------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
Australia regrets missile test
India and Pakistan Warned by China
NATO: URANIUM WEAPONS
U.N. Uranium Alert
Russia Destroyer Delivered to China
Rules for Living With North Korea
Compaq, nuclear lab teaming on supercomputer
Los Alamos Lab Employees Won't Be Indicted in Security Lapse
F.B.I. Ends an Inquiry at Los Alamos
A long and costly reactor deactivation

MILITARY
U.N. says Iraq is wasting medical aid
Marines Fire Commander of Ospreys
Cohen Says No Negligence in Cole Bombing
Officer Admits Osprey Falsifying
Marine Unit Raided in Criminal Inquiry on Troubled Craft
Cheney Promises Improved Armed Forces

OTHER
Human Genome Project Director Peers Into the Future
FDA: 'Mad Deer' Not Risk to Humans
Dioxin Makes the List of Known Carcinogens
France To Nix Africa Nations' Debts
Deutch May Plead Guilty to Misdemeanor, Avoid Prison Time
Deutch May Plead Guilty

ACTIVISTS
Demonstrators, Police Go to Court
Inaugural Protesters United by Tech


-------- NUCLEAR

Australia regrets missile test

Friday, January 19, 2001
The Hindu
By Amit Baruah
http://www.indiaserver.com/thehindu/2001/01/19/stories/01190003.htm

SINGAPORE, JAN. 18. Australia, which led the charge against India for the May 1998 nuclear tests, said today that the Agni-II missile test would not have an impact on the restoration of bilateral defence relations.

The Australian Foreign Minister, Mr. Alexander Downer, made it clear in Canberra that his country's military adviser would return as scheduled to New Delhi, but regretted the test.

Soon after the Indian nuclear tests, Australia had withdrawn its military adviser and sent Indian defence officials home as well apart from snapping all military-to-military links between the two countries. Earlier this year, the Australian Prime Minister, Mr. John Howard, visited New Delhi, to cap a process of returning relations with India to normal.

On Agni-II test, the Foreign Minister was quoted as saying: ``The actual timing of it we didn't accept, but the fact is they have already done one of these tests of a missile called Agni-II, so this is part of a general programme that both they (the Indians) and Pakistan have been pursuing.''

Stating that there were no plans to resume defence links with Pakistan, the Foreign Minister said: ``There aren't in the case of Pakistan because one of the other issues in Pakistan is the overthrow of democracy.''

Japan critical, China cautious

PTI reports from Tokyo:

A day after the missile was test-fired successfully, the Japanese Government issued a statement saying it was `strongly concerned' about the launch of Agni II. The missile launch ``might hamper the moves towards easing of tensions in South Asia and intensify the nuclear arms and missile development race in the region,'' Japan said.

In Beijing, the Foreign Ministry said China hoped to see peace and stability and was unwilling to see any form of arms race in the region. Mr. Zhu Bangzao, a spokesman of the Ministry, said in that ``China, together with the international community, hopes to see peace and stability in the region. We are unwilling to see any form of arms race in the region.''

---

India and Pakistan Warned by China

Friday, January 19, 2001
International Herald Tribune
Reuters
http://www.iht.com/articles/8029.htm

BEIJING China warned India and Pakistan on Thursday against entering into an arms race, but avoided direct criticism of New Delhi's latest test of its intermediate-range Agni ballistic missile.

"China, like most members of the international community, hopes that South Asia can maintain peace and stability and does not wish to see any form of arms race in the region," said a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Zhu Bangzao.

Asked about India's test on Wednesday of a missile that experts said could carry nuclear warheads and strike China and Pakistan, he said China had taken note.

-------- depleted uranium

NATO: URANIUM WEAPONS

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/19/world/19BRIE.html

Trying to calm the furor in Europe about radioactivity in depleted uranium weapons, NATO said possible traces of highly radioactive elements such as plutonium and americium were not relevant to soldiers' health because of their minute quantities. But Germany's defense minister ordered a German laboratory to search for plutonium in weapon samples from Kosovo. He also summoned the American chargé d'affaires, requesting more information. Marlise Simons (NYT)

---------

U.N. Uranium Alert

January 19, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/19/opinion/L19KOS.html

To the Editor:

Re "Uranium Furor in Balkans: Where Is the U.N.?" (letter, Jan. 18):

Contrary to a complaint from a former United Nations official in the Balkans, the United Nations has warned its current and former staff of the possible health hazards that are related to depleted uranium ammunition used in mission areas like Kosovo.

We first assured the population of Kosovo that any citizen could be screened medically for exposure.

On Wednesday of this week, we made the same offer to our current and former staff members. Full details can be found on our Web site (www.un.org).

SHASHI THAROOR Director of Communications and Special Projects, Office of the Secretary General, U.N. New York, Jan. 18, 2001

-------- russia

Russia Destroyer Delivered to China

January 19, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Taiwan-China-Destroyer.html

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) -- A new Russian-built destroyer has been delivered to China, Taiwanese officials said Friday, part of a naval buildup that could threaten Taiwan and the United States.

The Sovremenny-class guided-missile destroyer cruised through the Taiwan Strait last week on its way to a naval base in Qingdao in northeast China, the Taipei Times quoted Defense Minister Wu Shih-wen as saying. Wu did not provide further details, the English-language daily said.

A defense ministry spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the ship, built in St. Petersburg, Russia, passed through the Taiwan Strait, but he would not elaborate.

The Sovremenny-class destroyer was the second of two China ordered from Russia in 1997 in a $1 billion deal. The first ship was delivered a year ago.

The destroyers, the largest and most powerful in the Chinese fleet, pose a considerable threat to Taiwan's navy, which can't match them.

The 8,000-ton ships could also intercept U.S. warships based on the nearby Japanese island of Okinawa that could come to protect Taiwan if China attacks, Taiwanese officials have said.

China and Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949, and Beijing has threatened to attack the island if it seeks formal independence.

Armed with nuclear-capable Sunburn missiles, the Sovremenny-class destroyers are part of a major buildup of the East China Sea fleet in the past three years.

Cash-starved Russia has become one of China's biggest suppliers of arms, while Taiwan relies on the United States.

Although Taiwan and America do not have a military alliance, Washington is bound by the Taiwan Relations Act to sell the island weapons sufficient for its defense.

But in recent years, the United States has declined or deferred the island's requests for submarines and destroyers, fearing the sales would provoke China and spark an arms race. The United States is expected to announce a decision about Taiwan's latest arms requests in March or April.

Taiwanese defense officials have said they are interested in purchasing four Kidd-class destroyers, decommissioned by the U.S. Navy. The vessels were once among the most powerful combat and anti-submarine warships used by the Navy.

The warships are fitted with guided missiles and air-defense radar that allows them to command a wide swath of the ocean, and they were designed to handle simultaneous air, surface, and submarine attacks.

-------- korea

Rules for Living With North Korea

Friday, January 19, 2001
International Herald Tribune
Han Sung Joo
http://www.iht.com/cgi-bin/generic.cgi?template=articleprint.tmplh&ArticleId=7994

SEOUL As the administration of George W. Bush formulates its Korea policies, there are three key areas to consider. The first is whether to support the "sunshine policy" of South Korea's President Kim Dae Jung in seeking better relations with North Korea. The second is what to do about the North's nuclear and missile threats. Finally, Washington has to gauge how fast and how extensively it should improve relations with Pyongyang.

There have been expressions of concern from Seoul that the sunshine policy could be impeded by the change in U.S. administrations. But there is no reason why Washington should not continue to support a South Korean policy seeking greater openness and reconciliation with the North.

The only legitimate concern for America, given its role in safeguarding the Korean Peninsula, is that the operational capability of its military forces should not be compromised as a result of exaggerated South Korean expectations from the reconciliation efforts.

The Bush administration's agenda on the North Korean nuclear issue may not be identical to South Korea's. Many of those joining the new administration, for example, have been critical of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization. It was established to provide two light-water reactors for generating electricity in exchange for a halt to North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

The critics may even be tempted to seek a revision of the 1994 Geneva Agreed Framework that sealed the deal between Washington and Pyongyang. But this would risk not only precipitating a new crisis but also resumption of North Korea's nuclear activities. In the absence of a new formula and the means to apply it, sticking with the existing agreement serves the interests of both the United States and South Korea.

The missile issue presents a different dilemma. In missiles, North Korea is bound by neither an international regime, such as the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, nor an agreement such as the Geneva Agreed Framework for nuclear weapons. And any accord on this subject will require North Korea to refrain from further development of missiles and to cut back its present arsenal. The Clinton administration appeared to be making some headway in its negotiations with Pyongyang. The Bush administration should pick up in earnest where its predecessor left off.

Left untended, North Korean missiles will pose a military threat to other countries and chill the process of easing tensions on the peninsula. And Pyongyang's missile program could precipitate an arms race in Northeast Asia and spread such weapons globally. The Bush administration should deal with the missile issue regardless of whether it decides to proceed with deployment of a missile defense shield.

The United States should be able to negotiate on missiles with North Korea without necessarily hastening diplomatic normalization. If a visit by Bill Clinton and subsequent normalization were Pyongyang's price for a missile deal, as seemed to be the case, such a deal could not have been serious or lasting. For any agreement to last, North Korea would need a continuing interest to implement it.

This is not to say that Washington should abandon "engagement" with Pyongyang, a policy of ending enmity and expanding relations. It is in the U.S. interest to make North Korea increasingly more dependent on the outside world for its development and even survival. So the Bush administration should take advantage of the situation when North Korea, at least for the moment, appears eager to expand external relationships and seek assistance from the outside world.

In making its North Korea policy, the administration should use deliberate speed and do it in full and close consultation with its allies, particularly South Korea and Japan. There is no need to rush into a major policy shift.

Despite the end of the Cold War and the opening of inter Korean dialogue, U.S. strategic goals on the peninsula remain unchanged. U.S. interests include maintaining peace and stability on the peninsula, preventing further proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery, removing any possible threat to America and its allies, and providing checks and balances among the major powers.

The success of the Bush administration's policy will depend on how well it can keep North Korea engaged even while keeping its threatening behavior in check.

The writer, a professor of political science at Korea University and a former foreign minister, contributed this comment to the International Herald Tribune.

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

-------- california

Compaq, nuclear lab teaming on supercomputer

January 19, 2001
By STEPHEN SHANKLAND AND ERICH LUENING,
CNET NEWS.COM
http://www.nytimes.com/cnet/CNET_0_4_4534657_00.html

Compaq Computer is teaming with nuclear research facility Sandia National Laboratories and biotechnology company Celera Genomics to build what is anticipated to be one of the fastest supercomputers in the world.

The deal, announced Friday at a Department of Energy news conference in Washington, will result in a computer that can perform 100 trillion calculations per second--100 "teraflops"--by 2004, Bill Blake, vice president of high-performance technical computing at Compaq, said in an interview. A second phase, which will be open to other bidders besides Compaq, will result in a "petaflop" machine 10 times faster, the same speed as the Blue Gene machine under design at IBM.

The machine will benefit from computer hardware and software research from all three partners, Blake said. The computer will be used to extract medically useful information from raw databases of genetic information, but Sandia officials said the advances also will benefit the nation's nuclear weapons program.

The deal is one of a series of major contracts for Compaq, whose Unix computers using the Alpha chip are selling well with technical customers but not as well with commercial buyers who prefer computers from Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard and IBM.

Other major Compaq victories include a $36 million partnership with the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center to build a 2,728-CPU machine for academic use and ASCI Q, a $200 million nuclear weapons simulation machine with 12,000 CPUs to be built at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Compaq must reckon with competitor Sun, which is trying to convert its business success into supercomputer success, and IBM, which has jumped into the top spot in supercomputer popularity and speed rankings and has the current fastest machine, a $110 million, 8,192-CPU machine that can perform 12.3 teraflops, about one-eighth the projected speed of the upcoming Compaq machine.

Houston-based Compaq is also developing a supercomputer for the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, which is expected to be able to perform 30 trillion operations per second once delivered in 2002.

Rockville, Md.-based Celera for years competed with the federally funded Human Genome Project to compile a map of human genetic information. The two efforts joined forces at the last minute, and now Celera and other companies are trying to benefit from the research.

The new supercomputer will help in further genomics research and the study of the structure, function and interactions of proteins in the cells of humans and other organisms, according to a joint press release.

Celera will provide applications that life science researchers can use in their work, such as further mapping of the human genome and other biological research.

Although terms of the agreement were not disclosed, the three companies plan to spend millions of dollars, employ hundreds of workers, and develop new technology as part of the effort, scheduled to be completed in 2004.

At the press conference Friday, government officials, researchers and industry executives hailed the supercomputer as the next step in the Human Genome Project.

With years of experience building computer models of nuclear explosions, Sandia will assist Celera in building software to analyze biological data.

The supercomputer will help "to advance the knowledge from the human genome to improve human health," said Sandia President Paul Robinson. "Nothing beats the complexity of the Human Genome Project and the opportunities ahead. We look forward to working in these fields."

For Compaq, the deal is an example of its ongoing push to add servers and other high-end computing products to its successful PC business.

"Compaq has been reforming itself into providing computer and Internet technology to a whole span of different fields," said Compaq Vice President Bill Blake. "Part of this move from the desktop to the supercomputer has been with these partners."

The new supercomputer likely will have 10,000 to 20,000 CPUs, Blake said. That number is sufficiently large that the system designers must grapple with reliability problems not seen in typical business machines, even those with a few dozen CPUs.

"You start out on the basis that something will always be broken in the system somewhere," Blake said. Then designers build monitoring and job scheduling features that make sure jobs are reassigned to functioning CPUs if one fails.

The Compaq machine will take advantage of future Compaq Alpha chip designs that build networking abilities straight into the chip itself, Blake said in the interview. This feature will allow more CPUs to communicate directly with each other or to route shared information along from one chip to another as fast as possible.

"We're optimizing a special form of network between all the Alphas," Blake said.

This architecture varies considerably from that used by IBM, which prefers to have a smaller number of nodes, each with multiple CPUs and connected to central high-speed switches.

-------- new mexico

Los Alamos Lab Employees Won't Be Indicted in Security Lapse

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 19, 2001 ; Page A09
http://washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A14394-2001Jan18?language=printer

After a seven-month FBI investigation, the government has decided not to file any criminal charges against employees at Los Alamos National Laboratory in connection with the temporary disappearance of two computer hard drives containing nuclear weapons secrets, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said yesterday.

The hard drives, each about the size of a pack of cigarettes, went missing for several weeks last spring from a vault at the weapons lab in New Mexico. Although they later were found behind a photocopier inside the lab, their temporary loss added to a political furor over security lapses.

Richardson and other senior officials have argued in recent months, however, that the crackdown on security -- including orders to give polygraph exams to thousands of scientists -- was in danger of going too far and harming the ability of employees to do their jobs. The end of the FBI investigation is a major step toward normalcy at Los Alamos.

Similarly, Richardson yesterday extended the Energy Department's contract with the University of California to operate the Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories for three years beyond the previous contract's ending date of Sept. 30, 2002.

Some members of Congress had criticized the university for failing to enforce security rules and had urged the Energy Department to put the contract up for competitive bidding. The university has run Los Alamos for more than 50 years, ever since the Manhattan Project led to the original atomic bomb.

"We're better off with a much improved University of California contract than with a defense contractor running the labs," Richardson argued yesterday in a telephone interview from Los Angeles. "We have put in new strong safeguards that give the energy secretary the right to take direct disciplinary actions where needed, and if it were not the university running the place, we would have a huge flight of scientists from there."

The hard drives, which were reported missing from Los Alamos on May 31, contain information that a rapid-response team could use to disarm a nuclear weapon in the event of an accident or terrorist threat.

Investigators have long suspected that one or more lab employees misplaced the drives and then, instead of admitting a mistake, placed them behind the photocopier.

At least four Los Alamos employees were subjects of the investigation, primarily because the FBI suspected they had told inaccurate stories or because they showed deception on polygraph tests and refused to testify before a grand jury, according to government sources.

Ultimately, however, the FBI "was unable to determine responsibility for the disappearance . . . and found no evidence that the classified information contained on the hard drives had been compromised," the Energy Department said in a statement.

--------

F.B.I. Ends an Inquiry at Los Alamos

By REUTERS
January 19, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/19/national/19ALAM.html

WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 (Reuters) - The F.B.I. has wrapped up its investigation into the disappearance of two computer hard drives containing nuclear secrets from the Los Alamos National Laboratory and plans no arrests or other action, the Energy Department said today.

"The F.B.I. investigation found no evidence of outside involvement in the disappearance of the hard drives at Los Alamos," Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said.

The Energy Department said the Federal Bureau of Investigation had been unable to determine responsibility for the June disappearance of the hard drives and found no evidence that the classified information they held had been compromised.

Mr. Richardson, who told Congress last year that the disappearance appeared to have been an accident, said the department would refer the matter to its Albuquerque office and the University of California, which operates the laboratory, for "any appropriate personnel action."

The university took disciplinary action last year against several managers and supervisors at the laboratory after the drives disappeared and were found behind a copy machine 11 days later.

The disappearance of the drives raised fresh concerns about the country's ability to safeguard its nuclear secrets after the arrest of Wen Ho Lee, a former Los Alamos scientist, on 59 counts of mishandling classified nuclear data.

Mr. Lee pleaded guilty last month to one count of downloading weapons design secrets to a nonsecure computer. The government dropped the remaining charges.

The disappearance of the hard drives led to demands for cancellation of the University of California's contract to run the United States' nuclear weapons laboratories.

But today, the university reached an agreement extending until 2005 its contract to manage the nation's nuclear laboratories, Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory near San Francisco. The government demanded changes to prevent future security lapses.

The agreement allows the government to financially penalize the university for safety or security violations at the laboratories and to order the removal, but not the firing, of any laboratory employee.

-------- washington

A long and costly reactor deactivation
5 years, $300 million are needed to close Hanford's FFTF

Friday, January 19, 2001
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
By LINDA ASHTON
http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/printer/

YAKIMA -- Deactivating Hanford Nuclear Reservation's Fast Flux Test Facility would take about five years and cost nearly $300 million.

The U.S. Department of Energy has spent a decade searching for a mission for the experimental reactor, built to test fuels for the old breeder-reactor project, but decided in November there was insufficient public and private support to restart it.

Outgoing Energy Secretary Bill Richardson is ordering it dismantled as one of his last acts in office. Whether the incoming Bush administration will let the order stand remains to be seen.

Though more than 20 years old, the sodium-cooled FFTF is the Department of Energy's newest reactor, large and versatile because it was designed to research advanced forms of nuclear fuel for breeder reactors, which produce as much or more plutonium fuel than they consume to generate energy.

FFTF manager Al Farabee is waiting for some official word.

The key step in deactivation is preparing the sodium-covered spent fuel at the reactor for storage, Farabee said yesterday. "Then we need some place to put it."

Of 376 total fuel assemblies, 126 are already cleaned for disposal. He has 30 nuclear fuel storage casks on site and needs 20 more, which will cost about $9 million.

"We need to step back and plan what we're going to do, based on current staff and staffing plans, and the budget we can reasonably expect to receive," he said.

While DOE assessed the pros and cons of shutting down the one-of-a-kind reactor, some environmental regulations have changed and some skilled staff members have gone on to other jobs, Farabee said.

Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., said he hopes to persuade President-elect George W. Bush's nominee for energy secretary, Spencer Abraham, to reverse the Richardson order.

"Reason and common sense have been cast aside in favor of a fatally flawed decision that ignores FFTF's real potential for producing lifesaving nuclear isotopes," Hastings said.

Amy Evans, director of Citizens for Medical Isotopes, a Tri-Cities organization eager to resurrect FFTF, said the reactor can make a variety of top-quality medical isotopes in quantities that can't be done anywhere else in the United States.

"It's there, available and capable of doing it," she said.

Evans believes as demand for medical isotopes grows, FFTF should be used to fulfill that need.

Physicians for Social Responsibility, an activist group of people in the medical field, disagrees.

"The FFTF is not necessary for producing medical isotopes, given the global market and the availability of isotopes nationwide," said Ruth Yarrow, a spokeswoman for the group's Washington chapter in Seattle, which opposed restarting the reactor.

Many isotopes are so short-lived that transporting them from remote Hanford would be impractical, she said.

"We've ... worked hard to defeat this proposal, which we feel takes away attention from the really important environmental and public health risk, which is the enormous amount of nuclear waste at Hanford," she said.

The Washington State Medical Association also adopted a resolution opposing a restart.

The FFTF was built in the 1970s as a test site for the federal breeder reactor program, which was scuttled in the 1980s as unnecessary to meet the nation's electricity demands.

Without a mission, the 400-megawatt FFTF was placed on standby in 1992 and maintained for a restart.

The maintenance costs about $40 million a year and takes a staff of 230 people.

In its environmental impact statement, DOE said expanded production would make more sense at one of the sites where it already makes radioisotopes, such as the High Flux Isotope Reactor at Oak Ridge, Tenn., or the Advanced Test Reactor at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory.


-------- MILITARY

-------- iraq

U.N. says Iraq is wasting medical aid

By Betsy Pisik
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
January 19, 2001
http://www.washtimes.com/world/default-2001119222932.htm

NEW YORK - Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is leaving hundreds of millions of dollars for health care and other urgent needs unspent at the same time he complains about the impact of sanctions, a U.N. official said.

The director of the world body's humanitarian program for Iraq expressed "grave concern" over the Baghdad government's failure to spend money allotted for medicines, water and sanitation.

Under humanitarian exemptions to the decade-old U.N. sanctions regime, Iraq is allowed to spend oil revenue on U.N.-approved contracts for humanitarian goods and services.

"I am gravely concerned . . . with regard to the unacceptable slow rate of submission of applications, in particular under the health, education, water and sanitation, as well the oil sectors," Benon Sevan wrote Wednesday in a letter to the chairman of the sanctions committee.

"Despite all the concerns expressed regarding the nutritional and health status of the Iraqi people," he said, the government had submitted health-sector contracts worth $84 million when it has more than $624 million to spend.

He did note approvingly that requests for food-related items had exceeded the $1.5 billion allocation, and those were approved by the sanctions committee "in a very timely manner."

U.N. officials have repeatedly noted that the overall heath crisis in Iraq is worsening each year, as malnutrition spreads.

As the situation becomes increasingly desperate, many Arab and European nations have urged the incoming Bush administration to lighten or lift the embargo.

A vocal minority within the United States opposes sanctions as well. Police arrested a dozen protesters outside the U.S. Mission to the United Nations on Tuesday.

Secretary of State-designate Colin Powell repeated during his confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill Wednesday that the sanctions should be "reinvigorated." Under U.N. resolutions, imposed after the August 1990 invasion of Kuwait, Iraq may not export oil or import any items that could, potentially, advance Iraq's suspected weapons programs.

The sanctions will not be lifted until the U.N. weapons inspectors are satisfied that Iraq is free of proscribed chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.


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

Marines Fire Commander of Ospreys

By Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 19, 2001
http://washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A14104-2001Jan18?language=printer

The Marine Corps yesterday fired the commander of its V-22 Osprey squadron after receiving allegations that he ordered subordinates to falsify aircraft maintenance records, a Marine spokesman said.

A package was sent to the Marine Corps last week containing an anonymous letter detailing the charges and an audiotape on which the commander, Lt. Col. Odin "Fred" Leberman, allegedly is heard telling members of his unit that they had to lie to help preserve the troubled V-22 program, officials said.

The V-22 Osprey, a new aircraft that takes off and lands like a helicopter but tilts its rotors forward to fly like an airplane, is at the center of a growing controversy over its checkered flying record and intensive maintenance needs. The fleet was grounded after the crash of a V-22 from Leberman's unit killed four Marines in December. Earlier last year, a V-22 crashed in Arizona, killing 19 Marines.

Marine spokesmen said there appears to be no relationship between the alleged falsification of records and last month's crash. But the allegation that the commander ordered records falsified is likely to deepen doubt about the future of the Osprey program, on which the Pentagon plans to spend about $40 billion. When Vice President-elect Cheney was defense secretary a decade ago, he tried to stop the program, but he was overruled by Congress.

More than anything, Marines were appalled yesterday by the idea that a commander could order subordinates to lie. The image-proud Marines are taught incessantly in boot camp that they must always be honest with each other because, among other things, false information can get a Marine killed in combat.

"The worse thing that can happen to the Marine Corps is trying to cover up something, because that's where we're supposed to stand apart," one Marine general said last night.

The unusual removal of Leberman, who since June 1999 has been the commander of Marine training squadron VMT-204, based at New River, N.C., near Camp Lejeune, stunned Marines from the top to the bottom of the Corps. "The commandant looked gray" after being briefed on the allegations and the contents of the tape, said one senior officer, referring to Gen. James Jones, the chief of the Marines. "It kind of blew him away."

Marine officials were especially struck by the existence of the audiotape, which they believe indicates that a subordinate sought to capture evidence of continuing pressure by Leberman to falsify data. On the tape, according to a person familiar with its contents, "he is telling them [subordinates] that the program is awfully important and we need to do what we have to do."

Marine investigators were at the New River base last night interrogating members of the Corps' only Osprey squadron about the extent of alleged falsification of records. "They're sitting them down, facing them knee to knee, looking them in the eye, and saying, 'Tell me exactly what you know,' " a Marine officer said.

One officer familiar with the investigation of last month's Osprey crash, on which a report hasn't yet been released, said it was caused by a hydraulics failure; the pilot then lost control of the engines.

Another officer said that the supposed falsification did not involve information about engines and hydraulics, but the overall report that summarizes the readiness of aircraft in the squadron.

But a third officer said that the investigation of the December crash, which had been thought to be almost completed, likely will have to be reopened because of doubt about the data on which investigators relied.

"If things were doctored up, we need to go back and check previous information," he said. "There are some conclusions that had to be impacted" if data were misreported.

--------

Cohen Says No Negligence in Cole Bombing

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
January 19, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Cole-Investigation.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Defense Secretary William Cohen closed out the USS Cole bombing investigation Friday by declaring that no one in the military chain of command should be accused of negligence, but all could be faulted for inadequate attention to terrorist threats.

``We were not complacent, but the terrorists found new opportunities before we found new protections,'' Cohen told a Pentagon news conference.

The Navy released its final investigation report on the case Friday. As previously reported, Adm. Vern Clark, the chief of naval operations, has concluded that no one aboard the Cole should be disciplined.

Cohen believes the entire military chain of command can be faulted for not paying more attention to the vulnerability of U.S. ships in areas where the terrorist threat is high.

``We didn't do all that needed to be done,'' he said. ``We have learned from this experience that we need to be more vigorous.''

At the same time, Cohen has concluded that no individuals should be punished.
The Cole was bombed by suicide terrorists in a small boat while the destroyer was refueling in Aden, Yemen, on Oct. 12. The attack killed 17 sailors and nearly sunk the $1 billion ship.

``All of us in the whole chain of command have to do a better job and we had that obligation to all of the soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, coast guardsmen and their families, and a better job has to be done,'' Cohen said Friday on NBC's ``Today'' show.

Cohen said he agrees with the findings of an independent panel he established to assess ways in which the Defense Department, in coordination with other government agencies, can provide better protection for U.S. forces in transit around the world. The panel cited, among other things, a need for better intelligence collection on terrorist threats.

In his NBC interview, Cohen said the Cole bombing exposed a seam in U.S. security precautions.

``There has not been sufficient attention devoted to those ships that are in transit, about to come into a port or while they're in port,'' he said. ``You have a number of seams'' in security. ``It's our job to make sure that we appreciate the seams faster than the terrorists do. There will always be terrorists looking for weaknesses.''

Cohen wanted to close the Cole case before he left office. Friday was his final full day as defense secretary. The job of implementing the recommended improvements in security will fall to Cohen's successor, Defense Secretary-designate Donald Rumsfeld.

Because the Cole's captain, Cmdr. Kirk Lippold, did not carry out all of approximately 60 planned actions to ensure the ship's protection while refueling in Aden harbor, some believed he would be punished and his career ruined. Instead, Clark supported a determination that Lippold had done what could have been reasonably expected under the circumstances and that he was not given necessary information about the terrorist threat in Aden, a major port at the southern tip of the Saudi peninsula.

Clark also believes that even with security measures in place as prescribed, the attack would not have been prevented, officials said.

The nature of the attack was unprecedented, although the threat was not unimaginable. The military's written guidelines on terror threats states explicitly that harbor craft of the sort that approached the Cole ``require special concern because they can serve as an ideal platform for terrorists.'' The guidelines say fire hoses should be ready for emergency use and personnel be briefed on using them for repelling boarders, small boats and ultralight aircraft.

Lippold made a decision on his own not to prepare for the use of fire hoses, another senior defense official said, also speaking anonymously. Lippold apparently believed that fire hoses would not have strengthened the ship's defenses.

Some crew members said after the bombing that they saw the small boat approach the Cole and assumed it was yet another harbor craft providing trash disposal and other services. No one on the Cole challenged the craft as it approached.

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Officer Admits Osprey Falsifying

By ELIZABETH BECKER and STEVEN LEE MYERS
January 19, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/19/national/19CND-OSPREY.html

WASHINGTON, Jan. 19 - A Marine commander has acknowledged that he falsified maintenance records of the V-22 Osprey squadron as new details emerged on the scope of alleged attempts to cover-up problems in the troubled aircraft program, Pentagon officials said today.

In an anonymous letter to the Navy, which was released today, someone claiming to be a mechanic in the Osprey squadron said the "deception has been going on for over two years."

"What we have been doing is reporting aircraft that are down as in they can't fly, as being up, as in full-mission capable," the letter said. "However, this is the first time it will affect safety."

That letter and an accompanying audio tape prompted a raid Thursday of the offices of Lt. Col. Odin F. Leberman, the squadron commander in New River Marine Corps Air Station, in North Carolina, who was relieved of duty. In acknowledging that he doctored records to put the $37 billion Osprey program in a favorable light, Lt. Col. Leberman confirmed that the voice on the cassette was his, according to Pentagon officials.

These new revelations added to the concern of Pentagon supporters of the tilt-rotor plane, which takes off and lands like a helicopter but flies horizontally like an airplane, that it could be one of the first programs slashed by the incoming administration.

The question of whether to build the V-22 Osprey has been contentious for nearly 20 years. As secretary of defense in the Bush administration, Vice President-elect Dick Cheney tried to cancel the program, calling it too expensive, but yielded to pressure from the aircraft's patrons in Congress.

The Pentagon is already investigating flaws in the Osprey which crashed twice last year, killing 23 Marines. The plane is currently grounded.

To avoid any attempt to blame those fatal crashes on the doctored maintenance records, the Marines announced today that the most recent crash was the result of a broken hydraulic line, which a spokesman said is not covered by the records.

---------

Marine Unit Raided in Criminal Inquiry on Troubled Craft

By STEVEN LEE MYERS
January 19, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/19/national/19OSPR.html?pagewanted=all

WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 - The Marine Corps relieved the commander of its only V-22 Osprey squadron today after investigators raided the unit's North Carolina headquarters as part of a criminal inquiry into whether he and other officers had falsified maintenance records for the Osprey, an innovative but troubled aircraft.

The investigation deals what Pentagon officials acknowledged was a potentially debilitating blow to the Marine Corps' decades-long effort to build the Osprey, which has been plagued not only by fatal crashes but by doubts about its everyday performance, reliability and maintenance costs.

The experimental tilt-rotor aircraft, which takes off and hovers like a helicopter but cruises like a propeller airplane, is already the subject of a sweeping re-evaluation that Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen ordered last month after the crash of an Osprey in North Carolina killed four marines. The aircraft was grounded after that crash.

The officer relieved of duty today, Lt. Col. Odin F. Leberman, has commanded the Osprey squadron since it was created in June 1999. Senior defense officials said he had been accused of ordering squadron members to falsify records - including details like the number of hours the aircraft had actually flown - to help the Marine Corps win approval for full-scale production of the aircraft.

The Pentagon said in a statement that there appeared "at this point" to be no link between the alleged record falsification and the two fatal crashes of the Osprey last year, including the one last month and another in Arizona last April that killed 19 marines.

But senior defense officials said it was impossible to rule that out until the investigation was completed. At a minimum, the officials said, the allegations raised serious questions about whether members of the the Marine Corps had covered up flaws in the craft in order to justify its production, requiring a review of the entire program.

"Everything he was in charge of is suspect," a senior officer said today, referring to Colonel Leberman.

Another government official briefed on the investigation said tonight that Colonel Leberman appeared to have been motivated by "a lot of peer pressure" from the Marine Corps to present the aircraft in the best possible light as a decision neared on production of the Osprey program, estimated to cost more than $30 billion.

Spurred by an anonymous letter and a tape recording sent to the secretary of the Navy six days ago, investigators swept into the squadron's headquarters at the New River Marine Corps Air Station near Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville early this morning and began confiscating maintenance records and other documents, the officials said.

While the investigation is focused on Colonel Leberman, the officials said it could expand to all 241 officers and marines in the unit, the Marine Medium Tilt-Rotor Training Squadron 204 - and, conceivably, to higher ranking officers. The investigation raised the possibility of criminal charges under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Senator John W. Warner of Virginia, chairman of the Senate's Armed Services Committee, tonight called word of the investigation "a tragic revelation." He declined to discuss the implications of the case, saying it was premature to do so before investigators completed their work.

Mr. Warner vowed, however, that the decision about whether to move ahead with the Osprey would be the subject of "the most intense scrutiny" by the committee.

The question of whether to build the V-22 Osprey has been contentious for nearly 20 years. As secretary of defense in the Bush administration, Vice President-elect Dick Cheney tried to cancel the program, calling it too expensive, but yielded to pressure from the aircraft's patrons in Congress.

Since then, the Marine Corps has been its most ardent advocate. It has proposed buying 360 of the aircraft - jointly built by the Boeing Company's helicopter division and Textron Inc.'s Bell Helicopter unit - to replace its aging fleet of Vietnam-era helicopters. The Navy and the Air Force plan to buy an additional 98 Ospreys.

Today, the Marine Corps has only eight in its fleet, all of them test aircraft. Marine officials had hoped to win approval for full production last month, but the decision was postponed because of the latest crash, which was the fourth since 1991.

A senior military officer said the allegations - and the implications raised by them - had rocked the Marine Corps and the Navy, stunning their civilian and uniformed leaders. "No one is deceived about how serious this is," the officer said.

The commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. James L. Jones, one of the aircraft's most outspoken supporters, did not comment on the investigation.

Spokesmen for the Marine Corps and the Navy declined to discuss the investigation in detail. But the officials said that the audiotape sent anonymously to the office of the secretary of the Navy had recorded Colonel Leberman discussing falsifying maintenance records in a telephone conversation. The senior officer described the recording as clear and damning.

"He clearly orders his subordinates to alter the records," the officer said.

The spokesmen declined to release a transcript of the recording or a copy of the anonymous letter.

After the letter and tape were received, they were forwarded to the Marine Corps' inspector general, Brig. Gen. Timothy F. Ghormley, who led the team of investigators that descended on the squadron's headquarters today.

Colonel Leberman, 45, is a 20-year veteran of the marines. He could not be reached for comment tonight. His telephone number in Jacksonville is unlisted, and he did not immediately respond to a message delivered to his home by a neighbor.

Marine officials were quick to disassociate the investigation from the two crashes last year, both of them involving aircraft in Colonel Leberman's squadron. The first, last April, was attributed to a series of human errors that resulted in the pilot descending too quickly as he tried to land on a training mission in the Arizona desert.

Accident investigators have not completed their inquiry into the most recent crash, which occurred on Dec. 11 near the New River base, but officials have said the aircraft suffered a malfunction of its hydraulic system, which is used to maintain control of the rotors during flight.

"Based on what we know at this point, there is no connection between these allegations, even if substantiated, and the causes of the mishaps," a spokesman, Maj. Patrick G. Gibbons, said.

Nevertheless, another officer said that the findings of the latest accident inquiry, which were nearly completed, would have to be reviewed to decide whether any of the alleged falsification of reports might have affected the operation of the aircraft that crashed.

"We've got to look at the possibility," the officer said.

---------

Cheney Promises Improved Armed Forces

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
January 19, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/politics/AP-Cheney.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Vice President elect Dick Cheney promised veterans that the new GOP administration will strive to create ``a new era of purpose and pride'' for U.S. armed forces with better training and clearer missions.

In a pre-inauguration salute to veterans, Cheney, who was secretary of defense during the Persian Gulf war, said of all the duties that President-elect Bush will assume when he is sworn in Saturday, ``none is greater than preparing our military for the challenges and dangers to come.''

``We will give them training that is thorough and missions that are clear,'' said Cheney, according to the text of his remarks. ``We will give them the kind of military where men and women are proud to serve, and proud to stay.''

Rebuilding the military was a major campaign theme for the Republican ticket and Cheney took the lead, severely criticizing the Clinton administration for running down the military by spending too little on defense budgets while deploying soldiers on a myriad of peacekeeping missions.

Cheney often told voters that, with turmoil in the Mideast, the country needed a Republican in the White House devoted to a strong military.

He made the same case in his speech, saying that the inauguration of Ronald Reagan in 1981 ``marked a new era of purpose and pride for the United States, and for the armed forces.''

``President-elect Bush and I hope the same might be said of our administration, '' said Cheney, 59, who never served in the armed forces, having avoided military service during the Vietnam war deferments from the draft.

Bush and Cheney say the new administration will develop a missile defense system and will decide how to rebuild the military after a top-to-bottom assessment of the forces is made.

That job will fall largely to Donald Rumsfeld, Bush's choice for secretary of defense and former Ford administration defense secretary who was a mentor to Cheney.

But Cheney is expected to play a significant role in a Bush administration review of the military because of his experience as defense secretary under Bush's father, where he helped craft U.S. strategy during the Gulf War.

-------- OTHER

-------- genetics

Human Genome Project Director Peers Into the Future

By REUTERS
January 19, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/19/health/reuters-genome.html

BETHESDA, Md. - The director of the federal government's Human Genome Project is predicting that ``a number of big surprises'' will come out of genetics research in the coming weeks.

Speaking at a National Institutes of Health conference on ethical and social issues in genetics, Dr. Francis Collins said that a ``spate of papers in public journals'' due out within a month will signify the incredibly rapid pace of scientific discovery seen since the announcement of the nearly complete sequencing of the human genome last summer.

The first, Collins said, will be a paper that puts the total count of human genes at between 30,000 and 35,000. ''That's less than half the number most people have been predicting.'' The second is a study ascribing previously unknown biological missions to genes scientists thought were inactive, or so-called ``junk genes.''

``There is now clear evidence that (the junk genes) have been performing a number of functions for tens or hundreds of thousands of years,'' he said.

Collins used the examples to signify the huge potential and possible dangers of exploding scientific knowledge that is stemming from the Human Genome Project. At the top of his list was how genetics will come to define race and ethnicity.

``Racial designations and ethnicity have no scientific basis,'' Collins asserted. Genetics research has revealed that people classified in the same racial group often have more genetic variation between them than they do with members of other ethnic groups.

President Bill Clinton pegged that point as one of the most important social implications of the Human Genome Project when he announced its near-completion last summer with Collins and Dr. J. Craig Venter, the president of the Celera biotechnology company.

Still, geneticists often study specific ethnic groups to get a handle on the ways their commonly shared genes lead to disease. ``This puts (us) in a hard position'' reconciling the two paradoxical notions of ethnicity based on genes, Collins said in an address to the conference. ``It will continue to be a heavy burden.''

The speech included long-term predictions of genetics-based discoveries over the coming decades. With the joking caveat that he is ``bound to be wrong,'' Collins forecast that as many as a dozen accurate, predictive genetic tests for specific diseases will be perfected by 2010. Along with them will come tailored interventions adjusting environment, nutrition, or health practices to help patients reduce the risk of developing disease.be available for a variety of common disorders including diabetes, hypertension and many cancers. ``Mental illness, I believe, will be one of the major beneficiaries'' of genetic research, as scientists identify genes implicated in diseases like schizophrenia and depression, and develop targeted therapies to alleviate them, he said.genomics-based healthcare,'' in which genetic mapping, diagnosis and treatment of diseases are widespread and commonplace, according to Collins.

But sounding a cautionary note, Collins also predicted that the huge reliance on genetic technology in healthcare will re-activate ``the major anti-technology movements and anti-technology fervor'' that currently dog public acceptance of genetic advances. He also warned that racial and economic inequities currently plaguing healthcare delivery could worsen after expensive genetic technology takes over, unless specific efforts are made to solve them.

-------- health

FDA: 'Mad Deer' Not Risk to Humans

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
January 19, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Mad-Deer.html


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Some deer and elk in several Western states have been diagnosed with an illness similar to brain-destroying mad cow disease, but so far there is no evidence that people can catch the disease, the government's scientific advisers ruled Friday.

This ``chronic wasting disease'' was first identified in the 1960s, and spreads slowly through herds.

It raised concern because it is a relative of mad cow disease. People can get a similar disease called ``Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease,'' but only a new version of that illness, called ``new variant CJD,'' has been linked to eating infected beef.

The Food and Drug Administration asked experts on these brain-destroying illnesses, called ``spongiform encephalopathies,'' to gauge whether chronic wasting disease could be spread to people, either through infected meat or when hunters field-dress kills in the wild.

So far, the FDA's scientific advisers decided, the risk to people is theoretical.

``To date there's no identified instance of disease in human beings attributable to chronic wasting disease, either through contact (with sick animals) or through consumption,'' said panel chairman Dr. Paul Brown of the National Institutes of Health.

Among evidence the panel considered was microscopic and molecular biological testing of three CJD patients who were hunters. The testing diagnosed regular CJD, not the new kind linked to diet. Nor did epidemiological studies find signs of problems, Brown said.

Still, he suggested people hunting elk and deer in areas where infection occurs take caution, advising against, for example, eating the brains of such animals.

So far, chronic wasting disease has been found among deer in the wild in northeast Colorado, southeast Wyoming and parts of Nebraska. It also has been found in some commercial elk farms in Colorado, Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska and Oklahoma, and in Saskatchewan, Canada.

Sick animals lose weight, are lethargic or listless and may excessively salivate. But wildlife officials say the disease may be present up to 18 months before symptoms appear.

Most elk breeders slaughter an entire herd as a precaution when a case of chronic wasting is found, an important protective step, Brown noted.

Wildlife officials also have been tracking chronic wasting disease, asking hunters to submit the heads of kills so the brains can be tested for the illness.

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Dioxin Makes the List of Known Carcinogens

By REUTERS
January 19, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/health/health-carcinogens-di.html

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The government has placed a type of dioxin called TCDD on the list of substances that are known carcinogens.

The announcement was made by the National Toxicology Program on Friday and is based on ``sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity from studies in humans,'' according to a statement released by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, a branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It is now clear that there is ``a causal relationship between exposure to TCDD and human cancer,'' the group said.

The term ``dioxins'' refers to a group of compounds that share a certain chemical structure and biological characteristic. Sometimes the term dioxin is also used to refer to the most well-studied and one of the most toxic dioxins, 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

``TCDD is not deliberately produced today but has been found as a contaminant in some herbicides and pesticides, and is formed as an inadvertent by-product of incineration of waste,'' according to the NIH.

The chemical was scheduled to appear in the Ninth Report on Carcinogens, released earlier this year, however the addition of TCDD was held up due to litigation.

Dioxin can cause ``skin rashes, skin discoloration, excessive body hair and possibly mild liver damage,'' according to the EPA.

``Because dioxins exist throughout the environment, almost every living creature including humans has been exposed to dioxins,'' according to the EPA. ``The health effects associated with dioxins depend on a variety of factors including: the level of exposure, when someone was exposed, and how long and how often. Because dioxins are so widespread, we all have some dioxins in our bodies.''

Dioxin came to public attention as the contaminant in Agent Orange, a controversial herbicide used by US forces in Vietnam. In 1983, the EPA forced the evacuation and demolition of the entire town of Times Beach, Missouri, after the discovery of dioxin contamination on city streets.

Over the past 5 years, the EPA has imposed regulations on major dioxin emitters, including municipal waste combustors, medical waste incinerators, hazardous waste incinerators, cement kilns that burn hazardous waste, pulp and paper operations, and sources of PCBs.

One source likely to be targeted in the future is uncontrolled residential waste burning, such as burning trash in backyards, particularly in rural areas. The agency also is discussing the possible regulation of other sources such as sludge disposal from privately owned waste-treatment facilities and the regulation of other air sources of pollution.

-------- jubilee

France To Nix Africa Nations' Debts

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
January 19, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Africa-Summit.html

YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) -- French President Jacques Chirac announced Friday that France would immediately cancel the debts of 19 impoverished countries, including 15 African nations.

France has made it a tradition to ease or dismiss the poorest nations' debts at the two-day Africa-France summit, held every two years since 1972. This year, France cleared debts amounting to $467 million.

The summit, overshadowed by this week's assassination of Congolese leader Laurent Kabila, brought together 24 heads of state, who discussed war, poverty and globalization behind closed doors.

With the absence of three of the nations most involved in the conflict in the Congo -- Uganda, Rwanda and Angola -- there was no official discussion of the two-year-long civil war. Kabila had been fighting rebel forces backed by his former allies, Rwanda and Uganda.

At the summit, Kabila was planning to conclude a peace accord with Burundi, sponsored by Chirac, French diplomatic sources said.

Because of recent violence in the Ivory Coast, the interior and defense ministers of Chad, Ghana, Burkina-Faso, Mali and the Ivory Coast agreed to hold a mini-summit to discuss regional border security, Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo announced Friday. The meeting will be held Jan. 25 in Yamoussoukro, his country's official capital.

-------- spying

Deutch May Plead Guilty to Misdemeanor, Avoid Prison Time

By David A. Vise and Vernon Loeb
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, January 19, 2001
http://washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A14761-2001Jan18?language=printer

Former CIA director John M. Deutch is negotiating with the Justice Department over the possibility that he might plead guilty to a misdemeanor for keeping classified information on his home computers, sources familiar with the talks said yesterday.

Attorney General Janet Reno had wanted to resolve the high-profile case before she left office yesterday, but her interim successor, Eric H. Holder Jr., has assumed responsibility for overseeing its resolution, the sources said.

Although Deutch has been reluctant to agree to plead guilty, a one-count misdemeanor plea would enable him to avoid prison time and eliminate the threat of a criminal indictment on felony charges.

Uncertainty over former senator John D. Ashcroft's nomination as attorney general has increased pressure on Deutch to cut a deal, because it is not clear whether a new attorney general would decide to prosecute him on more serious felony charges for mishandling classified information, the sources said.

Deutch's lawyer, Terrence O'Donnell of Williams & Connolly, did not return phone calls seeking comment last night.

The Justice Department initially declined to prosecute Deutch in April 1999 after CIA security officials discovered he had written and stored hundreds of highly classified intelligence reports on unsecure home computers linked to the Internet. Deutch's conduct -- for which he later publicly apologized -- was discovered as he was leaving the CIA in December 1996 after a year and a half in office.

Reno asked prosecutor Paul E. Coffey to take a second look at the case after a leaked CIA inspector general's report ignited controversy on Capitol Hill early last year. Coffey later concluded that criminal charges should be filed against Deutch, who returned to his professor's post at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

At the time Coffey began his review, Justice Department officials said they were worried about the appearance of a "double standard" after filing a massive, 59-count felony indictment against former Los Alamos physicist Wen Ho Lee for downloading classified nuclear weapons data.

Authorities initially identified Lee as an espionage suspect and held him in pretrial solitary confinement for nine months. But the Taiwanese-born scientist ultimately pleaded guilty in September to a single felony count of mishandling classified information.

Provisions of the espionage act make the willful mishandling of classified defense information a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Taking classified information home without authorization is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison.

--------

Deutch May Plead Guilty

January 19, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Deutch-Secrets.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Prosecutors have offered former CIA Director John M. Deutch a deal under which he would plead guilty to keeping government secrets on unsecured home computers and receive no prison time, officials said Friday.

However, Deutch might be barred from regaining his security clearances, they added.

Deutch, CIA director from May 1995 to December 1996, stored and processed hundreds of files of highly classified material on unprotected home computers that he and family members also used to connect to the Internet, according to an internal CIA investigation. The Defense Department's inspector general found similar conduct during Deutch's prior service at the Pentagon.

Justice Department prosecutors were offering Deutch a deal under which he would plead guilty to one misdemeanor count of transferring classified information to an unauthorized location, according to three government officials familiar with the case.

Although that charge carries a top penalty of a $1,000 fine and up to one year in jail, Deutch would avoid incarceration, the officials said, requesting anonymity. He also would avoid more serious felony charges of mishandling government secrets.

Now a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Deutch was stripped of his security clearances by CIA director George Tenet in 1999. As a former deputy defense secretary, Deutch also had Pentagon clearances, but he voluntarily gave them up last year.

Officials said with a guilty plea, Deutch likely would be barred from regaining those clearances and that that had been discussed in the negotiations.

Negotiations were still underway Friday with Deutch and his lawyers, officials said. They could be concluded soon but probably not before the Clinton administration ended at noon Saturday.

Deutch's attorney, Terrence O'Donnell did not return calls seeking his comment.

The Justice Department initially declined to prosecute Deutch in 1999 after a yearlong review of the case. When Deutch left the CIA in December 1996, CIA security officials had discovered he had written and stored highly classified intelligence reports on home computers linked to the Internet. Deutch has publicly apologized for his behavior.

But Attorney General Janet Reno ordered a review of the case after the CIA inspector general later completed a report on the episode. Prosecutor Paul Coffey concluded that criminal charges should be filed.

Some observers had noted that a prosecution of Deutch was initially declined but that the government filed 59 felony charges against fired scientist Wen Ho Lee over his handling of nuclear weapons secrets at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Some questioned whether that was evenhanded treatment.

But prosecutors always viewed the two cases quite differently. Deutch was mishandling classified data that he was working on as part of his job, they noted. But Lee, without authorization, downloaded secrets unrelated to his work, which they considered more suspicious. Lee had been the subject of an espionage investigation, but the government never charged him with spying.

Last September, Lee pleaded guilty to one felony count of mishandling secrets and was released after nine months of pretrial detention in a plea bargain in which he agreed to tell the government how he disposed of copies he made of the secret data.


-------- activists

Demonstrators, Police Go to Court

By David Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 19, 2001
http://washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A15060-2001Jan18?language=printer

Lawyers for protesters and law enforcement agencies dueled in U.S. District Court yesterday over whether security measures for the inaugural parade threaten First Amendment rights of demonstrators.

Judge Gladys Kessler challenged both sides with probing, sometimes barbed questions. The complaint seeks to win full access to Freedom Plaza for protesters and to overturn regulations. Kessler said she will rule at 10 a.m. today.

The dispute arose after the National Park Service granted several permits for demonstrations along Pennsylvania Avenue and the Secret Service announced that for the first time, every parade-goer will have to pass through a police checkpoint. The demonstrators say the checkpoints could be used to single them out, and they say the permit granted for Freedom Plaza is a sham, because most of the plaza is filled with bleachers for supporters of George W. Bush.

Referring to funneling so many people through police checkpoints, Kessler said, "That's going to make a whole lot of people awfully mad on the day of the inauguration, but that's not my . . . problem." Other checkpoints are reserved for those with special tickets to the White House reviewing area.

Turning to the National Park Service's plan to reserve most of Freedom Plaza for bleachers for the Presidential Inaugural Committee even though demonstrators also applied for it, Kessler said to Assistant U.S. Attorney R. Craig Lawrence: "It seems to me you're in violation of your own regulations. . . . The whole [permit] process I have to say, is, to me -- I have to find a polite word, which I can't find -- bizarre."

The regulation in question holds that permits are not granted more than a year in advance of an event. Yet, in this case, the Park Service first reserved Pennsylvania Avenue in November 1999. Lawrence responded that though the Park Service applied for the permit on behalf of inaugural planners more than a year in advance, it didn't actually grant the permit until within a year.

Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, an attorney for the International Action Center, argued that the permit was mishandled in a more significant way. She said that in making the November 1999 reservation, the Park Service neglected to include Freedom Plaza among the spots requested for inaugural planners. The permit application only mentions the sidewalks of Pennsylvania Avenue, not the plaza. Therefore, reasoned Verheyden-Hilliard, her clients ought to have exclusive use of Freedom Plaza.

Lawrence challenged that, referring to a Park Service affidavit that indicated the permit application covers the plaza. The Park Service ultimately offered the demonstrators the western edge of the plaza, with 35 feet fronting on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Lawrence cast the situation as an example of the government going to great lengths to satisfy a variety of simultaneous demands -- from parade participants, ticket-holders, the general public, demonstrators -- while also guaranteeing the safety of the president. "You have a significant variety of interests, all of which have a place along Pennsylvania Avenue, all of which have been accommodated by the Park Service," he said.

At the same time, he added, the president's safety "is a paramount concern that must be recognized."

The attorneys clashed on how much of a threat the demonstrators are. In an affidavit, the Secret Service said the security measures are being undertaken after such incidents as the Oklahoma City bombing, as well as the wave of recent demonstrations, including those in Seattle against the World Trade Organization, in Washington against the World Bank, and in Philadelphia and Los Angeles at last summer's national political conventions.

But Verheyden-Hilliard said the government came to court with no evidence that the demonstrators are violent.

Given all of the requirements of a safe, large, national ceremony, Lawrence argued that the restrictions meet well-established tests set forth in First Amendment case law. He said the restrictions are narrowly tailored, indifferent to the content of the speech being regulated, and still offer avenues for expression.

Prompted by Kessler's asking what would happened if she showed up at a checkpoint in her "voluminous raincoat," Lawrence spelled out in detail the rules that will be followed. Police and Secret Service agents will ask people with bulky coats to open them. They will inspect packages and containers, looking for weapons or objects that could be used as weapons. They will not allow signs on sticks thicker than three-fourths of an inch. Police must have an "articulable suspicion" to single anyone out for a more rigorous search.

Verheyden-Hilliard maintained that the checkpoints could have a "chilling effect" on demonstrators, and she said they will cause such bottlenecks that they will keep the demonstrations from achieving impressive numbers. But she declined to suggest a better plan because she said that is not her clients' job.

The demonstrators appeared certain to emerge with at least one victory. Their suit seeks to overturn a D.C. law that forbids giving a speech in a public space without permission from the chief of police. They said that police have told them they will enforce that law at the inauguration.

An incredulous Kessler noted that the U.S. District Court had shot down as unconstitutional virtually the same law 35 years ago.

--------

Inaugural Protesters United by Tech

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
January 19, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Wired-Protesters.html


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Though disparate in their causes, the thousands of activists protesting President-elect Bush's swearing in are united in their love for gadgets, using computers, cell phones and Web cameras ready to keep in touch and broadcast any mistreatment to the world.

Ricardo Dominguez, a supporter of the Zapatista rebels in Mexico, boasts that his role this weekend is to spread ``information about electronic civil disobedience.''

Dominguez plans to use a new Web-based bulletin board system, called Upoc, to send short messages to fellow activists in the crowd and around the world -- who can receive them on laptops, cell phones, handheld computers and pagers.

He's also offering tools to help ``hacktivists'' disrupt or deface Web sites with anti-Bush slogans.

Sarah Sloan, staff organizer at the International Action Center in New York, said her group used e-mail lists to coordinate nationwide inaugural protests and keep members abreast of details, such as their fight with Washington authorities to get protest permits.

``It's been crucial to keep in touch with people all over the world who will come to the demonstration and support us in a public pressure campaign,'' Sloan said. ``We'll be sending updates right up until the last minute.''

The IAC planned to demonstrate at Washington's Freedom Plaza, on the inaugural parade route. Sloan said they have also used live chats and discussion lists to share protest ideas.

Many of the protesters cut their teeth at a major protest at the world trade talks in Seattle in 1999. But the technology has improved quite a bit since then.

For instance, Brian Goldman, 29, a Web designer and self-described anarchist, is using his handheld Handspring Visor computer hooked to a wireless modem to track police movements, send instant electronic alerts to fellow protesters and make records of any police actions he believes violate civil rights.

His wireless modem just came onto the market a few months ago.

``I plan to spend Saturday standing in solidarity with fellow workers against the entrenchment of corporate tyranny ... marching, and documenting civil rights abuses and procedural mistakes by the various police agencies,'' said Goldman, part of a group calling itself the Revolutionary Anti-Authoritarian Bloc.

Several members of the Upoc ``Resistance'' list said the instant access is useful for tracking police movements and violent incidents.

``Since I plan to document the protest, I'm planning to use the Resistance list to monitor the situation around the city,'' Goldman said. ``I'm also planning to use it to keep others apprised of the situation wherever I am, should the need for a broadcast message arise.''

Upoc spokeswoman Loren Pomerantz said she knew about the list but stressed that her company neither ``condones nor condemns'' any particular group, and that it caters to all interests, from sports to the latest dot-com company layoffs.

Other groups will be using their tools to keep an eye on the authorities. The Independent Media Center, a self-proclaimed ``alternative'' news service, plans live audio and video broadcasts on the Web.

The group's members will call in on cell phones or pay phones, and listeners worldwide will be able to hear their reports.

``If the police are going to arrest some people who are blocking an area, we want definitely to have crews out there,'' said staff member Eddie Becker. ``We feel it's our duty to report on what the police are reacting to and whether the use of force is an overreaction.''

In case audience members don't have the fast Internet connections capable to see video, Becker said the audio broadcasts will be tailored to broadcast television coverage.

On their Web site, they encourage listeners to turn the sound down on their televisions and listen to IMC broadcasts for an ``alternative sound track.''

``If you see a podium filled with powerful people, we'll talk about who's on the podium and who they get money from,'' Becker said. ``And then about the influence of money on politics.''

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