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NUCLEAR
Ex - NATO Soldiers File Raytheon Suit
Weapons inspectors turn fire on Britain and US
U.S. Is Preparing to Share Intelligence With U.N. Team
UN Experts Probe Four Sites, Iraq Denounces Bush
We tested illegal missile, Baghdad tells inspectors
Iraq may have been offered nuke help
No Sign of North Korea Restarting Reactor -U.S.
S. Korea's Next Leader: the Indispensable Man?
Roh vows review of U.S. forces in South Korea
N.Korea Says South Vote a Desire for Ties -Agency
US Urges N.Korea Not to Restart Nuclear Facilities
N. Korea Disables U.N. Nuclear Monitors
Alaska Post Is Key in U.S. Defense Plan
Plutonium in Your Garden
Army Outsourcing Plan Decried
MILITARY
French Fire on Rebels in Ivory Coast
Britain rejects call to extend EU defence powers
Europe takes lead in naval search for al Qaeda
Recent Statements Muddle U.S. Stance on Venezuela
Winds of war buffet villages near Iraq
General to Troops: Sit Tight
U.S. Starts Military Exercises in Kuwait
US pilots in friendly fire were on drugs, says lawyer
For the Record: next round of military base closures in 2005
U.S. starts military exercises in Kuwait
Bush Helps Initiate Iran Radio
POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS
Throwing You in a Cell at the Airport and Lying About Why We Put You There?
ENERGY AND OTHER
Fuel Trickles Into Zimbabwe but Crisis Continues
Greenhouse Gases Decrease
Word War Breaks Out in Research on Stem Cells
ACTIVISTS
Minister 'outraged' by surveillance
Hundreds of S.Koreans Protest at U.S. Embassy
Going Electronic, Denver Reveals Long-Term Surveillance
-------- NUCLEAR
-------- business
Ex - NATO Soldiers File Raytheon Suit
December 21, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Raytheon-Radar-Lawsuit.html
BOSTON (AP) -- A lawsuit filed against Raytheon Co. alleges the company's radar devices sickened and killed soldiers exposed to X-rays.
The plaintiffs, three former European NATO soldiers and the widow of a fourth, maintain that Lexington-based Raytheon designed and manufactured defective radar devices that failed to shield users from X-rays between 1958 and 1994.
The complaint, filed Friday, alleges Raytheon failed to advise users of the need to wear protective clothing and to limit exposure. The radiation resulted in leukemia, lymphoma, thyroid disease and cancer among those who used and maintained the equipment, the suit alleges.
``These soldiers were never warned, never protected,'' said the plaintiffs' attorney, Jonathan Auerbach of Philadelphia. ``They were never told that the tubes they had to physically tinker with hours a day were literally X-raying them.''
Raytheon spokesman Jim Fetig said company officials had not seen the suit, but said, ``we believe this case to be without merit and we'll defend ourselves vigorously.''
The lawsuit seeks to establish a court-administered fund to finance medical monitoring of people who used the devices, and unspecified damages for plaintiffs who are ill or have died as a result of the alleged exposure.
More than 450 soldiers from Germany and NATO filed a similar lawsuit in October against Raytheon, General Electric Co., Lucent Technologies, Honeywell International, and ITT Industries in state court in Texas. In addition, six plaintiffs filed suit in two German courts in March.
-------- inspections
Weapons inspectors turn fire on Britain and US
By Rupert Cornwell in Washington and Andrew Grice
21 December 2002
UK Independent
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=363427
George Bush was under intense pressure yesterday to give UN weapons inspectors intelligence data that the US says proves Iraq is lying when it claims to have given up its weapons of mass destruction.
Hours before Mr Bush was to meet the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, and senior Russian and European representatives, Hans Blix, the chief weapons inspector, delivered a stinging attack on the US and Britain, accusing them of failing to co-operate with his team.
"If the UK and the US are convinced and they say they have evidence, then one would expect they would be able to tell us where is this stuff," Mr Blix said. Asked if he was getting enough co-operation from Western intelligence agencies, he said: "Not yet. We get some, but we don't get all we need."
Mr Blix spoke as inspections moved into a new, more intense phase. The Security Council has asked his team of weapons inspectors to provide a detailed assessment of Iraq's arms declaration on 9 January. Two days ago, Washington declared that omissions in the 12,000-page inventory submitted by Baghdad constituted a "material breach" of its obligations to the UN.
That phrase, in American eyes, clears the way for the use of force, though the Bush administration has indicated it will wait a few weeks before launching an attack. Mr Bush said last night the Iraqi declaration was "a disappointing day for those who long for peace".
Tony Blair told British troops yesterday to prepare for possible military action in Iraq - in an attempt to increase pressure on Saddam Hussein to give up his weapons of mass destruction. In a Christmas message that was broadcast to British forces around the world, the Mr Blair heaped praise on their "amazing" work in the past year but warned them: "I am afraid the expectation is there will be a lot more to do in the upcoming year." The US is doubling its troop strength in the Gulf to 100,000.
Mr Blair said: "When we are dealing with someone like Saddam Hussein, unless you do have the capability to use force if necessary, it is very hard to make the world a more secure and more peaceful place. And sometimes I think the best, indeed the only way, of avoiding war is to be prepared for one if you have to have it."
The first hint of any intelligence sharing came on Thursday when the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, having lambasted Iraq's "total failure" to comply with UN resolution 1441, promised "additional support" that would "make the inspections process ... more targeted and effective".
Britain said it would give UN inspectors details of telephone calls from Iraq that had been intercepted. One senior British official said: "We are giving him [Mr Blix] intelligence and we will be giving him more over the next few weeks."
Mr Blair said Britain would aid the weapons team in its search for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. But doubts persist over whether the US and Britain possess the hard evidence they claim to have.
----
U.S. Is Preparing to Share Intelligence With U.N. Team
Data to Include Possible Iraqi Weapons Sites, Scientists' Names
By Walter Pincus and Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, December 21, 2002; Page A18
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A20021-2002Dec20?language=printer
State Department officials are trying to work out arrangements this weekend with chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix to begin delivery of sensitive U.S. and British intelligence on the locations of possible Iraqi chemical or biological weapons sites and the names of Iraqi scientists with useful information, according to senior administration officials.
Blix said yesterday that he has received periodic briefings from U.S. officials about their intelligence on Iraq but that so far they have been of limited use.
"The most important thing governments like the U.K. or the U.S. could give us would be to tell us sites where they are convinced [the Iraqis] keep some weapons of mass destruction -- this is what we want," Blix told the BBC. Blix said he has received cooperation from the two governments, but he added, "We don't get all we need."
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said on Thursday that the Bush administration is prepared to begin sharing intelligence with the weapons inspectors as part of a stepped-up inspections effort that would also include requests to interview Iraqi scientists that U.S. officials believe have knowledge of Iraq's banned weapons programs. Moving a step closer to a decision on whether to wage war, the administration said Iraq is in "material breach" of U.N. Security Council resolutions by failing to account for its weapons programs in a declaration submitted to the United Nations earlier this month.
In his first public comments since the inspectors delivered their preliminary assessment of the Iraqi declaration Thursday, President Bush said yesterday it that was a "disappointing day for those who have longed for peace."
The Iraqi document, Bush said, was "not encouraging . . . it's a long way from there." Bush said the United States remains "serious about working with our friends in the United Nations" to disarm Iraq, but he pledged anew to "fulfill the terms and conditions" of the U.N. resolution that promises "serious consequences" if Iraq does not comply.
The delay in passing along the intelligence material reflects CIA and Pentagon officials' concern that information may leak from the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), endangering the sources of the sensitive information and the methods of collection. There is also the fear that Iraq may be able to determine where or how the data were collected based on where inspectors go.
"The sharing will happen," one official said yesterday, "but they [intelligence officials] just don't want to screw up what [assets] they have there."
The Americans and the British "have all their methods to look, listen to telephone conversations, they have spies," Blix said. "They have the satellites, et cetera, so they have a lot of sources, which we do not have."
Officials said the British government, which is said to have more informants inside Iraq than the United States, is worried -- based on its experience in Northern Ireland -- that as soon as anyone acts on intelligence information provided by a person, the identity of that source is at risk. "There aren't any easy answers," one official said. "It's hard to get information, hard to get it into the country [Iraq], and hard for inspectors to protect it."
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said yesterday: "We won't have any sources and methods if around the world people think the United States is willing to just share sources and methods everywhere."
Beyond those concerns, officials say some Pentagon officers don't want to give away possible Iraqi missile or weapons of mass destruction sites because they would be among the first targets for U.S. bombs and missiles if war were to begin six to eight weeks from now.
Former U.N. inspector David Kay said on Wednesday at an American Foreign Policy Council meeting: "Do you give your targeting cells to inspectors or husband the intelligence data . . . to protect lives of American military men?" Now with the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, Kay said that rather than giving out data on where the United States thinks Iraq's missiles are located, the inspectors should be pushed into questioning "the cadre of [Iraqi] military officers who are experienced in scooting and shooting these missiles."
Security for intelligence provided by the United States to U.N. weapons inspectors has been an ongoing problem for Washington since Blix decided that he would not have a senior American deputy. During the 1990s inspections, the American who served as the deputy chief of the U.N. inspectors also served as the entry point for U.S. intelligence.
Blix has tried to assure U.S. and British officials that he has established a tight security system under his chief of intelligence James Corcoran, former deputy director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Agency, who has clearances for receiving U.S. intelligence and the confidence of the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies. In a statement earlier this year, Blix said that all intelligence passed to UNMOVIC goes to "only two people," himself and his intelligence chief, and "is tightly controlled and withheld from other organizations or governments."
To avoid charges that the inspectors are spies for the United States or other countries, Blix has also said that the findings based on intelligence supplied to him would be provided to all Security Council members, and not solely to the nation providing the data. U.S. officials want to have some feedback on the data they supply as a means of checking the credibility of sources. Blix has said he took that step "to protect the information and integrity of the inspection team."
Corcoran has been meeting with the State Department's John Wolf to work out the system for handling the intelligence. The sharing will begin shortly, one senior administration official said yesterday, involving a small number of target sites to see how the system works. Although Corcoran will know all the site data, he will give the locations only to UNMOVIC's chief inspector in Baghdad. The inspectors themselves will not be told where they will be going until they get their orders, one U.N. official said yesterday.
To supplement his own collection assets, Blix has begun discussions with the Pentagon about delivering satellite information on Iraq directly to UNMOVIC. During the 1990s inspections, some U-2 photo reconnaissance planes were assigned to the U.N. team.
Blix also will soon have his own U.N. fixed-wing aircraft and eight helicopters that can carry out photo missions as well as provide transportation services for the inspectors. In addition, he is exploring the purchase or rental of unmanned drones from Germany for similar purposes.
----
UN Experts Probe Four Sites, Iraq Denounces Bush
Reuters
Saturday, December 21, 2002
By Huda Majeed Saleh
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A20953-2002Dec21?language=printer
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.N. arms inspectors searched four suspect sites Saturday and an Iraqi daily likened U.S. and British leaders to ruthless Mongol conquerors of old.
Iraqi officials said a team of nuclear experts had revisited al-Nassr al-Atheem Company, a heavy engineering plant located in the Daura refinery just south of Baghdad.
Other inspectors searched al-Raya Company, owned by Iraq's Military Industrialization Commission, in the Taji industrial area north of the capital, and two other sites.
Babel newspaper, owned by President Saddam Hussein's 38-year-old son Uday, marked its return to the news stands after a month-long ban with a tirade against President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
"The eternal problem of the evil U.S. administration is that the barking of its dogs is still going on even though there is no justification," Babel said in an editorial.
It carried the headline "Bush -- Hulagu of the age," a reference to Mongol warrior Genghiz Khan's grandson, who captured Baghdad in 1258, destroying the Abbasid Caliphate.
"Our balanced policy and the transparency with which we dealt with U.N. Security Council resolutions, despite their ill intentions, did not extinguish the rancor and bloodthirstiness which inflames the hearts of the American administration, which is still pounding the drums of war," Babel said.
"The Iraqi people say to Blair...and the henchmen of Bush junior, who are competing to serve their Zionist masters, that history has no mercy on aggressors, just as it had none for Timur, Hulagu and others who harmed a country blessed by God as the cradle of human civilization," the newspaper said.
UNEXPLAINED ABSENCE
The Information Ministry banned Babel on November 20, saying it had violated its instructions. It gave no further explanation. Babel itself did not comment on the ban.
Uday Hussein, Saddam's eldest son, is chairman of Iraq's National Olympic Committee and the Iraqi journalists' union. He also owns the popular Shebab (Youth) television channel.
The U.N. inspectors resumed work in Iraq on November 27 after a four-year break to try to check Baghdad's assertion that it no longer has any programs to produce chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, or long-range missiles.
Chief U.N. inspector Hans Blix and the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, have pressed the United States and Britain to share any intelligence they may have about any prohibited Iraqi weapons programs.
The United States said it would give the inspectors new data soon, as well as suggesting names of Iraqi arms scientists for the U.N. experts to interview.
The United States declared this week that Iraq's recent arms declaration was a "material breach" of last month's Security Council resolution that gave Baghdad a last chance to disarm or face serious consequences.
General Hussam Mohammed Amin, the senior Iraqi official liaising with the inspectors, told Reuters Friday that the U.S. response was "exaggerated" and politically motivated.
----
We tested illegal missile, Baghdad tells inspectors
By Anne Penketh and David Usborne in New York
21 December 2002
UK Independent
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=363446
Iraq has admitted to testing a missile with a range that violates international weapons regulations. Thirteen test flights of the Al-Samoud ground-to-air missile, which uses imported components, had exceeded the UN-set limit of 150km (90 miles), the chief UN weapons inspector, Hans Blix, told the Security Council.
The greatest range achieved in the tests was 183km. Mr Blix, who briefed the council on Thursday on progress in finding banned weaponry, said the inspectors had ordered Iraq to suspend development of the missile.
Iraq was barred from developing missiles with a range of more than 150km after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Mr Blix told the 15-member council that Iraq's 12,000-page "full, final and complete declaration" on its weapons of mass destruction had little new information.
The revelation about the Al-Samoud missile was contained in a separate Iraqi report to the inspectors. There was speculation yesterday that Baghdad might have volunteered the information to pre-empt a challenge from the Americans, whose intelligence might have detected the tests.
Mr Blix criticised the US for failing to provide quality intelligence that would prove the US and British claims that Iraq was still concealing its weapons of mass destruction.
Although Washington has provided some tips to the inspectors, "they've not said 'Look behind this person's back shed'", one UN insider said. Another said: "They need locations, they need persons, they need a detailed picture of what's on the ground."
The Russian ambassador to the UN, Sergei Lavrov, challenged Britain and US to, in effect, "put up or shut up" by substantiating claims of "ironclad evidence" of Iraqi cheating. "There was no reply from either the British or the Americans," one diplomat said.
The hawks in the Bush administration fear that entrusting such sensitive information to UN inspectors might compromise sources, a European diplomat said. The withholding of the intelligence underscores the deep-seated distrust of the UN in Washington. The Bush administration may want to provide incontrovertible proof at a later date to ensure it keeps control of the countdown to war, rather than surrendering it to the UN; or it may not have any such proof.
The US issued a fact-sheet yesterday detailing what it considers to be glaring omissions in Iraq's declaration of 7 December that was meant to lay bare all of its weapons of mass destruction. The American document identifies the West African nation of Niger as the source of uranium allegedly imported by Iraq to feed what London and Washington assert is a clandestine nuclear weapons programme.
Speculation about the source of uranium imported by Iraq was first unleashed by Britain when it published a lengthy dossier of alleged Iraqi weapons activities two months ago. The UK report said the material had emanated from Africa but did not say where.
Niger is said to have produced 3,098 tons of uranium in 2001, but the material was not of weapons-grade quality and would have required processing. Other African nations that mine uranium are Namibia, South Africa and Gabon.
Even as the US was pointing the finger at Niger, inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) returned for the seventh time yesterday to a site in Iraq that is known to have been the centre of its nuclear weapons efforts in the past. The facility is at Al-Tuwaitha, about 18 miles south-east of Baghdad.
In his preliminary report to the council on Thursday, the head of the IAEA, Mohammed al-Baradei, said his inspectors had not found any evidence of a nuclear weapons programme in Iraq but that they needed more time to complete the search.
-------- iraq
Iraq may have been offered nuke help
12/21/2002 1:28 PM
Associated Press
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2002-12-21-iraq-nuke-help_x.htm
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - A middleman claiming to represent the father of Pakistan's nuclear program offered Iraq help in building an atomic bomb on the eve of the Gulf War, according to U.N. documents, diplomats and former weapons inspectors.
While there was no indication Pakistan's government was involved in the offer, former inspectors who spoke on condition of anonymity said Pakistani officials were uncooperative when the U.N. nuclear agency tried in the mid-1990s to investigate whether the scientist was really behind the proposal.
The alleged offer to Iraq, made by an unidentified agent purportedly speaking on behalf of Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, was shown to The Associated Press. The revelation follows news reports this fall that Pakistan had assisted North Korea's nuclear program and comes at a time when U.N. inspectors are poring over Iraq's latest arms declaration, looking for both clues to its weapons programs and any possible omissions in its report.
Pakistan denies any link to Pyongyang or Baghdad and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca last week said President Pervez Musharraf has given his assurance that nothing is being given to North Korea.
Khan is in Pakistan and now serves as a special adviser to Musharraf. Calls for comment from Khan in Islamabad went unanswered Saturday.
Pakistan is one of three Asian nations known to have nuclear arms, along with China and India. Pakistan, now a key U.S. ally in the war on terrorism is poised to join the Security Council in January.
"This is a blatant lie," said Mansoor Suhail, spokesman for the Pakistani mission to the United Nations.
In a statement issued later, Suhail's office said: "Many of the actual truths may never come out," because Iraq's recent nuclear arms declaration to the United Nations has been circulated only to the Security Council's five permanent members: the United States, Russia, France, China and Britain.
U.N. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Iraq didn't accept the offer and didn't mention it in its latest arms declaration. It also is not mentioned in a previous declaration which Iraq made in 1996 and which was recently seen by AP.
U.N. inspectors discovered the offer in 1995 amid more than 1 million Iraqi intelligence documents they found at an Iraqi storage facility.
Among the documents was a letter, dated Oct. 6, 1990 - two months after Iraq had invaded Kuwait - in which Iraq's secret service wrote to Iraq's nuclear weapons department:
"We've enclosed for you the following proposal from Pakistani scientist, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, regarding the possibility of helping Iraq establish a project to enrich uranium and manufacture nuclear weapons."
According to the letter, the Iraqis were told by a middleman that Khan was "prepared to give us project designs for nuclear bombs." The middleman would "ensure any requirements of materials from Western European companies, via a company he owns in Dubai," in the United Arab Emirates, it added.
According to the letter, the motive was profit for the Pakistani nuclear scientist and the middleman. Such sales and help would have violated U.N. sanctions, imposed after the Iraqi invasion, and international nuclear controls.
The U.N. atomic agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, says it has never identified the middleman because Iraq would not provide more details on the offer.
The IAEA tried to track down Khan and interview him after they discovered the letter. But former inspectors on the team, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Pakistan repeatedly frustrated those attempts.
Instead, Pakistan said it had investigated on its own and determined that the letter was a fraud by an individual with no connection to the government.
In a report to the Security Council on Feb. 9, 1999, the IAEA reported Iraq had received an offer "to provide, for financial reward, assistance and information on nuclear weapons design, weapons-usable nuclear material production and the procurement of critical components and materials."
The IAEA report went on to say that "after initial protracted reluctance to recall the offer, an Iraqi counterpart provided some additional details" on the middleman. "This additional information was, however, not sufficient for the IAEA to be able to identify and locate the foreign national alleged to have made the offer."
The IAEA didn't reveal to the Security Council at the time that the offer was made in Khan's name and didn't include the letter about the offer that the U.N. inspectors had found.
Khan was employed, until 1975, at URENCO - a European consortium that worked on uranium enrichment in the Netherlands.
Iraq said in its nuclear declaration that German experts had sold it several centrifuge drawings stolen from URENCO.
Khan later worked for the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission and in 1976 was given control of the uranium enrichment project, reporting directly to the prime minister's office.
Under Khan's supervision, Pakistani scientists completed the necessary enrichment work that ultimately led to the successful detonation of Pakistan's first nuclear device in May 1998.
Contributing: Associated Press Writer Kathy Gannon contributed to this report from Islamabad, Pakistan.
-------- korea
No Sign of North Korea Restarting Reactor -U.S.
Reuters
Friday, December 20, 2002
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A19430-2002Dec20?language=printer
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - There is no sign that North Korea has followed through on a threat to restart a nuclear reactor at the heart of a suspected 1990s weapons program, a senior U.S. official said on Friday.
One week ago Pyongyang raised the stakes in a stand-off at the world's last Cold War flashpoint by announcing plans to immediately reactivate the Yongbyon reactor, which was closed down in a 1994 agreement with the United States.
But the U.S. official told Reuters: "Even as of today, there's no sign of any change on the ground in North Korea. Nothing, including no move to expel the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) monitors" at the Yongbyon nuclear site.
On Thursday, another senior U.S. official said the North Koreans had not yet disconnected monitoring equipment, cameras and seals at the site. North Korea had asked the IAEA to unseal the plant and remove surveillance cameras.
He noted the North Koreans were engaged in a dialogue with the IAEA, which monitors the Yongbyon facility, and said these exchanges have been helpful.
But he took Pyongyang's Dec. 12 statement on restarting the reactor seriously and "presumably at some stage they may choose to do this."
Some officials believe Pyongyang made its threat largely in an attempt to influence the Dec. 19 election in South Korea in which liberal ruling party candidate Roh Moo-hyun beat conservative Lee Hoi-chang.
The United States favors a tougher line on communist North Korea than Roh, who has said he would never "kow tow" to Washington.
"I think (the North) was trying to influence the South Korea election and now that they got Roh elected they are going to stop," one official said.
Pyongyang announced plans to restart the reactor after the United States, South Korea, Japan and the European Union decided to halt heavy fuel oil deliveries to North Korea.
The U.S. and its allies acted after the North acknowledged it had a program to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons, which was also prohibited by the 1994 agreement.
NON-AGGRESSION TREATY
Under the 1994 accord, Pyongyang promised to freeze its nuclear programs in return for a $5 billion package that included two light-water nuclear reactors for power generation and 500,000 metric tons of heavy fuel oil per year.
U.S. intelligence has estimated the North produced one or two nuclear bombs.
As part of the current dispute, North Korea is demanding the United States sign a non-aggression treaty but the Bush administration has refused any formal dialogue until Pyongyang dismantles the uranium enrichment program.
Officials have refused to say how long the United States might wait for Pyongyang to take corrective action.
Experts say that most nuclear activities Pyongyang might resume would take six months to several years to implement.
While some analysts interpreted North Korea's announcement on restarting the nuclear reactor as an attempt to influence the South Korea elections, others said it was a last-ditch effort to force Washington to the negotiating table.
----
S. Korea's Next Leader: the Indispensable Man?
President-elect Vows to 'Resolve' U.S.-North Korea Conflict
By Doug Struck
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, December 21, 2002; Page A15
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A20431-2002Dec21?language=printer
SEOUL, Dec. 20 -- A day before Thursday's presidential election, candidate Roh Moo Hyun stood before reporters and said, "I am the only person who can resolve the nuclear issue through dialogue. The survival of 70 million Korean people is at stake."
It was a bold statement, mostly written off as campaign hyperbole. But Roh appears to believe he will be the key to solving the confrontation between the United States and North Korea over Kim Jong Il's pursuit of nuclear weaponry.
Even in his cautious statements after his victory , Roh asserted today that he had to "resolve the North Korea nuclear issue," and said it was on his "to-do list."
That fits with his view -- and the main platform in his grass-roots campaign -- that South Korea should play a much more important role in the U.S.- North Korea dealings.
But the other players in the equation have never accepted that view. North Korea always has curtly dismissed attempts by the government in Seoul to negotiate major military-strategic matters, insisting -- to South Korea's festering resentment -- that those issues were to be discussed only with Washington.
The U.S. government also has brushed South Korea aside whenever it felt it must address North Korea on matters of American self-interest. Indeed, part of Roh's popularity grew from South Korean anger that President Bush crushed the national euphoria here over progress with North Korea by proclaiming that it was part of an "axis of evil" and saying he did not trust Kim Jong Il, the North Korean leader.
Roh thumped in his campaign speeches on the ignominy of President Clinton having drawn up plans to bomb North Korea's nuclear reactors in 1993 with little consideration of South Korea. That crisis was resolved by an agreement the next year between the governments in Washington and Pyongyang -- again, with little input from South Korea.
The slight involves more than national pride. Seoul, home to more than half the South Korean population, is within easy artillery range of North Korea, which is 35 miles away. If warfare erupted, Seoul could be devastated in minutes, with huge casualties. The outgoing South Korean president, Kim Dae Jung, apparently felt he had to describe that danger in detail to Bush at a meeting this year.
The scenario reportedly sobered the American president. But neither the United States nor North Korea has shown any public willingness to change their views of South Korea's role in the impasse over North Korea's latest effort to enrich uranium that could be used to make nuclear bombs.
But some argue that the situation has changed in ways that could put Roh in a much more pivotal position .
For one thing, he may be the only nexus of communication. The Bush administration has said it will not negotiate with North Korea until it dismantles its nuclear program. North Korea said it will not do that until the United States renews talks and pledges not to attack.
Japan has recently shifted to a harder line toward North Korea and its own talks with that government are on indefinite hold. Among parties with a direct interest, that leaves the government in Seoul.
"The South's continuous benign engagement with the North under the Roh administration may well foreclose the military option for the United States and leave Washington no choice but to go back to the negotiation table," according to Alexander Mansourov, a North Korea expert who teaches at the Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu.
Roh's leverage may also increase as South Korea becomes one of the few remaining sources of aid to North Korea. As the United States steps up pressure for diplomatic isolation the Pyongyang government, the assistance and foreign currency North Korea had expected from other countries is drying up. South Korea, however, still has some trade with the North, still has plans for development of industrial parks there, and still pays for the right to take South Korean tourists to the sacred Mount Kumgang along North Korea's eastern coast.
Roh's election opponent, Lee Hoi Chang, had vowed to cut those economic lifelines. Roh's willingness to continue them may increase his bargaining power with the impoverished country.
"Kim Jong Il wants to keep his people loyal to him, and to do that, he needs as much hard currency as he can get," Hyung Kook Kim, director of American University's Center for Asian Studies, said in an interview here.
Kim Jong Il could secure that assistance and have the perfect venue for negotiating through Roh if the North Korean leader makes good on his long-neglected pledge to visit South Korea in return for the June 2000 trip by Kim Dae Jung, whose term ends in February.
Finally, according to some observers here, the deal to resolve the crisis is fairly obvious . Roh could be the one to seize the initiative and shepherd it through. The United States wants North Korea to dismantle its nuclear program with verifiable inspections before resuming any ties. North Korea wants improved relations with the United States and access to continued aid. The hang-ups are in the details and who moves first.
"Both sides want a package deal," said Hyung . "But they are different packages. The U.S. goal is regional stability and peace. North Korea's goal is regime survival and foreign currency." But both goals could be satisfied in a shrewd deal, he said.
That assessment is shared by Roh.
"It is possible to have North Korea give up its weapons of mass destruction," Roh said in a meeting with reporters Dec. 4. "They have decided to take the route of openness, and they desperately need outside assistance."
"North Korea should not scare the United States," Roh added at a campaign stop this week. "If I become president, I will meet both President Bush and Kim Jong Il and persuade them."
Special correspondent Joohee Cho contributed to this report.
----
Roh vows review of U.S. forces in South Korea
By David R. Sands
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
December 21, 2002
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20021221-72433883.htm
SEOUL - South Korean President-elect Roh Moo-hyun vowed yesterday to pursue changes in the long-standing military alliance with the United States, even as he pledged to coordinate with Washington on how to deal with with North Korea's nuclear program.
"The traditional friendship and alliance between [South Korea] and the United States must mature and advance," Mr. Roh said at his first press conference, in a hall of the National Assembly.
In Washington, President Bush telephoned Mr. Roh to "extend his warm congratulations" on his election victory and invited him to Washington for talks at "his earliest convenience," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. Mr. Roh accepted the invitation, but no date was announced.
Mr. Roh said he would press forward with a campaign pledge to change the 1966 Status of Forces Agreement, the legal code governing U.S. soldiers stationed in South Korea.
Mr. Roh owes his election victory to an anti-U.S. outcry that erupted after the acquittals in U.S. military courts of two American soldiers charged with negligent homicide in the road deaths of two South Korean girls.
The soldiers were cleared of the charge, but South Koreans believed the trials were unfair and that the soldiers should have been tried in a South Korean court.
It is not clear whether Mr. Roh is seeking a more wide-ranging review of the status of U.S. forces, such as force reductions, or simply South Korean right to try lawbreakers.
Mr. Roh, 56, a one-time human rights lawyer, was the candidate of the governing Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) of outgoing President Kim Dae-jung.
Mr. Roh vowed to build on Mr. Kim's "sunshine policy" of engaging communist North Korea, putting him at odds with the Bush administration, which has actively tried to isolate the North since Pyongyang's admission in early October that it had a secret nuclear-arms program.
"I will not make major changes to Kim Dae-jung's policies on U.S. relations, North Korea or foreign affairs," Mr. Roh said.
Both aides to Mr. Roh and senior Bush administration officials have rushed to proclaim that the alliance will remain strong.
Mr. Roh met with U.S. Ambassador Thomas C. Hubbard briefly yesterday and also made a traditional visit to the National Cemetery in southern Seoul.
His five-year term officially begins in February. There was a curiously flat atmosphere on the streets of Seoul yesterday, despite the talk that the tone of the campaign marked a new era in South Korean politics.
The Korean financial markets barely moved, and the large crowds on the streets seemed more concerned with holiday shopping chores than with the presidential contest.
Leading South Korean newspapers said Mr. Roh will be given a chance to prove his policies, but some said he must curb some of his more provocative campaign statements and deal with vocal anti-U.S. elements among his supporters.
The Kim-Roh sunshine policy "might become a factor that estranges traditionally friendly ties with such allies as the United States," the liberal Kungmin Ilbo said.
Several leading business organizations here urged the president-elect to pursue pro-growth policies.
During the campaign, Mr. Roh promised "pro-worker" policies that would clip the power of South Korea's giant "chaebol" business conglomerates.
Political analysts here were still trying to understand Mr. Roh's win.
He edged out Lee Hoi-chang, 67, of the conservative Grand National Party despite the last-minute defection of a key ally and despite an unexpectedly low turnout of 70 percent, factors that were supposed to have favored the hawkish Mr. Lee.
"This was an electorate that knew in the end what it wanted," said Kim Sang-woo, spokesman for Mr. Roh, in a telephone interview.
"They are no longer satisfied with business as usual. Politics must have the necessary reforms in order to regain the trust of the people," Mr. Kim said.
----
N.Korea Says South Vote a Desire for Ties -Agency
Reuters
Saturday, December 21, 2002
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A21416-2002Dec21?language=printer
SEOUL (Reuters) - In its first reaction to Roh Moo-hyun's election as South Korea's president, North Korea said on Saturday his victory showed the Korean people wanted better ties between the countries.
A North Korean state media broadcast said Roh's victory in Thursday's election spelt defeat for those who opposed an agreement to ease tension reached by leaders of the two countries at a June 2001 summit, South Korea's Yonhap News reported.
The election "demonstrates the fact that defeat awaits those who stir up confrontation and oppose the June 15 Joint Declaration, which is the desire of all of our people," Yonhap quoted the North Korean broadcast as saying.
Roh, a human rights and labor lawyer, beat conservative opposition candidate Lee Hoi-chang by a narrow margin in an election that had become a referendum on how to handle relations with South Korea's unpredictable, communist neighbor.
Roh has vowed to continue outgoing President Kim Dae-jung's so-called sunshine policy of engaging the North. He has said Pyongyang should be persuaded to abandon its nuclear weapons program through dialogue.
Lee had advocated a tough stand on the North, similar to the policy of the United States.
President Kim went to the North for a historic summit with its leader, Kim Jong-il, in June last year, setting in motion an unprecedented warming of ties between the two Koreas.
Their June 15 declaration was aimed at reducing tension and enabling families separated since the 1950-53 Korean War to hold reunions.
But relations between the two Koreas have cooled this year in the wake of the tougher position toward the North by the United States. U.S. suspicions of the North were exacerbated by recent revelations of its nuclear weapons program.
The two Koreas have stayed technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.
----
US Urges N.Korea Not to Restart Nuclear Facilities
December 21, 2002
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/politics/politics-korea-north-nuclear-usa.html
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States urged North Korea on Saturday not to restart a nuclear reactor suspected of being used to make weapons-grade plutonium after the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said Pyongyang had disabled its monitoring equipment at the plant.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in Vienna that North Korea had disabled surveillance devices the agency had placed at the five-megawatt Nyongbyong reactor, which the United Nations believes was used to make plutonium before being closed under a 1994 agreement with the United States.
``We urge the DTRK not to restart its frozen nuclear facilities including the five-megawatt reactor,'' State Department spokesman Lou Fintor said, adding that to do so would ``fly in the face of international consensus.''
To monitor Pyongyang's compliance with the 1994 agreement, the IAEA sealed the five facilities concerned and installed permanent surveillance cameras. But on Saturday North Korea broke most of the seals and disabled the cameras.
``We call on the DTRK to respond to repeated requests by the IAEA to consult on arrangements for safeguarding the frozen nuclear facilities at Nyongbyong and allow the IAEA to replace or restore the seals and cameras that the North damaged,'' Fintor said.
He said Washington was still establishing exactly what North Korea had done on Saturday. It did not appear North Korea had disturbed seals or cameras at the reprocessing plant or at the spent fuel pond where 8,000 spent fuel rods were stored, Fintor said.
North Korea's actions and its pursuit of a covert nuclear program undermined the international community's efforts to help it deal with poverty and other serious problems, the spokesman said.
``The North has been in violation of its safeguard agreement for some time,'' Fintor said. North Korea's ``refusal to come into compliance with its safeguard obligations is one of our primary concerns.''
``We will await further information before reaching a decision on a further violation,'' he said.
Pyongyang, acting after the United States, South Korea, Japan and the European Union decided to halt its heavy fuel oil deliveries, announced plans earlier this month to immediately reactivate the Nyongbyong reactor.
The U.S. and its allies decided to cut fuel deliveries after the North acknowledged it had a program to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons, which was prohibited by the 1994 agreement.
Under the 1994 accord, Pyongyang promised to freeze its nuclear programs in return for a $5 billion package that included two light-water nuclear reactors for power generation and 500,000 metric tons of heavy fuel oil per year.
U.S. intelligence has estimated the North produced one or two nuclear bombs.
As part of the current dispute, North Korea is demanding the United States sign a non-aggression treaty but the Bush administration has refused any formal dialogue until Pyongyang dismantles the uranium enrichment program.
--------
N. Korea Disables U.N. Nuclear Monitors
December 21, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Nuclear-Agency-NKorea.html
VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- North Korea disabled U.N. surveillance equipment installed at one of its reactors Saturday, prompting the U.N. nuclear agency to express ``deep regret'' over the action and issue a new call for restraint.
International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei said he urged the reclusive nation not to take further actions to restart its nuclear program.
ElBaradei said North Korea ``cut most of the seals and impeded the functioning of surveillance equipment'' at one of its 5-megawatt reactors at Nyongbyong.
``These actions were taken in spite of repeated IAEA appeals that they take no unilateral action ... until the IAEA had the necessary measures in place to ensure the continuity of safeguards'' at North Korean nuclear facilities, ElBaradei said.
He said the country's actions ``prevented an orderly transition from IAEA monitoring of the freeze of the reactor to a situation where we would be monitoring the facility during its operation.''
The U.N. agency said it ``continues to maintain a permanent inspector presence in the DPRK (North Korea) and is monitoring the situation very closely.''
In October, North Korea made the startling revelation that it has a secret nuclear weapons program in violation of a 1994 agreement with Washington.
Experts say North Korea could quickly extract enough plutonium from its old facilities to make several nuclear weapons. North Korea denies this.
The U.N. agency has been monitoring the freeze of North Korea's reactors and other nuclear operations at its Nyongbyong site since 1994, including keeping inspectors there continuously.
Under the agreement signed in Geneva, North Korea pledged to freeze and eventually dismantle its nuclear weapons program in exchange for international aid to build two power-producing nuclear reactors.
At the time, North Korea showed IAEA inspectors only about 100 grams of weapons-grade plutonium, IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky told The Associated Press. Only new inspections will be able to ascertain whether the country has produced substantially more, he said.
The nuclear agency has held technical talks with the North Koreans twice a year over the past several years, but those meetings have not resulted in any serious consideration of inspections. North Korea withdrew its membership from the IAEA in 1994.
Earlier this year, the IAEA's general assembly adopted a resolution expressing ``serious concern'' over North Korea's refusal to cooperate and verify that its nuclear energy program meets international safety guidelines.
On the Net:
IAEA, www.iaea.org/worldatom
-------- missile defense
Alaska Post Is Key in U.S. Defense Plan
By Rachel D'oro
Associated Press Writer
Saturday, December 21, 2002; 1:08 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A22139-2002Dec21?language=printer
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Missile-Defense-Alaska.html
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- It spreads across a remote chunk of Alaska's vast interior, where winter temperatures can drop to 60 degrees below zero, and once was on the list of mothballed military bases.
These days, Fort Greely is a major player in the Bush administration's missile defense program.
President Bush announced this past week that he plans to deploy a limited missile defense system by 2004. Among the key elements of the plan, six interceptor missiles would be based in silos at Fort Greely by the end of that year, with 10 more by the end of 2005.
"Alaska is kind of at the top of the world," which makes it an optimum location to intercept missiles aimed at the United States from North Korea or the Middle East, Lt. Col. Rick Lehner of the Missile Defense Agency said Thursday.
Other sites were considered, but Greely had the infrastructure already in place, plus stable geology and weather extremes that offer a wide range of conditions for testing, said Lt. Col. Jay Smith, who heads the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense Site Activation Command at Fort Richardson in Anchorage.
"Reopening Fort Greely is a success story," Smith said.
The post covered 170 square miles next to Delta Junction, a town of 840 that had feared an economic collapse when Fort Greely began shutting down in the mid 1990s.
Pete Hallgren, Delta's city administrator, hailed the expanded missile defense work as a welcome boost to the local economy, creating jobs and stability.
"It ensures Delta Junction has a future," he said. "It's the type of thing necessary for people to spring loose in private investments here."
The area is about 100 miles southeast of Fairbanks on a narrow, two-lane highway that parallels the Tanana River. There's little between Fairbanks and Delta Junction but a couple of roadside lodges.
In the summer, the region is inviting to campers and backpackers, with daylight lasting 21 hours and temperatures in the 80s. Sightseers can watch moose and grizzly bear. But winter brings darkness and cold. The sun barely rises above the horizon at the winter solstice, and on a good day the temperature might reach 10 below.
At the June groundbreaking for the Fort Greely silos, two dozen people went all the way to Delta Junction to protest the project as an offensive, rather than defensive, program.
Hallgren said he didn't know of any locals opposed to the project.
"A lot of military people have retired here," he said. "We're an extremely, openly, patriotic community."
On the Net:
Missile Defense Agency: http://www.acq.osd.mil/bmdo/
-------- u.s. nuc facilities
-------- california
Plutonium in Your Garden
Sat, 21 Dec 2002
From: marylia@earthlink.net (marylia)
Greetings colleagues. I thought this might be on interest. Please note there will be a public meeting on January 15. Read on...
New State Report Looks at Plutonium in Your Garden
By Inga Olson From Tri-Valley CAREs' December 2002 newsletter, Citizen's Watch
Documented in a new California Department of Health Services (CDHS) report, unintentional releases of plutonium from Livermore Lab resulted in contamination to the sewage sludge at the Livermore Water Reclamation Plant (LWRP). The largest accident likely occurred between May 25 and June 15, 1967 when unknown quantities of Plutonium-239 and Americium-241 flowed from Livermore Lab drains into the city's sewer system.
Using routine monitoring data compiled by the Lab, its employees have estimated that 32 millicuries of Pu 239/Am 241 were released to the sewer during that time. According to the Lab's incident analysis, the source of the releases could not be definitively established because low-level radioactivity was routinely released to the sewer from Building 127.
Years later, other agencies looked at Livermore Lab's data and concluded that the amount of plutonium escaping into the sewer system could not be precisely determined because the Lab had analyzed the LWRP liquid effluent when much of the radioactive metal could have become incorporated into the solids.
From 1958-1976, sewage sludge that may have been contaminated with plutonium from Livermore Lab was made available to an unsuspecting public and municipal agencies for use as a soil amendment. Neither the location of the contaminated sludge nor the levels of plutonium in the sludge are known. However, it is known that plutonium emits ionizing radiation, and exposure by inhalation or ingestion can lead to an increased risk of cancer and other health problems. The impacts of contamination reach far into the future because Plutonium-239 has a radioactive half-life that spans more than 24,000 years.
With the release of the CDHS report, "Proposed Process to Address the Historic Distribution of Sewage Sludge Containing Plutonium Releases from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory," a process to address the community's concerns may finally begin. The report was produced by the state in collaboration with representatives from the Alameda County Environmental Health Department, the City of Livermore, and three community groups, Western States Legal Foundation, SF Bay Area Physicians for Social Responsibility and Tri-Valley CAREs.
The report recommends the following actions:
o That the Dept. of Energy's Livermore Lab, where the plutonium originated, provide funding for Alameda County to implement a process to address the historic distribution of sludge.
o That Alameda County establish committees with full citizen participation to guide the decision-making process.
o That Alameda County establish a toll-free number and provide information so that members of the public can make informed decisions about sampling.
The report also identifies issues needing further consideration, including:
o Developing criteria for analysis and interpretation of laboratory results before sampling is started.
o Determining a trigger level and procedure for removal of contaminated soil.
o Legal issues regarding the sampling results, such as disclosure, property values and likelihood of compensation.
In June 2002, the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) released its own draft exposure assessment of the potential health implications of the plutonium-contaminated sludge. The ATSDR assessment concluded that historic levels of plutonium in LWRP sludge would not have resulted in exposure doses exceeding 100 millirem per year and, therefore, are not a health concern.
However, the new CDHS report recommends that dose limits suggested by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for Superfund sites be considered. Livermore Lab is a Superfund cleanup site. From a regulatory perspective, the U.S. EPA does not consider the effective dose limit of 100 millirem a year protective of health, because it equates to an "unacceptably high" cancer risk of approximately 2 in 1000. The U.S. EPA suggests that levels of 15 millirem per year effective dose or less protect health and are achievable. The 15 millirem per year effective dose equates to an increased cancer risk of 3 in 10,000.
CDHS also recognizes in the new report that children can be more sensitive to health effects and that additional information may be needed to ensure that children's health is adequately protected.
The purpose of the public participation process is to make better decisions by incorporating the comments of all affected stakeholders and to meet the needs of the decision-making body. CDHS has released the new report for public review and comment.
Comments on the public participation process or any concerns or information relating to the historic distribution of sludge can be submitted to Tracy Barreau, CDHS - Environmental Health Investigation Branch, 1515 Clay Street, Suite 1700, Oakland, CA 94612.
Comments received by January 15, 2003 will be in time to be fully considered in decisions on a structure for the process, although CDHS has said it will welcome the public's comments at any time.
The report can be found in the Livermore library. It is also available from the Tri-Valley CAREs office and in PDF on our web site at www.trivalleycares.org. Additionally, copies of the report can be obtained by calling CDHS at (510) 622-4500. ends
NOTE: The CA State Dept. of Health Services will hold a public meeting to present and discuss the report in Livermore on January 15. I will post a notice and/or flier after the holidays. However, if you live in the Tri-Valley area, or may have received plutonium contaminated sludge, please reserve that evening on your calendar now -- and contact us for more information. Thanks.
Marylia Kelley Executive Director Tri-Valley CAREs (Communities Against a Radioactive Environment) 2582 Old First Street Livermore, CA USA 94551
http://www.trivalleycares.org - is our web site address. Please visit us there!
(925) 443-7148 - is our phone (925) 443-0177 - is our fax
-------- us politics
Army Outsourcing Plan Decried
Thousands of Jobs Could Be Affected
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 21, 2002; Page A04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A19809-2002Dec20?language=printer
The Army's proposal to contract out as many as 214,000 military and civilian jobs could pose a threat to national security, a group of 68 House members warned yesterday.
The lawmakers, including four Republicans, sent a letter to Army Secretary Thomas E. White yesterday criticizing his Oct. 4 decision to review the jobs of 58,727 military personnel and 154,910 civilian employees to see whether they could be performed better and more cheaply by the private sector. The affected workers perform such support functions as accounting, legal counsel, maintenance and communications.
"We're greatly concerned by your decision," the House members wrote, saying that the transfer of such jobs to the private sector has "the potential of seriously eroding the readiness of the total force at a time when the nation is facing a determined security threat."
An Army spokesman declined to comment on the letter, saying any response would be directed to the members of Congress.
The Army's initiative, which White has said would focus more of the military's resources on national defense, could affect more than one in six Army jobs around the world and follows two earlier waves of privatization over the past 20 years.
If the Army succeeds in contracting out the work, it will be the largest transfer of jobs to the private sector by a government agency. It could also provide a major boost to the Bush administration's broader effort to move as many as 425,000 government jobs considered not "inherently governmental" into the private sector in the name of saving money and increasing efficiency.
The House members wrote that the Army initiative is "especially inappropriate" because it appears to be based on a "numerical privatization quota" of the sort that the House explicitly disapproved of in a vote in July. They said a competitive process must govern whether any Army jobs move to the private sector, and urged that White consult with Congress before moving forward.
Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Tex.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee who circulated the letter, said in an interview that the Defense Department was too focused on cutting costs when the country is fighting terrorism and facing a possible war with Iraq.
"They're looking at the bottom line . . . without regard to the impact that it would have on our national security if we continue on this binge to privatize," said Reyes, whose El Paso-area district includes the Army's Fort Bliss. "As far as I'm concerned, we're down to the bone. Now you are cutting into the meat; you are eliminating jobs that are critical."
Rep. Walter B. Jones Jr. (R-N.C.), also a member of the armed services panel, said the drive toward privatization could affect key functions at Army depots and other facilities.
"There are some situations where [the] public and private sectors can [have a] partnership, but all in all, when you are trying to decrease, in my opinion, the strength of the public depots, I think you are making a mistake," said Jones, whose district includes the Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point.
Both lawmakers said they would support congressional hearings on the Army initiative.
White has said the Army must focus its resources on core national defense duties that it can do better than anyone else, while obtaining other products and services from the private sector. Military personnel whose jobs are affected would be reassigned to other duties within the Army. Federal unions have denounced the plan as an attempt to benefit defense contractors.
White had set yesterday as a deadline for determining which Army jobs would not be subject to the review. But officials pushed it to Feb. 20 after receiving thousands of requests from Army managers seeking exemptions for various jobs.
Office of Management and Budget officials announced last month that they would speed up the process for determining whether government jobs should be done by the public or private sector.
"It's not an initiative to outsource federal employees," Angela Styles, OMB administrator for federal procurement policy, said at the time. "It's an initiative about competition, about deciding who is the best provider of these services and who can give us the best value for our taxpayers."
-------- MILITARY
-------- africa
French Fire on Rebels in Ivory Coast
By Clar Ni Chonghaile
Associated Press Writer
Saturday, December 21, 2002; 12:37 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A22013-2002Dec21?language=printer
DUEKOUE, Ivory Coast -- French forces opened fire Saturday on rebels in western Ivory Coast, trying to stop the insurgents from pushing past them toward the commercial capital Abidjan, the prize in the fight for control of West Africa's key nation.
Fighting reached within a half-mile of the western city of Duekoue, and residents could hear gunfire in the distance. French forces had set up a major position on the city's outskirts to block the rebel advance.
In the first minutes of fighting, witnesses saw French guns hit three cars of rebels. At their base at a school, French troops loaded mortars on trucks to rush to the battle. Ivorian soldiers were also fighting the rebels.
The battle appeared to be the gravest engagement by French forces sent to intervene in the rapidly escalating three-month conflict in Ivory Coast, a former French colony.
Rebels, divided into factions in the north and west, at first hoped to force the resignation of President Laurent Gbagbo and his southern-based government, which they accuse of discrimination. But western rebels, bolstered by success in recent days in seizing key cities, now say they want to capture Abidjan and control the country - the world's largest cocoa producer and a vital West African economic hub and port.
Scores of French Foreign Legion fighters sent to block the rebel advance have dug in outside Duekoue with anti-tank missiles, rocket launchers and heavy machine guns. They call the post their "stop-point" for rebels as the insurgents push toward south and east toward the skyscraper-lined capital.
French deployment came immediately after fast-moving rebels captured the town of Blodi, five miles from Duekoue. Rebels were moving east on side roads around Duekoue, trying to bypass the French, foreign military officials said.
Civilians fled the city.
More than 1,000 French forces are in Ivory Coast to stop the insurgency, in which rebels have seized the northern half of the country. On the second front, in the west, rebels since Thursday have captured the key city of Man and smaller towns in their push toward Abidjan, 210 miles southeast.
If the rebels manage to avoid the French at Duekoue, they next have to cross the Sassandra River - where the French also have troops posted.
"We know what to do to get past the Sassandra River and on to Abidjan," western rebel commander Felix Doh told The Associated Press earlier Saturday. "It's just a matter of getting organized and finding a crossing point."
The size of the rebel contingent that the French forces were going to meet was unknown.
French forces have engaged the rebels on one previous occasion, in a November clash that left 10 rebels dead and one French fighter injured.
The French initially came to Ivory Coast to protect foreign nationals and enforce a shattered cease-fire but have since taken an increasingly aggressive role of late. French forces are expected to grow to 2,500 by the end of the year.
Ivory Coast, for decades West Africa's most prosperous and stable nation, has fallen into chaos since a late 1990s economic downturn followed by a 1999 coup, the country's first-ever.
Gbagbo took power in 2000 for a five-year term. Gen. Robert Guei, who came to power in the 1999 coup, tried to steal the vote, and violence cut short the election. A people's revolt put Gbagbo in power, and rebels now want his resignation.
-------- britain
Britain rejects call to extend EU defence powers
Ian Black in Brussels
Saturday December 21, 2002
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/eu/story/0,7369,863986,00.html
Britain has firmly rejected calls for giving EU member states mutual defence guarantees, such as those provided by Nato, and insisted that foreign policy must remain under the control of national capitals.
Peter Hain, the Welsh secretary, told the convention on the future of Europe in Brussels yesterday that the government opposed ambitious German-backed plans to give the union greater powers in these sensitive areas.
He welcomed the idea of an EU "solidarity clause" in case one member was targeted by terrorist attacks, but warned against any attempt to give the union formal defence powers or allow some countries to peel off into a separate group.
Mr Hain was addressing a plenary session of the convention, chaired by the former French president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and debating proposals for a new EU constitutional treaty to be agreed by governments in 2004.
The 105-member body includes representatives from governments, the 13 candidate countries, national parliaments and the European parliament.
Yesterday's discussion fo cused on a report by a French European commissioner, Michel Barnier. It proposed the creation of an EU defence council - parallel to existing ones on foreign affairs, finance and agriculture- and other ambitious innovations such as a union defence budget and military academy.
"The EU shouldn't be in the business of setting out a territorial defence guarantee, or importing one by reinforced cooperation among some member states," Mr Hain said.
Energies and resources should be focused on agreed foreign and defence policies and "not duplicate what Nato offers those partners who wish to be part of a collective defence alliance".
Mr Hain, a former Europe minister at the Foreign Office, kept his convention role after the recent ministerial reshuffle in recognition of the importance Tony Blair attaches to the intensifying debate.
France and Germany, cooperating in several key policy areas, are represented by their foreign ministers.
The British minister also rejected proposals for a bigger military role for Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy and security chief, who answers to the 15 governments.
It was essential that member states "retain control of operations and that the military chain of command is respected", he said.
Mr Hain rebuffed calls to combine Mr Solana's role with that of the commissioner for external relations, currently Chris Patten, the former Tory party chairman and governor of Hong Kong. And he dismissed proposals for an EU diplomatic service and embassies.
He also rejected the idea of an EU armaments agency but urged greater budgetary efforts to boost European military capabilities.
"We can only back up our foreign policy and be a truly global force if we have the physical means - the equipment and manpower," he said.
"This means targeted financial commitment at a time when there are other calls on our resources. But by working together we can get more for our money."
Britain says it wants Europe to be a more effective player on the world stage, and would like to see EU forces take over responsibility for the Nato-led Balkan peacekeeping missions in Macedonia and Bosnia and replace overstretched US troops.
-------- europe
Europe takes lead in naval search for al Qaeda
By David Rising
ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 21, 2002
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20021221-32874593.htm
BERLIN - Spain, Germany and other European nations have taken a leading role in patrolling Middle Eastern shipping lanes on the lookout for al Qaeda terrorists and contraband - giving critical support to the stretched U.S. Navy.
The role of America's allies has often been overlooked, but was highlighted last week when Spanish commandos rappelled from helicopters onto the unflagged merchant ship So San and found 15 Scud missiles and warheads from North Korea hidden under cement sacks and bound for Yemen.
The dramatic scene was the first time the so-called "Task Force 150" - comprising warships from France, Britain, Germany, Spain and the United States - discovered weapons since it began patrolling the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden around the Horn of Africa in November 2001. The flotilla draws resources from more than dozen countries patrolling the region since 1990 to enforce sanctions against Iraq.
Spanish Rear Adm. Juan Moreno commands the flotilla of six warships, which makes contact with dozens of merchant ships every day, checking them against a list of vessels that coalition intelligence services suspect may be involved in illegal activity and questioning the captain about his cargo and destination. If the ships have undeclared cargo, act suspiciously, or are on the coalition list of suspect ships, they are boarded and searched.
"It is one of the ways we have to show our solidarity with the fight the United States is now waging against global terrorism," Adm. Moreno said in a telephone interview from the Spanish frigate Navarra, which checks about 20 to 30 ships a day.
The flotilla has had contact with 16,000 merchant ships, boarding 200, said Lt. Garrett Kasper, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, to which Adm. Moreno reports.
Four suspects have been detained to date, but Lt. Kasper would not elaborate, citing security.
Despite the outrage of Spain and other allies, the United States allowed the shipment of North Korean missiles to proceed once it determined the destination was Yemen, whose cooperation is needed in the war on terrorism.
All the same, the interception alone should help deter terrorists, said Stephen Saunders, editor of Jane's Fighting Ships.
"It does send a message to people that the ships are actually doing a job there," Mr. Saunders said. "I think it restricts the capability of a terrorist group to move materials around."
Just one-third of the Navy's 300 ships are fully deployed at any given time, another 100 getting ready to go and the last third heading back to port - spreading the Navy thin at a time when it is increasing patrols in the Persian Gulf and has commitments elsewhere in the world.
The United States currently has the guided-missile destroyer USS Higgins assigned to Task Force 150, while Britain's contribution is the frigate HMS Cumberland. In addition to the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany has also committed the frigate Rhineland-Pfalz, and the French frigate Vendemiaire is currently en route to relieve the frigate Blaison.
-------- latin america
Recent Statements Muddle U.S. Stance on Venezuela
Confusing Remarks a Symptom of Iraq Focus, Some Say
By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 21, 2002
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A19816-2002Dec20?language=printer
Eight months after it cheerfully acquiesced to an apparent coup in Venezuela, only to find egg on its face just hours later when President Hugo Chavez emerged still in power, the Bush administration now worries that a reinstated Chavez may be the least of its problems in South America's oil capital.
There is still no love lost for Chavez, who is viewed as a worrisome populist with ties too close for comfort to Cuba's Fidel Castro and Colombia's leftist guerrillas. But the one thing Chavez never threatened, senior officials said, was Venezuela's oil exports to the United States.
Over the past two weeks, anti-Chavez strikes have brought the country to a halt, including the shipments that supply 15 percent of U.S. oil imports. With Chavez seen as digging in his heels and unlikely to capitulate to the increasingly disruptive opposition, the administration would support a negotiated solution that left him in power, as long as it was done legally and brought the political upheaval and violence to an end, officials said.
The administration had decided after the problems of last April to keep its head down on Venezuela, supporting efforts by the Organization of American States to persuade the two sides to meet each other halfway. But last week, in a statement that State Department and Pentagon officials said emanated from the National Security Council with little advance consultation with anyone outside the White House, President Bush's spokesman Ari Fleischer announced that the United States backed a constitutional solution and believed the only way out of the crisis was "the holding of early elections."
That left many here and in Venezuela scratching their heads, since there is no direct provision in the Venezuelan constitution for presidential elections before Chavez's term ends in 2006. To some, Fleischer's statement was coded language supporting the opposition, whose more extreme elements have grown increasingly unconstitutional in their demands. Fleischer emerged again to explain that his remarks were an "umbrella statement" in which the constitution was also mentioned.
The incident seemed to cause more confusion and consternation than the suspicions of clandestine U.S. efforts to overthrow the Chavez government that arose during last April's aborted coup. Still, said a senior official outside the White House who works on the region, "Here we are again, with no credibility and everybody laughing at us."
These officials and others, along with Latin American diplomats and policy experts here, attributed the problem at least in part to too much attention paid to Iraq, and too little to the rest of the world. Latin America has suffered in particular from the syndrome, with little White House interest and no top-level official who has the time or energy to worry much about it.
"The overall Latin thing is really a mess," said one ambassador from the region. "There's no assistant secretary, and nobody with juice who can take things to the White House." The State Department has been without a Senate-confirmed leader for the region for years; the most recent "acting" official in the job, Otto Reich, was forced out early this month when his recess appointment expired at the end of the congressional session.
Although Reich was denied a confirmation hearing last spring because leading Democrats, then in the Senate majority, objected to his nomination, Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), the new Foreign Relations Committee chairman, has told President Bush that Reich will not have bipartisan support if he is renominated.
In a foreign policy speech Wednesday, Lugar cited the pressing challenges of the Latin America region, and called for "beefed-up leadership" from the administration.
"Only a crisis gets to somebody's desk on the 7th floor," the ambassador said in a reference to the State Department offices of Secretary Colin L. Powell and his top aides.
Efforts by officials from several departments working on regional affairs have failed so far to persuade their bosses that the Venezuela situation deserves a high-level policy meeting chaired by the NSC. While some have worried that there is no contingency policy if Venezuela explodes, others have argued that any attempt to directly influence events there would immediately be labeled U.S. interference.
NSC spokesman Sean McCormack said no one there was available to talk to a reporter this week about Venezuela, particularly during "the swirl of events" surrounding Iraq.
Asked about Venezuela at the end of his Iraq news conference Thursday, Powell said, "We are very concerned, and we're following the situation . . . very closely. We're concerned about the continuation of the strikes and the demonstrations in the streets. . . . We also are worried about the fact that the oil sector is slowly shutting down."
-------- mideast
Winds of war buffet villages near Iraq
By Selcan Hacaoglu
ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 21, 2002
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20021221-94634216.htm
GORUMLU, Turkey - Like many Turks living along the Iraqi border, Heybet Bulduk is planning to seal her windows with plastic sheeting out of fear Iraqi President Saddam Hussein will use poison gas if the United States goes to war against his regime.
Abdullah Ergun would rather just leave the area as he did during the Persian Gulf war, but worries he won't be able to scrape together enough money if fighting breaks out again.
"I am trying to comfort myself and my family that he did not attack in 1991, but I still fear a lot that he might shower us with chemicals this time," Mr. Ergun said.
As the United States prepares for war with Iraq, Turkish villagers near the border are nervously listening to the news, fearful of what an attack might mean for them.
That fear is reflected in Turkey's repeated calls for a peaceful solution to U.S.-Iraqi tensions and its reticence to publicly approve a U.S. call to use Turkish bases.
The United States has intensively courted Turkish support for any war against Iraq. Turkey is NATO's only Muslim member and shares a mountainous border with Iraq.
But Turkey fears any war would hurt its fragile economic recovery and lead to instability along the border. Turkey also fears that the fighting could lead Kurds in northern Iraq to break away and form their own state, which could inspire Turkish Kurds in the border area.
Southeastern Turkey is overwhelmingly Kurdish and many people have relatives in northern Iraq. Saddam has used poison gas against his own Kurds and many Turks are afraid that he could use chemical weapons again.
Mrs. Bulduk can see the snow-peaked mountains of northern Iraq from her mountain village, which is only nine miles from Iraq and is closer to Baghdad than to the Turkish capital of Ankara.
She's ready to seal off her basement and hide there if there is a war.
"We will all move into the basement right away," she said. "What else we can do?"
During the 1991 Gulf war, tens of thousands of Turkish Kurds piled their mattresses and blankets on the back of tractors and fled the area.
In Gorumlu, villagers are too poor to flee. Many don't even have enough money to buy shoes and wear plastic covers over their thick wool hand-woven socks.
Some 15 miles to the west, in the once-thriving border town of Silopi, Mr. Ergun says he would prefer to flee, but is worried he will lose his job if he leaves.
"I can't risk losing this job. I have to wait and pray that if there is a war, they win it quick," said Mr. Ergun, who sells gloves and sweaters to Turkish soldiers in the area.
Like many people in the area, he hopes that if the war is successful, U.N. sanctions against Iraq will be lifted and Turkey will be able to resume trade with Iraq.
"Saddam is a murderer. If he is gone, we can go back to normal," said Enver Karakan who lives in the nearby village of Duruklu.
Among Kurds, there is also little sympathy for Saddam, who is accused of burning thousands of Kurdish villages.
In 1991, when allied troops were withdrawing from Iraq through Turkey, some Kurdish villagers protested, carrying banners that read: "Thank you, but the job is only half done."
----
General to Troops: Sit Tight
In Qatar, Myers Says No End in Sight to War on Terrorism
By Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 21, 2002; Page A18
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A19790-2002Dec20?language=printer
CAMP AL SAYLIYAH, Qatar, Dec. 20 -- The U.S. military's top general told troops stationed in this Persian Gulf state to brace for long-term conflict because he could see no end to the administration's declared war on global terrorism.
On the first stop of a three-day visit to the gulf region and Afghanistan, Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was asked several times by soldiers for some indication of an administration exit strategy and for a lessening of the repeated and extended deployments that many troops are now experiencing.
"I can't give you a good answer," he said. "I just can't do it because there's just too much uncertainty out there."
Myers said that declaring victory and ending the anti-terrorism campaign would require meeting three goals set by President Bush last year: disrupting or destroying terrorist networks, denying terrorists safe havens, and making sure that chemical, biological and nuclear weapons did not fall into the hands of terrorists.
With the Pentagon preparing to send more troops to the region next month in anticipation of a possible invasion of Iraq, Myers said several times today that he could not predict how things would play out. He insisted that there was no set timetable for attacking Iraq, saying that much still depended on the responses of President Saddam Hussein to U.N. weapons inspection teams.
After flying overnight from Washington, Myers spent much of the day touring three military camps in Qatar that would play central roles in any invasion: Al Udeid air base, where American tankers have been flying refueling missions; another air base known as "Camp Snoopy," where U.S. transport aircraft operate re-supply flights; and Camp Al Sayliyah, where the U.S. Central Command set up a forward command headquarters this month to run a war.
Packed with computer terminals, secure phones and flat-screen video monitors, the post is designed to enable officers to monitor military operations throughout the Central Command region, from southwestern Asia to the Horn of Africa.
Myers said he found U.S. troops in Qatar "pretty upbeat," but the soldiers made no secret of their interest in learning when war might come.
Air Force Col. Tim Scott, the base commander at Al Udeid, said his biggest challenge these days was "just keeping rumors under control," because "no one outside of a select few has an idea of what the plan is."
For entertainment, Myers was joined by two celebrities sponsored by the USO: New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens and comedian Drew Carey, a former Marine reservist, whose opening line captured the sentiments of many troops in this barren, sandy expanse.
"What I love about this place is, no matter where you look -- 360 degrees -- you're always reminded how screwed you are," Carey said to widespread laughter. "There's no place on the horizon you can focus on and say, 'Home.' Stuck in the desert."
----
U.S. Starts Military Exercises in Kuwait
By PATRICK MCDOWELL,
Associated Press Writer
December 21, 2002
http://www.latimes.com/sns-ap-kuwait-war-exercise1221dec21,0,6822690.story
SOUTH OF KUWAIT-IRAQ BORDER -- The U.S. Army launched its biggest maneuver in the Kuwaiti desert since the Gulf War on Saturday, throwing thousands of soldiers and hundreds of armored vehicles into live-fire exercises to sharpen their skills ahead of a possible new war with Iraq.
The operations got under way as the threat of war increased with declarations by U.N. arms inspectors that Iraq failed to fully account for its banned weapons, and the United States struggled for diplomatic support to declare Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in "material breach" of U.N. resolutions.
News of the latest diplomatic confrontations sharpened the expectations among soldiers of the 2nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, as they rumbled forward in tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles Saturday for two days of live-fire maneuvers in the windblown sands a few miles from the Iraqi border.
"This is the biggest maneuver exercise since the Gulf War," Maj. Gen. Buford Blount, commander of the 3rd Division, told The Associated Press. "It really adds focus to our soldiers. They're already one of the best trained divisions in the army, probably in the world."
Blount didn't answer directly when asked whether the likelihood had increased that his men would put into practice the lethal skills they are refining in the Kuwaiti desert.
"We have to wait for the president to make that decision," he said. "We'd be out here training anyway."
The two-day war games under day and night conditions are one of a series of exercises carried out in the Kuwaiti desert in recent weeks, but these are by far the most intricate.
It seems no accident that reporters and TV crews have been invited along for the maneuvers, and some commanders have pointed out the military show of force was a warning to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein as well as a chance for soldiers to rehearse for combat.
While American officials have said President Bush has not yet decided to launch a war, it appears ever more likely he'll do so soon. One Friday, an administration official said on condition of anonymity that Bush had authorized a doubling of the 50,000 U.S. troops now in the Gulf.
The 2nd Brigade, the largest U.S. force deployed in what is expected to be the launch pad for any invasion into Iraq, sent its M1A1 Abrams tanks and other armor forward against positions prepared to resemble Iraqi trenches and minefields supported by armored vehicles.
Fire from 120mm cannons and mortars thudded down to kill theoretical enemy defenders, and 300-foot chains of linked explosives were fired onto minefields and barbed wire to open paths for the American armor to roll through.
Soldiers with M16s dismounted from their Bradleys to clear the trenches, and the phalanx of armor swept deeper into the desert as helicopters flew overhead.
Blount's initial judgment was that the operation was a success, and he said the tense regional context "adds a little realism."
The United States has kept a brigade-sized force in Kuwait as a deterrent against Iraqi attack since the end of the Gulf War in 1991. That mission officially has not changed, and no huge prewar buildup of forces has taken place similar to the Gulf War a decade ago.
Kuwaiti leaders have said they will allow U.S. forces to launch an attack on Iraq from their small, oil-rich state only if the use of force is sanctioned by the United Nations.
But on the ground, the soldiers are clearly aware that they would form the core of any invasion into Iraq.
On their gun barrels, they have painted names that include the flight numbers of the Sept. 11 airplanes that were hijacked, as well as a threat that now seems more timely: "All the way to Baghdad."
"I kind of feel sorry for them," said 1st Lt. Ryan Kuo of Reno, Nevada. "It is not like 10 years ago. The weapons we have now don't miss."
-------- us
US pilots in friendly fire were on drugs, says lawyer
CLAIRE SMITH csmith@scotsman.com
Sat 21 Dec 2002
Scotsman
http://www.news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1418442002
TWO US fighter pilots charged with accidentally killing four Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan had been given amphetamines to keep them awake, their lawyer claimed.
Charles Gittens is representing the pilots, who face prison for 64 years if found guilty in a court martial next month.
In an interview with a US television station yesterday Mr Gittens claimed Major Bill Umbach and Major Harry Schmidt were ordered to take six amphetamines each to ward off fatigue during their mission.
"It was two pilots on speed," said Mr Gittens in an interview on ABC's 20/20, claiming their judgment was impaired.
Majors Schmidt and Umbach have been charged over an incident in Afghanistan in April, which left four Canadian servicemen dead and eight injured. The two airmen opened fire on an international force on a training exercise after they saw flashes on the ground near to Kandahar.
They are charged with four counts of manslaughter, eight counts of aggravated assault and one count of dereliction of duty.
This is the first time it has been revealed that the two pilots involved were taking amphetamines supplied by a US air force surgeon. But there have been previous claims that amphetamine use was commonplace in the 183rd Fighter wing, of which the two US pilots were a part.
Drug use was reportedly common during the Gulf war - but was outlawed after pilots were discovered to be becoming psychologically addicted to the amphetamines which were given to them to keep awake and the sedatives which they were prescribed to help them sleep after long haul flights.
US air force rules allow flight surgeons to prescribe dextro amphetamine or Dexedrine, to pilots on transoceanic transport flights.
However the drug is not supposed to be used for combat missions, because of the possibility it could impair the judgment of pilots.
Pilots are normally supposed to get 12 hours rest between missions but that can be changed when the unit is on alert.
If pilots have to work longer hours then the US air force is legally allowed to approve the use of dextro amphetamine drugs.
----
For the Record: next round of military base closures in 2005
WASHINGTON IN BRIEF
Saturday, December 21, 2002
Washington Post; Page A13
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A20288-2002Dec20?language=printer
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld wants the next round of military base closures, in 2005, to cut as much surplus as the previous four rounds combined, a senior aide said. Raymond DuBois, the deputy undersecretary of defense for installations and environment, gave no specific figures and stressed that no military bases would be exempted in advance from potential closure.
--------
U.S. starts military exercises in Kuwait
Associated Press
12/21/2002
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2002-12-21-kuwait-war-exercises_x.htm
SOUTH OF KUWAIT-IRAQ BORDER (AP) - The U.S. Army launched its biggest maneuver in the Kuwaiti desert since the Gulf War on Saturday, throwing thousands of soldiers and hundreds of armored vehicles into live-fire exercises to sharpen their skills ahead of a possible new war with Iraq.
The operations got under way as the threat of war increased with declarations by U.N. arms inspectors that Iraq failed to fully account for its banned weapons, and the United States struggled for diplomatic support to declare Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in "material breach" of U.N. resolutions.
News of the latest diplomatic confrontations sharpened the expectations among soldiers of the 2nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, as they rumbled forward in tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles Saturday for two days of live-fire maneuvers in the windblown sands a few kilometers (miles) from the Iraqi border.
"This is the biggest maneuver exercise since the Gulf War," Maj. Gen. Buford Blount, commander of the 3rd Division, told The Associated Press. "It really adds focus to our soldiers. They're already one of the best trained divisions in the army, probably in the world."
Blount didn't answer directly when asked whether the likelihood had increased that his men would put into practice the lethal skills they are refining in the Kuwaiti desert.
"We have to wait for the president to make that decision," he said. "We'd be out here training anyway."
The two-day war games under day and night conditions are one of a series of exercises carried out in the Kuwaiti desert in recent weeks, but these are by far the most intricate.
It seems no accident that reporters and TV crews have been invited along for the maneuvers, and some commanders have pointed out the military show of force was a warning to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein as well as a chance for soldiers to rehearse for combat.
While American officials have said President Bush has not yet decided to launch a war, it appears ever more likely he'll do so soon. One Friday, an administration official said on condition of anonymity that Bush had authorized a doubling of the 50,000 U.S. troops now in the Gulf.
The 2nd Brigade, the largest U.S. force deployed in what is expected to be the launch pad for any invasion into Iraq, sent its M1A1 Abrams tanks and other armor forward against positions prepared to resemble Iraqi trenches and minefields supported by armored vehicles.
Fire from 120mm cannons and mortars thudded down to kill theoretical enemy defenders, and 300-foot chains of linked explosives were fired onto minefields and barbed wire to open paths for the American armor to roll through.
Soldiers with M16s dismounted from their Bradleys to clear the trenches, and the phalanx of armor swept deeper into the desert as helicopters flew overhead.
Blount's initial judgment was that the operation was a success, and he said the tense regional context "adds a little realism."
The United States has kept a brigade-sized force in Kuwait as a deterrent against Iraqi attack since the end of the Gulf War in 1991. That mission officially has not changed, and no huge prewar buildup of forces has taken place similar to the Gulf War a decade ago.
Kuwaiti leaders have said they will allow U.S. forces to launch an attack on Iraq from their small, oil-rich state only if the use of force is sanctioned by the United Nations.
But on the ground, the soldiers are clearly aware that they would form the core of any invasion into Iraq.
On their gun barrels, they have painted names that include the flight numbers of the Sept. 11 airplanes that were hijacked, as well as a threat that now seems more timely: "All the way to Baghdad."
"I kind of feel sorry for them," said 1st Lt. Ryan Kuo of Reno, Nevada. "It is not like 10 years ago. The weapons we have now don't miss."
-------- propaganda wars
Bush Helps Initiate Iran Radio
WASHINGTON IN BRIEF
Saturday, December 21, 2002
Washington Post; Page A13
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A20288-2002Dec20?language=printer
Offering U.S. friendship if Iran would "embrace freedom," President Bush helped launch a radio service aimed at young Iranians. Seventy percent of Iran's population is under 30.
"If Iran respects its international obligations and embraces freedom and tolerance, it will have no better friend than the United States of America," Bush said in a broadcast on Radio Farda, a U.S.-run Persian-language radio service that began broadcasting to Iran on Thursday.
Bush has declared Iran part of an "axis of evil" that threatens to spread weapons of mass destruction, and the United States this month accused Iran of building two facilities that could be used to produce a nuclear weapon. But Washington has also sought to encourage pro-democracy forces in Iran, including an increasingly restive student movement.
-------- POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS
Coffee, Tea, or Should We Feel Your Pregnant Wife's Breasts Before Throwing You in a Cell at the Airport and Then Lying About Why We Put You There?
by Nicholas Monahan
December 21, 2002
LewRockwell.com
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig3/monahan1.html
This morning I'll be escorting my wife to the hospital, where the doctors will perform a caesarean section to remove our first child. She didn't want to do it this way - neither of us did - but sometimes the Fates decide otherwise. The Fates or, in our case, government employees.
On the morning of October 26th Mary and I entered Portland International Airport, en route to the Las Vegas wedding of one of my best friends. Although we live in Los Angeles, we'd been in Oregon working on a film, and up to that point had had nothing but praise to shower on the city of Portland, a refreshing change of pace from our own suffocating metropolis.
At the security checkpoint I was led aside for the "inspection" that's all the rage at airports these days. My shoes were removed. I was told to take off my sweater, then to fold over the waistband of my pants. My baseball hat, hastily jammed on my head at 5 AM, was removed and assiduously examined ("Anything could be in here, sir," I was told, after I asked what I could hide in a baseball hat. Yeah. Anything.) Soon I was standing on one foot, my arms stretched out, the other leg sticking out in front of me --la a DUI test. I began to get pissed off, as most normal people would. My anger increased when I realized that the newly knighted federal employees weren't just examining me, but my 7 months pregnant wife as well. I'd originally thought that I'd simply been randomly selected for the more excessive than normal search. You know, Number 50 or whatever. Apparently not though - it was both of us. These are your new threats, America: pregnant accountants and their sleepy husbands flying to weddings.
After some more grumbling on my part they eventually finished with me and I went to retrieve our luggage from the x-ray machine. Upon returning I found my wife sitting in a chair, crying. Mary rarely cries, and certainly not in public. When I asked her what was the matter, she tried to quell her tears and sobbed, "I'm sorry...it's...they touched my breasts...and..." That's all I heard. I marched up to the woman who'd been examining her and shouted, "What did you do to her?" Later I found out that in addition to touching her swollen breasts - to protect the American citizenry - the employee had asked that she lift up her shirt. Not behind a screen, not off to the side - no, right there, directly in front of the hundred or so passengers standing in line. And for you women who've been pregnant and worn maternity pants, you know how ridiculous those things look. "I felt like a clown," my wife told me later. "On display for all these people, with the cotton panel on my pants and my stomach sticking out. When I sat down I just lost my composure and began to cry. That's when you walked up."
Of course when I say she "told me later," it's because she wasn't able to tell me at the time, because as soon as I demanded to know what the federal employee had done to make her cry, I was swarmed by Portland police officers. Instantly. Three of them, cinching my arms, locking me in handcuffs, and telling me I was under arrest. Now my wife really began to cry. As they led me away and she ran alongside, I implored her to calm down, to think of the baby, promising her that everything would turn out all right. She faded into the distance and I was shoved into an elevator, a cop holding each arm. After making me face the corner, the head honcho told that I was under arrest and that I wouldn't be flying that day - that I was in fact a "menace."
It took me a while to regain my composure. I felt like I was one of those guys in The Gulag Archipelago who, because the proceedings all seem so unreal, doesn't fully realize that he is in fact being arrested in a public place in front of crowds of people for...for what? I didn't know what the crime was. Didn't matter. Once upstairs, the officers made me remove my shoes and my hat and tossed me into a cell. Yes, your airports have prison cells, just like your amusement parks, train stations, universities, and national forests. Let freedom reign.
After a short time I received a visit from the arresting officer. "Mr. Monahan," he started, "Are you on drugs?"
Was this even real? "No, I'm not on drugs."
"Should you be?"
"What do you mean?"
"Should you be on any type of medication?"
"No."
"Then why'd you react that way back there?"
You see the thinking? You see what passes for reasoning among your domestic shock troops these days? Only "whackos" get angry over seeing the woman they've been with for ten years in tears because someone has touched her breasts. That kind of reaction - love, protection - it's mind-boggling! "Mr. Monahan, are you on drugs?" His snide words rang inside my head. This is my wife, finally pregnant with our first child after months of failed attempts, after the depressing shock of the miscarriage last year, my wife who'd been walking on a cloud over having the opportunity to be a mother...and my anger is simply unfathomable to the guy standing in front of me, the guy who earns a living thanks to my taxes, the guy whose family I feed through my labor. What I did wasn't normal. No, I reacted like a drug addict would've. I was so disgusted I felt like vomiting. But that was just the beginning.
An hour later, after I'd been gallantly assured by the officer that I wouldn't be attending my friend's wedding that day, I heard Mary's voice outside my cell. The officer was speaking loudly, letting her know that he was planning on doing me a favor... which everyone knows is never a real favor. He wasn't going to come over and help me work on my car or move some furniture. No, his "favor" was this: He'd decided not to charge me with a felony.
Think about that for a second. Rapes, car-jackings, murders, arsons - those are felonies. So is yelling in an airport now, apparently. I hadn't realized, though I should have. Luckily, I was getting a favor, though. I was merely going to be slapped with a misdemeanor.
"Here's your court date," he said as I was released from my cell. In addition, I was banned from Portland International for 90 days, and just in case I was thinking of coming over and hanging out around its perimeter, the officer gave me a map with the boundaries highlighted, sternly warning me against trespassing. Then he and a second officer escorted us off the grounds. Mary and I hurriedly drove two and a half hours in the rain to Seattle, where we eventually caught a flight to Vegas. But the officer was true to his word - we missed my friend's wedding. The fact that he'd been in my own wedding party, the fact that a once in a lifetime event was stolen from us - well, who cares, right?
Upon our return to Portland (I'd had to fly into Seattle and drive back down), we immediately began contacting attorneys. We aren't litigious people - we wanted no money. I'm not even sure what we fully wanted. An apology? A reprimand? I don't know. It doesn't matter though, because we couldn't afford a lawyer, it turned out. $4,000 was the average figure bandied about as a retaining fee. Sorry, but I've got a new baby on the way. So we called the ACLU, figuring they existed for just such incidents as these. And they do apparently...but only if we were minorities. That's what they told us.
In the meantime, I'd appealed my suspension from PDX. A week or so later I got a response from the Director of Aviation. After telling me how, in the aftermath of 9/11, most passengers not only accept additional airport screening but welcome it, he cut to the chase:
"After a review of the police report and my discussions with police staff, as well as a review of the TSA's report on this incident, I concur with the officer's decision to take you into custody and to issue a citation to you for disorderly conduct. That being said, because I also understand that you were upset and acted on your emotions, I am willing to lift the Airport Exclusion Order...."
Attached to this letter was the report the officer had filled out. I'd like to say I couldn't believe it, but in a way, I could. It's seemingly becoming the norm in America - lies and deliberate distortions on the part of those in power, no matter how much or how little power they actually wield.
The gist of his report was this: From the get go I wasn't following the screener's directions. I was "squinting my eyes" and talking to my wife in a "low, forced voice" while "excitedly swinging my arms." Twice I began to walk away from the screener, inhaling and exhaling forcefully. When I'd completed the physical exam, I walked to the luggage screening area, where a second screener took a pair of scissors from my suitcase. At this point I yelled, "What the %
There was nothing poetic in my reaction to the arrest report. I didn't crumple it in my fist and swear that justice would be served, promising to sacrifice my resources and time to see that it would. I simply stared. Clearly the officer didn't have the guts to write down what had really happened. It might not look too good to see that stuff about the pregnant woman in tears because she'd been humiliated. Instead this was the official scenario being presented for the permanent record. It doesn't even matter that it's the most implausible sounding situation you can think of. "Hey, what the...godammit, they're taking our scissors, honey!" Why didn't he write in anything about a monkey wearing a fez?
True, the TSA staff had expropriated a pair of scissors from our toiletries kit - the story wasn't entirely made up. Except that I'd been locked in airport jail at the time. I didn't know anything about any scissors until Mary told me on our drive up to Seattle. They'd questioned her about them while I was in the bowels of the airport sitting in my cell.
So I wrote back, indignation and disgust flooding my brain.
"[W]hile I'm not sure, I'd guess that the entire incident is captured on video. Memory is imperfect on everyone's part, but the footage won't lie. I realize it might be procedurally difficult for you to view this, but if you could, I'd appreciate it. There's no willful disregard of screening directions. No explosion over the discovery of a pair of scissors in a suitcase. No struggle to put handcuffs on. There's a tired man, early in the morning, unhappily going through a rigorous procedure and then reacting to the tears of his pregnant wife."
Eventually we heard back from a different person, the guy in charge of the TSA airport screeners. One of his employees had made the damning statement about me exploding over her scissor discovery, and the officer had deftly incorporated that statement into his report. We asked the guy if he could find out why she'd said this - couldn't she possibly be mistaken? "Oh, can't do that, my hands are tied. It's kind of like leading a witness - I could get in trouble, heh heh." Then what about the videotape? Why not watch that? That would exonerate me. "Oh, we destroy all video after three days."
Sure you do.
A few days later we heard from him again. He just wanted to inform us that he'd received corroboration of the officer's report from the officer's superior, a name we didn't recognize. "But...he wasn't even there," my wife said.
"Yeah, well, uh, he's corroborated it though."
That's how it works.
"Oh, and we did look at the videotape. Inconclusive."
But I thought it was destroyed?
On and on it went. Due to the tenacity of my wife in making phone calls and speaking with relevant persons, the "crime" was eventually lowered to a mere citation. Only she could have done that. I would've simply accepted what was being thrown at me, trumped up charges and all, simply because I'm wholly inadequate at performing the kowtow. There's no way I could have contacted all the people Mary did and somehow pretend to be contrite. Besides, I speak in a low, forced voice, which doesn't elicit sympathy. Just police suspicion.
Weeks later at the courthouse I listened to a young DA awkwardly read the charges against me - "Mr. Monahan...umm...shouted obscenities at the airport staff...umm... umm...oh, they took some scissors from his suitcase and he became...umm...abusive at this point." If I was reading about it in Kafka I might have found something vaguely amusing in all of it. But I wasn't. I was there. Living it.
I entered a plea of nolo contendere, explaining to the judge that if I'd been a resident of Oregon, I would have definitely pled "Not Guilty." However, when that happens, your case automatically goes to a jury trial, and since I lived a thousand miles away, and was slated to return home in seven days, with a newborn due in a matter of weeks...you get the picture. "No Contest" it was. Judgment: $250 fine.
Did I feel happy? Only $250, right? No, I wasn't happy. I don't care if it's twelve cents, that's money pulled right out of my baby's mouth and fed to a disgusting legal system that will use it to propagate more incidents like this. But at the very least it was over, right? Wrong.
When we returned to Los Angeles there was an envelope waiting for me from the court. Inside wasn't a receipt for the money we'd paid. No, it was a letter telling me that what I actually owed was $309 - state assessed court costs, you know. Wouldn't you think your taxes pay for that - the state putting you on trial? No, taxes are used to hire more cops like the officer, because with our rising criminal population - people like me - hey, your average citizen demands more and more "security."
Finally I reach the piece de resistance. The week before we'd gone to the airport my wife had had her regular pre-natal checkup. The child had settled into the proper head down position for birth, continuing the remarkable pregnancy she'd been having. We returned to Portland on Sunday. On Mary's Monday appointment she was suddenly told, "Looks like your baby's gone breech." When she later spoke with her midwives in Los Angeles, they wanted to know if she'd experienced any type of trauma recently, as this often makes a child flip. "As a matter of fact..." she began, recounting the story, explaining how the child inside of her was going absolutely crazy when she was crying as the police were leading me away through the crowd.
My wife had been planning a natural childbirth. She'd read dozens of books, meticulously researched everything, and had finally decided that this was the way for her. No drugs, no numbing of sensations - just that ultimate combination of brute pain and sheer joy that belongs exclusively to mothers. But my wife is also a first-time mother, so she has what is called an "untested" pelvis. Essentially this means that a breech birth is too dangerous to attempt, for both mother and child. Therefore, she's now relegated to a c-section - hospital stay, epidural, catheter, fetal monitoring, stitches - everything she didn't want. Her natural birth has become a surgery.
We've tried everything to turn that baby. Acupuncture, chiropractic techniques, underwater handstands, elephant walking, moxibustion, bending backwards over pillows, herbs, external manipulation - all to no avail. When I walked into the living room the other night and saw her plaintively cooing with a flashlight turned onto her stomach, yet another suggested technique, my heart almost broke. It's breaking now as I write these words.
I can never prove that my child went breech because of what happened to us at the airport. But I'll always believe it. Wrongly or rightly, I'll forever think of how this man, the personification of this system, has affected the lives of my family and me. When my wife is sliced open, I'll be thinking of him. When they remove her uterus from her abdomen and lay it on her stomach, I'll be thinking of him. When I visit her and my child in the hospital instead of having them with me here in our home, I'll be thinking of him. When I assist her to the bathroom while the incision heals internally, I'll be thinking of him.
There are plenty of stories like this these days. I don't know how many I've read where the writer describes some breach of civil liberties by employees of the state, then wraps it all up with a dire warning about what we as a nation are becoming, and how if we don't put an end to it now, then we're in for heaps of trouble. Well you know what? Nothing's going to stop the inevitable. There's no policy change that's going to save us. There's no election that's going to put a halt to the onslaught of tyranny. It's here already - this country has changed for the worse and will continue to change for the worse. There is now a division between the citizenry and the state. When that state is used as a tool against me, there is no longer any reason why I should owe any allegiance to that state.
And that's the first thing that child of ours is going to learn.
- Nick Monahan works in the film industry. He writes out of Los Angeles where he lives with his wife and as of December 18th, his beautiful new son.
-------- ENERGY AND OTHER
-------- energy
Fuel Trickles Into Zimbabwe but Crisis Continues
Reuters
Saturday, December 21, 2002
By Cris Chinaka
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A21261-2002Dec21?language=printer
HARARE (Reuters) - Emergency fuel imports began trickling into Zimbabwe on Saturday, but industry sources said the amounts were too small to have a major impact on a severe fuel shortage that has crippled the southern African country.
A two-week fuel shortage has almost ground the country to a halt, paralyzing public transport and leaving motorists in long fuel queues -- highlighting an economic meltdown critics blame on President Robert Mugabe's government.
The fuel crisis has dampened the Christmas holiday season of a nation already grappling with its worst economic crisis in decades, including serious food shortages.
Motorists jammed a few fuel service stations that received some petrol and diesel early on Saturday, but oil industry sources said the supplies expected from the emergency imports would not help much.
"The supplies we are seeing so far are too small to make a major difference...and only a few service stations have received some fuel so far," one source told Reuters.
Energy and Power Development Minister Amos Midzi said on Thursday the country had ordered fuel worth over $15 million from Kuwait and South Africa to ease the shortage. He expected the shipments to arrive in Zimbabwe on Saturday and Sunday.
Midzi said a barter fuel deal with Libya had run into problems because Zimbabwe was unable to supply the beef, sugar and tobacco it had agreed to pay for Libyan oil imports and had no foreign currency for other oil import deals.
Midzi and officials from the country's sole oil procurement agency NOCZIM were unavailable for further comment on Saturday.
PUBLIC ANGER
The fuel crisis has worsened Zimbabwe's economic woes and sparked public anger against Mugabe's government, in power since independence from Britain in 1980.
Zimbabweans are grappling with shortages of many basic consumers goods, including bread, milk, cooking oil and sugar.
Nearly half of the country's 14 million people are threatened by severe food shortages which Mugabe has blamed on drought but his critics point to the state seizure of white-owned farms for redistribution to landless blacks.
Mugabe, 78, denies he has grossly mismanaged the economy and says the country is a victim of sabotage by domestic and foreign opponents opposed to his land reforms.
Zimbabwe's official Herald newspaper reported on Saturday that besides grappling with the fuel shortage Christmas shoppers had been hit by a cash shortage at automated bank machines.
An unprecedented demand for cash had seen some banks running out of bank notes in the past week, especially the highest denominated 500-Zimbabwe dollar bills, it said.
The newspaper quoted official sources as saying that the currency shortage was due to the high demand in cash and a shortage of foreign currency to import the special paper used to print money.
Zimbabwe's annual inflation hit a record 175.5 percent in November, and private economists say it might reach 400 percent by the end of next year.
-------- environment
Greenhouse Gases Decrease
Experts Cite U.S. Economic Decline, Warm Winter
By Eric Pianin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 21, 2002; Page A02
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A19739-2002Dec20?language=printer
U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases decreased by 1.2 percent last year, the largest annual decline in more than a decade, according to a new government report.
Experts said the decline had nothing to do with government policy changes, but instead was the result of an economic slowdown and an unseasonably warm winter that sharply reduced demand for fossil fuels. Many scientists blame the burning of such fuels for the Earth's rising temperature.
"This is just one year's worth of data, and our projections don't indicate the beginning of a new trend," said John Cogan, a spokesman for the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration, which prepared the report. "This is perhaps an anomaly driven more by lower economic growth than anything else."
Greenhouse gas emissions totaled 1.883 billion metric tons of carbon equivalent last year, compared with a record 1.907 billion in 2000, the study showed.
The drop in emissions was mainly linked to the overall decline in the nation's economic growth to 0.3 percent in 2001, down from 3.8 percent in 2000; a 4.4 percent reduction in manufacturing output; and the warmer winter weather of 2001-02, which cut demand and combustion of coal, oil and gas.
Even so, overall emissions are 11.9 percent above the 1990 level, and the United States remains the single largest contributor to the emissions linked to global warming, which many experts say could result in long-term disruptions in weather patterns, the melting of the polar ice caps and flooding of populated coastal regions.
This year has been the second warmest in recorded history, according to NASA scientists who monitor global air temperatures. The earth's average temperature during 2002 was 58.35 degrees Fahrenheit, more than one degree warmer than the long-term average of 57.2 degrees, according to climate scientists at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
Environmentalists and some scientists warn that dangerous signs of global warming are already evident. For example, an Antarctic ice shelf the size of Rhode Island shattered and collapsed into the sea in March, the permafrost in parts of Alaska has begun to thaw, and glaciers in the Bolivian Andes mountains are melting at an alarming pace.
The Bush administration has acknowledged that global warming poses serious problems, but senior officials speaking at a Commerce Department conference earlier this month said numerous uncertainties remain about global warming's cause and effects. They urged caution in committing the United States to long-term solutions that might hurt the economy.
Earlier this week, Canada became the 100th country to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 agreement that would require the world's nations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases by an average of 5.7 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.
Although the United States signed the agreement in November 1998, President Bush disavowed it last year, arguing that it would seriously harm the U.S. economy while exempting large, developing countries including China and India. Some economists say the United States would have to curtail its energy use by as much as 30 percent to achieve the goals spelled out in the Kyoto treaty.
Bush instead has called for more research and a series of incentive programs for industry to encourage voluntarily reductions in their emissions.
"While people can and are using energy more efficiently, a growing economy with a growing population will require more energy, not less -- which means more greenhouse gas emissions," said William O'Keefe, a former petroleum industry executive who is now president of the George C. Marshall Institute, a science policy think tank. "Right now, there is no viable alternative to coal and oil and gas, which provide close to 90 percent of our energy."
But Jennifer L. Morgan, a climate change expert with the World Wildlife Fund, said that "If the administration really rolls up its sleeves and puts together a strong plan, we could go a long ways towards tackling global warming."
-------- genetics
Word War Breaks Out in Research on Stem Cells
December 21, 2002
New York Times
By NICHOLAS WADE
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/21/health/21CELL.html
A sharp disagreement has erupted between the president's bioethics adviser, Dr. Leon Kass, and stem cell researchers at Stanford University over how to name a scientific procedure.
At issue is the method of reprogramming a human cell's nucleus to turn it back into the fertilized egg from which it came. Researchers want to manipulate such eggs in the laboratory for medically important reasons. But if the eggs were put into wombs, they might well grow into babies - the no-no of human cloning.
To make clear the difference between the two options, stem cell researchers developed the labels "reproductive cloning" (for, say, creating a duplicate of a person from his skin cells) and "therapeutic cloning" (for stem cell research to cure deadly diseases), vowing to do only the latter.
But for abortion foes who opposed stem cell research and for moralists who abhorred human cloning, the term "therapeutic cloning" was too euphemistic. It glossed over the two horrific deeds, in their view, of first creating a potential human life and then destroying it. They proposed the more direct, if emotive, term "human embryonic cloning."
Earlier this month, in announcing a new stem cell research institute led by Dr. Irving Weissman, Stanford tried to drive a stake through the heart of "human embryonic cloning."
It said that the term had been condemned by the National Academy of Sciences and that even the President's Council on Bioethics had declared it "an inaccurate and misleading term" - a telling point, if true, because Dr. Kass, the chairman of the council, is a staunch opponent of human cloning.
Stanford was not even happy with the word "cloning." The approved term for the technique, the university informed reporters, was "nuclear transplantation (or transferral) to produce human pluripotent stem cell lines." Try getting that into a headline.
Dr. Kass was seriously vexed. Far from calling human embryonic cloning an inaccurate term, his council had devoted a whole chapter of its recent report, "Human Cloning and Human Dignity," to the issue of terminology in which it had specified "cloned human embryo" as the appropriate words for the procedure's result. The council advised resisting "the temptation to solve the moral questions by artful redefinition." In a release on Thursday, Dr. Kass demanded a correction from the president of Stanford.
He also offered his own preferred description for the disputed technique: "cloning for biomedical research."
In this battle of the clones, Stanford saw discretion as the better strategy and issued an apology for misquoting the council. As for the nomenclature at issue, it held its fire, complaining only that the word "cloning" suggests to the public that new life forms are being created, whereas for scientists it connotes only the replication of something.
Dr. Kass is yielding no ground. He said in an interview today that Stanford's retraction was an improvement, but that "we don't want anybody to pretend that the product of nuclear transfer is anything other than a cloned human embryo."
Dr. Weissman was not available for comment, and Stanford's wordsmiths have not yet re-entered the fray.
-------- ACTIVISTS
Minister 'outraged' by surveillance
By Brian DeBose
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
December 21, 2002
http://www.washtimes.com/metro/20021221-91603038.htm
The leader of a national pro-life group said he will seek an injunction to stop the Metropolitan Police Department from using its surveillance cameras to monitor next month's annual right-to-life march on Washington.
The Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, director of the D.C. -based Christian Defense Coalition, said he was stunned to find out that police plans to monitor the pro-life march and any other peaceful demonstration on the Mall.
"I am absolutely outraged about these cameras," said Mr. Mahoney, a Presbyterian minister. "It is a crushing blow to the First Amendment and free speech activities."
The Washington Times reported yesterday that D.C. police will activate surveillance cameras next month for the first time since city officials passed new legislation on their use. Police officials said they would operate their network of 14 cameras and install more to monitor the International Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) rally Jan. 17 to 19 and the D.C. March for Life on Jan. 22.
Mr. Mahoney, who heads a group of more than 10,000 members, has been involved in pro-life rallies in the District for 28 years and in the March for Life for 13 years.
"There has never been any type of disruption or violence or criminal activity at any of the marches," he said. He has contacted his attorneys at the American Center for Law and Justice and the American Civil Liberties Union to determine if the surveillance can be halted.
Art Spitzer, a lawyer with the ACLU, said the organization will not seek an injunction against the police surveillance of the two events next month. "But we are devoting a great deal of our resources to convince members of the [D.C.] council to oppose that bill," he said.
Police spokesman Kevin Morison said the department will install and activate additional cameras on a temporary basis at Farragut Square, Dupont Circle, Malcolm X Park in Northwest and the Marine Barracks in Southeast to maximize their ability to monitor the demonstrations in the interest of security.
Mr. Morison added that there is no history of violence or any other security problems associated with ANSWER or the pro-life march. But since September 11, police officials believe the need for heightened security has changed as terrorism has become more of a threat.
Other participants in the March for Life - such as Priests for Life and Lutherans for Life - said they don't believe surveillance is necessary but do not oppose it because they have nothing to hide.
Mr. Mahoney dismissed that argument. "We're talking about moms and dads traveling to the city to speak out against a particular issue," he said.
He said he agreed with D.C. Council member Jim Graham, Ward 1 Democrat, that the cameras will have a negative effect on peaceful demonstrations and free-speech activities.
"It's not an issue of 'We're not doing anything wrong, so we don't care,'" Mr. Mahoney said. "Every citizen should stand up and speak out against this because it violates the spirit of the First Amendment."
----
Hundreds of S.Koreans Protest at U.S. Embassy
Reuters
Saturday, December 21, 2002
By Samuel Len
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A21282-2002Dec21?language=printer
SEOUL (Reuters) - More than 1,000 South Koreans demonstrated at the U.S. embassy in Seoul on Saturday in fresh protests over the death of two girls in an accident involving U.S. soldiers that has shaken the alliance between the countries.
Hundreds of policemen in riot gear prevented the protesters, who carried candles, chanted slogans and sang folk songs, from forming a chain around the embassy in central Seoul.
The protests snowballed after a U.S. military court acquitted two U.S. soldiers on charges related to an accident in which their tank-like vehicle crushed the two teenagers during a training exercise in June.
Saturday's demonstrations, which included candle-lit protests in the southern cities of Pusan and Kwangju, were the first since this week's election of president-elect Roh Moo-hyun who has taken a more assertive approach to Washington and wants changes in a legal code governing the 37,000 U.S. troops in the country.
The demonstration in Seoul was much smaller than one a week ago that drew at least 40,000 people, a sign the movement may have peaked following Thursday's election of Roh as president.
The protesters want changes in the Status of Forces Agreement to give Korean courts wider jurisdiction over U.S. servicemen who commit crimes.
A committee that is organizing the demonstrations for the two girls killed by the U.S. army vehicle, said in a statement nationwide rallies were scheduled for December 31.
"I think there are fewer people here than what I saw on TV," said Lee Young-chul, 23, as he stood among the protesters.
"I guess it's like the World Cup. People were crazy about it then slowly, the interest cooled down," Lee said, though he added he would attend the December 31 rally.
BUSH, ROH TO MEET
Most of the protesters were supporters of Roh, a 56-year-old human rights lawyer who vowed during the campaign never to "kow-tow" to Washington or travel there merely for a White House photo opportunity.
But he softened his tone in victory.
"I will not make major changes to (outgoing President) Kim Dae-jung's policies on U.S. relations, North Korea and foreign affairs," he told a post-election news conference on Friday.
Roh and President Bush agreed to meet in Washington and to work together to promote peace on the Korean peninsula, the White House said on Friday.
Bush telephoned Roh to "extend his warm congratulations" on his election victory and invited him to Washington for talks at "his earliest convenience," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. Roh accepted the invitation but no date was announced.
Roh has pledged to pursue Kim's "sunshine policy" of promoting contacts and reconciliation with North Korea, even as the Bush team is urging the international community to increase pressure on Pyongyang.
The Bush team, always skeptical of the "sunshine policy," has grown increasingly hostile, especially since North Korea acknowledged in October it was working on an uranium enrichment project for a nuclear weapons program.
PROTESTS MOUNTING
In his younger days as an activist, Roh called for the withdrawal of U.S. troops, whose presence is aimed at deterring North Korean aggression. He has since changed that stand.
U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea to deter aggression from North Korea, which has some 10,000 artillery pieces and much of its 1.1 million-strong army arrayed along the sealed border with the South less than an hour's drive from Seoul.
It is the world's most heavily militarized frontier.
The U.S. military presence is highly visible in the densely populated country of 48 million people and protests about training exercises disrupting civilian life have mounted in recent years.
North and South Korea have stayed technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.
--------
Going Electronic, Denver Reveals Long-Term Surveillance
By Ford Fessenden with Michael Moss
New York Times
Saturday, 21 December, 2002
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/21/technology/21PRIV.html
DENVER, Dec. 14 -- The Denver police have gathered information on unsuspecting local activists since the 1950's, secretly storing what they learned on simple index cards in a huge cabinet at police headquarters.
When the cabinet filled up recently, the police thought they had an easy solution. For $45,000, they bought a powerful computer program from a company called Orion Scientific Systems. Information on 3,400 people and groups was transferred to software that stores, searches and categorizes the data.
Then the trouble began.
After the police decided to share the fruits of their surveillance with another local department, someone leaked a printout to an activist for social justice, who made the documents public. The mayor started an investigation. People lined up to obtain their files. Among those the police spied on were nuns, advocates for American Indians and church organizations.
To make matters worse, the software called many of the groups "criminal extremists."
"I wasn't threatened in any way by them watching," said Dr. Byron Plumley, who teaches religion and social values at Regis University in Denver, and discovered that the police had been keeping information about his activities against war. "But there's something different about having a file. If the police say, `Aha, he belongs to a criminal extremist organization,' who's going to know that it's the American Friends Service Committee, and we won the Nobel Peace Prize?"
The incident has highlighted some pitfalls of police intelligence software, which has been hailed widely as a major tool in the war against terrorism. One of Orion's newest clients, in fact, is the New York City Police Department, where 200 people in the intelligence division are being trained to use the program, according to city records and Orion officials.
The New York police, who paid $744,707 for an updated version known as Investigations III+, would not say just how they planned to use the system. But Eric Zidenberg, an Orion vice president, said, "They have been a sponge, ready to learn as much as they possibly can."
Beyond the issues of technology, though, the episode has prompted a debate in Denver over the merits of such intelligence gathering.
Many other big cities and the federal government imposed restrictions on police snooping after spying scandals decades ago. In some of those places, including New York, the authorities are now trying to remove the restraints. Denver has been in the unique position of debating post-Sept. 11 privacy and security in the heat of a spying scandal, and not everyone thinks the police should be restricted.
"I think it's imperative after 9/11 that the police department and security agencies have an obligation to track suspicious people, in order to keep the citizenry alive," said Councilman Ed Thomas, who argued against restrictions. In a City Council debate, Mr. Thomas waved a list of the dead at the World Trade Center to emphasize his point.
The Council nevertheless passed a resolution imposing restrictions on police intelligence.
"There is a role for intelligence gathering," said Mayor Wellington E. Webb, who has said he did not know that the police were spying on peaceful citizens in his 11 years in office. "There isn't a role for intelligence gathering on Catholic nuns."
The controversy began last March at a gathering place for Denver activists for a variety of causes, the Human Bean coffee shop. Stephen Nash, a local glazier, was attending a meeting of Amnesty International when, he said, the shop owner told him, "There was a salesman here earlier, and he left this for you."
The package contained printouts from the Denver Police Department's Orion software about Mr. Nash and his wife, Vicki. The unusual thing was that the file had come from nearby Golden, where police detectives looking into a vandalism incident during a protest had received information from Denver's intelligence files.
"We realized the police were actually spreading false information about us to other police departments -- that we were members of a `criminal extremist' organization," Mr. Nash said.
He took the documents to the American Civil Liberties Union and sued the Denver police, setting off a series of continuing disclosures about police spying dating back decades. Police officers have admitted in depositions that they made up rules for monitoring organizations, sometimes deciding to create files on people who merely spoke at rallies.
Policy guidelines that would have prevented spying on ordinary citizens not suspected of criminal wrongdoing sat in the desk of the captain who was head of the police intelligence bureau, never implemented, according to a deposition by Deputy Chief David Abrams.
Among those monitored by the police were Dr. Plumley and his wife, Shirley Whiteside, who ran a soup kitchen in Denver. Marge Taniwaki, who was interned with her parents in a Japanese-American camp in World War II, had a police file, as did her former husband, from whom she had long been divorced. His only connection, she said, was that he owned the car that she drove to a protest.
Sister Antonia Anthony, a 74-year-old nun who has taught destitute Indians in this country and Mexico, was monitored for her activities with a nonviolent group advocating for Indians in Chiapas, Mexico.
"In a democracy, people have to speak out against evil," said Sister Antonia. But, she added, discovering that the police had kept a file on her put fear in her mind. "I have to admit," she said, "I'm really cautious on the road now. You're already on a list, you're `known' to police."
Orion officials say they trained the police to use the program, but some officers say they had no training. Working under the direction of the Denver police intelligence bureau secretary, officers classified organizations like the American Friends Service Committee as "criminal extremist" groups, one of the choices offered in a pull-down menu by the software. Orion says the classification is no longer part of the program.
David Pontarelli, a detective in the intelligence bureau, defended the characterization, saying in a deposition, "They have been linked to activities that involved extremist activity, criminal activities." The police said that each officer had used his own judgment in characterizing a group and that it had often been labeled "criminal extremist" because it did not seem to fit any other choices.
In addition to their intelligence files, the police entered in the database the names of troubled, but unprosecuted, students in Denver schools, along with the names of those who obtained permits to carry concealed guns, and, inexplicably, people who had received honorariums from the Police Department.
Orion got its start two decades ago developing an analysis tool for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, where a new office run by Adm. John Poindexter is developing controversial plans to gather vast amounts of personal information as a means to hunt terrorists.
With the Pentagon's approval, Orion says, it began selling a revamped version of its tool to law enforcement agencies in the early 1990's, with little success at first.
Then California state officials hired Orion to develop an easy-to-use database for identifying suspected gang members by their tattoos and other telltale signs. Now being used by 14 states, the system, GangNet, remains controversial in California, where youth advocates say the information fed into the database by law enforcement officials is riddled with wrong or outdated information that can lead officials to falsely believe someone belongs to a gang.
Orion's Investigations, now being used by 20 local law enforcement agencies, lets officials enter information about people, groups and incidents. The data can then be searched and linked, with charts that draw lines to illustrate interconnections.
The company's sales model on its Web site has a gripping new pitch: terrorism. The demo charts some of the known whereabouts of Mohamed Atta and other Sept. 11 hijackers, as well as several onetime terrorist suspects.
In Denver, a panel appointed by the mayor concluded that the police had failed to understand both the power and the pitfalls of the software. "I don't think they had a clue what the capacity of this was and what they were doing with it, honestly," said Jean Dubofsky, a former Colorado Supreme Court justice and member of the panel, which concluded that not one of the 3,400 police records could be legitimately retained.
Justice Dubofsky's panel recommended some strict guidelines for intelligence gathering, similar to those that the New York police have told a federal court they want removed. The guidelines have been adopted, but otherwise, the panel could find no real harm done, even in the misuse of the software program.
"This is the kind of program that could have been very helpful before Sept. 11," said Justice Dubofsky. "It's also a very powerful tool that can cause problems for people. If you're going to use it, you use it very carefully."
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