------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
Yes, cellphones are risky. Here's why
Russian forces help China in mock conflict
Charming Bush lauded after 100 days
PUBLIC COMPANIES: GOVERNMENT/DEFENSE SERVICES
China To Let U.S. See Plane
Iraq seeks Gulf war uranium check
Bush Discusses Missile Defense Plan With Allied Leaders
Bush Team Vows to Speed Up Work on Missile Shield
Nuclear fuel shipment sparks protest in Poland
Radioactive waste found at Swedish rubbish dumps
Swiss end ban on sending nuclear waste to Britain
Bush wants reduced offense, better defense
Cheney Pushes for Energy Development
Nuclear Profits
Cheney warns of possible blackouts
Whistle while you work

MILITARY
U.S. jets bomb Iraqi sites in northern no-fly zone
West Virginia
Taiwan ties arms buys to Beijing missile cuts
Britain allows soldiers to change their sex
A puff of smoke, then chaos at 4,000 feet
States
ALL OUT MAY 5th FOR VIEQUES, NYC!
Syndrome Returns
Whose Vietnam Story?
Bob Kerrey´s battle
House says beret buy flouted law

OTHER
South Dakota
Clinton accused of secret meetings in forest case
A Brotherly Feud Over Energy
Lead more harmful to kids than first thought
States
International misery fund
States
Riot prosecutors ignore violence toward whites
Ethnic Berbers clash with police
Stripper drawn into Hanssen spy case
U.S. Team on Way to Inspect Downed Spy Plane in China
U.S. plane inspectors head to China
China will let U.S. look at plane
State Dept.: Iran is No. 1 terrorist backer

ACTIVISTS
UK biotech firms demand protection from activists
Navy Bombing of Vieques Continues
Navy searches for demonstrators on bombing range
China sentences two members of banned sect
Louisiana


-------- NUCLEAR

Yes, cellphones are risky. Here's why

USA Today
04/30/2001 - Updated 07:24 AM ET
By George Carlo and Martin Schram
http://www.usatoday.com/news/comment/2001-04-30-ncguest1.htm

In the nondescript quarters of Congress' General Accounting Office, analysts are putting their final touches on a long-awaited report that once appeared to be the best hope yet for the 112 million Americans who regularly hold cellphones against their heads, trusting that all is well.

But unfortunately, the GAO auditors' draft seems to stop far short of being the clarion call that might have spurred Congress to finally get the U.S. government as involved as some European governments already are in safeguarding cellphone users. The GAO draft doesn't recommend federal funding for much-needed independent research, according to a report last week by correspondent Jeffrey Silva in RCR Wireless News, a trade publication.

Nor does the draft fulfill a specific requirement of Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., who requested the study along with Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass. Lieberman asked the GAO "to clarify what (health) risks may or may not exist" for users. The draft fails to do that, Silva reports. The GAO focused only minimally on lab experiments that showed cellphone radiation caused genetic changes in human blood cells and animal tissue - changes cancer experts consider a diagnostic marker of "high risk" for developing tumors.

The British and French governments fund wireless phone-safety research. And the British are the first to recommend warning labels alerting buyers that children shouldn't use the phones because their skulls are more readily penetrated by cellphone radiation.

But the U.S. government hasn't funded cellphone research, letting the wireless industry police itself. Food and Drug Administration officials say they see no evidence requiring regulatory intervention. Now, unless GAO auditors' significantly strengthen their report, America's cellphone users will have to depend once again on outside scientists and the news media, whose only power is persuasion.

Unfortunately, journalists' coverage of three epidemiological studies this winter produced mainly reassuring headlines saying the studies showed no link between cellphones and cancer. If journalists had paused to consider what the new studies were really saying - and not saying - we'd have a more realistic but less reassuring picture.

The studies, two from the United States and one from Denmark, weren't laboratory experiments, but statistical analyses of people who used cellphones and people who had brain tumors. These analyses had flaws, some of which were detailed in the studies' fine print:

Both U.S. studies, covering the early to mid-1990s, involved minimal cellphone use - an average of 2.5 hours or fewer a month, and most owners had used cellphones for less than three years. Today, millions use their cellphones for 20 hours or more a month and have for many years.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) study in The New England Journal of Medicine responsibly noted, "The most important limitation of our study is its limited precision for assessing the risks after a potential induction period of more than several years or among people with very high levels of daily or cumulative use." But many news reports didn't pick this up.

The studies were small and examined the wrong type of brain tumors. Tumors in almost all patients were located in interior regions of the skull that couldn't be reached by cellphone radiation, which penetrates only two inches inside adult skulls. In other words: The statistical studies only proved that tumors that couldn't be reached by cellphone radiation weren't caused by cellphone usage. That's hardly reassuring.

The NCI study of 782 brain-cancer patients published in The New England Journal of Medicine candidly noted that "a much larger sample would be required" to properly detect cellphone-radiation risks. The other U.S. study, of just 469 brain cancer patients, failed to mention its own size limitation when published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

It also dismissed as statistically insignificant its most chilling finding: a doubling of cancer risk in 35 patients in a small subgroup who had neuroepithelial tumors, which are near the sides of the head, close to a cellphone antenna.

Most importantly, these statistical analyses do not refute the alarming findings of lab experiments that seem to link cellphones to cancer, showing genetic damage in human blood cells exposed to cellphone radiation.

Will people who begin using cellphones as children or teens be high risks for developing brain cancer in their 40s or 50s?

So far, no studies can answer that. It will be 15 or 20 years before long-term epidemiological studies can either give us truly comforting assurance or flag real danger.

Until then, we must rely on laboratory experiments to give us the answers we need. Research funded and supervised by the government, not the industry, offers consumers their best untainted hope.

For now, cellphone users should take simple precautions - most notably, use a headset to keep the radiation-emitting antenna away from their heads - and read the fine print of any new studies that come in, not just the headlines.

Dr. George Carlo, an epidemiologist who headed a research program funded by the cellphone industry, and journalist Martin Schram are co-authors of the book, Cell Phones: Invisible Hazards in the Wireless Age.

---

Russian forces help China in mock conflict

The Washington Times www.washtimes.com
Published 4/30/01
Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20010430-27574504.htm

Russian military forces intervened in a mock nuclear conflict between China and the United States over Taiwan during strategic exercises that included Russian preparations to use nuclear weapons on U.S. forces in Asia, The Washington Times has learned.

The strategic exercises took place in late February and included practice bombing runs with Russian Tu-22 Backfire bombers that flew close to Japanese airspace, according to defense officials familiar with a National Security Agency analysis of the Russian war games.

"The Russians were practicing nuclear intervention against U.S. troops on Taiwan," said an intelligence official familiar with classified reports on the exercise.

In Moscow yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin met Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan as part of preparations for the signing of a treaty of friendship and cooperation between the two countries in July.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said the treaty "will play a great role in enriching the relations between our countries in all spheres." The pact also "will further strategic stability and security around the world," he said.

Disclosure of the Russia-China strategic military cooperation comes as the Bush administration is hardening its views on China.

President Bush last week shifted away from past ambiguity on whether the United States would defend Taiwan in a conflict. The president said the United States would do "whatever it takes" to defend the island. U.S. officials said Beijing interpreted that statement as a willingness by the United States to use both conventional and nuclear forces in a conflict over Taiwan.

A major strategy review now being conducted for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld will recommend a major strategic shift from Europe to Asia, specifically to deal with the emerging threat of China, according to Pentagon officials familiar with an early draft.

According to the NSA assessment of the February Russian war games, the Russians practiced fighting in Europe and Asia during one of the largest exercises in the past decade, the officials said. The intelligence report was based on communications among Russian forces during the maneuvers Feb. 12 to 16.

"The Asia scenario began with a Chinese military attack on Taiwan that was followed by the use of U.S. ground troops" on the island, said one official.

Next, China escalated the conflict by firing tactical nuclear missiles on the U.S. troops in Taiwan, prompting U.S. nuclear strikes on Chinese forces.

Russian nuclear forces then threatened to use nuclear missile strikes on U.S. forces in the region, including strikes on troops in South Korea and Japan.

Japan´s military sent jet interceptors to confront two Russian Tu-22 bombers and two Su-27 fighter-bombers that Tokyo said had violated Japanese airspace. Russia denied there were any violations of Japanese airspace.

A U.S. intelligence official familiar with the NSA analysis said the Tu-22s, which are equipped with long-range nuclear-tipped cruise missiles, were part of the Russian intervention on behalf of China during the simulated conflict over Taiwan. A second intelligence official, however, said he was unaware of the "Taiwan angle."

The European exercise involved a conflict between Russian and NATO forces a scenario practiced in past exercises.

The Asian exercise was the first time Russian forces had practiced fighting the United States in the Pacific region. It also shows the growing strategic partnership between China and Russia.

Russia and China have been moving closer together in what many analysts see as an anti-U.S. alliance. Moscow feels threatened by NATO´s inclusion two years ago of Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic, and China has begun turning against what it calls "U.S. hegemonism" since the 1999 U.S. air war against Yugoslavia. The Balkan conflict also angered Beijing because of the accidental bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, which China´s government believes was an intentional U.S. attack.

Intelligence officials said that during the strategic exercises Russia test-fired three strategic nuclear missiles, from land-based mobile launchers and from a submarine.

Senior Russian officials, including Mr. Putin and Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev, activated the Russian nuclear command and control suitcase known as a "cheget," officials said.

Marshal Sergeyev, the Russian defense minister, announced Feb. 19 that "all the designated targets were hit by the strategic missiles which were launched, as a training exercise, during the recent live firings," the official Itar-Tass news agency reported.

Two days later, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov met in Moscow with Zhang Wannian, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission. The two discussed "military-technical cooperation," according to official Russian press reports.

The two officials said military sales from Russia to China would increase 25 percent annually.

Rick Fisher, a specialist on the Chinese military with the Jamestown Foundation, said the Russian exercise on behalf of China is "completely realistic" based on the growth of Russian-Chinese military, technical and diplomatic cooperation over the past decade.

"If the report is true, it would appear to track with Russian reports last year that Russia will sell China new regional strategic weapons like the Oscar-class nuclear cruise missile submarine, Akula-class nuclear attack sub and the Tu-22M Backfire bomber," Mr. Fisher said. "All of this coming together would mean no more peace dividend and the beginning of the next Cold War."

Bruce Blair, a strategic nuclear specialist with the Center for Defense Information, said the Russian-Chinese military exercise, if true, would be a sharp departure from past Russian nuclear exercises.

"I´m not aware of any change in Russian-Chinese relations that would indicate any movement toward preparation for cooperation in nuclear operations, or in political commitment that would justify that intervention," Mr. Blair said in an interview.

"It does illustrate Russia´s reliance on nuclear weapons and the growing nuclear tension between the United States and China," Mr. Blair said. "And in a way it is consistent with this notion that we are going to focus more on China in our nuclear planning."

Mr. Blair said he believes the Pentagon strategy review will result in increasing the number of options and targeting of U.S. nuclear weapons on China, which currently is very limited.

U.S. nuclear targeting of Russia probably will decrease by 50 percent from current planning involving strategic land-based, sea-based and aerial nuclear weapons.

Russia recently revised its nuclear doctrine to lower the threshold for using nuclear weapons in conflicts.

The change was made to compensate for the poor state of Russian conventional forces, which have declined sharply since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

---

Charming Bush lauded after 100 days

The Washington Times www.washtimes.com
Published 4/30/01
Joseph Curl THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20010430-35615485.htm

One hundred days ago, a Texan came to Washington bent on changing the toxic tone in the nation´s capital and vowing to curb federal spending, rewrite the country´s tax code and overhaul the education system.

With 1,360 days left in his term, President Bush is well on his way to achieving his goals.

Congress is rapidly moving toward passage of at least a $1.3 trillion tax cut, as well as the core principles of the new president´s education package; his federal budget that holds spending increases to 4 percent was passed by the House and is now in a conference committee; and the partisan flames that raged on Capitol Hill for much of the last eight years are but smoldering embers.

"We´re making progress toward changing the tone in Washington," Mr. Bush said Saturday. "There´s less name-calling and finger-pointing. We´re sharing credit. We are learning we can make our points without making enemies."

In the process, the presidential candidate who pundits said lacked the skills and knowledge necessary to run the country has deftly handled an international crisis, increased his approval rating to 63 percent -- eight points higher than former President Bill Clinton enjoyed after his first 100 days -- and returned dignity to a White House stained by his predecessor.

"It turns out that he knows an awful lot about being president," said Stephen Hess, a presidential scholar with the Brookings Institution. "Maybe it´s genetic."

Mr. Bush´s easy charm -- the back-slapping, the winks, the nicknames -- has so far taken the bat out of Democrats´ hands. None wants to launch the first strike, preferring to wait quietly until Mr. Bush showed his true partisan colors.

They´re still waiting.

Out of the gate

Mr. Bush fired out of the starting blocks on Day 1. Minutes after he was sworn in on the Capitol steps -- his vanquished foe, Vice President Al Gore, just a few feet away -- the new president suspended a batch of 11th-hour orders approved by Mr. Clinton.

Hours later, he submitted his Cabinet nominations to the Senate and ordered a temporary freeze on hiring any new federal employees until the Cabinet was in place. In a rare Saturday session that day, the Senate quickly confirmed half of the president´s Cabinet on unanimous voice votes.

His first day in office was a study in irony: The oath of office was administered by Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who presided over Mr. Clinton´s impeachment trial in the Senate and the decision in the Bush v. Gore case that ended the Florida recount battle.

And Mr. Bush´s short speech -- in which he called on Americans to "build a nation of character" that values "conscience and personal responsibility" -- followed by mere hours Mr. Clinton´s last-minute pardons of 176 felons, an action that would lead even liberal newspapers to question his ethics.

As he traveled across the country later in his term, he brought cheering supporters to their feet when he repeated his campaign pledge to restore the White House´s dignity.

Yet he never mentioned Mr. Clinton by name, or brought up his predecessor´s sexual affair with an intern half his age. He never said a disparaging word about a senator or a congressman, preferring to highlight his own agenda.

And he steadfastly refused to get into a faceoff with the press, which was used to a diet of red meat stories since 1993.

In sharp contrast to the Clinton administration´s scorched-earth method of operation, Mr. Bush and his staff refused to comment on the pardons and other activities by the ex-president, preferring, as Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said dozens of times over the early weeks, to "look forward, not back."

But to assess Mr. Bush´s achievements in his first 100 days is impossible without keeping one eye on his predecessor´s behavior over much of the same period.

The lingering cloud

Perhaps Mr. Bush´s single greatest advantage in his young presidency was the fact that he was not Bill Clinton. Throughout his campaign, Mr. Bush had vowed to return "honor and dignity" to the White House, a pledge the national media all but dismissed even though Americans overwhelmingly believed the White Hose had been sullied.

But that same media eased Mr. Bush´s first weeks in office by continuing to cover the man who had never failed to supply an array of controversy.

Before questions arose about the presidential pardon of Marc Rich, a fugitive financier whose ex-wife contributed more than $1.5 million to the Clinton-Gore campaign and other Democrats, stories of vandalism and theft by departing staffers spilled out of the White House.

What began as a simple story of "pranks" -- the theft of "W" keys off White House computers -- blossomed into tales of slashed telephone lines, trashed offices, lewd graffiti on walls and pornographic images hidden in printers.

And as the media fed on dozens of questionable pardons granted by Mr. Clinton on his final day in office -- many that had never been reviewed by the Justice Department, as had been the established procedure -- new stories pushed the former president to the front page again.

The newly unemployed Mr. Clinton wanted the federal government to pay the $850,000 annual lease for space in a swank Manhattan office building. In addition, the Clintons had removed dozens of donated items from the White House that contributors said were meant to stay there.

For Mr. Bush, the lingering cloud of Mr. Clinton was an unexpected stroke of luck. "The nation is lucky if it has a lucky president," Mr. Hess said. "If you want to come in and be well-received by the press, it´s awful lucky that the guy going out does it in the tackiest way possible."

Mr. Bush refused to comment on any of the scandals. Instead, he worked under the radar: reinstating the so-called "Mexico City" restrictions on federal funding for overseas groups that advocate abortion, creating a White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, forming a task force on national energy strategy, sending Congress a prescription drugs proposal, and moving forward with his top priorities -- tax cuts, education, health care and national security.

His daily activities got obligatory coverage, but often under the fold or late in network newscasts. On some days -- as when a man armed with a handgun fired several shots and threatened to commit suicide outside the White House or when Vice President Richard B. Cheney was rushed to the hospital for a heart procedure -- the president fell off the front page altogether.

But Mr. Bush went about his business just the same, submitting his tax-cut and education plans to Congress, inviting more than 100 Democrats to the White House for lunches and meetings, even having the Kennedy clan over to watch a screening of "13 Days," a movie about the Cuban missile crisis.

The early foundation work would pay off when the media could wring no more out of Mr. Clinton and turned its focus back toward Mr. Bush.

Democrats defanged

Less than 24 hours into his term, Mr. Bush received the kind of gift money can´t buy. Even before the new president sat down at 7:28 a.m. Monday for his first day in the Oval Office, a Democratic senator announced he would co-sponsor a bill for Mr. Bush´s 10-year, $1.6 trillion tax cut.

Sen. Zell Miller, Georgia Democrat, had campaigned on a platform of bipartisanship and defeated his opponent with nearly 60 percent of the vote. Now he was making good on his pledge.

Then, on his first day, Mr. Bush made good on his own campaign promise of bipartisanship when he hosted a group of respected Democratic elders at the White House. By month´s end, he had met with dozens of House Democratic freshmen and leaders. Democrats, who hadn´t faced Republican control of the White House and Congress for half a century, were knocked off stride and slightly cowed.

"There´s a desire to be cooperative," Sen. Bob Graham, Florida Democrat, said on Mr. Bush´s second day in office.

By the end of his first week, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan delivered another priceless gift. He testified before Congress that a tax cut was the only prudent use of a $5.6 trillion surplus, which, he said, Congress would surely spend if the cash stayed in Washington.

Democrats gained some traction in the media with charges that Mr. Bush was neglecting the environment -- mainly because he abandoned an 85-country global warming treaty signed by only one nation, Romania, and refused to enact a measure left by Mr. Clinton that called for reducing arsenic levels in water to a percentage lower than occurs naturally in some parts of the country. But they soon ended their opposition to the tax cut and faith-based initiative. As it turned out, both ideas were wildly popular, finding support with three-fourths of Americans polled.

Over the coming weeks, Mr. Bush waded in where few Democrats expected: with the Congressional Black Caucus. The president, who appointed blacks to the highests ranks any had ever held in the federal government, invited all 38 members to the White House for coffee. (Some refused to attend, citing bitterness over the presidential election.) Mr. Fleischer later said the "cordial" meeting included "a lot of laughter."

At the meeting, caucus members voiced dissatisfaction over Mr. Bush´s choice for Attorney General, former Missouri Sen. John Ashcroft. While the president sought to placate their anger, he refused to back off his support for the conservative nominee. The next day, eight Democratic senators joined all Republicans to confirm the nomination.

While he sought dialogue with Democrats, Mr. Bush didn´t forget his conservative base in his first 100 days. He ended the American Bar Association´s influential 54-year advisory role in choosing Supreme Court justices and other federal judges, issued executive orders limiting organized labor´s control over workplaces and overturned workplace ergonomics rules that took effect four days before Mr. Clinton left office.

But his focus was on reaching across the aisle, and Mr. Bush achieved another first when he attended the congressional Democrats´ annual retreat, again vowing to "rid the system of rancor." After the meeting, Democrats were effusive in their praise.

"The tone has changed, there´s no question about," Mr. Hess said. "There is a new civility in Washington."

Mr. Bush has also wielded a hammer forged from support across the country when necessary. Over his first 100 days, he visited half the nation´s states, attending rallies and delivering speeches on his top priorities.

Mr. Cheney divulged part of the president´s strategy for winning approval of his initiatives when he told The Washington Times that Mr. Bush sought to put pressure on congressional members "who come from states where maybe there´s a split delegation and the Republican has already signed on and committed, or where we ran especially strong."

In Billings, Mont., Mr. Bush attended a rally with 12,000 supporters, including Republican Sen. Conrad Burns and Democratic Sen. Max Baucus. The president, seeking Mr. Baucus´ support for his tax cut and education plans, didn´t even have to ask him for it.

As Mr. Bush recited his priorities, drawing cheers with each one, he said simply: "I hope Senator Baucus supports me." In the second of silence that followed, a booming voice rang out: "How ´bout it, senator?" Mr. Baucus smiled sheepishly as Mr. Bush grinned broadly.

I´m not from here, I just live here

No president since Ronald Reagan has distanced himself from Washington as much as Mr. Bush. He ran as an outsider against the consummate insider -- the vice president -- but the campaign tactic was more than just words: his dislike of the inside-the-Beltway mentality was visceral.

"Sometimes the word coming out of Washington gets filtered," Mr. Bush said in Billings. "Sometimes it´s hard to get a direct message to the people. So I found the best way to get the message out is to travel the country."

As he sold his education plan in Columbus, Ohio, Mr. Bush said: "Washington is not the fount of all knowledge. In Washington, people deal with trillions of dollars and sometimes can forget that every bit of it is someone´s earnings."

Everywhere he has traveled, he has delivered a honed message on tax cuts, education, the military. But unlike his predecessor, he has also preached about the value of religion, the importance of character, the responsibility of parenthood.

Each practiced passage is greeted with cheers: The surplus is not the government´s money, it´s your money; I´m against a national education test and for local control of schools; you are being overcharged and I´m asking for a refund.

Democrats had harangued Mr. Bush for his tax plan, saying it was too large and would "blow a hole in the budget." But they soon gave up the fight.

"There were some last summer who said there´s no way anyone could possibly get a tax relief plan through the Congress," Mr. Bush said Saturday. "Yet the House and Senate have now both endorsed significant tax relief and are headed toward a final vote."

By the beginning of March, with public support for tax cuts growing, congressional Democrats introduced a nearly $1 trillion tax reduction plan, double the amount suggested by their failed presidential candidate. Mr. Miller said his party did so because other Democrats were signaling they would soon join him in support of Mr. Bush´s plan.

A few days later, Mr. Cheney told The Washington Times that while he would "really enjoy casting the tie-breaking vote in the Senate" on tax cuts, "I´ll bet most of them vote for it on final passage."

In an adept move, House Republican leaders on March 15 announced they were seeking a $500 billion increase to Mr. Bush´s $1.6 trillion tax cut plan, giving the president the chance to slap back changes to his proposal -- even if it came from his own party. Since then, he has said his plan is "the right size."

Front and center

Mr. Bush was thrust onto the world stage on April 1, when China detained 24 Navy crew members after their surveillance plane, damaged in a mid-air collision, was forced to make an emergency landing on Hainan island. Over the next 11 days, the president took a skillfully diplomatic line against the Chinese, letting Secretary of State Colin Powell handle delicate negotiations in order to get the crew back.

Despite China´s demand that the United States apologize, Mr. Bush and Cabinet secretaries offered only "regrets" over the incident. Near the end of the standoff, Mr. Bush began warning China about "damage" to their relationship.

As Easter neared, the Chinese capitulated and released the crew. Less than two weeks later, Mr. Bush approved the largest package of arms ever for the Chinese breakaway province of Taiwan.

The move angered China -- where he is scheduled to visit in October -- but not nearly as much as what he did next. On Wednesday, the president said U.S. military force is "certainly an option" if China invades Taiwan.

At the 100-day mark, U.S.-Sino relations are in flux. Many conservatives praise Mr. Bush for taking a hard line against China, which has used increasingly aggressive rhetoric over the past year.

He also played hardball with Russia and North Korea. When FBI agent Robert Hanssen was charged with for spying for Russia, Mr. Bush expelled 56 Russian diplomats for suspected spying. He demanded "complete verification" that North Korea had stopped developing and spreading weapons of mass destruction before resumption of missile talks.

Mr. Bush also made good on his pledge to work closely with U.S. "neighbors," traveling to Quebec City for the Summit of the Americas meeting of 33 North and South American countries.

The countries committed to a free-trade zone across the Americas by 2005, an achievement that eclipsed sporadic protests at the summit.

Mr. Bush then turned his attention to rising turmoil in the Middle East.

Unlike his predecessor, Mr. Bush in early March told Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon he would "not try to force peace" in the Middle East until both sides end the violence and show a willingness to talk.

At the end of the month, he sternly warned Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to stop the violence, but also counseled Israel not to overreact to increased violence and instead use restraint.

It was a directive he meant. In mid-April, Mr. Powell lashed out at the Israelis, calling their response to Palestinian shelling "excessive and disproportionate." Mr. Bush delivered the same message a day later. Israel and Palestine, having received the message loud and clear, began secret talks last week.

The Charm Factor

Early in his term, the media swooned over the earthy, plain-spoken Texan. What emerged was a spate of stories that catalogued what they dubbed "the Charm Factor."

The new president proved equally at home with the Republican Ladies´ Club as with the U.S. Army´s 3rd Infantry Division. At an education event at a North Carolina elementary school earlier this month, Mr. Bush winked at a woman in mid-speech, prompting an explosion of giggling. On a three-day swing to military bases in February, Mr. Bush snapped off perfect salutes as he shouted "Hooah!" to soldiers, drawing a hearty "Hooah!" in return.

As part of his outreach to Democrats, he even charmed the most liberal, those who had harangued Republicans and defended Mr. Clinton throughout his impeachment. At a White House ceremony that included members of the Massachusetts delegation, Mr. Bush named a U.S. courthouse in Boston for ailing Democratic Rep. Joe Moakley. Guests included fierce Clinton defenders Reps. Martin T. Meehan, Barney Frank, Bill Delahunt and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.

"I think the president was being gracious and that´s a powerful factor and a force," the Massachusetts senator said. "And I think he deserves credit for it. And we were very grateful. I´m delighted."

In contrast to his predecessor, Mr. Bush prefers to keep a lower media profile, allowing his press secretary to handle most commentary.

Mr. Bush held his first press conference in the cramped White House briefing room instead of the more ornate East Room where Mr. Clinton preferred to speak.

Mr. Bush gave reporters just an hour´s notice.

He then bantered with the aggressive flock, at one point chastising NBC´s David Gregory -- "It´s not your turn, but go ahead" -- and interrupting Helen Thomas´s interuption with, "I didn´t get to finish my answer, with all due respect."

He has exhibited a healthy ability to make fun of himself. At the Radio and Television Correspondents dinner at the Washington Hilton last month, he lampooned his infamous mangled syntax and grammatical misdemeanors.

"There is my most famous statement: 'Rarely is the question asked, is our children learning.´

"Let us analyze that sentence for a moment. If you´re a stickler, you probably think the singular verb 'is´ should have been the plural 'are.´ But if you read it closely, you´ll see I´m using the intransitive plural subjunctive tense.

"So the word 'is´ are correct," he said to laughter.

Two nights ago, at the White House Correspondents Dinner, Mr. Bush again displayed his self-deprecating humor.

-------- business

PUBLIC COMPANIES: GOVERNMENT/DEFENSE SERVICES

Monday, April 30, 2001; Page T14
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A19412-2001Apr29?language=printer

Lockheed Martin Corp.
6801 Rockledge Dr.
Bethesda, Md. 20817
301-897-6000
www.lmco.com
Founded: 1995
Revenue: $25.33 billion
Loss: $519 million
Loss per share: $1.29
Dividend: 44 cents
Stockholders' equity: $7.16 billion
Return on equity: NA
Stock: LMT (NYSE)
Assets: $30.35 billion
Market capitalization: $15.86 billion
52-week high: $39.50 (3/8/2001)
52-week low: $19.81 (4/17/2000)
Chairman and CEO: Vance Coffman
President and COO: Robert J. Stevens
Employees: 130,000
Local employees: 10,000

DESCRIPTION: Lockheed Martin is the Pentagon's top contractor and one of the world's biggest aerospace companies. Among its many products are the F-22 and F-16 fighter planes and the C-130J military transport plane; Atlas and Athena rockets; civilian and military satellites; and the Aegis combat system for Navy destroyers. It also offers systems integration services for both corporate customers and government agencies such as the U.S. Census Bureau and the Postal Service. A stand-alone subsidiary, Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications, offers satellite and fiber-optic communications services.

DEVELOPMENTS: Life has been a bit sweeter lately among the geese and pine trees of Lockheed Martin's corporate offices in Bethesda. After a nearly disastrous 1999, the company managed to find some peace last year, getting its finances under better control, installing new leadership and restoring its stock value. It took a $704 million loss in the third quarter because of huge one-time charges, but was profitable otherwise.

Lockheed Martin reorganized its far-flung operations, which were cobbled together during the company's merger binge in the 1990s. Its aeronautics businesses were consolidated into one unit, with headquarters in Fort Worth, and the space businesses became a single entity headquartered in Denver. Both operations have plants and offices in many states, however.

The company tapped a former General Motors executive to be president and chief operating officer last year, but he surprised his new colleagues by resigning after only six months, citing personal reasons. Wall Street analysts and company insiders celebrated last fall when the job then went to former chief financial officer Robert J. Stevens, an ex-Marine credited with making Lockheed Martin's finances manageable.

One of Stevens's efforts involved selling Lockheed's military electronics business to Britain's BAE Systems, which helped reduce the nearly $12 billion in debt that has weighed down the contractor's balance sheet. Lockheed Martin now wants to sell its IMS unit, a government contractor that collects child-support payments and maintains camera systems that identify red-light runners.

The company also rediscovered how to win a big contract last year, finally closing a long-delayed, multibillion-dollar deal to sell F-16s to the United Arab Emirates and scoring another contract to supply combat electronics to the Navy's next generation of aircraft carriers.

In addition, Lockheed Martin dusted off its reputation on Capitol Hill -- tarnished after cost and performance problems with several government programs the year before -- and won congressional approval to complete its purchase of Comsat Corp., the centerpiece of its efforts in the telecommunications market.

Several huge issues remain, however. Lockheed Martin is in an all-out race with Boeing Co. to win a contract to build the Joint Strike Fighter, a versatile warplane for all branches of the military that could be the biggest Pentagon program ever. That contract is supposed to be awarded this fall, but many experts think the program is in jeopardy.

President Bush has said he is not sure the nation can afford all the fighter planes the Pentagon plans to buy, raising the specter of cuts not only to the Joint Strike Fighter but also to Lockheed Martin's F-22.

General Dynamics Corp.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20160-2001Apr29.html
3190 Fairview Park Dr.
Falls Church, Va. 22042
703-876-3000
www.generaldynamics.com
Founded: 1952
Revenue: $10.36 billion
Net income: $901 million
Earnings per share: $4.48
Dividend: $1.04
Stockholders' equity: $3.82 billion
Return on equity: 23.6 percent
Stock: GD (NYSE)
Assets: $7.99 billion
Market capitalization: $13.93 billion
52-week high: $79 (12/29/2000)
52-week low: $48 (4/18/2000)
Chairman and CEO: Nicholas D. Chabraja
Executive vice president and group vice president: W. W. Boisture
Employees: 43,300
Local employees: 1,150

DESCRIPTION: General Dynamics is a defense and aerospace conglomerate operating in four business areas. Its aerospace unit makes Gulfstream business jets, while its combat-systems segment produces armored troop carriers, the M-1 tank and amphibious landing vehicles. The marine-systems unit builds nuclear submarines at Electric Boat shipyard in Connecticut and Arleigh Burke-class destroyers at Bath Iron Works in Maine. General Dynamics' information-technology segment supplies processing and surveillance systems for the military as well as telecommunications systems for commercial customers.

DEVELOPMENTS: With a reputation as one of the best-run companies in the defense industry, General Dynamics has stood by in frustration over the last two years as problems at other companies depressed stock prices for the whole industry.

Longtime investors also were leery when General Dynamics bought Gulfstream in 1999, because the business-jet market can be volatile. But so far Gulfstream has soared, reaching a record level of orders last year.

General Dynamics has made an aggressive effort to build an information-technology division from scratch, and last year it raised eyebrows by bidding on a major computer contract from the Navy alongside more traditional players such as Computer Sciences Corp. and EDS. While EDS ultimately won, General Dynamics executives said they hope they served notice that their company intends to become a major player in the field.

The company won a major contract in a more traditional business area last fall when the Army picked the team of General Dynamics and General Motors for a $4 billion deal to build a new generation of armored troop carriers.

General Dynamics continued its steady pace of acquisitions last year, buying a Spanish tank manufacturer in a rare example of a U.S. company entering the European defense industry. It also bought Primex, a U.S. munitions maker, and recently announced formation of a new aviation-services business.

Finally, in April, General Dynamics agreed to buy Newport News Shipbuilding for $2.6 billion in cash and assumed debt. The combination would create the Navy's dominant supplier and maintainer of ships and only supplier of nuclear-powered vessels.

The company hopes to get word this year on one of the Navy's biggest new programs, the effort to build a next-generation destroyer called the DD-21. General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin together are competing against the team of Litton, Raytheon and Boeing. But the program's fate is uncertain as the Bush administration weighs cuts in military spending.

On the political front, President Bush is expected to name recently retired General Dynamics executive Gordon England secretary of the Navy.

GTSI Inc.
3901 Stonecroft Blvd.
Chantilly, Va. 20151
703-502-2000
www.gtsi.com
Founded: 1983
Revenue: $677.75 million
Net income: $10.62 million
Earnings per share: $1.15
Dividend: none
Stockholders' equity: $58.48 million
Return on equity: 18.2 percent
Stock: GTSI (Nasdaq)
Assets: $227.07 million
Market capitalization: $43.66 million
52-week high: $6.47 (2/6/2001)
52-week low: $2.44 (5/11/2000)
Chairman and CEO: M. Dendy Young
Executive vice president and COO: John T. Spotila
Employees: 605
Local employees: 540

DESCRIPTION: GTSI is the biggest reseller of information-technology equipment to the federal government. It buys computers and other gear made by technology firms and adapts it to the needs of the agencies to which it sells. About 90 percent of GTSI's deals are with the federal government, with 55 percent of that in defense and 45 percent in other government agencies.

DEVELOPMENTS: For starters, the firm changed its name from the long-winded Government Technology Services Inc. to the acronym most customers already knew it by.

As the government continued to beef up its stock of technology equipment, GTSI enjoyed its third profitable year in a row, with $10.6 million in earnings.

During the course of the year, it reorganized its sales force and adopted a new strategy, which GTSI calls "solution sales" -- selling customers a batch of products designed to solve specific problems, not just peddling another piece of equipment. The company has access to more than 150,000 technology products produced by more than 2,100 manufacturers.

Maximus Inc.
11419 Sunset Hills Rd.
Reston, Va. 20190
703-734-4200
www.maximus.com
Founded: 1975
Revenue: $399.16 million
Net income: $30.47 million
Earnings per share: $1.42
Dividend: none
Stockholders' equity: $208.93 million
Return on equity: 17.8 percent
Stock: MMS (NYSE)
Assets: $256.90 million
Market capitalization: $672.33 million
52-week high: $37.50 (3/5/2001)
52-week low: $18 (10/18/2000)
CEO: David V. Mastran
Chairman: Raymond B. Ruddy
Employees: 4,205
Local employees: 550

DESCRIPTION: Maximus provides consulting and program-management services for numerous state and local governments in a broad range of areas, including health and human service programs, fleet management and information technology. Clients include the state of Maryland, Prince George's County, the Navy, Wisconsin and New York City.

DEVELOPMENTS: Maximus, the 26-year-old firm that operates services for government agencies, saw its revenues surge to $400 million in the year ending Sept. 30, with earnings also setting a new high at $1.59 per share.

In the past year, the firm won a three-year, $30 million contract for child-support enforcement in Baltimore and a two-year, $10 million expansion of its contract to enroll Medicaid recipients in New York.

In addition, the firm bought 3GI, a Williamsburg smart-card development firm, which, among other things, can post veterans' entire medical records on a card that they can give medical personnel when they need treatment at a veterans' hospital. Similarly, the Virginia firm has developed electronic dog tags for the Navy.

BTG Inc.
3877 Fairfax Ridge Rd.
Fairfax, Va. 22030
703-383-8000
www.btg.com
Founded: 1982
Revenue: $249 million
Net income: $4.44 million
Earnings per share: 49 cents
Dividend: none
Stockholders' equity: $40.21 million
Return on equity: 11 percent
Stock: BTGI (Nasdaq)
Assets: $107.38 million
Market capitalization: $50.91 million
52-week high: $9.25 (7/26/2000)
52-week low: $5 (12/26/2000)
Chairman, president, CEO: Edward H. Bersoff
CFO: Tom Weston
Employees: 1,448
Local employees: 463

DESCRIPTION: BTG is an information-systems and technical-services firm that provides solutions to complex information-technology problems for government and commercial enterprises.

DEVELOPMENTS: Over the past year, BTG has sharply increased its backlog of contracts; it now has $525 million worth of work, extending over the next three to seven years. Half of the dollar value of those information-technology contracts was won over the last year, with about 40 percent of the deals with civilian government agencies, an equal amount with the Department of Defense and about 20 percent with private companies and state and local governments.

The contracts include modeling and simulation of future military battles and the computerization of the testing process for students in North Carolina, Florida, Georgia and Virginia school systems.

But the company did lose $1.1 million in the quarter ended Dec. 31, as opposed to a $1.1 million profit in the same quarter a year earlier, as some federal contracting was put on hold in the aftermath of the drawn-out presidential election recount in Florida.

BTG made one acquisition in the past year, paying $14 million for the network-solutions division of SSDS Inc., a Colorado firm with 150 employees.

VSE Corp.
2550 Huntington Ave.
Alexandria, Va. 22303
(703) 960-4600
www.vsecorp.com
Founded: 1959
Revenue: $122.27 million
Net income: $968,000
Earnings per share: 46 cents
Dividend: 16 cents
Stockholders' equity: $15.79 million
Return on equity: 6.4 percent
Stock: VSEC (Nasdaq)
Assets: $31.52 million
Market capitalization: $13.82 million
52-week high: $8.13 (5/3/2000)
52-week low: $5 (11/28/2000)
Chairman and CEO: D. M. Ervine
President and COO: J. M. Todd
Employees: 600
Local employees: 249

DESCRIPTION: VSE provides engineering services to government agencies and support for other government contractors, primarily in the areas of defense, postal services and information technology. Its largest business unit, BAV, is a joint venture with consulting giant Booz Allen & Hamilton Inc. that helps foreign governments buy surplus U.S. Navy vessels.

DEVELOPMENTS: Last year was rough for VSE, whose profit fell 37 percent from the year before. The drop-off was partly because VSE had to take a big loss from the sale of its CMstat subsidiary, but margins and revenue also were down.

To make matters worse, VSE lost a major U.S. Postal Service contract in January of this year and had to cut 100 employees.

The company has taken several steps to try to turn things around. It replaced its president and chief operating officer last fall with Jim Todd from American Management Systems Inc. It named Computer Data Systems Inc. co-founder Cliff Kendall to the board of directors.

VSE also organized a new commercial business unit, called the Telecommunications Technologies Division. In January of this year, VSE bought the Collaborative Technologies and Environments business of Group Decision Support Systems Inc. to serve as a nucleus for the new division.

The company's chairman and chief executive, Don Ervine, said he expects revenue to continue to be flat in 2001, but hopes the recent moves will lead to better performance by next year.

Allied Research Corp.
8000 Towers Crescent Dr., Suite 260
Vienna, Va. 22182
703-847-5268
www.alliedresearch.com
Founded: 1962
Revenue: $107.74 million
Net income: $9.22 million
Earnings per share: $1.90
Dividend: none
Stockholders' equity: $47.62 million
Return on equity: 19.4 percent
Stock: ALR (AMEX)
Assets: $87.76 million
Market capitalization: $38.05 million
52-week high: $9.31 (9/28/2000)
52-week low: $6.15 (3/6/2001)
President and CEO: J.H. Binford Peay III
Chief operating officer: John G. Meyer Jr.
Employees: 417
Local employees: 7

DESCRIPTION: Allied Research makes ammunition in factories in Europe and sells it to countries in the Middle East. The company also has a burgeoning business providing electronic security systems.

DEVELOPMENTS: Higher oil prices may be a problem for most people, but not for Allied Research: Its customers in the Middle East tend to stock up on ammunition when their oil profits go up.

After posting a loss in 1999, Allied Research roared into the black last year with the spike in oil prices. Its revenue climbed by 83 percent compared with the year before. Much of that revenue was logged by Mecar SA, the company's ammunition-manufacturing unit based in Belgium.

While ammunition still accounts for about 80 percent of Allied Research's business, the company has been trying to diversify into electronic security to guard against the next drop in oil prices. At the end of 1999, Allied Research bought a Brussels-based video-surveillance company and has been building a security business around it.

The company hired some high-powered new executives early this year upon the retirement of chief executive Glenn Yarborough. J.H. Binford Peay III -- a retired Army general who headed U.S. Central Command -- joined as chairman, president and chief executive. Another retired general, John G. Meyer Jr., who had been the Army's top public affairs officer, signed on as chief operating officer.

-------- china

China To Let U.S. See Plane
Beijing Statement Moderates Rhetoric

By Philip P. Pan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, April 30, 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A20652-2001Apr29?language=printer

BEIJING, April 29 -- China offered today to let U.S. officials inspect the damaged Navy reconnaissance plane that made an emergency landing on Hainan Island, a sign the government is preparing to return the plane and may be trying to reach out to the United States after a month of incidents that have strained relations between the two countries.

The official New China News Agency said China has finished examining and collecting evidence from the EP-3E plane and, "in view of international precedents," has agreed to let U.S. officials visit the Lingshui naval air base where it has been stranded since colliding with a Chinese fighter jet April 1.

In Washington, Vice President Cheney welcomed the offer as an "encouraging sign." A Pentagon spokesman said a U.S. technical team could leave from an air base on Okinawa as early as Monday.

The Chinese news agency said negotiations were continuing over a "final settlement" of the dispute, and that the United States and China have agreed to discuss ways to avoid similar incidents through "enhanced consultation mechanisms on military maritime safety." Although it repeated the claim that the United States was to blame for the midair collision off southeastern China, the report dropped the angry anti-American rhetoric that has characterized previous coverage of the incident in China's state-run media.

The announcement was the first sign of a possible thaw in U.S.-China relations, which have been deteriorating since the collision and the 11-day detention of the plane's 24-member crew. Relations were further strained by President Bush's decision last week to sell $4 billion in arms to Taiwan and by an interview in which he said the United States would do "whatever it took" to defend Taiwan against a Chinese attack.

Although China hinted last week that it might retaliate for the arms sale to Taiwan by selling weapons to countries the United States considers dangerous, it has responded with only verbal fury so far. Chinese and U.S. analysts say Beijing has tried to avoid a total collapse in its relationship with the United States, in part because $115 billion in annual bilateral trade helps keep the Chinese economy growing, which in turn helps keep the Communist Party in power.

The Bush administration could anger Beijing further if it issues a visa to Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian, allowing him to stop in the United States before and after a two-week trip to Latin America next month. Beijing considers Taiwan part of China and, in its effort to isolate the democratic, self-governing island of 23 million, has sought to stop any senior Taiwanese official from traveling overseas.

Last year, during his first trip abroad as president, Chen stopped in Los Angeles but, under pressure from the Clinton administration, avoided high-profile meetings with U.S. lawmakers. This time, Chen hopes to meet with ranking members of Congress during stops in New York and Houston.

China's decision to allow U.S. personnel to examine the surveillance plane on Hainan Island could be aimed at persuading the Bush administration to block Chen's visa. The announcement was made a day after the Foreign Ministry issued a statement warning that allowing Chen to visit the United States would further harm relations.

China already has protested the U.S. decision to issue a visa to Taiwan's former president, Lee Teng-hui, also for May. In 1995, Beijing was infuriated when the United States let Lee to travel to his alma mater, Cornell University, where he gave a speech on Taiwan's democratization. A year later, China carried out large-scale military exercises, firing missiles near Taiwan's two largest ports.

China did not say today when the American inspection team would be allowed to visit Hainan Island, or whether the plane would be returned. Washington has demanded the immediate return of the $80 million aircraft, which is too damaged to fly. China demands that the United States accept responsibility for the collision, which killed its fighter pilot, and halt all surveillance flights off its coast. The United States blames dangerous flying by the F-8 pilot, Wang Wei, who is lauded as a martyr in China.

"The fact that they have now announced that they are willing to have U.S. personnel go in and look at the aircraft and assess what it is going to take to get it back, I think is very positive," Cheney said on Fox News Sunday.

The New China News Agency said the United States agreed to consider "making a payment to the Chinese side," and that another round of negotiations was planned to determine "the specific amount of the U.S. payment and the items to be covered."

But Cheney denied that the United States had agreed to any compensation other than "whatever costs are associated with recovering the aircraft in terms of transportation, barge, cranes.

"It's not flyable," he said of the plane. "The nose is gone from it, all of the instruments don't work, two of the engines are out. . . . Somebody's going to have to go in and load it on something and transport it out, probably a barge or something."

White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card said, "we will pay to remove the aircraft in terms of getting cranes or whatever aspect of contracted work may have to be done to remove the aircraft, but there's no compensation to China for holding the aircraft." Whatever form of retrieval is recommended, he said, the inspection should also "give us a better understanding of exactly what happened."

Cheney said he assumed the Chinese had obtained some intelligence information from the plane, which was loaded with secret eavesdropping equipment, but "the really sensitive stuff, things like software and so forth" were destroyed by the crew before landing.

Cheney and other White House officials emphasized that Bush's warning that the United States would do whatever it takes to help defend Taiwan against a Chinese invasion, abandoning two decades of deliberate U.S. ambiguity on the question, was not a mistake.

Ambiguity "may be OK in diplomacy sometimes," Cheney said, "but when we get into the area where one side is displaying [an] increasingly aggressive posture, if you will, toward the other, then it's appropriate to clarify here that in fact we're serious about this. It is an important step for the United States, and we don't want to see a misjudgment on the part of the Chinese."

Card agreed, saying on ABC's "This Week" that Bush's statement was "the right thing to do in the context of China and Taiwan."

Staff writer George Lardner Jr. contributed to this report from Washington.

-------- depleted uranium

Iraq seeks Gulf war uranium check Special report: Iraq

The Guardian
Monday April 30, 2001
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/

Special report: depleted uranium
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uranium/

Paul Brown in Kosovo The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,480439,00.html

Iraq and Kuwait have separately asked for an independent assessment of the health hazards to local people and soldiers of the depleted uranium ammunition, used in battle for the first time in the Gulf war 10 years ago.

The requests were revealed yesterday by Pekka Haavisto, head of the Balkans depleted uranium assessment team, who has been asked to take on the job.

His team has just completed an investigation for the UN Environment Programme of the nine tonnes of depleted uranium used in the Nato assault on Serbian forces in Kosovo. The mineral is used to reinforce the tips of armour-piercing munitions.

In the Gulf war, 350 tonnes were used in attacks on Iraqi armour, but no independent study of its dangers has ever been made, partly because of Nato resistance. Both Iraq and Kuwait have a potentially deadly problem of uncleared DU ammunition.

Iraq asked the UN secretary general Kofi Annan to help, and Kuwait approached the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.

US and British veterans of the war to expel Iraq from Kuwait suspect that depleted uranium is the cause of Gulf war syndrome, the unexplained illnesses suffered by many of those who served in the conflict. Iraq has blamed it for a rash of childhood cancers.

The team's findings in Kosovo have gone a long way to dispel fears that the mildly radioactive ammunition will have a long-term effect on the health of local people.

But in the Gulf it may be a different story. The hot, dry climate and the volume of ammunition used may mean there is a far greater and continuing hazard.

Dr Haavisto gave his final report on the Kosovo study at the Djakova garrison, near the Albanian border, where 300 DU rounds were fired. The garrison is one of 120 sites in Kosovo where such ammunition was used.

Criticising Nato for delays in telling his team where DU was used, he said it was clear that some shells had been found and removed before it arrived on the scene.

Some rounds had penetrated concrete foundations and were buried deep in the soil beneath. Even so, detectors at the point of entry registered 15 times the normal level of background radiation.

Dr Haavisto said research in Kuwait and Iraq would be hampered by the passage of time. The large number of tanks destroyed in the Gulf war by depleted uranium rounds meant that a great deal of toxic dust had been released. Since there was virtually no rain, the dust could still be blowing around, he said.

Until the team arrived it was impossible to tell how much of a threat threat remained. "But radioactivity does not go away," he said. "We should be able to find enough evidence to try and assess the present risks to health, and something of the past."

There was no such dust to worry about in Kosovo because the team had not found no armour had actually been hit with such rounds. Most of the armour-piercing rounds had burrowed into the ground, probably as much as two metres deep.

Where ammunition was known to be buried, as at Djakova, any risk could be removed by covering the area with concrete.

He recommended the local authorities to test the water supply routinely to see if there was depleted uranium present. It was not known how long the uranium would take to seep through the soil but it could appear in the water supply in 10 years.

This summer Dr Haavisto's team hopes to investigate Bosnia, where three tonnes of the ammunition was used five years ago. The main purpose was to assess claims of a higher incidence of cancer in some villages, and to check the water supply.

He also criticised the US because traces of uranium 236 - an isotope found only in spent nuclear fuel - and plutonium had been found in the Kosovo armour-piercing rounds. The tiny amounts did not increase the risk to local people, but it was "a little bit alarming".

-------- missile defense

Bush Discusses Missile Defense Plan With Allied Leaders

New York Times
April 30, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Missile-Defense.html

WASHINGTON -- President Bush spoke by telephone Monday with the leaders of four major U.S. allies and with NATO's chief to discuss his plan for building defenses against ballistic missiles.

On Tuesday, Bush is scheduled to outline his plan -- as well as his intentions to further reduce the number of U.S. nuclear weapons -- in a speech at the National Defense University in Washington.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Bush spoke with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, French President Jacques Chirac, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, as well as Lord Robertson, secretary-general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

The European allies have been cool to the idea of a large-scale U.S. missile defense, knowing that the Russians view it as an attempt by the United States to establish absolute military dominance. China also is strongly opposed.

"The message to Russia is that the development of a missile defense system -- so we can think beyond the confines of the Cold War era -- is the best way to preserve the peace," Fleischer said.

The missile defense favored by Bush is a shield of global reach rather than covering only U.S. territory. It bears a striking resemblance to the approach his father's Pentagon was pursuing a decade ago.

Rose Gottemoeller, a nuclear weapons expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said Monday that Bush may be willing to commit the United States to reducing its nuclear arsenal to a range of 1,500 to 2,000 warheads, which compares with the 2,000-2,500 range President Clinton had accepted.

On missile defense, the question Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has been mulling is how to go beyond the current approach that is focused on a land-based intercept system designed to protect just the 50 U.S. states.

One approach reported to be under consideration by Rumsfeld and Bush is known as a "layered" missile defense.

It might combine the Clinton approach, which would use ground-launched rockets to intercept missiles midway through flight, with sea- and space-based weapons that would make the intercept during the hostile missile's ascent phase, or while its rocket plume was still burning inside the atmosphere.

The result -- if it worked -- would be a missile defense system with global reach.

Brig. Gen. Michael Hamel, director of space operations for the Air Force, said last week he supports that approach.

"Layered missile defense is absolutely the right way to go," he said.

More than 30 scientists and missile experts who oppose the administration's push for missile defense planned to gather at the Capitol on Wednesday to assert that the science of missile defense is too immature to justify moving ahead with a project expected to costs tens of billions of dollars.

The administration has made clear it will press ahead; when, at what cost and with what blueprint are the only questions.

How far-reaching a missile defense should be is a sensitive issue.

For one, it affects the degree of political support by Canada and U.S. allies in Europe. It also bears on the prohibitions against certain missile defenses spelled out in the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty.

The first Bush administration believed that with the demise of the Soviet Union the emphasis in missile defense should shift from protection of the United States against an attack by thousands of nuclear missiles to protection of America and its allies against perhaps several dozen missiles of any origin.

It was called Global Protection Against Limited Strikes, or GPALS, and was made public at a Pentagon news conference Feb. 12, 1991.

The official who presented the $32 billion plan was Stephen J. Hadley -- then an assistant secretary of defense, now a deputy national security adviser to Bush. The defense secretary at the time was Dick Cheney, now the vice president.

Rumsfeld may come up with a different acronym, but the concept of global protection is likely to be a key aspect of whatever missile defense program the administration decides to pursue, in the view of many private analysts who follow the subject closely.

"After the president's speech we will no longer talking about national missile defense," but instead a global or international approach that is much broader -- and probably much more expensive -- than the Clinton administration was developing, said Joseph Cirincione of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Alan Frye, an arms control expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, said he believes, based on his contacts with administration officials involved in the matter, that Bush will adopt a GPALS-like approach. He also thinks it highly unlikely Bush will announce a U.S. withdrawal from the ABM treaty, but rather that he is willing to discuss possible missile defense cooperation with the Russians.

Morton Halperin, director of policy planning at the State Department during the Clinton administration, said he believes the Russians would be more likely to engage in missile defense talks if Bush also committed to reducing the U.S. offensive nuclear arsenal to 1,500 or 1,000 warheads.

The United States now has about 7,200 active warheads and is committed to cutting to 3,500; Clinton favored cutting to 2,500, although that has not been made a binding commitment.

Rumsfeld has made a point lately of saying that he has stopped using the term "national missile defense," because "what's `national' depends on where you live," as he put it to reporters March 8. His point was that if a U.S. missile defense is capable of protecting, say, Japan, then it is "national" to the Japanese but is global to everyone else.

---

Bush Team Vows to Speed Up Work on Missile Shield

New York Times
April 30, 2001
By MICHAEL R. GORDON with STEVEN LEE MYERS
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/30/world/30MISS.html

LONDON, April 29 - The Bush administration has put its European allies on notice that it intends to move quickly to develop a missile defense and plans to abandon or fundamentally alter the treaty that has been the keystone of arms control for nearly 30 years.

The administration's position on the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty, which sets strict limits on the testing and deployment of antimissile systems, has been communicated privately to NATO allies. And it was expressed publicly in Europe in an unusually frank address last week by a senior State Department official.

"We will deploy defenses as soon as possible," Lucas Fischer, the deputy assistant secretary of state for strategic affairs, told the Danish Parliament. "Therefore, we believe that the ABM treaty will have to be replaced, eliminated or changed in a fundamental way."

The missile defense issue will come to the fore this week, and the scale of the program and the almost urgent way the administration is proceeding are likely to heighten debate over the system. On Tuesday, President Bush is to deliver a speech at the National Defense University on his plans to develop a missile shield in conjunction with cuts in nuclear arms, steps he pledged during the presidential campaign.

A senior Pentagon official said today that Mr. Bush would present a broad vision of missile defense but not a specific program. The president will make clear that his administration is moving beyond the ABM treaty. It will be a statement of intent, the official said, expressed in "very choice" words.

American officials say the Pentagon is developing plans for a multilayered system that would involve ship-based radars and interceptors, in addition to land-based and space- based elements. A panel appointed by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has recommended vastly increased spending on the development of an airborne laser and, in the longer-term, a space-based laser. Decisions about the design are to be announced later in May, the Pentagon official said.

After Mr. Bush's speech, the administration plans to dispatch teams of senior officials to allied capitals in Europe and Asia to outline the administration's proposals for moving ahead with missile defenses, a policy that is contentious at home and abroad, and which has drawn sharp objections from Moscow and Beijing.

In addressing the Danish Parliament, Mr. Fischer said the aim of the missile defenses is to defend not only against attacks from rogue states like Iran or Iraq but also against accidental or unauthorized launches. That means the defense system needs to have some capacity to counter the launching of Russian and Chinese missiles.

In terms of effectiveness, Mr. Fischer signaled that the administration has set a low standard. The goal would not necessarily be to provide an air-tight defense against even a small attack. It would be enough to complicate "a prospective opponent's calculation of success, adding to his uncertainty and weakening his confidence," he said.

He also said the administration believed that the system should use "the best technologies available," opening the door not only to land- based systems but to sea-based and space-based systems as well.

His audience was important because Denmark governs Greenland, the site of an American missile- warning radar that Washington would also certainly seek to upgrade as part of its missile defense plan.

In Europe, allied governments have been notably unenthusiastic about the plans for a missile defense. But they have grudgingly indicated that they were prepared to go along with a limited antimissile defense with conditions: Washington should consult first with its allies, and a way should be found to reconcile missile defenses with arms control and a working relationship with Moscow.

The fast pace and ambitious nature of the administration's antimissile defense program - and the administration's renewed vow to jettison or fundamentally rewrite the treaty - is likely to reinvigorate the trans-Atlantic debate.

The accord, which was concluded between Moscow and Washington, was seen for decades as the cornerstone for strategic arms control. And while European officials increasingly agree that the treaty should be revised or updated, they are anxious about getting rid of it without knowing what arrangement would replace it.

"Europe is prepared to accept some kind of missile defense but only if it involves cooperation with Russia on modifying the ABM treaty," said Ivo Daalder, a specialist on European security issues with the Brookings Institution in Washington. "But the implication of the Bush administration plan is that the ABM treaty as we know it is dead. There is no way you can fit the administration's kind of missile defense plan within the treaty."

To make its missile defense plan more palatable, the Bush administration has signaled its intention to make deep cuts in nuclear arms, including unilateral measures. Such steps could include taking some American missiles and bombers off alert as well as making unilateral cuts in the American nuclear arsenal, which currently exceeds 7,000 weapons. The administration's hope is that the cuts may reassure the Russians. And the administration is also calculating that such moves will persuade the allies and the American public that missile defense is not incompatible with some form of arms control.

But it remains to be seen if the prospect of deeper cuts will be enough of a lure for Moscow. The United States is already committed to cutting its strategic nuclear warheads to 3,500 under Start II, the 1993 strategic arms reduction treaty, and the Clinton administration was prepared to reduce the American arsenal to 2,500 as part of follow-on accord, which has yet to be negotiated.

But Russia faces enormous budgetary problems in sustaining its arsenal and has urged that the number of nuclear warheads be slashed to 1,500 on each side. At the same time, however, Moscow has argued that Washington's pursuit of a missile shield will undermine the basis for existing and future strategic arms treaties.

And if Moscow does not accept the administration's missile defense plan and insists that it means an end to strategic arms treaties, it is unclear if the sort of unilateral cuts the administration has in mind will be seen by the American allies as an adequate substitute for formal arms- control agreements, which are legally binding on both the United States and Russia and have provisions for on-site verification.

Much also depends on whether the allies believe that the Bush administration is committed to genuine consultations or whether it has made up its mind already. "The bottom line is whether the allies are told this is a finished plan or whether their views will be taken into account in the final design of the architecture of the system and in the combination of arms control measures," said Constance Stelzenmüller, a security expert at the German newspaper Die Zeit.

By all accounts, the Bush administration's approach is fundamentally different from that of the Clinton administration, which designed a more limited system.

The Clinton administration's system involved the deployment of 100 interceptors and the construction of a battle-management radar on Shemya island in the Alaskan Aleutians. The goal was to persuade the Russians to amend the ABM treaty, not to replace it.

But conservative Republicans, including those in top positions in the Bush administration, derided that approach. They have argued that the Clinton administration was avoiding some of the most promising antimissile technologies so that it could preserve a cold-war-era treaty.

It is not clear when a missile defense might be deployed or how well it might work. Conservatives have long wanted to move quickly to breach the strict limits that the ABM treaty sets on the testing and deployment of antimissile systems. Their goal is to make the accord a dead letter and put the United States on an irreversible path toward missile defense, even if it takes a decade or longer to develop a substantial system.

In keeping with the Bush administration's approach, the Pentagon has proposed sharply increasing spending on the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, which oversees the development of defensive systems and which currently has an annual budget of $4.4 billion.

According to a briefing paper that circulated in the Pentagon in the last week, a panel appointed by Mr. Rumsfeld proposed vastly increasing the spending pool, with $2.7 billion over six years for accelerated work on an airborne laser system and $2.3 billion to accelerate a space- based laser system. The panel also recommended spending $2.8 billion over six years to expand the Navy's theater defense system, based on Aegis-equipped warships.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell told Congress last week that when the Russian foreign minister, Igor Ivanov, goes to Washington for talks next month, the administration will inform him of its total commitment to missile defense.

"If one moves in the direction of missile defense, at some point you hit the limits prescribed by the ABM treaty," General Powell said. "And I will be discussing with Minister Ivanov our commitment to move forward and how he has to understand and our friends have to understand, that something has to give way at that point."

-------- poland

Nuclear fuel shipment sparks protest in Poland

POLAND: April 30, 2001
Story by Marta Karpinska
REUTERS
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10650

SZCZECIN, Poland - Anti-nuclear activists blocked railways to the Baltic seaport of Szczecin yesterday to protest against planned shipments of nuclear fuel through Poland to the controversial Czech power plant, Temelin.

About 40 Polish activists and Greenpeace members from Austria and Germany also put flags with nuclear warning signs on navigation buoys in Szczecin harbour.

The protest followed last weekend's shipment of U.S.-made nuclear fuel, which reached Temelin after being carried by rail through western Poland.

"We don't know when the next ship will come, so we are doing the action now," Greenpeace spokesman Franko Petri told Reuters. "We are also painting the rails with yellow colour to show the Polish people that there will be a nuclear fuel transport on the way to Temelin soon," he added.

Temelin - a $2.6 billion nuclear power plant in the southern Czech Republic, just over 50 km (31 miles) from its border with Austria - has been running on a test basis since the reactor started up in October.

It has been fiercely opposed by Austrian environmentalists, who have staged border blockades demanding closure of the station, which they say may be unsafe.

Last weekend Poland handled a U.S. shipment of 23 tonnes of uranium oxide rods bound for Temelin. The rods were unloaded in Szczecin and transported to the Czech Republic by train under tight security.

No major incidents were reported, largely as a result of Polish officials keeping the operation under wraps.

Polish government officials have not said when they expect the next fuel shipment, citing freight security reasons.

Protesters said the government had no right to conceal the timing of the two or three further freights expected.

"We knew there would be no transport today, but our action is targeted against keeping future transports a secret," said Jakub Szumin, the head of local environment organisation Gaja.

Sunday's protest - rare in Poland because the country has no nuclear power plants - was largely symbolic as the rails on which the demonstrators sat are rarely used.

The Temelin plant, which combines a Russian-made reactor with a control system made by U.S firm Westinghouse, has suffered several shutdowns because of vibrations and a crack in steam piping in the turbine in its non-nuclear generation section.

But a recent Czech-led independent commission, which included observers from the European Union, Austria and Germany, gave Temelin high marks in an environmental impact study.

-------- sweden

Radioactive waste found at Swedish rubbish dumps

SWEDEN: April 30, 2001
REUTERS
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10654

STOCKHOLM - Sweden's nuclear safety watchdog said last week radioactive waste from industry had been found at normal waste tips and that it had started an investigation into the matter.

"This is really bad as it increases the health risks and we are now working to raise the awareness within industry and other institutions which produce radioactive waste," Carl-Goran Stalnacke, spokesman at the watchdog, told Reuters.

The radioactive waste found at the tips came largely from measuring instruments used in industry, hospitals and universities, he said.

Handling of radioactive waste, which increase the risk of sterility and cancer, is very costly and some companies dump their radioactive waste as normal rubbish to save costs. Others seemed unaware the waste was radioactive, he said.

Leif Andersson, CEO at Sweden's radioactive handling company, Studsvik RadWaste, said it costs about 1,000-10,000 crowns ($99-987) for a company to send its waste to RadWaste.

Stalnacke also said many seemed unaware that the measuring instruments contained radioactive elements. He said he hoped the investigation would boost awareness among users of such measuring tools.

-------- switzerland

Swiss end ban on sending nuclear waste to Britain

SWITZERLAND: April 30, 2001
REUTERS
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10664

BERNE - Switzerland has lifted its ban on sending spent nuclear fuel rods to Britain for reprocessing after winning assurances that a British plant had tightened safety standards, the Swiss regulatory agency said on Friday.

The Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate (HSK) had blocked Swiss nuclear waste shipments to the Sellafield reprocessing plant, northwest England, in March 2000 amid concerns about its safety record highlighted in a report from British regulators.

HSK officials met representatives of Britain's Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) and Sellafield operator British Nuclear Fuels Plc last week to discuss changes NII had ordered and make spot checks on how they were being implemented.

"The NII director described the Sellafield plant as safe. The new director of Sellafield confirmed that pressure to contain costs had been too high in years past and that security measures had been affected by cost cutting and job cuts," HSK said, but added this was now being remedied.

Revelations of falsified data at Sellafield triggered an international scandal in late 1999 and prompted some countries, including Germany and Japan, to ban imports from BNFL of tainted nuclear fuel. Germany resumed nuclear waste shipments to Sellafield this month.

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

Bush wants reduced offense, better defense

USA Today
04/30/2001 - Updated 05:04 PM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washdc/2001-04-30-defense.htm

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush favors deep cuts in U.S. nuclear weapons to persuade Russia and others that missile defense, not offense, is the way to deal with the most dangerous threats of the 21st century.Bush is scheduled to outline his approach to nuclear offense and defense in a speech Tuesday at the National Defense University, exactly eight months after then-President Clinton announced he would not move ahead with deploying a missile defense. Clinton said the technology was not ready.

Bush has often said he would like to reduce the nuclear arsenal to the lowest level possible while still maintaining enough weaponry to deter an aggressor, but he has not said exactly how low he would go.

Rose Gottemoeller, a foreign and security policy expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said Monday the administration may be considering eliminating the nuclear mission for Air Force bombers like the B-2 and the B-52. It also is possible that Bush's expected reductions could lead to a reduced nuclear role for the Navy's Trident submarines or for the Air Force's intercontinental ballistic missile force. Bush is not expected to provide such details in his speech Tuesday.

The president also has indicated he would take some U.S. nuclear forces off high alert.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer declined on Monday to provide specifics of Bush's speech, but he stressed that the president believes the key threat to the United States and its allies is from a small-scale nuclear attack, not the all-out nuclear assault that was feared during the Cold War.

"It's a totally different world," Fleischer said, adding that the president will unveil "new thinking about how to protect the American people and our allies from missile threats."

Bush discussed this in telephone calls Monday to German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, French President Jacques Chirac, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, as well as Lord Robertson, the secretary-general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

The European allies have been cool to the idea of a large-scale U.S. missile defense, knowing that the Russians view it as an attempt by the United States to establish absolute military dominance.

"The message to Russia is that the development of a missile defense system - so we can think beyond the confines of the Cold War era - is the best way to preserve the peace," Fleischer said.

Fleischer made clear that while Bush is consulting allies, he does not plan lengthy deliberations with them.

"From the president's point of view, he views it as a question of leadership," Fleischer said. "He believes that if the United States leads and that we consult wisely, our allies and friends will find good reason to follow and to join with us."

Henry Cooper, who directed the Pentagon's missile defense programs during the first Bush administration, said Monday he hopes Bush announces his intention to withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty, a 1972 pact with the former Soviet Union that outlawed national missile defenses.

Cooper said he also hoped Bush would press for deployment of at least a rudimentary U.S. missile defense by 2004.

Russia is likely to be encouraged by Bush's interest in further reducing the number of nuclear weapons, since President Vladimir Putin has pushed for cuts well below what the Clinton administration would accept. Putin has expressed an interest in cooperating with European nations on a regional missile defense, but he strongly opposes a missile shield that would protect the United States.

Jan Lodal, who was a senior Pentagon official during the Clinton administration and is an expert on nuclear strategy, said Monday the important question is whether Bush will commit to a level below the 2,500 warheads that Clinton and former Russian President Boris Yeltsin agreed to pursue in 1997.

"We have to clarify that nuclear weapons no longer have a mission other than deterrence," Lodal said. They no longer are needed as retaliation against a Russian first strike, since that no longer is a threat, nor are they needed as backup for Europe in the event of a massive conventional attack, he said.

Lodal favors cutting to 1,000 warheads. The United States currently has about 7,200 and is committed under the START II treaty to reducing to 3,500.

Gottemoeller, who served on the National Security Council staff during the Clinton administration, said that based on Bush's past statements about cutting nuclear weapons he may want to go below the 2,500 target that Clinton and Yeltsin agreed to in principle (but never formalized), perhaps to the 2,000-1,500 level.

Putin favors cutting to 1,500 on both sides.

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

Cheney Pushes for Energy Development

Associated Press
April 30, 2001 Filed at 9:18 p.m. ET
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Cheney-Energy.html

TORONTO (AP) -- Vice President Dick Cheney warned on Monday that the whole nation could face California-style blackouts as he outlined a national energy strategy relying heavily on oil, natural gas, coal and nuclear power development -- but not conservation.

``The aim here is efficiency, not austerity,'' Cheney told editors and publishers at The Associated Press annual meeting. The nation cannot ``simply conserve or ration our way out of the situation we're in.''

It was his first trip outside Washington for official vice presidential business, made possible, he joked, when President Bush invited the Senate to lunch -- ``the best way to ensure no tie votes while I was out of town.'' Bush invited all members of Congress to the White House to mark the first 100 days of his administration.

Cheney addressed concerns about his history of four heart attacks by jokingly offering to do jumping jacks. More seriously, he said, ``If I ever get to the point where my doctors believe that it's not wise or prudent for me to continue in this capacity, obviously I'd step aside.''

In his first extensive remarks about the energy recommendations his Cabinet-level task force will make to Bush by the end of May, Cheney blamed current shortages on shortsighted decisions in the past. He said that conservation, while perhaps ``a sign of personal virtue,'' does not make for sound or comprehensive policy.

Saving the specifics -- and the price tags -- for his boss to review and then announce, Cheney promised ``a mix of new legislation, some executive action as well as private initiatives'' to cope with rising energy prices and growing demand.

He said anew that the administration intends to push for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge despite strong congressional opposition.

He definitively rejected turning to price controls, tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve or creating new bureaucracies.

Over the next two decades, it will take between 1,300 and 1,900 new power plants -- or one every week for 20 years -- just to meet projected increases in nationwide demand, Cheney said.

Energy shortages in California already have forced rolling blackouts. And he said, ``Without a clear, coherent energy strategy for the nation, all Americans could one day go through what Californians are experiencing now, or even worse.''

The vice president, who made millions of dollars as an oil services' company executive, made no bones about placing oil, coal and other fossil fuels at the center his recommendations.

Alternative fuels are still ``years down the road,'' he said.

The Bush administration wants to open the Arctic refuge in Alaska to oil drilling, a controversial plan that could be executed, Cheney said, with very little disruption to the refuge's 19 million acres of natural habitat: ``The amount of land affected by oil production would be 2,000 acres, less than one-fifth the size of (the Washington area's) Dulles Airport.''

Along with additional exploration must come new refineries, Cheney said, noting that it has been 20 years since a large oil refinery was built in the United States.

He also suggested federal initiatives to boost the use of hydroelectric dams and the construction of new nuclear power plants. He called nuclear power ``a safe, clean, very plentiful energy source.''

Although one-fifth of the nation's electricity is nuclear-generated, the industry has not sought a government permit to build a new plant in more than 20 years, since before the accident at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island.

In developing hydroelectric power, Cheney said the Bush administration, whose environmental record has been sharply questioned by activists, would be ``mindful of the fish and wildlife affected by manmade dams.''

He put in a good word for coal, which he said remains the most available, most affordable way to generate electric power. The Bush administration has budgeted an additional $150 million for next year -- up from $82 million this year -- to support development of cleaner coal technologies.

On natural gas, Cheney called for some 38,000 miles of additional pipeline and thousands of miles of added distribution lines to bring natural gas into homes and businesses. He did not mention expanded exploration off the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

Acting on a campaign proposal, the president is committed to extending offshore oil and gas drilling to the eastern Gulf of Mexico in a tract that, in some areas, comes within 30 miles of the western tip of the Florida Panhandle.

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who is expected to seek re-election amid widespread local opposition to the drilling, has petitioned the administration to cancel an auction of new drilling leases.

---

Nuclear Profits

New York Times
April 30, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/30/opinion/L30NUCL.html

To the Editor:

Nuclear power utilities boast that old reactors are a hot commodity (Business Day, April 24). The purchase of a restaurant is also profitable after its third bankruptcy. The old reactors embroiled in bidding wars have shed their debts by burdening ratepayers with bailouts.

Nuclear reactors are indeed hotter, but not in a benign sense. Efficiency has been gained in the short term only because aging reactors are running at hotter temperatures, for longer intervals between maintenance and with fewer safety checks and less regulatory oversight. Worse, aging parts are subject to cracking and erosion.

The price may be right for sellers, but the price in safety shortcuts will be paid by the public.

LINDA GUNTER Communications Director, Safe Energy Communication Council Washington, April 25, 2001

---

Cheney warns of possible blackouts

USA Today
04/30/2001 - Updated 06:00 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/washdc/2001-04-30-cheney.htm

TORONTO (AP) - Vice President Dick Cheney warned on Monday that the whole nation could face California-style blackouts as he outlined a national energy strategy relying heavily on oil, natural gas and nuclear power development - but not conservation.

"The aim here is efficiency, not austerity," Cheney told editors and publishers at The Associated Press annual meeting. The nation cannot "simply conserve or ration our way out of the situation we're in."

It was his first trip outside Washington for official vice presidential business, made possible, he joked, when President Bush invited the Senate to lunch - "the best way to ensure no tie votes while I was out of town." Bush invited all members of Congress to the White House to mark the first 100 days of his administration.

Cheney addressed concerns about his history of four heart attacks by jokingly offering to do jumping jacks. More seriously, he said, "If I ever get to the point where my doctors believe that it's not wise or prudent for me to continue in this capacity, obviously I'd step aside."

In his first extensive remarks about the energy recommendations his Cabinet-level task force will make to Bush by the end of May, Cheney blamed current shortages on shortsighted decisions in the past. He said that conservation, while perhaps "a sign of personal virtue," does not make for sound or comprehensive policy.

Saving the specifics - and the price tags - for his boss to review and then announce, Cheney promised "a mix of new legislation, some executive action as well as private initiatives" to cope with rising energy prices and growing demand.

He said anew that the administration intends to push for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge despite strong congressional opposition.

He definitively rejected turning to price controls, tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve or creating new bureaucracies.

Over the next two decades, it will take between 1,300 and 1,900 new power plants - or one every week for 20 years - just to meet projected increases in nationwide demand, Cheney said.

Energy shortages in California already have forced rolling blackouts. And he said, "Without a clear, coherent energy strategy for the nation, all Americans could one day go through what Californians are experiencing now, or even worse."

The vice president, who made millions of dollars as an oil services' company executive, made no bones about placing oil, coal and other fossil fuels at the center his recommendations.

Alternative fuels are still "years down the road," he said.

The Bush administration wants to open the Arctic refuge in Alaska to oil drilling, a controversial plan that could be executed, Cheney said, with very little disruption to the refuge's 19 million acres of natural habitat: "The amount of land affected by oil production would be 2,000 acres, less than one-fifth the size of (the Washington area's) Dulles Airport."

Along with additional exploration must come new refineries, Cheney said, noting that it has been 20 years since a large oil refinery was built in the United States.

He also suggested federal initiatives to boost the use of hydroelectric dams and the construction of new nuclear power plants. He called nuclear power "a safe, clean, very plentiful energy source."

Although one-fifth of the nation's electricity is nuclear-generated, the industry has not sought a government permit to build a new plant in more than 20 years, since before the accident at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island.

In developing hydroelectric power, Cheney said the Bush administration, whose environmental record has been sharply questioned by activists, would be "mindful of the fish and wildlife affected by manmade dams."

He put in a good word for coal, which he said remains the most available, most affordable way to generate electric power. The Bush administration has budgeted an additional $150 million for next year to support development of cleaner coal technologies.

On natural gas, Cheney called for some 38,000 miles of additional pipeline and thousands of miles of added distribution lines to bring natural gas into homes and businesses. He did not mention expanded exploration off the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

Acting on a campaign proposal, the president is committed to extending offshore oil and gas drilling to the eastern Gulf of Mexico in a tract that, in some areas, comes within 30 miles of the western tip of the Florida Panhandle.

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who is seeking re-election amid widespread local opposition to the drilling, has petitioned the administration to cancel an auction of new drilling leases.

---

Whistle while you work

The Washington Times www.washtimes.com
Published 4/30/01
House Editorial
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20010430-81068114.htm

Penetrating the stygian caverns of bureaucratic callousness and coverups, whistleblowers often pay a Promethean price for their critical service of enlightening the public. Just ask Notra Trulock, formerly the chief of intelligence at the Department of Energy. Mr. Trulock´s years of warnings about the penetration of some of the United States´ most guarded secrets were finally vindicated in the Los Alamos debacle after Mr. Trulock had been demoted and driven from the department.

Such retaliation can happen to virtually any whistleblower, despite the 1989 unanimous passage of the Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA). In the act Congress recognized that, "Federal employees who make disclosures ... serve the public interest by assisting in the elimination of fraud, waste, abuse, and unnecessary government expenditures," and mandated that, "employees should not suffer adverse consequences as a result ..."

Yet that statute has been significantly weakened through a few court decisions by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, which currently has a monopoly on whistleblower cases. As a result, the leaders of six citizens´ advocacy groups said in a recent joint statement that "the WPA no longer provides a safe harbor for whistleblowers. Instead, it is a trap restructured to virtually guarantee formal legal endorsement of harassment."

As a remedy, citizen groups, including the National Whistleblower Center and the Government Accountability Project, have suggested that Congress again clarify the scope of protected disclosures and close the loopholes that judges have used to limit the scope of protection. They also want Congress to ensure that nondisclosure agreements are applied only to "classified" information (rather than the far broader category of "classifiable"), reduce the almost overwhelming burden of proof which whistleblowers must meet to prove that they have been retaliated and end the judicial monopoly of the Federal Circuit.

Citizens have also suggested that President Bush hold a Rose Garden ceremony honoring whistleblowers. The symbolism of the ceremony would help establish the healthy climate of disclosure essential to government transparency. In a memo to department heads, Mr. Bush cited the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch, which calls for employees to "disclose waste, fraud, abuse and corruption to the appropriate authorities."

If such a standard is firmly planted in the bedrock of congressional promulgation and executive practice, then government employees may again have a reason to whistle while they work.

-------- MILITARY

U.S. jets bomb Iraqi sites in northern no-fly zone

USA Today
04/30/2001 - Updated 11:04 AM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/mideast/2001-04-30-iraq-bomb.htm

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - U.S. jets struck Iraqi air defense sites in a northern no-fly zone on Monday in response to Iraqi anti-aircraft fire, the U.S. military said in a statement.

U.S. warplanes conducting routine patrols bombed air defense systems after coming under Iraqi artillery fire northwest of Mosul, 250 miles north of Baghdad, the Germany-based U.S. European Command said in a statement.

All warplanes left the area safely, the statement added. There was no immediate word from Iraqi authorities on casualties.

The United States and Britain have been enforcing no-fly zones over northern and southern Iraq since the end of the Gulf War in 1991.

Iraq, which regards the zones as violations of its territorial sovereignty, has been challenging the patrols since December 1998.

Planes patrolling the northern zone are based in the southern Turkish base of Incirlik. Despite hosting U.S. and British warplanes, Turkey is trying to boost ties with Iraq and wants an easing of the U.N.-economic sanctions against its southern neighbor.

-------- arms sales

West Virginia

USA Today
04/30/01
States
http://www.usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Fairmont - The number of guns confiscated in West Virginia public schools has declined since 1994, the year state education officials began compiling statistics. Officials say 58 guns were confiscated in the 1994-1995 school year, compared with 14 last year.

---

Taiwan ties arms buys to Beijing missile cuts

The Washington Times www.washtimes.com
Published 4/30/01
Martin Walker
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20010430-9535738.htm

Taiwan is prepared to reassess its planned weapons purchases from the United States if China cuts its missile buildup on the mainland, Taiwan´s top diplomatic representative in the United States said in an interview.

This would mean that the Aegis-equipped anti-missile destroyers and the Patriot-3 anti-missile systems that Taiwan was not granted by the Bush administration in last week´s armaments package could be deferred indefinitely or even canceled. But Taiwan will go ahead with the agreed arms package of Kidd-class destroyers, diesel submarines and P-3 Orion anti-submarine aircraft.

"If the People´s Republic of China is going to pull back or reduce their missile deployment, or if the military threat lessens, we can rethink our military procurements," Rep. Chien-Jen Chen said late last week. "Then we would be able to resume the cross-straits dialogue with the PRC and discover how we can cooperate to build security and prosperity in general.

"Remember the words of China´s greatest military thinker, Sun Tzu, who said the wisest course was never to let war break out. That is what we are doing now.

"Our policy is to try to maintain peace. And rather than rely on military procurement, we would like to improve cross-straits relations, through our economic ties, through cultural and educational exchanges. There are so many different aspects we can use to make war unnecessary."

Mr. Chen said the government of Taiwan supported the broad outlines of a reconciliation plan, proposed by former Taiwanese Prime Minister Vincent Siew, which provides for a European-style common market between China and Taiwan that could then grow with time -- like the European Union -- into a closer political integration.

Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian "has said that he´d like to see the two sides try to understand each other through more exchanges, more economic and cultural integration first, and then gradually move on to more peaceful cooperation and even political integration," Mr. Chen said.

"When he said that, I think he had Vincent Siew´s idea in mind. But there has yet been no response from Beijing."

Still, he said, "I think we are moving in that direction, whatever common market or European Union name you may want to call it."

Mr. Chen spoke after a dramatic few days for relations among China, Taiwan and the United States. No sooner had the incident over the downing of the American EP-3E surveillance plane been resolved with the return of its 14-member air crew than President Bush announced the sale to Taiwan of an unprecedented arms package, prompting China´s Foreign Ministry to warn of "devastating damage" to U.S.-Chinese relations.

Relations were further strained when Mr. Bush said in an interview that the United States would do "whatever it took" to defend Taiwan.

"I feel President Bush is trying to send a strong message indicating his concern for the security of Taiwan, and it is a good message," Mr. Chen said. "We feel it represents a positive attitude by the U.S. toward the situation."

Mr. Chen said Taiwan was "concerned for our security by the increase in China´s defense budget, by its acquisition of new weapons and by its deployment of missiles opposite our shores.

"Whether this week´s developments of the arms agreement and President Bush´s welcome statement of support for Taiwan will change matters, it is too soon to tell. I don´t see big changes, but if there are changes, we hope they will be changes for the better," he said.

Mr. Chen, who served as Taiwan´s foreign minister before taking up his post as its top official in the United States, is a courtly, professional diplomat, educated at Cambridge University in England.

The U.S. recognition of the Beijing government means that he does not hold the formal title of ambassador, although he presides over a diplomatic staff of 200 in a large building in Northwest Washington, along with offices for Taiwan´s military and commercial missions.

Despite his British education, Mr. Chen was unfazed by the slowness of European countries to react to the establishment of democracy, free speech and free institutions.

"I think the Europeans could do more. But our relationship with the U.S. is the most important.

"What we have achieved in Taiwan with democracy, human rights and freedom is not just something of which we can be proud, but this achievement is also worth preserving and protecting not just by us but by others.

"In taking care of Taiwan´s security, we are not just protecting our own interests but the interests and values of other free and democratic countries."

-------- britain

Britain allows soldiers to change their sex

The Washington Times www.washtimes.com
Published 4/30/01
World Scene
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20010430-74752186.htm

LONDON - Britain´s Ministry of Defense said yesterday it had allowed up to five members of the armed forces to have sex-change operations carried out by the taxpayer-funded National Health Service.

A spokeswoman said the ministry´s medical services did not have the surgeons to conduct such operations, and referred interested soldiers to the National Health Service.

However, the hormone therapy treatment linked to the operations may be dispensed by regimental medical officers, "in which case, we would pay for that," she said.

-------- drug war

A puff of smoke, then chaos at 4,000 feet

USA Today
04/30/2001
By Jack Kelley, USA TODAY
http://usatoday.com/news/acovmon.htm

Missionary worker Jim Bowers peered uneasily out the front passenger window of a Cessna 185 floatplane. To his right: a Peruvian air force fighter jet. It had been tailing the Cessna for about 15 minutes. Suddenly, there was a puff of smoke from the fighter. Bullets pierced the missionary plane in machine-gun fashion. The jet flew under the Cessna, reappeared on its left and fired again. A bullet hit the Cessna's left wing, where fuel was stored. A fire erupted and rushed through the fuel line into the plane. Flames shot up from the floor of the cockpit, engulfing pilot Kevin Donaldson's feet. A bullet struck his right leg, shattering two bones.

Sitting next to Donaldson, Bowers felt the breeze of a bullet speeding past him. He handed his infant daughter, Charity, back to her mother, Roni, and opened a window to let out smoke. Their son Cory, 6, leaned forward to stick his head out the window, gasping for air.

The bullets kept coming. One hit Roni Bowers in the back, continued out her chest and into Charity's head. Roni slumped forward in her seat. Charity fell out of her lap. The plane, on fire, plunged toward the Amazon River.

"They're killing us!" Donaldson shouted in Spanish to the control tower in Iquitos, Peru. "They're killing us!"

As U.S. and Peruvian authorities continue to investigate why the missionaries were mistaken for drug traffickers and shot out of the sky, the horror that unfolded aboard the crippled Cessna on April 20 is just now becoming clear. Through more than three dozen interviews, documents and an unreleased tape of a cockpit conversation on a CIA-operated surveillance jet, USA TODAY has pieced together new details on the last moments of the missionaries' flight and their activities in Peru.

It likely will take officials months to determine why the Peruvian fighter was given approval to spray the missionaries' Cessna with bullets, despite doubts voiced by U.S. representatives in the nearby surveillance aircraft. That jet was part of a multibillion-dollar anti-drug program designed to stop the flow of cocaine into the USA.

The U.S. government has suspended the program, and Congress has indicated it will launch a broad review of U.S. drug-interdiction efforts in South America. Meanwhile, U.S. and Peruvian officials are blaming each other for the shootdown.

For now, what is clear are the piercing images of tragedy for a family whose "call to God" made them Baptist missionaries in what essentially is a war zone - and the faith they say is allowing them to press on.

Cheerios over the Amazon

The morning of the flight, the missionaries had been in Letitia, Colombia. Storm clouds were approaching, and they were eager to return to their houseboat in Iquitos, Peru.

It had been a successful trip. The Bowerses had taken Charity, whom they had adopted in December, to Letitia to obtain a Peruvian residency visa. (As foreigners, they were required to get the visa at a consulate outside the country.)

But they had much work to do back home. Living and traveling on a houseboat, they ministered regularly in 56 villages along a 200-mile stretch of the Amazon. At each stop, they preached the Gospel at thatched-roof churches, handed out aspirin, antibiotic creams and anti-lice treatments to villagers, and even played a game of volleyball or two with some of the other 40 missionaries in the country.

It was the life that Jim and Roni Bowers had always wanted. Since age 13, Roni dreamed of "serving the Lord in the mission field," she wrote on the Web site for her missionary group, the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism of New Cumberland, Pa.

The same went for Jim Bowers, who had followed his parents, Terry and Wilma, into mission work along the Amazon. In 1993, the association had posted Jim and Roni Bowers to Iquitos, a thriving port city of 300,000. At the time, they told a friend that "God has prepared us for anything."

On April 20, the floatplane carrying the Bowerses and their children took off at 9:38 a.m. local time after being delayed by poor weather.

Donaldson, himself the son of missionaries, took the plane to an altitude of about 4,000 feet and settled back for the two-hour flight. Bowers kept Charity occupied by feeding her Cheerios and pointing out cloud formations.

Unknown to them, a drug surveillance jet, owned by the CIA and operated by one of its contract crews, had spotted their plane. Since 1994, the CIA has flown drug surveillance missions throughout Peru and Colombia in an effort to stem the flow of cocaine. U.S. officials credit those flights for a nearly two-thirds drop in coca production in Peru since 1995.

To mask the CIA's involvement in the surveillance effort, the U.S. crew was working for a front company called Aviation Development Corp., a 45-employee business based at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala., U.S. officials said.

The three U.S. crewmembers were accompanied on board by a Peruvian military liaison officer.

'Don't shoot! Don't shoot!'

After spotting the plane, the CIA crew recommended to the liaison officer that the Peruvian air force dispatch a jet to intercept it. Minutes later, Bowers, with Charity on his lap, saw the Peruvian A-37 fighter jet approaching from the right side of the plane. He told Cory, who was sitting directly behind him, to look at the jet because it was different from the small planes he was used to seeing.

Bowers was feeling uneasy, his aunt, Dot Herman of Whitehall, Mich., recalled later. Missionaries in the region are well aware that since 1994, the Peruvian air force had attacked more than 30 suspected drug planes in the air, and that some of its pilots had reputations for being "hot dogs."

Donaldson notified the control tower at Iquitos airport of the jet's location and continued flying straight at a level altitude.

About 15 minutes later, the U.S. crewmembers aboard the nearby surveillance jet recommended implementing "Phase 1" and "Phase 2" of their standard intercept procedures: attempt to identify the suspect plane and undertake warning steps. The crew, realizing that the missionary plane was not trying to escape from the jet, as a drug plane would do, told the Peruvian officer that they would not recommend doing anything beyond those two phases.

"Are you sure this is a bad guy?" a CIA crewmember asked the Peruvian officer as they followed the floatplane, according to a tape of the cockpit conversation.

"No," the Peruvian officer responded. But, for reasons unclear to U.S. officials, he radioed the military base in Pucallpa for permission to fire on the small plane.

"But he's not taking any evasive action," a CIA crewmember said. "To ID the tail number is very important."

The Peruvian jet, sent up to intercept the civilian plane, reported the tail number; the Peruvian officer relayed it to the base. Without waiting for a response, the officer asked for permission to go to "Phase 3" - a shootdown.

"Phase 3 authorized," the Peruvian military base responded.

"Jeez!" the CIA pilot said.

Seconds later, Bowers saw the first puff of smoke coming from the nose of the fighter jet. Bullets began striking their plane.

"Kevin!" Bowers yelled into his headset. "We're being shot at!"

As bullets continued to pelt the Cessna, Jim Bowers passed Charity back to her mother - a move that would cost the child her life. Donaldson pushed the control stick down, plunging the plane toward the Amazon. But his right leg was so badly injured that he couldn't operate the rudders, which control the plane's movements to the right and left. Bowers searched the cockpit for a fire extinguisher. As the plane descended, the jet continued to spray it with bullets.

The CIA pilot, upon hearing Donaldson's screams for help, yelled, "Don't shoot! Don't shoot!"

The Peruvian officer told the air force jet, "No mas" - no more. By then, about 50 bullets had struck the plane.

'Mommy has just left her body'

The Cessna's left wing struck the water first. The plane's large pontoons rocked it back into position. It skidded about 50 feet, then burst into flames.

Accounts provided by the victims' family members and associates indicate that Donaldson opened the door and got out. The river around him, covered with spilled gasoline, was on fire. He tried to grab a life vest, but it had been punctured by a bullet. He stepped onto a pontoon, which was filling with water, then jumped into the river to escape the burning wreckage. Unable to use his wounded legs, he dog-paddled to the other side of the plane.

Jim Bowers lifted Cory out of the plane and onto a pontoon. Take off your shoes, he told his son. Cory could get only one shoe off.

"Mommy has just left her body, son," Bowers told Cory. "She and Charity are in heaven. Don't worry. You'll see them again. Now, Cory, I need you to swim. We're going to swim."

He put Cory on Donaldson's back, and the two began dog-paddling away from the wreckage. As Cory turned back to watch, Bowers dragged the bodies of his wife and daughter out of the plane. He placed them into the river, jumped in and held onto their floating bodies as he treaded water backward to escape the flaming wreckage.

"Be ready to duck if it explodes!" yelled Donaldson, who was afraid his bleeding leg would attract flesh-eating piranhas, which are common in the Amazon. They calculated the distance to shore: too far to swim.

Suddenly, the left pontoon, now filled with water, caused the plane to lean to one side and flip over. Seconds later, the flames died out. Exhausted, Donaldson, with Cory on his back, paddled back to the wreckage. They held on. Bowers followed, dragging the bodies of his wife and daughter.

"Help us, Lord," Donaldson cried as the three survivors held onto the wreckage. "Help us, please."

About 30 minutes later, a group of Peruvians who had seen the crash arrived in motorized canoes. They took the victims back to the beach near the village of Huanta. There, Bowers put a tourniquet on Donaldson's leg.

As the CIA surveillance jet circled overhead, a Peruvian air force jet flew low over the beach to survey the crash site. Frightened by the jet, Cory began to cry.

Later that day, the bodies of Roni and Charity Bowers arrived at a morgue in Iquitos. Bowers was taken to a hotel for questioning by police. Two days later, he and Cory, still shaken, returned to be with family members in North Carolina.

'Could it be God had a plan?'

On Friday, nearly 1,300 worshipers gathered at Calvary Church in Fruitport, Mich., for the funerals of Roni and Charity Bowers. The Bowers family worshiped there before going to Peru.

One white and bronze casket, containing the bodies of both victims, was on a stand in front of the stage, covered with a spray of roses and baby's breath. One of the many flower arrangements near the casket contained four dozen roses and a card that read, "From the government and people of Peru."

Manuel Boza, Peru's consul general in Chicago, was moved to make an impromptu speech. "There are moments when really it's very difficult to find the words that could appropriately and adequately express our sentiments or emotions," he said. "Certainly, this is one of those moments."

The climax of the service was a 30-minute eulogy by Jim Bowers, who spoke in quiet, nearly inaudible tones.

"Why thank God?" he asked. "Could it be that God had a plan for Roni and Charity? I didn't believe it at all right after. But two or three days later, I began to see it was possible."

He conceded that their deaths were "absolutely senseless." But then he recalled what he said were small miracles: None of the bullets hit him or Cory. A bullet hole in the Cessna's windshield helped create a draft that cleared smoke from the cabin. And "neither Cory nor I were afraid. We were able to think clearly and act quickly."

He said that Roni, who was buried Sunday with her daughter near her parents' home in Pensacola, Fla., would have forgiven the Peruvian pilot who killed her. "Those people who did this were used by God for his purposes," Bowers said. He compared them to the Romans who crucified Jesus.

"I'm hoping it will result in an increase in missionaries. I'm sure it will," Bowers said. "People are challenged now to go do what Roni did."

That, apparently, is what Roni would have wanted. "When we, as believers, get to heaven, we won't have to ask, 'Why?' " she wrote on the Web site. "It will be worth it all. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Contributing: Jessie Halladay, Barbara Slavin and Donna Leinwand in Washington; Fred Bayles in Fruitport, Mich.; Sibylla Brodzinsky in Isquitos, Peru; and Elliot Blair Smith in Mexico City.

---

States

USA Today
04/30/01
http://www.usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Georgia

Dalton - Authorities charged 18 people with felony trafficking and seized 20 pounds of methamphetamines worth $1.3 million after a six-month drug probe in Whitfield County. Also seized in the probe were 16 vehicles used to transport the narcotics, a personal watercraft allegedly bought with drug money, 10 guns and $147,000 in cash, police said.

Kentucky

London - Methamphetamine production has become so widespread in western Kentucky that Congress authorized funding for a new U.S. Attorney's office in Paducah to pursue traffickers. Police said 141 labs were seized in 2000, up from six in 1996.

Michigan

Onaway - A prescription drug thought to be as addictive as heroin is gaining popularity in parts of Michigan. In the last month, authorities say 10 people have been arrested for delivering oxycodone. Nine people have been hospitalized for treatment of overdoses within the past six months. Police say users crush the drug and snort or inject it.

-------- puerto rico

ALL OUT MAY 5th FOR VIEQUES, NYC!

From: "V S C" <viequessc@hotmail.com>
To: ifco@igc.org
Mon, 30 Apr 2001

Vieques Support Campaign Campańa de Apoyo a Vieques
http://palfrente.tripod.com E-mail viequessc@hotmail.com
U.S. NAVY OUT OF VIEQUES & ALL OF PUERTO RICO

If the U.S. government and the Pentagon are determined to have the U.S. Navy bomb Puerto Rican soil and devastate the people, we too must be determined to wage struggle here in the United States. Come to a protest this Saturday, May 5th at the U.S. Military recruiting center in the Bronx, New York. Fordham Road & Grand Concourse.See below for more information.

Si el gobierno Estadounidense y el Pentágono están determinados a continual bombardiando tierra Boricua y a aruinar el pueblo, nosotros tambien estamos determinado a proseguír la lucha aquí en los Estados Unidos. Venga a una protesta el sabado, 5 de Mayo en el Centro de Reclutamiento en condado del Bronx, Nueva York - Fordham Road y el Grand Concourse. Busque abajo para más información.

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

Syndrome Returns

New York Times
April 30, 2001
By WILLIAM SAFIRE
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/30/opinion/30SAFI.html

WASHINGTON - Medal of Honor winner and former Senator Bob Kerrey, joined by five members of the Navy Seal team sent into a free-fire zone in South Vietnam for the purpose of killing Vietcong Communist leaders, asserts that they were returning enemy fire on that dark night 32 years ago. To their lifelong dismay, their blazing response killed civilians of all ages.

One member of the team disagrees, claiming that Kerrey ordered deliberate murder. That lone account is supported by the wife of a Vietcong fighter, speaking with the approval of Vietnamese officials, whose story has already changed from what she said she "saw" to what she now tells reporters she "heard."

In our system of justice, the burden of proof is on the accuser and a presumption of innocence belongs to the accused. No hard evidence is offered to support this grave allegation. That is why the denial by the anguished Kerrey and his fellow veterans deserves respect. They have long been burdened by guilt at the mistaken wartime killings, but they are not murderers.

This story is another manifestation of the self-flagellation that led to the Vietnam Syndrome - that revulsion at the use of military power that afflicted our national psyche for decades after our defeat.

It is the pacifist position that holds Presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon morally culpable to have helped the South Vietnamese defend their nation from Communist invaders from the north. The American elites that ducked the draft were right to refuse to get involved in somebody else's civil war, goes this voice. Many of those too poor or patriotic to arrange deferments to avoid service were shunned as killers on their return.

The national affliction called the Vietnam Syndrome carried this message: because war means killing, and because killing brutalizes and dehumanizes those charged with doing it, we should never again become involved in such a messy endeavor. Honoring commitments to allies? An excuse for imperialism. Containing the spread of Communist tyranny? One day the democratic and Communist systems would peacefully converge, we were assured; therefore, never hesitate to accommodate.

In commentary that followed the accusation of Kerrey and his men, the point was hammered home that never again must Americans be turned into savage brutes. Time magazine puts it this way: "Nations have no business sending their young into battle without lasting moral justification . . ."

In the 1960's, the majority of Americans agreed with three presidents and most in Congress that resisting the spread of Communism was morally justified. We saw a vast difference between free nations, with all their faults, and tyrannous regimes determined to gain control of their neighbors. Some of us, in our simplistic Manichaean way, saw democratic freedom as good and Communist despotism as evil.

That was America's moral justification for sending our troops to defend Europe in the cold war against a Soviet Union determined to dominate the world. That was why it was right to send troops to South Korea to defend it against Communist aggression from the north and later to send troops to South Vietnam to do the same.

We won two out of those three. Because America was ready to fight, Europe is free. Because Americans were united and limited war was successful in South Korea, that nation is free. But because we were divided and limited war failed in Vietnam, the people there now are unfree.

Ah, but the Syndrome's requirement is "lasting moral justification." If the justification does not last - that is, if we lose, or if real or imagined horrors surface decades later - then ex post facto morality kicks in and it becomes wrong to have sent our young into battle.

Partly to avoid late-hitting charges of individual brutalization and atrocity, military planners are banishing close combat in favor of long-range missiles and smart bombs from 15,000 feet. War by remote control means that more civilians may die but less guilt will be felt.

Some Vietnam heroes in the Senate condemn that conflict even as they forgive Kerrey and his team any possible transgression in the fog of war. Are there no voices left, after that costly loss of human life, to reject the Syndrome's humiliating accusation of national arrogance - and to recall a noble motive?

---

Whose Vietnam Story?

New York Times
April 30, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/30/opinion/L30KERR.html

To the Editor:

Re "Kerrey Defends Account of Navy Seals' Raid in Vietnam" (news article, April 27):

One of the saddest aspects about Bob Kerrey's role in the killing of innocent civilians in the Vietnam War is that everyone, including Mr. Kerrey, seems to think that this story is about him. It's almost as if those who were killed have become mere stage props in some morality play instead of real human beings who suffered a terrifying and undeserved death.

The famous photo from World War II of the little boy in Warsaw held at gunpoint by a German soldier puts the situation in the right order: it is the child we focus on, not the soldier.

If only we had a similar photo of the incident under discussion! We would see at once that no matter what degree of understanding we may feel that Bob Kerrey deserves, it is the victims who are at the center of this story.

PATRICIA SETTE Concord, Mass., April 27, 2001

---

Bob Kerrey´s battle

The Washington Times www.washtimes.com
Published 4/30/01
House Editorial
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20010430-191019.htm

Author Bruce Catton recalls growing up in rural Michigan among aging Civil War veterans who would carry their wounds and, in many cases, terrible stories, to their graves. An aging berry picker, with just enough of his forearm to carry the bucket of cherries he would peddle, never told him, he said, "about the wounded men who were burned to death in the forest fire which swept [through the battle of the Wilderness]; nor had any of his comrades who survived that fight and went through the whole campaign to the last days at Petersburg ever mentioned the lives that were wasted by official blunders, the dirt and war-weariness and the soul-searching disillusionment that came when it seemed what they were doing was going for nothing."

Now, more than 30 years after a terrible battle of his own in Vietnam, former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey has chosen to speak out about his part in a fight whose part in history might never have amounted to more than dusty military records and fading memories of its aging survivors. Prompted by new accounts of the fight by the New York Times and by CBS´ "60 Minutes Two" as well as perhaps, by his own conscience, he discussed what had happened at the Virginia Military Institute and with other news outlets. He did not in any way have regrets about the mission itself, he said, but only about the ensuing killing of some 20 Vietnamese civilians, including women and children, as a result of his team´s attack.

At issue now is whether the civilian deaths resulted from their being caught in the middle of a firefight or whether the Navy SEALs Mr. Kerrey was leading that night simply massacred them. Mr. Kerrey, backed by a member of the squad, says it was the former. Another member of the squad, backed by Vietnamese civilian who says she saw what happened that night, says it was a massacre.

The target of the mission in February 1969 certainly was not innocent villagers. U.S. intelligence sources suggested that a key Viet Cong leader was supposed to be holding a meeting in a strategic hamlet on the South China Sea. Kerrey´s Raiders, as they were known, were supposed to kidnap or assassinate him as part of a plan to break down the organized opposition of the Viet Cong to U.S. forces in Vietnam. It was a night mission in a dangerous area, and Mr. Kerrey was well aware of the risks his team was taking. He recalls taking fire from the enemy as the mission was proceeding and ordering his SEALs to return fire. When it was over, they found only a group of unarmed dead villagers. What could have happened?

Mr. Kerrey says he believes he was just returning fire on his own troops. The implication is that the Viet Cong used the villagers as decoys or as shields and fled. (Seemingly innocent Vietnamese civilians often fought for the Viet Cong, confusing the facts even further.) Gerhard Klann, a member of the team, says that Mr. Kerrey, having found only the villagers and not the Viet Cong leader, was afraid to let them go for fear they would compromise the safety of the mission and his men; so he ordered them shot.

Mike Ambrose, another member of the team, "wholeheartedly" disputes Mr. Klann´s account, just as firmly as the Vietnamese civilian´s memory confirms it. But Mr. Ambrose´s account is instructive: "It got ridiculous pretty much once the guns got going. I was in survival mode. It was dark, you´re not seeing much but movement and shadows. You couldn´t tell if they were women or men."

That´s an indictment of war, particularly in Vietnam, not Mr. Kerrey. It´s another reason why this country must have sufficient military might and vigilance that it need never put aging berry pickers or Navy SEALs in a position where they must take such memories to their graves.

---

House says beret buy flouted law

The Washington Times www.washtimes.com
Published 4/30/01
Rowan Scarborough THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20010430-25141253.htm

A House Armed Services Committee report states that the Pentagon sidestepped a key provision of a federal "buy American" law to award contracts for Army black berets to Third World factories, including one in communist China.

The report conflicts with the Defense Department´s internal report, which said it did nothing wrong in bypassing American companies for factories in China, Sri Lanka, Romania and South Africa.

Meanwhile, the Defense Department plans to cancel three of the foreign-production contracts as early as today due to missed deadlines and shoddy workmanship, according to a source familiar with the beret-buying contracts. The source did not know if one of the canceled contracts pertains to the factory in China.

The source also said the General Accounting Office is prepared to testify that the Pentagon cut corners in trying to follow the law but still meet the Army´s deadline for 1.3 million black berets by June 14, the branch´s birthday.

The new disclosures come as Gen. Eric Shinseki, Army chief of staff, on Wednesday presents his first public explanation to Congress on his decision to put a black beret on virtually every soldier´s head. The House Small Business Committee is also scheduled to hear testimony from top Pentagon acquisition officials to explain why they waived the buy American requirement for U.S. military uniforms to procure berets from low-wage Third World plants.

Gen. Shinseki´s universal beret policy has drawn protests from the special operations community, which contends it cheapens the symbol of elite status for what had been the only beret-wearing units: airborne, Rangers and Special Forces.

A number of lawmakers also are angry over the Pentagon buying military gear from China, a potential foe that detained 24 American crew members for 12 days on Hainan island after the U.S. EP-3E surveillance plane collided with a F-8 Chinese fighter over the South China Sea.

The House Armed Services Committee staff report said the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) decided to waive the buy American law, or the Berry Amendment, last fall after Gen. Shinseki announced the policy in October and set the June 14 deadline for all soldiers to wear a beret. Only one American firm makes berets to Army specifications and it could not meet the deadline.

The agency had acquired the needed secretary of defense authorization. However, the waiver had a glaring omission, the committee report said. The Berry Amendment states that the secretary of defense must attest that "satisfactory quality and sufficient quantity of any articles clothing ... cannot be procured as and when needed at United States market prices."

The House committee report, however, concluded, "None of the waivers addressed the test of meeting 'satisfactory quality.´ The legislation specifically states that the secretary must make a determination of satisfactory quality and sufficient quantity."

The committee staff came to a different conclusion than one reached by the Pentagon, which ordered an internal review of the beret purchases at the request of President Bush. The office of the Pentagon´s top acquisition official investigated the matter and wrote an internal report. It concluded, "Given the Army requirement for 1.3 million berets to be delivered by June 14, 2001, and to issue a second beret to every soldier by Oct. 2001, (the DLA) executed all procurement actions in a reasonable manner. No significant deviation from law, regulation or policy were identified."

The committee report says the Army plans to buy 4.76 million black berets for $30 million at per-cap cost ranging from $7.20 in Canada to $4.36 in Sri Lanka.

The Chinese factory is producing 617,936 berets for $4 million at $6.33 each. This is 3 cents more per hat than the 1.2 million berets being produced by the lone U.S. manufacturer, Bancroft Cap Co. in Cabot, Ark. The Pentagon has said that the Chinese factory has shipped or delivered more than half its berets.

Gen. Shinseki sought to make peace in the special operations community by announcing last month that the Rangers will keep an exclusive beret. Its new color will be tan instead of black.

But the agreement with the 75th Ranger Regiment at Fort Benning, Ga., has not settled the issue in Washington. Some House Armed Services members want to amend the fiscal 2002 defense authorization act to terminate the foreign contracts and cancel the entire beret handout.

-------- OTHER

-------- alternative energy

South Dakota

USA Today
04/30/01
States
http://www.usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Sioux Falls - Seven ethanol plants are being built or in the planning stages because of what one industry official calls a growth spurt resulting from high gas prices and low corn prices. Three plants already operating in South Dakota produce 28 million gallons of the corn-based fuel additive each year.

-------- environment

Clinton accused of secret meetings in forest case

Planet Ark
USA: April 30, 2001
Story by Christopher Doering
REUTERS
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10655

WASHINGTON - Republicans accused former President Bill Clinton's administration last week of secretly meeting with environmentalists and ignoring an energy crisis to protect millions of acres (hectares) of U.S. forest land.

The Clinton administration's ban on road building in federal forests is supported by green groups and bitterly opposed by oil, natural gas and timber companies.

Republicans including Idaho's Sen. Larry Craig, who heads the subcommittee on Forests and Public Land Management, and Alaska Sen. Frank Murkowski said at Thursday's hearing that Clinton officials secretly met with national environmental groups in early December.

"Contacts between senior Clinton administration officials and environmental group leaders occurred after the close of the public comment period and after the close of the final" environmental impact study, Murkowski said.

This "represents yet another statutory violation which the courts will undoubtedly be asked to review," he said.

The ban on roads in federal forests, approved by Clinton two weeks before he left office, would restrict the removal of oil and lumber in 58.5 million acres (23.67 million hectares) of forest land. Under the rule, roads may only be built for environmental reasons or to reduce the risk of fires.

Last November, the DOE study reported that nearly 11.3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 550 million barrels of oil may be beneath the roadless area. The Energy Department has estimated that this is enough to supply the country for nearly six months.

Eight lawsuits have already been filed against the rule.

The states of Idaho, Alaska and Utah and lumber producer, Boise Cascade Corp. among others, have filed suit in Idaho U.S. district court seeking a preliminary injunction that would keep the ban on roads from becoming law.

The ban was scheduled to go in effect on March 13, but President George W. Bush delayed it until May 12 to allow further study. The administration said it will issue its opinion of the roadless policy by May 4.

CRITICS CITE DELAYS

Craig criticized the Clinton administration for waiting until last October, nearly a year after it postponed setting aside U.S. land from development, before requesting an energy analysis of the roadless area from the DOE.

He added that the energy crisis was largely ignored by Clinton who favored siding with environmental groups in developing his policy.

"This was a significant oversight in light of today's developing energy crisis," Craig said.

The rule has been hotly debated between environmentalists and businesses. Green groups argue the rule will protect endangered species and prevent irreversible damage.

"At some point the next new energy activity will be the one that leads to a potential irreversible destruction in the ability of (animals) to survive," said Rollin Sparrowe, president of the Wildlife Management Institute.

Environmental groups fear that Bush's overturn of several last-minute Clinton environmental rules - including policies to ease restrictions on gas emissions from power plants and curb mining waste - foreshadow a halt to the roadless rule.

The Washington Post reported on Thursday the White House asked the Justice Department to look for ways to block it.

But Randy Phillips, deputy chief at the Forest Service, told the panel: "I am not aware of any instructions like that."

---

A Brotherly Feud Over Energy

New York Times
April 30, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/30/opinion/30MON2.html

One of President Bush's more vexing problems is figuring out how to satisfy the nation's growing appetite for energy, especially natural gas, without damaging the environment. Just how vexing that problem is became clearer when news leaked out recently that the president's brother, Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, strongly opposes the administration's plan to open up an area off the Florida coast in the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas exploration. The polls have been telling President Bush that the public favors conservation over development, even when energy supplies are short. His brother is now conveying essentially the same message.

At issue is Lease 181, an oddly shaped area of the gulf that covers about six million acres and may contain 400 million barrels of oil. What most appeals to drillers is the area's cache of three to seven trillion cubic feet of natural gas, whose price has been rising in part because it is the preferred fuel for almost all new power plants.

The Interior Department began planning to auction off Lease 181 in the Clinton administration. At the time, President Clinton and Lawton Chiles, Jeb Bush's predecessor, agreed that there would be no drilling in the eastern gulf within 100 miles of Florida's coast. Nearly all of Lease 181 lies beyond the 100-mile limit, except for a narrow stovepipe section that juts northward to within 30 miles of the Florida coast near the Alabama border. But even 100 miles is too close for Jeb Bush, and the stovepipe section is much too close. The fact is that Governor Bush - who has a solid environmental record and wants to keep it that way - does not want any drilling that could threaten Florida's coastline.

We sympathize with Governor Bush. The federal government has usually been a more reliable steward of the country's natural resources than the states, so any state that strives for even higher levels of protection than Washington asks for deserves support. But the governor is facing powerful precedents. Oil and gas rigs in the western and central gulf supply about 30 percent of the country's natural gas and 20 percent of its oil, and drilling in the gulf has long been an accepted part of the country's energy strategy, even by environmentalists. Industry now says the wells in the western and central gulf are beginning to run out. Further, the governors of the other states near Lease 181, including Alabama, welcome exploration.

Some people have suggested a compromise, under which the boundaries of Lease 181 could be redrawn, barring all exploration within 100 miles, much as Mr. Clinton and Mr. Chiles had agreed. That seems a plausible approach, but only if the area's oil and gas are truly needed. Our own recommendation is that the lease sales be blocked until the president can demonstrate that need. With prices rising, rigs are sprouting throughout the West and Southwest on land that has long been open for drilling. It makes sense to see whether these new supplies are sufficient before invading sensitive areas.

The gulf may not have the same emotional tug or unambiguous ecological appeal as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or the national forests along the Rocky Mountain Front. But its continued good health is a matter of great concern to millions of Americans.

---

Study: Lead more harmful to kids than first thought

USA Today
04/30/2001 - Updated 06:05 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/nlead.htm

BALTIMORE (AP) - Children exposed to lead at levels now considered safe scored substantially lower on intelligence tests, according to researchers who suggest one in every 30 children in the United States suffers harmful effects from the metal.

Children with a lead concentration of less than 10 micrograms per deciliter of blood scored an average of 11.1 points lower than the mean on the Stanford-Binet IQ test, the researchers found. The mean is the intermediate value between the lowest and highest scores.

"There is no safe level of blood lead," said Dr. Bruce Lanphear, lead author of the lead study presented Monday at the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting.

Children are most commonly exposed to lead by inhaling lead-paint dust or eating paint flakes. Lead-based paint was widely used in homes throughout the 1950s and 1960s until it was banned in 1978.

At high levels, lead can cause kidney damage, seizures, coma and death.

Before 1970, scientists believed lead poisoning took effect at 60 micrograms per deciliter. But the toxicity standard has been lowered over the years to the point where a concentration of 10 micrograms or less now is considered safe.

The researchers said their work suggests that lead is a potent toxin at levels previously thought to be harmless.

Experts predicted the study would prompt federal regulators to lower the acceptable blood-lead standard.

"This is a wonderful study that has very serious implications for public health in the United States and the rest of the world," said Dr. Daniel Courey, a pediatrics and developmental behavior professor at Columbus Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

Lanphear's team tracked 276 children in Rochester, N.Y., from ages 6 months to 5 years, measuring blood lead levels every six months and administering the IQ test at age 5. The results were compared with national health data collected from 1988-94.

The study also found an average 5.5-point decline in IQ for every additional 10-microgram increase in blood-lead concentration, said Lanphear, a physician at Children's Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati.

The study adjusted for other predictors of lowered IQ such as the mother's IQ, tobacco exposure and intellectual environment in the home, Lanphear said.

Lanphear's findings confirm what those who work with "lead kids" already know, said Ruth Ann Norton, executive director of the Baltimore-based Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning.

"There are kids who are disruptive, then there are 'lead kids' - very disruptive, very low levels of concentration," Norton said.

Besides affecting reading and reasoning abilities, lead also is linked to hearing loss, speech delay, balance difficulties and violent tendencies, Norton said.

---

States

USA Today
04/30/01
http://www.usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Alaska

Anchorage - A wolf hunt offered on a Web site as a fundraiser for rock star Ted Nugent's Kamp for Kids is causing a furor. An online petition has been posted opposing an eBay auction for a guided wolf hunt near Denali National Park and Preserve. The lone bidder paid $1,000, which will go toward teaching city children to bow hunt. Alaska wolf advocates oppose the hunt because they are trying to protect two wolf packs in the park.

Minnesota

Ashby - Authorities are offering a reward of up to $2,500 for information leading to the conviction of whoever shot more than 40 white pelicans at Christina Lake. Officials have recovered 37 dead pelicans and spotted at least seven crippled birds on the lake in northwestern Minnesota. The birds are protected by state and federal law.

Rhode Island

Woonsocket - About 1,000 gallons of fuel oil leaked out of an underground storage tank at a former mill complex, but most of it soaked into the ground before it reached a nearby river. It was the second such spill this month. State officials say the problem is increasing as old industrial buildings are demolished to make way for other uses.

Utah

Salt Lake City - Wildlife experts are concerned that a recent campaign to educate residents about a possible return of gray wolves has caused more alarm than enlightenment. State wildlife officials last week ended public meetings around the state where people questioned them about the possibility of wolves returning and what to do if they do return.

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

International misery fund

The Washington Times www.washtimes.com
Published 4/30/01
House Editorial
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20010430-107917.htm

It´s a shame the protesters who targeted the trade-orientated Summit of the Americas in Quebec didn´t turn their sights instead on the International Monetary Fund´s (IMF) spring meeting, which this week is bringing together finance ministers and central bankers from around the globe. It appears that anti-globalization demonstrators are protest-weary after having so vigorously intervened in Quebec and now have little energy left for the IMF. Pity.

Although free trade often creates challenges for industry and workers around the world in the short or medium term, it is a net positive for the countries involved over the long term. And, most importantly, free trade helps stimulate economic growth a catalyst for democratic freedoms.

However, the IMF, which doles out million-dollar bailouts to countries in economic trouble, functions inversely to free trade. While an IMF loan brings some short-term liquidity and stability to crisis-stricken countries in the short-term, over the longer term this aid generates a false sense of security created not by economic fundamentals but through borrowed liquidity. This for-a-fee stability prompts policy-makers to postpone reform that is often desperately needed. Consequentially, countries are left in debt and poised for another more intense crisis. What´s more, IMF loans bailout high-rolling speculators who profit wildly from risky investments in the emerging world while the taxpayers are left with the bill.

It has become clear where President Bush stands. During his second presidential debate against Democratic candidate Al Gore, Mr. Bush demonstrated some healthy skepticism of the efficacy of IMF bailouts, claiming that some of the $4.8 billion IMF loan to Russia in 1998 had "ended up in Viktor Chernomyrdin´s pockets." And Treasury Secretary Paul O´Neill echoed that sentiment in press interviews earlier this year, stating "Most observers would say what happened in Russia was . . . not a surprise. Have you ever tried to do business in Russia?"

But the Bush White House is now giving unrestrained endorsement to an IMF bailout of Turkey, which has already slowed the pace of reform there. Calling Turkey "an important ally and good friend," Mr. O´Neill said in a statement that "The United States continues to back the IMF´s ongoing support for Turkey´s economic-reform program." So it seems after all that the Bush administration has lost its reservations about IMF bailouts and that is worth protesting.

-------- police

States

USA Today
04/30/01
http://www.usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

California

Concord - Police in this San Francisco Bay area town have raised $7,000 to buy bulletproof vests for their nine-dog K-9 unit. The Kevlar vests are becoming popular around the USA. An average of two police dogs are shot and killed in the line of duty each year in the nation.

Idaho

Idaho Falls - A judge has suspended a 14-day jail sentence for a 70-year-old man after having second thoughts about unnecessary force by a police officer. Magistrate Mark Riddoch said he was concerned that Garald Beazer was pepper-sprayed and hit with a baton when he attempted to intervene in a traffic stop involving two of his employees on Dec. 4.

---

Riot prosecutors ignore violence toward whites

The Washington Times www.washtimes.com
Published 4/30/01
Steve Miller and Jerry Seper THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20010430-78519144.htm

Three days of racially charged riots in Cincinnati earlier this month reached a new level of acrimony last week after black-on-white crimes were largely ignored by federal prosecutors.

Locals are asking why those assaults, many of which were captured on videotape, have gone unpunished.

"That´s exactly the question to ask, that is my concern," Cincinnati City Council member Phil Heimlich said. "What´s happened here is there has been a switching of victims. We have a situation where violent riots took place and many innocent people had their businesses looted and their property destroyed and a host of innocent people were brutally beaten apparently because of their race."

A Cincinnati law enforcement source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, added: "My understanding is that we may have a double standard of hate crime prosecution at the federal level."

Attorney General John Ashcroft told The Washington Times that Justice Department authorities have no order to specifically target blacks or whites in the investigation into the Timothy Thomas shooting and the ensuing riots.

"The people in Cincinnati have the right to have their civil rights respected. And we are working with the community to see that those rights are respected," Mr. Ashcroft said Friday. "This Justice Department is not color oriented. It cares about the rights of all citizens."

Riot-related arrests have so far resulted in 63 felony indictments. The disturbances were prompted by the April 7 police shooting of Mr. Thomas, an unarmed black teen-ager who was running from officers.

As a result, agitated black groups terrorized white motorists and pedestrians in a popular, largely commercial section north of downtown.

Anonymous current and former Justice Department lawyers ask whether Mr. Ashcroft who immediately ordered a civil rights investigation after the Thomas shooting does not wish to appear racist and thus has targeted the Cincinnati Police Department for white-on-black hate crimes. The attorney general instructed civil rights attorneys to focus on accusations that Cincinnati police officers used improper procedures or lacked training.

Thus, federal investigators and the FBI have moved quickly on a case involving Cincinnati police officers accused of shooting a Louisville woman with a pellet-filled bean bag during a protest following Mr. Thomas´ funeral.

One former Justice Department official said current policies may still reflect those of the Clinton administration, when civil rights prosecutors appeared more interested in political victories aimed at "pleasing Democrats and the media, than an even-handed approach to the law."

The direction of the federal team in Cincinnati, which includes two lawyers from the civil rights division, has confused Hamilton County prosecutor Michael Allen.

"We were absolutely not investigating that bean-bag shooting, and the speed with which the Justice Department moved into this investigation is unusual, at best," Mr. Allen said. "I have seen no credible evidence in this case."

The Cincinnati Police Department is likewise befuddled: "I don´t know why [the bean-bag case is being pursued]. You would have to ask the federal government," Lt. Raymond Ruberg said.

The Justice Department has refused to discuss its motives and its role in the Cincinnati aftermath. The violation of federal civil rights laws a felony brings much stiffer penalties than most local "hate crimes" statutes.

Cincinnati FBI spokesman Ed Boldt said that the role of the Justice Department was to "investigate civil rights violations, and we have the jurisdictional responsibility to do that."

But, he added, "If a person is dragged from their car and beaten because of skin color, it is a civil rights violation and also a state crime. We aren´t going to duplicate investigations."

But Mr. Ruberg noted that Cincinnati police investigators already working on the bean-bag shooting were told to step aside by the federal investigators.

Agencies frequently work in tandem on cases that blur state and federal law, such as bank robberies, to build a stronger case.

Robert Stearns, a 34-year-old delivery truck driver from Louisville, is still waiting to hear from federal investigators. He was attacked by a gang of black men on April 10 as he was making a delivery near downtown.

While inside a store, he heard the gears grinding on his truck, which was in the driveway. When he approached the truck, a black man was trying to drive it away. When Mr. Stearns told him to get out, the man threatened to kill him.

"Then a crowd gathered and I jumped in the truck with the guy and we started fighting," Mr. Stearns said last week. He was then pulled from the truck by one of the crowd.

"They were yelling 'kill the white man´ and 'kill whitey.´ The more they yelled, the more they beat me. Why they wanted to kill me, I don´t know. But my guess is that it was the color of my skin. I basically just fought my way out and got back into the store and we locked the doors. They tried to get in there, but couldn´t. I had bruises, chipped teeth and broken glasses. I really feel pretty lucky."

Stories of the attack were reported by the Louisville Courier-Journal on April 14 and The Washington Times on April 17. Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken described the turmoil there as rooted in "long-standing racial and economic problems."

His solution? "We must address the broader issues of racism and economic inclusion in our community," he said two weeks ago. But Cincinnati´s street wars strongly resemble those perpetrated in Seattle earlier this year during a Mardi Gras celebration, where local news outlets portrayed "roving bands of black young men" brutalizing whites on video and in photographs. Black leaders responded by saying the media were vilifying blacks.

But out of the 25 mostly felony arrests, only one was charged under the state´s hate crimes law, for "malicious harassment."

The King County prosecutor´s office, which serves Seattle, has convicted 75 such cases since 1995. Out of the 25 related to the February melee, it is considering one.

"Police sent us one such case," said Dan Donohoe, a spokesman for the prosecutor. His office reviewed the videotape and declined to add charges.

Seattle police said there was no federal inquiry into the rampant racial violence even though it was widely reported in local newspapers such as the Seattle Times. "They attacked us because we were white," it quoted one victim as saying.

---

Ethnic Berbers clash with police

The Washington Times www.washtimes.com
Published 4/30/01
World Scene
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20010430-74752186.htm

ALGIERS - Ethnic Berbers clashed with police yesterday in weeklong riots that have reportedly killed 50 persons, and a political party threatened to quit the government, denouncing the police crackdown.

The Rally for Culture and Democracy, which has its base of support among Berbers in the northeast Kabyle region, where the riots have been raging, accused the police of blunders and overreaction.

A withdrawal by the party will not threaten the survival of the government, but the move places further pressure on President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who was elected on a promise to end a bloody insurgency that has gripped this north African nation for nearly a decade.

-------- spying

Stripper drawn into Hanssen spy case

USA Today
04/30/2001
By Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washdc/2001-04-30-stripper-usat.htm

A former FBI agent charged with spying for Moscow gave a stripper about $80,000 in cash, gifts and travel in an unusual relationship he broke off long before his arrest earlier this year, the woman's mother said Sunday.

Linda Harris said she met Robert Hanssen at least twice during his contact with her daughter, Priscilla Galey. The last time, she said, was in the early 1990s when the agent arrived unannounced at their home in Columbus, Ohio, to take back a credit card he had given to Galey. "The next time we saw him," Harris said, "he was on the news being arrested (on Feb. 18). Me and Priscilla about fell off our chairs. We knew it would only be a matter of time before the FBI came looking for us."

Harris said agents arrived about a week later to question her daughter. The interrogation continued in Washington, where Harris said her daughter appeared before a federal grand jury.

Hanssen has been charged with conducting a 15-year campaign of espionage against the United States. He is accused of passing secrets to Moscow in exchange for $600,000 in cash and diamonds. An additional $800,000 was allegedly set aside for Hanssen in a Russian bank account.

Federal authorities focused on Galey shortly after Hanssen's arrest as they sought to learn what the high-ranking, counterintelligence agent did with proceeds reaped from his alleged years as a well-placed mole. Hanssen's lawyer has said his client will plead innocent.

Galey was unavailable for comment Sunday. In an interview published in Sunday's editions of The Washington Post, Galey said Hanssen befriended her in 1990 while she worked as a stripper in Washington. He later gave her wads of hundred-dollar bills, jewelry, a trip to Hong Kong and a 1985 Mercedes-Benz sedan.

Harris said her daughter, 43, regarded the relationship with Hanssen, 56, as "a fatherly type of thing" that did not involve sexual intimacy.

"She told me they never got physical or anything," Harris said. "But he wouldn't have bought her a car if he wasn't getting something out of it. It could be he was trying to recruit her to help him out later in a spy thing.

"Priscilla often asked him what he was doing (with all the money)," Harris said. "He would always laugh and say, 'I could tell ya, but then I'd have to kill ya.' "

Harris said she remembers Hanssen, in her brief encounters with him, as "a man with an air about him."

"He acted like he was too good for people like us," she said.

When Hanssen showed up in Columbus to take back Galey's American Express card, Harris said, her daughter indicated the agent had become angry because Galey used the card to purchase Easter dresses for her nieces.

The credit card, Harris said, was only to be used to pay for gas and maintenance of the Mercedes.

"He drove all the way from Washington to get that card," Harris said.

Harris said she called Hanssen at the FBI in 1993 for help after Galey was arrest on a drug charge. "He wouldn't do anything for her," she said.

Hanssen's family couldn't be reached for comment Sunday.

Harris said the FBI was expected back at the house today.

"I don't feel like I can tell them anything new," she said.

---

U.S. Team on Way to Inspect Downed Spy Plane in China

New York Times
April 30, 2001
By ERIK ECKHOLM
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/30/world/30CND-CHINA.html

BEIJING, April 30 - At China's invitation, a United States technical team set out today for Hainan island to inspect a damaged spy plane that has been sitting at a Chinese military base there since April 1, when it collided with a tracking jet fighter.

The Chinese government announced Sunday that American officials would be allowed to look over the plane, indicating that Beijing may be ready to ease the rancor over the episode. The United States ambassador to China, Adm. Joseph Prueher, said today that the team would be flying via Hawaii. It was unclear when they would arrive on Hainan.

Sunday's announcement, by the official New China News Agency, lacked the shrill accusative tone of earlier statements about the collision, which caused the loss of the Chinese aircraft and pilot, the emergency landing by the American plane and its 24 crew members on Hainan island, and a tempest in diplomatic relations.

The announcement indicated that secret negotiations have continued since a senior American delegation visited Beijing earlier this month. It said the two sides had "agreed to discuss ways to avoid similar incidents in the future," apparently through an established joint Military Maritime Commission.

But in a demonstration of the continued potential for disagreement, the announcement also repeated China's claim that "the U.S. plane rammed into a Chinese plane" and said, "The U.S. side has agreed to consider making a payment to the Chinese side." Further negotiations, it said, will determine "the specific amount of the U.S. payment and the items to be covered."

The report of a possible payment seemed intended to suggest that the United States may be admitting fault for the collision - something American officials have refused to do, asserting that such flights outside China's 12-mile territorial waters are legal and that the collision was caused by the Chinese pilot's recklessly close swoops.

"We made no commitments on the payments," Ambassador Prueher told reporters in Beijing. "We are very pleased that we were able to get the initial step towards getting the airplane back."

A Western diplomat familiar with the talks said earlier that the United States had considered paying some relatively modest expenses connected with the return of the spy plane, an EP-3E propeller aircraft. Such payments, if presented here in sufficiently ambiguous terms, might give the Chinese leaders a face-saving way to release the plane.

In Washington on Sunday, Vice President Dick Cheney called China's invitation "an encouraging sign." "The fact that they have now announced that they are willing to have U.S. personnel go in and look at the aircraft and assess what it is going to take to get it back, I think is very positive," he said on "Fox News Sunday."

Mr. Cheney said the United States had agreed to reimburse only costs associated with recovery of the $80 million plane, which he said is not in condition to fly. "The nose is gone from it, all of the instruments don't work, two of the engines are out," he said. "Somebody's going to have to go in and load it on something and transport it out, probably a barge or something."

Andrew H. Card Jr., the White House chief of staff, said Sunday on the CBS News program "Face the Nation" that he considered the development constructive and that the American experts are expected to go to China "as soon as their documentation is ready, their visas are ready."

"There is no expectation that the United States is going to pay any compensation to China," he said.

The United States was angered by the 11-day delay in releasing the crew, which came only after an official statement by the United States that it was "very sorry" about the death of the Chinese pilot and the unauthorized emergency landing.

American officials have been pressing to get the plane back, though they concede the Chinese must have pored over the plane. It was packed with eavesdropping equipment that was only partly destroyed by the crew in the frantic moments after landing. The diplomat here said American officials hoped to visit the plane in two days.

Chinese officials insist they have proof that the American plane made a sudden and improper swerve, causing the collision 70 miles off Hainan. They say such spy flights are an affront that must be stopped, though they are aware the United States fully intends to continue them.

The collision aroused nationalist passions in China and the government's propaganda machine has tried to capitalize on public sympathy for the lost pilot, Wang Wei, featuring him as a model and hero. But the Chinese leaders have also emphasized their desire to preserve good ties with the United States, which they see as vital to China's economic development.

Those ties have been further shredded by the Bush administration's announcement that it will allow the sale of major new weapons to Taiwan, including four naval destroyers, antisubmarine aircraft and up to eight diesel submarines. China considers Taiwan a renegade province and calls such sales a gross intrusion, as well as a violation of American promises.

Now another irritant is looming as the United States prepares to let Taiwan's president, Chen Shui-bian, stop in New York and Houston en route to and from Latin America in May and June.

China does not consider Taiwan's government legitimate and views any high-level contacts with Taiwan by the United States to be a violation of American promises to recognize only "one China."

According to reports in Washington and Taipei, Mr. Chen will stop in New York May 21 to May 23 and then in Houston on June 2 and June 3, as he returns from a visit to five small Central and South American countries - some of the small number of countries that still recognize Taipei rather than Beijing, usually in return for large foreign aid packages.

Mr. Chen has asked whether he can have quiet meetings with supporters in the United States Congress during the stopovers, and American diplomats say they are discussing the matter.

China has repeatedly demanded that Washington refuse to give Mr. Chen a transit permit. If he does meet with members of Congress or other officials, that would compound the offense in Beijing's eyes.

Chinese ire over a related question has been put off. The United States, to Beijing's condemnation, gave a visa to a former president of Taiwan, Lee Teng-hui, who had planned to visit his alma mater, Cornell University, in May. But Mr. Lee has postponed his trip, ostensibly for health reasons, so it will not happen near the time of Mr. Chen's.

---

U.S. plane inspectors head to China

USA Today
04/30/2001 - Updated 05:26 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/world/2001-04-30-china.htm

HONOLULU (AP) - A group of technicians from an American aerospace company headed for China on Monday to determine whether the damaged Navy spy plane can be flown back to the United States or will have to be disassembled. The five or so technicians from Lockheed Martin, main contractor for the EP-3E aircraft, arrived in Hawaii and were briefed by military officials. They will inspect the plane on Hainan Island, where it landed after a collision with a Chinese fighter jet April 1.

In a subsequent phase of the recovery operation, a different team will be sent to Hainan to disassemble it and ship it off the island, the official said.

The Pentagon originally had said it would consider sending repair parts to Hainan and fly the damaged plane off the island, but that option has been ruled out, apparently at China's insistence.

"I see it as an encouraging sign that they're willing to proceed," Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday. The plane cannot be flown now and may have to be taken out on a barge, Cheney said.

In Beijing, the Chinese government announced that foreign journalists would not be allowed to go to Hainan to report on the inspection of the crippled plane. "We are formally telling you not to go," a Foreign Ministry official, Wei Xing, said in a telephone call to The Associated Press.

Top Bush administration officials reiterated President Bush's tough stand that a military response from the United States remains an option if China attacks Taiwan.

It has been nearly a month since a U.S. Navy EP-3E surveillance plane with a crew of 24 collided with a Chinese fighter jet sent to intercept it over the South China Sea.

The plane made an emergency landing at a military airfield on Hainan island on April 1, and the crew was detained for 11 days. They were released after Bush said he was "very sorry" for the loss of the Chinese pilot and for the U.S. plane's unauthorized entry into Chinese airspace to make an emergency landing.

At April 18-19 talks in Beijing, American negotiators presented a written proposal for U.S. experts to inspect the plane to determine whether to repair and fly it out or ship it out in pieces.

"Having completed its investigation and evidence collection involving the U.S. plane and in view of international precedents in handling such issues, the Chinese side has decided to allow the U.S. side to inspect its plane at the Lingshui Airport," the official Xinhua News Agency said Sunday.

Cheney said he was hopeful that China's decision would lay the groundwork for the return of the plane, which was loaded with sophisticated eavesdropping equipment.

"As we've said all along, we do want our aircraft back. And the fact that they have now announced that they're willing to have U.S. personnel go in and look at the aircraft and assess what it's going to take to get it back, I think is very positive," he said on "Fox News Sunday."

The president's chief of staff, Andrew Card, said Washington was preparing to send a team to the island.

"We expect them to get there as soon as their documentation is ready, their visas are ready," Card said on ABC's "This Week."

Neither he nor a Pentagon spokeswoman could say who was on the "technical assessment team." They were unsure how swiftly the plane might be returned, or even how it would come back.

Cheney said the aircraft was not airworthy.

"The nose is gone from it, all of the instruments don't work, two of the engines are out," he said. "There isn't any way you're going to fly that aircraft out of there. Somebody's going to have to go in and load it on something and transport it out, probably a barge or something."

Xinhua also said the United States has agreed to consider making a payment to China. Card and Cheney said that would represent compensation for any Chinese assistance in removing the plane. There will be no additional compensation, they said.

The team will try to determine what military and hardware secrets the Chinese may have collected in the month since the plane has been on the ground. Crewmen aboard the U.S. plane used hammers and other measures to try to disable intelligence equipment, but some secrets still fell into Chinese hands, according to U.S. defense officials.

"I would assume they got something," said Cheney, a former defense secretary.

While there was progress on returning the plane, U.S. officials forcefully reiterated Bush's warning last week that U.S. military force is an option if China invades Taiwan. Bush's statements marked an apparent departure from the long-standing American policy of "strategic ambiguity," and further inflamed U.S.-China tensions.

"We're very serious about defending Taiwan," Cheney said on Fox.

Added Card: "It's important that the United States live up to its obligations to help Taiwan defend itself and that's what the president reiterated."

---

China will let U.S. look at plane

The Washington Times www.washtimes.com
Published 4/30/01
Joyce Howard Price THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20010430-6348886.htm

China will allow Americans to inspect the downed Navy surveillance plane it has held for nearly a month, U.S. and Chinese officials disclosed yesterday.

In an interview on "Fox News Sunday," Vice President Richard B. Cheney called the move "very positive." He said it was an "encouraging sign" China intends to return the disabled U.S. EP-3E reconnaissance plane, which was forced to land on Hainan island in South China after a collision with a Chinese F-8 fighter jet on April 1. China detained the 24 U.S. crew members for 12 days, sparking an international incident.

"As we´ve said all along, we do want our aircraft back, " Mr. Cheney said.

An American inspection team was en route to China today to inspect the surveillance plane, the French news agency Agence France-Presse reported.

"They are en route and in the air on the way to Honolulu now, and so it will be tomorrow probably at the earliest (that they will arrive)," U.S. Ambassador to China Joseph Prueher told journalists in Beijing.

Mr. Prueher said it had not been decided if the inspection team would go directly to southern Hainan island, where the EP-3E surveillance aircraft has been held since the collision, or to Beijing for briefings.

China´s decision to allow the U.S. inspection was announced yesterday by China´s state-run news organization, the Xinhua News Agency.

Xinhua also said the United States has agreed to consider paying China for unspecified expenses connected to the disabled plane.

However, both Mr. Cheney and White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card insisted compensation will be limited to any help China provides in removing the plane.

Mr. Cheney said the aircraft is "not flyable," and he detailed its damage.

"The nose is gone from it, all of the instruments don´t work, two of the engines are out somebody´s going to have to go in and load it on something and transport it out, probably a barge or something, " he said on Fox.

Mr. Card, in an interview on CBS´ "Face the Nation," said it´s likely a crane will be needed to lift the plane. Asked if there have been any talks about compensating the family of the Chinese pilot who was killed in the collision, Mr. Card said, "There have been no talks about that at all."

On ABC's "This Week," he said there will be "no compensation (for China) for holding our aircraft."

The collision occurred in international airspace and, according to U.S. officials, was caused by reckless, aggressive flying by the Chinese pilot, Wang Wei. But China continues to insist the Americans were responsible for the crash and has not said if it would return the plane.

Mr. Card, on CBS, called China´s decision to allow U.S. personnel to inspect the plane a "constructive development."

U.S. negotiators sought such inspection rights during talks in Beijing on April 18 and 19.

"Having completed its investigation and evidence collection involving the U.S. plane and in view of international precedents in handling such issues, the Chinese side has decided to allow the U.S. side to inspect its plane at the Lingshui Airport," the Xinhua News Agency said yesterday.

The American inspection team will try to ascertain what intelligence secrets the Chinese may have learned during the four weeks the plane has been on the ground in their country.

Asked how much the Chinese have learned, Mr. Cheney said on Fox: "We don´t know. . . . I would assume they got something."

He said he believes the crew managed to destroy or dispose of "a lot of the really sensitive stuff, things like software," which were aboard the EP-3E.

"Certainly, the hardware´s left, even though a lot of it was destroyed by the crew en route," said the vice president.

U.S. officials hope that China´s decision to let Americans inspect the EP-3E signals an easing of strained relations between the two powers.

In addition to China´s concerns about the United States flying surveillance missions near the Chinese coastline, the communist country objects to the U.S. decision last week to sell high-tech weapons to Taiwan to help defend itself against an attack by mainland China.

Chinese officials also were angered by a public pledge by President Bush to do whatever is necessary--including using military force--to defend Taiwan from an attack by Beijing.

On talk shows yesterday, Mr. Cheney and Mr. Card reinforced Mr. Bush´s tough stand on a possible U.S. military response.

"We´re very serious about defending Taiwan," Mr. Cheney said on Fox.

Mr. Card said on ABC: "It´s important that the United States live up to its obligations to help Taiwan defend itself. And that´s what the president reiterated. I think it was a very noble statement that the president made. It was consistent with American policy. And it was the right thing to do in the context of China and Taiwan."

-------- terrorism

State Department: Iran is No. 1 terrorist backer

USA Today
04/30/2001
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washdc/2001-04-30-terrorism.htm

WASHINGTON (AP) - Iran remained the most active state sponsor of terrorism in 2000, increasing its support to groups targeting the Middle East peace process, according to the latest State Department terrorism report.

The Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security "continued to be involved in the planing and execution of terrorist acts and continued to support a variety of groups that use terrorism to pursue their goals," said the report, released Monday.

Iran continued to be particularly active in support of Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon and Palestinian groups opposed to the peace process, it said. Those groups claimed responsibility for many of the attacks during the recent Palestinian-Israeli clashes.

The attacks ended a period of more than two years without a large scale terrorist operation in the region.

Iran has been viewed by the State Department as the most active terrorist nation for about 10 years, said a department official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The report said "aggressive countermeasures by hardline conservatives" in Iran thwarted the moderate forces that triumphed in parliamentary elections in February 2000.

"Statements by Iran's leaders demonstrated Iran's unrelenting hostility to Israel," the report said. "Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei continued to refer to Israel as a 'cancerous tumor' that must be removed."

The 91-page report covers terrorism trends worldwide in the year 2000.

The report said 19 Americans were killed in terrorist attacks, including 17 sailors who died in the October 12 attack on the USS Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden.

There were 423 international terrorist attacks in 2000, an increase of 8% from 1999.

The largest geographical decrease in terrorist attacks occurred in Western Europe, where the total declined from 85 to 30, owing to fewer attacks in Germany, Greece and Italy as well as to the absence of any attacks in Turkey, the report said.

On Afghanistan, the study said Islamic extremists from around the world - including North America, Europe Africa, the Middle East and Central, South and Southeast Asia - continued to use that country "as a training ground and base of operations for their worldwide terrorist activities in 2000."

The Taliban rulers "permitted the operation of training and indoctrination facilities for non-Afghans and provided logistics support to members of various terrorist organizations and mujahedeen, including those waging holy wars in Central Asia, Chechnya and Kashmir," it said.

-------- activists

UK biotech firms demand protection from activists

Planet Ark
UK: April 30, 2001
REUTERS
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10660

LONDON - Britain's biotechnology industry called on Friday for increased protection against animal rights activists whose protests nearly closed the country's oldest animal testing centre earlier this year.

The BioIndustry Association said recent government steps, while welcome, did not go far enough to protect executives of companies involved in animal research.

An amendment to the Criminal Justice and Police Bill will allow private addresses of directors at serious risk of violence to be kept in a secure register.

But the BIA said activists who bought one or two shares would still be able to trace the home addresses of directors who sat on the board of more than one firm, using the publicly-held details of their other companies.

"Steps must be taken to ensure that directors' addresses cannot be accessed in this way by those who intend to harm or intimidate them," the BIA said in its "manifesto for biotechnology".

Contract research group Huntingdon Life Sciences Group Plc came close to collapse earlier this year when violent protests by campaigners opposed to animal testing caused financial backers to withdraw their support.

Prime Minister Tony Blair on Thursday confirmed plans for the establishment of a top-level ministerial group to tackle animal rights extremism.

Paul Drayson, chief executive of Powderject Pharmaceuticals Plc and chairman of the BIA, said government support was needed if Britain was to remain at the forefront of biotechnology in Europe.

Ernst & Young's European Life Sciences report, published on Thursday, showed Germany challenging Britain's traditional dominance in biotechnology.

Germany had 331 private and public biotech companies at the end of last year, the highest of any European country, compared to 281 in the UK. But the UK still had three times as many public companies as any other European country, and these firms together had 128 products in development.

---

Navy Bombing of Vieques Continues

New York Times
April 30, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Navy-Vieques.html

VIEQUES, Puerto Rico (AP) -- Navy ships and fighter jets blasted a firing range with inert ammunition despite protests on Monday, the same day the Navy gave up more than a third of its land on this Puerto Rican island.

The transfer of the 8,100 acres was part of an agreement reached last year between the White House and Puerto Rico as a compromise to quell rising tensions over the Navy's use of Vieques.

``It represents a great opportunity for the Navy to demonstrate we are great neighbors on Vieques,'' said Lt. Jeff Gordon, a Navy spokesman.

Protesters, meanwhile, continued their demonstrations against the Navy, calling for a permanent end to the exercises that resumed Friday. They were the first such maneuvers on Vieques since December.

``What the Navy has been doing to us is abusive,'' said Luis Gonzalez, a 17-year-old high school student who skipped class to protest. ``For more than 60 years they have destroyed our land, and that hurts.''

Gordon said because of ongoing demonstrations and fierce government opposition, the current exercises could end as early as Tuesday.

Opposition to the Navy's use of the training ground grew after an April 1999 accident in which two off-target bombs killed a civilian guard at the range on the eastern tip of Vieques. Since May 2000, the Navy has used only inert ammunition but says the training is critical for the national defense.

Monday's maneuvers began after 1 p.m., hours after they were scheduled, because Navy officials heard that protesters had buried themselves on the 900-acre firing range loaded with unexploded bombs and shells.

Although protest organizers said between 40 and 60 people invaded the range Monday morning, only 10 had been arrested, including Puerto Rican Independence Party leader Ruben Berrios.

No protesters were found buried in the range, but two people were arrested for entering a restricted area close to the range, and six were arrested when they cut through a fence.

Since Thursday, more than 140 people have been arrested. Many of those were taken to a federal prison outside San Juan and appeared on Monday before a judge on trespassing charges.

Some, including environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr., posted the $3,000 bail ordered by the judge. Others, who had been arrested before, were ordered to pay $10,000 bail, but it was unclear how many of those with the higher bail had posted it.

The Navy says the range provides unique training that saves U.S. lives in combat. It denies claims the exercises cause health problems.

Navy supporters on Vieques, meanwhile, said the protests were being fueled by people from the main island of Puerto Rico.

``The ones who come to make trouble are the ones from outside,'' said Hilda Christian, a 60-year-old hotel receptionist.

She said the Navy helps the economy of Vieques, where unemployment is particularly high, and she said she worries that if the Navy stops using Vieques, U.S. aid will dwindle.

As part of Monday's land transfer, Vieques' municipal government will get the majority of the land, while the rest will go to the Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Department of the Interior.

The land, on the western side of Vieques, had been used for ammunition bunkers until a year ago. Some of the land already had been set aside as conservation areas, Gordon said.

Monday's transfer will not affect the current exercises, which involve about 15,000 sailors and Marines and a dozen cruisers and destroyers in the battle group of the Norfolk, Va.-based aircraft carrier USS Enterprise.

The Vieques agreement reached last year also required the military to use non-explosive ammunition for its exercises and established a referendum, to be held in November, in which islanders will vote on whether the Navy should remain on the small island.

If the Navy is voted out, it must leave by May 2003. If it is allowed to stay, it can resume using live ammunition.

In other protests on the main island, 35 students blocked the entrance to an Army Reserve recruiting office at the University of Puerto Rico's main campus, and some of the protesters beat up two U.S. Army officials trying to enter. The soldiers suffered minor injuries, police said.

---

Navy searches for demonstrators on bombing range

USA Today
04/30/2001
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2001-04-30-vieques.htm

VIEQUES, Puerto Rico (AP) - The U.S. Navy scoured an area packed with unexploded bombs and shells Monday for demonstrators who reportedly have buried themselves there to thwart military exercises on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques.

As soon as the area was cleared of any protesters, destroyers and fighter jets were to resume firing inert shells and bombs into the range where protesters say they are hiding.

"There have been some reports that demonstrators are burying themselves in a live-ordinance area to hide from Navy personnel," said Roberto Nelson, a Navy spokesman. "This is incredibly dangerous."

The 900-acre firing range is littered with explosives from six decades of live-fire exercises despite periodic cleanups, Nelson said.

The Navy says the range provides unique training that saves U.S. lives in combat. It denies anti-Navy activists' claims that the exercises cause health problems.

On Monday, between 40 and 60 protesters infiltrated the bombing range but none were reported to have buried themselves, said Robert Rabin, a protest leader.

A total of 136 protesters have been arrested since Thursday night for trespassing on federal property. Some were to be charged in court Monday.

On the edge of the military zone, Navy personnel have fired pepper and tear gas Sunday at protesters who have cut through fencing in many areas and stoned military and federal guards.

"We're going to keep putting people on the bombing range because we have demonstrated that we have been more efficient at getting people in there than the Navy has been at taking them out," said protest leader Carlos Zenon, a fisherman.

Opposition grew after an April 1999 accident in which two off-target bombs killed a civilian guard at the range on the eastern tip of Vieques. Since last May, the Navy has used only inert ammunition.

The exercises began on Friday and were halted Sunday in honor of the beatification in Rome of Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, the first Puerto Rican to be put on a path to sainthood.

The current exercises involve about 15,000 sailors and Marines and a dozen cruisers and destroyers in the battle group of the Norfolk, Va.,-based aircraft carrier USS Enterprise.

---

China sentences two members of banned sect

USA Today
04/30/2001
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2001-04-30-china-falungong.htm

BEIJING (AP) - China has sentenced to life in prison a man who tried to derail passenger trains after officials refused to release detained followers of the Falun Gong meditation sect, a newspaper reported Monday.

Sect follower Dou Zhenyang phoned the mayor of northern Fushun city and the railway bureau to warn that "something would happen to the trains if his demand wasn't met," the Beijing Morning Post said.

Dou and a second Falun Gong follower placed obstructions on railway tracks on the night of Jan. 19, the paper said. It did not identify the obstructions, but said the driver braked in time to prevent major damage.

A second attempt on Jan. 23 was also foiled when the engineer braked in time to avoid a derailment, the paper said.

The incidents caused $9,200 in damage to the two trains and closed the line for more than one hour, the report said.

A fellow plotter, Wang Hongjun, was given a sentence of 13 years, it said.

Dou and his wife, Wang Guoying, also printed illegal pamphlets promoting Falun Gong and distributed hundreds of them with the help of other "hard-core" sect followers, the report said. Police found pamphlets and printing equipment in the couple's apartment.

Officials at the Fushun Intermediate Court where the sentences were passed could not be reached for comment.

Led by its founder, former government clerk Li Hongzhi, the group attracted millions of followers during the 1990s with its mix of eastern mysticism and traditional Chinese slow motion exercises.

China banned Falun Gong in June 1999 as an evil cult, accusing it of killing some 1,600 followers by driving them insane or telling them to reject medical help. The ban followed a mass protest by members against alleged government persecution.

In a new pronouncement posted on Falun Gong's Website, Li calls for defiance, saying those who fear persecution are guilty of retaining "attachments."

"No matter what the situation, do not cooperate with the evil's demands, orders, or what it instigates," Li writes in an essay dated April 24.

---

Louisiana

USA Today
04/30/01
States
http://www.usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Crowley - Black residents plan a protest what they say is unfair treatment by police following the arrest of seven black residents. Some residents say officers beat several of those arrested April 16. Police Capt. Richard Sammartino said his office had not received any complaints. The New Black Panther Party says it will provide security for the march on Saturday.


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