------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
NTSB says submarine sonar detected fishing boat
Submarine Made Sonar Contact With Boat Before Collision
U.S. sub detected trawler on sonar
Sub sonar detected Japan boat
U.S. ambassador apologizes to Japan
Blair Hopes to Build Personal Bond on Washington Visit
IS IT SOMETHING IN THE WATER?
URANIUM SHELLS TESTED
Britain restarts DU test firing amid health fears
Britain Resumes Use of Depleted Uranium
EU Energy Commissioner backs Finnish nuclear plans
Russia to help India construct nuclear reactors
Bush vs. Saddam II
Powell backs strikes on Baghdad
Powell defends acts to contain Iraq
Russia Details Anti-Missile Alternative
Russia presses missile defense plan
Russia offers missile defence-shield with NATO
Putin offers NATO missile defense plan for Europe
Russia offers missile defense plan
Russian MPs Urge Putin to Save Mir Space Station
Fischer Sees No Sudden U.S. Withdrawal From ABM
Putin Invites West to Work on a Defense for Missiles
German Official Talks U.S. Defense
Tony Blair Arrives in Canada
Blair Set for Meeting With Bush
Russia Parliament Wants Mir To Stay
The Struggle for Ukraine
Submarine Officers' Background
Army Bans Civilians From All Vehicles
Many downwinders will never be paid
Energy Supply Crucial for Economy
Energy Groups Release Wish List
Plant to replace corroded wells
New Mexico
Indian Point Plant at Half Power
PIKETON WORKERS CALL OFF PROTEST DIRECTED AT BUSH
S.C. To Test Water for Uranium
John Bolton nominated as the new Undersec. of State
President Bush to nominate six individuals

MILITARY
Arms Sales...and Human Rights
U.S. backs Colombia anti-drug plan
State attorney general backs cannabis club
Study Finds Teenage Drug Use Higher in U.S. Than in Europe
Strict parents can curb teen vices
Illinois
Internet's easy access feeds drugs
Suspects can be barred from homes
UN drug panel expresses alarm
Chinese Fiber-Optic Work Linked to Raided Iraqi Sites
Blair Seeking to Ease Tension on Iraq Strikes
Iraq Says Western Planes Drop 'Flare Bombs'
Looking Tough on Iraq
Iraq resumes fire on allied planes
Handheld Computers Used by Navy
Ohio

OTHER
British Exports Banned After Foot-and-Mouth Disease Outbreak
Britain bans meat exports in disease outbreak
Alaska
Biotech Firms Hone Antibody - Based Cancer Therapies
Radioactive Fallout
Justices Look at Heat-Seeker's Ability to Pierce the Home
Indiana
International Intrigue Makes a Return
FBI Counterspy Accused of Espionage
F.B.I. Agent Charged as Spy Who Aided Russia for 15 Years
Gaps in Ames Case May Be Filled by F.B.I.'s Own Spy Case
From Dour 'Mortician' of F.B.I. to Suspected Russian Superspy
A Disturbing New Spy Case
Alleged spy damage 'exceptionally grave'
New spy scandal raises old security questions
Russia Spy Service Hails Veterans
FBI agent charged as a Russian spy
Search and seizure dominates Supreme Court session
Eight Years of Failure in Sudan
Recent arrests raise fear of terrorism
Ex-Aide Proposed Plot to Kill bin Laden
Witness Admits bin Laden Slay Plot
Hunting bin Laden's Allies, U.S. Extends Net to Europe

ACTIVISTS
Yachts to meet in Tasman over "nuclear highway"
Chiapas Indians skeptical of peace
Arabs voice limited in protests
Religion chief brands Falun Gong
SUIT MAY LEAD TO NEWSPAPER STREET SALE BAN

-
-------- NUCLEAR

NTSB says submarine sonar detected fishing boat

02/21/2001
USA Today
http://usatoday.com/news/washdc/2001-02-21-sub.htm

HONOLULU (AP) - Sonar crew on the submarine USS Greeneville detected the Japanese fishing boat Ehime Maru 71 minutes before the submarine collided with the boat while surfacing, the Navy has told the National Transportation Safety Board.NTSB member John Hammerschmidt also said Tuesday that the crew member responsible for tracking sonar contacts stopped performing that task less than an hour before the collision because of the presence of 16 civilian guests in the submarine's control room.

The fire control plotter is positioned in the control room and analyzes information on the submarine's speed, course, bearing and range of sonar contact. But because of the civilians' presence, he could not perform his job for a period of time Hammerschmidt did not disclose.

The official would not say whether investigators believe the crew member's temporary absence was a factor in the accident.

Nine crewmen and high school students who were aboard the Japanese fishing vessel when it sank off Hawaii on Feb. 9 remain missing. Twenty-six others were rescued.

Hammerschmidt said the NTSB will analyze the Navy's data to try to confirm that the fishing boat was indeed detected and determine why the submarine's crew later believed the area was clear when the submarine conducted an emergency rapid-ascent maneuver.

The sonar systems in the submarine and the crew who operate them will play a key part in the NTSB probe, Hammerschmidt said.

He said the Greeneville gained passive sonar contact with a surface vessel at 12:32 p.m. Feb. 9 and designated the contact as Sierra 13. He added the Navy reconstructed the path of the Ehime Maru and determined that Sierra 13 was the Japanese ship.

Radar data were used to pinpoint the sinking of the boat at 1:43 p.m., he said.

Hammerschmidt disclosed that the submarine's sonar room should have been staffed with two qualified sonar operators and a supervisor, but instead had one trainee, an operator and a supervisor.

He also said the submarine's sonar repeater wasn't functioning properly. The device allows the officer of the deck, who oversees the control room, to better see sonar contacts.

The NTSB has interviewed 19 submarine crew members and most of the civilians who were aboard. The board expects to complete its on-scene investigation by the end of this week.

Hammerschmidt said the NTSB has learned that the submarine's officer of the deck made several 360-degree periscope sweeps before the rapid-ascent drill.

The civilians were allowed to view the periscope sweeps on a video monitor. Hammerschmidt said all but one reported seeing a clear ocean surface.

He said one woman thought she saw a vessel on the monitor but later, after seeing the damaged Ehime Maru, said she didn't believe that was the vessel she had seen earlier.

The actions of Cmdr. Scott Waddle and two other top officers on the submarine will be the focus of a court of inquiry - the Navy's highest-level administrative investigation - scheduled to begin Monday at Pearl Harbor.

The hearing had been scheduled for Thursday, but was delayed "to grant the parties involved in the proceedings additional time to prepare," according to a brief statement Tuesday from the Pacific Fleet.

Three admirals will oversee the public proceedings, which could lead to courts-martial and possible prison terms for Waddle; executive officer Lt. Cmdr. Gerald K. Pfeifer; and officer of the deck Lt. j.g. Michael J. Coen.

The three officers have declined to talk with NTSB investigators about events leading up to the collision until the Navy completes its investigation.

Japanese leaders and families of the missing continued to press the United States to raise the Ehime Maru, found Friday by a deep-sea robot in 2,003 feet of water.

The Navy is using two robots to evaluate the feasibility of raising the 500-ton ship, where the missing might be entombed. That analysis isn't expected to be complete for several weeks.

Meanwhile, the search for the missing men and boys has covered nearly 29,000 square miles and will continue, the Coast Guard said.

---

Submarine Made Sonar Contact With Boat Before Collision

February 21, 2001
New York Times
By CHRISTOPHER S. WREN
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/21/national/21CND-SINK.html

A sailor assigned to plot sonar contacts aboard the United States Navy submarine that hit and sank a Japanese fishing vessel nearly two weeks ago has told American investigators that he had to briefly halt his task because of the distraction of civilian guests.

The National Transportation Safety Board, which is looking into the accident that left nine Japanese presumed dead also reported on Tuesday that the submarine, the U.S.S. Greeneville, made sonar contact with the fishing boat more than an hour before the collision occurred.

The submerged submarine was surfacing when its stern collided with the Japanese vessel, the Ehime Maru. Twenty six Japanese aboard the sinking boat were rescued, but three crew members, two teachers and four high school students who were learning the commercial fishing trade are presumed to have drowned.

A deep-sea robot has located and filmed the sunken vessel sitting on the ocean floor at a depth of 2,033 feet. The United States has promised to try to salvage it.

The submarine was carrying 16 American civilians, two of whom were allowed to sit at the controls under supervision, when the collision occurred off the coast of Hawaii buring an emergency rapid-ascent drill, raising the question whether guests aboard the cramped submarine contributed to the fatal accident. The Navy had allowed submarines to take some civilians along on such exercises for public relations purposes.

The collision has strained relations between Japan and the United States. The departing American ambassador to Tokyo, Thomas Foley, personally apologized for it today to Emperor Akihito during a farewell call. News agencies quoted the emperor as saying that the accident was "truly unfortunate,"

John Hammerschmidt, an official of the N.T.S.B., which is looking into the collision, told reporters at a news conference Tuesday that the crew member, a fire control technician, had been plotting sonar blips, which identify other vessels or objects around the submarine, and told investigators that "he was not able to continue his plotting" because the civilian guests were distracting him. He said they had not been asked to move.

However, Mr. Hammerschmidt cautioned that "in terms of how important it was, we don't know at this point."

Mr. Hammerschmidt also said that the submarine's sonar system had detected a surface vessel in the vicinity 71 minutes before the collision and that the Navy subsequently determined it to be the Ehime Maru. But crew members have said the periscope sweep of the horizon just before the submarine shot to the surface showed no other ships.

The Navy is opening a separate commission of inquiry headed by three admirals. The submarine's captain, Cmdr. Scott Waddle, has refused to talk to the National Transportation Safety Board, a civilian federal agency, until he and two other submarine officers have appeared before the Navy inquiry, which will determine whether they face court-martial. The inquiry, scheduled to start Thursday, has been postponed until next Monday to allow more time for preparations.

---

U.S. sub detected trawler on sonar

February 21, 2001
Washington Times
By Rowan Scarborough
http://www.washtimes.com/national/default-2001221223251.htm

The USS Greeneville's sonar detected noise from a vessel, but the crew concluded it was a small boat at a safe distance before the submarine surfaced and rammed the Japanese trawler Ehime Maru, The Washington Times has learned.

A U.S. Navy source yesterday provided The Times with an exclusive chronology of what happened aboard the cramped nuclear-powered submarine from the time it left Pearl Harbor to the horrifying moment it crashed into the Ehime Maru.

The sonar's "signal-to-noise ratio" suggested the profile of a coastal fishing boat too small to be operating nine miles off the Hawaiian coast, said the source close to the Navy's ongoing investigation.

The ratio is a measure of how much signal is discernible against a background of other ocean noises.

The source said the Greeneville's crew concluded that the boat must have been a safe distance from the point where the Greeneville executed an emergency surfacing drill, or "blow," and sunk the Ehime Maru. Some crew members now realize the noise the sonar picked up that tragic day was from the trawler.

In another development, the Greeneville's fire control technician, who tracks surface targets based on sonar, plotted the noise signature at 4,000 yards, or two nautical miles, from the Greeneville but did not report his finding to the ship's commander. There was a standing commander's order to report any surface "target" within 10,000 yards, the Navy source said.

The source also said the Greeneville's commander, Cmdr. Scott Waddle, followed all prescribed procedures. How well he carried them out will be examined by a special Navy Court of Inquiry. The proceeding was scheduled to begin tomorrow, but it likely will be delayed at the request of attorneys.

The Times has learned that at one point, as the sonar system picked up faint noise, Cmdr. Waddle asked for a reading from an antenna attached to the periscope that detects radar. No radar signature was reported, a fact consistent with a small boat rather than a fishing trawler equipped with radar.

Cmdr. Waddle performed a periscope search to try to locate the source of the sonar contact, and he ordered the sub raised 2 feet, to a depth of 58 feet, to get a better view above 4- to 6-foot waves, said the source, who spoke to The Times on the condition of anonymity. At one point, Cmdr. Waddle ordered flat TV screens turned off in the control room and increased the periscope's magnification. Turning off the TV view of the periscope provides a small increase in light in the scope's viewfinder.

Since the accident happened during daylight, sub experts doubt this would have significantly helped the commander see the Japanese fishing boat.

The Navy source said the crew's theory is that the 180-foot Ehime Maru was bow-on to the sub and thus the white ship was camouflaged by the haze and white-capped waves present that day.

Adm. Thomas Fargo, Pacific Fleet commander, on Saturday ordered a Court of Inquiry to investigate the Feb. 9 accident that sunk the Ehime Maru and left nine teen-age passengers and crew members presumed dead. Adm. Fargo named as subjects of the probe Cmdr. Waddle; Lt. Cmdr. Gerald K. Pfeifer, the Greeneville's executive officer; and Lt. j.g. Michael J. Coen, the officer of the deck.

The court's findings could lead to criminal charges and courts-martial. Possible charges include involuntary manslaughter, negligent homicide, dereliction of duty and conduct unbecoming an officer, according to military legal experts.

The Navy official gave The Times this version of events on Feb. 9:

The Greeneville, a 360-foot Los Angeles-class attack boat, was often picked by the Pacific submarine command to host civilian VIPs. Cmdr. Waddle was considered one of the sub fleet's top commanders. The ship itself was always clean and well-equipped; the 130-member crew was polite and professional.

The boat was selected to host a pending change-of-command ceremony for Rear Adm. Albert Konetzni Jr., the Pacific sub commander who is nominated to receive a third star and become Atlantic fleet deputy commander.

The crew wanted to put on a good show for the 16 civilians. Most were tied in some way to the USS Missouri Memorial Association, a group dedicated to raising $25 million to refurbish the mothballed battleship and open it to the public in Honolulu.

At about nine miles off the Hawaiian coast, the Greeneville's sonar picked up sounds now believed to be the Ehime Maru. The sub then demonstrated for the VIPs a quick underwater maneuver - nicknamed "angles and dangles" - in which the sub shifts directions and depths. During these 30-knot exercises, passive sonar does not work. But afterward, the ship's computer showed that the noise was still present.

The executive officer, Cmdr. Pfeifer, went to the sonar room to observe. At some point, one or more of those in the control room believed the signal must have been that of a small fishing boat.

Submarine experts say that, if the Japanese vessel and the U.S. sub were headed toward each other at that point, a phenomenon known as "bow null" could have occurred. Under this scenario, the hull of the oncoming trawler blunts its engine noise.

At this point, the Greeneville prepared for an emergency full ballast blow. The sub went to 60-foot depth and the officer of the deck did two complete, 360-degree periscope sweeps. He did not see any surface ships, nor did any show up on the TV screens.

Cmdr. Waddle then checked himself. He focused on the bearing the sonar provided of the noise. He then ordered the sub raised two feet and increased the periscope's magnification. Next, he ordered the closed-circuit TVs turned off.

"He just didn't see the ship," said the Navy source who spoke to The Times. "It was camouflaged, basically, and he had a very narrow aspect to look at. He was apparently looking close to a bow-on view."

Cmdr. Waddle ordered the ship to descend, probably to a depth of around 400 feet. Of the civilians on board, three were allowed to take part. One switched on the full ballast blow; one sat at the helmsman's seat controlling the directional rudder; and one sounded the horn signaling the rush to the surface to begin.

The Greeneville's helmsman set the sub's surfacing course. He had his hands on the wheel and closely supervised the civilian. Seconds later, the Greeneville smashed into the Ehime Maru, its rudder splitting the fishing vessel's hull.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and various Navy officials say there is no evidence the civilians' presence contributed to the accident.

The source also placed importance on the fact that aboard the Greeneville was Capt. Bob Brandhuber, a former submarine commander who is chief of staff to Adm. Konetzni.

"If Cmdr. Waddle wasn't doing his duty, that guy would have said something," the official said. "That indicates what Waddle did was reasonable."

If the Greeneville spent about four minutes underwater, and the Ehime Maru was traveling at 12 knots as reported, the vessel could have been a mile or less away during the periscope scans.

After the periscope search, the Greeneville submerged deeper, went away from the Ehime Maru, reversed course to the left and then apparently headed back toward the trawler before surfacing.

Adm. Fargo ordered the Court of Inquiry after Rear Adm. Charles Griffiths Jr. submitted a confidential report on the accident.

--------

Sub sonar detected Japan boat

2/21/2001
InfoBeat News
NTSB:
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=30lgp02u9ljid

HONOLULU (AP) - A crew member plotting sonar readings on a U.S. submarine that collided with a fishing vessel has told investigators he briefly stopped performing the task because he was distracted by civilian guests in the control room. The National Transportation Safety Board also said Tuesday that the Navy has determined the submarine's sonar crew detected the Japanese boat 71 minutes before the submarine collided with it while performing an emergency rapid-ascent drill. NTSB member John Hammerschmidt said three crew members in the USS Greeneville's sonar room worked uninterrupted to monitor ships in the area south of Oahu. But the fire control technician, who plots the submarine's position using sonar contacts, told investigators his duties were interrupted less than an hour before the collision with the Ehime Maru, Hammerschmidt said.

That day, the control room was filled with 16 civilians touring the Greeneville.

---

U.S. ambassador apologizes to Japan

2/21/2001
InfoBeat News
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=30lgp02u9ljid

TOKYO (AP) - Outgoing U.S. Ambassador Thomas Foley made a personal apology on Wednesday to the emperor and empress of Japan for the accidental sinking of a Japanese fishing vessel by a U.S. submarine off Hawaii.

Nine of the 35 people who were on board the Ehime Maru are still missing and presumed dead after the vessel was rammed by the surfacing USS Greeneville south of Oahu Island on Feb. 9. Anger has been mounting in Japan following revelations that civilian guests were at the controls of the sub at the time of the collision.

Foley offered an apology for the incident during a 15-minute farewell meeting with Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko at the Imperial Palace, said a palace spokesman who declined to be named. The U.S. Embassy had no information on the meeting between Foley and the emperor and empress and said no press officers were available late Wednesday.

The Ehime Maru was found Friday night by unmanned U.S. underwater robots in 2,000 feet of water. Believing that the nine missing may be inside the sunken vessel, their families are demanding that it be raised as soon as possible.

-------- britain

Blair Hopes to Build Personal Bond on Washington Visit

Wednesday, February 21, 2001
Washington Post
By T.R. Reid
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A32558-2001Feb20?language=printer

LONDON, Feb. 20 -- Can a conservative Republican from Texas find happiness in a long-distance relationship with a former anti-nuke protester who runs a left-of-center European government?

That question, a matter of considerable importance here, will begin to be answered Friday when British Prime Minister Tony Blair goes to Camp David to meet George W. Bush for the first time.

The two plan to discuss policy concerns such as Iraq, Northern Ireland and President Bush's plans for a missile defense system. But a key point of the meeting, Blair said today in a meeting with American reporters, is to "establish a good working relationship," because "when you're dealing at an international level, the personal element matters."

Since Britain these days often calls itself the "bridge nation" linking the European Union to the United States, the personal friendship between prime minister and president is followed as closely here as the policy aspects of the bilateral relationship.

In the 1980s, the "Ron and Maggie" duo of President Ronald Reagan and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was considered a golden era of U.S.-U.K. relations. For 3 1/2 years, Blair had an equally close "Bill and Tony" friendship with President Bill Clinton.

But it was one thing for Blair and Clinton to get along -- two Oxford men in their forties who both married high-powered lawyers and pulled a liberal party toward the center to win election. Since Bush arrived in the White House, the pundits here have engaged in considerable debate about to whether "W. and Tony" will be able to work together in the same way.

It has been a quarter-century since a prime minister from Blair's Labor Party, traditionally a liberal party allied with organized labor, has faced a Republican president across the ocean. That pair was James Callaghan and Gerald R. Ford.

Blair said today that he thinks the current political divide won't make a difference, noting that he gets along well with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, who heads a nominally conservative party. "I work across party lines," the prime minister said.

But Blair faces an open contest for the Bush connection with his chief political opponent, Conservative Party leader William Hague. Hague's Tories have been actively building alliances with U.S. Republicans. Hague boasts that he already knows "W" personally, having visited him in Texas, and says he plans to adopt some of Bush's "compassionate conservatism" rhetoric for the British election that political analysts here predict will be called for early May.

On one hot issue -- the bombing of Iraq -- Bush and Blair are clearly in tune. British pilots joined Americans in last Friday's raid on Iraqi air-defense units, and the prime minister today resolutely defended the tough policy toward Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, even though most other European governments oppose it.

Blair has also been more conciliatory than many European leaders toward the Bush administration's plans for a missile defense system. He promised today to take a wait-and-see attitude toward the idea. "I understand and indeed share the concerns about nuclear proliferation," Blair said, citing one of the key arguments the new administration uses to support an anti-missile shield.

The prime minister heads to Ottawa on Wednesday, and will address the Canadian Parliament before arriving in Washington late Thursday. After extensive debate at the staff level, it was agreed that the meeting with Bush should be at Camp David rather than at the White House, because Clinton usually took Blair to the mountain retreat, according to accounts here. Blair will stay there overnight Friday.

Blair has set aside time in Washington for another important member of the new administration's power structure, Vice President Cheney. They are to spend an hour together.

And while he's building the friendship with Bush, will Blair get in touch with Clinton? "Well, he's, he's still a close, personal friend of mine," the prime minister said, but a spokesman said later that there probably won't be time.

----

IS IT SOMETHING IN THE WATER?

February 21, 2001
Antiwar.com =
by Justin Raimondo
http://www.antiwar.com/
http://128.121.216.19/justin/pf/p-j022101.html

Brits go bonkers on Star Wars, Iraq Behind the Headlines

It must be something in the water: or, perhaps, "Mad Cow" disease is spreading much faster than anyone realizes. I had to read the headline on this news story from the London Independent at least three times, early this [Tuesday] morning, just to make sure I wasn't still asleep and dreaming: "British protester charged with racist abuse for dragging US flag on the ground"! It seems that, during a demonstration against the deployment of "Star Wars" in England, one Lindis Percy was arrested and charged, under the "Crime and Disorder Act of 1998," with causing "harassment, alarm, and distress" to US military personnel coming out of the base during a demonstration which took place last December. Ms Percy was originally charged with simply obstructing the highway, but after looking at film footage of the demonstration, lawyers for the Crown decided to add the charge of "racism" - an offense that carries with it a £2,500 fine. Ms. Percy's "crime" was apparently having draped a flag across the road at the gate to the US base, which was then driven over "by a member of the American Legion," the Independent helpfully informs us, "a staunchly patriotic ex-servicemen's association based at Menwith Hill."

ANTIWAR PROTEST - A 'HATE CRIME'?

The marriage of political correctness and "Star Wars" - who could've seen it coming? We had a hint of the uses of PC in foreign policy, in 1999, when Bill Clinton declared war on "racism" in Kosovo - and handed that former province of the former Yugoslavia over to the militantly racist Kosovo "Liberation" Army. But now, in the action of the British Crown's prosecutors, we see the final, awful culmination of a trend: it is now a "hate crime" to oppose the foreign policy initiatives of Tony Blair's government. Oh what I wouldn't pay to see that trial! Can you imagine the arguments that will be mustered by prosecutors? Ms. Percy, we will doubtless discover, is an "extremist" advocate of "anti-Americanism." Oh, but the Americans are not exactly a race, you say? A trifling detail, prosecutors will doubtless argue, because the really defining characteristic of a hate crime is, of course, evidence of hate. And what could be more hateful than demonstrating in front of an American military base, protesting what is supposed to be George W. Bush's gift to the British people: a "missile shield"? Oh, the ingratitude of it all! Surely this was a hateful - and, therefore, prosecutable - act on the part of Ms. Percy. I rest my case. . . .

2 + 2 = 5, BUT ONLY SOMETIMES

Yet more evidence that that they've gone a bit balmy over there in the Motherland is the tract written by Robin Cook, Blair's foreign minister, in which he argues that the "strategy" of his government in bombing the Iraqis is "to protect the people of Iraq." Yes, says Cook, "that is why our pilots patrol the no-fly zones - to protect the Iraqi people." How can one respond to such an outrageous lie? One feels rather like Winston Smith, in George Orwell's 1984, who, under torture and faced with a demand that he acknowledge the "truth" that 2 + 2 = 5 - if the Party says it does - could only answer:

'How can I help it?' he blubbered. "How can I help seeing what is in front of my eyes? Two and two are four.'"

His inquisitor answered:

"'Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once. You must try harder. It is not easy to become sane.'"

...

THE CROWN VS. PERCY

One more loose end to tie up: In the case of the Crown vs. Lindis Percy, if you're wondering why this overseas member of the American Legion isn't also facing the same charge - after all, he drove over the flag - then you don't understand how "hate crimes" work. You see, a hate-crime is always preceded by a hate-thought - say, the idea that unlimited immigration is not necessarily a good thing, or, perhaps, a secret admiration for the Boys Scouts. The idea is to punish the thought even more than the deed.

LIFE IMITATES ART

It would be hard, however, to accuse our staunchly patriotic driver of anti-Americanism, since this is obviously not the case. He may have seen the flag, ostentatiously draped over the pavement, and decided to drive over it in spite of his fervently patriotic soul - and yet still he is not guilty of a hate crime. He may have hated Lindis Percy, at that moment, but not the flag and what it stands for, and certainly not Americans, of which he is undoubtedly one. With hate crimes - which are, above all, political crimes - it's not only the thought that counts, but also whom is thinking that particular thought. In this bizarre but all-too-real development, in which a totalitarian principle is applied rather innovatively, we see the culmination of a years-in-the-making trend designed to criminalize political opposition to government policies. It is a startling development, one which presages an era in which life imitates art, to ominous effect. How long before Britain is renamed Oceania, and the streets of London - now "Airstrip One" - are plastered with posters warning "Big Tony Is Watching You!"?

-------- depleted uranium

URANIUM SHELLS TESTED

February 21, 2001
New York Times
World Briefing
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/21/world/21BRIE.html?printpage=yes

BRITAIN: Troops test-fired a new batch of depleted uranium shells off Scotland, saying there was no proof the shells cause cancer. Six Italians who served in the Balkans in 1999 have since died of leukemia, raising fears that their illness was connected to use of the shells. Residents near the test site, along the Solway Firth estuary, said testing should stop while concerns remain. The Ministry of Defense has been testing the shells there for 20 years. Sarah Lyall (NYT)

----

Britain restarts DU test firing amid health fears

February 21, 2001
Story by Ed Cropley
REUTERS
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9874&newsDate=21-Feb-2001

EDINBURGH - Britain was due to resume test firing of depleted uranium (DU) shells at a range off the coast of Scotland on Tuesday for the first time since they were linked to a possible increased risk of cancer.

The Ministry of Defence said it would be testing a new batch of the armour-piercing ammunition at the Dundrennan military range, sparking anger among residents along the shores of the Solway Firth.

Controversy over the use of the tank-busting DU weapons by NATO in the Balkans in 1999 erupted after reports from Italy that six of its soldiers had died of leukaemia after Balkan peacekeeping duty.

European media spoke of a "Balkans Syndrome" but Britain, along with NATO and the United States, insists there is no proof that the ammunition poses any health risk.

"Even if it was the most inert substance known to man, I don't think you should be dumping them in our rivers," said Alasdair Morgan, the local member of parliament, from the opposition Scottish National Party.

"You wouldn't be allowed to do it on land so I don't see why the MoD should get away with testing the shells and then leaving the debris," he said.

The ministry said there was no health risk from the tests, which had been planned for months and were expected to last for two days. The start of the tests was delayed by fog.

"Safety in all these matters is a very high priority," an MoD spokesman said. "We are going to be checking the accuracy of a new batch of penetrators by firing them at soft canvas targets. There will be no particle dispersion."

Many of the direct fears for human health centre around inhaling the dust thrown up when the shells hit a target - most often a heavy armoured tank.

However, locals are also concerned about possible contamination of the sea near where they live, and want the tests stopped while questions remain about public health.

Thousands of uranium-tipped shells have already been fired into the Solway Firth over the last two decades. The MoD said this week's tests would only involve around a dozen rounds.

The spokesman said the shells were the only weapons the British forces had for penetrating modern heavy armour effectively, and so had to be thoroughly tested.

----

Britain Resumes Use of Depleted Uranium

Associated Press
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A32585-2001Feb20?language=printer

DUNDRENNAN, Scotland -- The British military resumed test-firing of depleted uranium shells after suspending the tests earlier this year over fears the ammunition could cause cancer.

NATO's use of ammunition containing armor-piercing depleted uranium in bombing campaigns in Bosnia in 1995 and in Yugoslavia in 1999 sparked concerns it may have caused serious illnesses in peacekeeping troops.

NATO has repeatedly denied that the ammunition could cause cancer or other ailments, but many countries have been testing soldiers for radiation poisoning.

-------- finland

EU Energy Commissioner backs Finnish nuclear plans

February 21, 2001
REUTERS
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9870&newsDate=21-Feb-2001

HELSINKI - The European Union's energy commissioner on Tuesday backed plans by Finland's nuclear industry to build the country's fifth reactor, saying nuclear power was needed to help the EU meet its environmental goals.

"Every EU member state has (to make) the decision about having or not having nuclear power," Loyola de Palacio told Finnish morning television.

"Nuclear power from the point of view of carbon dioxide emissions is a clean energy, and provided there is the right management for the waste, and as long as I know this is the case, this problem is controlled," she said when asked whether Finland should increase its nuclear power.

De Palacio has said in the past that nuclear power is a necessary tool for the EU in its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the Kyoto protocol by the 2008-12 deadline.

She said she was in favour of renewable sources of energy, but there was a limit as to how much energy these could supply.

"When you switch off a nuclear power plant, you must substitute other sources of energy for that," she said. "I am very clear on this: we can't avoid nuclear power if we want to fulfill the Kyoto commitment. There is no doubt about that."

Finland's nuclear industry in November submitted an application to the government for a fifth nuclear reactor to be built in the country, with the proposal expected to be either rejected or passed on to parliament for a vote by mid-2001.

The decision, which goes against the grain in a Europe shifting away from nuclear power, has led to fissures forming in Finland's ruling government coalition, with the Green Party saying it would leave the five-party group should permission to build the reactor be granted.

------- india

Russia to help India construct nuclear reactors

Wednesday, February 21, 2001
Irish Times
Rahul Bedi, in New Delhi
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/world/2001/0221/wor4.htm

INDIA: In defiance of international objections, particularly from Washington, Russia has offered to help India construct four more nuclear reactors.

Moscow has also incurred condemnation from the United States for defying the global nuclear blockade of India by agreeing to provide it with low-enriched uranium for the Tarapur atomic power station near the western port city of Bombay.

India's nuclear rival, Pakistan, with which it has fought three wars since independence 52 years ago and an 11-week border war in 1999, said the shipment of Russian uranium would further widen south Asia's security imbalance by bolstering India's nuclear weapons capability.

The contract for 58 tonnes of Russian fuel for the twin reactor, which was signed during President Vladimir Putin's India trip last October, followed a separate, but little publicised, agreement on bilateral co-operation on peaceful applications of nuclear energy.

Tarapur has been severely short of adequate fuel, threatening the reactor's safety and continued power supply to India's main industrial belt around Bombay.

The Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), the cartel of nuclear-exporting countries which monitors and regulates the transfer of nuclear material, was highly critical of Russia at its meeting last month in Vienna for supplying the uranium to India.

Russia defended itself against charges of nuclear proliferation, claiming that it was within President Putin's post-election presidential decree to allow the shipment of nuclear materials in "extraordinary and exceptional situations".

Moscow invited further opprobrium when it recently offered to build four more atomic plants at Kudamkulam in southern Tamil Nadu state, where it is already constructing two large 1,000-megawatt nuclear power reactors for $2.6 billion (£2.28 billion).

Russia had justified the earlier deal, signed soon after India's 1998 nuclear tests, on the grounds that the agreement was reached "in principle" before the NSG tightened its guidelines in 1992 to include the inspection facility clause.

Russia is supplying most of the critical components while engineers from the local state-owned Nuclear Power Corporation will erect the plants by 2005-07.

Rigid NSG guidelines, however, permit safety-related exports only after consultations with its members to circumvent a potential nuclear contingency. The punitive NGS restrictions make the export of nuclear-related items conditional on the importing state accepting international inspections of all its nuclear facilities.

India, which is not a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and opposes the follow-on Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), rejects inspections as that would rob it of its nuclear weapons programme. So far this had barred any country from selling India nuclear items.

France, which also "sympathised" with India's security concerns, is also keen to sell Delhi nuclear reactors. The two states have initiated dialogue.

-------- iraq

Bush vs. Saddam II

February 21, 2001
Helle Bering
Washington Times
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/ed-column-2001221193150.htm

Gosh. We had almost forgotten how it feels to have a Middle East policy, but if Friday's bombing of military installations in Iraq is any indication, we are about to have one again.

This is one of the many welcome results of the change in power in Washington, along with the knowledge that the paintings and silver in the White House are safe for now. For a president who quite recently was ridiculed for not knowing the name of the president of Chechnya (as if any of his tormentors in the media did), George W. Bush grasped the reins of foreign policy firmly on Friday. Not only did he go on his first official foreign trip, to Mexico, he also dropped a bevy of bombs on Iraq.

It was inevitable that Saddam Hussein would want to challenge the son of the American president who defeated him in the Gulf War. Recent months had seen increased Iraqi capabilities develop to counter American and British planes in the no-fly zones above the 36th parallel in northern Iraq and below the 32nd parallel in southern Iraq, probably the result of better communications equipment and software to link radar sites. According to the Pentagon, Iraqi antiaircraft artillery had fired at U.S. and British planes 51 times in the past six weeks and launched surface-to-air missiles on 14 occasions. Air Force commanders knew it was just a matter of time before one of our planes would take a hit and requested urgent action against the radars.

President Bush called the air strikes against five radar installations "a routine mission." They were surely more than that, a no-nonsense signal from the new American leadership. The strikes came while the new National Security Council is yet in the process of formulating Iraq policy, but contours are emerging within an overall regional approach, requiring collaboration with moderate Arab states. The first step will be Secretary of State Colin Powell's trip to the Middle East beginning Friday, which will include Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait and Syria.

As for Iraq, the policy will have three major pillars: inspections, sanctions and support for the internal opposition - with a recognition that sanctions have been and will be the least effective, considering Iraqi outlets for smuggled oil. While the Clinton administration allowed the weapons inspections to lapse, the Bush White House is clear about the problem posed by the chemical and biological weapons developed by Saddam in the intervening two years, and the need to restore those crucial U.N. inspections. Furthermore, aid for the internal opposition forces is finally being treated seriously. Aid is being channeled through the Iraqi National Congress, which had been promised millions, but received next to nothing from the Albright State Department.

As Mr. Powell has stated about regional cooperation: "I think we all have a common objective, and I think we can rally everybody around a common objective. And it is an arms control objective to not let this regime get access to weapons of mass destruction."

Domestic criticism of the Bush administration's actions has more or less been limited to questions regarding the timing on Friday. Indeed, Mr. Bush was stepping a bit on his own message, which on that day was to have been improved U.S.-Mexican cooperation and neighborliness. For those who recall the last time the U.S. government took the Iraqis to task, this is modest criticism. It was in December 1998, the eve of the first day of impeachment hearings in the U.S. House Representatives. (President Clinton that same August had bombed Sudan and Afghanistan just after going on national television to offer his non-apology to the American people for the Lewinsky affair.) The timing smelled to high heaven. Not surprisingly, Iraqis took to the streets waving pictures of Monica Lewinsky and blue dresses in the air. Thankfully, those days are over and Mr. Clinton is reduced to disgracing himself, as opposed to the entire nation.

The Bush administration has also been faulted for provoking reactions abroad. Here the benefits of a show of strength have to be weighed against the chorus of carping critics. The usual suspects have found their voice again in opposition to U.S. and British military actions. French President Jacques Chirac was in full throat as might be expected. "We have frequently made known our incomprehension and unease over the repeated air strikes carried out by U.S. and British aircraft," said a first French statement. A second followed up with "These raids. . . create tensions that damage efforts to reach an agreed solution to the Iraqi problem on the lines proposed by the U.N. Security Council." Arab countries expressed dismay; even Turkey huffed disapproval because the U.S. administration had failed to give advance notice.

There is no doubt this is a coalition in need of a lot of work; The Clinton administration allowed the Gulf War alliance to erode to the point of disappearing altogether. Honest dealing and consultation, along with the common goal of containing Saddam, could help heal the fractures. However, it is also true that the United States - with our trusty ally Britain - has a responsibility and an interest in keeping peace and stability in the Middle East. Ambiguity is the worst signal we can send. The good news is that Saddam has been placed on notice that the United States is again paying attention to Iraq - very close attention.

E-mail: hbering@washingtontimes.com.

Helle Bering is editorial page editor of The Washington Times. Her column appears on Wednesdays.

---

Powell backs strikes on Baghdad

February 21, 2001
Washington Times
By David R. Sands
http://www.washtimes.com/world/default-200122121490.htm

Secretary of State Colin Powell yesterday strongly supported Friday's U.S. and British air strikes against Iraq, shrugging off criticism from a number of centrist Arab states he will soon visit.

Addressing reporters after a meeting with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, Mr. Powell said his message on the Mideast trip will be: "Don't look at the United States as the source of the problem. The source of the problem is in Baghdad."

"Containment has been a successful policy, and I think we should make sure that we continue it until such time as [Iraqi leader] Saddam Hussein comes into compliance with the agreements he made" at the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf war.

"As long as we believe the [no-fly policy] is necessary, then we are going to protect our pilots," he said.

Baghdad has denounced the raids, and over the weekend it resumed firing surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft artillery at allied warplanes enforcing the no-fly zones in Iraq's northern and southern regions, according to the Pentagon.

The U.S. and British strikes at five sites near Baghdad on Friday were aimed at harming Iraq's increasingly sophisticated air-defense networks that track and target the allied patrols.

British officials confirmed yesterday that one purpose of Prime Minister Tony Blair's visit to Washington on Friday will be to discuss with President Bush modifications of the sanctions policy in the face of growing international criticism.

John Sawers, a foreign policy adviser to Mr. Blair, said sanctions were only one element in an overall strategy to contain Saddam, including keeping control of Iraq's oil profits and patrolling Iraq's borders.

"The elements of that containment strategy will be looked at again," he said. "When there is a new U.S. administration, of course they are going to look at the best way to do this."

A senior State Department official confirmed the United States also was considering so-called "smart sanctions" as it reviewed the decade-old policy against Iraq.

"We shouldn't be arguing about things that don't matter so much," the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "The focus should be on Saddam's weapons and the money he gets to provide for them."

But a top Iraqi official, speaking on a visit to Tunisia, lashed out at the idea of even modified sanctions yesterday.

"Britain and the United States are partners in prolonging the blockade," said Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan. "What they said may mislead those who do not know the reality, but in fact what they said is poison."

Several countries, including U.N. Security Council members Russia, China and France, have been highly vocal in condemning the raids and the hard line pushed by Washington against Saddam.

The Iraqis are set to participate in a high-level U.N. conference Monday and Tuesday to discuss ideas for breaking the deadlock on sanctions and Iraq's refusal to permit U.N. weapons inspectors into the country to determine if Saddam harbors forbidden weapons of mass destruction.

Osama Baz, a senior aide to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, yesterday called for an easing of the stranglehold on Iraq's economy.

"The priority for the world community is now to end the suffering of the Iraqi people and not to increase it," Mr. Baz said in a radio interview.

But Mr. Powell, an architect of the U.S.-led victory in the 1991 war against Saddam, said he was not worried about the negative reaction in the Middle East to the strikes.

"There have always been neuralgic points associated with our policy," he said. "The expression of concern that I received over the weekend from various Arab nations in the region frankly was fairly moderate."

On his first overseas trip as secretary of state, Mr. Powell will visit Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, as well as Israel, the Palestinian territories and NATO headquarters in Brussels.

• This article is based in part on wire service reports.

-------

Powell defends acts to contain Iraq

2/21/2001
InfoBeat News
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=6psod3f6gbv0k

WASHINGTON (AP) - Secretary of State Colin Powell defended the U.S. policy of patrolling Iraq's air space and said Tuesday it will continue "as long as we believe that mission is necessary" to contain Iraq's military ambitions. In renewed defiance of the joint U.S.-British patrols in "no-fly" zones over southern and northern Iraq, Iraqi air defenses fired surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft artillery at allied planes in the southern zone Saturday and Sunday, Pentagon officials said Tuesday. No planes were hit. In comments to reporters at the State Department, Powell defended Friday's air strikes against Iraqi air defense installations and said they were required to reduce the threat to allied pilots.

Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. Craig Quigley said the strikes achieved their purpose of "disrupting and degrading" Iraq's air defenses, but the military will not release a detailed public assessment of the attack's effectiveness. To do so could help Iraq prepare for any future attacks, he said. Quigley would not say how many or which types of U.S. bombs or missiles were used.

While acknowledging that Iraq has been pursuing weapons of mass destruction in violation of U.N. Security Council requirements, Powell defended the policy of containment, the 10-year effort led by the United States and Britain to reduce Iraq's ability to threaten its neighbors.

-------- missile defense

Russia Details Anti-Missile Alternative

Wednesday, February 21, 2001; Page A16
Washington Post
By Peter Baker and Susan B. Glasser
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A30761-2001Feb20?language=printer

MOSCOW, Feb. 20 -- Russia presented today its alternative proposal for a mobile anti-missile defense system for Europe, a bid to woo Western allies already skeptical of U.S. plans to develop its own nuclear shield at the risk of a new arms race.

The documents given to visiting NATO Secretary General George Robertson lay out in more detail a concept Russian President Vladimir Putin first floated last year, a limited theater-based system intended to address the threat of unpredictable and hostile states often cited by Washington, according to Russian officials.

The papers were not released publicly, but the plan appears to rely on developing transportable units that could be moved to counter specific threats during a crisis, rather than the more elaborate network of defenses targeting intercontinental missiles envisioned by President Bush.

"We hope that as soon as possible your specialists will study our proposals," Putin told Robertson at the Kremlin, "after which our specialists -- military and civilian specialists -- will be ready to visit Brussels to give the necessary explanations and, very important in my view, to explain to the citizens of Europe what Russia proposes."

Robertson politely accepted the proposals and said they would be studied seriously. But he left little hope that the Russian maneuver would succeed in dividing the Western alliance despite doubts among NATO partners about the wisdom of the planned U.S. anti-missile system.

"I made it clear that the NATO allies accept that the United States has made its decision to have an effective missile defense," Robertson told reporters after his meeting. "But what is important now is that we now have a Russian proposal to deal with the same kind of perceived threat."

The missile defense issue has increasingly irritated relations between Washington and Moscow since Bush took office promising to move forward with development left stalled under his predecessor, Bill Clinton. Unable to wield any influence with the new administration, Putin has tried to go around it, rallying other critical countries such as China and waging an aggressive campaign to sway Western European leaders.

Yet in foreign policy circles here, a consensus is emerging that in the end these efforts will not amount to much. "Western European allies have all but proclaimed their loyalty and stopped their criticism," Andrei Piontkovsky, a political analyst, said in an interview.

"European nations, or at least the majority of them, do not want Russia to have dangerous illusions that Europe will be able to hamper the U.S. decision on [national missile defense] deployment and, hence, will share Russia's views," foreign policy specialist Dmitri Polikanov wrote last week.

Likewise, Washington has not demonstrated that it sees any need to compromise as Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov prepare for their first meeting on Saturday in Cairo. U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) arrived here this week with what he called a verbal message from Bush to Putin but no new proposals. Recent comments by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and CIA Director George J. Tenet describing Russia as a possible threat to the United States have left the Kremlin chafing.

Noting that "we can read," Putin said it "bothers us" when Western officials "try to restore the image of Russia as the evil empire which threatens someone, although I think it doesn't scare anybody" anymore.

The always-touchy issue of NATO expansion added an element of tension to today's talks. Still sore about the admission of former East European client states, Putin reasserted his opposition to further extension of the alliance to onetime territories of the Soviet Union, namely the Baltic republics. "The expansion of the defense alliance up to our borders can be explained as a [response to an alleged] threat from Russia," Putin said.

But Robertson played down the issue, noting that NATO might even be open to Russia someday, a prospect that Putin's security adviser accepted as a "theoretical" possibility.

The two sides tried to present today's visit as a mark of improvement in the West's relations with Russia, as they reopened a NATO information center in Moscow that had closed during the friction over the 1999 air war in Kosovo.

------

Russia presses missile defense plan

2/21/2001
InfoBeat News
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=6psod3f6gbv0k

MOSCOW (AP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin lobbied NATO's chief Tuesday to give serious thought to Moscow's answer to the United States' multibillion-dollar plans for a national missile shield - a smaller mobile defense system for Europe. NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson said Russia should not count on Europeans in the alliance splitting ranks with Washington over a missile defense system. Moscow vehemently opposes the U.S. plan to construct its own missile defense shield to protect against intercontinental missiles from small potential nuclear powers like North Korea.

The estimated cost of a U.S. system ranges from $30 billion to $60 billion.

Details of the Russian alternative presented to Robertson on Tuesday were sketchy, but it includes proposals for joint Russian-European mobile defenses to counter medium- and short-range missiles. The plan, said Russian military officials, also envisages forming a joint group of experts to analyze possible missile threats. If such threats are considered serious, Russia and European states would jointly deploy anti-missile defenses as a last resort. Moscow fears the U.S. project would be expanded to protect the United States from larger nuclear arsenals, like Russia's.

--------

Russia offers missile defence-shield with NATO

Wednesday, February 21, 2001
Irish Times
Chris Stephen
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/world/2001/0221/wor9.htm

RUSSIA: Russia offered to build a joint European missile defence-shield with NATO yesterday as an alternative to the US system, which Moscow says threatens a new arms race.

The proposal was made by President Putin to visiting NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson as a possible way out of an increasingly bitter wrangle between Moscow and Washington.

"We are aware of the statements made by certain representatives of the West - we can read - who are trying to recreate the image of Russia as the Evil Empire, even though it doesn't scare us any more," said Mr Putin, after talks with Lord Robertson in the Kremlin.

The Evil Empire was the term coined for Moscow by former US president Ronald Reagan. But behind the rhetoric, the missile defence plan is vague.

Under the Russian proposals which Lord Robertson said NATO will study, a three-point plan is envisaged. This involves the two sides first agreeing that there is a threat from non-European nations, then agreeing that political solutions cannot stop the threat, before an anti-missile system is even considered.

While Moscow says the shield would be cut-price, this seems uncertain, given that no details of how it would work have been agreed.

"Our concrete proposal is to develop a European non-strategic missile defence system involving Russia and other European countries," said Col Gen Leonid Ivashov, head of foreign relations at the defence ministry.

Lord Robertson welcomed the offer: "What is important now is that we have a Russian proposal to deal with," he said. "We look forward to examining this proposal in detail."

A key part of the proposal for the Russians is that the shield is for "rogue" missiles only, and is "non-strategic" - in other words, that it does not disrupt the balance of nuclear power between Moscow and Washington.

For the NATO team, officially in Moscow to reopen an information centre shut down by Russia during the Kosovo bombing in 1999, it was a welcome respite from 10 days of harsh rhetoric from both sides of the Atlantic.

Last week Washington accused Russia of exporting missile technology to its enemies. Then Russia staged military exercises with long-range bombers and test fired a series of ballistic missiles. Finally, there was harsh criticism by Moscow, and some NATO members as well, of the US-British bombing raids on Iraq.

"NATO and Russia together are building a crisis resistance relationship that will allow us to deal with the tricky issues as well as common issues at stake in the world today," Lord Robertson said.

But any respite is likely to be temporary. Technically, it is difficult enough to conceive of a system able to defend the US from missile attack. It is harder still to imagine a shield constructed for the whole of Europe.

And antagonisms between Russia and NATO extend beyond the use of missiles. The Kremlin says it will oppose NATO's possible expansion into the Baltic states, and it is still smarting from the bombing of Yugoslavia two years ago.

Russia has already signalled that a US decision to deploy its own shield unilaterally could trigger a new arms race. But some Russians last night urged the Kremlin to take a more relaxed attitude, arguing that any US system is many years away from deployment.

"Maybe we don't need to be so quick," said Mr Alex Arbatov, a key member of the parliament's defence watchdog. "We have missiles and the other side have missiles, and every side is afraid of being the first to use them."

---

Putin offers NATO missile defense plan for Europe

February 21, 2001
Chicago Sun-Times
BY VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/putin21.html
http://inq.philly.com/content/inquirer/2001/02/21/national/RUSSIA21.htm

MOSCOW--Russian President Vladimir Putin lobbied NATO's chief Tuesday to give serious thought to Moscow's answer to multibillion-dollar plans by the United States for a national missile shield--a smaller mobile defense system for Europe.

NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson said Russia should not count on Europeans in the alliance splitting ranks with Washington over a missile defense system.

"I made it clear that the NATO allies accept that the United States has made its decision to have an effective missile defense," Robertson said. "But what is important now is that we have a Russian proposal to deal with the same kind of perceived threat."

Moscow vehemently opposes the U.S. plan to build its own missile defense shield to protect against intercontinental missiles from small potential nuclear powers such as North Korea. The estimated cost of a U.S. system ranges from $30 billion to $60 billion.

Details of the Russian alternative presented to Robertson on Tuesday were sketchy, but it includes proposals for joint Russian-European mobile defenses to counter medium- and short-range missiles.

The plan, said Russian military officials, includes forming a joint group of experts to analyze possible missile threats. If threats are considered serious, Russia and European states would jointly deploy anti-missile defenses as a last resort.

Moscow fears the U.S. project would be expanded to protect the United States from large nuclear arsenals, like Russia's. It says the shield would violate the 1972 Anti-ballistic Missile Treaty, considered a cornerstone of disarmament.

Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. Craig Quigley said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had not seen the Russian proposal but was "heartened" by Russia's acknowledgment of possible missile threats.

Associated Press

---

Russia offers missile defense plan
Shield over Europe proposed to NATO

WEDNESDAY • February 21, 2001
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Margaret Coker - Cox
http://www.accessatlanta.com/partners/ajc/epaper/editions/wednesday/news_a339a693410a60a00076.html

Moscow --- Countering U.S. plans for a national missile defense shield, Russia unveiled a proposal Tuesday that calls for Moscow --- not Washington --- to guarantee Europe's security against nuclear weapons attacks by rogue nations.

The Kremlin presented to NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson a three-stage proposal that envisions a continentwide security shield of mobile rocket defenses using Russian missiles.

Russian officials claim that their proposal would be less controversial than the American plan because it calls for political efforts before military action and would preserve the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

"The plan is radically different from what the Americans are proposing," said Col. Gen. Leonid Ivashov, who heads the military's foreign relations department.

Robertson reacted cautiously following talks with President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials. "We look forward to examining this proposal in detail and hearing a presentation from Russian experts on what has been put forward," Robertson said.

Robertson invited Putin to speak at NATO headquarters in Brussels about the proposal.

Russia and China oppose Washington's proposed missile defense system, calling it another attempt by the United States to unilaterally police the world and trample established nuclear arms conventions.

Even some of America's closest European allies, including Germany and France, have voiced strong concerns about the U.S. plan.

Secretary of State Colin Powell is scheduled to visit NATO ministers in Brussels next week. The national missile defense proposal, known as NMD, is expected to be high on the agenda.

The dispute over NMD has helped bring U.S.-Russian relations to their lowest point since the breakup of the Soviet Union. Russia especially resents the U.S. plan because it diminishes Moscow's role in international diplomacy and as a nuclear super- power.

The Bush administration has dismissed Russian concerns and backs a far more expensive defense shield than the $60 billion plan proposed by the Clinton administration.

This month, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Russian concerns about NMD were "not really serious." Rumsfeld said Moscow was partly to blame for the missile proliferation that made NMD necessary.

Some political analysts in Moscow called Tuesday's proposal the next step in Russia's diplomatic efforts to scuttle NMD and expressed doubt that Washington would take it seriously.

"The Kremlin is on the losing side of the NMD issue. They don't want the U.S. to deploy it, yet they have no way of stopping it," said Dmitry Trenin, a political analyst at Moscow's Carnegie Center think tank. "They need to look like they are saving face."

The Russian proposal builds on a plan first offered to the State Department in 1998, according to Georgy Arbatov, the head of the State Duma's International Relations Committee. Putin's proposal calls first for a detailed assessment by Russian and European nations of existing and future missile threats to Europe by nations or terrorist groups, Arbatov said.

These threats would be answered first by joint political efforts, and only after diplomatic overtures failed would the NMD task force deploy mobile missile forces as a last resort, according to Russian officials.

----

Russian MPs Urge Putin to Save Mir Space Station

February 21, 2001
Reuters
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-russia-.html
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/science/science-russia-mir-dc.html

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian parliament urged President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday to halt plans to sink the Mir space station in the Pacific next month, saying it was vital to the country's prestige and security.

Deputies in the State Duma lower house overwhelmingly approved an appeal to Putin, saying Russia should keep Mir flying if the United States went ahead with controversial plans to create a missile defense shield.

``The need to maintain the orbiter has been confirmed...by the U.S. decision already taken for all intents and purposes to create a national missile defense system,'' the Duma said in a statement.

The appeal came a day after the 15th anniversary of Mir's launch. Mir was once the pride of Russia but subject to many mishaps in later years, including a communications failure in December that left officials fearing it was spinning out of control.

Deputies also expressed doubts about Russia's participation in the International Space Station (ISS), which they say forced the cash-strapped government to withdraw funding to Mir.

They said ``the leading role in the ISS is being carried out only by the United States,'' relegating Russia chiefly to just running supply missions to the new station.

The deputies' criticism echoed that of Cosmonaut Sergei Krikolyov, a member of the first permanent mission to the ISS, who blasted Russia space officials last autumn for allowing America to take key decisions on the ISS.

``The Mir orbiter is vital to Russia. It is the only object piloted by cosmonauts that can meet Russian interests inexploration and design work,'' the Duma said.

Deputies urged Putin to find funding for Mir from sources outside the budget, including from foreign investors.

Mir supporters have tried to raise private funding in the past but have fallen far short of the $100 million required each year.

Russian space chiefs, who intend to send Mir to a watery grave in mid-March, have said the station has served its purpose and is becoming a hazard after flying for five times longer than planned.

``The station must be sunk...to keep from subjecting people to danger,'' Russia's space chief, Yuri Koptev, said at a news conference this week.

``The situation with Mir cannot be politicized. Everything must come to its logical conclusion,'' he said.

---

Fischer Sees No Sudden U.S. Withdrawal From ABM

February 21, 2001
Associated Press
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-arms-ge.html

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said on Wednesday he did not expect the United States to withdraw suddenly from a Soviet-era pact with Moscow called the ti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM).

``I'm not pessimistic about that. I don't want to say more,'' Fischer told reporters at the German ambassador's residence on the third and final day of a trip to the United States.

President George W. Bush said before he was elected in 2000 that he would build an anti-missile shield to protect all U.S. territory and possibly that of its allies against missile attack, even if it meant withdrawing from ABM, which specifically prohibits building such a system.

Moscow and Beijing oppose Bush's plans for the system, called National Missile Defense (NMD), fearing it would neutralize their defenses.

Fischer was speaking a day after meeting Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. He had been asked if there was a risk Washington would pull out precipitously from ABM.

Signed in 1972, the pact is seen as the cornerstone of arms control by many countries but Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dismissed it in December 2000 as ``ancient history.''

It allowed the Soviet Union and the United States to place missiles on their own territory to protect their capital cities and one other site from attack by other missiles.

The Clinton administration, sharing the view that emerging post-Cold War threats required a new defense, tried to no avail to persuade Moscow to agree to amend the ABM treaty.

Fischer's comment, made amid remarks that focused on his discussions with Powell, indicated the new secretary of state had reassured him the United States would not do anything rash with regard to ABM, which Moscow wants to keep intact.

But German officials traveling with Fischer declined to give any details of the substance of his talks on Tuesday with Cheney and Rice, or to say whether they took place in such a constructive an atmosphereas those with Powell.

German diplomats heaped praise on Powell's approach, stressing he was ``not at all gung-ho'' on NMD, or other issues including U.S.-British air strikes against Iraq last week.

Fischer, who visited Moscow this month, said he believed the U.S. administration was ready for a debate on NMD, and that there was a chance for constructive debate with Russia.

After his talks with Powell on Tuesday, he said they had a ''very good discussion'' on NMD, adding, ``We are looking forward to a close consultation within NATO and on a bilateral level.''

Fischer also met U.S. trade representative Robert Zoellick and was due to return to Berlin on Wednesday.

Republicans regard ABM as irrelevant to U.S. interests in the post-Cold War era, arguing that new threats from what they call ''rogue states'' including North Korea, Iran and Iraq require a new defensive posture by the United States.

The Bush administration has never said it will negotiate with Russia on amending the ABM, though it has stressed it will consult its European allies, and Russia and China.

Powell has said there will be ample time to consult others during what is bound to be a lengthy process of testing NMD technology, which is still at early stages of development.

Critics say the shield, at a possible cost of $60 billion, would prompt other countries to amass more nuclear weapons.

---

Putin Invites West to Work on a Defense for Missiles

February 21, 2001
New York Times
By PATRICK E. TYLER
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/21/politics/21RUSS.html

MOSCOW, Feb. 20 - President Vladimir V. Putin called on Europe and the NATO alliance today to work with Russia on developing a common defense against missile attacks and presented a set of proposals to the NATO secretary general, Lord Robertson, who is visiting Moscow.

The proposals, calling for a mobile antimissile system that could be deployed rapidly and aimed in the direction of a threatening state, are another step in a diplomatic campaign to convince both Europe and the United States that the missile threat from so-called rogue states can be met through cooperative and limited defensive efforts.

They would serve as an alternative to the national missile shield that the United States proposes to erect over its territory. Such a system would violate the Antiballistic Missile Treaty of 1972.

Lord Robertson urged Russian officials to go to NATO headquarters in Brussels at an early date to explore the proposals in detail. The 19-member NATO alliance is dominated by the United States militarily.

"What is important now," he said after meeting Mr. Putin at the Kremlin, "is that we have a Russian proposal to deal with the same kind of perceived threat," from ballistic missiles that are under development in Iran, Iraq and North Korea. "We look forward to examining this proposal in detail and hearing a presentation from Russian experts on what has been put forward."

In opening remarks to Lord Robertson, Mr. Putin warned that despite NATO assurances that it did not regard Russia as an adversary, the tendency to portray Russia as a dark force in international relations was causing a loss of confidence. When "confidence disappears," the president added, an arms race will inevitably return.

"We are aware of statements made by certain representatives of the West we can read who are trying to recreate the image of Russia as the evil empire, even though it doesn't scare us anymore," Mr. Putin said, using the term coined by President Ronald Reagan to describe the Soviet Union.

In an indication that Mr. Putin believes that the debate in Europe is inclined against the American plan to pursue a strategy in a manner that might incite a new era of nuclear- arms competition, Mr. Putin urged NATO leaders to circulate Russia's proposals on the broadest basis to the European public and the entire European Union.

At the same time, he and other top Russian officials again warned that further expansion of NATO in Central Europe and into the Baltic region threatened the security interests of Russia. Lord Robertson disagreed, saying NATO would not allow anyone to veto the sovereign choices of nations that seek common security arrangements.

Lord Robertson received the proposals today from Defense Minister Igor D. Sergeyev. They call for a meeting of "skilled experts" to determine whether Europe was threatened by missiles from "rogue" states and, if so, how Russia and Europe might build a mobile defense that could be oriented broadly in the direction of any threatening country.

The United States also has been discussing with European leaders how to develop "theater" missile defenses - designed for protection in limited areas - to protect American and allied forces in Europe and Asia.

An aide to Marshal Sergeyev, Col. Gen. Leonid Ivashov, said today, "This is not a defense of the entire territory of Europe or part of it, but a system designed for protecting missile-threatened directions."

The Russian proposal, some experts said, is for an elaboration of antimissile systems first tested by the United States in the Persian Gulf war. Russia is widely believed to be working on advanced missile interceptors similar to the Patriot missiles used to shoot down Iraqi Scud missiles fired at Israel and Saudi Arabia.

After meeting Marshal Sergeyev, Lord Robertson said, "We will be discussing this matter at a briefing that the Russians will be giving in Brussels at a very early date."

---

German Official Talks U.S. Defense

February 21, 2001
Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-US-Germany.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- German Foreign Secretary Joschka Fischer said Wednesday there is a ``real chance'' for cooperation between the United States and Russia on American plans for a missile defense system despite Russian concerns that it would trigger a nuclear arms race.

Fischer told a group of American reporters it is important for Russia to see that U.S. deployment of a missile defense strengthens nuclear stability and doesn't weaken it.

He said if Russia cannot persuade the Bush administration to drop the plan, ``The best thing is to cooperate with the United States, that there be a climate of cooperation and not confrontation.

``There is a chance to have a productive approach with the Russian side,'' he added.

Fischer met Tuesday with Secretary of State Colin Powell and planned meetings later Wednesday with Robert Zoellick, the administration's top trade official.

The Bush administration believes a missile defense is necessary primarily to guard against possible attacks by countries such as North Korea and Iran.

Moscow is worried that the shield could be used to protect the United States from Russia's nuclear arsenal in violation of the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty. Moscow sees that treaty as a cornerstone of disarmament.

On other subjects, Fischer said:

--He received assurances from Powell that the United States has no intention of withdrawing unilaterally from the Balkans. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had strongly urged the new administration to keep a U.S. military presence in the region. Fischer said it is too early to say whether the Bush administration sees the Balkans in the same way as the previous administration. He said this is the first time in decades that the Balkans have a chance for a sustainable peace.

--There is no cause for concern that U.S. and European differences about a proposal to create an all-European defense force will weaken NATO. ``There are tensions,'' he said. ``Tell me a time when there were no tensions in NATO. ... I'm not concerned about the future of the alliance -- so long as everyone is willing to put their fears and concerns on the table.''

--He was ``really impressed'' with Powell's ideas for getting Iraq to comply with U.N. Security Council arms control resolutions. He declined to take a stand on the U.S.-British airstrikes Friday near Baghdad.

--Iran's development of weapons of mass destruction is a ``major concern and should be stopped.'' He said his government is working hard to expand the existing democratic opening in Iran.

--He told Russia to be more relaxed about NATO enlargement, pointing to the results of adding Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic to the alliance two years ago. ``Where is the threat for Russian security?'' he asked.

--He has decided to ``remain silent'' about questions at home concerning his past activities, particularly when he is outside Germany. He brushed aside a question about his alleged presence at a Palestine Liberation Organization conference in 1969. ``I've talked too much,'' he said. ``Whenever I say something, it's turned against me.''

------

Tony Blair Arrives in Canada

February 21, 2001
New York Times
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Blair-Visit.html

TORONTO (AP) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrived in Canada on Wednesday for a short but event-filled visit before traveling to the United States for his first meeting with President Bush.

The 24-hour visit is Blair's first to Canada as prime minister. He will address Canada's Parliament on Thursday morning, an honor rarely granted to foreigners. Blair will then meet with several top Canadian leaders.

Blair and his wife, Cherie, were greeted by Prime Minister Jean Chretien along with military salutes, national anthems and brief speeches.

``We have so many things in common -- shared history, heritage and values -- and while it is true we face the challenges of technology and globalization, I know that the ties are so strong we would simply find new reasons for strengthening our relationship,'' Blair said.

Blair and Chretien are expected to talk about President Bush's plan for a missile-defense system, which has hit opposition in Europe. They might also discuss recent U.S. and British airstrikes on Iraq, which Canada supported, or Blair's policies in volatile Northern Ireland.

The visit promises to be more like an old friend popping in for tea and chatting about the neighbors.

As Blair flew to Canada, Canada announced a ban on meat, milk and livestock imports from Britain. The ban came after pigs in Britain were diagnosed with foot-and-mouth disease. Britain halted livestock exports Wednesday afternoon, so Canada's ban and bans by the United States and the European Union are not expected to be controversial.

Blair's meeting President Bush is shaping up as a bit of a balancing act. Blair last week demonstrated Britain's commitment to the two countries' ``special relationship'' in the form of joint airstrikes in Iraq.

Such actions strain Blair's ties with European partners, who are carving out an independent military role within NATO and are sometimes at loggerheads with the United States over trade issues.

As he prepared for the trip, Blair vigorously defended last week's bombing in Iraq.

``I think that what we are doing on Iraq is absolutely essential,'' Blair told American and Canadian correspondents before leaving London. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, he continued, ``is a dangerous man, probably the most dangerous leader at the present time anywhere in the world.''

But Blair acknowledged that Britain would review the sanctions against Iraq, but did not elaborate.

Blair arrives Thursday in Washington, where he will meet with Vice President Dick Cheney before flying to the presidential retreat at Camp David, Md., for talks -- and a first-ever handshake -- with Bush. He returns to London on Saturday.

Defense and trade will top the agenda at his meeting with Bush.

---

Blair Set for Meeting With Bush

February 21, 2001
Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Blair-Meets-Bush.html

LONDON (AP) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair heads for Washington this week for his first meeting with President Bush -- one that is shaping up as a bit of a balancing act.

Blair, who found a political soulmate in Bill Clinton, arrives with a fresh demonstration of Britain's commitment to the two countries' ``special relationship'' in the form of joint air strikes in Iraq.

But such actions strain Blair's ties with European partners, who are carving out an independent military role within NATO and are sometimes at loggerheads with the United States over trade issues.

Opposition politicians claim Euro-American relations are at a ``perilous moment,'' but Blair prefers to see Britain as a bridge between Europe and the United States.

``The prime minister has always seen the notion that we have to choose between the United States and Europe as a false choice, and also a foolish choice,'' Blair's official spokesman, Alastair Campbell, told reporters on Tuesday.

Blair's North American visit begins Wednesday in the Canadian capital, Ottawa. Accompanied by his wife, Cherie, he arrives Thursday in Washington, where he will meet with Vice President Dick Cheney before flying to the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland, for talks -- and a first-ever handshake -- with Bush. He returns to London on Saturday.

As he prepared for the trip, Blair vigorously defended last week's Anglo-American air strikes in Iraq, which have driven a wedge between Europe and the British-American alliance. European leaders have expressed, at best, unease about the attack.

``I think that what we are doing on Iraq is absolutely essential,'' Blair told American and Canadian correspondents in London Tuesday night. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, he continued, ``is a dangerous man, probably the most dangerous leader at the present time anywhere in the world.''

Blair acknowledged that Britain would review the sanctions against Iraq, but did not elaborate. Foreign Secretary Robin Cook wrote in The Daily Telegraph newspaper that Britain and the United States would reevaluate the sanctions in an effort to alleviate the impact on ordinary Iraqis.

``In the long term we need to look at a better sanctions and (weapons) inspections regime, but at the present time we are with the policy of containment because it is the right thing to do,'' Blair said.

He has had two telephone conversations with Bush since the new president took office, and the two men likely will have many more. With Britain's Labor Party showing a steady, double-digit lead in opinion polls, Blair is likely to call an election this spring in a bid for a second term of up to five years.

Defense and trade will top the agenda at his meeting with Bush.

Some European countries fear the president's plans for a ballistic missile defense shield -- dubbed ``Son of Star Wars'' -- may trigger a new arms race.

Blair's government has been cautious about the plan, but says it understands American concerns.

``It is a very sensitive issue,'' Blair told Forbes magazine in an interview posted on its Web site last week. ``My own judgment is that provided we handle it with care, there is a way through which meets America's objectives and other people's concerns.''

Campbell said the Bush-Blair meeting was unlikely to produce a more concrete response, because U.S. plans had yet to be formalized.

He played down British fears that the shield would involve basing American missiles in Britain. ``No proposal that has been put forward involves U.S. missiles on British soil,'' he said.

Bush's defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, has been among the Americans who have expressed fears that European plans for a rapid-reaction military force may undermine NATO.

Conservative Party leader William Hague said Tuesday that the European military force ``would push the U.S. away from Europe.''

But Blair insists nothing will dent relations between Britain and the United States. Earlier this month he said the two nations shared ``bonds of kinship and history and a bond of a shared language, but most of all ... shared values.''

Trade is another sticking point. While U.S.-British trade has doubled in the last decade -- from $55 billion to $110 billion annually -- Washington and the European Union are embroiled in several long-standing disputes, including a decade-long trade war overbananas.

Campbell said Blair would press for a new round of world trade talks later this year and would encourage Bush to sit down with European leaders at the U.S.-EU summit in Gothenburg, Sweden in June.

---

Russia Parliament Wants Mir To Stay

February 21, 2001
Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Russia-Space.html

MOSCOW (AP) -- Russian legislators on Wednesday appealed to President Vladimir Putin to stop plans to bring down the Mir space station.

The State Duma, or lower house of parliament, passed a resolution asking Putin to suspend the government's December decision to dump the station, which on Tuesday marked 15 years in orbit.

The process of lowering Mir began this month, and the station is scheduled to land in the Pacific Ocean in mid-March.

The resolution, which was initiated by deputies Svetlana Savitskaya and Vitaly Sevastyanov -- both former cosmonauts -- asks Putin to halt the process. It also asks him to direct the Russian Space Agency to come up with ways to allow Mir, which was originally intended to work for three to five years, to continue to host cosmonauts.

The decision to dump Mir provoked anger among some cosmonauts and others who argue that the Mir has not outlived its usefulness, and among nationalists who see the space station as a national treasure.

The deputies said U.S. plans to build a limited national missile defense system, which Russia opposes on grounds that it would upset the balance of power in the world, confirmed the need to keep Mir, a symbol of Russia's technological prowess, in orbit.

-------- ukraine

The Struggle for Ukraine

February 21, 2001
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A33925-2001Feb21?language=printer

Of all the former Soviet republics to gain independence a decade ago, Ukraine may have started with the most advantages. With a territory the size of France and a population of more than 50 million, it instantly became a country to be reckoned with in Europe; add to that abundant natural resources, a large industrial base and a rich culture and language of its own, and Ukraine seemed sure to thrive outside Moscow's dominion. It joined NATO's Partnership for Peace early on, and President Leonid Kuchma won reelection two years ago by promising to lead the country closer to Western Europe.

Instead, Mr. Kuchma now seems ready to leap into the embrace of Russia's hungry new leader, Vladimir Putin, who has made rebuilding Moscow's power over the former republics a top priority. The reasons are sadly simple. Ukraine has become a sinkhole of political mismanagement and corruption, and Mr. Kuchma himself has been implicated in the brutal murder of a critical journalist. Western governments have responded by properly distancing themselves from the government and demanding an investigation of the murder; the International Monetary Fund, citing economic malfeasance, recently indicated it may suspend loans due to be disbursed next month.

Meanwhile, Mr. Putin has embraced Mr. Kuchma. Last week he traveled to the Ukrainian missile factory that Mr. Kuchma used to manage and signed deals that will connect Ukraine to the Russian electricity grid and create a joint aerospace venture between them. To the delight of Mr. Kuchma, the Russian president ostentatiously dismissed the fact that thousands of protesters have been marching in Kiev to demand the president's resignation. Mr. Putin should be happy, too: In addition to the economic deals, Ukraine recently agreed to full Russian involvement in any NATO exercises held on its territory, as well as closer ties between the Ukrainian and Russian fleets based in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol.

Ukraine's ability to resist Mr. Kuchma's corrupt maneuvering, and the renewed domination by Moscow that seems likely to come with it, depends on how well its fledgling democratic institutions hold up. So far there are some encouraging signs – thanks to independent media, including the Web site of murdered journalist Heorhiy Gongadze, the largest political demonstrations in Ukraine's decade of independence have taken place during the past two weeks in Kiev. In parliament, where audiotapes connecting Mr. Kuchma to the Gongadze case were first aired in December, a left-to-right coalition has been formed to press for Mr. Kuchma's removal as well as a series of democratic reforms.

The democrats face an uphill struggle; one of their leaders, former deputy prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, was arrested last week on corruption charges, only four days after joining the National Salvation Forum. Mr. Kuchma is clearly prepared to embrace extreme measures to stop his opponents; the West they aspire to join must do what it can to support them.

Of all the former Soviet republics to gain independence a decade ago, Ukraine may have started with the most advantages. With a territory the size of France and a population of more than 50 million, it instantly became a country to be reckoned with in Europe; add to that abundant natural resources, a large industrial base and a rich culture and language of its own, and Ukraine seemed sure to thrive outside Moscow's dominion. It joined NATO's Partnership for Peace early on, and President Leonid Kuchma won reelection two years ago by promising to lead the country closer to Western Europe.

Instead, Mr. Kuchma now seems ready to leap into the embrace of Russia's hungry new leader, Vladimir Putin, who has made rebuilding Moscow's power over the former republics a top priority. The reasons are sadly simple. Ukraine has become a sinkhole of political mismanagement and corruption, and Mr. Kuchma himself has been implicated in the brutal murder of a critical journalist. Western governments have responded by properly distancing themselves from the government and demanding an investigation of the murder; the International Monetary Fund, citing economic malfeasance, recently indicated it may suspend loans due to be disbursed next month.

Meanwhile, Mr. Putin has embraced Mr. Kuchma. Last week he traveled to the Ukrainian missile factory that Mr. Kuchma used to manage and signed deals that will connect Ukraine to the Russian electricity grid and create a joint aerospace venture between them. To the delight of Mr. Kuchma, the Russian president ostentatiously dismissed the fact that thousands of protesters have been marching in Kiev to demand the president's resignation. Mr. Putin should be happy, too: In addition to the economic deals, Ukraine recently agreed to full Russian involvement in any NATO exercises held on its territory, as well as closer ties between the Ukrainian and Russian fleets based in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol.

Ukraine's ability to resist Mr. Kuchma's corrupt maneuvering, and the renewed domination by Moscow that seems likely to come with it, depends on how well its fledgling democratic institutions hold up. So far there are some encouraging signs – thanks to independent media, including the Web site of murdered journalist Heorhiy Gongadze, the largest political demonstrations in Ukraine's decade of independence have taken place during the past two weeks in Kiev. In parliament, where audiotapes connecting Mr. Kuchma to the Gongadze case were first aired in December, a left-to-right coalition has been formed to press for Mr. Kuchma's removal as well as a series of democratic reforms.

The democrats face an uphill struggle; one of their leaders, former deputy prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, was arrested last week on corruption charges, only four days after joining the National Salvation Forum. Mr. Kuchma is clearly prepared to embrace extreme measures to stop his opponents; the West they aspire to join must do what it can to support them.

-------- u.s. nuc weapons

Submarine Officers' Background

February 21, 2001
Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Submarine-Snapshots.html

A court of inquiry, the Navy's highest form of administrative investigation, could result in a recommendation for courts-martial of the three USS Greeneville officers who are the subjects:

--Cmdr. Scott Waddle. 1981 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. Former executive officer of USS San Francisco. Received master's degree in national resource strategy from the National Defense University's Industrial College of the Armed Forces.

--Lt. Cmdr. Gerald K. Pfeifer. 1986 Naval Academy graduate. Previous assignments include two other nuclear submarines, the USS Nevada and the USS Batfish. Former commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet Nuclear Propulsion Examination Board.

--Lt. j.g. Michael J. Coen. Commissioned from the Navy ROTC at Florida State University. The Greeneville is his first assignment.

Three Navy admirals will make up the court of inquiry. They are:

-- Vice Adm. John B. Nathman. Commander of the Naval Air Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet. Former commander of the seven-ship Nimitz Battle Group. The USS Nimitz is the largest U.S. nuclear aircraft carrier.

-- Rear Adm. Paul F. Sullivan. Director of plans and policy at the U.S. Strategic Command. Former commander of the Navy's Trident submarine fleet in Washington state.

-- Rear Adm. David M. Stone. Commander of Cruiser/Destroyer Group FIVE and the Nimitz Battle Group. Former commander of the Standing Naval Force Mediterranean.

---

Army Bans Civilians From All Vehicles

February 21, 2001
New York Times
National News Briefs
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/21/national/21NATI.html

WASHINGTON, Feb. 20 (AP) - The Army is temporarily barring civilians from its aircraft, tanks and other vehicles in pending a review spurred by the fatal submarine accident off Hawaii, officials said today.

Lt. Col. Russ Oaks, an Army spokesman, said the ban was imposed on Monday and applied to the active-duty force, the National Guard and the Army Reserve.

Other Army officials said exceptions were being sought for civilian contractors and for journalists.

Sixteen civilians were aboard the nuclear submarine Greeneville, two of them at control stations, when it rammed a Japanese fishing boat on Feb. 9. The trawler sank, and nine Japanese were lost at sea.

-------

Many downwinders will never be paid

Wednesday, February 21, 2001
Deseret News
By Lee Davidson
lee@desnews.com
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,255007531,00.html

WASHINGTON - I've been breaking bad news to suffering Utahns. Because of the "Toxic Utah" series the Deseret News published last week, many e-mailed me saying they believe they are downwind cancer victims of atomic bomb tests in the 1950s - and they want to know how to apply for government compensation.

I believe most indeed are victims, but they don't qualify for compensation under current law. Worse, the law likely will never change because of some unfortunate political situations.

Here's a letter typical of many I received the past week (I've taken out the name):

"Good article on the downwinder issue. My wife was diagnosed with thyroid cancer about 10 years ago. She was born in 1937 and the doctor in California asked her if she lived in Utah or Nevada. . . .

"(She) was born in Draper, Utah. Her father was a dairy farmer and raised and milked his own cows. They, of course, drank raw milk. (Note: fallout radiation often entered the human food chain via milk from cows who ate radioactive-contaminated grass and feed. Raw milk was more contaminated than pasteurized milk.).

"Her family made many trips to southern Utah to visit family and friends. . . . We are wondering if (she) has a claim and, if so, how do we go about filing for a claim as a downwinder. We are convinced that the downwinder situation is true."

I wrote back saying that as the law now stands, she does not qualify for the $50,000 that some downwinders may receive.

To qualify, people must prove that they have a qualifying type of cancer (thyroid is one of many) and that they were a residents (not just visitors) of a relatively few counties in southern Utah, Nevada or Arizona. Atomic tests were conducted only when the wind was blowing toward Utah - and qualifying counties were those most close to the tests.

Salt Lake County is NOT among qualifying areas - even though Energy Department maps obtained by the Deseret News show that the heavily populated area was actually hit with more fallout than some southern Utah areas that do qualify.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and former Rep. Wayne Owens, D-Utah, who created the compensation program in 1990, have said many areas they believed should have been eligible for compensation could not be included - because it would have made the overall program too expensive and would have killed it for everyone.

Expanding the program now may be even more difficult. That's because a National Cancer Institute study a few years ago concluded that every county in America was hit with at least some fallout from the atomic tests.

If the program is expanded to include, say, Salt Lake County or southern Idaho (two hard-hit areas), virtually every other county in America could also clamor to be included. That would be considered too expensive, and would block expansion - and could even threaten survival of the current program.

(Hatch, however, last year did add some more cancers to the list and made qualifying easier. But the compensation program is currently out of money and is awaiting more funding from Congress.)

I can relate to the frustration of downwinders. My dad died of multiple myeloma - a once rare cancer that has claimed many Utahns I knew (including former Gov. Scott Matheson).

My dad bought a new house in Kearns in Salt Lake County in 1952. I imagine him and many of our neighbors working outside landscaping their new homes during the era of upwind atomic tests. I am amazed at how many in the neighborhood died of cancer.

My dad - as well as many of our relatives - also occasionally had helped with a family sheep-shearing business in the western desert. I remember my uncle Art talking about how one yellowish fallout cloud produced rain that killed thousands of just-sheared sheep. Most of the sheep-shearers and ranchers that tried to help them later died of cancer, including Art.

They were not full-time residents of eligible counties - so they and their survivors never qualified for compensation.

They were likely victims of U.S. Cold War testing. But don't expect the government to acknowledge that - or to pay for it. Politics and money are in the way.

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

Energy Supply Crucial for Economy

February 21, 2001
Reuters
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-energy-usa-d.html

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - To fuel the U.S. economy with a steady source of energy, the federal government must open more land to oil and gas drilling, improve the electricity grid and ease environmental regulations, a coalition of energy industry groups said on Wednesday.

Many of the reforms sought by the oil, natural gas, electricity, nuclear and mining trade groups are expected to be included in broad energy legislation that will be introduced next week in the Senate by Republican lawmakers.

President George W. Bush, a former Texas oilman, has publicly promoted many of the suggestions advocated by the groups.

The industry groups said stable, affordable sources of energy were crucial to the U.S. economy, which has already felt the sting of a slowdown in manufacturing and a decline in consumer confidence.

``Electricity capacity and, more broadly, energy supply must be increased to support continued U.S. economic growth, even at a reduced rate,'' said a report issued by the U.S. Energy Association, a coalition of various energy industry groups.

Soaring energy costs pushed U.S. consumer prices up in January, with the Consumer Price Index rising 0.6 percent for its largest gain since March, the government said on Wednesday. The index is the main gauge of U.S. inflation.

Providing consumers with an increased supply of affordable energy is key to keeping the American economy chugging along, the report said.

EASE ENVIRONMENT RULES?

To increase domestic energy supplies, the trade groups said environmental policies should be relaxed to give oil companies drilling access to more federal lands. They also endorsed drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a proposal backed by the Bush administration.

Both measures are strongly opposed by U.S. environmental groups and many Democratic lawmakers.

However, the industry report warned that the government should not depend on a single energy source but promote a diverse energy portfolio made up of fossil fuels, nuclear and renewable sources likewind and solar.

Another problem -- highlighted by California's woes during the past two months -- is the failure of the nation's transmission grid to keep pace with growth in electricity demand.

Between 1989 and 1998, the miles of transmission lines per megawatt of summer power demand declined by 16 percent, the industry report said. Some projections show a further 13 percent decline in transmission capacity by 2008.

ELECTRICITY SUPER HIGHWAY NEEDED

Put in layman's terms, the nation's electric grid is a two-lane highway of transmission lines that need better connections across state lines to create a ``super highway'' of power that easily flows to regions with greater demand, the report said.

State and local regulations have made it difficult, particularly in electricity-starved California, to build new power plants and transmission lines.

The report recommended giving the federal government more say in approving new transmission lines that would provide electricity to a specific region of the country.

The industry groups involved in preparing the report included the: American Petroleum Institute, American Gas Association, Nuclear Energy Institute, American Public Power Association, National Mining Association and Edison Electric Institute.

A White House energy task force headed by Vice President Dick Cheney is expected to release in about a month its own recommendations for overhauling the nation's energy policies.

Cheney, a former top executive of oilfield services firm Halliburton Co (HAL.N), is seen as sympathetic to many of the energy measures sought by the trade groups.

---

Energy Groups Release Wish List

February 21, 2001
Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Energy-Wish-List.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Getting the jump on Congress and the Bush administration, energy industry groups released a wish list Wednesday that pleads for more oil and gas drilling on public lands and greater reliance on nuclear energy.

``Economic efficiency, energy security, energy technology and regulation and incentives are the four core principles we believe a sound national energy strategy should be anchored by,'' said Barry Worthington, the U.S. Energy Association's executive director.

In recommending increased supply and more efficient use of affordable energy resources and more technology development, the energy association recommended a national policy that looks to 2050 and beyond and can ``meet several challenges, including overly burdensome environmental regulations that prevent access'' to new sources of energy.

The ``cornerstone of a sound national energy strategy is reliance on competitive markets to allocate energy supply and demand,'' the report says. ``As time and technologies change, so also should restrictive energy policies'' for domestic resources such as coal, petroleum, natural gas and uranium, it says.

Environmentalists quickly denounced the report as an example of self-serving corporate interests who blame environmental regulations for unrelated problems such as the energy crisis in California.

``It's kind of a roadmap of what the lobbyists want,'' said Patricio Silva, a specialist in energy issues for the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, which released its own energy recommendations earlier this month. ``They want massive subsidies for exploration, new transmission lines, streamlined environmental oversight.''

The energy association's strategy says the government should consider ``the adverse national security implications of rising oil imports'' and wants the electricity transmission network and the nation's energy delivery infrastructure updated.

Other recommendations are to:

--Recognize no single source of energy can meet growing needs.

--Allow environmentally sound access to domestic resources.

--Spur capital investment through tax reform.

--Increase allocations for low-income home energy aid and weatherizing.

Given that 80 percent of the nation's electricity needs are met by sources other than the U.S. nuclear energy industry, the energy association wants a policy that ``brings nuclear energy back into favor,'' the report says.

But the resources council's Silva said the call for more nuclear energy comes as the nation is ``still grappling with long-term storage questions'' for nuclear fuel.

In its report, the National Resources Defense Council emphasized increased energy efficiency through raised fuel economy standards and tax credits for buying hybrid vehicles, reduced use of oil and coal and increased reliance on natural gas ``as a bridge to renewable and environmentally sound energy sources in the future.''

The energy association, representing the United States in the World Energy Council, released its report in advance of a comprehensive energy bill that Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, is expected to release next week.

-------- kentucky

Plant to replace corroded wells
At least 19 wells will be replaced.
The corrosion seems to be caused by normal soil conditions and not from leaking contaminants.

Wednesday, February 21
Paducah Sun
By Bill Bartleman
http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/news2001/nn11047.htm

The replacement of at least 19 monitoring wells damaged by severe corrosion will start this spring at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant.

The wells are located around landfills outside the plant's fenced area on Ogden Landing Road. Regular samples are taken from the wells to monitor the spread of trichlorethylene, technetium 99 and other contaminants. Trichloroethylene is a solvent once used to clean equipment in the nuclear fuel plant, while technetium 99 is a radioactive isotope.

There are 135 wells monitored for compliance of state environmental regulations, according to Greg Cook, spokesman for Bechtel Jacobs Co., which manages cleanup at the plant. Cook said other wells also show signs of corrosion.

"We don't know how many others may need to be replaced," he said. "We are still looking at that."

A 150-page report prepared for the Kentucky Natural Resources Cabinet says the corrosion in the 1/16th-inch stainless steel casing is caused by enzymes created by bacteria in the groundwater and around the wells. The enzymes are known as microbial agents.

"The state is not satisfied that the samples (from the corroded wells) are completely reliable," Cook said. "We aren't happy with the situation either, so they'll have to be replaced."

The 19 new wells could cost the U.S. Department of Energy as much as $1.5 million, Cook said. Money earmarked for other cleanup and monitoring would be diverted to the well replacements.

The report, under review by state environmental regulators, said there is no evidence that the corrosion was caused by contaminants leaking from the plant.

Cook said it is a problem that could occur in any well and appears to be related to western Kentucky soil conditions. The wells, installed in the early 1990s, are 50 to 100 feet deep.

Cook said alternatives to stainless steel are being studied, and that the likely alternative will be plastic, which he said is resistant to corrosion.

-------- new mexico

New Mexico

01/02/21
USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Los Alamos - Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists have developed a technology that could all but eliminate hazardous corrosives in computer chip production. A computer chip plant produces 4 million gallons of wastewater and thousands of gallons of corrosive hazardous materials a day such as hydrochloric and sulfuric acid, researchers said.

-------- new york

Indian Point Plant at Half Power After Water Leak Is Discovered

February 21, 2001
New York Times
By WINNIE HU
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/21/nyregion/21NUKE.html

WHITE PLAINS, Feb. 20 - A tiny leak in a water pipe at Indian Point 2 has forced Consolidated Edison to operate the nuclear reactor at half power temporarily and has renewed safety concerns among some Westchester residents.

Con Edison officials ordered the reduction in power after a plant operator spotted a wisp of steam coming from an insulated pipe in the turbine building, on the non-nuclear side of the plant, during a routine inspection Monday afternoon. After removing the insulation, the operator found a pin-size hole in the inch-and- a-quarter-thick steel pipe.

Chris Olert, a spokesman for Con Edison, said a minute amount of water - nothing radioactive - had leaked out of the pipe. He said the leak was not a threat to anyone. "We discovered it, we're assessing it, and we're going to fix it and return to full power," though he said the utility did not know when.

The plant in Buchanan, about 35 miles north of Manhattan, closed last February after a tiny amount of radioactive water leaked from a cracked tube. It was restored to full power on Jan. 28 after a short delay caused by another small, fully contained leak in a valve regulating the flow of radioactive coolant. Since then, Con Edison has reduced the plant's power only once, on Feb. 7, for minor repairs, Mr. Olert said.

But some Westchester officials and residents have continued to criticize Con Edison, saying that it had compromised public safety by restarting the plant too quickly. An internal Con Edison report, which was made public in mid-January, acknowledged that some workers had made avoidable mistakes in bringing the reactor back online, in part because they felt pressure from their supervisors to act quickly.

Representative Sue Kelly, a Republican, and several others called today for Con Edison to keep the plant at half power until a recent inspection report by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission could be reviewed and released publicly. "Since the plant was restarted, we have seen the consequences of rushing the restart process," she said. "There has been one problem after another."

But Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees Indian Point 2, said he saw no reason the plant could not be operated safely at full power once the leak was repaired. "At this point, it looks like they had a defect in the pipe," he said. "They caught it very early on."

-------- ohio

PIKETON WORKERS CALL OFF PROTEST DIRECTED AT BUSH

Wednesday, February 21, 2001
The Columbus Dispatch
By Jonathan Riskind

WASHINGTON -- Southern Ohio uranium-enrichment workers were revved up to demonstrate outside Sullivant Elementary School yesterday in an effort to persuade President Bush to free federal money needed to save at least 1,200 jobs.

But the protest was canceled after a union leader was given high- level assurances from Gov. Bob Taft's office and the Bush administration that the funding holdup is being addressed.

"The governor's office requested we not do this based on this being worked out at highest levels,'' said Dan Minter, president of Local 5- 689 of the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union.

Minter said that based on his conversations with various officials, including the chief of staff to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, he thinks that the Bush administration will commit to a multiyear funding plan and release the initial installment.

"That's the best I can read until it's done,'' Minter said. "They're having further discussions as to where the money is coming from.''

The Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon is to be shut down in June by USEC, a privatized federal corporation formerly known as the United States Enrichment Corp.

USEC runs the country's only two uranium-enrichment plants, and has decided to operate only the facility in Paducah, Ky.

USEC has struggled financially since its 1998 privatization, and critics say the country shouldn't rely on just the Paducah plant for enriched uranium, a material used for fuel by nuclear-power plants.

The Clinton administration in October announced a $630 million plan to keep the Piketon plant on standby and launch an advanced- technology pilot program at the plant. But there are questions about whether the Clinton administration's plan to use a pot of cash left over after privatization could be done without congressional authorization.

Bush announced his support for the Piketon plant during the campaign, although he didn't back the specific $630 million plan.

The issue "is a presidential priority, a department priority, and we continue to work with the (Congress) to make sure we get it resolved and achieved,'' Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis said.

When Bush saw Taft yesterday in Columbus, the president raised the issue, said Kevin Kellems, Taft's spokesman.

Kellems wasn't sure what Bush told the governor.

But "the fact that the president recognized the importance of Piketon to Ohio without prompting is significant, and equally significant are the number of substantive conversations ongoing between the governor's office, the congressional delegation and the administration,'' Kellems said.

Taft has said an initial installment needs to be released by March 1 so preparations can begin to weatherize the plant after USEC shuts down operations.

jriskind@dispatch.com

-------- south carolina

S.C. To Test Water for Uranium

February 21, 2001
Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-BRF-Uranium-Water.html

GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) -- The state health department plans to test water in as many as 30 additional wells for uranium after earlier inspections found high levels of the metal.

Health and Environmental Control Department officials notified about 500 residents of the inspections at a meeting Tuesday.

State epidemiologist Robert Marino said the radioactive element can cause kidney damage, but not cancer, and he told residents any uranium in a person's body would go away after they stopped drinking the water.

Earlier this month, uranium levels more than 50 times those considered safe were found in three wells, prompting the department to gather water samples from 46 wells in the Simpsonville area, in northwestern South Carolina. The 30 additional wells are in the same area.

Tests found uranium levels as high as nine times above the safety standard. Experts believe the contamination is the result of a vein of naturally occurring uranium.

Health officials have said they received no reports of anyone suffering ill effects from drinking the water.

-------- us nuc politics

John Bolton nominated as the new Undersec. of State for Arms Control, Non-Prolif. and Intl. Security (position formerly held by John Holum)

February 21, 2001
Daryl Kimball

The future of the United States commitment to the arms control and it treaty obligations has become a bit more uncertain with today's nomination of John Bolton -- currently with AEI and formerly an asst. sec. of state under the Bush Sr. administration -- to John Holum's old position. As the material below illustrates, Bolton is NOT what you might call a "compassionate conservative" nearer the political mainstream. Rather, he is a staunch unilateralist who is on the fringe on a number of issues, and is out of line with the positions of a number of other Bush appointees and advisors, including Secretary of State Powell.

Last month, Jesse Helms said about John Bolton: "John Bolton is the kind of man with whom I would want to stand at Armageddon, if it should be my lot to be on hand for what is forecast to be the final battle between good and evil in this world."

The nomination, if approved by the Senate, would put a fox in charge of the non-proliferation chicken coop.

For your reading pleasure here are excerpts from four articles for the AEI.org web site archives from Bolton. Copies of the complete articles are attached below:

* On North Korea: "A sounder U.S. policy would start by making it clear to the North that we are indifferent to whether we ever have "normal" diplomatic relations with it, and that achieving that goal is entirely in their interests, not ours."

* On the Senate CTBT vote: "In any event, the CTBT is dead. For Americans, this should be an issue in the 2000 presidential campaign, part of a larger debate on foreign policy issues sadly obscured under Clinton. For others, this is a useful opportunity to re-examine in a hard-headed and realistic way how international peace and security are really guaranteed, and how to pursue serious non-proliferation efforts."

* On Taiwan: "...diplomatic recognition of Taiwan would be just the kind of demonstration of U.S. leadership that the region needs and that many of its people hope for. For too long, Beijing has indulged in angry and intemperate language reminiscent of Nikita Khrushchev's performance at the United Nations when he pounded his shoe on his desk to express displeasure. Beijing should understand that such carrying on is not acceptable. The notion that China would actually respond with force is a fantasy, albeit one the Communist leaders welcome and encourage in the West."

* On the United States' UN arrears: " Moreover, many Republicans in Congress - and perhaps a majority - not only do not care about losing the General Assembly vote but actually see it as a "make my day" outcome. Indeed, once the vote is lost, and the adverse consequences predicted by the U.N.'s supporters begin to occur, this will simply provide further evidence to many why nothing more should be paid to the U.N. system.(Moreover, even if the General Assembly vote is lost, we retain our Security Council seat and veto, which are far more important.)"

We should pay close attention to Bolton's confirmation process.

- DK

--

President George W. Bush today announced his intention to nominate six individuals to serve in his administration....

February 21, 2001
THE WHITE HOUSE
http://usinfo.state.gov

The President intends to nominate John Robert Bolton to be Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs. He is currently Senior Vice President for Public Policy Research at the American Enterprise Institute and has previously served in several positions within the Department of State, the Department of Justice and at the U.S. Agency for International Development during the Reagan and Bush administrations. Most recently he served as Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs. A native of Maryland, he received both his bachelor's and law degrees from Yale University.

-------- MILITARY

------- arms sales
Arms Sales...and Human Rights

September 21, 1997
Washington Times
By John R. Bolton

Congress will soon confront, in particularly stark terms, a head-on foreign policy clash between "values" and "interests" in the form of Rep. Cynthia McKinney's amendment to the State Department authorization bill.

Her amendment would ostensibly prohibit U.S. military assistance and arms transfers to countries that did not promote democracy, respect human rights, refrain from aggression or participate in the U.N. conventional arms register.

Miss McKinney made clear in House debate exactly how she views her country: "The United States is unqualifiedly the arms dealer to the world, and the merchant for death of the world's dictators." She characterized her amendment as "the fundamental answer to the question, 'Will we sell weapons to dictators?' "

The real question, however, is whether Congress promotes American defense and foreign policy interests by imposing still another set of unilateral sanctions.

Lost in the tent-revival moral fervor of the House debate was the basic point that our global influence is not always exerted through people who behave exactly as we do (or as we expect them to do). If that were so, we wouldn't need substantial foreign arms sales to begin with, let alone Miss McKinney's "Code of Conduct."

The rhetoric of democratic values and human rights tend to be absolute in nature, and yet is precisely that absolutism that creates problems in our uncomfortably messy international reality. Thus, the Clinton administration's human rights policy comes down hard on Burma and lightly on China, to the particular amusement of the ruling elements in Beijing. Similarly, in the field of arms sales, what seems like comforting and high-minded moral rhetoric immediately creates difficulties in regions of the highest interest to the United States.

Take, for example, the Middle East, where the United States has two principal interests: preserving the State of Israel, and ensuring continued American access to critical energy supplies. Even in the calmest times, these are difficult goals to reconcile, and provide a fertile ground for troublemakers. In the Persian Gulf crisis, to take the most recent vivid case, virtually the only "sensible" gambit by Saddam Hussein during the entire affair was his effort to provoke Israel into military action and thereby split the fragile Arab-Western coalition stitched together by President Bush. Fortunately, Saddam failed to exploit Arab-Israeli tensions to the detriment of the United States, but we cannot always be so confident in the future.

Imagine the possibilities if Miss McKinney's Code of Conduct became law. First, consider the case of Israel. By now, we are inured to endless allegations of Israeli human-rights abuses in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the "Occupied Territories" of unlimited and unending U.N. resolutions. Miss McKinney's Code judges actions by governments, and is not restricted to their national territories, thus making Israeli conduct in the Territories fair game for analysis under its human rights provisions. Before long, Israel's opponents, armed with yet another unhelpful General Assembly resolution, will appear in Washington arguing for prohibiting arms sales to Israel under the McKinney Code.

Consider next the Arab countries, both those that have made peace with Israel and those that have not. Despite our fondest hopes, none of even the friendliest Arab states fully comports with the McKinney test of having a government which "was chosen by and permits free and fair elections." One might also ask how these nations would meet the McKinney test of promoting "equality before the law" for women, as well as her revisionist First Amendment requirement for respecting individual and minority rights of speech and association.

Thus, depending on the circumstances, the McKinney amendment might prohibit us: (1) from selling arms to Israel or (2) from selling arms to friendly Arab States or (3) from selling arms to both. In so doing, the substantive thrust of her Code would deprive us of considerable leverage in a region of the highest U.S. national interests for reasons fundamentally unrelated to the preservation and advancement of those interests. By leaving the United States with fewer military pressure points, the risk of war--and certainly the opportunities for unfriendly nations to exploit the region's inherent tensions--would be immeasurably strengthened.

Ironically, a key argument for the McKinney amendment (especially compared to earlier versions) is that the president can waive its application by invoking U.S. national security interests.

This waiver provision, however, largely misses the point. Branding a country as a pariah, as the amendment requires, hardly serves much purpose if the president subsequently decides to permit weapons sales. To the contrary, merely the public humiliation imposed by the McKinney Amendment weakens our diplomatic position, and strengthens the hands of foreign adversaries and competitors.

Moreover, if the very utilization of the proposed code is contrary to our national security interest, why are we adopting it to begin with? Miss McKinney's logic here is, to say the least, weak.

Current U.S. arms sales policy takes human rights into account, inter alia, in helping to ascertain "the potential for misuse of the export in question" and "the risk of adverse economic, political or social impact within the recipient nation." This is a sound and prudent policy, and one both militarily and politically appropriate in the post-Cold War period.

The McKinney amendment's distortion of priorities will impair our security interests in a complex and still-threatening global environment.

John R. Bolton is the senior vice president of the American Enterprise Institute. During the Bush administration, he was assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs.

-------- colombia

U.S. backs Colombia anti-drug plan

2/21/2001
InfoBeat News
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=6psod3f6gbv0k

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) - Sen. John McCain and four colleagues met with Ecuadoran President Gustavo Noboa on Tuesday to seek continued support for a major U.S.-backed anti-drug initiative focusing on neighboring Colombia. The senators are touring the region to defend Plan Colombia, which has drawn fire from critics in the region who fear it will spark violence that could spill across borders.

Colombia is the main recipient of $1.3 billion in U.S. aid, most of it military, to fight drugs in the region - a Clinton-era initiative. President Bush, is to meet with Colombian President Andres Pastrana Feb. 27 to review anti-drug cooperation. In Colombia on Monday, the senators toured a military base where U.S. special forces are training Colombian anti-drug battalions, and another where the United States has provided intelligence support. "We in the United States have as deep and important interest in the eradication of drugs as the people of Colombia," McCain said in Bogota, Colombia's capital.

Ecuador, whose remote Amazon jungle region borders vast coca-growing areas in Colombia, committed its support for the plan during a visit by then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in August.

Cocaine for arms trade suspected

BARRANCO MINAS, Colombia (AP) - Troops making a late-night descent on an airstrip in the Amazon didn't get the men they were looking for: a fugitive Brazilian drug lord and the Colombian guerrilla commander who allegedly sold him cocaine for arms. But the military said the commando-style operation near the Brazilian border helped to expose a cocaine-for-guns operation fueling the country's 37-year war and demonstrating the guerrillas' deepening involvement in the international drug trade. Eager to show their commitment to a U.S.-backed drug war, the armed forces flew journalists and Gen. Peter Pace, the commander of U.S. military forces in Latin America, into the area Monday. The military gave the visitors a briefing and a tour of previously uncharted coca fields and one of the cocaine-processing laboratories discovered in recent days. Also on display were Brazilian passports, confiscated cash, seized satellite phones, and notebooks recording supposed cocaine-for-arms transactions between Brazilian traffickers and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

Six Brazilians are among the 29 people arrested so far in Operation Black Cat, launched on Feb. 11. The FARC has admitted to "taxing" peasant farmers who grow coca crops, but denies it smuggles cocaine or works directly with international drug traffickers.

-------- drug war

State attorney general backs cannabis club

02/21/2001
USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2001-02-21-cannabis.htm

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - California Attorney General Bill Lockyer is backing an Oakland cannabis distribution club in its fight with the federal government over medical marijuana.

Lockyer filed a brief with the California Supreme Court on Tuesday arguing that the state has the right to enforce its medical marijuana law, which was approved by voters in 1996.

The law allows seriously ill patients to use marijuana, conflicting with federal anti-drug laws.

The brief was filed in case scheduled to go before the Supreme Court on March 28. The Clinton administration sued the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Club and five other California pot clubs in 1998.

A federal district judge sided with the government in its efforts to halt the Oakland club from distributing the drug. But last year, an appeals court ruled that "medical necessity" is a legal defense.

The Oakland club, the only one of the original six still functioning, is not distributing marijuana, but is issuing identification cards to be ready if it does get a favorable court ruling.

---

Study Finds Teenage Drug Use Higher in U.S. Than in Europe

February 21, 2001
New York Times
By KATE ZERNIKE
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/21/health/21DRUG.html

American teenagers are far more likely than their European peers to use marijuana and other illicit drugs, but European teenagers are more likely to smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol, according to a study of 31 nations.

The study, released yesterday at a meeting of the World Health Organization in Stockholm, compared the results of 1999 surveys answered anonymously by 14,000 10th-grade students in the United States and 95,000 10th-grade students in 30 European countries.

Among the European students, 37 percent had smoked at least one cigarette in the previous 30 days, compared with 26 percent in the United States. Sixty-one percent of the European 10th graders had consumed alcohol in the previous 30 days, compared with 40 percent of the students in the United States.

Forty-one percent of 10th graders in the United States had tried marijuana, compared with 17 percent of those in Europe. And 23 percent of the students in the United States had used other illicit drugs, compared with 6 percent of Europeans.

Researchers said that the study, the first to make such broad comparisons, would help them and policy makers determine the effects of culture and other factors on drug use.

"We tend to think within national boundaries," said Thor Bjarnason, a sociologist at the State University of New York at Albany and a co-author of the report, the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Drugs. "If you're having a war on drugs, one measure is within a comparative perspective. If drug use is increasing at a slower rate in your country, that could be a victory."

The study was developed by the Council of Europe, an intergovernmental organization focused on social and economic issues, with the help of researchers at the University of Michigan's "Monitoring the Future" project, which has surveyed students on a variety of issues for 26 years and is considered the most reliable barometer of student drug- use trends. The European survey was designed in such a way so the two could be accurately compared.

Dr. Bjarnason called the differences in illicit drug use "very striking."

"That's one in four students in this country," he said. "Even in the European countries with the highest rates, it's only one in 10."

Yet while a smaller percentage of European students used illicit drugs, that percentage rose from 1995 to 1999, particularly in former Eastern- bloc countries.

By contrast, much drug use in the United States has declined or held steady - with the exception of Ecstasy use, which has risen sharply.

Researchers offered little analysis to explain the differences. That, they said, would come in the second phase of the study.

But, they noted, the widespread use of marijuana and other illicit drugs began in the United States and spread to Europe so it might be that Europeans simply follow the American trend.

Others cited the more relaxed rules governing alcohol and cigarette use in many European nations, as well as other cultural differences.

Researchers said they were particularly interested in the survey results of marijuana use in the Netherlands, known for its relatively permissive drug laws.

While marijuana use was relatively widespread there - 28 percent of 10th graders had tried it, compared with the European average of 17 percent - four other European countries, Ireland, France, the Czech Republic, and Britain, had higher rates, as did the United States.

---

Strict parents can curb teen vices

02/21/2001
USA Today
http://usatoday.com/news/nlead.htm

WASHINGTON (AP) - Teenagers whose parents monitor the television they watch and the CDs they listen to are less likely to smoke, drink or use drugs. Still, seven in 10 youths live in households where parents set few rules or none at all, an anti-drug research center said Wednesday. "Parents should not look to Washington, or the statehouse or city hall. They ought to look in the mirror and say, 'What am I doing to fight drugs?"' said Joseph Califano, chairman of the Columbia University-based National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse.

"When you have a sensible set of expectations and rules, you are going to have teens with a much lower risk of using drugs."

Parental neglect "quadruples the likelihood their teens will smoke, drink or use drugs," Califano said in an interview Tuesday.

Edward Jurith, acting drug policy adviser to President Bush, commended the study, which Jurith said reflects his office's findings.

"Youth tell us that their parents can empower them to make healthy decisions about drugs," Jurith said in a statement. "Parents' words and actions are more effective than they may think in keeping their children away from drugs. The CASA study underscores that the struggle against illegal drugs is a continuous process of education and prevention."

The study shows a correlation between teens at low risk of abusing drugs and those who live in highly structured households.

Researchers said, however, the study does not demonstrate a direct cause and effect. Still, it said youth in "hands-off" households were twice as likely to abuse drugs as the average teen; and such youth with absentee parents were four times as likely to do so as children in highly structured "hands-on" homes.

In its sixth annual survey of teen-agers, the center focused for the first time on a parent's role in abetting teens' risky behavior. It also found that 61% of 12- to 17-year-olds are at risk of abusing cigarettes, alcohol or drugs.

The survey measures risk, not actual substance abuse: embarrassed teens might not be willing to fully report illegal or unacceptable behavior, researchers said.

Results are based on the telephone interviews of 1,000 teens, randomly chosen from a group representing the general population of youth ages 12 to 17. They were asked about their smoking, drinking or drug-taking histories or habits; the behavior of their friends; and the household rules set by their parents.

Leroy Batts, a San Antonio retiree, makes sure his 15-year-old grandson, Kevin, does his chores, doesn't wear baggy, gang-like fashions and eats dinner at the table each night.

"I'm strict with him, but I don't browbeat him," said Batts, a retired soldier who has reared Kevin since the boy was 3 years old. "When he's sitting at the table every night, if something went on during the day, it will show and we can talk about it."

The study should demonstrate that American adults can counter many of the enticing messages their children get from TV, music or the Internet, Califano said.

Parents were placed into three groups, based on about a dozen actions reported by their children. "Hands-on" parents consistently took 10 or more of these actions, which included: turning off the TV during dinner; banning music CDs with offensive lyrics; knowing where their children were after school; imposing curfews; assigning their teens regular chores; eating dinner with

---

Illinois

01/02/21
USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Rockford - Police arrested two men on drug charges at a daycare center where four children were being cared for. The two had been living in the house where police found cocaine, marijuana and an unlicensed handgun.

---

Internet's easy access feeds drugs

February 21, 2001
Washington Times
By Betsy Pisik
http://www.washtimes.com/world/default-2001221215258.htm

NEW YORK - The Internet has become a powerful sales tool for traffickers of illegal narcotics and prescription drugs, according to a U.N. report that warned the dark side of globalization had made illicit drugs easier than ever to obtain.

On-line pharmacies are dispensing legal medications, from Viagra to addictive pain relievers, without prescription, according to the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), which said the drugs should not be dispensed without a doctor's prescription or other professional oversight.

Illegal drugs, particularly psychotropics and amphetamines, are increasingly available from Internet sites, the group warned in a report prepared for release today.

The report called improper drug use the fastest growing problem in the industrialized world.

Because the tablets and liquids can be packaged in small, innocuously labeled containers, they pass unsuspected through the usual mail controls, and few of the shippers are apprehended.

"It started as a trickle and -wham! - now it's a mushroom cloud," said INCB board member Herbert Okun, former U.S. ambassador to Germany and the United Nations, who has been involved with the Vienna drug board since 1992.

He said he didn't have figures on Internet drug sales, "but you can see just by looking on your computer screen how many sites there are, how many links, the whole thing is exploding."

Paraphernalia also is abundant over the Web, including Dutch hydroponic systems for growing high-potency marijuana and recipes for stirring up batches of Ecstasy in kitchens or basement labs.

The INCB first flagged Internet sales as a potential problem in 1996, but it said in the new report that few governments had yet figured out how to control proscribed Internet activity.

The annual report, compiled by the Vienna-based INCB, tracks trends in illicit drug production and consumption around the world.

This year's report, based on 2000 statistics, found that the use of Ecstasy is on the rise in the United States - while heroin is on the decline, and consumption of marijuana and cocaine remain virtually unchanged.

It also said Americans are experimenting at an earlier age.

In spite of Washington's "war on drugs," the INCB painted a grim picture of a uniquely American prescription-drug culture that is rich, varied and thriving.

The panel said pharmaceutical companies have "medicalized" social ills such as anxiety, sadness, weight gain and hyperactivity in children.

"As of yet there is no neurological evidence, no physiological evidence that [attention deficit disorder] exists, but we do know that we have hyperactive children," Mr. Okun said yesterday. "Therefore, the treatment tends to be symptomatic, and therefore excessive."

Drug manufacturers also have begun sophisticated advertising campaigns on television and in print, creating brand-name-style demand for prescription drugs.

"I can hardly get through Time or Newsweek now without seeing ads for something I've never heard of before," marveled Mr. Okun. "Social anxiety disorder? An interesting acronym."

Medication for a variety of social ills is increasingly the norm, according to the report, which said consumption of products to control weight and ease anxiety are soaring.

He said widespread "ask-your-doctor" advertising is being used to market prescription drugs for allergies, hyperactivity and fungi as cheerfully as over-the-counter antacids, in violation of international conventions.

Americans increasingly consume image-enhancing and performance-boosting drugs, the INCB found. Chief among these, Mr. Okun said, are anorectics for slimming, steroids for muscle-building, Ritalin for hyperactivity, and Viagra for sexual performance.

He said the average American consumes 10 times as much of these drugs as the typical Western European.

"We have what may be called, without exaggeration, a pill-popping culture," he said.

-------

Suspects can be barred from homes

2/21/2001
InfoBeat News
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=6psod3f6gbv0k

WASHINGTON (AP) - Police who are convinced that a drug suspect will destroy evidence if left alone may hold him outside his home while they get a warrant, the Supreme Court ruled Tuesday. In a second case exploring the balance between law enforcement and privacy rights, the court also heard the arguments of a man arrested after police outside his house used a heat-measuring device to detect a marijuana growing operation inside.

In the first case, Charles McArthur and a Sullivan, Ill., officer had a polite standoff outside his trailer four years ago, after police confronted him with allegations from his estranged wife that he had marijuana hidden under his couch. For about two hours, McArthur refused to let the officer inside without a warrant, and the officer refused to let McArthur go inside alone. The justices voted 8-1 that the officer acted appropriately. As in several other drug-search cases the court has heard or decided recently, the issue pits law enforcement needs against the right to privacy. The court explored the same equation in arguments involving the heat detector.

Danny Lee Kyllo claims police violated the Fourth Amendment's protections against unreasonable searches when they used the heat detector to scan his house from a distance.

Ex-judge gets rehab in heroin flap

PITTSBURGH (AP) - A former judge was sentenced to two years of rehabilitation and probation Tuesday for doing legal favors for a drug dealer in exchange for heroin, cocaine and prescription drugs. Gigi Sullivan, 40, must spend 30 days at a drug treatment facility, followed by 23 months of supervised probation. She had faced to up to 60 years in prison and $50,000 in fines for dealing drugs, obstructing justice and operating a corrupt organization from her suburban office between 1996 and 1998. Prosecutors said the former suburban Pittsburgh magistrate did legal favors for a used car dealer in exchange for drugs, including tipping him off to a planned police search. Judge Robert E. Colville warned Sullivan that if she failed to comply with his sentence - including five years of parole with regular drug tests to follow probation - he would send her to prison. Sullivan worked as an assistant in Colville's office when he was a district attorney in the early 1980s.

Sullivan, the mother of an 11-year-old boy, already has spent 39 days at a clinic for addicts and applied to the Betty Ford Clinic in Palm Springs, Calif., but could not afford it, her lawyers said. She lost her district justice's seat in a 1998 election.

---

UN drug panel expresses alarm

2/21/2001
InfoBeat News
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=30lgp02u9ljid

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - A U.N. panel of drug experts expressed alarm at the high consumption of prescription and other controlled drugs in wealthy countries, in its annual report released Wednesday. The oversupply of medication can be just as much of a problem as the undersupply seen in developing countries, said Professor Hamid Ghodse, president of the International Narcotics Board that prepared the report. "Up to 70% of long-term use of psychotropic drugs is irrelevant and often prescribed for social reasons," Ghodse told reporters Tuesday, citing medication to relieve pressures arising from unemployment, marriage difficulties and other problems. The report looked at controlled drugs - narcotics and psychotropic or mind-altering substances - in prosperous nations. It cited loose prescription regulations, aggressive marketing techniques and unethical prescription practices as prime causes of overconsumption.

Marijuana was the most commonly abused drug in Canada, Mexico and the United States, and the cultivation of highly potent cannabis in Canada and parts of the United States was increasing.

-------- iraq

Chinese Fiber-Optic Work Linked to Raided Iraqi Sites

February 21, 2001
New York Times
By DAVID E. SANGER and STEVEN LEE MYERS
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/21/world/21CHIN.html

WASHINGTON, Feb. 20 - Chinese workers were helping the Iraqi military build a fiber-optic network linked to radar stations and other targets attacked by American and British warplanes last week, defense and intelligence officials said today, raising a new challenge for the Bush administration just as it is communicating for the first time with the Chinese leadership.

The Chinese assistance, which was first reported over the weekend by The Washington Post, apparently violated United Nations sanctions imposed on Iraq after its invasion of Kuwait in 1990, officials said today. It was part of what American officials have described as furtive efforts by the Iraqis to evade sanctions and rebuild their military.

Administration officials said that the bombing in Baghdad on Friday night was timed to avoid injuries to the workers. That is an especially sensitive subject in the Pentagon after the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade in May 1999. Three Chinese were killed, and despite the insistence of the United States that the incident was an accident, diplomatic relations were set back by months.

China's seeming involvement in military programs in Iraq raises diplomatic difficulties for the Bush administration, which was hesitant today to discuss China's role in the fiber-optic project.

President Bush had his first exchange of letters with President Jiang Zemin last week, a general exchange that apparently contained no reference to the project in Iraq. Mr. Bush has been seeking to establish a personal relationship with Mr. Jiang gradually before tackling the usual array of differences, on issues like human rights and arms exports.

Now that slow start may not be possible. The State Department said today that it was sending an official inquiry to the Chinese government about the presence of workers at the site.

"We are obviously concerned about reports that the Chinese have provided assistance to the Iraqis," a State Department spokesman, Philip T. Reeker, said. "We have asked the Chinese government to look into it and are awaiting their response."

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said today that it had no knowledge of the project.

An administration official said that reports of cooperation with Iraq in telecommunications were raised with China in the last days of the Clinton administration. At that time, too, China denied any involvement.

Other government officials noted today that in one recent case, in which a Chinese company was providing test equipment to the Iraqi military, it was impossible to determine whether these sales were taking place with the knowledge of Chinese officials.

China has worked in Iraq before, helping build a number of major projects, like bridges, before the 1991 gulf war.

It is not clear whether the fiber- optic network is commercial in nature, if it was specifically designed for the military, or if it is being used for both purposes, what the military calls a "dual use" technology.

"We do have some indication the Chinese were building a fiber-optic network," a defense official said today, declining to discuss details of the work. "They could claim it has some dual use, but it's pretty clear it was connected" to the radar sites struck last Friday.

A United Nations official said today that Chinese companies had been allowed to provide services in a variety of contracts approved as part of the "oil for food" program.

That program, begun as a way to allow imports of food, medicines and other items to meet civilian needs, has expanded in recent years to include construction projects and the rebuilding of Iraq's electrical grid.

However, any work that aided Iraq's military would be a clear violation of the sanctions rules.

The committee that reviews the contracts permitted under the "oil for food" program has put on hold three telecommunications projects, but those involve two French companies and a Russian one.

Today, four days after the strikes, Pentagon officials declined to discuss the success of the attacks except in the broadest terms. But one official said the strikes had only mixed results, representing something of a disappointment.

The attack resulted in "only moderate disruption" of Iraq's air defenses, the official said.

Over the weekend, Iraqi forces again fired antiaircraft artillery and surface-to-air missiles at patrols in the southern "no flight" zone, but the American and British aircraft did not respond.

The Pentagon's spokesman, Rear Adm. Craig R. Quigley, said that the strikes were intended to weaken Iraq's ability to threaten the patrols, but that Iraq was expected to rebuild its defenses, as it has in the past.

"The targets were the radars, and the command, control and communication nodes that controlled and integrated the air defense system," he said. "We think we had an impact on that. Is it permanent? No. But we think we had an impact on that."

---

Blair Seeking to Ease Tension on Iraq Strikes

February 21, 2001
New York Times
By ALAN COWELL
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/21/world/21BLAI.html

LONDON, Feb. 20 - As he prepared to become the first European leader to visit President Bush, Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain offered today to revive his role in the Clinton administration as the bridge between the United States and Europe. It was not the easiest of times to send the message.

Mr. Blair plans to leave for Canada and the United States on Wednesday, just days after British and American warplanes bombed targets in Iraq in raids supposed to enforce no-flight zones in force since the 1991 Persian Gulf war. But the bombings last Friday drove a wedge between Britain and its European allies and raised protests in the British Parliament that a decade of sanctions against Iraq had punished the Iraqi people, rather than their avowed target, the government of Saddam Hussein.

In an interview with American correspondents tonight, Mr. Blair defended the hawkish stance of Britain and the United States, but indicated that he and Mr. Bush would discuss a revision of the sanctions that were imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990.

"What we are doing on Iraq is absolutely essential," Mr. Blair said, listing the Iraqi leader's killing of his own Kurdish citizens, his 1980-88 war with Iran and his invasion of Kuwait as evidence that Mr. Hussein is "probably the most dangerous ruler at the present time anywhere in the world."

"In the longer term we need to look at a better sanctions and inspection regime," Mr. Blair said, referring to Western demands that Iraq submit itself once again to weapons inspections, which it halted in 1998. He did not elaborate, but other officials said Britain wanted to refine the sanctions in some way that would deflect European and Arab criticism that the trade restrictions have been catastrophic for ordinary Iraqis.

Mr. Blair, for his part, blamed what he called Mr. Hussein's refusal to spend authorized oil revenues on food and medicine for the hardships of the Iraqi people.

"The truth is that while Saddam remains there, things will not get better for them," Mr. Blair said. "And what we cannot do is allow him to threaten the stability of his neighbors and the rest of the world."

---

Iraq Says Western Planes Drop 'Flare Bombs'

February 21, 2001
Associated Press
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-iraq-pa.html

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq said Western aircraft dropped ``flare bombs'' on civilian areas in a raid on southern Iraq on Wednesday.

It was the fifth sortie by Western planes reported by Iraq since U.S. and British jets launched air strikes on air defense installations near Baghdad last Friday, prompting broad international criticism.

``At 12:50 p.m. (4:50 a.m. EST) American and British warplanes carried out 22 sorties coming from Kuwaiti and Saudi skies...and flew over the provinces of Basra, Muthanna, Qadissiya and Mesian,'' an Iraqi Military spokesman said in a statement carried by the Iraqi News Agency.

``They dropped flare bombs in Samawah (southern Iraq) and were confronted by our brave missile and air defenses which forced them to flee,'' he said.

Iraqi authorities have reported a number of ``flare bombs'' dropped by U.S. and British warplanes in the past.

The flaming devices are designed to divert anti-aircraft missiles. Iraq said they were being dropped for other purposes, primarily to burn Iraqi crops and civilian property.

The spokesman said Western planes also patrolled a no-fly zone in northern Iraq but reported no incidents.

The no-fly zones were set up after the expulsion of Iraqi invasion forces from Kuwait in 1991 to protect Kurd dissidents in northern Iraq and anti-Baghdad Shi'ite Muslims in the south from Iraqi forces.

The raids on Friday were the first strikes outside the zones since 1998. Iraq said two civilians were killed and more than 20 wounded. Iraq vowed revenge for the raids and the Iraqi press spoke of retaliation against Saudi Arabia and Kuwait for providing bases.

There was no immediate confirmation of Wednesday's patrols from the United States or Britain.

In Washington, the Pentagon said on Tuesday Iraq fired at U.S. and British warplanes over the southern no-fly zone at the weekend.

The United States and Britain said the Friday raids were carried out to protect their aircraft patrolling the no-fly zones.

---

Looking Tough on Iraq

February 21, 2001
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/21/opinion/L21IRA.html

To the Editor:

Re "U.S. and British Jets Strike Air-Defense Centers in Iraq" (front page, Feb. 17):

The United States has lost the legal high ground that allowed it to build the Persian Gulf war coalition. While Iraq withholds information about its weapons programs and threatens neighbors, the United States supports economic warfare against Iraqi civilians, and grants itself permission to patrol and bomb Iraq at will. Consequently, the members of the 1990's coalition now often oppose American policy.

President Bush has promised to deliver us from the previous administration's mess. But by ignoring international law and allies in the belief that complex international problems can be solved by looking tough, Mr. Bush plays Saddam Hussein's game.

COLIN ROWAT Brooklyn, Feb. 18, 2001 The writer is Iraq Sanctions Project coordinator, Center for Economic and Social Rights.

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Iraq resumes fire on allied planes

2/21/2001
InfoBeat News
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=6psod3f6gbv0k

WASHINGTON (AP) - Hardly hesitating after the joint U.S.-British airstrikes, Iraq over the weekend resumed firing on allied air patrols in the southern "no-fly" zone, a Pentagon official said Tuesday. Iraqi air defenses fired surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft artillery at allied pilots on Saturday and Sunday, spokesman Marine Corps Lt. Col. Dave LaPan said. The allied planes were not hit and did not fire back, he said. Pentagon officials have not provided a full public assessment of the damage caused by Friday's attack on Iraqi air defenses, but there was little doubt Iraq would resume contesting allied air patrols. Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, a spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, said Tuesday that the Pentagon does not intend to release a detailed assessment of damage caused by Friday's attacks because such information could help Iraq prepare a defense against any future attacks. Quigley said the stated objective was to "disrupt and degrade" Iraq's air defenses.

Although Iraq does not recognize the legitimacy of "no-fly"zones over the southern and northern portions of its territory, it has not contested U.S. and British air patrols as frequently in the north.

According to U.S. European Command, which manages air patrols over northern Iraq, Iraqi air defenses in that area have fired on allied planes only twice this year, most recently on Feb. 12.

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Handheld Computers Used by Navy

February 21, 2001
Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Navy-Handheld-Computers.html

ABOARD THE USS CONSTELLATION (AP) -- Sailors aboard the USS Constellation still look to the stars to help find their way. For a lot of other things, they gaze at their Palms.

Handheld computers are bringing a high-tech touch to all hands -- or many of them, anyway -- on this sprawling ship, one of two steam-powered aircraft carriers still in service.

The Navy is providing handheld computers to almost all of its new officers and giving them to graduates of the Naval Academy and other naval programs.

``It cuts my workload literally in half,'' said Lt. Mike ``Beemer'' Biemiller, handheld computer in tow as he observed a Hornet jet screaming on to the deck and snagging an arrester cable aboard the ship floating in the waters near San Diego.

In no time, Biemiller stores the data about the landing into his Palm Pilot, where he could later upload the data easily to the ship's main network.

Moving from traditional Navy tools like the sextant -- still used each night aboard the Constellation to pinpoint locations by the stars as a backup to satellite navigation -- to gear like the Palm is always a logistical and cultural challenge, but the sailors agree it pays off.

Before handheld computers were used, a landing signal officer would record onto a paper notebook how well an incoming pilot negotiated the 600-by-200 foot landing strip.

When he left the deck, he would have to copy the information into a large binder, then finally type the information on a desktop computer. That is streamlined now by a program one of his colleagues wrote for the Palm Pilot.

The concept is sweeping the Navy. A team at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center in Chesapeake, Va., is developing Palm applications sailors can use at sea.

Several programs can replace forms used for tasks such as ordering supplies and performing environmental testing. A program developed by a private company can be used by land forces in conjunction with a Global Positioning Satellite receiver to plot locations of friendly and enemy troops.

The widespread distribution of handheld computers has helped boost morale aboard the Constellation and spurred ingenuity by sailors who are developing their own software to automate routine naval tasks.

``I remember (Microsoft chairman) Bill Gates once talking about the paperless office. Then I saw this Palm, and said, 'This is it,''' said Lt. Ken Schnider, who developed the program for pilot logging with a fellow pilot on another carrier.

The personal communications devices also are used below deck for roping in e-mail from a loved ones far away and entertaining the sailors.

``I use games when I'm waiting in line,'' said Lt. J.G. Alex Mabini of Carlsbad, Calif., an engineering training officer. ``There are a lot of lines in the Navy.''

As if preparations for real warfare are not enough, Schnider, 27, plays an infrared battleship game on his handheld computer. He also has a currency converter and time zone guide for ports.

When he noticed that all the ship's TVs were the same model, but missing their remote controls, he loaded a program enabling him to use the handheld computer like a remote to change channels.

Card games, Missile Command and Scrabble are also popular among the sailors.

``It's amazing how when a tool comes along how quickly it propagates,'' said Cmdr. Justin Cooper, who uses a handheld to download shipboard e-mail and read it on his own time, without tying up any of the carrier's 750 desktop computers.

The Constellation's computer security chief, Petty Officer 1st Class Curtis Sims, is exploring how to let communications technology flourish without compromising secrets and safety.

A text scanner looks over every inbound and outbound e-mail, making sure that an officer does not give away sensitive information such as the exact location of the battle group.

Users cannot download new programs while on the ship, and programs must be checked for viruses when brought onboard. The Constellation's true Internet address is not given out.

Still, the ship is not immune: The Melissa virus penetrated the Constellation's defenses in 1999, and it took almost a day to debug the ship.

At sea, the works goes on to find ever more useful functions for the technology.

Schnider is working on an application that could be used in the cockpit, integrating flight planning, fuel consumption and other functions.

``It's all going to be combined into one big package,'' Schnider said. ``That would be really cool.''

---

Ohio

01/02/21
USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Lima - A $4 billion contract with the Army to build more than 2,000 light-armored vehicles should increase employment by more than 100 workers at the Lima Army Tank Plant, General Dynamics said. The plant, which opened in the 1980s, has about 500 employees, down from 3,800 at its peak.

-------- OTHER

-------- environment

British Exports Banned After Foot-and-Mouth Disease Outbreak

February 21, 2001
Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Britain-Livestock-Disease.html

LONDON (AP) -- An outbreak of highly infectious foot-and-mouth disease in British pigs prompted a government ban Wednesday on exports of meat, milk and livestock and threatened serious damage to the country's beleaguered farming industry.

The European Union quickly announced its own ban on British exports to other member countries until March 1. The United States also suspended its imports of British pork.

The disease, which is not regarded as a threat to humans, affects cloven-footed animals, including sheep, goats and cows. It is not usually fatal to the animal but can cause weight loss and reduced dairy production in cattle. It is airborne and can spread quickly.

``This outbreak has potentially catastrophic implications for the whole of the British livestock industry,'' said Ben Gill, president of the National Farmers' Union. Last summer's outbreaks of swine fever, and the long-running mad cow crisis have badly hurt farmers in Britain.

The government Food Standards Agency said Wednesday that transmission of foot-and-mouth disease to humans is extremely rare, but may be possible if they are in close contact with an infected animal. It said the disease cannot be caught by humans eating meat or drinking pasteurized milk.

Agriculture Minister Nick Brown said the outbreak was ``potentially a very serious situation.''

``These measures are not an issue of human health but are designed to prevent the spread of the virus in livestock,'' he said. ``The government will not allow anything which is dangerous to be fed to people.''

The EU said it would review its ban at a meeting of the Standing Veterinary Committee on Feb. 27.

The United States, which halted its imports of British pork and pork products, bought just 4,000 tons in 1999 and ``substantially less'' in 2000, said an Agriculture Department spokesman.

The last foot-and-mouth outbreak in Britain occurred in 1981. An outbreak in 1967 led to the slaughter of more than 400,000 animals.

The disease was discovered Monday in 27 pigs at a slaughterhouse in Essex county, northeast of London. The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food said it had spread to a farm near the slaughterhouse.

Veterinary officials were trying to determine the source of the infection, a process that could take several weeks. The ministry said it had imposed five-mile exclusion zones around the slaughterhouse and two farms that delivered pigs to the slaughterhouse on Friday.

Officials were investigating reports of an outbreak on another farm.

The carcasses of more than 1,000 pigs slaughtered since Monday would be destroyed, slaughterhouse director Paul Cheale said.

Noel Davern, Ireland's junior agriculture minister, said Irish police would patrol the border with Northern Ireland to enforce the ban on meat and livestock from the United Kingdom.

Finland's Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry on Wednesday advised Finns to refrain from visiting British farms. For ``unavoidable'' farm visits, the ministry told Finns to wear protective clothing and afterward ``wash very carefully in the sauna.''

The National Farmers' Union said that after the swine fever last year, this was another crisis for its members. The swine fever led to an EU-wide ban on pig exports for more than a month.

``No one can underestimate what a serious threat this is to British agriculture,'' said legislator Colin Breed, agriculture spokesman for the opposition Liberal Democrat party. ``This hammer-blow must not be allowed to impede the modest recovery made by the farming sector in recent months.''

Mad cow disease -- Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy -- which is believed to cause the fatal variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans, reached epidemic proportions in Britain after it was diagnosed in 1986 and resulted in wholesale herd slaughtering, mandatory testing and an EU ban on British beef exports that has since been lifted.

---

Britain bans meat exports in disease outbreak

02/21/2001
USA Today
http://usatoday.com/news/world/2001-02-21-euban.htm
http://usatoday.com/news/nphoto.htm

PHOTO: Pigs roam on quarantined land at Farringford Farm at Freshwater Bay on the Isle of Wight, southern England, where Britain's Ministry of Agriculture officials are investigating the possibility of an outbreak of foot and mouth disease. (Chris Ison, AP)

LONDON - An outbreak of highly infectious foot-and-mouth disease in British pigs prompted a government ban Wednesday on exports of meat, milk and livestock and threatened serious damage to the country's beleaguered farming industry.

The European Union quickly announced its own ban on British exports to other member countries until March 1. The United States also suspended its imports of British pork.

The disease, which is not regarded as a threat to humans, affects cloven-footed animals, including sheep, goats and cows. It is not usually fatal to the animal but can cause weight loss and reduced dairy production in cattle. It is airborne and can spread quickly.

"This outbreak has potentially catastrophic implications for the whole of the British livestock industry," said Ben Gill, president of the National Farmers' Union. Last summer's outbreaks of swine fever, and the long-running mad cow crisis have badly hurt farmers in Britain.

The government Food Standards Agency said Wednesday that transmission of foot-and-mouth disease to humans is extremely rare, but may be possible if they are in close contact with an infected animal. It said the disease cannot be caught by humans eating meat or drinking pasteurized milk.

Agriculture Minister Nick Brown said the outbreak was "potentially a very serious situation."

"These measures are not an issue of human health but are designed to prevent the spread of the virus in livestock," he said. "The government will not allow anything which is dangerous to be fed to people."

The EU said it would review its ban at a meeting of the Standing Veterinary Committee on Feb. 27.

The United States, which halted its imports of British pork and pork products, bought just 4,000 tons in 1999 and "substantially less" in 2000, said an Agriculture Department spokesman.

The last foot-and-mouth outbreak in Britain occurred in 1981. An outbreak in 1967 led to the slaughter of more than 400,000 animals.

The disease was discovered Monday in 27 pigs at a slaughterhouse in Essex county, northeast of London. The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food said it had spread to a farm near the slaughterhouse.

Veterinary officials were trying to determine the source of the infection, a process that could take several weeks. The ministry said it had imposed five-mile exclusion zones around the slaughterhouse and two farms that delivered pigs to the slaughterhouse on Friday.

Officials were investigating reports of an outbreak on another farm.

The carcasses of more than 1,000 pigs slaughtered since Monday would be destroyed, slaughterhouse director Paul Cheale said.

Noel Davern, Ireland's junior agriculture minister, said Irish police would patrol the border with Northern Ireland to enforce the ban on meat and livestock from the United Kingdom.

Finland's Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry on Wednesday advised Finns to refrain from visiting British farms. For "unavoidable" farm visits, the ministry told Finns to wear protective clothing and afterward "wash very carefully in the sauna."

The National Farmers' Union said that after the swine fever last year, this was another crisis for its members. The swine fever led to an EU-wide ban on pig exports for more than a month.

"No one can underestimate what a serious threat this is to British agriculture," said legislator Colin Breed, agriculture spokesman for the opposition Liberal Democrat party. "This hammer-blow must not be allowed to impede the modest recovery made by the farming sector in recent months."

Mad cow disease (AP) - Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy - which is believed to cause the fatal variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans, reached epidemic proportions in Britain after it was diagnosed in 1986 and resulted in wholesale herd slaughtering, mandatory testing and an EU ban on British beef exports that has since been lifted.

------

Alaska

01/02/21
USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Anchorage - A University of Alaska Anchorage study says industries linked to a healthy environment provide six times more jobs in Alaska than those with a direct connection to the oil industry. The study looked at jobs in tourism, guiding, sportfishing, subsistence and natural resources management. The study was paid for by an Anchorage-based environmental group.

California

Sacramento - Dumping a common aquarium algae into any body of water would be illegal under legislation to be introduced this week. The bill follows outbreaks of Calulerpa in Huntington Harbour and Agua Hedionda Lagoon in Carlsbad. The fast-growing algae, banned after years of use as an aquarium decoration, smothers plant life and sucks oxygen from water.

-------- genetics

Biotech Firms Hone Antibody - Based Cancer Therapies

February 21, 2001
Reuters
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/health/science-health-cancer.html

DANA POINT, Calif. (Reuters) - Motivated by the success of first-generation antibody compounds developed to fight cancer, some early-stage biotechnology companies are moving ahead with a new generation of antibody-based cancer drugs.

``When Rituxan started people did not believe in antibodies. Now everyone is interested,'' Nabil Hanna, chief scientific officer at IDEC Pharmaceuticals Corp., said on Wednesday during a growth stocks conference held here.

IDEC, in partnership with Genentech Inc., launched Rituxan, a cloned antibody that uses the body's immune system to target certain cancerous cells, in late 1997 as a treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Its sales totaled $424 million in 2000 and many analysts believe the drug has blockbuster potential.

Non-Hodgkin's lymphomas are a group of related cancers that originate in the lymphatic system, which carries white blood cells called lymphocytes throughout the body. An estimated 50,000 new cases are diagnosed in the United States each year and the numbers are increasing, particularly among the elderly and those infected with HIV.

IDEC filed last November for U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of Zevalin, the company's second-generation compound that combines an antibody with a radioactive isotope to deliver radiation directly to cancer cells.

Antibodies are naturally occurring immune-system proteins that are highly specific in seeking out other proteins. Zevalin targets the so-called CD20 antigen, a protein found in cancerous B cells. Rituxan also targets the cancerous B-cells, but does not carry a radioactive warhead.

IDEC, which shares revenues from Rituxan with Genentech, retained all rights to Zevalin in the United States. Schering AG has licensed rights to sell Zevalin in Europe.

Trials have shown, however, that Zevalin, because of its radioactivity, causes damage to white blood cells and other immune-system cells, which is expected to limit use of the drug to patients who have failed other treatments.

NeoRx Corp. says it has come up with a way to reduce toxicity associated with so-called ``guided-missile'' antibodies.

``The problem is that an antibody is a large Y-shaped protein that circulates and emits radiation that can damage healthy bone marrow,'' NeoRx Chief Executive Officer Paul Abrams explained.

The company believes its ``Pretarget'' platform technology -- which Abrams termed the ``third-generation'' in cancer-fighting antibody technology -- solves that problem by acting as ``velcro'' to bind the antibody to the radiation.

``We believe we have achieved clinical proof of concept,'' Abrams said. This year, the company plans to launch a Phase I trial of its pretarget technology in lymphoma.

Meanwhile, NeoRx is awaiting word from the FDA on whether it can resume a late-stage trial of another drug candidate -- skeletal targeted radiotherapy for multiple myeloma, a form of bone cancer -- after the agency halted it last November when some patients in an earlier trial developed problems with blood clots.

-------- health

Radioactive Fallout

Wednesday, February 21, 2001
Washington Post
By Robert L. Wolke,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A30091-2001Feb20?language=printer

Recently, I wrote in this space about the commercial irradiation of foods with X-rays, gamma rays or electron beams to prevent spoilage and to kill harmful bacteria, insects and parasites. My intention was not to issue a blanket endorsement of food irradiation but to dispel some of the scientifically unjustified fears of the word "radiation" by pointing out what X-rays gamma rays and other types of radiation are, what they can do and what they cannot do. It is normal to suspect, or even to fear, what one doesn't understand, and only knowledge can assuage an unreasoned fear. That column elicited three kinds of mail: letters and e-mail in support of food irradiation, letters opposed to food irradiation for technical reasons and letters opposed to food irradiation because of concern about potential abuses of the technology. The present column is a sort of mopping-up operation in which I address some of the technical concerns not dealt with in the previous column and some political-economic concerns about possible abuses of food irradiation.

For the record, my e-mail ran almost 3 to 1 against food irradiation. But if I discount the form letters generated by an "Action Alert" from Ralph Nader's Public Citizen group and forwarded to me verbatim, the mail score reverses and becomes 3 to 1 in support of irradiation.

And oh, yes. In reply to some of my more colorful anti-irradiation correspondents, I am not and never have been employed by or received research funding from the agribusiness industry, I have myself eaten irradiated food, and I have not "been smoking" anything.

Technical Issues

Here are some technical criticisms that I received from individual readers, from Public Citizen's e-mail salvo and from a sensationalist anti-irradiation book. My responses follow the quotations.

• From a reader: "It was irresponsible of you to pass over in silence the problem of radioactive waste disposal, which is one of the primary objections that environmental groups have to large-scale irradiation."

I passed over it in silence because there simply is no radioactive waste associated with food irradiation. You may be thinking of nuclear reactors, which are as different from food irradiators as an electric generating plant is from a flashlight battery. The X-rays and electron beams used in food irradiation disappear like lamp light as soon as the switch is turned off. Cobalt-60 gamma rays, also used in food irradiation, have been used safely in cancer therapy for decades all over the world. The radioactive cobalt irradiators, which must be shielded from people by massive concrete walls, are in the form of little "pencils" of solid metal that can't leak. Nobody is going to throw one into the nearest creek.

• From Public Citizen: "Food irradiation uses the equivalent of 1 billion chest X-rays, which is enough radiation to kill a person 6,000 times over."

How is that relevant? Food irradiation is used on foods, not on people. In a steel mill, the temperature of the molten steel is 3,000 degrees, which is hot enough to vaporize a human body. Workers in steel mills and food irradiation facilities are therefore well advised not to bathe in vats of molten steel or take naps on the food-irradiation conveyor belts.

• From an anti-irradiation book: "With each bite of irradiated food we receive indirect exposure to ionizing radiation."

There is absolutely no radiation in the food, either direct or indirect, whatever that means. With each piece of steel we touch, do we receive "indirect exposure" to that 3,000-degree temperature?

• From Public Citizen: "Ionizing radiation can kill beneficial microorganisms, as well as dangerous ones."

That's true. But so do canning and virtually all other food preservation methods. So what? A serving of food without beneficial microorganisms is not harmful.

• From Public Citizen: "X-rays, gamma rays and electron beams are ionizing radiation, which cannot discriminate between, for instance, E. coli bacteria and Vitamin E. Everything in its path can be changed. Irradiation destroys nutrients in food."

That's also true to some extent, depending on the food and the radiation dose. As I said in my earlier column, these radiations break apart atoms and molecules in both living and nonliving things, forming new kinds of molecules (new chemicals) in the process. That's how they kill germs. But I don't see the loss of some vitamins, which can be easily remedied, as a reason to ban the sterilization of foods by irradiation. All food preservation methods change the nutrient profile of foods to some extent. And I doubt if anyone's diet is going to be limited exclusively to irradiated foods.

• From Public Citizen: "You claim that the new chemicals formed during irradiation have been shown to be benign."

No, here's what I wrote, paraphrasing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration: "Ninety percent of the new chemicals formed are naturally present in foods anyway, especially in cooked foods. (Cooking causes chemical changes too, of course.) The other 10 percent? In more than 400 studies reviewed by the FDA before approving food irradiation, no unfavorable effects were found from eating irradiated foods, either by humans or throughout several generations of animals." While nothing, not even chocolate pudding, can definitively be "shown to be benign," I do believe in the well-known scientific principle that the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

For everything you could possibly want to know about the technology of food irradiation, check out the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Web page at www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/foodirradiation.htm.

Politics and Profit

But there is more than science and logic in the world. Some people have political and economic fears about how food irradiation might be taken advantage of by the food industry for its own, self-serving purposes. One of these fears is that instead of cleaning up its own act the industry might come to depend upon irradiation as an end-of-the-line cure-all to "neutralize" contaminated, sloppily produced food.

I am certainly no apologist for agribusiness, or for that matter for any entity whose primary, if not sole, purpose is to make money, on occasion even at the expense of public safety. There is an undeniable history of industries' illegal dumping of toxic wastes, not to mention the collusion within a certain unnamed industry to conceal the lethal effects of burning and inhaling the smoke from its product. But I have difficulty in believing that the FDA and USDA will abandon their oversight, regulation and inspection of America's food supplies just because they have approved the use of irradiation. Milk producers are still monitored closely for sanitation in spite of the fact that their product has been pasteurized for many years.

Another fear seems to be that American consumers might be fed irradiated foods without their knowledge or having the freedom to choose. But choice has always been available, because the FDA has always mandated the explicit labeling of irradiated foods. It is currently involved in selecting a less frightening label wording than the current "treated by irradiation." The front-running euphemism, "cold pasteurized," is in my opinion not the best choice. I think either "radioprocessed" or "high-energy processed" would be more descriptive and less misleading. FDA, please note.

Robert L. Wolke (www.professorscience.com) is professor emeritus of chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh. His latest book is "What Einstein Told His Barber: More Scientific Answers to Everyday Questions" (Dell Publications,

-------- police

Justices Look at Heat-Seeker's Ability to Pierce the Home

February 21, 2001
New York Times
By LINDA GREENHOUSE
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/21/technology/21SEAR.html?pagewanted=all

WASHINGTON, Feb. 20 - The Supreme Court wrestled today with how to apply the Fourth Amendment's ban on unreasonable searches to a technological development the Constitution's framers most likely did not have in mind: a thermal imaging device that the police can use from outside a home to detect patterns of heat being generated from inside.

The specific question in the hourlong argument was whether use of a thermal imager by the police is a search that, no less than an actual entry into a house, requires a warrant. The underlying question was how the Constitution should take account not only of changing technology but also of society's changing understanding of technology's threat to privacy.

Under the court's precedents, the Fourth Amendment protects only those expectations of privacy that are "reasonable." Someone who conducts business in front of an open living room window, for example, may be deemed to have forfeited any reasonable expectation of privacy.

In the case today, Kyllo v. United States, No. 99-8508, the lawyer for an Oregon man convicted of growing marijuana in his home argued that the police engaged in an illegal search by using a thermal imager to detect the distinctive heat pattern made by the high- intensity lights that are often used for marijuana cultivation. The police used the information as the basis for obtaining a warrant to search the house.

People have a reasonable expectation of privacy in what goes on behind the opaque walls of their homes, the lawyer, Kenneth Lerner, told the justices.

What the thermal imager captures "really is molecular information that migrates through our walls," Mr. Lerner said, adding, "If we are now saying that we can capture that kind of information without a warrant, we can reduce our whole world to that type of wave and molecule, and our walls mean nothing."

But Michael R. Dreeben, a deputy solicitor general arguing for the government, said people did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy "in the heat that's on the exterior surface of their walls."

"Heat loss is an inevitable feature of heat in a structure," Mr. Dreeben said. "That's why there is an insulation industry."

Justice Stephen G. Breyer objected that the expectation of privacy "is not in heat loss, it's in what is going on in the house."

Justice Breyer said the question was whether "you have a reasonable expectation that the kind of thing you're doing in the house will not be picked up by somebody out of the house, not a law enforcement officer, but just ordinary people."

"Where you're walking in front of the window," he continued, "the answer is no. Where you're walking in front of the window and people pick it up with binoculars - every bird-watcher has binoculars. Where they're picking it up with flashlights - every Boy Scout has a flashlight. Who has a heat thermal device? Nobody, except a few."

Justice Breyer said it was at least open to argument whether people had a valid expectation of privacy that when they took a long hot bath, that fact would not be disclosed to the world by the use of a thermal imaging device.

Mr. Dreeben replied that while the device can detect heat, "it will not tell you what's going on inside the house."

Justice Breyer was not satisfied. "It'll just tell you it's hot in there, which happens to be just the thing they want to know," he said. "They want to know if it's hot or if it's cold."

Mr. Lerner, representing the defendant, Danny Lee Kyllo, also came in for tough questioning.

"Why don't your reasonable expectations of privacy include technology?" Justice Antonin Scalia wanted to know. Inasmuch as there are thermal imagers in the world, why not expect people to guard against them just as "you pull your curtains if you want privacy because you know people have binoculars," Justice Scalia said.

"The burden," Mr. Lerner said, "really is improperly placed on the citizen to anticipate what type of technology the government may come up with."

Justice David H. Souter asked: "Are you saying, in effect, that if thermal imaging becomes very common and every school kid has a $5 thermal imager, that at that point it really would be unreasonable not to expect that the government was going to use it to figure out what's going on in the house?"

Mr. Lerner said the court would then have to step in just as it has to prevent indiscriminate use of wiretapping, a technology that everyone knows is available yet is still regarded as an unconstitutional invasion of privacy except in limited circumstances.

Mr. Lerner's client entered a conditional guilty plea while challenging the use of the thermal imager. He first won his case before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, but the appeals court changed its mind and issued a new opinion after one of the original members of the three- judge panel retired. Mr. Kyllo served a month in jail on his marijuana conviction.

The court issued a decision today in another Fourth Amendment case, ruling 8 to 1 that police officers who have probable cause to search a home for easily destroyed contraband can keep a suspect from entering his own home during the brief time it takes to get a search warrant.

The decision, Illinois v. McArthur, No. 99-1132, overturned a ruling by an Illinois appellate court that found the detention to be a seizure that violated the Fourth Amendment. Justice Breyer wrote the decision, concluding that the brief detention met the Fourth Amendment's test of reasonableness.

Justice John Paul Stevens dissented, saying the Illinois court correctly "placed a higher value on the sanctity of the ordinary citizen's home than on the prosecution of this petty offense."

The offense was possession of drug paraphernalia and a small quantity of marijuana, both misdemeanors under Illinois law.

----

Indiana

01/02/21
USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Indianapolis - The Indiana Supreme Court will review whether roadblocks to catch drunken drivers are allowed under the state constitution. The state's Court of Appeals stopped the checkpoints in November, saying they violated Indiana's constitution. The Supreme Court's decision to review the ruling means police could resume the checkpoints, but the Marion County Prosecutor recommended police wait.

Iowa

Bryant - Sheriff's deputies killed a dog after its intoxicated owner allegedly ordered it to attack. Gene Wenzel, 22, had called police and asked for medical attention, but became violent when an ambulance crew arrived at his home, police said. After he was handcuffed, Wenzel ordered his two dogs to attack. Officers shot one of them.

Virginia

Floyd - State Police say the FBI will analyze bullet fragments from a shooting in Floyd County. Police are uncertain whether a woman was killed by police or a gunman trying to enter her home. Darlene Yoders, 30, was shot in the face as she and her husband tried to keep Roger Whitlock, 28, from getting through their front door. Police fatally shot Whitlock when he fired at them.

-------- spying

International Intrigue Makes a Return

Wednesday, February 21, 2001
Washington Post
By Howard Kurtz
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A34301-2001Feb21?language=printer

Washington loves a good spy story, and yesterday it got one.

Throughout the Cold War, espionage journalism was a staple of the profession. The FBI was always busting some Soviet spy somewhere, and American snoops - sometimes even reporters accused of being spies - were forever being booted by Moscow. The stakes were high in an era of nuclear standoffs, and plenty of two-bit scribes got to exercise their novelistic muscles in making like John LeCarre.

But the 007 era in which the spy game so permeated the culture that Rocky and Bullwinkle were always chasing Boris and Natasha seemed to end when Mikhail Gorbachev packed his bags. The great melodrama surrounding KGB spies appeared pointless with the United States declaring Russia a friend and giving the country federal aid. There was plenty of spy intrigue with China (the Wen Ho Lee case) and occasionally Israel, but the leftover Russian spy cases seemed more like relics of the days when school basements were designated fallout shelters.

(For non-spy buffs, we'll get to the day's flaps over Chelsea Clinton, Jesse Ventura and Eminem in a moment. Bear with us.)

But the genre is back in vogue today, following a Louis Freeh press conference, and reporters are again reveling in the narrative possibilities of international intrigue:

The New York Times: "The Russians apparently never knew the name of their prized American spy.

"To them, he was only B or Ramon or R. Garcia, the code names that the hypercautious American used during the 15 years that he is said to have provided Moscow with some of the most sensitive intelligence documents in the files of the F.B.I.

"The bureau said today that it had unmasked the spy, and that he was one of their own: Robert Philip Hanssen, a 25-year veteran of the bureau whose specialty was Russian counterintelligence, a former dentistry student and accountant turned Chicago police investigator, a 56-year-old churchgoing father of six.

"'Hanssen, using his tradition and experience to protect himself from discovery by the F.B.I., never met face to face with his Russian handlers, never revealed to them his true identity or even where he worked,' Louis J. Freeh, the F.B.I. director, said today in announcing the arrest, which was made on Sunday. 'They are learning of it today.'

"In court papers and public comments, the F.B.I. made clear that it had received access - through a channel it refused to identify - to virtually the entire intelligence dossier on B maintained by Soviet - and later, Russian - intelligence."

(It's a media staple that most spies must be referred to by three names. Sounds more sinister.)

The Los Angeles Times: "As if out of nowhere, on a fall day 15 years ago, came a letter to a Soviet KGB agent.

"The writer, identifying himself simply as 'B,' was promising to send a box of documents from 'the most sensitive and highly compartmented projects of the U.S. intelligence community.' For his services, 'B' wanted $100,000.

"Thus began, according to his supervisors, the eventual undoing of FBI Agent Robert Philip Hanssen.

"Hanssen - a career agent for a quarter century, a father of six with three cars and a home in the Washington suburbs - on Tuesday was named in a 100-page federal indictment and charged with trading secrets for cash and jewels in one of Washington's biggest spy cases since Aldrich H. Ames betrayed the CIA."

The Washington Post: "On Oct. 4, 1985, a KGB officer received a letter at his home in Alexandria. Inside was a second envelope with the warning: 'DO NOT OPEN. TAKE THIS ENVELOPE UNOPENED TO VICTOR I. CHERKASHIN.'

"According to court documents made public yesterday, the letter was sent by FBI Special Agent Robert P. Hanssen and contained an anonymous offer to hand over some of the U.S. government's most sensitive secrets in return for cash.

"But from the start, Hanssen was no ordinary 'walk-in' spy. He allegedly took elaborate precautions to keep his identity a secret, even from the Russians, and chose his initial handler in Cherkashin, a top KGB officer whom he admired professionally.

"That kind of caution and inside knowledge, U.S. officials said, are what allowed Hanssen to operate as a mole for 15 years."

Can Hollywood be far behind?

George Bush made some news yesterday - not dramatic news, mind you, but enough to generate such stories as this USA Today dispatch: "Putting money behind his goal of having every third-grader able to read, President Bush on Tuesday proposed spending $5 billion over the next five years to help public schools improve the way they teach reading.

"Kicking off a two-day trip to Ohio, Missouri and Tennessee to promote the budget he plans to unveil next week, Bush also offered a staunch defense of his call for annual testing of children in third through eighth grades to measure their scholastic improvement.

"Some critics argue that such tests put minority children at a disadvantage because they frequently contain questions on subjects that are outside their experience. For example, urban students might not know that a regatta is a sailboat race.

"Dismissing such criticism, Bush said it would be racist to ignore the needs of those children....

"During the trip Bush also had time to enjoy the perks of his new job. On his flight from Columbus to St. Louis, the president invited photographers to his cabin on Air Force One so he could model his new flight jacket, which has an insignia of the presidential aircraft."

An intriguing bit of congressional news comes from the Philadelphia Inquirer, which reports: "Ohio Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. has a rare place in the history of the House, and not just because he is the only member to routinely end floor speeches with 'Beam me up.'

"Traficant is the first rank-and-file congressman since Rep. Claude Swanson in 1905 to start a new session with no committee assignment....Traficant does not have one because he defected from the Democrats last month and has yet to either officially resign from their caucus or reach an accommodation with majority Republicans."

It has been an almost Clinton-free news day, but lest anyone suffer from withdrawal, USA Today has another ex-president weighing in: "Former President Carter said Tuesday that Bill Clinton abused his power and brought disgrace to the White House with his last-minute pardon of fugitive Marc Rich.

"'I think President Clinton made one of his most serious mistakes in the way he handled the pardon situation the last few hours he was in office,' Carter said during a speech at Georgia Southwestern State University. 'A number of them were quite questionable, including about 40 not recommended by the Justice Department.'

"Of the Rich pardon, Carter said: 'I don't think there is any doubt that some of the factors in his pardon were attributable to his large gifts. In my opinion, that was disgraceful.'"

The Dallas Morning News also checks in on the Clinton front, with this bit of brazen spin: "The head of the William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation says recent controversies haven't hurt fund-raising efforts. 'Controversy is good for the library,' Skip Rutherford said. 'Friends and supporters tend to keep coming out. The perspective now is that the library has become politicized. The library is now in the political arena. It's short-term pain for long-term gain,' he said."

And the New York Post has its Hillary Watch: "After one of the roughest starts in memory, freshman Sen. Hillary Clinton is taking her first extended break since her Senate swearing-in made her the No. 1 pol in the family. But instead of jetting off to the Caribbean with family like her colleague, Sen. Charles Schumer, Hillary is chilling out in her posh $2.8 million second home.

"Wednesday, Clinton quietly moved in to her newly purchased mansion along Embassy Row, spending two nights there before flying to her legal residence in Chappaqua for the weekend. This week, with the Senate on vacation, she's back in the Washington manse, where she plans a slow 'at home' week with little if any Senate business. Until recently, Clinton camped out in millionaire Vernon Jordan's pad."

Some people just have the power to make news by doing nothing.

Eminem doesn't usually fall under the purview of this column, but the Los Angeles Times reports that he is under attack by the vice president's wife, stepping into the old Tipper role.

Lynne Cheney says "she is 'amazed and dismayed' that rock star Elton John is going to perform at the Grammys with rapper Eminem, whose lyrics chronicle violence against women and gays.

"The vice president's wife has taken an active role in condemning the music industry for promoting artists with violent lyrics and has been especially critical of Eminem. 'This certainly isn't the first time, but Eminem is certainly, I think, the most extreme example of rock lyrics used to demean women, advocate violence against women, violence against gay people,' Mrs. Cheney said in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer. 'Elton John has been good in the past about speaking out on issues of equality for gay people, on issues of being against violent language against gay people,' she said. 'I am quite amazed and dismayed that he would choose to perform with Eminem.'"

If the veep's wife can attack a rap singer, then perhaps it makes sense that Madonna can beat up on the president, as the BBC reports: "Madonna has defended controversial rapper Eminem in a letter to a U.S. newspaper - saying she finds the language of George W. Bush 'much more offensive'....

"'Since when is offensive language a reason for being unpopular? I find the language of George W. much more offensive,' Madonna wrote."

Those who find the major newspapers' recent profiles of White House aides a bit too puffy may want to check out the Nation, where Louis Dubose has a negative piece called 'Bush's Hit Man' - which some might find a bit of a hit job itself.

"That Karl Rove, who, according to the White House press office is not giving interviews, hasn't always abided by the Marquess of Queensberry rules of political engagement is not exactly breaking news. As long ago as 1989, when Rove collaborated with an FBI agent investigating [Texas official Jim] Hightower, the then-Texas agricultural commissioner complained about 'Nixonian dirty tricks.'

"That was at a time when Rove was a big player only in Texas. Since then, he has become George W. Bush's closest adviser, directed Bush's presidential campaign and is now working in an office just down the hall from the most powerful official in the world. Some wonder to what extent Rove will use the power of the federal government against those who would cross the President. Rove's past suggests such worries are not unfounded. 'This guy is worse than Haldeman and Ehrlichman,' a source who worked in Hightower's office twelve years ago said in a recent interview, referring to Nixon's advisers at the time of the Watergate break-in. 'He'll have an enemies list.' The interview ended with a request common among sources speaking about Rove, even those no longer involved in politics: 'I'd prefer you didn't quote me on this.'...

"Rove's first foray into politics involved gaining entry to the office of Alan Dixon - a candidate for state treasurer in Illinois in 1970 - stealing some campaign stationery and printing and distributing a fake invitation to Dixon's campaign headquarters, promising 'free beer, free food, girls, and a good time.' 'I was nineteen and I got involved in a political prank,' Rove told the Dallas Morning News in 1999....

"Rove soldiered on in obscurity until 1986, when he was working on the second campaign of Bill Clements, a Republican trying to recapture the governor's office after losing it to Democrat Mark White. Rove made news by going public with a complaint that an electronic bugging device had been found in his office - shortly before a scheduled televised debate between the two candidates. 'We never took it seriously, because we knew nobody in our shop had anything to do with it,' says Dwayne Hollman, who worked for White at the time....

"When working as a political operative and not a mentor, Rove has been bipartisan, eliminating Republicans who represented a threat to his boss's career with the same zeal with which he attacked Democrats....

"After two Christian-right candidates for the State Board of Education, Bob Offutt and Donna Ballard (Offutt was an incumbent), traveled to New Hampshire to endorse Steve Forbes in the Republican primary, they returned home to find their opponents' campaigns suddenly flush with cash from big Republican givers associated with Rove. 'You don't cross Karl Rove and not expect repercussions,' a defeated Offutt told the Austin American-Statesman."

Scratch the Nation's invitation to the White House Christmas party.

New Republic Editor Peter Beinart sounds like he's going to say something positive about Dubya - until you keep on reading:

"For conservatives, the nicest thing you can say about George W. Bush (or, for that matter, about anyone) is that he's like Ronald Reagan. So here's a belated valentine: they're right. George W. bears a striking resemblance to the patron saint of modern conservatism. And not just because they both like to nap.

"Ronald Reagan made conservatism fun. Most conservatives think that was an enormous achievement - and they ascribe it to Reagan's quintessentially American optimism. A few, more honest, conservatives understand that it was a betrayal. Reagan, they realize, didn't make conservatism fun just by smiling and talking about the great America beyond the distant sunset. He did it by abandoning the distinctly unfun idea at modern American conservatism's core: that government must be scaled back in order to make Americans more self-reliant, and thus, more moral....

"George W.'s a fun guy, too. After all, he's literally talking about sending every American a check....

"Conservatives insist Bush's tax cut really will reduce government: Send the money out of Washington, they say, and you'll starve the federal government of revenue, forcing it to contract. It's a reasonable theory. But we know as a matter of historical record that it's wrong; Reagan proved it....

"So taxes will be cut, spending will stay where it is, the surpluses will likely turn into deficits, perhaps big ones, and government will have been limited not one iota. And one day, some poor schmuck will have to do what W.'s father did - raise taxes and cut spending to keep the deficits from getting totally out of hand."

Beyond the Beltway

From the Minneapolis Star Tribune: "Gov. Jesse Ventura's office wants reporters who cover his events to wear a special news media badge that displays the bearer's name and media organization, a full-body picture of the governor and the designation 'Official Jackal.'

"Despite assurances from the governor's office that the credentials were printed partly in a spirit of fun, their issuance to State Capitol reporters Tuesday stirred protests and set off something of a national and state media circus.

"Word of the colorful plastic badges, which resemble backstage passes, spread quickly on the Internet, and many Capitol reporters spent much of their day interviewing one another and being interviewed by other reporters around the nation. "Ventura spokesman John Wodele said the credentials, which are unprecedented for a Minnesota governor, were in response to serious concerns about 'security and accountability.'"

From the San Francisco Chronicle: "Ever since California voters told George W. Bush to drop dead during the 2000 presidential election, it seems - and this is just a theory - that the former Texas governor and his Lone Star friends are saying to California: 'Y'all drop dead.'

"Bush has proclaimed that California should solve its own energy problems. U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas says California is suffering 'the consequences of their own feckless policies' and 'environmental extremism,' while our leaders 'blame power companies, deregulation and everyone but themselves' for the energy crisis.

"Kenneth Lay, a Texas buddy of Bush and chairman of the huge energy trader Enron, says California should be friendlier to his business. The head of Texas-based Dynegy said California has done nothing to curb demand for power. A Texas congressman working on energy issues says California issues threats and plays politics.

"Harsh, Texas dudes. Is California experiencing some sort of karmic retribution?"

The Chelsea Debate

That rhetorical assault against Chelsea Clinton by National Review's John Derbyshire, quoted in this space yesterday, brought a torrent of passionate e-mail - nearly all of it negative. Some highlights:

• "Vile! Is this the change of tone promised by the Thief-In-Chief? And you, the way you present it in your column, both smirky and cynical, provocative and mean spirited. Why don't you find any moral outrage and condemn so evil and vicious an attack? Typical of the slanted media to continue hating the Clintons while the real story of the stolen election goes unreported."

• "Probably the most decent Clinton in the world, she couldn't choose her parents. Poor thing."

• "I think it is over the top for him to criticize Chelsea so harshly. That's the problem with the right-wing conservatives, they can't stop hating. Mr. Clinton is no longer president yet he's in the news every day because the conservative wing can't stop kicking him around. Maybe they need a 12-step program to get over Clinton and get to the business of running the country."

• "The John Derbyshire piece on Chelsea Clinton really crosses the line and I'm shocked you took such a neutral stance on it. If Derbyshire is going so far out-of-bounds as to attack the former First Child, you would seem justified in giving up a little objectivity and criticizing him on it."

• "Like or hate the President, the First Family should not be a target of this kind of attack unless they get involved in policy making.

"This goes both ways: although I am a Democrat, I thought the proposed Comedy Central series about Bush and its ideas for his daughters (at one time it was suggested that they be incestuous lesbian lovers) was beyond good taste. In fact, I would go so far as to say the First Lady should be out-of-bounds too, with obvious exceptions like HRC and her health-care initiative or Nancy Reagan leading the 'Just Say No' campaign....

"There is so much hatred out there for Bill Clinton that it's amazing how low some commentators will go. The responsible media should go to every length to stop this."

• "The Clintons used Chelsea when they needed to to shore up public opinion. I believe she was a willing accomplice."

• "The Clinton-bashers have no shame. There is no 'top' to go over. If such a place exists, it was passed long, long ago.

"Like many liberals, I have little fondness for the Clinton family. It is only their enemies that help me maintain any semblance of loyalty toward them. We should all be blessed with enemies whose character is so vile that they could be confused for Disney villains, allowing our own wrong-doing to look benign in comparison."

• "Anything Chelsea did when she was under 18 must be handled inretrospect as her parents wished at the time. Just because she is an adult now doesn't mean her childhood is fair game for all manner of creeps and self-loathing freaks posing as journalists...

• "It does not matter how much they hate her parents. This is a question of decency. Surely the hacks at National Review have heard the word before."

• "I am a card-carrying Republican who subscribes to The Weekly Standard and frequently listens to Rush Limbaugh. I voted for Bob Dole and George W. Bush with a sense of bringing the country back to its senses after electing Bill Clinton in 1992. I definitely wanted to clean house in Washington....

"It is dumb and mean to attack a young woman for her family origins. It is a low blow, beyond the bounds of common decency."

• "Mr. Derbyshire evidently has nothing better to do than to attack a 20 or so year-old Stanford junior who has had to live her entire life in the public eye because of her parents' political careers. He hates her because of her surname, because of what her father did and who he was, etc., things over which she had no control....Mr. Derbyshire should pick on someone his own age."

• "Wow. This irrational display of anger toward Chelsea reinforces my decision to leave the Republican Party ... too many hatemongers and bigots drowning in negativity. Get a life!"

• "Get a grip America, let President Clinton fade away and focus on the Bush administration. Is it that the new president is so lacking in substance that you have to fall back on Mr. Clinton for exciting news? Or, have the Republicans dumped something into the water that makes everyone see things from their warped perspective? And leave Chelsea out of the fray. That is hitting way below the belt."

• "This Chelsea bashing crap is mean, stupid and ridiculous. It says far more about pen scum Derbyshire than any of the Clintons."

• "I agree with the Chelsea criticism. I reject the notion that we should feel sorry for her - she has clearly bought into the Clinton pattern. She has shown her desire to take a sabbatical from college to help her mother campaign, and publicly travel repeatedly with her father. If she wanted to show any true independence, she would have stayed in school. Sad, but true, her parents raised her very well - to be exactly like them.

"Why is it that she continues to be avoided by the media, while she has become very public in her campaigning and traveling?????"

• "Chelsea is probably 'fair game' as she is an adult now, but going after her only allows the senior Clintons to revert to type - playing victim again. What one should focus on in regards to Chelsea is the flagrant abuse both Clintons heaped on this poor girl with the infamous 'forced' march to the helicopter. That day is when my disgust with the Clintons turned into unabiding hatred. I knew then that both of them would use anyone or anything to further their political ambitions."

• "This is the kind of kookiness that allows Clinton Defenders to paint all critics as irrational nuts."

• "No one could possibly hate Bill and Sen. Clinton more than I do. I believe him to be the incarnation of the antichrist. But the attack on Chelsea is unforgivable. What is the point of this, that she should disown her father? The NR has crossed the line on this one."

• "'Chelsea, fair game?'....ABSOLUTELY! The primary reason for my opinion is that she is no longer a minor but an adult who, by her own actions, has made herself open to scrutiny; namely, her many world trips and her inappropriate presence at diplomatic dinners especially those where she was an embarrassing participant in the conversation."

• "Maybe she should also be impeached. Socks was probably in on it also."

Derbyshire himself took exception with this e-mail: "You must know there's a huge irony-free zone out there on POST-land, populated by humorless dorks. My policy is to answer all e-mails, even ones from gibbering lunatics, but it's being sore[ly] tested at the moment.

"You could have just left the link and dropped the excerpt. 90% are just going to read the excerpt, you know that. If I'm going to be called rude names, I'd rather it was by someone who's at least read my entire piece."

A couple of readers took aim at us for reporting on the Derbyshire column at all:

• "I wonder if your column today is not a bit disingenuous. You show that Clinton-bashing is still the leading agenda of political journalism in the U.S., but your review of Clinton-bashing pieces (as you obviously realize) makes your column just more of the same. As for the piece 'about Chelsea.' Well, of course it is not about Chelsea, it is a thin disguise for just another piece of vitriol aimed at Clinton."

• "I am sure Mr. Derbyshire owes you a debt of gratitude for such prominent mention in your article. Perhaps the attention will embolden him to next focus his investigative skills on the real scoundrel of the Clinton administration, Buddy."

Buddy could not be reached for comment.

----

FBI Counterspy Accused of Espionage

Wednesday, February 21, 2001
Washington Post
By Dan Eggen and Brooke A. Masters
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A30956-2001Feb20?language=printer

A veteran FBI agent who specialized in Russian counterintelligence was accused yesterday of spying for Moscow for much of the past 15 years, an alleged betrayal that created a massive breach in national security, harmed U.S. intelligence operations and contributed to the execution of two Russian double agents, according to officials and court documents.

Moscow allegedly rewarded Robert Philip Hanssen, 56, with more than $1.4 million in cash, diamonds and deposits in a Russian bank, FBI Director Louis J. Freeh said at a news conference where he outlined the plot and how it was unraveled.

Hanssen was arrested at a Fairfax County park Sunday not far from his modest Vienna home after being caught attempting to deliver a garbage bag full of highly classified documents to Russian intelligence agents in exchange for $50,000 in cash left at another park in Arlington, Freeh said.

Experts characterized the Hanssen case as the worst spying episode in FBI history.

Leaving documents and computer disks for his unseen contacts in Northern Virginia parks, Hanssen compromised "numerous human sources" and turned over dozens of classified reports revealing nuclear secrets, electronic surveillance techniques and other cornerstones of U.S. intelligence, according to a 109-page affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria. He also sabotaged the FBI's investigation of former State Department employee Felix Bloch in 1989, it said.

In a single 1988 drop, for example, Hanssen turned over "top secret" CIA documents about nuclear programs, a "top secret" historical FBI review of Soviet defectors and recruitments, a "top secret . . . compendium of future intelligence requirements" and a "secret" CIA staff study of KGB recruitment, according to the affidavit.

"The full extent of the damage done is yet unknown," Freeh said yesterday. "We believe, however, that it was exceptionally grave. The criminal conduct alleged represents the most traitorous actions imaginable against a country governed by the rule of law."

Freeh announced that he has asked former FBI and CIA director William H. Webster to head a blue-ribbon panel to investigate how such a massive security breach could have gone undetected for so long.

U.S. officials would not say how they obtained the extremely detailed information about Hanssen's activities alleged in the affidavit, or how they came to suspect the FBI agent. The affidavit mentions letters and envelopes that appear to have been turned over by Russian or Soviet sources. In some cases they note the original postmark and return address.

President Bush, while affirming his confidence in Freeh, called the charges against Hanssen "extremely serious" and "deeply disturbing."

"This has been a difficult day for those who love our country, and especially for those who serve our country in law enforcement and in the intelligence community," Bush said aboard Air Force One yesterday.

The arrest also prompted cries of alarm in Congress. "This could be a very, very, very serious case of espionage," said Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.), chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. "Here's an agent who is a veteran of the FBI, who's been doing counterintelligence for a long time. He knows a lot. He could have given them a lot."

Experts compared Hanssen's activities to those of CIA operative Aldrich H. Ames, who was arrested in 1994 after nine years of spying for Moscow. Ames's activities were linked to the deaths of 10 U.S. agents, and prosecutors alleged yesterday that Hanssen played a role in at least two of those fatalities.

Officials at the Russian Embassy here declined to comment.

Hanssen is the third FBI agent to be arrested on charges of spying. Earl Edwin Pitts pleaded guilty in 1997 to spying for Moscow. Richard W. Miller was convicted of espionage in 1984.

Hanssen, who was ordered held without bond yesterday until his next court appearance on espionage charges March 5, could face the death penalty if convicted. He intends to plead not guilty, according to his lawyer, Plato Cacheris, who characterized his client as emotionally distraught.

The married father of six children specialized in counterintelligence, spending much of his 25-year FBI career monitoring the Russian Embassy in Washington and official Russian offices in New York. He has worked at FBI headquarters, the bureau's New York Field Office and, for five years ending in January, was posted at the State Department as an FBI liaison, officials said.

Several fellow agents said he was renowned for his dark clothes and gloomy personality, referred to as "Dr. Death" in the FBI's New York office and "the Undertaker" by colleagues in Washington, according to sources. "He looked like a matinee villain," one agent said.

The affidavit paints a devastating picture of a spy who betrayed sensitive information and pocketed large amounts of cash left for him at drop sites in Northern Virginia.

From 1985 to 1991 and again from 1999 to the present, Hanssen allegedly passed 27 letters and left 22 packages for Russian and Soviet agents. Moscow, meanwhile, gave him 33 packages containing $600,000 in cash and diamonds, according to the affidavit. An additional $800,000 allegedly was deposited in a Russian bank.

Hanssen allegedly disclosed specific techniques and precise targets. He tipped off the Soviets to the FBI's 1989 investigation of Bloch, who was videotaped handing a briefcase to a Soviet official but was never charged as a spy.

"Bloch was such a shnook . . . I almost hated protecting him, but he was your friend. If our guy sent to Paris had balls or brains both would have been dead meat. Fortunately for you he had neither," Hanssen allegedly wrote to Russian intelligence agents in November.

Known to the Russians only as "Ramon" or "B," Hanssen refused to travel abroad, meet with his handlers or tell them his name or what agency he worked for, the affidavit said. Freeh said Hanssen used his expertise and training as an intelligence operative to his advantage.

"Meeting in this country is not really that hard to manage but I am loathe to do so not because it is risky but because it involves revealing my identity. That insulation has been my best protection against betrayal by someone like me," Hanssen allegedly wrote in the November letter, which the affidavit said the FBI lifted off a computer memory card during a February search of his briefcase.

Hanssen's relationship with the Russians began in 1985, according to the affidavit, with a letter from Hanssen -- then based in New York for the FBI -- to a KGB operative offering to spy voluntarily but implying that he would expect payment. He capped the dispatch by naming three men -- Boris Yuzhin, Sergey Motorin and Valeriy Martynov -- as KGB agents who were recruited by U.S. intelligence, confirming information previously given to the Russians by Ames, according to officials and the affidavit.

Motorin and Martynov were both convicted of espionage and executed. Yuzhin was imprisoned and, after his release, emigrated to the United States. He declined to comment yesterday.

Hanssen was stationed at the State Department from 1995 until this January, when he was pulled back to headquarters as the internal investigation continued. During that time, the State Department was buffeted by a series of security scandals, including the expulsion of a Russian spy in 1999 for monitoring a listening device planted in a seventh-floor conference room.

According to the affidavit, Hanssen complained in one letter in November that poor communications prevented him from warning his handlers about the bugging probe. "I knew microphones of an unknown origin were detected even earlier and had no regular way of communicating that," Hanssen allegedly wrote. "This needs to be rectified if I am to be as effective as I can be."

Since 1998, Hanssen has routinely run his name, address and the phrase "dead drop" through the FBI's electronic case filing system to see if anyone was on to him, the affidavit said. A dead drop refers to a location used by spies to pass information, such as the spot in Vienna's Foxstone Park where Hanssen allegedly left classified documents on Sunday.

In several written exchanges, Hanssen mocked his country and his employer, allegedly telling his handlers that they "overestimate the FBI's capacity to interdict" them and likening the United States to a "retarded child."

Court records and sources said that once the bureau was tipped off, agents apparently moved much more quickly in Hanssen's case than in previous investigations. Ames and Harold James Nicholson, another CIA spy, were watched for more than a year each, and the FBI launched a 16-month sting to nail Pitts.

The first reference in the affidavit to FBI surveillance of Hanssen is in December, and the first secret search of his belongings took place in January.

Milton Bearden, head of the CIA Directorate of Operations' Soviet-East European Division from 1989 to 1992, said that the damage caused by Hanssen's alleged spying is impossible to calculate right now.

"You can't even begin to measure the damage," Bearden said. "If you look at his job progression, he was in a position to neutralize many of the activities of the FBI. He had their playbook."

To calculate the damage, Bearden said, FBI and CIA counterintelligence specialists will have to "go back over the entire 15-year period and sort out all the anomalies that occurred."

"Potentially, he is the FBI's Aldrich Ames," said Robert M. Blitzer, who knew Hanssen as a "quiet, laid-back guy" when Blitzer worked as head of the FBI's domestic terrorism division. "It's great that he was caught, but you have to ask: How could this happen for so long without anyone knowing about it? It's just a devastating thing, for the bureau and for the nation."

Hanssen wore a black shirt and dark gray pants to yesterday's brief appearance in U.S. District Court. He did not say anything, but as he was being led out of the courtroom, he craned his head to look for familiar faces.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Teresa C. Buchanan ordered Hanssen held without bond until a preliminary hearing March 5. Assistant U.S. Attorney Randy I. Bellows said that prosecutors are seeking to freeze Hanssen's assets while they search for the proceeds of his alleged activities.

Hanssen has been charged with conspiracy to commit espionage and espionage. Both charges can carry a life sentence, and may be subject to the death penalty if certain conditions -- such as compromising key nuclear secrets or causing a death -- are met.

Staff writers Dana Milbank, Steven Mufson and David A. Vise contributed to this report.

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F.B.I. Agent Charged as Spy Who Aided Russia for 15 Years

February 21, 2001
New York Times
By DAVID JOHNSTON
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/21/national/21SPY.html?pagewanted=all

WASHINGTON, Feb. 20 - A senior F.B.I. agent who worked as a counterintelligence supervisor at the agency's headquarters was charged today as a spy who passed highly classified information to Russia for 15 years without being detected. Law enforcement officials described the case as an extremely grave breach of national security.

The agent, Robert Philip Hanssen, 56, was accused of turning over to Moscow a huge array of secrets, including the identities of three Russian agents who had been secretly recruited to spy for the United States. Two of the Russians were subsequently tried and executed; the third was imprisoned and later released.

In return, F.B.I. officials said, the Russians paid Mr. Hanssen a total of $1.4 million. The money was paid in cash, often stacks of $100 bills, delivered in plastic trash bags to clandestine drop-off sites in suburban Virginia, the officials said. Other payments, they said, were made in untraceable diamonds and deposits into a bank account that the Russians told Mr. Hanssen that they had opened for him in Moscow.

He was arrested early Sunday evening in a suburban Virginia park minutes after he had dropped off a bag of classified documents, officials said. A bag containing $50,000 was waiting for him in a hidden location at a nearby park, they said.

The F.B.I. director, Louis J. Freeh, suggested today that Mr. Hanssen succeeded in eluding detection for as long as he did because he used his intimate knowledge of the F.B.I.'s counterintelligence techniques and spent hours at his office computer entering his name into classified F.B.I. databanks to determine whether he had fallen under suspicion. Mr. Hanssen was not suspected of espionage until late last year.

In addition, officials said, Mr. Hanssen never told the Russians his real name, instead calling himself Ramon. They said he did not identify himself to the Russians as an F.B.I. agent and refused to meet face-to-face with his contacts. He would not travel outside the country to pass information and did not appear to live a lavish lifestyle.

Although the F.B.I.'s internal security personnel have the ability to track each agent's use of F.B.I. computerized crime files, Mr. Hanssen's use of the databases was never questioned.

Mr. Hanssen's arrest confronted the Federal Bureau of Investigation with a serious security lapse and one of its most embarrassing counterintelligence failures in recent years. The bureau is the principal federal agency responsible for ferreting out spies against the United States.

Over the years, Mr. Hanssen received several promotions, rising through the F.B.I.'s counterintelligence ranks even while, officials said, he was secretly supplying the Russians with highly classified data after 1991 when the Soviet empire collapsed.

"The trusted insider betrayed his trust without detection," Mr. Freeh said.

Plato Cacheris, Mr. Hanssen's lawyer, said that as of now his client would plead not guilty to the charges, but added that the case was still in its early stages. Mr. Cacheris suggested that the government's case might not seem as solid as it appeared, saying that prosecutors "always talk like they have a great case, but we'll see."

An F.B.I. affidavit filed in support of the charges against Mr. Hanssen, which was unsealed today, said he began his espionage in 1985 and spied undeterred for the Soviet Union and, after its collapse, for Russia. It said he continued apparently unfazed by the many changes Mr. Freeh imposed to strengthen counterespionage efforts in the aftermath of the case against Aldrich H. Ames, the C.I.A. officer sentenced to life in prison in 1994 as a spy for Moscow.

The affidavit, nearly 100 pages long, provided an unusually detailed narrative account. It included details intended to support the bureau's view that Mr. Hanssen had a long career as a Soviet spy, listing the dates that officials said he had contacts with the Russians, the texts of letters officials said he wrote to Russian officials, the payments officials said he received and the nature of the material he provided Moscow.

Law enforcement officials said the F.B.I. had secretly obtained the bulk of Mr. Hanssen's espionage file from the Russian intelligence service, which they said was in itself a counterintelligence coup for the United States.

Mr. Freeh said Mr. Hanssen's arrest was unrelated to the defection last October of Sergei Tretyakov, a Russian diplomat at the United Nations. Later, law enforcement officials said it was not Mr. Tretyakov who cast suspicion on Mr. Hanssen.

Today, Mr. Freeh would not discuss how the F.B.I. learned of Mr. Hanssen's activities or why they had not been discovered sooner. He also would not say whether Mr. Hanssen had ever been subject to screening procedures like polygraph examination. Lie-detector tests are routinely given to F.B.I. employees who handle highly sensitive information and are authorized to deal with other countries or intelligence agencies.

Mr. Freeh said Mr. Hanssen's activity "represents the most traitorous actions imaginable." He said the F.B.I. had not yet determined the full extent of the damage because agents did not want to risk tipping their hand by beginning such a review while the investigation was under way. Even so, Mr. Freeh said of the suspected damage, "We believe it was exceptionally grave."

It was evident today that F.B.I. officials were bracing for what they expect to be stinging criticism in the days ahead. Mr. Freeh said his agency had agreed to the appointment of a high-level panel that will assess the extent of the damage and review security procedures at the F.B.I. The panel will be led by William H. Webster, a former director of central intelligence and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

As a reflection of the seriousness of the case, President Bush read a statement to reporters traveling with him on Air Force One, saying, "This has been a difficult day for those who love our country, especially for those who serve our country in law enforcement and intelligence."

He added, "To anyone who would betray its trust, I warn you, we'll find you and we'll bring you to justice."

Attorney General John Ashcroft issued a statement that said in part, "Individuals who commit treasonous acts against the United States will be held fully accountable."

Technically, however, Mr. Hanssen was not charged with treason, but with espionage and conspiracy to commit espionage for allegedly passing classified information to a foreign power. Treason is a separate crime of passing secret military information to a country at war with the United States.

Prosecutors in Mr. Hanssen's case could seek the death penalty because of the deaths of the two Russian agents, in addition to fines of up to $2.8 million, twice the amount he is believed to have received from his spying. Justice Department officials have not said whether they will seek the death penalty.

Mr. Hanssen, a married father of six, has been held in a detention center in Virginia since his arrest at a park near his home in the Washington suburb of Vienna, Va. He was arraigned today in a Federal District Court in Alexandria, Va.

Mr. Freeh was in the F.B.I.'s command center at the agency's headquarters when Mr. Hanssen was arrested as he returned to his car after dropping off a package of classified documents, law enforcement officials said. Mr. Hanssen was "shocked and surprised," Mr. Freeh said, but he did not resist arrest.

Agents were exultant after the successful arrest, but the mood in the command center quickly turned somber as F.B.I. officials realized that it was one of their own agents who had just been taken into custody. It was Mr. Freeh who proposed the outside inquiry into the F.B.I.'s internal security procedures, a suggestion accepted by Mr. Ashcroft.

Although the accusations against Mr. Hanssen are by far the most serious against an F.B.I. agent, he is not the first agent to be accused of spying. In 1997, Earl Pitts, who was stationed at the F.B.I. Academy in Quantico, Va., was sentenced to 27 years in prison after admitting he spied for Moscow during and after the cold war.

Richard W. Miller, a Los Angeles F.B.I. agent who was caught spying, was arrested in 1984 and later sentenced to 20 years in prison. His sentenced was reduced to 13 years, and he was released in 1994 after serving nine years.

Today, the government's affidavit said Mr. Hanssen volunteered to spy for Moscow in October 1985 when he was working as the supervisor of a squad that was responsible for the electronic monitoring of Russians in the vicinity of New York.

He sent a secret letter to Victor I. Cherkashin, the same official at the Russian Embassy in Washington who acted as the contact for Mr. Ames, the career C.I.A. officer who walked into the Soviet Embassy in May 1985.

In the letter, Mr. Hanssen said he was aware that "your service has recently suffered some setbacks." Then, in an apparent effort to demonstrate that the intelligence he could offer was genuine, he identified Boris Yuzhin, Sergei M. Motorin and Valery F. Martinov, all Russian agents who had been recruited to spy for the United States.

By then, all three had already been identified by Mr. Ames, but by passing these names to the Russians, Mr. Hanssen could be sentenced to death because Mr. Motorin and Mr. Martynov were later convicted in Soviet courts and executed for their actions.

The affidavit appears to clear up what counterintelligence officials have long said was a mystery that had perplexed them since 1989 when a covert investigation began into Felix S. Bloch, a State Department employee suspected of espionage.

The affidavit said that Mr. Hanssen compromised the investigation by alerting the Russians that the F.B.I. suspected Mr. Bloch of meeting in 1989 with a Soviet agent in Paris and Brussels. As a result, Mr. Bloch denied he had ever engaged in spying and declined to answer any questions and the F.B.I. inquiry collapsed.

Mr. Hanssen, whom the Russians referred to only as B, wrote articulate messages to his handlers that reflected his knowledge of spying, his need for anonymity and the risks he faced, the affidavit said.

In one message in July 1988, he wrote about his strict precautions to avoid detection. "My security concerns may seem excessive," he wrote. "I believe experience has shown them to be necessary. I am much safer if you know little about me. Neither of us are children about these things."

Over the years, Mr. Hanssen turned over information about "dozens of United States government classified documents," including some involving the government's double-agent program, a study on K.G.B. recruitment operations against the C.I.A., an analysis of K.G.B. operations and "a highly classified and tightly restricted analysis of the foreign threat" to a top-secret American program.

In addition, the affidavit accused him of compromising electronic surveillance methods. Of Mr. Hanssen's actions, Mr. Freeh said, "The F.B.I. entrusted him with some of the most sensitive material of the United States government and instead of being humbled by this honor, Hanssen allegedly abused and betrayed that trust."

Boris N. Labusov, spokesman for Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service, said tonight on Russian television, "There is an old home truth," in the intelligence business, "that intelligence successes become known after a failure."

"As long as intelligence services exist," Mr. Labusov said, "there will be always a threat of disclosures of the people working for one or another of such services. And there will be disclosures, but I would not call it a usual practice. When a spy scandal is elevated to a political level, it is necessary to understand who and what is behind it, who derives benefits from it."

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Gaps in Ames Case May Be Filled by F.B.I.'s Own Spy Case

February 21, 2001
New York Times
By JAMES RISEN http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/21/national/21DAMA.html?pagewanted=all

WASHINGTON, Feb. 20 - When a Central Intelligence Agency officer, Aldrich H. Ames, was arrested as a spy for Moscow in 1994, critics questioned how the agency could have allowed his espionage to go undetected for nine years. Officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation helped fuel the criticism with complaints that the C.I.A. had failed to share sensitive information, stifling the investigation.

Now the F.B.I. finds the shoe on the other foot, facing questions about how it allowed a senior bureau official to spy for Moscow for nearly twice as long as Mr. Ames had.

After the arrest of the F.B.I. official, Robert Philip Hanssen, 56, on Sunday in a suburban Virginia park, where he was suspected of leaving classified material for his Russian handlers, officials are saying he may be the most damaging spy for Moscow since Mr. Ames.

In an extensive affidavit released today, the government charged that Mr. Hanssen compromised spies working for the United States, including three Russian K.G.B. officers who had also been betrayed by Mr. Ames. Two of those officers were tried and executed; the third was imprisoned and later released.

Mr. Hanssen is also suspected of being the person who tipped off Moscow to the 1989 spy investigation of a State Department official, Felix S. Bloch. The F.B.I. believes that Mr. Bloch was subsequently warned by the K.G.B. Mr. Bloch was never arrested for espionage, but was fired from the State Department.

Current and former American officials also say Mr. Hanssen's case may help explain the losses of technical intelligence operations against the Russians for which investigators were never certain that Mr. Ames could be blamed.

"This explains a lot," one former official said. "There were things that we thought might have been done by Ames, but we always thought that it was a stretch for Ames to have known about certain programs."

Current and former officials say there has been strong suspicion in the intelligence community for several years that the Russians still had at least one high-level agent, possibly more, within the government.

But Mr. Hanssen's case is more than just a historical curiosity. As a 25-year F.B.I. veteran who spent most of his career in counterintelligence, Mr. Hanssen had access to a wide array of highly sensitive cases and documents, and the F.B.I. believes he became a frequent user of the bureau's computers to supplement his own knowledge.

The F.B.I. director, Louis J. Freeh, said he was troubled that a hostile agent could go undetected for 15 years, while using internal computer systems to protect himself and gain access to sensitive material. Mr. Freeh is reviewing internal security procedures to determine why they failed in this case.

According to the government affidavit, Mr. Hanssen volunteered to spy for the Soviet Union in October 1985, just five months after Mr. Ames did, yet he managed to avoid detection for seven years longer. The F.B.I. suggested today that he may have been more successful because his counterintelligence training made him far more knowledgeable about how the F.B.I. detects and catches spies.

That training also made him far more careful in his dealings with the Russians. The F.B.I. believes that he never gave the Russians his name or identified his agency. He never even met with his Russian handlers, instead volunteering via letter to a senior K.G.B. officer in Washington.

The Hanssen case seems certain to shed light on some of the most celebrated spy cases of the final years of the cold war, cases which many believed were already settled history.

Most notably, Mr. Hanssen, officials say, corroborated some of the information that Mr. Ames was providing to the K.G.B., which certainly would have increased Moscow's confidence in the secret material it was receiving from both agents. The government says Mr. Hanssen revealed to the K.G.B. that two of its own officers serving in Washington in the mid-1980's, Valery F. Martinov and Sergei M. Motorin, were working for the F.B.I. In addition, he revealed that Boris Yuzhin, a Soviet intelligence officer in San Francisco in the late 1970's and early 1980's, had been recruited by the F.B.I.

Mr. Ames, who volunteered to spy for the Soviets in April 1985, had also revealed the identities of all three by June of that year, the F.B.I. believes.

But now it is clear for the first time that the K.G.B. did not rely solely on Mr. Ames for evidence needed to arrest those officers. Mr. Hanssen is suspected of identifying the three K.G.B. agents in October 1985. Mr. Motorin and Mr. Martinov were tried and executed, with Mr. Martinov being lured back to Moscow in November 1985, when he was asked to serve as a member of an honor guard escorting a K.G.B. officer, Vitaly Yurchenko, home after his defection to the United States and his redefection to the Soviet Union. Mr. Yuzhin was arrested in December 1986, imprisoned and then released in 1992. He has resettled in the United States.

Mr. Freeh said at a news conference today that Mr. Hanssen used the F.B.I.'s computers to see whether the bureau's counterintelligence investigators were on to him. Mr. Hanssen's easy access to the F.B.I.'s computer system may be one focus of the F.B.I. review.

Mr. Hanssen, the government says, was a prodigious spy. In an espionage career that spanned 15 1/2 years, the government charges, he wrote 27 letters to the K.G.B., later the S.V.R., and handed over some 6,000 pages of documentary material. Those documents contained a wide array of United States secrets, the government says, including information about the F.B.I.'s double- agent program, future American intelligence requirements and an assessment of the K.G.B.'s efforts to spy on American nuclear programs.

The government charges that he also turned over a top-secret F.B.I. review of information from defectors about Soviet infiltration of the intelligence community.

In addition to compromising sensitive technical intelligence operations against the Russians, the affidavit states, Mr. Hanssen betrayed the techniques the F.B.I. used to keep track of Soviet and Russian officers in the United States.

For most of the last five years, Mr. Hanssen was the F.B.I.'s chief representative at the State Department, but F.B.I. officials do not believe those were his most productive years as a spy. They do not believe, for example, that he was involved in the Russian operation to plant a listening device in a State Department conference room.

The affidavit went on to describe actions that seemed to implicate Mr. Hanssen. In a letter to his Russian handlers in June that was reprinted in the affidavit, Mr. Hanssen made it clear he wanted to be of greater help. He told the Russians that he needed a faster and more secure means of communicating with them, perhaps with a new Palm VII organizer with wireless Internet capability. If he had a faster way to contact the Russians, the letter states, he might have been able to warn Moscow that a listening device had been found at the State Department. "Such matters are why I need rapid communications," the reprinted letter states. "It can save you much grief."

At the State Department, Mr. Hanssen may have been out of the daily flow of the most sensitive counterintelligence operations, but he still attended weekly staff meetings of the F.B.I.'s national security division, officials said.

The period when Mr. Hanssen had the potential to do his greatest damage came earlier. He volunteered to the K.G.B. while assigned to the F.B.I.'s intelligence division in New York, where he was a supervisor of a counterintelligence squad.

Just before he is said to have sent his letter to the Russians, he was a supervisory agent in the intelligence division at F.B.I. headquarters, where he was on a panel dealing with technical projects used by the bureau in counterintelligence. While the F.B.I. did not identify those projects in its affidavit, they may have involved sophisticated electronic means to monitor K.G.B. officers serving in the United States.

From 1987 through 1990, Mr. Hanssen was a supervisor in the F.B.I.'s Soviet analytical unit, and later a program manager in the intelligence division's Soviet operations unit.

Perhaps his most sensitive post came in late 1994, when he worked briefly in the office of the F.B.I.'s assistant director for national security, the official in charge of all bureau intelligence operations.

That posting came just months after Mr. Ames's arrest, and was at a time when the F.B.I. was gaining the upper hand over the C.I.A. in their long-running war for control over counterintelligence.

Former United States intelligence officials noted that after the Ames case, the F.B.I. gained the right of "full visibility" into the C.I.A.'s Russian operations, a move intended to allow the agencies to work jointly and quickly to catch spies. It is unclear whether Mr. Hanssen's espionage benefited from that policy shift.

Officials indicated today that Mr. Hanssen was, in turn, betrayed by another spy. They said that late last year a source provided the United States with Russian documents that pointed to Mr. Hanssen. The affidavit released today provided a remarkably detailed account of his career as a Russian agent, information that seemingly could come only from old K.G.B. files.

Those Russian documents revealed to the F.B.I. that Moscow did not know Mr. Hanssen's real name - he gave them only code names - and may have learned it only after his arrest. In the past, other spies have worked anonymously as well. For example, Sergei Vorontsov, a K.G.B. officer in Moscow, volunteered to work for the C.I.A. without identifying himself. American intelligence officers did not learn his identity until he was arrested in 1986.

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From Dour 'Mortician' of F.B.I. to Suspected Russian Superspy

February 21, 2001
New York Times
By PHILIP SHENON
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/21/national/21SUSP.html?pagewanted=all

WASHINGTON, Feb. 20 - The Russians apparently never knew the name of their prized American spy.

To them, he was only B or Ramon or R. Garcia, the code names that the hypercautious American used during the 15 years that he is said to have provided Moscow with some of the most sensitive intelligence documents in the files of the F.B.I.

The bureau said today that it had unmasked the spy, and that he was one of their own: Robert Philip Hanssen, a 25-year veteran of the bureau whose specialty was Russian counterintelligence, a former dentistry student and accountant turned Chicago police investigator, a 56- year-old churchgoing father of six.

"Hanssen, using his tradition and experience to protect himself from discovery by the F.B.I., never met face to face with his Russian handlers, never revealed to them his true identity or even where he worked," Louis J. Freeh, the F.B.I. director, said today in announcing the arrest, which was made on Sunday. "They are learning of it today."

In court papers and public comments, the F.B.I. made clear that it had received access - through a channel it refused to identify - to virtually the entire intelligence dossier on B maintained by Soviet - and later, Russian - intelligence.

The file includes the initial 1985 letter from B to the K.G.B. offering access to "some of the most sensitive and highly compartmented projects of the U.S. intelligence community" in exchange for a payment of $100,000.

The F.B.I. said today that the evidence identifying B as Mr. Hanssen was overwhelming, including a computer memory card found in Mr. Hanssen's briefcase that contained some of the letters written by B, and fingerprints found on a garbage bag used to wrap secret documents that were left for Russian agents.

If federal prosecutors and the F.B.I. are right, the arrest of Mr. Hanssen ends the spying operation of one of the most dangerous and longest-surviving moles ever to betray his country, perhaps the most damaging since Aldrich H. Ames, the C.I.A. agent who pleaded guilty in 1994 to spying for the Soviet Union. [Page A16.]

But the details of the case released today by law enforcement officials offer little explanation for the motivations of a man who, unlike the brazenly greedy Mr. Ames, was never obvious about enjoying the hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and diamonds that his Russian handlers supposedly provided.

Mr. Hanssen was remembered by F.B.I. colleagues as dour, colorless, socially awkward - "the mortician," as he was called behind his back, both for his personality and his penchant for dark, unstylish business suits.

They also recalled him as a devoted family man who lived without obvious luxuries. He and his wife owned a comfortable three-story brick-and-wood house in the Washington suburb of Vienna, Va. They drove a 1997 four-door Ford Taurus and a 1993 Volkswagen van.

The court documents show that money was important to B, and he is accused of taking payments of at least $600,000 in cash, with another $800,000 deposited in a bank in Moscow for his eventual use.

But in 15 years of letters and other communications with the K.G.B. and its successor agencies that were released in an F.B.I. affidavit, the mole also offered other explanations for his treason: his thrill at the logistics of elegant spycraft; his disdain for the United States government and especially for the F.B.I.; and his "loyalty" to his Russian counterparts, if not to their leaders.

"I decided on this course when I was 14 years old - I'd read Philby's book," the spy said in a letter that he reportedly wrote last year to his Russian handlers, referring the notorious British traitor Kim Philby, who defected to Moscow and later wrote memoirs about his espionage.

"One might propose that I am either insanely brave or quite insane. I'd answer neither. I'd say, insanely loyal."

He said that the United States "can be errantly likened to a powerfully built but retarded child - potentially dangerous, but young, immature and easily manipulated."

As for the F.B.I., he said, "generally speaking you overstate the F.B.I.'s capacity to interdict you," adding that "cocksure officers" of the bureau tend to "step in an occasional cowpie."

Robert Philip Hanssen was born in April 18, 1944, in Chicago. He received a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Knox College in Illinois in 1966, where he also studied Russian.

He attended dentistry school at Northwestern University but transferred two years later to the business school, where he received a master's degree in business administration. In 1973, he earned credentials as a certified public accountant and joined a Chicago accounting firm.

He switched career paths again in 1972, this time settling on law enforcement. He joined the Chicago Police Department as an investigator in a financial-crimes unit and, four years later, moved to the F.B.I., initially assigned to Indianapolis.

The F.B.I. transferred him to New York in 1979 to help establish a new automated counterintelligence database in the office, which monitors espionage activities by diplomats assigned to the United Nations.

He was assigned to Washington two years later, where he was made a special agent in the intelligence division, the next step in a career that would lead him to several important and sensitive jobs in the F.B.I. unit that monitors Russian spies in the United States and tries to recruit them as double agents.

In September 1985, he was sent back to New York, this time to run a squad of counterintelligence agents against the large Soviet mission at the United Nations. Former associates said today that he was in charge of agents who installed listening devices in buildings and automobiles used by Soviet diplomats and visiting Soviet dignitaries.

A month after Mr. Hanssen arrived in New York, the K.G.B. received the first of its dozens of written communications from the agent they would dub B.

According to court papers, the first overture came in an unsigned typed letter sent to a K.G.B. officer at the Soviet Embassy in Washington.

"Soon, I will send a box of documents," the letter said. "All are originals to aid in verifying their authenticity. Please recognize for our long- term interests that there are a limited number of persons with this array of clearances. As a collection, they point to me."

The letter then went on to name three K.G.B. agents in the United States - two working under diplomatic cover in Washington, another associated with the Soviet news agency in San Francisco - who were American double agents.

The letter supported information previously supplied to the Soviets by Mr. Ames; two of the agents - Valery F. Martinov and Sergei M. Motorin - were later executed as traitors after they returned home.

B wrote again on Oct. 24, 1985, in a letter postmarked New York. It asked that "your package" be wrapped in a brown plastic trash bag and left at the foot of a wooden bridge in a park in Northern Virginia.

"My signal to you: One vertical mark of white adhesive tape meaning I am ready to receive your package," the letter continued. "Your signal to me: One horizontal mark of white adhesive tape."

A few days later, the court documents say, the K.G.B. left $50,000 in cash and a message proposing future contacts at the park.

B repeatedly proved his value to the Russians, supplying them with top-secret intelligence documents and detailed descriptions of new spying technologies that were being developed by the C.I.A. and the National Security Agency.

Despite Soviet requests for a face- to-face meeting, possibly during foreign travel by B, the spy refused. "I will not meet abroad or here," he wrote in a September 1987 letter obtained by the F.B.I. that was signed R. Garcia, another code name. "I have decided. It must be on my original terms or not at all."

The mole had reason to be cautious. American intelligence agencies and the F.B.I. were stepping up counterintelligence programs in response to a wave of spy cases that began with the 1985 arrest of a Navy warrant officer, John A. Walker Jr., for spying for the Soviet Union.

"My security concerns may seem excessive," B wrote in 1988. "I believe experience has shown them to be necessary. I am much safer if you know little about me. Neither of us are children about these things. Over time, I can cut your losses rather than become one."

Mr. Hanssen continued to advance in the counterespionage ranks of the F.B.I. in the late 1980's.

From 1987 to 1990, he was reassigned to bureau headquarters in Washington, where he served as a supervisor in the Intelligence Division's Soviet Analytical Unit. In 1991, he managed a program intended to counter Soviet efforts to steal American scientific and technical intelligence.

He held similar counterintelligence posts from 1992 through 1995, when he was assigned to the State Department to serve as its liaison to the Office of Foreign Missions, which oversees security and counterintelligence programs at American embassies and consulates. Mr. Hanssen held the State Department post until last month.

Despite the extraordinary precautions to protect his anonymity, the mole's fear of exposure grew intense in later years, even desperate, the court documents show.

Last year, in a letter signed Ramon Garcia, B told his Russian handlers that he had "come as close to the edge as I can without being truly insane. My security concerns have proven reality-based."

In a separate letter in November, he wrote that "recent changes in U.S. law now attach the death penalty to my help to you" and that "I know far better than most what minefields are laid and the risks."

"I ask you to help me survive," he continued. "I have proven inveterately loyal and willing to take grave risks which even could cause my death, only remaining quiet in times of extreme uncertainty."

At the same time, the court documents show, Mr. Hanssen repeatedly sought access to an F.B.I. computer database of its investigative files, often entering his own name and the words "Russia" and "KGB" and "dead drop."

The F.B.I. said in a statement that Mr. Hanssen was apparently trying to determine if his espionage activities were under surveillance.

---

A Disturbing New Spy Case

February 21, 2001
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/21/opinion/21WED1.html

The espionage charges filed against Robert Philip Hanssen yesterday portray him as a cunning practitioner of the very arts of espionage he was supposed to combat as an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Instead of hunting Russian spies, prosecutors say, Mr. Hanssen became one. Using the skills he learned at the bureau, Mr. Hanssen not only deceived the F.B.I. but also shielded his true identity from Moscow even as he sold the Russians sensitive American secrets for the last 15 years in return for $1.4 million.

If the charges prove true, Mr. Hanssen's activities would clearly demonstrate that the espionage competition between Moscow and Washington did not end with the cold war. They would also prove a source of acute embarrassment to the F.B.I., which barely concealed its sense of institutional superiority when Aldrich Ames, a longtime Central Intelligence Agency operative, was uncovered as a spy for Russia seven years ago.

The bureau's own security safeguards seem to have been gravely deficient. The F.B.I. director, Louis Freeh, acknowledged the problems yesterday even as he suggested that Mr. Hanssen's arrest was an F.B.I. triumph. William Webster, who has headed both the F.B.I. and the C.I.A., has been named to conduct an outside review. He must subject the F.B.I.'s security practices to unflinching scrutiny. Even someone schooled in deception ought not to escape F.B.I. detection for better than a decade of dealing with Russian handlers, passing highly classified reports and turning over lists of American informants.

Mr. Hanssen was arrested Sunday night after allegedly dropping off secret documents at a park near his home in northern Virginia. The government charges that he was recruited by the K.G.B. in 1985, while working in the F.B.I.'s New York office. Since then he has held a variety of counterintelligence positions, including a recent assignment identifying Russian spies working in diplomatic missions in the United States.

Whether the motive is ideology or money, a well-placed spy can do enormous damage to American security and interests. Mr. Hanssen is accused of giving Moscow information that contributed, along with other material supplied by Mr. Ames, to the executions of two men whom American intelligence agencies had recruited in the Soviet Embassy in Washington. In addition, Mr. Hanssen is accused of tipping off Moscow about an espionage investigation of a former American diplomat, Felix Bloch, and of compromising a variety of sensitive F.B.I. sources, documents and surveillance techniques. If convicted, he faces possible execution.

Though no longer a superpower, Russia remains intensely interested in American technology, weaponry and diplomatic strategy and will pay handsomely for these secrets. Other countries, including China, also target the United States for espionage, just as Washington regularly spies on foreign governments. What should be learned from cases like this is how to do a better job of uncovering spy operations in the United States before serious damage results. The facts learned from this investigation must be used to tighten Washington's defenses, and especially those of the F.B.I., against future penetrations.

---

Alleged spy damage 'exceptionally grave'

02/21/2001
USA Today
http://usatoday.com/news/washdc/2001-02-21-spyfreeh.htm

WASHINGTON (AP) - The FBI is trying to calculate the national security damage allegedly wrought by one of its own agents, Robert Philip Hanssen, accused of spying for Russia for more than 15 years. FBI Director Louis Freeh says the intelligence losses appear to be "exceptionally grave." An FBI affidavit describing Hanssen's alleged spying said he passed along to Soviet and later Russian agents 6,000 pages of documents - a virtual catalogue of top secret and secret programs. Attorney General John Ashcroft asked former CIA and FBI Director William Webster to convene a panel of experts to review internal security procedures within the FBI and recommend changes.

"The attorney general views the case very seriously," said Mindy Tucker, Ashcroft's spokeswoman. "The fact that there are still countries that are interested in stealing our intelligence secrets shows that we need to take steps to review our security measures so that this doesn't happen again.

"It's even more disturbing because this is someone who knew how things worked," said Tucker. Hanssen was a counterintelligence expert.

Intelligence experts estimate that Hanssen's disclosures were highly damaging.

"It appears that there's tremendous damage to technical collection capabilities," Paul Redmond, former head of counterintelligence for the CIA, said on CNN. "The other category is the losses of human sources ... if it's true he was a spy ... (he) compromised numerous sources."

The case marked the third time that an FBI agent has been accused of espionage, and it brought a quick reaction from President Bush and members of Congress on Tuesday.

"Allegations of espionage are a reminder that we live in a dangerous world, a world that sometimes does not share American values," Bush said in a statement he read to reporters on Air Force One. Declaring that espionage remains a threat to the nation even with the Cold War gone, the president added: "To anyone who would betray its trust, I warn you, we'll find you and we'll bring you to justice."

"This could be a very, very, very serious case of espionage," said Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. "Here's an agent who is a veteran of the FBI, who's been doing counterintelligence for a long time. He knows a lot. He could have given them a lot."

Freeh told a news conference: "The full extent of the damage done is yet unknown, because no accurate damage assessment could be done during the course of the covert investigation without jeopardizing it. We believe, however, that it was exceptionally grave. The criminal conduct alleged represents the most traitorous actions imaginable against a country governed by the rule of law."

Freeh said security measures need to be tightened, and he ordered an internal review to be headed by William Webster, a former FBI and CIA director.

"We don't say, at this stage ... that we have a system that can prevent this type of conduct," Freeh said.

Hanssen, a 25-year FBI agent, was arrested Sunday night at a park in suburban Virginia after dropping a package of documents for his Russian contacts, authorities said. FBI agents confiscated $50,000 hidden for him at a nearby drop site.

An FBI affidavit alleged that Hanssen betrayed his country for about $1.4 million in cash and diamonds.

A court hearing was set for March 5 for the father of six, who was charged with espionage and conspiracy to commit espionage. Hanssen, who could face the death penalty, appeared briefly in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., on Tuesday to have the charges read and was ordered held without bond.

He was not asked how he pleaded to the charges but outside the courthouse his lawyer, Plato Cacheris, told reporters: "At this point, not guilty."

In one letter cited in the FBI's affidavit, the writer, allegedly Hanssen, said he was encouraged by the memoirs of the notorious British-Soviet double agent Kim Philby.

"I decided on this course when I was 14 years old," the letter stated. "I had read Philby's book."

The FBI affidavit said Hanssen and CIA spy Aldrich Ames identified to the Russians three of their double agents, leading to the execution of two of them. The document also said Hanssen "compromised dozens of United States government classified documents," including those involving:

_The National Measurement and Signature Intelligence Program, which involves activities and technologies including acoustic intelligence, radar intelligence, nuclear radiation detection, infrared intelligence, radio frequencies and effluent-and-debris sampling. This program is not only classified "top secret" but subject to further restricted handling under a category designated "Sensitive Compartmented Information."

_A highly classified and tightly restricted analysis of the foreign threat to a classified U.S. government program. The program is classified "top secret/SCI."

_The FBI Double Agent Program, "top secret."

_The Intelligence Community's Comprehensive Compendium of Future Intelligence Requirements, "top secret."

_A study on recruitment operations of the KGB, the Soviet/Russian intelligence agency, against the CIA, "secret."

_An assessment of the KGB's effort to gather information on certain U.S. nuclear programs, "top secret."

_A CIA analysis of the KGB's First Chief Directorate, "secret."

The affidavit said Hanssen also compromised a technical program "of enormous value" and "specific communications intelligence capabilities, as well as several specific targets." And he disclosed FBI counterintelligence techniques, sources, methods and operations, the bureau said.

He also tipped off the KGB to the FBI's secret investigation of Felix Bloch, a foreign service agent suspected of spying for Moscow in 1989, the FBI said. The KGB was then able to warn Bloch, the agency said. Justice Department prosecutors were never able to find key evidence that Bloch passed secret documents.

---

New spy scandal raises old security questions

02/21/2001
USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/comment/2001-02-21-edtwof2.htm

The arraignment of FBI agent Robert Hanssen on espionage charges Tuesday raises many troubling questions, not least of which is how the alleged spy carried off his treasonous deeds undetected for 15 years.

Some of the secrets Hanssen sold to the Russians put him in league with superspy Aldrich Ames. What separates him from the 1994 case of the CIA officer is that Hanssen succeeded in an environment that grew far more vigilant in the years following Ames.

Evidently, the intelligence community's, or specifically the FBI's, scrutiny of its personnel still isn't effective enough. Or worse, Hanssen's endurance suggests that for almost every tightened security measure the FBI has thought of, there's still a way for a clever spy to get around it.

The FBI refused to describe Tuesday the extent to which it had mirrored the CIA in tightening polygraphs and financial disclosure statements after Ames sold Moscow secrets about the USA's leading Russian agents, then lived ostentatiously off his spoils. More details about Hanssen's evasions may come out at his trial. But this much is already apparent:

• Hanssen allegedly accepted more than $1 million in payments from the Russians. But he used Swiss bank accounts, accepted untraceable diamonds and unlike Ames, lived modestly with his wife and six children.

• As a counterintelligence staffer, Hanssen's main expertise was in catching spies. He knows better than most FBI agents how to circumvent spy-catching measures.

• The FBI says that so far it appears Hanssen operated without accomplices and did not even reveal his identity to the Russians. By contrast, Ames tripped up by telling his wife he was a spy and letting her spend his ill-earned money; her shopping triggered the suspicion of others at the CIA.

By those measures, the FBI's failure to catch Hanssen earlier is less embarrassing than the CIA's blatant blundering in the Ames case. FBI Director Louis Freeh also responded aggressively. Along with Attorney General John Ashcroft, he immediately set up a probe of internal procedures to be led by former CIA director William Webster.

Yet Hanssen's savvier brand of spying is more worrisome. Among the most glaring areas requiring review are the FBI's computer systems. The FBI says Hanssen regularly trolled computer files to see whether his name or the "dead drop" locations where he exchanged information with the Russians were attracting official notice.

In the end, it appears Hanssen was done in not by internal checks, but by the same sort of counterintelligence work Hanssen himself was expert in: The FBI received firsthand Russian information about spy operations involving Hanssen, including letters he wrote to his handlers, and it caught him in the act.

That's not the sort of windfall that lands in the intelligence community's lap every day. And it's yet another reason the FBI and CIA need to be more vigilant about moles in their midst.

---

Russia Spy Service Hails Veterans

February 21, 2001
Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Russia-Spy-Arrest.html

MOSCOW (AP) -- Spying is still an important undertaking despite the Cold War's end, Russia's espionage agency said Wednesday -- a day after U.S. authorities announced the arrest of an alleged FBI mole accused of passing secrets to Russia.

``As long as there is a state, as long as there are state interests, as long as there is a necessity to protect state interests and to guarantee state security, intelligence has existed, exists and will continue to exist,'' said Foreign Intelligence Service spokesman Boris Labusov.

``And as long as there is intelligence, there will be counterintelligence, which also helps guarantee state security,'' he said.

Labusov spoke at a ceremony to introduce a new book about Soviet agents who helped steal U.S. secrets Russia used to develop its own atomic bomb shortly after the Americans.

The book, titled ``They Stole the Bomb for the Soviets,'' is a compilation of interviews with former spies.

Author Nikolai Dolgopolov said the agents who worked with Soviet scientists to develop the bomb had helped prevent the Cold War from becoming an all-out nuclear war.

``These are people who worked not for the fun of espionage. These people worked to maintain the parity of the world's two superpowers. They were able to do this, and many thanks to them for this,'' Dolgopolov said. ``You and I are alive. Parity was maintained.''

Labusov said the timing of the presentation -- a day after the FBI announced the arrest of one of its own agents, Robert Philip Hanssen -- was coincidental. Hanssen was accused of spying for Russia for more than 15 years.

Labusov would not comment on Hanssen's arrest, except to say that ``spy scandals should not be brought to a high political level. They should not cloud relations between states.''

Soviet intelligence veteran Yuri Sokolov, who was posted in New York in 1947-52 and is among those profiled in Dolgopolov's book, said post-Soviet Russia has maintained highly skilled, successful intelligence agents.

``For the last 10 years I worked in the training of young personnel for scientific and technical intelligence work,'' he said. ``And I know that I brought up a few dozen young, good intelligence agents and that they are actively working and that they have had certain positive results.''

---

FBI agent charged as a Russian spy

February 21, 2001
Washington Times
By Bill Gertz
http://www.washtimes.com/national/default-200122122399.htm

A veteran FBI counterspy arrested on espionage charges was a longtime "mole" who gave Moscow large volumes of secret U.S. intelligence documents for more than 15 years in exchange for cash and diamonds, federal officials said yesterday.

Special Agent Robert Philip Hanssen was arrested Sunday as he tried to leave a package of classified documents for his Russian SVR intelligence agency handlers at a "dead drop" - a secret drop-off location - in Foxstone Park, within walking distance of his Vienna, Va., home.

An FBI affidavit in the case made public yesterday stated that Agent Hanssen, 56, began spying for the KGB in October 1985.

At that time, he provided the Soviet Embassy in Washington with the names of three KGB officers who were secretly working with U.S. intelligence, two of whom were later executed as U.S. spies.

According to a letter to his Russian handlers dated March 14, 2000, that was retrieved by FBI agents, Agent Hanssen stated that being a spy was a lifelong goal.

"I decided on this course when I was 14 years old," Agent Hanssen was quoted in the affidavit as stating. "I'd read [British mole H.A.R. Kim] Philby's book. Now that is insane, eh!"

The special agent was considered by his neighbors to be a reserved oddity, with several saying yesterday they did not even know he was an FBI agent and that he was rarely with his wife, Bernadette.

"I never saw them together; it was quite strange," neighbor Ena Thomas said.

According to an associate, Agent Hanssen is a devoutly religious man who was part of the conservative Roman Catholic group Opus Dei, had a brother in the priesthood and was the father of six children. Some neighborhood youths said Mrs. Hanssen taught theology part time at an area high school.

President Bush called the case "extremely serious" and "deeply disturbing."

In Moscow, Russian government spokesmen had no comment on the case. U.S. officials said Russian intelligence officers linked to the case had been identified.

The spy case, according to intelligence officials and experts, could prove to be one of the most damaging intelligence failures in U.S. history because Agent Hanssen operated undetected for so long and supplied such a wide variety of intelligence on U.S. spying operations, both human and technical.

Another letter to the Russians revealed Agent Hanssen disclosed to Moscow that State Department official Felix Bloch was suspected of spying for Russia, allowing the KGB to warn him and derail the FBI's investigation.

He also stated in a letter to the SVR that he could have warned them about the arrest of Stanislav Gusev, the Russian intelligence officer caught last year listening to an electronic bug that had been planted in a State Department conference room.

The FBI affidavit in the case stated that Agent Hanssen left packages of documents for the Russians on 20 occasions at locations in the Washington area and provided more than two dozen computer diskettes, many of them encrypted, containing classified documents.

"The full extent of the damage done is yet unknown because no accurate damage assessment could be done during the course of the covert investigation without jeopardizing it," said FBI Director Louis J. Freeh at a news conference yesterday. "We believe, however, that it was exceptionally grave."

The affidavit by FBI Agent Stefan A. Pluta said Agent Hanssen "compromised numerous human resources of the United States intelligence community."

Documents obtained from a clandestine search of the special agent's computers, including a handheld personal digital assistant, revealed code names for drop-off points for documents.

During the arrest operation Sunday, FBI agents intercepted a payment of $50,000 in $100 bills intended for Agent Hanssen. In the course of his career, investigators believe he received more than $600,000 in cash and diamonds -at least two worth more than $40,000 - for the information he provided.

The affidavit stated that Agent Hanssen communicated once in 1986 with his KGB handler through a classified advertisement that appeared in The Washington Times. The ad was a listing for a used car with the telephone number of a phone booth he used to talk secretly to the KGB.

Agent Hanssen's view of the United States was captured in one letter obtained by the FBI.

"The U.S. can be errantly likened to a powerfully built but retarded child, potentially dangerous, but young, immature and easily manipulated," he stated. "But don't be fooled by that appearance. It is also one which can turn ingenious quickly, like an idiot savant, once convinced of a goal."

On more than 70 occasions, Agent Hanssen searched the FBI's computers using key words that included his name and address to see if FBI counterspies suspected him of being a spy.

Agents tracked Agent Hanssen to dead-drop sites in Fairfax County named "Ellis" and "Lewis." Mr. Hanssen communicated with his Russian handlers using a variety of code-names, including "B," "Jim Baker," "G. Robertson" and "Ramon Garcia."

Mr. Freeh said Agent Hanssen operated so clandestinely that Russian intelligence did not learn the identity of their agent or his agency until yesterday's announcement of his arrest.

Key law-enforcement figures yesterday used the language of treason in describing the case.

"A betrayal of trust by an FBI agent, who is not only sworn to enforce the law, but specifically to help protect our nation's security, is particularly abhorrent," Mr. Freeh said. "This kind of criminal conduct represents the most traitorous action imaginable against a country governed by the rule of law."

Attorney General John Ashcroft called the case a very serious breach of U.S. national security. "Let me be clear: Individuals who commit treasonous acts against the United States will be held fully accountable."

If convicted of the charges, Agent Hanssen could be executed, a possibility he alluded to in a letter to the Russians.

"I have proven inveterately loyal and willing to take grave risks which even could cause my death," he said. "I ask you to help me survive."

U.S. Attorney Helen Fahey said no decision has been made on whether prosecutors would seek the death penalty.

Former intelligence official Kenneth deGraffenreid said the case is "gut-wrenching betrayal" but could spur security improvements.

"It gives President Bush the opportunity to finally break the cycle of systemic security failures that have plagued the United States for decades," said Mr. deGraffenreid, who was director of intelligence for the National Security Council during the Reagan administration.

Mr. deGraffenreid said there have been "hundreds" of recommendations for security improvements made over the years in the aftermath of numerous spy cases, but that few were implemented.

Officials close to the case said counterintelligence officials had been searching for a mole inside the U.S. government for many years, but a break described by Mr. Freeh as an "intelligence coup" came several months ago and gave investigators leads that eventually pointed to Agent Hanssen.

Mr. Freeh said the FBI obtained "original Russian documentation of an American spy who appeared to be Hanssen - a premise that was soon to be confirmed when Hanssen was identified by the FBI as having clandestinely communicated with Russian intelligence officers."

The FBI chief added that Agent Hanssen's activities represented a breakdown in FBI security and that accountability for the failure "stops with me."

"None of the internal information or personnel security measures in place alerted those charged with internal security as to his activities," Mr. Freeh said. "In short, the trusted insider betrayed his trust without detection."

At an arraignment hearing in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., yesterday, Agent Hanssen appeared before a magistrate looking disheveled and unshaven. U.S. Magistrate Theresa Carrol Buchanan at one point ordered him to stand up, reminding Agent Hanssen that he is a defendant.

Agent Hanssen, dressed in a black turtleneck shirt and gray pants, stared at reporters and courtroom visitors before being led away.

A preliminary hearing in the case is set for March 5, according to Agent Hanssen's lawyer, Plato Cacheris, who also defended convicted spy Aldrich Ames.

Mr. Cacheris told reporters that Agent Hanssen is "quite upset" and "emotional."

Mr. Cacheris described the case as just beginning. "I've been handed a lot of materials; I haven't read it yet."

As for the government's case, Mr. Cacheris said: "They always talk that they've got a great case, but we'll see."

• Daniel F. Drummond contributed to this report.

---

Search and seizure dominates Supreme Court session

February 21, 2001
Washington Times
By Frank J. Murray
http://www.washtimes.com/national/default-200122123036.htm

The Supreme Court ruled 8-1 yesterday that police can bar a suspect from entering his own house while they obtain a search warrant and heard sharply opposing views on whether high-tech heat seekers can be used to detect an indoor marijuana farm.

The search warrant case - among the half-dozen search-and-seizure appeals dominating this term's docket - united conservative and liberal justices, except for Justice John Paul Stevens.

The court ruled that a two-hour forced delay in allowing Charles McArthur to re-enter his mobile home was constitutional because it likely kept him from destroying marijuana he shoved under the couch when police arrived.

"The police officers . . . reasonably believed that [he] would destroy that evidence," said the court's opinion, written by Justice Stephen G. Breyer.

Officers were called on April 2, 1997, by Tera McArthur, who asked them to accompany her while she removed her belongings from the trailer she shared with her husband. She told the police Mr. McArthur had hidden "dope" under the couch.

When Mr. McArthur refused to allow a search, an officer enticed him outside and then wouldn't let him go back in alone. Once they got a warrant, officers found a "one-hitter" box of marijuana containing 2.5 grams.

With the evidence now cleared for admission in court, Mr. McArthur faces a maximum penalty of 30 days in jail, but his case opened new vistas in Fourth Amendment law.

The appeal on which justices heard arguments yesterday also involved marijuana. It was being grown inside a home under strong halide lights that emit so much heat police, aided by military thermal-imaging equipment, were able to spot the three lamps from their heat signature on the roof.

Government attorneys said the device passively measures heat loss outside the house and does not intrude.

That image was used to obtain a search warrant that resulted in the arrest of Danny Kyllo, who was sentenced to five years and three months for his farming.

"Our home is the basic refuge for all citizens where we are free from government spying," argued Kyllo's attorney, Kenneth Lerner of Portland, Ore.

Mr. Lerner told the justices he believed that even using a flashlight to peer into a dark house without a warrant would violate the Fourth Amendment, but Justice Sandra Day O'Connor questioned whether there was an intrusion.

"The device cannot penetrate walls or windows," she said. Mr. Lerner asked the court to consider not only the facts in Kyllo's case but the potential such new technology has to invade privacy.

"I don't agree," said Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist. "In a Fourth Amendment case we look at what was actually done - not what could be done."

"You're the Supreme Court," Mr. Lerner replied in a session rife with whimsical questions about hypothetical intrusions ranging from an officer holding a thermometer out the window of a nearby house, to whether thermal imaging would invade Justice Stephen G. Breyer's privacy by detecting that he was taking a four-hour Finnish sauna while he was supposed to be working, to binoculars wielded by bird-watchers.

Deputy Solicitor General Michael Dreeben said there was no intrusion.

"If the thermal imager functioned like an X-ray machine . . . then we don't dispute that it would be a search," he said. "It does not penetrate the walls of the house. It does not detect objects inside of a house."

-------- terrorism

Eight Years of Failure in Sudan

February 21, 2001
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A33842-2001Feb21?language=printer

Susan E. Rice's "Stay Committed in Sudan" [op-ed, Feb. 11] was an apologia for the Clinton administration's passive African policy and a plea to the new Bush administration to "maintain U.S. commitment to the people of Sudan – of all Sudan."

For eight years, the Clinton administration did little or nothing about the enslavement of blacks by Arabs in Sudan and Mauritania. President Clinton remained silent until Human Rights Day on Dec. 6, 2000, when he did finally denounce "the atrocities of Sudan," including "the scourge of slavery." Even then, Sudan policy had been crippled by a massive intelligence debacle: the 1998 cruise missile attack on a pharmaceutical plant in Khartoum, ostensibly in retaliation for the terrorist bombing of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The Clinton administration alleged that the plant was owned by Osama bin Laden. As it turned out, the pharmaceutical plant is owned by Salah Idris, a reputable Saudi businessman who sued the United States for $30 million. The United States quietly unfroze $24 million of Mr. Idris's assets.

This intelligence blunder has handed a public relations bonanza to Sudan, a country widely loathed in sub-Saharan Africa for sponsoring state terrorism and the continued enslavement of blacks by Arabs. Unfortunately, the African countries to which the Clinton administration clandestinely gave support to destabilize Sudan (Ethiopia, Eritrea and Uganda) ended up destabilizing themselves and other African countries. A policy failure by a previous administration should not be used to harangue a new one.

JOHN ORLEANS-LINDSAY
Senior Fellow
The Free Africa Foundation
Washington

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Recent arrests raise fear of terrorism

02/21/2001
USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2001-02-21-terror.htm

LONDON (AP) - Fearing terrorist attacks, authorities in Britain, France and Germany have arrested at least 10 suspected Islamic militants, put two dozen others on trial and are investigating potential links to terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden.

Bin Laden, the exiled Saudi millionaire, is blamed for the bombings of two U.S. embassies in east Africa in 1998 and is linked to the suicide bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen in October. The bombings at the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania killed 224 people, including 12 Americans.

In Britain, a tough new anti-terrorism measure was widely expected to trigger measures against radical Islamic groups that have long used London as a haven. Even before the law took effect Monday, British police carried out a series of raids, arresting six Algerian men.

They have been charged with preparing to carry out terrorist acts and face a preliminary hearing in London's Old Bailey criminal court on Thursday, prosecutors said.

In the same three-day sweep last week, police detained four others, including Omar Mahmoud Othman Omar, better known as Abu Qutadah, who is alleged by Jordanian authorities to be a senior associate of bin Laden. Those men were released without charges, but police said they could come under further questioning.

Last year, Jordan's state security court found Abu Qutadah guilty of conspiracy to carry out terror attacks against U.S. and Israeli targets in Jordan and sentenced him in absentia to 15 years in jail.

Although the court acquitted Abu Qutadah of charges of affiliation to bin Laden's al-Qaeda group, Jordanian counterterrorism officials believe he is linked to it and has recruited several people to the organization.

Jordanian authorities have sought Abu Qutadah's extradition from Britain, but have so far been unsuccessful.

The six Algerians were charged with possessing items including false documents, forged credit cards, electronic equipment and sums of money "in circumstances which give rise to reasonable suspicion" they were plotting terrorist acts, prosecutors said.

Although few details had emerged about their activities, terrorism expert Paul Wilkinson said that judging from prosecutors' statements, "it's certainly possible that this was a group that had been authorized by al-Qaeda," bin Laden's organization.

"The bin Laden factor is one that's transnational, and therefore a real and present danger, especially with the inflamed situation in the Middle East," said Wilkinson, director of the Center for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at Scotland's St. Andrews University.

It was not clear whether the six were the same group referred to in a report by the Sunday Telegraph, which said British police had uncovered what they believed was a plot to release the nerve gas sarin in the London Underground. The gas was used in 1995 by a Japanese cult in an attack on the Tokyo subways.

Authorities in both France and Germany, meanwhile, have ongoing investigations in connection with the December arrests in Germany of four men believed to have ties to bin Laden.

French investigators are studying a videocassette seized at an apartment belonging to one of the suspects, which French judicial sources say is believed to show sites being weighed as potential targets for attacks.

The amateur video, filmed in the eastern French city of Strasbourg, included images of several locations in and around the city's Gothic cathedral, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

German prosecutors say the four suspects were part of an international network trained by bin Laden's followers in Afghanistan, and that they set up logistics in Germany to support attacks.

Separately, two dozen suspected Islamic terrorists are on trial in France, accused of trafficking in false documents to help Islamic militants from Turkey to Canada. Two of the key defendants, Fateh Kamel and Ahmed Ressam, are thought to be linked to bin Laden.

In Italy, too, Islamic militants have been a focus of investigators' attention. Last month, the U.S. Embassy in Rome had its first security closure for a decade in response to a terrorist threat.

Embassy officials refused to discuss the nature of the threat, but Italian media said a trio of Algerians linked to bin Laden were believed to have been preparing a possible suicide attack against the embassy.

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Ex-Aide Proposed Plot to Kill bin Laden

February 21, 2001
New York Times
By BENJAMIN WEISER
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/21/world/21TRIA.html

A former close aide to the Saudi exile Osama bin Laden testified yesterday that he offered officials of the Saudi government a plan to assassinate Mr. bin Laden, and later discussed his proposal with American officials.

The witness, Jamal Ahmed Al- Fadl, who broke with Mr. bin Laden and agreed to cooperate with the United States against him in 1996, did not reveal the details of his plan in court, or the reaction of the American officials, but said the Saudis seemed interested in hearing more. Mr. bin Laden remains a fugitive in the case, and is believed to be living in Afghanistan under the protection of the Taliban, the fundamentalist group that runs the country.

Mr. Al-Fadl, a crucial government witness in the trial in Federal District Court in Manhattan of four men charged with conspiring to bomb two United States embassies in East Africa in 1998, disclosed the plan under a vigorous cross-examination by Sam A. Schmidt, a defense lawyer.

Mr. Schmidt, who represents Wadih El-Hage, a naturalized American citizen born in Lebanon, challenged Mr. Al-Fadl's credibility and suggested that he was desperate to win assistance from the Americans or other governments and was willing to say anything to get it.

"You gave the Saudis a proposal to assassinate Mr. bin Laden, didn't you?" Mr. Schmidt said.

"Any questions they asked me, I give them answer," Mr. Al-Fadl replied.

"You came up with a plan?" Mr. Schmidt said.

"I don't have plan, but when they asked me that question, I give them what I know."

"It wasn't what you know," Mr. Schmidt pressed on. "It was what you would do."

Mr. Schmidt added, "Didn't you tell the Americans that you proposed a plan" to the Saudis "that bin Laden should be liquidated?"

"Yes, I remember that," Mr. Al- Fadl said.

Mr. Al-Fadl also acknowledged that he told American investigators that he had trained in Afghanistan with Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, who was later convicted of carrying out the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993.

It had been known that Mr. Yousef lived in Pakistan in a guest house paid for by Mr. bin Laden, and that he was trained in explosives in a camp in Afghanistan, but there have always been questions about whether Mr. bin Laden had a role in supporting Mr. Yousef in the World Trade Center bombing.

Those questions were not addressed yesterday.

Mr. Al-Fadl also testified that there was a significant fissure in Mr. bin Laden's group, called Al Qaeda, over whether to retaliate with a terrorist attack after the 1993 arrest of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, who was later convicted in the plot to blow up the United Nations and other landmarks in New York City.

Egyptian members of Al Qaeda proposed an attack, but one was not carried out because other Al Qaeda members objected that innocent people would be killed, Mr. Al-Fadl said.

As a result of the decision not to carry out an attack, Mr. Al-Fadl said, 13 to 20 Egyptian members of Al Qaeda quit the organization in protest.

Mr. Schmidt spent much of his cross-examination trying to show that Mr. Al-Fadl had lied repeatedly, failing to tell Mr. bin Laden that he had stolen $110,000 from Al Qaeda before he was caught, and then, after he began to cooperate with the Americans in 1996, not telling American officials about the theft until they said they were already aware of it.

"You didn't tell the Americans you were a thief," Mr. Schmidt said.

Mr. Al-Fadl said he did admit it, after only two days of questioning.

"It took you two months and 30 times to tell them," Mr. Schmidt said, referring to documents detailing the many debriefing sessions.

He asked whether Mr. Al-Fadl would have said anything at all if he had not been confronted by the Americans. The witness agreed that he would not have.

Mr. Al-Fadl said that before approaching the Americans in 1996, he went to Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, trying to raise money to start an opposition party to the National Islamic Front, the ruling party in Sudan. He said he also considered going to Israel to gain support, but did not. He also visited Eritrea and Saudi Arabia.

While prosecutors maintain that Mr. El-Hage participated in Mr. bin Laden's broader terrorism conspiracy, Mr. El-Hage's lawyers have always said that their client worked for Mr. bin Laden, but only in his "legitimate commercial interests."

Along those lines, Mr. Schmidt also elicited testimony from Mr. Al-Fadl about the scope of Mr. bin Laden's businesses, which included interests in a variety of commodities, including corn, sesame seeds, hibiscus, tractors, butcher equipment, rock- crushing machines, insecticides, lathing machines, iron, lemons, sugar and soap.

"There was an awful lot of business going on in the bin Laden businesses, wasn't there?" Mr. Schmidt asked.

"Yes," Mr. Al-Fadl said.

Later, a federal prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, countered by asking the witness, "Was there an awful lot of terrorism going on in the Sudan when Mr. bin Laden was there?"

Judge Leonard B. Sand would not allow the answer, but did allow Mr. Al-Fadl to elaborate on what the prosecutor described as military activity. He testified that there was moving of weapons and explosives and attempts to buy uranium and to get chemical weapons.

Prosecutors had no comment after court.

Mr. Schmidt said, "I feel I accomplished what I set out to do, which was to show Mr. Al-Fadl was not what he presented himself to be" during his testimony for the prosecution.

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Witness Admits bin Laden Slay Plot

February 21, 2001
New York Times
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/nyregion/AP-Embassy-Bombings.html

NEW YORK (AP) -- Several militant Muslims left Osama bin Laden's alleged terrorist organization after it began eyeing possible civilian targets in a holy war against Americans, a former bin Laden lieutenant testified.

Jamal Ahmed Al-Fadl, a key prosecution witness in the trial of four men accused in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Africa, also admitted for the first time in court Tuesday that he offered Saudi officials a plan to assassinate bin Laden.

On Wednesday morning, jurors watched a 1997 CNN television interview in which bin Laden said the U.S. government was ``unjust, criminal and tyrannical.''

Bin Laden said the American people ``are not exonerated from responsibility because they chose this government and voted for it despite their knowledge of its crimes in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and in other places.''

On Tuesday, Al-Fadl told the jury the split in bin Laden's group, al Qaeda, came in 1993 after Egyptian members proposed bombing the U.S. embassy in Saudi Arabia. He said they wanted to retaliate for the FBI arrest of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, the radical cleric later convicted in a plot to blow up New York landmarks and assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Al Qaeda leaders rejected the proposal but ruled in a series of religious decrees that killing civilians eventually would be necessary, Al-Fadl said.

He said under cross-examination by defense lawyer Sam Schmidt that the decision to not spare ``innocents'' caused as many as 20 bin Laden followers to quit the group, then based in Sudan, because they believed Islamic law only allowed attacks on military targets.

Schmidt has sought to discredit Al-Fadl, who had identified his client, Wadih El-Hage, as a key player in al Qaeda. Prosecutors allege the group targeted Americans worldwide.

El-Hage, 40, of Arlington, Texas, is the only U.S. citizen among the four defendants charged with conspiracy in the Aug. 7, 1998, bombings of embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The attacks killed 224 people, including 12 Americans.

The defense has suggested El-Hage had a legitimate business relationship with bin Laden, who Al-Fadl conceded had business dealings in everything from bananas to machines that crush rocks.

Schmidt questioned Al-Fadl Tuesday about his falling out with al Qaeda and the National Islamic Front, the militant political party once allied with bin Laden in Sudan.

After being accused of stealing $130,000 from al Qaeda in 1996, Al-Fadl tried to raise money to oppose the National Islamic Front in Jordan, Israel and Saudi Arabia before talking to the FBI as a last resort.

``Didn't you tell the Americans of a conversation with the Saudis that bin Laden should be liquidated?'' Schmidt asked. ``You had a plan.''

``Yes,'' Al-Fadl said.

If convicted, El-Hage and Mohamed Sadeek Odeh, 35, could get life sentences, while Mohamed Rashed Daoud Al-'Owhali, 24, and Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, 27, could face the death penalty.

The trial is expected to last up to a year. In all, 22 men have been charged in the case; 13 -- including bin Laden -- remain at large.

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Hunting bin Laden's Allies, U.S. Extends Net to Europe

February 21, 2001
New York Times
By JUDITH MILLER and SARAH LYALL
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/21/world/21TERR-WORLD.html?pagewanted=all

Spurred by growing international alarm about Osama bin Laden's militant networks, the police in Britain and Germany have recently arrested more than a dozen Islamic radicals. American officials say some of those arrested were plotting terrorist attacks in Europe and elsewhere.

American and foreign officials said the arrests were part of an intensified effort to crack down on a network with ties to Mr. bin Laden, a wealthy Saudi who has been accused of masterminding the bombings of two American embassies in East Africa in 1998. The explosions killed 224 people.

Last week British police officers raided several houses in London and arrested 10 men, six of whom have been charged with preparing to engage in "acts of terrorism."

Among the four arrested but not charged was Omar Mahmood Abu Omar, an Islamic religious leader who American and Jordanian officials say is a key agent for Mr. bin Laden in Europe. Jordanian courts have twice convicted Mr. Omar, who is known as Abu Qatada, on terrorism charges in absentia, in 1998 for his role in bombings and last year for conspiring to blow up tourist sites during millennium celebrations.

Britain has rebuffed Jordan's requests for his extradition, Jordanian officials say.

The British police said that among those charged is Mustafa Labsi, 31, an Algerian with links to Islamic militants whom American officials have accused of trying to smuggle explosives into the United States from British Columbia in late December 1999.

Canadian court documents show that Mr. Labsi rented an apartment in Montreal where Ahmed Ressam, one of the men charged in that case, is believed to have stayed. Mr. Ressam is to stand trial in Los Angeles on March 12.

American officials said the United States has been urging Britain for years to crack down on Abu Qatada, who has political asylum, and on other militant Muslims. The United States and several of its Arab allies have complained that Britain offers a haven to groups plotting violence in their countries.

Partly in response to such pressure, Britain approved a tougher terrorism law last year that allows the government to ban groups and fund- raising campaigns suspected of promoting terrorism abroad. That law took effect on Monday.

American officials said the investigations of such militants gained momentum on Dec. 26 when the German police arrested four men in Frankfurt on terrorism charges.

In a statement on Monday, the German prosecutor's office said the police had seized "a weapons arsenal consisting of rifles, handguns and machine guns," homemade detonators, a grenade, 44 pounds of potassium permanganate (which is used in producing bombs) and false documents.

American officials say they believe the Germans also found a videotape of tourist sites in Strasbourg, France, across the Rhine from Germany.

The prosecutor's office accused the four of belonging to a "criminal organization based in Frankfurt," and said the police suspect that the four are "loosely affiliated with an international network of mujahedeen," or holy warriors, who learned "guerrilla warfare and the use of explosives in training camps" financed and run by Mr. bin Laden.

The four founded a group in Frankfurt, the statement continued, that was determined to punish "the enemies of Islam and the institutions of Western states" and to provide support from Germany for "groups fighting civil wars within Islamic states."

American officials said German investigators had told Britain and France that the group had contacts with associates in London and might be plotting attacks in France. This information, they added, helped prompt last week's raids in Britain.

Mr. bin Laden's militant Islamic group, Al Qaeda, and its network of like-minded associates have come under increasing pressure.

The origins and operations of Al Qaeda and the broader network have recently been described in detail in a New York courtroom by Jamal Ahmed Al-Fadl, a Sudanese defector from the group who is testifying in the trial of four men charged in the embassy bombing conspiracy.

At the same time, two dozen suspects are being tried in Paris on terrorism charges involving a militant Algerian network that is said to stretch from Turkey to Canada. One of the group's reputed members, being tried in absentia, is Mr. Ressam, the man facing trial in Los Angeles.

While the French police have not tied these suspects directly to Mr. bin Laden, French and American officials say he and Al Qaeda provided assistance to the Algerian network.

In yet another facet, President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen announced there on Sunday that two Yemenis being sought in connection with the bombing of the American destroyer Cole in October had been arrested.

Though President Saleh said Yemen could not link the men, Muhammad Ahmed al-Ahdal and Ahmed Muhammad Amin, to Mr. bin Laden, American officials say there is considerable evidence that a key Al Qaeda agent helped plan the attack, in which 17 American sailors were killed.

The British police said their raids last Tuesday, code-named Operation Odin, were supported by M.I.5 and the Special Branch, the Metropolitan Police.

Of the 10 men arrested, six, all Algerians, were formally charged on Saturday with contravening the Prevention of Terrorism Act, the older law that was supplanted this week by the stricter measure.

The six, including Mr. Labsi, were charged with possessing computers, electronic equipment, forged identity papers and credit cards and large sums of money "which give rise to reasonable suspicion" that they were planning to carry out terrorist attacks. Efforts to reach Mr. Labsi or his lawyer for comment were unsuccessful.

The other four men, including Abu Qatada, were released but are required to present themselves to the police at a future date. According to standard British practice, the police refused to name those not charged, but they said three are Algerian. The fourth, one official confirmed, is Abu Qatada, 40.

Neither Abu Qatada nor his lawyer could be reached for a comment, but Sheik Omar Bakri Muhammad, the leader of Al Muharjiroun, a political party that supports armed Islamic struggle, said Abu Qatada had been ordered to report to the authorities on Monday. He also said the police had found nothing incriminating in Abu Qatada's house.

Abu Qatada is a Palestinian who took Jordanian nationality and got political-refugee status in Britain in the early 1990's.

American and Jordanian officials describe him as a senior bin Laden agent who has coordinated the movement of men, money and arms to Islamic wars, including the rebellion against Russian rule in Chechnya. Jordanian officials accuse him of issuing fatwas, or religious rulings, to the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria that blessed the killing of women and children.

In the bombing trial in New York, the renegade from Al Qaeda, Mr. Al- Fadl, identified a man named Abu Qatada as an early member of Al Qaeda's fatwa committee, the group that drafted such religious rulings, including a command to kill Americans throughout the world. But prosecutors in New York did not comment on whether the "Abu Qatada" identified by Mr. Al-Fadl was the man arrested last week in London.

In an interview last year with the Arabic newspaper Al Hayat, Abu Qatada denied that he was a member of Al Qaeda group or that he had signed or helped draft the fatwa that sanctioned the killing of Americans. He did not deny supporting Muslims in their struggle in Chechnya or in other Islamic wars.

Sheik Omar criticized the new British antiterrorist law as an effort to "save face" and a response to American pressure.

But Rohan Gunaratna, a senior research associate at the Center for the Study of Terrorism at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, said that last week's arrest represented a "major step" in the Britain's fight against terrorists.

"Britain is increasingly becoming aware of the threats that are posed by terrorist support networks, and is taking action," he said. "The U.S. has shown the way. Britain's taking action will mean that many other countries in the European Union and the Commonwealth will follow along."

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Yachts to meet in Tasman over "nuclear highway"

Wed, 21 Feb 2001
Australian Broadcasting Network
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-21feb2001-7.htm

A flotilla of seven yachts from Australia and New Zealand will rendezvous in the north-west Tasman Sea this week in protest against the use of the Tasman and Pacific Ocean as a nuclear highway for plutonium ships.

Patrina Dumaru of the Pacific Concerns Resource Centre was among those who farewelled the protest yachts in Sydney.

Ms Dumaru spoke of the 53 members of the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific Movement who have signed a statement condemning the latest shipment of plutonium to Japan, which is expected to pass through the Pacific region in mid-March.

Nauru's Acting President and the Cook Islands Prime Minister have also condemned nuclear shipments in their region.

And New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark has expressed her government's strong objection to the passage of plutonium through the Tasman.

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Chiapas Indians skeptical of peace

2/21/2001
InfoBeat News
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=30lgp02u9ljid

POLHO, Mexico (AP) - Life is perilous in this mountainous region in Chiapas state. People worry about the threat of paramilitary groups, where they will get clean water, how they will keep their children warm and fed. And struggle isn't new. For centuries, their ancestors fought the Spanish and later large landowners for a piece of earth to farm. More recently, they turned to the government to ask for passable roads and better schools. They have rarely gotten results.

Now President Vicente Fox is promising a drive for peace and prosperity in Chiapas, and Zapatista rebels are planning a 17-day march through six states to lobby Congress for passage of an Indian rights bill sent by Fox. But despite Fox's pledge and the march, which begins Sunday and ends in Mexico City, many of Chiapas' Indian residents are skeptical. Many believe the paramilitaries were supported by Mexico's past government.

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Arabs voice limited in protests

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Angry and anguished at the deaths of fellow Arabs in clashes with Israelis, Egyptians took to the streets to protest - and their government let them.

Other Egyptians, however, got a different response when they tried to express themselves politically by voting in parliamentary elections during the protests. Veiled women and bearded men thought to support Islamic fundamentalists were barred from the polls by security agents.

The story was similar in Morocco, where soon after some of the largest pro-Palestinian protests were held, the government banned three newspapers that had dared speculate that the prime minister was implicated in a two-decade-old failed assassination attempt against the late king.

With their spontaneous marches and rallies, boycotts and even music videos in support of the Palestinian cause, it seemed Arabs, so often silenced by repressive regimes, were finding their voices. New technologies - from satellite television to the Internet - have fueled the protests. Governments have less and less control over what their citizens see and hear.

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Religion chief brands Falun Gong

2/21/2001
InfoBeat News
http://us.f23.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=6psod3f6gbv0k

HONG KONG (AP) - China's religious affairs chief called the Falun Gong meditation group a "poisonous tumor" during a visit to Hong Kong, prompting fears Tuesday that Hong Kong's mainstream religions also could come under attack by Beijing. Ye Xiaowen, head of the State Administration's Religious Affairs Office, suggested Monday that Hong Kong strip Falun Gong of its local registration - a tactic backed by pro-Beijing newspapers and politicians who accuse the group of mounting an attack against the Chinese government. Pro-democracy forces argue that Hong Kong must be allowed to say what it wants. The issue could become one of the biggest tests of Hong Kong's freedoms of speech and religion since it reverted from British to Chinese sovereignty in July 1997.

Though outlawed in China, where the government has been waging a 19-month crackdown on the spiritual movement, Falun Gong is legal in Hong Kong, and leaders in Hong Kong have protested Beijing's often-violent tactics. While the Hong Kong government has not yet indicated it was willing to act against Falun Gong, Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa recently labeled the group a "cult" in an echo of Beijing's stance.

Representatives of several faiths told lawmakers in a hearing Tuesday that they fear they could be next. "I'm worried about what our chief executive said," Roman Catholic Bishop Joseph Zen said. "He used 'evil cult.' That's really serious."

Hong Kong Falun Gong spokeswoman Hui Yee-han said Tuesday that there was no need for China's religious affairs chief to get involved because Falun Gong is a "method of cultivation'' and not a religion.

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SUIT MAY LEAD TO NEWSPAPER STREET SALE BAN

Feb. 21, 2001
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/daily/detail/0,1136,37500000000112832,00.html
By Vicky Agnew

HALLANDALE BEACH -- If the city can't resolve its legal battle with the founder of a homeless newspaper, officials may consider banning all newspaper vendors from city streets, City Attorney Mark Goldstein said.

The city is embroiled in a lawsuit brought recently by Sean Cononie, founder of the Homeless Voice, a newspaper that advocates the rights of the homeless and is sold at intersections throughout south Florida. Cononie is suing the city over its law restricting charitable organizations from soliciting for more than five consecutive days a year.

Cononie said his paper has a 70,000 circulation, and is a legitimate publication. Other papers, like the Sun-Sentinel, sell in the intersections, and he's entitled to the same right, he said.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Norman Roettger issued a temporary restraining order, which allowed Cononie's vendors to sell on city streets. But on Sunday, city police tried to run his vendors off and threatened to arrest them, Cononie said.

Police have said the vendors were interfering with traffic and didn't have a permit.

Cononie said Wednesday his attorney has sent an affidavit of Sunday's incident to Roettger, alleging the city violated his order.

The matter of the restraining order is set to go before Roettger on March 5, when Goldstein said he would ask the judge to dissolve it. In the meantime, Cononie has said he will keep his vendors out of the city, and the city commission said police should leave the vendors alone while the lawsuit is pending.

If Roettger rules against the city, Goldstein said he would ask city commissioners for permission to appeal the ruling with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. Goldstein said he would discuss the matter with city commissioners March 1.

If the city loses its legal battles, Goldstein said he would ask city commissioners to consider banning all newspaper vendors from selling on city streets.

"Frankly, I feel boxed in at this time," Goldstein said. "I'm sure in my mind there is a factual difference between the Homeless Voice and .... the Sun-Sentinel, but if I reach the conclusion that it's an all-or-nothing proposition, that everyone has to be in the streets or no one, I would turn that over to commission."

Sun-Sentinel spokesman Rich Pollack defended the paper's sales methods.

"We recognize that the city has concerns about safety, but we don't believe our methods of delivering the paper to our readers compromises that safety," Pollack said. "As always, we welcome the opportunity to discuss this matter with the city attorney and other appropriate city officials."

The City of Sunrise has been enforcing a no-street vendors state law since 1986, city attorney Jeff Olson said. "There have been numerous accidents including deaths involving newspaper vendors in Broward County," he said.

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