ask -- again, Sami Rasouli speaking to us from Najaf in Iraq. None of the people on the Iraq Study Group were Iraq experts. Sami Rasouli lived in the United States for years, but decided to return home in November 2004, leaving his family in the United States, to help in his home country, to help in Iraq, where he is currently a member of the Muslim Peacemakers Team. If US soldiers were to leave tomorrow, could you paint a scenario of what you see would then unfold? SAMI RASOULI: If this happened now, before tomorrow, believe me, the 1,300 al-Qaeda members that the Study Group mentioned, they would leave, or they have no business in Iraq anymore. They are here to target American forces. You know, it’s a war against them, whether they are here or in Lebanon, in Afghanistan or elsewhere. So this is the first thing. Iraqis will take care of them. Right now, they are not bothered with them, because they help the resistance element to fight the US army. And as the study admitted it, that October was the deadliest month ever since January. There were about a hundred, two, American women and men fell in this tragic war, beside the Iraqi forces who suffered a loss that was initiated after the invasion, like police forces and national guard. And between the US forces and the Iraqi forces, innocent people are falling every day by hundreds. I mean, the Iraqi -- American media talk about this with limitation, but what we see here are corpses and dead bodies, tortured, killed execution style, beside the kidnapping and the organized crime, for robbery and killing for money. Economy is collapsed, and the study didn’t talk about this much. Talking about Iraqi experts participating in the study, I don’t know how much they study. The group spent only four days in Iraq. So I don’t know how much participation from Iraqis did in this study. The question, again, what will happen? Believe me, peace will happen, because Iraqis, even if they need to kill each other, to draw into a civil war, they will need to have a sophisticated weapon, which they don’t have. They need to buy it from the West. So if US forces leave, please take your weapon with you. Don’t leave it, because otherwise, as I hear the President every time saying, “I’m staying ’til the job is done, until we complete the mission” -- of course, this is since May 1st, 2003, supposed to be the mission was “accomplished." But what kind of mission that the US is after? AMY GOODMAN: Sami Rasouli, we’re going to have to leave it there, Iraqi American who went home to live and to help his people in Iraq, with the Muslim Peacemakers Team. Tomorrow on Democracy Now!, we’ll be joined by two members of the Christian Peacemakers Team who were kidnapped in Iraq. They are holding a news conference in London. Harmeet Singh Sooden and James Loney, they’ll be joining us from London. Last response from Anthony Arnove, as we wrap up this discussion and then head to talk about a key recommendation in the report that hasn’t been talked about, and that is privatization. We will talk about that with Antonia Juhasz. Anthony Arnove. ANTHONY ARNOVE: I think if you’re going to talk about what the impact would be of the US withdrawal, you have to talk about what happens after withdrawal. And I think we have to raise a demand for reparations to be paid to the Iraqi people, reparations not only for the harm and destruction caused by this illegal invasion and occupation, but all the years before that, when the United States supported sanctions on the country, and before that supported the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, armed, trained, funded and backed Saddam Hussein as he carried out the worst of his abuses. And so, withdrawal of troops is the beginning of a process of genuine reconstruction in Iraq. The money that’s now being allocated for reconstruction is not going to rebuild roads, schools, hospitals in Iraq. It’s going to benefit the few corporations that have contracts in Iraq. We need to provide genuine humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people. AMY GOODMAN: Anthony Arnove, thank you for being with us, author of Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal. ---- Saddam trial witnesses recall gas attack Posted 12/7/2006 (AP) http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2006-12-07-saddam-trial_x.htm BAGHDAD — A Kurdish doctor told Saddam Hussein's genocide trial Thursday that children vomited blood, people broke out in skin rashes and itching, and animals fell dead after a gas that "smelled like flowers" blanketed his village in a 1987 military offensive. Another Kurdish doctor said he treated men, women and children for serious body burns and blindness from the alleged chemical attack amid airstrikes and a ground offensive on the village as part of Saddam's 1987-88 campaign against the Kurds known as Operation Anfal. "I treated a man whose entire body was full of chemical bubbles, but he died a few days later," he said in a brief testimony, recalling one of his April 1987 patients. Saddam and his six-defendants — all former members of his regime — sat silently throughout the hearing, which later adjourned until Dec. 18 after the testimony. The seven men have pleaded innocent to charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for their alleged roles in Operation Anfal. Saddam and one other defendant have pleaded innocent to the additional charge of genocide. If convicted, they could all be condemned to death. The prosecution estimates that 180,000 Kurds were killed when Saddam's army waged a scorched-earth campaign against Kurdish separatist guerrillas, allegedly destroying hundreds of villages, killing or forcing their residents to flee. The names of the two doctors — both dressed in Western-style business suits and speaking Kurdish through an Arabic interpreter — were not announced when they took the stand, as is the court's practice. It was not immediately clear if the court deliberately withheld their names. In previous hearings, some witnesses who preferred to remain anonymous spoke from behind a curtain. The first doctor testified that airstrikes preceded the arrival of Saddam's ground forces into his village. "On April 16, 1987, I saw many planes hovering in the sky as I was standing outside my clinic," said the physician, who added that he also was a Kurdish guerrilla fighter. "There was a strange smell, some people said it was like garlic or apples," he said. "It was not a bad smell, it smelled like flowers." Shortly after the chemical attack, "I saw dozens of women and children walking with their eyes red, many were vomiting blood," he said. "Everything in the village was dead, the birds, the animals, the sheep," he said, adding that he and some villagers fled to nearby mountains to escape Saddam's advancing troops. Days later, he said he returned to the village to find it "entirely burned, there were no people, only some blind animals who had survived were there." He said fellow Kurdish fighters told him it was "the first chemical attack on Kurdistan." He insisted that there was another "chemical attack" on his village in 1988, but said he did not see any dead people in both assaults. "I was infected by the chemicals," he said, describing feeling "a burning sensation" on his skin and coughing up blood. He did not specify when he sustained his chemical injury. On Nov. 5, Saddam was convicted in a separate trial in the slaying of 148 Shiite Muslims, including children, following an assassination attempt against him in the town of Dujail in 1982. He was sentenced to death by hanging. Juhi reported from Baghdad and Halaby from Amman, Jordan. Some material in the story came from a pool report at the trial in Baghdad. -------- ENERGY -------- alternative energy Three Democratic Governors Promote Clean Energy Laws WASHINGTON, DC, December 7, 2006 (ENS) http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/dec2006/2006-12-07-09.asp#anchor4 Three Democratic governors - Bill Richardson of New Mexico, Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania, and Brian Schweitzer of Montana - will join Apollo Alliance president Jerome Ringo and United Steelworkers president Leo Gerard at a news conference Friday to promote clean energy development as the path to good jobs. The governors will unveil a four-point clean energy plan developed by the Apollo Alliance that is intended to integrate environmental, security, and job creation goals. The Apollo Alliance aims to end America's dependence on foreign oil, promote renewable power, and create millions of good jobs. The three governors, who have each developed clean energy plans in their own states, will recommend the Apollo Alliance plan to newly elected governors who won office based, in part, on campaign pledges to develop clean energy technologies that expand economic opportunities. The four points of the clean energy plan consist of four laws written for enactment by state or city governments. * The Apollo Energy Independence Act would reduce oil imports by up to 40 percent from projected levels and increase use of renewable bio-fuels to 25 percent of our total liquid fuel needs by 2025, if every state were to act as aggressively as it could. * The Renewable Power Investment Act would ensure that by 2025 the United States derives 20 percent of electric power from such renewable sources as the wind, the sun, and the heat just under the earth's surface while reducing the environmental impacts of traditional power sources. * The High-Performance Buildings for Community Redevelopment Act would create incentives for comprehensive energy efficiency retrofits of existing government offices, schools, hospitals and other public infrastructure over the next 10 years while encouraging greater efficiency in new buildings, both public and private. * The High-Performance Cities Act provides incentives for in-fill development and new transit projects to ensure more livable, productive, and energy efficient cities. Inspired by President John F. Kennedy's original Apollo mission, the Apollo Alliance has been endorsed by 23 labor unions, clean energy business leaders, community justice groups, and environmental organizations. -------- ACTIVISTS Antiwar activists, youths, military agree: no draft By Adam Fifield The Philadelphia Inquirer Thu, Dec. 07, 2006 http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/nation/16184939.htm PHILADELPHIA - It's hard to imagine that Oskar Castro could find any common ground with the Pentagon. But one issue has emerged on which the antiwar organizer and the military agree: bringing back the draft is a bad idea. Raising the specter of conscription, even with the intention to deter war, is a grave risk, said Castro, who runs the Youth & Militarism Project, a Quaker-run program that tries to counteract the presence of military recruiters in high schools. Mandatory service is immoral, Castro said, a practice that is not "consistent with the principles of a democratic republic." The U.S. military prefers a volunteer force because retention is greater and it attracts a higher-caliber soldier, a Defense Department spokesman said. Resurrecting the draft, which ended in 1973, has become a hot topic since Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., pledged to introduce a bill next month that subjects all 18- to 42-year-olds, male and female, to the possibility of mandatory service. The outspoken critic of the Iraq war says his goal is to force lawmakers to think more about the human cost of going to battle and to spread the burden of service more fairly across the population. Democratic leaders say the bill, similar to earlier Rangel proposals, will go nowhere. But the congressman is unfazed. "As long as Americans are being shipped off to war, then everybody should be vulnerable, not just those who, because of economic circumstances, are attracted by lucrative enlistment bonuses and educational incentives," Rangel, a Korean War veteran, said in a statement. Among teens, the possibility of a draft has inspired more exasperation than introspection. It is a "drastic measure to maybe sway a few members of Congress," said Matt Schreffler, 18, who has applied to the U.S. Naval Academy. Schreffler said he would hate as an officer "to lead a bunch of kids who don't want to be there." "I think if they put the draft in, Bush would use it," said Derek Burkholder, 17. It makes no sense, said high school senior Bonnie Kelly, 17, who opposes the war: "If there are people who feel strongly, they can volunteer." Z'Andrea English, 17, a high school senior and ROTC cadet, is not hesitant to serve. She would prefer, however, to stand alongside soldiers who are there willingly. "If you don't want to be there, you're not going to do your job right," English said. And "if you're not going to do your job right, we really don't need you." The Army exceeded its recruitment goal in the just-ended fiscal year. Nonetheless, the Selective Service System maintains a record of potential male draftees 18 to 26. Nationally, 76 percent of 18-year-olds are registered, as required by law, an agency spokesman said. Rangel, whose Upper Manhattan district includes Harlem and Washington Heights, argues that minorities and the poor carry a "disproportionate burden" in Iraq. His office cites a study by the nonprofit National Priorities Project that found an increasingly disproportionate number of middle- and low-income Army enlistees in 2005 compared with 2004. The Defense Department disputes Rangel's charge. It offers Heritage Foundation findings that recruits in 2004 and 2005 "came primarily from middle-class areas" and that the volunteer force reflects the race, income and education of the general population. The military has become more representative in the last 30 years, but children of the affluent are still largely absent, said Temple University professor Beth Bailey, who is writing a history of recruitment and the draft in the 20th century. "It's not people who have no other options who the military wants or gets," Bailey said. But recruits are rarely "those who are going to the elite colleges, who come primarily from the top 20 percent of income." Rangel's plan would offer no college deferments, a spokesman for the legislator said. ROTC cadet Joshua Dempsey, a high school senior, said he might enlist to attend college, "because my family is not that privileged." While he doesn't think we need it "this second," he is not opposed to a draft. Rangel's philosophy of equal sacrifice appeals to him. "It should be a shared thing," Dempsey, 18, said. Karen Porter of the Chester County (Pa.) Peace Movement appreciates Rangel's larger point, too. He "knows full well" that his effort will not be what revives the draft, said Porter, who strongly opposes mandatory service. "What he's trying to do is get the American public to know that if this government doesn't shape up, we're going to be in a situation where it WILL happen." But Castro, of the Philadelphia-based American Friends Service Committee, fears "a worst-case scenario" in which the bill is eventually passed. Then the poor and minorities will have no say about their service, Castro said, while "the CEOs of Fortune 500 corporations, their sons and daughters, will find ways out." High school senior and ROTC cadet Wessley Square, 17, would hate for that to happen. "Putting unhappy people and loaded weapons together is never a sound approach," he said.