------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
Mothballed plutonium plant faces £250m loss
Havel Reflects on Warsaw Pact
S. Koreans Protest US Missle Defense
U.S. Seeks to Resume Talks With North Korea
Report: Workers Not Warned
Bush Averts Showdown With Congress
Law Firm Lobbied for Nuclear Industry While Advising Government
Firm Lobbied for Nuclear Industry
State gets ready for shipments

MILITARY
Peru's Toledo Urges No Arms Deals in South America
Official History Describes U.S. Policy in Indonesia in the 60's
Macedonia ceasefire at risk as rebels hold line
Puerto Rico Wants Navy Departure
Vieques Vote Pivotal in U.S. - Puerto Rico Relations
Pentagon Considers 'Space Bomber'
Air Force exercises its muscles
US, Canada Swap Barbs Over Spending

OTHER
Good Business Model Remains Elusive for Stem Cells
White House Heads to Racism Talks
Anti-Zion push threatens race summmit
CIA STALLING STATE DEPARTMENT HISTORIES

ACTIVISTS
BOGUS ARREST AT SPACE CENTER FLORIDA


-------- NUCLEAR

-------- britain

Mothballed plutonium plant faces £250m loss
Special report: Britain's nuclear industry

Paul Brown Environment
Guardian (UK)
Saturday July 28, 2001
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4229911,00.html

The controversial plutonium fuel plant built at Sellafield by British Nuclear Fuels but mothballed for four years while the government decides whether to grant it a licence will cost the taxpaper £250m even if it is allowed to open, according to independent analysts.

Yesterday the government released the report of consultants Arthur D Little, showing that their best estimate is that the plant would do around £216m worth of business in 10 years, compared with a construction cost of more than £460m.

The government agreed to publish the report after facing a high court challenge by Friends of the Earth.

The plant turns plutonium and uranium which has been through the reprocessing works in Sellafield back into reactor fuel.

The government told the consultants to disregard the fact it has cost £460m to build and to evaluate only whether the profit it made would exceed operating costs.

On this basis Arthur D Little consider the plant would make around £216m "profit" but opponents of the plant believe this is "voodoo economics". BNFL, on the other hand, claims it proves the plant is viable.

The plant's operating licence has been withheld so far because of a significant lack of orders. This was compounded by a scandal and diplomatic row involving falsified data for plutonium fuel sent to Japan from a demonstration plant designed to show how the fuel would work.

Eventually BNFL, at the government's insistence, agreed to pay for the fuel to be brought back to the UK. The company hoped that the Japanese would subsequently order more plutonium fuel but this now seems unlikely.

However, the company has had more interest from Europe and claims firm orders from Sweden and Germany.

Mark Johnston, nuclear campaigner for Friends of the Earth, claimed the report "confirms the plutonium plant will lose hundreds of millions of pounds.

"We consider it would be unlawful for the government to give the plant the go-ahead, and it is a scandal it was ever built in the first place.

"Ministers must dismiss BNFL's application or risk further legal challenge. There needs to be an independent inquiry into why the government's supervision of BNFL has failed so badly.

"There must also be a full debate about how to manage the legacy of long-lived radioactive wastes and in particular plutonium."

Mr Johnston said it would be premature for the government to authorise "a dangerous and expensive process for plutonium waste management when other safer and less expensive options have not been explored".

BNFL argued the report concluded that there was "a robust economic case" for proceeding with the plant and that it would make make a net contribution of £216m.

"This clear, independent evidence supports what we have been saying for some time, that the plant has a strong economic justification, there is customer commitment and it is vitally important to both employment and the economy in west Cumbria. The environment agency has already said that the environmental impact of the plant is 'negligible'."

The company claims the plant has 40% of the firm orders it needs for the first 10 years of operation.

-------- europe

Havel Reflects on Warsaw Pact

By George Jahn
Associated Press Writer
Saturday, July 28, 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010728/aponline121655_000.htm

PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- The Kremlin's grip on East Europe was already feeble a decade ago. Still, Mikhail Gorbachev bristled when told Czechoslovakia was no longer a vassal state of the Soviet Union, President Vaclav Havel recalls.

"He was upset," the Czech playwright-turned-president said, chuckling as he told The Associated Press of that meeting at the Kremlin with the Soviet president. "Then he said, 'OK, you're a poet, you are allowed to put it that way.'"

For Havel and other East European leaders who fought for an end to Soviet domination, this month brings back the July day 10 years ago when Havel chaired the Prague meeting carrying the Warsaw Pact to the grave.

Less gripping than the fall of the Berlin Wall and other events fraying the Iron Curtain across Europe, the July 1, 1991 Prague summit mothballing the Pact was nonetheless a milestone along the road to East Europe's democratization.

Even before the meeting, the Warsaw Pact was a cripple. With Germany's unification, East Germany had ceased to exist, while other Pact members - Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria - had embraced democracy.

The Pact's military functions had been recently dissolved. Still, signing the Pact out of existence in Prague was an immensely important reflection of a how the threat of the Cold War turning hot was disappearing.

No longer were thousands of Soviet-built tanks ready to punch into Western Europe. Western capitals ceased being scanned-in targets of nuclear missiles. The armored fist of the Soviet bloc, whose forces stood toe-to-toe with NATO in Europe since 1955, was no more.

Moscow remained a problem, but the Soviet Union's former European allies already had started clamoring for NATO membership.

Havel's country, now the Czech Republic after Czechoslovakia broke up in 1993, was among three former Warsaw Pact nations joining NATO in 1999. Announcing the death of the Pact at the Prague meeting, Havel recalls being suffused by "the intense feeling that I was party to a historic event."

Ferenc Somogyi, then Hungary's deputy foreign minister, spoke of a "very elevated mood" among the East European delegations after the signing.

But for some, the breakup of the Pact hurt. On a Soviet-made career path, and indoctrinated to fight against imperialism, many Warsaw Pact officers felt betrayed.

"It was a dismaying development for me," said Czech Col. Josef Sedlak. "Most in the military had believed in the system."

Then a major, Sedlak recalls agonizing whether "to go left or right" as the Pact unraveled. But Czechoslovakia's anti-communist Velvet Revolution, which led to the rapid democratization of civilian society, gradually spread within the army as well.

Fewer people were attending communist political lectures that went on into 1990, and those who did grew critical.

"In our group were some pilots, and they were very progressive," he said. "Toward the end, during one of those meetings, they slapped down their red Party books and proclaimed: "We are leaving the Party!

"Their courage influenced a lot of us."

The Prague summit was the culmination of other gatherings exploited by Havel and other East European leaders in their quest to end Soviet military dominance.

Among those was the last meeting of the Pact's Political Committee. Convened June 7, 1990, it was meant to discuss democratization - not dissolution - of the alliance, as part of reforms initiated by Gorbachev. But Hungarian Prime Minister Jozsef Antall had other ideas.

With Antall chairing the meeting, he was responsible for announcing the agenda in the Kremlin's ornate main conference hall.

Participants recall the original plan: Antall, after consultations with Havel and Polish President Lech Walesa, was to suggest a slow dissolution of the Pact. Instead, he unexpectedly called for its immediate scrapping.

Clearly off guard, Gorbachev told him to repeat his suggestion, before waving his hand and responding with an imperious "Khorosho" - "Good."

His nonchalance was likely feigned, however. Somogyi, of Hungary, remembers a Soviet leader who had little choice but to go with the flow of the rapid democratization of Eastern Europe.

"I don't think he was convinced it was the right thing to do," Somogyi said. "He was hoping to reform something that later proved unreformable."

Sipping a beer in a room in his Prague Castle offices, Havel recalled other meetings that prepped the Soviet leader for the inevitable - among them their nine-hour encounter in February 1990, when Havel boldly proclaimed that his country was no longer a Soviet satellite.

It was the first meeting between Havel, who spearheaded his country's fight against communism, and Gorbachev, the communist world's most powerful leader.

"Not only was I the first noncommunist president (in Eastern Europe) but a former dissident on top of that," Havel recalled. "Gorbachev until then had never seen a living dissident, and to him, I was some kind of exotic animal."

The atmosphere was initially oppressive.

"He looked at me at first with a great deal of caution ... and we were not sure they were not planning to tie us up and bundle us away," Havel said. Eventually Gorbachev loosened up, even allowing Havel, back then a chain-smoker, the privilege of lighting up in his chambers.

The two men are now friends. Still, Havel remembers Gorbachev staying away from that final Pact meeting - a reflection that for the Soviet leader, the process that would culminate with the dissolution of the Soviet Union five months later had become uncontrollable.

"Gorbachev knew it was not possible to keep things boiling under a lid forever, so he wanted to lift the lid," Havel said.

"But the steam was so strong that it tore the lid out of his hands."

-------- korea

S. Koreans Protest US Missle Defense

New York Times
July 28, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-SKorea-US-Protest.html?searchpv=aponline

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Activists marched near the main U.S. military base in Seoul on Saturday to protest Washington's missile defense plan, which they said threatens stability on the divided Korean peninsula.

About 500 demonstrators who gathered in front of the U.S. 8th Army base also demanded the withdrawal of 37,000 Americans stationed in South Korea. Thousands of police stood guard, but did not intervene.

The protesters carried dozens of anti-U.S. banners and signs, saying that Washington's plans to build a missile defense system is hurting stability on the peninsula.

``Let's repel the missile defense and advance national reunification,'' the demonstrators chanted. ``U.S. troops out of Korea!''

Washington, South Korea's chief ally, plans to deploy a missile defense system capable of protecting the United States and its allies from attacks by so-called ``rogue states'' such as North Korea and Iraq.

Communist North Korea, along with Russia and China, vehemently opposes the project.

--------

U.S. Seeks to Resume Talks With North Korea

New York Times
July 28, 2001
By JANE PERLEZ
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/28/international/asia/28KORE.html?searchpv=nytToday

SEOUL, South Korea, July 27 - Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said today that United States officials were prepared to go anywhere at any time of North Korea's choosing to resume talks on a variety of issues, including ending North Korea's missile program and the heavy deployment of its conventional forces on the border with South Korea.

The offer, made as Secretary Powell stood next to South Korea's foreign minister, Han Seung Soo, emphasized that the Bush administration stood behind Seoul's policy of reconciliation with the North.

Relations between Washington and Seoul were strained early this year when the Bush administration signaled a harder line on North Korea and declined to pursue negotiations begun under the Clinton administration, pending a policy review.

But in June, President Bush announced that the United States was ready to restart talks, in hopes of inducing North Korea to renounce its production and export of missiles and of reducing tensions on the peninsula. North and South Korea technically have remained in a state of war since the armistice ending the 1950-53 Korean conflict.

The secretary's statement made clear that Washington was eager to hear from the North Koreans, who have yet to give a formal reply to the administration's offer.

"We are waiting for the North Koreans' response to our overtures," Secretary Powell said at a news conference here. "We can meet at a time and a place" of North Korea's choice, he added. "We have no preconditions."

Mr. Bush's announcement in June was followed by two low-level meetings between representatives for the United States and North Korea in New York. But Bush administration officials here said today that North Korea appeared to be stalling over full-fledged talks because of disagreements over the agenda.

Secretary Powell arrived here today for a short visit before heading to Beijing for the most important stop on his five-country tour of the region. [Secretary Powell arrived in Beijing early Saturday.]

He is the first cabinet-level official to come here since Mr. Bush took office.

The secretary also said that he hoped the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, would visit Seoul before the end of the year.

Last year, Mr. Kim promised to come to the South by June as part of an agreement he made when South Korea's president, Kim Dae Jung, made his unprecedented trip to the North. But so far, the North Korean leader has given no sign of reciprocating. This week, Kim Jong Il, who rarely travels, surprised Washington and South Korea by deciding to visit Russia.

Mr. Kim, whose official title is chairman of the North Korean National Defense Commission, is on a train headed for Moscow and is expected to arrive there by Aug. 4. With no response yet to the American invitation to resume talks and no indication that he is ready to visit the South, Secretary Powell essentially appealed today to the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, to intervene.

"I think it would be very useful if President Putin and the other Russian leaders would point out to Chairman Kim the importance of resuming discussions with the United States," Secretary Powell said, "and that his economy is in a very terrible state, and he has a variety of problems."

The secretary suggested that Mr. Putin should warn Mr. Kim of the "dangers inherent in some of the actions that the North Korean regime has taken over the years with respect to the development of weapons of mass destruction and the proliferation of such equipment."

One reason South Korean officials are concerned that the North Korean leader has yet to come to Seoul is that President Kim, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in part for his efforts at reconciliation with North Korea, is fast assuming lame duck status. His term ends next year, and he cannot run for re-election.

Foreign Minister Han interpreted Kim Jong Il's trip to Moscow as a positive development.

"The chairman has been to China twice and now he is in Russia," Mr. Han said, "and we believe that this is an indication of the North Korean's willingness to open up."

Despite this upbeat interpretation, it was clear that North Korea was taking its time in reaching out to the South as well as to the United States.

Secretary Powell said this week that the United States would have to be patient while North Korea went through its usual deliberate decision- making. The State Department had expected the North Korean foreign minister, Paek Nam Sun, to turn up in Hanoi, Vietnam, this week for the conference of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

But Mr. Paek canceled, and the North Korean government sent a lower-level Foreign Ministry official, Ho Jong.

Speaking at the Asean conference, Mr. Ho took a harsh tone on the prospects for talks with the United States, said officials who heard him in the closed sessions. Secretary Powell did not have any substantive conversation with Mr. Ho but greeted him in a receiving line, a State Department official said.

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

Report: Workers Not Warned

New York Times
July 28, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Beryllium-Exposure.html?searchpv=aponline

CHICAGO (AP) -- Companies whose workers handle the toxic metal beryllium often fail to warn workers about the hazards of exposure to the metal, putting them at risk of an often fatal lung disease, a newspaper reported.

Beryllium disease once was associated primarily with the defense industry, where the metal was used in nuclear weapons, but now is becoming increasingly common among workers in private and consumer industries, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The disease, caused when the metal's dust slowly damages the lungs of people who have been exposed, is rare, incurable and often fatal.

There has been a rise of beryllium disease cases among workers in private industries in the past few years, according to the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver, a leading respiratory disease hospital that diagnoses more beryllium illness than any other health care facility.

Since 1985, the hospital has diagnosed about 100 cases of beryllium poisoning among workers outside the defense industry and major beryllium production plants, said Dr. Lee Newman, a scientist at the hospital.

Newman called that figure the ``tip of the iceberg,'' saying the disease often goes undetected and many workers don't know they have it.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration requires workplace warnings on beryllium and limits on exposure to its dust.

But the newspaper, citing government, court and industry documents, said companies often don't follow those rules and the government doesn't adequately enforce the laws.

Experts say the rise in reported cases of beryllium disease could be attributed to new tests to diagnose the disease and more frequent use of the metal in industries that might not be fully aware of its risks.

Beryllium is used in the electronics, recycling, machining and dental industries because it is lightweight but extremely strong.

-------- us nuc politics

Bush Averts Showdown With Congress
Senate Committee to Be Given Access to Documents on Environmental Policy

By Dana Milbank
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 28, 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A62313-2001Jul27?language=printer

The Bush administration stepped back from a showdown with Congress, agreeing to give a Senate committee access to documents regarding environmental policy after Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) threatened to subpoena the information.

Lieberman's dust-up with the White House was the latest effort by Congress and its entities to pry information from a Bush administration eager to protect the confidentiality of its decision-making. Lieberman, chairman of the Government Affairs Committee, said yesterday the agreement avoided "a constitutional and legal confrontation -- at least for the time being."

Other disputes are already underway. The General Accounting Office sent a first-of-its-kind "demand letter" to Vice President Cheney, with an implicit threat of legal action. Members of Congress also have demanded -- and the White House has resisted providing -- documents relating to a range of Bush administration actions: energy policy, personnel appointments, the 2010 census, workplace bias regulations, charges of White House vandalism and talks with corporate interests.

To be sure, the standoff between the White House and Congress has elements in common with perennial balance-of-power disputes dating from George Washington's administration -- and reaching a crescendo in the Nixon years and again under Bill Clinton. The executive branch worries that if it is forced to govern in a fishbowl, aides won't be able to give honest, confidential advice to the president. Congress worries that an unaccountable presidency is an undemocratic one.

"What we're seeing now is not unique to this administration," said White House counsel Alberto Gonzales. "Congress has an obligation of oversight. We believe it's legitimate for this administration to keep certain information confidential to allow the executive branch to do its job."

A recent study by the GAO of its investigations found no pattern based on who was in power. Of the 32 "demand letters" -- rare appeals for withheld information backed by the threat of lawsuit -- the GAO has issued since 1980, 24 went to the Reagan administration, two to the first Bush administration, five to the Clinton administration and one to the current administration. "It's not a partisan thing, it's an executive thing," said Anthony Gamboa, GAO's general counsel.

Still, the Bush administration's battle for confidentiality has some unique elements at this early stage. The GAO's letter to Cheney is the agency's first to a president or vice president, and if the standoff goes to the next level, the conflict will be one of five to reach that point since the GAO was given its current authority in 1980, the agency said. Complaints have also come from such unlikely sources as Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and the conservative legal group Judicial Watch.

Though the Clinton administration fought zealously to protect its privacy -- its first year in power included a fight over secrecy involving Hillary Rodham Clinton's health care task force -- it also talked about the virtues of open government and launched initiatives to expand "transparency" in the bureaucracy. Bush officials make no such paeans to public disclosure. "This is a new administration that pushes the idea that openness is not necessarily in the public interest," said David Vladeck, director of the liberal Public Citizen Litigation Group.

White House officials have told aides from the Senate Government Affairs Committee that they expected a new standard in the post-Clinton era. "They said to us essentially, 'The age of scandal is over, and we're going to resume normal oversight relations with Congress,' " a committee aide said. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.), ranking Democrat on theHouse Constitution subcommittee, said the Bush administration has a "pre-Nixon view of open government."

One possible explanation for the White House's supposed diffidence is that external expectations have increased while the views of President Bush's advisers have been constant. Several Bush officials were last in government a decade ago, before the explosion of cable and the Internet made information much more readily available.

"In the information age, transparency is now a much higher priority to the average person," said Steve Katz, a former Democratic counsel to the Senate Government Affairs Committee. "For most [Bush aides], the time frame of reference for being in power is the Reagan and first Bush administrations."

At the same time, a relatively tranquil public, wearied by the Clinton scandals and untroubled by war or deep economic distress at home, is not pressuring Bush officials to be more open -- even if Congress and the media have come to expect it. "There's no drumbeat for openness," says Stephen Hess, a presidential scholar at the Brookings Institution. "It's easier for him to stiff [information seekers] than it was for Clinton because Main Street America is out-of-sight, out-of-mind with this presidency."

Indeed, few Americans seem to know or care about the various probes of the Bush administration -- a sharp contrast with the days of the Clinton health care task force, travel-office firings, Whitewater and the death of White House counsel Vincent Foster.

At the moment, Senate Democrats are holding up confirmation of Jeffrey Holmstead to be assistant administrator for air and radiation at the Environmental Protection Agency. White House lawyers don't want to turn over to Senate Democrats documents from Holmstead's role in the first Bush administration's handling of an amendment to the Clean Air Act.

The White House Office of Management and Budget is clashing with the GAO over funding of the next census. The GAO, urged by Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), asked for budget requests from the Census Bureau made to the Commerce Department and from Commerce to OMB. The White House is arguing that such figures are part of the "deliberative process" and need not be disclosed to Congress.

In the case of alleged White House vandalism in the last days of the Clinton administration, the GAO dropped its investigation, saying it couldn't get enough information from the administration to do its work. After the White House released some information in June, the GAO renewed its investigation.

Another dispute between the two branches involves the stock holdings of Bush adviser Karl Rove. Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) recently called for a Justice Department review of Rove's discussions with executives of companies in which he held shares. Also, Nadler unsuccessfully asked the GAO to investigate a relationship between the White House and the Salvation Army in which it believed it had a "firm commitment" from the White House to draft a regulation protecting the charity from bias laws, possibly in exchange for the charity's support of Bush's "faith-based initiative."

Complaints over White House confidentiality are sometimes shared by Bush's allies. Lott, when he was Senate majority leader earlier this year, joined other Republicans to stall confirmation of Defense Department nominees to protest what they called a lack of information coming from Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on his Pentagon review.

Tensions between the two branches nearly spilled over last week when aides on Lieberman's Government Affairs Committee said they would likely issue subpoenas to the administration over its handling of environmental regulations if the administration didn't change course within three days.

Lieberman announced yesterday that the administration agreed to give his staff "free and unfettered access" to all documents, including high-level deliberations and communications with the White House -- although the administration would not physically turn over the documents and Lieberman would have to notify the administration before he could "publicly release" information.

The largest of the remaining disputes is between Cheney and the GAO, which is pursuing a complaint launched by Waxman and by Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The GAO issued its demand letter last week after Cheney declined to provide papers about energy task force meetings.

On "Nightline" Wednesday, Cheney said it was a matter of "important principle" to reject the demand. "In effect, what we're saying here, if in fact we were to respond to that request, is that any member of Congress can demand to know who I meet with and what I talk to them about on a daily basis," Cheney said, calling that "inappropriate."

Cheney's task force is also being pursued by the Natural Resources Defense Council, which filed a Freedom of Information Act request, and by Judicial Watch, which filed a federal lawsuit on July 16. "Judicial Watch is concerned that energy policy is being made in secret by individuals and interests with a financial and political stake in particular policies," Judicial Watch Chairman Larry Klayman said. "Being conservative, Judicial Watch generally believes in a less regulatory environmental policy. Yet this doesn't mean that such policies be developed in a way which violates the law."

-------- us nuc waste

Law Firm Lobbied for Nuclear Industry While Advising Government

New York Times
July 28, 2001
By MATTHEW L. WALD
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/28/national/28DUMP.html?searchpv=nytToday

WASHINGTON, July 27 - The law firm hired to advise the Energy Department on how to open a nuclear- waste dump at Yucca Mountain, near Las Vegas, was simultaneously lobbying Congress and the administration on behalf of the nuclear power industry about crucial decisions involving the project.

Critics call this a conflict and say it casts doubt on years of legal and technical work at Yucca Mountain, where the government has spent $4.5 billion so far to determine whether the site is suitable to isolate wastes for millenniums to come.

The law firm, Winston & Strawn, was being paid by the Energy Department and one of its contractors to help determine if the site was suitable, while also taking money from the industry to assure that the site was approved.

"You could make a case that every piece of data since 1992 is tainted," said Robert R. Loux, the head of the Nevada Nuclear Projects Office, a state agency created to oppose the repository.

Senator Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, said, "Of course it's a conflict. What would happen if, when I was practicing law, somebody came to me and had a problem and I took money from them, and somebody else gave me money to sue them?"

Mr. Reid said the Energy Department should have known better.

But a spokeswoman at the department, Jill Schroeder, said, "We found them eminently qualified. We have not found a conflict of interest."

Referring to the Yucca site, Ms. Schroeder described the firm's role as helping the department decide "whether or not it could be licensed." The department has not made a decision on opening the site, but anticipates doing so by the end of the year. It is then to make a recommendation to the president. Congress picked Yucca as the lead candidate for the nuclear disposal site in 1987.

The nuclear power industry is eager to find a permanent disposal site for its waste and is pushing the government to open Yucca Mountain. Under a 1982 law, the department was supposed to begin accepting waste from the utilities in 1998.

The dual role by Winston & Strawn seems likely to add more uncertainty to the project, which is already 12 years behind schedule and faces more technical and legal challenges.

The firm filed a disclosure form with Congress saying it stopped the lobbying on July 11, but no one at the firm would return repeated phone calls seeking comment.

The disclosure forms for the early years list several bills on which it lobbied. The bills would have required the department to accept waste for temporary storage in anticipation of opening the site; in later years, the firm listed the subject of its lobbying as "nuclear issues."

At the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's trade association, which hired Winston & Strawn as its lobbyist, Mitch Singer, a spokesman, said, "Why the relationship was ended, the only thing I can think is because they're doing all this work for the Department of Energy, and they felt it would be a conflict if they were continuing to do work" for the institute. He said the firm was "very conservative" about avoiding the appearance of a conflict.

Asked if the firm had compromised its work for the Energy Department, Mr. Singer said, "I can't answer what went on in the past."

Winston & Strawn picked up its first major role at Yucca Mountain in 1992, when it was hired as a subcontractor to the TRW Corporation, then the Energy Department's main contractor for examining the mountain, a volcanic ridge 90 miles north of Las Vegas. The firm's job was to advise TRW on preparing an application for a license, which the department was supposed to submit to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

In 1999, the department hired the firm to review the application before submitting it to the regulatory agency. A protest was filed by a competing law firm, LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae, which complained that this amounted to the government's paying Winston & Strawn to review its own work. That case is pending in Federal District Court.

While working for TRW and the Energy Department, the firm also lobbied the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on an issue crucial to Yucca Mountain: establishing the maximum radiation dose people living near the site should be exposed to.

"That would have come up in discussion," said a member of the five- person commission in the period.

This person said he was lobbied by James R. Curtiss, a partner with Winston & Strawn who is listed as a lobbyist in the disclosure forms. Mr. Curtiss himself served on the commission from 1988 to 1993.

Mr. Curtiss and another partner at the firm listed as a lobbyist for the industry, Beryl F. Anthony Jr., a former member of the House of Representatives, did not return numerous phone calls.

Energy Department regulations on the contractors doing business with it say conflicts of interest should be avoided "to ensure that the contractor is not biased because of its financial, contractual, organizational or other interest which relate to work under the contract."

--------

Firm Lobbied for Nuclear Industry

New York Times
July 28, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Energy-Conflict.html?searchpv=aponline

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- The law firm counseling the Energy Department on how to open a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain was also taking money from the nuclear power industry to assure the site was approved.

Critics say the revelation casts doubt on the quality of legal and technical work that cost the government $4.5 billion, The New York Times reported Saturday.

``You could make a case that every piece of data since 1992 is tainted,'' said Robert R. Loux, head of the Nevada Nuclear Projects Office, a state agency created to oppose the repository 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The law firm, Winston and Strawn, was paid by the Energy Department and one of its contractors while simultaneously lobbying Congress on behalf of the nuclear power industry.

``Of course it's a conflict. What would happen if, when I was practicing law, somebody came to me and had a problem and I took money from them, and somebody else gave me money to sue them?'' said Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, a Democrat.

Winston and Strawn lawyers did not return the newspaper's calls for comment. An Energy Department spokeswoman said there was no conflict of interest.

``We found them eminently qualified,'' Jill Schroeder said.

Schroeder said the lawyers helped the department decide if Yucca Mountain could be licensed to handle high level nuclear waste. A decision on whether to open the site is to be made by the end of the year and a recommendation will be forwarded to the president.

In 1992, Winston and Strawn was hired as a subcontractor to the TRW Corporation, then the Energy Department's main contractor for examining the site. The firm's advised TRW on preparing an application for a license, which the department was supposed to submit to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

In 1999, the department hired the firm to review the application before submitting it. A protest was filed by a competing law firm, LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene and MacRae, which complained that the government was paying Winston and Strawn to review its own work. That case is pending in federal court.

The nuclear power industry is eager to find a permanent disposal site. Under a 1982 law, the department was supposed to begin accepting waste from the utilities in 1998. Yucca was selected as the lead candidate by Congress in 1987.

Winston and Strawn filed a disclosure form with Congress saying it stopped lobbying on July 11. The disclosure forms for previous years list several bills on which it lobbied. The bills would have required the department to accept waste for temporary storage in anticipation of opening the site. In later years, the firm listed the subject of its lobbying as ``nuclear issues.''

--------

State gets ready for shipments

28 Jul 2001
BY KEN HAMBLETON
Lincoln Journal Star
http://www.journalstar.com/nebraska?story_id=3919&date=20010729&past=

Radioactive waste could become as common on Nebraska highways and rail lines as cattle going to market.

Sometime this summer, Nebraska will play a willing role in moving radioactive fuel rods from West Valley, N.Y., to Idaho. The 40-ton shipment on the Union Pacific rail line will travel through Southeast Nebraska near Fairbury, up to Interstate 80 and through Kimball to the Wyoming state line.

If plans proceed to open a new nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, Nebraska could be part of a route for thousands of tons of high-level nuclear waste shipments.

According to Kevin Kamps, a leading opponent of shipping nuclear waste, the shipments are disasters just waiting to happen.

According to Nebraska officials, there is more danger in the daily shipments of anhydrous ammonia, hydrochloric acid and many other substances.

Kamps, in Lincoln last week, said casks used for the shipments are obsolete and people along the routes should be concerned.

Federal Department of Energy information says the casks have been successfully tested - crashed into a 690-ton concrete block at 81 mph, hit by a 150-ton locomotive at 81 mph and burned at 1,800 degrees for 90 minutes.

"I don't feel there is any hazard because the casks are well-built," said Jon Schwarz of the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency. "The anti-nuke people say they are not adequately tested, but they are wrong."

Any concern, he said, is because of poor public relations and poor education by those who transport nuclear waste.

"There has never been an accident where radioactive material has leaked," Schwarz said.

But Kamps said it takes only one. He quoted Marvin Resnikoff, a nuclear physicist with Radioactive Waste Management Associates in New York City, as saying a release of high-level radioactive waste could cause scores of latent cancer cases and cost tens of billions of dollars to clean up.

Nebraska was already involved in a "first." In November 1997, a truck carrying two dismantled nuclear missiles slid off the road 40 miles south of Valentine.

Nebraska was not notified of the shipment in advance, other than receipt of a message that a classified shipment was heading from South Dakota to Texas. Experts note there is no risk of nuclear waste release from a deactivated nuclear warhead. Still, the towing company charged the Department of Energy $47,000 to get the truck out of the ditch.

Last year, DOE shipped 26 trains carrying radioactive material through Nebraska to dumping grounds in Idaho, Utah and Nevada.. Trucks carried 528 DOE shipments of hazardous materials last year along Interstate 80.

"We haven't had any problems, and I feel the coordination of efforts has paid off with a very good system," said Nebraska State Patrol Major Bryan Tuma.

"We could be seeing up to 80 percent of all the rail shipments of nuclear waste and 60 percent of all the highway shipments of nuclear waste coming through the state in the years to come," he said. "We are as ready as we can be."

In 1986, Gov. Bob Kerrey stopped a train in Kansas for four hours until he was satisfied the State Patrol was ready, but other than that Nebraska has seen little protest over transport of waste through the state. Kerrey, former Gov. Ben Nelson and Gov. Mike Johanns have all requested they be notified if shipments are coming through the state, and State Patrol escorts of shipments through Lincoln and Omaha has been policy since the mid-1980s.

But the special rail shipment of high-level radioactive waste expected soon is different from past shipments and already has sparked small protests.

The shipment could be the start of moving more than 40,000 tons of used uranium fuel across the country rather than storing it onsite at power plants.

The shipment's date has not been announced publicly for security reasons.

Johanns spokesman Chris Peterson said the state is ready.

"We have been briefed on the route, the security measures, the emergency procedures and what the state can do if there is a problem," Peterson said.

He said the governor is pleased with the precautions, the training and the information system used by the DOE.

Nebraska has been in training for the high-level radioactive waste shipment for 2 1/2 years.

Said Schwarz: "We have done training across the state, with local officials, hospitals and other first-response personnel. We believe we are ready for any problems."

First response in Nebraska includes the following guidelines:

Provide first aid to the injured.

Secure the accident site.

Notify state authorities.

Stay upwind of the accident.

Detain non-injured people until they are monitored and found clean of contamination.

Take defensive actions such as building cofferdams to prevent runoff of hazardous material.

Officials in most of the towns along the rail route for this summer's shipment have been trained and provided with monitoring kits to detect radiation. The cost for the kits and training seminars, usually conducted by the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency, is eventually borne by the DOE.

Nebraska's Health and Human Services System issues regulations and recommends actions. Among other actions, it suggests steps to determine whether the food chain and water have been affected.

The state Department of Environmental Quality determines the long-term effects of radioactive pollution and alerts downstream users if surface and groundwater are affected.

The DOE pays for and completes any cleanup.

Nuclear power plants, many in the eastern United States, are storing more than 40,000 tons of nuclear waste and are to the point where they have to move it to new locations - all west of Nebraska.

Reach Ken Hambleton at khambleton@journalstar.com or 473-7251.

-------- MILITARY

-------- arms sales

Peru's Toledo Urges No Arms Deals in South America

New York Times
July 28, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-arms-la.html

LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - Peru's new president, Alejandro Toledo, told South American leaders gathered for his inauguration Saturday the region should halt arms purchases, as Chile's president, set to spend $700 million on high-tech U.S. fighter planes, looked on in apparent discomfort.

``I would like to take advantage of having all the South American presidents together to propose an immediate freeze on the purchase of offensive weapons in the region,'' Toledo said in his inaugural speech, sparking a standing ovation.

The remarks from Toledo, a 55-year-old economist, were particularly pointed with Chilean President Ricardo Lagos, whose government is set to buy a fleet of fighter planes from the United States in a $714 million deal, in the audience.

Lagos, in the front row of a group of regional leaders including Argentina's Fernando de la Rua and Colombia's Andres Pastrana, did not at first join in the vigorous applause.

He simply nodded his head, then clapped moments later.

``In the name of our region that seeks greater strength and integration for its future generations, I invite you to stop spending more on weapons than is invested in education,'' said Toledo, who has promised to tackle Peru's rampant poverty.

Critics have said the deal -- including 10 F-16 fighters and two KC-135 tanker planes for mid-air refueling -- could upset South America's military balance and spark a new arms race among nations who do not have millions to spare.

``This is a dignified message because we all know how (arms increases) affect our budgets ... it takes what should go to the social area,'' Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez told reporters. His country has Latin America's only F-16 fighters.

``These resources must go to the most needy,'' said Colombia's Pastrana, calling poverty ``the real enemy.''

Chile has said it is just replacing obsolete aircraft.

Peru, which has historically resented its southern neighbor since an 1879 war in which Chile absorbed part of Peru's nitrate-rich south, has been a major opponent of the deal.

The sale, which the Defense Department notified Congress about in June, is also seen as the effective end of a U.S. ban on the sale of sophisticated weaponry to Latin America in place since the 1970's.

Lagos' visit was already seen as a first test for Toledo amid a bilateral dispute over Chile's decision to ground the Chilean operations of Peru's leading airline Aero Continente amid charges of money laundering.

Peru bought MiG-29 fighters from Belarus and Russia in the 1990s, but those planes -- two of which have crashed -- would be no match for the new F-16s.

-------- asia

Official History Describes U.S. Policy in Indonesia in the 60's

New York Times
July 28, 2001
By JAMES RISEN
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/28/international/asia/28INTE.html?searchpv=day02

WASHINGTON, July 27 - A supposedly secret State Department history, released today by a private research group, discloses new details of United States policy during the 1965 campaign by the Indonesian Army to wipe out the Communist opposition in Indonesia.

The National Security Archive, a Washington group that pushes for the declassification of government documents, obtained a copy of an official State Department history that describes American policy in Indonesia in the mid-1960's.

Tom Blanton, the archive's director, said that the history had been completed for some time, but that its release had been blocked by the Central Intelligence Agency and the State Department. Mr. Blanton's group obtained a copy of the history when copies were inadvertently sent by the Government Printing Office to G.P.O. bookstores before they were supposed to be released.

Mark Mansfield, a spokesman for the C.I.A., said an interagency decision to delay the publication had been made to avoid roiling relations at a time of political turmoil in Indonesia. Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of Sukarno, Indonesia's first president, who was ousted after being undermined by the campaign, became the country's leader this week; she replaced Abdurrahman Wahid, who was forced out of office.

Mr. Mansfield said the shipment to government bookstores was accidental.

The history includes documents about American actions during the Indonesian Army's campaign against the Indonesia Communist Party, or P.K.I., in 1965 and 1966. The campaign brought General Suharto to power as the country's dictator, replacing President Sukarno.

In an editorial note, the history describes in detail the difficulty that the United States Embassy in Jakarta had in keeping up with events during the chaotic period.

"The embassy . . . was hampered in its reporting on events in the areas outside the capital by the general confusion and chaos," the history states. "Gradually, the embassy came to realize that Indonesia was undergoing a full-scale purge of P.K.I. influence and that these killings were overlaid with longstanding and deep ethnic and religious conflicts."

The history also includes a Dec. 2, 1965, telegram from Ambassador Marshall Green to the State Department concerning possible American payments to a man described in the memo as "one of the key civilian advisers and promoters" of an organization known as the Kap-Gestapu movement. The memo added that Kap-Gestapu's activities were "fully consonant with and coordinated by the army."

The National Security Archive said the Kap-Gestapu movement had been involved in the army-backed campaign against the Communists.

The memo from the ambassador supported the payment in order to increase the man's standing in the Kap-Gestapu movement. "The chances of detection or subsequent revelation of our support in this instance are as minimal as any black bag operation can be," it stated.

-------- balkans

Macedonia ceasefire at risk as rebels hold line

The Independent (UK)
By Justin Huggler in Tetovo
28 July 2001
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/europe/story.jsp?story=85746

Alabanian rebels in Macedonia's second largest town, Tetovo, showed no signs of abiding by a deal to withdraw from their frontline positions yesterday, raising fears that the truce in the republic's ethnic conflict would be short-lived.

The front line in Tetovo, in western Macedonia, continued to run through the town, leaving nervous Macedonian troops, their faces hidden behind black masks, on one side and Albanian fighters on the other.

The rebels were supposed to have withdrawn under a Western-negotiated ceasefire agreed on Thursday. They appeared to have dismantled a few checkpoints, but part of Tetovo was still under rebel control.

A new round of peace talks between the government and representatives of the Albanian minority was scheduled to start in Tetovo yesterday, as agreed under pressure from Lord Robertson, the Nato secretary-general, and Javier Solana, the EU's security affairs chief, who flew in for talks on Thursday.

No sooner had they left saying the peace process was "back on track" than the news came yesterday morning that the talks had been postponed because of "security concerns" in Tetovo. "The terrorists are everywhere," one Macedonian officer said, as troops trained their guns into the hills. The police said Albanian rebels had kidnapped four Slav Macedonians in the overwhelmingly Albanian town overnight.

The government has rejected a peace plan drawn up by envoys from the EU and the US because it included making Albanian the second official language.

-------- puerto rico

Puerto Rico Wants Navy Departure

New York Times
July 28, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Vieques-Vote.html

VIEQUES, Puerto Rico -- In a referendum the Puerto Rican government hopes will speed the U.S. Navy's departure from its prized bombing range, residents of outlying Vieques island get their first chance Sunday to vote on nearly 60 years of military exercises.

``I have always fought for the Navy to go,'' said Severina Guadalupe, 74, who recalled how the Navy sent a bulldozer that flattened her parents' farmhouse in 1940 and expelled the family from their land with 24 hours' notice.

Resentment over the Navy's appropriation of two-thirds of this 18-mile-long island grew as the Navy's presence did with exercises for the Korean and Vietnam wars and, more recently, the Gulf War and the Kosovo bombing.

Local opposition and the occasional confrontation with fishermen exploded in anger after the 1999 death of a civilian guard killed by two 500-pound bombs dropped off-target.

Protesters invaded the range and camped there for a year before federal marshals forcibly removed them and the local government agreed to resume exercises with dummy bombs.

Since then, the island has become a cause celebre, with protesters regularly invading land to stop bombing runs. Those currently in jail include civil rights leader the Rev. Al Sharpton and environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Islanders blame their higher-than-average cancer and infant mortality rate and other ills on the bombings. The Navy strongly denies harming the environment or islanders' health, and says local studies are unscientific and biased.

Sunday's vote is a symbolic one called by the government of this U.S. territory in hopes of pressuring Washington into an immediate Navy withdrawal.

A legally binding federal referendum scheduled for November would allow the 5,900 registered voters to choose between a Navy withdrawal by 2003 with exercises continuing until then or allowing the Navy to stay and resume exercises with live ammunition.

The local vote adds the option of an immediate withdrawal -- the one chosen by Guadalupe and, according to various surveys, a majority of islanders.

``The local referendum does not have the force of law but it has, I think, a moral strength,'' Gov. Sila Calderon said in an interview.

She noted that President Bush has called for a Navy withdrawal by 2003 but set no specific date. If islanders vote for the Navy to leave immediately, ``I do think a democratically expressed preference should have an impact on the decision-making process,'' the governor said.

The Democratic Party has sent a team of observers to Vieques. Its national committee chairman, Terry McAuliffe, arrived Friday promising to support the islanders' vote.

``You all have my word that the next day I will be in the Congress defending your decision,'' said McAuliffe, who supports an immediate end to the bombing.

Navy supporters on Vieques say they constitute a silent majority that is fearful of speaking out against the vocal and occasionally violent anti-Navy movement.

They warn that a vote against the Navy could worsen the island's already troubled relations with Washington and endanger some $14 billion in annual federal aid. About 9,000 people live on Vieques and another 4 million on the main island.

On Saturday, a cavalcade of cars painted with signs demanding ``Not one more bomb'' and ``Navy, go,'' wound its way through town with flapping Puerto Rican flags.

Pro-Navy activists distributed posters depicting an anti-Navy vote as anti-American and communist: ``Fidel Castro wants you to vote (option) 2'' for the Navy to go, says one poster with a picture of the Cuban leader.

Campaigning has been peaceful except for one incident last week, when protesters lobbed stones and eggs at the cavalcade of former Gov. Carlos Romero Barcelo, who was rallying votes for the Navy.

Powerful Republicans want to raise the stakes in the scheduled November referendum to a vote on all the U.S. military in Puerto Rico.

That would include the vast Roosevelt Roads Naval Station that administers Vieques and employs more than 5,000 military and civilian employees and Fort Buchanan in San Juan with 2,100 Army personnel.

``If they want the benefits of the military,'' such as the jobs, they must take the training as well, Rep. Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania said Thursday.

The United States seized Puerto Rico from Spain in 1898. Islanders are U.S. citizens who cannot vote for president but have fought in major conflicts from World War II to Vietnam.

--------

Vieques Vote Pivotal in U.S. - Puerto Rico Relations

New York Times
July 28, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-arms-vi.html

VIEQUES, Puerto Rico (Reuters) - Residents of Vieques vote on Sunday in a referendum on whether the U.S. Navy should immediately halt bombing practice on the Puerto Rican island -- an event seen as pivotal in relations between the United States and its Spanish-speaking Caribbean territory.

The Navy has used the island off the east coast of Puerto Rico for 60 years, calling it the only place it can train for amphibious landings. It stopped using live ordnance after a security guard was killed by an errant bomb two years ago.

The accident galvanized protesters, who alleged that the bombing caused health and environmental damage and portrayed it as evidence of a U.S. colonialist attitude.

Sunday's referendum has no legal weight, and only voters among Vieques' 9,300 residents can participate. The ballot offers three options: Stop bombing now and give the Navy land to the local government, let bombing go on indefinitely, or allow it to continue until May 2003, the date set by President Bush for the Navy to stop training on Vieques.

RULING PARTY WANTS IMMEDIATE HALT

The referendum was called by Puerto Rico Gov. Sila Calderon. She and most other members of the Popular Democratic Party, which wants to retain Puerto Rico's status as a U.S. commonwealth, favor an immediate end to the bombing.

So does the tiny Puerto Rican Independence Party, whose leader stood beside Cuban President Fidel Castro during a rally in Havana denouncing the Vieques bombing last month.

Some in the main opposition party, the New Progressive Party, which favors U.S. statehood for this territory of 4 million people, have endorsed the Navy-stays-indefinitely option in protest against what they call ``anti-Americanism'' in Calderon's administration.

Calderon has taken pains to paint the issue as one of human and civil rights. She said Bush's ``courageous'' decision to stop bombing in 2003 reaffirmed the merits of her stance.

``Those of us who love the U.S. flag also must respect the right of Vieques residents to express themselves openly,'' she said.

LAWYER SPEAKS FROM PRISON

Environmental attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr., serving time in a federal prison near San Juan for trespassing on restricted land in Vieques during anti-Navy protests, told Reuters in a phone interview on Friday that the fight against the service was ``not anti-Americanism.''

``There are legitimate grievances here that do not reflect on Puerto Ricans' patriotism,'' Kennedy said. The son of assassinated U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, he is suing the Navy over alleged environmental damage and human rights violations related to the training.

The administration of former President Bill Clinton had set a separate, binding referendum for Nov. 6 to allow Vieques residents to decide if the Navy should leave in 2003 or stay indefinitely in exchange for $50 million in economic aid.

But the stay-indefinitely option was rendered moot by Bush's decision to halt war games in 2003. Support in Sunday's vote for halting bombing now would put pressure on the Navy for an early pullout.

Two of the Navy's staunchest congressional allies, Republican Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma and Republican Rep. James Hansen of Utah, urged voters to back the Navy and thus strengthen Puerto Rican-U.S. relations.

MOMENT SEEN AS CRUCIAL

``Puerto Rico is at a crossroads. Down one road is continued separation from the union, eventual independence, and if some of the leaders of this movement have their way, alignment with Fidel Castro's Cuba and the other leftists left behind by history,'' they wrote in a newspaper column.

``It is our hope that the vast silent majority of patriotic Puerto Rican-Americans will send a clear message that enough is enough.''

Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe also urged Vieques residents to ``send a strong message'' -- to Bush, who he said was the only man who ``can pick up the phone and tell the Defense Department to stop bombing.''

``If this doesn't work ... we will be down here in force to participate in civil disobedience,'' McAuliffe promised a Friday town meeting to loud applause.

The Navy has begun spending economic development money earmarked for Vieques, giving rise to allegations it is trying to buy favorable votes.

It began paying Vieques fishermen $100 for each day of fishing missed because of military maneuvers since Oct. 1, 2000, an amount totaling $4,400 for full-time fishermen. The Navy also began accepting applications this week for $25,000 grants for Vieques residents who want to start or expand businesses.

-------- space

Pentagon Considers 'Space Bomber' - La Times

Saturday July 28 12:18 AM ET
Reuters
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010728/pl/plane_space_dc_1.html

LOS ANGELES - The Pentagon is looking into the development of a futuristic bomber that would take off like a long-range missile and drop precision bombs from heights of 60 miles (96 km) or more, the Los Angeles Times reported in its Saturday edition.

The Times, citing a government planning document, said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordered the Pentagon last month to consider the sub-orbital space craft for rapid global strikes.

It said the bomber, possibly manned, was expected to travel 15 times the speed and 10 times the altitude of existing bombers and hit targets on the other side of the world in a half-hour.

The craft would allow U.S. military planners to address the threat of distant targets at a time when the number of U.S. military bases abroad is declining, the Times said.

But it also was likely to intensify the debate over the militarization of space, it said.

President Bush is backing a national missile defense system that is strongly opposed by Russia and China as well as some European leaders who have expressed doubts about setting aside the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

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

Air Force exercises its muscles
(Nellis spreads war games over 12,000 square miles of sky)

By JOE WESSELS
Saturday, July 28, 2001
Las Vegas Review-Journal
http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Jul-28-Sat-2001/news/16642373.html

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's call Friday for another round of military base closings fell on deaf ears at Nellis Air Force Range's Point Bravo.

The roar of jet fighters and helicopters near Indian Springs, northwest of Las Vegas, saw to that. Even if Nellis officials could have heard Rumsfeld's announcement in Washington, they had few reasons for concern. They were too busy putting on another air power demonstration.

Four times per year, Point Bravo plays host to generals and admirals completing their upper-level training. Each 45-minute display, costing about $650,000, is a real-life show of Air Force capabilities should the United States go to war. Spanning 3 million acres, the Nellis grounds are the largest advanced combat training facility in the world. Included in the base's resources are 12,000 square miles of airspace in Nevada, plus a portion spilling into Utah.

The cost of the demonstrations might appear high, Nellis spokesman Michael Estrada said; but the expense is typical for normal range exercises and beneficial in allowing pilots to see live fire before actual combat situations.

Friday's Capstone Fire Power Demonstration happened about 10 miles southeast of Indian Springs, drawing nearly 2,000 visitors, including military leaders, congressional staff members, Boy Scout troops, Nellis personnel and their families.

Sitting on grandstands and lawn chairs in the desert heat, onlookers watched as military bombers and fighter planes whizzed over and around their heads, firing upon and dumping live bombs on fake targets about 2 1/2 miles away.

"If budget cuts were to happen, this would be the last thing to go," Estrada said. "In fact, we're building up."

The demonstration includes the rental of a giant-screen display monitor and other video equipment so those watching can better see planes flying at high altitudes and long distances. Among the bombing raids using B-1, B-2 and B-52 bombers, the display included F-16 fighter fly-bys and a downed-pilot rescue using HH 60 Pave Hawk helicopters and A-10 attack aircraft. Two consecutive "Red Flag" training exercises will begin Aug. 11, bringing an additional 120 aircraft to the air base. The exercises are scheduled to end Sept. 8, Estrada said.

The Capstone show is not open to the public, but base officials encourage groups to schedule ahead and view the event. The next demonstration is scheduled for Oct. 12.

"I'll get them out here," Estrada said. "They're taxpayers. They have a right to see this."

Rumsfeld on Friday told a dozen Republican senators that he is determined to press for a round of base closings to save money, but no particular facilities have been targeted.

The Bush administration believes excess bases drain too many resources from the Defense Department, and another round of base closures would allow for increased spending and modernization at other facilities.

[PHOTO caption: A B-52 launches chaff during a bombing run at Nellis Air Force Range's Point Bravo, northwest of the Las Vegas Valley. The Air Force puts on the Capstone Fire Power Demonstration four times per year for new generals, admirals and invited guests. - Photo by John Gurzinski.]

[PHOTO caption: Two HH 60 Pave Hawk helicopters hover above the desert Friday at Point Bravo near Indian Springs during a Capstone Fire Power Demonstration. Crew members are being lowered during a simulated rescue of a downed pilot. - Photo by John Gurzinski.]

----

US, Canada Swap Barbs Over Spending

New York Times
July 28, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Canada-US.html?searchpv=aponline

TORONTO (AP) -- The United States and Canada are swapping barbs over military spending and space-based weapons, evidence that differences between the countries have sharpened since President Bush took office six months ago.

U.S. Ambassador Paul Cellucci criticized Canada for making dramatic cuts in military spending, saying that the military might of a NATO ally has been severely curtailed.

``It has now reached the point where without significant increases the Canadian forces could lose much of their effectiveness,'' Cellucci said in a speech Thursday in Whistler, British Columbia.

Military spending in Canada dropped 23 percent between 1993 and 1999. While it has risen slightly since then, Canada spends 1.2 percent of its economic output on defense, the least of any NATO country except for Luxembourg.

Earlier this week, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Manley said the Bush administration's ``unilateralism'' would bring confrontation -- echoing criticism by European leaders.

Two trips to Europe by Bush have failed to ease concerns on the part of top allies that the president is charting a go-it-alone course in foreign policy.

He has thumbed his nose at the Kyoto climate-change treaty and is determined to go ahead with a missile-defense shield, despite European protests. Just Wednesday, the Bush administration abandoned talks on enforcing a 1972 treaty against germ warfare.

The administration also opposes treaties to ban land mines and nuclear-weapons tests, and one for an international criminal court.

While policy disputes occur regularly between Canada and the United States -- the world's biggest trade partners -- the differences and criticism have increased during Bush's tenure.

Canadian officials have accused the Bush administration of protectionist trade policies over a ban on Prince Edward Island potatoes and threatened duties on softwood lumber imports.

Last week, the Canadian delegation played a large role in the agreement reached in Bonn, Germany, to keep alive the Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gases.

``We have to persuade them that unilateralism ultimately will lead to confrontation,'' Manley said in Hanoi, Vietnam.

He also had a quick response to the topic of recent talk by U.S. officials of space-based weapons systems.

``I've made the point as strongly as could possibly be made that Canada is unalterably opposed to the weaponization of space,'' Manley said. ``I think it is a very dangerous direction to be moving in.''

Canada's government, led since 1993 by the left-of-center Liberal Party of Prime Minister Jean Chretien, was expected to disagree more often with the Republican administration than with the Clinton administrations of the preceding eight years.

Despite the differences, Manley said Canada had little choice in choosing its strategic ally.

``We can't withdraw from North America. We happen to be on that particular bus whether we like it or not,'' he said Wednesday. ``Who would we prefer to have as an ally?''

-------- OTHER

-------- genetics

Ethics Aside, a Good Business Model Remains Elusive for Stem Cells

New York Times
July 28, 2001
By ANDREW POLLACK
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/28/business/28CELL.html

A pioneering biotechnology company claims its cells can cure diabetes and Parkinson's disease. But opponents of abortion object and President Bush considers extending a ban on federally financed research on the cells.

These cells, however, are not embryonic stem cells. The scene was from the late 1980's, when the current president's father was in the White House and a California company called Hana Biologics began implanting cells from the pancreases of aborted fetuses into diabetics, in hopes the cells would produce insulin.

But Hana had an even bigger problem than the ethical debate - the cells did not work. The company abandoned its effort and faded into oblivion. More than a decade later, no therapy using fetal cells to treat any disease has reached the market.

Hana's difficulties have implications for today's controversy. Embryonic stem cells are just the latest candidates to come along in a field known as cell therapy that has been extremely difficult to turn into a viable business.

"I don't think a great business model with high profits has come out yet," said Irving Weissman, a professor at Stanford Medical School, who has started two stem cell companies.

Embryonic stem cells can be turned into any type of cell in the body, potentially providing new heart, liver or pancreatic tissues to people whose own organs are damaged. One hope, for instance, is new nerve cells to allow people in wheelchairs to walk again.

But Ron Cohen, chief executive of Acorda Therapeutics, which is developing treatments for spinal cord injuries, said other approaches, like drugs, are likely to be ready before stem cells. "Stem cells is one piece of the puzzle," he said. "I certainly would not elevate it above the others."

Dr. Cohen said that Acorda, based in Hawthorne, N.Y., was doing research on commercial uses for stem cells, but, after consulting academic experts, came away stunned at how little is known about how to grow and use such cells. "It was depressing," he said.

Opponents of embryonic stem cell research could argue that such difficulties show that there is no urgency for federal financing of such research. The opponents say embryos are nascent human life and such research is immoral because it requires their destruction.

But many people in the biotechnology industry argue that federal financing is needed precisely because the technology is still too early in its development to attract much corporate interest.

"I would say there's not a huge amount of venture capital interest in that," said Alan Walton, a general partner of Oxford Bioscience Partners, a venture capital fund. "The news on transplants has not been very good."

The Geron Corporation (news/quote) of Menlo Park, Calif., the company clearly in the lead in embryonic stem cells, does provide financial support to a handful of academic collaborators, but it is a small company with limited resources. "That's not sufficient to really drive significant progress in the field," said Steven Goldman, a professor of neurology at Cornell Medical School, who is one of those collaborators.

What makes cell therapy a tough business is that since cells are living things, they are not easy to manufacture to a consistent standard like drugs and might do unpredictable things in the body. Moreover, as with blood transfusions or organ transplants, cells can carry infections or be rejected by the patient's immune system.

One way to avoid rejection and infection is to take a patient's own cells, treat them or multiply them, and put them back in. But this personalized therapy is anathema to many drug companies that say standard products in great quantities will ultimately be easier and more profitable to sell.

"That doesn't play to our core strength," Robert Kramer, a vice president for drug discovery at Bristol-Myers Squibb (news/quote), said of stem cell therapy.

Novartis (news/quote), the Swiss drug company, acquired Systemix, a company developing blood stem cell treatments, but then shut it down. "Novartis decided they are not part of a service industry," said Dr. Weissman of Stanford, who founded Systemix and is now starting a new company to take back the technology.

Only one mass-produced product containing living cells has received approval from the Food and Drug Administration - an artificial skin developed by Organogenesis (news/quote) of Canton, Mass., for treatment of various ulcers. The cells come from foreskins from circumcisions.

But sales of the artificial skin, while now growing rapidly, are expected to reach only about $20 million this year. Organogenesis's stock, which traded as high as $35 in 1998, is now around $8.

Organogenesis and rival companies focusing on wound care have, on average, only seven months of cash left, making them the poorest group among 17 categories of biotechnology companies tracked by Recombinant Capital, a research firm in Walnut Creek, Calif.

Still, there is little doubt that cell therapies have the potential to be quite important. Blood transfusions, bone marrow transplants and organ transplants are all cell therapies. But the cells and organs are usually not provided by companies.

And many new medical technologies can take two decades to develop, so early problems with cell therapies do not mean there is no future. Indeed, a scientist in Canada last year did what Hana Biologics could not - effectively treat diabetes by transplanting pancreatic cells, in this case from cadavers rather than fetuses.

Moreover, the business potential for stem cells goes beyond making tissues for transplants. Since these cells can turn into all other types of cells, scientists can study which genes are turned on and off as these transformations occur. That knowledge could help in developing drugs, including ones that may activate the body's own stem cells to regenerate tissue. Stem cells could also be turned into liver, heart or other cells that can be used to test drugs in a test tube.

Geron is working with Celera Genomics (news/quote) to study genes in stem cells. VistaGen, in Burlingame, Calif., is trying to build a business on use of stem cells for drug discovery.

Opponents of embryonic stem cell work say that scientists should use stem cells taken from adults. Several types of stem cells have been isolated from adults, including blood stem cells and nerve stem cells.

A disadvantage is that such cells are hard to isolate and cannot be grown as easily in test tubes as embryonic cells. Moreover, they tend to be more tissue-specific, unable to turn into all sorts of cells.

But less versatility can also be an advantage. The embryonic cells are so versatile that scientists have still not figured out how to make them turn into just one particular type - and to do so completely. If any raw stem cells are implanted in the body, they could give rise to tumors or turn into something else undesirable - like bones that sprout in the brain.

Yet other stem cells are derived from fetuses. While this is controversial in its own right, companies using such cells say they are not destroying potential human life, since the fetuses have already been aborted for other reasons.

So far, the adult stem cells are ahead of embryonic stem cells in moving toward commercial use. Osiris Therapeutics of Baltimore is in early clinical trials using stem cells extracted from bone marrow that can turn into cartilage, bone or fat. In one trial it is trying to repair jaw bones and in another to improve the outcome of bone marrow transplants.

Various types of cells are being tried to treat neurological diseases. Layton BioScience, a private company in Sunnyvale, Calif., has nerve cells derived from a testicular tumor that are being tested in stroke victims. Diacrin Inc. (news/quote) of Charlestown, Mass., is testing neural cells from pig fetuses. The treatment failed in a recent clinical trial for Parkinson's disease.

By contrast, tissues that are made from embryonic stem cells are probably several years from being tried in people and there are only a few companies pursuing those cells right now. Geron, which financed the research at the University of Wisconsin that led to the initial isolation of human embryonic stem cells in 1998, has the rights to commercialize six cell types made from those cells. It is unclear whether its patent rights represent a big barrier to others.

An institute set up by the University of Wisconsin has given out about 30 licenses for doing research using the cells, but only one has gone to a company besides Geron, according to Andrew Cohn, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.

Another business pursuing embryonic stem cells is Advanced Cell Technology, a privately held company in Worcester, Mass., headed by Michael West, who founded Geron. Advanced Cell has said it plans to clone patients' cells to make embryos from which to obtain stem cells. Tissues grown from such stem cells would match those of the patient and not be rejected.

Other companies that say they have human embryonic stem cells are BresaGen Ltd. of Australia and ES Cell International in Singapore.

Some executives and analysts say the controversy has kept companies and investors from the field. But others say the attention focused on the potential of stem cells has spurred investment, particularly in companies using nonembryonic cells.

"It's really brought a lot of investors into this space that wouldn't be here," said Martin McGlynn, president and chief executive of StemCells Inc. (news/quote) of Palo Alto, Calif., which has neural stem cells derived from fetuses. Its stock price has quadrupled from its low this year.

But even companies working on adult stem cells say a ban on federal financing of embryonic cell research could hurt them.

"It could hinder the competition," said Stephen W. Webster, president of Neuronyx in Malvern, Pa. "But the more people working on it, the better off the whole field is."

-------- human rights

White House Heads to Racism Talks

New York Times
July 28, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/news/AP-US-Racism-Conference.html?searchpv=aponline

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Unlike the lone stances it staked out at gatherings on global warming and weapons control, the Bush administration has found allies ahead of the U.N. conference on racism.

Washington wants slavery reparations and Zionism off the agenda, a position shared by its European allies and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who thinks the conference should be forward-looking and deal with contemporary issues.

The stakes are high.

If those items remain on the agenda, the United States says it will not attend the weeklong conference in Durban, South Africa, which starts Aug. 31.

``It's very important for this conference to be successful,'' White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Friday. ``It's also important to send a signal to the freedom-loving nations of the world that we will not stand by if the world tries to describe Zionism as racism. That is as wrong as wrong can be.''

On Monday, U.S. diplomats will sit down in Geneva with representatives from at least 180 other countries for a final round of pre-conference talks.

The Bush administration will send a delegation headed by Loren Craner, assistant secretary of its democracy, human rights and labor bureau.

The United States sat out the last two U.N. racism conferences specifically because they felt the gatherings were a forum for anti-Semitism. For 16 years, the United Nations had a resolution on the books that equated Zionism -- the movement that led to the creation of Israel -- with racism. It was repealed in 1991.

Arab states want to revisit whether Zionism is racist and whether the term Holocaust should refer specifically to Nazi atrocities.

Charles Hunter, a State Department spokesman, said ``the exact nature of U.S. participation'' in South Africa would be decided after the Geneva talks.

``Serious work has to be done to eliminate unbalanced and inflammatory language on the Middle East and slavery and reparations,'' Hunter said.

The White House has had little success galvanizing support from its European allies on key international issues from missile defense to nuclear testing, small arms and global warming.

But this time, Washington took a different tack, making its opposition known early and publicly while lobbying hard for European backing on items relating to Israel.

U.S. officials involved in the conference paid several visits to U.N. headquarters recently while Annan -- who has worked hard to repair U.N.-Israel relations -- met with American Jewish leaders and dined at the home of Yehuda Lancry, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations.

U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson has been working overtime to save the conference, personally lobbying Secretary of State Colin Powell to lead the U.S. delegation and warning Arabs that attempts to demonize Israel could wreck the gathering.

But the White House's positions are not popular with everyone.

African leaders have demanded both an apology and compensation for slavery, a position some African-Americans would like to see their government take.

U.S. officials said they would be willing to consider a collective expression of regret for the injustices of the past. Europeans would be prepared to acknowledge the suffering caused by the slave trade.

Neither will accept that their governments committed crimes through slavery, mostly because it was not illegal at the time and because such an acknowledgment could open the door to compensation claims, something that has traditionally been given to living victims.

But Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., argued that 136 years after slavery was abolished, African-Americans still suffer the effects. ``Our government should apologize and then look at various strategies for compensation because ... the vestiges of slavery are still with us.''

Lee and other members of the Black Caucus have asked to be included in the official U.S. delegation to the conference.

Robinson, who will chair the conference, said she hoped delegates would make ``a very serious commitment'' to righting past wrongs. But U.S. officials say privately that they will oppose a document of commitments.

Those being discussed now include affirmative action programs and a moratorium on the death penalty until countries resolve disparities in its application. Most of the inmates currently on federal death row in the United States are minorities.

Although the United States and its allies have similar views, they approach the issue of slavery from very different points. Britain, Spain and others see colonialism and slavery as something they left behind in other countries while the United States is both perpetrator and victim.

--------

Anti-Zion push threatens race summmit

July 28, 2001
By Betsy Pisik
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20010728-5391088.htm

NEW YORK -- The United Nations' top human rights official said yesterday that an Arab resolution calling Zionism racist could derail the upcoming world conference on racism.

"If there is an attempt to revive a Zionism-as-racism [resolution], we will not have a successful conference," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson told reporters in Geneva.

The United States and Israel strongly protested the language of the resolution pushed by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

The Bush administration yesterday issued its strongest warning to date that the United States will not attend the Aug. 31-Sept. 7 conference in Durban, South Africa, if the anti-Zionism language is not removed from the draft agenda.

The United States also strongly objects to a second proposal calling for countries that prospered in the past from slavery to formally apologize and pay unspecified reparations. Britain is also reportedly considering downgrading its delegation to protest the drift of the agenda negotiations.

"The United States stands on the side of principle," White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said yesterday.

"And the United States can stand on the side of making certain that a variety of Third World nations do not hijack a conference that should be aimed at combating racism, and under the guise of combating racism turn this into a conference that itself smacks of anti-Semitism," Mr. Fleischer said.

Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Marc Grossman and other administration officials yesterday briefed about two dozen foreign diplomats on U.S. concerns for 45 minutes at a State Department meeting.

"We do want the conference to succeed," a State Department official said on background after the meeting. "We support it, and we hope to be able to attend. That said, we have serious concerns."

The official added that the United States was planning to send a "strong delegation" headed by Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Lorne Craner to the conference-preparatory meetings, which begin in Geneva on Monday.

"Once that's over, and we have had a chance to have conversations ... we'll look again at where we stand and be in a better position to determine the extent and level of our participation in Durban," the official said.

Mrs. Robinson has been traveling the world to build support for the proposed World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. She met with Mr. Arafat on the sidelines of the Organization for African Unity summit in Lusaka, Zambia, two weeks ago.

She indicated that he was receptive to her message. "He wanted a successful outcome in Durban. I'm not going to put other words in his mouth. He was very positive, and I found it very encouraging.''

U.S. and Israeli officials have been campaigning to remove the language, which calls Zionism a form of apartheid and condemns the Jewish state as racist.

American and many European nations are also deeply concerned about African-sponsored draft language that describes the slave trade as a "crime against humanity" and asks for unspecified compensation to be paid by those who benefited from trafficking in human beings.

Western industrial nations, many of them with colonial histories, say the racism conference should address problems that exist today.

Arab nations, acting with the concurrence of Asian governments, drafted the anti-Zionist language at a February meeting in Tehran.

American diplomats characterize it as more insidious than the "Zionism-equals-racism" language that was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 1975 and was not repealed until 1991.

"This would be a throwback to a position that was rejected 10 years ago by the international community if this conference takes this unwise step," Mr. Fleischer said.

Diplomats from scores of countries will gather in Geneva on Monday for a final attempt to agree on a broad range of contested issues. They include slavery reparations, the caste system, treatment of indigenous peoples, asylum for refugees and limits on political parties and advertising that implicitly advocate one group over another.

• Staff writer Nicholas Kralev contributed to this report from Washington.

-------- spying

CIA STALLING STATE DEPARTMENT HISTORIES
ARCHIVE POSTS ONE OF TWO DISPUTED VOLUMES ON WEB

Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2001
To: Recipients of NSARCHIVE digests <NSARCHIVE@hermes.gwu.edu>
http://www.nsarchive.org

STATE HISTORIANS CONCLUDE U.S. PASSED NAMES OF COMMUNISTS TO INDONESIAN ARMY, WHICH KILLED AT LEAST 105,000 IN 1965-66

For immediate release,
27 July 2001
For more information: Archive director Tom Blanton, 994-7000
http://www.nsarchive.org/NSAEBB/NSAEBB52

WASHINGTON, D.C., 27 July ­ George Washington University's National Security Archive today posted on the Web (http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv) one of two State Department documentary histories whose release the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is stalling, even though the documents included in the volumes were officially declassified in 1998 and 1999, according to public State Department records. The two disputed State Department volumes cover Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines in the years 1964-68 and Greece-Turkey-Cyprus in the same period. The CIA, as well as action officers at the State Department, have prevented the official release of either volume, already printed and bound by the Government Printing Office. The National Security Archive obtained the Indonesia volume posted today when the GPO, apparently by mistake, shipped copies to various GPO bookstores; but the Greece volume is still locked up in GPO warehouses.

The Indonesia volume includes significant new documentation on the Indonesian Army's campaign against the Indonesia Communist Party (PKI) in 1965-66, which brought to power the dictator Suharto. (Ironically, Suharto's successor, ex-President Wahid, is on his way to Baltimore this week for medical treatment, and has been replaced by his vice-president, who is the daughter of the man Suharto overthrew.) For example, U.S. Embassy reporting on November 13, 1965 passed on information from the police that "from 50 to 100 PKI members were being killed every night in East and Central Java...."; and the Embassy admitted in an April 15, 1966 airgram to Washington that "We frankly do not know whether the real figure [of PKI killed] is closer to 100,000 or 1,000,000 but believe it wiser to err on the side of the lower estimates, especially when questioned by the press." On page 339, the volume seems to endorse the figure of 105,000 killed that was proposed in 1970 by foreign service officer Richard Cabot Howland in a classified CIA publication.

On another highly controversial issue ­ that of U.S. involvement in the killings ­ the volume includes an "Editorial Note" on page 387 describing Ambassador Marshall Green's August 10, 1966 airgram to Washington reporting that an Embassy-prepared list of top Communist leaders with Embassy attribution removed "is apparently being used by Indonesian security authorities who seem to lack even the simplest overt information on PKI leadership at the time...." On December 2, 1965, Green endorsed a 50 million rupiah covert payment to the Kap-Gestapu movement leading the repression; but the December 30 CIA response to State is withheld in full (pp. 379-380).

The CIA's intervention in the State Department publication is only the latest in a series of such controversies, dating back to 1990 when the CIA censored a State volume on Iran in the early 1950s to leave out any reference to the CIA-backed coup that overthrew Mossadegh in 1953. The chair of the State Department historical advisory committee resigned in protest, producing an outcry among academics and journalists (see "History Bleached at State," New York Times editorial, May 16, 1990, p. A26: "At the very moment that Moscow is coming clean on Stalin's massacre of Polish officers, Washington is putting out history in the old Soviet mode."). Congress then passed a law in 1991 requiring the State Department volumes to include covert operations as well as overt diplomacy, so as to provide an accurate historical picture of U.S. foreign policy, 30 years after the events.

The documents are available at the following URL:
http://www.nsarchive.org/NSAEBB/NSAEBB52

-------- activists

BOGUS ARREST AT SPACE CENTER FLORIDA

28 July 2001
from Mary Beth Sullivan
Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space
http://www.globenet.free-online.co.uk/reports/ksc0701rep.htm

It's no surprise that Bruce Gagnon likes to demonstrate. To celebrate his birthday, he invited friends to join him at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on July 28 to hold some banners at this most popular tourist facility.

Some background is necessary. Last month, eight of us did the same thing. We stood in an area close to the booth where people pay their entrance fee. We weren't there five minutes when NASA security police were all over us, insisting we stand at the "designated protest area." The spot turned out to be a decent one, a grassy walkway with trees that hundreds of tourists passed on their way to and from the ticket entrance.

Although uninvited, NASA security read Bruce's e-mail birthday invitation. They were prepared for us. In the morning, they switched the parking lots so that the areas around the "designated protest area" were full by the time we got there. The "main entrance" for entering tourists was now way out of sight of the "protest area." So we went to the "new" active entrance. We were a dozen people. All but one of us stood with our banners in full view of tourists, without blocking access. There was a steady flow of people. Wil Van Natta (West Palm Beach) stood in the midst of the flow of people, greeting those who passed by showing them an enlargement of the Space Command's "Vision for 2020."

We had just unfurled our banners when NASA security police arrived to tell us we needed to move to the designated area, or we would be arrested for trespassing. They called for the Brevard County Police. We stayed put, holding banners that said "Keep Space for Peace," "No Weapons in Space," and "No Nuclear Power in Space."

A few people stopped to listen to what Wil had to say about the Space Command and its plans to dominate space. One of the security officers approached, told him he was under arrest, and handcuffed him. Wil remained calm and respectful; others of us questioned the appropriateness of this arrest in every way we could.

Soon thereafter, most of us went over to the "designated protest area." We were shocked to see that they had constructed a "corral" for us - a small metal cage you would expect to see fencing in cows or pigs. We refused to enter. Security police maintained a steady presence near us for two hours videotaping, taking pictures, talking into their radios. Some even hovered around our cars in the parking lot.

Meanwhile, our friend Beth Ehrlich (Daytona Beach) stayed behind with some others to observe what would happen with Wil. She engaged in conversation with a woman tourist who was waiting for friends. When asked by this woman for some written information, Beth handed her a newsletter. Immediately a security officer appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, and grabbed the newsletter. All three of them tugged on the paper for a moment before the tourist finally insisted this newsletter belonged to her. He let go of the paper and left.

There's the image, friends: NASA "security", defining their jobs as securing the area from any ideas or written materials they don't approve of. A tourist having to "fight" for the opportunity to read a newsletter. Restricted access to any ideas not bought and paid for by NASA and the aerospace corporations. An expression of their deep fear that a simple slogan on a banner might encourage tourists to open their minds and think before they enter the front door. Their "security," paid for by taxpayers' dollars, is about keeping freedom of expression corralled, marginalized, ridiculed, punished.

Wil was taken to the county jail and booked for trespassing. They eventually waived bond and he was released eight hours later. He has a court appearance scheduled in three weeks.

We will return to KSC on October 13, in greater number. We will not be silenced.

--------



------- OneList (submissions from subscribers)

------- Depleted Uranium Keeps On Killing!