------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
Today In History
The new cold war
Italian 'Balkans Syndrome' Deaths Rise to Five
Poll Shows Most Greeks Favor a Green Tax
India ready to resume Pakistan talks
North Korea seeks to boost economy, military
GAO issues report on US- Russian HEU deal
NRC urged to release report on spent fuel storage risks
Time for full truth from DOE
Abraham To Lead Dept. He Wanted Shut
Bush Completes Cabinet Picks
A Cabinet Full of Problems

MILITARY
Taiwanese Ships Arrive in China
Taiwan Boats Land in China; First Direct Legal Link Since '49
Taiwanese complete historic voyage
Saudi Arabia signs $2 bln arms deal
Documents confirm Irish arms plan
Colombia's Drug War
Criminals flock to friendly Thailand
Suu Kyi remains under house arrest
Suu Kyi spends 101 days confined
Puerto Rico Installs First Female Governor
Puerto Rican Chief Rejects Vieques Pact
New Faces at U.N. Security Council
Pro-life groups feel shut out of U.N. summit
After Cole's Bombing, Pentagon Finds Ongoing Lapses in Gulf Security
Gulf security lapses found

OTHER
States
Observatory: Sex Reversal in the Wild
Elk That Call Ahead to Cross the Highway
Environmentalists' Annual Fool's Errand Is Fruitless Yet Again
Everglades at Risk
Colorado
GOP likely to undo Clinton land legacy
L.A. area fighting air pollution
Poachers kill elephant in India
Public Lives: Looking for a Line the Police Shouldn't Cross
N.H. lawmaker advocates killing police
TRENTON: CALL TO SPEED PROFILING BILLS
Georgia
Embassy terrorism trial opens

ACTIVISTS
Police State Uncovered
Quebec 2001: Consulta - January 27-28
Falun Gong members charged in Singapore


-------- NUCLEAR

Today In History

Associated Press
January 2, 2001 Filed at 7:00 p.m. ET

Today is Wednesday, Jan. 3, the third day of 2001. There are 362 days left in the year.

In 1993, President George Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed a historic nuclear missile-reduction treaty in Moscow.

-------- china

The new cold war

Washington Times
January 2, 2001
Steven Mosher
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/ed-column-2000123020463.htm

The very name of Bill Gertz's new book, "The China Threat," is an affront to the panda-huggers in our nation's capital. They deny the existence of a threat from China, suggesting that this view is a mindless holdover from the reflexive paranoia of the Cold War. They are irritated when someone raises the possibility that China does not wish us well. China will only pose a danger to us, they whisper, if we treat it as dangerous.

This is certainly the view of the panda-hugger-in-chief, President Clinton, who recently criticized the U.S. Congress for mandating annual reports on China's military buildup because this assumes "an outcome that is far from foreordained - that China is bent on becoming a military threat to the United States. . . . I believe we should not make it more likely that China will choose this path by acting as if the decision has already been made."

Thus is careful and prudent monitoring of China's capabilities and intentions proscribed as dangerously provocative. We are not allowed even to think about China as a potential adversary.

But China is not a threat because Mr. Gertz, the respected national security correspondent for this newspaper, says it is in the title of his new book. It is a threat because Chinese leaders continue to utter warlike words, and to acquire the military means to make good on their threats.

After all, it was Paramount Leader Deng Xiaoping who in September 1991 first characterized the conflict between the United States and China as "a new cold war." It was the current president, Jiang Zemin, who in August 1995 asserted that "Western hostile forces [a k a the United States] have not for a moment abandoned their plot to Westernize and 'divide' our country." And it was Gen. Chi Haotian, vice chairman of the Communist Party's Central Military Commission, who said in December 1999, "Viewed from the changes in the world situation and the hegemonic strategy of the United States to create monopolarity . . . war [between China and the U.S.A.] is inevitable."

"China's military buildup is directly aimed at fighting a future war with the United States," Mr. Gertz asserted last year in his best selling "Betrayal: How the Clinton Administration Undermined American Security." His new book, containing more than 50 pages of secret intelligence reports, offers shocking confirmation of China's growing ability to do just that. Some of Mr. Gertz's revelations include:

The full story of how China walked away with America's most valuable nuclear secrets, and key details about the identities of its major spies. Evidence, based on top secret National Security Agency reports, that China was using U.S. supercomputers - and presumably U.S. nuclear information - to conduct simulated nuclear detonations. How a Hong Kong company linked to the Communist Chinese government gained control of the Panama Canal and the threat China poses to other maritime choke points. Classified intelligence reports showing that China continues to sell nuclear weapons technology and long-range missiles to rogue states. The existence of an internal Chinese military document exposing Beijing plans to launch a nuclear war on the United States if American forces defend Taiwan.

The book is worth reading for these cautionary tales alone. But its most important contribution lies elsewhere. For China's principally dangerous offensive against the United States does not involve espionage or weapons systems, but propaganda and perception management. "The mind of the enemy and the will of his leaders," Mao once remarked, "is a target of far more importance than the bodies of his troops."

Mr. Gertz details how the relatively small China-watching community in the United States has been monitored and massaged to ensure that flattering views of China come to predominate. The key is access. Those China-watchers who cooperate have no trouble getting visas to China, or meetings with high-level officials when there. When I invited one well-known Washington China hand to attend a conference on human rights in China that I was organizing, he declined. "I avoid such meetings," he said bluntly. "I prefer to keep my channels open to Beijing."

Those who criticize the Beijing regime are denied access to China. Their views are attacked by the panda-huggers as being out of the mainstream. They themselves are dismissed as right-wing zealots, conspiracy theorists, or worse. Don't say China is a threat, they are warned, lest it become one.

Thus is open debate foreclosed. The result, as William Triplett, former counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, says, is the undermining of "the consensus-making that is so critical in a democratic society faced with a nondemocratic military threat."

Read "The China Threat." It is real.

Steven Mosher is the author of "Hegemon: China's Plan to Dominate Asia and the World" (Encounter Books, 2000).

-------- depleted uranium

Italian 'Balkans Syndrome' Deaths Rise to Five

Reuters
January 2, 2001 Filed at 10:42 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/health/health-syndrome-balka.html
http://news.excite.com/news/r/010102/10/health-syndrome-balkans

ROME (Reuters) - The death toll of Italian veterans of Balkan peacekeeping missions linked to the so-called ``Balkans syndrome'' has risen to five, Italian newspapers reported on Saturday.

All five veterans died from cancer.

Italian newspapers said Italy's military prosecutor was investigating some 20 cases which the media have linked to the ''Balkans syndrome.''

Press reports have suggested the illnesses could be linked to depleted uranium shells used by NATO during its 1999 campaign to oust Serb forces from Kosovo.

Official reaction has been to deny that such a link exists, but on Friday, Belgium called for European Union defense ministers to discuss health problems suffered by peacekeepers in former Yugoslavia.

The call by Belgian Defense Minister Andre Flahaut came amid rising concern in Europe over mysterious illnesses among Balkan peacekeeping veterans.

In Lisbon, the Diario de Noticias newspaper reported that Portugal had ordered medical tests for its soldiers serving in Kosovo to check for radiation from depleted uranium ammunition used in the NATO campaign.

Concerns over possible health effects of depleted uranium shells in Kosovo have also been raised by service members or civilian aid workers in Britain and The Netherlands.

US attack jets fired some 31,000 rounds of depleted uranium ammunition--used to pierce armor--at Serbian tanks and armored cars during the Kosovo campaign, according to a United Nations expert.

The Pentagon said in March that the remains of the shells did not present a significant health hazard.

-------- greece

Poll Shows Most Greeks Favor a Green Tax

Reuters
January 2, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/science/science-environment-g.html

ATHENS (Reuters) - More than six out of 10 Greeks would be happy to pay a tax for the protection and preservation of the environment, a poll published in an Athens daily said on Tuesday.

The V-PRC poll for Ta Nea newspaper showed 62.7 percent of Greeks were in favor of a green tax while an overwhelming 83 percent agreed the climate had changed considerably in the past years.

The nationwide poll, which was conducted between November 18 and December 5, 2000, showed people aged between 18 and 24 were the strongest supporters of an environmental tax with 70.4 percent in favor of it.

Just over half of those older than 65 said they would welcome the tax.

Greece has endured an extended drought in 2000, which has affected crops, and is also experiencing one of the mildest winters in decades.

The destruction of forests was the most worrying environmental issue, with 21.7 percent saying it was the top concern. A potential nuclear disaster was second with just under 21 percent.

Each summer Greece is plagued by hundreds of forest fires.

Greece does not have any nuclear reactors but plants in neighbors Turkey and Bulgaria have long been considered by Greeks as a potential threat.

-------- india / pakistan

India ready to resume Pakistan talks

InfoBeat News
Morning Coffee Edition - 1/2/2001
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=405624607

NEW DELHI, India (AP) - India said Monday that it is ready to resume talks with Pakistan ``at any level'' to end decades of hostility if Islamabad shows intentions of pursuing peace.

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee also said India would soon begin talks with Kashmiri groups, and was willing to consider new and innovative solutions to resolve the 11-year-old Islamic insurgency over the disputed area that has claimed more than 30,000 lives.

``We are ready to recommence talks with Pakistan at any level, including the highest level, provided Islamabad gives sufficient proof of its preparedness to create a conducive atmosphere for a meaningful dialogue,'' Vajpayee was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India.

Peace talks between India and Pakistan were last held in February 1999, but within months the two countries came close to their fourth war when hundreds of Pakistan-based fighters occupied Himalayan ridgelines inside Indian territory. India launched a three-month military campaign to flush them out and had refused to hold talks since then.

The Indian government has said in the past that it would resume peace discussions with Pakistan only after the end of what New Delhi calls cross border terrorism _ the passage of hundreds of Pakistan-based Islamic guerrillas across the Kashmir cease-fire line into Indian territory, where they battle the army.

Kashmir has been divided between Muslim-majority Pakistan and Hindu-dominated India since 1948 after British rule ended on the subcontinent, but each country claims the province in its entirety. The two nations have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir.

India says Pakistan funds, trains and arms the guerrillas and aids their movement across the mountainous border into India. Pakistan says it provides only moral, not material support, and has no control over the guerrillas' movement.

Vajpayee has declared a cease-fire in Kashmir to try to facilitate peace talks, but the truce was rejected by Islamic guerrilla groups that have continued attacks in which soldiers and civilians have been killed.

``In our search for a lasting solution to the Kashmir problem ... we shall not traverse solely on the beaten track of the past,'' Vajpayee wrote. ``Rather, we shall be bold and innovative designers of a future architecture of peace and prosperity for the entire South Asian region.''

The comments were part of an unpublished article Vajpayee wrote for newspapers during his vacation last week in the southern India, the Press Trust of India said. Vajpayee returned to New Delhi on Monday.

Also Monday, the two countries exchanged details of nuclear installations and facilities in their territories, an annual exercise carried out according to a 1988 agreement

-------- korea

North Korea seeks to boost economy, military

Washington Times
January 2, 2001
By Kyong-hwa Seok
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.washtimes.com/world/default-200112221731.htm

SEOUL - North Korea asked its hunger-stricken people yesterday to continue to tighten their belts in the new year, saying the country must rebuild its economy while supporting its huge military.

The objectives, outlined in a joint editorial by the ruling Worker's Party, military and revolutionary youth group, showed little change in the country's policies from recent years.

"The central task of economic development for this year is to consolidate the existing economic infrastructure and display its potential to the full, while conducting a forceful campaign for refashioning the national economy as a whole with up-to-date technology," said the editorial.

While trying to rebuild the economy, North Korea should strengthen its military, the editorial said. The North's million-strong military, the world's fifth largest, is the mainstay of its political system.

"A key factor in making a new advance under the red flag along the path of socialism in the 21st century is to stick to the revolutionary army-first policy," the editorial said.

North Korea's economy, based on its philosophy of "juche," or self-reliance, suffered a setback with the fall of communism in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, which deprived it of trading partners.

Successive years of natural disasters then forced it to appeal for outside food aid to feed its 22 million people.

Helped mainly by foreign assistance, North Korea's economy is believed to have turned around in 1998, growing between 3 percent and 5 percent in the following two years.

But the communist country still depends on outside aid. In its latest move, the U.N. World Food Program appealed for $318 million in emergency food aid for the North in the new year.

Despite the economic difficulties, the North is believed to spend at least a quarter of its annual national output on its military, according to South Korean officials. Leader Kim Jong-il, in his capacity as chairman of the National Defense Commission, rules the country.

The joint editorial also praised the summit between Kim Jong-il and South Korean President Kim Dae-jung in June and pledged that the North's leadership will implement the summit accord "to the letter."

Since the summit, the Koreas have held reunions for hundreds of separated families, begun re-connecting a cross-border railway and exchanged high-level envoys to discuss ways for reconciliation.

The two Koreas were divided into communist North and pro-Western South in 1945. They fought the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

-------- russia

GAO issues report on US- Russian HEU deal

Washington
Nuclear News Flashes
2 Jan 2001

The congressional General Accounting Office (GAO) report says that the interagency Enrichment Oversight Committee should study the implications of USEC Inc.'s purchasing newly produced low-enriched uranium from Russia. Such purchases are contemplated under a revised contract that USEC would sign with Russia's Techsnabexport for the purchase of blended-down high-enriched uranium (HEU) from weapons over the period 2002-2013. The GAO also said that the Enrichment Oversight Committee should prepare a detailed contingency plan in case USEC withdraws or is replaced as the US executive agent in the HEU deal. The report--GAO-01-148--is available on GAO website (www.gao.gov).

-------- u.s. nuc facilities

NRC urged to release report on spent fuel storage risks

Washington
Nuclear News Flashes
2 Jan 2001

UCS is urging the NRC to release a report on spent fuel storage risks at retired nuclear power plants. Union of Concerned Scientists' (UCS) David Lochbaum says the study shows that "onsite spent fuel storage, whether in wet pools or dry casks, has greater risk than previously thought" and higher radwaste transportation risks than previously believed. The report will provide the basis of a paper being developed by the staff on options for relaxing security requirements at plants undergoing decommissioning. The report and staff paper were prompted by Maine Yankee's request for a reduction of onsite security requirements.

-------- tennessee

Time for full truth from DOE

January 2, 2001
Your Views
http://www.oakridger.com

It is hard to imagine that DOE could not pinpoint a fluorine leak in an old building that made several guards sick, closed down a portal, evacuated an "at risk" part of the plant, and went on for a week or longer. How much was emitted to air? This shows continued disregard for environment, health, and safety to allow such releases to continue as they are cumulative and linked to long-term health damage.

K-25 routinely released huge amounts of HF gas to the air both during its' operation, and now during dismantlement from many trapped deposits. K-25 plant persons often smelled this odor in the air every day they worked at the plant. No person escaped getting an internalized dose.

It is deceptive for DOE public relations persons, like Steve Wyatt and others, to list only the prompt symptoms of HF inhalation and leave off the other effects directly linked to K-25's mysterious illnesses. Wyatt and DOE admit that thousands of inadvertent UF-6 and HF K-25 releases occurred, but the real order of magnitude is more a thousand-thousand releases.

So many releases of so cumulative a toxin that it easily pathway links to the mysterious ills and dominates the health effects. Thousands of tons of HF were released from K-25, which lost around 10% of the UF-6 it processed.

Wyatt quotes some of the lesser "inadvertent releases," but fails to tell of the massive releases. One happened in the purge cascade that went on for days and dumped nearly a foot of U O2 F2 on the floors, and HF vapors rained down clear to Ohio. Other leaks lost dump truck loads of UF-6 from roof vents and HF into the skies. HF, as it cools, is heavier than air and rains out poison into communities. HF also reacts with hydrocarbons in the air to aid the ozone hole damage globally.

Many K-25 workers were in a urinalysis program that monitored excretion of both uranium and fluorides. The uranium salt tends to pass thru the body like table salt in a few days, while the HF is highly reactive and is cumulative in the body. It is not uncommon to hear of 4 mg/l or more of fluorides in urine for workers, where non-exposed workers excrete less than 0.04 mg/l.

The K-25 and ORO management fully knew they were poisoning, slowly sickening and killing workers and communities.

Hydrogen fluoride retains in the body and less than one quarter is excreted. It accumulates over time of exposure and even low doses matter.

Typically, the fluorine atoms are one thousand times the uranium in UF-6 exposed workers. At distance from the process, this fluoride dominance increases rapidly, as the HF is the more volatile.

Fluorides cause health effects similar to pesticides. In fact, HF makes rat poison, calcium fluoride, in the body and is related to an insecticide used on fruits, cryolite. Workers are full of this poison. It would be fully expected to see long-term pesticide like illnesses for workers slowly poisoned with the same poison.

The true magnitude of the HF releases and long term health effects are linked to asthma and lung damage, arthritis and bone/joint damage, neurological and foggy thinking effects, thyroid and parathyroid damage, birth defects, white and phage cell suppression, extreme fatigue, AND perpetuating DOE's entire "mysterious illness" cover up.

It is time for the truth to appear in Oak Ridge on this problem that DOE was not simply negligent about, but intentionally covered up for five decades.

Jim Phelps Knoxville

-------- us nuc politics

Abraham To Lead Dept. He Wanted Shut

Associated Press
January 2, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/politics/AP-Abraham-Profile.html?pagewanted=all

WASHINGTON (AP) -- For years, Sen. Spencer Abraham tried to abolish the Department of Energy. Tuesday, he accepted President-elect Bush's offer to lead it.

Abraham's nomination comes two months after an unsuccessful campaign to keep his Senate seat, from which he sponsored as recently as 1999 legislation to dismantle the agency. During his campaign environmentalists assailed him for his opposition to higher fuel efficiency standards and support of increased U.S. oil drilling, criticisms repeated after Bush introduced Abraham.

The outgoing Michigan senator took the moment to say the United States has ``vast resources'' that are ``crucial to our country's security.

``We can make good use of them, while at the same time, I believe, meeting our responsibilities as good stewards for the land, the air and the water,'' he said.

However, Mark Helm, a spokesman for Friends of the Earth, called Abraham a ``disaster,'' citing his support for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other efforts on behalf of the oil industry.

``It's incredibly important that anybody who is energy secretary not be an enemy of the environment, and that's what this guy is,'' Helm said.

Abraham was part of a small group of Senate Republicans who in 1996 cosponsored legislation to close the departments of Energy, Commerce and Housing and Urban Development and privatize or assign to other departments the functions worth preserving.

``We're not saying all government is bad. We're not saying every government program is bad,'' Abraham said in a 1997 interview about the department eliminations. But ``we were elected to make government smarter and more efficient.''

He co-sponsored legislation to eliminate the Energy Department again in 1999, when it was mired in the controversy over security problems at its Los Alamos nuclear weapons laboratory. Both times, the legislation died in committee.

Bush transition spokeswoman Angela Flood said Abraham wanted to eliminate the Energy Department when the country's deficit was high but changed his position when energy problems became crucial in recent months. She said his move to abolish the department did not weigh on his nomination.

``I would say he still supports streamlining and making the department more efficient, but what's important is that he will support President-elect Bush's energy policy,'' she said.

A one-time political operative back home in Michigan, Abraham built a reputation in the Senate as a hard worker, never missing a roll call vote in six years and passing more bills than any other senator from his freshman class.

``He's a brilliant visionary and he knows how to manage people and that's exactly what you want in a Cabinet official,'' said Rusty Hills, chairman of the Michigan Republican Party.

But some observers felt he had a harder time connecting with the public than his more gregarious opponent in the election, Rep. Debbie Stabenow.

``I think a lot of people were surprised when he first ran for office because he was such a behind-the-scenes person,'' said Tom Shields, president of Lansing-based firm Marketing Resource Group, a firm that works on Republican campaigns.

Abraham came to the Senate in 1995 with 11 freshmen who gave Republicans control of Congress for the first time in decades. He usually voted with his party. His involvement in energy issues came through an overall opposition to industry regulation, and he led the fight against higher fuel-efficiency standards in the Senate.

Environmentalists say that's a sign of things to come if Abraham becomes energy secretary.

``President-elect Bush is choosing the senator who led the fight for more gas-guzzling SUVs to go find the oil to keep them running,'' said Dan Becker of the Sierra Club.

He also has a limited Senate background in nuclear weapons issues, which accounts for a good portion of the Energy Department's activities.

``The bottom line is he doesn't have much background in the field of energy. He's done very little in this area. It doesn't mean he can't learn,'' said David Nemtzow, executive director of the Alliance to Save Energy, a private advocacy group.

At the department, Abraham is likely to face some immediate concerns including high winter heating prices, the possibility of natural gas shortages, a likely resurgence of world oil prices and a critical decision on disposal of nuclear waste.

Environmentalists repeatedly attacked Abraham during his re-election campaign for his ties to the oil industry. As gas prices rose in Michigan and across the Midwest this summer, Abraham called for a suspension of federal gas taxes while taking donations from oil companies.

According to campaign finance watchdog FECInfo, Abraham took $221,848 in contributions from energy and natural resources companies, including $10,000 each from the El Paso Energy Corp. and the Ohio Valley Coal Co. and $9,000 each from Chevron, Coastal Corp. and Michigan Petroleum.

Abraham, 48, was born in East Lansing, Mich., the grandson of Lebanese immigrants. He went to Michigan State University in the 1970s, where he worked on Republican campaigns.

He graduated with honors in 1979 and returned to Michigan to work at a small firm and teach at Cooley Law School. He worked on Republican campaigns in the state and then took the job as the head of the state GOP.

He left the state party in November 1989 to become deputy chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle. In 1992, he became co-chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee.

``You never outworked Spencer when you worked for him,'' Shields said. ``He would call you from the movie theater because he came up with an idea during the show. He's probably one of the brightest people I have met.''

---

Bush Completes Cabinet Picks

New York Times
January 2, 2001
By DAVID STOUT
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/02/politics/02CND-BUSH.html

WASHINGTON, Jan. 2 - President-elect George W. Bush rounded out his Cabinet today, selecting a former Democratic congressman as his secretary of transportation, a former Republican Senator as secretary of energy and a former Reagan administration official to be secretary of labor.

The current commerce secretary, Norman Y. Mineta, the first Asian-American to hold a cabinet post, was named to the transportation secretary post. Senator Spencer Abraham of Michigan, who was defeated in his bid for re-election in November, was named to head energy, and Linda Chavez was named to the labor post.

"I can't think of a better way to start the new year," Mr. Bush said in Austin, Texas, as he introduced his choices.

Mr. Mineta, a former Democratic congressman from California, was named commerce secretary by President Clinton last summer, to replace William Daley, who left the Cabinet to head Vice President Al Gore's presidential campaign.

The appointment of Mr. Mineta would seem to make perfect sense, both in terms of his resume and because he is a Democrat. Mr. Bush had pledged to have a diverse cabinet, including one with Democrats, and Mr. Mineta has a transportation background: he was chairman of the House Public Works and Transportation Committee.

"There are no Democratic and Republican highways," Mr. Mineta said. For that matter, he went on, there are no Democratic or Republican pipelines or bridges, and aviation safety is a nonpartisan concern too.

Mr. Abraham, who was defeated after a single term in the Senate, described himself as "the grandson of poor Lebanese immigrants," and said he was thrilled to be part of the Bush team.

Mr. Abraham said he would do his best to be a "good steward for the land, air and water," even as he oversaw efforts to make good use of energy resources. He alluded to the challenges he will face, assuming that he is confirmed. They include finding new supplies of affordable energy and what Mr. Abraham described as "security" issues, an unmistakable allusion to problems at the Energy Department's nuclear installations.

Ms. Chavez served as director of the Civil Rights Commission under President Ronald Reagan and was regarded as a political conservative. Today, she pledged to work "vigorously" for equal enforcement of labor laws, strong workplace safety codes and the elimination of discrimination.

She invoked the memory of her dead father, a housepainter, and recalled how her mother had also worked outside the home to support the family. "I intend to keep faith with the men and the women who still work jobs like my parents held," she said.

Ms. Chavez's personal political journey is unusual. As a senior at the University of Colorado, she joined Mexican-American and black students in demanding affirmative-action programs. But a decade later in the Reagan administration she opposed racial preferences.

Some advocates for Hispanic causes have expressed resentment toward her. Despite her surname, her critics have asserted, she is neither bilingual nor bicultural. (Her father's ancestors came from Spain, while her mother is of English and Irish descent.)

Mr. Mineta represented the area around San Jose for 21 years before he resigned in 1995 to become a senior vice president with Lockheed Martin.

Today's announcement marked the second time that Mr. Mineta has been offered the job of transportation secretary by a president-elect. In 1992, Mr. Clinton offered him the post, but Mr. Mineta declined, knowing that he was in line to become transportation committee chairman. He held the Congressional post only two years, until Republicans captured the House in 1994.

Mr. Mineta, 69, was interned as a boy, along with his family, during World War II, when there was widespread fear of Americans of Japanese descent. As a Congressman, he helped enact legislation awarding $20,000 to every Japanese-American who had been interned.

Choosing Mr. Mineta would be popular with Asian-American groups, and it might help persuade Democrats that Mr. Bush does not intend to hold grudges: Mr. Mineta has served as an informal political adviser to Mr. Gore.

"I am a Democrat with both a small `D' and a large one," Mr. Mineta said today. "However, the campaign is over." He said he was honored to be chosen for the new administration.

---------

A Cabinet Full of Problems:
Breaking Promises, President-Elect Bush Sets His Sights on Rolling Back Progress on Environment, Disarmament and Violence Prevention

US Newswire
Jan 2 2001
The following was released today by Physicians For Social Responsibility:

Leaving rhetoric about a bipartisan administration and claims of being a 'uniter, not a divider' in the dust, President-Elect George W. Bush has disregarded the recent election results and the American public which favored Vice President Al Gore, Jr. His naming of arch-conservatives past and present to his cabinet will cease and reverse progress made for the last decade on key environmental, disarmament and violence prevention policies. "From John Ashcroft and Gale Norton to Tommy Thompson and even on to Christine Todd Whitman, President-Elect Bush has assembled a wrecking crew to tear down the valuable progress we've made toward a safer world," said Robert K. Musil, Ph.D., Executive Director and CEO of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR).

"Key policies like continued support from the Departments of Justice and Heath and Human Services for initiatives to protect us from handgun violence and the Environmental Protection Agency's concern for regulating public health threats will be rolled back under these unsuitable cabinet selections."

President-Elect Bush's selection of former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, whose revolving-door connections to the military-industrial complex and opposition to any meaningful disarmament efforts are well documented, is a major disaster. Rumsfeld, unless opposed, will help launch a new arms race by pursuing the National Missile Defense program. Rumsfeld also announced that he will pursue a system to defend our space-based assets, opening new avenues for reckless military spending and dangerous international brinkmanship.

"To name as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who testified against the chemical weapons convention, who opposed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, who opposed the SALT II arms agreement, who lobbied for the B-2 Bomber and the MX Missile, is to wish this county back into its darkest times," said Musil.

"America doesn't need to relive the Cold War. We were lucky to survive it the first time through."

--- PSR, which represents 22,000 physicians and health professionals nationwide and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985, will oppose the confirmation of a number of Bush cabinet-designees, focusing particularly on Attorney General designee Ashcroft, Secretary of the Interior designee Norton and Secretary of Health and Human Services designee Thompson.


-------- MILITARY

Taiwanese Ships Arrive in China

New York Times
January 2, 2001 Filed at 2:52 p.m. ET
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Taiwan-China.html

XIAMEN, China (AP) -- After arriving on the first ships to sail legally between Taiwan and China in more than half a century, Taiwanese visitors on Tuesday spent the day greeting officials and making a pilgrimage to the shrine of the patron goddess of fishermen.

The visitors got a low-key reception on China's Xiamen and Mawei islands, and China's state-run national media ignored the breakthrough visit altogether. But many hailed it as a first step toward direct links to the Chinese mainland and increased trust between neighbors that have been the bitterest of foes.

``It took over five decades to travel this road, but better late than never,'' Chen Shui-tsai, who led a delegation of Taiwanese officials to the southern Chinese city of Xiamen, was quoted as saying by Chinese reporters present.

Taiwan lifted a ban on travel to the islands on New Year's Day, and the first three Taiwanese ships arrived Tuesday. A tourist boat that tried to cross the Taiwan Straits on Monday was turned back because of poor weather.

China has criticized the new links as insufficient and called for an overall lifting of the ban on direct contacts with Taiwan proper. Still, Beijing grudgingly agreed to the openings.

Crowds of well-wishers with firecrackers and dragon dancers saw the vessels off from Kinmen and Matsu, Taiwanese-controlled islets just off the Chinese coast that were once the site of ferocious artillery exchanges. A few hours later they pulled into Xiamen and Mawei to begin their five-day trip.

One ship brought pilgrims carrying the image of the Goddess Matsu, a deity worshipped by some in Taiwan and southeastern China as the patron of fishermen. In an incense-laden, music-filled ceremony, the Taiwanese pilgrims began a processional route to a shrine on a small island off the coast of Mawei.

In Xiamen, some 200 onlookers climbed on top of piles of construction materials and clambered up a fence for a better view of the two ships that arrived there. Many had heard about the visit from Taiwanese television, easily received in Xiamen. Some returned waves from the Taiwanese, while others simply stared.

Chen, the Taiwanese delegation leader, had lunch with Chinese officials responsible for Taiwan relations and met Xiamen's mayor.

In Taipei, Premier Chang Chun-hsiung said the links could be ``a very important step to herald the end of confrontations that have prevailed for 51 years.''

``We hope this presents a new opportunity to establish stable, peaceful and mutually prosperous relations,'' Chang said. Enthusiasm extended to Taiwan's long-depressed stock market, which rose more than 4 percent Tuesday.

Taiwanese officials say a positive experience with these ``mini-links'' could pave the way for direct transit and trade between China and the main island of Taiwan, separated by the 100-mile-wide Taiwan Strait, as well as a half-century of conflict.

Taiwan split from China after a 1949 civil war. China considers the island a renegade province and has threatened to use military force.

Chinese communist artillery regularly pounded Kinmen and Matsu with tens of thousands of shells in the 1950s. With the barrages ended, both sides have for years carried on a bustling trade in seafood, produce and consumer goods -- smuggling that has become decriminalized by the opening of direct links.

Residents of Xiamen hope the opening will bring more trade, investment and tourism. Retired teacher Andy Wu called the move the biggest news for Xiamen since the Nationalists, who used to rule China, fled to Taiwan ahead of the victorious communists.

``We need things that bring us together because unity is strength,'' said Wu, standing with those awaiting the boats' arrival.

Chen, who led the delegation to Xiamen as commissioner of Kinmen county, told his hosts that the visits are just a ``first step'' to comprehensive links between China and Taiwan proper, according to Chinese reporters who heard his remarks. Foreign reporters were banned from the pier.

Taiwan opened the links without consulting Beijing, which labeled the move an insignificant publicity stunt.

China wants Taiwan instead to make political concessions to allow talks on opening comprehensive links, but Taiwan worries that could cost it bargaining power in future negotiations.

---

Taiwan Boats Land in China; First Direct Legal Link Since '49

New York Times
January 2, 2001
By CRAIG S. SMITH
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/02/world/02CHIN.html?pagewanted=all

SHANGHAI, Tuesday, Jan. 2 - Two tourist boats, one from the tiny fortified island of Matsu, and one from the larger island of Quemoy, arrived on the Chinese mainland today, the first legal direct link between China and Taiwan since they were separated by civil war in 1949.

The 500 passengers on the ship from Matsu, which docked in the southeastern port of Fuzhou, will visit a mainland temple to the goddess Matsu, the patron of fishermen popular in Taiwan and southeastern China.

About 200 people were on board the ship from Quemoy, which landed at Xiamen. High seas on Monday prevented another Taiwanese tourist boat from sailing to mainland China from Quemoy in what was to have been the first legal crossing.

Bow-shaped Quemoy, also known as Jinmen or Kinmen, and crescent- shaped Matsu made headlines around the world in the late 1950's when Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist soldiers traded artillery salvos with Mao Zedong's People's Liberation Army across the narrow channels separating the islands from the mainland. American warships escorted supply ships from Taiwan to keep the islands supplied with ammunition. War seemed harrowingly near.

Now the islands, both hard against China's coast, are back in the news in what appears to be the final denouement of that earlier tension. Starting Monday, Taiwan lifted a ban on travel between the islands and the mainland. And Quemoy officials have begun shopping for explosives experts to help clear mines from the island's shores.

But Taiwan's elimination of the ban is less significant than it may seem.

Legal, though indirect, travel and trade between Taiwan and the mainland have already been growing for years, with most goods and people passing through a third territory, usually Hong Kong.

Both Quemoy and Matsu are more than 100 miles from the shores of Taiwan, but are within sight of the coast of China's Fujian province. Like the rest of Taiwan, they have been in telephone contact with the mainland for years. Boats have been crossing illegally but regularly from Quemoy and Matsu and the mainland, a situation tolerated by both Beijing and Taipei.

Even as Taipei trumpeted what in effect is the formalization of a fait accompli, it scrambled to limit any impact on its economy by setting up customs checkpoints on the two islands to keep people returning from the mainland from bringing anything but personal carry-on items back to Taiwan proper.

These so-called mini-links between Taiwan and China have elicited little more than a derisive shrug in Beijing, which has long pushed for direct trade, transport and postal links with Taiwan's main island. Zhou Mingwei, vice director of the Taiwan affairs office under China's State Council, said last week that the initiative "lacks sincerity and good will."

Indeed, Beijing's warlike statements have not cooled much since it repeated its threat earlier this year that it would use force to bring Taiwan under its control if Taipei did not show good faith in negotiating a timely unification with the mainland.

President Chen Shui-bian of Taiwan has been unable to come up with a way to finesse Beijing's demand that he begin by recognizing the "one-China" principle that defines Taiwan as an inseparable part of China.

Mr. Chen, an advocate of Taiwan's independence earlier in his political career, has said since becoming president last spring that Taiwan will not seek independence unless China attacks. But he has so far refused to use Beijing's "one China" formulation, and has instead struggled awkwardly to talk his way around Beijing's demand.

"One China essentially is not a problem," he said in a New Year's address broadcast live in Taiwan this weekend, but China must first "respect and understand" Taiwan's insistence on maintaining control over its own future.

Pressure is building on Mr. Chen from several sides.

Even as boats begin plying the narrow channels separating Quemoy and Matsu from the mainland this month, China's newest warship will pass through the 100-mile-wide strait separating the islands from the main island of Taiwan.

The ship, a Sovremenny-class guided-missile destroyer, is the second of its kind purchased by China from Russia and is yet another piece of the arsenal that Beijing is slowly assembling in order to credibly threaten Taiwan - something it can do now only with missiles.

And hoping to undermine Mr. Chen's weakening mandate - he was elected with just 39 percent of the popular vote, unseating the Nationalist Party, which still controls Taiwan's legislature - Communist Party officials recently played host to the Nationalists' vice chairman, Wu Po-hsiung, on a visit to the mainland. It was the first such visit since the Nationalists fled more than a half century ago.

Beijing is also working to expand Taiwan investment on the mainland, which totals more than $40 billion so far. That investment could become the bridge for a political settlement between Beijing and Taipei, much as Hong Kong's economic dependence on the mainland eased the former British colony's return to China in 1997.

Earlier this month, the son of China's president joined the son of Taiwan's most powerful businessman to build a $1.6 billion semiconductor plant in Shanghai, the most public step yet toward economic integration between the two sides.

It is in this context that Mr. Chen's government made the minor gesture of allowing direct links between its two remote islands and the mainland.

Still, the result of Beijing's efforts is so far about as incremental as Taiwan's elimination of the Quemoy and Matsu travel bans. The mainland remains years away from being able to take Taiwan militarily. Devastating the island's economy with a missile attack, meanwhile, could be diplomatically suicidal for Beijing. As heavy as Taiwan's investment on the mainland is, Taipei retains strict limits on the size and nature of investments that it allows its residents to make in China.

---

Taiwanese complete historic voyage

USA Today
01/02/01- Updated 12:55 AM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/world/nwsmon08.htm

XIAMEN, China - A boat from the Taiwanese island fortress of Kinmen docked Tuesday in the Chinese port of Xiamen after making the first legal and direct voyage between the mainland and Taiwan territory in more than 50 years.

Two dozen uniformed police officers and Xiamen officials were on hand to greet the boat when it arrived a few minutes before noon, carrying 190 Taiwanese officials and community leaders. Some passengers waved, and about 200 Chinese spectators gathered near the pier to watch as the vessel arrived quietly under sunny skies.

A second ship traveling from Matsu, another Taiwanese islet just off China's southeastern coast, arrived almost simultaneously in another Chinese port, Taiwanese media reported from the vessel.

The ships were the first to cross legally from outlying Taiwanese islands since Taiwan and China separated in a bloody civil war that ended in 1949. The tiny islands lie less than 20 miles off the mainland coast, compared to the 100-mile Taiwan Straits between China and the main island of Taiwan.

Taiwan relaxed a ban on travel between the two islands and China on New Year's Day. But a Taiwanese tourist boat on what was to be the first crossing of the Taiwan Strait on Monday was forced to turn back by bad weather and high seas.

Many Taiwanese hope that the relaxing of travel restrictions from the two islands will ease tensions with China.

As the ship Tai Wu left Kinmen island for the Chinese mainland on Tuesday morning, a large crowd celebrated, and a high school band dressed in blue, green and red satin costumes banged gongs and drums and did traditional dragon dances. The vessel is named after the tallest mountain in Xiamen, the port on the mainland where it docked.

''This is such an unimaginable event, and we're extremely exited,'' Gung Cheng-mao, 53, a businessman, said in Kinmen. He recalled that China had once bombed his island almost every day in the 1950s and that one shell had crashed through his family's home. The boat's voyage from Kinmen represents a great, historical change for the better, he said.

Chen Shui-tsai, the Kinmen county commissioner leading the delegation aboard the Tai Wu, told reporters that in the future his island should be used as the location for the first-ever summit by the leaders of China and Taiwan to end their long-standing differences.

''We don't think this event today is just about Kinmen,'' he said. ''It's a huge event for the whole country.''

On Matsu island, more than 500 residents boarded a ship for the Chinese port of Fuzhou. Government officials waved from the harbor as the ship, the Taima, which means Taiwanese horse, steamed away. Passengers aboard the vessel were worshippers of the goddess Matsu, the patron of fishermen popular in Taiwan and southeastern China.

Matsu and Kinmen are the only parts of Taiwan that are opening the direct trading and shipping links with China.

Taiwan opened the links between its two small islands and China without talking to Beijing, which has grudgingly accepted the move but hasn't said how much it will cooperate. So everyone closely watched how the two ships were greeted in Fuzhou and Xiamen, the cities in the southeast Chinese province of Fujian.

Taiwan's cautious, wait-and-see attitude was evident in Kinmen, where John Deng, vice chairman of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, responsible for China policy, was the only official from the federal government to appear in public. ''We hope we can use this as a useful experience to expand, facilitate and expedite larger scale issues,'' he told reporters.

In Matsu, people boarding the boat were thrilled to be testing Taiwan's new policy.

''I got up at 2 a.m. for this trip. I want to see my relatives and I want to see China,'' said Chen Pao-chu, 60, a pharmacist.

China once pounded the heavily fortified Kinmen and Matsu with tens of thousands of shells in the 1950s. The artillery barrages ended years ago, and now people on both sides ignore politics and engage in a bustling illegal trade in seafood, produce and consumer goods.

Taiwan's relaxation of the ban on direct links essentially decriminalizes the smuggling.

If all goes well, the government has said it will make an even bigger move: opening direct air and shipping traffic between China and the main island of Taiwan.

Now, Taiwanese who do business in China - Taiwan's No. 2 market for trade and investment - can't travel or ship their goods directly to the mainland. They must go through Hong Kong, Macau or another third port, creating great inconvenience and expense. Many believe opening the ''big links'' would create one of the world's most booming trading zones.

Before the big links can happen, the two sides will have to hold high-level negotiations - something they don't seem ready to do soon.

On Monday, the ill-fated first attempt to cross from Kinmen to Xiamen was halted by rough seas and high winds. When the tourist boat cruised back to Kinmen shortly after leaving, there were immediate suspicions China had warned the vessel not to sail.

-------- arms sales

Saudi Arabia signs $2 bln arms deal

InfoBeat News
Morning Coffee Edition
1/2/2001
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=3bkq0fo36jcg7

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Saudi Arabia has signed a $2 billion arms deal with the United States, a U.S. diplomat said Monday. The deal includes a three-year contract worth $1.6 billion to maintain the kingdom's F-16 jet fighters and will employ 1,000 people, including 10 representing the American government, said the Riyadh-based diplomat on condition of anonymity. The deal also involves a project to modernize the Saudi National Guard, headed by Crown Prince Abdullah. Under the deal, the kingdom will acquire 1,827 anti-tank rockets, tactical communications equipment and 132 armored vehicles. The diplomat did not provide further details on the deal or when it was signed and by whom. On Saturday, Saudi Defense Minister Prince Sultan said the arms deal includes buying equipment for the National Guard and the other units of the armed forces. The National Guard is separate from the kingdom's army and navy and reports directly to Abdullah. Saudi Arabia is the United States' main ally in the Gulf region and is host to about 5,000 U.S. troops.

---

Documents confirm Irish arms plan

InfoBeat News
Afternoon Edition
1/2/2001
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=405632480

DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) - The Irish government made contingency plans in 1970 for a military thrust into Northern Ireland to protect Catholics and provide them arms for their protection, according to newly released official papers.

Historians have long believed that such contingency plans were made, but there had been no official confirmation.

The official papers released Tuesday show that then-Irish Prime Minister Jack Lynch ordered the army to train for a possible incursion into British-ruled Northern Ireland. But his military planners felt only 800 troops would be available for a brief foray across the border.

Serious rioting had erupted in Northern Ireland the previous summer. Catholic homes had been attacked by Protestant mobs in Belfast, and the British government put troops on the streets to help keep order.

Lynch raised expectations of intervention in a broadcast on Aug. 13, 1969 in which he said: ``It is clear ... that the Irish government can no longer stand idly by and see innocent people injured and perhaps worse.''

In public, Lynch went no further than calling for a U.N. peacekeeping force for Northern Ireland, and he ordered the army to set up field hospitals along the border to offer treatment to people who, fearing prosecution for rioting, did not want to use hospitals within Northern Ireland.

On Feb. 6, 1970, according to the official papers, Lynch directed the chief of staff ``to prepare and train the Army for incursions into Northern Ireland, if and when such a course became necessary, and to have respirators (gas masks) and arms and ammunition made ready in the event that it would be necessary for the minority to protect themselves.''

On April 2, the army moved 500 rifles, 80,000 rounds of ammunition and 3,000 gas masks to Dundalk, near the border with Northern Ireland.

The official papers also reveal that the defense minister, James Gibbons, admitted he had ``no idea'' when and to whom the arms might be handed over.

In June, the chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Sean McKeown, reported to Lynch that the army had the capacity only to send 800 troops into the town of Newry across the border for as little as 24 hours _ at the cost of ``considerable casualties.''

McKeown said he viewed this option as ``a short temporary stay to carry out a mercy mission and return.''

Lynch, according to the official papers, ``reaffirmed that it was the policy of the government that force would not be used as a means to reintegrate the national territory'' _ that is, to end British rule of the six counties of Northern Ireland.

Though Irish military moves never went past the planning stage, Finance Minister Charles Haughey and Agriculture Minister Neil Blaney were expelled from the Cabinet and then charged with conspiring to send arms to the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland.

Haughey, who became Ireland's prime minister in 1979, and Blaney were acquitted. As a Cabinet member, Blaney had advocated that the Irish army attempt to occupy Londonderry, Northern Ireland's second-largest city and the scene of battles between Catholics and the police.

-------- colombia

Colombia's Drug War

New York Times
January 2, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/02/opinion/L02COL.html

To the Editor:

Re "A Test Ahead for Powell (and His Doctrine)'' (Week in Review, Dec. 17):

Unlike our experience in Somalia or Vietnam, United States ground forces are not and will not be deployed as part of antidrug efforts in Colombia. Our activities include training and technical assistance for Colombia's security forces and criminal justice system; money for alternate economic development and drug interdiction; and support for peace initiatives.

This multifaceted strategy is essential given the complex situation in Colombia. Guerrillas and militia groups support themselves through drug trafficking, kidnapping, extorting money and killing civilians. A military solution is not our objective, but absent minimal safety guarantees, no peaceful solution is possible.

Some members of Congress support earmarking more support for the Colombian National Police. While we share their admiration for this organization, the security threats facing Colombia go beyond the national police's law-enforcement capabilities.

JANET CRIST Chief of Staff, Office ofNational Drug Control Policy Washington, Dec. 26, 2000

-------- drug war

Criminals flock to friendly Thailand

Washington Times
January 2, 2001
By Joshua Kurlantzick
http://www.washtimes.com/world/default-200112221334.htm

BANGKOK - With swarms of holiday visitors from Europe, Asia, North America and elsewhere come unsavory people who tourist-friendly Thailand would rather stay at home.

Over the past three years, Bangkok has become a hub for global organized crime syndicates, which use the city to transport drugs, people and arms, and to set up international prostitution rings.

"More and more international crime syndicates are basing themselves in Thailand," said Khachadpai Buruspatana, head of Thailand's National Security Council.

Crime syndicates from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Russia and other places "are coming in waves and engaging in prostitution, trafficking of women and children, and drug dealing," he said.

Thai police arrested nearly 2,600 foreigners in the first six months of 2000, believed to be the most foreign nationals ever jailed in a half-year.

In September, Herve Berger, a drug trafficking specialist at the International Labor Organization, told a seminar that Japanese yakuza gangs were operating in Bangkok to traffic girls to Japan.

Later that month, Thai police broke up a large crime ring in Bangkok's Pakistani underworld.

In December, anti-narcotics officials announced that Chinese triad gangs were working with the United Wa State Army (UWSA), an ethnic militia in northeast Burma, to smuggle heroin and amphetamines through Thailand.

The syndicates have not only expanded into Thailand but also proved a highly disturbing presence, since they have begun battling it out on the streets.

On Sept. 15, gunmen burst into the Bangkok apartment of purported Bombay mob boss Chotta Rajan, who was wanted in India on 17 counts of murder and had been hiding in the Thai capital. The shooters, believed to have been hired by Mr. Rajan's archenemy, fellow Bombay underworld overlord Dawood Ibrahim, badly wounded Mr. Rajan and killed Mr. Rajan's associate Rohit Verma.

Crime syndicates have good reasons for setting up shop in Thailand.

In an effort to boost tourism, Thailand has adopted loose visa policies, which allow foreign nationals to easily slip in and out of the country. Citizens of 154 countries can enter Thailand without a visa or obtain a visa on arrival.

And the lingering economic crisis has provided crime syndicates with a larger pool of impoverished potential local recruits. In the early 1980s, the top 10 percent of Thailand's households earned 17 times more than the bottom 10 percent. After the crisis, the gap between the top and bottom had widened to more than 37 times.

High levels of corruption among the Thai police force may also make organized crime's work easier. In September, a poll of 4,016 households found that Thais believed corruption among authorities was among the most serious problems facing the country.

On Nov. 24, Mr. Rajan escaped from the Bangkok hospital where he was recuperating from the attempted assassination, in a room monitored by seven policemen. Although the badly wounded Mr. Rajan could barely move his legs, Thai police said that he gave them the slip, knotted his bedsheets together, and lowered himself four stories to the ground. Mr. Rajan's lawyer has claimed that the mobster paid police about $586,000 to let him escape.

Thailand, however, is attempting to crack down on transnational crime. The country has tightened visa policies on some foreign nationals, and Mr. Khachadpai has suggested a radical revamp of the visa rules.

The country also is reforming its legal framework. Last year, Thailand passed its first anti-money laundering laws, aimed at preventing drug traffickers from investing dirty money in Thai property.

Still, battling the crime syndicates will be difficult. Thai police are not paid enough to discourage them from taking bribes.

And some leading members of the government are loath to drastically change visa policies, for fear of discouraging tourism, the country's largest earner of foreign exchange in 2000.

-------- myanmar

Suu Kyi remains under house arrest

Washington Times
January 2, 2001
World Scene Combined dispatches and staff reports
http://www.washtimes.com/world/worldscene-200112223139.htm

BANGKOK - Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi spent her 101st consecutive day under virtual house arrest as the new year began yesterday, despite promises by the military government to release her.

Mrs. Suu Kyi was confined to her Rangoon home on Sept. 22 after she defied government restrictions on her movement and tried to travel by train to the northern city of Mandalay to visit members of her embattled National League for Democracy.

A Burmese government spokesman contacted in Rangoon would give no clues yesterday about when Mrs. Suu Kyi would be freed, saying he "would not like to speculate on this issue at this stage."

--------

Suu Kyi spends 101 days confined

InfoBeat News
Morning Coffee Edition - 1/2/2001
By MATTHEW PENNINGTON Associated Press Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=405624587

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi spent her 101st consecutive day under virtual house arrest as the new year began Monday, despite promises by the military government to release her.

Suu Kyi was confined to her Yangon home on Sept. 22 after she defied government restrictions on her movement and tried to travel by train to the northern city of Mandalay to visit members of her embattled National League for Democracy.

In all, nine NLD leaders were put under confinement, but six were released Dec. 1. Party heavyweights NLD Chairman Aung Shwe and Vice-Chairman Tin Oo remain detained and about 80 NLD supporters arrested at the same time are believed held at Yangon's Insein Prison, according to diplomats.

A Myanmar government spokesman contacted in Yangon would give no clues Monday about when Suu Kyi would be freed, saying he ``would not like to speculate on this issue at this stage.''

On Dec. 12, Myanmar Foreign Minister Win Aung told a meeting of European and Southeast Asian ministers in Laos that Suu Kyi would be released at ``an appropriate time'' but did not give a date.

That vague promise was seen as a concession to European critics of the junta's human rights record. European countries had agreed to end a three-year boycott of the interregional dialogue and sit at a table with top Myanmar officials.

Myanmar's military, which kept Suu Kyi under formal house arrest from 1989 to 1995, refused to hand over power to the NLD after it overwhelmingly won a general election in 1990. Since the polls, it has harassed and arrested hundreds of NLD members, although it remains a legally registered political party.

One window of opportunity for the junta to ease restrictions on Suu Kyi could be a visit starting Friday by U.N. special envoy Razali Ismail, who is charged with the difficult task of brokering a political dialogue between the Myanmar government and the NLD.

Yangon-based diplomats suggest Suu Kyi could be released after Razali's five-day visit because it would give an impression the move would be due to the U.N. envoy's mediation, rather than pressure from Europe.

Razali, a former Malaysian diplomat, was able to meet with Suu Kyi twice at her house during a visit in October. He is the only diplomat to have had contact with Suu Kyi since her confinement began.

An Asian diplomat in Yangon said Razali had sought in October to secure Suu Kyi's release but a sticking point was the NLD leader's insistence that she will keep trying to travel outside the capital, which she views as her right.

In recent years, Suu Kyi has repeatedly tried to visit the provinces of Myanmar and been blocked every time.

The government accuses her of deliberately provoking confrontations with the authorities. The tactic has helped keep the international spotlight on her democracy struggle, even as the NLD suffers official persecution and forced resignations of party members.

-------- puerto rico

Puerto Rico Installs First Female Governor

New York Times
January 2, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Puerto-Rico-Governor.html

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- To cheers, fireworks and an accolade of flower petals, Puerto Rico welcomed its first female governor Tuesday as she took office promising greater autonomy for the U.S. territory and efforts to halt Navy exercises on a nearby island.

A crowd of thousands broke into wild applause and chants of ``Sila! Sila!'' as Sila Calderon took the oath of office on the steps of the island's Capitol overlooking the Atlantic. A cannon blasted from the nearby Spanish colonial fort of San Cristobal, and doves flew into an azure sky.

``The people of Puerto Rico want an immediate halt to the naval exercises'' of Vieques Island, Calderon said to applause in her inaugural address. ``Sixty years of a menace to the health and security of our countrymen is unacceptable for any civilized and peaceful society.''

Calderon's inauguration, which came three weeks before George W. Bush's start in the presidency, raised the possibility of an even more conflicted relationship between Puerto Rico and the U.S. government.

Although Bush has said he will stand by an agreement that could result in the Navy's withdrawal from Vieques, he is also known for his staunch support of the American military.

Calderon said she wants an immediate Navy withdrawal -- not the 2003 target offered by the agreement.

Calderon's supporters paraded a large banner announcing: ``Peace for Vieques -- Not one more shot!''

Calderon, 58, is opposed to U.S. statehood, which was championed by outgoing Gov. Pedro Rossello. Her victory in November and her Popular Democratic Party's success in winning the local legislature were seen as a collective ``No'' to making Puerto Rico the 51st state.

It was also perceived as a rejection of the pact between Rossello and the White House that would delay until 2003 any withdrawal of the Navy from Vieques.

The Navy had planned to transfer 8,000 acres of Vieques land to the local government last Sunday. However, Navy Secretary Richard Danzig said the transfer would not occur until Calderon promised to stand by the agreement.

Calderon has also promised to push for greater autonomy for the island, which the United States captured from Spain during the 1898 Spanish-American War.

``We Puerto Ricans value and treasure our North American citizenship,'' she said. ``But we are first, before all else, and always -- Puerto Ricans!''

Puerto Ricans became U.S. citizens in 1917, and the island has had a semiautonomous ``commonwealth'' relationship with the United States since 1952.

Under the arrangement, Puerto Ricans cannot vote for president and have no vote in Congress. They pay no federal income tax but receive some $13 billion annually in federal funds.

Calderon, a business executive and former vice president of Citibank in Puerto Rico, has promised new incentives to encourage companies from the mainland and elsewhere to invest.

Calderon told the AP Monday that she has named her entire Cabinet, plans a first meeting Wednesday and already has drafted 20 to 25 new laws, including some to fight corruption.

After her inaugural speech, she walked with supporters through the cobblestoned streets of Old San Juan, where bands blasted salsa and a children's choir sang.

She also planned private meetings with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the Dominican Republic's leader, Hipolito Mejia. The presidents of Haiti and Panama also attended the inauguration.

-------

Puerto Rican Chief Rejects Vieques Pact

Washington Post
Tuesday, January 2, 2001; Page A02
By Michelle Faul
Associated Press
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7209-2001Jan1.html

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, Jan. 1 -- With promises to build consensus, Puerto Rico's new anti-statehood governor said today she will hold true to pledges to oust the U.S. Navy from a bombing range and resolve the island's conflicted relationship with Washington.

"It's not a collision course; it's not a confrontation. It's about working within the respect that we must have for each other," Sila Calderon said as she prepared to take over the reins of government Tuesday.

Some Puerto Ricans are comparing the upcoming administration of the 58-year-old executive to the Kennedy era.

"Many people think she can bring the glamour and sophistication that the Kennedys brought to the White House," said artist Manolo Diaz.

Calderon is opposed to statehood, which was championed by outgoing Gov. Pedro Rossello. Her victory in November and her Popular Democratic Party's success in winning the majority of seats in both houses of the local legislature were seen as a collective "No" to making Puerto Rico the 51st state of the union.

It was also viewed as a popular rejection of an agreement between Rossello, the White House and the Navy that would delay any withdrawal of the Navy from its bombing range on Vieques until 2003 -- even if islanders vote against the Navy's presence in a referendum next year.

On Sunday, Navy Secretary Richard Danzig informed Rossello that the Navy would not transfer 8,000 acres of Vieques land to the government, planned for Dec. 31, until Calderon promised to stand by the agreement.

Calderon says the Navy should get out immediately. "We have fulfilled our responsibilities for the common defense . . . with the bombing which has been going on for 60 years," she said. Ending it was part of the mandate she received when she was elected, she said.

The presidents of Venezuela, Haiti, Dominican Republic and Panama will participate in her inauguration, an indication of the respect commanded in the region by the woman who helped make Puerto Rico a tax haven for U.S. companies and used funds from the project to provide some $1.2 billion in aid to Caribbean Basin countries.

Calderon, a business executive and former vice president of Citibank in Puerto Rico, was an architect of the plan while she was Puerto Rico's secretary of state in the last Popular Democratic administration in the 1980s.

-------- u.n.

New Faces at U.N. Security Council

Associated Press
January 2, 2001 Filed at 12:20 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-UN-Security-Council.html

UNITED NATIONS - Five new members of the Security Council took up their duties on Tuesday, preparing to tackle major topics on the U.N. agenda, including conflicts in Africa and new U.N. reports on the violations of diamond bans in Sierra Leone and Angola.

Colombia, Ireland, Mauritius, Norway and Singapore were elected to two-year terms by the General Assembly in October to replace Argentina, Canada, Malaysia, Namibia and the Netherlands, whose two-year terms ended Sunday.

They join permanent members Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, and non-permanent members Bangladesh, Jamaica, Mali, Tunisia and Ukraine, in making up the full 15-member council.

Singapore joins the council not only as a first-time member but also as president for the month of January. Singapore was forced to take up the job because the presidency schedule rotates alphabetically and fell on Singapore in January.

To get up to speed on the often arcane practices of running the council, Singapore's U.N. ambassador, Kishore Mahbubani, was allowed to sit in on consultations during the past several weeks.

He was holding one-on-one meetings with the 14 other council members early this week to chart the council's agenda for the month.

---

Pro-life groups feel shut out of U.N. summit

Washington Times
January 2, 2001
By George Archibald
http://www.washtimes.com/national/default-200112224720.htm

A U.N. summit on children planned for this year is embroiled in controversy as pro-life groups accuse organizers of trying to shut them out of closed sessions where reproductive and homosexual rights will be debated.

A new U.N. "child rights" agenda for the next decade will be drafted by international delegates to the summit in September, called by the General Assembly to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Officials of the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF), which is organizing the New York summit, have ordered that nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) be limited to two representatives each in closed negotiating sessions where the new agenda will be drafted, according to the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute.

With conservative NGOs, mainly from predominantly Catholic and Muslim nations, outnumbered more than 200-to-1 at U.N. meetings, the Catholic institute accused UNICEF of trying to stack the deck even further to push through pro-abortion and pro-homosexual rights planks that have failed at prior U.N. conferences.

"UNICEF has announced that only two representatives of an NGO may participate at any one time in the governmental meeting," Austin Ruse, the institute's president, told 10,000 recipients of a weekly e-mail report.

"Pro-life lobbyists believe the clampdown is aimed specifically at them," he said.

"There are only 20 groups in our coalition," Mr. Ruse said in an interview. "Given the small number of approved pro-life NGOs, this limit would severely restrict the number of pro-lifers who can lobby the [official country] delegates."

At a U.N. conference on population and development at The Hague in 1998, "more than 800 NGOs were allowed to participate, but only six pro-life groups were allowed in the conference," Mr. Ruse said.

Last year, at a U.N. special session in New York to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Beijing women's conference, pro-life NGO delegates were "outnumbered roughly 7,000 to 30," he said, "but found enough governmental support to stop a wide range of agenda items that would have advanced abortion on demand."

Hourig Babikian, head of UNICEF's NGO Participation Team, said NGOs could each bring four delegates to the child summit, but confirmed they would be restricted to two passes for closed negotiating sessions where substantive actions would occur on controversial proposals regarding children's rights.

UNICEF imposed the restrictions because more than 3,000 NGOs are accredited for the conference, she said. "It's a small room and they couldn't all get in."

However, according to conference planners, just 235 NGOs participated in U.N. preparatory meetings in New York last June and, as of Dec. 20, just 225 NGOs had registered for the U.N. special session in September. The registration deadline is Jan. 15.

According to preparatory documents, U.N. organizers of the child summit hope to redefine the role of families and government agencies in child-rearing and endorse the right of children between ages 10 and 18 to be sexually active and have abortions.

The preparatory committee for the special session approved a preliminary agenda calling on the United Nations to ask world governments "to be actively involved in identifying the most effective ways to achieve sustainable social outcomes for children . . . adolescents should have opportunities to fully develop their individual capacities, capture the issues of fundamental importance."

A committee statement of "emerging issues" said "significant" legal reforms had occurred in global laws regarding child rights since U.N. adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990.

But "the gap between children's legal rights and their rights in practice must be closed," the committee chairman wrote. "To ensure this, appropriate policy, budget and institutional reforms should be instituted in all countries."

The United States has not approved the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was signed by President Clinton in February 1995 but never ratified by the Senate.

-------- u.s.

After Cole's Bombing, Pentagon Finds Ongoing Lapses in Gulf Security

New York Times
January 2, 2001
By STEVEN LEE MYERS
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/02/world/02COLE.html?pagewanted=all

WASHINGTON, Jan. 1 - A Pentagon commission has concluded that there were significant security shortcomings in the region before the bombing of the destroyer Cole in Yemen and plans to recommend steps to tighten security for American forces there, senior defense officials say.

The bombing of an Air Force barracks in Saudi Arabia more than four years ago led to sweeping changes in security procedures at American bases throughout the region and the world. But the commission found that commanders in the Persian Gulf were still not devoting enough attention to protecting American forces from attack, the officials said on Friday.

In particular, the commission found cracks in security for ships and aircraft as they move through the region, as the Cole was doing when it stopped in the Yemeni port of Aden on Oct. 12 and was attacked by a harbor skiff packed with explosives, the officials said.

"The overarching theme is we've done a lot of things to improve force protection, but it is still not deeply rooted in our culture," said a senior defense official who has been briefed on the status of the commission's findings.

Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen appointed the commission after the suicide bombing of the Cole, which killed 17 sailors and wounded 39. While the commission has not yet completed a written report, the two retired commanders leading it, Adm. Harold W. Gehman of the Navy and Gen. William W. Crouch of the Army, outlined their findings just before Christmas for Mr. Cohen and Gen. Henry H. Shelton, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the officials said.

A separate Navy investigation, focused only on actions aboard the Cole, has concluded that the destroyer's captain and crew failed to follow strict security procedures on the morning of the attack. That inquiry, which is still being reviewed by the Navy's top admirals, has raised the possibility of disciplinary action against the Cole's captain, Cmdr. Kirk S. Lippold, or other officers and members of the crew.

The commission leaders are expected to present their final conclusions - and their recommendations for improving security - to Mr. Cohen this week. The officials declined to discuss the recommendations in detail, saying many of them will remain secret to thwart future attacks.

The questions underlying the commission's review are whether any measures could have been taken to avert attack on the Cole and whether anyone in the chain of command should be held responsible for security lapses. And, the officials said, the commission ultimately does not answer either.

"There's no smoking gun," the senior defense official said.

The commission's review, in contrast to the Navy investigation, focused more broadly on security in Yemen and through the region and not on the individual accountability of other commanders or officials in the region, the officials said. The commission consisted of the two retired officers and an active duty staff of investigators.

In his only public remarks on the review, General Crouch said in November that the commission's mandate was focused on improving security for American forces in the region, not on assigning blame. "We're not out here to find fault with anybody," he said at the time. "We're out here to make recommendations for improvement."

Nevertheless, the commission found that commanders in the region were not paying enough attention to the security of American troops there, the officials said. In particular, the commission focused on what one senior official called "a breakdown" in communication between embassies and the military commanders of the United States Central Command, based in Tampa, Fla., the military headquarters for the Persian Gulf region.

There also appears to have been ambiguity over who exactly had authority for security in ports like Aden, where harbor boats, scows and other ships swarm chaotically. The commission plans to recommend a series of "additional tools" to tighten security procedures for commanders on the ground and for forces passing from place to place.

The commission's findings could be challenged in Congress, where lawmakers have indicated a greater desire to assign blame for security lapses. Even in the Pentagon, there appears to be disagreement over the scope of the review and its conclusions.

One official said Navy leaders, in particular, were distressed that the conclusions outlined before Christmas did not directly address whether intelligence reports and other factors should have warranted raising the Cole's alert to a higher level than "threat condition Bravo," only the third-highest level.

Raising the level higher could have required the Cole's captain and crew to take additional security steps - or to cancel the refueling stop altogether.

The commission's final report, now being drafted, may address that question more directly than Admiral Gehman and General Crouch did in their preliminary briefings. It is also possible that Mr. Cohen, after receiving the Cole's final report, may himself decide to recommend disciplining any commanders found to have been less than diligent.

At the same time, however, the commission's review, like the Navy's investigation, has concluded that even in hindsight, there was no single action or decision - short of not refueling the Cole in Yemen - that could have avoided the attack, the officials said.

By contrast, after the bombing of the Khobar Towers barracks near Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, on June 26, 1996, a similar commission found that American commanders had been warned repeatedly about the threat of a terrorist attack and had failed to take basic security precautions such as extending a fence and installing Mylar sheets over barrack windows.

In the case of the Cole, the officials emphasized that its crew believed that the skiff - with two suicide bombers aboard - was part of a flotilla of harbor boats assisting the Cole and thus did not raise suspicions.

"There's no `but for' - `but for this' or `but for that' this could have been avoided," a senior official said. "There wasn't one thing that caused the Cole to happen."

--------

Gulf security lapses found

InfoBeat News
Afternoon Edition - 1/2/2001
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=405633696

NEW YORK (AP) - A Pentagon commission will recommend tightened security measures for U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf after concluding that there were significant security lapses in the region before the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

The commission found flaws in security for ships and aircraft moving through the region, which the Cole was doing when it stopped in a Yemeni port on Oct. 12 and was attacked, the Times said. Seventeen sailors were killed and 39 were wounded.

Sweeping security changes were implemented at U.S. bases throughout the world after an Air Force barracks in Saudi Arabia was bombed more than four years ago, but the commission found that commanders in the Gulf were not devoting enough attention to protecting their forces from attack.

One senior defense official told the Times there was a breakdown in communication between embassies and the military commanders of the U.S. Central Command, the Tampa, Fla.-based military headquarters for the Gulf.

The commission did not determine whether any measures could have been taken to avert the Cole attack or whether any U.S. officials should be held responsible for security lapses, a senior defense official told the Times. One of the commission's leaders, retired Army Gen. William Crouch, said the commission's goal was to improve security for U.S. forces in the region, not assign blame.

Secretary of Defense William Cohen appointed the commission after the Cole attack. It has not yet completed a written report, but its findings were disclosed to Cohen and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Henry Shelton just before Christmas, the Times said.

The commission is expected to present its final conclusions and security recommendations to Cohen this week.

A separate Navy investigation into actions aboard the Cole found that the destroyer's captain and crew failed to follow security procedures on the day of the attack. The investigation is still being reviewed but already has raised the possibility of disciplinary action against the captain, Cmdr. Kirk Lippold, or other Cole officials, the Times said.


-------- OTHER

-------- alternative energy

USA Today
States
01/01/02
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Wisconsin

Chippewa Falls - Farmers are pushing for a $25 million ethanol plant that would use 6 million bushels of corn to produce 15 million gallons of ethanol a year. An investor group is considering sites in Bloomer, Stanley and Menomonie. Farmers said the plant, which would be the state's first, could give them an alternate source of income as they struggle against low milk prices.

-------- environment

Observatory: Sex Reversal in the Wild

New York Times
January 2, 2001
By HENRY FOUNTAIN
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/02/science/02OBSE.html

Some of the female chinook salmon who spawn along a stretch of the Columbia River in Washington State hold a secret: They began life as males.

Researchers with the University of Idaho and Washington State University analyzed DNA from the salmon that laid eggs and died in the Hanford Reach, the only free-flowing stretch of the Columbia east of Bonneville Dam. They found that instead of the normal XX chromosomes, four-fifths of the females tested were XY, indicating they began as males and developed as females.

Sex reversal, which occurs in a fish's embryo stage, is not uncommon. In some types of fish farming it is practiced routinely, by exposing the embryos to hormones.

But the Idaho and Washington State researchers, whose work appeared in Environmental Health Perspectives, said their results were the first evidence of sex reversal occurring in the wild (although they cautioned that their sample was relatively small).

This stretch of the river passes the Hanford Site, the government- run nuclear reservation where much of the nation's plutonium was processed, but the researchers ruled out radiation as a cause of the sex reversal. Instead, they suggest that pesticides or other environmental contaminants that can mimic the action of hormones may be to blame.

And they say the sex reversal may help explain some of the difficulties Columbia salmon have had in reproducing. These females could produce YY males, which would then be capable only of producing male offspring, upsetting the sex balance in a fish population.

Captive Condors Freed

Two pairs of breeding-age California condors have been released from captivity, and condor experts say they could be the first of the huge birds to reproduce in the wild in more than 15 years. The condors were born in captivity and had been in a captive breeding program in Boise, Idaho, operated by the Peregrine Fund, a group that works to conserve birds of prey. They were moved in November to the Grand Canyon area of Arizona and were kept in flight pens while they acclimated to the area. The first pair was released on Dec. 7, and the second, 12 days later.

Scientists involved with the project say that the adult birds could lay fertile eggs within a year or two, perhaps before some of the younger condors reach breeding age. The scientists say the recent release is an important step in the recovery of this endangered species.

Jupiter Mission Lube Job

The Cassini spacecraft, which is near Jupiter on its way to Saturn, is back to normal operations after a slight scare.

Some planned observations of Jupiter had been suspended on Dec. 20, because of a problem with the system used to orient the spacecraft. But project officials at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said last week that the problem had fixed itself, so the observation schedule was resumed.

The problem had cropped up in one of the craft's reaction wheels. There are three of these electrically powered wheels, each oriented along a different axis. By rotating the wheels, the spacecraft can turn in any direction. This allows scientists to orient the spacecraft's cameras and antennas.

On Dec. 17, friction in one of the wheels increased. So the spacecraft shut down the system and switched to a different one that uses small thrusters. Since the project managers want to conserve as much thruster fuel as possible, the decision was made to shut down any observations that required turning the spacecraft. But tests several days later showed that the problem had disappeared.

Officials suspect that because the wheels were operated at low speed for a long time, there may have been a lubrication problem. Turning the wheels at higher speeds in the test may have redistributed the lubricant.

---

Sequim Journal: Elk That Call Ahead to Cross the Highway

New York Times
January 2, 2001
By TIMOTHY EGAN
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/02/technology/02ELK.html

SEQUIM, Wash., Dec. 28 - Led by females, a large herd of Roosevelt elk has been abandoning the colder, higher reaches of the Olympic Mountains in search of mild weather and year-round foliage here in the maritime splendor of the Dungeness Valley.

Led by retirees, people have also been abandoning habitats of colder, more hostile terrain in search of temperate climate and year-round gardening, making this valley one of the fastest-growing areas in the West.

The forces of nature and demographics clash - with violent finality - on the main road just outside the town of Sequim (pronounced skwim). In the past five years, a dozen elk have been killed by motorists. And as a new freeway was completed this year, replacing the old road, the question was whether the herd and the highway could ever coexist.

As Sequimites gripped themselves for new rounds of Winnebagos versus wapiti, as elk are known to the Indians of the Olympic Peninsula, suggestions poured in on how to protect the animals.

One idea was to construct a fence along the four-mile length of the new road - but the cost was deemed prohibitive. Another suggestion was to scare the herd away from the lowlands where the road was built, using dogs or people riding loud all-terrain vehicles. Elk- chasing was deemed inhumane.

Finally, a biologist for the State of Washington, Shelly Ament, came up with an idea to wire the elk with radio transmitting collars and create what is believed to be the world's first interactive elk crossing.

About one in 10 elk, leaders of the herd or those most likely to be involved in mating, were equipped with radio collars, which have a three-year battery life and are used to keep track of all sorts of wild creatures, from wolves to grizzly bears. The difference with this collar is that it emits a signal when the elk come within about a quarter mile of the new section of U. S. 101. This signal sets off flashing warning lights on roadside signs with pictures of elk and the words: ELK X-ING.

The idea is that motorists will slow down once the lights flash, sparing fender and fur.

Collisions of thousand-pound elk and 4,000-pound sport utility vehicles have favored the S.U.V.'s, but Sequim police have long expressed concern that some person might get seriously injured in one of the smashups.

Nearly half a year into the experiment in elk traffic engineering, the verdict is positive - for man and beast.

"I'm very encouraged," said Jack Smith, the state wildlife supervisor for the Olympic Peninsula. "There are a lot of people in the Sequim area who like having the elk around, and this gives them and us hope that they can live with each other."

Only a single animal has been killed since the herd was equipped with radio collars.

"Some people, no matter what you do, are just never going to pay attention," Mr. Smith said. "But this is a better ratio than we had going into the experiment."

The elk, of course, have been foraging in this valley since well before Wal-Mart or legions of orthopedic surgeons and other specialists set sights on the retirement haven of Sequim.

The valley of 10,000 people on the north side of the Olympic Peninsula, about two hours by ferry and car from Seattle, is usually the driest town on the Pacific Coast north of San Diego. Pilots call this area the blue hole, for its perpetual sunshine; some years Sequim receives barely 15 inches of rain, while forests 60 miles to the west can get 10 times that amount.

The mountains that block Pacific storms have also nurtured the world's largest population of Roosevelt elk, cinnamon-colored ungulates who roam the rich, lowland valleys of the Olympics. The animals are named for Theodore Roosevelt, who took up the elk's cause after they were nearly hunted to extinction by people who valued the teeth for watch fobs.

The Olympic elk are healthy and plentiful now, Mr. Smith said. But, as with wildlife over much of the rest of the country, they face pressure from the advancing flank of urbanization.

Elk consume 10 percent of their body weight every day in food. In winter, they used to graze primarily on grass, willow branches and assorted forms of fibrous woody snacks in the flats of the Dungeness Valley, while in the warm months they headed for the high country in the Olympics.

But this herd has taken a year- round liking to the valley, and to the impressive gardens of rhododendrons, lavender and fruit trees in people's big backyards.

"Now, if only we could figure out a way to keep the elk out of the landscaping," Mr. Smith said.

---

Environmentalists' Annual Fool's Errand Is Fruitless Yet Again

New York Times
January 2, 2001
By KIRK JOHNSON
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/02/nyregion/02WALK.html

Many people start the new year with upbeat resolutions of conquest and accomplishment. The 30-odd people who met yesterday on a snow- swept beach in Queens considered it the better part of wisdom to start with a failure.

Their ostensible goal was to signal across New York Bay to another group in New Jersey that was doing the same thing at the same moment - 10 minutes past noon. This was the 20th New Year's Day in a row that the members of the American Littoral Society, a private coastal protection group, have tried this.

Carrying several large household mirrors and a flare mounted on a bamboo stick, they hiked the beach to the appointed place, near Breezy Point, then waited for the appointed time. The flare was lighted, the mirrors flashed into the brilliant sun, the binoculars trained on the Jersey Shore seven miles away at Sandy Hook . . . and then with barely a shrug, it was time to pop the Champagne, drink a toast and forget the whole thing for another year.

"It started out as a lark, then it became a tradition, then it became a tradition of never really working," said Don Riepe, the director of the Littoral Society's Northeast chapter. "We're kind of afraid to succeed now," he added. "What would happen next year?"

On the New Jersey side, the results were just as splendidly uneventful, shore signalers there said. Nobody saw a thing.

And that was precisely what was intended. The signal-making, for all its elaborate effort, was absolutely pointless. Even if it somehow worked, the walkers said, it would achieve nothing and prove nothing.

"We had a smoke flare and two pitiful rockets that went about a foot in the air," said Dery Bennett, the executive director of the Littoral Society and the leader of the New Jersey group. "It's pretty hopeless, but we'll keep trying and hope that we never succeed."

What was important was the getting there, the journey itself. The lackadaisical signal attempt was just an excuse, the New York members said, for a bracing two-mile walk on a cold day through a part of the city that few people ever see - the Atlantic shore at Gateway National Recreation Area in the full splendor of winter. Birds were everywhere - tiny sanderlings skittered on the sand, chasing each wave in hopes that it had washed up a meal. Gulls and cormorants wheeled about in the sky above and sat quietly bobbing in the water.

The annual shore walk was also a reaffirmation, members said, of the idea that environmentalism should not always be a stern-faced business of advocacy and hard science, but also a celebration of the things that are to be protected. By creating a patently flimsy pretext for a holiday hike, they said, they are also ensuring that the beach walk remains, in its own way, innocent.

"It's almost a fantasy - we make believe that we can make contact," said Maxwell Cohen, a retired high school biology teacher who has been taking the New Year's hike pretty much since its inception. "If somebody ever suggested using a cell phone or something like that, people would say, `Nah, that's too practical.' It's ridiculous, isn't it?"

The Littoral Society, which derives its name from the Latin word for shore or beach, was founded in New Jersey in the early 1960's by a group of fishermen, scuba divers and biologists who all believed that preservation of the coast should go hand in hand with its active use. One of the group's annual trips, for example, consists of a seafood foraging expedition on Cumberland Island, off Georgia. Some members fish, some dig for mussels, others harvest seaweed, then cook what they have gathered.

"These are people who are gung- ho to do odd things, then have a hearty meal," said Jeff Kraus, an architectural hardware consultant who was taking the walk yesterday with his wife, Lynn.

There are strong bonds within the group. Many of the members have known one another for decades, even though they might see each other only on this one day of the year.

Mr. Kraus, for example, was a student in Mr. Cohen's 10th-grade marine biology class at Far Rockaway High School in 1966. He was one of four of Mr. Cohen's old students in the group yesterday, all of whom said their former teacher had more or less single-handedly changed their view of nature through his passion for the ocean and the animals that depend upon it. One of Mr. Cohen's maxims, for example, is that sea life is an endless mystery, or as he put it, that "every creature has a secret life."

Another walker in the group, Mildred Penzer, a retired elementary- school teacher, said she was drawn back year after year by a similarly hard-to-describe feeling - a sense of boundlessness and space that only the ocean in winter can provide.

Of course, there is also a certain cultural twain between New York and New Jersey, and both sides of the signal-failure divide were only too happy to suggest that perhaps some innate flaw on the opposite shore was the root cause of their inability to connect.

"I've heard they serve hot chocolate over there, while we have champagne," Mr. Cohen said.

"But they're country folk," he added. "We're city people."

------

Everglades at Risk

New York Times
January 2, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/02/opinion/L02EVE.html

To the Editor:

Re "Everglades Airport'' (letter, Dec. 28):

Too much will be sacrificed if Miami-Dade County is allowed to proceed with plans for a major commercial airport at the old Homestead Air Force Base.

The headquarters of Biscayne National Park are just two miles away; less than 10 miles away, the Everglades begin. The fabled Florida Keys, a magical, quiet place, are a few nautical miles south.

No human hands could reconstruct the Everglades' beauty once destroyed, and no engineering feats could spare it from the roar of airplane noise and the toxic pollutants.

Americans should not be expected to sacrifice our national heritage as embodied by our national parks, marine sanctuaries and wildlife refuges for the benefit of a few. President Clinton should stop the airport now.

BLANCA MESA Key Biscayne, Fla., Dec. 28, 2000

---

USA Today
States
01/01/02
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Colorado

Rifle - Area natural gas operators are preparing to drill up to 30% more wells in 2001 in response to the national gas shortage. About 1,500 drilling permits were issued statewide this year, compared with 1,010 in 1999, according to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

Florida

St. Petersburg - Biologists will scan coastal waters this month to count Florida manatees while trying to devise a plan to save the endangered creatures. Counts in the past decade range from 2,200 to nearly 3,000. An increasing number are killed in boat collisions, and officials propose adding sanctuaries and slow-speed zones along the coast to reduce deaths.

Hawaii

Hilo - A Big Island lawmaker said the state should consider buying several hundred acres of Waipio Valley from Bishop Museum to limit commercial use of the popular tourist attraction. Farmers who have been leasing the land say they're worried about the environmental impact of horse-drawn tours through the remote, picturesque valley. State Sen. Lorraine Inouye said buying the land would give the state more control over the problem.

Missouri

Columbia - After nearly 20 years, state officials say they have reached the final stage of an effort to clean up Cedar Creek, which was seriously polluted by mining. The state recently awarded a $262,837 contract to stabilize banks along portions of the creek and to reduce the acidic sediment that enters it. Mining ended in the area in 1962.

Oregon

Neskowin - Homeowners say they might buy a golf course to block the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from acquiring it as a national wildlife refuge. The Committee to Save Neskowin Beach Golf Course says turning the 52-acre course into wetlands would decrease property values. Homeowners are willing to outbid the wildlife agency, which by law can offer only the appraised value.

---

GOP likely to undo Clinton land legacy

Washington Times
January 2, 2001
By Valerie Richardson THE WASHINGTON TIMES http://www.washtimes.com/national/default-200112225120.htm

DENVER - President Clinton has rushed to create an environmental legacy in his last year of office by designating millions of acres as national monuments, but it's a legacy that faces erosion at the hands of the next Congress and administration.

Western Republicans, furious at what they see as Mr. Clinton's broad use of his executive authority to outflank Congress and circumvent the democratic process, are already discussing how to roll back the vast "land grab" as quickly into the new Bush administration as possible.

Such an effort could well spring from the House Resources Committee, where Rep. James V. Hansen, Utah Republican, has begun outlining a strategy to roll back the 4.6 million acres in national monuments designated by Mr. Clinton since 1996.

"I think Bruce Babbitt told [Mr. Clinton] his legacy should be 'Go West!' " Mr. Hansen said. "But he doesn't tell anybody what he's going to do. I intend to ask the local communities, 'If you had had input into this [monument designation], what would you have done?'

"Our committee is thinking we'll turn this back the way it should have been," he said.

Mr. Hansen, who is the likely successor to committee Chairman Don Young, says he will invite legislation from lawmakers to trim the monument acreage, tinker with boundaries or eliminate designations altogether, based on the consensus within their communities.

Mr. Clinton has invoked the Antiquities Act of 1906 to declare 11 monuments and expand two more - all but one in the West and all but one in his last year of office. Critics argue that he did so without consulting with the affected communities and went well beyond the scope of the act, which they contend is intended to protect Indian ruins and archeological sites.

Over the summer, Republicans tried to strip the president of his monument-designation authority but failed when the measure was defeated in the Senate 50-49.

Western critics argue that Mr. Clinton's rush to buff up his presidential legacy has hurt rural communities by cutting off access to resource development.

"Look at the California Sequoia monument. If [Rep.] Cal Dooley says, 'We don't want it,' then we'll say, 'Then you put in a bill,' " said Mr. Hansen. "I think the best way for House Resources to go about it is to go to those people who are affected."

Whether President-elect George W. Bush will support such an effort remains a question. Mr. Bush has yet to discuss how he will approach the Clinton administration's last-minute rash of monument designations, but Westerners are optimistic. "He talks all the time about local control, reaching across the aisle, so I would think he'd support this," Mr. Hansen said. "Of course, I can't speak for the president-elect."

Other critics argue that the monuments should be reversed by executive order instead of legislation. "You can always undo what's been done, and it generally requires the same authority," said George Landrith, executive director of Frontiers of Freedom. "The question is, will the new administration have the will to take the criticism they're inevitably going to get on the front page of the New York Times?"

Indeed, environmental groups are already bracing for an attack on the Clinton monuments.

"I think there's overwhelming demand among the American people to protect wild lands," said Allen Mattison, Sierra Club spokesman. "There would be strong opposition if the president-elect tried to do that. But that's up to him - I don't want to close the door when we're trying to reach out to him." Ben Beach, spokesman for the Wilderness Society, predicted that the incoming administration would think twice about taking on the Clinton monuments. "There might be a lot of huffing and puffing about this right now, but when they get to the White House and look at the amount of political capital they would have to expend, I would think they'd decide, 'This isn't worth it,'" he said.

As he prepares to leave office, President Clinton has won kudos from environmental groups for his work on land preservation, with the Wilderness Society declaring 2000 the best year for land protection since 1980. Mr. Clinton has set aside more acreage for national monuments in the lower 48 states than any other president.

"Bill Clinton now ranks as one of the most conservation-minded presidents in U.S. history," said Wilderness Society President William Meadows in a statement last month.

Environmental groups are urging the president to designate more monuments before he hands the reins to Mr. Bush, notably the 1.5 million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge coastal plain, which would have the effect of prohibiting oil drilling. Critics call the proposal a means of blocking the Bush administration's energy strategy, which would include more drilling in Alaska.

"He [Mr. Clinton] is scoring with the monuments by making it more difficult for the next guy to pursue something he opposes, which is a sound energy policy," said Christopher Horner, adjunct policy analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

--------

L.A. area fighting air pollution

InfoBeat News
Morning Coffee Edition - 1/2/2001
By LEON DROUIN KEITH
Associated Press Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=405624431

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Southern California has made significant progress fighting air pollution, but while environmental officials are heartened by how far the area has come, they feel it has an even longer way to go.

In 1995, air in Los Angeles County was rated unhealthy 28 percent of the time under the Pollution Standards Index. That fell to 5 percent last year.

Gains have been made throughout the South Coast air basin, which includes Los Angeles, Orange County and parts of Riverside and San Bernardino counties. The number of days with ozone pollution readings above the federal standard fell sharply in the region _ from 130 in 1990 to 41 last year.

``The decline has been very abrupt,'' said Dave Jesson, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's liaison to the South Coast Air Quality Management District. ``I don't think any area has shown such a completely dramatic reduction.''

One reason is that no area of the nation has had as far to go as Los Angeles in cutting pollution. The air basin is still years away from losing its federal designation as the nation's only ``extreme non-attainment area'' for ozone pollution, which triggers respiratory problems as it fouls city skylines.

The basin also has just missed a federal deadline for meeting carbon monoxide standards, and will have a particularly difficult time meeting standards for dust and soot emissions if the EPA wins a court fight with industry groups to tighten them.

But the reductions achieved so far have given regulators confidence that the pollution rules they've created are working.

``We can finally see blue skies at the end of the tunnel,'' said Barry Wallerstein, executive director of the air district.

The district and its statewide counterpart, the Air Resources Board, have created a host of rules over the years mandating reformulated gasoline, cleaner-burning motor vehicles and industrial facilities and water-based paints and solvents, among other things.

Their rules have been the strictest in the country, and have led to the Los Angeles area giving up the title of the nation's smoggiest city to Houston for the last two years. But both cities' ozone levels remain far ahead of the rest of the country.

``Number 1 or Number 2, we still have a lot work to do,'' said Todd Campbell, policy director for the Clean Air Coalition, a Los Angeles-based environmental group.

He said that point was emphasized by a recent study in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine that found the lungs of children grow more slowly in smoggy areas.

Campbell said regulators need to do more to cut down on cancer-causing pollutants such as the particulates or soot expelled by diesel engines. The Air Resources Board classified diesel exhaust as a toxic air contaminant in 1998.

Diesel vehicles have been a recent focus of the state board, which may soon set rules requiring exhaust-cleaning retrofits.

The air basin's road to meeting federal goals will get rockier if the U.S. Supreme Court rules in favor of tighter EPA standards for ozone and particulates, said Jesson.

Other cities could meet the potential new particulate standards by copying dust-control measures the basin already has in place, he said. But the South Coast air basin's 15 million residents and its mountains trapping pollution blowing inland from ocean breezes makes the job there tougher.

``The South Coast would have many years of formidable effort ahead before they could claim victory,'' Jesson said.

---

Poachers kill elephant in India

InfoBeat News
Morning Coffee Edition - 1/2/2001
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=3bkq0fo36jcg7

LUCKNOW (AP) - Ivory poachers killed an elephant in an Indian wildlife reserve but were driven off by furious villagers and forest guards before they could remove the elephant's tusks, officials said Monday. The carcass of the poisoned elephant was found Sunday in Corbett National Park, home to nearly 600 elephants - 100 of them with tusks, said Puran Chandra Joshi, field director of the park. Angry villagers and forest guards drove off the poachers, Joshi said. The elephant was the second killed by poachers in a week in the park in the Himalayan foothills. On Friday, the mutilated body of an elephant with its tusks removed as discovered in the park. Established in 1936 as India's first national park, the wildlife reserve 160 miles northeast of New Delhi is named after author and conservationist Jim Corbett. As ivory prices soar in the international market, poachers are preying on lone and aging elephants in the reserve's dense forests, Joshi said.

-------- police

Public Lives: Looking for a Line the Police Shouldn't Cross

New York Times
January 2, 2001
By JANE GROSS
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/02/nyregion/02PROF.html?pagewanted=all

SHE has nothing against polls, says Carroll Seron, a professor of legal sociology at the School of Public Affairs at Baruch College, except that they often tell a tale scrubbed bare of nuance.

Take the drumbeat of inquiries about police brutality in the wake of the station house torture of Abner Louima in 1997 and the shooting of Amadou Diallo 18 months later. The polls, in one form or another, asked New Yorkers if they had ever experienced or observed overzealous police behavior. The findings showed that members of minority groups were most likely to say yes.

"But what we don't know is what somebody means by that," said Professor Seron, who is undertaking a major study of what New Yorkers of different race and ethnicity see as the threshold for police brutality. "Are you tweaked faster than I am? You don't know what I'm imagining and I don't know what you're imagining. What I hope to be able to paint is shades more subtle than the polling gets at - to put some flesh on it."

Professor Seron's latest study, instigated by William F. Kuntz II, an African-American lawyer and a commissioner on the Civilian Complaint Review Board, is one in a series of projects that have taken her out of the ivory tower and into the grittier criminal justice world.

Her signature work, in 1997, was a study of race and gender bias toward judges, lawyers and other employees in the federal courts of the Second Circuit. She has also studied part-time and flexible work schedules among lawyers and the effects of legal advertising on small firms and solo practitioners.

But the current project is the most politically charged of Professor Seron's career. Mr. Kuntz, one of 13 members of the review board, an independent city agency that investigates civilian complaints of police abuse, said he approached her three years ago, before the Louima or Diallo incidents, because he trusted Baruch's School of Public Affairs, his father's alma mater, for "impartiality and good judgment." At the time, Professor Seron was acting dean.

"If you go to Amnesty International or the A.C.L.U., you're going to get one sort of result," said Mr. Kuntz, a partner at the law firm of Seward & Kissel and a review board commissioner since 1987. "If you go to John Jay, the Vera Institute, the city or the National Institute of Justice, you'll get another. If it's not precooked, at least it's prechewed. So let's get somebody who will address the problem in a calm, rational, social science kind of way."

That is Professor Seron's forte, honed as she earned her Ph.D. in sociology at New York University and a postdoctoral degree in law from Yale University. She then spiced her résumé with a judicial fellowship at the United States Supreme Court and a stint as research associate at the Federal Judicial Center in Washington.

THAT is not to say that Professor Seron, 52 and a member of the Baruch faculty since 1986, is without a social conscience. She is the eldest of three daughters, raised in Beverly Hills, Calif., by transplanted New Yorkers, and purposefully exposed to life outside the lush enclave of Benedict Canyon.

Her father was in the shoe business. Her mother, now 81, was not one to take prosperity for granted and was active in both the antinuclear and antiwar movements. Professor Seron imitated her mother's engagement: While in high school she registered voters in Watts, and during her undergraduate years at the University of California at Santa Cruz she did field work in South Carolina.

It is not social conscience, however, that will drive the new study. Rather, it is a challenging methodology that Professor Seron has never used before - a technique involving vignettes that was developed by Peter Rossi, a professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

The vignettes, 17 in all, each of them five or six sentences long, will be generated by computer using scrambled details from complaints that have been filed with the review board. In bilingual telephone interviews, each expected to last about 25 minutes, 1,200 New Yorkers will provide background information about themselves (age, income, race, neighborhood, political attitudes and last encounter with the police) and then listen to the vignettes, which will be tested first in focus groups and vetted for authenticity by the police.

After each vignette, the respondents will be asked two questions. On a scale of 1 to 7, do you think the officers' behavior crossed the line from aggressive policing to abuse? And, on the same scale, do you think the sanction - the loss of, say, three days' vacation, or two days' pay - was adequate? Professor Seron has yet to decide whether to add a third question: If this happened to you, would you file a complaint?

Her goals are to find out whether a respondent believes that the officer in a vignette abused authority, used offensive language, behaved discourteously or applied undue force, and more importantly, exactly "what in the story convinces someone that it's over the top." In other words, how does each person define a vulgarity or brutal act? Do people of different races draw different lines? Or is there a consensus?

"The question is simple, but the answer is complicated," said Mr. Kuntz, adding that police behavior in nonwhite communities is New York City's "third-rail issue" in the waning months of the Giuliani administration, "the big black dog in the middle of the room."

---

N.H. lawmaker advocates killing police

USA Today
01/02/01- Updated 07:06 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/ndstue05.htm

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - A newly elected Republican state lawmaker has enraged his constituents, party leaders and police by saying he favors killing police officers when they cross the line. One police chief calls him ''a hate-mongering lunatic.''

Tom Alciere, 41, won a seat in the New Hampshire House on his fourth try after a low-key campaign last fall. It wasn't until Sunday that his constituents in Nashua learned of his anti-police views.

Alciere told the Valley News of Lebanon that he loves it when someone kills a police officer: ''It's unfortunate that cops do make it necessary (to kill them) when they're waging a war on drugs, and I view cops as enemy officers.'' He said he is ''too chicken'' to do it himself.

He acknowledges posting his views at Internet chat sites for months, including this 1999 comment: ''Nobody will ever be safe until the last cop is dead.''

State GOP Chairman Steve Duprey said Alciere should renounce his views or resign. But Alciere stood his ground.

''There's no way I'm going to resign,'' he said Tuesday.

Alciere, a married father of one who inspects circuit boards at a factory, said he was arrested for ''petty stuff'' years ago but never went to jail and has no criminal record. He said his anti-police comments are the ''harmless rantings of a private citizen'' that won't influence his legislative work.

''I'm rather embarrassed I voted for this guy,'' said Larry Lesieur, who voted a straight Republican ticket. ''This guy is kooky. I think he definitely misled voters by not revealing these things. In the next election, I'm pretty sure he ain't going to make it.''

New Hampshire has no procedure for recalling state representatives, and legislators said they expect Alciere to serve.

''As despicable as the ideas are, the complaints against him are for his ideas,'' said Peter Burling, the House Democratic leader.

The New Hampshire House is the largest state legislative body in the country and many campaigns don't get much media attention. Alciere admits he didn't advertise his views during his campaign, but denies misleading anyone.

''Nobody asked,'' he said. ''For state representative, you don't have to tell where you stand on the issues.''

He said when police cross the line, citizens have the right to use force to defend themselves: ''Whatever is necessary is necessary. It sounds kind of harsh.''

He is taking plenty of heat. Newmarket police Chief Rodney Collins called Alciere ''a hate-mongering lunatic,'' and Gov. Jeanne Shaheen is among state leaders to denounce him.

Nashua Deputy Police Chief Timothy Hefferan said supervisors warn officers to be careful if they get a call to Alciere's apartment building. He said police usually stay out of politics, but ''I think we'll have to revisit that policy just to enlighten people.''

Alciere's views got some publicity when he wrote letters to newspapers.

In 1997, three days after Carl Drega killed two state troopers, a part-time judge and a newspaper editor in Colebrook, Alciere sent a letter saying that except for the editor, Drega was ''an otherwise innocent cop-killer taking out enemy officers in battle.''

The letter was never published, but became part of the investigation.

A short time later, Epsom police officer Jeremy Charron was murdered. Alciere defended Charron's killer, Gordon Perry, because he said Charron had no right to ask Perry and a companion for identification while they slept in their car.

Alciere said his anger stems from reading and watching television about police misconduct, and his belief that many of the laws the police enforce are unjust.

But during his campaign, he promised simply to oppose any bills that infringe on freedom, and defeated a Democratic incumbent by 55 votes. In his previous runs for the seat, Alciere ran twice as a Libertarian and once as a Democrat.

After the election, Alciere went online and said he was elected by a ''bunch of fat, stupid, ugly old ladies that watch soap operas, play bingo, read tabloids and don't know the metric system.''

''The same lamebrains who vote for politicians who are WRONG finally voted for one who is RIGHT,'' he wrote.

---

TRENTON: CALL TO SPEED PROFILING BILLS

New York Times
January 2, 2001
Metro News Briefs
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/02/nyregion/02MBRF.html?pagewanted=all

Following calls for action on legislative proposals to ban racial profiling by the police, the State Senate president, Donald T. DiFrancesco, has asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to speed its review. One of the bills would prohibit officers from using race or skin color to decide which cars to stop, even in conjunction with other factors. Another would create a civilian review board for complaints against state troopers. "We were way out front with some stark admissions, but now we lag with respect to addressing the problems," said Assemblyman LeRoy J. Jones Jr., above, an East Orange Democrat and a member of the Legislature's Black and Latino Caucus. (AP)

---

USA Today
States
01/01/02
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Georgia

Rome - A federal lawsuit filed against outgoing Gordon County Sheriff Sid Roberts and his staff claims guards coerced female inmates into performing sexual acts. The suit claims that female inmates performed striptease shows and had sex with guards and male inmates in exchange for telephone calls and other favors from 1996 through 1999.

Kentucky

Lexington - Police say a departmental reorganization led to the city's lowest homicide rate since 1993 and an overall decrease in crime. Eleven murders were reported in 2000, down from 25 in 1999 and 22 in 1998. The police force divided the city into three patrol zones in 2000, making officers more directly responsible for safety in those sectors.

Maine

Bangor - Gun owners have been quick to respond to an offer by police agencies to provide free trigger locks. At least 2,500 locks were being distributed through several county and municipal police departments on a first come, first served basis. They were provided by the Maine Citizens Against Handgun Violence Foundation.

Massachusetts

Boston - The state's new racial profiling law won't kick in until April 1. The law's backers sought a three-month extension to allow police and state officials to devise uniform training standards and regulations. The Registry of Motor Vehicles will also use the added time to complete a traffic citation form that conforms with the law.

Michigan

Lansing - A new state law meant to encourage young parents to turn over unwanted newborns to hospitals or police stations rather than abandoning them went into effect. A parent won't be criminally charged unless there are indications of an accompanying crime, such as child abuse. The infant must be less than 3 days old.

-------- terrorism

Embassy terrorism trial opens

InfoBeat News
Afternoon Edition - 1/4/2001
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=c6oj7ah1jglmg

NEW YORK (AP) - Nearly 2 1/2 years after the deadly bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa, the trial of four alleged followers of terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden has begun, draped in secrecy and security. Shackled at the ankles, the defendants shuffled into the courtroom one by one on Wednesday and were introduced to 26 potential jurors as relatives of the victims watched closely. Two of the suspects could face the death penalty if convicted. "I want to see what they look like. I want to look into their faces, into their eyes," Sue Bartley said of the accused. Bartley's husband and son were killed in the Aug. 7, 1998, bombing at the embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. Julian Leotis Bartley Sr., the embassy's U.S. consul general, was the most senior U.S. diplomat killed in the bombings. His son, Julian Jr., worked at the embassy. The twin bombings in Nairobi and Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, killed 224 people, including 12 Americans. Thousands more were injured. The bombings were allegedly carried out to fulfill the commands of bin Laden, an exiled Saudi millionaire who is accused in an indictment of ordering Americans killed wherever they are found.

-------- activists

Police State Uncovered

From: Adam Eidinger <aeidinger@yahoo.com>

Dear Friends and Family,

I know I must seem obsessed with activism and politics, but the truth is I love it because it's very entertaining. I had a big laugh last week that I think you will funny as well. Check out the story of an uncovered cop at www.sinkers.org. It's a little dragnet we pulled off here in the Capitol Colony.

See you at the Inaugurauction (www.j20.org)
Onwards,
Adam E.

---

Quebec 2001: Consulta - January 27-28

From: Doug Hunt <dhunt@neerucc.net>
Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2000 17:50:24 -0500
Benmalone@aol.com wrote:

Dear Activists,

I wanted to share with you some information about the organizing going on to resist the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA). I hope that this information is useful to you. I'm hoping that we can organize large caravans to Quebec for this important demonstration.

Peace and Revolution,

Ben

Resist the Summit of the Americas and the FTAA --

a CONSULTA on anti-capitalist actions against the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City (April 2001) and beyond ...

WHEN: January 27-28, 2001
WHERE: Quebec City

WHO: YOU! ... organizers and representatives of groups and collectives opposing the FTAA, the Summit of the Americas and capitalist globalization -- from Quebec, Ontario, the Maritimes, Canada, the Northeastern USA and elsewhere ...

HOSTS: The Summit of the Americas Welcoming Committee/Le Comité d'Accueil du Sommet des Amériques (CASA) -- Quebec City AND The Anti-Capitalist Convergence/La Convergence des luttes anti-capitalistes (CLAC) -- Montreal

FOR MORE INFO OR TO GET IN TOUCH: casa_clac_consulta@hotmail.com

Next April 20-22, 2001, Quebec City has the dubious honor of hosting the Summit of the Americas, which brings together the 34 heads of state of North, South and Central America, as well as the Caribbean (except Cuba). In the context of the largest police and security operation in Canadian history, the Summit aims to talk about security and terrorism, and utter empty rhetoric about democracy and human rights. One major goal of the Summit is to put the final touches on the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) agreement.

In anticipation of the mobilizations against April's Summit, two anti-capitalist, anti-authoritarian groups based in Quebec City and Montreal are proposing a face-to-face consulta (consultation). The consulta will take place in Quebec City on January 27 and 28, and we are inviting groups and individuals who are in basic agreement with the principles of the Summit of the Americas Welcoming Committee (CASA) and the Anti-Capitalist Convergence (CLAC) (attached below).

There are several components to the consulta:

· sharing basic information about the FTAA, the Summit of the Americas as well as the local situation in Quebec City;

· providing an "activist tour" of Quebec City for out-of-towners;

· discussing and debating action strategies (in Quebec City and elsewhere) against the Summit of the Americas next April 20-22;

· coordinating strategies;

· discussing how to strengthen anti-capitalist, anti-authoritarian networks of resistance;

· getting to know each other and sharing our experiences of resistance and revolt.

For the hosts -- CASA and CLAC -- the consulta allows us to better prepare for the major mobilizations next April, as well as to help lay the groundwork for ongoing anti-capitalist actions beyond April.

For attendees, we hope to provide you with solid information that will be useful to your own local mobilizing efforts (whether you plan on coming to Quebec City or not), as well as to get acquainted with Quebec-based organizers and activists. The consulta is being held in late-January to provide an almost three-month window to mobilize for Quebec City in April.

CASA and CLAC will be able to offer basic housing (with local activists) to people coming from out-of-town. We will also endeavor to provide cheap meals during the consulta. We ask that you pay your own way to get to Quebec City, and donate what you can towards expenses while here.

CASA and CLAC are trying to ensure broad participation of anti-capitalist, anti-authoritarian organizers, especially from marginalized communities. We will try to subsidize such participants as much as our budget will permit. We ask for your help in ensuring a representative turnout, either by sharing rides, or with donations if you can spare the cash. Also, please share info about the consulta with other radical, anti-capitalist networks that might not otherwise see this e-mail.

The entire consulta will be accessible to both English and French speakers. There will also be Spanish translation on request, and childcare if needed.

If you are planning on attending the consulta, or to get more information, please e-mail casa_clac_consulta@hotmail.com. Please specify how many people are coming from your area.

More information about the consulta, including the full agenda, and instructions about how to get to Quebec City, will be posted soon.

"It didn't start in Seattle ... and it sure as hell isn't going to stop with Quebec."

casa_clac_consulta@hotmail.com


Summit of the Americas Welcoming Committee (CASA) -- Québec City (CASA : le Comité d'Accueil du Sommet des Amériques)

GOALS AND PRINCIPLES (unofficial translation from the French)

Next April 2001, 34 heads of state will be meeting in Quebec City with the goal of creating a free-trade zone that will extend from one end of the Americas to the other -- the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Accelerating both social and ecological degradation -- these leaders aim to extend the reach of capitalism, subjecting our lives to the domination of the commodity economy. In the face of this systematic dispossession of our political power, resistance is essential. This April 2001, a "welcoming committee" will be will waiting for them.

In the absence of a grassroots, radical and anti-capitalist opposition to the Summit of the Americas and the FTAA in Quebec City, we propose the creation of the Summit of the Americas Welcoming Committee (CASA). This coalition of individuals, much like the CLAC (The Anti-Capitalist Convergence in Montreal), comes together on the following principles:

-- Anti-Capitalist

In opposition to the growing tentacles of capitalist globalization, the Summit of the Americas Welcoming Committee (CASA) aims to create an anti-capitalist platform for discussion and action. No matter what form it has taken in history (liberal, statist, mercantile, neo-liberal, or even "with a human face") capitalism has always been about the domination of commodities over individuals. Following the logic of profits, the capitalist system monopolizes all social space, reducing human beings to simply producers/consumers, much like the environment becomes only a multitude of resources ready for exploitation.

-- Anti-Patriarchy

From its origins, the capitalist system was founded on patriarchal domination. Social relationships have been interwoven by this centuries-old ideology that affects all aspects of our lives. This ideological system creates a global system of masculine-based tyranny. When even the existence of the ideology and practice of feminism is more and more put into question, we reaffirm that only a full understanding of structural oppression will allow us to envisage a society that is radically equal.

-- Refusal of Hierarchy

It's clear that that such a project, radically equal, can only come about in the absence of hierarchical dynamics. We don't just denounce all forms of servitude and exploitation of individuals, groups and peoples, but we believe in putting into practice this basic principle within resistance groups themselves and in our day-to-day activities. Hence, CASA offers a radical opposition to the Summit of the Americas and similar processes by organizing in an anti-authoritarian manner. Bringing together individuals, the Welcoming Committee is structured around a democratic, open and decisional general assembly. Anyone in accord with the values and principles of CASA are urged to actively participate in accord with their respective affinities.

-- Autonomy

Aiming to create as many links as possible, with the goal of strengthening networks of resistance, CASA is autonomous of all forms of authority (parties, unions, etc.). We refuse to organize our actions in view of its eventual mass media impact, which we consider to be a form of disempowerment and subjection.

-- Non-reformist

It is within the perspective of a radical transformation of society that CASA adopts a confrontational attitude and rejects reformist alternatives such as lobbying within the framework of negotiations of free trade accords. We regard these strategies as not being able to have a positive impact, and we exclude use of these types of anti-democratic processes.

-- Diversity of Tactics

Respecting a diversity of tactics, CASA supports the use of a variety of creative initiatives, ranging from popular education to direct action.

In supporting these principles, the Summit of the Americas Welcoming Committee aims to build a radical and resolute opposition to capitalism, and to its lackeys who will be meeting in Quebec City to negotiate the FTAA. The Summit of the Americas will be held in the middle of a Carnival of Resistance that will converge various social movements, and in which CASA intends to play an active role. While waiting to see capitalism crushed by the blows of a new revolutionary movement, CASA intends to derail the FTAA and unhinge the power of the leaders of the Americas. Anyone in agreement with these principles, and who wish to prepare a "warm and thoughtful welcoming," are encouraged to get involved.

temporary e-mail: la_casa2001@hotmail.com

The Anti-Capitalist Convergence (CLAC) -- Montreal (CLAC: La Convergence des luttes anti-capitalistes) BASIS OF UNITY (translation from the French)

1. The Anti-Capitalist Convergence (CLAC in French) is opposed to capitalism. We fundamentally reject a social and economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and exchange. We reject a system driven by an exploitative logic that sees human beings as human capital, ecosystems as natural resources, and culture as simply a commodity. We reject the idea that the world is only valuable in terms of profit, competition and efficiency.

2. The CLAC also rejects the ideology of neo-liberalism, whereby corporations and investors are exempt from all political and social measures that interfere with their so-called "success".

3. The CLAC is anti-imperialist, opposed to patriarchy, and denounces all forms of exploitation and oppression. We assert a worldview based on the respect of our differences and the autonomy of groups, individuals and peoples. Our objective is to globalize our networks of resistance to corporate rule.

4. Respecting a diversity of tactics, the CLAC supports the use of a variety of creative initiatives, ranging between popular education to direct action.

5. The CLAC is autonomous, decentralized and non-hierarchical. We encourage the involvement of anyone who accepts this statement of principles. We also encourage the participation of all individuals in working groups, in accord with their respective political affiliations.

6. With regards to the Summit of the Americas (April 2001) and the negotiations of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), the CLAC adopts a confrontational attitude and rejects reformist alternatives such as lobbying which cannot have a major impact on anti-democratic processes. We intend to shut down the Summit of the Americas and to turn the FTAA negotiations into a non-event.

e-mail: clac@tao.ca web: http://www.quebec2001.net tel: +1 514 526-8946 post: 2035, St-Laurent Boulevard, 2nd floor Montreal, Quebec H2X 2T3 CANADA

------

Falun Gong members charged in Singapore

USA Today
01/02/01- Updated 11:00 AM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/world/nwstue06.htm

SINGAPORE (AP) - A Singapore court on Tuesday charged 15 followers of the Falun Gong spiritual movement who were arrested after staging an unauthorized vigil in memory of fellow believers they say died in police custody in China.

The 15 - nine men and six women - were led into a Singapore courtroom in handcuffs to hear the formal charges. Most wore a bright yellow T-shirt that read: ''The great law of Fa Lun: truthfulness, benevolence, tolerance.''

The charges - obstructing a police officer and illegal assembly - were read to each defendant in English and translated into Mandarin through an interpreter.

After their arrest on New Year's Eve, the detainees refused to post bail, saying they did nothing wrong.

But by the time the court hearing ended late Tuesday, they were in the process of posting $1,150 bail each, Subordinate Court bail administrator Raymond Loh told The Associated Press by telephone.

Falun Gong member Ng Wee Keong said the accused were all ''fellow practitioners'' of the spiritual movement. He declined to comment further.

Police detained the 15 members just before midnight Sunday after a three-hour standoff involving about 80 Falun Gong members in a Singapore park. The sect, though legal in Singapore, has been banned in China and has been targeted by a crackdown there over the past 18 months.

The Falun Gong members, mostly women and children, had gathered around two makeshift cardboard memorials pasted with pictures and names of the alleged victims in China. Demonstrations and protests are rare in tightly controlled Singapore, where permits are required for any public gatherings.

Most of the detained Falun Gong members in Singapore are Chinese nationals, not Singaporeans, according to a court document.

At least two dozen police cordoned off the area and demanded that the Falun Gong followers hand over the memorials. They refused, at one point locking arms to prevent police from detaining members, a police statement said.

The crime of obstructing a policeman carries a maximum jail sentence of three months and a maximum fine of $285. The unlawful assembly charge also carries a maximum three-month jail term, and a maximum fine of $2,850.

The meditation sect has attracted millions of members in China and throughout the world. Beijing, fearing Falun Gong's popularity and its threat to Communist Party rule, has banned the group and sent thousands of members to prison and labor camps.

Human rights groups say at least 92 have died in detention since the government banned the sect in July 1999, including four who were reported dead Tuesday by the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Beijing.

Chinese officials routinely decline to discuss individual reports of police abuse and deny that any followers have died from mistreatment.

------- Onelist (submissions from subscribers)