NucNews January 4, 2007 -------- NUCLEAR -------- accidents and safety Truck carrying radioactive material involved in minor crash 1/4/2007 (AP) http://www.kcoy.com/news/state/story.aspx?content_id=70d1914a-28c5-4e64-92f2-de28f9b5915e PADUCAH, Ky. - A truck carrying radioactive material from a nuclear plant in Kentucky was involved in a minor crash this morning on its way to Oakland. The tractor trailer was carrying five thousand pounds of enriched uranium when it was hit by a small truck outside the plant in West Paducah, Kentucky. Authorities say there was no chemical spill in the crash. The material was headed for the Port of Oakland to be shipped to an overseas customer. -------- australia The yellowcake road winds back to Mary K * Robin Bromby * January 04, 2007 The Australian http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21008570-643,00.html STAND by for another phase of the uranium frenzy - this time in northwest Queensland. Goldsearch ignited it, and now another exploration junior, Deep Yellow, has added fuel to the fire with its announcement yesterday that it had joined the crush looking for uranium around Mt Isa. Expect, too, to hear the name Mary Kathleen, as the historic uranium mine is invoked by companies pegging tenements anywhere in the neighbourhood. Mary Kathleen, which lies about halfway between Mt Isa and Cloncurry, was discovered in 1954. A year later, Rio Tinto formed a company to mine Mary Kathleen to supply Britain's Atomic Energy Authority. It operated in two bursts, 1958-63 and 1975-82, producing a total of 8882 tonnes of uranium. As with any market craze, it is unclear who has what in terms of finds in the Mt Isa-Cloncurry belt. Only one local explorer, Summit Resources, has come up with significant established uranium resources (about 34,000 tonnes) at its 50 per cent-owned Skal and Valhalla deposits close to Mt Isa. Summit is in partnership with Paladin Resources after that company paid $174 million to buy Valhalla Uranium, which held the other half of Skal and Valhalla. The only other established deposit is held by Canada's Laramide Resources, its Westmoreland project 350km northwest of Copper City holding 20,900 tonnes of uranium. The rest is all speculation. But one thing can be said: while the Mary Kathleen mine itself has been depleted, there is every chance the region could become a significant uranium province. This story was ignited only last week when frantic trading in Goldsearch stock began, even though the company said it was unaware of anything that would have set traders going. Results are expected from samples later this month, and the company has said only that those samples indicated grades above 0.005 per cent - and that is a very low grade. But the stock nearly doubled in price when the market reopened on Tuesday. Then Deep Yellow came out yesterday morning saying it had acquired six uranium tenements in the Mt Isa district. So it was off to the races with that stock, Deep Yellow climbing 9.5c to 56.5c. Deep Yellow is also in joint venture with Matrix Metals in the latter's various uranium prospects close to Mary Kathleen. Drilling began on those in November. The great swath of Queensland running from north of Mt Isa through to Cloncurry has only in recent years been opened up by smaller explorers, much of the area having been locked up for years by the former MIM. It was thick with uranium explorers in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and with some big players including BP, Esso, the then CRA (now Rio Tinto) and Belgium's Union Miniere. They all pulled up and left when the uranium price collapsed. Now that Goldsearch and Deep Yellow have taken off, the other uranium players in the area - Universal Resources, Monaro Mining and Paradigm Gold - will also be watched carefully by traders. Universal Resources has tenements that lie within 4km of the Mary Kathleen mine site, and on which CRA did some exploration in the 1970s. That exploration recorded rock chip samples up to 6.18 per cent uranium. Universal began exploration on that ground last month. Paradigm has picked up ground that was prospected by Energy Resources of Australia in 1978 when samples graded up to 0.03 per cent uranium. ERA went no further, as it was focused on its huge Ranger deposit in the Northern Territory. Monaro holds tenements north of Mary Kathleen. It picked these up in September through an alliance with their owner, Mohan Varkey, who was credited with the discovery of the Nabarlek uranium deposit in the Northern Territory and then went on to help find Cigar Lake in Canada. -------- depleted uranium Test bombs may contain radioactive elements By John Upton San Joaquin News Service Last updated: Thursday, Jan 04, 2007 - http://www.lodinews.com/articles/2007/01/04/news/8_tritium_070104.txt Radioactive tritium might accompany depleted uranium in a series of large outdoor test explosions planned this year as little as a mile upwind from Tracy, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has conceded for the first time. Tritium in the blasts would be dispersed as fine particles into the air during the experiments, according to Larry Sedlacek, Deputy Associate Director of Operations in the lab's Defense and Nuclear Technologies Group. Sedlacek said tritium could be used in tests and that it would be "aerosolized" after test blasts as he answered intense questions from Councilwoman Irene Sundberg during an emotional City Council meeting Tuesday night. Sundberg said on Wednesday that her questions to Sedlacek about tritium related directly to planned blasts up to the equivalent of 350 pounds of TNT at Site 300, but Sedlacek said he was referring generally to any test explosion. Sedlacek would not rule out using tritium in the blasts when interviewed Wednesday, saying details of the blasts are classified. "We have used tritium at Site 300 in the past," Sedlacek said. "It is contained in our environmental impact statement that we could potentially use small quantities in the future, but we don't have any scheduled." A lab computer modeling manager, Gretchen Gallegos, told the Environmental Protection Agency on Dec. 19 that she modeled the effects of 350-pound blasts containing 24 pounds of depleted uranium, and found that small amounts of radiation reached the fence line. But it was below the level that would require the lab to file an application to run the tests, according to Environmental Protection Agency spokesman Mark Merchant. Radiation concentrations after explosions are relatively low compared with other radiation sources because the particles become widely spread out, according to information provided by Merchant. Wind blows from Site 300 over Tracy nearly half the time, according to a 1992 Lawrence Livermore study, and it blows toward the San Francisco Bay area nearly 20 percent of the time. Marylia Kelley, executive director for activist group Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment, reviewed the modeled dose expected to reach the fence line and said it was relatively low, but she said it represented the result of just one out of a series of blasts. Kelley also said the National Academy of Sciences had accepted there is no safe level of radiation exposure, with risk merely correlating to dose. The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District issued a permit in November that would allow as many as 20 blasts per year of up to 350 pounds in addition to ongoing smaller blasts. But the district did not assess the health effects of the tritium or depleted uranium because it does not regulate radioactive materials and because it was not told the materials would be included in the blasts, a district permit manager said at Tuesday's council meeting. Jim Swaney, permit services manager for the district's northern office, also said the district did not assess noise impacts from the proposed blasts on Tracy's residents. Houghton said three such blasts are planned in 2007, and that two of them would be related to national security, which may simulate nuclear weapons blasts, while the third was for a Department of Homeland Security program. No blasts larger than 100 pounds have been conducted since 1997, according to Houghton. Councilwoman Evelyn Tolbert aggressively chastised Houghton for not telling Tracy residents about the planned blasts and for failing to call public meetings to discuss them. Neither the air district nor the lab told the public that the permit had been requested or granted. The plans became public Dec. 8 in a Tracy Press article. Houghton told Tolbert that the lab did not notify the public or hold public meetings to discuss the planned blasts because no law required it. Tolbert said the lab would hold public hearings whether or not they were required if the lab was a good neighbor to the city. Longtime lab public affairs officer Steve Wampler, who was introduced by Houghton as speaking as a private Tracy citizen although he sat with five lab colleagues throughout the night, emotionally appealed during the meeting for people to understand that health risks from depleted uranium have been proven negligible and that the lab has always been a good neighbor to Tracy. Bob Sarvey — who stepped down as local director of Tri-Valley CAREs this week for family reasons — gruffly dismissed Wampler's claims as government spin and said depleted uranium could be responsible for Gulf War syndrome. Local resident Kleo Pullin agreed with Tolbert that the lab should better communicate with its neighbors. "I'd like the lab (to) present proactively as if they really care about the participation of the people of Tracy in these processes," said Pullin during the meeting. "This is what my mother, my neighbors, my parents and I spent all this time fighting for in the '70s." Houghton said the lab planned to introduce a community newsletter and take other steps to better communicate with Tracy residents. The district will hear appeals Feb. 7 against the permit by Sarvey and by the developers of the planned 5,500-home Tracy Hills project, which is within city limits a mile from Site 300. Sedlacek said Tuesday that the lab set off similarly sized outdoor blasts at Site 300 in the years leading up to 1996 with two representatives from the Grupe Company of Stockton, which owned the Tracy Hills development at that time. Noise levels that were recorded after as many as 15 blasts at various Site 300 locations between 1994 and 1996 are outlined in a 1996 appendix to a Tracy Hills environmental impact report, but neither the appendix nor Sedlacek stated the size of any of those blasts or whether they contained radiation. Acting Mayor Suzanne Tucker cut short the discussion, which was held at Sundberg's request, as midnight neared. Sarvey had asked the council to declare the blasts a public nuisance, but no such vote was taken. Mayor Brent Ives recused himself from the discussion because he is one of 810 Tracy residents who work at the lab. ---- New study detects traces of uranium in South Lebanon By Rym Ghazal Lebanon Daily Star staff Thursday, January 04, 2007 http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=78163 BEIRUT: Yet another study of soil samples in South Lebanon has detected the presence of radioactive depleted uranium left over from last summer's war. In a report published Wednesday by local daily As-Safir, Mohammed Ali Qbayssi, an expert in nuclear physics based in Germany, was quoted as confirming that depleted uranium had been found in samples taken recently from a bomb crater in the southern region of Khiam. Speaking to As-Safir, Qbayssi stressed that "it is important to distinguish between enriched and depleted uranium, as the two pose different health risks." Similar results were reported in December by Chris Busby, the British secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk, who said that "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 was commenting in an interview with Environment Hotline, a research team affiliated with Environment and Development magazine. However, the National Council for Scientific Research ruled out on Wednesday the possibility of radioactive residue being present in olive oil, after 30 samples were tested in the Southern and Bekaa regions of Lebanon. "There is no evidence of any degree of radioactivity in any of the samples tested, and so the oil is safe for human consumption and exporting poses no danger to public health," a statement released by the council said on Wednesday. The council's results mirrored those of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), which has been studying ecological damage caused by last summer's war in Lebanon. The UNEP released a statement in November declaring that there was "no evidence" of radioactive residue in Lebanon. A team of 20 UNEP scientists had spent two weeks with their Lebanese counterparts at the beginning of October evaluating the environmental impact of the month-long war. The team tested air, water and soil samples at 30 heavily bombarded sites in Southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut. The UNEP said the samples showed no evidence of "metal made of depleted uranium or other radioactive material." There was "no depleted uranium, nor enriched uranium, nor higher than natural uranium," it said. The full UNEP Post-Conflict Assessment report is expected to be released in mid-January. ---- U.S. Army Depleted Uranium Training film Posted Jan 4, 2007 by Critical_Conformity in Lifestyle http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/85204/U_S_Army_Depleted_Uranium_Training_film -------- india Iran to 'honor principles' of nuclear control treaty: negotiator by Dan Martin Thu Jan 4, 2006 http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070105/wl_mideast_afp/irannuclearpoliticschinadiplomacy_070105044826 BEIJING (AFP) - Iran's top nuclear negotiator has said during a visit to China that Tehran will continue to honor the principles of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Chinese state media has reported. The pledge by Ali Larijani, head of Iran's national security council, contradicted an Iranian government statement earlier in the week that said it was keeping open the option of quitting the treaty. "Iran will still honor the principles of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and continue to seek a just and reasonable solution to the Iranian nuclear issue through talks," Larijani said, according to China's Xinhua news agency. He made the remark Thursday while meeting with Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan, one of China's top diplomats. Larijani is in China for a two-day stop that includes a meeting later Friday with President Hu Jintao. China, which has major energy interests in Iran, supports Tehran's right to a nuclear energy program. China last month voted in favor of a United Nations resolution that imposes sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, but Beijing sought to water down the measure and has said it prefers negotiations instead of sanctions. The sanctions take aim at Iranian efforts to enrich uranium, which the United States and others fear could be used to make a nuclear weapon. On Thursday, State Councilor Tang reiterated the call for negotiations in his meeting with Larijani. "Under the current circumstances, it has become more necessary and pressing to resume the negotiations," Tang said, urging all sides to "show flexibility". On Tuesday, Iran said it could drop out of the non-proliferation treaty if Western pressure increased over the nuclear issue. "If we are put under pressure and deprived of our rights, we can use our capacity to decide whether to stay within the treaty or to quit it," government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham told reporters. Larijani will deliver a message from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Hu during his visit, Iranian state media have said. Few other details have been given. "Larijani will meet with Chinese leaders... to exchange opinions on bilateral issues, Iran's nuclear issues, and other regional and international topics of common concern," China's foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a regular press conference on Thursday. China, increasingly looking abroad to meet its growing energy needs, has aggressively pursued oil and gas deals in Iran. Last month China's top energy firm, PetroChina, struck a mammoth deal worth 16 billion dollars for the purchase of Iranian liquefied natural gas. -------- korea Activity spotted at North Korea nuclear test site By Jack Kim Thu Jan 4, 2006 (Reuters) http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070105/ts_nm/korea_north_test_dc_6 SEOUL - South Korean officials said on Friday that activity has been spotted near a suspected nuclear test site in North Korea but there is no evidence to suggest Pyongyang is about to test another atomic device. ABC News earlier quoted a U.S. defense official as saying that North Korea appeared to have made preparations for a second nuclear test. Its first, on October 9 last year, drew worldwide condemnation and punitive U.N. sanctions. "We think they've put everything in place to conduct a test without any notice or warning," the U.S. television network quoted the official as saying. In response, a U.S. official said he had no reason to believe North Korea was preparing for a test -- and there was in fact considerable uncertainty within the U.S. government about whether Pyongyang had any intent to conduct one. The United States monitors North Korea by satellite and by spyplanes that fly along the fringes of the reclusive communist state's airspace for suspicious movements. "Certain activities have been detected near a suspected North Korean nuclear test site but currently there are no specific indications related to an additional test," said a South Korean source familiar with the North's nuclear program. The source asked not to be named and declined to explain how the latest movements were spotted. Another government official in Seoul said vehicle and personnel movement had been spotted near the site of the North's first test, Yonhap news agency reported. That official said there were no signs of cables being laid or electronic monitors being installed, which might indicate a test was imminent. AUSPICIOUS EVENT FOR NATION The ABC report said intelligence was inconclusive, but the preparations in hand were similar to steps taken by North Korea before its October 9 test. Many analysts say that first test was not fully successful. The two Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and China failed in their latest round of talks in Beijing last month to make any progress in suspending the North's nuclear programs in exchange for aid and pledges not to attack it. North Korea was rebuffed at those talks in its insistence that it be treated as a nuclear power. South Korea's Defense Ministry said last week that North Korea has probably extracted more than 50 kg (110 lb.) of plutonium since 1994, with more than 30 kg obtained since 2003 while it was engaged in the six-country negotiations. North Korea hailed its nuclear test as "an auspicious event for the nation" in editorials in official media to welcome the New Year, adding it would further boost its military strength. "The DPRK's (North Korea's) nuclear deterrent serves as a powerful force for defending peace and security in Northeast Asia and guaranteeing the victorious advance of the cause of independence," one editorial said. (Additional reporting by David Morgan, Arshad Mohammed and Paul Eckert in Washington and Kim Yeon-hee in Seoul) -------- mideast US Blacklists Syrian Outfits Over WMD Charges by Staff Writers Washington (AFP) Jan 04, 2007 http://www.spacewar.com/reports/US_Blacklists_Syrian_Outfits_Over_WMD_Charges_999.html The US government Thursday put the financial squeeze on three Syrian government organizations which it accused of spreading weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The Treasury Department said it was blacklisting Syria's Higher Institute of Applied Science and Technology, Electronics Institute, and the National Standards and Calibration Laboratory. Under a presidential directive, any US assets held by the three bodies are now frozen and Americans are banned from conducting transactions with them. "Syria is using official government organizations to develop non-conventional weapons and the missiles to deliver them," said Stuart Levey, Treasury's under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence. "We will continue to take action to prevent such state-sponsored WMD proliferators from using the international financial system," he said in a statement. According to the Treasury, all three are subordinates of the Scientific Studies and Research Center (SSRC), which was blacklisted by Washington in June 2005. "SSRC is the Syrian government agency responsible for developing and producing non-conventional weapons and the missiles to deliver them," the Treasury statement said. "SSRC also has an overtly promoted civilian research function; however, its activities focus substantively on the development of biological and chemical weapons." -------- u.s. nuc facilities Nuclear agency head dismissed for lapses By H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press Writer Thu Jan 4, 2006 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070105/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/nuclear_dismissal_10 WASHINGTON - Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman on Thursday dismissed the chief of the country's nuclear weapons program because of security breakdowns at the Los Alamos, N.M., laboratory and other facilities. Linton Brooks said he would leave in two weeks to three weeks as head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, a post he held since May 2003. Bodman said the nuclear agency under Brooks, a former ambassador and arms control negotiator, had not adequately fixed security problems. "I have decided it is time for new leadership at the NNSA," Bodman said. Brooks told agency workers in a statement, "This is not a decision that I would have preferred ... (but) I accept the decision and you need to do likewise." He characterized the demand for his resignation as "based on the principle of accountability that should govern all public service." Brooks was reprimanded in June for failing to report to Bodman a security breach of computers at an agency facility in Albuquerque, N.M., that resulted in the theft of files containing Social Security numbers and other personal data for 1,500 workers. The theft did not become generally known, nor was Bodman made aware of it, for eight months. Last fall, security at Los Alamos came into question anew. During a drug raid, authorities found classified nuclear-related documents at the home of a woman with top secret clearance who worked at the lab. That security breach was especially troubling, the department's internal watchdog said, because tens of millions of dollars had been spent to upgrade computer security at Los Alamos. The lab is part of the nuclear weapons complex that Brooks' agency oversees. "These management and security issues can have serious implications for the security of the United States," Bodman in a statement announcing Brooks' departure. While the agency's management "has done its best to address these concerns, I do not believe that progress in correcting these issues has been adequate," Bodman said. "Therefore, and after careful consideration, I have decided that it is time for new leadership at the NNSA," said Bodman Bodman said an acting head of the agency will be named soon. Brooks has more than 40 years of experience in national security and nuclear nonproliferation issues. He led the negotiating team that worked on the START arms reduction treaty signed with Russia in 1991. Widely respected for his knowledge of nuclear weapons and nonproliferation issues, Brooks nevertheless has been a target of some members of Congress. When it was learned that Brooks did not inform his superiors for eight months about the computer theft of data on 1,500 employees, Rep. Joe Barton (news, bio, voting record) last year sought Brooks' immediate dismissal. "His departure is long overdue," Barton, R-Texas, said Thursday. With Democrats now in charge of the House and Senate, there has been talk of hearings into the administration's response to security breaches at the labs. "It will take more than a new boss to fix the problems, which are far more systemic and pervasive in nature," said Rep. Edward Markey (news, bio, voting record), D-Mass., a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is considering hearings. Some lawmakers have criticized Brooks' pursuit of a bunker-buster bomb, a project promoted by Brooks but abandoned last year because of congressional opposition. Others have questioned whether Brooks' agency made a clear enough argument on behalf of the weapon. At the same time, Brooks' agency has come under criticism for not making enough progress in working out an agreement with Russia for the disposal of tons of weapons-grade plutonium. Sen. Pete Domenici (news, bio, voting record), R-N.M., said he has been concerned "about the effectiveness" of the agency for some time and that Bodman now "has sent a clear message" that operations need to be improved. In his message to employees, Brooks bemoaned the lack of progress in solving security problems at Los Alamos, saying the agency was formed "to prevent such management problems from occurring. "We have not yet done so in over five years," he said. The agency is responsible for managing the nuclear weapons complex that includes the Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore nuclear weapons research labs. The agency has more than 37,000 employees, most of them contractor personnel. Congress created the agency within the Energy Department in response to the uproar over the Wen Ho Lee security lapses at Los Alamos in the late 1990s. The belief was that security would improve by putting all nuclear weapons programs under a semiautonomous agency. But since then, there have been repeated security problems — most of them at Los Alamos — from misplaced and lost computer disks containing classified information to alleged misuse of credit cards, and last October's discovery of classified documents in a drug raid. On the Net: Energy Department: http://www.doe.gov/ National Nuclear Security Administration: http://www.nnsa.doe.gov/ -------- MILITARY -------- africa US 'helped Ethiopian choppers target Somalia Islamists' Thu Jan 4, 2006 (AFP) http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070104/wl_africa_afp/somaliaunrestethiopia_070104092712 NAIROBI - Ethiopian helicopters, helped by US intelligence, nearly hit fleeing Somali Islamist leaders who abandoned their last stronghold south of Somalia, officials have said. They said Thursday that four helicopters which struck positions three kilometres (1.8 miles) inside Kenya, "nearly hit three off-road vehicles we strongly believed to be carrying the Islamist leaders," said a top Kenyan official, citing intelligence. The trucks were inside Somali territory but some of the bombs from the attack fell on the Kenyan side of the border. US naval forces, based in Djibouti, this week joined the hunt for the Islamist militants with suspected Al-Qaeda ties. The Kenyan official said the three vehicles "were being trailed by a US satelite and all indications are that the (Islamists) were inside." Four helicopters dropped six bombs on Tuesday at positions about 17 kilometres (11 miles) south of the Kenyan border post of Liboi, police confirmed. In addition to three vehicles, an M16 rifle and a pamphlet were recovered from the trucks that had stalled inside Somalia territory, but no one was found in them, they said. A top Somali government official confirmed the details of the incident, saying "I know of this." The fleeing Islamist leaders were reported to be in Badade district in Somalia Lower Jubba region, after retreating from attempts to sneak into Kenya, the official said. "We are still searching for them," government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari told AFP. The United States was working closely with Somalia's Horn of Africa neighbours "to ensure that these individuals aren't able to transit those borders," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, without providing details of the US deployment. Kenya has closed its border with Somalia to prevent an influx of weapons and fighters. ---- US says its pursuit of Somali "al-Qaeda terrorists" a right dpa German Press Agency Published: Thursday January 4, 2007 http://rawstory.com/news/2006/US_says_its_pursuit_of_Somali_al_Qa_01042007.html Nairobi- The United States has a right to pursue Somalia's Islamists, which it believes have ties to international terror networks, the US embassy in Kenya said Thursday. On Wednesday, the US state department said the country has forces off the coast of Somalia and is working with other countries in the region to ensure that Islamists linked to terrorism are not able to flee the country. "Counterterrorism is one of the US' goals in Somalia. We feel we have a right to pursue al-Qaeda terrorists wherever they are," said Robert Kerr, a counsellor for public affairs at the US embassy in the Kenyan capital Nairobi. The US has a fleet of boats around the Somali coast that move in from a Combined Joint Task Force base in Djibouti. The patrols often intercepted pirated ships before the rise of the Islamists, who lessened crime in the Horn of Africa country during their six-month rule based on Islamic (Sharia) law. Washington had been concerned that the rise of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) in Somalia could turn the country into a refuge for al-Qaeda terrorists. Their leader, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, is on a US and United Nation terrorist list. Fighters loyal to the UIC began fleeing their strongholds during a two-week military offensive by Ethiopian-backed government troops last month. The US military had reportedly been providing training of Ethiopian troops along the border with Somalia. The United States in a statement last week backed Ethiopia's decision to launch military strikes. Kenya this week sealed its border, sending helicopters and tanks to reinforce the frontier. Hundreds of Somali refugees, many of them women and children, were deported back to their home country after Kenyan officials stepped up their vigilance, fearing an influx of Islamist fighters. Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi granted the fighters an amnesty, but did not include the group's leaders, who are said to have ties to al-Qaeda, in the truce. Their whereabouts are unclear, but are believed to be sheltered by villagers in the southern reaches of the country, near the Kenyan border. European members of an International Contact Group on Somalia met in Belgium on Wednesday and opted against sending an EU peacekeeping force to the war-torn country, but pushed for an African Union mission instead. The transitional government now controls most of Somalia's centre and south, including the capital Mogadishu. The international community has continued to support negotiations aimed at stabilizing the Horn of Africa nation. The fate of the country, which fell into anarchy after the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohammed Siad Barre, hangs in the balance as Ethiopian troops could leave as early as in two weeks, potentially creating a security vacuum. -------- iraq Iraq threatens arrest of police officer By STEVEN R. HURST, Associated Press Writer Thu Jan 4, 2006 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070104/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_jamil_hussein BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Interior Ministry acknowledged Thursday that an Iraqi police officer whose existence had been denied by the Iraqis and the U.S. military is in fact an active member of the force, and said he now faces arrest for speaking to the media. Ministry spokesman Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, who had previously denied there was any such police employee as Capt. Jamil Hussein, said in an interview that Hussein is an officer assigned to the Khadra police station, as had been reported by The Associated Press. The captain, whose full name is Jamil Gholaiem Hussein, was one of the sources for an AP story in late November about the burning and shooting of six people during a sectarian attack at a Sunni mosque. The U.S. military and the Iraqi Interior Ministry raised the doubts about Hussein in questioning the veracity of the AP's initial reporting on the incident, and the Iraqi ministry suggested that many news organization were giving a distorted, exaggerated picture of the conflict in Iraq. Some Internet bloggers spread and amplified these doubts, accusing the AP of having made up Hussein's identity in order to disseminate false news about the war. Khalaf offered no explanation Thursday for why the ministry had initially denied Hussein's existence, other than to state that its first search of records failed to turn up his full name. He also declined to say how long the ministry had known of its error and why it had made no attempt in the past six weeks to correct the public record. Hussein was not the original source of the disputed report of the attack; the account was first told on Al-Arabiya satellite television by a Sunni elder, Imad al-Hashimi, who retracted it after members of the Defense Ministry paid him a visit. Several neighborhood residents subsequently gave the AP independent accounts of the Shiite militia attack on a mosque in which six people were set on fire and killed. Khalaf told the AP that an arrest warrant had been issued for the captain for having contacts with the media in violation of the ministry's regulations. Hussein told the AP on Wednesday that he learned the arrest warrant would be issued when he returned to work on Thursday after the Eid al-Adha holiday. His phone was turned off Thursday and he could not be reached for further comment. Hussein appears to have fallen afoul of a new Iraqi push, encouraged by some U.S. advisers, to more closely monitor the flow of information about the country's violence, and strictly enforce regulations that bar all but authorized spokesmen from talking to media. During Saddam Hussein's rule, information in Iraq had been fiercely controlled by the Information Ministry, but after the arrival of U.S. troops in 2003 and during the transition to an elected government in 2004, many police such as Hussein felt freer to talk to journalists and give information as it occurred. As a consequence, most news organizations working in Iraq have maintained Iraqi police contacts routinely in recent years. Some officers who speak with reporters withhold their names or attempt to disguise their names using different variants of one or two middle names or last names for reasons of security. Hussein, however, spoke for the record, using his authentic first and last name, on numerous occasions. His first contacts with the AP were in 2004, when the current Interior Ministry and its press apparatus was still being formed out of the chaotic remains of the Saddam-era ministry. The information he provided about various police incidents was never called into question until he became embroiled in the attempt to discredit the AP story about the Hurriyah mosque attack. Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said Thursday that the military had asked the Interior Ministry on Nov. 26 if it had a policeman by the name of Jamil Hussein. Two days later, U.S. Navy Lt. Michael B. Dean, a public affairs officer with the U.S. Navy Multi-National Corps-Iraq Joint Operations Center, sent an e-mail to AP in Baghdad saying that the military had checked with the Iraqi Interior Ministry and was told that no one by the name of Jamil Hussein worked for the ministry or was a Baghdad police officer. Dean also demanded that the mosque attack story be retracted. The text of the Dean letter appeared quickly on several Internet blogs, prompting heated debate about the story and criticism of the AP. At the weekly Interior Ministry briefing on Nov. 30, Khalaf cited the AP story as an example of why the ministry had decided to form a special unit to monitor news coverage and vowed to take legal action against journalists who failed to correct stories the ministry deemed to be incorrect. At the time Khalaf said the ministry had no one on its staff by the name of Jamil Hussein. "Maybe he wore an MOI (Ministry of Interior) uniform and gave a different name to the reporter for money," Khalaf said then. The AP has not paid Jamil Hussein and does not pay any news sources for information for its stories. On Thursday, Khalaf told AP that the ministry at first had searched its files for Jamil Hussein and found no one. He said a later search turned up Capt. Jamil Gholaiem Hussein, assigned to the Khadra police station. But the AP had already identified the captain by all three names in a story on Nov. 28 — two days before the Interior Ministry publicly denied his existence on the police rolls. Khalaf did not say whether the U.S. military had ever been told that Hussein in fact exists. Garver, the U.S. military spokesman, said Thursday that he was not aware that the military had ever been told. Khalaf said Thursday that with the arrest of Hussein for breaking police regulations against talking to reporters, the AP would be called to identify him in a lineup as the source of its story. Should the AP decline to assist in the identification, Khalaf said, the case against Hussein would be dropped. He also said there were no plans to pursue action against the AP should it decline. He said police officers sign a pledge not to talk to reporters when they join the force. He did not explain why Jamil Hussein had become an issue now, given that he had been named by AP in dozens of news reports dating back to early 2006. Before that, he had been a reliable source of police information since 2004 but had not been quoted by name. -------- spies CIA Immune System Still Working Ray McGovern and W. Patrick Lang January 04, 2007 TomPaine.com ( A Project of The Institute for America's Future ) http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/01/04/cia_immune_system_still_working.php Ray McGovern was an Army infantry/intelligence officer before his 27-year career as a CIA analyst. W. Patrick Lang, a retired Army colonel, served with Special Forces in Vietnam, as a professor at West Point and as Defense Intelligence Officer for the Middle East (DIA). Both are with Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. Lies have consequences . All those who helped President George W. Bush launch a war of aggression—termed by Nuremberg “the supreme international crime”—have blood on their hands and must be held accountable. This includes corrupt intelligence officials. Otherwise, look for them to perform the same service in facilitating war on Iran. “They should have been shot,” said former State Department intelligence director, Carl Ford, referring to ex-CIA director George Tenet and his deputy John McLaughlin, for their “fundamentally dishonest” cooking of intelligence to please the White House. Ford was alluding to “intelligence” on the menacing but non-existent mobile biological weapons laboratories in Iraq. Ford was angry that Tenet and McLaughlin persisted in portraying the labs as real several months after they had been duly warned that they existed only in the imagination of intelligence analysts who, in their own eagerness to please, had glommed onto second-hand tales told by a con-man appropriately dubbed “Curveball.” In fact, Tenet and McLaughlin had been warned about Curveball long before they let then-Secretary of State Colin Powell shame himself, and the rest of us, by peddling Curveball’s wares at the U.N. Security Council on February 5, 2003. After the war began, those same analysts, still “leaning forward,” misrepresented a tractor-trailer found in Iraq outfitted with industrial equipment as one of the mobile bio-labs. Former U.N. weapons inspector David Kay, then working for NBC News, obliged by pointing out the equipment “where the biological process took place... Literally, there is nothing else for which it could be used.” George Tenet knows a good man when he sees him. A few weeks later he hired Kay to lead the Pentagon-created Iraq Survey Group in the famous search to find other (equally non-existent, it turned out) “weapons of mass destruction.” (Eventually Kay, a scientist given to empirical evidence more than faith-based intelligence, became the skunk at the picnic when, in January 2004, he insisted on telling senators the truth: “We were almost all wrong—and I certainly include myself here.” But that came later.) On May 28, 2003, CIA’s intrepid analysts cooked up a fraudulent six-page report claiming that the trailer discovered earlier in May was proof they had been right about Iraq’s “bio-weapons labs.” They then performed what could be called a “night-time requisition,” getting the only Defense Intelligence Agency analyst sympathetic to their position to provide DIA “coordination,” (which was subsequently withdrawn by DIA). On May 29, President George W. Bush, visiting Poland, proudly announced on Polish TV, “We have found the weapons of mass destruction.” When the State Department's Intelligence and Research (INR) analysts realized that this was not some kind of Polish joke, they “went ballistic,” according to Ford, who immediately warned Colin Powell that there was a problem. Tenet must have learned of this quickly, for he called Ford on the carpet, literally, the following day. No shrinking violet, Ford held his ground. He told Tenet and McLaughlin, “That report is one of the worst intelligence assessments I’ve ever read.” This vignette—and several like it—are found in Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War by Michael Isikoff and David Corn, who say Ford is still angry over the fraudulent paper. Ford told the authors: It was clear that they [Tenet and McLaughlin] had been personally involved in the preparation of the report... It wasn’t just that it was wrong. They lied. This, of course, was just one episode in the long drama of deliberate perversion of intelligence to grease the skids for justifying the invasion of Iraq—the most serious foreign policy blunder in our nation’s 230-year history. “Hubris,” the overweening arrogance that brought down many a protagonist of the Greek tragedies, is an aptly-chosen title for the revealing Isikoff/Corn study. Some of the ground they cover is familiar to us Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), who well before the war started chronicling the Bush administration’s lies. What makes the book different is its cumulative impact—the detailed, first-hand accounts of lie and cover-up, lie and cover-up, ad nauseam . Protagonists need a supporting cast. And many of the dramatis personae were intelligence analysts—former colleagues of mine. The question lingers: How could they allow themselves to be seduced into enlisting in the meretricious march to mayhem in Iraq? Much of the answer (and much of the reason this misguided war is allowed to continue) lies in the fact that those planning and facilitating the war in Iraq are not fighting it. Unlike Vietnam, no one “important” is being asked to put life and limb at risk; nor, generally speaking, are their children. Interestingly, most of our troops come from towns with populations of less than 10,000. Theirs Not To Reason Why Into the valley of death rode the 3,000. “U.S. Toll in Iraq Reaches 3,000” screamed The Washington Post ’s lead story on New Year’s Day, which included the Pentagon’s count of more than 22,000 troops injured. As is known, the Pentagon does not count dead Iraqis, but reputable estimates put that number at about 650,000. As we pass this sad milestone, it behooves us to pause and consider the enormity of what has been allowed to happen—and how to prevent it from happening again. The House and Senate Intelligence committees in the new Congress need to reinstitute genuine oversight, including a close look at why so many intelligence officers cooperated in the dishonesty leading to war. We owe that to the 25,000, not to mention the 650,000. Start with Tenet and McLaughlin and include Alan Foley, the retired chief of CIA’s Center for Weapons Intelligence, Nonproliferation and Arms Control (WINPAC) and devotee of imaginative intelligence on bio-labs, uranium from Niger, aluminum tubes and other artifices to justify an unnecessary war. Most of the suspects owe their meteoric careers in large measure to Defense Secretary Robert Gates who, as head of CIA analysis and later as CIA director, institutionalized the politicization of CIA analysis more than 20 years ago, mostly by moving malleable managers up the pay scale. Another beneficiary of Gates is George Tenet who, as staff director of the Senate Intelligence committee in 1991, helped Gates overcome strong opposition to his confirmation as director. It is a safe bet that Gates returned the favor by recommending that Tenet be kept on as director when George W. Bush became president in 2001. Gates learned well at the knee of his original mentor, William Casey, President Ronald Reagan’s CIA director. They and those that followed had remarkable success in perpetrating the dual crime of which, long ago, Socrates was accused: making the worse case appear the better and corrupting the youth. Thus, in September 2002 when Senate Intelligence committee Democrats Dick Durban and Bob Graham insisted on a National Intelligence Estimate on “weapons of mass destruction” before Congress voted for war, George Tenet found himself the ultimate beneficiary of Robert Gates’ finely tuned Geiger counter for corruptibility. The pliant managers promoted originally by Gates were happy to conjure up a formal estimate written to the specifications of their frequent visitor, Vice President Dick Cheney. Those who tell consequential lies need to be held accountable. That includes, of course, Colin Powell. Congress needs to ask the former Secretary of State why he decided to disregard the objections of his own intelligence analysts and turned instead to faith-based intelligence for war. He has expressed regret for his scandalous performance at the U.N., but only because it put “a blot on my record.” I would like to see him try that out on Cindy Sheehan and 3,000 other bereaved mothers. Powell and I grew up a mile from each other in the Bronx. There we had a word for his forte, which remains a ubiquitous scourge in Washington. It was both noun and verb: “brownnose.” And it has nothing to do with skin color. It was a familiar word before I learned “sycophant.” Webster’s provides this meaning: “To ingratiate oneself with, to curry favor with; from the implication that servility is equivalent to kissing the hinder parts of the person from whom advancement is sought.” Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D, Texas, put the effects of all this most succinctly in a floor speech last year: This war was launched without an immediate threat to our families... Radical "know-it-all" ideologues here in Washington bent facts, distorted intelligence and perpetrated lies designed to mislead the American people into believing a third-rate thug had a hand in the 9/11 tragedy and was soon to unleash a mushroom cloud. Much is being said today about honoring the sacrifices of our fallen soldiers. Perhaps the best way to do that is to find out who did the misleading and hold them to account before they do it again. -------- us Aircraft Carrier Headed to Persian Gulf Thursday, January 4, 2007 (AP) http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2007/01/04/national/w073127S23.DTL (01-04) 07:31 PST WASHINGTO -- The aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis is scheduled to leave the United States this month for the Persian Gulf region in a Naval buildup aimed partly as a warning to Iran. Officials decided to send the Stennis strike group on top of a carrier group already in the region on a request late last year from the U.S. Central Command, the military unit in charge of activities there as well as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a senior Pentagon official said Thursday. He spoke on condition of anonymity because the Defense Department perfers not to publicly announce upcoming ship movements for security reasons. Pentagon officials said last month that the extra ships would serve as a show of force to Iran, at odds with the United States over its nuclear program and alleged support of violence in Iraq. They said the ships also would be available to help in the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq — and possibly nearby in Indian Ocean waters off the coast of Somalia, a lawless nation that authorities say has been a haven for Islamic radicals. The aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower left its Norfolk, Va., port in September and is already in the gulf region. The Stennis is homeported in Bremerton, Wash. -------- ENERGY -------- alternative energy Alternative-Energy Spending Fizzles Out Congress ends without funding research programs, as the United States falls behind in alternative technologies. By Kevin Bullis Thursday, January 04, 2007 Technology Review http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/18003/ Despite the hype and numerous promises that began 2006, including President Bush's declared plans to curb the United States' addiction to oil, the 109th Congress ended the year without allocating funding for proposed increases in research spending for alternative energy. Although Bush proposed a fiscal-year 2007 budget that would have increased funding for some renewable-energy resources, including solar and biomass, as well as for research into hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, the budget was not passed. Instead, Congress passed a stop-gap continuing resolution that will keep the budget at 2006 levels, which, because of inflation, amounts to a cut in funding, and it specifically decreases funding in some cases. For now, the Department of Energy is suspending funding for new projects, a spokesperson says. According to Kei Koizumi, director of the R&D Budget and Policy Program at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, other research agencies are cutting funding for ongoing projects by 20 percent because of budget uncertainty. This makes it difficult for labs to hire the researchers or buy the equipment necessary to continue work. The new Congress, which convenes today, is expected to extend the stop-gap measure through the rest of the year in order to focus efforts on the president's fiscal-year 2008 budget, which will be announced in February. Some experts are warning that the cuts come just as much more money is needed to address energy-security concerns such as unstable oil prices and global warming. "We spent $9 billion last year on the strategic defense initiative R&D," says Joseph Romm, founder and director of the Center for Energy and Climate Solutions, who headed the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy under President Clinton. Romm says the budget "for all energy efficiency and all renewable energy is something like a billion. Given [that] the scale of the problem with global warming and our oil imports is so humongous, we're hardly addressing the issue at all." Ernest Moniz, director of the MIT Energy Initiative, says that MIT-based studies suggest that money for nuclear power and better coal technology needs to be double what it is now. And although similar studies on renewable energies have not yet been done, he says that renewable energies are probably underfunded to the same degree. Michael Eckhart, president of the American Council on Renewable Energy, based in Washington, D.C., says renewable-energy research funding should be three times what it is today. One concern is that the pipeline from basic research to an affordable commercial technology is decades long: if new research isn't currently feeding this pipeline, it could run dry just when growing energy demand worldwide means that new products are needed more than ever. "If the government research funding is being squeezed significantly, it tends to hit the beginning of the pipeline, which to a certain extent you don't see for a few years," Moniz says. "But you will see it down the road. We'll be paying the price." "We've lulled ourselves into thinking we're the leading country in renewable-energy technology because we were the early leader," Eckhart says. "But we've gotten old, and soft, and underfunded. We are simply not competitive in the world market anymore." Indeed, he says that countries like Germany, Japan, China, and India are now the primary manufacturers of technologies that were originally developed with U.S. funding. "Of the largest ten wind-turbine manufacturers, the only U.S. company is GE," Eckhart says. "Nine of the ten are non-U.S. companies. Of the largest ten solar-cell manufacturers in the world, none are U.S. companies." Perhaps more important in the short term than funding energy research is changing government policy, say some experts. Technology exists today that can reduce emissions from power plants and cut petroleum use, but it is not being put to use. If a price were put on carbon emissions, Moniz says, "that would be a huge influence almost immediately in terms of what existing technologies industry deploys." To develop carbon-free sources of energy and reduce petroleum dependence, Romm says the United States needs a program on the same scale--relative to GDP--as the Manhattan Project or the Apollo program. It would mean spending tens of billions of dollars on basic and applied research, and commercialization of existing technologies. "We have to go whole hog with the technologies that we have now," Romm says. "At the same time, we have to develop new technologies so that after we've spent 20 years deploying what we have, we have another go-around of technologies." -------- ACTIVISTS Anti-war camp gears up for Watada's trial Activities, vigils will support soldier who refused Iraq duty By MIKE BARBER Thursday, January 4, 2007 P-I REPORTER http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/298360_watada04.html The anti-war movement is moving into position around Fort Lewis this month, preparing a series of activities and vigils for the impending court-martial Feb. 5 of Army 1st Lt. Ehren Watada. Watada is the only U.S. military officer to publicly refuse deployment to Iraq, contending the war is unjustified. He has become a lightning rod for the peace movement since first going public with his objections to the war June 22, refusing to deploy to Iraq with a 4,000- member Stryker Brigade. Watada, who remains free to come and go, is slated to appear at a pretrial hearing this morning. Defense lawyers and prosecutors are expected to file several motions in preparation for his court-martial. Depending upon the motions, the judge could rule immediately or take several days to decide, Army officials said. Watada could face up to six years in prison if found guilty of one count of missing a movement and four counts of disobeying an order. Watada and his lawyers say he first expressed reservations about serving in Iraq last January and quietly stated his objections to serving in Iraq as an immoral and illegal war, going public when his objections went nowhere. Watada, a Stryker Brigade artillery officer, has said he is not a conscientious objector. He has said he would fight in Afghanistan but not in Iraq. Peace activists, international law experts and war resisters past and present are preparing to rally outside Fort Lewis on Watada's behalf on court days. A news conference Wednesday at First Congregational Church in Tacoma to drum up support before today's hearing featured Watada's father, clergy and Japanese American war resisters. The Evergeen State College Tacoma campus, meanwhile, plans a "Citizens Hearing on the Legality of U.S. Actions in Iraq" for Jan. 20-21, aimed at supporting Watada by putting the war on trial. The event, for which the non-profit Church Council of Greater Seattle is gathering donations, features a panel comprising a cross section of the community to listen to arguments about the war's legality and whether soldiers have an obligation to refuse unlawful orders. Those who organizers say have committed to testify include Daniel Ellsberg, a former military analyst who released the Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam War; Denis Halliday, a former United Nations assistant secretary-general who coordinated Iraq humanitarian aid; Nadia McCaffrey of Gold Star Families Speak Out; Harvey Tharp, a former Navy lieutenant and military lawyer in Iraq; Antonia Juhasz, author and analyst of U.S. economic policies in Iraq; and Eman Khammas (by video), an Iraqi human rights advocate. ONLINE # Watada's supporters have set up an information site at thankyoult.org. # Information about the Jan. 20-21 "Citizens Hearing" is available at wartribunal.org. P-I reporter Mike Barber can be reached at 206-448-8018 or mikebarber@seattlepi.com. ---- Former US Policy Honchos Call For World Free Of Nuclear Arms by Staff Writers Washington (AFP) Jan 04, 2007 http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Former_US_Policy_Honchos_Call_For_World_Free_Of_Nuclear_Arms_999.html Four top former US foreign policy officials, including ex-secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, called for a world free of nuclear weapons in an opinion piece Thursday. The article, which appears in the Wall Street Journal, is also signed by former secretary of defense William Perry and Sam Nunn, a former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. The Washington heavyweights say the United States should launch a major effort towards banning all nuclear weapons. Citing nuclear programs in North Korea and Iran, the officials say the world "is now on the precipice of a new and dangerous nuclear era." Aside from the threat of terrorists using nuclear weapons, "unless urgent new actions are taken, the US soon will be compelled to enter a new nuclear era that will be more precarious, psychologically disorienting, and economically even more costly than was the Cold War deterrence," they wrote. In the lengthy article the ex-officials recommend a series of measures that include strong support for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and other non-proliferation efforts. But more has to be done, they suggested. "We believe that a major effort should be launched by the United States to produce a positive answer through concrete stages," they wrote. Proposed measures include: - Increasing the launch warning time on deployed nuclear weapons to reduce the danger of an accidental or unauthorized use - Decreasing the number of nuclear weapons among all nations - Eliminating short-range nuclear weapons, designed to be deployed with front-line troops - Providing the highest possible security around the world for all nuclear weapons, weapons-usable plutonium, and highly enriched uranium - Phasing out the use of highly enriched uranium in civil commerce - Removing weapons-usable uranium from research facilities around the world. "Reassertion of the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons and practical measures toward achieving that goal would be, and would be perceived as, a bold initiative consistent with America's moral heritage," the group wrote. "Without the bold vision, the actions will not be perceived as fair or urgent. Without the actions, the vision will not be perceived as realistic or possible," the article reads. Kissinger was secretary of state from 1973 to 1977 under presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford; Shultz, was secretary of state from 1982 to 1989 under Ronald Reagan; Perry was secretary of defense from 1994 to 1997 under Bill Clinton; and Nunn was senator from 1972 to 1996. ---- A Mother Fights for a Soldier Who Said No to War By Linton Weeks Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, January 4, 2007; C01 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/03/AR2007010301914_pf.html Carolyn Ho is a mother on a mission. She came to Washington in mid-December to build support for her son, Army 1st Lt. Ehren Watada, the first commissioned officer to refuse deployment to Iraq. Barring some kind of miracle, he will be court-martialed on Feb. 5 at Fort Lewis, about 45 miles south of Seattle. If convicted, he could be sent to military prison for six years. There's going to be a pretrial hearing today. Like many Americans, she believed she could come to the capital city and change the world. Or at least her small part of it. She was acting purely on instinct, wanting to do everything in a mother's power to protect her son. "I'm here to get what I can," said Ho, who is from Honolulu. Dark hair pulled back. Dark eyes that moisten when she speaks of her son. Soft voice. "I'm going to put it out there." At the very least, she hoped for some kind of letter of support before today's hearing. Late yesterday afternoon, a letter arrived. After a lot of worry and work. Lobbying Congress is no day at the spa. During her Capitol Hill quest, she was accompanied by several seasoned lobbyists, but they let her do the talking. She moved along the halls, sitting down with staffers in the offices of Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) and aides from the offices of Reps. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Maxine Waters (D-Calif.). In closed-door meetings, Ho told the same story. She sees her efforts as part of a larger, multifaceted wave that is challenging the Bush administration from every angle. At the same time the president is advocating an increase in the number of soldiers in Iraq, there is on the home front an increase in the number of vocal opponents of the war. "I believe my son is part of this movement," Ho said. Phoebe Jones of Global Women's Strike, an international antiwar network that supports Ho and Watada, was at Ho's side on Capitol Hill. "The work of mothers is protecting life, beginning with their children," Jones explained. "And that is really the opposite of the obscenity of war." On the Hill, Ho handed out information packets. She passed around photos of Watada, who is taller, fuller of face than his mother, but shares her smile. Her son "based his decision on facts," she said. He studied the war in Iraq and decided it was illegal. He tried to resign and leave the service with dignity, but the Army wouldn't let him. He asked to be shipped to Afghanistan; his request was denied. He was offered a noncombat position in Iraq; he said no thanks. Because the United States entered the war based on false premises, Ho said, the war is illegal. It is thus her son's constitutional duty to disobey orders. So she asked that members of Congress get involved. She said that ideally she would prefer that the military accept her son's resignation and dismiss all charges against him. "He shouldn't be in a military prison," she said. His voice "will be totally squelched." She asked, "Just who is the criminal here? The one who is refusing to participate in war crimes?" From the Army's standpoint, the case is simple. Tens of thousands of soldiers have passed through Fort Lewis on their way to the war and have not asked for special treatment, said Army spokesman Joe Piek. Watada, 28, signed on for military service in 2003 with full knowledge that he might have to fight an unpopular war, Piek said. "This is a case about a soldier who refused orders to deploy to Iraq. . . . That is the bottom line." Watada has been charged with one count of "missing movement," which means he did not board one of the planes that were taking his 3rd Brigade to Kuwait on June 22. In Kuwait the brigade's 4,000 soldiers received their equipment and their marching orders. He also is charged with "conduct unbecoming an officer," for subsequent statements he made. For now he is assigned to a special troops battalion and has been doing everyday soldierly duties while awaiting his court appearance. Piek said, "He joined the Army and swore an oath, and that includes following the orders of the officers appointed over him. His unit was placed in a stop-loss category, which meant that everybody currently in that unit would deploy. You don't get to pick and choose, especially if you are a junior officer, which places you get to go to." To Watada's attorney, Eric Seitz, the situation is more complicated. "The United States talks out of both sides of its mouth," he said. "We've prosecuted soldiers in other countries for following orders to commit war crimes. But God forbid you should use that refusal as a defense in this country." The Watada defense: Questioning the war publicly is not "conduct unbecoming" but an exercise of freedom of speech. And he had the right to miss movement because he was refusing to participate in what he deems an illicit enterprise. To Carolyn Ho, congressional staffers were polite and receptive. She came at an inopportune time, she was told several times. Congress had adjourned for the holidays and there was not much time before the court-martial. There were flashes of hope: Along the way, someone suggested that a "sign-on letter" sent by members of Congress to the secretary of the Army might be a way to galvanize support for Watada. Or a "dear colleague" letter that would alert others in Congress to Watada's situation. One staffer brought up the idea of a "private resolution," an arcane move in which Congress passes a bill that affects one person. "Those are possibilities," Ho said. But as the day wore on, fatigue showed on her face. She left with little more than encouragement and good wishes. A high school counselor, Ho had been on leave since the end of September. She had to get back to work. She is divorced. Her ex-husband, Bob Watada, has also been out drumming up support, speaking to churches and civic organizations around the country. She spent October and November on the West Coast and much of December on the East. At one event she shared a podium with Cindy Sheehan, who refers to the moms-against-bombs instinct as "matriotism." Ho went back to Hawaii for Christmas, but is in the Seattle area this week for the hearing. On the phone from Fort Lewis, Ehren Watada explained how he decided while still in college -- in the aftermath of 9/11 -- that he wanted to serve his country in the military. He walked into a recruitment office in Honolulu and said he wanted to go to officer candidate school. He failed the physical because of childhood asthma. "I was heartbroken," he said. "I paid out of pocket for a breathing test to prove I had no breathing problems. I passed the test with flying colors and was eventually accepted at the end of March 2003." Though Watada's father did not serve in the military, several uncles were in World War II. One of his uncles was killed in Korea. Another relative was in Vietnam. "There is a history of service in our family," he said. When he signed up, "I didn't know the things I know today. I believed the military and the government when they told me that Iraq posed an imminent threat." Watada said it took him a couple of years to realize that the United States should not be in Iraq. He submitted his resignation in January 2006. "The commanders of my unit were not too happy about it," he said. They were surprised, he said, because until that point he had received positive evaluations. "I can't stop the war," said Watada. "But if Americans believe the war is wrong, they should be doing everything they can to stop it." His mother is doing what she can. "People are stepping gingerly," she said yesterday about legislative action. "There's a wait-and-see approach." She was in Tacoma, Wash., yesterday for a press conference when she received a personal letter from Rep. Maxine Waters. Ho read an excerpt over the phone: "The issue that [1st Lt. Ehren Watada] has raised deserves to be publicly debated and considered. And I will use my platform as a member of Congress and chair of the 'Out of Iraq' caucus to highlight the failed policies of this administration and stimulate discussion. . . . Your son has shown great integrity and dignity in his objection to the war in Iraq, and I commend you for working so hard on his behalf." Ho sighed and said she found the letter to be "disappointing." But it was something.