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Digest 125, originally sent Sat Jul 24 04:10:04 1999 :
There are 17 messages in this issue.
Topics in today's digest:
1. NucNews-14 7/23/99 - US Military Outrages From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 2. NucNews-15 7/23/99 - Nuc Diplomacy / Business From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 3. NucNews-0 Brief 7/23/99 - From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 4. NucNews-13 7/23/99 - Pentagon; F-22 Vote From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 5. NucNews-16 7/23/99 - DOE Reorganization From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 6. NucNews-11 7/23/99 - China; Taiwan; Rep Gilman Stops ALL Arms Sales From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 7. NucNews-12 7/23/99 - India/Pakistan; Mideast From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 8. NucNews-9 7/23/99 - Pacific and South Africa - Plutonium Ship From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 9. NucNews-8 7/23/99 - Greenpeace - Europe - Plutonium Ship From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 10. NucNews-7 7/23/99 - Europe Greens; NATO From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 11. NucNews-4 7/23/99 - Depleted Uranium - 2; Ukraine; Russia-1 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 12. NucNews-5 7/23/99 - Russia-1 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 13. NucNews-10 7/23/99 - China - Korea From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 14. NucNews-3 7/23/99 - Depleted Uranium-1 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 15. NucNews-6 7/23/99 - Russia-2 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 16. NucNews-1 7/23/99 - Good News! Pending Legislation - HR-2545 etc. From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 17. NucNews-2 7/23/99 - Y2K From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx
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Message: 1 Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 09:59:43 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-14 7/23/99 - US Military Outrages
52. U.S. Confirms Puerto Rico Napalm Use
By The Associated Press, July 19, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Puerto-Rico-Navy.html
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- Reversing earlier denials, the U.S. Navy confirmed Monday it used napalm on an island training ground that has become the focus of an escalating feud between Puerto Rico and the United States.
The Navy said in a report released Thursday that it dropped 24 bombs of the intensely flammable chemical on the island of Vieques in 1993, and Navy spokesman Roberto Nelson confirmed its use Monday.
Activists say the admission bolsters claims by the Puerto Rican government that exercises contaminated the island with explosives residue and chemicals. The government estimates the cancer rate among the island's 9,400 residents is 27 percent higher than the Puerto Rican average.
Napalm is a sticky, jelly-like substance related to gasoline that was used extensively in the Vietnam War. Once ignited, it is extremely difficult to extinguish.
As recently as 1997, a Navy spokesman denied activists' claims that they doused part of the island with napalm in October 1992 -- even though the Navy newspaper El Navegante had reported it.
Opposition to the Navy flared after a U.S. Marine Corps F-18 dropped two 500-pound bombs three miles off target at its firing range on April 19, killing a civilian security guard.
Puerto Rican Gov. Pedro Rossello has demanded that the Navy leave Vieques, just east of the main island. On Monday, he met with White House officials in Washington to discuss the demands.
The Navy says Vieques is essential to national security and has been used in training for every major U.S. military exercise since the 1940s.
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53. US Torpedo Testing Enrages Canadians
By David Crary, Associated Press, July 20, 1999; 1:02 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990720/V000463-072099-idx.html
NANAIMO, British Columbia (AP) -- Scenic and serene, the waters of the Georgia Strait west of Vancouver are the unlikely catalyst for a rancorous political tug-of-war over nuclear weaponry and U.S.-Canadian relations.
The dispute is at a pivotal point this week, with the start of public hearings that give British Columbians a chance to berate their own federal government for placing Washington's defense concerns above the province's aversion to nuclear arms.
Since 1965, a section of the Georgia Strait has been used by the U.S. Navy to test torpedoes -- thousands of them slamming into a unique, muddy seabed from which they can be retrieved.
The lease for the provincially owned seabed is about to expire, and British Columbia's government is demanding a pledge that no nuclear-armed ships enter the strait.
But this would contradict U.S. Navy policy of neither confirming nor denying the presence of nuclear weapons aboard its ships. Canada's federal government, irked at British Columbia and wary of straining ties with Washington, is taking the unprecedented step of expropriating the 140-square-mile area from the province so the torpedo-testing can continue.
Public hearings on the expropriation, required by law, began Monday in Nanaimo, a city on Vancouver Island just south of the Nanoose Bay testing range.
An array of anti-nuclear and environmental groups were on hand to oppose the expropriation. ``No floating Chernobyls please,'' read one of their banners, alluding to use of the range by nuclear-powered submarines.
The provincial government will present its arguments next month, when the hearings shift to Vancouver. But it has released an outline of its case which notes that British Columbia's legislature voted 51-1 in 1992 to declared the province a nuclear-weapons-free zone.
``All British Columbia is saying is: On our own land, we have the right to impose those conditions,'' the province's lawyer, Greg McDade, said in an interview. ``The federal government, in order to cater to the U.S. government and not offend them, is using expropriation as a sledgehammer.''
Canada's navy, which has no nuclear-armed or nuclear-powered ships, sometimes conducts tests at Nanoose, but the U.S. Navy is the main user. Anywhere from 300 to 800 torpedoes -- not rigged with explosives -- are fired annually from planes, surface ships and submarines.
McDade says the provincial government believes some nuclear-armed U.S. submarines have been at Nanoose in recent years, though it has no categorical proof. However, Canadian naval commanders say they are virtually sure no nuclear-armed vessels will enter Nanoose waters -- but in deference to U.S. policy, they have balked at requiring any formal pledge to this effect.
Several other countries have closed U.S. naval bases on their territory or restricted access by U.S. warships. British Columbia protesters say Canada is now the only foreign country that allows U.S. submarines to operate on a routine basis in its waters.
At the opening hearing Monday, a schoolteacher from the Vancouver Island town of Duncan urged Canada to reject the U.S. policy of neither confirming nor denying whether Navy ships carry nuclear weapons.
``We don't accept that as an answer if someone tries to bring firearms into Canada,'' Beverly Wiren said to applause from the audience. ``Why should we accept it in the case of nuclear weapons?''
The federal government, controlled by the centrist Liberal Party of Prime Minister Jean Chretien, has been at odds repeatedly with British Columbia's left-wing government. Many British Columbians believe expropriation would never have been attempted if the property in question was in the populous eastern provinces of Quebec or Ontario.
``This is once again an indication that Ottawa doesn't give a damn about the rest of this country,'' said environmental activist David Cadman.
The activists argue the federal government's solicitude toward Washington is betraying its traditionally strong support for nuclear disarmament and Canada's key role in the international campaign to outlaw land mines.
The dispute almost didn't happen. British Columbia and the federal government reached a tentative agreement in May calling for a 30-year deal that would earn the province $85 million, a big change from the province's previous token income of $1 a year.
But the deal swiftly collapsed when federal officials refused to endorse the ban on nuclear-armed ships.
Though the protest groups are glad to have a forum for venting their outrage, they are not overly optimistic of blocking the expropriation. The retired judge conducting the hearings, Michael Goldie, has no mandate to make recommendations; he will simply summarize the objectors' views and submit a report by early September to one of Chretien's Cabinet ministers, who has the final say.
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54. Missing Missiles How Can the U.S. Pay for New Weapons?
By Barbara Starr ABCNEWS.com, December 29, 1998 http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/world/DailyNews/iraq981229_starr.html
The U.S. Air Force used more than 90 air-launched cruise missiles in the recent four-day attack of Iraq. Now it must decide how and whether to replace them.
W A S H I N G T O N, Dec. 29 By attacking Iraq earlier this month, the U.S. military may have bombed its way into a shortage of the cruise missiles it uses to keep aircraft and their pilots out of harm's way.
Pentagon planners, already dealing with tightening budgets, must now decide whether to spend the millions it takes to replace the crucial weapons, or wait for next-generation technology that may or may not be just over the horizon.
U.S. B-52 bombers fired more than 90 cruise missiles into Iraq in the four days of Operation Desert Fox, using up some 40% of the most powerful missiles in the Air Force's inventory.
But the air-launched weapons, made by Boeing, have been out of production for years, and there is no easy way to replace them. Not only does each missile cost $1 million, but to re-open production would be "prohibitively expensive," says Robert Wall, military editor of Aviation Week and Space Technology.
Nuclear Worries
The only realistic way to replace the missiles, Wall says, is to convert other missiles tipped with nuclear warheads, at a cost of $160,000 each. All the conventionally armed missiles built to date have been converted from nuclear ones.
But Air Force brass worries that its nuclear inventory might become too weakened if too many more of its remaining 1,142 nuclear-tipped missiles are converted.
The Air Force reports that prior to Operation Desert Fox it had 239 of the air-launched missiles, 198 of them able to carry the heaviest 3,000-pound warheads that were probably used in the campaign to blast through bunkers and other heavily fortified targets in Iraq.
The weapons, known as Conventional Air Launched Cruise Missiles, or CALCMs, are to be replaced by the Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missiles, or JASSMs, after the year 2001.
Danger to U.S. Bombers
But while the CALCM has a range of 600 miles, the JASSM's range may be less than half that, which will make it hard for the lumbering B-52s to fire without getting so close to their targets that they would be in danger.
Military experts now have to make the tough choice of deciding whether to spend on weapons that may never be used, convert weapons that could deplete the nuclear inventory, or wait for weapons that might not be up to the task.
They will also have to figure out how to pay for Desert Fox, which could easily approach $1 billion after all expenses including pilots, fuel and transportation are figured.
Those calculations will, no doubt, form a significant role in calculating what weapons to buy for any future campaigns.
The Other Missile Problem
Like the Air Force, the Navy must decide whether to replace the cruise missiles it used in Desert Fox or to wait for new ones. The Navy's problem, though, is less critical.
During Operation Desert Fox, ships and submarines fired more than 300 Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles, or TLAMs, which cost $1 million each.
That leaves the Navy with about 2,500 TLAMS, of which about 1,400 are the most advanced version with precision guidance.
But within the next few years the Navy is hoping to field a completely new version that can be re-targeted while in flight. That will give commanders even more ability to surprise enemies and destroy targets without risking a pilot.
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55. Feds Seek To Enlarge Vaccine Supply
By The Associated Press, July 21, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/a/AP-Smallpox-Vaccine.html
MARIETTA, Pa. (AP) -- On the outskirts of this sleepy town in Lancaster County, in a maze of buildings behind a chain-link fence, is the nation's only stockpile of smallpox vaccine.
The 15.4 million doses -- about a quarter of the world's supply -- are not nearly enough should the country be struck by a biological weapon. And that has U.S. officials worried.
Less than a generation ago, smallpox plagued 31 countries, killing about 2 million people a year. Since its eradication from the general population in 1979, the highly contagious virus is supposed to exist only in guarded laboratories at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and the Institute for Viral Preparations in Moscow.
Fear that some of Russia's supplies may fall into the hands of terrorists has led Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., among others, to urge the Clinton administration to stockpile more of the vaccine and develop new vaccines.
The federal government has agreed to expand the stockpile, although no final decision has been made on how much more vaccine to make, said Barbara Reynolds of the CDC.
Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, based in the Philadelphia suburb of St. Davids, developed the vaccine about 30 years ago. The company keeps the existing doses in glass vials under tight security in Marietta. The federal government owns the stockpile.
Dr. Jim LeDuc, a CDC epidemiologist, said scientists believe the supply can be diluted to protect 150 million people, and experiments are planned to test the theory.
Even if the vaccine can be diluted that much, the stockpile would not be enough to inoculate the nation's 273 million inhabitants.
Worldwide, about 60 million doses of the vaccine are available. Some epidemiologists recommend that the United States stockpile at least 40 million doses -- nearly triple the present amount, LeDuc said.
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Message: 2 Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 10:11:04 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-15 7/23/99 - Nuc Diplomacy / Business
56. Clinton Urges Action on Test Ban
By Terence Hunt AP White House Correspondent Tuesday, July 20, 1999 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990720/V000450-072099-idx.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Clinton urged the Senate today to act on a long-stalled treaty to ban nuclear testing, saying the United States' failure to act jeopardizes an agreement signed by 152 nations.
He said it would be ``a grave error'' for the treaty to be derailed because of a dispute with some senators over two unrelated treaties. ``Unfortunately, the test-ban treaty is now imperiled by the refusal of some senators even to consider it,'' the president said.
Clinton, in an appearance in the Rose Garden, spoke up as part of a new drive by Democrats and Republicans alike to dislodge the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Clinton signed the treaty in 1996. Now the treaty has been signed by 152 countries, and 41 of them have ratified it.
``At a minimum,'' Clinton said, ``the Senate Foreign Relations Committee should hold hearings this fall. Hearings would allow each side to make its case for and against the treaty, and allow the Senate to decide this matter on the merits.
``We have a chance right now to end nuclear testing forever,'' the president said. ``It would be a tragedy for our security and for our children's future to let this opportunity slip away.''
Under the treaty, all 44 states with some nuclear capacity must sign for it to take effect. Even one holdout could doom the treaty. So far, only 18 nations with nuclear capabilities have acted.
The treaty is bottled up in the Foreign Relations Committee by its chairman, Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C.
Before moving on the test-ban treaty, Helms wants the administration to first submit to the Senate modifications in the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty agreed to three years ago by Clinton and Yeltsin. The administration says it will submit the modifications, but only after Russia ratifies START II.
Helms also wants the administration to submit the climate treaty negotiated in Kyoto, Japan, in December 1997, even though it would likely be defeated.
Clinton said the ABM and climate treaties ``are literally not ripe for presentation to the Senate yet'' and it would be a ``grave error'' to delay the test-ban treaty.
Supporters of the test-ban treaty say it would lock in U.S. superiority gained by more than 1,000 nuclear tests during the Cold War. Failing to ratify the pact could open the door to additional nuclear tests by India, Pakistan or other nations, the supporters claim.
Opponents argue it could threaten America's ability to deliver an effective nuclear strike, if one is ever needed.
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57. Clinton Names Wulf to State Department Post
To: National Desk Contact: White House Press Office, 202-456-2100 http://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/Current_Releases/0722-131.htm
WASHINGTON, July 22 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The President today announced his intention to nominate Norman A. Wulf to serve as Special Representative for Nuclear Nonproliferation with the rank of Ambassador at the Department of State.
Wulf, of Fairfax, Va., is a career member of the Senior Executive Service. Wulf served for fourteen years as Deputy Assistant Director for Nonproliferation and Regional Arms Control of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA) before becoming Senior Advisor for Nuclear Nonproliferation at the Department of State. While at ACDA, he was intimately involved in all nuclear nonproliferation issues and led the first team of Americans to visit North Korea's nuclear facilities. Wulf also served as head of the U.S. negotiating team that achieved the first significant strengthening of nuclear safeguards applied by the International Atomic Energy Agency in over twenty years. Wulf received a LLM from the University of Miami in 1970, a J.D. from the University of Iowa College of Law in 1965 and a B.A. from Iowa Wesleyan College in 1962.
In his capacity as Special Representative for Nuclear Nonproliferation, Wulf will be responsible for all matters relating to the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the International Atomic Agency, nuclear weapon free zones and related issues.
-0- /U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/ 07/22 16:33
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58. General Dynamics Reports Earnings Up
Tuesday, July 20, 1999; 4:24 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990720/V000626-072099-idx.html
FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) -- General Dynamics said its acquisition of a California shipbuilding company helped the defense contractor post a 13 percent increase in profits for the second quarter.
The company on Tuesday reported net income of $105 million, or 81 cents per, up from $92 million, or 72 cents per share, a year ago.
The results beat Wall Street analysts' expectations of 80 cents per share, according to First Call Corp., a financial research network.
Revenues for the quarter that ended July 4 were $1.38 billion, up from $1.18 billion in the second quarter of 1998.
``This was another excellent quarter, bolstered by the results of our acquisition strategy and strong internal growth,'' said Nicholas D. Chabraja, chairman and chief executive officer.
The company's Marine Systems group saw a 30 percent revenue increase, largely because of the purchase of National Steel and Shipbuilding Co. General Dynamics acquired San Diego-based NASSCO on Nov. 10, 1998. The company's other shipbuilding operations include Electric Boat, Bath Iron Works and National Steel and Shipbuilding Co.; and Litton Industries, parent of Ingalls Shipbuilding.
Second-quarter revenue in the Combat Systems segment were $306 million, up from $298 million. The Information Systems and Technology group reported revenue of $243 million, up from $228 million.
The Falls Church, Va.-based defense contractor makes nuclear submarines and the Aegis class of warships for the Navy, and the M1 Abrams battle tank for the Army.
For the first six months of the year, the company had profits of $370 million, or $2.87 per share -- a 110 percent increase over the $174 million, or $1.37 per share, for the same period a year ago. The 1999 figure includes a one-time gain of $165 million, or $1.29 per share, from a research and development tax credit.
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59. Lockheed Martin Reports Loss of $41 Million in 2nd Quarter
Wednesday, July 21, 1999; Page E02 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/21/110l-072199-idx.html
As expected, Lockheed Martin Corp. yesterday posted a loss for the second quarter, as the Bethesda-based defense company struggled with delayed space launches, postponed deliveries of a key military airplane and troubles in its satellite business.
The country's largest weapons maker said it lost $41 million on revenue of $6.2 billion, compared with earnings of $289 million (76 cents a share) on revenue of $6.5 billion in the same period a year earlier. The loss was equal to 11 cents a share, within the 10 to 15 cents per share loss that Lockheed had warned investors to expect back in April.
For the first six months of the year, Lockheed lost $128 million on revenue of $12.4 billion, compared with a profit of $558 million ($1.47) on revenue of $12.7 billion in the same period in 1998.
Lockheed's stock, which has been underperforming the market much of the year, closed yesterday down 75 cents at $38 on the New York Stock Exchange.
General Dynamics Corp. of Falls Church yesterday said second-quarter earnings rose 14 percent, aided by acquisitions and a strong performance in its core nuclear submarine business.
The defense contractor said its profit in the period ended July 4 was $105 million (81 cents a share), compared with $92 million (72 cents) in the same period a year earlier. Revenue rose 17 percent, to $1.38 billion.
For the first six months, General Dynamics' earnings rose almost 13 percent, to $370 million ($2.87), compared with $174 million ($1.37) in the same period last year. Earnings were helped by a research and development tax credit worth $165 million after taxes, or $1.29 a share, that was recognized in the first quarter. Revenue in the period increased 18 percent, to $2.8 billion.
Shares of General Dynamics closed yesterday down 37 1/2 cents at $66.06 1/4 in trading on the NYSE.
Reynolds Metals Co., the nation's third-largest aluminum producer best known for its aluminum foil and plastic wrap brands, reported $35 million (55 cents a share) in net income for the second quarter, compared with a loss of $126 million for the same period last year.
But the Richmond company attributed lower aluminum prices and the loss of income from the sale of some operations for the dip in second-quarter revenue to $1.2 billion, compared with $1.6 billion for the same period last year.
For the first six months, Reynolds posted sales of $2.2 billion, compared with $3.1 billion for the first half of 1998. Net income for the first six months was $25 million (40 cents a share), compared with a loss of $91 million for the same period last year.
The company said it offset a significant portion of the shortfall with increased sales volume in the prices it pays for base materials and its packaging and consumer businesses.
Reynolds stock closed yesterday at $58.81 1/4, down 18 3/4 cents, on the NYSE.
Saga Systems Inc., the parent company of Reston-based Saga Software Inc., reported lower earnings in the second quarter, attributing the decrease to higher research and development costs as well as lower income from software licensing fees.
Saga said its net income was $5.1 million (16 cents a share), compared with $6.1 million (19 cents) a year earlier. Revenue dropped to $55.9 million, from $60.4 million in the same quarter last year.
The company said its second-quarter results reflect its customers' concerns over Y2K priorities because it has seen a decrease in software licensing fees from the prior year's quarter of $7.4 million.
For the first half of the year, Saga posted net income of $10.5 million (33 cents) down from $11.5 million (36 cents) last year.
Saga shares yesterday closed at $12.75 a share, down 62 1/2 cents, in trading on the NYSE.
RWD Technologies Inc. of Columbia yesterday said its net income for the second quarter dropped to $2.3 million (15 cents a share) from $3.2 million (20 cents) during the same period the year before.
Revenue for the second quarter was $32.4 million, compared with $27.4 million in 1998.
RWD's net income for the first six months was $6.1 million (39 cents), flat from $6.1 million (38 cents) during the same period last year.
The company's revenue for the first half of 1999 was $65.7 million, compared with $53.6 million in 1998.
RWD also announced a 750,000 share repurchase program for its common stock.
Robert W. Deutsch, chief executive of RWD, attributed the lower profits and revenue to a slower-than-expected demand for some of the company's technology services it sells to Fortune 500 companies.
RWD stock closed down 18 3/4 cents at $9.87 1/2 in trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
Transaction Network Services Inc., a Reston-based data communications firm, reported net income of $3.1 million (23 cents a share) for its second quarter, up from $2.2 million (17 cents) for the same period last year. The latest figures include a charge of $919,000 related to intangible assets associated with an earlier acquisition.
TNS earned $4.2 million (30 cents) in the first six months, compared with $3.7 million (29 cents) in the same period a year ago.
Second-quarter revenue jumped 109 percent, from $20.4 million to $42.7 million. For the six-month period, TNS's revenue was $80.8 million, compared with $38.5 million in the year-ago period.
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60. Three Mile Island Unit-1 Breaks World Record -- Again
10:28 a.m. Jul 21, 1999 Eastern Infoseek
LONDONDERRY TWP., PA--(BUSINESS WIRE)---July 21, 1999--Three Mile Island Unit-1 has toppled its own world record for continuous days of operation as the plant entered its 617th consecutive day on line today. This new record operating run surpasses TMI-1's former record of 616 days and 23 hours set
on June 21, 1997. This is the third world record run for the plant since 1991 when it set its first world mark at 479 consecutive days on line.
TMI Unit-1 has firmly established itself as one of the most reliable light water nuclear power plants in the world. TMI-1's capacity factor during this operating cycle is 101.7 percent. Over the past ten years it averaged 92.4 percent, well above the 75.7 percent average capacity factor for the U.S. nuclear industry over the same period. In cool weather the plant can safely exceed its rated output and therefore raise its capacity factor above 100 percent. All 103 U.S. commercial nuclear power plants, and most of the 330 nuclear plants elsewhere in the world, use light water reactors.
TMI workers also set a new industrial safety record for the site by exceeding 4 million safe work hours without a lost workday injury. Accumulating more than 4.3 million safe work hours to date, no TMI employee has missed a day of work due to a work-related injury since October 11, 1996.
This safety record exceeds TMI's former record by more than 3 million hours and ranks among the best safety records in the U.S nuclear industry.
"Our organization continually focuses on the long-term success of our plants," said T. Gary Broughton, President and Chief Executive Officer, GPU Nuclear. "The performance at TMI-1 reflects not only attention to excellence in daily activities but also unrelenting commitments to safety, reliability and the right work environment by many people over many years. Today, 25 years after it began operation, TMI-1 is more reliable than ever before."
James Langenbach, Vice President and Director of TMI, explains that records are not the goal of plant operation. "We don't shoot for records. Safety is our number one priority and it's what we focus on day-in and day-out. The reliability of the plant, as indicated by the consecutive days on line, and the safety culture of our workforce, reflects the hard work and dedication of the people who safely operate and maintain Unit-1. Our worker's commitment to safety and a strong partnership with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers has made these accomplishments possible."
The plant's current operating cycle began on November 11, 1997. TMI-1 is scheduled to operate until September 10 of this year when it will be shut down for its thirteenth maintenance and refueling outage. The outage is expected to be completed within six weeks.
Three Mile Island Unit-1 is an 870-megawatt plant that produces enough electricity to power 860,000 average homes. It is operated by GPU Nuclear and owned by GPU Energy that serves nearly two million customers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The plant is in the process of being sold to AmerGen Energy Company. The pending sale is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
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61. Statement Regarding Indian Point 2 Nuclear Power Plant
Company Press Release, SOURCE: Consolidated Edison, Inc. July 22, 3:00 pm Eastern Time http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/990722/ny_con_edi_1.html
NEW YORK, July 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Despite a recent press report, Consolidated Edison, Inc. has not decided to sell its Indian Point 2 nuclear power plant located in Buchanan, NY. Indian Point 2 provides 975MW to New York City and Westchester County.
However, Con Edison will, of course, consider viable, responsible proposals regarding this generating facility.
Con Edison recently completed the sale of two bundles of generating facilities; the Ravenswood power plant in Queens and the Arthur Kill power plant in Staten Island sold with gas turbines in Queens. The sale of the Astoria power plant is expected to be completed shortly.
SOURCE: Consolidated Edison, Inc.
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62. Copter Proves as Hefty as It Is Costly
By TIM WEINER, July 22, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/washpol/pentagon-chopper.html
WASHINGTON -- The idea, back in 1983, was to replace the Huey helicopter, the workhorse of the Vietnam War, with a fast, cheap, light craft called the Comanche.
Sixteen years and $4 billion later, the Comanche has not taken off as planned. It will be the most expensive helicopter in history -- if it flies. The "light" copter has been hung with so many technological bells and whistles that it may be too heavy to take off.
It will take seven years before a single one rolls off the assembly line. Until recently, the Army said it needed $4.4 billion to get to that point. It now concedes that it will need hundreds of millions of dollars more.
And beyond that, the Army wants almost $30 billion to build about 1,300 Comanches. Nine years from now, if full-scale production is under way, the Comanche will consume two-thirds of the Army's budget for aircraft, the Army concedes.
Over the next decade, the Pentagon is planning to spend something approaching half a trillion dollars on new aircraft. It is spending twice as much money to buy half as many aircraft as it used to. The Comanche explains why. The tale of how it became a $37 billion behemoth is all too familiar within the Pentagon, according to military officers, defense analysts and Pentagon records.
"The thing isn't even designed yet," said Robert McDaniel, a private military analyst who has followed the Comanche program for a decade. "No one really knows what it'll cost."
A real need arose for a new helicopter to transport troops 20 years ago. Then, in the 1980s, a money-is-no-object military mentality created visions of a stealthy copter that could knock out Soviet tanks invading Germany in the first battles of World War III, Pentagon records show.
That mission led to the Comanche's new design. The mission no longer exists, as the Pentagon's inspector general points out. Nonetheless, a helicopter first conceived as the military equivalent of a Toyota pickup has become, on paper, a monster truck bristling with guns and gadgets, crammed with the most complicated computer codes the Army has ever tried to write.
For years, government analysts warned that the project was in trouble. But the Army pressed on.
It cut the number of test helicopters it would build from six to two, and cut its planned tests of those craft by 60 percent. But the first prototype has been plagued by frozen computer displays, a faulty clutch and a badly designed main rotor. Many of the copter's crucial systems remain untested.
The Comanche, as designed, weighs 8,822 pounds -- 110 pounds below the maximum empty weight with which it can fly. It may need a more powerful engine to deal with that weight. But a more powerful engine may need external fuel tanks, which would scuttle the plane's stealth characteristics.
The Pentagon's inspector general says the overall cost of designing, building, flying and maintaining the helicopter has increased more than 60 percent, exceeding $100 billion. The number of Comanches the Army says it can afford has fallen nearly 40 percent, to 1,292. The helicopter still faces "significant risks of cost overruns, schedule delays and reduced performance," the General Accounting Office says in a forthcoming report.
The Army sought and received $427 million for the Comanche in this year's military spending bill, now before the House. The chairman of the House Appropriations Committee's defense spending panel, Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., said the committee "has not done the homework that I intend to do" on the Comanche. "We're not addressing the Comanche this go-round," he said.
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Message: 3 Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 10:08:55 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-0 Brief 7/23/99 -
Please address replies to articles to the original publisher. Please send NucNews <prop1@prop1.org> copies? Refuting false information appreciated! -------------------------------------------------
NucNews-1 7/23/99 - Good News! Pending Legislation - HR-2545 etc. NucNews-2 7/23/99 - Y2K NucNews-3 7/23/99 - Depleted Uranium - 1 NucNews-4 7/23/99 - Depleted Uranium - 2; Ukraine; Russia-1 NucNews-5 7/23/99 - Russia-1 NucNews-6 7/23/99 - Russia-2 NucNews-7 7/23/99 - Europe Greens; NATO NucNews-8 7/23/99 - Greenpeace - Europe - Plutonium Ship NucNews-9 7/23/99 - Pacific and South Africa - Plutonium Ship NucNews-10 7/23/99 - China - Korea NucNews-11 7/23/99 - China; Taiwan; Rep Gilman Stops ALL Arms Sales NucNews-12 7/23/99 - India/Pakistan; Mideast NucNews-13 7/23/99 - Pentagon; F-22 Vote NucNews-14 7/23/99 - US Military Outrages NucNews-15 7/23/99 - Nuc Diplomacy / Business NucNews-16 7/23/99 - DOE Reorganization
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[We're really pleased that Congresswoman Norton has introduced the following bill. You are invited to attend the press conference on Friday, July 30, 1999, at 10 a.m. in the Capitol Building Basement Room HC-9. If you want to know how you can help, go to http://prop1.org and follow the links; call 202-462-0757; fax 202-265-5389; email prop1@prop1.org.]
1. HR-2545 Text, "Nuclear Disarmament and Economic Conversion Act" Introduced by Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-DC, on July 16, 1999 http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:20:./temp/~c106tZ50rM:: http://prop1.org/prop1/hr2545.htm or link off homepage http://prop1.org -- 50 Bills from the 106th Congress ranked by relevance to your search on "nuclear." http://thomas.loc.gov/- type "nuclear" in word search box
2. U.N.'s Annan: Use space peacefully USA Today July 20, 1999 "World" http://usatoday.com/news/world/nw1.htm VIENNA, Austria - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged peaceful use of outer space Monday as the United Nations opened a conference on the subject. ''We cannot view the expanse of space as another battleground for our earthly conflicts," Annan said at the opening of the third Unispace conference. High on the agenda: Adopting the Vienna Declaration on guidelines for use and protection of outer space. The last Unispace gathering was 17 years ago. -- Today In History July 20, 1999 By The Associated Press http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/a/AP-History.html ... On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin ``Buzz'' Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon.... Five years ago: Bosnian Serbs rejected an international peace plan sponsored by the United States, Russia, France, Britain and Germany.... Thought for Today: ``We may well go to the moon, but that's not very far. The greatest distance we have to cover still lies within us.'' -- Charles de Gaulle, French statesman (1890-1970).
3. CIA Funding Bill Stalled By John Diamond Associated Press Writer Monday, July 19, 1999; 5:44 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990719/V000779-071999-idx.html WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republican lawmakers are struggling to free up the annual bill for the CIA and other espionage agencies amid disagreement on reorganizing the Energy Department following security lapses at U.S. nuclear weapons labs....
4. U.S. House Panel Cuts Funds For World Bank Lending Updated 2:45 AM ET July 21, 1999, By Randy Fabi http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990721/02/international-china-world bank WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. House of Representatives panel voted Tuesday to slash U.S. cash allocations to the World Bank and criticized last month's $160 million World Bank loan allowing China to move poor farmers into traditional Tibetan lands.
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5. Europe Rides Bumpy Computer Road to Year 2000 By EDMUND L. ANDREWS, July 23, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/yr/mo/biztech/articles/23year.html HANOVER, Germany -- Perhaps fittingly, Germany's first real scare about Year 2000 computer crashes came on a Friday the 13th.... -- Global Survey Foresees Many Y2K Glitches By Stephen Barr and Roberto Suro, Washington Post, July 23, 1999; Page A21 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/23/090l-072399-idx.html A State Department survey of 161 nations found that about half of the countries face a medium to high risk of Year 2000 computer breakdowns in their telecommunications, energy and transportation sectors, which may have an impact on international trade, the department's inspector general said yesterday.... With $3.7 billion budgeted for Y2K fixes, Cohen said, "we are treating the Year 2000 as if it were a cyberattack directed at the very core of our military capabilities." --- Y2K testing unearths a "few problems" in nuclear plants Wednesday 21 July, 1999 (11:29pm AEST) Australia Broadcasting http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-21jul1999-87.htm The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says a "few problems" have been found in nuclear power plants around the world tested for vulnerability to the Y2K computer bug. But it says none of these compromised safety....
6. Defense computers 94% ready for Y2K USA Today "Nation" July 23, 1999 -- Cohen: Pentagon on track for Y2K 7/22/99- Updated 12:01 PM ET http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/ctf661.htm WASHINGTON (AP) - The Defense Department has verified that 94% of its computer systems are ready for the Year 2000 computer glitch, Defense Secretary William Cohen said Thursday.... -- Nuclear Weapons Computers Y2K Ready By Robert Burns AP Military Writer Thursday, July 22, 1999; 3:30 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990722/V000481-072299-idx.html
7. New Zealand Unveils Y2K Cockroach By Ray Lilley Associated Press Writer Wednesday, July 21, 1999; 10:46 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990721/V000271-072199-idx.html WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- Regarded worldwide as a dirty pest, the cockroach has become the official ``millennium bug'' for New Zealand, which will be among the first nations to experience the real effects of Y2K....
8. Pentagon Urges Russia To Come To Nuclear Monitoring Center For Y2K WASHINGTON, Jul 23, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=80952 The Pentagon is urging Russia to send officers to an early warning monitoring center in Colorado to help prevent nuclear misunderstandings that may arise from Y2K computer failures, defense officials said Thursday.... -- Russia Nuke Fleet Needs Y2K Funds Tuesday, July 20, 1999; 10:09 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990720/V000312-072099-idx.html
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[Now's a good time to pester Clinton about depleted uranium. For example, "Be careful, Mr. Clinton, if the wind is blowing when you visit the Balkans. Airborne depleted uranium doesn't discriminate between soldiers, refugees, presidents or kings."]
9. Clinton to attend Balkans summit USA Today July 20, 1999 "Washington DC" http://usatoday.com/news/washdc/nc1.htm WASHINGTON - President Clinton will travel to Sarajevo, Bosnia, on July 30 for a summit focusing on investing in the Balkan region, the White House announced Monday. Thirty heads of state will attend the summit sponsored by the European Union as a follow-up to NATO's air campaign over Yugoslavia. Barred from the meeting was Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. On the table will be ways to increase trade and investment in the Balkans to promote democratic reforms, peace and stability in the region.
10. U.N. Checks Damage in Yugoslavia Monday, July 19, 1999; 1:44 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990719/V000577-071999-idx.htm l BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) -- A U.N. team of experts began a mission Monday to investigate environmental damage caused by the 78-day NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, particularly chemical pollution possibly from airstrikes on factories.... The team will also examine claims of increased levels of radiation caused, Yugoslav officials say, by NATO missiles containing depleted uranium. NATO has denied the possibility of nuclear radiation from its missiles. -- UN team sifts Serb pollution Novi Sad: The refinery blazes after a Nato raid By Environment Correspondent Alex Kirby, July 23, 1999, BBC Sci/Tech http://news2.thls.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid%5F401000/401981.stm International experts invited by the United Nations to assess the environmental damage caused by the Balkan war have arrived in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad.... 11. A Ghost City of Mixed Poisons NATO Bombs Left Site of Petrochemical Complex a Toxic Slough By William Booth Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, July 21, 1999; Page A15 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/21/102l-072199-idx.html PANCEVO, Yugoslavia, July 20--The largest petrochemical complex in the Balkans now feels like a post-industrial ghost town, scarred by hellish fires and choked with twisted debris. No one works here, except the U.N. inspectors who arrived today, and they are very careful where they step.... -- NATO Missiles' Legacy in Serb Town By The Associated Press, July 23, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Yugoslavia-Pancevo-Pollution.html PANCEVO, Yugoslavia (AP) -- The grass is bleached to a scary pale gray and little Ana has trouble breathing when she plays in the park, weeks after NATO wreaked environmental havoc by bombing key industrial sites.... -- OPINION Another victim of Milosevic - the environment Christopher Walker, Christian Science Monitor, July 21, 1999 http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/1999/07/21/fp9s1-csm.shtml http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/1,1249,100012167,00.html? Through his catastrophic policies of intolerance and ethnic separatism, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has poisoned the political atmosphere in the Balkans with hatred and violence.... -- Poisons Of War FRIDAY, July 23, 1999 Newsweek http://www.newsweek.com/nw-srv/tnw/today/ps/ps01th_1.htm The bombing of Yugoslavia may have ended six weeks ago, but the ecological aftershocks are just beginning. A European Commission study has found that NATO's 11-week air war has left a legacy of poisoned water, radioactive air and potentially contaminated food in Serbia as well as some of its neighbors.... -- Related Article: Toxic Bombs? THURSDAY, April 29, 1999 http://www.newsweek.com/nw-srv/issue/18_99a/tnw/today/ps/ps01we_1.htm Has the Yugoslav war triggered an ecological crisis, too? Behind the humanitarian disaster of desperate refugees and civilian victims of off-target bombs, scientists are increasingly concerned about the conflict's long-term impact on the environment. Their most immediate concern: the pollution from NATO's bombing of chemical and oil plants in Belgrade and Novi Sad.
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12. UK Politics Shadow Health Secretary Ann Widdecombe answers questions sent by BBC News Online users. February 16, 1999 Published at 21:21 GMT http://news2.thls.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk%5Fpolitics/newsid%5F280000/280692.stm I am writing to seek your party's views on gulf war syndrome. I have returned from the AGM of the gulf war vets at Portsmouth, after being very much enlightened from a talk from a nuclear biologist by the name of DR Durokovic. The gentleman in question has tested 21 gulf war vets for depleted uranium poisoning. All 21 vets have returned positive results. The doctor has himself worked for the US government and was told to cease his research into depleted uranium, he refused and was then dismissed.... -- Will those responsible be punished? June 25, 1999 Published at 11:44 GMT 12:44 UK BBC http://news2.thls.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/talking%5Fpoint/newsid%5F372000/37234 3.asp ... Doesn't he think that the people of Serbia have suffered enough, children in Iraq are still being born with deformities because of the use of depleted Uranium by the West, one in ten children in Vietnam are born with serious deformities as a result of Agent Orange. And now as a result of Nato's war there is going to be huge ethnic tension between two groups who once marched side by side to try and overthrow Milosevic. If Blair thinks that people are responsible for the actions of their leaders does this mean all Germans should have been punished for the Holocaust, even more that we should be punished for Nato's atrocities in Yugoslavia? Lucie, UK ... -- Should Nato treat Slobodan Milosevic as a war criminal? April 27, 1999 Published at 11:31 GMT 12:31 UK http://news2.thls.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/talking%5Fpoint/europewide%5Fdebate/n ewsid%5F323000/323823.asp .. If Milosevic is treated as war criminal (I just wonder how come you remember to accuse him only now) then Mr Clinton, Mrs Albright, Mr Shea and all others directly involved in commanding this 'humanitarian intervention' should sit for trial for the same reason. Because their (Nato's and USA's) intervention involves using of Depleted Uranium bombs, destruction of chemical complexes in Pancevo and Belgrade thus causing environmental disaster and endangering directly lives of at least 3.000000 people in the surrounding by toxic gases and marerials. Danube, the biggest European river is dead from Belgrade to the Black Sea. Who is responsible for that? Dusica, Australia ... - Focus on Kosovo June 16, 1999 Published at 15:59 GMT 16:59 UK BBC http://news2.thls.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/talking%5Fpoint/talking%5Fpoint%5Fon% 5Fair/newsid%5F366000/366527.asp ... Your comments since the programme ... If the refugees make it back to their homes, they face the effects of these bombs not just in the form of destroyed houses and infrastructure, but a land radiated by depleted uranium. The Serbs now face sanctions similar to those that continue to kill people in Iraq, continuing the poverty that breeds nationalism. Josh On, UK ...
[For those who were shocked by the June 11 article about Argentina's new membership in the U.S.'s club of six non-NATO states with NATO privileges, including the right to purchase depleted uranium weapons and the right to use U.S.-taxpayer-guaranteed loans to buy them (see "Defense Tango" by Nora Boustany, Friday, June 11, 1999 Washington Post, http://prop1.org/2000/du/99du/990611wp.htm) ... here's some more information about Argentina.]
13. Soon to Bow Out, Argentine Brushes Off the Boos July 20, 1999, By CLIFFORD KRAUSS http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/americas/072099argentina-menem.html
14. Ukraine, EU Sign Nuclear Agreements Friday July 23 10:55 AM ET By SERGEI SHARGORODSKY Associated Press Writer http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/ap/international/story.html?s=v/ap/1999 0723/wl/ukraine_eu_1.html http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Ukraine-EU.html KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - The European Union promised Ukraine up to $143 million to strengthen banking and financial systems and signed two nuclear agreements with the former Soviet republic at a summit today....
15. Power to Russian Nuclear Forces Is Shut Off Units on Border With China Go Dark Temporarily for Failure to Pay Bill By Sharon LaFraniere, Washington Post, July 21, 1999; Page A15 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/21/090l-072199-idx.html MOSCOW, July 20--In the latest sign of the Russian military's financial straits, units in charge of Russia's nuclear forces in the Far East reported being left without power this week because the utility bill has not been paid.
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16. Russian PM Wants High-Tech Weapons By The Associated Press, July 23, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Russia-Prime-Minister.html MOSCOW (AP) -- NATO's bombing campaign in Yugoslavia highlighted Russia's need to modernize its army and build a new generation of high-tech weapons, the prime minister said today.
17. PRESS-RELEASE For more information contact: Vladimir Slivyak - 7-095-7766546 (Moscow, Russia) Polina Kireva - 359-2-9633125 (Sofia, Bulgaria) ANOTHER DELAY IN SPENT FUEL TRANSPORT FROM BULGARIA TO RUSSIA Environmentalists demand indefinite suspension of transport agreement July 8, 1999 - Today the Parliament of Moldova moved to postpone until October 1999 a vote on ratification of the joint agreement on nuclear spent fuel transport between Russia, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Moldova. Moldova's participation in this agreement is essential for Bulgaria to be able to ship spent nuclear fuel by rail to Russia for storage and reprocessing, which also requires passage through Romania and Ukraine. Nine months ago, all transfers of nuclear waste from the Kozloduy reactorS to Russia were suspended because Moldova's parliament would not yet ratify the agreement. The plenary of the parliament on the July 8 again delayed the Bulgarian nuclear industry from getting a green light to move forward with these plans....
18. So You Thought the Cold War Was Over? The Legacy Of Doomsday By Jørgen Wouters ABCNEWS.com, July 23, 1999 http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/nuclear/images/ap_nuclear1_image01.jpg President Clinton rarely misses an opportunity to remind us the Cold War is over, American cities are no longer threatened by Russian missiles, and the threat of nuclear holocaust is a relic of the past. Unfortunately, the reality is disturbingly different. Recent reports cited a CIA study claiming Russian nuclear missiles had accidentally been switched to "combat mode" due to equipment malfunctions.... -- Want to Buy a Bottle of Fission? Peddling a Nuclear Arsenal By Jørgen Wouters ABCNEWS.com, July 23, 1999 http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/nuclear/nuclear2.html Photo http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/nuclear/images/arms_illo2.jpg During the Cold War, we knew who our enemies were, and just how badly they could hurt us. Only America's archfoe, the U.S.S.R., enjoyed the power to deliver a nuclear knockout, and terrorism was something that happened to other countries. Those were the days.... -- The Blackest Market - Where It Goes By Jørgen Wouters ABCNEWS.com, July 23, 1999 http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/world/nuclear/nuclear2a.html Photo: http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/world/nuclear/images/pni_nucsmugglers.jpg The former U.S.S.R. produced tons of fissile material whose atoms can be split or undergo fission to release nuclear energy to power its submarines, arm its warheads, drive its power plants and fuel its research....
19. Officer Caught Smuggling Nuke Fuel By The Associated Press, July 23, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Russia-Radioactive-Smuggler.html http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990723/V000066-072399-idx.html MOSCOW (AP) -- Customs police in Kazakstan arrested a Russian military officer who was allegedly trying to smuggle a small amount of nuclear fuel to Uzbekistan, a news report said today. -- World Briefings - EUROPE ... RUSSIA: JOURNALIST TO APPEAL July 23, 1999 New York Times Grigory Pasko, the navy captain and journalist acquitted of espionage charges arising from his reporting on the navy's dumping of radioactive waste, said he plans to appeal a lesser conviction on charges of improper military conduct.
20. Yeltsin OKs Nuclear Talks With U.S By Vladimir Isachenkov, Associated Press, July 22, 1999; 12:37 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990722/V000344-072299-idx.html MOSCOW (AP) -- President Boris Yeltsin today authorized his prime minister to discuss reducing nuclear arms with the United States, including a review of the long-delayed START II treaty, the prime minister said....
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21. Russian Captain Cleared of Espionage By Anatoly Medetsky, Associated Press, July 20, 1999; 2:57 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990720/V000553-072099-idx.html VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (AP) -- A Russian Navy captain who blew the whistle on nuclear-waste dumping by the Pacific Fleet was cleared today of treason and espionage charges. The Pacific Fleet military court found Capt. Grigory Pasko innocent of the charges, saying the information that he had passed on to the Japanese television stations NHK was not secret.... -- Reporter Finds Russia Has Not Outlived Secrecy (Jan. 31, 1999) http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/013199russia-journalist.html
22. SPECIAL REPORT: THE HIDDEN CITY Hard Times Now at Russia's Once-Pampered Nuclear Centers By MICHAEL R. GORDON, November 18, 1998 http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/111898russia-nuke.html Photo - http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/111898soviet-nuclear-new.jpg KRASNOYARSK-26, Russia -- When Andrei Sokolov came to this nuclear city more than 30 years ago it was a bastion of privilege for the Soviet Union's scientific elite.... -- Russia and U.S. Plan to Guard Atom Secrets (Sept. 23) http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/library/world/europe/092398sovie t-nuclear.html -- A Top Russian Nuclear Scientist Kills Himself (Nov. 1, 1996) http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/library/world/europe/110196sovie t-nuclear.html -- Russia Struggles in Long Race to Prevent an Atomic Theft (April 20, 1996) http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/library/world/europe/042096sovie t-nuclear.html -- Siberian Village Rethinks Cost of Nuclear Projects (Aug. 19, 1994) http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/library/world/europe/081994sovie t-nuclear.html -- Russia's Workers Pay Price as Military Industries Fade (Dec. 3, 1993) http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/library/world/europe/120393sovie t-nuclear.html -- Russia's Nuclear Transition Ends Economic Security for Scientists (July 11, 1993) http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/library/world/europe/071193sovie t-nuclear.html -- U.S. Food Is Flown to Nuclear Siberia</a> (Feb. 24, 1992) http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/library/world/europe/022492sovie t-nuclear.html -- Ex-Soviet Atom Scientists Ask Baker for West's Help (Feb. 15, 1992) http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/021592soviet-nuclear.html -- Soviet Brain Drain Poses Atomic Risk, U.S. Report Warns (Jan. 1, 1992) http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/library/world/europe/010192sovie t-nuclear.html -- Reactors to Juice Cartons: Soviet Factory Adjusts (July 27, 1991) http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/library/world/europe/072791sovie t-nuclear.html -- Soviet City, Home of the A-Bomb, Is Haunted by Its Past and Future (July 10, 1989) http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/library/world/europe/071089sovie t-nuclear.html -- Soviets Now Admit '57 Nuclear Blast (May 18, 1989) http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/library/world/europe/051889sovie t-nuclear.html -- The Secrets of Krasnoyarsk: Questions of Trust (Sept. 20, 1987) http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europelibrary/world/europe/092087soviet -nuclear.html -- Inside a Key Russian Radar Site: Tour Raises Questions on Treaty (Sept. 7, 1987) http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/library/world/europe/090787sovie t-nuclear.html
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23. Official: Germany Greens Must Reform Thursday, July 22, 1999; 10:07 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990722/V000210-072299-idx.html BONN, Germany (AP) -- Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, in an interview published Thursday, urged his squabbling Greens to ``grow up'' and accept a firmer party leadership or risk their political demise....
24. CIA Picked One NATO Target, Led To Embassy Hit Updated 12:05 AM ET July 23, 1999, By Tabassum Zakaria http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990723/00/news-china-bombing WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The only target the CIA picked for NATO's 11-week bombing campaign on Yugoslavia was the one that led to the U.S. attack on the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, CIA Director George Tenet said Thursday.... -- Embassy bombing mistakes detailed 7/22/99- Updated 06:49 PM ET USA Today http://usatoday.com/news/washdc/ncsthu06.htm
25. Report: NATO admits air campaign failed THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, Updated 8:04 AM ET July 22, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/u/990722/08/international-nato-report BRUSSELS, Belgium, July 22 (UPI) A British newspaper reports that a preliminary review of NATO's airstrikes over Yugoslavia had almost no military effect on the regime of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
26. KLA hands over heavy weapons Updated 8:04 PM ET July 21, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/u/990721/20/international-weapons BELGRADE, Yugoslavia, July 21 (UPI) Now that a midnight deadline (10 p.m. GMT, 6 p.m. EDT) for the Kosovo Liberation Army to hand over heavy weapons and some of the automatic small arms in their possession has passed, KLA soldiers are only allowed to wear side arms in designated zones. The hand over today concludes the first of three stages of KLA demilitarization. -- Tardy Kosovo Rebels Force Extension of Arms Deadline July 23, 1999, By CHRIS HEDGES http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/world/kosovo-rebels.html PRISTINA, Kosovo -- A failure by the Kosovo Liberation Army to turn in a sufficient number of its heavy weapons, including mortars and antitank and antiaircraft guns, has forced NATO commanders to extend the deadline for compliance with a disarmament agreement to Saturday.
27. Pentagon Faults U.N.In Kosovo Cohen, Shelton Cite 'Slow' Mission Start By Bradley Graham Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, July 21, 1999; Page A17 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/21/103l-072199-idx.html Top Pentagon officials complained yesterday that the United Nations is lagging in setting up a police force and civil administration in Kosovo, putting added strain on U.S. and other NATO peacekeeping troops in the Serbian province.... -- U.N. counters U.S. criticism on Kosovo 7/23/99- Updated 03:40 AM ET USA Today UNITED NATIONS (AP) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan had a message Thursday for U.S. critics who complain that the United Nations is moving too slowly in Kosovo: ''We should focus on the work at hand rather than finger-pointing.'' ...
[A chilling glimpse at the cynicism in Congress - public record.]
28. For the Record Wednesday, July 21, 1999; Page A20 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/21/049l-072199-idx.html From a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Kosovo yesterday: Sen. John Warner: Mr. Secretary [Defense Secretary William Cohen], you made a very profound statement in your opening comments about the need for the NATO nations to begin to re-equip themselves so that they can pick up, should we ever be confronted with a comparable situation [to Kosovo] . . . the training missions, the lift [and] the precision guidance weapons. . . . And I have been following with interest the suggestion that our defense industry in the United States is looking for partners through merger in Europe....
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29. BRITISH NUCLEAR INDUSTRY LAUNCHES LEGAL BLITZ TO PREVENT PROTESTS AGAINST WEAPONS-USABLE PLUTONIUM SHIPMENT TO JAPAN From: "Greenbase" <greenbas@gb.greenpeace.org> Jul 16, 1999 by nobody@xs2.greenpeace.org in gp.press */ http://www.econet.apc.org/igc/en/hl/99071912456/hl1.html LONDON, July 16, 1999 - British Nuclear Fuels Ltd is attempting to stifle public debate by seeking injunctions today in the United Kingdom and France to prevent Greenpeace protesting against a secret shipment of nuclear weapons-usable plutonium fuel from Europe to Japan, the environment group said today.... -- Greenpeace protest ship banned from UK waters http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/dynamic/news/story.html?in_review_id=156919&in _review_text_id=126767 The Government has been accused of being "draconian and anti-democratic" after banning a Greenpeace protest ship from UK waters. The vessel is shadowing a shipment of nuclear material which left for Japan from Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria yesterday. -- Plutonium Boat Sets Sail for Japan Wednesday, July 21, 1999; 10:24 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990721/V000873-072199-idx.html CHERBOURG, France (AP) -- A British ship carrying a cargo of deadly plutonium left France on Wednesday en route for Japan, a controversial journey that Greenpeace failed to prevent. Small navy boats escorted the Pacific Teal out of Cherbourg harbor as a surveillance helicopter flew overhead.... -- Nuclear-loaded ships leave for Japan Updated 12:20 PM ET July 21, 1999
http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/u/990721/12/international-nuclear CHERBOURG, France, July 21 (UPI) Two heavily armed ships carrying more than 200 tons of plutonium-based MOX nuclear fuel have left for Japan on a journey of nearly two months along still-secret routes.... -- France Bans Greenpeace Ships In Nuclear Demo Updated 12:39 AM ET July 21, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990721/00/international-nuclear-france RENNES, France (Reuters) - French authorities Tuesday banned Greenpeace environmentalist ships from Cherbourg harbor ahead of the arrival of an armed British cargo ship coming to pick up a controversial nuclear fuel shipment.... -- French police reinforced for nuclear ship arrival 07:42 a.m. Jul 20, 1999 Eastern - Infoseek -- FOCUS-Activists watch as French nuclear fuel loaded 06:40 a.m. Jul 21, 1999 Eastern - Infoseek By Christian Curtenelle CHERBOURG, France, July 21 (Reuters) - An armed British cargo ship began loading a controversial shipment of nuclear fuel destined for Japan on Wednesday as Greenpeace environmental activists looked on warily from a distance.... -- Greenpeace Fights to Free Assets By Mike Corder Associated Press Writer Thursday, July 22, 1999; 9:10 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990722/V000167-072299-idx.html AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- Greenpeace International will fight a court order obtained by British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. to freeze one of the environmental group's bank accounts, a Greenpeace spokesman said Thursday.... -- Jul 21, 1999 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE GREENPEACE PROTESTS DEPARTURE OF MOX WHILE "FINANCIAL TERRORISM "AGAINST THE GROUP ESCALATES Nuclear lobby freezes the international environmental group's bank account http://www.econet.apc.org/igc/en/hl/99072223065/hl1.html Updated information on our web site : http://www.greenpeace.org/~nuclear/transport/mox99 /news.html Stills available at: http://www.greenpeace.org /library/picturedesk.html --- Greenpeace denounces frozen bank money Updated 9:26 AM ET July 22, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/u/990722/09/international-greenpeace AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands, July 22 (UPI) Greenpeace International denounced as "financial terrorism" the decision by a Dutch court freezing the environmental group's bank accounts....
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30. Greenpeace issues warning on cargo of ships Wednesday 21 July, 1999 (7:26pm AEST) http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-21jul1999-70.htm Greenpeace International says two ships loaded with nuclear fuels including plutonium are likely to sail south of Australia and through the Tasman Sea in the next six weeks.... -- Plutonium shipment raises concerns in Pacific Friday 23 July, 1999 (4:21pm AEST) http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-23jul1999-70.htm The South Pacific Forum secretariat has expressed the concerns of South Pacific leaders about the coming shipment of radioactive material through the Pacific on its way from Europe to Japan. The secretariat has called for discussions with France, Britain and Japan on compensation in the event of an accident.... -- Plutonium ships to travel through Tasman Sea Friday 23 July, 1999 (8:27am AEST) http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-23jul1999-30.htm British and Japanese officials have confirmed that two ships carrying a controversial cargo of plutonium fuel will travel through the Tasman Sea and the south-west Pacific en route to Japan.... -- NZ unhappy about nuclear cargo route via Pacific 10:29 p.m. Jul 22, 1999 Eastern - Infoseek WELLINGTON, July 23 (Reuters) - New Zealand repeated on Friday its opposition to the shipment of nuclear fuel via the southwest Pacific Ocean to Japan, and said it was making formal complaints to Britain, France and Japan.... -- BRITAIN N-ships may pass Australia Date: 21/07/99, By SIMON MANN http://www.smh.com.au/news/9907/21/text/world11.html London: Environmental activists in high-speed boats towing a huge banner of a white elephant - "symbolising the folly of the nuclear industry" - delayed the departure from north-west England of a ship due to take weapons-grade plutonium to Japan....
31. Ideology splits Jabiluka activists Date: 23/07/99, By MURRAY HOGARTH, Environment Editor http://www.smh.com.au/news/9907/23/text/national19.html A bitter rift between the green and black anti-Jabiluka forces has opened up, with conservationists being accused of treating Aborigines like "window-dressing" instead of central players.
33. Nuclear pensions move is 'too late' Date: 17/07/99, By DAMIEN MURPHY, Sydney Morning Herald http://www.smh.com.au/news/9907/17/text/national20.html Nuclear veterans and their families have slammed the Federal Government's decision to "begin immediately" assessing the impact of British tests on Australians more than 30 years after testing ended.
34. Study ordered on British nuclear testing effects Friday 16 July, 1999 (12:53pm AEST) http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-16jul1999-32.htm The Federal Government has ordered more study into the effects of British nuclear testing on Australians. Veterans Affairs Minister Bruce Scott has announced there will be a list of all Australians exposed to the testing, including defence personnel, Aborigines and pastoralists....
35. NUCLEAR-CAPE GREENPEACE PROTESTS NUCLEAR SHIPMENT JOHANNESBURG July 22 1999 Sapa http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/briefing/nw19990723/37.html Environmental group Greenpeace International on Thursday called on South Africa and all coastal nations on the route of a shipment of reprocessed nuclear fuel to Japan to oppose the transport.... -- V MOOSA ON SHIPMENT OF NUCLEAR WASTE Issued by: GCIS July 21, 1999, South Africa ANC http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/briefing/nw19990721/8.html MEDIA STATEMENT BY MR M V MOOSA, MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS AND TOURISM, ON THE SHIPMENT OF NUCLEAR WASTE. -- NUKE-MOOSA MOOSA CONCERNED OVER NUKE SHIP CAPE TOWN July 20 1999 Sapa http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/briefing/nw19990721/20.html Environment Minister Valli Moosa has expressed concern about a proposal to ship nuclear fuel around the Cape, and has called for a full report from his department and representatives of other governments involved....
36. MINING-CENSUS CENSUS SHOWS MORE 560 000 EMPLOYED IN MINING THREE YEARS AGO PRETORIA Jul 22 Sapa http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/briefing/nw19990723/14.html ... Stats SA reported that in 1996 the total value of mining sales was some R60-billion with the gold and uranium mines contributing 43 percent or R25,8-billion. Gold and uranium mines,it said, employed 345957 workers in June 1996. But currently there is little uranium produced in South Africa and the gold industry has slumped in recent times with an estimated 60,000 gold miners losing their jobs during the industry's main restructuring period in late 1997 and early 1998.... The census discloses that in 1996 the total net profit of the mining sector was approximately R12-billion with gold and uranium operations contrbuting R4,24-billion (35,3 percent) and "other" mines R4,80-billion (39,9 percent). Total capital spendng on new assets by the mining sector in 1996 was R6,2-billion with gold and uranium mines accounting for 44 percent or R2,74-billion.
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37. Missile parts sent to North Korea by Chinese companies By Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES http://www.washtimes.com/news/news3.html#link Chinese companies transferred missile components to North Korea last month in a sign Beijing is stepping up arms sales in response to the NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, The Washington Times has learned.... --- Japan Tries Stopping Missile Test By Joseph Coleman, Associated Press, July 22, 1999; 2:52 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990722/V000010-072299-idx.html TOKYO (AP) -- In meetings and summits around the world, Japan is giving allies and neighbors the same urgent message: Do what you can to dissuade North Korea from testing another ballistic missile....
38. SE Asia Meeting Opens Amid Disputes By Laurinda Keys Associated Press Writer Wednesday, July 21, 1999; 6:57 p.m. EDT SINGAPORE (AP) -- Slowly recovering from the continental economic crisis of 1997, Southeast Asia is now facing a slew of other conflicts that could rock the region: A six-nation dispute over the Spratly Islands. Disparity in democracy. Nuclear disarmament.
39. NKorea asks sea border talks with U.S. Updated 6:00 AM ET July 22, 1999, By CHARLES LEE http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/u/990722/06/international-talks SEOUL, South Korea, July 22 (UPI) North Korea's state-run media says the country has proposed military talks with the United States to discuss the inter-Korean sea border....
40. North Korea, Ignoring Warnings, Proceeds With Plans to Test-Fire Missile By CALVIN SIMS July 22, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/072299nkorea-missile.html SEOUL, South Korea -- Despite stern warnings from the United States, Japan and South Korea, North Korea is proceeding with plans to test-fire a long-range ballistic missile this summer, diplomatic and security officials say....
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41. China Looks to Restart Nuclear Plant Tuesday, July 20, 1999; 11:57 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990720/V000402-072099-idx.html BEIJING (AP) -- A Chinese nuclear power plant should be back in service by the end of the year after being shut down for repairs, according to Chinese and American officials. The Qinshan nuclear plant, one of two in China, was shut down a year ago after operators discovered some problems during refueling....
42. China Fishing Boat Sinks in Manila By The Associated Press, July 20, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Philippines-China.html MANILA, Philippines (AP) -- A Chinese fishing boat has sunk in a confrontation with a Philippine naval ship in disputed waters in the South China Sea, Philippine officials said today....
43. U.S. mulls cutoff of military aid to Taiwan By Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES July 21, 1999 http://www.washtimes.com/news/news1.html The Clinton administration has halted a visit to Taiwan by Pentagon officials and is considering a cutoff of U.S. military assistance as a sign of displeasure over Taipei's pro-independence comments, U.S. officials said yesterday.... -- Taiwan pushes world to accept reality By Paul Wiseman, USA TODAY, 7/21/99- Updated 02:43 AM ET http://usatoday.com/news/world/nwstue04.htm TAIPEI, Taiwan - China is threatening to go to war. The United States is calling for calm. Investors are panicked.... -- China Issues New Warning To Taiwan Updated 5:31 AM ET July 21, 1999, By Paul Eckert http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990721/05/news-china-taiwan BEIJING (Reuters) - China told Taiwan Wednesday peaceful reunification would be impossible if the island changed its constitution to reflect its new policy of "state to state" relations.... -- China Hails PNG Reversal On Taiwan Recognition Updated 7:39 AM ET July 21, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990721/07/international-papua-taiwan BEIJING (Reuters) - China hailed Papua New Guinea's announcement Wednesday it would abandon diplomatic ties with Taiwan and maintain relations with Beijing....
44. Clinton confirms rebuke to Taiwan [Gilman, Chair of House International Relations Committee, Vows to Curtail All U.S. Arms Sales Abroad] By Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES, July 22, 1999 http://www.washtimes.com/news/news2.html#link President Clinton acknowledged yesterday that a Pentagon visit to Taiwan will be delayed because of Taipei's assertions of greater independence from China. Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman, chairman of the House International Relations Committee, responded by vowing to curtail all U.S. arms sales abroad until the White House stops "undercutting Taiwan's national security." ... U.S. officials said the transfers to Taiwan that have been delayed include sales of E-2 surveillance aircraft and spare parts for Taiwan's F-16 jets. The Senate also is blocking worldwide U.S. arms sales until the matter with Taiwan is clarified. The restrictions could cost the U.S. defense industry billions of dollars, one official said.... -- Taiwan Plans Statehood Explanation By Christopher Bodeen Associated Press Writer Wednesday, July 21, 1999; 9:24 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990721/V000209-072199-idx.html TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) -- Taiwan said today it will change the wording of its controversial new China stance while seeking the same goal -- to be treated as an equal in any reunification talks....
45. China Cracks Down On Sect As Thousands Protest Updated 6:39 AM ET July 21, 1999, By Benjamin Kang Lim http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990721/06/news-religion-china BEIJING (Reuters) - Thousands of members of a quasi-religious sect besieged government offices in at least six Chinese cities in protest against a crackdown on the group, witnesses and a human rights group said Wednesday.... -- China detains 70 in crackdown USA Today, July 21, 1999 "World" http://usatoday.com/news/world/nw1.htm -- U.S. continues to support 'one China' policy USA Today, July 20, 1999 4:21 p.m. http://usatoday.com/news/washdc/ncstue02.htm
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46. Landmines, Rain Hinder Indian Troops By Neelesh Misra Associated Press Writer Thursday, July 22, 1999; 2:05 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990722/V000398-072299-idx.html MUSHKOH VALLEY, India (AP) -- Landmines and heavy rain hampered efforts by Indian troops Thursday to wear down the last Islamic militants in Indian-held Kashmir....
47. Danger in the Middle East CIA: Iran and Iraq Pose Potential Threats to U.S. By Barbara Starr ABCNEWS.com July 22, 1999 http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/DailyNews/cia_report990722.html -- Biological and Chemical Weapons http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/deadlygas0210.html -- Weapons, Missiles Are Proliferating http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/DailyNews/weapons0227.html -- Click here for more on Iraq http://www.abcnews.go.com/reference/countries/IZ.html
46. Iraq Blames UN Sanctions For 8,000 Deaths In June Updated 11:30 AM ET July 22, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990722/11/international-health-iraq BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq said Thursday that nearly 8,000 young children and old people had died in June as a result of trade sanctions the United Nations imposed on the country for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait....
47. Germany endorses Turkey for EU Updated 11:44 AM ET July 22, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/u/990722/11/international-eu ANKARA, Turkey, July 22 (UPI) German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer expressed his country's determination to see Turkey as a candidate for full membership to the European Union (EU).... -- Iran: Turk Troops Tried Invasion By The Associated Press, July 23, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Iran-Turkey.html DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Iran accused Turkey today of trying to send troops into its territories and said Iranian forces drove them back....
48. House Reduces IAEA Money for Iran By Jim Abrams Associated Press Writer Monday, July 19, 1999; 7:04 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990719/V000875-071999-idx.html WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House voted Monday to withhold U.S. contributions to International Atomic Energy Agency programs helping Iran build a nuclear power plant.... -- Iran Arrests Alleged Protest Leader By The Associated Press, July 19, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Iran-Protests.html DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Iran said Monday it has arrested a leader of weeklong demonstrations that highlighted disputes between reformists and conservatives....
49. Lebanese Prime minister takes hard stance concerning Israel By Betsy Pisik THE WASHINGTON TIMES, July 23, 1999 http://www.washtimes.com/internatl/internatl1.html BEIRUT srael will get no security guarantees from the Lebanese government when it comes time for negotiations on a broad regional peace agreement expected in the coming months, Prime Minister Salim Hoss said Thursday....
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50. Pentagon Defied Laws and Misused Funds, Panel Reports July 22, 1999, By TIM WEINER http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/072299pentagon-spend.html WASHINGTON -- Congress says in a new report that the Pentagon defied the law and the Constitution by spending hundreds of millions of dollars on military projects that lawmakers never approved, including a super-secret Air Force program. The Pentagon acknowledged some of the accusations Wednesday night, saying honest mistakes led to its failure to notify Congress about the way it was spending money....
51. House refuses to fund F-22 fighter jet 7/22/99- Updated 05:49 PM ET http://usatoday.com/news/washdc/ncsthu07.htm WASHINGTON - The House, without a vote, refused Thursday to restore funding in its proposed defense budget to buy F-22 fighter jets the Air Force contends are needed to maintain U.S. air supremacy.... -- Lessons of the F-22 July 22, 1999 New York Times Editorial http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/editorial/22thu3.html -- House Backs Halt To F-22 Fighter Production Updated 12:07 AM ET July 23, 1999, By John Whitesides http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990723/00/news-fighters-congress -- Congress Guns for F-22 By The Associated Press, July 21, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/AP-Unexpected-Dogfight.html --- Air Force Tries to Save F-22 Jet As House Budget-Cutters Target Fighter, It Gets Some High Cover By Bradley Graham and Juliet Eilperin Washington Post, July 22, 1999; Page A03 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/22/168l-072299-idx.html -- Why We Need the F-22 By Richard P. Hallion, Thursday, July 22, 1999; Page A23 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/22/128l-072299-idx.html - House Passes Defense Bill, Omits Funding for F-22 Jet By Bradley Graham, Washington Post, July 23, 1999; Page A01 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/23/111l-072399-idx.html
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52. U.S. Confirms Puerto Rico Napalm Use By The Associated Press, July 19, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Puerto-Rico-Navy.html SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- Reversing earlier denials, the U.S. Navy confirmed Monday it used napalm on an island training ground that has become the focus of an escalating feud between Puerto Rico and the United States....
53. US Torpedo Testing Enrages Canadians By David Crary, Associated Press, July 20, 1999; 1:02 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990720/V000463-072099-idx.html NANAIMO, British Columbia (AP) -- Scenic and serene, the waters of the Georgia Strait west of Vancouver are the unlikely catalyst for a rancorous political tug-of-war over nuclear weaponry and U.S.-Canadian relations....
54. Missing Missiles How Can the U.S. Pay for New Weapons? By Barbara Starr ABCNEWS.com, December 29, 1998 http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/world/DailyNews/iraq981229_starr.html The U.S. Air Force used more than 90 air-launched cruise missiles in the recent four-day attack of Iraq. Now it must decide how and whether to replace them....
55. Feds Seek To Enlarge Vaccine Supply By The Associated Press, July 21, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/a/AP-Smallpox-Vaccine.html MARIETTA, Pa. (AP) -- On the outskirts of this sleepy town in Lancaster County, in a maze of buildings behind a chain-link fence, is the nation's only stockpile of smallpox vaccine....
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56. Clinton Urges Action on Test Ban By Terence Hunt AP White House Correspondent Tuesday, July 20, 1999 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990720/V000450-072099-idx.html WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Clinton urged the Senate today to act on a long-stalled treaty to ban nuclear testing, saying the United States' failure to act jeopardizes an agreement signed by 152 nations....
57. Clinton Names Wulf to State Department Post To: National Desk Contact: White House Press Office, 202-456-2100 http://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/Current_Releases/0722-131.htm WASHINGTON, July 22 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The President today announced his intention to nominate Norman A. Wulf to serve as Special Representative for Nuclear Nonproliferation with the rank of Ambassador at the Department of State....
58. General Dynamics Reports Earnings Up Tuesday, July 20, 1999; 4:24 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990720/V000626-072099-idx.html FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) -- General Dynamics said its acquisition of a California shipbuilding company helped the defense contractor post a 13 percent increase in profits for the second quarter.
59. Lockheed Martin Reports Loss of $41 Million in 2nd Quarter Wednesday, July 21, 1999; Page E02 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/21/110l-072199-idx.html As expected, Lockheed Martin Corp. yesterday posted a loss for the second quarter, as the Bethesda-based defense company struggled with delayed space launches, postponed deliveries of a key military airplane and troubles in its satellite business....
60. Three Mile Island Unit-1 Breaks World Record -- Again 10:28 a.m. Jul 21, 1999 Eastern Infoseek LONDONDERRY TWP., PA--(BUSINESS WIRE)---July 21, 1999--Three Mile Island Unit-1 has toppled its own world record for continuous days of operation as the plant entered its 617th consecutive day on line today. This new record operating run surpasses TMI-1's former record of 616 days and 23 hours set on June 21, 1997. This is the third world record run for the plant since 1991 when it set its first world mark at 479 consecutive days on line.
61. Statement Regarding Indian Point 2 Nuclear Power Plant Company Press Release, SOURCE: Consolidated Edison, Inc. July 22, 3:00 pm Eastern Time http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/990722/ny_con_edi_1.html NEW YORK, July 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Despite a recent press report, Consolidated Edison, Inc. has not decided to sell its Indian Point 2 nuclear power plant located in Buchanan, NY. Indian Point 2 provides 975MW to New York City and Westchester County....
62. Copter Proves as Hefty as It Is Costly By TIM WEINER, July 22, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/washpol/pentagon-chopper.html WASHINGTON -- The idea, back in 1983, was to replace the Huey helicopter, the workhorse of the Vietnam War, with a fast, cheap, light craft called the Comanche. Sixteen years and $4 billion later, the Comanche has not taken off as planned. It will be the most expensive helicopter in history -- if it flies. The "light" copter has been hung with so many technological bells and whistles that it may be too heavy to take off....
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63. DOE Security Chief Takes Polygraph July 23 8:04 AM ET Associated Press http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/ap/ap_us/story.html?s=v/ap/19990723/us/ nuclear_labs_polygraph_1.html ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - The Energy Department's new head of security says requiring nuclear weapons workers to take lie detector tests is no big deal. To prove it, he took one himself....
64. Senate Votes for New DOE Nuclear Weapons Agency Proposal's Prospects in House Are Less Certain By Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, July 22, 1999; Page A04 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/22/205l-072299-idx.html In its first legislative response to allegations of Chinese spying, the Senate voted overwhelmingly yesterday to give responsibility for nuclear weapons research and production to a new agency inside the Department of Energy.... -- Senate Wants New Nuclear Labs Agency By John Diamond, Associated Press, July 21, 1999; 6:12 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990721/V000686-072199-idx.html -- Spying Furor Brings Vote in Senate for New Unit By ERIC SCHMITT, July 22, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/072299nuke-labs.html
65. Bureaucracy: Another Useless Layer Tuesday, July 20, 1999; Page A18 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/20/004l-072099-idx.html The Senate should take a closer look at the Kyl-Domenici plan for reorganizing nuclear weapons work within the Department of Energy ["Richardson Accepts Nuclear Agency Plan," news story, July 8]. The proposed Agency for Nuclear Stewardship would do nothing to address and reform the "culture of arrogance" that former senator Warren Rudman's report found in DOE's nuclear complex. It would, however, create new layers of nuclear bureaucracy, while reducing scrutiny and oversight.... ROBERT W. TILLER Director of Security Programs Physicians for Social Responsibility Washington
66. Report Warns of Lab Reform Roadblocks By Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, July 20, 1999; Page A05 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/20/117l-072099-idx.html The Department of Energy has taken initial steps to tighten security in the wake of alleged Chinese spying, but it faces substantial stumbling blocks that almost certainly will delay counterespionage measures, according to an internal report made available to The Washington Post....
67. Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1999 19:30:29 -0400 Subject: Armed Services Committee hearing on DOE reorg.-July 14th Priority: non-urgent X-FC-MachineGenerated: true To: bananas@lists.speakeasy.org From: bamorse@earthlink.net (bamorse@earthlink.net) Statement of Dr. Victor H. Reis Thank you Mr. Chairman, for the opportunity to speak to you on the possible reorganization of the Department of Energy's national security programs. These are my personal views and not those of the Department. While much of the discussion of such a reorganization has revolved around security and counterintelligence at the nuclear weapons laboratories, my testimony today is focused on how the structure of national security within DOE can be reformed, not only for security, but to better accomplish the primary mission of the nuclear weapons laboratories - Stockpile Stewardship.... _____________________________
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Message: 4 Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 09:57:09 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-13 7/23/99 - Pentagon; F-22 Vote
50. Pentagon Defied Laws and Misused Funds, Panel Reports
July 22, 1999, By TIM WEINER http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/072299pentagon-spend.html
WASHINGTON -- Congress says in a new report that the Pentagon defied the law and the Constitution by spending hundreds of millions of dollars on military projects that lawmakers never approved, including a super-secret Air Force program. The Pentagon acknowledged some of the accusations Wednesday night, saying honest mistakes led to its failure to notify Congress about the way it was spending money.
The House Appropriations Committee, expressing anger and astonishment in a report that accompanied this year's military spending bill, which is scheduled to be debated by the House on Thursday, said the practice had eroded trust between the nation's lawmakers and military commanders.
Representative Jerry Lewis, Republican of California and chairman of the committee's defense spending panel, said the Pentagon's actions showed its belief "that it can even move money to a program Congress has closed down, maybe presuming, 'Oh, well, nobody will know.' "
"What do we have to do to make them understand what we mean when we say no?" Lewis asked.
The Pentagon spokesman, Kenneth H. Bacon, said Wednesday night that the failure to notify Congress about the military's redirecting of appropriated funds had taken place. "We work very hard to respond to the directives Congress gives us," Bacon said. "Do we get it right 100 percent of the time? Of course not."
He acknowledged that the Air Force wrongfully started and financed a highly classified, still-secret project, known as a "black program," without informing Congress last year. The committee said that act was illegal. It also raises questions about civilian control of black programs, whose costs and nature are the most highly classified secrets in the Pentagon. Military officials refused to discuss any details of the black program.
The committee's 313-page report says the Air Force tried to buy an $800 million military communications satellite without lawful authority, and illegally diverted from an unspecified program hundreds of millions of dollars to update its C-5 transport plane. It also says the Pentagon spent millions of dollars on a "Star Wars" missile defense program that was previously canceled by Congress.
The report cited three other examples involving military trucks, missiles and tanks. It did not provide specific cost figures, but committee staff members said these practices were a chronic and worsening problem adding up to billions of dollars spent improperly and illegally over the past decade, particularly in the last year or so as military officials have tried to finance more and more expensive programs.
Addressing the specific charges other than the Air Force black program, Bacon said the military had on occasion failed to notify lawmakers about the way it spent money on these and other military projects. But he said these were honest errors, and not open defiance.
As for the military satellite, he said there were legitimate disputes over whether caches of research money should be segregated from money to the satellite. Bacon said the several hundred million dollars transferred to the C-5 program involved a misunderstanding between the Pentagon and Congress, and the "Star Wars" program was a controversy over whether the program had been completely canceled.
The law and Pentagon procedures allow military officials to shift funds from one account to another, but not without telling Congress. They cannot finance programs Congress never approved, or use money for a purpose that lawmakers never intended. But they have done so for years, the committee's report and its staff members said.
"The Constitution is pretty clear on this," Lewis said. It says: "No money shall be drawn from the Treasury but in Consequence of Appropriations made by law." That means the Pentagon cannot spend money unless Congress authorizes it for specific programs.
Congress struggles every year over the military's budget and the costs of weapons. But the Pentagon now consumes half of the available funds in the Federal budget, and some senior Republican lawmakers, mindful that their party is cutting billions of dollars from domestic programs, are trying to be more vigilant about military spending.
The Pentagon spending battle has been joined this year in the House on two fronts: the accountability of Pentagon officials and the cost of weapons, including the $70 billion F-22 fighter jet program.
The committee has withheld $1.8 billion sought to produce the first six F-22's, saying the money would be better spent on pilots and present-day planes. The F-22 is supposed to be the flagship of the 21st century Air Force. The decision has produced howls of protest from the Pentagon.
"We can fund the F-22," President Clinton said today. "It would be a mistake to abandon the project."
The Senate's defense bill finances the first six F-22's. But Senator John W. Warner, Republican of Virginia and chairman of the Armed Services Committee, told Defense Secretary William S. Cohen this week that "we can't be giving you a blank check."
The House Appropriations Committee report noted that the Air Force was trying to write its own checks for the F-22. It said the Air Force requested hundreds of millions of dollars that was supposed to help buy the first F-22's, but Air Force officials, "in violation of specific Congressional direction," earmarked the money for additional research and development.
The Air Force, in a statement, said it "had not misled Congress or misused appropriated funds." It called the committee's report a product of "misunderstanding or misinterpretation," and said it would "work with Congress to clear this up."
That may take some doing. The committee called the Air Force's "lack of accountability astonishing."
Its report said the Air Force broke the law with a new program to update electronics and software on the C-5 transport plane. This program, "which the Congress never formally approved," cost several hundred million dollars. The money was obtained "by diverting funds specifically provided by the Congress for another program," the report said.
The committee said the Air Force has been taking money out of research funds to help finance a new $800 million Milstar military communications satellite. One of the satellites was lost in space this spring, but because appropriated money was diverted, the Air Force cannot say how much a replacement will cost taxpayers, the report said.
"This committee is little short of amazed," the report said in accusing Pentagon and missile-defense officials of illegally financing a "Star Wars" system known as the Medium Altitude Air Defense program.
The system has cost $100 million but produced nothing, the committee said. It was canceled last year by Congress. But it received at least $2 million diverted by Pentagon and missile-defense officials from another missile-defense program to help keep it alive, the report said.
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51. House refuses to fund F-22 fighter jet
7/22/99- Updated 05:49 PM ET http://usatoday.com/news/washdc/ncsthu07.htm
WASHINGTON - The House, without a vote, refused Thursday to restore funding in its proposed defense budget to buy F-22 fighter jets the Air Force contends are needed to maintain U.S. air supremacy.
The action came in withdrawal of an amendment that would have put $1.8 billion into the $266 billion defense budget the House was expected to pass later in the day.
After leading a parade of witnesses testified in support of the F-22 program, Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., withdrew his amendment in an agreement that gives the House considerable leverage in shaping the final defense budget with the Senate.
Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee that first cut the F-22 money, promised to carefully consider the funding in conference with the Senate, where the F-22 has strong support.
''At the end of the day, we will do everything that is necessary to make certain there is no nation that will threaten us in tactical air (capability) in the future,'' Lewis promised.
The Air Force says any pause in planned F-22 production - building of the first six production-line planes is to begin next year - would kill a $200 million-plus aircraft crucial to its long-term defense strategy.
A House Appropriations Committee report says the military appears unable to control the F-22's rising costs and can maintain a 5-1 advanced fighter advantage through 2010 without it.
Defense Secretary William Cohen promised Thursday to work with Capitol Hill on complaints of Pentagon misspending in the same report. ''We're bound to have some deficiencies,'' he acknowledged.
The report accuses the Defense Department of spending money on canceled programs and illegally redirecting other funds. Cohen said its conclusions are misleading.
Overall, the report details the need for increased defense spending that would exceed Clinton's requested Pentagon budget by nearly $3 billion. The House bill calls for $15.5 billion more than last year's appropriation.
Acknowledging the size and complexity of the Pentagon's responsibilities and its need for flexibility, the report says the committee is ''little short of amazed'' at some of its failings, including expenditure of $2 million on a canceled missile system.
The committee, however, suggests no total for misspending. It cites several instances where the Pentagon failed to give required notice to Congress that it was redirecting funds.
Cohen said the report gives a misleading impression but acknowledged the inevitability of deficiencies, given the enormous number of military programs.
Responding to reporters' questions, he said the report ''comes as somewhat of a surprise to all of us in the Pentagon,'' considering that it cites problems with only six of the 5,000 military projects managed by the Pentagon.
''That is quite a significant statement in itself, that about 99.9% of the time we seem to be doing things right,'' Cohen said.
He promised, nonetheless, to work with congressional appropriators on ''any deficiencies or allegations of failure to comply with the law.''
Cohen, who spent 24 years in Congress as a Maine Republican, said that in some cases the language in laws worked out between conflicting House and Senate versions is ''left ambiguous.'' That can lead to uncertainty over requirements for the Pentagon, he said.
The report, too, acknowledges that the appropriations process always has involved discussions over ''budget rules and appropriate procedures regarding the use of appropriated funds.'' It notes that recent years of spending cuts for defense have put pressure on the Pentagon to deal with weapons modernization demands, but says this is no excuse for defying laws passed by Congress.
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Lessons of the F-22
July 22, 1999 New York Times Editorial http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/editorial/22thu3.html
The House of Representatives should follow the lead of its Appropriations Committee and deny the Air Force money for buying the costly and unnecessary F-22 fighter. The F-22, also opposed by Speaker Dennis Hastert and the minority leader, Richard Gephardt, had been scheduled to begin production next year at an average cost of $200 million per plane. The Senate has already approved buying six F-22's. But if the House stands firm in a vote expected today, only research money will be available next year.
It is rare for Congress to kill a major new weapons program after billions of dollars have already been spent on development costs. But it makes no sense for the Pentagon to proceed with three separate advanced fighter programs when no other country has a chance of threatening America's air superiority in the foreseeable future. America's current top fighter, the Air Force's F-15, remains a highly effective warplane. Two successors now under development, the Joint Strike Fighter and an updated version of the Navy's F-18, should prove more than adequate to future needs.
Continuing all three fighter programs would cost $350 billion over the next two decades. Eliminating the F-22, produced by Lockheed Martin, could save about $50 billion. Costly and duplicative weapons programs, fueled by intra-service rivalries, distort the defense budget and American military capabilities. The Joint Strike Fighter, designed for use by the Air Force, Navy and Marines, represents a more rational approach.
The Pentagon needs to reduce wasteful duplication and shift purchasing away from modernizing the cold war arsenal toward meeting the very different military needs of the 21st century.
It should spend less of its budget on short-range fighters like the F-22 and other dubious and expensive projects like the $37 billion Comanche helicopter program, leaving more for readiness, mobility, pay and pensions. It needs to equip itself for peacekeeping operations and to counter biological and chemical weapons and international terrorism, missions it is much more likely to face than aerial dogfights against a technologically advanced foe. Fighter planes still have a role to play in 21st-century warfare. But they should not consume a disproportionate share of the Air Force budget. House Backs Halt To F-22 Fighter Production Updated 12:07 AM ET July 23, 1999, By John Whitesides http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990723/00/news-fighters-congress
Congress Guns for F-22 By The Associated Press, July 21, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/AP-Unexpected-Dogfight.html
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Air Force Tries to Save F-22 Jet As House Budget-Cutters Target Fighter, It Gets Some High Cover By Bradley Graham and Juliet Eilperin Washington Post, July 22, 1999; Page A03 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/22/168l-072299-idx.html
The Air Force barnstormed across Capitol Hill this week in a frantic lobbying effort to save its favorite new warplane, the F-22 fighter, and succeeded yesterday in winning a change of heart by the speaker of the House of Representatives as well as an endorsement by President Clinton.
But supporters of the supersonic plane still feared that the House would vote today to slash $1.8 billion from the Air Force budget and suspend purchase of the first six F-22s.
The battle over the F-22, which caught the Pentagon by surprise last week, is shaping up as a clash of visions over how best to modernize the Air Force. Defense officials insist the plane is essential for the United States to maintain dominance in the sky against foreign adversaries; F-22 critics argue that the price tag of nearly $200 million per plane has ballooned out of control, and that the money would be better spent upgrading existing aircraft.
Conventional wisdom in Washington has long held that it is politically impossible to kill a major weapon system once it is on the verge of production--especially one like the F-22, which promises 27,000 jobs in 46 states.
But Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.), the Appropriations subcommittee chairman who engineered the challenge to the F-22, has managed to mute some of the hue and cry that might otherwise accompany the loss of a big defense program by funding an array of other military projects. They include more F-15 and F-16 jet fighters, KC-130J refueling aircraft and JSTARS ground surveillance planes favored by various House members and defense contractors.
Among those supporting the budget reordering is Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.), whose St. Louis district is home to 7,000 Boeing workers who will benefit from the extra F-15s. Gephardt has lobbied repeatedly for added F-15 funding over the past several months, even making his pitch to the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania, over club sandwiches and pasta salad in his office last month.
Such competing interests are exactly what's made it difficult for F-22 proponents such as Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) to win restoration of funding for the fighter.
Now that money for the advanced, radar-evading jet fighter has been diverted to other programs, he and his allies risk upsetting backers of these projects.
"We're getting a pummeling," Kingston said, expressing grudging admiration for the tactics of Lewis and associates. "Their stealth attack on the F-22 would put their stealth engineers to shame."
In fact an official for one major F-22 supplier said his company would be better off financially for the next few years under Lewis's plan.
"It's difficult for a company like ours when you get caught in the middle," the lobbyist said, adding that his company still supports the Pentagon's long-term position on the F-22 but would not focus on the issue until later in the legislative process. "It's not a do-or-die thing for us."
Insisting the F-22 is still affordable, Clinton yesterday joined the battle to restore production money for the plane, saying it would be a mistake to abandon the project.
"We can fund the plane, without compromising the basic priorities of our national defense within the funds set aside, and that is what I will fight to do," he told a news conference.
House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), who had signaled last week that he thought funding for the F-22 should be cut, also came to the plane's defense. "He now sees the virtue in continuing the production line," said his spokesman, John Feehery.
Majority Leader Richard K. Armey (R-Tex.) also strongly supports continuing production, which would translate into thousands of jobs in the Fort Worth area.
But Hastert has no intention of lobbying his House colleagues during today's vote, Feehery said, and F-22 advocates acknowledged that they still faced an uphill struggle. Former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) had championed the plane, which is being assembled in Marietta, Ga. With his departure, the project has lost its most powerful House sponsor.
"It's a lot of money," said Rep. C. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), who is leading the effort to restore the production funds. "It's an awful lot of money."
Expecting to lose in the House, F-22 proponents are pinning their hopes on the joint House-Senate conference later this summer that will seek to reconcile differences between defense spending bills in the two chambers. The Senate budget plan calls for full funding of the Air Force's request for initial production of F-22s.
"I'm going to make the case for it," Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, told reporters this week. "I believe it's the key to the future of the defense of our country."
But Stevens's own bargaining leverage is limited by the fact that his defense bill contains nearly $4 billion less than the $266.1 billion in the House version. Attempting to keep the pressure on House leaders ahead of any conference negotiation, Lockheed Martin Corp., the prime contractor for the F-22, on Monday hired hired Glenn LeMunyon, a former aide to Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), to lobby for the plane.
Lewis insists he is not out to kill the F-22 program, just put off the funding for initial production until lawmakers have a chance to debate whether the United States really needs the plane in addition to two other new jet fighters in the budget--the Navy's F/A18-E/F and the Joint Strike Fighter, which is being pursued by the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps.
Air Force officials are warning that a production delay now would doom the plane, because the cost of hiring back high-tech workers and restarting manufacturing lines would be prohibitive. They say the F-22, conceived nearly two decades ago during the Cold War, is still essential to replace the F-15 and F-117 jet fighters and counter threats posed by advanced surface-to-air missile systems and jet fighters being developed by the Russians and Europeans.
In pitches to House members over the past week, top Air Force officials have declared that without the F-22, the Pentagon would have to rethink its air warfare strategy.
In private, they have expressed some frustration at what they regard as a lack of understanding among many House members about the differences between the F-22 and the less expensive, multipurpose Joint Strike Fighter also on the drawing boards. While some lawmakers have suggested forgoing the F-22 and leapfrogging to the JSF, defense officials argue that one is a critical technological stepping stone to the other.
Staff writer Eric Pianin contributed to this report.
In Development
The F-22 Raptor was designed to replace the F-15 as America's front-line fighter.
Airframe builders: Lockheed Martin, Boeing Engine builder: Pratt & Whitney Projected employment: 15,000 in development, 27,000 in production Operational capability: Late 2005 Speed: Mach 2 Crew: Pilot only
Weapons: Six radar-guided AMRAAM missiles, two heat-seeking Sidewinder missiles, 20mm multibarrel cannon, stations for additional armaments.
SOURCES: Lockheed Martin, Boeing
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Why We Need the F-22
By Richard P. Hallion, Thursday, July 22, 1999; Page A23 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/22/128l-072299-idx.html
There was some irony in the House Appropriations Committee's canceling production funding last week for the Air Force's next generation fighter -- the Lockheed-Martin F-22 Raptor. The action came only weeks after America's military forces proved -- for the third time since 1990 -- that exploiting dominant aerospace power is the irreplaceable keystone of our post-Cold War strategy for successful quick-response crisis intervention.
No issue has been more misunderstood than the F-22. The plane links radar-evading stealth with the ability to cruise at supersonic speeds and to exploit and display data from various sources to better inform the pilot about threats and opportunities.
Critics charge that it is unnecessary. They see it as a relic of Cold War thinking, a plane that is too expensive and too complex for the kind of foes America is likely to fight. Instead, they argue, American pilots should make do with a modified airplane still on the drawing boards (the proposed Joint Strike Fighter, intended primarily for ground attack), or upgrade the existing F-15 and F-16, both already more than 25 years old.
Right now a range of advanced fighter designs are flying around the world -- for example, the newer Sukhoi Flankers, the Eurofighter, the Gripen and the Rafale -- that already fly as well or better than the finest contemporary American fighter, the non-stealthy F-15. Complementing these are a slew of advanced surface-to-air and air-to-air missiles that further erode the traditional qualitative advantage the United States has enjoyed over potential foes.
Control of the air is at the heart of the F-22 debate. It reflects a difference between those who believe mere air superiority is sufficient and those who believe one must have air supremacy, even air dominance. The differences are not unimportant. Mere superiority keeps one in the fight but rarely guarantees victory. One who recognized this was Dwight Eisenhower; in 1944, while scanning the vast supplies and troops stretched across the beaches of Normandy, he told his son, "If I didn't have air supremacy, I wouldn't be here."
Over Korea, American fighter pilots shot down 10 MiGs for every friendly plane lost, and so dominated the air war that U.N. ground forces conducted their operations with essentially no fear of enemy air attacks. But after Korea we took air supremacy for granted, and Vietnam showed the sorry results. Over North Vietnam, American airmen barely had air superiority, with a scant 2 to 1 victory-loss ratio. Shocked, America rebuilt its air strength across all the services to reflect the need to dominate, not merely survive. Today the F-22 is intended to ensure that same kind of dominance into the new millennium.
Many of the same arguments made against the F-22 were made in the 1970s against the F-14, F-15, F-16 and F-18: They were too advanced, too complex, too costly, etc. The wisdom of producing them has since been proven repeatedly over the Middle East and the Balkans.
Seeking air superiority should never be what we choose to live with. Rather, air supremacy should be the minimum we seek, and air dominance our desired goal. Control of the air is fragile and can be lost from a variety of causes, including poor doctrine and tactics, deficient training, poor strategy and rules of engagement. But worst of all, it can be lost through poor aircraft.
It takes more than a decade to develop a fighter, and it is imperative we make the right choice. The hallmarks of a dominant fighter are the ability to evade and minimize detection (stealth), transit threat areas quickly (supercruise) and exploit information warfare (sensor fusion) to react more quickly than one's foes. Only one aircraft contemplated for service today can do that: the F-22.
Critics of the F-22 make much of its cost, but that cost -- rigorously managed and within the historical trends of fighter aircraft development -- buys capabilities that ensure the survival of those who have volunteered to put themselves at risk in their nation's service. The F-22 offers the potential for intimidating opponents so that they do not choose to test our resolve in war.
Failure to procure the F-22 would mark the first time since the Second World War that the United States has consciously chosen to send its soldiers, sailors and airmen into harm's way while knowingly conceding the lead in modern fighter development to a variety of foreign nations that may sell their products on the world's arms market. America needs the F-22, and needs it now.
The writer is the Air Force historian.
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House Passes Defense Bill, Omits Funding for F-22 Jet
By Bradley Graham, Washington Post, July 23, 1999; Page A01 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/23/111l-072399-idx.html
The House of Representatives yesterday approved a $266 billion defense budget that omits money desperately sought by the Pentagon for initial production of the Air Force's prized new combat plane, the F-22 jet fighter.
The House action is virtually unprecedented in threatening funding for a major defense program on the verge of production. It reflected growing concerns about cost overruns in the $70 billion F-22 program, the appeal of seemingly cheaper alternatives, and tensions between the Republican-led Congress and the Clinton administration over management of the military.
Caught completely off guard last week when key members of the Appropriations Committee first moved to delete the funding, the Air Force and the plane's prime contractor, Lockheed Martin Corp. of Bethesda, mounted a fierce last-minute lobbying campaign. They now hope to regain the money when House and Senate members meet in a conference committee to resolve differences between their defense spending bills.
But the House's action casts considerable uncertainty over the Pentagon's long-range plans for a new generation of air warfare weapons. It also raises doubts about the ability of Lockheed Martin, the nation's biggest defense contractor, to remain in the business of designing combat jets.
The last time a major weapons program was killed as it entered production was 1991, when the Navy halted work on the A-12, a carrier-based aircraft that also had suffered cost overruns and technical problems. But the Navy itself -- not the Congress -- initiated the demise of the A-12. And the $6.7 billion that had been spent on the A-12 is dwarfed by the more than $20 billion already expended on developing the F-22.
In an unusual procedural move on the House floor yesterday, F-22 proponents introduced an amendment to restore funding for initial production of the jet, then withdrew the amendment after an hour of debate dominated by arguments in favor of the plane. By skipping a vote on an issue that has split the Republican leadership, the House spared members a decisive showdown and gave House negotiators greater leverage in shaping a compromise with the Senate, which has approved the full Air Force request for $1.8 billion to buy the first six F-22s.
Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.), the chairman of the defense appropriations subcommittee who has led the attack on the F-22, struck a conciliatory note, promising to reevaluate the troubled Air Force project.
"At the end of the day, we will do everything that is necessary to make certain there is no nation that will threaten us" in the skies, Lewis said.
With little further discussion of the military spending bill, the House passed it, 379 to 45.
Lawmakers have complained for several years that the Pentagon has too many new jet fighters in development -- the Navy's F/A-18E/F and the multiservice Joint Strike Fighter in addition to the F-22. In response, the Pentagon has scaled back its planned purchases, shrinking the F-22 order from 750 to 339 planes. But the Air Force never expected outright elimination of the program it touts as its top procurement priority.
"I don't know of another major program whose cancellation has been initiated by Congress," said Steven Kosiak, a military budget analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. "The odds are still some way will be found to go ahead with the F-22, but we're in sort of uncharted territory now."
While choking off production money, the House bill preserves $1.2 billion for F-22 research and development. And Lewis and his allies insist that their aim is not to cancel the project, but merely to compel a "pause" to consider alternatives.
The Air Force argues that any production delay would be tantamount to killing the program, since restarting manufacturing lines would add about $6 billion and send the F-22's cost soaring above constraints imposed by Congress two years ago.
Pentagon and industry officials lobbied hard to restore the money that the Appropriations Committee cut, disputing charges that the $200 million-a-copy plane is excessively expensive and insisting the aircraft is essential to maintain a U.S. edge over the next generation of Russian and European aircraft and missiles.
The Air Force arranged special briefings for members of Congress and provided detailed lists of F-22 suppliers and the value of their contracts in each state. Lawmakers from states with the most jobs at stake -- Georgia, Connecticut, California and Texas -- spoke on the House floor yesterday, urging colleagues to keep the program alive.
Vance Coffman, Lockheed Martin's chief executive officer, also met personally with Lewis last week but left discouraged, according to several sources.
Defense analysts said cancellation of the F-22 would cut deeply into Lockheed's revenue in the next 15 years. After years of consolidation among defense firms, there are only two remaining American companies that design and manufacture military jets: Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin. A third, Northrop Grumman Corp., largely serves as a supplier to them.
"The House's F-22 decision, if sustained, has the potential to remove one of the nation's few remaining aircraft integrators," said Loren Thompson, a defense specialist with the Lexington Institute, a conservative think tank. "Without the F-22, it would be much harder for Lockheed Martin to justify remaining in the military aircraft business."
In addition to targeting the F-22, the Appropriations Committee denounced what it called a disturbing pattern of Pentagon spending on projects never approved by Congress. In recent years, the committee repeatedly has leveled such charges, citing a variety of programs.
In a report accompanying the spending bill, the committee singled out several cases of unauthorized spending, including the start-up of an unspecified secret Air Force program and an effort to buy a military communications satellite. Asked about the criticism, Defense Secretary William S. Cohen told reporters that some of the disputed cases may stem from ambiguous directions provided by conflicting House and Senate legislation. Nonetheless, Cohen acknowledged, "we are bound to have some deficiencies" and pledged to continue working with Congress to resolve any disputes.
Staff writers Juliet Eilperin and John Mintz contributed to this report.
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Message: 5 Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 10:08:15 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-16 7/23/99 - DOE Reorganization
63. DOE Security Chief Takes Polygraph
July 23 8:04 AM ET Associated Press http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/ap/ap_us/story.html?s=v/ap/19990723/us/ nuclear_labs_polygraph_1.html
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - The Energy Department's new head of security says requiring nuclear weapons workers to take lie detector tests is no big deal.
To prove it, he took one himself.
``I passed it with flying colors,'' Eugene Habiger told reporters hours after taking the test at the department's Albuquerque field office Thursday. He said laboratory workers shouldn't have to do anything he wouldn't do.
In June, the Energy Department announced plans to give polygraph tests to some 5,000 workers in sensitive nuclear weapons jobs, part of a broad initiative to beef up security after widely publicized accusations of leaks to the Chinese.
Some lab workers objected to the polygraph testing, fearing that errors might incriminate innocent people.
Habiger dismissed those concerns, saying the way the tests are being set up, there should be fewer than one error in 1,000.
``This is not a big deal,'' the retired Air Force general said.
Habiger, named in June to head security at the department, was in Albuquerque this week to meet with officials at Sandia National Laboratories and the department's operations Office.
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64. Senate Votes for New DOE Nuclear Weapons Agency Proposal's Prospects in House Are Less Certain
By Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, July 22, 1999; Page A04 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/22/205l-072299-idx.html
In its first legislative response to allegations of Chinese spying, the Senate voted overwhelmingly yesterday to give responsibility for nuclear weapons research and production to a new agency inside the Department of Energy.
The 96 to 1 vote reflected strong sentiment in Congress that security must be tightened at nuclear weapons laboratories. But it is uncertain whether the House of Representatives will agree that a semiautonomous agency is the best way to achieve that aim.
If the Senate plan eventually is adopted, it will mark the first major reorganization of the nuclear weapons complex since the Energy Department was created. It also would be the most significant change yet produced by a report on Chinese espionage issued this year by a bipartisan panel headed by Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Calif.).
The new agency would control the Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore and Sandia national laboratories as well as the Nevada nuclear test site; production and assembly plants in Texas and Missouri; nuclear materials facilities at Oak Ridge, Tenn., and Savannah River, S.C.; the U.S. Navy reactor program; and the Energy Department's international programs to combat proliferation of nuclear weapons.
The Senate passed the plan as an amendment to a bill authorizing the fiscal 2000 budget for U.S. intelligence operations. The amount of the intelligence budget is classified but is usually estimated at $27 billion.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who cast the sole vote in opposition, said he opposed the bill because it could permit the new agency to reopen a nuclear reactor in his state without adequate environmental precautions.
The proposed Agency for Nuclear Stewardship would be run by a new undersecretary of energy. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson would establish overall policies for the agency and supervise the undersecretary, but other top Energy Department officials would not be able to direct the agency's operations unless they acted through Richardson or his deputy.
Richardson initially opposed the new agency as a "fiefdom within a fiefdom" and contended that he had already taken adequate steps to bolster security by naming a new counterintelligence chief and a "security czar." In recent weeks, however, he said he would accept the plan as long as it did not diminish his authority as secretary.
The plan was proposed in May by three Republicans, Sens. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) and Frank H. Murkowski (R-Alaska). Kyl said yesterday that "this is a first major step in preventing the future theft of our secrets, but there is more to do."
Senate Democrats went along with the plan after amendments were adopted to clarify that Richardson would retain "direction, control and authority" over nuclear weapons policy, including counterintelligence and security at the national labs.
Some members of the House, however, favor creating a fully independent agency that would not report to Richardson. Others want to leave the Energy Department in control of the nuclear weapons complex but change the organizations -- including the University of California -- that run the labs under contract.
Rep. William M. "Mac" Thornberry (R-Tex.), whose district contains the Pantex nuclear weapons plant, predicted yesterday that the House eventually would go along with the Senate plan. But Rep. Ron Klink (D-Pa.) argued this week at a subcommittee hearing on security that creating a new agency "would very possibly make the accountability situation worse than it is now." The Senate plan, he added, would give the national laboratories "more independence and lack of oversight than ever before."
Senate Wants New Nuclear Labs Agency By John Diamond, Associated Press, July 21, 1999; 6:12 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990721/V000686-072199-idx.html
Spying Furor Brings Vote in Senate for New Unit By ERIC SCHMITT, July 22, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/072299nuke-labs.html
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65. Bureaucracy: Another Useless Layer
Tuesday, July 20, 1999; Page A18 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/20/004l-072099-idx.html
The Senate should take a closer look at the Kyl-Domenici plan for reorganizing nuclear weapons work within the Department of Energy ["Richardson Accepts Nuclear Agency Plan," news story, July 8]. The proposed Agency for Nuclear Stewardship would do nothing to address and reform the "culture of arrogance" that former senator Warren Rudman's report found in DOE's nuclear complex. It would, however, create new layers of nuclear bureaucracy, while reducing scrutiny and oversight.
The legislation would grant the new agency unique authority to bypass the standard budget process and send its spending wish list straight to Congress, unedited by the secretary of energy or the Office of Management and Budget -- something every agency head in government would love to do. This means that the nuclear agency's power and authority would grow dramatically as it evaded the usual procedures and controls of government.
The legislation would also reduce the ability of DOE's Office of Environment, Safety and Health to protect the health of nuclear workers and ensure compliance with fundamental health and safety standards. It also would split up DOE's program of cleaning up nuclear wastes at weapons complex sites, resulting in organizational tangles and thus in slower and more expensive cleanup.
The best way to address mismanagement and disarray at the nuclear weapons labs is through more oversight, not less. The Senate should not rush to embrace this deeply flawed plan.
ROBERT W. TILLER
Director of Security Programs Physicians for Social Responsibility Washington
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66. Report Warns of Lab Reform Roadblocks
By Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, July 20, 1999; Page A05 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/20/117l-072099-idx.html
The Department of Energy has taken initial steps to tighten security in the wake of alleged Chinese spying, but it faces substantial stumbling blocks that almost certainly will delay counterespionage measures, according to an internal report made available to The Washington Post.
The sobering report by DOE Inspector General Gregory H. Friedman comes as Congress is pushing for a rapid reorganization of the Energy Department to shore up security. The Senate may vote as early as today on a plan to create a semiautonomous agency inside the DOE to run the nation's huge complex of nuclear weapons laboratories, assembly plants and storage facilities.
One of the major counterintelligence efforts announced this year by Energy Secretary Bill Richardson is a plan to require polygraph tests for approximately 5,000 employees in jobs with access to classified information. The report says, however, that some administrators at the nation's three main nuclear weapons laboratories believe that "it will be necessary to change current contract language" before the department can require the so-called lie detector tests at the national labs, which are operated under contract with the University of California and Lockheed Martin Corp.
Other Energy Department officials say that the polygraph tests can be imposed under the current contracts. But even those officials expect a delay of several months, until new departmental regulations on the examinations are approved.
"Most of those people have already agreed to polygraphs and are just waiting for the regulation," one senior Energy official said yesterday. He added: "We want to do it right and not have to change it a couple months from now."
While the inspector general's report confirms Richardson's claim that 85 percent of the major counterintelligence reforms proposed last year are already being carried out, it also says that many lower-priority programs have yet to begin.
For instance, the report says, the FBI has not yet taken over the job of conducting background investigations of laboratory personnel who require security clearances. Energy Department officials consider the current investigations, performed by the Office of Personnel Management, to be unsatisfactory. The FBI has said that it does not have enough agents to take on the entire backlog of some 10,000 clearance updates, but discussions are underway to have the FBI do the "most sensitive" inquiries, according to one DOE official.
The report also calls for speeding up the establishment of a new system to keep track of foreign visitors to the labs and foreign scientists working in the labs on assignment.
Richardson's new policy also calls for lab employees to report to counterintelligence officials all instances "of close and continuing contact, including e-mail, with foreign visitors and assignees from sensitive countries."
The inspector general's report says that no uniform system to keep track of such contacts now exists and that a centralized system is being developed. It also noted that a pilot program to monitor electronic mail sent by lab personnel to sensitive countries has yet to be put in place, although $2 million has been allocated to start such a program in five labs.
One major reform that has been implemented, according to the report, is the transfer of control over the department's entire counterintelligence budget to Edward J. Curran, the DOE's new director of counterintelligence.
That approach has yet to be approved by Congress and appears contrary to a bipartisan proposal to establish the nuclear weapons complex as a semiautonomous agency inside the Energy Department, which may be voted on in the Senate today.
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67. Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1999 19:30:29 -0400 Subject: Armed Services Committee hearing on DOE reorg.-July 14th Priority: non-urgent X-FC-MachineGenerated: true To: bananas@lists.speakeasy.org From: bamorse@earthlink.net (bamorse@earthlink.net)
Statement of Dr. Victor H. Reis
Thank you Mr. Chairman, for the opportunity to speak to you on the possible reorganization of the Department of Energy's national security programs. These are my personal views and not those of the Department. While much of the discussion of such a reorganization has revolved around security and counterintelligence at the nuclear weapons laboratories, my testimony today is focused on how the structure of national security within DOE can be reformed, not only for security, but to better accomplish the primary mission of the nuclear weapons laboratories - Stockpile Stewardship. I believe such a reorganization is essential if we are to fulfil our responsibility to maintain our nuclear deterrent; what President Clinton has called "the supreme national interest."
I support the concept of a semi-autonomous agency within the DOE as proposed by the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB) report, as proposed in the Kyl, Domenici, Murkowski amendment to the Intelligence Authorization Bill, and as proposed in the Thornberry amendment to the House National Defense Authorization Bill.
During my confirmation hearings to be Assistant Secretary of Energy for Defense Programs on July 30, 1993 Senator Warner stated:
"Dr. Reis, you have had a fascinating career, and you have devoted much of that to public service, which is fortunate for the citizens of our great Nation. You have managed to stay alive in both political camps, maintain your own integrity and your own conviction to do what is in the best interest of the Nation, the political process be damned. I do not know of a higher goal that any person can achieve than that you pursue regularly."
Senator Warner then asked me to commit that if for any reason I felt that the nation must return to nuclear explosive testing, I would inform the President and the Congress without hesitation. I committed to do so, and I believe I have fulfilled that pledge faithfully. It is in the spirit of that pledge that I testify to you today.
The thrust of my testimony today is not "what did Notra tell Betsy, and when did he tell her," or even specific details of how to manage security at the DOE. I will testify on what I believe the debate should be about: how will our nation maintain our strategic posture, nuclear deterrence, arms control; the underpinning of much of our national security efforts for the twenty first century.
It is almost impossible to exaggerate the importance of this effort. Indeed, one good thing to come out of the Chinese espionage affair is that there are few people, regardless of political party who do not recognize the importance of our nuclear weapons and the institutions that must maintain them. How these institutions are to operate is the underlying issue that the Administration and Congress must come to grips with.
To frame this debate on the best path for the future, I'll summarize the history of Stockpile Stewardship.
On July 4, 1993, President Clinton extended the moratorium on nuclear explosive testing as the Administration sought a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. He subsequently directed the Department of Energy to begin a Stockpile Stewardship program to ensure the reliability, safety and security of the nuclear weapons stockpile, indefinitely, but to be able to return to testing and production if so required.
This was, and is, an extraordinary challenge, especially considering the state of the weapons complex at that time. Rocky Flats, the only facility capable of producing plutonium pits was permanently closed. Oak Ridge Y-12, the nation's uranium factory, was soon to shut down for safety concerns, and there was no source of tritium and no money in the budget to develop a new source. And to top it off, the weapons laboratories were being strongly encouraged by the DOE to turn their attention to non-defense missions and they were doing so.
Frankly, it was not a pretty picture and few gave the program much chance for success. On August 6, 1993, I was confirmed to my current position by the U.S. Senate, and on August 9, I was sworn in. Since that time I have served under four Secretaries (one acting), four Deputy Secretaries and three Under Secretaries, but my job has remained constant: Stockpile Stewardship.
Stockpile Stewardship consists of two interlocking parts, restoring and modernizing the production capability of the complex, and being able to perpetually certify the reliability, safety and security of the nuclear weapons in the stockpile. Together they represent what is now probably the largest scientific - technical program in the world, and is generally recognized as among the finest. President Clinton signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in September 1996, though it has yet to be ratified by the U.S. Senate. For three years running we have been able to certify to the President and the Congress that the stockpile is safe and reliable. We have been able to modify and deploy a version of the B61 bomb to replace the very old, and very large B53. We have started deliveries of a refurbished W-87 to the Air Force; Y-12 is up and running. We have re-established neutron generator manufacturing at Sandia, tritium gas bottles at Kansas City, and are on schedule to produce tritium with the TVA and Savannah River, and plutonium pits at Los Alamos. Savannah River is operating the new tritium refill facility, and since 1990 we have safely dismantled over 10,000 weapons at the Pantex Plant.
But restoring the systems production capability and certifying the current stockpile is just part of the stewardship effort. The really hard part comes in maintaining the ability to refurbish and certify in the future, when the designers, engineers and technicians who were involved in the original designs, production processes, and most important, the underground nuclear tests are no longer available. Our approach to this continuing problem is to understand how nuclear weapons work in exquisite detail; understand how aging affects their performance, how and when to refurbish, and how well the refurbished weapon will perform. Without testing, the only way to do this is with simulation, and the simulation must be validated with data from new experiments and archived nuclear tests. This requires a whole new set of tools and the Stockpile Stewardship program is building them, from the world's most powerful supercomputers to a new group of advanced experimental facilities such as the National Ignition Facility and the subcritical experiments at the Nevada Test Site.
Looking to the future, we must train a whole new set of designers, engineers and production folks. This ability to attract and train the next generation of stockpile stewards who must have the competence, integrity and judgement to maintain and certify the stockpile was pointed out by the Congressionally mandated Chiles Commission as the major long term vulnerability of the Stockpile Stewardship program. I agree wholeheartedly with their assessment. Indeed, as we think about reorganizing the DOE, I believe we must keep this specific long term people vulnerability foremost in our minds. This is the primary reason, not just improved security, why I believe that the semi-autonomous agency within the DOE provides the nation the best method of accomplishing this truly awesome task.
The advantages of a semi-autonomous agency within DOE have been discussed in the various Congressional debates, so I won't repeat them, but let me summarize what I wrote to Secretary Richardson on May 10.
The root cause of the difficulties at DOE is simply that DOE has too many disparate missions to be managed effectively as a coherent organization. The price of gasoline, refrigerator standards, Quarks, nuclear cleanup and nuclear weapons just don't come together naturally. Secretary after Secretary has tried to pull the Energy Department together into a coherent organization, inevitably using a variety of "cross cutting" organizations: environment, safety, health, field management, security, information management, policy, quality, etc. and then since this is too much for any Secretary to handle, he/she adds his/her own set of advisors, and an elaborate staff structure to handle the whole kit and caboodle, to say nothing of a Deputy and Under Secretary and their respective staffs and advisors. And on top of this is sits a multilayered, geographically diverse field structure, which at each level mirrors the headquarters organization!
Because of all this multilayered cross cutting, there is no one accountable for the operation of any part of the organization but the Secretary, and no Secretary has the time to lead the whole thing effectively. By setting up a semi-autonomous agency, many of these problems go away. If the agency screws up, the agency director is directly accountable and if heads must roll, his/hers is the head. An important benefit is the semi-autonomous agency could clearly recruit top talent, since leading such an agency would be among the best technical management jobs in the nation. DARPA, NOAA and the NSA are successful organizations that fit this mold.
The PFIAB report, and other witnesses have raised the issue of a lax security culture at the laboratories; the adjective arrogant is frequently mentioned. I won't deny that brilliant scientists can be egotistical and arrogant - it sometimes comes with the brilliance, and we need every bit of that brilliance if we are to succeed in Stockpile Stewardship and maintain our nuclear deterrent. Scientific inquiry by its very nature is curious, probing, and sharing, in many ways antithetical to the secrecy imbedded at the heart of many national security programs. This inherent tension between secrecy and open science is real and must be managed as part of an integrated enterprise. The practice of good security, like the practice of good safety must be built into the way people work. They must understand the "why" of security and they must believe that it is an essential part of their job. This is best done by imbedding the security apparatus within the organization that has the responsibility of getting the job done. Security, like safety, then becomes part of the team that is focused on the mission, not entrusted to an external group that is looking to play "gotcha." Indeed, if we look at what is now, and what will continue to be the most severe threat to security - cybersecurity - it will require all the brilliance and creativeness of our best and brightest if we are to meet this particular challenge.
So, Mr. Chairman it all comes down to this. The mission of the nuclear weapons complex is national security at its most profound and long lasting. The task of maintaining the nuclear weapons stockpile indefinitely, without underground nuclear explosive testing, Stockpile Stewardship, is extraordinarily difficult and inherently risky. We have placed the responsibility for fulfilling this task on a small number of very special people. We must trust them to do the job well, and we must give them the tools to do the job. Those tools include not only the best computers and scientific apparatus, but the best management system. It has been my experience, and the experience of many others that organizations perform best when there is a clear, compelling mission, where resources fit expectations and where responsibility and authority are aligned. A semi-autonomous agency within the DOE will provide that alignment and focus. On the other hand, removing security operations out of the line, blurring lines of authority and responsibility, will not. That is the dominant lesson of the Chinese espionage affair, and the message from the myriad of reports on DOE management throughout the years.
Let me conclude on a personal note. I have been in the national security business for almost forty years and during that time I have been truly privileged to have participated in many of the Nation's most important programs. None, however, have been as important, or as challenging as helping to develop the Stockpile Stewardship program over the past six years. The people on the Defense Programs team - all 25,000 of them - serve their country with exemplary skill and dedication. We owe them much. Lastly I would like to express my gratitude and admiration to the many members of the Senate and House of Representatives who have been full and active partners in creating this remarkable enterprise. This committee, its members and its staff, has been particularly helpful.
I thank you, I shall miss working with you, and I am prepared to answer any of your questions.
_____________________
- Sixteenth message - _____________________
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Message: 6 Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 09:49:53 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-11 7/23/99 - China; Taiwan; Rep Gilman Stops ALL Arms Sales
41. China Looks to Restart Nuclear Plant
Tuesday, July 20, 1999; 11:57 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990720/V000402-072099-idx.html
BEIJING (AP) -- A Chinese nuclear power plant should be back in service by the end of the year after being shut down for repairs, according to Chinese and American officials.
The Qinshan nuclear plant, one of two in China, was shut down a year ago after operators discovered some problems during refueling.
After first trying to fix the damage themselves, Chinese officials then turned to U.S.-based Westinghouse Electric Co. for help, said a U.S. government official who visited the plant 50 miles south of Shanghai last month and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Chinese engineers found bits of nuts, bolts, and tubing at the bottom of a reactor vessel, and extensive damage to some instruments and supports -- possibly caused by the broken nuts and bolts flying around in the coolant, the U.S. official said Monday.
Chinese officials said no radiation had leaked out of the reactor and described Japanese news reports of the incident as overblown. The U.S. official also said the problem could not have led to a major accident.
Operators hope to restart the reactor before year's end, but must first pass a series of safety checks by Chinese nuclear authorities, an official at the plant, Qu Xiangyang, said Tuesday.
``For economic reasons, the earlier we can start producing electricity, the better,'' Qu said.
Westinghouse completed repairs last month and is now installing U.S.-made instruments to prevent similar problems from recurring.
Qinshan, which went into operation two years behind schedule in 1991, is touted as China's first domestically designed and built nuclear power plant.
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42. China Fishing Boat Sinks in Manila
By The Associated Press, July 20, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Philippines-China.html
MANILA, Philippines (AP) -- A Chinese fishing boat has sunk in a confrontation with a Philippine naval ship in disputed waters in the South China Sea, Philippine officials said today.
Government officials said they were investigating Monday's confrontation, which involved two Chinese fishing boats and a Philippine navy patrol ship in an area between two of the Spratly Islands claimed by both nations.
``We express our regret at the incident,'' Foreign Affairs Secretary Domingo Siazon told reporters. ``We are treating this incident very seriously.''
It was the second sinking of a Chinese fishing boat by a Philippine patrol ship in two months. In May, a Philippine ship chased three Chinese fishing boats in another disputed area. The ship hit one of the boats, which sank.
``This is a serious incident, coming after the sinking May 23 by the Philippine gunboat of our fishing boat,'' the official China's People's Daily said.
Siazon said he was told all the crew members aboard the Chinese boat were believed to have been rescued by the other Chinese boat.
The People's Daily said 11 people were aboard the sunken boat and 14 on the other boat, which was seized by the Philippine ship. Defense officials said the crew boarded the Chinese ship only briefly to inspect it and then allowed it to leave.
Chinese Embassy spokesman Chen Dehai said the Philippine vessel fired some shots at the Chinese boats in the confrontation, which took place between the islands of Likas and Panata.
Another Chinese Embassy official, Ma Jie, said the Philippine ship chased the Chinese boats for three hours before ramming into them, sinking one as a result.
Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado defended the navy ship's handling of the incident.
``As a matter of responsibility, (the navy) should challenge those who are fishing in the area,'' Mercado said. But he added that the incident should be reviewed carefully because ``these accidents may be misinterpreted.''
Siazon denied that the Philippine navy intentionally sank the boat.
``It's not our policy to use the Philippine navy to sink the vessels of friendly countries regardless of where they are located,'' Siazon said. ``We will seriously look into this incident because we value our relations with China.''
Chinese-Philippine ties have been strained since last year, when Manila protested China's construction of concrete buildings on Mischief Reef, another area in the Spratlys claimed by both countries.
Philippine officials believe the structures could be used for military purposes, but Chinese officials say they are shelters for fishermen.
China and the Philippines are among six countries claiming all or parts of the Spratlys, which are believed to be rich in minerals and straddle vital sea routes in the South China Sea. The other countries that claim the islands are Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.
The Philippines has stepped up patrols near the island and other contested areas in the South China Sea. Last month, Philippine patrols arrested 29 Chinese fishermen in disputed waters.
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43. U.S. mulls cutoff of military aid to Taiwan
By Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES July 21, 1999 http://www.washtimes.com/news/news1.html
The Clinton administration has halted a visit to Taiwan by Pentagon officials and is considering a cutoff of U.S. military assistance as a sign of displeasure over Taipei's pro-independence comments, U.S. officials said yesterday.
"We postponed the delegation because of the recent situation," a senior administration official said.
But publicly President Clinton insisted yesterday that the United States would "take very seriously" any attempt by China to use force against Taiwan as a result of the dispute over the island's apparent move toward a two-China policy.
With tensions in the region high, Stanley Roth, assistant secretary of state for East Asia, will leave today for talks in China and Richard Bush, the U.S. representative to Taiwan, will travel to Taipei for talks.
The group of defense officials going to Taiwan was to have discussed air-defense cooperation, but the visit was called off to register administration anger over the policy shift, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The group would have included officials of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, Joint Staff and Office of the Secretary of Defense and would have included talks on how to counter China's growing short-range missile force.
China has launched a major propaganda campaign to avert U.S. help with missile-defense efforts in Asia, especially in Taiwan.
Additionally, plans to announce the sale to Taiwan of E-2 surveillance aircraft were put on hold because of heightened tensions between China and Taiwan, the officials said.
The Pentagon was set to notify Congress of the sale this week, which is the only time weapons sales to Taiwan are made public. But the sale is being delayed because of remarks by Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui, the officials said. China opposes all U.S. arms sales that are allowed under the Taiwan Relations Act.
Further punitive steps against Taiwan, including a cutoff of spare parts deliveries for Taiwan's U.S.-made F-16 jets, also are being considered, the officials said.
"Taiwan is being punished," said one official.
The administration efforts are aimed at pressuring Taiwan into backing off recent statements by Mr. Lee about a new policy of seeking "state-to-state" talks with Beijing.
The statement was denounced by China as "splittist" and prompted threats by Beijing to use force against Taiwan. China regards Taiwan as a breakaway province.
The decision to put off the air defense talks and plans for tougher steps were made by National Security Adviser Samuel R. Berger over the past weekend, the officials said.
On Capitol Hill, Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman, New York Republican and chairman of the House International Relations Committee, said the administration's actions raise concerns.
"I am very concerned about reports that the Clinton administration is planning to take actions which could undermine Taiwan's fundamental security due to its reported displeasure with President Lee's statement, and a desire to mend relations with Beijing," Mr. Gilman said. "Any action of this sort is not in the U.S. interest and could lead to instability across the Taiwan Strait."
The harder line toward Taiwan comes as Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright prepares to meet Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jianxuan later this month at a meeting of Asian leaders in Singapore. It will be her first high-level meeting since NATO's May 7 bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, which disrupted U.S.-China ties.
Mr. Clinton told reporters at the White House that he reaffirmed the U.S. policy toward China during a telephone call Sunday with Chinese President Jiang Zemin in seeking to ease tensions in the region. He said he told the Chinese leader the United States is encouraging Taiwan to follow the so-called "one-China" policy.
"I made it clear our policy had not changed, including our view under the Taiwan Relations Act that we would take very seriously any abridgment of the peaceful dialogue" between China and Taiwan, Mr. Clinton said.
The president characterized his discussion with Mr. Jiang as "a very positive conversation, far more positive than negative."
Defense Secretary William S. Cohen told reporters the United States continues to back the "one-China" stance but also said "it's important that any discussion between China and Taiwan also be conducted in a peaceful fashion, and that there should be no military attempt to overwhelm or launch attacks against Taiwan."
Asked if the Pentagon planned to send additional Navy forces to the region, Mr. Cohen said, "Not at this time."
The aircraft carrier battle group led by the USS Kitty Hawk is currently in the Indian Ocean en route to Perth, Australia, for exercises.
In Taipei yesterday, Mr. Lee, the Taiwan president, made his first formal statement since the comments last week suggesting independence. Mr. Lee said he does not intend to declare Taiwan independent but continued to insist that relations between China and Taiwan should be based "on special state-to-state relations."
His remarks, apparently intended to calm the monthlong atmosphere of Chinese recriminations and lack of support internationally, instead served to refuel the controversy. He spoke to members of a Rotary Club in his Taipei office.
A government spokesman in Beijing repeated its warning that Taiwan is traveling a dangerous road. "We think that this is a very dangerous step," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue told reporters yesterday.
"He has walked further and further away down the road of splitting the motherland," she said.
Chinese military officials denied a Hong Kong newspaper report that the People's Liberation Army had been placed on high alert and that troop movements were under way in southeastern provinces facing Taiwan.
"Troops are not on alert," said a spokesman for the Guangzhou military region. He said troops were undergoing "normal training."
China has threatened to break off the so-called cross-straits talks between representatives of China and Taiwan if the latter insists on state-to-state dialogue.
Mr. Lee said in Taipei that the remarks about statehood were needed to prepare the island for political talks with China. He said he was trying to stress their equal political status. "One China is not now. Only after we have democratic reunification shall there be the possibility of one China," he said.
Beijing officials have said Mr. Lee's comments made last weekend were a step toward a formal declaration of independence, which China has vowed to use force to stop.
In remarks made during an interview with a German radio reporter, Mr. Lee said Taiwan and China are dealing as two states in one country.
In his speech yesterday, Mr. Lee said Beijing refuses to face the reality of a divided China ruled by separate governments. That refusal, Mr. Lee said, has held back any chance of substantial progress between China and Taiwan.
"The notion that Taiwan is a local government, a rebel province, was the reason why there couldn't be a fundamental improvement in relations," he said.
"We will foster dialogue and negotiations with the Chinese communists on an equal footing," Mr. Lee said. "We will also strengthen our contacts with the international community to safeguard our survival and development."
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Taiwan pushes world to accept reality
By Paul Wiseman, USA TODAY, 7/21/99- Updated 02:43 AM ET http://usatoday.com/news/world/nwstue04.htm
TAIPEI, Taiwan - China is threatening to go to war. The United States is calling for calm. Investors are panicked.
But Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui is gambling that the time is right to risk a confrontation with China and declare that Taiwan is a sovereign state, not a wayward Chinese province.
To many, the move - revealed by Lee on July 9 in an interview on German radio - is reckless. China considers Taiwan a wayward province, is determined to reclaim it and has threatened to attack if the island declares independence.
China rattled its saber again Sunday. China's official Life Times daily reported that China was holding large-scale military attack exercises.
Last week, China said it had developed a neutron bomb in what was seen by some as a veiled warning to Taiwan.
In a telephone call Sunday, President Clinton assured Chinese President Jiang Zemin that the United States is committed to its "one China" policy.
Clinton spoke with Jiang for a half-hour from the presidential retreat at Camp David in Maryland, White House spokesman David Leavy said.
The threat of confrontation has savaged Taiwan's stock market, which is down nearly 13% since last Tuesday and 6% on Friday alone.
Taiwan and China have been separate since the Communists took over the mainland in 1949 and Chiang Kai-shek's vanquished Nationalists fled to Taiwan and formed a second Chinese government. In recent years, Taiwan has appeased China by calling itself a "political entity" within one China.
Lee now wants China and the rest of the world to acknowledge reality: that Taiwan is a sovereign country.
Taiwan wants to negotiate with China - on everything from fishing rights to immigration to eventual reunification - as an equal, not as a local government on bended knee. Taiwan also wants more clout internationally. Denied sovereign status, it is isolated diplomatically.
Taiwan's status as a genuine country might seem obvious. It has its own elected government, its own currency, its own military. Last year, Taiwan and its 22 million people bought $18.2 billion worth of U.S. goods and services, seventh in the world and more than the $14.2 billion purchased by China and its 1.2 billion people. Even so, the United States does not consider democratic Taiwan an independent country; it recognizes the Communist regime in Beijing as the sole government of China - a position it reiterated last week as it called for both sides to settle the dispute.
Lee's statement stopped short of calling for independence. Taiwanese officials say they still intend to pursue eventual reunification with the mainland - once China becomes a democracy.
The president's statement is "not a basic change of our mainland policy," Foreign Minister Jason Hu said in an interview Friday. "It is merely a statement of fact."
Government officials here say the Taiwanese people support Lee's call for a "state-to-state" relationship with China. They cite polls by Taiwan's United Daily newspaper showing 71% consider Taiwan an "independent, sovereign state" and by the ruling Kuomintang Party showing nearly 61% approve state-to-state dealings with China.
"We have to answer to 22 million people," Hu says. "Do you think they really want to be just another province?" But many people here are nervous. "It's very risky," says Winston Wang, 31, a marketing executive. "This statement is very dangerous."
"I feel threatened," says Xenia Hsu, a 28-year-old bakery manager.
Why did Taiwan decide the time was right to risk China's wrath?
Upcoming talks with China. China is scheduled to send an envoy to Taiwan this fall - though China might pull out of the talks to protest Lee's statement.
Taiwan says it needs sovereign status to deal with China as an equal this fall. "As we get closer to each other, we think it is important for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to form a more realistic point of view," Hu says.
Taiwan says it's been hobbled in past dealings with China because of its status as a mere "entity." China has refused to hold serious discussions about Chinese immigrants who come to Taiwan illegally. To Beijing, the immigrants are merely traveling from one Chinese province to another.
"It becomes a straitjacket for us," said Su Chi, chairman of the government's Mainland Affairs Council. "We have to assert ourselves as a sovereign state."
Taiwan's 2000 presidential election. Lee is scheduled to step down next year, and his replacement will be chosen in an election. Some analysts say Lee wants to set the agenda for relations before he leaves. "I don't think he has confidence in his successors," Taiwan University political scientist Wu Yu-shan says . "He wants to leave his mark on history."
Others take a more Machiavellian view. They say Lee wants to provoke a crisis so he can justify staying in office beyond the end of his term. "He doesn't want to retire," says Wang, the marketing executive.
Others say Lee wants to steal a campaign issue for his would-be successor - Vice President Lien Chan - from the independence-minded opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Obstacles for China. Lee might be betting that China won't follow through with its threats to use force because it doesn't want to worsen already strained relations with the United States, which has pledged to defend Taiwan from attack. What's more, China celebrates two big achievements this fall - 50 years of Communist rule and the handover of the Macao colony from Portugal. "Any military action across the Taiwan Strait would spoil the whole thing," Wu says.
Some Taiwanese leaders are optimistic China eventually will accept the idea of state-to-state relations with Taiwan. "I can understand why this causes such a stir," Su Chi says. "It takes time to absorb our message."
"We are two separate states at the moment and have been for the past 50 years," says Bi-Khim Hsiao, head of international affairs for the DPP. "We hope that China can come to terms with reality."
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China Issues New Warning To Taiwan
Updated 5:31 AM ET July 21, 1999, By Paul Eckert http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990721/05/news-china-taiwan
BEIJING (Reuters) - China told Taiwan Wednesday peaceful reunification would be impossible if the island changed its constitution to reflect its new policy of "state to state" relations.
The People's Daily said legal changes to embed Taiwan's shock change of policy "would be a dangerous separatist step and an extremely grave provocation that, if carried out, would render peaceful reunification impossible."
"As everyone with even the slightest knowledge about the Chinese nation knows, reunification of the motherland is loftier and larger than everything else," the Communist Party flagship said in a front-page commentary.
China says it would invade Taiwan if the island, which it regards as a renegade province, declared independence. Chinese leader Jiang Zemin told President Clinton Sunday that Beijing did not rule out the use of force.
Many military experts doubt China's ability to carry out the threat, at least for five to 10 years.
But it could carry out menacing war games, as it did in the lead-up to Taiwan's 1996 presidential election. Then, Chinese ships fired missiles into Taiwan waters, prompting the United States to send two aircraft-carrier battle groups to the area.
Defense Secretary William Cohen, asked this week if he planned to send additional naval forces to the China-Taiwan area, told reporters at the Pentagon: "Not at this time."
A mainland-based news Web site quoted an "authoritative Chinese source close to the military" as saying China would take unspecified military action against Taiwan to preempt Lee from taking further steps toward independence.
"We will strike if America doesn't intervene, and we will strike if America intervenes," the source was quoted as saying.
The military action would "leave a deep impression on Taiwan" and severely hurt its economy, the source added.
The report quoted other unnamed sources as saying China could impose a blockade of Taiwan's ship and air traffic, destroying vessels or aircraft that challenged the cordon.
The military newspaper Liberation Army Daily ran a long and detailed feature Wednesday on a May 9 exercise in which paratroopers from the Jinan Military Region in eastern China stormed a beach.
China's own military shot down a report by a Beijing-backed Hong Kong newspaper -- often used as an unofficial tool of Chinese foreign policy -- that it was on alert over the row with Taiwan.
"Our top task is to fight floods," said one military spokesman as several Chinese provinces put out flood alerts.
Still, Beijing has been in a rage since Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui's abandonment last week of the "one China" policy and his insistence that talks on sorting out problems on the path to reunification be conducted on a "state to state" basis.
It has vilified the man state media has called "the scum of the nation" in personal attacks intended to differentiate between Taiwan's leadership and its ordinary citizens.
Wednesday, the People's Daily said Lee would be "nailed to the pillar of eternal shame" for tampering with the one-China principle that had been the basis of China-Taiwan relations.
Lee says his insistence on equality in the relationship is not a precursor to a decisive break from China but repeated that Taiwan could only embrace a democratic China.
The second serious China-Taiwan showdown since 1996 has drawn international concern, especially in Washington, at Beijing's reiteration of its military threats.
Clinton said he had told Jiang in Sunday's telephone conversation that the United States would have serious concerns with "any abridgment" of peaceful China-Taiwan dialogue.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said senior diplomats would go to Beijing and Taipei this week in an effort to calm the tensions.
She said the missions would precede her meeting in Singapore Sunday with Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan when she would make a direct appeal for a peaceful resolution.
Albright said Richard Bush, head of the American Institute in Taiwan, the agency that handles Washington's unofficial ties with the island, would leave Wednesday for talks in Taipei.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Stanley Roth, who oversees East Asian and Pacific Affairs, would head for Beijing for consultations with Chinese officials.
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China Hails PNG Reversal On Taiwan Recognition
Updated 7:39 AM ET July 21, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990721/07/international-papua-taiwan
BEIJING (Reuters) - China hailed Papua New Guinea's announcement Wednesday it would abandon diplomatic ties with Taiwan and maintain relations with Beijing.
"China highly approves of this wise decision," state television quoted Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue as saying in a statement.
PNG's policy change was announced by the South Pacific's country's new prime minister, Sir Mekere Morauta, who said his predecessor's decision earlier this month to recognize Taiwan was flawed.
Cash-strapped Papua New Guinea on July 5 signed a deal in Taipei to recognize Taiwan, reportedly in return for $2.35 billion in aid, sparking a regional diplomatic row with Beijing.
Skate, who resigned on July 7 ahead of an expected no-confidence vote in parliament, denied Taiwan had bought diplomatic recognition.
Taiwan officials have also denied pledging cash or other aid in exchange for Papua New Guinea's decision to become Taipei's 29th diplomatic partner.
The deal outraged China, which regards Taiwan as an insubordinate province and incapable of sovereign ties.
Beijing, which routinely shuns those who recognize Taiwan, demanded Papua New Guinea "correct its erroneous decision."
Relations between Beijing and Taipei are especially tense after Taiwan's recent decision to scrap its "One China" policy and put relations with China on a "state to state" basis.
China has accused Taiwan of taking a step toward independence and says it would resist this by force of arms if necessary.
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Clinton confirms rebuke to Taiwan
[Gilman, Chair of House International Relations Committee, Vows to Curtail All U.S. Arms Sales Abroad]
By Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES, July 22, 1999
http://www.washtimes.com/news/news2.html#link
President Clinton acknowledged yesterday that a Pentagon visit to Taiwan will be delayed because of Taipei's assertions of greater independence from China.
Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman, chairman of the House International Relations Committee, responded by vowing to curtail all U.S. arms sales abroad until the White House stops "undercutting Taiwan's national security."
At an afternoon White House news conference, Mr. Clinton said of the postponed Taiwan visit, first reported yesterday by The Washington Times: "I didn't think this was the best time to do something which might excite either one side or the other and imply that a military solution is an acceptable alternative. If you really think about what's at stake here, it would be unthinkable."
The Times reported that the administration halted a visit to Taiwan by Pentagon officials and is considering a cutoff of U.S. military assistance to show displeasure over Taipei's pro-independence comments.
Mr. Clinton said the United States does not want the dispute to escalate and he has dispatched envoys to stress that message to China and Taiwan.
On Capitol Hill, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms accused the administration of "appeasement" toward Beijing's Communist government. In the House, Mr. Gilman, New York Republican, said he will halt all U.S. arms sales abroad until the curb of arms sales to Taiwan is resolved.
U.S. officials said the transfers to Taiwan that have been delayed include sales of E-2 surveillance aircraft and spare parts for Taiwan's F-16 jets. The Senate also is blocking worldwide U.S. arms sales until the matter with Taiwan is clarified.
The restrictions could cost the U.S. defense industry billions of dollars, one official said.
Commenting on The Times report that the administration is considering a cutoff of arms to Taiwan, Mr. Gilman said: "I cannot accept undercutting Taiwan's national security and its right under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act to receive appropriate security assistance from our nation to meet its legitimate self-defense needs."
In a statement, Mr. Gilman said: "Accordingly, as a result of my concern, I plan at this point to withhold my approval for arms transfers notified to the Congress until this matter is resolved to my satisfaction."
The Clinton administration is divided over plans to pressure Taiwan against seeking independence by cutting off arms sales and limiting defense cooperation. White House National Security Council and State Department officials want to pressure Taiwan with a threatened arms cutoff. The Pentagon wants to maintain the defense commitment.
A senior National Security Council official told The Times earlier this week a cutoff of arms sales and spare parts to Taiwan is "under consideration." The visit by defense officials to Taiwan to discuss air defense also was postponed because of recent statements by Taiwan's President Lee Teng-hui hinting at independence from Beijing.
"We're concerned about any rhetoric that interferes with effective cross-straits dialogue," White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said about the postponed Pentagon visit.
State Department spokesman James Rubin would not comment directly on whether an arms cutoff to Taiwan is under discussion but said: "We haven't made any decision not to provide items that we were previously intending to provide, and any suggestion that we have is simply inaccurate."
A senior Pentagon official denied any such cutoff of arms is being contemplated to pressure the Taipei government. The official said the United States is committed to supplying Taiwan with arms and security support. "We don't use security to signal," he said, responding to The Times report.
Several officials said the plan to punish Taiwan for its pro-independence statements is being pushed quietly by Kenneth Lieberthal, a pro-Beijing academic who is the NSC's chief China specialist.
A person close to the Taiwan government said the Clinton administration informed Taiwanese officials recently that Mr. Lee's comments were "deliberate sabotage" of U.S. efforts to mend ties to Beijing since the rift over the NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade.
Taiwan officials expected retaliation by the administration based on that assessment.
At yesterday's press conference, Mr. Clinton stressed that the United States would be bound to support Taiwan under the Taiwan Relations Act.
"The understanding we have had all along with both China and Taiwan is that the differences between them would be resolved peacefully," Mr. Clinton said. "If that were not to be the case, under the Taiwan Relations Act, we would be required to view it with the gravest concern."
Mr. Rubin would not comment on the decision by the State Department to hold up congressional notification that the Pentagon will sell E-2 electronic surveillance aircraft and F-16 spare parts to Taiwan.
Other officials said the announcement was put off to pressure Taiwan and also to avoid angering China's foreign minister prior to a possible meeting with Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright at the Asian summit in Singapore next week.
Mr. Rubin said the postponement of the Taiwan visit by Pentagon officials was delayed until after Richard Bush, the U.S. representative to Taiwan, completes a visit to Taipei.
Mr. Helms, North Carolina Republican, criticized the Clinton administration for its cold response to Mr. Lee's remarks calling for "state-to-state" talks with Beijing. China denounced the comments as divisive.
"At a time when the United States should be seizing every opportunity to break free of Beijing's definition of 'one China' . . . the Clinton administration is paralyzed by its own anachronistic policy, better known as appeasement," Mr. Helms said at the Senate subcommittee hearing. He said he was "weary of watching our good friends on Taiwan left twisting in the wind by the Clinton strategists for surrender."
In Taipei, Chinese threats and American warnings produced some shifts in Mr. Lee's "two states" formulation.
Taiwan announced it would drop the official reference of "two states in one nation," but added new emphasis on being treated as an equal by Beijing in any reunification talks.
Beijing views Taiwan as a renegade province that must be reunited with the mainland -- by force if necessary.
Toni Marshall, Andrew Cain, David R. Sands and Gus Constantine contributed to this report.
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Taiwan Plans Statehood Explanation
By Christopher Bodeen Associated Press Writer Wednesday, July 21, 1999; 9:24 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990721/V000209-072199-idx.html
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) -- Taiwan said today it will change the wording of its controversial new China stance while seeking the same goal -- to be treated as an equal in any reunification talks.
Taiwan says the two sides can deal with one another on a ``special state-to-state'' basis, dropping the official reference it made last week to ``two states in one nation,'' according to government spokesman Chen Chien-jen.
By dropping the reference to ``two states in one nation,'' leaving only Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui's original argument for ``state-to-state'' relations, Taiwan appeared to be trying to simplify the issue.
Meeting with foreign journalists, Chen said Taiwan would stay flexible about the terminology to avoid any confusion, while emphasizing it demands equal status with China in any political negotiations between the sides.
However, Chen also said Taiwan's top negotiator on Chinese mainland affairs, Koo Chen-fu, would soon issue what he called Taiwan's last word on the controversy.
Chen said he was not able to comment on the contents of the message or to say precisely when and how it would be delivered.
Lee set off the dispute by saying July 9 that Beijing must deal with Taiwan on a ``state-to-state'' basis, which China sees as an unacceptable threat to split the motherland. Later, the Taiwanese government elaborated on Lee's statement by further recasting the two countries' relationship as ``two states in one nation,'' which Chen said today Taiwan had abandoned because it caused confusion.
Taiwan says its new stance merely reflects the political reality that has developed in the 50 years since the two sides divided in a civil war and insists Beijing's acceptance is a necessary first step to get what Beijing wants -- eventual reunification.
``We have not done anything that could in any way increase the tensions between the two sides,'' Chen said. He reiterated earlier statements that Taiwan has no plans to institutionalize Lee's statement by amending the constitution, laws or key government policies.
China has said that if Koo does not provide an acceptable explanation of Lee's words, it will cancel the planned fall visit of its top Taiwan negotiator, Wang Daohan.
Beijing views Lee's recent statements as an unacceptable challenge to its ``one-China principle.'' That policy effectively relegates Taiwan to the status of a renegade province that China says must eventually be reunited with the mainland, by force if necessary.
Though Washington maintains only informal contacts with Taiwan, Taipei in recent years has won greater support for arms sales and more frequent contacts between U.S and Taiwanese officials.
Washington is still navigating out of a rough patch in ties with China over NATO's May bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade and allegations of Chinese nuclear spying.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said she will stress the need for a peaceful outcome in upcoming meetings in Singapore with Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan.
Assistant Secretary of State Stanley Roth was to leave today for China to lay the groundwork for Albright's meeting with Tang. Meanwhile, Washington's top liaison for Taiwan, Richard Bush, was due in Taipei late Thursday for talks with Taiwanese officials.
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45. China Cracks Down On Sect As Thousands Protest
Updated 6:39 AM ET July 21, 1999, By Benjamin Kang Lim http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990721/06/news-religion-china
BEIJING (Reuters) - Thousands of members of a quasi-religious sect besieged government offices in at least six Chinese cities in protest against a crackdown on the group, witnesses and a human rights group said Wednesday.
Several thousand members of the Falun Gong sect tried to protest at Beijing's Zhongnanhai leadership compound Wednesday against the detention of key members, witnesses said.
Police rounded up more than 1,000 people -- mostly elderly men and middle-aged women suspected of belonging to the sect -- and took them in buses to stadiums on the outskirts of Beijing, witnesses and stadium officials said.
Hundreds of uniformed and plainclothes police lined the Avenue of Eternal Peace leading to Zhongnanhai -- home to China's leaders, the Communist Party headquarters and the State Council, or cabinet.
They frustrated the sect's attempt to repeat a 10,000-strong sit-down protest outside the compound in April, aimed at demanding official status for the group. The earlier protest shocked China's leadership, and the Communist Party and government have tried to clean their ranks of sect members.
Police launched a crackdown Monday and have rounded up more than 100 key members of the sect, a Hong Kong-based human rights group said.
In a letter posted on the Internet at http://falundafa.org, Falun Gong appealed to members to "protect" the sect by organizing, explaining their aims to officials and demanding the release of detained members.
About 10,000 members protested at the government headquarters of the southern province of Guangdong Wednesday, witnesses said. Security was tight around the headquarters in Guangzhou, the provincial capital, but no incidents were reported, they said. The crowd dispersed later in the day.
In the southern boomtown of Shenzhen, about 1,000 sect members protested outside city hall, one witness said. Police forced them onto buses and took them to unknown destinations.
A similar number besieged local government headquarters in the northeastern city of Dalian Tuesday, the Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said.
Police dispersed the protest in the evening and at least five protesters were detained and two were injured, the Hong Kong-based center said.
Also Tuesday, about 500 sect members protested in front of Taiyuan's city hall in the northern province of Shanxi and about the same number protested in Weifang city in the eastern province of Shandong, it said.
And in Hong Kong Wednesday, some 40 Falun Gong members staged a silent protest in front of China's state news agency to urge Beijing to free fellow cult members.
Police and government officials declined to comment.
The sect says it has 100 million members. Critics doubt the figure, but the claim has alarmed the atheist Communist Party, which has only 60 million members.
The crackdown on the sect came after more than 13,000 members called on Chinese leaders in an open letter in June to stop suppressing them, the Hong Kong human rights group said.
Police seized literature on the sect and busts of its leader Li Hongzhi from the homes of members, the center said.
Li preaches salvation from an immoral world on the brink of destruction, rails against homosexuality, rock and roll and drugs and blames science for evil in the world.
The U.S.-based Li bars followers from consulting doctors when ill and says they can be cured by reading his books, banned by China's propaganda tsars, and practicing a form of martial arts known as qigong.
The sect was born out of qigong -- based on the theory of inner energy and incorporating an array of breathing exercises and meditation designed to heal.
The Communist Party has stopped short of labeling the sect a cult, but has railed against "superstition" and unorthodox religion.
Superstition and unorthodox religious practices, virtually eliminated in the years after the Communists swept to power in 1949, have staged a comeback in the wake of economic reforms in the past two decades due in part to a spiritual vacuum as stringent Maoism faded.
China detains 70 in crackdown USA Today, July 21, 1999 "World" http://usatoday.com/news/world/nw1.htm
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U.S. continues to support 'one China' policy USA Today, July 20, 1999 4:21 p.m. http://usatoday.com/news/washdc/ncstue02.htm
WASHINGTON (AP) - Amid escalating rhetoric between China and Taiwan, President Clinton said Tuesday he ''would take very seriously'' any attempt by Beijing to resolve its differences with Taiwan by force.
Clinton said he spoke by telephone Sunday with Chinese President Jiang Zemin and reaffirmed U.S. support for the ''one China'' policy that has been a backbone for decades of U.S. policy toward China and Taiwan, across the Taiwan Strait from the mainland. China's government considers Taiwan a rebellious province.
The president said he also told Jiang that his administration stands behind the Taiwan Relations Act, a U.S. law that specifies the United States would take ''very seriously any abridgment of the peaceful dialogue'' between China and Taiwan.
He described the conversation with his Chinese counterpart as ''far more positive than negative.''
Clinton commented to reporters hours after Taiwan's president, Lee Teng-hui, reaffirmed his contention that Taiwan and China are two states. He called the pronouncement a necessary step to prepare the capitalist island for talks on eventual reunification with the communist mainland.
''One China is not now,'' Lee said. ''Only after we have democratic reunification shall there be the possibility of one China.''
Lee insisted he is not championing formal independence for Taiwan, which China says would lead to war. Beijing was not appeased, reiterating its demand for Taiwan to stop ''all activities aimed at splitting the country.''
At the State Department, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said she will meet in the coming days in Singapore with Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan of China and will stress the need for a peaceful outcome to the dispute with Taiwan.
Assistant Secretary of State Stanley Roth leaves Wednesday for China to lay groundwork for Albright's meeting with Tang. Also, Richard Bush, who heads the Washington office that manages people-to-people relations with Taiwan, will leave for Taipei for an exchange of views with officials there.
On a related subject, Albright expressed concern over reports that North Korea may be seeking from China materials for its missile program such as specialty steel.
The Washington Times reported Tuesday that China transferred missile components to North Korea last month.
Since the subject involves intelligence, Albright refused to comment in detail. But she said, ''We do take all such reports seriously, and we investigate them thoroughly. We have raised our concerns with China, and we'll continue to do so.''
If the transfer were confirmed, it could trigger U.S. sanctions against the Chinese companies involved under U.S. anti-proliferation laws.
''We have and will fully and faithfully implement the requirements of U.S. law,'' Albright said. ''We would take any actions that were required by those laws, were we to determine that the entities engaged in this were involved in sanctionable activities.''
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- Eleventh message - _____________________
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Message: 7 Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 09:54:39 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-12 7/23/99 - India/Pakistan; Mideast
46. Landmines, Rain Hinder Indian Troops
By Neelesh Misra Associated Press Writer Thursday, July 22, 1999; 2:05 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990722/V000398-072299-idx.html
MUSHKOH VALLEY, India (AP) -- Landmines and heavy rain hampered efforts by Indian troops Thursday to wear down the last Islamic militants in Indian-held Kashmir.
After 10 weeks of fighting, Indian soldiers have recaptured most peaks after the retreat of guerrillas from Indian territory, but the militants still controlled some ridges along the cease-fire line dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan.
``Our strategy is to tire the intruders out. They have small arms. Once they exhaust their ammunition, our infantry will move in. The progress is slow because of bad weather and heavily mined'' areas, Major Shruti Kant, the Indian military spokesman in New Delhi, told The Associated Press.
Three main groups of guerrillas still occupy peaks in Indian Kashmir, despite a call by Pakistan two weeks ago for their withdrawal and an end to the conflict that brought the two hostile neighbors to the brink of war.
India says Pakistan is training and arming the rebels. Islamabad says it provides only moral and diplomatic support to Islamic guerrillas in Indian Kashmir.
India launched a heavy air and ground offensive in May to flush the guerrillas from its territory.
Both India and Pakistan -- the world's newest nuclear powers -- claim all of Kashmir, and have fought two wars over it.
India and Pakistan agreed last week to halt fighting across the disputed border to allow the rebels to pull back from Indian territory.
The fighting has aroused old disputes between India and Pakistan over the exact location of the line that divides Kashmir between them.
Military commanders from the two sides mapped the Line of Control after the last India-Pakistan war in 1971. The rocky terrain was never clearly marked, however, and there are no border posts, barriers or barbed wire.
On Thursday, Pakistani shells pounded the mountains around Kargil, the main town near the frontier. No damage was reported.
Defense Minister George Fernandes flew to Kargil on Thursday to meet with soldiers. He said Indian soldiers will begin year-round monitoring of the barren mountain ranges using electronic devices and surveillance aircraft.
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47. Danger in the Middle East CIA: Iran and Iraq Pose Potential Threats to U.S.
By Barbara Starr ABCNEWS.com July 22, 1999 http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/DailyNews/cia_report990722.html
W A S H I N G T O N, July 22 The world remains a dangerous place.
A new CIA report submitted to Congress pays particular attention to the dangers posed by Iran and Iraq, two Middle Eastern countries with a long-standing hatred for the United States.
Iran has beefed up its chemical weapons program, is working on a biological weapons program and continues to look for a nuclear weapon. Iraq, which remains under U.S. military fire, is rebuilding its chemical weapons machinery while it has yet to account for of its stock of biological weapons and has withheld information on its nuclear capabilities, the report says.
The U.S. intelligence community always keeps a close eye on the world's arms trade especially any deals involving technology for making nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. Russia, China and North Korea remain the most significant suppliers of such material.
But if the focus gets shifted from the seller to the buyer, analysts are able to demonstrate just how threatening this area of commerce may have become.
Suppliers in Russia, China, N. Korea
Iran has now manufactured and stockpiled chemical weapons, including blister, blood and choking agents and "the bombs and artillery shells for delivering them," according to the CIA report, the latest in a series of regular reports to Congress.
The report, which covers weapons activities during the second half of 1998, says that Tehran has obtained "foreign equipment and material that could be used to create a more advanced and self-sufficient chemical warfare infrastructure."
The CIA has long believed that Iran is moving ahead on chemical and biological weapons and is even attempting to build a nuclear weapon. Firms in Russia, China and North Korea remain prime suppliers to Iran.
Iran also has continued to buy "dual-use biotechnical equipment from Russia and other countries, ostensibly for civilian uses," according to the report. The CIA believes Iran may have some "limited" capability to actually deploy biological weapons, but it offered no additional details.
The U.S. intelligence community is also concerned about Iran's efforts to develop and deploy ballistic missiles. Iran's business here is with assistance from a familiar trio Russia, China and North Korea. Iran clearly hopes to become self sufficient in producing ballistic missiles especially with the 800-mile-range Shahab-3 and 1,200-mile-range Shahab-4.
In the nuclear arena, Iran continues to try and purchase nuclear facilities, including one to convert uranium so that it could be used to produce fissile material for nuclear weapons.
Iraq Rebuilt Chemical Infrastructure
Iran's enemy and its neighbor to the west, Iraq, also gets the CIA's attention. But here, the question for the CIA was to see how successful Iraq has been in repairing its war-fighting capabilities damaged by the U.S.-led allies during the Gulf War and several subsequent bombing campaigns.
The report confirmed that Baghdad has rebuilt key portions of its chemical production infrastructure for making industrial and commercial products. These facilities could quickly be converted for the production of chemical weapons.
"Iraq retains the expertise to resume chemical agent production within a few weeks or months, depending on the type of agent and a decision to do so," the report says.
In biological weapons, the CIA estimated that Iraq still has not accounted for more than 100 biological weapons bombs and more than three tons of imported agents that could be grown into biological toxins.
The CIA also said that Iraq "likely" retains a limited number of "Scud-type" surface-to-surface missiles and launchers as well as the capability to assemble and produce others.
In the nuclear arena, the CIA said that Baghdad continues to "withhold significant information" about its techniques for enriching nuclear fuel, foreign nuclear technology purchases and weapons design.
While Iran and Iraq remain the two top concerns, the CIA also looks at some other nations, including Syria. That country has a little-mentioned weapons program that is of growing concern to U.S. intelligence.
"Damascus already has a stockpile of the nerve agent sarin and apparently is trying to develop more toxic and persistent nerve agents," the report says. Indeed, U.S. intelligence recently noted that testing of chemical agents continues in Syria.
Stories
Biological and Chemical Weapons http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/deadlygas0210.html
Weapons, Missiles Are Proliferating http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/DailyNews/weapons0227.html
Click here for more on Iraq http://www.abcnews.go.com/reference/countries/IZ.html
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46. Iraq Blames UN Sanctions For 8,000 Deaths In June
Updated 11:30 AM ET July 22, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990722/11/international-health-iraq
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq said Thursday that nearly 8,000 young children and old people had died in June as a result of trade sanctions the United Nations imposed on the country for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
Health Ministry statistics, cited by the official Iraqi News Agency INA, attributed the deaths of 5,410 children under five and 2,521 people over 50 in June to the sanctions.
The report listed diseases including inflammation of the respiratory system, diarrhea, malnutrition, high blood pressure, diabetes, and malignant tumors among the causes of the deaths.
Iraq said last month that more than a million Iraqis have died due to the sanctions. The U.N. sanctions do not prohibit medical imports, but the government lacks money to pay for them because oil exports are curtailed.
Since December 1996, the United Nations has allowed Iraq limited oil sales. It can buy food, medicines and other relief goods with part of the revenue.
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47. Germany endorses Turkey for EU
Updated 11:44 AM ET July 22, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/u/990722/11/international-eu
ANKARA, Turkey, July 22 (UPI) German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer expressed his country's determination to see Turkey as a candidate for full membership to the European Union (EU).
"I am fully committed for Turkey's becoming a full member to the EU, " said Fischer, who is on a two-day official visit to Turkey. "That's why I am here," he added.
Ankara has been excluded from the list of 11 candidates for membership to the 12-nation group on the basis of what some of the members see as a poor human rights record and the Kurdish problem.
Greece has been successful in thwarting Ankara's efforts to join the EU's eastward expansion plan.
Since last October, the new German government has been trying to ready the way for Turkey's membership in preparation for the next EU summit due to be held in Helsinki on Dec. 10-11.
Ankara, which has a standing association agreement with the EU dating back to 1963, recently has been giving a cold shoulder to the 12-nation grouping saying that it would not accept pressure from Europe "for a seat in the waiting room of the EU."
A Turkish Foreign Ministry senior official said it was not the end of the world for Turkey not to join the EU. "If we are to make improvements, we will do it for our sake and not the EU," the official said, adding, "This was told to our guest."
Wednesday, the EU urged Turkey not to execute the Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan who was sentenced to death last month by a Turkish court. Asked whether the non-execution was a condition for the Helsinki summit, Fischer said it was not. "Ocalan's legal case would be closed by then," he said.
He said the Ocalan case was Turkey's internal affair and Germany would not get involved. However, he noted that there were both Kurds and Turks living in his country and because of that his government was concerned about the matter.
"Non-application of capital punishment is among the EU's common values," Fischer said, adding that none of the European countries approved of capital punishment.
Noting that Turkey has not carried out an execution since 1984, Fischer said he wished that the Turks would "carry on with this good tradition."
Wednesday, German Prime Minister Gerhard Schroder met with a group of leading Turkish businessmen in Bonn and reportedly told them that his country was determined to pursue Turkey's membership.
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Iran: Turk Troops Tried Invasion
By The Associated Press, July 23, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Iran-Turkey.html
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Iran accused Turkey today of trying to send troops into its territories and said Iranian forces drove them back.
The Turkish soldiers attempted to attack the northwestern border region of Qottur on Thursday, but were pushed back by Iranian forces, the Farsi-language service of the Islamic Republic News Agency quoted an unidentified foreign ministry official as saying.
However, IRNA's English-language service quoted an unnamed Foreign Ministry official as saying that Turkish warplanes ``infiltrated Iranian airspace over Qottur'' and were ``repelled by Iranian ground forces.''
Turkey's semiofficial Anatolia news agency quoted unnamed foreign ministry officials as saying that two Turkish soldiers crossed the Iranian border by mistake. The officials said no clash occurred.
Turkey has been going after members of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, along its Iranian border. For 15 years, the Kurdish rebels have fought for a homeland in southeast Turkey.
Turkey has accused Iran of harboring PKK guerrillas, but Iran denies this. Diplomats and Turkish media reports have said the PKK recently relocated key bases from Iraq to Iran.
Iran demanded a formal explanation of the event from Ankara and compensation for unspecified losses, according to IRNA, which was monitored in Dubai.
On Sunday, Iran said Turkish warplanes attacked a base of its elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in the same province, which borders southeastern Turkey.
Turkey has denied that reported attack, which according to Iran killed five people and injured 10.
Turkish warplanes bombed a site in Iran in 1996. Turkey later apologized, saying it was seeking Kurdish rebels.
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48. House Reduces IAEA Money for Iran
By Jim Abrams Associated Press Writer Monday, July 19, 1999; 7:04 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990719/V000875-071999-idx.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House voted Monday to withhold U.S. contributions to International Atomic Energy Agency programs helping Iran build a nuclear power plant.
The measure, passed 383-1, states that contributions to the IAEA can be released only if the Secretary of State certifies that Iran is not using the money to gain expertise in nuclear weapons or acquire sensitive nuclear technology.
``Clearly, when we suspect that Iran has the requisite technology to enrich uranium to weapons-grade level, it is not a wise idea to help them in their efforts to locate more of it,'' said Rep. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., the chief sponsor.
The United States currently provides for more than 25 percent of the budget of the IAEA, a U.N. agency that works to ensure the safety of power plants.
It also has provided one-third of the funding, $18.3 million in voluntary contributions in 1999, for the IAEA's technical assistance and cooperation fund. So far, the IAEA has given Iran $1.6 million from that fund to complete the $800 million Bushehr nuclear power plant on the Persian Gulf. The plant has one reactor, but late last year Iran asked Moscow to conduct a feasibility study on building three more reactors on the same site.
In January, the Clinton administration imposed sanctions on Moscow University and two other Russian institutions, accusing them of failing to stop their scientists from helping Iran develop nuclear weapons.
Rep. Ben Gilman, R-N.Y., chairman of the House International Relations Committee, said Iran plans to have three nuclear plants operating by 2015, a goal the United States opposes because of fears of nuclear weapons proliferation.
With its immense oil and natural gas reserves, ``we must question Iran's motives for developing nuclear power,'' Menendez said.
The House passed a similar bill last year but the Senate did not vote on it. The Senate has a parallel bill this year but has yet to take it up.
The bill is H.R. 1477.
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Iran Arrests Alleged Protest Leader
By The Associated Press, July 19, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Iran-Protests.html
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Iran said Monday it has arrested a leader of weeklong demonstrations that highlighted disputes between reformists and conservatives.
The Iranian Interior Ministry identified the suspect as Manouchehr Mohammadi and said he was ``one of the influential persons responsible for the recent unrest.''
The mass protests were sparked by the police's storming of a Tehran University hostel on July 9.
The demonstrations were the largest and most turbulent since the Islamic revolution of 1979. Riot police began cracking down July 12 and by the end of last week the protests had fizzled out. Three people were killed in the unrest -- a student, a cleric and a soldier.
Mohammadi is a little-known activist who has openly called for a change of government and increased freedoms. He heads a small and obscure committee that promotes the rights of political prisoners.
Last year he traveled to the United States where he met with several human rights groups.
In its statement, the ministry accused Mohammadi of traveling to the United States to meet with ``spies and fugitive Zionist elements'' who helped him organize student groups to ``spearhead disorder and violence,'' Iranian television said in a report monitored by the British Broadcasting Corporation.
Earlier Monday, the Tehran Times daily reported the Iranian authorities had released 750 people who were arrested during the protests.
It quoted an unnamed government official as saying that another 450 people remain in detention, but their cases are ``under investigation.''
Authorities have blamed the unrest on the Iraq-based Mujahedeen Khalq Organization, the largest Iranian opposition group. Officials also have claimed that the United States was behind the violence.
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49. Lebanese Prime minister takes hard stance concerning Israel
By Betsy Pisik THE WASHINGTON TIMES, July 23, 1999 http://www.washtimes.com/internatl/internatl1.html BEIRUT srael will get no security guarantees from the Lebanese government when it comes time for negotiations on a broad regional peace agreement expected in the coming months, Prime Minister Salim Hoss said Thursday.
Mr. Hoss also insisted that more than 300,000 Palestinian refugees, some of whom have lived in wretched Lebanese camps for decades, be resettled in Israel or the Palestinian territories as part of any agreement -- a position that Israel has already rejected.
"Lebanon is not prepared to do anything to jeopardize our rights" to sovereignty and security, Mr. Hoss said in an interview at his luxurious office in the Lebanese parliament building.
He also referred to U.N. Resolution 425, passed after Israel established its security zone in southern Lebanon in 1978, which called for Israel to withdraw from the occupied territory immediately and unconditionally.
"We will accept no conditions for Israeli withdrawal," Mr. Hoss said emphatically.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak pledged during his visit to Washington earlier this week that he would seek to complete a comprehensive regional peace agreement within 15 months, promising to negotiate simultaneously with Syria, Lebanon and the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Hopes for a deal between Israel and Syria were boosted Thursday by Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, who arrived in Jerusalem carrying a message from Syrian President Hafez Assad.
"My impressions are very positive of an active will to reach peace," he said after meeting Mr. Barak, who asked the Spaniard to convey several messages back to Mr. Assad and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.
Both Israeli officials and Syrian state radio have said peace talks on that front, which have been stalled for three years, could resume within weeks.
However disagreements have already arisen, with an official Syrian daily criticizing Mr. Barak Thursday for ignoring Syria's demands that negotiations resume at the same stage where they broke down in 1996.
Mr. Hoss, in setting out Beirut's position in advance of the anticipated talks, seemed determined that Lebanon would not repeat mistakes it made in 1983 when it independently negotiated an agreement rolling back an Israeli occupation that had extended all the way to Beirut.
He said that accord ultimately "violated Lebanese sovereignty" by allowing the Israeli military the right to fly warplanes overhead, chase suspected criminals deep into Lebanese territory and establish early warning signals.
This time, with Syria as a negotiating partner, "we will be stronger," Mr. Hoss said.
"We are not willing to sign a peace agreement without Syria and they will not sign a peace agreement without us," he said. "This is indeed in the interest of Lebanon. Left alone we feel much weaker. There is an imbalance of power between Israel and us."
He said Lebanese officials had not been in contact with Israel or the United States since Mr. Barak visited Washington this week.
Mr. Hoss, who serves as Lebanon's prime minister and foreign minister, also rejected Mr. Barak's demand that the Palestinians who fled Israeli territory in 1948 and again in 1967 must be settled where they now live.
"We don't accept the principle of resettlement in Lebanon," he said. "We insist on their repatriation."
About 365,000 desperately poor refugees are settled in and around 12 U.N.-run camps in Lebanon. Absorbing them would mean "a 10 percent increase in Lebanon's population, all at once," he said.
Compared with Jordan and Syria, Lebanon has been the least hospitable host country, refusing to provide basic infrastructure or civil services such as medical care and education to a growing refugee population.
Mr. Hoss reiterated his support for the armed Islamic militias, including Hezbollah, that are fighting Israeli soldiers and their South Lebanon army proxies in the remaining Israeli security zone in the south of Lebanon.
"Resistance is the right of the Lebanese people as long as there is Lebanese territory under occupation," he said.
Thursday, officials of Hamas promised to step up the "jihad," or holy war, against Israel, and Hezbollah refused to rule out attacks even after Israeli forces eventually withdraw from Lebanon.
Britain's junior Foreign Office minister, Geoff Hoon, will visit Egypt, Israel and the Palestinian territories next week to affirm British support for a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace settlement.
Referring to the international mediation efforts, Mr. Hoss said he is skeptical about the chances for peace.
"We are not overly optimistic because of previous experience with Israeli intransigence," he said, voicing reservations over Mr. Barak's statements in Washington this week about the refugees and security concerns.
"We hope there will be a new chance, but we're not overly optimistic."
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Message: 8 Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 10:09:17 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-9 7/23/99 - Pacific and South Africa - Plutonium Ship
30. Greenpeace issues warning on cargo of ships
Wednesday 21 July, 1999 (7:26pm AEST) http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-21jul1999-70.htm
Greenpeace International says two ships loaded with nuclear fuels including plutonium are likely to sail south of Australia and through the Tasman Sea in the next six weeks.
The armed freighters, the Pacific Teal and the Pacific Pintail, are due to leave France on Thursday carrying secured containers of what is known as 'direct use' nuclear material bound for Japanese nuclear reactors.
Speaking from France, Greenpeace's Ben Pearson says the ships are travelling with less security than the last shipments 5 years ago.
"These two shipments are very dangerous for the reason that the fuel is much more dangerous than normal fuel," he said.
"For one, they are carrying plutonium, which is an extremely toxic material. Inhalation of a speck can actually cause lung cancer.
"If there is an accident aboard these ships then we're going to have an environmental catastrophe.
"The second thing is we are talking about plutonium which is directly weapons-usable, so there is the threat of terrorist attack or piracy."
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Plutonium shipment raises concerns in Pacific
Friday 23 July, 1999 (4:21pm AEST) http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-23jul1999-70.htm
The South Pacific Forum secretariat has expressed the concerns of South Pacific leaders about the coming shipment of radioactive material through the Pacific on its way from Europe to Japan.
The secretariat has called for discussions with France, Britain and Japan on compensation in the event of an accident.
The secretary-general of the South Pacific Forum secretariat, Noel Levi, says forum leaders last year agreed to push for the adoption of international rules whereby coastal states would be notified and consulted before any shipment of hazardous waste.
They had also called for the adoption of a system requiring environmental impact statements and emergency response plans.
However, Mr Levi says the forum has so far been unable to convince or compel France, Japan and the United Kingdom to discuss how the Pacific region would be compensated for economic losses that could be caused to tourism, fisheries and the environment if there was an accident.
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Plutonium ships to travel through Tasman Sea
Friday 23 July, 1999 (8:27am AEST) http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-23jul1999-30.htm
British and Japanese officials have confirmed that two ships carrying a controversial cargo of plutonium fuel will travel through the Tasman Sea and the south-west Pacific en route to Japan.
The two ships, loaded with a new nuclear fuel known as MOX, a mixture of reprocessed plutonium and uranium have just begun their journey from Europe to Japan.
Waiting until the vessels were at sea, officials from British Nuclear Fuels and the Japanese electric power companies receiving the cargo have confirmed that they will sail via the Cape of Good Hope, across the Southern Ocean, through the Tasman Sea and into the south-west Pacific.
Exact dates and locations will not be made public, but the overall trip is due to take between six and eight weeks.
British Nuclear Fuels says the vessels are due in Japan in the second half of September.
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NZ unhappy about nuclear cargo route via Pacific
10:29 p.m. Jul 22, 1999 Eastern - Infoseek
WELLINGTON, July 23 (Reuters) - New Zealand repeated on Friday its opposition to the shipment of nuclear fuel via the southwest Pacific Ocean to Japan, and said it was making formal complaints to Britain, France and Japan.
``The government has made diplomatic representations in London, Paris and Tokyo to underline our opposition to any shipments of MOX (mixed-oxide fuel) and other hazardous nuclear materials that might come close to our country,'' acting Foreign Minister Simon Upton said in a statement.
On Thursday Prime Minister Jenny Shipley expressed her concern to Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura during a visit to Japan. He told her Japan was aware of New Zealand's concerns and reassured her the shipment was safe.
Upton said New Zealand was supportive of the concerns of many Pacific Island states about nuclear shipments that would transit their Exclusive Economic Zones, and pledged to work with them ``particularly on the question of compensation for accident.''
The lightly armed British cargo ship Pacific Teal left the French port of Cherbourg carrying nuclear fuel on Wednesday.
The ship was to link up with a sister ship Pacific Pintail, which had already loaded a similar cargo in Britain, and head for Japan.
The voyage marks the first shipment since 1992 of so-called ``direct use'' nuclear material, which the environmental group Greenpeace says can be converted into weapons.
Greenpeace has announced plans to track the shipment using its flagship Rainbow Warrior and other vessels.
Tokyo Electric Power Co, one of the recipients of the cargo, said on Thursday that the ships would take a southwest Pacific route and arrive in Japan in late September. It gave no further details.
Opponents of the shipments said they feared the possibility of environmental contamination, nuclear proliferation and hijacking on the high seas.
Although the fuel companies have said it is ``very likely'' the ships will transit the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, the final route would be determined by the ships from a range of options.
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BRITAIN N-ships may pass Australia
Date: 21/07/99, By SIMON MANN http://www.smh.com.au/news/9907/21/text/world11.html
London: Environmental activists in high-speed boats towing a huge banner of a white elephant - "symbolising the folly of the nuclear industry" - delayed the departure from north-west England of a ship due to take weapons-grade plutonium to Japan.
The freighter and a sister ship, carrying plutonium that could be converted into about 60 nuclear bombs, are travelling a secret route to Japan which activists claim may pass Australia's southern coast.
It is the first of at least 80 shipments of recycled nuclear waste planned over the next decade and the first transfer of direct-use nuclear weapons material since 1992.
At least seven Greenpeace protesters were arrested and the organisation was served with a writ by British Nuclear Fuels (BNF) seeking to prevent Greenpeace from disrupting the shipments.
After an aborted first attempt, the Pacific Teal left Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria on Monday bound for a nuclear reprocessing plant in the Netherlands where it will collect 220 kilograms of plutonium. A second ship, the Pacific Pintail, will take a similar load direct from Barrow.
Opponents of the shipments say the "floating Chernobyl" presents an unacceptable environmental risk and could be attacked by pirates, despite the ships' specially fitted naval cannons and the support of 26 officers from Britain's Atomic Energy Agency Constabulary.
BNF said the shipments, bound for nuclear power reactors at Takahama and Fukushima, met international safety standards.
But Caribbean nations have threatened to block the ships from using the Panama Canal raising the prospect of a less direct route, possibly south of Africa and around the south coast of Tasmania.
This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited.
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31. Ideology splits Jabiluka activists
Date: 23/07/99, By MURRAY HOGARTH, Environment Editor http://www.smh.com.au/news/9907/23/text/national19.html
A bitter rift between the green and black anti-Jabiluka forces has opened up, with conservationists being accused of treating Aborigines like "window-dressing" instead of central players.
Ms Jacqui Katona, who represents the Mirrar clan, the traditional owners of the Jabiluka uranium mining lease, resigned on Wednesday as a councillor of the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF).
This follows the refusal by United Nations authorities to declare Kakadu National Park as "World Heritage in Danger" because of the highly controversial Jabiluka mine project.
Ms Katona said that the Mirrar had been accused of "betrayal" for negotiating with the pro-mine Commonwealth Government in the week before the July 12 decision in Paris.
"I cannot understand how they can characterise it as a betrayal when we protected our own interests," she said. "You cannot play it from a purist political point of view. It is our lives on the line out here."
Ms Katona, who is the executive director of the Mirrar's Gundjehmi Aboriginal Corporation, was especially critical of the Wilderness Society's high-profile national campaign director, Mr Alec Marr.
"He refused at point blank to engage any of our analysis or ideas," Ms Katona said. "Alec's abuse of World Heritage Bureau delegates and his abuse of World Heritage Centre staff was beyond the pale."
Last night, Mr Marr described Ms Katona's accusations as bizarre and baseless.
He said she had not shown gratitude for being awarded the $195,000 Goldman environment prize this year and had been laughing with representatives of the Government and the uranium miners when the in-danger listing was rejected.
On her ACF role, Ms Katona said the green group had been "using me for window-dressing".
Ms Katona was the only indigenous person on the ACF's 35 member council, having joined in 1997.
The ACF executive director, Mr Don Henry, said he hoped she would reverse her decision.
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33. Nuclear pensions move is 'too late'
Date: 17/07/99, By DAMIEN MURPHY, Sydney Morning Herald http://www.smh.com.au/news/9907/17/text/national20.html
Nuclear veterans and their families have slammed the Federal Government's decision to "begin immediately" assessing the impact of British tests on Australians more than 30 years after testing ended.
They claim more than half the 8,000 Army, Navy and Air Force veterans have died and the rest had given up hope that the Government would recognise their plight.
The national president of the Australian Nuclear Veterans Association, Mr Ric Johnstone, the only ex-serviceman to sue the Federal Government successfully for radiation sickness stemming from nuclear testing, said yesterday the United Kingdom and the United States had granted pensions to such personnel.
"Just last week the Fiji Government gave pensions to the men and their families who had attended blasts on the Marshall Islands," he said.
"Australia didn't bother giving pensions to Gallipoli veterans until they were nearly 100 and the Government has never admitted we were made sick by radiation even though we've been dropping like flies."
The Minister for Veterans' Affairs, Mr Scott, said yesterday that "work will begin immediately" on assessing the impact of UK nuclear testing.
He said the Government would compile a "nominal roll" of service personnel and civilians, including Aborigines and pastoralists, after a study by Professor John Kaldor of the University of NSW.
Britain conducted a number of nuclear tests in Australia beginning in 1952 at Monte Bello. Further testing was carried out at Emu in 1953 and Maralinga between 1956 and 1967.
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34. Study ordered on British nuclear testing effects Friday
16 July, 1999 (12:53pm AEST) http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-16jul1999-32.htm
The Federal Government has ordered more study into the effects of British nuclear testing on Australians.
Veterans Affairs Minister Bruce Scott has announced there will be a list of all Australians exposed to the testing, including defence personnel, Aborigines and pastoralists.
The new study will investigate the incidence of cancer and death among those on that list. It follows a six-month study done earlier this year on the tests.
Britain conducted nuclear tests in Australia between 1952 and 1962.
Mr Scott says the study will show if the Government's compensation and assessment arrangements are appropriate.
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35. NUCLEAR-CAPE GREENPEACE PROTESTS NUCLEAR SHIPMENT
JOHANNESBURG July 22 1999 Sapa http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/briefing/nw19990723/37.html
Environmental group Greenpeace International on Thursday called on South Africa and all coastal nations on the route of a shipment of reprocessed nuclear fuel to Japan to oppose the transport.
Two British ships, which left France at 5pm CET on Wednesday with a controversial cargo of nuclear weapons-usable plutonium, will pass Cape waters en route to Japan.
Each shipment, according to Greenpeace, carries a quarter of a tonne of plutonium, about seven tonnes of highly explosive ammunition, and 1100 tonnes of fuel oil.
"It is inconceivable that Britain, France and Japan think they have the right to make these deadly transports through the waters of other sovereign states without any process of consultation," Greenpeace spokesman Damon Moglen said.
"Clearly the transporting countries are only concerned about the well-being of their plutonium programs, " he added.
British Nuclear Fuels Limited and the French state-owned nuclear company Cogema announced on Thursday that the transport would travel to Japan via the Cape of Good Hope and the south west Pacific Ocean.
Moglen slammed the announcement, which was made only after the departure of the shipment.
"Making the announcement after the departure of this dangerous shipment reveals NBFL and Cogema's arrogant disregard for the legitimate concerns of the en-route nations," he said.
He said the en-route nations had demanded prior consultation and resolution of urgent safety, security and liability issues and had instead received an "after-the-fact ultimatum".
Thursday's announcement did not specify which coastal nations would be at risk.
Greenpeace warned that the shipment could set off a plutonium powder keg in a region already destabilised by military tensions - between mainland China and the Taiwanese governments, and between North Korea and its neighbours.
The environmental group called on the Japanese government to cancel its plutonium transports and procurement program to provide peaceful leadership in the region.
It urged China, Taiwan and North and South Korea to exercise restraint and caution.
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V MOOSA ON SHIPMENT OF NUCLEAR WASTE
Issued by: GCIS July 21, 1999, South Africa ANC http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/briefing/nw19990721/8.html
MEDIA STATEMENT BY MR M V MOOSA, MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS AND TOURISM, ON THE SHIPMENT OF NUCLEAR WASTE.
Minister Moosa has taken note of the controversy surrounding the shipping of nuclear waste around the Cape and shares the concerns expressed by the various stakeholders and environmental groups concerned. The Minister is awaiting a detailed report together with official information from his department as well as representatives of the relevant governments in order to obtain full and detailed information on the situation concerning the proposed shipments. It is imperative that everybody concerned must realise that the transportation of nuclear waste should not be taken lightly and that it is a practice of which the South African population is very concerned. Such transportation should at no time be at the expense of creating any risk to either the South African population or the marine ecology.
He will issue a full media statement on the matter as soon as this information is at hand.
Issued by the Ministry of Environmental Affairs and Tourism in Cape Town on 20 July 199.
Contact Person: Francois Rogers, Tel: (021) 465-7240/1
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NUKE-MOOSA MOOSA CONCERNED OVER NUKE SHIP
CAPE TOWN July 20 1999 Sapa http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/briefing/nw19990721/20.html
Environment Minister Valli Moosa has expressed concern about a proposal to ship nuclear fuel around the Cape, and has called for a full report from his department and representatives of other governments involved.
He said on Tuesday it was imperative that the transport of nuclear waste should not be taken lightly.
The Pacific Teal was due to sail on Monday from Barrow in England to Cherbourg in France, on the first leg of a journey carrying plutonium to Japan, but turned back after a stand-off with environmental activists.
No new departure date has been set for the Pacific Teal, or a sister ship, the Pacific Pintail, also in Barrow docks.
Moosa said in a statement he had taken note of the controversy surrounding the shipment, and shared the concerns of "the various stakeholders and environmental groups concerned".
He was waiting for a detailed report plus official information from his department and representatives of "the relevant governments", and would issue a full statement as soon as he had this.
"It is imperative that everybody concerned must realise that the transport of nuclear waste should not be taken lightly and that it is a practice of (sic) which the South African population is very concerned," he said.
"Such transportation should at no time be at the expense of creating any risk to either the South African population or the marine ecology."
Green groups in South Africa say they are outraged that the two ships - both owned and operated by Pacific Nuclear Transport, a subsidiary of British Nuclear Fuels (BNF) - are planning to use the route round the Cape to Japan.
They say the possibility of waste containers leaking, or of an accident, can not be ruled out, particularly in the Cape's treacherous seas.
But BNF said in a document issued during the visit of one of its nuclear waste transport ships to Cape Town in April last year that the effects of such a scenario would be "negligible".
It said the waste was transported in a vitrified matrix in stainless steel canisters, which in turn were contained in 100-ton transport flasks in the hold of the ship.
"Even in this incredible scenario of the glass becoming directly exposed to the sea, the leach rate of this special material in water is extremely low," the document said.
"The results of an environmental impact assessment... show that the effect... would be negligible, an exposure rate to the most affected person of less than one thousandth of the naturally occurring radiation they receive annually."
However, Earthlife Africa campaign co-ordinator Davin Chown believes such an accident or leakage would be "catastrophic"
Referring to BNF's claims, he said: "Those studies... we believe were not independent studies.
"(They) were carried out by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is not an independent agency.
"It's a nuclear industry watchdog and they're completely biased... and they don't hold much water as far as we're concerned."
The IAEA is a United Nations agency, tasked, among its other activities, with the international monitoring of safeguards and verification measures in non-military nuclear programmes.
Chown claimed the transport flasks containing the waste were recently condemned by the German government after it was found they leaked and did not comply with safety standards.
"I would be hard pressed to believe... that those casks are in fact safe," he said.
Council for Nuclear Safety (CNS) communications manager Phil Nkhwashu told Sapa that without a licence issued by his council the waste-carrying ships would not be allowed to enter South Africa's 12-mile exclusion zone.
"All nuclear vessels wishing to enter South African territorial waters need a nuclear licence," he said.
Nkhwashu said the council had received no such application from the owners of the vessels.
The CNS is South Africa's national nuclear regulatory authority, tasked with ensuring the safety of workers and the public.
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36. MINING-CENSUS
CENSUS SHOWS MORE 560 000 EMPLOYED IN MINING THREE YEARS AGO PRETORIA Jul 22 Sapa
http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/briefing/nw19990723/14.html
The latest mining census released in Pretoria Thursday revealed that 563253 people were employed on South African mines three years ago - almost 90,000 more than today.
But the data given by Statistics SA does give a fully accurate picture on the changing fortunes of what used to be the country's premier industry.
Stats SA reported that in 1996 the total value of mining sales was some R60-billion with the gold and uranium mines contributing 43 percent or R25,8-billion. Gold and uranium mines,it said, employed 345957 workers in June 1996.
But currently there is little uranium produced in South Africa and the gold industry has slumped in recent times with an estimated 60,000 gold miners losing their jobs during the industry's main restructuring period in late 1997 and early 1998.
The South African Reserve Bank recent quarterly bulletin also puts the value of gold exports for the first quarter of this year at R24,7-billion and R103,6-billion for the whole of last year.
Diana Owen-Thomas of the statistics department of the South African Chamber of Mines in Johannesburg told Sapa that it was at odds with the government department on the numbers still employed in the mining industry.
While she agreed with the census figure, Owen-Thomas said that figures given by government in March of approximately 403000 people employed in the mining industry were more than 70,000 less than the Chamber figures.
"There is some conflict. We reckon there are between 475000 and 480,000 people working in the mining industry.I don't believe the mines are paying people who are not there."
Owen-Thomas added that employment at coal mines had not been affected negatively like gold mines and that platinum mining continued to employ some 90,000 to 100,000 people.
She said employment in South Africa's gold industry "took a big tumble" from November 1997 to January 1998 when some 60,000 jobs were lost.
"However some of these miners were re-employed as contractors," she said.
Stats SA's census, includes the former TBVC states - Transkei, Venda, Boputhatswana and Venda.
It said the total value of salaries and wages paid in the mining sector was R17,98-billion.
While today's total remuneration figures were not available, it is well known that more than half of the operating costs of most SA gold mines is made up of labour.
The census discloses that in 1996 the total net profit of the mining sector was approximately R12-billion with gold and uranium operations contrbuting R4,24-billion (35,3 percent) and "other" mines R4,80-billion (39,9 percent).
Total capital spendng on new assets by the mining sector in 1996 was R6,2-billion with gold and uranium mines accounting for 44 percent or R2,74-billion.
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Message: 9 Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 09:19:09 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-8 7/23/99 - Greenpeace - Europe - Plutonium Ship
29. BRITISH NUCLEAR INDUSTRY LAUNCHES LEGAL BLITZ TO PREVENT PROTESTS AGAINST WEAPONS-USABLE PLUTONIUM SHIPMENT TO JAPAN
From: "Greenbase" <greenbas@gb.greenpeace.org> Jul 16, 1999 by nobody@xs2.greenpeace.org in gp.press */
http://www.econet.apc.org/igc/en/hl/99071912456/hl1.html
LONDON, July 16, 1999 - British Nuclear Fuels Ltd is attempting to stifle public debate by seeking injunctions today in the United Kingdom and France to prevent Greenpeace protesting against a secret shipment of nuclear weapons-usable plutonium fuel from Europe to Japan, the environment group said today.
Two British freighters, the Pacific Pintail and Pacific Teal, are due to leave the port of Barrow in northern England imminently to undertake the transport to Japan.
British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) will seek an injunction in the High Court in London at 10 am today to prevent Greenpeace interfering with the shipment. This will be the 10th injunction BNFL has sought against Greenpeace in the past decade. BNFL has also taken legal action in France, and a hearing of a wide- ranging injunction being sought by the company, with a penalty of 1 million francs, will be held in the French port of Cherbourg at 2 pm this afternoon. A French court earlier this week granted an injunction to the French reprocessing company COGEMA, providing a 100,000 francs ($US15,000) penalty for any Greenpeace activist found within 100 metres of the convoy carrying the plutonium fuel.
"This is a desperate and heavy handed response from an industry which is determined to keep its dangerous and dirty operations a secret from the public," said Greenpeace spokeperson Pete Roche. "BNFL presumably hopes to muzzle all opposition to the shipments by imposing severe legal and financial constraints on all protest. However Greenpeace is determined that the public interest be defended and that the right to know about such dangerous shipments is maintained."
Greenpeace said the shipments could be the first of some 80 plutonium fuel transports from Europe to Japan, which has serious implications for nuclear non-proliferation and the environment globally, and yet these shipments were being kept secret. "There has been no opportunity for public comment or debate about whether they should occur, either in the countries which are shipping the plutonium fuel, or in the many nations it will pass on its still secret route to Japan," said Roche.
Some 50 nations have previously objected to nuclear transports and Caribbean states and the New Zealand Government have already expressed formal opposition to this shipment, the first commercial plutonium fuel shipment to Japan. Previous nuclear shipments have traveled on three different routes: around the Cape of Good Hope in Southern Africa and up through the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, Cape Horn on the tip of Latin America and also through the Caribbean and the Panama Canal.
BNFL is currently preparing to load one ship in Barrow, in the English north-west, with a cargo of eight plutonium fuel elements containing some 225 kilograms of plutonium. A second ship in Barrow will travel to the French port of Cherbourg where it will be loaded with 32 MOX fuel elements containing an estimated 221 kilograms of plutonium. The two ships are then expected to rendezvous at sea, off the French Atlantic coast, and continue together on the 20,000 mile voyage to Japan.
For more information: http://www.greenpeace.org
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Greenpeace protest ship banned from UK waters
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/dynamic/news/story.html?in_review_id=156919&in _review_text_id=126767
The Government has been accused of being "draconian and anti-democratic" after banning a Greenpeace protest ship from UK waters.
The vessel is shadowing a shipment of nuclear material which left for Japan from Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria yesterday.
An injunction sought by the Government was issued late last night, banning the MV Greenpeace from entering British waters in the Irish Sea, St George's Channel, Bristol Channel and English Channel.
It cited safety concerns and is thought to be the first time the Merchant Shipping Act 1995 has been used in this way.
The move came after earlier injunctions, sought by British Nuclear Fuels, banning MV Greenpeace from approaching the port or the ship carrying the MOX fuel.
Campaigner Mike Townsley, on board MV Greenpeace, said: "This is an abuse of Governmental powers to stifle debate over the plutonium industry's dangerous practices.
"This order from the UK Government shows that plutonium and democracy do not mix."
The new injunction showed "how sensitive the Government is" over transporting weapons-grade nuclear material, he said.
"To suggest that the unarmed vessel of an organisation committed to non-violence is in any way a safety threat to a vessel armed with 30mm cannon and machine-gun carrying police is a grotesque abuse of the facts," he said.
Greenpeace, which described the injunction as "draconian and anti-democratic", said the Act would be better used to stop the plutonium transport, as preventing pollution was its "main purpose".
As the environmental group considered how to react to the latest injunction, the MV Greenpeace was still shadowing the MOX-carrying Pacific Pintail and its Royal Navy escort HMS Leeds Castle in the southern Irish sea.
The Pintail is due to meet up with another merchant vessel, the Pacific Teal, which has gone ahead to pick up its nuclear load from France.
The Teal's departure from Barrow yesterday was delayed when activists towed a large inflatable white elephant across the harbour entrance.
Police arrested seven people, who were later released without charge.
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Plutonium Boat Sets Sail for Japan
Wednesday, July 21, 1999; 10:24 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990721/V000873-072199-idx.html
CHERBOURG, France (AP) -- A British ship carrying a cargo of deadly plutonium left France on Wednesday en route for Japan, a controversial journey that Greenpeace failed to prevent.
Small navy boats escorted the Pacific Teal out of Cherbourg harbor as a surveillance helicopter flew overhead.
Security was tight as the cargo of MOX, a mix of uranium oxide and plutonium, packed in five six-yard-long containers, was loaded onto the vessel under high security on Wednesday morning.
The MOX was reprocessed from spent Japanese nuclear fuel at a state-run plant at La Hague, near Cherbourg.
The Greenpeace boat MV Sirius was ordered to leave French territorial waters while protesting the departure, a Greenpeace statement said.
The Pacific Teal was to join up with another British ship, the Pacific Pintail, also carrying plutonium to Japan. Authorities had not divulged the route of the journey by late Wednesday.
Some nations, fearful they are on the cargo's route, have issued protests.
The 15-nation Caribbean Community, known as CARICOM, has called the shipment a ``blatant and persistent'' misuse of the waterway.
In a statement Monday, CARICOM said its appeals to Britain, France and Japan have gone unanswered. The group also appealed to the United States to block the ships from using the Panama Canal.
The voyage recalled the 1992 shipment from Cherbourg, France, to Japan of the plutonium-laden Akatsuki Maru, whose two-month trip was bedeviled by protests from dozens of nations.
That was the first of 30 tons of plutonium to be shipped back to Japan this decade under a $4 billion contract.
---
Nuclear-loaded ships leave for Japan
Updated 12:20 PM ET July 21, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/u/990721/12/international-nuclear
CHERBOURG, France, July 21 (UPI) Two heavily armed ships carrying more than 200 tons of plutonium-based MOX nuclear fuel have left for Japan on a journey of nearly two months along still-secret routes.
The vessels one loaded earlier in Britain and the other loaded today in Cherbourg, France are each carrying nuclear fuel that contains uranium oxide and about 225 plutonium kilograms extracted from spent fuel.
Both ships have been dogged by Greenpeace protestors and boats for more than a week, provoking French authorities to order Navy zodiac rafts and a police helicopter to accompany one of them into Cherbourg, where some 600 lawmen barred anti-nuclear protestors from approaching.
The Cherbourg-loaded ship, the Pacific Teal, left today at 5 p.m. (11 a.m. EDT) as environmentalist protestors within the city over the past four days denounced loading of the fuel and transportation of it to Japan.
The Pacific Teal is meeting its counterpart, the Pacific Pintail, at sea to proceed towards Japan now with what Japan acknowledges is the first MOX fuel shipment ever destined for the that country
The Pacific Teal carries plutonium extracted by the French company COGEMA (Compagnie Generale des Matieres Nucleaires) at its La Hague reprocessing plant in Normandy.
The Pacific Pintail carries a similar amount of plutonium-based MOX fuel from the British reprocessing plant at Sellafield.
Both ships have 30 mm cannons and are also guarded by special commandos charged with nuclear security under the direction of the Britain's Atomic Energy Authority.
Despite repeated safety promises by COGEMA and British Nuclear Fuels, Greenpeace issued statements today claiming MOX transport opens a new and threatening chapter in nuclear proliferation.
Key Greenpeace spokesman Damon Moglen told United Press International late Wednesday the MOX shipment poses terrorism and environmental risks and endangers coastal nations along the ships' path.
He said MOX, which is made of recycled uranium and from 3 percent to 10 percent plutonium, also boosts the danger at nuclear reactors in part, because of plutonium's highly toxic and volatile nature.
Moglen charged that relatively simple technology applied to plutonium could make it into a weapons-grade substance.
Already, some Asian nations will likely be along the ships' sea route have expressed anxiety.
For instance, the vessels are believed to have to pass within some 30 miles of the Korean port of Pusan.
And, calling the ships a "floating Chernobyl," The Korea Herald recently editorialized that the MOX shipment must be halted.
Greenpeace says today's departing MOX shipment could lead to many more similar shipments to Japan over the next decade.
Three Greenpeace vessels Rainbow Warrior II, the Sirius and the MV Greenpeace had earlier planned to shadow the MOX-laden ships to highlight their claims that the shipment is dangerous.
But after protests in both Britain and France, the Greenpeace group faces stiff fines from both British and French courts if it interferes with the MOX shipments.
On Tuesday, the British government temporarily barred the MV Greenpeace from entering its territorial waters in the Irish Sea and the English Channel. Greenpeace today denounced the ban as a "draconian and anti-democratic."
The British Broadcasting Corp. says the banning the Greenpeace boat is believed to be the first time special shipping laws were invoked to protect nuclear transports in this way.
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France Bans Greenpeace Ships In Nuclear Demo
Updated 12:39 AM ET July 21, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990721/00/international-nuclear-france
RENNES, France (Reuters) - French authorities Tuesday banned Greenpeace environmentalist ships from Cherbourg harbor ahead of the arrival of an armed British cargo ship coming to pick up a controversial nuclear fuel shipment.
"I told them this morning they could not enter the harbor," a senior port official told Reuters.
The two ships hit by the ban were the Rainbow Warrior and the Sirius, the officer said.
The Rainbow warrior was inside the harbor until Sunday and planned to return for the arrival of the nuclear transport carrier Pacific Teal.
The Sirius was given permission late Tuesday to drop anchor at some distance from the port.
Riot police reinforcements have arrived in the Channel port ahead of the docking of the Pacific Teal, which will sail to Japan after being loaded.
Authorities told reporters 70 paramilitary police officers and teams of uniformed and plain clothes special weapons and tactics squads were deployed to contain any possible protests.
The Pacific Teal will be accompanied by the Pacific Pintail. The two ships, armed with cannons, headed to sea Monday from the north-west English port of Barrow-in-Furness with a British shipment of nuclear fuel aboard the Pacific Pintail.
The Pacific Teal is expected at between one and two a.m. (2300 GMT Tuesday and 0000 GMT) Wednesday and will stay in port only five or six hours before sailing. Its sister ship will stay at sea.
Seven activists were arrested in northwest England Monday after Greenpeace delayed the departure of the two ships by towing a floating billboard in front of it.
After the demonstration the British government Tuesday banned the Greenpeace protest ship involved from the country's southwestern waters.
The government said it had barred the MV Greenpeace from the Irish Sea that lies between Britain and Ireland, the Bristol Channel and the English Channel that separates Britain from France -- all on the route taken by the nuclear cargo.
Greenpeace slammed the British government's "draconian" move, saying it was simply pandering to the wishes of state-run British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL), which recycled the toxic fuel for the Japanese.
"This is an abuse of governmental powers to stifle debate over the plutonium industry's dangerous practices," Greenpeace said.
The group says the combined cargo of the two ships could be converted into 60 bombs.
The voyage marks the first transfer of so-called "direct use" nuclear material -- considered easiest to convert into bombs -- since 1992.
The French state-run nuclear materials group COGEMA said in Paris that the two cargo vessels would escort each other.
Officials said there were several cannon aboard each vessel which would be manned by members of a special force recruited from the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Agency Constabulary.
The sailing route would be made public a day after the ships left, a COGEMA statement said.
Opponents of the shipments fear environmental contamination, nuclear proliferation and possible hijacking on the high seas.
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French police reinforced for nuclear ship arrival
07:42 a.m. Jul 20, 1999 Eastern - Infoseek
RENNES, France, July 20 (Reuters) - Riot police reinforcements arrived in the French Channel port of Cherbourg on Tuesday ahead of the docking of the British ship Pacific Teal to load nuclear fuel for a controversial sailing to Japan.
Authorities told reporters a 70-man contingent of para-military gendarmes as well as teams of uniformed and plain clothes special weapons and tactics squads had arrived to contain any possible protests.
Already at port in Cherbourg is the Rainbow Warrior, flagship of the Greenpeace environmentalist group.
The Pacific Teal will be accompanied by the Pacific Pintail, a sister ship with which it headed to sea on Monday from the Barrow-in-Furness port with a British shipment of nuclear fuel aboard the latter ship.
The Pacific Teal is expected between one and two a.m. (2300 GMT Tuesday and 0000 GMT) on Wednesday and will stay in port only five or six hours before sailing. Its sister ship will stay at sea.
Angry environmentalists had held up their departure from the English port for several hours.
Greenpeace says the combined cargo of the two ships could be converted into 60 bombs.
The voyage marks the first transfer of so-called ``direct use'' nuclear material -- considered easiest to convert into bombs -- since 1992.
The French state-run nuclear materials group COGEMA said in Paris that the two armed cargo vessels would escort each other.
Officials said there were several cannon aboard each vessel which would be manned by members of a special force recruited from the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Agency Constabulary.
The sailing route would be made public a day after the ships left, a COGEMA statement said.
Opponents of the shipments fear environmental contamination, nuclear proliferation and possible hijacking on the high seas.
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FOCUS-Activists watch as French nuclear fuel loaded
06:40 a.m. Jul 21, 1999 Eastern - Infoseek By Christian Curtenelle
CHERBOURG, France, July 21 (Reuters) - An armed British cargo ship began loading a controversial shipment of nuclear fuel destined for Japan on Wednesday as Greenpeace environmental activists looked on warily from a distance.
The Greenpeace vessel Sirius entered the northern port of Cherbourg without authorisation to watch the loading operation though the authorities barred two other Greenpeace boats from the port, including the group's flagship Rainbow Warrior.
A French court has ordered Greenpeace vessels to stay at least 100 metres (yards) away from the cargo ship, the Pacific Teal, and its sister vessel the Pacific Pintail.
In line with the ruling, the Sirius was keeping its distance for the time being though activists on board unrolled and displayed a banner reading ``Stop Plutonium.''
A small French patrol boat was standing guard between the Sirius and the Pacific Teal.
French riot police, sailors, commandos in rubber rafts and a helicopter were also standing by as the nuclear fuel was loaded, a procedure expected to take five to six hours.
The second British cargo ship, the Pacific Pintail, armed like the Pacific Teal with three 30 mm cannons, stayed at sea off the French coast while the Pacific Teal was loading.
The Pacific Pintail has already been loaded with recycled nuclear fuel known as MOX from Britain's Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant.
The two vessels had left the northwest English port of Barrow-in-Furness on Monday. Environmentalists delayed their departure by several hours.
The voyage marks the first transfer of so-called ``direct use'' nuclear material -- considered easiest to convert into bombs -- since 1992.
Greenpeace says the combined cargo of the two ships could be converted into 60 bombs.
The French state-run nuclear materials group COGEMA said the two British vessels will escort each other as they steam to Japan, their cannon manned by a special force recruited from the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Agency Constabulary.
The trip is expected to take about two months. The route will not be made public until a day after the ships have left Cherbourg.
Opponents of the shipments fear not only nuclear proliferation but also environmental contamination and hijacking on the high seas.
((Paris newsroom, +33 1 4221 5339, fax +33 1 4236 1072, paris.newsroom+reuters.com))
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Greenpeace Fights to Free Assets
By Mike Corder Associated Press Writer Thursday, July 22, 1999; 9:10 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990722/V000167-072299-idx.html
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- Greenpeace International will fight a court order obtained by British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. to freeze one of the environmental group's bank accounts, a Greenpeace spokesman said Thursday.
A court in Amsterdam, where Greenpeace International has its headquarters, ordered one of the group's bank accounts frozen late Wednesday following an application by BNFL.
Greenpeace spokesman Jon Walter called the order ``financial terrorism'' and said the organization would not let the order prevent the group from protesting.
``It's just one bank account,'' Walter said.
The move came after Greenpeace protested a shipment of deadly plutonium that left France on Wednesday en route to Japan.
BNFL told the court the organization breached a British court order banning it from protesting the loading of plutonium onto the Pacific Teal. Seven protesters were arrested in what BNFL described as an ``irresponsible media stunt'' by Greenpeace.
The Greenpeace boat MV Sirius was ordered to leave French territorial waters during the protest, the group said.
``Greenpeace will not be strangled in its peaceful efforts to expose the dangerous and dirty nature of the plutonium industry by this financial terrorism,'' Bruno Rebelle, executive director of Greenpeace France, said in a statement issued late Wednesday.
No date was immediately set for a court hearing in Amsterdam, Walter said.
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Jul 21, 1999
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
GREENPEACE PROTESTS DEPARTURE OF MOX WHILE "FINANCIAL TERRORISM "AGAINST THE GROUP ESCALATES Nuclear lobby freezes the international environmental group's bank account
http://www.econet.apc.org/igc/en/hl/99072223065/hl1.html
Cherbourg / Paris, July 21, 1999. The Greenpeace vessel MV Sirius was ordered to leave the harbour and French territorial waters, during a peaceful protest against the departure of the British flagged freighter Pacific Teal from the French port of Cherbourg this afternoon. Escorted by a military armada of naval vessels, commando inflatables,and helicopters, the British-flagged freighter Pacific Teal departed Cherbourg today at 17h00 CET with its cargo of nuclear weapons-usable plutonium fuel (MOX).
Late yesterday Greenpeace International was informed by its bank in Amsterdam that its bank account had been seized at the request of British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL).
"Greenpeace will not be strangled in its peaceful efforts to expose the dangerous and dirty nature of the plutonium industry by this financial terrorism," said Bruno Rebelle, Executive Director of Greenpeace France.
"It is an obscene miscarriage of 'justice' that Greenpeace is under attack rather than the French, British and Japanese governments, who are conducting a massive trade in weapons-usable plutonium and using draconian means to stifle public debate and protest. Clearly, plutonium and democracy do not mix."
The Teal arrived in Cherbourg at 07h00 am on Wednesday morning. The loading of the plutonium fuel, contained in four transport containers, plus one empty/decoy container, was carried out over 8 hours and was conducted under the protection of military police and special force commandos.
The plutonium shipment, which leaves France despite intense criticism of the state-controlled plutonium industry, departs along a secret route for Japan in the face of rising international criticism of the unsafe, insecure and unnecessary transport. Greenpeace has called the transport a "recipe for disaster" and warned that the Japanese shipment threatens to ignite a "plutonium powder keg" in East Asia.
The shipment sails directly into rising international protest against the dangers posed to enroute nations by the plutonium transport. So far, safety and security concerns have already prompted the Irish, New Zealand, South Korean and 25 governments of the wider Caribbean region (meeting as the Association of Caribbean States-ACS). On July 16, the Heads of State of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) issued a statement in which they stated that they are "particularly outraged at the callous and contemptuous disregard of their appeals by the governments of France, the United Kingdom and Japan to desist from this dangerous misuse of the Caribbean Sea."
This growing controversy mirrors that which occurred in 1992 when over 50 countries around the globe protested a plutonium shipment from France to Japan onboard the ship "Akatsuki Maru". Opposition to that shipment, and subsequent shipments of high level nuclear waste from France to Japan, has lead to demands from enroute nations that they be involved in route planning and receive guarantees of emergency response, salvage and liability coverage.
"Each of these ships will be carrying a quarter of a tonne of plutonium, some 7 tonnes of high explosive ammunition and 1,100 tonnes of fuel oil. This is a recipe for disaster," said Damon Moglen of Greenpeace International. "It is inconceivable that Britain, France and Japan think that they have the right to make these deadly transports through the waters of other sovereign states without any process of consultation. Clearly the transporting countries are only concerned about the well-being of their plutonium programs."
The Pacific Teal, under naval escort, will now rendezvous with another British-flagged freighter, the Pacific Pintail, also owned by Pacific Nuclear Transport Ltd. (PNTL), which is carrying a cargo of 8 MOX fuel elements containing some 225 kilograms of plutonium. The British cargo comes from the state-controlled British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) plutonium factory at Sellafield. The nature and timing of this rendezvous is a carefully kept secret but it is believed that the two ships, under French and British naval escort, will meet somewhere off Cherbourg late this evening. The two lightly armed freighters will then proceed along their secret route without naval escort
Updated information on our web site : http://www.greenpeace.org/~nuclear/transport/mox99 /news.html
Stills available on our web site at: http://www.greenpeace.org /library/picturedesk.html
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Greenpeace denounces frozen bank money
Updated 9:26 AM ET July 22, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/u/990722/09/international-greenpeace
AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands, July 22 (UPI) Greenpeace International denounced as "financial terrorism" the decision by a Dutch court freezing the environmental group's bank accounts.
Greenpeace spokesman Damon Moglen said, "It amounts to a conspiracy brought on by the French and British nuclear industries which are shipping waste to Japan."
Moglen, who is coordinator of nuclear campaigns for Greenpeace International, spoke at the organization's headquarters in Amsterdam.
He described the court action as a reaction to Greenpeace protests against shipments of reprocessed uranium and plutonium to Japan, which have earned the organization fines in both Britain and France.
He said the nuclear reprocessing companies want the Greenpeace bank accounts frozen to bar any further protests.
Two British ships loaded with hundreds of tons of casks containing plutonium-based MOX nuclear fuel left for Japan Wednesday one loaded in Britain amid protests there and the other loaded in Cherbourg, France _ also under protest.
The companies involved in the shipments are British Nuclear Fuels and the French company COGEMA (Compagnie Generale des Matieres Nucleaires), which owns the La Hague reprocessing plant in Normandy.
Both ships are armed with 30mm cannons and protected by special British nuclear security commandos to guard against any attempt to hijack the fuel.
The ships, which can travel at 14 knots, are to make the 45-to-60-day trip to Japan by a route that has been kept secret.
Greenpeace, backed by French Green activists, says today it fears there will be many more MOX shipments to Japan in a stream of ships that could sink or be hijacked.
Three Greenpeace vessels the Rainbow Warrior, the Sirius and the MV Greenpeace plan to shadow the Japan-bound ships to highlight their claims, but are now under threat of stiff fines from British and French authorities if they interfere with the MOX shipments.
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- Eighth message - _____________________
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Message: 10 Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 10:09:27 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-7 7/23/99 - Europe Greens; NATO
23. Official: Germany Greens Must Reform
Thursday, July 22, 1999; 10:07 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990722/V000210-072299-idx.html
BONN, Germany (AP) -- Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, in an interview published Thursday, urged his squabbling Greens to ``grow up'' and accept a firmer party leadership or risk their political demise.
Fischer stopped short of claiming a top post for himself, but he insisted the former environmentalist protest party's splintered organization was hurting it now that the Greens are in power in Germany for the first time.
``We could be in such great shape if we didn't always put on our shoes backward just so we can say we're anti-establishment,'' the weekly Die Woche quoted Fischer as saying.
Many Greens cherish long-standing rules against concentration of power, which bar prominent figures like Fischer from holding party and government posts at the same time and split the party leadership between two people.
But Fischer said the junior party in Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's center-left coalition needs more professional leaders.
``If we would finally grow up in that sense, I won't worry about the party,'' he told Die Woche. ``Everyone knows what is at stake. The party must make up its mind.''
While Fischer's prestige is at a high after he helped guide Germany through the war for Kosovo, he has had little time to guide his party.
Meanwhile, Greens leaders have fought openly about domestic projects, including the shutdown of Germany's 19 nuclear power plants. Schroeder's Social Democrats and the Greens agree on a shutdown, but not on the timing.
``Above all, we have to stop attacking each other,'' Fischer was quoted as saying.
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24. CIA Picked One NATO Target, Led To Embassy Hit
Updated 12:05 AM ET July 23, 1999, By Tabassum Zakaria http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990723/00/news-china-bombing
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The only target the CIA picked for NATO's 11-week bombing campaign on Yugoslavia was the one that led to the U.S. attack on the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, CIA Director George Tenet said Thursday.
"It was the only target we nominated," Tenet said during a congressional hearing to explain the chain of events that led to the May 7 bombing of the Chinese embassy that U.S. officials have said was a huge mistake.
Tenet told the House Intelligence Committee that a combination of factors led to the bombing of the embassy instead of the intended target, the Yugoslav Federal Directorate for Supply and Procurement, which was located about 300 yards (meters) away.
One factor was the method used to find the precise location of the target -- an intelligence officer using land navigation techniques that should not be used for aerial targeting because they provide only an "approximate location," Tenet said. That location in subsequent meetings was then taken as a "mantle of fact" rather than questioned, he said.
"This episode is unusual," Tenet said, because the CIA does not normally put together by itself specific targets that include coordinates for bombing operations. The CIA usually provides more analytical judgements or specific information on targets selected by others, he said.
"The attack was a mistake," Tenet said. "Let me emphasize, our investigation has determined that no one -- I repeat no one -- knowingly targeted the Chinese embassy," he said.
The bombing of the Chinese embassy, which killed three people and wounded more than 20, sparked days of protests in China and repeated U.S. apologies.
Undersecretary of State Thomas Pickering went to Beijing last month to apologize and explain the series of errors that occurred, but Chinese officials said they were unconvinced.
"It seems clear that this process began with a critical intelligence failure," House Intelligence Committee Chairman Porter Goss, a Florida Republican, said. "However, the Department of Defense also shares responsibility, since the target package that came from CIA was reviewed by elements of the DOD and approved," he said.
Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre at the same hearing said in the approval process the precise location of the proposed target is not usually questioned, but it is assumed that the right location has been determined.
Of the 900 targets that were struck during the NATO air war, this was the only one misidentified during the target development process, he said.
Both Hamre and Tenet said databases that did not show the new location of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade were more to blame than the maps used to determine the target.
"I find it embarrassing we didn't have in our databases the precise location of the Chinese embassy," Hamre said.
Tenet also faulted the review process.
"There were three meetings at CIA that reviewed the target nomination," Tenet said. "The method of identification was not briefed, questioned, or reviewed. Therefore, the initial misidentification took on the mantle of fact," he said.
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Embassy bombing mistakes detailed
7/22/99- Updated 06:49 PM ET USA Today http://usatoday.com/news/washdc/ncsthu06.htm
WASHINGTON (AP) - The CIA had accurate maps and some agency employees knew the correct location of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade mistakenly bombed by NATO in May, CIA Director George Tenet said Thursday. But the agency did not rely on those sources before recommending the allies attack a supposed military target that was in fact the embassy.
Adding new detail to a mistake that shook Sino-American relations, the nation's spy chief and the Pentagon's No. 2 official told a House committee about the errors that led a B-2 bomber to attack the embassy compound around midnight May 7. The attack came during NATO's 78-days of airstrikes to force Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to halt his campaign against ethnic Albanians in the province of Kosovo.
''War is about violence, it's about destruction and unfortunately it's also about accidents,'' Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre told the House Intelligence Committee. Both Hamre and Tenet accepted responsibility.
''It was a major error,'' Tenet said. ''The ultimate responsibility for the role of intelligence in this tragedy is mine.''
The attack killed three Chinese journalists who were working out of the embassy. China initially rebuffed U.S. explanations and apologies, saying that U.S. weapons technology ruled out the possibility of an accident.
Rep. Porter Goss, R-Fla., chairman of the committee, said the intelligence community had to face key questions as it examines its errors.
''Is it true that 'smart bombs' without good intelligence to guide them are actually 'dumb bombs?''' Goss said. Given that the U.S. military relies increasingly on precision-weapons, ''what additional intelligence requirements does this reliance on such weapons generate?''
Among the new details disclosed in Thursday's hearing, Hamre and Tenet told the committee:
The Yugoslav Federal Directorate for Supply and Procurement was the only target selected by the CIA for NATO bombing. The Pentagon and NATO did virtually all the strike planning. An error in pinpointing the coordinates of the directorate was the principle cause of the mistaken bombing. The directorate headquarters turned out to be about 330 yards from the Chinese embassy. The CIA was pressed into service selecting a target because the Pentagon urgently demanded more targets as the air campaign dragged on longer than NATO and the Clinton administration had anticipated. Maps initially consulted by target planners showed the Chinese embassy in a prior location across town. After the bombing, when the CIA realized its mistake, the agency found maps in its files that showed the embassy in its new location, after a 1996 move. One map was published by a Belgrade bank; the other was a standard commercial map that only showed the approximate area of the embassy. The CIA had access to employees and colleagues - including the former station chief in Belgrade and the U.S. military attaché to Yugoslavia - who knew the embassy's location. But they were not consulted by target planners or by officials drawing up lists of sites to be avoided, such as hospitals, schools and diplomatic installations.
Out of 9,300 strike sorties directed at 900 targets and involving more than 24,000 bombs, there were only 30 instances in which NATO planes ''caused damage we did not intend,'' Hamre said.
In 10 instances, the correct targets were struck but there were unintended civilian casualties; three were caused by human error, as when a pilot became disoriented and bombed a hospital more than a mile from the intended target; the remaining instances involved either mechanical or human error.
The mistaken bombing of the Chinese embassy marked the only case in which the error was made by people selecting the target, Hamre said.
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25. Report: NATO admits air campaign failed
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, Updated 8:04 AM ET July 22, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/u/990722/08/international-nato-report
BRUSSELS, Belgium, July 22 (UPI) A British newspaper reports that a preliminary review of NATO's airstrikes over Yugoslavia had almost no military effect on the regime of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
The Daily Telegraph reports today that the main finding of the NATO inquiry is that despite the thousands of bombing sorties, they failed to damage the Yugoslav field army tactically in Kosovo while the strategic bombing of targets such as bridges and factories was poorly planned and executed.
The newspaper says changes are being considered within NATO, including the radical overhaul of how strategic targets are identified and considered for attack.
The assessment says British diplomats have concluded that Milosevic had no intention of honoring any diplomatic agreement that reduced his hold on Kosovo.
But, the newspaper reports that the NATO experts believe the operation was a success diplomatically and politically, because the 19- member alliance remained united throughout and left Belgrade so isolated that it was forced to submit to NATO's terms.
The preliminary report says that any future NATO operation is likely to involve heavier, more ruthless attacks on civilian targets such as power stations and water treatment plants at an earlier stage of the campaign. There is also an urgent operational requirement for more sophisticated surveillance equipment including Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to find small hidden tactical targets such as tanks and artillery pieces.
Early assessments indicate that only a handful of tanks, guns and armored personnel carriers were damaged during the 79-day operation. Military sources said that it was likely that the damage would have been greater had the Serb forces been actively engaged on the ground by the Kosovo Liberation Army and forced into the open.
Milosevic was told at the outset of the NATO operation that it would be conducted in phases, with the first phase concentrating on command bunkers and the second and third phases involving wider bombing if Milosevic did not comply with NATO demands.
Military experts concede, the report says, that breaking down the operation into phases was a serious mistake.
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26. KLA hands over heavy weapons
Updated 8:04 PM ET July 21, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/u/990721/20/international-weapons
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia, July 21 (UPI) Now that a midnight deadline (10 p.m. GMT, 6 p.m. EDT) for the Kosovo Liberation Army to hand over heavy weapons and some of the automatic small arms in their possession has passed, KLA soldiers are only allowed to wear side arms in designated zones.
The hand over today concludes the first of three stages of KLA demilitarization.
The roundup of all weapons is scheduled to be over by Sept. 21, when all KLA members should also abandon their distinguished uniforms and insignia and change into civilian clothes.
The KLA and NATO's KFOR peacekeeping force signed a demilitarization agreement on June 21.
The weapons depots will be under joint KLA and KFOR control for the time being but after Sept. 21 KFOR will be in charge.
Earlier today, Belgrade media reported KFOR Commander Gen. Michael Jackson and KFOR spokesman Louis Garneau, expressed complete satisfaction with the amount of weapons handed over at the depots.
Gen. Jackson was overheard saying "It is good (the weapons) are here."
Television picture from a depot showed a number of light artillery pieces, rows of what seemed to be brand new automatic rifles and wooden crates full of rockets, various caliber shells and other ammunition.
KLA Chief of Staff Agim Ceku, hopes that the KLA will account for 90 percent of the future civil police force in Kosovo, reflecting the ratio of ethnic Albanians to members of other ethnic groups in the province. He is reported to have called on all his men to apply for jobs in the police, advertised by the United Nations civil mission.
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Tardy Kosovo Rebels Force Extension of Arms Deadline
July 23, 1999, By CHRIS HEDGES http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/world/kosovo-rebels.html
PRISTINA, Kosovo -- A failure by the Kosovo Liberation Army to turn in a sufficient number of its heavy weapons, including mortars and antitank and antiaircraft guns, has forced NATO commanders to extend the deadline for compliance with a disarmament agreement to Saturday.
NATO officials said that it was apparent that the rebel commanders had hidden large stockpiles, and that the peacekeepers fear growing divisions among the rebels could lead to factional fighting.
They are also concerned by continuing attacks against Serbian civilians who remain in Kosovo. An estimated 80,000 of the 200,000 Serbian residents have left the province since the NATO force was deployed in June.
The force commander, Lt. Gen. Michael Jackson, sought to play down the inability of the rebel army to meet the deadline -- midnight Wednesday -- that was set in the disarmament agreement, which was signed June 21. He said he had agreed to a request from a rebel general, Agim Ceku, to postpone the deadline until Saturday.
"I am encouraged by the quantity of weapons that have been handed in over the past few days," the British general said. "What is needed is the time to insure that the accounting process is completed correctly."
But senior NATO officials said the equipment turned in so far by the KLA to the 14 designated sites was broken, in poor repair or useless. They said rebel commanders were arguing about what military hardware had to be turned over, and in some areas had failed to cooperate with peacekeepers.
"We have had stuff turn up that was captured from the Serbs at the end of the war," said one NATO officer, who refused to be identified. "We have had boxes of unopened equipment from Albania, as well as hardware that is so old that it would be risky to use. The KLA is holding back a lot of stuff and we want it.
"There remain two problems: we are unsure of the quantity of these weapons and do not yet have the will to go hunt them down. As long as this much material remains in their hands, we have problems."
The June 21 agreement gave the rebels 30 days to hand in all weapons with a caliber of 12.7 millimeters or more, as well as antitank weapons, antiaircraft guns, grenades, land mines and explosives. NATO officials said it was especially disturbing that large numbers of mines believed to be held by the rebel group have not been turned over.
The rebels are also supposed to turn in 30 percent of their long-barreled assault rifles.
Over the next 60 days, the remaining light weapons and all uniforms are to be turned over. "One of our problems has been simply finding civilian clothes for the fighters who turn in their uniforms," said a NATO officer involved in the program.
Jackson stressed that he did not regard the delay as a lack of good will on the part of the fighters. "I do not regard this as noncompliance but rather as an indication of the seriousness with which General Ceku is taking this important issue," the general said in a statement.
Because weapons dribbled into the province from Albania, Montenegro, Macedonia and even Serbia during the war, it is impossible to get an accurate estimate of what is in the rebel arsenal.
But NATO officers said the weapons turned in so far were clearly a fraction of what the guerrilla army must have had to support its yearlong fight against the Serbs.
Also, because most weapons are being brought in by pack horse, there were not many heavy weapons, with few mortars above 81 millimeter.
NATO officials said they were willing to give the KLA some flexibility, especially since the Serbian forces were unable to meet the deadlines for withdrawal from Kosovo in June. They also said that they did not want to antagonize rebel leaders.
"There could be a lot of problems here, but it is too early to assume that the problems have already begun," said a British officer. "For now we will look, to a certain extent, the other way, but if things keep up like this, we will not be encouraged."
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27. Pentagon Faults U.N.In Kosovo Cohen, Shelton Cite 'Slow' Mission Start
By Bradley Graham Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, July 21, 1999; Page A17
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/21/103l-072199-idx.html
Top Pentagon officials complained yesterday that the United Nations is lagging in setting up a police force and civil administration in Kosovo, putting added strain on U.S. and other NATO peacekeeping troops in the Serbian province.
"We are concerned about the slow progress in establishing the United Nations mission in Kosovo to aid in the recovery process," Gen. Henry H. Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
With only 600 of a projected U.N. staff of 5,000 in place, Shelton and Defense Secretary William S. Cohen, who testified at the same hearing, said the administration is pressing the United Nations to accelerate its efforts. But both men cited sluggish performance by the United Nations and other international institutions in managing earlier reconstruction programs in Haiti and Bosnia.
While a NATO-led force of more than 50,000 soldiers has been pouring into Kosovo to impose order after the withdrawal of Yugoslav troops last month, the United Nations is responsible for creating an interim government and fielding about 3,000 international police officers to help patrol the battered province until local police can be trained. But the United Nations has no standing constabulary corps and so must recruit police volunteers as well as civil administrators from member nations. The job, in turn, of training a new home-grown police force belongs to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, whose timetable also has slipped, Shelton said.
The Pentagon, which normally views police work and civil administration as non-military tasks, reluctantly agreed that U.S. and other NATO troops would perform them temporarily in Kosovo until the United Nations could get organized. But defense officials are eager to hand over responsibility to U.N. staff.
"There is no higher priority right now, I think, than getting a police force and a justice system established," Shelton said.
He expressed concern that the longer NATO troops engage in "police-type actions"--arresting lawbreakers and patrolling neighborhoods--the greater the risk that they will be perceived as taking one side or the other between Serbs and Albanians. He also said NATO lacked enough troops to keep a close watch on the entire province.
Shelton and Cohen said the risk of widespread violence in Kosovo is smaller than in Bosnia, where ethnic factions are more numerous and in closer proximity. So the faster the United Nations and the OSCE can set up in Kosovo, they said, the faster NATO troops can begin a phased withdrawal.
While insisting that U.S. troops will not be kept in Kosovo indefinitely, the Pentagon leaders said there is no timetable for withdrawing them.
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U.N. counters U.S. criticism on Kosovo
7/23/99- Updated 03:40 AM ET USA Today
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan had a message Thursday for U.S. critics who complain that the United Nations is moving too slowly in Kosovo: ''We should focus on the work at hand rather than finger-pointing.''
Annan also endorsed comments made Wednesday by his aide, John Ruggie, who said the United Nations was moving with unprecedented speed and that the NATO-led military force is responsible for ensuring public safety.
''We are going ahead deploying the police and the civilian staff as quickly as we can,'' Annan said. ''So I am reasonably satisfied with the way things are going.''
Ruggie insisted Wednesday that the United Nations was never expected to have an international police force on the ground and a civilian administration up and running in just six weeks.
''That would have been humanly impossible,'' he said.
Defense Secretary William S. Cohen and Gen. Henry H. Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, complained to the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that the NATO-led Kosovo Force, KFOR, was being called on to fill too many roles - from policing to civil administration and judicial jobs.
''We need to put as much pressure as possible on the U.N. to do more to get in there more quickly to get these institutions up and running,'' Cohen said.
Ruggie said the U.N. Security Council resolution ending the Kosovo conflict envisioned that KFOR would be responsible for security and administration in Kosovo in the initial postwar period.
Ruggie said the United Nations is doing exactly what the Security Council expected when it gave the world body responsibility for running the civilian administration and building a new government and economy in Kosovo: It is getting ''up and running.''
''We have a superb working relationship with KFOR on the ground,'' he said. ''We have had no problems, whatsoever, of any magnitude.''
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[A chilling glimpse at the cynicism in Congress - public record.]
28. For the Record
Wednesday, July 21, 1999; Page A20 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/21/049l-072199-idx.html
From a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Kosovo yesterday:
Sen. John Warner: Mr. Secretary [Defense Secretary William Cohen], you made a very profound statement in your opening comments about the need for the NATO nations to begin to re-equip themselves so that they can pick up, should we ever be confronted with a comparable situation [to Kosovo] . . . the training missions, the lift [and] the precision guidance weapons. . . .
And I have been following with interest the suggestion that our defense industry in the United States is looking for partners through merger in Europe.
Would that be a region to support these mergers in your judgment? . . . To the extent our industrial base is more closely linked legally, financially, with counterparts in Europe, it may well result in a realization by those countries that they must equip themselves with more modern weapons and airlift.
Secretary Cohen: You are precisely correct, Mr. Chairman. . . . We expect and anticipate there will be mergers and acquisitions [provided] . . . that those countries who seek to merge with U.S. firms . . . also have high standards as far as their protection of proprietary information and protection in terms of technology transfer. . . .
So we think that they are not only inevitable but desirable, provided we have the kind of restrictions and expectations that they will control that technology so it doesn't fall into the hands of third parties.
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Message: 11 Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 08:42:46 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-4 7/23/99 - Depleted Uranium - 2; Ukraine; Russia-1
[I ran across this excellent website of Rosalie Bertell.]
[I can't remember if I sent these stories, thought they were worth re-reading if I had.]
12. UK Politics Shadow Health Secretary Ann Widdecombe answers questions sent by BBC News Online users. February 16, 1999 Published at 21:21 GMT http://news2.thls.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk%5Fpolitics/newsid%5F280000/280692.stm
I am writing to seek your party's views on gulf war syndrome. I have returned from the AGM of the gulf war vets at Portsmouth, after being very much enlightened from a talk from a nuclear biologist by the name of DR Durokovic. The gentleman in question has tested 21 gulf war vets for depleted uranium poisoning. All 21 vets have returned positive results. The doctor has himself worked for the US government and was told to cease his research into depleted uranium, he refused and was then dismissed. Since then he has been conducting his own research into the matter, with as stated positive results. He has also been dropped from speaking at the world C.D.C conference in Atlanta U.S.A .
It would appear certain agencies would like him to be quiet. I strongly admire you and the conviction you have in something you believe RIGHT. PLEASE HELP OUR CAUSE ... and please would you raise the issue in the Commons
Yours sincerely
C.L. Coombs
National Gulf Veterans & Families Assoc
A. My view is that this is something that has to be established by the medical profession. It isn't for the government to say, there is or there isn't Gulf War syndrome. It is for it to be established and for a government to then decide what it should do.
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Will those responsible be punished?
June 25, 1999 Published at 11:44 GMT 12:44 UK BBC http://news2.thls.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/talking%5Fpoint/newsid%5F372000/37234 3.asp
Day by day the scale of the terror in Kosovo is starting to emerge as more mass grave sites are found across the province. But will justice be done? Is it possible to bring those responsible to book?
The Background:
The UK says the scale of the killings committed by Serb forces in Kosovo appears to be worse than originally believed.
Foreign Office Minister Geoff Hoon said that the final death toll could be more than 10,000.
His warning came as war crimes inspectors moved in to examine a range of sites including mass graves and a suspected torture and rape centre at the headquarters of the Serb military police in Pristina.
The UK and US governments are determined that any evidence of atrocities should be gathered quickly. But many of those responsible will already have fled and there are considerable doubts about whether they can ever be brought to trial.
Many of those indicted for war crimes in Bosnia, such as General Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, are still at large and only a few relatively minor figures have appeared in front of the war crimes tribunal at the Hague.
How important do you think it is that justice is seen to be done? Is reconciliation possible if those responsible are not brought to trial. Is there a danger of demonising all Serbs for the excesses of a few?
Your Reaction:
... Blair says that Serbian people are not going to receive aid until Milosevic is gone, but this is precisely what they were trying to do BEFORE, and was hampered by Nato bombs. Doesn't he think that the people of Serbia have suffered enough, children in Iraq are still being born with deformities because of the use of depleted Uranium by the West, one in ten children in Vietnam are born with serious deformities as a result of Agent Orange. And now as a result of Nato's war there is going to be huge ethnic tension between two groups who once marched side by side to try and overthrow Milosevic. If Blair thinks that people are responsible for the actions of their leaders does this mean all Germans should have been punished for the Holocaust, even more that we should be punished for Nato's atrocities in Yugoslavia? Lucie, UK ...
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Should Nato treat Slobodan Milosevic as a war criminal?
April 27, 1999 Published at 11:31 GMT 12:31 UK http://news2.thls.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/talking%5Fpoint/europewide%5Fdebate/n ewsid%5F323000/323823.asp
.. If Milosevic is treated as war criminal (I just wonder how come you remember to accuse him only now) then Mr Clinton, Mrs Albright, Mr Shea and all others directly involved in commanding this 'humanitarian intervention' should sit for trial for the same reason. Because their (Nato's and USA's) intervention involves using of Depleted Uranium bombs, destruction of chemical complexes in Pancevo and Belgrade thus causing environmental disaster and endangering directly lives of at least 3.000000 people in the surrounding by toxic gases and marerials. Danube, the biggest European river is dead from Belgrade to the Black Sea. Who is responsible for that? Dusica, Australia
If Milosevic is tried for war crimes, then so should every other leader who has approved acts of ethnic cleansing. I would suggest Bulent Ecevit to be next. After all, he was the leader of Turkey who gave the go-ahead for Turkish forces to invade Cyprus in 1974 and ethnically cleanse 200,000 people from the northern part of the island. These forces continue to illegally occupy Cyprus, conveniently ignored by the international community, and the refugees are still prevented from returning to their homes. Once Nato has finished in Serbia, can we expect it to turn its weapons on Turkey? Angela Ioannou, UK
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Focus on Kosovo
June 16, 1999 Published at 15:59 GMT 16:59 UK http://news2.thls.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/talking%5Fpoint/talking%5Fpoint%5Fon% 5Fair/newsid%5F366000/366527.asp
Focus on Kosovo was a special three hour programme Broadcast on BBC World Service and BBC News Online.
Robin Lustig was joined by key figures from the past few weeks as well as BBC correspondents from the Balkans, Washington and Nato Headquarters.
The three hour special programme culminated with an hour of your comments and questions via email and telephone.
Your comments since the programme ...
If the refugees make it back to their homes, they face the effects of these bombs not just in the form of destroyed houses and infrastructure, but a land radiated by depleted uranium. The Serbs now face sanctions similar to those that continue to kill people in Iraq, continuing the poverty that breeds nationalism. Josh On, UK ...
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[For those who were shocked by the June 11 article about Argentina's new membership in the U.S.'s club of six non-NATO states with NATO privileges, including the right to purchase depleted uranium weapons and the right to use U.S.-taxpayer-guaranteed loans to buy them (see "Defense Tango" by Nora Boustany, Friday, June 11, 1999 Washington Post, http://prop1.org/2000/du/99du/990611wp.htm) ... here's some more information about Argentina.]
13. Soon to Bow Out, Argentine Brushes Off the Boos
July 20, 1999, By CLIFFORD KRAUSS http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/americas/072099argentina-menem.html
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- The wild, mutton chop sideburns are gone. The televised cheek-to-cheek tangos with marquee entertainers are a thing of the past. And when President Carlos Saul Menem does take the occasional spin in a hot sports car these days, his bodyguards no longer need to make death-defying weaves through traffic to chase after him.
At age 69 and in his final five months in office, Menem still makes good copy -- but now the press attention is focused on the presidential psyche. Argentine magazines, quoting anonymous sources, report that Menem is depressed, lonely and bitter because many of his closest allies, including his hand-picked vice president, have abandoned him.
He reportedly mutters about his declining poll numbers and wonders why the people have suddenly forgotten how he saved the country from hyperinflation and power-hungry generals.
"Guerrillas are attacking 25 miles from Bogota and no one says Pastrana will fall," Menem snapped during an interview on a recent campaign trip, referring to President Andres Pastrana of Colombia. "In France there was a strike that lasted more than a month and Chirac continued in power, as did Jospin," he said, referring to President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Lionel Jospin.
"Those who think that my government is going to fall have dictatorial mentalities," he added, alluding to criticism of his handling of a series of recent crises.
Jabbing his fingers on the table, he added: "My work has really been exceptional not just economically, but politically and culturally as well. No one in the world can match our process of transformation, especially not in Latin America."
But while Menem boasts of his legacy, Argentines are not certain whether they have been on anything more than a dizzying roller-coaster ride during their president's decade in power.
The sheer pace at which Menem swept into power in July 1989 from the craggy little province of La Rioja and broke all the rules of Argentine politics seems now to be a memory for the history books.
Remarkably, Menem slashed the unwieldy government bureaucracy left behind by Gen. Juan Domingo Peron, brought the army and powerful unions to heel and attached his country's once nationalistic foreign policy squarely to Washington....
In an effort to polish his image, Menem has launched a television and billboard advertising campaign to remind Argentines of his accomplishments. "Ten years that changed history," is the mantra -- one that will be repeated in the three-to-four-volume memoir that he plans to publish by the end of the year.
When Menem took office 10 years ago, Argentina was sinking into an abyss. The inflation rate ran to nearly 5,000 percent, and civilian rule was shaken by periodic military uprisings. The bloated, corrupt state bureaucracy meant that Argentines had to wait months to connect a telephone line or fix a leaky water pipe.
Today, with the peso pegged to the dollar, inflation is below one percent. By selling off virtually every government agency, slashing regulations and tying the economy to the Mercosur trade union with its neighbors, industrial production has grown by 40 percent and per capita income has grown from $2,100 to $9,800 a year.
Critics say Menem made a deal with the devil by granting a blanket amnesty to the military, but by doing so he was able to get concessions from the generals. He cut military spending by hundreds of millions of dollars, and abolished the draft.
Menem found a new mission for the military. He sent two ships and soldiers to help out the allies in the gulf war and later contributed to United Nations peacekeeping missions all over the globe, from Cyprus to Haiti. And today, because of a loophole in the amnesty, several former junta leaders are under house arrest and awaiting trial on allegations they kidnapped the newborn infants of imprisoned pregnant mothers.
"I think historians will be kinder to Menem than his contemporaries," said Joaquin Morales Sola, a columnist at La Nacion. "All Argentine presidents leave office saying they are unappreciated by the people."
Still, most of Menem's achievements, as even his supporters concede, came in his first four years in office. His second term has been marred by two deep recessions, including the present one that has brought the unemployment rate to nearly 15 percent.
And for more than a year, the Argentine media have been harping on allegations that top government officials have enriched themselves in a variety of schemes -- from siphoning government money to pork barrel projects in Menem's native region of La Rioja, to trafficking in arms, to taking bribes from a variety of businesses.
There has been no evidence published that directly links Menem to corruption, but the suggestion is nearly always there.
"What I have, I have worked for," he said. "When people on the left criticize my spending I say they ought to see how Fidel flies around in his three jets with his entire coterie, and that's a Communist regime. We only fly in one plane."
Menem said he will set the record straight, and tell all in his memoirs beginning with his Syrian immigrant home life, when his family's poverty forced him to shine shoes and sell newspapers in the streets to help his father and mother make ends meet.
He said he would clarify "lies" that he converted from Islam to Roman Catholicism simply to run for the presidency. He will tell how Peron took a shine to him and helped launch his political career. Readers will learn how Menem sheltered and fed Montonero guerrillas in the 1970's, acts that landed him in prison under the military dictatorship....
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14. Ukraine, EU Sign Nuclear Agreements
Friday July 23 10:55 AM ET By SERGEI SHARGORODSKY Associated Press Writer http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/ap/international/story.html?s=v/ap/1999 0723/wl/ukraine_eu_1.html
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Ukraine-EU.html
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - The European Union promised Ukraine up to $143 million to strengthen banking and financial systems and signed two nuclear agreements with the former Soviet republic at a summit today.
The third EU-Ukraine summit was attended by Finnish Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency; Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma; and EU Foreign Affairs Commissioner Hans van den Broek. Long-standing differences over the Chernobyl nuclear plant snagged the talks.
The agreements signed at the one-day summit concerned nuclear safety and research and were expected to boost EU-Ukrainian cooperation in radiation protection, radioactive waste management, decommissioning of nuclear devices and atomic science, officials said.
The EU announced the loan in a joint statement, saying the first installment of $55 million was due within days. The credit was to be used for strengthening the financial and banking systems and the National Bank.
The sides also pledged to work on gaining Ukraine membership in the World Trade Organization and to remove trade and investment barriers. The EU noted that certain Ukrainian laws were hurting foreign trade and investment.
Their cooperation agreement provides for a free-trade zone, and the EU said it would monitor the Ukraine's economic reform progress to determine when the country is ready to start negotiations on the zone.
Ukraine also wants to become an EU associate member, and Kuchma recently criticized the EU's governing bodies for moving slowly on the matter.
The fate of the Chernobyl plant, site of the world's worst nuclear accident in 1986, appeared to be the main stumbling block at the talks.
Ukraine reiterated its pledge to close down Chernobyl by 2000 on condition it would get financial aid to complete two new reactors that are to compensate for Chernobyl's lost power.
The EU, in turn, confirmed that the union and member nations would provide $210 million to repair the leaky sarcophagus covering Chernobyl's ruined reactor No. 4 and said it will examine the possibility of financing the new reactors, whose cost is estimated at $1.2 billion.
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15. Power to Russian Nuclear Forces Is Shut Off Units on Border With China Go Dark Temporarily for Failure to Pay Bill
By Sharon LaFraniere, Washington Post, July 21, 1999; Page A15 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/21/090l-072199-idx.html
MOSCOW, July 20--In the latest sign of the Russian military's financial straits, units in charge of Russia's nuclear forces in the Far East reported being left without power this week because the utility bill has not been paid.
The cutoff temporarily incapacitated military radar in the Khabarovsk region on the border with China, local air defense chief Anatoly Nogovitsyn said, according to the Associated Press. Water pumps quit working and dozens of garrisons went dark, according to unit commanders.
The Russian news agency Interfax said electricity was cut off to units responsible for the strategic rockets that make up Russia's "nuclear shield" and for controlling Russia's air border.
The central command of the Strategic Missile Forces later said in a statement that the cutoff had only affected support facilities, not combat units.
However, the military's press service acknowledged the situation was worrisome.
It was at least the third time in a year that sensitive military installations have found themselves without power because of unpaid bills.
A local authority switched off electricity to a northern naval base where nuclear-powered submarines were located last fall, and a missile testing
site was also temporarily left in the dark.
To military experts, the cutoffs are only one of the more obvious signs of how Russia's control over its nuclear arsenal continues to weaken.
Its early warning system for detecting ballistic missile launches has deteriorated to the point that space satellites can no longer cover U.S. missile sites around the clock.
The conventional forces are in no better shape: Soldiers live in deplorable conditions and sometimes solicit passersby on city streets for money to buy bread.
The Russian government, determined to show its military is still a force to be reckoned with, has staged large-scale military exercises in recent months. The Kosovo war provided the military its best argument in some time for more funding, and Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin has promised to increase defense spending.
But in the Far East this week, the Khabarovskenergo power company got tired of waiting. Company officials said the military owed more than $16 million and had ignored all pleas and warnings. Military officials contend the debt was less than $6 million, and say complaints should be directed to the Finance Ministry in Moscow, which has failed to send the funds.
After a meeting with the regional governor, power was restored--but only for the next three weeks, according to the newspaper Izvestia.
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Message: 12 Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 08:43:13 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-5 7/23/99 - Russia-1
16. Russian PM Wants High-Tech Weapons
By The Associated Press, July 23, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Russia-Prime-Minister.html
MOSCOW (AP) -- NATO's bombing campaign in Yugoslavia highlighted Russia's need to modernize its army and build a new generation of high-tech weapons, the prime minister said today.
However, Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin gave no clue as to where Russia would find the money to pay for an overhaul of its impoverished military. The prime minister made his comments in Siberia, part of a cross-country tour to examine Russia's troubled military manufacturing plants.
``The events in Yugoslavia showed that we need new, highly precise weapons, new equipment, new electronics,'' Stepashin said in the tank-building town of Nizhny Tagil, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
Russia harshly criticized the NATO airstrikes but has moved to rebuild relations with the West now that the conflict is over. Stepashin is traveling to the United States on Sunday and will meet with President Clinton and other senior officials. Still, many Russians remain wary of NATO.
Military reform has been under discussion for years in Russia, with most analysts calling for a leaner, more efficient fighting force compared to the hulking Soviet-era army that consumed much of the national budget. President Boris Yeltsin also has called for an all-volunteer force, but that idea, along with the other reforms, have gone nowhere due to a lack of resources.
``We will have a professional army. All that is required is time and money,'' Stepashin said.
In the meantime, many aging military plants are struggling to survive, especially those unable to find export markets. In many cases, entire towns grew up around huge factories that supplied the army.
``One of the most important objectives of my trip is to evaluate the real potential of the military-industrial complex,'' Stepashin said after visiting a tank factory in Nizhny Tagil.
Before becoming prime minister two months ago, Stepashin had spent his entire career working in state security and law enforcement organizations. He has said reviving the military and strengthening the police are among his top priorities.
Stepashin planned a series of stops across Siberia to see manufacturing plants and meet with managers. He will eventually reach the eastern port city of Vladivostok, where he will examine Russia's Pacific Fleet.
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17. PRESS-RELEASE
For more information contact: Vladimir Slivyak - 7-095-7766546 (Moscow, Russia) Polina Kireva - 359-2-9633125 (Sofia, Bulgaria)
ANOTHER DELAY IN SPENT FUEL TRANSPORT FROM BULGARIA TO RUSSIA Environmentalists demand indefinite suspension of transport agreement
July 8, 1999 - Today the Parliament of Moldova moved to postpone until October 1999 a vote on ratification of the joint agreement on nuclear spent fuel transport between Russia, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Moldova. Moldova's participation in this agreement is essential for Bulgaria to be able to ship spent nuclear fuel by rail to Russia for storage and reprocessing, which also requires passage through Romania and Ukraine. Nine months ago, all transfers of nuclear waste from the Kozloduy reactorS to Russia were suspended because Moldova's parliament would not yet ratify the agreement. The plenary of the parliament on the July 8 again delayed the Bulgarian nuclear industry from getting a green light to move forward with these plans.
"Nuclear transportation continues to be a topic of great public concern. It's extremely dangerous and will waste considerable amounts of money, " said Vladimir Slivyak of Russia's Socio-Ecological Union and Polina Kireva of Za Zemiata, a Bulgarian environmental group. Both groups began their campaign against these nuclear waste transfers in September 1998. Since that time, public protests in several Central and Eastern Europe countries and opposition in the Moldovian parliament have twice forced Bulgarian authorities to cancel scheduled nuclear waste shipments.
Last week, Russian and Bulgarian environmentalists again asked their colleagues worldwide to send faxes to Moldova's President, Prime Minister and Chair of parliament asking them not to ratify the agreement. According to the Greens in the Moldovan parliament, the international fax campaign made a great impact on the July 8 parliamentary decision.
"The decision allows us to mark the first anniversary of a successful resistance to nuclear transport in Bulgaria, Russia and Moldova," said Slivyak and Kireva. "We intend to continue with this campaign until we obtain a political decision to indefinitely suspend all such transport. Nuclear power plants should implement a policy of using dry on-site storage of spent fuel instead of sending this radioactive garbage to its neighbors."
For more information: Antinuclear campaign of Socio-Ecological Union - 7-095-7766546 (Moscow,Russia) Za Zemiata! - 359-2-9633125 (Sofia, Bulgaria) ECODEFENSE! - 7-0112-437286 (Kaliningrad, Russia)
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18. So You Thought the Cold War Was Over? The Legacy Of Doomsday
By Jørgen Wouters ABCNEWS.com, July 23, 1999 http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/nuclear/images/ap_nuclear1_image01.jpg
President Clinton rarely misses an opportunity to remind us the Cold War is over, American cities are no longer threatened by Russian missiles, and the threat of nuclear holocaust is a relic of the past.
Unfortunately, the reality is disturbingly different.
Recent reports cited a CIA study claiming Russian nuclear missiles had accidentally been switched to "combat mode" due to equipment malfunctions.
The news surfaced as Russian Defense Minister Igor Rodionov was in Washington for meetings with his U.S. counterpart, Defense Secretary William Cohen. A preliminary alliance between Russia and NATO hung in the balance.
Both men played down the report, which underlies a fundamental, frightening truth about weapons capable of atomizing entire cities in seconds: The safeguards created to keep Russia's doomsday machines secure are disintegrating.
The Cold War may be over, the Iron Curtain lifted and the Berlin Wall razed. But the nuclear nightmares unleashed by a 45-year superpower arms race promise to haunt us for years to come. And though American cities are no longer targeted by Russian nuclear missiles, the potential danger from these weapons of mass destruction has actually grown.
"There is no doubt the danger that Russian nuclear weapons could be used is greater today than it was during the Cold War," warns Bruce Blair, a senior fellow of foreign-policy studies at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. "I think the primary danger we face today is a breakdown of control over Russia's nuclear weapons, and that's a threat that could wipe us off the face of the Earth."
Four Main Risks
Russian nuclear forces pose four main risks: an inadvertent launch due to a false alarm, a breakdown of control at the top of the command chain, an unauthorized launch by a rogue commander in the field, and the theft of tactical nuclear weapons, according to Blair, a former U.S. Air Force missile officer.
Other experts are slightly more optimistic.
"I'm not sure it's much more dangerous, but I'm not sure it's much safer, either," said John Lepingwell, senior scholar in residence at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey (Calif.) Institute of International Studies, the nation's largest non-governmental body devoted to nuclear-proliferation issues. "I think there's still real cause to be concerned."
U.S. State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns argues that the Russian nuclear threat is greatly diminished.
"There is no question in my mind that we are absolutely safer than we were during the Cold War," Burns said, emphasizing the friendly state of relations between the former ideological enemies.
Despite those relations, the United States shares the concern over the former Soviet Union's nuclear arsenal. In 1991 Congress approved the Cooperative Threat Reduction program to help fund the dismantling of Russian nuclear weapons. Even the law's co-author, Indiana Republican Sen. Richard Lugar, cautions against lulling ourselves into undue complacency.
"This is an ongoing struggle in which the leftovers from the Cold War were so enormous that we will be at this for years," Lugar said. "We are not out of the woods and could be badly surprised."
No Need to Worry?
Cohen and Rodionov took a step forward. The two countries signed agreements to set up joint working groups on anti-missile defense and lending help to the impoverished Russian army.
"There are a great many problems in which the United States could offer us a great help," Rodionov said.
Rodionov warned in February that Russia could lose control over its nuclear arsenal for lack of funds. But while in Washington, his position was much more measured.
"We do experience some shortages in funding, in financing our armed forces," Rodionov said. "But nevertheless, the strategic nuclear forces have the same level of funding as they used to have for many years."
Rodionov's statements were clearly intended for U.S. consumption, Blair said. "I don't know the basis for that statement, unless he is describing the same level of inadequate funding they had last year," he said. The CIA reports and a wealth of similar documentation "fly in the face" of reassurances by Rodionov and senior U.S. officials that Russia's nukes are safe and sound.
"You don't have to be a rocket scientist to observe that there is a gross deterioration under way in the Russian military," said Blair. "And this has clearly affected the nuclear forces."
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Want to Buy a Bottle of Fission? Peddling a Nuclear Arsenal
By Jørgen Wouters ABCNEWS.com, July 23, 1999 http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/nuclear/nuclear2.html Photo http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/nuclear/images/arms_illo2.jpg
During the Cold War, we knew who our enemies were, and just how badly they could hurt us.
Only America's archfoe, the U.S.S.R., enjoyed the power to deliver a nuclear knockout, and terrorism was something that happened to other countries.
Those were the days.
As the Soviet Union disintegrated, so have the safeguards surrounding the raw materials needed to construct nuclear weapons. In the ensuing chaos, a lethal and lucrative trade in stolen plutonium and uranium has been unleashed on the world.
Besides the leakage of radioactive material, Russia also faces a deadly brain drain. With many scientists either unpaid or unemployed, the temptation to peddle their nuclear know-how to the highest bidder is great.
America must now confront the reality that a rogue nation or terrorist group could buyor may already have boughtthe materials and expertise needed to build a nuclear bomb.
"We certainly cannot assume that everything is going to be fine and nothing untoward will happen," said State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns. "In fact, we've got to assume that sooner or later there will be an incident, and we need to be prepared."
The Unthinkable Unknown Hundreds of attempts to smuggle nuclear materials out of Russia have been foiled, but nobody knows how many may have succeeded. Therein lies the frightening unknown. "There seems to be less interest [in covering the problem] in the media, but the underlying problem remains," said David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security. "How do we know someone we worry about hasn't already stolen the material?"
Despite the best intentions of the United States and its allies to help Russia cope with the U.S.S.R.'s nuclear legacy, many analysts agree that the efforts can't keep pace with the worsening situation. "We have a lot of programs, but it just doesn't seem to be enough," said Leonard Spector, director of the Carnegie Endowment's nuclear non-proliferation project.
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The Blackest Market - Where It Goes
By Jørgen Wouters ABCNEWS.com, July 23, 1999 http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/world/nuclear/nuclear2a.html Photo: http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/world/nuclear/images/pni_nucsmugglers.jpg
The former U.S.S.R. produced tons of fissile material whose atoms can be split or undergo fission to release nuclear energy to power its submarines, arm its warheads, drive its power plants and fuel its research.
Since the collapse of the U.S.S.R., the near-meltdown of the Russian economy brought about an attendant collapse in security procedures governing the handling, storage, disposal and protection of nuclear materials and weapons.
Russian Environment Minister Viktor Danilov-Danilyan recently said that disposing of all Russia's radioactive waste would cost a whopping $700 billionthis in a country whose 1996 gross domestic product was only $400 billion.
Horror stories abound of highly radioactive material stored haphazardly across the vast Russian land mass. Nuclear-submarine reactor cores sit unguarded in warehouses at the Vladivostok naval base. A research institute outside Moscow can't afford to dispose of cobalt-60 reactor-fuel rods; and scientists there say the rods pose the threat of another Chernobyl. And when workers at a shipyard near Murmansk stole 4.5 kilograms of partially enriched uranium, the investigating police official said the theft "was easier than taking a sack of potatoes."
A Nightmarish Litany
But to the dismay of Russia's neighbors, its nuclear problems are hardly an internal affair. Since the U.S.S.R. dissolved in 1991, workers, officers and guards desperate for cash have smuggled untold kilos of poorly guarded fissile material out of the former Soviet Union's thousands of military and civilian nuclear facilities.
In July 1994, Turkish police in Istanbul seized 22 pounds of uranium smuggled out of Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic. That August, a Lufthansa flight from Moscow landed in Munich carrying a lead-lined suitcase filled with 350 grams (12.5 ounces) of largely weapons-grade plutonium the smugglers had planned to sell for $70,000 a gram. And that December, Czech police found an appalling 3 kilograms (6.6 pounds) of highly enriched, weapons-grade uranium in the backseat of a parked car in Prague.
To put the Prague seizure in perspective, just 10 kilograms of highly enriched uranium could build a bomb with the firepower of "Little Boy," the bomb that slaughtered some 75,000 people in Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945.
Besides the usual suspects like Iran and Iraq, experts say Libya, Algeria, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia all are shopping the black market for fissile material. Unlike revolutionary groups, those countries enjoy the wherewithal to afford nuclear goods and services.
But as Albright pointed out, any group intent on wreaking nuclear havoc wouldn't necessarily have to construct a bomb or other sophisticated delivery system. Merely dispersing 3 to 5 kilograms of plutonium throughout Manhattan, he explained, might not kill many people, but it would severely contaminate a sizable chunk of real estate, dislocating thousands of residents and bringing the world's financial center to a standstill.
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19. Officer Caught Smuggling Nuke Fuel
By The Associated Press, July 23, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Russia-Radioactive-Smuggler.html http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990723/V000066-072399-idx.html
MOSCOW (AP) -- Customs police in Kazakstan arrested a Russian military officer who was allegedly trying to smuggle a small amount of nuclear fuel to Uzbekistan, a news report said today.
Capt. Alexei Konkov was detained at the Kazak-Uzbek border late Wednesday carrying a round tin container enveloped in lead plates, the ITAR-Tass news agency said.
A radioactivity check revealed that the container was emitting more than 50 times natural radiation levels, the report said.
According to ITAR-Tass, the radioactive material inside the container was nuclear reactor fuel. The substance was believed to have been stolen from the Baikonur cosmodrome, a space complex where Konkov worked on the Kazak steppe that Russia uses for most of its commercial and military rocket launches, the report said.
Russia has been rife with reports of smuggling of nuclear and toxic materials since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. But Russian officials insist that weapons-grade nuclear material has never been stolen or sold.
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20. World Briefings - EUROPE ... RUSSIA: JOURNALIST TO APPEAL
July 23, 1999 New York Times
Grigory Pasko, the navy captain and journalist acquitted of espionage charges arising from his reporting on the navy's dumping of radioactive waste, said he plans to appeal a lesser conviction on charges of improper military conduct. His lawyer had suggested that Mr. Pasko might be wiser not to challenge the conviction because there was a risk a new trial might be ordered. Mr. Pasko has already been spared prison time for the offense under a general amnesty for lesser lawbreakers. Michael Wines (NYT)
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WORLD In Brief ... EUROPE Yeltsin Authorizes Talks on Nuclear Arms
Compiled from news services Friday, July 23, 1999; Page A22 Washington Post http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/23/163l-072399-idx.html
MOSCOW -- President Boris Yeltsin authorized his prime minister to discuss reducing nuclear arms with the United States, including a review of the long-delayed START II treaty, the prime minister said.
Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin, who visited Yeltsin at his residence west of Moscow, is to leave Sunday for the United States.
START II, which would cut Russian and American nuclear stocks to a maximum of 3,500 warheads each, has languished in the parliament's lower house, the State Duma, since it was signed in 1993. Stepashin did not elaborate on what Yeltsin said about arms reduction.
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20. Yeltsin OKs Nuclear Talks With U.S
By Vladimir Isachenkov, Associated Press, July 22, 1999; 12:37 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990722/V000344-072299-idx.html
MOSCOW (AP) -- President Boris Yeltsin today authorized his prime minister to discuss reducing nuclear arms with the United States, including a review of the long-delayed START II treaty, the prime minister said.
Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin, who visited Yeltsin at his residence west of Moscow, was scheduled leave Sunday for the United States.
START II, which would cut Russian and American nuclear stocks to a maximum of 3,500 warheads each, has languished in the lower house, the State Duma, since it was signed in 1993. Stepashin did not elaborate on what Yeltsin said about arms reduction.
The meeting between Russia's leaders was the first since Yeltsin started his vacation on July 10. They also discussed upcoming parliamentary elections, friction with Chechnya and the state's efforts to control rising gasoline prices.
Russian television showed Yeltsin, dressed in a blue shirt, speaking to Stepashin across a small table. The tape didn't contain sound.
Yeltsin, 68, has been in and out of the hospital with a variety of health problems in the last few years, but in recent weeks has appeared active and relatively fit.
The two discussed parliamentary elections set for December. The Kremlin has said it wants the next parliament to be dominated by reformists, not Communists as in the current legislature.
The escalating conflict with the separatist republic Chechnya and a planned meeting with Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov was also mentioned. But Stepashin was not specific.
Stepashin said they discussed the state's attempts to rein in gasoline prices, which have risen 30 percent recently.
Stepashin is scheduled to return to Moscow from the United States on Wednesday.
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Message: 13 Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 09:42:22 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-10 7/23/99 - China - Korea
37. Missile parts sent to North Korea by Chinese companies
By Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES http://www.washtimes.com/news/news3.html#link
Chinese companies transferred missile components to North Korea last month in a sign Beijing is stepping up arms sales in response to the NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, The Washington Times has learned.
"We are concerned about Chinese entities providing material for North Korea's missile program," a senior administration official told The Times. "In our judgment, the Chinese government has no interest in seeing North Korea develop its missile capability."
The Pentagon believes that some of the missile technology contains material of U.S.-origin, and that the transfers violate Chinese promises not to ignore international missile export controls barring such sales to rogue states, said U.S. intelligence officials.
The transfers were uncovered several weeks ago by U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and National Security Agency, and outlined in sensitive reports sent to senior Clinton administration officials late last month.
The missile technology transfers to North Korea are viewed by administration national security officials as a troubling sign that China may be breaking out of restraints on its foreign weapons sales sought by the United States in discussions over the past several years.
According to the officials, the arms sales also are a response to the new anti-American mood in Beijing. China has refused to accept U.S. explanations for the mistaken bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, and is demanding compensation.
According to Pentagon intelligence officials, a DIA report said the Chinese technology sold to the North Korean missile program includes accelerometers, gyroscopes and special high-technology machinery.
Accelerometers and gyroscopes are key missile-guidance components; the machinery was described by the officials as precision grinding equipment useful for building missiles, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
U.S. intelligence knows the identities of the Chinese government-owned firms involved in the missile technology sales, but the names could not be learned.
The senior officials said the transfers do not appear to have the approval of the Chinese government, and the general topic of destabilizing arms sales has been raised in the past with Beijing officials. The current transfers, however, have not yet been discussed.
The missile sales followed recent visits between Chinese and North Korean officials that have improved ties between the two countries.
North Korea builds several types of missiles, including short-range Scuds, medium-range No Dongs and two long-range systems known as Taepo Dong-1 and Taepo Dong-2.
The first Taepo Dong-1 was test fired Aug. 31, and the longer-range Taepo Dong-2 could be launched sometime this month, the officials said.
North Korea's official news agency stated on Thursday that U.S., Japanese and South Korean government opposition to what they believe will be a new missile launch would not stop the North's space launches. The launch could take place "any time," the Korean Central News Agency said.
One official said the DIA report also identified the origin of the missile technology as coming from China, Russia and the United States.
"This could be guidance technology obtained from U.S. companies," the official said.
Under U.S. export restrictions, American high-technology with weapons applications cannot be re-exported without U.S. government approval.
Richard Speier, a specialist on the 29-nation Missile Technology Control Regime, known as the MTCR, said the China-North Korea missile trade could violate the accord and related U.S. laws.
"A long-standing problem has been the peculiar formulation of the Chinese government's statement of support for the MTCR," he said. "It is left in doubt whether they are controlling component and technologies as required by the regime. Accelerometers and gyroscopes, depending on their specific characteristics, might well be covered by the regime."
The transfer by the Chinese "could trigger sanctions" on the Chinese and North Koreans if the equipment is covered by the MTCR, Mr. Speier said in an interview.
U.S. anti-proliferation laws mandate the imposition of economic sanctions for MTCR violations.
Sanctions were imposed on Chinese missile manufacturers in 1993 after two Chinese companies transferred M-11 missile components to Pakistan. The sanctions were lifted a year later after Beijing agreed to abide by MTCR guidelines.
China's government said last year it will study joining the MTCR but so far has not become part of the international export agreement. Senior administration officials have said coaxing China to join the regime is a key arms-control objective.
Asked recently if China will increase its weapons proliferation as a result of the downturn in U.S.-China ties, Kurt Campbell, deputy assistant defense secretary for Asia, said "it's certainly an issue that we worry about."
"I think there is a concern that we'll see some backsliding on proliferation with not only a potential cutoff of dialogue, but perhaps questioning at the highest levels in China by some about the relationship with the United States," Mr. Campbell told defense reporters June 30.
Asked if there are signs China is exporting weapons to rogue states, Mr. Campbell said, "I do not want to go any further."
The public version of a CIA report to Congress released Friday also said China supplied missile technology to North Korea last year. The report said North Korea during the last six months of 1998 "obtained raw materials for its ballistic missile programs, especially from firms in China."
According to a well-informed U.S. official, one recent Chinese sale to North Korea involved the transfer of specialty steel with applications for North Korea's missile program.
Pentagon and White House officials said earlier this year that other intelligence reports showed that China was sharing space technology with North Korea that could boost Pyongyang's missile programs.
The space cooperation is believed to be a "cover" for North Korea's long-range missile program. The cooperation included travel to North Korea by scientists from the Chinese Academy of Launch Technology, which in the past has worked with U.S. satellite manufacturers.
A CIA spokesman declined to comment. A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy had no immediate comment.
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Japan Tries Stopping Missile Test
By Joseph Coleman, Associated Press, July 22, 1999; 2:52 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990722/V000010-072299-idx.html
TOKYO (AP) -- In meetings and summits around the world, Japan is giving allies and neighbors the same urgent message: Do what you can to dissuade North Korea from testing another ballistic missile.
Japan, however, has left untapped perhaps its most potent weapon of persuasion against Pyongyang: the massive flow of cash from North Koreans in Japan to their impoverished families back home.
The stream of money is so vital to North Korea -- and so sensitive to Japan's vocal Korean minority -- that Tokyo has dared only to hint at a possible cutoff should another missile be fired.
On the record, the government won't even touch the issue.
``Various measures ... including economic sanctions are under consideration,'' spokesman Akitaka Saiki said Wednesday. ``We can't tell you which measures will be taken at this point.''
Tokyo is desperate to prevent North Korea from repeating a test like the launch last August of a rocket over northern Japan. The test rattled Japan, putting the entire country within reach of an attack.
As signs mount that Pyongyang is getting ready for another launch, Japan has gone on an international offensive stretching from Bonn to Beijing to get other countries to help discourage a second test.
``Japan will make its utmost effort in cooperation with the United States and South Korea to prevent the North from firing another missile,'' Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi told Parliament last week.
As the pressure builds, the Japanese media has been reporting -- citing unnamed government sources -- that the government will threaten to ban remittances to North Korea unless Pyongyang cancels the test.
It wouldn't be the first time Japan has taken action against North Korea. After last year's test, Tokyo suspended vital food aid to Pyongyang and temporarily suspended participation in a program to replace the North's outdated nuclear reactors.
But the government's failure to say what it will do this time hobbles Japan's capacity to build a credible deterrent. There's no doubt that a cutoff would be devastating.
The money -- along with food, clothes and other necessities -- is carried regularly by Japan-based North Koreans ferrying between the two countries. The government could crack down by checking the bags of people headed to North Korea.
Officials have no estimate of how much is involved, but experts say the cash amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
Some predict chaos if the remittances are stopped. North Korea's economy is already devastated by decades of mismanagement and several years of anemic harvests and widespread hunger.
``The North Korean economy might go into a panic,'' said Kyokazu Koshida, with the Asia-Pacific Research Center in Tokyo. ``It's a huge amount -- that would have a profound impact.''
Such a move would also rile Japan's largest minority.
Japan is home to nearly 700,000 Koreans, about a third of them still loyal to the North. Many North Koreans in Japan -- among the world's richest -- are active in defending their homeland from criticism. Some send their children to separate North Korean schools in Japan.
Tokyo is also loathe to take strong action against North Korea -- particularly relatives of those living in Japan -- because it opens the government to allegations that it harbors a hostile policy toward Korea, which it colonized from 1910 until the end of World War II in 1945.
Even the vague threat of a cutoff has North Koreans in Japan worried.
``They say our sending money is like an illegal act, but it's not. It's trade and humanitarian aid,'' said Chungon So, of the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan. ``It's very unjust to incite people's fears.''
Still, even Japan's veiled warnings have caught Pyongyang's attention. Japanese government officials' daily statements on the potential of a missile launch regularly provoke reactions from North Korea.
On Wednesday, the North's state-run Korean Central News, citing an editorial in Rodong newspaper, attacked Japan for inventing ``the fiction'' of a missile launch as an excuse for moves against it.
North Korea ``will do what it should do, in disregard of any slander and `influence' from others,'' the dispatch said. ``The Korean people will surely make Japan pay.''
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38. SE Asia Meeting Opens Amid Disputes
By Laurinda Keys Associated Press Writer Wednesday, July 21, 1999; 6:57 p.m. EDT
SINGAPORE (AP) -- Slowly recovering from the continental economic crisis of 1997, Southeast Asia is now facing a slew of other conflicts that could rock the region: A six-nation dispute over the Spratly Islands. Disparity in democracy. Nuclear disarmament.
But foreign ministers arriving for a major regional meeting here Wednesday said they're optimistic they can handle the current controversies and improve Southeast Asia's tattered image at the same time.
``We have had a turbulent, yet challenging year,'' said Singapore Foreign Minister Shanmugam Jayakumar, host of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' annual meeting.
The group's ``reputation and credibility may have been dented, but ... ASEAN's luster is slowly but surely being restored,'' Jayakumar said.
The annual meetings of the 32-year-old organization are designed to settle differences and defuse tension. But Southeast Asia is still fragile after financial turmoil that began after Thailand's baht collapsed in July 1997. Other currencies and stock markets in Asia were quick to follow and several, including Singapore's, fell into recession.
Among the most explosive current issues is the dispute over the Spratly Islands. Six countries claim the islands, which are believed to be rich in minerals and straddle vital sea routes in the South China Sea.
Just Monday, a Chinese fishing vessel sank in the area after a collision with a Philippines naval ship. Earlier, Malaysia built a small structure on a reef in the area, angering its neighbors. Officials have expressed fear that jostling over territory could push countries involved into a more serious confrontation.
Philippines Foreign Minister Domingo L. Siazon, Jr. said Wednesday he will meet his Chinese counterpart, Tang Jiaxuan, to discuss the Spratly Islands.
And ASEAN foreign ministers are scheduled on Saturday to establish a commission aimed at making the region a nuclear weapons-free zone, under a treaty ratified in 1997.
Also controversial was Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan's insistance that ASEAN become more vocal in promoting democracy in the region -- despite the group's traditional discretion about its members' internal affairs.
``The trends towards greater openness and pluralism are those that none of us can afford to dismiss lightly or ignore without ominous consequences,'' Surin said.
ASEAN includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam.
Other countries participating in the talks, which will run through July 28, are: the United States, Russia, China, Japan, Australia, Canada, the European Union, South Korea, India, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Mongolia.
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39. NKorea asks sea border talks with U.S.
Updated 6:00 AM ET July 22, 1999, By CHARLES LEE http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/u/990722/06/international-talks
SEOUL, South Korea, July 22 (UPI) North Korea's state-run media says the country has proposed military talks with the United States to discuss the inter-Korean sea border.
The Central Broadcasting Station said Wednesday night that North Korea's chief delegate, Lt. Gen. Ri Chan-bok, asked for the establishment of a new sea boundary between North and South Korea to prevent additional armed clashes.
He suggested drawing a sea border line south of the current Northern Limit Line (NLL) and proposed working-level contacts between North Korean People's Army and the U.S. Forces to discuss the issue.
North Korea has refrained from recognizing the U.S.-led UNC it fought during the Korean War. Pyongyang has termed North Korea-UNC talks as "Korea-U.S. military talks."
On June 15, North Korea and South Korea exchanged gunfire in the buffer zone, 3 miles south of the NLL, off the western coast of the Korean Peninsula. It was touched off by North Korean naval boats' intrusion into South Korean waters. One North Korean torpedo boat was sunk and about 30 North Korean sailors are believed to have been killed during the skirmish.
North Korea has demanded that Seoul apologize and pay compensation for the maritime clash.
"If the U.S. forces side wants to resolve the West Sea (Yellow Sea) incident at an early date and prevent the recurrence of a conflict, it must respect maritime demarcation line based on the armistice agreement and international law," Ri said in the radio report.
The NLL "on the lips of the U.S. forces side" is the line which has no legal justification as it is in "wanton violation" of the armistice agreement and international law and which was marked unilaterally, said the radio station.
North Korea also threatened to walk out of military talks with UNC if the United States refuses to accept Pyongyang's demands.
"In that case we will no longer wish to waste time, sitting face to face with the U.S. forces side."
During the Panmunjom talks, the UNC rejected Pyongyang's request. It replied that the NLL imposed in 1953 at the end of the Korean War has been respected for decades and has served as the sea border. The inter- Korean border issue should be discussed between the two Koreas, it said.
But Pyongyang insisted to snub Seoul in border talks because it is not a signatory of the Korean armistice agreement.
The UNC urged again Thursday North Korea to honor the NLL and to accept its proposal to install a hotline call between the UNC and North Korea as a measure to prevent future armed clashes.
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40. North Korea, Ignoring Warnings, Proceeds With Plans to Test-Fire Missile
By CALVIN SIMS July 22, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/072299nkorea-missile.html
SEOUL, South Korea -- Despite stern warnings from the United States, Japan and South Korea, North Korea is proceeding with plans to test-fire a long-range ballistic missile this summer, diplomatic and security officials say.
The officials, from Western and Asian countries, expressed grave concerns in recent days that North Korea had ignored vigorous diplomatic efforts in recent weeks to convince the Communist country to abandon the test launching.
The long-range missile that North Korea intends to test is a Taepodong-2, which has an estimated range of up to 3,750 miles, making it capable theoretically of reaching Alaska or Hawaii, the officials said. The new rocket is an advanced version of the Taepodong-1, which North Korea fired over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean in August, raising fears across the region. That rocket has an estimated range of 1,250 miles.
"At this time all our intelligence indicates that North Korea will go through with a second missile test," said a Western security official. "That's really unfortunate because we will be forced to respond, to send a message that this behavior cannot be tolerated."
South Korea, Japan, and the United States have warned North Korea that if it launches the rocket, they will retaliate, most likely with sanctions that would cut off all foreign aid, including food and agricultural products vital to easing North Korea's widespread famine.
Since the end of the cold war, it has become increasingly easy for countries like North Korea to obtain old American and Russian missile technology. North Korea's Taepodong is basically a longer-range version of the 1950's Soviet Scud missile. While Taepodong-1 was not very accurate at hitting specific target, security experts say they believe that North Korea's second version has greatly improved.
As North Korea continues to threaten its Asian neighbors, opposition parties in Japan, South Korea, and the United States, are pressing their Governments to take stronger action. "We can only state as clearly as possible that another firing of a long-range missile would have serious consequences for improvement of relations with North Korea," Stephen W. Bosworth, the United States Ambassador in Seoul, recently told reporters here.
But North Korea has remained defiant in the face of the warnings, vowing to continue its missile program, which it said is a matter of national sovereignty. "We will go straight, guided by our faith and decision, no matter what others may say," North Korea's Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by its foreign news service, the Korean Central News Agency.
North Korean officials have said that the Taepodong missiles are used to ferry communications satellites into space, but American security experts disagree. They believe North Korea hopes one day to use the missiles to transport weapons of mass destruction. North Korea is also a supplier of missiles to the Middle East.
Concern over North Korea's missile program has been rising across the region and in the United States ever since foreign diplomats returned from Pyongyang earlier this month with reports that the reclusive country was preparing to launch a long-range missile. Those reports precipitated the warnings and cajolings from South Korea, Japan and the United States.
Military and intelligence operatives based in Seoul said in interviews that they expected North Korea to test the missile before the 51st anniversary of the Communist Government on Sept. 9.
The operatives said United States surveillance showed that North Korea is likely use its missile base in Musadan-ri, North Hamkyong Province, the same location where it launched Taepodong-1 last year.
The launching pad in Musadan-ri has been raised to accommodate a larger missile with longer range, they said.
Diplomats and security experts said North Korea's long-range Taepodong missile was a destabilizing weapon because it is likely to set off an arms race in Northeast Asia, as other countries seek to match North Korea's military capability.
At a meeting with President Clinton this month in Washington, President Kim Dae Jung of South Korea expressed the need for the South to develop its own deterrence against the North's missiles, which can reach anywhere on the Korean Peninsula.
Moreover, security experts said that another North Korea missile launching could lead Japan to embrace the United States theater missile defense program, which China has long viewed unfavorably as an American effort to bolster the defenses of Japan and Taiwan.
Japan has threatened not only to end all aid to North Korea if Taepodong-2 is launched but also to suspend its $1 billion contribution to a consortium that has agreed to provide North Korea with safe nuclear reactors and fuel-oil shipments in return for the North ending its nuclear program. "Japan's deep concern about North Korea's missile launching is not measurable," Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi has said.
North Korea's missile threat is expected to be high on the agenda of the South East Asian Nations Regional Forum to be held in Singapore beginning July 24.
The missile program is one of the few remaining bargaining chips that North Korea has with the United States, and by launching it, security experts said, North Korea believes it will gain more leverage and bargaining power in obtaining foreign aid and in dealing with South Korea.
"If one thinks that we, who regard independence as our life and soul, will not do what we should do because of somebody's slander and 'influence' upon us over the issue pertaining to our sovereignty, it is a height of folly and foolish daydream," the North Korean foreign news service said last week.
Also behind North Korea's push to launch the missile is an attempt to raise national morale and demonstrate military sophistication during a famine that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and after an embarrassing defeat in a naval clash with South Korea last month.
But Western diplomats here did not rule out a diplomatic solution, perhaps involving China, which maintains close ties with North Korea and has expressed its willingness to try to dissuade North Korea from proceeding with the launching.
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Message: 14 Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 08:42:37 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-3 7/23/99 - Depleted Uranium-1
[Now's a good time to pester Clinton about depleted uranium. For example, "Be careful, Mr. Clinton, if the wind is blowing when you visit the Balkans. Airborne depleted uranium doesn't discriminate between soldiers, refugees, presidents or kings."]
9. Clinton to attend Balkans summit
USA Today July 20, 1999 "Washington DC" http://usatoday.com/news/washdc/nc1.htm
WASHINGTON - President Clinton will travel to Sarajevo, Bosnia, on July 30 for a summit focusing on investing in the Balkan region, the White House announced Monday. Thirty heads of state will attend the summit sponsored by the European Union as a follow-up to NATO's air campaign over Yugoslavia. Barred from the meeting was Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. On the table will be ways to increase trade and investment in the Balkans to promote democratic reforms, peace and stability in the region.
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10. U.N. Checks Damage in Yugoslavia
Monday, July 19, 1999; 1:44 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990719/V000577-071999-idx.htm l
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) -- A U.N. team of experts began a mission Monday to investigate environmental damage caused by the 78-day NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, particularly chemical pollution possibly from airstrikes on factories.
Yugoslav officials and scientists have claimed the destruction of chemical factories and oil refineries in the raids caused serious environmental damage, and people in some targeted areas have complained of respiratory and other health problems.
The 17-member U.N. team will visit more than a dozen major industrial sites, waterways and other areas and produce a preliminary report by the end of the month. Four other missions are planned to draw up a broader report in September.
The team will also examine claims of increased levels of radiation caused, Yugoslav officials say, by NATO missiles containing depleted uranium. NATO has denied the possibility of nuclear radiation from its missiles.
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UN team sifts Serb pollution Novi Sad: The refinery blazes after a Nato raid
By Environment Correspondent Alex Kirby, July 23, 1999, BBC Sci/Tech http://news2.thls.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid%5F401000/401981.stm
International experts invited by the United Nations to assess the environmental damage caused by the Balkan war have arrived in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad.
The experts are working for the Balkans Task Force (BTF), a joint initiative of the UN Environment Programme (Unep) and the UN Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat).
The task force is chaired by a former environment minister of Finland, Pekka Haavisto, who has said the aim is to produce "a neutral and scientifically credible report on the situation".
White fog cloud
The team has already visited the Pancevo industrial complex, 15 km from Belgrade, which was heavily bombed.
The town contains an oil refinery, a fertiliser factory and a chemical plant. A raid in April hit storage tanks which released large amounts of vinyl chloride monomers (VCMs) into the air.
The VCMs, used for making plastics, caught fire, producing a white fog which Pancevo's mayor, Srdjan Mikovic, said rolled across the town.
VCMs are carcinogenic. Soon after the raid, the Pancevo Institute for Health Protection recorded concentrations more than 10,000 times above safe industrial levels.
Thousands of tonnes of crude oil and refined products are said to have burned off after the refinery was hit. Officials have told local people not to eat vegetables grown round Pancevo, or to eat fish from the Danube, where chemicals released by the bombing ended up.
They are said to have included sodium hydroxide, nitric acid and 100 tonnes of mercury. The head of the town's environmental protection department, Milan Borna, said: "The full extent of the damage will show in coming years".
Oil leaks
"We fear that the worst effects may be degenerative changes in future generations."
The UN experts have gone to Novi Sad to assess the damage caused by the bombing of the refinery.
They are taking samples, seeing how much of the oil was burnt, and trying to judge how much leaked into the groundwater.
Some of them are to return to Pancevo on 25 July for further investigations there. They are working with a similar team of experts, the Focus group, sent by the governments of Switzerland, Austria, Greece and Russia.
A Unep spokesman, Robert Bisset, said the BTF team was getting all the co-operation it needed from the Serb authorities.
"We ourselves decide where we want to go", he told BBC News Online. "And wherever it is we decide on, the Serbs are giving us full access."
Mr Haavisto is expected to brief journalists in Belgrade on 27 July, shortly before the team ends its field work.
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11. A Ghost City of Mixed Poisons NATO Bombs Left Site of Petrochemical Complex a Toxic Slough
By William Booth Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, July 21, 1999; Page A15 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/21/102l-072199-idx.html
PANCEVO, Yugoslavia, July 20--The largest petrochemical complex in the Balkans now feels like a post-industrial ghost town, scarred by hellish fires and choked with twisted debris. No one works here, except the U.N. inspectors who arrived today, and they are very careful where they step.
Just as the scorched and looted landscape of Kosovo is a legacy of the late war, so too are the oil refinery, fertilizer plant and petrochemical complex of Pancevo, which were heavily and repeatedly bombed by NATO warplanes.
From their ruptured storage tanks, they bleed a toxic witch's brew of ammonia, crude oil, liquid chlorine, hydrochloric acid, mercury and vinyl chloride monomers--a component of industrial plastics.
The chemicals, some of them highly carcinogenic, burned out of control for days, drifting through the city of 130,000 in clouds of white mist and black smoke, spreading across the landscape and drooling into the canals and rivers that feed the Danube River. Officials reported "black rain" falling in nearby regions.
Teams of technicians and inspectors from the U.N. environmental agency and from FOCUS, a similar group composed of Swiss, Russian, Austrian and Greek members, entered the complex today to scratch in the dirt and dip vials into canals to see what the NATO bombardment wrought. The samples are being sent to laboratories around the world, and recommendations and reports will be issued soon.
Roland Wiederkehr, a member of the Swiss parliament and of FOCUS, said he saw droplets of mercury spattered around the site, while the transport canals beside one of the plants were filled with crude oil. "It was just amazing to see," Wiederkehr said.
The environmental damage at the site will take months, and perhaps years, to assess--along with its potential threat to human health. Moreover, it will be difficult to determine specific effects of the bombings here, since Pancevo has had problems with lower-level pollution for years.
The city itself--about 10 miles from Belgrade on the north side of the Danube--was spared a good measure of the airborne fallout from the airstrikes, because prevailing winds blew most of the smoke to the west.
But in the days after the initial bombings, government officials suggested that pregnant women leave the city, and some physicians have since suggested that women early in their pregnancies seek abortions.
Before dawn on April 18, NATO bombs hit a storage tank containing vinyl chloride monomers (VCM)--a notorious carcinogen--which burned and produced a white fog that spread across Pancevo.
Around sunrise, the Pancevo Institute for Health Protection recorded concentrations of VCM moving through the town that were 10,600 times more than safe industrial levels.
Pancevo Mayor Srdjan Mikovic recalled how the cloud rolled across the city and how people ran into the streets, some wearing masks, to watch it pass. Mikovic said it seemed like something out of a horror movie. "We made a videotape," he said. "You can see the gas floating through our town."
On June 5, Mikovic sent an urgent appeal to humanitarian and environmental groups around the world, warning them of the cost of bombing the city's petrochemical plants. "Pancevo has become a ghost city covered with black clouds on the sky and mixed poisons, which rolled through the streets trying to find its victims," he wrote in an e-mail that day. "The surroundings of Pancevo turned into a huge refugee camp"--a reference to the tens of thousands of people who fled the city because of the smoke.
Mikovic appealed to NATO to stop bombing the chemical facilities. "I am sorry that when I began to warn authorities here and in Europe how dangerous it was to bomb Pancevo that nobody paid any attention," he said.
At his office today, Mikovic offered his guests postcards of Pancevo that showed burning refineries and black smoke floating over the city. "I am sorry I cannot be more merry," he said. "But look at these."
During the war, NATO spokesmen described the plants as legitimate military targets, and few allied officials seemed to consider the possible environmental hazards of bombing the petrochemical and fertilizer facilities.
The complex was built in consultation with engineers from the United States and Europe, and Mikovic said NATO airstrike planners should have known what was in the storage tanks.
Simon Bancov, Belgrade's inspector for the protection of the human environment, has warned against eating vegetables produced in the immediate area of Pancevo. He also has issued a temporary ban on fishing in the nearby Danube because of the potentially large quantities of toxic chemicals that continue to seep into the river--already one of the most polluted in Europe.
Mikovic said he does not want to sound too sensational about the environmental and health impacts of the bombing. He welcomed the U.N. and FOCUS groups to do their testing and write their reports. "Then the world will know what is the truth," he said.
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NATO Missiles' Legacy in Serb Town
By The Associated Press, July 23, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Yugoslavia-Pancevo-Pollution.html
PANCEVO, Yugoslavia (AP) -- The grass is bleached to a scary pale gray and little Ana has trouble breathing when she plays in the park, weeks after NATO wreaked environmental havoc by bombing key industrial sites.
Pancevo, an industrial town 5 miles northeast of Belgrade, was the town worst hit during the air raids, and doctors and environmental experts say the aftereffects of the bombing will be felt for years -- and maybe generations -- to come.
Huge amounts of chemicals and poisonous fumes have polluted the air, the ground and the water in and around Pancevo.
The damage dates back to April when NATO missiles struck Pancevo's three major industrial sites -- an oil refinery, a nitrogen fertilizer factory and a chemical plant, releasing hundreds of tons of toxic materials which spread over the entire region.
Weeks after the bombing ended, a visit to the fertilizer factory still produced a stinging sensation in the nose and throat. A sticky, yellowish fluid, apparently a leaked chemical, stank and slowly solidified under the blazing summer sun near the front gate.
``I am afraid to even think what we breathed in, what chemicals got into our bodies,'' said Tamara Radjenovic, a 32-year-old teacher, as she watched her 5-year old daughter Ana play in a park. Every few minutes the girl came to her mother to rest, gasping for air.
``She gets tired so easily, she has dark circles around her eyes. ... It wasn't like that before the bombs. She is not the child she used to be,'' Mrs. Radjenovic said of her daughter with a deep, sorrowful sigh.
Local doctors who examined the girl said the symptoms were caused by the chemicals and that there was nothing they could do now.
Pancevo's municipal authorities have compiled a day-by-day list of dangerous leaks, fires and explosions since March 24 when the air raids began. The town of 70,000 was targeted from the beginning.
At least 25,000 tons of fuel, mostly from the bombed refinery, burned into the atmosphere, blanketing a wide area with a layer of tar.
More than 1,400 tons of poisonous vinyl chloride burned and spread noxious fumes when NATO bombs hit a storage tank at Pancevo's Petrohemija factory. The substance, normally used to produce plastics, is carcinogenic, and 2 percent of it turns into even more dangerous phosgene when burned.
A hundred tons of mercury, almost as much sodium hydroxide and tons of other chemicals, including nitric acid, burned up or leaked into the Danube River.
Those substances almost invariably cause respiratory problems, nausea, diarrhea, dizziness, skin rashes and blisters when inhaled in even the smallest quantities.
In one of the worst nights of bombing, instruments measuring pollution in Pancevo showed a vinyl chloride concentration of 0.43 milligrams per cubic meter, or 8,600 times more than recommended maximum levels.
Doctors in Pancevo said there were about a hundred cases of acute intoxication, mostly among nightshift workers, security and firemen who were at the sites during the nighttime raids. Three of them have died.
Health authorities are preparing a comprehensive report expected to be released later this year. While doctors have been instructed to withhold details, they do acknowledge a sharp increase in patients suffering from pollution-related symptoms.
``I had a patient who was treated for infertility last year. She wanted a baby so much, she was two months pregnant when the bombing began,'' said a local gynecologist, insisting on anonymity. ``She got so terrified of possible birth defects that she had an abortion last month.''
The woman made her decision after a surge of miscarriages in the town in late April, he said.
Milan Borna, head of the environmental protection department in Pancevo, said, ``The full extent of the damage will show in coming years. ... We fear that the worst effects may be degenerative changes in future generations.''
Meanwhile, a 17-member expert team, assembled by the U.N. Environment Program, arrived in Yugoslavia this week and immediately headed to Pancevo to take samples of water and soil for analysis in two mobile laboratories.
A preliminary report is due later this month and a broader one in September. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan will then decide on possible follow-up measures.
A mission member, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a chief motive for the U.N. visit was the health of the Danube River which flows through Yugoslavia and into neighboring Romania and Bulgaria, carrying a share of the toxic chemicals downstream.
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OPINION Another victim of Milosevic - the environment
Christopher Walker, Christian Science Monitor, July 21, 1999 http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/1999/07/21/fp9s1-csm.shtml http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/1,1249,100012167,00.html?
Through his catastrophic policies of intolerance and ethnic separatism, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has poisoned the political atmosphere in the Balkans with hatred and violence.
In the aftermath of Operation Allied Force, you can add another tragedy to the list of horrors resulting from Mr. Milosevic's rule: environmental contamination caused by the destruction of the war. During Operation Allied Force's 78 days, beside hitting military targets, NATO consistently bombed strategic sites such as oil refineries, fuel storage depots, fertilizer and petrochemical plants, and numerous other industrial complexes.
Despite choosing to absorb enormous punishment from NATO, Milosevic has nevertheless lost Kosovo. At the same time, as a result of his recalcitrance he has exposed his fellow countrymen - as well as others in neighboring countries - to serious environmental consequences. Many Serbs are now wondering what exactly they gained by their leader's holding out for 2-1/2 months.
The citizens of Western Europe and the US desired an end to Milosevic's tyranny, but were prepared to confront this problem only in a remote, antiseptic fashion - namely, one that didn't jeopardize their own professional soldiers. So the ingredients were ideal in Kosovo for a protracted conflict that saw a substantial portion of the allies' fire power directed toward Serbia's infrastructure.
With significant environmental damage to the air, water, and soil likely, the United Nations, European Union, and a number of other organizations are calling for urgent assessment and cleanup work in and around Serbia.
Contamination of the Danube River ecosystem and the Black Sea is one example of the major environmental harm facing the region. There are concerns that toxins have spilled into the river as a result of the bombing of the oil refinery in Novi Sad and the chemical and fertilizer plant in Pancevo, just outside of Belgrade. The Danube is a source of drinking water for 10 million people in the region.
In addition, fears are being voiced about the impact of depleted uranium (DU) contained in NATO munitions on Serb and Kosovar Albanian civilians. American A-10 Warthog jets, which saw action during the Kosovo conflict, use armor-piercing DU bullets made from nuclear weapons waste. Battlefields littered with the residue of spent DU bullets remain radioactive almost indefinitely and the dust of vaporized DU rounds can be spread widely by wind. The health risks of this to humans and animals are hotly debated.
During the Kosovo conflict, Yugoslav state media - under Milosevic's tight control - devoted extensive coverage to real or imagined environmental damage in order to help galvanize public opinion against NATO. Now in the aftermath of hostilities, this same state media is conspicuously silent about the degree of the damage.
It is a potentially tragic situation: The Yugoslav authorities now are apparently concealing the extent of the environmental danger out of fear of inciting panic. Coming clean on the damage to an already seething public would mean, among other things, acknowledging a problem Serbian authorities are ill-equipped to handle and for which outside assistance is essential.
To further complicate matters, there is a political obstacle to international help for environmental cleanup in Serbia. The US and several key European allies have indicated that, other than the most basic humanitarian aid, no international assistance will be granted to Serbia as long as Milosevic - an indicted war criminal - is in power.
Thus, environmental destruction is another enormous problem Milosevic has caused, and another where his refusal to relinquish power harms the very people he professes to protect.
Clearly, on Milosevic's brutal cost-benefit ledger, his own people have been placed low on the list of priorities.
The sooner Serbs deem their leader's removal their own top priority, the sooner Serbia can start to repair the vast damage done to the atmosphere, both in political and environmental terms.
Christopher Walker is a New York-based analyst specializing in Eastern European affairs.
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Poisons Of War
FRIDAY, July 23, 1999 Newsweek http://www.newsweek.com/nw-srv/tnw/today/ps/ps01th_1.htm
The bombing of Yugoslavia may have ended six weeks ago, but the ecological aftershocks are just beginning. A European Commission study has found that NATO's 11-week air war has left a legacy of poisoned water, radioactive air and potentially contaminated food in Serbia as well as some of its neighbors. "The environment in the whole territory of Yugoslavia was affected as a result of the military conflict," the Regional Environment Center for Central and Eastern Europe says in one of the first comprehensive reports on the subject. "The effects of the bombing of [its] industrial facilities are a serious threat both locally and regionally to human health in the long-term."
One of the most immediate threats: air pollution caused by NATO's use of depleted uranium weapons and its bombing of chemical and oil complexes in Belgrade and Novi Sad. A Yugoslav report cited by the study said it had found radioactive pollution from the uranium-tipped shells and vinyl chloride monomers that reached concentrations of 10,600 times more than permitted levels near the Pancevo petrochemical plant. These attacks also released other carcinogenic and toxic substances linked to miscarriages, birth defects and fatal nerve and liver diseases. This pollution could worsen over time as it accumulates in soil and plants, endangering rare flora and fauna and creeping into the human food chain. The water supply is also at risk. While the April 18 Pancevo attack leaked oil and poisons into the Danube river, about one million households are short of water after pipelines were destroyed in several Serbian cities. "The greatest chronic risk to the environment is to the water," noted the report. "The build up of pollutants in the Danube River reservoirs...are a likely consequence of the conflict." The conflict has caused less obvious consequences too. Food shortages are expected because farmers could not plant crops like corn and vegetables or fertilize those in the ground. The destruction of Yugoslavia's electric-power system and oil industry will likely leave residents with insufficient heating during the coming winter, which is expected to force many people to cut down trees for warmth. This uncontrolled felling may in turn devastate forest ecosystems and worsen soil erosion. "So far there is no evidence of a large-scale ecological catastrophe," said the report. "[But] just because there have been no acute large-scale effects at the moment does not mean that there will be no long-term effects." Arlene Getz
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Related Article: Toxic Bombs?
THURSDAY, April 29, 1999 http://www.newsweek.com/nw-srv/issue/18_99a/tnw/today/ps/ps01we_1.htm
Has the Yugoslav war triggered an ecological crisis, too? Behind the humanitarian disaster of desperate refugees and civilian victims of off-target bombs, scientists are increasingly concerned about the conflict's long-term impact on the environment. Their most immediate concern: the pollution from NATO's bombing of chemical and oil plants in Belgrade and Novi Sad. The April 18 attack on the Pancevo petrochemicals complex, for example, dispatched toxic gases like chlorine and hydrochloric acid into the sky above the Serbian capital. Serbian authorities said carcinogen levels in the air that afternoon were 7,200 times over the permitted limit and warned local residents not to eat home-grown vegetables. At the same time, Pancevo workers afraid of an explosion at the plant reportedly released carcinogenic ethylene dichloride into the Danube River, where it was expected to move downstream to Romania and Bulgaria. In neighboring Macedonia, an Environment Ministry inspector warned that the furans and dioxins released by bombings could deplete the ozone layer. "With these attacks, the alliance has consciously risked a global environmental catastrophe," the anti-Milosevic Group 17 said in a recent statement e-mailed from Yugoslavia.
Environmentalists are even more concerned about the possible use of depleted uranium weapons. Although NATO has refused to confirm their use in the Balkans, the metal has been widely used as ballast in U.S. cruise missiles. The radioactive ammunition is also used by a range of tanks and aircraft and was deployed by A-10 Warthog jets to pierce Iraqi tanks during the 1991 Gulf war. "We've been asking [NATO] for several weeks whether they are using depleted uranium weapons, and the answer depends on who you talk to," said Dan Fahey, a case manager for the Swords to Plowshares veterans group. "My understanding is that there's a good chance they will be used if they haven't been already," he said. Depleted uranium, regarded by many scientists as a possible cause of Gulf war syndrome and raised cancer rates among Iraqi children, could affect the Balkans for years. "You don't want this stuff inside your body," said Rosalie Bertell, president of the Toronto-based International Institute of Concern for Public Health (http://www.globaleduc.org/iicph.htm). "It has several thousand years of half-life and once it has been fired it becomes [like] an aerosol which can travel 50 to 60 kilometers," she told Newsweek.com "In many ways it's like landmines. It carries on hurting people long after the war is over." Arlene Getz
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Message: 15 Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 10:09:41 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-6 7/23/99 - Russia-2
21. Russian Captain Cleared of Espionage
By Anatoly Medetsky, Associated Press, July 20, 1999; 2:57 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990720/V000553-072099-idx.html
VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (AP) -- A Russian Navy captain who blew the whistle on nuclear-waste dumping by the Pacific Fleet was cleared today of treason and espionage charges.
The Pacific Fleet military court found Capt. Grigory Pasko innocent of the charges, saying the information that he had passed on to the Japanese television stations NHK was not secret.
Pasko was still found guilty of abuse of service duty for personal gain and violating the interests of society and the state. He was sentenced to three years in prison, but immediately set free under an amnesty bill signed into law last month by President Boris Yeltsin.
Prosecutors accused Pasko, who was arrested in November 1997, of passing on state secrets to NHK and divulging information about the combat readiness of Russia's Pacific Fleet.
Pasko said the Federal Security Service -- one of the successors of the Soviet-era KGB -- had made the case to punish him for reports he filed to NHK on the fleet's nuclear-waste dumping practices. Some of the footage showed Russian sailors allegedly tossing radioactive waste into the Sea of Japan.
Pasko said his material documented environmental hazards at several fleet facilities, but did not involve classified information.
The military court in the far eastern city of Vladivostok agreed. It also found that much of the evidence against Pasko was collected in violation of the law, and that two documents put forward by the prosecution had been falsified.
Pasko said he had expected a more severe sentence, but still criticized the verdict, saying he shouldn't have been convicted of any crime.
``Here in Russia, if the KGB takes up a case there is never an acquittal,'' he said. ``I came out today but tomorrow someone else will go to jail. First of all, we need a precedent of an acquittal.''
Pasko's lawyer, Anatoly Pyshkin, said the defense still hadn't decided whether to appeal the verdict. It has seven days to do so.
His lawyer said prosecutors ``think that having spent 20 months in jail, Grigory will be happy and will not appeal this sentence. But in this case there should only have been an acquittal.''
Pasko qualified for the amnesty because he had already served more than a third of his full 3-year sentence and was a first-time offender.
Reporter Finds Russia Has Not Outlived Secrecy (Jan. 31, 1999) http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/013199russia-journalist.html
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22. SPECIAL REPORT: THE HIDDEN CITY Hard Times Now at Russia's Once-Pampered Nuclear Centers
By MICHAEL R. GORDON, November 18, 1998 http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/111898russia-nuke.html Photo - http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/111898soviet-nuclear-new.jpg
KRASNOYARSK-26, Russia -- When Andrei Sokolov came to this nuclear city more than 30 years ago it was a bastion of privilege for the Soviet Union's scientific elite.
Its very existence was a state secret. Behind barbed-wire fences, and hidden inside a mountain of granite, three nuclear reactors produced tons of plutonium for nation's nuclear arsenal. Its scientists, the nation's brightest, lived the Soviet dream: the best food and wages the Kremlin could provide.
Krasnoyarsk-26 remains closed off from the world. But these days it is an impoverished ward of the state, and a vexing worry for Russian and American officials who fear Russia's best scientists will leave for aspiring nuclear powers like Iran and Iraq.
Sokolov, 58, one of the city's top nuclear specialists, says he is not leaving. He sometimes goes months without his meager salary, and he and his neighbors recently endured a few weeks without heat. Like the humblest Russian peasant, his wife, Nadezhda, helps make ends meet by canning cabbages, cucumbers and tomatoes from the garden at their dacha, and she cannot look back without a twinge of regret.
"It was better then," she said. "The city was clean. Everything was in abundance. There was no economic panic. We were young and everything seemed beautiful to us."
While the Sokolovs are stoical about the future, nobody can be sure about the thousands of other specialists in Russia's 10 nuclear cities.
The Russian government has become so concerned about the tumbling morale of its top nuclear scientists that it has ordered its security services to secretly monitor them, Russia's minister of atomic energy said in an interview.
In Washington, the Energy Department has pledged as much as $30 million in assistance through 1999 to start up new businesses in the hope that the enterprises will be able to attract hundreds of millions more in Western investment.
But critics worry that the aid is too little to make a difference. And with Russia's economy in crisis and investors fleeing, attracting foreign investment is harder than ever.
As winter begins creeping across the heartland, nuclear workers have taken to the streets to demand back pay. Guards at nuclear laboratories have abandoned their posts to forage for food. Power shortages threaten to shut down electronic security systems designed to safeguard stores of bomb-grade materials.
Krasnoyarsk-26 has endured its share of tribulations: a restive workforce, months of unpaid wages and the temporary shutdown of its lone nuclear reactor, which forced residents to endure the bitter Siberian chill.
"The situation in the nuclear closed cities is very close to catastrophic," said Viktor Orlov, director of the Moscow-based Center for Policy Studies and an expert on Russia's nuclear complex.
The City: Huge Fortress Built With Slave Labor
The armed guards at the checkpoint for Krasnoyarsk-26 provide a sobering reminder to visitors that they are about to enter a state within a state.
Outsiders must get the blessing of the Federal Security Service, the heir to the KGB. Passports are inspected and, in the case of foreigners, escorts provided.
The residential heart of this city of seven square miles gives a hint of its past glory. There is an artificial lake with three beaches. Its movie theater, which used to receive first-run Soviet films the day after they appeared in Moscow, displays an ad for the American film "Titanic."
There are more sports facilities than in most Russian cities of this size, and a well-tended park, which features a statue of Lenin staring vacantly into space. (It had been looking approvingly at Stalin before Nikita Khrushchev launched his campaign to de-Stalinize the nation and the dictator's statue was removed.)
The train station that the city's scientists and engineers use to go to work looks like a typical suburban platform, save for the fact it is protected by armed interior ministry guards and serves an electric train that heads straight into a fortified mountain.
The subterranean complex at the other end of a three-mile-long tunnel is a cavernous, multistory honeycomb of nuclear reactors, plutonium laboratories, cafeterias and workshops -- some 3,500 rooms in all.
It is the mountain that persuaded Stalin and Lavrenty Beria, his secret police chief, to build the complex in this remote stretch of Siberia.
The granite peak, they calculated, would shelter the complex against an American nuclear strike, enabling the Soviet Union to produce bomb-grade plutonium after a nuclear war. The nearby Yenisei River, one of Siberia's mightiest, would cool the plutonium-generating reactors.
No efforts were spared to turn this cold war project into a reality. The chief construction engineers were military officers. Most of the brawn, however, was provided by slave labor.
According to the city's records, some 70,000 prisoners worked here from 1950 to 1964, digging out the mountain -- excavating more rock than was used to build Egypt's largest Pyramid.
Many were veterans, farmers and workers, who may have done little more than steal a sack of potatoes to feed their families. Several hundred foreigners were also brought here for forced labor, including, the city's punctilious records show, prisoners from Germany, Poland, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Spain, Finland and "one Negro."
The streets of Krasnoyarsk-26 are named after Soviet heros and city founders, but the only trace of the prisoners is the pitiful plot of overgrown and unmarked graves that straddles the border of the town. Now, some graves have been defaced by local vandals while others have been covered by a garage.
The Past: Years of Privilege Take Their Toll Now
Krasnoyarsk-26's fall from grace has made its present troubles harder for many of its residents to bear. Unlike Russia's sorry factory towns or collective farms, this city got used to being a pampered enclave for the nation's top engineering talent, and many inhabitants cannot look back without a nagging sense of regret.
"The early days were full of enthusiasm," said Ivan Mashkovtsev, a former KGB official who used to oversee security at the nuclear complex.
Its workforce earned 50 percent more than its counterparts outside the city gates. Food was ample and there was no rationing or lines. Vacations were generous: 36 work days a year and 48 days for those who labored inside the mountain.
The sense of national purpose was fortified by ironhanded secrecy. For the first few years, none of the residents was allowed to leave. Later, when travel within the Soviet Union was allowed, the word "plutonium" was stripped from their vocabulary. If anyone asked, they could say that they worked for an iron ore mine or lived on a military base.
There were no telephone lines connecting Krasnoyarsk-26 to nearby cities and villages; the telephone lines used by the top leadership ran straight to Moscow.
Because the city was left off Soviet maps, residents called it Krasnoyarsk-26, using the number on the post office box where their mail was sent at the open city of Krasnoyarsk, 40 miles south.
Krasnoyarsk's plutonium industry did not stay secret for long. According to Russian officials, American intelligence learned about the reactors in the 1963, several years after its second reactor began to operate.
Still, Krasnoyarsk-26's reactors kept churning away. According to some Western estimates, they produced more than 40 tons of bomb-grade plutonium, about one-third of the plutonium used to build the Soviet arsenal.
With the world awash in deadly plutonium, two of the three reactors here have been shut down.
The remaining reactor provides heat for the city. It still produces plutonium as a byproduct that is separated from the reactor's nuclear waste and stored as a powder for safekeeping.
To many, the loss of the secret city's cold war mission has been a devastating psychological blow.
"The main problem is probably not the loss of material wealth," Mashkovtsev said. "The problem is the way people look at the nuclear industry. People here feel like they are unneeded, especially when they hear others say that everything they did was unnecessary."
The Present: Shortage of Money Breeds Suffering
For Valery Lebedev, the director of Krasnoyarsk-26's nuclear operations and a veteran resident of the city, holding the complex together is an increasingly daunting task.
Some 10,000 people still work at the nuclear complex. But it has received only two-thirds of the government funds it was expecting this year.
"The prices have increased but we cannot raise wages, because we do not even pay people what they are supposed to be paid," Lebedev said. "We try to do our best to pay something. If we don't have money we give food."
The money crunch has taken its toll. Even keeping the lone reactor running is not a simple proposition.
In September, a budget shortfall delayed a shipment of uranium fuel. Then workers in the radio-chemistry laboratory, where plutonium is separated from the nuclear waste, mounted a brief protest. The reactor was out of operation for weeks, leaving the city without heat.
"We are concerned when a person has to think all the time about how to feed his family," Lebedev explained. "That's not a good time to carry out some important operations."
It is also affecting arms control efforts. The Russian government has promised the United States it will convert the Krasnoyarsk-26 reactor and two similar reactors at another closed city, Tomsk-7, so that they no longer produce plutonium by 2000.
But Russian officials said the conversion will almost certainly have to be delayed because of budgetary and technical problems.
Without generous funds from Moscow, the city's character has begun to change. It is quieter, greener and safer than most than most Russian cities, but it is no longer walled off from the problems of modern-day Russia.
The shortage of funds has affected the city's medical services which suspended all but emergency operations in August when medicine and surgical gloves ran out.
Like other scientists, Sokolov and his family have felt the blow. They live in a cramped, but tidy apartment, crowded with books and pictures of grandchildren.
Sokolov, tall, lean and graced with an impish sense of humor, relishes his work and his colleagues and regales guests with tales of his trips through the still untamed taiga, the storied Siberian wilderness that stretches north to the Arctic tundra.
Their rewards for long years of service behind the barbed-wire city limits, however, is a meager one. Sokolov's salary, which sometimes has been delayed for months, is about $150 a month. His wife, a chemist, has been paid more regularly, but only receives $30 a month.
Their salaries are supplemented by small pensions, granted in recognition of their decades of toil. Each receives $37.
Their children have delivered their verdict on the city's future. The Sokolovs' son works in the city, but their two daughters, who received degrees in science, moved away years ago and have no desire to return.
Pensioners and laid-off workers have an even harder time.
Valentina Mazurova worked as a construction engineer when Krasnoyarsk-26 was a boomtown. A sturdy woman with an engaging smile, she has given up her dreams of travel and supplements her monthly pension by selling dried fruit in the outdoor market. On a good day, she may earn $2.
Others residents have turned to the world outside the wire for work. Each weekday morning, several thousand pile into a caravan of cars and buses that snakes its way to the city of Krasnoyarsk.
Lebedev would like to see the secret city opened up. That, he believes, would bring in new business and money and make the city less dependent on the dying military sector.
Few residents, however, agree. They see the barbed-wire fences as a final barrier against the turmoil sweeping the land and want to keep Krasnoyarsk-26 closed despite the economic costs.
"The stronger the crisis the more people want to live in isolation," said the Andrei Katargin, the mayor of Zheleznogorsk, the name of the residential area inside the fences.
The Future: Replacement Jobs Desperately Needed
In Moscow, the closed cities have become a heavy burden for Yevgeny Adamov, Russia's atomic energy minister. Krasnoyarsk-26 is just part of the problem. The director of the nuclear design center Chelyabinsk-70 shot himself in 1996, as that closed city faltered under the weight of unpaid wages.
Morale is so low that Adamov regularly lectures the authorities in the nuclear cities not to pay plumbers and common laborers more than nuclear scientists. The approaching winter threatens to make a bad situation worse.
Closing down the cities is not an option. They are still needed to disassemble weapons and safeguard nuclear materials, and nobody wants the scientists to be tempted to go abroad.
As the cities deteriorated, Russian intelligence began the secret monitoring of the top Russian scientists, whose bomb-designing skills would be particularly valuable to an aspiring nuclear power or to the United States, Adamov said. The United States itself is worried about Russian scientists' leaving to help Iraq, Iran, North Korea and other aspiring nuclear powers. It has agreed to provide money for their employers to switch to non-nuclear ventures.
The Russians "call them sensitive professions," Adamov said. "and we know all these people by name. Even they don't know that they are in this group. We make sure they are provided for."
The atomic energy ministry's long-term plan is to cut the nuclear workforce by as much as a third and create an equivalent number of new jobs in the commercial sector. Of the three-quarter of a million people who live in the closed cities, 125,000 work directly in the nuclear enterprises.
"People in the closed cities are like children," Adamov said. "The gap between ordinary cities and the free market is quite big, but the gap between people who lived in a closed city and a market economy is enormous."
The stakes are so high that the United States Energy Department has forged an unusual collaboration with the atomic energy ministry, its former archrival. It has earmarked $30 million dollars to help launch new businesses, which might attract Western capital.
But it is a small sum and the funds cannot even be disbursed until Congress reviews the spending plan early next year.
The Energy Department is also planning to spend $200 million to help Russia dispose of plutonium. That will also involve work in the closed cities, though it is not clear exactly how those funds will be spent and how much will go to American contractors.
"The cities were in trouble before, but now they are getting desperate, said Kenneth Luongo, a former Energy Department official and the head of the Russian-American National Security Advisory Council, a private group that focuses on the problems of the closed cities. "What little economic progress there was is being erased and serious action is required to prevent further deterioration."
The Task: Luring Investment Is Very Difficult
At Krasnoyarsk-26, Lebedev has not given up hope. His dream is to transform his complex into a high-tech commercial center -- a sort of Silicon Valley of Russia. He has tried one plan after to try to lure business here but little has happened.
A plan to assemble Samsung televisions collapsed after import tariffs on electronic components were raised. He also drafted a plan to make his city a tax-free zone for foreign investors. But the government never acted.
The complex is so desperate it would like to make money storing nuclear waste. But Russian law forbids it from accepting nuclear waste from abroad.
These days Krasnoyarsk-26 is counting on the construction of a $200 million factory to produce silicon for computer chips. The Defense Enterprise Fund, a Pentagon-funded group that is trying to help Russia convert its military industry to civilian production, has paid for some of the planning. The Russian government has already spent several million dollars to grow silicon crystals.
Krasnoyarsk-26, however, still needs to line up major Western investors. With Asia in a recession and the United States and Europe possibly on the brink of a slowdown, persuading foreign companies to sink hundreds of millions of dollars into a Siberian nuclear city is harder than ever.
As investors ponder their hand, Lebedev is weighed down by more immediate worries. This summer, he sent his Moscow superiors a blunt memo describing where this once-proud city was headed.
"Wage payments are three months behind schedule," he wrote. "The social tension in the shops and factories has reached the critical level, and its consequences are unpredictable."
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Russia and U.S. Plan to Guard Atom Secrets (Sept. 23) http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/library/world/europe/092398sovie t-nuclear.html
A Top Russian Nuclear Scientist Kills Himself (Nov. 1, 1996) http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/library/world/europe/110196sovie t-nuclear.html
Russia Struggles in Long Race to Prevent an Atomic Theft (April 20, 1996) http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/library/world/europe/042096sovie t-nuclear.html
Siberian Village Rethinks Cost of Nuclear Projects (Aug. 19, 1994) http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/library/world/europe/081994sovie t-nuclear.html
Russia's Workers Pay Price as Military Industries Fade (Dec. 3, 1993) http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/library/world/europe/120393sovie t-nuclear.html
Russia's Nuclear Transition Ends Economic Security for Scientists (July 11, 1993) http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/library/world/europe/071193sovie t-nuclear.html
U.S. Food Is Flown to Nuclear Siberia</a> (Feb. 24, 1992) http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/library/world/europe/022492sovie t-nuclear.html
Ex-Soviet Atom Scientists Ask Baker for West's Help (Feb. 15, 1992) http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/021592soviet-nuclear.html
Soviet Brain Drain Poses Atomic Risk, U.S. Report Warns (Jan. 1, 1992) http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/library/world/europe/010192sovie t-nuclear.html
Reactors to Juice Cartons: Soviet Factory Adjusts (July 27, 1991) http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/library/world/europe/072791sovie t-nuclear.html
Soviet City, Home of the A-Bomb, Is Haunted by Its Past and Future (July 10, 1989) http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/library/world/europe/071089sovie t-nuclear.html
Soviets Now Admit '57 Nuclear Blast (May 18, 1989) http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/library/world/europe/051889sovie t-nuclear.html
The Secrets of Krasnoyarsk: Questions of Trust (Sept. 20, 1987) http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europelibrary/world/europe/092087soviet -nuclear.html
Inside a Key Russian Radar Site: Tour Raises Questions on Treaty (Sept. 7, 1987) http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/library/world/europe/090787sovie t-nuclear.html
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Message: 16 Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 09:02:32 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-1 7/23/99 - Good News! Pending Legislation - HR-2545 etc.
[We're really pleased that Congresswoman Norton has introduced the following bill. You are invited to attend the press conference on Friday, July 30, 1999, at 10 a.m. in the Capitol Building Basement Room HC-9. If you want to know how you can help, go to http://prop1.org and follow the links; call 202-462-0757; fax 202-265-5389; email prop1@prop1.org.]
1. HR-2545 Text, "Nuclear Disarmament and Economic Conversion Act"
introduced by Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-DC, on July 16, 1999 http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:20:./temp/~c106tZ50rM:: http://prop1.org/prop1/hr2545.htm or link off homepage http://prop1.org
Nuclear Disarmament and Economic Conversion Act of 1999 (Introduced in the House)
106th CONGRESS 1st Session
H. R. 2545
To provide for nuclear disarmament and economic conversion in accordance with District of Columbia Initiative Measure Number 37 of 1992.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES July 16, 1999
Ms. NORTON introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services, and in addition to the Committee on International Relations, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To provide for nuclear disarmament and economic conversion in accordance with District of Columbia Initiative Measure Number 37 of 1992.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `Nuclear Disarmament and Economic Conversion Act of 1999'.
SEC. 2. REQUIREMENT FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT AND ECONOMIC CONVERSION.
The United States Government shall--
(1) disable and dismantle all its nuclear weapons and refrain from replacing them at any time with any weapons of mass destruction;
(2) redirect resources that are currently being used for nuclear weapons programs to use--
(A) in converting all nuclear weapons industry employees, processes, plants, and programs smoothly to constructive, ecologically beneficial peacetime activities during the 3 years following the effective date of this Act, and
(B) in addressing human and infrastructure needs such as housing, health care, education, agriculture, and environmental restoration;
(3) undertake vigorous good faith efforts to eliminate war, armed conflict, and all military operations; and
(4) actively promote policies to induce all other countries to join in these commitments for world peace and security.
SEC. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE.
This Act shall take effect when the President certifies to the Congress that all foreign countries possessing nuclear weapons have established legal requirements comparable to those set forth in section 2 and those requirements have taken effect.
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50 Bills from the 106th Congress ranked by relevance to your search on "nuclear."
http://thomas.loc.gov/- type "nuclear" in word search box http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query - July 22, 1999
>1 . The Nuclear Waste Protection and Responsible Compensation Act (Introduced in the House)[H.R.1309.IH] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:1:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>2 . Independent Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Act of 1999 (Introduced in the Senate)[S.683.IS] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:2:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>3 . Expressing the sense of the Congress regarding maintenance of the nuclear weapons stockpile. (Introduced in the House)[H.CON.RES.74.IH] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:3:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>4 . Recognizing the security interests of the United States in furthering complete nuclear disarmament. (Introduced in the House)[H.RES.82.IH] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:4:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>5 . Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 1999 (Placed on the Calendar in the Senate)[S.1287.PCS] Calendar No. 180 http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:5:./temp/~c106kEiJM2:: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/C?c106:./temp/~c106alkCVK
>6 . Iran Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Act of 1999 (Engrossed in House )[H.R.1477.EH] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:6:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>7 . Iran Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Act of 1999 (Introduced in the Senate)[S.834.IS] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:7:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>8 . Nuclear Decommissioning Funds Clarification Act (Introduced in the Senate)[S.1308.IS] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:8:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>9 . Iran Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Act of 1999 (Referred in Senate)[H.R.1477.RFS] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:9:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>10 . Nuclear Decommissioning Funds Clarification Act (Introduced in the House)[H.R.2038.IH] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:10:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>11 . Iran Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Act of 1999 (Introduced in the House)[H.R.1477.IH] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:11:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>12 . Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1999 (Introduced in the Senate)[S.608.IS] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:12:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>13 . Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1999 (Introduced in the House)[H.R.45.IH] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:13:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>14 . Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1999 (Reported in the House)[H.R.45.RH] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:14:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>15 . Nuclear Regulatory Commission Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000 (Introduced in the House)[H.R.2531.IH] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:15:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>16 . To amend the Department of Energy Organization Act to establish a Nuclear Security Administration and an Office of Under Secretary for National Security in the Department of Energy. (Introduced in the House)[H.R.2032.IH] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:16:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>17 . North Korea Threat Reduction Act of 1999 (Introduced in the Senate)[S.1352.IS] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:17:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>18 . North Korea Threat Reduction Act of 1999 (Introduced in the House)[H.R.1835.IH] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:18:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>19 . Department of Energy Abolishment Act (Introduced in the Senate)[S.896.IS] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:19:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>20 . Nuclear Disarmament and Economic Conversion Act of 1999 (Introduced in the House)[H.R.2545.IH] {See text above} http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:20:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>21 . Expressing the sense of the Congress that the imposition of sanctions on persons under the Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Act of 1994 regarding exports to India or Pakistan should... (Introduced in the House)[H.CON.RES.146.IH] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:21:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>22 . The Incentives for Nuclear Nonproliferation in India and China Act of 1999 (Introduced in the House)[H.R.1570.IH] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:22:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>23 . Nuclear Emergency Assurance Reform Act of 1999 (Introduced in the House)[H.R.1072.IH] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:23:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>24 . Department of Energy Elimination and National Security Protection Act of 1999 (Introduced in the House)[H.R.2411.IH] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:24:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>25 . Department of Energy Abolishment Act (Introduced in the House)[H.R.1649.IH] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:25:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>26 . Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000 (Engrossed Senate Amendment)[H.R.1555.EAS] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:26:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>27 . Prevention and Deterrence of International Conflict Act of 1999 (PREDICT) (Introduced in the Senate)[S.70.IS] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:27:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>28 . Department of Energy National Security Act for Fiscal Year 2000 (Placed on the Calendar in the Senate)[S.1062.PCS] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:28:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>29 . Department of Energy National Security Act for Fiscal Year 2000 (Engrossed in Senate)[S.1062.ES] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:28:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>30 . To provide for the liquidation or reliquidation of certain customs entries of nuclear fuel assemblies. (Introduced in the House)[H.R.511.IH] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:30:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>31 . Environmental Stewardship and Natural Resources Act of 1999 (Introduced in the Senate)[S.1071.IS] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:31:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>32 . To reduce the number of Trident ballistic missile submarines subject to a statutory limitation on retirement or dismantlement of strategic nuclear delivery systems and to provide that... (Introduced in the House)[H.R.542.IH] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:32:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>33 . Recognizing the positive steps and achievements of the Republic of India and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to foster peaceful relations between the two nations. (Introduced in the House)[H.RES.84.IH] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:33:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>34 . Human Cloning Research Prohibition Act (Introduced in the House)[H.R.2326.IH] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:34:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>35 . To terminate the exemption of certain contractors and other entities from civil penalties for violations of nuclear safety requirements under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954. (Introduced in the Senate)[S.1280.IS] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:35:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>36 . Federal Employees' Benefits Equity Act of 1999. (Introduced in the House)[H.R.1769.IH] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:36:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>37 . To amend the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act to designate a portion of the Columbia River as a recreational river, and for other purposes. (Introduced in the Senate)[S.715.IS] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:37:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>38 . To amend the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act to designate a portion of the Columbia River as a recreational river, and for other purposes. (Introduced in the House)[H.R.1314.IH] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:38:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>39 . Department of Energy Commercial Application of Energy Technology Authorization Act of 1999 (Introduced in the House)[H.R.1656.IH] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:39:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>40 . National Missile Defense Act of 1999 (Engrossed in Senate)[S.257.ES] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:40:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>41 . National Missile Defense Act of 1999 (Engrossed Senate Amendment)[H.R.4.EAS] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:41:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>42 . National Missile Defense Act of 1999 (Enrolled Bill (Sent to President))[H.R.4.ENR] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:42:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>43 . To terminate certain sanctions with respect to India and Pakistan. (Introduced in the House)[H.R.1784.IH] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:43:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>44 . Iran Nonproliferation Act of 1999 (Introduced in the House)[H.R.1883.IH] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:44:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>45 . To provide for the declassification of the journal kept by Glenn T. Seaborg while serving as Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. (Introduced in the Senate)[S.618.IS] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:45:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>46 . Department of Energy Sensitive Country Foreign Visitors Moratorium Act of 1999 (Introduced in the Senate)[S.887.IS] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:46:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>47 . Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act, 2000 (Placed on the Calendar in the Senate)[S.1186.PCS] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:47:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>48 . To amend the Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act of 1978 to provide for the remediation of the Atlas mill tailings site near Moab, Utah. (Introduced in the House)[H.R.1559.IH] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:48:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>49 . Department of Energy Foreign Visitors Program Moratorium Act of 1999 (Introduced in the House)[H.R.1348.IH] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:49:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
>50 . To amend the Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act of 1978 to provide for the remediation of the Atlas uranium milling site near Moab, Utah. (Introduced in the House)[H.R.393.IH] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:50:./temp/~c106kEiJM2::
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2. U.N.'s Annan: Use space peacefully
USA Today July 20, 1999 "World" http://usatoday.com/news/world/nw1.htm
VIENNA, Austria - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged peaceful use of outer space Monday as the United Nations opened a conference on the subject. ''We cannot view the expanse of space as another battleground for our earthly conflicts," Annan said at the opening of the third Unispace conference. High on the agenda: Adopting the Vienna Declaration on guidelines for use and protection of outer space. The last Unispace gathering was 17 years ago.
---
Today In History
July 20, 1999 By The Associated Press http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/a/AP-History.html
... On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin ``Buzz'' Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon....
In 1881, Sioux Indian leader Sitting Bull, a fugitive since the Battle of the Little Big Horn, surrendered to federal troops.
In 1942, the first detachment of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps -- later known as WACs -- began basic training at Fort Des Moines, Iowa.
In 1944, German officials tried to assassinate Adolf Hitler with a bomb at his Rastenburg headquarters. The explosion only wounded the Nazi leader.
In 1944, President Roosevelt was nominated for an unprecedented fourth term at the Democratic convention in Chicago.
In 1951, Jordan's King Abdullah was assassinated in Jerusalem.
In 1976, America's Viking 1 robot spacecraft made a successful first-ever landing on Mars....
Ten years ago: President Bush called for a long-range space program to build an orbiting space station, establish a base on the moon and send a manned mission to the planet Mars.
Five years ago: Bosnian Serbs rejected an international peace plan sponsored by the United States, Russia, France, Britain and Germany....
Thought for Today: ``We may well go to the moon, but that's not very far. The greatest distance we have to cover still lies within us.'' -- Charles de Gaulle, French statesman (1890-1970).
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3. CIA Funding Bill Stalled
By John Diamond Associated Press Writer Monday, July 19, 1999; 5:44 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990719/V000779-071999-idx.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republican lawmakers are struggling to free up the annual bill for the CIA and other espionage agencies amid disagreement on reorganizing the Energy Department following security lapses at U.S. nuclear weapons labs.
Energy Secretary Bill Richardson has hinted he can accept the GOP-sponsored bill, but some Senate Democrats are still leery of redesigning the agency responsible for researching and developing nuclear weapons and protecting nuclear secrets from spies. In May, Republicans were unable to break a Democratic filibuster on the issue when it was attached to Pentagon legislation. The Senate put the matter off until Monday, tacking it on to a measure authorizing spending on various U.S. intelligence programs.
``There's reason to be encouraged we're going to be able to move this bill quickly,'' said Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
But so far, Kerrey and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., are the only Democrats to sign onto the Department of Energy reorganization legislation.
The bill, sponsored by Republican Sens. Pete Domenici of Mexico, Jon Kyl of Arizona, and Frank Murkowski of Alaska, stems from a series of congressional and Clinton administration evaluations that concluded the Department of Energy was bureaucratically top-heavy and incapable of managing nuclear research and security.
A report by a presidentially appointed commission headed by former Sen. Warren Rudman, R-N.H., called DOE a ``dysfunctional bureaucracy.''
Domenici said the department ``was in such a state of chaos that it could not control ... the security of valuable secrets and information within the laboratories.''
Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., chairman of the intelligence committee, said disclosures about China obtaining classified information on various closely guarded U.S. nuclear weapons ``dramatically reinforced'' the need for reorganization.
In particular, proponents of the legislation hope to address weaknesses highlighted by the Energy Department's failure to respond for more than a decade to a steady stream of congressional oversight reports indicating security gaps at the weapons labs. In the most recent flap, Clinton administration critics said the Department was slow to respond when its internal security officials raised alarms about an employee at the Los Alamos, N.M., weapons lab suspected of spying for China.
The legislation, offered as an amendment to the intelligence authorization bill, would establish a semiautonomous ``Agency for Nuclear Stewardship'' that would oversee all nuclear weapons related activities, including research, development, security and counterintelligence. An undersecretary at the head of the agency would report directly to the secretary of energy. No other Energy Department officials would have any power over the new organization.
No similar measure has passed in the House, but Republicans there are crafting a stronger bill that would create a fully independent agency, such as NASA.
Richardson has at times openly opposed the legislation. More recently, however, he indicated the Clinton administration could sign on to the reorganization provided some details were worked out. The continued opposition of Democrats indicates that negotiations are not yet complete.
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4. U.S. House Panel Cuts Funds For World Bank Lending
Updated 2:45 AM ET July 21, 1999, By Randy Fabi http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990721/02/international-china-world bank
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. House of Representatives panel voted Tuesday to slash U.S. cash allocations to the World Bank and criticized last month's $160 million World Bank loan allowing China to move poor farmers into traditional Tibetan lands.
The House Appropriations Committee, anxious to trim the Foreign Appropriations Bill, passed an amendment to reduce U.S. funding for the World Bank's program of low-interest loans to poor countries by $200 million to less than $600 million.
The committee had initially proposed a smaller, $27 million cut in funding for the World Bank program.
"Because of the budgetary situation and the China decision, the committee is unable to provide the full amount requested," the panel said.
The Senate had earlier recommended cutting the allocation by $15 million. This means the full House must vote on the plan and the two sides must then work out a compromise solution -- which is not likely for some months.
U.S. funds account for some 18 percent of the World Bank's International Development Association (IDA) loan program.
The bank had used some IDA funds in its June loan to China, the last IDA loan before China stopped qualifying for the program because of rising living standards. The money will help pay to resettle some 58,000 poor Chinese farmers to an area where Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, was born.
Approval of the loan, pushed through despite a formal U.S. "no" vote, prompted outrage from Tibetan activists.
"The decision by the World Bank to support China's anti-Tibetan policies is disgraceful," Senator Connie Mack, a Florida Republican, said at the time. "I find it unconscionable that World Bank President James Wolfensohn would support the financing of this appalling act of cultural genocide."
Cuts to this year's U.S. allocation to IDA were part of an Republican effort to slash overall spending levels in the bill. But they prompted fierce criticism from committee members.
"Never in all our conflicts have we wanted to cut off funding from the poorest of the poor," said Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat. "By taking it from IDA, we are saying we do not recognize the needs of the world's poorest countries."
Most World Bank IDA loans go to countries in sub-Saharan Africa which cannot afford to pay normal World Bank interest rates. A World Bank official said the bank still hoped to win the full funding before Congress finished its deliberations.
"We would hope that by the time the process is finished, the funding would be restored, and we still think we have a chance to get fully funded," said World Bank external affairs officer John Donaldson.
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Message: 17 Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 09:20:43 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-2 7/23/99 - Y2K
5. Europe Rides Bumpy Computer Road to Year 2000
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS, July 23, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/yr/mo/biztech/articles/23year.html
HANOVER, Germany -- Perhaps fittingly, Germany's first real scare about Year 2000 computer crashes came on a Friday the 13th.
It was March 1998, and most people here were greeting warnings about Year 2000 failures with a lack of interest. It seemed like a trivial problem, a matter of making sure that computer clocks would not misread the year 2000 as 1900.
Then came the test at the Hanover city power company, organized by a confident data processing manager in the spirit of public education, with local media invited to watch. At first, everything seemed fine. But within a few minutes after "midnight," the computer began spewing out thousands of error messages. Then it froze up entirely, and the monitors went blank.
Hanover did not go dark. But for a few minutes, it was impossible to monitor the electric grid or to trace equipment breakdowns. It took seven months to eradicate all the problems.
"I really thought it would be fine," said Juergen Rehmer, the blue-jeans-clad manager who arranged the event. "We had made a lot of changes already, and I was quite certain that a full-system test wouldn't present any great difficulty."
Rehmer's test was a watershed. It disrupted a widespread complacency about Year 2000 problems, and marked the first time that a German power company had issued a warning.
At the time it occurred, the German government had yet to make its first assessment of the Year 2000 problem. Surveys by insurance companies showed that the vast majority of companies had not even begun to look at their systems.
"The European view is that Anglo-American countries are in kind of an hysterical mold," said Peter Eibert, the Year 2000 coordinator at Ford Motor Co. of Europe, based in Cologne.
Germany and many of Europe's most advanced countries are racing to make up for lost time. Corporations are pouring billions of dollars into reprogramming computers. Government agencies have set up hot lines. Industry associations hold countless conferences, often invoking the image of ticking time bomb.
They are making headway. Most experts are increasingly confident that Europe is not likely to see catastrophic failures. A Year 2000 trial involving Europe's major banks went smoothly. Airlines and airports, which recognized the danger long ago, say they are ready.
Nevertheless, many smaller companies and public institutions are running out of time.
In a recent survey, the German Council of Trade and Industry found that only 45 percent of companies were properly prepared. Hermes, a German insurance company in Hamburg, estimates that 60 percent of German companies still hadn't started a comprehensive program by last fall.
"We believe there will be a substantially higher rate of bankruptcies in the year 2000," said Walter Schmitt-Jamin, a managing director of Hermes. A doubling of the usual bankruptcy rate, slightly less than one percent of companies each year, is entirely possible, he added.
The readiness varies considerably across Western Europe. In Britain, the Netherlands and much of Scandinavia, governments and corporations jumped on the problem two years ago.
In Germany and France, government and business leaders were until recently more lackadaisical. Poorer countries like Italy, Spain and Portugal are struggling.
The formerly Communist nations of Central Europe and Russia are much more seriously behind. LOT, the Polish national airline, announced recently that it will ground about 70 flights on New Year's Eve out of concern about Year 2000 breakdowns. The Russian government recently reported that only one-third of the country's banks were ready.
Western European countries are well prepared in comparison. But they also have more to worry about.
The 15 nations of the European Union, 11 of which have now adopted the euro as a single currency, is an increasingly unified economy linked by dense information networks.
There is a boom in the construction of cross-border fiber-optic networks. Power companies buy and sell electricity over electronic trading systems. Car manufacturers order from suppliers over computer networks.
Yet when car manufacturers sent the worldwide suppliers detailed Year 2000 questionnaires in early 1997, most of the responses provided little in the way of useful information.
That became a source of growing anxiety here in Germany over the next year. Executives at General Motors' Opel subsidiary were startled to discover that industrial robots they bought in 1997 still had Year 2000 glitches. By August 1998, Opel had decided to start sending its own Year 2000 assessors on personal visits to key suppliers.
"The key was to ask questions that indicated whether the suppliers knew what they were talking about," said Roger Aze, Opel's Year 2000 coordinator. "Do you have a person in charge of Y2K? Do you have a program and a schedule?"
In the last several months, Opel started sending technical experts to its most critical suppliers -- the ones whose own assembly lines are linked directly by computer network to those of Opel and that deliver on a "just in time" basis.
But Aze is still bracing for things outside their control: power disruptions or problems further down the supply chains.
Power remains one of the biggest concerns. "The energy industry had overslept," Rehmer said bluntly. It wasn't until July 1998 -- four months after Hanover's surprising test failure -- that the German Association of Electric Utilities advised members to "Start now!" on Year 2000 preparation.
Today, Year 2000 experts in Germany say severe disruptions are unlikely but cannot be ruled out. As a result, many big industrial manufacturers are scaling back production to insulate themselves for a shock of an abrupt power disruption.
BASF AG, the chemical conglomerate based in Ludwigshafen, has decided to shut a number of its systems on New Year's Eve so it can get by on the electricity from its own on-site power plant.
So many manufacturers are reducing their power consumption on New Year's Eve that the utility industry has begun to worry about disruptions caused by an abrupt plunge in demand.
One of the key differences between European countries on Year 2000 issues is the degree to which governments became involved.
In Britain, Prime Minister Tony Blair has built up a huge program to promote awareness and point companies toward solutions. Besides drumming up publicity, the government fielded several thousand "bug busters" to get out the word.
The Netherlands started a similar program, known as the Dutch Millennium Platform, headed by Jan Timmer, the former chairman of Philips Electronics NV. Timmer irked business groups by exhorting them to act, but most now experts rank the Netherlands alongside the United States and Britain as among the best-prepared countries.
By contrast, German leaders did not show much interest in the subject until a few months ago. The government issued a tepid report one year ago and a more thorough one this spring, and it only recently set up an Internet site devoted to the issue.
Local governments have largely been quiet on the matter. In March, the German weekly news magazine Focus published a survey indicating that most German cities had not yet prepared themselves for problems. According to the survey, carried out with the German Conference of Cities, half the cities had yet to test their hospitals, and one-third had not tested their mass transit systems.
The hospitals have had a rude awakening. Andreas Tecklenberg, director of a 260-bed hospital in the north German town of Eutin, was dismayed when only six out of 150 manufacturers gave him useful answers when he sent them queries about Year 2000 problems.
Since then, he has started to get better information. At the moment, he estimates, about one-third of the hospital's systems are "green" or ready; about one-third are yellow, and one-third still red.
"The devices will have to be watched," Tecklenberg said. "But fortunately, we can have people take over if equipment goes wrong."
At the German Heart Center in Berlin, which specializes in heart surgery, administrators are avoiding elective surgery between Christmas and January 3. It has also imposed a ban on holidays for most of the medical and technical staff on New Year's Eve.
"If you look at this from the American standpoint, we all started late here," acknowledged Marcus Werner, who coordinates the center's Year 2000 planning.
Werner started his preparations in October and said he was now reasonably confident about the hospital's medical equipment.
But like so many others, he worries about power. The hospital shares a back-up generator with the University of Berlin, but he is still worried about the software that will have to ration the relatively scarce electricity.
"What it comes down to is things you basically have no control over," he said.
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Global Survey Foresees Many Y2K Glitches
By Stephen Barr and Roberto Suro, Washington Post, July 23, 1999; Page A21 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/23/090l-072399-idx.html
A State Department survey of 161 nations found that about half of the countries face a medium to high risk of Year 2000 computer breakdowns in their telecommunications, energy and transportation sectors, which may have an impact on international trade, the department's inspector general said yesterday.
"It would be prudent to recognize that Y2K-related failures are inevitable, both here and abroad," Jacquelyn L. Williams-Bridgers, the State Department IG, told a Senate committee.
Electronic disruptions--caused by computers with two-digit date fields that incorrectly interpret "00" as 1900 instead of 2000--could range overseas from minor inconveniences, such as malfunctioning credit card terminals, to sustained power and phone outages causing economic and humanitarian hardships, the IG said.
The State Department survey, drawn from assessments submitted over the past two months by U.S. embassies, found that highly industrialized countries are at a low risk of Y2K-related infrastructure failures, particularly in the finance sector. But the survey suggested that Russia and the former Eastern Bloc nations "are a concern because of the relatively high probability of Y2K-related failures," the IG said.
Power-grid failures due to Y2K glitches could cause Russian defense systems to shut down, Pentagon officials said at a separate briefing yesterday. There is little worry about an accidental nuclear launch because Russian strategic weapons require humans to carry out key commands, but the Pentagon is concerned the Russians might lose their early-warning capabilities and feel dangerously vulnerable to a sneak attack.
As a confidence-building measure, Defense Secretary William S. Cohen said, the Russian government has been invited to send representatives to a specially built "Y2K Center for Strategic Stability" in Colorado Springs, Colo., where both nations would share instant access to early-warning information. The Russians halted cooperation with the initiative in March because of the NATO bombing campaign in Yugoslavia, and they have not agreed to resume talks.
Cohen, who had been seriously concerned a year ago that the Defense Department was moving too slowly on its computer work and made Y2K fixes a top priority, said yesterday that the Pentagon's roughly 10,000 computer systems will be ready for the Year 2000, and that more than 92 percent of all "mission critical" systems have been fixed.
Despite the State Department's "mixed" snapshot of Y2K conditions abroad, Williams-Bridgers said she is "more optimistic" now than in March, when embassies turned in their initial assessments.
The IG testified before the Senate Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem, chaired by Sens. Robert F. Bennett (R-Utah) and Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.). They heard from a panel representing some Fortune 500 companies, including Ford Motor Co., Philip Morris Cos. and Procter & Gamble Co. The executives said their companies have spent millions of dollars on computer repairs here and overseas and do not anticipate severe Y2K disruptions next year.
Williams-Bridgers did not identify the Y2K-troubled nations but offered some hints in her prepared testimony: South Korea got off to a late start and may not complete its Y2K work; India's electric power systems could prove vulnerable; and Poland could face power blackouts.
In response to questions, Williams-Bridgers said U.S. officials are concerned about the energy sector in Russia and Africa, and aviation in parts of Africa.
Given the array of possible Y2K problems overseas, Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) suggested that the U.S. government's contingency planning seemed "more relaxed than I would have anticipated."
But Williams-Bridgers said embassies are at work on backup plans in the event of unanticipated emergencies and that a "massive database" is being developed so U.S. intelligence agencies could analyze Y2K trends abroad. The State Department will notify the traveling public of any Y2K concerns in September, she said.
Despite its confidence in its Y2K fixes, the Pentagon also has developed extensive plans to deal with problems in its own systems and any breakdowns that could occur where U.S. forces are stationed.
"We are busy preparing detailed contingency plans to deal with even the most unlikely situations," Cohen said.
Defense has been conducting elaborate exercises to determine whether all the Y2K bugs have been found. Last week, for example, a test of the logistics supply chain involved more than 1,000 participants from all four services in 22 sites across the country; Cohen said further exercises will test linkages to prime vendors of military equipment.
Five comprehensive tests of the nation's strategic weapons command have included simulated firings of every nuclear weapons system, and no Y2K failures occurred during any of them, said Adm. Richard Mies, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command.
With $3.7 billion budgeted for Y2K fixes, Cohen said, "we are treating the Year 2000 as if it were a cyberattack directed at the very core of our military capabilities."
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Y2K testing unearths a "few problems" in nuclear plants
Wednesday 21 July, 1999 (11:29pm AEST) Australia Broadcasting http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-21jul1999-87.htm
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says a "few problems" have been found in nuclear power plants around the world tested for vulnerability to the Y2K computer bug.
But it says none of these compromised safety.
"In general, the Y2K vulnerabilities that have been found through testing and software review have generally not been in control systems, but have been found in monitoring and display systems and data logging," the UN agency said after closing a week-long workshop on the issue.
"Of the few problems reported so far, none was found which compromises safety," it said.
The IAEA added that problems were detected in systems which measured or monitored radiation doses, personal computers, vibration monitoring systems, spectrometry equipment and fuel inventory systems.
The workshop, which ran from June 12-16 and gathered 52 participants from several developed and developing countries using nuclear power, concluded that national requirements to deal with the Y2K bug were broadly in place but that further testing would take place.
There are about 440 nuclear power plants in operation around the world.
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6. Defense computers 94% ready for Y2K
USA Today "Nation" July 23, 1999
WASHINGTON - The Defense Department has verified that 94% of its computer systems are ready for the Year 2000 computer glitch, Defense Secretary William Cohen said Thursday. ''I'm very confident that the department will be able to carry out its missions as we cross over into the new millennium,'' Cohen told a news conference on the Pentagon's $3.7 billion Y2K preparedness project. He said 100% of the department's computers will be ready by Dec. 31. Of the 198 computer systems deemed critical to U.S. nuclear missions, all but two have been verified as being ready for Y2K.
... Analysts: FAA computers as Y2K ready
WASHINGTON - The Transportation Department says the nation's air traffic control system has been deemed free of the Year 2000 computer bug. System repairs completed by June 30 have been examined and approved by Science Applications International Corp., an independent contractor, and the department's inspector general, the department announced Wednesday. Some older computers were designed to recognize dates in a two-digit format, such as ''99'' for 1999. There is widespread concern computers not updated may malfunction on New Year's Eve, when 1999 turns to 2000. The Federal Aviation Administration conducted a live test of its repairs in Denver in April. It plans to continue testing its systems and contingency plans for the rest of the year.
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Cohen: Pentagon on track for Y2K
7/22/99- Updated 12:01 PM ET http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/ctf661.htm
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Defense Department has verified that 94% of its computer systems are ready for the Year 2000 computer glitch, Defense Secretary William Cohen said Thursday.
''I'm very confident that the department will be able to carry out its missions as we cross over into the new millennium,'' Cohen told a news conference on the Pentagon's $3.7 billion Y2K preparedness project. He said 100% of the department's computers will be ready by Dec. 31.
Cohen said he had been ''deeply concerned'' one year ago that the Pentagon was not moving fast enough to prepare for Y2K. The U.S. military is more dependent on computers than any other military in the world. Cohen said 2,107 of its 10,000 computers are deemed critical to military missions.
''We believe it is not enough for technical teams to simply validate the systems,'' Cohen said. ''Rather we are having our commanders test their systems in operational settings.''
Adm. Richard W. Mies, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, which is in charge of the nation's nuclear weapons, said at the same news conference Thursday ''there is no risk of accidental launch'' of U.S. nuclear weapons on Jan. 1. ''Computers by themselves cannot launch nuclear weapons.''
Mies said that of 198 computer systems deemed critical to U.S. nuclear missions, all but two have been verified as fully ready for Y2K.
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Nuclear Weapons Computers Y2K Ready
By Robert Burns AP Military Writer Thursday, July 22, 1999; 3:30 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990722/V000481-072299-idx.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nearly all U.S. defense computers linked to nuclear weapons have been verified through testing as ready for the Year 2000 computer glitch, senior Pentagon officials said today.
``There is no risk of accidental launch'' or of losing the ability to fire U.S. weapons if necessary, Adm. Richard Mies, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, told a news conference. His command at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., is in charge of all U.S. nuclear weapons.
Cooperation with Russia on Y2K issues has suffered as a result of Moscow's anger about the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, Mies and other Pentagon officials said, but efforts are under way to restore a dialogue.
Mies said there is no reason to believe nuclear powers Britain, Russia and China are failing to fix their computer systems; he did not comment directly on the other known nuclear powers -- France, India and Pakistan. Mies also cautioned that he is not certain about the vulnerability of defense computers used by nuclear powers other than Russia and Britain.
``Certainly I have concerns, but to some degree we've tried to reassure ourselves and we've tried to gain assurances from those countries that they are addressing the Y2K problem, and so to a certain degree our confidence is limited by the amount of assurances we have gotten,'' Mies said.
Defense Secretary William Cohen, appearing with Mies at the Pentagon, said he is not worried that Russia will allow the Y2K problem to jeopardize command or control of its nuclear weapons.
``The Russians, I assume, will do whatever is necessary to protect their self interest,'' Cohen said. ``It is not in Russia's interest to have any kind of failure that would create a catastrophe.''
As for China, which has only a handful of long-range nuclear weapons, Cohen said ``we assume they are also proceeding with as much alacrity as possible to deal'' with potential computer problems.
Mies said there is very little concern about Britain's preparations, in part because the British Navy uses the same Trident nuclear missile system as the U.S. Navy uses.
At home, Mies said, there is no basis to fear a Y2K glitch would affect control of U.S. nuclear weapons.
``Procedures for launching our nation's nuclear weapons involve multiple levels of safeguards such as code verifications and human interactions to verify and authenticate an order from the president,'' Mies said. ``Computers by themselves cannot launch nuclear weapons.''
Similarly, Mies said fears that a Y2K computer bug will shut down the U.S. nuclear arsenal are unfounded, based on extensive tests that included simulations of launches of every type of nuclear weapon.
Cohen said he had been ``deeply concerned'' a year ago that the Defense Department was moving too slowly to prepare for Y2K. Since then, he said, the department has gone all out to test and validate its computers.
``I am reassured and confident that we will defeat the Y2K attack when it comes on Jan. 1, 2000,'' Cohen said.
U.S. nuclear weapons include bombs carried by Air Force planes, strategic missiles carried aboard Navy submarines and intercontinental ballistic missiles in underground silos at Air Force bases.
Of the 2,107 computers systems deemed critical to the Defense Department's missions, 92 percent have been fully verified as ready for Y2K, Cohen said, and there will be 100 percent compliance by Dec. 31.
Also, of the 198 computers considered critical to nuclear missions, all but two have been fully verified, Mies said. Those two are scheduled to be ready by October, he said. One is a new ``bomber planning'' system, and the other is a command center console at Strategic Command headquarters.
The Pentagon has invited Moscow to send representatives to the new Y2K Center for Strategic Stability, in Colorado Springs, Colo., but the Russians have not responded, Cohen aides said. The facility is meant to avoid any misunderstandings about missile launches on Dec. 31 or thereafter as a result of computer glitches, by sharing U.S. missile launch warning data with the Russians.
Cohen said he had hoped to meet with his Russian counterpart, Igor Sergeyev, in Moscow in early August to discuss Y2K and other issues, but the session was postponed by the Russians.
In the Y2K problem, some older computers were designed to recognize dates in a two-digit format, such as ``99'' for 1999. There is concern computers not updated may malfunction on New Year's Eve, when 1999 turns to 2000 -- which some computers may misconstrue as 1900 instead of the start of the new century.
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7. New Zealand Unveils Y2K Cockroach
By Ray Lilley Associated Press Writer Wednesday, July 21, 1999; 10:46 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990721/V000271-072199-idx.html
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- Regarded worldwide as a dirty pest, the cockroach has become the official ``millennium bug'' for New Zealand, which will be among the first nations to experience the real effects of Y2K.
``Ken'' the cockroach was unveiled Wednesday as the spearhead for a government-funded campaign to infest New Zealand households with a ``be prepared'' message.
The Y2K, or millennium, bug refers to fears that older computer programs that count years by the last two digits may mistake 2000 for 1900, wreaking havoc on everything from airlines to bank teller machines that run on computers.
While governments and corporations across the world have spent billions of dollars trying to avoid problems, no one really knows what will happen.
New Zealand is just 185 miles west of the International Dateline at its closest point. It will be among the first nations to greet the first day of the year 2000 and may give hours' warning to other parts of the world as to what the real effects of Y2K will be.
Ken will feature in television ads and other promotional material in a $1.3 million campaign run by the Y2K Readiness Commission.
A cockroach was chosen as mascot because the bugs were ``the ultimate survivors,'' chairman Basil Logan said.
``Love them or hate them, I think he (Ken the cockroach) will be noticed and memorable,'' Logan said.
Publicity material announcing the campaign boasts the adaptability of the insect, which can live without water for two weeks, without food for a week, and may be the only thing left alive if a nuclear disaster occurs.
As well as living at both the North and South Poles and even as low as 2,200 feet underground, one of ``Ken's'' relatives was found on the Apollo 11 command shuttle, suggesting it had survived a space flight.
Cockroaches have existed for 340 million years -- 150 million years longer than dinosaurs -- and come in some 5,000 species.
The commission's serious message is that New Zealanders should prepare for three days of possible millennium bug disruption any time between Dec. 31, 1999, and March 31, 2000.
Logan said households should prepare emergency supply kits that include fresh water, food, flashlights and a battery-powered radio.
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8. Pentagon Urges Russia To Come To Nuclear Monitoring Center For Y2K
WASHINGTON, Jul 23, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=80952
The Pentagon is urging Russia to send officers to an early warning monitoring center in Colorado to help prevent nuclear misunderstandings that may arise from Y2K computer failures, defense officials said Thursday.
Russia backed out of plans for a joint center in March in anger over the NATO air campaign against Serbia, but the Pentagon wants to have it in operation by December with Russian participation, the officials said.
"We have an offer on the table to the Russians right now and we are expecting a reply sometime hopefully in the next couple of weeks," said Peter Verga, deputy undersecretary of defense.
"We'd like to get restarted in about August in order to get that in place by mid-December," he said.
Under the plan, US and Russian military officers working at computer consoles in the center in Colorado Springs would monitor real-time data derived from US early warning data on missile launches.
US officials are worried that misunderstanding may arise if Russia's computerized command and control systems are suddenly hit by glitches or failures on New Year's, when the year 2000 threatens to create havoc in some computer systems.
The Pentagon hopes to offset that danger by giving the Russians access to information from US early warning systems during the critical millennium bug dates.
Verga, however, minimized the risks involved if the Russians decide not to participate in the center.
"We've been assured by the Russians that their systems, just like our systems, are not totaly dependent on computers, and therefore not subject to failure on Y2K (Year 2000)," Verga said at a Pentagon press conference. "It's more a matter of confidence."
"We have in place the hotlines which have been in place since the '60s that allow the exchange of information directly with Russian command authorities," he said.
US Defense Secretary William Cohen, meanwhile, said the Pentagon has fixed, tested and verified fixes on 92 percent all its "mission critical" computer systems for Y2K bugs, and expects to have them all completed by December.
"It is literally a race against time," he said.
All but two of 198 nuclear-related mission critical systems have been fixed, and work-arounds have been devised for the remaining ones, said Admiral Richard Mies, commander-in-chief of the US Strategic Command.
"I want to make it clear there is no risk of accidental launch," said Mies.
"Procedures for launching our nation's nuclear weapons involve multiple safeguards, such as code verifications and human interactions, to verify and authenticate an order from the president," he said.
"Computers by themselves cannot launch nuclear weapons," he said.
The Pentagon, which has 10,000 separate computer systems and 1.5 million computers, will have spent 3.7 billion dollars by March fixing the Y2K problem.
It is feared that computers programd to read the calendar year as two digits will be stumped on January 1 when the year 2000 registers as "00." ((c) 1999 Agence France Presse)
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Russia Nuke Fleet Needs Y2K Funds
Tuesday, July 20, 1999; 10:09 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990720/V000312-072099-idx.html
OSLO, Norway (AP) -- Russia's Northern Fleet, which bristles with nuclear weapons, lacks funds to deal with the ``millennium bug'' that could cause havoc with its computers, a Norwegian group warned Tuesday.
The Oslo-based Bellona environmental group said the fleet's warning systems are especially vulnerable to the Y2K problem, which could lead computers to make false reports of missile attacks.
In 1995, Russia was on the verge of launching a nuclear counterstrike when it mistook a harmless weather rocket fired from Norway for a NATO missile.
The Northern Fleet is based on the Kola Peninsula of northwestern Russia, and operates 40 nuclear-powered submarines and three nuclear surface ships, according to Bellona, which specializes in studying the region.
``The authorities are trying to give the impression that they are doing something in hopes of calming the population. Unfortunately, Russia is far behind the West in solving this problem,'' Bellona researcher Igor Kudrik was quoted as telling the Norwegian news agency NTB.
Russia has acknowledged that most of the nation's vital computer systems probably will not be ready for 2000.
However, the Pentagon has played down the risk of an accidental nuclear strike by Russia caused by a computer glitch because its military systems still depend heavily on human operators, said the Bellona report.
The Northern Fleet has also said its nuclear weapons can only be launched manually.
The United States has proposed that the countries jointly monitor nuclear weapons on New Year's Eve. However, a dispute between the nations over the Kosovo conflict put all military cooperation on ice.