NucNews - December 1, 2004 -------- NUCLEAR -------- accidents and safety New paper on cancer rates in Belarus confirms LLRC's predictions From: Richard Bramhall Date: Wed Dec 1, 2004 0:43pm Subject: Radiation risks: When will they ever learn? The Swiss Medical Weekly has published findings from the Clinical Institute of Radiation Medicine and Endocrinology Research, Minsk, Belarus showing a 40% increase in cancer between 1990 and 2000. The researchers used data from the National Cancer Registry, established in 1973. They compared the post Chernobyl period with rates before the accident on April 26, 1986. Relative Risks all have high statistical significance. Increases in the various oblasts (regions) were: Brest 33% Vitebsk 38% Gomel 52% Grodno 44% Minsk 49% Mogilev 32% Minsk city 18% all Belarus 40% The authors note that increases in breast cancer are happening earlier in populations in the more highly contaminated regions (Gomel and Mogilev) than in less contaminated Vitebsk. This dose related difference in the time lag for radiation-induced cancers is known from other studies and is most marked for breast cancer. In 2001 Chris Busby reported to the Belarus government that cancer would increase by 125% over the lifetimes of the exposed population (www.llrc.org/belarus.htm). Now, 18 years after the accident, 40% of that increase is apparent. The view of conventional radiation protection "experts", however, is that very little if any cancer has resulted or will result from the fallout. This was expressed, for example, in 2000 by a United Nations committee: "Apart from the substantial increase in thyroid cancer after childhood exposure observed in Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine there is no evidence of a major public health impact related to ionising radiation 14 years after the Chernobyl accident. No increases in overall cancer incidence or mortality that could be associated with radiation exposure have been observed. The risk of leukaemia, one of the most sensitive indicators of radiation exposure, has not been found to be elevated even in the accident recovery operation workers or in children. There is no scientific proof of an increase in non-malignant disorders related to ionising radiation. ... For the most part [the public] were exposed to radiation levels comparable to or a few times higher than the natural background levels. Lives have been disrupted by the Chernobyl accident but from the radiological point of view, based on the assessment of this Annex, generally positive prospects for the future health of most individuals should prevail." UNSCEAR (2000) United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation. Sources and Effects of Ionising Radiation 2000. UN General Assembly, with Scientific Annexes. United Nations New York. Annex J Final Summary For evidence of increases in non-malignant disorders see http://www.llrc.org/chernobyl.htm - summaries of 100 papers from the affected territories. The Belarus paper is freely available for download as a pdf:- http://www.smw.ch/pdf200x/2004/43/smw-10221.pdf We have sent you this email circular because you are on our database of people who are concerned about low level radiation and health. If you do not want to receive information from us please reply, putting "remove from LLRC" in the subject line. Richard Bramhall Low Level Radiation Campaign bramhall@llrc.org The Knoll, Montpellier Park Llandrindod Wells, Powys LD1 5LW U.K. +44(0)1597 824771 07887 942043 -------- depleted uranium Piketon plant looks to start new legacy Plans to convert uranium waste in action chillicothegazette By Daniel Prazer, Dprazer@nncogannett.Com December 1, 2004 http://www..com/news/stories/20041201/localnews/1677961.html PIKETON -- Inside the Piketon uranium enrichment plant's Perimeter Road lies a 50-year legacy of work that helped win the Cold War and power naval ships and homes across the nation. But there's another legacy officials plan to erase within the decade. In acres of yards, there are thousands of massive steel cylinders full of depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF-6) -- essentially the leftovers from the years of enrichment activities that went on in Piketon -- that should start disappearing once a new plant to convert their contents into a more stable form is operating. Right now, though, they're stacked two high, and most weigh about 14 tons, requiring an 80,000-pound machine to move them. Some of their contents date back to the start of operations at the plant in the 1950s, and the Department of Energy is in the process of shipping nearly 6,000 more of them to Piketon from a facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn. They've been moving up on trucks at the rate of about 20 cylinders a day, growing the massive cylinder yards a little at a time. They'll ultimately number near 25,000. Exploring the process In July, a cadre of congressmen and Department of Energy officials broke ground on a plant with a sole purpose of converting these nuclear leftovers -- called tails by those in the field -- into a more stable form. It would be chemically split into uranium oxide and hydrofluoric acid, said John Shine, the Department of Energy's DUF-6 Portsmouth project manager. "This conversion plant really is the missing piece of getting the uranium that comes out of the ground back into the ground that wasn't usable in the reactor," Shine said. Once the conversion plant has processed the tails, the uranium oxide would be put back into the cylinders, and the whole package sent to a long-term storage facility for burial; it would be classified as low-level waste, Shine said, similar to some wastes created by radiology departments at hospitals. The hydrofluoric acid has a commercial value -- it's used for etching glass, among other things -- and would be sold to the chemical industry. The DUF-6 itself doesn't pose a serious radiological hazard, Shine said, but a chemical one. Hydrofluoric acid can damage mucous membranes, but if the cylinder should have a breach, the DUF-6 would chemically react with the air and seal the hole itself, he said. "We're working really hard to get this conversion plant built on time and at cost and to get this hazard out of here," Shine said. "The hazard will no longer be here," he said. "The thing that keeps the hazard maintained is a program of surveillance and maintenance." Right now, the cylinders are subject to a rigorous inspection regimen, and cylinders that show signs of wear are replaced. But that's getting to be less cost-effective, said Mike Eversole, project superintendent and facility manager for the cylinder yard for Bechtel-Jacobs Company. The conversion plant, in addition to handling the legacy waste sitting outside, will employ 140 to 150 full-time employees, Eversole said. "It will run 24/7/365," he said. But even at that pace, Shine said it will take 18 years to work through the cylinder yards. Security first But what about these 20 cylinders a day rolling along roads through Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio? They haven't been running lately. In fact, Bechtel-Jacobs, which is listed as the shipper and receiver on these moves, has been working with the Department of Transportation to come to an agreement on shipping terms, said Haylen Philpot, Bechtel-Jacobs' facility manager for the cylinder yards at the Oak Ridge East Tennessee Technology Plant. "Starting October 1, the U.S. Department of Transportation has adopted what formerly was the international shipping rules, which means if you were shipping over 100 grams of UF-6 which is not very much material, then you have to have a package that meets a thermal test as well as a drop test," he said. Uranium starts the enrichment process as UF-6, and once a large enough percentage of the usable isotopes are extracted where it's not economical to continue, it's considered depleted -- DUF-6. Before a cylinder is even moved, it goes through a series of inspections. The first is done in the cylinder yard, Philpot said, "to ensure that they don't have a breech and, furthermore, they're safe to handle." Then they're moved to a staging area, where a certified independent inspector does another round before they're moved onto a trailer and inspected again. Once on a trailer -- and secured with four chains and three straps each, according to Shine -- the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency inspects the vehicle, and counterparts in Kentucky and Ohio take their turn when the trucks enter the state, said Jim Kopotic, the Department of Energy's remedial action team leader at East Tennessee Technology Park. "There's all this independent inspection going on prior to those vehicles actually being dispatched and hitting the road to Piketon, " Kopotic said. The trucks themselves go though a series of inspections, Philpot said, but the drivers aren't exempt. Besides having to be naturally-born American citizens, they go through a series of background checks and are approved by all three states. "There's a certain age that they have to be to drive these type of shipments, and I think it is 25, and then they have to have HAZMAT training beyond their commercial driver's licenses," Philpot said. Each shipment is tracked by satellite to make sure it stays on course, and all the first-responders along the routes -- which the Department of Energy wouldn't disclose for security reasons -- have access to this data and have been specially trained to deal with an accident involving one of these trucks, Kapotic said. "In the event that there were an incident, they would be aware of that almost immediately because they are tracking the trucks, and in addition to that there are prescribed conditions," he said. "It's not like they're ... just driving of into the dark and nobody knows where they are until they're in Portsmouth." ----- An Apology to the Iraqi People Islam Online By Larry E. Park 01/12/2004 http://www.islamonline.net/english/In_Depth/Iraq_Aftermath/2004/12/article_01.shtml This is an apology to the Iraqi people from a hospital medic who cared for some of the most severely injured men, women, children, and babies from both sides of the Vietnam conflict. I held the dead of war in my arms and I understand war’s catastrophic toll in the present and the impact it will have on future generations. This is my personal sobering apology, and it may or may not reflect some of the feelings of the other 49 percent of Americans who voted against unjustified aggression. I feel shame and outrage when I watch on TV and read reports of unimaginable acts against humanity in Iraq. You are witnessing these horrific acts of violence and human debasement up close, which is probably filling your heart with hate and anger towards Americans. I’m sorry and I understand. I feel shame that I did not raise my voice in dissent prior to this horrific conflict between cultures. I survived Vietnam with full understanding of what a guerilla war means and the futility of large, noisy, highly visible armies attempting to subjugate citizens by force instead of winning hearts and minds over to a more positive pursuit of happiness. I feel shame that I did not raise my voice in dissent prior to this horrific conflict between cultures. With a great sense of doom, I have watched the events over the past three years as a complacent bystander, not knowing how to make a difference in public opinion. I was silent, not exercising my freedom of speech or finding creative means to make my voice against unjustified death and destruction heard effectively. I made a mistake in judgment and action. I knew better. I am very sad about what is happening in Iraq to the families, their homes, schools, hospitals, shops, and places where they work to support their families. I apologize for not defending your right to choose how you live and what style of leadership you support. I understood that my leaders, prompted by public opinion, had to deliver visible signs of revenge against Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, and most of the world seemed to support that conflict, but when I woke up one morning to the specter of my countrymen invading Iraq to make a regime change, I squirmed with discomfort. I, like you and most of the world, held the motivations of the United States to be suspect and driven by self-interests in oil. Rhetoric about freeing the Iraqi people from an oppressive regime seemed righteously hollow, and a revolution against Saddam Hussein’s entrenched regime and all its supporters was not ours to wage. The DU we use is our weapon of mass destruction and I am downcast and ashamed. I apologize for our arrogance in thinking we knew what the best course of social/political direction for Iraq was—and then we intervened militarily in such a destabilizing and catastrophic manner. Our vision of the future is not yours, and you must decide how you will help each other achieve and maintain basic freedom and happiness. I apologize for denying knowledge of your basic beliefs and belittling your ancient core cultural values; and from your perspective, I understand why we are the barbarians on your land. Freedom is not a gift; it is a choice requiring daily action to reaffirm long-term goals and guide one in the pursuit of happiness. Your people are in the midst of personal and national conflict revolving around differences in opinion on how to equitably achieve goals within the context of your many subcultures. Intervention by outsiders has made the process more complex. I apologize! Freedom from greed and uncontrolled material, selfish interests can only be acquired by a heart focused on the more important desire for pleasant human relationships. Freedom’s seed is planted in one heart at a time; and each of us on the planet has the ability to shape our own sense of personal freedom. I am sad that we chose force and destruction instead of kindness. I am ashamed of our recent example of democracy in the presidential race for power. If we are attempting to persuade you to adopt our form of democracy, then I am less than proud on how we spent billions to get out the vote and prompt individuals to exercise freedom of choice. Decisions seemed to be made based on whether or not a candidate hunts innocent winged creatures for sport, or who tells the most convincing lies and makes the best promises that we all know can’t be kept—like “Independence from foreign oil.” From your perspective, I understand why we are the barbarians on your land. A campaign pledge to establish a Presidential Commission to explore what compels our enemies to make plans to destroy person and property might be a better basis for casting a vote. It’s Biblical to seek your neighbor out before sunset of each day when you sense he is unhappy with you for some reason. Unresolved conflicts lead to a war of terror. America has long enjoyed beautiful sunsets without responsibly resolving issues with its neighbors. This unfinished daily business has ruined the view of the daily rising sun; and boasting about our ability and resolve to preserve our selfish way of life—which consumes an inequitable share of the earth’s limited resources—is not a good way to start negotiations. I have seen the consequences of war and revenge, and it is not pretty. History is replete with stories of rape, pillaging, burning, and destruction of person and property; and within the last ten years starting with the Gulf war, Desert Storm, we the United States of America introduced weapons of mass environmental and genetic destruction. I am ashamed of my ignorance about my government using depleted radioactive uranium munitions in Iraq. Looking for the splinter of WMD in the enemy’s eye while being blinded by the railroad tie poisoned by depleted uranium sticking out of our heads must make us appear really outrageous in the eyes not afflicted around the globe. Being a responsible citizen and taking a stand on issues that will affect the only planet we have is hard work—even though now the sand in my eyes in retrospect did not hurt as much as the knowledge I have gained about my country’s use of depleted uranium. I am outraged at the possibility of my tax dollars contributing to the use of depleted uranium in munitions which might cause alterations in the genes of humans and plants. This is our weapon of mass destruction and I am downcast and ashamed. If one believes in a Creator God called Allah, who loves the Biblical people of Iraq so much that He buried some of the world’s richest oil reserves below their barren deserts, then one would have to believe that He planned to care for their needs. I apologize for being so selfish and wanting more than most families in Iraq have. Poverty in such an oil-rich land, where many of its inhabitants want for the basics, can only be understood in the light of mismanagement and the greed of its ruling class. As an American I am ashamed to admit that even though our wealth is accumulated differently, we too have large numbers of disadvantaged and impoverished families. Those who have more always use overt or covert methods to suppress those who have less; and when the status quo is upset, many are willing to fight to the death to regain their previous advantages and social standing. I apologize for being so selfish and wanting more than most families in Iraq have. Right or wrong, I apologize for the manner in which my country has upset the balance of power in Iraq. If the God known as Allah, Father, and Yahweh exercised any control over the distribution of natural resources over the face of the planet, then one would have to conclude that He has forced all the inhabitants on earth to be interdependent in the struggle to survive. Trading relationships based on the need for energy has propelled us out of the agrarian subsistence farming cultures of ages past and it seems quite obvious that the Gods have favored countries other than the US with an abundant supply of this liquid black gold. Our use, allocation, and distribution of the planet’s limited resources, and how we manage the products of an industrialized world, demand cooperation and interdependence. Our mutual survival depends on successfully building and maintaining these relationships in an atmosphere of trust and hope. I feel ashamed by the darkness spread throughout your land by the American invasion. I am outraged at the visible destruction of your mosques, hospitals, schools, homes, and infrastructure in our zeal to root out those who are attempting to protect their families and way of life. I am very sad when I think about how hard it will be, and how long it will take your people, to rebuild their homes. Iraqis buried in mass graves will be remembered longer by their families than the visible reconstruction of your cities. I feel intensely sad about the mess your people find themselves in when the sun rises every day, and I apologize for not attempting to convince leaders of my country to pursue a more positive course of helpful interdependence. God challenges us to mature, abandon the tempestuous, undisciplined behavior of adolescence, and learn how to be kind to our neighbors at home and abroad. I mourn for all the families around the globe forever changed and damaged by conflicts that diminish their sense of hope. I feel ashamed by the darkness spread throughout your land by the American invasion, and my hope for the future is that countries of such diverse cultural beliefs could at least agree to search for ways to be mutually beneficial and cordially interdependent without devastating conflict and long-term damage to the environment. I carried a typewriter to Vietnam—not a gun—and instead of killing humans, I planted flowers and was awarded a Bronze Star medal for extending hope to others. I’ve seen the desert bloom and I fervently wish that the Iraqi people, in the darkness of wartime death, can find their way into the hopeful light of flowers once again blooming in springtime. I feel immensely sad that the leaders of my country seem not to remember the lessons learned by those who served in Vietnam and I apologize. “I’m sorry! I am very sorry! Mommy, I won’t do it again! Please mommy, stop whipping me! I’m really sorry!” Those are the words screamed out by a young boy while receiving a harsh whipping. I’m whipped! I wish I could speak for the leaders of my country and tell you, “Yes, we made a mistake and we won’t do it again in your country or anywhere else on the planet ever again.” They will have to speak for themselves and answer to the reality of history, not their dreams. Apologetically, Larry E. Park TheDreamer@OceansRest.com -------- International weapons conventions in Iran, Iraq axisoflogic.com By Dahr Jamail's Dec 1, 2004 http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_14110.shtml In no less than hundreds of articles over the past few weeks, our press has tirelessly reported on Iran’s uranium enrichment program, or rather—in characteristic shorthand—on “Iran’s efforts to develop the capability to make nuclear weapons” (Foreign Affairs, 11/24). Early on the morning of the November 29th, however, in “Iran Backs Away From a Demand on A-Bomb Fuel,” the New York Times announced that a settlement between Iran and Britain, France, and Germany (EU-3) had been reached: Iranians had agreed to suspend all research on uranium enrichment. One hopes that with this agreement, daily scrutiny of hypothetical Iranian weapons might also give way to some observations of actual American weapons being deployed nearby. For by many accounts, the use of unconventional weapons has likely been a US pastime in “The War on Terror” during even its most recent episodes. Dahr Jamail of Inter Press News Service has recorded Fallujan experiences of poison gas and bombs that “exploded into large fires that burnt the skin even when water was thrown on the burns”—a trademark of napalm and phosphorus bombs. Though many Americans will no doubt say such claims are dubious, they have reason to: no outside medical personnel or observers have yet been allowed into Fallujah to even allow for further discussion of the matter. Less dubious is the continued use of depleted uranium munitions, which as Vishnu Bhagwat, former Indian Chief of Naval Staff, has written amounted in 2003 alone to the equivalent of nearly 250,000 Nagasaki bombs. But depleted uranium is nothing new, having been used extensively in southern Iraq during the first Gulf War. The Department of Environmental Engineering at the University of Baghdad has accordingly measured radiation levels in and near the city of Basra to range from hundreds to thousands of times the normal levels. Dr. Jawad Kadhim Al-Ali, Director of the Oncology Center in Basra, has theorized depleted uranium as a reason that the death rate from cancers in Basra has now reached 19 times that of 1988. It was also in Basra that a previous study led by Dr. Alim Yacoup found the incidence of leukaemia among children to have doubled between 1990 and 1999. Perhaps it is such reports that have led Dr. Asaf Durakovic, the nuclear-medicine expert of the Veterans’ Administration, to characterize DU as a “threat to humanity.” According to an oft cited August 2002 UN report, the use of DU munitions breaches the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UN Charter, the Genocide Convention, the Convention against Torture, the four Geneva Conventions of 1949, the Conventional Weapons Convention of 1980, and the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907. In relation to the situation in Iran, one is reminded of the saying that history is written by the victors: while the New York Times writes of Iran’s “long history of concealment” in its relation to international weapons conventions, there is little need for such concealment by United States Government for its violations of such conventions as they go almost entirely unreported. This double standard at work in the application of such conventions is emphasized by a closer look at the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the basis for the present attention on Iran. Article 4(1) says that “Nothing in this Treaty shall be interpreted as affecting the inalienable right of all the Parties to the Treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes”; Article 4(2) says that “All the Parties to the Treaty undertake to facilitate, and have the right to participate in, the fullest possible exchange of equipment, materials and scientific and technological information for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy,” it goes on, “with due consideration for the needs of the developing areas of the world.” It would seem that the United States, rather than Iran, would be bound by the terms of the treaty, which obligate it—as a signer—to undertake to facilitate the fullest possible exchange of equipment, materials, and so forth to Iran, one such developing country of the world. According to the aforementioned New York Times article, like all other coverage of the standoff in this country, such an exchange was of course not a right, much less a possibility. That right was instead Iran’s “demand,” one that last week “came in two letters to the International Atomic Energy Agency from Iran's atomic energy agency, whose hard-liners oppose any concessions to outsiders.” But as these hard-liners, like other Iranians, have apparently conceded to their US and European watch dogs, the question arises with regard to Iraq, where any comparable watch dogs can be found to concede to. Principle two of the Nuremburg Tribunal tells us that “the fact that internal law does not impose a penalty for an act which constitutes a crime under international law does not relieve the person who committed the act from responsibility under international law.” A dying hope of Iraqis today would not be so ambitious as to imagine respite in the face of our longstanding war crimes, but instead an interruption of the silence that sanctions them. Posted by Omar_Khan at November 29, 2004 05:49 AM http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/covering_iraq/archives//000140.php -------- europe EU Eyes British Nuclear Decommissioning - Greenpeace REUTERS NEWS SERVICE December 1, 2004 http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/28370/newsDate/1-Dec-2004/story.htm BRUSSELS - Brussels is poised to vet Britain's plan for a state-owned nuclear decommissoning body to ensure it won't break European Union prohibitions on state aid, environmental group Greenpeace said on Tuesday. But Britain was adamant its proposed Nuclear Decommissioning Agency (NDA) would not contravene EU rules, and said it would ensure the agency had the funds needed to dismantle power stations and clean up the country's nuclear liabilities. Greenpeace said it expected the EU executive Commission to open a formal investigation on Wednesday into the agency, which will from next April assume all the assets and liabilities of state-owned nuclear firm British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL). "On 1st April, 2005, all of British Nuclear Fuel's assets -- including reprocessing and fuel fabrication plants, the Magnox reactors and the Drigg radioactive waste dump -- are due to be transferred to the ownership of the NDA," the organisation said in a statement. "It is the transfer of assets from BNFL to the NDA, and how commercial operations may be helped by state aid, which will be main focus of the (Commission) investigation," Greenpeace said. Commission spokesman Jonathan Todd confirmed the matter was on the agenda for Wednesday's Commission meeting, but declined to give further details. With certain exceptions, EU law forbids state aid -- government subsidies to companies or other preferential treatment -- on the grounds that it distorts competition and the free flow of goods and services in the 25-nation bloc. A spokeswoman for Britain's Department of Trade and Industry said the government would avoid state aid issues by ensuring that only existing decommissioning funds were used for the agency and no benefit was conferred on BNFL. "The government supports state aid rules and accepts Commission responsibilities under them," said spokeswoman Eurwen Thomas. "We won't be surprised if an investigation is launched," Thomas added. "(The) government is ready for this and is preparing interim arrangements to ensure the NDA can start its essential decommissioning work as planned on 1 April 2005." Britain's biggest power producer, the debt-laden British Energy, will also turn over its funds for decommissioning to the agency. But because its power stations are newer, the agency will not have to decommission British Energy plants for years. Spokesmen for BNFL and British Energy declined to comment on the Greenpeace report. Greenpeace said it expected the inquiry to take 9-12 months. Story by Quentin Webb -------- EU, Japan call for dialogue amid row on breakthrough nuclear project TOKYO (AFP) Dec 01, 2004 http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041201114719.1b37pgiw.html The European Union and Japan each called Wednesday for dialogue among the six partners on a multibillion-dollar nuclear energy project amid a deepening row over whether Japan or France will host the site. The EU, whose bid is backed by Russia and China, has threatened to go it alone on the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) unless a deal is sealed with Japan, which is supported by the United States and South Korea. Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said the EU stance was "regrettable" as it would lead to "duplicated and redundant financing" of the project. "All six countries must work together on the ITER project because of its technological difficulties," Machimura told reporters at a function marking EU-Japan people-to-people exchanges. "Having two sites isn't a good solution. That's why we are hoping for a division of work so we can share" the project, Machimura said. Ambassador Bernhard Zepter, head of the European Commission in Japan, also called for dialogue. "We have an obvious interest in working together because we face problems of energy resources in common," said Zepter, who is German. ITER, whose budget is expected to be some 10 billion euros (13 billion dollars) over the next 30 years, would emulate the sun's nuclear fusion in the hope of generating inexhaustible supplies of electricity. The site to be built in Cadarache, France or Rokkasho-mura, Japan is not expected to generate energy before 2050. The European Union has mulled a scenario of offering Japan a new international scientific computing centre as compensation if Japan did not host ITER. Japan has also said it is ready to discuss compromises. -------- india / pakistan India to clinch French sub deal early next year: naval chief The News International December 01, 2004 http://jang.com.pk/thenews/dec2004-daily/01-12-2004/world/w3.htm NEW DELHI: The Indian government is likely to give final approval early next year to a two billion euro (2.5 billion dollar) deal with a French firm for the building of six Scorpene submarines, the naval chief said Tuesday. Admiral Arun Prakash said the deal has been cleared by the defence and finance ministries and was awaiting final approval of the security cabinet, India’s highest strategic decision-making body headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. "We hope to get this cleared in 2005 because restoration of our submarine building capacity is our top priority," Prakash said, describing the Scorpenes deal as a "much-delayed project." Highly placed Indian sources told AFP the Scorpene deal was likely to be on the agenda of the security cabinet next February. Other Indian sources said French state-owned shipbuilder Naval Constructions Directorate (DCN) would transfer technology to New Delhi, which would then build the six 1,600-tonne submarines in India. The vessels, although diesel-powered, could be adapted to fit a nuclear power unit, which matches India’s long-term defence strategy. Prakash said the construction of the Scorpenes was part of the navy’s ambitious plans to induct a Soviet-era aircraft carrier, build a similar vessel here and acquire 19 other warships now under construction at various Indian shipyards. He said the Indian navy had this year inducted three frigate-class ships — one of them of Russian origin — and two fast attack vessels in its fleet of warships. Prakash also said the Russian aircraft carrier, Admiral Gorshkov, would be refurbished and handed over to the Indian navy on schedule by 2008. Gorshkov, which joined the Soviet forces 18 years ago, would fill the vacuum left by the 1997 scrapping of India’s first aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, which had been in service since 1961. The delivery will coincide with the mothballing of India’s remaining aircraft carrier, INS Viraat, four years later. The admiral said the November 7 test firing of a nuclear-capable missile from on-board a frigate offered India’s 137-ship navy a new dimension in strategic warfare -------- iran Rep. Markey, Shays on Iranian nukes townonline.com December 1, 2004 http://www2.townonline.com/winchester/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=136573 U.S. Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., co-chairman of the Bipartisan Task Force on Non-proliferation and a senior Democratic member of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, and Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., co-chairman of the Bipartisan Task Force on Non-proliferation and Vice-Chairman of the Committee on Government Reform, today will host two prominent experts on the Iranian nuclear program in a panel discussion about the probability and implications of an Iranian nuclear weapon state. The Task Force meeting is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. in Room 2247 of the Rayburn House Office building and is open to the public. "A nuclear Iran is dangerously close," said Rep. Markey. "While the recent deal between the European Union and Iran is a step in the right direction, Iranian officials still insist on the right to enrich uranium and speak of the EU deal as temporary. We need make sure the enrichment suspension is permanent." Iran has signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, but in 2002 an Iranian resistance group helped expose Iran's undeclared nuclear activities, which included uranium enrichment, heavy water production and efforts to separate plutonium. Despite an agreement reached in November 2003 with the EU, Iran has continued centrifuge-related activities. This week, Iran once again agreed to suspend uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities. This time the agreement includes specific language on suspending centrifuge-related activities. Iran's commitment to this recent agreement remains unclear, with statements by Hassan Rowhani, Iran's chief negotiator on nuclear issues, declaring uranium enrichment "Iran's right," adding "Iran will never give up its right to enrich uranium." Iran's claim of peaceful nuclear energy is deeply suspect, given it has 10 percent of the world's oil reserves and 20 percent of the world's natural gas reserves. Appearing at briefing last week were two well-known experts on the Iranian nuclear program: David Albright and Dr. Kenneth Pollack. Mr. Albright is president of the Institute for Science and International Studies and has written numerous assessments on secret nuclear programs throughout the world, including work with the IAEA in Iraq during the mid-1990s. Dr. Pollack is Director of Research at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy, Brookings Institution. He is the best selling author of The Threatening Storm and most recently of The Persian Puzzle. He also served as a CIA military analyst for Iraq-Iran from 1988-1995. "During the recent presidential campaign, both President Bush and Senator Kerry agreed that nuclear proliferation represented the gravest threat facing America's security," said Markey. "Now it's time to consider how best to address this threat. A clear, effective policy on Iran and North Korea should be one of the Administration's top non-proliferation priorities," Rep. Markey concluded. Torture provisions removed Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., released the following statement last week regarding the status of the torture provisions in the 9/11 intelligence reform bill: "I am very pleased that after vigorous opposition was mounted against the torture provisions in the 9/11 bill, House and Senate negotiators decided to remove controversial immigration provisions from the bill that included language that would facilitate the outsourcing of torture," Rep. Markey said. Sections 3032 and 3033 of H.R.10, the House-passed version of the bill, would have legitimized "extraordinary rendition" - the practice of sending detained aliens to other nations where they are likely to face interrogation under torture. "I have long fought to stop the practice of outsourcing torture," Rep. Markey added. "This is a great victory for human and civil rights and a great victory for the 9/11 families and the 9/11 Commission. While House Republicans did not allow a vote on the conference report, the message is clear: we will not stand for torture in our name." "The fight is not over. I am hopeful that we will pass the intelligence bill when Congress returns in December. I will oppose any attempt to restore the torture outsourcing language to the bill." The U.S. government still practices extraordinary rendition. Former CIA Director George Tenet testified before Congress that 70 terrorist suspects had been "rendered" prior to Sept. 11, and press reports indicate that the CIA has continued the practice since that time. Last summer, Rep. Markey introduced H.R. 4674, legislation to stop extraordinary rendition. During consideration of the intelligence reform bill, House Republicans inserted provisions into the bill to legitimize the practice. For more information on Rep. Markey's work to end extraordinary rendition, please visit: http://www.house.gov/markey/human_rights.htm. ----- Kowtowing to Tehran washtimes December 01, 2004 http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20041130-084445-8910r.htm In the latest sign that Washington and its European allies have failed to persuade Iran to end its nuclear weapons programs, the International Atomic Energy Agency on Monday passed a watered-down resolution that is likely to encourage more defiance from the ruling mullahs. At a meeting in Vienna, the IAEA board of governors approved a resolution that "welcomes the fact that Iran has decided to continue and extend its suspension of all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities." The resolution also capitulates to Iran on a major point: its insistence that it is not legally required to freeze its uranium enrichment efforts. It refers to Iran's suspension as "a voluntary confidence building measure, not a legal obligation." The IAEA resolution fell short of what Washington was seeking: a binding commitment that Iran will end its nuclear weapons programs and referral of the matter to the U.N. Security Council if the regime fails to do so. But State Department spokesman Richard Boucher tried to put the best face on things, stating that Washington "went along with the resolution" because it believes that Iran will eventually violate it, and that this can serve to trigger further action. Iran has a very different view. The resolution was "a definite defeat for our enemies who wanted to pressure Iran by sending its case to the U.N. Security Council," said Iranian President Mohammed Khatami. The New York Times reported that Iranian officials toasted approval of the resolution with the French ambassador to the IAEA at his residence. The resolution is just the latest example of a lengthy, embarrassing ritual that has become commonplace since the IAEA began investigating Iran last year. IAEA inspectors periodically visit suspect Iranian sites. Every few months, the IAEA board gets together and passes a resolution criticizing Iran's cheating and concealment activities, and the European Union 3 — Britain, France and Germany — announces that Iran has agreed to change its behavior. Months later, the world learns that Iran has continued to cheat and misinterpret the treaty. Indeed, Iran's failures to come clean about its nuclear activities have repeatedly been documented by the IAEA — as recently as Monday. Iran has successfully been buying time while advancing its weapons research and development. Appeasement has had the predictable effect of emboldening Tehran to take a much more aggressive posture in the region, which includes financing Hezbollah and Hamas terrorism in Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza and the terrorist insurgency in Iraq. The current situation is probably a picnic compared to what will happen should Iran develop nuclear weapons. ----- Tehran calls deal on uranium a win ASSOCIATED PRESS By Ali Akbar Dareini December 01, 2004 http://www.washtimes.com/world/20041130-100136-1435r.htm TEHRAN — Iran yesterday claimed victory in its nuclear dispute, saying it has isolated the United States while preserving its right to enrich uranium. Iran said it has not abandoned its right to purify uranium, despite U.S. pressure, noting that the agreement it struck this week with the U.N. nuclear agency will only halt processing for several months. Speaking to reporters, Iran's top nuclear official, Hasan Rowhani, hailed the resolution passed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Monday that authorizes the watchdog agency's chief, Mohamed ElBaradei, to monitor Iran's commitment to freeze uranium-enrichment activities. Such enrichment can produce either low-grade fuel for nuclear reactors or the raw material for atomic weapons. -------- korea IAEA ruling on S Korea disgusts North Reuters December 1, 2004 http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200412/s1255951.htm North Korea is disgusted by the UN nuclear watchdog report into secret South Korean atomic tests and wants to discuss the subject first if talks on its own nuclear plans restart, its Foreign Ministry says. The board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has rebuked South Korea but stopped short of referring the case to the UN Security Council, for now. "A scrutiny into the IAEA's course of inspection and the meeting of its board of governors prompted us to conclude that the US and the IAEA are going to hush up the secret nuclear-related experiments of South Korea the way they think fit," a ministry spokesman told the official KCNA news agency. The spokesman, in the North's first official reaction to the IAEA's findings, says the UN watchdog has praised the South's cooperation and is protecting the country. "We cannot but feel disgust at it and heighten vigilance against it," the North Korean spokesman said. The official says the United States has also played down the South's tests. The IAEA report says that scientists enriched a tiny amount of uranium in 2000 to a level close to what would be useable in an atomic weapon, contradicting denials by South Korea. South Korean scientists also separated a tiny amount of bomb-grade plutonium in 1982 without notifying the IAEA. "If the IAEA does not settle the secret nuclear experiments of South Korea in an understandable manner, this issue will stand out as the most important issue at the six-party talks pending a top priority discussion," the North's spokesman said. He is referring to stalled talks on North Korea's nuclear programs involving the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States. "It is quite natural for the six-party talks to discuss this issue before the nuclear issue between the DPRK and the US," the official said. "It is illogical for the DPRK to unilaterally dismantle its nuclear deterrent force unless the secret nuclear-related experiments of South Korea are thoroughly probed." The official accuses the United States of double standards. "The US attitude toward this case stands out in sharp contrast to its persistent pressure upon the DPRK to admit the non-existent uranium enrichment program," he said. -------- N. Korea Holds Nuke Crisis Bargaining Chip By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS December 1, 2004 Filed at 3:09 a.m. ET http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-US-North-Korea-Nuclear.html?pagewanted=print&position= NEW YORK (AP) -- North Korea is holding South Korean construction cranes, bulldozers, road graders, dump trucks and almost 200 cars hostage at the site of a suspended power plant project as a bargaining chip in the international standoff over its bid to develop nuclear weapons. The South Korean companies that own the construction equipment are dismayed since North Korea has refused to back down on demands for compensation for the suspension of the power-plant program. The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO), the New York-based consortium set up to build safe power plants in North Korea in exchange for Pyongyang's agreement to dismantle its weapons program, says no progress has been made on the impasse. Construction of two 1,000-megawatt light-water reactors to replace North Korea's Russian-model, plutonium-producing nuclear plants was suspended in 2003 after the United States raised suspicions that Pyongyang also concealed a secret program to enrich uranium to weapons grade. The freeze on the nuclear plant project was extended last week for another year, effective Dec. 1, by KEDO, which is led by the United States, Japan, South Korea, and the European Union. The Bush administration has been contending that the project has ``no future,'' as the State Department said a year ago. South Korea and Japan, which are most heavily invested in construction of the $4.6 billion nuclear plant project about 125 miles north of the 38th parallel on North Korea's east coast near Sinpo, hope to keep it on the table to entice North Korea back into disarmament talks. KEDO's extension of the freeze noted that ``the future of the project will be assessed and decided by the Executive Board before the expiration of the suspension period,'' suggesting it will be revived or killed based on North Korea's willingness to rejoin disarmament talks in coming months. But in the meantime, North Korea has barred the removal of 93 pieces of heavy construction equipment, including three cranes, plus bulldozers, steam shovels, dump trucks, road graders and forklifts, and about 190 South Korean cars and some buses from the site at Kumho, demanding that the United States pay unspecified ``compensation'' for the suspension of the program. Pyongyang has threatened to go in and seize the equipment along with computers, office equipment and any technical documents still on the site, but has made no move to do so. KEDO's executive director, Charles Kartman, raised the issue in talks with North Korea prior to the consortium's announcement Nov. 26 of the extension of the freeze on construction. KEDO spokesman Brian Kremer confirmed on Monday that no progress has been made recently on breaking the impasse, but added, ``We're certainly hopeful that KEDO can resolve this issue.'' The South Korean companies with the most equipment at stake are Hyundai, Doosan, Daewoo and Dong-ah, which subcontracted with Korean Electric Power Co. to provide construction work. A spokesman for the four major Korean subcontractors, speaking in Seoul on condition of anonymity, said the seized equipment amounted to a major loss and said the situation was ``awkward'' for the construction consortium since they had not been compensated for it. Their equipment had been shipped from South Korea directly to a port at Kumo, avoiding the difficulty of negotiating road access through the almost hermetically sealed North Korea. KEDO is continuing to pay leasing fees to the South Korean companies ``for equipment that is not being used. We have a budget that we have to live within,'' Kremer said. The reduced KEDO staff at the Kumho site is maintaining the partially built project and caring for the equipment and vehicles. Associated Press writer Soo-jeong Lee in Seoul, South Korea contributed to this report. On the Web: the Korean Peninsula Energy Organization, including its 2003 annual report: www.kedo.org http://www.kedo.org -------- missile defense Canadian PM hedges on Bush request to join missile defense HALIFAX, Canada (AFP) Dec 01, 2004 http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041201182953.6rlw7lez.html Canada's Prime Minister Paul Martin Wednesday hedged his bets on joining the US anti-missile shield, after President George W. Bush upped pressure on a system opposed by a slim majority of Canadians. Martin told reporters he was not surprised that Bush had brought up the national missile defense system during their talks in Ottawa Tuesday -- despite expectations in Canada the issue was not on the agenda. "Whatever we decide," said Martin, "it will be in Canada's interests. We are a sovereign nation and we will make our own decisions on our air space. "But we are opposed to the weaponisation of space," Martin said, minutes after seeing Bush leave for Washington after an overnight visit to Ottawa, and a sidetrip to Canada's Atlantic coast. That formulation has been Canada's consistent position on the issue, as Martin's minority government tries to figure out how to handle what is a political hot potato. Many experts believe a Canadian decision not to take part in the system could scupper the North American Aerospace Defence Agreement (NORAD) with Washington, and make Canada blind to any threats entering its airspace. Bush said on Tuesday he and Martin had "talked about the future of NORAD and how that organization can best meet emerging threats and safeguard our continent against attack from ballistic missiles." That comment ignited a minor media storm and exposed Martin to attack from political opponents, especially the left-wing New Democratic Party. An opinion poll by CBC last week suggested that 52 percent of Canadians were opposed to the missile shield. Martin was also vague about what, if any, role Canada might play in next month's crucial election in Iraq, after reports last week said Canada could please Washington by helping to set up and monitor the polls. -------- u.s. nuc weapons The 2004 election shifts the nuclear corridor to New Mexico and Texas San Francisco Bay View by Leuren Moret 12/1/04 http://www.sfbayview.com/120104/nuclearcorridor120104.shtml “Some people say Domenici is a sucker for big science. And they may be right.” – Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., when asked at a press conference in August 2004 if his vigorous support for his state’s Los Alamos National Laboratory had helped create a culture of complacency that contributed to last month’s security and safety lapses, in Science, vol. 305, Aug. 20, 2004, p. 1103 The continuation of a misguided and obsolete nuclear weapons and nuclear energy policy is guaranteed by a second Bush term and Republicans gaining more U.S. Senate seats. A planned New Mexico-Texas nuclear corridor (see “The 2004 Election” in References below) can be expected to move forward with new energy and funding. The University of Texas and Texas A&M are likely partners in not only nuclear weapons research and development, but they will be involved with the development of bioweapons as well. Three of the eight primary sites for the nuclear weapons program are located in New Mexico and Texas at Los Alamos, Sandia and Pantex. Plans are underway for a new facility near Eunice, New Mexico, for a privately run uranium enrichment facility and a “low-level” nuclear waste dump nearby in Andrews County, Texas. A new “modern” pit facility – for producing plutonium pits – planned at a site such as Los Alamos, Pantex or the Waste Isolation Pilot Program (WIPP) near Carlsbad was recently defeated in Congress. This nuclear corridor will expand with other weapons systems development and increase the need for security and more involvement with Homeland Security and border issues. Homeland Security funds will flow into local universities, and the border will become a test zone for biometrics technologies. Surveillance, control and security technologies are a necessity for the secret research and development in the area, and they are the mandate of Homeland Security. The citizens in West Texas and Eastern New Mexico, poor regions of both states, will offer little resistance as new jobs and development in the region offer a better living. This has been a pattern for decades throughout the nuclear weapons program. A broken promise “It's time to place the blame for high oil prices where it belongs — on the lack of progress in energy technology.” - Michael Mandel, chief economist, Business Week, Aug. 2, 2004 The only problem with this planned nuclear renaissance is that it holds a broken promise and false hope of better security and cheap energy for the United States. It is just another pork barrel project and misguided effort, which reflects the inability of the U.S. to embrace, develop and promote alternative energy sources. The truth is that nuclear weapons and conventional strategic military power are obsolete. Scalar electromagnetic weapons (see “Scalar Weapons”) were developed in Russia in the middle of the last century and are now held by at least five countries. The powerful electromagnetic pulse they release can quickly “dud” all nuclear weapons in the U.S. arsenal and fry the highly centralized electronic grid of the U.S. in 10 minutes. This would destroy the U.S. economy. There have already been terrorist attempts by the Japanese Aum Shinrikyo Buddhist sect to use them against the U.S. (see “Tesla Doom Weapons”). In addition, the Russian 3M-82 Moskit anti-ship cruise missile, called the SS-N-22 Sunburn by NATO, is a weapon that the U.S. Navy currently has no defense against (see “The Sunburn”). It has been called “the most lethal missile in the world today,” and Russia has sold them to India, China, Viet Nam, Cuba and Iran. The Sunburn can deliver a 200-300 kiloton nuclear payload, or a 750 pound conventional warhead, at three times the speed of sound (Mach 3) as low as 9 feet off the ground, making it invisible to radar. And it can elude enemy defenses with violent end maneuvers. It was designed to defeat the U.S. Aegis radar defense system. This missile has made the U.S. Navy obsolete and sitting ducks in any conflict where the Sunburn missile is utilized. China demonstrated this missile in full view of the multinational naval forces during exercises “masterminded” by the U.S. military in the Pacific last summer to demonstrate our superior military power. Instead, it played out as a military standoff. References “The 2004 Election and the New Mexico-Texas Nuclear Corridor” by Stefan Wray, Nov. 3, 2004, http://www.iconmedia.org. Scalar weapons: “Fer de Lance,” Bearden's book about scalar weapons, http://www.cheniere.org/books/ferdelance/index.html; “Scalar Wars: The Brave New World of Scalar Electromagnetics,” http://www.prahlad.org/pub/bearden/scalar_wars.htm. Some other articles on scalar topics: http://prahlad.org/pub/bearden/index.htm. “Tesla Doom Weapons and Aum Shinrikyo” by David Guyatt (1997), http://www.deepblacklies.co.uk/doom_weapons_1.htm. “The Sunburn - Iran's Awesome Nuclear Anti-Ship Missile, The Weapon That Could Defeat the US in the Gulf” by Mark Gaffney, Nov. 2, 2004, http://www.rense.com/general59/theSunburniransawesome.htm. “Congressman Seek Resolution to Halt Russian Missile Sales to China,” Federation of American Scientists, March 28, 2000, http://www.fas.org/news/taiwan/2000/e-03-28-00-11.htm, http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/missile/row/moskit.htm. To read Parts 1 through 7 of this series, go to http://www.sfbayview.com/091504/ucregents091504.shtml, http://www.sfbayview.com/092204/nuclearweapons092204.shtml, http://www.sfbayview.com/092904/nuclearweapons2092904.shtml, http://www.sfbayview.com/100604/nuclearweapons100604.shtml, http://www.sfbayview.com/101304/nuclearweapons101304.shtml, http://www.sfbayview.com/110304/ucregents110304.shtml and http://www.sfbayview.com/112404/ucregents112404.shtml. Leuren Moret, a geoscientist who worked at the Livermore nuclear weapons lab where she became a whistleblower in 1991, has survived 13 years of retaliation from the Livermore Lab and the University of California and has lived firsthand the experiences of Karen Silkwood. A radiation specialist, she works around the world educating citizens, the media and lawmakers about the impact of radiation globally on the health of the public and the environment. She assisted with Al-Jazeera’s recent report on depleted uranium weapons which quickly became one of the most read articles produced by the website. “DU: Washington’s Secret Nuclear War” can be read at http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2004/DU-Secret-Nuclear-War14sep04.htm. She is an independent scientist and an environmental commissioner for the City of Berkeley and can be reached at leurenmoret@yahoo.com. -------- california Nuclear generator at San Onofre remains off line due to tiny cracks in water heaters Associated Press Dec. 01, 2004 http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/10312345.htm SAN ONOFRE, Calif. - A 1,100-megawatt nuclear generator at the San Onofre power plant will remain off line after engineers discovered tiny cracks in its water heaters, according to a newspaper report. The North County Times reported Wednesday that microscopic cracks were found during an inspection of about 30 water heaters attached to Unit 3's pressurizers. The heaters keep the nuclear reactor's coolant at a constant 2,200 pounds per square inch and make sure the water inside the reactor's core does not boil. Unit 3 was shut down Sept. 26 for a 55-day refueling and was scheduled to return to service Nov. 21. Plant managers, however, said it likely will remain off line until early January. "Right now we are in the process of replacing those heaters," plant spokesman Ray Golden said. Refueling work at the plant has stopped and crews have temporarily resealed the reactor's core. New fuel cannot be added until the heater work is complete. Unit 3 was scheduled for repairs during its next refueling outage in 2006, but Southern California Edison decided to get the work done early even though the cracks were not yet large enough to leak water, Golden said. SoCal Edison is San Onofre's majority owner. It will cost nearly $7 million to replace the heaters, he said. The cracks do not pose an immediate safety risk because they are so small, said Clyde Osterholtz, senior resident plant inspector for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. "They have found very early signs," Osterholtz told the newspaper. "These are cracks you can't even see with the naked eye." The plant's two steam generators also are cracking, forcing San Onofre officials to propose replacing them at an estimated cost of $600 million. -------- new mexico U.S. Gives Business Role in Los Alamos Bid By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: December 1, 2004 Filed at 6:45 p.m. ET http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Los-Alamos-Contract.html WASHINGTON (AP) -- Stung by security lapses at a leading nuclear weapons laboratory, the government will consider business and management ability as much as scientific expertise when selecting a new manager for the facility. The Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration released a draft request for proposals Wednesday as it prepares for the first competition to run New Mexico's Los Alamos National Laboratory. Los Alamos has been managed by the University of California since the lab's creation as a top-secret World War II project to develop the atomic bomb. But problems, including missing computer drives and sloppy fiscal procedures, led the department for the first time to call for an open bidding process last year. The new contractor will take over when the university's current contract expires at the ending of September. The school has not decided whether to bid to continue managing the lab. ``The vision is we want world-class science, enabled by excellent operations, and really, really good business management,'' said Tyler Przybylek, chairman of the board of National Nuclear Security Administration officials who will evaluate proposals. The agency will collect comments from prospective applicants, community members and others for 30 days before issuing a final request for proposals. Applicants will then have 60 days to submit their proposals. The agency plans to select a contractor next summer to begin work on Oct. 1. The new contract will cover five years, with possible extensions for 15 years more. Recent problems at the lab include the shutdown of most operations in July following the disclosure that two disks believed to contain classified information were missing. Most lab activities have since resumed. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has encouraged the University of California to seek to retain its contract. Other possible bidders include the University of Texas and Texas A&M. Federal officials also will seek bids on the two other labs that the University of California manages, the Lawrence Livermore nuclear weapons lab and the nonweapons Lawrence Berkeley lab. The school's Lawrence Livermore contract also expires at the end of September, but the Energy Department plans to extend it. Associated Press writer Leslie Hoffman in Albuquerque, N.M., contributed to this report. -------- us nuc waste Congress resolves Yucca funding dispute Counties can use DOE grants to take part in licensing for project Las Vegas Review-Journal By STEVE TETREAULT December 01, 2004 http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2004/Dec-01-Wed-2004/news/25381673.html WASHINGTON -- A dispute over how Nevada counties can spend federal money on Yucca Mountain has been resolved by Congress in favor of the counties, officials said this week. A year-end spending bill that lawmakers passed Nov. 20 makes clear that local governments can use Energy Department grants to take part in licensing for the proposed nuclear waste repository, they said. Clark County commissioners protested after DOE issued new grant guidelines in August. One directive disallowed use of grant money for activities such as loading pertinent research into an electronic database being built for Yucca Mountain license hearings. County leaders said the rules would restrict their ability to fully participate in upcoming hearings before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. A provision that reverses the directive was proposed by Clark County officials and was inserted into the bill by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., according to Capitol Hill officials. Abigail Johnson, a nuclear waste consultant to Eureka County, said the problem appears to be solved for now. "It provides the specific language that answers the questions that had come up over how we can use our oversight funds," she said. Reid aides said the provision will need to be renewed each year. Nine Nevada counties and Inyo County in California shared $4 million this year and are being given $8 million during fiscal 2005 to monitor DOE's work at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, and to study the planned repository's potential impacts on their residents. Clark County's allocation for 2005 is expected to be about $2 million. Yucca Mountain hearings will be conducted in a triallike format before an NRC administrative panel. DOE officials said their August guidelines were based on their reading of a law that prohibits the counties from spending federal money on repository "litigation." Energy Department spokesman Allen Benson said DOE welcomed the instructions from Congress. "Congress has for many years provided us guidance as well as the state and the (counties) on how the funds should be spent," Benson said. "Now we have congressional direction, which helps all of us." ----- State finds change in repository's quality control Las Vegas Review-Journal By STEVE TETREAULT December 01, 2004 http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2004/Dec-01-Wed-2004/news/25382261.html WASHINGTON -- Attorneys for the state of Nevada say they have found another weapon to deploy against the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. State officials are focusing on an Energy Department decision this summer to delete structural supports for the repository's underground tunnels from a list of features requiring the strictest quality assurance controls. The supports consist of rock bolts and steel beams that hold up repository walls and ceilings and add a layer of protection for canisters of highly radioactive spent fuel that would be stored within the tunnels. DOE officials removed the tunnel supports from a "Q list" of Yucca systems that are considered important to prevent radiation from escaping the mountain and entering the environment. Because they deal with deadly radiation, systems on the "Q list" also require the most stringent quality assurance rules, including pain-staking documentation and detailed reviews. Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, said DOE "is obviously trying to minimize the number of areas that (quality assurance) has a role to play. I don't think they can fully comply with QA requirements, so they are trying to eliminate them." The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Government Accountability Office have criticized the rigor of the Yucca Mountain quality assurance in reports this year, prompting DOE and contractor managers to increase their attention to that program. Allen Benson, an Energy Department spokesman, said in an e-mail the tunnel supports are not on the Q list "because other engineered systems provide for radiological protection." DOE plans to install titanium drip shields over waste canisters within the tunnels and to store the radioactive material in special alloy containers scientists believe will be corrosion-resistant. Joe Egan, a Virginia attorney who leads a legal team challenging the Yucca Mountain Project for Nevada, charged DOE "is cutting corners one more time." Egan said Nevada will file a formal contention on the tunnel supports during repository license hearings. "They are making an incorrect determination that the tunnel supports are not important to safety, and we don't believe that is the case," he said. ----- Richardson Says Uranium Waste Can't Stay in N.M. The Associated Press December 1, 2004 http://www.abqjournal.com/news/state/apnuke12-01-04.htm SANTA FE — Gov. Bill Richardson says he will not support a proposed nuclear fuel factory near Eunice until the federal government guarantees that no radioactive waste from the facility would remain in New Mexico. His decision means the state will not act on a groundwater discharge permit that Louisiana Energy Services would need to operate the factory. LES has proposed building the $1.2 billion uranium enrichment facility five miles east of Eunice to produce fuel for nuclear reactors. The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which must license the factory, is considering LES's application. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., has said a measure he sponsored would ensure that waste from the factory would be sent outside of New Mexico. He added the legislation to a massive spending bill approved by Congress. "Senator Domenici had good intentions, but the language is inadequate and doesn't fix the problem," Richardson said Tuesday. Richardson said he will withhold his support of the project until Congress passes other language that specifies the waste would be removed from New Mexico or until the federal commission issues LES an operating permit that contains binding language to that effect. "What I am seeking is either very strong language in the license that precludes the waste being stored in New Mexico or very strong language in an appropriations bill next year," Richardson said. He also said his office is talking to state Attorney General Patricia Madrid about a joint effort concerning the LES project. He declined to say what they are considering. The state Environment Department and the attorney general's office have been rebuffed by the commission's licensing board in efforts to raise concerns about the factory, including the licensing process about waste disposal. Domenici said Monday his staff was aware that Richardson would have concerns about the provision Congress has passed. Domenici said he remains committed to working with Richardson to include language concerning waste disposal in the federal license for the factory. Marshall Cohen, an LES spokesman, said Tuesday that the company remains confident that it will be able to satisfy Richardson's concerns. The company believes that the language in Domenici's measure is a good first step, Cohen said. LES has begun discussions with Richardson's staff about other language that could be included in the federal permit, Cohen said. Richardson "has had his concerns for a while, and we understand that," Cohen said. "And we're looking for a combination of ways — the statutory language that was in the bill, plus the licensing language — and we'll work with his office very closely to do that." Cohen said LES expects private industry would build a factory in the United States to process the depleted uranium to make it safe for disposal. No such facility exists in the country today. The U.S. Department of Energy has hundreds of thousands of tons of similar waste stockpiled at uranium-enrichment factories in Kentucky and Ohio. The DOE plans to build its own waste-treatment factories to handle its backlog. Ohio officials have opposed the prospect of taking waste from the proposed LES factory. New Mexico Environment Secretary Ron Curry said Tuesday his office has received a groundwater discharge permit application from LES. The permit application is not yet deemed complete, he said. Curry said that before his office can consider processing the permit, it must know how long waste from the factory would remain on site. That won't be clear until the federal licensing process is complete, he said. Once the permit application is deemed complete, it would go through a public-hearing process, Curry said. -------- Justice Department to try and overturn initiative barring more Hanford waste By SHANNON DININNY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Wednesday, December 1, 2004 http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/201842_hanford01.html YAKIMA -- The federal government plans to ask a judge to overturn a Washington state initiative that bars the U.S. Department of Energy from sending more nuclear waste to the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. Last month, Washington voters overwhelmingly approved Initiative 297, which blocks the Energy Department from sending more waste to south-central Washington's Hanford site until all the existing waste there is cleaned up. The measure is scheduled to take effect tomorrow. The Justice Department planned to seek a temporary restraining order today in federal court in Yakima to keep the initiative from becoming law, according to a government official familiar with the case. The government also planned to challenge the constitutionality of the initiative on the grounds that it violates federal laws governing nuclear waste and interstate commerce, the official said. The 586-square-mile Hanford reservation was created in World War II as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb. It remains the most contaminated site in the nation, with cleanup costs expected to total $50 billion to $60 billion. At issue are the federal government's plans for disposing of waste from World War II- and Cold War-era nuclear weapons production nationwide. The Energy Department chose Hanford to dispose of some mildly radioactive waste and mixed low-level waste, which is laced with chemicals. The site also would serve as a packaging center for some transuranic waste -- plutonium-contaminated rags, tools and other discarded items -- before it is shipped elsewhere for long-term disposal. Transuranic waste is highly radioactive and can take thousands of years or more to decay to safe levels. In 2003, Washington state filed a lawsuit to block waste shipments from entering the state, fearing Hanford would become a radioactive waste dump. The Energy Department voluntarily suspended the shipments after the lawsuit was filed, but the case remains in federal court. Energy Department officials have said the site's most dangerous waste will be shipped out of state. Of the 405 million curies of radioactivity at Hanford, about 374 million curies will be sent to other states for long-term disposal. Hanford already is home to 53 million gallons of highly radioactive liquid, sludge and salt cake stored in 177 underground tanks. The Energy Department aims to bury much of that waste in a nuclear waste repository in Nevada. Another 75,000 55-gallon drums of transuranic, radioactive and hazardous waste also are buried at Hanford. The roughly $1 million cost of the initiative was largely funded by its sponsor, Heart of America Northwest, a Hanford watchdog group that contends the initiative will withstand any court challenges. "Plenty of legal experts have looked at it and said we have the authority to do this," said Gerald Pollet, executive director of Heart of America Northwest. "We had hoped that the Department of Energy would try to work with the state instead of wasting money and effort fighting in court." A citizens petition sent the initiative to the Legislature early this year. Lawmakers declined to act on it, sending the measure to the November ballot. Washington state voters approved it Nov. 2 by a more than 2-to-1 ratio. ---- DOE likely to challenge Hanford waste initiative tri-cityherald December 1st, 2004 By Annette Cary http://www.tri-cityherald.com/tch/local/story/5859163p-5774584c.html The state of Washington on Tuesday declared Initiative 297 had officially passed, but whether it blocks shipments of radioactive waste to Hanford is yet to be seen. The state expects the federal government to file suit today, challenging the legality of the initiative. It takes effect Thursday unless the court intervenes. In addition, the federal government already has filed motions to halt rulings or agreements in federal court that now prevent it from sending certain types of waste to Hanford. The initiative, passed by voters Nov. 2 in every county of the state except Benton and Franklin, would stop shipments of waste to Hanford until waste already there is cleaned up. Hanford is extensively contaminated from the past production of plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program. However, court proceedings already have temporarily stopped most waste from being sent to Hanford. The court temporarily barred the Department of Energy from sending transuranic waste -- usually waste contaminated with plutonium -- to Hanford in May 2003. When the state moved five months ago to prevent DOE from sending low-level radioactive waste and low-level waste mixed with hazardous chemicals to Hanford, DOE agreed to a temporarily halt of shipments. Now the federal government is asking the court's permission to resume shipments of transuranic and low-level waste. On Feb. 3, federal Judge Alan McDonald in Yakima will hear the state's arguments asking that the temporary ban on importing low-level waste to Hanford be expanded. He also will hear federal arguments asking that the ban be dropped. Low-level waste includes debris such as radioactively contaminated rubble from old buildings used in nuclear processing. Until the February court hearing and McDonald's decision, the ban on importing low-level waste to Hanford remains in effect. "The court will endeavor to determine the motion as soon as possible following the hearing, but it must be kept in mind that the issues are weighty and complex," McDonald wrote in a court order Monday. The state believes an environmental study released earlier this year by the federal government did not provide a full accounting of the basis for selecting Hanford as the disposal site for nuclear waste produced elsewhere in the nation. After the study was completed, DOE issued a decision in June committing to sending no more than 82,000 cubic meters of low-level and low-level waste mixed with chemicals to Hanford. That's about a quarter of the amount of waste DOE needs to dispose of throughout its nationwide nuclear complex. The state also believes the DOE environmental study did not do an adequate analysis of the risk posed by ground water contamination at Hanford. DOE is arguing that its study was thorough and included a detailed discussion of ground water. Limits on waste shipments addressed state concerns, it said. It has asked the court to consider the national interest in the comprehensive management of nuclear waste, not just the concerns of the state of Washington. Further delays in shipments will harm other DOE sites throughout the nation that face their own obligations to dispose of waste, according to DOE. Under DOE's plan for nuclear waste from the weapons program, low-level waste would be sent to Hanford from other sites, but Hanford's high-level waste would be sent to Yucca Mountain, Nev., for disposal. The federal government also believes that its environmental study should answer the court's concerns that led it to temporarily bar the shipment of transuranic waste to the site. The study included information on the impacts of storing transuranic waste at Hanford and transportation risks, according to the federal government. The state has yet to file a response to that argument. But David Mears, the senior assistant attorney general for Washington, said the state does not believe all its concerns about transuranic waste shipments to Hanford have been addressed. Among the state's concerns is that some of the transuranic waste would be stranded at Hanford after it is treated there. DOE intends to dispose of the transuranic waste in an underground repository near Carlsbad, N.M., but the state believes DOE has not received permission to send the waste there. McDonald will consider arguments on the transuranic waste issue Jan. 11. ----- U.S. wants Wash. nuclear waste ban tossed By SHANNON DININNY ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER Wednesday, December 1, 2004 http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apwashington_story.asp?category=1152&slug=Hanford%20Initiative&dpfrom=th YAKIMA, Wash. -- The government Wednesday asked a judge to overturn a "draconian" state initiative barring the Energy Department from sending radioactive waste from other states to the Hanford nuclear site until waste already there is cleaned up. In court papers, the Justice Department warned some cleanup would stop and workers would be idled if Initiative 297 takes effect Thursday. It asked for a temporary restraining order; a hearing was set for Thursday morning. The government said projects that don't require permits under current law may need them under the initiative, which voters approved last month. "All this will result in harm to health and the environment," the government's court papers said. "Moreover, efforts to comply with the draconian provisions of I-297 will cost millions of dollars - which will not be recoverable if, and when, I-297 is ultimately determined to be unconstitutional." The Justice Department claims the measure violates federal laws governing interstate commerce and nuclear waste. Hanford, a federal site, is immune from state regulation, the government argued. David Mears, senior assistant attorney general for Washington state, said the state will vigorously defend the initiative. An attorney for Hanford watchdog group Heart of America Northwest, sponsor of the initiative, reserved comment until after Thursday's hearing. At issue are the federal government's plans to dispose waste from World War II and Cold War-era nuclear weapons production nationwide. The Energy Department chose Hanford to dispose of some mildly radioactive waste and mixed low-level waste, which is laced with chemicals. The site also would serve as a packaging center for some highly radioactive waste before it is shipped elsewhere for long-term disposal. In 2003, Washington sued to block waste shipments from entering the state, fearing Hanford would become a radioactive waste dump. The Energy Department voluntarily suspended the shipments after the lawsuit was filed, but the case remains in federal court. -------- Justice Department to Fight Hanford Initiative in Court Associated Press By Shannon Dininny December 01, 2004 http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=500 YAKIMA, Wash. - The government plans to ask a judge to overturn a Washington state initiative that bars the Energy Department from sending radioactive waste from other states to the Hanford nuclear site until waste already there is cleaned up. The measure is scheduled to take effect Dec. 2. The Justice Department planned to seek a temporary restraining order Wednesday to keep the initiative from becoming law, The Associated Press learned from a government official familiar with the case who spoke on condition of anonymity. The government also planned to challenge the constitutionality of the initiative on the grounds it violates federal laws governing nuclear waste and interstate commerce, the official said. The 586-square-mile Hanford reservation was created in World War II as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb. It remains the most contaminated site in the nation, with cleanup costs expected to total $50 billion to $60 billion. At issue are the federal government's plans for disposing of waste from World War II and Cold War-era nuclear weapons production nationwide. The Energy Department chose Hanford to dispose of some mildly radioactive waste and mixed low-level waste, which is laced with chemicals. The site also would serve as a packaging center for some highly radioactive waste -- plutonium-contaminated rags, tools and other discarded items -- before it is shipped elsewhere for long-term disposal. In 2003, Washington state sued to block waste shipments from entering the state, fearing Hanford would become a radioactive waste dump. The Energy Department voluntarily suspended the shipments after the lawsuit was filed, but the case remains in federal court. -------- MILITARY -------- africa Congo on war footing amid claims of attack by Rwandan troops Scotsman.com MARGARET NEIGHBOUR 1 Dec 2004 http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1376272004 THE Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) yesterday said it was on "a war footing" after it was attacked by troops from neighbouring Rwanda. United Nations officials said they were investigating claims Rwandan forces had crossed the border into the east of the DRC and fought with militia there. The reports of fighting come days after the Rwandan government threatened to attack Hutu fighters based in the DRC if the DRC government and UN forces fail to disarm the rebels, some of whom took part in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide. Yesterday the Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, told members of parliament in the Rwandan capital of Kigali that his forces "might" already be in east Congo, in pursuit of Rwandan Hutu rebels sheltering there. "We are on a war footing," said Mbusa Nyamwisi, a DRC cabinet minister, speaking from the eastern city of Beni, adding there was fighting nearby. "We are being attacked by the Rwandan troops." Neither the UN nor any other independent observer has verified the alleged Rwandan incursions or fighting. Lawless east DRC is home to numerous, rival militias, with frequent clashes in the remote bush there. Additionally, residents there frequently blame Rwandan troops for clashes involving Rwanda-allied rebels and other forces. Local officials, Congolese commanders, priests and other community leaders yesterday reported clashes in the area, in reports to both UN officials and to journalists. Villagers reaching Beni told authorities that communities north of Goma, near Congo’s border with Rwanda, had been attacked, with at least three villages burned, Mr Nyamwisi said. The displaced reported 15 people killed at one village, Ikobo, Mr Nyamwisi said. He claimed two brigades of Rwandan troops were fighting alongside Congolese rebel allies from DRC’s 1998-2002 war. The Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda (FDLR) rebels say Rwandan troops have crossed into DRC’s North Kivu province in the area of Bunagama and Kibumba in recent days in order to seize the mineral-rich east of Africa’s third biggest country. Congo officials said on Monday that their president, Laurent Kabila, was sending up to 10,000 soldiers to North Kivu to prevent the rebels and Rwandan forces from launching cross-border attacks. Relief experts say any new war in the DRC would deepen an existing humanitarian disaster in the east. The UN estimates 3.3 million people, a third of them children, in east DRC are beyond the reach of relief groups and prey to armed groups. It has been advocating voluntary disarmament of the rebels and its Security Council has urged Rwanda not to invade. -------- arms Report: Raytheon 'heat beam' weapon ready for Iraq Boston Business Journal 12 01 04 http://boston.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2004/11/29/daily30.html Government defense giant Raytheon Co. has developed the first nonlethal weapon that fires a heat beam to repel enemies and reduces the chance of innocent civilians being shot, a Pentagon official said. Raytheon, the world's largest missile maker, delivered a prototype to the U.S. military last month. The product is expected to be evaluated from February through June to determine whether to equip U.S. forces with it, Colonel David Karcher, director of the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate, told Bloomberg Business News. With U.S. casualties in Iraq rising, expectations are growing that Raytheon's weapon, called the Active Denial System, could be sent to Iraq in the next year, according to Charles "Sid'' Heal, commander of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. A former Marine, Heal headed nonlethal-weapons training for the U.S. military in Somalia in 1995 and advised Raytheon on the beam's development. "It's there, it's ready,'' said Heal, who has felt the weapon's beam and compares it to having a hot iron placed on the skin. "It will likely be in Iraq in the next 12 months. They are very, very close.'' The weapon, mounted on a Humvee vehicle, projects a "focused, speed-of-light millimeter wave energy beam to induce an intolerable heating sensation,'' according to a U.S. Air Force fact sheet. The energy penetrates less than 1/64 of an inch into the skin and the sensation ceases when the target moves out of the beam. The weapon could be used for crowd control and is effective beyond the range of bullets fired by small arms, Karcher said. The effective range of an AK-47 assault rifle is as far as 273 yards, while an M16A2 rifle has a range of 400 meters. The primary benefit would be protecting U.S. troops, Heal said. The weapon would also limit deaths of noncombatants, he said. "This forces your adversary to declare intentions,'' Heal said. "U.S. forces get killed because they are reluctant to shoot. It happens in Iraq every day." "This is where the future is going,'' Raytheon Chief Executive William Swanson, 55, said at a conference in Tucson, Ariz., where he introduced the weapon to investors Wednesday. "This is the ability to protect our troops, and we're talking about the speed of light.'' Raytheon is two years into a four-year, $40 million development contract, Karcher said. How soon the weapon is deployed will depend on the military's interest, and while the technology may be ready, troops must also be trained on it and engagement rules must be decided by a four-star general, he said. Heal said the military version would cost about $1 million, and the U.S. military could require many. Karcher said the first prototype cost about $10 million. Heal told Bloomberg Business News that Raytheon could expand the market by selling a smaller version to law-enforcement agencies. The company is working on a smaller, tripod-mounted version for police forces, and the price would have to come down to a few hundred thousand dollars each to be affordable, he said. -------- britain Britain ups funding for Iraq, Afghanistan forces LONDON (AFP) Dec 01, 2004 http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041201155753.p58r1z9b.html Britain's military will get an extra 520 million pounds (753 million euros, one billion dollars) to fund its operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown said Wednesday. The additional funds, announced in parliament, brings the expenditures for Britain's role in the two countries to nearly five billion pounds, of which 4.4 billion pounds have already been spent. Overall, Brown added, the Ministry of Defence budget would rise from 29.7 billion pounds this year to 33.4 billion pounds in the 2007-2008 fiscal year. "I can tell the House (of Commons) today that I am setting aside in the special reserve a further 520 million pounds for this year, raising the provision overall to almost five billion pounds," he said. Britain joined the United States in launching the March 2003 war in Iraq, and currently maintains 8,500 troops in the country. It also has 860 soldiers participating in all its Afghanistan operations, which include the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) deployed around the capital Kabul as well as provincial reconstruction teams. -------- europe Del Ponte expected in Bosnia as NATO hands over to EU SARAJEVO (AFP) Dec 01, 2004 http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041201172000.ihkdjlho.html Chief UN war crimes prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, is expected Thursday to press the British commander of a new EU peacekeeping force in Bosnia to step up the hunt for war crimes fugitives, a spokeswoman said. Del Ponte is due to meet EU force (EUFOR) commander General David Leakey in Bosnia on Thursday, the day NATO hands over peacekeeping duties to the nascent EU force. Her spokeswoman, Florence Hartmann, told AFP Del Ponte would call for greater efforts to nab the two most wanted Balkan war crimes fugitives, Bosnian Serb wartime leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic. She would strees the need for "tight cooperation between the international forces present in Bosnia and local authorities in order to end the evasion of justice that has been going on for nine years," Hartmann said. The 7,000-strong EUFOR is to take over peacekeeping from NATO's SFOR, nine years after the country's 1992-95 war, at a ceremony which will be attended by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and NATO head Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. Del Ponte is also due to meet the international community's high representative in Bosnia, Paddy Ashdown, as well as NATO commanders. NATO's mission is generally seen as successful in keeping the peace, but it has failed in repeated attempts to track down war crimes suspects. Del Ponte has been highly critical of what she calls NATO's lack of political will to bring the perpetrators of some of Europe's worst atrocities since World War II to justice. Bosnian Serb authorities have yet to arrest a single war crimes suspect since the end of the conflict. Del Ponte reported to the UN Security Council on the situation last week, complaining that top war crimes suspects were being protected by allies in the former Yugoslav republics of Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia-Montenegro. -------- iraq Saddam 'raided UN arms sites for suicide attacks' independent.co.uk By Patrick Cockburn in Baghdad 01 December 2004 http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=588471 As American forces closed in on Baghdad last year, senior members of Saddam Hussein's government devised a plan to send suicide bombers in vehicles packed with devastating high-energy explosives that were under UN safeguards. The disappearance of the explosive, known as HMX (high melting explosives), in mysterious circumstances at the end of the war caused a few nasty moments for President George Bush's presidential election campaign last month. A letter to Saddam from Dr Naji Sabri, the Iraqi Foreign Minister, five days before the fall of Baghdad, suggests taking the HMX from underground bunkers, where it had been kept under seal by the International Atomic Energy Agency, and giving it to suicide bombers. He wrote: "It is possible to increase the explosive power of the suicide-driven cars by using the highly explosive material [HMX] which is sealed by the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] and stored in the warehouses of the Military Industry Departments." The Iraqi regime took credit for several suicide bombs towards the end of the war. After the fall of Saddam, one of the worst attacks - which killed 22 UN workers and the special envoy, Sergio Vieira de Mello, in August 2003 - had an explosive force that could only have come from military grade explosives. The disappearance of 350 tons of explosives, including 191 tons of HMX, at the time of the war in April last year became a crucial issue in the last weeks of the US presidential election campaign. John Kerry portrayed the failure to secure the explosives, which could have been used to kill US soldiers, as a symbol of Mr Bush's incompetence in Iraq. It now appears that senior officials in the Iraqi government were discussing the removal of the HMX before the fall of Saddam. The letter from Dr Sabri, obtained by The Independent, was sent on 4 April 2003 as US tanks were advancing on Baghdad. It said that the world was getting the impression that Iraqi civilians were co-operating with American soldiers. Dr Sabri suggested that the best way of preventing US troops getting too close to Iraqi civilians was "to target their vehicle checkpoints with suicide operations by civilian vehicles in order to make the savage Americans realise that their contact with Iraqi civilians is as dangerous as facing them on the battlefield". In the last weeks of the US presidential campaign, the Iraqi interim government told the IAEA that the explosives had disappeared from the Al-Qaqaa facility south of Baghdad. The materials were believed to have disappeared after the fall of Baghdad on 9 April because of the failure of US troops to secure them. The mystery of what happened to the explosives may now be partly resolved by Dr Sabri's letter. Because of the special nature of the explosives, the IAEA had placed them under seal in storage bunkers before the war. The foreign ministry would have known what was stored there because it dealt with the IAEA and its monitors. There is no proof that the Iraqi presidency acted on the suggestion but there were a number of suicide bomb attacks on US checkpoints at the time. American soldiers now open fire on any car coming towards them that they deem suspicious. Many civilians have been killed. The letter was given to The Independent by Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi Foreign Minister, in Baghdad yesterday. He said it was found in the ministry's archives. There is no reason to doubt its authenticity. The interim Iraqi government may have known about it for some time but was nervous about releasing it at a moment when it might be accused of intervening in the US presidential election. The letter, marked "confidential and immediate", was sent to Saddam's all-powerful secretary, Abed Hamoud. Advice on making an unconventional military attack might have been expected from the security services. But it may have been that Dr Sabri, unsure about how long the war would last, wanted to show his his loyalty to Saddam. He fled Iraq and lives in Doha, the Qatari capital. -------- israel / palestine Budget row endangers Sharon's coalition Reuters December 1, 2004 http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200412/s1255129.htm Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's shaky coalition faces collapse in a row over the 2005 Budget, raising the prospect of early elections that would endanger his plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip. His largest partner, the secular Shinui Party, has ignited the crisis by saying it would oppose the 2005 Budget at its first reading in Parliament. Mr Sharon's aides say that he would dismiss Shinui if it defies him in the vote. Without Shinui, Mr Sharon would have to bring in the centre-left Labour Party - an option opposed by rebels in his right-wing Likud party - or face a snap election. "If all these efforts fail then we will have no choice but to go for early elections," Uzi Arad, an adviser to Mr Sharon, said. An election almost two years ahead of schedule could lead to an indefinite delay in his plan to "disengage" from conflict with the Palestinians by evacuating all 21 Jewish settlements in occupied Gaza and four of 120 in the West Bank in 2005. "Elections now would endanger the economic and political stability of the state of Israel," Mr Sharon said. But he has not retreated from his threat to eject Shinui if it carries out its threat to reject the Budget in anger at his promise of 290 million shekels ($US64 million) for a religious party in exchange for votes needed to pass the budget bill. Political analysts see Shinui's unyielding stance as a sign that the party, anticipating early elections, does not want to alienate secular supporters by turning a blind eye to what some are calling "bribing" of ultra-Orthodox lawmakers for votes. The Government must pass the Budget by March 31 or resign, but has run into opposition over cuts in social spending. -------- Palestinian violinist slams claim troops didn't force him to play Haaretz By Akiva Eldar December 01, 2004 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/508154.html A Palestinian man photographed playing his violin at the Beit Iba checkpoint near Nablus in the West Bank earlier this month on Tuesday rejected the Israel Defense Forces' claims that he played of his own accord. The findings of an IDF probe into the November 9 incident was presented Tuesday to the head of the IDF's Central Command, Moshe Kaplinksy and showed that the man, Wissam Tayam, was asked by soldiers at the checkpoint to open the violin case for inspection, and began playing, even though he was not asked to do so. After a few seconds, the Civil Administration's officer at the checkpoint asked Tayam to stop playing, the report states. Kaplinsky said Tuesday in response to the findings of the report that the soldiers had shown a lack of sensitivity, but not a lack of respect toward the Palestinian, nor did they intend to ridicule him. The incident was filmed by Horit Herman-Peled, a volunteer for the women's human rights organization Machsom Watch, and reported by Haaretz for the first time last week. The 28-year-old resident of the Farah refugee camp in the northern West Bank studies music at Al Najath University. "I did not offer them to play," he told Haaretz on Tuesday. "They asked me to open the case and show them the instrument, which was fine by me. But then they asked me to play; I did not offer to play. That does not sound logical. They asked me to play something sad, to match their mood. "I felt humiliated," Tayam said Tuesday. "I always identified with the Jews who suffered in Europe [at the time of the Nazis] and after that they come and do the same thing to us." When asked if perhaps the soldiers wanted him to play to ensure that the violin was not booby-trapped or contained explosives, Tayam said, "it doesn't make sense that they thought there were explosives in the violin. If they thought that, they would have made me move some distance from them [before playing], fearing I might blow up. I do not understand why they forced me to play. Most of the soldiers at the checkpoint know me, as I work there twice a week. The problems arise when new soldiers come." The IDF's probe was based partly on testimony given by another Machsom Watch volunteer, Rachel Bar-Or, who witnessed the incident. She told Haaretz on Tuesday that she gave the IDF her testimony before she learned that Tayam vigorously denies playing voluntarily for the soldiers. She said that until she read the violinist's account of the incident in the press, she was more than prepared to believe the soldiers' version of events at the checkpoint. "When I found out that the Palestinian was denying [their story], I had no reason to prefer the IDF?s version of events over his." She said that she and the other volunteers at the checkpoint did not hear the exchange between the soldiers and the violinist, and in addition, the conversation was held in Arabic, which none of the volunteers understand. Another volunteer, Neta Efroni, also claims that the volunteers did not hear the exchange between the Palestinian and the soldiers. Wissam Tayam playing his violin at the Beit Iba checkpoint outside Nablus. The army called the incident 'insensitive.' (Horit Herman-Peled) ----- Grandmothers on Guard At checkpoints in the West Bank, Israeli women are monitoring how the soldiers treat Palestinians. Foundation for National Progress By Joshua Hammer November/December 2004 Issue He Huwwara checkpoint just south of Nablus simmers with routine misery on a sweltering August afternoon. A long line of Palestinians wait to enter the West Bank’s largest city as Israeli troops regard them, stone-faced, from behind a barrier of concrete blocks and sandbags. The troops let the women and children through, but send those Palestinians who’ve not been granted travel permits -- almost all young men -- to a fenced-off detention area topped by a corrugated iron roof. The jora, or pit, is a West Bank purgatory: a pen where Palestinians often languish for hours until they have been cleared by Israel’s internal security arm, the Shin Bet. Amid the jora’s sea of men, an elderly woman hobbles around. Frail and sweating, her head draped in a gray hijab, the woman appeals to the soldiers. Proffering a tattered medical receipt, she explains that her son Mohammed, 25, managed to sneak out of Nablus without a travel permit to accompany her to the doctor in Ramallah. On their way home, he was detained, and she won’t leave without him, even though her doctor ordered her to stay out of the heat. Suddenly, two middle-aged Israeli women walk past the barricade, attracting a mix of curious and hostile glances from the soldiers. Wearing floppy sun hats, khakis, and tennis shoes, Menucha Moravitz, 54, and Roni Klein, 55, look more suited to brunch at a beachfront café in fashionable north Tel Aviv than to this dust-choked bottleneck deep inside the West Bank. Moravitz, a sociology teacher at Open University in Tel Aviv, listens to the woman’s complaint. “This is absurd,” Moravitz says. “The soldiers have a list of wanted men, but they don’t even bother to check it. It’s easier to put young men in the holding pen for hours and deal with them when they get around to it.” She walks toward a swarthy Israeli soldier at the barricade. “I know this soldier,” she mutters. “I met him two weeks ago. He’s not nice at all.” Moravitz begs the soldier to speed up Mohammed’s clearance, but he remains unmoved. “If we’re lenient and allow him through, tomorrow all of them will come with their mothers,” he says with a shrug. For nearly two years, Moravitz has periodically commuted from her comfortable Israeli suburb of Ramat Gan across the Green Line to military checkpoints within the West Bank. Visiting these junctions of Israeli suspicion and Palestinian resentment is an activity that most Israelis would find incomprehensible. But as conditions in the occupied territories have deteriorated, more and more women like Moravitz -- middle-aged, with a liberal or leftist background and time on their hands -- are joining the ranks of Machsom (Checkpoint) Watch. Founded in 2001 by three veteran women peace activists, the group’s volunteer monitors now number more than 400, and their meticulously detailed reports of checkpoint abuses -- published daily on its website -- have become required reading for both the media and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). According to B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights watchdog group, there are more than 40 manned checkpoints inside the West Bank -- forbidding barricades designed to regulate the movement of Palestinians between their towns and villages. Israel maintains that such internal barriers are vital to its security, crippling the ability of Palestinian militant networks to communicate, and preventing the smuggling of suicide bombs into Israel. (The completion of Israel’s 425-mile-long security wall, due by the end of 2004, should eliminate the need for many checkpoints, military spokespeople say.) But human rights groups charge the checkpoints are a gratuitous form of humiliation, and that Israel’s severe restrictions on movement -- such as the routine denial of permits to young Palestinian men -- amount to collective punishment that goes far beyond security concerns. “If they would just check people to make sure they’re not carrying bombs, we wouldn’t object,” says Adi Dagan, a Machsom Watch spokeswoman. “The problem is that the barriers serve as limitations on movement, and have a drastic effect on lives of Palestinians. Palestinians don’t get to university, to work, to hospitals -- the checkpoints totally disrupt civil life.” Machsom Watch has exposed a pattern of abuses at the checkpoints that the group says feeds the rage that leads to the terrorism they’re supposed to prevent. In late July, for example, a 26-year-old university student named Muhammad Cana’an was kicked, beaten, and shot in the arm by an Israeli soldier, apparently without provocation, at a checkpoint near Nablus. After Machsom Watch witnesses reported the incident to the media and the IDF, the soldier was taken into custody -- one of the few times since the start of the Al Aqsa Intifada, in September 2000, that the army has taken action against one of its own. Two days later, several Machsom Watch women near Qalandiya checkpoint outside Ramallah reported that troops had stoned and smashed the windows of a Palestinian taxi. The army, under pressure from the group, imprisoned two of the soldiers -- one for 56 days, the other for 42. “I think they’re doing a terrific service,” said one Israeli reservist officer who asked not to be identified. “We’re a bunch of fascist bastards. The only thing that stops us from looking totally criminal is that the other side is even worse than we are.” Even the IDF brass has come to regard Machsom Watch with grudging acceptance. Soldiers are under orders not to interfere with their activities -- the IDF recognizes that there’s little to be gained from confronting Israeli grandmothers -- the group’s leaders meet with top military officers, and, partly because of Machsom Watch pressure, the IDF recently established a hotline so people can report humanitarian emergencies at checkpoints. “We appreciate what they’re doing. They’re trying to help,” insists Captain Jacob Dallal, an IDF spokesman. “At the same time, they’re not completely aware of the constraints, alerts, and procedures that the soldiers have to work under.” Not everyone in Israel speaks of Machsom Watch so evenhandedly. Nadia Metar, cochair of the Women in Green, an extreme right-wing group, says that Machsom Watch is a group of “fifth columnists who collaborate with the Arab enemy.” Female Jewish settlers are mounting a campaign of harassment of Machsom Watch volunteers at the checkpoints. Monitors have been slapped, punched, and threatened in recent months. In each case, they say, Israeli police and soldiers have stood by and done nothing. In May 2004, two male settlers beat up the Arab-Israeli driver of the van that shuttles the women to the checkpoints and knocked out his false teeth. Daniella Weiss, the mayor of Kedumim, part of a cluster of ideologically hardline settlements near Nablus, admits organizing attacks and says she will carry out more. “I make a lot of effort to stop their activities,” Weiss said. “By their protest, they endanger the lives of people in Israel. There’s no doubt that the soldiers, under the pressure of being watched, sometimes let cars go unchecked, they let people go unchecked.” Weiss, who says the group’s tactics imply the presence of soldiers and settlers in the West Bank “is an occupation, not liberation,” says she’s determined to put them out of business. Asked if she was advocating more violence against Machsom Watch, Weiss replied, “Yes, indeed.” Nursing her cappuccino in a somewhat seedy Tel Aviv café, Yehudit Keshet, a cofounder of Machsom Watch, vows to stand up to Weiss’ threats. “She is trying to frighten us and stop us from doing our work, but she won’t succeed,” says the 61-year-old, who has the pleasantly tousled look of an NYU professor between classes. “Of course I have a desire to punch them in the mouth, but it’s not productive,” she says. “It’s better just to ignore them, to say, ‘You’re meaningless. You are nothing to us.’” -------- landmines Retired generals speak out against landmines at Nairobi conference NAIROBI (AFP) Dec 01, 2004 http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041201142353.p0o8hwks.html Among the champions of an international landmine ban attending a major conference in Nairobi this week was a group of former generals from several countries who Wednesday said the deadly devices offered a false sense of security and were of little military value. Currently, Russia, Nepal, Georgia and Myanmar (Burma) are the only governments known to have used landmines since May 2003, according to the 2004 edition of the Landmine Monitor, published by International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL). "We urge those governments to reconsider using landmines because of the horrific humanitarian disaster," retired US General Robert Gard, 76, a veteran of the wars his country fought in Korea and Vietnam, told AFP. While much of US military policy is in keeping with the spirit of an international treaty banning the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of landmines, the United States is not among the 144 state parties to the so-called Ottawa Convention. The Nairobi meeting was convened to review progress made since the convention came into force in 1999 and to chart the road ahead. "They no longer serve any military purpose, but also offer a false sense of security," Gard said shortly after addressing a press conference. Gard explained that during the Korean war (1950-1953), landmines left behind by US troops near what is now a buffer zone between North and South Korea killed 50 Australian soldiers. In late 1960s, Vietcong guerrillas cleared landmines planted by US marines in Vietnam and used them as booby-traps against American troops. "We lost several men because of our mines," said Gard, pointing out: "In the past, mines planned by US troops around its naval base in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba claimed 23 lives -- 18 US marines and five Cuban civilians," he said. "An anti-personnel carrier (APC) landmine is a constantly loaded weapon that can kill anybody at anytime. It is an indiscriminate and hidden killer," former Ukrainian army artillery commander Lieutenant General Tereshenko Volodimyr said at a news conference. "Basic improvements in military weapons and equipment, ranging from more and better automatic weapons and greater use of protected vehicles to basic sensor suites, have rendered anti-personnel mines redundant," said a statement jointly issued by retired generals from Canada, Argentina, Kenya, Jordan, the Ukraine and the United States. -------- nato NATO to maintain troop strength in fragile Kosovo BRUSSELS (AFP) Dec 01, 2004 http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041201171300.zl1h40s4.html NATO is to maintain its current troop level in Kosovo next year to ensure stability in the fragile Serbian province, which was wracked by inter-ethnic violence in March, an official said Wednesday. The decision to keep the KFOR mission at its current strength of 17,500 was taken by ambassadors at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's top decision-making body, the North Atlantic Council, said the official. The head of the UN mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), Soren Jessen-Petersen, underlined the need for a continued strong military presence in New York earlier this week. "We are entering a crucial phase in Kosovo and it is more than ever essential that we closely synchronise our political strategy with the right level of military preparedness and ability to respond," he said in a report to the UN Security Council. KFOR was widely criticized for not being able to keep a lid on anti-Serb violence which erupted in March, leaving 19 people dead and more than 900 injured, while 29 Orthodox churches and over 900 Serb houses were destroyed. "We had difficulties in coping with that... but we're in better shape now," said the official. NATO rushed in reinforcements at the time, and did so again to ensure security for October elections, bringing KFOR to over 19,000 troops. Kosovo has been under UN and NATO control since 1999 after the NATO alliance launched a bombing campaign to end former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic's crackdown on ethnic Albanians in the province. Wednesday's decision, taken at the level of ambassadors from the 26-member organization, is to due to be formally approved next week at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels. -------- prisoners of war US Army generals told of prisoner abuse before Abu Ghraib photos: report WASHINGTON (AFP) Dec 01, 2004 http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041201163523.o3d0yzze.html A confidential report to a top general in Iraq raised concerns over abuse of prisoners by members of a joint special operations-CIA task force before the Abu Ghraib scandal broke, a Pentagon spokesman confirmed Wednesday. The report by retired colonel Stuart Herrington found that members of Task Force 121 had been abusing detainees throughout Iraq and had been using a secret interrogation facility to hide their activities, The Washington Post reported. "Detainees captured by TF 121 have shown injuries that caused examining medical personnel to note that 'detainee shows signs of having been beaten,'" Herrington said in his 13-page report obtained by the Post. "It seems clear that TF 121 needs to be reined in with respect to its treatment of detainees," he concluded. The report was sent to Major General Barbara Fast, the top intelligence officer in Iraq, on December 12, about a month before detainee abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison was exposed in an investigation by Major General Antonio Taguba. "It obviously raises the some of the same issues we raised in several of the looks we've taken," Pentagon spokesman Lawrence DiRita said. "We had heard from commanders who said they were concerned about how the (Abu Ghraib) prison was being run," he said, adding that those concerns extended beyond organizational issues to prisoner abuse. DiRita stressed, however, that the commanders' concerns came to light only later in investigations set in motion by the Abu Ghraib scandal. He said he did not know how far up the chain of command the Herrington report went or whether Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the US commander in Iraq, had seen it. The Herrington report was cited in an as yet unreleased investigation by Vice Admiral Albert Church, the Navy's inspector general who has been examining detainee operations across the military, he said. The Church report, a draft of which is under review at the Pentagon, will probably not be made public for several weeks, DiRita said. News of the Herrington report, which indicates that detainee abuse in Iraq was not confined to the Abu Ghraib prison, comes a day after a New York Times article on a confidential Red Cross report alleging that prisoner abuse at the US military facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was tantamount to torture. The US government on Tuesday strongly denied the accusations of prisoner abuse at Guantanamo. In his report, Herrington said a US officer in charge of interrogation in Iraq told him that detainees brought in by TF 121 showed signs of having been beaten, and that when asked if he had informed his superiors was told: "Everyone knows about it." Herrington also noted in his report that the abuse of detainees and the practice of arresting thousands of people with no connection to the Iraq war was not making friends of the Iraqis. "Between the losers and dead end elements from the former regime and foreign fighters, there are enough people in Iraq who already don't like us," Herrington wrote. "Adding to these numbers by conducting sweep operations ... is counterproductive to the Coalition's efforts to win the cooperation of the Iraqi citizenry. "Similarly, mistreatment of captives as has been reported to me and our team is unacceptable, and bound to be known by the population." Herrington also found that US soldiers sometimes arrested family members when a person targeted for detention was not at home. The relatives were released when the suspect turned himself in, Herrington said adding that the practice "has a 'hostage' feel to it." ----- Pentagon, analysts hit anti-U.S. bias at Red Cross THE WASHINGTON TIMES By Rowan Scarborough December 01, 2004 http://www.washtimes.com/national/20041201-122434-2465r.htm The International Committee of the Red Cross is breaking with tradition by publicly criticizing the United States for the way it handles terror suspects, say Pentagon officials and outside experts. On at least two occasions in recent months, the ICRC overtly criticized the Bush administration for detaining suspected Taliban and al Qaeda fighters without giving them access to judicial proceedings. The administration has deemed them "enemy combatants" and not members of a formal military organization that would give them the rights of prisoners of war. And yesterday, the New York Times reported on what it said was a Red Cross confidential report detailing the purported abuse of detainees at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A Pentagon spokesman issued a statement denying that its personnel mistreat or torture inmates at Guantanamo, where the United States is holding 550 suspected al Qaeda and Taliban members. Andrew Apostolou, vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said he cannot recall the European-based ICRC ever criticizing other governments, including the regime of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, so harshly. "The problem is they are applying a double standard to the U.S.," said Mr. Apostolou, whose think tank conducts research on the war on terror. "The fact of life is they never undertook these sorts of activities in the recent past against flagrant human rights violators." A Pentagon adviser, who asked not to be named, said in his dealings with the Red Cross, there is always an attitude that "al Qaeda had a moral equivalence to the United States. They didn't trust anything we said." Asked whether there is a belief inside the Pentagon that the ICRC harbors an anti-U.S. bias, the official answered, "Absolutely." The ICRC says it follows a practice of submitting confidential reports so as not to offend the government from which it is seeking better treatment of prisoners. But conservatives see a different pattern when it comes to how the ICRC comments on U.S.-held prisoners in Iraq and terrorists. Some reports have leaked to the press, although the Red Cross denies that it released them. In other cases, the organization has issued public statements lambasting the United States. Mr. Apostolou said the Red Cross is getting pressure from more publicity oriented human rights groups to pummel Washington. And, he said, there is a mantra within some of these organizations that says, "Al Qaeda is weaker than the United States, ergo al Qaeda must be the aggrieved party. ... I think since September 11, human rights groups have been very hostile to what the U.S. has been doing." Frank J. Gaffney, a senior Pentagon official in the Reagan administration who is president of the Center for Security Policy, noted the irony of the ICRC pushing for the rights of al Qaeda terrorists when the Red Cross' mission is to safeguard civilians in time of war. "I find it not only extraordinary, but deeply reprehensible that the ICRC is engaged in this kind of effort to protect and promote the interest of people who clearly have no interest in the fate of civilians," Mr. Gaffney said. "The International Committee of the Red Cross has become, I believe, an agitation operation against American interest for some time, and it should hardly come as a surprise to anyone who has followed their work that they are hostile, if not downright contemptuous, of American security concerns and requirements." Amanda Williamson, spokeswoman for the ICRC's Washington regional delegation, said the organization stays neutral. "I would say one of our guiding principles is neutrality," Ms. Williamson said. "We stay out of politics. We don't pick sides." The Geneva-based ICRC is run by a team of Swiss government employees, former diplomats, lawyers and human rights workers. It is charged with safeguarding Geneva Convention rules for the treatment of detainees and maintains a staff of more than 10,000 in 72 countries. The president since 2000 is Jakob Kellenberger, who holds a doctorate from the University of Zurich and is former Swiss secretary of state for foreign affairs. The director of operations is Pierre Kraehenbuehl, a career field investigator. The Washington regional office, which sends inspection teams to Guantanamo, is directed by Geoff Loane, who most recently headed the Belgrade delegation. Ms. Williamson said the Washington office dispatches a team to Guantanamo every six weeks. It comes after what she called "three golden rules": meeting with each detainee in private, completely inspecting the facility and relaying any messages from detainees to his family. After each round, the team sits down with the camp commander to go over its findings. The military denies any mistreatment and warns that some detainees tell lies. "We did not bring hundreds of innocent civilians off the battlefield," Army Brig. Gen. Jay Hood, who commands the Guantanamo facility, told the Associated Press. "If you listen to every story, I think you'll hear a common drumbeat of this person who tells you he was a rug merchant or whatnot. I think it's all part of a deliberate effort to mislead and to deceive." Some released detainees have gone back to the battlefield in Afghanistan to try to kill Americans and their allies, the Pentagon says. -------- US torture at Guantanamo 'increasingly repressive' independent.co.uk By Andrew Buncombe in Washington 01 December 2004 http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=588470 The Red Cross has accused President George Bush's administration of overseeing the intentional physical and psychological torture of prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay. It also accused doctors and medics of liaising with interrogators in what was a "flagrant violation of medical ethics". In an extraordinary confidential report to the US authorities, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said the military guards and interrogators at the prison deliberately used psychological and physical coercion that was "tantamount to torture". It said the treatment it had witnessed had been increasingly "refined and repressive". The report by the Red Cross - the only independent organisation permitted to visit the prisoners - was written after a visit by its inspection team in June. It said it discovered a system designed to break the will of the 550 prisoners - four of them British citizens - through "humiliating acts, solitary confinement, temperature extremes [and] use of forced positions". It added: "The construction of such a system whose stated purpose is the production of intelligence cannot be considered other than an intentional system of cruel, unusual and degrading treatment and a form of torture." The ICRC refused to confirm the authenticity of the report yesterday, the contents of which were reported by the New York Times. While the organisation previously criticised the treatment of prisoners at the camp, it said it could only ensure its continued access to such prisoners around the world by insisting its comments remained private. "The contents of the ICRC's representations and reports are confidential and for the exclusive attention of the relevant detaining authorities," it said in a statement. "The ICRC uses its exchanges with governments to make clear its concerns and recommendations regarding the situation in places of detention and to demand changes when necessary. Guantanamo Bay is no exception." But while the report is remarkable for the force of its language, the allegations it makes are not new. Earlier this year, four British prisoners who had been released without charge from the jail after more than two years, compiled a detailed report that alleged inmates were subjected to a regime of Abu Ghraib-style torture, abuse and sexual humiliation. Louise Christian, a London-based lawyer who represents two of the four Britons still being held, said last night: "I welcome this report but I wish it had come earlier. I know that Martin Mubanga [one of the prisoners] has complained of torture and I know that Feroz Abbasi [another prisoner] says he has been tortured and subjected to religious and sexual humiliation. All these stories are very consistent with one another." She added: "I hope the US government will stand up and take some notice. This is a scandal that will not go away." The ICRC report also alleges doctors have been assisting interrogators by providing them with information about the mental health of inmates and their vulnerabilities. The Britons released in March claimed that the treatment carried out was carefully choreographed to have maximum impact. Michael Ratner, director of the New York-based Centre for Constitutional Rights, a non-profit group which has filed various lawsuits on behalf of prisoners, said: "This report is remarkable ... [What is happening] is a serious violation of international criminal law. Larry Di Rita, a spokesman for the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said that the Red Cross officials had "made their view known". "It's their point of view [but it is not shared by the administration]," he said. ----- US Downplays Report on Guantanamo Prisoner Abuse (Inter Press Service) by Jim Lobe December 1, 2004 http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=4090 U.S. officials Tuesday insisted that detainees held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been treated "humanely," despite a Red Cross report that concluded interrogators were using psychological and physical techniques that were "tantamount to torture." "We strongly disagree with any characterization that suggests the way detainees are being treated is inconsistent with the policies the president has outlined," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan, who insisted that the Bush administration takes the Red Cross' concerns seriously. "We certainly don't think it's torture," Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told an audience in Indianapolis a short time later. "Let's not forget the kind of people we have down there," he added. "These are the people that don't know any moral values." But human rights groups said the latest disclosure, which was featured in a front-page New York Times story Tuesday, should cause renewed alarms over U.S. detention and interrogation practices, bolstering their long-standing calls for a comprehensive independent investigation. The allegation was made in a confidential report sent to U.S. officials last July by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Noting that the ICRC report covered practices that continued after the disclosure of prisoner abuse by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in April, Deborah Pearlstein of Human Rights First (HRF) said the information was particularly worrisome. "It tells us two things," she said, "that the abuse at Abu Ghraib was only a small piece of a much larger, systematic failure to uphold U.S. and international laws against torture, and that even after that abuse was revealed and condemned as unlawful and immoral by leaders of both political parties, the government failed to act on its moral certainty." According to a memo based on the ICRC report that was obtained by the Times, U.S. detention and interrogation operations at Guantanamo Bay "cannot be considered other than an intentional system of cruel, unusual, and degrading treatment and a form of torture." Among the report's findings, the Red Cross, which is able to carry out the visits in exchange for maintaining confidentiality, described the participation of physicians and other medical staff in providing information about detainees' mental health and their weaknesses to interrogators, as well as the use of "humiliating acts, solitary confinement, temperature extremes, use of forced positions," exposure to loud and continuous noise, and beatings. The report, according to the Times, was received in July and distributed to lawyers at the White House, the Pentagon, and the State Department, as well as the commander of the detention facility at Guantanamo, Gen. Jay Hood. The newspaper said it had recently obtained the memo that quotes the report's major findings at length. According to the Times, ICRC investigators who visited Guantanamo in June found a system carefully designed to break the will of prisoners held there. They also reported the techniques were "more refined and repressive" than those they had learned about during previous visits. The ICRC team reportedly found a far greater incidence of mental illness produced by stress, much of it caused by prolonged solitary confinement, and that the fact that medical staff was cooperating fully with interrogators had resulted in a breakdown in trust between inmates and their doctors. The ICRC report was found by the Times to be consistent with recent interviews it had conducted with military guards and intelligence agents knowledgeable about Guantanamo's operations. It cited one common practice at Camp Delta, the main prison facility, which was applied to uncooperative detainees. They were forced to strip to their underwear, sit in a chair while shackled hand and foot to the floor, and then subjected to strobe lights and loud rock and rap music while the air-conditioning was turned to maximum levels. Reed Brody, counsel for Human Rights Watch (HRW), which has also called for an independent probe of U.S. detention and interrogation practices, said the accounts were also consistent with the findings of his group. The report also corroborated the complaints of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, whose military commission trial was stopped Nov. 8 by a federal court and is now pending before the Supreme Court. He had reported months-long solitary confinement that, according to a psychiatrist, "placed him at significant risk for future psychiatric deterioration" and may significantly impair "his ability to assess his legal situation and assist defense counsel." In an interview with IPS, Scott Horton, a prominent New York attorney and expert on the Geneva Conventions who has been in frequent contact with career attorneys at the Pentagon, said the practices apparently detailed by the ICRC are consistent with a lengthy report on detention and interrogation policies by a working group appointed by Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld in 2003. That report, which was drafted without the input of senior career military attorneys or the State Department, drew heavily on controversial memoranda prepared by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel and approved by White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales, who President George W. Bush has just been nominated to be attorney general. One of those memos concluded that Bush, as commander-in-chief during wartime, was not bound either by the United Nations Convention Against Torture or by a federal anti-torture statute. Another memo found that an interrogation tactic would not provide sufficiently "severe harm" to constitute torture unless it produced pain associated with organ failure or death. The opinions expressed in the memos have been widely condemned as immoral, unconstitutional, and unprofessional by many of the country's most prominent jurists, including the past seven presidents of the American Bar Association, as well as by the 400,000-member group itself. Horton said most of the career attorneys with whom he has been in contact agreed with the administration that the techniques described in the ICRC report did not constitute "torture," but that they do amount at least to "cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment," which is also banned under the Geneva Conventions. "Remember that the Red Cross is saying this is 'tantamount to torture,' which means it may not meet the strictest definition of the word, but it certainly amounts to cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment," he said. "To say it's torture, we'd have to know more detail about this. But the Red Cross is THE authority on this issue, and if they say it's tantamount to torture, it's going to take a long time to convince me otherwise," added Horton. "When DOD [the Department of Defense] puts out these blanket denials, they have a serious credibility problem because of those [Justice Department] memos," he added, noting that military lawyers who have complained about the Pentagon's attitude are now increasingly concerned about the future of the U.S.' relationship to the ICRC. "They think that the relationship of trust that has been built up over many years has been badly damaged," said Horton. "The Pentagon's political leadership, on the other hand, just thinks this is a public relations problem." HRF pointed out that, despite more than 300 reported instances of torture committed by U.S. personnel in Iraq, Afghanistan, and at Guantanamo, less than two dozen individuals – all of them low-ranking – have been charged with a crime. Moreover, despite a finding by one Pentagon investigation commission last summer that there was "both institutional and personal responsibility at higher levels" for the abuses at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere, no institutions or senior commanders have been held responsible. -------- russia / chechnya Schröder and Putin's 'cosy' relationship under scrutiny The Financial Times By Bertrand Benoit in Berlin December 1 2004 http://news.ft.com/cms/s/2f829f14-43c7-11d9-af06-00000e2511c8.html There may be no direct link between the political crisis in Kiev and the Russian government's forced dismemberment of Yukos, the embattled oil company. Yet in Germany, the two events have shone an uncomfortable spotlight on the close relationship Gerhard Schröder, the chancellor, has forged with Vladimir Putin - arguably the cosiest between the Russian president and a western head of government. Critics of Mr Schröder's Russia policy, including many in his Social Democratic party, have accused the chancellor of an excessive focus on securing access for German companies to Russia's market and energy resources. This, they say, has led Mr Schröder to disregard human rights abuse in Chechnya, Mr Putin's efforts to centralise political and economic power in his hands, and his backing of Viktor Yanukovich, the Ukrainian prime minister and disputed winner of the presidential election. As demonstrators were taking to the streets of Kiev and western criticism of Mr Putin's involvement in Ukraine rose, Mr Schröder was describing the Russian president as a "dyed-in- the-wool democrat". In a speech to parliament, he said the trouble in Ukraine would not distract him from his goal of seeking to establish a "strategic partnership" with Russia. This week, meanwhile, government officials confirmed that Berlin was actively encouraging German energy companies to invest in the Russian energy sector. Bernd Pfaffenbach, deputy economics minister, told Financial Times Deutschland, the FT's sister newspaper: "Russia represents a huge opportunity and we Germans have privileged access to the market. There are signs that we might even be able to play a role in exploration." Eon - which already holds a 6 per cent stake in Gazprom through its subsidiary Ruhrgas - and RWE, Germany's leading power groups, have told the FT they might consider extending their interests in Russia, and would look at the assets of Yukos that are being forcibly auctioned this month. German energy chiefs have regularly accompanied Mr Schröder on his Russian trips and the chancellor is known to have struck a personal friendship with Mr Putin, a fluent German speaker since his cold war days as Russia's top spy in Leipzig. Their next meeting will take place on December 20 at Gottorf castle in north Germany. This friendship, Mr Schröder's critics fear, could bind the chancellor's hands just when the west needs to exercise firmness in its conversation with the increasingly authoritarian Russian leader. Supporters of the chancellor argue his access to Mr Putin has allowed him to mediate in the Ukrainian crisis. The two men have talked on the phone twice in the past two weeks and a German government spokesman said on Tuesday they had agreed to support fresh elections in Ukraine. Joschka Fischer, the German foreign minister, recently defended the finely calibrated policy. "Germany, Europe and the world need Russia as a strategic partner," he told the Bild tabloid. "No one should underestimate the significance of Mr Putin's decision to open his country to the west." -------- spies Analysis: Tenet calls for tough cyber security rules UPI Dec. 1, 2004 By SHAUN WATERMAN http://interestalert.com/brand/siteia.shtml?Story=st/sn/12010000aaa02cfe.upi&Sys=print&Fid=WORLDNEW&Type=News&Filter=World WASHINGTON, (UPI) -- Former CIA Director George Tenet called Wednesday for tough new security measures to guard against attacks on the United States using the Internet, which he called "a potential Achilles heel for our financial stability and physical security." "I know that these actions will be controversial in this age when we still think the Internet is a free and open society with no control or accountability," Tenet told an IT security conference in Washington, "but ultimately the Wild West must give way to governance and control." The national media, including United Press International, were excluded from the event at Tenet's request, organizers said, but UPI was given an account of the speech by a member of the audience. The quotes were verified by a source close to the former director. Tenet's speech articulated widely shared concerns among U.S. intelligence and homeland security officials that telecommunications -- and specifically the Internet -- represent a backdoor through which terrorists and other enemies of the United States can attack the country, even though some progress has been made in securing the physical infrastructure. The Internet, Tenet said, "represents a potential Achilles heel for our financial stability and physical security if the networks we are creating are not protected." "Efforts at physical security will not be enough," he argued, "because the thinking enemy that we confront is going to school on our network vulnerabilities," leveraging the possibility that the Internet gave them to "work anonymously and remotely" with little risk of apprehension. He said that there were "known adversaries conducting research on information attacks," including "intelligence services, military organizations and non-state actors." Robert Bagnall, a former military intelligence officer who specializes in computer security for small and medium-sized companies, said that Islamic terror groups like al-Qaida currently appeared to lack the expertise to stage successful cyber attacks on their own. But he added that their capacities were growing every day and that there was also a blossoming market in "hacking for hire," which posed a very real threat. "These guys are very good," he said of the professionals. "It's how they make they make their living. You aren't talking about kids in a basement any more." Bagnall said that organized crime could provide the nexus between professional hackers and terror groups. "The guys who are going to bring that expertise to them are the Russian mob," he told UPI. Many worry that the United States' capacity to secure its networks and respond to attacks is growing much more slowly than the capacity of its enemies to mount those attacks. Within the federal government, the Department of Homeland Security has the lead role in protecting the United States from Internet terrorism. But the department's head of cyber security recently quit suddenly, amid reports that he had clashed with his superiors. "The department's cyber security program is not where it needs to be," John Gannon, staff director of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, told UPI last month. The committee recently produced legislation that would raise the rank of the post Amit Yoran held to the assistant secretary level. "Elevating the post (of cyber-security chief) to assistant secretary level (in the legislation) was a sign of our concern about the progress they were making," Gannon said. Not all experts share Tenet's concerns. Former senior federal cyber security official F. Lynn McNulty told UPI it was important to keep the problem in perspective. "In terms of potential damage, losses and other consequences, the old-school threats remain the most serious," he said, referring to truck bombs, suicide hijackings and other conventional terrorist techniques. "We may overestimate the capabilities of the attacker, especially to launch a major frontal assault," he cautioned. But Tenet, who left the CIA in July after serving as director for seven years, warned that al-Qaida, though its first-tier leadership had been largely destroyed, remained "a sophisticated, intelligent organization with enormous capability." The second-tier leadership that was emerging, he added, oversaw "a global, decentralized movement" whose "ability to thrive" depended crucially on the Internet, which enabled them to share information from explosives recipes to the best ways to get into Iraq undetected. The group, he said, was "undoubtedly mapping vulnerabilities and weaknesses in our telecommunications networks." However, McNulty, while acknowledging the cyber terror threat is real, stressed it was important not to overstate the nation's vulnerabilities. "In many cases, our networks and our critical infrastructure are much more robust than they get credit for," he told UPI recently. McNulty said the key U.S. vulnerability was to "low-level attacks ... not a single catastrophic attack that ripples out across the country." On this, Tenet was in agreement. "I am not worried about a Pearl Harbor," he said. "I'm worried about how they could use an isolated attack to play off what they do physically." Others, like science fiction writer Bruce Sterling, have framed the danger as "not so much a digital Sept. 11, but rather a digital Mogadishu," a reference to the lawless and warlord-dominated capital of Somalia. Under this conception, the key vulnerability is represented by the fact that a network is only as secure as its weakest link. The United States was "at a crossroads," Tenet said, pointing out that the technological transformation of key industries was making them more vulnerable. "More critical industries previously isolated from Internet-security problems are reaching the point where the legacy infrastructure will have to be retired." The danger was that more modern systems were based on "a fragile infrastructure" -- networks where weak security was endemic, because they were "only as secure as the weakest link in the customer chain." Howard Schmitt, former head of security for the Internet auction house eBay and now a government cyber security consultant, pointed out in a recent speech that "the attack vector has changed" for Internet attacks. No longer were networks being attacked at the center, he said, but rather through customer or other "downstream" accounts, thousands of which were compromised every day by hackers and other criminals. He said that only 16 percent of Internet users changed their passwords more than once a year and that nearly two-thirds used the same one or two passwords for all their online accounts. "If the end user, who is now part of the network, is not secure," Schmitt said, "we're not secure." Tenet said that, for just this reason, access to some networks might need to be limited to those who could prove they took security seriously. McNulty agreed that there would have to be "some retreat from the Wild West" concept of the Internet as an ungoverned space. "It has become such an integral part of people's lives," he argued, "that they will demand from policymakers and legislators the laws and regulations needed to protect it." Tenet suggested that this might not be enough, arguing that the very technology underlying the Internet was vulnerable because of its open structure. "New attacks have raised questions about the trustworthiness of the Internet and Internet protocol technologies," he said. He called for industry to lead the way by "establishing and enforcing" security standards. Products needed to be delivered to government and private-sector customers "with a new level of security and risk management already built in." ----- Road to CIA reform Washington Times By Ron Marks December 01, 2004 http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20041130-084448-6765r.htm Reading the press of late, you would think Director of Central Intelligence Porter Goss' move to replace senior staff at Langley is causing an intelligence "riot." A daily litany of resignations is paraded about in unattributed comments from "former officials" as sure proof that the walls are collapsing and that the nation is facing an intelligence catastrophe. This is simply not the case. The disappointing cries of former officeholders who forget that government employee lease but do not own their positions of trust — are embarrassing, to the leakers, and a continuing puzzlement to our friends overseas. With this effort to build his own team, Mr. Goss has taken the first steps on the long journey to true intelligence reform. The sad truth is that American intelligence has been a backwater since the end of the Cold War more than a decade ago. Under the Clinton administration, one-third of the intelligence community's budget and personnel were cut and no structural reform was undertaken to deal with a new, very different world. The Bush administration, overwhelmed by the day-to-day challenges of September 11, has finally been able to make its first best shot at reform. Nevertheless, whether Congress succeeds in passing an intelligence reform bill or not, three fundamental challenges must still be met by Mr. Goss in order to create a new, sharper and more effective American intelligence apparatus for the 21st century. The first challenge is how to handle the large influx of personnel being proposed for the spy world. The president has declared that the United States should add an additional 50 percent more personnel to both the field operatives and the headquarters analysts. This new, fresh blood will be a welcome addition to the fight against terrorism. However, it is crucial that both the operations and analytical sides that receive this comparatively large influx deploy some form of significant workforce planning, a more robust matching of skills development and a sharper view of personnel deployment than in the past. Both directorates must move beyond the days when new staff were treated as their own "best" personnel managers. Former CIA director George Tenet was correct about one thing — it does take five years to develop a trained intelligence officer who truly understands his or her mission and work. The X-Box generation, however, is not going to tolerate the sloppy personnel practices of the past. New recruits should be encouraged and developed in adroit ways. Over the last decade, the military has been truly successful at developing a "corporate" military whose stunning victories in Afghanistan and Iraq stand witness to this work. The intelligence community should learn from the Pentagon success story. Second, the X-Box generation should not be stuffed into the same old bureaucratic structure at Langley. Both the operations directorate and the analytical directorate can ill afford to continue the same failed management paradigms that have brought us to this current sorry state. On the operations side, it is crucial that people be placed in the field as soon as possible after training. Moreover, they must be placed under imaginative "non-official" covers that move them away from any apparent connection with the government. If a silly, deluded kid from California can manage to get into Osama Bin Laden's training camp, a skilled operations officer with a good cover should be able to do the same. On the analytical side, where so many of the recent intelligence failures have occurred, the entire system needs revamping. This directorate must become a looser organization that allows its analysts to more easily access the outside world. Too often today, the analysts are forced to reinvent the wheel out of a false concern over security. Moreover, analysts should have their material looked at through the looking glass of alternative analyses, where differing views are given more than lip service. Finally, analysts are being overwhelmed by information. It is incumbent to reach out to the private sector and find analytical tools that will help make their jobs easier. The third challenge for Mr. Goss will be the toughest — improving Langley's interactions with the new national security world in which it swims. The culture of secrecy runs deep at Langley. So does the culture of bureaucratic protectionism, in which the intelligence community engages in a game of "hide the intelligence ball" with the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense. While efforts by the president and Congress to restructure roles will have some positive impact, Langley must recognize that it must share information with law enforcement and the military in order to meet the security needs of the nation. The legal and bureaucratic barriers of the pre-September 11 days are for the most part gone. However, the attitude that outsiders cannot be trusted must stop. Perhaps as Mr. Goss' new leadership steps into place this will change as well. These basic reforms will not be easy. Mistakes will be made along the way. Mr. Goss is going to be flying the plane and building it at the same time. However, he has the support of a willing president with a mandate from the people to take on reform. Never has intelligence played a more important role, on a daily basis, in protecting the American people from harm. Intelligence reform is not a short hike, but a long, complex journey. Ron Marks, a former CIA officer, served as intelligence counsel to Sens. Robert Dole and Trent Lott. -------- un U.N. Panel Rejects Bush Stance on Military Action Washington Post By Colum Lynch December 1, 2004 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23416-2004Nov30.html UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 30 -- An influential U.N.-appointed panel challenged the Bush administration's right to use military force against an enemy that does not pose an imminent military threat. The 16-member panel, which was appointed by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, said in a long-awaited report that only the U.N. Security Council has the legal standing to authorize such a "preventive war." The panel's findings reflect persistent international unease over the U.S. invasion of Iraq last year without an explicit council endorsement, noting that "there is little evident international acceptance of the idea of security being best preserved by a balance of power, or by any single -- even benignly motivated -- superpower." It also recommends the establishment of five guidelines that must be met before force can be legitimately used -- including a determination that force is used as a last resort and that the threat is serious. "If there are good arguments for preventive military action, with good evidence to support them, they should be put to the Security Council," the report said. But "in a world full of perceived potential threats, the risk of the global order . . . is simply too great for the legality of unilateral preventive action . . . to be accepted." Richard Grenell, a spokesman to the U.S. mission to the United Nations, said the Bush administration will withhold comment on the report until it is formally released Thursday. "We will review this report with an eye towards how, if at all, the recommendations will improve the workings of the Security Council." The panel's reform initiative comes as Annan is facing fresh attacks from conservatives who cite new evidence that Annan's son, Kojo, received secret payments from a company that profited from the U.N.-administered oil-for-food program. Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, is expected to call for Annan's resignation in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, citing his failure to exercise effective oversight over the program. The U.N. chief commissioned the panel -- which is headed by former Thai prime minister Anand Panyarachun and includes former U.S. national security adviser Brent Scowcroft -- to confront new threats to international security. They said the major threats include poverty, disease, civil war, terrorism, organized crime, weapons of mass destruction, and the ongoing disputes in the Middle East and Kashmir. "Many people believe that what passes for collective security today is simply a system for protecting the rich and powerful," the report said. "Without mutual recognition of threats there can be no collective security." The 95-page report calls on states to define and aggressively confront terrorism, eradicate poverty that fuels extremism and enlarge the Security Council to extend the influence of the world's emerging powers. It also urges the 15-nation council to refer cases of genocide and large-scale war crimes to the International Criminal Court, a recommendation expected to engender fierce opposition from the United States. The report endorses the "emerging norm" that the Security Council has an obligation to intervene militarily "as a last resort" to prevent genocide, ethnic cleansing and other cases of mass killing that governments "have proved powerless or unwilling to prevent." Annan, who recently charged that the U.S. invasion of Iraq was illegal, is expected to dedicate his final two years as secretary general to implementing many of the panel's key findings. U.N. officials say Annan hopes that reforms included in the report will be part of his legacy. But the 101 recommendations contained in the report have already fueled resistance from governments that oppose specific proposals -- particularly a plan to enlarge the Security Council. The composition of the council reflects the balance of power at the end of World War II, in which the five key victors -- the United States, Britain, Russia, China and France -- possess permanent seats with veto power and 10 other countries serve two-year terms. Efforts to expand it over the past 12 years have encountered intense resistance from countries that are likely to be excluded from an enlarged council. India, Brazil, Japan and Germany have opposed any proposals that would deny them an opportunity to become permanent members with veto rights. In an effort to bridge the gap, the panel developed two competing proposals, including a plan to add six permanent seats without veto power and three two-year seats. The other option calls for the creation of eight new seats for countries that would be elected to four-year terms with the possibility of reelection. This plan would call for one new two-year term. The report also identifies several shortcomings in the United Nations that have eroded international confidence in the organization. For instance, it criticizes the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, a 53-member body that frequently blocks action against the world's worst human rights violators, for "a legitimacy deficit that casts doubts on the overall reputation of the United Nations." It also faulted the General Assembly, saying that the United Nations' most representative body "suffers from a loss of vitality and often fails to focus effectively on the most compelling issues of the day." And it calls for the elimination of the Trusteeship Council, which has largely completed its core function of overseeing the decolonization of Europe's former colonies. -------- us More Robot Grunts Ready for Duty By Noah Shachtman Dec. 01, 2004 Wired http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,65885,00.html?tw=wn_story_page_prev2 ORLANDO, Florida -- Hunting for guerillas, handling roadside bombs, crawling across the caves and crumbling towns of Afghanistan and Iraq -- all of that was just a start. Now, the Army is prepping its squad of robotic vehicles for a new set of assignments. And this time, they'll be carrying guns. As early as March or April, 18 units of the Talon -- a model armed with automatic weapons -- are scheduled to report for duty in Iraq. Around the same time, the first prototypes of a new, unmanned ambulance should be ready for the Army to start testing. In a warren of hangar-sized hotel ballrooms in Orlando, military engineers this week showed off their next generation of robots, as they got the machines ready for the war zone. "Putting something like this into the field, we're about to start something that's never been done before," said Staff Sgt. Santiago Tordillos, waving to the black, 2-foot-six-inch robot rolling around the carpeted floor on twin treads, an M249 machine gun cradled in its mechanical grip. For years, the Pentagon and defense contractors have been toying with the idea of sending armed, unmanned ground vehicles, or UGVs, into battle. Actually putting together the robots was a remarkably straightforward job, said Tordillos, who works in the Army's Armaments Engineering and Technology Center. Ordinarily, the Talon bomb-disposal UGV comes equipped with a mechanical arm, to pick up and inspect suspicious objects. More than a hundred of the robots are being used in Iraq and Afghanistan, with an equal amount on order from the UGV's maker, Waltham, Massachusetts-based firm Foster-Miller. For this new, lethal Talon model, Foster-Miller swapped the metal limb for a remote-controlled, camera-equipped, shock-resistant tripod, which the Marines use to fire their guns from hundreds of feet away. The only difference: The Marines' version relies on cables to connect weapons and controllers, while the Talon gets its orders to fire from radio signals instead. "We were ready to send it a month ago," Tordillos said. Navigating the Pentagon bureaucracy and putting together the proper training manuals are what's keeping the Talon stateside, for now. Back in December 2003, the Army's 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division tested an armed Talon in Kuwait. Now, the brigade wants 18 of the UGVs to watch the backs of its Stryker armored vehicles. Four cameras and a pair of night-vision binoculars allow the robot to operate at all times of the day. It has a range of about a half-mile in urban areas, more in the open desert. And with the ability to carry four 66-mm rockets or six 40-mm grenades, as well as an M240 or M249 machine gun, the robots can take on additional duties fast, said GlobalSecurity.org director John Pike. "It's a premonition of things to come," Pike said. "It makes sense. These things have no family to write home to. They're fearless. You can put them places you'd have a hard time putting a soldier in." It's the same goal Army-funded researchers are keeping in mind as they develop an unmanned ambulance. The Robotic Extraction Vehicle, or REV, is a 10-foot-long, 3,500-pound robot that can tuck a pair of stretchers -- and life-support systems -- beneath its armored skin. The idea is for battlefield medics to stabilize injured soldiers, and then send them back to a field hospital in the REV. But the REV also carries an electrically powered, 600-pound, six-wheeled robot with a mechanical arm that can drag a wounded fighter to safety if there isn't a flesh-and-blood soldier around. Ordinarily, it takes two to four men to get the wounded out of harm's way. Patrick Rowe, with Applied Perception of Pittsburgh, said he hopes the REV will cut that number, maybe by half. The firm is scheduled to show off prototypes of the robots to the Army's Telemedicine & Advanced Technology Research Center in March. But this early version will be limited, Howe said. Ideally, the REV would drive around on its own, with no help from human operators. In practice, the robot would either be driven by a person with a joystick, or it would get around by itself by sticking to carefully preplanned routes. As the limited performances in the Pentagon's robot off-road rally in March showed, unmanned drivers are still pretty lousy at handling open, unknown terrain. That's one of the reasons why iRobot's new UGV will still have a steering wheel inside, so it can be driven by a human, too. The company -- best known for its Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner and the PackBot UGVs that the Army has been using to clear bombs and explore suspected terrorist hideouts in the Middle East -- is now working with agricultural equipment manufacturer John Deere to build a cargo-hauling robot. The M-Gator is a six-wheeled, diesel mini-Jeep that soldiers use to schlep about 1,400 pounds of gear. IRobot wants to have a robotic version ready by next year, so it can show it off to the Army and try to get funding for a full line of the vehicles, which would work as mechanical pack mules. The company hopes to be in production by 2006. By then, the armed Talon will have been in operation for about a year, if all goes according to plan. And for those of you who might be worried about the robot getting loose with a "runaway gun," Tordillos orders you to relax. "The thing is not shooting on its own. You've got to have these," he said, waving a set of small, silvery keys, which fit into a lock on the Talon's briefcase-sized controller. A single switch causes the robot to reboot and return to safe mode. GlobalSecurity.org's Pike isn't worried about the Talon going haywire. He's concerned about what the armed UGV represents for the future. "This opens up great vistas, some quite pleasant, others quite nightmarish. On the one hand, this could make our flesh-and-blood soldiers so hard to get to that traditional war -- a match of relatively evenly matched peers -- could become a thing of the past," he said. "But this might also rob us of our humanity. We could be the ones that wind up looking like Terminators, in the world's eyes." -------- U.S. Death Toll in Iraq Ties Record Associated Press ROBERT BURNS Dec. 01, 2004 http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/10306663.htm WASHINGTON - Fueled by fierce fighting in Fallujah and insurgents' counterattacks elsewhere in Iraq, the U.S. military death toll for November equalled the highest for any month of the war, according to casualty reports available Tuesday. At least 135 U.S. troops died in November. That is the same number as last April, when the insurgence flared in Fallujah and elsewhere in the so-called Sunni Triangle where U.S. forces and their Iraqi allies lost a large measure of control. On Nov. 8, U.S. forces launched an offensive to retake Fallujah, and they have engaged in tough fighting in other cities since then. More than 50 U.S. troops have been killed in Fallujah since then, although the Pentagon has not provided a casualty count for Fallujah for more than a week. From the viewpoint of the United States and Iraqis who are striving to restore stability, the casualty trend since the interim Iraqi government was put in power June 28 has been troubling. Each month's death toll has been higher than the last, with the single exception of October, when it was 63. The monthly totals grew from 42 in June to 54 in July to 65 in August and to 80 in September. The Pentagon's official death toll for Iraq, dating to the start of the war, stood at 1,254 on Tuesday. That total did not include a Marine killed Monday in Anbar province and a 1st Infantry Division soldier who died of wounds sustained in a roadside bomb attack late Monday night near the town of Alazu. On Nov. 1 the official death toll stood at 1,121. Combat injuries increased in November due to the fierce fighting in Fallujah. Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington reported Monday that it received 32 additional battle casualties from Iraq over the past two weeks. One was in critical condition. All 32 had been treated earlier at the Army's largest hospital in Europe, Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. Some of the most severe injuries - and many of the deaths - among U.S. troops in Iraq are inflicted by the insurgents' homemade bombs, which the military calls improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. U.S. forces have put extraordinary effort into countering the IED threat, yet it persists. U.S. troops in Fallujah reported finding nearly as many homemade explosives over the past three weeks as had been uncovered throughout Iraq in the previous four months combined. In recent action in Fallujah, troops found at least 650 homemade bombs, Bryan Whitman, a spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, said Monday. That compares with 722 found throughout the country between July 1 and October 31. The IEDs are rigged to detonate by remote control and often are hidden along roadways used by U.S. forces, to deadly effect. Since U.S. forces invaded Fallujah on Nov. 8 to regain control, they have found about a dozen IED "factories," a number of vehicles being modified to serve as car bombs, and at least 10 surface-to-air missiles capable of downing aircraft, Whitman said. More than half of the approximately 100 mosques in Fallujah were used as fighting positions or weapon storage sites, Whitman said, citing a U.S. military report that has not been released publicly. U.S. officials knew insurgents had used Fallujah as a haven from which to plan and organize resources for attacks in Baghdad and other cities in the Sunni Triangle north and west of the capital, but the amount of weapons found exceeded expectations. Rumsfeld told a Pentagon news conference last Tuesday that the kinds and amount of weapons found in Fallujah indicated the insurgents pose a serious and continuing threat. "No doubt attacks will continue in the weeks and months ahead, and perhaps intensify as the Iraqi election approaches," Rumsfeld said, referring to national elections scheduled for Jan. 30. Whitman said other discoveries in Fallujah include: _Plastic explosives and TNT. _A hand-held Global Positioning System receiver for use in navigation. _Makeshift shoulder-fired rocket launchers, rocket-propelled grenades, 122mm rockets and thousands of mortar rounds. _An anti-aircraft artillery gun. _More than 200 major weapons storage areas. ON THE NET Military casualty statistics at http://web1.whs.osd.mil/mmid/casualty/castop.htm The Defense Department at http://www.defenselink.mil ----- Wounded or Disabled But Still on Active Duty In Attitude Shift, Military Aims to Retain Soldiers Washington Post By Anne Hull December 1, 2004 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23345-2004Nov30.html After an anti-tank mine destroyed his foot and part of his leg in Iraq, Capt. David Rozelle, 31, considered his future. In another era, the commander of a cavalry troop would have been heralded for his bravery and likely issued a medical retirement. But Rozelle experienced a different message while hospitalized at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. Nearly every officer who visited his room cheered on a comeback. The Texas native spent the next nine months swimming, weight lifting, mountain biking and getting used to running with an artificial leg. He passed the necessary physical fitness tests given by the Army medical board and was declared fit for duty. Next year, Rozelle is slated to deploy to Iraq as the commander of a 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment headquarters troop. "I see so many young men that say, 'Hell, yeah, I want to continue to serve and fight,' " Rozelle said. In a shift in military culture, the U.S. armed forces have recently announced new efforts to keep seriously wounded or disabled soldiers on active duty. Although there is no clear written policy, the sentiment is being echoed down from the White House. "When we're talking about forced discharge, we're talking about another age and another" military, President Bush told wounded soldiers at Walter Reed last year. "This is a new age, and this is a new [military]. Today, if wounded service members want to remain in uniform and can do the job, the military tries to help them stay." Military commanders cite advances in medical technology as the main reason for the shift. Better prosthetics -- such as Rozelle's $7,000 leg -- are allowing some of the wounded to regain their fitness and continue to serve. Others say the military's new attitude toward the disabled is simply mirroring society's. But one observer says the change is also practical. In an era of constant deployment, the Pentagon needs a more flexible and diversified workforce, said Laura Miller, a military sociologist with the Rand Corp. "Part of this is a response to the stress on the all-volunteer forces due to the war on terror," Miller said. "And part of it is adapting to future warfare: smaller expeditionary forces that can respond to a variety of missions, including peacekeeping and humanitarian. Why throw away someone with years of training and expertise, only to re-train someone new?" Although much of the nation's attention has focused on the more than 1,250 U.S. troops who have died in Iraq, more than 9,300 have been wounded, and the number climbs daily. Various service branches say they are trying to do a better job helping the wounded through the paperwork and medical board evaluations, but backlogs remain. In April, the Army formed the Disabled Soldier Support System, or DS3, a resource network available to soldiers who are 30 percent or more disabled -- paralysis or the loss of a limb or an eye. The DS3 helps soldiers weigh their options regarding retirement or trying to stay on active duty. The Army estimates that almost 900 of those injured in Iraq are eligible for the program. Amputations account for 2.4 percent of all wounded in action in the Iraq war -- twice the rate in World War I and World War II, said Chuck Scoville, the amputee program manager of Walter Reed. Sophisticated body armor and medical techniques in the battlefield have preserved lives but not necessarily limbs. Available figures through Aug. 31 show that Army hospitals have treated 138 amputees from Iraq. That number includes those who have lost hands, feet, arms or legs, and does not include the loss of fingers or toes. About 90 percent of severely injured soldiers decide after a year to take medical retirement, according to an Army estimate. Those who want to stay on active duty must prove that they can meet certain physical requirements; many may be deemed unfit to return to their original jobs. Several officers who spoke recently at the annual meeting of the Association of the United States Army emphasized the more welcoming policy toward retaining disabled soldiers. "Our view is that once a soldier, always a soldier, and the Army is looking for ways to keep a number of them on active duty rather than medically retiring them," said Lt. Gen. Franklin L. Hagenbeck, the Army's deputy chief of staff for personnel. He has pledged to personally review the case of any military amputee who feels unfairly treated. The dictates from the top do not always trickle down to the company or unit level. Spec. Garth Stewart lost his leg in a land-mine explosion in Iraq. After receiving a prosthesis at Walter Reed -- Stewart was the subject of a Washington Post article last year on amputee soldiers -- he set a goal of returning to his job as a mortar man with the 3rd Infantry Division. At Fort Benning, Stewart, 23, completed hand-to-hand combat school and unloaded dozens of 100-pound ammo boxes in field exercises. But running long distances was difficult. His stump would swell and blister. He was reassigned to work in the gymnasium. "The Department of Defense might say one thing, but there's always going to be some brand-spanking-new commander out there, and the last thing he wants is a liability," said Stewart, who took medical retirement last month and is applying to college. David E. Autry, spokesman for Disabled American Veterans, one of the nation's largest veterans service groups, said he wishes the government would focus more on making sure that transitioning service members and veterans receive quality health care and timely access to benefits. But Autry applauds the Pentagon's new spirit. "I suspect that there will be wonderful success stories and fairly miserable failures," he said. "You've got a soldier with a $20,000 computerized leg. If he gets deployed back to Iraq, if it gets sand and crud in it, it gives out, who's gonna fix it?" Rozelle will see for himself when he returns to Iraq in the spring. "I'm gonna take a spare leg with me to war," he said. "If I need one, I'll e-mail my prosthetist and say, 'Send me a leg.' " -------- war crimes National security interests defence examined by war crimes court THE HAGUE (AFP) Dec 01, 2004 http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041201170337.ki4gw57k.html The International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) began examining Wednesday whether NATO members can withhold evidence by arguing that it is in their national security interests to do so. Until now judges on the tribunal, which is mainly hearing war crimes charges arising from the Balkans wars in the 1990s, have accepted claims from Alliance members that certain information could compromise their national security. But lawyers for former Yugoslav army chief Dragoljub Ojdanic asked the court to demand that NATO members, including the United States and Britain, provide recordings of conversations from early 1999 involving or evoking him. A lawyer representing the United States, Clifton Johnson, called for in camera hearings because "inevitably, the discussion on the application will touch repeatedly on matters of national security." But the judges have refused to hold the sittings, which are expected to run until Friday, behind closed doors. Ojdanic's lawyer, Peter Robinson, argued that his client's "extraordinary request" was filed simply because he is not guilty. "He never planned, instigated or ordered war crimes. He never deported Albanians from Kosovo. His standing orders were that war crimes be prevented," Robinson said. General Ojdanic was part of the inner circle of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, himself on trial in The Hague, and in charge of the army during the war in Kosovo in 1999. He has been accused of taking part in a "campaign of terror and violence" against the Serbian province's Albanian majority. He has denied the charges. Robinson argued that the United States could produce recordings when it wanted to, citing US Secretary of State Colin Powell's use of such devices at the UN Security Council before Washington declared war on Iraq. ICTY chief judge Patrick Robinson remarked to the lawyer "you're fishing", to which he replied: "There's a lot of fish underneath." Representatives from Canada, the Netherlands, the United States, Britain, Germany and France were expected to address the hearings. Almost 10,000 people were killed and hundreds of thousands of people displaced during the war, which ended after NATO launched an air campaign against Belgrade. -------- POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE Bosnian 'peacekeepers' flee with one million euro haul (AFP) Dec 01, 2004 http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041201214339.g9lg7hfi.html BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Hercegovina - Five robbers dressed as NATO peacekeepers stole over one million euros belonging to an Austrian bank on the eve of the handover of the mission to an EU force, police said Wednesday. "Five unknown perpetrators dressed in (NATO-led Stabilisation Force) SFOR uniforms stopped an armoured vehicle transporting Raiffeisen Bank's money to the central Bosnian treasury and stole 2,047 million convertible marksmillion euros, 1,34 million dollars)," police spokesman Rade Mutic told AFP. He added that the 'soldiers' had built a checkpoint in the village of Ljubacevo and had flagged down the bank's vehicle, claiming to be peacekeepers. They then stole the money, locking guards inside the vehicle. Police were investigating the incident, Mutic said. The European Union's biggest military operation begins in Bosnia on Thursday when the 25-nation community takes over peacekeeping duties from NATO, nine years after the end of the bitter inter-ethnic war in Bosnia. SFOR's 7,000-strong force will be replaced on 2nd December by a similar European force. ----- Red Cross Cites 'Inhumane' Treatment at Guantanamo Washington Post By Josh White and John Mintz December 1, 2004 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21262-2004Nov30.html The International Committee of the Red Cross found "cruel, inhumane and degrading" treatment of detainees at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, during inspections there last summer, and issued a formal report in July that said some interrogation tactics come close to torture, a source who has seen portions of the report said yesterday. The human rights group decried tactics used on some detainees -- including severe temperatures, loud music and other sounds, the sharing of medical information with interrogators, and forced nudity -- that it said violate international rules against torture adopted by the United States and other countries. The report marked the first time that the ICRC formally noted potentially serious violations of international law, including physical torture, at the U.S. Navy base where the administration has held captives in connection with the war on terrorism since early 2002, the source said. ICRC reports are confidential. A Pentagon spokesman said yesterday that defense officials "vehemently deny any allegations of torture at Guantanamo, and reject categorically allegations that the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo is improper." The spokesman said numerous investigations of operations at the prison have found no "credible instances of detainee abuse." The Washington Post reported in June that military interrogators at Guantanamo Bay were given access to the medical records of individual prisoners despite repeated objections from the Red Cross, a breach of patient confidentiality that ethicists said violated international medical standards designed to protect captives. The New York Times reported in yesterday's editions the Red Cross had said in a July report that some of the physical and psychological tactics used on Guantanamo detainees amounted to torture. Also yesterday, a group of lawyers representing four Iraqis who say they were abused at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq filed a criminal complaint in a German court alleging that top U.S. military and civilian leaders are guilty of international war crimes. So far, only a few low-ranking soldiers have been charged with abuse. The complaint singles out Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld; Stephen A. Cambone, undersecretary of defense for intelligence; George J. Tenet, former director of the CIA; Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez; and six other high-ranking military officials. The attorneys argue that the officials shaped, condoned, authorized and possibly ordered policies and tactics that led to abuse at Abu Ghraib, but that U.S. authorities have been unwilling to charge them. The 160-page complaint was filed yesterday in the federal prosecutor's office at the Karlsruhe Court in Germany, taking advantage of German war crimes laws that give the court "universal jurisdiction" over people and incidents with little or no connection to Germany. A prosecutor is obligated to investigate the claims but does not have to act on them further. Led by the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, the criminal complaint alleges that Rumsfeld and others are directly responsible for dozens of abuses at Abu Ghraib and the policies that were first developed for use in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. Citing well-publicized administration memos and policies, three lawyers said yesterday that they believe top officials should be held accountable for the abuse discovered in Iraq. "The U.S. administration has gone out of its way to destroy the whole fabric of the laws of war," Peter Weiss, a vice president of CCR, said in a conference call from Berlin. "They have redefined torture, they have redefined the laws of war, they have given themselves the right to ignore the Geneva Conventions, even though those conventions are equally apt to protect the U.S. troops as they are to protect Afghans and Iraqis." The information in the complaint is exactly what defense attorneys for seven military police soldiers charged with abuse have been calling for. It attacks U.S. interrogation policies as illegal and torturous, and links the abuse in Iraq to the highest levels of U.S. government. The complaint also alleges that Pentagon officials knew about the abuse and did nothing to stop it. In the ICRC report, officials at the Pentagon were criticized for allowing abusive interrogation tactics, including psychological and physical abuse, to occur. According to a military source, a psychological operations commander told a conference in Raleigh, N.C., in November that psychological operations were being used against detainees at Guantanamo. The physical tactics noted by the Red Cross included placing detainees in extremely cold rooms with loud music blaring, and forcing them to kneel for long periods of time, the source familiar with the report said. Among the alleged tactics designed to humiliate the detainees was having them strip off their clothes. At other times, female personnel were allowed to interrogate them, which could be demeaning to some Muslim men. None of the allegations concerned tactics documented at Abu Ghraib, where some detainees were forced to lie naked on one another or masturbate. In its final report, the ICRC said that some doctors used patient records to help military interrogators gather information, which the ICRC called a "flagrant violation of medical ethics." "This latest report tells us two things -- that the abuse at Abu Ghraib was only a small piece of a much larger, systemic failure to uphold U.S. and international laws against torture; and that even after that abuse was revealed and condemned as unlawful and immoral by leaders of both political parties, the government failed to act on its moral certainty," according to a statement released by Deborah N. Pearlstein, director of the U.S. Law and Security Program at Human Rights First, which has been monitoring alleged abuse by U.S. forces. Staff writer Thomas E. Ricks contributed to this report. ----- U.S. Generals in Iraq Were Told of Abuse Early, Inquiry Finds Washington Post By Josh White December 1, 2004 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23372-2004Nov30.html A confidential report to Army generals in Iraq in December 2003 warned that members of an elite military and CIA task force were abusing detainees, a finding delivered more than a month before Army investigators received the photographs from Abu Ghraib prison that touched off investigations into prisoner mistreatment. The report, which was not released publicly and was recently obtained by The Washington Post, concluded that some U.S. arrest and detention practices at the time could "technically" be illegal. It also said coalition fighters could be feeding the Iraqi insurgency by "making gratuitous enemies" as they conducted sweeps netting hundreds of detainees who probably did not belong in prison and holding them for months at a time. The investigation, by retired Col. Stuart A. Herrington, also found that members of Task Force 121 -- a joint Special Operations and CIA mission searching for weapons of mass destruction and high-value targets including Saddam Hussein -- had been abusing detainees throughout Iraq and had been using a secret interrogation facility to hide their activities. Herrington's findings are the latest in a series of confidential reports to come to light about detainee abuse in Iraq. Until now, U.S. military officials have characterized the problem as one largely confined to the military prison at Abu Ghraib -- a situation they first learned about in January 2004. But Herrington's report shows that U.S. military leaders in Iraq were told of such allegations even before then, and that problems were not restricted to Abu Ghraib. Herrington, a veteran of the U.S. counterinsurgency effort in Vietnam, warned that such harsh tactics could imperil U.S. efforts to quell the Iraqi insurgency -- a prediction echoed months later by a military report and other reviews of the war effort. U.S. treatment of detainees remains under challenge. Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross recently told U.S. military officials that the treatment of inmates held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was "cruel, inhumane and degrading" (story, Page A10). Herrington's report, which was commissioned by Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast, the top intelligence officer in Iraq, said some detainees dropped off at central U.S. detention facilities other than Abu Ghraib had clearly been beaten by their captors. "Detainees captured by TF 121 have shown injuries that caused examining medical personnel to note that 'detainee shows signs of having been beaten,' " according to the report, which later concluded: "It seems clear that TF 121 needs to be reined in with respect to its treatment of detainees." A group of Navy SEALs who worked as part of the task force has been charged with abuse in connection with the deaths of two detainees they arrested in the field. One died in a shower room at Abu Ghraib on Nov. 4, 2003, a month before Herrington arrived for his review. A military source who participated in Task Force 20, the predecessor to TF 121, said the task forces comprised several 12-man units that had targeted missions, such as searching for Hussein loyalists and terrorists. TF 20, which had about 1,000 soldiers, incorporated Army Rangers, members of Delta Force and Special Forces units working with CIA agents. They planned their missions nearly autonomously and answered either directly to the theater commander or to officials in Washington, the source said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the missions were classified. Task Force 121 added Navy SEAL units but was slightly smaller overall. Herrington wrote that an officer in charge of interrogations at a high-value target detention facility in Baghdad told him that prisoners taken by TF 121 showed signs of having been beaten. Herrington asked the officer whether he had alerted his superiors to the problem, and the officer replied: "Everyone knows about it." While several investigations have been completed into the Abu Ghraib scandal and U.S. interrogation practices in Iraq, an official military inquiry into the detention activities of Special Operations forces has not been released. That probe, headed by Brig. Gen. Richard P. Formica, was expected to be presented to Congress earlier this year, but a Pentagon spokesman said it is ongoing. Of the Herrington report, a Pentagon official said top generals in Iraq, including Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, who at the time directed U.S. forces there, reported the alleged abuses to officials at U.S. Central Command, which oversees military activities in the Middle East. The official said TF 121 was investigated, but he could not provide results. "The Herrington report was taken very seriously," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the report has not been released. The report also provided an early account of the practice of holding some detainees -- sometimes called "ghost detainees" -- in secret and keeping them from international humanitarian organizations. Herrington also wrote that agents from other government agencies, which commonly refers to the CIA, regularly kept ghost detainees by not logging their arrests. -------- drug war Aiding or abetting? December 01, 2004 Washington Times Letters to the editor http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20041130-084445-4672r.htm Regarding drug czar John Walters' Op-Ed column, "Afghans' drug war"(Friday): Afghanistan profits from the opium trade because of drug prohibition, not in spite of it. Attempts to limit the supply of drugs while demand remains constant only increase the profitability of drug trafficking. For addictive drugs such as heroin, a spike in street prices leads desperate addicts to increase criminal activity to feed desperate habits. The drug war doesn't fight crime; it fuels crime. Heroin produced in Afghanistan is consumed primarily in Europe, a continent already experimenting with harm-reduction alternatives to the drug war. Switzerland's heroin-maintenance trials have been shown to reduce drug-related disease, death and crime among chronic users. Addicts would not be sharing needles if not for zero-tolerance laws that restrict access to clean syringes, nor would they be committing crimes if not for artificially inflated black-market prices. Heroin-maintenance pilot projects are under way in Germany, Spain and the Netherlands. If expanded, prescription heroin maintenance would deprive organized crime of a core client base. This would render illegal heroin trafficking unprofitable and spare future generations addiction. Putting public health before politics may send the wrong message to children, but I like to think the children are more important than the message. ROBERT SHARPE Policy analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington • Many are making a big thing out of an issue that ought to be simple. Should marijuana be legalized for medical purposes ("Court ponders medicinal pot," Nation, Tuesday)? Absolutely. If medical science has proved that marijuana is effective in relieving pain or curing certain illnesses, it should be used. However, it must be treated as any other controlled drug. This would mean that doctors would have to prescribe it for the patient's use. The patient would not be allowed to grow his own in his back yard. If that were the case, there would be marijuana patches all over the country, resulting in a "high" America. I think many of those who are advocating the legalization of this drug are merely concerned about their own personal use. They think it's OK and that marijuana ought to be as available as cigarettes. This would be devastating to the American people, who already have proved that temperance is a problem in this country. There are some things that our government should control, and marijuana is one of them. Some compare marijuana with alcoholic beverages. This is like comparing apples and oranges. In the Bible, the Apostle Paul tells Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach's sake. The Good Samaritan poured wine on the wounds of the man who had been beaten, robbed and left to die. There are many instances in which Jesus and His disciples drank wine together. Let's pray that marijuana is never legalized in this country except for medical purposes. REV. KORT GREENE Scottsville, Va. -------- 25-Year 'War on Drugs' Fails on the Streets (Inter Press Service) by Jim Lobe December 1, 2004 http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=4089 Neither its nearly quarter-century "war against drugs" nor the almost $3 billion Washington has spent since 2000 on Plan Colombia has resulted in higher prices on U.S. streets for cocaine or heroin, says a major report by the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) released Tuesday. The 400-page report [.pdf], which focuses mainly on the "collateral damage" inflicted on democratic institutions and stability in Mexico and Andean countries, called for a major reassessment of Washington's efforts to cut the supply of drugs "at the source." "After 25 years and $25 billion fighting drugs in Latin America, we are no closer to winning the war, the drug war – which is ultimately about reducing drug abuse," said WOLA Executive Director Joy Olson at the report's release. Indeed, as of mid-2003, the last date for which data was available, both the wholesale and retail prices of the two drugs were at or close to their lowest levels in the 22 years since statistics were first collected, according to the document. "Present policy is not working," said Coletta Youngers, co-editor of the 400-page report, "Drugs and Democracy in Latin America: The Impact of U.S. Policy." "We found no evidence of a significant reduction of illicit drugs flowing out of Andean or other countries." The most dramatic disclosure in the report, the product of a three-year investigation involving nearly 20 U.S. and Latin American researchers, is data on drug prices submitted by the RAND Corporation to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) in early 2004. U.S. drug-control policy aims primarily at reducing the supply of drugs into the United States, on the assumption that reduced supply will drive up prices and discourage people from buying or using drugs. The latest data, which appears to have been kept under wraps by the ONDCP, showed that prices of cocaine and heroin in the United States – at both wholesale and retail levels – actually fell between 2000, the last year for which published government data are available, and June 2003. "One can only conclude that cocaine and heroin remain widely available in the U.S.," said John Walsh, a WOLA analyst who contributed to the new book, and who suggested one reason that ONDCP has not published the latest data, which he said was obtained from a congressional office, may be because "prices are now lower than when Plan Colombia started." But a senior ONDCP official told IPS the WOLA report "is filled with errors, irrelevancies, and misinterpretations." "The impact of Plan Colombia wasn't felt until August 2002, when President Uribe took charge in Colombia. By the end of 2003, there had been a 33-percent reduction in the coca crop in Colombia," added the official, who asked to be unidentified. He also denied the office had delayed publishing the data. Normally it takes at least one year from the time such information is received until a report is published, particularly one that requires inter-agency clearance, added the official. Under Plan Colombia, which must be re-funded by Congress in 2005, Washington has provided nearly $3 billion in assistance – most of it in aid to Colombian military and security forces – since 2000, making Bogotá the third biggest recipient of U.S. foreign aid, after Israel and Egypt. The plan, the centerpiece of the Bush administration's efforts to cut the supply of cocaine and heroin into the United States, was originally designed to extend the Colombian government's authority into parts of the country where coca and poppy cultivation had become particularly intense. The strategy has relied heavily on the fumigation of vast areas of the countryside, drawing criticism by WOLA and other groups that it risked ruining the livelihoods of small farmers and destroying fragile ecosystems. While the amount of area under cultivation has indeed been reduced as spraying has increased, according to the report, the strategy has failed to take into account the so-called "balloon effect," that suppressing coca production in one area leads to heightened cultivation somewhere else, not just in Colombia, but across borders. "There has been a dramatic increase in cultivation in Peru and Bolivia," according to Gustavo Gorriti, an expert on the drug trade and co-director of Peru's La Republica newspaper, who participated in the report's release. Moreover, he added, "spraying won't happen in Peru or Bolivia," because of the political strength of the growers. "Behind these increases are very strong cocalero [coca growers'] movements that you haven't seen before," Gorriti said. Added Youngers, "The fumigation campaign has had a devastating impact on the livelihood of small farmers and contributes to the displacement of tens of thousands of Colombians, thrusting them even more deeply into poverty and insecurity." The book, which is divided into case studies of the impact of the drug war on individual countries, argues that the collateral damage of U.S. drug-control policies has been extensive, and particularly harmful to democratic governments in the region. "They have contributed to confusing military and law-enforcement functions, militarizing local police forces, and bringing the military into a domestic law enforcement role," said Youngers. "They have thus strengthened military forces at the expense of civilian authorities – in a region with a tragic history of military rule." Similarly, the policies have led Washington to forge alliances with unscrupulous leaders, who, like Panamanian General Manuel Noriega and Vladimiro Montesinos in Peru, are heavily implicated in the drug trade themselves, in order to pursue short-term, anti-drug targets to the detriment of long-term democratic development, argues the report. The repressive nature of the "drug war" has also generated significant social conflict and political instability, as in Bolivia where an elected president was overthrown by an opposition that included cocaleros last year, or in Colombia itself, which suffers from Latin America's worst human-rights violations, many of them committed by various forces contending for control of drug production and trafficking. "U.S. drug-control efforts have provoked a war on the poor and an assault on democratic institutions," said Olson. "We've spent billions on anti-drug efforts in Latin America and have nothing to show for it but collateral damage." "We've been tough on drugs," she added, "now it's time to get smart." ----- Video cameras drive drug dealers off streets (AP) December 01, 2004 http://www.washtimes.com/metro/20041130-102750-8653r.htm HAGERSTOWN, Md. — Video surveillance cameras along downtown Hagerstown streets are driving drug dealers indoors, city police say. "People used to be lined up two and three deep waiting to get served" on certain public streets, Officer Dave Russell told the Hagerstown Herald-Mail. But since the city of 37,000 began installing the cameras at about a dozen locations nearly two years ago, the drug trade has been moving into apartments, police said. In addition, more dealers are limiting their business to established customers and shying away from strangers, Officer Russell said. "You just can't walk up to Joe Blow and buy a 40-piece or 50-piece anymore," he said, referring to $40 and $50 pieces of crack cocaine. Police Chief Arthur R. Smith called the changes a small victory, resulting in less chance of injury to innocent bystanders. The city activated the downtown cameras in September along several blocks around City Hall. The first were installed in early 2003 along Jonathan Street, just north of the downtown area, after a series of crimes that included a fatal shooting. The cameras can focus on objects as much as 500 yards away. From a room at City Hall, police can keep watch through a computer monitor, a 42-inch flat-screen television and a high-tech control board. Chief Smith and his officers traced much of the local drug trade to dealers from New York City who have learned to make bigger profits with less hassle by selling crack cocaine in small, relatively quiet cities like Hagerstown. Officer Russell and Officer Tom Langston said a "rock" of crack cocaine that sells in New York for about $7 generally can fetch $40 or $50 in Hagerstown. "The markup is incredible," Officer Langston said. Chief Smith said several shootings in the city during the past several years have involved a New York transplant. At least one New Yorker was charged in each of three murders in 2001, 2003 and 2004. Despite the police crackdown on drug dealing, Chief Smith said, drug crime stems mainly from the demand for illegal substances. "As long as you have someone looking for drugs, someone will be there to supply it," he said. -------- homeland security / national intelligence Homeland Security Gives "The Perception of Security, Not the Reality of It" Wednesday, December 1st, 2004 Democracy Now! http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/01/1535235 Tom Ridge announced his resignation Tuesday after nearly two years as the nation's first Homeland Security secretary. We speak with investigative journalist Matthew Brzezinski, author of Fortress America: On the Frontlines of Homeland Security -- An Inside Look at the Coming Surveillance State.[includes rush transcript] Tom Ridge, the country's first homeland security director, resigned on Tuesday. He is the seventh member of the cabinet to resign ahead of President Bush's second term. Ridge announced his decision at a news conference after submitting his resignation to the president. * Tom Ridge, Dept. of Homeland Security Secretary announcing his resignation, November 30, 2004. Tom Ridge announcing his resignation yesterday. He said he would stay in his position until February or until his successor is confirmed. Possible candidates include Ridge's deputy Asa Hutchinson, White House homeland security adviser Frances Townsend, former New York police chief Bernard Kerik and Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. Before joining the Bush White House, Ridge served as governor of Pennsylvania for seven years, and before that spent 14 years in the House of Representatives. As Homeland Security chief, Ridge oversaw a $32 billion budget and 180,000 employees. The department, which merged all or parts of 22 federal agencies, was created in January 2003 following the 9/11 attacks in the biggest government revamp in 50 years. * Matthew Brzezinski, author of Fortress America: On the Frontlines of Homeland Security -- An Inside Look at the Coming Surveillance State. He is a contributing writer The New York Times Magazine and former foreign correspondent at The Wall Street Journal. Read his Mother Jones article on the Dept. of Homeland Security: "Red Alert" RUSH TRANSCRIPT AMY GOODMAN: Tom Ridge, the country’s first Homeland Security director has resigned. He is the seventh member of the cabinet to resign ahead of President Bush's second term. Ridge announced decision at a news conference after submitting his resignation to the president. TOM RIDGE: I think we have accomplished a great deal in a short period of time. As I said to the president, there will always be more work for us to do in homeland security. But if you take a look at many of the innovations, the improvements to security, the enhancements to safety at ports of entry, the partnerships that we developed with the state and locals and private sector. All in all I think it is a reflection of the commitment and dedication and energy and professionalism, really the combined power of about 180,000 people strong. AMY GOODMAN: That was Tom Ridge announcing his resignation on Tuesday. He said -- Monday -- he said he would stay in his position until February or until a successor is confirmed. Possible candidates include his deputy Asa Hutchinson, Francis Townsend, Bernard Kerik, Massachusettes Governor Mitt Romney. Ridge served as governor of Pennsylvania for seven years and before that spent 14 years in the House of Representatives. As Homeland Security chief he oversaw $32 billion budget and 180,000 employees. The department, which merged all or parts of 22 federal agencies, was created in January of 2003 after the 9/11 attacks and the biggest government revamp in 50 years. Now to Matthew Brzezinski author of a new book called Fortress America: On the Frontlines of Homeland Security -- An Inside Look at the Coming Surveillance State. A contributing writer for New York Times Magazine, former foreign correspondent. Welcome to Democracy Now! It is good to have you with us. Can you talk about the Department of Homeland Security and Tom Ridge's reign there? Matthew Brzezinski? We are having a little trouble on the line but we will now get you on the line again. Author of Fortress America: On the Frontlines of Homeland Security -- An Inside Look at the Coming Surveillance State. MATTHEW BRZEZINSKI: Good morning, Amy. AMY GOODMAN: It good to have you with us. Tom Ridge. Can you discuss his tenure as, well, the first head of Homeland Security? MATTHEW BRZEZINSKI: For one, it is not surprising that he announced his resignation. He made that clear in the spring. Officially he sort of said that he has kids ready to go to college and he was not earning enough money as cabinet secretary and he needed to return to the private sector. I think that's just polite way of saying he was very frustrated. It is a thankless job being the head of DHS, mainly because there's very little political support from the White House. The department is extraordinarily under-funded and does not really have a clear mandate in a very crucial area such as gathering intelligence. The White house decided that that prerogative would remain with the FBI And CIA and essentially created a very toothless paper tiger out of DHS. So, I think his tenure has not necessarily been a very happy one. He is quite popular, ironically, within the department. Everybody says he is a terrific person and a real conciliator. But he had very little experience in the battlefield of Washington, the turf battles that would go on and he has been bested time and time again by the likes of former Attorney General John Ashcroft who would take away many of the prerogatives of DHS, leaving some of the staff at DHS very disgruntled and Tom Ridge couldn't do anything about it. So I think that his leaving is, first of all, not a surprise, and, two, I think he will go down in history with sort of a very mixed record. AMY GOODMAN: We are talking to Matthew Brzezinski author of Fortress America: On the Frontlines of Homeland Security -- An Inside Look at the Coming Surveillance State. Can you describe -- well you don't describe it as fortress in the recent article that you wrote -- but can you describe what the Department of Homeland Security looks like? MATTHEW BRZEZINSKI: Sure. I was one of the first journalists given a peek inside this colossus at least on paper. As you probably already mentioned. DHS on paper is huge. It is the largest government agency in the United States, 180,000 employees, 22 government agencies. So when I went to its new headquarters which was unveiled in march of 2003, I was expecting something the size of the Pentagon and I was deeply surprised that I couldn't even find it. And looking around this naval complex where they were subleasing some space I was pointed by some gardeners -- “we think there is something with DHS over there” -- and they pointed me in the direction of this dank, dark court yard and there was a narrow fire lane of a back alley and I went down this brick back alley something out of a Dickens novel and at the end of the alley was a gray steel unpainted door with a little plaque saying the Department of Homeland Security. I think the fact that DHS on paper could be the largest government agency in the United States and in reality have an office that looked like sort of the janitor's office at junior college, I think that spoke volumes of the sort of cynical game the White House has played with Homeland Security, whose primary role seems to be to give Americans the perception of reality and not -- the perception of security, not the reality of it. We have seen this time and time again with many of the blunders they have committed. AMY GOODMAN: What about this, the idea of perception versus what actually is going on? Can you talk about the corporate lobbyists and how they have fought -- for example, around the issue of chemical factories. And how close Tom Ridge is to these lobbyists? MATTHEW BRZEZINSKI: Sure. Right after 9/11, when we sort of as a country we took stock in our vulnerability we came up with - holy smokes - one of the biggest was the petrochemical plants. We have about 15,000 of them across the country producing a whole scope of very toxic materials and we all remember Bhopal, India in 1984 when tens of thousands died, and many more were blinded, when a Union Carbide plant, when there was a mishap and released all these toxins into the atmosphere. So there was a real danger of a chemical Chernobyl this if the terrorists managed to infiltrate one of them and the sad thing is that our plants are basically completely undefended. We don't even have proper fencing around them. So there was push in congress to put forth a chemical security act which would regulate fencing, lighting, guards, transport of these things. But the American Petroleum Institute which is the main lobby arm of the energy companies, and very close to many of Tom Ridge's former employees, basically squashed the legislation so three years down the line we are just as unsafe as before 9/11. That's just one of the myriad examples where corporate interests trump national security at DHS. AMY GOODMAN: Give us another one. MATTHEW BRZEZINSKI: Well, let's take you remember the big drive for smallpox vaccinations. President Bush himself was inoculated live on national television and we were supposed to have millions of first responders to get the vaccine. The deadline for the first segment of this was last year when the first 500,000 first responders were to have received the vaccinations. I remember at a hospital in Denver which had 2,000 employees and there were only seven of them that had the vaccine. And in total out after half million only 33,000 got them so some place like New Mexico and Nevada and Arizona there was only 25 people in all those states that had received the vaccination by the time the deadline came and went. So I asked the doctors why is it that in your particular hospital that only seven out of 2,000 people have gotten them. They said well, frankly the administration sided with the HMO’s and insurance companies which balked at the idea that they would have to pay for sick leave after people got the vaccination. After you get inoculated you invariably develop minor side effects and are put out of commission for a few days and the military for example gives 48-hour leave to soldiers after they get inoculated because you feel terrible. And but however, in the civilian sector the HMO's didn't want to pay for the two, three days or up to a week sick leave that people would have to take. So the first responders would have to take this out of their own vacation time. Naturally they balked at this idea and when I talked to the doctors they said this is crazy we are spending all of these 100’s of billions of dollars in Iraq and we won't pay for a week sick leave for our own first responders. He says he kind of wonders where people's priorities are in Washington. AMY GOODMAN: Matthew Brzezinski, we’re gonna leave it there. We want to thank you for being with us, author of the new book Fortress America: On the Frontlines of Homeland Security. -------- Ridge Leaving Cabinet Homeland Security Changes Predicted Washington Post By John Mintz and Mike Allen December 1, 2004 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22152-2004Nov30.html Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, the former governor and U.S. Army sergeant who became linked in the public mind with color-coded warnings of possible terrorist attacks, resigned yesterday after nearly two years overseeing the most ambitious U.S. government reorganization since the 1940s. Ridge is the first secretary of a department that combined 22 preexisting agencies into one unit designed to protect America from terrorism. He said he will remain until Feb. 1 or until the Senate confirms his successor. Administration officials said President Bush is seeking to replace Ridge with a tough manager who can set clear lines of authority and untangle overlapping responsibilities in the department. The Department of Homeland Security could experience the most widespread changes of any of the seven Cabinet departments where the heads have resigned since the election, one senior administration official said. "This is a chance for a fresh start and a different approach," said the official, who added that Ridge and the president remain close. "The new secretary can take Ridge's foundation and complete the integration of the 22 agencies and move forward to implementing policies." Ridge told reporters who assembled at the department's Northwest Washington headquarters for a news conference that "I think we've accomplished a great deal in a short period of time. As I've said to the president, there will always be more work for us to do in Homeland Security." Among possible successors being mentioned by administration officials and homeland defense experts are White House homeland security adviser Frances Fragos Townsend; White House deputy chief of staff for operations Joseph Hagin; Asa Hutchinson, undersecretary for transportation and border security at Homeland Security; and former New York Police commissioner Bernard Kerik. Other possible candidates include former Virginia governor James S. Gilmore III, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Environmental Protection Agency head Michael Leavitt. Ridge has told friends he is exhausted after more than three years in charge of homeland security -- first in the White House and then as head of the new department. He said he will spend more time with his family, with whom he hasn't taken even a week-long vacation in more than two decades of public life. Before joining the Bush White House, Ridge served as governor of Pennsylvania for seven years, and before that spent 14 years in the House of Representatives. Current and former Bush administration officials, as well as homeland security experts, were divided yesterday in assessing the department's first 20 months. They also disagreed about how much blame Ridge and other agency leaders should share for the department's weaknesses and how much is attributable to understaffing and lean budgets. "Tom Ridge wrote the preface and the first chapter to a long book that's going to be open for generations" -- the domestic war on terrorism, said Frank Cilluffo, a former associate of Ridge's in the Bush White House who now heads George Washington University's homeland security program. "A quite phenomenal amount has been done in only two years." Several Democratic members of Congress also issued statements yesterday praising Ridge. But a former White House official, who requested anonymity, said, "There's not a lot of accountability there [at the department] now because people can hide behind the fact that the kinks haven't been worked out. . . . With the new secretary, people will be responsible for things, which is what the president wants." Retired Air Force Col. Randall Larsen, a consultant on homeland security to businesses and government agencies, said: "In November 2001, I predicted Tom Ridge would face greater challenges from the federal bureaucracy and Congress than from al Qaeda, and that prediction has proved correct." He cited several examples of bureaucratic obstacles that hobbled Ridge and the department -- including the fact that 88 congressional committees and subcommittees oversee the Department of Homeland Security. Another, he said, is the way in which congressional plans to give the department a powerful role in intelligence matters on terrorism were scuttled by competing agencies and the White House. The most enduring image of the Department of Homeland Security for many Americans may be the color-coded threat alerts that were raised to orange, or "high risk" of a terrorist attack, six times since Sept. 11, 2001. As his tenure progressed, Ridge concluded that such nationwide warnings had outlived their effectiveness. Some officials criticized the alerts for needlessly frightening people without increasing their security. Most homeland security specialists credit the department with a number of strides, such as improvements in securing commercial aircraft against terrorist attack. Thousands of airport screeners now check bags and passengers, and hardened cockpit doors would discourage terrorists from commandeering planes as the Sept. 11 hijackers did. But blue-ribbon panels and internal government studies have pointed to a number of areas in which the department has made only halting progress. They include not creating gaps in securing U.S. ports against attack, especially from a nuclear weapon, and slowness in addressing the need to monitor cargo flown on commercial aircraft. Ridge said he wished he had reached out earlier to European officials to develop security procedures. Last December, some European officials were angry when he canceled some cross-Atlantic flights in the midst of a terrorism alert. "We're more secure and we're safer because of the work of this department," he said in an interview yesterday. But he warned that the nation faces an adversary that nurses grievances. "This is an enemy that thinks long term, and I mean centuries," he said. "It's an enduring threat to us, for decades to come." ----- Ridge quits security position THE WASHINGTON TIMES By Audrey Hudson and Ralph Z. Hallow December 01, 2004 http://www.washtimes.com/national/20041201-122431-9208r.htm Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge yesterday announced he will resign his post after serving nearly two years as the nation's first Cabinet official charged with protecting Americans against future terrorist attacks. The former Pennsylvania governor called his resignation a "very difficult decision," and said he will continue to serve as secretary until Feb. 1, 2005, or earlier if a replacement is confirmed by the Senate. Mr. Ridge called it an honor to be chosen by President Bush to serve the country as the White House homeland security adviser just days after the September 11 terrorist attacks, and later as secretary when Congress created the new Cabinet position. "I think we've accomplished a great deal in a short period of time," Mr. Ridge said, citing security enhancements at ports of entry and partnerships with the state, local and private sector. Next in line for the position is Homeland Security Undersecretary James Loy, but administration officials say he is expected to retire this year. Likely successors include White House domestic security adviser Frances Fragos Townsend, former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, Asa Hutchinson, undersecretary for Border and Transportation Security, former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, and former Virginia Gov. James S. Gilmore III. In July, the Associated Press reported that Mr. Ridge would resign after the election to earn more money in the private sector and pay for his two children's college education. Mr. Ridge's yearly salary is $175,000. "After more than 22 consecutive years of public service, it is time to give personal and family matters a higher priority," Mr. Ridge said in his resignation letter submitted yesterday to Mr. Bush. At a press conference, Mr. Ridge said his successor would face "an enormous challenge and a great opportunity" to keep the country safe and secure "within the constitutional framework." Mr. Ridge's "efforts have resulted in safer skies, increased border and port security, and enhanced measures to safeguard our critical infrastructure and the American public," Mr. Bush said in a statement. "In the fight against terrorism, he has played a vital role in protecting the American people from a real and ongoing threat." Republicans close to the Bush administration say Mr. Kerik — who was in charge of New York City's police at the time of the September 11 attacks — is a top candidate to take over Mr. Ridge's post. Mr. Kerik, who now lives in New Jersey, introduced Mr. Bush at his campaign stops in that state earlier this year. "I know they like Kerik a lot at the White House," said a Republican official in Washington. Another prospective replacement, Mr. Gilmore, was asked if the job had been offered to him, but said he would never comment on his interaction with the administration. "I know the president is going to pick somebody with whom he has confidence. I look forward to working with the new secretary," the former Virginia governor said. "This is a decision that the administration is going to make and we ought to leave it to them." Mr. Gilmore said he is focused on his District-based law practice, where he has clients in the homeland security and national security industries, but said it was "nice to be mentioned" for the Cabinet spot. Mr. Gilmore chaired the advisory panel on terrorism and weapons of mass destruction formed by Congress in 1999. The Gilmore Commission expired in February. Another possible successor to Mr. Ridge is Joe Allbaugh, who managed Mr. Bush's 2000 presidential campaign, then served as director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and now has his own lobbying firm in Washington. Mr. Allbaugh yesterday dismissed the suggestion that he is on the short list for Homeland Security, saying he considers Mr. Ridge "to be a very close friend, and I thank him on behalf of a grateful nation for his service to the president and to our country in what is a tough 24/7 job." Republicans close to Mr. Ridge from his days as governor say one place he is likely to land is with the lobbying-legal firm of Blank Rome. A number of Ridge supporters from Pennsylvania work at the powerhouse firm whose chairman, David Girard-di-Carlo, was treasurer of Mr. Ridge's 1994 gubernatorial campaign. "There are a lot of Washington lobbying firms that would kill to have [Mr. Ridge]," one Republican said confidentially. "A former congressman, governor, Cabinet officer — who wouldn't want him?" Mr. Ridge was confirmed to the Cabinet post in January 2003 and led the largest reorganization of the federal government since the Defense Department was created in 1947. The Homeland Security Department was criticized for its color-coded terrorism alert system, but Mr. Ridge defended the system yesterday, saying officials "labored over months and months" to create it. In February 2003, with the alert system at a heightened level and war in Iraq looming, Americans rushed to buy duct tape, plastic sheeting, bottled water and other emergency supplies recommended by Homeland Security officials in case of a terrorist attack. The preparedness suggestions were ridiculed, but Mr. Ridge defended them as minimal measures "to tide you over for a day or two ... in the event something occurs." Democrats accused Mr. Ridge of playing politics when the terrorist alert level was raised this year prior to the political conventions and election. The level reverted to yellow or "elevated" Nov. 10. Since its inception, the terrorist alert level has not dipped below yellow, and has been raised to orange, or "high," seven times. The department was also criticized for a security program to protect against future terrorist attacks, the now-abandoned Computer Assisted Passenger Profiling System (CAPPS2), which included background checks on passengers that critics called intrusive. Mr. Ridge is the seventh Bush Cabinet member to resign since the election, following Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, Education Secretary Rod Paige, Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, Attorney General John Ashcroft and Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans. Sen. Susan Collins, Maine Republican and Senate Governmental Affairs Committee chairman, said: "Secretary Ridge took on this task with strong leadership and the vision to make Americans safer." Rep. Christopher Cox, California Republican and chairman of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, said: "Under his stewardship, we have made our homeland more secure on virtually every front." •Christina Bellantoni contributed to this report. -------- police Subpoenas issued for officials of pro-Israel lobby group Knight Ridder Newspapers By Warren P. Strobel and Shannon McCaffrey Dec. 01, 2004 http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/10315035.htm WASHINGTON - FBI agents executed search warrants Wednesday at the headquarters of a leading pro-Israel lobby and delivered grand jury subpoenas in an ongoing probe of alleged espionage for Israel, federal officials and the lobby group said. The search and the subpoenas for four top officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee indicate that the politically charged investigation remains active. No criminal charges have been filed in the case. AIPAC, one of Washington's most influential lobbies, said in a statement that neither the group nor its employees have broken any law. "We are fully cooperating with the governmental authorities. We believe any court of law or grand jury will conclude that AIPAC employees have always acted legally, properly and appropriately," it said. The lobby group said that the FBI, which in August obtained computer files related to two AIPAC employees, returned Wednesday "and requested and obtained additional files relating to the same two AIPAC staff members and delivered subpoenas requiring the appearance of four senior AIPAC staff before a grand jury." U.S. officials previously have identified the two staff members as Steven Rosen, AIPAC's director of foreign policy issues, and Keith Weissman, his deputy and an Iran expert. The two men have hired prominent Washington lawyer Abbe Lowell to represent them. Lowell's firm, Chadbourne & Park, had no comment. The FBI investigation, which has been under way for more than two years, became public in August with news reports that authorities were looking into the handling of classified information by Pentagon employee Lawrence A. Franklin. Current and former U.S. officials have said that authorities are investigating whether Franklin shared a highly classified draft presidential policy document on Iran with AIPAC staffers, who in turn passed it to Israel. Investigators have interviewed people at the White House, State Department and Pentagon, the current and former officials said. They also have asked questions about whether Ahmad Chalabi, a prominent Iraqi exile backed by the Pentagon who provided bogus intelligence on Iraq, improperly received highly classified U.S. intelligence about Iran. Franklin, an analyst in the office of Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith, hasn't been charged with wrongdoing. His lawyer, prominent Washington defense attorney Plato Cacheris, didn't immediately return a phone call Wednesday. The Israeli government has vehemently denied that it spied on the United States. Israel says all such activities were halted following the 1985 arrest of Navy analyst Jonathan Pollard, who later was convicted of selling U.S. secrets to Israel. Federal law enforcement officials declined Wednesday to provide details of what the FBI agents were searching for at AIPAC's offices, a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol. The search warrant is sealed. "The investigation is continuing," said one official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "This is normal procedure in a case like this." A spokesman for Paul McNulty, the U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, whose office is handling the case, declined to comment. (Knight Ridder Newspapers correspondent Jonathan S. Landay contributed to this report.) -------- prisons / prisoners Cuba Releases Dissident Writer From Prison Washington Post By Mary Jordan December 1, 2004 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22293-2004Nov30.html MEXICO CITY, Nov. 30 -- The Cuban government on Tuesday freed Raul Rivero, a prominent poet and journalist and one of five dissidents released from prison in the last two days in a move that appears aimed at smoothing relations with Europe. "It feels good to be free, to be able to do things like make this phone call," an elated Rivero, 59, said in a telephone interview just after being released. Rivero said he was unexpectedly freed after serving 20 months of a 20-year sentence. The jailing last year of Rivero and 74 other dissidents critical of President Fidel Castro's communist government severely damaged Cuba's relations with Europe, as it did with much of the world. But in recent days, Spain's new Socialist government has resumed official ties with Cuba and proposed that the European Union improve relations with Castro. Osvaldo Alfonso Valdes, an opposition politician, was also freed Tuesday, one day after three other dissidents, Oscar Espinosa Chepe, Margarito Broche and Marcelo Lopez, were released, all because of poor health. To date, 12 of the 75 government critics have been freed. "They warned me that if I start doing the same things I was doing before that I could be sent back," said Espinosa Chepe, 64, an economist and journalist, also reached by telephone. Espinosa Chepe said he suffered from a liver ailment and was transferred to several prisons, including one where "the water is like mud, the food is bad and there are flies everywhere." Many of the dissidents were accused of collaborating with the U.S. government against the interests of Cuba. Espinosa Chepe said he was never "an agent for any government. In fact, I don't agree with U.S. policy toward Cuba." Relations between the United States and Cuba have rarely been worse since Castro took power in 1959. The Bush administration has tightened travel and economic restrictions, and Castro recently retaliated by banning the use of the U.S. dollar on the island. In Washington, the State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher, said, "We continue to condemn the unjust incarceration of dozens of other prisoners of conscience in Cuba." Laura Ines Pollan, whose husband, Hector Maseda, is one of those still in prison, said, "There is so much international pressure right now, I think they will free them little by little." Rivero, the best known of the jailed dissidents, had called for the release of prisoners of conscience and criticized news reporting by Cuba's state-run media as a "fiction about a country that does not exist." Early this year, he won the UNESCO World Press Freedom Prize. The poet, who suffers from emphysema, said that during his first 11 months in prison, he was isolated in a "punishment cell" with "very, very difficult conditions." He said he wrote a book of poems behind bars and hopes to "continue writing just as I did before I went to jail, with professionalism and objectivity." -------- POLITICS Bush defends foreign policy in Canada trip THE WASHINGTON TIMES By Joseph Curl December 01, 2004 http://www.washtimes.com/national/20041201-122435-8403r.htm OTTAWA — President Bush yesterday said that despite public-opinion surveys showing that most Canadians oppose the U.S.-led war in Iraq, Americans endorsed the Bush administration's foreign policy when they re-elected him last month. "You know, I haven't seen the polls you look at," the president told a Canadian reporter, who had asked whether Mr. Bush bears "any responsibility" for strained relations with America's northern neighbor. "We just had a poll in our country where people decided that the foreign policy of the Bush administration ought to stay in place for four more years. And it's a foreign policy that works with our neighbors," Mr. Bush said. The U.S.-Canada relationship was bruised shortly after Mr. Bush sent troops into Iraq in March 2003 to disarm dictator Saddam Hussein. Prime Minister Jean Chretien vehemently — and vocally — opposed the war. Two months later, Mr. Bush canceled a trip to Canada. The same month, the president banned U.S. imports of live Canadian cattle after a case of mad cow disease was discovered in Alberta, a western province. The move has cost Canada more than $4 billion. Unlike his predecessor, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin has taken a softer line with the United States. He called Mr. Bush last month to congratulate him on his re-election and to invite him to Canada. As evidence that relations are warming, Mr. Bush accepted and showed up just three weeks later. "I want to thank the Canadian people who came out to wave — with all five fingers — for the hospitality," he said, drawing laughter from 100 reporters gathered in a downtown government building for a brief press conference. Although Mr. Martin said disagreements are natural with other nations — even neighbors — he avoided uttering even one word of dissent over the Iraq war. "Obviously, there are disagreements on various questions of foreign policy," Mr. Martin said. "It is quite normal among countries to have this kind of disagreement. But we have common shared values, shared ambitions, and we share optimism also. I think that is what is fundamental." The two leaders ribbed each other good-naturedly during the jovial press conference. Mr. Martin, who alternated between French and English, even picked up the president's joke about hand gestures, saying that when Mr. Bush and foreign leaders were in Chile this month for an economic summit, he found that "Spanish and English and French are three different languages, but that sign language is universal." Still, Mr. Bush was not apologetic in the least about his decision to go to war in Iraq, which polls show 80 percent of Canadians oppose, or to enact a stern foreign policy, despite opposition from Canada and some European nations. "It's a foreign policy that also understands that we've got an obligation to defend our security. I made some decisions, obviously, that some in Canada didn't agree with, like, for example, when we removed Saddam Hussein and enforcing the demands of the United Nations Security Council," Mr. Bush said. "That's a legitimate point to debate. But I'm the kind of fellow who does what I think is right and will continue to do what I think is right. I'll consult with our friends and neighbors, but if I think it's right to remove Saddam Hussein for the security of the United States, that's the course of action I'll take. And some people don't like that; I understand that." The president also said the Canadian prime minister expressed "a great deal of frustration" over the U.S. ban on cattle, but he said the United States is moving "as quickly as possible" to rectify the situation. "I don't know if you've got bureaucracy here in Canada or not, but we've got one in America, and there are a series of rules that have to be met in order for us to be able to allow the trafficking of cows back and forth," he said. "So we're working as quickly as we can. And I understand the impact it's had on your industry here." A senior administration official said a White House review, just under way, could take up to 90 days. Mr. Martin diplomatically urged patience on the issue. "We hope that, after a reasonable amount of time — we hope it won't be too long — we hope to obtain a favorable decision," he said. But he was firmer on the United States' 27 percent duty on Canadian softwood lumber, which has been in effect since 1982. "Once again, we expressed our frustration, and we said that a better way will have to be found to solve our differences," Mr. Martin said. "The system in place at the present time does not correspond to the reality of exchanges between our two countries. We'll have to find a better way." On another international issue, Mr. Bush welcomed Iran's assertion that it was moving away from uranium enrichment that could be used in assembling nuclear weapons, but expressed disappointment that Iran had agreed to only suspend the program. "Our position is that they ought to terminate their nuclear- weapons program," Mr. Bush said. Mr. Bush and Mr. Martin also discussed Canada's role in the U.S. missile-defense system, but officials from both nations offered few details. The first U.S. missile bases in the shield have been set up in Alaska and California — and with parts of Canada jammed between those two points, the question of whether Canada helps out could become a sensitive point. A Bush proposal for a continental missile-defense shield has become a divisive issue in Canada, even though the two countries cooperate closely through the North American Aerospace Defense Command. Mr. Bush's visit to Canada was met with protest from several hundred young people. Shortly after his press conference, dozens of police in riot gear pushed protesters back from the Chateau Laurier hotel, where some members of the U.S. delegation were staying. The shoving match was close to parliament buildings where Mr. Bush earlier had met with Mr. Martin and other senior officials. Riot police — wearing helmets, face masks, in some cases gas masks and carrying riot shields — held back the protesters who threw sticks, stones and paint bombs. A few officers were injured, and several protesters were arrested. -------- The larger struggle over Ukraine washtimes December 01, 2004 http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20041130-084446-7015r.htm The tug of war between Russia and the West over the electoral crisis in Ukraine could easily escalate. On the line for Russia are geopolitical and economic interests, not to mention face-saving concerns. For the United States and Europe, the transit of energy resources, strategic interests and leadership in supporting democracy are at stake. A hostile face-off between the two sides over Ukraine's presidential election would not benefit Russia or the West — or Ukraine for that matter. Although the Bush administration has been accused of being too conciliatory in its handling of the crisis, a look at the progression of events demonstrate that U.S. officials have adeptly balanced conflicting considerations. Ukraine's electoral authorities said the Kremlin-backed Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich won the Nov. 21 vote against opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko 49.5 percent to 46.6 percent. The election has been broadly described as fraudulent by international observers. Ukraine's Supreme Court is reviewing allegations of fraud presented by the opposition. In the run-up to the vote, Russian officials had been intervening in the Ukrainian electoral process in a manner that can only be described as openly manipulative. With concerns over the legitimacy of the vote overshadowing the process, Mr. Putin then congratulated Mr. Yanukovich on his victory. In reaction to allegations of fraud by Western sources, Mr. Putin said Ukraine didn't need foreign meddling in its affairs — even though that's exactly what Russia had been doing. The Bush administration responded immediately with some strong statements. Mr. Bush warned outgoing President Leonid Kuchma that Washington would review its relationship with Ukraine if authorities didn't ensure the vote was fair. Secretary of State Colin Powell said there would be "serious consequences" if Ukraine didn't investigate fraud charges. Since those comments, the situation in Ukraine has reached its own critical mass. Yushchenko supporters have taken to the streets en masse. On Monday, outgoing Mr. Kuchma said Ukraine's peace and cooperation depended on new balloting. Though Mr. Kuchma's comment was vague, it signals a willingness to negotiate. Yesterday, Mr. Yushchenko's party backed out of talks regarding the electoral crisis, but ultimately both sides need to compromise. Mr. Putin has also backed away from his more antagonistic stance and negotiated today with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. Mr. Bush, meanwhile, on Monday sought to defuse tensions. Speaking near his ranch in Texas, he said that given the allegations of fraud, the election should "be resolved in a way that brings credit and confidence to the Ukrainian government." That and other calibrated comments by Mr. Bush have caused some "Democrats and other critics of the Bush administration" to allege that the "president was putting up with too much bad behavior from Mr. Putin," reported the New York Times yesterday. The administration is playing it exactly right. It has mapped out the potential consequences to foul electoral play. It does not want to be seen as dictating the political and legal process in Ukraine. That could cause Mr. Yushchenko to lose credibility and further polarize a dangerously divided country. For some critics of the administration, though, a muscular foreign policy isn't modulated enough, while a carefully balanced one lacks muscle. ----- Ukraine vote talks off THE WASHINGTON TIMES By Natalia A. Feduschak December 01, 2004 http://www.washtimes.com/world/20041201-120042-7053r.htm KIEV — Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko broke off talks with the government yesterday and vowed to speak with "people power" only, accusing outgoing President Leonid Kuchma of using negotiations as a ruse to steal disputed presidential elections. Crowds of opposition demonstrations, which have maintained an around-the-clock vigil on the streets of the capital, attempted to storm parliament earlier, only to be stopped with an appeal for calm from the opposition. -------- propaganda wars Terms of Endearment Washington Post By Al Kamen December 1, 2004 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23450-2004Nov30.html Seems that the Bush administration, unlike previous White Houses, is not necessarily averse to allowing its ambassadors to have second tours. For example, word is that John Thomas "Tom" Schieffer, the Texas oilman who brought President Bush into the Texas Rangers baseball club partnership and who is now ambassador to Australia, is to hang out in the Pacific a while longer, this time as ambassador to Japan. Veterans of the Reagan administration recall that the practice, with rare exceptions, was for non-foreign service (aka political) ambassadors to give up their posts at the end of the first term and head home. President Bill Clinton also felt that one term was plenty and folks lucky enough to get plum assignments should move aside to give others a chance. But there are always exceptions. For example, Thomas J. Dodd, a Latin America policy expert and brother of Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), was allowed to go from Uruguay to Costa Rica. But despite some bleating and whining, the rules were enforced. The policy this time has been not to request mass resignations but to handle things case by case. Most incumbents will want to come home anyway, some veterans predict, for personal reasons or because it is not as exciting a life as they might have expected. Besides, they've already acquired the snappy lifetime title (the Honorable, His Excellency, the Ambassador) to go along with their less lofty "fat cat" moniker. Schieffer, brother of CBS News's Bob Schieffer, has not been formally named, but the authoritative Nelson Report has confirmed buzz in the Japanese media on the nomination. Feith and Drum Corps Marches On These may be times of highest anxiety in some agencies, but a serene calm has settled over the Defense Department. Undersecretary for Policy Douglas J. Feith yesterday had a policy "all hands" meeting at the Pentagon. At the meeting, it was "announced that all the members of the team were going to remain in place," according to an Army colonel briefed on the gathering. So Mssrs. Donald H. Rumsfeld, Paul D. Wolfowitz, William J. Luti, deputy undersecretary for Near Eastern and South Asian affairs, and Feith will be there for quite a while, cleaning up perhaps a few remaining loose ends in Iraq and working on other matters. The Iranians and North Koreans should take note. Proximity Fuse Speaking of the Iranians, national security adviser-designate Stephen J. Hadley is headed to Bahrain for a conference of Middle East leaders to talk about security matters in the Persian Gulf. The question everyone here is asking is whether the Bahrainis have the same wonderful sense of humor that the Egyptians have. Seems a week ago, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell was at a similar confab in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, and had been seated at dinner next to a guy he had pledged not to talk to, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi. As luck would have it, Kharrazi will also be attending this week's meeting in Bahrain. That could mean two of the highest U.S. foreign policy officials would be meeting with Kharrazi, who we don't talk to, in a period of two weeks. But Don't Quote Me Reporters traveling with Bush in Canada yesterday were given one of those "background" briefings by a "senior administration official." A question was raised at the end of the briefing about Venezuela's plans to purchase MiG fighters from Russia. "And that is -- is there a concern for the U.S.?" a reporter asked. The "senior administration official" responded, "Let me put it this way: We shoot down MiGs." Ah. So this is why they don't let them go on the record. Leavings Laura L. Cox, formerly an aide in the House and Senate, a Treasury Department official and more recently managing executive for external and governmental affairs at the Securities and Exchange Commission, is leaving to join PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as partner in charge of professional and governmental activities. For the Democrats, James Patrick Manley, press secretary for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.) for the past 11 years, is moving to new Senate Democratic leader Harry M. Reid's office to be staff director of the Senate Democratic Communications Center. -------- Pentagon Propaganda Shop Lives On, 'L.A. Times' Reports editorandpublisher December 01, 2004 http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000728818 NEW YORK The Pentagon in 2002 was forced to shutter its controversial Office of Strategic Influence (OSI) when it became known that the office planned to plant false news stories in the media. But now officials say that much of its mission, including using misinformation in the Iraq war and the war on terrorism, has been taken over by other offices within the government, the Los Angeles Times reported today. “Some of the ongoing efforts include having U.S. military spokesmen play a greater role in psychological operations in Iraq, as well as planting information with sources used by Arabic TV channels such as Al Jazeera to help influence the portrayal of the United States,” the Times revealed. It cited an incident on Oct. 14 when a Marine spokesman announced, via CNN, the start of the Fallujah offensive, which did not actually happen for another three weeks. The idea was to see in advance how the insurgents would respond. The Times referred to this as just one of the “psy-op” episodes so far. “These efforts have set off a fight inside the Pentagon over the proper use of information in wartime,” the newspaper reported. “Several top officials see a danger of blurring what are supposed to be well-defined lines between the stated mission of military public affairs -- disseminating truthful, accurate information to the media and the American public -- and psychological and information operations, the use of often-misleading information and propaganda to influence the outcome of a campaign or battle. "Several of those officials who oppose the use of misleading information spoke out against the practice on the condition of anonymity.” A senior defense official told the newspaper: “The movement of information has gone from the public affairs world to the psychological operations world," one senior defense official said. "What's at stake is the credibility of people in uniform." Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita, however, said that "everybody understands that there's a very important distinction between information operations and public affairs. Nobody has offered serious proposals that would blur the distinction between these two functions." A key recent development, according to the Times, was the decision by commanders in Iraq in mid-September to combine public affairs, psychological operations, and information operations into a "strategic communications" office. The paper obtained an organizational chart of the newly created office, which it said is run by Air Force Brig. Gen. Erv Lessel, who answers directly to Gen. George W. Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq. -------- us politics Terrorism: No Name Death from the Sky www.OpEdNews.com By: JACK DALTON 12 01 04 http://www.opednews.com/daltonJack_120104_sky.htm That the United States is a militarized imperial empire is beyond question at this point in time. The level of nationalism, xenophobia, and mindless hatred has divided this nation even worse, in some ways, than what I remember taking place during the civil rights and anti-war movements during the 1960’s. The “my country right or wrong” and “love it or leave it” hysteria today makes the past pale in comparison in many, many ways. If ever a nation exemplified a “crisis in democracy” it is the United States under George W. Bush and the Bush Brigade, and it’s legions of cheerleaders throughout the nation. Everything has been turned upside down. Up is down; in is out; wrong is right; war is peace; occupation is liberation; fact is fiction; and now, freedom is the freedom to agree and do what you are told. This nation under the Bush cabal has launched a brutal, senseless and bloody war. Not against a state, but against a tactic—terrorism. The result has been a self-fulfilling prophecy. Iraq is now what it never was, ground zero for fools and fanatics—ours as well as “theirs” whoever they may be. Iraq had no suicide bombers until after this country invaded, occupied and then proceeded to sell off all of Iraq ’s infrastructure, assets and resources to U.S. multinational corporations. It would appear that the people running this absurd and perverted “Twilight Zone” episode (Bush’s “war on terrorism”) have given no thought to “cause and effect” or “for every action there is an opposite reaction.” Every warning given to BushCo that invading Iraq would result in urban, guerilla war, exactly what is being faced in Iraq now, were ignored and discounted by them. The cost of this has been paid by the over 100,000 Iraqi’s that have been killed and by the over 1200 U.S. personnel killed—and there is no end in sight for the death and destruction. The dynamic duo of Bush-Cheney, has done what Osama bin Ladin needed and that is to provide a recruiting tool for insurgents thru the radicalization of so many in the Muslim world. In that context, Bush has become a “uniter.” This BushCo war of choice has convinced me that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and the rest of that pack of ideologues could care less about how many die or are maimed. Thousands have had their bodies torn apart; head and faces; legs missing; arms missing; burns that maim and cripple from the use of napalm bombs. What do we hear from the Bush camp? “We will win no matter what the cost.” What the final tally of dead and wounded will be is anyone’s guess considering all that have been contaminated by depleted uranium and the slow destruction it will cause in those exposed. Then there are the wounds that no one sees; the wounds that haunt the mind day and night, the pain of which leads one to question if you still have a soul. These are the wounds that seem never to heal—wounds of the soul, the mind, the emotions—that stay ever present to varying degrees as you attempt to make sense of a world that, to you, no longer makes any sense. These are the wounds that are born out of fear, guilt, and terror. No name death falling from the sky—that is terrorism--bombs, rockets, and mortars that fall unannounced, at any time, in any place that are capricious, indiscriminate and arbitrary when they kill and maim. I’ve seen men that have gone thru literal hand to hand combat that turned into shaking piles of sobbing flesh during sustained mortar attacks—abject helplessness. Since this BushCo war of choice was launched there have been close to 30,000 of this nation’s people in uniform that have been medically evacuated from Iraq . Approximately 7,000 of them due to “physiological” reasons—try PTSD. It’s estimated by the Pentagon that one in six are showing significant PTSD problems. That’s what war does, that is the cost of war and the brutality that is war. Those of us that have seen the face of war know and understand this—you lose a part of your humanity, your “soul” when we participate in mass murder of our fellow human beings no matter what the reason. I wonder what the toll on Iraqi’s will be in terms of PTSD as a result of all the bombs, rockets, mortars and artillery shells the U.S. has dropped and fired on every city and town in Iraq? Iraq is a nation (or was) of 26 million people with over 50% of them under the age of 18. Half of Iraq is children. We know the effects of PTSD on adults, we’ve seen it with those of our people in uniform that are still affected from the Vietnam war; If adults are affected that severely, what about Iraq’s children? We’re talking about 12-13 million children that have been subjected to almost daily bombings for over ten years and are currently being bombed by an occupying Army. What will be the result of all this on them? I can only imagine, but I do know from my own experiences that it will not be anything nice. In all probabilities, the next generation of insurgents, freedom fighters, and radicalized fundamentalists are being born out of the madness that has become Iraq . “We're the good guys. We are Americans. We are fighting a gentleman's war here -- because we don't behead people, we don't come down to the same level of the people we're combating;” so said a LT Col in charge of some of the Marines that recently attacked Fallujah. How absurd! There is no such thing as a “gentleman’s war” not by any stretch of the imagination. Where is the so-called “moral High-ground” when you drop a bomb on a house and blow up children. Where is the moral high-ground when a sniper puts a bullet in the head of a 6 year old? Where is the moral high-ground when a hospital is used as a base of combat operations while people, children bleed to death from their wounds because they can’t get medical treatment? “Smart” bombs that keep going to the wrong address and this country pontificates about having the moral high-ground. That would be a joke if not so pathetic and heartbreaking. Bush & Co. say that “they” through all of this killing in Iraq , are making us safer and promoting “freedom and democracy” in Iraq . At the rate people are being killed in Iraq , the only thing that nation will be free of is human life--with the kids of that country that are left alive having learned that “life is death, and death is life.” So much for the “moral high-ground,” and a “gentleman’s war” as articulated by this nation’s alleged leaders. As for those wearing this nation’s uniform coming back from Iraq multi-symptomatic PTSD because of what they have seen and done in Iraq , they also will suffer as even now they are being written off as “anxiety disorder” not exacerbated by war. This government did the very same thing to those of us that fought in Vietnam —why are the people in this country allowing this to once again happen. Like I said, so much for the “moral” high-ground. -------- ENERGY Hydrogen Produced With Nuclear Power SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, December 1, 2004 (ENS) http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/dec2004/2004-12-01-09.asp#anchor3 The separation of hydrogen out of water by means of high temperature steam from an advanced nuclear reactor system has been demonstrated by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) and Ceramatec, Inc. of Salt Lake City. The hydrogen gas is in demand to power hydrogen fuel cells that can run vehicles and provide electricity to buildings. "We’ve shown that hydrogen can be produced at temperatures and pressures suitable for a Generation IV [nuclear] reactor,” lead INEEL researcher Steve Herring said, announcing the new process on Tuesday. "The simple and modular approach we’ve taken with our research partners produces either hydrogen or electricity, and most notable of all," Herring said, "achieves the highest known production rate of hydrogen by high temperature electrolysis.” Such a high temperature system has the potential to achieve overall conversion efficiencies in the 45 percent to 50 percent range, compared to approximately 30 percent for conventional electrolysis, researchers say. This development is viewed as a crucial first step toward large scale production of hydrogen from water, rather than from fossil fuels such as natural gas. Fossil fuels are not consumed, and no greenhouse gases are emitted in the process, however the problem of nuclear waste disposal remains. Another group of INEEL researchers is finishing up a three year project with Russian scientists and engineers to shrink the volume of nuclear waste and the cost of disposal. Their new process separates out multiple radioactive elements from high-level nuclear waste in one step. "The idea is to segregate out this very small amount of radioactive material and concentrate this element of the waste into the smallest volume possible,” said Scott Herbst, an INEEL chemical engineer. He is collaborating with researchers at the Khlopin Radium Institute in Russia to perfect the Universal Extraction, or UNEX, process, the first demonstrated technology of its kind. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said, "The Generation IV nuclear technologies will take us to the next level in terms of efficiency, reliability, and safety. Coupling high temperature electrolyzer technology with the Gen IV reactors provides another pathway to produce hydrogen for powering future fuel cell vehicles." Federally funded fuel cell research that does not use either hydrogen or nuclear technology is also underway. Abraham has handed a grant of nearly $2 million to a Ceramatec led partnership with INEEL, the University of Washington and Hoeganaes Corp. to continue work in the broad area of high temperature electrolysis and fuel cell development. The new team will work to enlarge by 100 times the size of a hybrid solid oxide fuel cell that is capable of co-generating high purity hydrogen and electric power from natural gas. The program will build on a cell stack architecture of alternating flat cells and gas distribution plates invented at Ceramatec for NASA. Ceramatec senior engineer Joseph Hartvigsen, who will lead the project, said, "Cell designs and fabrication processes, which are scalable to a commercially practical size, are essential to securing our energy future." -------- OTHER -------- environment Booming China Awash in "Out Of Control" Acid Rain REUTERS NEWS SERVICE December 1, 2004 http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/28366/newsDate/1-Dec-2004/story.htm BEIJING - China's explosive economic growth is outpacing environmental protection efforts, leaving the country awash in "out of control" acid rain, the China Daily said Tuesday. Acid rain fell on more than 250 cities nationwide and caused direct annual economic losses of 110 billion yuan ($13.3 billion), equal to nearly three percent of the country's gross domestic product, the state-run newspaper said. "The regional acid rain pollution is still out of control and even worse in some southern cities," Wang Jian, an official with the State Environmental Protection Administration, was quoted as saying. Two major causes were the rapidly growing number of cars and increasing consumption of cheap, abundant coal as the country struggles to cope with energy shortages and meet power demand. China is the world's largest source of soot and sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions from coal, which fires three-quarters of the country's power plants. More than 21 tonnes of SO2 were discharged in China in 2003, up 12 percent from the year earlier, the paper said. "It is estimated that the country will consume more than 1.8 billion tonnes of coal in 2005, emitting an additional six million tonnes of SO2," Wang said. The paper said the government was planning steps to rein in the problem, including setting quotas for SO2 emissions from thermal power plants and urging them to install desulphurisation facilities, through Wang admitted earlier efforts had led to no obvious improvements. China has already banned the use of coal in some areas most severely affected by SO2 emissions, but sulphur is not the only enemy in the fight against acid rain. "The amazing growth of nitrates, thanks to a swift rise of automobile and coal consumption plus overuse of fertilisers, is playing an increasing role in the country's acid rain pollution," Tang Dagang, director of the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, was quoted as saying. A government official told the paper that China had yet to set special regulations to control nitric acid. -------- health UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa: "The World is Facing an Apocalypse and the Int'l Community Response is Abysmal" Wednesday, December 1st, 2004 http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/01/1535228 Today is World AIDS Day, an annual campaign dedicated to reaffirming the commitment to fight HIV/AIDS and to remembering the 20 million people who have died from the disease. We speak with Stephen Lewis, the United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa. [includes rush transcript] Today is World AIDS Day. Across the world, activists and governments are due to mark World AIDS day with events drawing attention to the disease and promoting its eradication. More than 20 million have died since the onset of the AIDS pandemic two decades ago. Less than 5 percent of those suffering from the disease are receiving treatment and no vaccine or cure is in sight. This year's focus is on the number of women who contract the HIV/AIDS. A new report has found the virus infection is now growing more rapidly in women than in men throughout most of the world. In Sub-Sahara Africa, women now make up 57 percent of the people living with HIV. To mark World AIDS Day here in the U.S., activists across the country will hold demonstrations to protest the Bush administration's attacks on HIV prevention programs as well as funding cuts to the UN-backed Global Fund to Fight AIDS. This is Asia Russell a member of the AIDS advocacy group Health GAP speaking outside the home of Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter. * Asia Russell, member of the AIDS advocacy group Health GAP speaking outside the home of Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), November 30, 2004. * Stephen Lewis, the United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa. He is the former Canadian Ambassador to the U.N. and a former Unicef official. In May 2003 he founded the Stephen Lewis Foundation to help women dying of AIDS in Africa and the orphans they leave behind. RUSH TRANSCRIPT AMY GOODMAN: Yesterday, Asia Russell, a member of the AIDS advocacy group Health GAP was part of a small protest outside the home of Pennsylvania Republican senator Arlen Specter. ASIA RUSSELL: I just came back from the Global Fund’s ninth board meeting in Arusha, Tanzania and it was at this board meeting the US administration – the Bush administration – tried its hardest to shut the Global Fund’s doors. It tried to prevent the launch of a fifth round of grants, and at the same time it was cracking down on this important institution in Arusha, Senator Specter and his cronies in the U.S. Congress were cutting new spending for the Global Fund by 36%. The Global Fund is desperately under-funded. Arlen Specter claims to be a leader for people living with HIV, but he is actually doing the opposite, under direct orders from the Bush administration. ... The Global Fund goes against what this administration's global AIDS policies are. It’s everything the Bush administration is not. It is multilateral. It funds interventions based on science, not ideology. It supports comprehensive sex education. It supports the procurement of generic medicines. It supports country-led responses to the AIDS pandemic. Meanwhile, back at home, the Bush administration is using its bilateral PEPFAR initiative as a way to try to force countries to accept brand name overpriced pharmaceutical medicines, and embrace interventions that just don't work. Quack prevention like abstinence only until marriage programs that are actually going to put Africans at risk of HIV at greater risk of infection rather than preventing the transmission of the disease. ... I think now that we have another four years of this administration it has become clear that we have to increase our power and our strength and our criticism of these powerful men like Arlen Specter, like Bill Frist, like Mitch McConnell who are working in lock step with the administration and are exploiting this agenda of compassion in order to undermine this global struggle to win treatment access for people living with HIV. Now is the most crucial time, 8200 people are dying every single day. The Global Fund is teetering on the brink of shutting its doors and the Bush administration has to be held to account for the impact of its policies. AMY GOODMAN: That’s Asia Russell, a member of the AIDS advocacy group Health GAP. President Bush and his state of the union address had this to say about AIDS. GEORGE BUSH (tape): AIDS can be prevented. Antiretroviral drugs can extend life for many years and the cost of those drugs has dropped from $12,000 a year to under $300 a year, which places a tremendous possibility within our grasp. Ladies and gentlemen, seldom has history offered a greater opportunity do so much for so many. We have confronted and will continue to confront HIV/AIDS in our own country and to meet a severe and urgent crisis abroad, tonight I propose the Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, a work of mercy beyond all current international efforts to help the people of Africa. This comprehensive plan will prevent seven million new AIDS infections, treat at least two million people with life-extending drugs, and provide humane care for millions of people suffering from AIDS and for children orphaned by AIDS. (applause) I ask the Congress to commit $15 billion dollars over the next five years including nearly $10 billion dollars in new money to turn the tide against AIDS in most afflicted nations of Africa and the Caribbean. AMY GOODMAN: President Bush in his state of the union address. We are joined by Stephen Lewis, the United Nations special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations and former UNICEF official. Last year he founded the Stephen Lewis Foundation to help women dying of AIDS in Africa and orphans they leave behind. Welcome to Democracy Now! Your response to President Bush? STEPHEN LEWIS: I smiled to myself gently at the opening where he indicated the cost of drugs had come down to under $300 per person per year. I imagine if you did some investigative journalism you would find that speechwriter had quietly retired to other climes because of course, it is only generic drug prices that have come down to under $300 per year. The brand name drugs are a minimum twice that and more. And obviously in the president's major plan the money which is used for the purchase of drugs is used for the purchase of brand name pharmaceuticals, not generics. That’s one of the divides between the President's plan on one hand, and the way the Global Fund on AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the World Bank, and UNICEF, and the Clinton Foundation, everybody else is emphasizing generics because they are so much less expensive and therefore you treat greater numbers of people. On the other hand, and I want to say this Amy because it is important, when you inject over a period of time $15 billion in the struggle against the pandemic, even if people like myself and others think that there are numbers of conditions which we would prefer not be there, you have got to do some good. You can't escape doing some good. And I wish we could resolve this adversarial conflict between the Bush plan and everybody else because it is complicating what is happening on the ground and people are dying in hallucinatory numbers. AMY GOODMAN: Talk about the global picture. STEPHEN LEWIS: Well, the global picture is very depressing. The report of November 23, just a week or so ago, the update until the end of 2004 indicated that it is women in particular who are vulnerable and they are. They are incredibly disproportionately vulnerable. They are more vulnerable physiologically and they are more vulnerable because of gender inequality, because of cultural inequality. You indicated, when you were reading earlier, that 57% of all of the infections in Africa now are amongst women. Amy, in the age group 15 to 24, where there are over six million people infected, 75% are young women and girls. I mean it is appalling what is happening. We are depopulating parts of the continent of its women where we're using language like women are an endangered species in certain countries and it’s objectively true. And the inability of women to refuse sexual overtures, to say to a man wear a condom, to negotiate safe sex, the destructive power relations around sexuality in areas of gender inequality are dooming women in huge numbers and there is no infrastructure, legal construct, which says women have property rights, inheritance rights there are tough laws against sexual violence and rape because when societies are falling apart there's a lot of sexual violence and that spreads the virus as well. The virus spread in significant measure by predatory male sexual behavior, and we are trying around the world to shore up those women's rights activists who are trying to empower women and inch our way toward gender equality. That's the only way to break the back of the pandemic because the women carry the burden of care, they do all the work and they are being ferociously assaulted by the virus. AMY GOODMAN: And what happens to the children? STEPHEN LEWIS: The children then are orphaned when their mother's die. Amy, I can't tell you how many women come up to me on a regular basis as I travel through the African countries and very poignantly it’s terribly distressing, they say to me, with their children in tow, Mr. Lewis, what is going to happen to my children when I die? They’re all in their 20's. It is just so distressing. And the kids, there are now 14 million orphans in sub-Saharan Africa. It’s expected to rise to over 20 million by 2010. These kids are vulnerable, frantic, bewildered, abandoned, desperately yearning for love and nurture. The communities try to absorb them but the communities are desperately poor. You take in a few more mouths and you push the surrogate family or the foster parents over the line. So, increasingly what is happening is that grandmothers are looking after the orphaned kids. I mean you have this violation of all the rhythms of life. The grandmothers bury their own adult children then they look after their orphaned grandchildren. In the country of Botswana which has the highest prevalence rate for many years, 50% of the children orphans are being looked after by grandmothers. Grandmothers are the heroes of the continent. But they are in their 60, 70's, and 80’s. When they die there's no one coming up behind. So you have this almost bizarre phenomenon of child-headed households, of the oldest child looking after the siblings in the family. And there are many child-headed households headed by children who are eight, nine and ten years old. AMY GOODMAN: We are talking to Stephen Lewis, United Nations special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa. What about the policies of the pharmaceutical companies? What specifically can be done? STEPHEN LEWIS: You know, there's been a fascinating shift there because in truth the major brand name pharmaceutical companies are no longer key to the equation as they once used to be. We have moved dramatically toward the use of generic drugs which are purchased from Indian pharmaceutical companies, two in particular – one called Sipla, one called Ranbaxy. Thanks to the Clinton Foundation initiative, the price that has now been negotiated – this is quite incredible – is under $150 per person per year. So, if the western world delivered on the financial promises it perpetually makes and then refuses to acknowledge, we would be able to provide free treatment for everyone who needed it. And there is a target now. The World Health Organization wants to put three million people into treatment by the end of the year 2005. They call it the three by five initiative. It is visionary and important. AMY GOODMAN: President Bush’s $15 billion plan prioritizes abstinence-based AIDS prevention. Only a small percentage of the money will go to the multilateral Global Fund to Fight AIDS. The U.S. supports the so-called ABC prevention technique, which stands for “abstain, be faithful or use a condom.” Critics say condoms shouldn't be a last resort because women around the world often don’t have the option of abstinence. STEPHEN LEWIS: Women in marriage certainly don't have the option. In marriage abstinence neither desirable nor possible. Being faithful is an assumption you make, and wearing a condom can’t be imposed on a man who so often is many years older than the young woman who has been married, because early marriage is product of gender inequality. So the ABC formula is clearly not applicable to married situations in many instances. Amy, one of the astonishing things which has emerged in the last couple of years through studies is that one of the highest risk environments for women in Africa is to be married. The levels of prevalence among sexually active young women outside of marriage are lower than the prevalence rates of HIV within marriage. So, a whole new approach has to be made to the matter of prevention and how you enhance this ABC formula. The Bush administration’s emphasis on abstinence and it’s in the preventive part of the Bush money, does worry a lot of people because, while it has some application obviously, it doesn't have exclusive or total application, and to overemphasize it at the expense of condoms or other intervention seems foolhardy. In addition to that, the amount of money which is going to the Global Fund from the United States, and the Global Fund is really the best multilateral financial agency that has emerged in years, and yet the American contribution at the moment is somewhere between $200 million a year, which is the Bush administration's request, Congress bumps it up, this year they bumped it up to $350 million, that is very much less than it was last year. Everybody hoped that of the $3 billion a year, the administration would allow $1 billion to go to the Global Fund. It’s terrible setback for the Global Fund that the United States has decided to diminish the contribution. AMY GOODMAN: What bearing does the Christian Right have on the Bush administration's policies? STEPHEN LEWIS: Well, the assumption, I think is – I’m going to be cautious when I reply because I don't want to self-immolate on Pacifica Radio and television. But I think generally the feeling is that the Christian Right has influenced the abstinence policy very, very strongly and there is some apprehension about that. And ideologically there is obviously a resistance to multilateralism. Obviously the United Nations is not in great favor. Obviously, organizations that work in many countries ... the Bush plan – we haven’t said this yet, but it’s worth saying -- is confined to 15 countries, only 12 of which are in Africa. Which means some very high prevalence countries desperately in need of money are not included – Swaziland, Lisutu, Malawi – they’re not included. The Global Fund is dealing in over 120 countries, Amy. It’s much, much more widespread. AMY GOODMAN: Before you go, just very quickly, as a former Canadian ambassador to the United States -- STEPHEN LEWIS: United Nations. AMY GOODMAN: To the United Nations. Several thousand Canadians marched through the streets of Ottawa yesterday as President Bush made his first state visit. They carried signs like “End the massacre in Iraq” and “Some terrorists wear suits.” Your response to the U.S. in Iraq and U.S.-Canadian relations. STEPHEN LEWIS: Well, I’m a social democrat. I always have been. That doesn't disappear because I’m doing a different job. And I recognize that in Canada there was very significant resistance to the war in Iraq, which remains true to today. That's why Canada didn't join and that’s why these demonstrations are so heart felt and are being pursued. They do reflect a significant proportion of Canadian society. AMY GOODMAN: And your thoughts. STEPHEN LEWIS: My own thoughts? I have tremendous anxiety about what is happening in Iraq. I think that the aftermath is proving to be dreadful for everyone on every front. And I wish there were a way of resolving it. But it strikes me that that’s going to be a long way down the road. AMY GOODMAN: Stephen Lewis, I want to thank you for being with us. Stephen Lewis is the U.N. HIV/AIDS ambassador to Africa and also has founded the Stephen Lewis Foundation, which deals with women dying of AIDS in Africa and the orphans they leave behind. -------- AIDS in India, China and Russia Nears 'Tipping Point,' U.N. Says Washington Post By David Brown December 1, 2004 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23417-2004Nov30.html The head of the United Nations' AIDS program warned yesterday that India, China and Russia are "perilously close to a tipping point" that could turn their small, localized AIDS epidemics into gigantic ones capable of disrupting the world's response to the disease. The situation in those three countries "bears alarming similarities to the situation we faced 20 years ago in Africa," Peter Piot, a Belgian physician and epidemiologist, told policymakers in Washington. It could transform "from a series of concentrated outbreaks and hot spots into a generalized explosion across the entire population -- spreading like a wildfire from there." If that happens, affecting both the global economy and international security, "no country on Earth will escape the impact," said Piot, who heads UNAIDS, a program run by U.N. agencies, the World Bank and the World Health Organization. Many experts in recent years have publicly worried about the emerging AIDS epidemics in China and India, but Piot's warning was unusually ominous and concrete. He also drew a connection between AIDS prevention efforts in Asia and AIDS treatment efforts in Africa, which have sometimes been viewed as potential competitors for scarce resources. Specifically, he said, the laborious, expensive and overdue effort to bring antiretroviral therapy to millions on the continent where AIDS began could unravel if Africa-scale epidemics in India and China steal the world's attention. Piot, who spoke at the Woodrow Wilson International Center on the eve of World AIDS Day, has observed the AIDS epidemic firsthand virtually from its start. In the early 1980s, he helped lead an international team of researchers in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) that figured out -- even before the AIDS virus was discovered -- that the disease could be spread by heterosexual intercourse. In making his remarks yesterday, he shared a podium with Randall L. Tobias, director of the Bush administration's global AIDS activities. None of the three large countries Piot discussed is among the 15 "focus countries" targeted by the $15 billion President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. In emphasizing the importance of China, India and Russia, Piot said he intended no slight to the administration's AIDS effort in 12 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Haiti and Guyana in the Americas, and Vietnam. He called "the leadership and generosity of America . . . one of the most promising and heartening developments in years." But he warned: "If the epidemic gains a foothold in even a few states or provinces in China and India, and spreads there as it has in some African countries, the global resources now available for Africa could easily diminish, perhaps even vanish. If we hope to have the resources to treat the epidemic in the hardest-hit countries, we must prevent major epidemics in the most populous countries." Piot noted that the prevalence of HIV infection among adults (people ages 15 to 49) is 0.1 percent in China, compared with 7.5 percent in sub-Saharan Africa. India also has extremely low prevalence, although it is second only to South Africa in the number of people infected -- 5.1 million vs. 5.3 million. Russia has about 860,000 people infected, out of the global total of 39.4 million people living with HIV. In all three countries, the HIV epidemic is confined almost entirely to high-risk groups -- injecting drug users, and prostitutes and their customers. When it breaks out of those groups into the general population of heterosexual adults is when the number of infected people begins to rise exponentially. "The tipping point is not a hypothetical construct," Piot told the audience at the Wilson Center. "In South Africa, it took five years for prevalence rates to move from 0.5 percent to 1 percent. Then, in only seven years, it jumped from 1 percent to 20 percent." Tobias said the U.S. government has spent money on AIDS programs in all three countries Piot spoke of, including at least $30 million in India. Tobias does not believe the administration's program needs to be refocused to include them in larger ways, he said. "All three of those countries have the capacity to do a great deal for themselves," he said. "I think we need to encourage that to happen. We need to encourage the leadership, and make sure that each of those countries is doing everything it can to put this issue at the very top of the agenda." In particular, Tobias said, China, India and Russia need to work on destigmatizing HIV infection, a change that first requires government leaders to openly acknowledge the importance of AIDS. He said that, in his experience, how willing a taxi driver is to discuss AIDS on a ride from the airport "is one indicator of the degree to which the country at large has internalized the seriousness of the problem." A study by UNAIDS and the Asian Development Bank released in July estimated that direct and indirect costs of HIV in India, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam totaled $7.3 billion in 2001. They will increase to $18 billion by 2010 if comprehensive prevention efforts do not begin now, the authors of the report wrote. With a comprehensive program, the number of new infections by 2010 can be reduced from 10 million to 4 million, and deaths could be cut from 760,000 to 660,000, they said. ----- Iraq Faces Health Crisis, Medical Group Reports Washington Post By Glenn Frankel December 1, 2004 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22450-2004Nov30.html LONDON, Nov. 30 -- Iraq is facing a public health disaster because of the U.S.-led invasion, ongoing conflict and mismanagement of the relief and reconstruction effort, a British-based medical monitoring group said in a report released Tuesday. The group, Medact, which has opposed the war because of the potential health ramifications, called for an independent investigation of civilian casualties and for a renewed international effort to provide emergency relief and build a better health care system. The war has "exacerbated the threats to health posed by the damage inflicted by previous wars, tyranny and sanctions," the report concluded. "It not only created the conditions for further health decline, but also damaged the ability of Iraqi society to reverse it." The report endorsed a controversial study published by the Lancet medical journal here last month that estimated that 100,000 Iraqis had died as a result of the conflict. "No starker proof is required of the disastrous effects of war, even supposedly a short and contained one, on innocent people," the report stated. The 100,000 figure is far above estimates from other groups. An independent Web site, Iraqbodycount.net, which compiles direct media reports of deaths, put its tally as of Tuesday at between 14,571 and 16,750, although it has stated that actual deaths may be far higher. The Iraqi Health Ministry has put casualties from April 5 to Oct. 5 of this year at around 3,853 dead and 15,517 injured, based on hospital reports. The British government contends that these figures are the most reliable, but Washington and London have refused to release their own estimates. The Medact report cited increases in child mortality rates, damage to water, sanitation and electricity facilities and inadequate food supplies as contributing factors in the breakdown of public health. It said the health system, which had been drained of money and personnel during the 1991 Persian Gulf War and the economic sanctions that followed, "was poorly prepared to cope with the impact of the 2003 war." Since the U.S.-led invasion began in March 2003, hospitals and public health laboratories have been damaged or looted, child-care facilities shut down and vaccines either stolen or spoiled during power shortages, according to the report. It criticized the Pentagon for maintaining a tight grip on post-invasion relief efforts and discarding plans by experienced humanitarian agencies to deal with the health crisis. Medact said its report was based on interviews its investigators conducted in Amman, the capital of Jordan, with 20 international nongovernmental organizations and individuals involved in medical relief work, as well as phone and e-mail conversations and other reports. Medact officials conceded that the issues involved were "complex and contentious" and needed more study. Iraq's Health Ministry responded by acknowledging that serious public health problems exist but said no major epidemic or health crisis had occurred since the invasion. "We are passing through a very difficult period for health because of the huge needs for rehabilitation and reconstruction after more than two decades of absolute neglect," the interim health minister, Alladin Alawan, told the BBC. Alawan disputed Medact's endorsement of the Lancet casualty figures but welcomed its call for a large-scale international effort to aid public health. "We would actually welcome any collaboration from independent agencies," he said. ----- War has destroyed Iraq's health system: report Reuters December 1, 2004 http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200412/s1255126.htm War in Iraq has caused a public health disaster that has left the country's medical system in tatters and increased the risk of disease and death, according to a report by Britain-based charity Medact. Medact, which examines the impact of war on health, says cases of vaccine-preventable diseases are rising, and relief and reconstruction work had been mismanaged. "The health of the Iraqi people has deteriorated since the 2003 invasion," Gill Reeve, the deputy director of Medact, said. "Immediate action is needed to halt this health disaster." The report is based on interviews in Jordan with Iraqi civilians, relief organisations and health professionals who worked in Iraq. It calls for Britain to set up an independent commission to investigate civilian casualties and to provide emergency relief and a better health system. "The 2003 war exacerbated the threats to health posed by the damage inflicted by previous wars, tyranny and sanctions," the report said. "It not only created the conditions for further health decline, but also damaged the ability of Iraqi society to reverse it." Iraq had high mortality before the 2003 war. The report details a recurrence of previously well-controlled illnesses like diarrhoea, acute respiratory infections and typhoid. Post-war security worries limit access to health care, particularly in flashpoint areas. The quality of health services is poor because of chronic under-funding, poor physical infrastructure, mismanagement of supplies and staff shortages. The report says that one in four people in Iraq still depend on food aid and more children are underweight or chronically malnourished than in 2000. "Maintaining adequate care is a real problem," Mike Rowson, the executive director of Medact, said. Iraqis increasingly rely on self-diagnosis and traditional healing and buy prescription medicines in the marketplace. "The UN, traditionally responsible for coordinating humanitarian crisis responses, has been marginalised while US assistance has been characterised by damaging political in-fighting," the report said. Mr Rowson says that a lot of money has been pledged for reconstruction but very little has been distributed to rebuild the Iraqi health system. "The political situation is key to making health improvements in Iraq," he said. ----- Anthrax Vaccine Maker Announces Md. Facility Frederick Plant Could Employ 400 Washington Post By Michael S. Rosenwald December 1, 2004 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23829-2004Nov30.html BioPort Corp. of Lansing, Mich., yesterday dedicated a 150,000-square-foot facility in Frederick that is designed to produce 100 million anthrax vaccine doses when it becomes fully operational in two years. Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony for BioPort, which received nearly $13 million in state and local economic incentives to expand in Frederick. The facility will eventually employ up to 400 people, BioPort said in a statement. The ceremony at BioPort, a subsidiary of privately held Emergent BioSolutions, occurred just weeks after the federal government said it intended to buy 75 million doses of a new, experimental type of anthrax vaccine produced by VaxGen Inc. of California. The government said it would buy far less -- 5 million doses -- of BioPort's vaccine, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2003. Analysts and health experts say the federal government opted to stockpile larger quantities of VaxGen's vaccine because it uses the latest manufacturing techniques and is more advanced than BioPort's vaccine, which was developed in the 1950s. VaxGen's vaccine also requires fewer doses. Nevertheless, BioPort chief executive Robert G. Kramer Sr. said, "There was never a second thought" about opening the Frederick facility, which will be able to produce 10 times more than BioPort's Michigan plant. Also, the company could use the new plant to manufacture several other vaccines it has in development. Kramer said BioPort hopes to sell vaccines to local authorities and overseas governments. It has already sold an unspecified number of doses to Taiwan and Germany, he said. VaxGen's vaccine has not cleared all regulatory hurdles, and Kramer said the government may want more BioPort doses if VaxGen runs into regulatory delays. In addition, BioPort officials say federal officials may want more than one anthrax vaccine supplier, in light of the flu vaccine shortage that occurred after one of the two U.S. providers had manufacturing problems. The Defense Department required soldiers to be immunized with the BioPort vaccine until October, when a federal judge banned the involuntary injections. The lawsuit said the FDA failed to properly follow procedures and contended that some vaccinated soldiers experienced side effects, including fatigue, joint pain and temporary memory loss. The judge said the ban on involuntary vaccination will remain in place until the FDA reviews the anthrax vaccine properly or until President Bush determines that the normal process must be waived because of emergency circumstances. BioPort's chairman is Fuad El-Hibri, a Potomac resident with extensive experience in telecommunications and the biotechnology industry. He and his father have had significant involvement with a British provider of anthrax vaccines. El-Hibri became a U.S. citizen in 1999. He was born in Germany and grew up around Europe and the Middle East before attending Stanford and Yale. ----- Hospital performs euthanasia on infants ASSOCIATED PRESS By Toby Sterling December 01, 2004 http://www.washtimes.com/world/20041130-100130-5165r.htm AMSTERDAM — A hospital in the Netherlands — the first nation to permit euthanasia — has proposed guidelines for mercy killings of terminally ill newborns and then made a startling revelation: It already has begun carrying out such procedures, which include administering a lethal dose of sedatives. The announcement by the Groningen Academic Hospital came amid a growing discussion in the Netherlands on whether to legalize euthanasia on people who are incapable of deciding for themselves. Adblock In August, the main Dutch doctors' association KNMG urged the Health Ministry to create an independent board to review euthanasia cases for terminally ill people "with no free will," including children, the severely mentally retarded and people left in irreversible comas after accidents. The Health Ministry is preparing its response, which could come this month, a spokesman said. Three years ago, the Dutch parliament made it legal for doctors to inject a sedative and a lethal dose of muscle relaxant at the request of adult patients suffering great pain with no hope of relief. The Groningen Protocol, as the hospital's guidelines have come to be known, would create a legal framework for permitting doctors to actively end the life of newborns deemed to be in similar pain from incurable disease or extreme deformities. The guideline says euthanasia is acceptable when the child's medical team and independent doctors agree that the pain cannot be eased and that there is no prospect for improvement and when parents think it's best. Examples include extremely premature births, where children suffer brain damage from bleeding and convulsions and diseases where a child could survive only on life support for the rest of its life, such as severe cases of spina bifida, a neural tube defect; and epidermosis bullosa, a rare blistering illness. The hospital revealed last month that it had carried out four such mercy killings in 2003 and had reported the cases to government prosecutors. There have been no legal proceedings against the hospital or the doctors. Roman Catholic organizations and the Vatican have reacted with outrage to the announcement, and U.S. euthanasia opponents contend that the proposal shows the Dutch have lost their moral compass. "The slippery slope in the Netherlands has descended already into a vertical cliff," said Wesley J. Smith, a prominent California-based critic. Child euthanasia remains illegal everywhere. Analysts say doctors outside the Netherlands do not report cases for fear of prosecution. "As things are, people are doing this secretly, and that's wrong," said Eduard Verhagen, head of Groningen's children's clinic. "In the Netherlands, we want to expose everything, to let everything be subjected to vetting." According to the Justice Ministry, four cases of child euthanasia were reported to prosecutors in 2003. Two were reported in 2002, seven in 2001 and five in 2000. All the cases in 2003 were reported by Groningen, but some of the cases in other years were from other hospitals. Groningen estimated that the protocol would be applicable in about 10 cases per year in the Netherlands, a country of 16 million people. Since the introduction of the Dutch law, Belgium also has legalized euthanasia, and legislation to allow doctor-assisted suicide is under debate in France. In the United States, the state of Oregon is alone in allowing physician-assisted suicide, but that law is under constant legal challenge. -------- ACTIVISTS Canadian protesters target Bush From correspondents in Ottawa, Canada December 1, 2004 http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,11553694%255E1702,00.html HOLDING up signs calling US President George W. Bush a "war criminal" and "liar", a few thousand demonstrators rallied in the Canadian capital today to protest his visit, the US-led war in Iraq and a host of other issues. Organisers said about 5000 people, many of whom rode buses overnight from across Ontario and Quebec, held a rally at Ottawa's City Hall before a planned march on Canada's Parliament buildings. Police put the figure at between 2500 to 3000. Making his first official visit to Canada, Mr Bush arrived today for talks with Prime Minister Paul Martin. Mr Bush was welcomed by many placards and signs along his motorcade route, including a truck parked nearby that was emblazoned with the phrase "Bush is a war criminal". Another placard branded him an "assassin". Much of the anger seemed focused on Mr Bush's decision to invade Iraq. Canada decided against sending troops to Iraq - a decision supported by more than 80 per cent of Canadians. -------- Anti-Bush protesters scuffle with police Last Updated Wed, 01 Dec 2004 10:09:15 EST OTTAWA - As many as 5,000 protesters thronged the streets around Parliament Hill Tuesday, hundreds of them briefly scuffling with police as they demonstrated against visiting U.S. President George W. Bush. By the end of the day, 16 people had been arrested: eight in Ottawa and eight in Gatineau, Que., the site of a formal dinner for Bush Tuesday night. Protesters come face-to-face with police in riot gear near Parliament Hill Tuesday afternoon.(CP Photo) Disorder broke out at about 3 p.m. in front of the Chateau Laurier hotel, shortly after Bush and Prime Minister Paul Martin gave a news conference at the Lester B. Pearson Building, the headquarters of Canada's Foreign Affairs department. * RELATED STORY: Bush says Canada, U.S. 'standing together' Police officers in riot gear pushed back a thick crowd of anti-war activists, some of whom were shouting at the security forces and trying to jostle them with the sticks of their placards. At least three protesters were pushed down onto the ground and arrested as CBC Newsworld television cameras recorded the action. Some police in riot gear could be seen pulling on gas masks, suggesting that they were ready to release gas to control the crowd. Colleagues dragged away one police officer who seemed to have been injured in the melée. "One college student who was skipping class for the day to attend the protest told me, 'When they started pointing the tear gas guns, we decided we should go,'" said CBC News Online journalist Paddy Moore, who was on the scene writing a rolling account of events for CBC.ca. * ONLINE DIARY: A moment-by-moment account of the Bush visit Moore said the demonstrators seemed to be trying to advance in the direction of either the U.S. Embassy on Sussex Drive, Parliament Hill or the bridge leading to Gatineau, Que. The latter destination was where 700 invited guests attended a formal dinner in Bush's honour Tuesday night, at the Museum of Civilization. The crowd had mostly dispersed by 4 p.m., with the exception of a few protesters still engaged in a faceoff with police, Moore said. Protesters did show up outside the museum a few hours later, though, where more arrests were made. Earlier demonstrations relatively peaceful Earlier in the day, as Bush arrived on Parliament Hill to greet Martin and sign the government guest book, U.S. Secret Service agents and RCMP officers equipped with rifles and video cameras kept watch over a peaceful crowd of about 200 as they shouted "Go Home" and other slogans. A small number of pro-Bush demonstrators also showed up to offer a welcome to the conservative, family-values politician. One of them held a sign reading: "The only mad cow is Carolyn Parrish," referring to the Liberal MP recently thrown out of caucus after repeated verbal attacks against the Americans and Bush. But by far the larger number of demonstrators were no fans of the American president or the war in Iraq that his administration launched a year and a half ago. There were reports that a large papier mâché statue of Bush would be toppled during the protest, a reference to the role he played in invading Iraq and toppling leader Saddam Hussein in the spring of 2003. * FROM NOV. 29, 2004: Protests planned for Bush visit to Ottawa, Halifax The Ottawa rally was one of about 25 planned across the country to draw attention to Bush's policies and politics during the visit. Many of the Ottawa protesters were opposed to Bush's plans for a North American missile shield system that would require Canadian participation. Also present were activists in favour of legalized marijuana, same-sex marriages, and a woman's right to choose, as well as students, grandmothers and groups ranging from Lawyers Against the War to Bellydancers Against Bush. Another major protest is planned for Wednesday morning in Halifax, where demonstrators will picket near Bush's speech at the Pier 21 immigration museum on the city's waterfront.