* Nuclear Silo Preservation Examined By The Associated Press
* Internet warfare concerns admiral
* CIA Declassifies Cold War Soviet Nuclear Reports
* Bush says he would share missile-defense technology with Russia
* OPINION 'Faster, better, cheaper' shot at NASA misses mark
* THE AD CAMPAIGN Bush Depicted as Safe on Foreign Policy
* Sandia National Laboratories will lose 25 jobs because of last-minute $9.3 million budget cut
* Aid for Nuclear Workers Sought
Bill Eyes $100,000 Each for Cancers at Paducah, Other Plants
* Nuclear Workers Compensation Pressed
* Legislators upset by exclusion of Piketon workers from bill
Uranium-enrichment plant employees would not be offered compensation.
* NRC Staff Says Calvert Cliffs Plant Is Safe MARYLAND
* Quotes From Declassified CIA Files The Associated Press
* Boeing wins $2 billion in orders
* Army Changing Mission of a Training Academy By STEVEN LEE MYERS
* British House of Commons urgedU.S. Senate to reconsider Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
* RAF Crew Eject from Jet Before Crash
* Yeltsin, Upstaging U.S., Endorses N-Test Ban (Reuters)
* Yeltsin Backs A-Test Treaty (NYT)
* Yeltsin Signs Test Ban Treaty Bill (WP)
* Russian Arms Researcher Charged With Spying for U.S.
* Russia tests 2 ballistic missiles
* US-Russian Ties Tested by Disputes
* Clinton Focuses on Russia, Chechnya
* For 3d Time in Month, Russia Fires Missile
* U.S. Thinks Iraq Is Rebuilding Ruined Military Sites
* Pakistan's Boss: Realist, Not Diplomat
* US, India Say Progress Needed on Disarmament
* U.S., S. Korea Open Missile Talks
* U.S. Opens Missile Talks With S.Korea A RAF plane crashed one half mile from a nuc plant in Britain. See under Britain
-------- us nuc weapons
Nuclear Silo Preservation Examined By The Associated Press
Washington Post November 17, 1999 Filed at 5:30 p.m. EST
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/AP-Missile-Silo.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House passed legislation Wednesday that would convert an old nuclear missile silo at the entrance to South Dakota's Badlands into a museum of Cold War confrontation.
The bill, which already passed the Senate and is expected to be signed by President Clinton, authorizes $5 million to establish the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site near Ellsworth Air Force Base.
``With technology dating to the Cuban missile crisis, the missiles sites are among the oldest in the nation and they are the least altered from the original Minuteman configuration,'' said Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., who sponsored the legislation.
``President Kennedy called the missile system his 'ace in the hole,' and it was America's first push-button nuclear missile.''
``I remember Vietnam, the renewed arms race, and the immense pride and patriotism I felt when the Berlin Wall came down,'' Rep. John Thune, a 38-year-old Republican from South Dakota, said on the House floor. ``During this period, 150 Minuteman II missiles remained on nuclear alert at Ellsworth Air Force Base.
``On the Fourth of July 1994, when the wing was deactivated, something was missing on the high plains of western South Dakota.''
The museum will allow people to learn about what went on behind the scenes at the missile silos, Thune said.
``There is a sign painted on the door leading into the Delta One control room,'' he said. ``Below a pizza box, someone wrote, 'Worldwide delivery in 30 minutes or less or your next one is free.' Dark humor, I know, but it was a reality. Civilization as we all know it could have been destroyed in 30 minutes.''
---
Internet warfare concerns admiral
By Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Washington Times 5am November 18, 1999
http://www.washtimes.com/news/news3.html#link
The Pentagon's top intelligence official said yesterday that China's announced plans to conduct "Internet warfare" poses a future threat to U.S. military dominance on the battlefield.
"We are clearly interested and concerned about this whole idea of information attack," Vice Adm. Thomas Wilson, the new director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), said in an interview.
The three-star admiral was commenting on a report in China's official military newspaper, first disclosed in yesterday's editions of The Washington Times, that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) is gearing up for wartime computer attacks on networks and the Internet that facilitate everything from finance to military -- Continued from Front Page -- activities.
"It's a big part of this asymmetric threat, and it's probably bigger than all of outdoors in terms of trying to get your arms around it," the admiral said in his first interview with reporters since taking over DIA last summer.
The United States and the Pentagon are very "information dependent," he said.
"We recognize that information dominance is going to be important to the future and that has to do with acquiring better information about your adversary, and protecting your own," Adm. Wilson said. "So when the Chinese discuss [information warfare] in the PLA daily . . . we ought to take note and we have."
The fact that the Chinese openly are discussing plans to attack computer-run infrastructures in future war is unsettling, he said.
"It's a little bit disturbing," Adm. Wilson said. "And it could also be a little bit of psychology involved."
To deal with the threat, the Pentagon's Defense Information Systems Agency has set up a special joint task force known as the Computer Defense Network, he said.
The Chinese report appeared Thursday in the Liberation Army Daily, official newspaper of the Communist Party-run political department of the PLA. It coincided with other statements by Chinese military leaders in recent weeks about China's growing offensive military capabilities.
It also appeared days before China agreed to joined the World Trade Organization.
A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy declined to comment.
The PLA newspaper article bluntly described China's plans for "Internet warfare" against finance, commerce, communications, telecommunications and military networks.
The article said that it is "essential to have an all-conquering offensive technology and to develop software and technology for Net offensives so as to be able to launch attacks and countermeasures on the Net, including information-paralyzing software, information-blocking software, and information-deception software."
The operations would involve Internet attacks that would include "breaking codes, stealing data and taking anti-follow-up measures."
"To ensure that Net warfare can play the maximum role in war, it is essential to integrate it with other combat actions," the newspaper said.
Adm. Wilson also said the Chinese have made building up their military forces a national priority. "They are modernizing," he said. "So they've clearly made that an economic priority."
The buildup is "across the front" and includes missiles, aircraft and "some power projection capability for the region that we're watching," he said.
Asked about the possibility that China will attack Taiwan over pro-independence remarks by Taipei's president, Adm. Wilson said both the Chinese and Taiwanese are "relatively patient."
Unless there is a "dramatic pronouncement" from Taipei, the prospects for a military attack are low, he said.
China likely will await the outcome of future elections in Taiwan to see what Taipei's new leaders do and say, he said.
"Our assessment is that they are preparing for a number of contingencies," he said of China's military options toward the island.
"They have the capability now to certainly attack Taiwan and to do things against the offshore islands and attack them," Adm. Wilson said.
An invasion of Taiwan by Chinese forces, however, is not within China's military capabilities right now because the PLA lacks the capability to move forces by air and sea against the island, he said.
Richard Allen, White House national security adviser during the Reagan administration, said the Chinese could inflict strategic damage from military-backed information warfare attacks.
Mr. Allen said the recent computer attacks on the Pentagon by an Israeli hacker and two teen-agers in California would pale in comparison to a Chinese military computer strike.
"This is something about which we ought to be mightily alarmed," he said. The timing of the threatening article, so close to the conclusion of trade talks with the United States, "shows the supreme confidence the Chinese have," he said.
The publication of the story in an official Communist Party-run newspaper shows that the Chinese "obviously were trying to send a message."
"They were probably overstating their capabilities, but it indicates a potential adversary's intent," he said.
On other issues, Adm. Wilson said:
There are no signs of increased activity in North Korea indicating Pyongyang is preparing to flight test its new long-range Taepo Dong-2 ballistic missile.
North Korea's continuing effort to develop nuclear weapons secretly "is a concern."
The DIA is undertaking a major program to improve its intelligence databases, to provide better intelligence and also to avoid the failure that led to NATO's accidental bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, May 7.
U.S. intelligence agencies do not know if Saddam Hussein secretly is building chemical, biological or nuclear weapons in violation of United Nations sanctions.
---
CIA Declassifies Cold War Soviet Nuclear Reports
By Tabassum Zakaria Reuters Updated 12:23 PM ET November 18, 1999
http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/991118/12/news-cia-leadall
LANGLEY, Va. (Reuters) - The Soviet Union had the capability of striking all U.S. missile silos with two warheads each near the end of the Cold War, but was wary of escalating the arms race for economic reasons, newly declassified U.S. intelligence documents said on Thursday.
The Central Intelligence Agency declassified 24 reports on the military and political state of the Soviet Union in the three years before it dissolved on Dec. 31, 1991, ending the Cold War.
The documents were compiled by CIA historians in a 438-page volume entitled "At Cold War's End, U.S. Intelligence on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, 1989-1991," for release at a conference at Texas A&M University running through Saturday.
CIA Director George Tenet, former President George Bush, who was in the White House at that time, and various national security and intelligence officials will meet in Texas to discuss the years that changed the world with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Two of the most highly classified reports made public offer the U.S. intelligence community's assessment of the Soviet Union's nuclear capabilities at that time, and whether the Soviets were likely to push the button on nuclear war.
INTELLIGENCE MAKES NEGOTIATION POSSIBLE
Those types of reports made it possible for U.S. policy makers to engage the Soviet Union in arms talks and led to the end of the arms race before the Cold War ended, the book said.
"It is no exaggeration to say that without U.S. national intelligence in this area, arms control negotiations, and agreements would have been impossible," said Lloyd Salvetti, director of CIA's Center for the Study of Intelligence.
One of the reports, dated Dec. 1, 1988, said the Soviet Union had enough intercontinental ballistic missile nuclear warheads "to attack all U.S. missile silos and launch control centers with at least two warheads each."
But the Soviet Union believed the two sides could devastate each other in a nuclear war, and "thus the Soviets have strong incentives to avoid risking global nuclear war," it said.
At that time, intelligence estimates expected Soviet forces to be "extensively modernized" by the late 1990s and move from fixed silo-based intercontinental ballistic missiles to more mobile systems, with weapons that could reach the United States to grow over five years to up to 15,000, from 10,000.
Concerns about the Soviet economy heightened Moscow's interest in arms control agreements as a way of avoiding the costs of an "escalated military competition" with the United States, the report said.
U.S. intelligence agencies believed the Soviet Union was unlikely to launch a "bolt-from-the-blue" nuclear attack and provoke a clash with the United States and NATO that could escalate into a global nuclear war.
The Soviets also saw "little likelihood" of a U.S. launched surprise nuclear attack but believed a major nuclear war would most likely arise out of a conflict between NATO and Warsaw Pact countries, the report said.
NEAR COLD WAR'S END
Nearly three years later, a U.S. intelligence report dated Aug. 8, 1991, just months before the Soviet Union ceased to exist, said its decline caused Soviet leaders to view their national security and superpower status as "hinging more than ever on strategic nuclear power."
The Soviets were moving to a force consisting mainly of mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles and bombers, the report said. They also were developing five new ballistic missiles -- two land-based and three sea-based.
"The Soviets have enough warheads to mount a comprehensive attack against fixed targets worldwide," the report said.
In the event of a major U.S. nuclear attack, if the B-2 bomber and advanced cruise missile became more stealth-like they would probably be able to penetrate most of Soviet airspace at low altitude, the report said.
The Soviet Union had established a tunnel system and secret subway lines to protect its leaders from nuclear war.
"For 40 years, the Soviet Union has had a vast program under way to ensure the survival of its leaders in the event of nuclear war," the intelligence report said.
"This program has involved the construction of an extensive network of deep underground bunkers, tunnels and secret subway lines in urban and rural areas," it said. "There is recent evidence that substantial construction activity continues."
A U.S. report dated April, 1989, accused Moscow of employing "unsavory practices" of disinformation that suggested the United States invented AIDS and trafficked in body parts.
Still, Moscow had reduced the amount of "blatant disinformation in its own press" and begun to participate in bilateral talks in which U.S. complaints about disinformation were conveyed to Soviet leaders, the report said.
---
Bush says he would share missile-defense technology with Russia
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Wednesday, November 17, 1999 ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.seattlep-i.com/national/camp171.shtml
WASHINGTON -- GOP presidential candidate George W. Bush, outlining his vision for American foreign policy, said yesterday he would be willing to share technology to help Russia develop an anti-ballistic-missile system if Moscow pledged to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
In an interview previewing a major address Friday, Bush also said he would seek to cut off international aid to Russia if the bloodshed in Chechnya continues. The Texas governor said Russia, China, the Middle East and Central and South America would be his top priorities as president.
Bush hopes Friday's speech and a Dec. 2 debate lay to rest questions about his presidential credentials. A string of foreign policy gaffes have raised doubts about his readiness in a field where his father, former President George Bush, excelled.
"I'm going to talk about optimism and keeping the peace, keeping the peace not only for this generation but to keep the peace for a lengthy period of time," Bush said. "I'm going to talk about the need for America to seize the moment, to set a tone for a new American internationalism."
"The way to achieve our objective will be through a strong military, through economic policy based upon fair trade and through strong alliances," Bush said.
Like the rest of the GOP field, Bush wants Russia to amend the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty to allow the United States to develop a national missile defense system.
In an effort to signal that the move would be purely defensive, Bush said he would offer to help Russia develop its own missile-defense system by sharing technology. Russia must first pledge to stop spreading nuclear weapons technology to other nations, he said.
The Clinton administration has proposed helping Russia develop radar technology in hopes that Russia amends the treaty. Condoleeza Rice, Bush's top foreign policy adviser, said that while the administration is discussing a narrow incentive to Russia, Bush is talking about a broader -- but not yet specific -- approach to sharing technology "that might have any number of elements."
"Anti-ballistic missile technology is good for all peace-loving nations," she said.
Elsewhere in the presidential campaign:
Arizona Sen. John McCain formalized his decision to bypass Iowa, notifying GOP leaders yesterday that he'll come to the state for two campaign debates but won't compete in the Jan. 24 caucuses.
McCain said he made the decision because "the compressed nature of the primary schedule" makes it impossible for candidates without unlimited resources to compete everywhere.
Instead, McCain will concentrate his efforts on New Hampshire's leadoff primary, and an early test in South Carolina.
The last major candidate to turn to TV, Bill Bradley unveiled his first $214,000 wave of ads yesterday tempting Iowa and New Hampshire voters with the root-for-the-underdog slogan, "It can happen."
Bradley, who has played up his "Washington outsider" status in trying to draw contrasts with Vice President Al Gore, nonetheless features in his 60-second "Crystal City Bio" testimonials from two Senate veterans -- New York's Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Nebraska's Bob Kerrey -- who have 34 years of Washington experience between them.
Communications adviser Anita Dunn said the Bradley campaign wanted to give voters "some information about what kind of senator he had been."
Steve Forbes' presidential campaign alleged in a complaint to the Federal Election Commission that a moderate Republican group made an illegal $100,000 contribution to Bush.
Bill Dal Col, Forbes' campaign manager, said he took the action after the Republican Leadership Council -- whose members include several Bush supporters -- began running commercials in Iowa and New Hampshire warning the millionaire publisher not to run negative ads.
"The Republican Leadership Council and the Bush campaign are mirror images of each other when one looks at the contributors and supporters of each," Dal Col said. He called the RLC a "surrogate organization" for the Bush campaign.
More than half of the RLC's advisory board has endorsed Bush for president, though the group has not backed any candidate.
RLC Executive Director Mark Miller said the ad was reviewed only by three leaders of the group, none of whom had endorsed Bush.
FEC officials said yesterday they had not yet received the complaint.
---
[Letters to CS Monitor needed!]
Missile-defense common sense
Christian Science Monitor THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1999
http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/1999/11/18/fp8s2-csm.shtml
Regarding "Forcing a rethink of global security," (Nov. 12): The article did an excellent job of pointing out the obstacles confronting the US desire to build a national missile-defense system. By pointing out these impediments, the article amplified both the need for the system and the need to stay on course with plans to build it.
The Clinton administration's plan to build a first-generation antiballistic missile network is a good first step toward providing Americans with protection from the possibility of a nuclear strike from North Korea or other rogue nations, such as Iran. And while the US makes every effort to convince Russia that the missile shield isn't designed to defend us from them, Americans cannot ignore the fact that Russia continues to flounder in political chaos and economic collapse, heightening the possibility that nuclear weapons could end up in the hands of terrorists or sold to outlaw regimes for hard cash.
The decision as to whether a national missile-defense system is needed basically comes down to a matter of where to place your trust: in the restraint of such regimes as North Korea and Iran or in your own defense system. An ounce of prevention, after all, is worth a pound of cure. Phillip Thompson, Arlington, Va.
(Mail letters to 'Readers Write,' and opinion articles to Opinion Page, One Norway St., Boston, MA 02115, or fax to 617-450-2317, or e-mail to oped@csps.com)
---
THE AD CAMPAIGN Bush Depicted as Safe on Foreign Policy
By FRANK BRUNI New York Times November 18, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/111899wh-gop-bush-ad.html
Related Articles
Campaigns: White House 2000 -- George W. Bush (R)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/whouse/gop-bush.html
This 30-second commercial, "Dangerous World," was unveiled this week by Gov. George W. Bush of Texas in South Carolina, home to military bases and many veterans.
PRODUCER Maverick Media.
ON THE SCREEN The commercial begins with a shot of an abandoned building. In the foreground lies a toppled traffic cone.
Cut to a little girl walking in a fenced-in area, presumably near the building, that resembles a pen. She looks directly at the camera and plays with her hair, a gesture in stark contrast to her surroundings.
The camera focuses on some tape that winds through the fence and reads "caution." Then the image changes abruptly to a night sky lighted by falling bombs and rising anti-aircraft fire.
Bush, who has been speaking all along, appears next, against a white background, and talks directly to the camera. The image changes to the little girl again; she runs her hand across the fence. Then Bush returns, with a list of written promises beside him: "strengthen military," "restore morale," "increase pay."
The little girl -- now outside her pen -- replaces him, and she rights the traffic cone and then runs along a grassy field. Bush comes back, with the words "build missile defense" beside him. The girl is seen reaching out for the arm of an unseen man in a military uniform.
SCRIPT "Today we live in a world of terror and madmen and missiles. And our military is challenged by aging weapons and low morale. Because a dangerous world still requires a sharpened sword, I will rebuild our military. I will move quickly to defend our country and allies against blackmail by building missile defense systems. As president, I will have a foreign policy with a touch of iron driven by American interests and American values."
ACCURACY Bush's use of imagery associated with the Persian Gulf war -- the night sky pictured here is over Baghdad -- evokes what was considered a high point of his father's presidency but ignores the fact that military cutbacks began under President Bush.
SCORECARD The initial imagery in the commercial effectively connotes neglect and disrepair, and the sequence of images suggests that the result of this is that children are not free to wander through the world without fear. The use of the girl in a menacing enclosure presses sensitive emotional buttons -- not unlike the girl with the flower in the atomic bomb commercial that Lyndon Johnson used in 1964 -- and the subsequent implication is that Bush's commitments to national defense will release her.
Bush has been criticized for a lack of foreign policy experience, and the commercial asserts that he can be trusted to manage what many Americans probably care about most: safety from foreign threats. But in mounting a purely emotional appeal, the ad may not allay voters' substantive questions about Bush's knowledge of international affairs.
-------- us nuc weapons plants
New Mexico
USA Today November 18 1999
http://www.usatoday.com/news/states/nmmain.htm
Thursday, November18 Albuquerque - The nuclear waste research program at Sandia National Laboratories will lose 25 jobs because of a last-minute $9.3 million budget cut related to a feud between the state and the federal government over a radioactive waste dump. Sandia officials are trying to find other jobs for the scientists and support staff.
---
Aid for Nuclear Workers Sought
Bill Eyes $100,000 Each for Cancers at Paducah, Other Plants
By Joe Stephens and Joby Warrick Washington Post, November 18, 1999; Page A18
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-11/18/166l-111899-idx.html
The Clinton administration yesterday sent Congress legislation that would give $100,000 to each person who became ill after working at nuclear weapons facilities in Paducah, Ky., and elsewhere.
Under the bill, each Paducah worker who developed cancer after being unwittingly exposed to plutonium and other highly radioactive materials would be eligible for a lump-sum payment of $100,000. Family members could collect for dead workers.
The legislation could benefit 200 current and former Paducah workers and their families and more than 1,000 workers at other weapons facilities. It also would compensate workers who get sick in coming years because of workplace exposure at Paducah between 1953 and 1992.
"This action is long overdue," Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said at a news conference. "The department is finally going to stop fighting these workers and instead help them get the treatment they need."
In addition, the legislation would offer workers' compensation benefits or $100,000 payments to workers who developed lung disease from exposure to the metal beryllium at weapons plants. It would provide similar payments to about 55 people who developed unexplained illnesses after working at an Energy Department facility at Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Officials estimated the program would cost between $30 million and $40 million for at least the first two years.
Richardson, joined by six House members, called the bill only the first step in a plan to compensate all workers who were endangered while helping the department build America's nuclear arsenal. He described yesterday's action as the first time the government had acted to compensate contract workers, who provided essential services to the nuclear weapons industry. The few federal workers at the plants already were covered by a workers' compensation plan, a spokeswoman said.
"This legislation helps to redeem workers' faith in the American government," said Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio). "We will be able to mark this day as the beginning of a whole new approach to issues of government accountability."
The bill has bipartisan sponsorship in the House and Senate.
The Clinton administration began crafting the Paducah legislation after a Washington Post investigation highlighted radioactive contamination at the western Kentucky plant, including worker exposure to plutonium. Documents filed in a worker lawsuit accuse the plant's former operators of failing to protect workers from--or even to warn them of-- radioactive hazards.
The plant is owned by the Energy Department but has been managed by a series of private companies. Workers would be eligible for the payments if they worked at the plant for at least one year during the designated period, held a position that led to radiation exposure and developed one of a range of cancers. They do not need to prove that exposure caused the illness.
Attorneys handling a lawsuit against plant contractors criticized the legislation, pointing out that workers would have to waive legal claims against government contractors to collect the money. "It lets the contractors off the hook," said Mike Carvin, a Louisville lawyer. "It's both unfair to workers and unfair to taxpayers."
But John D. Boss Jr., a worker and supervisor at the Paducah plant for 38 years before retiring in 1990, was more receptive.
"I appreciate what they are doing," said Boss, who has been diagnosed with lymphoma, a disease sometimes linked to radiation. He was one of several workers who met with Richardson at the plant in September.
"I've got good medical insurance, but when you've got cancer, you spend lots of money," Boss said. "This will really help."
---
Nuclear Workers Compensation Pressed
The Associated Press, New York Times November 18, 1999 Filed at 3:56 a.m. EST
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/AP-Nuclear-Compensation.html
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- A Clinton administration plan to compensate potentially hundreds of current and former workers sickened in federal nuclear weapons plants isn't enough, some workers say.
``What is a human life worth?'' asked Ann Orick, who became sick while working at the shuttered K-25 uranium enrichment plant in Oak Ridge.
``We are willing to be fair. We will bend over backwards. But they are going to have to meet us halfway,'' said Orick, one of 55 former K-25 workers who have been waiting three years for government-paid doctors to determine the source of their illnesses.
Energy Secretary Bill Richardson proposed a bill Wednesday that would cover all Energy Department employees who became ill through exposure to radioactive material.
Workers who suffered from beryllium-related diseases would be eligible to receive medical benefits, lost wage reimbursement, and optional job retraining or a single lump-sum payment of $100,000.
The measure also widened an earlier proposal by including compensation for workers at the Paducah, Ky., and Oak Ridge, facilities where workers have suffered from non-beryllium radiation-related diseases.
For Paducah, it would cover those who worked there between January 1952 and February 1992. Oak Ridge would be the site of a pilot program to determine whether any current and former employees are sick as a result of exposure to beryllium or other radioactive materials there.
Janet Michel, another ill K-25 worker, said the lump-sum compensation proposed for workers like her ``is just a drop in the bucket of what needs to be done.''
Orick agreed, saying, ``Everybody has maxed out their credit cards. Everybody's sold everything they've got. People have nothing left to dig into.''
An estimated 20,000 workers may have been exposed to beryllium at various Energy Department sites, though medical experts stress that only a small percentage would develop beryllium-related illnesses.
U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., said he will sponsor the legislation, and promised to work to expand its Paducah coverage to include Oak Ridge workers. U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., said he will do the same in the House.
``It's time to take care of those who sacrificed so much to help our country win the Cold War,'' Thompson said. ``Mistakes were made, and they need to be rectified.''
Until recently, the Energy Department had refused to acknowledge that some workers' health problems were linked to work at the weapons plants. ``Hopefully, this action will help redeem defense workers' faith in American government,'' said Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio.
---
Legislators upset by exclusion of Piketon workers from bill
Uranium-enrichment plant employees would not be offered compensation.
By Jonathan Riskind Dispatch Washington Bureau Columbus Dispatch Thursday, November 18, 1999
http://www.dispatch.com/pan/news/pbuxnws.html
WASHINGTON -- Ohio legislators were angered yesterday when they learned that a bill to compensate workers exposed to radiation at a Kentucky power plant does not include employees who worked with uranium at a southern Ohio plant.
U.S. Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson assured the lawmakers "we're not going to forget'' Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant workers and said it should be determined by March whether they are eligible for payments because of illnesses linked to radiation exposure.
Payouts authorized by the Clinton administration bill that Richardson unveiled at a news conference are estimated by some Energy Department officials to total about $125 million over five years.
It would provide payments of up to $100,000 each for uranium-enrichment workers in Kentucky who were unwittingly exposed to plutonium- tainted uranium and other contaminants during the Cold War.
The bulk of the money, however, would compensate hundreds of nuclear-site workers across the country, including some near Toledo and Cleveland, whose exposure to beryllium made them ill.
None of the money will be appropriated before Congress adjourns this year, and Ohio lawmakers say they will block any legislation that doesn't include Ohio enrichment workers from passing next year.
Rep. Ted Strickland, D-Lucasville, said southern Ohio workers also were exposed to plutonium and other radioactive elements during their work enriching weapons-grade uranium.
Strickland yesterday introduced his own bill that would extend the compensation package to cover Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant workers.
"There is simply no rational explanation of why workers at the Portsmouth plant would be left out of any compensation package,'' Strickland said.
Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, said he plans to call a hearing next year to review the administration's proposal. Sen. George V. Voinovich, R-Ohio, said that he and DeWine will block any legislation that doesn't include southern Ohio workers.
Richardson said he wants to wait until next year to decide whether to include southern Ohio enrichment workers because that is when the Energy Department will finish an initial investigation there.
An investigation by The Dispatch revealed that many workers there were exposed to plutonium-laced uranium, as well as to other radioactive and chemical elements, as part of a flawed government attempt to recycle spent nuclear-reactor fuel.
It also appeared increasingly unlikely yesterday that Congress would approve a bailout of the privatized federal corporation that runs the nation's uranium-enrichment plants in Piketon, Ohio, and Paducah, Ky., before the body's expected adjournment this week.
The United States Enrichment Corp., privatized last year, says it needs up to $200 million to make up for losses in its role as the government's agent to buy and sell Russian low-enriched uranium that is culled from nuclear warheads to be used for nuclear-power-plant fuel.
Lawmakers and the Clinton administration have balked at the bailout request, saying if USEC wants government assistance with the $8 billion Russian deal, crafted in 1993 as a way to get Russia to disarm thousands of nuclear weapons, it must promise to run the plants at current levels at least until 2005.
The chairman of the House Commerce Committee, Rep. Thomas J. Bliley Jr., R-Va., perhaps put a final nail in the coffin of a bailout when he wrote House Speaker Dennis Hastert expressing disapproval for such a move. Bliley told Hastert that his committee has jurisdiction over USEC and intends to "explore fully'' the privatization issue when Congress returns next year.
About the bailout request, Bliley wrote, "I have studied this issue and cannot justify the American taxpayers giving USEC as much as $200 million over the next two years.''
USEC produces its own low-enriched uranium that it sells for use as commercial nuclear-power-plant fuel, but it says its production levels are hurt because it is forced to buy and sell the Russian material at a loss.
Strickland says he is worried that USEC will begin laying off hundreds of workers by August, so he wants any bailout of the Russian deal tied to worker-protection guarantees. Under terms of privatization, USEC was limited to eliminating 500 jobs through July 2000. USEC has refused to agree to worker-protection guarantees.
It was unclear yesterday whether USEC would carry out its threat to end its role in the Russian deal by Dec. 1 if it does not get a bailout. The Clinton administration is talking to potential replacements, and USEC directors are to discuss the issue in a pre-Thanksgiving meeting.
-------- us nuc plants
NRC Staff Says Calvert Cliffs Plant Is Safe
Washington Post Thursday, November 18, 1999; Page B03
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-11/18/219l-111899-idx.html
A report issued yesterday by Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff members concludes that there are no safety concerns that would preclude renewal of the operating licenses for the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant.
But renewal of the license has been put on hold after a ruling last week by a federal appeals court. The court found that the NRC unfairly ignored opponents in its rush to approve the renewal for the plant, which generates about half of Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.'s electricity.
"If we hadn't won that victory, this report would have put them very close to renewal," said Stephen Kohn, attorney for the National Whistleblowers Center, which brought the suit against the NRC.
The commission is still considering what steps to take in response to the court ruling, an NRC spokeswoman said.
Yesterday's report said that there is "reasonable assurance" that maintenance and inspections can mitigate the effects of aging on the plant, which opened in 1975.
--
USA Today 11/18/99 Maryland
http://www.usatoday.com/news/states/mdmain.htm
Baltimore - A safety evaluation of the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant did not reveal any problems that would prevent renewal of the plant's operating licenses, federal regulators said.
-------- us other
Quotes From Declassified CIA Files
Associated Press Thursday, Nov. 18, 1999; 2:28 p.m. EST
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991118/aponline142842_000.htm
"We believe that Gorbachev's efforts at reviving the Soviet economy will produce no substantial improvement over the next five years, although his efforts to raise consumer welfare could achieve some modest results. Soviet attempts to raise technology levels will not narrow the gap with the West in most sectors during the remainder of this century." - From a Nov. 23, 1988, report on Gorbachev's economic programs.
--
"Our evidence points to continuing Soviet programs to develop and refine options for both conventional and nuclear war, and the Soviets are preparing their forces for the possibility that both conventional and nuclear war could be longer and more complex than previously assumed." - December 1988 review of strategic nuclear weapons.
--
"The chances that Gorbachev will successfully overcome the dilemmas (many of his own making) that confront him are - over the long term - doubtful at best." - September 1989 national intelligence estimate.
--
"No end to the Soviet domestic crisis is in sight and there is a strong probability the situation will get worse - perhaps much worse - during the next year." - November 1990 national intelligence estimate.
--
"As a result of his political meandering and policy failures, Gorbachev's credibility has sunk to near zero." - April 25, 1991, document entitled "The Soviet Cauldron," prepared for the White House National Security Council.
--
"The decline of the Soviet Union has caused its leaders to view their national security and superpower status as hinging more than ever on strategic nuclear power." - August 1991 report on Soviet nuclear capabilities through 2000.
--
"Ethnic turmoil will increase as nationalism grows and ethnic minorities resist the authority of newly dominant ethnic majorities." - September 1991 national intelligence estimate.
--
"Severe economic conditions, the fragmentation of the armed forces and ongoing inter-ethnic conflict will combine to produce the most significant civil disorder in the former USSR since the Bolsheviks consolidated power." - November 1991 analysis.
--
"Forces unleashed by the collapse of the Soviet system are breaking up its premier artifact - the Soviet military; the high command cannot stop this process." December 1991 national intelligence estimate.
---
Boeing wins $2 billion in orders
USA Today 11/18/99- Updated 10:13 AM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/news/digest/nd1.htm#f990
NEW YORK - Boeing Co. has won at least 30 orders valued at more than $2 billion for its new line of Delta IV satellite-launch rockets, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. Satellite maker and systems operator Loral Space & Communications has placed a significant order, the Journal reported, citing an unidentified executive familiar with the deal. Boeing also had been courting Aerospatiale Matra SA of France to make a sizable offer, but it was unclear whether the Paris-based company had signed an agreement, the Journal said. A spokeswoman for Loral confirmed that the company had placed a Delta IV order, but declined to discuss its details.
--------
Army Changing Mission of a Training Academy
New York Times November 18, 1999 By STEVEN LEE MYERS
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/army-school.html
WASHINGTON -- The Army school that taught generations of Latin American soldiers to fight leftist insurgencies during the Cold War -- and along the way trained officers who went on to commit human-rights abuses -- is changing its name and its mission in hopes of improving its reputation.
Battered by years of protests and chastened when Congress nearly closed it this fall, the Army plans to restructure the academy, known as the School of the Americas, to make its focus less strictly military and more academic, senior Army officials said Wednesday.
Under plans drawn up by Army Secretary Louis Caldera, the Army will rewrite the school's charter and recruit civilian as well as military students. It also plans to drop some strictly military courses, including one in commando tactics, and shift final authority over the school's curriculum to the Department of Defense, the officials said.
By next spring, pending approval from the Pentagon and legislative changes from Congress, the Army hopes to "reopen" the school, at Fort Benning, Ga., as the Center for Inter-American Security Cooperation. The officials said they wanted to transform it into a regional training institute similar to the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Germany, created in 1993 to foster democratic militaries in formerly Communist nations.
The Army's plans stop short of shutting down the School of the Americas or ending all combat training, as many critics have demanded.
"The School of the Americas' reputation is so bad that, even if they put these changes in place, I'm not sure it goes far enough," said Rep. Joe Moakley, D-Mass., who joined in sponsoring the legislation that would have cut the school's financing. "It's like putting perfume on a toxic dump."
But Army officials said the changes would significantly alter the school's mission and curriculum.
"We are changing our focus from the Cold War, and the role the school played in the past, to this mission of helping educate military and civilian leaders within the context of democratic principles," a senior Army official said in an interview.
First opened in Panama in 1946 and moved to its current home near Columbus, Ga., in 1984, the school has served as the nation's principle training ground for Central and South American military and police officers, playing host to more than 60,000 soldiers and officers.
For years, it has been a magnet for controversy and protests, since some of the school's graduates have been implicated in some of Latin America's most notorious human-rights violations. Alumni include 19 of the 26 Salvadoran soldiers who assassinated six Jesuit priests in 1989, a Guatemalan colonel linked to the killing of an American innkeeper in 1990, and Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega, the former ruler of Panama now in prison in the United States on drug charges.
Caldera and other Army leaders have strongly defended the school, saying the Army has never abetted or condoned abuses and arguing that the school's training has a legitimate role in Central and South America. But the officials acknowledged that they were forced to consider changes because of the school's lingering notoriety.
The House voted earlier this year effectively to shut the school by eliminating the money for students' scholarships, but the funding narrowly survived in September when the Senate sided with the Army. This weekend, thousands of opponents are scheduled to gather at Fort Benning's gate, marking the 10th anniversary of the Jesuit killings with protests to demand the school's closing.
"We realize that we're going to keep fighting the same battles unless we change," another Army official said.
The school's opponents reacted warily to the proposed changes, which the Army expects to make public in the weeks ahead. Rep. Joe Scarborough, R-Fla., said that if the Army was serious, the school could change to reflect the moves in Latin America toward freer, more democratic societies. "I think there's a great opportunity for the school to change," he said.
Like Central and South America, the school has already undergone a transformation since the days when the United States eagerly trained militaries struggling against insurgencies supported by the Soviet Union or Cuba. Today young cadets or officers receive training in combating drug traffickers and coping with natural disasters.
After the embarrassment the Pentagon suffered in 1991 after disclosing that training manuals used at the school included references to torture, blackmail and "neutralizing" insurgents, the school began emphasizing courses in human rights and civilian control of the military.
Army officials argue that the school, with the relatively small budget of $4 million, gives the United States a chance to inculcate democratic values to rising stars in Latin American militaries. While the Pentagon and other services offer training to military officers from Latin America, the school is the only one that offers training exclusively in Spanish.
Among other changes, the Army plans to ask the State Department to contribute lecturers and include Latin American political and civilian leaders as students. They also plan to expand its seven-member board of civilian advisers.
The officials said that the Army would still provide combat training, especially for commanders of small units, which, they say, are critical to dealing with countries' security threats, especially from drug traffickers.
"It is clear the militaries are going to play an important role in the life of the nations of Latin America, for historical reasons and because of the legitimate security interests that they have," the senior Army official said. "We can't wish them away, nor should we wish them away. What we need to do is engage them."
But Moakley said the United States should be devoting its resources to helping Latin American countries strengthen judicial systems or other democratic institutions, rather than their militaries.
"You can't teach democracy," he said, "through the barrel of a gun."
-------- britain
Embassy Row
By James Morrison THE WASHINGTON TIMES
5am -- November 18, 1999 www.washtimes.com
http://www.washtimes.com/internatl/embassy.html
Under advisement
The British House of Commons yesterday urged the U.S. Senate to reconsider its rejection of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, prompting Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott's office to dismiss the British resolution with a touch of sarcasm.
The resolution was supported by 359 members of the 659-seat House of Commons. Supporters included Labor and Conservative members.
The "House expresses grave concern at the U.S. Senate's rejection of the [treaty]; fears this could undermine nuclear nonproliferation; and . . . hope the Senate will reconsider this decision."
Malcolm Savidge, the Labor member of Parliament who sponsored the resolution, said, "This is an appeal to the United States, as partners in NATO, allies in peace and conflict through most of this century, and inheritors of a common parliament tradition."
Mr. Savidge, refusing to believe the treaty is dead in Washington, added, "If the test ban treaty fails, the risks of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction rise greatly. That could threaten all nation states and indeed the survival of human civilization through the next millennium."
The Republican majority in the Senate has made it clear it has no intention of voting again on the measure and has warned President Clinton against resubmitting it.
The treaty has been signed by 154 nations, including Britain, and would ban all nuclear tests and establish an international nuclear testing monitoring system.
Critics have said the ban can not be verified and could hamstring the United States in maintaining a strategic nuclear arsenal in the future.
A spokesman for Mr. Lott dismissed the British resolution.
"The former Colonies will take the House of Commons resolution under advisement," he said.
---
RAF Crew Eject from Jet Before Crash
By The Associated Press
New York Times November 17, 1999 Filed at 6:25 p.m. EST
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Britain-Jet-Crash.html
LONDON (AP) -- Two Royal Air Force pilots ejected from their Tornado jet during a training exercise Wednesday, minutes before their plane crashed in the sea near a nuclear power station.
The crew were rescued by an RAF helicopter in a village near Torness, East Lothian, and taken to a nearby hospital for medical tests. Both appeared to be in stable condition, an RAF spokeswoman said.
Eyewitnesses reported seeing the plane crash about half a mile from shore on the north side of the power station, said Derek Sinclair, a member of the team searching for plane wreckage.
The search for the wreckage is to resume Thursday.
-------- russia
Yeltsin, Upstaging U.S., Endorses N-Test Ban
By Reuters New York Times November 17, 1999 Filed at 4:34 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-arms-ru.html
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Russian President Boris Yeltsin, seeking the moral high ground over the United States, said Wednesday he had signed a draft law approving a global nuclear test ban and sent it to parliament for ratification.
The Senate dealt President Clinton an embarrassing blow Oct. 13 by rejecting the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, drawing widespread international condemnation.
Yeltsin said he had signed the bill and sent it to the Duma before flying to Istanbul Wednesday for a 54-nation European security summit at which Moscow is expected to face a barrage of Western criticism over its military offensive in rebel Chechnya.
``Today, I have signed the draft law on ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. This means that Russia is making its concrete and real contribution to strengthen the nuclear non-proliferation regime and strategic stability in the world.
``I call on all states to follow this example,'' he told journalists after meeting Turkish President Suleyman Demirel.
Russia signed the treaty in September 1996 but, of the five official nuclear powers, only France and Britain have completed ratification so far.
The treaty can only enter into force once all 44 states with nuclear research programs -- including Iraq, Israel, North Korea, India and Pakistan -- endorse it.
Yeltsin's spokesman told reporters the Russian leader would discuss issues of nuclear arms control and strategic stability in Europe at a private meeting with Clinton Thursday morning.
Clinton's national security adviser, Sandy Berger, said in response to the Russian move: ``We would certainly welcome ratification by the Duma or the Congress of a comprehensive test ban treaty.''
The Duma is still holding up ratification of the Start-2 strategic arms reduction treaty with the United States, although the two former adversaries have already begun talks on a third, more radical treaty to cut deeper into Cold War arsenals of nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles.
The Republican majority in the Senate voted 51-48 to reject the test ban treaty, the first time it had thrown out a major international agreement since it defeated the Treaty of Versailles after the end of World War I.
Republicans argued that the verification provisions were inadequate to prevent cheating and some rejected any constraint on Washington's ability to develop its own nuclear weapons. But U.S. analysts widely interpreted the vote as driven by partisan politics and a determination to wound the Democratic president rather than by arms control considerations.
---
Yeltsin Backs A-Test Treaty
New York Times 11/18/99
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/111899europe-meeting.html#1
ISTANBUL -- President Boris N. Yeltsin said Wednesday that he is pressing the Russian parliament to ratify the nuclear test ban treaty. The United States Senate rejected the treaty last month in a defeat for President Clinton.
Russia signed the treaty in 1996 but of the five "official" nuclear powers, only France and Britain have completed ratification.
Clinton's national security adviser, Samuel R. Berger, said in response to Yeltsin's statement, "We would certainly welcome ratification by the Duma or the Congress of a comprehensive test ban treaty."
---
Yeltsin Signs Test Ban Treaty Bill
Washington Post, November 18, 1999; P A36
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-11/18/171l-111899-idx.html
ISTANBUL--Russian President Boris Yeltsin, seeking the moral high ground over the United States, said yesterday he had signed a bill approving a global nuclear test ban and sent it to parliament for ratification.
The Senate dealt President Clinton an embarrassing defeat Oct. 13 by rejecting the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, drawing widespread international condemnation.
Yeltsin said he had signed the bill and sent it to the Duma, the lower house of parliament, before flying to Istanbul for the 54-nation European security summit at which Moscow is expected to face a barrage of Western criticism over its military offensive in the separatist Chechnya region.
"Today, I have signed the draft law on ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. . . . I call on all states to follow this example," he told journalists after meeting Turkish President Suleyman Demirel.
---
Russian Arms Researcher Charged With Spying for U.S.
By David Hoffman Washington Post Foreign Service, November 18, 1999; Page A35
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-11/18/177l-111899-idx.html
MOSCOW, Nov. 17-Russian security services have charged an arms control researcher with spying for the United States, sources said today.
Igor Sutyagin, chief of the section on military technological research at the Institute for the Study of the United States and Canada, was detained Oct. 27 by the Federal Security Service in Kaluga, south of Moscow, where he lives.
At the time, sources said the investigation was looking into leaks of classified information. But on Nov. 5, Sutyagin was formally accused of espionage, the sources said. Details of the charges are not known.
Paul Podvig, editor of a book on Russia's nuclear forces to which Sutyagin contributed a chapter, said, "I am 100 percent certain that Igor didn't do anything wrong."
According to the sources, the security services searched Podvig's office for a second time recently and seized between 500 and 600 copies of the book, "Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces," which was published last year.
Sergei Rogov, director of the USA-Canada Institute said there was no access to secret information at the institute.
"This is a very unpleasant situation," Rogov said. "Unfortunately, previously our institute was a couple of times in the same situation, and a couple of employees of the institute admitted that they were sending information back to the CIA, and they are in the United States now, with a formal status as someone who suffered because of cooperation with the CIA.
"It's very unfortunate that this institute, against our will, was involved again in this kind of game. Naturally, only the court can decide whether the accusations against our researcher are true or not. Only at the trial can they find out if he is guilty or not.
"Right now he is under investigation and it doesn't make our work easier, because dealing with controversial subjects like arms control, it's easy to be accused of selling out, especially when you think about an agreement when both sides have to make concessions, which originally may be perceived as impossible," Rogov said.
Joshua Handler, a Princeton University PhD student who was a guest at the USA-Canada Institute, was questioned in the case, but no accusations have been made against him. He recently left Russia.
---
Russia tests 2 ballistic missiles
Florida Today Nov. 18, 1999
http://www.flatoday.com/space/today/111899g.htm
MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia fired its third set of test missiles in a month on Wednesday, sending a message of combat-readiness as the country wrangles with the United States over a proposed missile defense system.
Two missiles were launched from a submarine in the Barents Sea north of Scandinavia and struck their targets about 3,100 miles away on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia's Far East, the Navy's press service said.
Like two previous launches, the move appeared to carry a strong political message.
Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov, the commander of the Russian Navy, congratulated the Arctic Fleet on Wednesday's launches, saying in a statement that ``the naval strategic force demonstrated top combat-readiness and met the highest modern standards.''
Russian ties with the West have deteriorated over a series of disputes in recent years.
Most recently, Russia has clashed with the United states over a U.S. proposal to amend the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty to allow the United States to build a missile-defense system to protect against limited nuclear attacks.
The United States says the modification is meant to protect against nuclear strikes by so-called rogue states such as Iraq and North Korea. But Russian military officials have said the real target is Russia.
The ABM treaty allowed the United States and the Soviet Union to protect one area each with interceptor missiles, but banned the further development of such defenses on the premise that fear of mutual destruction would stop either side from launching a nuclear attack.
NATO's expansion to the east earlier this year, and its airstrikes against Yugoslavia, have also soured relations with Russia -- as has Western criticism of Russia's military campaign against breakaway Chechnya.
On Nov. 2, the Russian military began flexing its might, firing an interceptor missile designed to knock down ballistic missiles -- the first such test in years. And two weeks earlier, it launched a Stiletto intercontinental ballistic missile.
---
US-Russian Ties Tested by Disputes
By Robert Burns AP Military Writer Associated Press Thursday, Nov. 18, 1999; 3:32 a.m. EST
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991118/aponline033247_000.htm
ISTANBUL, Turkey -- In the five months since President Clinton last met with Russian President Boris Yeltsin, the diplomatic irritant of Russian objections to NATO's bombing campaign against Yugoslavia has been replaced by increasingly strong American protests over Russia's military offensive in the breakaway region of Chechnya.
Chechnya topped the agenda for Clinton's meeting today with Yeltsin, but the two leaders also were expected to discuss a simmering dispute over a U.S. push to amend the landmark Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty so it can build a national defense against such missiles, and other unfinished arms control business.
"Our concern is that the means being used (in Chechnya) are causing inordinate harm to civilians," Clinton's national security adviser, Sandy Berger, said Wednesday in previewing the president's expected remarks to Yeltsin.
Yeltsin sounded a defiant tone upon his arrival in Istanbul on Wednesday. He urged the 53 other leaders attending a summit conference of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to hold back their criticism of Russia's military offensive in Chechnya or risk failure at the meeting. The summit is intended to strengthen the role of the OSCE - a Cold War-era organization - in preventing conflict and promoting human rights in Europe.
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov also urged world leaders at the summit not to play the "Chechen card." Russia's military role in Chechnya is no different than Western "aggression" against Yugoslavia earlier this year, he told reporters.
Berger said he did not expect the United States to be a lone voice of criticism.
"It's not a matter of ganging up" on Russia, Berger said. "It's a question of expressing serious concern, and I think that the Russians will hear from Europeans and Asians, as well as us, that the international community is very troubled by this."
Indeed, in remarks to the opening session of the summit today, Norway's foreign minister, Knut Vollebaek, who is the OSCE chairman, said Moscow's tactics in Chechnya are "reason for serious concern," and said Moscow should realize that in combating terrorism, "the means must be proportional to the threat."
"The humanitarian situation in and around Chechnya is alarming and could deteriorate further," Vollebaek said. Yeltsin was in the audience as Vollebaek spoke.
Chechnya is a territory that has been beyond Russia's control since the army withdrew at the end of a 1994-96 war.
Yeltsin insists the offensive in Chechnya is a necessary response to terrorists seeking to undermine Russian authority in the Caucasus region, and that the United States has no business criticizing its military campaign.
Berger said the United States accepts that Russia has a right to fight terrorism on its own territory, but that "indiscriminate use of force" against the rebels is causing so many civilian casualties that the strategy eventually will backfire.
The Chechnya problem is part of a broader set of tensions testing U.S.-Russian relations. One related issue is Russian objections to the U.S. push for a new pipeline from Azerbaijan to the Turkish port of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean to transport Caspian Sea oil to Western markets. Russia wants to extend and build up Soviet-era pipelines from the Caspian, but Clinton and the former Soviet states in the region - including Azerbaijan - want alternate routes, partly to avoid new dependence on Russia and partly to sidestep unstable areas like Chechnya.
U.S. officials said Clinton today would witness the signing in Istanbul of an agreement among Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia that sets a legal framework for building a million-barrels-a-day pipeline through Turkey. Construction would start in 2001.
Russia also strongly objects to the Clinton administration's insistence that the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty be amended to permit the United States to build a nationwide defense against ballistic missile attack. Moscow sees the U.S. plan as a threat to its security and a likely trigger for a new nuclear arms competition.
Berger said Clinton will try to reassure Yeltsin that a limited missile defense system is necessary, not only for the United States but also for Russia.
"The president will seek to describe for President Yeltsin what our intent is, what our purpose is, what the capability is of the kind of system that we're looking at, ... to assure him that this is not directed at Russia," he said.
On the positive side, Russia and the United States are expected to be part of a negotiated revision of a 1990 arms agreement called the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty, limiting tanks and other forces throughout Europe. U.S. officials said they expect the revised CFE treaty to be ready for signing at Friday's OSCE summit session.
---
Clinton Focuses on Russia, Chechnya
By The Associated Press, New York Times November 17,
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/AP-Clinton.html
ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) -- President Clinton, on the eve of a summit of 54 world leaders, staked out ground Wednesday for a showdown with Boris Yeltsin over Russia's military crackdown in Chechnya and the growing toll of civilian casualties.
But the Russian leader made clear he was not interested in being lectured, saying his colleagues should curb their outrage or risk failure of their talks.
Despite Yeltsin's defiant stand, Clinton and other leaders intend to use the two-day summit to express deep concern about civilian losses caused by Russian air and ground assaults in the breakaway republic and the resulting refugee flood, National Security Adviser Sandy Berger said.
``We have concerns that there is indiscriminate use of violence in the escalation of the conflict in the last several months,'' White House press secretary Joe Lockhart said. Berger expressed alarm about ``inordinate harm to civilians.''
Clinton has raised objections before, with no apparent success. He will meet with Yeltsin on Thursday, in the two leaders' first face-to-face exchange since the Chechnya fighting resumed in September.
A spokesman for Yeltsin said controversy over U.S. plans to modify the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty would also come high on the agenda. The United States wants to amend the treaty in order to build a national missile defense system to protect from attacks by rogue states such as North Korea. Russian officials have vehemently opposed the plan, saying the move would undo the entire system of arms control agreements.
Also Wednesday, Yeltsin asked the Russian parliament to ratify the global nuclear test ban treaty. The timing was symbolic, coming just before the Clinton meeting and not long after the Senate defeat of the treaty made the United States the first nuclear power to specifically reject the treaty. Russia has strongly criticized the Senate vote.
More than a third of the world's presidents and prime ministers gathered in this Bosporus city linking Asia and Europe for a the summit of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
In a high stakes competition for influence and wealth, Clinton will witness the signing of a Washington-backed agreement for a million-barrel-a-day Caspian Sea oil pipeline across Turkey. The deal is a blow to Russia, now the sole transit point for Caspian energy. But Clinton hopes the agreement will strengthen Turkey, a NATO ally, and cement ties with the former Soviet republics of Azerbeijan, Georgia and Turkmenistan.
Clinton spent most of the day with his family touring the ancient ruins of Ephesus, first colonized by Ionian Greeks in the 10th century B.C.
The president also met with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to review peace negotiations with the Palestinians and strategies to lure Syria back to the bargaining table, three years after talks broke off. Berger said there was ``no particular progress to report'' on the Syrian front.
The Israeli-Palestinian talks were deadlocked by an argument over who decides what land Israel is to hand over. The dispute clouds hopes for a February deadline for the outlines of a comprehensive peace agreement.
Clinton told Barak the February deadline ``is not far away and that we should continue to work at a brisk pace from now till then on the remaining transfer'' of territory, Berger said.
Clinton's meeting with Yeltsin will be their first face-to-face encounter since a June meeting in Cologne, Germany, during the summit of major industrialized nations.
Russia launched its campaign in Chechnya in early September after militants based there twice attacked neighboring Dagestan. The militants also have been blamed in the apartment bombings that killed about 300 people in Russia in September.
Yeltsin argues that Russia must crush a separatist threat from what he says are Islamic terrorists.
``Russia in Chechnya is acting in accordance with international civilized norms,'' Yeltsin told reporters on his arrival here. ``I'm sure they will finally understand that after my speech at the summit.''
But Berger said Clinton and others would not hesitate to criticize Yeltsin.
``The international community has every right to express its concerns,'' Berger said.
``Clearly, Russia has a right to fight terrorism within its borders. Clearly, this round was begun by Chechen rebels attacking Dagestan,'' Berger said.
``But our concern here is that the means being used are causing inordinate harm to civilians,'' he said. ``And our own judgment is that they are not likely to be productive in the long term.
The United States is urging Russia to ``engage in a political dialogue and reach a political resolution of this,'' Berger said.
``The president will express all of that tomorrow as I suspect other leaders who are here from around Europe and Asia and North America will, as well,'' Berger said.
Aside from his meeting with Barak, Clinton also paid a call on Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of more than 200 million Orthodox Christians. He presented Clinton with an old, hand-drafted parchment from the Scriptures quoting a passage about peace and brotherhood.
---
For 3d Time in Month, Russia Fires Missile
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESSNew York Times November 18, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/world/russia-missile.html
MOSCOW -- Russia fired its third set of test missiles in a month Wednesday, sending a message of combat-readiness as the country wrangles with the United States over a proposed missile defense system.
Two missiles were launched by the Arctic Fleet from a submarine in the Barents Sea, north of Scandinavia, and struck targets about 3,100 miles away, on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East, the navy's press service said.
Russia has clashed with the United States over an American proposal to amend the 1972 Antiballistic Missile treaty to allow the United States to build a missile-defense system to protect against limited nuclear attacks.
The United States says the modification is meant to protect against nuclear strikes by "rogue" nations like Iraq and North Korea. But Russian military officials have said the real target is Russia.
The treaty allowed the United States and the Soviet Union to protect one area each with interceptor missiles, but banned the further development of such installations on the premise that fear of mutual destruction would stop either side from launching a nuclear attack.
-------- iraq
U.S. Thinks Iraq Is Rebuilding Ruined Military Sites
By STEVEN LEE MYERS New York Times November 18, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/111899iraq-weapons.html
Related Article
U.N. Hits Snag in Renewing 'Oil for Food' Program for Iraq
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/111899iraq-un.html
WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon's senior intelligence officer said Wednesday that Iraq had begun to rebuild military installations the United States and Britain destroyed last December and that he could not rule out the possibility that President Saddam Hussein had resumed building chemical or biological weapons.
Vice Adm. Thomas R. Wilson, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said that American intelligence officials continue to monitor Iraq's program closely but that it was easy to hide weapons production inside legitimate commercial factories.
"I can't say authoritatively there is no work going on on," he said in an interview with reporters at the Pentagon Wednesday. "In fact, we assume that there is."
Admiral Wilson's assessment underscored the Clinton administration's quandary as the United Nations Security Council struggles to reach agreement on resuming international weapons inspections in Iraq more than 15 months after Hussein expelled inspectors, setting off a confrontation that culminated in air strikes last December.
In a rare interview by the top officer in the Pentagon's intelligence wing, Admiral Wilson also said China had embarked on a significant effort to modernize its military, which is the world's largest with some three million soldiers, though it is considered to be far behind the United States in technology and firepower.
Having seen American military might prevail in the Persian Gulf war in 1991 and during NATO's air war against Yugoslavia, China has begun actively seeking advanced aircraft, missiles and other weapons, he said.
"They have clearly made that an economic priority," he said.
Last week, American officials disclosed that the administration and the Pentagon had raised serious objections to Israel's decision to sell China a sophisticated, $250 million radar jet similar to American Awacs, fearing that the technology would increase China's ability to threaten Taiwan.
On Iraq, he said he knew of "no significant, precise evidence" proving Iraq's resumption of its weapons programs, which would be a violation of the cease-fire agreement that ended the gulf war.
Admiral Wilson, who visited the Persian Gulf last week, said the raids last December had set Hussein back militarily, while regular strikes by American and British jets patrolling the "no flight" zones over northern and southern Iraq since then had significantly damaged Iraqi air defenses.
But he said Hussein remained firmly in power.
-------- india/pakistan
Pakistan's Boss: Realist, Not Diplomat
New Yok Times November 18, 1999 By BARRY BEARAK
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/111899pakistan-musharraf.html
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan -- Gen. Pervez Musharraf was running behind schedule again Wednesday, with top posts still to fill, hundreds of the corrupt yet to arrest, back taxes to collect and policies to reconsider. His post-coup government is only five weeks old.
These days, he splits his time between the capital, Islamabad, and nearby Rawalpindi, home of the army headquarters. Since he ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Oct. 12, Musharraf has had both the military and the government to run, though the government is now the work he considers the more important.
"The nation is the bigger task that has been given to me by destiny," he said in an interview, sitting ramrod straight in his unwrinkled khaki uniform.
His style is becoming familiar. His manner is forceful, his voice calm, his grin triumphant. He admires candor, especially in himself.
"I am a realist," he said several times. "I am not a diplomat."
When Musharraf speaks, the words seem to flow directly from the heart, though the logic of what he says often veers into some odd twists and turns.
Most assuredly, he said, Sharif, who has been detained and kept away from his family and lawyers since the coup, will be given "an absolutely fair and transparent trial."
The new governing structure is "entirely civilian," the general said, except that the military will monitor everything to correct problems that it sees.
"Nobody monitors the military," the general said, somewhat perplexed by a follow-up question. "The military has its own monitoring system."
These are strange days in this nation of 150 million people divided among those who have lost most of their faith in government and those who have lost it all.
Democracy has enjoyed only a sporadic life here, and it has almost always been a disappointment. The last four elected governments -- two under Sharif and two under Benazir Bhutto -- have failed to complete their terms as allegations of gross corruption erupted.
The military, which has ruled for more than half the nation's 52-year history, has been a less unstable, if not always a less uninspiring, institution.
Nevertheless, the general's takeover has been welcomed with enthusiasm by most Pakistanis, even those who champion democracy. Many leading civilians have joined the government, agreeing that corruption and cronyism have to be weeded out of by a stern military hand before the political landscape is again ready for elections.
Musharraf, 56, frequently uses the language of a populist. He has declared war on fat cats who have willfully defaulted on bank loans, and indeed the arrests of some of the debt-laden elite began Wednesday. He seeks a "devolution of power" to the grass-roots, and he said he wanted to make war on poverty and ignorance.
At the same time, the general said, he has no idea when the nation will again be ready for democracy. His tenure as army chief is scheduled to end in October 2001. But he said he had given no thought to whether that date should be honored.
"I will fulfill this task to the best of my ability," Musharraf said. "And in fulfilling this task, I will look into this aspect of whether I should retire in the year 2001."
Pakistan is the newest nuclear power. It also has $32 billion in foreign debt and is nearly bankrupt. International lenders have frequently suggested reducing military spending, an idea that Musharraf is quick to dismiss. On the other hand, he said, he has no intention of competing with India, the archrival, in a nuclear arms race.
"We are working on a strategy of minimum deterrence," he said, adding that Pakistani intelligence agencies were well versed in India's more ambitious plans for a nuclear arsenal. "We are not concerned with a mathematical ratio and proportion. We understand and we have quantified our own minimum deterrence."
He was sitting in the conference room of the army secretariat. On one wall was an enormous painting of the Battle of Chawinda, with Pakistani soldiers firing on Indian tanks in 1965. On another wall was a set of photographs of artillery placements in the Siachen Glacier area, where the Pakistanis have been fighting the Indians for 15 years.
Musharraf said he wanted peace with India, but he had no kind words for that nation's leaders. He said they refused to negotiate in good faith when it came to Kashmir. "They want to sidetrack it, sideline it," he said. "That is their strategy. Let me very clearly say that I am not playing that game."
In New Delhi, Musharraf is widely viewed as the architect of "the Kargil operation," a military foray this year into the stark mountains on the Indian side of Kashmir. Heavy combat almost led to a fourth all-out war between Pakistan and India.
The general does not disavow his role, but he said the government and military were in agreement on Kargil. Two briefings were given to Sharif in November or December last year, he said, and there was another meeting in February.
"He was a much more aggressive man than I was," said Musharraf, adding that the prime minister would sometimes jest about making a formidable attack on Srinigar, the summer capital of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.
The two men more or less got along back then. He was troubled by Sharif's ineffective governance, the general said. But rather than consider a coup, the general tried to think of ways that the military could help.
A breach began to open when the prime minister started a "whispering campaign" among the top army leaders, trying to divide the officer corps, Musharraf said.
On Oct. 12, while the general was returning from Sri Lanka, the prime minister dismissed him. Musharraf said he had no inkling of being shoved aside until his flight back from Sri Lanka, on a commercial jet with 198 passengers aboard, was denied permission to land in Karachi. The crew alerted him to the problem. Air-traffic control had directed the pilot to leave Pakistan. The plane had only enough fuel to make it to India.
"I told them we'd do that only over my dead body," Musharraf said.
By the general's reckoning, the prime minister was plotting treason, kidnapping and murder, commanding the control tower in such a way that the plane and all its passengers would die. Vehicles blocked the landing strips in Karachi. Runway lights had been switched off.
Fortunately, as the general recounted, his officers realized what was happening and took over the tower, letting the plane land safely, with seven minutes of fuel remaining. The coup, then, was "a very disciplined and spontaneous reaction" by the military, "showing their concern and their sincerity and loyalty to the country."
For a few seconds, the general seemed to reflect on that fine memory. It made him grin in that now familiar way of his -- triumphantly.
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US, India Say Progress Needed on Disarmament
Reuters Updated 12:11 PM ET November 17, 1999
http://news.excite.com/news/r/991117/12/politics-india-usa
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - India and the United States said on Wednesday they agreed on the need for "tangible progress" on disarmament and non-proliferation.
After two days of talks in London between Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, the two sides said in a joint statement they hoped to "lay the foundation of a broad-based forward-looking relationship between the United States and India".
"They discussed issues related to disarmament and non-proliferation and focused, in particular, on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), the Fissile Material Cut- off Treaty (FMCT), control over exports of sensitive products and technologies, and issues related to defense posture," said the statement, issued by the U.S. Embassy in London.
The Indian government, which conducted underground nuclear tests last year, has said it is willing to sign the CTBT, but first wants to build a domestic consensus for the treaty.
This week's talks are the first formal discussions between Singh and Talbott since January, though they met briefly in Moscow in May. In August, India released a draft nuclear doctrine that envisioned a sophisticated nuclear arsenal based on aircraft, ships and mobile land-based missiles.
The United States said the doctrine was "not encouraging" and not in the security interests of the Indian subcontinent.
But India, within striking distance of nuclear powers China and Pakistan, claims a right to a minimum nuclear deterrent.
The joint statement said Singh and Talbott hoped a visit to India by President Clinton next year would "provide the occasion to significantly improve mutual understanding and cooperation".
"To that end, the two sides agreed to intensify their contacts at all levels in the months ahead," it said.
Singh and Talbott plan to meet again in January.
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U.S., S. Korea Open Missile Talks
New York Times November 18, 1999 By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-SKorea-US-Missile.html
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- A U.S. diplomat indicated today that South Korea should refrain from developing a new missile that could travel farther and reach all of communist North Korea.
While supporting South Korea's efforts to reinforce its defense capability, the United States says it is concerned that Seoul's development of longer-range missiles could provoke North Korea.
``The United States strongly supports the deterrent capability of'' South Korea, said Robert Einhorn, a senior U.S. State Department official.
But Einhorn, special assistant to the undersecretary of state for arms control and international security affairs, said South Korea's missile program should conform with the need for peace and stability on the Korean peninsula.
The United States wants South Korea to come under an international missile control agreement started by Washington in 1987. The Missile Technology Control Regime bars its 32 member countries -- which do not include North Korea or China -- from developing missiles with a range longer than 187 miles and with a payload of more than 1,100 pounds.
South Korea has asked U.S. permission to do research and development on missiles with a range of up to 416 miles, a distance that could reach all of communist North Korea.
Einhorn said the United States sees South Korea's efforts to extend its missile range ``in a very sympathetic way'' but stressed that the efforts should conform with international nonproliferation agreements.
Einhorn spoke before starting three days of missile nonproliferation talks with South Korea. The talks followed a meeting of weapons experts from the two countries earlier in the day.
Einhorn met Song Min-sun, director-general of the South Korean Foreign Ministry's North American Affairs Bureau. In September, they met in Washington for similar talks.
The talks came amid reports that South Korea was trying to develop longer-range missiles in violation of an agreement with the United States.
Quoting Pentagon officials, The New York Times reported last week that South Korea was hiding parts of its missile program from the United States. South Korea denied the report.
Under a 1979 agreement with the United States, South Korea needs U.S. permission to develop and possess missiles with a range of more than 112 miles. That restriction was lifted recently, allowing Seoul to develop a missile with a range of up to 187 miles.
On Monday, the United States and North Korea opened talks in Berlin to discuss missiles and other issues.
North Korea alarmed the region by firing a long-range missile last year that flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific Ocean. The North reportedly has completed development of a more powerful missile that experts say could reach Hawaii and Alaska.
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U.S. Opens Missile Talks With S.Korea
Washington Post November 18, 1999 Filed at 4:12 a.m. ET By Reuters
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-korea-m.html
SEOUL (Reuters) - The United States Thursday began talks with South Korea about Seoul's ambition to develop longer-range rockets, even as Washington was holding talks with North Korea about restraining its missile program.
Undersecretary of State Robert Einhorn flew into Seoul Thursday and was to meet his counterpart at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in the afternoon, the U.S. embassy in Seoul said.
The talks are taking place amid reports that South Korea has already gone ahead with a longer-range missile program in violation of an agreement with the United States.
Earlier this week, The New York Times said U.S. spy satellite photos revealed that South Korea had built a rocket motor test station without notifying the United States.
The South Korean foreign ministry denied the report.
The United States and South Korea have a 20-year agreement that sharply limits Seoul's ability to deploy powerful missiles as a deterrent but media reports have said Washington might be willing to extend slightly the permitted range.
A foreign ministry official said South Korea wants to expand the range beyond the current 180 km (112 miles), but declined to say by how much.
South Korean President Kim Dae-jung on a visit to Washington in June asked that the range be expanded to 300 miles, or capable of striking almost anywhere in the north.
The Times said South Korea is interested in developing longer-range missiles to be less dependent on the United States at a time when North Korea, with which it is technically at war, has made strides in its own missile program.
North Korea test-fired a three-stage missile last year, part of which flew over Japan, and intelligence reports suggested that Pyongyang at one point was preparing to soon launch another longer-range missile with the capacity to reach the U.S. states of Alaska and Hawaii.
North Korea also has No Dong missiles with a range of 600 miles that could strike all of South Korea.
Washington is worried that the South Korean program could complicate its efforts to get North Korea to end its program.
The United States and North Korea are holding talks this week in Berlin aimed at improving bilateral relations.
A Western diplomat said last week the United States wants firmer commitments from North Korea about restraining its missile and nuclear programs.