------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
Atom-Bomb Memories
BNFL plan to make weapons plutonium into fuel
Easter wishes and Pentagon deceit
Small protest ahead of German nuke waste train
Nuclear inspectors almost done in Iraq
Radiation Laws Bring Cut in Vatican Radio
Vatican Radio agrees to cut back
Pataki Tours Vieques, Asking for Halt to Navy Bomb Runs
Russia: Bush Attaches Strings To Aid
Irradiation of Pet Foods Approved
Who Gets What Slice of the President's First Federal Budget Pie
Several attest to K-25 water contamination
Bush warns Beijing about 'damaged' ties
Bush's Budget: The Losers, The Winners
From waste to wilderness

MILITARY
Curbing Small Arms
CONTRACT CHALLENGE REJECTED
Army brutality confirmed by panel
10 Myths About The Colombian Conflict
Prosperous Colombians Fleeing, Many to the U.S.
Colombian troops patrol rivers for cocaine labs
Ca prosecutor faces recall vote over marijuana stance
New Zealand's Agent Orange Victims Promised Help
Russia launches production of new torpedo
U.N. forces enter rebel-held town
Researchers Fear Use of Navy's Sonar May Harm Whales
Friends, family bid farewell to crash victims
U.S. Releases Names of Those Killed in Vietnam Crash

OTHER
Bush budget cuts solar, renewable energy programs
Bush budget seeks to expand electricity tax credit
Toyota plans summer roll-out of fuel-cell test car
Global warming could hit food production - FAO
MAKERS OF LEAD PAINT ARE SUED
Environmental Policies
FOOT-AND-MOUTH PRECAUTIONS
Prime minister: Britain still a joy to visit despite crisis
Germans snub beef for ostrich amid food scares
Time is frying
Melting mad cows
EPA moves to block lawsuit over mercury
I.M.F. Will Re-examine Indonesia
New Pressures on Justice Verniero
Testimony Points to Continuing Bias on the Turnpike
A Diverse Police Force
U.S. Shies Away From Threats in Plane Standoff With China
Many Voices for Beijing
The Two Wangs
Plane Crew Granted More Privileges
Bush: Talks with China could take time
China's hard line raises risk of deepening crisis
China grants U.S. crew more privileges
China detains scholar with ties to U.S.
While China sleeps
We have no bananas, they have hostages
Chinese planes collect electronic data
Standing up
Chinese With Ties to U.S. Is Detained
Questioning by Chinese Is Intense
Crew May Be Held Until Pilot Is Found
New Threat for Crew: Boredom
Pilot wanted to pull trigger
On the street, Chinese anger not so deep
At risk in China dispute: business
U.S. to Fight if Mental Illness Is Claim

ACTIVISTS
Boldface Names
Demonstrators protest shooting of unarmed man
anti-FTAA protests in Argentina
International law applies in nuclear weapon protest
Direct action victory
JOIN THE FAST FOR OUR FELLOW STUDENT'S FREEDOM
nuke waste no way letter
IMF, W. Bank could cancel poor states' debt-campaign
Quebec's jail guards ordered back to work
Anti-nuclear protesters in Germany chain themselves to railroad car


-------- NUCLEAR

Atom-Bomb Memories

New York Times
April 10, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/10/opinion/L10ATOM.html

To the Editor:

As we move to preserve sites and build museums that commemorate the atomic age (news article, April 7), it is vital that we memorialize its victims and not its technologies.

Americans can learn from the Chernobyl Museum in Kiev, Ukraine, or the Nuclear Museum that has been established at Kurchatov, the formerly secret center of the Soviet nuclear test site in Kazakhstan. Both focus attention on the human toll of atomic technology, in contrast to the National Atomic Museum in Albuquerque, where models of nuclear weapons are displayed with minimal reference to the actual damage that their production and use have engendered.

By preserving only the gadgetry, or by lionizing the atomic scientists, we pay homage to nuclear hubris instead of acknowledging its monumental errors.

GEOFFREY SEA New York, April 9, 2001 The writer is executive director, U.S.-Kazakhstan International Foundation on Radiation, Ecology and Health.

-------- britain

BNFL plan to make weapons plutonium into fuel

Tue, 10 Apr 2001
From: Rachel Western <rachelw@foe.co.uk>

BNFL have just let slip that they plan to turn their huge stock of the nuclear weapon material plutonium into nuclear fuel. This means that they plan to build new plutonium fuelled reactors. A plutonium fuelled reactor would be more dangerous:

a) because it would be more likely to blow up, and
b) because it would kill more people if it did.

New reactors would most likely be planned at the site of the old reactors as these are shut down. The old reactor sites are:

Scotland Chapelcross on the Solway Firth in Scotland Hunterston, West Kilbride, Ayrshire

Cumbria Calder Hall at Sellafield in Cumbria Near Bristol Berkeley in Gloucester Hinkely Point Nr Bridgewater in Somerset Oldbury on Severn, Oldbury Naite, Nr Thornbury in Avon

South East Bradwell near Southminster, Essex Dungeness, Romney Marsh, Kent Sizewell, Nr Leiston in Suffolk

Wales Trawsfynnd, Blaenau Ffestiniog, Wales Wylfa, Camaes Bay, Anglesey, Gwynedd

The Government want these plans to be hushed up before the Election. It would be much safer to take action to minimise the risk that plutonium is made into a weapon. The best way to do this is to mix plutonium with deadly radioactive waste that would kill anyone that got near it.

-------- depleted uranium

Easter wishes and Pentagon deceit----ago old problems.

From: Magnu96196@aol.com
Tue, 10 Apr 2001

Hello All,

In the GW, we certainly learned that the Pentagon lies and lots in the Govt practiced deceit in politics. We know that Schwartzkopf lied about the knock down rates of the Scuds with the Patriot defensive missle systems and this little fabrication was pulled off just to keep Israel out of the war and keep the Arab coalition whole.

We all learned that the CIA knew there was sarin and other specials in the ammo depots that were blown up in the desert. The Pentagon also knows where some more burned sarin is also.

Nearing 10 years later, after much Pentagon denials, we all know that this was one of the most toxic wars in history. There were toxic hyrocarbon oil in the air, fine sand in lungs, DEET soaking into skin, burned sarin, mercury in vaccines, DU, etc. It was one huge toxic version of hell. The troops in the few months they were there sniffed up, ate, soaked thru the skin, and etc. more toxic material than most get in 30 years of US stateside living. And that many of these toxins have long internal retention factors that make them lifetime doses in some cases. Thousands of GW vets each year pay the ultimate price for these toxic health effects and it will continue.

We know things like DU oxides get into the lung and lungs lymph nodes and long term damage the lung's immune protection system, and that sand can do the same thing. And two dozen other poisons enter the person the same way. We also know that the Pentagons urine analysis methods won't detect this type lung damage from long retained metal oxides in lungs. One more little lie to add to the stack, cause they really wanted the DU penetrators to not be banned from use.

Add to the DU issue that DU was not the only thing in the Doha fire and that one should well suspect even more nerve gas stores for the US were involved. This little ditty has not leaked out yet, but it will. When folks force the Pentagons censorship hand into the light of day. Burning sarin leaves fluorides into the air, which also damage human health in the very long term.

In essence, the 600,000 persons in the GW all became the mine canaries for rapid industrial diseases manifestations from huge and multiple toxic insults. This same kind of thing happens around many polluting US chemical industries in the US with the industried pulling the same kind of denial practices as the Pentagon on GWI.

Many political systems are given to lie and misrepresent and US national security is one of the worst in the world to do such things. All US citizens fall victim to these US mindsets at some point.

Most all these toxins damage cell mitochondria, and many of them get pulled into the lymph nodes and damage and shut down things like the macrophage systems that are the pathogen destruction mechanism for the body. Looking at the mitochondria damage to these cells and others will shed much light on where the toxic damage factors have lead to diseases.

Most of us know that cancer is big business in the US and it mainly stems from bad US policies on industrial releases, unclean water, overuse of pesticides and preservative, and poor diets with not enough raw vegetables. The US system prefers to see no problems with the huge rates of illness involving cancers and many other immune linked illnesses. Instread they find the excuse to use invasive medical techniques or pharmacology to counter the death rates from such, while not explaining the full deal to patents clearly. They often tell one big fib that its the fault of the persons DNA or something else, when the real problems are largely environmental driven and food methods. They see it as reason to justify more research and enter into even more promisses of hope for cures. This when they already know the toxics drive the illness and one cure is to limit the toxic insults, but that is not profitable to industry and quickly sets up liability situations.

The whole HIV mess turned into much the same thing, with very similar mechanisms involved with cancers. The Govt saw this a huge excuse to do lots of human genome research and make more promisses of miracle drugs and treatments. Such things protect the industries that pollute and make the medical industry very much richer. It is a very viscious money circle. Many GW folks also found some of the HIV signatures because the very same toxic methods drive factors linked to HIV.

Just wanted to take the time to wish folks happy holidays and recognize some long standing factors from long ago and how these same factors are still around today.

All the Easter problems of long ago were about a Judean Essene man that just did not like animals in the food chain or even cooked foods. Today, cow products are like toxic rivers of the food chain and the cooking process contribute many free radical effects that slowly affect health and longevity. This essene person, after a large commotion over this met death. Interesting sites that speak to this less veiled Easter message are: http://www.jesus-diet.com/essenegospel.htm http://www.healthcreation.net/raw-vs-cooked.html

Some call these techniques those linked to Noah [and all those other very old persons mentioned in Genesis] and that of long life and methods that clean the body of toxic effects and restore health. Indeed, many of these 2,000 plus year old methods are finding use for folks with CFS, cancer, HIV, and GWS. Understanding, some of these subtile methods are ways to recover from GWI, CFS, and even cancer using these AMA counter culture simple techniques. Everyone needs to know these other methods exist and be able to explore these.

As the GW approaches it 10th anniversary and all, it is good to see some of the more veiled messages in Easter. Even reflect on those methods back then, vs some that are very similar today from GWI and industrial diseases mechanisms.

Wishing all success, truth, knowlege,
Mag

-------- germany

Small protest ahead of German nuke waste train

GERMANY: April 10, 2001
REUTERS
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10451

MUNICH, Germany - A small group of anti-nuclear protesters yesterday climbed onto one of the trains that will transport atomic waste to France from Germany for the first time in four years today.

A spokesman for the German border guards said 13 members of the environmental group Greenpeace climbed on the train at Germany's Wuerzburg train station, near one of the starting points for loading the nuclear waste. Four protesters briefly chained themselves onto it before being detained.

Anti-nuclear demonstrators clashed with police two weeks ago when Germany took back the first cargo of reprocessed waste from France since Berlin banned the shipments in 1998 over concerns about radioactive leaks and huge anti-nuclear protests.

Authorities employed 20,000 police costing the state around $50 million to protect the shipment on its way to a storage facility in the northern German town of Gorleben. Protesters briefly halted the train by chaining themselves to the tracks.

German anti-nuclear activists have announced they will try to block this latest shipment coming from Philippsburg in southwestern Germany before it crosses into France on Tuesday evening. Some protests were expected on the French side, but it was not clear if anti-nuclear groups would mobilise many people.

In Karlsruhe, Germany, police said protesters blocking nuclear shipments would have to pay for police time spent hauling them off the tracks and for custody costs.

"Anyone who we must carry off the tracks will have to cover the costs," said Erwin Hetger, police chief in Germany's southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.

Hetger said he expected about 1,000 protesters to rally against Tuesday's shipment. Any who obstructed the train would be fined at least 62 marks ($28.60) per policeman per hour and would have to pay for the cost of time in custody, he said.

The train carrying nuclear waste from Germany to a reprocessing plant in northern France will pass through the suburbs of Paris, French anti-nuclear groups said.

It is due to traverse France in the early hours of Wednesday and will pass through Bobigny, a suburb so close to the capital that it is on the Paris metro network, they said.

France's Green Party, a partner in the left-wing coalition government, yesterday reiterated its opposition to transporting nuclear waste through the country.

"France is not supposed to be the world's nuclear rubbish tip," a party statement said. "The reprocessing of nuclear waste is a pretext to relieve Germany's incapacity to stock its own waste in the short term."

-------- iraq

Nuclear inspectors almost done in Iraq

USA Today
04/10/2001
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2001-04-10-iraq.htm

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - U.N. nuclear inspectors are ready to resume work in Iraq at short notice and have only a few remaining questions about Baghdad's clandestine program to investigate, the nuclear agency said in a report.

But until Iraq allows inspectors to return to the country, the International Atomic Energy Agency will not be able to determine whether Iraq has complied with Security Council resolutions demanding the elimination of its weapons of mass destruction, the report said.

Under council resolutions, sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait cannot be lifted until U.N. inspectors certify that the country's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons have been destroyed.

Inspectors left Iraq in December 1998, just ahead of allied airstrikes launched to punish Iraq for blocking inspections. Iraq has barred them from returning.

The Security Council created a new weapons inspection agency in December to oversee destruction of Iraq's chemical and biological weapons and the missiles to deliver them. It is working with the Vienna-based IAEA.

While Iraq has barred any inspections related to the sanctions regime, it did allow IAEA inspectors to visit in January to see if nuclear material in its reactors was being diverted to make weapons.

In a report to the Security Council, IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said the inspectors "were able to verify the presence of the nuclear material remaining in Iraq that is subject to safeguards."

But he said that visit could not substitute for the verification required under Security Council resolutions.

"The agency remains prepared to resume its verification activities in Iraq under the relevant Security Council resolutions at short notice," ElBaradei said.

In the last six months, the agency has revised and updated the list of nuclear and nuclear-related items and technologies that Iraq is banned from importing, he said. It has also been able to integrate commercially available satellite images into its information system on Iraq, he said.

The IAEA has also enhanced its analysis of original Iraqi documents on its nuclear program and the results of past inspections where concerns were previously reported. ElBaradei said.

If the IAEA resumed inspections and could satisfy itself that Iraq's past and present nuclear activities and nuclear assets have not changed since December 1998, the agency could then fully implement its monitoring and verification plan, he said.

"This plan, as designed, would enable the agency to investigate the few remaining questions and concerns that relate to Iraq's past clandestine nuclear program, along with any other aspect of this program that may come to its knowledge," he said.

-------- italy

Radiation Laws Bring Cut in Vatican Radio

New York Times
April 10, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/10/world/10VATI.html

ROME, April 9 - The Vatican, in a last-ditch effort to stop Italy from cutting off electricity to its radio station over a dispute about electromagnetic radiation, said today that it would reduce transmissions after April 15, Easter Sunday.

The surprise decision was announced a day before Environment Minister Willer Bordon was to announce measures against the station, which has been accused of exceeding Italian laws on radiation and of being a health hazard.

Residents have said the radio's large antennas have caused a higher incidence of leukemia in the area nearby.

Vatican Radio, which broadcasts papal speeches and events in 40 languages, announced its decision after the latest tests confirmed that the transmissions violated Italian standards.

The statement said the broadcaster would shut down medium-wave (AM) transmissions for seven hours a day beginning on April 16. That band is now used 14 hours a day.

Broadcasts on short wave and frequency modulation (FM) are to continue normally. Most of the world receives Vatican Radio via short wave.

The main stumbling block has been how the government could force the Vatican, a sovereign state, to comply with its national laws.

---

Vatican Radio agrees to cut back

USA Today
04/10/2001 - Updated 08:18 AM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2001-04-10-vatican.htm

VATICAN CITY (AP) - Vatican Radio, threatened with an imminent shutdown by the Italian government over health concerns, said it will cut back some transmissions next week.

The decision was announced Monday, one day before Environment Minister Willer Bordon was to announce whether the broadcaster meets government standards for electromagnetic emissions. If results show emissions exceed Italian radiation standards, Bordon has said he is prepared to order the electric company to pull the plug the following day.

Residents near the station's transmitter in the town of Santa Maria di Galeria near Rome fear some leukemia cases may be linked to electromagnetic emissions.

An Italian prosecutor, spurred on by public concern, has charged three Vatican officials with damaging the environment. They are scheduled to go on trial in the fall.

Vatican Radio beams the pope's words around the world from a forest of antennas erected 50 years ago in a sparsely populated area. Now some 100,000 people live in the nearby suburbs.

Vatican Radio said it will cut its transmission time on medium wave (AM) by half to 7 hours as of April 16 - the day after Easter - in what officials called a "goodwill gesture."

The pope delivers his traditional Easter message on April 15 as well as good wishes in 60 languages. Broadcasts on short wave (FM) will continue as usual.

"It is neither a surrender nor a definitive solution," said programming director, the Rev. Federico Lombardi. "We are seeking to avoid a clash."

The radio said it wants to satisfy Italian concerns, but that the question should be handled by an Italian-Vatican commission.

Prosecutors say Vatican Radio violates the strict standards Italy adopted in 1998 on electromagnetic fields emitted by radio stations and telephone transmitters.

The Vatican insists the transmissions are in line with less strict international standards and says its officials are shielded from Italian law under a 1929 pact that established Vatican City as an independent city-state.

-------- puerto rico

Pataki Tours Vieques, Asking for Halt to Navy Bomb Runs

New York Times
April 10, 2001
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/10/nyregion/10PATA.html

Gov. George E. Pataki toured the island of Vieques in Puerto Rico yesterday to press his campaign to stop the Navy's bombing exercises there.

"Having been here, it just reinforced my belief that Vieques is beautiful and full of potential, but that potential cannot be reached unless the bombing stops," Mr. Pataki told The Associated Press.

Mr. Pataki went to a state dinner last night at La Fortaleza, the residence of Gov. Sila M. Calderón of Puerto Rico. Today, he plans to visit a pediatric hospital to discuss health care issues, and then he is to attend a $1,000-a-plate fund-raiser at the home of a political consultant with ties to both Governor Calderón and the Republican Party. He will stay an extra day to relax, his staff said.

State taxpayers are footing the bill for Mr. Pataki and four of his aides to make the trip, although Mr. Pataki's aides could not provide a figure for the cost last night. The delegation is staying at El San Juan Hotel, a beach resort where room prices range from $395 to $795 a night.

When he announced his trip last week, Mr. Pataki said he wanted to see firsthand the devastation that he said the bombing on Vieques (pronounced v'YAY-case) had caused. As the governor of New York, Mr. Pataki has no official authority over whether the bombing continues. Still, he has been using his influence with President Bush, a fellow Republican, to urge a halt to the practice.

Mr. Pataki's visit is also smart politics. There are 1.3 million Puerto Rican voters in New York, most of them Democrats, and many feel passionately that the Navy should leave the island. By standing with them, Mr. Pataki stands a good chance of winning some of their votes, Puerto Rican leaders say.

At the start of his tour, the governor spent nearly an hour and a half with Rear Adm. Kevin Green, the commander of Navy forces in the Caribbean. For six decades the Navy has used Vieques, a small island east of Puerto Rico, for bombing and gunning exercises, which critics say endanger the island's 9,400 residents. Some residents attribute an elevated cancer rate on the island on the use of radioactive ordnance.

The Navy, however, maintains that no scientific evidence has linked the bombing to health problems, and points out that the bombing range on the eastern tip of the island is at least nine miles from the town of Vieques.

In November, Governor Calderón rode to victory on a wave of anti- American sentiment over the bombing.

Yesterday, Ms. Calderón - a close friend of Dennis Rivera, the New York City labor leader and Democratic power broker - accompanied Mr. Pataki as he visited a local school, where children presented him with pictures depicting their island and a polluted place under bombardment. One child drew a picture of weeping trees. "It's not the kind of drawing you want an 8-year-old to do," Mr. Pataki said.

Later, Mr. Pataki and Ms. Cal derón held a news conference in a community center in Vieques, while demonstrators for and against the naval base clashed outside. Mr. Pataki declined to meet with a prominent Puerto Rican senator, Miriam Ramirez, who was leading the pro- Navy demonstration and is active in the Republican Party. Senator Ramirez said the police roughed her up and denied her entry to the hall.

"I came out here trying to get Governor Pataki to meet with a Republican," Senator Ramirez said, referring to herself. "He's courting the Democratic vote with Hispanics in New York, but he's turning his back on Republicans."

Michael McKeon, Governor Pataki's spokesman, said Mr. Pataki had met with Navy officers to hear their side. He called Senator Ramirez's attempt to meet Governor Pataki a stunt.

-------- russia

Russia: Bush Attaches Strings To Aid

Radio Free Europe
10 April 2001
By Andrew F. Tully
http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2001/04/10042001113711.asp

Washington, (RFE/RL) -- U.S. President George W. Bush would impose conditions on aid to Russia, according to the details of his proposal for federal government spending next year.

The $1.96 trillion budget proposal, issued today in Washington, would set aside $808 million for the former Soviet states, including Russia, and $610 million for Eastern European countries, including the Baltic and Balkan states.

The $808 million for the former Soviet republics matches the amount set aside during the current fiscal year. But aid to Eastern Europe is $263 million less than was set aside for the region this year.

The spending plan for the 2002 fiscal year -- which begins on 1 October -- is subject to approval by Congress.

Bush's proposal left it up to Congress to decide exactly how much of the money for the former Soviet states should be spent on Russia. But it stressed that 60 percent of that figure would be withheld if the president believes Moscow has not stopped helping Iran develop a nuclear reactor and a ballistic-missile program.

According to the document, Russia also would have to cooperate with international groups investigating reported war crimes and atrocities in Chechnya, and with non-governmental organizations trying to help people displaced by the fighting in the breakaway republic.

Another specific amount that Bush has suggested for Russia is $20 million which should be set aside for the Russian Far East. And it proposes $45 million to promote child survival, a cleaner environment, and generally promoting improved health in Russia.

Meanwhile, Bush's plan would give at least $170 million to Ukraine in 2002 -- $5 million less than the amount appropriated during the current fiscal year. At least $25 million of the amount proposed for fiscal 2002 would be set aside for nuclear-reactor safety, and a $5 million would be devoted to the Ukraine Land and Resources Management Center.

Another former Soviet republic singled out is Georgia, which would get $92 million in aid from the U.S., including at least $25 million for border security. And Armenia would receive a grant of at least $90 million. There were no further details.

Meanwhile, the spending for Eastern Europe would include at least $5 million for the Baltic states, at least $1.3 million for Kosovo, and no more than $80 million for Bosnia.

But Bush's proposal said aid for Bosnia's economic revitalization would be withheld if the government in Sarajevo, among other things, has not ended intelligence cooperation with Iran.

-------- u.s. food irradiation

Irradiation of Pet Foods Approved; Peace of Mind for Pet Owners;
Most-Effective Safety Technology for Manufacturers

From: magnu96196@aol.com
PRNewswire
April 10 2001

MEMPHIS, Tenn., -- Domestic pet food can now be irradiated to protect dogs, cats and their owners against potentially deadly bacteria in their food. The go-ahead comes after the approval today, by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of a petition filed by the Food Safety Division of IBA, a world leader in irradiation technology.

Despite stringent processing standards, and the increasing efforts of major pet food manufacturers, salmonella remains a threat to pet foods, animal feed and particularly those that handle these products. Contaminated food can sicken pets but presents the greatest potential threat to pet owners, particularly children.

Under the terms of the FDA approval, bagged complete diets, packaged feeds, feed ingredients and most importantly dog chews such as pigs' ears and rawhides are all approved for treatment by irradiation. Also approved are dry farm animal feeds, birdseeds and fish food.

The move to treat pet foods follows similar FDA and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) approvals for use of irradiation on human food. Pork, poultry and beef are all approved for treatment by irradiation, and there is a growing worldwide demand for safer and cleaner fruits and vegetables treated by irradiation, the only tool that can assure at least 99.9 percent of the insects and disease causing bacteria are eliminated.

"This is welcomed news for pet food manufacturers and pet owners everywhere," says Tom Mates, vice president, commodity products at IBA Food Safety Division. "Pet food manufactures have worked continuously to eliminate pathogens like Salmonella from the production process but now have full approval to use the only tool that can treat these products after they have been packaged and sealed. This eliminates any chance of recontamination."

Major Salmonella outbreaks in pet chews produced in Canada in the fall of 1999 caused more than 30 serious illnesses, most cases in children who were feeding the chews to their dogs. The outbreaks resulted in ten voluntary recalls and lead Health Canada to issue public warnings and health advisories. Following this, and subsequent outbreaks in the USA and Europe, the FDA allowed pet chew manufacturers to treat pet chews with irradiation on a case-by-case basis under special letters, to ensure manufacturers had access to a solution until this full approval could be issued.

"Other than a guarantee of safer food for our pets and animals, the immediate impact from this approval will be to greatly reduce the risk of contaminated pet food in the home. This will protect children, seniors and anyone with a weakened immune system suc as diabetics, cancer survivors or people who have recently undergone surgery," says Pat Adams, president of IBA Food Safety Division.

"Beyond this, irradiation of bulk feeds for cattle, swine and poultry may also reduce the transmission of bacteria to these animals and reduce the risk of contamination in the human food chain when people eat these products. This is one more step in the ongoing fight for food safety," adds Adams.

Irradiation of human food has already been approved by the FDA for the treatment of poultry, red meat, vegetables, sprout seeds and eggs, and has been shown to be an extremely powerful and environmentally friendly weapon against disease-provoking bacteria such as Listeria and Salmonella. Irradiation is approved by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It is also endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO), the American Medical Association, the Center for Disease Control (CDC), the American Dietetic association (ADA) the Food & Agricultural Organization of the United Nations and virtually all-worldwide scientific organizations.

Information on IBA is available on the Web at http://www.IBA.be

About IBA

IBA is a world leader in the production of high-precision cancer treatment systems using proton beams, the manufacture of radioisotope-producing cyclotrons and the development of centers for the distribution of FDG, a radiopharmaceutical used in cancer diagnosis. IBA has been producing irradiation systems for over 40 years and in particular, treating foods, including poultry, seafood, cheese and spices for over 15 years. The Food Safety Division is headquartered in Memphis, Tenn., and the IBA corporate offices are in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.

IBA has a strategic alliance with Ecolab Inc., world leader in critical environment sanitation systems and services, to provide food processors with one comprehensive resource for integrated, multiple intervention food safety programs. Ecolab offerings include the latest in advanced detergents and sanitizers, automated systems to improve operational efficiencies, employee hygiene programs, and patented food surface treatment products. Combined with IBA's leading-edge food irradiation technology and support services, these represent the most comprehensive food safety program available today.

With more than 1300 employees at 49 different sites in 12 countries on three continents, IBA is a recognized world leader in both its industrial markets (Sterilization and Ionization) and medical markets (Advanced Radiotherapy and Radioisotopes). By leveraging its unique expertise in particle accelerator technology, advanced physics and chemistry, IBA continues to fulfill its worldwide mission, that of providing high-value innovative solutions in the areas of health and well-being. Listed on the Brussels Stock Exchange since June 1998, IBA's consolidated sales figure for 2000 shows growth of 67 percent increasing to 236 million EUR. Listed on the new pan-European Stock Exchange EURONEXT, the IBA share is indexed on NEXT 150.

The IBA Food Safety Division is focused on microbial reduction in food products and food packaging. It is also actively developing centers for the processing of fresh and frozen red meat, poultry and fresh fruits and vegetables. The newest facility in Bridgeport, N.J., will open in mid-2001, with the largest capacity x-ray system in the USA. IBA Food Safety can also offer customers new in-house, in-line food irradiation systems.

SOURCE IBA Food Safety Division CO: IBA Food Safety Division; U.S. Food & Drug Administration

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

Who Gets What Slice of the President's First Federal Budget Pie

Associated Press
April 10, 2001
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/10/politics/10WRAP.html

Energy

The proposed budget for the Energy Department makes deep cuts in programs meant to get more work from a gallon of gas or a kilowatt-hour of electricity, and to make electricity from the wind or sun.

"The taxpayers sent us here to weed out the waste and to address growing problems of energy supply," said Spencer Abraham, the energy secretary. "The weeding begins in this budget."

The budget also cuts money for cleaning up pollution from nuclear weapons production, but adds financing for restoring the nation's capability to make nuclear bombs. The budget request is $19.2 billion, compared with actual expenditures of $19.3 billion this year. Mr. Abraham said the numbers were essentially the same after taking into account a one-time expense in the current year for the department's response to a fire at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

A program spearheaded by Al Gore when he was vice president, the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles, would receive $40 million less than the $141.4 million in federal funds it got last year, Mr. Abraham said. Under the current setup contributions similar to the government money come from Ford, General Motors and DaimlerChrysler.

The program's goal is to produce a mid- size sedan that goes three times as far on a gallon of gas, but Mr. Abraham said the research was "really not in focus with where the industry was going," because sedans were being replaced by sport utility vehicles and light trucks.

In fact, while the goal was stated in terms of a sedan, all three manufacturers are now planning light trucks using the research's dominant principle, a mating of internal combustion engines with electric motors. And industry officials say some technologies developed in the course of the program are already in vehicles now in dealer showrooms.

Mr. Bush's budget reduces spending for research in solar, wind and hydroelectric energy by about half, but some spending could be restored in 2004 with money earned by the government from oil leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge if drilling is allowed there. The money available for solar research would drop to $42.9 million, from $92.7 million, and wind research would decrease to $20.5 million, from $39.6 million. Advocates for these programs argue that the cuts are inconsistent with Mr. Bush's suggestion that the country is in an energy crisis.

The budget provides $82 million, an increase from $71 million, for "clean coal" technology, although some previous appropriations, which require matching financing from private industry, have gone unspent.

The budget also adds money for weatherizing the homes of the poor. It does not propose to add any oil to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, but it would pay for maintenance of the reserve out of tax dollars, rather than sales of oil, as Congress has approved in some previous years.

The budget would cut spending for "environmental management," or the cleanup of weapons sites, by $354.1 million, leaving $5.91 billion for that purpose. MATTHEW L. WALD

Environment

Officials at the Interior Department and the Environmental Protection Agency defended President Bush's requests for a combined 5 percent cut from this year's spending levels, saying that they represented reversions to historically normal levels after an unusual surge in environmental spending this year that was due in part to pork- barrel Congressional appropriations and to emergency spending on wildfires.

Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton said the $10 billion request for her department, a reduction of 3.5 percent, was "compassionate in the way it protects our environment and conservative in how it spends taxpayers' money."

In terms of new spending, some of the biggest increases proposed by the administration would try to give the states a bigger role in land conservation programs and in the enforcement of environmental laws. A grant of $450 million, up from $90 million this year, would go to states for programs designed to enhance recreation and conserve wildlife habitat as part of the Land and Water Conservation Fund. A separate grant of $25 million would help to finance state efforts to enforce environmental laws, as part of an E.P.A. effort to shift some of that responsibility from the federal government to the states.

Other big increases would help support initiatives that have alarmed environmentalists: the stepped-up energy exploration the administration is proposing on federal lands, both onshore and offshore. Some $5 million would be set aside for studies intended to make preparations for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by 2004, a goal that is supported by the administration but faces an uphill battle in Congress. At the Bureau of Land Management and the Marine Minerals Management Service, spending related to oil, gas and coal exploration would increase by 19 percent and 12 percent, respectively.

But even those agencies would face significant overall cuts, as would others including the United States Geological Service, whose budget would drop by 8 percent. Overall spending on clean air, clean water, safe food, waste management and other environmental goals would also decline, as would, though only slightly, the money set aside for the reduction of heat- trapping gases that contribute to global warming.

For one program, a Treasury Department fund designed to promote conservation of tropical forests, the administration is proposing $13 million in spending, the same as this year's level. But the figure is considerably less than the $100 million President Bush promised in his fall campaign.

At the E.P.A., whose $7.3 billion budget request includes a 6.4 percent spending cut, Christie Whitman, the agency's administrator, noted that the new figure was still $56 million higher than the Clinton administration's last budget request. For the most part, Mrs. Whitman said, the cuts reflected a carving of Congressionally mandated programs that had "not necessarily been a priority of the agency." DOUGLAS JEHL

Transportation

With a grab bag of new safety and security initiatives, the transportation budget would increase 6 percent under the Bush administration's proposal, not counting the special one-time projects added by Congress last year.

The budget proposal is for $59.5 billion, 6 percent higher than last year if the $2.8 billion for the one-time projects is excluded. There is a strong possibility, however, that this year's Congress will find its own one-time projects to support.

The president's budget proposes $1.9 billion for "national security" programs, including seizures of drugs and illegal immigrants, up 5.7 percent from the previous year.

At the Federal Aviation Administration, the budget includes $112 million for equipment and training meant to prevent accidents on runways, up 13 percent from 2001. The money would go for new radar equipment for monitoring surface movements, more work on an automatic system that is supposed to predict when a conflict is going to occur on a runway and further analysis of runway incursions.

In 1999, Congress approved a five-year infusion of money for improvements to airports and other air transportation infrastructure. A budget summary issued today pointed out that the number of passengers in 2000 was 208 million higher than in 1991, "a number nearly equal to the entire population of the United States."

"Given the fact that it is impossible to quickly expand air traffic control capacity, airport capacity and airline capacity," the summary said, "it is not surprising that the result is an increase in the numbers of delays at large airports."

An increase was also scheduled for the budget of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which includes money for developing new tire standards and laboratory tests for measuring the tendency of vehicles to roll over, both mandated by Congress after the discovery of fatal rollover accidents involving Ford Explorers with Firestone tires.

The budget also calls for reducing the federal contribution to mass transit capital projects to 50 percent, from 80 percent. Norman Y. Mineta, the transportation secretary, said today that in recent years the exact percentage had been subject to negotiation, project by project, with every city having to "arm wrestle with the Federal Transit Administration." Lowering the percentage to 50 percent would spread the money more widely and weed out bad projects, Mr. Mineta said. MATTHEW L. WALD

Health

Tommy G. Thompson, secretary of health and human services, unveiled a budget today that would provide a big boost to the National Institutes of Health, more money for community health centers and a new prescription drug benefit for the elderly.

But to help meet those priorities and stay within overall spending limits, the budget proposal would shave money from an array of programs, including federal aid for medical training and a program to coordinate care for the uninsured.

"The president's budget is responsive to children and families who need a helping hand, while being responsible to the taxpayers who offer that hand," Mr. Thompson said.

But Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, a consumer advocacy group, said, "The president's budget proposal literally shortchanges Americans' health care by providing too little support and reaching too few people."

Rather than using the budget surplus to shore up Medicare and cover the uninsured, Mr. Pollack said, the budget "siphons off billions of dollars for tax reductions."

The Bush budget would provide $156 billion over 10 years to pay for prescription drug benefits and restructuring Medicare. The amount is widely considered inadequate.

Mr. Thompson acknowledged that estimates of the cost differed greatly, but he said the administration was committed to providing the benefits and hoped to help offset their cost with savings from restructuring Medicare.

The department's discretionary spending (outside the entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid) would grow by 5 percent under the Bush proposal, an increase of $2.7 billion over the 2001 fiscal year's. The National Institutes of Health was the major winner in this "redirection of resources," as the budget called the shifting of money among programs. The institutes would get $23.1 billion for the 2002 fiscal year, an increase of $2.75 billion or 13.5 percent.

Mr. Thompson acknowledged some "grumbling" in his department about the amount of money going to the institutes and medical research. But he asked: "What's more important than finding a cure for cancer? What's more important than finding a cure for Alzheimer's?"

The administration's main proposals for the uninsured include the expansion of community health centers, which serve 11 million people, about 4.4 million of them uninsured, and a tax credit to help the uninsured buy coverage in the private market. About 42.5 million Americans do not have health insurance. ROBIN TONER

Military

The $310 billion that President Bush proposed for the Department of Defense today amounted to little more than what Pentagon officials said was a rough draft of a final defense budget to be unveiled next month.

Mr. Bush included a promised $1.39 billion increase in military pay and benefits and $2.6 billion for new research and development, but the proposal provided few other details of how he intended to reshape the nation's military.

The president's proposal was so scant on details, in fact, that budget officials from the four armed services did not even bother to stage their traditional budget briefings to outline the effect on weapons production and other programs.

At the Pentagon, officials said Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld would unveil a detailed budget once he completed reviews of the nation's military strategy and structure.

That is now expected around mid-May, which is still enough time for the Congressional debate over appropriations bills and, Pentagon officials believe, for a significant increase in military spending.

The $310 billion budget outlined today largely reflected the last spending projection made by President Bill Clinton, whom Mr. Bush repeatedly criticized during the 2000 campaign as eroding the nation's armed services.

While many other federal agencies faced spending cuts, the proposal for the Department of Defense represented a 4.8 percent increase over its $290 billion budget this year. The increases largely reflected inflation and the pay and research proposals already detailed by Mr. Bush.

The proposal included only one area of significant cuts: spending for the purchase of weapons, which Mr. Bush proposed dropping to $59 billion from $62 billion. Pentagon officials, eager to expand weapons purchases, said the cut should be disregarded and predicted that Mr. Rumsfeld's review would result in a large increase for new weapons.

The overall defense budget also included $14 billion in spending on nuclear weapons by the Department of Energy and another $1.4 billion in other areas of the government, for a total of $325 billion.

The Department of Energy's weapons budget would remain essentially flat, but Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said he planned to re-establish the capacity to produce plutonium pits, a crucial component in nuclear weapons. STEVEN LEE MYERS

State Department

International affairs funding would increase by 5 percent over the 2001 budget under the Bush administration's budget proposal, and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said he intended to build more embassies, refurbish old ones and hire more foreign service workers.

The $23.8 billion in international financing includes $731 million to fight the drug trade in South America. Much of the aid will be directed to Colombia, but neighboring countries will also receive considerable assistance to prevent the drug war from spreading into their territories.

Of the total foreign affairs budget, the State Department would receive $7.5 billion, an increase of almost 14 percent over current funding.

The budget calls for the hiring of more than 600 State Department employees, including 186 security personnel to be stationed at embassies around the world. Funding is also set aside to design and construct seven new embassies or consulates. Brazil, China, Indonesia and South Africa are among the possible sites.

The administration is also requesting $151 million to beef up security around 28 vulnerable posts, a program that gained increased urgency after the terrorist bombing of two United States Embassies in East Africa in 1998.

The Agency for International Development, which administers foreign aid programs, would receive $7.7 billion, a decrease of $100 million from current funding. Assistance to Egypt and Israel, the two largest recipients of economic support, would decrease. Israel would receive $720 million under the proposed budget, compared with $840 million in the current budget. Egypt's share would drop to $655 million from $692 million.

Ecuador's economic aid would increase significantly, to $30 million under the proposed 2002 budget from $5 million this year. Officials said the money would go to secure Ecuador's northern border, which abuts Colombia, and to help the country with an ongoing economic crisis.

The Export-Import Bank will see its budget shrink from $909 million in the 2001 budget to $687 million.

The State Department budget sets aside $210 million to improve the department's antiquated computer systems. The goal is to provide all employees with Internet access in the next year. Another objective is to provide classified computer linkups at overseas posts.

Secretary Powell, who has vowed to increase morale among State Department employees, said the funding would help revamp and reinvigorate the department.

"The president's budget provides for a major investment in the people, the instruments and the infrastructure of America's foreign policy establishment," he said. MARC LACEY

Justice

President Bush's proposed budget for the Justice Department would retain but trim a Clinton program to help local governments hire new police officers, increase the federal tariffs on international travelers and provide $180 million for hundreds of new school security officers.

The administration is seeking authority to spend $20.94 billion on Justice Department programs for fiscal 2002, nearly the same as this year's $20.93 billion. Paul McNulty, an acting deputy attorney general, said the proposed budget added about $2 billion in new programs, so sought a corresponding reduction in some programs, mostly from the Clinton era.

The first Justice Department budget under Attorney General John Ashcroft adds some programs in keeping with Mr. Bush's campaign promises on controlling gun violence. The administration is proposing spending $75 million for the first year of a five-year program to pay for the buying and distribution of trigger locks for handguns. Unlike proposals intended to require manufacturers to provide trigger locks, the Bush program would simply make the locks available to people who request them.

Mr. Bush, who also campaigned on the theme that there were sufficient gun laws on the books to curb gun violence if they were enforced, has requested $9 million in additional spending to add 94 new federal prosecutors devoted to that issue.

The administration has also changed the Clinton administration's much-debated Community Oriented Policing Services grant program, which promised to place 100,000 new officers on the streets. Justice Department officials said that the program would be trimmed to about $885 million from $1 billion, and that none of the money would be allotted for hiring new officers.

Instead, the money would allow local police departments to improve their technology. Justice Department officials said that the program has so far put about 70,000 new officers on the streets and that the goal of 100,000 would eventually be realized.

The administration would increase airport fees to pay for immigration inspectors to $7 each time a traveler enters the country from $6 and impose, for the first time, a $3 fee on cruise ship travelers. NEIL A. LEWIS

Housing

President Bush's proposed $30.4 billion budget for the Department of Housing and Urban Development includes a 6.8 percent increase intended to expand programs for new homeowners and provide better housing for low-income renters.

In presenting the budget, Housing Secretary Mel Martinez announced two new programs that he said were intended to enable more members of minorities to become homeowners.

"The sad fact is only 46 percent of Hispanic and African-American families own their own homes," Mr. Martinez said. "And we must do better."

The first program is a $1.7 billion tax credit over five years to encourage investors to build housing for low-income families. Mr. Martinez said the tax credit could help build 100,000 homes in low-income areas.

The second program is intended to provide low-income families with money for a down payment. The American Dream Fund would provide $1 billion over five years which, HUD officials said, could help 650,000 low-income families to become homeowners.

In addition, the president's budget would add $3 million to church-based and community programs like Habitat for Humanity that build or repair homes for new homeowners.

As promised, the budget includes increases of $197 million for 34,000 more housing vouchers and $150 million to help cover higher utility costs in public housing.

Other proposals include spending $20 million to house 3,700 people living with AIDS and $10 million for a 10-year program to eliminate lead paint hazards in 2.3 million low-income households with children.

The budget discontinues several programs, including the $309 million drug- elimination program for public housing, which had helped pay for policing in public housing compounds. Mr. Martinez said this program duplicated other efforts.

The $25 million rural housing and economic development program was eliminated because officials said it duplicated many Agriculture Department programs. ELIZABETH BECKER

Education

The proposed increase for spending on education in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 would be the largest in President Bush's overall budget, 11.5 percent to $44.5 billiion.

While federal dollars make up only 7 percent of the nation's education budget - most of the money comes from local property taxes - President Bush made improving schools a major priority of his campaign.

But Mr. Bush's detractors said today that the president proposed only modest increases in education at a time of swelling enrollment and they criticized him for spending more money on tax cuts than on schools.

About 20 percent of the $44.5 billion in the education budget would go to the country's poorest children through federally funded Title I programs, an increase of 5 percent. A total of $900 million would be set aside for Mr. Bush's reading initiative, which seeks to improve the reading skills of children in kindergarten through third grade.

Mr. Bush hopes to make failing schools more accountable and give parents more "school choice" - including the option of transferring their children from such schools to other public schools, charter institutions or private schools.

To measure a school's standing, he calls for yearly testing in grades 3 to 8, and proposes giving states $320 million to develop those tests. He also recommends consolidating a number of programs and creating a $472 million fund for states to pursue his vision for greater school choice.

Special-education programs would receive an increase of $1 billion, to $7.3 billion. Another $2.6 billion would go to the states for training and recruiting teachers.

Democrats, who were buoyed early on by Mr. Bush's desire to focus on education, expressed deep disappointment today over his proposed budget. "He will not be able to turn around failing schools with his anemic education budget," said Representative George Miller of California, the ranking Democrat on the House education committee.

Other Democrats accused Mr. Bush of overestimating his proposed spending increase on education for next year by underestimating the numbers for this year's education budget.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the ranking Democrat on the Senate education committee, said that the proposed increase was closer to 5.7 percent, far behind this year's 18 percent increase. LIZETTE ALVAREZ

Agriculture

With foot-and-mouth disease still out of control in Britain, President Bush's agriculture budget would add $32 million to improve inspection at ports and borders to help ensure that the highly infectious animal disease does not spread to this country.

Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman said she would increase financing for the study and eradication of other animal and plant diseases as part of the department's emphasis on protecting American livestock and plants in an era of rapidly growing trade, tourism and immigration. In particular, the secretary said that the budget allocated $5 million for the study of mad cow disease, also in response to the spread of that disease in Europe.

"Given current situations around the world, we need to continue reviewing program needs and take every possible action to strengthen our pest- and disease-prevention systems," Ms. Veneman said. "Increasing personnel at critical ports of entry is an important step."

Money for the additional 262 inspectors is to come from a tax of $3 an airplane ticket for every person arriving in the United States.

Over all, the fiscal 2002 budget for the Department of Agriculture was cut by $6.3 billion, to $63.2 billion. Most of the reductions came from closing or merging some of the 5,600 local offices across the country as well as ending $1.1 billion in programs no longer needed, department officials said, or emergency programs like fire-fighting.

The budget also does not include a bailout plan for farmers who are facing low grain prices again. Last week, the Senate proposed $9 billion in emergency aid for farmers this year, even though Mr. Bush has said that a general contingency fund of nearly $1 trillion could underwrite emergency relief for farmers.

Other increases in the agriculture budget include the food stamp program, which grew $1.4 billion, to $21 billion.

The secretary said she was adding $106.4 million to try to expand overseas markets for American agricultural products, and $21 million for the department's meat inspection program, raising it to $716 million. ELIZABETH BECKER

Research

The Bush administration's proposed spending on science next year, with the exception of biomedical research, is generally characterized by either flat budgets or small increases that barely keep up with inflation.

NASA would get a modest increase but would have to cancel some programs.

Proposed budgets for most scientific agencies contain some new initiatives, but money for new programs generally comes from reducing existing programs and working within the confines of this year's levels.

The National Science Foundation, which sponsors most of the nation's university research and science education programs, would get a 1.3 percent increase, raising its budget to about $4.5 billion. The agency's money for science and engineering research would increase only 0.5 percent, to $3.3 billion, but its education budget would increase 11 percent to $870 million.

Smaller scientific agencies also saw the same modest proposed increases. The National Institute of Standards and Technology, part of the Department of Commerce, saw its research spending request increase from $312 million to $347 million, with increases going to materials science and physics programs. The U.S. Geological Survey, the Department of Interior agency that maps the nation and supports land and resource research, would have about a 6 percent budget reduction to $814 million.

NASA's administrator, Daniel S. Goldin, characterized the situation of research agencies today at a budget briefing, saying: "The president has told us that we must live within our means. Doing so will require some difficult decisions."

Under the proposal, NASA would receive a 1.5 percent increase to $14.5 billion, a level that requires canceling several programs, including one that would send a robot craft to Pluto, and stretching out others, like an orbiting infrared telescope. As another belt- tightening measure, Mr. Goldin said the new budget would no longer cover so-called earmarked programs mandated by Congress but not accompanied by extra money.

The budget allots $2.1 billion for the International Space Station, about the same as last year. But it requires NASA to curtail future spending on the project, including canceling planned sections of the station, to absorb an estimated $4 billion in cost overruns expected over the next five years.

Even with these financial constraints, the agency said it would begin about 50 new projects, including research on an aircraft that can change its shape in flight, much like a bird that stretches or contracts its wings and feathers to optimize its performance in the air. WARREN E. LEARY

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Several attest to K-25 water contamination

Oak Ridger
Tuesday, April 10, 2001
by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff
http://www.oakridger.com/stories/041001/new_0410010010.html

Ralph Hutson said from 1979 to 1986 he drank water earmarked for firefighting while he worked at the Oak Ridge K-25 Site. A construction foreman told him the reason was that the water lines and firefighting water lines were cross- connected.

J.D. Hunter, who worked for K-25's fire department from 1973 to 1994, said several other firemen he worked with are very sick, possibly because of the water they used fighting fires.

Both men shared their stories during a public meeting Monday night at the Garden Plaza hotel. The meeting was hosted by a team of engineers and officials in health-related fields who are conducting an investigation of historical water contamination at K-25.

More than 30 people who worked at K-25 or live in this area attended the meeting to provide the team with information that could assist in the investigation. They were also given a brief overview of the project.

Team members said there are two important questions they will attempt to answer: "Was the water contaminated?" and "Were workers exposed?" Several people attending the meeting said the answer to both questions is "yes."

"There's no question in our mind that the water and that site are contaminated," said Harry Williams, president of Coalition for a Healthy Environment.

The coalition serves as a support and research group pertaining to the illnesses of workers at Department of Energy facilities and the citizens of Oak Ridge and the surrounding areas.

Williams also warned that his group and others will watch the investigation closely because of the Department of Energy's involvement. The federal agency is funding the "independent" investigation.

"We are going to be very suspicious," Williams said.

The historical water examination is a continuation of tests conducted in August after employees voiced concern about contaminated water at K-25. Those tests indicated the site's current drinking water is safe to consume.

The current project is expected to be completed by August 2002. It will involve investigating and assessing K-25's drinking water and steam systems and the potential for exposure through any possible route due to cross-connections or via other means from other utility systems including firefighting water, recirculating cooling water, storm drains and sanitary sewers.

A Community Input Team has been established to provide stakeholder representation for the latest project. Sherrie Farver, a sick worker and member of the team, made a vocal plea to community members to provide information about K-25 if it could help the investigation.

Information can be conveyed to the investigating team by calling the project hot line at (865) 481-8290.

Facts can also be provided to the team through Suzanne Conway of Terra Graphics Environmental Engineering at (865) 300-9855 or Richard Bird, a physician and member of the investigating team, at (781) 646-5770. Terra Graphics is one of the companies participating in the investigation.

Those seeking to provide information confidentially are encouraged to contact Bird or the hotline.

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Bush warns Beijing about 'damaged' ties

Washington Times
April 10, 2001
By Bill Sammon THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/default-2001410233244.htm

President Bush yesterday warned that China's relationship with the United States will be "damaged" if 24 American hostages are not freed soon from a military base where they have been detained for more than a week. "Diplomacy takes time," Mr. Bush told reporters at a Cabinet meeting. "But there is a point - the longer it goes - there's a point at which our relations with China could become damaged."

China appeared unfazed as a government official reiterated Beijing's demands last night and dismissed the U.S. words so far as "unacceptable." "Where is the responsibility? I think it's very clear," said Zhu Bangzao, a senior Foreign Ministry official traveling with Chinese President Jiang Zemin in Argentina. "The pronouncements of the United States are unacceptable to the Chinese people. We are highly unsatisfied." "The United States should apologize and respond appropriately," Mr. Zhu said at a Buenos Aires news conference. "If they don't, it's going to make things difficult."

The Bush administration, after initially taking a tough stance and then trying to assuage the Chinese with words like "sorry" and "regret," reverted to tough talk again yesterday. "Every day that goes by increases the potential that our relations with China could be damaged," said Mr. Bush, repeating his point for emphasis. "It is now time for our troops to come home so that our relationship does not become damaged."

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said "the damage seen so far is reversible," suggesting the next step will not be. But the administration refused to say what that next step might be or when it might be taken. It has been nine days since a U.S. surveillance plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet in international waters and had to make an emergency landing on China's Hainan Island. "So long as the talks are ongoing and it remains as sensitive as it does, I'm going to refrain from getting into any of the specific steps," said White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer. "I do not think it would be productive to go down any of the items that could get damaged." However, Mr. Fleischer signaled that punitive measures under consideration would cover the topics Mr. Bush discussed with Chinese Vice Prime Minister Qian Qichen at the White House on March 22.

The two leaders discussed trade, human rights, religious freedom, the president's planned visit to Beijing in October and China's desire for acceptance in the World Trade Organization (WTO). They also discussed the sale of U.S. weapons to Taiwan and American plans for a missile defense system that would extend to U.S. allies around the globe. China vociferously opposes both measures. "Nothing we do is a threat to you, and I want you to tell that to your leadership," Mr. Bush told Mr. Qian in the meeting, according to a senior administration official. Mr. Qian listened politely, but made no reply. "They did talk about so many of the positive aspects of the United States-Chinese relations," Mr. Fleischer said yesterday. "It was one after another, all the positive, productive things that are under way between the United States and China. "From the president's point of view, if this continues, so much of the good they talked about can go wrong, or will go wrong, and he wants to avoid that," he added.

Meanwhile, a commercial satellite image, released yesterday by SpaceImaging.com, showed the EP-3E parked on the Hainan airfield next to a long line of military-type trucks, raising fresh questions about China's actions regarding the plane and its sophisticated surveillance equipment. "We continue to not have an understanding of what the Chinese are doing with the plane," said one U.S. official.

Although Congress is in recess, it is poised to vote against China on several major issues when it returns next month, the administration warned. These votes could include a rejection of permanent normal trade relations, which Congress passed last year. "The longer this goes on, the more difficult it will be, and that will particularly manifest itself up on the Hill, where there are several important votes," Mr. Fleischer said. "There are many things China wants in addition to normal trading relations, which I think probably are in some jeopardy," said Rep. Henry J. Hyde, Illinois Republican, on ABC's "Good Morning America." "I wouldn't say they're going to be taken away, but I know I'm not as interested in supporting normal trade relations as I was because of this." He added: "And China wants membership in the World Trade Organization. She wants the Olympics in the year 2008. There are several issues that we can start to put pressure on China, if required to do so. I hope not." Some Republicans are already breaking with the administration on whether to refer to the 24 Americans as hostages.

Although the White House and State Department call them detainees, Mr. Hyde yesterday repeated his insistence that they are hostages. "I hate to increase the tension by elevating the rhetoric, but if you look up the definition of hostage, I don't see what else you can describe our 24 crewmen as," he said. "They're being held against their will to accomplish some purpose," he added. "And the purpose, evidently, is to humiliate us before the world by making us apologize."

Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary defines hostage as "a person held by one party in a conflict as a pledge that promises will be kept or terms met by the other party." Chief among those terms is a demand by the Chinese for a full apology by the United States. Administration officials have stopped short of such an apology, although Mr. Bush wrote a letter to the widow of the Chinese pilot who died in the collision. The woman had accused Mr. Bush of being too "cowardly" to apologize. Mr. Bush, Vice President Richard B. Cheney and Secretary of State Colin Powell have all taken pains to express "regret" over the death of the Chinese pilot.

Mr. Powell upped the penitence ante Sunday by saying the United States was "sorry," a word repeated by Mr. Fleischer yesterday. Some U.S. conservatives consider such expressions a demonstration of weakness on the part of the Bush administration. The conservative Weekly Standard issued an editorial headlined "A National Humiliation" that said "President Bush has revealed weakness." Yesterday, administration officials submitted the fourth draft of a letter to China that was aimed at freeing the hostages. China has rejected the first three drafts, insisting the Americans have fallen short of the apology they require. "We're working behind the scenes," said Mr. Bush, flanked by Mr. Powell and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. "We've got every diplomatic channel open. We're in discussions with the Chinese."

Mr. Fleischer emphasized the creature comforts of the hostages, noting they have been given T-shirts and takeout food and are kept in air-conditioned rooms. U.S. officials yesterday met for a fourth time with the crew, and U.S. Defense Attache Brig. Gen. Neal Sealock reported they were in "excellent health." Meanwhile, an administration official declined to comment on a report in yesterday's editions of The Washington Times that revealed that China is preparing an underground nuclear test in the midst of the standoff. The test preparations were detected two weeks ago by U.S. spy satellites.

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Bush's Budget: The Losers, The Winners

The Washington Post
Tuesday, April 10, 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A62088-2001Apr9?language=printer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A62084-2001Apr9?language=printer

The Losers...

Energy Department

The department's nuclear nonproliferation spending was cut $100 million, more than half from programs to keep Russian scientists and nuclear secrets from leaving that country and to provide better security for Moscow's stored nuclear materials.

The office of counterintelligence, which was geared up in the wake of allegations of spying at the national weapons labs, would be cut $3 million, although the head of the new National Nuclear Security Administration, who oversees DOE's weapons complex, gets a $5 million increase for his office. Overall department security, including investigations and protection against cyber-attacks at the labs, would take a $25 million hit.

On the energy side of the department, sharp spending shifts within the agency reflect major changes in energy policy priorities. Research programs in a range of renewable energy sources, including solar and wind power, face steep cuts totaling $190 million, or 50 percent, to a new target of $186 million. The budget then adds $51 million for long-term research on the use of hydrogen gas as an energy source and in advancing power transmission technology.

A last-minute decision could knock as much as $39 million out of a high-visibility research partnership with Detroit's Big Three automakers and truck manufacturers seeking breakthroughs in producing cleaner, more efficient cars and trucks. Funding drops by 28 percent. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said the department followed manufacturers' wishes for more "flexibility" in how research dollars are spent....

The Winners...

Energy

The new budget would also increase spending for research on cleaner combustion of coal, designed to keep coal-fired power plants available to meet electric power shortages. The budget adds $150 million in the program, whose costs are shared by industry....

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From waste to wilderness

Oak Ridger
Tuesday, April 10, 2001
by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff
http://www.oakridger.com/stories/041001/new_0410010006.html

Nuclear waste sites could be converted into ecologically sound wilderness areas and save billions of tax dollars in the process.

That's a proposal made in a recently released report from Robert Nelson, senior fellow in environmental studies of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, non-partisan public policy group.

Nelson argues that spending billions of dollars on environmental cleanup is not necessarily good for the environment. For example, his report states the $2 billion cleanup of oil spilled from the Exxon Valdez ended up doing significant damage to the shoreline in Alaska's Prince William Sound.

In a phone interview Monday afternoon, Nelson pointed out that these areas also have an ecological importance, serving as a home to endangered species and other wildlife and plants.

Though Nelson said his report has gone through a two-year gestation process, its release comes at a time when the future of the Department of Energy's environmental management program is in question. Nelson said it's likely the report has fallen into the hands of DOE officials and the Bush administration.

"It (the report) reflects an attitude in the current administration about environmental management issues," said Susan Gawarecki, executive director of the Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee. The group provides advice to local, state and federal officials regarding DOE environmental management decisions.

Gawarecki said she thinks Nelson's proposal is not realistic. "I have seen the problems out there," she said. "It's got to be dealt with."

And, as for Nelson questioning spending $6 billion a year on cleanup activities, Gawarecki said that figure can be justified.

"It's not like going out with a shovel, digging it up and putting it in your local landfill," she said. "The types of waste being dealt with drive up the cost of cleanup."

Seth Kirshenberg, executive director of Energy Communities Alliance, agreed with Gawarecki that the report is lacking in an understanding of the cleanup process. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the alliance is an organization of local governments that are adjacent to or impacted by DOE activities.

Nelson, also a professor at the University of Maryland, has more than 18 years of experience with the Department of Interior. His report is available at www.cei.org/

-------- MILITARY

-------- arms sales

Curbing Small Arms

New York Times
April 10, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/10/opinion/10TUE2.html

From Colombia and Afghanistan to the Balkans, Sri Lanka and the multiple war zones of Africa, the most prolific killers in the last decade have relied not on complex high-tech weapons systems but on cheap and portable small arms. Low-tech weapons like assault rifles, machine guns, pistols and hand grenades have been responsible for as much as 90 percent of the world's conflict-related killing in the decade since the end of the cold war. The availability of small arms has magnified ethnic conflicts, empowered warlords and contributed to an appalling toll in civilian casualties.

Belatedly, the world's diplomats are trying to devise ways to control and limit the trade in small arms. The United Nations will sponsor a conference on the subject this summer. The goal is to draft international standards and procedures for curtailing this destructive trade.

Illicit gun-running thrived in the 1990's for many of the same reasons that legitimate global trade has flourished. Newly opened borders and the expansion of free trade have eased the challenge of smuggling small arms, especially those from the former territories of the Soviet bloc. Private brokers, shippers and front companies, many with links to foreign intelligence agencies, exploit weak export laws and lax border controls to funnel weapons to war zones. Offshore banks and tax havens hide and launder the large amounts of cash that are central to illegal arms sales.

The increasingly global nature of small arms sales means that legal and regulatory solutions need to be coordinated on a global level to be effective. A standardized international system for vetting exports and documenting where weapons ultimately wind up is urgently needed. The United States has a rigorous legal code on the export of small arms, but enforcement has been inadequate. Many other countries, notably those in the former Soviet sphere like Ukraine, Belarus and Bulgaria, have ineffective controls. China, whose military is involved in small weapons exports to Africa's war zones, also has negligible restrictions.

A good starting point for international regulation was a treaty signed in 1997 by the United States and other members of the Organization of American States. It prohibits countries from issuing export licenses before the importing country has approved the sale. It also requires both manufacturers and importing countries to mark the weapons, so that when weapons get diverted, as inevitably some do, they can be traced back to the last seller.

Some countries, including Canada, have suggested a ban on any sales to "non-state actors," like rebel groups, terrorists and criminal syndicates. The Bush administration, like the Clinton administration before it, has resisted a blanket prohibition, fearing that it could impinge on future efforts to provide covert military aid in foreign conflicts where overt American assistance would be diplomatically untenable. The American role in resisting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan is cited as an example.

But there is also a long and lamentable history of American weapons exports to insurgencies that have attacked civilians and violated human rights. As the more recent history of Afghanistan shows, weapons exported for legitimate reasons often wind up in the hands of tyrants and criminals. Unless the world's major weapons producers take more responsibility for controlling the international market in small arms, the most vulnerable nations will continue to be ravaged by this deadly trade.

---

CONTRACT CHALLENGE REJECTED

New York Times
April 10, 2001
National Briefing
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/10/national/10BRFS.html

The General Accounting Office rejected a challenge to the Army's decision to award a $4 billion contract for 2,100 light armored vehicles that are at the center of the service's plan to field lighter, more agile fighting forces. United Defense, a subsidiary of the Carlyle Holding Corporation, filed the protest in December after the Army chose a consortium led by General Dynamics and General Motors. In its challenge, United Defense said its bid met the Army's criteria and cost less than half the winning bid. Steven Lee Myers (NYT)

-------- australia

Army brutality confirmed by panel

Australian News Network
10apr01
By IAN McPHEDRAN, defence reporter
http://news.com.au/newspulse/pulseframe/0,4711,1880607^421,00.html

A PARLIAMENTARY inquiry has confirmed a culture of brutality exists within the Australian Army.

It said that culture led to systematic "rough justice" being handed out in an elite parachute battalion.

It also said the brutality was never properly investigated by Military Police or the army's legal office.

The Defence sub-committee of the joint parliamentary committee on foreign affairs, defence and trade will release its report into the 3RAR and "other military justice matters" tomorrow.

While it will note improvements to the "culture" since the inquiry began last August, the report is expected to be highly critical of the army and the management of the "red beret" parachute battalion.

It will also focus on the culture of cover-up, who was responsible for rough justice and how it happened.

The Military Police have widened their investigations of 3RAR in response to the inquiry.

Top brass have also acted by launching an independent audit, establishing an inspector-general's office and releasing so-called "rules for a fair go" last December.

And all military personnel were stood down for two hours in February to view a video on the complaints procedure.

Further changes are recommended in the report.

The committee's report is also expected to focus on the lack of response from the army's leadership.

It is understood it will highlight an apparent lack of political will from government members to stamp out brutality and bastardisation.

The defence sub-committee's first report on wider issues of military justice was released more than two years ago and so far there has been no response from the Government.

It is now more than three years since then defence personnel minister Bronwyn Bishop was first alerted to the rough justice system operating within 3RAR.

That system led to brutal assaults for minor offences and dire warnings about speaking out.

In that time, no Minister has made a single statement to Parliament on the bastardisation issue.

One whistleblower, Corporal Craig Smith, received death threats after he gave evidence.

In the latest incident involving 3RAR, a major in command of a company deployed in Malaysia was relieved of his command and sent home after a drunken assault on junior officers in a bar at RAAF Base Butterworth.

It is understood a former battalion commander is under investigation for his role in sanctioning the rough justice system.

Meanwhile, 3RAR company commander Major Troy Quinn was convicted of ill-treating a fellow officer and fined $2000. Another soldier had charges dropped and a warrant officer faces a court martial next month charged with encouraging soldiers to assault comrades.

-------- Colombia

10 Myths About The Colombian Conflict

From: (Ramon Mejia)
Posted by PeaceNet
Tuesday April 10, @08:17AM
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/pnheadlines/986915876/index_html

1. PLAN COLOMBIA WAS MADE BY COLOMBIANS

Plan Colombia should be called Plan Washington. It was never discussed in the Colombian Congress, nor with the governors of the Colombian provinces or mayors of towns which would be the targets of aerial fumigation. It was not consulted with the Colombian people. It was written by a "public relations" firm with the ideas of former Drug Czar, retired General Barry McCaffrey. Colombian president Pastrana brought to Washington in late 1998 his original Plan Colombia, which was a veritable plan for development, but Washington changed it completely and made it a military antidrug plan.

2. PLAN COLOMBIA AIMS AT COMBATING NARCOTRAFFICKING

The U.S. has spent $300 billions in the last 25 years in its war against drugs, but, instead of decreasing, drug use and abuse has risen enormously. Colombia has been fumigated consistently for the past 10 years, but cultivation and production, instead of decreasing, has tripled. Farmers simply fell or burn more jungle trees and preventively cultivate even larger areas. Plan Colombia is a plan to hoodwink the American people into believing that its government is using a strong hand against narcotrafficking, when the truth is that the politicians do not want to look for the solutions that would target the American drug cartels or the money laundering which benefits mostly the financial mafias, the American multinationals and banks. The vogue now of American federal banks is to provide millionaires with a "private banking" service, which consists of ultra secret bank accounts which are not scrutinized, with no names attached, or attached to fictitious or made-up names. These accounts have risen very rapidly and are considered to be the most effective way to launder money with impunity. If Plan Colombia was meant to end narcotrafficking, there would be a similar fight in the U.S. It could start with a real scrutiny of the sources of the moneys in "private banking" accounts. The fight in each country is not equal. In the U.S., the Army does not carry out fumigation of the vast marijuana plantations that exist (The U.S. is the second producer of marijuana in the world). The Army does not persecute the producers of synthetic drugs-the amphetamines, barbiturates, LSD ("acid"), and Ecstasy. In the U.S. it is the police system that incarcerates small sellers or drug addicts who receive bigger sentences than the big-time criminal drug dealers. In Colombia, quite the contrary, it's the Armed Forces that persecutes the farmers. The War on Drugs was designed to hit the weakest in the drugs circuit: the farmers, the small seller or the addict, who are not violent nor criminals. In the meantime, the criminal financial network is enjoying tranquillity . The absurdity of Plan Colombia is that the U.S. provides the money and Colombia the dead people in a military strategy that escalates the levels of violence, emboldens the armed groups in Colombia and does not contribute at all to the on-going peace process.

3. PLAN COLOMBIA IS A PLAN FOR PEACE

Indeed, the exact title of this document is: "Plan Colombia, a Plan for Peace, Prosperity, and the Strengthening of the State." But the first 1.6 billion dollars coming from the U.S. are 80% for military expenditures like helicopters and forced aerial fumigation. For peace: 0%. For the displaced persons: $16 millions. In other words, for every dollar, 99 cents for the military, 1 penny for the displaced farmer.

4. THE MILITARY PORTION OF PLAN COLOMBIA IS ONLY 13%

It is often pointed out that Plan Colombia totals $7.5 billions and that only 13% of that is for military expenditures. These figures are part of a castle-in-the-air in the minds of politicians out of touch with reality. Arbitrarily, without consultation, the European Union was assigned $2.0 billions. Colombia assigned itself $4.0 billions. This was only a "sales" strategy for Plan Colombia. These moneys have not existed, do not exist, and will not exist. The European Union does not want to contribute, and Colombia is too indebted to be able to.

5. PLAN COLOMBIA ENJOYS INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT

In a vote recently taken by the parliament of the European Union, the rejection of Plan Colombia because of its militaristic nature was 474 votes in favor, and only 1 vote against.

6. COLOMBIA'S SHARE IN PLAN COLOMBIA IS 4 BILLION DOLLARS

This is the biggest lie told to sell Plan Colombia. Colombia has an external and internal debt of $36 billions. 46% of Colombia's annual budget is tied to paying this debt. Colombia spends monthly $135 in debt interest payments ($1.6 billions a year), unproductive money because it is not investment money. Colombia has the biggest unemployment rate in South America. Let's add to this the displaced people's problem, the degradation of the war, capital flight, the brain drain, and we can clearly see that Colombia simply does not have this kind of money.

7. THERE IS NO RESEMBLANCE BETWEEN COLOMBIA AND VIETNAM

True, the resemblance is not total. For instance, the Colombian insurgency does not have the level of popular support of the Vietnamese guerrillas. But there is more of a resemblance than meets the eye. For example: 1) "military assistance" is based on a lie - that drug consumption can be ended worldwide by the fumigation of coca plantations [in Viet Nam it was the Gulf of Tonkin lie] 2) There is no definition of victory 3) There is no exit strategy 4) everything started with sending a few hundred "military advisors." 5) If things go well, that's a reason to increase the military aid, if things go bad, it's also a reason to do the same. 6) The level of corruption of the Colombian government is equal or worse to that of the then Vietnamese government 7) The income inequality, the social injustice, the unemployment and the hunger are similar. 8) Violations of human rights by the military/paramilitary alliance is very likely worse in Colombia.

8. COLOMBIA IS SUCH A RICH COUNTRY NOT EVEN POLITICIANS HAVE BEEN ABLE TO IMPOVERISH IT.

This used to be/is a saying among the Colombian middle class, which maybe true no longer. Colombia has a $36 billion external and internal debt. Monthly outlays to pay for interest on the loan: $134 million. A bankrupt agricultural sector. The dishonor of being the most violent country in the world. With more displaced people than Kosovo---2 million people. 14 people dying daily for political reasons. A crime impunity of 99%. The leading country in the world in kidnappings, and the country where an armed group - the paramilitaries - specializes in massacres of defenseless, unarmed peasants, human rights workers, union leaders, social workers, journalistas, and even comedians (like Jaime Garzón) or presidential candidates (like Galán). Five thousand yearly deaths directly linkable to the conflict, and 30,000 due to other kinds of non-political violence.

9. GLYPHOSATE (COMPONENT OF HERBICIDES) IS HARMLESS

In the U.S. commercial packages of herbicides that contain glyphosate warn that care is needed not to come in contact with it. (for example, commonly used Round Up). A pesticide's toxicity depends not only on its amount of glyphosate but also on the amounts of other toxic ingredients. It also depends on its concentration. Due to the fact that these factors are not controlled at all in Colombia, the recent results in Colombia have been very truly disastrous. Rivers and lakes have been contaminated. Fish, farm animals have been poisoned and died. Children have died. Half of the fumigated zones have been licit crops of edible foods and fruits. Fumigation has brought about displacement, hunger and even death.

10. THE COLOMBIAN GUERRILLAS, FARC, ARE A CARTEL OF NARCOTRAFFICKERS

This fact is often repeated by the U.S. government, but President Pastrana assures us that the FARC are not narcotraffickers. Nobody has provided proof that the FARC owns any coca plantation, nor that they are involved in getting it out of the country. There is ample evidence that they tax coca cultivation and coca paste sales, but so far no one has presented evidence that they are involved in the export of the refined cocaine powder.

MOVIMIENTO POR LA PAZ EN COLOMBIA NY-NJ-CT
www.movimientoporlapaz.org moderador@movimientoporlapaz.org ramonmejia@accesshub.net 718-803-0823

---

Prosperous Colombians Fleeing, Many to the U.S.

New York Times
April 10, 2001
By JUAN FORERO
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/10/world/10COLO.html

BOGOTÁ, Colombia, April 9 - Sergio Foschini's construction supplies store is gone now. He also liquidated three shops in other cities and shuttered his once profitable construction company on the Caribbean coast, leaving dozens of employees without work.

With his wife and children, he then left Colombia, joining hundreds of thousands of his compatriots - many of them college-educated, a growing number of them affluent like Mr. Foschini - who have fled conflict and economic stagnation for the United States and beyond.

"We spent two years thinking about it, two years of losing money and not producing," Mr. Foschini, who has been in Miami since last June, said in a recent telephone interview. "And finally we decided on another adventure, another path. It's not what you want, though. You want to stay in your country."

Frustrated with four years of recession and terrified by the crime and kidnappings that feed on and flourish in a grinding civil conflict, many of Colombia's most promising young professionals and business people have reluctantly abandoned this country in the hope of finding success and stability.

In all, nearly 1.1 million of Colombia's 40 million people have departed since 1996, the government says, a mass migration that rivals the exodus of Cubans after Fidel Castro's revolution in 1959. Many have wound up in the United States, which the Census Bureau estimates has a Colombian-American community of 435,000.

In the United States they have injected new life into a decades-old community in Queens and added muscle to an increasingly politically active enclave in Miami. Still others have made new homes in far-flung locales like Australia, Toronto and Madrid, while some have started businesses in Costa Rica.

The departure has meant more hopeful lives for innumerable families and a flow of remittances from abroad that are sure to help others who are struggling here in Colombia. But the size of the departure has started to raise concerns about the long-term effects here, both to Colombia's economy and to its battered psyche.

Some entrepreneurs and investors are liquidating businesses and laying off workers, contributing to an economic morass that helps to feed the social unrest that led to armed conflict in the first place.

According to conservative estimates by business organizations, the flight of capital - in closed bank accounts, investments and other assets - has reached $2 billion in two years, sizable in a country with a $90 billion gross domestic product.

Some academics and intellectuals here say the exodus has also deepened the class-based schism that is ingrained in Colombian society. Many who leave are urban middle- or upper-class Colombians who have the bank accounts and property that permit them to obtain travel visas.

Poor Colombians, those most vulnerable in the country's largely rural conflict, have virtually no chance of leaving legally.

Perhaps most distressing, some Colombia experts and economists say, the migration is draining the best and brightest from the solid middle class, the kind of people the country sorely needs to rebuild.

"The departure of educated people from Colombia represents a significant brain drain," said Bruce Bagley, a leading Colombia expert at the University of Miami. "The talent pool, more and more, is being reduced. If they get rid of all the professionals and all of the entrepreneurs, then all you're left with is the political hacks. And that is not good for Colombia."

The conflict that has spawned the exodus is increasingly brutal, pitting leftist guerrilla groups against an ineffective military and an illegal right-wing paramilitary army responsible for most of the massacres.

Although most who flee the country are rarely touched directly by war, a growing number say rebels have taken aim at them for extortion or kidnapping. Colombia is the world's leader in kidnappings: last year 3,706 people were taken hostage, 66 percent of them by the two largest rebel groups.

Colombia has also been hard hit economically in recent years, reversing decades of economic stability and one of Latin America's longest- sustained growth rates. The economy contracted by 4.5 percent in 1999 and grew by 2.81 percent last year. The unemployment rate stands at 20 percent, Latin America's highest.

The overwhelming sentiment here is that those who can leave Colombia should.

Yet perhaps because there is also a sense that the exodus could make an already difficult situation worse, a nascent movement involving business people, academics, students and the media has begun to try to reverse the trend.

Jorge Giraldo, owner of Publik, a company specializing in electronic billboards, has begun a multimedia campaign called "Here I Stay," in which the country's attributes are lauded. At the University of the Andes in Bogotá, art students have plastered streets with posters and handed out fliers that ask people, "Why haven't you left for Miami?" - a question meant to spur debate.

And at RCN Radio and Television, a daily campaign asks Colombians, "Why are you proud to be Colombian?" Those who answer with poems, drawings and essays can win computers or scholarships.

"The campaign is looking to confront the large-scale skepticism that we have in this country and reduce the number of people who leave," said Constanza Escobar, manager of marketing for RCN. "We're trying to inject some positive feeling for the whole population."

Not everyone who follows the economy agrees that the exodus will have negative repercussions.

Álvaro Cadavid, director of an executive headhunting firm in Bogotá, said many Colombians who left could not find work and so their departure served as an economic safety valve. "It's too bad people have left," he said, "but it's good, too, because they opened space for others."

Many economists and academics disagree.

"There's no question that this is a very worrisome trend," said Donald F. Terry, manager of the Multilateral Investment fund of the Inter- American Development Bank in Washington. Colombia has enjoyed a strong entrepreneurial class and a force of well-educated workers, Mr. Terry said.

But if large numbers of those people leave, he said, "then one of Colombia's most positive aspects in terms of growth will be adversely affected." He said that if the trend continued over a decade, "then I think it is Pollyannish to think that this is in any way positive."

Many Colombians who have left or are planning to leave agree that the mass migration is detrimental.

"We're losing a youth that's prepared," said Augusto López, 64, who left Colombia in 1999 and runs a venture capital firm in Miami. "They're coming from good universities in Colombia and also good ones in the United States, and then they haven't gone back."

But prospective immigrants in Bogotá as well as recently arrived ones in Canada, New York and Miami said in interviews that the country's myriad problems left few options.

"You might try to say to yourself, `Stick around, things will get better,' " said Miguel Pinedo, a Bogotá resident and business manager who will soon leave for New York. "But in the next 10 years I don't see things getting better."

Jenny Romero, 24, a biologist, said her professional future had dried up because she could no longer carry out her work in the rebel-controlled countryside. She said half of the biology students who graduated from college with her had also left the country.

"You don't have a real motivation to stay, because it's quite difficult to get a job," said Ms. Romero, who is now working on a graduate degree in Canada. "And if you have a job it's hard to get into the countryside."

Most Colombians are leaving for well-established Colombian-American communities in the United States, with 256,831 people traveling on tourist visas last year, up from 136,584 in 1996.

Many later extend tourist visas for up to a year or switch to student visas, which can be used for longer periods. Wealthy entrepreneurs can apply for an investor visa, and highly skilled workers can obtain temporary or even permanent work permits.

A growing number are also applying for political asylum, with 1,165 Colombians, or 65 percent of applicants, winning approval in 2000. In 1993 only 17 Colombians received asylum. Others are joining an illegal population of Colombians that numbers an estimated 85,000.

Those who have embarked on new lives, even professionals with plenty of work experience, say it has not been easy. The spacious apartments, maids and country homes of Colombia become a distant memory.

María Robles, 34, and her husband, 35, architects who owned a construction company in Bogotá, left for Miami after the rebels demanded money. Now, Mr. Robles works at a construction job.

"It's been traumatic to the point that sometimes we say, `Let's go back,' " Ms. Robles said. "But the security issue is so important, and then we think about our children."

---

Colombian troops patrol rivers for cocaine labs

USA Today
04/10/2001 - Updated 01:46 AM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2001-04-10-colombia.htm

PUERTO LEGUIZAMO, Colombia (AP) - The fleet of gunboats advances along the roiling waters of the Putumayo River, fresh from a 2,300-mile mission deep into jungles housing clandestine cocaine labs and rebel gunmen.

For the 200 Colombian troops who left this sweltering port town on Feb. 14, the mission was a success: 18 coca-processing labs were destroyed, tons of precursor chemicals seized and a clandestine airstrip discovered.

Resistance from rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, who earn millions of dollars by "taxing" coca growers was light. But as the United States provides more funding later this year for Colombia's "riverine" counterdrug operations, things are expected to heat up.

Already, U.S. troops have helped train Colombian Marines for such operations and built floating docks for the boats, which are anchored along the banks of the fast-flowing rivers.

"The rivers are the supply highways, they are the only routes through here - and the fastest," noted Colombian Marine Col. Juan Enrique Prieto of southern Colombia's Putumayo province, which has many more rivers than highways.

More than a dozen vessels, including gunboats, tugs and sleek fast-attack boats, participated in "Operation Titan," which ended when the troops returned to Puerto Leguizamo on Saturday.

The sweating soldiers were in high spirits when they docked, one carrying a monkey he had found during the long journey. Perhaps because the riverine force was so large and well armed, with .50-caliber machine guns bristling from the decks, FARC rebels did not engage them in combat as the boats swept past on the broad, muddy river.

One of the few incidents occurred when the flotilla came across a man in a motorized canoe, who instead of heeding orders to halt began firing at the troops with an assault rifle.

The soldiers returned fire, riddling the canoe with holes and taking the man prisoner. They also confiscated chemicals, weapons and money from his boat.

Because the jungle is so dense, U.S. spy-satellite technology was unable to pinpoint the location of the drug labs, Colombian commanders said.

The labs were found within a half-mile of the river by informants and other intelligence operations, officers said. The labs are often located near rivers because cocaine producers use the waterways to bring in precursor chemicals and other supplies, and to ship out the drugs.

U.S. officials, who are helping implement Washington's $1.3 billion aid package to Colombia and the region to assist in the drug war and shore up this South American country's democracy, say halting the flow of drugs along the jungle rivers is an important step.

As part of the aid package approved by the U.S. Congress last year, $12 million is dedicated to interdiction of drugs and chemicals in the seas and rivers and $2 million for construction and improvements of docks and ports. The aid is expected to begin arriving during the second half of 2001.

------- drug war

California prosecutor faces recall vote over marijuana stance

Nando Times
April 10, 2001 7:54 a.m. EDT
By MICHELLE LOCKE, Associated Press
http://www.nandotimes.com/nation/story/0%2C1038%2C500472137-500723523-504059679-0%2C00.html

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. ( http://www.nandotimes.com) - In most places, district attorneys are bounced out of office if they appear too soft on crime. That logic could be reversed in this liberal county.

Marin County District Attorney Paula Kamena faces a recall vote on May 22 in part because advocates of medical marijuana argue that she is too tough on marijuana smokers.

At issue is Proposition 215, the law approved by California voters in 1996 that allows people to use marijuana for medical purposes provided they have a doctor's permission.

Implementation of the measure has proven difficult, however, because it is vague on where patients can get marijuana, how much of it they can possess and who is qualified to grow it.

County officials have varied widely in how they approach the issue. Some work closely with distribution clubs that sprang up after Proposition 215 passed and others take a harder line.

Kamena says she's been unfairly painted as a pot prosecutor. Since she was sworn in as Marin County district attorney in January, 1999 medical marijuana cases have made up a tiny percentage of her office caseload - 73 out of more than 30,000 - and most were dismissed or ended in plea bargains.

Kamena says she's declared that her office won't prosecute if individuals have no more than six mature or 12 immature plants and a half-pound of dry marijuana.

But opponents say that far from being lenient, Kamena's guidelines follow federal law, which considers marijuana a contraband and effectively gives police a license to confiscate it, whether or not they make arrests.

"Every joint, every gram, every leaf, anything they can get their hands on, it's 'Ha, ha, ha, the DA says this is all against federal law,'" says Lynette Shaw, director of the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana and a leader in the recall campaign. "It's been really mean, and it's hurt the health of hundreds of people."

The alliance, based in the small town of Fairfax, doesn't just want to get rid of Kamena. It has a list of five other county prosecutors organizers want turned out of office.

"This could be the start of something," says Chuck Thomas, spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project, which is not involved in the recall.

Kamena says the problem is that Proposition 215 is "very convoluted and very complex. It is, in short, a mess. The idea of people who are ill who can benefit from marijuana - I don't have an issue with that at all."

Dennis Peron, who wrote Proposition 215, disagrees.

"The only people who have any trouble understanding the law is the cops and the district attorneys," he said. "What it is they don't understand is compassion."

In Marin County, a liberal enclave of stunning views and breathtaking home prices just north of the Golden Gate Bridge, Proposition 215 passed with 73 percent of the vote. Eight other states have authorized the use of medical marijuana.

The recall petition against Kamena began on a quite different issue; it was started by parents angry about child-custody cases in Marin courts. That drive fizzled, but medical marijuana advocates later took up the cause, getting enough signatures to force the election, which is expected to cost $500,000.

The wording of the petition remains limited to the child-custody complaint and Tom Van Zandt, a patent attorney, is running for the job if Kamena is turned out of office.

Forced to campaign a year ahead of schedule, Kamena has been busily listing her achievements, including working to improve official response to sexual assault victims and opening a center where children who may have been sexually abused can be interviewed in a homelike setting.

"The question is, 'Do I deserve to be fired?' And my answer is, 'Absolutely not,'" Kamena says.

-------- new zealand

New Zealand's Agent Orange Victims Promised Help

Environmental News Service
04/10/01
By Peter Isaac
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2001/2001L-04-10-03.html

WELLINGTON, New Zealand, April 10, 2001 (ENS) - Prime Minister Helen Clark has agreed to improve services for Vietnam veterans who claim their health has been damaged by Agent Orange. The toxic herbicide is central to another conflict today as well, between people living near a plant where agricultural herbicides were made and the company that produced them.

The most prominent of the herbicides used in the Vietnam War was Agent Orange, so named because of the orange identifying stripe painted on the barrel used to store and ship the chemical.

Agent Orange was a 50-50 mixture of the herbicides 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D. Much of the Agent Orange used to defoliate Vietnam was contaminated with numerous chlorinated hydrocarbons, including dioxin or TCDD, an extremely hazardous chemical.

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark (Photo courtesy Office of the Prime Minister)

Clark has personally seized charge of the lingering topic of compensation for Vietnam veterans. In Wellington yesterday, the Prime Minister held talks with Vietnam veterans to discuss her plans for improving services provided to them.

For years, the veterans have battled different governments in their search for compensation and recognition for the illnesses they suffer as a result of being exposed to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. Clark has promised that now something will be done for them.

Still, the government will wait for the results of an investigation by the Wellington School of Medicine, due in June, that is examining the veterans' claims about health problems they and their children are suffering after their exposure to Agent Orange.

In the other Agent Orange issue, the Ministry of Health has announced that blood samples will be taken from approximately 100 people who live in the neighborhood of Ivon Watkins Dow, now Dow AgroScience, the plant where farm dioxins were manufactured until 1987.

The issue has been further aggravated by a former employee of the factory who claims that drums of unused defoliants have been dumped in and around New Plymouth, the North Island town where the plant is situated.

A group of anti-dioxin activists burst through the padlocked gates of Dow AgroSciences, urging in an otherwise peaceful protest that the plant be closed down. They included Vietnam veterans and students from nearby Spotswood College.

Spotswood College in New Plymouth, for 10 to 18 year old students, with Mount Taranaki in the background. (Photo courtesy Spotswood College)

Industry sources admit that ingredients for Agent Orange were manufactured at the plant during the Vietnam War. They will even go so far as to concede that the plant management hoped to produce the entire product. But the pull-back from the war began, and they says their offer was never taken up by the United States.

Peace activists, or "researchers" as they are often known in New Zealand, have followed the case since the late 1960s when photographs of canisters purporting to be the final Agent Orange delivery bombs were shown in the peace media. They continue to believe that Ivon Watkins Dow made the entire product.

The industry explanation is that nobody knew at the time of the damage on human beings inflicted by the defoliant.

"There is a parallel with thalidomide," an industry source said, referring to a sedative drug given to pregnant women in the 1960s. It was subsequently found to have caused 8,000 babies born in Europe to have severe physical defects.

"We are not in the same boat as the tobacco companies," another industry insider confided to ENS. "We had no idea at the time of the health consequences."

Colonel (Retd) Chris Brown of 161 Battery of the New Zealand Army stationed at Nui Dat bears personal witness in an interview with ENS to this widespread lack of knowledge then.

He arranged to spray himself with Agent Orange. "I use to call it [Agent Orange] down on our own perimeter when it became clogged up with foliage overgrowing our defenses," he said. "It was so much more effective than treating it from the ground with diesel."

C-123 Providers from the U.S. 12th Special Operations Squadron at Bien Hoa Air Base spray defoliant over the jungle in South Vietnam. This Squadron began spraying in 1962. (Photo courtesy Gary Moore)

Now a realtor, Brown recalls that the undergrowth around his defenses at one stage prior to an Agent Orange drops was within 300 feet of his emplacements. "I realize now that I had the option of lead poisoning then or blood poisoning now," he observed with gallows humour.

Brown suffers from ulcerated legs which must be constantly treated with Betnovate. He has two children born subsequent to his service in Vietnam. His son Adrian was born with webbed feet and his daughter Victoria was born a diabetic.

From June 1964 to December 1972, New Zealand sent 3,890 servicemen, all volunteers, to Vietnam. Thirty seven were killed in Vietnam, and 2,500 are alive today.

Indications are that Prime Minister Clark is anxious to settle the veterans' dioxin issue, possibly with a one time compensation offer.

But the domestic issue of dioxin residues from the Dow factory at New Plymouth is much more entrenched, with activists now insisting that residents in the vicinity of the plant undergo tests conducted on fatty tissue rather than merely blood.

Indications of the health effects of exposure to Agent Orange have emerged from a 1997 U.S. Air Force Health Study on the herbicide, known as the Ranch Hand Study. Investigators conducted a physical examination of 2,300 U.S. Vietnam veterans - 1,000 who were exposed to Agent Orange and a control group of 1,300 veterans who were not exposed. Dr. Joel Michalek, senior principal investigator for the Ranch Hand study, said in releasing the results that the study, "includes the strongest evidence to date that Agent Orange is associated with adult-onset diabetes."

"The 1997 results suggest that as dioxin levels increase, not only are the presence and severity of adult-onset diabetes increased, but the time to onset of disease is also decreased. A 47 percent increase in diabetes was seen in those with the highest levels of dioxin. This is particularly strong evidence, since dioxin is the component of Agent Orange linked to many health effects in laboratory animals," Dr. Michalek said.

The study found no consistent or meaningful relation between dioxin body burden and cancer in Ranch Hand veterans. Nor was there evidence of a consistent relation between dioxin exposure and immune system alteration.

The presence of high blood pressure and the percentage of veterans with evidence of prior heart attacks, did tend to increase with dioxin levels," said Dr. Michalek, but the overall incidence of heart disease did not increase with high dioxin levels.

The 1,000 Ranch Hands and 1,300 comparisons participated in physical examinations in 1982, 1985, 1987, 1992 and 1997, with a final examination planned for 2002.

An Australian government survey of 40,000 Vietnam veterans found the spina bifida rate among their children more than 10 times that of the general population.

A list of New Zealand military personnel who died in Vietnam is online at: http://www.vietvet.org/nzlist3.htm

-------- russia

Russia launches production of new torpedo

USA Today
04/10/2001 - Updated 03:10 PM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2001-04-10-russia.htm

MOSCOW (AP) - Russia has begun production of a new anti-submarine torpedo system capable of hitting targets 2.7 miles away and up to 3,200 feet underwater, a news report said.

If those figures are accurate, the weapon would represent an advance on most current torpedoes, which reach depths of only about 2,240 to 2,560 feet, said Anthony Watts, editor of Jane's Underwater Warfare Systems.

In addition to submarines, the new torpedo system can be used against other torpedoes and underwater objects near the surface, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported Monday, citing the Russian Defense Ministry. The Defense Ministry press service declined to comment on the report Tuesday, and officials at the Russian Navy could not immediately be reached for comment.

Unidentified military officials cited by ITAR-Tass lauded the new missile system, called RPK-8, as a modern weapon with good prospects on international arms markets.

Despite the Russian military's severe funding shortfalls, the country continues to develop new weaponry and strives to recoup development costs by quickly putting items up for sale on world weapons markets.

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

U.N. forces enter rebel-held town

The Washington Times
www.washtimes.com
4/10/01
World Scene
http://www.washtimes.com/world/worldscene-2001410213737.htm

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone -U.N. troops entered a rebel-held diamond-mining town for the first time in Sierra Leone's war, patrolling the rebel stronghold without resistance, the U.N. force commander announced yesterday.

The deployment asserted U.N. peacekeepers' right of access to one of the rebels' key prizes in the 10-year-old conflict: the Tongofield diamond field, one of the West African nation's richest.

U.N. peacekeepers carried out the patrol in the town of Tongofield Saturday, but announced it only yesterday.

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

Researchers Fear Use of Navy's Sonar May Harm Whales

New York Times
April 10, 2001
By RACHEL X. WEISSMAN
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/10/science/10WHAL.html

Last spring Kenneth Balcomb, a marine mammalogist, woke to find an unsettling situation outside his Abaco Island home in the Bahamas: a 16-foot Cuvier's beaked whale weighing some two tons stranded in knee-deep water.

With the help of several volunteers, Mr. Balcomb, who heads the Center for Whale Research in Friday Harbor, Wash., tried to push the animal out to sea. After the fifth attempt, the disoriented whale stopped turning toward shore and continued into the open ocean. But that was only the start.

Over 15 hours beginning March 15, about 16 whales and a dolphin became stranded on the beach and in shallow waters around the northern Bahama islands. Most were pushed back into the sea by Mr. Balcomb and volunteers, who had gone to the Bahamas to observe the whales as part of a program for the Boston- based Earthwatch Institute, a nonprofit organization that supports scientific field work. Still, the dolphin and six whales died. It was one of the largest strandings of beaked whales on record.

Five days later the United States Marine Fisheries Service, at the request of the Bahamian government, sent biologists to perform necropsies. They found hemorrhaging around the brain and ear bones. On the one-year anniversary of the strandings in March, a task force from the agency and the United States Navy said that it was highly likely that the stranding was caused by sonar transmissions from Navy ships that were performing antisubmarine exercises nearby.

Now some biologists and environmental groups fear that such mass strandings will become more common if the Navy wins approval for a sonar program it wants for detecting submarines. Called the Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System, or Surtass, it would consist of four sonar- equipped ships able to sweep 80 percent of the world's oceans.

The Navy, which must have a permit from the marine fisheries service before it can proceed, discounts claims that what happened in the Bahamas could result from Surtass, because the sonar used during last year's strandings operated on a middle frequency and its Surtass program would use a low frequency. Both systems, however, transmit sound waves that bounce off objects and send information back to the listener. In the proposed system, transmissions could be as loud as 230 decibels, roughly the noise of a rocket taking off. The Navy proposes using observers and monitoring instruments to make sure no marine mammals are within a kilometer. Beyond that, the sound would have dissipated to at most 180 decibels, a level at which some scientists believe physiological damage occurs.

The sound would join a chorus of others that contribute to rampant noise pollution in the oceans. Contributors are the babble of engines from industrial vessels, air guns used in oil and gas exploration and sonar impulses used for a variety of purposes. Whales are more susceptible to interference from sound than are many other mammals because of their heavy reliance on it for primary activities like feeding, communication, navigation and nursing.

"Ocean noise pollution is akin to humans living in a world of increasing smog," said Dr. Lindy Weilgart, a bioacoustician who studies whales and sound at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. "The windows of opportunity in which whales can communicate with a specific group member or find prey are increasingly limited because of noise pollution," Dr. Weilgart said. "And most whales are endangered and having a hard time anyway."

The Navy's Surtass plan is opposed by advocacy groups like the Natural Resources Defense Council, which pressed the Navy to show how its project would affect the environment. Because of a dearth of data, the Navy began research on low- frequency sonar's effect on large whales, which communicate at that level. The marine fisheries service is using the data in reviewing the Navy's permit request and will accept public comments until May 18.

Dr. Christopher W. Clark, director of bioacoustics research at Cornell and one of the main investigators for the Navy's Surtass research, said that one phase of that program tried to find out the effects of exposure to sonar levels higher than 120 decibels, a level that certain whales have been observed to avoid.

About 200 miles off San Diego, where blue whales and fin whales feed, the Navy tested its sonar in the summer and early fall of 1997 and found that whales showed no reaction at 150 decibels. "That was encouraging and even surprising," Dr. Clark said. "We had all predicted that by 140 for sure you'd see a reaction." Because of bad weather, no higher levels were tested.

But Mr. Balcomb noted that the Navy was proposing using even higher levels around the whales, and he said the Navy had not studied enough species. "They used only low-frequency communicators because that's what they thought would be affected," he said. "My point on resonance is that its effects have nothing to do with hearing."

Dr. Weilgart said that the Navy should instead be looking at data on strandings that correlate with nearby military operations using sonar.

The Navy and regulators from the marine fisheries service who are reviewing the permit proposal say the two sonar systems, low- and mid- level frequency, are so different that it is entirely unfair to link the two.

The midlevel, non-Surtass sonar implicated in the Bahamas strandings can be heard over short distances by many marine mammals, particularly smaller ones. The low- frequency sonar proposed in Surtass, on the other hand, is audible over hundreds of miles to far fewer animals and is emitted at the same frequency used by large whales like the famous singing humpback.

But Mr. Balcomb, in whose back yard this all began, holds fast to his claim that what caused the hemorrhaging in the Bahamas whales was not sound's effect on the whales' hearing but on resonance effects in their air cavities. In a recent letter to the Navy, Mr. Balcomb used calculations by the Navy's own physicists to show that both low and middle frequencies can create resonance effects in whales' air cavities. He surmised that low-frequency sonar could cause the same injuries probably caused by the midlevel sonar during the Bahamas strandings.

Mr. Balcomb also said that the visible damage of last spring was only part of the picture. None of the 50 Cuvier's beaked whales that frequented the Bahamas year round have been seen since the strandings. He presumes that all had died.

---

Friends, family bid farewell to crash victims

USA Today
04/10/2001 - Updated 08:24 AM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/world/2001-04-10-vietnam.htm

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - Officials and relatives paid grief-stricken final farewells Tuesday to eight Vietnamese killed in the crash of a helicopter carrying a team searching for Americans still missing from the Vietnam War.

The eight military officers were among nine Vietnamese and seven Americans who died in the crash Saturday while preparing for excavations in the search for 1,992 Americans still listed as missing in action.

"It's with great sorrow that I'm here," U.S. Ambassador Pete Peterson told the memorial service. "We deeply share the loss of our Vietnamese friends who perished, and feel their loss as deeply as we feel our own."

Eight flag-draped coffins were laid in a row in a giant hall at a military airport on the outskirts of Hanoi that was frequently bombed by American planes during the war.

Dressed in white smocks with traditional mourning bands tied around their heads, weeping family members and friends filed through the hall as wails of grief punctuated the incense-filled room.

A separate memorial service was to be held Tuesday for Nguyen Thanh Ha, deputy director of Vietnam's MIA search group, known as the Vietnamese Office for Seeking Missing Persons.

The bodies of the seven Americans were to be flown to Hawaii later in the week.

The Russian-made MI-17 helicopter crashed Saturday into a fog-covered mountainside in central Quang Binh province, just outside the village of Thanh Trach, about 250 miles south of Hanoi. The cause of the crash has still not been determined.

Among the Americans killed was Lt. Col. George D. "Marty" Martin III, 40, of Hopkins, S.C., who was to take over command of the Hanoi detachment of the Hawaii-based MIA task force in July.

The other American victims were the unit's current commander, Army Lt. Col. Rennie Cory Jr., 43, of Fayetteville, N.C., Air Force Maj. Charles E. Lewis of Las Cruces, N.M.; Master Sgt. Steven L. Moser of San Diego; Tech. Sgt. Robert M. Flynn of Huntsville, Ala.; Navy Chief Petty Officer Pedro Juan Gonzalez of Buckeye, Ariz; and Army Sgt. 1st Class Tommy James Murphy. Murphy was from Georgia but his hometown was unavailable.

The United States spends up to $6 million each year conducting MIA searches.

Since 1973, the remains of 591 American service members formerly listed as unaccounted for have been identified and returned to their families. There are 1,498 Americans still unaccounted for in Vietnam.

Saturday's fatalities were the task force's first in nine years of operation.

-------

U.S. Releases Names of Those Killed in Vietnam Crash

New York Times
April 10, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/10/world/10VIET.html

WASHINGTON, April 9 - The Pentagon today identified the seven American military personnel killed in a helicopter crash in Vietnam over the weekend while on a mission related to Americans missing in action from the Vietnam War.

They included the head of the federal government office that handles M.I.A. matters, who was due to finish his tour next week, and his replacement.

Nine Vietnamese were also killed in the April 7 crash of a Russian- made MI-17 helicopter in central Vietnam.

The American-Vietnamese team had been doing advance work for excavations to recover remains of some of the nearly 2,000 Americans still listed as missing in action from the Vietnam War, which ended in 1975.

The Army identified its dead as Lt. Col. Rennie Melville Cory Jr., of Oklahoma City, the head of the M.I.A. office; his replacement, Lt. Col. George D. Martin III of Hopkins, S.C.; and Sgt. First Class Tommy James Murphy of Georgia.

Sergeant Murphy's hometown was not available.

The Air Force's dead were identified as Maj. Charles E. Lewis of Las Cruces, N.M.; Master Sgt. Steven L. Moser of San Diego; and Tech. Sgt. Robert M. Flynn of Huntsville, Ala.

The sole Navy victim of the crash was Chief Petty Officer Pedro Juan Gonzalez of Buckeye, Ariz.

Since 1985, United States teams, with the support of their Vietnamese counterparts, have conducted investigations and excavations in Vietnam, and the remains of more than 600 Americans have been recovered and identified, the Air Force said.

A military panel will investigate the accident.

-------- OTHER

-------- alternative energy

Bush budget cuts solar, renewable energy programs

USA: April 10, 2001
Story by Tom Doggett
REUTERS
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10455

WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush yesterday proposed slashing more than $200 million from federal renewable energy and efficiency research programs, even as his administration said the United States needed to find ways to cope with an energy crisis.

Under the president's proposed fiscal 2002 budget, the Energy Department's core solar, wind and other renewable energy programs would be cut by more than half to $186 million from current spending levels of $376 million.

The department's efficiency research programs, which seek ways to reduce energy use, would be cut by $61 million to $795 million in the 2002 spending year that begins Oct. 1.

While Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said the U.S. is in its worst energy crisis since the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s, he justified the budget reductions by arguing the research programs have not produced results that could be applied in the marketplace.

"We decided it made little sense to continue forward with programs that have not helped us avert the energy crisis," he told reporters.

The funding reductions for renewables and energy efficiency programs are part of $500 million in overall cuts that would drop the Energy Department's budget to $19.2 billion.

Bush's budget assumes the federal government will raise $1.2 billion in bonus bids for oil and natural gas leases in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in 2004.

The White House proposes to spend that money on alternative energy programs over seven years. However, there is growing opposition in Congress to allowing drilling in the Arctic refuge for environmental reasons, so the money may never materialize.

The president's budget also proposes spending $150 million to develop less-polluting coal for fueling electric generating plants and would keep spending for nuclear power high.

Vice President Dick Cheney said on Sunday a special White House energy task force is considering the increased use of nuclear power, and he personally believes the United States needs to build more nuclear power plants. No utility has been issued a federal license to build a nuclear plant in two decades.

ENERGY RESEARCH CUTS OPPOSED

Renewable energy groups said the cuts will undermine efforts to boost energy supplies in the Western part of the United States, which has been hit with high electricity costs and in California by rolling blackouts.

"If not reversed by Congress, DOE's proposed cutbacks will seriously damage efforts to bring new clean energy supplies on-line to help solve the West's energy crisis," they said.

The Alliance to Save Energy contends that the programs under the administration's budget ax now save consumers more than $25 billion each year, lessen oil imports and prevent tons of pollution.

"Faced with sky-high heating bills, increased gasoline prices, and new prospects for electricity shortages, the nation needs to invest more heavily in energy efficiency, which remains the cheapest, quickest and cleanest way to lessen energy problems and extend energy supplies," said Alliance president David Nemtzow.

To boost U.S. electricity supplies, Bush's budget proposes expanding a tax credit for producing electricity from wind and other certain sources and applying it to more power plants.

The current 1.5-cent tax credit for each kilowatt-hour of electricity produced from wind, organic biomass material and poultry waste would be extended for three more years to power plants built through 2004.

In addition, eligible biomass would be expanded to include forest-related and agricultural sources.

Bush also proposed a new tax credit of up to $2,000 for individuals purchasing solar energy equipment to generate electricity or heat water in homes.

The administration also wants to increase funding by $120 million for the federal weatherization program, which helps low-income families make homes more energy-efficient.

Congress will spend the next few months finalizing a spending plan for the federal government for fiscal 2002.

----

Bush budget seeks to expand electricity tax credit

USA: April 10, 2001
REUTERS
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10465

WASHINGTON - To increase U.S. electricity supplies, President George W. Bush proposed yesterday expanding a tax credit for producing electricity from wind and other certain energy sources, and applying it to more power plants.

Currently, firms receive a 1.5-cent tax credit for each kilowatt-hour of electricity produced from wind, organic biomass material and poultry waste.

To qualify for the credit, the electricity must be sold to an unrelated third party and must be produced for 10 years at a plant that went into serve before January 2002.

In his 2002 budget submitted to Congress, Bush wants to extend the credit to power plants in service by January 2005.

In addition, eligible biomass would be expanded to include forest-related and agricultural sources.

However, electricity produced from the new biomass sources would be eligible for the credit only from January 2002 through 2004, and a rate equal to 60 percent of the tax credit.

Electricity produced from the new biomass sources that are co-fired in coal plants would also be eligible for the credit only from 2002 through 2004, but at a rate equal to 30 percent of the tax credit.

----

Toyota plans summer roll-out of fuel-cell test car

JAPAN: April 10, 2001
Story by Edmund Klamann
REUTERS
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10456

TOKYO - Toyota Motor Corp, Japan's biggest automaker, said yesterday it aims to roll out for a test drive this summer a prototype of a new zero-emission vehicle powered by a fuel cell and a battery.

The public debut would follow closely on the heels of a joint road test in February of a fuel cell car by the Japanese unit of DaimlerChrysler AG and Mazda Motor Corp, an affiliate of Ford Motor Co

The latest version of Toyota's fuel cell hybrid car will be based on a five-passenger Highlander sport-utility vehicle and run primarily on a fuel cell producing 90 kilowatts of power, compared with 25 kW in the previous version unveiled in 1997 and 65 kW for the Mazda-tested vehicle.

Despite a slew of unresolved technical problems, Toyota was upbeat on the outlook for fuel cell cars, which use hydrogen as fuel to produce electricity and are widely considered the most promising low-or no-pollution replacement for the internal combustion engine.

"We might be able to get fuel-cell cars sooner than many are expecting," Toyota Managing Director Hiroyuki Watanabe told a briefing for reporters.

Asked if fuel cells were at a technical turning point, however, Watanabe noted that a number of issues, including cost, safety and reliability, need to be addressed before fuel cell vehicles become a common sight on the world's roads - considered unlikely until 2010 or later.

TECHNICAL TURNING POINT

Spurring the development of fuel cells are requirements by the State of California that automakers begin introducing zero-and low-emission vehicles over the next decade, with emission control standards expected to tighten globally as well.

Watanabe's optimism was based in part on the success of Toyota's Prius hybrid electric vehicle, which combines a gasoline engine with an electric motor to achieve nearly double the fuel efficiency of a conventional gasoline-engine vehicle.

Toyota has sold more than 50,000 of the cars since their November 1997 launch, exceeding initial expectations, he said.

The fuel cell hybrid would essentially replace Prius's gasoline engine with fuel-cell power.

Watanabe also played down differences between DaimlerChrysler's fuel cell prototypes using methanol fuel, from which hydrogen is extracted, and Toyota's concept of using de-sulfurised gasoline, which would be more easily integrated with existing fuel distribution infrastructure.

"There will be various processes," Watanabe said, adding that the pursuit of several different options would help speed up the adoption of hydrogen fuel.

Potential advances on a number of technological fronts, such as the possibility of making hydrogen storage tanks for vehicles from carbon nanotubes - a material targeted by intensive research efforts due to its strength and light weight - could also alter the way fuel cell vehicles develop.

DaimlerChrysler, which is cooperating in fuel cell development with Ford, Mazda and Ballard Power Systems, said last month it would deliver thirty 200-kW fuel cell-powered buses to European bus operators beginning in 2002, although issues of cost, size and weight will substantially complicate the development of fuel cell passenger vehicles.

Shares in Toyota, which is collaborating with General Motors Corp on fuel cells, ended Monday trade down 1.86 percent at 4,220 yen, in line with a slump in the overall market. The shares have bounced from a 15-month low hit on January 11 of 3,370 yen.

-------- environment

Global warming could hit food production - FAO

ITALY: April 10, 2001
Planet Ark
Story by David Brough
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10462

The FAO agriculture committee report is available on the Internet at web site http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/MEETING/003/X9177e.HTM.

ROME - Global warming could lead to increased food production in rich temperate states and reduced output in poor tropical countries, a U.N. document ,said.

The document from the agriculture committee of the Rome-based United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation, dated late March, also said that climate change could lead to increased global insecurity and human population movements.

The FAO report predicted a migration of crops, animals and ecosystems, and a loss of biodiversity.

"Global impacts of climate change on food production and food security may include:...a potential net positive impact on production in developed temperate countries and a negative impact in tropical developing countries," it said, without giving figures.

"The losses (of production) associated with the background variability of climate are significantly higher than those associated with spectacular but localised weather-related disasters like cyclones and flooding," the report added.

It made no mention of the United States' decision on March 28 to abandon the 1997 Kyoto treaty to fight global warming.

Strong protest from around the world has greeted President George W. Bush's decision to ditch the Kyoto agreement, which aims to slow global warming by committing countries to cut their emissions of a range of gases, including carbon dioxide.

Environmental activists say the United States has just six percent of the world's total population yet produces a quarter of the globe's greenhouse gases.

FAO has made no comment on the U.S. action.

CLIMATE CHANGE

The FAO agriculture committee, which includes U.N. member states and meets annually, said an average temperature increase of about two percent was "very probable to virtually certain" between now and 2100.

"This corresponds to a latitudinal shift of climates of about 200 km (about 125 miles) towards the poles," it said.

The report said global mean precipitation was expected to increase up to five percent between now and 2100, and that the turnover rate of water in the atmosphere would intensify due to higher temperatures.

The average sea level was expected to rise some 50 cm (20 inches) between now and 2100, the report added.

Agriculture is responsible for an estimated one third of global warming and climate change.

It is generally agreed that about 25 percent of the main greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, is produced by agricultural sources, mainly deforestation and the burning of biomass.

Most of the methane in the atmosphere comes from domestic ruminants, forest fires, wetland rice cultivation and waste products, while conventional tillage and fertilizer use account for 70 percent of the nitrous oxides.

---

MAKERS OF LEAD PAINT ARE SUED

New York Times
April 10, 2001
National Briefing
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/10/national/10BRFS.html

WISCONSIN: Lawyers for the City of Milwaukee sued two companies that manufactured lead pigments and paint, seeking to recover costs of cleaning up houses with lead-paint contamination. The defendants are NL Industries, formerly the National Lead Company, which produced lead pigments, and Mautz Paint, which made lead paint. In a statement, the city's lawyers estimated that 4 of every 10 children in areas that had required cleanup suffered from lead poisoning. John W. Fountain (NYT)

WASHINGTON

TEAMSTERS BACK REFUGE DRILLING President Bush's proposal to allow drilling for oil and gas in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has won the support of the Teamsters union. James P. Hoffa, the union's president, said drilling in the Alaska refuge would help stabilize the economy and create employment, including 25,000 Teamster jobs, at a time when the nation appears near recession. The proposal is one of the few offered by Mr. Bush that have been enthusiastically embraced by a union. Steven Greenhouse (NYT)

---

Environmental Policies

New York Times
April 10, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/10/opinion/L10ENVI.html

To the Editor:

The Bush administration can transform the current environmental debate (news article, April 7) by introducing principles that emphasize the positive linkages between economics, the environment and development. It should refocus environmental policy away from its concern with regulating negative outputs and toward improving the efficiency and productivity of energy and materials inputs.

Our international policy should also be redirected to reassert American leadership for technology development and transfer, the mobilization of private capital for environmental infrastructure and other joint undertakings with the modernizing countries of the developing world. Our policy should emphasize mutual benefits over penalties and sanctions and encourage environmental improvement without building in provisions that retard trade.

OWEN CYLKE Washington, April 7, 2001 The writer is a senior fellow, National Environmental Policy Institute.

---

FOOT-AND-MOUTH PRECAUTIONS

New York Times
April 10, 2001
Metro Briefing

ITHACA: Cornell University has decided to ban guest visits to two of its animal research centers because of widespread foot-and-mouth disease in Europe. The new plan permits visits to the dairy, beef and sheep units at the Teaching and Research Center and to the Swine Farm only by authorized university employees.

---

Prime minister: Britain still a joy to visit despite crisis

USA Today
04/10/2001 - Updated 03:20 AM ET
By Tony Blair
http://www.usatoday.com/news/comment/2001-04-10-ncguest2.htm

I have two messages about Britain: First, we are doing everything we can to contain and eliminate foot-and-mouth disease. Secondly, this outbreak, dreadful as it is for the farmers affected, has not closed Britain, and there is no danger to human health. Everyday life continues as normal for the overwhelming majority of our people - and our great tourist attractions are open for visitors.

This may be at odds with what you have seen or read. Pictures of slaughtered animals and funeral pyres have brought the tragedy of foot-and-mouth disease in Britain into homes worldwide.

These have been very difficult times for our livestock farmers, for the rural communities in areas where this disease has taken hold and for those who have been battling to eradicate this outbreak.

I don't use "battle" lightly. We are using a military-style operation to combat perhaps the most infectious of all animal diseases. It is like trying to track the common cold through the human population. We had to use very tough measures to try to stop the disease's spread so we eventually can stamp it out. We banned the movement of animals and are slaughtering infected livestock and those in nearby farms. This requires a major logistical operation to diagnose, slaughter and dispose of the animals.

There are some signs that these painful measures have begun to slow down the outbreak. But it is too early to say yet that we are over the worst or that the crisis for our farming industry is ending. We must, and will, ruthlessly take every step needed until this disease is eradicated from Britain.

I want to thank the United States for its sympathy and practical help. The expertise and hard work of veterinary surgeons who have come to Britain to help have enabled us to speed up the containment and eradication of this disease.

Media exaggerations

I am not going to downplay the gravity of the crisis for our livestock industry. Ever since the disease was first identified, it has been on top of my agenda - and the whole British government's. But while the TV pictures have brought home to foreign audiences the despair of affected farmers and the tough measures needed, they may inadvertently have exaggerated the impact on everyday life in our country.

While we have now identified more than 1,000 farms with the infection, this is out of 160,000 livestock farms. More than half of these cases are clustered in one part of the country. The vast majority of the country remains disease-free. For instance, there has been only one case - right at the outbreak's beginning - in Northern Ireland. There have been no cases at all within 40 miles of Edinburgh, let alone in the Highlands of Scotland further north. The beautiful counties of Suffolk and Norfolk in England and Pembrokeshire in Wales, for example, have not had a single case. It would be difficult for visitors to our cities to be aware, unless they read a newspaper or listened to the news, that the disease had been found in Britain at all.

False rumors

And, turning to some of the more extreme myths about life in Britain at the moment, that is exactly what they are - myths. There is no shortage of food. The water is perfectly safe to drink. Britain is not covered in funeral pyres. Everyday life goes on as normal for the vast majority of Britons - and visitors.

The latest survey found that 80% of our top 15,000 tourist attractions are open, and more are reopening all of the time. Stonehenge, a must-see sight for many Americans, is reopening today. More than nine out of 10 events are going ahead as planned. Even in areas where the disease's hold is strongest, villages and towns are open for business, as are many visitor attractions. From the Tower of London to Edinburgh Castle, from Lands End to John O'Groats, from Shakespeare country to historic York, visitors are welcome. You can travel by car everywhere, and there are plenty of places to walk.

There are, of course, some restrictions. Many footpaths in rural areas remain closed. That's because, although there is no danger to humans from the disease, close contact with infected animals may help spread it to other livestock. But I am sure visitors will have a wonderful time in the countryside.

There are already many Americans enjoying a visit to Britain. We look forward to welcoming many more of you soon.

Tony Blair is the British prime minister.

---

Germans snub beef for ostrich amid food scares

USA Today
04/10/2001 - Updated 01:33 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/world/2001-04-10-ostrich.htm

BERLIN (AP) - Those seeking real German cuisine in Berlin flock to the Staendige Vertretung restaurant, where they can dine on Sauerbraten or the specialty pickled pork knuckles and slosh it down with a light Koelsch beer.

But a rarer beast on the menu is growing in popularity: ostrich.

With consumers scared by mad cow disease and Europe's food crises, German chefs are choosing the big bird as an alternative to beef and traditional meats, stocking menus with tender ostrich steak, ostrich goulash and spaghetti with ostrich sauce.

"When I had it on the menu 10 years ago, it was really avant garde," said Friedel Drautzburg, owner of the riverside restaurant in the heart of Berlin. "Today, there's a real trend toward eating more ostrich."

Since the first case of mad cow disease - the common name for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE - was detected in Germany last November, beef consumption has dropped by 70%.

Although it's begun a gradual recovery, the market is still at only 50% of its pre-mad cow figure, said Dietmar Weiss, head of the department of livestock and meat at ZMP, an organization that reports on the food industry.

Across Europe, lower beef consumption has fostered a taste for alternative meats. Demand for reindeer is up in Sweden, while Italians have been making horse meat and lamb more popular.

In Germany, the trendy non-beef meat of choice is ostrich, which tastes like a mixture of venison, poultry and beef. It's grown so popular here that ostrich importers say they can't get enough.

"Demand for ostrich has increased and we would import more if we could, but unfortunately, it's not available," said Andrea Teinemann, a sales assistant at Schloss Goehrde Tiefkuehl Produktion, a company that imports ostrich from South Africa. The company imports 25% more ostrich meat today than it did three months ago, she said.

Alexander Frank, a purchaser at Berlin's world-famous KaDeWe department store, said demand for ostrich meat has increased between 60 and 70% since November. At KaDeWe, ostrich meat costs $10.50 a pound, considerably more than beef steak at $6 a pound or pork fillet at $5.50 a pound.

The general trend is still toward people eating more conventional beef alternatives such as poultry, fish and pork, according to Mark Schnerr, spokesman for the German Hotels and Restaurants Association.

And beef has never really disappeared from menus.

"People have been avoiding bloody steaks, but they have been much more willing to eat beef under any other name," said Bernd Matthies, who writes about gastronomy for the Berlin newspaper Tagesspiegel.

But many chefs see the current crisis as an opportunity for culinary creativity.

"This is a big chance for us to offer new things," said Herbert Beltle, the chef at Aigner, an upscale restaurant that specializes in German and Austrian cuisine.

Ostrich "doesn't just fill a gap. It's a real alternative," said restaurant owner Yves Risacher, who praises the bird's nutty flavor. He said as long as it remains readily available in Germany, it will become a permanent staple at his Risacher restaurant, which specializes in French and German cuisine.

It is even catching on in people's homes. Swantje Weber, a 31-year-old student who lives in Hanover, said she gave up beef after the BSE outbreak and began to eat ostrich more often, having first tasted it on vacation in South Africa. She now prepares ostrich about once a month.

"It's delicious and not too fatty," she said. "It was harder to find it in the stores before. I think it's easier to find now."

Risacher said the proof of the ostrich's popularity is on his customers' plates.

"So far, everyone who has ordered it has eaten it all," he said. "No one has left any food on his plate."

---

Time is frying

The Washington Times www.washtimes.com
House Editorial
Published 4/10/01
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20010410-88632308.htm

Throwing out every pretense of objective journalism, this week´s Time magazine features a 15-page "Special Report," on global warming.

In a level of hysteria greater than the rising waters predicted from global warming, the article pictures earth in a frying pan on the cover, and argues, "Except for nuclear war or a collision with an asteroid, no force has more potential to damage our planet´s web of life than global warming."

The article suggests that sea levels could rise up to three feet, and includes full-color maps showing sea-level rises of over 10 feet, just in case readers miss the point. Other predicted disasters include "Agriculture being thrown into turmoil," increases in cases of numerous tropical diseases such as malaria and dengue fever, and of course, "A rise in heat-related deaths."

According to Time, this is all settled science, "Scientists no longer doubt that global warming is happening, and almost nobody questions that humans are at least partially responsible." For authority, Time cites the wildly politicized United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Yet respectable scientists have questioned, and continue to question such work. James Hansen, one of the grandfathers of the global warming hypothesis admitted in an article to the National Academy of Sciences, "The forcings that drive long-term climate change - areosols, clouds, land-use patterns - are not known with an accuracy sufficient to define future climate change." Atmospheric scientist Fred Singer is even more direct, claiming, "the evidence against a warming trend is overwhelming." Moreover, climatology and atmospheric science are still, at best, poorly understood. Models of global warming are just that - hypothetical constructs with vast variabilties in predictions, simply because much of the data is so uncertain.

Not that this matters to Time. Instead, the article suggests that President Bush is governing like an "oil-patch President." It notes that governments around the world have condemned Mr. Bush´s announcement that Kyoto was dead as "uniformed and even reckless," even though virtually none of them have plans to implement its provisions. In what can only be seen as a punctuation point, Time notes that U.S. actions were called "irresponsible," by the foreign ministry of China.

Even more irresponsible is Time´s interactive environmental quiz which is featured on the article´s website. There lucky respondents can recycle Time´s tirade, and, if they answer enough of the questions correctly, they are said to be well on their way to becoming members of the Green Party, especially ironic considering that Ralph Nader´s raiders allegedly gave the presidency to Mr. Bush by taking votes from Mr. Gore in Florida.

Perhaps even environmental sins can be forgiven by ideologues sufficiently heated by global warming. The last page of Time´s issue features a special letter to the Mr. Bush, signed by such champions of the environment as Walter Cronkite, George Soros, Jimmy Carter and Mikhail Gorbachev, urging him to "develop a plan to reduce U.S. production of greenhouse gasses," for the sake of "the future of our children-and their children." If Mr. Bush is so concerned about passing hot air down to his decendants, he should instead suggest that they never buy another copy of Time.

---

Melting mad cows

The Washington Times www.washtimes.com
Published 4/10/01
Inside the Beltway
John McCaslin THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/inbeltway.htm

Have the cows gone mad? Are ice caps melting? Is a woman raped every nine seconds somewhere in America? Do little girls become women by age 8? Can Mozart raise your baby's IQ?

"If you answer yes to all of these questions, it means you've been listening to the media," say organizers of an upcoming National Press Club forum. "If you answer no to all of these questions, you've been listening to the experts."

Thus the topic of the forum: "Do the Media Have Foot in Mouth Disease?" hosted by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers and the Statistical Assessment Service.

And considering the many prophesied calamities we hear so much about in the news, the April 18 forum is past overdue. The panel, consisting of scientists and journalists alike, will examine why reporters tend to "add the numbers wrong" when writing about natural and social sciences, and what price society pays for media mistakes.

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EPA moves to block lawsuit over mercury

USA Today
04/10/2001 - Updated 11:42 PM ET
By Traci Watson, USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washdc/2001-04-11-epa-mercury.htm

The Bush administration has asked a federal court to uphold a Clinton plan to regulate mercury from coal-burning power plants, a form of pollution that causes neurological damage in as many as 60,000 babies a year.

The Environmental Protection Agency asked the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington on Monday to dismiss an industry lawsuit that challenges the agency's intention to order a reduction in mercury from power-plant smokestacks.

The EPA's move to block an industry lawsuit seems to indicate that, at the very least, it hasn't decided against keeping the Clinton plan for regulation. However, an EPA official downplayed the court motion as a "procedural filing."

Mercury can settle into lakes and oceans, where a toxic form can build up in fish. Pregnant women who eat mercury-tainted fish can give birth to babies with developmental damage.

The decision follows a string of moves by the Republican administration that environmentalists have criticized.

The Bush White House and the EPA have abandoned many of its Democratic predecessor's plans for stricter environmental protection. That has won praise from industry groups. Last month, Bush backed off a campaign pledge to limit the huge amounts of carbon dioxide put out by power plants.

The Bush administration has upheld other Clinton plans, such as those to regulate pesticides and diesel trucks. But Bush's reversal on carbon dioxide and his administration's close ties to the energy industry have raised doubts that the White House would favor the Clinton plans on mercury emissions.

The roughly one-third of U.S. mercury pollution put out by power plants is not regulated. Incinerators also produce mercury, but rules regulating those emissions are in place.

The Clinton EPA announced a plan in December to crack down on power-plant mercury, but it did not state how much utilities would have to reduce emissions.

One of the parties to the lawsuit, the Edison Electric Institute in Washington, D.C., said the industry opposes the form that regulations would take, rather than being regulated.

Environmentalists say they saw hope in the EPA request. "It's a signal from the administration itself that it is committed to controlling mercury from power plants," said Andrew Buchsbaum of the National Wildlife Federation, based in Reston, Va.

-------- imf / world bank

I.M.F. Will Re-examine Indonesia By MARK LANDLER

New York Times
April 10, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/10/business/10INDO.html

JAKARTA, Indonesia, April 9 - When a team from the International Monetary Fund lands here on Wednesday, the sense of being in Indonesia may seem eerily familiar.

Indonesia's currency is tumbling, the economy is weakening, political instability is roiling the country, and the government is torn between a need for the fund's money and resentment at the strings attached.

Much has changed since the turbulent days of the Asian financial crisis, when a desperate Indonesia initially turned to the fund for help. But as the I.M.F. makes its first visit to the country since last fall, analysts here say Indonesia stands at yet another perilous crossroads.

With economic growth slowing and the rupiah down 15 percent since the beginning of the year, Jakarta's budget deficit has soared. That could be a hurdle to releasing $400 million in loans that the fund held up last year because of its unhappiness with the pace of Indonesia's economic reforms.

"Some tough issues have been resolved," said Mark Baird, the country director for the World Bank. "But the I.M.F. faces new problems, such as the looming budget deficit, which need to be resolved quickly."

Mr. Baird said resumption of the fund's loans was critical because it would unlock billions of dollars in fresh financing from the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Japanese government and other creditors.

It would also be a powerful stamp of approval on Indonesia's handling of the economy, which could lure back foreign investors and take pressure off the rupiah. The currency has been sapped by concerns over the fate of President Abdurrahman Wahid, who faces impeachment by the Indonesian Parliament.

Adding to the jitters was a decision by Exxon Mobil last month to halt operations at a huge natural gas field in Aceh, a restive province in North Sumatra, after repeated attacks on its employees by armed bands. The shutdown is costing the government $100 million a month.

"On a cash-flow basis, a $400 million loan is not that big a deal," said James W. Castle, a consultant with the Castle Group here. "But if they don't get the $400 million this quarter, they won't get the $400 million next quarter. And pretty soon you're talking about real money."

The $400 million is part of a $15 billion loan package for Indonesia, of which $11 billion has been disbursed. Among its reasons for halting the loans, the I.M.F. cited concerns about the independence of the central bank and the government's faltering overhaul of the banking system.

Indonesia has taken steps to mollify the fund on both counts. Officials said today that the government had accepted the results of an independent panel that reviewed proposed changes in a law governing the central bank.

The I.M.F. urged the review after it became worried that the law was intended to erode the bank's independence. President Wahid has tried without success to oust the governor of the bank, Syahril Sabirin.

The Indonesian Bank Restructuring Authority, the state agency in charge of cleaning up debt-ridden banks and companies, also agreed to adopt guidelines developed by the fund. The I.B.R.A., as the authority is known, has been accused of favoring politically connected businesspeople in selling off assets.

The guidelines aim to make the sale of assets more open. To guarantee that bankrupt companies are not simply sold back to their previous owners at fire-sale prices, the owners would be limited to minority stakes.

"The new principles are an important step forward," Mr. Baird said. "They give I.B.R.A. a clear framework to make decisions, and should help protect it from political pressures afterward."

For a government that has often been at odds with the I.M.F., these are not empty gestures. Despite the sometimes combative comments of Indonesia's chief economics minister, Rizal Ramli, analysts said Jakarta's relationship with the fund was healthier than it had been for a while.

Tackling the deficit will be a bigger problem. The government has been whipsawed by the weak rupiah, which has driven up interest rates, as well as a slowdown in exports because of the slack global economy.

The deficit for 2001 was projected to be roughly $5 billion. But that was based on an exchange rate of 7,800 rupiah to the United States dollar. The currency now trades at almost 11,000 rupiah to the dollar. As a result, the World Bank estimates the deficit could grow to more than $8 billion.

Unless Indonesia can present a credible plan to close that gap, analysts said, it will be difficult for the I.M.F. delegation to recommend to its board in Washington that it turn on the tap. "The government and the fund both have a stake in resolving this," Mr. Baird said.

-------- police

New Pressures on Justice Verniero

New York Times
April 10, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/10/opinion/10TUE3.html

Many of New Jersey's most powerful politicians have now demanded the resignation of Justice Peter Verniero from the State Supreme Court. They want him to resign because of what they regard as misleading testimony about his lamentable record on racial profiling when he served as the state attorney general. Even Acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco, a fellow Republican and former supporter, announced last week that he had given the justice "every benefit of the doubt" before adding his voice to the chorus of critics.

Justice Verniero should heed these calls as quickly as possible. His swift departure from the court would send an important signal that an attorney general who ignored evidence of racial profiling has not found sanctuary in the state's judiciary. Racial profiling by New Jersey state troopers - under which officers stop and search black and Hispanic drivers at disproportionately high rates - has caused deep concern beyond the state's borders. Over the weekend, groups representing black and Hispanic New York City police officers traveled to New Jersey to demand Justice Verniero's resignation.

The most galling issue for many of New Jersey's Republican state senators, including the acting governor, who also serves as Senate president, is Justice Verniero's testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee at his confirmation hearings in 1999. At one point he swore that he did not receive reliable evidence of racial profiling until 1999, about the same time he was nominated to the court. However, some documents reviewed by the committee in recent months demonstrate that the hugely disparate stop-and-search rates for whites and nonwhites were available to him as early as 1997.

Through his lawyer, Justice Verniero maintains that he has testified truthfully to the committee - both in 1999 and again last month. But at last month's appearance he failed repeatedly to recall details of his stewardship as the state's chief law enforcement officer, sidestepping literally hundreds of questions throughout the day. The justice has also refused to return to the committee for a third round of questions on some of the thousands of documents cataloguing his mishandling of the racial profiling question.

Despite the growing record of his mistakes as attorney general, Justice Verniero insists that he will not resign. His resistance has provoked calls for impeachment, and the acting governor could ask for censure. A better way to maintain confidence in the state's judiciary would be for Justice Verniero to step down immediately.

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Testimony Points to Continuing Bias on the Turnpike

New York Times
April 10, 2001
By LAURA MANSNERUS
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/10/nyregion/10TROO.html

TRENTON, April 9 - A New Jersey state trooper told a State Senate committee today that racism pervades the upper ranks of the state police and persists in troopers' conduct on the road despite years of federal oversight and new operating procedures. "There are a lot who feel that people of color or Hispanics are the ones likely to be carrying drugs," said Sgt. Vincent Bellaran, who won a bias suit against the agency and is pursuing another case charging that superiors then retaliated against him.

Testifying that many stops and searches are simply not reported, Sergeant Bellaran told the Senate Judiciary Committee, "Not one person has been brought to this table to answer for any of this."

The sergeant's testimony and several accounts from motorists who said that they were mistreated by state troopers signaled a turn in the committee's hearings as they entered a fourth week. The committee, which is investigating discriminatory law enforcement patterns in traffic stops and searches, focused until today on the state's former attorney general, Peter G. Verniero, and on the events up to the time he acknowledged the problem in 1999.

And until now, discussion of the findings of discrimination had been overtaken by calls for Mr. Verniero's resignation as a State Supreme Court justice - a position his adversaries say he won on the basis of misleading testimony about his response to racial profiling when he was the state's top law enforcement officer.

Justice Verniero has turned aside all requests to step down, including calls last week from the entire Judiciary Committee and from Acting Gov. Donald T. DiFrancesco.

Sergeant Bellaran, who identified himself as Puerto Rican and Filipino, said today that minority troopers were effectively closed out of the force's upper ranks. "You are not allowed to live together in this organization," he said. "You are separated. You are humiliated and belittled. You are not one of them."

Sergeant Bellaran, a trooper for 24 years, with all but eight months of that time on road duty, filed a discrimination lawsuit in his own behalf in 1991, also complaining that white officers who had made racist remarks were never disciplined.

In his testimony today, the sergeant recalled one white trooper's wielding a Bible "and explaining his job was to teach black people a lesson."

He said the state police superintendent, Col. Carson Dunbar, who is black, had done little toward solving racial problems within the agency or in its treatment of minority motorists.

Colonel Dunbar is scheduled to testify on Tuesday. He appeared before the committee last week but was asked today to return.

Sergeant Bellaran was followed by two lawyers, one of whom is black, who had been pulled over by state troopers on the New Jersey Turnpike, and by the brother of a man fighting marijuana possession charges brought after he was stopped and searched.

The two lawyers, Lalia Maher and Felix Morka, said they were driving to New York after a professional conference in 1996 and were pulled from their car, shaken and verbally abused. Ms. Maher said an officer pointed a gun at her head. "They didn't tell us at any point why we were stopped," she said, although Mr. Morka was given a speeding ticket.

When they filed a complaint, Ms. Maher and Mr. Morka said, they were told that it could not be substantiated. They filed a lawsuit in State Superior Court in Trenton that they are now trying to have certified as a class action.

The Judiciary Committee heard testimony tonight from two lawyers from the Garden State Bar Association, a black lawyers group. Ronald Thompson, the organization's president, and Regina Waynes Joseph urged more legislative attention to what Mr. Thompson called "this racial tax."

The latest figures on turnpike stops and searches, released by Attorney General John J. Farmer Jr. in his appearance before the committee last week, show that disparate patterns - almost three in four people searched by troopers are black or Hispanic - continue with little improvement from the time Mr. Verniero issued his report on racial profiling two years ago.

The hearings are to resume Tuesday.

---

A Diverse Police Force

New York Times
April 10, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/10/opinion/L10POLI.html

To the Editor:

Re "Diversity and the Police" (editorial, April 5): The discussion of the need to diversify New York City's police force and its leadership is really about providing an affirmative opportunity for all.

We need a police force that reflects the city's population because that will result in better policing and safer cities. And we need to demonstrate through one of the most visible institutions in our city that inclusion can be practiced and that it works.

One way to build a more diverse police force is through ongoing programs that involve community law enforcement with inner-city youth. When young people of all races again view law enforcement with respect, they will be more likely to choose a career in police work.

MARYANN B. COFFEY New York, April 5, 2001 The writer is the executive director, greater New York region, National Conference for Community and Justice.

-------- spying

U.S. Shies Away From Threats in Plane Standoff With China

New York Times
April 10, 2001
By DAVID E. SANGER
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/10/world/10PLAN.html

WASHINGTON, April 9 - President Bush's senior advisers have concluded for now that the most severe acts of retaliation they could threaten in the spy-plane standoff with China - selling advanced arms to Taiwan, restricting trade, derailing Beijing's bid for the Olympics - would not speed the release of the 24 American crew members and could harm longer-term interests in Asia, administration officials said.

One official involved in the first review of those options said today that "it became clear how little room for maneuver either side has" in a relationship that is "this interdependent and complex."

The official acknowledged that the administration is under growing pressure from conservatives in Congress to threaten stronger action, but has also been warned by business executives to assess any boomerang effects on the American economy before threatening trade sanctions.

The absence of palatable options explains why Mr. Bush has issued only the blandest warnings to the Chinese about the diplomatic and economic risks they run in continuing to hold the Americans.

The president issued two general warnings early last week, followed by far more conciliatory expressions of regret for the loss of their fighter pilot in the collision over the South China Sea. The American plane landed on Hainan island after the collision, which occurred on April 1.

Today, Mr. Bush issued only the briefest of comments, saying each day the crew is held would "increase the potential that our relations with China could be damaged."

But his spokesman, Ari Fleischer, was pressed on how relations might be damaged. He retreated into ambiguity, and noted that two weeks ago, before the collision, Mr. Bush met in the Oval Office with Deputy Prime Minister Qian Qichen and talked about ways the countries could work together. "Much of the good they talked about can go wrong, or will go wrong," if the standoff continues, Mr. Fleischer said.

But American officials acknowledge that neither side has much room to inflict harm on the other, unless they are willing to make major diplomatic and economic sacrifices.

"The reality is that the Chinese hold the short-term tactical cards, because they have the crew, and we hold the long-term strategic cards," said one senior diplomat. "And both sides are using those to circle the other" as the talks drag on.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell put in play the mildest of sanctions on Sunday, when he seemed to suggest that Mr. Bush might cancel a state visit to Beijing after he attends the annual summit meeting of Asian- Pacific leaders in October, which was scheduled long ago for Shanghai.

"The whole environment is at some risk right now," he said.

And this afternoon, Senator Robert G. Torricelli, Democrat of New Jersey and a long-time supporter of selling arms to Taiwan, said, "Soon it will become questionable whether it is appropriate to have both an ambassador and hostages in the same country."

Mr. Torricelli and other members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee had held their tongues until now, after General Powell asked them last week to let the administration continue to seek diplomatic solutions.

But General Powell conceded then that if the crew remained in China a second week, it would be more difficult to keep members of Congress from publicly pressing for harsher steps.

Two White House officials tonight dismissed the idea of recalling the ambassador to China, Adm. Joseph W. Prueher, for consultations. One noted that because he is a former commander of military forces in the Pacific, "he's the only one we have whom the Chinese military really respects."

Administration officials involved in the internal conversations about the standoff say, for example, that the United States probably does not have the clout with the International Olympics Committee to derail China's bid for the 2008 Games - even if the Bush administration determined that was a wise course. There has been no public discussion of a possible American boycott of the Games if they are indeed held in Beijing.

Similarly, any threat to delay China's entry into the World Trade Organization, while perhaps satisfying to critics who argue Congress should never have agreed to China's admission, could work to China's short- term advantage.

Ever since Congress acted to grant China permanent normal trade relations - which takes effect only after China is admitted to the trade body - Beijing itself has dragged out talks with the W.T.O. about the specifics of its admission. China must still reconcile differences in individual agreements it has made with members of the organization, a time-consuming process.

Each year that its admission is delayed is another year that China can delay opening its markets to foreign competition, giving its state- run companies more time to adjust.

Experts on Chinese trade, including Nicholas Lardy of the Brookings Institution, have noted that a delay in opening China's market might be welcomed by many Chinese officials. "They might not be heartbroken," Mr. Lardy said.

One American diplomat drawn into the debate about possible sanctions because of his long exerience in dealing with China concluded, "We'd be hurting American carmakers and banks and workers as much as we'd be hurting the Chinese."

And the option many in Congress are clamoring for - selling Taiwan advanced arms and destroyers equipped with the Aegis radar system - also has its drawbacks.

"Look, if we have a bad relationship with China, does it make sense to sell more weapons to Taiwan?" asked one senior Bush administration official. "That would be ridiculous - almost as ridiculous as the converse, that if we have good relations with China, we should starve the Taiwanese of what they need."

In fact, officials say, before the collision, the administration was leaning toward selling Taiwan Kidd- class destroyers, which have less capable weapon systems than the Aegis, and deferring any decision on the Aegis system, which the Chinese say they would attempt to overwhelm with more weaponry of their own.

Under that plan, the destroyers and the Aegis systems would be ordered for the United States Navy - with the understanding that they could be transferred to Taiwan. But even if that was Mr. Bush's intent last month, if he pursues that track he could be accused by pro-Taiwan lawmakers of watering down the sale in order to appease the Chinese and get the crew members back.

"Beijing has made it impossible for the Bush administration, no matter what it decides," Senator Torricelli said in an interview today. "They cannot appear to have compromised on their previous intentions. In fact, every day that passes in this will make it harder not to do the sale of the Aegis destroyers. The only one who has benefited is the Taiwan military."

In the State Department, however, officials are worried that administration action could box in China's president, Jiang Zemin. "What happens to Jiang, and our hopes for avoiding a hard-line successor, if he lets the crew go and then we turn around and sell more gear to Taiwan?" one senior administration official said.

While the official debate continued, American officials exacted Washington's strongest form of social revenge this evening. The Chinese embassy had long ago invited Secretary Powell, diplomats and members of Congress to a party welcoming Yang Jiechi as the new Chinese ambassador to Washington. Mr. Powell did not attend, and neither did any other senior administration officials.

"We're all very, very busy," one senior diplomat said tonight.

---

Many Voices for Beijing

New York Times
April 10, 2001
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/10/world/10BEIJ.html

BEIJING, April 9 - Zhang Yin, an elderly newsstand owner, recalled a song from the Korean War to explain his feelings about the current crisis with the United States: "When friends come, we have good wine to entertain them; but if jackals and wolves come, we'll use hunting rifles to shoot them," he sang, adding, "I have good feeling for the American people, but China should have shot the plane down!"

The streets of Beijing are filled with Mr. Zhangs, which helps explain why the negotiations with the Chinese to free the 24 crew members of the grounded American spy plane are going so slowly.

Although China remains a Communist Party dictatorship, it is no longer headed by a charismatic figure like Mao Zedong or Deng Xiaoping, someone who has the authority to arbitrate disputes in the leadership or personally set the country's course. Now, its leaders must cater to a range of constituencies, from government ministries to citizens like Mr. Zhang. And, increasingly, public opinion matters.

What is obviously smart for the pursuit of smooth relations with Washington is often not fit for domestic consumption in a country where some high officials are still ambivalent about China's dance with the West, and where anti-Americanism is now running high.

"Jiang Zemin has very diverse constituencies, and they all have to be brought on board, both in the bureaucracy and in the public," said Anthony Saich, a China specialist at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Unlike the American president - who has broad leeway to act unilaterally in such cases - President Jiang heads an unwieldy bureaucracy and must build a mandate anew on every important decision.

"I don't think anyone in China - including Jiang Zemin - could have made a prompt decision that Bush asked for to let the crew go," a Chinese political scientist said.

In this case, building a consensus would have been particularly delicate, he said, since it would involve the military, which remains strongly suspicious of American motives and was recently stung by the defection of a senior Chinese Army officer to the United States.

The Chinese military is deeply conservative, and some officers probably would not mind undermining some of Mr. Jiang's goals - like joining the World Trade Organization, which they worry will court social unrest and enhance Western influence. Sunday's Liberation Army Daily said China had the right to "investigate thoroughly" the commanders of the American aircraft.

And right now Mr. Jiang is likely to care - a lot - about what the military thinks. Next year he is scheduled to step down as Communist Party chief, and the year after that his term as president ends. But he is likely to try to retain his position as chairman of the Central Military Commission, which oversees the People's Liberation Army and would allow him to retain a large measure of power.

"A lot of P.L.A. commanders will be thinking, `If we're not tough on this issue, when will we be?' " said a researcher at a government think tank. "A Chinese plane crashed, the pilot is missing, and the people expect the government to do something."

Among ordinary Chinese, there has not been a raw emotional outpouring as there was during the period that led to stone-throwing protests after NATO planes bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade in 1999. But most people were nonetheless angry about the American spying, grieved by the death of a pilot, and frustrated by President Bush's unwillingness to apologize.

At the root of their complaints was a sense of wounded national pride - that China has suffered at the hands of foreigners before and is not prepared to suffer again. In one opinion poll on the Chinese Internet - always a hotbed of nationalist sentiment, 13,000 of 15,000 net surfers said the collision was the result of a "deliberate provocation."

During the Maoist era, from the 1950's into the 70's, China's people - then mostly isolated farmers - yielded to Mao's disastrous social and economic policies, even though those led to millions of deaths.

But today, the average Chinese is plugged in, quickly receiving and passing on information by phone if not on the Internet. Protests against government policy are frequent and widespread. And while voting is only possible in local elections, the increasingly loud voices of the people weigh heavily on national leaders.

"China has changed, and politicians are far more accountable," Professor Saich said. "There is definitely public opinion now. It forms, and it becomes part of the political debate."

Last week, for instance, the more xenophobic branches of the government were probably strengthened by the public anger over the air collision, he said.

"I think the government got tougher with the United States as the week went on partly because of popular feedback that it wasn't being tough enough," said Jian Yi, a student. "People's first reaction was that the plane was brought down by the United States on our doorstep - that's pretty hard for people to take."

Mr. Jian said the downing of the plane tapped unquenched anger over the Chinese Embassy bombing two years ago, which he said the United States, while insisting it was an accident, had never adequately explained.

"I know that in the United States there is a feeling that the Chinese government is taking a hard line on the plane," he said, "but we as students sometimes feel that in the last few years China's been making too many concessions - that the government's primary foreign policy goal has been good relations with the United States."

---

The Two Wangs

New York Times
April 10, 2001
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/10/opinion/10FRIE.html

It is ironic, to say the least, that the crisis in U.S.-China relations, sparked by the bumping airplanes, coincided with the entry into the N.B.A. of the first Chinese basketball player. The 7-foot-1-inch center, Wang Zhizhi, the star of the Chinese Army basketball team, joined the Dallas Mavericks the same week that a Chinese Army pilot, Wang Wei, lost his life going one-on-one with a U.S. EP-3E surveillance plane off the coast of China. While Wang Wei's widow is furious with America, Wang Zhizhi couldn't be happier: "I feel very calm because finally I can play in the N.B.A.," he said.

I asked David Stern, the N.B.A. commissioner, whether he saw any parallels between Wang's adjustment to the N.B.A. and the China-U.S. plane tussle. Mr. Stern mulled that over for a moment and said: "You know, in Chinese basketball there is no such thing as illegal defense. In the N.B.A., there are strict guidelines against illegal defenses. How's that?"

That's pretty good, actually. Because what these two cases have in common is China being asked to adjust to new rules and forms of competition, set from abroad. Just as Wang Zhizhi is adjusting to playing in the big leagues of basketball, China's leaders are adjusting to the big leagues of geopolitics. And neither is easy. (I realize that basketball is not geopolitics, although if it were it might solve a few problems. Mr. Stern cited a poll that showed that 25 percent of Chinese youth owned at least one N.B.A.-logo item of clothing, and N.B.A. games are now shown on 10 different Chinese networks. In fact, 300 million Chinese watched Wang Zhizhi's first game with the Mavericks, carried live on Chinese TV.)

China, the country, is going through two transitions at once. At one level it is joining the global trading system, to an unprecedented degree, by becoming a member of the World Trade Organization. The W.T.O. is the N.B.A. of the global economy, and joining the W.T.O. is all about one thing: opening your economy to trade and investment from abroad, but under hard rules set by outsiders, which ban the arbitrary decision-making, intimidation of investors and favoritism for Chinese companies that have been the hallmark of Communist bureaucrats.

At the same time, China is going through the growing pains of becoming a great power. With each year the modernization of China's economy and military makes it a more important global actor. China wants to be acknowledged as such, and should be. But part of being a great power, at this moment in history, means taking responsibility for today's international system. And that means adjudicating disputes according to rules, not force. China is understandably aggrieved by the loss of its pilot. But demanding a U.S. apology before both sides have had a chance to properly gather all the facts is another way of saying the facts don't matter, that rules don't matter. All that matters is force.

"The world that we want to see evolve today is not a world of one, two or three contending powers, but rather a world governed by rules," argues Michael Mandelbaum, a foreign policy expert at Johns Hopkins. "That is already increasingly true in the world of economics, and what we hope is security affairs will eventually mirror that. The idea is not to end competition, which is enduring, but to regulate it. We want a world where countries apologize when they are wrong, but we don't want a world where countries are coerced to apologize when they are not wrong."

One of the great dramas of international affairs today, adds Mr. Mandelbaum, "is persuading the Chinese that they are better off following the rules than not." But that is still a work in progress. Because while China's growing economic and geopolitical stature push it to accept the rules of the game, its obsession with recovering Taiwan, and the regime's authoritarian character, push it toward acting with force. That's why China today seems as if it's half in the world system and half out.

That's also why how this crisis ends matters. It matters for U.S.- China relations; it matters for how China is perceived in the world; and it matters for what it will tell us about the balance inside China between those who want to live by global rules and those who want to shirk them. When Wang Zhizhi joined the big leagues, he left his local rules behind. Can China's leaders do the same?

---

Plane Crew Granted More Privileges

New York Times
April 10, 2001
By CRAIG S. SMITH with DAVID E. SANGER
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/10/world/10CND-PLANE.html

HAIKOU, China, April 10 - The United States Embassy's defense attache in China, Army Brig. Gen. Neal Sealock, met today for the fifth time with the American air crew members who have been detained for more than a week on Hainan island and reported afterwards that China was relaxing restrictions on them.

"Their spirits remain high," he said, "I don't know any other way to tell you that."

General Sealock, who met with the crew for 40 minutes at a low-security Chinese Navy hostel where they are apparently staying, told journalists afterwards that the Americans have been given more freedom to move around the hostel and are allowed to exercise.

"I can't say enough about the conditions that they're in," General Sealock said. "They're extremely good conditions, their spirits remain high, but they're ready to come home and we're ready to take them home."

He said he had delivered more e-mail messages forwarded from family members, "along with a few things," for the detained air crew

"The Chinese side, and, in fact, the folks that are with them provided some cigarettes for those who smoke, and they're getting just about everything that they need," General Sealock said.

The attaché's visit coincided with mildly positive signals from the Chinese government that negotiations between Beijing and Washington for the crew's release were making some progress.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Sun Yuxi, told reporters in the Chinese capital that comments over the weekend by Secretary of State Colin Powell, in which he said Washington was sorry for the fate of a Chinese fighter pilot missing since a collision with the American surveillance plane, was a step in the right direction.

President Bush's senior advisers have concluded for now that the most severe acts of retaliation they could threaten in the spy-plane standoff with China - selling highly advanced arms to Taiwan, restricting trade, derailing Beijing's bid for the Olympics - would not speed the release of the 24 American crew members and could harm longer-term interests in Asia, administration officials said.

One official involved in the first review of those options said Monday that "it became clear how little room for maneuver either side has" in a relationship that is "this interdependent and complex."

The official acknowledged that the administration is under growing pressure from conservatives in Congress to threaten stronger action, but has also been warned by business executives to assess any boomerang effects on the American economy before threatening trade sanctions.

The absence of palatable options explains why Mr. Bush has issued only the blandest warnings to the Chinese about the diplomatic and economic risks they run in continuing to hold the Americans.

Last week, President Bush issued two general warnings to the Chinese, followed by far more conciliatory expressions of regret for the loss of their fighter pilot in the collision over the South China Sea. The American place landed on Hainan island after the collision, which occurred on April 1.

Mr. Bush said Monday that each day the crew is held would "increase the potential that our relations with China could be damaged."

But his spokesman, Ari Fleischer, when pressed on how relations might be damaged, retreated into ambiguity, and noted that two weeks ago, before the collision, Mr. Bush met in the Oval Office with Deputy Prime Minister Qian Qichen and talked about ways the countries could work together. "Much of the good they talked about can go wrong, or will go wrong," if the standoff continues, Mr. Fleischer said.

American officials acknowledge that neither side had much room to inflict harm on the other, unless each was willing to make major diplomatic and economic sacrifices.

"The reality is that the Chinese hold the short-term tactical cards, because they have the crew, and we hold the long-term strategic cards," said one senior diplomat. "And both sides are using those to circle the other" as the talks drag on.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell put in play the mildest of sanctions on Sunday, when he seemed to suggest that Mr. Bush might cancel a state visit to Beijing after he attends the annual summit meeting of Asian-Pacific leaders in October, which was scheduled long ago for Shanghai.

"The whole environment is at some risk right now," he said.

And Monday afternoon, Senator Robert G. Torricelli, Democrat of New Jersey and a longtime supporter of selling arms to Taiwan, said, "Soon it will become questionable whether it is appropriate to have both an ambassador and hostages in the same country."

Mr. Torricelli and other members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee had held their tongues through the weekend, after General Powell asked them last week to give the administration a few more days to seek diplomatic solutions. But General Powell conceded then that if the crew remained in China a second week, it would be more difficult to keep members of Congress from publicly pressing for harsher steps.

Two White House officials dismissed on Monday night the idea of recalling the ambassador to China, Adm. Joseph W. Prueher, for consultations. One noted that because he is a former commander of military forces in the Pacific, "he's the only one we have whom the Chinese military really respects."

Administration officials involved in the internal conversations about the standoff say, for example, that the United States probably does not have the clout with the International Olympics Committee to derail China's bid for the 2008 Games - even if the Bush administration determined that was a wise course. There has been no public discussion of a possible American boycott of the Games if they are indeed held in Beijing.

Similarly, any threat to delay China's entry into the World Trade Organization, while perhaps satisfying to critics who argue Congress should never have agreed to China's admission, could work to China's short-term advantage.

Ever since Congress acted to grant China permanent normal trade relations - which takes effect only after China is admitted to the trade body - Beijing itself has dragged out talks with the W.T.O. about the specifics of its admission. China must still reconcile differences in individual agreements it has made with members of the organization, a time-consuming process.

Each year that its admission is delayed is another year that China can delay opening its markets to foreign competition, giving its state-run companies more time to adjust.

Experts on Chinese trade, including Nicholas Lardy of the Brookings Institution, have noted that a delay in opening China's market might be welcomed by many Chinese officials. "They might not be heartbroken," Mr. Lardy said.

One American diplomat drawn into the debate about possible sanctions because of his long experience in dealing with China concluded, "We'd be hurting American carmakers and banks and workers as much as we'd be hurting the Chinese."

And the option many in Congress are clamoring for - selling Taiwan advanced arms and destroyers equipped with the Aegis radar system - also has its drawbacks.

"Look, if we have a bad relationship with China, does it make sense to sell more weapons to Taiwan?" asked one senior Bush administration official. "That would be ridiculous - almost as ridiculous as the converse, that if we have good relations with China, we should starve the Taiwanese of what they need."

In fact, officials say, before the collision, the administration was leaning toward selling Taiwan Kidd-class destroyers, which have less capable weapon systems than the Aegis, and deferring any decision on the Aegis system, which the Chinese say they would attempt to overwhelm with more weaponry of their own.

Under that plan, the destroyers and the Aegis systems would be ordered for the United States Navy - with the understanding that they could be transferred to Taiwan. But even if that was Mr. Bush's intent last month, if he pursues that track he could be accused by pro-Taiwan lawmakers of watering down the sale in order to appease the Chinese and get the crew members back.

"Beijing has made it impossible for the Bush administration, no matter what it decides," Senator Torricelli said in an interview Monday. "They cannot appear to have compromised on their previous intentions. In fact, every day that passes in this will make it harder not to do the sale of the Aegis destroyers. The only one who has benefited is the Taiwan military."

In the State Department, however, officials are worried that administration action could box in China's president, Jiang Zemin. "What happens to Jiang, and our hopes for avoiding a hard-line successor, if he lets the crew go and then we turn around and sell more gear to Taiwan?" one senior administration official said.

While the official debate continued, American officials exacted Washington's strongest form of social revenge Monday evening. The Chinese Embassy had long ago invited Secretary Powell, diplomats and members of Congress to a party welcoming Yang Jiechi as the new Chinese ambassador to Washington. Mr. Powell did not attend, and neither did any other senior administration officials.

"We're all very, very busy," one senior diplomat said.

---

Bush: Talks with China could take time

USA Today
04/10/2001
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washdc/2001-04-10-bush-china.htm

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush counseled patience Tuesday in the standoff with China, but called the 10-day ordeal involving a captive spy plane's crew a "stalemate" that may not end soon. "Diplomacy sometimes takes a little longer than people would like," the president said during an Oval Office session with reporters. "I urge the Chinese to bring resolution to this issue. It's time for our people to come home. "This administration is doing everything we can to end the stalemate in an efficient way. We're making the right decisions to bring the (situation) to an end," said Bush, who has refrained from characterizing the standoff.

It was the second straight day he had prepared Americans for the possibility that the standoff could drag on. The remarks came as the president faced increased pressure from both ends of the political spectrum to bring the 24-member crew home without major capitulation to China.

Bush sidestepped a question about whether he intended to get in touch with Chinese President Jiang Zemin, but he said, "I am making it clear to the Chinese it is in their nation's interests to end this situation as quickly as possible."

Earlier, Bush spoke with Army Brig. Gen. Neal Sealock, who met the crew for a fifth time Tuesday.

Bush turned aside an offer by the Rev. Jesse Jackson to visit China and try to get the crew released.

"I appreciate the good will of a lot of Americans who are concerned about our folks on Hainan island," Bush said during a picture-taking session with King Abdullah II of Jordan. "This administration is doing everything it can ... to end the situation in an efficient way."

Secretary of State Colin Powell had already turned down Jackson's offer.

Meanwhile, Pentagon officials revealed more details of how the Navy spy plane came to collide with a Chinese fighter jet, saying the new information bolsters the argument that the accident was not caused by the American plane.

Sealock, who, is the military attache at the embassy in Beijing, told Bush he and the crew discussed the retirement of Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman, the death of baseball All-Star Willie Stargell and Michael Jordan's possible return to playing basketball.

Sealock said the crew members are aware of the standoff that is keeping them prisoner. "We discussed the emotions on both sides," he told reporters in Hainan, the island where the Americans are being held. "They realize it is a political situation."

In their meetings, crew members also have shed more light on how the air accident happened, Pentagon officials said, quoting a State Department cable reporting the pilot said the big four-engine plane was on autopilot at the time of the collision.

Officials offered this new information as more proof for their argument that the U.S. spy plane was flying straight and steady, not deviating speed, altitude or direction. China has said the U.S. plane had swerved into the fighter jet.

A Pentagon official speaking on condition of anonymity also said the crew has reported that the Chinese F-8 jet made two close passes before the collision. The Chinese jet crashed into the South China Sea and its pilot is presumed dead.

Fleischer said Bush believes progress is being made and urged patience, particularly among conservatives who have stepped up their anti-China rhetoric and have begun to question Bush's handling of the situation.

"It remains a delicate balance," Fleischer said. "The president will continue to pursue the diplomatic openings that have been made. ... Nobody should be ratcheting up the rhetoric. The president (is) setting the tone of patience and a thoughtful approach."

The plane's crew has been held on the Chinese island of Hainan since their surveillance plane made an emergency landing after colliding with the fighter jet April 1.

In the visits with American officials, the crew is given e-mails and news reports and sports scores. They are in good spirits, says a senior State Department official, who says the diplomacy centers on "reaching a mutually acceptable expression of regret and a mechanism to exchange explanation."

Polls show voters support Bush's leadership on China, but senior Republicans said the good will could erode if the standoff continues.

Meantime, Beijing stood firm behind its insistence that the United States apologize for the collision and halt surveillance flights near its coast.

The White House said neither demand was warranted, and Bush cautioned anew that U.S.-Chinese relations could suffer without a resolution soon.

"There is a point - the longer it goes - there's a point at which our relations with China could become damaged," he told reporters Monday.

But China only increased its hard-line rhetoric. "The United States should apologize and respond appropriately," said Zhu Bangzao, a senior foreign ministry official traveling with Chinese President Jiang Zemin in Argentina. "If they don't it's going to make things difficult. If they do, it's going to help resolve the problem."

Bush has refused to apologize, though he expressed regret Friday for the loss and presumed death of the pilot. He also sent a letter to the pilot's wife, expressing similar sentiments.

American diplomats were seeking a way to express sympathy to the satisfaction of China without an outright apology. The United States has also proposed having a commission determine the cause of the crash.

The U.S. plane, an EP-3E Aries II, was crammed with reconnaissance equipment when it made an emergency landing on a Chinese military airstrip. The Pentagon says its crew sent a message that it had begun destroying the plane's intelligence-gathering equipment and information before landing. Photos of the plane taken by a commercial satellite company show what appear to be several trucks lined up nearby - a sign some analysts say indicates the Chinese military is taking the aircraft apart for study.

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China's hard line raises risk of deepening crisis

USA Today
04/10/2001
http://www.usatoday.com/news/comment/2001-04-10-edtwof2.htm

As the crew of a U.S. surveillance plane enters its 10th day of captivity on Hainan today, President Bush and his foreign-policy team have been at pains to strike a calibrated - tough but patient - tone against China. The increasingly urgent question, though, is whether similar restraint will be forthcoming from the Chinese side.

While there's daily talk about compromise, influences at work within China make retreat from its early, aggressive stance difficult. And the longer the stalemate persists, the less willing or able China may be to unwind it - testing U.S. patience.

Domestically, President Jiang Zemin is plagued with insinuations that he's weak: that he was soft on the USA after the accidental bombing of China's embassy in Belgrade; that he risks losing Taiwan instead of reunifying it with China; that he's not the statesman Deng Xiaoping was. In the face of these criticisms at a time of power struggles in the Communist Party, Jiang can be tempted to act tough first, think later.

In addition, the nationalistic, bellicose People's Liberation Army looks increasingly powerful in Chinese politics: At a time of tight budgets, the army was showered with an 18% spending increase this year. Its reaction to the collision has been anti-American: "We want to convert our indignation with (U.S.) hegemonism into a huge motivating force ... to build a stronger country and a stronger military," Gen. Chi Haotian, China's Defense minister, said in recent days. Another general, Xiong Guangkai, infamous for threatening in 1996 to drop a nuclear bomb on Los Angeles if the U.S. supported Taiwan, is the leading officer on China's task force dealing with the current plane crisis.

China's state-owned media, which reflect the mood of the party that controls them, have been feeding the public a harsh line as well. Meanwhile, economic reformers, the leading moderates, are a weak voice in politics. And even if there were a will to change course, the aging regime may not be flexible or strong enough to do so.

That's not to say moderation can't prevail. China has allowed more crew visits, both sides indicate they're working for compromise, and the costs to China of prolonged confrontation would be high. But the crisis has already persisted longer - and in China's case, more belligerently - than reason would suggest.

All of which leaves the U.S. to press its point firmly and, while there's time, make the Chinese focus on the cost of their brashness: The U.S. government can threaten to prune trade and investment ties, blackball China's World Trade Organization entry, cancel prestigious political visits and otherwise act to return China to Third World status.

That may have little impact on the hard-line elements of the Chinese regime. But nonetheless, reminding China's leaders privately of the risks they run while showing patience publicly is the best course for defusing the crisis.

---

China grants U.S. crew more privileges

USA Today
04/10/2001
http://usatoday.com/news/world/2001-04-10-china1.htm

HAIKOU, China (AP) - The U.S. air crew detained on this Chinese island has been granted extra privileges, including freedom to exercise in the building where they are being held by Chinese authorities, an American official said Tuesday. As the standoff dragged into its 10th day, China welcomed U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's weekend statement that Washington was ''sorry'' for the fate of a Chinese fighter pilot missing since a collision with the spy plane. But it repeated its insistence on a formal apology for the incident.

U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Neal Sealock, who met the crew for a fifth time Tuesday evening, said the 21 men and three women were aware of the political deadlock and the intense feelings that blocked their freedom.

In the United States, the Rev. Jesse Jackson offered to lead an ecumenical delegation to China to work for the release of the crew.

But the State Department turned down the offer.

Spokesman Richard Boucher said Washington would work through ''diplomatic'' means.

The crew members of the U.S. Navy EP-3E reconnaissance plane have been held on Hainan island since making an emergency landing there following the April 1 collision above the South China Sea.

''They have great faith in what's taking place,'' said Sealock, the military attache at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.

''They fully understand the circumstances that they are under.''

He said the crew members now have more freedom to move around the Chinese navy's Nanhang No. 1 Guest House where they are being held.

Chinese authorities have given them copies of the China Daily, a state-owned newspaper, as well as cigarettes, he said.

To help the crew fight boredom, U.S. diplomats have supplied snacks, toiletries, novels, crossword puzzles and copies of news reports about their families.

The crew members also have received printed copies of e-mails from their families but are not allowed to reply. Despite the improvement in living conditions, there was no change in China's position that the United States owed an apology.

''The U.S. side should apologize,'' Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi said. ''We hope the U.S. side will adopt a pragmatic and cooperative manner and treat seriously the demands of the Chinese people.''

Reacting to President Bush's warning that a drawn-out standoff over the spy plane could hurt U.S.-Chinese ties, Sun said: ''I hope the U.S. side will not further complicate the issue.''

But Sun described Powell's weekend comment as ''a step in the right direction.'' Sun had used exactly the same language Thursday to describe Powell's expression of ''regret'' over the incident.

Meanwhile, China stepped up its search for the missing jet pilot, Wang Wei. State media said Tuesday that 4,000 Hainan residents combed beaches with flashlights and that more than 1,000 military and civilian vessels and more than 100 aircraft were searching for the lost pilot.

This week, Chinese media have reported on U.S.-Chinese talks for the first time, which could mean that Beijing is preparing its public for the prospect of a negotiated settlement.

Despite the gulf between the two sides' public positions, the meetings Monday and Tuesday between U.S. diplomats and crew members on Hainan island went far more smoothly than previous encounters.

In both cases, Sealock and a consular official went directly to the meeting. Before earlier visits, the diplomats had to discuss ground rules with Chinese officials for up to 3 1/2 hours.

In recounting Monday's fourth meeting, Sealock singled out two airmen for praise in keeping up crew morale: Lt. Shane Osborn of Norfolk, Neb., and Senior Chief Nicholas Mellos of Ypsilanti, Mich. ''Lt. Osborn and Senior Chief Mellos are the core of what is a very cohesive and integrated team.

Their spirits remain extremely high. There is no doubt that this unit has their heads up,'' Sealock said.

The crew's reported spirits contrasted with the steady flow of angry rhetoric from Chinese officials and state media.

Newspapers on Tuesday were again full of demands for a U.S. apology and outrage at American surveillance flights off China's coasts.

Analysts say China is unlikely to agree to release the Americans until the fate of the Chinese jet pilot is known.

Chinese civilian leaders could be reluctant to compromise for fear of looking weak before leadership changes to be decided next year at a Communist Party congress.

In the United States, the Rev. Jesse Jackson offered to go to China to work for the release of the crew. Jackson said he was not criticizing President Bush's efforts, but pointed to international disputes he has successfully mediated, including helping free Americans in Syria, Iraq and Yugoslavia.

''In each instance, we had to make a moral appeal,'' Jackson told the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper. ''You do it in a way that does honor to our country. Somehow, religious people can be a bridge.''

------

China detains scholar with ties to U.S.

The Washington Times www.washtimes.com
Published 4/10/01
http://www.washtimes.com/world/nobyline-200141022625.htm

BEIJING (AP) - A Chinese intellectual who has taught at top U.S. universities has been detained on suspicion of divulging state secrets, a human rights group said yesterday.

Tan Guangguang, who worked for a U.S. medical group in Beijing, was picked up by security agents in December, according to the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy. It said Chinese authorities plan soon to formally arrest him but didn't give any details of why he was detained.

Mr. Tan is the fourth intellectual whose detention in China has become known in the past three weeks, and the third with U.S. connections.

The Information Center said Mr. Tan was a former editor of the now defunct China Economic Information News. From 1989 to 1992, he was a visiting scholar at the University of Michigan, University of Chicago and Stanford University.

Mr. Tan returned to China in 1994 and was working as vice chairman of the American United Medical Group at the time of his detention, the center said. It cited relatives who it said asked not to be identified by name.

It said security agents who detained Mr. Tan confiscated the "green cards" - U.S. permanent-residency permits - of him and his wife, Feng Li.

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy said it had no information about Mr. Tan and was unlikely to be involved in his case because he was not an American citizen.

A woman who answered the phone number listed for the American United Medical Group said it was a wrong number. Further calls to the number went unanswered.

Detentions of intellectuals by Chinese state security appear to have increased in recent months.

Gao Zhan, a Chinese-born sociologist at American University in Washington, was detained Feb. 11 and has been charged with spying.

The case caused a diplomatic uproar with Washington because Mrs. Gao's husband and 5-year-old son, who is a U.S. citizen, were detained with her and held for 26 days before being released. Chinese officials failed to inform the U.S. Embassy of the son's detention, as required by treaty.

Li Shaomin, an American citizen and a business professor in Hong Kong, disappeared Feb. 25 after going to China to see a friend. His wife says he was picked up by security agents. Chinese authorities have not commented on that case.

Also detained is Xu Zerong, a historian who works in Hong Kong. He was detained in August in the southeastern province of Guangdong.

---

While China sleeps

The Washington Times www.washtimes.com
Published 4/10/01
Ethan Guttman
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20010410-777087.htm

A stone´s throw from my bedroom, in the alleys near Beijing´s Drum Tower, a resident People´s Liberation Army unit roars out a ritual slogan to greet the first light every morning, sure as a cock crowing. Recently, they sound a little more wolfish, a little more triumphant, aroused by their successful confrontation with America.

The PLA unit is only one of five military residences visible from my balcony. The barracks don´t look institutional, and they aren´t labeled. After Tiananmen, the Chinese leadership sprinkled discrete military and paramilitary units throughout Beijing - hopefully ensuring that someone will stay loyal - to form a rapid response to any threat to "social stability." The soldiers rise early, announce their presence, and the neighborhood gets on about its business.

Yet I increasingly wonder if Beijing´s leadership, in the quiet of their compound next to the Forbidden City, is fully conscious. Throughout the EP-3 crisis, there has been an automaton quality to the way that the Chinese leadership painted itself so firmly into their particular corner - long delays, ham-handed demands for an apology and concessions, too-clever-by-half attempts to reward and punish, circuitous legal arguments to justify a U.S. crew´s detention and violation of the EP-3´s integrity. Call it the banality of evil, but the leadership seemed to be simply reading a tired script from the embassy bombing without the necessary passion. In a recent state broadcast, a camera wandered from a gray bureaucrat intoning dry legalisms on China´s presumed control of the South China Sea to bored state TV crews and back again, apparently searching for the story, a far cry from the "MTV for war" coverage two years ago. The leadership feared over-stimulating its citizens this time around because to maintain authoritarian legitimacy they have created a monster hyper-nationalism - and it has come back to haunt them.

Nowhere is this nationalism more focused than in the Chinese military: from the parade of Long March and Dongfeng missiles on the 50th Anniversary, to the state-run papers advocating the use of an electro-magnetic pulse on Taiwan, to the proud announcement of the mastery of neutron warhead technology. The Chinese people are not expected to view these devices as weapons of last resort, but as options. And these options demand infrastructure, Western technology, and a capitalist economy. So for the military, WTO works. Acquiescence with President Jiang Zemin worked, until the EP-3 incident led to a potential Marxist´s nightmare the military and the people united, challenging the party. Mr. Jiang probably felt he had precious room for error in the EP-3 stand-off. Ambassador Prueher´s informal response: "Problem is, it´s going to start bleeding into other things." Indeed, it already has.

Consider fully what China may lose. Foreign Minister Qian Qichen´s U.S. mission was to deny the Aegis battle management system to Taiwan. From the administration´s perspective there were many reasons to sell Patriot PAC-3 missiles, and possibly, P-3 aircraft as a stopgap to the Chinese medium-range missile threat while holding Aegis in reserve - Chinese infiltration in the Taiwanese armed forces among them. But what was the EP-3 carrying? Presumably, a surveillance system with Aegis characteristics. Selling Aegis and other assets to Taiwan may now be considered simply to preserve the balance in the Taiwan Straits. So the Chinese military has won a Phyrric victory at best. At worst, the PLA will not have the means to plausibly threaten Taiwan for a generation.

The Chinese leadership may think of Taiwan as a critical juncture, but a continuously rising standard of living drives the train. If the Chinese leadership does not get its 7 percent annual growth rate, unemployment, worker dissatisfaction, and mutant movements such as Falun Gong may crash the system. The insulation of the Chinese economy from previous Asian economic downturns simply underscores China´s dependence on the U.S. export market, and continued U.S. investment. In this year of American economic trouble, the Chinese leadership must continue to stimulate domestic consumer spending and pull out the stops of selective foreign industry barriers in an attempt to offset an inevitable and painful decline in export growth. U.S. direct investment cannot falter; it´s in the 7 percent plan.

A recent American embassy residence function to welcome an incoming U.S. trade delegation had a looking-glass quality (heightened by two congressional delegations visits having just been canceled). The toasts were the traditional China-appreciates-American-interest-in-building-e-commerce. The talk was of the now-inevitable congressional vote on extending Normal Trade Relations (NTR) on June 3. With little guarantee that congressmen and senators will see a political advantage in voting in China´s favor, China´s chances to join the World Trade Organization in the near future then become much dimmer. Ironically, for ex-pats surrounded by a city that is papered with the slogan, "New Beijing - Great Olympics," another unconditional face issue with no exit strategy for the Chinese leadership, the idea of the United States denying the Olympics to China didn´t even rate.

A friend from the U.S. Commercial Service assured me that NTR would squeak through; Americans don´t really care much about foreign affairs, business will lobby the Hill, Motorola will make some contributions to a congressman´s district. Perhaps he´s right, but he is a long-term ex-pat and American "face" issues are easily overlooked in Beijing. The assumption of American multinational loyalty to China also bears scrutiny.

It may be Ron Brown´s legacy that there are no trustworthy composite figures on American profits in China. However, sources have suggested that well below 30 percent of U.S. companies´ China operations are in the black. Ergo, 70 percent are either in China for the reward of the "long-term" (increasingly a euphemism for a China without the counterfeiting, or corruption or the current leadership), or once in, they stay to preserve share prices at home. With current share prices partially reflecting the EP-3 crisis, the temptation for a few corporate bodies may be to look busy lobbying Congress for NTR (with the hand that the Chinese authorities watch) while the other hand looks for quiet exit strategies, removing China assets one piece at a time.

"China is the victim" runs Mr. Jiang´s dour proclamation. China may soon wake up to find that he was right.

Ethan Gutmann is a government-relations consultant in Beijing, China.

---

We have no bananas, they have hostages

The Washington Times www.washtimes.com
Published 4/10/01
Wesley Pruden THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/pruden.htm

You can't blame the the Bush administration for going bananas over words.

A banana, as some of us in Washington fondly recall, is not always a banana. When Herb Stein, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Ford administration, was admonished by his boss not to use the word "recession" to describe a recession, he complied, reluctantly.

"From now on," he told a group of economic reporters, "I won't use the word 'recession.' I'll say 'banana.' When I say banana, think 'recession'. I think we must be wary of the risks of a banana."

Dick Cheney, like all heads of state and their top deputies, can't always say what he means. Sometimes he can't even say "banana." The vice president went to some pains on Sunday to scold Bill Kristol, the editor of the Weekly Standard, for an editorial suggesting that President Bush was taking a softer line than necessary on the Chinese plane incident and that the line would lead to national "humiliation." Mr. Kristol's editorial, he said in an aside remarkable for its testiness, was an attempt to "sell magazines" and was "disreputable."

He then quibbled with Rep. Henry Hyde, the chairman of the House International Affairs Committee, for using the word "hostage" to describe the 24 hostages held by China on Hainan Island. The veep prefers, or said he does, the more euphemonious "detainee." (And if there's no such word as "euphemonious," there should be.) The dictionaries agree with Mr. Hyde, i.e., "hostage: a person given as a pledge, or taken prisoner as by an enemy or terrorist, until certain conditions are met." (Source: Webster's New World College Dictionary, "the official dictionary of the Associated Press".) The usually plain-spoken Mr. Cheney has become a hostage himself to diplomatic doublespeak.

President Bush, who this time is staying out of his administration's wrestling match with the language, is nevertheless beginning to feel heat. "Diplomacy," he said yesterday, "takes time." And so it does, but he knows that the time available before he starts getting public criticism on the Hill and in press and tube is severely limited. "Every day that goes by increases the potential that our relations with China will be damaged."

That's why the administration is trying to keep the word "hostage" out of the public conversation. Once the public regards the hostages as hostages the president's job becomes enormously more difficult.

The Chinese plane incident resembles, in several ominous ways, the Iranian hostage crisis that destroyed the Carter presidency. There are, to be sure, stark differences, beginning with the fact that a Texas oil-field roughneck is no Georgia peanut farmer. The man from Plains stocked his State Department with men who wore the lace on their pants with considerable pride. The parallels are nevertheless chilling.

When the Iranian mullahs first seized the embassy in Tehran the American diplomats they kidnaped were called "detainees," too, and everyone assumed they would be freed as soon as the mobs in the streets had a little fun. When they weren't, outrage grew. The hours and days and then weeks ticked past, until finally humiliation was measured in months. Lots of yellow ribbons were tied around lots of old oak trees, Ayatollah Khomeini entered the national lexicon of villains, and Ted Koppel became America's most famous television journalist when a late-night newscast called "America Held Hostage" evolved into the popular "Nightline." We're still a long way from Jimmy Carter country, but in another week we might be able to see it from here.

The Chinese measure months and years differently than we do, and the Chinese generals who have possession of the hostages are probably in no hurry to dissolve the crisis. Why should they be? They see the photographs and television footage of the yellow ribbons festooned on trees across America (and, yesterday, on trees in the little park in front of their embassy in Washington), and understand at once how valuable hostages are as the currency of state terrorism.

The Chinese generals have their own chagrin to ameliorate. Despite the tears for the pilot whose reckless hot-doggery started all this, the Chinese military is mortified. The generals know, and know that everybody else knows, that 40-year-old planes that can make 300 miles an hour with a tail wind aren't a match for a supersonic state-of-the-art fighter. If this pilot was the best they've got, as Beijing insists, he could have used a little training in Taiwan. The EP-3E is the military version of the old Lockheed Electra that flew the Eastern Shuttle between Washington and New York four decades ago.

Eastern Shuttle 1, Chinese Air Force 0.

---

Chinese planes collect electronic data

Washington Times
April 10, 2001
By Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/default-2001410232340.htm

China is continuing aerial surveillance off southern China as the Pentagon is reviewing whether to halt its flights in the region until the EP-3E dispute is resolved.

Defense officials said there has been no halt in Chinese military reconnaissance flights targeted at collecting electronic communications from Taiwan, Vietnam and areas of the South China Sea.

"They're doing surveillance and reconnaissance of Taiwan and Vietnam," said one official.

At the Pentagon, officials said there have been no routine U.S. surveillance flights of the same region since the April 1 collision between an American EP-3E and a Chinese F-8 interceptor.

However, the next scheduled EP-3E mission is set for the next several days.

"The Pentagon is reviewing whether that flight will go forward," said a second defense official.

Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. Craig Quigley declined to comment when asked about the review.

Meanwhile, Bush administration spokesmen declined to comment on a report in yesterday's editions of The Washington Times that China is preparing to carry out a nuclear test in the midst of the standoff over the downed U.S. surveillance plane.

Sen. Robert G. Torricelli, New Jersey Democrat, said nuclear test preparations at Lop Nur in remote western China show the need for continued aerial surveillance flights.

"Any underground nuclear testing by the Chinese would serve to confirm the rationale for continued American flights or other activities and should convince the skeptics of the need for our presence in the region," Mr. Torricelli said in an interview.

"Their rapid military buildup, testing of long range missiles, deployment of offensive missiles opposite Taiwan and now possible renewed underground testing are arguments for continuing the surveillance," Mr. Torricelli said.

Mr. Torricelli said the continued detention of the American crew is a clear sign they are becoming hostages. "Soon it will be questionable whether it is appropriate to have an ambassador and hostages in the same country," he said.

The Chinese surveillance flights are being carried out by Y-8 maritime patrol jets equipped to collect electronic signals, the defense officials said.

China's government has demanded all U.S. surveillance flights near China be halted, in addition to seeking a formal U.S. apology for the incident near Hainan Island. The Chinese F-8 crashed and its pilot is missing and presumed dead.

Chinese Defense Minister Chi Haotian said on Sunday that the United States should "take effective measures to avoid another similar matter from happening." U.S. surveillance aircraft have flown "close to Chinese coastal areas for reconnaissance," he said, according to the official People's Daily newspaper.

Senior Bush administration officials said Sunday that the United States is willing to discuss with China its intelligence flights, a signal that has worried some Pentagon officials who fear the flights will be halted.

Vice President Richard B. Cheney said "we've agreed that we're prepared to discuss those kinds of questions." However, he insisted that the United States has a right to carry out the operations and "we will continue to operate as appropriate."

Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Sunday that the flights "threaten no one" and are conducted in international airspace. "And we can't stop performing those flights just because one country or another prefers that we not fly them," he said. "So, our reconnaissance flights, when we fly them, how we will fly them, over international airspace, in international airspace over international water, will be something that the United States government will decide."

State Department officials are pressing to suspend further EP-3E flights while diplomatic efforts are carried out to win the release of the 24 Americans who were aboard the EP-3E when it made an emergency landing.

Pentagon and military officials want the flights to continue and are concerned that any negotiations would lead to limitations on vital intelligence gathering needed by commanders.

"We reserve the right to conduct surveillance and reconnaissance flights in international airspace at the time of our choosing around the world," Adm. Quigley said. "I'm not going to get into scheduling or approval of schedules."

Richard Fisher, a specialist on the Chinese military with the Jamestown Foundation, said the Chinese use Y-8s and converted Russian Tu-154 aircraft to conduct maritime intelligence collection.

The Chinese also are believed to use an airstrip on Woody Island in the disputed Spratly Islands for their spy flights over the South China Sea.

"These flights are not as frequent as our normal reconnaissance program but it is building up," Mr. Fisher said.

"They are patrolling more frequently than in the past."

Mr. Fisher said U.S. surveillance flights of the region are "critical to maintaining a picture of the evolving Chinese military capability and order of battle."

"The Chinese are engaged in a major military modernization buildup targeted on what they believe will be a coming conflict over Taiwan," he said.

U.S. surveillance fights are "critical to our ability to continue to deter conflict and prepare for the future."

Al Santoli, a defense aide to Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, California Republican, also said the U.S. surveillance missions should not be negotiated with the Chinese.

"While China is continuing both its nuclear missile developmental program and its naval buildup along the coast with both surface ships and submarines, it would be a serious strategic setback for the United States and would send a chilling message to America's allies throughout the region if the United States suspended its surveillance at this time," Mr. Santoli said.

----

Standing up

The Washington Times www.washtimes.com
Published 4/10/01
John McCaslin
Inside the Beltway
http://www.washtimes.com/national/inbeltway.htm

Patience, courage, tenacity and above all, commitment, are virtues President Bush is following in his negotiations with China on the release of 24 American hostages.

That assessment is from the Center for Security Policy in Washington, which recalls Mr. Bush's own words a few weeks ago at the christening of the USS Ronald Reagan: to "stand by those nations moving toward freedom [and] stand up to those nations who deny freedom and threaten [their] neighbors or vital interests."

The center suggests Mr. Bush abandon the China course followed by President Clinton - "a course characterized by an abject determination to enhance the legitimacy of the odious Communist regime in Beijing, irrespective of its brutality at home and its increasingly aggressive behavior abroad."

A "long-term" strategy toward negotiating with China is instead required, says the think tank, akin to one employed by Ronald Reagan when tearing down another Communist empire, the Soviet Union.

---

Chinese With Ties to U.S. Is Detained

New York Times
April 10, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/10/world/10DETA.html

BEIJING, April 9 - Another Chinese-born intellectual with permanent residency status in the United States has been detained by Chinese security forces, a Hong Kong human rights group reported today.

Qin Guangguang, a pharmaceutical company executive in Beijing who lived in the United States from 1989 to 1994, was detained in December on suspicion of giving state secrets to an overseas intelligence agency, the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.

Mr. Qin was a newspaper editor in China until 1989, when he left the country and served as a visiting scholar at several American universities, including Stanford. He also lived in New York for several years.

It was not clear if his departure from China was related to the military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters at Tiananmen Square in 1989 - an event that sent thousands of Chinese fleeing overseas. But his father-in-law, Feng Yuanxin, was a prominent reform-minded official in Sichuan Province at the time of the protests, one Chinese scholar said.

While in the United States, Mr. Qin and his wife received green cards, and in 1994 he returned to China as a businessman. He is now president of a pharmaceutical company and lectured at a conference in China as recently as last year.

The American Embassy in Beijing said it had not been asked to intervene in Mr. Qin's case, and officials said they would not generally be notified of such a detention because he was a green card holder, not a citizen. In recent months, several Chinese-born holders of green cards have been mdetained.

---

Questioning by Chinese Is Intense

New York Times
April 10, 2001
By STEVEN LEE MYERS
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/10/world/10PENT.html

WASHINGTON, April 9 - Pentagon officials said today that the meetings with the crew were shedding additional light on the circumstances of the collision. They declined to discuss them in detail, citing the sensitivity of the negotiations.

While the crew members have been treated well, they told American officials that they have been subject to intense questioning by the Chinese not only about the collision, but also about other aspects of their duties and operations aboard one of the most sensitive spy planes, officials said today.

"It's going over the line of what happened in the incident," one military officer said.

A senior officer said the crew members had been questioned by the Chinese "for several hours at a time."

One official said that while Chinese officials no longer insisted on being present at each meeting, Brig. Gen. Neal Sealock and others meeting with the crew remained circumspect, assuming they are being monitored.

The official said they still believed that the accident occurred because the pilot of the Chinese F-8, Wang Wei, approached too closely and clipped the American aircraft.

Since the crew's status is ambiguous - with American officials stopping short of calling them hostages or prisoners of war - it remains unclear how much, if anything, the crew members are allowed to say to the questioners. Another official said they had reported saying very little.

"Our kids our doing their damnedest to keep their mouths shut," the military officer said. "That has the Chinese frustrated."

---

Crew May Be Held Until Pilot Is Found

New York Times
April 10, 2001
By CRAIG S. SMITH
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/10/world/10PILO.html

HAIKOU, China, April 9 - The 24 Americans detained here since their surveillance plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet are unlikely to be released until the search for the missing Chinese pilot is over, many Chinese say.

Even then, they add, Beijing may wait another day or more to allow a period of mourning for the pilot, who has become a national hero, before letting the American crew go.

Few expect the pilot, Wang Wei, to be found alive, but the search for him has grown in recent days to a scale that suggests its purpose is as much political as it is practical. It has taken on near mythic proportions, with China billing it as involving more troops, covering more area and lasting longer than any previous search in the country's naval history.

"I consider it politically difficult to stop searching for him," said Shen Dingli, a Chinese-American relations expert at Fudan University in Shanghai, "particularly while negotiations for the release of the Americans are ongoing and there is a technical possibility that he is alive."

Some Chinese have even suggested that Mr. Wang's body has already been found, and that the government is waiting until a deal is struck with the Americans before announcing the news. One person in China's military said Mr. Wang's body was recovered at 2 p.m. on the day of the accident, and even provided coordinates for where it was found.

Others insist that there is a chance Mr. Wang is still alive. Like all Chinese military pilots, Mr. Wang should have had an inflatable life raft in a kit strapped to his body when he ejected from the plane. Zhai Jiugang, director of the National Maritime Administration, has told China's state press that a Chinese sailor was once rescued after floating in such a raft for 23 days.

Gen. Chi Haotian, China's defense minister, vowed on Sunday to continue the search for Mr. Wang "at all costs." That suggests that the release of the American crew is still, at best, days away.

The pilot of a second jet flying with Mr. Wang said he spotted the small "drogue" parachute on Mr. Wang's ejection seat shortly after his plane went down. The small chute is meant to stabilize the seat and keep the pilot upright before the seat automatically separates from the pilot and the pilot's main parachute opens. Mr. Wang's colleague said he had also spotted Mr. Wang's main parachute.

Chinese F-8's have limited fuel capacity, and so Mr. Wang's comrade could not stay in the area until help arrived. The best he could do was to circle Mr. Wang's descending parachute and notify ground controllers tracking him by radar.

American military aircraft carry global positioning systems that transmit their location to an accuracy of within about 1,000 square feet. It is not clear whether Chinese jets carry such equipment, but ground controllers tracking the F-8 jets on radar could at least have fixed Mr. Wang's position within an area of 10 to 15 square miles after receiving the second pilot's report, search and rescue experts say.

That area expands geometrically because of currents and other factors the longer Mr. Wang is missing. At latest report, the search area had reached 289,080 square nautical miles.

The Chinese Navy's South China Sea Fleet Air Force, to which Mr. Wang belongs and in whose Haikou quarters the American crew is now housed, took charge of the search. The United States offered to help shortly after it learned that the pilot was missing, but China turned down the offer.

Under normal maritime search procedures, the Chinese would have sent planes to the area immediately, followed by ships, to execute a search plan.

Chinese pilots carry a survival kit including a signal flare, radio, desalination pills, food, a knife and other items, according to state media reports, and he would have been wearing a brightly colored life vest.

The South Sea Fleet Air Force established a shore-based command center providing support to the ships and planes involved in the search and sent out at least one ship to coordinate it. The fleet has auxiliary submarine rescue ships, intended to coordinate such searches, at its submarine base not far from the Lingshui air base on Hainan's southeast coast, where the crippled EP-3E Aries II landed and where Mr. Wang apparently had taken off.

So far the search has been carried out by at least 85 navy ships, 105 navy planes, 800 fishing boats and more than 10,000 people, according to state media reports.

Though the skies have been clear, Liu Shi, the director of the Maritime Search and Rescue Center, which is coordinating the civilian boats, said shifting winds and 10-foot waves had hampered progress. He said a floating object could be carried more than 100 miles in 24 hours under such conditions.

All of this assumes that Mr. Wang hit the water alive, or even conscious, after being thrown out of his aircraft at more than 200 miles an hour. It is not even clear whether Mr. Wang's chute opened fully. The other Chinese pilot spotted it while rocketing past at a still higher speed, and he may not have been able to see whether it was fully open.

If it was not, Mr. Wang might have hit with an impact hard enough to kill him instantly, or at least disable him enough so that he could not get free of his waterlogged chute before it dragged him under.

And if Mr. Wang did survive the descent but was unable to inflate his life raft, he probably could not survive more than a few days in the water. Floating in the ocean will eventually lead to hypothermia. Even the warm water of the South China Sea - with temperatures in the low to mid-80's - saps the body's ability to maintain its normal 98.6 degrees.

"Human beings can normally survive in such temperature of the water for about three days," Mr. Liu said.

Search and rescue experts say an even more serious concern than hypothermia when the water is that warm is sharks. The Chinese press has already reported that sharks have been spotted in the rescue area.

"I reckon the possibility that he is still alive is very slim," said one search expert at the Shanghai Rescue and Salvage Bureau.

Still, the American crew members may have to wait until China's leaders are satisfied that all hope is exhausted.

---

New Threat for Crew: Boredom

New York Times
April 10, 2001
By CRAIG S. SMITH
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/10/world/10CREW.html

HAIKOU, China, April 9 - They may be the focus of a potentially relationship-busting international dispute, but boredom is likely to be the worst thing that the 24 crew members of a crippled American surveillance aircraft are facing here in Chinese detention.

For the fourth time since their plane collided with a Chinese jet and landed on southern China's military-laden Hainan island, the crew members met with American officials today.

Brig. Gen. Neal Sealock, the defense attaché at the Amerian Embassy in Beijing, reported after the meeting that the 21 men and 3 women were living in a "hotel-like environment," kept out of the island's soggy heat by air-conditioning.

To pass the time, they are doing crossword puzzles provided by the embassy or reading the dry English-language China Daily provided by their captors in between communal meals of Chinese food that a few of the crew have reportedly raved about.

There is television to watch, but only Chinese channels. And of course there is mail call - or e- mail call, at least. Family and friends of the crew have been e- mailing messages to the general's wife in Beijing, who has been compiling them and forwarding them to Haikou. There they are printed out and delivered to the crew through a Chinese intermediary.

"Their spirits are extremely high," General Sealock said after the latest meeting, which came earlier in the evening and without the tedious preliminary negotiating session with Chinese officials that accompanied the earlier encounters. No Chinese were present during the 40-minute meeting, which took place in the same room where the crew members were photographed a few days ago.

The general has asked to see the crew twice a day from now until they are released. His sessions are largely devoted to pep talks and passing along the latest news. He has talked about everything from Hideo Nomo's no-hitter for the Boston Red Sox last week to how the diplomatic standoff over the crew is playing in the States.

At the hotel where General Sealock and seven other diplomats are based, the mood is slightly edgy, with a swelling press corps eager for any shred of news.

When the general appears in the lobby, he is treated like a beekeeper holding the queen bee, except that journalists instead of drones swarm to him. His main perk: He gets to talk to President Bush after every meeting with the crew.

The tension in Washington does not quite translate here, where the high temperatures, the humidity and the lazy island mood slow most things down and turn many things soft. There have reportedly been a few forceful moments in the general's meetings with the Chinese, but there is also an odd feeling of camaraderie.

All of the eight American diplomats on the scene speak Chinese, and most of their counterparts speak English. The general and the senior Chinese official handling the matter here have lived in the some of the same cities and have friends in common.

Several of the local foreign affairs officials involved have visited the United States on American government-sponsored training sessions. In fact, one member of the Hainan foreign affairs bureau visited an American diplomat in the hotel last week to work on his application for such a program.

Chen Ci, the director of the Hainan bureau, who has read the Chinese statements after General Sealock's last two meetings with the crew, used to live in Virginia. His statement after today's meeting summed up the mood. "We welcome American tourists to Hainan for holiday-making," he said, "but not the spy planes."

---

Pilot wanted to pull trigger

Australian News Network
10apr01
By MICHAEL BEACH in New York http://news.com.au/newspulse/pulseframe/0,4711,1881371^2,00.html

A CHINESE pilot wanted to open fire on a US spy plane after it collided with his colleague's jet fighter, it was reported yesterday.

But the pilot's commanders refused the request and ordered him instead to stop the spy plane from fleeing.

The pilot forced the US plane to land on Hainan Island where a Chinese officer wrestled with an American crewman who was trying to prevent soldiers from boarding the plane.

Neither China nor the US have given details of what happened after the planes collided over the South China Sea nine days ago.

All China has said is the US plane landed on Hainan Island without seeking permission.

But the report in the South China Morning Post is similar to an earlier account given by a Taiwanese radio operator.

Chinese pilot Wang Wei, who parachuted from his aircraft 110km off Hainan Island, is still missing.

"The officials at ground control were cool headed," a source told the newspaper.

"It (shooting the EP-3) would have been an act of war, whereas the collision was an accident."

The Post said the Americans refused to allow the Chinese on board their plane without a US diplomat being present.

"A senior officer arrived, walked up the stairs and wrestled a US crew member guarding the entrance," the source said.

"The officer threw the airman to the ground, enabling the People's Liberation Army to enter."

The plane's crew of 21 men and three women have been confined to a military barracks on Hainan Island since then.

Negotiations to resolve the deadlock appear to have stalled in the past few days. China is demanding the US apologises for the clash and agrees to curtail further spy flights near its borders.

Efforts to end the crisis seemed to hinge on a choice of words in a communique being drafted to allow a face-saving way out for both Chinese leader Jiang - currently on a state visit to Argentina - and US President George W. Bush.

In an effort to ease tensions, Mr Bush has written a personal letter to Wang Wei's wife, Ruan Guoqin. She had accused Mr Bush of being too cowardly to apologise for her husband's suspected death.

"The purpose of the letter is to respond in a humanitarian way, in an American way, to a widow who is grieving," US Secretary of State Colin Powell said.

"Whatever you think about the politics of it, she's lost her husband."

While not disclosing the contents of the letter, Mr Powell indicated it would not include an apology.

The US also expressed concern yesterday about the lack of access it has been given to the detained crew.

---

On the street, Chinese anger not so deep
Beijing's rhetoric over US spy plane has kept public calm.

Christian Science Monitor
TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 2001
By Robert Marquand Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2001/04/10/fp1s2-csm.shtml

BEIJING - A crowd gathers around an empassioned speaker in downtown Beijing. But nary a word is heard about spy planes.

Jingoism takes a back seat to the Backstreet Boys at this early April air-conditioner sale, with balloon-blowing contests and two young women dancing to the CD in sequins and platform shoes. A bit of Americana, almost.

Nine days after a US-China mid-air collision, the news media here continue to ratchet up demands for a US apology and rhetoric about a "hegemonic" and "bullying" America.

Yet while a similarly harsh tone is prevalent in Internet chat rooms, feelings on the streets do not run very deep. Chinese are expressing a mild mix of suspicion and admiration for the United States, and many echo officialdom in asking for an apology.

Many ordinary people have not heard of the incident, or don't think about it much. A surprising number also make a distinction between the plane dispute and the 1999 US bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, which they see as deliberate.

"I think of it as an accident," says Yang, a factory worker. "It is not all the Americans' fault. Some percentage is China's fault."

"I don't care what happens in Hainan," says Yu Li, who works for a Japanese air conditioner joint venture. "I care what is happening inside my company."

Still, say China experts, the episode is feeding into a well of national pride over China's past and its rising role, worry over a free-market future, a historical fear of always being injured by the foreigner, and a carefully nurtured suspicion about the US.

Educated and uneducated people alike speak of "how far the plane came" on its mission. "The incident occurred near the border of China. This was not a Chinese plane off Hawaii or San Francisco," says Mei Renyi, a political scientist at Beijing Foreign Studies Institute. "People in the know may be aware that spy planes have been out there for 30 years - but ordinary people don't," he says. "Most Chinese were offended by Bush's statement for quick return of the crew.... If this were a Chinese plane on American territory ... Americans and the Congress would make an uproar."

A taxi driver says, "We are too soft, too weak. We should stop spy planes with an atom bomb." He continues, "But I think they should send the hostages [sic] home."

Yesterday, after the fourth US meeting with the 24-member Navy crew, officials emphasized its success and reiterated the US goal of the crew's and the plane's release.

China's news is managed so that the average person will only see or read official sources, with their carefully controlled emotional content. Some Chinese websites will now allow uncontroversial "semiofficial" news to appear. However in recent months, a number of freer websites and dialogue groups have been blocked by officials.

At the outset of the April 1 incident, Chinese media kept the news at a minimum. But both TV and newspapers are now treating the affair, particularly the fate of missing pilot Wang Wei, as a major story.

Last weekend, Mr. Wang's wife was shown on television with top generals and party leaders. Next she is shown in a hospital, under care for stress. The TV switches to Wang's hospitalized parents, being treated for a similar malady. Wang's wife and his father read understandably emotional letters to President Bush. "The US claims to care about human rights so much, what about our rights?" says the elder Wang.

Western diplomats say China has more carefully kept feelings in check during this particular crisis. "With exceptions, the coverage has been much fairer than two years ago during the embassy bombing," says one. "At the same time, it is clear ... that China sees itself as the next great world power, and the foreigners are out to thwart that."

Some argue that keeping emotional content subdued serves several purposes.

"The leadership in Beijing is more worried about a crowd getting out of control, than about these spy missions, that's for sure," says a prominent scholar who requested anonymity. "You whip up a crowd ... and you have to worry about the crowd turning on you. The leaders were shocked at how quickly people were stirred in 1999," when tens of thousands marched in the streets and threw stones at the US Embassy.

In the course of normal daily life, serious disagreements may exist between elites, the new moneyed class, and working people. But when it comes to a national issue, everyone unifies, experts say. Still, a diversity of opinion exists - though perhaps not always with foreigners present.

When a former Air Force personnel director, Mr. Hong, is alone with an interpreter, he says, "The crew should not be returned until we clear up the Wang Wei search.... Mao unified China, Deng Xiaoping got Hong Kong and Macau back. What has Jiang done? I think there must one day be a war with the US [to get them out of Asia.]"

Yet an executive with a British joint venture, a Mr. Hu, doubted China's version of the story. "Why would the US attack a Chinese jet in a high-tech plane that is slow and carries 24 staff? Something's wrong."

Part of the background to Chinese perceptions is a history of isolation. Outsiders have often brought trouble. Ethnic nationalism plays a role as well; China is 93 percent ethnic Han. China has been opening gradually; today there is $115 billion total investment between it and the US, and several dozen McDonald's in Beijing. (The Big Mac is sold in China as the lu wu ba - or "huge incomparable warlord.")

The Internet is a wild card in shaping perceptions. "We are ready for war, America," and "Never let the 24 go," are some milder comments. In a recent Beijing University website dialogue, a student said "we should concentrate on our economy," rather than rattling sabers.

"You shouldn't underestimate the power of the Net," says a Western source who tracks Chinese electronic discourse. "But you shouldn't overestimate it, either."

---

At risk in China dispute: business
China passed Japan last year as the biggest US soy buyer.

Christian Science Monitor
TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 2001
By Ann Scott Tyson Special correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2001/04/10/fpcon-intl.shtml

WASHINGTON - As he watches the spy-plane standoff with Beijing drag on - amid loud threats of trade sanctions from Congress and calls in China for boycotts on American goods - Illinois soybean farmer Dwain Ford is worried.

Busy tilling his 1,700-acre corn and soybean farm for spring planting, Mr. Ford knows where he must sell a big chunk of his crop: down the Mississippi River, through the port of New Orleans, to China.

"We have to have the export markets," says Ford, noting that China this year outpaced Japan to become the No. 1 buyer of US soybeans and soybean products, with $1 billion worth sold since Sept. 1.

From Illinois to Florida, and Pennsylvania to California, American businesspeople like Ford are anxious onlookers in a diplomatic tussle that US officials warn could derail a vibrant US-China commercial relationship - dashing hopes for lucrative new markets once China enters the World Trade Organization (WTO).

"If this becomes a full-blown crisis, there is a possibility that investment and trade relations will be damaged," says Myron Brilliant, Asia manager for the US Chamber of Commerce.

"We have far too important a relationship - economic and otherwise - to allow this incident to broaden into a deeper crisis," he says, adding that chamber representatives and other US executives are engaged in a "dialogue" with Bush administration officials over the standoff.

Yet in Congress, even some staunch China-trade backers say they'll reverse course and vote against an extension of trade privileges for China unless Beijing swiftly returns the US Navy spy plane and the 24 American crew members detained since the plane collided with a Chinese fighter on April 1. Last week, nearly 30 lawmakers moved to cancel Beijing's trade benefits.

"The relationship is being damaged," Secretary of State Colin Powell said in a television interview Sunday. In the past week, US officials and lawmakers have called off China trips, dinners with Chinese diplomats, and announcements of China-related business to protest the holding of the crew. Mr. Powell stressed that "this situation has not improved [China's] chances of winning that [normal trade status] again."

The powerful US business lobby, often an outspoken advocate of advancing China trade, has issued muted expressions of concern to avoid any appearance of placing profits before the interests of American servicemen and women. Privately, executives have criticized the Bush administration's initial handling of the dispute as overly strident and America-centered.

But American entrepreneurs are also reacting to the standoff with a sort of "pinch me" disbelief, partly because they are not convinced that the political whirlpool swirling around the incident will be strong enough to drag down the surging US economic relationship with China.

"The economies of the United States, China, and Taiwan are so closely intertwined with one another - there is no way all this can suddenly stop," says Jim Shipley, vice president for marketing of Trading Wise Inc., an Orlando, Fla., firm that facilitates US business in China.

Over the past decade, total US-China trade multiplied nearly sixfold to reach $116 billion in 2000, according to the US Commerce Department. Today, the United States has emerged as China's top trading partner, as Chinese exports here last year ballooned to $100 billion worth of toys, shoes, clothing, electrical machinery, and other goods. American companies were also the source of nearly half of the $40 billion in foreign direct investment in China in 2000.

China, meanwhile, is one of the biggest growth markets for US exports, which tripled over the decade to $16 billion worth of commodities including air and spacecraft, power generation equipment, machinery, fertilizer, and oilseeds such as soybeans. Exports of US services such as banking have also expanded by an average of 18 percent a year since 1993.

Indeed, just as Chinese firms rely heavily on US markets, the China market is now vital for many US entrepreneurs such as Ford, who, like thousands of US farmers, is facing record yields and rock-bottom prices.

"Almost every other row of soybeans that grow in the United States is exported," Ford says from his Kinmundy, Ill., farm, 100 miles east of St. Louis. "Exports are almost double what they were last year, and China is half that market," says Ford, who also handles trade policy for the American Soybean Association.

Once a net exporter of soybeans, China is now a net importer, Ford says, pushing US exports of the crop to record levels, propping up sluggish $4-a-bushel prices, and easing the trade deficit.

US entrepreneurs anticipate that China's entry to the WTO will bring about even stronger and broader linkages between the US economy and China's market of 1.3 billion people. American firms, as well as Chinese officials, lobbied hard for Congress to pave the way for China's WTO accession by granting Beijing permanent normal trade status.

Once China gains WTO membership, the US would benefit from lower Chinese tariffs and unprecedented access and distribution rights in Chinese markets. China is also expected to benefit from expanded, more stable trade ties as well as the speeding up of market reforms designed to make its economy more efficient and competitive.

"We are all hopeful that this can be resolved, and we can make a push for China's WTO entry," says Mr. Brilliant.

Despite all the tensions, so far, most US firms are enjoying business as usual. "We are not concerned that the political problems with China will affect our business," says Charles Glazer, spokesman for Kennametal Inc., a Latrobe, Pa., toolmaker that owns a plant in Shanghai with 100 Chinese employees.

-------- terrorism

U.S. to Fight if Mental Illness Is Claim in Terror-Case Stabbing

New York Times
April 10, 2001
By BENJAMIN WEISER
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/10/world/10TERR.html

The government said yesterday that it would vigorously contest the use of mental illness as a defense by a Sudanese man accused of stabbing a jail guard in Manhattan last November while awaiting trial in the embassy bombings conspiracy.

A lawyer for the Sudanese man, Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, has said that his client may claim diminished mental capacity as a defense, citing the highly restrictive jail conditions under which he has been held since his arrest after the 1998 bombings.

But a federal prosecutor, Michael J. Garcia, said that if Mr. Salim mounted such a defense, the government would introduce evidence showing that Mr. Salim "counseled others to commit similar types of crimes" in a broader terrorism conspiracy before he was imprisoned.

"That would negate this theory," he said, "that because of these harsh prison conditions, Mr. Salim became somewhat incapacitated or crazy and became homicidal."

Mr. Garcia said prosecutors would show that "before he got to prison, he was the same way."

Mr. Garcia's comments came in a pretrial hearing yesterday in which Mr. Salim's lawyer, Richard B. Lind, said he would need more time to prepare for the stabbing trial if prosecutors intended to introduce evidence of his client's role in the broader terrorism conspiracy.

The judge, Deborah A. Batts of Federal District Court in Manhattan, yesterday set a trial date of July 2 for the stabbing case. Mr. Salim also faces a separate trial on terrorism conspiracy charges.

In that case, he is accused of conspiring with Osama bin Laden in a global conspiracy to kill Americans abroad that included the Aug. 7, 1998, attacks on the American Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, which killed 224 people and wounded thousands more.

Mr. Salim, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges in both cases, was to be tried along with four other men in the bombings conspiracy, but after the stabbing, his trial was separated from the others. No new trial date has been set.

Prosecutors say Mr. Salim's Nov. 1 attack on the guard, Louis Pepe, at the Metropolitan Correctional Center was part of a plot to take hostages and possibly get himself and other prisoners released.

His lawyer, Mr. Lind, had no comment after court yesterday.

-------- activists

Boldface Names
Free Advice From Actors

New York Times
April 10, 2001
By JAMES BARRON
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/10/nyregion/10BOLD.html

The stars at a riverfront party for ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.'S environmental group Riverkeeper included GLENN CLOSE, RICHARD BELZER, JOHN MELLENCAMP, CHRISTOPHER REEVE and a contingent from "The Sopranos" that had probably never been this close to a river unless a body was being dumped: LORRAINE BRACCO, JOE PANTOLIANO and JOHN VENTIMIGLIA.

So much of the talk was about water quality. But there was some talk about BARBRA STREISAND'S memo to Congressional Democrats accusing them of being "paralyzed, demoralized and depressed" since President Bush's inauguration.

CHEVY CHASE - who lampooned the 38th president, GERALD R. FORD, on "Saturday Night Live" in the 1970's - said he had no problems with Ms. Streisand's offering advice. "Every politician and every president I've known wants to be a movie star," said Mr. Chase, left. "And every movie star I've known wants to be president."

But CYNTHIA NIXON, who plays the lawyer Miranda on "Sex and the City," said too much had been made of Ms. Streisand's memo. "In this business," she said, "people ask your opinion about the most trivial and unimportant things, like what lipstick you wear or what stockings you buy.

"Who cares? You might as well express your opinion about topics that really matter, that make somebody think."

---

Demonstrators protest shooting of unarmed man

USA Today
04/10/2001
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2001-04-10-protest.htm

CINCINNATI (AP) - Police used tear gas to disperse demonstrators who threw rocks and bottles at officers early Tuesday as they protested the fatal police shooting of an unarmed man wanted for several misdemeanors and traffic violations.

After the crowd fled from outside police headquarters, a small group returned and threw rocks at officers. Police responded by firing bean bags. No serious injuries were reported.

"We tried to keep the situation from escalating any more," Lt. Col. Ron Twitty said.

At one point Monday night, there were about 800 demonstrators but the number dwindled to about 150 by midnight, police said.

Early in the demonstration, a brick was thrown through the glass entrance of the police building and the American flag was pulled down from the flagpole in front of the entrance and hung upside down, Twitty said.

Two people who allegedly smashed the windows of some downtown businesses were arrested, Capt. Michael Bolte said.

Timothy Thomas, 19, of Cincinnati, was shot to death Saturday by an officer who had chased him for several blocks. Thomas was unarmed.

He had been wanted on 14 warrants for misdemeanors and traffic violations, including driving without a license and failing to wear a seat belt.

Chief Thomas Streicher Jr. offered condolences to Thomas' family at a news conference Monday. He declined to say what prompted Officer Steve Roach to shoot.

"That's the focus of the investigation at this point," the chief said.

--------

anti-FTAA protests in Argentina

Organization: Community Network
From: "Edward Pickersgill" <Lab@assets.net>
Tue, 10 Apr 2001

UPDATE: This evening more than 10,000 converged in the streets of Buenos Aires to mrch from the National Congress building to the Sheraton Hotel where the 6th Business Forum of the Americas is being held and the interest of international capital will be presented to the FTAA/ALCA negotiations.

A diverse mobilization of 10,000+ took action marching to the doors of the Sheraton Hotel. The mobilization, diverse unions, farmers, student and parties of left, had arrived without any problems at the fence surrounding the hotel.

There were diverse columns met, the police began to repress armed withtear gas and rubber bullets and water cannons. The demonstrators were pursued and divided by the streets of the city, while the mounted police, assault cars and riot squads waited to attack. Currently the numbers of arrests are unknown.

Compañeros from Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Chile and more took diverse actions and are united in declaring \'NO to ALCA/FTAA\'.

The police today took action in the name of the owners of the capital,with its shields, its bullets, its gases and for those fighting against capitalism, the only possible defense is national and international mobilization. Updates will follow in the Argentina Indymedia newswire http://www.argentina.indymedia.org

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Lawyer: International law applies in nuclear weapon protest

April 10, 2001
By Michael A. de Yoanna
Colorado Daily U. Colorado
http://news.excite.com/news/uw/010410/university-143

(U-WIRE) DENVER -- When the Rev. Carl Kabat donned a clown suit and used a ladder to climb over the fence near a Minuteman III nuclear missile silo about 70 miles from Boulder, Colo., 20 months ago, he challenged the federal government in several ways, according to his attorneys at a hearing in U.S. District Court on Monday.

Kabat was in court Monday, along with about 15 supporters. Ved Nanda, a Denver University expert on international law, testified for Kabat. He said the United Nations Charter and other customary humanitarian laws are a compelling reason to explain why Kabat made the anti-nuclear statement.

On Aug. 6, 2000 -- the 55th anniversary of the day the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, -- Kabat and a handful of protesters gathered with signs to bring attention to the large field of 150 nuclear missile silos that dot the borders of Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska. The group converged at silo N-7, located just outside New Raymer.

Kabat wore the clown suit, he said, to represent "fools and clowns for humanity's sake." Inside the fence, he laid down ordinary bread and wine, elements of his faith, and a hammer to represent turning swords into plowshares -- an anti-war reference from the Old Testament.

Demonstrators then prayed for world peace. Kabat was arrested roughly more than an hour after tripping an alarm that alerted the 321st Missile Squadron at F.E. Warren Air Force Base. He faces federal misdemeanor charges for breaching the security fence, which is punishable with up to a year in prison and up to $5,000 in fines.

Nanda argued Monday that Kabat had a right to protest under international law. He also said that a 1996 advisory ruling by the World Court declared that the use of nuclear weapons is only legal in self-defense with an extremely narrow window.

The World Court, said Nanda, found the United States to be under legal obligation to reduce, if not eliminate, nuclear weapons systems like the Minuteman III because of the risk to civilians -- a concern established in the aftermath of World War II during the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi Germany.

U.S. Attorney George Gill, however, told Boland that international law does not apply to Kabat's case and that the proceedings should not be used to test the federal government's jurisdiction on such matters. "Suffice it to say that the U.S. Constitution, federal and state laws, are the law of the land," Gill said. "Not the Nuremberg Charter."

But defense lawyer Sue Tyburski, part of a team representing Kabat, said international law is recognized in the United States, adding that the United States has signed the United Nations Charter, the Geneva Protocol and other documents that cede powers to the World Court.

U.S. Magistrate Boyd Boland said he would rule on whether international law can be used as a defense before Kabat's jury trial begins on April 30.

Boland is also expected to rule on several other motions filed by the defense, including a request to determine if the missiles are aimed at any cities.

"I don't need to know which cities," said Walter Gerash, an attorney also representing Kabat.

He added that the Minuteman III is regarded as an offensive weapon with "first strike" capabilities. Each missile contains three warheads, each approximately 20 times more destructive than the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima.

Gerash said Kabat engaged in the protest because he understands the Minuteman III can create disproportional harm and the use of the missile should is unwarranted because of the possibility of an accident or other catastrophic event that causes such a weapon to be launched.

Gerash also argued that Kabat's action was a matter of free speech. However, Gill said the case is purely a matter of trespassing on federal lands controlled by the military. An FBI agent was in the courtroom to aid Gill in prosecuting the case. Gill said the FBI had conducted the investigation of the incident. Documents read by Gerash in court from the Air Force indicated that Kabat did not harm the silo or its surroundings, and according to an interview with a spokeswoman at Warren air base by the Colorado Daily in January, Kabat was never considered a threat during the protest.

Kabat's supporters fear that a guilty verdict would be tantamount to a life sentence because of Kabat's long record of similar protests dating back to the Cold War era. Kabat is one of a handful of original Plowshares demonstrators who first struck at the King of Prussia, Pa., General Electric Nuclear Missile Re-entry Division in 1980. There, members brandished hammers to damage the nose cones of two Mark 12A warheads and poured blood over company documents.

--------

Direct action victory

Tue, 10 Apr 2001

For 3 years The "No Tarmac Quarries At Bestwood" Campaign has been fighting Tarmacs planning permissions for two sand quarries between Bestwood Village and Bestwood Country Park in Nottingham. Today Tarmac has given up both planning permissions and agreed to hand over all the land to the Country Park, increasing the size of the park by a third. This campaign has been organised in the local communities in a decentralised and non heirarchical way. We have written letters, signed bulldozer pledges, dropped banners, held public meetings, issued our own newsletter, done pickets, shut roads, closed quarries, visited quarries at night, disrupted AGMs, caused chaos at EGMs and there have been spontanious acts of local sabotage. Although this has very much been a locally based campaign we wouldn't have got this far without the support and solidarity and hard work of folk in the wider EF!/RTS network. Thank you! Remember kids, Direct Action works!

Love, The "No Tarmac Quarries At Bestwood" Campaign & Notts EF!

---

JOIN THE FAST FOR OUR FELLOW STUDENT'S FREEDOM! - April 17

From: "Dan Beeton" <dbeeton@freeburmacoalition.org>
Tue, 10 Apr 2001

To Join, email Meighan Davis at mdavis@peace.edu For More Information and an updated list of participants, go to www.freeburmacoalition.org

JOIN THE FAST FOR OUR FELLOW STUDENT'S FREEDOM!

please distribute widely and, if necessary, translate

Fellow Students: We are a group of students from the United States, Malaysia, Portugal, Canada, and Burma. Please join us for a 24 hour fast on April 17th, 2001 to demand the release of our fellow student, Min Ko Naing, who has been a political prisoner in Burma for the past twelve years AND to protest greedy multinational corporations that continue to prop up Burma's brutal military dictatorship.

According to reports from diverse groups such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, US State and Labor Departments, and even the Wall Street Journal, Burma is ruled by one of the world's most brutal military dictatorships. Min Ko Naing, one of our generation's most dynamic student organizers and leader of a nationwide nonviolent uprising, was jailed in 1990 and sentenced to 20 years in prison. His crime? Doing something we take for granted: speaking his mind. He has spent the past 12 years in solitary confinement and many reports state that he can barely walk. Unfortunately, Burma's dictators are propped up by multinational corporations such as UNOCAL, Suzuki, Halliburton, and Premier Oil, and apparel (clothing) importers such as Warner Bros., Kmart, and Perry Ellis. We call on you, our fellow students throughout the world, to forgo food for 24 hours in solidarity with Min Ko Naing. In addition, we ask students to boycott all goods made in Burma and to pressure your universities to cease investing in and purchasing from corporations that operate there. Just as the anti-apartheid struggle exposed corporations supporting tyranny in South Africa, Burma's 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi has repeatedly stated that "Until we have a system that guarantees rules of law and basic democratic institutions, no amount of aid or investment will benefit our people."

We know that we will succeed. Already this semester, students at Peace College, University of Virginia, and London School of Economics passed resolutions calling on their universities to stop doing business in Burma. When the University of California, Berkeley, American University, and University of Missouri, Columbia kicked JanSport out of their campus stores for operating in Burma in September/October, 2000, JanSport backpedaled quickly, stating "Recently some collegiate licensed apparel was found to have been manufactured in Myanmar without JanSport's or the university's knowledge. This was expressly against JanSport's manufacturing policy. I assure you, JanSport was unaware... [and] immediately took steps to transfer the production to an alternative facility."

We refuse to stand by silently while Burma's brutal regime continues to imprison Min Ko Naing and greedy multinational corporations profit from the persecution of the Burmese people.

We must act now. Contact Meighan Davis at mdavis@peace.edu to join the fast!

Sincerely,

William Ho, University of Michigan, USA Andrew Price, University of Virginia, USA Meighan Davis, Peace College, USA Tiago Manuel Antunes, Portugal Erin Brennand, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada Sayed Hussein, Kolej Damansara Utama (University) Malaysia Ohana Foley, University of Hawaii, USA Kalista Popp, Virginia Tech, USA Min Zaw Oo, George Mason University, USA (and Burma) Anjanette Hamilton, American University, USA

---

nuke waste no way letter

Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001
From: Shundahai Network <shundahai@shundahai.org>

The following representatives say they are not hearing from their constituents concerning the nuke waste issues. We need to bombard them with letters now so they cannot use that excuse. Please send this email out to all of your lists.

Rep. Gibbons and Sen. Ensign need to hear from their constituents on the issue of Yucca Mountain asap. These letters are best written by hand but can also go out via email and typed.

Dear Representative:

We are very concerned about the proposal of transporting 77,000 metric tons of high level nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain. We don't want to see nuclear waste transported to Yucca Mountain for 30 years and we feel that this project is not based on sound science. Besides, what right does the federal government have to foist this ill-conceived plan upon us?

We understand that the Department of Energy might be making a recommendation to approve this proposal this year and since we live in the area that is being discussed, we want to know what you are doing to prevent this from happening. What specifically is your plan for stopping nuclear waste from coming to Yucca Mountain?

We appreciate any effort you put forth to oppose this plan.

Sincerely,

Your name address

Send this letter to: James Gibbons U.S. Representative 100 Cannon House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Email: mail.gibbons@mail.house.gov Web: http://www.house.gov/gibbons 202-225-6155 (tel)

Reno Office for Gibbons 400 South Virginia Street Suite 502 Reno NV 89501 775-686-5760 (tel)

Las Vegas Office for Gibbons 850 South Durango Drive Suite 107 Las Vegas NV 89128 702-255-1651 (tel)

John Ensign senator@ensign.senate.gov The Honorable John Ensign 414 Cannon House Office Building Washington, DC 20515

SHUNDAHAI NETWORK "Peace and Harmony with all Creation" Po Box 6360, Pahrump, NV 89041 Phone:(775) 537-6088 Email: shundahai@shundahai.org http://www.shundahai.org

------

IMF, W. Bank could cancel poor states' debt-campaign

Tue, 10 Apr 2001
From: Robert Weissman <jzern1@yahoo.com>

LONDON, April 10 (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund and World Bank could afford to cancel the entire $50.8 billion owed them by the world's poorest countries, a report by debt relief campaigners Drop the Debt said on Tuesday.

Citing research by a firm of London accountants, Drop the Debt reiterated its call for the two multilateral lending organisations to match the 100 percent debt relief commitment of G7 industrialised nations for so-called Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC).

"They should take a reality check and act now to cancel the debt. From today, the old excuse that they cannot afford to do so is completely demolished," said Drop the Debt Director Adrian Lovett.

The HIPC initiative was launched by the G7, IMF and World Bank in 1996 to help the world's poorest 41 countries boost spending on education, health and social programmes by using resources currently spent on debt servicing.

So far, 22 countries have benefitted from some relief under HIPC, but debt campaigners say progress has been too slow and too cautious.

World Bank President James Wolfensohn last week spoke out against the "hysteria" surrounding calls to extend debt relief currently on offer to HIPC countries.

"If you advance the notion that you have complete debt relief you will of course wipe out the World Bank...severely limit the (International Monetary) Fund, and in the end it will come back on your governments," he told a hearing in the German parliament.

The Drop the Debt report, to be released in Washington later on Tuesday, said raising HIPC debt relief to 100 percent would cost the IMF $368 million a year and the World Bank $353 million if applied to the original 41 HIPC countries plus Nigeria.

The losses could be balanced through a number of options, including using reserves to generate extra income, without impairing the two organisations' abilities to carry out their objectives, it said.

Wolfensohn said calls from some campaigners to offer 100 percent debt relief to 64 countries would cost multilateral lenders alone $175 billion, up from $70 billion at present and noted that the World Bank only had $29 billion in capital.

Drop the Debt, the successor organisation to the Jubilee 2000 campaign group which disbanded at the end of last year, said the 22 countries which have started to enjoy some HIPC relief are still spending more on debt than on healthcare.

This was particularly serious for the 17 HIPC beneficiaries in Africa which are spending $1.4 billion a year on debt -- virtually the same amount that the United Nations' AIDS organisation UNAIDS recommends they need to increase their spending by on combatting the spread of AIDS.

"The AIDS crisis is devastating Africa and the continent's biggest creditors, the IMF and World Bank, are still taking the money," said Lovett.

-------

Quebec's jail guards ordered back to work

CBC News
Apr 10 2001
http://ottawa.cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/2001/04/10/ott_jails010410

HULL - Quebec jail guards are back to work after they were ordered by Quebec's essential services council to end their so-called "study session."

The 1,700 guards staged a one-day study session to press their demand for a better salary.

A number of guards were arrested - 13 of them in Quebec City - when they tried to block the transfer of prisoners by provincial police.

The union says the guards are back on their jobs. They started the protest at 7 a.m. Monday.

There was some pushing and shoving on the picket lines Monday, as provincial police ferried prisoners between the jail and the courthouse.

In Hull, 30 guards were on the picket line and the provincial police moved in to maintain security at the jail.

The province's jail guards have been without a contract since 1999.

Their union is pressing for wage parity with guards in federal prisons. Currently, the gap between federal and provincial guards is about $8,000 a year.

------

Anti-nuclear protesters in Germany chain themselves to railroad car

Nando Times
April 10, 2001 12:29 a.m. EDT
The Associated Press
http://www.nandotimes.com/global/story/0%2C1024%2C500472113-500723477-504057560-0%2C00.html

FRANKFURT, Germany ( http://www.nandotimes.com) - Just as police announced they would take a tougher line with protesters, anti-nuclear activists on Monday chained themselves to a railroad car due to carry nuclear waste to a reprocessing plant in France.

Four activists from Greenpeace attached themselves to the car near the southern town of Wurzburg, police spokesman Hans Miesbeck said. Others climbed onto the car and unfurled banners calling for an end to the shipments.

The rail car was to be loaded with a container of spent nuclear fuel at the nearby Grafenrheinfeld nuclear power plant and sent with containers from two other plants to a reprocessing plant in the French port of La Hague.

With the shipment expected to depart as early as Tuesday, protesters have threatened a repeat of the massive demonstrations last month at the return of reprocessed waste to the Gorleben dump in northern Germany - the traditional focus of anti-nuclear protests.

That transport was delayed 18 hours by protesters who defied a huge police operation to attach themselves to the track using an elaborate system of pipes and chains. Police had to clear many more from sit-down protests.

Police in southern Germany said Monday they would fine anyone blocking the tracks $70.


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------- Depleted Uranium Keeps On Killing!